A/N: Naming this (and the story) Antrozorous came from listening to this from the Batman Begins soundtrack (Hans Zimmer).

Disclaimer: I own nothing you see in this chapter. Nomura does - and Disney, but everything you see here is more Nomura. Massive thanks to my beta DigitalTart.

Aerith had been the first one to snap out of her shock and give Lea a massive shove, much to Squall's faint relief. That was all his redheaded friend needed. He grabbed Aerith with the free hand that wasn't clutching Kairi and ran for dear life, Squall and Isa in hot pursuit behind them.

Squall didn't know how he and Isa had managed to do it, but they had successfully defeated Pete in combat, hacked their way through the multiplying masses of small black creatures and successfully escaped.

Heartless. That's what Pete called the black monsters. They had been found lurking the hidden corridors of the castle when he arrived with Maleficent, the witch. According to Pete, she wasn't someone to mess with. Squall initially had his doubts upon first meeting Pete, but then again—he was pretty sure that Pete wasn't the one who had blocked off their escape route in the hidden corridor. While menacing enough physically, it didn't seem like Pete had the brains to do that kind of sneaky magic. And Pete said Maleficent had managed to take control of the Heartless.

Where did they come from? A black hole in a basement lab. That's what Maleficent said when they had run into her for a brief moment.

"Amateur knights," she had sneered. Squall noticed with dread that her skin was a bright, sickly green color, and she wore black horns on the top of her head. This was the figure Aerith had seen in one of the castle windows.

"Normally I would say that you and your dear friends are to be thanked for what I am about to do," she had continued on. "But to be honest—I was going to release the Heartless today anyway. I was just waiting...for the opportune moment."

That didn't make Squall or Isa feel any better. They were now at the back gate that they' through, and the Heartless were gaining at an alarming rate.

Squall put on an extra burst of speed, ignoring the excruciating pain that was blossoming from his forehead from a Heartless attack. With his arms braced, he gave a shove, and everyone stumbled out of the door. They pelted down the steps and up to the edge of the gates in order to catch their breath.

"There," Isa breathed. "I shut the door."

But Aerith was staring ahead of them with a look of abject horror on her face.

"Look..."

There was a dark cloud advancing on them from outside the gate. Squall looked in the garden as dark smoke began to pour out of the trees and the flowers.

Then they started to hear screams from the town.

Lea groaned. "You're kidding me."

The group burst out of the main gate and veered towards town. Looking behind them, Squall watched, his insides freezing up at the sight of dark holes appearing on the castle walls. In the meantime, the screams became louder and louder.

And Kairi was starting to glow.

"Help me!" She was screaming, tears pouring down her face. Squall was never an emotional one when he saw people in distress, but in Kairi's case, this was too much.

They were approaching what was beginning to look like chaos. Dark spots on the castle were blending to make something bigger, and much, much larger Heartless were stalking the streets of the town in the distance. The dark clouds overhead were just getting larger. They stopped in front of the castle, casting dark shadows on the ground, which enabled even more Heartless to spring up from its depths while the wind started to whistle loudly and blow right in their faces.

Squall was beginning to feel helpless. "I don't think there's anywhere to run."

Isa blanched. "Are you trying to tell me we're trapped in our own home?"

"Guys, help me with Kairi!"

Even though everyone was still running, Lea was clearly freaking out, and with good reason.

Through all of Kairi's screaming and crying, she was beginning to resemble a supernova. The closer they got to the front courtyard of the castle, the brighter she became. Isa was yelling for Lea to let go of her, Aerith was crying and urging Lea to give Kairi to her, Squall was yelling at them to turn the opposite direction, Lea was starting to hyperventilate under the pressure of everyone yelling, and Kairi was now letting out blood curdling screams for her grandmother.

Then everyone was blinded by the brightest flash of light that Squall had ever seen.

They screamed. Lea yelled and was thrown backwards into Squall, sending his gun blade flying out of his immediate reach.

By the time everyone had recovered, Aerith let out a cry of horror.

Kairi was gone.

Isa pointed to a flash of light that was sailing upwards into the blackened sky and out of sight. "Look!"

Suddenly, Lea dove and shoved Isa out of the way as a giant Heartless nearly snatched at him with a large claw. Isa, in turn, yanked Lea away before the claw could take Lea into the dark depths.

Aerith rushed over to the group, to help them up. Squall staggered back to his feet, only to make a dive for his gun blade when another giant Heartless reached to grab it. He rolled and ducked the grabs the Heartless made at him, only to be yanked upward, gripped at the ankle by one of its claws.

Squall swung wildly at the Heartless's arm as the blood rushed to his head. The screams of the members of the city were blowing through his ears like a siren, making his head pound. There was also a sudden increase in of cold that abruptly exploded inside his heart, growing tighter and tighter.

He gritted his teeth and took another swing. An animal roar echoed through his ears as he found himself falling headfirst with nothing but the darkening concrete to welcome him with open arms. Squall twisted to his side midair and braced himself for the fall. A sickening crunch came attention to his ears, followed by an immediate explosion of pain. He winced, clutching his shoulder as he staggered to his his feet with his gun blade in his free hand.

Things had gotten worse during the short time Squall was battling the giant Heartless. He watched helplessly with abject horror as a massive dark orb of crackling energy filled the sky and made the wind unbearable. Trees, bits and pieces of the fountains in the two courtyards floated past him to join whole houses that were being sucked up into the horrible orb in the sky. Squall's nerves led him to duck as a fraction of the castle sailed narrowly over his head, only to crumple to dust a few moments later.

Squall struggled to move against the wind, unable to spot Lea, Isa, or Aerith. He looked around him as people found themselves lifting into the sky to meet the orb, and some of those people were ones that he knew.

Like his girlfriend.

Squall gave a panicked yell at the sight of Rinoa being lifted by the wind. An apprentice under the resident wizard Merlin, She was in the middle of attempting to unleash a gravity spell around her in a panic. He was lucky enough to catch her arms to try and pull her down, her gravity spell adding extra weight for him in the process. Her brown eyes showed a sense of panicked relief at the sight of him, and she clawed at his arms in a vain attempt to gain a tighter grip on him. Her spell was bringing her closer to the ground, but her feet had yet to touch the trembling surface beneath them.

He could barely make out her voice among the screams and the howl of the wind. She was saying something to him, but he couldn't catch what it was. He had her by one arm. Realizing that he had his gun blade in the other, he tossed it soundlessly aside so Rinoa could grab the other arm. He really didn't care what happened to it at this point.

"Just hold onto me, ok? We'll find a way to get out of here—I know some forms of graviga, hold on -"

"SQUALL!"

Rinoa's scream came right before an unidentifiable heavy weight wrapped around his legs with thick tendrils and pulled, instantly numbing his legs with ice cold. With a shallow gasp, Squall found himself waist deep in what could only be described in a pool of darkness.

Only one thought went through his mind. I'm going to die.

Rinoa's gravity spell was finally working. She gripped his jacket tightly out of panic to make sure he wasn't lost to the darkness, and her feet landed lightly right at the edge of of the dark pool.

Squall wondered if his girlfriend had gone insane. "Are you nuts?" he hissed.

She just responded back with a fierce glare and wrapped her arms around his midsection, forcing her body to touch as much of the ground as it could. "I'm getting you out of here."

"I'll help you!"

The two of them looked up to find Zack Fair. He was bruised and had scratches on his face, but his bright blue eyes held a fierce determination. He looked at Squall, then at Rinoa. Close up, Squall realized that Zack looked to be closer to his own sixteen years of age than he had previously thought.

Zack had his sword latched onto his back. He bent down and wrapped his arms around Squall's midsection. "On my command, pull!"

It took Squall two heaves to pitch him out of the pool of darkness. But in turn, Rinoa's foot slipped, and she pitched headfirst into the pool and out of sight before either he or Zack had enough time to react.

Oh no. Bile traveled up his throat and he lunged at the spot where Rinoa was previously, only to find Zack holding him back and shouting something incomprehensible in his ear. No no no no no!

Zack wasn't getting it. He was shoving Squall away from the growing pool of darkness. How dare Zack hold him back! His girlfriend was down there! Didn't Zack find someone to love amidst his giggling troupe of idiot fans? Rinoa was one of the few good things that ever happened to Squall, and there was no way in hell that she was going to die in a pool of darkness.

But Zack was still pulling him away from where Rinoa fell. A loud crack echoed through his ears, and the two of them looked down to see that a long crevice was beginning to develop in the middle of the courtyard. It grew and grew up to the point where it split wide to open up a yawning cavern of nothing but pitch black. The poor people that were caught on the fault line fell right in.

Zack and Squall were on the same side, and backed away as far from the edge as they could until they both stepped on something long and thick.

Squall looked down and stared. It was the gun blade he picked up at the castle. What was it doing there? Why didn't it take the place of Rinoa? Why didn't Zack just let them both fall if Rinoa was going to vanish anyway?

At least he'd be with her.

Zack noticed Squall staring at the gun blade on the ground and looked warily at him. "Now wait a second here—"

Squall picked up the handle and eyed a giant monster nearby, his mind racing. Ignoring Zack's attempts to calm him down, he gave a roar and charged, completely unaware that Zack had taken off after him in hot pursuit.

His fight didn't last long. However, with a few hacks and slashes, and the monster vanished in a puff of smoke, falling right through him.

He gave a shallow gasp as a feeling of utter cold washed over him. Am I dying? He wondered vaguely before faintly sensing a warm grip on his arm coupled with the sound of a loud buzzing engine in his ears. A new man was with them, and he was talking to Zack.

"I got him—"

"Are you sure? The monster fell right through him!"

"Yep, I'm sure. Get in the ship."

"But—"

"Fair, get in the ship. You've done what you can for this city, I don't want to see a little hero like you fall in one of these giant black puddles after all you did. Now go!"

Squall was led away mindlessly by a pair of strong hands as he gripped tightly on the holster of his gun blade. He was vaguely aware of the ground elevating as he walked and then leveling out, followed by hushed voices and sobs, punctured with a few gasps. Where they looking at him? How badly was he injured?

Squall struggled to regain focus as he could feel himself sitting down. His vision was blurred as he started to shiver.

"Is there anyone else out there?" The man's voice was scratchy and sounded vaguely familiar to Squall.

"No, I don't think so, Cid," the man that had guided him into the ship with Zack responded.

"I'm sure there are people out there if we looked a little harder." Squall recognized Zack's voice as he protested. What if I—"

"Sit down Fair!" One of the men growled.

"Lock the doors and buckle up!" Cid barked. "We're leaving before the darkness can suck us in!"

The sound of an engine roaring to life whistled loudly in his ears, coupled with the fresh wails of people all around him. The ship began to shake wildly with turbulence. Someone had wrapped a warm blanket around him. He gripped it loosely, letting his gun blade fall to the ground with a clang.

That apparently got the attention of a lot of people around him.

"Hey, is that—"

"It is!"

Squall had no idea that he was this popular in Radiant Garden. As his vision slowly came back, various people that he recognized from both school and the Guard training program looked relieved to see him. Some of them started asking him a number of questions that Squall did not have the mental capacity to answer. He did however, become alert at a young voice calling his name.

"Squall?"

A child's face came sharply into view. Auburn hair pulled up, bangs, a ribbon, worried green eyes.

"A-Aerith?" he croaked.

Aerith's eyes welled with fresh tears. "You're alive! Oh, everyone was so worried!"

He looked around him to find a motley crew of just over two-dozen people, all in various states of disarray. Most of them where huddled up against each other and wearing blank gazes of shock on their faces. Some of them were crying. Squall noticed a girl younger than Aerith, wearing a yellow scarf around her forehead, gazing out at the window, angry tears streaming silently down her face. An older woman came over to comfort her when she started to quake. One thing that stood out, however, was that Isa, Lea, and Rinoa were not among the people on the ship.

Squall's panic started to grow, despite a small voice telling him sharply that he had seen Rinoa fall into a pool of darkness himself.

"Where," he took a shaky breath. "Where are – "

Aerith knew exactly who he was talking about. Squall's anxiety levels spiked upon seeing Aerith's eyes well up with fresh tears, and she moved closer to Squall so he could hear her against the turbulence the ship was currently encountering.

"Th-those m-monsters," Aerith stammered out as tears started to slide down her face. "Th-the b-big ones, th-that were in the library, o-one of th-them grabbed me, and I-I-Isa, he s-saved me." Aerith voice was cracking as she told her story. Some of the people closest to them were listening with a sympathetic ear. "W-we were f-found by V-Vincent," Aerith gestured in the general direction of Vincent Valentine, who was sitting at the co-pilot seat up front. Zack Fair was standing in between Cid and Vincent's seats, talking with the both of them. Squall ignored the fact that Cid and Vincent appeared to be driving into nothing but pitch black and focused quickly back on Aerith.

"What happened after that?" Squall's voice was rough and unrecognizable to his ears.

Aerith's bottom lip trembled, and her tears came down harder. Squall tried to ignore the churning in his gut. "The big monsters, they," she gave a small wail. "They were everywhere! They grabbed Isa and pulled him down a tunnel, and Lea, he, he—"

Squall felt ill. He knew Lea too well, and he knew how Aerith's story was about to end. "Lea chased after Isa," he finished hoarsely for her.

Aerith nodded and she let out a louder, longer sob before falling to her knees. Squall caught her by the arm just as the ship jumped from the turbulence. "Vincent had to carry me," she whimpered. "So we could run faster to the ship."

Then Aerith broke down completely. Squall numbly drew her up and let the girl hug her tightly as she sobbed.

Squall stared out blankly into the distance as the ship shook, and Aerith sobbed in his arms. He barely heard Cid bark out to Zack to calm the increasingly frightened passengers as him and Vincent navigated the ship.

Isa. Lea. Rinoa. Squall couldn't say he was surprised in the slightest that Lea had followed Isa into the dark tunnel. Squall knew Lea had no real weapons to speak of. He had hand to hand combat training skills under his belt, but his favored bomb frisbees were absolutely no match whatsoever to the dark monsters that they had just faced. The only ghost of a chance that Lea had to free Isa was Isa's claymore that he had grabbed from the armory with Squall in the castle.

What would have happened after that? Squall wondered to himself miserably. That just leaves them stuck in a dark tunnel. That could be the reason why so many monsters kept coming. They came through the dark tunnels.

Then there was Rinoa. Why couldn't I have followed Rinoa the same way Lea followed Isa? The question tore at him emotionally. Was I a coward to not follow my girlfriend into the darkness?

He replayed the scene over and over in his mind, only to come to the conclusion that everything had simply happened too fast. He had no time to react. But reacting to danger and chaos is what Radiant Garden's guards are trained to do, Squall reasoned to himself. Yet, elite guards were training Squall with his gun blade. Aeleus and. Dilan were perfect examples of that. Even Braig had run Squall through some exercises during the training program. Not only that, but all three of them were professors that had educated Radiant Garden's youth before they had vanished. He had all of them as teachers. What would they say about him not going after Rinoa?

Their opinion doesn't matter, a voice inside Squall's head immediately chided him. They helped unleash the monsters that destroyed everything you knew. They're not the good people they made themselves out to be.

Squall's thoughts were immediately broken by the hand of a boy younger than him lightly touching Aerith's shoulder. Aerith, who had been working on calming herself down, lifted up her head to see who had touched her. Her face immediately relaxed.

The boy was a little older than her, with spiky blonde hair and striking clear blue eyes. He looked at Aerith worriedly, and sported a few cuts on his face.

Squall was not in the mood to be polite as he said, rather rudely, "Who're you?"

Aerith looked relieved that the subject seemed to change. "Oh, this is—"

"Cloud." The boy's voice sounded like it was suffering from the unsteadiness of puberty. His eyes showed that he was taken aback by Squall's rudeness, and had hesitated slightly when giving his name. He scooted towards Aerith a little more protectively than before. Aerith slowly untangled herself from Squall's arms, and Cloud helped her stand steadily on her feet. The ship was still flying into nothing but darkness.

But Squall didn't really care that much. "How'd you make it up here?"

The blonde boy gestured to where Zack was talking to Vincent Valentine, and a blonde woman that looked a little bit like Cloud. "Zack saved my mother and I from one of those monsters."

Squall had a sudden urge to slice up Zack's face with his new weapon, and then pitch him headfirst into the darkness.

So he could save a mom and a kid with a cracking voice and not my girlfriend? What about Isa and Lea? Couldn't he save Isa and bring him and Lea on the ship?

"Excuse me," Squall muttered, and he rose from his seat. He strode towards Zack and then proceeded to pin him against one of the walls of the ship.

The ship's occupants were immediately in an uproar. Squall felt multiple hands yank him off of a stunned Zack, before he could even draw back his arm and throw the first punch. Vincent Valentine, who had left his co-pilot seat to restrain Squall, effortlessly wrenched Squall's hands around his back and shoved him to his knees.

"You ungrateful little brat!" Vincent's rasped in a hiss. "Fair saved the lives of over half of the people on this ship including your own, and that's how you thank him?"

"Vincent, please stop!"

Both of Squall and Vincent looked up to see a tearful Aerith rushing to Squall's side. She pleaded to Vincent. "He didn't mean it, he's grieving like all of us."

Cloud, who had rushed to Aerith's side, looked aghast at what Aerith was saying. The blond woman that Zack had been previously talking to came over to Cloud's side and put a gentle hand on his shoulder, confirming Squall's previous suspicions that this was indeed Cloud's mother.

Vincent merely raised an eyebrow at Aerith. "He's lost as much as everyone else. That doesn't give him the right to assault Zack."

"I-I know." Aerith blearily rubbed her eyes, which were now rimmed red. "Just let him go, please. The two boys we saw disappear—they were Squall's friends. And his girlfriend, Rinoa—"

"She's not on the ship." Squall's voice bit out harshly. "I saw her fall." Tears blurred his vision.

The people that were listening on the ship gasped in horror. Cloud's mother clasped her free hand over her mouth, tears filling her eyes. Squall looked up at Cloud's mother in confusion before he realized that everyone in Radiant Garden knew Merlin, and thus knew Rinoa as well. "I'm so sorry," Cloud's mother whispered. "She was such a sweet girl."

Squall's breathing picked up as the ship rocked. He felt like his insides were lodged at the bottom of his throat as more tears gathered in the corner of his eyes. Some people gave out small cries as the ship gave a lurch. Cid turned round in his seat and scowled. "Let Rinoa's boy go, Valentine, Fair can deal with him. Get back in your seat and help me steer the damn ship."

Squall whirled around wildly at the words Rinoa's boy. His voice came out as a labored and scratchy gasp. Before he could bite back at Cid, Zack came forward and grabbed Squall firmly by the arm.

"Squall—"

"Don't touch me!" Squall snarled.

Zack immediately let go of him, and held up both of his hands in surrender while Vincent went back to his seat and immediately engaged in conversation with Cid about the status of the ship.

Cloud's mother stepped forward tentatively. "Squall, would you like to come sit with us?" Her eyes were a darker shade of blue than her son's, and she looked genuinely worried and concerned for him.

I guess there's no other option for me, he thought to himself as gave a shrug and a half nod. Cloud looked like he was about to say something, but a pleading look from both his mother and Aerith led the younger teenage boy to shut his mouth and mutter something incoherent. Squall fought viciously to keep from breaking down and crying as he wearily went over and grabbed the gun blade, letting it sit by his side as he slid into a corner of the ship with Aerith, Cloud, and Cloud's mother. Zack positioned himself a few feet away from them, his eyes sweeping around the ship before letting them land on Squall's gun blade for a few seconds longer than usual.

Normally, Squall wasn't one to openly show emotion. But he couldn't think. He couldn't comprehend it. Everything he had ever known was gone. He could barely breathe properly, his mind swimming with images of Rinoa, and how sudden her death was. In his nightmares, she would always reach out for him, screaming and crying out his name.

But this time? In real life? She didn't make a sound. He didn't even register the look on her face before she died. She had been nothing but a peripheral flash of bright blue and white that had slipped out of his grip before he could even think.

Squall barely registered the second lurch the ship gave as he let himself drown in his own thoughts. His right hand gripped the holster of the gun blade, and he only registered the continuing turbulence with a few gasps. He squeezed his eyes shut to prevent the tears from falling, but his body wasn't listening to him. Lea had chased after Isa and into the darkness. Knowing Lea, he didn't even have to think twice.

Why couldn't I do the same for Rinoa? Squall put his head in his hands before letting a strangled sob escape his mouth. Why?

The ride was one of the rockiest trips on a form of fast transport that Squall had ever endured in his life. The ship rocked and trembled as Cid and Vincent navigated through the darkness, and miraculously, looked like they knew where they were going. At one point, Squall had looked at the front window after he heard some screams from other passengers, and saw a handful of dark creatures flying right at Cid and Vincent. Cid hollered at the monsters and unleashed a barrage of curses while gunfire erupted from the sides of the ship, courtesy of Vincent. Zack ended up spending most of his time comforting the passengers and securing them as the ship tilted from side to side. Finally, mercifully, the ship quieted down. Everyone fell silent for a few moments, before someone looked up at the windows, looking surprised at what they saw.

"Look!" The passenger suddenly gasped. "We're in space!"

Everyone looked properly out of the window for the first time and gaped in awe. Surrounding them was nothing but a blanket of stars in the dark sky. The turbulence had died out, and everyone could now hear themselves talk.

"Well I'll be," Cid mused. "We made it."

"Now we just have to find a place to land," Vincent pointed out quickly before anyone could even think about feeling any relief. He then started muttering to Cid, and the two became engaged in a low conversation that Squall couldn't pick up.

Squall said nothing to anyone as he looked out at the blanket of stars surrounding the ship. He let himself drown in his thoughts again. No one bothered him as stared out of the window and into space. The ship stayed silent, except for the murmurs of Cid and Vincent in the cockpit and Zack quietly talking to some of the passengers.

A large amount of time had passed before Zack spoke up from the other side of the ship, opposite to where Squall was standing. "Hey, is that a world out there?"

Squall looked in the direction Zack was pointing. A few people got up from where they were either sitting or standing and moved towards Zack. The ship was getting closer to an oddly shaped bright light. Upon further inspection, the odd shapes were starting to look more like buildings the closer the ship traveled to the light.

A small girl younger than Aerith adjusted the yellow bandanna on her head and stood next to Zack, standing on the tips of her toes to look out the window. Squall recognized her from earlier. It was the first time she had moved during the entire flight. "I think it is a world!" Her voice was hoarse from crying as it croaked out in awe. "This is kind of cool!" She looked up at Zack and gave a weak little half smile.

Zack grinned and ruffled the girl's hair lightly. "It is, isn't it?"

"Huh," Cid said, looking rather surprised. "Looks like you're right, Fair. It's another world."

"A pretty small one," Vincent muttered. Squall could detect small buildings dotting the world. He couldn't make out what the buildings looked like.

"It's still a world." Cid grunted. "We've got less than two gallons of fuel left to keep us going. Prepare to land on my command."

The world was a sleepy town that reminded Squall of Radiant Garden at night. The rows of buildings were built the same way. Squall walked down the ramp of the ship and immediately strode down the street that lay directly ahead of him, not really caring where he was going.

"Where do you think you're going?" Vincent' eyes narrowed at Squall as he strode past.

"I'm scoping out the town," Squall responded tonelessly. "I've got a weapon. I should make sure there aren't any of those monsters here." The response was a white lie. He was looking for a place to be alone, but he had every intention on making sure the monsters that destroyed Radiant Garden weren't lurking in this sleepy little town as well.

"See if you can find whomever is in charge of this place," Vincent said.

"Will do," Squall called back as he proceeded to walk down the street and out of sight.

The cobblestone street Squall was on led out into a village square. The relief that swept through Squall as he saw two or three people roaming the streets was temporary, as he immediately recognized one of the dark tunnels that had blended in with the rest of the chaotic scenery while his world was torn to pieces by the darkness.

Squall broke out into a run. He gripped the gun blade with both of his hands as he charged into the square, ignoring the gasps and the screams that the small amount of people gave out that did notice him. By the time he arrived in the middle of the square however, the dark tunnel shrunk and vanished before his eyes, leaving two small metal monsters in its wake. Squall cleaved through both of them mindlessly.

"You know, I don't know if the tunnels are all that bad. I think it led us to this place."

Squall whirled around, positioning his gun blade for an attack as he searched for the source of the male voice. He instead, found himself staring at two painfully familiar figures sprawled out on the steps in front of him that led to the square. One of them had red hair, and the other one had blue.

Squall felt his pulse jump as Lea lifted up an arm to give a weak wave at him, followed by a weary grin. He was covered in an assortment of large cuts and bruises. His clothes were torn, and his familiar striped and checkered scarf was wrapped around his left shoulder, completely bloodied from what looked to be a very nasty wound. Isa was leaning on Lea, looking just as beaten and bruised. His claymore lay limply at his side.

"Lo, Squall." It was Lea that had first spoken up.

Isa picked up his head and registered Squall's presence. He gave a small, tired half smile. "Hey there. Looks like you made it out better than we did."

Squall's gun blade fell to the cobblestone ground in complete shock. He then realized that dropping his gun blade wasn't such a smart idea and snatched it back before it could hit the ground, and he strode towards his two friends. They were still there. Lea's scarf didn't only look completely bloody, but it also looked very tattered, like it had been torn to shreds.

"Aerith thought you were dead," he croaked out. He crouched in front of them, placing his gun blade safely on the ground next to him. His legs gave out from both physical and emotional exhaustion instead, and he dropped to the ground, sitting at the foot of the stairs. The stairs were short, and Lea and Isa were sitting near the bottom of them.

"This idiot," Isa wearily said as he swung a bloodied finger at Lea. "Went after me down a dark tunnel without a weapon. Nothing whatsoever. He had chucked his bomb frisbees at one of the monsters that had Aerith, and the damn thing absorbed them before it decided that it didn't want her anymore."

Lea snorted, not having the energy to argue like he normally would. "You gave me your sword."

Isa gave a weak laugh and his head slumped onto Lea's uninjured shoulder. Lea winced, but didn't say anything. "You're lucky I grabbed one at the castle."

"So you freed Isa with his claymore," Squall supplied, running a hand through his hair.

"Yup," Lea popped the 'p' as he spoke. "Turns out I'm not as bad with a sword as I'd previously thought."

"Then what happened?" Squall asked.

"We ran." Isa's voice became weary at the memory. "We ran. I fought with my sword. Lea hit, he swatted, he kicked. Swatting was a good bet. Running was his best bet."

"Running was also your best bet too," Lea pointed out quietly.

"Yeah," Isa agreed, and gestured to his legs. "I'm pretty sure something is either broken or sprained."

Both of them looked like they were going to pass out at any moment, and they were clearly using as much energy as they could to talk. "What happened after that?" Squall asked. "Was there some sort of light leading to here?"

Lea looked uneasily at Isa, who grew somber. "We saw a light." Isa said quietly. "But we both blacked out before we could walk all of the way through. Then we opened our eyes, and we ended up here, in the middle of the square."

"There are other people that have traveled the same way as us," Lea said. "Not all of them were able to make it. I tried to help a few that came out of the dark tunnel you were running at a few moments ago. Six came through that thing. Half of them survived. Isa would have joined me but—"

"I couldn't move," Isa added. "What about you Squall?"

"Cid was building an experimental gummi ship." Squall said quietly. "Zack Fair and Vincent Valentine were helping people onto the ship. They got me. They got Aerith just as you guys got pulled into the tunnel."

Lea nodded. "What about Rinoa?"

Silence enveloped between the three of them. The remaining amount of color that was left in Isa's face vanished. "You're kidding." He blanched. "She's gone?"

Oh yeah. Squall realized vaguely to himself. Rinoa was friends with Isa and Lea too. She was closer to Isa. Squall sighed heavily, and suddenly, he became unable to speak. He opened his mouth, only to find that the words died on his lips, and something lodged itself in its throat.

Isa, in a surprising gesture of empathy, slid himself down the stairs, wincing the entire way. Lea joined him by default. In the distance, he could hear the crowd of people he came with finally empty into the square.

"Forget it," Squall said gruffly. He didn't think he needed any comfort, because something had been slowly occurring to him as he listened to Isa and Lea's tale. If Isa and Lea had managed to make it to this strange new world through a dark corridor, then there was hope for Rinoa to reappear.

There was Kairi, of course. Little, sweet, and eager Kairi. Squall was never one to be sentimental, but the way Aerith, Lea, Isa, and himself watched Kairi erupt and vanish like a literal supernova was downright frightening, especially because Kairi was nothing short of terrified. Yet, at the same time, he had a feeling that Kairi was alive. She was safe. He had a feeling that she was not only safe, but that she was perhaps, the safest one out of the entire group. Kairi's necklace had some of the strangest powers he had ever witnessed, and he found himself wondering if the way Kairi had exited from Radiant Garden was not an accident, and if someone had, in fact, prepared for something horrible like all of this to happen.

Perhaps I should ask Zack about the blue-haired woman he met on his home planet, Squall mused briefly. It sounds like Zack and Kairi met the same person.

Squall had to believe that there was still a chance for Rinoa to reappear. Any other option that was in the negative was a deadly one for him. But Squall was never an optimistic person. He was always cautious, always logical, never jumping to conclusions. Rinoa was dead. Squall witnessed her fall himself.

However, if he imagined that she simply had fallen into a dark corridor, that she could get herself out of with her skills in magic, then he realized that he started to feel something akin to relief as he watched Cid, Vincent, and the other passengers finally emerge from a path around the corner. That relief grew when Aerith let out a strangled cry at the sight of Isa and Lea and rushed over to their side, her emotions bubbling over with relief and joy (and abject horror at their injuries, promptly calling Cloud's mother over in hopes that both of them could help patch Squall's friends up).

Relief, unfortunately, was also close to denial when it came to Rinoa, but as Squall was beckoned over by Cid, Vincent, and Zack for a talk, Squall really couldn't care. Ignorance was blissful for him if it meant he could survive.

AN: Oh Leon. Anyway, I hope I got his characterization right.

I'm aware that Squall-Leon is classified as a surly asshole, and I wanted to show that with the way he was ready to rip Zack's head off in the ship. He's also grieving, so I wanted to show that too. I noticed that in the games he did indeed yell and show emotion in public.

I want to explain my idea on Isa and Lea. One of the things that stuck out to me in BBS was that their pixilated selves are significantly younger than their nobody counterparts. I'm no professional artist, but I do know that one of the trick to drawing people older is to elongate their faces, correct? And until Nomura says otherwise, nobodies can't age. This has led me to conclude that Isa and Lea would have to have managed to survive the fall of Radiant Garden, and then lost their hearts in some other manner when they were a few years older. I'll be writing about those two in Traverse Town in the immediate future. I'm a big fan of being very linear, so their encounter in the dark corridor will probably be briefly reflected in a flashback in a future fic. Don't expect them to have escaped with just physical cuts and bruises either. I love the idea of gradual phases and transitions, which is why Squall is still Squall, Isa's claymore is supposed to look pretty plain, and Lea has yet to get his chakrams (but those are coming super soon in the next fic that I'm writing).

I've never written horror like this before, and I hope I got the detail and the high tensions right. Any thoughts, criticisms etc in reviews are very appreciated.