AN- Hey Viewers Sorry for being so late! I finally got KH2 and got distracted..plus I was a bit uninspired til now. I'm at the very end of KH2. I'm just too scared to finish it. Mainly because I don't want it to end -cries- Well I'll be joining this story right on to the KH2 story line. So in a few chapters it should fuse right onto it. It may seem to be fast forwarded a bit but I gotta pull it up somehow heh. Thank you everyone for your lovely comments! You're comments really keep me going with this story. I hope you enjoy this next chapter
Chapter VII – An Overview
The group had been flying in the nothingness of space for awhile since leaving Halloween Town. Yuffie was saddened when her Halloween spell was taken off her. She missed having her little devil wings and tail. Leon on the other hand was thanking the heavens that he didn't have to take care of the large growth of hair on his chest.
"I'm going to take a rest." Leon stated as he walked to his unit in the airship. Yuffie didn't particularly like going to bed but after her battle in Halloween Town she was pretty spent. Aerith went as well and Cid soon followed after putting the airship on auto-pilot.
"'Night everyone! …At least I think its night" Yuffie called out from her room after putting on her sleep wear. Out of the three she called out to, Aerith's response was the clearest she could hear. The other responses were a jumble of mumbles.
Yuffie found it hard to get to sleep quickly. She would always end up sitting up in bed reading a comic or drawing little doodles of random things. For example: herself dressed as a super ninja or winning over Leon's heart. She tended to destroy all evidence of those drawings. In case, God forbid, Leon found them. Sometimes the thought would freak her out so much that if she heard someone walking past her door she would shove the paper in her mouth and attempt to eat it. Most of the time, it was just someone going to the bathroom or fridge. She'd then regurgitate the paper from the mouth and flatten it out to dry it out. But on this flight she had forgotten to pack her drawing utensils and reading material so she didn't have much else to do but zone out to sleep.
'This bed is 'so' not sleeping material' Yuffie thought as she lay down onto it. 'I've slept on logs better then this! Not that I would sleep on a log…' While staring into space she thought about what had happened at Halloween Town.
'Man, I haven't had a work out that hard since the Tournaments at the coliseum. If Leon hadn't come in when he did I would have been decomposing in the belly of that ugly sack of maggots.' Yuffie shuddered at the thought. 'I must really get on his nerves sometimes…I mean it's not I 'look' for trouble. It just happens to find me…often.' She sighed to herself. 'I guess I'm more of a burden then anything else…ergh I shouldn't start thinking like this, it's too depressing. Tomorrow I'll make sure to stay out of trouble…well at least not too much trouble' she nodded and closed her eyes to go to sleep.
'I wonder why he wanted to get back home so much…'
"Believe in yourself and your heart will bare a light that will protect you" a voice whispered into a girl's ear.
A dark subject lunged towards them but was torn apart by a fast blade running through the air. The two girls looked up to see who had saved them.
"What the hell are you two kids doing!" a gruff man said readying his spear for another wave of monsters. "Quick! Head towards my airship, it's over there in the hanger!" The man said pointing the way by nodding his head in the direction of the airship hangers. The elder girl picked up the younger one and headed towards the airship. The man ran close behind, hitting off the stray monsters which were following them. When they reached the airship they paused and waited for the older man.
"Pull the switch saying 'Lift to Open' to open the hatch!" The man yelled when he caught up with them. She did as he ordered and the hatch slowly opened to the airship. "Don't wait for it to open up completely, just jump in!" the man said again when he saw the girls waiting for the door to open. The young lady lifted the clinging girl up onto the ship.
"It's alright, we're going to be fine now" she coaxed the girl trying to get her to let go of her arm. The toddler released her arm slowly and watched the young woman climb aboard after her. The man slashed down a few more creatures before jumping aboard as well.
"Quick! Hit that switch again!" He called out to the pink clad girl as he stood at the door ready for any more dark creatures. Some nearly got aboard but the man slashed them down with his spear before they got fully aboard. Once the door was finally shut the sound of the creatures scratching against the door started to form. The man rushed to the cockpit and started the engines. The little girl went to the nearest window and only saw darkness and yellow eyes staring towards her. The area around her was being ripped up into a huge black hole above the castle.
"Hold on girls!" a gruff voice said over the speaker phone. At saying this, the airship jolted to movement and slowly began to rise from the ground. As the ship rose, the creatures clinging to the airship slowly lost grip and fell back into the darkness.
The pilot of the ship didn't seem to know where he was going, or what he was going to do to keep them safe. They just stayed in mid-flight for awhile before the youngest girl spotted something on the ground. From where she was sitting all she could make out was a small glint of light.
"Miss flower lady! Miss flower lady!" she called out. The said person rushed over to her and looked at what the girl was pointing at.
"Sir! We must get lower!" The young woman called out.
"What! You got to be kidding! We aren't going any lower unless you want to die!" He yelled back.
"There's somebody down there who needs help, mister!" the little girl pleaded to the pilot.
"What! How could-" He paused as he too saw the small glint of light down on the ground. "Ergh, I'll fly in low. You'll have to take the steering when I go to get them." He said directing it at the older girl. She nodded with agreement and listened to his crash course of steering an airship.
As the airship got closer to the light, a figure could be seen clutching at nothingness. The little girl just kept staring at them until she could recognise the person's features. She gasped with recognition as she figured out who it was. 'It's the man from across the river!' She wanted to follow the pilot outside to help but was shouted back when she followed him to the door. His voice was very commanding and she obeyed straight away.
The airship was low enough to jump out and land safely on the ground without causing too much injury. The younger girl watched the older man jump down and run out towards where the young man was. The eerie glow had diminished by the time the pilot had run up to him. The pilot spoke to the young man then began to shake his shoulder to get him to move. The girl couldn't tell if the young man knew the pilot was there or not but soon enough there were dark creatures starting to surround them. The pilot was shaking him a lot more vigorously and shouting words to him which she could not hear. The pilot said one last thing to him before the young man rose from the ground slowly. He dragged up a blade with a gun shaped handle. The weight of the weapon appeared heavy on his hands. As they made their way back to the ship, the pilot slashed down a couple of dark creatures as they went.
"Pull it up!" the pilot yelled once the two men had got onto the ship. At saying this, the airship jolted sharply up, so much so that it knocked the younger girl off the seat she was sitting on. The pilot cursed and ran to the cockpit, where it soon became a lot steadier. The young man who just boarded the ship slouched against the wall and slid down into a sitting position. The little girl just watched him hang his head down and almost return to the blank state in which they found him. She slowly shifted over to him; intimidated by his body language she almost seemed to be daring herself to go closer. When she finally came within a metre of him she couldn't figure out what to say to him. His clothes weren't in the best form. His long sleeved black jacket had dirt and scratch marks on it and the fur around the collar was more a murky brown then the pure white it originally was. The rest of his clothes were worn out in the same manner.
"What?" He mumbled out noticing the young girl staring at him. She jolted aback when she heard him speak to her.
"Ah…Umm…heh…nothing!" she responded shyly.
He stared at her for awhile before speaking again. "You're that little girl from across the river, aren't you?"
"Eh! …ye...yes" She stuttered back. There was a silence before the little girl looked up again. She saw him looking straight at her but his eyes seemed out of focus, as if he was in deep thought. After a few moments he went back to looking down at his chest again. The little girl shifted closer more until she was sitting next to one of his outstretched legs.
"Where are your friends?" She said innocently looking at his hair, since his face was looking down.
"…They're gone…" He muttered in response.
"Are they on another airplane?" she responded unknowingly of what he meant by 'gone'.
"…no…they're-" he paused when he looked up into her face again. Seeing the innocent child she was he withdrew the idea of telling her the truth. "…yeah, another plane…" he said nonchalantly.
"Are we going to meet them at the airport?" She continued to question. He twitched slightly, as if her words were putting pressure on the truth more.
"…I don't know" he said looking the other direction.
"We'll meet them again, I promise." At saying these words the young man turned to the little girl looking at her as if he'd recognised something she had said. She tilted her head, perplexed at his expression, but her confusion was cut short when the airship violently jolted, throwing the little girl into the young mans lap. He held on to her to keep her from rolling off him and bashing into the surroundings of the airship.
"Oh shit! Everyone hold on to something! We're being sucked into the black hole! Oh fu-!" The microphone was cut out with loud static and the whole airship began to shake viciously as it neared the warp hole. The little girl clutched onto the man's chest as the airship spun around. Then suddenly everything went black.
"Rise and shine sleeping beauties! We're entering Heartless territory. So get your arses into gear." Cid's voice spoke out over the speaker phone, resulting in the end of Leon's rest. He pushed himself up with his hands and sat upright a few seconds before sliding off onto his feet, putting his shoes back on as well as his jacket, belts and gloves. Heading out the door he headed towards the cockpit, fixing his hair as he walked.
"First up as always" Cid greeted Leon as he walked into the cockpit. "I think I've found a shortcut through the heartless but it'll be risky. Damn it! I should have made a replica of that gummi piece I gave Sora to get that warp portal to Hollow Bastion." Cid said practically to himself since Leon had zoned out staring out into space. He nodded vaguely so Cid didn't see him not paying attention. The door opened again to Aerith fiddling with one of her curls in her hair.
"So, are we nearly there Cid?" She asked finishing up with her hair.
"If I hotwire the system and load a new program then I could-" he continued rambling to himself, opening up the door to the control system. Aerith just looked at Leon for an answer but only got a shrug.
"Should we wake up Yuffie?" Leon suggested still staring out into space to see if any heartless were homing in on their location.
"Would someone get me a coffee?" Cid ordered anonymously.
"I'll get the coffee, Leon you go wake up Yuffie." Aerith said smiling at Leon. He turned abruptly to her, looking as if he was just told to clean the toilets. Aerith let out a small giggle and headed to where the food supplies were. "Good luck!"
"Yeah thanks…" Leon said. He only knew one thing, and that was that Yuffie was so hard to wake up it was if she was in a coma.
He exited the cockpit and headed towards the room Yuffie was in. He opened the door to see Yuffie sprawled over the bed with the covers tangled around her leg. Leon smirked and shook his head at her predicted appearance. He walked up to her bed and stared at her for a few moments, trying to figure out the best way to wake her without causing a ruckus.
"Yuffie" he said in a low voice. No response. He raised his hands and took off his gloves. Lowering himself to her level, he put a hand onto her shoulder and shook her gently. "Yuffie…wake up" She still didn't respond and just continued sleeping. He sighed and continued to call her name. Then he went to stage 2; the ripping off the bed sheets. Since the airship was air-conditioned it was quite cool. Nothing woke up a person more then having their warmth stripped from them and to have the hard cold hit them. Leon grasped the bed sheets and pulled them straight off. To his satisfaction Yuffie did awaken from her slumber. She made a girly whinging sound and clutched for the covers, still with her eyes closed. She got hold of them and started to play tug-o-war with Leon.
"I'm co-o-o-ld! Give me the covers back Aerith!" Yuffie whinged not realising that Leon was the one grasping the covers. She tugged on the covers and starting to roll on her side to give her some more pull.
"Heh, you know you're not going to win" Leon chuckled out. Yuffie spun around wide awake looking at Leon.
"Holy Frek! Wh-what are you doing!" Yuffie said with a high pitched voice, shocked to see Leon standing over her with her bed covers.
"Waking you up?" he responded bluntly. "Now hurry up and get ready, we'll probably be getting another rough trip…unless Cid can figure out that alternative he was mumbling about."
"Wh-what? Waking…I…hey wait!" Yuffie stuttered, calling to Leon as he started to exit. He stopped and turned his head to her. "…You have my bed covers…"
"Oh…sorry" He stepped back and handed the covers to Yuffie.
"What's that?" Yuffie said pointing at a bit of yellow fabric coming out of one of his jacket pockets.
"What's what?" Leon said looking down at where she was pointing. He realised straight away what it was and couldn't believe he still had it with him for all this time. He unzipped the jacket pocket and took out the scarf he had kept with him from when Yuffie had left it in his room at Traverse Town. Yuffie gasped with astonishment at seeing her scarf. As well as the fact that Leon had it with him.
"My scarf!" Yuffie exclaimed.
"Yeah, yo-"
"Why do you have it! Wait…how long have you had it?" Yuffie interrupted Leon.
"Well if you let me finish I can explain." Leon said, trying to explain things out to Yuffie before she started to think differently of the situation. He paused before starting the story since he was trying to recap it all in his head. Yuffie stared at him with thoughts blaring in her head on how things came to how they were.
"Well?" Yuffie said still waiting impatiently for Leon who was just staring at the scarf in his hand.
"…You left it in my room in Traverse Town. I was meant to give it to you sooner but…well I really don't know why I didn't. I guess I just lost track and forgot. Sorry" He said handing her the yellow scarf.
"Ah…thanks…heh…Hehehe" Yuffie said starting to giggle.
"…What?" Leon said perplexed.
"Just you!" Yuffie said taking the scarf from Leon's hands giving him a perky smile. Leon didn't quite understand what she meant but smirked back at her smile.
"Hey! Lovebirds get your asses over here!" Cid said standing at the door.
"W-We're not lovebirds!" a flushed Yuffie exclaimed, sticking her tongue out at Cid as he turned back to the cockpit.
"I'll meet you there then." Leon said exiting the room quietly and closing the door behind him. Yuffie was still burning in the face after the little event that had just occurred.
'He had my scarf this whole time!' Yuffie thought still amazed at that fact. '…it still smells of him' she giggled wildly at her girlish antics. Quickly getting changed into her usually getup, now complete with her scarf, she headed out to the cockpit to see what all the fuss was about.
"The Yufster has arrived!" Yuffie announced patriotically when she entered the cockpit posing at the door. It was obvious that the event that had just occurred with Leon and her was still pumping adrenaline to her face.
"Yeah, that's great" Cid said bluntly. "Ok, What I've done is hook up the jet-"
"Again with the rambling" Yuffie muttered quietly to herself, snickering at her own remark.
"So will we make it through or not?" Leon said interrupting Cid's rambling, obviously not really caring how or why, as long as it works.
"Tch! Fine, we're going through a wormhole which should slingshot us around the back of Hollow Bastion, therefore missing the heartless. Happy?" Cid said gruffly not particularly happy to have no one interested in his master plan.
"What makes you think it'll work?" Leon asked folding his arms in his infamous style.
"A hunch" Cid responded
"A hunch?" Yuffie blurted out.
"Yeah! You don't have much choice anyway, unless you want us to be blown into smithereens by a swarm of heartless" Cid said turning to the controls readying the airship to go. "You lot should all find a seat to strap yourselves into. I can't guarantee a smooth trip." Cid ordered to everyone.
Yuffie walked to a seat and strapped herself in. She watched Leon do the same to a seat in front of her. Aerith came and sat next to her.
"How was the wake up alarm?" Aerith whispered into Yuffie's ear.
"What! That was you!" Yuffie whispered violently back to Aerith. Aerith giggled at Yuffie's reaction.
"Hehehe you're so cute! I'm sure you enjoyed every bit of it anyway" Aerith whispered back.
"Grrr, shut up! I thought you were the kind and considerate one but now I'm rethinking that idea of you" Yuffie said quietly, huffing at the end. Aerith just smiled at Yuffie and looked ahead to watch Cid set up the controls.
"Ok kids, hang on!" At saying this Cid shot the controls forward and the ship lurched back from the momentum. The aircraft took sharp turns in every possible direction. Yuffie couldn't tell what was happening because everything was moving so fast. She closed her eyes and clutched onto the seat hoping the airship would come to a stop relatively soon. Sirens started to buzz over head, warning of overheating in the engines.
"Warning! Warning! System Overload, System Overload, Warning-"
Yuffie had her eyes shut so tight that it hurt. The airship started to spiral and thrust around. The air pressure had tightened and Yuffie began to feel extremely dizzy. Her head felt heavy and started to sulk down onto her chest. She let out a small moan for help but the light headedness caught up with her and she fainted into the seat.
"…Hey"
"Mmm?"
"Hey, Yuffie you ok?"
"Mmno"
"Here have some water"
"W-who?" Yuffie felt a gloved hand cup her chin and lift her head up to reach the bottle of water. The hand stayed there to keep her head up.
"You're coming round now"
"S-Squall?"
"As much as I hate you saying that name, I'll let you get away with it this time"
Yuffie's vision was returning now and saw Leon kneeling at her side next to her seat holding her head up.
"Don't worry, you just fainted. You should be fine in no time." Leon said. "Aerith also passed out but she's fine now." Yuffie's movement and awareness was gradually coming back. Leon took his hand away from her face and gave her the water bottle to hold on to. "We should be landing soon. So just sit here till then." He said getting up off his feet.
"Th-Thank you…Leon" Yuffie said slightly slurred still from her light headedness. Leon smiled slightly and nodded at her before walking over to Cid to help land the airship.
'These days keep becoming more and more eventful' Yuffie thought to herself watching Leon at the front desk. Aerith came down to sit next to her; her movement was slow and had to support herself as she came down next to her.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, still looking pale from her own collapse.
"I'm ok, I guess. What about you? You look as bad as I feel." Yuffie said gaining a bit more strength in her recovery.
"Heh I'll be right. You're not the only one who gets airsick." Aerith said taking a sip of water.
"Ok we'll be landing in 5mins. So our little reunion with home grounds will be here soon." Cid said readying the controls.
Yuffie looked out the window and saw the place she called home come into view.
"…We're home" Aerith said.
"Yeah…home" Yuffie said, looking towards Leon. He looked troubled by what he saw. Yuffie turned back to look closer at the world and knew why Leon looked so. Her home was practically in ruins. 'Guess we got a lot of work ahead of us'
AN- Finally at HB! Yay! Only problem is to get things to link in nicely with each other. I'll try to get the next chapter up early. But I can't promise anything. Sorry But I do have ideas for the future chapters! It'll get somewhere good when I get to the KH2 realm of the story -nod-
PS- For those who are interested I have started to make a doujinshifan comic version of chapter one of this story. If you are interested in seeing it, feel free to visit my Deviant Art account. You can find the link in my profile page on this site.