Part 3 "Hold me…"

"Look!" shouted Yuffie her yellow scarf swinging in anxiety. An older girl dressed in pink approached the green and cream clad girl, and looked up to what the ninja was pointing and jumping excessively at. The night sky shone down at them

"What is it Yuffie?" she asked, her voice soft yet betraying wisdom beyond her age

"A star! A star is vanishing!" she shouted her jumping quickened and she pointed a thick gloved hand at a star that was shining very brightly. Even as they watched the brightness faltered and faded out. Aerith sighed it was happening too much lately, almost every night a star blinked out, another world lost to the heartless

"Come on Yuffie" she said and turned around "there's nothing we can do" tears pricked her eyes as she walked back inside the hotel. Yuffie stayed outside and watched the remaining stars squinting at them just in case they dared blink out and disappear. Sighing herself she walked back into her room to find a young blond kid bouncing up and down on her bed, his black beanie hat lay abandoned on the floor, along with his gunblade

"SEIFER!" she shouted at him "get off my bed!"

"Why? Yours is much bouncier than mine" he said jumping higher almost hitting his head on the ceiling

"Shove off! You little prick! Go jump on Squall's!" she shouted at him

"No way! He'll kick my ass besides I'm just as old as you so don't call me little"

"If you don't want me to call you little then act like you're sixteen!"

"you don't so why should I" he jumped as high as he could and managed to hit his head on the roof, he curled up In mid air clutching his head, this altered his flight path and caused him to land heavily on the floor

"Owwww! Shit!" he cried out, Yuffie stuck her tongue out at him whilst stifling giggles

"Serves you right!" she said and jumped up onto the bed to resume the bouncing "wow it really is bouncier!" she cried from the ceiling, her arms moving with as much grace as she could manage, her small breasts less so.

She noticed Seifer watching her intently

"What you looking at?" she asked between bounces

"Are you aware of just how much you're boobs wobble when you do that?" he said. He had snatched his beanie up off the floor, crammed it on his head and was standing at the end of the bed, his eyes never leaving Yuffie.

"Not as much a Tifa's" she giggled, then was struck by sudden motion sickness, she stopped jumping instantly "ok not good" she spoke thickly as if she had something large lodged in her throat.

Seifer burst out laughing

"Ha ha serves you right!" he said to her, as she rushed off to the 'on'suit' bathroom in the corner of the green room.

Kellan woke up sore, his body was aching his heart felt like it was about to explode. He groaned and rolled over slowly, to find that he was lying on a cobbled street. How did I get here? This was his last thought before the darkness crept over him once more.

Yuffie was fuming, it's not fair! Stupid Seifer and his stupid friends! She thought they all think they're so big! Just because they're forming their own group! She thought it was silly of them to form their own 'anti heatless' group but boys would be boys and she had no time for them, why Fujin was going along with this she would never know!

She stormed out of the hotel and into the street, it was cold today and she thought it would start snowing soon. She looked up to the sky to see the white fluffy clouds building up and up like some sort of divine candy floss machine, she toyed with the idea of flying up there and just munching on the clouds till she couldn't move. Laughing at the thought, she continued walking as the clouds opened up and it began snowing heavily.

Aerith looked out the small window at the falling snow, swirling and turning in a breeze that stirred the hotel's hanging sign and slowly blew at the shutters of the room she shared with Leon.

Leon. So much like him. She sighed again and smiled, reviewing his last words to her over and over in her mind, just before that heartless clone had run his Masamune through her stomach, she held a hand to the scar, even though she had been brought back into the world of the living, ripped cruelly from the life stream, it hadn't managed to heal that wound.

She smiled again and stroked the red painted windowsill. Thinking once again of her spiky haired bodyguard and that game they played, before it all kicked off and that bastard Sephiroth…. She sighed yet again

Maybe he was just as confused she thought, I wonder if the lifestream even accepted him. She put the thoughts out of her head, picked up her red denim jacket from the chair it was lying on top of; she shrugged it on and walked outside to enjoy the snow.

"I Wonder what happened to Tifa" she said wondered aloud

"We've all lost people and friends" Seifer was on the blue room balcony looking out at the snow, his grey trench-jacket hanging by his calves.

Sometimes he's so mature but at other times he's just as annoying as Yuffie she nodded to him accepting his words.

"I miss them sometimes, and I will never forget what they did for me" he said turning his head to face her. Aerith knew his story, how he had betrayed everyone he knew, fought against them even, and even given that girl to the evil sorceress, but even after all that his friends had forgiven him and taken him back into their group. He was so young now barely sixteen, the heartless had changed so much.

"It's not fair" she said, still smiling but a note of sympathy was hidden in her voice. They sat there for a long time enjoying each other's company and watching Yuffie playing with Rajin in the snow. Seifer ducked as a snowball came flying at him from the ground

"Play!" shouted Fujin from the ground, another snowball in her hand and a rare smile on her too-young face.

Seifer smiled and ducked inside emerging a minute later on the ground. Aerith laughed as everyone pelted him with snowballs, then ducking inside herself, went to join the fun.

Meanwhile many miles and an entire world away, Donald duck the court magician had just discovered that the high king Mickey was missing from his grand throne, quacking in sheer disbelief, he saw Pluto, the king's dog poke his head round the throne. A light green letter bearing the king's seal in his mouth.

Sora woke up threw the blankets onto the already messy floor of his room and got dressed as fast as he could in his red baggy shorts and t-shirt. Today was the day they finish the raft. He ran down the stairs two at a time to get breakfast. Ready to face the new day, regardless of what it might bring…

Squall now known as Leon was practising his swing, he draw his sword sharply downwards in a vicious ark that could have sliced a malbro in half. He swung again, horizontally this time, pretending that in front of him was whatever had taken Rinoa away from him, he gritted his teeth on this swing and pulled the trigger, sending the gunblade flying with twice the power of his normal swing and wrenching his arm painfully. He ignored the pain as he did everytime he pulled the trigger.

Metal rung on metal as the gunblade clanged off something, sending painful vibrations down the metal shaft.

"Need a partner?" Aerith asked sweetly, he could see the metal in her had vibrating, it didn't seem to disturb her though, then he noticed her grip, it was loose yet strong, allowing the pole she clutched to move anyway it chose. She spun her staff expertly, almost negligently in her right hand still smiling.

"No its fine, I was practicing my swing" he said brushing small beads of sweat out of his hair and eyes and turning away from her to rub his hand

"Good!" her smile brightened "coz' I didn't want to spar" she was as confusing as Rinoa sometimes, and so damned cheerful it grated on him… just like Rinoa used to, it was his turn to sigh.

"Ok then what do you want?" he asked her.

"It's snowing outside, you wanna come on a bright snowy walk" she leaned over at him and had that childish look of mild curiosity and playfulness that Rinoa always gave him. Aerith scared him sometimes. It wasn't a question. Leon looked hard at her, and he said it. He couldn't really say anything else could he?

"Whatever"

They walked as a group, Yuffie was leading and chatting avidly to Fujin, who simply nodded every now and again and looked slightly distressed. Seifer and Squall were talking, well, what passed for talking between them, namely large amounts of silence and occasional grunts and single words. Rajin was somewhere ahead 'scouting' as he called it and Aerith walked slowly at the back, her mind on other things.

That was when Yuffie tripped up, she just fell suddenly, Fujin looked slightly relived that she didn't have to listen to the excessively bouncy ninja for another second. Everyone stopped to help Yuffie up onto her feet. Or rather Leon just watched, Seifer laughed and Aerith 'tut'ed' under her breath and went to help up Yuffie.

"What the fuck was that!" she cried out as she stood back up with the help of Aerith. She bent down to look at what she had tripped over and was genuinely alarmed when she saw a huge metal key pocking out from under a large mound of snow,

"It's the keyblade!" she shrieked, pointing at the mound of snow, Squall looked up suddenly, Seifer stopped laughing and looked astounded. They both ran over, as did Fujin and Aerith who had started walking off again.

"It's a person!" cried Seifer, they all began brushing the snow off of the young boy he looked about sixteen, his frozen clothes were in tatters and his short hair was a silvery white, in his pale hand was clutched the one object that could save or destroy the entire universe. The keyblade.

"Who is he?" asked Aerith looking over at Squall, who simply shook his head.

"We have to get him back to the Hotel!" shouted Fujin in a very rare display of verbal mastery

"He's not dead is he?" asked Yuffie looking alarmed.

"No he's still breathing" said squall as he picked up the unconscious teenager, he began to walk quickly back to the Hotel, taking the shortest rout he could think of, Yuffie was skipping around him annoyingly looking incredibly worried

"Will he be ok?" she said occasionally or "we can save him right?"

They reached the Hotel and Squall deposited the unconscious kid on a chair, whilst Seifer heated some water and Aerith readied herself to cast a 'cure' spell. Squall looked the kid up and down, he appeared to have been hit by some powerful energy blast or a bolt of lighting, the burn looked like a ghostly heart. He had seen heartless give this kind of wound.

"He's been attacked by the heartless" said Squall, they all looked at him,

"How did you figure that out?" asked Yuffie, he ignored her,

"Aerith cast the most powerful cure you have." He looked to the others "he also has hypothermia, we need to warm him up slowly, take him away from the fire." They did so, and wrapped him up in blankets and anything else they could get their hands on, a green aura enveloped Aerith and a second later the unconscious boy as well. Instantly a significant amount of colour returned to his face, he moaned slightly and took in a larger breath than what he was taking in previously.

"Its working!" shouted Yuffie she bounced and knocked the cup of soup out of Seifer's hand, the cup shattered on the floor and the soup splashed thickly across the carpet.

"Never mind" said Aerith, as Seifer glared at Yuffie. Seifer went over to the kettle and heated it with a weak fire spell, then poured out another cupful and tipped some soup mix into it. He passed it to Aerith, careful to avoid Yuffie this time.

Aerith opened his mouth slightly and poured a small amount of soup through his cold lips, he spluttered and coughed, but most of the soup went down into his freezing insides, they repeated this several times, Aerith casting small 'Cure's' whenever he began shivering or coughing too much.

"He should be fine now" said Squall, the kid was now in one of the two beds that occupied the room, still clutching the keyblade, the covers up to his neck.

"He'll wake up in about an hour" agreed Aerith. They had tried to get him to release the keyblade but he held it in a surprisingly strong grip despite being completely unconscious,

"Common'" said Rajin "we should give him some space y'know?" they all walked out of the room

"Someone should watch him just in case" said Leon scratching his chin.

"Oh! Oh! I will, I will!" Yuffie was bouncing up and down again, he took one look at her and continued talking

"Someone responsible is what I was going to say" Yuffie deflated in front of him,

"Aww Come on! I can be resposib-ble" she said flashing a wide smile and giving him the cutest look she could manage

"She may as well" said Seifer shrugging "she not much use otherwise" he said smiling impishly

"Hey!" she cried

"Whatever" said Squall "I'm going to talk to Cid" and with that he walked out of the hotel.

Yuffie walked back into the red room, her look intent on the unconscious boy in front of her, he was very handsome, with a slow angled face, he looked a little bit girlish she thought, in a handsome way of course she reprimanded herself, and took in the rest of his features. His hair was short and half the bangs seemed to perpetually cover his right eye and was a soft silver, that must be dyed she reflected.

Still standing, she dragged a chair over to the bed and sat down on it, resting her elbows on the bed and her chin on her hands. She began studying him again, she was closer to his face now, and looked at the shape of his nose and the soft way it met his brow, she had changed when she was torn from her old world, unlike Seifer, who had grown younger and more immature, she stayed virtually the same, her face was slightly different than what she was used to, as was her body. It was still a bit of a shock to wake up in the morning and to see herself in the mirror changed as she was. Some of the scars she had obtained in the many battles that she had participated in had vanished, there were still a few on her back including a three-set of slashes where a large dragon had raked it's claws across her back, they had shrunk considerably though and were barely noticeable as were all the others, the only one that had remained was a short slash across her heart, where Sephiroth had only just managed to catch her with that damned huge Masamune of his.

The boy stirred and moaned a little, she gave a start that jerked her out of her stupefaction and she poked him in the chest randomly. He didn't move again, she poked him once more, harder this time. He gave a cry and a jerked upright bashing their heads together

"Ouch!" she cried and sat backwards in the seat

"Ouch!" the boy cried and sat up straight a hand clutched to his head. He looked up and around taking in his surroundings, he saw the girl and held up the keyblade

"Who are you?" he asked, then realising he was virtually naked he attempted to cover himself up with his free hand

"Yay! You're awake!" she seemed to have forgot the pain in her forehead

"Where am I now?" muttered the boy looking down slightly at his knees,

"Well currently you're in a hotel called…." She paused for a second "….um I cant remember what the hotel is called but you're in the second district of a place called Traverse town" she threw a brilliant smile in his direction. Aerith came walking in at that moment with another cup of soup

"Yuffie, if he wakes up make sure he drinks-" she cut off when she saw him sitting up, then smiled and walked over to a bedside table and placed a cup of soup on the surface

"You're up! That's good" she stood and smiled down at him

"How did I get here?" he asked lowering the keyblade onto the bed and raising both hands to rub at his eyes.

"Well we where hoping you could tell us that" said Aerith

"Yeah!" chipped in Yuffie "how did you get hold of the keyblade?"

"I-I found it I guess…"

"Start from the beginning" said Aerith helpfully, he began to recount his story, then paused as got to the middle. His face falling into anguish

"I-I just realised." He said slowly "e-everyone's dead aren't they" he stopped and tears began to rise in his green eyes

"I-I tried to fight them" a sob wracked his body. Everything was coming out now, he had promised he wouldn't cry "t-there was just too many of them" another sob as he saw the thousands of heartless crawling everywhere "I-I tried to hold them back, but they just kept coming and coming, then the blackness" this was the final, he broke down then, crying for all his worth, both hands pressed into his watering eyes.

Aerith looked anguished and laid and arm around his shoulders

"It's alright," she said "its ok, you did the best you could"

"But I-it wasn't enough!" he said through the sobs "I could have saved them! I had the keyblade!" he began crying again, in a heart wrenching display of pure sorrow.

Squall was sitting at the table when she came down.

"Did you find Cid?" she asked, Leon shook his head

"No. How is he?" he asked as Aerith walked up to the table and sat down,

"Well he's up" she said, sorrow marked her face

"BUT?" asked Fujin

"he can remember everything" said Aerith, "he remembers the heartless and exactly how they took everything from him, its just like what happened to us" she said sadly, Squall put a hand on her shoulders, she reached up and clasped it,

"Don't worry" said Squall "he'll be ok" Aerith nodded, stood up and hugged Squall suddenly and sobbed into his shoulder

"He's just a kid!" she cried "what is it that they want!" she clutched Squall's back like drowning woman clutches a life ring, Squall not knowing what to make of this simply held her to him stroking her brown hair. She even smells like Rinoa he thought sadly

His crying stemmed slowly, the girl next to him had a hand on his shoulder and was bending down to look at his face

"You feeling better?" she asked, he nodded and she brightened slightly

"Good! Sometimes all you really need is a good cry" she said, punctuating her speech with exaggerated gestures, he laughed a little through his drying tears, she winked and stuck her tongue out at him.

"I don't even know you're name yet" she said, he looked up at her and answered slowly

"Kellan, its just Kellan"

End

Authorness: hi again, part three done now (there was much rejoicing "yay") how about a little Aerith/Squall pairing? - sorry about the boringness it's going to get more action-y later I promise, cross my heart and hope to die :P

Anyway…. REVIEW! Please! I have to know if anyone is even reading this! And I need to know what it is that people what to see in this fic, there are going to be two versions of the next chapter, a lemon flavoured one and a lot less zesty version, choose which one to read I'll title them both chapter four and mark the lemonized one.

Yuffie falls in love with this mysterious stranger and they spend the night lost in each other's embrace. Is her love returned? Does Kellan even believe in love?

And in the morning the keyblade is gone and leaves a mysterious sword in its path, is this a gift from the saviour or is it simply a trick by the heartless….

Join the fight against the heartless!

Chapter 4 "…whatever lies beyond this morning…."