Chapter 1: These Strange Dreams

The world was red, though this seemed perfectly natural to Riku at the time. There was a figure standing a ways in front of him. He walked towards them, and noticed three phoenixes circling over the person. Once he got closer, he could see that the figure was a girl, about his age, with long dark hair. She was standing with her back to him and was talking to him. He didn't have the slightest clue as to what she was talking about, but at the same time he understood what she was saying completely. He tried to walk around her so he could see her face. He swore he could have walked around her five times yet no matter how far around her he went, he always seemed to have to go just that much farther to get all the way around and see her face. He gave up and settled with just listening. A few moments later (or was it a few hours? He couldn't tell, time seemed more or less meaningless here) a pair of shadowy men sprung up from the ground. One was a few inches taller than the girl, and the second, standing behind the first, stood a good ten feet tall. The larger one pointed at her and she stopped talking to Riku and started yelling at the shadow. He let out a cackle and shouted out an indiscernible order. The smaller shadow raised his hands and fire rose around the girl. She let out a scream, covering her head with her hands. A moment later, the flickering orange and red fire turned blue flickering with white. The rest of the world changed colour with it, and the three phoenixes, who were now also made up of blue fire, circled lower. Eventually they were flying circles around the girl, who, now engulfed in the blue flames, was watching the shadows intently. The three phoenixes began to spiral outward. As the circle grew wider, the shadows backed away. Riku watched, horrified, as one of the fire birds flew at him. He covered his head with his arms, but found himself feeling only a cool tingling for a moment, and the bird passed through him, harming neither he nor the bird. The shadows, however, seemed to have much more dire effects when coming in contact with these birds. The three phoenixes chased them around in circles, much to the amusement of the girl. Two of the phoenixes caught up with the smaller shadow, destroying both of the birds as well as the shadow when they collided. The larger shadow approached him, still being pursued by the last phoenix, and Riku found himself holding a sword with a blade made of the same blue fire that everything else was. With a single strike the larger shadow was wounded mortally, and the phoenix collided with it, both disappearing in a wisp of white smoke. The girl was facing him now, but her face was hidden in the shadow cast by the blue fire still burning in the center of the circle. She opened her mouth to speak, and Riku's eyes snapped open. He lay in his bed for a long moment, breathing hard, and wondering what a dream like that could have meant. It was so unreal, and yet at the same time, so familiar, so prophetic…

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The western horizon was still glowing with the remnants of sun, purple and pink blending into blue and dancing across the water towards Riku. He was standing against the paopu tree, arms crossed, watching the ballet of light across the sea. Behind him rose the mountain at the center of the island and the indigo blue speckled with shining white as the sky began to darken into night. Sitting on the tree next to him were Sora and Kairi. The two of them were totally absorbed in each other; Sora was sitting with his back against the trunk and Kairi was sitting leaning against his chest, nestled comfortably in his arms. A smile tugged at the corners of Riku's lips.

"Finally." He said with a sigh. Sora blinked at him.

"Huh?" Riku's smile became a grin.

"Took you two long enough." He spoke casually. Kairi raised her eyebrows, frowning.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, sounding slightly cross.

"It means I'm glad I don't have to listen to you two complain about unrequited love, and how guys are thickheaded and girls just don't get it, and how life's not fair and whatever else it was that the two of you whined at me about." Both Kairi and Sora were grinning. Within moments, they were paying all too much attention to each other. Riku shook his head, stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked away, heading towards the cove. He was looking for Wakka; he wanted to learn how to play blitzball. Halfway across the beach, he realized just how dark it was. He couldn't exactly learn to blitz in the dark. The light had disappeared surprisingly fast. Frowning, he leaned back against one of he palm trees and looked up as the sky. He looked back out at the horizon and saw a figure burst out of the water only about 5 feet from the shore. She let out a sharp cry and staggered onto the beach, dropping to her knees once there. Instantly Riku was jogging towards her.

"Hey! Are you alright?" He asked, approaching her. He knelt in front of her and she looked up. She was on her knees and she planted her hands firmly on the ground, bracing herself against dizziness. She had thick black makeup around her eyes, the style exotic and ancient. Or it would have been exotic and ancient looking had it not run down her cheeks, tracing a path for her tears. Her thick black hair hung wet around her shoulders, soaking her clothes, which was a simply-fashioned white dress of silk. There were splatters of red across it that were unmistakable. There were what had to be hundreds of shallow cuts across her inner forearms, in a seemingly random pattern. They were barely enough to draw blood, but the little blood that was flowing was diluted by the salt water. It would have been the equivalent of rubbing salt into the wounds. She was wearing thick gold jewelry and for all accounts looked much like an exiled Egyptian princess. Strands of her hair stuck to her forehead. She looked pale and exhausted.

"Where am I?" She asked, her question barely coming out as a murmur.

"You're on the Destiny Islands. I'm Riku." He said slowly, inspecting the cuts on her arms. A potion would heal them, he knew, but there would be scars and there was nothing they could do about it now. She smiled weakly.

"Skye." She whispered. "My name's Skye. I'm running from…" Her voice faded away and she looked for a moment like she was going to faint. Riku frowned, thinking.

"You're running from…?" He urged quietly. She blinked and began to sway.

"I can't…remember…" Her words came out as a low moan as her arms gave way and she dropped. He drew in a sharp breath and caught her. She started to cough, holding his shoulders for support. She groaned and closed her eyes, her head drooping. He shook her gently.

"Come on, you have to stay awake for now. We'll find you somewhere to sleep soon, but we have to find out where you came from first."

"I don't remember where I came from. All I remember is running away from someone, and they were shouting my name. I fell and landed in water, and I ended up here." As she spoke, Kairi and Sora came into view, running down the beach and waving at him.

"Riku! There you are! We were wondering where you went!" Kairi called out to him, grinning. Under normal circumstances, Riku would have answered with something like 'You can't have missed me much, since it took you that long to even realize I was gone.' These, however, were not normal circumstances.

"Come here!" He called instead, waving them over. As the two approached, they broke into a run when they saw Skye.

"What happened?" Kairi asked, sounding worried.

"Who is she?" Sora asked next, not giving Riku the chance to answer Kairi's question. Skye lifted her head slowing.

"My name's Skye." She answered, her voice cracking as she spoke. "I'm running from someone." Her voice portrayed her exhaustion.

"Running from who?" Sora asked, frowning.

"She doesn't remember." Riku answered, shaking his head. Kairi crossed her arms.

"We can find all this out later. She's tired, so we have to find her somewhere to stay." She told them matter-of-factly. Sora rubbed the back of his neck, thinking.

"I wish we were in Traverse Town. The hotel there would be perfect. And Cid would probably love the company, since not very many people come around there any more. But that's too far away." He said, more thinking out loud than actually making a suggestion. Riku blinked, surprised at himself for not thinking of it before.

"I know! Grandma would love to have her. Her most recent boarder just moved out, and she's having a hard time finding someone new. She'd love to have her." He said, standing up and helping the half asleep Skye to her feet. She looked like she was sleeping standing up. Sora and Riku stood on either side of her, with her arms around their shoulders, helping her down the beach, while Kairi went ahead to Riku's grandmother's house to let her know that she'd be having company.

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Riku's grandmother was the epitome of grandmotherly-ness. She was a plump woman with hair that was so grey it looked white, which she kept short and curled. She always had an apron on and was famous for her baked goods, especially her pies. It was a rare occurrence to see her without flour turning her skin white up to her elbows. She loved to play grandmother to everyone, and every person under the age of 20 was practically expected to call her "Grandma", despite her actually only having one grandson, Riku. Her name was Rose. She fussed over everyone, though she fussed over girls most often since the girls were more prone to allow her to fuss over them. It was rare for any boy to not shoo her away if she started to fuss over their hair or clothes or food or whatever she happened to have picked for that particular situation. Her house was quaint and beautiful, with a big front porch, where, if she wasn't cooking or baking, you'd find her sewing or reading or even sometimes watching the sunrise. She usually rented out her upper floor to students, but after the young woman who had been boarding went back home, there hadn't been anyone to rent the upstairs, and Rose greatly disliked the idea of having to stay alone. Kairi jumped up onto the porch and knocked loudly on the little white door. Grandma Rose opened the door and smiled.

"Good evening Kairi!" She greeted, noting the teen's heavy breathing. "Were you in a hurry?" She asked, sounding amused.

"A girl collapsed on the beach!" Kairi blurted out. Rose's face fell.

"Oh dear, what happened?"

"We don't even know! Riku found her! We don't even know where she's from, and I don't think she knows where she's from either. And she was bleeding! Riku and Sora are bringing her, she's falling asleep standing up. But there's nowhere for her to stay, so can she maybe stay with you? Riku said—." Kairi explained, talking much too fast, to be interrupted by the old woman.

"Of course she can stay here. Where are Sora and Riku?" As if to answer her question, a pair of voices drew their attention from down the street.

"GRANDMA!" Looking in the direction of the shouting, they saw Riku and Sora struggling to carry a teenage girl dressed in white. With new help from Kairi and Grandma Rose, they got the unconscious girl into the house and into a bedroom where they left her to sleep. Back down stairs, in a kitchen that smelled temptingly of cookies and chocolate, the three teens sat down at the table while Rose took her peanut butter cookies out of the oven. She stacked the baked goodies onto a plate and sat down at the table as well, taking one of them and munching thoughtfully.

"Tell me exactly what happened." She said after a moment, looking at each of them. Sora and Kairi instantly looked at Riku.

"I was at the cove looking for Wakka. She came stumbling out of the water and collapsed onto the sand. I went to help her and she asked me where she was. I told her and then I asked her who she was. Her name's Skye. She said she was running from someone." Riku answered. "That's when Sora and Kairi showed up. We tried to figure out somewhere to have her stay, and this was the first place I thought of."

"Well…" Rose breathed, thinking again. "She can stay here as long as she likes. I can imagine that once she's feeling up to it, she'll want to go home."

"I don't think she knows where she's from." Kairi said quietly. There was a long silence.

"Then I hope someone comes for the poor girl." Rose said sadly.

"I'm not so sure that's a good thing to hope for. She said she was running from someone, remember? And she doesn't even know who it is she's running from." Riku answered. There was another, even longer silence.

"Poor girl." Rose repeated.

The conversation around the table ended up lasting much longer than anyone had anticipated. It was midnight when Sora and Kairi left. Riku stayed a little longer and ended up falling asleep on the couch. Rose called his house and let his parents know where he was, and then went off to bed herself.

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Skye was standing in the middle of a forest, and it was all aflame. She looked around at the fire that was burning the trees and underbrush for as far as the eyes could see. She was standing in a small area that hadn't yet begun burning, though the sparks raining down on her would catch soon enough. She looked wildly around. She wasn't worried about getting herself out, but something inside her was nagging, telling her that she wasn't the only one in the forest. Someone she was looking for, and someone who was looking for her. There was a shout from a good distance away, and she bolted towards it. Holding her arms over her head as a feeble protection, she ran into the fire. It didn't burn her, which she normally would have found odd, but her need to find whoever she was looking for overwhelmed everything else. Stumbling into a burning clearing, she saw two people locked in battle. A man in a black cloak emerged out of the fire on the other side of the clearing and both of the fighters stopped and stared at him. One of them raised his sword against the shadowy figure, and immediately the other raised his sword against the first. The two slashed down at the same time. Skye squeezed her eyes shut, shouting.

"No!" There was the crash of a burning branch crashing to the ground. Her eyes snapped open. The fighter who had attacked the shadow was standing in a small space that wasn't burning, but the flames were rapidly advancing. The other fighter and the shadow were gone. The only one left began to back away from one wall of flame, only to find another rising at his back. The fire surrounded Skye, but it didn't bother her at all. She took a step forward and the fire pulled back, seeming to clear a path for her. She stared at the path for a moment, and then walked carefully towards the figure. The person turned to face her, but their face was veiled in shadow against the flames. The next moment, the ground became less and less substantial, sinking with the weight of her, until she began to feel insubstantial herself. The forest was gone, and so was the fighter. Her eyes fluttered shut.

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How do you like my first chapter? I wish I'd been able to introduce Skye a little better, but I guess that will have to wait until next chappie. Until then, RR!