Hey everyone! So this idea's been floating around in the back of my mind for about a week, and I finally got around to working on it. I got the idea when I was reading "Pretend" by La Editor and "Crimson Eyes and Angel Wings" by ShadesxofxPurple, both of which are set in the Kingdom Hearts Universe.

This story is going to start in the Kingdom Hearts Universe, but after the first few chapters it's probably not going to have too many KH references, so I'm not going to bother putting it in with the crossovers.

It's been a while since I've written anything, so it may take me a bit to get back into the swing of things, but so far I don't think this is too bad. That being said, I have to admit that I'm not very good at writing Yuffie's character, although since I'm not writing in first person it shouldn't be as much of an issue. However, if she seems extremely out of character please let me know, and any suggestions are welcome!

Chapter 1

Everybody's waiting

Everybody's watching

"Cloud, you'll never let go of the darkness."

"Shut up."

"You'll never let go of your past…"

"Shut up!"

Sephiroth slashed at him again with the Masamune. "Absurd. Defeating me is meaningless. You know that more than anyone, Cloud. No matter how many times I fall, your darkness keeps calling me back!"

"Wrong!"

"Tifa! Stay back!"

"How can I? I wanna help you."

"You can't. He'll never let go of the darkness." Sephiroth looked smugly at Cloud as they leapt apart again.

"He doesn't have to," came Tifa's calm reply. "He just needs someone to surround him with light." Sephiroth swung to face her. "The darkness will be there, Sephiroth - but in a place you can't reach."

"Is that right?" he looked almost amused, "Let's see what this light of yours can do." Tifa rolled out of the way as he brought the Masamune down where she had been standing just a moment before. She down towards him, aiming a punch at his face which he easily sidestepped.

"No!" Cloud watched as they dodged each other's blows. He managed to get between them before Sephiroth could hurt her.

"Cloud, you can have my light."

"The light doesn't suit you," Sephiroth readied Masamune once again.

"I just … don't know," Cloud shook his head as a bright light surrounded him.

"Stop!" Sephiroth jumped, using his wing to propel him forward.

Cloud leapt to meet him and the two disappeared in a blinding light above.

"Where'd they go?" Goofy asked as the group looked up at the empty sky. "Do you think they made it back to their own world?"

"They went somewhere else…" Sora answered. "Cloud went to fight a great battle - to defeat the darkness inside him."

"Gone again," Tifa sighed.

"What will you do now?" Sora asked.

"Hmm," she closed her eyes and thought. "Guess I'll keep looking."

"Got any leads?"

"Don't worry, light is easy to find."

Sora, Donald and Goofy watched as she walked back towards town.

"You mean you're gonna leave us here?" Yuffie cried. "C'mon! Cloud's our friend, too!"

"I know that, Yuffie, but you've all been working so hard here, and there's still a lot to do to get Radiant Garden back to the way it was," Tifa explained. "It makes sense for me to go look for him by myself while you all keep working."

"And wasn't this whole Restoration Committee your idea?" Leon asked from where he was standing in the corner.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Yuffie glared at him. "Just because it was my idea doesn't mean that I have to be here for it to work! You and Aerith can stay here for all I care. But I wanna go!"

"Yuffie…" the soft-spoken flower girl met the young ninja's eyes.

"Oh, don't tell me, you think we should stay, too," Yuffie crossed her arms in front of her and frowned.

"No, actually, I think it's a good idea."

"...really?"

Aerith nodded. Turning to Tifa, she clasped her hands in front of her. "Having more of his friends there to support him couldn't hurt," she said lightly.

Tifa stared into Aerith's emerald green eyes for some time before nodding slowly. "Alright. Who's coming then?"

"Me, obviously!" Yuffie jumped up, "I'll go get my stuff!" she shouted over her shoulder as she ran out of the room.

"I take it you're coming, too," Tifa looked at Aerith, who nodded. "There's room for one more on my ship, do you want to come, Leon?"

"I'll stay here," he answered, standing to leave. "Have fun keeping track of Yuffie."

"So where're we going first?" Yuffie bounced excitedly in her seat as Tifa started to gummi ship.

"Hmm. I don't know. We'll have to figure it out as we go."

Aerith closed her eyes and thought for a moment. "I think … yes, I remember Cloud saying something about how he had spent time in the Olympus Coliseum before he came to Radiant Garden. Maybe we should start there?"

"That's as good a place as any," Tifa nodded and started flipping switches and pressing buttons on the control panel in front of her. "It's a long ride, so get comfortable."

After several hours of Yuffie's constant babbling about how excited she was and could they believe this was her first time going somewhere other than Radiant Gardens (Traverse Town didn't count in her opinion since she hadn't had a choice about going there) and did they think they would find Cloud right away because she wanted to see more worlds before they found and and and… she had finally fallen asleep.

Tifa looked uneasily over her shoulder at the ninja before whispering to Aerith, "Does she always talk that much?"

"Mmhmm," Aerith smiled sympathetically at her. "You'll learn to tune her out after a while." Tifa shook her head in disbelief and returned her attention to the gummi ship's controls.

Suddenly the inky blackness surrounding the ship turned a brilliant, pure white, then faded back to a dark purple-black, but not as dark as it had been before.

"What was that?" Tifa looked over at Aerith, who was smiling softly.

"Sora. He must have defeated Organization XIII." Aerith's knowing smile lit up her entire face. "Things are going to start going back to normal."

Tifa smiled back, and looked over at Yuffie again. "Do you think we should wake her up and tell her?"

Aerith shook her head. "She'll know soon enough."

Yuffie spun, Conformer flying gracefully from her hand. "Take that, Heartless!" she laughed as the group of shadows dissolved around her. "Yes! The great ninja Yuffie strikes again! No heartless can match me!"

She swung Conformer around her victoriously and grinned before trotting further down the path, not noticing how the familiar scenery of Radiant Garden had faded into a rundown city. Ahead of her she spotted a huge heartless stomping through the street.

"Oooh, a challenge…"

As she crept along behind a line of rubble and broken down cars, she tried to figure out what type of heartless it was. The large purple body and horns that curled up from its face looked more funny than frightening, and she couldn't keep from giggling. At this its head came up and it turned to face her.

"Oops…"

It charged towards her, and all of a sudden it didn't look funny anymore. Blue-gray hide and red-orange mane surrounded a snarling face framed by two glossy black horns that looked like they had recently been sharpened.

"Aaah!" she slipped and found herself staring up as the beast leapt at her.

Two gunshots, so close together you could barely distinguish the separate sounds, tore through the air and the beast (behemoth..?) fell at her feet. She scrambled up and took a few steps back to study the scene before her. The behemoth was dead, and a pale blue-green stream was rising from its body (that's not right ... shouldn't it have released a heart ..?)

She turned to thank Leon (of course it had to be Leon, he was the only one who had a gun … well, gunblade … it couldn't have been anyone else, right..?) "Heh, thanks for that Le-"

"Yuffie." That was definitely not Leon's voice…

Looking up she found herself staring into a pair of blood red eyes.

Yuffie jerked up from her lounging position in the seat. "What just happened?"

Even when you're sleeping

Keep your ey-eyes open

Please review!