In Which Final Fantasy Crosses Universes

Chapter 1: The One Where They Are Alone

N/A: I'm basing the back stories off of FFVII [including Crisis Core, Advent Children, and Dirge of Cerberus], FFVIII, FFX [Including X-2], and FFXII [Including Revenant Wings]. I chose these based on my preferences and also of what games I have knowledge of (i.e. ones I've watched, played, or researched). And I claim no ownership of any game (or movie) mentioned; I only own my plot and my OC's.

Note for Combat (And other things): Most weapons used by the combaters will be their most notable/default or the ones used for cut-scenes. (E.g. Yuna will mostly wear her Gunner dress-sphere and not change into any others through spheres [though other outfits may be changed into] and use her guns.) Some exceptions may come, such as Cloud, who I've let have the Fusion sword seen in Advent Children instead of his Buster sword to follow story lines.

Ivalice – Jagd Yensa – Outskirts of the Nam Yensa

Vaan looked at the map, then to the note displayed on his desk. Penelo leaned against his side from her seat and sighed, "We're gonna need help, you know. We've tried everything. It's the only way."

"But who? We can't ask Ashe – she's running a nation, or Basch, or Larsa, and we don't know where Balthier and Fran are."

"I heard they're looking for some treasure in Arcadia. We can send a message there, through the hunters maybe, we've still got some friends hunting up there don't we?"

"No, since the bounty, most our friends are hunting us, but I think Kytes is in that region."

"It's a slim chance…" Penelo stood and patted his arm sympathetically, "I'll write it."

"Tell them to meet us at Bhujerba – I want to get some things from the mines – say we'll wait there a week, and then we're going after it alone."

She waved him off, and told him to start heading east.

-A Couple Weeks Later-

"Where are they?" Vaan paced through the Skygrounds, growling with his frustration.

Penelo placed a hand on his shoulder, "We knew it was a long shot, we were prepared for this."

"Yeah, but they should have been here."

Penelo smiled, and looked like she was about to say something when a kid came running from a newly arriving airship. She came up to them, "Are you Vaan and Penelo?"

Vaan looked guarded but nodded, "Sure kid, what you want?"

"I'm from Phon Coast, I was told by a man and a Viera to deliver this to you." She took out a letter, and gave it to them. She looked at them expectantly as Vaan took the note, "Are you sky pir…" A woman called a name; she turned and sheepishly ran back.

Penelo opened it and read the letter, " 'We can't make it right now. Trying to out run some persistent hunters but will be there in another week.' "

"Damn it! We don't have time for this!" Vaan crumpled the paper and threw it in frustration.

"Vaan!" Penelo scolded, picking up the note, "It'll be fine, we'll just split up and I'll come back with Balthier and Fran."

Vaan sighed, "I don't like just leaving you here."

She smiled, "Yeah, bad memories, but it'll be okay, and maybe I'll even visit Larsa."

Vaan growled, "I still don't like it."

Laughing, she wrapped her arms around his, and kissed his cheek, "Cute. Jealousy suits you."

Vaan grumbled, "I'm not jealous of some dumb little kid."

Penelo laughed again, and walked off, "You head over to Nam-Yensa Sandsea. I'll stay here and wait for Balthier and Fran."

"Fine, just be careful, don't get into trouble."

"I could say the same for you!" She yelled back, laughing.

Vaan smiled, "Well, no time to waste. Rumors about the treasure's probably halfway to Golmore Jungle by now."

Spira – Besaid – The Beach

Laughter was around him, he could hear the bubbles in high and low pitches, he could feel them popping, the vibrations getting in his bones – through the sand – infecting him with a happiness, a peacefulness he'd become used to these three months in the land of the living. And particularly of one sweet, honey laugh that would have relaxed him to sleep if it wasn't for the elbows digging into his stomach as the owner of that beautiful laugh fell on him.

Uff! The air was forced out of his lungs, and he opened his eyes to stare into her heterochromatic ones.

"Hey!" She giggled, "You can't fall asleep now! You haven't helped me with my blitzing yet."

Tidus lazily nodded, "Yeah, sure in a sec."

"Lazy bones," A swift kick to the head by a blond fiend caused Tidus to quickly bring up his head, smacking it into Yuna's, "Get up! We haven't played enough for you to be tired!"

Ugh… Tidus closed his eyes tight against the pain, as Yuna put her hand to her forehead, "Shit, Rikku. What'd I ever do to you?"

"Get up, wuss! I wanna play!" Rikku helped Yuna up, and nudged Tidus so that he lay in a prone position.

"Why…" He moaned into the sand.

"Because we've only got two more hours until Brother's gonna make us leave and go hunt that sphere! We still need to go swimming again and we need to build sand castles and go hunting for sea shells and play blitzball! And …" And Rikku continued to talk, as Yuna looked at Tidus, a small secret smile directed toward him.

Tidus grumbled but got up, "At least the water will get rid of my headache," he glared accusingly at Rikku.

"Yea!" Rikku bounced, and she called to Wakka, "Hey! We're playing blitzball, wanna join?"

"Love too!" Wakka jumped up excitedly from the towel that held his four month old child.

Yuna, then, turned to the rest of the crew, "How 'bout you guys?"

Paine shrugged, "Sure, why not?"

Lulu shook her head, "I've got to watch Vidina."

Brother nodded, and fit pumped, "I'm totally in!"

Buddy nodded as well, and Shinra agreed, though more reluctantly. There was varied response from the local blitzball team but most agreed.

"Yes!" Rikku high-fived Yuna and then ran over to do the same to Paine. Yuna grabbed Tidus' hand and pulled him to the water. Lulu threw the blitzball to Tidus who passed it to Yuna. "Come on!" He waved to them.

Yuna laughed as they started for the water.

Three hour later, the team relaxed into the water, panting with exertion.

"We should probably start looking for the sphere," Brother stated, but not make the effort to start for shore.

"Maybe tomorrow," Rikku slurred sleepily, and Yuna hummed in agreement.

Tidus nodded, "Yeah, I say we wait, get a good night's sleep."

An agreement was obvious throughout the gang, the aurochs having gone to the village an hour ago and Wakka took a sleeping Lulu and Vidina back to their home a half hour. They swam back to shore. As they started for the village, Yuna grabbed Tidus' arm and tugged him back. Paine turned back, seeing the movement in her peripherals. Yuna winked to her, "We'll catch up."

Tidus smiled, "Yeah, don't wait for us." Paine rolled her eyes, as Rikku gave them thumbs up. Brother's shoulders visibly tightened but kept walking with Buddy and Shinra.

"Come on." Yuna tugged Tidus up the wall to the ruins. She and Tidus cleared the rubble, and Yuna led him to the closed off beach. Tidus flopped down, putting his hands behind his head. Yuna laid down beside him and put her head on his chest.

"Hmm… I love you." She smiled contently drawing small circles on his toned stomach.

He let his hands trail down, massaging her lower back gently. "I love you, too." He whispered as he brought her face to his – kissing her chastely.

Planet (FFVIII – the world name is unknown) – Balamb – Balamb Town

"…Wake up…" A poke to his cheek, a soft giggle…

He shifted, swatting at the hand. "Squall~" She sang, "Wakey, wakey…"

He moaned, and rolled over. With a long day before and little sleep that night, he was in no mood to be woken. "Rinoa, please, leave me be."

He cracked open an eye, looking at the woman who was placing her head eye level with his, resting it on her arms, smiling at him. He couldn't resist smiling back and she tapped the tip of his nose. She brought her lips to his, and he pulled her on top of him, heating the kiss.

"Hey, at least close the door!" Squall sighed as he shifted his head, Zell stood in the hall outside the room.

"They found us." Rinoa whispered, giggling.

"Like you were so hard to find…" They heard Irvine walking to them in the hall, and Selphie following spritely. "Just went to the nearest hotel."

Rinoa lifted herself off the bed. "Go away," Squall commanded, tired enough to forget the little civilities he had. He caught Rinoa's hand and tugged her back; Rinoa swatted his hand and eyed him in warning.

Irvine tsked, "I see a good night didn't relinquish your crass nature."

Squall glared at him, knowing exactly what he was insinuating. And Rinoa realized as well, but didn't seem to care. She just stretched and walked towards them, "So why did you come? I thought you were on leave."

Selphie nodded, "Yeah, we were but Quistis called us in, something important. She won't tell us until we are all together."

Squall groaned but got out of the bed, rubbing his face to clear the rest of his drowsiness. Shifting the gears in his brain to that of a soldier, "Where does she want to meet?"

"Her letter says she'll be at the docks with our mission."

"Well then we might as well get ready to go."

-At the Docks-

"Hello!" Quistis waved from across the harbor.

As they met in the middle, Squall replied with a gruff, "What did you call us for?"

"Yeah," Selphie gave a small whine, "We're on leave for a whole more week."

Quistis sighed but ignored them and greeted the others. When they had gotten comfortable on the benches, Quistis finally explained to them her purpose there, "It's not exactly a mission from the Garden, so technically you're still on leave."

The team looked with surprise and interest; Rinoa was the first to ask, "What's the 'mission' then?"

"A disturbance in Galbadia, near Deling City. They say it's just a rumor, but disappearances have been happening around there. Some people are gone forever, others come back disoriented, and don't remember who or where they are." She gave Rinoa newspapers containing reports of the mysteries.

"Here it says one reports going into that Tomb near there and was found not far from there..." Irvine read over Rinoa's shoulder, "a – a month later!"

"How come the people in the Galbadia Garden aren't checking this out? Or at least local authorities," Rinoa asked.

"They did, but only a little," Quistis told them, handing a police report next, "They said it was only a couple people who came back – most were old and probably had mental illnesses – and those that went missing weren't anyone to be concerned with, they probably just moved away without telling anyone or drank one to many at a local bar…" She sighed, "But I'm going to check it out, and I want you to go with me. You never know, we could find something amazing."

Zell fist pumped, "I'm in!"

Selphie nodded enthusiastically, "How exciting would it be if we found treasure!"

Irvine smiled and shrugged, "Hey, I've got nothing better to do, and I'm sure no one else does either."

Rinoa nodded, "These people shouldn't be ignored just because they're of a lower class." She looked to Squall, who nodded his agreement.

"Good," Quistis stood up, "I've made arrangements to leave tomorrow, so rest up today, we'll be up early tomorrow." She gave a pointed look at Rinoa and Squall, "And I mean to rest."

Squall rolled his eyes, "Give me a break." He muttered.

Gaia – Eastern Continent – Edge

"Vinnie…" Yuffie whined, pulling her head up a little from the table to give him a puppy dog look, "Pwease…" She batted her eye lashes, and pouted.

"Yuffie," Vincent's deadpan became cold, "Stop while you still have some dignity."

"Oh, please!" She jumped up, yanking like a child on his tattered cloak, "Please, please, please –"

Tifa clapped her hand against Yuffie's mouth to shut her up. She yanked it back as Yuffie licked her palm, "Ugh…" Tifa shook the saliva off and wiping the excess on a glaring Vincent.

Yuffie tugged more, "This is serious! I want to go and no one will go with me."

"Then why don't you go by yourself." Cloud offered from the bar.

"I can't!" She wailed and fell dramatically on Tifa, "I have a reputation to upkeep!"

"Since when?" Tifa pushed her off.

Yuffie stuck her tongue out, "The boy that's getting married..." She pulled a face, "Well, let's just say we're acquainted. I can't go to the party all alone and vulnerable looking."

"Vulnerable has never been associated with you Yuffie." Tifa cut in.

"Still, I have to save face!" Yuffie looked to Vincent, "And that's where Vince comes in. He doesn't even hav'ta pretend anything, just show up and look pretty."

He shook his head, "Yuffie, I said no."

"Poopie-head," Muttered the disgruntled Wutain, but looked hopefully to her alarmed friends sitting at the bar.

"I wouldn't go on a date with you if it saved the whole damn planet. Not after seeing your last date's injures." Barret gave firmly and turned back, those who remembered Yuffie's last date shuddered. The other two males vehemently shook their heads: Cid responding only with a few choice cusses and Cloud affirming he already was already going with Tifa.

Yuffie glared at them all, and muttered, "I hope you all have a train shoved up your ass." She looked about to give up and sulk, but, she then glanced at Shelke – who was talking to her sister – with an odd gleam in her eyes, "You know, I never specified it had to be a male. I could have a change of heart about my inclinations." Yuffie smiled deviously at a wide-eyed Shelke.

"W-What?" Shelke, who obviously hadn't been playing any attention, looked from Yuffie to Vincent to Tifa, and then to Shalua.

Yuffie jumped over Tifa, and shrugged with a seemingly nonchalant air, "Hey, maybe the reason it never worked between you and Vince is not a personality non-difference, but a…preference non-difference."

Tifa quickly grabbed on and shook the life out of Yuffie before she said anything else, the topic of Vincent and Shelke's relationship – though never stated to be a romantic one – was wounding for both of them, and the team had agreed not to talk about them – especially when Shelke and Vincent were seeming to warm up to each other again. Though, they suspected Shalua's mediating had a lot to do with the mending friendship.

And Yuffie, once up, harassed the whole bar – men and women alike – to going with her. Finally, when most had refused (and others Yuffie refused to go with), Tifa finally influenced Vincent to call, "Yuffie, stop." He sounded the same as always but the slight slump of his shoulders told of hidden defeat, and continued, "I'll go with you."

"Yes!" Yuffie yelled as she jumped around from her victory.

-At the Party-

"See, this wasn't so bad." Yuffie patted Vincent's arm, the muscles under her hand tense.

She dragged him to the buffet table where she started to pluck the finger food off the plates with experienced speed. Vincent took no food but swirled a glass of red wine, staring longingly at it.

"Wishing it was blood?" Yuffie teased, getting only a blank stare in return. She sighed, and leaned against him. Vincent shook her off and sipped the wine, restraining himself from guzzling it down.

Yuffie bit back the hurt at his blatant rejection and looked around for someone she knew. Seeing Cloud, Yuffie bound to him with renewed energy. Unknown to her, Vincent watched her leave. He, then, took the liberty of finishing off the red wine in one gulp, hoping to drink the night away. A man approached him, and Vincent stepped out of the way - thinking the man was reaching for the alcoholic beverages. He did; taking a light, white wine.

"A little early for red wine, is it not?" The man asked, as Vincent grabbed another.

Vincent shrugged, giving no vocal answer. The man smiled politely but a little forced, "I didn't think you were her type."

Vincent raised an eyebrow, and took a sip, intrigued but wary. The man gestured to Yuffie, who was obnoxiously whooping at Cloud. Understanding dawned on Vincent: this must have been the fling Yuffie mentioned.

"We're colleagues." Vincent hinted, not cruel, or simply didn't care, enough to give up her ploy.

"Met at work, huh. Still, she usually goes for the annoying loud mouths." He smiled, "But those obviously never worked, so maybe she figures opposites attract."

Vincent glared at the wall in front of him and wished he could be free of this man. "You're getting married." He desperately spouted out, hoping to steer this man away from Yuffie, "Congratulations."

"Yeah, congrats to me," The man gave an gruff laugh and gulped his wine down, grabbing another. "I should have insisted on whisky, but no, wine was more elegant. Huh, seems my opinions don't really matter. Lucky me."

They drank in silence; Vincent slowly sipping, the groom-to-be guzzling down one after the other. Obviously not happy with his match and forced to celebrate it – I would want to drunk as well, Vincent thought. But his sympathy only went so far, for in Vincent's unbridled mind the situation would never be acceptable. If he did not love his bride, he simply would refuse to marry, but Vincent said nothing – after all, who was he to judge.

The man eventually shuffled off, after an older woman came to reprimand him for nursing his alcohol in apparently the named unsociable corner. For the rest of the evening Vincent stayed where he was, watching the partygoers and his teammates' converse around the room. He was finally called out of his "brooding spot" (as named by Yuffie) to enjoy a dinner, provided by the bequeathed.

"Vince!" Yuffie yelled across the table, grabbing the attention of most of the guests, she was jumping in her usual manner, with both of her hands waving like a spot light above her head. Cloud side stepped, just missing the sweep down of Yuffie's hand. Tifa put her hand on Yuffie's shoulder to keep her still, "I think he sees you."

Vincent walked to them and sat next to Yuffie. He glanced up and noticed the groom shifting his gaze over to Yuffie. Yuffie seemed to notice also, "Poor shmuck."

Tifa gave a curious look, "What did you do to him?"

"Ha, it's what I didn't do." Yuffie explained, "I dated him, sure, but then Godo was all 'Marry! Marry!' and you know: his dad's pretty close to mine. Any way, they were pushing us to get married, so I was like 'damn no, fuck off.'" A few of the people sitting around glared at her, "And then I was working with WRO, it didn't really cross my mind what happened to him."

Tifa sighed, "What are we going to do with you?"

The evening, after that, went relatively fast, for Vincent at least. Soon he was nestled comfortably in the hotel room chair, reading a book he found in the drawer next to his bed. Yuffie was taking a shower, or drying off, Vincent observed, as he didn't hear the water running anymore. Soon enough, Yuffie opened the door, still toweling her hair, "It's all yours Vinnie."

She stopped, "Come to think of it, I don't ever see you take a shower. Must be your vampire powers."

Vincent fought the urge to roll his eyes, "I take them in the morning."

She shrugged and flopped herself down on her bed, "Ugh... I can't believe Tifa only booked two rooms – and then didn't split it girl, boy."

Vincent shrugged, and continued reading. It wasn't like they hadn't slept in the same room together before, hell, they used to sleep right next to each other when in AVALANCHE, and anyways the room had two beds so that no personal spaces were being breached.

"Don't you ever sleep?" Yuffie slanted her eyes his way, sensing his lack of response she turned off her light and climbed under her covers. "Well, night."

He grunted, and closed his book. He looked out the window into the black night, and flicked the light next to him off, to give Yuffie a chance at sleep. In the dim room the light from his phone's alert system shinned like a beacon, and suddenly the cheerful ring of hers went off. He grabbed his as she flicked on the light to find hers. He read the text with irritation. And as she found and read her text, he could tell it was a similar message.

'Vincent,

There's some odd activity in the cave of Lucrecia's body. I trusted this to you Vincent, because of your connection but note that if you can't get to the bottom of this, I will dispatch a whole team. To ease your work load, I will have Yuffie accompany you.

Reeve'

Yuffie tsked, looking annoyed, "Stupid asshole – he said he'd give me a month's time off."

"We'll discuss it with Cloud and Tifa in the morning." Vincent lay in his own bed, but didn't sleep. He paused when Yuffie turned off the light and snuggled back into her covers, he surprised himself with, "Good dreams, Yuffie."

"Night, Vinnie."

He sighed his annoyance at the insolent nickname.

And so the painfully long introduction to my story is over! My other chapters probably won't be as long because the stories won't be so individualized.

I've revised a couple things, just small what-not's. You know, to explain things better or fix an error/grammar or just simply because as I wrote the second chapter certain things seemed to be revealed to early or trivial and just gave away some plot.