Disclaimer: All characters used in this belong to Disney/Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura.
AN: This is based off a Deviation that was made by and is the sole ownership of the Deviant: Nijuuni; this is a slight AkuRokuReno, but the mix of it, might come around possibly here and there, it might start off as AkuRoku then might run to a slight RenoRoku, but, we'll just see and just for a heads up, this first chapter is just kind of establishing each of the three key characters in this kind of back stories slightly.
Chapter 1-The Beginning of it All
In the world of war, anything is possible; they say that war makes a man lose all sense of humanity, morality, and strength of what he was before war crept into his mind like a secretive disease that works its way through each nook and cranny of the human mind until it finds a place to nestle in and then strike when the person least suspects it, striking at a moment that could very well cost the individual their very life. Striking and matching sword for sword with an enemy, be it on the battlefield or in the old days of training and sparring with a smart mouth member of your class, those were days that were longed for, but when one steps foot on the battlefield and starts to match and cross blades with an enemy that could kill them with a real sword, not some plastic toy; that's when the reality sinks in.
War.
Is.
Hell.
He knew that, he knew it as he watched another poor, sadly, pathetic, but scared enemy fall underneath his blades as the enemies blood rain at his face, leaving an almost macabre clown make up on his face. Upon that pale, unmarked, youthful face as eyes started to return to a normal point of normalcy, the adrenaline rush was starting to slowly leave all the senses as the reality of what he had done sunk in as the sound of the dying filled the stagnant air. Blood was everywhere, the field was a dark hue of the blood of the lost souls, both enemy and ally, even allies who had become traitors and turned towards becoming a part of the enemies side who were cut down in the blazing heat of battle. A pair of eyes were slowing closing as the enemies once colorful skin became to become flush, cyanotic, then ashen; he was dying and yet, he was able to still beg for mercy and cry.
"…P-Please…Please…spare me…don't let this drag on longer then it needs to be…please…in the name of God, I beg you…" a frail hand, shakily began to reach for the one that had been the harbinger of the dying figure in the blood soaked grassland, "Have mercy is all I ask of you…"
One hand shook while the other raised up a bloodied sword, with a fell swoop, not a single uttered sound was made as the sounds of the dying became a distant memory, "…May you find peace in the afterlife…"
"Commander Sanderson," a voice called out from behind the closed eyed blond as the blades were re-sheathed, no regard for the blood still hanging from them, "Are you alright, sir?"
Slowly, as if the world was in slow motion, a small framed blond turned about face without so much as a misstep or extra motion as the blades followed along the same path as the figure's feet and as if the body had done this numerous times again and again, the eyes seemed to look up with a look of a war torn fighter; cobalt blue eyes opened to look upon the man, or in this case, boy, addressing him. His eyes had seen much in his time, and he wasn't an aged man, he was just as old or just as young as the boy addressing him as Commander; a fifteen year old that held the rank of Commander.
"I'm alright, Private Jensen, make for the convoy, we're finished here," he seemed to speak in a manner that someone would have found in a hardened war veteran and many years older, "The battle is ours…"
The young Private's hazel eyes beamed with excitement as he saluted the Commander, "Sir, yes sir!"
…So young…and yet…so naïve…
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"Isn't that…?"
"You mean that playboy, yeah, that's 2nd Lieutenant Woodsboro, and he always stands at that corner…"
"Why?"
"Don't know…some say he once had a girlfriend and they had promised to meet at that corner at midnight so they could run away together, turns out the girl was just another hussy and just as much a smooth talker as he is…"
"Aw…Poor 2nd Lieutenant…"
That was what the façade he work to rope the young ladies into believing he was a hopeless Romeo that had lost his heart to a smooth talking young woman who had legs that could go on forever and a bust that made a number of the village girls particularly upset. Some had even gone as far, silly as it was, some had gone to the length of trying to pad up their busts when they wore their corsets in the Town Square, some had even silly enough placed anything from tomatoes to baby potatoes into their bust to hopefully bulk up their bust. Those that were able to create the illusion enough didn't have their interest who had seemed more interested in their bust instead of the girl itself, they got lucky, but those that weren't so lucky; they tended to become a laughing stock that would end up walking around with wide brimmed hats for the rest of the time till something else caught their laughing fancy. A small number of the unfortunates tended to hide their faces behind the new interest that had taken the population of young women by storms, they took to hiding behind colorful fans that had been said to had been brought over on traders ships from the distant waters where the men could be heard talking in private about the young women of the far waters.
He was a hopeless Romeo, but he had not been duped by some easy hussy that had smooth talked her way into his heart, life, and let alone his bed on more then one occasion; he was just as hopeless as the fictional character Ichabod Crane. There was nothing to explain why he was a hopeless bachelor, even at the ripe age of twenty-three, most young men his age were either courting, or had courted a young woman and at this point had, should they survive war, come home, married their young lover and had many children by now.
Sunlight hit off the worn out pocket watch that quickly became pocketed as he continued to play off the mask he wore openly, "Heh…where is she? She promised she'd be here on time this time," a gurgling could be heard coming from the man's stomach as his hand faintly patted, "Down lassie…she'll be here, she never fails us."
"Excuse me, pardon me, excuse me, hot food coming through!" it wasn't hard to spot the young lass coming from far off as her head of short raven hair came bobbing along through the crowds of people down the cobbled meets mud covered streets, "Excuse me, really busy, got deliveries to make to our troops! Lads have got to eat too, you know?"
"Have much trouble finding the place this time, Yuffie?" the man held out a single rose for her as he reached for the food, but before he could make a grab for it; he found her youthful finger jabbing into his chest, "Yes, no, maybe so…?"
Yuffie was a young lady that worked at the local bakery that worked as a butcher shop as well being that the husband and wife ran separate businesses and neither could afford to have a shop to themselves and it meant that once they both closed up for the night, they could already be home. She was merely the delivery girl being that most of the strapping young lads of the town had gone off to join the Military Forces and Ranks, but she was happy to do it, but how had she come to befriend the hopeless romantic Romeo, 2nd Lieutenant Axel Woodsboro?
She tapped her foot against the muddy ground, "Not this time, Axel, this time, you don't get to sweet talk me into a free meal," her scowl said it all; meals weren't going to be coming cheap for much longer, "Pay up this time or else, I'm taking this back to the shop or even giving it to a more less unfortunate person that truly deserves this…"
"Heh…you drive a hard bargain you little grubber," Axel fished through his pockets as he pulled out a small coin satchel, and dropped it in her hands as she shoved the meal at the man before she dropped the coin satchel, "Geez, did you wear this down with a brick?"
"Shush you, be grateful that I'm doing this for you…" her fingers worked over the coins in the satchel as she made sure that it equaled the cost of the meal, "The Boss is starting to get slightly suspicious; he says the cost of food is going to shoot up any day now due to this silly fighting going on."
Axel looked up from the mouthful of boar that was hanging from his mouth as he mumbled through the gristle and bread combination, "When did you hear about that?"
"…There is rumors flying around that they are going to rise the cost to keep you guys feed while on the field, defending the homeland. Things are looking really tight as it is so, no more free meals. Either you cough up some coins or start bringing a lunch to play the hopeless Romeo everyday or get use to not eating for awhile."
"…Don't worry, I'll survive," a soft fleeting smile crossed Axel's grease and bread crumb covered lips, "I can probably due to not eat a few meals."
Yuffie softly chuckled as she wiped the crumbs from his face, "Sometimes, I wonder what I would do with you or what you would do without me…"
"I'd probably starve…"
"Or you would find some other girl to get you some table scraps;" the young woman softly slugged the man in the arm, "Wouldn't you?"
"Um…" Axel looked off into the distance as he tried to think up an excuse, "…Maybe?"
"AXEL WOODSOBORO!"
It only took those fatal words to put the man on the run as a few rose petals from the rose he had offered to the young woman to fall their way onto the road as the sound of her peddler like shoes squishing against the mud of the road as Axel's Military issued boots slopped along in the mud, but the sound wasn't as defined. The mere sight may have seemed out of place should anyone see the situation going on, but to anyone know that knew the two "friends" as you might say, they would just shake their head and laugh to themselves with an inquiring remark to no one in particular, 'They're at it again…' Axel and Yuffie's friendship was truly an odd one; Yuffie was facing the stockade for thievery, but for one reason or another, Axel had managed to sweet talk his way into getting her out of the stockade, even lying to his Commanding Officer who was the head behind the one placing her in the stockade that the young woman was his fiancée. That lie hadn't gone over that well with Yuffie at the time, but after a time, Axel had managed to find a decent job and in exchange for the job, she would now and again sneak him out some scraps as it seemed for the man to eat.
"GET BACK HERE YOU TWO BIT FOOD BAG HOG!!" Yuffie tore off around the corner after Axel, but found her self smacking in behind the man, "Why did you stop?"
Only a simple gesture could be shown and said as the man pointed at a Battalion coming up the road with a young man upon horseback, worn and tired, but even with the signs of battle upon his face, something seemed to shine through his face that had caught the man's attention, what it was, no one seemed to really know except for Axel in the brief moment. For someone who had come from a fight against an enemy, not a single strand of hair seemed out of place, on any other person that would've seemed rather hard to believe unless they had faked being in a fight, but the boy on horseback showed all the signs of having been in a fight.
"Make way for the 20th Battalion! Commander Roxas Sanderson leading the charge, make way, make way!" the lead of the Battalion brigade called out ahead of the unit as the remaining members of the unit began their trek through the town towards the main Compound, "Make way! Make way!"
People upon the road began to move out of the way, but Axel seemed to stare on in a form of one or another stunned shock at the way the young teen looked, "…He's…a Commander?" it was a shock to the system to see such a young person to be at that rank, "But…he's just a kid!"
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Footsteps…
Stepped forward…
Walking as if they were final steps, but their pattern was odd, the seemed to slid and slip as did the upper body figure as liquid slipped to the floor and an odd laugh came from the figure as hands worked to keep the man off the walls and the floor; he was happy, absolutely happy, ecstatic even, but it was an odd kind of happy. A drunkard kind of laughter as something collided finally with the wall mixed with the sounds of hands slapping against them, the sound of something hollow hit the wall that made the laughter just grow and grow as the feet finally gave out and the laughter grew to a fevered pitch as the sounds of clogging steps came down a pair of aged stairs which then grew into padding as they crossed against a carpeted hallway.
"Reno Montclair Dubois…" the voice was all too familiar for the happy man on the floor whose emerald green cat eyes seemed to slit out through the almost too small for the man's façade face, looked up to find a young woman with raven hair, long and past her shoulders, but pulled back and a duster in one hand, "Drinking…again? And at this hour of the morning; you are truly a fool among fools…"
Yes, Reno Montclair Dubois was a happy man, but only when his mind, body and soul were filled with fine liquors, no matter the hour of day or what day it was, even on Sundays he would become a drunken fool when it was considered an almost sin for a man to be drunk on the Sabbath. It didn't matter to him, for as long as his Mother had been dead, he had taken to hitting the bottle since the age of thirteen, what was this woman with a duster in her hand to say what he could and couldn't do or be allowed to be drunk at whatever hour he very well pleased? It would have been thought he would have taken up the ideals of being a man of Military prestige like his Father who was off at War even now, but when the man had turned the age of 18, the age when it would be a time for him to join; Reno had had other plans. He did go to join, but he was going to do everything in his power to avoid getting picked up for Military command or be apart of the Military by any stretch, when asked to strip down and report back to the Physical Station; he did as they asked. Unfortunately, he took the "strip down" part far too seriously and came out in absolutely nothing, aside from the colorful miniskirt that he had donned upon his hips.
Immediate Ban from Any Military Branch, Permanently.
"Hee, hee, afternoon Mom…Care for a drink?" the man lifted up the now empty wine glass as his drunken laughter remained hidden behind the façade mask on a face on his face, "It's a pretty good year, you'd probably remember it since you were born in it!"
The woman snatched the bottle and glass away from the man as she lifted up the mask on the man's face, "…Shape up or I'm sending you to your Aunt's farm which has no way of communicating with the outside world which means, you'll sober up right away."
"…Yes ma'am…" Reno managed to hide away the drunkard he had been as he slowly rose to his feet, slipping the mask off to the side, "Sorry about that crack about your age, Mom…"
"It's alright, Reno," slowly but surely managed to get the young man to his feet, "Just watch how much you drink of this stuff in one sitting, it can't be doing any good to your liver."
"Who cares about that? It's not like I'm using it…"
She could do all she could to stop the man from drinking, but the want to stop was his decision and it wasn't going to be happening anytime soon, lately, the drinking was getting worse and worse and it had started going down hill after his Father had been called out to the battlefield. Ever since he had left for the battlefield, his Mother, more like Stepmother had taken control of the house to the point that he had taken to hiding out in the house to drink himself silly into hysterical, drunken stupors and laughter while wearing the oddly painted mask. The mask was considered a psychological way to hide away from all his problems, but why wear such a mask that was a simple, white cream color with an intricate design along the right side of it? It was haunting to anyone who didn't know the real reason he wore it, some just assumed it was for his own odd ways of being a clown; he had always been coined the clown in any situation, but his attire told a different story. His Father may have been a Military man, but for as long as Reno had been alive, he had been a rebel, wearing things that would have otherwise made his Father call him "tackless", "disgrace", and the always present one was "gay fairy". It was something he had taken to taking in stride, his attire tended to have the local girls questioning what brought on his strange interest in the chain mail like chains that hung off the arm bands he could always be seen wearing. His hair was always askew, wild and untamed and the amount of piercings that decorated his ears tended to make others question why he was even pierced, but the thing that stuck out more then his open drinking, odd attire, mentally odd reasoning behind the wearing of a mask or the ear piercings, it was the markings near his eyes.
Some questioned if somewhere deep down within that possibly tortured soul was someone that indulged in the idea of masochism or marking themselves to stand out from the population, but that wasn't his case; he just liked wearing the markings on his face because they seemed to accent his eyes, was that such a problem?
The woman leaned in against Reno's face as she tried to wipe at one of the marks on his face, "Ma, come on, don't touch my face…I like these, leave them alone!"
"Well you look like someone that got into a fight and let the battle scar like those go left untreated and then they healed up like that, now, hold still…"
"Ma!"
It was a constant fight between of the two of them over the marks on his face, his wardrobe, his sense of fashion sense, his odd personality in regards to the questioning of his mental status and his drinking, "Come on, Ma, stop it!"
"Fine…" the woman backed away, hands flying upwards as they came back to her side, "Fine, go around looking like a clown for all I care. But when some young man comes to court you, don't expect me to play nice…"
"Yeah, yeah, Ma…like any guy would ever be interested in me…" Reno could only simply step back and look himself up and down, "I'm as straight as London Bridge."
She had no other reason to fight with him on the topic as she walked away, muttering under her breath, "…Damn eunuch…"
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Confused yet?
Let me lay it out for you: Roxas is the youngest War General ever to grace a battlefield and it was only after his Father had decided that it best for his son, his only son to that fact, should take up his position on the battlefield because it was unaware to the young man, but his Mother had a vague idea why he wants his son on the battlefield, this way his Father can continue his frilled affairs with some of the local women.
-Axel is a hopeless romantic that uses his sullen good looks and his somber looks of being able to turn a pretty face his way to take pity on a "lonely Soldier just looking for a bit of comfort and possibly the arms of a young woman willing to put up with him" but its mostly a mask to cover for the fact deep in his heart; he's a lonely man that no matter how hard he works to better himself, there is no way to fix that until he sees the young General.
-Reno is a soul that is drowning himself away in the bottom of a bottle, hiding behind a facaded mask of pain and misery that is buried deep within a tortured soul that is spiraling downwards into an utter pit of a town known as Nowhere and his Mother is starting to question whether her son is ever going to find someone or be doomed to just hide behind some mask that hides his true personality.
...I know it sounds like some odd, hard to understand, metaphorical like fanfic, but...Heh, its my first AkuRokuReno.
