HI! Sorry I've been away for so long (gets on the ground and grovels at your feet for forgiveness). But I've started working full time at my job, then my new laptop decides to break and spent a few weeks with the Laptop doctor for repairs... So Yeah, everything's finally calmed down and I finally got this done so Please enjoy...
Chapter 9 - The Making of Plans and the Answering of Questions
"So, this is the place" Cloud commented dryly, as he lowered his binoculars.
"Guess so" Squall replied from his position a few feet away.
The 'place' was a fortress built into the cliff face of the valley flanked by dense, dark forest. The valley itself was located not far from Hallow Bastion's borderlines with Midgar and Balamb. The small band was observing it from a ledge a few hundred meters away on a small ledge on the valley wall on the opposite side of the fortress.
"Not a real hospitable looking place, is it?" Bartz jokingly observed as he scanned the forest below the fortress.
"Just try to find the guards' locations" Squall drew out a basic plan of the fortress's front and began making notes on it.
Bartz raised his binoculars and began scanning the fortress, "umm, not to sound stupid or anything but can you guys see any guards?"
Cloud lowered his binoculars, "I noticed that too"
Squall frowned and looked though his own, "but that can't be right" he lowered them and looked over at Bartz and Cloud, "this is the place Lady Cosmos told us"
Bartz shifted uneasily, "I can only think of two good reasons that there wouldn't be any guards. First, they not here or…"
"It's a trap" Squall finished, "my thoughts exactly"
Cloud's eyes went hard, "I don't care. If there's the slightest chance that Leah's in there, I'm going"
Squall bowed his head and closed his eyes, "I thought you'd say that"
"You don't have to come if you don't want to" Cloud stated without taking his eyes off the fortress.
"And what kind of Hero could I dare call myself if I let you walk in there alone?" Squall smiled coldly as he added, "Plus this actually sounds like it could be a good challenge"
Bartz smiled wickedly, "I know what you mean I haven't had a good battle in ages"
Cloud smiled as he shrugged, "well, don't blame me if you get the crap beaten out of you"
Squall put his notes away and stood up, "best we go get ready"
Bartz began to climb back up the slope, "yea, so we don't get killed by the invisible guards"
-F-I-N-A-L-K-I-N-G-D-O-M-
"Feeling anything yet?" Zidane asked from atop a crate in the holding bay of the Highwing.
"Stupid" Sora quipped back, from where he was standing in the middle of the room with his left arm straight out in front of him, hand palm up.
"Same here" Roxas added who was standing back to back with Sora, in a pose exactly the same.
"Just try to remember how you felt when you summoned those Keyblades of yours" Zidane shifted into sitting position.
"Easier said than done" Sora muttered under his breath.
"Well, think of it this way," Zidane began, "if you can't summon those Keyblades of yours', then you definitely not coming with us"
"Why?" Sora snapped, "Because we don't have weapons or magic like you guys do?"
Roxas placed a hand on his brother's forearm to stop his rage from spilling out, "Sora! Getting anger won't help!" Roxas turned his attention to Zidane, "what my idiot brother meant to say is, is it really okay to take to two untrained teenagers into a situation where they'd be more of a hindrance than a help just because we can summon a weapon that looks like an oversized key?"
"Now who's getting angry" Sora muttered under his breath before Roxas silenced him with a look. Roxas had a long fuse and didn't get angered often but when he did, it was flashed as red and as hot as his brother's.
Roxas returned his attention to Zidane, "To finish my earlier point, Sora and I have little to no battle experience. Sure we can fight but not like you, Heroes can, we could get injured or worse killed"
Zidane shifted slightly unsure how to answer when a voice called out "Do you really have that little faith in us?"
Sora, Roxas and Zidane turned to see Bartz walking up the ramp, "I mean, really, as if we'd let you get killed or anything?" behind him were Cloud and Squall.
"Find out anything?" Zidane looked relieved to see his comrades back, now he wouldn't have to answer those sticky questions.
"There are no guards" Squall answer as Bartz hopped up on the crate next to Zidane and Cloud leant back on the wall next to it.
"No guards but.." Zidane paused and looked at Cloud.
Cloud nodded once, "She's in there so I'm going"
Zidane let out a low whistle, "this is going to be fun" he shrugged slightly, "anyway the boys had some questions they wanted to ask you, Squall"
Squall passed the notes he had made to Zidane to study, "so we heard"
"So, are you going to answer them?" Sora demanded
Much to the two boys surprise it was Cloud that answered them, "You two will be more of a hindrance than help to us until you gain experience. But you can't gain that experience by sitting on the sidelines and watching someone else, you need to enter the battlefield to learn and gain it for yourselves." He shrugged, "And if you get killed then you didn't learn quickly enough but if you survive then you take the knowledge and experience you gain in this battle and use it in the next one"
Bartz chuckled darkly, "that quite the harsh lesson plan there, Teacher Strife"
Cloud smiled softly, "let's just call it on the job training"
"But… that's…" Roxas began
"Dangerous? Yes, incredible." Cloud replied harshly, "we don't have time to baby you to along until you are ready to join in a battle. You're just going to have to learn and learn quickly." his tone soften slightly, "it may seem like we're been harsh on you but we have no choice, you need to learn and gain experience fast and this is the only way I can think of to do that"
Bartz walked over to the two boys and drape his arms over their shoulders, "and like I said, it's not like we going to let you get injury or killed. We will protect you and help you, ok?"
Zidane smiled comfortingly, "and Cloud's right. This type of training is dangerous but it makes you strong." he gestured to the other Heroes, "we all went through training similar to this and we survived."
"Plus I don't think the Darkness wants you dead," Squall added.
"What?" gasped Bartz, Zidane, Sora and Roxas.
"It certainly gave a good impression of it" Sora added.
"When the Darkness spoke to you did it threaten to kill you or did it ever make any threaten moves?" Squall asked.
Both the boys were quiet as they thought back to that their first meeting with the Darkness then together they shook their heads.
"As I thought," Squall turned to the twins, "you two both wield a Keyblade, the only weapon that can truly defeat The Darkness. But you're untrained and untested, so instead of killing you it tried to make you its slaves."
"It's… slaves…" Roxas eyes widen at the thought.
Sora remained silently for a while before adding, "It said something like that to me when I refused it"
Squall nodded, "Then I'm proven correct"
"But why?" Roxas asked, confused.
"By making one or both of its slaves, it nullify the threat of have two Keyblade Wielders around while it gains a powerful weapon against the Light by using the enslave as a hostage" Squall explained, "we would be powerless to do anything while they were in its power"
Cloud straighten from the wall, "now, have we answered your questions good enough?"
Sora and Roxas nodded slowly.
"Good" Cloud looked over at Squall, "so, what's our plan?"
Squall folded his across his chest and closed his eyes in thought, "well, seeing as it's probably a trap, I think a more direct approach might just work in our favor"
-F-I-N-A-L-K-I-N-G-D-O-M-
"Just tell me what I wish to know and this can all be over" Supabin purred to the raven haired girl crumpled in heap in the corner of the cell, her face showed a blue-black bruise across her right cheek and her left eye was slightly swollen. Her right arm was being held against her chest in a hope not to move it and her breathing was slightly shallow and seemed pained.
Supabin smiled to himself, she wasn't so defiant now "come now, surely you can't be that loyal to that precious master of yours" he leaned close and sneered, "he hasn't even tried to rescue you yet"
Her head snapped up, her one good eye burned sea-green fire at him, "He'll come" she hissed, "He always comes!"
Supabin leaned closer, "really? But you might be dead by then"
She pouted slightly, "that a pity"
He tilted his head slightly, "oh, why is that?"
She smiled slightly than, "'Cause I won't get to see him kill you!" She spat a glob of blood onto his face.
Wiping it off as he rose and stalked over to the cell door where he paused, "it's a shame that that won't be happening"
The girl remanded silent as Supabin turned, his eyes glowing a sickly shade of yellow, "Because he'll be dead before he reach either you or I"
-F-I-N-A-L-K-I-N-G-D-O-M-
"What are these things?" Roxas was holding a small bag that Bartz had given him, inside were small, marble sized, green orbs that glowed softly. Looking over he saw that Sora had received a bag similar to his from Bartz as well.
"those are healing orbs" Bartz pick one out of Sora's bag and began to gently bounce it up and down in the palm of his hand, "We use them when we don't have a healer or White mage around" he held it up to the light, "to uses it is easy, just think of the person you want to heal then throw it towards them and the orb will do the rest"
Sora attached the bag to his belt near the hip on his right side, "What about weapons?"
Bartz dropped the orb into his own bag, "well, you do have your Keyblades"
"That we can't even summon" Roxas commented as he attached his own bag to his belt.
"Quiet now" Squall commanded from a little way ahead, "We're getting close"
Roxas looked around at the dark forest they were sneaking though, it had an eerie, foreboding feeling to it. Occasionally the group would stop and stay quiet for a minute or so at Squall or Cloud's command before proceeding forward again. With each step closer to the fortress, the more nervous Roxas became, he was about to enter a battle and he had no idea what to do about it. He glanced over at Sora and was slightly relieve to see his twin was just as nervous as he was.
Soon, a massive gate appeared for the forest in front of them. Sora and Roxas moved to the center of the group with Squall out the front, Zidane and Cloud take the right and left sides and Bartz taking up the rear.
"That's a big door" Bartz commented dryly
"Well, it is designed to keep people out" Zidane replied.
"How do we get in?" Sora asked.
"Simple, we knock" Squall raised his left hand, "Firaga!" a giant fireball appeared in his hand and with a flick of his wrist he shot it towards the gate. As it got closer to the gate, it grew in size until it was almost the 3 meters across and at that moment it hit the gate with a deafening roar that made the twins wince and cover their ears. When the smoke cleared, they saw that the gate had been almost complete destroyed. Squall motioned for the group to go forward.
Roxas gasped at the destruction, "How did you do that?"
"Magic" Squall replied as he stepped through the gate, "don't worry you're learn how to use it soon enough"
"Well, they definitely know we here now" Sora looked at the massive gate, now in pieces on the ground, as they walked passed it.
"Being stealthy wasn't part of the plan," Cloud replied, looking around for danger, "we want them to know we're here"
"What? Why?" Sora tensed, what kind of plan was that?
"You ready?" Bartz clamped a hand onto Sora's shoulder while Zidane did the same to Roxas.
"For what exactly?" Roxas looked up at the two Heroes nervously before he heard a noise for within in the fortress. It sounded like nails scrapping on a hard stone floor and it was slowly growing louder and louder.
"For the welcoming party, of course" Zidane replied brightly.
Sora and Roxas' eyes grew wide with both surprise and fear as what a seemed to be a moving massive of darkness came slowly out of the main doorway. As it drew closer the twins could see individual sets of yellow glowing eyes that belonged to small, pure black human shaped creatures that moved in strange twitching movements.
"What are those?" Sora asked, without taking his eyes off them.
Squall glanced over at the two teenagers, taking interest that neither of them was stepping back in fear or repulse of the creatures , in fact both were watching them with an intense look of concentration with a bit of wariness mixed in. It seemed that they did take after their father in some way.
"Those are the Heartless" Squall answered, returning his attention to the horde of creatures slowly advancing on them, "they are the mindless slaves of the Darkness and while this type isn't very dangerous on its own in a large group like that…"
"Is a pain in the arse" Cloud finished dryly.
Squall frowned slightly, "Well, I wouldn't have said it quite like that but," he nodded once, "yes, they are just a pain in the arse"
