...I don't know. I really don't.

Pieced Together

-And, hello, Hollow Bastion (Again. Because Sora needs a little piece of home, too, just like everyone else-)

For Sora, life is good.

It's the sense that good always overcomes evil, and light is always greater than dark, and as long as you try, and try, and keep trying, things will get better; he lives by this, breathes it in and exhales it out and tries to change the world.

His breath tries to change the world, and he doesn't even know it.

And hello again, Hollow Bastion, and back he and his two friends are to the ratty little gray place that seems to feel like hope (hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a greater sunlight and hope for a town without the constant fear of leaving a house without a weapon).

The reason, Sora knows, that this feels so much like home is that he has friends here, and a home is where the heart is (no pun intended, based on these past few years, or year, and he's started losing count), and he has some hearts here that make him feel better.

(Not that he's feeling down at all, because if he just keeps trying hard enough, he'll find Riku - that's the world he lives in, and it makes perfect sense.)

Down the cobblestones, Claymores appear every so often in all their white technological simplicity. Towards the square - they're lucky, this time, because there's no heartless around, not now and not even when they get to the door of the wizard's home.

Inside - 'Headquarters' of the Restoration Committee -

And, altogether at once, when Sora steps through that door, things aren't always what they seem.

(And maybe the world isn't as black and white as he thought.)

He greets them loudly, albeit falteringly, because the discord in the room clashes and hangs in the air like an ugly screeching shadow.

'Is... something wrong?'

Aerith stands up from the big plush chair across from Merlin's empty red one graciously, a smile curving onto her soft face and she shakes her head, slowly gliding down the steps as she takes away the disharmony for a moment.

'Nothing is wrong, Sora,' she says so believably and he - so gullible, and a little part of him realizes this - smiles and laps it up, the sweet little white lie it is, and then, 'How are you and Donald and Goofy?'

The three companions give their statuses of well-being loudly, and the discord and the tension and the screaming shadow melt away and the other inhabitants greet the three visitors.

'It felt like something was wrong,' Goofy soon says doubtfully, after they've all settled down and greeted each other and made some small talk. 'When we walked in, I mean. Is the restoration of Hollow Bastion alright?'

Tifa smiles this time, but she can't smile like everything is alright, and it's more of a pitying smile than anything (and it's painted on). 'Of course everything is alright, and where have you three been?'

And so the conversation goes.

Soon, it's become noticed that a hyperactive ninja seems to be missing, as well as a cursing old pilot who can only seem to chew on a piece of hay (Sora doesn't know that he misses his cigs so very, very very much, but he made a promise to Shera he always broke before, before, before it all went down-).

Cloud shrugs noncommittally when the matter is brought to attention (and it seems like he doesn't quite care, or maybe that's not it, maybe it's that he wishes he had gone with them-). They are both off looking, he says, and the subject is closed.

Sora pries it open again. Looking for what?

And silly boy; Aerith smiles gently at him. 'They're just... trying to find some hope,' she says simply. It sounds very elegant, very well put and Tifa smiles tiredly.

'...Hope... is... something wrong?'

And no! Not at all, Sora, please don't think that - we don't want you to - they just have some issues they need to deal with, Leon finally mutters, leaning against the cool stone wall, gray and silver and cold.

'Don't we all,' murmurs Cloud; a scowl is painted delicately on his face, but he does his best to wipe it away, he really does (but sometimes, even when you try and try again, it still doesn't get better). Tifa sends a chiding look over, but it's only half-hearted, and when did she look this tired?

The door slams open, and with a grunt, Cid Highwind slouches back into the too-small house for too many people.

'Then why the hell don't we just deal with 'em for once?' He asks with a frown, cursing and throwing the ever-resilient piece of hay that has been through hell and back (from the Shera's chocobo stables, to Traverse Town, and now here-) onto the computer desk; because he tried, and he hasn't quite dealt with them. Sora can see.

It is an angry statement, but no one bristles, and the tension simmers, but still lurks.

'Deal with... what...?' And it's obvious that the adults have forgotten who's still there.

'Are you guys all alright?' Goofy asks doubtfully, unhappiness evident and Donald looks worried, too, with the suggestion that maybe they could go find Yuffie if they wanted them to get her-

'Could you?' Tifa asks, polite but relieved, and the two trot out the old wooden door, the steady slap of their feet on old cobblestone fading soon enough.

Sora's clear blue eyes are focused completely on the adults in front of him, and (not for the first time) a few of them wonder just how much of a child he isn't anymore.

We're just going over a rough patch, Cid tries to smooth over, but Aerith just shakes her head and those soft, strong-willed green eyes focus on blue.

'We had lives, before this, you know?' She says softly-

And the pieces fall apart.

-

We're looking for that hope, too.

But it's here!

No, Cloud murmurs, and things aren't quite as black and white as they used to be.

Our planet died.

A long time ago.

'Shouldn't it have come back with a lot of the other worlds?' Sora asks, almost naively, and a bitter smile dances across Cloud's face.

'It should have,' and he is leaning against the wall, and his unusually bright mako blue eyes meet Sora's with a rock-solid hardness, 'But that doesn't mean it did.'

Life never had to be fair, Cid mutters, and adds a few curses in there for good measure.

'Our Planet,' Aerith explains patiently, soft and gentle voice smoothing over the angry men, the unhappy men, the tired other woman, 'was alive. Truly alive, a being itself that could fight and heal itself. And... most of the dead don't come back to life.'

And Sora is tickled by the wording - Aerith, what do you possibly mean by... most?

And she smiles, almost as tired as the black-clad bartender, and says, 'I came back to life.'

She smiles gently and unbuttons one spot on her dress (right on her stomach - it doesn't even register in Sora's mind as indecent in the slightest, for her words captivate him, these people whom he thought he knew so well-), right on her stomach, and there is some scar, there, healed over well enough and barely there. But still there.

'Sephiroth,' she murmurs as the pink plastic button covers it again, 'And his sword. Masamune. The Planet brought me back to life... perhaps, even, in place of itself.'

'But the fucker is still alive,' Cid grumbles. 'Damn silver-haired freak. Never gonna get ridda him, nosiree. Probably slipped through the Lifestream, that conniving...' He mutters under his breath a little more as he fingers an old package that looks like it holds cigarettes.

And who was Sephiroth, back then? A little bit of anger - no, more than just a little bit, because Sephiroth seemed intangible, untouchable, but never quite so evil as to kill one of Sora's friends-

'A recollection of the old AVALANCHE days, then,' Cid says, and he doesn't sound too pleased, but his face, with the eagerness of an old man reliving the glory days, says otherwise.

It was another life back then, Sora. You have to understand that. Things were different, and our world was so large in comparison to any of these, so big it was like several worlds put together, and the spark in Cloud's eyes is back (to them - to Sora, it's there for the first time). And he explains and laughs and turns stony, the reliving of their story, and were these really the same people- so courageous-

And isn't it a pity, really, that Sora will never be able to meet Barret or little Marlene or Reeve or even Cait? Or Red XIII, whose real name was Nanaki, even the Turks, and isn't it a pity that he'll never meet Vincent Valentine?

The tension is almost gone. They need this, the little voice in the back of Sora's mind states, they need this.

How, Sora isn't sure.

Cloud finishes on his short explanation of three years later (with Deepground - and this time, Vincent Valentine was the main protagonist-) with a heavy sigh. There is silence, for a moment.

'...Either way, our planet is dead,' Cloud says, and it is unexpectedly harsh. He seems taken aback for a moment (didn't mean for it to sound quite like that-) and then adds, quietly, '...It tried, Sora. It really did. It couldn't make it the whole way... and that's fine.'

Sora asks why, then, did they say that this was where they grew up, their home, if this wasn't their-?

Because, Leon says from his own little corner, it couldn't make it. It collided with several other worlds that didn't make it, either-

And that's why we're here, Tifa finishes with another tired smile that is almost grim. This is where Cloud and I grew up. Nibelheim. We think part of Leon's world is here, too, because the worlds all collided-

'Yuffie,' Cloud says, as if he has just realized something. 'She's figured... The castle is..'

'What the hell are you saying, Cloud?' Cid, this time - Cloud shakes his head.

'Castles must have collided. I told you that the foyer to the castle looked familiar.'

Tifa shakes her head in bewilderment, almost disbelief, and asks if he really thinks that Yuffie thinks it's the old Nibelheim mans-

Cloud sweeps from the room without another word.

-

Sora doesn't know where Donald and Goofy are, but he'll get them soon enough - first, he follows Cloud and Tifa and Aerith (and how strange, how funny, how bizarre! That this pink-clad woman once went by a different name, and it rolls around in his head - Aeris), to the castle.

Giant, looming, and not quite as ominous as the first time he laid eyes on it.

'I knew,' Cloud breathes, 'That that library was familiar. If we had opened just one book, I would have realized...'

'The fake records,' Tifa remarks. The man nods as Aerith walks ahead, and how does she know exactly where to go-?

'It all was jumbled up,' Aerith murmurs, hands trailing lightly across the wall. 'But... it should be close enough.' Silence as they walk, until Aerith lets out a little 'oh!' so small it is barely there.

Then she exhales softly. 'Yuffie...'

The missing ninja is on her knees, amidst piles and piles of rubble and pipes and rocks - she is digging, with her bare hands and her almost ridiculously giant shuriken (that Sora notices has empty little crevices, as if for large marbles), at a doorway (going to get in, or I'll die trying-).

Cloud starts forward after a few seconds of watching the girl work - but it's too late, and there's an opening; she doesn't hesitate for a moment, but scrambles inside like a fox trying to get into its hole with vigor, and there's a muffled curse or two as she no doubt slides down the rocks, and then a sound comes out (that will haunt my dreams, and please don't let me hear them again, please, I never want to hear-).

It is hollow, echoing, raspy and hoarse, and the worse part is the urgency and utterly broken heart in the desperate call.

'Vinnie, Vincent, vampire, Vinnie Vinvin Valentino, please, please, please-'

The calling, the calling, and Tifa is trying not to shudder as she braves ahead, just behind Aerith and Cloud following (and suddenly, he is not with them anymore).

Because Sora isn't a part of this group.

He hangs back and watches uncertainly when the thought crosses, and tries to drown out those horrible screams for a man (long gone, perhaps, and that's the worst part-).

He watches as Aerith climbs up the rocks with no uncertainty of footing, so sure and focused ahead, her friends following, as the ninja gropes in the semi-dark, screaming and yelling and calling, walking forward and forward until breaking out into a run, but she won't cry -

Aerith calls, at first, and then Aeris calls her name, because it isn't fair for anyone (But it must be harder for you, so young, and I had Zack for a little while-) and then Tifa and Cloud (who have each other, now, even if they don't know it quite yet).

And there they come again, more terrible each time, 'Vincent! I'm so so so so so damn sorry, please, VINCENT-'

Aeris freezes for a moment, and it is so dark - she shuts her eyes, her hearing suddenly much more acutely aware, and there is scuffling. Scrabbling, like fingers on a wooden surface. The bartender and the mercenary quietly make their way behind her and stand still.

A resounding boom shrieks through the dank passageway that is dark as pitch, sending shivers up their spines and goosebumps rising up their arms, the little hairs on the back of their necks shooting up.

No one moves for a time.

(Is this one - yes, yes, I remember the markings, the little chip right here, this is the one, and-)

There is silence for a long, long time, until a muffled sob arises.

And it is worse, much worse, than the echoing screams could ever be.

Aeris approaches softly, first, the other two staying behind for a moment, foot steps soft, so soft, everything about her soft and gentle, and won't you come out?

In the dim, almost purple-tinted light (that they all recognize so well), Aeris approaches without a sound to find the sobs being muffled in the back of a slightly elevated coffin (just like they found-), not quite standing upright and not lying down - she finds Yuffie.

She finds Yuffie, coiled like a cat, all curled up in that coffin that the ninja will later swear to no one still smells like gunpowder.

-

Later, when no one can find Yuffie, they know where she is - just like when no one can find Aerith (Aerith, once more, but being Aeris again for once was nice) they know that she will be just outside of the town, tending to her garden where the stain-glass windows are still propped up, and just like when no one can find Cid (Cid Highwind, who would like some goddamn tea, please-) they know he's in his private engineer garage, working on a piece of machinery that won't work with gummi parts or fingering his old cigarette pack.

Sora, a time later, asks Yuffie why she was where she was, and she knows what he means, because he already knows about the coffin and how it pertained to him (and for some odd reason, Yuffie doesn't like sharing the name-).

They're sitting outside, on top of the cold gray stone of the bailey, the free breeze dwindling, almost dying, but trying to pick itself up and moving on, suddenly more together than ever. Yuffie is looking at the clear blue sky that has traces of pink and light yellow, and slowly says that the past isn't easily forgotten.

'Then let it go,' Sora tells her, almost urges her (because he can see, now, now that everything isn't so black and white, that this is really tearing them all apart inside-).

But she just grins sadly, almost nostalgically, and says that that's just the problem, right there.

'We don't want to,' she murmurs. Then, with a rebound of energy, she jumps up.

"We were heroes, once, too."

And she leaves Sora with this, strolling off and, for once, trying not to think about it - it will come back soon enough, anyhow, she reasons with good cheer as she bounds off to annoy Cloud and ask Aerith how her stomach is.

Fin

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