Dreams and Visions

Disclaimer: Same as before. Sorry this one's so short. The next one will be slightly longer.

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"The Guardian's strength must not fail him." The disembodied voice sounded.

"What strength do you speak! I've made your damned sacrifice! What more could I possibly give!" Bilby shouted angrily.

"You will know when the time comes." The voice replied.

"Show yourself!" Bilby replied.

The hooded figure, the same oracle that had mentioned prophesy time and again appeared before him. "Keep your distance or I'll send you back to hell spirit!" Bilby spat violently, "I have given all that I could and your damned Keyblade has not shown itself."

"There is nothing of me to fear, Guardian, I am but a shadow of my former self. But a frail old man." The hooded one replied, "The sacrifice you must give is one of blood, is one that shall bring the Keyblade to bear. For the blood of heroes brings the Keyblade about."

The oracle vanished as mysteriously as it appeared, leaving Bilby with a realization. The sacrifice the oracle meant had not been Akima at all, it very well could be his life or the lives of any one of his buddies in the hangar.

He watched a couple Rangers walk by, walking roving patrols. He recognized Corporal Hector Illario, his old buddy from the 25th Infantry Division, and Sergeant Galen, the British soldier with a fiancé back home. He hoped the blood to be shed would not be either of those men.

Looking up at the stars, removing his German field cap, he said, "If you will it, Lord, may the sacrifice be my own life and not those of the men I serve with."

~ ~ ~ ~

Lance twitched and turned in his bed, the sheets tangling in twists. The vision before his eyes was one that was one of obvious strife. The field before him was a sparsely wooded area, the day damp and cloudy. The very air about him was full of tension about to explode outward in violence.

"A great monarch now leads his people to freedom or to slaughter." The disembodied spirit said, "For to oppose the Heartless there can be only these two outcomes."

Lance saw a line of archers standing behind a row of sharpened stakes. In front of them were lines of foot soldiers and mounted cavalry. Without question these warriors were men that looked nothing like the storybook knights he had read about occasionally. They were haggard men who had seen enough of war, but understood that the alternative to fighting was far worse.

A man sitting upon his horse, he couldn't have been much older than his mid-twenties, who carried himself with a regal bearing, watched the mass of Heartless on the other end of the field. "As he pleases, let God dispose the day."

With that a great clash of arms sounded and the sky turned black with arrows from the archers behind the stakes. The clash of arms sounded as steel struck steel and Heartless and human alike fought in the rain and mud.

Lance watched as a Heartless knight's horse was shot out from under him and a foot soldier drove the sharpened end of a war hammer through the creature's eye. A Heartless drone impaled the foot soldier through the side with a pike, only to be decapitated by a human knight with a sword. At his feet Lance saw a human and a Heartless rolling through the mud, the human with a dagger, attempting to stab it into the creature's throat.

Arrows rained down, cutting down many Heartless drones, and the black blood of the foe ran with the red blood of the men of this world, which Lance now knew as Rishii from the oracle. Lance felt a bump against him as a human soldier shoved a soldier Heartless' face into a pool of water until the creature drowned.

A splash of hot liquid struck Lance across the face and he saw five Heartless ganging upon a single young warrior who fought like a lion, but was slain like a lamb at the butcher shop. As Lance watched the grim melee the king and several of his retainers happened upon the corpse.

"Behold! The Duke of Parmas has fallen my liege!" shouted one of the warriors.

"Let not his sacrifice be in vain, Earl of Condacin!" the king shouted, with a wild intensity that contrasted his calm manner before the start of the battle.

The five men charged back into the fray, swords at the ready as they crashed into the tide of fighting humans and Heartless. Lance watched in amazement as the Heartless began to turn and flee from the tide of rallied humans. The Heartless fled with such terror that they left a number of their own, alive and helpless as overturned turtles on their backs because of their heavy armor.

Archers and foot soldiers started to kill Heartless knights, responsible for destroying many towns and villages in this world, with long knives. Many cries of mercy from the Heartless went unanswered as the angry Rishiians, eager for vengeance, killed them. Lance turned his head away as he watched a Heartless knight, an arrow sticking out of its stomach, twitch it's head in a plea for mercy as an archer walked up to it.

"Murdering bastard! When you sacked the town of Parmas, you showed no such mercy to my wife and child, and none shall be yours!" The archer sneered as he pulled a short sword from his belt and stabbed it deep into the creature's guts. The archer couldn't have been any older than twenty five, but his haunted face made him appear far older.

Lance awoke in a cold sweat to find the hooded figure standing over his bed, "The men of Rishii resisted the Heartless. The time is near."

"You've been saying that again and again! Still it hasn't come! Still my friends are in danger from the Heartless!" Lance railed.

"The blood of heroes shed shall manifest the Keyblade. The sacrifice of a noble warrior will allow it to appear." The oracle said before disappearing.

Lance saw Bilby walk by just at that moment, he was talking to one of the Rangers, the one with the wedding band. He felt a tear run down his cheek as he realized that it could be any one of the soldiers on the base, either those younger guys from Bilby's dimension, the more senior guys on the Gamma unit. Or it could even be one of the Joes.

"Lance?" came a voice. He turned to see Kitty standing in the doorway arch, "Are you OK?"

Lance desperately wanted to tell someone, anyone, how he felt. But how would he explain his dreams to Kitty, or even worse, the knowledge that one of the soldiers on the base, many of whom he looked up to as big brothers and father figures he never had growing up, would have to sacrifice himself to manifest the Keyblade.

Kitty, sensing Lance's distress, put her arms gently around him, holding him firmly and gently. As he returned the embrace, Lance watched as a star in the sky blinking on the verge of going out forever, but instead of winking out, the star remained burning brightly. A world had successfully driven off the Heartless.

Lance felt as secure as an infant in his cradle in Kitty's arms. He knew he wasn't going to let his world be consumed by the Heartless, with or without the Keyblade. As long as he, Lance Alvers remained alive he wasn't letting his friends and those who were practically family to him down.

"Lance, I just want to let you know, we're all with you." Kitty said.

Behind her, Xi, Fred, Toad, Althea, Wanda, and Pietro walked in, most of the X-men were away on a training mission, Kitty was staying behind at Spirit's insistence that her presence was helpful for Lance's morale.

"We will stand by you Lance." Xi declared, "No matter what may befall us."

~ ~ ~ ~

Bilby sat on a park bench somewhere near the infirmary. He saw Lady Jaye, working the late shift that night, walk by. "A lot on your mind?"

"Kinda." Bilby replied.

"You know, if I've learned anything from spending time on this base, its that no man is an island." Lady Jaye began.

Bilby sighed and said, "There's a lot on my mind. I kind of feel like Achilles before he fell before the arrow of Paris."

"Do tell?" Lady Jaye asked.

"Another part of the prophesy, saying that the blood of heroes must be spilled for the Keyblade to manifest. I hope to God its not any of you, or my mates back at the hangar. Or God forbid one of Shipwreck's family. Even Beach Head doesn't deserve that fate." Bilby began.

"But you do?" Lady Jaye asked.

"I don't know. The oracle kept saying that I would make a great sacrifice to ensure the appearance of the Keyblade. I already feel like I have. Losing Akima not once but twice felt like my heart had been torn out and handed to me in a doggie bag." Bilby replied.

"It's tough to lose people you love." Lady Jaye said.

"My entire family was lost when Sapphire Bay was destroyed. My two little brothers, my parents, my grandparents. Akima was my last chance at a normal life and the Heartless took her away from me." Bilby groaned, bitterly.

"Bilby, believe me, your life has value." Lady Jaye replied, "And don't make me call Psyche Out and wind up in therapy for a long time. Just let it out."

"I've already given way to bloody much you bastard!" Bilby shouted into the heavens, "What more do you want!"

Bilby heard nothing from his rant, but the breeze blew across the field and in the gust of wind, he swore he heard a faint reply, "When the time comes you will know."

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Up next, some comic relief from Low Light's mystery date and Shipwreck's attempt to take care of Cover Girl during her recovery...