Midnight Serenade

Disclaimer: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, SSBB & The Kingdom Hearts Series belongs to Nintendo and Square-Enix. Don't flame me for this!

This story will be in 1st and 3rd point of view.


Chapter 3: The Midnight Escape ~

Midnight soon came along as Marth, Roy, Ike, Rika and Ryuo were looking for them still. They've been searching for an hour but never found them since.

"Dammit," Ryuo cursed. "We should have met sooner and left before the sun went down." Ryuo said as he held up a lit lantern and looked around.

"Yeah, but we can't turn back now." Roy said. "We're probably close to them." He spoke.

Rika looked over to Ryuo. "You saw Ally and the others before you found me right?" Rika asks.

"Yeah, but not Chiharu, Travis or Kamui the bastard." Ryuo replied with venom dripping off ofhis tongue, Rika sweat-dropped from this (which was seen clearly).

Rika knew that the odd rivalry between Ryuo and Kamui never settled unless if they were forced to pair up and to push away their rivalry for now. Yet the strange things was, they were friends. She was puzzled by how the whole thing began and she didn't want to know.

"B-but, you and Kamui are friends right? Why call him that?" Roy asked. Ryuo stopped dead in his tracks and turned back to them.

"Yeah, we are...But we're not thatclose friends." Ryuo began.

"Lord here we go." Rika said before walking on ahead.

"Kamui, is a sly bastard who speaks his mind. As of me, well, I'm just an out doing dude who keeps the gang together." Ryuo trailed on as Rika sighed and shook her head, smiling a little.

She glanced down to the dirt road and stopped, she stared down at what looked like a trail; as if someone stabbed the earth eith their weapon or bare hands and was dragged to a certain destination.

"G-guys!" Rikacalled out as they heard her and immediately came over. She pointed to the ground as Ryuo reached his lantern over to where she was pointing at and saw the same thing.

"Rika, how did you...?" Ryuo began but stopped halfway.

"Ally taught me how to see in the dark, even through she has a sixth sense." Rika said as she averted her eyes away from the lanterns light.

"Your friend has a sixth sense?" Marth asked. the two nodded.

"Yeah, she had it ever since we started traveling. She can sense any living thing around her, even if her eyes were closed." Ryuo said as he followed the uneven trail as the others followed.

.:.~*• •*~.:.

-GRND!- -GRND!- (Suppose to be a tightening noise...)

"D-Dammit! This stuff won't come loose!" Keiichi said as he struggled against the black substance as it tightened up more and more. I jolted up in pain as I gritted my teeth and tried to hold back my unwanted scream.

"Keichii! Stop moving, this stuff is slowly killing us!" I said still gritting my teeth. Keiichi finally stopped and looked over to me.

"T-Tails, I thought you were asleep." He said. I rolled my eyes and didn't feel the sudden pressure from the substance.

"Karin and Shikiare asleep, but I'm not." I replied. "Please stop moving, this stuff is around us for a reason - to kill us silently while we're moving about!" I said.

"But we have to escape!" Keiichi brought up.

"I know, but we can't go anywhere! This substance is holding us back and we can't go anywhere until someone finds us and sets us free. So stop having your spasm attacks and wait." I replied.

"I do not have Spasm Attacks!" Keiichi shouted as I couldn't help but giggle.

"Fine, but waiting takes forever!" Keiichi said. "And you don't want to wait either." he said again.

"True, but at least I'm calm and patient unlike you." I said.

"Well, what can we do? We've been waiting for at least an hour..." He asks.

"You can go to sleep and not move, that way we won't be dead in the morning." I said to him, he glared at me and sighed deeply.

"Fine, I'll try not to move." He said as he tried to sleep. I sighed deeply to myself as I watched the Crescent moon slowly inch across the night sky.

'At least I don't have to fear the silence...' Spoke my mind as I blinked twice and looked down at my 24k gold teardrop pendent that shined in the moonlight.

"Tails this is taking forever man, there's no entertainment or anything here!" Keiichi cried out, I groaned loudly as I glared at him.

Well, at least I had a few seconds of silence. But it turns out, Keiichi was quiet and motionless for three seconds until he opened his eyes seconds later.

"Dude, at least try to get some sleep. And even if we were asleep, I can tell if anybody is comin' or not!" I pointed out.

"Fine!" Keiichi replied back acting like he was a troubled teen in his freshman year.

I sighed again as I looked around again to my left.

I then froze in fear seconds later as I looked up to see a light tanned teen standing there before me, my eyes widened in fear as the teen smiled at me kindly as his small rectangular glasses gleamed in the moonlight.

"L-Luke!" I said outloud in fear, inching over to the teen only to be held back by the black substance. I jolted up in pain as I closed my eyes tightly, releasing a single tear from my right eye. I opened my eyes again and looked up to Luke, but he wasn't there anymore - He was gone from my sight.

"K-Keiichi!" I said to him as I looked over to him with a look of fear.

"I saw him too Tails, you're not the only one." He replied.

"I-I thought he was dead!" I brought up as he had a concerned look on his face.

"Tails, remember what your dad said? About those who lost their lives..." Keiichi brought up as I didn't say a word after that. "A life once lost cannot come back, so we have to remember them in our memories." He said.

I lowered my head in shame to him, letting my bangs cover my eyes.

"B-but..." I said at last. "Why is Luke here?" I asked.

"I don't know, maybe he's trying to keep us company." Keiichi replied.

"I won't want talk to a dead person! I may have a sixth sense, but I don't wish to speak to him!" I cried out in fear.

"I know Tails...but he's trying to help." Keiichi said.

"Well he can help by watching over us, he may have been a good friend to us all...but he left me here to sulk in my sorrow." I said.

"Tails..." Keiichi muttered with a frown.

"Sakura..." A sudden voice echoed as Keiichi and I shot up and looked around. I gasped as Keiichi looked over to his left to see Luke once again, this time he was standing before me, a couple inches away.

"You're not really here man," I said to him, still shaken up from this. "You're just a...a figment of our imagination. A memory from our hearts." I said.

"If I am just an image from both of your hearts, then tell me..." Luke began (With the voice of Travie McCoy). "No, ask me this, do I look the same to you before I passed away?" He asked.

"Luke," Keiichi said to him. "Even if you look older, you're still the same fifteen year old that we all remember." He said.

"I'm not fifteen guys," Luke said.

"Dude, you are." I said.

"I'm not fifteen anymore. Look at me Sakura!" He shouted as he extended his hands over to the sides of my face and tried to turn my head, I looked up to him. "DO I LOOK LIKE I'M FIFTEEN?" He asked, slightly shouting.

"It doesn't matter Luke!" I shouted back. "You're still a..." I stopped myself to see the new changes from him; He still wore the same clothes after he passed away, his jade green eyes glowed in the light. He wore a forest green shirt with black khaki pants that trailed down to his knees, his short black straight hair trailed down to the bottom of his round ears.

"You look like...like..." I trailed off.

"Like a seventeen-year old, that's what I was tryin' to tell ya!" Luke said. "I asked God if I can be seventeen years old and he allowed me to, and now I'm up to your ages now." He went on.

I sighed. "Luke, you died when you were fifteen. You can't change your age to be both Keiichi's and my age, it's just not right." I said.

"I asked him, he who we all believe in and he said I could." Luke replied happily.

"Luke..." Keiichi spoke. Luke then remembered something as he looked over to me.

"Ah, Sakura. Do you still have my ashes?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's in a small shrine box Fujimotoand I built for you...It's in there." I replied.

"If I were you, I'd better hold onto it." Luke said.

"Even through I'm a Shrine Priestess for your grave, I cannot go through your ashes." That then got me thinking. "Hey Keiichi," I said to him.

"Yeah?" he asks.

"Can these creatures be after me because I'm a Shrine Priestess, let alone the fact that I bare magic and a strong heart?" I brought up.

"...That could be it, but you would've been gone an hour ago..." Keiichi said.

"Those creatures are after something every living thing has, not just you Sakura." Luke spoke as we looked up to him. "They're after hearts." He said.

"Our hearts? Why?" Keiichi asks.

"I'm not really sure, but they're a huge threat for everyone all over." Luke replied. "Sakura, Keiichi..." Luke began.

"What?"

"Never lose hope, even if everything goes wrong. Keep your hearts high and fight them off, help is on the way from another world." Luke said.

"Another world?" I recalled. Luke had a concerned look on his tanned face.

"Everything you thought you knew is about to change..." Luke told them as we kept this in mind. Keiichi had a half determined half confused look on his face, as I closed my eyes and breathed out through my clear nose.

I opened my mouth to say something until I sensed five presences coming from the West, I gasped loudly as if needing air, my eyes snapped open as I sharply turned my head to the east.

"What is it?" Keiichi asks.

"I sense five presences in-" Before I could finish, the black substance suddenly twitched and moved about rapidly and began to act on its own; It soon tightened up ten times more than it use to be around our stomach and chests as Keiichi and I sprang up and began to scream in pain, soon Karin and Shiki awoke from their sleep and screamed in pain as well.

"Kyaa!" I screamed as Keiichi tried to hold it back, but couldn't as his agonizing scream escaped his moist lips.

"What's going on?" Karin shouted.

"It hurt, IT HURTS!" Shiki cried out. I looked back to Luke ...

Or where he use to be.

Luke was gone from my sight as the sorrow within me sank deep into the darkness within me as I closed my eyes tightly and cried out in pain.

"KEIICHI!" A familiar voice shouted from the east. Keiichi shot up as he looked over to see...

"Ryuo! Rika! Help us out of this!" Keiichi called back as Ryuo, Rika, Marth, Ike and Roy ran over and helped them out.

"Who are you three?" Karin asks Ike, Roy and Marth. They introduced themselves quickly to Karin and the others as they charged over afterwards.

Roy cut the substance around Karin and Shiki as the black substance faded away as the two were set free instantly. Ike soon came over and cut Keiichi loose, but as soon as Keiichi was set free, the black substance didn't fade away. Suddenly the substance wrapped around me and was tied on my stomach, up to my chest as I screamed in pain.

"What the - What isthat stuff?" Ryuo asked as I gritted my teeth hard as I had problems breathing as I struggled to breathe.

"It's ... cutting off ... my air supply!" I managed to say as Marth came over and tried to cut the substance off, but the substance sank into my skin as he accidently cut my right arm.

"Ow! That's my arm!" I cried out as Marth apologised.

"What happened to the stuff?" Roy asked.

"It went into her skin!" Marth replied as he watched it come back out of my skin and stayed there.

"Please ... get it off! I don't ... want to pass ... not now ..." I said again as Marth looked around again to see a black knot on my back.

"Don't move." Marth said as I nodded and tried to hold still.

Marth placed the tip of his sword on the knot as the substance reacted and tightened up, I jolted up a little as he quickly slashed away the knot on my back.

The black substance then faded away instantly - I was free at last! I breathed in and coughed as Shiki scrambled over to me and embraced me.

"You're alive Ally! You're alive!" Shiki cried out as I calmed down and smiled weakly to her.

"-Cough!- Rapo, I almost died right there..." I said, shivering a little from my near death experience.

"Rapo?" Roy recalled. I looked up to him and smiled.

"Rapo! Rapo! thanks for helping me and my friends back there." I replied to him as Roy shrugged, chuckling a little. Ike was puzzled by my strange howl.

"Don't mention it." Marth replied.

"Ah!" Keiichi shouted as we all jumped.

"What! What! What happened dude, WHAT!" Ryuo yelled.

"Tails," Keiichi said, turing over to me. "Where did Luke go?" He asked.

"Luke! Where!" Karin exclaimed as she looked around for Luke himself.

"He's gone." I said in a calm tone.

"What! Why would be leave us?" Keiichi asked.

"Who?" Roy asked.

"Our old friend...Luke Braveheart, died two years ago...In an incident." I replied to him as he frowned.

"Sorry for asking." Roy said.

"It's okay really," I replied. "But ... Keiichi and I saw his ghost before us...but when you guys came, he faded away, leaving us a small bit of infomation about those creatures." I said.

"Really? Thank goodness Luke is trying to help us out!" Rika said as she stood close to Ike who noticed this but didn't mind.

"Can you guys come with us? We're trying to figure out what those things are here for anyway." Marth asked as we agreed.

"Lead the way please." I replied as he did so.

And so we headed back into town as Ryuo remembered something along the way back...

"Hey tails." Ryuo spoke.

"Rapo?" I howled.

"I thought you wanted to lead the way?" He brought up.

I sweated a little from his question.

"I wanted to..." I began. "But I'm still in shock from my near death experience, so, I'll let Marth lead the way for now." I replied.

"Oh." Ryuo said.

Soon everything was quiet as we continued on.

"Are we there yet?" Keiichi asked, everyone except Keiichi sweat-dropped from his outburst.

Well ... not everyone was quiet after Keiichi's sudden question.

End of chapter 3

Preview of the next chapter

Hauu~ We finally arrive back in town as we meet a familiar leader, as Ally tells them what Luke said, the journey itself really begins from that day forth. Can our Heroes figure out what these shadow creatures are? And what did Luke mean by 'Everything you thought you knew is about to change?' You'll have to find out in Chapter 4: The Greil Mercenaries See you then!