Well, here's chapter ten! I made this one extra long to make up for my other late one :) Actually, I wasn't planning on publishing this so soon. I was sitting in front of my homework, and suddenly writing this seemed very appealing X) Anyways, this is my longest and I think best chapter as of yet. I've got millions of ideas, but if you want to see anything specific happen, review!

This chapter gets very interesting... :3

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, Soul Eater, or anything accossiated with either one. I do, however, own the plot of this story.

Cloud's POV

Damn it.

Damn it, damn it, damn it!

After I left the Death Room, I started to wander around awaiting Liz and Patty's return so that I could go home. Once they returned, the first thing I did was go straight to the room Kid had offered me and checked my materia.

Boy did I not like what I saw.

Tifa's materia. All of it had suddenly appeared with mine. I know for a fact that I didn't have that much materia on when fighting Sephiroth.

Does this mean something? I demanded to know why I was receiving their individual materia.

Something told me that this wasn't going to end well.

Sighing, I pulled my sword out and set it beside me. Entering the washroom, I turned on the tap to cold. I needed to snap myself out of this. This has got to be a bad dream or something. Splashing the cold water onto my face, I relished in the feeling of it sliding down my cheeks and back into the sink. I glanced at myself in the mirror. Kid was right, I looked depressed. I tried to force a smile but I knew I couldn't. Not with what was going on. Leaving the washroom, I shot a hopeful glance at the materia. Nope, everything was still there. Something shone in the corner of my eye. I turned towards it. My buster sword gleamed in the rays of the lamp shining from the ceiling. It looked quite deadly. I reached over to pick it up.

And shoved it in my chest.

Wait, what? I coughed up blood as I tried to comprehend what I just did. Pain overcame me, and suddenly I was staring Sephiroth in the face. I jumped back with a start, but collapsed on the bed in pain. I was helpless. Fear shone in my eyes.

"One...by...one..." he said, smirking at me, his menacing gray eyes mocking me.

He then proceeded to shove his own sword into my chest along with my buster sword. I was tempted to scream, but that would only attract the attention I didn't want right now. I swallowed my pain and pulled out my buster sword with great effort, preparing to use it to defend myself. No luck there, I was pushed down and held by my throat.

Next thing I knew, Sephiroth moulded into Kid and he was grabbing at me, yelling something I couldn't catch.

"—OUD. CLOUD, SNAP OUT OF IT! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!?"

What? When did he get home?

"Ughh..." I managed. I was in pain, but I could handle it. Kind of.
"Cloud! What...what the hell!? Liz, Patty! Get up here!" Kid frantically ran around, trying to find something to stop the bleeding, I assumed.

"I'm...I'm fine" I tried to explain. But it was in vain, for I was clearly not okay. Blood was all around me. No luck getting that off anytime soon.

It took me a while to realize that my buster sword was still in my chest, and instead of once I had pierced my chest twice. Kid was yelling at Liz and Patty, who had just arrived. They were staring at me wide mouthed, and Kid was yelling some instructions out. God, it wasn't that serious, was it? I've had worse. I probably look worse then I actually am.

I pulled my buster sword out, staring at the blood dripping from it. Yes, it hurt like hell, but for some reason I didn't care. Sephiroth's words rang in my head over and over again.

"One...by...one..."

I didn't even notice that Kid was trying to talk to me, trying to stop the bleeding. I didn't care. What the hell did he mean, one by one?

No, that's not it. Of course it's not it.
What other reason would there be?
Their stronger than that.
This is Sephiroth we're talking about here.
That's never stopped them before.
But it's what's stopped you now.
I believe in them.
You know you don't.
They're all together.
So? That doesn't stop Sephiroth.
You're denying it.
You're deceiving me.
They can't be.
Face it.

They can't be dying. Vincent and Tifa...they can't be dead.

What the hell am I doing here?
Where am I?
Why didn't I die?
Why aren't I there?
Am I going crazy?

Oh yes, I'm going insane.

I snapped back into reality. Kid was still yelling at me.

"Are you out of your mind!?" Frankly yes, I was.
"Nngh?"
"Did you stab yourself? Damn it, Cloud, we don't need this right now! The madness is getting to you, don't let it overcome you! Snap out of it!"

I got up. I was in bed...what? I was back at the academy, in what looked to be a hospital room.

"How did I get here?" I demanded.
Kid sighed. I looked around. I was surrounded by Kid and Stein, who were both standing over me. Stein was spinning that huge screw in his head, which I found pretty strange. Everything about this place was strange.

"I heard some commotion coming from your room, and so I went in to check on you. You were bleeding everywhere! You're chest was stabbed twice. What the hell went on in there? I was running around to figure out how to stop the bleeding, and eventually called Stein. We got you here, but you were struggling like crazy. Liz tried to help but you were still holding the sword, and threatened to kill her. You were mumbling something the whole time, something along the lines of can't be dead and one by one. I'd like to know what exactly happened in there, Cloud."

He stood over me, arms crossed. Stein moved him aside and loomed over me.

"I wonder what I would find, to dissect a creature such as yourself. What an interesting specimen..."

"Stein, not helping," Kid shot.

I sighed. I wanted to get out of this hellhole before I went completely insane and killed myself, or someone else.

"Now Cloud, you're going to be put under surveillance for some time, alright?" Stein said calmly. I felt like they thought I was some crazed wako or something. This is exactly why I didn't want Kid to find out.

"Shut up." I scowled.

I tried to get up, but Stein pinned me down.

"You're not going anywhere until we find out what's going on," Stein said firmly.

"You wanna know what's going on? My friends are dying, that's what's going on. And I'm stuck with you guys, relaxing without a worry in the world. They're dying, and I'm sitting here going insane, just waiting to kill myself."

There was silence for a while. I pushed Stein off of me and approached the door. Bandages covered my chest, soaked with blood. It still hurt, but that was the least of my worries.

I pushed open the door and slammed it behind me. I was surprised, though, when they let me leave. They started talking. I waited behind the door, listening.

"What are we going to do, Stein?" Kid asked.
"We'll have to consult Lord Death about this. Cloud is too dangerous to keep here."
"Father wants him here. He says that Cloud will help to kill the Kishin immensely."
"I know, but the others safety is at risk."
"Is there a possibility of him overcoming the madness?"

There was a pause here.

"From what I've seen, I don't think so. Cloud's soul is already corrupted, being taken over by something else. I can only describe it as a...parasite of some sort. Some kind of alien matter."

Jenova? Can they sense Jenova?

"It's amplifying the effect of the madness. If we're lucky, he won't kill himself, but I highly doubt that at this point, considering that he has already tried," Stein continued.
"This is bad."
"Mhm"

I've heard enough. I began to walk down the corridor, absorbed in my thoughts. Suddenly I heard shouting.

"THE GREAT BLACK*STAR HAS ARRIVED!"

Tsubaki's POV

"Black*Star, stop that!" I yelled. We were finally home, and the first thing he does is swing Eruka around by the leg. Yes, you heard that right.

Catching Eruka was surprisingly easy...well, it would have been if Black*Star was a little more careful. We caught her as a frog, which made things much easier. And here he was swinging her around by the leg.

"AHAHAHAHAH!" he laughed, a huge smile plastered on his face. Oh, that Black*Star.

"Um, I don't think it's such a good idea to do that, Black*Star...err, we have to bring her to Lord Death immediately!" I sweat dropped.
"I hate you all" I heard Eruka mumble.

Finally I reached over and grabbed his arm. He got the hint, and we proceeded to walk into the academy.

"Lord Death is gonna be so happy when he sees us, that maybe he'll even give us a reward! Oh oh oh, maybe he'll give us lots of money, or-"

"Black*Star, I highly doubt that. We didn't do this for a reward! We did it to help get into the book of Eibon." I tried to relax him, but it's hard when you're dealing with someone like Black*Star.

"Alright, alright," he said. I was actually quite surprised, but not so much.

We continued to walk down the hallway, making small talk. All of a sudden, I noticed someone walking ahead of us. He had noticed us, and was intentionally walking down the other way. Wait a minute...he looked familiar.

"Um, Black*Star?" I whispered.
"Mmm?"
"Who's that? He looks familiar."
"That guy down there? Isn't he that Cloud kid?"

Oh, right! I forgot.

"I wonder how he's doing?" I smiled and ran up, trying to catch up to him. Black*Star yelled something and followed me.

Cloud didn't even turn around, didn't even flinch even after our loud footsteps followed closely behind him. I finally caught up to him and reached over to tap his shoulder. He stopped under my touch.

"Hi, Cloud! How have you been?" I said with a smile in my voice. He didn't even turn around. How strange.

Black*Star caught up to the both of us.

"How has my new companion been without his God? Did the others treat you well? Ahahah!" he bellowed.

Cloud didn't even say a word. Instead, he shrugged my hand off his shoulder and continued to walk forward.

"What's up with him?" Black*Star asked, annoyed.
"Maybe he's just tired? I mean, I heard they just came back from a really hard mission!" I tried to convince him. That's when I noticed the blood soaked bandages wrapped around his chest.

"You okay?" I called after him. He ignored me and continued to walk forward, finally disappearing around the corner.

"Gosh, how rude." Black*Star mumbled.
"Let's not worry about that right now. We need to get to Lord Death," I reminded him. I was still concerned about Cloud, but we still had Eruka, and...

Wait, where was she?

"Black*Star! Where's Eruka!?" I yelled, concerned. He smiled a big toothy grin and pulled a tied-up frog out of his pocket.

"She wouldn't shut up," he explained.

Oh, Black*Star...

Once arriving to the Death Room, I asked Black*Star to remove the restraints around Eruka, and after some whining he complied.

We stepped into the guillotine hallway, Black*Star with his hands behind his back carelessly and me walking alongside him, gripping a struggling Eruka in my hands.

Lord Death awaited us.

"Hello, hello, hello!" he cheered, his usual attitude considerably toned down. Was something wrong? Oh dear.

Black*Star clearly didn't think so, because he ripped Eruka from my hands rather roughly and waved her in Lord Death's face, err, his mask.

"Meeeeh!" he yelled, tongue hanging loose. How immature! This was Lord Death here! I needed to make him stop that. Oh boy. I sweat dropped.

"Hello to you too, Eruka." I jumped a little at the sound of his old voice returning at his mention of the witch. Said witch looked scared out of her mind.

"Ribbit ribbit!" she yelped, struggling against Black*Star's grip. He dropped her, only to be picked up by Lord Death's big foamy hands. He then looked towards us.

"Excellent work, kids! You may go home and rest now." His jolly voice didn't sound so jolly.

I grabbed Black*Star and ran away, throwing out a "No problem!" behind my shoulder before he could yell something about receiving a reward of some sort.

When we exited the Death Room, Black*Star was smiling. I smiled as well. We began our trek home, no matter how much I wanted to visit the others. It was the middle of the night, and I didn't want to disturb them.

I glanced at Black*Star. His grin grew even bigger.

"Oh, is she ever in for it!"

Pretty interesting, huh? I thought so too. This is my favorite chapter as of yet :) I have NO idea how long this fanfic is going to be. At the rate I'm going, a billion chapters long. I was thinking of making Cloud completely insane or even comatose at one point, but I don't know. Ideas, anyone? Review, please! vvvvvvv And I hope you enjoyed this :D