Tremor

Leon wakes up in a cabin. Frantic, he rushes to the door, and bursts outside, looking left and right for anything he recognizes, but there's nothing. Stella isn't here. Gothic City isn't here. Even the sun isn't there. He wanders through the woods, and they get darker and darker, until he can't see a thing. Finally, he stumbles across two pairs of yellow eyes. Anima appears in his hands, and one of the pairs of eyes jumps at him. He swings his keyblade at it, and it falls like a leaf to the ground. He jumps at it, and flipping sideways, he slams his keyblade into it, causing it to dissipate. The other runs off, and he chases it through the woods, only able to follow because of the slight glow of its eyes. Irritated by the chase, he takes to the air, and soars past it, throwing his keyblade back at it, destroying it. Still flying backwards from momentum, he bumps into something. It swings its sword at Leon, who just barely blocks the blow, and is driven into the ground from its force. It swings toward the ground at Leon, and Leon rolls to the side to avoid being cut in half, as its blade is embedded into the ground. It lifts the sword, and swings it like a golf club, but Leon raises Anima to deflect it. The force of the swing, however, throws Leon far above the tree line. Leon slows to a stop in the air, but a tree behind him rapidly grows, reshaping itself like a wooden hand, grabs Leon, and throws him back towards the man with the sword. Leon sinks through the air, and nearly hits the ground like a meteor, before he is abruptly grabbed by the neck by the sword wielding fiend. Gasping for breath, he tries to pry its fingers off of his neck, to no avail, as his finger works hard to keep his neck intact. As it heals Leon, its glow reveals the pyramid head of the fiend stained in the blood of recently dead, and its sword about to be thrust through him. He points at the metal cage around its head, and shoots energy from the jewel at it. It shrinks back, holding its head, and Leon resummons Anima. He runs off into the woods, and stumbles across a town. The foul thing follows him until he enters the town, and turns back to return to the woods.

Leon arrives in the town to see bodies littering the streets, most of them in pieces, and gags at the sight, and the smell. Sadness fills his eyes, as he trudges through blood and gore. "Hey you! If you don't like the view, you probably shouldn't stay!" Says an old, frail woman, sitting on a street corner, with a stop sign lodged into the head of a body right next to her. "What happened here? Have you seen a girl about my age named Stella?" Leon asks, eyeing the body near her. "My name's Maggie, thanks for asking," she says, scowling at him. "Sorry. Uh, I'm Leon," he replies. "Nobody cares what your name is, fluffy," she says to him. "But I thought... wait, fluffy?" he inquires "Yeah, you're a fluffy, it means you're not fit for this kinda place," she responds. "You seem lost. You're on Tremor, how do you not know that, is your Navi-G broken? Meh, I bet you're from a farm planet or something. Country-world boys don't know nothing. Tremor is the stuff of your nightmares, kid, and if you don't like it, I suggest you leave." Leon says back "Navi-G? What are going on about? Look, the last thing I remember was being on Earth in some university." "Earth?" she says "Nope, never heard of no Earth. Look kid, if you're stuck here, you might as well make yourself useful. Go to town hall, it's right down the street. Maybe someone there can put you to work." He shrugs, and head the direction she points, staining his pants and shoes red from the mess on the streets, with uneasy eyes scanning the buildings and the sidewalks. He opens the door to find about thirty people inside, bickering. "We can't risk any resources on finding her, we don't have enough food since the last stash got coated in guts!" a twenty-something man says. "But she'll die if we don't find her" a middle-aged woman says. "And we'll die if we do!" the man replies "A pyramid took her! If we try anything, he'll have us for dinner!" Standing in the doorway still, Leon knocks to get their attention. They look back at him, and he asks "Has anyone seen a girl named Stella?" "Stella was taken in the last pyramid raid, don't you pay any attention to these things?" the twenty-something man replies. Both terrified and hopeful, Leon says "She was?! How do I find her?" "You don't," the man answers "Nobody meets a pyramid and lives." Leon objects "That's not true, I met one, and shot him in the face with red light. I'm pretty sure I hurt him good." The whole crowd is astonished at Leon's statement, and stares at him as if he were a deity. After an awkward silence, the middle-aged woman says "You did? Then you can save the Mayor's daughter! The pyramids have her at the mountain, you have to help her!" "ᵀʰᵃᵗ'ᶫᶫ ᵇᵉ ʷʰᵉʳᵉ ˢᵗᵉᶫᶫᵃ ᶦˢ, ᵗᵒᵒ﹗"Leon thinks. "Don't send him on a suicide mission, we need him here!" the boisterous man retorts "If he speaks the truth, he can help us tonight! They'll be back, and we can't risk him going on some fool's mission just so he can die failing to save someone who might already be dead!" Numerous voices say "Yeah!" "That's right!" or "He speaks the truth." "Let's hold it to a vote!" the man who seemed to be in charge says. "All those in favor of the kid staying to protect the town, say aye!" Those votes being counted, he says "Those opposed?"

All of the votes are counted, and it comes out that Leon will protect the town. None command the FIRST! a voice says, coming from Leon's head. He turns, thinking it came from behind, "Who said that?" he says. "Nobody said anything back there, boy. Everyone's in here." The town crier tells him. Suddenly, Leon faints without any warning at all. The town surrounds him, and tries to wake him, to no avail. Finally, he stands on his own, and says to them all The First will not allow harm to come to you. You will be safe this night. The complete cacophony of the voice that took over Leon's body terrifies the town, and they do not stop him from doing whatever he wishes. Leon sees only a brief image every now and again, as the entity's control is nearly complete. One an image of a cave on the mountain he intended to go to anyway. He hopes to see Stella, but is unable to control which images he sees. The First arrives where the Pyramids are, and crushes their heads with a thought. Amazed, Leon awaits finally seeing Stella. And he does see her. Although he is quite saddened when an image of Stella appeared, as it is not the girl he loves. This is the daughter of the mayor, whose name is also Stella. Realizing his mistake, Leon ceases to attempt taking small parts of control of his eyes, and allows this "First" entity to do as it pleases. When he awakes again, he finds himself bound in a white room...