Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, it belongs to Square Enix. But I do own the $30 bucks worth of new clothes I got today. 50% sales at Salvation Army are hard to resist ^_^

Endless Supply

Chapter 2 – Seize

By Uniasus

Leon felt himself being catapulted away from the others, anxiety rising in his chest as he saw Sephiroth make a quick turn and dart after Sora. No! He slammed his gunblade down, piercing the earth. The resulting jerk pulled his shoulder out of socket with a wet pop and he let out a shout of pain. The brunette ground his teeth together and continued to hold on, bringing his left arm over his chest to brace his other arm. Already he could feel himself slowing down.

Eventually his momentum was not enough to keep his body parallel to the ground and Leon planted his feet as hard as he could. Dust billowed up around him as the extra friction forced him to stop. When he finally did he took a moment to take a deep breath before wrenching his blade free from the ground with his left hand. And then he was off in the direction of the rocky cliffs towering high above, off in the direction Sora was thrown.

From the corner of his eye he could see a faint dust trail kicked up by running feet. Judging by its course the two of them would meet up soon enough and Leon was glad to see Cloud was not badly injured. The quickly coming confrontation was sure to make it or break it for Sora, they needed to give it their all. Leon began mentally stopping the hunks of barbed wire coursing though the blood in his right shoulder and arm. By not registering the pain it would not hamper his fighting ability. He would only have to worry about how long his weaker left wrist could support his gunblade. Certainly no more than a half hour. The swordsman hoped things would be won by then.

Cloud and himself were quickly jogging side by side now, attention focused on the rock wall in front them for a sign of either Sephiroth or Sora. Leon took a sidelong glance to check up on how Cloud was doing. Obviously better than he was, for his breathing was less labored. He returned in scanning the ground where it met the cliff and felt Cloud complete his own assessment of Leon's condition. Nothing was said between the two of them, but the way Cloud sped up just a hair to run have a length in front told Leon that the blonde would take most of the responsibility of attacking Sephiroth. Leon had no complaints about the arrangement.

It was not long before a crouched figure was visible slightly to the right of their path. The swordmen altered their course and as soon as they could clearly make out the scene stopped and stood their ground, swords in a ready stance.

Sephiroth had dropped to one knee and was bending over the still form of a figure with his back to them. The brown hair and large black and yellow shoes visible on either side of the crouched form could only belong to Sora. The silver haired man pulled his hand back and sunk it into the recess of his pocket before taking it out again. Leon saw a flicker of light and knew whatever Sephiroth had, it was metal and thus most likely dangerous.

"Get away from Sora," Cloud's voice was low and steely, full of a threat and the promise to go through with it.

Sephiroth ignored his comment. Instead he bent forward over Sora and did something with his hands Leon could not see. The sound of cloth ripping cut through the tense air.

"You know, he could be quite handsome one day if he didn't have such an awful scar," The silverette bent low and slipped his arms under Sora's prone form, one in the notch where his knees were and the other supporting the teen's back. Slowly he stood to his full height and turned around.

The tearing of Sora shirt caused the ripping sound Leon had heard earlier. It hung loosely off him, reveling a mass of scar tissue resembling a starburst centering over where his heart was. Two lines, thick lines, though one was less so, ran up his sternum to stop just below the neckline of the t-shirt. Perhaps they were physical evidence of the reluctance of the heart to separate from the body. Leon could only guess.

The size of it was disturbing to see on such a young body. If it had been a normal wound Sora would not have lived to carry such a scar. It was evidence of just how quickly the teen, no boy, had been pushed to accept and complete a task he was much too young for and so had grown up too fast. But laying there in Sephiroth's arms, with his body beat up,bloody, and scared, looking so vulnerable and defenseless, and showing off a chest just old enough to develop muscle, Leon saw the body of someone who should be fretting over how to ask a girl out instead of worrying about the safety of worlds. Sora was a young kid for crying out loud! He should not be going through events like this. He should finish high school and make the most of being young. Leon ground his teeth and tightened the grip on his sword. He would do his best to make sure Sora got that chance.

"Let. Go. Of. Sora." Leon's knuckles were white from griping his hilt so hard, as were Cloud's.

"Tsk tsk. Such potential," Sephiroth shook his head slowly, perhaps sadly if it were any one else, before leaning down and gently kissing the center of Sora's scar only to follow the action by tracing the thinner of the upward strokes with his tongue.

"SEPHIROTH!!" Cloud roared as he rushed forward only to stop after two steps, just inside the other's sword length.

Leon tensed and shifted his weight to the balls of his feet. His blood boiled. He wanted to yank that tongue out by hand, tear apart that wing feather by feather, pull off fingernails one by one, and shatter every bone in that body. But the brunette did not move for fear of hitting Sora by accident and Leon would not put it past Sephiroth to use him as a living shield.

The air behind Sephiroth rippled as inky darkness spread from a spot in the atmosphere to create a portal behind the winged man. A handful of Heartless slipped out and surrounded him, an extra barrier against Leon and Cloud. For every step backwards Sephiroth took, Cloud and Leon took one forward.

With the darkness licking at the fringes of Sephiroth's clothes he stopped and offered a Cheshire Cat smile. "Your star of the Light, is ours." And with one more step backwards the portal swathed him in darkness, the heartless jumped through, leaving only fallen blood behind.

"AARRGG!" Cloud chucked his sword at the empty air left behind. It stuck in the rock behind with low tang but he made no move to retrieve it. He stood there, fingernails digging into his palms, teeth grinding, chest heaving, head down with eye closed tight.

Leon released his grip on the gunblade, the metal clattering to the ground as he followed suit to land sitting on the bottoms of his feet. His right hand hung useless next to his torso, but his left was supporting his hunched up body with a clenched fist. The hair in his eye and the dust in the air caused his eyes to water but the ground beneath stayed dry.

After a couple minutes Leon heard the crunching of earth and felt Cloud place a hand on his good shoulder. "Want me to fix that?"

The blonde did not wait for a response before placing a hand on Leon's back and using the other to grab his right arm. The was a loud pop, as if some pulled a lollipop out of their mouths in front of a mike, and Leon felt the barbed pain go away. He sat back and rolled his shoulder around to make sure it felt alright, all the while watching Cloud walk over to retrieve his sword.

As the blonde turned around and headed back toward him Leon picked up his own blade and turned to look toward town. The sun was starting to set; the few sunlight reflections he could see were tinted rose. Cloud came up next to him and neither looked at each other.

"We have to tell the rest of them," Cloud said wearily.

"And King Mickey too," Leon did not know how his voice was so steady when his insides were trembling. He started toward town, Cloud matching him heavy footfall to heavy footfall to heavy heart.

-----

They were waiting at the outskirts to the city. With Cloud taking off so fast with a call of "don't follow me!" thrown over his shoulder they knew it was something serious.

Donald stood with his arms crossed over his chest, tapping his foot and then switching to the other. Cid had just stared out into the expanse before sighing heavily and leaving for twenty minutes. He came back with some gummi ship plans to work on, but he scanned the horizon every ten minutes for signs of life. Yuffie had already finished going through a work out routine guaranteed to help her keep her title of Greatest Ninja. The ninja had settled next to Cid and was polishing her weapons, Goofy beside doing his best to help. Neither were focused on the task for their eyes drifted up and polishing cloths stopped moving every so often. Aerith did not move much. She stood looking out in the direction Cloud had ran with her constantly wringing hands in front of her waist. Occasionally she would pace a bit to relive the stiffness crawling up her legs, hands stilled by wrapping her arms around herself. But it never lasted long.

The setting sun was making her eyes hurt after looking out into for while. Aerith turned and walked a couple steps before pivoting and continuing the other way.

"Hey, some one's out there," Cid's quite voice was heard above his plans slipping off his lap as he stood. Quickly all of them found themselves pressed up against the short barrier lining the wall.

Yuffie leaned forward, hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun but she still squinted. "There's two people out there, and they both have swords."

"Leon and Cloud," Aerith breathed, her hands stilling to clutch each other tightly.

"No Sora?" Goofy asked, panic lightly lacing the last syllable.

No one answered.

Leon and Cloud passed through the damaged portion of the wall, not looking up at the people waiting above with baited breath. They climbed the broken stairs, shoulders sagging and heads down watching the placement of their feet. At the top of the stairs they stopped, looking out over the wall and not at the group over to the right.

Leon flicked a glance toward the group and quickly turned away. Aerith could sense something was wrong with the both them, and it had to do with Sora.

Aerith took a small step forward. "Cloud. Leon."

"Where's Sora?" Donald demanded.

Both men stiffened. Neither answered.

"Where's Sora?!" the duck's voiced wavered.

Aerith saw Leon tighten his fist and swallow thickly, preparing to speak. He opened his mouth but Cloud got there first.

"Sephiroth took him."

"What?!" "What happened?" "Why didn't you do anything?" "How could you allow that to happen?" "Why didn't you ask for help?" "Why didn't you stop him?"

Aerith watched both men deflate, hunch in on themselves, and cringe. It was obvious they felt terrible about it, and very, very responsible. Aerith walked forward and extended her arm out to silence the others before striding into the line of sight for both men. They looked down and to the side, unable to look her. She rocked back on her heels, waiting.

"We tried," Leon voice was so low and soft Aerith could hardly hear it. She noticed the group edging closer in the outskirts of her vision. "But he kept on going after Sora, cast this weird spell on him, and then…." Tremors passed through the brunette's body while the blonde beside him tensed up. "He was going after Sora specifically for some reason, we don't know why."

"We'll get him back," Cloud snarled. Aerith had to force herself not to take a step back, that was how intense he was. "I've taken him down before, I can do it again."

"There's two of them though," Leon's barely detectable voice grew in strength. "He's not working alone, who else is out there?"

"Maleficent!" Donald provided

"I thought you guy took care of her!" Yuffie exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.

"Well, we did," Goofy opened his arms out in a kind of shrug, "but she came back and helped us by taking care of the Heartless while we went on to tackle the Organization."

"She wanted the castle!" Donald interjected, "Since she couldn't have this one. We never went back after fighting Xemnas. We all landed at Destiny Islands! I bet she's the other one!" Donald was getting feisty, jumping on one foot and brandishing his staff.

"We should check on the Princesses regardless of whether it's Maleficent or not." Aerith suggested, bending and leaning first right and then left in an attempt to catch the eye of either of the men in front of her. "Maleficent tried to unlock Kingdom Hearts last time. Sora stopped her, but if someone were to have their and Sora's hearts…" she tailed off, not wanting to travel down that road.

"We have to go save Sora!" Donald exclaimed, sparks shooting from God Save the Queen.

"No," Leon's voice was heavy with resolution. "Sora's a keyblade master. He can take care of himself, he's a strong fighter." Aerith wondered if anyone one else noticed the slight hesitation. "You need to go check up on the Princesses of Heart. The safety of the worlds comes first. I'm sure King Mickey would say the same. We can set up a link and ask."

"Sounds like a plan," Goofy took off down the stairs to head toward Merlin's house, Donald, Yuffie, and Cid following.

Aerith watched them until they were halfway down the stairs. "Leon, Cloud."

"Aerith."

"Not now."

Both warriors radiated a sense that the topic was closed. "Later then," she said with a smile before walking around the pair and starting down the stairs. She was almost at the bottom before she heard one and then two sets of booted feet on the stone behind her. She would have to keep an eye on those two, make sure they did not seep too low into guilt and self-hatred. Or want of revenge. As much as she wanted to see Sora back safe and sound too, she did not want to see her friends destroyed in the process.

A/N: Tohdah! Told you there would be a shirtless Sora ^_~. Once again, this chapter is unbetaed. I originally had this one and the first chapter combined to replace the original first chapter for this fic and separated them because it was just to damn long! So yes, that means this too was written in wee hours and on stolen ekeltricity.

My lovely betas who are working on this are Skylexia and Yume Kaze. And once I again I have a shout out to my sister dragonqueengold because she has such a dirty mind. As I mentioned at the end of the last chapter she was seeing pairings right and left, and the only way I could shut her up was to promise a fic involving Sora and Sephiroth together. So if that interests any one else out there, check me out around mid May for its posting as her B-day gift.

So if you would so kindly review and tell me what you think, I would be grateful. Who doesn't love a little love?