I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.

Panacea

Tyler walked quickly down the street. They were in a world called Hollow Bastion, in a town with castle-style stone walls, colorful roofs, and numerous people that Tyler would otherwise be recognizing as characters from the same cartoon as King Mickey was in back in Tyler's own world. The most familiar were Donald Duck's uncle Scrooge McDuck, and Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck.

Tyler turned a corner only to stop as he watched several heartless trying to attack a pair of men, failing miserably. One was wielding a sword with a gun hilt and a sword blade, and the other was wielding a massive blocky sword with a tanto point, the entire blade wrapped loosely in bandages, for some reason. The two were easily and rapidly slaughtering the heartless, none of the heartless even coming close. Finally, the heartless took notice of Tyler, Fang, and Noel, several soldiers leaping at them. Noel and Fang blasted their opponents with fire spells and Tyler summoned his keyblade, slashing his and then watching as the last handful were mopped up by the other two men. Both turned to stare at Tyler and his keyblade. Tyler glanced down at it and let it disappear, walking toward them with the others, noticing their tense postures.

"Who are you?" the one with the sword that had a gun hilt asked. "How do you have a keyblade?"

"I'm Tyler," Tyler said. "My world was attacked and destroyed by the Heartless. A friend of mine came to help and while they were, I suddenly had my keyblade. Now, we're looking for my niece and my friend's sister, who were taken by the Heartless but escaped. However, we're not here for that."

"Why are you here then?" the other asked. "I can tell you're not here for small talk, or to help us with the Heartless. And I doubt your friend is Sora, so why are you here?"

"Sora?" Tyler asked.

"Another keyblade wielder, a friend of ours," the first said. "I'm Leon, this is Cloud. Why are you here?"

"My friend, the one who saved my life, she's in a coma," Tyler said. "We need a panacea to save her. We were told you had it."

"Yes, I have it," Leon nodded. "But I can't give it to you. A friend of ours was found recently. He's sick and only the panacea can save him."

"Is there any way to get more?" Fang asked.

"No," Cloud said. "It's the last one in existence."

Tyler stared at the ground in silence for a long while. "Maybe I could heal him."

"You can try," Cloud nodded. "But if it doesn't work, I'm using the panacea."

"Please," Noel said. "Lightning is dying!"

"Noel," Tyler said, Noel staring at him. "It's their panacea, and their friend is also dying. In the reverse positions, you wouldn't give it to us. Leon, would the panacea maybe be able to be split in half and combined with healing magic in order to save both?"

"It's never been done before," Leon said. "But I don't know if it's been tried either."

"We aren't risking it," Cloud said. "Come on. In order for you to try to heal our friend, we'll have to get past the heartless."

"How many?" Tyler asked.

"A lot," Leon said. "They're building an army here. If you have the time, we could use your help soon."

"If we can help, we will," Tyler nodded. "But...first I need to save Lightning. She's...important to me."

Leon nodded and turned, motioning for them to follow as he and Cloud jogged down the road. Tyler and the others followed, ad soon they left the town, heading into a path away from it, the path nestled between two cliffs. As they ran, Heartless began to appear from spherical rifts made of darkness or from the shadows around them. The heartless charged at them, only to be rapidly cut down by one of the five experienced killers they were trying to catch. Finally, after almost twenty minutes, they reached the door to a castle. The walls were broken and in the process of being rebuilt.

"Come on," Leon said as Tyler and the others stopped to stare. "He's inside."

Tyler and the others followed as they headed into the castle, Leon and Cloud quickly jogging through a maze of corridors before finally reaching a door. Leon opened it, stepping through and letting everyone else enter before closing and locking it. Before them was a large bed with a man with long, spiky black hair, a scar on his left cheek, a suit of black armor, and there was a long sword with a curved gold cross guard leaning beside the bed.

"This is Zack," Cloud introduced them. "He's my best friend, and my teacher. He taught me to wield a sword."

"How long has he been like this?" Tyler asked, walking over to the bed and summoning his keyblade.

"We're not sure," Cloud said. "We found him this way. He was attacked by a man named Sephiroth. Long silver hair, excessively long katana-style sword, one wing. I've been hunting Sephiroth for a long time. Now I have another reason."

"I'm going to try to heal him," Tyler said, raising his keyblade.

Green light flashed off of it before two spheres of green light began to spiral around Zack, his body glowing. Finally, the light faded and Zack lay motionless. Cloud sighed as Leon pulled out a vial of glowing amber liquid.

"Guess not," Leon said. "I'm sorry Tyler. We need it."

"Please try splitting it in half," Fang said. "If it doesn't work, you can use the other half."

Leon looked to Cloud, who stared at him a long while before sighing. "Do it."

Leon nodded, tilting Zack's head back and pouring half of the liquid into his mouth. The moment he did, Zack's body began to glow faintly. Tyler raised his keyblade instantly, pushing as much healing magic as he could through it. A massive ball of green magic formed over it, a large red flower blossoming on top of it. Then, vines reached out of the bottom and wrapped around Zack, the light glowing from his body brightening before tinging green. Then, the flower, ball of light, and vines all faded into green light before the light around Zack slowly faded as well. Tyler stumbled backward and fell to one knee, sweat beading on his forehead and falling, soaking his shirt and hair.

"Looks like you wasted your-" Cloud stopped as Zack's eye twitched.

Then, slowly, Zack's eyes fluttered open and he slowly blinked before looking around, stopping on Cloud. He took in Cloud's black shirt and pants, the black cloth over his left arm and hanging from the left side of his belt, and then the sword on his back.

"What the hell have you done to my sword?" Zack croaked.

"This one's called the Fusion Blade," Cloud said. "Yours...Yours was lost when our world was destroyed."

Zack nodded slowly. "I figured. Who are you all?"

"I'm Leon," Leon said.

"I'm Tyler," Tyler said, pushing himself up. "This is Fang and Noel."

Zack nodded again. "Cloud, Sephiroth survived."

"I know," Cloud nodded. "I've already fought him several times. I'm trying to find him."

Zack nodded, yawning. "I'm tired. How long have I been out?"

"A really long time," Cloud said. "I have to go. There's someone else who will want to see you."

Zack's face contorted in confusion but Cloud simply smiled and left. Leon turned to Tyler, holding out the remaining liquid. Tyler accepted it, nodding.

"We'll try to be back in time for the fight," Tyler said.

Leon nodded and light blinded Tyler and his friends. A moment later, they were standing on the bridge of the ship again, and Tyler's legs buckled. Fang caught him, holding him up and taking the panacea from him.

"It's not full," the pilot noted.

"We have to combine it with a very powerful healing spell," Fang said. "It's all we could get."

"I just need to rest a bit," Tyler said, struggling back to his feet.

"No you don't," the pilot said. "You used up too much magic. You're about to go comatose yourself. Here."

He tossed a softball-sized glowing blue stone to Tyler, who caught it, staring at it. It was soft. It felt like it was he could crush it in his hand. Which is exactly what Fang told him to do with it. He squeezed, the stone cracking before finally shattering in his hand. Instantly, he felt strength flood into him, not a whole lot, but enough that he didn't feel like he might pass out at any moment.

"What was that?" Tyler asked.

"An Ether," Fang said. "If it barely kept you standing, you really were about to be gone. Come on. You can rest now. We'll wake up Lightning once you're better."

Tyler nodded, walking alongside Fang until they reached the same room Lightning was in, Vanille sitting beside her, looking exhausted.

"You're back!" Vanille smiled. "Is everything okay?"

"We're fine," Fang smiled. "He needs to rest. We only got half a panacea, so it needs a really strong healing spell to go with it. He already did it once and it almost put him in a coma. If not for an Ether, it would have."

"I see," Vanille nodded. "Rest Tyler. You can heal her when you wake up."

Tyler nodded, lying in an empty bed beside Lightning's and passing out. A few hours later, he woke up, sitting up and stretching before looking around. Fang walked over from her chair, holding out another Ether. He crushed that one as well, feeling his strength return to their normal full levels and then walked over to Lightning, Fang handing him the panacea. Tyler carefully poured it into Lightning's mouth, then summoned his keyblade, raising it. He shoved his magic through the blade, the same flower as when he had healed Zack forming then fading, as it had before. After the spell ended, Tyler dropped, Fang barely catching him and shoving a larger Ether into his hand, Tyler having to use both to crush it. As the energy stopped flowing into him, he stared at Lightning. Nothing. He swallowed hard, staring at the ground. He had failed. His only chance to save her, and he had failed. Maybe he should have fought Leon and Cloud for the full panacea.

"Why the long face?" a blessedly familiar voice croaked.

Tyler's head snapped up, staring into Lightning's infinitely beautiful blue eyes. She pushed herself up, smiling slightly and Tyler stepped forward, throwing his arms around her and not minding that his legs nearly gave out. Lightning hugged him back, the two staying there for several moments before Tyler pulled back, stumbling and Fang catching him.

"Here," Fang said, handing him yet another Ether, which he crushed obediently, feeling his magic levels stabilize.

"Ether?" Lightning asked, brow creasing. "How much did he have to use?"

"Too much," Fang said. "He almost followed your example. Fortunately, we're all safe now. Both of you need to rest. Once you have, we can figure out what to do next."

Lightning nodded, glancing at Tyler, who flopped back onto the bed he had been on before, groaning.

"I don't like comas," Tyler groaned. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Lightning smiled.

Then, Tyler passed out again.

Leave a review.