Chapter 1

by Hideto Matsumoto

Yuffie wasn't sure what to make of it. She rolled the rainbow-colored materia around in her hand, and felt its unusually light weight. What in the world? she thought.

A loud gonging from the mansion's clock tower momentarily startled her. 4 AM, it was time to go, otherwise she risked getting caught.

She closed the safe, and rehung the concealing tapestry to delay discovery of the materia's disappearance (no need to alert anyone prematurely). Then she crept out into the hallway, using her honed skills of stealth.

"Finally, a light in the dark void," a barely audible voice called out.

Yuffie froze, training her ear for any evidence she had been discovered.

Again the voice spoke, louder this time, "What is this light?"

She looked around, trying to determine where the voice was coming from. When she heard nothing more, she moved on.

Up the stairs, down shadowy a hall, and into a storage room she crept. There a trapdoor hanging open from the ceiling beckoned her to freedom.

But just as she climbed up the storage case underneath, about to grab the floor above, the voice returned, yelling this time.

"Who is there? Please tell me!"

It proved too much of a distraction. Yuffie lost her balance, and fell to the floor, pulling the shelving with her. Boxes and containers scattered across the floor, making a loud racket--surely she had been compromised.

Footsteps already could be heard pounding down the hallway outside.

Yuffie crawled out from under the storage case, which was now leaning up against the front wall.

The door started to open, but was jammed by the fallen shelving.

"Is someone in there?" A man called out.

Yuffie eyed the trapdoor, as the person on the other side of the door tried to force himself in. It was now out of reach; there was no room to move anything else over there. She was vulnerable.

The door banged repeatedly into the side of the case, which was starting to crack at the point of impact.

She was wearing two bracers, each containing 3 materia slots. Taking pride in her skills, Yuffie hadn't planned on a confrontation--a failure, something her ego had problems accepting--so she had mostly support materia. There was however a green materia on her left bracer, a lightning one.

Someone else was outside the door now.

"What's going on?" a woman asked?

"My Lady, I heard a loud crash, and when I went to check on it, the door was jammed up against something."

"Has someone broke in?"

"We can check, but if there is an intruder, they'll be gone before we catch them."

"Isn't the attic access in there? It may already be too late."

"Unless they were injured or trapped somehow," the man responded.

Yuffie tensed up, as he seemed determined to force the door open and see what was going on.

The top board of the shelving finally split, and the man rushed in. He was dressed in a uniform, and Yuffie guessed he must be a guard.

"What do we have here? A little thief perhaps?" He speculated, looking down at the intruder, who was down on one knee. "Hey! Don't I know you… You're that Yuffie person, aren't you?"

"Congratulations, dorkus!" Yuffie replied, launching a lightning attack.

The guard was momentarily alight with bolts of lightning arcing all over his body, before slumping to the floor, falling unconscious.

The woman peered in to have a look, but quickly retreated when a second lightning charge shot out, just missing her.

"Great, now I'm gonna have to fight my way out of here… Man!" Yuffie whined.

Not having an alternate route planned (another casualty of her pride), she raced around looking for a good place to exit, or make a stand--if it came to that.

She could now hear the raised voices of many guards; they were closing in.

"Where am I?" the voice asked.

"Okay, either I'm going nuts, or this is like really weird," Yuffie whispered.

"Strange… Lost… Loneliness…" the voice said.

"I don't know who or where you are, but I gotta a few problems right now," the materia thief (or guardian of rare/valuable items, as she preferred to be known) said. "So, could you kinda keep it quiet for a while--I'm going to have enough trouble sneaking out of here as it is."

"There is danger?"

"Duh!" Yuffie said, a bit too loudly.

"Up there!" A guard called out.

Yuffie ground her teeth together, and smacked her forehead. Nice one, she thought.

The sounds of heavy footsteps raced toward her from above and below. In desperation she popped out one of the materias from her left bracer, and put the new on in--maybe it was something powerful/helpful enough to get her out of this mess.

Okay, let's see what this--she started to think, but it reacted all by itself.

"I feel a strange surge of energy," the voice said, and for the first time, Yuffie realized it was the materia speaking to her (?!).

"A mixed sensation of nourishment and pain--a flood of raw power flowing into me."

Yuffie felt her bracer shaking. She tried to pop the materia out, but she couldn't get a good enough hold on it.

Everything became distorted all around, while the mansion shook. The sounds of her pursuers stopped, as they tried to figure out what was going on.

And then it all vanished.

"What the hell?" Yuffie cried, freaking out. "Where did everything go?"

But there was no answer. Either the source of the voice could not hear her, or something had gone wrong.

She looked around. It was totally pitch black, except for a single sphere of light. Yuffie went over to examine the light, but didn't get far, before a shockwave knocked her over.

Yuffie also noticed something else--the materia was missing from her bracer! At least that's what she thought at first. When she put her finger where the empty slot was, she could still feel it, just not see it.

She walked around, trying to see if there was an exit or something, wary about running into anything in the darkness. But she encountered nothing, neither object nor door. Not only that, but no matter how far she walked, the sphere of light remained the same distance away.

If there was any solution to where she was, then the light must be the answer. But another attempt to get a closer look, resulted in another landing on her backside.

Rather than get up again, Yuffie just sat there contemplating the situation. It was a passing glance at the invisible materia, which finally gave her a clue.

The materia was not entirely invisible. It was faintly distinguishable in the light, like the purest form of glass with little-if-any reflective properties. Being exposed to the light also did something else: it ignited a tiny spark inside the materia.

Yuffie held her arm up, and watched the spark grow bigger and brighter. She stood up, and slowly moved closer to the light--all the while the materia shone brighter, until she was able to walked right up to the sphere--no shockwave this time.

Again the bracer began to vibrate, just as it had back in the mansion.

"Not again!" Yuffie cried, but then realized there was nothing else to try.

The light was then absorbed into the materia, leaving a dimly glowing sphere of blue light behind. Yuffie examined it more closely, and saw a ghostly map of the world suspended inside it.

She touched the sphere, and found she could manipulate the map by moving her hands over the surface--which had an icy feel to it.

Yuffie was also able to zoom in, and was able to locate her forest home. But she wasn't sure what good that would do… So she kept zooming in--not knowing what else to do--until the map disappeared, and a circular portal appeared next to the sphere.

Looking around first, too see if there was anywhere else to go, Yuffie then hesitantly walked toward the portal. It seemed to be pulling her, and the closer she got, the greater the effect, until she was sucked into it and hurled across some unknown distance at unfathomable speed. All sensation in her body went numb.

The glowing materia on her bracer exploded into a blinding light. When her vision recovered, she was standing in the living room of her home.

After checking to make sure she was in one piece, she let out a huge sigh. "What the hell just happened?" She called out.

Immediately someone came running. It was Rikku, a fellow *guardian*, and friend. "Huh?"

"I have no idea how I just got here…" Yuffie said, trying to regain her bearings.

"What do you mean?"

Yuffie paused a moment to gather her still-fleeting thoughts. "I was… at the mansion, getting this," She said, holding out her bracer. The materia was back to its visible, iridescent quality.

The voice also returned. "Where did you go?" it asked.

"You DID hear that… right?" Yuffie asked Rikku.

"Hear what?"

Yuffie smacked her forehead.

"You really shouldn't do that so often," Rikku urged. "Could end up with permanent brain damage or something."

"So I am in fact hearing voices. Wonderful…"

"A voice? What did it say?"

"Never mind…" Yuffie said, wondering if she was just going bonkers--even questioning where she has just been. "I did go out this evening, right?"

"Don't you remember?" Rikku replied, flashing a smirk. "That big score you were talking about?" Rikku then came over and felt Yuffie's forehead, checking for a fever. "You don't seem sick…"

"I'm not," Yuffie said, approaching the window as if there was something fascinating outside.

The voice spoke again, but Yuffie ignored it.

"So what happened?" Rikku asked.

"I don't know…" Yuffie simply stated. "I was there, and now I'm here…"

"Huh?"

"Why do you forsake me?" The voice asked, seeming concerned.

Yuffie put both hands on her head, and let out a groan. "Stop it!!!!"

Rikku put a comforting hand on Yuffie's shoulder. "Have you been under a lot of stress lately?"

"No, I think I'm just going crazy," Yuffie replied. "Unless it has something to do with this new materia."

"Oh, I noticed that--never seen anything like it before"

Yuffie looked down at her bracer. It was there, just as it should be. So perhaps she was not crazy after all.

"Please don't abandon me," the voice implored.

Yuffie sighed again. "You really didn't hear that just now?" She asked Rikku.

Rikku shook her head.

Yuffie lowered her head. "Why can't Rikku hear you?" she asked.

"Is there someone else here?" The voice replied.

"Yeah… Can't you tell?"

You are the only one I am aware of," the voice said. "I was alone for such a long time, and then you came."

"A chatty materia, wonderful," Yuffie muttered.

But it was no ordinary material--never mind the rainbow color--it had activated itself back in the mansion, and sent her to some strange place. Definitely unlike any materia she had ever experienced before.

"Chatty? I'm not sure what you mean."

"Talking then…" Yuffie said.

"I know you like to talk to yourself…" Rikku ribbed, with a laugh.

"Errr…"

Then Yuffie wondered if she had to vocalize her thoughts at all. So she thought something: can you hear this?

"Of course," the voice responded.

So it was of a telepathic nature. At least she could *talk* without seeming like a lunatic to everyone else around her.

"What did you mean about me leaving you?" Yuffie asked.

"Just before now, you were gone, and I was alone again."

"I got sent to some weird place--I had to activate a portal to get back home."

"A most strange thing indeed. I wondered what happened."

"But if you are somehow connected to this materia, then how come you weren't with me?"

"Materia? What is that?"

"You've got quiet all of a sudden," Rikku said. "The voice not talking anymore?"

Yuffie nodded her head.

"Okay…" Rikku said, shrugging her shoulders. "Anyway, I'm going to go finish some fragmentation grenades I was building--these got extra BOOM!"

Yuffie realized that there was a lot more to this materia then she was capable of comprehending. She was going to need to consult someone on this. But she wondered what this was doing in a common safe, and not a more secure vault? Or did its previous owner not know any more about it—or even less--than she did. And considering Rikku could not interact with the voice, maybe no one else could either…

"It's so nice not being alone, after so long," The voice said.

The voice sounded sincere, as though it had truly felt a great burden of loneliness, but at the same time, Yuffie wondered if it was a trick of some sort--certainly that little *jaunt* across *whatever* was one hell of a trick.

"Yeah…" Yuffie simply stated, not sure what else to say.

"Perhaps you can help me escape my imprisonment."

"What do you mean?"

"I've been trapped in this dark place for a very long time. I was not always here--though my memories seemed to have been sealed. I do not know for sure where I was before, but I know it was not here--this desolate place of eternal darkness."

"Someone did this to you?"

"Yes… But I don't know who."

"So like you're either someone--or thing--unrightfully imprisoned, or a nasty fiend that was sealed away for punishment, and/or the safety of the world?"

"I'm no fiend…"

"How do you know--you can't remember anything."

"I remember things, glimpses of memories. I recall gardens brimming with lush plants and aromatic flowers. I remember the warmth of friends, and the joy of a laugh. Are these the thoughts of fiend?"

"You could just be saying that to gain my trust," Yuffie said.

"Then I would have been fooled also…"

"That little stunt you pulled back at the mansion--that wasn't some simple spell, so…"

"I have no idea what you mean. All I know is you disappeared, and then returned."

"Sounds fishy to me."

"Then what do you intend to do?" the voice wondered.

"Not sure. I hadn't really thought about it."

"Whatever you do, just don't abandon me--the darkness is unbearable all alone."

"I dunno… If you say you didn't cause what happened to me before, then that means you are not in control--and who knows what might happen."

"So you will leave me then," the voice sadly stated.

"Look, I just guard stuff--I'm not a babysitter."

"I understand, I should not have asked so much of you. If you must leave me, then I will understand. I will just hope someone else comes along."

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to at least to do a little checking…" Yuffie said after some careful consideration.

There was then a small explosion.

"Sorry!" Rikku called out. "I'll patch that up later."

"Maybe we better start right now…" Yuffie said. "I get nervous when she's working with explosives."

"She? Your friend?"

"Yeah. Anyway, I'll see what I can find out--but I'm not promising anything."

"That's all I ask."

"Besides, you may not like what I find…"

~end chapter 1~