Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Dirge ❯ Fire ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

: Dirge

Pairing: I’m not sure, Cloud and someone, probably Riku. (I can thank Page of Cups for
getting me into that pairing.)

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything connected to Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix does.

Warnings: Yaoi in later chapters, and violence, and bad language.

Music: 30 Seconds to Mars- Beautiful Lie

Prompt: Sin


All humans sin in one way or another, it’s unavoidable. They kill, they lie, they lust. Greed and envy are the trademarks of human existence, and yet still they preach what is wrong an what isn’t, they hold some sins to be more wrong than others. A liar is not as bad as a murderer, an adulterer not as bad as a rapist. Some sins are acceptable, while others are taboo. One “major” sin can ruin a man’s life and mark him as an outcast. As less than human.

It doesn’t hardly seem fair, but it happens. And as Cloud Strife was well aware, it can happen to the best of people.

His last name seemed to bring him exactly what it was, strife. His life was hard from the beginning, he couldn’t remember a day when he hadn’t had some sort of struggle, some sort of grief, and now he was 23, sitting on the rusted metal fire escape on the backside of a run-down apartment complex on the outside of the city. A cigarette hung limply from his lips, the smoke curling up around his spiked, greasy, blonde hair. The thin white tendrils were reflected in his cold, hard, cobalt-blue eyes. He would have been handsome, with soft rounded features and a beautiful complexion, but his last name had cursed him, leaving his skin leathery and dirty, with greasy sun-bleached hair and all the baby-fat stripped from his body. He was corded, but not overtly so, the muscles were necessary for a life on the streets. He lived hard and loved no one but himself, it was the way things worked, and the only way to stay alive.

Only a block away was another boy much like Cloud. He too had seen what life could do to a man, had seen the worst of it all. His brown eyes reflected a knowledge unbefitting his age, as well as an immeasurable sadness. His name was Squall Leonheart, a 20 year-old failure who’d been betrayed and dumped, like some stray dog. Like Cloud, he could have been handsome, a real lady-killer, but life had hit him hard, and left him a mess in society’s eyes.

So now they worked together, living in a sort of gang in the back streets on the outside of a large city. They, along with a few other boys, lived off what they could as scavengers. They lived where no one would notice and worked together to try and keep what remained of their humanity.

Axel, one of the other boys that lived and worked in Cloud’s “gang” walked silently down one of the many back-alleyways that marred the outside. He came to a silent stop nearly a foot away from Squall and leaned against the wall, looking up at the starry night above them. From somewhere in the distance a cat yowled.

“Is everything going alright?” Squall inquired. He tilted his head to the side to get a better look at Axel. The red-haired 19-year old looked tired and run down, like they all did.

“Everything’s fine, for now, but we better hurry up if this is all going to go according to plan.”

“We’ll be alright.” Squall assured him. Silently he pulled out the Gunblade that was his trademark and started down the grassy slope toward one of the many water-ways that ran through the city. Axel steadied his breathing and followed, nervousness coursing through his veins.

Cloud flicked away his cigarette as he saw Squall and Axel start down the hill on the far bank. He stood up slowly, brushing off his tight leather pants as he did so. Without a word he reached around behind him and picked up a sword that was bigger than him, and walked off down the slope toward his colleagues.

The wind picked up, making the salty-smell of the water come to Cloud’s nose. He knew the smell well, he lived off the banks of the water ways, and the smell created a tint of nostalgia for the blonde.

Pushing all sentimental thoughts away, Cloud angled his way over to Squall, showing recognition only by nodding. The brunette did the same, and following suit, so did Axel, though it was obvious the red-head wanted to say something.

“What is it?” Cloud finally growled at the dancing 19-year old. Axel jumped at the tone in his voice before shifting his weight nervously.

“I…was just thinking Cloud, you know, um…this isn’t going to get a little….uh…messy is it? I mean, Squall has his gun thing, and you have your sword and all…are you expecting a fight?”

Cloud grunted in response and hefted his sword over his shoulder. “Axel, think, if a merchant sees three guys with big weapons is he likely to fight back? I don’t think so. These are for show mostly, we’ll only use them if necessary.”

“Always the softy.” Squall smirked. “If Zack hadn’t died you’d be begging him to let you attack something.”

Cloud growled at Squall in warning. “Leave Zack out of this, he’s dead, that’s all there is to it. I’m just trying to avoid destroying innocent lives alright?”

“Innocent lives? Innocent lives? In case you’ve forgotten Cloud those innocent lives are the people that sentenced us out here to this God-forsaken territory. Those innocent lives are the people that turned us into this.” At his last words Squall gestured widely, as if to encompass the other two ragged people and himself. “They deserve to be cut down.”

“No one deserves to be cut down.” Cloud argued. “Now shut up, we’re almost there.” Squall simply rolled his eyes in response and followed.

At the bottom of the hill, near the edge of the waterway, was a merchant-house, one of the many stopping points along the waterways where merchants could “safely” spend the night. They were designed to keep the soft-skinned inner-city folk from getting too cold at night. And they were perfect targets for bandits and gangs. Smart merchants hired guards to watch their goods, but every once in a while there would be a foolish merchant without them, as was the case that night.

Cloud Squall and Axel stopped a good 50 feet from the merchant-house and examined the outside. As Sora, their scout, had promised, there were no guards.

A warm electric light leaked out from the windows, and laughter could be heard from within. The merchant was talking with his family or workers and having a good time, completely oblivious to the three men skulking around outside. That was good, Cloud thought. As long as they stayed inside no one would get hurt.

Silently Squall Cloud and Axel made their way onto the boat. It was small, meaning the merchant wasn’t very wealthy. ‘This must be their first time to a big city’ Cloud mused. He was almost beginning to feel guilty about taking their goods. Almost.

Everything was going fine. Squall had grabbed as much foodstuffs as he could fit into his bag, and Cloud had picked up as much as he could in electronic parts, his skilled eye automatically picking out the most costly items. They would fetch a pretty penny on the black market.

Axel was stooped in front of the safe, his long fingers diligently fiddling with the combination lock. After a few minutes of not getting in, he grew impatient and snapped his fingers together, using the friction to generate heat. After a few seconds a small flame appeared on the edge of his fingertips. At his mental urgings it grew in size until it was the same color and size of a small blowtorch. Confident now, Axel began to slowly tear into the safe with the flame.

Cloud was just about ready to leave when a faint glow caught his eye. He turned, hoping to find a firefly, but was surprised to see Axel working on the safe with fire. It was obvious the boy didn’t see the barrels of gunpowder staked up next to the safe.

“Axel you idiot! Get out of there!” Cloud dropped his carefully collected supply of parts and his sword and bounded over toward Axel, but before he could go anywhere a tall thin man stepped out of the main cabin, right next to Axel.

“What the hell is going on out here?” The man roared. Startled, Axel jumped back. His makeshift blowtorch catching some of the packaging around the crates on fire. The whole thing went up like a powder keg. Before Cloud could yell, before the man could run, and before Axel could react, the flames engulfed the barrels of gunpowder, and an explosion far larger than any Cloud had ever seen before blasted off the whole front of the boat.

Cloud was sent flying onto the shore. He couldn’t see what had happened to Axel, but he knew the teenager must have died. No one could have survived that explosion. Flaming debris was falling around him, and Cloud was dimly aware of a deep searing pain coming from the vicinity of his leg.

“CLOUD! AXEL! WHERE ARE YOU?” Squall’s voice cut through the sound of the burning boat and rang in Cloud’s ears. Desperately he tried to yell back, but his head was spinning, and he couldn’t think straight.

Cloud couldn’t see, his vision was blurring and the pain in his leg was getting worse. All he knew was that he was in pain again. He hated pain, he had had enough of it, and now it was back.

His last thought before he passed out was a faint hope that Axel hadn’t felt anything when he had died.