Here Without You Chapter 3, a kingdom hearts fanfic

"Kairi! Riku!" Sora was out of breath from running too fast "Look!"

He showed them the newspaper article.

"That's Selphie!" Kairi yelled grabbing the paper "She looks about 2 years older but it's certainly her,"

"What's wrong Sora?" Donald asked in his usual quaky voice

"Aerith, we know this girl!" He pointed quickly to Selphie's picture "But she's only 16. She's never mentioned anything about this to us. Can it be the same person?"

Aerith walked over and examined the paper.

"This picture was taken 8 years ago in Leon's old world. But when Radiant Garden was invaded he lost all of his friends and by then they were our friends too. He doesn't know what happened to any of them. But I do remember Selphie went into a different escape portal to us so it's possible that she could have ended up on your island,"

"But how come she's younger and doesn't remember anything," Yuffie asked

"Hmm, well its possible that the travelling between worlds changed her slightly I don't know. You wouldn't have a picture of her by any chance?"

Sora and Riku both shook their heads. Kairi felt in her back pocket and pulled out a glossy picture of her and Selphie in their school uniform. She handed it to Aerith.

Both she and Yuffie gasped.

"It is her!" they said in unison.

"Sora, you have to show this to Leon, it might give him hope about the others," Aerith hastily gave him the picture and started pushing him out of the door.

"Right," Sora said nodding his head.

X-X-X

"Damn Heartless!" Leon's gunblade sliced through them like knife to butter "Why don't you just fuck off and die?!"

His anger was unbearable. He ran forward and killed another few dozen. When no more were around he set himself on the ground and picked up the photo album. He skimmed through it and then stopped when it reached a group picture. It had been taken moments before Balamb and the rest of his world had been invaded by Heartless and they all had to evacuate to Radiant Garden. He looked at everyone's smiling faces from left to right…

Kiros…didn't know him that well…but he was always helping Dad get out of trouble

Ward…didn't even need to say anything to help people

Laguna…took me a while to call him dad…wish I had more time

Ellone...Sis was always there for me…I just wish I could've been there for her when she needed it most

Quistis…she never let me down…I miss her lectures on how I shouldn't beat people to a pulp in training

Zell…hotdog man! He was always making us laugh

He passed over the two people in the middle…

Selphie…always smiling and running around for more stories to put on the BBS

Irvine…never one to deny helping others. He always had the…strangest advice

Matron…Edea raised me like her own…and really if it wasn't for her I wouldn't have known the joy of being a Kni…

Cid…he was always so foolish…but turns out in the end he knew what he was doing

He now passed his eyes back to the couple in the middle…or really the trio…He was standing next Rinoa who had squatted on the floor hugging her dog, Angelo. He suspected to see her smiling but something he had never noticed about this picture before was that she looked sad…or worried…she wasn't looking at the camera…but at the floor. Her eyes were slightly droopy and when he looked at her hands Leon noticed they were balled into a fist. A thought struck him like lightening…

Did she know?

He shook the thought out of his head. Closing the book he stood up and dusted off his trousers. He bent down and picked up his gunblade. Walking out of Castle postern, he kept staring at Maleficent's castle. He turned away abruptly and went straight to his hotel room for a nap.

He lied on his bed staring at the ceiling. He couldn't sleep, so he decided to let the time go by. He turned his head to the bed side cabinet. Reaching forward he flicked on the radio,

"…and so today the houses were finished and-" he flicked to a different station he couldn't bother with news.

"…cause I don't wanna spend my life cheated, wasted…!" once again he flicked it over. Music was his first choice but something told him to keep looking.

"What hurts the most, was being so close…!" again he changed it. He wasn't really in the mood for country

"…I saw you smiling at me, was it-" NO! He definitely wasn't going to listen to that song. He was surprised it would even be playing. He decided the next song he would listen to no matter what it was…he flicked it over just as a song was finishing and a new song started as he drifted in an out of slumber…

A hundred days have made me older
Since the last time that I saw your pretty face
A thousand lies have made me colder
And I don't think I can look at this the same
But all the miles that separate
Disappear now when I'm dreaming of your face

I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby
And I dream about you all the time
I'm here without you baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And tonight, it's only you and me

The miles just keep Rollin'
As the people leave their way to say hello
I've heard this life is overrated
But I hope that it gets better as we go

Everything I know, and anywhere I go
It gets hard but it wont take away my love
And when the last one falls
When it's all said and done
It gets hard but it wont take away my love

Whoa!

X-X-X

A few hours later he was disturbed as soft knock was heard on his door.

"Leon…its me, Yuffie!"

"What do you want?" he mumbled loudly

"Well…we were just wondering if Sora had come to see you..."

"Yes, he did…and…?" he said thinking back to the morning where Sora had disturbed his thoughts

"Well…umm," her voice gave off confusion

Surely he would be happier to know Selphie's alive, she thought, oh well…

"Well…I guess I'll talk to you later…everyone's getting together tomorrow…cause of…you know…so I'll see ya then," and then she walked away.

Leon sat up in straight,

Tomorrow?

He got out of bed and walked over to his calendar….then he saw the date…today was 2nd of March, meaning tomorrow was…oh Hyne…

He sat on the bed again and put his head in his hands.

Three years…tomorrow would be the third anniversary of the day everything was taken away from him….but it was only supposed to represent another special day…one which was always celebrated with cheer. The 3rd of March was Rinoa's birthday.

Unexpectedly he started to hyperventilate. Every time that day came around he would spend it away from everyone…but in the past two years everybody else had more important things to worry about. This year however there was nothing to distract anyone and they would spend it together either reminiscing or crying. He didn't want that…he didn't need it either. Everything was so difficult and seeing more people hurt would make it harder. He looked out the window and saw it was about to get dark. After straightening out his clothes he picked up his beloved weapon and left his hotel room. This time his feet did the leading and he walked straight past Merlin's house and into the shopping district. Hopping down the stairs and into the courtyard he saw that along the wall were flyers and posters, each one was put up by Aerith. He walked over to her each time observing the papers.

"What are you doing?" he asked

Aerith jumped at the sound of his voice, she turned and gave him a small smile.

"I've built a 'Missing and Memorial' wall," she gestured

Leon looked closely and saw that the wall was split into two by long blue tape. On one side were names permanently placed on the bricks of all the lives lost in the past years. Whilst on the side Aerith was working on now there were pictures, names and personality descriptions of people they didn't know the fate of. He started to scan down the wall each time taking steps away from Aerith. Then he saw her face. He stopped and read the details Aerith had written down.

Name: Rinoa Julia Leonhart

Spouse: Squall Leonhart

Age: 26

D.O.B: 3rd March

Hair Colour: Black with caramel streaks

Eye Colour: Dark chocolate brown
Height: 5'5"

Personality: A lively and bubbly girl. Also may be referred to as 'Rinoa Julia Heartilly'. She is very experienced when it comes to casting magic. She has a pet dog named Angelo and usually wears a silver necklace with two rings looped onto it. She has a tattoo of an Iris on her ankle and very small feet. She doesn't spare any seconds when it comes to helping others.

Please keep an eye out for her and if she's found please tell her to come home or contact one of us at the restoration committee. Thanks

He looked up to the picture and saw her smiling face beaming at him.

"I guess tomorrow I'll have to change her age," Aerith giggled

"Why have you decided to do this now?" Leon asked without looking away from the picture

"Well after the incident with Selphie I thought there could be a lot of others out there who might not know who they really are,"

"What incident with Selphie?" Leon took his eyes away from the picture for the first time

"She's living on Sora's island but she can't remember anything about before and apparently she's only sixteen. Didn't Sora tell you?"

"No…so, she's ok?"

"Yeah, apparently she's always happy playing on the island and in school she keeps getting straight A's…except in math, so I guess some things haven't changed,"

"Did Sora say anyone else was there?"

"No Leon, but he said he'd start to keep an eye out when he travels to different worlds. I've given him copies of all these Missing posters,"

He nodded slowly then turned to her in all seriousness, he sighed deeply,

"In the Memorial…put his name down…"

"Who's name?"

"Squall's, he's dead now and I doubt anything could bring him back…"

"But Leon?!"

"Do it…he died three years ago…along with the others,"

Aerith nodded and grabbed a silver pen. Using fancy calligraphy she chose a brick and regretfully wrote "Squall Leonhart".

Leon nodded and then he entered his house where he sunk to the floor and covered his face with his hands.