Beta-reader: dramaticalhearts at tumblr

Warnings: mention of suicide, post-war setting

A loud, shrilling screech echoed throughout Radiant Garden for the third time that day. The screech had come and gone during seven days. Sometimes it lasted for less than ten seconds, other times it lasted up to a half hour.

Lea circled the large fountain on the island where the main entrance to Radiant Garden was. He clenched his hand around his Keyblade, shivering at the eerie sound that seemed to come from the core of the planet. The villagers called it a lament. They feared that their world was still in immense pain, that the wounds darkness had left were too deep to heal, and that their world would crumble underneath their feet like it had done thirteen years ago.

The streets had been near empty for a week. The presence of Keyblade-wielders didn't seem to put anyone at ease. They were just a child's band aid on a festering flesh wound. Squads of Royal Guards had been put on standby throughout the city as yet another safety measure should the shrill screech be a war fanfare from the dark side, but fear still lay thick in the air. The Restoration Committee was, too, all ready for combat. Together they had come up with a strategy in case Radiant Garden was attacked again. Lea, alongside Roxas and Riku, were the first line of defense.

With Xehanort defeated, they had all hoped that none of this would be necessary anymore, but the darkness that Xehanort had roused would come in waves. Yen Sid had warned them all.

The screech became louder. Lea covered his ears, but the noise settled inside his head until it suddenly vanished. Everything was quiet. The sound of twittering birds, even the noise of summer insects, seemed to have disappeared with it. Then the earth shook.

Lea stood steady on his feet, looking around for dark spots of gnawing Heartless, but saw none. The screech had turned into a low rumble. The waves splashed up high on the stone walls until everything just stopped. The golden gates flew open with a gust of harsh wind that cracked the tile halfway to the fountain.

"Show yourself!" Lea yelled. Embers licked the palms of his hand. The magic didn't come from his darkness within anymore, but from a pendant Merlin had given to him. They had been told to only use magic in emergencies. The light it took to use magic for good was bright enough to light up a path for darkness.

Lea stood up straight. Ahead, a woman stumbled forward. She looked at the golden gates with eyes wide as she walked past it. Her mouth fell open as she brought her trembling hands to her face, subconsciously rubbing her cheeks in comforting motions as her eyes fell onto the plentiful flowerbeds and then at the golden crest of a fallen church, high upon the building behind Lea. Her chest heaved up and down as Lea heard her sob. Behind her was a large crowd of confused and disoriented people. They looked around, some stopped to touch the familiar tile and to feel the water of the fountain against their hands.

"Who are you?" Lea asked the woman who had appeared first. He glanced at the others as they slowly made progress forward.

"Praise the Lord. Is this Radiant Garden? The real one?" She asked, her voice thick with emotion. "I'm human again," she said as tears ran down her sooty cheeks. "We made it back. From that horrid, horrid darkness." She nodded slowly and kept mumbling to herself. She smiled, chuckled, then sobbed as she slowly walked forward.

"Lady, wait, are you hurt?" Lea asked and stood in front of her to keep her from walking away.

"I'm going home. My children are waiting."

"I understand, but you have to stay put, alright? Just wait for a couple of minutes."

"I've waited long enough!" The woman said through gritted teeth.

"Lea!" Roxas came running from the other connected island where he had been stationed. He glanced at the crowd making it past the golden gates and then at the upset woman. He pulled Lea aside. "We have to get back to the others and tell them to pull the guards. These are returnees. The ones lost in darkness. They're back. Dusks, other Nobodies, they're here."

Lea gulped as he looked back at the growing crowd. His Keyblade disappeared in his grip. Isa could be among these people. After the epic battle at the Keyblade Graveyard, Isa had disappeared. Braig was nowhere to be seen. Dilan was the only one who had appeared outside the city. He had soon been apprehended and treated for his wounds. The disappearance of the others had been the first signs to raise Yen Sid's suspicions. The fact that two of Xehanort's most prominent vessels were gone had to mean something, according to him. But Lea hoped that Yen Sid was wrong.

Lea and Roxas had delivered the final strike that had ended Isa. The battle had been excruciating, and Isa's power inexhaustive. At a moment when it seemed that Lea would lose, Roxas had come to his rescue, and with Roxas help, Isa was defeated. That had been three months ago.

The three Keyblade-wielders hurried back into the city to find Leon, Cloud, and Tifa. The Restoration Committee acted quickly by regrouping the squads on the ground and had them help the crowd into a queue that led to the castle. Cid set up a provisionary office. The plan was to make a name list to help Returnees find their families if they had one and to help others with a place to stay and other basic necessities. Concerned citizens started to pour out on the streets. A few found relatives among the disoriented people, other were out to tell people that the relatives they had left behind had died or were still lost. The Returnees were in a fragile state. Separating them from curious villagers became the Royal Guards' first task. Curiosity quickly turned into animosity. The villagers, much like the Returnees, were entitled to answers. Desperate family members tried to find their missing loved ones among the ever growing crowd of people being led like sheep toward the castle.

Trust was in short supply. The castle had become synonymous with Xehanort and the hideous experiments that had been conducted there by King Ansem's apprentices.

"Stand back!" A bulky guard roared as he, along with his coworkers, formed a human wall between the Returnees and the villagers.

Lea walked among the Returnees, handing out water with a ladle and a bucket to those who needed it. He scanned through the crowd over and over. The Keyblade-wielders had strict orders to keep a lookout for missing members of Organization XIII. There were rumours of informed vigilantes searching the city for anyone that fit the description they had of people they thought were part of the Original Six.

A man stumbled ahead, picking himself up with the help of an apathetic shove from a person close by. His hair was a light blue, short and tousled. Lea hurried past the people between them, deaf to anyone who spoke to him. He didn't stop until he had his hand on the man's shoulder. The second it took for the man to look back seemed to stretch on forever. The face that looked back at Lea was not the one he was expecting. His heart sank.

"Water?" Lea asked.

The man shrugged him off and continued walking. The search continued. Lea found another three people with blueish hair, none that matched Isa's, but he had to make sure. Men and women alike shouted the names of their loved ones from the sidelines. Whether they ever managed to find anyone, Lea didn't know. He was supposed to be on the job, but his heart was racing as fast as his thoughts. He too wanted to shout for Isa at the top of his lungs, but the more he searched, the more people turned up, and the chances of finding Isa seemed to slim down with each person he mistook.

"Excuse me, sir," said a man with a hoarse voice.

Lea turned to face a scrawny, middle-aged man in rags. He passed him the ladle and the man had a sip, but judging by the anxious look in his eyes, water wasn't what he had approached Lea for.

"I'm Edward Lichtenstein, a former Royal Advisor. I live nearby the plaza. My wife and son must be waiting for me. I don't recognize this part of town, could you show me how to get to the the plaza?" Edward, much like the woman Lea had spoken to first, was trembling. His hands seemed to be living a life of their own the way he gripped at his own arms.

Lea gulped, certain that his face was drained from color at hearing the man's name. Edward Lichtenstein, father of a former friend, had been in the cell across from Lea's in the underground laboratory. Apprentice Xehanort seemed to have had a special kind of hatred for Edward. Every morning for almost two weeks, Xehanort would come to fetch Edward first. He would always ask for his name and title, and snort when he got an answer. Eventually, that was all Edward could say until they finally separated his heart from his body; a procedure that had taken much longer than what would have been necessary.

Lea shook his head and cleared his throat.

"You have to stay in line, sir. It's, it's for your own safety. You'll get to the castle where you'll state your name, and then they will help you find your wife, your son, and your house. But first, you have to get there, to the office."

"Oh, no," Edward said and shook his head, swallowing hard. He pinched at his arms nervously. "No. I, I have to get back home. To my wife and son, see. They're waiting. And I have to go there. Because, they're waiting." Edward chewed on his bottom lip. "I can't go back to the castle. I'm a free man now."

"Edward, listen," Lea began. "I'll walk with you to the castle."

Edward shook his head more decisively.

"Yes, Edward. You have to get to the castle, and look, I have friends there, powerful friends, they won't let you be harmed by anyone. They're here to help you and everyone else. I'll walk with you there, and I promise nothing bad will happen to you. Not on my watch, okay?"

Edward reluctantly agreed as Lea led him forward.

Everyone here had been a victim of Master Xehanort's plans, either as experiments or collateral damage. Lea was walking among them. He saw the line from the castle and how it seemed to go on forever as more people walked through the gates. He had been a part of the atrocities, both as victim and as perpetrator, and he still couldn't grasp the extent of the damage and hurt that had been caused. No one could.

-x-

The Keyblade-wielders' estate was located in central Radiant Garden in an upscale area that had been known as the Ambassadors' Avenue before the First Fall. The building was newly built and not as fancy as the other estates on the street. Lea was well acquainted with the area. The streets weren't what they had been. The buildings, though beautiful, had seen better days. The whole city was still recovering from war. Saïx had led a second strike on the city before he could be stopped.

The area was still inhabited by Radiant Garden's elite, or what was left of it. Lea's family were not among them, and he didn't expect they would ever be again. The amount of missing people was monumental. According to Yen Sid, many would remain missing.

Lea and Roxas had been stationed in Radiant Garden until further notice. Radiant Garden needed stability. They were there to help the Restoration Committee achieve that, but the process was long and repetitive. The search for Isa had come to a stand-still. There were other priorities to take to account, and Lea's penitence for how it had ended for them was not a reason good enough to abandon his duties.

Most of the Keyblade-wielders had been in the Land of Departure until recently. They had all tried to help Aqua and Ventus nurture Terra back to health. No one had known the terror of Xehanort like Terra. The help proved to be efficient for a while. Aqua had been certain that Terra would come back to them, wiser from his experiences, scarred, but functional at least. The damage done proved to have been much too extensive.

Aqua had found him out on the rebuilt runway outside the castle where Master Eraqus had fallen. It had been Terra's first time alone since coming back. He had hung himself from an old, broken pillar on a Wednesday afternoon, unable to move forward with the constant nightmares, anxiety attacks, and the tremendous guilt weighing on him every second of every day. He remembered everything Xehanort and Xemnas had done. He recalled it as his own memories and lived in constant fear that he would slip and harm yet another person.

Lea had not known him long. He had been wary in Terra's presence, unable to simply ignore the striking similarities he had to Xemnas. The incident had struck a deep chord with Lea. He found himself understanding Terra's decision on one hand. Recovery took much time and strength. Had it not been for Roxas and the others, Lea would have gone down the same road to not have to endure the paralyzing and frequent anxiety attacks. On the other hand, Lea had found Terra's decision and action despicable. Terra's friends had bent over backward to help him, but it hadn't been enough. He repaid them with more pain and despair, selfishly leaving them behind after everything they had gone through to free him.

Anger had been greater than understanding. Lea had spent a great deal of his mourning infuriated while he watched the others cry. He didn't deny the hypocrisy of it.

The day before departure, Lea had hidden up on the roof to watch the stars. Roxas had followed him and sat down next to him quietly. The silence and Roxas' proximity broke through the wall of anger. Lea had hidden his face against his knees when the tears started to run down his face. It had been futile to put words to his sentiments. They had held hope for the first time since Xehanort's demise; Terra had been the beacon of it. The hope lay shattered now, mixed with rotten memories. Roxas had put his arms around Lea to comfort him, his embrace warm and earnest. He had grown. Lea seemed to notice every time they were close. It was normal to notice, he told himself all the while trying to ignore the hard heartbeats in his chest, reminding him of a yearning that was nothing short of wicked.

Desire had been easy to ignore once he had found friends in Roxas and Xion. Axel had been lonely, starved for company that wasn't Saïx. Their time up on the clocktower in Twilight Town had been more than enough, but in the aftermath of Xehanort's defeat, things were different. Lea was reminded of urges he thought long repressed and even vanquished. His greatest concern was who he had turned into an object of desire. Roxas' kindness was addictive and Lea wanted to make more of it. Whether the culprit was loneliness or if he really was one to pervert friendships, Lea could not say. There had to be a way to kill the insisting emotions, but for the time being, Lea frequently snuck out at night. Suffocated by heat and Roxas' continuous presence, Lea fled to the dark alleys of Traverse Town to indulge in a filthy habit he hadn't entertained since before Roxas joined the Organization.

Clad men and women frequented the alleys, selling themselves for money. Lea was quick to find the sort he wanted; they were always men, but they hadn't always been blond.