Leon and Materia Don't Mix

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Disclaimer: …whine (Gala on her knees before Square-Enix)…please? Pretty please with cherries on top? (Gala is dragged out of their office kicking and screaming)…darn, they won't let me even own one little piece of Kingdom Hearts, and all I wanted was the little bell in the hotel lobby. Well next time I'll get something for sure, but until then I don't own the little bell in the lobby, much less Squall. Although getting him would be much nicer than getting a stupid bell.

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Chapter 2: Payback

Squall walked briskly down the hall, briefly stopping in his room to grab his gunblade before heading to the Rising Falls. He almost changed his mind about training when a blast of frigid air hit him as he opened the large oaken doors at the entrance.

He jumped across each floating platforms with ease until he reached the bottom. At the bottom he drew his gunblade and started to slowly swing it in and out making an eight-pattern in the air.

After about 15 minutes of warming up, Squall began to gradually increase the speed of his attacks. He parried against and blocked against imaginary enemies. Nothing else mattered but this moment, his sole focus was on his sword and the energy singing within it as he sliced through the air.

After an hour or so his arms began to tire, ignoring his screaming arms he continued to tirelessly perform his practice routine. Finally when his strength gave out completely, he sank to his knees exhausted and panting heavily. Now that his focus had been broken his thoughts began to wander.

"Why…why does it have to be this way?" Squall gazed up at the sky as to find an answer. 'Why is it I can't think of any good plans to get back at Yuffie? How can she come up with such simple yet brilliant plans to humiliate me?'

Squall grimaced as he recalled the events that had transpired earlier that morning. Yuffie had really gotten him good, and his own foolish arrogance had only dug him deeper into her prank. He smiled as he remembered the way she had laughed, her happiness seemed to linger even when she was not present.

'Whoa…where did that come from!? Why do I feel this way?'

Squall's eyes momentarily clouded over with an insane glint. He shook his fist at the sky, "ARGH! I will get you back for making me feel like this Yuffie!! And when I do it will be a prank more awesome than anything you can possibly conjure up!"

If Yuffie has been there to see the maniacal expression on Squall's face she would have been scared, very scared. This was one determined Squall and he was already planning the demise of the young ninja.

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Cid was working on his latest creation, 'This is going to be my greatest invention yet!' He grinned as he wiped his hands on a greasy rag that seemed to be dirtier than his hands.

"What is that?" Cid jumped at the sound of the blonde swordsman's voice. He quickly covered his project with a canvas tarp. "Uh…nothing really, just some repairs on a Gummi part."

Cloud looked skeptical but decided to drop it. "So do you have that new upgrade done on my sword yet?"

"Sure kid, but I don't know why you bother since the heartless have been gone for a year already." He jerked his thumb toward the back of his workshop, "It's back there you can get it by yourself."

At that moment Cid was tackled to the floor by a small figure. "Hey Old Man, laying down on the job as usual eh?"

Cid pushed Yuffie off him, "Get off me brat! How many times have I told you not to scare me like that?"

"Oh I don't know, every day since I've known you. Why?" She grinned cheekily taking obvious pleasure in annoying the gummi mechanic.

Cloud snickered at her bold reply.

Cid's face turned beet red with anger, "Then why the $# haven't you learned to do what I say!"

Cloud, glaring daggers at the grinning ninja, tried to calm the enraged pilot. "Cid, I'm sure Yuffie will try harder not to scare you in the future. Right Yuffie?"

Yuffie rolled her eyes and waved her hand dismissively, "Yeah, yeah. Sure, anything you say Spike."

Cid grunted in response, "Good, now what were you doing down here in the first place?"

"Oh, I almost forgot, our world is finally back!" She giggled at Cloud's puzzled expression.

"How do you know Yuffie?" He absentmindedly scratched the back of his head, reminding Yuffie of her days spent with AVALANCHE.

"Materia."

"What!?" cried Yuffie and Cloud at the same time.

Yuffie crossed her arms and began to pout. "You mean you already knew?"

Cid shrugged, "I noticed that they were glowing a while ago but I didn't think anything about it. I guess it means the Lifestream is present, thus the Planet with it."

"So can we use Materia here?" Cloud pulled out a small pink orb. "I always carry this with me, the rest is locked away."

Cid opened a small titanium safe in an inconspicuous corner of his workshop. "I have all of mine right here." He stared pointedly at Yuffie, "And it had better stay here."

Yuffie huffed at his statement, "Cid, I only did that to help Wutai out, plus you don't have anything that I don't already have, so your Materia is safe."

Cloud peered over Cid's shoulder to get a better view of his Materia inventory. "So which one should we test to see if it works?"

Yuffie perked up at Cloud's suggestion. "I know which one, here!" She grabbed a small red orb before Cid could protest, a mischievous glint in her eyes. She muttered a few words and the orb began to pulse with light.

A gigantic wave of water formed in the hangar portion of Cid's workshop, and just as if it seemed it would crash down upon them a writhing scaled snake emerged from behind the curtain of water. The Summon known as The Great Leviathan coiled gently beside Yuffie and gave a low grumble as she gently stroked his glistening head.

Cloud and Cid were frozen; both were enraptured by the grandeur of the powerful serpent.

"It's been a long time since I've seen one of our old summons; I forgot how beautiful they are." Cid nodded his head towards the creature respectfully.

"Yeah, it makes the summons Sora has look like toys. Now this is real power." Cloud was already going over the list of summons that he had. "If Sora ever challenged me to a summon battle I would finally win, not like the Coliseum. I swear those tournaments were rigged."

Cid gave an exasperated sigh, "Cloud, he IS the keyblade-master. You think everything is a conspiracy, plus Sora didn't repair his sword with tape."

Cloud bristled at his words, "Wha...uh...so what if I used tape? It wasn't like I had very many options in the Underworld. I was going to steal Hades' tube of super-glue but all I could find in his office drawer was a roll of tape."

Yuffie tilted her head, "Hades has an office? How weird is that, I thought he lived in like hell or something. Ya' know with flames and smoke everywhere, some place creepy. But an office is just too…normal, for the god of the Underworld."

Cid stared at her blankly, "Yuffie you have THE most overactive mind. If Cloud had a contract with Hades then it makes sense for him to have an office. You need to use that thing in your head that's called a brain, brat."

"You old fart! I do too use my brain! At least mine is not deteriorating like yours is because of old age!" Yuffie fumed, but mid-rant a small idea popped into her head, like a bubble that bursts on contact. She grinned like a cat that had just cornered an unsuspecting mouse. "And to prove it…"

She turned and whispered to the mighty beast still at her side. Leviathan uncoiled his body stretching up into the air, his multi-colored scales glistening and gleaming like shimmering stars.

Cloud ran as soon as he saw the look on Yuffie's face, she was mad and he didn't want to be caught in the line of fire when she unleashed whatever it was she was planning to do to Cid.

Cid covered his head as Leviathan hovered above him, unsure of what was going to happen. When nothing happened he dropped his arms and looked up, at the same moment a large amount of salty seawater came crashing down on Cid.

It was if time had stopped, no one moved. The only noise heard was the steady drip of water falling off of Cid. Cloud was standing in the doorway his face filled with a mixture of sympathy and amusement at Cid's bedraggled appearance. Yuffie was slightly disappointed that there was no reaction from Cid.

His graying blonde hair was matted to his head and his clothes stuck to him like a second skin. All of a sudden Cid's eyebrow began to imperceptibly twitch.

"Uh, Cid? You okay?" Yuffie edged nervously towards the pilot.

Cid, snapping out of his daze, darted to his safe and grabbed the first summon orb he saw. Ignoring the fact that he had never used this particular summon, he called it.

In a puff of smoke and sparkles, there standing before them was a Giant Mog on a Chocobo.

Yuffie burst out in laughter, "Ha, the weakest summon is all you can come up with! Oh this is too much!" She rolled around on the floor holding her sides which were beginning to ache from laughing so hard.

Cid contemplated her words, and a small smirk appeared on his face. "Oh Yuffie…" he said in a sing-song voice.

"What." She gasped between laughing.

"How fast are you?" His smirk grew wider.

Yuffie stopped laughing and gave Cid a quizzical expression. "Faster than you, I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie. Why?"

Cid turned to the stuffed creature sitting on the giant bird. "Get her," he said, pointing in Yuffie's direction.

The Chocobo warked as it ran towards the teenage girl. Yuffie shrieked and started running around Cid's workshop, the bird and stuffed animal hot on her heels.

"I am so gonna kill you Cid!! AHHHHH!" Yuffie jumped over a table only to trip over a pile of worn out Gummy parts. The Chocobo jumped on top of the table, Yuffie could have sworn it was grinning at her, assuming chocobos could grin of course.

She jumped up and ran behind Cloud, "Cloud, do something! It's going to get me!" She clung to his back like a barnacle on the side of a boat.

Cloud tried to shake her off but it only made matters worse, now she was choking him to death. And on top of that the Chocobo was headed towards Yuffie; and he was right in the line of fire.

Cloud stepped backwards trying to get out the door with the frightened Yuffie still clinging to him. By now he was beginning to get a little nervous, "Yuffie, get off me or I'll take all your Materia!"

The very mention of materia, snapped Yuffie out of her terrorized state of consciousness. "WHAT, don't you dare touch my stuff Spike." She slid off his back and was about to pummel him when the crazed Chocobo came through the door and warked as it saw it's target in sight.

Yuffie wasted no time as she took off in a dead run down the hall, trying to evade the deranged summon. She was beginning to increase the distance when WHAM she ran into something solid. Strong arms reached out to catch her before she fell.

Yuffie opened her eyes that had been tightly shut in anticipation of a fall. Clear blue eyes stared back at her. "Yuffie what exactly are you doing now, if you're trying to play another trick on me it won't work."

"Uh, actually Squall could you let me go, there's something chasing me right now." She glanced nervously down the hall, hoping to get away before the Chocobo could catch up to her.

"It's Leon. Not until you tell me what's going on." To emphasize his point he tightened his grip around her.

"IplayedaprankonCidandnowhe'smadatmeandhesentacrazysummonaftermeandifyoudon'tletmegoit'sgonnagetme!!"

Squall stared blankly at her, "Do you mind repeating that in english please, you're not making any sense.

At that moment Squall heard footsteps in the hallway Yuffie had just come through. He knew it wasn't any of his companions, these sounds were heavier. In fact they were heavier than any human could possibly make.

Squall released Yuffie and pulled out his gunblade, gently pushing her behind him so she would be protected. He fell into his fighting stance as the footsteps grew louder, 'It's almost here. Could it be a heartless? Why was Yuffie so terrified?'

What came around the corner was the last thing he would have expected, a giant stuffed creature that seemed to be alive, on top of a rather comical looking chocobo.

Squall sheathed his sword and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Yuffie why are you so scared of a OOMPH. Squall was knocked to the ground by the bird.

Yuffie threw several shuriken at the chocobo, "Leave him alone you overgrown chicken, I'm the one you want!" They hit their mark straight on and the bird and stuffed animal disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Squall lay on the floor in total shock. 'A toy riding a chocobo that just disappeared, great… now I know I'm insane.'

"Hey Squall...are you okay?" She peered down into his face.

"Leon. I'm fine, what was that all about?" He ignored the hand she offered to him, he brushed his leather pants off before standing up.

"Eh heh, um…Cid got a little bit angry with me so he sent that summon after me."

"A chocobo and whatever was on top of it? That's one of your summons? That's pathetic."

"Hey that's not the only summon I have! I bet mine could whip yours any day." She crossed her arms and glared at him as she said this.

"Whatever…"

"Oh why do you have to be so irritating!" She punched him in the arm and left, angrily muttering under her breath.

Squall shook his head, 'well this has been a very interesting day, but still I don't have any kind of good plan yet. Hm, Cid was able to get back at Yuffie, maybe I should talk to him.' And with that he headed towards Cid's workshop.

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Hey there, sorry about the shortness of the first chapter. I didn't have very many ideas then. And then it took me forever to get this one written. I'm hoping to update more often now that I don't have as much to do. I took the ACT last Saturday, that was one of the major things that hindered me from working on this.

So enjoy this chapter and look for more coming up soon…

Gala