Hello, readers! Welcome to chapter eight!

Evil StormSister: Good XD KMSaum helped me work out the kinks in that conversation, so she deserves half the credit :) And Sephy is scary! But that's what makes him so cool, I suppose. And his hair, which I am jealous of...And that's a good idea. I may have to go insert something in there with a flashback or something ^.^

Jennypen: Aww, I'm glad you're enjoying it! Thanks for the well-wishes for my grandfather :) And Lea is awesome, isn't he? XD

NebraeExbaren: Haha I always have to look four times to make sure I'm spelling your pen name right. Even then, I'm sure I've messed it up several times XD And no, Hojo is not involved *shudders* but his captors may be just as nasty...Yes, poor poor Cloud ;_; I am so abusive to the characters XD

Holy Moses this chapter is long o.o Special thanks again to KMSaum for another brilliant editing job :)

Squall clambered up the rope a lot faster than would be considered safe. He heard the distinctive sounds of a fight on the other side of the wall. His heart pounded in his chest and his breathing accelerated. He dove into the shaft head first, crawling through the cobweb-infested space and falling hard on his shoulder in the small room.

There stood Lea, two large chakrams in his hands and a pile of black dust at his feet. The room was a lot warmer than it should have been and Squall could still see wafts of smoke in the air from some kind of fire spell. He scanned the room but didn't see any other threats.

"What happened?" Squall demanded as he picked himself up and dusted the grime from his clothes.

"Some dumb Heartless came at me out of nowhere," Lea said breathlessly, resting his weapon-laden hands on his knees. "I'll admit, I didn't see that one coming."

Squall paused a moment to take this in. "There are Heartless here? Loose Heartless?"

"It looked like it was alone. If it had friends, they'd be on us by now," the redhead said, rising to his full height. As high as he got in a slouch, anyway. "This tower's been deserted for a while," he said, gesturing to a set of dusty chairs with a chakram.

Squall took a moment to look around. The room was small and circular with wide windows set fairly high in the wall and three chairs for the occupants. His eyes, however, soon trailed back to the weapons in Lea's hand. There was no way he could have been carrying them on his person. They were at least three feet in diameter, if you included the dangerously sharp spikes along the outer rim.

"Where did you get those?" Squall asked. But as he finished his question, Lea lifted the weapons out to his side, where they vanished in a spark of flame and a burst of smoke.

Lea turned to regard Squall innocently. "Get what?" he blinked with big emerald eyes.

Squall narrowed his eyes. "Answer the question, Lea."

"Temper temper, Squally!" Lea held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Look, I know I've got some explaining to do, but it'll have to wait until we get through this place. There're probably more Heartless around here somewhere."

Squall frowned at him before nodding once. "I expect some answers when we get out of here," he said in warning. He was tired of being in the dark about everything, including Lea and his motives.

"You'll get your answers," the redhead smirked. "Though you may not like what you find," he added cryptically.

Squall shook his head. "Let's get down there and find out what this place is," he said, turning to the exit and heading down the musty stairway.

The area inside of the gates consisted of a large expanse of dirt before reaching the actual facility. Like the wall, the building was stone with a large wooden door. From the looks of the rusted training equipment off to the side, this probably had once been the base Sephiroth claimed it was. Now, however, there was nothing but decay.

Still, there had to be something going on here if there were Heartless around.

"How could Heartless just move around in here freely and not get out?" Squall asked as they approached the building.

"Beats me. Unless the king's lackeys have found a way to contain them. Which was, technically, what they were supposed to be doing in the first place, since it's their fault they're loose," Lea replied with a trace of irritation in his voice.

"Their fault?" Squall repeated.

Lea looked at him like he was daft. "Yeah. Ansem and Xehanort created the Heartless."

They…created them? Squall's world was destroyed in the name of science? Rinoa died for their science?

"It was just supposed to be some experiment with hearts," Lea continued, oblivious of Squall's rising anger. "Somehow, though, they got a Heartless out of it. Don't ask how it happened, 'cause I couldn't explain it if I tried.

"Well, the thing went on a killing spree, taking hearts and multiplying through the whole city. It wasn't until Sephiroth and Zack came along and destroyed most of them that people were able to come out of their homes again. Zack was even promoted to General for helping to save the day."

"But there are Heartless still loose," Squall said darkly.

"And spreading through the worlds. Lucky we have Ansem to tighten their leash, huh?" he asked with sarcasm. "Word in the castle is that he shut down the labs a few days ago. Seems his conscience is finally getting to him. Five months later, but I guess better late than never."

Squall frowned. "But they were there last night."

"Xehanort doesn't play by the rules," Lea shrugged.

As Squall's eyes once again returned to the fortress in front of them, he halted in his tracks. Lea noticed at about the same time and froze, too.

The hairs on Squall's neck rose on end as he looked at the door. It was unlocked and slightly ajar, chains dangling from their connections and swinging gently in the breeze.

"It's a trap," Squall whispered, his hand reaching for his gunblade. So, Sephiroth had known Squall wouldn't just take his word for it. He knew Squall would come looking and left the front door open.

"Guess they wanted us good and trapped inside the walls," Lea muttered.

"Why?" Squall asked. "What do they want with us?"

"Maybe they've decided we know too much," Lea suggested.

"You should get out of here. They don't know you're here yet."

Lea smirked. "Oh, they know alright." He gestured with a cock of his head toward the roof high above. Squall just made out the faint glint of the sun off metal before it disappeared.

"Should we run?" Squall asked. Lea knew their enemies and the circumstances better than he did, and Squall wasn't going to stick around if they were just going to be slaughtered. He was a soldier, but that certainly didn't make him suicidal.

"It's too late for that," Lea said, smirk still firmly in place, but his eyes were hard. "Well, guess we should see what they want, hmm? It's rude to keep people waiting, you know," he said as he ambled forward with smooth, careless steps.

Squall followed, but much more cautiously. He brought his weapon up, holding it ready in his hands. He had no intention of being taken by surprise again.

The inside was much like the watchtower, except the dust that had settled on the floor had been disturbed by several sets of footprints. Best as he could tell, there were at least three people here, if not more. At least two sets went off down the left corridor, while one went to the right.

Lea had begun following the dual set, but Squall grabbed the sleeve of his sweater, gesturing to the footprints below and turning to follow the lone one. The odds would be more in their favor going against one, not to mention there would be no one to sneak up behind them when they confronted the others.

Squall hated places like these, with so many twists and turns, tight stairways, and the way every sound magnified and echoed back against the stone walls. The only lights inside were several dimly lit fixtures on the walls, but those were few and far between, leaving them almost constantly in the dark. And with the threat of Heartless, the last place Squall wanted to be was in the dark.

Squall froze as he heard a familiar, disconcerting sound: a portal opening.

Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear.

Five sets of golden eyes surrounded them. In the darkness, that was all he could really see. He felt Lea press himself against his back, and in the burst of sparks that occurred as Lea summoned his chakrams, Squall could make out the writhing bodies of the monsters.

"Look who came out to play," Lea said, a grin in his voice. "Who's their master, I wonder? Xehanort?" he yelled into the darkness.

"Shut up, Lea!" Squall snapped. The idiot was going to draw every Heartless in the building right on them.

"What? It's not like they're here on their own. They're not even attacking us. Someone's got their leash."

Lea was right. The Heartless were just holding, eyes eager but unmoving. Heartless didn't seem to have the intellect required for self-control. Which meant they were probably being forcibly controlled…

"Very good, Lea," a voice sounded out from the darkness. Squall turned his head marginally, trying to keep one eye on the Heartless and allow the other to confirm what his ears told him, but it was too dark to make out anything. "You may be smarter than I gave you credit for."

There was a burst of fiery light from behind him as Lea lit something ablaze, illuminating the entire hallway they stood in. Braig winced against the onslaught, but his smile remained in place as he leveled his lance at the both of them.

"Well, well, if it isn't Ansem's loyal attack dog," Lea drawled, if anything sounding more excited than concerned. "And what do we owe this pleasure?"

Braig smiled, like a cat toying with a mouse. "You two are starting to become a nuisance, what with your little break in last night."

They knew?

Seeing Squall's look, Braig's grin widened. "I myself saw you enter and saw you leave. I wonder what you saw down there…but no matter. Either way, you know too much."

"So, going to kill us?" Lea questioned. "Or maybe try to incorporate us into your little operation?"

Braig's smile turned sour. "As much as I'd love to dispose of you, Xehanort has different plans."

"Why don't you just kill us now?" Lea asked, his voice taking on an edge that Squall didn't understand. It wasn't hysteria, but something close.

Braig chuckled. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" he asked. "I wonder if you've told Squall all about the fun we've had."

Squall frowned. It had been obvious that they had had some kind of history together, but Squall didn't know the extent of any of it. He hoped his ignorance on the subject wouldn't cost him his life. He would have to demand answers to all of his questions when they got out of here.

If they got out of here.

"Come on, Braig, why you taking orders from Xehanort? He's just a punk kid with weird hair and a bad attitude," Lea said in a conspiring tone. "You've got the experience. Why aren't you running this ship?"

"Shut up, Lea," the older man growled, narrowing his eyes. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Do you want an honest answer?"

"I said shut up!" Braig snapped. "You come here with your jokes and your fire, hoping to find what you lost and leading your friend on a wild chocobo chase. You know very well that Cloud isn't here. You were just hoping to get one more chance at it, weren't you?"

What was he talking about? One more chance at what? What exactly had Lea gotten Squall into?

Squall was starting to regret not asking Irvine along as well. It seemed that he could have used the back up.

"So what if I was?" Lea asked, the edge gone and a flippant tone replacing it. "I just want what's mine."

"Well, I certainly pity the man that calls you 'friend'," Braig scoffed. "Have you asked Squall how he feels about being dragged along on your fool's errand?"

"That's quite enough, Braig," a smooth voice intoned.

Xehanort stepped out of the shadows, closely followed by Aeleus and Dilan. "I must apologize for my comrade's behavior. He can be rather rude," he said, crossing his arms over his chest as he stepped past Braig, now no more than a foot out of Squall's striking distance and just behind the ring of Heartless.

"What do you want?" Squall asked darkly. The word games and insincere pleasantries were starting to grow old.

A thin smile played across Xehanort's lips, making him look all the more serpentine. "Not one for small talk, I see. Well, then, I'll cut right to the point.

"Our plans are of a very delicate nature, Squall. You and Lea snooping around…well, that doesn't bode well for our work. We rely on secrecy to accomplish all we need to."

"Secrecy?" Lea asked. "That doesn't sound like it has Ansem's stamp of approval."

Xehanort's face contorted in mild disgust. "I'm afraid that our ruler is a coward, without vision or foresight. The work we do holds power; the power to really discover the workings of the human heart, both the lighter side and the dark."

"What good does that do anyone?" Squall demanded.

"Well, mostly it satisfies curiosity. But one never knows all the uses of a discovery until the discovery is made, do they?" Xehanort asked.

Squall hated scientists. "We just came here to find Cloud. Give him to us and we'll leave you in peace." He knew good and well that Cloud wasn't there, but it seemed like it might be the best excuse. Maybe if they didn't realize they were there for information, they would tell them where the blond grunt was and let them all go.

Unfortunately, things are never that simple.

"You didn't just want Cloud last night, did you?" Xehanort asked, that awful smile still in place. "No, I'm afraid this won't be that easy to remedy. We could use another subject in our final test tonight, so your options are this: help us, or you must die."

"Don't be such a drama queen," Lea mocked. "Where do you get the audacity to use such clichéd lines?"

"You never could learn to keep your mouth shut, could you?" Xehanort asked. "You would make such a powerful ally, if only you could learn to respect your betters. What about you, Squall?" He turned his yellow, burning gaze on to him

"Are you crazy?" Lea demanded. "Why would Squall want to join your merry band of lunatics?"

Xehanort continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "Would you like a place in history? Be a part of the ultimate scientific breakthrough that could change all we know about control of the human heart? Even learn to unlock the power of darkness in your own heart?"

Lea was right; Xehanort was crazy.

Well, Squall certainly wasn't about to become some whitecoat's guinea pig. And he wasn't just going to sit there while he was executed.

A split second after Xehanort had finished speaking, Squall moved. He cut Lionheart in an arc, decapitating two Heartless and almost managing to take Xehanort's head with it until the scientist raised a long dagger with stunning speed to block the strike.

As if it had been planned, Lea acted in tandem, casting some kind of fire spell that sent a line of flame through the enemy, effectively dividing the scientists from the two intruders and the three remaining Heartless. Squall squinted past the heat and the curtain of fire, but couldn't make out Xehanort or his companions.

Now that they were visually cutoff from their master, the creatures didn't hesitate to attack, striking out with talons and teeth and meeting their end against a spike or a blade.

"Let's go! The fire won't hold them up long!" Lea shouted over the roar of the inferno. Squall complied quickly, following the other man down the hallways now illuminated by dancing flames.

Soon, though, they left the light behind and were once again traveling through the darkness. Squall was having a hard time keeping oriented in the blackness, and at these speeds, the lamps that appeared on the walls every so often only served to disorient him further. Somehow, he managed to stay on his feet. A glow up ahead told Squall that they were nearing the entrance.

Someone stepped out in front of them.

Lea didn't even slow down. He shot off one of his strange fire spells, making Aeleus cry out. It sounded more surprised than hurt, though, as they barreled past the scientist.

"They'll have the door shut and locked, if they've managed to get ahead of us," Lea called over his shoulder. "Think we should try to find another way out?"

"No. They know their way around in here. We stand a better chance leaving the same way we came in." Normally, it would be stupid to broadcast his their plans like that in a building like this, but it wasn't like it made much of a difference. The acoustics of the building would make it difficult to ignore a heartbeat, much less the pounding of two sets of feet.

Suddenly, Lea went down. He fell hard to the ground, rolling head over heels. Squall barely managed to dodge the boot that had tripped the redhead as he came to a screeching halt, bringing his gunblade around to block the blow Dilan had aimed for his neck.

"You think you can just run out of here?" Dilan demanded, a wide smile splitting his face as he leaned into their weapons. "Braig and Xehanort will have Lea down in a matter of moments. What chance do you think you stand?" He shoved the hilt of his spear toward Squall's gut, and it was all he could do to move enough to keep it from knocking the wind out of him.

Sure enough, out of the corner of his eye, Squall managed to glimpse Lea on his feet, fending off Xehanort and Braig with his chakrams and fire. That's all he had time to see before Dilan moved again, raining blow after blow on top of him.

For a scientist, Dilan fought well. His strikes were swift and void of any flourishes the young and prideful often used to show off their skill. Every movement was efficient with the intent to kill, and it took Squall a few moments to pick out his opponent's rhythm and come out on top.

Squall blocked a high blow, then kicked Dilan hard in the gut before he could move to deflect it. The dark-haired man went down with an "oof!" and one more kick to the side of his face had him on the floor and bleeding.

Squall turned and went to Lea's aid. To his horror, he found Lea on his knees, dark liquid seeping from his stomach and turning his red sweater a black color. Braig was unconscious on the floor, but Xehanort stood over him, his long dagger delivering another blow that Lea just managed to block.

Squall dove between the two before the scientist could recover, holding Lionheart protectively over Lea and glaring at Xehanort. "All of your men are down," he said, his voice frozen with his anger. "You can't win this one."

Xehanort also glared at Squall, his golden eyes reflecting his contempt. "You fail to understand the gravity of your situation," he smiled, raising his bloodied dagger. Heartless began to spring up from the ground all around them, twenty or more in number. They surrounded the three of them, ready for the signal to attack. "I have discovered how to control the Heartless using the darkness in my heart. They now serve me. You make another move, and they'll be on you," Xehanort said. "So, would you like to rethink my offer?"

Behind Squall, Lea laughed, a harsh, grating sound that was more than a little deranged. "Well, looks like we've been beaten, huh? Guess I'll have to wait and kill you next time," Lea cackled. Before anyone else could move, he raised his arms, spinning a circle of flame around Squall and himself.

Squall shied away from the heat and turned to look at the redhead. "What are you doing?"

"Sounding the retreat," he said, the firelight flickering in his green eyes making him look completely mad. He had one hand clutching his bleeding side and put the other hand out in front of him. The space before him parted, leaving a swirling vortex of black and purple in its wake. Squall had never seen anything like it.

"Don't just stare at it," Lea said, rising on unsteady feet. "Let's go!" He grabbed Squall's arm roughly and pulled him inside.

It was like walking though a curtain of cold gel. The substance stuck to his skin briefly before allowing him passage through and into a strange, unearthly corridor. He was greeted by an array of shifting, melding colors that threatened to render him dizzy. There was no real way to tell how wide the space was, or how high or for how long it went. Squall wasn't even sure if he was walking on the ground or some space above the ground. Whatever the surface was below him, it had the same hardness of packed dirt, and the room had the same hollowness associated with large, empty rooms.

Squall turned around, but the portal was gone.

"Lea, what is this?" he asked softly, his voice reverberating off their strange surroundings.

"Corridor of Darkness," came the weakened reply.

Squall turned back to see Lea slumped on the floor, propped up precariously on one hand. The other still held his side, but it didn't look like it was doing much good. Blood was seeping between his fingers, dripping down on the floor.

Wait…that wasn't blood…

Squall stepped over, pulling back the Lea's hand despite his weak resistance. "Wait, Squall," Lea protested, but Squall ignored him. He ripped off what remained of the other man's tattered shirt, exposing Lea's pale, scar-ridden torso and the ragged cut Xehanort's dagger had left in his side. It was covered in a black, damp, powder-like liquid Squall had never seen before.

"Is this blood?" Squall asked as he examined the wound. It wasn't a clean cut, by any means. And who knew how deep it went.

"Yeah," Lea responded with a shaky voice. Squall looked at his ashen face, then placed two fingers over the artery in his neck.

There was no pulse.

"Lea, you don't have a pulse," Squall said, hastily ripping the sweater's remains into a long, thick ribbon and tying it tightly around his middle. Lea gasped in response, but Squall couldn't stop the bleeding and be gentle at the same time. No pulse? How was he even alive, much less conscious, without a pulse?

"Don't worry about it," the redhead slurred. "I haven't had a pulse…in a while."

Now he was delusional. Perfect. "Lea, I need you to stay focused. Do you have any cure spells?" Squall had yet to see a Draw Point on this planet, and he was by no means a sorcerer or a healer.

Lea shook his mane of spikes slowly. "Nah. No potions, either."

Squall muttered under his breath. "You need medical attention. How do we get out of here? I need to get you to Aeris." She was the only one he could think of that could help. Of course, that required going back to the castle…was that even safe? Would Sephiroth be there waiting for them?

One more look at Lea made up his mind. The bandaging wasn't doing much to stop the blood flow, and he was going to bleed out if he wasn't healed soon. Squall would have to risk it.

"Easy," Lea smirked, but it faltered and died on his lips. He raised his shaking hand slowly, somehow opening up another portal before them.

Squall got to his feet and carefully picked Lea up, drawing another gasp from the man's lips. Squall awkwardly cradled his long frame in his arms and headed for the portal. "Just hang on, Lea."

D: Don't die, Lea!

Ahem. So, does Xehanort actually have a weapon? I know he acquires some kind of Keyblade in Birth by Sleep, but I couldn't find any mention of a weapon before that...daggers just seemed fitting for him, somehow.

So, next chapter, we find out if Lea survives! And perhaps we'll find Cloud :D Or at least figure out where he went, nyeh?

Lol I'm weird, I know XD Well, everyone have a great week :)

God Bless,

-RainFlame