Author's note: Not much to say here, so, let's continue on.
The Bold is the Author's Notes.
The Italic is both memories and dreams.
The Bold &Italicare the names of the worlds.
I do not own anything.
CHAPTER 2: Sudden Change.
Out at sea for a couple of days at sea, and Zack had nothing to do while on the ship taking him to his destination to the Temple of Zeus. For the passed few days since saying goodbye to his friends in Thebes, he'd done all he could to keep himself entertained; Squats, running, training, talking to some of the crew, counting stars at night-and he wasn't certain if he saw one just blink out or it was his imagination-seeing dolphins, whales or sharks, played chess with a crew member who brought a chess piece set with him, and repeat. By the third day, he just wandered around aimlessly on the boat, groaning for the lack of excitement.
The dreams haven't been helping either, 'specially since they now seem very familiar, but Zack didn't have a single clue on how or why. He knew that none of the events in his dreams ever happened to him in real life. He was born in a farming village, grew up there until he was thirteen when he left home, met Angeal and the two becoming close friends, a year later, the two parted ways for Angeal going on an adventure while Zack continued his path to follow his dream in becoming a hero.
Yet why did his dreams seem so real?
These dreams started to become slightly more real a month ago. What do they mean? Who was the other Zack? Why does he sound and look and act like him? Come to think of it, it's the same with Angeal.
Zack then groans, stretching up his arms upward, and grumbled, "I'm bored."
Just as the words slipped from his mouth, all of the sudden, the ship jerks violently, nearly causing Zack to lose his balance, as the ship continues to be rocked and thrusted as if it was caught in a storm, which a storm itself was storming to form in the sky, dark thunderclouds covering up the sky.
(~Destiny's Force-KH1.5 HD ReMix~)
"The ship is attacked!" A crew member cried out, as he clinged onto one of the mast of the ship, shivering from the cold and wet salty water, and in fear, as well as not wanting to fall off the ship.
Another crew member leaned over the rail, only to give out a blood curdling scream just as a giant tentacle wraps tightly around his body, holds him up into the air and then sucked right into the ocean, quickly presumed dead! Another crew member who saw this cried out hysterically, "Giant Octopus!"
"Huh!?" Zack gapped, as he rushed over to see what was going on, and he gasped in fear and awe, as more giant tentacles rose from the ocean, into the sky, before it crashed down and began to destroy the ship and taking as many people as it could, though most of them managed to avoid it, Zack included as he jumped out of the way, air-somersaulting out of the way and landed into as a safe distance as he could.
Knowing there was no other choice, Zack draws out his sword and slices a tentacle off, causing the remains of it to retreat back into the ocean, while it's sliced off limb flops helplessly for a moment until it drops dead. Zack cringed at this sight, reminding him of a poor chicken that had it's head chopped off and it's body ran around all over the place until it dropped dead when he was young. Not a good experience to see, especially when you were only five years old back then.
Thankfully, the other crew members, seeing how Zack bravely saved himself, also drew out their weapons, swords and spears and all prepared themselves for a fight that would probably be their last.
"Herc's not here, so I've gotta do my best! Thankfully, with these guys around." Zack thought to himself, as he dodged to the right and single-handedly slashed and sliced another tentacle off the ship. The crew threw spears at the tentacles, though the spears did less of a damage then swords would do. Some other crew members tried to do the same technque as Zack was doing, though they weren't as trained as Zack was.
As Zack leaped out of the way and narrowly dodged another tentacle, he heard a terrified scream behind him, and when he turned, he gasped in horror as a young crew member, roughly about his age, being trapped in the clutches of another tentacle, and the poor young man was desperately trying to get away.
"Hold on! I'm-a comin'!" Zack cried out, rushing over as fast as he could, jumping into the air, giving out a fighting-mode cry and slashed at the tentacle in half, causing the rest to retreat and it's pray released from the other half's clutches which loosened. Zack went over to help the man into sitting position, asking in concern, "You okay?"
The young man nodded, saying, "Thanks! I thought I was a goner!"
"Stay focused!" Zack told him, a bit firmly than necessary, "We still gotta fight this squid!"
"Aye-aye!" The young man replied, quickly getting to his feet with Zack's help and rushed back into the battle.
Zack in the meantime, sees another tentacle which is over him, and he readies his sword, shouting, "Come and get it!" and when it was close enough, he swiped and slashed at it as hard as he could, and the two halfs just went over him and not on top of him. But then he lost a bit of focus and another tentacle swiped at him, causing to be flown as he cried out, and smacked into a mast, where he collasped, holding the back of his head, as the world spinned around him, as the same tentacle was approaching him.
"Not good." Zack muttered, as he pointed his sword at the tentacle, out of energy and his head pounding, not in the best conditions at the moment, and that was a bad thing in this situation.
Just as he was about to meet his end, which Zack was preparing for, for he believed if he had to go down fighting, he would, all of the sudden, the tentacle was sliced, but not as impressive as Zack's skills would. The black-spiky-haired man blinked, as the young man he saved stood there, giving Zack an ether from the Moogle shop that recently opened in Thebes thanks to the small Moogle that appeared out of nowhere, selling potions and such, which Zack drank and his head returned to normal.
"Thanks, man." Zack thanked to the guy who nodded back.
Once Zack rejoined in the fight, things seemed to be doing well despite the ship suffering severe damages. Everyone was getting soaked by the mixture of the sea water and the poundering rain of the storm that arrived. As the last of the tentacles seemed to have sank into the ocean, and Zack and the crew, or what was remaining of them, all looked at each other relief, suddenly the ship jerked again, and this time, to everyone's horror, the ship was being tilted and pushed to the left and slowly flipped upside down!
The giant Octupus was going to drag the ship into the sea!
"Hang onto something!" Zack yelled out, as he clinged onto the mast, and helped the young man who he saved and had saved him, onto the mast as well, praying that everything would be alright. The rest of the remaining crew grabbed hold of either the tight ropes, or the railing of the ship, or the other masts, or onto the sails, as the ship was still being tilted to the side, until everyone was hanging helplessly in the air, as it threatened to drown them while it was about to be upside down.
But in the end, Zack and the young man with him both lost their grip as their hands slipped from the mast and they, and the other crew members who couldn't hold on either, all screamed as they fell and plummeted into the sea below, landing with a hard crash which knocked air out of their lungs, and one by one, all of the men sank slowly into the deep sea below, while the giant Octopus's powerful and massive tentacles crushed the ship into wooden pieces and pulled it with it into the darkness of the sea below. (End Destiny's Force)
(~Lux-Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy~)
As the storm rages above with thunder and lightning, Zack begins to lose consciousness, as he continued to sink into the sea. In his still fuctioning mind, he grimly expected to drown and have his soul sent into the river of death in the Underworld forever. Yeah, what a way to die; attacked by an Octupus and then drown into the ocean.
Before he lost consciousness, though, Zack felt his heart inside his chest grow unusually warm, though he didn't know what was going on, or if he was imagining it. Underneath him, in the darkness below, something white and glowing slowly formed, growing bigger and bigger, until it formed into a strange warm circle of light. Since Zack was almost unconscious, he didn't even notice that his body was glowing as well, as he sank into the light below, and once he was inside the light, the light itself vanished with Zack.
Just before his world went black, his thoughts was this.(End Lux)
'Angeal...'
In the timing-death Realm, the three Fates who were witnessing this and had timed Zack's apparent death, were just about to cut his last string of life, but as the smaller fate attempted to cut his string, the sisscors bounched off and the string unexpectedly returned to full health and normal. The three fates were dumbfounded at this.
"What in the name of Hera is going on?" The green Fate asked.
"The thread returned to full health!" The tallest Fate exclaimed, just as clueless as her sisters, pulling at Zack's string of life, which then suddenly glowed green and small pryflies appeared, before it disappeared completely.
Now this was unusual.
Hades also noticed the lack of one of his worst enemy's souls, and no matter how much he had Pain and Panic to look(because he dared not to go into the River of Death again after the experience done by Hercules, Zack and Mickey smacking him into it last time, and how slimly the souls were), there was no luck in locating Zack's soul at all.
Which meant only one thing; Zack was still alive...somehow.
"Any luck in locating Country-Boy's soul?" Hades asked once his two imps returned.
Pain and Panic looked at each other nervously, before the former decided to break the bad news, and shook his head, "Uh, sadly, no."
"That means he's still alive." Panic added.
An awkward pause.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAT!?" Hades exploded into red flames in sheer anger, causing slight destruction in his courters, and everything was smoked; even Pain and Panic who were blasted by Hades's anger-fire and pinned to the wall breathly, comically burnt, before the slid off and landed face first on the floor, knocked out.
"HOW COULD HE HAVE SURVIVED!?" Hades screamed, before he calmed down a little, storming to his chair, angrily saying to himself, "No one, not even that Mosquito had a chance to survive. He should've been dead by now!"
"There's good news, though." Panic muttered weakly. "There's no trace of him in the ocean either. So he just...disappeared."
Despite the lack of Zack's soul, Hades sighed, rubbing his temples, grumbling, "Disappearence is better than nothing."
Oh Zack disappeared alright...but that didn't mean he was gone.
(~Treasured Memories; KH1~)
(Fragments from Zack's dream)
Fragment 1: "Hey Zack," said a young man named Kunsel in the living room of the SOLDIER floor, as Zack was doing squats, "You seem a little on edge."
"Can you blame me? All this training and no assignments. Like they're hanging me out to dry. You must be pretty busy with everyone off base." Zack replied, getting stress out.
"Off-base? Wait, haven't you heard? There's been a mass desertion at SOLDIER."
Fragment 2: "SOLDIER 1st Class Genesis. A month ago, he went missing during a mission in Wutai. Know anything about this?" Lazard, a blonde haired man wearing a suit, and glasses, spoke during a meeting which Zack and Angeal took in the briefing room.
"Not a clue." Zack replied, shrugging.
"The mission is currently stuck in limbo. That's why we've decided to send you."
"Uh, to Wutai?" Zack asked, making sure if he heard right.
"Yes," Lazard replied, "This war has gone on long enough."
Angeal spoke up, saying without looking at Zack, "I've recommended you for 1st."
Hearing this made Zack squeal happily, "Angeal! I love you, man!" giving his mentor a great big hug, causing Angeal to blush and Lazard to chuckle at the scene.
Fragment 3: "I'll be joining you as well. I'm counting on you." Lazard said.
"Sir!" Zack stood in attention.
The blonde-haired man leaned back in his chair, asking in interest, "By the way, what is your dream? "To become 1st"...is it?"
"No." Zack began, looking at ths ceiling proudly, "To become a hero!"
"Ah, good!" Lazard said, "Unattainable dreams are the best kind."
Zack faultered a little, a bit disappointed, "Uh, thanks?"
Fragment 4: "All right! Next!" Zack called up after he'd taken down some Wutai troops upon his and Angeal's arrival in Wutai.
"Calm down, Zack." Angeal ordered as he walked passed his trainee.
Zack shrugged, replying, "No can do. The director is watching from somewhere, right? I have to make a good impression."
"Zack," Angeal paused in his steps, inquiring, "Do you know about dumbapples?"
The younger male thought about it, before he shrugged as he couldn't recall hearing anything as weird as dumbapples, before replying, "No, what is that?"
Angeal placed a hand to his chin in disbelief, muttering, "Unbelievable... How can you not know about dumbapples?" before walking off into the path in the forest ahead, saying to Zack, "You'll never make 1st at that rate."
Zack's eyes widened, as he cried out, "Whoa, wait! What are dumbapples!?"
(End Treasured Memories)
Back to reality...
Feeling a bit sore, and rather strange, Zack's world began to return to him, as he groaned, as he flickered his eyes open. He took a good few moments to breathe in and out. He was still alive. How he managed to survive, he didn't know. He was at least lucky. It was a miracle at least, and the gods must've been watching over him and spared his life. Too the same couldn't be said for the crew on the ship.
On top of that, where was he? When did he wash up shore, and how long has he been out?
After about five minutes, Zack groaned, "That's a fine how-do-you-do." sarcastically. After a few moments, Zack slowly pushed himself up, standing up, before he blinked in shock and disbelief, which also answered his question on why he wasn't feeling any beach sand. Oddly enough, he wasn't even wet either. Instead, he'd been lying on an unfamiliar stone ground, and as he looked up, found himself in a very unfamiliar looking town, with flashing light-signs, a weird red looking post-box with a gloved hand pointing, a resturant near by, stairs leading up to a store, crates, more stairs, and another larger door on the next level of town, and two doors behind him.
It was also in the middle of the night, with stars twinkling. Where in the world was he? Shocked and stunned in finding himself in a very unfamiliar town, Zack wobbled a bit, holding a hand to his head, still finding himself dizzy. "I'm feeling woozy."
(~Where is this?-KH1~)
But as he looked down, Zack gasped in shock at his pants; he recalled in wearing blue trousers which he upgraded as he grew up since eight years ago, and sandal-like boots and a belt resembling to something he thought was cool and godly enough, and that his belt used to be similiar to Hercules's belt.
But now...Zack saw that his clothes somehow changed and...looked supiciously familiar. He looked at his arms, and gasped, realising that even his body build has changed somehow. Looking around, he found a window at the resturant to his left, and rushed over to get a better look at himself. When he looked, Zack's eyes widened...
At least, he thought he was staring at himself, but something has changed; a lot. He no longer resembled to himself. Okay, that sounded wrong. He looked the same...except...he looked exactly like the Zack in his dreams, except a bit older, and instead of wearing a SOLDIER 2nd Class uniform like Dream-Zack was wearing, this uniform was black, the same as the Dream-Angeal's. Now that was a shocking new development.
"No way! What happened to me!?" Zack exclaimed to himself, as he checked himself out even further, wondering if he was dreaming or not. But after a pinch of his arm and winching in pain, still finding himself in this strange town, he realised that this wasn't a dream at all.
He then remembered the strange light as he sank into the sea, and realised that it was some kind of new magic of something, which also explained how he got here as well. "It must've happened when I wen overboard." Zack said to himself, as he stomps his foot on the graveled ground to test out his new black leather boots.
World: Traverse Town.
After a moment, Zack crossed his arms in thought, thinking how this was seriously not normal. Then he recalled his dream-self or whatever wearing a 2nd Class uniform, not 1st. So why was he wearing a 1st Class uniform? Groaning in frustration, Zack grumbled to himself, "This is getting me nowhere."
The good news is that he still had his sword which was strapped on his back on the new sword hook attacted to his new clothes, so that was a good sign. And he was in a town, so at least he wasn't on a isolated island with wild animals, so there had to be people around, right?
"I guess I'll just take a look around. I just hope it's close to where I want to be." Zack said to himself, though he doubted he was anywhere near the Temple of Zeus. For some reason, he had a feeling he wasn't even close to home anymore. (End Where is This?)
(~Traverse Town-KH1.5 HD ReMix~)
After seeing more of his weird dreams which changed again, Zack strangely found he was relieved to be in a decent looking town, despite how weird it looked. Walking up the small stairs to the level of the accessories shop, Zack pushed open the double doors, and walked into the stop down two steps.
The shop was in a single room, and it had a homey feeling to it. It had a small fireplace, a small glass coffee table, and the counter had shelves with items, only a few that Zack recongised. The owner of the shop was a man, possibly in his mid thirties or older, short blonde hair, goggles pushed up against his forehead, a white t-shirt, black pants and boots, short and invisable beard, and he was chewing on a small stick.
He looked gruffy too.
The man noticed Zack, and greeted, expecting the younger man to be a costumer of his store, "Hey there, how can I help you, sonny?"
Despite trying not to cringe in being called 'Sonny', Zack walked up the counter, greeting in return, "Hi there. My name's Zack." deciding to reveal his name to avoid in being dubbed as 'sonny'.
"Zack, huh?" the man thought, then replied, "Pleasure to meetcha. Name's Cid."
He then noticed Zack's slightly small frown, and asked, "Hey, Zack. Why the long face? You lost or somethin'?"
"No!" Zack replied, before shrugging, a bit helplessly, "Well, maybe. Where am I?"
In Cid's confusion as Zack said this, the older man told the younger man about the town which is known as Traverse Town, and how it's always somehow nighttime.
Zack whispered the name, finding this more and more weird. He never heard of Traverse Town before in his life. He then had to ask, "So Cid, you heard about a ship being attacked by a giant squid or something?" referring to the Octopus attack he experienced.
"Nope." Cid shrugged, "Not sure what you're talkin' about, but this is nowhere near the ocean."
Okay, so that light thingy Zack seen sent him off way away from the ocean. He then decided, "Guess I'll take a look around."
"Well, good luck with whatever it is you're doing." Cid said, seeing how Zack was about to leave on an investigation. "If you ever run into trouble, you come to me. I'll look out for you."
Zack nodded his thanks, thought he admitted he can take care of himself, which Cid, while being sarcastic and gruffy, understood the younger man's words.
"What brings you out and about, anyway?" the older man asked, curiously.
"Well," Zack began, rubbing the back of his neck, hoping what he was about to say wouldn't sound crazy, then continued, "I'm looking for some answers, and..." he then added a bit proudly, "I'm training to become a hero."
"A hero, huh? You do kinda look hero-material." Cid thought.
"Uh, thanks?" Zack muttered uncertainly. (End Traverse Town)
After saying goodbye to Cid, Zack left the accessory shop with some important items the man generously gave him for free for today, and explored the 1st District of Traverse Town. He tried venturing through the two larger doors, but they were locked. So, he ventured up to the one on the higher level, brieflyl meeting another Moogle who went, "Kupo?" as Zack walked by.
As he pushed opened the doors, and walked into another area, the 2nd District with more shops, and hotels, and ahead was a large building with a large bell and more stairs and benches. This town had nothing Greek to it, Zack noted.
But as soon as Zack walked into the area, he paused as another man came screaming past from the right, before the man tumbled and fell, turning around fearfully as a strange looking armored monster, which is a Heartless, (though Zack didn't know that at the moment), which approached him, and to Zack's shock and horror, the man on the ground glowed, and his heart appeared, being swallowed by the Heartless, while the man disappeared into the darkness, before the Heartless vanished.
Gasping in sheer disbelief, Zack was then surrounded by Shadow-smaller sized Heartless, twitching and moving around him.
(~Hand In Hand-KH: Dream Drop Distance~)
"What are these things!?" Zack exclaimed, before realising he had no choice but to defend himself from these monsters. These were different compared to the ones he first encountered eight years ago, which he once over heard Aqua and Serenity call those blue things "Unversed" though Zack had no idea what they were back then either. Plus, he didn't want to have his heart to come out like that poor now dead man he witnessed just had.
Drawing out his sword, Zack stood firm and ready to strike against these...whatever the hell these black creepy guys with yellow eyes were. Zack held his sword back, just as three Heartless leaped to attack him...only for Zack to go into a full Tornado-Strike, spinning around twice and critically destroying the heartless instantly, before another leaped at him with a claw-strike attack. But despite hitting a scratch, Zack smacked his sword downward and eliminated the Heartless into oblivion.
"Take that!" Zack yelled, single-handedly slashing at another Heartless just as it jumped to attack him, only for it to fade away into nothing.
More then appeared, and Zack had to dodge-roll out of the way before as an fat Heartless appeared, stomping and waving it's arms all over the place. Seeing how the stomach worked as a defense, Zack rushed over and jumped over it, before he turned around and quickly slashed at it's back, eliminating it as well.
Briefly caught off-guard by a sudden strike of a thunderbolt, Zack cried out, before he turned and saw an strange floating group of electric Heartless, and despite being the air, Zack wasted no time in double striking at these Heartless as well, before jumping over the railing and onto the lower lever of the District, noticing a small fountain on the wall above where he stood just seconds ago.
Seeing five more Heartless, this time, same ones as the one that took the poor man's heart, Zack grunted, readied his sword and charged, jumping and striked at them upwards, downwards, left, right, corner-right down, corner-left down, corner-right up, and corner-left down, yelling, "Here we go! Go! Go! Go!" and finished off with a final single line strike, eliminating the five Heartless in those single hits all at the same time. (End Hand In Hand)
Taking a jug of the potion Cid gave him to heal up his small wounds and slight exhaustion, Zack panted a little, somewhat shocked, both at the Heartless and...how he fought. During that fight, it wasn't the style he trained himself into doing, but similiar, more powerful and...familiar. Ever since gaining this new body, Zack gained some kind of new strength...
Like the strength from the other Zack in his dreams.
"I guess another world is gone." a voice snapped Zack back to reality, coming from his right. Zack quickly turned, alarmed, and saw a man, about two years older than himself with dark brown hair, some kind of semi-gangster clothes, a silver necklace, black gloves, and a wielding some kind of gunblade. Whoever this guy is, Zack realised that he was a tough guy who can fight hard; pretty hard.
"Who are you?" Zack demanded, getting into defence, not wanting to let his guard down.
The man, named Leon, ignored Zack's question, and continued to himself, "And a Soldier is here. But why? Why is this happening?"
Zack didn't like what the other man was saying, and asked, "Huh? Wait, what does that mean?"
"Nevermind." Leon shook his head. He wasn't in the mood for questions. "Now, come with me."
"What?" Zack stepped back, not trusting the guy a single bit. What was this guy talking about? What was going on? "Just who are you?" he asked again.
Leon paused in his steps, quickly realising that Zack didn't trust him. So, he didn't trust the slightly younger man either. Sighing in slight exasperation, he held out his gunblade, and stood in a fighting position, stating, "All right, then have it your way."
Seeing he had no choice but to fight this man, Zack also stood in a fighting position, holding tight grip on the hilt of his sword, glaring at Leon. As far as Zack knew, this was getting more and more crazy.
A/N: Cliff-hanger! Which I hate the most, but can't be helped. Tell me what you think so far, please, if you will, fellow readers. Look out for the next chapter.