The Quest: In the Name of Friendship

by UkyoRafa

COMPLETE! A story about friends who are separated by the dark menace of the Heartless, and about their struggle against this dark force. Will they ever meet each other again? Crossover KH, Ranma 12, Final Fantasy VII, Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, etc...

25. Chapter TwentyFour: The Test of Time Beg...

Hey, guys.

First of all, I'd like to apologize for taking so long to post this new chapter. I finally made it through the second semester and got some free time in my hands. I'm really sorry that so much time passed, but college really kept me busy these last months. Anyway, I'll do my best to go as far in the story as I can these vacations.

Okay, now I'll explain how these and the following chapters will work. There are going to be multiple narrators per chapter, each one will narrate the battle in the house that he or she is in. I'll put the name of the narrator at the beginning of the scene so you won't get lost.

I was planning on just doing about three chapters for the Sanctuary of the Saints, but if I put them all together, you'll never finish reading even one of them 'cause they would turn out so long... So I'll have to modify my plans a bit. Either way, you don't have to worry too much. :)

Well, that's about it this time. Hope you guys enjoy the following chapters. And once again, I'm really sorry for taking such a sweet time.

Chapter Twenty-Four: The Test of Time Begins

Shaka's voice echoes in the golden saints' minds...

"I have spoken to Buda. There is, indeed, a grave danger lurking near; it attempts to dim the lights of Athena's Sanctuary forever. We may not have managed to save Athena from the dark creatures, but we won't let them take over the Sanctuary!

"Raise your heads for a moment, golden and bronze saints, and all of you, brave warriors. Behold the clock tower! Its fire lives once more, and it burns as fiercely as it did last time. This will be yet another test of time for us all, but rather than speed, we will need endurance to be on our side. This time, we will all have to defend our ground against terrible enemies for twelve hours. Then, and only then will the forces of those without a heart will vanish...

"An army marches to the houses. They are great in number, but not in force. Eradicate the shadows quickly, for a fouler evil is being marshaled... There are twelve shades that will prove to be terrible enemies. Their number matches that of the houses, and this is because each foe is a dark clone of us. Buda told me that each of these creatures will appear in a house once its fire has died, so be wary. The battles between golden saints are bound to last one – hundred – thousand years, but our allies and their army will change this... for the best, I hope.

"Stand your ground knights, and let's hope Athena's blessing falls on us..."

Aries: Cid

"Could you run that by me again?" I asked Mu, because I hadn't (or didn't want) completely understood what he just had said. "Shaka spoke to you through telepathy... and he said, what?"

"We're going to fight against golden saints." Leon, my only companion at that time, said, none too happy about the situation, I guessed. "Which is, so to speak, not a very good incentive for us to stay here. But, whatever. Bring them on, already."

"I know you aren't too happy about this situation." Mu said. "Believe me, this doesn't make me glad, either. But in order to gain control of the Sanctuary, in order to get rid of the Heartless, we must defeat the dark golden saints. It's either their skin, or ours."

"Actually, the part that bothers me the most is that we'll be fighting during twelve hours straight." I declared. Put yourselves in my place. Twelve hours?! That is just a bit too much exercise for anyone. Only marathon – running athletes have that sort of endurance... But now that I come to think of it, those guys only run. We were about to face a huge army, plus its damn general. "I don't think I've got the condition to stand it."

"Then why don't you just..." Leon started, but I already knew where he was going, so I quickly (and angrily) interrupted him.

"I'm not putting my cigarette out, damn it!"

"Whatever. They're your lungs... Wait, they're my lungs, too. Put that filth out, Cid!"

"Make me."

"Save your energies for the Heartless, rather than wasting them on yourselves." Mu snapped. "A dissention in an army is the worst thing that can happen to it. If he wants to smoke, let him smoke."

"Yeah! A bit of tobacco isn't going to kill you, man." I said, with a smile.

"Year, right. Have it your way." Leon muttered, and got away from me.

It's always the same with those guys. 'Cid put your cigarette out, we can't breathe! We're all too sissies and can't stand a bit of manly essence!' Bunch of girlies. I can take those sorts of things from the gals (although Ukyo sometimes drives me mad, 'cause she's the one that bothers me the most regarding the tobacco area), but I really hate it when the men start to bug me. Sora has every right to speak up, but people like Leon... They just make me angry.

But then, the night grew darker and my anger suddenly went away. I became nervous and began to take out another cigarette even before I was done with the one in my mouth. Leon unsheathed his gun – blade and held it firmly with both hands, while Mu just stood still, and quiet, with his eyes fixed on the house's entrance. I then gazed at the clock tower and let out a long sigh. The fire on Aries still burned brightly. This was going to be a very, very long night.

"Heads up." Leon murmured. "Here they come."

The house's steps – which had turned to silver because of the moonlight – became pitch black, as hundreds of evil cackles filled the air. The vultures had come. But I was ready to send them to meet their maker, whoever the idiot was...

"This ought to be fun." I said, as a platoon of little bug – like Heartless marched through the temple's entrance. I took out a good, ol' TNT stick and lit it with my cigarette (See? Those babies have more uses than just getting their asses smoked), and then threw it at the bunch of Heartless.

"Eat that!"

"A big explosion brought the unit down, as well as some of the house's columns, but enough remained to keep it on foot, thankfully. Either way, the scouts didn't last more than two seconds.

"Sorry about that, Mu..." I said.

"Well, the rest of the houses have at least one of their walls shattered, save, perhaps, for Cancer and Libra." He replied. "I was beginning to feel cast out of the group. But you have managed to undo that, thank you, Cid."

"Hey, no need to be that sarcastic..."

"Save it for later." Leon interrupted. "Here comes another pack of suicidal bugs."

The next wave of enemies came without warning. A pack of shadows entered the house and this time, they were more than just bugs. Some knights tagged along, as well as those fat, huge Heartless warriors, and some little mages, too... Nothing that we couldn't handle.

Leon quickly shot a pair of fireballs at the blue mages, and killed them instantly. They were much too weak to withstand a blow of the sort. But the other ones managed to get through his projectiles and began to attack us. I kept them at a distance with my spear and finished them in a few seconds by driving it through their bodies. Leon disposed of his foes with his sword by swinging it effortlessly from one side to another. I took care of the fat Heartless; their armor was not that tough and my spear got through it as if it was dough, while Leon began to run after the mages, and sliced them all without mercy. None of the Heartless had gone after Mu, so he didn't show off for us at that time...

When we were done with the second group, a third one barged into the house of Aries. This time, there were a lot of Heartless. But, again, nothing that we couldn't get rid of. They were just a bunch of mosquitoes, and we were the pesticide... Leon began to put more strength into his blows, and when he did, not even the armors of the fat Heartless were a match for him, and he took out a lot of opponents with one swing, as if he were cutting rows of bamboo sticks. I couldn't do that sort of neat tricks... I only had a spear. I did thrust it through I bunch of Heartless, though. It's a different type of cool trick, though... But enough of stupid remarks.

We were pummeling them. Though I still couldn't get the 'twelve-hour' thought out of my mind, I could see that we were quickly kicking their butts. We fought for a long time and didn't get tired at all, and Mu just stood there, standing still like a statue. We were doing real fine, I'd give him that, but three guys fighting against a single army is better than two... I didn't want to get tired in about an hour. We still had a long way to go. Luckily, Leon is not as quiet as I am, and after we were done with the fourth battalion, he turned to Mu and asked:

"Comfortable? Can I get you anything? A cup of coffee, perhaps?"

"I thought you two were doing quite fine on your own." He replied, calmly.

"We're doing great, but we could just a little help, if you want us to have enough energies to fight against the dark golden saint." I said.

"Very well." Mu said. "If you want me to fight, I'll do it."

"Show us what you've got, then." Leon said, as he sat down against one of the house's pillars and let out a long yawn.

"Don't be that cynical, Leon. At least have the decency to stand up." I muttered.

"It'll only be while he gets rid of this unit. Then I'll fight."

"Hmm... Okay. Sounds fair to me. Mind if I join him?"

"Not at all. Don't get comfortable, though. You'll be back in your feet in a few seconds." The golden saint warned. He sounded pretty cocky, but I was sure that he was right about that.

I sat next to Leon and let out a sigh. I already finished my cigarette, and only had a few more with me. I had left the pack in the ship, and I couldn't just go get them for the heck of it. I was really tempted to do so, but I had to resist. Those would surely be the longest twelve hours of my life... Sure, I know I'm a bit sick, but what gives? Everyone has his own little dirty habit, right? Either way, Leon was right: fighting for such a long time while smoking isn't really the smartest thing to do.

Mu waited patiently for the fifth wave of Heartless to appear. He faced the entrance like the proud guardian he was, with his eyes fixed on the night. The enemies appeared all of a sudden and raced at him with furious roars. But Mu simply smiled and raised his right hand. The room then glowed with a very intense light; so intense, in fact, that Leon and I had to cover our eyes. When it was dark again, we looked at Mu, and found out that he was standing alone yet again, and that not even the ashes of his foes had remained after that terrible attack.

"He is pretty strong." Leon murmured. "That's quite impressive... Although I don't know if it's either a good thing or a bad thing."

"I get your point." I said. "After all, we're going to fight his dark clone in a while."

"Yeah. Anyway, I'm sure that we'll be able to make a difference." He added.

"I told you that you wouldn't get any rest." Mu said. "Well, on your feet, men. There's still plenty of work to be done."

"I wonder where are all these rats coming from..." I asked myself. "The keyhole must be somewhere near. Otherwise, we wouldn't get so many waves of Heartless over so little time."

"Let's take a peek and see if we can find out." Leon suggested as he approached the house's entrance. And when he reached it and saw what was out there, in the cold night, he remained still while the wind passed through his hair, and managed to say, after a while of staying silent: "Oh, my God."

Mu and I quickly went by his side and became petrified when we saw what lay in front of us...

Not too far away, there was a building that resembled the ancient Roman coliseum, and from it, a strange light came. It was really intense, but it didn't illuminate that which lay about it. And from the source of that light, lines, endless lines of Heartless enemies marched forth. We could only see their malicious eyes in the night, and occasionally, one or two flying fiends that passed right above the house and headed for higher ground. Most of them carried at least one Heartless, but there were several that took many of them. It was clear that they were heading towards the remaining eleven houses. I let out a gasp, as did my two companions, and held on tightly to my spear.

"Jesus..." I murmured. "Now I know how Denethor felt when he saw Sauron's army marching outside his city."

"But that was just a tale in a book." Mu intervened. "This is very real, I'm afraid."

"We won't be able to hold off all of them." Leon said.

"It may not be necessary." The golden saint declared.

"I'm aware of that; what worries me is if the rest of the guys will be able to handle all of these monsters..."

"They have no choice; we have no choice." Mu said, firmly. "All that we can do is to try to stop as many Heartless as possible. We have to be swift in our actions, but not careless. Remember that that is why the rest of our friends are staying in the other houses: to help us counter this evil. We can't finish all of them by ourselves, and it is the same for them."

"Well, you're right about that, Mu." I said. "All that we can do for our friends is to lighten their load."

"And it's time we started doing that: here comes another squadron." Leon announced. "I think it's safe to use your TNT sticks now, Cid. Blast them to hell."

"Don't mind if I do." I said, and lit a few TNT sticks, and threw them at the advancing army. Two great explosions echoed through the night as hundreds of screams joined them and then died away as the rumbling faded. The eyes of the Heartless became more menacing as they raced at us with great rage. But that didn't stop me from taking out yet a third TNT stick and letting them eat it. The few ones that did arrive to the house were quickly killed by Leon's swift techniques, whereas Mu remained still yet again. I pulled out a fourth bomb and let the enemies have it.

"Where do you keep so many projectiles?" Mu asked.

"When the clock's fire disappears, I'll tell you all my little secrets." I answered. "Right now, why don't you lend us a hand?"

"Fine. Save your bombs for later, then, and behold the secret technique of the saint of Aries..." with that said, he took off his helmet and threw his cape to the Heartless. He then raised his hands into the air and began to glow with a mystical, golden energy. I could feel the immense heat of his body and stepped away from him, as did Leon. His power was, indeed, something overwhelming, something to fear... And after a few moments, he let out a mighty yell, which resonated through the twelve houses.

"CRYSTAL WALL!!"

The Heartless let out a terrible roar and launched themselves at the golden saint, but they never reached him, because an invisible barrier stopped them from going any further. Many of them died, because they had leapt out our friend with such speed that they had been killed by the impact. The army stopped and beheld the power of Mu... The air about us suddenly glowed with a magical, golden light, and then it vanished. But the wall of energy was still there, preventing all of our foes to cross the threshold leading to the house. Many flying Heartless still managed to get through by the far sides of the temple, but most of the army had stopped in its tracks.

"Well thought, Mu." Leon said. "That should hold them for a bit."

"Yes, but only for a bit." Mu muttered, as he stepped back and faced us. "I don't want to leave the Crystal Wall for a long time. When the dark golden saint comes, he will break it with his power, for only I am capable of shattering it, and if this foe possesses my strength, then he will break through my technique effortlessly."

"That's not good." I said, as I looked at the clock tower. "It's probably another forty – five minutes before that happens... If the Heartless keep coming from wherever the heck they're coming, imagine the huge quantity of little critters that will be roaming outside the house in that time. And if your clone breaks the wall, we'll be in for the worst time of our lives."

"Precisely." Mu agreed. "That's why I'll only keep the Crystal Wall on foot for thirty minutes. We will then fight with all of our strength to kill as much Heartless as we can. But we will have to suffer some of them to pass, for we don't want to waste all of our strength fighting against them: we need to save some for the final foe."

"It's a good plan, but I wish you could've come up with a better one." Leon sighed. "Thirty minutes of peace followed by five of pure panic..."

We waited for time to pass, none to patiently at that, I must say. Actually, with every minute that went by, my breathing quickened and I grew more and more unsteady. After fifteen minutes, the Crystal Wall of Mu had practically become a fish tank that held about a thousand of those damn shrimps. It wasn't a pretty sight: we could see nothing of the outside, because the black bodies of the Heartless covered it all. It was a wall of evil eyes, which stared at us impatiently, waiting for Mu to open the gate and let them through...

"I didn't think that so much would come so quickly." Mu said.

"How much time has passed?" Leon asked.

"About twenty minutes." I replied, and lit one of my final two cigarettes. I really couldn't stand the nervousness any longer; I needed the help of a friend.

"To hold them any longer will prove to be dangerous." Mu declared. "Step back. I'll undo the Crystal Wall now. Cid, throw them a TNT stick. Make sure that they feel welcome."

"Right on."

I quickly lit one of my last TNT sticks and waited for Mu to undo the Crystal Wall. The golden saint took a deep breath, and then turned to me and nodded his head.

"NOW!!" he yelled, and so I threw the bomb at the Heartless, which came pouring into the house of Aries like ants. I brought down a couple of more pillars, but a lot of Heartless died... Yet not as much as any of us would've liked...

Leon let out a battle cry and began to shoot fireballs from his hands to and fro, and swung his gun – blade with great strength and speed, splitting Heartless head's up with every move. When he found himself overwhelmed (which was quite often the case), he leapt back and blocked with his weapon the many projectiles that the stupid, little magicians shot at him. Those sons of bitches could really be annoying... Leon had no trouble in getting rid of the blue and yellow mages, but the red ones provided more of a challenge for him. Still, he managed to handle them, as he ran at them with full speed and slashed them in the blink of an eye.

I used all of my strength to stop the Heartless as best as I could. Since I'm a really good jumper and I'm really powerful when it comes to aerial attacks, I never once staid on the ground. I leapt from one side to another and swung my spear in wide arcs, keeping all Heartless at bay. When there were no obstacles, I leapt at them and thrust my weapon through their bodies like a hawk sinks its claws on it helpless prey. Man, did most of them suck. The only ones that proved to be a nuisance were, as you have probably already guessed, the damn, little mages. What was worse is that occasionally, they were accompanied by little, green mages, which seemed to heal them with their magic. Naturally, I went after these pieces of crap first...

Mu fought seriously this time... And I was pretty amazed. I'm almost sure that Leon was too, but none of us showed any awe, of course: we were too busy getting rid of the garbage to pay much attention to what Mu was doing. But what I got to see... Wow. His kicks were as powerful as shots from cannons, and his fists were battering rams. If he touched one Heartless with one of his attacks, then he was dead. Besides, he moved at an incredible speed: sometimes, we had trouble seeing him. He could also teleport: occasionally, he would disappear from his opponents' sight and reappear right behind them... You can guess what happened to the poor asses that fell for this trick. All in all, Mu was a terrible warrior, a fighter that couldn't be stopped by the force that marched into the house, for he was defending his ground, and when golden saints defend their ground, they're like freaking lionesses that fight against hyenas to protect their cubs.

But all wasn't as easy as it may sound, 'cause we didn't even have a second of peace: the Heartless kept on coming like locusts, one wave after the other. Once we were done with a squadron, another one came barging in through the entrance. I was beginning to get a little tired, and I could see in Leon's face that it was no picnic for him either. Yet Mu stood his ground with great ferocity and courage. And what was worse was that it was surely only a few minutes before the damn dark clone would materialize itself in the house...

And all of a sudden, the enemies held back on the fields. We raced at the entrance and saw that they were all gathering outside the house, as if waiting for something. Instinctively, we raised our heads to the clock tower, and noticed that the flame of Aries had died. We then looked back, and saw a shadow in the center of the house, a black hole from which a dark figure was emerging. We put ourselves on guard and cautiously closed in about the new enemy. When the shadow finally came out of the ground, it opened its red eyes and fixed them upon us. He was identical to Mu, as was his armor, which seemed to be about as tough as the golden saint. He took a step toward us and then stopped, as if expecting us to jump back in alarm. But we had the original Mu with us; he wasn't going to scare us that easily. Then, we heard the roar of the Heartless outside the house, and knew they were coming straight at us...

I only had a few TNT sticks left. I decided to use one then and save the other one for later. I threw it at the pack of foes that were running up the stairs and blew them to hell. And when the echo of the explosion faded, the dark saint began to attack us. He moved so fast that I was unable to block his attack. Lucky me, though: Mu leapt right in front of him and held him as much as he could.

"Take care of the Heartless!" he exclaimed. "I'll keep him busy!"

I glanced at Leon as he raced at the entrance and began to cut through Heartless butts like a land mower. I joined him in battle and stuck as many enemies as I could with my trusty spear. Meanwhile, Mu and his dark double fought a fierce, invisible battle, for they were so fast that we could not see them; we could only feel the gales that came from their strong punches and kicks.

It was not long before we finished with the platoon of Heartless and faced another one. We were having a very hard time. The enemies were forcing us to step back; we could not help but to yield ground. Soon, small groups of foes ran past us and exited the house from the opposite side. Leon tried to stop them by throwing fireballs at them, but the cowards were pretty fast on their feet, and my companion only managed to kill one or two out of fifteen.

And then, something terrible happened. The Heartless pushed us back against the wall, and we found ourselves side by side with Mu and his dark clone. When the evil Heartless saw that we were close to them, he seemed to smile wickedly and quickly jumped back.

"CRYSTAL WALL!!" he shouted in a loud, malevolent voice that sounded more like the roar of a mythical monster than a human scream.

A black haze of light shone briefly for an instant and then vanished, and we knew we were trapped against the wall and the magical barrier. Mu quickly gathered all of his strength and threw a punch at the Crystal Wall, but to our surprise and dismay, the attack bounced off the wall like a bullet in a metallic surface, and hurt all of us...

"What?? This can't be!" Mu exclaimed. "My power is equal to the one of this monster! Why can't I break his Crystal Wall??"

"Damn it..." Leon muttered as he rose himself to his feet. "There's your answer. Look behind the son of a bitch."

Indeed, hovering just a few feet away from the terrible enemy, were six magicians, which seemed to be casting a spell. These ones were not the little, annoying mages that I described a bit ago: these ones were larger Heartless that wore purple tunics and pointy hats, and held a wand in their hands. It didn't take me long to realize that these pieces of crap were not amateur spell casters...

"They're using their magic to strengthen the wall..." I murmured.

"Damn it!!" Mu cursed, and banged the barrier with his fist in anger and despair.

"Teleport yourself out, kill the wizards and then get us out of here." Leon suggested.

"I can't." Mu replied. "His power keeps me from doing such a thing..."

Fear began to take over us as the light that poured into the house was dimmed by the shadows of the endless lines of Heartless that passed through the temple and headed to the rest of the houses. Some of them stayed near the black saint, waiting for him to undo his barrier and to overcome us with their huge number. I felt as if I was tied in the middle of the ocean with a piece of bloody meat stuck on my back, and was watching how innumerable sharks gathered about my body and circled me, waiting for the right moment to rip me to shreds...

I knew that destroying the wall behind us would make no difference: the house was, after all, between two rocky walls, and I deem that it would take Mu some time to break the stones... We felt lost. If the Heartless attacked alongside the black saint with all their might, we would not stand a chance. We could only see the shadows about the mighty foe growing and growing at an incredible rate... I felt as if I was already dead. But there would be no light awaiting me at the end of the black tunnel... Only more darkness.

"What can we do, Mu?" Leon asked. "Any suggestions?"

"I..." Mu started, but couldn't continue: he was still too shocked to think of anything.

With a trembling hand, I reached for my last cigarette and began to smoke it. I then looked up, as if asking for the Heavens to tell me what to do... And so I had a crazy idea.

"Mu, will the Crystal Wall stretch up if I bring the ceiling down?" I asked in a whisper, doing my best not to look to the ceiling.

The golden saint staid still and quiet for a few moments. His eyes quickly gazed at the ceiling and then back at the dark saint.

"It will." He murmured. "But the explosion is bound to bring a large part of the ceiling down, including the structure that stands outside the Crystal Wall. If we are lucky, it will distract them enough for me to gather all my power and break the Crystal Wall... Or it may also fall on the magicians, crushing them under a rain of dust and rocks."

"Then it's a plan?"

"It is." Mu said. "Leon, I'll need your aid for this endeavor. Give me your energy, and I will do my best to channel it through my fists... Hopefully, we'll be back on the battle after this..."

"Hopefully, we will." Leon murmured, and approached Mu. Then, they both began to gather their power, and I felt a warm wind coming from their bodies.

This was it. I let out an impatient breath and took out my last TNT stick. The dark golden saint and the magicians seemed to smile and chuckle confidently... I take it that they didn't have the least idea of what I was about to do. I lit it and waited a bit for the spark of fire to devour the line... When the dynamite was about to blow, I let out a yell and threw it at the ceiling. The now confused Heartless looked at it as it exploded and brought the rocks down. The magicians stopped working their magic and took cover, while the dark golden saint covered his eyes from the dust. It was then that Mu let out a fierce shout and shattered the magical barrier, and we quickly got out of the place that nearly became our tomb. One more second and we would've been crushed under a ton of rock.

Mu lost no time and quickly slew all of the magicians. Leon and I worked our way through the dust by killing every Heartless that stood in our path. They had no idea where we were, because the cloud of dust kept them from seeing, but since they were all over the place, scattered like mo on a bathroom, Leon and only had to swing our weapons to strike them. It was not long before we got rid of all the lesser foes and came face to face with Mu's dark clone. Our hearts leapt in surprise and fear for a second, but then we threw ourselves against him. He began to block our blows and to attack us with fury, but the dust still dimmed the lights of the place, and his red eyes were like candles for us to follow.

Seeing that we were keeping the dark clone busy, Mu stood in front of the entrance of the house and began to summon all of his energies once again. An immensely large shadow of Heartless marched to the house, but Mu wasn't going to let those geeks through this time...

His body flashed with light for a few seconds, and then he performed a terrible attack, which turned the night as bright as the day. The stars seemed to gather about his fist as he shot a ray that, for a moment, seemed to absorb time and space, and only the glitter of an unknown sun was all that could be seen.

"STARDUST EXTINCTION!!"

And when all became clear again, the massive army of Heartless that had gathered about the fields had vanished. Sure, more Heartless still came from the dark light, but Mu's attack had wiped out about a thousand of those critters... Leon and I had to be very careful. If the dark clone used that technique on us and hit us with it, we would have to kiss our sorry asses good – bye...

Mu found himself a bit weak after that devastating attack. But a moment was all that the dark clone needed to teleport next to him and kick him with a mad force. Mu let out a grunt of pain as he flew across the house and crashed against the foe, which had teleported yet again and was now kicking the snout out of our ally. We tried to go after him and keep him from pummeling Mu, but every time we got close to him, he teleported away from us, dragging Mu along with him... What a piece of crap.

Finally, Mu crashed against a pillar, which came down on top of him, and found no strength in his legs to get up. A bunch of Heartless raced at him, ready to kill him, but he quickly managed to summon what little strength he have and built a Crystal Wall about him. He was very weak, but the Heartless didn't have enough strength to overcome the saint's technique. As long as he and his armor lived, the house wouldn't fall to the Heartless. All that Leon and I had to do was to try and defeat the dark golden saint before he could destroy Mu's wall and eradicate him. Simple task, eh?

Simple or not, Leon and I had no choice and we quickly engaged battle with the dark golden saint. We stroke him at the same time with all of our might in hopes of bringing him down. Even though the saints are super – strong, they're still humans, and can still be run through with a spear or a sword. But this son of a bitch had pretty tough hands, because he parried both of our attacks effortlessly. I began to see that we were pretty much hopeless, yet didn't give up and kept on attacking. All that I could think of was to keep on bugging the foe so that Mu would somehow recover his strength and rise to his feet for another round.

Things could get worse, however, and they did, for after a few moments, a new army of Heartless began to cross through the house of Aries. I must say that Leon and I did a pretty good job in getting rid of them, considering that we were fighting against a mighty enemy. When we saw a unit (thank God they were small units: most of the Heartless simply passed us by without even looking at us) coming at us, one of us would briefly back away from the dark golden saint and would slay all of the foes. Luckily, the goddamn general was very confident of himself: when one of us fought against the Heartless, he began to parry the other's attacks more slowly, and didn't attack us at all. I was both mad and scared: this jackass was actually making fools out of us.

But all that suddenly came to an end. The black golden saint got tired of his stupid, little game, and decided to end the battle. Leon and I saw him jerk his fist back and summon all of his strength. We instantly knew what he was up to and leapt aside as fast as we could before he could unleash his devastating technique.

"STARDUST REVOLUTION!!" he yelled in a dark voice.

This attack was even more spectacular and strong that the one Mu had dished out on the Heartless. Thank the Heavens, we weren't hit by it. He kind of helped us, to be honest... because he hit the oncoming army with his blow as we got out of its way. The air about the enemies was filled with stars, which began to twirl about them as if they were being sucked into a hurricane, and then, they exploded as if they had formed a gigantic star and blew up, like a supernova. We looked at the result of the fiend's attack with horrified eyes, and then turned to him. He still smiled and chuckled silently.

"Lucky." He sneered and then attempted to crush Leon's skull under his foot, but my friend quickly rolled on his back and slashed his leg with his sword. But the dark golden saint's armor was too resistant for Leon's steel to go though it. I then tried to bury my spear in his back, but the tip of my weapon slipped through his clothes (it could've been worse: it could've broken). The foe turned to me and chuckled some more, and then held me by the neck...

"Argh...!" I coughed, kicking the saint as hard as I could, but the bastard wouldn't let go. Jeez, was the jackass strong. In just a matter of seconds, the world became just a blurry image and the pain got so intense that I thought that I would faint at any given moment.

Nevertheless, Leon saved me from that idiot. He jumped at him and hung himself from his neck. Surprisingly, the saint couldn't stand much of my companion's torture and soon let go off me. Then, he grasped Leon by the arm and threw him as he were a hammer at me. I never realized that Leon was so heavy. We flew all across the house and crashed against a wall. I tried to get to my feet, but I was much to dizzy to stand up, plus Leon was still on top of me...

"Ow... Are you alright, Cid?" he said in a low voice.

"Not particularly." I replied. "And you?"

"Likewise."

We looked at the dark golden saint and found out in horror that he wasn't coming after us. Instead, he walked confidently and triumphantly, with many magicians at his side, to Mu. We knew that if Mu was killed, our mission would fail, and we would probably die to. We had to think of a plan, fast...

"That son of a bitch is much stronger than I thought." I said. "There's no defeating him..."

"It may seem that way, but I think that we can manage to beat him." Leon whispered. "He is very well protected, but I've noticed that the back of his thighs and his neck lack a piece of armor. I think that we can get him there. The trick is that we can't get hit by one of his blows, or we're history."

"Can't you think of an easier way? The neck and the back of his thighs are way too small a target..."

"No one said it would be easy. Now, the things that worry me are those damn magicians... My fireballs won't hurt them: all we can hope to do to take them out are physical attacks..."

"Leave those guys to me. Just keep the son of a bitch busy for a while, deal?"

"Okay. Let's go!"

And with that being said, we jumped to our feet and rushed at the Heartless. The dark golden saint turned to face us and raised the palm of his hand, letting loose a wave of energy meant to push us back against the wall. Yet we quickly leapt out of its way and began our attack. While Leon landed beside the dark golden saint and began to attack him with all of his might, I charged against the magicians and ran a few of them through with my spear.

"Two down..." I murmured and began to count my remaining enemies. "Three to go..."

"I would appreciate it very much if you could please hurry the hell up!!" Leon yelled. The black enemy had him against one of the house's walls, and held his sword with his left hand. After a few moments, Leon skillfully escaped his grasp and was back on the battle. I didn't even bother to answer him. I wasn't exactly resting my feet on a comfy couch... Those magicians were actually a big pain on the butt.

The three bitches cast each a spell of lighting about me, and prevented me from moving. At that moment, I felt pretty sorry of not saving any more TNT sticks. It would've helped me a bit against the jackasses. But there was no use in thinking about that now. I really had no other choice than to get rid of those three by the tip of my spear...

I suddenly had an idea. Maybe I wasn't able to make it through the lightning wall, but my spear certainly could fly by the storm. So I took it as if where a javelin and threw it at one of the magicians. The blow was devastating and killed it right away, making one part of the lightning wall vanish. I quickly ran through the opening, got my spear back and charged at the two remaining Heartless. The cowards disappeared right before I got to them, but I knew that they hadn't gone. I waited patiently for them to materialize, and hoped that Leon would be all right without my aid for just a few more minutes.

I gazed to them and found that the dark golden saint had trapped Leon's right fist with his hand and was slowly squeezing it. My companion did his best not to fall to his knees, for I could see that the foe was about to break his hand. The fiend smiled triumphantly and chuckled in a low, malevolent voice. But Leon managed to open his fist just a bit and concentrated all of his strength in letting loose a terrible fireball. After an instant, he wailed angrily and a yellow flash came out of his hand. The dark golden saint screamed in pain and flew against a wall. Leon didn't go after him, though: instead he held his pain filled hand and tried to pull himself together for his next attack.

After what seemed to be an eternity, one of the magicians appeared. The jackass materialized itself right behind me, in hopes of frying me with its magic wand. I was quicker than he, though, and stabbed him before he could do anything. After that, the last magician appeared a few feet away from me. I waited for him to screw up: I wanted to kill it by countering its attack, 'cause I knew that if I just went after it, it would probably harm me with magic. These type of Heartless didn't seem as stupid as the others, and they apparently learned from their mistakes...

The magician began to cast a spell, but I didn't see anything about me. Fortunately, I thought about watching down, and saw a black hole at my feet. With a gasp, I quickly leapt away from it just in time to dodge a dark blade that had emerged from it. Then another black sword tried to impale me, but again it missed. I knew that I had to get rid of the Heartless, and fast. So I again threw my spear at it, and lucky me: I stuck him like a wild boar.

Finally I was rid of my adversaries; it was time to help Leon against the major bitch. I grasped my spear and ran at the dark golden saint, which was about to push my companion into a corner once again. I didn't make a sound, and quickly tried to stab the back of his left thigh, just like Leon had said that we should do. But the bastard realized that I was on the attack and received me with a ferocious kick. I found myself out of air and with my back aching terribly. The foe had pushed me against a pillar, and I had hit it hard. This gave Leon time to escape the trap the enemy had set for him and tried to slash the foe's neck. Yet the dark golden saint knew that we had discovered his weakness and ducked just in time to evade Leon's blade. Then, they both engaged battle again.

It took me a few seconds to pull myself to my feet again and go back to my friend's aid. When I did, I thought that maybe it would be a good idea to pretend another strike at his thigh... Because the black enemy had yet another major weakness: he was too overconfident of his brutal strength. He thought that we were a little more than ants... And maybe, he would think that we didn't learn from our mistakes. I quickly charged at him, my spear aimed at his legs, until he turned to face me. I was sure that he would try to kick me again, so I leapt high into the air. The fiend's foot passed right under my body, hitting nothing but air. I landed right behind the saint and this time, there was no fake in my moves: I went right for the legs a second time. But can you believe it? The son of a bitch actually turned in time, and my spear only hit the armor protecting his kneecaps. I saw him smile and thought that it had all been for nothing...

However, Leon was still in the fight and saw a window of opportunity for us. With a swift move, he slashed the saint's thighs. The foe let out a pain filled cry and fell to his knees. It was now my turn to attack; my turn to put an end to it. I held my spear firmly and, with an enraged cry, drove it through his neck. The being didn't scream this time, and his eyes turned from a terrible, red color to a dead, black one. He fell to his side and was engulfed by blue flames. There was nothing left of him, not even a sound. Tired as we were, Leon and I smiled for ourselves and shook hands.

"Good thinking, Cid." He said.

"You too, Leon." I replied.

But then, we turned to the entrance of the house and found out that the army of Heartless was still abroad... With a heavy breath, we grasped our weapons firmly and waited for them to arrive. But suddenly, Mu's voice deafened the screams of the foes.

"CRYSTAL WALL!!"

Again, the entrance to the house had been covered by an invisible barrier that would only glitter whenever it received a strike. We turned to Mu, who was now standing behind us. Not firmly, because he still seemed weak, but seemingly better than a while ago...

"Glad to see you back..." Leon muttered.

"I must say that I didn't think I would be able to make it... Nor you, for that matter." Mu replied.

"Well, luckily you were mistaken." I said.

"Yes, luckily. I'm amazed by your strength... You are much tougher than I thought. And very smart." The saint said. "It was because of your quick thinking that you are still alive."

"Yeah... Anyway, I regret to say that I can't exactly say the same about you, Mu." I kidded. "Sure, you wiped out an entire army with a single blow, but you lost to yourself... You disappointed me."

Mu and Leon turned to me and found out that I was only joking. They both smiled and chuckled while shaking their heads.

The army of Heartless began to press against Mu's crystal wall and many of the creatures began to growl and to roar angrily. We fell silent and our smiles vanished from our faces. Slowly, we walked a bit closer to the invisible barrier and looked at the Heartless with tired eyes.

"We were the ones that had it tougher, didn't we?" asked Leon.

"Regarding the attacks of the lesser Heartless, yes." Mu answered. "But my dark clone didn't use all of his powers... Only in that attack against his own companions was his true strength set loose. But it seemed that he counted on the other Heartless to aid him in the attack; hence, he didn't use all of his power... The Heartless are great in number, but they won't invade the rest of the houses like they invaded this one. That is why I'm worried: the dark golden saints will fight more fiercely in the later temples."

"Which of you is the strongest?" I asked.

"Many say that all of us golden saints are equally strong and should be equally feared." Mu said. "But I think differently... I consider myself one of the strongest guardians of Athena, yet there are others that are more fierce warriors than me."

"Who is in graver danger, then?" asked Leon.

"The ones in Taurus are Aldebaran, Octavius, and Felicia, correct? Then they should be all right, for Aldebaran is the strongest of us physically speaking. He will manage to get rid of the Heartless and to battle against himself with no less strength, and the were – bear will be of great help to him, for he is as strong as a rock giant, and the were – cat will prove to be great for getting rid of speedy opponents... But the ones that I am most worried about, are those who guard the houses of Leo, Virgo, and Sagittarius."

"Why?"

"The dead saint Aioros, who was once the guardian of the house of Sagittarius, was, beyond any doubt, the most powerful of all saints... Aioria is his younger brother, and his strength is almost as terrible as the one of his lost sibling. And Shaka, Virgo's saint, is said to be the one closest to God. The ones in the house of Virgo won't win a battle by strength: they will need more than that to prevail against the dark clone of Shaka..."

"Who are the ones in those houses?" I asked Leon.

"Wilheim, Ukyo, and Tish are with Aioria; Demean and Merryck are with Seyia in Sagittarius, and both Dante and Sora are in Virgo, along with Shaka." He said in a murmur. "Damn..."

"Let's hope that the two boys are witty." Mu said, with a sigh. "For if they're not, I don't think that you'll even see them in death..."

We spoke no more and looked at the clock tower. The fires on Taurus and Gemini had already gone out. The battle had lasted longer than we had thought. We turned to the army of Heartless again and readied ourselves for another round. We had to keep the ground Heartless away from the rest of the houses; an army of flying foes had already covered the nocturne sky... I reached for a cigarette, but found the pack empty, and let out an unhappy sigh.

Taurus: Octavius

I did not fear the darkness. For the longest of times, I had not felt fear, or happiness. I was void of feelings; only anger lingered in me, and rarely did it awake. Rarely and thankfully, for when it lives, I cease being myself, and turn into a fearsome monster: a beast with an appetite for death, whose ears only consider the chilling screams of pain as music... Such a curse is known as the Fury of the Forests, and when I was younger, I accepted to bear it in my veins... I had been such a fool. But now is not the time to talk about those things. My past was another story at the time, and I had only a mind for the present.

I stood quietly next to two other warriors: Aldebaran, the saint of Taurus, and Felicia, the nimble cat – woman. The golden saint had his arms crossed over his chest, and smiled confidently at the house's entrance. Certainly he would not let any foe cross the temple without knowing his terrible strength. The Bastet, however, seemed quite nervous. I do not know why, for I had heard that she had already proved herself against many foes before. I had never actually seen her battle, though. Yet I was sure that she would be useful against the Heartless.

"Relax a bit, Felicia." Aldebaran said. "Wait and see. I promise you that no Heartless will be able to withstand our combined strengths."

"That's easy for you to say." She answered. "You're covered by the holy armor; you're as big as a bull; you've fought hundreds of crazy battles; and... well, you're a golden saint! I'm just a little girl in a kitty costume... with claws."

"I believe you underestimate yourself." I muttered.

"Next to you two, I don't really think I'm underestimating myself..."

"Still, that will prove enough to beat any Heartless that dares enter the temple." I assured. "The creatures are quite weak. They will fall easily."

"Oh, so I am weak?" she suddenly snapped.

"If that is what you say, then I suppose so." I answered dryly.

"Gee, thanks for the support, 'Etceterus Etceterus'!"

"What was that?" Aldebaran asked, with a chuckle, whereas I did not pay attention whatsoever to such infantile insults.

"You should listen to this guy's complete name." Felicia said. "You could fill a blank page with it. That's why I came up with that nickname for him. The guys love it."

"Lovely. So this means that all of our companions know that you call me like that?" I asked.

"Hey, you started it!" she replied. "When a woman is complaining, or when she's down, or when she's scared, or insecure, or whatever, you're supposed to support her, rather than to just say that she's weak. Haven't you ever had a girlfriend, were – bear? You've lived a lot, or so I've been told: you should know a bit about ladies."

"Are you saying that you like me, cat – woman?"

When she heard this, she began to stutter many words and incoherent sentences, but her fury prevented her from saying anything that made sense. Aldebaran smiled and shook his head while laughing silently, but Felicia just kept looking for something to say, for a way to insult me, I thought. In the end, she merely turned around with a maddened expression in her face and said no more. I think that was quite hilarious, but as I said before, I am void of most feelings, and so I did not smile, for I do not know how to do such a thing. Not anymore.

But then, a flash of light illuminated the sky for a second, and a sudden roar was heard. Aldebaran stopped smiling and Felicia became serious. We all slowly approached the house's entrance and peered outside. The temple of Aries was being assaulted. An army of shadows marched at the house. The enemies' eyes burned like torches, and with each step they took, a thunderous sound filled the air, and their march was constant and quick; like the beating of a frightened heart.

"So it has begun." Aldebaran murmured. "Our defenses will have to hold 'til morning. Hopefully, the sun's light will come quickly."

"I really hope so." Felicia said. "Look at that army... I'm not sure if Cid, Leon, and Mu will be able to keep all of the Heartless at bay... Oh, damn." She added, as she saw how many of the creatures began to fly into the air and a few of them came our way. "Well... They still have it harder than we do."

"Yes, they do." I said. "There are only a few of them coming, and they will meet a swift end by my blade. Let me handle these beasts. It will only take a few seconds." And so I stood in front of them and waited for the monsters to arrive. They were just a couple of gargoyles, a pathetic sample of the enemy's evil power. When they lunged themselves at me, I cut them down with a swift attack. "If the Heartless attack us like this, I am certain that this will be an easy battle."

"Yet, I don't think that Mu and the other two will be able to stop all of the Heartless." Aldebaran said. "I'm not sure if his Crystal Wall will be able to contain all of those beings. Many will go through Aries and will head here, undoubtedly. And I fear that we won't be able to contain all of them. Some will pass. But they will be less and less... the ones in the later houses won't have so much trouble in facing the Heartless."

"Here comes another batch." Felicia interrupted. "And this one is a bit tougher than the last one..." as she finished speaking these words, two battle ships arrived to the house, and out of them, leapt ten dark knights and ten little bug – like fiends. They were no match for us, and the cat – woman did not fear such a small army. "Let's take them down!"

She leapt at one of the ships and skillfully evaded all of the projectiles that it shot at her, and shredded it with her powerful nails as if she were a fan of blades. Meanwhile, I took care of the little bug – like Heartless with quick swings of my katana. The knights charged at Aldebaran, but amazingly, the golden saint simply flicked a finger, and the enemies were gone. His strength was truly beyond equal.

Felicia quickly brought down the first battle ship and leapt onto the second. The foe rose above the ground at an amazing speed, trying to crush Felicia under the ceiling, but the Bastet guessed the Heartless's trick and jumped at one of the walls. The ship was broken by its own stupid move, and the second wave of Heartless was successfully destroyed.

"That was a close call." Felicia said, as she approached us. "But I'm sure that this is far from over..."

"Indeed." I agreed.

"Look." Aldebaran said, as he pointed at the house below us. "The Heartless forces are getting bigger and bigger... They can't get through the house of Aries. Mu must be using the Crystal Wall to hold them at bay..."

"Well, that's great news!" Felicia exclaimed.

"I can't really say that, Felicia..." the saint began to explain. "The fire of the temple of Aries is still burning, but I'm sure that it'll soon go out. When that happens, the dark golden saint of Aries will appear there, and he will undo Mu's barrier... The Heartless will come at our three companions in full strength, and I don't know if they will be able to withstand the combined forces of both the black saint and of the army..."

"Many Heartless are still getting through." I added. "Look at them; they are like nasty spiders. They are climbing the hills and are heading towards the other houses. Their force is much larger than I expected..."

"And some of them are hitching rides on gargoyles and other monsters of the sort..." Felicia said. "...I really don't like the idea of fighting against these bozos for twelve hours."

"I just hope that Mu will undo his own wall in time. We will have more work to do, but they will survive." Aldebaran said. "But enough talk. It's time to get rid of these Heartless."

Another wave came our way, both ground and flying Heartless wailing in anger as they drew near. We put ourselves on guard and waited for them to be closer so we could greet them the way they deserved to be greeted. A fat, heavy soldier slowly ran at me, attempting to crush me under its weigh. Those creatures were so idiotic... I was as big as them and still they tried to frighten me with their size. I decided to save the katana for a bit later and to fight bare – handedly, like my two companions. I received the foe's charge with a solid punch that went through his armor and through his skin. The monster vanished into thin air as my arm reached his back.

Felicia's turn to attack came. She was attacked by a pair of dark warriors that wielded Saracen swords. The feline jumped back, avoiding both swings of the blades. The fighters went after her, with no other wish in their somber minds than to cut her down. Yet it was her that did the cutting, for her claws were even sharper than the blades, and when the steel of a Saracen sword met her hand, it did her no harm, and fell to the ground in five pieces. A nimble kick at the bearer's feet ended his threat, and she only needed the other Heartless to let his guard down for a second to slash his neck with her left hand.

Aldebaran did not even uncross his arms. The Heartless that came to him all met their end under a swift glitter of his armor. What he did is still unknown to me, but he ended with the monsters' menace in the blink of an eye.

The rest of the fiends I broke with my arms and Felicia cut with her claws. They were no match for any of us: just mere insects that try to bother a group of bulls. Aldebaran and I remained steady: never did we move from our places unless we had to, whereas Felicia used every inch of the temple as her battlefield, and the foes could not keep up with her blistering speed.

This time, however, we had no rest. The Heartless kept coming in waves, with hunger for battle in their hollow veins. Certainly, their force was not as large as the one our companions in the house of Aries were surely facing, but they were constant and did not give us a moment of peace. We fought fiercely, and were not even scratched by their futile attacks. I did not fear for myself or for Aldebaran, for he possessed the sacred armor which gave him strength, and I had fought against more terrible foes in the past; for two millennia had I faced other enemies, and had waged deadlier battles. I must admit that I was somewhat concerned about Felicia, because I did not know if she had the strength to endure the long battle that was ahead of us...

We kept on battling for a long time, in hopes of seeing less and less Heartless with each passing minute, with every death of one of their kind at our hands. But instead of that, the army kept on growing and growing. All of a sudden, we were battling gigantic hordes of shadows. Not even demons spawned themselves in such huge numbers. Both land and aerial Heartless stormed the house, and we did our best to slay them all, but soon, many of them started to get through and headed for the rest of the houses. That could only mean that Mu's Crystal Wall had vanished, and we could only hope that it had been his doing and not some foe's.

I could no longer master the enemies with my arms and my feet alone, and so I drew my katana and began to slash their bodies with great speed rather than strength, for they were weak and fell apart like pieces of paper. Felicia's agility and speed grew more and more with each moment: she had not shown us her true strength at the beginning of the battle. And Aldebaran started to move a bit from left to right, but did not uncross his arms, or at least I did not see him uncross them. Perhaps he was much quicker than we thought and was actually battling fiercely with fists and legs, yet his speed was so great that we could not actually see him...

The enemy kept on coming and the fire on the house of Aries died. We had only an hour left before the dark golden saint appeared, and things did not seem to get any easier. That was when Aldebaran decided to let loose his most terrible attack in order to give us a moment of peace...

He stood in front of the house's entrance, and waited for a horde of Heartless to get near. He glanced at Felicia and me and muttered:

"Get back. I'll handle these ones."

The cat – woman and I did as he told us and waited for him to make his move. The saint turned towards the army again and did not even blink for a long time. I only wanted him to end it; I wanted to see what he was capable of... And so, when the Heartless were all about him, he stretched his arms upwards and separated his legs. He yelled ferociously and his roar echoed through the pillars of the temple, while a golden light illuminated the night and blinded Felicia and me for a few seconds...

"GREAT HORN!!"

We opened our eyes and found a minute of peace, for all the Heartless had fallen under that mighty attack. Not one was left; they had vanished as if Aldebaran's light attack had been a glitter of the sun itself.

"...Wow...!" Felicia stuttered. "What the heck was that??"

"My most powerful blow." Aldebaran answered. "The Great Horn. I have yet to meet a second man who can defeat it."

"There has been a first?" the Bastet asked.

"Can you see my helmet?" he said, and removed it from his head. There was only one horn intact, but the other one had been cut off. "This was Seyia's doing. That was when he awoke to the seventh sense."

"I see... you guys have quite a story, eh?"

"Yes, we do."

"And how would you judge them by their strength?" I asked. "Are the bronze saints a match for you? Or are they witless worms?" It is not that I had no respect for the bronze saints, but I doubted at the time that they were powerful enough to contend with their friends.

"Not at all. Actually, they have the potential to become golden saints." Aldebaran answered, proving that my beliefs were wrong. "They are all very strong and resourceful. Each of them has their own set of strengths and weaknesses, but when they fight in a team, they are nearly unstoppable."

"I understand that there are some golden armors that no saint wears..." Felicia intervened. "Why don't they wear them?"

"Because they are not meant to have those armors, at least not yet. And they are still proud of their colors. Yet I believe that Seyia, Shiryu, and Hyoga can already use the golden clothes of Sagittarius, Libra, and Aquarius if they wish... But Shun and Ikki are meant to have the golden clothes of Virgo and Leo, and Shaka and Aioria are still alive."

"Oh, I see..." she murmured. Then, her glance was caught by the new wave of Heartless that came our way. "Well... here we go again."

We battled some more against the lesser Heartless, destroying them effortlessly at the beginning, but again we started to battle for a long time and began to tire a bit. It was then that Aldebaran released his power again and erased all of the shadows...

We fought on restlessly until two hours passed. It was then that the fire of the house of Taurus waned and died. A low grumble came from the center of the house and we all turned to face a new, terrible enemy. The dark golden saint emerged from a pool of shadows. Our foe was a towering giant, just like Aldebaran, and had a black armor on his body. His eyes were different, though: they were red and evil, and his smile was wicked. And when he stood tall over the ground, and the Heartless stopped coming for a minute, he launched an attack.

"GREAT HORN!!" he yelled in a dark voice.

An intense shadow engulfed the house and hit us with its terrible might. I had never felt such a hard blow. Felicia and I flew over the ground and fell on the outer stairs of the house. I managed to place a foot on the floor and stopped my wild rolling, and also managed to catch the cat – woman. When I looked at her, I saw that her stomach was badly bruised and that she hat cuts on both arms and legs. A drop of blood fell on her forehead and I then realized that I was also bleeding. The dark saint's attack had been like a thousand cutting knives that went through our skin...

"Are you alright, cat – woman?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just..." she paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "...Need a little breather, that's all."

"Well, that is a luxury you cannot have right now. The Heartless come again, and Aldebaran is still inside the house, battling against himself." I said.

"All right... Just help me to my feet and I'll keep on fighting."

Aldebaran had withstood his own terrible power and was now letting loose a fierce duel against his dark clone. Although we could not see him in battle, we could hear his valiant cries and his foes fell yells. The house flashed as if it were on flames, and its shadow fell on us and the Heartless that ran up the stairs to our meeting. Thankfully, the wave of enemies was not very great, and Felicia and I took care of them in a few moments. Her arms were wounded, but her claws were as sharp as ever, and they cut through all of her opponents with swift savageness. I used my blade to shatter armors and shadows alike, and when we were done, we quickly returned to the house only to found Aldebaran and his other self locked in a deadly match. We could not afford to let him battle against himself for such a long time: the army of Heartless would surely grow and we would certainly need his aid later on.

"Felicia..." I whispered. "You handle the Heartless that come our way. I will help Aldebaran against this monstrous opponent."

"Are you kidding?" Felicia asked. "You may be strong, but I'm sure that I can use my speed to help you two on this fight. I'll help you and Aldebaran, whether you like it or not."

I knew that it would be no use to argue with the Bastet, for she was as stubborn as a mule. I accepted her aid and we both raced to Aldebaran's help.

The nimble cat – woman jumped at the dark saint's head and held on to his skull, while I tried to stab his face. He rose on of his hands and stopped my blade. It was a fortune that he did not break it. I then tried to use my fists against him, but he stopped them with his hands, too. Felicia scratched his face with fury and the foe let go of my hand as he let out a scream of pain. I then managed to give him a good punch in the face, and he fell to his back. Next, Aldebaran let loose his power and sunk him deep into the ground. The foe stayed still under a pile of rocks for a very long time, and we all thought that we had just carved his tomb.

A wave of Heartless came and we began to battle against them without paying attention to the pile of rubble at our backs. Magicians had come this time, and we had more difficulty in killing them than I thought, for when we were about to reach them with our fists, they would vanish into thin air and reappear away from us. But Aldebaran's attack traveled as fast as lightning and the sorcerers met their doom after a short while. Some Invisibles also attacked us, yet we already knew their weakness. Felicia blocked their swords with her claws and used powerful kicks to shatter the blades. I broke the swords with both my fists and my katana, while Aldebaran again used his Great Horn to eliminate all opponents in sight.

But after a while, a dark scream came from below the ground and an explosion made the house shake. A black light poured from the floor and raced by it, crawled by the walls and covered the ceiling. We were all sent flying high into the air, and this time, Aldebaran fell with us. When we got to our feet, we noticed that our dark opponent still stood, his face twisted in an enraged expression... We sighed unhappily and braced ourselves for another terrible and long battle... Yet Felicia's quick thinking and speed made it possible for us to, surprisingly, finish the dark golden saint in a matter of moments.

The cat – woman abruptly raced at the foe with a battle cry. The dark golden saint seemed to smile for a moment and raised his arms high above his head, readying himself to finish the Bastet. Aldebaran and I gasped as we heard his yell and saw how the shadows covered the ground and walls one more time...

But Felicia skillfully sidestepped and leapt at the foe. With an amazing dexterity, she flung herself to his back while holding his neck, making him lose his balance and fall on her. Yet Felicia had not finished: she received his body with her legs and with strength unknown to me, she threw him into the air. Aldebaran and I knew that this was our opportunity to end the fight and so he leapt after him and I ran to where his body was meant to fall.

The golden saint used all of his strength to hit the enemy on the stomach. The blow had been so fierce that the armor crumbled beneath his fist. Then, he turned the foe in the air and emitted a strange glow. He then began to fall with great speed, and I knew he had used his power to boost himself and his opponent to the ground. I realized what he was trying to do and worked with him: I held my sword high in the air, and became a stalagmite in which the dark saint fell. A wall of blue, but harmless flames surrounded me, and the foe was gone...

Aldebaran smiled to himself and laughed long and loud.

"What quick thinking, Felicia! I thought that the battle would last longer than that...!" but then, he stopped cheering as we both noticed that the cat – woman lay on the ground and did not move. "Felicia!!"

We raced to her, and saw that she was terribly injured. She bled from her stomach and face, and we knew that the Great Horn of the dark one had hit her. The wound was too deep, and I could do nothing to stop it. A sudden fright overcame me, as I knew that there was no cure for that cut: the cat – woman would soon die.

"Why did you do that?" I asked her. "We could have battled another way, and still you would be with us!"

"Much must be risked in war." Felicia murmured, with a weak smile. She coughed blood and then said: "At least I succeeded in defeating a golden knight... with your help, of course..." but her vain words could not hide her fear of death, and I became, for a moment, sad, and angry, for I had begun to like the wily Bastet.

"Don't worry, Felicia." Aldebaran said, quite calmly, to my surprise... "I don't know if you'll be able to fight with us any longer, but I'm not going to let you go." He placed his left hand in her belly and her right hand on her face. A golden light shone weakly, and the trail of blood began to vanish. When the saint lifted his hands, the cuts had gone... "I guess I should have told you that we golden saints have the power to cure creatures other than ourselves."

"You should have." I said. "I was beginning to worry..."

"You were?" Felicia asked, seemingly better. "Oh, so you do care...! Ow..."

"Of course I care. I may be a cold person, but from time to time, I do have feelings..." I said, beginning to remember what was it was like to have good friends that would risk their lives for you.

"Thank you." She whispered, with a happy smile. "But mostly, thank you, Aldebaran... How can I repay you?"

"Don't worry about it. You don't seem too good to me yet." Aldebaran answered. "I believe that it is not a good idea to force you to fight. As a matter of fact, I think that Octavius and I are going to have to take turns to protect you. What do you say, Octavius? Do you think that we will be able to handle the Heartless with one companion down?"

"If no other dark golden saint comes, then I believe that we will win this battle." I declared. "I will look after Felicia. You guard the house."

"That's my job. Take good care of her. When this is over, we'll tell your friends to heal her properly."

"How nice of you two..." Felicia giggled. "But you'd better hurry to the entrance, Aldebaran. There comes another batch of Heartless..."

"These ones will not get through, that I promise you." He said, and got ready to attack the wave of foes. Some of them did go through, but I made sure that the golden saint kept his promise by slashing them down with my blade. Yet I never left Felicia's side; I became her guardian at the time, and I daresay that the feeling of being her warrior was not an unpleasant one.

Gemini: Camille

It had been quite a long time since I had done so much battling. And I do not mean just the Heartless in the houses of the Sanctuary, but the evil army of them in all the worlds. Well, it was a good thing, to know that I was still a fierce warrior. The last time I had fought against anyone before my part in the adventure began, had been against Wilheim, when I had invited him to stay with me in my castle in the realm of Urthalien. He had been an easy opponent at the time, and I had defeated him effortlessly (and I am certain that he enjoyed getting beaten). But this time, my foes were not dear friends, and I was fighting with all of my strength...

One hour had passed since the fire of Aries had vanished. We could see flashes of light constantly coming from the temple of Taurus; the battle that they were waging against the Heartless was surely a more interesting one than ours. And the few enemies that managed to get through the storm on the second house met a quick end at our hands.

I fought alongside Morrigan and Ikki. There was no golden saint protecting the house of Gemini, so the Phoenix knight would have to do. I really wanted the clock to speed up its pace, so that the flame in Gemini would soon die. Not that I was longing to fight against the dark golden saint of Gemini, no, but because I hated long waits. I reckon that if you would be in my place, you would think the same, too. When something bad is bound to happen, what good is it to wait for it?

Have you ever had that feeling? The feeling of your entrails clinching to your stomach? It is a nasty feeling, is it not? Some people say that they are butterflies fluttering inside you, but I do not like to think of it that way. Those sorts of expressions must be saved for love. At that time, the feeling was rather intense, to the point were my belly was beginning to ache. Despite the fact that I disposed of my opponents effortlessly, I was somewhat frightened of the dark golden saint, for the bronze saints had told me about the power of the knight of Gemini...

His name was Saga, and he was their main enemy when they fought on the houses the last time. By his order, Athena had been wounded in the chest by an evil arrow. He wanted to see her dead. Yet, like Gemini, Saga had two faces, and in the end, the good inside of him overcame his malice, and he died to save Athena from himself. But the warrior we were going to face had no trace of good will in his shadowy body...

From time to time, the waves of Heartless stopped for a few moments, and we all approached the entrance of the house and looked at the clock tower, waiting for it to strike the symbol of Gemini; that would be our cue to brace ourselves for a terrible fight.

"It is common to feel that the flow of time speeds up when it ages..." I said in a low voice. "Nevertheless, it does not feel that way here. It walks more slowly and tiresomely, as if it were about to end."

"Only that it won't." Ikki said. "I know that you're nervous, Camille, but the black saint of Gemini won't be able to handle the three of us at once. Just... be careful. Don't be scared, but don't get cocky. This enemy has a lot of cards up his sleeve."

"Did you fight against him the last time you were here, Phoenix?" asked Morrigan. "How terrible is his strength?"

"Don't worry about it. Just concentrate on fighting." He answered and walked to the house's center, while Morrigan and I gave each other a worried glance.

"That isn't good." She murmured. "If he doesn't wish to talk about the former battle, that must mean that he was beaten by a foe far more superior than himself."

"And what worries me most is that we stand next to the most powerful saint of the bronze knights." I added. "I dread to think what sort of tricks this enemy has in store for us."

"Here comes another wave!" Ikki exclaimed. "Look sharp!"

A group of Heartless considerably large stormed into the house. Ikki finished with three of them with a single flick of his wrist: before the enemies vanished into nothingness, Morrigan and I noticed an orange feather buried in their heads, the same feathers that adorned the saint's armor. The other ones dived themselves into three groups. Ikki managed to kill his remaining opponents with a single blow. Morrigan and I worked together: our wings became sharp tentacles that flew at our opponents and went through them like arrows. Two Heartless managed to withstand the blows and charged at us. I jumped high into the air and then landed on one of them, sinking its head deep within its body. Morrigan fired a flaming projectile that burned the other foe to a crisp...

Though at first we had not liked each other much, Morrigan and I were beginning to establish a nice friendship. A pity, I must say, that it was just a mere friendship, for her body was quite charming, as her fair hair and eyes... Certainly, I could get as much pleasure from her as she could get from me. Yet Morrigan was a less... savage succubus, as Wilheim would certainly say. He too was quite surprised that I liked other women. But I can do nothing about it, for my lust is endless... But enough about that. Those are unimportant matters.

We were about to go to the entrance of the temple yet again to contemplate the clock tower a bit longer when another small army of Heartless appeared by the entrance. This time, horrid wyverns accompanied the foes. We had been battling a lot of aerial units, but it was the first time in the night that we were facing wyverns. Those creatures were large, their skin was as thick as a shield, and they flew as quickly as a hawk. We resolved that Ikki should fight against the Heartless on the ground and that Morrigan and I would battle the flying menaces.

The bronze saint used his potent technique – The Flying Phoenix – to exterminate the enemies on the ground. Yet when he did, Morrigan and I cursed him, as the rest of the flying enemies, for the currents of wind that he created with his strong arms were quite difficult to manage. We were lucky not to crash against a pillar or a wall, but we were not lucky enough for the Heartless to die with that assault. When he heard our angry yells, he quickly stopped his doing and battled the few Heartless that remained in front of him with his fists. Morrigan and I focused on evading the furious charges of the wyverns that tried to catch us with their claws. I was quick enough to escape their sharp knives, but Morrigan got hit a couple of times. I quickly managed to get rid of a wyvern by grasping its head as he flew at me like a torpedo, and breaking its neck in a swift motion. My companion successfully killed one of the beings by blocking its attack with her wings. The wyvern had thrown itself at her just like the one I had broken, and he crashed into a wall that was as tough as steel. Morrigan nearly crashed into a wall, but I managed to get a hold of her before she was wounded. There were still some opponents on the air, and we had to kill them before they shredded us...

"It's time to become the hunter." Morrigan suggested. "Don't you think so, Camille? Use your heels to smash their heads open."

"What a smart plan, my dear." I said, with a snicker. "Very well, then. Let them taste our rage."

And so, like a pair of eagles, we soared about the house, chasing the wyverns that were one after us. Though they flew quickly, their speed did not match ours, and we kicked them down many times before they finally decided to turn around and charge at us head – on. But this was part of our plan. When the enemies flew at us, we stretched our legs at them, covering them with our wings, becoming a projectile shot from a bolt – thrower, and went through them as if they were just wisps of cloud...

When we were finally done, we landed near Ikki and, since there was still no Heartless coming at the temple, seized the opportunity to scold him a bit.

"What in the bloody hell is the matter with you??" Morrigan grumbled. "You could've killed us both with that stupid technique of yours! Weren't you watching that the two of us were up in the air? That damn typhoon of yours nearly murdered us! Try to be more careful next time!!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that it would trouble you too." He replied dryly. "Either way, you're still alive. Why are you complaining?"

"Is that your answer?" I said. "Why are we complaining? We nearly died because of your fault, foolish brute!"

"Hey, it's like I told Wilheim: I'm on your side, but I play by my own rules." Ikki said, his voice turning colder than before.

"Well, to play by your own rules doesn't mean that you can actually kill your companions!" Morrigan replied.

"Argh! I already said that I'm sorry!" he yelled.

"That is not good enough!" I said.

For a moment, Ikki's anger grew, and it was reflected upon his eyes. Yet seeing how we were not intimidated by it, for we knew he would not harm us, he gave up, and his body seemed to collapse under a sudden rush of weakness for a second, and from his mouth came out a low 'What?', nearly impossible to hear. For my part, I nearly burst out in laughter, but then I remembered that I was still mad at him, even though he had no more arguments to use against us, even though he was utterly defeated.

"Next time, try to think a little bit before unleashing your ridiculous strength, alright?" Morrigan concluded.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay..." Ikki replied, while rolling his eyes and sighing to the sky. "This is going to be a long night..." he murmured, but before any of us could say anything, he added aloud: "I said nothing!"

Just then, we heard the march of a new wave of Heartless that approached the house. We let out an unpleased sigh and returned to the entrance of the house. The group of monsters was even larger than the last one, and as we gazed to the clock tower, we found out that the fire of Taurus's temple had disappeared. We did not know how long had it been since the blue flame on the large, rock building had emitted its last flicker, but what I did know was that the feeling, that horrid feeling in my stomach, was getting more and more intense...

Though large in number, the Heartless fell easily to our blows. They were, after all, simple knights and bugs, accompanied by a small group of mages. They were all meat for the beast, so to speak. But the following wave of enemies, though not numerous, was much more troublesome...

Three Invisibles flew into us, accompanied by four wyverns, four Angel – like Heartless, and another enemy unknown to Ikki and me... Though we knew the weak point of the Invisibles, breaking their blades was not an easy task. Even the Phoenix saint had a bit of trouble in keeping up with the foe's fast swordplay. The Angel – like enemies proved to be a nuisance too, flying away from us, working their foul magic against us. In less than ten seconds, four small, yet powerful twisters stormed the house of Gemini, sucking us into their storm and away from our opponents. The wyverns attacked like before, but since we were busy fighting both the Invisibles and the Angel – like Heartless, things were not as simple. We could not merely fly into our preys while being chased by other vultures.

Ikki fought against both a wyvern and an Invisible with all of his strength. With time, he began to take control of the battle, and to drive back the wyvern, to the point were he was facing only the sword – wielding demon. The foe was not as fast as Ikki, and not before long, the Invisible lost his balance. But before the saint delivered the 'coupe de grace', his eyes reflected alarm and he covered his face with both arms. He then flew across the house and crashed against a wall... Something had hit him, and I could not guess what it had been (after all, I was very busy fighting against an Invisible, a wyvern, and two Angel – like Heartless).

"There is another enemy in here!!" Ikki warned us. "But I can't see him!"

"Damn it!" Morrigan exclaimed. "It must be a dark Chameleon, like the one we fought in the Deep Jungle!"

"How can I kill it??"

"I don't know! Tish eradicated it by bringing down a mountain on its bones!"

"Well, bringing down the house of Gemini won't do us much good, will it?!"

"We have no choice but to first kill our other enemies and then focus all of our strength in this adversary!" I suggested. "Let us be rid of these fell creatures so that we may together see the end of this battle! Battle on!"

The Angel – like Heartless that I was facing began to accumulate energy and to glow in a mystic way. I did not know what they were up to, but I knew it was no good. Fortunately, I was skillful enough to turn their schemes against them. As they fired two intense glowing balls of energy at me, my wings hardened on their own, and I knew what I had to do; I hit both energy balls with my wings, sending them back to meet their creators. Both foes were too slow to evade their own attacks and got hit by them. Although they did not die, they remained still, and stopped causing me trouble. I seized this moment, knowing that it could be over at any second, and grasped the Invisible's sword by its hilt, and then hit it as hard as I could. I did hurt my hand, but I succeeded in shattering the steel of the blade, hence, killing the Heartless.

Now for the bloody wyvern... I thought to myself as I flew at full speed at the damn demon. Again I wrapped my wings around my legs, turning into a deadly arrow, and driving myself through the Heartless. The Angel – like fiends were still dazed from their own stupidity, and I lost no time in finishing them with a swift attack from my wings, which turned into a thousand sharp tentacles, and went through them like bees on a hive.

Morrigan had already killed the Invisible that harassed her, but she still had plenty of trouble with the remaining wyverns and the Angel – like foe. I flew to her aid as quickly as I could and drove one of my fists through one of the wyvern's chest. The other one dropped his guard for a moment, and those few seconds became his undoing; Morrigan shot a fiery projectile at him, sending him into oblivion. The Angel – like fiend was the only adversary left, and he stood no chance against our combined forces.

Ikki was not doing as good. He had gotten rid of the Invisible, but the wyvern, the Angel – like Heartless and the giant Chameleon, which still remained unchecked by Morrigan and I. The Phoenix saint had a special gift: he could feel the enemy's attacks before they hit him, and that saved his life in battle...

"We cannot see him." I said. "Attacking him with direct attacks will not do any good. How did you manage to hit him the last time you faced him? Did he become visible at all?"

"Yes." Morrigan answered. "But it was Tish's magic and Sakura's wits that won us the battle. We shall have to do something else this time, since there are no leaves nearby and not you nor I know how to cast magic spells."

"We have our wings..." I said. "Let us turn them into sharp tentacles and swing them about us. Surely we will hit the foe. Is he large?"

"Enough to receive many blows." She said. "Let's do that!"

We quickly landed next to our companion and began to swing our wings as if they were whips. I heard a chilling roar and knew that we had succeeded in hitting the creature. We could still not see it, though, and kept on whipping the air about us, in hopes that the monster would become visible soon enough.

"It's going your way!" Ikki suddenly warned. "Move!!"

Without losing another second, Morrigan and I leapt high into the air. The floor beneath us crumbled under a mighty blow, but we could not see the hand of the giant that caused that mess... But instead of remaining in the air, I performed a reckless move: I attacked the invisible foe in the same fashion that I had killed the wyverns. Amazingly enough, my legs did penetrate its rock – like skin, and the foe became visible... It looked at me with its frightening eyes for a second and then swung its paw at me. I flew against a pillar, knocking it down, and then remained still as I tried to shake the terrible dizziness that had invaded me.

"Camille!!" I heard both of my companions yell, but did not move. I needed a bit of time before I could get myself back to my feet. But time was a luxury that I did not have. The ground shook under my body and I realized that the Chameleon was running at me. I had to fly away, lest I wanted my body to be shattered by its paws. But I simply could not find the strength in my legs to get up.

Something yanked my arm all of a sudden, and carried my away from the Chameleon. The dizziness left me and I realized that Ikki had saved me from the Heartless.

"Ikki... Thank you." I murmured.

"Sure. Just stay on focus." He replied. "Help Morrigan with the other two weaklings... I think that I know how to take this one out. Just leave it to me. Now, go!"

I did not have any idea of what he was up to, and so I flew to Morrigan's aid, who was being attacked by the Angel – like Heartless and the wyvern. The later enemy did not notice me and so I managed to go through it with my sharp wings. The other Heartless turned to face me and got ready to attack me, and that was when Morrigan let loose a fiery projectile that ended with its menace.

Ikki skillfully evaded the Chameleon's blows, while accumulating power in his fist. I could see an orange aura engulfing him, as if his body had caught fire. And after a few moments, the Phoenix's saint let out a terrible battle cry.

"PHANTOM PHOENIX'S FIST!!"

A small ray of light was shot out from his hand, and went right through the enemy's head. The Chameleon remained still and quiet for a moment, and then, its eyes began to spin in all directions before he fell to the ground. Morrigan and I saw in awe how it stayed there, without moving for a few seconds and then began to vanish, to fade like an illusion in a desert where the rain as come...

We had finally managed to end with the terrible wave of Heartless, but many fiends had gotten through the house. It was better to have them go through, I must say, than to have them attacked us. We would have had a much harder time in dealing with them, and maybe one of us would have been erased from the map... Me, most likely, for I had not been swift enough to dodge the Chameleon's terrible blow. But luckily, my strength was back and I was ready to defend the house of Gemini with my friends once more...

"How did you do that?" Morrigan asked Ikki. "I didn't think that it would just take a mere punch to finish that monster for good... What did you do to it?"

"I have the power to crush souls and minds." Ikki answered. "Though these creatures are void of a soul, it seems that some of them actually have thoughts in their heads. The Chameleon was one of these foes, and I took advantage of this: the technique I just performed destroyed his mind."

"That is great!" I exclaimed. "You should use this technique against the dark golden saint that is bound to appear..." but before I could go on, a sudden sound stole my attention and I turned to look at the clock tower. The fire of our temple had gone out.

The walls of the house began to tremble. We all became alert and turned to all directions, looking for our foe. But we found nothing. Instead, we found ourselves in some sort of nightmare, for all of a sudden, the walls, floor, and ceiling of the house began to stretch themselves into the outside, covering the nocturne sky with their rocks. The pillars multiplied by the hundreds, and the shadows of the temple grew thicker. The sound of the wind hushed, and every noise that we made echoed through the halls endlessly. It did not take me long to convince myself that our new enemy was the one doing this... And I grew afraid as I found no trace of him. We all slowly walked to the center of the hall and joined backs. This opponent was bound to be a terrible one...

"I can't use the Phantom Phoenix's Fist on the dark golden saint." Ikki murmured. "I tried it before, and it didn't work. And besides, you don't use the same technique against a golden saint twice. He can turn it against you."

"Where is he?" Morrigan asked. "I cannot even hear his breaths in this foul place. The house of Gemini is no longer the same temple... It's as if we had been transported into another world by a sudden power."

"The labyrinth of Gemini." Ikki whispered to himself. "I didn't got to know it before, but now I see it. The dark golden saint is using this... very real illusion to confuse us."

"'Very real'?" I asked. "Explain yourself, Ikki."

"Believe it or not, if we run through this endless corridor, we'll find ourselves running forever... We can't trust our eyes right now. Not one of my friends managed to get through this place in the former battle... except for Shiryu, who was blind at the moment. We must trust our other feelings; we must trust in the powers that we feel ahead of us..."

"Are you suggesting that we should solder on blindfold from this point?"

"Not quite... You see, Shun told me that Link had a rather unusual item: a mirror that could see the truth. Foreseeing such an occasion, I asked him if I could borrow his Magic Mirror for the time being..." and so he took out a fair mirror that had a purple handle, its glass was red and blue, and it shone mysteriously. "Hopefully, this thing will tell us what's real and what not, and we won't have to go... blindfold."

"Then raise it so we can see through it and discover our fate." Morrigan urged.

Ikki nodded and peered through the mirror. We did not know what to search for. It could be anything... An enemy... or a fake wall. But we saw nothing of the sort. Instead, we suddenly noticed, as Ikki slowly turned around, a ray of yellow light coming from one of the walls. The Phoenix's saint smiled and put the mirror down. There was nothing to be seen, apparently, but when he raised the mirror again, we saw the light.

"Blessed be that Hylian." I said, under my breath.

"Come on, let's go!" Ikki exclaimed, and we started to run behind him as he approached the fake wall from whence the light came. Ikki ran through the stone, and so did we. I did not even feel a breathe of air as I made my way into the other side. The illusion had been most convincing, but it was a fortune that Ikki had remembered this puzzle and grasped a quick solution.

We ran through the new corridor and found out another ray of light coming out of another wall. We quickly made our way through it and then stopped short. Before us was the tall, dark body of our opponent. Though we could distinctly see his armor and the engravings in it, we could not see the man's face, for it was clad in shadows. The enemy stared at us silently and as still as if he were yet another pillar in the house of Gemini.

"This is it..." Morrigan murmured as she raised her fists and got ready for battle.

Ikki slowly raised the mirror and looked through it. Morrigan got ready to charge at the foe and let out a battle cry as she began to fly at him. But before she could go far, Ikki stopped her.

"Don't!" he yelled. "That's an illusion! Look!" he gave the mirror to her and both of us peered through it. Indeed, there was nothing more than shadows in front of us... What kind of trick was our opponent playing us? "If you attack the illusion, it'll attack you back. And believe me, you don't want it to attack you back."

"Where is this black knight?" I asked.

"I have no idea... but be on your guard." Ikki said.

"The sight of that illusion is making the blood in my body boil." Morrigan said. "Should we get away from this demon before it decides to attack us?"

"It won't make a move unless you make one." The saint answered. "Just stay calm."

Again, we pressed our backs against each other and began to eye every corner of the corridor. Nothing could be seen. And we could not feel the presence of the fiend. Instinctively, I looked up, expecting to find a shadow in the ceiling, peering down at us. Yet I saw only more shadows. Again, my eyes returned the floor, and still there was nothing. The beating of our hearts began to race, and I could hear both of their scared breaths and I could feel them crashing against my skin. But then, we all fell silent as we heard a footstep. We all quickly gazed in the direction from whence it had come, and waited for something to come out of the shadows.

The sound was followed by another of the same sort, only that this one sounded louder. And then, a third footstep... The enemy was slowly moving toward us. We waited for a long while, and each footstep that he gave was accompanied by a gasp of our throats. And finally, the shadows rolled back on his body, uncovering it. This time, we needed no mirror to look at him. There he was, standing in front of us: the black saint of Gemini.

Before we could even say a word, the foe began to accumulate his power in his fist and a strange aura of black light engulfed him. His roar began to resonate in the walls, and we became quite alarmed.

"Oh, no..." Ikki muttered. "MOVE!!" and so he threw us aside. Morrigan and I crashed against a wall and looked back at Ikki as the dark golden saint unleashed his power.

"GALAXY EXPLOSION!!" he yelled in a malevolent voice.

The house of Gemini disappeared momentarily. The saint's power seemed to have brought the space to us: I could see planets and stars so close that, if I would have stretched my hands, I would have been able to touch them if they were real. But the beautiful scenery was suddenly broken by Ikki's cry of pain. As Morrigan and I looked upon him, we could see a terrible white blast of stars affecting his body and sending him crashing against the vastness of space. When the power of the enemy faded and all returned to normal, we saw that Ikki had crashed against a wall, and that he lay unconscious, his armor shattered to pieces...

"Oh, my God..." Morrigan murmured in a frightened breath. "If Ikki was beaten so easily, what can we do against this enemy?"

"I do not think that we will be able to beat him." I confessed. "But I rather die fighting than cowering behind a pillar..."

Morrigan turned to me and nodded silently. We got up and charged at the fiend at full speed.

The dark golden saint turned to us and, to our dismay, attacked us before we could even reach him.

"ANOTHER DIMENSION!!" he cried.

Again, the house vanished under the blackness of space. A sudden force stopped our flight and began to drag us away from the saint. I turned back and saw a black hole vacuuming the planets, the stars, and the light into its dark mouth. With a gasp, I turned my wings into tentacles and had them take a hold of one of the house's pillars. Luckily, I could still see them... Morrigan did the same thing and we held on for as much as we could. I then noticed that Ikki was beginning to fly into the monster's mouth... I could not let that happen. I swung a bit to my right and caught him before he flew into nothingness...

"Hold on, Phoenix!" I shouted. "Hold on!" but I could not think of something to save my friends and myself from the cruel fate that awaited us...

I heard a shattering sound, and turned to Morrigan. The pillar from which she was taking a hold of was breaking. With a gasp, I tried to get a hold of her with a tentacle... But she was too far away. She even tried to reach me with her hand by swinging back and forth... Yet not to avail. And then, the pillar broke, and Morrigan flew right into the black hole with a chilling yell.

"MORRIGAN!!" I yelled, but my friend had already disappeared in the black mouth of the abyss...

The saint cackled aloud and his power became fiercer. But I was no longer afraid... All I felt was a terrible wrath building inside of me... I began to gather as much power as I could in the palm of my hand and began to get ready to shoot it off in the form of a flaming projectile. How could that foul demon do such a thing? Not only had he defeated my friend... She had suffered a humiliating loss. I could only think about her, with tears in my eyes...

"I will... avenge you." I vowed, silently. And then, I fired a deadly blast, as I shouted: "DIE, MONSTER!!"

The saint tilted his head to one side and evaded the projectile. I thought it was all over, for I had no more strength to continue fighting. The pillar I was holding to began to break. I closed my eyes and thought about Wilheim: he assured me that there was a Heaven. But I did not know if I would be worthy of entering it... A thunderous noise reached my ears, and I knew that the pillar had broken.

But suddenly, my blast reached the far end of the corridor, and shattered a wall. The rocks of it became affected by the foe's technique and were dragged towards the black hole at such speed that they became blasts come out of a cannon. One of them hit the saint's head, and his helmet was knocked off. With a yell of pain, the enemy fell to his knees, and the illusion of space that had filled the room vanished. I turned into all directions, trying to find Morrigan, but my friend was nowhere to be seen.

The fiend growled and began to gather all of his power in his fist again. This time, however, I was on guard, and was ready to battle a deadly duel with the beast.

"GALAXY EXPLOSION!!"

I did not move. I could not move. I saw how the room became black once again, and an explosion of stars and stellar dust shattered it all. Some of the pillars came down and the walls about us crumbled. I did not feel any pain, nor fear... For it was not I who had received the blow: it had not been the dark saint who had fired such power.

The enemy yelled in pain for a moment and then hushed. His head suddenly was shot off from his shoulders. The black fiend fell to his knees and vanished. A golden glimpse of light blinded me for a moment. I covered my eyes with my hands and knelt alongside Ikki, who was still unconscious. I felt the light fade and turned to see what was the matter.

A tall man stood in front of me, clad in the golden armor of Gemini. He was beautiful: his hair was long and had a blue color, as his eyes. His face was manly and serious. His body was strong and tempting. He held his helmet under his arm respectfully, and a white cape hung from his shoulders. The labyrinth created by the foe disappeared as the saint approached me. I slowly stood up and sighed in relief: this newcomer was an ally, beyond any doubt.

"I wish I could say thank you for saving us, golden saint, but you are a moment too late." I said sadly. "For one of us has fallen to the power of the evil fiend that you have just vanquished."

"Then thank me already, because your friend isn't dead." He replied in a fair voice, and I gasped in surprise. "You managed to break the effect of his power before the other succubus could be sucked into another time and space. That is why she is safe. She is in Libra right now."

"Is she?" I said, clasping my hands and smiling in relief.

"Yes." The saint said. "I'm sorry that I couldn't help you sooner, but if I would've gotten closer, I would've been sucked into the void. I wouldn't have helped much that way, would I?"

Before I could answer, Ikki began to shake and opened his eyes.

"What the...?" he muttered. Then, he looked at the saint and urged me to help him to his feet. "Saga? How...? You should be dead..."

"I'm not Saga." The saint replied. "I don't know if you'll like to hear this... I am Saga's twin brother, Canon."

"Canon?" Ikki muttered in shock. His face was then filled by rage, and he said: "What the hell are you doing here? You are a traitor! It's because of you that Poseidon revived!"

"I know that I wronged Athena in the past..." he confessed. "But I have redeemed myself. That is why I have come here to help you..."

"Lies!!" Ikki cried, and all of a sudden, his armor appeared on his shoulders, no longer shattered. I could feel his burning strength renewed. Indeed, he was a flaming bird of the legend. "You lie!!" he prepared himself to attack him, but I stopped him.

"No, Ikki!" I yelled. "He saved us! It was he who destroyed the dark golden saint! Please, do not attack him!"

"What?" he muttered and turned to me.

"Listen well, Ikki." Canon intervened. "I understand why you are mad at me, but please, understand that I am no longer your enemy. I'm here to help. I'll stay here and help you guard the house of Gemini... And when all of this is over, I will submit myself to a trial, if that's the rest of the golden saints will."

Ikki stared at him silently for a while in suspicion.

"How can I trust you?" he asked.

"Strike me with your hardest blow." Canon replied. "Kill me, if that's your will. I will do nothing to stop it. Do the Phantom Phoenix's Fist, which kills both the mind and the soul. Even I can't handle a technique like that once it hits me." He said.

The Phoenix's saint turned to me with a questioning glance, and I smiled at him; there was no need for him to do such a thing. But the saint quickly turned back at Canon and yelled:

"PHANTOM PHOENIX'S FIST!!"

"IKKI, NO!" I cried.

Ikki had stopped his attack just before he had hit Canon's head. He slowly put his arm down and muttered:

"You didn't move."

"I already told you that I'm no longer the villain I was." Canon insisted.

"Very well, then. I'll trust you, for now. But then, the golden saints will have to decide what to do with you."

"That's fair enough."

"Camille... Where's Morrigan?" Ikki asked as he turned to me. I was still a bit shocked by the saint's reaction, so it took me a moment to answer.

"She... she is in Libra. Or so Canon said to me."

"In Libra? So... she's suffered the same fate as Hyoga." Ikki sighed.

"But there is no fiend in Libra waiting for her." Canon said. "The house is guarded by the Dragon's saint, and two other warriors. They will surely look after her."

"Thank God." I muttered. Knowing that my friend was now safe, a sudden lust invaded me. What can I say? I cannot help myself! "Well, at least we are alone now. And I deem that it would be very nice if we could just have some fun, the three of us."

"Huh?" Canon muttered.

"God, you're insatiable, woman!" Ikki exclaimed, with a sudden laugh, to my surprise, for he is not the laughing kind.

But we fell silent as we heard another wave of Heartless racing to the house. The battle had not been over. And surely, during the time we had been locked in the dark saint's illusion, a great deal of Heartless had gotten through... We looked at each other and nodded. Again, we were ready to fight off any intruder that dared enter the house of Gemini.

Cancer: Yuffie

It had been ages since we had started to fight against the Heartless in that stinking house. And when I say "stinking", I don't mean it as a euphemism. The place smelled terrible! It was as if someone had mopped the floor with crap or something like that... I know it's not a pretty picture, but hey, I was the one unfortunate enough to smell it. And so where my other two friends, Vincent and Ariel.

At first, not many monsters were getting to the temple, and that was fine with us. Ariel got to practice her sword techniques a lot. Even though she hadn't had enough time to train, Link had done a good job teaching her. She wasn't exactly the deadliest warrior, but she did just fine. She hadn't been hit a single time since the enemies started to arrive. Well, let's be fair: she had only been fighting off little mages, bug – like Heartless, some knights, and occasionally, a large, fat Heartless. But she hadn't destroyed any major foe. Vincent and I took care of the bigger packages.

As always, I was pretty fast and accurate with my shurikens. No enemy could withstand my speed and agility. After all, I am the best there is in Wutai. And if the foes managed to get past my shurikens, I'd beat them with my bare hands. That's all there was to it. I also had some materia I knew I could use if the occasion arose, but chose to keep it safe and not to take it out unless my life depended on it... 'Cause, you see, that materia belonged to the guys... Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Nanaki... You know. All those guys. And I kind of borrowed it without asking. And Vincent was one of them, so...

Speaking about Vincent, well, he was doing fine without my help. He was a pretty good shot and almost never missed. And the times that he did miss and the enemies ran up to him, he would hit them with that mean – looking claw of his and would send them into oblivion. So far, he hadn't transformed himself into anything unnatural. There hadn't been any need for it, and he doesn't like to show off. I say that he has no common sense when it comes to fighting: if you can do it, you have to show off. You can win a battle unless you do it with style. And don't say stuff like 'Oh, Yuffie doesn't know what she's talking about', 'cause I do. Ken is a smart man: he agrees with me.

Anyways, the fires on Aries, Taurus, and Gemini had gone out. I really don't know about the other two, but I just couldn't wait for the damn light to go out on our temple. I really wanted to give the dark golden saint a good kick in the butt. Everyone was always saying 'Ah, all the golden saints are the most powerful fighters on Earth!' Yeah, right. Like I couldn't beat one if I wished. And what angered me the most was that my two partners didn't believe that the saints could easily be taken care of.

"I'm kind of nervous about this..." Ariel said. "I don't know if we're going to be able to beat the dark golden saint. They're all much too powerful. And besides, they've got a whole army backing them up. If we don't do something about the Heartless, they're going to overwhelm us."

"Come on!" I replied. "It's not going to be that difficult. You'll see. Besides, why are you worried about the Heartless? Check this out." I paused as a wave of Heartless marched into the house. I took out about... five shurikens, I think, and threw them at the first five bozos that crossed the entrance. And guess what? Five out of five. Five clowns hit the ground and vanished into nothingness. The other ones were easy meat for Vincent's gun, my own fists, and even for Ariel's sword. When all was taken care of, I turned to her and said: "See? Now tell me that that wasn't a piece o' cake."

"Well, it was sort of easy, but don't you think that the dark golden saint is going to cause us more trouble?" Ariel asked.

"You worry too much, little mermaid." I said. "Come on, don't you see that we're kicking butt up here? Not a one Heartless has managed to go through the house. Do you think it'll be any different when the saint gets here?"

"It's good that you still have that cocky attitude, Yuffie." Vincent interrupted. "You're going to need it against this new wave of fiends. The wave is larger than I would've expected."

"Huh?" I walked to the entrance, next to him, as did Ariel, and we all checked out what was going on.

I didn't know what the hell the bozos at Gemini were doing... They were probably taking a nap or hiding in one corner of the house like three frightened chickens... But those guys were letting a lot of Heartless go through! It hadn't been like that for a while. The enemies that had managed to get to the temple had come from the sky or had climbed over the mountains. But not one had gotten through the third house. Sure, the fire in the clock tower was out, the dark golden saint was probably there, but still, that wasn't an excuse to let all those filths just run past them.

"That's a lot of Heartless..." I murmured, as I gazed on to the shadow that covered almost all the stairs that led from the third house into Cancer. "But, hey! Don't tell me that we can't take on them."

"Sure we can." Vincent said. "Yet I want you to know that things won't be easier with time..."

"Oh, won't they?" I mocked.

"I'll take these ones." Ariel declared. "Step back. I'm going to use a handful of my fire potions on them..." with that said, she took a hand into her pocked and took out a bunch of red little balls. With a loud yell, she threw them at the Heartless. A huge (and awesome) wall of flames came out of the ground, and closed in on the fiends.

"Whoa! Look at them go!!" I laughed as the pathetic enemies began to run in all directions and to roll over the ground in a desperate attempt to put the fire out. They were like little fireflies caught in a fierce draft of wind. "They're burning to ashes! Way to go, girl!"

"Yeah... thanks." Ariel said, somewhat shocked by my reaction (Yeah, I was kind of hysterical at the moment. Big deal).

"Well, that got us rid of some combats." Vincent said. "But we aren't done yet. Take a look at that..." he pointed at the clock tower. The fire on Cancer was flickering incessantly. It was clear to us that it was about to go out. "The dark golden saint of Cancer will be here soon. It'll mean a lot of trouble."

"There you go with that again." I sighed, rolling my eyes. "Come on, you guys! It's not like it's the end of the world because of this bozo."

"Actually, Yuffie, it could mean the end of this world if we lose." Vincent answered, coldly.

"Oh!" I snorted and slapped my forehead. "You're such a baby!"

"Hey, guys..." Ariel suddenly muttered. "I don't know how to explain it, but... haven't you noticed that the stench in this house is getting nastier and nastier by the minute?" her nose tickled for a few moments and then she covered it as she let out a moan.

I sniffed the air about me and realized that she was right.

"Eww!!" I cried, on the verge of... doing a very nasty thing. "Oh, God! What's with this house?! It smells as if somebody had eaten a bit too much of rotten food!"

Before I could complain more (believe me, I can complain all day about one thing if I want to), Vincent drew his gun and shot at the first of a new wave of Heartless that had come into the house. This time, things weren't as easy as before. Just a tad more difficult...

The new wave of Heartless included a bunch of Invisibles, a couple of wyverns, and my personal favorites: wizards that could teleport to anywhere they wanted. Those cowards always run away when they see you coming after them. They're like cockroaches, only that they're a lot faster when it comes to fleeing. And Ariel couldn't get rid of those guys by throwing a potion at them, 'cause they feasted on magical energies.

The wyverns were pretty quick, but Vincent and I were good at hunting them down. They only took one, maybe two shots or shurikens, and then they went down. Once the wyverns were out of our way, we concentrated our attacks on the stupid wizards. They were causing us a lot of trouble with their sudden lightning storms and their dark blades that emerged from beneath the ground. It would be easier to first take care of those clowns and then get back to the Invisibles that were so eager to try their strength against us. I was confident that Vincent and I would make it through this wave of enemies just fine, but when I turned to look at Ariel, I began to get a little scared.

Our friend had engaged a fierce duel with one of the Invisibles. Thank God it was only one and not two... She defended herself well, but she lacked the strength to break the blade of the Invisible, and there was no other way of killing the damn thing. The fiend had no trouble in parrying her blows, 'cause none of them was strong enough to shatter the sword. I wish that Link had taught Ariel a bit more about strength and a little less about speed and agility. That's all she had. She was fast and she was agile. But she wasn't strong. Her only hope was the both Vincent and I would get rid of the rest of the foes to race to her aid.

I was getting very tired of having to chase the stupid wizards all around the house. So I decided that it would be best to just guess. That's right: I thought about throwing shurikens in random directions each time one of those headless turkeys disappeared. Eventually, I had to get one of them. Of course, I would have to run and pick up my shurikens before I completely ran out of them. I didn't have the rest of my ammo with me (that's what happens when you get clumsy and leave the rest of your stuff back in the ship... I only wished that the machines would survive the battles. Especially Goofy and Donald's ship, 'cause both Jiminy Cricket and Pluto were inside it). But thankfully, on my fifth attempt, I succeeded in hitting one of the damn magicians. It let out a terrible cry and vanished. Its other companions seemed to be shocked by its death, and Vincent and I lost no time and attacked them with all that we had. A few shots, a few more shurikens, and there you go. No more wizards. Now it was time to focus on the Invisibles so we could go help Ariel...

I know that Vincent hates his claw, but he had to thank God that he had it, 'cause that was what helped him in getting rid of the Invisibles. The bullets of his gun didn't suffice in getting rid of them, so he had to take care of the foes with his metal hand. For my part, I wasn't in the mood of throwing shurikens anymore, so I decided to battle hand – to – hand with the stupid Invisibles. Since my main weapon, my big – ass shuriken is so large (and I'm so unbelievably good), I killed two Invisibles in one blow. By the time I was done, Vincent was still fighting against a second Invisible. It didn't take him long to end the battle. And when he was done, we both ran to help Ariel... But when we saw her, we gasped and hurried our step.

She had managed to defeat the Heartless, but her hand was all swollen and was bleeding. Her fingers curled up against the hilt of the blade, as if they didn't want to let it go, even though this hurt her hand more. Vincent reached her and tried to make her let go off her sword, while I covered their behinds keeping a keen eye on the house's entrance.

"Easy... easy... let go..." Vincent mumbled as he stretched the girl's hurt fingers.

"Ow... Ow!" she yelped, with tears practically running down her cheeks.

"What the hell did you do, Ariel?" I asked, without turning to see her hand. It sort of gave me a chill...

"The Heartless had me against the wall..." Ariel said, doing her best not to sob. "And then he tried to stab me... I managed to dodge the blow and to hold his sword with my foot. Then, I don't know what came over me, but I sensed that there was no other way out, and hit the blade with the hilt as hard as I could... I thought that I would be able to break it... and I did."

"Yeah, but you broke your fingers at it." I replied.

"Don't worry. It's nothing that a healing potion can't heal. You do have one, don't you?" Vincent asked.

"Yeah, a lot of them." Ariel said.

"Well, use one. And switch hands. Your fingers may recover from the blow, but I don't think it's wise to keep on battling enemies with a hurt hand."

"Next time you face an Invisible..." I began to say, but my words were cut off by a sudden sound. I knew what it had been. I raced to the entrance of the house and looked at the clock tower... the fire of Cancer had gone out. "Finally!!" I exclaimed. "It was about time! Come on, bring it on, dark golden saint!"

"Yuffie, be quiet!!" Vincent scolded.

"What for?" I replied. "He knows we're here anyhow..." I started to walk to him, but then I stepped on something odd. I first thought that it was perhaps one of the enemies' bodies, yet I then realized that those goofs don't leave a corpse when they die. I gulped and dared to look down... The floor had suddenly been covered by a strange mist. And the smell of the house had gotten even worse...

The mist slowly retracted and unveiled the scariest thing I've ever seen in my whole life. I felt how the color in my face vanished, and a terrible chill ran down my back as a silent cry escaped my lips. I even felt a tear of fright running down my cheek, and my heart began to pound its way up to my throat.

There was a face on the floor. A human face! And I don't mean it as if it were some sort of illusion looking up at me from behind a mirror... No: I could feel the dead face underneath my foot. And when the mist rolled back a bit more, I saw yet another face... and another... and another... and then I realized that the whole ground was covered with dead faces. All of them were twisted in suffering: an endless suffering within the walls of the cursed temple... They all screamed soundless cries, and each yell was terrifying. And that was not the worst of it. As I gazed at the walls, I saw that there were faces there, too... Countless dead faces of men, women... and children. Little kids' faces staring down at me with fright and disbelief... I let out a terrified moan and then I suddenly felt someone grab me and press me against him. It had been Vincent, who had turned my head against his neck and kept me from looking another way.

"What's going on, Vincent?" asked Ariel in a scared voice, but she wasn't as frightened as me... I suppose that she hadn't seen the faces yet.

"Don't look around you... Whatever you do, just don't look." He said, trying to stay calm. "Stay together and try to keep your eyes closed."

"Vincent...?" I stammered. "I – I thought t – that the house had been cleansed of t – this t – things..."

"I thought that, too." Vincent answered as he slowly left our side. "Stay calm. The dark golden saint must be somewhere around here..."

"Heh heh heh..." we heard a sudden laugh. Vincent and I turned to the voice, but I kept Ariel from looking at the house. I didn't want her to go through what I was going... From the depths of the house, a dark figure came. He was clad in black armor and was tall and strong... But his face wasn't in shadows. We could see his purplish hair and eyes and his evil grin... That wasn't a Heartless we were staring at! "Well, it seems that you kids don't like the decoration of my house. But I find it quite suiting... It's been a while since I last saw it like this."

"No... It can't be... Deathmask??" Vincent asked as he pointed at the man's head.

"It seems that some of your friends have said much about me, eh?" the dark golden saint cackled. "So, tell me. What have they told you about me? And it would be very nice if both girls would look at me when I speak to them."

"I don't think that Ariel needs to be exposed to such a dreadful place." Vincent replied, and I held Ariel's head firmly so that she wouldn't turn to face that monster.

"Do you think that this is dreadful?" Deathmask asked. "It doesn't look dreadful to me. Do you kids know what these dead faces mean to me? They are medals. Medals that I have gained by defeating evil. So I put them upon this house as prizes..."

"Faces...?" Ariel murmured in a gasp.

"Defeating evil?" Vincent muttered in shock. "You are with the Heartless, even if you are not a being void on the inside... How can you consider yourself a just person? And what's more, how can you speak of defeating evil when there are innocent children's faces upon your walls and women's as well?!" he demanded, no longer scared, but mad with fury.

"Those pitiful people were unfortunate enough to be walking near the places where I was battling." Deathmask explained. "They are worthy sacrifices, I believe. As for the Heartless, I've come to understand that... I'm better off with them. For power is greater than wisdom..."

"Do you mean you'd betray your goddess??" I ventured to ask.

"Call it whatever you like." Deathmask said and raised his guard. "But I'm through with words. Ready yourselves! There will be three new faces in the walls of Cancer quite soon..."

"We shall see about that!" Vincent cried and began to transform himself into I don't know what sort of ferocious beast.

But before he could complete his metamorphosis and fight against the evil saint, this latter one began to conjure a dark, malevolent technique... The walls of the house suddenly vanished. We became surrounded by an infinite blackness and a bright, ghostly aura engulfed Deathmask. He raised his finger and many spirits seemed to come from it as he put an evil grin on his face. I shivered along with Ariel and we both moaned in terror (yeah, yeah, I was being pretty cocky, shouldn't have underestimated the bastard, blah, blah... Don't you say anything).

"INFERNAL WAVES!!" he cried and a tunnel appeared over his head. A fierce wind began to come from it and it pulled us into it. We all cried, trying to resist it as best as we could, but we weren't strong enough. The gale was too intense for us to handle, and we were raised from our feet. I felt like a piece of paper dragged away by a draft... But I couldn't do a thing about it... And then we fell into the tunnel. I felt and even saw how our bodies fell into some sort of unearthly graveyard void of all color, into another dimension empty of life... I lost hold of Ariel's hand and Vincent escaped my sight. After a few moments, I lost consciousness...

Well, that's it for now. I had to rush things up a bit, 'cause it's been quite a while since I last updated, so...

Don't worry, though. I promise that I'll try to post the following chapters as soon as I can. Still on vacation, so there's still time to write. C' ya! :)