Chapter 2.4: Prelude to a Storm – Renzokuken

He woke when one of the vases on the mantel of the fireplace crashed to the ground. Squall bolted upright, eyes flashing around before he felt another tremor. There had been earthquakes in Radiant Garden before, and even more back in Balamb. But he usually slept right through them. And they were never strong enough to shake things from the shelves.

Squall was about to lie back down to sleep again when he took a deep breath and smelled burning. And not burning houses. It was a scent he hoped never to come across while he was stuck in this place. Burning bodies. People were dying.

Squall climbed quickly out of bed, nearly falling to the ground and injuring himself as his legs tangled in the sheets. He stumbled to the window, flinging open the curtains as best as he was able, eyes widening. Radiant Garden was aflame. As he watched, something bright and hot shot up into the air, towards the gorge before it exploded. And then he saw them. Swarming, black things, plastering themselves to the walls as they advanced on the city.

Terror gripped him. Primal, instinctive overwhelming terror, something he hadn't felt since he was seventeen. Since he almost got torn to pieces by a robotic monstrosity, killed by a psychotic woman throwing icicles, tortured and escaped from prison. Since he fell through time and space to confront an evil he still had a hard time even thinking the name of. But mostly since he looked to the sky and had seen missiles rushing towards them, towards his home, exploding in bright lights and powerful shockwaves.

Hopelessness filled him, like the sun just exploded and there was nothing to stop it. Death was coming. And it was coming swiftly.

Squall pulled away from the window, stumbling backwards towards the bed. There wasn't enough time to get dressed, but he pulled his boots on, lacing them tightly and efficiently. He grabbed his jacket from his closet, zipping it up as he mentally worked through his GF's junctions. Everything seemed to be in order, but he had no idea what he was facing so he focused on bolstering his strength and defensive capabilities. He grabbed his gunblade and opened the door.

He stumbled out into the hall, nearly tripping over a toppled suit of armor. Quickly regaining his balance, he set out for the stairs at the end of the hall. Though he could hear the noise of death (and yes, death has a noise, a soundtrack he heard all of his life before being marooned here), he saw no one in the castle as he darted down halls, glancing in through the doors. Upon reaching the staircase he found half of it in ruins and the other tenuous at best. How had he managed to sleep through that?

He jumped the rail instead of braving the stairs, catching himself on the edge of the balcony and lowering himself down until it was safe to drop. The lights were flickering and he could not see well below him but he trusted that the floor remained.

The floor was there all right. His foot slid ominously as his nostrils filled with the scent of blood. He looked down as the lights flickered back on. One of the servants had been caught in the collapse of the stairs, vacantly staring up at the ceiling. He knelt down and closed their eyes, before noticing something strange down on his current eye level. Claw marks. Large ones, etched into the supports of the stairs.

A chill settled in the base of his spine but he ignored it, especially when it started to creep up his neck. He rose, quietly moving now. Silence was preferable to speed anyway. He made his way to the front door, pulling it open, dashing outside when he heard movement behind him. He had no time for minor monsters. He needed to know what was going on.

Squall stumbled out into the road to the city, sprinting down the path through the gardens. There was a scream from around the bend so he sped up, pulling out his gunblade with practiced ease. For all the fear coursing through his veins, it would be good to fight again.

He skidded around the corner, gunblade at the ready. And then he saw it.

It was huge, over twice his size, black with a huge sword standing over a woman, who continued screaming uselessly. After a moment's thought, Squall dashed over to the side, using the path's unevenness to gain extra height. With a flying jump, he brought the gunblade down hard across the thing's neck. He felt it give and cut, taking the head off in one clean swipe. He landed roughly, dropping to his knees to roll out of the fall. He turned and grabbed the still uselessly screaming woman's wrist, dragging her to her feet and shoving her towards the city. He didn't look back on the fallen beast.

He almost made it to the city when he heard a scuffling noise behind him. Squall stopped, watching the woman get safely up the steps before turning slowly, eyes scanning the canyon path.

Everything was still except for the shadows. They continually shifted, casting strange shapes. Firelight made you see things, jump in the night. The scuffling noise came again, this time to the left. He whirled gunblade raised to strike but found nothing but stone walls and darkness.

He swallowed thickly, heart racing. Maybe it was rats and he was jumping at shadows. For a moment something flickered, like it did whenever he got a flash of a memory, ones that his GFs took from the space they occupied. A cave or something, with a door. A strong hand wrapped around his wrist as they ran from something in the dark.

Sei-

Something moved beneath his feet. Under them. Squall pulled back from the memories and jumped backwards, gunblade pointed at the ground. Nothing. Just dancing shadows. Nothing nothingnoth-UNHOLY FUCKING HYNE!

Squall screamed, stumbling back as something rose from the ground, twisting in the firelight. Shadows rising with glowing eyes. His could feel his eyes widen as he took another breath to scream again, eyes seeing all the shadows and the new lights gathered among them. Unholy Hyne.

In a panic he slashed out at one of them, feeling it give and crumple. He swung on another but it sank back down, dancing along the surface of the earth. A glimmer caught his eye and he found himself frozen, watching something emerge from the fallen creatures. A… A heart.

It glowed bright and hot, rising up from the disintegrating body into the night sky. And then it vanished into what he assumed was the mouth of one of the beasts, which quickly grew in size.

"Cannibals," Squall muttered to himself in a giggle filled panic. He swung his gunblade again, hitting air as the creature dropped down into the shadows beneath him. Panic was singing through his veins now, in a way he could never remember experiencing before. Right now, screaming sounded like the best idea in the world. So he did, and not a moment too soon as one of the creatures leapt at him, grasping him with claws and pulling him to the ground.

His gunblade fell from his hand as he thrashed, trying to throw it off him as he felt others sink their claws into him, pulling at him. His screaming got louder, and he knew if he kept it up much longer he would wreck his vocal cords for days. That made his screams higher, more hysterical as he realized he probably only had minutes left to live. And then he would die, for real this time, not the half deaths before he was dragged back to the world of the living by a phoenix down or a life magic. He was going to die.

And then the creature poised on his chest stopped clawing at him. He continued to scream but he felt it shift, a change in the air as the creature looked down at him through strange glowing eyes, one of its paws over his furiously beating heart. The others kept clawing, scraping at him and at each other for dominance, slipping over and under and around him in their shadowed form, ignoring his screams and cries and thrashing limbs. The still one however just looked at him, eyes glowing marbles but it looked, watching him gasp for air to scream with, sweat and cry and fear. And then it leaned forward, opening what he guessed was a mouth. Squall's vocal cords were starting to strain, crumple under his useless screams.

And then it did something he did not expect. It licked him. Or something close. One large swipe of something cold and almost wet across the side of his face. Squall stopped screaming for a moment as it pulled back, still looking at him. It made a noise then, halfway between a coo and a trill before it slithered away into the darkness, leaving it's still clawing brethren to finish him off. And then they swarmed.

Teeth bit into his arms, claws tore into his legs and his throat hurt. His vision was blurring under the weight of sweat and tears and his heart was aching. And then there was a sound that he knew far too well, the sound of metal cutting the air.

He felt the claws get torn from him as the creatures fled, leaving him gasping and crying and bleeding on the canyon floor.

"Squall?" A hand landed on his shoulder, causing another scream to tear itself from his throat.

"Shit…" someone leaned over him from the other side. "Squall?"

Zack… Zack was here. Kneeling next to him and holding out his hand.

"Squall we need to get to the city. It's more defensible there. Can you stand?" Squall took a few breaths to calm himself, ease the noises that were clawing out of his throat before he nodded, grasping Zack's hand.

Zach pulled him to his feet and Squall felt a hand on his back to help him steady himself. Looking back he caught sight of Cloud, looking sleep rumpled in fleece pajamas with a chocobo on the shirt, wide blue eyes looking down at him with worry. His gunblade was pressed into his hand, and he grasped it, feeling safer the moment it was returned to him. He looked at Zack then, clad only in cut off sweats, large sword strapped to his back.

Squall's legs were shaking but he stood, gasping. Cloud ducked under his arm, holding him up, whispering in his ear. "Hey, you're okay. Let's get you inside."

He wasn't okay. One of those things had… looked at him. Looked in him and seen something that made it decide to run away from him.

Cloud started to lead him back into the city, which was more difficult than it should have been as Squall was now leaping at shadows. Cloud held him close though, cradled against him.

They got to a house and opened the door, taking him inside. Aerith was standing next to the door in a long pink nightgown, eyes wide in the light of the burning city. Inside were also Cid, the local jack of all trades and a little girl with black hair that he recognized but couldn't recall the name of. Cid was reaching up to twist something on a… Oh… not a house. A hanger.

The ship was blocky, almost awkward but Squall wasn't going to complain.

Cid looked like he never went to bed, still dressed and grease smudged. Tifa was closing the door behind them, in an oversize t-shirt and shorts.

"Wha-… what were those things?" Squall's voice isn't as strong as he wanted it to be but he had expected this particular weakness.

That was the wrong question to ask as everyone exchanged a look. Cloud's touch became cautious and gentle, coddling, and Zack was also touching him now. Bad question to ask.

"Monsters," Cid said turning to give him an odd look. "Didn't they have them back where you come from?"

Squall started to laugh, causing Cloud's hold on him to tighten. "Monsters? Of the non-human variety? Yes, we had those. If you kept to the cities and roads they wouldn't bother you. But our monsters had teeth and claws. They were animals, not shadows. But why are we even talking about this? What about the people out there?"

"There aren't many left. Most of the ships have evacuated the city." Cid answered gesturing vaguely to encompass the rest of the population of Radiant Garden.

"Then why are you still here?" Squall asked, twisting away from the others, walking over to Cid, much more steady then he felt.

"Well we couldn't damn well leave you here," Cid replied gruffly.

"Has… Where are the adults?"

"Most have left with their families." Tifa answered, carefully avoiding mentioning what happened to the rest.

"No, I mean what happened to Xehanort and the others? They have been working on something in the lab, some sort of machine. They never let me in far enough into the labs to get a good look but I heard it… It powered on like a weapon." Squall said, hesitating slightly and bracing himself.

"What do you mean 'powered on like a weapon'?" And Zack doesn't fail him, latching onto the one part of the statement that seemed out of place and difficult for Squall to explain.

"You know I come from a very different place. And have done some very different things. I know what a device that can level a city sounds like when it turns on. And that is what it sounded like."

"Destroy cities?" Cloud sounded part horrified and part curious.

"Worlds, whatever. Large and whiny in either case, but may suit our purpose."

Tifa stared at him in horror. "You want to destroy Radiant Garden?"

"No, I want to have that as a last resort. But it would be nice to threaten those… things with something."

"You saw them, you can't threaten something like that." Cloud said slowly, gesturing out the partially covered window towards the burning town.

"You can threaten anything," Squall muttered, turning around and heading back to the door.

"Where are you going?" Zack protested, stepping in front of the door.

"Where are your shoes?" Squall questioned back, looking down at Zack's feet.

"I… I just kind of-"

"I am the person here with the most real combat experience."

"Says the guys screaming ten minutes ago," Zack muttered.

"They surprised me. And they are probably the most terrifying thing I have encountered since I arrived here, and they rank in my top three for things I have seen in my life that scare me. Doesn't stop the fact that someone has to go find the adults and someone has to go try to rescue as many people as possible. I know the way to the lab. I am going there. And you all will just slow me down."

Cid turned from the ship, eyes leveled on him. He and Squall were both capable of seeing the destruction outside. Both mature enough to realize already that life in Radiant Garden was over. It was time to run.

"We'll be ready to leave in three hours. You be here, or we leave you." Cid said calmly. Squall held his gaze for a moment longer before saluting with a small smile.

"Yes sir. And if I don't-"

"You'll be back," Cloud said with conviction.

"We'll leave. And I'll take care of them. Someone's gotta be the adult." Cid answered, ignoring Cloud's interruption.

"Thanks," Squall said before turning to Zack.

"Try to find as many people as you can and get them out. Make a dent."

"But-"

"Get everyone out of here if you can. If I do end up blowing the place, I would like to do so with as few innocent lives on my soul as possible," Squall checked his weapons before heading back towards the door, Zack and Cloud trailing after him.

"Are you ready?" Zack asked Cloud, slight smile trying to cover up his fear.

"No, but it doesn't really matter does it?"

"Three hours," Cid yelled as Squall pulled open the door and stepped outside.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

There were no monsters in the immediate vicinity.

That was the first of two surprises the next minute or so held in store for Squall Leonhart. He really expected them to be swarming the village by now.

The second surprise came a moment later, when he stopped looking suspiciously confused at the surroundings. He turned to give Zack and Cloud orders when he felt warm hands clasp the back of his neck and pull him forward against Cloud.

Cloud pressed their lips together quickly before pulling just as quickly away, blushing furiously.

"Uh…." So Squall wasn't used to being surprised kissed. Regardless of how many times it happened to him. Really wasn't used to it.

"WATCH OUT!" Zack pulled him out of the way as he swung his massive sword down on a stray shadow that had been creeping towards Squall's shoes.

"Sorry," Cloud muttered.

"Sorry? What did you do that for?" Squall's voice was a bit higher than usual. He wasn't used to being surprised kissed.

"I just thought… if I never see you again… you know. Good bye and… stuff," Cloud muttered, blush deepening. Squall gawked at him.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Do your damn job," Squall huffed, turning on his heel and stomping off.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The castle was totally dark. Squall hesitated outside for a moment and wondered idly if maybe he should go back for someone as back up. He dismissed the idea as soon as he had it. Zack and Cloud were already gone, and even if they weren't, he couldn't count on them to move quietly. Especially Zack.

So he was alone, in front of a massive dark castle, about to go into it alone, without backup and did he mention alone? He cursed under his breath, stripping off his shirt and replacing his jacket. He shredded the shirt, tying a loop around his gunblade hilt, attaching it to his wrist. Last thing he wanted was to lose it in the dark. He then tied a strap to the flashlight he'd snatched from Cid, tying it to the waist of his pants.

The door was just as intimidating as it was before this preparation.

"Fantastic…" he whispered before easing the door open, clicking the flashlight on. The faint light made it possible to distinguish shapes, like the overturned table and the now fallen chandelier. He stepped inside, easing the door shut behind him. He slipped along the wall, heading towards the lab entrance. He was vaguely reminded of the forests back home. Dark, silent except for the disturbing noises that heralded your death and you never heard the monster behind you until it was literally about to bite your arm off. This was a dark train of thought. Maybe he should avoid those when in a dark place.

There was a boom from beneath him and the floor rippled. Squall planted his feet and waited out the tremor, hoping the roof wouldn't collapse on him or that the floor wouldn't fall out from under him. Squall would have to consider his new found pessimism later. He had always thought of himself as a realist before.

He reached the door and shined the flashlight down on it. It had been ripped off its hinges, twisted out of the frame. And it had been pushed out. Squall swore loudly in his head. There was a monster loose in the castle, strong enough to rip reinforced doors off their hinges. And it had originated in the basement. Today was not his day.

He pressed his back against the wall, watching the room as best he could in the low light. And he started to adjust his junctions for the situation. Alert was the first thing he junctioned, feeling his GFs start to rearrange for defense, Cerberus pushing forward, his three voices overlapping in murmured advice. No back attacks. He then junctioned encounter reducers, uncertain if they would work but it wasn't like they could hurt at all.

His GFs grew impatient as he waited another moment after everything settled. Squall grit his teeth and then moved quickly through the doorway, dashing off in the direction he knew the labs were. There was one tenuous moment where he slipped on something he didn't stop to ponder, but other than that, the only monsters he encountered were figments of his over active imagination.

The lights were flickering in the labs. The setup for the security system was sparking, a huge spike shoved through the center of it. The labs were empty, but the grind of the machines was still loud, a clanging unnerving sound.

"Xehanort," he called, hating the fear that shook his voice. "You here?"

Cerberus roared in his head and he spun around just in time to raise his arms to protect his face. The ice covered his arms, causing his shoulder to cramp in agony before it shattered, pieces flying off to cut his face. He slowly lowered his arms, eyes finding his attacker.

Xehanort.

Relief flooded him for a moment before he caught sight of what was clutched in Xehanort's hand, something large and black with sharp edges, shaped kind of like a… key. His body worked faster than his brain, stepping back. Xehanort had attacked him. Squall turned his gaze to Xehanort's face, where a disturbing, detached smile rested.

It was hard to breathe, and for a moment he was somewhere else, watching from a crowd as something went past him, something that made him feel like this, like he was being ripped apart. A new emotion began to settle in his bones, one that burned hot, took away what remained of the air and left him empty. Fury.

Betrayal. This is what betrayal felt like. He remembered this emotion well enough.

He didn't have a chance to raise his gunblade to attack when Xehanort rammed into him, sending him flying back across the lab to hit one of the windows. The reinforcement prevented it from shattering completely, which dimly Squall was grateful for as he slid to the ground inside the control room.

He tried to get to his feet but before he managed there was a bright light, almost blinding and a noise that could only be described as agonizingly painful. He couldn't hear the explosions, but he felt them, felt the world tremble beneath him.

And then something landed on him, and darkness fell.

He wasn't sure how long he was out, but when he opened his eyes the emergency lighting was on, turning the room a dull orange and there was something burning close by. And he was not alone.

He struggled to lift his head.

There were two Xehanort's. No. Three, but that was a reflection so maybe there were only two, or maybe only one. Squall shook his head, trying to clear it, trying to focus.

No. Definitely two. They were talking to each other. And they were looking at him.

"Such a pity," said the one on the left. "He would be a fascinating test subject if he wasn't dying."

Squall did a mental inventory check. He didn't feel like he was dying. Injured, possibly dying if given time, but not dying right now. He knew what dying felt like, had felt it on the Deling street as the ice melted under him and inside of him. This is not what death felt like.

"Agreed," said the one on the right. "Though not pertinent to my goals."

"Though pertinent to mine. Which means we find ourselves at a parting of the ways, you and I," the one on the left said, the one that looked older, less like Xehanort, more like someone else.

"So it seems. Shall we come to an agreement, since both of our plans may take years to come to fruition," the other said, looking more like Xehanort.

"You don't interfere with my plans…" Lefty said.

"And you don't interfere with mine," finished Righty. Squall felt his head get heavier, but he fought to stay awake. This was important somehow, even if he didn't know why.

"Agree?"

"Agreed." The two of them shook hands and Squall felt vaguely like two magnets had been placed with similar poles close to one another, a vague sense of being repelled by the universe. Two things touching that were never meant to touch like this.

The two reflections let go of one another. Each turning away and walking towards a pool of darkness.

The reflection in the mirror stayed though. Squall looked at it, and it looked back before the cracks in the mirror became too much for it to bear and it collapsed in on itself.

Squall was alone now.

He tried futilely to move the weight off of him. The fire was creeping closer and he was having difficulty staying awake. His legs felt warm and wet, and what didn't smell of fire smelled of iron, which meant he was bleeding, heavily.

Dying, no, but would be if he didn't get out of here soon.

Panic fluttered through him for a moment before he reigned it in. He had to think, had to figure out how to change the leverage, how to get free.

The answer didn't come from him, but rather from inside him. And it was so obvious he felt stupid for missing it.

He closed his eyes, focused, and summoned Griever.

Griever was a trump card of his, a GF that he had taken from Ultimecia at the end of space and time. Few people knew of its existence, and given that he was alone here, he was probably the only one. Griever was unique, capable of being outside of Squall, capable of blending in, and looked terrifyingly like the man Squall used to be.

Griever's eyes were red though, unnervingly still in the firelight. He wore the clothes that no longer fit Squall, the belts, the fur and the gloves.

"Got us in a mess then?" Griever's voice was a growl as he knelt down to pick up whatever kept Squall pinned, throwing it across the room. "We best leave before the monsters come back."

Squall remembers nodding in agreement, remembers feeling dizzy as he became aware of his legs again, and the next thing he knew, he was outside, Griever setting him down on the ground outside the palace doors.

"Can you bring me back?" he dimly heard Greiver ask before he tilted sideways and threw up. "Guess not."

Griever looked up, obviously hearing something over the fire raging throughout the town.

"I have to go. We'll meet again," Griever patted him on the head, wings sprouting from his back before he leapt into the air, out of sight into the dark sky. Squall watched him leave, dimly aware of someone else approaching.

"Squall?" and Zack was there, in his face, pulling him up to his feet. "Squall we have to leave." He felt someone take a hold of him from the other side, probably Cloud, but he didn't care enough to look.

He flittered on the edge of consciousness, only coming back when he felt something soft under his back and warmth travelling up his legs. He opened his eyes to see Aerith hovering over him.

"What?" He muttered, pushing himself up. He was on Cid's ship, on one of the bunks. "We left yet?"

Aerith shook her head, looking scared. "There is something hanging onto the ship… We… we can't take off."

Squall climbed out of bed, gently pushing away Aerith's hands as she tried to guide him back down. "The ship needs to take off," he muttered, stumbling over to the door, grabbing his gunblade from where it rested against the wall.

"I got him Aerith," Zack stepped next to him, steadying him with a hand on his arm. "I don't suppose I can talk you out of your suicide run?" he asked quietly as they made their way towards the hatch.

"No."

"Well," they stopped outside the hatch. "For luck then," Zack said with a cocky smile, and Squall's reflexes were too dulled to dodge the mocking kiss to his cheek.

And then he was hit on the head.

Squall crumpled to the ground, head pounding, and watched, unable to move, as Zack walked over to the hatch and opened it.

"You don't always have to be the hero," he said with a smile over his shoulder at Squall before it faded. "Sorry."

And then Zack was gone out into the night.

AN: In case you missed it, the two people in the basement are Xemnas and KH1 Ansem. This actually is relevant, so we wanted to make sure everyone got that.