Never End...
LAST TIME
After a little giggle, Yuffie shook her head. "Go to bed, Riku. It's well past midnight and you're tired."
He looked over at her and shook his head. "I promised Leon that I wouldn't let anything happen to you, so I'll stay here with you."
She sighed. "Fine, but only because you'll report back to him anyway. If you're going to be up with me, then you may as well help me look through some of these books." He nodded and followed her over to a shelf, half-asleep. He carried the books that she picked out over to a table where they sat and read through.
CHAPTER EIGHT
"And I'm told that I'M daft? I think she's got me beat!" -Yuffie Kisaragi
Leon rolled over, expecting to feel her warmth to wrap his arm around, but she was not there. Opening his eyes, he remembered where she was. 'Oh, yeah...' he thought lamely. 'She's at Hollow Bastion... I just hope that she's okay. I hope that her head doesn't hurt too badly. What if she got worse? What would they do then?' Trying to shove his pessimistic thoughts out of his mind, he slowly sat up and cast Curaga on himself.
Amazingly, his leg did not hurt. 'Did it finally get healed?' he wondered idly.
Shaking his head, he walked into the bathroom to take a quick shower. Unfortunately, it was in use. "Who-?" The water shut off and his eyes widened at the sight of Yuffie stepping out of the shower. "Y-Yuff?"
She grinned at him and grabbed her towel. "Hey, I thought you'd never wake up!"
His ice blue eyes wondered over her perfect body, then met her gaze. "Not Yuffie," he said softly to himself, not quite recognizing the brown orbs that looked back at him.
She cocked her head to one side. "What do you mean, Squall?"
"It's Leon." His voice was cold once he realized that the Yuffie look-alike was not actually Yuffie. She got closer and he backed away. Her hair got longer and suddenly had tawny streaks that matched her eyes. She seemed to grow a few inches. "Rinoa," he said softly, backing into the bed and tumbling onto it by accident. She crawled toward him, but he scrambled against the wall, frantically wishing that she would either leave or that Cloud would walk in.
His wish was granted when Cloud walked through the door that joined their rooms. Instead of tossing Rinoa against the opposite wall as Leon would have liked, the blonde man's blue eyes were instantly filled with fury. "I should have known that you would do something like this to Yuffie!"
Leon let out a cry as the Buster Sword dug into the back of his left thigh.
"Hey, man, get up."
The lion's eyes snapped open and looked at Cloud, who was smirking arrogantly at him. "You sounded like a wounded hound dog," the blonde said with an air of arrogance around him.
The man mumbled something and cast Curaga on himself, knowing that he must have rolled over onto his bad leg, which would explain the pain in his left thigh. Without a word to the blonde, he got up and limped to his dresser. After getting another pair of baggy jeans, a tee-shirt, and his jacket, he went to take a shower.
Yuffie read through another book and set it aside. Riku had been asleep for awhile, but as long as she didn't think about Mad Monkey in her head, she did not get the head aches. A scratching noise caught her attention and she turned around to see a shadow walking toward her. "Oh, shit. A Heartless! Riku! Wake up! Please, wake up, Riku!"
The teen opened his eyes slowly. "Wh-What?" He looked in the direction that she was pointing, but did not see anything. "What's wrong, Yuffie?" He placed a hand on her forhead. "WOW! I think we need Aerith! You're burning up!"
"I'm fine," she snapped back at him. "I'm just.. Just..."
'Burning up with fever,' a voice in her head sneered.
'I'm fine!'
'Yeah, if you consider having a monkey playing with your brain like it's silly putty is fine!'
"Shut up!"
Riku looked at her oddly. "I'll be right back, Yuffie. I'm going to get something to drink..." He nearly tripped over his own feet as he ran out of the library.
Yuffie watched him, then continued looking through the book she had in front of her. A scratching noise came from behind her and she turned around to see five people standing there. "Oh... My... God..."
Rinoa glared at her through tawny eyes. She looked exactly the same as when Yuffie was twelve. A blonde teacher smiled warmly at Yuffie, her name being Quistis Trepe. Tifa Lockheart was the large-chested woman with long chocolate hair and round burgundy eyes. Vincent was standing behind them, a tall blonde guy next to him.
"Seifer," Yuffie gasped. "OhmygodImissedyouallsomuch!" (Translation? "Oh my God, I missed you all so much!")
Vincent walked over and took her hand. "Come on, Yuff."
'Yuff? Only Leon's ever called me Yuff... Leon.. Oh, how I miss him... I miss his pessimistic attitude, his monotone, his kisses, his voice, his eyes, his arms around my waist-'
"Now you know how I feel," Rinoa said softly to the ninja. "It was all mine until Ansem went insane... He was mine..."
Yuffie looked at the others, confusion clearly etched on her pretty features. "Yes, Yuffie," Quistis said in her teacher-like voice. "We can read your thoughts."
"Tysh.. I must be really outta it!"
Seifer sniggered. "Using that language we made up when we were kids, huh? You know that me, Rinoa, and Squall were using it first, right?"
"Yeah, yeah," she retorted. "But I perfected it, buddy! I gave it a name!"
The blonde raised an eyebrow, his sea green eyes inquisitive. "Al Bhed? Yeah, what a name! And, by the way, you shouldn't be cursing, young lady!"
Rinoa giggled a little. "You remember what tysh means, right? It means damn!"
Yuffie raised an eyebrow this time. "And I'm told that I'M daft? I think she's got me beat!" This received a glare from Leon's ex-girlfriend. "So, why are you all here with me right now?"
Vincent looked at Tifa, who walked over to the ninja. "Well, Yuffie... Your fever's pretty high..."
"Yeaaaah..."
"And if it doesn't come down soon..."
Rinoa rolled her eyes. "Then you're gonna die. You'll be one of us."
"WHAT!? NO! I'M NOT GONNA DIE! LEON'S WAITING FOR ME TO COME HOME!!!"
Vincent placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Yuffie, listen to me. The book that Aerith wants is on the top shelf on the right side. It's called 'Easy Cures for Tough Maladies', okay?"
She nodded. "Good," Tifa replied. "Now, get up. Open your eyes!"
Aerith rubbed the feverish young woman's arms with rubbing alcohol to bring the fever down. Yuffie opened her eyes slowly, the Mad Monkey playing a hard rock song in her head, causing it to throb.
"I know what book we need... 'Easy Cures for Tough Maladies'... Top right..." She blacked out again.
Sora, being curious and hearing what she had said, sauntered over and found the book. "Hey! Aerith!"
"Not now, Sora! I'm trying to get Yuffie's fever down!"
"But-"
"Not now!"
He huffed and skimmed through the book, soon finding a section on head aches and fevers. "I know the cure!" he announced loudly. Everyone turned to look at him.
Leon could not help but feel worried that something was going wrong. "Cloud, have you ever had one of those feelings-"
"That something's going wrong?" the blonde finished. "Yeah, and it's not Aerith.. It has to be Yuffie. It's like, I dunno, a dad sense or something. I feel like I should be there to help, even though I can't be and I probably wouldn't be worth a damn."
Leon stared at the glass of water in front of him. "I could hardly sleep last night," he admitted softly. "I'm used to having her there beside me."
Cloud nodded in knowing. "Yeah, even though me and Aerith have only been back together for a few days, it felt weird not to hear her humming while she got her stuff together." He shook his head. "You know, we sound pretty damn pathetic, Leon."
"I know, but..." He trailed off, not knowing how to express his longing to get to Hallow Bastion to see Yuffie. He could hi-jack a gummi ship and... No.
Cloud seemed to be thinking about Aerith and Yuffie too. The men stayed in their state of thinking until a scream made them start. A woman had collapsed in front of the World Exit, her eyes wild.
"Wha-" but the Gunblade Master could not finish his sentence as the people of Traverse Town watched the woman mutate.
Her long blonde hair became green and stringy, her skin taking on a strange aqua color, her pupils dilating and the irises becoming blood red, the whites of her eyes and the pupils seeming void of all color, only black. "What the fuck!?" Cloud swore loudly.
When she stood, she was taller than Cloud and Leon put together. Her laugh was high-pitched and pure evil. "Where's she at?" she asked, malice dripping from her eerie voice. "Where's that girl!?"
Leon and Cloud ran to stand in front of her, their weapons drawn. "Who the hell are you!?" Cloud growled loudly.
A blonde teen ran over and joined them, her daggers ready. She wore a daring yellow bikini top and an olive skirt that showed the strings of her bikini bottoms. Her hair was worn with a bandana wrapped around it, braids going every which way. Her sleeves only covered her forearms and had bows.
Another blonde teen joined them. He was tall and had an eye patch over his right eye. The left eye, however, was very green and had odd swirls. "Get outta here, kid!" he shouted to the girl, who stuck her tongue out at him.
Cloud and Leon exchanged glances before shrugging and waiting for the green woman to make a move. She did. Her arm seemed to stretch as she lashed out at Cloud. Luckily, he saw it coming and jumped back. Leon sliced down on her arm and the girl attacked with her twin daggers. The blonde guy shot the woman and Cloud sliced away quickly. All of this seemed to only infuriate the woman as she continued lashing out at the quartet.
The woman swung out and knocked the guy backwards about twenty feet. "Gippal!" the girl cried out and rushed over to him.
Leon and Cloud stood on either side of the green woman. "Who the fuck are you!?" Cloud screamed.
The woman laughed and vanished. "Heshen," hung in the air.
The two men walked over to where the girl was leaning over the guy. "I'm Cloud Strife and this is Leon. You are-?"
She looked up and Leon was intrigued by her swirly green eyes. "I'm Rikku and this is Gippal. We're not from this world." She was expecting a gasp, but it never same. With a shrug and an optomistic smile, she turned back to Gippal, who was starting to wake up.
"Hey, kid," he said softly, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. "Tysh... That hurt."
Leon looked at the teen. "How do you know Al Bhed?"
Gippal laughed. "How do I know it? Hell, I AM Al Bhed!"
Cloud looked confused, then looked up. "I remember... The world that I was at before Hallow Bastion was called Spira."
"Hey! That's where we're from!" Rikku said happily. "D'ya know how to get there from here? We kinda got lost."
The two men shook their heads. "No," Leon replied. "But we have a friend who might. When they get back, we can ask him. Until then, do you two have a place to stay?"
They nodded and Rikku helped Gippal to his feet. "Yeah! We rented a room in a hotel in Second District!"
The blonde sheathed his Buster Sword. "Same here. Though, we practically live there, since we fight off the Heartless."
"Heartless?" Gippal asked confusedly. "Sounds like Paine," he muttered under his breath. Rikku smacked him in the back of the head for it.
"Who are the Heartless?" Rikku asked.
Leon reconized the look in her eyes. 'She's hyper... Just like Yuffie... Oh, dear god. Can I deal with someone as hyper as Yuff?'
YK2: Okay, this one was rather odd... Anywho! Thankies to all of you who have been reading this! OH! Rikku and Gippal are from FFX-2, by the way. Thought that may be of some use to know.
!POOF!
YK2: --blink blinkity blink-- What the-
Surka: BAAAAAACCCCKKKKK!!!
YK2: SURKA! MY MUSE! I had to write this chapter muse-less, so you all know... SO I'M SORRY IF IT SUCKED!
Dracon: Tch! Can't be too bad. I mean, Surka's sucky humor wasn't in there!
YK2: So... Where's my suvenior!?
Dracon: Wellllll....
!POOF!
YK2: --wide eyes-- Oh... My... GAWD!!! --Huggles Vinnie (FF7), Sephy (FF7), Seifer (FF8), Tidus (FFX & KH), and Leon-- YAY-NESS! I LOVE YOU GUYS! MY MUSES ROCK!!!
Dracon: --nonchalantly-- I know. Please, leave your reviews and remember... Only two more chaters left!
Surka: Till Next Time! AUDI!!!
-Yuffie Kisaragi2, Dracon Fira, & Surka Sokyu-