Chapter Four: The hidden Lab of Heartless
Back in Ansem's secret lab Cloud, Leon, Rhinoa and Tifa were trying to open the special door
"So did you get it to work yet?" Cloud asked as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed as he was feeling bored
"Not yet but it is almost finished." Leon said while he kept on typing on the computer
"Cid had to be in a rush and leave us with this computer?" Tifa said angrily
"Access Granted! Finally!" Leon said feeling relieved
"I knew you could do it!" Rhinoa said when the door finally opened
"Okay let's check it out." Leon said as he went through the door and went down the stairs
As they came to the bottom there was another door but that one opened as soon as they got near and once they got through they saw a huge place with alot of big tubes so they went closer to take a better look at it
"What is this!" Leon wondered as he looked closer at the tubes which were all aligned vertically
"Yuck it's slimy." Rhinoa said as her hands were sticky after touching the tube
"Look over there!" Cloud said pointing at a red tube in the distance which was breaking and a heartless came out of it
"These tubes are making Heartless?" Leon said as some more tubes broke and more heartless came out of them
"What's that?" Tifa asked pointing to some kind of machine heartless making tubes and soon afterwards it saw them and rushed towards them
"Prepare yourselves!" Leon said while they all took their weapons out and were prepared but soon there came 2 more of these machines
"What are we supposed to do?" Rhinoa asked
"Hold your positions! We will have to stop them here or we will never be able to save this city." Leon said as he regretted opening the door now
The machines rushed towards them but Rhinoa froze one and Leon slashed it and it disappeared, while Cloud slashed all the legs of the remaining machines, Tifa punched them afterwards and they were destroyed but the machines kept on increasing as if there was no end
"No! We can't hold them we must retreat!" Leon said as he knew that they weren't enough to stop the machines
Then suddenly a redheaded man came and beside him was a man who was bald, they came rushing to their aid and they all worked together and they quickly killed the heartless machines
"You are always in trouble right Cloud?" The redhead asked
"What are you doing here!" Cloud asked annoyed
"That isn't really a nice thank you now is it?"
"What do you want now? Do you perhaps need to kill a few more people to satisfy Rufus, TURK!" Cloud asked
"Look Cloud I have been putting up with you for a while now but if you don't back OFF!" The redhead said annoyed
"Back off! Look who's talking you, are the one that has to back off!" Cloud said pissed off as the redhead took his nightstick and prepared to attack, while Cloud too took his blade and was about to strike until Tifa held him
"Hey! Enough! Both of you!" Tifa said while the bald man came between them and he took the redhead a bit away from Cloud as Tifa took Cloud a bit away
"Let go of me!" Cloud shouted and tried to break free from Tifa's grip
"I can't do that! Can't you see that we don't need bloodshed anymore?"
"Say that to Reno!" Cloud said since he mainly blamed Reno
"I wasn't the only one who made bloodshed; YOU too killed a lot of our people!" Reno said angrily
"Really! And when was that!"
"Can't you remember blowing up sector 7? Do you think that the place was empty and no people were there?"
"What about you? You killed Jessie, Biggs and Wedge you hothead!"
"Agh! Let me go Rude!" Reno said as he tried his best to get free now
"This is no time to fight each other." Rude said and held Reno firmly
"Well I am sorry to break your bad reunion but we will have to close this place until we find a way out of this mess, So stop fighting and go!" Leon said with a stern voice and surprisingly they listened to Leon and they all left and Leon following them to the lab and closed the door behind him making sure no more heartless would follow.
"So what do you want now?" Cloud asked Reno
"I want to kill you." Reno released himself from Rude's hands and he took his nightstick and hit Cloud so hard in his face that his nose started bleeding badly, Cloud was shocked on how fast he was but he didn't care he gave him a hard punch in his face that sent him to the ground
"Stop it!" Tifa took Cloud and she was about to leave with him in order to stop the fighting but Reno stood up with a look of anger on his face
"You damned Spike head!" Reno said as he brushed some blood away from his lips
"What! Want another punch TURK!"
"I could give you a few! And it's EX for you!" Reno said when suddenly he and Tifa stopped after what he said
"Ex?" Tifa asked as hearing that word calmed them down
"Yeah I said EX TURK!"
"What about Rufus?"
"Rufus is dead. You should have seen him beg for mercy to that damned Sephiroth!" Reno said with a smile on his face as they were all still for a moment until Cloud broke the silence
"And you are happy for that?" Cloud asked confused
"Ofcourse! It was because of him that I was a Turk."
"Yeah right, you mean to say that you were forced to become a Turk?" Cloud said since he didn't believe him
"Yeah," Reno said while checking his own face a bit to feel if anything was broken and luckily nothing was "That really hurts you know!"
"You deserved it!" Cloud said still bleeding from his nose, he felt like he wanted to give that Redhead a good punch in his face again but then remembered if he did the problem would only worsen so he turned to leave and Tifa followed him outside
"I guess we will have to put up with that spike head for a while, let's go Rude." Reno said as he left with Rude following him out the door and the only ones left were Leon and Rhinoa who were completely confused about the whole matter
At Merlin's place Cloud came inside with Tifa and sat quietly on the sofa, Marlene saw them and she quickly ran towards them "Tifa! You are back!"
"Oh hi Marlene, how are you?"
"Very fine!"
Then Merlin suddenly saw that Cloud's nose was bleeding and he was anxious to know what happened
"What happened to your nose?" Merlin asked curiously
"Oh this? It will get better, just some old enemies of mine." Cloud said with a little anger
Merlin heard the way how he sounded but couldn't hold back his curiosity about who these enemies where
"Who are they?"
"Some Turks called Reno and Rude!"
"That's Ex Turks Cloud." Tifa said correcting him
"Whatever! It's still the same to me!"
"Why don't you just forget about the past?" Merlin asked but that seemed to annoy Cloud as he never wants to forget the past
"Merlin, stay out of this!" He said angrily
In the meantime Reno and Rude were roaming the street...
"I want to kill him!" Reno said as he could barely hold back his anger
"Calm down!"
"How can I calm down? It wasn't my mistake that his friends died, and he killed all these people that were left in sector 7 without caring about them."
"Then you are both equal."
"No we are never equals!" Reno said as he hit his foot against a wall with anger
"I meant to say that both of you are at fault, we are because of his friends and he is because of the explosion, that's why I say that you are equal."
"Agh! We will see!""
Somewhere in space Sora and Captain Jack found a world and landed in a city...
"Where are we?" Sora asked when he saw everything pretty modern
"I don't know but everything is so advanced here." Jack said as he saw all the buildings were made out of metal and some weird cars were flying
"Advanced?" Sora asked confused
"The technology!" Jack said as Sora now understood
Suddenly Jack's eyes saw a bar and he rushed inside...
"Hey where are you going!" Sora ran after him inside the bar and to his surprise he saw king Mickey and Donald, Goofy sitting at a table drinking some kind of green drink
"Donald! Goofy! King Mickey!"
They turned around and saw Sora and they ran towards him and they hugged eachother for a second and then they all sat down
"We thought that we lost you Sora!" The king said
"Why's that?"
"Well because we woke up on this world but you weren't here and we ran into one of the Organization members and they said that you were deab." Goofy said
"DEAD!" Donald shouted as some people turned to Donald because of the loud noise he was making and because of what he said
"Right D-E-A-D, dead."
"Keep your voice down Donald." The king said
"Um sorry." Donald said embarrassed
"So you believed a man from the organization?" Sora asked surprised
"What could we do? You were nowhere to be found." Donald said
"Okay shall we go in our gummi ship?" The king asked
"It's here?" Sora asked since he thought it was missing
"Yeah we were still in it when it landed." Goofy said as he drank from his glass
"Seems like I was the most unlucky one."
"If you are leaving Sora then I would like my reward." Jack said feeling impatient
"Who is that?" The king asked
"That's Jack he helped me fly here." Sora said pointing to Jack
"That's Captain Jack!" Jack said annoyed since he never liked it when they always forget to call him Captain
"Anyway how about I buy you some drinks Jack?"
"Fine but at least twelve!"
"Twelve!" Sora asked shocked since he knew that he wouldn't have that much munny on him
"Yeah it's not too expensive only fifty munny each!" Jack said as if that was just a small amount
The King saw that Sora was checking his pockets for the munny but he knew that he didn't have that amount of munny with him so he gave Jack a pouch with munny within it "There that should do it." Jack took the pouch and rushed to the bartender as he took a few glasses and immediately began drinking and they went outside
"So where's the Gummi ship?" Sora asked since he didn't see the Gummi ship anywhere
"It's with the mechanic. He's fixing it for us." The king said as they walked to the mechanic who was sitting at a desk with his head down revealing only brown hair which was a little bit spiky and it seemed like he was sleeping
"Is it finished Ziad?" The king asked while the mechanic looked up from behind his desk and stood up as they could see now that he looked pretty young around the age of sixteen and had jeans and a brown t-shirt on
"Yeah it's completely finished, you can probably go faster now." The mechanic said while he looked through one of his drawers and took a small key out "Here's the key." He threw the key to the king as he caught it
"How much did it cost?" Sora asked since he was expecting it to be expensive
"Didn't cost us anything." The king said smiling as Ziad went to one of his garages to open the door
"What do you mean?" Sora asked confused as he was expecting him to be at least a little bit like Jack
"He isn't asking for any munny but asked for a favor." Donald now said
"Which is?"
"Well he first asked if we knew someone called Zane and when I told him that he was in Hollow Bastion he wanted us to take him there." The king said when Ziad came back with the Gummi ship behind him as he had put it one some rollers
"You really know Zane?" Sora asked him as he didn't think that Zane would have had any friends
"Yeah we are friends." Ziad said while Sora looked at him a little shocked
"You know I don't trust and neither understand him."
"Huh? Why's that?"
"I don't know, he's just always creeping around and he looks like a cold person. What I mean is that he doesn't look like a person who cares much."
"Hmm... I can understand why he changed." Ziad said as he took a picture from his wallet
"He changed? He was different before?"
"It happened all after his brother disappeared…" Ziad looked at the picture which had a young boy with black short hair in green trousers and a light blue shirt in a room with two other people, one of them was Zane as he was smiling as he held him on his lap and the other one was Ziad beside Zane was sitting on one knee with a small toy robot
"We were just finished with one of our missions and we went back to Zane's house and we played a little bit with his brother until it was about seven in the evening… Suddenly the door flew open and one of our old friends called Michael rushed inside with a look of fear. He was one of the policemen in our city and we usually had our information from him, anyway he told us that some people in black cloaks were coming after us, so naturally we took a defensive position as we waited for them to come but they never came from the front. About five of them appeared behind us and before we could do anything they attacked us, Zane was the first to react as he took his brother and tried to escape as Michael and I tried to hold them off but they were too strong for us and they defeated us and they ran after Zane who was in the hall… I heard his brother screaming so I crawled all the way to the hall where I saw Zane surrounded by all five of these people and he tried to fight them off, but there was only so much that he could do barehanded as one of them had a sword he tried to hit Zane but he luckily missed as Zane grabbed his sword and killed him. By that time I was close enough to Zane when one of the cloaked men took his brother and disappeared in a black light. After the man took his brother he tried to fight of the remaining people but something strange happened as the whole place turned black for a second and after it turned back to normal we were no longer in the hall but outside some dark city and the sky had no stars but it had a moon in the shape of a heart. Anyway it happened soon after that as Zane was still there but one of them slashed him in his torso and he fell down on his back as blood was dripping from his mouth and he looked at me until his eyes finally closed and I guessed that he died, so by then I was furious and I finally had enough strength to stand up and take his sword as I tried to attack them but the black light came back and it knocked me unconscious, by the time I woke up I was no longer in the same world but I was here." Ziad finally put his picture back in his wallet as he looked at Sora whose mouth was now wide open
"Whoa! I didn't know all that happened."
"And when King Mickey told me that Zane was in Hollow Bastion and alive I wanted to come with you, if you don't mind?"
"No ofcourse I don't mind!"
"Okay let's go then!" Mickey, Donald and Goofy went inside the gummi ship and then Sora also went inside except for Ziad he was searching in a drawer until he found the thing that he was looking for, A handgun that didn't have to be reloaded no matter how many bullets you shoot and he put it in his holster and hopped inside the gummi ship and they left...
Somewhere else in space Cid, Yuffie, Riku and Zane were flying aimlessly without any world in sight...
"Man this is gonna drive me crazy!" Cid shouted since he felt helpless
"What are we supposed to do?" Riku wondered as all of them were getting worked up except Zane he was thinking about something "What's wrong Zane?" but he didn't respond.
"Huh? Zane?" Yuffie looked at Zane but it was like he didn't see them
Then suddenly he turned and looked at them with hope in his eyes "Cid! Try to go east." They all shocked at his sudden voice
"What? Why east?" Cid asked confused
"There is supposed to be a world there." Zane said while looking a bit confused
"Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"It's just now coming back to me…" Zane said as he remembered the small metal stuff that was floating outside in space
Yuffie now regaining her senses started to talk "How do you know that we have to go east now?"
"Because I have been here before… A long time ago."
"Huh? When was that?" Riku now asked
"Before you and I met, I went with Ansem here and we went to a world where we had to find some rare resources or something… I don't remember exactly but we took them and as we left in his airship, he had one at that time by the way. But it is destroyed now and I remember that there were small metal objects flying nearby around that place, and what I can see this place also has small metal objects."
"Okay East we go!" Cid said as he turned his wheel
"Zane how many missions did you go with Ansem?" Riku asked since he was curious as to how long he was with Ansem
"Well about fifteen if I didn't forget any."
"Fifteen! Why did you go with him on all those missions?"
"I owe him." Zane said softly
"Yeah but not to that extent." Yuffie said as Riku now felt left out
"Huh? Yuffie you knew?" Riku asked
"Not about fifteen missions no, he only told me about the first one."
"Zane can I ask you why you were with Ansem all this time and how did you meet."
"The reason is because he saved my life in a world far away when I was attacked by some people most likely Organization XIII he saved me but I believe they took my friend Ziad away, since that time I have been doing missions for Ansem and those missions were connected with my friend somehow so I went on most of them, until you came he stopped all his missions and he changed and said that we have to do things another way, and that was when he gave you the mission to take Roxas and I had to help you if things got rough. It was like he changed after he learned about Sora and the Keyblade, he didn't care about my friend anymore and wanted me to serve him only, at that time I thought that working with you will be my last mission and then I would leave and search for my friend myself, but now I am no longer doing any missions for him and I help you now on my own free will, but after I help you I will search for my friend.
"Fine I understand."
"You didn't tell me that last part!" Yuffie said as she wanted to know everything about him for some reason
"Sorry I forgot at that time."
"Hey guys! I know that you are a bit depressed but cheer up because there is one hell of a world there!" Cid said shouting from joy and pointed his finger to a world that looked like a grassland and a few houses. "Okay we are going to land!" They landed slowly on the grasslands.
"Okay we are on the ground! We could get to a village if we walk for a while north."
"But I must say that we can't fly for a while because this baby here is steamed from flying." Cid said
"For how long?" Zane asked
"Well for at least three days."
"Now that's long!" Yuffie now said
"Okay time to get going then, tomorrow I will make the missile program but today is a free day!" Cid said as they all took their weapons and they went outside on the grassland, the grass was pretty long and they knew that they could be ambushed easily
"Well we better take care around here because the monsters in this part are very nasty… That's if I remember correctly." Zane said as he tried to make a joke but nobody laughed
"Monsters? Not Heartless?" Riku asked to make sure
"This is one of the only worlds which don't have heartless, kind of strange though because the people around here are not that very kind… At least the last time I was here they weren't."
"You mean that they will try to kill us?" Yuffie asked concerned
"Not to that extent also Yuffie." Zane said sarcastic
So they walked for a while but suddenly they heard something move in the grass...
"Did you hear that?" Cid asked
"Yeah I heard it." Riku said as he kept his hand with his Keyblade
Suddenly a monster with sharp long teeth and the body of a human but claws instead of hands and a face of a tiger appeared and headed towards them...
Zane was the first one to see it and he took his sword and he slashed at it's head and it fell off.
Then suddenly three more came.
"Ambush!" Zane shouted as Cid and the others also took their weapons this time the monsters taking the initiative the first one hit Cid in his chest falling hard to the ground but Cid stood up nearly as fast as he fell and he lunged his spear inside the monster's torso and it fell down, while Riku this time fought with his Keyblade and blocking all the monster's attacks and struck his Keyblade in the monster's heart
While Yuffie threw her shuriken towards the last monster and luckily it hit it's legs and it fell down hard and Zane struck his blade in the fallen monster's chest.
"Is everyone okay?" Zane asked when all the monsters were down and they nodded "Okay we better move quickly before their families come."
So instead of walking they ran now towards the village and within five minutes they were inside the village's gates, the people there looked strange to them like a monster just stepped on their holy ground...
"Well I guess we made it to the village, I just hope that the villagers won't turn on us." Cid said feeling paranoid
"Well we will never know until it happens." Zane said as they all went to an house which had the signboard of INN in the far end of the village, they saw inside a bartender as the usual and a few chairs and tables and a stairs to the next floor probably for the beds.
Cid quickly sat down and everyone sat next to him...
"Do you have beer?" Cid asked the bartender
"Beer? No we only serve Carpatante." He said feeling a bit annoyed at their presence
"Carpatante? What's that?"
"It's a strong drink from the plant Carpatrius."
"Strong? Does it have alcohol?"
"No it is good for your body though."
"No alcohol huh? Okay I guess I could stop drinking beer and drink this Carpa- whatever, bartender give me one!" Cid said while the bartender came a minute later with a big glass of drink
Cid quickly drank a small sip and he looked shocked...
"Hey Cid are you okay?" Zane asked as he was surprised at how Cid looked but he didn't reply
"Oh don't worry about him he always does like that when the taste is good, Bartender give me also one please." Yuffie said
"Sure, what about you two?" The bartender asked while he looked at both Zane and Riku
"Yeah give us also." Riku said and he brought three more glasses of Carpatante
They all drank from this Carpatante and they found the taste completely smooth and luckily it wouldn't make them drunk...
"WOW! This is great drink bartender." Zane said
"Thanks, just don't drink too much otherwise you won't be able to sleep anymore."
Finally Cid started to speak again.
"How much does one of these cost?" Cid asked
"Thirty munny." The bartender replied
"Only!"
"Yeah."
"Okay do you have some food on the menu?" Cid asked since he was getting hungry
"Yeah we have roasted beef forty munny and we have our special Cartronia beef for sixty munny, what will it be?"
"I have got munny so give me the special, what about you three?" Cid asked as he looked at his companions
"I will take the same." Riku said
"I will take roast beef." Zane said since he didn't trust the other meat
"I will take the same as Zane." Yuffie said pointing to Zane because the bartender didn't know who that was
"Okay within a half hour it will be finished you can sit on the chairs by the table."
So they all moved with their drinks to a table near the stairs.
"Man this drink is good; I can stop drinking beer with this." Cid said as he liked it a lot more than beer
"Great I guess we will have to take some with us before we go then." Zane said and Cid immediately agreed
"By the way Cid what happened to the Highwind?" Yuffie asked since he never told them what happened
"The Highwind? Well after the fight with Sephiroth it got destroyed by the lifestream, I tried to fix it but I couldn't it was beyond repair, so I just left it and made Sierra."
"How old are you Cid?" Riku asked suddenly which shocked Cid
"Me or Yuffie? Well Yuffie is sixteen." Cid said avoiding the question
"Ah come on Cid answer the question." Zane now said
"Allright I am thirty-two."
"Really?" Zane asked surprised
"Yeah, don't tell me that I look older." Cid said as he didn't like to be old
"No in fact I was going to say that you look younger." Zane said as Cid was surprised by that
"My thoughts exactly I thought you were twenty-six or something." Riku said
"Thanks guys."
"How old are you Riku?" Yuffie then asked
"Sixteen and you Zane?"
"Huh? You are friends but you didn't even know how old he was?" Yuffie asked surprised
"Am seventeen, guess it's three teens against one thirty-two."
"Yeah well at least you aren't acting your age, you act more grownup then most." Cid said
"Wow! The first time Cid makes a compliment." Yuffie said sarcastically
"Really? I guess we must be grateful then." Zane said jokingly
"No no no! If you go on like this I will change my mind." Cid said while he finished his drink
"Okay let's stop and change the subject, Do you have anyone in your mind Cid?" Riku asked as Cid looked back at him with wide eyes
"Huh? What do you mean?" Cid asked as he was trying to look confused
"Well You know someone."
"I used to… But that didn't really work out."
Then suddenly a beautiful woman came inside and sat at the bar, Cid watched her the whole way.
"There it starts!" Riku said as he saw how Cid was looking at her
"Yo! Cid." Zane said while waving his hands in front of his eyes but he didn't respond as he was looking at the woman in disbelief.
"Hey Cid! Wake up!" Yuffie said and hit his head and he turned to look at them as he didn't know what was wrong
"What!"
They all started to laugh and Cid looked at them not understanding why they were laughing...
"What's so funny?" Cid asked since he didn't know why they were laughing
"You Cid, I guess you have not even one in your mind but surely a few." Zane said still laughing
"Nah! I have none... Yet."
"You see that is what I am talking about." Riku said as he also couldn't stop laughing
"Ah! Come on I am just looking, there is no harm in that."
Then the bartender came and gave them their food "Anything else?"
"Yeah, who is the pretty lady?" Cid asked while he looked at the woman
"Oh she is Latty she comes here often, but she is married." The bartender said as he knew what Cid was thinking
"Damn! Oh well do you have rooms for rent?"
"Yeah how many do you want?"
"Give us three."
"Okay, here you go." The bartender gave Cid a few keys and left.
"Hmmm... Key no.13 this is for you Zane and Riku, Key no.14 is for you Yuffie and this one is mine." Cid gave them their room keys and they started eating
"Wow! Great taste!" Cid said as he was surprised that everything tasted good in this world
"Yeah it sure is." Riku said as he agreed with Cid
"Well as always Roasted beef is nice." Zane said and Yuffie agreed with him as well
They all quickly finished their food and they began to feel sleepy...
"Man this food makes me real sleepy! Bartender Check!" Cid said as the Bartender nodded and a few minutes later he came with the check
"Three-hundred and twenty munny okay here you go." Cid took a two heavy looking pouches to the bartender and stood up and left
"G-Night!" Cid said while he went up the stairs
"Good Night Cid, I guess I will go to bed as well." Zane said as Yuffie and Riku both nodded and they went to their rooms and fell quickly asleep.
The next morning came quickly when Riku woke up he found out that Cid was not in his room, so he went down to the bar and found Cid drinking
"Good morning early head." Riku said as he sat beside Cid
"Good morning Sleepy-head." Cid said with a smile
"What time is it?"
"It's 9 o'clock, I was awake since 6." Cid said while he finished his glass and he requested another one
"You were drinking all this time?" Riku asked
"Nah! I was first busy making the missile program on Sierra but I finished before I knew it, So I came back and started to drink, want some?"
"Yeah sure it will wake me up at least." Riku said since he still felt sleepy
"Karel another one over here!"
"Okay be right there!" The bartender said as he was busy making another glass
"He is such a kind guy I talked with him a bit and it seems like some people here are causing trouble in this world."
"What kind of people?" Riku asked as the bartender came and gave a glass of Carpatante to Riku
"Well I will tell you when the rest comes down because I don't like to repeat myself." Cid said while Karel refilled his glass
By that time Zane woke up and found out that Riku left so he went outside his room and knocked on Yuffie's door but there was no reply, he started to worry so he knocked again but a bit harder this time, but also no reply so he thought then that maybe she was in the shower or something even though he didn't hear it. So he was planning on leaving until he heard a glass break then with all his strength he smashed the door open and saw Yuffie on her knees and someone was strangling her from behind, it was a man in a black cloak.
"Yuffie!" Zane ran quickly towards Yuffie and he kicked the man in his face and fell down but he stood up taking a knife this time out of his pocket
"Yuffie you okay?" Zane asked as she coughed a little and nodded
After he was sure she was okay he fought the man in black, the man blocked most of his kicks and punches so Zane threw one big punch at him but the man was too fast and he held his hand and kicked Zane twice in his torso and then threw a punch right at his face and Zane fell down, he checked his face and found blood coming so he stood up getting real angry he quickly gave the man a kick in his torso and then a punch to his chest and he fell out of the window, Zane looked out of the window and saw that he was dead.
"What happened Yuffie?"
"When I awoke I saw this man in my room I tried to get out of the room but he was too quick and he wanted to kill me." Yuffie said as she began to cry
"There's no need to cry I will always be here for you though." Zane took Yuffie in his arms and tried to make her feel better
"Thanks Zane, I don't know what would have happened if you weren't here for me, I would have probably been dead." Yuffie said as she was still crying
Suddenly Cid and Riku came running to the door with a look of fear on their face...
Cid was the first one to speak after he saw that the window was broken and that Yuffie was crying in Zane's arms who had blood all over his face. "What happened?"
"A man in a black coat tried to kill Yuffie."
"The organization? But why would they want to kill Yuffie?" Riku asked since he didn't know the answer
"They probably knew that we are after them." Zane said
"That doesn't mean that they should take the initiative." Riku said angrily as he wasn't expecting them to attack first
"Well I will wash my face and come back, okay Yuffie?" Zane asked Yuffie and he was about to let her go but she held his shirt tight
"No stay with me, please." Yuffie asked as she looked at Zane with teary eyes
"I will stay with you but I will just wash my face and come right back."
"Okay." So Zane went to the bathroom and washed his face and after he finished he saw that he had a cut in his face above his eyebrow, he knew that he was lucky that the man didn't take his eye out, he was thinking of taking a shower to feel fresh again but knew that this wasn't the time so he dried his face with a towel and went back to Yuffie who was still on the ground sobbing but only a little bit less now
"Come on Yuffie, go wash your face we will be waiting right here." Zane said and Yuffie just nodded and went to the bathroom to wash her face
"Why do you think they took Yuffie? Why didn't they try to kill you or me?" Cid asked pissed off
"They probably thought that Yuffie was an easier target as she was sleeping alone." Riku said as he knew that a person alone is easier than two
"I guess she can't be alone then anymore." Zane said as he checked out the window again to see if the man was still there, and he was as there were some glass pieces in him
"Okay I have an idea as long as we are here you are going to stay with Yuffie okay Zane?" Cid said
"Why me? Why not you?" Zane asked curious
"Because she trusts you more."
"But you are stronger than me."
"That doesn't matter; she has to feel safe y'know?"
"Cid does have a point there you know?" Riku said as he agreed with Cid
Once Yuffie came back she got a bit more refreshed and she stopped crying however her eyes were still wet
"Are you okay now Yuffie?" Zane asked and Yuffie nodded
"Zane is going to sleep here with you next time okay?" Cid said as Yuffie's face directly brightened up
"Really? Thanks." Yuffie said and she gave Zane a hug, Zane was surprised at the sudden movement, not knowing what to do he hugged her back
"Okay anyway Cid has some news." Riku said while Yuffie now broke off the hug and sat down on the bed as Zane took a nearby chair
"I talked to the bartender and he said that some people are causing big trouble like killing and stealing in this world and it seems like they are killing all the strong people, he thinks that they want to take over this world."
"Really? Do you think that the Organization is after worlds also now?" Riku asked as he was kind of surprised
"No it isn't the world that they want but it's the hearts of the people that he wants, and like Cid said they killed only the strong people that means stronger hearts." Zane said as Yuffie then got confused
"But I am not that strong." Yuffie said since she knew her strength was limited
"Well she does have a point there." Cid said
"So what are we going to do?" Riku asked
"I don't know, Cid is the leader." Zane said since he never liked to be much of a leader
"For as long as I could remember I thought that you were the leader." Cid said as Zane usually acted like a leader
"Me? No way I am no leader, you are!"
"Fine I will be the leader."
"So what are we going to do leader?" Yuffie said finally smiling again
"Okay we are going to hunt these people down and then we will get the hell out of here!" Cid said
"Fine by me." Zane said while the rest agreed
So they went downstairs and Cid gave the bartender some munny and said something to him and then they left out in the grassland again, they were moving quickly and somehow Cid knew where to go.
"Okay we move a little bit more North and we will get to their hideout."
"How do you know?" Riku asked curiously as he knew that Cid was never here before
"Well I took some information from the bartender and he said that they were in a ruin just this way." Cid said with a smirk
So they went a bit more North until they came to a ruin which looked deserted
"Are you sure that they were here?" Zane asked since it looked completely abandoned
"That's what he said yeah." They all looked around a bit but they didn't find anyone
"Something is fishy!" Yuffie said as she didn't trust this place
"Yeah tell me about it." Zane said agreeing with her
"This is a perfect place for an ambush don't you think?" Yuffie said while they looked around and saw a lot of tall grass and the ruin had a few openings on top where enemies could be lurking
Suddenly they heard a scream from inside and they followed it all the way to a room where there was a woman with ropes around her and some people in black were about to kill the woman