Sorcerer's Kiss

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts does not belong to me, and ideas from this story kinda came from Final Fantasy VIII.

Notes: I somehow came up with a habit of having Preludes that will confuse people (I know they will 'cause I get confused why I'm writing them). So I'm sorry if any one is really lost, the real story starts now, sixteen years after the Prelude

Chapter One

Sora wondered through the crowed streets if Transverse Town. Dressed in faded and ripped baggy jeans, a white t-shirt and sandals he made his way through the crowd. No one noticed him. He began to fiddle with his necklace, an elegant key made from mithril on a fine silver chain. Slowly he somehow made it to the second district. Sora blinked, not sure where to go. It was just as crowded here as the first district but people here seemed more important. Some of them looked at Sora as if was trash.

Not that he blamed them, because he knew he was trash. Again he walked without knowing where he was going. Not caring as he pushed around by the crowd, his toes stepped on, and so forth. After a particularly violent shove Sora found himself in an ally way. He felt tired and lonely, long suppressed tears began well up in his eyes before falling down his cheeks.

"That is not my son," the memory of his father's voice came back to him.

A sob shook his small body and he let himself cry.

Leon slashed upward with his gunblade then down and to the side. He paused for a moment to wipe the sweat rolling down his forehead.

"Oi, Squall," Leon turned to Yuffie who was watching him train, "You've been working for hours. Why don't you take a break?"

"You should be training too you know."

"I already did," the ninja said, "Aerith and I trained together, then I spared Cid for a little bit."

Leon grabbed his jacket, "Then you should be working on your studies."

Yuffie made a face, "Bleh, that boring. I'm a warrior, why should I study?"

Leon gave her a hard look and she grinned sheepishly, "Alright fine, I'll go back to Merlin and study." And she disappeared down the sewers. Leon sighed and went the other way. Out if the sewers and up the alley way to get back to the second district.

Near the exit of the alley Leon saw a boy, no older than fourteen, crying uncontrollably. Leon would have normally just walked past and not give it a second thought, however, something about this boy drew him in. "Hey," he said kneeling down in front of the boy, "You ok?"

The boy looked up; Leon was shocked to that bruises and dirt were all over the boys face. He looked like he hadn't had a bath in awhile, his shirt was torn and his jeans were ripped. The boy didn't answer, just continued crying.

"Come with me," Leon stood and picked the boy up, "You'll be safe at my place."

Aerith looked up as Leon walked in carrying a small body over his shoulders. She smiled, "So, Yuffie was right, you did end up killing someone and brought the evidence home to discard of it properly."

Leon raised an eyebrow and set the boy down on the sofa. Aerith put the book she was reading down, goy out of the arm chair and walked over to join Leon. "Where'd you find him?"

"In the alley way, he fell asleep on the way here."

Aerith put a hand on the boy's forehead and just looked at him. After a moment her eyes widened, "He's a Sorcerer."

"I thought so."

"Leon, are you sure it's safe to keep him here." Leon looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "His safety, not theirs. Many of the refuges here come from worlds where Sorcerers and Sorceresses took over," she explained, "or started wars. Some people think Sorcerers are the harbingers of doom, and if they found he's here . . ." she trailed off

"We can make sure they don't find out."

Aerith nodded, "We could, but he's untrained, and very confused. We'll have more than our hands full." She brushed some hair out of the boy's face, "But I don't see why not."

She faced Leon, "Start taking his clothes off, I'll draw a bath and you can bathe him."

"Me?"

"You're both men, you can handle it."

Cloud sighed as he watched the god, or whatever he was, wave his arms like a mad man. "Pain! Panic!" the lord of the underworld called to his minions.

Two small demons popped out of no where and quickly bowed "Yes Lord Hades!"

Hades smiled, "Tell me, what has Wonder Brat been doing."

"Umm, defeating all your allies?" the blue one said.

"Becoming Greece's most popular hero since the Trojan war?"

"Gotten rich and famous?"

"Has his own set of action figures?"

"And random products have his name on them."

Hades turned red as his two cronies went on this "Wonder Brat's" accomplishments. "Enough!" he screamed, causing flames to erupt around him. After a few minuets a female voice spoke up.

"It looks like Wonder Boy has hit every curve you through at him."

"Meg," Hades said rubbing his temple, "When I want your opinion I'll ask for it."

Meg raised an eyebrow and turned to face Cloud, "Hey, who's the cutie with the claw and really big sword?"

"That is Cloud. He's a demon from Hollow Bastion."

"A demon?" the woman in purple walked forward and looked at him, then back at Pain and Panic. "I didn't know they came in such pretty packages."

Hades smiled, "Yes well. I believe that Cloud here just might be the right kind of curve to throw at Wonder Brat."

Meg's eyes widened, but she kept her voice even, "So, Cloud right," Cloud nodded, "Think ya got what it takes to beat Wonder Boy."

"He's nothing more than a human, despite having abnormal strength, I think I can take him." He let his wing out from behind his cloak, "Even if he does get on that flying horse of his I have the speed advantage. And Durandal," he motioned towards his sword

"The Durandal?" Hades asked.

Cloud nodded.

Hades' smile was a sinister "Then you will be able to take care that the eternal pain in my rear?"

"If that's what it'll take for you to join Lady Maleficent then yes."

Hades seemed to be overjoyed, "Go challenge him to a duel or something."

Cloud nodded and jumped from the cavern, let his wing catch in the wind and fly towards Thebes.

"You wanna go watch?" Hades asked Meg, wrapping an arm around her.

"Sure why not?"

Cloud landed near the city gates and walked in, sword strapped to his back. He got quite a few stares, but he ignored them. He walked through the square he looked up at the giant statue of Hercules. Cloud shook his head in amazement.

"Where is Hercules?" a loud female voice asked. Cloud looked up to see a sphinx fly down to land.

"Quick! Someone get Hercules!" an old man yelled as the citizens of Thebes began to flee from the sphinx.

Could walked up to the sphinx and asked, "Are you one of Hades' minions?"

The sphinx threw back her mane, "What's it to you?"

"Hercules is mine, if you don't want to die then leave."

She laughed, "Little man you can't take me."

"Hey Blondie!" Cloud turned to see a man, a satyr on a white horse flying towards him, "Get out of the way!"

The Sphinx rose up to meet them when Cloud drew his sword, "I told you not to get in my way." And with one slice the sphinx was cut in two.

The horse landed and Hercules and the satyr jumped off.

"Wow," Hercules said, "Pretty impressive."

The satyr gave Cloud a once over, "Who are you?"

"My name is Cloud," Cloud pointed his sword at Hercules, "I challenge you."

"Hey wait a minute," the satyr said, "Where do you get off on challenging Herc?"

"Phil clam down," the blonde hero smiled, "He shouldn't be too hard." He walked towards Cloud and drew his sword. "A challenge it is then. I promise not to go too hard on ya."

Cloud shook his head in amusement, "Talk like that will get you killed." He sprung into action sword ready for a diagonal slash downwards. Hercules eyes widened slightly but managed to parry without much difficulty.

"You're fast. But that won't save you."

He threw the lighter man off and Cloud did a back flip and landed on his feet about three meters away.

"Herc this guys the real thing!" Phil called from the side of mass of people that had gathered, "Take this seriously!"

Hercules nodded and rushed in with his sword parallel to the ground and pointed at Cloud. Cloud leapt in the air and landed behind Hercules, pushed out with his clawed hand and ripped at the hero's back.

Hercules gritted his teeth, spun around and caught Cloud in the face with a right hook. Cloud flew backwards towards the other side of the square and was about to crash into a building when he let his wing unfurl and stopped.

Phil and the horse ran over to Hercules. "Herc, there's no way you can beat him. He's a demon, and looks like a powerful one."

Hercules got on Pegasus' back, "I got to try." He and the winged horse flew up into the air ready for battle.

"Why are you doing this?"

Cloud closed his eyes, "I've been hired to take you out."

"By who!?"

"That's not important." Cloud got into a battle stance, "Are you ready?"

"Hey our little fly boy isn't doing to bad now is he?" Hades asked as he sat on his throne in the cliff that overlooked Thebes.

Meg didn't answer, "Come on Wonder Boy," she whispered, "Don't yourself killed."

"I see you are enjoying my friend's abilities."

Both Hades and Meg turned to see a boy, about seventeen, dressed in black leather pants and black sleeveless shirt. He had semi-long hair that was pulled back in a pony tail, large blue eyes, and a tail.

"Are you another one of Maleficent's minions?" Hades asked as the boy came further into the light.

"I guess you could say that." The boy smiled, "Name's Zidane." He walked over to Meg's side and turned to face Hades, "I know that Maleficent promised Cloud would kill the pain in your ass." He gave a sideways glance at Meg who looked like she was on the verge of collapsing and quickly turned to watch the battle, "But something came up and we need our bat boy back. However," he added before Hades could protest, "If you join with us, Maleficent will give you an entire army of shadows at your command, plus Cloud, myself and other demon warriors."

"Fine, but I need them in twenty hours. That's when my take over begins."

"Surely you can convince the Titans to wait a few days so we can prepare the troops," Zidaen suggested, "The Titans couldn't be that blood thristy can they?"

"Oh, I dunno," Hades began, "I think I would be rather pissed if I've been locked up in a hole since near the earth's creation, wouldn't you?"

"If that's a problem then I can give you the power to unleash the Titans whenever you like," a woman said from the shadows

Meg turned to see a woman dressed with horns in flowing black robes. She radiated with power.

"So the famous Sorceress came to visit me, how sweet." Hades stood up and faced her, "I couldn't break the seal on the Titans without the power of the planets. How can you break the seal?"

"That is because Zeus used powers that was not his own. He used the celestial powers to help create the seal. I am a Sorceress and I can on powers just as powerful as the heavens." She held out her hand and a small black crystal appeared. "Use this with your own powers and the seal on the Titans will break."

Meg had never seen Hades happier.

Cloud and Hercules' battle had grown even more intense. Hercules had proved to be a better opponent than he thought, but he still had the upper hand. Though to anyone else it would seem they were evenly matched. However Cloud wasn't going full force, he wanted to enjoy this battle now that he knew his opponent's strengths.

Magic was begging to flow in the air. Cloud stiffened a little upon feeling its presence. Large bolts of lightning began to dance across the sky.

"Is this your doing?" Hercules asked.

"No, this is Maleficent's."

"Who's?"

"A Sorceress. She calls for me to return." He shouldered Durandal, "We will finish this later." He turned and flew off towards the mountains.

Hercules and Pegasus landed on the ground after watching the demon fly off. Phil came running towards them, "Hey kid you all right?"

Hercules nodded and looked in the direction where Cloud had flown off. "He was the real thing. I don't think he went all out on me."

Phil motioned to woman in a blue robe and she rushed forward with bandages, "Kid, if this him holding back then I don't want to see what he can do to you going full out."

Sora awoke to find himself in a large, warm comfortable bed. Lifting himself up, he saw that he was in a room with just a mirror, a dresser, a closet and a coat rack. The beige walls were bare of anything else. Sterile, that's what it felt like.

The oversized shirt he was wearing slipped a little off his shoulder and he put back up, wondering vaguely where it came from. He got up and stopped in front of the full-length mirror. The shirt reached down to his knees and had the words 'Balamb University'. He felt himself blush, both out of embarrassment and shame someone must have taken off his clothes and bathed him. "They could at least given me underwear," he muttered under his breath.

"Well, Leon's are too big for you and I'm sure you don't where mine."

Sora turned around to see a pretty brunette woman dressed in pink.

Sora shook his head, a small smile on his face, "No I wouldn't."

The woman smiled, "I'm Aerith."

"I'm Sora."

Aerith closed the door behind her and gave Sora a hug, "Things will be better, you'll see." She let go, "Come on let's get you something to eat."

Sora was lead to the kitchen and was sat at the table, "What do you want? We have fruit, miso soup, steak, chicken, cereal, toast."

"Fruit will be fine thank you."

Aerith took an apple from the fruit basket and handed it to him. She grabbed a couple more apples, a banana, some star fruit, and cherries and stuck them in a bowl which she sat down in front of Sora. "Eat; you hadn't a decent meal in three weeks."

Sora smiled and dug into the food.

Leon walked into the room with his jacket over his shoulder and carrying a bundle.

"Good morning Leon," Aerith said happily, "As you can see Sora is up."

"Good, we can take him to Merlin as soon as he's dressed." He handed the bundle to Aerith, "They used to be Zell's when he was younger, found them up in the attic."

Aerith raised in eyebrow, "I don't think Sora would like Zell's style."

"Zell was a bit more conservative when he was younger."

Aerith undid the bundle and held up a shirt, which was a black long sleeve skin tight shirt with a v-neck. "Isn't this a woman's shirt?" Leon shrugged. She held another shirt which was a sleeveless dark beige shirt with a hood and yellow orange letters spelling out 'PLAY', and then held up a pair of orange shorts with lots of pockets and buckles. "Did you get underwear?"

"He'll have to go commando for a little while," Leon said nonchalantly.

"Whose going commando?" a girl asked as she walked, or rather bounced, into the kitchen.

"Don't worry about it Yuffie," Aerith said bringing out a bowl and pouring cereal into it, "Could you get the milk Leon?"

"I'll get it," Yuffie said happily and got a jug of milk form the fridge. She paused half way between to Aerith when she noticed Sora. "Hi, I'm Yuffie," she beamed, "I take it you're the guy Squall brought home last night."

Sora nearly choked. "Yuffie," Aerith scolded.

Yuffie giggled, handed Aerith the milk, took the bowl of cereal and made her way out of the kitchen.

"What are going to do with that girl?" Aerith mused as she poured another bowl for herself.

Leon looked over at Sora, "You done eating?"

Sora nodded, "Yeah."

Leon picked up the clothes that he brought and handed them to Sora, "Go get changed, as soon as we're ready we'll go see Merlin."

"Who's Merlin?"

"Merlin's a wizard," Aerith said before taking a bite of cereal, "He can help you with you're powers."

"So, you know?" Sora asked in a near whisper.

Aerith nodded, "Don't worry, Merlin will help, and he's a good guy, you'll love him."

"He's like everyone's favorite grandpa," Yuffie called from the living room.

After getting dressed, Zell, or whoever had had owned the clothes before had pretty weird tastes in Sora's opinion, Leon and Aerith took him to see Merlin. Merlin lived in a part of town that was near the lake. In fact Merlin lived on an island in the lake. Leon rowed them to the island shore when an old man in a blue robe appeared in haze of multicolored bubbles.

"I see you're on time," the old man, who Sora guessed was Merlin said with a twinkle in his eye.

Leon glared at the old man, mostly because the bubbles ended up covering him, "You don't have to make such dramatic entrances you know."

"But our young friend enjoyed it, didn't you?"

Sora nodded, smiling broadly. Merlin put him at ease, despite all the power coming from him.

Merlin beamed, "Well, young Sorcerer come inside and I'll tell you all about Sorcerers."

Sora liked Merlin, Yuffie was right; he was like you're favorite grandpa. Merlin had all the patience in the world too it seemed because he didn't mind Sora interrupting and got excited when Sora asked really complicated questions.

"Well, that covers all the knowledge about Sorcerers I know," Merlin said, "Have you used magic before?"

"Just once," Sora said, the memory coming back to him, "it was a lightning spell. I used it to save my dad, but . . ."

Merlin looked at him with sympathy, "What spell was it?"

"Burst."

"Really?" Aerith asked, "That's a level four spell."

Merlin nodded, "Yes, it is rather impressive."

Sora looked up at Merlin, "So are you going to train me?"

Merlin shook his head sadly, "No, not yet, not until you master elemental magic, a mage will have to help you with that, for that is their specialty. As a Wizard I can teach you time-space magic." He paused for a moment, "You'll also want to have some physical training while Leon and Aerith teach you, stamina is important in order to use level five spells like Ultima. I have a friend, goes by the name Phil, tell him Merlin sent you and he should train you. If he refuses tell him I'll turn him into a bull frog." He gave Sora a wink.

"So where is this Phil?" Leon asked.

"In another world," Merlin said getting up and moving over to a huge mirror. He tapped on it and muttered some words that Sora couldn't make out. The mirror began to shine and then a vortex appeared behind the glass. "Don't worry you'll be perfectly fine."

Leon stepped forward to investigate, after deciding it seemed safe enough he walked through. Sora took a breath and followed, with Aerith trailing after him.

The next thing he knew he was on top of Leon in a room with lots of dear on the walls.

"Hey," came a gruff voice, "What do you think you're doing you thieves?"

Maleficent was standing on the balcony atop the highest tower of Hollow Bastion, behind her were three demon warriors, Cloud, Zidane, and Riku. "Did you find out what happened to her?"

Riku shook his head, "No, she just disappeared."

Maleficent sighed, "I want you three to keep an eye on the rest, make sure they aren't taken away from their world."

"Yes Milady," the three of them said and bowed. Zidane and Riku teleported away while Cloud remained.

"What is Cloud?"

"Milady, why did you take me away from that battle?"

Maleficent turned to face the demon, "I need you for other reasons, you can defeat that mortal later."

Cloud bowed his head, "I know my lady but . . ."

"You feel you are honor-bound to keep to finish you're duel soon?" Maleficent asked

"Yes."

"You will get your chance, right now though I need you to focus at the task at hand, with Snow White gone the other six might be in danger as well."

"Yes Milady." Cloud spread his wing and flew off into the horizon.

Maleficent watched him go. "What is happening?" she asked herself.

And that's the end of chapter one. I hoped you enjoyed it.

For magic I'm going with a FFX/FFXI theme, meaning Aero is offensive spell, not defensive. I'll get into magic levels later. There are eight elements (Holy, dark, fire, water, ice, earth, lightning, and wind) along with curative magic.

Yes, Zidane, Riku, and Cloud work for Malefi, all will be explained later.