The Beginning

A lone ship flowed in the limitless space. The stars being its only light in its guided path. A woman with Lifestream green eyes gazes out at their beauty from the window of her Gummi Ship. The cool touch of the window on her hand acting as the only shield between her ship and the vacuums of space.

And what a vital shield is was to her. For beyond the beauty of the stars that lied behind the glass was the precious cargo within that this ship bared.

She took her eyes from the beauty of space to turn to the whimpering of the baby that laid cradled in his wicker basket, tearing up as he kicked around in his covers for love and affection. And she was more than willing to give him that affection. How could she not? He was her child after all. She slowly walked over to him with the smoothness and grace of a swan. His basket safely secured to one of the passenger seats as the Gummi Ship smoothly ran on autopilot. His whimpering had quieted down as he saw her green eyes staring warmly back down at him.

He reached up for her with a mewl, yearning for her to reach back for him, grabbing for anything even reaching for her segmented bangs. She warmly smiled down at the child, reaching down a finger to him which he took in his tiny fingers. Her heart warmed up at the sound of his giggle at their contact, her smile grew wider and she released a gently chuckle. His hand was so small... it wrapped so snugly around just one of her dainty fingers. For such a tiny thing... he felt so strong... He had a powerful grip, just like his father...

Whom was the reason they were leaving their World.

Her face sombered up at the reminder of it.

His father... her husband... her other half...

They were both different from the rest on their World, from any on other Worlds for that matter. They were the last of an ancient race that had slowly died out. A race that was still apart of the Worlds with an attachment like no other, and yet... still detached from it as well. Beings that were born from the Light and had a connection to the Kingdom of Hearts. Which also made them have a connection to the Lifestream, which was the cycling Hearts from each World's core.

Her birth was natural between her mother and normal human father, and her Being was pure with the Light. While her husband... was not...

He had been birth from a surrogate mother between his Ancient race mother and his biological human father. Now his father was a scientist tainted by the Darkness that had implanted his co-scientist's uterus with the fertilized egg of a recently uncovered Ancient, whom the Relics had called her Jenova... the calamity, to spawn his birth. However this Ancient had wavered from the Light and had become tainted by the Darkness, making the child in turn also tainted by the Darkness. The Darkness was too much for the surrogate mother whom had eventually withered and perished after giving birth to the child. The boy had practically grown in a lab tank, trained only to fight as a soldier and received no form of love or affection from the other scientists or his actual biological father for that matter.

But that didn't matter to her, she still loved him, regardless of his coming-into-being. She had been taken in to his father's lab as well, as a lab rat after his father had killed her father and had taken her Ancient mother and her for experimenting when she was just a small child. They had practically grew up in the same test tubes right next to each other, and they had given themselves all the love and friendship that the rest of their caged world would not. They were only a few years apart, he had 3 years over her, but still... they were the best of friends. They were the only two souls that shared the same glow of the Lifestream in their green eyes, aside from her mother, there could be nothing that would tear them apart. They even shared her mother's loving affection which he had been deprived of and craved for years. She would teach them, love them, sing to them from their confinement in their tubes. Comforting them for whenever she or the boy was taken out for experiments. She loved them, and in turn they loved her.

But sadly it would not last... His father had eventually killed her mother in one of his more excessive experiments. Taking her life, but never destroying her Heart which had returned to the Lifestream. Even so... the children were left on their own.

The boy had began taking the brunt of his father's experiments to protect the girl. His eyes taking a more greenish glow as he was forced to take on more Mako, concentrated liquid Lifestream, injections with each experiment. With each passing day he grew colder as each experiment made him grow stronger, stronger than the other soldiers experimented on. Soon he became the strongest of the soldiers on his World, and was better than the rest. A hero to the eyes of his people, but a monster in his own eyes and the eyes of the scientists that monitor the two remaining Ancients. But when he had come to realize the terrible experiments that made him, he began to hate the people that made him. And then, over time, he began to hate everything.

All except one... the little girl that grew up alongside him in the tubes, the one that taught him the feelings of emotions and the Heart. She had been the only string tying him to the Light. The Light that still shined in the Darkness that had still tried to wiped out its warm glow, she had become his Light. And he in turn protected that Light. He grew strong, strong enough that they could no longer touch him, not even his father. Strong enough that his father couldn't even get passed him to her.

He no longer felt any hate towards his father. He was weak, and an annoyance in his eyes, not worth the trouble of squashing under his boot. But he would no long have to worry about destroying him, for the mad scientist consumed by his obsession with the Darkness had soon been swallowed up by his own darkness. Becoming the Heartless that he was in life. With him gone, the two Ancients were no longer confined to their cage. The boy, taking her hand, walked out of their test tubes with no resistance from the rest of the staff. Taking their own lives back in the Light as they walked out of the Darkness of the Lab, hand in hand... together.

They had started a new life together. The boy had remained a Soldier as it was the only thing he knew how to do, it was the only thing that he seemed to crave to do that had followed him with his past. While the girl, in turn, had found work planting and selling flowers, working as a healer for side change. None would believe how such opposites could come together. None could know how the two could have ever come to meet, their existences were different as the Night and Day, two shades in the sky.

But the masses would never know of their horrible past. They would never understand everything the two of them feel for each other and why. The two of them had come to live together in their new life, just like how they dreamed of in their confinement in separate tubes. Now free to touch, free to feel... She would share with him her crazy dreams, her upbeat and joyful warmth and smiles as she kept his Light shinning bright inside him. While he in turn became her rationality, her understanding companion to her personality quirks, her guardian to her more crazy dreams/stunts while still believing that she could do anything. He was her shield, her warm moonlight to her sunshine... her other half.

It wasn't hard to believe that the two would come together in marriage when they had reached of age. On her 19 year she gave birth to their first son. Two more came happily after that. She was a good mother, and he a good father. He had even started to open up more, even made friends along the lines of his work as a Soldier, such as Zack and Cloud. But sadly... the same could not be said when the fourth son arrived.

She was 24 when her fourth child was born, an uprising of Heartless had appeared on their World, Radiant Garden, seemingly out of nowhere. A witch that had gone by the name Maleficent was stirring up trouble with her powers of the Darkness as she summoned up Heartless to reek havoc on the land. The boy that had become her husband was sent to take care of the situation before it grew out of proportion, along with a handful of the most elite soldiers. They had driven the witch away, with many injures among the other Soldiers. Her husband had remained unharmed, but he had never returned the same...

The Darkness within him began to grow unsteadily stronger, beyond her healing Light. It began to consume him and toy with his mind. He began attacking friend and foe alike for the simple joy of battle. Even loved ones...

"..." The woman winced in pain as her hand went to cup the still healing injure on her belly, while the other gently rocked her child in his basket crib.

Such a beautiful child, his eyes shined so brightly, just like her's. He looked just like his father, just like the rest of her children. None of them had inherited her sun-kissed brown hair, only his platinum white, and softer versions of his face. But... at the same time... they inherited his Darkness along with her Light. Using this against her, he had taken her elder three sons away to bring them into the ways of the Darkness. Letting their Darkness consume their Light. In his warped love he had wanted to do the same for her, along with their infant son.

So with her husband gone and her elder sons taken away from her by the Darkness she had no choice but to flee with the last speck of Light she had remaining.

And so she ran... with her infant son. Away from her World, away from her home, away from him.

Traveling the vastness of space, knowing that he wasn't too far behind them. After them.

She knew she wouldn't be able to keep running from him for long, he would find them. He could sense their Light. They would shine too brightly together, and so...

"My son..." Her voice began to waver as her eyes started to water. She lifted her son out of his seat, basket cradle and all, as she held them both in her arms. "I am not physically strong like your father. I can only rely on my magical prowess. There is nothing much I can give you as I am... but this chance that your Light shall live."

The autopilot had reached its destination, halting their Gummi Ship right in front of a World that looked like it was made of islands and beaches. The World was known as Destiny Islands. It was a peaceful world... he would be safe there.

"I pray we'll meet again." Her voice was calm, but her tears had escaped. She walked over to one of the escape pods, and strapped the basket in. "When your father has regain his Light again..."

The child began to cry, detecting the anguish of his mother, reaching out for her for comfort. This was the only way... his father couldn't find him. He would be safe away from her as she lured his father away from him. She would do this to protect him... even if... it tore her apart in the process... She lifted him out of his basket crib, gently rocking him as she held him in her arms. Cuddling him close as she began to sing him her lullaby.

"You must leave me behind

Though the night howls inside you"

The tears began to gently flow down her cheeks as well as she sang soothingly to her son, her voice as soft as silk.

"You must fly

High into the storm

Far from the light

You must be strong."

His crying seem to have quieted down to a whimper as he moved in towards his mother's warmth.

"Because they need you"

Her face softened and a warm smile came over her as she sang these words from the heart, looking down at her son for one last glance since the next one would most likely not happen in a long time.

"Because I love you."

The baby boy yawned, stretching in his covers as his Lifestream eyes began to droop in sleepiness. He fought so hard to resist the call of dreamland to look upon his mother instead, but it was a losing battle.

"You close your eyes now

And I will be gone

But my love for you will go on."

She gave his forehead one last kiss before she placed him back in his basket. Safely tucking him in and strapping him down in the basket and the seat. Securing an ice-cooler full of breast milk for him in one of the compartments and leaving him with one last letter for him before backing away from the escape pod with uncontrolled tears.

"You close your eyes now

And I will be gone

But my love for you will go on."

Taking a hesitant breath she pressed the button that would seal up the escape pod and initiate the countdown from departure from the main ship. As it was an escape pod, an emergency 10 second countdown was the limit of launch time. With those last precious seconds given to her, she looked upon her baby through the glass sealed window. Gazing at him one last time while he slowly fell to sleep.

"Riku... I'm sorry I can't be there to watch you grow up... But... I promise to be there for you in your dreams..."

With her last words the pod shot off, safely to land on one of the islands of the World. She hoped that he would land in a better place than she was going...

Unable to hold it back anymore, she fell to her knee as she cried. Looking off to where the escape pod was no longer in sight in her window as she covered her mouth with her hand to try and hold in the pain while the other gripped into the wall for support. With this... she had lost her last child. But... at least she didn't lose him to the Darkness.

*** Author's Notes ***

The song was actually Aeris's theme, the lyrics were written to be from specific scenes in the original Final Fantasy VII game by Kate Covingtion, or katethegreat19. I love this song so much I have it uploaded on my phone.

Yes, I call her Aeris, not Aerith, because I'm a firm lover of the original video game name, the one I grew up with, the one that I loved so much. Mistake or not, I love that name.

The build up is a little slow, but the story mostly follows the Kingdom Hearts storyline through Riku's story. I hope you guys would consider giving my story a try, who knows you might like the read. And on that note:

Sephiroth, Aeris, Loz, Yazoo, Kadaj, Ifalna, Professor Gast Faremis, Jenova, Dr. Hojo, Lucrecia Crescent, Zack Fair, Cloud Strife, Yuffie Kisaragi, Cid Higwind, Tifa Lockhart are characters of the Final Fantasy VII game that makes their appearances in the Kingdom Hearts franchise storyline. And are own by Square Enix, Hironobu Sakaguchi, and Yoshinori Kitase

Leon (Squall Leonheart) is a character in the Final Fantasy VIII video game that makes his appearance in the Kingdom Hearts franchise storyline and belongs to Square Enix, and Tetsuya Nomura

While Riku, Sora, and the other Kingdom Hearts character belong to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, Disney, Square Enix, and Shiro Amano.

None of the characters are mine... just the satisfaction of a lovely story and the good memories of playing the games (^v^) ...