fanfic by volly
kingdom hearts (c) square enix/disney
...
A city. Fringed with forest, spiderwebbed with creeks. She walked upon cobbled streets, among elegant buildings with scarlet roofs. A pagoda spiked up in the distance, a blood red spire against the backdrop of azure sky.
She had never seen the place before, but it felt like home. She sped her pace, sprinting out of the town on a winding gravel path and found herself at the foot of a peculiarly-shaped mountain. She hesitated, but only for a second, before running onwards.
It was so eerie. It was so familiar. The road split and split again, but she seemed to know just which path to take. In no time at all, she found herself at the crown of the peak, and settled herself atop a boulder. She surveyed the land splayed out before her like a map and grinned.
And somehow she'd never felt more at home.
When Yuffie woke up, the first thing she did was open the window and peer outside. The dark suburbs of Traverse Town met her eyes, and for a moment she felt like laughing out loud. What did she expect?
She dragged a stool across the room and plonked herself down on it, staring blankly at the buildings across the hotel. A few windows glowed gold with light, and as she continued to watch, a couple more blinked into existence. She could see a few pedestrians amble down the sidewalk to the shops downtown and wondered how many would be taken by the heartless tonight. It was always night here.
"What a weird dream," she mumbled, before closing the window and sliding off the chair. Her scarf hung on a bedpost. She snatched it off and began to walk out of the inn, winding the favored adornment around her neck.
Yuffie never was one to engross herself in dreams. Not when reality was difficult enough to deal with.
Yuffie poked around in her meager item pouch and scowled. Great, she was all out of potions. She must have used the last of them on that battle with JENOVA. This was not surprising--fighting on a ship was tough, especially when she had motion sickness and couldn't move quickly enough to dodge for fear of puking over her shoes.
What now? She glanced at the others and smirked. Ah, that was perfect. With flawless ninja skill, she crept up behind her friend and cautiously began to reach into the pocket...
"Why, yes, Yuffie, of course you may use my Restore Materia," Aeris said, without looking back. Yuffie emitted a squeak and almost fell over from pure surprise. The flower girl gave a soft and mocking laugh.
Yuffie sulked, but reluctantly backed off. Maybe she'll just wait for an inn.
The heartless were growing stronger. Or maybe it was just herself growing weaker. In any case, Yuffie was accumulating much more wounds than was normal, and Aerith commented worriedly on this.
"Just keep healing me and I'll be fine," Yuffie grumbled, rubbing a new scar on her thigh. Aerith shrugged and continued to let the green aura flow from her palms to each raw gash and bruise on Yuffie's body. The girl watched the process with detached interest.
It wasn't the first time she had a dream with Aerith in. In fact, when she was six, she recalled having a particularly horrifying one involving teenage Aerith and a sack of potatoes. This one, though, was just so much more different than the others.
"Didn't we, you know, used to use magic differently?" Yuffie asked, trying to sound casual but probably failing. "Ever hear of something called 'Materia'?"
Aerith blinked. "I...don't think so."
Yuffie groaned and clawed at her head. "I think I'm going insane." She tried to ignore Aerith's sympathetic sigh. The flower girl was too motherly at times, and the ninja didn't want to deal with pity.
"I'll always be here to help you," she offered.
The ninja snorted. "I doubt that you can."
The figure dropped like a bird of prey, his sword glinting silver in his hands before it plunged into the flower girl's back. Aeris' eyes widened for a moment, staring into nothingness.
He pulled the blade free from her body, and Aeris flopped forwards like a rag doll before falling still.
Don't panic, Yuffie told herself as she pummeled the next evolution of JENOVA with everything she had. Don't lose control. Aeris had fallen before. She won't stay that way. As soon as this monster's going down, she'd grab a phoenix down and revive Aeris personally. Don't panic. Aeris was not dead.
She emerged from the victorious fight almost dead herself, but didn't bother with a healing elixir. Stumbling up the stairs, coughing blood on the pearly marble floor, she ripped a glittering phoenix feather from her bag and knelt, smoothening the item over Aeris' chest, over the heart, like she had done so many times before.
She waited for Aeris to get up, but she never did. She cried until all her tears were gone.
She sat up in bed, stunned. It had been so vivid. It had been so real. She saw the blade slide into Aerith's body, she felt the phoenix down in her hands...
Something slid down her cheek. She pawed at it. A tear. She must have been crying in her sleep.
That did it. Yuffie stumbled out of bed, grabbed her shurikens, and hurled herself out of the room, without even bothering to tie on her scarf. She couldn't deal with this. She had normal dreams, but these were too real. It was like she was living in another world altogether. She had never known of 'Materia' or 'JENOVA', but they were so familiar. And she saw Aerith die right in front of her eyes.
Her feet took over from her preoccupied mind. Her body headed automatically towards one of her favorite heartless-hunting grounds, a small alley that opened up into a deserted courtyard often infested with Shadows. She readied her shurikens only semiconsciously. Do something. Take your mind off of your dream.
It's only a dream.
The spindly body of a Shadow heartless peaked out from behind a lamppost. Yuffie flicked her throwing star out and the creature reeled, falling backwards, the point of the silvery weapon embedded in its chest. It struggled, then evaporated. Yuffie paid it no attention.
There was something pink lying at the entrance of a side alley. Yuffie felt her heart vault into her throat. She ran.
"Aerith!"
She skidded inside and nailed the Shadow groping at Aerith's heart with a ninja star to the head. She fell to her knees, tearing wildly at her belt for a phoenix down. No, not now. Not in this reality.
Don't panic, she thought. It was so hard to do so, though, when Aerith was lying motionless and pale on the cobbles, her eyes closed, blood running out of the edge of her mouth and down one side of her head. Her torso had been clawed open by the Shadow. Scarlet stained her pink dress. Yuffie fought down the urge to throw up.
Phoenix down, phoenix down...Yuffie finally found one and clumsily yanked it free, ignoring the stinging sparks the rough action instigated. Make this work. It had to work. As long as Aerith still had her heart, it would work. It would.
She pressed the feather down on the wound and waited.
When Aerith woke up, it was to a half-hysterical ninja who absolutely refused to let go of her. After a few halfhearted tried at freeing herself, Aerith gave up and just held Yuffie until all her tears were gone.