Author's notes: I hope not many people got too confused with the title change...

Life of All Worlds

The trio rushed to the scene, spotting Kairi on her knees, hands in her lap. Her red-purple hair was in front of her eyes, and she was looking at the ground. Her clothing was a pink, short, denim dress, which only reached half-way to her knees. She glanced up in alarm as Link, Riku and Sora slid to a stop.

"Kairi!" Sora darted forwards. But he missed a slight detail...

The silver blade held to Kairi's neck, clouded from the dust in the area from the explosion. Riku seemed to have noticed it, having stopped just after he started towards Kairi.

"Sora..." Kairi looked on the verge of tears, before managing. "It's a trap!"

Sora slid to a stop, but too late. The sword, seemingly controlled by someone hiding in the shadows, raised itself to slice into Sora's head...

Link darted forwards...

He pushed Sora to the side, causing him to fall to the ground as the blade came down...

But it bounced off of a blue-green shield around him consisting of hexagons. He glanced back to see Yuffie and Tifa nearby as it disappeared, a green orb glowing in a golf ball-sized slot in Yuffie's pinwheel.

"You're quite the daredevil." Tifa commented, crossing her arms. Link didn't reply, more occupied with who had just stepped out of the shadows. Sora got to his feet.

"Kairi, run." Link whispered to the girl, who darted to her feet towards Sora, standing behind him as they walked backwards toward Riku.

What occupied Link? The man who had stepped from the shadows was his shadow...

"Shadow Link." Link spoke.

"I'm surprised you survived, Link." His shadow crossed his arms. He looked just like Link, only his hair was black, eyes crimson and skin pale. He wore a tunic like the one Link had, but his was black, unlike Link's green one. "Then again, you'd think I wouldn't be, having been here a good few times." He glanced behind him. "EnUkAn. Tell the others to get ready." Link could have sworn he heard a gunshot after Shadow Link said that... Shadow Link turned back to his light version. "So, Link." He started circling. "Do you wonder why I haven't killed you yet?"

"Not really." Link watched Shadow Link. "But, why haven't you?" His shadow handed Link his sword in response.

"Slash at me." He said. Link bit his tongue. There's gotta be a catch... He pondered, before slashing Shadow Link's right arm. Link cried out in pain, dropping the sword and clutching his left arm as he fell to his knees.

"That," He paused. "Would be the catch." He pulled his hand away. The gash he left on his shadow's right arm appeared on his left. Shadow Link leaned over and whispered to Link:

"That is why." The shadow incantation started walking away, taking the sword. "I cannot harm you- much less you harm me- without hurting myself-or you yourself." Link growled, getting to his feet. "I am finished here." Shadow Link turned and vanished into the shadow he came form, but paused. "Beware of those you think are your friends." He warned, then vanished.

"What'd he mean by that?" Link muttered, still clutching his arm.

"Link, let me heal your arm." Sora walked upto him. Link nodded, moving his hand from the gash. Sora's Keyblade, Kingdom Key, appeared in his hand. Standing a few steps back, Sora pointed the Keyblade at Link, and it glowed for a moment, before green sparks circled the Hero of Time, and his wound slowly healed. Kingdom Key vanished, and Sora nodded. Link smiled, before looking up. "Who is EnUkAn?" He asked aloud.

"I don't know." Tifa shrugged.

"It's Minish, I can figure that out..." Link commented.

"How?" Sora asked.

"I... don't know. I'm going to guess that it's the effect of the Jabber Nut the Minish gave me." Everyone blinked at Link. "A food that allows the person who eats it to speak and understand Minish." Everyone nodded slowly, as if Link was a weirdo. "Cucko or cucco." Link muttered under his breath.

"What'll we do now?" Kairi rang suddenly. She was sitting down, leaning against a wall, top half crumbled, bottom half intact.

"Well," Link bit his lip. "We need to get home. That's for certain. It's also certain that we can't just use magic and teleport home right here right now..."

"We can find a way home." Sora declared. "Start in the area and branch out."

"Healin alone is quite large, plus you'd have to get past the marsh..." Tifa bit her lip.

"Marsh? No problem!" Sora exclaimed.

"You haven't met Midgar Zolem." Yuffie crossed her arms, strangely serious, considering her hyper nature, which meant this Midgar Zolem wasn't something to be mucked with.

"Okay... who is Midgar Zolem?" Link asked.

"A serpent living in the swamp. A very, big, serpent." Tifa replied.

"Put it into perspective." Link crossed his arms.

"I'd say twice as long as Sephiroth's sword."

Sora whistled slowly.

"That's a lot..." Sora commented. "As long as your not over exaggerating."

"Maybe longer." Yuffie added on.

"...It might be a good idea to steer clear of the swamp for now..."

"Where else would we go?" Link asked. "The only way out of Healin is either the cave on the other side," he started, remembering some of the maps Cloud showed him. "Or through the ocean. I can't walk over the ocean. Swamp, maybe. But not ocean."

"Walk over swamps?" Sora raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"Easy... but until I find my weapons, it's impossible."

"Excuses excuses!" Yuffie exclaimed, apparently back to her hyper self.

"Let's see you walk on water." Link challenged.

"I can walk perfectly on water!" Yuffie snapped.

"Yeah, right." Link rolled his eyes.

"We're not really getting anywhere..." Riku commented.

"Riku's right." Link nodded. "If we're going to leave, we should leave now."

"At least wait until morning, to help with recovery efforts." Tifa urged. Link nodded.

"One night couldn't hurt." He shrugged. He took a step, then suddenly got dizzy and lost his balance, collapsing onto the ground, lying on his side.

"Link!" Everyone was at his side faster than a bullet.

"Link, you okay?" Sora asked, crouched down beside the Hylian. No response. "Link!" He shook Link's shoulder. The look in Link's eyes was frozen, and distant. "Link! Get up!" He urged. "Yuffie! Go get help!" He exclaimed. The Wutaian ninja nodded, darting off through the ruins of Kalm.


"You okay?"

Link moaned. The last thing he remembered was collapsing, and everyone darting to his side.

"You're awake!"

"I guess..." Link said wearily. He hadn't opened his eyes, too tired to bother.

"What happened back there?"

Who's talking to me? Link recognised the voices, but couldn't place them...

"I dunno."

"That helps." He knew that voice too...

"Sarcasm, much?" Link slowly opened his eyes, but his vision was blurred, and he couldn't see much.

"You just passed out on us, Link. We're not sure what happened. One second you were walking with us, the next you were collapsed on the ground."

Link rolled onto his hands and knees, his vision clearing. He looked at the four people next to him. He knew them, but he couldn't remember their names for the life of him.

"Can you remember anything?" Sora asked him.

"Hardly anything after the explosion..." He replied in a mutter.

"Let's find some shelter. It'll be dark soon." Riku told the others.

"We could go to the Chocobo Farm. It's not far from here." Yuffie suggested.

"That may be best." Kairi nodded. "We don't have many other options."

"Yeah." Link stumbled to his feet, steadying himself. "Let's just hurry." He stated. A silent signal or something went between the five of them, and they started walking.

There were mountains to their right, and the ocean was to their left. Ahead was a flock of giant emu-like creatures, yellow in colour, near a farm. A whistle was blown, and some of the birds darted back to the farm, and other ran away.

"Chocobos." Commented Yuffie. "Let's go." The continued on, but something on the closest mountain caught his eye, a swamp below...

"Guys, I'll be back." He started walking towards the mountains, got a grip on one of the rock walls, and started climbing up.

"Link!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Are you crazy?!"

"Nah." Link yelled back down. "Just out of my mind." He continued.

He climbed for a good hour, and night had come around, much to the four below's dismay, who could hardly see Link anymore.

Link was now over the swamp, glancing down every once in awhile, watching the shadow of a large serpent over the surface of the water. He reached up to the ledge where the glow was coming from, finding a red golf ball size orb. He reached out, getting his hands on it.

But the rocks below his feet gave way...

And he plummeted to the marsh below.

"WARK!"

Was he hearing things?

A flash of gold darted across the mountain above him...

Feathers?

Something caught him. Not a human, either...