Hello to all! This is actually my first story to be published on fanfiction. I have several others in the works (including this one) and look forward to writing them. This Dissidia story is being written in honor of the North American release of the game! (Sorry that it is a few days late). I am in the middle of playing the game and have played a few FF before this one (FFX, FFXII, and part of FF advaced tactics). If any of the characters seem OOC, it's because I haven't played their particular game. I'm sorry!

I look forward to your support with my writing. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Dissidia Final Fantasy or any of it's characters (although sometimes I wish I did).

Wings of Fate

Chapter 1

"Kai!!" I turned as my friend, Jade, ran towards the tree I was lounging under. Her long black hair trailed wildly after her as she came closer. She skidded to a halt and practically landed on me as she sat.

"What's your rush?" I questioned tossing aside the book I was reading. She turned and looked me straight in the eyes. A good two minutes passed and still she said nothing. I furrowed my eyebrows in annoyance and started to fidget.

"Did you cut your hair?" She finally asked. I almost fell over in surprise. I thought it was going to be a little more important than that.

"Yeah," I said reaching for the back of my neck. The once covered area was now clear of any hair. "I said to the stylist, 'I want it short. Do what you want to it and make it good.'" The stylist did not disappoint. She cut my hair up to the hair line and let is swoop down to a little above my jaw in front. The layers in the back were so short that they stuck out in odd angles, just the way I liked it. Jade smiled her funny, toothy grin.

"I love it! I bet the guys will too since you can now see your awesome piercings." The guys I hung out with often complained that I had these piercings, but could never see them because of the cut of my hair. My left ear held two silver ring earrings and my right held a silver ring and a couple dot earrings in different shapes.

"They're not that impressive." Jade made a tutting noise.

"There you go all modest again." We laughed as the people walking by us stared in a confused way. Jade started to kick my black converse absent-mindedly as she stared off into space. I picked up my book and started to find the page I was on. It would have been a lot easier if I had a bookmark to mark the page with. "So…" she started. "Has your annoying roommate moved out yet?" I smirked at myself.

"Moved just this morning. Couldn't handle my awesomeness apparently." Jade laughed at my terrible joke. "The RA said that I could have the room to myself because it's too late to assign me a new one."

"Score!" Jade practically yelled. "I wish I could move in with you, but the stupid contract in my dorm says that we have to stay within our respective building. Bullcrap!"

"At least you like your roommate." She agreed and started to kick my shoes again. After a few minutes, I closed my book and put it in the black and red messenger bag by my side.

"Are you leaving already?" Jade whined.

"Haven't had enough time kicking my shoes?"

"No! I want more! Your shoes are so fun."

"Then get your own pair."

"So I can kick myself? How stupid do you think I am?" I looked at her. "Okay, don't answer that."

"I'll be reading on the grass in front of my doom tonight. Come and join me if you like." Her eyes got all starry like. I shook my head. She is so easily amused. Getting up and waving goodbye, I headed to the science lab to do that research I had yet to finish. The day was nice, mid 70's, sunny, a slight breeze ruffled the trees as I walked the paths through the court yard area to the science building. I waved to a few people before entering and disappearing into the deep, dark depths of the labs.

"Finally got your butt in," Mr. Whippet, my instructor, said without looking up from the microscope he was peering into. He's a tall, thin man with a head of silvery hair and loose clothing.

"Did you even change from yesterday?" I asked setting my bag down and washing up. Germs plus culture dishes plus microscope slides of cancer cells equals bad. To my great surprise, he actually looked up to answer me.

"Of course I did," he said with a smile. "How bad of a hygienist do you think I am?"

"I can't help it if all your shirts look the same." He looked down at his Hawaiian shirt with swirling green leaves and bright, prickly pineapples. Shrugging, he turned back to his microscope and looked into it again. I smiled and started to do my own observations. Hours passed before I looked up from my research. "My lord, is it seven already?" Whippet looked at his watch.

"Time flies when you're counting the intermediate stages of cell growth." I grimaced and stretched my hand. Five hours of work writing pages upon pages of information made one tired and hungry. I sniffed the air. What was that tantalizing smell? Usually, I only smell disinfectant and chemicals in the lab.

"I hope you're hungry," he said, handing me a large box. "I bought pizza." I opened it to find a pizza covered in cheese, Canadian bacon, sausage, mushrooms, onions, and various seasonings. My mouth watered.

"When did you order pizza, and why did you buy two?" I questioned.

"Oh, about a half hour ago. You were so into your work that you didn't even hear me call your name." I smiled sheepishly. "And that one is for you of course! I ordered one for myself."

"How much?" I asked pulling my wallet from my back pocket. He held up his hand to stop me.

"Free of charge. You're the only slacker who came in to help me today." I thanked him many times before he finally shoved me out the door and told me to go home. I opened the box, took a large slice, and bit into it. An explosion of tantalizing goodness touched my taste buds, making me salivate. I loved pizza. I munched on the cheesy goodness as I walked back through the trees to my dorm. I swear more people looked at me eating my supper than they did when I burst out laughing for no reason. The pizza must have looked as good as it tasted, and it tasted good. After five minutes, I arrived at my dorm.

"Hmmm. Should I bask in the glory that my roommate is finally gone? I don't think so," I said to myself turning left and finding a spot on the large grassy lawn in front of the building. The grounds people hadn't mowed the lawn recently and the grass was nice and long, perfect for sitting on and reading. That is exactly what I did. Setting the pizza aside, I took out my favorite book from my bag, laid on my stomach on the grass, and started to read. Somewhere during the struggle between good and evil, I must have fallen asleep because someone was shaking my shoulder. I rolled over onto my back and swatted at the hand.

"Get up." A male voice said. I groaned and stretched on the ground, wriggling around on the grass. I opened my eyes to see two strange guys looming overhead. They both were tall. One had brown hair that reached down to his chin with grey eyes and the other had short, spiky blond hair with blue eyes. The brown haired man was wearing black pants, boots, gloves, and a leather coat with white fur around the color. Under the coat, he wore a white shirt and a silver necklace with a lion's head on it. Two belts criss-crossed one another on his hips. The other guy also wore lots of black. Everything from his fore-arm length gloves, and long coat that was sleeveless and only flowed down the left half of his body, to his boots were black. A sliver wolf's head was attached to the shoulder armor he was wearing only on his left side. They both looked to be about 20.

"And I thought I wore black," I murmured looking down at my plain black t-shirt that suddenly had green grass stains all over it. "Crap," I swore, standing up and brushing the left over pieces of grass from my already stained shirt. "Now I have to wash this thing." Ignoring my shirt for the moment, I turned my attention to the strange men in front of me. They both just stared at me. "Can I help you with something?" I asked. They looked at each other. This must have been one of those silent conversations I've heard about. They certainly looked like they were talking.

"Could you tell us where this place is?" The brown haired man asked.

"Umm, the corner to 6th and 11th," I said pointing to the street signs.

"That's not what I meant."

"Okay, this is the University of Nebraska, located in Omaha, Nebraska." They looked at each other again. They seemed extremely confused standing here. "Is there any reason you want to know?"

"We just don't know where we are at the moment."

"In other words…you're lost." They looked slightly embarrassed as I said it. Going out on a limb, and not a safe one at that, I asked them a question. "Do you have a place to stay tonight?"

"Not exactly," brown hair said.

"This must sound creepy coming from a girl you just met, but my roommate just moved out and I have a little extra space. You can stay with me for a bit until you know where you are going." They looked at each other again. What was with them and their silent conversations? The blond guy hasn't even said anything yet. Brown hair turned to me and nodded once in agreement. "Okay then, follow me." I bent over, picked up my book, bag and left over pizza, and started walking to the entrance of the dorms. "Do you mind if I ask you your names?" I think I deserve that much.

"Squall Leonheart," the brown haired man answered.

"Cloud Strife," the blond one said. Wow, he actually said something.

"Mine is Kai, Kai Ashford." I heard Cloud whisper to Squall as I unlocked the doors and led them into the hallway.

"Are you sure we should stay with this girl?" he asked.

"I don't think it was coincidence we met Kai." Squall whispered in return and fell silent. If nothing else, these two were interesting. I like meself some interesting men.

They followed me up three flights of stairs, through a locked door, and down a hallway full of open doors. After we passed a few, people started to poke their heads out to stare and murmur.

"Is that Kai? With two hot guys?!"

"I wonder where she picked them up."

"Ohh, I wonder how Trè, Thane, and Zak will react."

"Are they staying over? Do they have brothers or cousins?"

"Go ask if you're so interested in it."

I stopped in the middle of the hallway with Squall and Cloud almost running into me. The quiet chatter died instantly. "Do any of you have something to ask me?" I questioned turning toward all the heads peeking out from the doors.

"Yeah," a girl named Heather called out. "Where can I get some hot stuff like that?" The rooms erupted in fits of laughs and giggles. I groaned and shook my head, waving at them to go away. The giggles died down as the doors shut and the hallway became quiet again.

"Sorry about that, guys. I was hoping we could avoid that little situation." I sighed in defeat. "Guess not." Both of them stayed quiet as we arrived at my room, halfway down the hall.

"Don't all speak up at once," I muttered while opening the door. I walked in and motioned them to enter as I was sticking the pizza box in the small fridge in the corner of my room. "You guys hungry?"

"No."

"Not really." I shut the fridge door and looked around my room. Thank God I cleaned this morning. The usually cluttered and dirty room was actually clean. My bed was made, the many fantasy and textbooks on my shelves were in a neat and orderly line, all the little stuffed animals, nick-nacks, posters of Japanese symbols, rock bands, and drawing were taped up in a clean fashion, and the clothing was all hung up or on the shelves. My roommate's bed was moved out, leaving a huge amount of floor space between my bed and the desk with over head shelving. My laptop sat on the desk along with a few papers and pencils. The closet doors, in front of my bed, were closed and the window, situated between my bed and the desk, was open to let the breeze circulate the air. The guys shuffled in and stood around uncomfortably as I pulled my pj's out from under my dark blue pillow.

"You can talk, or sit, or something. It isn't a morgue in here."

"I guess we asked for a place to stay tonight." Squall commented shifting to his right foot. Cloud looked around and started to observe the drawings on the wall.

"Where do you normally sleep?"

"On the ground."

"Oh," I said shortly. "Well, you are going to have to sleep there tonight. But I do have mats!" I went to my closet, opened the doors (thanking the heavens that I actually folded my clothes so they didn't all topple on top of me like in the cartoons) and pulled out two long, gray mats, two blankets, and two pillows. I carelessly tossed them to the ground and told the guys that I was going to the bathroom to wash up. After giving directions to the bathroom, (in case they needed it) I picked up my jammies, toothbrush, and toothpaste and headed there. Along the way, a few people poked their heads out in hopes of seeing the two gorgeous guys pass by. Disappointed that it was only me, they sadly shut their doors and locked them.

Smirking in the satisfaction that they couldn't fawn over Squall and Cloud, I entered the bathroom and started my nightly routine. Change, bathroom, wash hands, wash face, brush teeth, inspect face, and leave. When I returned to the room, the mats on the floor were made and the guys were conversing in low tones. Can't they just speak normally? They stopped talking when I closed the door and locked it.

"You don't have to stop talking when I come in," I commented as I turned off the lights and crawled into bed. I can't believe I slept outside until midnight. Idiot. I heard some rustling around as the men got situated in their beds, then quiet.

"If you guys want, I can show you exactly where you are on a map tomorrow." Silence. "I can also show you around campus and see what I can do to get you home."

"That would be good," Squall replied.

"Hey Cloud?" I asked

"Yes," his voiced sounded from the darkness.

"Can you even talk?" I heard Squall chuckle as Cloud remained silent.

"Only if I want to," he finally replied.

"M'kay. Please don't take the question the wrong way." I rolled over in my bed and passed out.