2. Dreams

As the last remnant of the sun disappeared behind the horizon, the Heartless attacked. Shadows oozed out of the darkness, visible only by their scuttling movements and their bulbous glowing eyes. Leon cut three down before their numbers began to overwhelm him; one latched on to his leg, and several more followed. He shook them off, squeezed the trigger of his gunblade and blasted away more that were attacking from the front, but two or three leapt at his back, knocking him to the ground.

A host of lamp-like eyes stared at him through the darkness.

"Gullwings, go, go!" Yuna cried, and the pixies threw themselves into the battle. They knocked away the nearest Heartless, giving Leon time to scramble to his feet. He swung his gunblade at every shadow, sometimes missing wildly, but the shadows were so thick with writhing Heartless that he sliced through several of them. Yuna, Rikku and Paine darted around him, dive bombing the enemy. He was afraid that he might hit one of them – particularly Paine, whose dark clothes made her difficult to see – but they were agile and kept out of his range.

When the last of the Heartless were defeated, Leon slumped down against a boulder, breathing heavily. The long trek and the battle had exhausted him. A few feet away, Yuna, Rikku and Paine high-fived each other. He realised that he could not see the butterfly and sprang up at once, ignoring the protesting ache of his muscles.

His mouth grew dry for a few seconds as he looked around and failed to see anything. Dusk shrouded the landscape, but that would make a glowing insect easier to see…

To his relief, he spotted the butterfly settled atop a flat rock. Its glow was faint; its wings closed in a resting position. He had missed it before because he had expected to see it flying through the air.

"We've arrived!" said Rikku. "The treasure must be around here somewhere!"

Paine rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm up to my wings in it."

"Maybe it's resting," Yuna suggested. "It is night-time, after all…" She flew a little closer.

"Don't touch it," said Leon. "I don't want you to scare it off. We have a chance to get some rest ourselves now."

With Yuna's help, Leon collected some dead branches from a nearby copse of withered trees, while Paine stayed to make sure the butterfly didn't disappear. Rikku darted around for a while, persisting in her notion that there must be heaps of treasure here somewhere. As soon as Leon had set up a campfire, however, one of the other pixies mentioned food, and Rikku forgot her idea at once.

"Yeah!" she said, flying over the heat of the fire. "Where's all the grub? I'm starving!"

Leon sat hunched against a rock not far from the butterfly's perch. It flapped its wings once or twice slowly, and turned so that its twitching antennae faced the flames, but otherwise seemed settled for the night. He was tired and hungry too.

"Nothing," he said. "I don't have anything."

"Nothing?" Rikku's eyes were wide with dismay. "I'll starve!"

Leon shrugged.

"Nobody has to starve," said Yuna firmly. "I think it's time to report to Aerith, don't you, girls?"

Paine nodded. "Good idea."

The pixies linked arms. Yuna waved at him. "See you later!"

In the blink of an eye, they vanished. Leon sighed, his shoulders slumping. The tension drained out of his muscles, but as the minutes passed, he found himself feeling oddly uncomfortable. Not just because of the hard ground and the harsh heat of the fire – hot on his face, the night air cold on the back of his neck – but because of the silence. Without the pixies, the camp felt empty.

Aerith lay in the top bunk, staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Yuffie snored in the bunk underneath.

"Surprise!"

Yuna appeared an inch above her nose in a flurry of pixie dust, a big smile on her face.

Aerith smiled. "Good to see you, Yuna. I was starting to think you'd never come."

She sat up, careful not to bump her head on the ceiling, and wrapped the covers around herself comfortably. The pixies settled down on the duvet, stretching out, relishing its warm softness.

"So, how's Leon?" Aerith spoke softly, not wishing to wake up her snoring friend.

Yuna sat down cross-legged. "He's all right."

"But he hasn't got any food," Rikku interjected. "And neither have we." She sprawled next to Yuna, her long scarf and limbs taking up a lot more space than one might expect from such a small creature.

"Food? Well, that's no problem. You can take what you like from the larder downstairs."

Rikku punched the air. "Whoo!"

She and Paine vanished at once, no doubt intending to stuff their faces before returning to Leon with their provisions. Aerith smiled.

"Anything else to report? Did you see Cloud or Tifa?"

Yuna shook her head. "No sign of them or any giant Heartless. Just normal ones." She saw Aerith's expression and added, "We'll look out for them, I promise."

"Thank you. Oh, and one more thing…"

Yuna stood up and brushed down her half-skirt. Her small feet made slight imprints in the duvet. "Hmm?"

Aerith regarded her thoughtfully. "The giant Heartless… You said it was an aeon. How did you recognise it?"

Yuna blushed. "I remembered."

Aerith leaned forward, intrigued. It was a recent occurrence that any of them had recalled the aeons' existence. The past of their world was buried, half-forgotten, lost like the fragments of worlds torn apart. Every little scrap that anyone remembered was precious. As she coaxed the memories out of Yuna, her eyes widened, and she realised that this might be one of the most important pieces of information she had collected.

Cloud found Tifa curled up in a grassy valley, the dying remains of a campfire burning in the middle of the clearing. The sleeping bag left only her face uncovered and even that was half-hidden by her dark hair. A few strands fluttered against her mouth as she breathed.

He took another step towards the campfire, casting a shadow over Tifa's sleeping form. He watched her silently, uncertain. He hadn't meant to follow her, but they were both heading towards the same destination, so it wasn't surprising that he had stumbled across her. He ought to leave. But the seconds lengthened, and he couldn't quite bring himself to slip away.

Abruptly, Tifa opened her eyes, sitting up in a single fluid movement. She looked straight at him.

"You shouldn't do that, Cloud. It's creepy."

Cloud flinched. He looked away, eyes darting from the campfire to the slope behind her, anywhere to avoid staring at Tifa. Heat rose to his cheeks. "I-"

"Look at you." Her lips curved upwards. "Looming." She paused. "I suppose that makes a change, you following me."

"I didn't mean to."

She looked hurt for a moment, but quickly hid it, gesturing to a dark bundle on her right. "I brought an extra sleeping bag. I knew you wouldn't have anything, so you're welcome to use it if you want."

It was tempting. He was tired, and trudging onwards all night wouldn't do him any good. Tifa stretched out her arm and patted the spare camp bed. Her pale skin looked almost translucent in the gloom. Maybe she was his light. She watched him with such kindness in her eyes, and it wrenched his heart. Cloud took a step forward.

"I can't sleep."

Her brow furrowed. "Why not?"

He came over and sat down next to Tifa as she stoked the fire again. Bright sparks shot into the night sky as the flames danced and crackled. Cloud wrapped his arms around his knees and leaned forward, gazing into the flames.

"I have nightmares," he admitted.

Tifa didn't speak, but her silence prompted him to go on.

"About Sephiroth – him coming back. He says he's close… I can feel it." He looked at her concerned face, her dark eyes. "I've never told anyone that before."

"Those dreams… do you think they're real?"

"I know they are. It's happened, every time. I mean, his return. I hear his voice… Closer and closer – I can't find him, Tifa, but I know he's out there – and, the closer he gets, the more dangerous it is for me to be near you, or anybody. It'll be my fault if he hurts someone."

"No, it won't," said Tifa. "It's Sephiroth who's doing this. He's getting into your head, making you… I don't know." Her voice shook a little. "Why are you letting him get in the way of us?"

He didn't answer. She was better off without him. Because he didn't deserve her. Because he was a fallen hero, a non-entity walking in the night. Because if he was alone, only he could suffer. But they had been through this, round and round in circles, and he didn't know what else to say.

"I have to go."

He stood up silently, and left the light of the fire to walk in the night. Tifa watched him go, and when he was almost out of earshot, she shouted something. Her voice echoed through the valley.

"If you stay like this, nothing will change!"

He had never heard her sound so bitter. How had they gotten to this?

After they had all eaten, Leon stoked the fire and lay back as comfortably as he could. The pixies settled down next to him, but their eyes weren't drawn to the brightness of the fire. They were still attracted to the sleeping butterfly.

"It's so pretty," Yuna cooed. She looked back at Leon. "Who created it?"

"Whoever wrote the letter," he answered.

"Do you have any idea who wrote it?" Yuna asked. "Someone you know?"

"No… but they know me. They know my name."

"Hmm," said Yuna, resting her chin on her fist. "Who knows Leon?"

"They used my old name."

"What old name?"

"Squall." He lowered his eyes as he said it. He still felt a burning sense of shame attached to that name. Squall was the teenager who had lost almost everything he cared about and had been unable to do anything about it. He had buried those memories, thrown himself into his new persona. Leon was a man capable of rebuilding his world. But now someone had left a message for his old self…

"So it's someone from your past?" Paine asked.

He nodded. "Maybe."

"Ooh," said Yuna, clapping her hands at such a delicious mystery. The pixies huddled together once again to confer.

Yuna put her hands on her hips and stared at him. "We think you're hiding something."

"You must know some names," said Paine.

Rikku nodded. "Come on, spit it out!"

"I don't know… There were a lot of people…"

"Who could make a magical butterfly?" Paine asked shrewdly.

He shook his head. She was right; that wasn't something just anybody could do. He might have thought it was Yuffie's idea of a joke if not. Perhaps the work of a summoner. But all the summoners were dead, and the aeons turned to Heartless. He didn't remember them. Most of the inhabitants of Radiant Garden were long since gone, and what use was remembering those they had lost? There was nothing to be gained from that but pain.

"They're dead," he said, his voice cutting through the air. "The darkness swallowed them all."

The pixies' excited expressions faded; their wings drooped. They all knew what it was like to experience the loss of their home world.

"We're sorry," Yuna offered tremulously.

He drew up his knees, wrapping his arms around them so that his hands curled around his elbows. Yuna came over to him. She rested her tiny hands on his.

"There's always hope."

Hope… He had been fighting against that feeling ever since he had received the letter. He had guarded his heart carefully, made sure it was impervious to both shadow and light. But Yuna's warm eyes gazed at him full of compassion, and the first tiny chink appeared.

–Warm dark eyes, a mouth that loved to smile.

"Squall."

He blinked, shaking his head to clear away the image. Yuna had gone back to her companions. He must have been seeing things; the brightness of the fire created strange shapes whenever he closed his eyes. Presently, even the pixies grew tired of chattering, and they curled up to sleep.

He dreamed.

–A garden: a meadow full of flowers. Blue sky, the sweep of blue material, like the edge of a cloak flickering – the edge of a memory. A figure at the corner of his eye.

"You're late."