Across the Shadows

This is a side story from a FFVII-AC rpg I am in. The main character here is Yukio, the child of Yazoo and Damon.

This is my first attempt at a cross over story, so I hope that you will enjoy this. Even though it has not been beta'd.

Remember, I own nothing that belongs to Kingdom Hearts, or FFVII-Advent Children. Yukio is mine and only mine.

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They were chasing him, and had been for a while now. Everytime that he thought he had gotten away, they found him again.

This had been going on all night, and it showed no signs of stopping. It was only a matter of time before they actualy caught him.

If only he hadn't been so careless as to allow others to see his personal shadow creepers. But at the time it didn't seem like such a bad idea.

He'd been tired of the situation at home... his sisters constantly picking on him. Not to mention that his dad's were a little pre-occupied with Yazuu recovering his memories from before Hojo took him as a child.

Loneliness. That had been what caused him to summon his shadow creepers... his only real friends since the dy he first summoned them, when he was six years old.

Everybody else called them uncontrolable monsters. But his weren't like that, not anymore.

It had been late at night, so he thought that nobody would see. However, he hadn't realized that he had been followed.

These men were from some sort of military faction, and they wanted to use him and his shadow creepers. He got the feeling that they wanted to use him to capture the rest of his exstensive family as well and try to use them for their own purposes... whatever that may be.

So now here he was, backed in a corner with no way out. These men closing in on him, and his mana levels were no longer high enough to use his materia. He clung onto Akuma's neck and murmured... "Please... get me out of here somehow."

His eyes weren't open when his shadow creepers pulled him into the shadows with him, but he felt the coldness and passed out.

Back in the alley, the men that had thought they were finally about to capture their prey gasped. They never knew that this boy would actualy allow himself to be pulled into the unknown. This only made their leader want him all the more.

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He felt it the moment it came into being. A darkness like nothing he had ever sensed before. Then there was a sencond one. He frowned deeply at this. Whatever it was, it was something like nothing any of them had faced before. He had to stop it before it grew any stronger, or started to wreak havoc on the worlds.

Riku made sure that Soul Eater and Road to Dawn were safely in place, then he set out to find this overwhelming darkness.

It was easy to track down, since the darkness didn't move from where it had emerged. Which was strange, to say this least. He approached with caution, incase this was some sort of trap.

What he saw both shocked and angered him.

In the middle of the alley was a youngish boy, who looked as though he'd been roughed up a bit. The boy was sitting there, holding his head, as the two heartless stood over him.

"Get away from him!" He yelled as he readied his weapons.

The two heartless slowly turned their attention towards him and made some sort of snarling, growling sound. It was like nothing he had ever heard before. At first he thought they were baring his teeth at him, but as they moved closer, he could see that there was no skin to cover them. He could see the blackened muscles twitch and move in the places that the black scales, or bones, didn't cover. It send shivers down his spine. These things were just creepy. Plus the large bones/scales that covered their bodies looked as though the edges were as sharp as blades. Not to mention the horns... was going to hurt.

He roared a battle cry and charged towards the heartless. Swinging forward, he was ready to strike, when something moved ar him from between the heartless to block his way. With a loud clang, weapons met and stopped mid strike.

Riku blinked, then growled at the boy. "Just what the hell do you think you are doing? These two heartless were about to devour you!"

Yukio, having stopped the silver haired one's attack with his own twin staves, criss crossed before him in a stance of defence. "Heartless?" Then he shook his head. "They were not going to eat me... Akuma and Tenshi would never do such a thing!"

"How can you trust a heartless not to do such a thing?! You're foolish to remain with them!"

"I do not know why you keep calling them heartless, when they are shadow creepers!" He pushed Riku back a ways, then stepped back between the two, Tenshi leaning down to nuzzle the side of hsi face, and Akuma lowering his head down so that Yukio could rest a hand on it.

"Shadow creepers? I have never heard such a thing." Riku blinked, amazed by what he was seeing. Never before had he seen creatures with such darkness within them, act so... friendly around a person who seemed to carry very little darkness at all. It was very strange to him.

"Not many have..." Yukio murmured as he retracted the lengths of Heart's Desire and Lust Forgotten, tucking them back into his sleeveless trench jacket. "Even back home it is a rarity to see these creatures.. since, as far as I know, only myself, my dad and my uncle are able to summon them from the shadows, and be able to have some form of control over them."

Riku blinked again. This just seemed outrageous. "But why in the worlds would you wnt to control something that is filled with such darkness?"

The young man chuckled softly. "Tenshi and Akuma are my friends... and have been since I ws six years old, when they first crawled out from under my bed. It was then I learned that I could summon them, and my dad taught me how to control them better."

The other shook his head at the thought. "Gives new meaning to 'monster under the bed'." He put his weapons away as well now. "You should send them away. Others are sure to notice them and will want to use you for it."

He shook his head, stroking under Tenshi's jaw. "Perhaps... though no matter where I go, people will always want to use me, whether they know of my friends or not."

Riku frowned a bit at that. Nobody that young should be resigned to that sort of fate, even if it were true. He was about to say something when he saw the other boy stiffen, then wave his shadow creepers off. The instant they melded into the shadows, he could no longer sense their darkness.

He's about to ask the young boy waht's wrong, when a black robed man drops down between them, facing Riku.

"It's about time I found you again Riku... was beginning you were trying to avoid me." The taller man purred.

Riku frowned and crossed his arms. "Maybe I was avoiding you. Did you ever think of that?"

"Awe.. don't be like that. You know you missed me..." he prowled closer to Riku, backing him against the wall. "And we both know just how much you want me to molest you."

"The hell?!" Riku tried to push the other man away. "Fuck off Axel!"

"But you know you want it... come on and give in...." Axel then leaning in to lick the side of Riku's face.

"Ew! Gross!" Pushing Axel back and hsi wiped his face clean of the Axel germs. "I said no... what part of that don't you understand?!"

Axel leaned in closer, about to say or do something, when there was a dull thud, and a yelp escaped from him. "What the hell?" Holding his head as he turned around, only to be punched in the jaw with a sharp right hook. This caused him to snap to the side and stumble back a bit, surprised at how hard he'd been hit. "Hey! That hurts!" Pouting as he looked at his assailent.

Yukio just glared at him. "Yeah... well it wouldn't have hurt if you would have backed off when he told you too..." casting a glance to Riku, seeing if he was alright. Then looked back at Axel. "Of course I can always make it hurt more...."

Riku was a bit startled that the boy had come to his 'rescue', then reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's alright you know... it's not like as though he was actually going to do anything."

Yukio stopped glaring and looked at Riku. "You two.. know each other?" Riku nodded, and Yukio lowered his head. "Sorry... it's just that... ever since my older cousin was raped... I kinda get...."

"Violent?" Axel offered as he looked Yukio over.

"Over protective..." Yukio corrected.

"And violent." Axel chuckled as he rubbed his jaw. "I can't believe something as pretty as you could hit so freaking hard. I think I'm going to bruise."

Axel was only teasing Yukio, but it still caused the younger boy to blush faintly as tears built up in his eyes. He looked away and murmured softly. "I... I'm sorry... if I had known."

"Too bad! You hurt me, and for no reason at all!" Axel was still teasing.

"Axel..." Riku growled, seeing how upset it was making the other boy.

"What?" he snapped at Riku. Why did everhbody have to ruin his fun. He was about to harass the young one a bit more when he was interrupted.

"I'm sorry okay!" Yukio was having a hard time holding back the tears. He was teased all the time by his sisters, and so to have another person tease him, and this cruelly, he wasn't able to handle it. "I'm sorry that I hit you so hard! But what was I suppose to think?! How was I suppose to know?!" He sniffed as he half heartedly glared at Axel, tears pouring down his cheeks. "Why are you being so mean?"

Axel was taken back by this, not really having expected Yukio to react in this manner. "I... I...." He really couldn't think of what to say.

Yukio then wavered where he stood, and passed out. The stress and exhaustion finally having caught up with him. Axel moved in time to catch him before he fell, having been the one closer to him.

He looked to Riku, unsure of what to do. "You certainly attract the strangest people to you."

"Lay off of it Axel, you're in enough trouble as it is."

"Trouble?" he blinked. "Since when?" Riku motioned to the unconcious Yukio in his arms. "Oh. Right.... So, why don't we just take him back home."

"I don't think that's going to be possible. He's not from around here."

"Really?" Looking down at the boy's face. He really was pretty, it sort of reminded him of somebody. "Then what world is he from. I'm sure we can take him back without too much trouble."

Riku just shook his head. "I don't think he's from any of the worlds we know."

"Then how did he get here?" Shifting Yukio in his arms as he followed Riku out of the alley.

"I'm not sure... but I think that he just appeared... from out of the shadows."

Axel frowned at hearing that. "Then he's something from the Darkness...." He paused a moment, "do you think we should kill him?"

Riku turned on Axel. "The hell? No I don't think we should kill him! I only said that he appeared from the shadows, not that he was a creature of darkness."

"Right... if he's not one of them, then why were you out here with him. After all, this isn't some place you normally go."

"Okay... I did sense something, and it had more darkness within in then any heartless I have ever sensed. When I got here, there were two of them standing over the kid. I would have gotten rid of them, but he stopped me. Kinda glad he did, since they were huge and just creepy scarey looking. Turns out they weren't heartless, but something called shadow creepers." Shrugging when Axel stopped and looked at him for an explination. "I've no clue what they are, but this kid said that he'd been controling them since he was little. I think he called them Akuma and Tenshi, refering to them as his friends."

Axel took a moment to process this information. "Alright... so if there were these shadow creepers, hoe come they weren't here when I showed up?"

"That's simple. Yukio must of sensed or heard you coming, cause he sent them away just before you dropped in on us."

"So you mean they could be following us."

"Sometimes you're the most dense person I know. Of course they're not following us, or I suspect they'd be breathing down your neck right now. No, when he sent them away, they dissappeared into the shadows. Was rather weird to watch."

"What are we going to do with him?"

"Take him back to my place of course."

"Hey!" Axel pouted. "Why do you get to take him home?"

"Simple... because I don't trust you not to molest him while he's sleeping."

"Jealous Riku? You know I only have eyes for you." Teasing the silver haired one.

"Can it Axel, we both know you're just full of it. Besides, you haven't taken your eyes off the kid since he fell into your arms."

Axel blinked and looked up, seeing they were close to Riku's place and chuckled. "Hmm... seems like you're right. Awe, is that what your problem is? Are you worried that I'll forget all about you and start chasing after him?"

Riku glared at Axel, then unlocked the door to allow him in. "Shut up, or I'll wake the kid up and let him beat the crap out of you this time."

"You wouldn't?!" Moving to set the boy on the couch.

"Just try me." Heading to the closet to fetch a blanket to place over the boy.

"Fine fine... I'll leave him alone, for now. But I'll be back tomorrow to see how he's doing." Ignoring the sharp glare from Riku. "Plus I really want to see if these shadow creepers are as bad as you say they are." He blew Riku a kiss, then left the house before the other could retaliate.

Riku ignored Axel as he tucked the blanket around Yukio. He pushed the silver stands from the other's face as he watched him sleep for a moment. Axel was right, this kid was indeed pretty, almost exotic looking compared to the others around here.

This boy was going to stir up alot of trouble... he was sure of it.