Here's chapter two! There are several new characters, and as promised, here are links to bios for those that don't know about them. Unfortunately, FFnet strips several bits of punctuation that are kinda necessary for links, so I've got all the links on a different site for ease. Just copy/paste the link below, take out the spaces, and replace the – with the little squiggly line you make by holding shift-key and pressing the key above the tab-key. (FFnet strips those from text. Woohoo.)

free . hostultra . com / – ckret2 / tears / chapter2 . html

There are bios and pics for Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, Marlene, and Denzel. I don't know how many people here haven't seen Advent Children, but here's some references for those that haven't.

Disclaimer: All KH characters still belong to Square Enix/Disney. Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, Marlene, and Denzel are all Square Enix property from the movie Advent Children.

xxxxx

Chapter II

Advent // Femme Fatale

x

"Cloud, this is Tifa. You said you'd come home early to help with Marlene and Denzel, remember? I'm at the bar, and I could really use some help. ... Cloud? Hey, I know you're there. Pick up your cell phone! ... Okay, fine, just get your butt over here. Leon's getting tired of baby-sitting."

Tifa winked at Leon as she talked on the phone. He scowled back as Marlene insisted he pick up his imaginary teacup.

Tifa laughed. "Cloud, I don't think Leon will ever talk to you again at this rate. Just keep that in mind. The bar closed twenty minutes ago, and I'll give you twenty more minutes to get here." She hung up and started working on the dirty dishes. Cloud should have been helping with that, too.

"He'd better show up soon," Leon muttered.

"He's better at playing tea," Marlene agreed. She glanced at her adoptive brother. "Denzel, don't you want to play?"

Tifa glanced up from the glass she was cleaning. Denzel was standing at the window.

"I think that guy's in trouble," Denzel said, watching something outside.

Marlene ran up to the window beside him and watched along. After a moment, she turned to Tifa. "Why would the security system attack a human?"

Tifa and Leon joined the children to watch.

x

Axel was running in a blind panic, his Heartless clinging to his back. They were being attacked by an enemy neither of them could fight. It was made of pure energy, a small circle that slid under them and shot upwards. It hit like a sonic boom up the spine. Hurt like crazy and there was no defense except running.

Axel's Heartless tightened its arms around his neck and braced. Getting the hint, Axel dived to one side. A pillar of energy burst upwards, just barely missing them. Axel regained his balance and kept running.

Up ahead were a few buildings, the outer limits of Radiant Garden. Maybe Axel could find help there.

There wasn't much room to dodge the energy shooters. The buildings were at the top of a narrow canyon that sloped upwards to meet them. It would be an easy slope to scale, assuming Axel made it that far.

Axel felt Soldier twist its head to look backwards. Axel didn't need to turn to know what was there.

"Human – fast – motorcycle, sword. At us... nice?" Heartless had their own way of communicating, directly relating half-thoughts and fidgety phrases to each other's minds. Axel's presence gave Soldier enough intellect to focus its thoughts into a form he could understand. It was a two-way exchange. Soldier gave Axel a hint of a heart, and Axel gave Soldier a hint of a mind.

"I hope so," Axel muttered, and his chakrams appeared. They could hurt a human, at least.

Soldier heard the engine first, Axel soon after. It pulled up beside them and slowed down.

"Give me your hand!" the driver shouted, stretching an arm out to Axel. Ignoring it, Axel grabbed the back of the motorcycle and pulled himself on.

"Go!"

The blond driver gunned the engine and took off, leaving the circles of light far behind.

x

Tifa opened the bar door for Cloud, just in time for his red-haired passenger to run inside and take refuge behind the farthest table. Tifa barely glanced at him.

"What was that all about?" Tifa asked.

"I don't know. I saw the security system running, and then saw him." Cloud gestured to the stranger. "He looked like he was in trouble. I guess the Heartless were after him."

"That was what they were, huh? Weird Heartless," the stranger muttered. "I didn't know they slide around on the ground and shoot you up the spine like that. What's the species?"

There was an awkward silence. "That's the security system," Leon said. "It kills Heartless."

"Really?" The stranger tilted his head back. "Does it attack Soldier Heartless?"

"It should..."

"Marlene!" Cloud bolted across the room, pulling Marlene back and drawing his sword. The stranger skipped backwards and summoned two spiked red chakrams, standing defensively in front of something that looked like a child. Tifa walked closer and stopped, not wanting to get too close and crowd Cloud if he needed to fight. That wasn't a child.

"A Heartless!" Cloud said. Before he could attack, it climbed up the stranger's trench coat and hid in its arms. Cloud scowled. "You brought it in here?"

"It's mine!" the stranger shouted. He blinked, coughed, and said, "It's uh, trained. You know, like a pet? I own it."

"You can train Heartless?" Leon asked, crossing his arms. "Have you trained any others?"

"Well, uh..." The stranger winced. "I got lucky with this one. But it's harmless! Look." He put the Heartless down in front of Denzel, who had crept up beside them, before Cloud could protest. Denzel flinched, but tentatively reached out to touch the Heartless's helmet. In return the Heartless mussed Denzel's hair. Denzel giggled, swatting at the Heartless's hand.

Tifa frowned, studying the stranger. He didn't look like the master of a monster, or even a pet owner. He was smiling at "his" Heartless the way she had seen Cloud smile when he watched Denzel and Marlene playing.

"What's your name?" Tifa asked.

"Axel," the stranger said. "You?"

"I'm Tifa," she said. "The kids are Denzel and Marlene, he's Leon, and the guy who saved you is Cloud." Tifa gestured to each in turn.

Axel nodded, obviously memorizing the names but not truly caring. "Hey, is there any place I can stay without getting shot at?"

"It's your Heartless getting shot at," Leon said.

"Still hurts like the devil."

Cloud shot Tifa a glance, and she nodded, eyebrows raised. Humans weren't supposed to be affected by the security system if it was running properly.

"It'll activate as soon as you leave the building if you've got that Heartless with you," Tifa said. "We've got a spare room; you can stay here for a while."

"Nice." Axel smiled, and the Heartless left Denzel to be carried by its owner again. "So where is it, upstairs?"

"Uh, yes, and down the hall. Third door on the left."

Axel nodded. "Then we'll be settling in." He headed upstairs. Denzel and Marlene tried to follow, but were held back by Cloud.

"He could've at least said 'thanks'," Tifa grumbled.

"There's something wrong with him," Cloud said.

"Maybe, but he doesn't seem too bad," Leon said with a shrug, standing up. Now that he didn't have to baby-sit, he was ready to leave. "The security system could be acting up again. I can ask Tron."

"It's not that," Cloud said. "He road all the way here on the back of my motorcycle."

Leon paused with his hand on the doorknob, and Tifa tilted her head at Cloud. Evidently, he thought this was important, though they couldn't imagine why.

"The engine's in the back of the motorcycle," Cloud said, "and I'd been driving all day. The engine gets so hot that you burn yourself if you put your hand on it just a few seconds. He sat on it for about three minutes. He should need a Max-Potion by now, but I don't think he even noticed."

"Really..." Leon thought a moment, then addressed Tifa. "Do you want me to see if I can get Tron to spy on him? I haven't seen him around Radiant Garden before. If he's from another world, then that's probably the only way we'll find out about him."

Tifa frowned. She regretted inviting Axel to stay without knowing enough about him, but now he was her guest. She couldn't spy on a guest. "See if you can find any records on him," she finally said. "But no more."

Leon shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said, and left.

Tifa hoped she wouldn't regret this.

x

Axel sat heavily on his bed. It was late evening, and he was getting ready for bed. He'd had dinner with the happy family housing him, and the food was great but the conversation wasn't.

Of course, Axel was fine with this. At Castle Oblivion and in The World That Never Was, he never had a good meal or conversation. This was a definite improvement.

"I don't think you made a good first impression," Axel said, unzipping his coat. "I guess that's not your fault."

Not bothered by this in the slightest, Soldier proceeded to strip in imitation of Axel.

Axel had gotten his white t-shirt off before he noticed this. "Oh no you don't! Either I get to sleep naked or you do, but not both of us. That would be creepy."

The Heartless cocked its head. "Half?"

They were each half of a whole. Still, sharing a bed with a Heartless was way too bizarre for Axel. Even if they were technically the same person.

"No. Either keep it on or sleep on the floor. I don't go for homoerotic stuff."

"Heartless: girl – all."

Axel arched his eyebrows. "Really? So what, I'm half-girl?"

"Also, boy Nobodies."

Axel was glad he'd never been interested in Larxene.

Soldier heard the thought and tried to elaborate. "No – girl half, Heartless, boy half, Nobody. You, boy, me... boy as... girl?" It – she? – gave up, unable to explain properly.

Although Soldier was hopeless at explaining in words, the sentence was accompanied by several helpful mental illustrations. Soldier meant that Nobodies and Heartless weren't literally either boy or girl. The part of their personality that was more masculine ended up in the Nobody and the more feminine part ended up in the Heartless. That might be useful information in the future.

"Well, I'm not sleeping with a naked girl Heartless either. Put something on or you sleep on the floor."

Soldier gave in and began dressing again. It – no, she, Axel had to remember that – knew Axel was the brains of their group and was willing to let it be. Besides, she figured Axel had reasons for what he did. For example, what would their hosts think if they barged in the next morning and saw them? It would certainly look odd.

What did the hosts think? Axel turned to Soldier and said, "Don't put all that armor back on yet. You need to do some stealth work. How good a spy are you?"

Soldier leaned forward eagerly. "Very."

x

On the outskirts of Radiant Garden, there was rarely any activity. Most of the Heartless that used to lurk there were long gone. A force deep in the world occasionally pulled a few out of the darkness, but that force was growing weak and its avatars had long since fallen down in their duty to protect it.

Not that they weren't trying, though. The force's avatars weren't really Nobodies and weren't really Heartless, but nonetheless they lacked humanity. Without the dark beacon of the force beneath Radiant Garden to guide them safely from the light, they would dissolve in it like shadows in the dawn.

This night, the three strongest avatars rode through the outskirts of Radiant Garden, disturbing the silence with the sounds of motorcycle engines. They were searching for a way to save the force they called Mother. At last, they found it.

The leader of the three stopped his motorcycle and sat upright, cocking his head. He almost seemed to be listening to the night. His two followers, his brothers stopped behind him.

"What is it, Kadaj?" one asked. He ran his fingers through his long, silver hair, the same color as his brothers', trying to untangle the knots blown into it by the wind.

Kadaj turned to regard look at his brothers. Thin, shoulder-length hair hung in his face, hiding the ghost of a smile. "Don't you feel it, Yazoo?"

Yazoo looked thoughtful. "Darkness. There's a higher concentration here."

"Right," Kadaj said. He glanced at his other brother. "What do you think, Loz?"

"It's not Mother," he said. He was the largest of the three brothers, with his hair cut short, but his deep voice barely made a sound. "Was it a Nobody?"

"That's what I thought," Kadaj said. He turned back around to look at the air as if he could see it. "A very strong Nobody used the realm of darkness here. And the tear it created is still here."

Yazoo got off his motorcycle. "So we should be able to use it."

"Right again," Kadaj said. He and Loz also got off, and the three walked closer to the point the darkness emanated from. "Finally. We can leave this pitiful world, and find a source of darkness Mother can use to regain her former glory."

"Or we could find Sephiroth," Yazoo said.

"Our brother is dead, Yazoo," Kadaj said idly. They'd had this argument before, so often that not even Loz bothered to join in.

"Shall we?" Loz said. He cracked his knuckles. "This is going to be fun."

Yazoo and Kadaj watched as Loz swung his fist forward in thin air. He suddenly hit a barrier, which ripped, revealing a narrow portal into darkness. They had been seeking one like this for months, since Sephiroth and Cloud had disappeared in the middle of battle. Only Cloud had come back.

Kadaj slipped through first, followed by Yazoo, and at last Loz. Before the portal closed again, Loz turned around to shout through, "Don't worry, Mother! We'll be back soon to help you, we promise." And then they were sealed away from Radiant Garden.

Deep beneath the surface of the world, locked in the dark, closed-off chambers beneath the Hollow Bastion, the dark force Jenova didn't answer and didn't care.

xxxxx

There's chapter 2. Axel is sending his Heartless to spy on his hosts, Soldier is apparently a girl, and Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz only showed up long enough to disappear and won't come back for over least twenty chapters. If you like them, please have patience! They'll return soon enough!

For those that might be wondering (since there are some odd people out there, and a couple of friends thought this might be a problem): No, I wasn't trying to hint at any romance in this chapter. Romance with a Heartless would be very, very weird. So, rest assured, Soldier is, was, and always will be, completely relationship-free. (... I can't believe I actually had to type that. Sigh.)

Please review! Remember, reviews are a writer's food: praise is food for the ego, concrit is food for the intellect, and flames are food for the sense of humor.