A/N: A big thank you for those of you who reviewed, favorited, and alerted! I would also like to say a very large thank you to Nikki for leaving such a sweet review! :) I really appreciated it!

Disclaimer: Same as 1st Chap

Warning(s): The same as first chap as well.

"So, have you enjoyed the tour so far?"

"Yes I have. Thank you for still giving me one when you said that are too busy to give me one, sir."

"It's not that big of a deal. Come, I'll show you to your partner. He should be here by now."

Cloud happily followed after Commissioner Lazard with a smile on his face. This was his first day as a detective fresh out of the police academy and to say that he was excited was an understatement. When Lazard opened the door to where the other detectives and officers were, he wasn't surprised to see a lot of people running around. There was a new serial killer that was on the loose in Midgar and from what many reporters, and Lazard, say, he maybe the worse one of the year, even though he only killed two people.

"Ah, there he is."

When Lazard pointed his partner out, Cloud couldn't help but gasp in shock and blush a bit at the man who was sitting behind the desk on his computer. He couldn't believe that his partner was none other than the Great Sephiroth. He had heard so many stories about how he handled his cases quickly and thoroughly all by himself…and how handsome he was up close. It was a no-brainer that he admired the man and aspired to be like him. He knew that Zack was fed up with him always talking about him everyday. Just wait until he told him this… As they walked closer to the great detective, Cloud felt his giddiness begin to rise and he hoped that he wouldn't embarrass himself. When they stopped in front of his desk, he noticed that Sephiroth didn't even look up to acknowledge their presence, but he could tell that he knew that they were there.

"Detective Sephiroth, this is your new partner Cloud Strife. He just transferred here from the police academy and he'll be of good use to you on the case that you're working on."

Cloud held his breath as he saw Sephiroth glance up at him before turning back to his computer. Brushing off the coldness of the glance, he decided to speak up.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I hope that-"

"Chocobohead."

Cloud raised a brow in confusion at what his partner said while still looking at the computer.

"Excuse me?"

"You head looks like a chocobo's. You have the hair, hair color and eyes like one. Does that mean you are a birdbrain as well?"

Cloud gasped before glaring at the smirking man who still chose to look at his computer screen rather than at them.

"Well, I rather be a birdbrain than a complete jackass towards someone you just met and don't even have the balls enough to look at them while you insult them."

Cloud could feel Lazard staring at him in bewilderment, but he could care less. He knew that Sephiroth was great at what he did, but he just learned that he was the biggest dick in Midgar. He felt some sort of satisfaction when the man turned to him with an eyebrow raised, but he felt his satisfaction slip away when he heard the man chuckle.

"My apologies. I didn't mean to ruffle your feathers already. I'll make sure I have a nice bowl of bird feed ready for you before I say something to you. Is that okay?" Sephiroth said with a big grin on his face as Cloud glared as his face turned red.

"You asshole! I'm not a chocobo!" Cloud yelled, attracting the attention of the other workers at the station.

"Hmm…could've fooled me… You have the temper of one as well. I take it that no one has broken you in yet. I'll gladly have the honor of doing so, that is if you don't mind…" Sephiroth said with a smile before winking at Cloud. Cloud furrowed his brows before he blush a deep shade of red on his cheeks in realization to what Sephiroth meant, making Sephiroth lightly laugh. Sephiroth stopped laughing when Lazard cleared his throat.

"Alright, Sephiroth. That's enough. You've had your fun. Now here's your first assignment together…"

Cloud wasn't surprised that the ride to the morgue was silent. He could tell that Zack wasn't done talking to him about what happened with Sephiroth by how tight he was gripping the steering wheel and the tightness of his jaw. Cloud sighed. Mine as well clear the tension in the air…

"Zack, about-"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Cloud frowned when he heard Zack lie. It seemed he was going to make this harder than what it needed to be.

"You're lying."

"No shit."

"Inspector…"

"Don't use my title against me you son of a bitch!"

Cloud slightly flinched at Zack's tone.

"You have a lot of nerve Deputy-Commissioner. Not only did you not take my advice before that whole ordeal with Sephiroth took place…you've basically have been lying to me for the past five years."

"I haven't-"

"Why did he kiss your hand like that…? The way he did it…it was like you were his lover that he left behind…"

Cloud felt that familiar feel of dread well up in his stomach. He wasn't ready for this. All he wanted to do was clear the air…not dig into the past…not about Sephiroth in this way.

"He used to do that when he would walk me to my apartment late at night… I thought he was doing it to creep me out, but he told me the night before I found him in the chairman's room that he wasn't doing it because of what I thought he was…"

"What was his reason?"

Cloud looked down at his hands in his lap as he felt his vision become blurry with tears. He couldn't tell him it was Sephiroth's way of returning his feelings for him, but couldn't act on them because of his wife.

"It was his way of saying goodnight."

He heard Zack lightly laugh before sighing.

"And you call me out on lying…"

"But-"

"I don't get it… How come you can speak to Sephiroth freely, but when it comes to me or anyone else, we have to push you into a corner in order for you to speak to us…even if it's a lie most of the time. It doesn't make much sense… I understand that he was your partner before we found out who he really was, but…don't you think it's time for you to move on? It's not like Seph's going to be leaving prison anytime soon with a clean slate. You're only hurting yourself in the long run."

"Don't tell me what to do."

He heard Zack gasp but he didn't care as he looked out of the window with narrowed eyes. He was tired of everyone telling him to move on…even though he knew that he should, but it was hard to do so. No one understood how far his feelings ran for Sephiroth…

"Did he…hurt you that night?"

Cloud sighed.

"Obviously. Haven't you seen the scar on my-"

"I'm talking about the scar on your shoulder Cloud… What I'm trying to ask is whether or not if he…touched you before we were able to get to the chairman's office…"

"If you make a right at the next turn, we'll be there sooner than if you kept going straight."

"Cloud…"

"Just do as I say and stop talking!"

Cloud didn't mean to yell, but it had the desired effect.

"Don't you ant to stay here for the night? It-It's pretty late for you to go home now… You can sleep in my bed if you like while I sleep on the couch."

"Thank you for the offer, but I'm afraid that may…complicate things…"

Cloud sighed as he stood in the door way of his apartment as he looked down at the floor, not wanting to see Sephiroth's face. He knew what he meant by saying that it would complicate things…

"I…I understand… It's my fault anyway… I shouldn't have told you how I really feel about you in the hospital. It was a mistake and I understand if you put in a request for a new partner tomorrow. I don't want what I said to distract us from finding Evil Eye… It's best that-"

Cloud stopped talking when he heard Sephiroth chuckle. He looked up to see that the emerald eyes he'd grown to love were full of amusement. He blushed when Sephiroth grabbed his left hand and kissed it.

"I swear you make me wish that I was single…"

Cloud couldn't help but stare at Sephiroth as he started grinning.

"Get some sleep chocobohead. We have a long day tomorrow…"

Cloud continued to stare as he watched Sephiroth turn to leave and walked towards the elevator. When Cloud closed and locked his front door, he couldn't stop the small smile that showed on his face.

"How do we get in? We can't use the back or the front door because of the security alarms. The roof has them as well."

"That's why master said for us to use only knives. He said that the alarms on the windows go off if you lift them up to a certain height. He said that we can cut the glass with the glass cutter since the Reeve didn't buy tempered glass windows… A stupid move on his part..."

"Ugh! That's too much work! Why can't we just shoot up the place?"

"Because if we do that, it won't look like master was involved! Cloud already knows that he's a fan of using knives instead of guns! We have to make it look like he did it or else the other targets won't come out of hiding!"

"Geez, okay Kadaj… Calm down…"

"I don't have time to calm down, Loz! We have less than half an hour to get through the building and find him without tripping off the alarms!"

"You better make time, or else you will become a liability…"

"Thanks, that made me feel a whole lot better Yazoo."

"I could care less if it did or didn't… We are wasting time standing here arguing back and forth. Someone could be watching us…"

"Psh! And you tell me to calm down… You're always thinking that someone's watching us…"

"It's disturbing that you don't as well seeing as though what our occupation is."

"Eh, I view it more as a hobby…"

"Whatever. Hand me the tool…"

Cloud sighed as he saw the jewelry that adorned the skeleton. It was Sephiroth's wife alright. He remembered the times he met her and how she was wearing the same pieces of jewelry every single time.

"It's her…"

"Damn…there goes my theory…"

Cloud, Zack, and Tifa looked towards Vincent, who was leaning against the wall.

"The wife is always the husband's apprentice…"

"It wouldn't have been her, even if she was alive."

"Why not?"

"Because Sephiroth said so himself. There's more than one apprentice like Cid assumed."

"What!" Tifa said in shock.

"What else did he say!"

"I don't feel like repeating myself so I'll tell everyone at the same time tomorrow morning when Cid, Yuffie and Reno tell me what they found." Cloud said as he walked away from the skeleton on the examining table and sat down in the chair next to Vincent.

"Are you alright?" Vincent asked, his voice laced with concern.

"I will be once I get some rest. What did the mortician say about her?"

"He estimated that she has been dead for eight years and that she died of blood loss from her left eye."

"She was a target…" Cloud whispered to himself in shock.

"What do you mean by target? Cloud…what's going on here?" Tifa said anxiously.

"Sephiroth told Cloud that the murders he committed and the three deaths that took place yesterday all share a similar connection. How they all are connected? I don't-"

Zack was cut off by Cloud's phone ringing. Cloud excused himself before picking it up. Zack, Tifa, and Vincent watched as Cloud's emotionless expression became one of shock.

"What's wrong?" Zack asked with furrowed brows as he watched Cloud hang up the phone.

"That was Cid saying that there was a murder and a robbery at the Wicked Jewelers…he said that Reeve Tuesti was executed the same way he did his victims…"

"But…why would he order his apprentices to rob a jewelry store? It doesn't add up…"

"I don't know, but all of us need to leave and find out."

"So, Sephiroth…you have a wife correct?"

"Yes. What about her?"

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to know if what I heard was true or not…" Cloud said as he took a swig of his beer. He and Sephiroth decided to call it a night and Cloud was surprised that Sephiroth offered to go to the birthday party that the rest of their fellow officers threw for him at the station. Though he only knew his partner for a month, he could tell that Sephiroth was not a people person, even if it was at his own birthday party. Thus explained why he found Sephiroth at his desk and not mingling with the others.

"You're lying…"

Cloud couldn't help but chuckle.

"Alright, you got me. Why isn't she here? It's your birthday after all…"

"Some things are better left unsaid, chocobohead."

Cloud sighed in irritation as Sephiroth smirked.

"Her and I are quite alike. We don't like crowds and tend to keep to ourselves."

"Then why aren't you home to spend your birthday with her then?"

"I didn't know that you were trying to get rid of me. It's okay, I understand."

Cloud's eyes widened as he saw Sephiroth grab his coat before got out of his chair.

"Wait!" Cloud said as he grabbed his arm.

"I didn't mean it like that! I was just curious that's all… I…I appreciate it that you want to spend your birthday with me instead…" Cloud said as he felt himself blush. When he looked up at his partner, he cursed inwardly at the shit-eating grin he saw on Sephiroth's face.

"Who said that I wanted to spend my birthday with you? If I felt like being around a chocobo, I would've been at the chocobo ranch instead of here."

Cloud growled before punching Sephiroth in his chest as Sephiroth laughed at his antics.

"Stop calling me that! Just because I look like one doesn't make me one! If that was the case, everyone would assume that you were a grandfather because of your hair!"

"At least I'm a sexy grandpa."

"Psh!"

"You know that you agree with me… I've seen the looks you give me when you think I'm not looking."

Cloud blushed darker than before as Sephiroth laughed. There was no denying that…

"Whatever! It's not just me you know!"

"Wow…I was kidding you know…"

"…You were…?"

Sephiroth grinned as Cloud rolled his eyes.

"Well…this is awkward…"

"Indeed it is…"

They sat in silence and chuckled as Zack got a piece of cake thrown at him by Tifa for grabbing her butt.

"Hey, Sephiroth?"

"Yes Cloud?"

"Happy birthday…" Cloud said with a smile.

"…Thank you."

Sephiroth stared up at the light fixtures in the ceiling on his bed and smirked when he heard dress shoes stop a few feet in front of his cell.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of you visiting me on this quiet night Tseng?"

"I believe an explanation of your actions earlier tonight will suffice."

"Hmm…explanation? I believe that I don't know what you're-"

"Don't fuck with me, Sephiroth!"

Sephiroth laughed as he slowly sat up in his bed and stared at the frustrated man.

"My apologies, but I can't oblige to your request for you see…fucking with people is what I do best and am very good at. Why stop now because you don't know whether to make me have a re-trial."

"I know what I'm doing. I just wanted to see if you would tell it to my face."

Sephiroth chuckled.

"All that I'm going to tell you to your face is this: if it weren't for these bars, I would be carving out your Adam's apple with a paperclip and laugh as I hear you choking on your own blood."

"I'm talking to a judge about you tomorrow. Chuckle while you still can."

"And you watch that neck of yours while you still can…you never know…" Sephiroth said mockingly before he let out another laugh as he watched Tseng walk out of the door. After the door closed, Sephiroth narrowed his eyes in a vicious glare. The bastard didn't know who he was fucking with…but no worries. He'll make sure that Tseng understood in about a week or so.

Cloud slowly walked through the jewelry store while surveying the damage as other crime investigators took photos and searched for signs of the assistants. What was puzzling him and the others was the fact that everything on the ground level of the store seemed to be untouched. Though Cloud knew that the more expensive items was on the next floor, it didn't make sense that they would only rob the second floor and not take anything from the first when they could get a lot of money off of the items on this floor.

"Deputy-Commissioner, you are needed on the third floor." One of the other investigators said before returning to dusting off the glass of the case where the emeralds were held. Cloud raised a brow before going to the elevator that would take him to the second floor. He didn't know that there was even a third floor in the shop… After he exited the elevator, his eyes widened at the sight of blood stains on the walls and on the carpeted floor.

"The forensic team believes that this is where the altercation began... From what they could tell, one of the apprentices caught Reeve by surprise and a struggle took place. It kept going on until Reeve was able to stun the apprentice and Reeve was able to flee to the backroom where he then used the elevator in that room to go to the third floor. Unfortunately, another apprentice must have already been waiting for him to arrive there because he was found dead against the wall with a glass cutter jammed into his left eye."

Cloud nodded at Vincent before following him to the back room. After the exited the elevator, Cloud saw where Reeve was found at and stared at the blood trail on the white wall. It was a confirmation that Reeve, too, was another target since the apprentices waited for him to be alone.

"Deputy-Commissioner?"

Cloud turned to look at the woman that called him.

"Yes?"

"My team has reported that none of the jewelry was stolen, except for this."

Cloud took the document that the woman handed him and stared at it. It wasn't a document; it was a picture of the largest diamond known to man on this side of the world.

"The name of the diamond is called the Genesis Diamond, which is worth more than the entire value of Costa del Sol. To us and our knowledge of Evil Eye's victims, the theft of this diamond stuns us. We were under the assumption that items such as that have no meaning to him."

"They don't…he wants me to pay attention…" Cloud said with a frown.

So that's why he said jewelry, wicked, and diamond…

Sephiroth knew who the next victim would be and where they would be killed at. He was too distraught to realize it then. If Sephiroth wanted him know who and where the next victim would be, there was something else that was here that he wanted him to find.

"Where was this diamond located?"

"It was in this case right over here."

Cloud followed the woman over to the case in the middle of the room and narrowed his eyes.

"Did your team notice the number that was engraved on to the podium?"

"Yes, we did. We hoped that you would have some sort of idea of what it stood for."

"I don't…"

Cloud said as he stared at the number 9 engraved in the podium. Sephiroth was right… He needed to rest before he could even start to imagine what the number meant.

Kadaj held the large diamond up to the moonlight and grinned as it casted a reflection on his face.

"Too bad we can't sell this baby, right Loz?"

"Yeah…why did he want that by the way?"

"Don't know, don't care. All I know is that we hit another target and my shoulder is killing me."

"Yazoo is gonna kick your ass for letting Reeve almost escape…"

"He wasn't trying to escape! He was going to protect the diamond!"

"If Yazoo wasn't already up there, he would've climbed out of the window and down the fire escape!"

"He still wouldn't have escaped. I would've met him at the end of it."

"That's not the point."

They turned to see Yazoo taking off his make-up and high-heeled shoes before standing in the middle of the living room.

"The point is that you were reckless on this target and we don't need anymore screw-ups like that in the future! If Reeve would've escaped, master would have killed you before you went on your interview with Cloud tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that… Did he become suspicious of you?"

"Why would he? All I did was hand him the picture of the diamond and show him where it was before we took it and the number I carved into the podium before Reeve showed up."

"Well, at least you're off the hook. I'm the one who's going to be under his gaze for no telling how long." Kadaj said as he pouted before sitting on the dusty couch.

"Whatever. Just make sure you give us master's next instructions before the cops come over here tomorrow. I'm sure that they'll be over here by noon to search to see if master left a number for Scarlet."

"Yeah, I'll make sure I do that. Just tell me where to meet you two at when I call."

"Agreed." Yazoo said as he picked up a dusted book that was lying near on the small table near the couch. He began to flip through it until a picture fell out of it. Yazoo kneeled over to pick it up before laughing at who was in the picture.

"You may want to take this to master tomorrow for him to keep. If anyone else saw this, it would ruin everything." Yazoo said as he handed the picture to Kadaj for him and Loz to see. Kadaj nodded before folding the picture up and stuffing it into his pocket. He knew that master would be more than happy to have this picture with him.

To Be Continued…

A/N: *Happily sighs* feels good to be back and writing again. Sorry, but you won't be finding out who's in the picture until around the end of the story! XD *chuckles like Sephiroth*

R&R

-KTK