A/N: Hello everyone! Here is the sequel to Lost Love. I don't have much to say about it yet. I hope to see some new reviewers and some old. I would just like to say one thing to Dr. P ('cause yer so spekkal): I hope you still read this story!! So without much further ado-
Innocence of Heart
Sequel to Lost Love
-Chapter One-
-Through the Door to Spira-
"Ty! If you don't give me back my earrings you're going to be sorry!" cried sixteen year old Piper Strife. She was having difficulty chasing her twelve year old brother. The long crimson dress her mother had given her was making it hard to run. "Mom!" she yelled.
"I didn't do it!" Ty shouted. He stuck his tounge out at his sister, emerald eyes glittering with mischief.
"He took my earrings!"
"Ty!" called their mother, "Give Piper her earrings!"
"I don't think so!" the blonde boy laughed.
Piper growled, walking into her parent's bedroom. "I'm sure Mom won't mind if I borrow some of hers," she said quietly, opening a small box. An envelope fell out onto her foot. "What's this?" she wondered, picking it up. Opening it, she saw a small key, a photo, and a letter. The photo seemed to be from a wedding. There were a lot of people there. She didn't reconize anyone, except her own mother. Standing beside the bride was a younger version of her mother. Bright green eyes, brunette hair, it had to be her. Curious, Piper opened the letter, reading its contents.
Dear Aeris,
Our journey was long and hard, but we made it. We won. I understand that you want to go back to Midgar, no matter how much I will deny it. I hope Cloud forgives you (and me) about Tifa, Cid, and Barret. They didn't deserve their fate, and maybe sometime, we can go back in time and save them. Say hello to Yuffie and Red for me. Rikku says hi too. Well, enclosed is a photo from my wedding, it was so much fun, and a time-key. It will create a portal, five thousand years in the future. Hopefully you'll take the time to visit us once in a while! When things calm down here, we'll try and visit you too (if we can find you.) You saved my life, more than once. I still owe you so much, but I hoped reuniting you with Cloud was a start. I know what it's like to search for someone. Everything is going to change, maybe for the better. Either way, it'll be an adventure! Spira will be lonely without you. We'll miss you a lot, so hurry back sometime!
Your friend always,
-Yuna
Piper scratched the back of her head, a trait she had inherited from her father. What the heck is this? She didn't understand much of the letter. It was addressed to her mother, yes. But who was this Yuna? And did she know Tifa, Cid, and Barret? Obviously if she did, it was before her time. Her mother had said the three of them had died tragically before she was even born. "Hey Mom!" she called.
"Yes Piper?" said a brunette, poking her head through the door. She was in her late thirties, but she still had the heart of a child. "I got your earrings from your brother," she said, tossing a pair of garnet earrings to her daughter.
"Mom, who are these people?" Piper questioned, sapphire eyes curious.
Piper's mother sat beside her daughter, taking the photo. A small gasp escaped her lips. Softly, she patted Piper's hand, "Where did you find this?" she asked.
"In this box. I was looking for a pair of earrings."
"Piper, these people..." Aeris looked at her daughter. How could she explain about her journey? That was a little more than seventeen years ago. She had come back from the dead, after five thousand years. Aeris and her husband, Cloud, had never told anything to their children about Sephiroth. It was too hard to think about. "Someday I will tell you. Right now, you're just a little too young to understand."
"Mom! You can tell me. I'm sixteen!"
"I know honey..." Aeris sighed. "It's just... a little painful for my father and I to look back at that time. It was a little before I got pregnant with you."
"Well can you at least tell me how this Yuna person knows about Tifa, Cid, and Barret? I thought you said they died before I was born," Piper said.
"They did. And I knew Yuna before you were born. Well actually, long after but it's really hard to explain so could you just wait?"
"Why does it have to wait? Can you tell me just a little?" Piper pleaded.
Aeris grinned at her daughter, "Well maybe just a little bit..." she thought about how she could tell her daughter about this, without telling her about Sephiroth. "It was a long time after I first met your father. We were... apart for about five years. I met a young man named Tidus, see he's the groom," Aeris pointed out the blonde blitzball player. "And he was looking for his lost love, Yuna, the bride. They had been separated for about five years as well. After a few months, we found Yuna and there was a happy reunion. But they made me realize how much I missed your father..."
"Were you two married yet?"
"No, not yet. We didn't get married for another year, when we found out I was pregnant with you. But..." Aeris sighed again. "I'm sorry sweetie. It's to hard to tell you without telling you about Sephiroth..."
"Who?" Piper inquired, finally pulling something from her mother. Ha, I knew she'd crack sometime.
"No one, dear. It's a very long story. Another night perhaps. You're going to be late for your party anyways."
"Oh fine," Piper appeared to have given up. She stood up in the mirror, putting in the garnet earrings. Her mother had put up her hair. It was in a long braid, a matching crimson bow tying it back. "I'll be back late, so I'll let myself in," Piper said, putting a key in her purse.
Aeris watched her daughter carefully. It was startling how much she resembled herself. Almost everything except for her father's sapphire eyes. She didn't really know why she had put her daughter's hair up the way it was. Just like it had been when she travelled with Cloud, and when she... met her match. She shook her head, "You look lovely, Piper. Have a good time and don't do anything stupid."
"Thanks Mom," Piper smiled, giving her mother a quick hug. She walked out of the room, slipping on a pair of dark crimson heels.
"Yeah Piper, don't do anything stupid. In other words, don't go by the boys!" teased her brother.
"Ty, I'm going to be late. Why don't you go get a life," Piper said, glaring at the blonde brat.
"Piper! Be nice to your-- Whoa..." Piper's father walked out of the kitchen, looking at his daughter, "For a moment there, you looked just like your mother."
"Thanks Dad," Piper said, kissing her father on the cheek. She stopped, an idea popping in her head. "Hey Dad, do you know who Sephiroth is?"
Cloud's jaw dropped slightly, but he shook his head. "I've heard of him somewhere. He can't be too important. Don't bother wasting your time trying to find out who he was. He's probably a nobody."
Yeah, right. Piper nodded. "Okay Dad," she said, knowing exactly what she would do after the party. "We'll I'm going to be late. See you later!"
"Behave yourself," he warned, watching her walk into the next room. Cloud scratched the back of his head. How did his daughter find out about Sephiroth?
Piper opened the front door of her house, expecting to walk out to the peaceful village of Kalm. But that wasn't where her door opened to. She found herself in a dimly lit temple. "Huh...?" she turned around, opening the door again. But it led outside, to a small village with little huts. "What's going on here?"
"Hey you! Girl in the red!"
"Me?" Piper squeaked. She spun around, seeing a fiery haired young man.
"Yah you! How'd you get in here?" he demanded. He had violet eyes, and a strong build. Piper guessed he was a little under twenty years old.
"I... uh don't know. Where is here?" Piper asked.
"It's Besaid Temple. Who are you?"
"My name is Piper, Piper Strife."
"Well, c'mon. I didn't think anyone could get past Loey's spells."
"Vidina! What are you doing?" asked a brunette girl, walking down a staircase. "How did she get in here? My spells were inpenetrable!"
"Sorry Loey. I don't know how she got in here," he shrugged. He turned back to Piper, "Well, we need to be alone, can you... leave?"
"Umm... sure..." Piper said. Her head was spinning. What was going on? Something told her there was something a bit kinky going on with a young man and woman alone in this giant temple. She opened the door again, walking out into the night.
"Zalèa! Come back here!!"
"Mom! I'm going to be late for the party!" shouted a blonde haired girl. She was walking backwards from one of the huts. She was dressed in a short floral skirt and a bikini top.
"Not dressed like that you're not!" her mother yelled, walking out of the hut. She was a bit older, maybe in her late thirties. Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head, but a lot of it still fell down her shoulders.
"But Mom!" she whined, "You dressed like this too when you were seventeen!"
The mother sighed, "Oh fine." She looked towards Piper, her eyes growing wide. "Holy chocobos!"
"What?!" the girl turned to look at Piper. "Whoa, you didn't need to dress up that much. It's a beach party, not a prom!"
Piper tilted her head. "What?" She noticed the mother had ran into another hut, shrieking.
"There goes my Mom, again. She's too ditzy for her own good. So who are you?" the girl asked, walking closer. "I don't think I've ever seen you around here before."
"I'm Piper. I don't know... how I got here. I think I'm lost."
The girl shrugged, her green swirled eyes sparkling in the warm night. "I'm Zalèa. I don't know how you could get lost in Besaid. It's so tiny."
"Rikku! What do you want?" yelled a brunette who was getting dragged out of her hut.
"Just look at her Yunie!" cried Zalèa's mother.
The brunette pushed the other woman off her arm, then looked at Piper, her jaw dropping. "You finally came back!"
"Came back...?" Piper said, confused. "I've never been here before!"
"It's been almost twenty years. Don't you remember? Aeris, it's me. Yuna," the brunette said, walking towards Piper.
Piper shook her head, backing away. "Sorry, my name is Piper Strife. Aeris Strife is my mother. I don't know what's going on here but if it's a joke, it's getting really lame!"
"Aeris Strife?" Zalèa's mother said with shining eyes like her daughter's. "Yay! Aeris and Cloud got married!"
"That's weird. Why didn't she tell us?" the brunette woman who claimed to be Yuna wondered.
"Probably because she doesn't know you people!" Piper said, getting irritated. "And now I'm going to be late for the dance!"
"Piper, calm down," Yuna said. "How did you get here?"
"I don't know! I walked out the door and suddenly I was walking into that temple," she said.
"The time-key," smiled Yuna. "Okay, I understand now."
"Well I don't!" Piper exclaimed.
"Hey, Piper," Zalèa said, "Why don't you come down to the beach party with us. I'm sure I have a swimsuit that will fit you and we can leave these guys to figure out why you're here."
"I suppose," she sighed. A beach party did sound a lot more fun than listening to these other people. And Zalèa seemed nice. I wonder if this is the same Yuna that was in the wedding picture. She sure looks like it, Piper thought.
"LOOK OUT!" yelled a group of boys.
"Huh?" Piper spun around, only to get whacked with a ball, flying at full speed.
A/N: Sorry the first chapter isn't the best but it's really hard to create new characters with the traits of Square's characters Anyways, probably after the next chapter, I'll put up a little chart thingy so you can keep the kids straight. And don't worry, this story won't be all kids! I look forward to your reviews!
BTW, if you haven't read Lost Love yet, you might want to because a lot of this might be a little bit confusing.
Here's the link for you: Letselina
