I have no Life but this/ To lead it here
Nor any Death - but lest/ Dispelled from there
Nor tie to Earths to come/ Nor Action new
Except through this extent/ The love of you
She sighed softly into the gentle breeze that caressed her face. Tears formed behind her eyes, but she did not cry. The mysterious twilight settled comfortably about her shoulders, as if a cloak warding off the unpleasant things. Wind whistled in the cracks of the bastion, a quiet, mourning song for the young woman overlooking the mountains. She ran a hand through her short, tangled, raven hair in unease.
Her tired eyes roved the empty streets below her. Cracked stones passageways connected doorways together. Bones were scattered here and there, remnants of the horrible event that occurred so many years ago. There were tatters of clothing, stuck to splinters of wood or blowing about on the streets. Jewelry and weapons, all things made of metal and stone, just lay there, as if dropped in haste. But she knew that they had been on bodies, and that the people who had once owned them had disintegrated into the earth. Gone... gone... the wind whispered.
Above her, stars blinked forlornly in her direction. The proud, hard lines of the bastion mocked her now, and she was too out of sorts to fight back. She didn't have the heart to, not after all that had happened. The castle that had once been her home, the one place she had wanted to get back to no matter what, was now the empty shell that she now saw. Another tribute to her loss...
'I have nothing here,' she thought. 'Nothing to hold on to, nothing to look for, nothing.' Her heart was cracked into a million tiny fragments that were gone to some other place, away from the sorrow, the grief. She couldn't blame them. Now, she was alone and void of any feeling. And that was exactly the way she liked it.
Darkness descended upon the hollow fortification, enshrouding everything inside. She smiled dolefully, remembering other times when she had sat out at nightfall. Only she was never alone back then. There had been another person with her, always with her, her protection and support. He had been tall, she remembered. He was always wearing black, leather, short-sleeve jacket with red wings embroidered on the back and a pair of leather pants with about four-too-many belts. She remembered the way he swung his large, threatening sword, the way it cut through anything trying to get to her. He had had long, russet hair that fell just past his shoulders. He had clear, icy blue eyes that seemed so cold, and yet had cared so much. She rubbed her arms, trying to warm herself up. The memory of him was just too much, too much for her to handle. Sobs racked from her slender figure as she though of him.
In the end, the Darkness had gotten him too, as it had taken everything away from Yuffie. Her friends, her family, and the love of her life were all gone. So, though they had all planned to come back to Hollow Bastion together, start their home back up again, she was the only one left. Now the world that they had all longed for held no promise, and was nothing but a memoir of a life long-gone. She stood and stretched her tiny frame, needing to leave the solitary ledge where she sat. She just couldn't be there with the memories any longer.
She ambled solemnly towards the room she had marked out as her own. It was small, square, and bare of any furniture. She liked it better this way. Though she could have had her pick of any room in the entire world, she chose one that befitted her station. It was perfect for the little bit of nothing that she was. With one petite, gloved hand, she turned the rusty gold knob of the mahogany door and entered. The room was dimly lit, and she slumped against a wall. Her legs extended all the way to the other end of the room; her feet touched the cold, heartless stone of the bastion. Was this really to be her new home?
Yuffie fell into a very troubled sleep, tossing and turning on the uneven floor. It was more of a memory, really, a memory from the hurtful past that she would rather not revisit. But she could not control what she dreamt.
["Why can't we go back home now, Squall?" She asked, her voice young and high-pitched to her ears, not how she wanted it to sound. They sat atop the Gizmo Shop, looking down on the bustling Second District. The bright lanterns shone the District in cheery, happy light, though there would be nothing cheery about it. Yuffie stood by the pair on the Bell Tower, watching as the exchange took place. Little did they know the events that would follow.
"The name is Leon, Yuffie. And we can't go back because the worlds are fragile places. We have to be absolutely sure that Sora sealed all of the Keyholes. We still haven't heard from him, so we don't know. And we'd rather not risk getting torn apart by the Heartless. We'll be back soon, though," he said wistfully, if that was possible. The girl next to him jumped in surprise at the tone of his voice. He never spoke in anything but a monotone, though certainly to the girl (and to Yuffie) his voice was beautiful and welcome.
"How do you know?" She whispered quietly. The concept of 'home' eluded the girl. It had been taken away from her at a young age. So, she relied upon the others to feed her memories of the place. Yuffie tried to warn the two. She ran over to them and tried to shake Squall's shoulder, but her hand passed right through him. She wanted to scream, to grab the people's attention any way that she could, but her voice merely came out as a croak that floated away on the gust of wind passing by.
Gay cries came from the crowd below, deceptively belying the terror that would come. Squall sighed and looked at the girl. "I just know, Yuffie. It's one of those things that you have to believe, deep in your heart. I know we'll return there eventually."
The girl smiled, but it only reached her lips. Her large, indigo eyes were filled with clouds, a testimony to the storm inside of her head. "I think I know the feeling that you're talking about. Except, I've learned to never trust it. Nothing ever turns out the way you want it to, in your heart," she added to the conversation. Yuffie had promised herself that she would remember this moment for the rest of her life, and she found that even in her dreams, it could still bring heartbreak.
"What is in your heart?" Squall asked softly. She quivered where she sat, and gazed into his sapphire eyes. She seemed to be drowning the the azure orbs, and Yuffie couldn't help but get dragged in to the drama. Finally, the girl came out of her reverie and then dropped her gaze to her hands in her lap.
"You," she murmured. Squall put his hand underneath her chin and he caught her eyes to his own. Yuffie's breath lodged in her throat as she observed the scene in front of her. Squall brought his lips down to hers and left the slightest pressure there. The girl bit her lip after he moved away and threw her arms around his neck. What followed was a few minutes worth of solid lip-lock that Yuffie found quite endearing.
Screams emanated from the streets below. The girl extricated herself from Squall and looked down upon the people. There were thousands of Heartless streaming into the Second District. Squall grabbed his Gunblade and jumped down followed by a grim girl. Yuffie jumped down after them, but only as an observer. She doubted that she could hurt any Heartless in her present, ghost-like state.
Cloud and Aerith found the girl and Squall and Aerith called out loudly, "THUNDAGA!" Many of the Heartless burst into tiny piles of munny and HP balls, but many still remained. The girl stayed with the spell-casting Aerith, protecting her with the shurikens. Squall and Cloud went, back-to-back, into the crowds of Heartless to save as many people as was possible. When Aerith grew tired, the girl would give her an ether and she would continue to cast the devastating spells. Every once in a while, she would cast curaga for either Cloud or Squall.
When finally the Heartless were gone, the girl, Cloud, Aerith, and Squall gathered together. Yuffie came in too, able to pass right through her friends. But their conference was drawn short by the appearance of another Heartless. It was gigantic and completely black. It had five heads and a large, menacing sword that could swipe any of them in half before they could even touch it.
"Yuffie! Get Cid and call Sora!" Squall instructed her before running at the thing with Cloud. The girl ran towards the First District. But Yuffie decided to stay here instead, watching what happened herself. Squall and Cloud used all of their special abilities that they could before Aerith cast a spell to restore their MP. Then they started the process all over again. The girl came running after several minutes in the other Districts.
"Cid's dead, and the contact devices are shot!" She called with tears in her eyes. Yuffie remembered that, the horror she had felt when she saw Cid's lifeless body strewn on the pavement. Wiping the tears hastily away from her eyes, Yuffie turned her attention back to the battle. Squall had focused more on the girl than he should have and the sword of the enemy swept towards him in a giant arc designed to kill him. But Cloud saw it coming and dove in the way. Blood spilled onto the cobblestone squares of the street.
"CLOUD!" Aerith screamed, running over to his unresponsive body and cradling his head in her hands. Squall stood there, stunned. The blade came back down, this time catching the grief-stricken Aerith. The girl called upon all her strength and cast Aeroga on Squall before falling to the ground in exhaustion, still conscious. Squall clicked back to life and charged at the monster. It was then that Yuffie decided that she couldn't just watch anymore. She grabbed the girl's shurikens from a pouch on her belt and threw them at the monster. Surprisingly, it faltered. She launched more at its bulbous heads and tried to keep its attention away from the attacking Squall.
Unfortunately, diversions can only last so long, and the shurikens were gone. Yuffie sighed in defeat. She knew what would befall before her very eyes. Tears poured out of her indigo orbs and into her hands. She couldn't help but cry, as she felt all the loneliness that would come, all the pain and sorrow. Closing her eyes, she wanted to disappear. She prayed that her dreams would leave her, that she would be awake and unable to watch the dreadful memories replay in her head.
The noise of a gummi ship landing brought her out of the trance she was in and she focused on Sora's ship. Though she didn't remember Squall still being alive at this point, she left it to a lapse in her memory. Sora came from the door of the gummi with Donald and Goofy on either side, flanking him. It was only a matter of time until the monster disappeared into the darkness of the night. Only, Squall was still alive. He rejoined the girl and together they gathered Cloud and Aerith's broken bodies to bury them. Yuffie didn't know what to say, what to do. This wasn't right, Squall was supposed to be dead, not alive, not...
He looked over at the spot where Yuffie stood and smiled, as if he could see her. She was thrown out of the dream and back into wakeful reality.]
The light from a brilliant dawn flooded in through the tiny window in the wall. Yuffie yawned and stood, stretching her sore muscles. It was almost as if she had really been there. Her arms ached from throwing the shurikens, at least. A faint breeze whispered through the walls. "I'm here, Yuffie. You'll never be alone again," it said. She recognized the voice and smiled into it. The warm sun kissed her with its featherlike radiance and she lost the last tear. No more. She wouldn't cry any more.
Yuffie could hear heavy boots clanking down the stone hallway of the bastion and she knew that she wasn't alone. Not anymore.
~Fine~
Nor any Death - but lest/ Dispelled from there
Nor tie to Earths to come/ Nor Action new
Except through this extent/ The love of you
She sighed softly into the gentle breeze that caressed her face. Tears formed behind her eyes, but she did not cry. The mysterious twilight settled comfortably about her shoulders, as if a cloak warding off the unpleasant things. Wind whistled in the cracks of the bastion, a quiet, mourning song for the young woman overlooking the mountains. She ran a hand through her short, tangled, raven hair in unease.
Her tired eyes roved the empty streets below her. Cracked stones passageways connected doorways together. Bones were scattered here and there, remnants of the horrible event that occurred so many years ago. There were tatters of clothing, stuck to splinters of wood or blowing about on the streets. Jewelry and weapons, all things made of metal and stone, just lay there, as if dropped in haste. But she knew that they had been on bodies, and that the people who had once owned them had disintegrated into the earth. Gone... gone... the wind whispered.
Above her, stars blinked forlornly in her direction. The proud, hard lines of the bastion mocked her now, and she was too out of sorts to fight back. She didn't have the heart to, not after all that had happened. The castle that had once been her home, the one place she had wanted to get back to no matter what, was now the empty shell that she now saw. Another tribute to her loss...
'I have nothing here,' she thought. 'Nothing to hold on to, nothing to look for, nothing.' Her heart was cracked into a million tiny fragments that were gone to some other place, away from the sorrow, the grief. She couldn't blame them. Now, she was alone and void of any feeling. And that was exactly the way she liked it.
Darkness descended upon the hollow fortification, enshrouding everything inside. She smiled dolefully, remembering other times when she had sat out at nightfall. Only she was never alone back then. There had been another person with her, always with her, her protection and support. He had been tall, she remembered. He was always wearing black, leather, short-sleeve jacket with red wings embroidered on the back and a pair of leather pants with about four-too-many belts. She remembered the way he swung his large, threatening sword, the way it cut through anything trying to get to her. He had had long, russet hair that fell just past his shoulders. He had clear, icy blue eyes that seemed so cold, and yet had cared so much. She rubbed her arms, trying to warm herself up. The memory of him was just too much, too much for her to handle. Sobs racked from her slender figure as she though of him.
In the end, the Darkness had gotten him too, as it had taken everything away from Yuffie. Her friends, her family, and the love of her life were all gone. So, though they had all planned to come back to Hollow Bastion together, start their home back up again, she was the only one left. Now the world that they had all longed for held no promise, and was nothing but a memoir of a life long-gone. She stood and stretched her tiny frame, needing to leave the solitary ledge where she sat. She just couldn't be there with the memories any longer.
She ambled solemnly towards the room she had marked out as her own. It was small, square, and bare of any furniture. She liked it better this way. Though she could have had her pick of any room in the entire world, she chose one that befitted her station. It was perfect for the little bit of nothing that she was. With one petite, gloved hand, she turned the rusty gold knob of the mahogany door and entered. The room was dimly lit, and she slumped against a wall. Her legs extended all the way to the other end of the room; her feet touched the cold, heartless stone of the bastion. Was this really to be her new home?
Yuffie fell into a very troubled sleep, tossing and turning on the uneven floor. It was more of a memory, really, a memory from the hurtful past that she would rather not revisit. But she could not control what she dreamt.
["Why can't we go back home now, Squall?" She asked, her voice young and high-pitched to her ears, not how she wanted it to sound. They sat atop the Gizmo Shop, looking down on the bustling Second District. The bright lanterns shone the District in cheery, happy light, though there would be nothing cheery about it. Yuffie stood by the pair on the Bell Tower, watching as the exchange took place. Little did they know the events that would follow.
"The name is Leon, Yuffie. And we can't go back because the worlds are fragile places. We have to be absolutely sure that Sora sealed all of the Keyholes. We still haven't heard from him, so we don't know. And we'd rather not risk getting torn apart by the Heartless. We'll be back soon, though," he said wistfully, if that was possible. The girl next to him jumped in surprise at the tone of his voice. He never spoke in anything but a monotone, though certainly to the girl (and to Yuffie) his voice was beautiful and welcome.
"How do you know?" She whispered quietly. The concept of 'home' eluded the girl. It had been taken away from her at a young age. So, she relied upon the others to feed her memories of the place. Yuffie tried to warn the two. She ran over to them and tried to shake Squall's shoulder, but her hand passed right through him. She wanted to scream, to grab the people's attention any way that she could, but her voice merely came out as a croak that floated away on the gust of wind passing by.
Gay cries came from the crowd below, deceptively belying the terror that would come. Squall sighed and looked at the girl. "I just know, Yuffie. It's one of those things that you have to believe, deep in your heart. I know we'll return there eventually."
The girl smiled, but it only reached her lips. Her large, indigo eyes were filled with clouds, a testimony to the storm inside of her head. "I think I know the feeling that you're talking about. Except, I've learned to never trust it. Nothing ever turns out the way you want it to, in your heart," she added to the conversation. Yuffie had promised herself that she would remember this moment for the rest of her life, and she found that even in her dreams, it could still bring heartbreak.
"What is in your heart?" Squall asked softly. She quivered where she sat, and gazed into his sapphire eyes. She seemed to be drowning the the azure orbs, and Yuffie couldn't help but get dragged in to the drama. Finally, the girl came out of her reverie and then dropped her gaze to her hands in her lap.
"You," she murmured. Squall put his hand underneath her chin and he caught her eyes to his own. Yuffie's breath lodged in her throat as she observed the scene in front of her. Squall brought his lips down to hers and left the slightest pressure there. The girl bit her lip after he moved away and threw her arms around his neck. What followed was a few minutes worth of solid lip-lock that Yuffie found quite endearing.
Screams emanated from the streets below. The girl extricated herself from Squall and looked down upon the people. There were thousands of Heartless streaming into the Second District. Squall grabbed his Gunblade and jumped down followed by a grim girl. Yuffie jumped down after them, but only as an observer. She doubted that she could hurt any Heartless in her present, ghost-like state.
Cloud and Aerith found the girl and Squall and Aerith called out loudly, "THUNDAGA!" Many of the Heartless burst into tiny piles of munny and HP balls, but many still remained. The girl stayed with the spell-casting Aerith, protecting her with the shurikens. Squall and Cloud went, back-to-back, into the crowds of Heartless to save as many people as was possible. When Aerith grew tired, the girl would give her an ether and she would continue to cast the devastating spells. Every once in a while, she would cast curaga for either Cloud or Squall.
When finally the Heartless were gone, the girl, Cloud, Aerith, and Squall gathered together. Yuffie came in too, able to pass right through her friends. But their conference was drawn short by the appearance of another Heartless. It was gigantic and completely black. It had five heads and a large, menacing sword that could swipe any of them in half before they could even touch it.
"Yuffie! Get Cid and call Sora!" Squall instructed her before running at the thing with Cloud. The girl ran towards the First District. But Yuffie decided to stay here instead, watching what happened herself. Squall and Cloud used all of their special abilities that they could before Aerith cast a spell to restore their MP. Then they started the process all over again. The girl came running after several minutes in the other Districts.
"Cid's dead, and the contact devices are shot!" She called with tears in her eyes. Yuffie remembered that, the horror she had felt when she saw Cid's lifeless body strewn on the pavement. Wiping the tears hastily away from her eyes, Yuffie turned her attention back to the battle. Squall had focused more on the girl than he should have and the sword of the enemy swept towards him in a giant arc designed to kill him. But Cloud saw it coming and dove in the way. Blood spilled onto the cobblestone squares of the street.
"CLOUD!" Aerith screamed, running over to his unresponsive body and cradling his head in her hands. Squall stood there, stunned. The blade came back down, this time catching the grief-stricken Aerith. The girl called upon all her strength and cast Aeroga on Squall before falling to the ground in exhaustion, still conscious. Squall clicked back to life and charged at the monster. It was then that Yuffie decided that she couldn't just watch anymore. She grabbed the girl's shurikens from a pouch on her belt and threw them at the monster. Surprisingly, it faltered. She launched more at its bulbous heads and tried to keep its attention away from the attacking Squall.
Unfortunately, diversions can only last so long, and the shurikens were gone. Yuffie sighed in defeat. She knew what would befall before her very eyes. Tears poured out of her indigo orbs and into her hands. She couldn't help but cry, as she felt all the loneliness that would come, all the pain and sorrow. Closing her eyes, she wanted to disappear. She prayed that her dreams would leave her, that she would be awake and unable to watch the dreadful memories replay in her head.
The noise of a gummi ship landing brought her out of the trance she was in and she focused on Sora's ship. Though she didn't remember Squall still being alive at this point, she left it to a lapse in her memory. Sora came from the door of the gummi with Donald and Goofy on either side, flanking him. It was only a matter of time until the monster disappeared into the darkness of the night. Only, Squall was still alive. He rejoined the girl and together they gathered Cloud and Aerith's broken bodies to bury them. Yuffie didn't know what to say, what to do. This wasn't right, Squall was supposed to be dead, not alive, not...
He looked over at the spot where Yuffie stood and smiled, as if he could see her. She was thrown out of the dream and back into wakeful reality.]
The light from a brilliant dawn flooded in through the tiny window in the wall. Yuffie yawned and stood, stretching her sore muscles. It was almost as if she had really been there. Her arms ached from throwing the shurikens, at least. A faint breeze whispered through the walls. "I'm here, Yuffie. You'll never be alone again," it said. She recognized the voice and smiled into it. The warm sun kissed her with its featherlike radiance and she lost the last tear. No more. She wouldn't cry any more.
Yuffie could hear heavy boots clanking down the stone hallway of the bastion and she knew that she wasn't alone. Not anymore.
~Fine~