Warning: Crossover pairing is very obivious now!

Not much to say here without spoiling what'll happen later on. Already planned my next two arcs. The first one will star Veigue and look deeper in his story. The next one will be "Phoenix Wright" court room styled. Over the past week, I've been obsessed with Phoenix Wright. I've been dying to write that arc.

"-on…" A faint scream in the distance echoed.

"-eon…" A louder scream in the distance came again.

"Ugh…" Leon thought, "What is that…"

"Leon!" A loud scream rang at his ears.

Leon rolled off the bed and landed painfully on his back, "Ow! Rutee! What was that for?"

The tall, black haired girl before him chuckled, "Is that the thanks I get for waking you up? You have a visitor!" She bent down to Leon with a large smirk, "It's a girl! And she has black hair!"

Hearing this, Leon jumped to his feet and ran into the bathroom to clean himself up.

Rutee chuckled and a shrill voice, "Love struck! My friend is also here so please don't scare her!"

Leon gave Rutee a playful glare before running out of his room. He ran through the corridor, accidentally bumping into a wandering Philia, "Sorry!" He shouted back as he continued running.

The now dizzy Philia swayed in the air, "Ah, it's alright!" She shouted to the air.

Leon slid down the banister and into the living room. Seeing no one there, his posture slackened, "I knew it. She tricked me."

"Leon," A gentle female voice whispered as she tapped his shoulder.

With a happy sigh, Leon turned to face her, "Hello, Marian. How are you?"

The girl giggled and gave him a smile of pure innocence, "I'm great! Leon, do you remember what tomorrow is?"

"How could I forget?" He replied casually, "It's your birthday. I even got you a present!"

Marian giggled again and clapped childishly, "You know, all I want is time spent with you!"

Leon blushed slightly and smiled, "I thought this was your birthday, not mine. Time spent with you would make me the happiest."

A loud laughter came from the hallway. The two turned to see Rutee leaning against the doorframe with a large grin on her face, "I've never heard you say things like that Leon!"

Marian giggled again as the two feuded. It was true, however. Around Marian, Leon expressed himself. Marian was the only person that could make him smile. She was the only one that could make him laugh sincerely. She was the only one who saw the real Leon.

After Rutee left, Leon walked back to Marian with a smile. He cast away his solemn attitude and embraced the light side of himself.

"Tomorrow, we'll meet at the peach tree outside. Promise?" Marian muttered in her calm, serene voice. She held up her pinky in a gesture of trust.

It was childish. Leon would never do something like this to anyone. But, as long as it was Marian, he'd do anything for her. He was in love. They were in love. He connected his pinky to hers.

"I promise…"

Shadow began enveloping the two. Marian soon faded from his sight. Before he knew it, he was on his knees and overcome with grief.

"You may never see them again."

"Marian…it's her birthday! Please!"

"Clinging to trash is making you weak. We're leaving. Forever…"

"Ah! Marian!" Leon shouted as he sat up quickly. He was shocked by the pitch black darkness around him.

"You're awake." A weak, female voice murmured to him from the darkness.

Trying his best to assess the situation, Leon felt through the darkness with his hands. He touched a hand not much smaller than his, "Who…Marian?" He gasped and turned his head in the darkness, "Is that…Sheena? Is that you?"

There was a shift in weight. The sound of soft flesh pressing against a wall was heard, "Yeah. I saw you at the dinner. Did Zelos hire you to save me?"

"Yes, he did."

A grunt of dissatisfaction came from her.

"What?"

"Typical," There was another sound of shifting. She reached down and touched Leon's rib which caused him to hiss, "Does that still hurt?"

Leon groaned and shoved her away, "Yeah, it does."

"Alright, we can't leave yet. You'll slow us down if you're wounded."

"Hmph, what about you? You were stuck here longer."

There was a long, awkward pause, "Sheena?"

"I've been contaminated. It's alright."

"Contaminated?"

There was another long pause, "Level two experiments can contaminate others. I've already began mutating." She sighed, "I've gained a lot of strength from this. I thought I lost my mind until you called my name."

Leon chuckled and then groaned at the pain at his ribs, "I've been contaminated too."

"It's a blessing in disguise. Your wounds will heal a lot faster." Sheena looked around in the darkness. Her eyes had adapted from the contamination and allowed her to see clearly in the dark, "You chopped down a lot of experiments here. The rest are sleeping now. You did a lot better job than what I did." She turned to look at Leon, "Marian, who's Marian? You kept saying her name."

Leon sighed and stretched out on the floor, "She was my former girlfriend. My father took me away from her when I was little. I never saw her again."

"Your father is a bit of an ass, isn't he?" There was another long pause. Sheena chuckled, "It was just a joke." Leon stayed quiet, "Are you alright…?"

"It was her birthday…" He whispered, "The day he took me away…it was her birthday. I cried a day after I left. And ever since then, my father made me swear never to show such weakness…so I never did."

He blocked those memories from his mind. Or, more appropriately, his father blocked them from his mind. While they were always in the back of his head, he never looked back at them until now. Until the day he saw Sheena, the person that reminded him so much of Marian. Those memories fixed in his mind relit and plagued his thoughts. In front of the others, he couldn't cry. That would show weakness to those around him. To himself, he couldn't cry. That would show weakness to his being.

But, in the shadows where he could not see himself or see anyone around him, he began crying. Sheena paused, looking at this pathetic form. Taking pity on him, she lifted him up gently and took him in her arms.

Expecting words of nurture and comfort, Leon's instinct kicked in and waited to block out her words. It was a mechanism in his mind that was there since he was born. He wouldn't let anyone take pity on him no matter how he felt.

"Pull yourself together." Sheena hissed in a tone that wasn't quite kind but wasn't quite cruel, "So it was sad, so what? It has already happened. Cry, cry for now, a child has to cry to lessen the pain of wounds, and then get back up. No matter how much it hurt you, it is just a scar now. Even if the scar never fades, it can't do anymore."

Those words were harsh enough to penetrate his mind and kind enough to touch his heart. It was a feeling Leon hadn't felt in a long, long time. His bravado that built up over the years never let anything kind or sweet touch his heart.

"Sheena…" He whispered as he felt another long-lost sensation in his heart.

There was a short silence between the two as Leon simmered his emotions. Breaking the mood that had been forced upon himself, he looked to Sheena with a question, "Why are you here? Why do you want to steal these experiments?"

"I come from the Fujibayashi clan. Back in the past, far before anything was invented, we worshipped natural summon spirits like gods. Now, times have changed. Summons spirits can be manufactured. I'm one of the last descendants of the Fujibayashi clan. And this...this manufacturing of summon spirits...I can't stand it."

"I see..." Leon whispered, feeling the passion coming from her voice. It was a passion he rarely felt. It was a passion he'd want to feel more and more.

His peace was interrupted by searing pain erupting from his body. He screamed and fell away from Sheena, his body withering in pain.

"You've reached the next evolution…" She muttered quickly as she picked him up, "Come on. We have to leave now."

Fighting the pain that tore apart his mind, Leon nodded, "Alright…"

It didn't take long for the two to break into the level one section where it was safe. They two began their walk to the exit, following the lights on the ground. At that moment, Leon noticed the mutations that had already occurred. He looked at the scaly patches of skin on his arms and legs. On his two feet, he felt the extra weight of hard flesh forming on his back. Feeling his cheek gently, he felt more scale-like skin.

Sheena's mutation had gone even further than his. Her body no longer seemed human at all since it was covered in flesh-like plates and pieces. Her hair flared out at the back with two fleshy horns at the top. Her face still maintained a human appearance but had large veins bulging out from the sides. On her back was a pair of limp, fleshy wings that were coated in dried, black blood.

"I didn't notice…" Leon whispered as he examined Sheena closely, "…you were already mutated." He then looked at himself after.

Sheena looked to him with a melancholic expression, "It was dark. It's natural."

"…it's too late, isn't it?"

Sheena said nothing in return. They walked out of the level one section and over to the exit hatch. With little to no effort, Leon tore it open and stepped out. Staring at his hands, he swallowed, "This much change…already?"

"Yeah, but, your original body is still intact, yes?" Sheena asked. Leon pondered dumbly, not knowing what to say, "You don't understand, do you? It's alright." She brushed off the dirt on what was left of her clothes, "Once 'that' happens, you'll understand."

Collecting himself and his plan again, Leon gasped in realization. His eyes darted back and forth in panic, "Luke…where's Luke!"

Luke was supposed to have a little piece in this about his meeting with Barbatos but somehow, the whole Leon and Sheena thing just kept going. I promise the next chapter will have more Luke!