Disclaimer: I don't own Dissidia.

I didn't realize until I wrote this chapter how much I missed working with Cloud's voice. But he's definitely a stronger Cloud than my last one. I think I like him better this way, because goodness knows this fic has enough people wandering around feeling sorry for themselves already! Thinking back, I probably unintentionally wrote this Cloud as taking up where my last Cloud left off, in terms of character development. Well, at least I'm consistent, right?

And if Bartz's advice towards the end sounds kind of like a fortune cookie… that's where it came from. Please enjoy and review!!

Chapter Ten: Death and the Maiden

I can't remember my father's face. What's that even mean? Is he an orphan? Only, the way that the Warrior of Light said it, it sounded like there was something way deeper going on in his head. He sounded scared. Paralyzed.

He doesn't have a real name. Warrior of Light—that sounds like some fairy tale that you tell five year olds when you're trying to get them to sleep. Like Prince Charming, or the most beautiful princess in the kingdom.

I think back to Cosmos' account of the first world. That it hadn't been enough to keep the Origin World going. Just like, as a kid gets older, stories about the most beautiful princess stop working and you have to think up something more complex. I wonder if his world was the first world.

In those bedtime stories, you don't hear about the most beautiful princess's family except to say that she lived with them in a big castle, unless they're evil. They might as well not even be there. And for a first try, who's to say that the Origin World didn't leave out some details, didn't get it exactly right the first time around?

These thoughts aren't really that great company for walking alone. But when I finally catch up to Bartz and Cloud, it doesn't take more than a second for me to figure out that something bad happened while I was gone.

I'm rooted to the ground in this ethereal underground world—I'm reminded of the Iifa Tree—as I pause.

Bartz rips the hem out of his tunic, shakes his head and mutters something to Cloud, who is on the ground, sitting up with Bartz's help.

"What… happened?" I breathe as Bartz notices me and looks up without even drawing his attention away from Cloud. He ties the ripped cloth over Cloud's bicep.

"Eh, might've had a bit of a scuffle while you were gone. Guy showed up, made some cracks about this girl named Aerith, about a guy named Kadaj. And about Tidus—enough to start a brawl. If that's what he was looking for, he certainly got one. Cloud definitely came out on top."

"I knew," Cloud mutters, closing his eyes for a moment as if to steady his head. "As soon as Tidus said that he had been looking for his father, I knew. Tidus isn't smart enough to sneak around like that. Someone found him, and someone made the connection. We have to find him. I'll go find him. Sephiroth wants to pick a fight, then that's fine with me. I have the strength to fight him as many times as it takes for him to be a memory."

All this mess just because Squall decided to stalk off.

"You're not having a showdown with anyone now, that's for sure. You need your beauty sleep," Bartz told him, shaking his head as he got to his feet. "And so do I. Covering your back during that little skirmish wasn't exactly a piece of cake."

"Tidus might not be alive by the time we're well rested, Bartz," Cloud said pointedly.

"If he caught up to Squall, then he's good," Bartz protested. "I'm not saying that I'm abandoning the guy, I'm just being realistic."

"Trust me: he didn't make it to Squall. You want to talk about abandoning people? I've had enough of abandoning people for the rest of my life. I can manage. I will manage. Let's go."

We don't move. It's as if we just heard Cloud speak for the first time.

"What?" he demands sharply.

"What in the name of the winds happened to you," Bartz says softly, without an ounce of the lightheartedness that his words sound like they should have had. He sounds worried, if anything.

"I didn't abandon Aerith. And I didn't abandon Zack. But I might as well have. So I abandoned everybody. Barrett, Cid, Vincent, Reeves, Yuffie, Red XIII. Rufus. Marlene. Tifa. My entire world. I stopped listening. I tried to lead a simpler life, think about things in easier ways, so that it wouldn't hurt to live so much. Because of that, I didn't hear a cry for help in disguise, and I abandoned Kadaj too. I let him die, and because I let him die, I'm dealing with Sephiroth now. That enough for you? Let's go," he repeats, and slings his huge wedge of a sword over his shoulder.

I see him wince a little as he strains his arm where Bartz had to bandage his wound. "Sometimes," I say, and I don't know why, "you have to abandon people."

For someone with so much weight to carry around, he moves fast. "I don't want to hear you say that ever again," he looks down at me and tells me, soft as a whisper but sharp like fire. "Let's go get that stupid jock," Cloud says louder and leads the way.

Bartz gives me a 'what are you going to do?' look with a shrug before following Cloud.

I did abandon him. I felt bad about it, but I didn't have to wait long before I found out that I'd made the right choice. He killed her. He killed Garnet. My Garnet.

Before I know it, I step onto crystal ground and realize where our search has taken us. To the Crystal World.

"Isn't that," Cloud mutters to us. "Hey—" he shouts.

"No, wait just a second—" Bartz calls out too, his hand outstretched in plea.

In the flash of an instant, I see Kuja kneeling over Tidus, his hair falling over his shoulder so that it hides his face. He holds Tidus' hand; his other palm covers a bleeding gap in Tidus' heart. And then he looks up, panicked, and with no more effort than it takes to flinch, he disappears.

"What just happened?" Bartz says, blinking, as Cloud doesn't miss a beat. He drops down on a knee, checks out Tidus' wound before I even recover.

"Well, look what we found," Cloud says with muted, exhausted relief. The spell breaks and I join Cloud and Bartz. "Tidus, alive and well against all odds."

Tidus shakes his head as he swings up to a sitting position, legs crossed, as obviously injured as if he'd just taken a nice, long nap. "Didn't even get to thank him. Probably thinks I'm an ungrateful bastard."

Bartz snorts, while I try to make sense of what Tidus just said.

"Wait, what?" I stammer.

"Tell us what happened," Cloud interrupts me, his voice pointedly calm as he directs a quick glare in my direction.

Tidus sighs and shakes his head. "I didn't even figure out where Squall went. This guy in a big black coat with long silver hair just randomly attacked me."

"Sephiroth," Cloud breathes. "Sorry. Go on."

"That's his name? Wait, that's your guy, right? Okay, so I put up a good fight, just so you guys don't think I'm a wimp or anything. But he got me, right through here—" he says, putting his hand over his beating heart, "and just left without a single word. I…"

He stares off. "I thought I was going to die. Really, really thought I was going to die. I lost a lot of blood really quickly, but I don't remember. I guess my heart spazzed out, what with having a freakin' nine foot sword stuck through it. Just as I blacked out, I came back. It hurt like nothing else, but your brother really knows his healing magic, Zidane. He saved my life."

"Did he say anything?" I ask meekly, afraid of incurring the wrath of Cloud's death-glare.

"He asked me, 'are you Jecht's son?'" Tidus replies. "I nodded, it was all I could do. He seemed like he was about to say something else, but then you guys showed up and spooked him."

"Makes sense," Cloud mutters to himself.

"Hey, if you know what's going on, share," Bartz demands with a weary laugh.

Cloud looks off into space for a moment before speaking. "If we fight as much as we do, imagine how ten of Chaos' followers get along. I would say that there's some argument between factions… Tidus, you said that you saw Cecil's brother and Kuja with your father. Assuming that Sephiroth has decided to join a few others, then he would…"

He pauses. "He enjoys, how do I say it? Finding out who it is a person cares about, and then taking them away—killing them," he clarifies. "So he's got something against your father, or has reason to bring pressure to bear upon your father. Which leads to the question… what are they fighting over?"

Bartz frowns. "Something that will bring them to power, I'm thinking. But it doesn't have to be that obvious. There's something corrupting their alliance, that much we can guess. We need to know more. But can't we guess that it's something that Tidus' dad is closer to than Sephiroth?"

"Definitely," I conclude. Tidus doesn't seem to be really following what's going on, but I guess that's understandable, considering that he very nearly died just now. "I just don't understand why Kuja would help you, Tidus."

"Zidane, I'd swear on—on something really important. The Crystal. I'd swear on the Crystal that my old man isn't made up of the same stuff that people like Cloud's Sephiroth and... and Squall's Ultimecia, and Firion's Emperor are made of. And Cecil'd say the exact same thing about his brother. What's that say if Kuja hangs out with them?"

"It means he's playing them," I tell them slowly, biting every syllable. "Or that we just don't know enough. Or both."

Bartz rolls his eyes comically. "Zidane, be willing to believe in anything that's good. I don't get that opportunity—I mean, I've got to deal with a tree. Exdeath is a tree."

I frown. "A tree?!"

"Yeah. Why, do you have something against trees?"

"One tree," I laugh. "But seriously. I gave Kuja the benefit of the doubt way before everyone else here thought it was cool. Now I know better. You're wasting your time," I sigh.