Author note at the bottom.


DISCLAIMER: All materials belong to their respective owners. I'm just playing around in their sandbox while feeling happy that I don't have to think of the next canon plot whatsoever.


Chapter 3: Forbidden Secrets


Before Tifa even knew what she was doing, she was already reaching for the slumping Chaos' warrior. When she was nearly toppled from the unexpected weight did her brain register her action. Tifa felt rather than saw those eyes on her. Even she had to admit that even she was surprised. After all, who would reach their hand to stop an enemy from falling over without thinking whatsoever?

"Cosmos." Lightning started, "mind explaining why a Chaos' minion is among us, in the Sanctuary?"

The goddess of harmony tilted her head sideways. She was contemplating her answer on the matter. She blinked her eyes slowly.

"Don't even THINK about lying," the pinkette growled out. "I'm tired of this war, and I'm sure the others are, too. We're only looking for a way to stop the fighting and go home. So far, we haven't been able to." She crossed her arms, a gesture that was usually used by the Dragoon of the group. "Spill. Now!"

"Lightning," WoL started, about to defense their goddess, when Cosmos herself shook her head. "But, Cosmos—!"

The blonde goddess shook her head once more. "She is right. This cycles of conflict has gone for long enough; even now, this cycle is the twelfth."

"What?" Squall exclaimed, disbelief turning his voice low and sharp.

"The only way for you to go home is..." She took a deep breath with her eyes closed, gathering her courage she gained from her older (former) warriors. She hoped she was doing the right thing NOW; she knew she had condemned a LOT of warriors in this endless cycle of conflict. There would be more, if she didn't end it, as much as it pained her to... "To defeat Chaos, the god of discord."

"Defeat Chaos?" Onion Knight (henceforth dubbed "OK") asked. "But, if someone more experienced than us couldn't even defeat him, what are our chances?"

There were murmurs of agreement.

Cosmos didn't even bat an eye. She knew that her young warrior would ask the question. She had expected it; he was one who used logic in almost if not all of his actions. She gathered her powers and sent it out to her warriors. As the light flew from her palms, swirling around each of them, there were murmurs of awe. "I have imbued you with the power you would need in order to defeat the god of discord," she answered.

"So... How do we use it? Like a summonstone?" Laguna asked, shrugging as he watched the last of the light disappearing.

Cosmos shook her disagreement. "No. The power will be tempered through battles you fought, until it eventually manifests into crystals. Those crystals would give you the power to defeat Chaos himself."

"In other words, fight Chaos' cronies, find your crystal, defeat Chaos, we win and then, we will go home?" OK summarized.

"Sounds simple enough," Bartz piped up, nodding.

As they all planned, no one noticed the shared look between WoL and Kain, and Cosmos' pensive expression.


They were all who were left in the Order's Sanctuary. Actually, they were hoping to get their crystals as soon as possible, however, WoL insistence that they brought along the Chaos' warrior, Cloud, with them, made them a lot slower.

Well, more like not moving at all, considering their newest...teammate was still unconscious at the moment.

Lightning was the most pissed off. Even if she tried to hide it, even the dumbest among them could tell immediately that she was emitting waves of displeasure. It was even more apparent with her crossed arms, pursed lips, and furrowed brows. She didn't like the Chaos' warrior in the first place, so it wasn't that much of wonder that she was glaring at WoL as he decided that. And after WoL left promptly, she had diverted her glare toward the only other party responsible for the bad mood. If looks could kill, Cloud would have been dead by a couple of times by then.

She was so absorbed in her brooding moments that she had missed a twitch of his lip.

"You could just leave me, you know?" a low, soft voice muttered.

Lightning started, nearly reaching for her weapon when Cloud used his sword to help him stand, grunting with the effort of forcing the massive sword upright before using it as a leverage. Lightning flexed the fingers of her main hand as she kept her eyes on him, a breadth away from summoning her trusty gunblade into her hand.

The blonde hmph-ed, as if saying "you need not bother", as he dismissed his weapon into the nether-slash-pocket dimension where all of their items go until they were summoned.

Lightning's glare intensified. Cloud's mako eyes stared back at hers unflinchingly with such emptiness and tiredness that Lightning had to fight from flinching away. And she thought she was old...

But this? This warrior was WAY older than her. And he had seen more horrors than her, too, as much as she hated to admit it, even internally.

"So..." Laguna started, scratching his nape, "I guess I should thank you for saving our friend here," he gestured toward Tifa's general direction, not daring to take his eyes off of them. "But don't worry; I'll make sure to save her next time." He grinned cheekily, attempting to ease the growing tension.

Tifa punched his shoulder playfully, following his lead. "It was you who needed saving last time, wasn't it?"

Cloud couldn't help himself; he snorted.

"What's funny?" Lightning snapped.

"Aww, Light. Don't be such a spoil-sport," Laguna whined. There went his efforts. Poor Laguna...

Lightning glared. Ouch. Double Ouch.

Kain snorted. "You shouldn't be so uptight, Lightning. You'll waste energy by much. And you're deflating Laguna."

"Who asked you?"

Cloud hummed. If they were always like this, perhaps it was worth the effort... Like precious things you wanted to protect from being destroyed in a war. He nodded to himself. He would share it; it was the least he could do. "I guess I have to thank you for sparing me," Cloud muttered, his smooth voice carried over to their ears. "But you need not bother babysitting me." He grimaced as his neck popped loudly. That wasn't fun.

Vaan raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Really? You were injured, and quite badly, too, you know." He crossed his arms across his chest. "And even if Cosmos healed you, I don't think you've completely recovered yet."

"Here." Cloud blinked as he saw a potion was held before his sight by a slim hand. Following the hand to the person, he blinked again when he saw Yuna's mismatched eyes staring back at his mako-tainted ones with such gentleness one would reserve for a dear friend. He raised an eyebrow, questioning her wordlessly. Yuna smiled fondly as she threw the contents over him without even asking him, letting the potion heal the rest of his wounds, rejuvenating him.

"Either you're very daring or very foolish," Cloud stated as he felt his wounds knitting themselves closed, and his strength returning. "I could've attacked you after that." He shrugged carelessly.

Lightning wasn't the only one tensing; Laguna was, too.

Yuna closed her blue and green eyes, sighing softly through her nose. "It's a thank you for saving Tifa. And, you did battle your own comrade." She opened her eyes again, and placed her hands on her chest.

Cloud felt a twinge of pain as he saw Yuna's figure being replaced by hers. The flower girl... Aerith's... Zack's love... Right before she died, killed, right before his eyes as he stood before her... Watching, as the long blade of the Masamune ran her through, coating the blade crimson with her blood. Even their smiles were so similar...

Cloud clenched his teeth and fists. He could not bear it any longer and looked away.

Yuna saw it, and decided not to ask. If it hurt him to even look at her, chances were, he would clamp up the second the question left her mouth. She dropped her hands to her sides, not wanting to see such a hurt on his face again. It was deep... "Despite being affiliated with Chaos," the young summoner continued, "I don't sense the malicious feeling I get from other Chaos' warriors. If the fight between you and Chaos isn't the proof, I don't think anything else could have convinced me."

Lightning stared disbelievingly at the summoner's words. "Yuna..."

Kain nodded thoughtfully. "She may be young, Lightning. But she has good instincts; they're almost always right." Yuna blushed faintly at Kain's compliment.

Cloud stared at her. "..." He shook his head ruefully. "If Cosmos' side are always like this, I guess I can see why they want to this, too..."

"'They'?" Lightning inquired, too curious to let her animosity toward the opposing side to stop her from asking. She still had to hold it back obviously.

The spiky blonde nodded. "I saw the signs in Kuja's and Golbez's behaviour lately. Kuja has been avoiding the fight for almost as long as I have. Golbez still participates sometimes, though he never dealt a killing blow." He snorted, shrugging. "Much to their annoyance. Especially Kefka."

Lightning crossed her arms. "Sounds more like he's bored," she rebuked.

Cloud shook his head. "He has to; the Emperor was suspicious of him already." Cloud shrugged. "I don't know if he's still suspicious; I haven't gone to the meetings any more. They pestered me to fight again. Threatened me even." His eyes darkened as he muttered, "and sicked Sephiroth at me."

"So, two less we have to fight." Laguna pumped his fist. "Think this will make things easier?" he grinned.

Vaan crossed his arms behind his head. "Who knows?" he mused, not raising to the bait.

"No." The two blinked at the sharp denial the traitor Chaos' warrior. "In fact, this cycle will be one of the hardest so far."

"Huh? Aren't there less two more to fight?" Laguna asked.

Cloud turned his head, as if ashamed of something. "That's not it. We found something we could use.

"Deep in the Land of Discord, even deeper than Chaos' throne, there's a place called the "Door to the Rift." Through this door, mindless creatures called the 'manikins' came. They look like warriors, both Cosmos' and Chaos', and even have similar combat capabilities. For how much, I wouldn't know. I haven't actually see them fight. I don't know how they came to be either; we don't create them. Not that's going to be a problem; they flow out like endless waves through the Door. All I know is, they obey those on Chaos' side, and they would only fight those of Cosmos'.

"They fight to the death; you have to destroy them or they WILL kill you. There is no other choices. But it's an inevitable demise for you; they are without number, and will keep coming from the Door to the Rift. Sooner or later, even if there were no warriors of Chaos, they would overrun you."

Laguna gulped audibly.

"Then, why fight?" Lightning whispered bitterly.

Cloud looked at her. Let her hate him; this was something he HAD to do. "There's still a way," he assured her. "Travel to the Land of Discord. Force the Door to the Rift to close, and the flow of manikins would recede. However, even that is still suicidal, even to a warrior summoned by Chaos like me; you still have to fight the existing manikins, after all."

Kain crossed his arms. "That's an awful lot of information you're giving us."

"How do we know you're not trapping us?" Lightning finished.

Cloud merely shrugged and answered simply, "You don't." He turned. "That's all I know. I'm going. Do what you want. And thanks for letting me live."

The six warriors of Cosmos' stared as he walked off, disappearing into the distance.


Kain felt his lance vibrate violently in his grip as its tip was met with the side of the Buster Sword. He gritted his teeth. This was the third time the blonde had interrupted him. If this was to continue, then...

"What are you doing, Kain?" Zidane demanded, even as he reluctantly summoned his two swords, shifting to a more defensive than offensive stance. The genome didn't want to fight his comrade, but if that was what he had to do in order to understand why, he would.

Kain did not answer. It was best to let his teammates to assume that he had betrayed them.

"Jitan, was it?" Cloud asked absently, not even turning his attention from Kain even as Zidane corrected him. "Go back to the Sanctuary. Gather the others if you meet them on the way. Only stop if it's absolutely necessary." He pushed his sword, forcing Kain to disengage as he skidded. "I'll explain later."

Zidane stared for a second before nodding, trusting the other blonde. He hadn't backstabbed him, unlike Kuja... His heart clenched as he thought of the other genome. Why had he done it? They were getting along so well, too... However, now wasn't the time for that. He shook himself out of the thought before dashing away, throwing one last look through his shoulder at the two before he ran as fast as he could.

"What are you doing? What are you trying to accomplish?" Kain demanded as Zidane was out of earshot. He stabbed his lance in frustration.

"I could have asked you the same thing," the blonde swordsman shot back. The dragoon merely gritted his teeth and let a "che" went through his teeth. Cloud eyed him. Kain had removed his lance from the ground, his grip tight. His lips pursed, and Cloud would bet all of his KP that his eyebrows were furrowed underneath that helmet of his.

Wait a sec...

His mako eyes widened as the realization hit him like tons of concrete.

"You knew," Cloud whispered. "You knew about the manikins. And you knew that all of you are going to perish if you don't do something." That the dragoon had said nothing had been more than enough confirmation. "So what? Thought you could decide for them?"

"No!" Kain denied. "It was for the best! That way, they would have survived. They would have more time to get their crystals. They would stand a chance against Chaos."

"Then what?" Cloud demanded. "Even if you force them to sleep, to survive into the next cycle in the hopes that they would have more time to defeat Chaos, those manikins aren't gonna stop coming!" Cloud gritted his teeth as he stomped over to Kain. "What's worse, they would have lost a comrade, and not know it."

Kain sighed in defeat. He dismissed his lance. "What am I supposed to do then?"

Cloud hefted the Buster Sword to his shoulder. "I told you, didn't I?" He turned. "Let's mosey."

Kain leaned back on his feet, crossing his arms. "To where?"

Cloud looked at him through his shoulder. "The Order's Sanctuary. We're going back. I still have a promise I have to fulfill. After that,

"I'm closing the Door to the Rift, with or without you. And the rest of you will stay with Cosmos."


Garland growled in anger. That foolish pawn! How dare he! It didn't matter if he had only fed them their intel; they could turn him into something that was hunted by both sides, after all. No, it wasn't that. Their plan was doing great, before Cloud of Darkness (henceforth dubbed "CoD") went and spilled their intel on a warrior of Cosmos and confirmed the traitor's intel. Damn that being! Now they had no chance of forcing that traitor to separate. That, and he kept Cosmos' number from decreasing from a desperate attempt to survive by two of their own. Now the plan was ruined! A quick, absolute victory snagged away by one whom they had underestimated!

Garland growled again, his clawed hands clenching. Could it get any worse?!

"No need to get all riled up," an arrogant voice stated from behind him.

The Emperor. Great. Now he jinxed himself.

"What do you want?" Garland demanded. Oh, Chaos... The last thing he needed was for that arrogant prat to gloat that he was better than Garland, who was Chaos' own right-hand man, and that he deserved to rule the world.

Yep. The very last thing he needed right now.

The Emperor chuckled. "What do I want?" He grinned maliciously as Ultimecia, and Kefka teleported themselves to his side. Sometimes it still fascinated Garland on how the Emperor was able to recruit those two into his plans... What DID he do? "What I want is the death of the traitor AND the defeat of Cosmos' warriors." If it was possible, his toothy, evil grin widened.

"And I know just the way to kill TWO birds with ONE stone."

Garland smirked underneath his horned helmet. Perhaps it wasn't as bad as he thought. Well, if it was good, perhaps he would...humour them.


Yes, the "Jitan" was intentional; it's how I heard Zidane's name in Japanese dub (I play the Asian version of the game).

Alright, only a few more chapters to go... I actually intended my unofficial beta to read and throw in her opinion first, but with our schedules, it's out of the question, so yeah. I asked her to read that one-shot instead. It's around 10k words (including notes at the bottom), and not another Dissidia fanfiction, unfortunately. I'll try to write stuff of 012 whenever I have the drive, though. Even if they're only one-shots.

I have to say, SE does seem to like tragic, heartbreaking, tearjerking endings, doesn't it? (damn you, Square; you make me cry, again) The soundtracks certainly does not help. Oh well, I guess that's what the happy ends a lot better, yea?

See ya later,

C. Rinkuki Takato