The Traverse Town square is a riot of puppies. Everywhere Aerith looks, the space is overflowing with puppies, milling about and causing havoc like a biblical plague. Their parents, two stately adult Dalmatians, attempt to corral them together without much success.
Leon stands on a crate in the center, holding a shuddering, crying electric blanket in his arms. He's surrounded by other refugees from consumed worlds, most of whom are currently being harassed by one or more puppies.
"Aerith, finally. Thank you for finding Toby, I was worried."
"How does he know all their names…?" Yuffie mutters as Aerith walks to her side.
"Blanky, it's going to be alright, I promise. I have good news today. Here, go back to the others."
A scowling vacuum cleaner rolls up to Leon. "I'll take the kid," it says. Leon gently drapes Blanky over the Kirby's handle and it rolls back into the crowd. The blanket covers its eyes with its corners, whimpering. "Master…Master…" A white-tailed doe looks on pityingly, and turns to make brief eye contact with the bright blue hornbill bird sitting on her back. Aerith sets Toby down and he falls asleep again. Three Dalmatian puppies run up to sniff and paw at his shell.
"Alright, everyone," Leon announces, "I want you all to look up."
The faces in the crowd glance at each other bemusedly before turning skyward. Where there was once a void speckled with pinpricks of light, there is now a swirling galaxy of stars.
"Sora has succeeded. Finally, we can all go home. Those stars are your worlds, my friends. It has been a privilege building this town and this community with you, and it's amazing how far we've come. I regret that the barriers between worlds will reform and the new culture we started here with each other will not be able to continue, but such is the nature of the cosmos. Always remember what happened here, cherish the memories we made on this asteroid. We were the ones who refused to give up, who looked into the golden eye of evil and said no. Every one of you, every puppy and toaster and wizard and reluctant dragon, played a pivotal role in this conflict solely on the strength of your hearts. I am standing before some of the most powerful beings I ever expect to meet. And we may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other."
Yuffie rolls her eyes, smiling. She walked in on Leon rehearsing this speech in his room last night.
"In the next few bells, you should all be summoned back to your worlds by the light and be reunited with your loved ones. Any others who are left will be taken home either in gummi ships by me and my fellow pilots or, if you choose, Merlin and the Fairy Godmother have offered their services as well. I have nothing further to say, so you all are free to go about your business as usual until the light comes for you. I wish you all long and happy lives."
The crowd begins to disperse. Leon steps down from the crate to mingle.
"I swear, he relates more with them than he does to any of us," Yuffie says to Aerith. "I'm worried about how well he's going to cope when we get back to Hollow Bastion. He's gotten really close to Beast."
"As long as Squall has a task to focus on, he'll be fine. It's who he is. He's not happy unless he's helping people," Aerith replies. She looks down at Toby. "I don't think he realizes how traumatized some of them are though. Especially the animals. Patch tries to stay strong for them and for his father, but there's only so much they can take, especially with Heartless appearing whenever Sora blew his nose. It was all I could do to get several of the puppies to come out from under the furniture, let alone go outside. I don't think I've seen Cadpig blink since Sora returned her to the mansion. Girls are raised differently on those worlds than you and I were, Yuffie. They rely on men to be their anchor, and it's too much for anyone to bear. Look at poor Lady. For the first month she was here she didn't get out of bed."
"Oh yeah, I remember that. Squall had to feed her with a dropper. I don't think Tramp slept at all when that was going on. That was rough. Your curaga wasn't even working on her."
"Cure magic heals wounds of the body. Wounds of the heart never fully heal."
"I know. Squall—"
"We should stop calling him that, Yuffie."
"Leon, Leon, Leon. I keep forgetting. He's just lost so much already…and now he's going to lose the friends he's made again. Does it ever end?"
Across the square, Leon is speaking with an auburn-haired woman accompanied by a walking broom loaned from Disney Castle. The broom is holding two buckets of burbling water. A carrot floats in one of them.
"I hope everything works out when you return home, Anna. I know it's been difficult for you not being able to solidify him again."
"Don't worry, Leon. He just needs to get home, my sister will fix him. We all just need to go home."
"I wish I could have met your sister. She sounds like an extraordinary woman."
"Yes, I love her dearly. Our parents put her through a lot of pain, though. I'm worried about how she's going to come out of all…this."
"If you need anything, there are ways to reach us. We can arrange something with Merlin."
"Thank you so much. For everything. But we can take care of ourselves now. We always have."
"I understand. Where did Grand Pabbie wander off to?"
"I'm not sure, I'll have to go find him. Thanks again, Leon."
"Absolutely, Anna."
The woman runs up and around the corner towards Geppetto's house, followed by the broom. She returns leading a stocky creature who appears to be made of rocks by the hand.
"Come on, Grand Pabbie, I want us all to be together when—"
Without warning, a blinding light explodes from the chests of Anna and the old troll. The buckets begin to glow, and then water shoots out of them in two geysers that twist together in the air and fly into space. There is a flash, and the three of them are gone.
"Yes!" In a rare undignified moment, Leon jumps and pumps the air with his fist. The lion pendant around his neck clinks against his other jewelry. "Alright, everyone! It's starting. Anna, Grand Pabbie, and Olaf were just taken back to Arendelle. It's only a matter of time for the rest of us."
Cid emerges from his shop. "Leon, message from the chipmunks. Say their sonar is picking something up again."
"Like when they thought they found the remnants of Montressor and it turned out to just be a gummi cluster?"
"Too small for that. They have a shape reading, and they think it's the old man's house. We should hop to it before he gets sucked back to his world."
"Alright, Cloud and I will go. Queue up the Ifrit and we'll depart in half a bell."
"Yep." Cid reenters the shop.
Leon directs his attention to the doe with the bird on her back. "Mother Deer, Zazu, can I speak to you for a moment?"
The bird speaks: "Master Leon, on behalf of the Pride Lands I wish to extend my sincerest thanks for your hospitality. I will fondly remember my time here."
"My pleasure, Zazu. Thank you for entrusting me with Simba's spirit gem. Sora found it very useful. The same with Bambi's, Mother Deer. Both of them have most likely been returned to your respective worlds now."
The doe speaks: "You will always be spoken of with reverence in the forest, Lord Leon."
"Please Mother Deer, there's no need for titles. I'm not the only one responsible for the success of this town. Merlin, Cid, the McDucks, and Geppetto all deserve more credit than I do. I'm a warrior, not a city planner."
Zazu shakes his head and flits up to stand between Mother's ears. "They may have laid the foundation, my boy, but you kept us together. You gave us hope where there was none. My home was already in ruins when the Heartless came. We had lost our king, and the savanna was dying. There was not much left for the darkness to consume. We didn't know anything existed beyond the sky, or that the stars were anything other than the watchful eyes of our ancestors. For us, our world was all. You have shown me—all of us—that the circle of life stretches farther than any of us had imagined. We are forever in your debt for that."
"Thank you, Zazu. I—"
"Traverse Town sucks!"
A silence falls over the plaza as the words echo and die out in the alleyways. Leon and Zazu are frozen for a moment, mouth and beak agape in complete bewilderment. Slowly they, and everyone else, turn to where the voice (which sounded like that of a frat boy mocking a rival in a locker room) originated from. Standing rigid in a corner of the plaza is a mouse wearing a tweed coat and deerstalker hat. He holds his arms stiffly at his sides and does not blink.
Leon squints at the mouse, who he knows personally as he knows almost everyone else who has come to live here.
"…Basil? Was that you?"
The silence has become almost tangible. Basil still hasn't blinked or moved. A fox named Tod disappears in a flash of light, but no one notices.
Yuffie glances at Aerith, confused. "What the hell?"
Basil's mouth opens like the mouth of a doll, and a pair of blurry golden eyes peek out.
Leon takes a step backward. "No, they're supposed to be gone…"
Two black antennae snake outward, between the mouse's teeth. Then the Shadow crawls out of the mouth and Basil's body collapses, a deflated fur balloon. The Heartless sinks into the ground and glides across the cobblestones.
Panic breaks out. The citizens of Traverse Town scatter, trampling green army men underfoot. Yuffie pulls out her shuriken and prepares to throw it. Aerith grabs her shoulder.
"Don't," she says. "Clear to the sides of the square, everyone!"
A roar rips out of Leon's throat. "NO! NO MORE!" He pulls the Gunblade from its sheath on his back and the air is a flurry of firaga and smoke. "GET OUT! WE WON, YOUR TIME IS FINISHED! GET AWAY FROM US! GET OUT!"
Screams ricochet out of the crowd. "They said we were safe now!" "Oh Lord, it never ends!" "Tipo, Chaca, get behind me!" The Reluctant Dragon cowers in a corner, weeping into his tail.
Aerith's quarterstaff appears in her hand and she runs into Leon's line of fire.
"Stop!"
A cage of Roman numerals appears around Leon's body and he freezes in place, Gunblade held high. Only his eyes move.
"Everyone calm down! It's still him!" She uses a reverse gravity spell to pull the Heartless out of the ground, and then reaches toward it.
Yuffie runs forward and stands by Leon, who is coming out of the spell. "Aerith, don't touch it! What are you doing?"
The Shadow's face ripples and bends as Aerith's hand approaches. It slashes at her wrist but its arm goes limp as she touches its forehead. Its eyes grow larger and brighter and subsume its body. It folds backward on itself until it has become a ball of light, which dims into a crystalline heart. Simultaneously Aerith raises her hand toward Basil's abandoned skin, which has begun to slither spastically across the edge of the square, strands of barbwire nothingness intertwining around it. She casts a magnet spell and draws it toward her. She holds the skin and the heart close to her chest, and the light rages between her fingers before fading. She looks up at Leon, who is coming out of the spell, and a shocked Yuffie. She opens her hands to reveal the Great Mouse Detective, whole again and trembling.
"So dark…so dark…" he whispers.
Leon regained his faculties a few seconds before, but he hasn't moved for being awestruck.
"Aerith…how did you…"
Aerith's nose starts bleeding.
"I don't know. But I don't think I'll be able to do it again."
Basil glances up and sees the trickles coming from her nostrils.
"Good lord, my dear. Here, take this." He hands up his pocket handkerchief, which is barely the size of Aerith's fingertip.
"Thank you, Basil." She dabs pathetically at the blood while Yuffie cuts off a segment of her scarf and goes to her.
"Aerith, that was amazing," she says, putting an arm around her friend's head and staunching the flow from her nose. When the bleeding is under control, she brings Aerith close and lets her rest on her shoulder. Aerith looks up at Leon, who is still speechless.
"Brute force does not solve everything, Squall."
"I know," Leon barks. "I know, Aerith. I…I'm sorry. It's just…nothing makes sense. Ever."
Basil gathers his bearings and stands shakily on Aerith's palm, smoothing his creased coat.
"I don't recall anything past this morning, I'm afraid, Mr. Leon. But I'm sure you were only acting in our best interests."
"You didn't hear yourself, Basil. I can take care of one Heartless just fine, but what you said…it was so absurd, like the universe was spitting at me. At us. At everything we've strived to preserve. For a moment it felt like it all meant nothing. No, not nothing. Less than that."
"Squall, it's not like that. You're projecting."
"Don't call me that, Yuffie! Do not. You don't know what it's been like. I've had to shoulder the weight of all these people's pain and trauma on my—"
"Bullshit! Bullshit! You took that on yourself."
"Yuffie, please…" Aerith kneels and sets Basil on the ground.
"We've seen you hurting and we've wanted to help but you wouldn't let us in, Squall. You made us watch while you punished yourself for nine fucking years!"
"Don't talk like that in front of them!" He's referring to the assembled crowd. The Reluctant Dragon's heart glows, and he's gone. Blanky is crying again, and an appalled Lampy is standing between him and the argument. Toby Tortoise is awake, but wandering aimlessly on his feet. He falls on his back and can't get up. "They were pure before the darkness came, before the hurt began. Before Ansem."
Aerith speaks up, and throws the cloth aside. Dried blood is caked on her lips. "No they weren't. You can entertain that fantasy, that everything was perfect before the Keyholes opened and the barriers came down, but you're wrong and you know it. The entire universe has been in agony for generations, and I have always been able to feel it. Ever since I was born, Squall, I've felt it. Physically. I thought it was normal. I have learned to own my pain, use it to help others. You imploded inward because you couldn't save everyone, and I understand that. I really do. We lost all the people you lost, Squall. We all miss Rinoa. We all have holes in our hearts where she was, not just you. The same with Marlene, and Vincent, all of them. The thought that I may never see them again makes me feel…hollow."
"Aerith. Please…do me a favor."
"Squall, you know we love you."
"Never, ever, say that name again. Not in my presence or out of it. I don't care how long it's been…just don't. It's not mine anymore."
"…If that's what you wish, my friend, I will respect that. But you need to let yourself heal. You can't grieve forever."
"Yes, I can," Leon says, his eyes darkening.
The door of Cid's shop creaks open and Cloud emerges. He stands on the stairs and scans the plaza silently. Lady and Tramp's hearts glow, and they're gone. Mother Deer's heart glows, and she's gone, back to the meadow. Zazu takes to the air and rests on the mailbox, chased by a coterie puppies who scratch at the mailbox's tongue, yipping. Cloud locks eyes with the bird and they have a brief staring match. Cloud redirects his gaze to Leon.
"Looks like I missed something important." He shrugs. "Always happens. You ready to go house hunting, Leon?"
Leon blinks rapidly, refusing to allow tears to show. "Yes. Let's go."
Cloud wends his way past Leon and across the plaza toward the world gate. Leon moves to follow him. He stops by Aerith and helps her up with his hand. She puts a hand in his hair and hugs him tightly. Yuffie grips his shoulder in solidarity.
Basil smiles at them and looks at his hands which are his again. He begins to glow, and he's gone.
Leon breaks from the hug and walks away, out of the world gate. The most intense flash of light yet comes and goes as the Ifrit rockets into the void and Traverse Town's population is reduced by one hundred and one. The square is quiet.