DDR HEARTS: Backstory-Past Events equal Future Problems
By
Darkness Shade
A/N: Getting near the end, gotta hold out....(Dark: *shakes head* Always in riddles, aren't you?)....so....time for more light to be shed.....from....Cid's POV...(Dark: *gasp* Not from Ryan's? That's a good change......)..*sigh*..on with the chapter...
' '= reflection from future self
---------------------------
Traverse Town: Docks
I watched them lift off...towards their destiny.
I had reservations against giving them the final peice, but...they had to do it, they are the ones to save the universe.
"So long Cid." Ryan said, waving his hand, "We won't lose....we will save the worlds."
Heh, that kid reminded me of myself, a long time ago.....
--------------------------
12 Years Ago......
'Back then, we were young, strong-headed, a lot like that kid...the Keymaster.
We lived together, on our original world....way before the heartless came and....well......'
"Hey, Cid....wait up."
I looked for the source, it was Squall; 'He changed his name to Leon after the events that occured on our home world about a year or so ago...he always blamed himself for how the heartless took over'.
"Yo, what's up Squall? Why the hurry?"
"Hey, she's here again....at the arcade..."
"You mean...Ansemian? *laughs* I wondered when she'd come back again." I said.
'Ansemian was a good friend...and a brilliant one at that...not to mention that game...she was always obsessed with that game....'
When we got there, she was already at it. She was an odd friend, but she was loyal...'That's what I thought...but thing's do change...'
"Hey, Anse...what's up?"; 'Anse, she never really let anyone call her that but me....it always got to her....but secretly I think she liked having a nickname....'
"Not much Cid....just trying to get better...and of course, visiting you guys...it's been awhile." Ansemian said.
"It has been...almost a full year, what'cha been up to anyway?" I asked.
"Well, I've made some big discoveries....but I can't tell you guys yet." Ansemian said.
"Oh, I see....Ms.Secrets strikes again." said a girl, walking up to us.
"*chuckle* Nice to see you too, Yuffie." Ansemian said.
"Still obsessed with that game....what do you get out of it?" Squall asked.
"Yes...all those damn arrows and such, what kinda game is that?" I added.
"Hey, you guys don't understand, but this game....there's something about it.....you just don't have the burning desire within you.....well, almost all of you..." Ansemian said.
"Almost all of us?" I asked, "Who actually understands?"
Ansemian pointed towards a guy with blond hair, standing in the corner watching the machine.
"No..way..Cloud?!" Yuffie said, "He's into DDR?!"
"Um, yes...but he'd never admit it." Ansemian said, "It's almost as bad as how I have it.....but...I'm still not the best."
'Being the best...she always did want to be the best....it's what soon drove her to the brink of insanity'
We chatted for awhile more, watched Anse play and see that she had indeed gotten better, and kept spying on Cloud.
'You'd never think it now....but how else could he use that big sword, all that freestyling built up his arm muscles....'
After awhile, we parted ways and headed for our homes...
---------------------------
Ansemian's House/Lab
"They don't realize that I must be the best." Ansemian said, sitting on her roof looking at the sky.
Suddenly, she noticed somethings moving along the ground.
"Eh? What's that?" she said, jumping down to the ground.
The shape went under her house, below the floor towards the basement.
"I'd better check this out."
She made her way into her house, down to the bowels of her basement, which was also her makeshift lab.
There, in the corner, was what appeared to be a living shadow.
"Huh? I must be seeing things." she said, walking up to it.
The shadow stared and kinda twitched....before splitting into two.
"Whoa....amazing...asexual reproduction in a complex organism...fascinating." she said, making notes on a pad of paper she grabbed.
"I may have just found my edge..." she said with a wicked smile.
She set the shadow up in a cage and began running tests.
"The power of this creature..it's amazing..but..." she said, looking over an X-ray, "They don't appear to have any..heart? That's proposterous....yet, it doesn't and still lives."
She scratched her head and then realized something, the whole reason that this creature was so strong is that it had no heart, no emotion, no anything to hold it back from reaching its' potential.
"Finally...I will be the best...and they will all know..." she said, as lightning flashed and bounced around her lab, as she prepped for the procedure.
------------------------
Hollow's Arcade
"Well....Anse said to meet her here...said she wanted to show us something." I said, talking to Cloud and Squall.
"I just hope she isn't wasting more of our time again...." Cloud said, his face unchanging.
"What would you be doing anyway? Drooling over that sword in the collectors shop?" Squall said laughing, "I swear...there's no way you could ever lift that thing, let alone use it."
'It was simpler then....much simpler....and Cloud was a bit looser than he is now..a bit.'
"Whatever....let's just go in and find her." Cloud said, a bit annoyed by Squall's words but unchanged nonetheless.
As we walked along, I noticed a crowd surronding the DDR machine.
"Hmm...someone good must be here today." I said, then I watched my jaw drop to the floor, "Anse?!"
Indeed it was her, moving at speeds I couldn't even fathom.
"*blink*......" Cloud was speechless. 'That's probably the funniest thing I've ever seen..the look on Cloud's face was priceless.'
She soon stopped and walked over to us.
"Hey guys...what'cha think? Pretty tight, eh?"
"Um, yeah Anse....wow!" I said, still a bit stunned myself.
I then notices a strange mark on her arm.
"Hey, what's that....? Did you hurt yourself?" I asked.
"No...it's nothing." Anse said, becoming defensive.
"Okay, chill...no need to overreact." Squall said, trying to avoid another fight.
"You guys are the ones that need to learn to chill." Anse said, walking off.
I felt a cold chill run down my spine as she walked by...what happend to her...she was different...and felt different too.
----------------------------
Ansemian's House
"They'll never understand...." Anse said, "I'll just have to do something drastic then."
She began to speed up and mutate the shadow creature's reproductive cycle.
"Come..come my Heartless....serve your master." she shouted, thousands of these creatures springing to life.
"If this world won't do....I'll just have to rule all worlds....."
'At that moment...she changed forever...'
----------------------------
Bastion Courtyards
It was a nice, spring night and we were relaxing, chatting about this and that and what is what.
Anse, however, had been missing for some time...almost another year and a half.
'Things were soon to heat up'
Suddenly, the entire planet seemed to be plunged into eternal darkness.
"Everyone, are you okay?" I shouted, trying to find my friends.
"Yes...I'm over here with Squall." Yuffie said, trying to follow my voice.
"Stay there...I'll try and find you guys." I said, taking care where I stepped.
Then the darkness seemed to disappear and we were in a void...
"Where in the hell?" Cloud said, he then spotted, "Guys, it's her!!"
"Anse?! What's going on?" I asked.
"All will be told later...right now I will rule all worlds...the heartless are mine to command." Ansemian said, sending a wave after us.
Just then, weapons appeared in front of us.
I was given some techno gear, Squall got an odd gun/sword, Yuffie received a type of boomerang thing, and Cloud got the sword he drooled over.
"Well....I guess it's best that it comes down to this....if anyone was to stop me, it'd be my "old" friends." Ansemian said.
She sent a wave of Heartless after us...
'The next few hours are hard to recall...we we're spent fighting all the Heartless..and then it happend.'
"Well...you've stopped my minions..but now...you must face me..." Ansemian said, floating around.
"Stop this Anse! What happend to you?" I said, trying to talk some sense into her.
"Stop? Stop?! Why? Why stop when I can now rule all......when I can finally gain the respect I wish to have." Anse said.
"Respect? You mean this is over a silly game?" Squall said.
"More than that.....but yes." Anse said, charging a spell, "And I won't let you....stop me!!"
She threw the blast at us and we were engulfed by a bright light....
...I was shaken up....I looked around...where...where in God's name were we?
"What is this place?" I said outloud.
"I don't know...this place feels so....empty." Yuffie said.
"Well...what now?" Squall said, getting up off the ground and dusting himself off.
"Don't know...but we won't figure anything out standing here." Cloud said, holstering his sword.
This land was quite strange, it obviously wasn't home....the ground looked like water, but it was solid, the sky was an incredibly errie and ambient purple, and the sun/moon...whatever that sun-type object was, it glowed an off-white, beaming down on the water and adding to the creepiness.
We walked for awhile, till we came upon.....stained glass floors?
"What the hell?" Cloud said, "What're these?"
"I don't know...but..." Yuffie said, pointing, "They keep going this way."
"Well, then.." I said, thinking this over, "We've got no choice but to go up!"
We walked along the paths...each of us thinking it odd that there was no sign of anything or anyone, including the heartless.
"Well....if I've counting right...that's been seven floors." Squall said.
"Seven floors.....and each one had a different picture of some girl on them..what does it mean?" I asked.
Suddenly there came an intense explosion and we were flung around.
When we came to this time, we saw someone fighting....it looked like some girls were...fighting Anse?....and winning?
"Who the heck....who're they?" I said.
"Hey, you finally woke up." Yuffie said, "Those are the same girls that were on those stain-glass images."
"But...there just girls....how can they be winning against Anse?" I asked.
"It seems that these are no ordinary girls...." Squall said.
'Squall/Leon had no idea how right he was....these seven girls...and there offspring...would be quite important...'
Just then we heard Anse scream.
"Huh?" I said, blinking.
The seven girls had formed a..portal? 'The door.....'
"No...I..won't be beaten....I can't be beaten!" Anse said, being sucked into the doorway.
'It was hard to see her....my former friend...to be taken like that...but I soon realized that..she..was..no..longer..my..friend....she was someone else.'
As Anse slipped through the portal, our eyes met...for a moment, I thought I saw the old Anse, the one I grew up with....and then...the portal closed, she was gone.....
"Anse!!" I shouted.
'After all these years, it still hurts to think of that day.....the others don't remember too much, perhaps from blocking it off for all these years..but, I still do.'
The girls called themselves the "Princesses of Dance", they had detected that Anse had come and they, the purest of pure hearts of dance, were the only ones that could stop her.
They told us this so that we would know, and be able to pass on this info to him, the one that would come should Anse and the heartless return..'The Keymaster..that boy..'
With that, the worlds began to return to normalcy, and we were once again back on our own world, although no one remebered anything from before.
Perhaps that was for the best....
----------------------------------
Back in the present: Traverse Town Docks
"Well, that was so long ago.....but he did come..." I said to myself, "And hopefully, with the info we gave to Terry indirectly, they should be able to stop her."
And then....two of the ones with him.....if they only knew how important they would be.....
By
Darkness Shade
A/N: Getting near the end, gotta hold out....(Dark: *shakes head* Always in riddles, aren't you?)....so....time for more light to be shed.....from....Cid's POV...(Dark: *gasp* Not from Ryan's? That's a good change......)..*sigh*..on with the chapter...
' '= reflection from future self
---------------------------
Traverse Town: Docks
I watched them lift off...towards their destiny.
I had reservations against giving them the final peice, but...they had to do it, they are the ones to save the universe.
"So long Cid." Ryan said, waving his hand, "We won't lose....we will save the worlds."
Heh, that kid reminded me of myself, a long time ago.....
--------------------------
12 Years Ago......
'Back then, we were young, strong-headed, a lot like that kid...the Keymaster.
We lived together, on our original world....way before the heartless came and....well......'
"Hey, Cid....wait up."
I looked for the source, it was Squall; 'He changed his name to Leon after the events that occured on our home world about a year or so ago...he always blamed himself for how the heartless took over'.
"Yo, what's up Squall? Why the hurry?"
"Hey, she's here again....at the arcade..."
"You mean...Ansemian? *laughs* I wondered when she'd come back again." I said.
'Ansemian was a good friend...and a brilliant one at that...not to mention that game...she was always obsessed with that game....'
When we got there, she was already at it. She was an odd friend, but she was loyal...'That's what I thought...but thing's do change...'
"Hey, Anse...what's up?"; 'Anse, she never really let anyone call her that but me....it always got to her....but secretly I think she liked having a nickname....'
"Not much Cid....just trying to get better...and of course, visiting you guys...it's been awhile." Ansemian said.
"It has been...almost a full year, what'cha been up to anyway?" I asked.
"Well, I've made some big discoveries....but I can't tell you guys yet." Ansemian said.
"Oh, I see....Ms.Secrets strikes again." said a girl, walking up to us.
"*chuckle* Nice to see you too, Yuffie." Ansemian said.
"Still obsessed with that game....what do you get out of it?" Squall asked.
"Yes...all those damn arrows and such, what kinda game is that?" I added.
"Hey, you guys don't understand, but this game....there's something about it.....you just don't have the burning desire within you.....well, almost all of you..." Ansemian said.
"Almost all of us?" I asked, "Who actually understands?"
Ansemian pointed towards a guy with blond hair, standing in the corner watching the machine.
"No..way..Cloud?!" Yuffie said, "He's into DDR?!"
"Um, yes...but he'd never admit it." Ansemian said, "It's almost as bad as how I have it.....but...I'm still not the best."
'Being the best...she always did want to be the best....it's what soon drove her to the brink of insanity'
We chatted for awhile more, watched Anse play and see that she had indeed gotten better, and kept spying on Cloud.
'You'd never think it now....but how else could he use that big sword, all that freestyling built up his arm muscles....'
After awhile, we parted ways and headed for our homes...
---------------------------
Ansemian's House/Lab
"They don't realize that I must be the best." Ansemian said, sitting on her roof looking at the sky.
Suddenly, she noticed somethings moving along the ground.
"Eh? What's that?" she said, jumping down to the ground.
The shape went under her house, below the floor towards the basement.
"I'd better check this out."
She made her way into her house, down to the bowels of her basement, which was also her makeshift lab.
There, in the corner, was what appeared to be a living shadow.
"Huh? I must be seeing things." she said, walking up to it.
The shadow stared and kinda twitched....before splitting into two.
"Whoa....amazing...asexual reproduction in a complex organism...fascinating." she said, making notes on a pad of paper she grabbed.
"I may have just found my edge..." she said with a wicked smile.
She set the shadow up in a cage and began running tests.
"The power of this creature..it's amazing..but..." she said, looking over an X-ray, "They don't appear to have any..heart? That's proposterous....yet, it doesn't and still lives."
She scratched her head and then realized something, the whole reason that this creature was so strong is that it had no heart, no emotion, no anything to hold it back from reaching its' potential.
"Finally...I will be the best...and they will all know..." she said, as lightning flashed and bounced around her lab, as she prepped for the procedure.
------------------------
Hollow's Arcade
"Well....Anse said to meet her here...said she wanted to show us something." I said, talking to Cloud and Squall.
"I just hope she isn't wasting more of our time again...." Cloud said, his face unchanging.
"What would you be doing anyway? Drooling over that sword in the collectors shop?" Squall said laughing, "I swear...there's no way you could ever lift that thing, let alone use it."
'It was simpler then....much simpler....and Cloud was a bit looser than he is now..a bit.'
"Whatever....let's just go in and find her." Cloud said, a bit annoyed by Squall's words but unchanged nonetheless.
As we walked along, I noticed a crowd surronding the DDR machine.
"Hmm...someone good must be here today." I said, then I watched my jaw drop to the floor, "Anse?!"
Indeed it was her, moving at speeds I couldn't even fathom.
"*blink*......" Cloud was speechless. 'That's probably the funniest thing I've ever seen..the look on Cloud's face was priceless.'
She soon stopped and walked over to us.
"Hey guys...what'cha think? Pretty tight, eh?"
"Um, yeah Anse....wow!" I said, still a bit stunned myself.
I then notices a strange mark on her arm.
"Hey, what's that....? Did you hurt yourself?" I asked.
"No...it's nothing." Anse said, becoming defensive.
"Okay, chill...no need to overreact." Squall said, trying to avoid another fight.
"You guys are the ones that need to learn to chill." Anse said, walking off.
I felt a cold chill run down my spine as she walked by...what happend to her...she was different...and felt different too.
----------------------------
Ansemian's House
"They'll never understand...." Anse said, "I'll just have to do something drastic then."
She began to speed up and mutate the shadow creature's reproductive cycle.
"Come..come my Heartless....serve your master." she shouted, thousands of these creatures springing to life.
"If this world won't do....I'll just have to rule all worlds....."
'At that moment...she changed forever...'
----------------------------
Bastion Courtyards
It was a nice, spring night and we were relaxing, chatting about this and that and what is what.
Anse, however, had been missing for some time...almost another year and a half.
'Things were soon to heat up'
Suddenly, the entire planet seemed to be plunged into eternal darkness.
"Everyone, are you okay?" I shouted, trying to find my friends.
"Yes...I'm over here with Squall." Yuffie said, trying to follow my voice.
"Stay there...I'll try and find you guys." I said, taking care where I stepped.
Then the darkness seemed to disappear and we were in a void...
"Where in the hell?" Cloud said, he then spotted, "Guys, it's her!!"
"Anse?! What's going on?" I asked.
"All will be told later...right now I will rule all worlds...the heartless are mine to command." Ansemian said, sending a wave after us.
Just then, weapons appeared in front of us.
I was given some techno gear, Squall got an odd gun/sword, Yuffie received a type of boomerang thing, and Cloud got the sword he drooled over.
"Well....I guess it's best that it comes down to this....if anyone was to stop me, it'd be my "old" friends." Ansemian said.
She sent a wave of Heartless after us...
'The next few hours are hard to recall...we we're spent fighting all the Heartless..and then it happend.'
"Well...you've stopped my minions..but now...you must face me..." Ansemian said, floating around.
"Stop this Anse! What happend to you?" I said, trying to talk some sense into her.
"Stop? Stop?! Why? Why stop when I can now rule all......when I can finally gain the respect I wish to have." Anse said.
"Respect? You mean this is over a silly game?" Squall said.
"More than that.....but yes." Anse said, charging a spell, "And I won't let you....stop me!!"
She threw the blast at us and we were engulfed by a bright light....
...I was shaken up....I looked around...where...where in God's name were we?
"What is this place?" I said outloud.
"I don't know...this place feels so....empty." Yuffie said.
"Well...what now?" Squall said, getting up off the ground and dusting himself off.
"Don't know...but we won't figure anything out standing here." Cloud said, holstering his sword.
This land was quite strange, it obviously wasn't home....the ground looked like water, but it was solid, the sky was an incredibly errie and ambient purple, and the sun/moon...whatever that sun-type object was, it glowed an off-white, beaming down on the water and adding to the creepiness.
We walked for awhile, till we came upon.....stained glass floors?
"What the hell?" Cloud said, "What're these?"
"I don't know...but..." Yuffie said, pointing, "They keep going this way."
"Well, then.." I said, thinking this over, "We've got no choice but to go up!"
We walked along the paths...each of us thinking it odd that there was no sign of anything or anyone, including the heartless.
"Well....if I've counting right...that's been seven floors." Squall said.
"Seven floors.....and each one had a different picture of some girl on them..what does it mean?" I asked.
Suddenly there came an intense explosion and we were flung around.
When we came to this time, we saw someone fighting....it looked like some girls were...fighting Anse?....and winning?
"Who the heck....who're they?" I said.
"Hey, you finally woke up." Yuffie said, "Those are the same girls that were on those stain-glass images."
"But...there just girls....how can they be winning against Anse?" I asked.
"It seems that these are no ordinary girls...." Squall said.
'Squall/Leon had no idea how right he was....these seven girls...and there offspring...would be quite important...'
Just then we heard Anse scream.
"Huh?" I said, blinking.
The seven girls had formed a..portal? 'The door.....'
"No...I..won't be beaten....I can't be beaten!" Anse said, being sucked into the doorway.
'It was hard to see her....my former friend...to be taken like that...but I soon realized that..she..was..no..longer..my..friend....she was someone else.'
As Anse slipped through the portal, our eyes met...for a moment, I thought I saw the old Anse, the one I grew up with....and then...the portal closed, she was gone.....
"Anse!!" I shouted.
'After all these years, it still hurts to think of that day.....the others don't remember too much, perhaps from blocking it off for all these years..but, I still do.'
The girls called themselves the "Princesses of Dance", they had detected that Anse had come and they, the purest of pure hearts of dance, were the only ones that could stop her.
They told us this so that we would know, and be able to pass on this info to him, the one that would come should Anse and the heartless return..'The Keymaster..that boy..'
With that, the worlds began to return to normalcy, and we were once again back on our own world, although no one remebered anything from before.
Perhaps that was for the best....
----------------------------------
Back in the present: Traverse Town Docks
"Well, that was so long ago.....but he did come..." I said to myself, "And hopefully, with the info we gave to Terry indirectly, they should be able to stop her."
And then....two of the ones with him.....if they only knew how important they would be.....