AN: Wow chapter 3 already.
Disclaimer: Sadly enough I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any other Final Fantasy characters that may appear in this story. Places.
Postponing the Inevitable
Chapter 3: Dreams
Yuffie sat dazed in her chair. Another day another trial, one more village person brought before her father for sentencing. She wasn't sure why this one was here, most likely because he had stolen something, probably food by the looks of him. Not like he had much choice. The cities economy was steadily declining, their people were homeless, jobless and hungry. Every new day brought with it a fresh wave of crime, and endless hours of watching these poor people file in one after another, grime faced and sullen.
Watching these people was torture to her. She was told she had to because it would make her appreciate what she had. Instead it made her feel dirty, so very dirty. Sitting there in clothing that would feed entire families for days, strong feelings of guilt encased her. Knowing that young children were dying from a lack of sufficient shelter and nutritious food, when she lived in a palace large enough to protect almost the entire cities population, and was fed feasts every night with the majority of the meal going to waste. These people looked to her for support, and as much as she wanted, needed to help them she knew she couldn't. She had tried, nightly escapades with a small entourage consisting of Cloud, Tifa and herself, would sneak out of the castle packed down with as much supplies they could carry. Food, water, blankets and first-aid kits were secretly given throughout the city.
Until one night, while making their way out of the palace their path was blocked by some unknown creature. Unaware of the beasts power they tried to avoid it. The rest of the night was spent in Yuffies room trying their best to heal themselves. They wouldn't have made it out alive, if the demon had not, for some unknown reason, left. They stopped even trying to leave the palace at night after that, for every night its hulking silhouette could be seen roaming the palace garden.
As a new person was brought before her father, Yuffie sat pondering her night time events. She didn't know what the beast was, or where it had come from. All she knew was that it was never there in the day, and the guards had not seen hide nor tail of it. They assured her there was nothing there but the shadows, but she knew better then to believe them. All the guards were under the Chief of Security, but that wasn't who they took their orders from. It was a widely known fact that all military personal followed the most revered man in Twilight Town, Sephiroth. He secretly gave them orders, and on a drop of coin they would follow him into battle. Which would one day give Twilight Town more problems then they thought possible.
Yuffie watched stern faced as a group of young men were roughly forced into the chamber. All looked to be in their late teens, unwashed and unkempt. She recognized some of them as boys she had played with in her early years, the memories of her youth brought a smile to her face. She leaned forward against the railing to hear what obscene reason they had been brought in on. Her smile dropped when the officer reported their felony, all 5 men were charged with beating 2 guards to death. It was then she noticed the blood stains littered across their clothes and faces. She knew they wouldn't be let off easily. Usually her father, the hard man he was, went lenient on the people, taking in the account of the hard times for all of them. But death was not taken lightly, especially members of the royal forces. She thanked Hyne Sephiroth wasn't present, her father understood how cruel some of the guards could be, he had heard the tales and had witnessed some of their feats. Hopefully without the overpowering presence of Sephiroth the men may only get a week or so in the palace holding cells.
Luck was with them, the King raised his hand about to finalize his decision, two weeks in the palace holding cells or payment of 5,000 munney. The chamber doors banged open, and in walked Sephiroth. Yuffies head screamed no. The tall man walked slowly up the center isle between the chairs. He faced her father and bowed.
"Your highness, I am deeply sorry of my late intrusion, I was otherwise occupied. It seems we have been having a little pest problem at night." His head swivelled towards the balcony containing Yuffie. "No need to worry, it has been dealt with." A sly grin crossed his, but disappeared as he turned back to the King.
Once again her father raised his hand to finalize the sentence. Sephiroth glided up the steps and took his place next to the King.
"Your highness if I may be so bold as to ask what these boys are here for?"
"They uh..."
"Yes?"
"Well they killed two guards."
"Oh...and what may I ask was your sentence going to be?"
"I was going to give them two weeks in the holding cells, or a fine of 5,000 munney."
"That's it!" Sephiroth stood up. "These boys Murdered two of my..your armies men, and your going to put them in a measly cell where they will be better off then if you left them on the streets. I am sorry sir but I must object to your sentencing you are being easy on them." Yuffie wanted to run down there and shove her shuriken up his...
"Calm down, calm down..." She took a deep breath. "Hopefully he won't be able to change Godo's mind."
"Your highness." Sephiroth lowered his voice to a sickly sweet but still demanding tone. "You know that your are going to easy on these vagabonds." He stretched his last word his mouth twisting into a sneer. "Their sentence should be nothing less than...Death." Godo glanced at Sephiroth, his gaze met the blazing feral look of the older mans and he quickly lowered his stare. He nodded.
"NO!" Yuffies mouth was quickly covered by her lady in waiting. Sephiroth watched her out of the corners of his eyes, his sneer never wavering. When satisfied that she was adequately subdued he continued on his tirade.
"It is not acceptable to let these mongrels roam your streets, it's time you show the people that you will not take this anymore, show them they cannot get away with their thefts and meaningless bar fights. Show them the penalty." Godo raised his quivering hand.
"I, Godo Kisaragi, King of Twilight Town sentence all of you to...death." He bowed his head and slumped backwards his chair.
The men were taken out of the chamber, single file. The whole room was silent not a sound was made. As the doors closed, Yuffie was escorted to her room. In the hallway she passed Sephiroth he strode past her casually. Yuffie released herself of her ladies warning grasp and flung her self at him fist flying. She got one hit in before her arms were wrenched into his iron grip.
"Now now, you wouldn't want to end up in the holding cells yourself would you?" His answer was her glare. "Your little outburst today was quite inappropriate I will have to talk to you father about that won't I?" Yuffie wriggled in his grasp. "Oh, since we're talking about informing you father of your unfortunate dealings I suppose it would only be appropriate for me to include your night time rendevous, wouldn't you say?"
"You don't know what your talking about."
"Are you so sure? I suggest next time you keep your mouth shut, or I may not be so lenient, here or in the garden." With that he released her grip throwing her to the ground, he turned and glided effortlessly past her and down the corridor. He stopped halfway down the hall to look out the window. Five shots rang out, breaking the evenings icy silence. A silent tear rolled down Yuffies cheek, her saddened eyes reached the almost glowing eyes of the man in front of her. He stared at her, her crumpled position on the floor, and laughed, a joyless, merciless, bone chilling laugh, one that would haunt Yuffie for the rest of her life.
She bolted straight up, gasping for air. His laughter dying in her ears. The blankets pooled around her waist, the cool night arm stinging her bare arms. Every night, every night for the past month she had been haunted by those nightmaresDifferent episodes centered around...that man, no that monster. He had led the army in a revolt against her home, stolen everything from her, including her best friend. When they fled she had hoped the dreams would stop, but to no avail.
She took a deep breath and wiped her brow, where beads of sweat had collected. She untangled herself from the blankets, and set her feet on the floor. The clock on the desk told her it was closing in on 6 in the morning. She quickly got dressed and left the room to check on Cloud. Yuffie walked up behind his chair and leaned across the top.
"Mornin!"
"WHAA? Holy crap! Don't do that!"
"Good your awake."
"No thanks to you."
"To bad I wanted to talk." She got off his chair and sat down in her own, swinging her legs over the armrest.
"Did you have a dream again?" Yuffie averted her eyes from his gaze and nodded. "Which one was it this time?"
"The one with the trials."
"Oh." Cloud knew this was one of the more painful ones for her, he hadn't been there and couldn't share the burden of her knowledge. He reached over and patted her head. "Don't worry it'll be ok, cheer up. Besides if my calculations are correct we should be in Traverse Town soon."
"Your calculations? Since when did you do math when you didn't have to?"
"When your sitting in a chair for 8 hours with nothing else to do."
"Oh come on Cloud I sure you could have found something else to do." She gave her best attempt at wiggling her eyebrows.
"What?"
"You know what I mean." Cloud still looked stunned. Until his mouth formed an "o" and she knew he understood, then his face contorted into a grotesque expression.
"What! NO! Hyne Yuffie I'd never do that...well at least not with you onboard." Yuffie chuckled.
"Anyways, so do you know anything about Traverse Town?"
"Not really, I once overheard some guards talking about it."
"You mean you were eavesdropping."
"Listening, eavesdropping same thing. But yeah, I think I heard them say it always night there or something." Yuffie gulped.
"Always night? Are you sure that's safe?"
"I'm sure the place is well lit, don't worry." Yuffie turned to look out the window in the distance she could see a small glowing dot.
"Hey! Is that it?"
"I'd reckon it is." As they got closer and closer and the world grew and grew, she noticed the multitude of florescent signs, flashing and blinking in all directions.
"I think well lit was an understatement."
Incase it confused anyone a lady in waiting is really just a personal maid.
Wow I have no clue where that chapter came from. I didn't write anything like that I just sorta made it up while I was going. And my apologies about the flashback/dream being so long, I know that they can be a pain to read sometimes. I hoped you liked it, please review!
Laurel Leonhart