The of Final Fantasy IV

}::By Chronic Guardian::{

Chapter 1: Got it Memorized?

I squinted up into the noonday sun for a moment of self-pity before continuing on with the task of wondering what I was going to do about my current situation. I wished I was seeing that same sun just peeking over the horizon as it lazily sank down, eating sea-salt ice-cream and laughing with my two best friends about how my day had been wasted on a wild goose chase. There were no Heartless in this world, surprisingly, and thus it was of no use to the organization. Roxas would appreciate that at least; the kid had a hard enough time in worlds with proper walls. In this one...everything looked the same. Well, I mean, it had all looked the same until I had added a landmark of a monster corpse. Unlike the Heartless, things around here did not readily dissolve into oblivion.

Were I ambitious, like Vexen used to be, I would be looking for strong-hearted characters who might eventually join our ranks. Not only did I lack the motivation, I thought that the search would be as fruitless as my Heartless hunt.

"Halt!"

That word was the most interesting thing to happen that day since Roxas asking me how much munny we would save if we stopped eating ice-cream. Its source was an armor clad fellow followed by a similarly suited companion with a dragon motif on his gear. The second one was carrying a small package in one hand. Great...well, maybe I would be able to write some version of the report where I didn't get seen. The organization usually stressed the importance of covert operations. I stress the importance of flexible thinking. Besides, after what I was going to say, nobody was going to come back and verify.

"Can I help you?" Smooth, my natural state of speech. I knew it could really irk some people, but I didn't particularly care. Not that I have the capability, being without a heart and all.

"What business do you have in Baron?"

Baron? So that was what they called this neck of the woods? True, I'd seen airships fly by, but they still seemed a bit small to be using such a grand name. If I'd said all that out loud, I would probably have another fight on my hands and one more mess to worry about cleaning up after. Instead, I replied: "Just huntin' around for some intel. Think you could help? Namely with how to dispose of...this?" I gestured towards the reeking mass of dead monster behind me.

"...Just leave it. As with all other fiends. Are you well, traveler?"

"Actually, I'm feeling pretty apathetic, just between you and me." A private joke, I use such things to keep my mental activity from flat-lining.

The two men paused. I guessed it was a little too much of a leap for them to comprehend.

"Perhaps we should report him, Cecil," the guy who had remained silent up until this point offered. I could almost have shaken his hand in appreciation; it would have given me a great excuse to skip work early and head to the clock tower for hang-out time.

The first man shook his head, "no...we should deal with this ourselves. Besides, if he took down a fiend that size maybe he could help us."

"'Scuse me?"

"We are on a mission of peak priority for the King. Taking risks like this is what got you demoted." The man in the dragon armor bristled.

Oh, to be irritable again.

"...Perhaps you are right, though the way to the village of Mist is markedly perilous."

The village of the Mist; gee, these people reeaaally knew how to name a place. How many villages don't have mist at sometime or another? I guess Twilight Town sort of falls under that category except for the fact that I've never seen it without its perpetual evening glow.

Mr. no-nonsense sighed, "They may be able to summon monsters, but you are the former captain of the Red Wings of Baron. Together we will overcome them."

Summon monsters. My mind latched onto the words like a shadow glob. "Hang on, what kind of monsters are we talking about here?"

"Summoned monsters." The exasperation with which those words were said reminded me so much of Isa.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, but do these people who summon them have any sort of inclination towards darkness?"

The two looked at each other. "That mantle is taken by Baron, for have we long fostered the order of the dark knights," the more polite of the two informed me.

Is that what he was supposed to be? Funny, I would have thought the Heartless to be spawning like crazy in this kingdom were that the case...although it did make sense. I could sense the fiery spirit in the package they were carrying, thanks to my inclination towards the element. If I did have a heart, I'd probably say it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. As it is, I just say I'm a pyro. At any rate, I got the gist that they were delivering a bomb to this village. The thing was, summoning monsters was the closest lead I had to Heartless appearances all day. Tagging along to ensure no one got hurt seemed to fall within my better interests at the time. Oh, how wishful my thinking. It really is too bad that imagination is not tied to the heart, I would have avoided a whole heap of trouble if only I had not assumed that something productive was going to happen.

"Tell you what, why don't you and I make a deal?" I began, setting up my presumed-to-be-master-plan before them. "You take me along as your back up and I don't ask any questions as to what it is you're carrying to this village of mist. Sound fair?"

"No, you are a liability."

"C'mon! Nobody has to know about any of this and you two get a free ride! What's not to like?"

"The 'free ride' part," the guy in the Halloween dragon get-up was further establishing himself as not useful to me. "Nothing is free, what do you gain?"

"Passage to the village of mist, of course."

The first knight in shining black armor cocked his iron-clad head, "Why can't you get there on your own? You seem able enough in combat."

"In combat, yes. But I'd still appreciate being pointed in the right direction." Man was I glad Roxas was not here to see me begging these bozos to take me with them.

"Very well then, let us travel together."

Well...that was unexpected. "Thanks," I told him, scratching my hand on the back of my head. "Guess we should get going then?"

"Indeed, let's."

It was a silent journey from there. Heck, Roxas talked more on his seventh day of existence than those two. Of course, I took the time to leisurely jot down the beginning of my report.

"You remember how to use your dark attack, right Cecil?"

Not only did master Dragon-head's comment come out of nowhere, it seemed down and out ridiculous. Didn't he say earlier that this Cecil guy had been a military captain or something? I figured he would know what he was doing by now. It wasn't like this was their first time out on the streets, was it?

"Yes, but it will drain my strength with excessive use. We must employ it sparingly."

"Just leave it all to me," I assured them. "If it's anything like the first monster I'll have it done before you can blink."

"Perhaps you'll be able to demonstrate," Dragon-man muttered. "Here they come!"

The monsters, overgrown rats and bugs from what I could tell, came swarming around the corner. Swinging my chakram into ready position, I began my boomerang routine, throwing in a kick or two for the ones who got close enough for a taste. Sadly, I only got half way through my rotation before they were all gone.

"How did you do that?" Cecil asked, the awe in his voice glaringly apparent.

"Oh, you know, practice."

"He means attacking consecutively, not waiting for your turn."

A helpful clarification but one that clued me even further into the sad nuances of this world. Waiting your turn in a fight? No. You strike first and strike fast unless you've got a reason to hold back.

"Guess I equipped the right panels." It was a lame, but fail-safe, answer.

"The right what?" Cecil was majorly tripping out over these revelations, "I didn't know equipment could change your abilities!"

…

"I see we were correct to accept your help," the Dragon Knight admitted. I really should have been paying attention when he introduced himself...but seeing as I didn't plan on coming back it would be a waste of valuable memorization.

"...Let's just get this over with." No need for pleasantries, only efficiency. I would be doing ol' Sïax proud at least.

"Yes, I agree," Cecil spoke sensibly. Perhaps that was his one and only ability: sounding like he was actually getting somewhere.

I shook my head; once I got to the clock tower this would all fade into memory. Heck, if we still had Namine around I'd probably ask her to remove most of today from my personal recollection. "Well let's just gather up the loot these things dropped and get going."

"Hold," Cecil's friend spoke up, "We must be careful with how much we pick up. Carry too much and we will have to delete some items from out inventory."

"Relax," I told him. Gosh, the guy was high strung. It's not like I was completely foreign to limited carrying capacity or anything. "My backpack's got plenty of room. Besides, if we have to drop something we can always come back for it, right?"

Cecil and his companion looked at each other. "That's not how it works around here," Cecil informed me, "once you delete an item from your inventory it's gone for good. Fortunately, that's why we have the Key Item status effect to keep special items from being disposed of."

I could just barely believe what I was hearing. What was wrong with this world? A little further in we ran into our next complication.

"Leave this place."

The voice came out of nowhere. In my experience it usually meant someone you didn't want to deal with was about to materialize.

"Who's there?" Cecil shouted, taking his sword out of its sheath.

"Return whence you came."

"That voice - could it be the Eidolon?" Another inadvertently helpful statement from Sir Wyrm Fanatic.

"Men of Baron and traveler of worlds..."

Both of the knights turned to look at me. Unless they were as dense as I had given them credit for, my cover was blown.

"Leave at once and no harm will befall you, I will abide no further trespass."

"Not gonna happen," I said flatly. Whatever an Eidolon was it was getting between me and my objective, an elementary mistake.

"You mean to ignore my warning?"

Cecil set his eyes ahead again, "we must deliver this ring to the village of Mist beyond!"

A ring? Did they really believe that was all it was? No declarations of war? My fire sense tingled all over in its presence. These guys were sneaky. I wouldn't hear the end of this from Xion if I let them get away with it, not to mention Siax if they blew up the only Heartless hub for this world.

"So be it..."

"Hold it," I ordered, snatching the package containing the bomb ring. "We all know this is an explosive mess. Unfortunately I'm going to have to side with the disembodied voice that we can't bring this into my target area. It's much too sensitive."

"An...explosive?" Cecil was dumbfounded.

Seriously? I guess I'm just so used to the presence of combustibles that their identification is second nature to me.

"Traveler of worlds...you speak well."

"Thanks, but I'd like to get to this village of mist in addition to being applauded if its all the same to you."

"Very well. But dispose of the package or I shall bar thine way."

The Eidolon's words stopped me dead in my tracks. How was I supposed to fight fire? I was the guy who made the pretty little explosions, not the one who extinguished them.

"Uhm...little help, Cecil?" I inquired hopefully. He seemed to think we were buddy buddy already, maybe he would take care of this for me.

"Certainly. But how do we deactivate it?"

That's what I was asking.

"Could we leave it with our invisible friend or is that out of the question?" I could see the exit from here; If I wasn't so concerned with keeping up appearances I might have just blinked out and shown up outside the cave. In retrospect, I probably should have done that anyway. Instead, I decided to play things responsibly for once.

"That ring will activate in the presence of those from Mist. I cannot take it."

Great. Still, I wasn't done yet. Dealing with problems like Xion's missing keyblade had taught me to keep an extra card or two up my skin-tight sleeves.

"So what if you got close enough for it to activate and then skedaddle until it expires?"

"...That sounds all too convenient."

It was like trying to get Demyx to work. "Look," I said, trying once again to get a new angle on things, "if this thing only blows in the presence of people from mist then we won't have to worry about it if it never is in their presence, right?"

Cecil nodded slowly, "yes."

"So what if we delete it from your inventory?"

"No good," Dragon-fan muttered, "It's a Key Item."

"To you, maybe. To me, it's just another piece of rubbish. If we could just swap interfaces, I could throw it away."

That would have been a helpful idea if only I knew how to swap an interface; hopefully one of them could figure it out. A few moments of uncomfortable silence told me all I needed to know about their proficiency in the area.

"Know what? Maybe if I beat you senseless you'll drop the item, which I will decline to pick up, and then we can all go on with our lives. Deal?"

It took them both a minute to catch wise as to what I meant. "H-hold on!"

I've had some experience taking out a target without actually killing it, enough to have a good amount of confidence in my abilities. Starting off with a flame salvo, I began to wear them down enough for some soft finishing blows.

It was over too quick. Just as expected, they dropped the ring and two "life" items as a bonus. I used the restorative effects of the life items halfheartedly, bringing back to consciousness today's sources of grief. They stabilized quickly enough, but I had the feeling I would be doing the fighting from now on.

Why couldn't I think of these things beforehand?

"You...!" Master lanceslinger came to first.

"You're welcome," I answered, "we're out of the cave and you don't have to wipe a town from the face of whatever sad world this is."

"I can't believe we were being used like that!"

Believe it. Just like how I'm using you to get to a Heartless mother lode. "So what are you going to do now then?"

"Hunh?" Cecil stirred, struggling to sit up.

"I asked what you're planning on doing now, seeing as your kingdom is pretty dead set on slaughter."

Cecil looked at me with confused eyes, "I must honor the-"

"There's not a whole lot of honor to be had in your current line of work." I guess I should know that one pretty well. Like many things, I'd sort of lost the will to pursue honor once I became a Nobody. But just because I wasn't trying to achieve it didn't mean I was unaware of its existence...and its absence in a number of my actions.

"He speaks a different truth than what you or I know, Cecil."

As if I didn't have enough to sort out already. "You can't have different truths," I said wearily, "by its definition, truth is exclusive. Got it memorized?"

"Then we've been living a lie..." Cecil looked heart broken. Maybe he was a Dark Knight in that he bore an excessively gloomy demeanor rather than the power of darkness...

"At any rate, our failure to deliver the ring to Mist will be interpreted as treason to the crown. We'll have to live as fugitives from now on."

I was witnessing a dynamic between these two "friends" that reminded me of Isa. No...Isa had been nicer than this. He still had brought me down every now and then though.

"We've got to get Rosa and Cid out of Baron then." Cecil seemed to be getting over it okay now. I guess he had gotten used to having such a person to guard his back. Poor guy.

Why did I revive them in the first place? For a guy without a heart I guess I'm pretty impulsive.

"Well...it's been fun; but I've got to be on my way," I gave a mock salute to the duo, "don't get into too much trouble now, got it..." I trailed off, "on second thought, just forget it."

I walked off despite their protests. At this point, I just wanted today to be over.

As I approached the village one of the locals took interest.

"Greetings, stranger."

"Hey, let me cut to the chase. I've heard that people from this village summon monsters."

The villager nodded, "Yes, Summoned Monsters."

"Like the Heartless?"

"...No, just Summoned Monsters."

"..."

I lifted a hand to open a dark portal to Twilight Town.

The guy gave a startled cry but it disappeared behind me like the rest of my day on that world. The one thing I definitely had memorized was how I would NEVER go back.

A/N: ALERT: IF YOU ENJOY FINAL FANTASY IV IT IS BEST YOU STOP READING THIS FANFICTION. That said, the main idea from here on out is to go through Final Fantasy IV (which mostly bored me to tears) and bring in all the outside help we can get to make it an interesting story. Again, if you disagree with this premise you probably should NOT be reading this anti-fan fic. This Chapter's Character was Axel, originally from Kingdom Hearts, created by Tetsuya Nomura.