Monster

By: Raven WingsBR Rated: PG-13BR Disclaimer: Nope, I still haven't got enough pennies in my change purse to buy the characters away from Square.darnBR

Summery: Weee Leon's here! And we see a little more of Cloud, but they're still not together yet ~_~ Darn.

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It was noon. Noon. Only five hours since he had woke up. And there had been eight attacks. Six. Not one, not two, not five. Eight. It wasn't long ago that Leon came to the profound conclusion that today sucked, and would probably keep sucking until he went to bed, and then the day after that, would probably suck just as bad.

It wasn't that he didn't like playing hero for the town's people here. It was his job..well was his job. He sighed. Just thinking about SeeD brought be painful memories. Sometimes her wondered if any of the others had survived the Heartless invasion, and if they had, where were they. After this was all over he would go search for them. He didn't know how he'd do it, but he'd find answers to all these questions some how, he had too.

//When this is all over// He thought bitterly, //If it ever ends, I'm beginning to lose hope.// Things were getting worse by the day. Attack after attack, sometimes 20 at the end of the day, and more at night. By the time things were over there might not be anyone left to populate the town.

Leon walked over to the small café. On each table sat a candle crowned with a flickering flame, even though it was broad daylight. He found an empty table and pulled up a chair. The former SeeD placed his right elbow on the table and set his chin in his had. Finally at little break from the never ending stream of fighting..

"Someone help please!! My son! I can't find Milton! My son Milton! I think he's somewhere in the second district, someone help me! Please!" A young woman's frantic voice shattered his small time of solace.

Leon growled under his breath. Here goes number nine. He stood up and walked to the panicking woman. "Ok ok, calm down ma'am take me to where you last saw him."

The woman looked up at Leon with watery eyes "Thank you! Thank you! He was this way, follow me!" She took off towards the gate to the second district, he followed behind her as ordered.

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It wasn't 5 minutes that they were walking through the second district when they heard the shrill scream of a scared child pierce the air.

"Milton!" The woman cried. But Leon was not there to hear her, for he had already taken off to find the origin of the scream. It couldn't be far away.

Sure enough, after running around the corner near the ally, a small sandy haired boy cowered, cornered by two Shadows.

Leon thanked the gods that it was only Shadows. He made quick work of them with his gunblade, just as the woman caught up to him.

"MILTON! Baby your safe! Thank you sir! Thank you so much!" She scooped the boy into her arms and hugged him with such fierceness that Leon actually had to wonder how the boy could go through that and not have a few broken bones.

//Well now isn't that touching// He thought sarcastically was he watched the woman shower the kid with affection. He crossed his arms and lightly cleared his throat. "If you don't mind, we might want to get out of here, as soon as possible."

The woman looked up, feeling a little embarrassed. "Oh, heh heh, yeah, thank you again, I don't know how I can ever repay you.Mr..uh..."

"Leon, just call me Leon."

"Right. Well I don't know if I can ever repay you Leon."

".....Don't worry about it." The former SeeD turned and headed for the exit to the first district. The woman, not wanting to be left behind, scampered to catch up.

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The world was spinning, and blurry. It felt like his head had been smashed in. Or he was having one hell of a hang over. But he couldn't remember having any alcohol.

"You awake kid? No more passing out, you're making me doubt your strength here, and that's no good."

He sat up, grimacing when he felt the strange weight pulling on his shoulder. Cloud suddenly remembered what had happened. For a second time. What was with him and forgetting stuff nowadays?

"What-what the hell did you do to me?" He said, glaring at the deity.

Hades laughed "I gave you power kid! Just like I promised, but with power comes improvements-"

Cloud cut him off. "YOU CALL THIS FUCKING IMPROVEMENTS?!" He yelled, his new appendage flared to full span along with his rage. "You turned me into some circus freak! You never said ANYTHING about this!"

The God smiled coldly, "Whoa, whoa, whoa kid" he waved his hands in front of him for emphasis, "I never said anything about it *not* happening, and, you never asked. Plus, the effects are different on everybody, I didn't know what was going to happen. Personally, I'd call your case a lucky one. You got off easy, I've seen people turn entirely into Heartless before."

Cloud's claw and hand both curled into fist, the nails on his 'new arm' cut into his hand. "Bastard. I want out. Turn me back." He gritted his teeth.

Hades sneered. "I'm afraid I can't do that." He waved his hand, and the contract he had had Cloud sign before he 'transformed' him appeared in a poof of smoke. "You see here, when you signed this little paper, you gave me full and total right to do what I did, and you also said that you understand that the side effect of your power cannot be reversed."

The former mercenaries eyes widened. "You told me not to read it! That it made no difference!"

"Yeah, well I told you, and you listened, not my fault."

Cloud stood up and took a swing with his claw at Hades. But he only hit the air.

The god was suddenly behind him. "Touchy touchy. We really need to work on that temper of yours."

"Go to Hell" Cloud hissed, not caring that he was talking to the devil himself.

Hades snickered, "I own the place, kid"

The former mercenary growled again, "There is no way you can get me to do whatever shit I agreed to before this."

The god's voice got very sharp, and dangerous sounding, "Oh, I think I can." He reached a blue hand to the base of Cloud's wing and grabbed, causing the boy to yelp and squint his eyes shut. "You can't back out on a deal with the Devil kid."

And with that, with strength that almost seemed impossible for a person such as Hades to posses, the Devil pushed, rather, threw, Cloud against the wall, using only a single hand.

The former mercenary yelped again as his head made contact with the unforgiving stonewall, cutting his forehead, and causing his nose to gush with blood. He felt his knees try to give out, but he stopped them, and braced himself with his human hand, letting his nose and forehead drip blood down his face.

"Now that I've made that clear, get yourself cleaned up kid, the tournament is going to start tomorrow, and I want you to get used to fighting with your 'adjustments' understand?"

Cloud bit his tongue to stop from yelling some other obscenity to the God. //What the hell have I got myself into?//

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A/N: Yes, I love to end chapters with Cloud's thoughts _ He's a deep thinker. Woo, this was probably the longest chapter I've ever written for anything I've ever done. O_O; Thank you to anyone who review on the last chappy! Please please please PLEASE review again! ;~; I'm sure Leon and Cloud would really really appreciate it ^__^; Oh, and I'm not sure why, but I can't get the 'dot dot dot' thing to work right, each time I try, it comes out as a single '.' Also, I'm not sure if any HTML formatting I did here is going to work, so if you see any tags, just ignore them ^^ Thankies

-Raven