Chapter Eighteen: Call to Arms

Unfortunately, we weren't able to find another world in need of help. Before we could, a distress signal came on. Putting it on the small viewscreen embedded in the dashboard, Squall's image popped up.

"Calling all ships out there… there's an army of everything out there. We're in need of assistance. Anyone that can help needs to come!" the missive announced.

"What do you think of this?" I asked my friends.

"We should go see what it's all about, and probably help them," Amy said, "Squall did give us some direction in the first place."

"It's not like we can ignore it, anyway…" Jason said.

"All right, let's go," I muttered, then punched in the coordinates for the Radiant Garden. When we arrived there and beamed down, popping up near where Sora and Riku had landed in the borough, it was a lot different than last time. Instead of a clear, blue sky with shines of light flitting down from the sky, the sky itself seemed angry. It was violently flashing between grey, pitch black, and pure white.

"What's… happened here?" Sora asked.

"I'm not sure, but whatever it is, it can't be good," I heard a rough voice say. I turned around to see Vincent Valentine standing atop a building. He jumped down and landed smoothly, walking up to us slowly. "Everything's been thrown out of balance."

"Out of balance?" I asked.

"All worlds maintain some degree of balance. The balance of light to dark is what affects its inhabitants; when there is predominantly light, its residents are as well. The opposite is also true," he explained. "But the balance has been upset here, and you can see the result."

"Who could have that kind of power?" Riku asked.

"I don't know… someone beyond my scope, let alone yours," Vincent answered. He then walked off.

"Well, now we know what's going on to some degree. Let's go see Squall and ask if we can help in some way," Amy said. The five of us walked off toward the castle. We soon found out, to some degree, what Vincent meant; a great number of Heartless, Nobodies, and Luce stood in our simple path. The only true problem was their number; I couldn't keep track of how many attacked us before we made it to the castle.

Bursting inside and quickly slamming the doors shut, we found ourselves in a dark castle. Most of the lights were out or dimmed, causing eerie shadows of ourselves to dance across the walls. Forcing our way through the castle's confusing corridors, fighting off Heartless all the way, we were able to reach the top floors. Here everything was lit. It was nice to not have to watch my back every second.

"Well, let's go find Squall," I said.

"It's Leon," Sora reminded me.

"No, it's… ah, never mind," I muttered. Going through the less-confusing upper stories, we were easily able to find a balcony where everyone was standing. Squall, Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Yuffie, Cid, and Merlin were all there.

"So you guys got our message after all," Squall said, "you know what's going on?"

"Yeah, Vincent told us. So, what can we do to help?" I asked.

"How do you know Vincent?" Cloud asked, turning around.

"We met him in the market. What of it?" I asked back.

"If Vincent's here, things must be really desperate," Squall said, "and we can use all the help we can muster."

"Give us the fine details. What exactly is going on?" Sora asked.

"Look over there," he told us. We walked up to the balcony to see in the great maw below. The place was blinding… there were Heartless, Nobodies, and Luce everywhere. I couldn't possibly begin to count their number.

"There are Heartless and Nobodies everywhere, as well as those shining, white creatures," Yuffie said.

"Those are Luce," I explained quickly.

"Yeah, well, there are too many of them. We think they might be related to the problems we've been having," Yuffie continued.

"Well, what should we do?" Riku asked.

"Only one thing to do! Take 'em down!" I shouted.

"Don't be stupid. There's no way you could beat all of them," Cid said gruffly, "not even you."

"But here's the weird part; they aren't attacking each other. It's like something's controlling them," Squall said.

"Who… what could do that… control light, twilight, and darkness?" I asked.

"We're not sure. But everything rests on finding the cause of it," Aerith said. "If we just had a little more help…"

"Wait! Sephiroth…" I muttered.

"Sephiroth? Sephiroth!" Cloud yelled, picking me up by the collar and slamming me against the wall. "Where is he? Answer me!"

"I guess it was a mistake to mention him…" I muttered. "He's in Twilight Town, by the mansion."

"I'm going," Cloud said simply, putting me down. He kicked open the balcony door and vanished into the hallways.

"That was close…" I panted. "What's with him?"

"He still hasn't settled his problems with Sephiroth. I'm not sure he ever will," Tifa answered. "Well, we still need a plan. Any ideas?"

"We need to hold them off, at least. Then we can find a way to use Ansem's computer for help," Squall said. "Who's going to be on the front lines?"

"I will! Fighting is what I live for!" I announced immediately.

"We'll go with Roy. He'll need some help," Amy said, grabbing Jason.

"What the…" Jason began, but was quickly silenced by Amy.

"Just shut up and do it!" she whispered at him. He stopped struggling.

"Riku and I will try and contact Tron… see if he can help out," Sora said. He and Riku then walked off into the castle.

"No time like the present! Let's get going!" I yelled, running back into the castle, down the dark corridors, and to the gates…