T-Minus One Year
By Rhino7
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This story is mine, as is McCallister.
Hark! School has given me my soul back, and I am back on track with my Allied-verse stories! As of now, I am focusing 80 percent of my writing efforts on the finale to my Kingdom Hearts stories. Not saying that it will be my last KH story, only that it will be the big huzzah to wrap up my Alliance universe. T-Minus One Year will be exactly what it sounds like: the countdown to the beginning of the finale.
Anyway, this story itself will be comprised of short ditties; each chapter will represent one week in the lives of the Restoration Committee members for one year. This story, obviously, will fall right in line with my Allied-verse works up to this point, though they should be easy enough to follow if you haven't read any of my stuff before.
There is an overarching plot to these ditties, and most of them will be self-driven. However, if you have a burning desire to see a specific scene or have a prompt, I am open to it. If your request doesn't quite fit the plot of this story, I will try to still write it, but will post it under my request-driven story What it Takes to Come Alive.
Okay, enough of my prattling on. Enjoy!
..:-X-:..
001 – Reawaken Cetra
The old chapel inside the ruins of the castle had always granted Aerith a level of calm that nowhere else in Radiant Garden did. It was a grimy, dusty, derelict chamber: parts of the ceiling had caved in and you could barely take a step without rustling up some of the dust that had collected there, but it was quiet and no one else ever went there. So Aerith had made the place her personal haunt for whenever she wanted to practice.
Sure, the Alliance had an entire facility specifically designed for them. Firearms, physical combat, magic, weight lifting, the works: but it was always so busy. Considering the brand of magic that she had been tampering with for the past few weeks, it probably wouldn't have been wise to whip that out in front of 50 some-odd soldiers. Honestly, Merlin was the only other person that she had told about what she was doing. While he hadn't been outright supportive of the idea, he had definitely been interested. He had never tried to dissuade her either.
So here she was.
Aerith took her usual spot in the middle of the concrete room, equidistant from the dark walls, standing half in the shadows, half in one of the small columns of light that dropped through the holes in the ceiling. Due to spending most of her teenage years around the war and fighting the Heartless, around Cid and Leon and Yuffie, she had come across the skills necessary to keep herself alive and protect those she cared about. Cid had taught her how to fly a ship. Leon had taught her how to shoot a gun. Yuffie had taught her how to track someone down when that person was trying to hide from you: even if Yuffie had taught her that unintentionally. Also unintentionally, her relationship with Cloud was teaching her patience. And Merlin had been teaching her magic.
Not this particular brand of magic…she was discovering this on her own.
After untying her boots, she kicked them off and let her bare feet adjust to the cool, dusty surface of the floor. She closed her eyes and inhaled. The air smelled metallic and old. She rolled her shoulders, loosening her muscles and listening to her heart beat in her ears. Merlin had told her that magic was rooted in the fabric of the universe: every atom in their bodies, in the ground, in the air, contributed to a successful spell. That was what caused the tingle in the air after a Thunder Spell and the warm sizzle on the ground after a Fire Spell. The science of magic, he called it.
Because of this, she had hypothesized that there had to be some kind of collective undercurrent that kept the gears of the universe running. After all, if this war against the darkness had taught the Restoration Committee anything, it was that chaos was not the currency of the realm. There had to be a structure, some kind of organized circuit that kept everything running. Darkness was anarchy. Light was a bureaucracy. That was Cid's interpretation anyway.
Pushing the thoughts from her mind, she flexed her fingers at her side, breathing slowly and deliberately. She had felt it before; it's what had caused her to develop the undercurrent theory. So…if there was an undercurrent to all magic, all living beings, Kingdom Hearts, what have you…then wasn't it possible to directly channel that undercurrent?
The purest form of that collective was evident in her work with Cure Spells. After all, that was just magic essence being used to accelerate the human body's healing process. With this thought, she had decided to try and summon that undercurrent, that essence, and use it…bend it to her will, so to speak.
Clearing her mind, she focused on the coolness of the floor against her feet. She swallowed and pushed all of her concentration on that floor, on the grain of the concrete under her toes and the aged mortar that was all but crumbling between the bricks. If what Merlin said was true—that there was energy connected through everything—then she should be able to feel the magic in these bricks. She inhaled and exhaled again, her mind clawing through the dark nothing of the concrete to try and detect the presence of that energy.
There. Out of the corner of her thoughts, she could feel it. Maybe. Yes. That was…that was it! Relief seized her joints and she fought to hold onto it. She clenched her jaw and pulled at that energy with her mind. It felt similar to that of summoning actual magic: conjuring fire with your mind, instead of moving your arms, creating a gust of wind with your thoughts, instead of swinging a weapon around your body. Magic wasn't in the motions or the incantations…they just helped really.
Well, she could use the help here. Keeping her feet planted, she uncurled the fist of her right hand and extended her fingers. She curled them toward her palm and extended them again, repeating this process, as though to coax that energy out of the ground. Feeling it growing, she slowly lifted her hand in an arc in front of her body, urging the energy to manifest. Her eyes were still closed, but she could see it with her heart: a wisp of some translucent essence escaping the ground, climbing up toward her open palm.
Feeling herself starting to sweat, she peeked open one eye to check her progress.
The concrete four feet under her palm was glowing slightly, some undecipherable color. There was a pale spiral of green curling out of the floor and toward her hand. It moved like water but also looked like smoke, it was impossible to tell. Her head was starting to pound with the effort and she faltered.
The little green stream of life essence shuddered with her weakness.
"What are you doing?"
Cloud's voice cutting through the old chapel broke her concentration. The wisp of energy imploded and mushroomed around her feet in a short flash of light, and she and Cloud both covered their eyes in surprise. The grimy scent in the air was immediately replaced by the smell of fresh cut grass.
Blinking quickly to clear her vision, she looked down and saw that the dirty concrete floor had burst into a block of green: grass and white lilies sprinkled across the chamber's floor. Non-plussed, she felt the grass under her bare feet and looked at her palm. What had she just done? This was…this was incredible. Pure magical energy.
Cloud's eyes were the size of dinner plates. "Aerith…What was that?"
Aerith's shocked expression quickly transfigured into one of excitement. "It's real."
"What?" He canted his head, still bewildered at the unexplained appearance of a flower garden in the old castle chapel. "What's real?"
"It's real!" She did a little hop of joy. "I knew it!"
..:-X-:..
002 – Not According to Plan
The 30 seconds of silence that hung between them seemed to last for hours. Tifa was nibbling on her fingernail, one arm folded as she stood in front of the sink. Leon could feel her staring at him, where he was sitting on the edge of their bed, where he had landed there in shock. For those thirty seconds, it felt like every emotion was crashing through his body and making his heart pound, but his brain was completely numb.
The light of the bathroom was spilling out into the dimly lit bedroom of their house. It was early evening, and the pinks and oranges of Radiant Garden's skyline were pouring through the open window. The sound of people going about their lives drifted in from the outside, but at the moment, nothing else mattered. The second floor of their house was in its own little bubble.
Maybe he'd misheard.
"Huh?" He grunted, making eye contact with her finally.
Tifa removed her fingernail from between her teeth, facing him. "I…I should have…I noticed nearly three weeks ago, but…We were all under so much stress at the time…that…I don't know." She gave a shrug that seemed to jerk through her shoulders. "I guess I figured…that's why…"
Leon just continued to gawk at her. It was all he could do. This…This hadn't been a part of the plan. Not yet anyway. There was still so much going on…Like, you know, that whole WAR thing. They were both really busy with missions and battles…They had barely been married for two months. His knee had hardly healed from the surgery after it had been messed up during his mission to Jamestown. He was still in physical therapy for it, for Pete's sake.
"But you've been taking the—" He started.
"I know." She closed her eyes.
"And we always—"
"I know." She lifted a hand to her forehead, rubbing her eyes with her thumb and index finger. "These…things…just happen sometimes."
The shock was starting to wear off, because his skin was starting to tingle. He shifted slightly to remind himself to breathe.
"And you're…sure? Like…sure-sure?" He said hoarsely.
Tifa rubbed her neck and looked at him, then looked down into the sink, and then back to him. "Five out of five. I'm pretty sure." She pursed her lips.
Leon ran a hand through his hair and pushed himself up to his feet. He still had to keep most of his weight on his left leg. His right knee was strong enough now that he didn't need crutches anymore, but he still walked with a noticeable limp and tried not to keep his weight on that leg. But that old familiar pain didn't even register in his head at the moment.
Tifa looked scared.
Hell, Leon felt scared, and that simple acknowledgement of the fact made his heart hammer even harder between his ribs. He just stared at her for a long moment, trying to process, trying to put together some string of words into an intelligible sentence.
Tifa shifted from foot to foot, holding her arms about herself.
"So…now what?" She asked.
Well, the answer to that was obvious.
In four steps, two steady and two limped, Leon crossed over to where she was. He put his arms around her and pulled her close. Some noise between an exhale and a choke escaped him. Tifa returned the embrace and he could feel her trembling. He raised a hand and cupped the back of her head, a smile plastering itself across his face.
"I love you." He spoke into her hair.
She let out a choked laugh. "This so wasn't part of the plan."
Leon opened his eyes, looking down into the bowl of the sink. Not one, not two, but five of the little stick-like devices were lying in the sink, the evidence beaming up at him. These weren't the kind that showed signs positive or negative. Tifa had bought the kind that told you in no unclear words, and all of five of them were telling them the same thing.
Pregnant.
He pulled back to look at Tifa. She looked startled at first at his smile, but then she started to return the smile. He kissed her lips and held her. She kissed him back and laughed once. The tension in her body broke slightly.
"This is great." He finally said, feeling like he'd swallowed a firework.
"Really?" Tears glinted in her eyes but weren't breaking free yet.
Had she been expecting any other reaction out of him? Maybe, like him, she hadn't quite grasped the truth yet. As he looked into her eyes, though, he could almost see it dawning on her. They were going to have a baby. There was nearly fifty munny's worth of proof in the sink to prove it.
"W-we're pregnant." She exhaled in a rush.
He nodded, dumb smile still in control, and scooped her up again, spinning her in a little circle out of the bathroom. She held onto him, laughing in happy earnest now. True, they had hardly talked seriously about having kids before, but now he couldn't contain the sudden joy.
"We're going to be parents." He said, just to say it out loud.
She squealed and jumped on him. "I love you so much." She kissed him again.
He kissed her back and trailed his hand down her neck to her flat stomach. Parents. It was fantastically terrifying. All of the excitement was too much for his recovering knee and he slumped back onto the bed. Tifa kept her arms around his neck and ended up landing on top of him, still giggling with the high of the news.
"Are you okay?" She practically cackled.
"I'm…great." He grinned up at her. "I'm…" He sat up and just kept kissing her.
..:-X-:..
003 – Awkward Chicken
"Hm, looks like some dark energy popped up in Land of Dragons." Cid read off the streaming information on the computer monitor.
"Dibs." Yuffie claimed from her crouched position on the coffee table of Merlin's house.
Cid squinted at the screen. "Actually, Private McCallister has been assigned to recon that area."
"But, I called dibs." The ninja chirped, poking the body on the couch with her boot.
McCallister grunted once but otherwise didn't stir. She had worked the overnight patrol shift for the past three days in a row. She deserved some sleep, Yuffie knew, but she couldn't help it. Yuffie had never seen the soldier sleep, eat, or do any other human activities—she was always running drills or doing target practice or saying 'yes, sir' whenever Leon was around. Besides, McCallister should have known better than to fall asleep at Merlin's house. That was just asking for it.
"Too bad." Cid grunted, scrolling through the list of data.
The Alliance had started running regular checks on the worlds throughout the galaxy, making sure no new Heartless attacks were threatening the worlds, offering assistance where it was needed, and generally keeping an eye on things. Thus far, they had only had to intervene in one or two cases. The individual armies at each of the worlds had proved plenty strong enough to handle themselves.
"Looks like it's time for the quarterly report on Traverse Town." Cid remarked.
Yuffie paused in her poking, waiting for the inevitable—
"Dibs." Cid added, pecking at a few buttons on the keyboard.
"Of course you do." Yuffie snickered, poking McCallister again.
After a beat, Cid swiveled in his chair to look at her grumpily. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You always call dibs on the Traverse Town gigs." She said mischievously, crossing her legs. "Just so you can go flirt with that bartender woman who runs the tavern."
Cid had a good poker face, but he answered too quickly. "Smart ass."
"So…are you two actually dating or just doing it?" Yuffie pressed, just because it made him awkward and she loved making things awkward.
"You're three seconds away from an Atlantica mission." He snapped.
She chuckled and didn't have mercy on him. Aerith wasn't there to scold her, anyway. "There's no way her bar has that good of alcohol to make you keep going back without getting something else."
Cid clicked out of the mission stream and stood. "That's it. You're on the next mission to Atlantica. Enjoy your shell-bra and tail fin."
Yuffie just beamed. "And you enjoy your tail too." She saluted him.
Cid rolled his eyes and tapped a cigarette out of his pack, holding it between his teeth as he lit a match. She laughed until she snorted at her little joke, when he sent her a dangerous look.
"I wouldn't laugh." He said lowly. "She's excellent between the sheets."
Yuffie choked on her laughter, her balance tipping her back so that she had to grab McCallister's knee to steady herself.
Cid puffed lightly on the cigarette. "She's pretty flexible too."
Yuffie coughed and caught her breath, "Huh-what?"
Cid, apparently, had had enough of her teasing and was staring to fire back.
"One time we did it on the bar counter…and there was this can of whipped cream…"
"Ew!" Yuffie covered her ears.
"…in the shower…ended up breaking her kitchen sink…"
"Shut up!"
"…and she does this little twist where she kicks her leg up…"
"OH GOD!" Yuffie jumped up and started for the door.
"That's what she said." Cid exhaled smoke.
Yuffie bolted through the front door and nearly trampled Merlin, who managed to barely jump out of the way. The ninja left a dust trail in her wake as she fled. Perplexed, Merlin stepped into his house to find Cid standing and smoking beside the computer and Private McCallister still asleep on the couch.
"Good gracious." Merlin adjusted his spectacles. "What in Kingdom Hearts did you do to that poor girl?"
"Gave her a taste of her own medicine." Cid snorted.
"You…put a whoopy cushion under her seat?" Merlin lifted an eyebrow.
"Nah. You know how she tries to be all cute and tease people about everything?"
"Tifa and her poor cooking skills. Cloud and his gravity-defying hair. Yes. What of it?" Merlin inquired.
"She tried to tease me about Beverly."
Merlin paled. "Please tell me you didn't—"
"It was less 'birds and the bees' than 'pizza delivery guy and scantily clad woman'." Cid continued to smoke.
"Oh for heaven's sake. You're like some vulgar monkey." Merlin grimaced.
"Look…just because I know how to please a woman…"
"Just go." Merlin waved him off.
Cid snorted and took his keys, heading for the Gummi Ship hangar.
That'll teach Yuffie to pick a fight in Awkward Chicken with the seasoned champion.
..:-X-:..
A/N: Constructive feedback is always welcome and appreciated!
Preview for next week: "I am the black panther of paintball."