Kingdom Hearts FanFiction Vagabond Hearts Interlude ============ Disclaimer ============
Who's ready for the grand escape from Hollow Bastion? A bit of back story on Locke and Aurelie, and my vision of something that I completely believe should have been a cutscene in the friggin' game. That's good story telling! At least, I hope it is... I'm not getting as many reviews as I'd like. Come on, people! Recommend this story to your friends, tell me what you think. Review just to say "Hi!" I need validation, here!
Anyway, insert the usual "Don't sue me, Disney and Square-Enix" speech here, and throw in a "Pretty please" encore for giggles. Cue the theme song, and away we go! ============
There were Heartless all around her; Shadows and Soldiers and worse things. There was a Behemoth rampaging in the courtyard outside. The whole world was going to hell, falling into darkness and insanity. And Celes Chere and her group of rebels were the only thing standing in the way.
Or, at least, they had been.
"Locke, Aurelie, are you still with me?"
"We're here, Celes," Locke answered from behind her.
"How you doing, Aurelie?" Celes turned to her allies.
Aurelie stood supported on Locke's shoulder, holding her side. A gruesome gash ran down it, caused by a falling metal beam that hit her as the three had run through the collapsing entrance hall. "I'll make it," she said through gritted teeth. Celes nodded and the three continued through the palace passageways at a run.
"Are you sure about this, trusting our fates to Avalanche?" Locke asked.
"They are not our enemies," Celes said sternly. "We were members of Avalanche once, too, remember?"
"And now we're Returners," Locke returned angrily. "They wouldn't even listen to us when we tried to warn them about Ansem!"
Celes swept her sword in front of her, slicing cleanly through two Heartless who had strayed too close. "Locke, I didn't believe you at first, myself," she said. "But I went with you because I love you. They don't know you like I do, they wouldn't believe you."
"Yeah," Locke growled. "As far as they're concerned, I'm nothing but a thief."
"Well, you are a thief," said a new voice. "But those are the skills we accepted you into Avalanche for in the first place."
The three Returners stopped running and turned to this new arrival. Squall Leonheart stood in the opening of a branching passage. The young ninja, Yuffie, stood behind him. "And I'm sorry we didn't believe you guys," he said earnestly. "You were right."
"None of that matters, now!" Celes said. "We were all once dedicated to the protection of this world. And we all failed in that." The others were silent, listening to Celes speak as the Heartless raged aimlessly around them. "The Heartless will take this world, and then they'll move on to others. We have to do our best to protect the rest, now."
"Cid has the ships ready," Squall said. "Plenty of them."
Celes nodded. "Let's go." -------------
The five arrived on the Gummi Ship platform, Heartless attacking them from all sides. Aurelie stood under her own power, now, healed somewhat by a Cure spell. Her Fire spells flashed between the glaciers of Celes's Ice spells. Yuffie, Locke, and Squall moved like animals, Heartless falling to their blades almost as quickly as they rose. Cid was already standing on the platform, fighting off Soldiers and Air Soldiers with a spear.
"Cid!" Celes called. "Where are the others?"
"Sabin and Edgar are gone, I don't know where everyone else is!" Cid answered.
Celes fought her way to Cid's side. "Gone?" she said.
"That crazy old sage of ours sacrificed them to the Heartless," Cid said dully. "Gave up his own kids to the darkness, said he needed a better body..."
"That bastard." Celes kept fighting, even as tears streamed down her face. First Cecil, and then their professors, Quistis and Cyan. Now Sabin and Edgar. And Rinoa and the others... she had lost so many friends in all this, and was about to lose her world. She wouldn't give up anything else, not if she could help it.
"That's it, three to a ship!" she screamed angrily. "We are leaving!"
"What about the others?" Cid asked. "You kids are all fighters, the best I ever trained. More of you have to have survived!"
As if in answer, Aerith ran onto the platform under the protection of an Aero spell. Shadows leapt all around her, but her spell kept them off of her. "Are we all that's left?" she asked as she ran up to Aurelie, casting another Cure spell on the viera.
"We don't know," Cid yelled in answer. He leapt into the air and came crashing down on the head of Gargoyle, which burst into shadow. He looked around and saw dozens of spellcaster Heartless appearing from the depths of the castle. "Where's Cloud, lady?" Cid asked. "Things are really getting bad here, we could use his help to hold off the Heartless until the others get here."
"Sephiroth grabbed Gau," Aerith said. "Cloud took off after him."
"Our strongest hitter isn't even on our side," Relm Arrowny said as she arrived on the platform in a blaze of magic. The twin mages Palom and Porom were behind her. As they advanced to the center of the platform, Relm's magical artwork battling back Heartless, she finished, "And our second took off after him. We are all gonna die, Grandpa Strago! I'll see you in a few minutes..."
"No, Relm!" Celes yelled. "No one else falls to the Heartless. Keep strong, and get on a ship, now!"
As Celes spoke, a rumbling shook the whole of the enclosed platform. Everyone stopped fighting long enough to see a Soldiers activate the controls to close the massive bay doors. It smashed the control panel before Zell Dinct entered from the nearby doorway and scattered its shadowstuff to the wind. Terra Branford stepped in behind him, and looked over the panel.
"It's smashed, people! There's nothing I can do," she said despairingly.
"Palom, looks like we're needed!" Porom said cheerfully.
"Funny," Palom answered just as cheerfully. "Feels like we've done this before!" As he spoke, Setzer Gabianni entered the platform. Rydia was with him. "Rydia, wanna give us a path to the door?"
Rydia nodded silently, and with a yell, summoned her Mist Dragon. It destroyed the Heartless in front of the door, and Palom and Porom made a dash for it. At the last minute, Celes realized what they were doing.
"Palom, Porom, don't!" she yelled hysterically.
"At least the Heartless won't get us, big sister!" Palom said laughed.
"Yeah, and we can stand guard until you get back!" Porom cheered.
The two of them stood against the sliding doors, and yelled together, "Stone!" In a flash, they were turned into statues, and the doors ground to a halt.
Seeing the two youngest students of Avalanche die, Celes fell apart. She stopped fighting, she couldn't take it any more. The Heartless were all around her, and she didn't care. She had failed, she would always fail. She couldn't stop the rise of the Heartless, she might as well give up...
"Celes!" Locke was by her side, then, battling back the Heartless with a speed and efficiency unmatched by even Sephiroth himself. But it wasn't enough, she had given up hope. Locke could see her heart flickering, he could see the Heartless beyond the reach of his blades looking at her like hungry animals.
"I won't lose you, Celes!" he yelled. "I won't!"
"You won't have to!" yelled a new voice, a voice that was strong and purposeful, despite its joyous and lighthearted quality. From the darkness of the nearest doorway, King Mickey leapt into the battle. He knocked back half a dozen Heartless with a single swing of his powerful Keyblade. Against all odds, Gau was with him. Behind them were the mysterious Returner ninja, Shadow, and the young Goth sorceress, Lulu.
"That's everyone, everyone who's left!" Mickey said. "Cloud wouldn't come with me...He was too consumed with anger." Mickey knelt down next to Celes's body, and touched his gloved hand to her forehead. "Stop," he spoke.
"What will that do?" Locke asked. Yells went up from the battle all around him, and Locke was dimly aware that Defenders, Invisibles, and Angel Stars were joining the fight. Terra morphed and took on an Invisible, but it took every ounce of strength she had. It was all Rydia's Mist Dragon could do to hold off the others as the Avalanche and Returner fighters backed towards the ships.
"The magic is strong," Mickey answered Locke. "As long as hit holds, she'll sleep, and she won't lose her heart." Mickey looked Locke dead in the eye. "The Phoenix Stone, Locke. You'll need the do your best to find it. The power you gain from this quest will save her."
Mickey stood up, and shouted above the raging noise of the battle. "There are fourteen of you here! That's more then enough to come back and save this Kingdom, some day. But, for now, you need to leave. You all have destinies, you cannot lose heart. You have all lost friends today, but you can bring them back. And, in your journeys, you will meet others who share your pain and destinies. Just believe in your hearts that you will see your friends and homes again!" A Darkside rose from the center of the platform as Mickey spoke. He leapt at it, and destroyed it with a single slash of his Kingdom Key.
"Just believe..." he finished.
Without any more words, the fourteen warriors split into Gummi ships. Cid took his own, a ship he had once been working on for the Sage, Ansem, himself. Locke and Aurelie took another, with Celes's Stopped body. Relm went with Gau, tearfully embracing him, and Setzer followed. Zell helped the exhausted Terra into a ship, while Rydia prepared it for launch. Shadow, as silent as always, offered Lulu a hand up from the cockpit of another ship. Only two ships remained, after Mickey climbed into his own.
"Please, Cloud," Aerith said to herself. "Take one of those ships."
The seven ships lifted off, and escaped into the sky as the world was lost in darkness. Teenagers and children, and a single teacher - according to Mickey, part of the last force standing between the Kingdoms and the Heartless. They had already failed once, but each and every one of them took Mickey's words to heart.
They would not fail again. ----------------
"We were attacked by Heartless ships almost as soon as we got away from our world, and we were all separated," Aurelie finished. "Locke and I happened to come by here, Traverse Town, and met up with Cid, Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie."
"We have no idea where the others are, now," Yuffie said sadly.
"We just have to believe they're alright," Aerith said.
"The Heartless have taken so much from so many," Hex sighed. "First your world, and then mine...my friends..."
"Miss Quistis and...Rinoa..." Leon muttered.
Locke entered the room, then. "I'll do whatever I can to help you, Locke," Hex said. "I'll do everything I can to help all of you. We can't give up, we have to believe we can beat the Heartless in the end."
"We do believe, Hex," Leon said. "But we need the Keyblade Master to do it."
"No, he's only one part of the greater force," Hex responded. He looked at Aurelie, and then at Locke, who was still stunned from the strange promise he had just received from Hex. "We all have destinies, Mickey told you so."
"I already blew it once, Hex," Leon said angrily. "I can tell, because the powers that stand against the Heartless didn't choose me to wield the Keyblade. They didn't even trust me to wield the EssenceHand!"
"Then they've chosen you for something else," Hex answered calmly. "I understand your sense of responsibility, I had a friend just like you before the Heartless took Neon."
Hex stepped past Locke towards the door. "I'm going to the inn I saw on the flight over. Locke, Aurelie, feel free to stay with your friends, if you want," he said. "And, Squall, there's no need to run from your name or your past. You are here for a reason, you have been chosen for another task. I believe it, and I know you believe it. If you didn't, you'd have given your heart to the Heartless already. We'll leave in the morning, Locke and Aurelie. Have a good night." And Hex left the room in silence, leaving silence behind him.