A/N: I will update the first A/N to reflect this, but I forgot to mention: Aerith is not from OG FFVII. (Everyone who should be is.) I could argue she is from KH, but to not argue, she's OOC.

Chapter 5: You snooze, you lose.

Using both arms, Leon swung his Gunblade up and across and pulled the trigger. Energy zapped through the sword. An electric crack echoed throughout the cave. The cloth he was aiming for, a flag with blue and yellow stripes hanging as one in a banner, disintegrated. Yellow-green flames flickered from two claypots, scattering silver speckles against water standing still at different depths of the same green. The water covered every ground surface of the cave except for a small patch of rocky land that Leon stood on. The enclosed space and the splashing, dripping water gave the illusion that the air was different, cooler, closer to the skin, but Leon didn't sweat. The air didn't cling. It wasn't damp. And he was once again wondering what the hell he was doing in here.

The kid had gone missing with the duck and dog. While searching for them, Leon and Yuffie had found this green cave. On all his previous, countless walks in the alley behind the hotel, Leon had mistaken an arched tunnel entrance in a stone wall for an oversized drain. Iron bars, two of which were bent just enough to squeeze through, blocked the entrance.

It was the water that had caught their attention. Not draining as expected, water filled a shallow, dead-end canal in the alley and led into a tunnel entrance that opened into the cave. The stagnant water had nowhere to go but glistened clear enough to see to the bottom even at waist depth. How did this water work, really? It hadn't rained once in nine years. Shouldn't it smell? Leon didn't smell wood or oil being burnt either. He didn't remember the last time he smelled anything from this world. He wondered how flames worked in caves. Why wasn't this cave filled with smoke? Did oxygen burn here? Was he really breathing? Was he really alive?

Training was Cloud's idea, Yuffie had said. Wearing himself out would help with sleep, she claimed. When he first swung his sword in the cave, Leon remembered that training had gotten him out of his funk back home, too. Not that swinging a sword in an empty cave amounted to much. When Leon tried to convince Yuffie to join him, she talked about how ninjas train with only other ninjas who know their ninja secrets. Whatever.

Leon needed this training to fix his sleeplessness, he supposed. He had slept alone in a different hotel room since that night that Yuffie had cried. Sitting on a windowsill with one leg on the floor, Cloud, with his sword at some odd angle behind him, had glanced at the two of them leaving her room together.

"Don't worry," Cloud said. "I won't tell your dad."

"I know you won't," Yuffie said. "But what do I care what that butthole thinks anyway?"

"Why are you saying it like that?" Leon crossed his arms. "We slept in separate beds."

"Guess I don't need space that bad," Cloud said. "Let's switch rooms, Yuffie."

"What? No," Yuffie said. "It's fine. More than fine. He's right. We're sleeping in separate beds. Not everybody likes being alone like you do, you know. Mind your own business, Cloud."

Cloud sighed, turned off of the windowsill, and walked away.

"Wait," Yuffie said. "Are you feeling better?"

Cloud had waved them off without looking back, his sword still swinging on his back. He hadn't said anything to Leon since, and Yuffie hadn't objected when Leon avoided her room after that.

Leon examined his Gunblade for marks. He wondered if he'd be better off swinging it around in one of the town squares. Candles would make better targets than cloth. He had spent five to ten minutes in the cave, and he wanted to leave. When he became restless like this, he would run up and down a flight of stairs that led to nothing but a circular landing surrounded by vertically endless walls, the bottom of a bottomless pit. What were dead end stairs doing in the back of a cave? When looking up, he felt like he was at the bottom of a wishing well, with no water and no coins. Dry and wishless. Was this the way out of hell?

"Leon?" Aerith's voice echoed. "Are you in here?"

The water in the cave rippled and waved, splashing up against the dry, rocky ground around Leon, but he didn't hear her sloshing. When she appeared from around the corner, dragging one leg after the other with her dress hiked up in the water, she smiled and tilted her head.

"There you are. How's your training going?" She rose from the water's lower depths and stepped onto dry rocks.

He readied his Gunblade again but didn't swing.

"I've come to talk to you about Sora," Aerith said. "He's come back. The darkness is spreading. We have to help him, Leon."

"The kid doesn't need his head filled with your ideas about darkness," Leon said.

"But I'm not wrong. And you…" Aerith sighed. "You're the only one who can reach Sora. Cloud can't."

"How's that my problem?"

"Sora will have questions about his adventures, and he needs those answers. Do you understand?"

"Whatever."

"I'm not your enemy. You don't understand. If Sora doesn't fight the Heartless…we'll all…"

"We all what?"

"The Heartless are after our hearts." Aerith stared beyond Leon. "There's darkness in all our hearts. Sora's here to save the world. You can't give into your darkness, Cloud. Stay away from the darkness and run to the light. It's the only way."

"I'm not Cloud," Leon said.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I don't know how I could have mistaken him for you." Aerith touched her temple. "Or you for him, I should say. You're so different, you know. I told them that. He's light. I kept telling them. He's already light. And you, you have to be the darkness."

"The darkness? Why did you tell anyone I was darkness? Who's 'they'?"

"Well, aren't you?" Aerith raised her voice. "Aren't you the darkness in your world?"

"I'm not."

"You aren't? But they're my friends. We're all friends. I have to protect them."

"You're not doing much of that, are you? We're not doing anything here."

"We all do our part, Leon. No matter how small it may seem, it's important."

"You're saying words, the same way politicians do. They're empty. Do you want to be here?"

"Of course I want to be here. Where else would-"

"Are you alive?" Leon said. "Or dead? Did you want this?"

"Do I want this?" Aerith looked directly at Leon. "You should be wary of your darkness, Leon."

The sound of metal clattering and splashing against stone, filled the cave with clashing echoes.

Aerith faced the tunnel that led into the cave and sighed. "That must be them. Please be nice. We really can't lose here."

Three heads bobbed in the water moving in Leon's direction. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Leon," Sora said, in front of him. The duck and dog shook the water off of them as they splashed out. "Guess what I found? Give you a hint. I can use my key on them."

"I don't know, Sora, keyholes?" Leon said. "Where have you been?"

"Yeah, keyholes." Sora grinned. "My keyblade locked them automatically."

"Good," Aerith said.

Leon looked at her. "Good? What's-"

"Every world among the stars has a keyhole, and each one leads to the heart of the world," Aerith said.

"Wait… What?" Leon sighed. "Worlds have hearts? With giant keyholes? Or are they normal sized and the key just fits?"

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Sora said, even though he's the one who brought up keyholes.

"It was in the Ansem report," Aerith said, like it meant something. "The Heartless enter through the keyhole and do something to the world's core, right, Leon?"

"Whatever," Leon said.

"What happens to the world?" Sora said. "Once the Heartless appear?"

"In the end, it disappears," Aerith said.

"What?" the duck, dog, and kid said. Leon agreed, but in any end, a world could disappear.

"How'd you get off this world?" Leon said. "Why'd you come back?"

Aerith glared at Leon before turning to Sora. "Please lock the keyholes. You're the only one who can."

"I don't know…" Sora said.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Leon said. "Locking keyholes has to be better than fighting those creatures."

"Yeah!" the duck said.

"We got to find your friends! And King Mickey," the dog said.

"What does keyholes have to do with his friends? Aren't you already looking for them?"

"I guess you're right. Okay!" Sora grinned, looking up at Leon before jumping away.

"Wait, no, Sora," Leon said. "Hold on, duck. You and your friend need to tell me what the heck is going on."

"Do you want to know what we eat in my world, Leon?" the duck quacked. "Turkeys. Cause they're weaker than ducks. Boy, this is going to be good."

"Garsh, Donald," the dog hyucked. "Do we really got to do this?"

Drowsiness warmed over Leon, and a wispy memory grew and took shape. The cave turned brown and the water red, flowing like sputtering lava and his teacher… Even though he had been at the school longer, she was his teacher. His teacher pointed to the middle of the cave and a reddish brown beast with horns on a lion's head on a man's godlike body opened his mouth and his arms up as if daring the heavens to strike him. It roared and the ground shook. Squall didn't have his Gunblade. Being without it was a reoccurring dream. He held a blue glass marble out to the creature instead.

"Fine, I will join you." The creature's large hand with retractable pointy black nails reached out to Squall's and touched the marble.

A whirlwind swept the creature high into the air, and it shrank little by little, but its energy, its presence remained in the cave as a hot windstorm, blowing Squall's hair, the loose parts of his unzipped jacket, even his necklace in different directions. But he held his arm out until the creature was the size of the marble, and it stood in the middle of Squall palm. It roared still like a lion but softer, and the wind grew calmer. The creature looked up at Squall with a sad smile and disappeared. The marble grew hot enough to burn, to blister but Squall wouldn't dare let go.

Leon opened his eyes slowly. He placed the marble in Sora's hand. "Take this with you."

Sora's mouth formed words, but Squall did not hear them. Sora was asking about the marble, but Squall could not answer.

"What, what was that?" Leon said, holding his head. The cave and its water were green and clear again. "Sora…he can't use it. It'll mess with him. With his memories."

Sora, the duck, and the dog were gone.

"It was them." Aerith was kneeling in the water, holding her hands to her chest. "The Heartless… are after…our hearts…"

"Freak." Leon splashed into the water, running away from Aerith.

Where had they gone? His steps slowed as he sank deeper, making him feel clumsy. Water added resistance when he tried to walk normally, like on land, but buoyancy between steps when both feet were off the ground, which happened more often as he went deeper. A slow jump, flying, no floating, but only when deeper.

When the water reached his chest, the cave floor under the clear green water gave way. His foot sank, and he floundered, startled at the lack of solid ground. His body sank, submerged into the water which muffled all the sounds and created new ones as the reverberations of plunging into the water played slowly around him. He tried to stand, to swim but sank further down, still buoyant, still weightless. Bubbles from his air, from his movement formed around him. He sank further and further below the surface which he realized was the source of light. Light was at the end of a wavy tunnel above him. Sound waves and light interpreted through his eyes as vision undulated slower underwater. He screamed, but only bubbles formed around his mouth and his scream sounded like muted, delayed panic. Did his scream bubbles reach the surface as a proper scream or did the water absorb all of his sound, all of his panic, all of him?

Do tears exist underwater? Would he cry when his breath ended? His lungs burned, he thought. They must, he thought. There would be a moment when he would have to breathe water, not air, and would that be the moment when he died? Or would he have to wait, one minute, two minutes, three minutes, how long does it take to die? How long does he have to live? How long would it feel? Did he want it to be long or short? Would it feel short now and long when it hurts? Why did everything he enjoyed seem so short and everything painful feel like forever? What exactly did he still enjoy? Was thinning air from the very end of his last breath the last thing that he had to look forward to?

He waited until he couldn't any longer, clenching his throat, and then he waited more until he opened his mouth, and what he breathed was not water. It could not be air but he was not dead. And his body floated but his weightless feet sank and touched bottom, and effortlessly, he stood.

He smelled air after a storm, like renewing layers threatening to thin, threatening to expose him. Burning electric wires. Ozone. Light shone from under Leon's feet. Yellow and blue and green and red and any color pure and primal and true and the colors swirled and cracked into a pane of tinted glass shards. A picture of a girl, with a pale blue cardigan sweater longer than a dress, held the hand of a stained glass picture of him. Golden fields and white feathers surrounded them, but their faces were cut out as black circular voids.

Leon fell to his knees. What was her name?

"Hey there, hi there, ho there, Leon," a voice from beyond all the darkness surrounding him said. "What are you doing here? This isn't where you belong. Find your light. Once you do that, you'll find your answers. Hot dog, maybe even save the girl. What do you say, pal?"

Giving under weight he forgot he had, glass cracked forming black veins against the golden field under his knees. He stood and stepped back. Glass shattered and flew up. Jagged edges framed a black hole where he had been kneeling. Shattered glass floated at his eye level and swirled. Was he spinning or were they?

He turned and ran. Each step gripped and cracked glass. Each time he lifted one of his legs, glass shattered and kicked up into the glass storm. Shards, small and large of different shapes, clinked against each other, sounding louder and louder as he ran closer to the edge. He covered his ears to the sounds of hundreds of wind chimes. He stumbled. Glass cracked before he stepped and his foot slipped. Dread as he lost his balance flooded him and he instinctively grabbed for the edge, but glass sliced into his hand and he had to let go. And he fell. Down, down, down into the darkness and the bright stained glass picture above him was the only source of light. Jagged black holes ate through the picture of him. Scattered pieces of him flew and floated and fell.

Leon woke up, heaving, looking around at the dark, unaware of where he was. He saw shapes of shadows. He saw a window, its lightened panes from streetlights that didn't go out. He felt a bed under him, and he breathed quickly. In and out. In and out. He wasn't controlling his breathing. Clenched in a fist, his hand ached, and he was afraid to open it, but he didn't feel any blood so he relaxed his palm and saw no wound in the dark. He stumbled when his feet hit the floor and ran to turn on the light.

They had moved to a new house. That's right, it was Yuffie's idea. He was in his new room. The other bed was made, with blankets smoothed over and tucked against the mattress. He was alone, and he had trouble sleeping alone.

He rushed out of the room following the voices from downstairs. Two doors on the other side of the hall. One room for Yuffie, one for Cloud, and he shook his head to try to clear his thoughts.

"Why'd you let the key kid get away, Leon?" Yuffie said, as soon as he stood at the top of the stairs. "Who would've thought those three bozos could actually get out of this heckhole."

"What, no hello?" Leon said, as he descended the stairs.

"Hey, are you alright?" Yuffie said. She was lying on the floor. "You look a little pale."

"Don't let this ninja girl get to you," said Cid, an older man with stubble on his face and a toothpick in his mouth. He was sitting on the floor, leaning back against the wall next to her. "She's libel to take you for all your worth."

"Hardy, Har Har," Yuffie said. "Get your kicks in while you can, cranky legged old man."

"I ain't old, ninja," Cid said.

"You're free now. Don't be such an butt," Yuffie said.

"Free?" Cid said. "You call this free? No smokes, no booze, no nothing. Can't even cuss round here. All I got's a freaking. Ugh. All I got's a lousy toothpick. Not even something sweet to chew on. A gosh darn. Darn. Darn. Ugh. Gosh darn it, I sound like a wuss. Good Gaia, I got a real hankering for some of my hooch right now."

"Look who's having a meltdown because he can't cuss. It's better now that you're out of the shop though, hm? At least we're not fighting anything awful here."

"I guess you're right about that. None of those gosh darn monsters here. And we're not warring with ShinRa. There's no sign of Sephiroth neither. But I'm afraid something's fixing to really blow up here, you know? Hey. Hey you, what's your name again? Yuffie says you been here longer than the rest of us. What're you thinking about all this?"

"It's Leon. And the kid's back. I talked to him."

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" Yuffie sat up. "When did you even have time to talk to him?"

"I was supposed to tell him something, but I forget what."

"It's probably not that important if you forgot, right?" Yuffie said, standing. She brushed herself off.

"Yeah," Leon said. "Right."

"They go to a different world?" Cloud said, at the top of the stairs. He jogged down them. "They had to've."

"We're talking about that kid that darn near walloped you, right Cloud? How'd you let a darn kid get the best of you? D'you lose your fighting spirit again?"

Cloud stopped at the bottom of the stairs and stared at Cid.

"The kid talked about locking keyholes in different worlds." Leon frowned. "He was following the duck and the dog. I don't trust them."

"What's there not to trust?" Cloud said.

"What is there to trust, Cloud?" Yuffie said, rolling her eyes. "Wait, no one here trusts the key kid, right?"

"He didn't mean to hurt me," Cloud said.

"He didn't," Leon said. "But trusting him is like trusting a big dog you don't know."

Cloud shrugged. "I'd trust a big dog."

"Forget dogs," Yuffie said. "He's a kid with a key that can and will slice flesh. Why is trusting him even a thing we're talking about?"

"Enough about the darn kid," Cid said. "We ain't got a way out of here."

"But he found a way," Leon said. "Why did he come back when there's no sign of his friends here?"

"Shhh," Cloud said. "You guys hear that?"

"Cid?" a faint voice from outside called out. "Yuffie? Where is everybody?"

"Quick, Cloud, go upstairs," Yuffie said.

"Why?" Cloud said.

"The key kid's back. We can't have you spooking him into running away again. We got to figure out how he got off this world and steal how he did it. Unless he's using that key. Then we're screwed. Even then, we have to trick him into thinking we like him."

"It's not a good idea to try to trick kids, Yuffie," Cloud said. "'Specially one with that kind of weapon."

"I won't be mean. I'll be super nice. Leon, too. But you got to go upstairs."

"Yuffie, you aren't going to be nice." Cloud looked at Leon. "And no way he'll be nice. And what about Cid? Nobody's going to be nice here."

"Cid can't cuss, and he's sober. That makes him nice enough. Look, I'm not a kid anymore, and I'm a ninja darn it. I can be nice and cute and sexy in ultimate ninja mode."

"Holy freaking shootballs, where the heck is Tifa? Don't you go and try to be…" Cid cringed. "Sexy in front of kids, Yuffie."

"I won't," Yuffie said. "Geez. Cloud, go upstairs."

"Fine," Cloud said. "Try being fake nice and steal from the kid. Don't end up sliced in half."

"I'm going upstairs." Leon watched Cloud as he climbed the stairs.

"Wait. No. You stay. Stupid key kid. You're going to help me steal his shoot. Where's your weapon?"

"I don't carry it around everywhere." Leon looked around the room. Where did he leave his Gunblade?

"Why not? Oh my god. Cid, do you have a weapon?"

"Never got one." Cid stood up and shook his head. "Just got stuck in a gosh darn jewelry store, selling gosh darn jewelry to nobody but a little shoot of a kid, like a gosh darn mother farter. Gosh darn it to freaking heck, I want to go upstairs, too."

"Cid? Yuuuuufffie?" The kid sounded like he was right outside the front door.

"No. Buck up, guys. Think rainbows and flowers and unicorns and shoot," Yuffie said. "And Leon, maybe try miming."

Cid said, "Aww, fu-"

The door swung open, and everyone looked at Cid.

"Did I about cuss?" Cid grinned.

"What are you all doing here?" Sora said. The dog held a shield in front of him, and the duck twirled a staff. "Why aren't you staying at the hotel anymore?"

"This house was supposed to be our secret base," Leon said. "It's snug enough with the four of us. The animals can stay outside."

"Leon, it's the more, the merrier, remember?" Yuffie said. "Why don't the three of you come right on in? Make yourselves at home. Put your…uh…feet or whatever you have up."

"Gramps," Sora said. "We're looking for this world's keyhole. Can you help?"

"Who you calling Gramps? I'm thirty freaking four years old. Keyhole? I'll show you freaking keyhole."

"Rainbows and unicorns, Cid," Yuffie said. "Show us how it's done, key ki-, uh, Keyblade Master."

"Sure thing, I'll show you guys something awesome," Sora said. "I'm going to lock the keyhole of this world."

"Uh huh." Yuffie's smile turned into pursed lips. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah," Leon said. "The kid's looking for a keyhole."

"I'm not a kid."

"So this keyhole." Cid sighed. "Why's he got to find it?"

"I need to lock it with my Keyblade."

"Alright, smartbutt," Cid said. "Ugh. Yuffie, what do you want to do here? This seems to be the mother of all rabbit holes, and I ain't got the time to deal with this shoot. None of us do."

"Well, Cid, if we help the key…master or whatever with his keyholes then maybe, he can tell us how he's getting off this world. Can't you just stick to my an-play?"

"Do you want to know how I'm getting off the world, Yuffie?" Sora said. "That's easy. I ride around on a rocketship."

"You're shooting me," Cid said. "Where in the heck did you find a rocketship?"

"These guys have one. We didn't crash. It was fun."

"These two animals," Yuffie pointed at the duck then the dog. "And you operated a vehicle that flew into outer space? Cid, tell me that's impossible. I mean, that cannot be possible, right? Right?"

"Yuffie. A kid and two talking critters riding around in a spaceship's got nothing on all the rest of the shoot that's going around."

"See Cid says I can," said Sora. "Oh wait, Cid, I have something for you."

Cid narrowed his eyes. "What's that?"

"I don't know," said Sora. "Aerith told me to give it to you. She said it goes to a Gummi ship."

"She got the most gumption out of us all," Cid said, softly. "Give it here."

"So that Keyhole," Sora said.

"There's a shoot ton of keyholes in this town, Sora. What're you asking me about it for?"

"Don't you have a clue where it is?"

"There's a huge one stuck in one of the walls near that square where all them zombie people gander about. And there's one on a big blue box that looks like it's holding something important."

"No, Cid. I already opened those Keyholes with my Keyblade. I'm looking for the Keyhole to this world. In other worlds, they were invisible or hiding behind something and only showed up once I waved my Keyblade around it."

"I sure envy you for seeing a world's keyhole," Yuffie said, looking like she tasted something bad.

Cid sneered at her. "We don't got time for this shoot. How the freak would I know where something invisible is?"

"Have you noticed anything weird about this world?" Sora said.

"What ain't weird here?" Cid said. "Guess the one weird thing that don't have any business doing here's that neon room holding the guts of that clock tower. Y'all been in there? Libel to get a contact high from whatever the artist was smoking to paint what they did in there or at least a couple of seizures if you stare at all them swirling colors too long. Clock's stuck in there. Clocks are fricked up everywhere round these here parts, but the one in there's stuck at 6:54."

The front door opened a crack.

"Hello?" Aerith said, knocking on the door and opening it wider. "Anyone home?"

"Does no one here understand what a secret base is?" Leon said.

"What are you doing here?" Yuffie said.

"Maleficent is in town," Aerith said. "She's the one behind the Heartless being here."

"I thought those things wanted the kid's key. Or his heart or something," Leon said.

"Who's she?" Sora said.

"She's got to be a witch," Cid said. "That name's a witch's."

"How would you know?" Yuffie said, no longer smiling looking over Cid.

"I met a witch or two." Cid closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"She's been using the Heartless for years," Aerith said. "We lost our world, thanks to her."

"That don't make no sense. Aerith…Why's she saying our world's lost?"

"Our ruler was a wise man named Ansem," Aerith said. "He dedicated his life to studying the Heartless."

"Ansem?" Leon said. "Does he have some kind of report?"

"It got scattered when our world was destroyed," Aerith said.

"So your world was destroyed, but a report that used to exist in that world wasn't destroyed and all its pages flew somewhere? Why are you bringing this up?"

"Now wait a dang gone minute, why're y'all talking nonsense? Our world ain't destroyed."

"Witches?" Leon walked over to Aerith. "A sorceress? Do you mean this world has sorceresses?"

"The witch has arrived." Aerith reached for Leon's arm, but he moved it away. "Please hear me."

"No need to get all riled up." Cid sighed. "What's this sorceress Maleficent got to do with a report?"

"Sora." Aerith stepped back. With her hands behind her back, she tilted her body at the waist. "I've been thinking about the bell in the Second District.

"The big one?" Yuffie stood next to Leon facing Aerith. "Why are you bringing all this weird stuff up now?"

"The bells above the Gizmo shop don't ring at 3 o'clock. It's all boarded up. Nobody can get in there."

"That one that just rang?" Sora said.

"We will try to find out what Maleficent is up to," Aerith said, smiling.

"Gosh, Sora," the dog said. "We ought to run straight to that there tower and listen to these folks about ringing that bell."

"Heck," Cid said. "Pat your darn head. Rub your darn belly. Hop on your darn leg. Ring that darn bell three times. Freak, what in tarnation is going on around here?"

"Oh." Sora looked at Leon.

"Sora," Aerith said. "You're the only one who can stop the Heartless."

"Alright," Sora nodded. "You can count on me."

The kid, the dog and the duck left one by one out the door. The duck held the doorknob and looked at Cid, Leon and longer at Yuffie before he rolled his eyes, muttered quacks, and closed the door behind him.

"You can go right along with them." Yuffie gestured at Aerith. "Shoo."

"Don't be like that, Yuffie," Cid said.

"It's not her. She's fake. I mean, did you listen to what she was saying, Cid?"

"I know," Cid said. "I known all along that it ain't the real her, not the old her, but… it might still be her."

"But it's not," Yuffie said. "She's…"

"That's alright." Aerith walked to the door. "I've said what I needed to say. Don't let Sora meet the witch. They can't meet. Not yet."

"Why not?" Leon said.

"The witch surrounds herself with darkness. Be wary of that darkness, Leon." Aerith opened the door, but turned around before she walked through the threshold. "Good luck to you all."

As the door closed, Yuffie stuck her tongue out. "We're not trusting her. She makes no sense."

"Yeah, but I think she's trying to tell us something," Leon said.

"She's not the real Aerith," Yuffie said.

"You don't know," Cid said. "Heck, you can't tell what's somebody going to wind up like after going through something as big as she did. It might be her but you just can't tell, Yuffie."

"Then forget her." Yuffie pulled a red velvet pouch that jingled from her pocket. "Let's see what I nabbed from that key kid. Did you see? I'm pretty good at this whole acting nice thing, aren't I? Leon, you were horrible. You, too, Cid."

"When did you steal from that kid?" Leon said.

"Meh, it's not my best work." Yuffie turned the pouch upside down, emptying coins onto the tv stand.

"See, what'd I tell you?" Cid gestured to Yuffie before turning over a piece of red plastic. "Watch out for this one if you know what's good for you."

"So what did he give you, Cid?" Yuffie said, sifting the gold coins from the silver one. "A pet rock? A broken toy? Gum from under his shoe?"

"Well I'll be darned…I reckon he handed me a part to a freaking spaceship, y'all. The heck they have these just lying around for?"

"A spaceship?" Leon said. "How would you know?"

"Cid's a pilot. He can drive a spaceship," Yuffie said. "Can we sell that for a lot of money?"

"You're an astronaut?" Leon said.

"Why's that so hard to believe?" Cid said. "But I didn't tell that kid nothing about me. I guess I could've said something when I first got here. I was out of it then."

"It was probably that fake Aerith that told him all about us," Yuffie said. "Hey, let's steal that kid's rocket from him."

"You want to steal a rocketship," Leon said.

"Kid's got a magic key," Cloud's voice called out from upstairs. "He can slice a chair in half with it. Not smart to steal from him."

"Cloud, quit hollering from up there and get your butt down here," Cid shouted, cupping his mouth with his hands.

"It's perfect," Yuffie said. "We steal his ship, make a getaway and him or those animals can't chase us when we do. What's not to like about my plan?"

"Maybe we don't got to steal any ship from him," Cid said. "He's going around finding parts. I'll tell him I'll make his ship fly faster or farther with what he's giving me. I can try crafting something together with what he brings me."

"We ought to just tell Sora what we need them for," Cloud said, from the top of the stairs. "Sounds like he doesn't need the parts."

"But this way he'll probably be motivated to bring me more. Lying to him like this won't hurt a fly," Cid said.

"Do you really think he's going to give you enough parts to build an entire rocketship?" Leon said.

"Probably not, but I wouldn't've thought this stuff's just lying around to be took neither," Cid said.

"Let's steal his rocket," Yuffie said.

"I think," Leon said. "We stop focusing on the ship and figure out what he's doing with the keyholes."

"You mean, the invisible ones?" Cid said. "It sounds a whole lot like he's busy chasing his own darn tail."

"Aerith wanted him to do that. We might finally see him go heartless," Yuffie said. "Why did you get so hung up about that witch, Leon?"

"Sorceresses can cause a lot of problems in my world," Leon said.

"Problems?" Yuffie rubbed one of the gold coins against her shirt and held it in the palm of her hand. "What kind of problem?"

"They just complicate how the world works," Leon said.

"Well alright, that explains everything," Yuffie said. "Cloud, did you hear how nice I was? You were right about one thing, Leon can't act nice at all."

"Good thing nobody got hurt," Cloud said. "If the plan's to get the kid to bring Cid parts, we ought to look for them, too."

"I guess I'm only one fellow though," Cid said. "We could use a bunch of folks to put that spaceship together if that's what we're fixing to do."

"You have me, Leon and Cloud," Yuffie said.

"A bunch of smart folks. None of you are going to know how to make sure that ship don't explode," Cid said.

"Isn't that what you do, Cid?" Yuffie said.

"You don't get just one guy making sure that the dang thing's put together right," Cid said. "That's how crap explodes when you fire it up. Heh, I can say crap."

"I'm telling you," Leon said, "we should see what the kid is up to with this keyhole. What if we follow him to see when he tries to leave the world again?"

"So that's when we steal his rocket?" Yuffie said.

"We could see where his ship is at least," Leon said.

"Cloud, what do you think?" Yuffie said.

"Yeah," Cid said. "What're you thinking about all this?"

Cloud looked at Leon and nodded. "Might as well follow Sora, we'll have time to look for parts later."

And with that, Yuffie and Cid stood up to leave.

"Where's your weapon?" Cloud said.

"I'll check upstairs for it. Give me a minute."

"Check upstairs?" Yuffie said. "Did you lose it?"

"No," Leon said.

"Holy moly, Leon," Yuffie said. "How'd you do that?"

"I didn't. Give me a minute," Leon said. As the three others watched, Leon ran up the stairs.

He entered his room and looked in every corner, trying to remember when and where he had his Gunblade last. He had taken it to the green cave and practiced his timing using flags. He spoke with Aerith. She had demanded something from him. The kid came to visit with the duck and the dog and…

Did Leon have his Gunblade when he had spoken to Sora? He had to have, right? Did he walk back? They had just moved to the house so that they could be more comfortable, and he had just found the cave.

Leon opened the drawers to a dresser that he had never opened. Empty. He opened doors to an armoire that he never used. Empty. He opened the door to a closet that he had opened once on his first day here. Nothing but the same white shelf and a white metal rod spanning the top of the closet. Leon flopped to the floor on his stomach to look under the bed, and there was his Gunblade.

He grabbed it and stood up.

It was just a bad dream.