Braig’s sharp eyes never left Helios, his grip tightening slightly on his arrowguns. The air between them was thick with tension, eaent stretg loha. Finally, Helios broke the silence, his voice calm but edged with curiosity.

  “So, what are you going to tell them?” Helios gestured toward the unscious forms of Din and Aeleus, his shadowy form rippling faintly. “You know, when they wake up and ask what happened here.”

  Braig’s smirk returhough his eyes remained hard. “Really? That’s your first question?” he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

  Helios tilted his head, the faint glow of his amber eyes in his dark form catg the light of the crystals around them. “Call me curious. Go on, I’m listening.”

  Braig chuckled, though there was no humor in it. “Fine,” he said, his tone casual but ced with menace. “I’ll spin a little story for them. Something about you having an aplice who ambushed us, maybe even tried to take them out. Keeps the heat off me and puts it all on you. Sound good?”

  Helios shrugged nontly. “Works for me,” he replied. “Now, your turn. What does ‘Luxu’ wish to know?”

  At the mention of the name, Braig’s pyful smirk vanished, repced by a dangerous iy. The air around him seemed to grow heavier as a threatening aura radiated from his body. His voice dropped, low and cold. “Who are you?” he demanded. “And how do you know that name?”

  Helios smirked, crossing his arms as he leaned against a nearby crystal formation. “Aww, sorry,” he said mogly. “Questions about my identity are off the menu. You’ll have to settle for the sed one.”

  Braig raised one of his arrowguns, aiming it squarely at Helios. “Don’t py coy with me,” he growled. “I remember everyone who survived and should be walking around in this era. You’re not one of them.”

  Helios let out a soft chuckle, the sound eg faintly in the cavern. “A, here I am,” he said, his tone light but carrying an uone of menace. “I know the events from back then because I saw them with my own eyes. How else do you think I’d know the name ‘Luxu’?”

  Braig’s grip tightened on his arrowguns, his gaze narrowing as he studied Helios. “That’s impossible,” he said sharply. “If you were there, I’d know you. So, either you’re lying, or there’s something seriously wrong with this picture. Unless you’ve taken another’s body to survive throughout the ages.”

  “Take your pick,” Helios said with a shrug. “But I thih know the truth doesn’t ge the fact that I’m here now.”

  Braig didn’t lower his ons, but his smirk returhough it didn’t reach his eyes. “Alright, shadow boy. Let’s move on to the question. What do you want?”

  Helios straightened, his glowing eyes meeting Braig’s unflingly. “Simple,” he said. “I don’t want to be bothered while I’m here.”

  Braig raised an eyebrow, his smirk widening. “That’s a pretty vague request. Care to eborate?”

  Helios’s voice grew colder, his toeady and deliberate. “I know what Xehanort is pnning. I have no iion of interfering with him or his grand scheme. All I want is to do what I came here to do and leave. So, Luxu,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he used the name again, “I’m hoping you’ll return the favor and ignore me.”

  Braig’s smirk faded slightly, repced by a look of measured ption. He lowered one of his arrowguns, though the other remairained on Helios. “You expect me to just trust you?” he asked, his tone skeptical.

  “I don’t care if you trust me,” Helios replied bluntly. “I’m not your enemy, but I’m also not your ally. Call it… parallel paths. Yours leads to Xehanort, mine leads somewhere else. That’s all you o know.”

  Braig tilted his head, his sharp eyes glinting with somethiween curiosity and suspi. “And what if our paths cross again? What then?”

  Helios smirked, his shadowy form rippling faintly as he stepped closer. “We’ll cross that bridge wheime es. If does we’ll see if I keep avoiding those fancy little guns of yours,” he said, his tone almost pyful.

  Braig let out a low chuckle, holstering one arrowgun while keeping the other at his side. “You’re a piece of work, shadow boy,” he said, shaking his head. “Fine. You stay out of our way, and I’ll think about staying out of yours. But don’t push your luck.”

  Helios nodded, his smirk fading into a more serious expression. “Good enough,” he said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got better things to do than trade barbs with an old Keybde wielder pying at being a sniper.”

  Braig’s eyes narrowed at the jab, but he didn’t rise to the bait. He stepped aside, gesturing toward the exit. “Go on, then. Just don’t fet—if you make trouble, I’ll be there.”

  Helios ined his head, his amber eyes gleaming faintly as he turoward the shadows. “Duly noted,” he said over his shoulder.

  With that, he vanished into a swirling dark corridor, leaving Braig aloh the unscious Din and Aeleus. Braig stared after him for a moment, his sharp eyes thoughtful as he muttered under his breath.

  “Just what are you up to, shadow boy?”

  Helios emerged from the dark corridor into the quiet interior of Leon's house. The warm, rustic space felt oddly peaceful pared to the tense enters he’d just left behind. His eyes immediately fell oh, seated beside a atose Cloud. Her soft hands rested on his arm, and her serene face was etched with .

  The sight firmed Helios's worst fears. Cloud’s dition was dire, his eyes were hollow and his body unnaturally still. The telltale signs of a fractured heart loomed over him like a dark cloud, eerily simir to what had happeo Ventus when Master Xehanort had split his heart to create Vanitas.

  Aerith’s wide, startled eyes met Helios’s as he stepped into the room, his dark presensettling iherwise serene space. “You—” she began, but before she could say more, Helios raised a hand and cast a sleep spell.

  The magic shimmered softly in the air, ah’s resistance melted almost immediately. Her eyelids fluttered shut, and she slumped forward. Helios quickly moved to catch her, cradling her gently before ying her down on the bed after moving Cloud aside.

  "Sorry, Aerith," he murmured under his breath. “But I don’t have time to expin.”

  Turning his attention fully to Cloud, Helios k beside him and pced a hand on the man’s chest. He closed his eyes, summoning the dark power within him to probe the state of Cloud’s heart. As he feared, it was fragile—splintered and unstable, teetering on the edge of colpse. The separation of darkness within him, personified as Sephiroth, had left Cloud’s heart deeply wounded. Without intervention, it would shatter pletely given time.

  The memory of his parents’ hearts breaking flickered in Helios’s mind. Their final moments, their faces, their sacrifices—it ain he could never fet, one he refused to let happen again. Shaking the thoughts away, he focused on Cloud. There was no room for se now. A was needed.

  Helios reached down and lifted Cloud’s limp body, his Keybde summoning a dark corridor before him. “I know whose heart help you,” he muttered under his breath. “But they’re in another world.”

  He stepped into the swirling shadows, the portal closing behind him with a soft hum.