A/N: I thought this would be a good time to upload my first story. You know, about 3 years after I joined this site (yeah, I know, isn't that pathetic). That's not to say I haven't been writing things during that time, though, I just haven't posted anything. But enough about me, how did I come up with this idea for a story? Well, I mainly thought it was a good idea because it's uncharted territory, and probably always will be since the FF characters are only guests in the games and won't have their back story explained. I will mostly focus on Cloud, but I suspect most chapters will have parts with the others too (just sticking to Cloud will get boring in the long run).

You may not believe this, but it took me almost a year to finish this chapter. Mainly due to the fact that I lost inspiration on a number of occasions. I'm hoping to avoid that in the future.

Just one last thing about the time line. You know this takes place 10 years before KHII (which according to KH is when Radiant Garden was attacked), so Cloud is 13, Yuffie's 7 and Leon 16 (he's referred to as Squall in the opening chapters for plot reasons, though). I didn't know how old Aerith is but I assume she's one year older than Cloud like in FFVII, so she's 14. I don't think Cid's age really matter (he's 33, btw). Also Zack's in this story for like 2 chapters, in other words he's not exactly important to the plot. I think most people know who he is, but if you don't because you've never been close to anything FFVII related it doesn't really matter. As I said he's not that important. I also think Aerith may be a bit OOC, but that might be because I'm not too fond of her personality.

Wow, this almost became longer than the actual chapter. I think I should stop now.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy and whatever else I might end up using don't belong to me in any way, shape or form. Trust me, if it did things would be very different - or just more violent, I don't know.

Caught In Reverie

Chapter I

The strong wind swept through the darkened streets, bringing dust and smaller objects with it. It all brushed passed the group of people standing on a height looking down at a city in disarray and destruction. A shield was protecting them, one that was weakening as the one who summoned it lost her strength.

The summoner was a fourteen-year-old girl named Aerith. Her jade eyes were focused and all her energy was put into protecting the ones around her. Her dress held rips and dirt and small cuts were visible on her face and arms. Beside her stood a small girl with short black hair, she wasn't hurt but her face was pale and her hands were cautiously pulling Aerith's torn dress.

"When is…"

"Not now!" Aerith had not meant to yell, but she couldn't talk right now. If she lost concentration they would be done for. She had not trained for things like this and all her energy seemed drained. But they could not leave without him, so she would hold on until he returned. Hopefully someone else would be with him as well.

Everything had happened so quickly. Aerith did not know where those creatures had come from, only that they suddenly appeared in large numbers and slaughtered everyone they could get their hands on. She did not know if there were any survivors other than her, Yuffie, Cid, and Squall. Actually she did not know if Squall was alive, since he was the one who had run back into town to look for survivors, perhaps he was dead now.

They were not completely past all hope, though. Cid had means of getting them out of there. He had a ship (1), a replica he had made from one belonging to an outer-worldly visitor a while ago, and if he had done things right, which he usually did, they could escape to safety in another world. Or at least they would have if it wasn't for Squall's last minute rescue mission.

But no, she could not let worry take over; it would only be a few more minutes.

Aerith did not even see Squall returning, she was too caught up in her protection duties, but when she did notice his presence she knew he had come back alone.

"Where are the others?" she heard Yuffie yell from just below her shoulder.

Squall panted and shook his head. Aerith felt Yuffie grip her dress even tighter.

"I… I just need some more time."

"You want us all dead?! Aerith'll collapse any minute", Cid yelled behind her. He was right: soon she would not even be able to stand. "We don't have anymore time."

"But…"

"No buts!" she felt the air around her shift slightly, as Cid went to pull Squall along and take him to the ship. "This isn't the time to play hero!"

At that very moment pain ripped through Aerith's body and the shield broke and she fell to her knees. Yuffie yelped and tugged at her dress, possibly an attempt to make her stand up again, but it was futile.

Aerith tried to raise the shield again, but no energy slipped through her fingertips – there was nothing left. She felt someone lift her up and carry her away. She heard concerned words and noises of different kind but she could not make out any of it, but something told her that she was safe and was leaving her own world behind.

Cloud ran. Even though he was exhausted he knew he could not stop. Stopping meant death.

He had ran for what felt to him like an eternity, clinging to the hope that Zack actually knew where they were going and that they would get there in time. Cloud trusted his friend more than anything and was sure that he knew what he was doing, but he was still worried. It was not Zack's fault, and Cloud knew that expressing his worry would only make things worse.

His thoughts went to everyone else. His family and his friends; were they still alive? Or had they all been killed by those black creatures with the glowing eyes. No, they were alright, they had to be.

Zack led him into an alleyway, striking as many of the creatures with his sword as he could, then down some stone steps into a small area where the ground was covered with a layer of old leaves and dirt. After making sure nothing could see them he reached for a handle on the ground and opened the hatch that had been hidden there. He took Cloud with him down through it and closed the it as fast as he could.

The space underneath was dark, save for the few cracks of light where the hatch was, and smelt like decomposed earth. It seemed to magnify sound and Cloud's breathing now sounded much louder than outside, so much so that Zack pulled him close to his chest to stifle it.

"Just... wait a while, okay?" he mumbled, barely audible with his face buried in his friend's golden spikes in order to keep himself as silent as possible.

They waited, sitting as still as they could, listening to the sound above them. Nothing came after them and the tapping of clawed feet against stone soon faded away. But that did not mean anything, only that they had temporarily escaped danger. Zack let go of Cloud, as both of them were now breathing more normally.

"Where are we?" Cloud whispered, not daring to make more sound than necessary. He felt Zack take his hand in the darkness and lead him along.

Their progress was slow due to the limited visibility. Even after a few minutes Cloud's eyes had only adjusted themselves enough for him to barely see the outline of his friend in front of him. He did not ask where they were again or where they were going, as he figured it was best to not disturb Zack at the moment. He also did not want to attract anything unwanted.

When Cloud noticed that water was seeping through his shoes, Zack stopped. Cloud did not immediately notice this and almost walked into him. The surroundings were still gloomy, but at least the gray walls were visible so that they no longer needed to feel their way forward. The ground was covered in water that reached just above Cloud's toes and it smelt strangely clean for such a murky place.

"Where are we?" Cloud asked again, a bit louder this time.

"The waterways under the castle, I don't think they'll come here", Zack responded and made a weak attempt to smile. It was obvious that he didn't believe they were safe yet either. "I don't think they like water (2)."

You think, well that wasn't very reassuring, but it was better than nothing and the place did look deserted, there wasn't a living thing in sight. But then again, were those things alive? Cloud shuddered at the thought; he did not want to know whether that was true or not.

He followed Zack until the other found a dry spot, or at least as dry as things could be in this place, and sat down. Cloud sat down beside him and immediately felt moisture seep into the parts of him clothes that were exposed to the ground. He sighed and wrapped his arms around his legs. He had not noticed how cold it was until now and the water was definitely not helping the matter.

"We won't stay here for long, I promise", Zack said and smiled at him. Cloud knew he had probably tried to make the smile look comforting, but to him it was just depressing.

"You think the others are okay?" Cloud mumbled while watching the puddle of water that was spreading on the floor a few feet away from him.

"Yeah, of course they are", was the response, so confident that Cloud almost wanted to believe him.

They sat in silence after that. For how long, Cloud did not know, but it felt like it must have been a few hours. It was impossible to tell since the underground tunnel did not let any of the sky's light in. During that time his clothes had started to feel as though he had just jumped into a lake and he was even colder than before, but regardless of how unpleasant that was, there seemed to be no way for him to dry his clothes in this place so he did not even try to.

"Cold?" Zack finally broke the silence and looked back at the blond who trembled slightly. His voice sounded helpful and calm as if Cloud being cold were their only problem and that they had not just barely escaped with their lives. It would be so easy to pretend that was true.

"Mm", Cloud replied and nodded slightly.

Zack smiled softly at him and wrapped an arm around the blond and pulled him a little closer. "Better?"

"No", Cloud mumbled, which was the truth, Zack was just as wet as he was so coming in contact with him did not make things any warmer.

Zack sighed. "Guess I'm cold too, huh?"

"Probably."

Cloud half-expected Zack to have some sort of comeback line to his somewhat gloomy comment, something that would lighten the mood and make their situation feel less dire, but none came. Instead he heard the other sigh in a way he didn't know Zack was capable of. It was that bad, wasn't it?

Cloud rested his head on Zack's shoulder, perhaps he could sleep. Yeah, sleep would make the cold go away.

(1) Cid do have a gummi ship that he made himself, it's confirmed in the journal in KH. I mean, he has to have one, how else would he know about those special gummi blocks?

(2) This is probably a result of me reading too many of Garth Nix's books (all the enemies tend to be weak to water for some reason), but also because there wasn't that many Heartless there in the game (if I remember correctly). Let's just say that Heartless not made for being in water (like the ones in Atlantica) doesn't like it, at least in this story.

So there's chapter 1. It's kinda short and there is not much of a plot yet. I probably should've called it a prologue instead, but I think it works this way too. Although, every time I read this chapter I found things I wanted to change, so this will probably receive some small revisions in the future, but for now it stays the way it is.

Chapter 2 will be longer (I think) and hopefully it won't take another year to finish. It's about 50% finished already, so I don't think so.