Because I feel extremely happy this week what with me starting uni and FINALLY some news of FFXV, welcome back to the Dual Destinies trilogy, or To the Ends of the Earth trilogy as I like often alternate. It's great to be back and writing in this universe and hearing the news about FFXV only made me more eager to post this. Originally I had planned to debut this in October, but why torture you? You can have this chapter right now.

Just want to say thank you once more to every single reader and follower out there whose input in every way helped shape the first part of the trilogy and even what is to come. Will this be as long as Dual Destinies? Can't say but what I do know is that I hope to have fun writing every single chappie as much as I did the last one. I can say however that there are a lot of thoughts swirling in my mind as to where this is headed, and I consider Dual Destinies to often be a theme of summer heaving into fall, so you can imagine that this will be fall heading into winter. Yeah, we're gonna have fun with this, hehehe. Without further ado, I present a story that will single handedly put Shakespeare to shame (okay, that's impossible).

Chapter 1

Solitude: For the Girl Who Has Nothing

On a day much like any other where the good neighbor catered to their garden by watering their flowerbeds; where the mailman – his shirt off to keep cool from the hot summer weather – made it his mission to beat his personal best time in which he delivered his mail each day; where kids were running up and down the suburban neighborhood yelling at the top of their lungs as they participated in ball games or tag, an eight year old girl was staring absentmindedly out of her window. Her brown hair was braided and tied up in a ponytail and her clear blue eyes seemed to contain too much mystery behind them making it impossible to tell what the girl was really thinking most of the time.

For what they knew of this girl, boisterous was not one of the words they would use to describe her. Unlike most of the other children playing on the street, she was reserved, mostly keeping to herself and passing the time with books from the local library as well as helping her parents out when they required it. The people who really knew her though, knew her to be an energetic and playful young individual with a thirst for knowledge. Her father and mother (a fisherman and doctor respectively) were both kind-natured souls and had introduced her to the world of books through fairy tales. For what it was worth and she was extremely proud of this, she had the highest reading level for her age group at school. One of her favorite books had even been A Midsummer Night's Dream which, although she had hardly understood, it had still somehow managed to leave a fluttery feeling inside that she couldn't quite explain. It was as if she felt... lighter. Little things like that made her feel special in a world that was all too normal for her taste.

There was something else that made her different from most others, and she wasn't sure whether she hated it or not because it made her feel unusual. She had always wondered about the stars ever since reading her first fairy tales. If she could reach the sky and touch what was beyond, what would she find? Was there something beyond this simple world? When she asked her mother whether this type of thinking was normal, she replied by saying that it was in her blood to curious and daring. She had heard stories from her father that her mom as a teenager had been much different than the woman he had eventually married. Personally, she wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. She couldn't imagine that her mom could be so different from today, but then again she was only eight so she was sure it was an age thing that would make sense over time.

The girl pressed her hands up against the cool window glass and watched as a couple of birds flew by. She wondered how they were able to do something like this when she could only so much as jump and even then she wouldn't be able to reach their h. In one of her books there had even been a snowman that had become real and had taken flight, but she knew the difference between fiction and reality. Even so, it didn't stop her from wishing that she would wake up the next to find herself in that fiction.

Scattered across her room were a bunch of toys that she had been playing with recently for what else could she do to live out her dreams of fantasy. She indulged in coming up with scenarios or simply re-enacting things she had seen in books and films. As long as her imagination could run wild, she didn't feel as restricted by her simple, ordinary life as she would've been without it.

The walls were a light blue, decorated in floral patterns with posters of some of her favorite cartoon characters on them. In between two of these posters was a wardrobe which did not serve as a gateway leading to some make believe land, as she often wanted imagine it. That hadn't prevented it from being useful however, having served as a successful hiding place several times during her hide and seek sessions with her mother, and of course she wasn't ignoring the reality of the fact that at the end of the day it was simply for storing clothes.

"Luna dear, are you coming down to eat?" A voice called from down below. That would have been her father, the playful jester of the family and of a caring and gentle disposition that had made the girl love him all the more.

"Coming dad." Luna yelled back and she tip toed out of the room, being careful not to step on the multiple toys scattered around the room like booby traps. She managed to safely leave the premises and started off in a normal walk down the stairs and to the small kitchen.

"Toddfield seemed to have booked the day off before I could. And to think, what a coincidence that we were planning on taking a vacation on the same day. And I was looking forward to some mountain hiking." Her father sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"You mean we can't go? That's not fair! Tell them to do it another day." Luna complained banging her fists on the table.

"Luna, what did I tell you about doing that? If you don't stop you'll end up breaking the table… and you'll have to pay for it." Said her mother, adding in the last few words jokingly.

"Oopsie, sorry." Luna scratched her head before saying, "But Auntie Kit hasn't given me my pocket money yet."

"Well she has, it's just that you keep spending it on more toys." Her mom chided.

"Oh come on Kay, like you weren't reckless with your allowance back in the day. I say let Luna spend it on whatever she wants. It's not like she's planning to build some kind of gigantic super laser, although that would be quite cool on second thought… actually Luna, definitely keep doing it-OW!" Her father was quickly cut off from his eager mood when her mother punched him on the shoulder lightly.

"Oh I'm so sorry, I just felt like doing that all of a sudden Ronan. You know how it is." Kay apologized with a hint of playfulness.

"Oh, I know it all too well." Ronan said and gulped. He was about to go back to eating his dinner went he noticed the rather absent expression on Luna's face. "Honey, I promise you that we'll go some other time. I know how much you've wanted to go hiking and I wouldn't let you down for the world."

"You promise, right?" Luna asked giving the most determined yet hopeful expression she could muster.

"Hey, in this family we never break our promises, didn't you know that?" Ronan grinned and offered his hand to Luna who cleared her throat professionally and shook his hand in a way that imitated a typical business person.

Dinner was lively as always, composing of Luna asking her dad multiple questions about what mountain hiking was like. He had told her that Alexander had been a city that had fallen to the trap of building on the synthetic and so as a result of this a certain beauty of nature had been lost. Where one could have once seen the mountains from the city centre a decade ago, such a view was now obstructed by large skyscrapers and apartment blocks. While some of these landmarks were quite spectacular to look at such as the recently refurbished royal palace, the Turm des Himmels, an amazing tower which seemed to stretch up into the heavens itself, and the opera house, some of the more modern buildings were gray and dull certainly containing no meaning to them and were mixed in with the more traditional romantic architecture of the city creating something that was completely sporadic. Even though night time provided a wonderful spectacle of lights reflecting its image in the canal, Luna much preferred something else, something that she had found on her own and had not told her parents about.

"Such is the horror felt by the traditional day artist," said her mother with a shrug, "If we let the architects do the talking from now on, the type of artists we used to know back in the day will be long gone."

"Uh huh." Luna said with a nod, having very little idea what she was talking about. Once again, she supposed it was just a thing of being too young to understand.

"I never cared much for museums. When you tried to drag me along every time to look at the paintings, I always made excuses that I was with some friends." Ronan remarked and he pulled a disgusted face at Luna who giggled in return.

"You probably hated them because they revealed your own lack of talent." Kay was quick on the attack and let out of smile of triumph.

"Oh snap." Luna mimicked something one of her friends at school said and eagerly yet unconsciously banged her fists on the table again.

"Luna, again?" Kay said and the eight year old quickly apologized before her mother could raise a storm over it.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot. Auntie Kit wanted some help with a few deliveries. May I be excused?" Luna asked after finishing her dinner.

"Doesn't she usually come to pick you up? I'm not sure it's a good idea letting a eight year old girl out by herself…"

"Oh come on mom, I know the neighbourhood well enough. I promise I won't take any detours. I'll go straight there, and come right back after the rounds." Luna pleaded putting on quivering lips and big eyes.

"Oh dear, you really are your father aren't you?" Kay let out a small laugh.

"And that's a bad thing?" Ronan replied however at Kay's threatening glance, returned to eating the food on his plate.

"Okay, but report back to the house at 1900 hours stat on the double missy, I don't want you wandering around places you shouldn't be. Straight to Kit's and back, understood?" Kay allowed resignedly. Luna nodded and shot forward out of her chair, out of the kitchen, around the corner and to the door. She put on her flat sandals and left the house quickly in a rush.

It was the hottest day of the year so far, according to the weather reports at least, and they certainly weren't wrong about that. Luna felt the effects of the scorching intense heat almost as soon as she had left the house. Usually green bushes, grass and hedges in front of her house and others were now dry and yellow, no doubt wishing they could be drenched in cool water. Of course a hose ban due to the current drought made that wish impossible at the moment. She tried to remember the last time it had rained. Possibly, it had almost been a month ago and considering that Alexander usually had its fair supply of rainfall, it had come as a surprise to most that this exhausting heat had come out of nowhere and was possibly here to stay for a while longer.

This did not stop the children in her neighbourhood from playing however, and even though she could hear complaints as she walked down the street, they were typically ignored for the most part. They, and some of the adults, had even stopped their activities to take the time to greet Luna as she passed them. She responded to them as politely as she could, though the beating sun certainly tempted her to hurry her efforts even more to Kit.

As far as Kit's Bakery goes, it was the go to place for any type of pastry or bread. Her parents were very close to Kit with them even allowing her to babysit Luna on certain nights when they were busy or wanted some alone time together. Luna had become swept away by her lavishness when it came to cooking. She had always been overly abundantly worried about the quality of her baked goods, having gone so far as to have Luna test taste them during her time as a babysitter. Though she was a little too concerned with her pride as a baker, she had always found time to play with Luna either way as well as renting books from the library just to read to her so it was only natural that Luna would have eventually taken to referring to her as an aunt even if they weren't related.

Much like its owner, the shop was lavishly decorated from head to toe with rows of recently made bread of all types on the left side of the shop and pastries on trays sorted into similar rows and placed behind the glass counter where Kit stood. Cupcakes and cookies among other assorted pastries one could think of were all here and had all been tried at some point by Luna who was surprised that she hadn't gotten fat off of eating them so much.

"Well if it isn't little Luna just in time. I was just about to come to your house actually. Don't tell me your parents let you come here by yourself now did they?" Kit asked. She was plump woman with rosy cheeks and the frizzy red hair and freckles to match. As with most people, she had abandoned the familiar cardigan that Luna usually saw her wearing due to the humidity.

"I'll grow and I won't be so little anymore, and they said it was okay as long as I come here and back right after." Luna answered feeling slightly annoyed at the mention of her h.

"Oh ho ho, well aren't you a little cutie. Well I can see that annoyed look on your face so let's not dwell on it and get to work shall we?" Kit said before moving over to the intricately weaved straw baskets that were next to the counter. For the next hour, Luna and Kat spent their time at the old retirement home which was situated in the middle of a block of apartments. From time to time, one of the errands that Kat asked of Luna was to assist her to said housing facility in order to deliver some baked goods to the elderly there. On more than one occasion, Luna had sat down with Kit to listen to stories of the old—an experience Kit claimed would become more satisfying than any fiction book Luna was to read. This had turned out to be half true. Luna hadn't really found heard anything fascinating though there were the occasional stories by certain people, her favourites belonging to an old man who used to be a police officer. Today however, she had to make an exception to hearing these tales feeling quite uncomfortable in the heat and as promised, returned to her house with Kit supervising her at least until Luna had arrived back on her street.

"Auntie Kit, do you think there's something out there?" Luna had suddenly asked as they turned onto another street.

"Like UFOs and aliens? Could be. Not that I think we should be busy having our heads high up in the clouds. We have enough to worry about on the ground, don't you think so?" Kit said. "You're only eight; you don't need to worry about those things right now. Just keep going to school and be a normal kid and before you know it you'll have more opportunities thrown at you than you can count your Chocobos, especially if you get good grades."

"But what if I don't want to be normal? Normal is boring, that's what I read in one of my books." Luna said. Once again she had to suffer from Kit ruffling her hair, a common trait that occurred whenever Luna acted older than her age.

"Normal is as normal does. If you honestly ask me, I don't think most people are as normal as they claim to be. But you should be careful what you wish for Luna, you don't know what you're missing until it's truly gone." Kit advised but Luna wasn't so sure she was willing to take those words to heart. She had always considered normal boring, even her own mother did, who had told her that the word normal, much like the word perfect, didn't have much meaning to her. It probably wasn't that Kit's analysis was wrong, it was just that Luna believed that her mother's analysis was right, and having taken after her mother's sense of adventure at a young age apparently, that was probably why she felt this way.

By the time Luna and Kit had arrived on the street, the day was slowly approaching its end and an orange glow bathed the sky which casted its shadows over the opaque objects on the ground. Even with this development, most of the kids were still out playing and some neighbours were even comfortably sunbathing on their lawns with towels underneath them.

"Well, I need to get back to the store now Luna. If you need help, don't forget that I'm always here for you." said Kat with a worried look on her face.

"I know. Thank you auntie Kit." Luna said and gave her the usual warm and appreciative hug. After saying their final goodbyes, Luna set off for the house and was about to knock on the door when she paused and held off. She looked down the end of the road to make sure that Kit was gone before taking off once again down the road. She was hoping that her parents wouldn't mind much, though that wasn't likely but as long as they believed that she was still with Aunt Kit then she figured it would be alright in the end. She hated lying to her parents of course but she really felt like going to her special place, a place where she felt as if she was closer to the stars than she could ever be.

She had been down this route so many times that it almost felt more natural than going to school for her. She honestly didn't know how she kept getting away with being away from home sometimes at night and she was sure by now that her parents were more or less suspicious of her actions. Without much trouble, she arrived at a green hill just on the outskirts of town and took her regular place, sitting down on the convenient log and closing her eyes as the heat tickled her face.

The stars soon appeared as the sun slowly disappeared beyond the horizon. She finally opened her eyes and looked up into the sky dreamily. Here were a billion bright treasures as if they had been tailored specifically for her. Here she knew nothing of reality or normal, only what was above and what she sought after. Was it simply too much to wish upon a star that she would one day fly up to meet one?

"Um, excuse me. Do you-" An unfamiliar voice shook her out her thoughts and her eyes soon met with the intruder. Something that had caught Luna's eye was that the boy had become quite dumbfounded after asking the question, his blue eyes searching for answers just as much as she had wanted to know the answer of how he had stumbled upon her secret place. Perhaps the most curious feature he possessed was his brown spiky hair…

Luna was to know no rest in the realm of darkness. She found it to be a miracle that she was still alive considering she had been running for what had felt like forever, and this had not been the only time. Many instances had she found herself overwhelmed by the army of darkness that had gathered here. Her clothes were torn and dirty, the result of having flung her own body out of harm's way several times or making a silly mistake concluding in a successful hit from the enemy. To her, this place, these creatures—they had become the very thing her nightmares came to represent and only added to her worries, if worrying about her troubled past was not enough of a problem.

The Heartless—creatures born from the darkness in people's hearts; predators relying purely on instinct; obeying the will of those strongest… all of this, truly meant nothing when it came to the Heartless in this realm. They reacted differently, more ruthlessly and constantly with an aggressive plan in mind. They preyed on Luna's heart sensing her vulnerability and they knew to give her no time to think like the ones on the other side. They still acted on instinct, but they were also very careful, something Luna had never seen before. As she ran through them, Luna flung her Dream Seeker Keyblade forward only for the Neo Shadows to jump out of the way. They were studying her… watching her every move. This was their territory and she was but an unwelcome trespasser stepping into a den of hungry lions (she soon excused this thought in remembrance of her lion friends at Pride Rock).

The sand underneath her feet slowed down her process and she could feel tiny grains of the stuff in her shoes and underneath the soles of her feet, making things even more uncomfortable. From the left, from the right, they all came with a vigorous desire for blood that Luna had never seen before. She barely looked either side before flicking her Keyblade both ways casting Aeroga which blew the chasers off course.

Seeing her destination in sight just up ahead, Luna jumped onto safe ground from the sand and took off in a full sprint towards the concealed passage hidden by broken twigs and bushes. Her body was in pain and she felt as if she could drop at any second but still she pressed on. Just as she thought she was going to make it safely, a neo shadow spun its body vertically forward and connected with Luna, its claws managing to scrape Luna arm. She yelped in pain and turned around before smashing her Keyblade down on the Heartless in anger. If that had been the end of her problems she would have took some time to come to terms with what had happened, but even that was impossible as the Heartless were still following her. She turned quickly and ran over to the obstruction, pulling apart the twigs and bush before stepping into the dark cave.

It was a small corridor filled with dirt and Luna had to lean her head forward to make sure she didn't hit the ceiling but she finally relaxed when she eventually emerged out at a much bigger and spacious room. Immediately she leaned up against a rock and pulled her sleeve up, revealing a gash where the claws had struck her. She winced at it before holding her Keyblade above her and casting Curaga. As the healing process occurred, she closed her eyes and remembered back to simpler times.

"Be careful what you wish for Luna, you don't know what you're missing until it's truly gone." She repeated words someone had told her long ago. All she had to live on her were memories, some of a distant past and some of a closer one. She had long since considered them to be the key to her survival here and they were only thing keeping her from giving up. The conversation she was thinking off had brought up the topic of 'normal', a word which had never really jived with Luna. The question now was did she regret missing out on this normal life? Had she not been so curious in stars in the first place, Alexander wouldn't have burned to the ground and her parents wouldn't have died by her hands.

The green glow around her body soon disappeared and she looked at her arm only to see the wound close up leaving a bright red mark in its place. Not for the first time, it had her that she was in his world. These Destiny Islands with their lush tropical trees, their golden sand, blue waters and the fabled Paopu tree she had heard so much about? These were only images she could imagine in her mind for the place she was in seldom resembled how it had been described.

It was then that Luna had come to understand why she had gone through all that trouble to be anything but normal. He had promised her that he would take her to see the stars and he had done so. She had never looked back even if her ultimate goal at the end was to recover her memories. She had them now but she had regretted it instantly when she had learned the horrific truth. But he had understood her; he had even still wanted to protect her regardless of the truth he knew. If normal meant never meeting friends like that in the first place then she didn't want any part of it.

A bright glow shook her out of her thoughts and turned her attention towards something like a wooden door at the back of the cave. There wasn't a handle with which to open this door with but there was something just as good. A large keyhole had appeared in the middle of the door with light peeking through the edges of its shape. Luna pointed the Dream Seeker at the keyhole and watched its beam of light radiate from the tip and strike its target. A click was soon heard followed by the keyhole disappearing, and then the door, and then the walls around her. The world itself dissolved in front of Luna's eyes until she was eventually left with a dark sky and a sinister path underneath which she would have to take for her next journey.

She had done this once already and had seen this exact same thing with another world and she could only guess what was happening. Her hope was that she was sending the worlds back to their original states, and if that theory was true then he and his friends would be extremely happy when they came across it next.

Luna looked up into the sky. There were too many stars to count but the thing to note was that they all seemed to share the same sky no matter how distant the realm of light and darkness seemed. She wondered if he looked up at these very same stars too at night, dreaming of a reunion and a heart-warming smile to go along with it. Here were a billion bright treasures as if they had been tailored specifically for her… no, for the both of them.

She smiled weakly. "Sora, pick a star… any star. That's where I'll be."

Yeah, she's still alive, just in case any of you wondering. Huh, I wonder how long it has been... oh well, expect the next chapter in a day or two and remember that feedback is very much welcome, negative or positive, whatever it takes to shape this trilogy into a great one. And whoever this Luna person is in FFXV, she better not be a Keyblade wielder, just saying.