Rated M: for violence and dark themes.

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Kingdom Hearts or any of the Final Fantasy characters mentioned in this story, nor am I making any sort of profit from this.

This is for Jediempress, who wanted to see some more twisted Sephiroth from me, doing something terrible to Leon. I hope you all enjoy it and thank you for reading.

An Unfair Battle of Wills:

Leon walked home late into the evening as had become common recently. The winter months meant more power and fuel being used to warm homes and entertain said homes occupants, as they did not want to be in the cold outdoors. Water froze and cracked conduit or burst pipes. More foods and beverages were generally consumed. The orphanage and hospital needed more supplies. The list of things that the reconstruction committee needed to do kept growing longer.

The scarred man recalled that Cid had asked him to check some things on the town central computer system the next day, and that caused him to frown. Not because there was probably yet another glitch in the system, but because the town computer always made him think of its old ruler, who in turn taught Riku everything he knew.

Normally, thinking of Riku caused Leon to smile, but he realised suddenly that with all of the extra work he had been putting in around their rapidly growing town, he had certainly been neglecting his young lover. The steel-eyed man knew that Riku understood, that was actually one of the many things that he loved about the turquoise-eyed boy, but he never wanted Riku to think that he was second to the town’s needs in Leon’s mind, or that he was looked upon as another self-imposed burden, like the reconstruction.

Leon also knew that this was Riku’s first relationship. Whereas some things felt common or expected to the steel-eyed man, they were fresh and surprising for the teenager. The scarred man sighed. He really needed to start paying more attention to the silvered adolescent. He needed to figure out a way to take the boy on real dates that would actually feel like dates, while not making it clear to the public that he was in fact dating the minor. Things would be easier when the boy turned eighteen, but that was almost two years away and anyway, no one ever said that love was supposed to be easy…Leon certainly did not believe it was.

The steel-eyed man’s attention snapped back to his surroundings when the road he was cutting through suddenly grew pitch black. He strained his eyes to scan the area, but found only darkness. Then, what he wanted to call light but what his mind could only think of as a brilliant darkness, if such a thing existed, cracked through the blackness.

Within a few seconds, the road was in the normal silvery darkness of the night, but there were five orbs of the brilliant darkness surrounding Leon. He drew Revolver as they honed in on him, but was only able to deflect three.

Leon clenched his teeth and breathed in heavily as pain coursed through his back and hip, where the dark orbs had struck him. Then he heard a faint sound behind him, like the beating of a wing. He turned to face the man cautiously.

“Sephiroth…what are you doing?” The Gunblade wielder did not want to fight the winged man. Not only was he unlikely to survive, but even if he did, he did not think he could destroy Riku’s father and live with himself. Much like the reconstruction project, he knew Riku would understand, but he did not want to do that to him either way. He knew that any outcome to a battle between himself and the winged man would lead to pain for the adolescent. “Think of Riku…”

“I am.” As an eerie smirk touched pale lips, walls of flame arose on either end of the small road. Between those and the stone walls of the building on either side, the two men were effectively trapped.

Then the silvered man lunged and everything became a blur of instincts and reactions for the sable haired man.

Masamune was too long to allow Leon to use the blade of Revolver as well as he could, and Sephiroth moved too quickly for Leon to have time to aim in a shot from the weapon’s gun functions.

While Leon was an impressive and highly skilled dualist, he was only human. The winged man was so much more and that difference showed clearly, when the scarred man soon had several injuries while having only gotten in one clean strike against his powerful opponent.

The silver-haired man leaped back for a moment, and Leon raised revolver and fired, the aim was somewhat wild, and only struck the taller man’s shoulder. After releasing a small growl, Sephiroth raised his other hand as the sky darkened, then several meteors rained down, pummelling Leon painfully.

After the last dive to avoid being struck by another meteor, Leon barely had time to stand before Sephiroth attacked again with an omni-slash manoeuvre. Despite his efforts, Leon could not block most of the strikes. The blows were not strong enough to take the scarred man out, just enough to injure him and draw a fair amount of blood.

The steel-eyed man stumbled back and connected with a flame pillar, falling forward with a pained gasp before bringing up Revolver to block another strike. The second struck him soundly.

Sephiroth grabbed the sable-haired man’s jacket and pulled him up; Leon managed to fit in a slash across the winged-man’s leg. The sable-haired man used the brief distraction to cast a familiar spell, “Firaga!”

The silvered man leaped backwards; however, the spell still struck its mark. Leon attempted to follow up with a light column, but Sephiroth recovered too quickly with a spell of his own, “Heartless Angel.”

The former SeeD felt nearly each once of energy he possessed drain from his body, only to be replaced by a cold and steady pain as he collapsed.

Heavy footsteps approached him steadily, but in no obvious hurry. Leon snapped back into full consciousness as a white-hot pain shot into his thigh. He sat up as well as he could, feeling more pain until he realised that the tip of Masamune was still in his thigh, the sword slowly twisting as he glared up at Sephiroth with a hiss.

Sephiroth‘s voice was deep and even as he calmly spoke. “I believe you are ready to listen now.”

After narrowing his eyes further at those words, Leon suddenly realised something. Sephiroth was not trying to kill him or even torture him; he was just showing him what he could do. There was only one reason the scarred man could think of for him to do that. “What do you want?”

That hint of a smirk returned to the cruel man’s face as the sword stopped moving in the younger man‘s flesh. “I want you to leave Riku.”

Shock and a cold sense of dread began to fill the steel-eyed man. “I’d never hurt him-”

“You will,” Sephiroth interrupted. “You will break his heart…or I will. However, know that in order for me to do that, I will have to break him both internally and externally. What I have done tonight is only a taste of what he will suffer if you do not do this.”

The scarred man suspected it was pointless to try to talk sense to this man, but he decided to try once for Riku. “He’s your son. He-”

“The persona that desired the child has long since died,” the silvered man interrupted again as the sword began to twist once more. “I do not wish to repeat myself; make your decision. Either you will leave him, as coldly as we both know you can be, or I will take the matter into my own hands, after he will feel the anguish of your death.”

Leon hissed again, but the pain in his heart far outweighed the pain in his body as he sensed the truth in the other man‘s words. Once again, he was helpless to defend that which he loved the most. He thought that at least if chose the first option, then he might be able to try to protect Riku from afar.

His determination must have shown, for Sephiroth spoke again icily. “I will know if you try to break him gently or warn him in anyway, and then I shall kill you and break him myself.”

Leon noted that Sephiroth still had not said anything about trying to help the boy without letting him know. Of course, he surmised that after this confrontation, the silvered man was probably completely confident that the former SeeD was not a threat. Leon only hoped that Sephiroth was wrong. He would die to save Riku.

…But first, he would have to live long enough to guard the boy when he needed it.

Leon never hated any villain or himself more than in that moment. “I’ll do it.”

The heartless angel might as well have torn Leon’s heart out as he smirked, dropped a Mega Elixir, and took to the skies before disappearing in a flash of darkness.