Author's Quickie: Hey all! What's up? Well, enough with the useless chitter chatter. Chapter 3 already! Whew! Where does all that time go? I'm sorry this is so short, but I promised everyone I'd update within a week, and this was all I could crank out. Sheesh. And, I'm trying to create a manga from scratch to submit, so my time's stretched pretty thin. Another week, another chapter!

Disclaimer: Planted sign reads: "NO OWNERSHIP!"

Project: Trinity

Chapter Three: And there was you...

"Damn it, Aerith, where the hell did you go?!" he muttered to himself furiously, his feet pounding on the street. Damn sentimental femininity. For a girl who looked like she was having a heart attack a few moments before, she could sure walk fast.

Leon cursed loudly as he came upon a fork in the street. District Two of Traverse town specialized in branching roads that lead to nowhere; one wrong turn would leave him wandering for days. And he couldn't afford the loss of time.

As if in special mockery of his urgency, hordes of soldier Heartless appeared, blocking his way. Swearing, he leapt back and readied his gunblade, smiling grimly to himself. Cid was starting to complain that he was swearing more than he was. Well, it was a habit that was well nourished in this environment. Without waiting for an enemy offensive, Leon spun and slashed the nearest Heartless, using him to topple onto the others. Their heavy metal armor clanked as they fell down in a heap and dissipated into dust. Well, that was that, he thought as he brushed off the dust.

He spoke too soon; a pair of air soldiers came up just when he was finishing the soldiers. In one rapid swoop they descended upon him, tearing into his body. It was sheer instinct that had him ducking at the last moment, so their attacks only grazed his head. Furious that his pride had gotten the better of him, Leon swung his blade at the flying monsters, who easily dodged his heavy weapon. "Stupid!" he said as he gritted his teeth, hissing in irritation. Physical attack was clearly out of the question, so that left magic.

Instantly his body began charging up for the attack, his hands emitting a fiery red glow. Leon concentrated, and sent a spitting fireball hurling at one of the air soldiers. Its wing caught on fire and it went down, where he promptly eliminated it with a good swing. As for the other...with a quick motion he launched another magic attack at it, and when it fell, he strode over to it. It writhed from the attack, but still reached up, trying to strike him. Disgusted, Leon ended its mindless pseudo-life with a quick crunch of his boot.

Well, nothing like a battle to get your blood pumping, he thought dryly, scraping his boot on the sidewalk to get the dust off. As he turned to face the road split-off once more, the question of where to go and the aggravation that accompanied the decision returned. God damn it, he thought, extremely ticked off. Which road to take?

Time was running short. Cid and Yuffie would be needing his help; heck, even Aerith might be in trouble, considering her natural lack of strength and the strange way she looked...

A scream pierced his thoughts and sent shivers down his spine. A scream that sounded, terrifyingly, like Aerith's. "What, did you read my mind?" he muttered as he ran towards the direction of her voice.

And prayed that he wasn't too late.

* * *

His footsteps seemed too loud for the still silence that fell after Aerith's scream. It seemed that the whole neighborhood was waiting, with bated breath, for everything to be played out. With his heavy gunblade gripped tightly in one hand, Leon ran through the streets, his eyes locking onto the unfolding scene before him.

There! He stopped dead, his breathing laborious and strained, when he saw a group of Heartless clustered around a point in the street in front of him. Somewhere in that grotesque mass of writhing shadows he thought he saw a flash of white. "Aerith!" he shouted out, his eyes wide with fear. He charged, swinging at the Heartless in an effort to scatter them away from her body.

Growling, the shadows retreated a couple of paces, warily watching the weapon in his hand. Aerith was there, slumped against the wall, with gashes on her arms and blood stains on her clothes. Her eyes were closed tight, and across her cheek was a large cut. "Aerith," he said as he quickly dropped to his knees and placed his hands on her shoulders. God, her skin was so cold! "Aerith, wake up; it's me, Leon." Urgency filled his voice as he threw a look over his shoulder at the prowling Heartless.

Slowly her eyelids fluttered open, the pupils of her eyes unfocused and clouded. A hazy shape seemed to lean in front of her, the outline fuzzy and distorted. Is it you? she wondered hopefully, still lost in the dreamworld, Have you finally found me? I've missed you so... It took a few precious moments for her to return fully to reality, and when she did, it surprised her that the shape turned out to be none other than Leon. "Leon?" she whispered in a raw voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be the one asking you that question." Though his voice was neutral, the expression on his face clearly showed he was mildly irritated. She quickly bowed her head and muttered a few inaudible words of apology, twisting her sweating hands in her lap nervously.

"Never mind that now," he snapped. Perhaps now that his fear of Aerith dying was gone, he could resort back to the next matter at hand, he thought peevishly to himself. In truth, he was relieved he made it in time; but still...

Aerith, at his harsh words, bit her lip and shakily tried to stand up. Instantly Leon regretted saying anything and caught her awkwardly when her knees gave way. The heartless, sensing weakness, circled around a little closer. "You're still weak," Leon murmured, trying to be gentler towards her.

"I--I can make it," she said stubbornly, pushing him away. Leon gave her a doubtful glance but shrugged. Her headache was lessening, though her body still groaned whenever she made a move. Her breath caught when she noticed the swarm of black shadows watching them slyly. It suddenly struck her that the shadows she saw when her headache was at its peak was... "Leon, the Heartless..."

He grimaced and swung his gunblade out. "Yeah, I know."

Unconsciously Aerith took a step closer to him; her lack of strength was infamous. "What happened, Leon?" she asked in an hesitating whisper. "Why are so many of them here? What's going on?"


"We've been invaded," Leon answered, never taking his eyes off his adversaries. "Traverse Town has fallen."

* * *

Just a little endnote: Thanks to all the repeat reviewers! I love you all! I have something planned for you guys in the near future....!

Oh, and P.S.: Cloud's on his way! Expect him to "enter" the plot within the next two chapters.