Interlude: Restoration Committee

"Okay, the first ever meeting of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee starts...Now!" Aerith slammed her first on the table giving it a firm knock.

Yuffie and Cid rolled there eyes while Leon remained stoic than ever. The group had gathered here for the official meeting of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. Many of them former members of the Anti-Heartless resistance. There task had no gone from fighting to now building. That would require a new style of meeting.

"Come on guys, take it seriously," Aerith sighed, "We agreed to this together, now come on".

"We are," Yuffie grumbled, "Just weird being all formal and ...stuff, I don't really like it".

Aerith sighed as she sat back down adjusting the various papers she had drawn up for the occasions..

All four of them were gathered in Ansem of the Wise library, surrounded by the various books. Aerith sat at the far end of the table chairing the meeting. It was her idea to start these little formal sessions. After taking back there homeworld from Maleficent and the Heartless, reconstruction was going to be quite the skill of a task. While Leon was a great leader when it came to fighting Heartless, re-creating civilization was a whole other matter entirely. Leon was more than happy to hand over the more heavy responsibilities to Aerith in this regard. She was organized, calm, and someone with definitely good leadership skills in this regard

"Alright, Aerith, your in charge here, tell us, what do we do first" Leon asked leaning forward and looking at her.

Aerith cleared her throat before speaking, "Well first things first is how are we going to handle probably the influx of people who are about to come into this place. We really have no homes or shelters for them….Just…..Well this Castle."

"It's a big Castle, let them stay here for a while," Cid said looking around the library, "Least till we give them homes and such,"

"Castle to house, seems like a downgrade if you ask me," Yuffie snickered,

"Yeah, but what about all the weirds stuff here in said Castle, we can't confine people to there rooms but there is a lot of traps and weird gadget like stuff that we don't even know about," Cid added sounding hesitant, "Would hate to accidentally start a Heartless plague because some dumb dumb was messing in place he ain't supposed to be messin in."

"I mean I guess we'll have to be careful then," Yuffie thought tapping her fingers on the desk in bodrum, "I mean they can't stay outside in the cold with tents, we don't even have tents...You know come to think of it, Sora never had a tent, how the heck did that kid sleep?"

"Yuffie...Not now," Leon said looking at her sternly,

Yuffie sighed, "Fine, fine, later."

There was a moment of awkward silence.

Ever since Sora left them to fight Xehanort, none of the old Traverse Town gang had heard from him. Considering the fact that the universe didn't get engulfed by darkness they could only assume that the evil Keyblade Master had lost. Still there was no word, no confirmation. For the first few days the group had lived on edge, unsure if it would be there last. As more time passed through the sense of ease came over them.

Though it was a hollow ease, for still no word from Sora, no word from the hero who might have saved them. They might be able to rebuild their home, but at what cost. The loss of a good friend perhaps? Perhaps other dangers still lurking out there. Hollow Bastion was still very much in a fragile state. Years of being under the control of Maleficent and her gones had left it weak. Any shaking of the new status quo now could spell disaster.

Aerith agained cleared her thought to get there attention, "Well then I believe the Castle will just have to be and will just have to have take precaution to make sure the more...Sensitive areas are kept out. But I do believe the library should be opened to everyone, not our place to horde knowledge."

"Agreed," Leon nodded.

"Seconded," Cid muttered.

Yuffie groaned, "Come on, let's get to the important stuff, we have a freaking Castle of Darkness on our backyard, and it's been giving us the eye now for the better part of a month and without a Keyblade around I feel a little nervous!"

"Yuffie," Leon said again far more sternly.

Aerith raised a hand, "No, that's okay, that was next on the list anyway...So...Yuffie, you seem to really want to talk about this, what do you suggest we do?"

"I say we take it down now while we still have the chance!"

Aerith sighed. The castle in question was Maleficent new castle. Created by a wish and used to imprison the Villains who had once ruled over this world. Now they were trapped and imprisoned. Left to their own devices and the Heartless they commanded now scattered. Without their leaders, they were not that much of a threat to the worlds or to them.

"How?" Cid asked, "That thing is protected by some magic shield that can't let anyone in or out, as far I say let those Villains rot in there forever for all I care."

"Sadly I have to agree," Leon nodded, as he leaned back on his chair, "But we should take step to make sure if they come out, otherwise we're just going to lose everything we fought for in the first place, and be back to square one."

"Well we had our best defense, and now he's gone, and none of us have anyway of contacting him," Yuffie mumbled.

"Yuffie, I know your worried about Sora we all are," Aerith said trying her best to keep calm, "But we shouldn't rely on him to solve all our problems, he may have been the Keyblade Master, but that doesn't mean we have to fend for ourselves when he's not around. Beside's at the end of the day he's still just a boy."

"Exactly," Leon stood up now and just walked around the desk, "If anything I think we're going to defend ourselves then we're going to have to find the secrets of the Heartless and learn to fight them without a Keyblade".

Cid rolled his eye, "We'll need some sorta ...Heartless security system, and we tried that in Traverse Town and weren't able to get anything done with it."

"True but that was because we didn't have Ansem Castle," Leon added now getting everyone' attention, "Now we do, we have a entire library full of research that we could use, maybe even learn to how we got to this position in the first place".

"I've gone over some of Ansem reports that Sora found," Aerith said, "They are quite fascinating to read. He was so obsessed into locking the secrets of the Heart. Perhaps a bit obsessed if you ask me".

"Crazy scientist," Yuffie muttered.

"Yeah, I got a cousin also named named Cid who was bit of a wacky scientist, if you ain't careful they start messing with things they ain't supposed to then things get weird, and quickly too".

"Plus none of us are scientist aren't we," Aerith said.

Leon shrugged, "Well, we can at least try to understand, no point in just keeping a bunch of research here and not using it".

"Very well then," Aerith put away the papers, "I guess are first big priority is to go through Ansem reports, see what we can find, if we can find anything that is. Meeting adjourned".

Everyone but Leon and Aerith got up and left, leaving those two just sitting around in the library, being quite.

Leon cleared his throat before speaking once both Cid and Yuffie left, "Sorry if I stepped out of line".

"It's fine," Aerith said going over some papers, "I'm still not used to be on the front of this, you had it easy at least you had a town already pre-built, I have to make sure we can build one".

"I think you'll do a good job,"

"Keeping people safe is more your field of expertise, not mine"

"No, I'm not just to peace," Leon sighed arms folded as he started walking back and forth, "It's just so weird, being home, here...After so long, without any Heartless or all the crazy people we met at Traverse Town to deal with".

"If I remember correctly, you were friendly with alot of those crazy people," Aerith smirked.

Leon chuckled, "Yeah, they were great, gave a headache, but they definitely were crazy...In there own unique way".

"It be nice if they were right now?"

"Yeah,"

Aerith was silent again, before looking at Leon with a concerned expression, "Have you heard anything about Sora? Anything at all?"

Leon shook his head,

"Unfortunate," Aerith sighed, "I do worry about him, he was such a kind boy, and now...He could be anywhere, lost".

Leon walked behind Aerith and put a gentle hand on her shoulder, "I know, I know...But it's like I said to him, we may never meet again, but will never forget each other".

"Yeah," Aerith sighed, rubbing her forehead in exhaust, "Leon….Have you….Have you heard from Cloud at all".

"No, why?"

"I don't know...I just feel, he should be here….This is his home too after all".