Author's Note: Hello everyone! To those of you have been following my stories for a while, I'm back! This here (as the description will somewhat tell you) is the prequel to my fic "All the Pieces Lie Where They Fell". It will take us through many different Final Fantasy characters' lives and how they got to be where they were come my canon Kingdom Hearts universe.

Some Disclaimers:

1. Obligatory: I do not own the majority of characters featured in this story. They are property of Square Enix and Disney. I have created a few minor characters and I will claim them, but nothing else.

2. You do not have to read "All the Pieces" to understand what is going on here. Sure, connections and references will be made, but it is not necessary. (For the record, AtP is my canon Mark of Mastery Test/destruction of Xehanort/rebuilding the worlds story. I understand fully that this it no longer KH canon, so it is simply just "my canon" now.)

3. I am not doing a day-by-day expose of everything that happened before KH1. I will be doing snippets of important character-revealing or important plot-points for the KH/FF universes. I am going to be covering nearly ten years (in between BBS and KH1) and simply cannot plot out every single second. If there is something that you would particularly like to see, PM me with a convincing argument for it. If I feel it fits into my universe, I will do my best to incorporate it.

Well, now that all that space-taking business is out of the way, onto the story!

A bit of an introduction for you, this is towards the end of/shortly after BBS. And now, onto the story.

Radiant Garden: Squall, Age 15

School had just let out for the day. A boy in his teens quickly hurried away from the yard, not wanting to be teased by anyone. He didn't look anything out of the ordinary. He had brown hair cut exactly to the code that school wished it to be and questioning blue eyes. Though, he never asked nearly as many questions as his eyes did. He was a quiet kid—if he could be called a kid at fifteen. It didn't matter though, somehow he was still the kid who was picked on. Thankfully today, no one bothered to joke that he didn't un-tuck his shirt or unbutton his jacket the minute the final bell rang. No one tried to swat books out of his hands. No one ruffled his hair. He escaped into the quiet.

Once he was in the town proper, no one really bothered him. Everyone knew him as the hardworking kid. He was always the first one many of the adults asked to help him clean up shop or repair things. He was good with his hands. This attributed to many of the other boys at school calling him a 'goody-two-shoes' and teasing him all the more.

Lately, though, they hadn't been saying much because they all knew about his encounters with the monsters. The little, annoying things with angry red eyes. They'd been plaguing Radiant Garden for the past several weeks. King Ansem was doing everything he could to find a way to completely eradicate them—so far, however, to no avail. Squall happened to be really good with a large hunting knife he'd bought with the money he'd earned by doing odd-jobs around town. He couldn't always kill the monsters, but he could do enough harm to them to make them go away.

He walked around the corner from the ice cream shop on his way back to the boys' home where he lived—his mother had died shortly after his birth and he'd never seen his father. He was just about ready to turn down his street when he heard shouts of frustration and a few girls' screams… then came the unmistakable angry whisper of the monsters running about.

As quick as he could, he pulled out his hunting knife and dropped his books on a nearby crate. He ran to where the sounds were coming from. He rounded another corner to find a boy with fiery-red hair and another boy with sky-blue hair fighting the monsters. The red-head was throwing discs at them. The boy with blue hair had some sort of club and was attacking them with that. The screams had no doubt come from the three girls cowering in the patch of flowers. It looked like the girl with brown hair still in her school uniform was watching over the two smaller girls—another red-head and a girl with jet-black hair.

Squall stopped analyzing for a minute so he could pay attention to the monsters. They were just the little blue and purple ones. They were quick, but Squall was getting quicker. He jumped to the aid of the other two boys. He recognized them from school, but he couldn't figure out why they weren't in school uniforms. Did they just not go today?

Then he heard the lightning.

"Ack!" the red-haired boy screamed. "I hate the Thunder-Pots!"

"Lea, you just hate lightning."

"Well, Isa, that is very true. I prefer the ones with fire better, if I do say so myself."

Isa rolled his eyes. "Pyro," he muttered.

Squall let the other two boys focus on the new enemies; his knife really was only good for the little ones.

In just a couple of minutes, all the monsters were gone. Squall had collected quite a decent amount of munny, almost more than he got when he washed Mr. Biggs' windows. The other two boys were dividing their spoils. Squall wasn't sure how to approach them, so he went over to the girls to see if they were okay instead. The redhead had sat down in the flowers and was holding a bunch of them to her chest, her blue eyes wide. The black-haired girl was clinging to the older girl, her eyes squeezed shut.

"Oh sure, kid comes to help us and then goes and flirts with the ladies," Lea said, jokingly.

Isa smirked.

The brown-haired girl bit her lip. Squall noticed she had a green ribbon in her hair.

"You've gotta give Lea a break," Isa said, jerking a thumb at his friend. "He'll flirt with any girl."

"Can't you see it's bothering her?" Squall found himself asking.

Both Lea and Isa blanched.

"You know," Lea said. "Ordinarily, I don't like being talked-back-to by younger classmen, but you did help us with those monsters, so I'll let it go. What's your name, kid?"

"Squall," Squall mumbled.

"Fun times! Name's Lea, got it memorized?" he tapped his forehead. "And this here's my friend, Isa."

"Hullo," Squall said.

"And you are?" Lea asked, looking passed Squall to the girls behind him.

"Not interested," the older one said, frowning.

"I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie!" the girl with black hair spurted out.

Isa busted out laughing. "Lea, I didn't know you were trying to pick up toddlers!"

"I'm not a toddler!" Yuffie shouted, letting go of the older girl and stomping her foot. "I'm six!"

This only made Isa laugh harder. Lea turned bright red. He turned back to Squall. "Did you, uh, get enough spoils from that?" he asked, scratching the back of his neck.

Squall nodded.

"Here," Lea said, handing Squall something else. Squall held it in his hand without even examining it. "That'll make it even. You're always welcome to hang out with us or something. I never forget someone who fights alongside me."

"You make it sound like you've been fighting all your life," Isa said.

Lea sighed. "Who needs enemies when I've got a friend like you?"

Isa and Lea glared at each other for three seconds before laughing.

"See you around," Lea said, waving.

He and Isa left.

"You okay?" Squall asked.

The older girl nodded. "Aerith."

"Hmm?"

"My name. It's Aerith."

Squall found himself smiling. "I thought it was 'Not Interested'."

"I was just telling that to Lea. He's such a flirt, it's disgusting."

"Some guys are like that," Squall said with a shrug.

"You're obviously not like them," Aerith replied with a shrug. "What was it he handed you? I'm curious."

Squall opened his hand to reveal a bright green shard.

"Ooh! A Soothing Crystal."

"What do those do?" Squall asked.

"You can use them to make Elixirs."

Squall blinked, wondering how this girl knew that. Then he remembered he'd seen her before.

"Your mom's the…"

"Town herbalist, yes," Aerith replied. "I help her when I'm not babysitting girls from around the town. These two are the girls I get most often. Yuffie here can only be babysat by a few people, since she's already a good pickpocket at age six." At this, Aerith rolled her eyes. "And Kairi lives with her grandmother, but I like to help, so I'll take her out during the afternoons."

"That's quite honorable," Squall said.

Aerith nodded, smiling.

"Here," Squall said, handing her the Soothing Crystal. "Your mom can use it."

"You sure you don't want it?"

"Yes," Squall said. "What am I going to do with it?"

Aerith's whole face brightened as she pocketed the crystal.

Just then, another little blue monster appeared right behind Kairi.

"Aerith!" Squall shouted. "Move the girls!"

He needn't have panicked, however. Apparently, Kairi had methods of getting rid of the monsters on her own. As soon as the monster got within a foot, a bright light burst out of Kairi and the monster disappeared. Kairi giggled.

"Bye-bye monster!" she squealed.

Squall raised an eyebrow.

"This one's special, Kairi," Aerith said, picking the girl up and balancing her on her hip. "I noticed she's got a protection charm on her. Weird thing was, I don't remember it being there a couple of weeks ago." She shrugged. "No matter. It's none of my business."

"I'm special!" Kairi sang.

"Yes you are!" Aerith sang back, poking Kairi's nose.

"You're special!" Kairi insisted, patting right over Aerith's heart.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Aerith said.

Squall got the distinct impression that she was lying.

"Hey!" Yuffie shouted. "Am I special?"

Aerith turned to her and smiled. "Of course you are!"

Yuffie grinned.

"I should go," Squall said. "I've got somewhere to be."

Aerith nodded. "Oh, of course. I didn't mean to make you late, or anything."

"Oh, I'm not late. I just need to be going, that's all."

Aerith nodded again. "Sure, sure! See you around, Squall!"

Squall nodded and ran off. He noticed as he picked up his books that some of his munny was missing. He was nearly positive Yuffie had nicked it, but he couldn't prove it. Maybe Aerith would notice it and give it back to him. If he ever saw her again. Radiant Garden may not be huge, but it wasn't tiny, either.

Rather than go back to the boys' home, he made his way over to Crazy Cid's workshop. No one really knew what to do with Crazy Cid—he was just a man with too many strange ambitions, a high tendency to swear, and a smoking problem. He liked making ships and cannons. He also had a number of sharpened spears in his front room—like he was a war veteran or something.

Squall didn't quite know what to do with Crazy Cid, either. But he and Cid had a history. Cid had been the one to find a young, crying Squall abandoned in the streets. Squall was so young he shouldn't have recollection of this first encounter; but he remembered a significantly younger Cid, stumbling upon him as he took a drag from his cigarette. Cid, at the time, hadn't known what to do with the crying kid. He took him into his own home and took care of him for a couple of days before being advised to take him to the orphanage. Since then, Cid had been known to leave Squall birthday ("finding day") presents. Working around Cid's place was the only job Squall had that didn't pay him money. He couldn't complain though, to some extent, he felt he owed Cid, though Cid would never say he did.

Cid swore that Squall's dad was a war hero, and just never came home—maybe he died in battle. Squall honestly couldn't care. Sure, if his dad died in a war somewhere, he guessed it was a legitimate reason as to why he never came home. But, his father had left a pregnant woman behind. It was doubtful even if his father was alive, he'd know he had a son to come back to. Squall was over it by now.

The other thing Squall couldn't quite piece together was if his father was a war hero, then where was he a war hero at? Radiant Garden had not been in any wars during Squall's lifetime. That would mean that his father was a mercenary of sorts, going off to fight other peoples' wars. Something not entirely unheard of these days, but still.

The lack of Squall's actual father made Cid the only father-figure he had. Now that Squall was into his teen years, this seemed to be putting a strain on both men. Cid wasn't sure how to parent a teenager any better than he could parent a small child—hence the orphanage and the boys' home. Squall wasn't sure how to respond to a father authoritative figure.

However, as soon as Squall turned sixteen, he wouldn't be allowed to stay in the boys' home anymore. His only option was to either find a lodging of his own, or move in with Cid. Finances would lend way to moving in with Cid. Neither man knew how to cope with that.

"Hullo, Cid," Squall said, dropping his books on the table just inside the door. The spears tacked up to the wall shuddered as he slammed the door.

Cid was working on one of his cannons. Judging by the lack of smoke and cinders in the air, Squall could bet it had been awhile since an unplanned explosion. That was a good thing.

"What brings yeh here, kid?" Cid asked, chewing a piece of straw—something that he did when he was working on cannons, since cigarettes were the number one reason why he had misfires.

Squall shrugged. "Just felt like coming and seeing you. Anything I can help out with?"

Cid shook his head. "Help yourself to some tea. I made some iced stuff fresh."

Squall nodded and went to the cooler.

"How's school?" Cid asked.

"Fine."

"Do any extra-cirruculars?" Cid asked.

Squall shook his head. "Just work and stuff. I've been cleaning up monsters lately, it seems."

"Which ones?"

"The little ones on the ground."

"Oh. Them's Floods."

"Floods?" Squall asked, curious about this sort of thing.

Cid nodded.

"Cool," Squall said, pouring two glasses of tea. He brought one to Cid. Cid liked tea.