I am so happy to get this posted! There was a squffie contest on the Squffie forums and I entered this and won second place. Not exactly an accomplishment, since Deplora didn't enter it, and if she had, well, she would have won! LOL. Someone else (with a very good story which I gave my vote to) won. Anyways, I really hope you like this.

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The Fall From Heaven

By October Breeze

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Yuffie pulled herself up into the Gummi ship, sliding the door behind her carefully, making sure not to catch her skin as the hole was closed to the outside door in front of her. She took a seat and clutched her trembling fingers on her lap, leaning her head against the back of the chair.

She knew they shouldn't have let him stay behind in Traverse Town. His home was with them. His loyalty ran too deep, his will too strong. He had been convinced that merely sealing the keyhole wouldn't keep the Heartless away for long.

If only she had believed him.

He deserved aswift kick in the behind.Protecting Traverse Town wasn't as important as being with friends.

"We'll be there, soon, Yuffie," Aerith comforted quietly. Her voice was like the sound of chocobos crowing in the morning. Hoarse and shaky. Cloud smiled grimly at both of them from the seat next to Cid's, who, for once in his life, said nothing harassing, but stayed uncomfortably quiet while trying to look discreet as he stared at the three.

"Traverse Town isn't totally destroyed, right?" she managed to say, making a feeble attempt to break the silence that had seeped into the ship before they had even flown a mile. Her voice sounded oddly small against the rhythmic whirr of the ship's engine, which was exactly the opposite of her usual tone.

"No, only small sections. Second District got hit the worst, though. That's where the fire started. Defender accident," Cloud replied, watching Cid work the controls. Though Cloud and Squall hadn't known each other for long, they had quickly developed a strong respect for each other. With coaxing from Yuffie, both normally non-trusting men formed a friendship. The troubled look on his face, no doubt for Squall as much as Traverse Town, clearly showed their friendship had grown strong enough in such little time.

"Eh, dang kids, oops, there it goes again, that engine—"

"Cid—" Cloud started.

"Don't interrupt me when I'm talking to myself!" he shouted loudly.

"I just wanted to remind you to watch the panels."

"Yeah, yeah…"

Seconds, minutes, even hours passed, until finally, with a loud yell from Cid, the Gummi slowed down and lowered towards the world entrance. The large doors, which usually stopped most from entering, had either been burned down or crashed down by people coming or going in to scour the ruins for possible family members.

Seeing no reason to stop at the entrance with nothing to block him, Cid continued through the missing door, crashing down a gang of Heartless as he went. He slammed on the breaks once more and slammed his fist on a large green button which opened up the doors on either side of the ship.

"Now, I got ya here and I'll be here to take ya back, but I got my own business to do. Now get out, while ya still got yer heads on," he muttered through his toothpick. "Dun see why people like you couldn't've just used some hokey pokey works and gotten here yourself… people like you…" he said, staring at them. Yuffie ignored him and jumped out of the ship without hesitation, turning around to stare wordlessly at the ruins in front of her that was once called Traverse Town.

"Oh," Aerith started, "my…"

"God," Yuffie finished for her, staring across the district sadly. While some of the buildings had been untouched by fire, many of them were charred and still had high flames dancing out of the roofs, smoke clogging up the air and stinging at her eyes. Distant screams and the soft scuttling of the Heartless filled her ears.

That scuttling… on her first night at Traverse Town after being saved by Cid, sleeping on the floor of the Green Room, she had heard that very same noise outside of her balcony window. It had been there every single night after that, waiting for her to come out…'Themonsters won't get you tonight--they're all out partying,'she remembered Squall had told her one night, when she voiced her fears, directly after a rather large attack. She shuddered from the thought of it. She had thought she would never have to hear that again.

"So many memories…" Aerith said breathlessly, stopping next to Yuffie, tears glistening in her eyes. Cloud put an arm on her shoulder and Aerith leaned into him, covering her mouth and shaking her head, surveying the tragic scene before them.

Yuffie stepped farther inside, the lingering of smoke stinging at her eyes. She let out her breath and turned to her friends, who were not following her and were talking to a group of three moogles.

She edged closer to them. They were talking animatedly all at once, their little puff balls shaking with each word they spoke. When Yuffie finally reached them, the three were already leaving, looking extremely uneasy and casting backwards glances at Aerith and Cloud.

"The moogles are threatening to attack," Aerith said, her eyes wide and large, putting her hand onto Yuffie's arm.

"The moogles? But why?"

"Supposedly, they've got no justice. I guess with Traverse Town going down like this, they decided now would be a good time to ban together," Cloud supplied.

"This is crazy," Yuffie whispered. "Let's go, we have to get Squall and get out of here. I don't think we should be here for more than one reason..."

Without a moment's hesitation, she darted forward, going in the opposite direction as everyone else and heading towards Second District. Cloud was right; there were no Heartless in sight that she could see in her path. She was worried. Not only did she see no Heartless, she saw no human life. The moogles she had seen before near the entrance had disappeared, for she saw none of them, either.

She stopped running when she reached the entrance to Second District. This was where Squall should be, if Cloud's reasoning was correct. Biting her lip and stretching her hand forward, she opened the door and stepped inside, stopping in her tracks.

Once again, Second District was abandoned, but it was different here. The stench of smoke, blood, and death lingered in the air. The buildings were empty shells, almost all destroyed except a few in the back.

She slowly walked inside, biting her lip again when she saw that the small house that she had inhabited when she had been in Traverse Town was destroyed, as well.

Where could Squall have gone? she wondered to herself, pushing the house out of her mind and wandering along the strip where all of the old stores used to be. They had all meant something to her, those stores… She had bought her first piece of jewelry, there, and had pranced around showing it off to anyone in sight. She had really loved that necklace.

Why was she remembering all of this now?

Crash.

Yuffie glanced up quickly and slapped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming in surprise. A large Heartless, eight tentacles flying wildly out of its head, was making its way toward her, a long tongue licking around its face.

'Oh my, that's big,'she thought to herself. She had never seen another Heartless like it. She bit her lip and ducked under a pile of charred boxes and prayed it wouldn't see her as it got progressively nearer.

"Mwaaaa!" it roared as its tentacles knocked over the boxes that was hiding Yuffie. She rolled out of the way, working only on instinct as she went into hyper mode.

"Fear the ninja," she hissed under her breath. That used to be her favorite saying.

The monster roared again, its tentacles dancing even more quickly than before. Out of nowhere, a large tentacle hit at her legs. She jumped it easily and watched with surprise as the Heartless froze in place, its bulging eyes widening. In almost slow motion, the creature fell over onto the ground next to her, a long silver blade stuck into its back.

"Sq-Squall…" she whispered, staring. He was standing over the creature, gripping his arm where his shirt was ripped and a long, bleeding injury buried itself deep into his skin. He fell over onto his knees, still holding his arm.

She walked over to him and knelt down, studying him carefully.

"Get away from here," he growled, staring at the creature, his face smeared with ash and one side of his face covered in blood. He didn't even ask her how she had gotten to Traverse Town in the first place. "I'm the one protecting this place."

"I came back to get you. You have to come home," she said sadly, tears forming in her eyes. "You escaped it once."

He squeezed his eyes shut, his face pale. "I know."

"You can't protect Traverse Town. We need you home."

"I know."

She knelt closer to him and pressed her lips onto his softly. He kissed her back, raising his hand and wiping the tears away from her cheeks. "Why are you crying?"

"I haven't seen you in so long…"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

Yuffie helped him up, and together they walked on, past Second District, and into First District to catch up with Cloud and Aerith. She remembered living here, fighting here, and dying here, and then her trip Home. She would leave her memories where they belonged. And Squall had never gotten to see Home. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her gently. She smiled at him and pecked his lips before leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Those people were weird, kupo," said one moogle as they watched four barely visible people board a Gummi ship with a solid person, who was staring at them wearily.

"Yeah, kupo. You could hardly see them. All shimmery-like, kupo."

They watched as the Gummi ship disappeared into the sky. "Think they were really…?"

"Nah… kupo."