A/N: Kingdom Hearts belong to Square-Enix and Disney Interactive, and Final Fantasy VIII belongs to Square-Enix, Squaresoft at the moment of FF8's production.
Summary: A man and his friends had fled Radiant Guarden long before it became Hollow Bastion, leaving behind their beloved ones. They had hoped to find a cure for Raine, all they found was despair in a world torn appart by a war between strange creatures.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The black creatures had been easy to dispatch. Kiros' katars sliced cleanly through them, Ward's anchor-like lance pierced and shredded through them like butter, and Laguna's trusty machine gun also caused them to dissolve into black dust. The three of them had been friends since they had first met as young men in Radiant Garden, and a deep friendship had tied their hearts and lives together. If one fell, the other two would support him in any way possible, and it was what had allowed them to survive for so long in the barren wasteland forever lit by moonlight. The world was bathed in pale light, giving the impression that only shades of blue could exist, but Laguna knew better. The glowing yellow eyes of the living shadows were in high contrast to the monochromatic world. And if he was close enough to Kiros before firing his heavy gun, he could catch glimpses of the black-haired man's brown skin in the fleeting flashes of light the weapon produced.
When the paler creatures had first shown up, however, it had turned from simple survival to a game of hide and seek. And they had lost, badly. Ward had bought time for his friends, tried to give them a chance to escape, and so he had jumped into the fray, muscles rippling and bulging as he had swung the lance-like anchor around. More of the shadows fell, but Laguna and Kiros had seen the deft white ones slip through each strike and retaliate with their long-fingered hands. And then Ward had fallen to his knees, looked right at them, smirked and taken out their last grenade. Laguna had understood why Ward had done it. Because their muscular friend didn't want to end up a shadow, didn't want to risk his friends' lives if he could risk it. But it didn't mean he accepted it. Kiros had grabbed his arm and dragged him away, through the undergrowth, their blue armors blending in easily. He had been so shaken up that he hadn't been able to sleep for the next 'night' until he had fallen over in exhaustion with Kiros watching over them with the machine gun.
The world was festering with darkness, rotten to the core, and it was only a matter of time before the two succumbed to it as well, having no way to escape. All they could do was hope to fight the white ones until death took them, and hope their hearts wouldn't succumb to the dark. But the lanky creatures were wise, much wiser than the shadows, and they bid their time, hounding the two until they were cornered by a steep cliff. Kiros had screamed at him to get to the top and not worry about him, that one of them needed to escape them until a cure for Raine's illness was found and delivered to her before Laguna's wife and their child fell to it. Laguna had nodded and then hugged Kiros, kissing the dark cheek and fighting back tears. He had known, right then, that it was the last time he'd see the katar-wielder, the man he loved like his own brother.
"Goodbye, Kiros..." he had whispered in the other's ear, and the other had simply given him a slight squeeze in the hug. Laguna always had been the most emotional of the three. He broke the hug and stepped back, giving the martial artist room for the fight to come. He had then aimed for the top of the cliff, and used the grappling mechanism hidden in the armor. The thin yet solid cord shot out from alove his left hand, and he hadn't wasted time in hoisting himself up, escaping the pale-bodied things.
Laguna looked down at his friend for the last time, watching with a deep sadness as the katars flew, the moonlight glinting off of them as he striked at the creatures. The brown-haired man's eyes widened when he saw the katars pass through the unphased creatures, time and time again. But their strikes shattered armor, shredded clothes, and spilled blood on the ground. And then a forgotten shadow had slinked out of the ground and striked at Kiros' back for the final blow, causing the warrior to cry out and fall on his knees, face upturned and contorted in pain as something pink slowly came out of Kiros' chest and then vanished, claimed by darkness. Laguna stared down in horror as his friend's body also dissapeared into nothingness. His attention was quickly taken away by a rumble and then a deep tremor, the blue ebbing away and replaced by sick darkness that seemed to race across the broken landscape below. The white things vanished into a strange hole of black and white, leaving him alone with the shadows and darkness. The world was dying, now, and everything was falling into darkness. Darkness, darkness, everything was so dark, oppressing, chaotic. He had fallen in the dark goo, crying out and trying to lash out at it in a panicked state, strugging not to fall into the darkness. He needed to find Raine's cure, he needed to be there for Ellone and the baby, he needed to not let Kiros and Ward's sacrifices be in vain. He fought with all his will, with renewed strength, and put his whole heart into surviving, even as he fell unconscious and his body was pulled into the darkness of the dead world.
A gentle touch was what awoke him. He was in a bed, with a young woman dressed in lavender laying a hand down on his forehead. It stayed, feeling his temperature, and when it withdrew she gave him a brilliant smile, one that made him smile weakly in return.
"We found you in the secret passage, and you had a fever and kept calling out for 'Kiros' and 'Ward'. Since you're in Traverse Town, I bet that they were with you before the world you were on was destroyed?" she said.
Laguna sighed deeply before grinning a bit at her, eyes moist with unshed tears. She looked at him with compassion before placing a damp cloth on his forehead, getting back up and brushing purple hair out of her face.
"I'm sorry, I should know better than to remind you of things like this. I also lost my brothers when the Heartless came," she murmured. "My name is Maria."
"I'm Laguna... What are the Heartless?" he asked in a curious tone.
The young woman explained it and all of Laguna's questions, filling him in with all of what he had missed by being on a lost world. Apparently quite a long time had gone by, and the chances Raine was still alive were very slim. But they were there. He'd find a way to go back to Radiant Garden soon enough, and until then he'd help Maria in any way he could to repay her for taking care of him.