Author's note: Massive chapter warning. Okay, it's like this, next week I have 3 final exams, so you won't be hearing from me in a while, so as an apology, here's the biggest chapter I've ever made. We've got a rain of characters here, some expected, some not expected. Anyway, a quick note. I'll just make the time lapse the Shinra building and Esthar planets be of about six hours, okay? Okay. Enjoy, and don't forget to give your thoughts or ask if there is any doubt.

Ps: I hate the title charecter limit.

An Unending Struggle

Chapter Thirty-Six

Savannah of Darkness: The Lion vs The Red Eyes

Shinra building 1 PM:

"Goddamn it my head hurts!" Faris was clutching to her head, face down on the table. "When I get my hands on Jack I'll…"

"Food's ready!" Terra announced as she placed the turkey on the table. "We'll go get the rest now."

It wasn't a secret that nearly everyone was still recovering from Jack's little "prank", but in the middle of the confusion, headaches and laughter, the ones who would normally be the light of the party were not themselves.

"Bartz, you're not eating! Are you sick-slash-dying-slash-mad?" Lenna was freaking out, so was Garnet.

"Zidane too! It's an epidemic!"

"Chill out… something's just… off you know?" Bartz scratched his head as he tried to explain it. "I've had this feeling that I'm forgetting something since I got my crystal… and then I used all those weapons and attacks at Memoria… how?"

"Not just that, I mean, when I grabbed this thing over here." He waved the miniature Great Crystal that had bonded to him recently. "It's not just forgetting stuff, it's that feeling that someone out there needs my help."

"Can't say I feel the same, except for the whole forgetting part." Lenna nodded at Garnet's statement.

"I can work a way around that…" A small voice creped from behind them. They turned to see the young blonde drawing on a table near them.

"Sweet! When can you do it?" Bartz had already jumped off his seat, positioning his head way beyond Naminé's comfort zone. The girl panicked and threw the first thing she got a hold off into Bartz's face, her plate.

By this time, even before any word had been uttered, it was way too obvious what was going to follow. Just before it took place however, Naminé said. "After lunch, ask Aqua where my room is." And then she threw herself beneath the table as the fated scream arrived.

"FOOD FIGHT!" Zack yelled.

Mayhem was unleashed.

Interesting how a battlefield could change so much in so little time, irrational or not, both man and beast steered away from Squall's and the teen's fight. They circled, analyzing each other as the sun set in the distance. Squall had been in combat for several hours now, but he still felt as fresh as he was when he began.

"What's with that way of holding his weapon? No, what the heck IS his weapon?" Squall asked himself as he analyzed the situation. The teen was holding his weapon above his eyeline, pointing the tip towards its opponent. The weapon itself looked like a hybrid between a sword, a cog and a key. It's tip seemed to be made of a half of a red cog, an ominous azure eye plastered on the center, the sectioned shaft was composed by a gear in the middle that connected both sections, which were covered by black chains. The handle was also sectioned, the top part was made in a dark tone of grey, with another azure eye tainting the middle, the bottom was a red and gear like, finally the key chain-like extension resembled a gear at the tip.

"What should I call you?" The boy asked in a disgustingly smug tone.

"Why should you care?" Squall spat back, still analyzing his movements.

"You see, I don't want to get your name wrong, the look on your wives' face when she hears it will be priceless."

"Squall, Squall Leonheart. Just because the look on your face when you hear it from now on will be priceless. "

"You sure can talk, but Leon could too, didn't help him, not one bit." Those words stung Squall, they stung him deep inside.

"Leon…" He cringed as he said the name. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO LEON!" He shouted as he lunged towards the teen.

"What?" He screamed as he swiftly retaliated with a quick arced slash, one that was easily blocked, Squall's leg reaching his sternum and knocking him away. "Are we talking about the same Leon? Cause I'm sure as hell you can't have met him."

"If you say so, I guess we're not." Squall shot a quick, cocky smirk at the teen. Not that he felt the need to, but the flow of the battle was now with him. The boy had doubts, he didn't.

"Dammit, then who were you talking about?" The boy started to lose his composure, just what Squall needed. Squall sprinted through the field, his sword grinding the dirt as he rapidly approached the teen. Still confused about what had happened, he jumped upwards in an attempt to dodge. It was only in midair that he remembered who he was fighting.

"You make this too easy… Rough Divide!" Without further warning Squall bolted out of the ground directly below the teen, a trail of blue light following his revolver's trajectory, a trajectory that clashed right with the boy's chest. "What the…" Squall got a grinding feeling as sparks flew when the sword made contact. He quickly kicked the teen away, lading at a safe distance.

His pace was broken. And both fighters knew it.

"One thousand." Seifer cut down a Soldier, mentally congratulating himself for not losing too much of his edge. It worried him that the numbers didn't seem to go down, but he wasn't getting tired soon. It was then that he felt it, that presence.

"Greetings." Ultimecia faked a bow as she appeared from the midst of the confusion. Unfortunately for the Galabadia SeeD, they were overzealous as they saw their scourge, and rushed to assault her. In what seemed to be no time at all, arrows were craved deep into their bodies, falling lifelessly on the floor. "I kannot help but feel that I am not welkomed here. Why is that?"

"You? You're as welcomed as it gets, you can't imagine how much I wanted to be the one to cut that head off."

"Bold statement, but I was expekting to rekruit you again, what do you say? Sorkeress Knight?"

"The hell I will!" Seifer lunged forward, ready to make some debts be paid.

"Is the bodysuit giving him that resistance? If it is, how can I get past it?" Squall now observed the black, almost organic suit. The mixture of black and crimson was ominous, especially combined with that weird symbol, but that didn't matter for Squall, what mattered is that the whole body was covered in it, the waist even had a crimson cloth around it, extending to the knee section. "The only place I can hit him…"

"Is my face." The teen finished. Squall realized it, he was being read, and there was nothing he could do about it. "Be careful though, try to avoid the chin, it's protected." Okay, now he was just messing with him.

One shot.

"BOOM HEADSHOT!" Irvine screamed from the rock he was in. He had hit him straight in the temple, piercing it through and through. But he was still moving, not that Squall was shocked by it, he had seen much stranger things. He mentally thanked his friend, jumping towards the teen as soon as the bullet made impact. When he reached him, he unleashed a barrage of blows onto him, he could see the sparks of the rebounds, but he continued to wail at the opponent, who was incapacitated by his flinching. Soon enough, the teen was on the floor, Squall still mercilessly assaulting him with his Renzokouken. If he wasn't going to cut him, he was going to bruise him.

"Get… off me!" The teen exclaimed as he disappeared into a pool of darkness. Almost immediately after he burst out in flames. To counter it, Squall blocked his blade as he rose, turning in mid hair and landing his heel onto the teens face. As he fell, Squall fired multiple orbs of magic around him as he spun his gunblade. He then pulled the trigger, sending 360 degrees shockwave that managed to cut through the arm and chest portions of the cloth.

"Not as tough as you thought, huh?" Squall taunted as he landed on one knee. The teen was still laying down on the ground, arms stretched wide and his golden orbs glassed. "Is he dead?"He slowly approached him, but when he was inches away from the dark clad boy, he erupted in a maniacal laughter that even made him flinch.

"Yo lion…" He jumped back up. "The jungle might be your territory, but it's night now… the darkness is our territory." He smiled evilly as it dawned to Squall. It had really become night, what he didn't understand was what that would do to benefit the person in front of him. "Ever had that feeling you're being watched? You ever seen things that weren't there? Imagine… if they were…" Various screams filled the air, being quickly and sickly muffled. "If you stick around long enough… you might even get a look at death's… cold, red eyes."

"Seems our fun here has been kut short…" Ultimecia let out a dark laugh. "Why don't you reconsider my offer? That is, if you don't bekome food for our little pet." She finished as she disappeared into the darkness.

"Run for your lives!"

"Those eyes! It's death!"

"Retreat!"

"TO WHERE?" Seifert shouted, pausing the panicking crowd. "Look around you… the bastards formed a circle around us. We're trapped in their arena…" A roar resounded through the dark night, several screams arising and disappearing in moments. "And the beast is out."

"What do we do then?" The soldier still had an hateful tone against Seifert, understandable.

"We hunt it… before IT hunts US!" He replied, running into the darkness, the soldiers grudgingly following him, he was the best chance they had after all.

"It's getting darker…" The blue haired teen looked around. This wasn't night anymore, this was pure darkness.

"True… it was entertaining, but we must leave…" The cloud disappeared onto the encroaching darkness as the rattling of chains filled the darkening air.

"Serge, duck!" Was all he heard before being tackled to the ground by his blonde companion. For an instant he saw it all, it went so fast. Two streams of red. One large violet claw, as dark as the night, rattling the chains that were attached to it, barely missing Serge's back, to be more precise, it slashed his clothes, but left the skin intact. As the rest of the body hit the ground it trembled. The darkness still shrouded the beast, but they could see it, those blood red eyes. Serge could almost feel the icy gaze from the creature as he stared at him from its demented vision, seeing only two hearts, ready for the taking, in the midst of the redness.

A dark fireball crossed Serge, crashing right between the red eyes. The beast screeched, for a moment his fangs being visible between the darks flames, his eyes turning from the bright red into an equally eerie yellow.

"You okay Serge, Kid?" The silver haired teen asked, as he helped both his companions up.

"Been through worse." Kid shrugged.

"Never saw one of these before but…" The teen inspected it, and seemed to be smelling the air. "It's a heartless alright, and a mean one at that."

The creature roared in indignation before laying his eyes on the crest on the young man's shoulder. He immediately calmed down and turned, shrouding himself in darkness as he left.

"Damn, he's heading back to that guy… Can you move?"

"Really? Are you asking that? He didn't even touch us!" Kid stuck her toungue out at the guy.

"Okay, then MOVE!"

Bartz and Zidane had just come back from their bath when they decided it was time to pay Naminé a little visit.

"Yo Nam, you in there?" Zidane called as he knocked on Naminé's dorm room. They decided to peak in, they looked through a small creak beneath to see Garnet's boots, they decided it was safe to come in. They entered to see Naminé talking to Zidane´s wife and Bartz's girlfriend.

"I assure you, there's no risk at all, I just don't know if they WANT to have those memories back." Naminé was talking to a somewhat unconvinced Lenna and a worried Garnet, she was obviously explaining what could happen with her intervention. "Oh, you're here."

"Watchu talking bout?" Bartz interrogated as he looked at the bed Naminé was sitting in. "So, any progress?" He asked as he watched over Kuja's sleeping figure.

"Very slow… It's one thing to create memories or to lock them, but I changed his, it'll take some time. Unlocking is easy, but do you really want to do it?"

"What do you mean? Off course we wanna do it!" Bartz couldn't just put aside that void in his mind, he wouldn't just walk away from a chance to get some answers.

"The war may have caused you a lot of suffering… do you still want to revive all those moments?" She began twiddling with her fingers. "Sometimes… I wish I could just forget it all, don't you?"

"What are you talking about? If life was all unicorns and rainbows, would you value it?" The straight and clean answer took Naminé off guard. "Yeah, life can be a bitch sometimes, and I've been down a lot of times. I never had a biological father, and there was even times where I almost gave up on life…" Zidane remembered his escape from the pandemonium, where it took just about everyone to make him realize that live was worth living. "But I wouldn't trade them for anything, it's what makes you somebody… you understand where I'm coming from, don't you?"

"So memories make you somebody?" Naminé started giggling uncontrollably.

"What? What did I say?" Zidane started squirming uncomfortably, trying to find a flaw in what he had said.

"No, nothing, you just remind me of a boy I knew." Naminé replied, a tinge of melancholy tuning her voice.

"Was he as hot as the Bartzinator?" Bartz asked as he put his hands on his waist.

"You're not… spiky enough!" She gestured from her head outwards.

"Wha…"

"Enjoy." Naminé interrupted, laying her finger on Zidane and Bartz's head. They heard what seemed to be a key unlocking a door and feel flat on the bed, completely passed out.

"Is this normal?" Lenna asked in a worried tone.

"Perfectly, they'll be up in minutes!" Naminé reassured, returning to her treatment of Kuja.

Squall and the teen clashed in the arena of darkness that had formed around him. As the swords grinded against each other Squall couldn't let go of the feeling that he was playing right into his game.

"It happened when it got dark… but why? Unless…" Squall his eyes twitch, it was enough for him to sense something was going to happen.

"Kill." He calmly said, a maelstrom of wind appearing as claw erupted from the darkness. Already expecting something, Squall barely dodged, getting his left arm cut as he jumped right to avoid the gargantuan monster. "Look who has come to play…" The teen jumped on top of the beast, now in full display, leaning onto the dark magenta spike on his back. A black liquid oozed from his mouth, as if he was hungry for something, or someone. "Let me introduce him, I call him Red Eyes, catchy I know, much better than the boring name my master gave him… pfft Hunter of the Dark my ass! Anyway, why don't you get to know each other? I'll help of course." Just then, the air was cut by a projectile, one that he parried with his sword. The projectile turned to be giant key of some sorts, as it was deflected back to where it came, landing on the out stretched hand of its owner.

"Hey Van! You suck!" He yelled from the distance. "Can't take someone one on one so you just sick your dog at it? I'm embarrassed to look like you." The kid spoke the truth. It was almost creepy, were they twins? Besides the black hair differing from his brown, and his eyes being sky blue while Van's were golden, they were the exact copy from each other.

"Still alive? Really? Never send a machine to do a man's job." He jumped from the monster and slowly walked in the hill's direction. "Have it your way. One on one. And I don't mind if that annoying princess helps that guy out, I'm just that nice."

"That guy annoys me to no end!" The red haired girl mumbled. Squall had no idea of what was going on, but the situation seemed to be getting worse, not better. "Be careful."

"You know me, always careful!"

"Riiiiiiight…" The girl sighed as she began descending the hill. True to his word, Van let her pass right beside him, with no dangerous moves, it wasn't long before she joined Squall near the beast, who was eerily calm.

"No offense, but I'd rather have you staying back." Squall told her. He didn't trust strangers, much less a teenager like her, yeah he was a great fighter when he was seventeen, but that didn't magically make all teenagers have master skills.

"Just, don't underestimate me okay? I've been working hard. I'll help you and I won't take no for an answer." Squall could see that there was no way around this, so he just decided to play it safe to evaluate her skills before doing anything rash.

"Fine, I'm Squall." He looked at her surprised expression, why was he introducing himself now? "You can't cooperate if you don't know what to call your partner, right?" He explained dryly.

"R-right! I'm Kairi. He's…" Squall had already left. He quickly stepped to the left, giving the impression he was going attack from the right, but he quickly darted left. The beast realized it quickly and claw at the young man, who skillfully blocked the claws with the edge of his sword.

"She got the memo…" He remarked as he saw Kairi land on the monster's head, her right hand shinning in clear light and slamming it in one of the eyes. The creature shrieked and knocked the girl off it, cloaking itself in shadows and disappearing. "Not bad…"

"Did it… run away?" She asked as she relentlessly tried to find the creature.

"Don't think so… Damn!" For a moment, Squall saw two red trail, acting instinctively, he dove towards the girl and propelled both of them upwards with a bolt of fire from his gunblade. Milliseconds later a giant shadow swopped the place where Kairi once stood, grunting in displeasure as it disappeared.

"Thank you Squall." Kairi told him with an honest smile.

"Don't worry about it…" He landed safely and started scouting for more possible attacks. "We need to figure out a… what are you holding?"

"My Keyblade." She replied flatly.

"A Keyblade? That's a damned floral arrangement! Is she really going to fight with that?" Squall asked himself as he observed the flowery dent that the edge was, light orange and red shaft with vines adorning it and the heart like hilt, a wave covering the right side. To make it worse, it had a STAR attached to it by a cord. "Listen I…"

"It cuts." She swiped the seemingly harmless Keyblade at a rock, flawlessly cutting it in two.

"Okay… forget I ever said anything…" Squall tried to keep a straight face after what he saw, but her giggle made him realize it didn't work as well as it should.

"Behind you!" She exclaimed as she pointed at Squall with the blazing tip of her Keyblade. Squall immediately jumped to the right, dodging the fireball that went on to make the Heartless jump to avoid it. While the enemy was in midair, Squall knew it was his shot. He raised his gunblade upwards and concentrated all his power on it, the gunblade grew to at least ten times its original length, its blade being replaced by pure energy.

"How about this, big guy?" He asked as he slammed the blade onto its back. The beast wept as its body was whipped to the floor, landing with a resounding crash. Kairi then threw her weapon at it, lodging itself right into its hurt eye, ending his vision from it. The heartless squirmed before coming to a halt, resting seemingly lifeless on the floor.

"Is it dead?" Kairi asked as she walked over to hit, plucking her Keyblade from its body.

"Looks like it…" Squall commented. He jinxed it. Without a warning, the beast burst out in a somersault, ignoring both the girl and the man and landed near a pile of Shadow heartless, beginning to devour them. As both stood in shock, the beast locked back at them, eyes cured and returning to its crimson hue. It was time for round two.

The Red Eyes somersaulted forward again, crimson flames covering its tail, slamming it right between the two. Kairi barely dodged it, but Squall was already countering. He jumped towards the eyes, now obviously his weak point, but it just spun in the same manner of the somersault, knocking the man back. Squall landed safely on one knee only to discover the heartless jumping around in a circle around them, his eyes never once leaving his prey. It was just waiting for one slip, one opening. It eventually locked on to Squall's left side, now that his left arm was badly injured. Without warning, he lunged forward, swiping his claw at the young man's left side.

"Damn!" Squall cursed as he realized that he couldn't react fast enough because of his arm. But before the word was even finished Kairi had already jumped in front of him and blocked the claw. They never expected being outsmarted by a heartless though. The heartless somersaulted yet again forward, it's tail wiping both Kairi and Squall, smashing them to the ground.

"KAIRI!" The kid yelled from the top of the hill, making a run for the floored red hair.

"Where do you think you're going?" Van sunk on the ground, reappearing in a burst of red flames right in front of the teen who cut through the flames and faced the aggressor.

"OUT OF THE WAY VANITAS!" He yelled as fury took over his sky blue eyes.

"Didn't you say you wanted a one on one?" He reassumed his fighting position with a mocking smile.

Slowly but surely the Heartless closed in on the duo, his mane fluttering to the unseen wind. He smelled Squall's chest area first, then Kairi's. His eyes jolted as if he had found a banquet.

"KAIRI, OPEN YOUR EYES!" it was no use, she was out cold, and so was Squall. The cavernous maws that they called that Heartless' mouth began to open, and wrapped around the girl's body.

Bartz's brain was having difficulty assimilating all that information at once. The 12th cycle, Kuja's betrayal, along with Kain's farce of a betrayal. Cloud, Tidus and Terra being Warriors of Chaos. The 13th cycle and his struggle to get out of the trap the forces of Chaos prepared for him, rescuing Zidane, defeating Exdeath two times, albeit he wasn't alone on the second one, and seeing Chaos fall by Terra's hand. He even remembered his mano a mano with Gilgamesh, now bursting in laughter to how both acted. But there was something he couldn't forgive himself for…

Zidane was in a similar situation, his memories of Kuja, now seemingly enhanced to the point where he could see his brother secretly trying to help him made grit his teeth at how useless he had been. He felt useless even when he got knocked out early in the fight with Chaos, trying to protect the young Onion Knight. He only woke up to see Chaos explode. But, how could he forget…

"SQUALL!" They both cried before splashing face first on the shallow water. Confused at how they could have water on their room, they quickly jumped up and looked around. The calm, shallow water covering the white landscape that housed polished white remains of a sanctuary couldn't fool them. In the midst of all the white and azure lines was a throne, a throne where the person they once called goddess sat upon.

"Welcome, Bartz, Zidane… my warriors." Cosmos greeted in her serene and calming voice, it was like an orchestra played the beautiful sounds that came out of the mouth of the Goddess.

"Cosmos! You're alive?" Zidane gapped as he ran up to the throne, kneeling when he got near it.

"I returned after you defeated Chaos…" She began, slowly lifting herself up, she appeared to be very debilitated. "But I chose to remain here. The outside world is not my own, I am just a manikin of Cid's wife. I belong here." Bartz and Zidane jolted up to counter argument but Cosmos waved at them to stop as she continued. "You are not here so to say, your bodies are more like material projections that my crystals are maintaining, this causes me to be exhausted in a very short time lapse." She began to cough, falling to her chair once again. "The reason I called you here is… Squall will not make it." She gestured her hand and a small circle of water in front of Bartz and Zidane showed a beast slowly mouthing both Squall and a girl they didn't know.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Bartz asked desperately. He even began trying to punch the water the beast was in, obviously doing nothing but obscure the vision.

"I can only maintain your form for a few seconds, now listen to what I have to say…"

"I wonder how strong it will become after eating two succulent hearts like those." Vanitas taunted as he blocked yet another escape from the teen. "C'mon Sora, you can do better than that!"

"Just shut up! I'll get through even if it's the last thing I do!" He lunged forward, diverging in three images, in an attempt to get through. Vanitas smirked and divided the eight, two of them cutting through the fake ones while the other six piled up on the real Sora, who could only watch helplessly.

"Don't worry, I'll end you just after you see her die."

Sora watched as the beast was about to shut his jaw, time went too slow. He couldn't do anything!

An inhuman shriek. A cross of flames. Squall managed to open his eyes in time to see the heartless jump back, sliding his head through the ground in an attempt to douse the red hot flames.

"Debt paid." Seifer told Squall as he landed in front of him.

"Captain!" A soldier cried before getting blocked by a manikin. "We'll handle these guys!"

"Fine, get up Squall." Seifer ordered.

Squall did his best to get up but his body was all sore from the whip.

"Curaga!" Kairi chanted, filling both her and Squall with a burst of green light.

"I'm a bit tired… but this should let us move."

The beast roared in fury as the flames subsided. The light around its body began to distort and as it moved its body erratically, red, blue and green afterimages were left behind.

"Get ready!" Seifer shouted, pointing his blade at the monster. In a flash, the monster jumped towards him and clawed at him. Seifer avoided it by jumping backwards but he didn't expect a green afterimage to detach from the body and swipe at him, and it was real, way too real. He blocked the blow, and then another from the red one, and then another from the blue one. The beast was then already on top of him, but Squall and Kairi were there to intercept. The monster screeched as they plunged their blades on its right leg, but then sent the three afterimages on different directions, knocking them all back.

It began running around them, leaving afterimages behind as he sped up considerably. He continued to increase his speed further and further until he was nothing more than a multicolored blur rotation around them. Without warning, he lashed out from the circle in a charge, hitting Kairi and sending her body flying like a ragdoll.

"Damn!" Seifer cursed as he jumped to avoid one of the clones, but in midair he didn't have ground to propel himself from the second one and was too knocked against a rock, cracking both his ribs and the rock.

Squall was left alone in the typhoon of darkness. He closed his eyes and tried to feel the charge, not see it. He jumped up like Seifer, but just enough to land on the clone, stabbing it's back and destroying it, he then dodged the second one, stabbing the side of its body and propelling himself upwards. He finally decapitated the red clone, ending the cyclone. But there was something missing. Still in midair he looked up. "No!" The real one crashed on top of him, cracking the earth as both him and Squall landed.

The lion's heart stopped.

He found himself drifting through the darkness. His whole life flashed in front of his eyes, it all felt so pointless now…

Bump…

He saw a blonde woman appear in front of him.

Bump.

"Just a little longer Squall." She said.

Bump.

"You have people waiting for you." The calm voice serenaded his ears. "You promised them."

Bump!

"You can have my power, now go! All will be clear soon."

BUMP!

The crystal he had stored on his right pocket flared, restoring every ounce of energy to his body and more. He felt his conscience come back as his heart was flaring with confidence.

"Wait for me, Rinoa, Leon…"

As Squall opened his eyes he began emitting a pure silver light, the heartless screamed in pain and jumped back, staring at the prey who had come back from the clutches of Hades.

"A lion's heart never stops until it accomplishes what he's doing. Even if it does, I'll just make it beat again! LIONHEART!" He raised his gunblade upwards, its blade growing a few inches and becoming clear blue. The hilt now black, a silver lion adorning its top. With guttural roar, Squall disappeared into thin air, reappearing right bellow the creature's jaw, unleashing a flurry of eight blows upon the creature. It lost any notion of where it was as Squall capitalized on it, hitting it's chin with such force that it sent it flying, more than fifty feet on the air. He then slashed, stabbed, and ripped through the monster seventeen times, each attack stronger than the last one. He finally stopped the assault as he concentrated every bit of power he had on his sword, flaring up in a star-like shine. "End of heart!" He cut through the Red Eyes with one fell swoop, leaving a trail of stardust in its wake. "Mission accomplished."The ensuing explosion cleared out the darkness, the sky returning to a beautiful night sky.

Squall landed on the ground, looking at Vanitas and signaling him to come.

"That was a pretty impressive lightshow, but I'm afraid I'm not the one who will kill you." Just as he said that, the Red Eyes landed on his feet right next to Squall.

"Maybe I was wrong, if you were on my league, you would see."

"What are you talking about?"

Squall passed right besides the heartless, who made no reaction.

"It's already dead." And the heartless vanished into the wind.

"How the…" Then Vanitas saw what he wanted. Squall fell to one knee, Kairi was unconscious, Seifer couldn't move, neither could Sora. "Guess I'll just have to finish the job!" He sunk into the ground, a puddle of crimson and black darkness forming, quickly darting towards Squall.

"Squall, move!" Zell shouted before being pinned down by two manikins.

"This is as far as I go, huh?" Squall lamented as Vanitas rose in front of him.

"You know, I really liked my pet. Guess I'll just use your heart to make me another one!"

"Five seconds." Squall heard. Just then two figures bolted from god knows where, cutting through the black haired teen, leaving an X-shaped scar on him. "Time's up, see ya in a bit Squall!" His saviors told him as they disappeared. It was too fast for Squall to perceive who they were, but the voice felt familiar.

"Can you walk?" A silver haired teen asked him, pulling him up.

"Don't worry about me…" Squall replied as he forcefully kept himself up, even if it seemed the whole world wanted to bring him down. "Who are you?"

"An ally, now let's get out of here, call off the attack."

"Why, we're almost winning."

"On the contrary." The teen pointed to the squirming Vanitas, with every scream he let out, more blue-ish abominations came out from his body, and as if it wasn't bad enough, Heartless Behemoths roared in the distance.

"Laguna, this is Squall, call it off! Last resort!" Squall said to the intercom. "ALL TO THE CITY!" He ordered. Kairi managed to get up and Sora helped her run. Seifer refused any kind of help, even from Fujin and Raijin.

"Activate our reserve power generator! I want a shield around the city!" Laguna shouted to the intercom at the Ragnarock.

"But Mr. President, that shield will last one day, two max!" One of the engineers replied.

"That'll give us two days to think of something! Now, when I say to do it, you raise the shield!"

"Are we going to let them eskape?" Ultimecia asked.

"The rats are only cornered, they will have to come back to us… Besides, we have visitors." She looked back into the portal that had just opened, analyzing Lezard's homunculi. "That "Lezard" sent you, we presume?"

They simply nodded with blank expressions covering their young faces.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Vanitas asked as he arrived and saw the two homunculi, they exchanged looks, Vanitas was downright disgusted at them.

"Language boy." Ultimecia mocked.

"Watch it witch!"

"Your master isn't here anymore, you'll be the one "watching it" boy!"

"Are they allies?" The girl asked the boy.

"I don't care, we have to put up with them." He coldly replied, looking at the dome that was raised around Eshtar.

"Who were those guys?" Squall asked himself as he saw the dome close, their enemies trying to break it in vain.

"Guys!" Bartz yelled as he jumped out from his bed, startling everyone around him. "We gotta go!"

"But the ship's not ready." Lenna told him. "What happened Bartz?"

"I'll explain latter." He said, putting Kuja on his back.

"What are you doing?" Naminé asked as she tried to figure out what they were doing to her patient.

"You have to come, so we'll bring him with us, don't worry, he can take it." Zidane told her, grabbing her by her hand.

"The ship's ready you know."Garnet intervened. "But shouldn't we rest?"

"No, let's go!" Bartz said bluntly, running up to the halway.

"Obligatory main character appearance… I mean… Where are you going Bartz'" Shin asked as he saw him go down the hallway.

"The same place you're going."

In the middle of nothingness a body slowly floated, heading nowhere. Suddenly, a giant shadow appeared over the body. The man's amber eye opened.

Next Chapter:

"A suitable proposal."

"The emoness in the room is intoxicating."

"I…was on their side?"

Post-chapter note: For those who don't know, I'll save you the trouble. Serge and Kid are from Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger's sequel, they'll just have the same kindof part as Crono really, unless I change my mind. And you can guess who Leon is, can't ya? Finally, End of Heart is Lion Heart's original name, and let's face it, it's cooler.