I know what you're all thinking. You can't believe I actually updated this, right? You thought I had given up on it, right? Nope! You see, I started this story so I really want to finish it. Now that I have finished "Fallen" and "Summer Nights" I can finally complete "Terrorized!" It's just been sitting with three chapters for too long. I promise I won't start any more stories when I'm done with this one, but I have a ton of ideas. I can't remember the last time I updated this, but I'm happy I left off where I did. It makes it easier for me to get back in tune with the story.

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Terrorized

Chapter Four

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Yuffie stood outside the cabin and took her last look at it. This place had been her shelter and her security, along with Arcanine. Now she was to leave it for better things and a better life where people would all love her. Not like her friends...not like them at all.

Yvonne stood next to her, waiting for her to finish her silent good-byes. Yuffie turned to her with a short sigh that she cut off quickly before it could evoke emotion. This was definitely what she wanted to do.

Yvonne held out her hand and she took it willingly, letting the mist enclose around her like a baby blanket and whisk her up into the air as if she weighed nothing. With her hand, Yuffie cleared away some of the mist so she could see the green grass down below, and watch the cabin grow smaller and smaller.

"Where are we going?" Yuffie asked curiously. The dark silk caressed her skin like it did Yvonne's, and she was beginning to think it did that involuntarily.

"Back to Third District. I suppose since you have so intelligently chosen to work with me and not against me, you can stay with me in Merlin's home, if you could call it that. I need to evict the old fool and that old woman who mutters stupid chants all day," she replied coolly.

Yuffie nodded and looked up into the sky. She gasped and covered her mouth. There was a huge hole in the sky, revealing blackness. It resembled a patch that might be on an old pair of jeans.

"Don't make me go back in there..." she whispered. Yuffie recognized the place immediately. It was where Yvonne kept her before she found her way to Arcanine.

"Hush, child," she snapped. The mist led them through the dark place. The air was thicker than Yuffie remembered. She coughed and clutched her throat, pulling in gulps of air that didn't leave her satisfied.

Another hole in the sky appeared, a black one, though it was different. White and blue stars dotted the skies, and a sliver of moon hung reliably, as always in her Traverse Town. She took in large breaths of air and sighed happily. She could breathe again.

Her happiness was stopped abruptly when she saw the state all of Traverse Town was in. From her position in the sky, she could see all the districts, which were falling into a state of disrepair. The stores were covered in graffiti, with broken windows and looted objects. The café was empty. All of the people were gone. Broken glass and box litter was scattered everywhere. The only movement was the wind blowing dirt and paper across the streets, as well as a few Heartless that seemed to be on guard.

Strange, the old Heartless used to roam wherever they wanted, without real thoughts on what to do. These look like they have an actual duty...

She pushed down the lump in her throat. What happened? Where were her friends?

"Not your friends," Yvonne corrected.

"How did you know...?"

"What you were thinking? Remember, I'm still attached to you. I can't live if you're not alive."

Yuffie sighed as they passed over her home. She looked desperately for Aerith or Cloud or Squall or even Cid. But they weren't her friends...so...what would she say to them?

"Here we are," Yvonne said and started lowering them to the ground. A small handful of Heartless flocked under them, waiting for Yvonne to get to them. She smiled at them as their feet touched the ground. The mist let go of her, dropping her to the ground.

"Ahh, my children..." she whispered to them. One came forward, lowering itself to her. She put a pale, slender hand on its head and sighed with relief. "As you can see, I have created them much more powerful and intelligent than before. They know what they're doing."

Yuffie nodded, her hands shaking. She had never been this close to a Heartless, and she had definitely never been surrounded by so many without Squall by her side.

"Away with you. Go find some hearts to steal," she said to them, and they quickly scurried away into the shadows, moving stealthily.

"They make me feel so alive," she said in a rich voice, then laughed haughtily. "Now," she said, approaching the big wooden door with a flame emblem on the front. "To find out how to get in to this place."

She put her hands on it and expectantly sent out waves of dark magic to blow the door off. It didn't even budge. "Hm..."

Turning around, she backed away and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and chanting a mantra that made Yuffie shudder with chills.

When that didn't work, Yvonne's eyes flared. "How do you get into this door?" she spat, her eyes narrowing at Yuffie. The mist hissed at her anger.

"I-I-don't kn-know," she stuttered.

"You fool! Of course you know! The Keyblade Master opened this door, I know it! You've lived here long enough to find out!"

"No, I-I—I think you need black magic."

"Magic," she said angrily. "What kind of black magic?"

"I don't know."

"Stop playing ignorant with me!"

By this time, Yuffie was in tears, leaning forward. "I'm sorry, I..." Can't tell you! She wanted to say. Instead she replied with, "I don't know."

"Must I do everything myself? I suppose I could pay a visit to that precious Aerith. She would know. Of course she would."

"Wait! Okay. You have to send a fire spell at the emblem," she said quickly. Yvonne couldn't hurt them. Even if they hated her and she wouldn't be on their side, Aerith had done too much for her.

"I see some of your loyalty still lies with your friends. Don't worry, that will soon change," she said, her cool and calm voice back again. She outstretched her hand and placed it on the emblem. A surge of fiery spells shot into the emblem, thus opening the door.

"Let us continue..."

Yvonne floated over the stones, but Yuffie still had to jump them. She did it gracefully and landed on the other side, the grass slick with moisture. Yvonne was inside already. She walked around the side and opened up the flap.

Merlin was cowering in the corner of the room, holding up his hands. His wand was broken into pieces that scattered the floor. Yvonne was floating up above him, laughing quietly. "Good. Everything is easier when you cooperate, isn't it? Coward."

Her eyes closed briefly and she held out her hand, forming a small orb of dark matter, holding it carefully. It floated two inches off her palm. Merlin gasped and tried to grab at his chest. Something was escaping and floating toward the orb. His heart.

It entered the orb, and it grew slightly bigger. She laughed and watched as Merlin gasped, then eventually drifted into death.

"Death is such a beautiful thing, isn't it?" she said with a sigh. She lifted her foot and crushed the small carriage that the Fairy Godmother lived in. "So beautiful..."

Yuffie sat at a small table and watched Yvonne pet the mist and speak in a low whisper to it, using the language that she couldn't recognize.

"Only two more days, my darling, two more days before I have my revenge on your friends. Two more days and my soul will be independent, and I can make the ultimate sacrifice to the gods...two more days..." she said to Yuffie, her black eyes focused on something else.

Yuffie furrowed her eyebrows together in concern. What sacrifice? What did she mean, living independently? Didn't she need her to live?

"Sleep now, child, and prepare yourself for a battle you will never forget!" she said in a hushed whisper. She murmured something else and felt sleepiness take her over and make her eye-lids droop shut.

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Squall flung his Gunblade toward Cloud in the Waterway, who swiftly jumped backwards and spun around, about to make a blow, which Squall blocked effortlessly.

They were training, and had been training since Yuffie had been kidnapped. While everyone hid in their houses, just waiting for the Heartless to kill them, they actually tried to do something about it.

"Only two more days," Cloud said quickly, a drop of sweat rolling down his forehead. He lashed forward with his sword and came down upon Squall's left arm.

"I know," he said fiercely, gritting his teeth and hitting Cloud against the side. He made to hit him again when a figure blotted out the little light Traverse Town received from the moon.

"What are you boys doing?" Aerith said, a worried look coming over her face. "Don't tell me you're training again. Look at you, you're covered in blood!"

Cloud dropped his sword and let it clatter on the ground. "Sorry..." he muttered.

"You better be. Now come over here and get your lunch."

Squall pushed the tip of the blade into the ground and leaned against the side of the cave, holding his bleeding arm. "Finally got a hit on me, Strife."

"What do you mean, finally, Leonheart?" Cloud said with a grin. He surprised himself with it. Since Yuffie disappeared nearly two weeks ago, no one had been smiling. Not even Aerith.

"You heard me," he said, and ripped the sleeve off of his shirt to wrap it around his arm. Loud crashes coming from Merlin's house made them all look to the elevator. There was a loud moan, some muffled words, and then another moan before all went quiet.

"What was that?" Aerith whispered from the other side of the Waterway, about to risk wetting her dress to get near Cloud.

"Well, let's find out," he replied and started to walk towards the elevator that led to the house.

"Don't. I'll go," Squall said and pulled Cloud back. He shook his head.

"No, I will."

"Stay here with Aerith."

That seemed to shut him up. He shrugged and stepped back. "Ladies' first," he said with a chuckle. He glared back at him and stepped onto the elevator.

It moved up slowly and he could no longer see the Waterway, anymore. He looked up, and the light at the end grew larger until he arrived at the top. A woman encircled in velvety darkness was hovering over the form of a young woman.

Her eyes widened when she saw him, and then relaxed. "I've been waiting for you, my darling."

"Who the hell are you?" he said in a low growl. He noticed Merlin lying across the floor, dead, and the carriage crushed.

"I am Yvonne, and this, as you already know, is Yuffie," she whispered, drawing closer to him. "Don't worry; I'm taking good care of her."

Thoughts raced through his head. So Yuffie was all right, she wasn't dead, there was still some sort of chance. "Let her go."

"Of course not! I just got her on my side. It took a lot, too. She doesn't trust the likes of you, anymore. But she doesn't know that in two days from now, I'll suck all of the energy from her, slowly but surely, and when she's drained, it will be the best sacrifice I can give to my master," she breathed.

"You're sick," he growled.

"Maybe so. Why don't you look at her while she's still alive. Oh wait, maybe I shouldn't allow you such a good thing. I think you should leave."

She outstretched her hand and before blowing a spell at him to send him down the elevator shaft, she said, "See you in two days."

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Okay...so this is the finished chapter of "Terrorized." I wrote this awhile ago, actually, before "Summer Nights" was done. I was intending to write more but I thought this ending was fit, even if the chapter was only six pages long. Oh well, at least I wrote on it! I'm getting motivated again, I am! --shakes a random granny cane like an old woman trying to cross the street--

October