Ka-tet – Aboard the Highwind

Cid and Tristan sat at opposite ends of the mess hall's sole dining table for breakfast that morning. Cloud was seriously weirded out about the situation – near-twins passive aggressively glaring across a table.

"Did you manage to break any parts of the engine this morning, Tristan?" Cid took a cigarette out from the pack tied in his goggles and lit it.

"I don't recall Cid. But hey, did you happen to fly into any mountains around dawn?" Tristan lit up a cigar and blew the smoke straight in front of him.

Link's eyes darted back and forth from the older men. Cloud was doing the same, his mind numb from the constant drone. Roland sat next to Link on one side, Cloud and Alucard on the other. Link was having a hard time with all of the tension in the room, so he decided to speak.

"So, I had another dream last night. About the boys."

The gunslinger set his utensils down and turned partially to the boy. "Were the two boys in it again?"

"Yupp, Tidus and his friend, uh. His friend…" Link snapped his fingers, attempting to bring the name from his memory. He tried for about fifteen seconds before Alucard interjected.

"The name is not currently important, if it was your dream memory would have the information for you. I know a little bit about dreams and slumber, and I can tell you that your dreams are more significant than those of the average person."

Link seemed pleased that he had something to really bring to the table. He had been so used to being "the one", a warrior with skills above many. But in this ka-tet, he was surrounded by fighters with identical status. His actions and contributions seemed less when stacked amongst others of his caliber.

Cloud tried to speak, but found the task much harder than it used to be. Each syllable made his head throb. "Maaybe…they're….st..still….alive."

He pretended that everyone did not choose that exact moment to stare at him concernedly. His attempt to hide his weakening mind was failing, and soon his mental capacity would lack enough power for even recognize that sort of fact, and there seemed to be no solution for him. Cid remembered seeing Cloud in a similar state before.

He's slipping away again, just like Auron said he would. We need to book it to the remains of Horror Bastillion or whatever it's name was. Like I'd know anything about that place, why don't you ask the me from a different world. The one where Auron said I built ships out of shit called "gummy blocks". Whatever, I owe Cloud this much. Even if I didn't, I promised Tifa I'd bring the stupid kid home safe.

I'm sure you won't be very surprised to hear that Tristan was having similar thoughts on the matter. Just like Auron said, what the hell is this shit? Whatever, that chick with the huge tits said to bring him home safe. Sure honey, maybe you can rub me all the right ways with those things later if I run your little errand. Consider it done, babe.

Link was hearing all of this and it took him every ounce of energy to keep from exploding with laughter.

While our ka-tet travels over Zanarkand and onto the great emptiness, we'll turn our eye to another important group of people, very much relevant to our story.

Two blue eyes stared across roof tops and over a cliff. Their owner, a young man with crazy, out of control, spikey hair is looking upon his next great battle.

"Sora, what can you see from here?" A six foot tall talking anthropomorphic dog stood over Sora's shoulders and pointing forward. "I can see Heartless and the Nobodys! What are we gonna do?"

"I'm not sure Goofy, but we've gotta win. Cloud is running out of time. Link is our only hope and we need to be at the door in time for him to receive the anti-keyblade."

A small crowd of people stood behind Sora and each one approached him and spoke one after another. The first was a young man named Leon who said, "I will fight with you until I drop or we get the job done." The second man was none other than Cid Highwind, a different one from the Cid currently flying the Highwind over an abyss. Cid said, "I've got your back, kid."

Tifa Lockhart and Yuffie Kisaragi both hugged Sora. "Anything for Cloud, even if it isn't necessarily my Cloud. It's still hard to comprehend that there's copies of us in another dimension like Riku said, but I don't care."

Yuffie jumped up in the air. "We'll fight for them too!"

Sora held out his hand and the keyblade materialized into it. It was the Oblivion key. Something inside of him came to, even partially forward. Today, I add all of my power to yours…my other.

Sora held out his other hand and a keyblade materialized into that one too. This was the Oathkeeper key. Riku smiled down from the other side of the roof where he was slouching. Good on you Roxax, he needs you today.

Hollow Bastion stood on the horizon of the Radiant Gardens. The castle itself had received restoration by some dark forces as of late, and it looked very close to how it appeared during Sora's first adventure.

The letter from King Mickey. That was the single object that brought all of these people here to fight in this one exact moment. Sora and his friends Riku and Kairi had received it on Destiny Islands but a few weeks after saying goodbye to Goofy and Donald.

My friends,

The worlds are not as safe as we thought they would be. I've just received news that a dimension-hopping wizard has made pacts with Sephiroth. I believe you've met him before, haven't you? The Cloud that we know has completely disappeared and Sephiroth is hunting another version of him. You could say the version of him in another dimension and you'd hit the nail on the head. At any rate, that Cloud needs to stop Sephiroth. They say Sephiroth is aiding someone called the Crimson King, a man bent on destroying all that exists.

He's taken control of the Heartless and he uses them to swallow up worlds, crumbling the forces that keep all of existence intact. I'll see you in Hollow Bastion, I have a couple of our friends on their way in gummi already.

-The King

Now they stood here overlooking the largest mass of Heartless ever seen. The town's security was starting to fail in containing them at the gates, and everyone knew the battle was really upon them.

Sora stood up on a crate and looked over his friends. "This isn't just about saving Radiant Gardens, this is about saving everything that ever was. If we don't get to the top of that castle, it could mean doom for us all. We can do this, we can beat back these Heartless! To the castle!"

The group screamed back, "TO THE CASTLE!" as they followed Sora's charge over the wall and into the horde.