Skywalkers

13: And So It Begins

It was always interesting to see people's reactions when they learned that Leon and Sora were related. Exclamations along the lines of "You can't be a Leonhart!" usually accompanied any introduction from one brother of the other. Friends of Sora couldn't understand how he could tolerate being around a cold fish like Leon, and friends of Leon couldn't understand how he hadn't choked the living daylights out of the noisy ball of energy that bore the name Sora. Everyone knew how much Sora cared for his brother since he would tell anyone he happened to meet, but they all assumed the affection was one-way.

However, just because Leon didn't wear his heart on his sleeve didn't mean he didn't love his brother just as much as Sora loved him. In spite of the age difference, each one had always considered the other as one of his closest friends. They just complimented each other perfectly; whatever one lacked, the other had in abundance. Once, his father had commented, "It's as if God took all of Squall's sense of humor and gave it to Sora." His mother had responded, "And all of Sora's self-control to Squall." They had both laughed and continued picking apart their sons' personalities; the boys had simply rolled their eyes at their parents and gone off to beat the snot out of each other in Mortal Kombat.

Throughout the years - through Riku's disappearance, through Rinoa and her death, through Kairi going from friend to girlfriend to lover - through everything, they remained close and only grew closer even as they physically moved apart. Yes, they often irritated each other to no end, but Leon knew he would never trade Sora for anything or anyone.

Although the morning after Riku had returned, he thought perhaps he would trade his brother in for something less infuriating. Something like a pair of socks.

"Cloud's got a love bite. Cloud's got a love bite," the brunet sang sweetly to himself as he waited for the coffee to finish.

Leon tightened his already vicious grip on the spatula he held and reminded himself that fratricide was frowned upon in polite society. Thankfully, Cloud, who was sitting at the table and checking on Riku's status, was pretending not to hear Sora. The blond did in fact have a rather impressive hickey, and he hadn't bothered to try to hide it. If Leon didn't know better, he'd have thought that Cloud was proud of the mark and even enjoying Sora's teasing.

"Geez, Sora, are you twenty or are you two?" Kairi demanded, turning around in her chair to glare at him.

"What?" Sora asked, widening his big blue eyes and fluttering his impossibly long lashes. When Kairi humphed at him and turned back to her pancakes, he grinned and starting singing again, albeit this time much more softly.

Across the table from her, Riku leaned forward and motioned for Kairi to come closer. When she did, he whispered in her ear; a grin slowly spread over her face. As Riku leant back, Kairi leapt from her chair and purposefully strode over to her boyfriend. Sora gave her a questioning look but didn't have time to open his mouth before she had grabbed him and attached her mouth to his neck.

"Ow!" he cried, swatting at her ineffectively with a nearby plastic measuring cup. "Kairi! Get off!"

When Kairi finally did pull back, grinning madly, a red and purple bruise had already begun to form on Sora's neck.

"Riku and I thought that, since you were going on and on about Cloud's hickey, you must want one for yourself," she explained.

"Kai-ri!" Sora whined. "We're going to see our profs today!"

"Well, you'd better change clothes then."

"Sora's got a love bite," Riku sang softly as Kairi sat back down. Leon wanted to kiss them both; instead he slipped two extra pancakes onto Riku's plate.

Cloud sighed at the lot of them and set aside his PHS. "You're looking good, Riku," he commented. "In fact, I'd say your progress is astounding. Your body is repairing itself at an amazing rate."

Riku half-smiled and nodded his thanks to Leon who had just placed the plate in front of him. "I'm enhanced, too, you know," he replied to Cloud. "Probably just as much as you are."

Cloud winced. "Ouch. I'm sorry."

The silver-haired man shrugged and reached for the syrup. "It has its advantages, I guess."

"Cloud," Kairi asked quietly, "will Riku ever … well …" She glanced guiltily at her friend before spitting it out. "Will he ever get his old hair and eye color back?"

"No. Not without more modification. This is what his body is like now; purging the program didn't alter his DNA back to what it was."

"His DNA has changed?" Sora cried, nearly dropping the mug he had just filled with coffee.

"Yeah," Riku answered, not at all bothered by the subject. "Only a bit, but enough that if they did a test on me to see if I'm who I say I am, it would come out negative." He cut into a pancake and brought a bite to his mouth. "Wow, these are good, Leon!"

"Thank you," Leon replied. An ache had settled into his chest at the recent revelation. So if Riku went back to his parents, he would have no way to prove his identity? Even his body would betray him? It was yet another sin to add to Sephiroth's ever-growing list of crimes.

"Okay, why is everyone looking at me like I'm dying?" Riku demanded, laying down his fork with a loud clink. His fierce gaze roamed the room, glaring at each of them individually. "I will not be pitied, thank you very much. So my eyes aren't blue anymore. Big deal. I can still fight, and that's the important part."

Resting his head in one hand, Cloud commented with a smile, "And to think, yesterday he wanted to die."

"Well, I've changed my mind," the other snapped with a frown. "Somehow I got a second chance at life, so I'm going to take it. Right after I kick my brother's ass so hard it'll come out the top of his head like a Moogle pom-pom." He picked his fork back up and stabbed viciously at his breakfast. "Fucking Sephiroth and his fucking home-brewed shit."

At Riku's angry mutter, Cloud sucked his breath in and lifted his head from his hand. "He didn't give you one of those, did he?"

Riku snorted. "Course he did. How else could I be so freaking fast?" Green eyes slid sideways and examined the shocked look on the blond's face. "Did you get one?"

Cloud hung his head a little. "Yeah," he admitted, "but I don't know what it does."

"You've never activated it?"

"No. I'm kind of afraid to."

Leon set his own plate down on the table with a little more noise than necessary. As he settled into his chair, he stated, "All right, that's enough inside talk. Time to explain it to the rest of us." He looked pointedly at Cloud who offered him a small smile.

It was Riku, however, who started talking first. "We're talking about the programs that Sephiroth created himself. He had all these ideas, most of which the Organization took and created for him. But some of them they wouldn't touch. So he did them himself and then injected them into us." He chewed thoughtfully for a moment before adding, "I'm sure Loz, Yazoo, and Kadaj have some, too. And Sephiroth himself has a bunch. Mine increases my agility to an insane level." He gave a little smile to Leon. "Which you've already seen."

"Yeah," Leon replied, remembering that wild blade and how he had been completely unable to keep up with it. He looked once more to his lover. "And you don't know what yours does?"

"No."

"Probably better that way."

"That's what I think."

"Cloud?"

Leon jumped slightly at Sora's voice. His brother had been so quiet that he had forgotten he was still there.

"Yes?"

Sora placed his mug of coffee on the table and leaned against the back of Kairi's chair since all the other seats were taken. He asked, "If Riku is getting better faster than you thought, does that mean he's well enough to give me that fighting program thing?"

Cloud shrugged. "I don't see why not."

"Well, I do," Riku commented. He added meaningfully to the blond sitting next to him, "Reflex test."

Leon winced. In his mind, he saw again Zack's huge blade coming straight for his face. The thought of Sora watching death approach like that chilled his heart. "Is that really necessary? Can't you just skip that part?"

Across the table from him, Cloud dropped his gaze, embarrassed. "The adrenaline shot really does help," he mumbled. "I hate to say it, but it's true." Ignoring Leon's pointed look, he lifted his eyes to Sora and said more clearly, "I can do it for you if you like."

The brunet shook his head. "No, I'd rather it be Riku, so if he's not well enough yet, I'll wait." He leaned down and kissed his girlfriend on the cheek to get her attention. "Come on, Kai. We have to get to campus and see what we can do about our upcoming absence." She nodded and rose to her feet, dishes in hand, as he finished off his coffee.

"Sora," Riku called before they could leave the kitchen. "It's the same program, you know. It doesn't matter who gives it to you."

Sora smiled at him over his shoulder. "Sure it does. Those little machines may not care, but I do."

Riku blinked at him, green eyes filling with bewildered understanding. Then, just as a light blush began to spread over his cheeks, he quickly dipped his head down and hid behind his hair, stabbing at his pancakes again. Giving a final smile to the room in general, Sora left, and Kairi followed him. With his eyes on his brother, Leon hadn't realized Cloud had reacted as well until he felt a warm hand on his. Leon turned to find that Cloud's face wore a sad smile which brightened slightly when Leon smiled back. Their fingers interlaced together comfortably and stayed that way all through breakfast, even though Leon had a terrible time figuring out how to eat with his left hand.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon passed quietly. Cloud and Riku seemed to have a good deal of "inside talk" to get through, so Leon left them to it and went off to pack. Once he had filled the trunk of his car with loaded suitcases, he cracked open his computer and used the Sora-free time to do a little work. He had already finished three chapters of his new project. The narrative style was rushed due to the sheer volume of inspiration he had, but he knew he would be able to fix that easily with the first rewrite. For now, he just wanted to get it all out of his head and into a document. The details could be handled later when he had more time - assuming he would still have time once all this was over.

Sora and Kairi returned a few hours after lunch with piles of reading material and assignments. Their professors had given them the work schedule for the next month and had promised to tape their lectures using the equipment Sora and Kairi had given them. Everyone would communicate back and forth via email, Sora explained, so that he and Kairi could go to Leon's house with the others but still stay enrolled in all their classes. When Leon asked what excuse Sora had given for their open-ended absence, his brother informed him that he, Leon, was deathly ill and could succumb any day.

"And you went along with that?" Leon demanded of Kairi who was trying to hide behind Cloud.

"I couldn't think of anything better," she squeaked. "And once we had told one person, we couldn't really change it."

As Leon quietly fumed and plotted murder once more, Cloud lifted a hand and tapped his chin. "Funny," he commented with a smirk. "For being at death's door, you look really good, Leon darling."

Leon growled. Cloud was supposed to be on his side, not the brat's. Glaring at his lover, he answered, "You'd better enjoy that hickey while it lasts, Cloud dear. You won't be getting any more any time soon."

Sora nearly died laughing; Kairi saved him by cracking him upside the head.

xXx

The rest of the day they spent on the road. Kairi and Riku went in Sora's car, and Cloud went along with Leon, who had allowed himself to be coaxed back into a good mood by some well-placed kisses. On their previous trip, Leon had opened the top of his convertible and let the 70 mph wind drown all hope of conversation. Since they had both needed to think more than talk during that drive, the setup had been quite pleasant. But this time, he kept the top up and, even before the house was out of sight, asked Cloud to describe some of the other dimensions for him. After recovering from his initial surprise, Cloud complied.

He began with his own dimension: his hometown of Nibelheim, the elevated city of Midgar and the slums underneath, the flashy amusement park known as the Gold Saucer. Then he moved on to the world of the Organization: the dark city with tall skyscrapers, the twin castles with their white, sterile rooms, the rain that fell so often that the streets had eternal puddles which reflected and distorted the ever-present neon lights. When he had finished describing the worlds he knew best, he moved on to the ones he had visited. A medieval-type land where time travel was possible. A world that had tall, rat-like warriors in addition to humans, although some had horns and others had monkey-like tails. A civilization that had created a VR game so realistic that some felt it had developed a mind of its own. All of these and more Cloud described until Leon felt like his brain would begin to leak from all the images and information.

When they finally arrived at Leon's house, Cloud was exhausted and his throat was sore. Leon sent him off to bed while he helped Sora bring in the bags and then organize where everyone was to stay. After setting up Sora and Kairi on the air mattress and Riku on the couch and making sure everyone had enough pillows and blankets, he retired to his room and gratefully slipped into bed next to his blond lover. Unsurprisingly, Cloud was already asleep, and it didn't take long for Leon to follow suit.

The next day, Cloud pronounced Riku recovered, and Sora rejoiced. Outside in the afternoon sun, Leon stood on the sidelines and relived his own experience as Riku walked up to his little brother with intent. He stuck his sword in the ground, and Cloud thrust one of First Tsurugi's smaller blades into the soil next to it. Riku took the earphones out of his shiny, new-looking PHS and placed them on Sora's temples.

Kairi slipped her hands around Leon's arm as she stood next to him. He could feel her nervousness, but truthfully he could not ease it for her. He could still remember vividly all the emotions he had felt that afternoon. The fear, the helplessness, the anger, and that strange acceptance of what was happening as long as it would mean Cloud was no longer alone. He hadn't been alone, though. One of the four other victims stood before his brother now, and, like Cloud, he had been saved and given a second chance.

"Ready?" Riku asked.

"You bet!" Sora obviously felt no fear, only a kind of twitchy excitement.

Cloud stepped back, another part of First Tsurugi in his hand. He and Riku had agreed that he would stay close just in case Sora reacted poorly to the "reflex test". Riku caught his eyes briefly and then, looking back to Sora, pushed the button.

Kairi stiffened and released a small sound of distress as Sora's body snapped and spasmed briefly from the jolt of information surging through him. Leon rubbed her hands gently with his own, but his eyes never left his brother's face. So that was what he had looked like when Zack had done it to him. More surprise than pain, like touching metal in winter and receiving a sharp shock except on a grander scale. Riku caught Sora before he could hit the ground and began to question him about dizziness, blurred vision, affected hearing, just like Zack had done. Leon took a slow breath, knowing exactly what was to come next.

The hand that held Kairi's tightened as the black blade whizzed through the air, aimed at Sora's legs rather than his head. To everyone's surprise, Sora reacted immediately, although not by going for Cloud's blade. Instead he jumped, twisting mid-air to land behind Riku while still facing him. With a great grin on his young face, Sora kicked out a leg and very nearly took Riku's feet out from under him. Instead, Riku leapt away and Sora ran after him, claiming the extra blade on his way past like picking up a set of car keys or something equally commonplace. Laughing like mad, Sora began a friendly bout of sparring with his friend, using his shorter height to his advantage in ways Leon had never imagined.

Next to him, Kairi gaped at them. She had suppressed a scream when Riku had attacked, but Sora's reactions had eased her fears. Now, however, something else was bothering her.

"He's drunk!"

"What?" Leon turned to her, not sure he had heard correctly.

"Sora," she replied, fixing her eyes on him. "He's drunk! Listen to him. He only laughs like that when he's drunk."

"It is a type of intoxication, yes," Cloud said to her as he joined them. "It's different than an alcohol-induced state though. Senses are heightened instead of diminished for one thing. Plus, there's no hangover."

Kairi blinked for a moment, taking all of that in. Then, a grin spread over her face as she asked, "Does that mean Leon got drunk, too?"

"Excuse me?"

"Sure," Cloud answered her, ignoring Leon's dangerous expression. "He's an angry drunk."

Kairi giggled. "No surprise there."

"You two realize this is my house and I can kick you both out, don't you?"

Cloud made to comment, but a loud clashing of blades drew their attention back to the other two. Riku was on one knee, holding his sword with both hands over his head as Sora pressed down from above him. A moment later, they had fallen apart, but when they came back together, Sora again quickly gained the upper ground.

"Riku's losing?" Kairi cried, astounded.

Cloud shook his head. "No, he's holding back. Look at his eyes. He hasn't activated anything."

"How can you tell?" Leon asked. "His eyes are already green."

"I can tell. He's making sure he doesn't hurt Sora, but he's not as experienced with holding back as Zack is." Cloud frowned, his eyes watching the two young men carefully. "And Sora isn't holding back at all," he continued. "At this rate, one of them is going to get hurt." Before Leon could react, Cloud sprang forward, blade in hand. "Riku! Switch out!"

Riku complied, and Leon watched in semi-horror as his lover and his brother crashed together, separated only by their blades. Sora hadn't even paused at the change in opponents. His eyes gleamed blue-green, and his grin looked half-manic. He really was drunk, Leon thought. Had that been how he had looked when he fought Zack and Reno? He remembered the battle lust that raged through him, the need to fight that he couldn't suppress, the way Zack's smile had infuriated him beyond rational thought. Shuddering slightly, he pushed the memories away. Damn these Skywalker chemicals. They were dangerous.

Even from the sidelines, Leon could tell that all of Cloud's attacks were designed to disarm Sora. After several tense minutes, he finally succeeded, and when Sora chased after it, Cloud threw down his own blade and tackled the smaller man around the waist. They both crashed to the ground where Sora began to fight like a wildcat.

"Kairi! Get over here and calm him down."

As she ran to obey, Riku walked up to Leon, still breathing hard. He smiled at him and commented, "You Leonharts are something. More talent in the two of you than in a whole freaking regiment."

Leon didn't know how to reply to that, so instead he asked, "This means you'll be leaving soon?"

"Yeah."

"And you and Cloud have estimated you'll be back … ?"

"Four days at the most."

Leon sighed. Out on the grass, Sora had passed out, much like Leon had done after his first battle. He lay in Kairi's arms as she asked questions of Cloud who answered them with gestures of reassurance.

"Four days," he echoed quietly, trying to ignore the feelings of uneasiness that were creeping up on him.

xXx

Riku left that afternoon, and Leon witnessed a jump for the first time. Riku had stood in the middle of the lawn, wings outstretched to their limit, hands pressed together and eyes closed. Blue bolts of electricity had shot from each wingtip towards each other, and when they met over Riku's head, the air surrounding him rippled and flickered. A moment later, Riku had disappeared with the customary CRACK, leaving behind in Leon's mind a faint impression of blackness interlaced with fine glowing lines.

That night Sora wouldn't stop talking about his new abilities, and Cloud refused to say a word. Leon could see the worry in his lover's eyes, and nothing he did or said seemed to banish it completely. Even when they retired to bed, he could see it lingering there. He drove it away for a short while by making love to Cloud a second time, this time with far less nervousness and far more passion. But after they had both orgasmed and fallen back down, the worry returned and Cloud began to cry quietly, his emotions having been unfettered by the release. Leon just held him and prayed with everything he had for Riku's safety.

Six days later, Cloud was completely frantic. He simply would not stop pacing, his eyes glued to the screen of his PHS, his lips mumbling incoherencies. Sora and Kairi took turns watching him, mainly to ensure he didn't yank his hair out, while Leon pulled out every culinary trick he knew in an attempt to make something that the blond would eat. No matter what he made, Cloud only ate a few bites and then went back to his nervous fretting.

"I shouldn't have let him go," he kept saying, and nothing anyone could think of in reply could convince him otherwise.

Finally, a little bit after dinner, Leon could take no more. He stood up from his spot on the couch and seized Cloud by the shoulders as the blond tried to pass by him. "Calm down!" he demanded. "Worrying won't help anything!"

"But he's not back yet!" Cloud told him, even though they all knew it far too well. "He should have been back by now. But he's not! And the closest walkers are …" He paused to scroll around the screen for a moment. His eyes widened as he found what he wanted. In a calmer voice, he continued, "The closest walkers are closer than they were." As Leon came around to look over his shoulders, he examined the dots more closely and then shook his head. "But there are only two of them."

"Maybe it's Zack and Reno?"

"No, wait. There are two walkers but three life signs." His eyes widened even more, and his hands began to shake. "They've killed him," he whispered in a near-panic. "They've killed him and now they're bringing him back to show him to us before they take me."

"Cloud," Leon snapped, irritated in spite of himself, "if they had killed him, there wouldn't be three life signs."

"Oh." Cloud blinked a bit and tried to hide his ashamed blush. "Well then, they've injured him somehow."

"And I still say it could be Zack and Reno, injured third party or not. There is no reason for you to assume the worst." Frowning, Leon flicked the PHS lightly with a finger. "Why doesn't someone invent a way to tell who these dots belong to?"

"They did, but too many people wanted to remain anonymous, so they scrapped it." He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and chewed on it. "They're still coming the right way."

"How long until they get here?" Leon asked. He reached up and pulled Cloud's lip out of his mouth.

"Twenty minutes."

"I'll go get Sora. We'll wait on the lawn, okay?"

"Yeah."

"And Cloud?"

"Hmm?" He lifted his eyes from the screen to look at Leon.

Leon closed the distance between them with a single step and wrapped his arms around Cloud, simultaneously turning him and bringing him closer. One hand slid up the blond's back to support his neck as Leon kissed him hard. He pried Cloud's unresisting lips open with his tongue and dove inside hungrily. In response, Cloud dropped the PHS and gripped Leon by the shoulders, eventually moving his hands upwards into Leon's hair. He melted into Leon's embrace, allowing Leon to dominate him completely and letting go of his anxiety by feeding off of the energy that Leon was providing him. By the time Leon pulled away, Cloud needed a minute to remember how to stand, but at the same time he seemed much stronger than he had been a moment ago.

"I love you," Leon told him, reaching up to brush some hair out of Cloud's eyes.

"And I love you," Cloud returned, smiling for the first time in days.

"Good." Leon bent to retrieve the PHS and handed it back to Cloud. "See you on the lawn," he said and then turned and left to find Sora.

Twenty minutes later, Leon and Cloud stood together on the front lawn, swords in hand, while Sora and Kairi waited a bit closer to the house. Since Kairi refused to stay inside, the two men with weapons decided that the one without would stay near her for some amount of protection. Sora had protested until Kairi accused him of not wanting to protect her; that had shut him up immediately.

The dots had kept right on coming towards their fold, not deviating even once. Cloud had watched them until they were only minutes away. Now he stood next to Leon as they both held their blades out towards the spot where they assumed the two would appear. Even though Leon had no idea what Sephiroth or any of his remaining brothers looked like, he knew that if the people showing up had silver hair, he was attacking first and asking for names second.

CRACK! - ACK!

The sudden burst of light made Leon narrow his eyes briefly, but he kept them open as two men, one with black hair and one with red, stepped out of silver-lined blackness. The Gunblade lowered as his shoulders slumped with relief.

"Zack! Reno!" Cloud cried, taking a step forward. But he stopped when he saw the figure held in Reno's arms.

"Hey, Spike!" Reno yelled. "Catch!" He made a movement as if to toss the person he carried, but Zack leapt on him.

"Don't throw her, you idiot!" He ripped the limp body from Reno's grasp, and Leon finally got a good look at it. It was a young woman, blonde, and wearing all white. "Sweet Shiva," Zack commented, stepping away from his friend and towards Cloud, "I don't know why I let you carry her in the first place."

As Zack gently placed the unconscious girl on the grass, Cloud stomped up to him and, much to Leon's surprise, demanded angrily, "Are you two mad? Why do you have Naminé? Where's Riku?"

"Sorry," Zack replied, shaking his head and standing up. "We don't have time to explain. If no one tells you by the time we get back, then I'll do it." He grinned at Cloud. "Take care of her, okay? See ya!"

"Wait! Zack!"

CRACK! CRACK!

For nearly a full minute, Leon and Cloud both stood there, stunned. While they stared at the empty space that had recently held two oddball Skywalkers, Sora and Kairi both went to the girl. Leon spared a quick glance at her but could see nothing special about her pretty face or her simple appearance. He looked up at Cloud, who had finally turned to him, and started, "What the hell was -?"

CRACK! CRACK!

All four of them jumped as the air split again and two figures stepped out of the blackness. But it was not Zack and Reno returning, and Leon couldn't even tell by looking whether or not they had silver hair. They wore long, black cloaks that covered every inch of skin and hid their faces completely. One was tall and painfully thin, the other shorter and normally-built.

"The Organization," Cloud hissed. He raised his sword to point at them, and Leon did the same. "But which ones?"

In response, the shorter of the two lifted black-gloved hands and pushed back his hood. As the fabric fell away, it revealed a surprisingly young face with soft blond hair and clear blue eyes, much like Riku's coloring had been once. But while Riku's eyes were always teasing and slightly smug, this young man gazed at Cloud with seriousness and maturity.

"Roxas," Cloud breathed, letting the tip of his blade fall.

Roxas smiled slightly, a small smirk that turned up one corner of his mouth. When he spoke, his quiet voice carried across the lawn without effort.

"Long time no see … Cloud."