((A/N: This long enough? Don't get used to the quicker updates. I'm still gonna wait a week before putting the next chapter out. Or, if I don't have at least one more review by that time, I'll wait until I get one.))

Biting Off Too Much

Chapter 1

Yuffie was bored. No, scratch that…she was very bored.

Right after Sora left Radiant Garden, the Heartless and Nobodies had suddenly seemed to vanish with him, leaving everyone confused. Of course, the monsters didn't disappear altogether. There was still the usual warping of weaker kinds of Nobodies, as well as the spasmodic trickle of Heartless from the Great Maw. However, neither black nor white seemed to pour much effort into it. Their numbers were at an all time low, lower even than before Sora showed up the first time, and they were all so…weak.

Seriously.

Yuffie could throw her shruiken once and shred apart an entire group of about twelve Dusks max. That was how weak they were. In fact, they were so easily defeated that the Militia, newly formed by Leon as an added defense, had almost no trouble with either side, taking very few casualties. The gun-wielding ragtag soldiers were low in numbers, but still made up for it with new laser rifles, designed by Cid and based off some blueprints from Ansem's computer, and unwavering courage.

It was all so glorious…that Yuffie wanted to puke. Those damn cowboys, who didn't even have a standard uniform, were taking away all her fun! She didn't have anything to do anymore!

Leon was busy trying to recruit and supply the Militia as well as rebuild the town, Aerith was occupied trying to help refugees and citizens get food and clothes, Cloud was busy hunting that Sephiroth dude, and not even Cid was available to be bugged! Most of the time, he was on his computer, trying to link up with Ansem's to get more blueprints to improve weapons, buildings, and maybe start making some vehicles. In fact, Cid was pounding the keys so often that he was pulling more and more overnighters, a routine which quickly led him to being crankier, needing coffee almost all the time, and back to his smoking habits. His excuse for that was that no matter how much he chewed on 'damned sticks,' his lungs weren't going to get any better. However, Cid had been forced by Merlin to get rid of his coffee maker, particularly after an incident which involved spilled coffee, ruined books, and a coffee machine getting turned into a frog. Now Cid walked back to the market plaza to get his coffee, which he got for free since he was on the Restoration Committee.

Now was one of those times, and Yuffie had seized the opportunity to…crash in front of his computer. Currently, she was sprawled across the chair, flipping a throwing star between her fingers lazily while staring off into space. There was no one to bug, nothing to defeat. She'd even tried challenging the Militia soldiers to arm wrestling contests on the condition that she would strip for them if she lost. Since she didn't mention anything about if she won, the men were eager to do it, and figured it to be a win-win situation easy. Instead, however, they all found their fists pounded into the table with no effort. Yuffie had gone through all two-hundred Militia men in three hours, and was even now seriously considering letting one of them win just to have something to do.

However, once more something in the back of her head nudged at her eyes, and they flickered over to the stacks of books that made up Merlin's living area. The wizard had so many of the things, she doubted he'd read them all. Yet, somehow, he knew all that magic…

Yuffie had contemplated several times about going through Merlin's library and finding a good book to curl up with. However, from where she sat, she couldn't see any of the titles. She looked over her shoulder at the door. Cid had left five minutes ago, and he always took at least thirty minutes on a coffee break to get himself reenergized. Yuffie slowly put down the throwing star, rising from the chair to creep over to Merlin's part of the house. Surprisingly, not even the magician wasn't here either, even though he was almost always studying some book or making some spell. This time, however, she seemed to have lucked out, since he'd gone off to do something else. If her luck held, he had diarrhea and was taking a magical potty break.

Woohoo.

Yuffie looked around once more, as if convinced something was going to interrupt her, then quickly started browsing through the volumes. She instantly discounted many, mostly because they had boring titles, no titles at all, or were in a different language. There were a few she tossed over her shoulder into a pile to burn in order to spare Merlin some mercy. No one deserved to have a book on how to…never mind.

She searched for another five minutes, and just when she was about to give up, she spotted something under Merlin's pillow. Glancing at the door again, she stole over to the bed, then pulled the book out. It wasn't very big, about the size of the average paperback book except somewhat thick, and was leather-bound, with faded golden lettering. The title was Parallel Dimensions and Dimension Gates: Magic or Science? A Study On Alternate Worlds. Underneath was a picture of a keyhole. Yuffie cocked her head. Curious…even people from other worlds thought the way between the worlds was a keyhole…The author was some dude named Nikolai Kaslov. She could barely pronounce the name in her head.

Once more, she glanced at the door before skipping back to Cid's chair, plopping down, and flipping the book open to the first page. Foreword…blah. Table of Contents…ugh. Finally, she found the first chapter, and started reading.

Chapter One: An Introduction to Alternate Worlds

Though many people consider this world to be the only one in existence, there are others who put forward theories of separate parallel universes. Some people think of primitive wastelands with cavemen and dinosaurs. Some people think of futuristic realms with robots and lasers. And still more people think it is a load of bull feathers about magic tricks. But before we can consider any of these possibilities, we must ask ourselves what exactly we are talking about. Sure, we have no evidence of the existence of parallel worlds, but at the same time, we have no evidence of there not being one in existence. But, what is a parallel dimension? What is there that is not here? How many of them are there? And can we reach them? If we consider worlds to be living, breathing entities, one for every person alive, then there could be billions. And that actually makes it a whole lot easier to explain.

Yuffie had reached the end of the first page, and she had to admit by now, she was definitely curious. She turned the page, intending to continue, but she never read the next page. Or, at least, never on that world.

Stuck on the next page was a Post-It note, with spidery handwriting she recognized as Merlin's. It read This man may be on the right track. It seems Terra has more than one genius in a thousand idiots. Scrawled underneath was what looked to be one of Merlin's spells. And written underneath that was a single word: Door.

Yuffie stared at the note, frowning. Reaching out, her fingers traced over the incantation, which was written in a strange language. She'd heard Merlin practicing them out loud before, so she knew how to pronounce the individual parts, but the whole word made no sense. Magic really wasn't her thing, and when she tried it she almost always messed up. However, this time, for some reason, she felt a surge of confidence. She closed the book, slipping it into her pocket, and stood up, staring at the words she needed to say, lips soundlessly tracing them and her mind saying what each one sounded like. Finally, she felt she had a good enough handle on it and decided to try it out loud.

"Apra la direzione, da questo mondo al seguente, impedire l'ordine testo giusto diventante."

She was sure she stumbled a few times, and was thinking that maybe she wasn't really cut out for magic after all…then something exploded. There wasn't a boom or anything, more like a flash and a bunch of blue smoke. Yuffie coughed a few times, waving her hands around to try and clear up the place.

What she saw when it cleared was the last thing she expected, though.

What she expected was the place to be a complete mess. What she saw, though, was a hole in the wall. Well, not really a hole in the wall itself. It actually looked like a world's keyhole, but this keyhole didn't lead to the heart of the world: it lead to another world altogether. It was a…Yuffie pulled the book back out of her pocket again and looked at the cover. Two words stuck out to her: a dimension gate. Surely, if the ways to other worlds could be up in outer space, there could be some in the worlds themselves?

Tucking the book back in her pocket, Yuffie wondered if she should tell someone else about this…

'Nah! Why let them have all the fun?' she thought, and climbed through the keyhole.

At first, she thought she had just woken up from a daydream and nothing had happened. She was still standing in a dirty old shack. Except, when she looked over her shoulder, there was the dimension gate, and she still held the book. Cautiously, she crept across the empty room to a dirty window, and wiped it off to look out at this new world she had found.

She had to say, she was actually disappointed. The view she had was from a high cliff, overlooking a small town in a canyon. To the right, the canyon stretched on and on inland, but to the left, right after the town the canyon, and for that matter the land, ended in ocean. The town itself wasn't very much. Mostly just about two dozen adobe buildings reinforced with wood. She could see a hotel, a general store, a livery stable (though she couldn't see any mounts yet) and a boathouse down at the single pier that served as the port, as well as other buildings that she determined were simply houses. The dock itself stretched out for about six-hundred feet and was made of rickety wood that she could tell, even from her elevated position, wouldn't last even two more months without repairs.

There were about sixty or seventy people milling around, all of them, as Yuffie could see, tense and uneasy, as if expecting something bad. And they were all toting weapons. Guns, specifically, but not like any Yuffie had seen before. She recalled a specific part of the book and checked the first page again to make sure.

What is there that is not here?

Yuffie looked back out the window. That's right. Every world was completely different from another, and even if they had some things in common, those things were still vastly different. Like how the Radiant Garden had lasers, while the guns she was used to, like those used by the Sephiroth remnants in the Geostigma crisis, could use several more, even twice as many, bullets than any other gun she'd seen used in Hallow Bastion before it was renamed Radiant Garden. In fact, these guns looked somewhat like those she'd seen used by the Traverse Town Guard force, when they were actually able to scrounge up a large enough force.

Before she could ponder any more about the differences between the weapons of the different worlds, however, Yuffie heard panicked shouts from below, and peeked back out the clean spot on the window at the town. There was a lot of activity below. People were running to defensive positions in buildings, jumping into trenches she hadn't seen, and a few more ran into the stable, coming back out with strange mounts. All she could say from this distance was that they were giant birds, like chocobos, but that was where the similarities ended.

However, once again, Yuffie was cut off in the middle of her comparing by another loud distraction: a distant boom and an increase in the volume of the panicking below. She looked through the window once more and saw the men scattering, most of them ducking back into trenches, foxholes and the buildings. The men who were mounted started moving away from the buildings.

Yuffie suddenly understood what was going on: she'd walked right into a world in the middle of a war. And it didn't sound like against Heartless or Nobodies.

Whistling rang out from the sky, and for whatever reason, she heard a voice, which she suspected was closer than the men in the street, yell out "TAKE COVER! THEY'RE SHELLING THE CLIFFS FIRST!"

Oh, crap…

Yuffie quickly moved for the door as the whistling continued to get louder and louder, and she managed to kick the door open before the building exploded behind her. She was thrown forward, off of the cliff and onto a ledge, where she managed to catch hold of the lip of it. She looked down at her hand and saw that she had somehow managed to keep a hold on the book. She tucked it into her pocket, knowing she would have to read it later.

Before she could haul herself up, however, there came another shout: "RETURN FIRE! STAGGER THE RATE AND KEEP SWITCHING TARGETS!"

Oh crap again…

The booms rang out again, except this time they were a hell of a lot louder, since they were practically right next to her, just down in some caves a few meters below the wreckage where the gate was. She had to find a way to get up there. However, a big gun went off straight over her just as she was climbing over the lip of the ledge, disorienting her senses and making her fall again. This time, she didn't stop until she crashed right through a roof about a half-story below her. She could still get up, though, she'd taken worse falls than that. However, when she did, she discovered an extremely bad headache…or was it just confusion from the explosions?

Both sides were shelling the other now, and it sounded like the cliff was being demolished, which meant…

Yuffie could feel the rumble before she heard it, and barely managed to find the exit before, once again, the building got demolished behind her. This time, however, she was on the ground, and got away from the worst of it without falling. However, a new threat had presented itself. Though the cliff had been shelled because of the gun positions, now that those guns were silent, the artillery was directed at the town itself…and it came from two different directions. Yuffie looked up and spotted a giant, dark shape in the sky, as well as one on the sea. A zeppelin and a battleship…that was what was shelling the town. However, the enemy, whoever they were, apparently had one last card up their sleeve to throw down.

"LANDING CRAFT! LOOK OUT! DEATHRUNNER CAVALRY AND HEAVY WEAPONS!"

Yuffie had forgotten all about the soldiers on the ground, but now they were rushing past her toward the shore, foot soldiers and bird-riders both rushing towards the beach, running on a straight, uninterrupted route despite the rain of death in the form of explosive shells blasting them apart. Yuffie decided that, since she liked life better than spending eternity sleeping six feet under, she had no other choice but to follow them. Hell, who knew what could happen? Maybe she could help turn the tide of this battle.

As it turned out, nothing could have saved any of them from what happened.

There were three landing crafts, each about forty-five feet long and twenty feet wide. As soon as they came within range, the ragtag soldiers on land opened fire with automatic weapons, heavy rifles, and even a mounted machine gun. It did no good, however, since none of them had any explosives. The landing craft made it to shore relatively unharmed except for a lot of bullet holes. As soon as each craft beached, the hatches were dropped, and then all hell broke loose.

The enemy, clad in bright blue uniforms, sent out heavy weapons first, in the form of grenadiers chucking explosives, others working in pairs to haul machine guns around, and at least one flamethrower for each craft. They mowed down the advancing wave of ragtag troops with the skill and coordination of well-trained troops. However, they were only the groundbreakers. As the heavy weapon troops moved aside, regular infantry wielding assault rifles piled out, at least ten or fifteen to a craft. But even they were not the cherry on top.

After them came a horrifying sight.

Yuffie had been able to dodge the torrent of bullets that had come her way and even managed to snap off a few throwing stars at the enemy, also managing to get about four hundred feet away from the center craft when she saw them. Four giant reptiles, each at least five feet high at the hip, paced out of each craft, hissing at their soon to be prey. They had riders on their backs who were restraining them for now, but the creatures were most definitely going to be put to the one thing they obviously did best: running and killing. Yuffie knew what they were. She was familiar with dinosaurs, but had never actually seen one before. The raptor-like creatures had orange under bellies and half of their tail was blue. Other than that, their skin was a dark red that could easily have been mistaken for blood. When their mouths opened up to snarl at their opponents, Yuffie could easily see two rows of dagger-like teeth on both the top and bottom jaws. A black tongue hung out of the side of one's mouth, and it fixed it's hungry yellow eyes specifically on the ninja in front of it with such malice that Yuffie quickly skidded to a halt.

It was at this point that the un-uniformed men decided it was time to hightail it, and those who were still alive began to pull a quick and hasty retreat. However, the raptors shot out like bullets and tore into the defenders. The one who had fixed on Yuffie ran straight for her like a missile locked onto a target, its rider yelling a war cry and brandishing his pistol before being knocked off by a well-aimed bullet from a sniper back in the defender's lines. However, that thing was still after her, and she tried to get away from it by going around obstacles, ducking through trenches, and going through the splintered half of one of the buildings close to the shore. It didn't work. The creature still followed, drawn by ravenous hunger and a thirst for blood.

Finally, in a last ditch effort to escape, Yuffie lunged toward the stable doors, which were currently closed. She pounded on them for a few seconds before they finally opened, and she fell inside. Unfortunately, whoever was behind the door couldn't shut it in time before the raptor managed to shove its head inside.

However, before anyone else could move, a harsh voice yelled "ALRIGHT, DAMMIT! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU THAT ALL UNWELCOME VISITORS WERE TO STAY OUTSIDE! I THINK THIS QUALIFIES AS UNWELCOME!"

Yuffie managed to pull her head up before her vision was obscured by a bloodstained apron and the boom of a shotgun filled her ears. The raptor, screaming in pain, pulled its head out of the door, but by now the doorman had drawn his sidearm, a double-action revolver, and shot it in the eye. The raptor jerked outside, thrashing around in rigor mortis while the door was pulled shut.

Yuffie was breathing hard now. What happened? At first, she had been having some fun dodging bullets and grenades to get close to the enemy, a workout she'd been needing for a long time, and then when she'd seen those things she'd just gone downhill. Suddenly, the gunfire and explosions had seemed to confuse her, the bullets had seemed to get too close, and she had to get the hell out of there.

Before she could have another thought, however, a hand fell on her shoulder. A hand that felt heavier than its size seemed to betray. She slowly peered down at that hand, and then felt herself freeze over.

The hand was metallic.

A voice spoke behind her as the owner of that hand said "What the hell are you doing out here, Princess? This is a war zone, all the non-combat civvies were sent to the mines on the other side of the island. Don't tell me you were out there fighting, you don't even have a gun. Unless…"

She felt the hand change position as the speaker moved around to look her in the face, and she had a good look at her rescuer. He was a dirty teen, couldn't have been much older than her, with some acne peppering his cheeks. His nose was crooked, as if it had been broken at one point and never healed properly. Above that nose was a set of shatter sharp ice blue eyes, staring at her with frigid intensity. He wore a filthy green bandanna on his head, but his dirty blonde hair, greasy and long past the due haircut, poked out from underneath. The longer part in the back was pulled back into a rough ponytail only about two inches long, tied back with a piece of dirt twine and not looking like it had ever been removed. He was wearing what seemed to her like a brown button up shirt, but further examination showed it to simply be so filthy that it had gone from white to brown. The right sleeve, the arm that was metal, had been torn away, and there was blood soaked into the small piece of the sleeve remaining attached to the shoulder part. The left sleeve was still on, but had been rolled up past his elbow, and his left hand was bloody, but still holding a pump action shotgun. She took a glance down at his metallic right hand and realized that it too was covered in blood. He wore the bloodstained apron over the shirt, and it stretched down to his knees, which were covered by filthy, torn black denim jeans, of which the bottoms of the leggings brushed muddy, dirt-encrusted hiking boots.

His cracked lips, dry from going so long without water, opened and said, in a slightly lighter voice, "Was that the first time you've seen a Tyrannoraptor?"

Yuffie instantly knew that he was talking about the monster that had chased her in and nodded, still feeling too scared to speak. The teen in front of her nodded, saying "That explains it. For some reason, they have that sort of effect on inexperienced troops. Lemme guess, all of a sudden the battle seemed that much more vicious, right?"

Again, she nodded. He smiled a bit, his cracked lips bleeding slightly, and said "It's completely normal. Just gotta get your battle senses. If you live 'til the next one, that is."

A moan of pain further back in the stables made the youth look over her head, then stand up, pulling her unceremoniously to her feet, saying "I need you to help with the wounded here."

He brushed past her, and she turned to see him setting the shotgun aside to treat at least fifteen wounded men and about six wounded women…and there was no one else to help.

Yuffie was stunned. In traditional Heartless and Nobodie battles, the bodies usually disappeared with the soul, and there were no wounds, only death. This was far, far worse, however.

Yuffie was frozen solid by the sight of the blood and the boy's mechanical arm opening like a Swiss army knife, though not as much by the latter as the former. The hand remained intact, but several surgical instruments popped out of the mechanical bicep, and he began to get back to work.

Yuffie could only manage one more sentence.

"W-who the hell are you?"

The youth looked back at her, his eyes suddenly tired in the dim light.

"My name's Lionel."

((One last thing. The spell is written in Italian, because it is such an awesome language, and when translated reads "Open the way, from this world to the next, to prevent order from becoming just text." You'll see that this spell was created to get to this world specifically later on.))