Neither Riku-Rocks nor I own anything but the story concept.

Notes at the end.

Chapter Nine: Time and Consequence

After several hallways, they came across their first obstacle. It was a surprisingly simple one involving a statue and several different colored gems. Behind the statue, a black metal gate could be seen, blocking the path. Assuming that the gems needed to be moved and placed in specific locations, Leon removed the first one from the statue's base. The moment he did, another gate dropped and blocked the way back, effectively cutting them off. The gate had grooves large enough for the gems to fit.

Riku was able to solve the puzzle quickly, figuring out the color pattern from some seemingly random wall markings, and they continued on. The hall they were in turned out to be a dead end, and they had to choose between three doors to leave it. Each door had a nook in it and Leon was the one to figure out that the colored gems coincided with each of the doors. They removed the necessary three and placed each in the appropriate door. Then they did, the dead end shimmered and part of the wall disappeared to allow them through.

They entered a plain, narrower area with only a door on the right side wall. Behind them, the opening they came through disappeared. This left the door the only option and they cautiously entered it. They then found themselves in a small, square room with a single door on the left.

The door they came in through shut behind them and a loud click sounded through the room. Riku turned around and tried to reopen the door, but it was no good. "It's locked."

"It looks like we're being herded;" Leon observed, folding his arms. "We must be on the right path."

"Yeah;" Riku agreed, rejoining the older man. "...Or the complete wrong one. Guess we just keep going."

Leon did not say anything further and watched Riku approach the room's only exit. The boy seemed to be doing much better, which relieved him greatly. If Riku was able to keep his injury hidden from Ultimecia when they reached her, she likely wouldn't bother much with him.

He really did not want Riku facing the sorceress, and the teen's injury was not the only reason. Ultimecia was extremely adept at manipulating emotion and playing into a person's psyche. Riku was still coming to terms with his involvement in the entire Kingdom Hearts situation and if Maleficent had told her anything about Riku, Ultimecia would have more than enough information to use against him.

"Leon?"

The former SeeD brought himself back to the present moment. He needed to keep focused on the task at hand and trust that Riku could handle whatever came at him when the time came. If he could not, Leon would just have to help get him through.

Leon nodded and followed Riku into the next room. This room turned out to be another small area with only one other door opposite where they came in. When they crossed the dead center of it, a half dozen heartless sprang up and attacked. Do to the close proximity, it proved to be difficult to fight them and both fighters took more hits than they should have.

Once the shadows were defeated, they passed through the rest of the room and beyond the door a spiral stairwell was revealed. They emerged on a tiny landing and had the option of going either up or down. After a thorough search, there was absolutely nothing to indicate which way they should go.

"Now what...?" Riku took a step forward and pressed his fingers against the center pillar the steps wrapped around. "Flip a coin?"

"If you have one, go for it." Leon studied the area. Torches lined the inner wall, flickering in random patterns and casting equally random shadows. There had to be something to tell them where to go; so far they had been guided to this point. It made no sense for that to suddenly stop now. "...Any ideas?"

Riku shook his head. His bright eyes got that slightly distracted look to them, the color darkening. "I can't… This whole area is seeped in darkness. I can't isolate anything within it."

The teen sounded troubled about this and Leon found himself taking hold of Riku's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Ultimecia wants us to come to her. Something will put us in the right direction."

Riku glanced back at him and gave a small smile. When he did, a laugh echoed down from above and a strong wind blew up along with it. The torches blew out in a descending sweep.

"Will the lamb sleep or will the lion lead it to slaughter?"

The air stilled and a dim green light drifted from both directions. It was barely enough to see by and Leon tightened his fingers on Riku's shoulder. He would recognize Ultimecia's voice anywhere and it still caused unease to grip his heart. He could not make out the meaning of the question but one thing was absolutely clear: she knew that Riku was important to him and intended to use the boy against him somehow.

Beneath his hand, Riku's form shook for a moment then calmed. The Twilight Keybearer had to have understood the intent of the message also. In a quiet tone, he stated, "Sleep or slaughter… I can't say I like either option."

"Neither do I." Leon looked up. "Her voice came from up there… but the direction of the wind indicates an opening below."

"Either way, we're likely to run into something." Leon felt Riku move a bit and suddenly long, slender fingers rested upon his hand on the youth's shoulder. "Which way, Leon?"

The sable-haired man exhaled. Sleep or slaughter… what did she mean by that? Both could refer to death… Did she intend for Leon to choose how Riku would die? That was not going to happen regardless of what he chose. "We go up."

Riku's touch left him and it bothered Leon greatly. He wanted to reach out and retake those fingers; feel that reassurance that Riku was there and okay.

"When we find her, I'll hang back and support you but if you need me to do anything, say so. You know I can handle myself;" the Twilight Keybearer assured as though he had sensed the older man's turmoil.

"Just be alert for anything," murmured Leon. He glanced down and noted that he could barely see the stone beneath his feet. "How well can you see?"

"Pretty well," replied Riku. "I've got really good night vision. Need me to lead?"

"Yeah;" Leon slid his hand down Riku's arm. Despite the gravity of the situation, he smiled at the minute shiver that ran through the teenager. He took Riku's hand and focused on the mission again. "Take us up, Riku."

The silvered male moved forward, holding Leon's hand. The former SeeD could tell that Riku was having no issue with the stairs and matched the boy's steps the best that he could. He wondered if Riku's time in the dark realm improved his physical senses along with the extra perceptions he had gained.

They had made what Leon counted as six circuits around before the green glow began to brighten. On the next go round, the origin of the light finally appeared. They had reached the end of the stairs and another tiny landing. There was a large wood door and the strange light emanated from its outer boarder.

"This is strange." Riku spoke absently. "There's no scent in here."

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything; she can teleport." Leon informed him. He stepped beside Riku and noticed that his aqua eyes remained fixed on the door.

"So can Sephiroth but I can usually tell if he's been in the area recently," Riku countered. He frowned and canted his head. "But there's something…"

Riku pressed his hand to the door and was only mildly surprised when it lost its solidarity and the hand went through. What was startling was once he started through it, he couldn't stop. He was gently pulled through, only having enough time to glance back at Leon before disappearing.

Leon moved to follow but found the wood solid again. Mind working frantically, he pushed at the door in different places, hoping to find an opening. When nothing gave, he stopped and took a moment to collect himself. Riku would be alright for now; Leon just needed to get through that door.

He doubted the door was enchanted specifically for Riku so it had to be designed for the first person to touch it. The question was whether it simply lead into the room or to an entirely different dimension. Ultimecia was capable of just about anything along that vein, and there was no way to know without getting past that door.

Taking a random chance, Leon pressed the door handle's latch.

…and the door swung open easily.

The circular room was filled with spinning wheels stacked in messy piles along the wall. There was a clearing in the center and in the middle of it stood…

"Riku…?"

The teenager had his back to him; something was strangely stiff about his posture. "Do you hear that?"

Leon heard nothing and a pang of fear went through him. "Riku, look at me."

"It's okay, Leon." Riku sounded normal. "No one's trying to get to me. Even if they did, they'd have to work damn hard to control me."

His silver hair brushed along his collar as he turned his head slightly. "There's something about this room…. I can sense something, but I don't know what."

"Well, whatever it is, Ultimecia isn't here." Leon took a step closer. The room was giving him a bad feeling and he was certain there was some kind of trap about to be sprung. "Let's get out of here."

"Yeah, guess we should have gone down." Riku's body twisted as he turned and when he did, there was a loud creaking and the stack of spinning wheels nearest to him shifted. A few tumbled free and crashed both in front and behind him. He froze absolutely still until they settled. "Whoa."

A bad feeling was settling in Leon's stomach. "We need to-"

The odd sound of Heartless appearing echoed through the circular room. A dozen soldiers sprang up and all of them attacked Leon in a group. He immediately went on the defense and lost sight of Riku behind the swarm. He sliced through them as they came but every time he would get a glimpse of beyond them, another would block his vision.

There were four left and he could finally see Riku, who had not moved from his position. Wondering why the teen had not come to assist, Leon searched down Riku's body. He noticed that the young man was surrounded up to the waist by spinning wheels now, and wondered how that had happened.

Then Leon spotted the troll creatures pushing the pieces of yarn fabrications around him.

It was obvious that Riku had little space to move, but the Gunblade wielder did not think that have kept him pinned. Lifting his eyes back to the silvered male's face, and dispatching two of the four remaining Heartless attacking, Leon observed that Riku was struggling to blink and could barely open his mouth. At some point, Stop must have been cast on him. It should wear off at any moment and Riku wasn't in any immediate danger so Leon opted to conserve his magic and let the spell disappear on its own.

Leon took out the last Heartless just as the trolls ran back into the crevasses of the remaining spinning wheels encircling the wall of the room. They did not reappear and Leon moved forward to remove the wheels surrounding Riku. Stop was wearing off now and Riku was moving a bit, attempting to lift his arms to push the spinning wheels away. "Well, this was- Ow!"

The spinning wheel in front of him fell away, sending the other ones toppling to the sides and exposing Riku's body. The teenager lifted his hand to examine the trickle of blood coming from his index finger. "Guess that spindle was still…"

Riku's aqua eyes rolled back and he collapsed forward, completely limp.

Leon didn't waste the breath to say Riku's name as he sprinted the last few steps to the boy. He carefully extracted Riku from the wood legs and wheels he lay upon, unsure as to what Riku had gotten hurt on. Laying Riku flat on the stone floor, he quickly searched for a pulse while he fought back his rising panic. Riku could not be dead; he simply couldn't be…

He found the pulse he sought and sighed in relief. While it was slow, he was steady and Riku was softly breathing. The prick on his finger had stopped bleeding.

"Oh dear, we're too late."

Leon whipped his head to the left, ready to attack the owner of the voice that spoke. He was not prepared to see three small, elderly fairies. The thought he recognized them but before he could ask who they were, they flew over to Riku and hovered above his face. The one dressed in green nodded to the other two. "He looks alright."

"Then she didn't change our alteration from before." The pink one noted.

Leon did not bother with asking who they were. "What happened to him?"

"When his finger pricked the spindle, it put him in an enchanted sleep."

Enchanted sleep? Of course, Ultimecia's question; now it made sense. That meant that Ultimecia was at the bottom of the staircase. In a way, Leon was glad they had chosen to go up. However…

"Will he be alright?"

"Oh, yes." The blue one smiled reassuringly. "He'll sleep until the spell is broken."

"How do we break it?"

"That can wait." The pink one flew up to his head. "You haven't much time."

The sable-haired man narrowed his eyes; "Before what?"

"She's rebuilt Junction Machine Ellone." The green one explained. "She intends to use it against Maleficent and take control of the Darkness for herself."

Leon pursed his lips. If the machine was complete, she could start compressing time whenever she liked. He still had nightmares about the last time she had done this and refused to live through it again.

He turned his face back toward Riku's. The boy looked peaceful, almost unnaturally so. If Leon hadn't felt his pulse himself, he would swear the boy was dead. He lightly touched Riku's cheek, assured by the warmth of his skin. "You're sure he's alright?"

"Certain." The blue one grinned.

Nodding slowly, Leon did not look away from the youth. "Can you watch over him?"

"Don't worry." The green one patted his shoulder. "We'll protect him."

"Yes;" The blue seconded. "Now go get that sorceress."

He had a sudden impulse to hug Riku. Leaning closer, he brushed at Riku's bangs and quietly said, "I'll be back soon. Then I'll figure out how to wake you up."

Leon then stood and strode from the room. His step was determined and he gathered up his energy and resolve as he descended back down the steps, past where they that entered and further down to where the green glow emanated from an open archway. He did not pause outside of the new chamber.

"There you are, finally." Ultimecia faced him, her made-up face pleased to see him. She appeared exactly how he remembered. "I see you let the boy sleep. How disappointing. Maleficent had told me so much about him. I had looked forward to testing his abilities for myself."

"Sorry to disappoint." Leon hefted Revolver.

She laughed richly at him. "You have changed, Squall. You've grown weaker!"

He was not going to take the bait; she should know him better than that. The former SeeD struck first, leaping up and aiming a strike at her right side. If she fought the same as before, she would have to raise that arm to cast any spells she intended to use.

As soon as the opening appeared, he unleashed an Aerial Circle, half of which hit her. It was enough to throw her own spell off and he hit the ground, raising his weapon to lash it at her again before she could recover. He cast Fated Circle, but before it could take effect, she shot up and floated away from it, chuckling in a disapproving manner.

"Ah, Squall. Have you learned nothing these past years?" She lifted her hand gracefully and summoned dark energy to it. A crackling sphere formed above her palm. "Nothing remains the same as time progresses."

The sphere broke into a dozen smaller orbs and raced toward him, spreading apart to surround Leon.

"You froze yourself at the moment of your greatest failure." Ultimecia continued, the dark circles stopping as if waiting for something, some command. "You didn't allow yourself to change, merely hid behind a fake persona as you withered away."

Leon narrowed his eyes at her. "No."

"Deny it all you like. You can't change time, but it can certainly change you!"

The orbs came to life again, slamming into him in a rapid succession that he was unable to evade. He tried to block but was always just a beat too late and they slipped past his guard. They did not hurt upon impact and that concerned him.

He rushed forward, leaping to confront her. He swung his Gunblade around, twisting to get around her and avoid the next attack she aimed at him. Now behind her, he got his hit in and she pitched forward. Refusing to let up, he followed after, readying another attack.

She set her feet down and to trap her, he cast a trio of light pillars to hold her in place. Surrounded, she glanced about a moment in concern then smirked wickedly. She relaxed, not even trying to escape and appeared to be waiting for something.

She was acting as though she had all the time in the world.

Leon hesitated a second and that was when his body froze in place. He was suspended mid-air, body angled in its descent toward the sorceress and Gunblade parallel to his side. He systematically tried to move different muscles and nothing responded.

Ultimecia laughed at him, still confined by the pillars. "Trapped in a single moment… Fitting, don't you think?"

Leon's mind was quickly working through a way to get free of his paralysis.

"Fight all you want, you won't break out of it. You chose this, Squall. You left yourself behind; lost in the moment you failed the others. This…existence you've created has allowed you the illusion of moving forward while your heart remains frozen in that pitiful moment."

The man listened to her statement, taking the words into his heart. That was what he had done when he had decided to abandon Squall Leonhart. He had failed his friends, his loved ones, and rather than accepting it and moving on, he had remained stuck in that failure. He convinced himself that he was making up for that failure by throwing himself into the restoration, but that was merely a diversion.

Leon was not working to atone for his past failure, he was ignoring it.

His thoughts automatically went to Riku. The boy was depending on him to get through this and he could not let him down. He had vowed to never again fail someone he loved and if he did not find a way to break free of this, he would do just that. He was not going to let that happen again.

Leon would not allow the past to keep him stagnant anymore. He had failed to protect the others but he had done the best he could and because of that, had he truly failed? No. There was nothing else he could have done to save his world.

A weight lifted from him and he took a full breath, feeling lighter and freer than he could ever recall feeling. It was in that moment that he realized he could move a little. His eyes blinked and he could flex his fingers around the handle of Revolver. If he focused, he could curl his lips up.

Ultimecia frowned, worry twisting her face. She felt her spell weaken and her eyes widened.

Smirking, Leon concentrated his energy and broke completely free of the moment she had frozen him in. Not wasting the time he had regained, he took that energy and gathered it. He could see Ultimecia working to free herself of her own barrier, but knew that it would be too late.

At the peak of his energy -and with an open, unhindered heart- he unleashed Lionheart upon her.

She broke free just as the limit break slammed into her and, in a wave of light, she disappeared with a cry of outrage poised on her lips and fury in her eyes. The energy consumed her, fading as she did until all was spent and the chamber was again quiet. Leon stood still for a half-second, allowing himself a margin of recovery time.

He then turned on his heel and bolted up the spiral staircase. All of his thoughts focused on Riku and he silently prayed that he could help the boy. The idea of losing him was tearing at his heart and for once he allowed himself to fully understand why that was. Now that he had cast the past away, he had no trouble seeing what he wanted for his future.

Leon rushed into the tower room of spinning wheels. The fairies had laid Riku out on a clear spot of floor near the door. The youth looked pale but peaceful, his face relaxed as he slept deeply. Looking at him, one would think that a simple shake would wake him up.

Dropping to his knees beside the teenager, Leon addressed the women hovering to the side. "Alright, how do I wake him up?"

"Well, you may not be able to…"

He looked up at the blue one sharply. "What?"

"The spell can only be broken by true love's first kiss." The green explained softly. "That was how we were able to alter the original spell."

"So unless you're his true love, you can't wake him." The pinkish one added sadly.

Leon set his eyes back down upon Riku. He lightly ran a finger along the young man's cheek then brushed at the bangs hanging in Riku's face. He didn't know how Riku felt about him but he knew how he felt. Maybe he was not Riku's true love but…

Moistening his lips, he lifted Riku into his arms and gently brought his lips to the boy's. He allowed a few moments for the kiss, pouring all the feeling he could into it, and hoped desperately that it would work. If it didn't, he would carry the silvered one anywhere he had to until he found the one who could break the spell.

He felt movement against his lips as Riku weakly began to return the kiss. Pulling away, Leon gazed down as groggy aqua eyes slowly opened. The younger male blinked blearily a few times before fixing his sight on Leon. "Leon?"

"Hey." Leon caressed Riku's face, relief flooding through him.

Riku carefully sat up, leaning his weight against the older man's chest. Leon smiled slightly, noting that it felt quite comfortable having Riku snuggled up to him. The boy quietly spoke, "I guess I slept."

"...Yeah."

Riku cast his eyes up in query. "Is she…?"

Leon smiled fully and kissed his forehead. "Yeah, it's over now."

Licking his lips, Riku grinned and his eyes brightened. "Good."

They sat together comfortably, neither one questioning their placement or what had passed between them. The three fairies remained long enough to see that everything was all right before disappearing in sweeps of sparkles. The pair of males on the floor barely noted their exit.

Eventually, Leon rubbed Riku's back. "Let's get out of here."

Riku nuzzled into him before moving away and standing; "Yeah."

The sable-haired man climbed to his own feet. The two stood facing each other for a span of time, awkward but not uncomfortably so. They both realized that their relationship had changed, going in a direction that neither had expected. They also knew that they had found something that they were both searching for.

Leon wrapped his arm around Riku's shoulders, Riku's head tilting enough to touch his chest, and they walked out of the chamber together, ready to face whatever came next for them.

-0-0-END-0-0-

Finally, huh? Yeah, I kinda fell away from this one for awhile, mostly because all I know of Ultimecia is from Dissidia and wasn't sure how to go about writing her). I hope you all who are still with us enjoyed the ride. (So does my co-author!) Please leave your thoughts and comments and thank you for reading!