For Baronesslamia. Thanks for waiting so patiently! This is going to turn out longer than I expected, but you know how I can't just write PWP stuff. So enjoy part one of four:D

Warning: This fic will later contain a whole variety of questionable material that is NOT SAFE for work. Or school. Or snoopy parents. You've been warned.

Wake of Darkness

Part One
He Turned a Corner

-o-o-

Seventh Heaven was deserted today.

Beyond the propped open door, Leon could see gray clouds gathering in the afternoon sky, casting the borough in a nervous gloom. He could smell it in the air, that wet muskiness of approaching rain. Radiant Garden was about to get its first storm of the season.

Most of Tifa's usual patrons were at home doing last minute preparations for the downpour like fixing leaky roofs. Leon, on the other hand, had other worries. The Garden's drainage system still wasn't in top shape. If too much rain fell today, the aqueducts could flood along with half the town. All morning he had been helping clear channels for the water to flow out through other underground conduits, but he had been called away to run errands for Tifa.

Every day at noon, she delivered lunch to whoever was working in the bastion at that time. However, for the better part of the morning today, she had been wrestling with a faulty cooler and didn't have time to make the trip to the bastion herself. That was where Leon came in.

Delivery Boy Leonhart.

He hadn't been amused, but he didn't want to see what Cid—or worse, Aerith—had in store for him if he refused to take them their lunches.

"Remember, the one with the white wrapper has cheese," Tifa said as she tucked a few small packages into the delivery bag. "That's Aerith's sandwich, not Cid's."

As he stood there leaning against the counter with his arms crossed, waiting for her to finish packing the delivery bag, he glanced around and tried to remember the last time he had seen her bar so empty. Since the first day she had opened it—which had been several months ago, shortly after Sora had left—every table in this place had been full.

She had only stayed in Radiant Garden and opened her bar because this was where Cloud and Sephiroth had disappeared. She was still waiting for Cloud's return. One time he had overheard Cid asking her why she'd stuck around this time, and she had answered with a simple: Because I'm his light, and he needs me.

Leon still didn't really get it, but then... Sora had held a similar attitude about his own friends. Defeating the darkness, searching for his light...

"Also, don't forget to tell him I need him to fix the second cooler in the back. I am not gonna deal with the same problems tomorrow when people are actually here ordering stuff."

Behind him, Tifa's bag shuffling continued, and he searched the gray sky, thinking about what they had told him about Cloud's sudden disappearance. Apparently even Sora had been present, but Leon had been in the marketplace at the time.

Except for an occasional spar with Cloud, Leon hadn't been as close to him as the others had been, mostly because something about Cloud's personality had always rubbed him wrong. Leon still recalled the time the girls had told Cloud to help Leon out with some of the reconstruction, and Cloud had outright told them that he didn't care what happened to this place. Their home.

"There, that should do it. Your sandwich is in here, too. I ran out of white grape juice for Aerith, so give her the fresh milk that's in there, okay?"

Leon had spent nine years in Traverse Town yearning to return home and then another year trying to rebuild that home just so he could finally put the past behind him and move on in his life. For Cloud to say something like that, it really pissed him off.

"Okaaay?"

Whatever. Even if Cloud had his own demons of the past to chase, disappearing with Sephiroth like that was selfish. It made the girls worry. Tifa and Aerith rarely brought the situation up, but he could tell they wanted to and that they often thought about it. The questions were unspoken but still there. Where had Cloud gone? Had he defeated Sephiroth for good? Would Cloud come back this time?

Even Leon had to sometimes wonder about it. Not that he'd admit it out loud.

"Hey! Earth to Leon! You even listening to me?"

Drawn out of his thoughts by the strong fist that connected with his arm, he internally winced and turned to glare at her.

"Got your attention now?" she teased, flexing her hand. "You can brood after you finish the errand, Delivery Boy."

"Whatever." He studied the white delivery bag, which was now tied shut, and he grabbed it by the knot on top. His arm throbbed in protest, and he made a mental note to look for a bruise later. At least she hadn't put her normal force into the blow; he'd seen her fight plenty of times and knew how deadly those fists of hers could be. For now, he brushed off the momentary pain and pushed away from the counter. "I'll try to make it back before the rain hits."

"And don't forget to tell Cid about the cooler!" she called at his back.

He lifted a hand in acknowledgement as he left the bar and stepped onto the street. Taking the side path towards the bailey, he fell into deep thought almost immediately.

Having traveled this road so many times, he expected to one day find his boot treads worn into the stone. He knew the path by heart and didn't have to look to know where he was going, so he could afford to let his mind wander—at least until he strayed farther from the safety of the borough. The town's defense mechanism took care of a majority of the heartless, but it never hurt to be prepared. Especially on gloomy days like this.

He couldn't help getting the distinct feeling that something was going to happen. There had been a storm the night Radiant Garden had first fallen, and he had never outgrown the memory of that fear.

But he knew he couldn't be the only one who felt strangely unsettled by these clouds; he had noticed it all day, little details like how Tifa had been wearing her fighting gloves, not her casual ones. His own weapon hadn't left his side since he had first seen the heavy clouds gathering on the horizon. Even now, the gunblade's solid weight hanging from his belts spelled security for him.

Though the unnatural silence of the bailey did nothing to ease his nerves. He was used to at least a few heartless showing up to investigate which heart was wandering away from the town, but today—nothing, not even as he passed through the gates and descended the stairs to the restoration area. Only the trickling of the fountains followed behind him.

He came to a pause at the bottom of the stairs and glanced up at the whiter clouds overhead. These were thin enough for him to spot the faint outline of the sun directly above him.

Noon.

At least he was on schedule. Tifa was never late with their lunch, and he knew this from how often he himself was at the end of her deliveries to the bastion.

Smiling a little, he adjusted the bag in his hand and continued towards the gate that would take him to the restoration site. Despite the absent heartless, everything else was as it should be. The same trail every day usually yielded no surprises: the small gate would be closed, and beyond it would be the heartless-infested area, and beyond that the path would open up and lead to the postern. No surprises.

At least, there shouldn't have been.

The gate was open when he arrived. Usually Cid was anal about having people keeping it closed, so they were careful about doing so.

Trying not to think much of it, Leon passed through the gate and closed it behind him, but the suspicion was hard to ignore. It piqued his discomfort enough that he planned to ask Cid about it when he got to Ansem's old study and delivered their sandwiches.

He followed the familiar path, stepping over fallen sheets of metal and steel pipes, wanting to reach the end of the reconstruction zone quickly. The lack of heartless still hadn't escaped his attention. Every other time he had taken this path, he had been stopped by at least two teams of the creatures, and this silence was beginning to grow more than just unnerving.

When he saw the brass drainage pipe ahead, he released a long breath, knowing he was almost there, and just in time. He was starting to get hungry. Plus, the gray clouds had drawn much closer. Soon the wind would pick up, the temperature would drop, and the sky would reign its fury down on the small town. He didn't want to be caught out here when that happened. The bastion wasn't a great place to get stranded, either, but at least it was shelter. Out here, he was at the complete mercy of the elements.

Starting to hurry, he passed the drainage pipe and continued along the path, expecting to see the postern just around the bend. Just a few more minutes and he'd be safe...

But when he turned a corner, safety became the last thing on his mind.

A person was lying in the middle of the path.

Leon froze several meters away, his hand automatically moving to his gunblade as he mistook the dark clothes and wicked wing for a heartless. But that head of yellow spikes was instantly recognizable. And in that instant, Leon forgot any hard feelings he had held minutes ago for the man who had been missing for months.

"Cloud!"

He sprinted forward and skidded to a stop beside the fallen figure, kneeling at once and dropping his bag of food so he could roll Cloud over to get a better look at him. He was still wearing the clothes he had disappeared in, but they were tattered and stained with shades of blood long dried, though Cloud didn't seem to have a scratch on him.

What caught his attention the most was what he saw through the holes in Cloud's one long sleeve—hints of dark skin, nothing like the soft peach of the rest of him. Black skin? Was he sick? He didn't seem ill, but his eyes were closed and he was motionless.

Leon rested a hand on the man's forehead.

Still warm.

As if responding to his touches, Cloud's wing shifted. Leon's eyes focused on the dark appendage, and he remembered that Cloud hadn't had it before he had disappeared. Actually, if he recalled correctly, he hadn't seen it since that first month they had gotten their home back.

Why had the wing returned? Plus, that black skin...

Curious, he began to reach for the torn sleeve to get a better look at Cloud's tainted arm, but a flutter of color captured his attention.

Blue eyes were watching him.

Leon's breath caught as he met that gaze, almost as if careful not to scare it away, but Cloud himself seemed to be having trouble keeping focused. His lashes fluttered again, then opened, the blue once more trying to discern Leon's face.

There was a moment in which they studied each other, refamiliarizing the subtle details of one another's faces—with Leon mentally tracing the pale brows and green freckles in his eyes, just as how Cloud was staring at the scar across his forehead. It took a moment, but Cloud's senses seemed to clear, and when they did, the muddled confusion on his face rapidly hardened into a grave intensity.

In a fierce tone that was so soft it hardly reached Leon's ears, he warned:

"Get out of here."

Cloud's arm reached out, smooth and quick, and Leon felt fingers clamp around his pant leg—but when he glanced down, he felt a chill creep up his spine. What he saw were not the pale fingers he had expected. Cloud's sleeve had fallen back, revealing the tainted skin beneath, as well as a set of fiendish claws more heartless than human.

What?

Alarmed, Leon started to back away, but then he noticed how tense Cloud's body had grown. Even his wing was now drawn behind him like a wolf's ears pressed to its skull.

Then Cloud's sharp gaze flickered upward and focused on something behind Leon, just as a single black feather drifted between them.

A creak of leather was the only other warning Leon had before he felt the cold press of a blade at his neck, and a low, sultry voice spoke into his ear.

"I was expecting the woman..."

Soft feathers caressed his arm, and Leon drew in a sharp breath. The flat side of the blade stroked beneath his chin as he slowly, cautiously turned to glance behind him.

Silver hair tickled his cheek as vibrant green eyes met his, only centimeters away, and Sephiroth's lips curled into a dark, dark smile.

"But you will suffice."

-o-o-