Chapter 37: Get Real

A/N: So I totally stole this chapter title. It is actually the name of a very good, albeit slightly low-budget, British flick from the late 90's. I'm not going to tell you anymore about it, as my ringing endorsement should be good enough. XP Well, I'll let you know it's on Youtube. But that's all, I promise. ;D

Also, does anyone here like the darker storyline, or are you guys just suffering through it in hopes of a happy ending? What is your motivation for reading this piece of fiction? Curiousness, you know.

TCBT

"Open up!" I shout for the fifth time as I continue to pound on the big metal door thing. Everyone else is just kind of lounging around, waiting with disinterest to see if something will actually prompt said door to fly open and smack me in the face.

Rei is still kind of ticked at me, not that I care. And I'm definitely still mad at Lloyd. I mean, Fujin is the one who had to save me. Up until now, Lloyd was the one doing that stuff. He was my frickin' rock. Then I kiss him and all of a sudden he's Rei's best friend. Stupid men. Sometimes I just want to strangle him. Did taking him away from his friends and family change him for the worse or something? I mean, I haven't changed that much since I've come to Gaia.

Yeah, we're standing in front of a door that leads into some sort of metallic fort that has been built into the mountain. Which doesn't make sense, seeing as how the dwarves in FFIX didn't have doors to speak of, and were generally friendly. Then again, this could be someone other than the dwarves, but what is the likelihood of that. Actually, I guess it is pretty high. Considering this isn't really a videogame and all.

Sometimes I still find it hard to realize that this is all real. I grew up being taught that you shouldn't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see (unless it was Bible-related, but I should think my opinion on religion in general is old news by now). There weren't any great fantasies that were realistic. Everything was played up, so that people knew it was fake. These things just couldn't happen. Except they did. They happened to me. It happened to Fujin and Hermione.

It also happened to Lloyd, but he seems to have adapted better than I ever could. He was traveling between worlds before I met up with him, so this type of thing isn't particularly unusual to him. In fact, I haven't really heard him talk much about Sylvarant or Te'thealla unless I bring the subject up. Is it avoidance on his part? Is he trying to not deal with the reality of his situation?

And what of those people from Earth? Cami and Kaoru? How are they coping, I wonder. I mean, they're in worlds that aren't there own (although I suppose that since this is my world things are slightly different), although they went there by choice. Reala did say that Kaoru wished to be with Lloyd and the others. So it presumable that Cami did the same thing. How many other people are there, though, out living in "fantasy" worlds, things constructed by higher beings for their own pleasure or whatever. Although, technically, I could point out that that is the same concept of many of the major religions on Earth and whatnot, but clearly that is pointless. I'm living in the world of Zidane and Freya, not Shinji and Asuka.

After screaming a couple of choice curses at the door that remains unopened, I walk past my little group. Fujin effectively ignores me, but Lloyd looks like he has something he wants to say. Rei just gives me a dirty look. Clearly she's still upset over the fight we had yesterday. I don't care. I never liked her, really.

Trudging along the dusty dirt path until I round a corner and am sure I'm out of their sight, I release a heavy sigh. And it's not a straight out sigh, either. Halfway through it finds itself punctuated by small sobs.

Rick is so not up for this whole thing. I don't know why I'm even doing it: traveling around the world and seeing the sights hasn't exactly been an adventure I'd want to remember, even if it's one I'll never be able to forget. Watching people die, even becoming covered in their blood, that's something that truly traumatizes a person. I still have nightmares of Seifer ripping his sword out of Raijin and laughing.

A few small stones fall off the mountainside as I stand at the edge of the path. It's not a straight shot down. If i were to jump, I'd hit all kinds of things before impacting the ground.

Where did that thought come from?

Good lord, I'm really scaring myself. But it does make some sick sort of sense. If I killed myself, Hermione wouldn't see any need to stay with Maleficent and might not, you know, start killing people. Not that I think Hermione would do that, but I also never thought I would being doing the things I've been doing. I tried to kill Dagger because she stole my satchel! I've been a pretty crappy person, before and after Gaia. My relationship with my parents on Earth was about my convenience only. And here... Well, my relationship with my parents here is about the same. I watched my father die. I cheated on Michael and refused to go to his funeral because I didn't deserve to be there.

Why can't I ever move past these things? I swear, it's like I'm some kind of freaking masochist or something. And I really just want everything to stop. Maybe I should have stayed behind and let Maleficent make me a Heartless like King Mickey. It's not like I would have had to deal with any of this stuff that I do now. There would be no Kodachi, no Rei, no Lloyd. But would my life improve as a Heartless? Would I even have a life?

"What's up?"

I don't even bother turning around. Anyone with half a brain would know that it's Lloyd. He's the only of the four of us that gives a damn about anyone else. When did we all become so jaded and self-obsessed? Why is everyone so effed up that we can't think straight anymore?

I don't even have the energy to make such an obvious joke...

"Rick? Are you okay?"

There's no way to answer that question honestly. No, I am NOT okay. I'm probably the farthest thing from it. I spend hours upon hours over-analyzing my life, and I stay stuck on the same problems while the universe just adds more and more onto the pile. But unless Lloyd has this special mystical power to kill Maleficent, which apparently a Keyblade is unable to do, then there's no point in bothering with worrying him, is there?

There's a hand on my shoulder. Why does he care so much?

"Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend?" I scoff. The last thing Lloyd needs is for me to drag him down. I've done that with too many people. "I mean, you made it perfectly clear that you prefer her to me."

"What are you talking about?"

Shrugging odd his hand, I turn around and put an accusing finger in the middle of Lloyd's chest. "You sided with Rei! After she tried to kill me, you comforted her! You clearly don't care about me."

"Are you still on that?"

"Why wouldn't I be, Lloyd? I kiss you, and then you run off to be with Rei. That says loads," I hiss. I stare at my hands rather than his face. It's kind of odd to me how the MCoDs haven't been active at all lately. Usually when I'm annoyed like this, they go into a thirst for blood, but there's been... nothing. How they realized that they're essentially useless? Or has my subconscious finally realized that they're little more than an exercise in immaturity on my part? (A/N: It could also be that the author has lost all desire for using them as a comedic device. ;P)

"I didn't run off to be with Rei, she was being attacked by your friend!" he counters.

Seeing something twitch in the corner of my eye, I turn my head but don't see a thing. I would say it was my imagination, but whenever someone in a movie thinks that, they end up with a chainsaw in the face. And I would go check it out, but again, the movies say you get a chainsaw in the face.

"Rick, quit ignoring me, this is serious!" Lloyd says as he puts a hand on my shoulder. "We need to talk."

"No, we need to leave," I say. Even if it is just my instincts, I really don't like the image of a chainsaw in my face. At all. And with my luck, it'll be Edward from FFVI and not Jason who does the chain-sawing.

I'm going to stop talking about chainsaws now.

Stepping around Lloyd, I start running back to the others. This is not something that I want to deal with. My personal life is messy enough without as-of-yet unknown monsters waiting to attack. I start to round the corner, Lloyd shouting for me to stop, when I trip and fall flat on my face. The thing is, I didn't trip on a rock. No, something grabbed me. And when I see what it is, I start screaming. I scream incredibly loud.

Yellow eyes stare at me as black claws use my leg as leverage to pull itself out of the ground. Please not now, whatever diety is out there listening to me that I may or may not have dissed in a fit of rage, send down an angel or a bolt of lightning to save me.

"Rick!" Lloyd screams as he attempts to kick the Heartless off me, only to fail miserably as his foot goes through it like it were made of water. "What in the name of Martel..."

Then more of them start to climb out of the dirt and stone, swarming around us. I continue to scream incoherently as the soulless creatures begin to tear at my legs, shredding the fabric of my pants with its claws that seem to be corporeal only when it deems necessary. God, it hurts. And I can only listen as Lloyd too begins to scream as the monstrosities begin covering his body.

"What are you guys doing?" I hear Rei ask. "I swear, if someone is getting kinky without m..."

She stops in midsentence when she finally comes into view. Then a Heartless leaps at her. Holding up her hands, she fires off an ice spell and the Heartless vanishes. I forgot that they were vulnerable to magic. But that doesn't explain how Goofy was able to destroy them, since he had neither magic nor Keyblade. Unless his shield was blessed or something.



Focus Rick, you're being attacked by Heartless. That can only mean one of two things. Either Maleficent is here, or Organization XIII has decided to show up in Gaia as well. And I honestly don't know which one would be worse.

With careful precision, Rei begins to fire off controlled blasts of magic. Which would be fine, if it weren't for the fact that Rei is more used to just throwing magic around without a care, and it's taking a lot of her concentration. That, and they're showing up faster than she can deal with them.

Fujin joins the fray, letting her chakram fly, but it is as ineffective as I knew it would be. Soon enough, Rei is overwhelmed and the entire mountainside is blacker than midnight. The clouds, and indeed the entire sky itself, begin twisting and grower generally darker. As I struggle to breathe, Rei decides to let off with control and just begins blindly firing off blasts of fire and lightning.

"Don't worry children, they won't steal your hearts unless I tell them, too. Surely you know that, Richard," an eerily familiar voice echoes. Ladies and gentlemen, this isn't Maleficent I'm dealing with.

Hermione descends from the still twisting sky and lands right in front of me. She's back to her human form, and is possessing her wand once more. However, she's wearing robes so black that emo children would literally kill to get them. She holds her wand up and the Heartless stand down. Rei doesn't, though, and one of her lightning strikes hits the top of the mountain. Rock and boulders begin falling down at us until Hermione flicks her wrist and they just cease to be.

"Hermione!" Rei gasps in shock. "What are you doing here? I haven't seen you since the day the Academy was attacked."

"Hmph, hello Rei," the witch answers before redirecting her attention at me, the boy lying on the ground at her feet because my legs are too cut up and pained for me to stand. "Since when do you spend all of your time with guys? I always had you pegged as the more womanly type."

I would tell her that Fujin is a woman, but I think the flying blade of death tells the story well enough.

With a yawn, Hermione blasts the chakram into tiny pieces. And when Fujin leaps into the air for a more direct attack, she lazily points her wand in the direction of the warrior.

"Avada Kedavra."

Green bursts from the tip of the wand and strikes Fujin in the centre of her chest. She goes slack immediately, but momentum carries her body forward until it lands about five feet from me.

Turning away, I fight the urge to vomit. Oh my god. Hermione just killed Fujin. I...

Unable to control my body, the meagre provisions of cacti that I'd eaten for breakfast spill out on Hermione's boots until I start dry-heaving. Tears pour down my face so heavily that I don't see her foot until it strikes me in the face.

"Fujin?" Rei kneels down and shakes the corpse of the green-clad warrior to no avail. "Hey, are you awake? Come on, wake up!

"Hermione! You killed him!" the girl with the blue hair screams as she looks up at the witch. "What are you doing?"

"Of course I killed him, it was the Killing Curse, after all," laughs the Brit.

This isn't happening. I tell myself that between sobs and heaves as my body continues to empty itself of fluids that I don't have. Blood dribbles down my chin from a gouge in my lip I acquired when Hermione kicked me.

"What do you want?" I sob as I painfully move a hand to mouth to try to suppress the bleeding.

"Do I have to want something? Can't I just come here and kill you for the heck of it?"

This isn't like Hermione at all. She's not cruel. She is abhorred by the thought of murder. And yet she's already managed to kill our most able fighter without batting an eye. What did those weeks alone with Maleficent do to her? Is this her way of getting revenge on me for not telling her about Fujin?

"Actually, there is something I should get while I'm here..." the girl mutters to herself. The Heartless move out of her way as she struts over to Fujin. I half expect the warrior to bound up and beat on Hermione, but instead she just lies there. Rei shrinks back when Hermione kneels down and pulls away the eye patch. She reaches inside and grabs the yellow orb that is Fujin's Sense Materia.

Fujin just lies there.

"Okay, you can have them," she says to her innumerable hordes as she holds the Materia up to her face. Then I feel yet another claw rip into my leg. Then my back. Suddenly, cuts and scratches begin appearing all over my body. Then one of the Heartless settles itself on my back and thrusts its hand into my body. But there isn't any pain. And when I realize why, I start screaming again out of panic.

"NO!" Rei screams as she vaporizes the Heartless on my back just seconds before I become one of them. She throws spels, each one more and more powerful, but it isn't even denting the forces. And one flies at Hermione, only to disappear with a casual flick of the wrist.

"Please, I was a genius before all of this," she gloats softly as Rei struggles to save Lloyd and me, as well as herself. "Do you think I hadn't planned on you being here?"

Then she taps the Materia with her wand. The light it emits begin to dull, flickering out like a candle. And then yellow colour begins to perverse itself to a solid black hue. And once the transformation is complete, Hermione lobs it at the blue-haired girl. It strikes Rei in the temple. After falling to the ground, black shadows start to rise from the corrupted material and wrap themselves around the struggling Blue Mage.

Meanwhile, my body is aching and bleeding everywhere and I haven't heard a peep from Lloyd.

"NO!" Rei screams again at the top of her voice when the shadows creep around her arms and begin feeding themselves into her fingertips. And as the darkness feeds itself into her body, Rei's magic is cut off. Her eyes double in size and sweat pops on her forehead as the Heartless start climbing on and stabbing at her. "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!"

"Yes," Hermione answers coldly. The she is thrown onto her butt as half of the mountain explodes. Surprised, she looks up to the sky. There is a great winged beast, a dragon with wings the colour of silver. And on its back stands a man wearing a thong. And even I believe no man should ever wear a thong in public.

"I don't recall giving you permission to do anything with my planet," the mysterious figure, whom I instantly recognize as Kuja, says to the maddened witch.

"We were wondering when you would show up," Hermione says with a dark smile as she picks herself up. "Even a simple vessel such as yourself is bound to have a heart ripe for the plucking. Forget these losers, my Heartless. Bring me his heart!"

Well, I'll give her this, Hermione definitely has the crazy villainess persona down pat.

With that, the unholy spawn leave me and Rei. I turn my head as best I can to see that Lloyd is still alive as well, although I can't vouch for his state of consciousness.

The Heartless begin melding together until they grow into one giant Heartless. The one from the first game whose name I don't know. Then the monster reaches out and plucks Kuja from his steed. With a laugh, the hand holding his blows up. The dragon sweeps up its master before he even fall five feet.

Holding his hand above his head, Kuja forms a giant fireball. Then he lets it loose, blowing off the entire left half of the beast. But it is instantly rebuilt as more and more Heartless file into this world. Indeed, it is black as far as they eye can see. The only visible light is that from Kuja's attacks.

"WORK!" Rei screams at her hands. The panic in her voice is actually wrenching at my heart. "Tachi! Help me! Big Sister! Mother! Father! Somebody help me! Please!" Then she devolves into a blubbering mess as she falls to the ground andsmacks the ground with her otherwise worthless hands.

This isn't happening. This isn't happening. We are not being picked off one by one by a frickin' Gryffindor prodigy. No, I'm dreaming again. Rei isn't breaking down; Lloyd isn't completely out of it. I'm not lying here, choking on dust and debris as Kuja and a giant Heartless trade blows. No. No. NO! Fujin is dead. Just like Michael, and Raijin, and all of those people at the academy.

"Stop!" I scream at Hermione. I don't care how pathetic I look. This madness... This isn't supposed to happen!

Ignoring me, Hermione points her wand at the tainted Materia. "Accio."

Grasping her treasure tightly, the witch turns back to the battle between Kuja and the giant Heartless. One would give the upper hand to the Genome or whatever the heck his "soulless" people are called, I can't really remember, except every attack he lands just ends up being negated by the renewal of the body part by more Heartless taking its place.

Out of nowhere, a giant yellow bird whose wings are outlined by flame sweeps into view and blasts both combatants. However, this attacks sets all of the brush on the mountain aflame.

Meanwhile, Hermione starts to laugh that stereotypical villain laugh. In fact, she doubles over in laughter. Righting herself after a few seconds, she looks back at me. "Well, it looks like your friends are here."



My friends? Is she talking about Zidane and Dagger? Because last I knew, Dagger didn't have any summons, and this definitely isn't Phoenix trading blows with Kuja and the Heartless. Actually, it looks more like Moltres. Yeah, Rick is pretty sure that there is a Pokèmon here. If he weren't already freaked out, he might be more worried.

"How dull," comments Hermione. She stuffs the Materia in her pocket. Then she points her wand at the ground and mutters something I can't hear over the raging three-way battle. Suddenly, several more of the Heartless begin entering the world. And these aren't the plain black ones that we'd been dealing with before. No, these Heartless are the one in armour that look like knights. "Go now, entertain me."

And they start charging. But not at me, or the others. They charge past us, in the direction of the fort. And soon the sounds of screaming dwarves fill the air. How do I know that it's the sound of dwarves? Well, there is a lot of cursing, and a few of them have a hint of a Scottish accent. I wonder if that insane woman from Sylvarant has a persona here that is being turned into a Heartless right now. Not that it matters. And I still have no clue why this is happening. It's just so random.

"Rawr!"

And now I'm hearing dogs. Wonderful. I'm going to get to see Lassie get cut down by Heartless.

Or not, seeing as how there's a giant orange and white beast galloping in our direction. I believe it is called Arcanine. Yeah, definitely getting a Pokèmon vibe. Here's to hoping that neither Ash nor Team Rocket shows up. Because I doubt I would feel too bad if they became Heartless.

What a wonderful thing to say. I'm just a great example of humanity.

"Hermione? Is that you?" a boy yells from the back of the beast. He jumps off, arching through the air, and lands beside the witch. His blond hair and the whisker-esque marks on his cheeks are immediately identifiable. "You've got to get out of here! It's really dangerous."

Thank you Captain Obvious.

Hermione apparently agrees with him enough to blast the ninja into the wall. Then the Arcanine rears up onto its hind legs, throwing its head back. When it comes back down, it launches a volley of fire in Hermione's direction. It has about the same effect as Rei's attacks. Some of the Heartless are destroyed, but their mistress remains untouched.

Holding her wand in her right hand, Hermione pulls it back until it's at her right side, and then thrusts it up. A large red ball of magic or energy or whatever strikes the Arcanine, who disappears in a puff of smoke. And four more people fall to the ground. I recognize all of them instantly, as they're the only ones who are supposed to be on this continent.

Right, this isn't really a videogame. When will I retain this as fact?

Anyway, Zidane is the first one on his feet, holding a pair of daggers in front of his body defensively. I watch as the newly minted, and upgraded Heartless start approaching the foursome. Of course, I'm not at all surprised to see Dagger and Eiko both there as well, with those weird racket thing that throw wind magic or whatever. And Quina is currently trying to eat one of the Heartless with little success.

"What the heck is going on?" Zidane asks Hermione, clearly not noticing three injured parties and the corpse amongst the mass-manufactured demon spawn.

He doesn't get an answer, just an attack from an armoured Heartless. The thief swipes at it with one of his daggers, but it passes through it harmlessly. Then the Heartless swings its own sword, leaving a large gash along Zidane's hip as the monkey just barely manages to jump out of the way. Panting, Zidane holds his side and yells out to Dagger.

The princess, however, is swinging her racket as fast as her arms will allow, the magic, or I guess it wouldn't be inaccurate to refer to it as mana since magic is essentially comprised of mana, obliterating one Heartless for every two that advances. Within seconds, their small ranks are broken and I lose sight of them. And I hear Rei scream again.

Painfully, I look back in her direction to see that one of the Heartless has lodged a sword in her shoulder and is now thrusting its hand into her chest, presumably in search of her heart. And I once again feel the unnaturally sharp claws digging into my back as the Heartless realize that I am still here.

My eyes make contact with Hermione as I try, and fail, to bite back a scream as I feel a sword slide into my midsection. It's probably a crude form of pinning me down so that I won't be able to escape as it steals my heart. And it is working. When Hermione smiles at me without flinching, without even a tinge of regret in her eyes, it's then that I know I'm dead.

There is nobody coming to save me. The reinforcements, who don't even know that I'm here, have pretty much already fallen. Our best fighter is already dead, and our most powerful magician has been negated. There's no Reala to bail me out. And even if I could stop screaming and choking on my own blood long enough to say something to Hermione, I doubt she would listen because she is clearly enjoying this. Even if she were mad at me, I can't imagine the Hermione that I know, the one I traversed Sylvarant with, this can't possibly be the same person. It has to be Maleficent in disguise. Right?

Chunks of rock explode everywhere as Moltres is slammed into the mountainside by the giant Heartless, throwing off the Heartless on my back. The little ones swarm the stunned bird and proceed to tear into it. It struggles to rise into the sky, but a blast of ice from Kuja effectively ends that combatant's participation. Then the "pretty boy" is smashed by a back hand from the Heartless.

"Don't! Stop!" Rei screams as the colour starts to fade from her cheeks. I'm not sure if it's from the blood loss or the Heartless with its hand squeezing against her heart. "Big sister! Help me, Kodachi! Please!" Tears start rolling down her face as more and more of the monsters stab at her with their swords. And just like that, a glowing red crystal shaped like a romanticized heart (and not the gross, realistic heart shape) is in the hands of the greedy monster. Rei's body splits in two, one darkening and twisting into the basic Heartless, and the other looks just like her, only with silver hair rather than blue.

So Rei had strong enough of a soul to become a Nobody, and apparently a sentient one at that. Will I when my heart finally get stolen?

"Aw, don't you go thinking I've forgotten about you," Hermione walks over to me, ignoring all of the mayhem around her. She kneels down next to me and puts her mouth right beside my ear. "I'm sure you'll be happily serving me just like all of these other pathetic creatures soon."

After whispering those words, she stands back up and smoothes out her robes. Then she stows her wand away in her robes and closes her eyes. With a loud CRACK sound she vanishes, but all of the Heartless remain. And more keep coming.

"That wasn't the most intelligent thing to do."

Trying to see the tears, sweat, and blood that happens to have gotten in my eyes, I can barely make out the silver-haired Rei stand up. Then she holds her hand out and electricity leaps from her fingertips. So, having her heart stolen revived her magical powers? But she is still a Nobody, so maybe I should start calling her "Reix" or something like that...

Goodness, even on his deathbed Rick finds the time to make bad jokes.

The electricity spreads from her fingers and across the whole of the mountain in a display more powerful than Rei has ever done before. It lances through all of the Heartless in my field of vision. Unfortunately, it also passes through my body, and it feels as though I'm being ripped apart. Well, technically I could argue that I am, but whatever. It just really, really hurts: as does my throat from all of the screaming.

This new Rei isn't bothered at all that more and more of the Heartless keep showing up. Because she's wiping them out faster than they can respawn. Not even Kuja could do this. I knew that Nobodies kicked butt, because I couldn't even come close to beating the guy in Beast's Castle, even with King Mickey's help, but I didn't know that they got a boost THIS big.

When the last one is snuffed out of existence, Rei leans down and picks up the stone that holds her heart. She stands for a few seconds, as if in contemplation, and then puts it where her heart should go. Her head is thrown back, bright light emanating from the stone as Rei takes it back into her body. When the light finally fades away, she collapses to the ground, her gray hair slowly going back to blue, whilst the Heartless once more invade the area in their innumerable masses.

Kuja is still duking it out with the gigantic Heartless, which isn't showing any sign of fatigue, whereas he is.

"We've got to get out of here!" Eiko cries out as the form of Arcanine shows up at her side once more. Zidane, bearing several cuts and bruises, grabs Naruto's unconscious form and slings it over his shoulder. The thief jumps on the back of the Pokèmon, offering a hand up to Dagger and Eiko. Then they take off, leaving the rest of us behind. They probably didn't even know that we were here...

I'm going to die and I didn't even get to apologize.

"ENOUGH!" Kuja shouts as he holds his hands above his head. He thrusts them down at the giant Heartless. And then a nuclear bomb goes off. Not literally, I think it's just an Ultima spell, but I really don't know what the difference would be.

The overgrown Heartless is completely vaporized, and doesn't come back. Ignoring this development, the smaller ones continue advancing on me, Lloyd, and Rei with little regard. And Kuja just sits on the silver dragon as it flies away.

I wriggle and find that while the wound is still there, the sword that had trapped me vanished when its owner was destroyed by Rei. I roll over to Lloyd, painfully so, and try to wake him up. Even though pain convulses through my body and more blood gushes from my stomach as I try to rouse the unarmed swordsman, I just bite my lip and keep trying to wake him up because I don't what else to do. I've never been the brains of the party, never contributed meaningfully in any way. Why should that change now, when our very lives depend upon it? We don't even have Fujin to save us now.

Effectively, we're screwed. We've been abandoned by not only the heroes of this world, but also the villains.

"Please," I whisper through gritted teeth as I continue shaking Lloyd, even as I find my strength and vision waning, even as the pain grows sharper and more unbearable. "Do something..."



The same cold hands with the sharp claws dig into my side and my legs while I continue trying to wake Lloyd. Why won't he wake up? Why won't he save me like he did before? Come on! Wake up and be the hero like you're supposed to! Please, do it for me! Do it because you love me or because you love Rei or because you're completely platonic with the both of us. I don't care! Just please, wake up! Wake up! LLOYD!

TCBT

A/N: Ah, a horrible, evil cliffhanger. But hopefully you guys will actually review this time. Tell me I'm the greatest evil in existence for killing Fujin, lambast me for including Pokèmon in such a dark chapter, I don't care. Just give me feedback of some kind. Please? X3

And did you guys here the awesome news that is FFXIII coming to the Xbox360? Now I just to decide if I'm going to get it on that or the PS3...