Broken Masks:

Author's Notes: While it took me a bit of time to get the ball rolling on this chapter, the story is far from dead. I'm just currently reviewing my plot, revising it and working the last minute kinks out. The plot actually kinda ran away with me at one point and I've had to make a few changes to interlock the Riku/Sora and Leon/Cloud relationships. I'm happy to report there are no problems now and it's smoothing sailing from this point on.

Warnings: As usual, only myself and a good friend have looked the chapter over. I'm usually fairly good at catching my mistakes, but alas, things do slip by. Thank you to My Bloody Hell who offered to beta for me, and I promise to contact you soon.

I'd just like to give a major thanks to Rita, who's review was actually what motivated me to jump into gear on this chapter. It was touched and honored by it. Also, major thanks to White Shadow who's review was the final push for me to finish this chapter. Thank you to everyone who really took the time to review, even with just a few words. This is my baby and I've been working on her for over two years now. When you fuel the fire, I feel really special, and tend to get really excited on working on the next part.

Additional Notes: Finally, I'm using a primitive version of Word. It sucks. So scene changes will be indicated by (Kingdom Hearts) which isn't terribly original, but it suits the purpose.

Chapter 12: All kinds of Monsters

Sora realized almost immediately he was out of the void and back on a very hard surface. This back was freezing cold and he arched against the floor, blinking his eyes rapidly at the mellow light in the room. He reconsidered his quick assessment of his location, because he certainly wasn't in a room. He was in a, what was the word? That's right, Cathedral, and actually it seemed to be the one he had been in with Riku.

Well, he had wanted to get out of that horrible void he had been stuck in, so it only made sense he'd be returned to the place he had disappeared from.

Sora rose off the floor and glanced around the large chamber, looking for Riku or anyone else.

This thoughts were broken in a sense, causing a veil of confusion to fall over him. He felt disconnected or out of place. His memory eluded him for the most part and he could remember only bits the events that preceded waking. He was certain something had happened, but as his mind reached for those memories, a dark feeling grew in his stomach. Perhaps, he concluded, it would be better to leave those memories for the time being. His first priority was obviously to locate his friends, and Riku, and find a way out of the Cathedral, then afterwards he'd deal with everything else.

His fingers itched, and he recognized the feeling immediately. It was somewhat similar to the ache of missing his Keyblade, but far more sinister. The heartless were present on this world, and they were near. And now with both the Keyblade and Riku gone, Sora realized he was most certainly on his own. He estimated maybe minutes before they zoned in on him, with ever intention to consume his heart and leave him as nothing more than a shell, or ever worse, evil. Sora had the unfortunate opportunity to see what happened to those who were devoid of their hearts, and he found it a fate far worse than death.

He set off towards the large hallway that would lead him to the Cathedral's main doors. His shoes squeaked loudly against the glossy floor, and Sora flinched at the echoing sound.

Something behind him crashed loudly and Sora swung around, fists raised feebly.

"Hello?" Sora called out, eyes flying around at the shadows of the upper level. "Who's there?" The possibility of hiding places seemed to be endless. Sora wondered if he had misjudged the effectiveness of the Heartless. Had they moved fast that he had anticipated?

Aside from the rustling of his clothing and the continuous squeaking of his shoes, Sora heard nothing more. Part of him wanted to feel better there had been no reply, while instead the anxiety inside him grew. The Heartless didn't make an awful lot of noise, but they certainly weren't silent, and Sora definitely knew he had heard something.

After several more moments of utter tension, Sora eased himself again towards the large double doors.

He dove instinctively when a loud, frightening sound assaulted his ears. He felt a blast of wind as the doors swung open, while simultaneously the sound of splintering wood was audible.

"Who are you?" A deep, rough voice demanded.

Sora wasted little time scrambling to his feet. He planted his feet firmly, eyes adjusting to the new environment, as the wind had knocked out each and every candle, bathing them in darkness.

Outside a storm raged, thunder cackling in the background. The lightening taunted Sora with quick flashes of illumination that told him whoever was in the room with him, hiding in the shadows was much bigger than him. While facing off against larger opponents wasn't anything new to the petite preteen, he was usually aided by some form of weapon. Via the lightening Sora assessed his weaponry choices would be few.

"Who are you?" Sora called back.

"I am the Master," The voice echoed back, an air of warning occupying the tone.

"The Master?" Sora took a brave step forward, allowing the moonlight to stream through a nearby window and light his skin. "The Master of what?"

It had a sort of half limp, Sora realized as it made its way cautiously towards him. Heartless didn't have limps. Heartless were cannibalistic when it came to their own kind and injuries. Sora had been witness to them devouring each other for simple injuries. So unless this Heartless as alone, which they hardly ever were, it was not a Heartless.

"The Master of loneliness."

And as it stepped forward into the light, Sora brought a hand to his mouth to quell any sounds. While his action impaired his ability to properly breathe, he found it immensely better than risking his vocal cords acting on their own.

The monster flinched at Sora's reaction in an all too familiar way and stepped back into the shadows.

They stood in silence as the storm blew into the beautiful Cathedral, and the Heartless were still coming.

"You aren't a Heartless," Sora finally said after inching back a few steps. "What are you?"

"I am Misery. Loneliness. Heartless."

Sora shook his head. "No, no, you aren't a Heartless. I'm not quite sure what you are, but you are not a Heartless."

"I am heartless."

"Well, now," Sora commented, crossing his arms in a stubborn fashion. "That's unbelievable. I've come across a lot of creatures in my travels, and certainly I know the difference between having a heart or not. You must have a heart, because you haven't attacked me yet. You don't sound heartless, just sad. All things alive have hearts. Even the Heartless had hearts once, they just lost theirs."

Sora lifted a hand to brush back his hair the wind was forcefully whipping into his face, and moved forward with a determined expression. "Are you sad?"

"I am heartless!" It roared, and still Sora held hid ground. "Monsters do not have hearts."

"Sure they do," Sora argued back. "Every person and creature has a heart. Monsters have hearts just like everyone else. Though the thing with monsters, you see, is they've been meant to think they don't have hearts. Monsters can be good just like everyone else, as long as they believe. It isn't easy to hang onto your heart these days, but believing is the first line of defense. Just believe in yourself and the people you love."

The figure moved closer to Sora, but kept to the darkness. "I loved someone once," It volunteered. "She was beautiful."

"See?" Sora beamed. "I told you! If you're heartless you can't love someone. The capacity to love is found only in the heart."

"Then she left me."

"Oh."

Sora exhaled suddenly, shivering with dread. He swung around to the mortifying sight of an army of Heartless marching in their direction. They'd arrive at the doors in less than a minute.

"Those," Sora said, pointing at the dark creatures. "Are the Heartless. And we can't outrun them."

"They've never bothered me." The figure stepped next to Sora and the younger tried to avoid letting his gaze wander. "They killed everyone else, but they left me alone. They won't come in here."

Sora looked sharply up at him. "Why not? Is there a spell protecting this Cathedral?"

The taller nodded with trepidation. "Dark magic. They don't like it."

Sora watched in amazement as the Heartless reached the threshold of the doorway and stopped. Their numbers continued to build but they did not enter.

"Something so dark even the Heartless won't come in?" Sora paled in wonder.

"There is something underneath the Cathedral. I don't know what, but it is enough to keep them at bay. They devoured the people in the city and disappeared until you and that other boy showed up."

"Other boy?" Sora called over his shoulder, moving towards the Heartless. "Do you mean Riku?" Indeed, before the void Sora remembered being in the Cathedral. They had been here when Sora had taken Cloud's soul from Riku.

"He call himself that," The monster replied. "He has been here before, under the Cathedral. I don't go down there."

Sora starred the Heartless down with fury before slamming the doors to the Cathedral closed, sealing them out. He wasn't sure if the magic around the Cathedral would hold, but the doors would give them a buffer of a few seconds if the field fell.

"The Heartless don't kill," Sora corrected the monster's earlier statement. "They aren't capable of killing."

"Then what do they do?"

"To be the best of my knowledge they take hearts and transform people into Heartless. It's how their numbers grow so quickly. Just about every Heartless you see was a person at one time." That was honestly what made it so hard to kill them. Sora felt guilty each and every time he took the life of a Heartless. He realized at any time he could be killing Tidus, or Wakka or any of his other friends, or potential friends, and once a Heartless was gone there wasn't any coming back. Maybe killing a person who had become a Heartless as doing them a favor, but Sora didn't honestly know.

Sora's gaze settled on the monster. "Are you here alone?"

The monster turned abruptly from him and strode away to climb a tapestry to the second level.

"Father is gone!" the voice echoed down. "Father is never coming back!"

Heavy footsteps and noises followed the monster as he made his way around the visible balconies.

"I'm sure he didn't mean to go away!" Sora called upward. "He was your father, and he loved you."

"No!"

It was all but a scream and Sora felt to one knee with his hands over his ears. Then he heard nothing but silence afterwards. He stayed put waiting for the monster to return but found no such thing would happen. Instead he was alone.

"It was nice to meet you, anyway," Sora assured him. "I'm Sora and I come from the Destiny Islands. I promise you I'll defeat the Heartless and bring the people back. I don't know how I'll do it, but it will happen, trust me."

With a tip of his head Sora walked leisurely over to the double doors and threw them open, his eyes meeting with a fantastic sight. The Heartless army was all but destroyed, taken down by dozens of men and women armed with long swords and daggers.

Sora took a tentative step forward, over the threshold and felt the dark magic that had settled over him in the Cathedral, wash away. Out in the open he could breathe again, and his memory came back to him at an alarming rate.

A brief look upward had him gasping in amazement. He had never seen Gummi ships so big, and the one hovering over the Cathedral was one of immeasurable size. It had to hold hundreds of people, Sora reasoned, and very capable people as the Heartless were all but gone.

"Sora!"

A young man just across the courtyard was waving frantically at him through the wind and rain, having just finished plunging his sword into a Heartless' chest. He retrieved the sword and jogged to Sora, slicing through any Heartless that blocked his path.

"Journey?" Sora asked, eyes wide in disbelief. "Journey?"

"Yeah," The good natured teen laughed. "That's me, Sora."

"I though," Sora questioned, "You were going to Omega Colony."

Journey nodded, throwing an arm around Sora and settling his sword flat on his opposite shoulder. "I did, and you're looking at the finest warriors Omega has to offer." He gestured to the men and women who had just finished with the Heartless. "And of course, the fastest, most powerful Gummi ship ever built."

"Does Leon know you're out here hunting Heartless? Or Cid? Who's authority are you acting on?"

Journey steered them towards a cluster of people. "Sora, drifters don't have that sort of structure. We're self driven, void of any outside authority. We pick the targets we want and go after them on our own. We don't ask for help and we don't need it. We branched away from the dying planets for a reason. Anyway, we're out here to knock out an axis."

"An axis of what?"

"Of evil." Journey looked back over at the Cathedral. "That's one of Maleficent's most powerful branches of dark Magic and we intend to demolish it."

Sora tugged slightly on Journey's sleeve.

"But Journey, that isn't Maleficent's."

"Nonesense," A new voice erupted from the side, and towards them stepped a tall, utterly creepy looking young woman. He'd seen her before somewhere, or someone that looked a lot like her, but Sora just couldn't recall it completely.

"It's true!"

"I guarantee you, Keyblade Master, this is an outpost for Maleficent and the coming of Ansem."

If there was ever a time to stand his ground, Sora knew it was at the very moment.

"Look, lady, I'm going to explain this to you. Riku is in charge of that place. He's quickly gaining power and influence concerning Maleficent and it doesn't matter if she had control of the place before, he's got it now. Riku is far more powerful then you could ever hope to imagine. He's close to challenging Maleficent, and if that doesn't worry you, the fact that he's a million steps ahead of us at the current moment should. No matter the firepower of your ship, you can't hope to take that place down, especially if the Heartless are being prevented from entering it."

"Hey, it's alright," Journey said, patting Sora on the back. "How about we go on up to the ship and let the kids have their fun. If you're right they'll come back up to the ship and we'll all have a talk, okay?"

"But there's," what was it? "There is something in there--someone. There's someone in there."

"All the people of the city are gone," Journey told him gently. "Whatever is in there isn't a person."

It was someone, but Sora conceded and allowed Journey to lead him towards the looming ship, concerned first and foremost with getting back to the Town and picking up some form of defense.

(Kingdom Hearts)

He was utterly and completely falling apart, and he was certain Squall knew it. For the past hour he had sat in the small personal cabin he shared with Squall, on their bunk with his knees drawn up to his chest. His fingers were curled tightly into balls and clenched them into his stomach. He had yet to stop the shakes in his body and above all else, the damned voices were back louder than every, driving him nearly up a wall.

Their destination was one of paradise. It was most likely the last world untouched by the Heartless, hidden quite ingeniously by its founders. The voices had divulged its location to him just a while ago, feeling it was the appropriate place for him to hide until his time had come.

However, reaching their intended destination wouldn't be easy on him. In order find the planet they'd have to travel through deep, evil space. A type of space much colder then the rest, filled with more Heartless battleships than Cloud felt he could handle. Each and every Heartless he felt. It was a curse of sorts, but he felt their pain, anguish, anger, violence and disturbingly enough, he felt the fragments of their souls and the wake of their hearts. Some of the Heartless didn't know what they were, and those hurt the most. Squall didn't know he felt this, and he'd hide it from the man if he could.

He had spent just enough time in the main cabin to direct Squall and make sure their course would be as uninterrupted as manageable. Then he had excused himself to the lower deck.

They still weren't talking, but that was okay. Cloud knew he loved Squall, and the man certainly loved him in return. As they reached the final stretch of their stay together, Cloud was rather glad they weren't on the greatest of terms. The end was going to be brutal, bloody and hurtful. The distance between them at the moment would make the final separation that much easier. He was confident Squall could go on without him, and that was ultimately what mattered.

Cloud threw himself down on the bed face first as they passed by something big. Between the ice in his veins and the screaming in his head, he wondered if he'd pull his hair out by the time they reached their paradise. It felt like an anxiety attack on a level he had never experienced before. So yes, he felt he was falling apart, and psychologically losing his foothold on reality.

He wanted Squall to come down with him. Maybe hold him or just talk, but that simply couldn't be. The older male was busy trying to keep them under the radar and from being discovered. In this type of space there would be no backup for them if they were found. Capture meant sudden death for Squall and something far worse of him. He'd go directly to Maleficent.

Sometimes, like these, Cloud was most bothered by the reluctance of the voices. The ability for them to only divulge long term events was becoming catastrophic. It was like knowing the destination, but not the road you'd travel to get there. If he knew they would reach their destination in one piece he'd certainly feel a lot better.

Now he concentrated on breathing and on fighting the darkness off. He had given his heart Squall, and his soul to Sora, leaving him empty. While half of Squall's soul was sustaining him, it wasn't enough to fight off the darkness of the evil. It was the flaw in his otherwise perfect plan. In his current state Maleficent couldn't use him, but the Heartless could certainly take him without a fight. He was weakened by merely being in the presence of a Heartless. That was why they were running from Hades and the other Heartless, even if Squall didn't know it.

Squall was protected, Cloud reminded himself. Squall had two hearts which made him nearly impervious to the Heartless. No matter how weak Cloud became, Squall would be there to protect him, and that worried the fallen Angel more than anything else.

Oh, dear, Cloud realized as he suddenly couldn't breathe. His hands came to his throat and he made a soft choking sound. He knew the darkness coming toward them. He'd know it anywhere. They were headed for a collision with Sephiroth, and there wasn't any escaping it.