AN:
Hey everybody! Hope you're all okay. If anyone is from Houston or the surrounding areas of Texas and the Gulf area that is affected by the Hurricanes or will be, I hope you all make it through safe. That's terrible, and no one should have to live through anything like that.
Responses:
To ssjzohan: So much going on! This first section of this world is going to have more emotional growth than any Limits for Jaune or Yang, though Yang will use a new spell this chapter. They will have more when they get stronger through the story, though.
To cturner971/Chretner: Thanks for the 'usual stuff!' I'm glad you love how this is going, and I hope that what I write lives up to your expectations of what I might do. I also like that OJ was a surprise, I really like what I have planned with him. He's... an interesting character. And don't worry, I'll never stop replying!
To Darth Stigma: First off, yes. I love toying with people's emotions. It the only thing that makes me feel big. Second and more seriously, Yang's hypocritical statements are important and going to come into play during the next two chapters. In real life everyone overlooks their own faults, even if it's the same one that they notice in someone else. It's certainly true in the people I've met and myself to my chagrin, so I thought I'd just put that common flaw in as part of the story. Thanks for the criticism, of course. I'm glad you didn't curse at me; civility is important.
To tensmash1: I don't actually think Sephiroth is Jenova's child in KH. I buy into him actually being a physical manifestation of Cloud's Darkness, as Cloud is from Radiant Garden and they've never mentioned Jenova being part of that world. On top of that, they redesigned his facial structure for KH to match Cloud's almost perfectly, as well as alluding to Cloud having destroyed him before only for him to come back time and again. I get where you're coming from, but I'm going to go with what I'm going with for now. Thanks for the review!
To GuestWithIdeas: Thanks! I'd be happy just to hear they're just good, but best is amazing! Sadly, I don't have any plan to bring Pyrrha back. I love Pyrrha, but in this story there is a difference between 'Heartless' and 'Dead.' As for whether I have any plans for Salem in any form in this story or any possible sequel story, I'm not going to say. Finally, of course Sora and Sephiroth are going to have to fight! It may be Jaune's story, but where's the fun if Sora and the others don't show up sometimes?
To Gojosin: 1 – Reborn, certainly. It's a lot like Skye and Sora in SMHS: there's a lot that's the same, some that's different. It's more direct, of course, given that they're the same characters. But yes, reborn.
2 – I did not think you forgot that! That's going to play into the events in Nibelheim and what happens with Sephiroth. Actually, the fact that he's technically older than Gaia in this universe kind of replaces the Jenova plot line. Since they disappeared from Blue Fairy, they've lived about five or six years on Gaia, thinking of it as where they were born.
3 – Nope, they do not have the memories of the KH versions. On the other hand, it'll probably be like how Tron in DDD shares Tron from KH2's connection with Sora despite never having met him. He'll feel kinship when he meets Sora, but he won't know him at all.
Chapter 8: Source of Darkness
Jaune had been giving Yang the stupid silent treatment for over an hour, just staring straight ahead while he walked down the road of the world they had landed on. It was dirt, surrounded by waving green grass that reminded Yang a lot of her home on Patch, a calm place with an undercurrent of... danger that persisted beneath everything. The Grimm were always present back home, so the woman wondered what besides the Heartless could be hiding on Gaia, and why that Darkness felt like it was from Remnant. She was hoping that, whatever it was, it would include some sort of evil she could defeat in half an hour while helping Jaune learn the lesson that she trusted him. Just like a... A cartoon. She groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose; a cartoon was her best plan so far? Why couldn't Ruby, Sora, or Jaune come up with one for her instead?
Oh right. Jaune was the problem.
"You know where we're heading?" Yang asked, deciding an attempt at breaking the tension was better than struggling with a problem she didn't know how to address yet.-
His response didn't come for a few moments. "No," he finally admitted curtly, then continued on in silence.
"O...kay," she muttered, scratching the back of her head. What could she do to... Her eyes lit up and she reached into her pocket. "You hungry? I've got a couple of Pumpkin Pete cereal bars I bought before we left!" Jaune stopped in his tracks and Yang grinned, tearing the two snacks out and waving them. This had to work. It had to! The guy had remarked his Keyblade Armor looked like the rabbit on the packaging, so he must be a fellow addict!
"Not hungry." Then he continued walking.
Yang felt her stomach drop so hard it nearly fell into the ground. "No to Pumpkin Pete?" she asked under her breath as she stuffed one of the bars back into her pocket and tore the other one open. She took a large bite and shook her head, disappointed in him. "And I thought I had him!"
She ate quietly, walking a few steps behind Jaune the entire time they remained on the path. She usually loved these bars, so it was pretty disappointing that she didn't even really taste it, what with her mind being so fixated on figuring out a way to deal with her Jaune and OJ problem. Trust was something she and Vomit Boy didn't exactly have in abundance. While she knew he was sorry and she felt like she trusted him, it was no wonder that he believed no one could trust him. If he hadn't saved Ruby and nearly died because of it, she probably wouldn't trust him at all. But he had. She groaned and took another tasteless bite, then another. It wasn't long before she absently bit down and yelped in pain – she had chomped down harder than she had meant to on her metal prosthetic. She groaned and grabbed at her front teeth, rubbing them. She was trying... and failing... to alleviate the pain. "Ow..." she groaned before stuffing the empty wrapper back into her pocket.
"We're coming up on a town." Yang looked up and saw that Jaune had stopped in the middle of the road, at the top of a hill. He looked over his shoulder for a moment, then turned back and pointed ahead. Yang stomped up beside him, still rubbing her stinging teeth.
The town wasn't huge, and even the buildings weren't too large. They were small, maybe one or two stories each and all had matching red roofs with rusty pipes coming up from underground and connecting to each building. The roads were made of dirt, and didn't look nearly large enough for vehicles of any kind to move without hitting one row of buildings or the other almost constantly. Around a well stood a few such buildings, one of which looked to be an inn and was a little bit bigger than the other buildings in this square. These buildings were made to look even smaller by the presence of a massive mansion that rested up a flight of stairs in the shadows, a tiny fence separating it from the rest of the town even more than its shape and ambiance did. Yang got a bad feeling staring at that building, if a familiar one, and forced her eyes away from it to stare at the massive mountain that the village was nestled against, pipes streaming down its sides and likely transporting whatever fuel was pumping into the nearby homes.
There was a strange beauty to the small town, an odd juxtaposition of antiquated and modern borne from the buildings that were likely as old as the town itself in contrast with the industrial pipes that covered the buildings. "It's like the Dust channels in the old towns on the outskirts of the Kingdoms," Jaune noted, echoing the thoughts Yang herself was having.
"All of Port's and Oobleck's extra essays payin' off, huh?" Yang chuckled, meaning it as a joke.
Jaune... didn't take it that way. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. I was an idiot," Jaune growled before turning back to the town. He huffed and began to walk down the winding pathway towards the town. "Come on."
Yang couldn't help herself at this point. There was a little voice in her head that said she shouldn't pick at Jaune, but he'd been acting like this long enough that she wasn't listening to it. "Fine, keep acting edgier than Kirito."
He turned and glared at her, but Yang just matched his glare with her own. "No? How about you stop acting shadier than a Heartless?" she said with a smirk. She was having fun now, as much as she wished she wasn't. And that she would be quiet.
"Stop it now, Yang," Jaune growled angrily. He jabbed his finger in her face.
"Then stop looking like you have less going on in that head of yours than when Salem was controlling you!" Yang snapped back at him. Internally: Be. Quiet!
"Yang, I'm warning you," Jaune shouted, shoving her.
Yang scoffed and shoved him back. "Don't shove me!" she snapped.
"You don't shove me!" Jaune yelled, shoving her once more despite her warning.
"I -" Yang and Jaune both froze as they heard an explosion. The two warriors gave each other a short, almost relieved, glance, then turned and sprinted towards the source of the noise. The Kingdom Key appeared in Jaune's outstretched hand and began to pump back and forth in time with his gait, while the gauntlets on Yang's hands sprung forward to guard her knuckles, the studs on her fists glinting in the light. The tension of their verbal spar remained, but these two were Huntsmen. Or, they would be if their world hadn't almost fallen apart. At the very least they were professionals that could put their egos aside to help people, just as they had been trained to do.
Jaune leaped into action as soon as they got close. Heartless were crowding a group of three people, all young men with varying levels of armor and weaponry. Two had massive swords. Unwieldy, really, to the point that Jaune and Yang both wondered how they were even using them. One was a sword almost a foot wide and somewhere between five and six feet long wielded by a black haired man with a small grin. The other, a katana well over six feet long held by a man with white hair reaching down to the middle of his back. More intriguingly, both of the men wielded their humongous weapons in a single hand. The other individual was far less impressive, wielding only some kind of gun whose projectiles passed uselessly through the Heartless – Invisibles, if Jaune remembered Sora's stories right.
Jaune jumped at the nearest Heartless, raising the Keyblade in both hands above his head, and decided to help out the struggling gunman first, as he seemed to have almost double the Heartless attacking him that the man with the wide blade did and less skill than the similarly threatened white haired warrior. The first Heartless was destroyed as it turned towards its new prey and an actual threat, a Keyblade Wielder. The others, however, quickly turned and moved towards him, with a few of the Heartless held at bay by the giant sword electing to hunt Jaune instead.
For once, they didn't seem to be a problem in the least. He was calm, even if he was taking out his anger with Yang on the monsters. They were still dangerous, but he knew it was nothing he couldn't handle. He deflected swords and dodged ax-like tails before their blades could slice through his neck. He even got in a few hits that sent Invisibles disappearing into the Darkness with their purified Hearts rising into the sky. The man with the gun gasped when he saw this new phenomenon, leaving him wide open to an attack. Jaune was about to leap into action when Yang appeared, the Heartless she had been attacking killed quickly through her efforts and those of the two swordsmen. Her bracers took the blow and she threw her arms to the side. The sword flew from the Heartless' hand, leaving it wide open to a huge Katana piercing its chest. The other sword flew around in a massive circle, trailing Light as it went, and carved the rest of the small contingent to pieces.
"Impressive work," the white haired man said as the last Heartless exploded into a cloud of Darkness. He glanced between Jaune and Yang before sweeping his massive Katana out to the side and sheathing it in a single movement. "Though, I have to wonder how two random travelers would have the skills to fight like SOLDIERs."
"I'm just that good," she said, grinning and tossing a flirty wave at the white haired man.
He smiled softly back. "I'm sure. I'm Sephiroth, Miss..."
"Yang Xiao Long," she responded with a wink while Jaune got a sudden, unnerving pit in his stomach. He didn't know why, but he didn't like this guy much. "To people I like, it's just Yang." The feeling in Jaune's gut redoubled with disgust.
"I'm Zack Fair, and this Cloud," the black haired guy said, a whide smile on his face. He gestured at the guy wearing the helmet, who had taken a few, nervous steps back to stare anxiously at the newcomers. "He's... learning."
"And you?" Sephiroth asked, turning his attention from Yang and to Jaune.
His response was curt as he narrowed his eyes at the white haired man, "Jaune."
Sephiroth frowned upon noticing the look on Jaune's face, but caught himself and became professional and calm once more. "It's a pleasure." He looked over at Yang again and said, "Though you didn't tell us where you learned to fight like that."
"Oh, come on, they aren't bandits. They helped us after all!" Zack pointed out. He walked up beside Sephiroth and clapped his back. "Maybe they're allies, right?"
"They aren't dressed like SOLDIERs," Cloud pointed out, his first words since Yang and Jaune had showed up. Everyone's eyes turned on him and he glanced down. "Uh, Sirs."
"What did I say about – Ugh, never mind, Cloud," Zack muttered with a shrug.
Sephiroth grunted. "He makes a good point. In fact... their dress doesn't fit in with anywhere I've ever visited for Shinra," he said, pointing at the two.
"We're from far away. Just passing through – travelers," Jaune said before Yang could answer. He held up his finger. "Probably just for the day, then we're on our way."
"Heh, rhyming," Yang muttered.
"Well, if you're gonna be here that long, we could use the help," Zack said, sliding his hands together behind his head. Jaune blinked, as he for a moment felt as if he had seen Sora. Well, this guy he liked. "And you two seem like you've fought these things before."
"Heartless," Jaune said. Zack and Sephiroth raised their eyebrows at the word, confused as to what he meant. "They're called Heartless. They devour people's Hearts and make more of them. The stronger the Heart, the better."
"That would explain the disappearances filed in Nibelheim over the past four months, as well as the spike in the population of these... Heartless you said?" Sephiroth asked for clarification. Jaune didn't respond, so Yang elbowed him in the side and he nodded. "Hm... given the amount of attention these creatures give the three of us – Cloud and I in particular – it might be best if we have another pair to help us distract and destroy these creatures... I second your offer, Zack."
"Oh... So, in normal words, you want their help?" Zack asked jokingly. He looked back at Yang and Jaune. "Well, what do you say? I'm guessing you're hunting them down, too, if you know so much about them."
"Sure," Jaune said, giving Zack a thumbs up.
"Wouldn't miss it," Yang said at the same time, winking at Sephiroth. She snapped her fingers. "Just let me get a photo of your swords! My sister's a nut about weapons, and she wouldn't forgive me if I didn't show her your guys' crazy blades!"
"He used a Key," Cloud pointed at Jaune while Zack shrugged and took out his sword, twirling it around and letting it lay across his shoulders. Sephiroth simply turned to the side to give full view of his massive blade.
"Ah, been there seen that," Yang said with a wave of her hand before taking out her Scroll and snapping a pic of the two men. "Keyblades are powerful, but she has one of those!"
"Yang," Jaune hissed, not liking that she was revealing their secrets. Even if Zack seemed trustworthy, and Cloud... quiet, he didn't like Sephiroth. He shook his head to clear his head – he was acting like Yang now, not trusting someone because of a gut feeling. But still, Jaune felt like he couldn't trust the man.
"Powerful, you say?" Sephiroth said, his eyes focusing on the weapon in Jaune's hand. The blonde glared at Sephiroth until the white haired man's eyes drifted up to Jaune's. The Keyblade vanished from his hand a moment later. "How does one go about getting one?"
"Luck."
"Willpower."
Jaune and Yang glanced at one another. "Willpower."
"Luck."
"Both," they finally agreed.
Jaune bit his lip. "So, what is it you need help with? It can't just be killing Heartless, you took them out like they weren't even there," he pointed out to the three warriors. He glanced at Cloud and felt kinship with the man – he knew how it felt to be the weakest person on a team. He still felt like that sometimes.
"The creatures have yet to appear anywhere else within the Shinra Corporation's sphere of influence, which leads us to believe that something within Nibelheim itself is responsible for bringing the creatures here, if not outright creating them. Specialists like yourselves will be a great help in discovering what that might be and neutralizing it completely," Sephiroth stated, a professional veneer covering his features once more.
Zack nodded and said sheepishly, "Yeah, we're kind of out of our depth here. I'm used to fighting... people, the occasional monster, not things that can let bullets go through them as a method of dodging. On top of that, when we arrived in Nibelheim last night we didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Whatever these things are, they started hiding again until a couple hours ago."
"We la – arrived a couple hours ago," Yang said, sheepish at her near screw up. It had been... a quiet walk.
"Weird," Zack said.
"Quite a coincidence," Sephiroth muttered, though his eyes locked on Jaune again.
"Yup," Jaune muttered nervously when he saw the man's hand drift towards his katana. He looked over at Yang, hoping for some help... but saw she wasn't offering any. Probably made sense, given what had been going down between them recently. "Coincidence..."
"Hey, don't scare them, Seph!" Zack castigated his partner, jumping beside Jaune and grabbing his shoulders. "You get weird when you're all business, so chill."
Sephiroth smiled softly. "Right. My apologies," he said with a slight bow of his head. He glanced around. "I suppose we should split into groups."
"Dibs!" Yang shouted, grabbing Sephiroth's arm. The white haired man blushed slightly.
Zack laughed and rolled his eyes. "Nice, Seph," he said, tossing his partner a thumbs up. "I guess I'll take Cloud and Jaune, then. If anything big shows up though, Seph and I'll cover it. Cloud'll get people out of the way and you two can search for the source."
Jaune felt unsure about this plan. "Yang, how about -"
"BYE, SEE YOU SOON! WE'LL SEARCH THE FAR SIDE OF THE TOWN!"
Jaune sighed and watched her drag the white haired man away, a pit of anxiety rising as he realized something – she had decided not to team with him because she didn't trust him. His gaze fell, forlorn, to the ground. Right... "So, I guess we're the side of Nibelheim closest to us. Ready for some fun, Jaune?" Zack asked, a good natured grin on his face. Cloud stood nervously nearby.
Jaune looked up and forced a smile, knowing Sora wouldn't let this get him down. "Y-yep. So excited."
Why did Jaune feel like Yang was in more danger than him when she didn't even have a Keyblade calling to every Heartless in a three world radius? He hoped he could remember soon; even if she didn't trust him, he trusted her with his life. She was his friend after all.
S M H S
Yang was having a lot of fun with Sephiroth, which made her glad she had chosen this world out of the Cosmic Hat, so to speak. Even if Jaune still didn't believe she trusted him by the end of this, at least they had made a few good friends. Cute ones and good fighters, at that. Since separating from the rest of the group, she and Sephiroth had quickly made their way towards the far side of the town and had been beset by Heartless nearly ever step they took. Her mind briefly turned to Jaune, wondering if she had screwed up by deciding to partner up with someone else. She shook her head and returned her attention to the Angel Star Heartless that was fluttering its purple and blue crystalline wings as a large sphere of white energy formed in front of the emblem across its light bulb-like body. Yang waited for the attack to come her way, the energy burning through the air towards her until she raised her right fist and slammed it forward, coated in energy of her own. The Light on her fist collided with that of the projectile, and the ball of energy flew back at twice the speed and size towards the Heartless, enveloping the monster completely and turning it into little more than a smoky cloud of Darkness.
She stumbled to the side when a blade slashed across her left side, her Aura deflecting most of the blow's force and saving her. She growled at herself, angry she would let herself get hit, and turned to face the Heartless that attacked her. It was one of the Ronin Heartless, like she had seen attacking in Soul Society, its blade coated in flames. Well, let's fight fire with fire! She snapped inwardly, already coating her foot in flames as she brought it up and snapped her leg straight through the creature's head, leaving behind only a fiery explosion atop its shoulders. Yang grabbed the sword from its hand and threw it at a third Heartless, a new one she'd never heard Sora describe before. It was about three feet tall, with a bright red head, glowing yellow eyes, and a pinkish body backed with a pair of tiny, devil like wings that matched the red horns sprouting from its skull like visage. The blade collided with the creature's chest, where the image of the Heartless' emblem burned an angry purple.
Yang immediately grimaced, as the creature suddenly shot up three feet, the horns on its head elongating and growing more cruel. Claws sprouted from its tiny hands and a long, demon tail from its spine, all coated in Darkness. The blade in its chest remained, Darkness leaking from the wound like blood. "Uh... Oh, you precocious little devil," Yang muttered jovially. This did not make the creature happier, as it stomped ever more wrathfully – she immediately knew that was it's name, Wrath – towards her. She gritted her teeth and launched a Firaga at the creature, and the fire burst across its flesh. The blade within the Heartless emblem warped and melted into slag within its body and at its feet. The more unnerving change was that the Heartless had grown again, growing another two feet and its claws stretching to the length of short swords. Fangs sprouted from its skull-like jaw to mirror the now jagged horns at the top of its head. The Wrath took a step towards the young woman and swiped its hand, now the size of a child, at her. She raised her hands to try and block the blow, only to be thrown through the air.
Meanwhile, Sephiroth was dealing with a large contingent of Heartless all by himself. His blade flashed around like lightning as it deflected the dozens of attacks that flew towards him from every side. Ronin's blades flew upward as they lunged at him, but he was forced to move on to deflect the next attack before he could capitalize on his defense when an Angel Star launched a trio of tornadoes at him. He jumped between the swirling tunnels of wind with an almost angelic level of grace, not even his hair being disturbed by the wind based attacks. He lunged forward at the Angel Star, only for the blow to be taken by a three foot tall bundle of red and pink. The Wrath grew in place, now almost twelve feet tall from this single blow, and slammed down with both hands at the swordsman at its feet. He simply raised his blade above him, the sword taking the full force of the attack and cleanly slicing the claws off. The Wrath roared in pain and rage as it stumbled back, not noticing that Sephiroth was grinning like a madman. "You can't hope to measure to me!" he shouted, and his blade rocketed forward. The Wrath fell apart, disappearing into shadow a moment later. Sephiroth was already onto his next enemy, bisecting the Ronin before taking out a pair of Angel Stars. He would be done very soon.
Yang rolled to her feet after being hit by the Wrath, barely paying attention to the fact that her Aura had been knocked out by about a third. She instead focused on how angry she was that she let that thing hit her. The blonde's hair erupted upward, a stream of deep, burning red flowing from her shoulders like lave before settling into its usual glowing yellow. Her eyes shifted into a blood red and she lowered her fists to her side. "You hit hard, huh?" she asked the wrath as it lumbered towards her. It, of course, didn't respond. "I bet I hit harder." She sprinted forward and left behind a trail of fire that burned momentarily on the grass. "COMET!" A ball of energy formed within Yang's hands, growing until an actual, physical comet erupted from her fists. The Wrath continued to lumber towards her and the massive spell she had just cast, until it suddenly wasn't there anymore. The Wrath's feet remained on the ground, but the rest of its body had been vaporized completely by the magical comet now streaking miles into the sky.
Sephiroth watched the attack arc through the air as he took out the last of the Ronin that were attacking him. "Impressive," Sephiroth noted, stepping beside Yang, whose hair was still burning an angry yellow. "Meteor magic is difficult to use at all."
Yang turned and smiled, the fire disappearing and her eyes turning lilac once more. "You weren't so bad yourself," she said with a smirk.
"I've always been the strongest," Sephiroth noted nonchalantly. "With little effort, I have defeated all that sought to undo me." He frowned. "I am above it all. Them all..."
"Eh, I thought that once, too," Yang said, throwing her left arm over his shoulders. Sephiroth snapped out of his dark thoughts and looked in surprise over at the blonde woman hanging onto him. She raised her prosthetic arm in front of his face. "Things change eventually."
"Hm," Sephiroth grunted, unsure.
Yang rolled her eyes and said, "Look, if it'd make you feel better, I could always get my friend Sora to come here. He'd take you down easy." She slapped his back. "He has a Keyblade, and he's actually good with it." Yang shut her eyes and grinned as she thought of Jaune. The grin faltered and she stared at the ground intently. He was good with it. Sometimes. Ugh... She tried to make a pun to ease her thoughts. She looked up with eyes still closed. "He's key to showing you how strong a Keyblade is!"
Sephiroth's face fell, jealousy and hunger crossing it for a moment. Then, it was gone, shoved away by the man's conscience. "Well, I'd be glad to test my mettle like that," he said, his face back to the calm it usually carried.
Yang's eyes opened up and she smiled at him. "I'll try to set it up sometime," she promised, grinning widely.
The blonde opened her mouth to say more, but was cut off by a sudden explosion of Darkness beyond the edge of town. She turned and stared, slack jawed, at the monster. It's eyes turned and met hers for the briefest moment before swerving further and locking on the mansion that rested at the base of the mountain. "That's, uh... That's a big Heartless," the brawler mumbled, a streak of fear running through her.
"Go find Jaune and look for the source," Sephiroth demanded, drawing his long Katana. "I will meet Zack and deal with this creature."
"If finding the source'll get rid of that, I'll see you soon!" Yang shouted, turning and running through town. She was sure Jaune had figured out where the monster was going already, he wasn't bad at stuff like that. This meant she had to figure it out. "Come on, come on..." Her eyes locked on the mansion at the edge of town. "Bingo." She bent down into the wind and sprinted as fast as she could towards Shinra Manor.
S M H S
Jaune stood back to back with this Cloud guy, wondering why that name and everything going on around him gave him the feeling that he'd read a book or seen a movie about all this once. He was forced to stop thinking about that when one of the Wraths circling in on Cloud tried to jump for the gunman's back. Jaune jumped between them and raised his Keyblade, deflecting the attack and causing the tiny demon Heartless to fly back to the ground. He'd learned very quickly not to attack these creatures when one of them – now seven or so feet tall – had started growing with every hit. Instead, he was going to take out all of the other Heartless first, like the large deployment of Ronin and a few accompanying Angel Stars, before going after the four Wraths. And, of course, he'd focus on those one at a time. It'd be stupid to try anything other than that.
Jaune turned from the recoiling Wrath and slashed sideways at the closest Ronin, bisecting it with the blow and giving him a little more breathing room. With that one dead, he was only left with the three remaining Wraths, four Ronin, and a pair of Angel Stars. "Thanks for the save," Cloud muttered under his breath as he tried – and failed – to take out another of the Heartless.
"No problem!" Jaune shouted, throwing himself in between the Heartless that Cloud had been aiming at and the gunman himself. The Keyblade came up and the monster bounced off of Jaune's guard, stunned momentarily. Jaune was still off balance from moving so quickly, however, so his counter blow was far from graceful, and nowhere near enough to deal any meaningful damage to the – what kind of Heartless was this again?
Jaune kicked himself as he realized that the creature of Darkness he had just slapped across the ground was one of the smaller Wraths. The creature struggled for a moment to get to its feet, then began to grow until it stood half a foot shorter than Jaune. Had he said it would be stupid to fight them all at the same time? Well, he was learning fighting two at the same time was stupid enough! Two pairs of large claws slammed into the ground where he was standing, but he had been able to move before they could hit him. Pulling Cloud out of the way, Jaune fought against the frustration growing in his mind with every attack that sent him further off balance. He blocked a Ronin's blade and shoved, sending it tumbling backwards.
He took a breath. He needed to be calm so he could study their predicament carefully while also dodging and blocking to keep the both of them safe. The Wraths lumbered after him, much slower than their smaller counterparts. "Follow me," he told Cloud, grabbing the gunman's arm and yanking to show him where to go. The man nodded and sprinted behind Jaune, moving across the battlefield, dodging attacks, and occasionally launching their own as they sprinted directly at the nine foot tall Wrath. "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!" Jaune was equal parts praying it would work and casting the spell with each word, and was beyond happy when three small albeit powerful Fire spells exploded from the end of the Kingdom Key. Each one spiraled towards the largest wrath and slammed into its chest, sending burning sparks trailing around its body and burning where it had collided.
The Wrath roared in a way that would make its namesake proud and grew to nearly twelve feet. Jaune hoped it would do. Without a glance over his shoulder at Cloud, he commanded, "Slide between its legs!" Then he fell to his back and his momentum carried him under and past the creature. He dug his heels into the dirt and the momentum pushed him up to his feet, while placing a large, impenetrable wall behind him and removing the largest threat on the field from play. Cloud came to his feet soon after, laughing slightly that he'd pulled the move off. Jaune knew that Cloud would at least understand why they were behind the slow, lumbering creature. The two of them began to move to the side when the Wrath tried to turn around, and the creature snapped angrily again.
Jaune caught the blade of a Ronin on his Keyblade and let it slide to the ground, at which point he bisected the Heartless and stepped to the side again so as to remain directly behind the Wrath. "Your gun isn't doing much, Cloud. It draws their attention, so for now just tell me where they're coming from," Jaune said before the next Heartless began to come in. The warrior's head fell for a moment before he looked up and nodded dutifully.
"Above!" Cloud told the blonde, and Jaune glanced in that direction to see a burning sphere of energy flying from one of the two remaining angel stars.
"On it!" Jaune raised the Keyblade above his shoulder and tossed it directly at the ball, the blade spinning like a saw until it slammed into the orb. The sphere flew back towards the creature that had sent it, and Jaune summoned his Keyblade back to his hand to defend against the Heartless to his left that Cloud had warned him off. A Wrath. Jaune simply raised his Keyblade defensively and the monster bounced back, undamaged but deterred momentarily. Cloud warned him again of a monster coming in from his right, and Jaune turned to bisect the Ronin before moving quickly to cut another pair in half. That was the last of them, which left only a single Angel Star and the entire group of four Wraths.
Jaune looked up at the last Angel star, the creature floating back and fluttering erratically in the air. It was avoiding conflict, if only for a moment. Jaune decided immediately on a change of plans. "Keep an eye on that Angel Star. I'll deal with the Wraths," he told Cloud, before turning his Kingdom Key around and burying it deep in the body of the Heartless behind him. The creature immediately hissed and exploded, a crystal heart rising to the air. Jaune moved towards the next tallest of the creatures and delivered a two handed blow to its chest before jumping away. The creature countered empty air as it grew to full size, its massive claw slamming into the ground. Jaune sprinted forward before it could lift its hand, jumping atop it before jumping again and burying his blade in its head. The monster disappeared. "Hey, I'm doing pretty goo -"
"Above you!"
Jaune looked up and immediately cursed his words. A bright blue ball from the Angel Star crashed into his side and sent him straight into the ground. "Ow..." he groaned, forcing himself up. He spun awkwardly, barely hearing Cloud's warning of the Wrath coming up behind him. The creature's claws narrowly missed his Aura protected body. Jaune was lucky the creature was still small, otherwise it would have hit him too.
This dodge had given him the time he needed to recenter himself and focus on what was going on. His Keyblade flew back into his hand and he looked up at the Angel Star fluttering away above him. A flash of anger ran through his gut at the creature managing to hit him. "I'm going to kill that real quick," he said.
"What?" Cloud asked.
But Jaune had already jumped straight at the Angel Star, his feet carrying far higher than he had ever jumped before. SO high, in fact, that he was soon at the same height as the Heartless itself. The creature's wings widened in some semblance of surprise before it tried to slam its wings shut in an impenetrable shield. It didn't work, as the Keyblade slammed into the top of the creature before it could defend itself. The Heartless hit the ground much as Jaune had just moments earlier, dust exploding up around it. Jaune landed on top of it before it could recover, tip of his blade suddenly buried within its light bulb shaped body. The Heartless shrieked in pain and disappeared.
Jaune turned towards the nearest Wrath and slashed at it, sending it rolling backwards as it grew. "Behind you!" He turned with Cloud's warning and slammed his Keyblade down on top of the second Wrath. It grew while face down in the dirt, so Jaune jumped atop its back and delivered another blow that left the creature at full size. The first Wrath came back, claws gleaming with Dark fire as it slashed at him. Jaune blocked one of the attacks and countered, causing the monster to recoil, off balance, before he attacked once, twice more. The creature disappeared. Jaune took a moment to smile at how well he was doing before turning and –
He was laying on his back in the dirt now, holding his Keyblade above him to prevent the Wrath from flattening him. "Jaune!" Cloud shouted. He looked over at Zack, who was still fighting nearly a dozen Ronin and a Wrath of his own. He cursed and turned back to fire at the Wrath holding Jaune down. The beams of energy passed uselessly through the creature. "I... I can't kill it!"
Jaune grunted in exertion against the Wrath, that streak of anger gone. In its place was just the struggle against the monster's claws pressing down upon him. "Cloud, you have to kill it! I can't get out of this right now!"
"I can't!" Cloud shouted desperately.
Jaune growled as the claws weighed down on him even more. "You can! Just... Ergh... Look, be confident. You want to save people, right? Focus on that, focus on your Light, and put it in your weapon. Save me!"
Cloud blinked and bit his lip. Finally, he raised his weapon and focused on his desire to save people. He had to save Jaune... The weapon in his hands glowed for a moment then the warrior pulled the trigger. Streams of Light flew out of the muzzle and collided with the side of the Wrath – Cloud nearly dropped his weapon in excitement. It had actually collided with the Wrath!
The Heartless turned its head towards Cloud, noticing that he was now a small threat. It grew about a foot and its claws flattened Jaune. "Oh, no," Cloud muttered when the creature stood up and began to clomp menacingly towards him. Cloud stepped backwards, scrabbling away from the creature. He fired his weapon, but with his focus broken the weapon no longer injured the Heartless. The creature finally caught up to him and raised one of its claws, ready to kill the young man.
A flash of Dark, and Cloud shut his eyes. He was dead. He had to be dead. He – He opened one eye beneath his helmet to see Jaune, disheveled and more bruised than hurt, standing with his Keyblade in one hand. The bisected halves of the Wrath were turning to smoke, sliced cleanly apart by the weapon in Jaune's hand. "That... was actually pretty good. Just keep firing next time?" he suggested. "Take it from someone who has had to work so hard to get anything done, this was a really good start." The Keyblade vanished from his hand and he fell to his back, not noticing that Zack had finally destroyed the Heartless attacking him and had walked over.
"You hit one, Cloud? Awesome!" he congratulated his friend and team mate. He slapped him on the back. "First class here you come!"
"Could you not shout my name... Tifa might hear you..." Cloud mumbled, looking around for someone.
"Ohh... A girl, huh?" Zack said, half mockingly. He grabbed Cloud with his elbow and brought him close. "I know how that feels. Me and Ae -" He was cut off by a sudden explosion of Darkness beyond the edge of the town, massive in size. From the portal came a massive creature, taller than any building. "Oh, crud..."
The monster looked terrifying, holding a twisted, blackened trident in one hand and a spiked, cruel shield graced by the emblem of the Heartless in the other. A gaping maw filled with Darkness and cruel teeth rested between the front pair of its four, lion like legs. Like a centaur, a second body from which the arms sprouted rested above the maw. It had long spines of fur arching down its back and a single burnt and blackened angel wing coming from one shoulder. Its face was like that of a Grimm, with a long snout, yellow eyes, and a plate of bone that ran down its back between the spines of fur. Tendrils of Darkness whipped about at the creature's back behind its legs, Dark spells flying from each tentacle like appendage. The monster looked straight at Cloud for a moment, cocking its head to the side, then turned further to stare at the manor beyond the town.
"Find Yang. Seph and I'll deal with this," Zack told the Keyblade wielder. Jaune nodded and turned to sprint off, hearing Zack continue as he ran. "Cloud, you help evacuate everyone in town during the battle. We'll try to kill it before hand, but..."
"Sir!"
"And no 'Sirs!'"
Jaune ran towards the mansion, taking the stairs leading up to it two at a time. He took a half moment to cast a glance over his shoulder to see the giant Heartless was still fixated on the mansion. "I'm glad I thought the same thing you did." Jaune turned and found Yang was running up from the other side of the mansion's entrance. She slid to a stop right in front of him and raised her hand. "High five."
Jaune glared at her for a moment, then shook his head and turned towards the mansion. "How were things with your crush?" he asked coolly.
Yang opened her mouth to reply, but Jaune had already run off. She rolled her eyes and took off after him. "Why, you jealous?" she asked when she caught up to him, smirking the entire time.
"Wha – No!" Jaune snapped, casting an angry eyed glare at her once again.
Yang rolled her eyes. "I know that, Vomit Boy. It was a joke." Then they moved into the building, past its open doors, and into the pitch black of the manor. With a sigh, Yang lifted her hand and coated it in flames that illuminated the room around them. The foyer was huge, and mostly empty save for destroyed furniture and debris scattered about. "Are we still on this whole 'Angry Jaune' thing?" she wondered, garnering an angry grunt from the young man. "Oh... Guess so."
"I'm not..." Jaune sighed and shook his head before electing to remain silent and look for whatever it was that had drawn the giant Heartless' attention.
Yang rolled her eyes. "Sephiroth is a pretty cool guy, you know." Jaune rolled his eyes and tried to ignore Yang. "I don't know why you don't like him."
"I got a bad gut feeling from him, okay?" Jaune said angrily.
"Oh, I get a bad gut feeling and I'm bad, but you do it and I'm supposed to listen?" Yang asked.
"No, I -" the two froze and saw a shadow flit across the room. They sprinted after it together and eventually finding a ladder heading straight down into the Darkness. Jaune took a breath and jumped down, Yang not far behind him. The two landed in a series of caves filled with Darkness. "Where did it go?"
"There!" Yang shouted, her flaming finger pointed towards what Jaune now saw was a Ronin. The two humans sprinted after the creature once more, through winding caves and between spires of stone that stretched to the ceiling. The Heartless always remained a few steps ahead, trying to escape and taking a long, winding route, but never able to lose its tails. Eventually, it pounced through a wall and Jaune ran face first into it, at which point Yang ran face first into his back.
"Ow..." He groaned pushing off of the wall and forcing the blonde woman to step back. He examined the wall, ignoring Yang's apology, and smiled. This wasn't a wall, it was a – "Door!"
Yang looked up and shrugged, then tried to shove the door open. "Well, it's locked, and I know I can't take it down."
"I can just open it," Jaune pointed out, frowning. He summoned the Keyblade and tapped it nonchalantly against the wall, at which point the door flew open. "Duh."
"Duh. Right," Yang said, laughing. The Keyblade's weird powers always slipped her mind, seeing as it was almost always just used to kill monsters. She followed Jaune into the new room, ready to fight any Heartless that came their way.
Instead, they only found the single Ronin looking frantically around for something. They watched it go for a moment, then lashed out and destroyed the creature. "So, it's in here isn't it?" Jaune wondered aloud. He summoned a flame to the tip of the Keyblade and began to explore the room. He and Yang soon discovered that the room was a laboratory, one that was no longer in use though unlike the building above only looked like it had been abandoned for four or five years rather than decades.
"Look, I know you don't trust Sephiroth. But if you need proof, I told him Sora could come and give him a real fight. Maybe Professor Ozpin could come and tell you you have nothing to worry about," Yang suggested. She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, smiling smugly at her plan. "And then we'll go find OJ and we can find out who's right there."
Jaune turned, something clicking in his head. "You what?"
"Told him he could fight Sora. What, you worried he'll win?" Yang asked. She snorted. "As if."
"No, I – Sephiroth, I know why I keep getting a bad feeling about him. Sora fought Sephiroth!" Jaune explained, the memory of the story coming to the forefront of his mind. It had been told long ago, probably before they'd left Vale for Haven Academy.
Yang stared skeptically at Jaune. "You've never heard this story?" Jaune asked. The woman shook her head. "He told Ruby, Me, Ren, and Nora about it one day while we were traveling. Before – Look, Sephiroth was a monster. Corrupted, and the Darkness incarnate of... Cloud. Dammit, I should have noticed earlier!" He slapped his forehead and groaned. "How could I forget!?"
Yang shook her head. "So what? Even if Sora did fight a Sephiroth and help a Cloud, that was over a thousand years ago! There's no way this guy is the same guy."
"I... No, but... Ozpin said Hearts were in a cycle of rebirth, right? What if this Cloud and this Sephiroth are connected in the same way, Light and Darkness that are going to fight?" Jaune posited in an effort to explain his bad feeling. "Besides, Sephiroth is off. He keeps staring at the Keyblade like a starving Beowolf!" Yang scoffed and turned away, annoyed with his lack of trust, ironically. "What, Yang, you'll trust a total stranger but not someone with my face?"
"Sephiroth hasn't done anything!" she snapped, whirling on him. "OJ did something bad. He could have killed someone just so he could bring someone back who is dead. That isn't right!"
Jaune snarled at quietly himself and turned, slamming his fist into the nearest desktop. Dust flew upward, revealing papers he had overlooked. Jaune glanced over at Yang, thinking about calling to her, but stopped. He should read it first. He... he didn't want to talk to her anyways.
"Day 325. Both of the subjects continue to reveal a great deal about the makeup of this world. Subject Cloud is far less physically skilled than Subject Sephiroth is, though seems much more mentally stable than his counterpart. This trade might be due to the nature of these beings as separate halves, the Light and Dark of a single Heart both given a Will and a Body of their own. Nonetheless, there seems to be some sort of bleedover. Light from Cloud seeps into Sephiroth to control his darkest desires and make him cold and efficient instead of the insane beast he was months ago, while the Darkness once held by Sephiroth ignites feelings of inadequacy and rage within Cloud. This alone is fascinating enough, but our carbon dating tests lead me to believe these two are older than our world. The town above has distinct memories of Cloud, as if he had always been a member of their home and I myself find memories of Sephiroth and his prior adventures as a SOLDIER of Shinra returning every day. This is fascinating: the memories of an entire World are being manipulated and shaped to fit in with these two, if the world was not simply created in a way that makes the Subjects a part of its history. I believe that the Hearts of those on Gaia were selected because, in some prior life, they held importance to these two. It would be less difficult to fit memories of Cloud and Sephiroth in to Hearts that, even if it was long ago, remain familiar with them. I wonder if this has anything to do with the Black Materia stored in-"
"Yang. Yang!" Jaune turned, gripping the page. He was worried, his face contorted in fear. Enough so that he shoved his own anger with her from his mind. "Yang, you're going to want to read this."
She raised an eyebrow, but walked towards him silently. She tore the page from his hand, obviously still annoyed with him, and read through the page. Her features softened as she went through the information until, finally, she said, "We should tell him."
"W-what? Yang, this is the same Sephiroth!" Jaune hissed. He pointed out of the lab. "If we tell him... Yang, Sora said Sephiroth was insane. Completely insane! He thought he was a god, and that was before he was older than the world he was in!"
"And this is a guy without those memories who hasn't done any of that. We can trust him." Yang was resolute, unwilling to budge on trusting the warrior. Did she flirt with him? Yes, but she did that with everybody, mostly just to put them off kilter and have some fun. And when they didn't, she liked someone who didn't get unsettled so easy. But she also believed this was right.
"Yang, he is pure Darkness, that's what that says. We can't trust pure Darkness to read this and think anything other than, 'I must be a god.'" Jaune tried to grab her shoulders, only for her to slap his hands away. He gritted his teeth and put his fists at his sides. "Yang, please, just trust me."
"I... trust him, Jaune."
"But not me!?"
"You? Jaune, you're not OJ. He helped Aizen, you didn't!"
"And he's going to fix it," Jaune stated simply.
Yang sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Doesn't matter."
"Yang –!" He cut himself off before he could say anything that he'd regret.
"Is something wrong?" The two whirled on the source of the voice and found Sephiroth, his white hair and blue eyes glowing against the pitch Darkness of the lab.
Jaune looked at Yang, his eyes begging please. She shook her head and told him, "I'd want to know, Jaune. We have to, because it's right to give someone the benefit of the doubt."
"You hypocrite!" Jaune hissed as the woman walked towards Sephiroth. "You can't just trust my judgement once!? Where's my or OJ's benefit of the doubt!?"
She ignored his angry hissing without hearing his words and walked up to Sephiroth. "Look, we found something."
"You found the source?" Sephiroth asked, eyes wide. "That's good."
Yang grimaced. "No, it's about you." She held the paper out. "You deserve to know."
Sephiroth's eyebrow raised as he took the report. He raised it and began to read through, the eyebrow slowly falling and a dull look filling his eyes. Jaune walked up, worry growing in his gut, but knowing it was too late to change anything. Eventually: "I see. Thank you." The paper crumpled and was slipped into Sephiroth's pocket. He stared at the two. "I... I have much to think about." Then he turned and left without another word.
"I hope that was worth it, Yang," Jaune said under his breath, the hunt for the Source forgotten for the night in the excitement.
S M H S
The rest of the night had been spent in quiet, the both in their room at the inn glaring at each other. Jaune was angry with Yang, more so even than when they had landed on Gaia. She would trust strangers over him. He supposed he understood, though. He didn't even trust himself. He wasn't worth the trust, the effort it would take. He'd betrayed his friends and he'd barely even tried to make it better. If he were Yang he certainly wouldn't trust his own judgment, but... But it still made him mad! OJ was better than him, he'd helped his friends. Even if OJ had failed, he was a good guy. One that deserved trust because he was actually trying to make up for his mistakes. Yang, though, Yang wouldn't see that! She wouldn't see that she was being a hypocrite, going to any lengths to bring her mother back from the dead but hating OJ for wanting to find a Pyrrha that never died in the first place! God, he hated her!
Jaune went to bed angry with Yang, who still struggled with a way to show Jaune she trusted him without going against what she believed. She was right after all! About all of this! Why couldn't he just accept that her judgment was miles better than his and – she sighed. She'd been terrible to him today. She hadn't done anything to make this any better, had she? She turned in bed and stared at the other bed, where Jaune rested. "I'm sorry," she said. She was met by silence; Jaune was already asleep. She turned back to stare at the ceiling and shut her eyes. Maybe things would be better the next day.
They woke up in the earliest of the morning hours, before the sun had come up in the sky of Gaia to wake anyone up, to the smell of smoke and the eerie orange glow of fire. Jaune jumped out of bed, still clad in his clothes, and laced up his boot. He liked the feeling of the armor on his body, it made him feel safe when he wondered what was about to go wrong. He was glad he hadn't changed. Yang was already awake, dressed once again. "What's going on?" she asked the Keyblade wielder.
He looked up, a wave of sorrow washing over him. He suddenly felt so... terrible for hating Yang. But he couldn't apologize. He wasn't in the wrong. "I don't know."
A scream from outside and the rustling of Heartless cut through the silence, and the two ran out of the inn, ready for any danger except that which they would soon face.