Disclaimer: Bah! Look to the other chapters!! Hope you like!!

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Chapter 6 A ship stood in the middle. It looked to be made of blocks of some sort.

"What the hell is that?" Asked Amy

"This is our Gummi ship." Said Aerith., proudly. Then, at seeing the bewildered look on Amy's face, she added "How we travel from world to world."

"Oh, I see." Said Amy "So why have you brought me here?" they all looked at each other uneasily. Then Cloud spoke.

"We have brought you here to show you your destiny. Your fate awaits you. Whether you choose to follow that path is you decision." Said Cloud.

"Fate? A path? Will you please show me the path that leads to me understanding what you're talking about?"

"You choose. Either you come with us now be taken by the darkness." Said Yuffie

"I might notify you to the fact that the future of the many worlds out there depend on this decision right now" Said Leon, a frown creasing his partially scarred forehead

"So, no pressure" said Cloud, grinning, the others looking more and more concerned because of the fact that Cloud was showing any emotion rather than indifference to this girl. Amy sat on the floor. 'Me?' she thought to herself. She sat there for what must have been an hour, maybe two, she didn't know, didn't care more to the point, just thinking. It started to rain. Thick, heavy drops fell through the not-so- dense shelter of the woods. Yuffie, Aerith and Leon went inside the Gummi Ship, but Cloud sat next to Amy.

"What' you thinking about?" He asked, in a strangely up-beat tone. No answer. "I know it's a big burden to carry, but you must trust us." Amy sighed.

"It's not that I don't trust you. I trust all of you." Then she looked Cloud right in the eye, smirking, and said "Do you really think I would follow a bunch of strangers into a shady forest, despite the fact that they claimed to come from another world, if I didn't trust them?"

"Good point. Well then, why are you sitting out here out in the rain?"

"The other day, when Aerith spoke to me, it was like there was a connection, more than one. Something unlocked, clicked in the back of my mind." Cloud looked towards the Gummi Ship, now soaking wet.

"Her home was destroyed by the Heartless, too, all of the people she loved taken away from her by them."

"That's so sad." Amy said, without thinking, and then realised that was exactly what had happened to her. "I suppose that's the connection, then. But I get the feeling it goes deeper than that." They looked at the each other. Cloud obviously couldn't think of anything else to say, and the rain had just got heavier, with bigger drops, so Amy said "We best go then. No use sitting around here, when we could be zooming off to. ummm god knows where." Then she added as an after thought "The Gummi ship does zoom, doesn't it? Or does it glide smoothly like on Star Trek?" Cloud smiled, or more grinned. Amy was just about to enter the Gummi Ship, when Cloud finally said, from his tree-base

"You'll find it. The connection between you and Aerith" Amy smiled. Somehow, she felt she was smiling inside, too.

Inside the Gummi Ship was amazing. It was all one room with lots of controls. Cloud walked in just after Amy, who had walked in to find Leon, Yuffie and Aerith deep in conversation. They all looked up and all looked surprised to see her, apart from Aerith, who smiled, in a somewhat knowing way, although Amy didn't realise it. She was too busy giggling silently at their faces

"She's decided to come with us!" Said Cloud, happily, as Amy was now bent double in silent hysterics at the looks on their faces.

"OK, then" said Leon, recovering and getting up and walking over to a large- ish panel with lots of buttons and a big, comfy-looking swivel chair in front. Aerith patted the chair next to her, signalling to Amy to sit next to her. Amy did, and pretty soon the girls were all emerged in a conversation, when the lights suddenly went out, plunging them all into darkness. A cold voice spoke.

"Hello. Mind if I join your lovely little group? Oh, and I've brought some friends along, I hope you don't mind" in the back of the Ship, there must have been at least 30 glowing eyes, quite near the floor, dancing and moving about, as if ready to pounce. For a while, the whole Gummi Ship sat frozen in silence, and then the lights flickered on again. They all blinked, there eyes not yet accustomed to the brightness. Amy quickly turned towards where she had seen the eyes. But there wasn't anything there. And then she realised. They were surrounding them. What were they going to do? Amy snapped her head round, as she had heard a noise. Leon had pulled out his sword, and struck a blow at one of the glowy-eyed creatures.

"Shadows!" Cried Yuffie and everyone leapt up to fight them. All except Amy. As soon as she had clapped eyes on that 'shadow' thing, images of the night her Mother died kept on flashing back to her. Then, one very fuzzy, unclear one. Two bright yellow, big eyes peering out of a fireman's suit. Then she thought. That night, my Mum didn't die, they kidnapped her. These Shadow things. They must have thought it was me! They obviously know who I am! This isn't just to show they're back, but to get- but she had no more time to think- it happened so quickly she didn't even have time to scream.

The battle was over. Leon, Yuffie, Cloud and Aerith had defeated the Heartless which had attacked them. They dumped themselves on the ground, exhausted and panting for breath.

"Well, it looks like the Heartless are back, and stronger than ever." Said Leon.

"Yeah" agreed Yuffie "But does it seem kinda- quiet?" they all looked around, jumped up, and shouted "AMY!" And then the frantic search for her began. But there was no sign of her anywhere in the one-roomed ship, and there weren't very many places to hide. They'd already checked in those at least 100 times, just in case. All of them failed, though. They slumped down in their chairs, and were all silent.

Amy woke up in a dark room, lit only by a few candles. A figure in the corner noticed that she had woken up and walked slowly on towards her. She was on some sort of platform, and all she could see was the figure of a man, with a sword and shining silver hair, and a massive black wing, which was unfolding slowly, all adding to the sense of horror. Amy felt she had never been so scared in all her life, and wanted to scream out. Slowly, he spoke to her, as if he needed to get this message across to her, but she couldn't understand English

"My name is Sephiroth." Amy gasped.

"You're the one they told me about" Amy said "The one that my father betrayed."

"Oh, I'm flattered. I didn't know you'd noticed me." He pretended to blush.

"Umm. I couldn't have noticed you if I only just met you?" said Amy, in what she hoped was a confidently horrible way. (A/N- that is, if that exists!)

"Oh, yes, you've met me before. In your dreams. Only your subconscious was aware of my tracking device which keeping an eye on you and that lovely little pure heart of yours at all times. Naturally, I knew you were going to go somewhere 'safe' when I watched you move into that forest"

"You. you've been watching me?" said Amy, she just wanted to wake up in her gloomy bed in the orphanage, or run and hide, but then a part of her that had never emerged yet spoken out, a part that was courageous and curious spoke up. She tilted her head to one side and looked at Sephiroth like she was merely puzzled, and said "Why were you doing that?" she clapped her hand to her mouth, and pretended to be immersed in thought, and horrified that someone would do that, but Sephiroth didn't notice. He was too busy being surprised at the fact that Amy hadn't backed down or stuttered at all yet.

"Well, now, that's quite a good story, actually. As you probably know, the night your house was burnt down and your mother was tragically murdered." He paused for effect, hoping for a 'she wasn't murdered' from Amy, but she knew what he was doing, and she was determined not to play his game.

"Actually, how did they murder her?" asked Amy, knowing she wasn't going to like the answer.

"Aren't you just full of questions today? Well I expect the Heartless took her heart, she wasn't any use to us, such a weak heart, though, all she could talk about was you, and how she failed in her job protecting you or something, and you would find out someday and never forgive her for not telling you."

"Oh." Was all Amy could manage

"Yes. Well, anyway, the night those Heartless kidnapped and killed your Mother, they actually got it wrong. They were after you." "I knew that" Said Amy, rolling her eyes. "But it was lucky- for you, I mean- that you picked that night, because no-one knew what was going on 'cause of the fire. Shame those Heartless were too stupid to tell the difference between me and my Mum." Sephiroth laughed at the first part, a cruel laugh, one that didn't faze Amy, which annoyed him, but stopped abruptly at the last bit, as Amy had guessed he would. He finally managed to recover, though.

"Haven't you guessed, we thought your Mother was you, so we set that tree on fire and tipped it onto the roof of what we thought was thought your room, knowing that it would be blamed on the lightning."

"Oh, I see" said Amy "so wanted my heart, not my Mum's.
Wait a minute; you haven't brought me here to do that now, have you?" Asked Amy, but it was a stupid question. She knew the answer before she asked it.

"Well, actually, yes" Said Sephiroth, smirking. Metal bars clamped down her arms and legs. Amy jumped, as they just appeared from widening gaps in the iron-bed thing, and then stopped with a jolt and loud. *Thud!*

Back in the Gummi Ship, Cloud refused to believe that they had let Amy get kidnapped already, so he went for a final look around the Gummi Ship, and found a stowaway, hidden, in a place they had actually looked in before. Mumbling about them not being able to spot a glowing eyed thing shoved in a corner, he set off back to the others.

"Hey, you guys, look what I found!" he said, with the fidgeting Shadow still in his tight grasp. "Can I kill it?"

"NO!!" cried Leon, immediately, "I have a better plan. Heartless feed on fear in a being with a heart, so they'll go to it, like with Sora, so I reckon this little one'll be able to track down Amy."

"OK" everyone replied. They started trying to communicate to it what they wanted, but in the end, Cloud got bored and used all the swearwords he knew in a very long winded threaten. It seemed to get the jist, and they managed to follow him towards a dark looking ship.

At the same time, in the ship, a Shadow had just appeared in front of Amy and had started doing a weird dance, and Sephiroth let go of his evil smirk to make way for an evil chuckle, which progressed into full-on hysterics- you know the way all the evil people do nowadays. He managed to recover just to say

"You see, Amy, if we take your heart, the whole of man-kind and anything else with a heart will lose that tiny fraction of their heart with Faith and hope, all the wishes they make, all the measly little dreams they might have are made and stored. And they will be destroyed when we destroy you!! Because," he said, and he drew closer, so that Amy was in line with his face "that's all you are. Hope and faith on legs. It will make it much easier to take all their hearts that way." He smirked, and his eyes glittered menacingly.

"You won't succeed!!" cried Amy, "they will come for me! I know they will!" she shouted, willing herself to believe it. Something glittering drifted out of Amy's chest. It turned out it was her heart

'This is it' she thought 'The end of the road.'

She stopped struggling, and collapsed on the steel bed.

Just then, Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith burst in, to see a dead Amy lying on a steel platform, a Shadow 'dancing', and Sephiroth laughing. At the sight of Amy, lying there, Leon didn't feel sad, but felt an anger surging through him such as he had never felt before. He charged forward and killed his little heartless stowaway, and then signalled to the rest to follow him. He killed the one standing next to Amy, and were attacking Sephiroth, when something flickered, in the shadows, but none of them noticed, because they were all focused on the army of Heartless making their way stedily towards them, not flinching when they drew their weapons. A battle got underway, and in all the emotion (only coming off Leon, Yuffie, Cloud and Aerith) and chaos, Sephiroth managed to escape. They won, the last Heartless was killed, and Cloud stood, with his sword still outstretched, in the position he had killed the last Gargoyle in, thinking exactly the same thing as he knew everyone else was. There was no hope for them now, they had killed many Heartless, but there would be more. There would always be more. And with this in mind, they would get taken, too. He thought he was thinking like this because now Amy was gone, they didn't have the Hope and stuff, but didn't really care. Sephiroth would come back with an army stronger and larger than anything any of them had faced. They trudged back to the Gummi Ship in silence. They opened the door, and all saw something they weren't expecting.

Someone was sat in Leon's chair, swirling around. It was Amy.

"Amy!!" cried Aerith, running up to her. Leon managed to drag Amy out of his chair and sit her down next to Aerith, but only just.

"Ow! You've got sharp nails!" he cried, and Amy plonked herself down on a chair, looking triumphant. There was definitely something different about her. Aerith looked at Leon, then continued

"We thought you were dead!" she cried, hugging Amy.

"So did I" replied Amy, the triumphant look fading. It was now one of mild concern. " I think I was- I mean only for a few minutes- but then I woke up, I think" she said, shifting in her chair " when you killed that heartless, the ritual stopped, it was interrupted, and my heart kind-of fell back to where it should have been, I guessed that straight away, because it wasn't floating above me anymore." Aerith shuddered. "I kinda lost my memory for a while, and you lot battling with those Heartless scared me, so I ran away. I guess I was in shock. But then I found the Ship, and it made me remember. I thought it was too dangerous to go back and find you, so I waited here. Plus, I wanted to see your faces- they were kinda funny." They all looked at her, puzzled. "I know what you're all thinking, and I think the reason you didn't give up was because my heart was never whole." She got even more puzzled looks, but ignored them and carried on. "I had this dream thing, you see, when I was.. umm. dead. It was one I'd had before. I dreamt I saw a man, I think my Dad, in a long, black cloak, meeting up with a young woman. He gave her something, something glowy and pretty. But I couldn't see what it was because he kept it covered." Amy paused, thinking. "Well, anyway, the woman took it, and rushed off, into the night. It wasn't a place I'd ever been before, though, so it wasn't like I knew what was going on or anything, just that I'd had this dream before." Amy paused again, but clearly hadn't finished, so after a moments silence, she continued " the woman wore it for a while, and then, she was sleeping, and it looked as though she'd had a nightmare, so she gave it to her daughter. Then she was killed by the Heartless, and her daughter only just got away, so after that, they hunted her. So the girl put the thing in a little bottle and sailed it away, out to sea. I suppose she knew that if the Heartless got her, then it could be a very strong weapon for them." There was silence in the Gummi Ship, and they decided it would be better if they got going. Aerith sat next to Amy, obviously deep in thought, so Amy talked to Yuffie for a while. From time to time, Aerith would open then close her mouth, as if she wanted to speak, but then decided against it. Leon had steered the Gummi Ship near a planet of some sort, so Yuffie went to talk to him for a while. Cloud had just been sitting in one of the farthest seats for the whole journey, so as not to embarrass himself like he seemed to do a lot around Amy.

"It was a necklace" said Aerith to Amy, finally. Seeing the puzzled look on Amy's face she added "That thing. A locket with part of your heart in."

"Huh?" was all Amy could manage In reply.

"The woman you saw was my Mother. I was the one who sailed it away on a boat."

"Ohhhhhh. So that's the connection!!" cried Amy, jumping up, and glancing at Cloud.

"Do you know where the necklace is now?" she asked

"No" said Aerith, simply, "But its comforting to know that the Heartless will never be able to get your full heart without that necklace." And with that, Aerith, Yuffie and Amy began a very long, girlie conversation.