A.N. princessOFdarkness, phaz, ChibiFrubaGirl, Haninozuka Mitsukuni (I hope I spelled that right), PP. Bunny, Sera, Chibified Zombie, Kitara Jaganshi, and all of those who are just too lazy to review and are still reading this…thank you so much for sticking with me this far and encouraging me and stuff. I REALLY APPRECIATE IT! So this chapter is dedicated to all those who wrote a review, especially those who were there for the first one (princessOFdarkness, phaz, ChibiFrubaGirl, Haninozuka Mitsukuni, PP. Bunny, and Sera) and are still with me today…THIS WHOLE STORY'S FOR YOU GUYS! I LOVE YOU! And if I left anyone out, review and tell me and I'll dedicate the next chapter to you alone. XP
This is from Chris, because I love you so much. ♥
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By the time they got back to the Highwind, Sora had nearly passed out, and was now being supported by the two men. Riku and Roxas were made to walk in front, because, as Cloud put it, "They may not have done anything, but they're werewolves and I don't want the damn things behind me."
The two were happy to oblige, but Riku was skittery, checking behind them every now and then, just to make sure that Cloud hadn't yanked out his sword from the mess of leather that he shoved his weapon into. The routine checks over the shoulder, in turn, made both Leon and Cloud wary and nervous, just as jittery as the silver wolf.
Sora didn't care either way, so lightheaded that he blacked out twice before they finally got him on board. Tifa, Yuffie, and Cid, who had all been pacing inside nervously, all did different things when they caught sight of the odd group. Cid swore, Tifa immediately went to Sora, and Yuffie chased Riku with her shuriken swinging until they could get her to stop.
Finally, though, they were all sitting inside, staring at each other with mixed expressions. Cloud was glaring at Riku, Leon kept sneaking worried glances at the dozing Sora, Tifa's eyes roved from face to face, Yuffie was pouting and polishing her shuriken sulkily, Cid was growling to himself, glaring at anyone who drew his attention, Sora was trying to get the floor to come into focus for more than thirty seconds, Roxas was fussing over the silver wolf, who just stared at the floor. The tension in the air was so thick, they could have cut it with a knife.
Light crept into the horizon, tinting the sky a pale pink. Roxas and Riku's heads both snapped up, looking at it with anxiety. Looking at Sora with identical expressions, Roxas whined. Sora nodded at them, a hand over his bandaged shoulder. "Go ahead," he reassured.
Cloud stiffened as they disappeared out the door. "Where are they going?" he snarled at the brunette, who winced and shook his head. "Relax, Cloud. When they Change back, they're not…decent."
The blonde opened his mouth, decided against it, and sat back, fuming. The edge of the sun strained over the edge of the ocean, and he sat up again, snapping, "Where are they? The sun's up, they should be—"
A timid knocking interrupted his rant, and their heads whipped around to the door. Roxas edged into the airship, hoping that no one was going to swing a sword or aim a gun at him. Cloud glared at him. "Are you—"
"U-um…woof?" Roxas said, grinning more out of nerves than out of amusement. The clean shirt that he had on was slowly turning red as the wound that Leon had inflicted still bled, having reopened with all his movement. He grinned nervously at them, and Riku poked his head in behind him.
"No one's trying to kill us now, right?" he asked, completely serious, because Cloud looked about ready to rip off heads. Already, his hand crept up towards the hilt of his sword over his shoulder, but it halted as everyone glared at him.
"Come in, whoever you are," Yuffie chirruped happily, not really getting into the whole werewolf-killing mood. The two shuffled in, anxious and embarrassed. Riku's hand was held over his shoulder, and blood was slowly running down his arm. Still, he kept his face impassive, not sure of what these people wanted to see. Roxas was the opposite, glancing around nervously from face to face, wincing at the pain that the shot to the side had caused. The baggy dark blue shirt was still turning a dark purple, and Riku glanced at the blonde with concern.
"So…who are you?" Cloud growled, and Roxas gulped, realizing that the maniac who had tried to kill them was asking him.
"U-um, I'm Roxas," he said, then, with a look at the silverhair beside him, said, "A-and this is Riku."
Everyone's heads swiveled towards Sora, who blinked and shrank slightly at the sudden attention.
"You mean…this is the one you were looking for the whole time? This is Riku?" Leon asked, incredulous. Sora nodded, and Cid whistled.
"Yeah," the brunette nodded. "That's him. When I found him, though, he…wasn't like he is now. Meaning, he wasn't a werewolf. That happened after we got back."
"How did it happen?" Cloud asked, still not taking his eyes off the two werewolves standing before him.
"Um…" Sora trailed off, not wanting to reveal exactly what had occurred, but Roxas jumped in for him. "It was me. I didn't mean to, it was a complete accident! But it was me that bit him."
Just as Cloud drew his sword and pointed it at Roxas, Riku stepped in front of the blonde, glaring, even as the cold steel tip pressed into his chest.
"What do you mean, it was an accident?" Cloud snarled. "How do you bite someone by accident?"
Sora leaped in to cover the awkward silence that followed. "It's a long story…Riku was trying to protect me."
"It still doesn't explain why he was attacking in the first place, now that we've ruled out 'accidents.' If he was protecting you, then there was obviously something going on that caused him to attack."
"I…" Sora said haltingly, not knowing how they would take this, but knowing that it would most definitely be negative. "I…goaded him into trying to bite me. I attacked him, first."
There was a long, dreadful silence, and then the entire Traverse Town gang exploded into a unanimous, "WHAT?!" Sora flinched at the shout, nodding miserably. "Yeah…it was my fault that this happened. I didn't really think about the consequences…I just did it. It was a stupid thing to do."
"Damn right it was stupid!" Tifa exclaimed, and he blinked, not used to that kind of abuse from her. But she was really worked up, already high-strung due to Aerith's death, and now she couldn't help herself. "Why would you do something like that? Purposely egg on a werewolf so that he'll bite you? Are you insane?"
Sora shrugged. "I dunno…I…wasn't thinking…"
Cloud growled, but pulled the sword away from Riku nonetheless. Roxas sighed, relaxing, but Riku wasn't at ease, less so than before even, wary of the enraged blonde man more than he had been before. There was just no relaxing around these people…
Roxas shook his head, saying quietly, "I-it's still partly my fault…Sora was saying stuff that of course I didn't like, but…I shouldn't have let it get to me like that. I shouldn't have risen to that kind of stuff."
Riku interrupted. "You didn't do anything wrong, Roxas. I'm also partly to blame. I shouldn't have let Sora say stuff like that to you, I could have shut him up somehow."
Everyone stared between the three, who were all looking at the floor in embarrassment. Yuffie coughed uncomfortably, bringing everyone back to the present. Tifa stood, saying briskly, "Well, that's all past us now, and we're all here right now and there's no changing what happened, no matter whose fault it was. And, by the look of things, those two are going to pass out any second unless we can get those wounds to stop bleeding."
"And clean up the mess on the floor," Cid grumbled. "Damn wolves got blood everywhere."
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Twenty minutes later, they were all arguing about what they should do, with Cloud hanging back and glaring most of the time, only putting in a few words every now and then. Riku, on the other hand, stayed silent, just thinking about it all, and the two glanced at each other every now and then, just to make sure that the other wasn't about to start killing anything.
"But what if we all just went out in a big search for this silver wolf?" Sora was saying. "We all just start looking."
Tifa shook her head. "It's too risky. None of us are familiar with the territory, and we could all too easily get separated and lost."
"But it could still work, if we had some way to communicate."
"We don't have that kind of technology with us," Cid growled, scratching his chin again.
"But I'm sure that Riku and Roxas are more familiar with the forest than any of us. What if we had two groups, and each took one of them?"
"No," Cloud snapped. "I don't want to be in the middle of a bunch of trees I'm not familiar with and accompanied by a werewolf." He spat the name out digustedly, and everyone winced at the callousness.
"That, and Cloud'll probably take the advantage of killing Riku in the dark," Yuffie grumbled, and the group snickered and put their heads down as Cloud glared suspiciously at them.
Riku finally spoke up, muttering, "What if Roxas and I search the forest with two others, and the rest of you search the mainland? Just because he's a wolf doesn't mean that he's hiding out in the forest. I mean, it's most likely, but if he's smart, then he'll probably start by staying somewhere else."
Everyone thought about it, and then another discussion was opened up, this time finding and fixing the flaws in that plan. Cloud caught Leon's eye, and the brunette nodded slightly. If this plan was chosen, then he wanted to be one of the two in the forest with the wolves. He didn't want to be in the forest alone with them, but he didn't want there to be two people out there with them that trusted the wolves, especially Riku.
The final plan was laid out. It was pretty much along the same lines as what the silverhair had originally said. Four would go into the forest, while the other three would search the main island quickly. Cid would be searching by airship, and when the others had finished the search of the island, they'd guard the border of the forest, not going in deep, in case whatever silver wolf tried to make a break for it.
The residents of Destiny Islands filed out. All wanted to get some sleep to ensure that they stayed up for that night, anxious. As Riku passed through, a hand grabbed the front of his shirt, and his shoulder twinged painfully as Cloud pulled him close, growling, "I still don't trust you, werewolf."
Riku just stared back, saying coldly, "It's my hair. It's not going to change, and it's not my fault that it's like this. And I didn't expect you to trust me just like that, but I did at least hope that you were going to call me by name, Cloud."
Cloud snarled at the silverhair, snapping, "Well you thought wrong. And until tonight, I won't trust you until I really have to. But," he said menacingly, looking the boy right in the eye, "if we don't find anything tonight, then I will hold you responsible for Aerith's death, and believe me, you don't want that. Because if you do anything, anything that looks even vaguely suspicious, I swear to God I will ram this sword down your throat before you can even blink."
Riku returned the blonde's glare, not even a bit fazed by the declaration. "I don't think that'll help you find the real killer any time soon." With that, he jerked himself out of Cloud's grip, ignoring the pang of protesting agony from his injuries. He started to walk to start, but stopped suddenly, as though just remembering something. Turning, he bowed with mock chivalry, a dangerous glint in his eye.
"I look forward to seeing you this evening, Cloud," he said, smiling. Cloud's eyes narrowed as the silverhair pivoted and walked away, trying to resist the urge to plunge the sword straight through this brat's back. He turned back, a slight smile playing about his lips.
"I look forward to this night as well, werewolf," he said, voice low. His eyes narrowed as he slid his thumb across the edge of the silver weapon, grinning as a bead of blood gathered in the cut. "Very much."
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A.N. Oh, there's gonna be some shit goin' down TONIGHT! WOOT! I'll be typing like a maniac for the next chapter, 'cuz it's got angst and blood and Sephy-kun in it (why did I just call him that..?). Sorry that this chapter took so long, but it was boring. All they're doing is threatening each other and arguing. So, yeah, it took me a while. But I think the next one'll be up quicker.
Nein, mein Fuhrer!
Heh heh heh…I am so naïve.
I love you all, mein reviewers!
(Wow, French to German. What's next, Ibenglibish! In which I am fluent, I'll have you know (Ibi ciban spibeak Ibenglibish. Ciban yibou?)
This is BlackFlacon002 (coughChriscough) signing off! (Gir falls from the ceiling and crushed me.) MY SPINE!
God, I'm stupid…
