Back with a new chapter! I promise you, this story will be finished this time; I guess third time's the charm in this case… but, if this story is discontinued, you can flame me all you want and I will take it all. After all, I do deserve it for just quitting on the other versions before…

Thank you to those who read.

Special thanks to reviewers: Veritas4Eternity, lunarxshinobi, BloodMistress, Sesshomaru42691, NARUfreak, ChibiFrubaGirl, Fushica, Angel Storm22, and noperfect917.

Now on with the story!

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Chapter 1

The sound of a rooster off somewhere outside of the barn roused a young teen from his slumber. Rolling around in the pile of hay, he tried to ignore the loud crowing of the loud morning animal outside, but it seemed to get louder and louder and soon just couldn't be ignored.

The teen was buried in the pile of hay he was lying in, so he had to do a little digging to get himself out. The first thing present of the teen was a large mass of chocolate brown hair, sticking every which way but down, that was covered in straw; the next thing his face was present, a pair of sapphire blue eyes still held sleep and his mouth opened to let out a loud yawn. With a great heave, he got himself out of the pile of hay; only to end up tripping out of it, rolling to the ground with a thud.

He lied down on the ground for a couple of moments, just looking up at the wooden rafters of the barn he was in; just thinking of why he was even there.

There on the barnyard floor, laid Sora at fourteen, two years after the destruction of his island, two years since he had seen a familiar face of his loved ones, two years since that awful night.

Sighing, Sora rolled over to his side and looked around the barn; the place he had been basically living in for nearly three months. Despite everything that happened, Sora had managed to become a sort of traveler. He traveled from world to world as much as he could so he could try and find his friends; so far he had managed to travel to ten worlds, but found no one. His payment to the people who allowed him to travel with them was him working for them; he would clean, keep track of anything they asked him to keep track of, ECT.

For a year after Sora had been separated from his world, he thought that his world was the only place that had the unfortunate encounter with those odd creatures, but the majority of people he met were also scattered from their worlds. He was almost happy that he had known that he wasn't alone in the feeling that the creatures only attacked him, but the only thing the people he worked for wanted with him was business. Sora was almost always alone when he wasn't working; he often became depressed during those times.

Over the years, Sora had made very few friends in a few worlds; his friends were namely scattered young witches and wizards. They were kind enough to teach him a couple of simple but extremely helpful spells; spells that could help him adjust his clothing, either make them bigger for when he grew a little bigger or repair rips or even clean them on the spot. He learned a healing spell that could help him with whatever scratches or cuts he may get; and a couple of other spells. The friends he made he knew he would never forget, he had a heavy heart when he left the worlds his new friends lived in, but he had to keep searching for his best friends, he needed to know if they were okay; before he left his new friends behind, he promised them that they'd meet again, he somehow knew that they'd meet somehow, someway, he just didn't know how or even why.

As Sora lied down on the barnyard floor, the sound of ringing came to his ears; he knew what was going to happen.

"Sora, you awake?!" A loud male voice yelled.

Sitting up, Sora stretched, getting all of the sleepy kinks out of his body; then he turned his head towards the direction the voice was coming from and called back out to the voice.

"Yeah, I'm up!" Sora hollered.

"Hurry up, we have a new customer!" The man yelled out; a few seconds later, the ringing sounded again and the sound of a wooden thud came after it.

Sora shook his head quickly to get whatever hay was stuck in his hair and stood up; quickly, he rushed towards the door to get to the house so he could wash himself up.

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About fifteen minutes later…

Sora had spruced himself up for the day. He washed his face, brushed his teeth, got his badge and pinned it to his shirt; then he was ready. Sora walked down the stairs of the house/hotel so he could tend to whatever new customer that had arrived.

Like was said before, Sora had been there for about three months. He had met one of the owners of the house/hotel in the last world he was in; Sora had actually begun to post up small posters around the little town he had resided in asking for a ride to whatever world, as long as whoever provided the job give him a ride to whatever other world they lived in. In the last town, Sora was no more than a young face that worked in a small corner shop and lived in the smallest box apartment above the store; when Sora was offered the job by the hotel owner, he was more that happy to leave, it meant he could leave and search a new world to find his friends.

Despite everything, Sora had managed to keep optimistic, he still had hope that he'd find his friends one day; Sora simply went by what his grandmother used to tell him, 'You just have to keep believing'.

When Sora got off the stairs, his eyes immediately zoomed onto the new customer; like his boss had said, "Just look for the gruff looking blond". The blond Sora saw had his arms crossed over a broad clothed chest and was literally gnawing on a cigar; taking a deep breath, Sora walked over, hoping that the blond was a nice customer.

"Hello Sir, I'm here to help you today…" Sora said in a kind voice.

The blond looked up at him from where he was sitting, his icy blue eyes sizing Sora up a little before a smile came to his lips.

"About time short-stack." The blond said as he stood up.

'Short-stack?!' Sora yelled in the back of his mind, he knew better than to voice his thoughts, most of the time anyway. 'Why you…!'

Sora's train of thought stopped when he saw how tall the man was; Sora was a bit on the short side at fourteen, so almost anybody could seem tall to him.

"If you'd follow me to registration…" Sora said in a kind friendly voice, he turned and led the way.

Sora could hear the slight light footsteps of the person behind him on the carpeted floor; he made his way to the front desk and walked behind it. Digging through the drawers, he found the papers he would need and placed them on the desk along with a pen.

"If you would sign these we can get everything done." Sora said.

Nodding, the blond picked up the pen and wrote on the paper. While doing that, Sora wrote everything he needed to write down in the logging book. The place that Sora worked in was really low-tech, so there wasn't anything like computers around; even the phones were low-tech, going back to the very old days of the turn dialing system and the odd ear piece that needed to be held to the ear, the kind of phone where you needed to bring the receiver up to your mouth so you could speak to the person on the other end.

Just when Sora finished his paper work in the book, the blond slid his paper up to Sora. Sora turned the paper around so he could read it right-side-up and his eyes widened at the name written on the paper.

Cid Highwind…

Cid Highwind was a very well known engineer, even better known merchant. He did various jobs for various worlds and was known to always travel during certain times of the year, he even sold and bought things from a few worlds that were never know to buy or sell, for that he was so well known. It was said that even though Cid's home resided in a place called 'Traverse Town', his true home in 'Hollow Bastion' was raided on an awful night, so he had to evacuate along with many other people. Sora knew all of that because he'd spend time reading the magazines that would come to the hotel through its mail, most of the time the magazines were scattered among tables in the lobby.

Sora looked up at Cid with wide eyes.

"What?" Cid asked in a gruff voice.

Sora shook his head slightly.

"Nothing!" Sora said quickly, then he went back into working in the book; he copied down a couple things that were signed on the form Cid had given back to him. After a couple minutes, everything was set; Sora flagged down the bellboys and told them what room to settle whatever luggage Cid had with him. "And if you'd be so kind to lead Mr. Highwind to his room."

"No, please call me Cid, Mr. Highwind makes me sound older than I'm already am." Cid said.

"Okay Cid…" Sora said. "I hope you enjoy your stay; if you'd like, you can enjoy your complementary breakfast in about twenty minutes, it will be brought up to your room."

"No thanks…" Cid said. "I think I'll hold out for lunch."

Sora nodded and wished Cid a nice stay again, then watched as the bellboys picked up the luggage Cid had with him and as they walked up the stairs, the hotel had no elevators, so Cid would have to walk up five floors.

Sora closed the book and placed it back into its drawer, then picked up the form Cid signed to place it in a file cabinet in the office.

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Three days later…

It turned out that Cid only needed to stay for a very short while, it was the afternoon and he was watching as the bellboys heaved luggage down the stairs and carried or wheel it over to the awaiting taxi outside.

Sora had spoken to Cid for the few days he had been there, and Sora had to say, he liked him. Cid was a kind man despite his gruff exterior, Sora had almost looked up to him like a big brother or father; Cid had bought Sora his breakfast, lunch, and dinner for those past three days, and Sora was grateful to have some real food instead of the stale leftovers the hotel owners said he could have. Sora found out that Cid had a husband back and Traverse Town, he was the main reason why he never traveled all year round; he and his husband were trying to have children, once they came, Cid may have to retire traveling so he could stay at home and raise them.

Sora was surprised how young Cid's husband was, there was a ten year difference between them and his husband was a breath-taking beauty; Cid had shown Sora a few pictures of him. His name was Vincent, he had an amazing head full of long raven black hair that went down well past his waist; his eyes an amazing shade of ruby red, blood red really. His clothing consisted of a lot of red from what Sora saw; Cid said that Vincent liked clothing that brought out his eyes.

Then there was one picture that sort of amazed and startled Sora, it was of Vincent in sort of warrior clothing; he was wearing red from head to toe, even a red headband wrapped around his head to keep his long hair out of his eyes, at his feet a pair of golden boots; plus, he wore a long red flowing cape. What caught Sora's attention most was Vincent's arm, it was like a golden arm, it looked to be made out of a sort of metal, and the hand at the end had sharp pointed fingers. In both hands Vincent held two huge golden hand guns, and he was glaring towards whoever was taking the picture.

Cid said that he had met Vincent during a war years before. Back then Vincent was cold and distant, before the war he didn't trust many people and during the war it had taken awhile before Vincent actually recommended Cid as an apprentice, even longer before he called Cid his friend; a couple of years later after the war they were a couple, and not long after that Cid had proposed to Vincent and they married immediately. It was a sort of whirlwind time for the couple after whatever war had taken place, but it was a nice time for them.

Sora wondered what it was like in Traverse Town and if there could be a possibility that he could find one of his friends there. Sora had told Cid about the night back on the island and what he had been doing over the years to live and search. Cid, personally, was taken aback about how someone so young could go through so much; little did Cid know, nothing had really started up for Sora yet.

As Sora stood behind the desk and watched as the bellboys brought down the last bag of Cid's luggage; Cid came down at last. He looked towards Sora and smiled as he walked over to him. Sora smiled up at Cid as he walked up towards the desk, it was going to be a hard goodbye.

"Well Sora…" Cid said. "I guess this is goodbye…"

Sora sighed sadly.

"Yeah…" Sora said. "I'm going to miss you…"

"Well, no one would have to miss anyone, if you come with me." Cid said with a smirk.

It took a few seconds for Sora to realize what Cid was implying.

"Huh?" He said.

Cid chuckled before he reached over and ruffled Sora's hair.

"I want you to be my assistant." Cid said. "At least for a little while. You work for me, I'll give you a ride towards Traverse Town; provide you with food and housing, and I'll even take you to the other worlds I'll travel to if you stay long enough. During all of that time, you'll have enough time to travel everywhere around the worlds to see if you can find someone from your home."

Sora stared up at Cid with wide eyes; he didn't know what to say.

"So, what is it?" Cid asked. "Will you take it or leave it?"

Sora shook his head and came up with the answer.

"Yes!" Sora said. "I'd love to take up that job!!!"

"Great!" Cid said as he pumped his fist in the air. "You have about half an hour to quit this job and get everything you have packed up though."

Sora realized what he had to do before he had to leave from what Cid had said. Quickly he rushed around the desk and got out from behind it; before rushing off; he ran to Cid and gave him a hug.

"Thank you!" Sora said before he let go and ran off.

Cid chuckled as he watched Sora run off out of the hotel to wherever he needed to go.

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Two hours later…

…Ten…nine…eight…

Sora clutched onto the armrests of his seat as he sat in the ship that would be taking him to Traverse Town. Don't get Sora wrong, he loved riding in Gummi ships; but the takeoffs were always nerve racking, he never got used to them. For the first time, Sora was sitting in the front passenger seat; next to Cid who was sitting in the pilot seat getting everything ready for take off.

Cid sat in the pilot seat pushing various buttons and flicking various switches, his eyes wondered over to Sora once in awhile to make sure the poor boy didn't pass out; Sora had already explained his situation with Gummi ships to him. As the final preparations were done, Cid sat back in his seat in gripped the steering wheel.

…Three…two…one…

Instantly the rockets in the back started up and the passengers were pushed back further into their seats by the force. The roaring of the rockets would the deafening for a couple of moments. The ship shook and shook, surging forward into the dark abyss of space.

All the while during take off, Sora screamed.

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Two days later…

Everything with the ship ride had gone well, Sora calmed down when the ship finally stopped shaking; only during a meteor shower did Sora freak out again; other than that, it went smoothly.

A lot of the towns' people seemed to know Cid when he got off the ship, immediately a lot of teenage boys went into the ship and started to haul stuff out of it. Cid said that some of the teens were junior mechanics and they wanted to see if there was anything new in the ship; some where junior merchants, they wanted to look at some of the new items that Cid had gotten from the worlds he had traveled to; and some were just looking for a quick buck, sometimes Cid would give them money, enough for a snack anyway.

Cid took Sora away from the docking ship port and into town; there various people walking by would wave and/or say hello to Cid, some said hi to Sora or nodded a hello to him. All the while, it took the pair only about ten minutes of walking before they came to a large two story house; Cid had explained to Sora before hand that there were some homes there in Traverse Town that doubled as boarding houses for victims who lost their homes, Cid's home was one of them.

One the porch of the house waited two people; a young man and woman. The young man bounded down the steps of the house and rushed over to Cid; Cid quickly grabbed the man up around the waist and took him up into a hug, swinging him around.

The young woman stood up and casually walked down the steps; she walked over to Sora and gave him a kind smile.

"Hello Sora, I'm Aerith…" She said. "Welcome to Traverse Town..."

To be continued…

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Some surprises will be coming up in this wonderful version very soon…

Meanwhile during the wait, please send me reviews!!!