Watching the Sky

Sorry it's been such a long time since my last update. I'm on Spring Break now so hopefully I can write quite a bit more for this story.

Please Read and Review and thank you so much to those that have!


"It's been too long," Sora said, slowly breathing in the air of Radiant Garden's marketplace.

Kairi laughed, "Sora, you were here just a few weeks ago. You went much longer before."

Sora put his hands behind his head, smiling, "Yeah, but that was by choice Kairi."

"Being asleep for a year was a choice?"

"Technically—"

"SORA! KAIRI!"

The two teenagers turned to see a short young woman around 24 with jet black hair running towards them.

"Hey Yuffie!" Sora exclaimed while he waved excitedly.

"I can't believe you guys actually came! I thought you would be tired of adventures or something! Leon might actually be something related to happy when he sees you're here!" Yuffie glanced around for the first time, "Where's Riku?"

An ashen look crossed Sora's face and he made no reply. Kairi took a step forward and placed a comforting hand on Sora's arm. She answered Yuffie's question, "He's really sick. Sora didn't want to leave without him, but Riku is stubborn and told us to come."

"That's a mega-bummer…" Yuffie said quietly. After a few seconds of silence she asked, "Well, shall we go to headquarters and meet up with Leon?"

"Yeah sure," Sora said, a smile already returning. "Hey Yuffie do you know why Leon wants us here?"

"I have an idea, but you know Leon, he keeps to himself mostly so I don't know much. I bet he'll tell you when we get to headquarters though."


"Sora, you actually came." Leon said when he saw Sora and Kairi walk through the doors. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Yuffie shake her head slightly, Leon assumed that meant to not ask them about the missing Riku.

"Of course!" Sora exclaimed. "You actually think I would miss an adventure?"

"You seemed happy three weeks ago to finally go home and spend time with Riku and Kairi."

"That's because I forgot how boring it was. All we wanted to do before was get away, why would things be different now?"

"Because you've been away for so long?"

Kairi interrupted the off-topic conversation, "So Leon, why do you need our help?"

"I need your help to save my home world."

"Our help?" Sora asked. "Leon you're really strong, you don't need us."

"Thanks for the compliment Sora, but my world was overtaken before because I overestimated myself, I'm not going to make that mistake again. As far as I can tell the heartless on my world are mostly shadows and knights, but there are thousands of them….per city. I need numbers Sora, the more the better." Leon had a hidden meaning behind what he said, but Sora didn't pick up on it.

"If we need more people why don't we take Yuffie and Aerith too?" Sora asked.

"This is where they belong, not there. Sora, you and Kairi are the only ones I think who can cross universes safely."

"Why us?" Kairi asked.

"Sora is the keyblade master and you can wield a keyblade Kairi. I have a suspicion you two will be safe because of that."

"Only a suspicion? Leon, they're only kids!" Cid exclaimed. He wasn't fond of the idea that Leon was crossing universes, but it was his life. He hated the thought that Sora and Kairi were getting dragged into this and their safety wasn't guaranteed. "A suspicion isn't good enough for this!"

"Cid, I've researched this considerably. Aerith agrees with me too. I wouldn't risk Sora and Kairi's lives based off of a mere feeling."

"Hey where is Aerith anyway? Has Cloud come back yet?" Sora said, his minimal attention span when it came to safety coming into effect.

Leon turned to Sora, "Aerith is at the ravine still waiting for Cloud."

"Can Kairi and I go say hi?"

"You might at well say bye. We're leaving tomorrow if that is alright with you."

"It's fine. Are we staying at your apartment?"

"You're in Cloud's room, Kairi can stay with you or with Aerith."

"Hey Sora can you give Aerith this?" Yuffie asked holding up a small sack.

"Yeah sure," Sora said as he took the sack. From the smell of it he could tell it was a bunch of food. "Okay, see you later Leon! Bye Yuffie! Bye Cid"

With that Sora and Kairi ran off to the ravine.


"Sora, are you sure about this?" Kairi asked him on their way.

"About what? Saying hi to Aerith?"

"No, about this mission. It sounds really dangerous."

Sora looked up at the blue sky in between the cliffs that rose above the path to the ravine. He remembered the desperation he felt when he was separated from Kairi, he imagined Leon was feeling the same thing only worse because it had been so long.

"Kairi, I'm sure that I want to go. We're Leon's only hope to rescue the ones he loves. I'll understand if you don't want to go Kairi, but I owe it to Leon. He helped me out so much over the past two years without asking for anything back, helping him save his friends is the least I can do to repay him. I have to go with him."

Kairi's eyes were full of admiration for Sora. He was as caring and considerate as a fifteen year old boy ever got. "I'll go too Sora, I just wanted to make sure you realized what you were getting into."

"I never know what I'm getting into," Sora said under his breath. Kairi didn't have time to ask Sora what he meant for they had just arrived at the ravine to see Aerith sitting at the edge of it, staring into the blue sky.


"I don't like the idea of you taking two kids Leon," Cid said once Sora and Kairi were gone.

"Those two, and Riku, aren't just ordinary kids Cid. They have special powers, I'm not exactly sure what, but they have them. Think about it, Sora and Kairi are the only two people to ever rejoin with their nobodies. Riku has walked the path of darkness, the path of dawn, and he can probably walk the path of light. I don't know anyone that can walk all three and he's only sixteen. I would never risk three people so full of promise if I wasn't sure Cid."

"Are you 100 sure they'll be able to cross the universal gap?"

Leon made eye contact, "Nothing is 100 sure. Someone once told me that there are no guarantees in the future and they were so right...about everything." Leon looked out the window and at the sky, he wished he could say it was the same sky Rinoa was looking at, but it wasn't. There comfort in the vast openness that some people find within it was not there for Leon.

"I don't want them going without a guarantee for their safety."

Leon broke his gaze from sky and made eye contact with Cid. "Damn it Cid, don't you see? There is never a guarantee that someone will be safe! You could be as happy as can be one day, going out a picnic with your girlfriend and one of your best friends with his girlfriend when you get blindsided and attacked! You could be living a perfectly safe and risk-free life when you suddenly get sick and never recover. Cid, if I were to leave them here I couldn't guarantee their safety. The only thing I can guarantee is that with each day, my world gets into more trouble."

Cid blinked. He realized Leon's speaking of a picnic was what happened to him, but he didn't know if Leon knew that. "Fine take those kids, but if something happens, I swear I'll make you pay even if you're already dead."

"I'll make myself pay Cid, you don't have to worry about that."

Cid knew he meant it too.


"Hey Aerith," Sora said as they walked close to the woman.

"Sora! Back already? And with Kairi?"

"We're just doing a favor for Leon, we'll be gone by tomorrow. You don't have to worry about us annoying you for too long."

"You being here doesn't worry me Sora, it's when you leave that worries us all."

"Aw c'mon," Sora said in his usual carefree tone as he plopped down next to Aerith. Kairi came over and sat on his other side. "You know I can take care of myself against those lame old heartless."

"The heartless don't worry me, it's your heart. How many more battles can one heart, no matter how strong it is, take Sora? You fight again and again, you fight for your friends, for people you don't know, and you don't seem to weaken, but do you Sora? Does your innocence fade with every swipe of your keyblade?"

Sora looked up at the brilliantly blue sky again. He didn't know the answer, he knew he was different than when he had first started on the journey, but it had been a good change. He learned to appreciate what he had more, to not take the people in his life for granted, no matter how bored or annoyed he got with them.

"Sora's innocence may fade," Kairi started to answer Aerith's question. "But the strength of his heart will not. If anything it may strengthen from his battles, because he realizes the difference he makes in people's lives."

"Even if the enemies keep coming, never ceasing?"

"Even if the enemies keep coming because he knows people are safe due to his fighting and if he stopped for a second those people wouldn't be safe much longer. Sora knows he makes a difference."

Sora smiled as he continued to stare up at the sky. He loved how Kairi knew what to say about these kind of things, he was never good when it came to seriousness.

"I hope that's the truth," Aerith said thoughtfully. "I hope you two remain with each other forever, if you become separated permanently, your hearts might not make it."

Sora switch his gaze from the sky to Aerith, "What?"

Aerith now turned to stare up at the sky, the same sky Cloud could see, "Your hearts are connected Sora. If you were to sever that connection, consequences will ensue."

"We won't," Kairi said forcefully. She had complete confidence that she and Sora would remain in each other's lives forever, Riku beside them the whole time.

"What about you Aerith?" Kairi asked the young woman. "Does your innocence slip away with every battle?"

"Yes. I lost my best friend at 14 and never got her back. Until recently I believed the darkness had consumed her. I watched a man who had so much lose it all and be consumed with thoughts of revenge on the one responsible. I watched a confused teenager stumble through life, desperately trying to remember his past and when he finally did, I watched him harden. I watched a young boy desperately try to find his two best friends only to see one of them had lost her heart and the other had decided to follow the path of darkness. I watched a young man struggle daily with his own darkness until he couldn't take it anymore so he left everything behind to destroy it forever…I've seen all these things and I don't know how many truly good things there are left in this life."

Sora grinned at Aerith. She found herself a little surprised by this, but realized she should've been expecting it. Sora said in his most thoughtful tone, "Well think about how all those things turned out. Your best friend is alive and definitely kicking. That man, who I guess is Ansem the Wise, he sacrificed himself so others could live in peace. The hardened teenager is going to see all his old friends soon and help save them. The young man is going to fight so he can live with his girlfriend without worrying about his own darkness destroying her. And that young boy—who really is a teenager not a boy—he is happy with his life. He got both of his friends back. Now tell me Aerith, what truly bad things are left in life?"

Aerith returned a smile, "I guess you're right. I should go back to my optimistic ways shouldn't I?"

"Yeah!" Sora exclaimed.

"Hey Aerith, Yuffie wanted us to give you some food," Kairi handed Aerith the small sack of food.

"Thanks for bringing it you two. Do you want some?"

Kairi started, "No thanks—"

"Yeah food!" Sora exclaimed as he helped himself.


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"You are to pilot a double-engined spaceship to this location, then you are to break it off into two parts. You will leave half of it there and return with the other half. Understood?" Irvine was talking to a star pilot, who had managed to remain in space throughout the years and away from the planet's danger.

"Yes sir. I wish you luck with whatever you're planning."

"Thank you. Over and out."

Irvine hung up and placed his hands on his face. He didn't know what Rinoa was planning and why he had to command a pilot to move and abandon a perfectly good spaceship. He didn't even know if Rinoa had been in her right mind when she asked him to do this. After all, she had just woken up from a coma and right after asking him she had gone unconscious again, it was highly likely she would forget ever issuing that order.

But all the same, Irvine had promised Squall all those years ago he would forever respect Rinoa and listen to her, she knew more than she let on.

Irvine pulled a picture out of his coat pocket. It was a picture of himself, Selphie, Rinoa, and Squall. He smiled slightly.

"Ah man I miss you Squall, you would know how to get us of this mess…You wouldn't be doubting Rinoa right now either," Irvine said to the picture. He really did like the photo, mainly because all of them happened to be smiling.

Squall may have smiled a lot more once he and Rinoa got together, but he still had the habit of glaring in pictures. But on that particular day, he had smiled for the camera that Selphie had a timer set up on.

It was really rather eerie, Irvine felt, since the day this particular photo had been taken, had been the day Squall disappeared.

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Leon couldn't sleep. How was he expected to when the next day he was going to pilot two kids across a universal barrier and see his true love again? Everyone else had gone to bed already, he didn't know, nor did he want to, if Sora and Kairi had both gone into Cloud's room. Leon did know that Aerith hadn't gone to bed yet.

After a few more minutes Leon climbed out of his small bed and changed into his clothes. He grabbed his gunblade, even though there weren't supposed to be anymore heartless in this world he still took it. Quietly, he walked towards the ravine where he knew Aerith would be.

"I knew you would come," The sad woman said when Leon got within a few feet of her. He kept his hands out of his sight, he had a surprise for Aerith.

"I couldn't sleep," Leon said as he sat down next to her on the cliff's edge.

"Of course you can't. There's too much pressure on you."

A silence fell between the two friends. Leon had a painful expression on his face before finally managing to say, "Thank you Aerith."

"For what?"

"For always being there, for pushing me to remember. If it hadn't been for you, I never would have remembered Rinoa or anyone else, I would still be a carefree idiot with a hole in my heart."

"You would have remembered eventually without me."

"You know I'm not good at this Aerith, but you deserve my thanks and that's a fact."

"Maybe…" She said distantly. Had Cloud still been around she probably would have teased Leon, but without him she felt as if she had lost a part of herself.

Leon reached behind his back and pulled out what he was hiding. "Here, I think you should have these." He gave Aerith a small bouquet of flowers. "I'll charge less than you and make them free."

Aerith gave him a smile, "Cloud always liked my flowers."

"Cloud always liked you," Leon added.

"Do you think he'll ever come back?"

"Of course he will. He's fighting so he can get rid of his darkness then he'll return to his source of light, you."

Aerith nodded, grateful that even though he was emotionally distant, Leon knew how to make her feel better. She leaned into him out of exhaustion. Leon immediately tensed, but he realized this could his last moment with Aerith and just let her lay against him.

"I'll be sad without you," She said quietly.

"I'll miss you too. You were my best friend here Aerith, you got me through the bad times. I'll never be able to thank you."

"You just did Leon."

"Can you promise me something?"

Aerith nodded. Her eyes were closed as she leaned on Leon.

"Be careful with Cloud. Sephiroth is trickier than even he suspects."

"What are you saying Leon?"

Leon frowned, Aerith wasn't supposed to get suspicious. "Sephiroth wants to hurt Cloud and he might go after you to hurt him the most."

Aerith smiled, "Cloud won't let that happen Leon."

Leon looked up at the stars. He wondered if maybe the universes really did share the same sky and if the alternative Cloud was looking up missing Aerith like this Aerith was missing her Cloud. If only that were true Aerith.

"Just be careful alright?"

Aerith moved her position so she could look into his blue-gray eyes, concerned. She almost smiled again as realized that the more he remembered of his past life the bluer his eyes got, as if he was happier. She wanted him to stay happy, "Of course I will."

"Good."

The two spent the rest of the night staring up into the starry sky together.