A/N: I came up with this idea while playing Hollow Bastion on KH1. I remember hearing somewhere that Tifa was originally intended to appear in KH1, but for some reason she didn't show up until the second game. This gave me an idea, I decided to write an alternate set of events for Hollow Bastion which includes Tifa instead of Beast. To give the story some context, everything that happened in KH1 up to the point where you reach Hollow Bastion is exactly the same and some of the story after will be as well. Oh, also I've had to lower Tifa's age to make this story work, for reasons that will be apparent later.

0000 indicates a change in perspective or time skip

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters used in this story

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Chapter I: Alone

"Sora... sorry."

Sora barely heard the words. He was lost in a mad rush of memories and emotions. 'Why...' he though to himself.

He tilted his head upwards slightly to see the other three walking away from him. Riku hadn't released the keyblade, instead he was admiring his new weapon, lazily swinging it through the air while he tried to get used to the weight of it in his hand. As Sora watched, he threw it high into the air and watched it spin above him. Just as it began to descend, he stuck out his left hand and caught it with ease. He made a small noise of approval. Donald and Goofy however, looked less comfortable with this sudden turn of events. Goofy's shoulders were slumped and and he dragged his feet slightly as he followed the silver haired boy. Donald on the other hand stomped his feet slightly as he walked, clearly frustrated at having to make this choice. So much for no sad faces.

Sora's eyes dropped to the ground again and he stared at the cold stone beneath him. He felt like, ever since that storm, pieces of his heart were being torn away and thrown from his reach. First it was Kairi, disappearing in Sora's arms as the darkness bled from that door. Then his entire world was swallowed by a great shadow. This had been followed by Riku, surrendering himself to the heartless. Now Donald, Goofy, even the Keyblade... they were all gone. They'd all left him. 'Why did the Keyblade do that?'

Of all the things he'd lost this was, strangely, the one that had hit him the hardest. When Riku had taken it from him, it felt like someone had found a way into his very soul and stolen a part of him. He'd thought of the Keyblade as many things; a weapon, a key, a conduit for his magic, but never once had he thought of it as something personal. He'd never considered it a piece of his own heart. And now it had been taken from him, stolen by someone he'd thought was a friend. 'Except... no, not stolen. It left.' he remembered. The Keyblade chooses it's own master. 'It left me and now I'm alone.'

The former Keyblade master found his thoughts drifting to the adventures he'd had. Fighting the Darkside and gaining the Keyblade, wandering from world to world with Donald and Goofy, seeing sights he'd never even dared to dream existed. He thought about the friends he'd made and the people he'd helped; Leon and the others from Traverse Town, Tarzan and the gorillas, the odd people of Wonderland, Ariel and Aladdin and everyone else. Sora had swum the seas as a merman, flown across a city skyline with fairies and battled the three-headed guardian of the underworld. He'd seen so much, done so much, all to reach this point.

'Was it all for nothing? Am I really just a delivery boy?'

Suddenly, he heard a strange sound. It sounded like... the tinkling of tiny bells. He was abruptly aware of something tugging at one of the spikes on his head. He looked up and found himself staring at a pair of tiny, brilliant blue eyes. These eyes belonged to a little fairy in a green dress, with blonde hair and a pair of elegant wings sprouting from her back. She gazed directly at Sora with a look of pure determination, a look that conveyed one meaning. 'No.' Tinker Bell shook her head to further illustrate the point. Slowly, Sora's face morphed into one of understanding, then a determination to match to match the one before him. 'I'm not alone...' thought Sora. His hand went to the pouch behind him and he pulled out small red gem which seemed to burn from within. He stood slowly and lifted the wooden sword that Riku had thrown at him. 'I'm not alone and I'm certainly not going to just give in.'

He took a step forward. Then another. The worlds were still in danger, Kairi was still gone and the Heartless were still everywhere. Keyblade or no, he was going to see this through to end. Tinker Bell moved to hover in front of him, giving him a small smile. He couldn't help but smile back. 'No matter how bad things get, this boat still runs on happy faces.' As if on cue, he felt a familiar feeling, similar to a shadow being cast over him, and shivered. He span around just in time to see the heartless appear from their trademark spheres of darkness. There were about twenty or so, mainly shadows, but he spied a few soldiers and requiems here and there. Sora gripped his makeshift weapon in one hand and readied himself. With the Keyblade and his friends, this wouldn't have been a problem. 'This time though...'

Sora shook that thought from his mind and sent a wave of magic down his left arm and into the summon gem. He felt a warmth as the gem vanished in a cloud of smoke and ashes and heard a familiar sound from atop his head. "I am Mushu!" His grin widened even more at his friend's signature entrance and he switched his grip on the sword to two handed. 'I am not alone.' He thought and charged headlong into the forces of evil arrayed before him, with a golden fairy at his side and miniature dragon on his head.

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Tifa pulled herself up and onto the ledge, then stood up. She turned her head from side to side, taking in her surroundings. What she can only assume to have once been a grand and expansive courtyard was now reduced to crumbling ruins surrounded by a wall of dark water. To her left was a huge structure that dominated the entire landscape, somehow still managing to have a certain grandeur even after succumbing to the power of darkness. She had to admit, she was impressed that anything still remained of this world with the amount of heartless running around the place.

She brushed a few strands of hair out of her eyes and started forward. 'I'm not here to sightsee.' she told herself, 'He's here somewhere, I'm sure of it.' Of course, she had told herself this many times before, like at Traverse Town and when she'd heard about a guy with spiky hair was going around saving worlds. So far, all her gut feelings had got her were disappointment and dead-ends. 'But this is different.' She thought, only partially believing herself. She'd been looking to enter a tournament in a world of warriors and heroes when she'd seen his name written on what looked like a leader board. When she'd questioned the arena's owner about the name, he'd said that he didn't know who the guy was, but he did remember him saying something about 'going home' before he left.

'Going home...' That could only mean one place. The place she was stood in right now. The place where it all began.

Hollow Bastion.

She was awoken from her thoughts by the sound of combat, something she knew only too well. Rushing towards the edge of the outcropping she was on, she stopped short as she beheld one of the strangest sights she had ever seen. She blinked, not sure she'd seen it quite right. In the gorge beneath her was a small army of heartless, surrounding a figure. Every so often there would be a flash of light and the heartless would back away from the figure slightly. It was in one of these moments that she once again beheld what made the sight so strange. The figure was no older than fifteen with spiky brown hair. He had what looked like a dragon sitting on his head and tiny fairy fluttering around him. But the strangest detail, was that the sword he wielded, was made of wood. He was fighting off heartless with what could only be described as a stick 'So I didn't imagine it.'

As impressive as this boy was though, he was visibly tired and probably wouldn't last much longer. And, more importantly to Tifa, he wasn't who she was looking for. "He's not Cloud," she stated, disappointed. She knew she should help him, if she didn't he'd probably be overwhelmed, but...

She couldn't. She knew that Cloud was here somewhere and she had to get moving if she wanted to find him before he left again. "I have to go..." She said and went to walk away. Her legs didn't move. She frowned, her mind was telling her that she had to leave, but her body seemed to be refusing. She found that she couldn't look away from the boy in the gorge. "I have to go." She repeated, stronger this time, but still her body would not move. She silently screamed at herself, why was she being so indecisive? Was she really going to pass up the first chance she had to see Cloud, over some kid. Somewhere deep inside her, a voice answered her.

'That kid is fighting off the embodiment of darkness and evil, with nothing but a wooden sword, and your just going to let him die?'

"Yes!" she replied, getting angry at herself now. She knew that was a lie, or else she would have left already. Why couldn't she just leave him?

'Because your better than that.' The voice of reason supplied for her again.

She sighed and looked back at the fight. The dragon and fairy were gone and the boy was alone, with heartless on all sides. She could see how tired he was, he could barely lift that sword any more. Out of nowhere, a shadow leapt at him, claws raised, but he rolled clumsily to the side and sent a ball of fire flying at the little monster, causing it to disintegrate into darkness and its tortured heart to be released. He lifted the sword and readied himself again. In that moment Tifa made up her mind. She lowered her head slowly.

"Sorry Cloud."

She raised her head and crouched getting ready to jump. Whoever this boy was, he knew how to fight heartless and he wasn't going to give in. She couldn't leave him to fight on alone.

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Sora knew he was going to lose when Mushu fell. The three of them had been fighting a big body, when Sora had been knocked over by one of its charges. Mushu had used all his remaining energy to defeat the oversized heartless and had returned to his gem form. Tink had pulled out not long after, when she got hit by a stray shadow's claw. Sora had fought on even after they had both fallen, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before he followed them. He had no energy left for another summon and his moves were becoming sluggish and clumsy. He knocked a soldier to the side with his stick, as it swiped at him, and staggered back. The soldier landed perfectly and got ready to attack again, undamaged. Sora raised his weapon and prepared for the impact, but it didn't come. Instead he watched as the heartless flew backwards into a group of shadows, knocking them to the floor. Stood where it had been a moment earlier was a girl, with dark hair and red eyes. She turned to Sora, who was still staring at her dumbfounded.

"Look out!" She warned, breaking him from his trance. He instinctively rolled forwards and span round as he came back up, bringing his weapon high to block an attack. He despaired as he saw the sight before him. There was a horde of heartless. That really was the only word to describe it. Horde. Shadows and soldiers. Nocturnes and Requiems. It was like all that fighting he had just done was for nothing, they just kept coming. "Hey." Sora turned slightly to see the girl smiling at him reassuringly "Don't worry, we can do this." She said, still grinning at him. She was obviously lying, but still she smiled at him.

'This boat runs on happy faces.'

"No," said Sora, "We can't," Her smile seemed to drop a bit when he said that, but suddenly he was smiling back at her. "When I say now, run."

"Run where?" She asked glancing around.

"Away from here." He suggested, turning back to the heartless. They had finally regrouped and were getting ready to attack. His plan was terrible and almost certainly ended with him either dead or taken by the heartless, but it would give her enough time to escape. 'She's more important than I am' he'd always tried to help others and right now he didn't care if he had to pay the price to do so. 'I'm just the kid with nothing but a stick and some magic tricks' The first shadows began surging forwards and he pointed this stick straight at them "Now!" He shouted, releasing all his remaining energy in a Thundaga spell. The lightning bolts struck the ground in front of the heartless, causing them to stagger to a stop before they hit it, but more importantly, two of the bolts hit the the pillars which kept the arch above them in place. The sound of the stone crashing to the ground was deafening, as the arch came falling down on top of the heartless. The platform the heartless were on began to teeter unsteadily, then finally bowed to the power of gravity and collapsed.

Sora felt a wave of weariness pass through him as his body finally gave in. He fell to his knees and then flat on his face. Just before his body fell into darkness, he was dimly aware of someone grabbing him by his shoulders and shouting something.

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A/N: Well there you are that's the first chapter, hope you enjoyed it. I don't know when the next chapter will be out but I'll probably wait until I get a few reviews before I release it. Which reminds me, I welcome constructive criticism so long as it is helpful, this is my first fic and I'd appreciate some feedback on how I did. Until next time, good readers.