"Sora are you alright?"

Sora nodded, trying not to gag as he helped Aerith tend to the injured Elite. There was a rustling at the front of the tent; Sora looked up to see Paine coming in. Aerith shook her head; Paine nodded stoically, kneeling next to the dying soldier.

"Mother?" Whispered Kadaj weakly as he reached out for her hand, she gripped it tightly.

"I'm right here."

"I'm scared."

She nodded, putting her other hand atop his; there were tears in her eyes.

"I know it'll be alright though. You'll be fine, I promise."

"Are Yazoo and Loz alright?"

"Yes, they're fine; they're helping your father."

"Father's fine too?"

"Yes, he is. He's very proud of you."

Kadaj opened his mouth, and then frowned, his face slackening as his breath rattled between his lips and his eyes dimmed. Paine stood, putting his limp hand on his chest, gently closing his eyes and running her hand over his forehead as she leaned down and kissed it. She closed her eyes and tears slipped out from under her eyelids, Aerith moved to comfort her but she pushed her away, turning and leaving the tent with a whispered excuse.

Aerith swallowed, biting back her own tears as she looked towards Sora quietly. "This is horrible."

Sora nodded, unsure what he was supposed to say, looking at Kadaj's body, this wasn't anything like he'd imagined, and he'd expected the Heartless to be easy to beat. They'd killed so many though, and there were many more wounded, somewhere in the city of tents that had appeared on the outskirts of the battlefield Roxas, Namine, Kairi, and Riku were doing what he was doing, helping other healers and doctors. The King was even wandering throughout the camp and visiting the injured and dying, bolstering courage and comforting those that were beyond help.

"Have you ever…"

Despite the unfinished question Aerith smiled, shaking her head, "no. I don't look that old do I?" Sora shook his head; she walked over and held him gently. "I haven't seen Zack yet, I don't even know if he's okay, all I can do is hope and keep doing my job." She knelt in front of him, smiling up at him. "We just have to believe that things will be better."

"Or you could turn around."

Aerith turned, Zack was standing in the tent's entrance smiling, his face was bandaged and filthy and his armor was torn, revealing minor cuts and bruises, but he seemed fine. Aerith ran to him wrapping her arms around him tightly, Zack winced but didn't protest, gingerly putting his arms around her. Sora took the chance to duck out of the tent, passing a pair of orderlies with a stretcher bearing another injured soldier; they'd take Kadaj away and put him…where? Sora wondered where all the dead were being taken, but decided that he didn't want to know. He found a quiet place on the outskirts of the camp, away from everyone else and the battlefield, the nice thing about the Heartless was that they faded away after they died leaving just their armor and weapons behind. It lessened the carnage to some degree he supposed.

He thought of Kadaj, of Paine, and began wondering if somewhere in the sea of tents Cloud or Leon was dying like Kadaj had, he'd wanted to ask Zack but it had just seemed wrong to bother him when he was with Aerith after all this. He began to cry, lowering his head between his knees and rocking back and forth. A hand rested on his shoulder and he jumped, looking up to see Roxas standing over him, his eyes red from his own tears. Roxas sat down next to him and put his arms around him, Sora leaned against him and wrapped his arms around Roxas in turn and the two of them sat there for a long time crying and not saying anything about what they'd seen.

"I watched Riku's cousin die." Sora finally said.

"I'm sorry," Roxas whispered, "I guess I've been lucky, I didn't know any of them."

Sora shook his head, releasing his cousin and wiping his eyes. "I didn't know him, but what is Riku going to feel once he finds out?"

Roxas nodded somberly, not saying anything, there was silence between them again before Sora spoke.

"Cloud and Leon?"

"I haven't seen them, you haven't either I guess."

He shook his head, looking down at the rocky ground, kicking a stone away to pass the time and take his mind off his brothers.

"There you are."

They turned; Laguna was walking towards them, Sora's eyes widened when he saw the gash on Laguna's chest plate, his armor had been completely shattered and torn through and it hung on his breast like a tattered flag, exposing a ragged slash across his chest stained with blood.

"Are you—"

"I'm fine, Julia will skin me, but I'm fine. I took a potion and the doctors stitched it up. I'll be back to normal in no time."

He came to a stop above them, looking down at them with a frown. "You two shouldn't be over here you know, your brothers are looking for you."

Both boys' eyes lit up and they spoke in near unison. "They're alright?"

"Well Cloud is with Tifa, she has a nasty gash on the side of her head and something hit her in the stomach pretty hard so he's brooding like a mother hen and won't move until she comes to, but Leon's up and about with Rinoa looking for the pair of you."

Despite his good natured tone there was no hiding, even from the boys, the fact that he was pained when he spoke of Tifa's injuries.

"Is she alright?" Roxas asked tentatively.

"She's not dead." Laguna said deadpan, trying on his smile for a moment before discarding it. "That's all I can ask for right now." He scowled. "Now come on both of you, we'll go wait with Cloud."

Laguna pulled back the flap of the tent, there were several beds laid out and most of them had wounded soldiers on them. Roxas spied Cloud against the opposite wall and rushed through the maze of beds to latch onto him tightly. Cloud jumped, turning to look at Roxas with a scowl.

"Don't do that!"

Roxas glared up at him, hugging him tighter. "Shut up, I didn't know where you were or if you were dead or alive. I saw so many—"

He choked and Cloud put his arms around Roxas uncomfortably as he tried to comfort his little brother.

"Thank you Laguna."

Laguna shrugged. "You've been watching Tifa all this time; I had to repay the favor."

Cloud looked over at Sora, who was feeling very left out and extended an arm with an exasperated sigh, Sora rushed him too, nearly toppling the stool Cloud was sitting on.

Cloud looked up at Laguna who was smiling. "Wait until you have your own, this won't be the half of it."

He scowled, looking back at Tifa lying on the cot besides him, his scowl turning to a worried frown. Leon pushed through the tent flap with Rinoa who went to Laguna, hugging him gently.

"Is she awake yet?"

He shook his head; Leon walked past him and knelt, wrapping his arms around Sora and Roxas from behind. They shifted to hug him as well; Cloud managed to extricate himself from the mass of hugging and turned back to Tifa.

Sora wiped his eyes as he smiled at Leon. "I'm glad you're okay."

He ruffled Sora's hair. "I told you I'd be fine."

The tent flap shifted again and Ansem pushed his way inside, scanning quickly before he spied Laguna.

Everyone but Cloud bowed, he remained seated and didn't even shift when the King approached. Ansem paid him no mind as he spoke.

"How are your Knights Laguna?"

"We lost about a third of our number, and half of our chocobos Sire; if we have to fight again it'll be as a mixed force unless we have more chocobos here in a hurry."

Ansem nodded grimly. "The Elites sustained limited casualties thanks to your Knights' bravery in the opening portion of the battle. Lady Paine informs me that they lost about a quarter of their forces, including one of her sons I'm afraid."

Laguna nodded grimly. "Was there any action in the city?"

"Messengers inform me that there were limited incursions during the height of the fighting but between Rikku's Grace and Soldier there was no true threat. It would seem Xehanort concentrated his forces here in the gorge."

"How much of the army got away?"

"Over half, Maleficent and Merlin followed them for sometime; they melted away after they escaped the gorge."

Laguna nodded his expression souring. "We didn't kill nearly enough of the bastards then." He frowned. "Why didn't they do what they did at Traverse and just come out of the ground?"

Ansem smiled. "I think I have an answer for that, I believe Xehanort found a way to the world's heart through the sewers in Traverse."

Laguna winced. "So he was already beneath Traverse when he attacked, that still doesn't answer why he didn't try to be a little less conventional, he's no general, he had to know that we'd have an advantage in a slugging match, even with superior numbers, we're just better trained."

"I do not believe he can control them when they teleport, the Heartless attacking Hollow Bastion directly were reported to be uncoordinated and rabid whereas the ones we faced were well organized and behaved much like a regular army, albeit a poorly trained and led army."

"Something in their teleportation disrupts his control?"

Ansem nodded. "It appears that he needs time to regain control of them, I imagine it has something to do with the World Heart and not having enough control over it, after all it is the World Heart which enables the Heartless to move about from place to place."

"Daddy…?"

Laguna spun around at Tifa's voice; Ansem smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"I won't keep you any longer; I'll summon you when we're ready to return to Hollow Bastion."

Laguna knelt down next to Tifa, she smiled, hugging him tenderly, though she frowned when she spied the gash in his armor and wound underneath, tracing her hand around the edges of the jagged tear.

"Does it hurt?"

"Not anymore," he said, leaning down and kissing her forehead.

Sora saw tears in Laguna's eyes and found that he was surprised. Laguna always seemed to be more than human, stronger than everyone else and to see him crying, even a little, was disconcerting.

Tifa looked over at Cloud sitting next to her cot, smiling. "Hey soldier boy, you've been here the entire time?"

He nodded quietly, his face betraying nothing of what he was feeling. She leaned up, putting a hand behind his head and pulling him down, they kissed and Cloud didn't protest in the slightest. Laguna moved away tactfully, pushing Sora and Roxas in front of him.

"You okay old man?" Leon asked with a smile.

Laguna smiled at him. "Between the four of you I expect a lot of grandkids to take care of me in my old age."

Leon actually flushed as he looked at Rinoa, she punched her father playfully.

"Stop it Dad, we aren't even engaged."

Laguna blinked and shrugged. "You mother and I got Tifa started before we were engaged. I'd just given her the engagement ring that night as a matter of fact."

"Okay that's more than I needed to hear." Rinoa said, blushing.

Sora agreed he didn't want to hear about Laguna's accomplishments when it came to bringing children into the world, it was a little more information than he wanted to have.

Roxas leaned close to him. "You realize that at this rate Dad's going to be baking birthday cakes all year round."

The thought made Sora happy, he loved those cakes, and thinking about them was making him hungry.

Roxas looked over at Cloud and Tifa, still holding each other and kissing. Seeing them reminded him of Namine. He hadn't seen her since the first casualties had been brought back and they'd all gotten commandeered by whoever happened to be in the area and needed help. He wondered how she was doing, and wished he could hold her for just a moment. He felt something warm grow in his chest, and looked over at Sora who was looking at him too. Maybe all four of them were having the same thought, and maybe that was good enough for now.