Disclaimer: I don't own BOF as it's owned by Capcom. FF belongs to Square-Enix. Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square-Enix and Disney. I am poor and I don't make money out of this. So please don't sue me.

No, this fanfic is not dead! Yes, I all know I promised December….but I have a good excuse! I've got a lot of exams and my dad's also working – I am never sure when is the right time that he would happily check my work! Really, really, sorry guys...

Lenne ran out into the garden, her soul full of anxiety. She ran towards the forest.

Where are they? She thought. They didn't come when I called them for dinner…

"Hey, Lenne!" Zidane called from behind her. As she turned, he immediately saw the worried look on her face.

"H-have you seen the others anywhere?" Lenne asked him.

Zidane shook his head. "I thought they went out, but I couldn't join them cos Eiko was talking to me." He fell silent and after thinking for a few seconds, gave Lenne an equally worried face. "I-I heard lots of shouts – they could have been faint screams, I think…but I thought that it was the to think of it, it's not windy tonight.."

Just then, Lenne gasped and pointed to the edge of the cliff.

Ryu was standing at the cliff top. He was still in his dragon form, and had stopped to take a few seconds rest, before taking off again in order to avoid Sora and the others and so that nobody else would see him. Once he saw Lenne, he realised that he had made a mistake, floated into the air again and glided over the forest.

"Th-that's…a dragon!" Zidane shouted, shocked. He had never seen a dragon before – not many people had, but he knew that they existed and had always wanted to see one himself…


Ryu landed on the ground with a thud. He felt his claws becoming blunt, his tail, wings and horns shrinking….he was returning to normal…

Once he was the small blue-haired boy again, Ryu started to run…as fast as he could, ignoring the bracken and brambles that were in his path. He did not care where he went, as long as he did not run into Sora again. If Sora were to find him, he would most certainly be killed!

Eventually, once he came to a large rock, he could not run anymore. He was too tired – although he was a dragon, he had still lost a lot of blood from where Bosch had impaled him and there was a very sharp pain in his throat, which was making it difficult for him to breathe properly, especially while running.

Ryu bent over the rock, taking a few deep breaths. He felt light headed and weak.

"R-Ryu…..is that you?" Ryu heard Lenne's voice.

"…H-he didn't…..that dragon….that wasn't….was it?" Zidane's voice could also be heard. They had obviously seen him transform.

Ryu felt dizzy. His legs could no longer carry him, and he felt himself dropping to the ground…


"I can't believe it…" Sora said quietly, sitting on the carpet, recalling what had happened on the beach.

"It's not surprising really," Lenne replied, after finishing putting Ryu to bed.

"What do you mean 'not surprising?'" Sora asked, feeling that he was being called stupid for not knowing about Ryu's true origins.

"Well, not surprising for me," Lenne said. She then gave out a cry and put her hand in front of her mouth. "Sorry, I said too much."

"…y-you've seen a dragon before!" Nina exclaimed, realising what Lenne meant.

"Yeah, we have!" Eiko said. "We know one who-" Her 'sister' quickly put her hand in front of the young girl's mouth. Little Eiko realised her mistake of revealing her little secret and looked at Lenne apologetically.

"…we saw one before," Lenne quickly said. "So I know what a dragon looks like…did you know, they have many forms, apart from that demon-like one? They sometimes look like giant lizards…sometimes birds…but most of the time, they choose to look like humans."

"Clever…" Zidane said thoughtfully. "So anyone of us in the room could be a dragon without the rest of us knowing about it?"

Lenne shook her head at the thief's error. "Didn't you notice anything…unusual about Ryu? His eyes, for example?"

"They were red," Yuna answered.

"That is right…have you met anybody else in the world with eyes that colour? Well, what I'll tell you is this – the dragon I knew had deep and glaring eyes, just like that boy. What's more," the woman added. "it would explain his young talent for blue magic – dragons have a longer lifespan than us humans do." Eiko felt happy once she heard this – Ryu had an excuse to be good at blue magic and this made her feel special once more.

"He didn't have wings in his human form though," Eiko pointed out.

"Yeah, I noticed that too, Eiko," Lenne said to the purple-haired girl.

"Wings?" Sora did understand.

"..another trait that dragons have, whether in human form or not is their bat-like wings," Lenne explained. "…as you probably have noticed, Ryu doesn't have those…"

Sora thought for a second about this mystery and then it clicked. "…do you think that he might have lost them? I mean, he does have those big ugly cuts on his back which won't heal." It made more sense now.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right, Sora," Lenne replied in a sad tone.

"He lost them?" Zidane made a face of slight disgust before scratching his head. "….ouch…"

"But….how did that happen?" Nina asked, looking at the others. "The Empire, perhaps?"

"Who knows…" Yuna said quietly. "But I don't think that Ryu will be likely to tell us.."

He gradually opened his eyes. Light began to fill his vision. He heard voices.

"Do you think that he'll actually tell you, Sora?"

"I doubt it…but it's worth a try, Nina…"

"I suppose so.."

Ryu had been placed in Eiko's bed to heal. Although his neck was no longer bleeding, it now left a wound in the front and the back, which was fixable by a few Cure spells and a couple of Lenne's healing potions. Sora and Nina were both in the room, discussing about what to do with Ryu. It was still very difficult to believe that he was really the one who tried to attack Wyndia, but even so, Sora and Nina knew that it was not really Ryu's fault.

Upon realising that Ryu had started to stir, Sora ran over to his bedside, ready to perform a Cure. Nina was holding a couple of potions. The dragon child was surprised when Sora abruptly started performing healing chants on him – it was the last thing he expected Sora to do after finding out who he really was.

"That should do it," Sora murmured after he finished. "Nina has a few of Lenne's potions. You could do with some of those now."

Ryu nodded, still overcome with confusion. "Wh-what are you going to do with me?" he finally had the courage to ask.

"What we're gonna do is patch up that nasty injury on your neck," Nina said in a practical tone, "in case it starts bleeding again."

"And after that?" the dragon asked, not sure of his fate.

"Well, we've got to get out of here as soon as possible," Sora replied. "Lenne knows of a quick and safe way off this island – the soldiers are bound to come looking for us soon – they'll probably search the whole island. We'll need to take a boat, I think, during which, you can have try to sleep while we make it to land."

Ryu was still puzzled. "Y-you're not going to kill me?"

Sora more or less expected the boy to come up with this question. He looked up at Ryu and smiled uneasily. "Thought you'd ask me that!" He laughed in a nervous tone changing into a more serious voice. "And I'll tell you this – I know what you are now. I know that you're the creature that I met and fought in Wyndia. You can't hide that from me anymore."

Ryu made no answer, but stared at his left leg, which still had the scar that Sora gave him on that day.

"However," the brown haired boy continued, his tone becoming a little softer. "I know that it wasn't your fault, Ryu – how could it be? You were chained up in that dark little room, you had that little red collar thing around your neck that forced you to do whatever the Empire asked you! How could it be your fault? I'm not completely stupid!"

"And don't forget, Ryu," Nina added. "Remember when we ended up on this island? You saved me, didn't you? When I fell off that huge creature that Yuna had summoned, didn't you manage to catch me and carry me to safety?"

Ryu looked up at Nina and nodded, turning a little shade of pink.

"That's what I thought!" the princess exclaimed, giving a grateful smile. "I really appreciate what you did to me Ryu. There is no way that I'd want dead the person who saved my life!" And with that, she walked up to the child and gave him a hug. At first, Ryu was about to protest, but once Nina's arms were around him, he felt a warm and pleasant glow – and liked it.


Riku was in the cockpit when the soldiers came storming into the airship. He had expected a defeat as soon as the dragon started attacking the troops. He could go and help carry some of them to the cabins, but apart from that, there was little he could do, as he used black magic, not white. Perhaps I'll help get some of them to the infirmary…there's nothing else I can do here, anyway…

However, he stopped when Ursula came into the room, dragging the wounded and very outraged general with her.

"Sir, if we didn't run away, you would have died.." the captain tried to tell Bosch.

"Ursula….ugh…..this…is going to have an effect…..on the……Empress's……..opinion of me…" Bosch struggled to say.

Ursula sat him on a chair and performed a healing spell.

"I think that the Empress would rather that you lived," she then said afterwards. "I don't think that she would have sent more soldiers if she was not aware that she could lose one of her best men."

Bosch found that he could not comment on Ursula's words. Instead, after seeing Riku in the room, he decided to attack him instead. "Where were you, boy?" he growled.

Riku looked up at him in the same calm manner and replied, "I was here all the time, making sure you 'came back safely' just like you told me to. Well, apart the fact that from you guys obviously didn't return 'safely'."

"Well, then if you were supposed to make sure we came back, then why didn't you come to help us?" Bosch growled, annoyed.

Riku looked out of the window, pretending to think. "Well…the thing is, you also told me that if I left the airship, you would make my life 'as miserable as possible', so….it was a little difficult for me to come to your rescue."

The general opened his mouth but no words came out. The kid was right. He could not argue with that. However, Bosch was not going to be defeated so easily. "W-well, you could have come and helped us, anyway!" he bluffed. "You're from Suveria, aren't you? Why couldn't you help your country? You know that it is a Suverian's duty to give his life for his officer?"

"Even if his annoying, sadistic and laughable officer has the charisma of a wet flannel?"

Bosch's face turned completely white. Nobody had ever dared to call him that before! What a cheek that boy was to degrade him in such a way!

"I think that you need a rest, General," Ursula said, trying to prevent a fight. "You are badly hurt, but a few hours sleep will do you good." And with that, she took Bosch by the arm and dragged him to the cabin, despite his protests.

What a loser, the boy thought to himself, smiling a little for the first time after his capture. He felt a little better now that Sora and Nina were still alive – so he did not have to worry about them anymore.


"Ryu, I'd like to ask you something," Sora told the blue-haired child once they were alone. "You were sent by the Empire to look for me, right?"

Ryu nodded, regarding Sora once again in suspicion. Sora gulped, realising that talking to him would be more difficult than he thought.

"I-I just wanted to know if you knew what they wanted with me, that's all," he tried to say in a calm tone. "Is there anything wrong with that?"

The dragon youth said nothing for a few seconds. "Wh…what would you do if you found out?" he finally asked, not taking his eyes off Sora. "Would you help them?"

"I…of course not!" Sora stammered, a little uncertain in his voice. He never really thought about helping the Empire – Zidane claimed that he wanted to take Sora to the island on which the Returners hid in order to protect him, but what if the thief was lying? What if the Empire wanted to protect him? Given the treatment that Ryu was subjected to, with creepy men such as Sir Argul and brutal leaders such as Bosch on their side, the brown-haired boy doubted that the Empire would want him to do something good.

"Ryu, I won't be able to do anything unless I know something," Sora replied. "But.."

"Then it's best that you don't know," Ryu interrupted. "Then you won't go with them."

It was clear that Sora was not going to get an answer from the young dragon.


"This way!"

Lenne led the way through the now dark and sombre forest. She carried a torch with her, so that nobody should get lost. Sora, of course, sensed where she was going without the need of a torch. Zidane carried Ryu, as the small boy did not yet have enough strength to walk.

She stopped in front of the rock in front of which Ryu had collapsed a few hours earlier. It was an rectangular-shaped rock, appearing as if it were a table, or an altar. What was even stranger was that on top of the rock, on its surface, was a hole shaped rather as if it were a star.

"We don't leave the island very often," Eiko said. "But when we do, we take this route. It's easier than using a boat."

"You don't use a boat?" Zidane asked, baffled.

"Uh-huh!" Eiko replied, giving him a wink, which the thief ignored.

Lenne approached the rock, holding a green star-shaped gem in her right hand. She placed the gem into the hole and took three steps backwards.

The ground started to shake and to the amazement of everybody, excluding Eiko and Lenne, the rock moved backwards, revealing a hole in the ground with steps going down.

"Wow….a secret passage! Would make a good place for stolen goods!" was Zidane's comment.

Lenne started to climb down some steep wooden steps, beckoning the rest to follow her.

As they made their way down the steps, they found that there were hand-drawn pictures on the passage walls. Yuna stopped for a second to examine these drawings – the pictures of demon with huge horns that wielded fire, the huge serpent who caused great waves – they all seemed familiar to her.

"Yuna! What are you doing?"

Yuna heard Nina's voice calling her and she realised that her companions were some way further down the stairway.

Once at the bottom of the stairs, the seven found themselves in a large, dark room, with many more pictures. Lenne pointed to a gold circle with gold stars painted inside in the centre of the room. "Step in there, everyone," she ordered.

Her friends obeyed. "Uh…how is this supposed to get us out of here?" Sora asked. "It looks like a dead end."

Lenne laughed at the boy's lack of judgement. "Sora, you really should use your imagination!" Once she finished her sentence, the woman motioned her hands and began to chant.

Everything suddenly turned to white…


Sora opened his eyes. The light had faded, revealing a place which was so familiar to him… The small bed with the blue quilt, fixed to the wall right next to the door. The fireplace, on the other side of the room, opposite the bed, already lit. His collection of shells which he collected from the beach, sitting right on the edge of the mantelpiece. The whole room was exactly as he left it, three years ago…

Am I…home?

Sora stared at his old bedroom, bewildered. Was he really back?

He recognised the picture hanging on the wall, above the mantelpiece. That was the picture of the docks – the first picture he ever drew.

The fire, although it crackled and spread its room to the whole room, was a strange green colour.

"Sora…"

The boy jumped around, shocked to find a familiar face at his bedside. It was not his mother or his father – in fact, it was the person who he least expected to find.

She was still wearing her school uniform – her plain white cotton shirt and her short black skirt. Her auburn hair was fastened together by that ribbon that Nina gave her and she was still wearing that locket that Sora gave her. The fire seemed to light up her dark blue eyes.

"K-Kairi?" Sora gulped. "Wh-what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in Treno?"

The girl did not answer, but then rose without warning. She walked slowly towards the door. After putting her hand on the handle, Kairi turned to Sora and held out her hand.

"Come, Sora," she called to him.


"Sora..Sora!"

Nina shook him by the arm, her heart in a panic. Lenne, Zidane, Ryu, Yuna and Eiko stood around them, hovering with concern. Sora opened his eyes and abruptly sat up with a jerk. Where was he?

The images of Kairi and his old bedroom had vanished before his eyes. Instead, he found himself in a small, dark room which looked very similar to the room with the drawings on the wall. However, it was smaller and there was a door on the other side. Nina was sitting beside him, her face full of worry.

"….where am I?" was all the boy managed to say.

"Oh, Sora! You're awake at last!" the princess cried, overjoyed. "I thought you'd never wake up!"

Wake up? Sora wondered. What does she mean? I was in my bedroom with Kairi, unless…

"…was that….only a dream?" he thought aloud. But it was so real…

The brown-haired youth turned to his friends.

"Wh…what happened? Where are we?"

"We're in Luca," Lenne replied.

The others turned to her. "L-Luca?" Yuna asked, confusion on her face. "W-we're in Luca? How do you know?"

"That's where the teleporter took us," Eiko shrugged. "It takes us to Luca when we need to leave the island."

"T-teleporter!" Sora exclaimed, surprised. "Th-that circle thing is…a teleporter?" He realised that he was sitting in the middle of a large circle, not much different from the one on the island.

Lenne nodded. "Yeah, I know it's hard to believe that such magic exists, but it does…."

"Are you all right, Sora?" Nina then asked. "You fainted during the spell. You didn't hit your head, did you?"

"Teleport magic can make you feel a little dizzy if you're not used to it," Lenne said. "It happened to me the first time I used it as well…"

Sora could not think which was worse – travelling by vehicle and getting sick or travelling by magic and then falling unconscious.


Although Sora recovered quickly from his collapse, his head was still feeling a little sore so Zidane suggested that they take him somewhere quickly so that he could rest. They had to find somewhere to stop anyway, as it was still night.

"So, how do you know we're in Luca?" was Nina's question.

In response, Lenne approached the door and turned the handle. As it gradually opened, behind it, the others could see rows of tall white buildings, with their clean, washed walls reflecting the moonlight…

To be continued…

Sorry for the long update!

By the way, to those in America and those who imported, how's KH II? I completed the Chinese version and loved it!

I'm afraid there won't be another update until at least July! I've got my A levels to do! But when I'm at university I might have a little more time!