Alternating Worlds

by fogdragon23

Disclaimer: I do not own anything!

Warnings for this chapter: dead ppls, dark themes, slight dashes in swearing, possible OOCness

Author's Note: Okay this fic is based off a dream I had, so it's a bit weird. I struggled with keeping Cid and Yuffie staying in character in the first scene but it's a bit hard to manipulate them with the situation anyway so forgive me!...Btw this fic is going to have a lot of hidden jokes/easter eggs in it, I wonder who will catch them...Please speak up if you do. ^^ Oh and this is a KH/Square Enix crossover. I suggest blaming everfire and Starr Bryte for me having this freaky dream. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Incoming Storm

"Ugh, why do I have to be stuck on body duty today?!? I was on yesterday too!" whined a young girl as she went about the task of spotting a decent tomb for the recent dead. Her dark amber eyes glittered in the torchlight as she scanned her recent find. "Well this dump looks good enough to house a couple." She glanced back at her elder partner, with a slight flick of the head to clear her brunette bangs from her view. "What do you think?"

The older man grunted as he stalked past their make-shift wagon to inspect the offered room. "A bit dank but it'll have tah do," he spoke around a tiny broken cigarette clamped between his lips. He ran a large hand through his dusty blond hair in a nervous gesture. There was nothing quite like trying to find your friends and a couple of strangers an eternal resting place.

The girl blinked back a few tears as she turned back to the cart. "I never feel quite as bad when I don't know them, so let's start with this one." She meant to pull a man up by his head into a sitting position but no body followed. "Ahk!" she squeaked, nearly dropping the head. Waves of chills ran up and down her back in unforgiving tingles. She struggled to maintain her balance while holding the cranium.

"Yuffie!" warned the other. "Keep it down or I'll make yah join 'im!"

It took all her will to stay where she was and not crawl back out of the hell hole they entered through. "They could'a at least warned us about this one! I prefer to think that everyone is in one piece!" She carefully turned the head away from her as if it would change that fact that it had once belonged to a living person. She glared daggers at the back of the heads long locks.

Her companion rolled his eyes as he picked up the rest of the body and stomped back to where the coffins laid. "Lucky for us, we still have wood to spare for these people."

Yuffie winced as he unceremoniously dumped the body into the solid container. "Hey take it easy, Cid. What'd this sap ever do to you?!"

Cid looked down at the body then at the missing piece in her hand. "Look who's talking, you snapped his bloomin' head off."

"I didn't mean to! And it looks like it was taken off before we got 'im!"

"Decapitated then," Cid grunted then smiled down at the body as Yuffie set the head to meet the neck. "Wonder if we he did that was that bad...."

Yuffie made a disgusted face as she reached in with her gloves to make sure the corpse appeared to be in one piece. The severed halves clapped together almost jelly-like. "Ewie! I am not taking next shift."

Cid picked a coffin lid from the wall and hefted it across the room. "Likewise." The lid scraped against the sides as it was adjusted just so. The man then stretched to crack a few unwanted kinks out of his sore back. "So who's the next one, princess?"

"Can we take a break? It reeks to high heaven in here..." Yuffie decided to change the subject to keep her sanity. "And I wilt easily in this heat."

Cid repeated a roll of the eyes and threw his hands up in the air. "Guess I can use a couple minutes too while we're at it."

Yuffie smiled for the first time that day. "Great," she gave him a thumb's up. "Meet yah on the other side."

Cid went to step in behind her but heard a sound that made him take a second look at the casket. It was a wet sound, almost like a sucking sound and it was definitely coming from the inside of the coffin. "Damn rats already get to you, friend?" Cid asked the air. He moved to open the container then thought better of it. "Prolly some sort of decomposition thing or somethin'." He made a movement with his hand that suggested he had better things to do.

"You coming or what?" Yuffie called back from the tomb entrance.

"Keep your shorts on, girlie!"

"My name's Yuffie!"

"I dun care if your name is Sumbitch, I'll come when I damn well please!" the elder called back with a wrinkle of humor on his brow. His usual spark returned, seemingly taking years off him as he spoke.

XXX

'All of it is soft,' Sora thought numbly, as he clasped his hand on the not so solid ground beneath him. 'It's like chalk dust.' His blue eyes squinted against the sun as he came to again. 'Where am I?' He lifted his heavy head to sit up in the unfamiliar place. He looked down at the ground and gasped. It was like sand but very fine and gray..."What is this stuff?" he thought aloud.

"Sediment," answered someone nearby.

Sora jumped a little at the voice. "Sediment from what?"

"From what's left of the worlds," the voice answered, this time from right behind him.

Sora arched his neck to see the other person. 'That voice...I know that voice!' He grabbed at the dark coat that the other person was wrapped in, and pulled harshly. "Riku?! What are you doing here?"

The dark garbed person pulled away suddenly as if in pain and retreated a safe distance from Sora. "I'm here because of you."

"What?" Sora asked dully, not yet able to piece everything together. "Where are we?" He attempted to get up but neatly fell back into a sitting position. "And what's with all this stuff?"

There was a long awkward pause that followed that was only broken by voices of the wind. Finally Riku spoke up, "You really don't know?" His voice was slightly shaky, betraying a little bit of his emotions.

Sora knew his friend was upset but he had no good answers. "I...I remember winning..." Something wasn't right...why was Riku wearing an Organization coat again?

"We didn't win, Sora," Riku snapped. His sheltered head quivered with his despair.

"But didn't I set the worlds right?"

"The worlds are here," Riku stated taking another step away. "They are all right here..."

"You aren't making sense," Sora insisted. He tried to stand again and this time succeeded though very shaky. "Explain this to me Riku. What is going on? Why are you wearing that coat? Where's the King and Kairi?"

"I hoped for too much," Riku said to no one in particular. "Not even you can help me."

The brunette reached out with a hand, fearing that his friend would leave. "I can if you would just tell me what to do..."

Another pause clouded the air. The coat shifted as Riku turned away, "I am not going to be the one to tell you. Sorry Sora, but there is something I have to do first."

"No!" Sora yelled in outrage. "I won't let you ditch me and Kairi again!"

"Kairi," Riku barked in a tremor of rage. His hooded head lifted to the sky as if sensing something. "You better run for cover before it comes."

"Before what?" Less then a blink later, his friend was gone. He ran in the direction he thought Riku would take, scrabbling across a dusty incline. He searched for a handhold and found a steel beam buried just over his head. 'I must be in the ruins of some sort of building,' he decided. He searched for more hand and foot holds as he scaled the steep climb. While nearing the top, he reached for his last hand hold when the ground keeping it slipped and spilled out at him, coating him in the odd dust. He shook his head to rid his ears of the grime.

"A boy! Take my hand, quick!" said a traveler in strange robes. "You don't want to be caught in the storm do you?"

Sora caught gazed with the other man, questions evident in his eyes. He was sure that person hadn't been there a second ago...

Without prior response, the man hauled him to the plateau and looked him over. "Oh you got it all over you! We'll deal with it later, I suppose."

A calm covered the land like a blanket, it was stifling. Sora ran with the stranger dragging him along. "What storm?"

"What storm?!? You must be from far off to not know about the dust storms, my lad!" He suddenly forced a abrupt halt by spreading his arms outward. His voice echoed off the blank terrain. "Earth-minded soul, protect us! Golem!"

Sora fought the urge to bolt as the sediment under them buckled and rippled until a massive rocky limb breached the surface and swiped to one side. Another arm emerged, followed by an indistinct head. Trees decorated the monster in the small crevices where they could sap water from. The rock monsters bright eyes looked up at the sun then scanned the ground for its summoner and further instruction.

"We aren't going to make it to shelter, you see, so uh...a favor please?" the man requested politely.

The giant rock seemed to sigh then reached out with its wide boulder hands to clasp the two in a makeshift barrier. Everything for the two humans became dark.

"Just one moment," the summoner promised as if this happened all the time. After little sounds of rummaging, another monster popped up with flaming fists ready for combat. "There, much better." He motioned from his spot on the ground. "Please sit, we have awhile."

Sora blinked slowly as he sat. "Hey uh...I'm Sora," he offered his hand in a friendly way.

The other man stared back at him with a small smile as if expecting some sort of magic to happen. He appeared a little alarmed when nothing did, "Did something go wrong?"

"What? Er no..." the blue eyes boy let his hand fall in defeat. "Um, I'm a little lost."

"That much is obvious. I'm guessing you are a traveler from...," his eyes scanned Sora's wardrobe critically, "...Greeton."

"Uh...sure," Sora supplied. "Did you see a guy my age in a black coat running around?"

The man paused to reflect, "Not that I can recall. I sure hope he found cover from the storm. Oh! I didn't tell you my name, I'm Ser Boko...call me Boko, it's easier."

"Right, so where am I?"

"The farther outskirts of Besaid. Do you have a map? Maybe I could point it out?"

Something about this man made Sora uneasy, he was a bit too helpful. "I lost it on the way here...along with my supplies..." he lied.

"Ah, that's a shame." Boko looked put out by the fact that he couldn't be helpful. "When all of this is done, you can certainly use my provisions."

The barrier began to shake as the wind outside suddenly picked up. "Here it comes," Boko observed.

XXX

The reinforcements over 7th Heaven's foundations shuddered under the pressure of the sand blast. A small humanoid cat had draped himself over the exit only a few moments before the storm. "T'is wind is jinxin' mah cloak!" the cat croaked as the boarded walls creaked in strain.

Tifa checked that Marlene was safely tucked under the serving bar. "Now just stay there and it'll be okay," she reassured.

The little girl nodded, the bow in her hair bouncing. A tiny sob escaped her throat, betraying her fear. "Will he be okay?"

Tifa didn't respond right away, not knowing if she meant Cait Sith, Barrett, or Cloud. "We'll all be okay silly," she said, her lips feeling tight on her face.

Cait Sith peeled himself from the door and ran to to bar, his tail bouncing behind him. "Dis is no' wha' I had in min' today, lassy."

"Complain to the wind," Tifa joked halfheartedly.

"Ge' me a big enuff microphone an' I migh'!" he retorted squeakily. He put his paws over his ears trying to block out the rumblings of the raging storm. "Time tah lock up the barrens and shelter de wa'men!"

Marlene's panicked eyes watched Cait settle beside her. "You wanna lock me up?" She sounded pouty and it made Cait rethink his words.

"H'is a good thought fer a charmin' lass," he smiled back, proving that covering his ears didn't impede his hearing. His grin deepened when the little girl gave a hint of a giggle.

The bar owner shook her head at the robot's antics. "You're quite the character, Cait..."

"T'ank yah, I guess," he answered.

Tifa fumbled for her cellphone and put it on the bar when she remembered it was dead. "Ugh," she sighed. "We need a more reliable service..."

The lights above them flickered in short spasms as their power source took another blast. The stocked bottles hammered against each other in a sick march. One of the bottles lost its ground and smashed to the floor far below. Cait crawled on his hands and knees from under the bar to the remains of the bottle, "An' why didn't yah lock up deh boos?!? Leave a man 'alf 'is sanity!"

Tifa moved to rescue the hazardous bottles from their precarious perch when everything went dark.

XXX

"It's not going to fly," the mechanic said critically, shaking a wrench at the beat-up airship. "She took too big of a hit to the engine." She tossed the item into a nearby pail that served as their toolbox.

"You lose heart too easily, Fran," her partner remarked. "The Strahl has been through tighter rounds than this."

"Coming from the pilot who ran her aground," Fran shot back. She surveyed the burrow their ship managed to burrow itself into during the crash. "I suggest we head for the nearest town and hope they have a crane."

Her companion ran a hand along the wing that had been embedded into the makeshift cave wall. "Guess we'll do what we have to..."

The viera placed a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "Just let it go and we can get her some new parts while we are gone."

"Do we have the funds?" he murmured.

"I have a salvaged lock-pick," Fran answered automatically.

The man straightened with a very pleased look plastered on his face. "Then we have all the props ready for the next show."

Fran pricked her ears for the end of the storm. "Provided the curtains ever go up..."

XXX

TBC!

Reviews are welcome!