I already had this done and decided to get it up... Does a little happy dance... I'm actually getting stuff done... But now I'm back at college... Cries... And here is the introduction of many of the main players!
Chapter 1: Heroes
He was surrounded in blood, covered in it. He wasn't quite sure what had transpired to create this bitter situation, but faintly remembered a giant creature cutting down those he didn't know. He shook his thoughts to clear it, creatures like that didn't exist. Not in Traverse Town, only the already defeated heartless. He looked beyond were he was standing to see the tall black buildings filled with innocent shinning lights as if they hadn't witnessed a blood bath, a fucking massacre. He leaned down awkwardly on Lionheart and closed his eyes.
Little saving grace of being a skilled fighter had saved his life. He saw the remains of a hacked apart, half-eaten moggle. If he could puke up anything he would. Hysterical laughter fell from thinly parted lips. The Lion of Balamb was emotional, what a fucking joke. He looked back up at the clouds wishing they would part again, just for a second, that glimmering bliss of sunlight just beyond.
"Leon." It was quietly spoken and he looked up to see a single blond standing there, watching him.
"Who the fuck are you?" He growled. He wasn't Leon, he was Squall.
"You've got to let it go Leon. You knew you couldn't save them." He pointed out quietly.
He remembered now, Rinoa becoming an evil sorceress, the death of Ward and Zell, then the very destruction of his world and so much more. And then coming to Hallow Bastion… only to watch that be taken over by its benevolent king Ansem.
"I could have done something! I saved the my world from not one but two Sorceress Wars!" He shouted clinching his fists, remembering Sora, the valiant keyblader who fought as well.
"That might as well have never happened." Cloud's monotone rivaled Leon's own usual tones.
He could imagine Seifer laughing now, someone colder then your tight ass Leonheart.
"So you say." He could feel himself shedding off the emotion like water off a roof.
"I saved my world as well." He pointed out quietly, as he turned to walk from the carnage.
"I know… But how can you ignore their screams when new demons are coming?! When the worlds haven't been fixed?" He asked tightening his grip on Lionheart as he stood.
"Because… I am not the hero." His words were so simple, they weren't enough.
"And what if Sora isn't the answer?" He spat even through; he was putting his all into believing in the young, if only in age, keyblade master.
"That I can't answer."
"Yes, because it's so easy for you to make sure that Aerith and Yuffie are all right that you can't give a damn about the people in this town."
"I can't worry for fools who leave the first district with out the proper protection. There is only one rule in Traverse Town Leon. Survival of the fittest."
"Fucking merc." He shook his head, wasn't he the mercenary? "And how could they have known?! That something was coming when the heartless had been defeated?"
"I suggest you walk a bit faster. With those wounds… Should Ansem's forces attack again… I doubt you'd survive."
"At least Vincent had a heart."
"Amusing… to presume that a vampire had a heart." Cloud's laugh was long and cold.
"What? Excuse me for having trusted him. He's the only person to help me in this hellhole. Not even sweet little Aerith gives a damn about anyone but herself." He hissed.
"Leave Aerith out of this Leon. I would hate to have to kill you too."
"Too? Having you forgotten that Vincent isn't dead? And in the hospice by your hand no less you fucking traitor." Leon struggled to keep pace.
"Let Yuffie clean your wounds. Don't talk to me again Leon." And with that, Cloud left him at the door of the abandoned house.
"Sq-Leon! You shouldn't let yourself get hurt like this!" Yuffie clucked her tongue as she tended his wounds.
"The nothings attacked again this time… They didn't stop. The came straight up to the first district… I tried, but it was a massacre." He shook long brown strands from his face.
"I'm sorry to hear that… I thought they could only appear in the sewers? The town was never supposed to see them? I had been in the sewers during the attack." Yuffie whispered softly.
"You know going there's dangerous." Aerith clicked her tongue, Leon growled quietly; he hated the air she breathed, mocking the people who thought the other districts still safe.
More screams sounded the sounds of the nothings attacking other hopeless people. Leon closed his eyes to the sounds. He thought of anything else, but all that came were more painful memories.
"Kill him." Flitted into his ear in such sweet tones.
He rose Lionheart high above the head of the spiky headed blond and brought it down in a rush of exhilaration. A splash of blood hit his hands as his target, his one time friend was cut sharply across the face. The poor blond stared up at him with his one good eye, a cry escaping his mangled lips in a plea for mercy as the blade lifted again. He smirked at the whimpering blond.
"Zell." The sweet voice of his mistress spoke out to the broken crying blond. "Tell Ma Dincht I said hi." She fluttered her lovely fingers.
He brought his blade to the blond at a new angle cutting deep into his throat, the spray of blood liberating. The shocked blond let out a gurgling noise as he fell back from the force of the blade, dead before he touched the ground.
"Rinoa! Stop this!" A man of light and gold yelled.
"Fuck." Leon muttered as he sat up cringing in pain.
"Welcome to the world of the living." That was a voice he hadn't heard in a while, one he didn't mind hearing.
"Sora?" He turned his eyes to the boy, no man it seemed.
Sora was seventeen now, cinnamon hair still defying gravity. Some of the brighter colors of his attire had darkened. His clear, crystalline, blue eyes held age and hard earned wisdom. Leon knew the look too well. It was the look of a SeeD, a fighter.
"Yuffie told me, that you battled nothings by yourself." He stated quietly.
"I did…No other survivors." Leon was surprised that his voice still held it's unemotional, monotone edge.
Give him a sorceress war any day over the nothings. The needless death, they killed for fun, even Ultimecia hadn't killed this cruelly, this horribly.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Sora looked towards the door. "Goofy and Donald are out there talking to Yuffie and Areith."
"I'm glad."
"I don't want them coming with me." He stated plainly.
"Why?" Leon looked at him.
"When I was in Mulan's world. She gave me a few words of wisdom."
"And?" Leon asked softly.
"Even darkness needs light. Ask your mentor." Sora looked at him.
"She's right… Balance is important." Leon stood.
"Goofy and Donald are needed else where."
"Else where?" Leon looked at the keyblader.
"That's just it. I don't really know if they are. I just know I can't take them with me. King Mickey isn't where I'm going."
"Riku is."
"And Ansem." Sora looked at him.
"You've lost much of the innocence you held when I met you." Leon shook his head; he couldn't believe how much he could open up to the younger hero.
"I need your help. That's why I'm here." Sora looked Leon up and down.
Leon hadn't change much since he met him. Longish hair, leather pants, jeans jacket with blood red wings on the back, and that necklace. The one he never explained.
"Send Goofy and Donald with Yuffie… to a world of light. A world meant to be filled with light. They'll find King Mickey there. Or something that they will need anyway." Leon smirked.
"And where will you and I go?" Sora looked at him sharply.
"So you wish to take me with you this time? A has been hero." He looked at him sharply.
"I've seen the way you fight with Lionheart. Has been my ass."
"Wow… even your language has suffered." Leon smirked.
"I met a woman on my travels. A woman named Edea. She said, that certain heroes of other worlds would be needed."
"Matron… What planet?" He looked almost pleadingly into his eyes.
"I don't know… But the nothings… They stole into her heart… and ate her from the inside out." Sora looked away.
"She's the first person I've heard about since I left." Leon looked down.
"She was from your world? I'm sorry."
"If we are going, then we've got to go to the hospice." He stood.
"And what is in the hospice?" Sora looked at him confused.
"Vincent." Leon sheathed Lionheart.
"Vincent? Isn't he one of Cloud's friends?"
"I highly doubt that heroes would include Cloud." He shook himself. "Discard your summons. I have things from my world, that would work better."
Inside the hospice was cold and contained the horrible stench of death. Sora resisted the urge to cover his nose. But Leon walked forward with purpose, unkindly pushing nurses and doctors out of the way. They reached one of the last rooms shrouded in darkness, lay a man in red with a large claw for a right hand and a deadly rifle sitting by his bed. Leon looked at Sora.
"You might want to turn your head."
"No."
Leon nodded and ripped into his wrist hard, with a dagger that lay on Vincent's bedspread and placed it to the Vampire's mouth. The creature of darkness latched out sucking viciously until Leon was dizzy from the blood loss.
"You shouldn't have not done that." Vincent muttered as he released his wrist.
"You need to be healthy. Feed off one of the doctors and then we can continue on."
"LEON!" Vincent chided.
"They were starving you… I have your supplements back at the house… but it won't do you much good still unhealed."
"Why wait till now."
"So Cloud can't finish his dirty work." Leon stood.
"What the hell has happened since I left?" Sora asked staring at him hard.
"Cloud has been killing off certain people… No one knows why." He shook his head.
"What?!" Sora yelled.
"He cut down Tidus in the third district. Cut of his right arm and plunged that huge ass sword though his chest."
"Tidus was barely older then me!" Sora growled.
"And then Auron… Chopped his head clean off." Vincent stared hard into the keyblader's eyes. "And lastly… Wakka."
"What happened?" Sora asked.
"He kills about the same as the nothing… If Cloud ever had a soul… It's gone now."
"And why haven't you stopped him?!" Sora yelled.
"I tried… And barely survived the attack." Vincent stated as a doctor came in the room.
"What are you doing?!" Vincent was fast, the terror barely settled into the man's eyes before he was ripping out his throat, drinking deeply his precious life's blood.
Sora turned away.
"Darkness." Leon stated looking at Vincent and then motioning to himself.
"But light?" Sora stared at him.
"That is you… and one other who isn't here." Leon looked at his hands. "One we might not find."
"We have to stop Cloud first." Sora spoke.
"He'll follow us." Vincent stated as he dropped the corpse delicately licking the blood off his fingers.
"What?"
"He and his mistress will follow. With the lack of sufficient warriors Cloud will want a challenge for his blood lust."
"Is that why you want to send Yuffie and the others to Hollow Bastion?" Sora glared at Leon, one that rivaled his.
"They are safer there, then here. The nothings haven't penetrated Hallow Bastion… yet."
Sora sighed in defeat. That much was true. The left the hospice and grabbed their belongings. The screams started from the third district, but the hallow rasps of the nothing didn't followed, instead a cold and bitter laugh, cut the freezing winds. Sora dared to peek out the window, and with all the light in his soul, wished he hadn't.
Cloud, was holding the head of some unknown person. As he stared down into the eyes of the woman's lover. He swung her head back and forth before crushing the skull against the ground. The man lifted his sword and came after Cloud but the spiky blond was toying with him, cutting off his free arm. Laughing sadistically, Cloud brought his sword down again and again, hacking at the man, blood squirting until the man's cries were no longer heard.
"It gets worse every day between the heartless, the nothings and him." Leon nodded towards the door.
"How can you stand it." Sora looked at him.
"I can't… But I had to stay healthy… For your return." Leon closed his eyes. "The people of my world always looked up to me. Expected me to right all wrongs and stop the evil. Even when I was under the control of great evil… They knew I would save them. And I did. It's hard to know I can't do that now." He swallowed the lump in his throat.
'Stop being a pussy Leonheartless. I didn't know you could sound that caring Ice Princess.' Seifer just wouldn't get out of his head.
"Squall! It's me, Laguna! You've got to come… Please." His father's calls falling on deaf ears as he turned from those pleading eyes.
He took a step instead to one of his father silent sentries. The tall, silent brooding man, the man who lost his voice in a great battle. He lifted his sword and gave him a cut to compliment the first before the larger man could move. He spun on his heel and brought the sword into the silent man's side, the blood spraying across his father. The grin on his lips became manic.
"Shall I kill Kiros as well father?!" He snarled. "Is that enough payment for my mother?!" He glared at the President of Esther.
"Enough my pet. One lost is enough. Come back to me." He smirked at the two lost men and turned to walk away.
Inside was a little boy crying. For the father he was sure, would never want him again.
AN: Poor Squally... cries I shouldn't torture my characters so much...and bad Cloud... Grr.... And Sora's language... Ah well... you know the drill please review? I haven't had a good ego stroking since they took down the rps...