6
Vexen
"Move, move!" soldiers rushed by the door. This was it. The Heartless were rushing us. The final battle, the final darkness. Now it was at hand. Everyone, scientists, soldiers, civilians, we were all grabbing weapons. I found a spiked shield, grabbed it, hoped to cover the backs of some of the better fighters. I grabbed a spear, ran into the courtyard, and saw Cid arguing with Squall.
"Damnit, where is he?" Cid was bellowing, some kind of interrogation it seemed, "We can't leave without him."
"What's wrong?" I asked, coming up behind them.
"That kid Cloud is missing, no one can find him," Squall told me. "We have Aerith and Yuffie, no Cloud."
"Well then you two jump in, and take off," I told them, "Here," I said, tossing the spear to Cid, "you never know where the Heartless might be."
"What? You pinhead, ain'tchu comin' with us?" Cid asked.
"No," I answered, "This is probably my fault in some way, I won't bring that burden to another world. Now go on, hurry." Almost as if to confirm my warning, soldiers burst through the courtyard gate, bracing it, locking it.
"Sir," one of them yelled to Squall, "we can't hold them off. Hurry and leave, sir. Don't worry, we want it this way Squall."
"That's Leon," Squall muttered to himself, and went inside the gummi ship. Cid jumped in the pilot's seat, and started the ignition. The ship blasted off, shooting its way through flying Heartless, managing to slip by.
The gate was battered. It bulged out, like a water tub bursting at the seams. My head was spinning wildly. These artificial Heartless that I had helped to create were now going to kill me. I saw a face breach the gates, a smiling, toothy grin. A shield. Defenders. I had molded these particular Heartless in my image, not physically, but combat-wise. They would be able to block anything with their shields. Not only that, they could be used as weapons. I had played around with swords in my youth. I was never good at attacking, but I used to be able to block anything coming at me, I hoped I still had those same abilities.
This time the shield broke all the way through. Heartless we had identified as "Ancients" came through the hole, flying with their broadswords slashing away. The land Heartless would probably be coming anytime now.
"Ready Hojo?" I yelled over to the access panel.
He nodded and looked over at me, "Yes, I'm throwing it now."
I looked out to the soldiers battling the Ancients, "Fire in the hole!" Hojo flipped the switch, and the Lift-Stop power stations overloaded all at once. The electricity pulsed around the air. Most of our guys had gotten down fast enough, a few poor souls, civilians mostly, got caught in the cross-fire and were electrecuted to death. To this day I try to block out those screams. It sounds too horrible to be a good way to die, especially in the arcane way it was done. But none of the Heartless escaped that fate. I heard the unholy cries as Heartless after Heartless was killed by our trick. As long as the switch was active, and as long as the Lift Stop had juice left in her, this field would stay.
Except for the one thing we had overlooked, there was a rare Heartless we didn't know about. It looked like an angel. An unholy angel. Two or three came in, and started absorbing the electricity. All of the power spiked, waned, and dissipated. Our trap was gone. I saw one of the soldiers, a man with a gun-arm, stand up and began shooting at the angel-Heartless, "Damnit, you can all jes' eat it!" But he didn't last long until a Soldier Heartless took him from behind. I saw the look of horror on gun-arm's face when his heart was forcibly withdrawn, and devoured by the Soldier. Then I saw his body shift and change, and he turned into a Shadow Heartless.
Those of us who were left heard the order, "Fall back to the chapel!" We exited through the back door, running to save our lives, I blocked an attack from a Magician, the fire glowing bright purple before it went out, mixing with the saphire shield. Not bad, I thought, worth keeping, if we managed to find a miracle way off this rock. We barred the doors with whatever we could find, which consisted of a couple of chairs. To our horror, it didn't do squat.
The door started to meld with black, with darkness itself. The Shadows simply merged with the door, and walked right into the room. Their first rank fell on the first row of defenders, their claws slicing into their chests to get at the hearts that lay within.
Damnit...what's it all for? I screamed inside my own mind. I couldn't understand it, why were we made to suffer? Why was this death surrounding me? Suddenly my ears started ringing, I grabbed my head, and kneeled down in the pain. I screamed, I think. It was too blurry, I still can't recall what exactly happened, but I do remember being swallowed up...darkness...everywhere. It was overwhelming, and all I could feel was the fall, the fall to darkness.