Well here it is as promised the final chapter. I'm so pleased with myself. I have over 100 hits per chapter. Remember if I do write a sequel it won't be until Thanksgiving at the earliest. Either that or I may add another chapter onto this. I had no idea any of these things would happen when I wrote this they just happened. So I have no idea what would happen if I wrote another.

Chapter 11

Welcome home

"Can't this tin can move any faster?" Reno complained and proceeded to tap his foot impatiently.

Cid spun around in his chair to glower the redheaded Turk. "One more peep outta ya, and I'm pushing ya out the door!" He set a toothpick between his teeth and went back to navigating.

Despite her motion sickness, Yuffie managed a slight chuckle at Reno's expense. He turned to her and frowned. "Et tu Yuffie? Et tu?" His attention was drawn away by a slight tugging on his ponytail. He grunted in annoyance and turned to find Cloud smiling up at him with his head held high.

"Hi X L!" He waved and scampered over to where Tifa was sitting beside Leon. He wondered into Leon's lap. Leonheart rolled his eyes in annoyance but didn't push him off.

"X L?" Reno asked. He looked around for some explanation but everyone was too busy with their own conversations. Aerith and Zack were chatting in the corner. Tifa was laughing at Leon's blank expression, while Cloud begged for her attention. Valentine was all by himself, but Reno didn't especially care for the solemn man's company. Yuffie was slumped over in her chair looking extremely pale, and moaning in misery. Cid was too busy driving and would sooner rip his head off than start up a conversation. Their newest friend was a girl with deep red hair. She seemed pretty quiet in comparison to her friends. He decided she would make for the best company and moved over to stand beside her.

Kairi gazed out the perfectly spotless window to look upon the stars. She had been hoping to see different worlds for so long and now it didn't seem as if that had been the best of dreams. Every world seemed to be more and more dangerous than the last. She sighed and studied the nearest star. It could be her world passing by at any moment and she would never know it. Nothing was a simple as it once was. Childish beliefs were crushed by this blackness that was universe. This space between worlds was beautiful, yes, but behind beauty darkness can easily hide.

Footsteps came up from behind and distracted her from the stars. "Nice night." She nodded and took little notice of Reno's presence. "Can't you talk?"

"I was just thinking," she whispered, "About home."

"Homesick?" He asked with a small smirk.

"No, I like adventures, but I never knew how different everything was. They are all so unlike my home." She gave a small smile and looked back out the window. "Somehow the ride out was a lot longer then the one back."

Reno leaned forward and stared out at the closest planet. It was his old home all right but nothing like he remembered it. As they moved closer into the atmosphere they took their seats for a final time. Home is home. He told himself and winced as the ship began to tremble in preparation for landing.

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It was morning when they arrived. The market place had a few early shoppers roaming about. Shopkeepers were hurrying to open their stores before they received any more traffic.

Yuffie bounded out of the ship and fell to her knees. She bowed several times. "Praise Holy! I'm never leaving this planet again!" She bowed down two more times before she realized that there was a pair of boots just inches away from her nose. She jumped back up to her feet in a sloppy manner and drew up her fists. "What's the big idea with sneaking up on a girl like me!?"

"Yuffie, what're ya screaming about now?" Cid growled and locked up the ship.

"Axel?" Kairi jumped over some of the rumble that still littered Radiant Garden's streets.

The one who Yuffie had encountered smiled. "In the flesh."

He saw her confused face and answered her question for her. "I saw you leaving Traverse town and figured I would drop by."

"Sora told me that you were..." He held up a hand for her to stop.

"Point is I'm here now. That means I can apologize in person. Sorry for what happened before."

" Everything turned out fine so it doesn't really matter."

"I'll take that as an 'I forgive you,' for now"

"Kairi hurry up!" Tifa tugged her arm and ignored the red haired man.

"I have to go. Maybe we will run into one another again." She gave a small wave and raced after the group.

Axel was alone save for Reno who just stood there and stared at him with a look of annoyance. "I'm watching you," He said and pointed an accusing finger.

"MmmmmKay," Axel was completely confused by Reno's reaction.

"I'm serious. There is only one Reno and that's me. Try and replace me and you'll have to answer to the Turks!" He made what he thought would be a threatening pose and slowly backed away. Axel raised an eyebrow and watched as his look-alike followed after Kairi and her friends.

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Yuffie pounded heavily on the door to Merlin's house. "Hey old man, open up!" She whined when an answer didn't come. "Squall, he isn't home ahhhhhh."

"Yuffie act you're age." Leon corrected and wrapped on the door. Once again, there wasn't a reply.

"Told you he wasn't home." He ignored her obvious statement and delivered a swift kick to the door instead. The wood splintered and the door was knocked from its rusty hinges. It fell inward with a loud thud and caused a decent amount of dust to erupt from the floor.

"Ooooooo you're gonna get it." Yuffie taunted as they stepped inside.

"That's only the third time he has done that anyway," Aerith added, and carefully stepped over the doors shattered fragments. "This place seems even messier than usual."

Zack followed behind her. "Actually it's cleaner than I remember." Tifa was right behind him along with Kairi and Reno. Cid was the last one to get inside the small house. Cloud was resting happily on his shoulders and was trying to steal his goggles. Cid frowned when he saw the door lying on the floor. "I'm not gonna fix it this time."

"Wait, where's Vincent?" Yuffie asked.

"He just walked off," Tifa explained.

"It figures."

"Good heavens what happened here?" Merlin was leaning in the door way and glancing around as if he were lost.

"Welcome home!" Yuffie chimed, and waved innocently.

"Well I must say there's a fair deal more of you then when you left." He placed his old travel bag

on top of the table, and turned to face them. "It's good to know you're doing well Mack."

"Merlin, that's Zack." Tifa pointed out.

"Of course, dear. I know very well who he is." The group rolled their eyes. "Now did you find my book?"

"It's right here," Aerith held the grimy book out at arms length and waited for him to accept it.

"Thank you my dear." He placed his glasses on the edge of his nose. He licked the tip of his finger and began to flip slowly through the pages. "Ah here it is." He ran his boney finger along the lines and tapped the paragraph that contained their answer." He continued to read while they waited impatiently. All of them except for Cloud he was much more interested in staring at Merlin's pointy shoes.

Merlin cleared his throat and an odd blush crept across his cheeks. "I seem to have found the solution to our little problem." He cleared his throat again and started to rummage through some cupboards.

"Why are you stalling?" Tifa asked suspiciously.

"Now dear, it isn't polite to accuse people of wrongdoing without any proof." He turned back to his cluttered cupboards, and grumbled something about having more ingredients then he could use in a life time.

He gave a guilty chuckle and turned to them. "Would any of you happen to have an elixir?"

"Yes…" Leon said slowly and carefully studied Merlin's face.

"Well then problem solved." He turned and waited for Leon to hurry in his search for the healing item.

"Here." He produced a small vile from his side pocket and handed it over.

"Now all I need is Clyde."

"Cloud," Tifa said hopelessly.

"That's what I said dear. Perhaps you children need hearing assistance"

Cid lifted Cloud off his shoulders and set him on the bed. The old wizard bustled over and held the elixir in front of the blonde child. "Go on lad, drink it."

"Wait just a doggone minute," Cid growled and flicked the toothpick from his mouth. "Yer tellin me that all we had to do was give em an elixir?!"

Merlin smiled like and idiot. "Precisely." It had become fairly obvious that he was embarrassed. The way he stalled and read the page for such a long time made the solution seem even more complicated than it truly was. He looked around at their faces. Some were shocked and some looked pretty ticked.

"I'm not even going to start." Leon said and slumped into Cid's computer chair.

"Well I am!" Yuffie pouted. "I had been sick for hours and…"She realized that nobody was even bothering to listen to her. She crossed her arms and harrumphed loudly.

"Just give him the elixir," Reno said trying desperately to get it over with. He just wanted to sleep.

"Go on Cloud, take it." Aerith encouraged.

He shook his head quickly. "Uh uh, it looks yucky." He covered his mouth so that no one could force him.

"If you drink all of it I'll get you a pet chocobo," Yuffie persuaded.

"A yellow one?" he asked in awe.

"Sure."

He held out his hands and accepted the small vile from Merlin. He slowly placed it in his mouth and chugged it down. It didn't necessarily taste bad, but it didn't task fantastic either.

When the vile was finished he handed it to Cid and collapsed onto the bed. A soft green light enveloped him. They looked away since the light was too bright when inside Merlin's dark house. When it faded they turned back and found Cloud asleep. They counted their blessings when they realized that he was back to his older self. His hair was longer and spikier. His muscles were stronger and his face was calm. Just they way he was before.

Finally they could rest (Keep reading it is not over yet)

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(You didn't think that was the end did you?")

Everything went back to its old routine. The restoration committee went back to their job of rebuilding the town, and Cloud went back to avoiding too much contact with them. He still did his part. He worked to repel the heartless and helped repair parts of the town; of course he usually did his work separately from the others.

Kairi had been staying here with them for a few weeks. She liked this place. There wasn't a single school around. Well that, and the fact that she liked being with her new friends. She was looking forward to that evening. Sora was going to stop by and take a break from his adventures just to spend some time with them.

Right now wasn't the time to be thinking about that though. Aerith had given her the job of being their messenger. Yuffie used to do it, but she had started to claim that it was demeaning for a woman of her talent.

Now her new duty had brought her to the ravine trail. Basically it was a wide mountain range with lots of little caves scattered randomly. She was busy cutting between walls and crevices of rock when she finally found the exit. She was in a wide open area that she recognized from one of Sora's stories. It was called the "great maw." To her it was the perfect name. This place was just like a giant mouth just waiting to swallow up any and all unsuspecting travelers. She shivered at the though and continued to walked onward.

A small ray of sunlight glinted of a large piece of steel like a beacon. It called her towards it. She knew it would direct her to the one she was looking for. The way the sunlight hit his sword he practically glowed.

Cloud stood alone in the wide mountain pass. Alone, the way he had been so many times in life. Someone's footsteps, soft and slow, were approaching. The sound alerted him, and made him smoothly turn to his visitor.

Kairi stopped when she met his blue eyes. She nervously laced her fingers together, and searched for her words. They stood and just stared at one another. She felt a blush cross her face. For some reason she couldn't remember what she had come to tell him. Instead, she just stood there feeling stupid.

"Remember me?" She asked quietly. He nodded and continued to wait for her to say why she had come. Finally it hit her like a brick. "Yuffie wanted me to tell that Sora is on his way. I think they want you to help in his training."

"Fine." He turned and started to go the way she had come. The first thing he had said to her since their return had been that one word "Fine." The thought depressed her. He wasn't anything like his younger self, not at all. She had assumed that he would become a close friend just like all the others had, but he was away so often that it was nearly impossible.

She followed after him in silence, until a soft clink made her stop and look at her feet. A small star shaped pendant had fallen from her pocket. It had been her lucky charm, and lately it seemed to be working. She leaned over, scooped it up, and held it to her chest. It was just a small bit of her life that she always wanted to hold onto.

She felt a cold chill rush over her and somehow she knew what it was. "Cloud!" She called ahead to him. He turned slowly, and his face seemed to drop in disappointment.

Sephiroth was standing in the exact spot they had been just moments before. "Now cloud," He said with a wicked smirk, "You know we haven't finished our game yet."

Cloud was by her side in an instant. He quickly gave her a push back towards the trail. "Go." He ordered.

"Mmmmm…" She didn't want to leave him behind.

"Kairi, go now!" he pleaded.

"…Okay…" She ran back the way she had come. When she reached the cliff wall she turned to look back, and whispered into the wind, "Be careful, Cloud." Breaking into a run once a gain her feet carried her over the rocky ravine path and to the bailey. She leaned against the stone walls and caught her breath. When her heart calmed its frenzied beats she was hit with hundreds of thoughts and worries. All of them screamed, "What if…What if…" They left her when she felt a small stinging in her hands. She looked down and saw a small trail of blood oozing out from between her clutching fingers. Opening her hands, she stared at her lucky charm. In her worry she had gripped it so tightly that it broke her skin. She ignored it and looked out at the remains of the castle. The afternoon sun was hanging in the west, and glistened perfectly off its crumbling walls. It would be nightfall soon enough. She would go and tell the others then, even though she already knew that by now their battle was over. Someone had won and someone had lost. And in losing they had lost their life.

FIN (If I don't continue this, consider this ending to be a tragedy. Yes that's right. If I don't continue that means Cloud is dead. O.O If I do continue, he may still be dead. I'm not telling. P )

And that's that. This is your last chance to review. I know ending bad but I hate when every story ends with something like-and they never played with magic again- or-they lived happily ever after. Tell me what you really thought. Thanks to all of you who were brave enough to review. You made this story happen. I plan to rewrite chapter 2 eventually.

For the final time I don't own KH or FF7 the plot is mine period, the fat lady has sung, the end !