"Squall!"

He turned, gazing upon her face… watching as she was just within his grasp, the hordes of monsters closing in around him.

His sword had no effect. No matter how hard the strike, how wide the cut, no matter how much power he tried to use, the creatures could not perish so easily.

And he watched, as she slumped to the ground, the creatures feasting upon her body, and some large new evil rising up…

And he watched… as his whole world blacked out as the newest of Dr. Cid's inventions kicked in…

That was nearly ten years ago, however, he grimaced.

Since that day, he had began to reflect upon his life, cursing himself for being so stupid as to not save his wife from the evil.

The name Squall was dead to him, it represented a man who was powerless to face the evil… powerless to save his wife.

"Leon…"

He slowly turned towards the woman who called his voice.

She wore clothing that belonged more upon a girl that was still in the teen age. Yuffie, however, was not one to grow up so quickly, even though she had also faced much hardship in her life.

She was beautiful though…

Blasphemy! A curse upon Rinoa's memory! Surely, it would sadden her… to see her loving husband still among the life of the living, fall for her own best friend!

Her dark round eyes fluttered slightly, "Leon, did you catch the name of who won that last tournament?"

He nodded, "It was as I expected… the boy has learned to use his Keyblade well."

She nodded, "Yes… but did you see the name posted here? The guy he fought?"

Her finger was pointing at a name he did not expect. He traced his own hand across the letters to make sure that they were indeed written completely.

"Cloud?!"

Yuffie bounded up and down, "Could it really be him?! We need to find out!"

He pointed towards the arena gates.

"I suggest we go over there and ask the proprietor about him."

At that, she dashed towards the gigantic double doors, swinging them open with relative ease. Leon casually walked behind her, tapping his Gunblade on his shoulder.

"Hey Mister!"

Immediately, she set her sights upon the goat-like creature who was standing near the entrance to the massive arena.

The goat-man grinned, "The name's Phil! What can I do fer ya?!"

She bounded up and down, "I want to go see Cloud!"

This request caused Phil's eyes to bulge.

"What? You know Cloud?"

"Indeed…" began Leon, walking casually into the room, "we have had the pleasure of knowing him for most of our childhood lives."

"Ah!" yelled Phil, surprised at the sudden entrance.

"Well, it seems likely that you two guys know him… after all, you look like seasoned heroes to me! I mean, even the kid didn't look like it at first… but I know you guys gotta be good! You got the battle scars to prove it!"

"I'm no hero." Spat Leon. "A hero doesn't let his loved ones die."

Yuffie's eyes began tearing up, "Leon… it wasn't your fault…"

"And besides," nodded Phil, "every hero's got his bad days in life. You, sir, have the mark of something legendary! Even that sword isn't anything to scoff at. Face it, there's a hero in there somewhere!"

"Whatever…" he grimaced, "I just want to speak with Cloud."

The goat-man pointed to the door behind the wooden sign.

"Right that way. Just watch yourself… that guy's been moody ever since he showed up…"

Leon nodded, making his way past the sign with Yuffie in tow. As he came upon the ancient looking arena, he noticed a warrior wearing a tattered cloak swinging a massive sword.

The man's blond haired features gave way to light blue eyes. His gigantic sword was wrapped in some sort of material to give it extra power, or to perhaps keep it together longer.

As Leon approached, the blond haired man said nothing, just raising his sword.

And then he jumped…

Lust like they had seen Dr. Cid do the same thing when battling enemies with his spear, the exact same sort of height was reached by the warrior and his massive blade.

He struck down, missing his opponent, as Leon had already dodged the strike.

The Gunblade was drawn, and flames shot out at the one with the huge weapon.

Missing the hit, the two clashed swords as Yuffie could only watch in fear. Neither of them was gaining a distinct advantage…

Leon had great strength behind every swing he did, but this other man was possessed by something.

And all she could do was watch, until she called out to the blonde haired man.

"Cloud!"

They stopped. He slowly turned to her, his eyes gazing as if he were trying to remember something far off.

His lips moved slowly as the words came to him, "Yu… ffie? Yuffie?!"

She raced up to him, throwing her arms around him in a death grip.

"I thought you were dead! We had lost all hope! For days, Kairi asked where you went… just what happened to you?! Squall and I never would have guessed that you were here!"

He turned to Leon, "Squall? You're alive too? Well this is certainly an odd change of events… I guess I better tell you as much as I do know."

Pausing for a short breath and a recollection of his thoughts, Cloud began a watered down version of his tale.

"It was the day Sir Vincent Valentine's son was presumed MIA by Lord Ansem. I decided to take it upon myself to find my friend and mentor by searching around the area where he had taken off to."

He paused again, his voice starting to shake.

"There was this massive dark portal on the ground… it was like nothing I had ever seen before, and all these creatures were inside of it. Before I knew it… the thing was pulling me in… and to get out of that horrible hell…

I had to make a deal with the devil."

"Ya got that right, kiddo!"

The two turned, gazing upon a fiery blue man who seemed to appear out of no where.

"Guys, that is Hades, lord of the underworld. He caught me while I was falling into that abyss and told me that in order for my life to be saved, I had to fight for him in some sort of arena. Thinking that nothing could possibly save me from the hellish place of the creatures of darkness, I regretfully agreed…"

"Now if you excuse me… Herc's being a real pain in the rear end! I must be off!"

The god disappeared in a puff of blue smoke.

"Wow," Leon cringed, "he's rather flaming…"

They chuckled before continuing.

"So, this is where I've been… so what about you guys?"

"Well…" began Leon, "the darkness took most of our loved ones and we barely escaped with our lives on Dr. Cid's gummi ship."

Cloud nodded, taking the information in slowly.

He then proceeded to go off on an odd tangent, as he was known to do quite often.

"By the way, Squall. Do you feel an odd presence in this arena?"

Now that was odd, he did feel something in this odd place. He could almost put his finger on it… the power was so familiar…

"It's our mentor… he's around here somewhere…"

"Master Sephiroth?!"

"Indeed, I have sensed his presence with every battle I have fought… he seems to be watching out over this hallowed area."

Leon's eyes grew wide, "Do you think we'll see him some day?"

"I can bet on it… who knows, maybe he can teach the kid with the key a thing or two…"

"Sora?"

Cloud grimaced, "That kid did a number on me… if I didn't have an argument with Hades about killing him, I probably would have been able to beat him."

"I think we can take him, Leon! You really gave him crap in Traverse Town!" exclaimed Yuffie.

"You don't understand, Yuffie. He's grown stronger since then… Cloud nearly got me here, and he was beaten by the kid. I think we're going to have some trouble…"

Cloud let out a laugh, "I got 500 munny that says he wins."

"We'll see about that! I'm going to sign us up with Phil right now!"

Yuffie ran off, leaving Leon to slowly shake his head in wonder.

"I swear, she'll be the death of me some day… whatever… I'm ready for that kid again."

"Just watch yourself, Squall. This kid isn't your average teenager. He's got some kind of magical power within him that I can't seem to touch… plus he learned my Sonic Blade technique. Your problem is going to be that he's going to be very fast… maybe even too fast for you. With every world that kid saves, he grows exponentially stronger… that's why I believe that I'll have 500 munny well earned."

And he couldn't have been more sure of the outcome either. Even though they had heroic status, that Leon and Yuffie were placed as the last fight of the Pegasus cup, when the kid came with his two friends in tow, they certainly did not look like the battles before them had worn them down.

The kid stepped up, silently regarding the two in front of him.

"Leon? Yuffie? It's a pleasure to see you in the arena! And it's time I took back whatever pride I lost from that beating you gave me, Leon!"

And he attacked in such a fervor that before Leon knew it, his own friend had been knocked unconscious.

Leon moved as fast as he could towards the child, but his attacks were much too slow to cause any real harm to the kid, and soon he found that he needed more power.

"Ugh… Sora, you're gonna get it now!"

His Gunblade grew to exponential heights, the spirit of the Lion imbuing itself into it. The Lionheart Gunblade cut wide swaths, causing damage to Sora's friends but still not coming close to the child.

Whenever he attacked from the air, Sora would always dodge his strike to the ground and leap to him with a combo. After this vicious cycle, Leon clutched his arm, falling to the ground as the massive Gunblade left the hand and lost the spirit used to power it.

"Hah! We're the champs!" yelled the boy triumphantly, as the dog-like creature with him twirled his shield and the duck tapped his staff on the ground.

And the wielder of the Gunblade passed out from his wounds.

It was after paying that 500 munny to Cloud that he realized he would have to win back his pride somehow. In some way, he would retain his lost glory and fight the kid once again.

And the only way he knew he could do it…

Was teaming up with the one swordsman he knew could do it… Cloud.

However, that battle was quite similar to the last one, as Cloud was stopped by some sort of Omnislash technique let loose by Sora. And the kid used pretty much the same techniques he did last time to beat him and his Lionheart as well.

Damn kid… he even gave Yuffie a couple scars to taint her beautiful features.

Was he falling in love with her? Hell yeah… it didn't mean he forgot about Rinoa, but he certainly wasn't going to let something so good slip through his fingers…

And one fateful day, after he had confessed his feelings for Yuffie and found that she felt the same way, he and Cloud were sitting in the stands conversing with each other and catching up on old times.

When out of the blue, they saw the teenage boy, Sora, walk out to the middle of the arena alone.

Cloud smiled, "Well, looks like your Keyblade master is back…"

I nodded, taking time to regard the boy as he spun around as a strange magical field surrounded the inner area of the arena.

"Looks like someone has it in for him… that field… it's too strong for us to break it. But… where have I felt that energy before…"

Cloud grimaced, "Dear lord… it couldn't be…"

They turned their heads to each other as the answer came to them.

"Master Sephiroth!"

As energy filled the arena, a lone figure could be seen coming out of the bright light…

A/N: w00t, it's a cliffhanger! Of course I'll make sure to make this next fight as detailed as I can from Sora's point of view!