Oh dear…I just can't stand to be off the front page…I'm such a tool.

Good lord…PSATS are tomorrow aren't they? Well…sooner…considering I'm writing this sentence at 11:32 on Friday October 14th…do I update too often? Is it bad when I dream about this story?

I. Don't. Own. Anything. At all. Ever!

Ok…so I think this is the best chapter so far…bitchin fights and an epic cliffhanger. Tell me what you think. I haven't started on Chapter Nine yet…and won't until Monday…so…too bad.

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Shadow Feather: Chapter 8

To Forgive is Divine

"His angel?"

Maleficent looked as though she were about to be overcome with laughter. She was smiling quietly. "Sephiroth…no one else can save the boy now. He seeks power. Power strong enough to return the heart of the one he cares for. That is what allows people to be swallowed by the darkness." She let loose a loud cackle. "Only through complete and total selfishness can anyone hope to control the Heartless! If he tries to control them and save the girl, his heart with be stretched too thin and will break. Even now, he seeks to destroy his former friend Sora. He hopes to one day defeat him so that he can hold the keyblade and unlock Kairi's heart." She leered at me. "And then he shall be swallowed by the darkness."

I silently stepped toward the glowing table and leaned against it in thought.

"Sora…the boy with the key?"

"Yes. What of it?"

"You know where he landed, correct? When he left Destiny Islands."

"Of course I do," She snapped. "I keep a close eye on the boy. He found his way to Traverse Town and met up with some ragtag bunch of heroes from the Palace."

"Traverse Town…" Axel had mentioned Traverse Town before. "Isn't that where the previous inhabitants of Hollow Bastion fled to?

"Yes," she said with a hint of suspicion. "He met them as well."

"How can I get there using a…vessel?"

Maleficent snapped a question in my direction, "Why is this so important for you to know?"

"I think I may be enemies with several of those people is all," I lied. "I would like to have them out of my way."

Maleficent eyed me with growing suspicion but finally relented. "Take the vessel near the falls. When you leave you should take a right and then enter the nearest warp hole. When you leave the warp hole, go to the left. That's all you need to know."

"Thank you," I said politely, and then left the room. I teleported to the falls. I was in a hurry and found a large, ridiculous looking ship staring me in the face. "So these are Gummi blocks…" I mumbled to myself. I entered the ship and took a look at the controls. It was fairly simple to fly and soon I had taken off and entered space.

It was different from the Nexus. This was not instantaneous travel. This was painstakingly long space travel. For several hours I flew until I noticed a large black hole on my right. I steered toward and suddenly felt myself in a new place. It felt as if I had traveled through the Nexus, but I had come out instantly…very odd. Taking a left I flew for several more hours. Eventually I saw a large planet peeking over the edge of the window of the cockpit.

"Traverse town."

After several miserable attempts at docking the ship I left the cockpit and thrust open the large wooden doors that were the entrance to Traverse Town. It was a homely place. A cobble stone square with what appeared to be a restaurant to my left. As I walked into the middle of the square I saw people part out of my way. There wasn't a crowd but people seemed to deem it safer to stay at least ten feet out of reach.

I felt uneasy. I wasn't used to being amongst people. I wanted to turn to them and ask them what was wrong, but I did not. Instead I held my head up and walked to the next large pair of doors, on my right. Above it was a large sign that read "THIRD DISTRICT." I pushed the doors open and walked inside.

The place was abandoned. I sighed with relief. It was strange. I had never felt uneasy around people, I always felt that the fear they felt was a sign of my power. They were weak, but…now…now I felt that that is unfair. What was happening to me? I wanted to protect Riku…does that make me a hero?

I felt my wing flex slowly. Oh. People were probably just scared of my wing. It wasn't a common occurrence was it? For a man to come striding into your world with a large black wing? Not to mention Masamune. That was bound to draw some stares.

I walked out into the middle of the third district. It reminded me of the arena, so flat and large, the ideal place for a fight. I heard several loud whooshes from behind me. I turned around in confusion and then lightly chided myself for such a silly statement. Heartless, sixteen of them, stood, jerking, giggling, clanking and bobbing in front of me. They seemed to mean me harm so I slowly drew Masamune from its sheath.

One of the smaller shadows leapt forward and caught the heel of my shoe in its face. It flew back with so much force that it tore the head off an armored Heartless. The helmet clanked against the stone wall and then both of the Heartless disappeared in a puff of black smoke. The largest Heartless, a huge fat one, rumbled forward and dove at me, seeking perhaps to crush me under its weight.

Masumune unfurled from my side and cut a long vertical line completely through the Heartless before returning to my side. The momentum of the fat Heartless kept it coming at me and I thrust out my leg and split the shadow in two. It fell to either side of me and burst into puffs of smoke.

"Is this all you have?" There were now twelve Heartless left.

Hold on…

A dark line came streaking at me from above. I dodged to the left and the Heartless slammed, shoulder first, into the ground. The speed at which it was going caused it to flatten and splat all over and then burst into a puff of black smoke, just like the ones before it. Now there were twelve left.

"Honestly…are you kidding?" I dropped Masamune to the ground and gestured for them to come at me, I was in the mood for a little bit of fun and exercise. The group of twelve split, each Heartless darting in a different direction than the other. Finally I was surrounded on every side, including above me. "Very good."

I crouched down slightly and then jumped as high as I could. I flew upwards and turned so that I was parallel to the ground and facing it. As I reached a bewildered Heartless, I extended my leg and brought it up with incredible force directly between its. I made contact and tore directly through the Heartless, leaving it in two. I flipped several times until I was upright again. Two more Heartless were flying at me from below. I reached the peak of my jump some thirty feet in the air. I remained, floating for several seconds and the two Heartless sped up to reach me. They were moving, in sync, from opposite directions. They both drew back their fists and struck out just as I began to fall.

I drew my wing back and flapped it just once. It sent me spinning swiftly out of their way. In my revolutions I caught glimpses of the two Heartless as they punched each other and burst into black globs of shadow. I slowly fell back to the nine heartless that awaited me below. I watched them cluster beneath where they thought I would land. I closed my eyes and teleported.

In their confusion, I jumped up onto the head of a large bodied Heartless and stood there. It paused, as if to try and understand this new development, and then did a crazy little dance until I stomped its head into its round body and it burst into darkness as well. Four tiny Heartless leapt away in fear and the other four armored heartless began to stumble away from me.

I reached out and grabbed the leg of a Heartless. I swung it over my head and hurled it, catching two more retreating Heartless. All three let out a poof and returned to a small cloud of darkness. Now the amount of armored Heartless was one less than that of the smaller ones. I jumped forward and punched through the torso of an armored Heartless and then spun in a half circle to bring my heel down upon a smaller one. A small Heartless had leapt at my exposed back but I took hold of the armored Heartless I had just killed and used him to bat away the smaller one. Once again, all three faded away. Only two Heartless remained now. One small and one with helmet.

I dashed toward the smaller one, gripped it by the head and thrust it against the wall. It splattered and faded away. The final armored Heartless stood, or more accurately jerked wildly in place, across the floor. It stood near Masamune which was shaking violently in annoyance at its disuse. I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. This had been a fairly enjoyable bout. I heard the Heartless begin to run towards me. Its armor clanked as it ran. I smiled slightly at their single minded persistence. They were a lot like ants.

Suddenly there was another sound, another pair of feet running. I opened my eyes to see a man put his foot on top of the large wall surrounding the Third district and leap from it. During his descent he screamed at the top of his lungs and brought his sword down sharply upon the running Heartless. His strike caused the ground to crack from the impact.

Before the Heartless faded away, he said quietly, "I won't let you things hurt anymore innocent people."

Innocent. Such a strange word. Entirely untrue as well.

"Are you hurt?"

"No…not at all." The man was funny…he clearly hadn't seen the beginning of the battle.

"That's good. How many were there?"

"Sixteen."

"Oh, well that's…" He paused. "Sixteen?"

"Yea. Two of them were fat, four flew and there were five armored and five small ones."

The man ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "Geez…so you took care of fifteen but got disarmed? That's pretty impressive."

"Actually..." I began as I strode past him. "You interrupted me."

The man snorted and shouldered his sword. "Aren't you cocky."

I picked up Masamune and placed it at my side. "Perhaps. They did not pose a challenge."

"Do you think you're ready for the next round then?"

"Hm?"

The brown haired man shook his head and placed his hand on his forehead in resignation. "There are always a few rounds. The next one should have at least one of the more advance Heartless."

"Well when are they going to get here?"

"Take one more step that way."

I did so and there was a large whooshing sound again. I turned around in curiosity to see a large beastly Heartless standing in the middle of the area, surrounded by four large flying Heartless. The flying ones looked like large ugly birds and had wings, the one on the ground held a large shield with a dog's head.

"Wyverns and a Defender. You think there's no challenge now?" I heard the man call from across the ground.

"Not in the least."

My feet left the ground and in two lighting strikes Masamune tore the flying creatures into fourths. I landed next to the man and returned his dropped jaw with a slight smile. Turning, I sheathed Masamune and stopped the approaching shield with a swift kick to the face of the dog. The shield yipped and tore out of the Heartless' hand. The large Heartless looked worried and the started to run after the shield which had fallen on the other side of the district.

I walked up to its side and delivered a powerful blow to the side of its head, sending it sprawling across the grounds. It came to a stop against the far wall. I walked slowly toward it and raised my leg to deliver a crushing heel drop to the pitiful creature. It strained slightly and then disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

"Holy crap."

I turned to the brunette and gave a little smile. Being the hero wasn't all that bad. Hell, it was easier. The man began to walk toward me and held out his hand in something akin to awe.

"It's nice to meet someone else strong enough to be in the fight against the Heartless. My name is Leon."

I stared for a long time at Leon's outstretched palm. Such gestures were still a bit beyond my grasp. "I'm Sephiroth."

Leon retracted his hand, looking amused and sheathed it in his pocket. "So…where are you from? I know I haven't seen you in Traverse Town before."

"Where I'm from…that…doesn't matter anymore."

Leon looked at me with an expression of understanding. "I know the feeling."

We stood in silence for some time. Leon finally shook himself from his reverie and said, "Well…I suppose I should introduce you to the rest of the crew."

"That would be nice."

Suddenly a scream erupted from the place where Leon had entered the District. "SQUALL! LOOK OUT!"

"My name is Leon!" Leon grabbed his sword and looked all around himself, searching for signs of danger. I did no such thing and instead stared directly at the source of the scream. Leon finally stood up, content that there was no danger and yelled back at the screamer, "What is it? Are you just playing another joke on me Yuffie? You know I can't stand that."

The young ninja stood, shaking in terror, atop the District wall and pointed at me. Her voice escaped her and she mouthed something. She looked ready to collapse from fear.

"Yuffie? Are you alright?"

She finally found her voice and screamed in panic, "YOU!" With unnatural speed she reached into some hidden pocket and hurled several shuriken with impeccable aim. They flew straight toward my head. When they were feet from my face I raised my hand and swiftly grabbed them all out of the air. The ninja cursed and then began to run along the wall, hurling shuriken after shuriken.

"Yuffie! Stop it!" Leon cried.

"Squall! Get Cid! I can't do this alone!"

"Do what? Yuffie! Why are you trying to kill him?"

When I finally couldn't hold anymore shuriken, I dropped the ones in my hand and unsheathed Masamune. Yuffie flipped over the wall and landed lightly on the ground. She muttered something and an enormous shuriken appeared in her hands. She hurled it at me with such ferocity that I was caught off guard.

"Yuffie! Stop this right n-"

"NO! I won't let him ruin our lives again!"

"What are you talking about?" Leon turned to me. "Sephiroth what is she talking about."

As I evaded and blocked the oncoming shuriken, I said, "Leon, get Cid. There are some things we all need to talk about. Together."

Leon stood there, unsure of what to do and then ran out through the doors and into the First District. Yuffie's enchanted shuriken came back again and again no matter how many times I blocked it. As I leapt around the arena, Yuffie took the opportunity to gather her regular shuriken and hurl those as well. Even under the intense attack I still managed to get a good view of the First District door as it flung open.

"I don't know how you got here," Cid stood by the door, brandishing a long spear. "But I'll be damned before I let you leave."

"Alright Sephiroth! You're in for it now!" yelled Yuffie in excitement.

Cid leapt impossibly high into the air and began to fall towards me with incredible speed. Yuffie hurled several throwing stars as well as three enchanted shuriken that rebounded off the walls and came from me every angle.

"Yuffie…Cid." I began. Cid drew back his spear; lines of air began to form around the swiftly falling man. The approaching shuriken drew ever closer.

"I'm…sorry." I closed my eyes and began preparation to teleport.

Before I could fully close my eyes, I saw stars. Small stars began to fall all around me. I reached out to touch one but felt nothing. Cid was approaching so fast now, too fast for me to block his attack but somehow I felt that it didn't matter. These tiny stars kept falling and that was all that mattered.

There was a flash of yellow light and Cid smashed into me, driving me to the ground, crushing me into the concrete. The shuriken flew around him and scored direct hits on me. But somehow I didn't feel any pain.

Cid ground his spear into my chest with all his force but I knew it wasn't doing any damage to me. He let loose a short growl and then mumbled, "Planet Protector…"

He shouldered his spear and backed away from me. I let the shuriken fall off my glowing body as I stood up. Yuffie was jumping back and forth anxiously. Cid snorted and jabbed forward with his spear, cutting the ties that held Masamune at my side. It clattered to the floor. "Don't you even think of picking that up."

I nodded silently, eyes downcast. I heard Yuffie nervously yell, "What's the big idea? This is a bad idea, you know? Don't you remember what he did to you?"

Cid turned to Yuffie and said, "It's her decision, Yuffie." He then turned to look above me at the top of the wall. "I just hope it's not the wrong one."

A sweet voice drifted from above me. It soared around the District on angel wings, stopping briefly by me to caress my ears and then hurrying on to inform the others. "Don't worry Cid, it isn't."

I heard footsteps coming down the ramp to the same level as the rest of us. Keeping my eyes downward, I turned to the place she would emerge from. I saw her, from the waist down, step out from behind the wall. Her pink dress did not flow; it remained steadfast, not tight and not loose. Modest and pure to a "T." The essence of Holy itself.

And I had killed her.

"Hello, Sephiroth."

I nodded and looked upwards at the brunette.

"I had always hoped we would meet again."

I nodded. There was a long pause as the golden hue surrounding my body wore away. When it had finally dissipated, the woman's wise voice resonated through the District.

"I accept your apology," said Aerith.

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Woohoo! And here's some more Final Fantasy loving for all you fans out there. Hey…do you remember all that angsting I was doing before? About how I don't know where I'm going with this? Turned out to just be a momentary case of confusion on my part. Things are working out fine now.

Ok…uhm…things I don't like about this chapter…god dammit the Gummi Ship…Sephiroth doesn't belong in that thing. But I was getting so freaking tired of the Nexus and its godmoding capabilities. sigh I think I'm coming on too strongly with Aerith…too much to quickly. But who knows.

Things you might be wondering. How on earth am I going to keep this and still have the Showdown of Fate? Don't worry, I got it all worked out.

Things I'm angry about. Ok…god fucking dammit. I was reading through the script for kingdom hearts the other day…for research…and SPOILERS! (as if this whole story isn't one) in Hollow Bastion…when the final fantasy crew returns there…Aerith says "This is our childhood home. We wanted to see it again." I totally forgot about that…this, of course… means that I can't be nearly as true to the Kingdom Hearts story as I wanted to be…which is so disappointing for me cause that's what I wanted…oh well…feel free to give me pity in the reviews I know you will write. Later.