Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 24

Sora and Riku ran over to find Kairi and Yuffie both alive and well over the shadowy body of Orin. Both young men were glad to see that their friends were both unharmed and did not have to slay Orin before Maleficent's defeat. Maybe now things would finally quiet down now that Maleficent was (hopefully) gone for good.

The adults rushed up to the kids, who had come at the appearance of a massive black door bearing the Heartless insignia that had suddenly appeared right behind the Keybladers. The Heartless that remained were converging on the door, forcing it open and disappearing into a world of shadows and glowing yellow eyes.

The Islanders and Yuffie looked on as the shadows that surrounded Orin began to fade away revealing what had happened to the person they knew underneath. Orin's human form no longer looked the same as it did when they first met. His antennas had shrunk back to their original size but no longer wiggled erratically but instead hung lifelessly from his forehead. His once pale skin was now a dull grey and his yellow eyes now glowed like a true Heartless yet they held a shimmer of sadness within them. At first it was hard to see but as they walked towards him they could see the line of tears that were coming from the glowing orbs his eyes had become. When Yuffie stepped up to him he slinked back, unable to look at her.

"I can understand them now Sora." Orin said, sounding almost serene as he stared into the door. "At first they were sent by Xehanort... Ansem... or whatever he likes to call himself to be his lifeline to this world. So I could gather hearts to feed him and nurture him back to health so he could one day return to rain disappear on your worlds once more."

Sora took a step forward, his hand in front of him in a caring gesture. "This is your world too Orin, you grew up here and-"

"No it isn't Sora." Orin interrupted, a new flow of tears streaked his face. "As much as I wish this could my world be it can't. No matter how many memories that I have of his place I know that their all fake and I have to accept that. I can't stay here."

"Well... then let's take you back to Destiny Islands." Kairi said, hopeful that her suggestion would make Orin stay with them. "We could let you stay on the island where we met you."

"I can't..." Orin cried, looking down at the new color of his hands with a margin of disgust. "It's not fair that I stay here, knowing that no matter how much I care for any of you I can't even touch you."

Orin walked over to Yuffie with a very guilty look on his face, like he was about to completely break down in front of her. Yuffie was having a hard time looking at the Heartless boy, after being attacked by him on two separate occasions. Both of them were clearly uncomfortable being near each other to Sora and the others but they obviously wanted to say something very difficult to the other.

"Listen Yuffie..." Orin began, only to be cut off.

"If you're going to apologize, I know it wasn't really you." Yuffie said. "If I hadn't, you know... things might've turned out different. Maybe you wouldn't have run off and all this had happened. it's all my fa-"

Yuffie was silenced by the last thing she expected from the Heartless boy. The next thing she knew she was face to face with him, she could feel his twitching antennas touching her face as she felt his lips touch hers. The kiss left her stunned her but she enjoyed it, however was only a matter of seconds before Orin started to shake with convulsions. Orin quickly backed off from the stunned ninja girl, if he had continued he no doubt would have Yuffie on the ground and have his claws in her chest again. That was the last thing Orin wanted to do before leaving his friends. He had to bid them farewell.

"Maybe someday I'll come back... Good bye everyone." With that said Orin fell backwards into the darkness of the door, disappearing into the abyss before the door closed on it's own accord and vanished into thin air.

To the adults the disappearance of the door and the Heartless was a relieving sight and the welcomed the peace that they would enjoy would hopefully be a very long one. The Keybladers however were sad to see their friend go and worried how Yuffie was going to take this.

---

Three months later the town had nearly been restored to what it was before Xehanort had turned it into Hallow Bastion. The damage that The Heartless had caused three months prior was not as major as previously thought and was repaired within weeks. The area where Maleficent had crashed in her dragon form and the fires she caused however would still take much longer to repair.

Sora, Kairi, and Riku had all returned to Destiny Islands and enjoying what they hoped was a long vacation from Keyblades and Heartless and all that jazz. Sora and Kairi are both well and dating now, Riku was a little jealous at first but that ended when Riku started seeing Selphie. They had parted ways with Yuffie just after the Heartless were sent back to the Realm of Darkness with Orin and they promised to keep in contact with everyone.

Pete had awoken a day later after Maleficent's defeat and was in a dirty cell in Disney castle thanks to a call to King Mickey.

As soon as the islanders left however Leon and Aerith both noticed a drastic change in Yuffie's personality. The once always energetic and optimistic ninja girl became moody, lethargic, and spent most of her time alone in her room at the inn.

"Have you noticed how the squirt's been acting lately?" Cid asked one day, pointing over the skulking ninja girl who was laying face down on Merlin's couch.

Aerith jabbed Cid in the shoulder, causing the old engineer and airship captain to flinch. The flower girl was much tougher than Cid previously thought. "What I say?"

Aerith moved in close just in case Yuffie could hear them from where she was laying. The flower girl did not look very happy... "She may not admit it but she really liked Orin and she misses him, and if you knew anything about women you'd know that she's grieving right now."

Cid shot back at the flower girl with a hard stare of his own. One practiced for years from dealing with his assistants when he once worked with Shera in his home of Rocket Town. "So what now? We just let 'er stew like this?"

Aerith opened her mouth in retort but found that she had nothing to suggest. This was a very strange concept, having feelings for a person that was in every way was not supposed to have feelings. Yet through twisted experiments Orin had acquired emotions and even feelings for Yuffie through memories even though they were false. Aerith looked over at Yuffie, it reminded her of Tifa when Cloud and them first set out on their own adventure. But this was a few grades higher on the sadness scale in her opinion.

Suddenly, as if she had heard everything they had whispered to each other Yuffie stood up from the couch and walked out the door.

"You think she heard us?" Cid asked, once he checked the door and was sure that Yuffie wasn't litening right outside.

Aerith bit her lip. "I don't know. It will take some time but she'll feel better eventually. Just watch what you say to her for a while okay?"

Cid nodded in agreement, Aerith was a nice girl and she never asked anything of anyone unless it was out of kindness for another. Cid however sighed and returned to his computer, there was little he could do but put his mind into something that could benefit the town.

---

Nearby Yuffie lay on the roof of the local Inn, staring up at the bright blue sky above her. Orin was as far away from her as he could get and she may never see him again, she couldn't help but feel a little bit miserable.

Yuffie shook her head at that thought. 'I can't think that way! I'm sure he'll be back some day... and maybe when he does he'll be more in control of himself better. Yeah! Sure he will!'

Yuffie was trying to convince herself, but even after psyching herself up like that she wasn't totally sure if Orin would ever come back. But even if she didn't think that he would she still had to have some hope to see her friend again. After all Sora never lost hope when he and Riku were separated, why should she loose hope? now that she had renewed her own sense of hope she laid back on the roof and smiled up at the clear blue sky. However a grumpy sounding clearing of someone's throat came from the street below her. Yuffie peeked over the edge to see Leon looking up at her with a two by four on his shoulder.

"Hey Yuffie!" Leon shouted up with an authoritive look at the ninja girl. "Get down here and help us! You're pulling a double shift of brick laying for all the work you skipped out on by going on that little adventure with Sora, Riku, and Kairi!"

Yuffie slunk back onto the roof with a childish groan. Leon was going to have her working all day... Maybe she should've gone with Orin. Being in a world filled with Heartless sounded better than doing all that work...

END.

Roxasoutloud: I had that planned since chapter 5 but I didn't think I could pull off the sheer awesomeness that could be. That needs to be in the next KH game, and I'm not sure how I'd work out the dynamics of Drive. Turning a game into a fic often means you have to tell people how it works or change it so that it suits your fic.