Crossed fates.

Chapter Three:- Glowing eyes.

A gentle breeze ruffled the nutmeg hair of one young man by the name of Squall Leonhart. He opened his clear blue eyes and lifted his head to look at the landscape before him.

In all his life he had never seen a more desolate place. The very earth below him seemed to exhale sadness. He forced himself upwards and looked around. In one direction he surveyed a massive building that had been destroyed by an explosion. To his mind it looked like a power plant or such.

He did not know it was a mako reactor for in his world no mako existed to his knowledge.

In the other direction he observed a massive rocky outcrop surrounded by other peaks and ranges. The sun was already dipping behind, the fire of the sky setting off the red rock of the mountain ranges. It stood in it's simple beauty as a timeless testament to nature's simple beauty.

Squall felt something drawing him to those mountains. He decided to go with his gut reaction and approach them, he shouldered a backpack that the "watcher" must have packed for him after checking inside it to find remedies, various forms of potions, two elixers and a megalixer. Eyes watched him everywhere he went, the eyes of animals and monsters, of people wary of this stranger. With slender fingers he touched his solid silver necklace. It depicted Griever most powerful of all guardian forces and the symbol of the Leonhart family. On the back were messages in two languages. The first was "Sleeping Lion Heart." The second was in a language that no one knew, but in a book about the Leonharts he had found a translation. "To rise again when the heat of battle demands it."

In the distance he saw a man practising his battle techniques and by the way the fading sunlight was catching the weapon he used, Squall knew this stranger was a swordsman. The closer he came to the man, the more he thought about the similarities between him and Zell, his friend and confidante. They both had shocks of golden blonde hair styled in ways that simply defied gravity.

There was less than a hundred metres distance between Squall and the blonde when he looked up. On instinct, he drew his gunblade. Before he knew what was happening, the blonde man had attacked him and Squall had parried at the last possible second. "What in God's name do you think you're doing?" Squall shouted. He jumped up and somersaulted backwards. He barely had time to raise his gunblade again as a flurry of slashes flew at him. He managed to get a swipe in which knocked his attacker off balance for a moment. He took his opportunity to return the favour of the attacks and turned the fight his way.

The next thing he knew the blue and white blade of the stranger's weapon had caught him in his hairline. Blood ran down his face in a steady stream. He wasn't sure if it had been a lucky strike or a well timed blow, but it made him mad all the same. He struck with renewed vigour and managed to connect with the stranger's thigh. Blood pumped from the gash. Each of the two men launched themselves at the other, screaming, their eyes closed....

When he opened them, Squall saw the stranger held the blue and white sword at his own throat and the Lion Heart was held at the strangers throat.

"Is this what you call a stalemate?" The blonde asked.

"I guess so." Squall cast a Cura on each of them. As Squall looked into this strangers eyes he realised that the blue orbs were glowing with their own energy. "I've been looking for you."

"Really? A lot of people do that, you'd be surprised how many. A lot of them wind up dead. Where do I know you from???"

"I've never been here before, or seen you before so I doubt you know me."

"I've seen you in a dream. You lost someone close to you, very close. You're just like me."

"What?"

"What's your name?"

"Squall Leonhart. You?"

"Cloud Strife. Welcome to Cosmo Canyon." He withdrew his weapon and Squall did the same. "How old are you Squall, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Nineteen."

"Good. We can go for a drink without too much trouble. You do drink..., don't you Squall?"

"Only to forget."

Cloud nodded sympathetically. "I can identify with that." He sighed. "But before we talk, there's someone you should meet."


"So this young man is the one from your dream Cloud?" Nanaki asked as the young man with the scarred face eyed him with an air of curiosity.

"Yeah Nanaki. That's right."

"I do have a name if you don't mind."

"Sorry Squall." Red offered a paw.

"S'alright. I forgive you." He shook it.

"You know anyone who saw me for the first time would be scared by my appearance." Nanaki stated. "Why are you different?"

"You haven't seen the garden masters from my world. And besides, more than a few have been scared..." (He neglected to add 'and scarred') "by my appearance." Red laughed. "And no offence, Nanaki was it? But your friends hairstyle would scare me more than you. He looks lethal!"

Cloud grinned. "Ha. Ha." He said, ignoring the remark. "How did you use magic? You haven't got any materia."

"What's materia?"

"I guess that answers my question. Materia allows a person to cast spells. You know, like healing spells or attacking, like fire or ice. There are ultimate attacks like Break Flare, Holy or Ultima. There are also materia which give you special attributes like luring chocobos and you can summon monsters, gods, goddesses and some really, really strange creatures to help you in battle."

Squall's first thought was that these summons sounded like the guardian forces in his own world. 'Shiva' He spoke out with his mind. 'Are you still with me Shiva?' Her answer was positive. He remembered how Selphie had got Carbuncle to such a high level he had started sitting on her shoulder as she went about garden, Shiva was even higher than Carbuncle, could Shiva do that too? She answered by appearing as a six inch high version of herself, standing beside him as a faerie guardian. "This is a guardian force. They give us special attributes that allow us to draw magic from enemies and use it to help us. They help us in battle too. They have side effects too though, GF users loose their memories. My friends and I were one of the worst cases on record. There are some things that some of us still don't remember."

"Are we done Nanaki? I want to be able to talk to him."

"Alright go on Cloud."

Nanaki was acting more like a father to Cloud these days. He had never fully recovered from the death of Aeris. Coming to terms with such tragedy took a lot out of a person and somehow it had made Cloud more like a teenager than a twenty four year old man. Cloud's mind was a most unusual thing, Jenova cells and mako energy made it a minefield of emotions were one wrong step could result in an explosion of unimaginable power. Nanaki often wondered what would happen if they all went off at the same time.

Authors note:-

Chapter three down, few hundred more to go. just kidding. It's only the one hundred. Not. In truth I ain't got a clue how many are left. Oh. If you can't tell, I'm from the UK. I don't advocate underage drinking, but here you can get LEGALLY drunk from the age of 18. I'm not sure what was up with Squall at the end. Laughing and joking like a... Zell! But I think it's sort of a side effect, from crossing over into a new world and getting away from Gongaga's influence. I hope the person who's story featured Carbuncle sitting on Selphie's shoulder doesn't mind, I though it was such a cute idea and it just seemed to fit in with my plans. My evil plans.... cue thunder and lightning. (Nikki the nutter strikes again.)

[Ever wonder what it's like to be crazy? you'll get a glimpse with me!] Email to nicola.wilcox@talk21.com Keep an eye on this space for the next chapter of crossed fates. Laters!!!!