"What? Chaos died for us and he wants us to search for cystals?" Ultimecia's voice echoed trough the room.
"How pathetic..." the Emperor was looking really bored during all the time.
"Uwee what's this? That seems something Cosmos would do!" Kefka looked kinda amused.
The heavy noise of Garland's sword against the floor made them all silent looking at him.
He was staring at the empty seat in front of him. "Where is Kuja?"
"I was wondering that too!" Kefka said.
"It's better if he doesn't show up." Declared The Emperor.
"Oh my... Are you talking about me?" Kuja appeared at the entrance of the room.
They were all around a table discussing about something.
Kefka stood up "Kujie coo, did you listen?"
Kuja was thankful to Kefka for speaking first, he really didn't want to listen to Garland complaints about him not being there in time.
He reached the table and sat down uncofortably in the only available seat, between Kefka and Cloud, right in front of Garland.
He really couldn't avoid Garland stare there.
"What were you doing?" it was Garland's deep voice.
Kuja stared at the Emperor. It was probably his fault that he pasted the entire morning trapped in a kind of magic trap, until he figured out a way to break the spell.
"He's obviously plotting something against all of us." Ultimecia said scornfully, noticing the way Kuja was glaring at Emperor Mateus.
"It's not like you are not doing the same." Kefka mischievously smirked at her.
She stared icily at the clown.
Kuja did not know what was worst, being accused by Ultimecia or having Kefka stand up for him. What a choice!
Garland Knocked the giant sword against the floor again.
"Please, if you want to let us know something important, go on." Kuja told Garland, trying sound sincere.
Garland knew very well that their attention span was low, so he decided to continue.
"As you can notice Chaos is not with us.
We lost the last time, so we lost our memories too, but we all can remember Chaos protected us. He died."
Garland glared ad the face of the warriors. Kefka was whispering something to Kuja, The Emperor and Ultimecia was looking like they didn't give a fuck, and Cloud was staring at the ground with the expression of someone who is daydreaming about death. So, they were the strogest warriors, the survivors.
In Garland's eyes there was no way they could be considered warriors. No wonder they lost.
They seemed like a bunch of annoying, undisciplined kids.
Garland lifted the sword again to get their attention.
"You can also see most of us died in the previous cycle, can't you remember the other warriors?"
"Oh, yes, that disgusting tentacle woman... What was her name?" Ultimecia smirked.
"And Sephirot too!" Kefka said enthusiastically.
Cloud looked troubled "Tidus was on Chaos' side the last time..." He said painfully.
"Golbez, Exdeath... " Kuja remembered.
"And Ject, well, I crushed that insect, he was a traitor." Mateus icily said, then glared at Kuja.
Garland stood up looking at their faces.
"With his last strenght Chaos called two new warriors. We don't know their name, nor how they look, where they come from.
We have to find them, and we have to find the crystals.
Well, now we have to work toghether, to cooperate. We still don't know the details of this mission, but make sure we won't fail this time." Garland gave them a harsh look.
"How do you remember about this? I don't remember nothing about Chaos talking about crystals..." Kuja asked, looking at Garland.
"I... I was at Chaos'side in his last moment." Garland answered in a solemn voice.
"Pathetic." Ultimecia whispered.
Garland turned his armoured face towards her.
None of them could see his eyes, but an angry aura was all around him.
"I will go search for the other two warriors. You should start searching for clues about the crystals."
Garland started to walk away.
Kuja reached for him "What about Cosmos warriors? Are they all still alive?" He asked.
"Why are you asking?"
"He's worried about that monkey." Emperor said harshly.
Kuja tried to ignore him.
Cloud reached Kuja's side "Actually, I want to know too. That could bring memories and clues about how to get the crystals."
Emperor rolled his eyes. Garland was still lingering.
"Well, I want to know if my doll is still alive. I have to know how much fun this cycle will be!" Kefka tried.
"Kefka is really the worst, he doesn't even have a reason for asking." Emperor complained.
Garland closed his eyes under the armoured face. They were all so annoyng.
Ultimecia glared at Emperor detached Expression. "I want to know too." She joined them, biting her lip.
"Uwee she will pay for this!" Kefka smirked.
"Fine" Garland sighted. "Almost all of you are interested, so I will check the situation on Cosmos side. I will be back soon."
The armoured warrior left the room.

"I want to know why now Garland sees himself as the leader" Emperor asked staring at the space where Garland was few minutes before.
"Don't be like this. I am the one who hates everyone and everything." Kefka lughed, performing a blizzard magic in the air, that exploded and looked like fireworks.
Cloud gazed at their faces. His only clear memory about the previous cycle was that Tidus had sacrificed to protect him. It would have been better to disappear in the previous cycle than to be with them.
Just to shake off the uncomfortable feeling that Kuja was the most normal among those warriors he leaved the room. "I will be going." He said.
The last thing he heard was Kefka's voice "See you SOON, Cloud". Even Sephirot couldn't have said it creepier.

"We must talk." Emperor said to Ultimecia. She sighted while following him out of the room.
"I knew it!" Kefka looked really amused, he grabbed Kuja arms.

Then Kuja and Kefka were left alone in that secret room of Kefka's tower.
Kuja hurried to shake off Kefka hands from his own arms, then left the room without any words.
Kefka smirked, then followed him along the corridor.
"Where do you think you are going?"

"Take me with you!"

"You could be my Ultimecia, I could be your Emperor!"

"Well, do you prefer me to be Ultimecia?"
"PLEASE, STOP!" Kuja said loudly.
Suddenly Kefka pressed his hand against Kuja's lips "Hush".
Kuja's face was very amusing, but Kefka regretfully had to remove his gaze, instead of teasing him.
Kefka pointed with his eyes towards the corner of the corridor.
"Be quiet, I saw something." He whispered in the ear of the younger mage. Then they could even hear someone walking.

A woman appeared. She stared unruffled at the two flamboyant men in an awkward posture in front of her.

Kuja hurried to distance himself from Kefka.
"Have we met before?" Kuja blinked with an amazed face.

***************************************Author's note:
Thank you for reading it, if you want to let me know what do you think I will be glad! English isn't my first language, please let me know if I messed up something.