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Shadows of Birth Chapter One: A new Beginning

_"Look at you, you're getting bigger everyday!" Watching as the tall, brunette woman in front of him, Consus watched as his small arms reached forward and wrapped then around the woman's waist, giving her a big hug.

He looked up at her, but then something caught his eye. He turned his head to see his own wing and reached out to touch it. "Mommy, what are these? I know you told me before, but how do I have them?"

She had a slight smile on her face as she picked him up and sat down, putting him on her lap. "I have been keeping a secret from you for a long time, Consus... You know how I have told you stories about Dragons? How they have helped to preserve the world's Light for so long?"

"Yeah, I think I do."

The pale hand of his mother grasped the golden heart-shaped pendant around her neck and let out a sigh. "Well, I'm going to show you who I truly am... I have hidden this for long enough."

As his mother stood back up and set him on the chair, Consus watched as she stood at the cave's entrance and removed the pendant from her neck. At first, Consus was blinded, but it wasn't long before he stared in awe at the bright light that formed her. "You're beautiful..."_

"Is he... crying?"

"What the heck is it anyway? Some kind of bat?"

"Give him room. I think it's waking up."

As he heard the new voices around him, Consus lifted his heavy arm and wiped the moisture from his eyes to get a clear view. Heh... like it matters. It seems any place I go now seems to get destroyed anyway... Once he was sitting up, he looked around to see a few battle-worn figures. The first had blonde spiky hair and held a giant sword on his back. The second had a pair of goggles on his forehead and along toothpick in his mouth. He held a spear on his shoulders, his arms wrapped around the poll. The third had a large scar across his face and held a silver sword. It didn't look like a normal sword to Consus, though, the weapon having a deep hole in the front that seemed to go down the whole blade. "...Are you guys friends of Zidane?"

The man with a spear let out a small laugh. "Yeah, somthin' like that I suppose."

The blonde man didn't seem to want a part of any of this, but Consus stared into his eyes. For some reason, he was entranced by the shimmer they gave off. "So, where am I? I was with Zidane and Selphie when we were attacked by a Darkside..."

"Damn it! Another one?! Weren't Kain and Bartz on a planet that was destroyed yesterday?" The guy with the spear seemed the most talkative, though he seemed to have a rough attitude about everything.

"...Yeah. They're getting stronger and we need to think of something." Turning to Consus, the silver-swordsman held his hand out to him. "Well, if you were with Zidane, there must have been a reason. I'm Leon. You are currently in what's left of a place called Traverse Town."

Consus took the man's hand after a second of hesitation and stood up, realizing his Keyblade was still gripped in his left hand. He looked down to the ground and picked up the loose black blade that was on the ground and put it with the matching blade in its pouch on his hip. "...You're saying there's no chance they survived that?"

Leon let out a sigh and covered his face with his open hand for a moment. "It's hard to be sure. For all we know, they might have escaped to a new world."

Consus gave a nod. He really didn't understand any of this, but was sure that if he stuck around, maybe he would find something out. "They sent me here to get more training with my Keyblade, said that you could help me, Leon."

With a nod, Leon then glanced at the weapon in Consus' hand. "I figured as much with the look of that thing. Looks like those two found something in that world after all."

"Well, I wasn't from that world originally, but that's when they started teaching me about the Heartless and stuff."

Giving the drake a weird look, he shrugged it off and turned around. "I'll have Cid show you around. I need to go talk to someone before we do anything with you."

"Hey! Why do I get stuck with the kids all the time?!"

Leon turned around to the spear-wielder, "Oh you seem to have a thing for them, that's all." He said, walking down the sidewalk and into a brown building.

"C'mon Cloud! Help me out here!"

The heavy swordsman turned away from Cid, who could be heard whining about being ignored, and walked up to Consus. They were almost the same height, but the glow of this soldier's eyes and his tough form defiantly showed that he was fierce. "...Get strong. Don't forget who you are." He continued walking as he passed and drew his sword before jumping up, onto the roof of the building ahead of them and running out of sight.

"...Ugh, fine. Come with me, kid. We'll start with my old shop."

Cid seemed like a nice guy overall, but he sure seemed to whine a lot in Consus' opinion. They traveled around Traverse Town for about an hour and it proved to Consus that he was just a small part of something huge between the worlds.

"Yep, those damn Heartless have been gathering again. Slowly been takin' planets out one by one. They keep tryin' to take this one, but like hell we're gonna let go of this place!"

There was much debris in the roads of the dim city. The dark sky only seemed to cloak the remaining glowing lights around the town. There were a few other people there, but most were busy with their own things to pay attention to them. "I know what they Heartless are, but why do they do this?"

"Why? Hell, I don't know why. I just know they've busted my ship up one too many times. They deserve an ass whoopin'."

Consus gave a nod. He guessed everyone had their own reasons for fighting the Heartless. What reason do I have anymore...? Zidane and Selphie could be alive, but I don't even know what world they were on or if it's even still existent... Perin never even seemed to want me at all, so even that's trashed.

"Yo kid, you alright? We're here."

Looking up from the ground, Consus looked at the smiling Cid who was holding open a door for him. "Come on, my arm's getting tired. I don't do this kind of stuff often, so take advantage of it while you can."

As he entered the room, Consus watched as Leon came from the stairway in front of him. He wore the same outfit as before, but after all the blood and dirt was clean he looked real tough. "Good, just in time. We've decided to help you, Consus. We'll give you information about the current situation and teach you what we can of the Keyblade. Cid, I need you to send an e-mail to Chip or Dale. The file is saved in your documents in your airship."

Lowering his spear's tip from his grasp, Cid kicked himself off the wall he was leaning on and opened the door again. "Sure thing, would you like a coffee with that too?"

"Not now, Cid. This is important."

"Fine... I'm doin' it! Sheesh!"

Once the door shut behind Cid, Consus turned to face Leon again. His eyes instantly gazed upon his hands, which now held the same weapon he had before. "You say Zidane began teaching you. Let's see how much you actually know."

"Well, that's another world saved. Where to next?" Sora kicked back in his chair on the Gummyship rubbing his sore neck. They had been on a three month spree trying to save as many planets they could with this latest invasion. This time was different, though. The Heartless seemed to have no specific leader guiding them. Every planet they went to, it was usually just a bunch of Shadows, a few Neoshadows, maybe a few Darksides. With the numbers of the beast, though, it was defiantly started to wear them down.

"Sora, calm down. We just got a message." Riku was in the captain's chair for Donald, who was tending to his burnt beak. His fire attack had backfired and blasted him instead during the last fight. "It's from Leon, he says he's got something to show you and that you need to go there as soon as we can."

"Leon, huh? Hmm... Yeah, he might need help with something. Let's start going to them. Where are they right now?"

"He's still in Traverse Town."

Sora swiftly sat up. "Let's go then. If it's from Leon, it's gotta be good."

Watching as Leon pointed the blade at him, Consus drew the daggers he had received from Zidane. Leon then let out a small chuckle. "He gave you Triumph, huh? I guess he really did think something of you."

"Triumph? What are you talking about?"

"You don't know? It's the weapons you wield. Two swords that can merge into one, he's got quite the thing for those types of blades." Leon then placed his open hand on the hilt of his sword and started at the half-dragon in front of him. "We'll see how well you use them." With one swift movement of a finger, Leon fired his first shot from his gun at Consus. The drake was surprised as the shot defected off of his right blade. What the hell was that?! Before he had time to think anything else, he watched as Leon's finger began to pull the trigger again. This time, Consus was ready and as the shot was fired, he timed his swing right with the bullet and deflected it back, narrowly missing Leon'a leg. He formed a small smile, obviously knowing how close that shot was to him. He then dashed forward and jumped in the air, slashing down at the drake.

Dodging to the side, Consus flapped his wings and gained a little more distance before shifting the weapon and attacking with the now massive two-handed weapon. Leon blocked the attack with his own sword and countered with a swift cast of Thunder. The magic hit Consus and stunned him for a second, giving Leon the chance to kick him away and fire another shot at the drake, but missed as the agile foe jumped off the ground and was flying in the air before he could even pull the trigger. Looking up, he started to aim his gunblade at the flying Consus, but the drake was already attacking, shifting Triumph back to the two daggers.

He thrust his hand forward to hit Leon when a massive blade blocked his attack. Looking over, he saw Cloud standing there, holding the rusted iron sword easily in one hand. "He passes. Are you happy, Leon?"

"Heh, way to stop a good fight, Cloud. Yeah, I'm happy."

As Consus relaxed, he watched as both Leon and Cloud put their weapons away, so he did the same. "Why did you do that in the first place? What's this even about?" He watched as Leon patted Cloud on the shoulder as the solder began to walk off again. Consus started to think that he was most like Cloud. All he really wanted to do was be alone.

"Trust me, there's a lot you probably don't know. Getting too much information all at once can be just as bad as not getting enough, and you have done all you need to know for today. You've been through a lot and need your rest. I've instructed Aerith to get a room set up for you. She should be down the east wing."

"But Leon-"

"I've got a lot to do. I'll come see you later." He said, turning back towards the stairs and climbing them.

Just like that, Consus was alone again. He wasn't sure whether he liked it or not, but it was all he was really used to. He decided it would do him no good to stand there and turned towards a small hallway to watch as a girl in a pink dress and with long hair left one of the rooms. She began walking in his direction before she noticed him looking at her. She was at first shocked, but soon gave a warm smile. "So, you must be Consus. Easy to tell since there are not many people with wings and a tail."

"Yeah, that's me. Just amazes me how you people aren't afraid of it like on my home world."

Aerith gave a small giggle. "Trust me, after you hear about what we've faced, you would be glad to have a mean dragon fighting on your side."