Scrib!Fic - KH (The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun - Ch67)
Title and Link: The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun
Author: Scribbler
Rating: T
General Fic Summary: Before Sora, Kairi and Riku, another special trio were destined to fight the darkness: Cloud Strife, Aerith Gainsborough and Zack Fair. Their journey involves monsters, wizards, mechanics, ninjas, plus the greatest of all nemeses: love and death. Even the greatest love stories can become tragedies in a heartbeat. KH/FF7/FF8/FF12/Disney. Epic like an epic thing.
Chapter Summary: 67: Penelo is attacked, as darkness finally invades and Zack and Reno find something awful has come with it.
Excerpt:
"Shush."
"Don't you shush m-"
"Shush."
Reno catches the urgency in Zack's voice. Then walk on in silence - and it is total silence, the kind that makes your ears thrum. Zack glances around, conscious of Reno's breathing, their footsteps and the gentle hum of the Buster Sword in his mind. The sword knows something is wrong here, too. Its magic entwines with his nerve endings to make him hyper-aware of the smallest sound.
They stop at a small copse of trees at the base of the mountains. The Buster Sword suddenly flares, a green-gold burst behind Zack's eyes. All the hair along his arms stands up. He slowly reaches around and unsheathes the sword. Behind him Reno unfolds the EMR dangling from a strap on his wrist. He doesn't electrify it, waiting instead for Zack's signal.
"What's up?" he asks after a few minutes of absolutely nothing. "I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go, yo."
"Can't you feel it?"
"Feel what?"
"Something dark was here."
Several beats passes before Reno answers. "Do you understand just how fucking ridiculous you sound? You're like some New Age believer who sees omens for the apocalypse in cigarette smoke and finds potato chips shaped like the devil. 'Something dark was here'? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
Zack is beginning to regret bringing Reno along. He'd feel more comfortable with Cloud, or even Leon, but he couldn't ask Cloud to leave Kairi and had no idea where Leon was. Plus he wanted to give Reno a break to win some brownie points. Curse him and his generous nature. "It means something was here that could be connected to the darkness - the darkness being the source of all external evil in the universe."
"External evil? What the hell are you talking about, man? Stop sounding like a fucking dictionary."
For a moment Zack is back in Merlin's study, listening to him explain complicated magical theory and only picking up half of it. "Internal evil is the darkness in every heart. Everybody has it. External evil is the stuff that works its influence on people from the outside, like fate or bad luck. Some people think it has its own central consciousness, like bees or ants - that if you trace back all the minor incidents to their source you'll find something that's alive and can think, and has been working against the light for millennia. Long before we ever appeared on our worlds. The darkness has its own agenda, its own champions, and its own plans for the universe if it ever wins over the light, and it doesn't care who or what it destroys if it means achieving that."
"So … long story short: the darkness is bad?"
"Very bad."
"And something from it came here?"
"Maybe. An emissary, perhaps. Something with close ties."
Reno looks around. "Doesn't look like it's here now."
"No." Zack closes his eyes and lets the Buster Sword caress his thoughts like fingertips rubbing his temples. "But it was here. The sword can feel it."
"Okay, now you are shitting me."