Yuffie was sitting on the wall that bordered the main settlement of Traverse Town when she saw another world go dark.
Keep your head down was generally a phrase to live by in Traverse Town, and sometimes you had to take it literally. Looking at the sky when you knew what you were looking at just weighed your heart down. The streetlights weren't kept brighter than they strictly needed to be to light the way for residents out at night even in the poorer districts because of the heartless. That kind of light didn't bother them. It was so you couldn't see the stars in the sky, and wouldn't see how many had went out since you last tried to count. When you went above the streetlights you undid their work, but Yuffie liked sitting in the shadows in places nobody would ever look for her or expect her to reach. It was the ninja's natural state. She knew to keep her eyes on the streets, looking for shoppers with full bags not paying attention.
She knew not to look up and yet she did anyway, and not with a quick, mistaken glance, but spending ten or twenty minutes perversely stargazing and waiting, thinking about what Donald and Goofy had said about the rapid spread of the heartless across the worlds and allowing herself to be distracted from her primary task of shoppers weighed down with more accessories than they needed (Squall never asked where she got the accessories she gave to Cid to add to his stock, just like Cid pretended he didn't realize he was reselling some of the same accessories multiple times. Aerith admitted to knowing, but she didn't disapprove like Squall would have felt obligated to, which was why Aerith was Yuffie's favorite. She understood you did what you needed to do when you were a refuge).
Yuffie had thought that she would need every bit of her ninja reflexes to actually catch a star blinking and leaving a hole in the sky, but what she saw instead was the star split into two streaks that shot across the sky in different directions, the left taking on a trajectory that looked a little close.
New arrival. That was some luck.
She wasn't sure if she'd say good or bad, but it was impressive against the odds. Only the strongest hearts made it to Traverse Town or another worlds without assistance when their worlds fell. Even Yuffie, Squall, Aerith, and Cid had a gummi ship.
Yuffie stood and stretched before eyeing her jump from the wall to a nearby roof to a stack of crates to the ground.
Time to find the poor bastard.
She'd give them a tour of Traverse Town as long as they weren't too weepy. She hated the weepy ones who had lost family. Aerith had told Yuffie that she'd been "weepy" for awhile at first too, but she'd been a kid. Yuffie thought adults shouldn't cry. There should be rules. As long as they stuck to the rules and didn't cry, then she'd show them the ropes around town. Maybe she'd sympathize with them about how the trip across the universe had shaken everything from their pockets. Then again, with losing their home world, they probably wouldn't even notice or care.
Yuffie found the newcomer in the alley. At least she assumed the boy with the enormous shoes and red jumpsuit that would have struck Yuffie as odd if she hadn't seen people arrive in much weirder-togas and full metal armor for starters- passed out on the ground was the shooting star she'd seen. She nudged his side with her foot, calling, "Hey, kid, wake up!" When he didn't stir, she crouched beside him and inspected his head for injuries. To her relief, there was no blood. He couldn't have hit his head that hard or his spiky hair had cushioned the blow. He was soaked-it must have been raining when his world fell-but it was a warm night, so catching cold wasn't even that pressing of a worry. Unconscious but uninjured was the best case scenario. That meant there was no debate over whether to play at being a decent person or play opportunist.
She squatted down beside him and rifled through his pockets as quickly as possible, finding nothing but a bit of damp grit at the bottom. The only thing of possible value she could see on him was a silver crown charm hanging from a chain necklace around his neck. She couldn't feel the buzz of any enchantment on it, but maybe Aerith could do something with it.
"Hey, if you don't mind me stealing your necklace, then don't react." Yuffie gave the boy one last chance to wake up. "Okay, finders keepers it is."
When she looked back on the night later, Yuffie decided she really shouldn't have kept talking right next to Sora's face as she unclasped the chain around his neck. Hindsight was 20/20.
Sora was lost in a dream already fading before he even returned to consciousness where Kairi was standing over him, shouting at him to wake up because she had something important to tell him, when he jerked awake to a female face with sharper angles than Kairi's and much darker hair framing it taking up a good portion of his field of vision.
"W..what's going on?" Sora's voice was rough like he'd swallowed and choked back up a gallon of seawater. He blinked and frowned, trying to focus his eyes through the pounding in his head and overcome the swirling feeling of disorientation. Who was the girl? Where was the beach? Did he get to the boat in time? No, something happened to the boat. He needed to remember.
"Oh, shit!" Dark eyes widened and then quickly retreated along with the girl they were attached to and the ever-present reassuring weight of Sora's crown pendant from around his neck.
"Come back! That's not yours!" Sora's entire body screamed when he tried to move and his head swum again. Where was the beach? Where were Riku and Kairi? He was having a hard time focusing, but it seemed like he'd just been robbed. "Riku gave me that!"
Sora took off running, letting his brain catch up when it could and forcing his body to work out its kinks. His feet slapped against stone not sand, he was certain even in his fogged state that the buildings he was passing weren't anywhere on the island he'd grown up on much less play island where he remembered being last, he was starting to remember Riku and Kairi disappearing into an inky void, and he soon found himself trying to shut his mind back down, because if he let himself actively think about any of that he'd become paralyzed by it, and he couldn't lose a moment. The thief was fast, and she had longer legs than he did. This was what footraces on the islands again Riku (Riku, where are you?) and Kairi (Kairi are you okay?) were training him for.
"I said get back here!" Sora followed the thief through a giant wooden door to the upper level of another, larger square of shops and other assorted buildings. He was almost close enough to grab her.
"Sorry, wish I had the time to chat but I don't, hyuk hyuk," the girl taunted him, launching herself over a low railing and disappearing from sight.
"No you don't!" Sora placed his hands on the railing and vaulted after her without hesitation, landing feet first in a fountain whose hard bottom hit with force sent shock waves through his legs. Water lapped at his legs below the knee and bubbled into his shoes, saturating his socks. The thief was nowhere to be found, vanished without a trace as if she'd jumped into an alternate dimension just to leave him all wet. For a moment, Sora debated flopping right down in the fountain water, as it felt like a fitting expression of his frustration and sudden sinking heart at the idea he might have just lost his only keepsake from his best friend if he really was stranded in a strange world. Then again, if he really was stranded in a strange world, then he may want to avoid soaking his only set of clothes even more.
Sora stepped out of the fountain, shoulders slumping, and sat on the edge. He'd just taken off his left shoe and dumped out the excess water-for what good that would do-trying not to tear up (He'd wanted to see the universe, but his friends were supposed to be with him, and he was supposed to know his mother was safe and he could come back to her one day) when he heard a shout from a side street that had him on his feet again. The giant key from the islands was back in his hand before he'd even consciously thought danger.
He ran toward the sound of the voice, slightly off balance with one bare foot, and was confronted with a sight almost as scarring as his last moments on Destiny Islands: a man laying prone on the ground while a creature with the same oppressive presence as the shadows on the islands, hiding in a shell of cobbled together armor that almost would have made it look more human if it didn't move with unnatural jerky movements, bent over him, clawing at his chest with long fingers. The creature's bowed back hid the worst, but there was a sickening slurping sound. A crystalline, candy pink heart, closer to a Valentine come to life than anything anatomically accurate, floated overhead for a second before it turned dark and another of the twisted soldiers rose from the ground nearby.
Sora screamed, wordless and distressed, but channeling horror into a battle cry as he surged forward, brandishing the strange sword. "Get away from him!"
It was too late. He knew with stomach clenching certainty that it was too late and he was about to battle over a dead body-though the body disappeared as he swung the magic blade that had come when he needed it, which was another level of strange in the oddest day of his life.-but it never occurred to him to run and save himself when he saw someone else suffer. He blocked a swipe of claws and twisted to strike at the second soldier, who jumped back and disappeared in a puddle of darkness. Turning his attention back to the first and now only soldier, Sora swung one, two, three times in rapid succession, striking low then high, feeling armor dent and causing the creature to admit a pained cry. He didn't let up, acting on muscle memory but trying not to think of laughing taunts of "Is that all you got?" and potentially throw off his groove, however much he'd rather see Riku's face in his mind's eye than be seeing the soulless eyes shining out of the helmet of the creature looking for an opening to claw out his heart like it had done to its last victim.
Eventually, another heart floated overhead before dissipating into the ether and another corpse vanished, but this one left only relief. With the battle past, Sora heard ragged gasping, and it took him a second to realize it was his own. He banished the key-sword, and sank to his knees, raising hands to hold his head.
He wasn't granted even twenty second to mourn and marvel before four more soldiers came from the shadows. Sora rolled to his feet and his world narrowed again to block, parry, strike. More came and surrounded him. His heart-rate kept climbing as his mind said there were too many.
Then, next time claws came toward Sora, they were blocked by another, larger sword wielded in the hands of a man in black leathers with a scar across his face. The man then shot a large fireball at another soldier. Sora didn't physically have it in him to be surprised any more that night, but he was grateful for the stranger that had come from nowhere and helped him make quick work of the soldier swarm in the following minutes.
"Thank you," Sora huffed a touch breathlessly, banishing the key-sword once more and hunching over with hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath once they were alone on the street.
"They'll come at you out of nowhere," the stranger warned in a dark shade of monotone, eyes boring into Sora.
"Yeah, I figured that out." Sora stretched, trying to mentally take stock of his body and finding that, aside from a throbbing in his left shoulder that was dull enough it was probably just bruised, the scratches he'd gotten on the islands, a headache, and his missing shoe that he actually wasn't in bad shape, physically speaking at least. "I'm Sora. I'm...not from around here and I appreciate..." His voice trailed off halfway through the sentence. The older man was talking over him.
"They'll keep on coming at you as long as you continue to wield the keyblade." The stranger rested his sword against his shoulder and tossed his long brown hair out of his eyes, somehow making the gesture look intimidating and regal. Sora thought there was something lion-like about him though he could have had that impression put in his head by the necklace he was wearing.
Necklace. Sora needed to find that thief. Maybe the lion guy could help him out again. He seemed pretty knowledgeable. He knew about the key-sword at least. "Is that what this thing is called, a keyblade?" Sora summoned the keyblade again just to twirl it and rest it against his shoulder like Lion Man.
" Why would it choose a kid like you?" Lion Man muttered to himself, a distressed furrow appearing between his brows. It was more than a little insulting from Sora's perspective, both being ignored and being called a kid when he'd taken out just as many monsters as Lion Man with his fireballs and gun-sword.
"I'm not a kid," Sora started off whining, and inwardly cringed. That did nothing but make him sound more childish. He cleared his throat, puffed his chest, and straightened his spine, channeling every knight or pirate captain he'd ever playacted at being. Lion Man had just implied he was some kind of chosen one. He was the carrier of the keyblade. He wasn't sure what a keyblade was or what it meant to be carrier, but he could make a weapon appear out of thin air like magic and that should command respect. "And I am the one the blade chose whatever you think of it." He swung the keyblade from its resting place and held it pointed at Lion Man at the end of an extended arm, trying to hold a glare. What was either a bead of sweat or a drop of water falling from his hair rolled down the back of his neck, tickling it, he really had to sneeze, and he kind of just wanted someone to hug him, but he could sustain the intimidation attempt for maybe five seconds longer. He wasn't just some kid. If he had been, that kid had died earlier that night when his best friends had gotten swallowed by darkness and left him alone to fight monsters from hell that ripped out your heart.
Lion Man slowly, deliberately knocked the keyblade to the side with the tip of his own sword, his expression reading like a disappointed parent. "Don't point a weapon at anyone you aren't prepared to use it on. " He kept his sword pointed toward the ground afterward, and beckoned with his free hand. "Now hand me the keyblade before you hurt yourself or someone else."
"What?" Sora backpedaled, voice a screech he soon coughed away again, calling back his glare and dropping into a fighting stance. "There's no way I'm handing over the keyblade to you!"
Lion Man sighed, long-suffering, and raised his sword. "Have it your way, kid."
His first swing was aggressive but slow enough Sora was able to dodge easily and pivot his momentum into a strike of his own that hit solidly-with the blunt side. Sora had seen Lion Man twisting his blade and understood this was a game, a test to see if he could show Lion Man not to underestimate him. Sora danced away, and a fireball chased him, coming close enough he smelled singed hair. That seemed less like a game. Sora readjusted his grip on the keyblade and came for Lion Man again, this time with intent. His swing was blocked. He jumped away to avoid the reprisal. They danced around each other for awhile, exchanging blows that didn't land. Sora began to question again whether Lion Man was toying with him, testing him, or serious in the face off.
Another fireball came and Sora wasn't able to roll out of the way in time, but he raised the keyblade to block at the last second on some mad instinct, and though it shouldn't have worked, the fireball rebounded toward Lion Man, who had to throw himself to the side to avoid it. Sora took advantage of his distraction to get in a few free hits with the keyblade, smacking at Lion Man with the flat again. Sora almost had time to congratulate himself on ending the stalemate when Lion Man started to glow. Maybe Sora could still be surprised after all. He took a hard hit that rattled his teeth, knocked him back, and carried a mild electric current through his bones. He tried to recover, but that first strike led to a series of others, and Sora was soon seeing the world swim around him as jelly legs gave out. At least now he knew for certain Lion Man didn't want to kill him for the keyblade. Less reassuring was that he totally could have. Sora's last grim thought as he lost consciousness was that he hoped he wasn't about to be robbed again.
As soon as Sora fell to the ground, Yuffie came out from her hiding place. She'd only been watching for about a minute. Before then, she'd been in Pongo and Perdita's, checking in to see if there was anything they needed. If she'd also taken the opportunity to hide a certain necklace inside a certain piano, then that was just a bonus. She'd heard the commotion when she'd slipped back out the door hoping the spiky-haired kid wasn't still hanging around, and kept hidden when she noticed Squall had spiky-haired kid well taken care of. Teamwork made the dream work! Though, when she realized what Spikes was holding in his hand, she gathered Squall wasn't protecting her.
"Congrats, Squall. You beat up a ten year old." She slow clapped for him. "Now to see if you can take his toy." If anyone was going to be worthy to hold the key it was Squall.
"I've told you a thousand times that my name is Leon now." Leon was more cautious around the unconscious Spikes than Yuffie had been. There was less kicking too. When he was satisfied, he bent and tried to pry the keyblade from his hands. "And don't make fun of him. He's determined and not a bad fighter." Leon's hand closed around the hilt of the keyblade, and he lifted it away from Spikes, only to have it dematerialize and reappear resting atop Spiky's chest like a protective pet. "Perfect. It looks like things are worse than we thought. A lot worse. There's our keybarer."
Yuffie let out the breath she'd held when Leon tried his luck with the keyblade. It had been little more than a longshot and a near idle wish, and she was glad Leon wouldn't have the excuse to take off and go fighting heartless across worlds, but she was disappointed still on his behalf. Everyone knew how badly Leon wanted to prove himself worthy in some way. Prove it to himself at least. Yuffie had always seen Squall as a worthy hero. She couldn't come out and say that mushy stuff though.
"Do you have a way to contact Goofy and Donald?" Yuffie shifted from foot to foot. Too bad the knight and the mage hadn't stayed in town a few days longer.
"No," Leon shook his head shortly. "We'll have to wait until they swing back this way for a supply run." That could be awhile and they both knew it. It couldn't even be certain Donald and Goofy would come back to Traverse Town instead of Disney Castle. The benefit of Traverse Town was to check in to see if there were any new rumors of a keybearer among the diverse, connected population, but Disney Castle would have free supplies, mechanics that knew their ship better than Cid, and would be where to go if they wanted to see if Queen Minnie had any word from the king. All that Leon could do was wait, play the odds, and try to get the kid-their chosen keybearer-a little training in the mean time.
If worst came to worse, Leon could press Cid to build a new gummi ship and send the keybearer out on his own. Looking down at his small, prone form, face twitching in troubled sleep and only one large shoe on his feet, Leon was reluctant to call that anything but a back up plan though. "We'll take care of the keybearer until Goofy and Donald return. Help me carry him to the hotel and we'll talk about how we're going to convince him to trust me when he wakes up."
"Yeah, about that..." Yuffie pulled a face. "There might be some difficulty with me too."
Leon sighed, already knowing he didn't want to ask for the story. "We'll figure it out."
A few galaxies over, Riku awoke with an unresponsive Kairi in his arms at the bottom of a ravine. Waterfalls lining the ravine walls appeared to defy gravity for a moment, flowing upwards rather than down, though after another few seconds passed, Riku would discount his first impression. Overhead, large, flat topped rocks floated in midair, creating a possible path ahead if Riku could think of a way to get Kairi to travel it with him. Riku craned his neck up and up from where he sat on the ground with Kairi, but there was no end in sight all the way up to a glimpse of pink sky.
"We did it! We really did it! I opened the door and we got to a new world." Awe colored Riku's voice, though he could hear his heart in his ears and he felt like he couldn't draw in full breaths unless he concentrated. It was wonderful and horrible at the same time, a dream realized but whispers in your ear that you'd traded everything else important for it. He couldn't close his eyes because he saw pieces of the island floating into the sky. Kairi was cold to the touch. Sora hadn't made it through the portal with them.
"Kairi, time to wake up, slacker. Kairi! Come on, Kairi!" Riku called to her gently at first, then more insistently, and finally with some of the desperation he felt. "Please, Kairi. I'm..."he swallowed thickly. "I'm sorry for what I said, alright? You're only going to hear me say it once, so you better wake up and listen. I need you Kairi, because I need to find Sora so it can be like we all planned, and I don't know if I can do it without you." He was quickly spiraling out, losing sight of his victory. He hadn't cried since he was six and he wouldn't start now, but he kept talking like he couldn't physically keep the words in. "You know him better these days. You know both of us better, I think. Better than we know each other even though you've been with us less time. It's really annoying actually. Sora and I have always been closer than anything. He...you know things aren't great with my family, but I have Sora and then you became the Sora expert and...It's dumb." She wasn't waking up and he was just talking to air. "I'm being dumb and you're missing this rare opportunity to see me act dumb because you're sleeping. Please, please wake up."
Riku was so engrossed in his futile one-sided conversation that he didn't notice the beast until it was so close it could have pounced. It towered over him on hind legs, shaggy as a grizzly bear he'd seen pictured in a nature book on the islands, large, sharp tusks protruding from its mouth only half as large or sharp as the black horns that topped its head. Riku had no weapon and no chance to defend Kairi or himself. His strategy would have been to yell and try to scare the beast away-not likely to work but some large wild animals that hadn't been exposed to many humans still feared them, or so Riku had thought he'd read. Before he could do even that though, a wall of green fire sprung up between him and Kairi and the beast.
"Back, foul creature! You will not harm these children!" The passionate declaration came from behind Riku. He swiveled his head to find a tall, slender woman with greenish skin in a black robe lined with purple and a horned headdress to match it holding a golden staff aloft. She would have been a fearsome sight if the context didn't make her look like a darker version of avenging angel instead.
A full-bodied roar that set Riku's heart to jumping again came from the other side of the fire. "So they are to be left to you, witch?" a deep voice rumbled. "I will pry them from you if I have to dismantle your castle brick by brick! If you run me off now I will come and take them in the night along with Belle!"
"You do not have the power to threaten me, Beast!" the witch yelled and the fire flared higher. The heat on Riku's face was near unbearable, he pulled himself and Kairi away until they were all but resting against the witch's knees as they sat on the ground. "Go while I give you the chance!" The witch lowered her hands, the one not holding the staff coming to rest atop Riku's head in a sign of what was either protection or possession.
The only response was another roar and the sound of claws against stone retreating.
"I think you just saved my life...our lives," Riku admitted as the fire faded. He hated being beholden to anyone, but the discomfort was outweighed by how impressive he'd found the display and a wave of gratitude that allowing Kairi to be mauled by a beast wasn't going to be added to his list of regrets.
"Yes, it does seem that way, doesn't it?" The witch flexed her fingers, not quite scratching Riku's scalp. "I suppose introductions are in order. I am Maleficent, one of the greater fairies of the Enchanted Dominion and presently the Lady of Hollow Bastion. Who are you and your special friend?"
"I'm Riku and this is Kairi." Riku felt a slight surge of embarrassment despite himself when Kairi was called his special friend even though it was a trivial detail.
"You're not from here, are you?" It was easy enough to tell and Riku knew it, but it sounded like magical discernment when Maleficent said it. "You're from another world. I can sense it on you, and I can smell your potential and that of the girl. You're both very special, aren't you?" Maleficent was half talking to herself, playing with his hair, which, to be honest was making Riku a little uncomfortable though it was again outweighed by other feelings, this time pride.
"I don't know...: he demurred.
"Ah, but I know," Maleficent cut him off, but kindly. "Come your feet. I'll levitate the girl for you." She waved her staff and a dark portal appeared in front of Riku. The middle cleared to show a tile floor, columns, and a high ceiling. "We'll go back to my castle, get a hot meal in you, and I'll see to your friend." She cocked her head to the side. "What ails the girl? Is she under a curse or merely suffering from exhaustion?" The latter choice was offered like an afterthought, as if Maleficent already sensed something deeper wrong with Kairi just like she said she knew their potential.
"I don't know,"Riku admitted, voice barely above a whisper, as he gently shifted Kairi to the ground and stood to his feet, trying to ignore the pins and needles feeling in his legs and hoping he wouldn't embarrass himself by stumbling because his feet had fallen asleep.
Maleficent lifted Kairi's body with a motion from her staff. "I am an authority on curses. I can find out what she suffers from and what must be done to fix it."
"I already owe you our lives. I don't know how I would repay you," Riku was already feeling the natural bitterness choke the hope Maleficent's casual offer caused.
"My dear boy, I'm sure there's some way we can think of. Just leave everything to me."