Sell you a Bridge chapter 336 (Patreon)

July 2nd 2016 Traverse Town, 8:00 PM EDT

To  my surprise, when we got Auron back to the house, Leon and Aerith  actually knew the guy. The pink clad brunette threw herself on the pale  swordsman. Oddly, I didn't see any jealousy from Leon, nor romantic  feeling from Aerith herself. She was just grateful to see a friend safe,  even if she hadn't know he was in danger. She also seemed pleased to  see Sora, and his two friends, who I learned were named Donald and  Goofy.

"Sora!" Aerith squealed as she wrapped him in an  effusive hug. "Look at you! You got so big. Not like...fat. Like  proportional big." She ruffled his hair, and the bag goofy kid grinned  happily as he hugged her back, completely unembarrassed to be fussed  over.

Even Leon gave a small smile and a nod to the  younger man, which kind of blew my mind, because that guy was as sour as  six month old milk. His greeting was basically just a grunt, but it was  a friendlier grunt for Sora than it was for us. I, meanwhile, just  dropped onto the couch in the room with a groan, making sure to let my  armor recede. Using my Domain was taxing even with my vitality.

Zee  had come into the room, and breathed a sigh of relief when she entered,  walking over to give me a soft kiss. "Oh thank the gods. I felt you  pull on my power a few times and you seemed really worried. I was afraid  something had gone wrong." Despite knowing there was no way I'd be  killed she still worried for me terribly.

"I'm fine by the  way." Said our daughter sarcastically. "No need to check on your  daughter. I swear, you two are the most embarrassing parents of all  time. " She grumbled slightly as Drea pulled her into a hug, cuddling  with her mother as she pouted at us.

My sorceress rolled  her eyes. "Don't be a brat. I'd have felt if anything happened to you,  plus your father would die before he let you get hurt. If he's ok then  naturally so are you, even if you got injured badly he would probably  break his soul or something trying to fix you." She stood up and walked  over, pulling Rana into her arms and kissing her on each cheek. "But of  course I'm happy you're alright darling."

Our daughter  preened a bit at the affection and I just smiled. I saw her look at me  and watched her aura shift as she thought about the bear we made. I felt  my heart almost burst as I watched how much she loved us all, and  poured my own affection back through the bond so she could feel how  loved she was in return. I swear a saw a single tear bead at the corner  of her eye, but she turned away so quickly even I couldn't see for sure.

"So."  I said looking at the others, sadly having to break up all the love  fests. "Anyone know how we deal with those monsters? Because I have a  sneaking suspicion that they're going to make more as soon as they can,  and if they manage to juice up some more people like Auron there and  that Sephiroth guy we won't have enough counters to stop them from  wrecking us."

My Domain could let me fight against  probably a dozen of the damn things at once, but I wasn't sure I'd be  able to WIN a fight that lopsided. Just fighting the Devastator had been  enough to hold me up. Leon was staring at me in shock and horror.  "Did...did you say Sephiroth?" His voice was a choked whisper, like a  kid talking about the monster who lived under their bed when they were  IN said bed.

Sora nodded darkly. "Yeah. They turned him  into something bad. He's even stronger now, I didn't think he could GET  stronger." He gave Rana a wide cheery grin. "But Morana was totally  awesome! She managed to keep him on his toes all by herself. And she  even has her own keyblade!" He turned to look at me. "Oh yeah, why do  you guys have keyblades? I kind of forgot about that until just now."

Donald  groaned in the corner, literally facepalming at the obliviousness of  his friend. I wanted to glare as I saw my daughter blush again, but  looking at his aura Sora wasn't flirting at all. He didn't even have a  tinge of lust or desire in him. He was just so...innocent. It was  impossible not to like the kid. Poor Rana, if he was her first crush she  was in for a bad time, because unless she straight up propositioned him  he wasn't going to notice shit.

"Yeah." I said dryly. "We  have keyblades. There are a bunch of us. That's actually why we were  looking for you. We need you help with something." I described the  situation, telling him about the X-blade and Barbatos (without using his  name of course), but Sora just looked at me blankly.

Once  I trailed off her just shrugged. "That sounds complicated. You just  want me to help fight a bad guy right?" I stared at him for a second  then nodded. "Ok!" He chirped. "Happy to help. We'll definitely kick his  butt." He punched his hand into his fist sternly, and I briefly  wondered if I should find a different keyblade wielder. But it should be  fine, the kid wasn't bad based on the fight I'd seen, even if he was  kind of an airhead.

"Well since we found you and you're  determined to save the town, we can't exactly move on to finding the  next wielder. We need to figure out some way to draw them out." I looked  at Auron. "How long did it take them to convert you? Like can they have  another one ready to fight us next time we run into them? Do they need  time? I want to know what we're going up against. At least in general  terms."

Auron, who had been mostly quiet after arriving,  grimaced. "It isn't quick. Sephiroth and I had the misfortune of being  subdued in the Underworld. Those bastards are able to use the darkness  itself as a weapon. Otherwise how could we both have been taken down.  Still, that virus needed time to affect us. The more stubborn and  intractable you are the longer it takes. Sephiroth took about twice as  long to succumb as I did, I'm ashamed to say." He shuddered. "Thanks  again for springing me kid being trapped in my own head like that was  awful."

I could imagine. Rana, on the other hand, seemed  to feel he needed to vent. "What was it like?" My daughter asked softly.  "Being taken over like that?" I would have figured it would be too  painful to talk about, but Rana had picked up some of my ability to read  people, and combined with Drea's kindness and wish to help people, it  made her better at navigating social situations. I was learning more  about my daughter every day, and I couldn't help but love her even more.

I  felt a pulse of warmth through the bond as she returned the affection,  but she remained focused on Auron. The dark haired man ran a hand over  his face, unconsciously tracing the scar over his eye. "It was...hell.  It was like being angry, so angry you can't control what you do, but all  the time. It was worse than that though, the anger would push me to do  one thing or another, to obey the Organization members. I felt like a  dog being trained, they would snap their fingers and I would jump  through a hoop, not because I wanted to, but on instinct."

He  stared across the room, eyes boring into nothing as he lost himself in  what had been done to him. His aura was a mess, but I could  see...something. He wasn't recovering from talking about this, it was  hurting him worse if anything, but the hurt was...good? It was helping  him cleanse himself. Rana had clearly been on the money about him  needing to talk about this, and we listened to him as he described his  pain in detail.

Sora, of course, was there to pat him on  the back and tell him things would be ok, and Aerith promised to help  him recover. Even sour Leon was sympathetic, and promised his friend  that we would make sure this never happened to anyone again. Which was  possible, but difficult. The virus WAS the Devastator, and if we could  cure the Batman who had become that monster, it would shatter the entire  thing.

The hard part lay in managing that. We were going  to need some serious help. I could PROBABLY cure the monster, but it  would take every bit of my attention, which meant I couldn't help with  anything else. We'd need people to hold off the Organization and any  other converted they had with them, and while knowing they couldn't mass  produce them helped, I had a suspicion they had at least a few more  tricks up their sleeves.

That said,  based on pure aura power, Leon and Aerith were both pretty strong, and  Auron would definitely be helpful once he recovered. He wasn't the beast  he had been when he was infected, but that monster had taken Sora,  Donald, and Goofy to pin down. Based on what I could gather from the  conversation Donald was currently having with Zee off to one side, the  duck was a pretty powerful wizard, and the dog man had been taking hits  meant for a keyblade wielder, which showed how scary his defense was.

I  suspected Cid was probably pretty tough too, but if the old man wanted  to help, he would have. I turned to Aerith. "Don't suppose you have any  more friends who could help us out? The more the merrier here." I was  more worried about my girls than anything, but even with Roxas and  Namine helping, if they brought a few more monsters like that they'd be  overrun, so it was better to gang up on them.

Sora's  head shot up as he looked at Aerith, then at Goofy, and the two of them  exclaimed in unison. "Tifa!" Sora looked thrilled at whatever idea  they'd just had. "She can definitely help us!" The cheerful spiky haired  boy said. "Her and Cloud are super strong. Plus Cloud will definitely  want to fight Sephiroth like this. No way he would let go of that  chance. Aerith, do you guys have a way to get in touch with them?"

She  nodded. "Sure, all the former residents of Radiant Garden keep in  contact. They're not too far away actually, they could probably be here  in a few days. Truthfully we'd been considering calling them in before  now, it's just Cloud isn't really the most measured person. We were  worried he might run off and get himself infected." She giggled at the  idea, and Leon looked uncomfortable at her mention of the other man.

"Alright."  I said with relief. "You all reach out to them and see if you can get  their help. Any other fighters you can rope in would be good too. In the  meantime I'll see if I can arrange a few surprises of my own." I was  planning to check over my emails. It had been too long since I snagged  something helpful, and a surprise or two during the big fight might turn  things our way.

I  doubted I'd find a virus cure all for any amount I could afford right  now, but a few party favors that could help us out of a jam would be  more than possible. I couldn't wait to see Luxord's face when I  countered his bullshit card tricks. I was sure I could find something  that would shock and amaze. With a grin, I turned to smile at Zee. All  we had to do was kick a little ass and we could be out of here and on to  the next wielder. No sweat, right?