The True Journey Home

I have recently discovered just how busy and stressed I will be for the next six weeks. Usually in order to relieve my stress I write, but I don't have the time to write that much anymore. What I'm trying to say is I cannot guarantee regular updates for the next six weeks. I will try to update as much as possible, but I make no promises for how many. Once summer comes though, I can promise the updates should dramatically increase. Sorry for the delay for this chapter by the way.

Thank you all for your patience and your support for my last chapter. By the way, Angel Sorano (and anyone else who cares) I am by no means friends with my English teacher. :) I was actually caught making faces at her during state exams today O:)…I know, how incredibly mature….

Please Read and Review, it really does make my day.

By the way there is a flashback scene in this chapter and it is in italics, the thoughts are then in bold italics.

"C'mon Leon, tell us about who you used to be!" Sora begged for probably the fiftieth time since they had started traveling two days before.

"He's not going to relent you know," Kairi said as she tried to sleep on a chair in the cockpit.

Leon stared at the universal map, searching for a way to distract the easily distracted Sora.

"Please Leon! I don't know anything about your past!" Leon still didn't say anything so Sora offered, "If you tell me something about your past, I'll tell you something about me."

"I don't care Sora."

"That hurts Leon."

"I know more about who you are and your past than I ever would wish to, I really don't care about anything else."

"Fine. Be a jerk and keep us in the dark about your past even though we gave up our perfectly normal lives to help you."

Leon sighed, "I guess I'll tell you a little."

"Yes!" Sora shouted excitedly.

Kairi opened her eyes and changed positions in her seat so she could better pay attention to Leon's tale as well.

Leon began, "When I was 17 I was studying to become a SeeD, an elite mercenary force. My school's name was Balamb Garden and my bitter rival was Seifer Almasy."

Neither Sora nor Kairi wanted to interrupt and ruin the rare moment of Leon opening up.

Leon closed his eyes and let the memories come over him. He continued, "I didn't have friends because I didn't want to rely on people. When I was younger the one person I had depended on, Ellone, left, so I thought all others would too. I was a cold jerk to everyone. One day Seifer cut me across the face and I passed out after I returned the favor. One of my instructors, Quistis Trepe, came and got me out of the infirmary. That day was my final exam to gain SeeDhood. I was placed on a team with Zell Dincht and Seifer. Later, Selphie Tilmitt joined us. We went to a city named Dollet that was being invaded by Galbadian forces. Selphie, Zell, and I fought on top of a radio tower and were chased by a giant machine back to our boats. We passed the exam while Seifer failed. That night there was a party for all the SeeD graduates. At one point I glanced up to the sky," Leon paused as the memory of the ball came back to him in full force. His voice took on a dreamy tone as one of his fondest memories washed over him, "And a shooting star went by. I looked down and in front of me was a girl. She simply pointed up to the sky and then walked over to me. After a few minutes of begging she and I danced…I didn't see her for the rest of the night. The day after Zell, Selphie, and I got our first mission. We were to assist a resistance movement called the Timber Owls. They were resisting Galbadian occupation in Timber. I was told to wake up the "princess" and was warned she was grumpy when woken up. I went to her room only to see the girl from the night before, Rinoa."

Leon smiled a little before continuing, "We didn't get along at first. I was too harsh, she didn't think things through enough. I was too cold, she was too passionate… Eventually Seifer, who it turned out was Rinoa's ex-boyfriend, teamed up with the sorceress. Selphie, Quisitis, Zell, Rinoa, and I teamed up with Irvine Kinneas to fight the sorceress. Rinoa and I started to grow closer and everyone wanted us together, but I was too stubborn to let anyone get truly close to me, I was too scared they would disappear…so no matter how hard they tried, I pushed them all away."

"Until?" Kairi asked, knowing a change was coming right around the corner.

"Until Galbadia Garden, with the sorceress and Seifer on board, came to fight us. It was an extremely rough battle, but we "won" it. The sorceress returned to her normal kind state as Edea Kramer…But Rinoa was left unconscious. For someone who rarely showed emotion, I showed a lot of it during those days. Everyone knew all I could think about was Rinoa even though we were facing a huge crisis. A sorceress from the future named Ultimecia wanted to compress time and destroy everything by possessing current sorceresses and tracking down Ellone, who had the ability to send people to the past."

"What happened to Rinoa though?!" Sora asked.

"I felt like nobody understood the pain I was in, the suffering I was going through. So one day we were at a town that supposedly connected to the futuristic continent of Esthar. I hoped that in Esthar they could fix Rinoa. I left my friends that day, I abandoned the Garden I was responsible for."

Leon softly hit his seat with his fist. "It was irresponsible, I know that, but all I could think about was Rinoa. You're stronger than me Sora. No matter how hopeless things seemed, you always put your mission above your wants…."

"Leon…I didn't know how or where Kairi was, remember I didn't want to go at first, but you told me if I went with Donald and Goofy I would find her? Had Kairi been by me in a coma…I don't know what I would have done," Sora said sympathetically.

Leon continued on with his story without making a reply, "I confessed a lot of things to Rinoa's unconscious body, more than I ever would have…After a day of me carrying her on my back across the railroad tracks, my friends intercepted us.

"They knew exactly what I was planning…and they wanted to help. I'll never forget that. We made it to Esthar and met my father who told us the one who I thought could cure Rinoa, Ellone, was in space. So the unconscious Rinoa, one of my friends, and I went to space."

Leon stopped telling his story and looked out the window at space and remembered that troubling experience.

"What happened in space?" Kairi asked slowly.

"I found Ellone. I asked her to help me wake Rinoa up. She tried…but we were interrupted."

"C'mon Leon! What happened?" Sora asked, the curiosity and impatience written all over his face as Leon once again paused.

"We heard noises from a different part of the ship. I ran down to see the doctor in charge of Rinoa on the ground. Rinoa was awake, but she wasn't herself. I couldn't even get near her without being thrown away. I chased her around the ship, except I couldn't stop her since I couldn't get close, no matter how hard I tried. She put on a space suit and went out into space by herself. She released a sorceress whom my father had frozen years before. With the release of Adel came the dropping of thousands of monsters from the moon down to the surface of my world. My friend, Ellone, and the head doctor shoved me into an escape pod and we flew away from the ship, leaving Rinoa by herself in the middle of space."

"What?! Leon! How could you?!" Sora shouted. The level of respect he felt for Leon suddenly dropping a few points.

"Sora, we're going to help Rinoa now, he obviously made up for it," Kairi pointed out. "Let him finish the story."

"I had Ellone show me Rinoa's recent past. I saw some of the things she had done, revealing how she felt about me. I saw when she passed out and I realized what had happened. After that I left the space pod against the head doctor's advice and against all odds of survival. I flew out into open space and managed to catch Rinoa. Somehow, we found an abandoned space ship and were able to get to it," Leon once again paused in his story.

Sora asked, "What happened on the ship?"

"Sora," Kairi started, demonstrating her perceptiveness, "I think that's a little personal."

"Huh?" Sora glanced between Leon, who was once again looking away, and Kairi. "Oh!" He exclaimed when he got the meaning.

"We got back to the planet and I had to rescue Rinoa, who it turned out had been possessed by Ultimecia the whole time, from getting the same fate Adel had had. We went back to my childhood home and made a promise. Afterwards all my friends and I realized that we had to compress time ourselves to get to Ultimecia's time and kick her ass. We got to her castle where she placed restrictions on us, but we were able to get our abilities back and face her. We won the fight…Except the victory was at a price."

Sora immediately responded, "What price was that?"

"When we compressed time, we knew there was a chance we wouldn't turn up in the right time together. We did get to Ultimecia's castle fine though. On the way back we didn't. Or well, I didn't. I got lost from everyone…including Rinoa."

"Is that how you got to Radiant Garden?"

"No. Actually, that's how I died…painfully," Leon answered. Unconsciously, he brought his hand over his shoulder to where the painful ice blade had once wounded him. He brought his head up and stared straight up at the ceiling just as he had when he died.

"You're dead!?" Sora exclaimed and jumped out of his seat.

"Rinoa used her new sorceress powers to locate me. She used her power, her love, and the power of the promise we had once made to bring us back to our time and place. She also managed to bring me back to life. I owe her everything."

"Aw Leon, that's so sweet," Kairi commented with a smile.

"The next two years were the happiest of my life. We were rebuilding our world to be a peaceful—and dull as hell—place. SeeD were no longer mercenaries, but protectors of the peace. I was with Rinoa, Irvine was with Selphie, Headmaster Cid was retiring and it was likely he would put me in charge of the Garden along with my job as Commander of SeeD unless I wanted to quit with Rinoa."

Sora interrupted, "The heartless ruined everything didn't they?"

Leon simply nodded.

"That's why you hate them so much."

Leon began to explain, "I was at a picnic with Rinoa, Selphie, and Irvine. I had heard rumors of a traitor in one of my friends, but I didn't honestly believe it. I had really grown to trust them and could see no true evil in any of them, no matter how hard I tried. The day was perfect…sunny, with a slight breeze…I was really happy….Irvine and I were planning to…"

"You were going to propose that day weren't you?" Kairi asked sadly after a brief silence.

"We had always promised to wait until things were perfect and I thought they were as perfect as they were going to get so I wanted to surprise her. I talked to Irvine about it and apparently he was thinking along the same lines. I was going to take Rinoa to a flower field and Irvine was going to take Selphie by the sea…"

"I'm sorry Leon," Sora said quietly to the man he really did admire more than most.

"We had just taken a picture of us four together. Rinoa was teasing me because I had actually smiled in the photo when I heard a voice in the nearby woods. I couldn't tell whose it was because they had used magic to conceal their voice. As soon as the person stopped talking these portals of darkness started to surround us…"

"Squall, what's going on?!" Irvine yelled as he pulled out his gun.

"I don't know." Of all the days for me to give Zell my gunblade to clean.

"What is that?!" Rinoa exclaimed as a small dark creature fell out of the portal and bounced on the ground several times.

Irvine fired his gun at it several times. As he was shooting he shouted, "Shoot first, ask questions later!" The only problem was: it took several shots for the small creature to die.

"You guys ready?" Rinoa asked while she readied her pinwheel with a smirk as she briefly touched Squall's hand.

Irvine and Squall simply nodded whereas Selphie shouted, "Let's do this!"

Squall pulled out a simple sword that he had taken with him that morning while Selphie pulled out her whip and Rinoa steadily aimed her pinwheel.

More small creatures with tentacle type things coming out of their heads began to fall out of the portals of darkness.

Four of the legendary SeeDs who had saved the world and all times launched themselves at the small creatures. They managed to destroy a few, but more began to appear along with new types and the group was soon overwhelmed.

"Irvine! Take Selphie and Rinoa and get out of here!" Squall ordered as a creature of the darkness dressed in a suit of armor launched a spinning move towards his face, which he barely dodged.

"No!" Irvine shouted as he fired a shot at the knight creature. "I'm not leaving you by yourself Squall, and I think Rinoa might kill me if I even attempt to," he added when he saw Rinoa brutally firing at a dark creature.

Squall brought his sword down onto the head of another knight creature and looked Irvine straight in the eye, sweat glistening off his forehead, "Protect her. I owe her my life and it means nothing if she isn't safe. If I go with you we might lead these creatures to Garden and that would be the worst thing since we know nothing about the creatures and their powers, I have responsibilities as the temporary headmaster and I can't put them over my selfish desires to remain with Rinoa.. Please Irvine, get yourself out of here with Selphie and Rinoa…and please…protect them and yourself with your life."

Irvine nodded and saluted Squall. "Take care Squall. I don't want to see Rinoa if you aren't back within an hour. Evil sorceresses and the monsters on the island closest to heaven don't scare me, but your girlfriend is another story."

Squall smiled a little, "I wouldn't want to see her either. I'll be back soon." Sooner if I had my gunblade.

"See you in awhile Squall!" Irvine shouted as he went to assist Selphie with the creature of darkness she was fighting.

Right by his left ear Squall heard the most magical voice, that had a rather scary tone to it at the second, "I'm not leaving Squall, I hope you know that."

"Rinoa," Squall said as he briefly grazed her arm with his hands. He turned around so he was facing her, "You have to, it's too dangerous for you three to stay."

"But it's not too dangerous for you? What happened to 'stay close to me'?"

"These things happened," Squall said as a creature of darkness tried to jump him from behind. He thrust his sword into its middle and it immediately evaporated. "Rinoa, I'll be back, but we can't lead these to Garden. How about you to go to Garden, fly to the Ragnarok, and then pick me up? Does that work for you?"

"No. Make Selphie and Irvine do that."

"Please Rinoa. I'll make it up to you later."

Rinoa smiled seductively and took a step closer to Squall, "Oh you will, will you? And just how are you planning on making it up to me?"

"I'll take you to the training center and we'll fight T-Rexaurs."

Rinoa sighed, "You really are clueless sometimes Squall." She looked around and was grateful the only creature of the dark was by Irvine and Selphie, keeping them harmlessly preoccupied. Rinoa took a step forward and took Squall's hands, "You'll be here right?"

Squall smiled one of his rare smiles, "I promise. I'll be here waiting…"

"For what?"

"For you. So if you come here, you'll find me. I promise."

Rinoa smiled, "I love you Squall Leonhart, you know that right?"

"Sometimes," Squall said seriously.

"You and your issues, here maybe this will prove it to you."

Rinoa stepped in close to Squall and placed her lips onto his. Their lips immediately began to work together in the middle of the battle. Squall could feel the worry through the kiss and it made him want to take Rinoa away from everything. He kissed her in a more caring and careful way than usual, hoping it reminded her how much he loved her.

It did.

"Hey! The fighting may have slowed, but it's still going on over here!" Irvine shouted loudly.

Suddenly a shiver of fear went through Rinoa. She had a feeling something bad was about to happen.

Rinoa leaned back into Squall for one last hug. "There's more of that for you tonight, you simply have to come safely home."

With that Rinoa ran towards Irvine and Selphie, dismissing her fear as she had learned to two years before. Fear only causes problems after all.

"Loverboy," Irvine called down, "there aren't any more creatures, you sure you want to stay here?"

Squall looked up at Irvine and nodded, "They'll be coming back soon. I know it."

Irvine shrugged his shoulders, "Your call."

He, Selphie, and Rinoa began their way back to Garden. When they had gotten about 250 feet away the black portals returned, more than ever. The voice Squall had heard earlier laughed loudly as Squall realized the portals were almost completely surrounding him. He did have a small window though to see the distant shapes of his three friends.

Creatures immediately started to jump out of the portals, some like the two types he had already faced, but others were different. He rapidly started swinging his sword and managed to destroy a few when he heard a loud yell.

Squall turned and stared at his friends who were now closer to him than they had been, with Rinoa being the closest. He saw Rinoa stop running towards him with a worried expression and look at the direction the yell came from. Squall saw a dark figure leap towards Selphie, but Irvine intercepted it. He deflected that creature with his gun, but he missed the one coming at him from the side. Its hands drawn like claws, it struck him directly on the face.

The piercing scream from Selphie caused the once again running form of Rinoa to stop and turn around. Irvine fell down to the ground, his hand over his eye as Selphie suddenly pulled out her whip and violently destroyed the creature of darkness.

Squall tried to run towards his friends only to find several pairs of hands grab him. He resisted, but could not move his body let alone his sword arm. He was trapped.

"Let go of me!" He roared angrily, which caused Rinoa to tear her gaze from the collapsed silhouettes of Irvine and Selphie and stare at Squall.

The hands from the creatures didn't let go of him. Instead, they dragged Squall down into a portal of darkness that they had arrived through.

A high pitched laughter from one and an intense voice of pure anguish from another rang through the air, "SQUALL!!"

"The last thing I remember before waking up at Radiant Garden days later is the evil laughter right in my ear and the desperate look on Rinoa's face," Leon said as he finished his long account.

"Leon, I didn't know you had gone through so much," Sora said quietly.

"There are others who have been through more," Leon mumbled while he thought of Cloud and Aerith.

"We'll do whatever we can to help you," Kairi promised sincerely.

Sora nodded in agreement and asked, "Do you know anything about how your world is now?"

Leon ran a hand through his short red hair. It was taking a log of getting used to. "Whoever the traitor is, he or she still pretends to be one of my friends. The world is overrun by heartless, which were led to my planet by the darkness in the traitor's heart. The heartless are plentiful, but not necessarily strong. My planet, though, is in an alternate universe making it exceptionally difficult for those unfamiliar with the heartless to fight them because of the common fighting styles of my planet don't match up with those of the heartless."

"That's where we come in right?" Kairi said.

"Mass extermination service!" Sora shouted, pumping his fist.

"When we arrive at my world can you two do me a favor?" Leon asked.

"Yeah, what is it?" Sora replied without even considering saying no or even maybe.

"Make sure you call me Leon and not Squall."

"Of course Leon!" Sora exclaimed. "Though really you don't look like a Leon or a Squall right now with your bright red hair."

"Stop while you're ahead kid," Leon warned.

"Hey, what's you plan for fighting the heartless anyway?" Kairi asked from her seat.

"I thought of a new battle strategy, but I don't know how it will work," Leon said cautiously.

"What is it?"

"How good are you guys at separating from your nobodies?"

"This is it! Sora, Kairi, hang on tight!" Leon commanded as alarms started to blare throughout the ship.

Their gummi ship flew into a mass of debris and lightning flashes. Kairi felt herself be shaken several times, but she somehow managed to keep ahold of her seat. Sora wasn't so lucky.

Kairi's eyes widened when she saw Sora hit the wall of the ship, "Sora!" She screamed.

Leon swiftly launched himself out of his own safe seat through the air towards the unmoving, probably injured, Sora. The ship violently shook, but Leon managed to keep on his path and grab Sora. Leon held the teenager and swiftly landed on the ground as the ship shook fiercely once again. Leon felt the determination and adrenaline in his blood stream, it was almost as if he was 17 and running from XATMO92 again.

Leon rolled over as a small piece of equipment flew towards him and Sora, "Crap!" He yelled to no one in particular.

Leon managed to make his way across the floor without losing his balance to Sora's seat and he strapped the boy tightly in. He glanced him over and noticed a small gash on his forehead.

"Will he be alright?" Kairi shouted over the noise to Leon from the seat behind Sora.

"He has a cut that's pretty deep, but it's small. He'll be fine once he wakes up!" Leon shouted.

He fell over to the ground as the gummi ship violently rocked again.

Leon glared and raidly got up off the ground. He made his way back to the pilot's seat without any more trouble. Once he was strapped in was another story.

The ship was getting hit by lightning more frequently and shaking more violently than ever, but they weren't even halfway through the gap. Leon shook his head and whispered to himself, "What have I gotten these kids in to?"

He started pounding on the controls, hoping against hope that something would save them. All of a sudden he felt an odd sensation on his body. He felt as if he was being stretched then compressed then stretched again.

He heard Kairi scream in the background, but it sounded distant and odd. A ringing sensation in his ears soon replaced her scream.

The ship around Leon began to swirl and he closed his eyes. Behind his eyelids he saw Rinoa, a small smile on her face as she pointed upwards to the starry sky. Leon smiled himself and ignored his confusing surroundings.

Down on Squall's planet, all was quiet on the Ragnarok. Everyone but Selphie, who was manning the controls, was asleep on the ship. Not one of them expected any sort of good news in the world, and more specifically, Rinoa's case. Actually, they were half-expecting her to be possessed by Ultimecia again, only this time there would be no Squall to save her.

The only sound on the ship was the occasional turn on the steering wheel and Zell's snores.

On the Ragnarok that evening, all was quiet, all was dark, and all was hopeless.

In that time of silence, that time of darkness, that time of hopelessness, Rinoa's eyes snapped open with an intensity that had not been seen on the Ragnarok in many years.

She bolted so she was sitting up straight and felt a familiar, but distant presence.

"He's back," was all she could whisper.

As soon as it came, the odd sensation disappeared. Leon came to his senses and glanced around.

Sora and Kairi were both on the floor, passed out cold. Leon walked towards them and felt their breath, they were both breathing evenly. He gave a sigh of relief that they were okay, he wasn't responsible for their deaths.

Leon noticed that Sora's cut had somehow disappeared from above his eye. Leon looked down at the ship's floor and realized this wasn't the gummi ship Cid had built for them.

"The hell?" He asked himself. Leon stood up and looked out the window of their new ship. His face broke into one of his rare involuntary smiles.

Down below was his planet, his world. Down below was Rinoa.

He was finally home.