Battle of the Mages
Colorful Mercenary

Cloud sighed as he walked along the Olympus Coliseum, leaving the corpse of his opponent behind. He sighed again. He was so bored. None of the competitors were hard. None of them had even gotten past the preliminaries, because they couldn't beat him. All of those weaklings though they could beat Hercules, and they couldn't even beat him.

All of a sudden, he heard a rumble of thunder. Either a storm was brewing, or a world was being destroyed. He hoped it was the latter. Rain was fine: he just hated fighting in mud. It took forever to get it out of his clothes and weapon. Cloud continued to walk across the Coliseum.

Cloud heard a popping noise. He knew that a world had just been destroyed. He didn't really care. He didn't really care about anything anymore. Suddenly, he heard a whistle of air, and looked up. A girl was falling towards the ground.

Cloud was too stunned to do anything. She plummeted towards the ground, and hit with a thump, right in front of Cloud, almost on top of him. A long sword and two short swords fell right after her.

Her eyes opened, and she saw Cloud. She then groaned and fell unconscious. He knelt by her and assessed her wounds. She was bleeding heavily from a gash on her left arm, coincidentally the same one she hurt when she arrived on the Destiny Islands. Her stomach also had a deep cut in it. She had pulled a tendon in her left ankle, and she was covered with assorted small cuts and bruises. In a split second decision, Cloud decided to help the girl.

He picked her up bridal style. Okay, now what, smart one? Thought Cloud to himself. I don't know. Take her to your room and treat her wounds stupid. Otherwise she might die. Don't call me stupid, stupid! I'm not stupid! I'm you! Oh yeah...

Cloud rolled his eyes. He was such an idiot. After a few seconds, he decided to take her to his room. He grabbed her weapons and started to walk across the arena.

"Hey, Cloud!" yelled one of the new contenders. That person had just arrived, yet he knew Cloud's name. Everybody knew Cloud's name. The guy ran over and stopped a few feet away from Cloud. "So," said the guy, "Finally found yourself a girl eh? She's quite a looker, isn't she? But, what happened to her? You didn't beat her, did you?" His gaze went from the girl's face to Cloud's. Cloud's expression was icy and livid. "Whoa," The guy took a step back. Cloud walked out of the arena. The guy collapsed covered in sweat. Now he knew why some men froze when fighting Cloud Strife.

Forty seven minutes later, Kylie came to slowly. Her stomach, arm, ankle, and head throbbed. Pretty much her whole body. She felt way worse than she had when she arrived on the Destiny Islands. She slowly opened her eyes, expecting bright light, but that's not what she got. The light was dim, coming from a single lamp. She looked towards the light.

A blonde guy with spiky hair was reading a book. The book: Angels and Demons. Kylie was surprised.

"That's a good book," she said, looking at him and smiling slightly. The spiky haired blonde jumped so slightly that Kylie almost missed it. He finished reading the last few sentences, then he put the book down on the table the lamp was sitting on.

Kylie sat up, putting a hand to her throbbing head. "Where am I?" she asked, gritting her teeth against the pain. "And who are you?"

The spiky haired blonde leaned back in his chair. My name is Cloud Strife," he said. "You're at the Olympus Coliseum, in my room."

"Nice to meet you Cloud." Kylie was wary about giving her name. She could smell fresh blood on him. But, since she was curious about him, she decided to give him her name. "My name is Kylie Tenshi. Cloud looked slightly startled. He knew what her last name meant. It meant angel.

Angel. She's beautiful. It fits. I mentally shook my head. What was I thinking? I'd never thought a girl was pretty before. Wow. I think I'm going insane.

Kylie started getting out of Cloud's round bed. Cloud stared.

"Well," said Kylie. "It's been real, but I gotta go. I seem to be missing a few personal effects, and I need to find my friends."

Cloud reach down and his hand came up holding her weapons. "Are these what you lost?" he asked. Kylie nodded, and swung her shoeless feet out from under the covers. She took her weapons from him. They disappeared in a red light, just like the Keyblade.

"Yes. Thank you. But I still need to find my friends."

She got out of his bed and walked forward. Before she'd taken two steps, she collapsed. Cloud just sat, watching her.

Kylie rubbed her ankle. She could feel that she'd pulled her tendon. She rolled her eyes, frustrated. Why did things like this always have to happen to her?

She got to her feet and tried to walk again. She took one step forward and collapsed onto the ground. The last thing she saw was Cloud roll his eyes, stand up, and walk over to her before she blacked out.

Kylie came to slowly. She opened her eyes slightly. Cloud was sleeping in his chair. His hair was wet, and he was wearing black jeans and a black long sleeved silk shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and the first two buttons unbuttoned. Kylie could see how buff Cloud was. She blushed at that thought. Closing her eyes, she fell back asleep.

When Kylie woke up again, Cloud was starting to stir. She sat up. Fainting induces dreamless sleep, thought Kylie. Dreamless sleep means no nightmares. No nightmares mean no waking up covered with sweat, smothering a scream so no one will hear me.

I woke up, but I didn't open my eyes. I had been having such a good sleep too. No nightmares. Why'd I have to wake up?

Cloud opened his eyes to see the girl already awake and sitting up in his bed. He blinked. That was how he showed mild surprised. The girl, Kylie, noticed he was awake.

"We seem to be back right where we started," she said, her face showing slight amusement.

Cloud didn't say anything.

"You don't talk much, do you?" asked Kylie, raising an eyebrow slightly. Cloud still didn't say anything.

"Okay then." She looked away, and examined his room with one sweep of her eyes.

His room was painted dark blue, and his covers and sheets on his round bed were black. He no longer smelled of blood, but the faint, dark scent of death still lingered around him.

"What do you do?" asked Kylie, her eyes snapping back to him.

"Hm?" he hadn't heard her.

"What do you do? As an occupation?"

"I'm a mercenary."

"Mercenary?"

"I fight for money."

"I know what a mercenary is. Money? You don't fight for anything else? No friends, no family. Not even yourself? Just...money? That's selfish and petty."

Cloud jerked forward in his chair, his expression cold and livid once again.

"Anata ga shiru nani mo nai koto," You know nothing, said Cloud in Japanese, not thinking that she would understand it. He was ready to say the same thing in English, when she surprised him.

"Watashi wa shiru yori oi yori wa anata ga amou," I know more than you think, said Kylie, her expression as livid as well. Cloud's eyes widened in surprise.

"Do not underestimate your opponent just because they are female," said Kylie, glaring at Cloud.

Cloud leaned back in his chair, and inclined his head before looking back up at her.

"You're right. That is what I was thinking. I'm sorry. However," Cloud looked into her eyes. "It is uncanny for you to know what I was thinking."

Kylie looked down. "I'm an uncanny person. And I'm sorry, too. With all these injuries, I'm in a bad mood, but..." Kylie had just noticed something. "Did you bandage my wounds?" Cloud nodded.

Kylie blushed deeply. Cloud suddenly realized why she was blushing. He blushed too.

"I didn't take off your shirt or anything," he said. "If the wounds had been any higher than your stomach, I would have gotten a female doctor." They both stopped blushing. Kylie threw off the blankets and stretched her legs out from the curled up position they'd been in.

"Are you going to get up again?" asked Cloud, leaning forward to foil any of her attempts to get out of bed.

"Not yet. Will you bring me crutches so that I can get up? Your room is cool and all, but I am bored out of my mind. On second thought, why don't you just get me a potion? Oh, no, wait, that won't work. Do you have an elixir?"

"An elixir? Are you joking? Do you know how hard those are to find?"

"So you don't have one?"

Cloud shook his head. "No."

"Aw, that sucks."

Cloud was so surprised he burst out laughing. He had expected her to start whining or crying. Kylie gave him a strange look.

"I didn't think you could laugh," she said.

Cloud's smile faded from his face, and his eyes once again became guarded once again. "What do you mean?" he asked, mirth gone from his voice. Kylie's face became expressionless.

"Your eyes," she said simply. "And your colors."

"My...my colors?" asked Cloud, confused. Kylie sighed and began to explain.

"I see some people as colors," Kylie began. "Some colors are happy, some are mad, etcetera. Your colors are the colors of the sky right after sunset. When the sun is gone, and all the yellows and oranges had faded. You're the color of the sky when it's blue, purple, and black, yet the sky still has a few streaks of red. Although earlier, when you got mad, your colors changed. Not many peoples' change to that color when they're angry. Most people change to red, or red and orange. You blazed. You were the color of the sunset. With all the reds, yellows, and oranges streaked across the sky, with the sun's light shining in your eyes. You were radiant, yet, when you were angry, I didn't feel fear or sadness, or even retaliating anger. I felt...curious. You intrigue me, Mr. Strife."

Kylie's eyes widened, and she clapped her hands over her mouth, cheeks reddening. "I am so sorry," she said, lowering her hands. "You probably think I'm this weird freak."

Cloud looked... surprised. "That's not weird. That's... amazing. I've never met anybody who sees people in colors." Cloud smiled. It was awkward, but it was his true smile. He was actually...happy, there, with her.

Cloud was sleeping deeply. Well, he had been sleeping deeply, but he was beginning to be aware of his surroundings. He felt a shadow move across his eyelids.

An assassin! He thought.

His body tensed, ready to spring out of bed and fight hand to hand until he could get to his sword and cut the assassin into tiny pieces. He felt the assassin get onto his bed and lean over him. His eyes flashed open revealing...definitely not an assassin.

During the past two weeks, while my injuries healed, Cloud and I have become great friends. Although he hasn't shown me that awkward smile again, I know it's there, just waiting to emerge. He's shown me other smiles, happy smiles, but the smile he showed me the day we met let me see into his soul. He had so many colors whirling around. All of them beautiful, yet sad. But slowly, the sadness of the colors has been disappearing. I'm hoping all of the sadness will go away, but I know that that is impossible. He will always feel the pain of what happened to him. It never goes away. The pain, the anguish, the guilt. But, in time, I'm hoping the pain will fade, at least a little bit. Maybe there's somebody out there who can help ease those wounds. Heh, wouldn't it be funny if it was me? Like Cloud would ever think of me that way.

We're going to steal- excuse me, borrow a gummi ship and go on a trip. There's a path to this recently discovered world. It's just like the world I used to go to school on, with all the TV's and electronics. They really don't have them anywhere else. But, I'm glad we're going today. I want some new CDs, and I need to introduce Cloud to the world of electronics. I'm going to take him to the mall and the movie theater, maybe more places. I gotta go wake Cloud up now. Dang he can sleep! I mean, it's 7:30!