Xejicka:- wakes up on mosaic platform and rubs head- Where are we? And why is it that my chapters are getting less and less frequent with a little bit of length added everytime.

Thalkxene: It feels like someone shot me in the chest.

Xejicka: Youwere shot in the chest. We both were. This chapter was such a pain in the ass to write. I hated describing the dresses, but I needed to get detailed for some.

Thalkxene: My chest hurts.

Xejicka: A lot of music went into inspiration for chapter. I suggest you listen to what I listened to to get the drift.

Thalkxene: The chapter is separated into two parts.- rubs head

Xejicka: I'm not implying any pairings at all. I repeat I AM NOT IMPLYING ANY PAIRINGS AT ALL. The music I listened to is: Mizerable- Gackt, Season's Call- Hyde, Fountain of Dreams- Smash Brothers Melee, Friends in My Heart- Kingdom Hearts II, Waltz for the Moon- Final Fantasy VIII, Tifa's fight With Loz- Advent Children. I would like to add that this applies for this chapter and the next. I would also like to add that EVERYONE is wearing a mask of some form. There's something special about them, but I won't tell you until the end of the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Kingdom Hearts series, the Final Fantasy series or any of the music I just listed

Thalkxene: You're evil.

Xejicka: And it's so easy when you're evil. -starts to sing When You're Evil by Voltaire

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Chapter 15: Ball of Masquerade Hearts Pt. 1

Fate and Leah

Leah woke up on a glowing mosaic platform.She looked up to find a heart shaped moon in a starry night sky gazing down upon her. She looked down to notice that she was in a strapless, sparkly, poofy red ballgown. Red, satin gloves adorned her arms and a red mask covered the upper portion of her face. A mosaic bridge formed from her platform to another platform. Leah got up and walked to this other platform.

A woman lavishly dressed in violet was waiting there. She was in a billowing violet dress that fit well around her well trimmed body. It was backless with a halter style front with various patterns that only accented her body even more. She worn several pendants adorned with small clocks and hourglasses, she had on long gloves that seemed to flow out near the top of the arms, like flower petals at three different levels. She wore a silver mask that covered over her eyes and the left side of her face, like Phantom of the Opera, the right side of her face was covered by her long bangs. The rest of her short hair was pulled back, yet not held by anything. She wore a long cape with a collar that surrounded the sides of her face.

"Hello, Leah," Fate greeted

"Hi, Fate. Is this death?" Leah asked.

"Of course not. This is the heart. I told you the crossbow wouldn't kill people. Yet you treated your job as if you were,"

"Even then, those people will want to kill me now,"

"You should have read the entire list. Be merry, your body is in my realm. You won't be killed anytime soon. Did you take heed to the notes on my list?"

"I abided by them. Why did you want me to shoot Luxord repeatedly in the crotch after I shot him in the chest?"

"I despise the traitorous bastard. With these matters done with, I need to start the ball," Fate turned away from Leah and walked to the edge of the platform. Leah followed Fate and looked off the edge of the platform. She let out a small eep as she noticed hundreds of other platforms. Fate smiled as she began to speak.

"Welcome, one and all to the ball of Masquerade Hearts! Dance and be merry. Try to get to know those you dance with. Dance and have fun!" Fate announced happily as she twirled around in a circle. Immeadiately a giant mosaic platform appeared underneath all off the small ones. Mosaic pathways formed that led to the giant platform.

Jackie

Jackie woke up on a platform. She wasn't alone this time. There were fourteen other people on this platform. Including herself, there were only three women on this platform. The two other females were blonde. One wore a plain white dress that went to her feet, a white flower was on her left strap, her hair was pulled into a bun that was held together by pencils. The other blonde wore a yellow dress with long matching gloves that made up for the fact that the dress was sleeveless. The folds at the bottom of the dress looked ripped, looking similiar to lightening bolts.. All of the twelve men were wearing tuxedos of some form.

Their style varied from person to person. Some had bows, other had none. Some wore their shirts tucked in with a colored vest on, others let it all hang out. One thing that everyone had in common was that they wore a mask. Jackie felt her face and noticed that she too donned a mask. She looked down and noticed she was in a ballgown. Not just any ballgown, it was the one she saw on a mosaic platform. The dress was beautiful.

It was cerulean that was large and flowing at the bottom. It almost appeared strapless were it not for the long billowing sleeves that draped her arms. It had silver lining on the edges. The silver lining formed a heart shaped pattern on the chest. Her long hair was pulled back into a french braid with hairs that hung tastefully out over the mask. She heard a voice speak and looked up to find a woman dressed in violet on top of a very high platform.

Kathleen

Kathleen woke up on a platform. "Durus? Reno?" she called out. They weren't anywhere near her. She looked down to see that she was in a black, silver and dark blue ball gown (A/N: Think of it as a female, ballgown version of Kadaj's clothes, because I really didn't want to write a paragraph describing her outfit). Her hair hung straight down with her mask covering her face tightly. There were various platforms surrounding hers, each platform had a person on it. Kathleen looked up to see a woman clad in violet speak. The same kind of process repeated with nearly everyone at this ball. When the violet clad woman finished speaking, everyone walked down the pathways that formed from their platform and thus a dance ensued.

Jackie

It seemed everyone was paired off. If a person tried to stray away from the crowd, the woman clad in violet would quickly grab them and make them dance with someone. It wasn't as though it wasn't enjoyable, it came to where people trusted this woman's judgement. People started to enjoy dancing, except for Jackie. She was left out. She decided to sit down near the edge.

A few minutes passed. Good music was playing in the background. Jackie honestly thought she heard this music somewhere before. She couldn't put her finger on it for she was feeling left out. She felt someone tap her shoulder and she looked up. The violet clad woman stood in front of her, a tan, silver haired man was with her.

"You seem to not have someone to dance with," The violet clad woman pointed out. "Luckily I found you a partner," she gently pulled the man close to Jackie "I suggest you two try to get to know each other. The music will be slow, so it won't be hard to talk," the woman went on as Jackie got up from the ground.

"What about you? Don't you have someone to dance with?" Jackie asked the mysterious violet clad woman.

The violet clad woamn giggled as she looked over to a man that had spiky red hair, his white shirt untucked with the top buttons undone. He had a bow that hung loosely around his neck, it wasn't even tied and to top it all off, he wore a nice fedora on his head with a silver mask that covered the upper half of his face. "I think I found who I shall dance with," she replied with a grin as she neared the spiky haired man. Jackie feared for the man as a chill crept down her spine as well as everyone else's seeing this moment, but that wasn't her problem. She felt the silver haired man grab her and turn her around.

"I beleave we shall dance," he said as she held Jackie's hands in the dancing form. She did not feel safe in this man's grasp. She felt scared and she started to shiver as she stared into the eyeholes of this man's mask. Her tail started to shake as she noticed the eyes let off a faint amber glow.

Kathleen and Sephiroth

Kathleen was stuck in the arms of a man with long silver hair. He wore a mask that covered his entire face. He felt very familiar to her. She had a strong feeling of connection towards this mystery man. She felt she knew him before. Maybe even loved him, though he had a very dark aura around him.

"Have we met before?" Kathleen finally asked.

"Only a few times before," he replied in a relatively deep voice. "I just can't remember your name or identity," he lied.

"Neither can I," Kathleen answered honestly as she continued to dance with the silver haired man. With a quick turn and twist Kathleen spun gracefully next to the man.

"You dance lovely," the man said, truth be told, saying that made him sick. Kathleen danced as she continued the waltz.

Reno and Jessica

Reno was paired off with a woman in a sparkly black dress, its straps were made with a collar that surrounded her neck with the whole dress being one that zipped up throught the center, though the zipper was never visible, blue showed up from beneath the large folds. Reno noticed that his goggles were down over his eyes (something that hasn' t been done in years) and there was an untied bow that hung carelessly over his shoulders and around his collar. He was already in deep conversation with this dark haired woman for they had been dancing for awhile.

"What area of your government are you in?" the woman asked. Reno knew that this woman was not of his world or anywhere near it, he knew the woman knew the same. Therefore he felt free to answer the question.

"Turks, what about you?" he answered.

"Marines. Your gun of choice?"

"Don't use them. I have an electro-rod instead,"

"So the turks are more hand to hand combat fighters. I use a whip for that and a gun for long range,"

"A whip?! You can't fight with that. The weapon is obsolete and you have to be very trained in it to actually give a hit,"

"You want to place a bet on that?" the dark haired woman asked as she pulled a whip out of the fold in her dress. Reno quickly drew a rod from his jacket and the combat was on. He swung for the woman's head but she was quick and wrapped her whip around his rod and pulled it down. Reno twisted his rod and out of the whip to where he would have knocked the dark haired woman in the chin. Their moves synched in so well with each other it almost looked like they were dancing. No one noticed the sparring until the woman richly clad in violet butted in with her staff. You didn't have to see her face to know that she was furious.

"You fools! This is a ball, not a spar," she spoke stern and angry as she separated the two fighters. She grabbad the man in the fedora next to her and immeadiately paired in off with the woman with dark hair. The new couple walked away akwardly. The red haired man in the fedora kept looking back at Reno and he stared in return. The woman clad in purple walked away.

Reno stood there, he got impatient rather quickly and started to wander around the dance floor. There wasn't even a small cocktail bar so he couldn't have a drink. This was getting boring. "I'm still out here," he said impatiently as he was still wandering. After a few long minutes, the woman came rushing back with a masked girl. She had dark hair with a dress that looked like a ballgown version of what Kadaj wore.

"She may look young, but she is old enough to dance with you," the violet clad woman said calmly as she nudged the girl towards Reno. He grabbed the girl gently in the dancing position. He turned his head back to the violet clad woman. She was already with a man that had long, silver hair. A chill ran down Reno's spine as he looked at the silver haired man.

Fate and Sephiroth

Fate started to dance without hesitation as soon as Sephiroth put his arms around. "Did you get to know Kathleen?" Fate asked.

"I hardly could because you dragged me away so early," he said coldly.

"I know, but you will have plenty of time for that. Considering the fact that it will take over a year before the transformation will be complete,"

"Over a year? It will take that long?"

"You should be grateful. I'm practically helping you for free and I never do that. You will need to a year to teach her anyways,"

"I didn't think I would have to teach her. She already knows how to fight very well,"

"Not with a masamune,"

"Why should I pass on my abilities to a mere girl?"

"Because her linneage is what will make you reach your goal with utter satisfaction."

"Good point, Fate. I noticed that her body guards are here,"

"Yes, they are more for show. It will make people less suspicious of our plans, my dear. You do know how I love certain types of men and I took that oppotunity as my chance to get some."

"They are terrible bodyguards,"

"I know that, but things will go better and be successful in the end,"

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Xejicka: I hate, I hate, I hate what I did to Sephiroth. That part that I had to keep him out of character made me want to puke

Thalkxene: It's okay, I think it's romantic. It's about time you made even a hint of romance between Kathleen and Sephiroth. It's the first time you put him in a chapter for a long time!

Xejicka: Urgh! I hated the dresses. I don't know how to use my scanner so I can't put the designs on deviant art. I was so tempted to put a commentary on this thing to point out a few thing. But it would have been rude and distracting. So if any of you have questions out there about something that may confuse you, do not hesitate to ask. I will answer.

Thalkxene: The ask a character is still up if you have any question, it can even be a stupid question. -masamune lands right next to Xejicka

Xejicka: I'm sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!

Sephiroth: You should be. That romance part made me want to vomit as well.

Xejicka: I'm sorry! crouches in fear

Sephiroth: I will deal with you, next chapter. I will have to admit that you are wearing a lovely dress.

Thalkxene: Sephy, you complemented something that wasn't morbid or painful! Wow.

Xejicka: Please reveiw!