Cloud's POV

It takes me and Tifa to stop Barret trying to reach over the canyon for his friend. He isn't really resisting us but his focus on the sheer drop below has his mountain of a body fixed on the edge. I look over my shoulder for Lightning, in the hope that she'd help but she was nowhere to be seen. My heart sinks for a moment before Barret finally relaxes and releases the tension in his body, knocking the three of us on our backs.

"Lightning's gone. We-" I begin, but Tifa shakes her head at me, disapprovingly.

"Will you just forget her!" She hisses near silently behind Barret's back.

I bow my head in shame as I think about my selfishness, but I can't help but worry about her. She's resisted my help every step of the way and my head is telling me to just let her make her own mistakes, but every time I think of her, I see the woman in the mako tube, helpless and alone.. Why does it matter to me what happens to her?

"Hey... Let's get out of here.. Okay Barret?" Tifa says softly, rubbing the man's back.

"...Yeah.." He finally speaks, giving the barmaid a slight smile.

We head back into the desert prison, receiving looks of disbelief from passers by, due to the necklace dangling from Barret's grip. Seems like everyone down here feared Dyne. Barret may have lost a friend, but I imagine everyone in this hell hole will sleep better tonight. Eventually we make it to Mr Coates and Barret takes the lead.

"I want to go up." He says bluntly.

"Gonna be kinda hard considering the boss is dead.." Mr Coates explains.

"I know.. I killed him.." Barret replies.

"Bull—shit. Girl came in here not twenty minutes ago with his gun an claimed she did it.."

Barret says nothing but holds up the necklace in front of the man's face, who stares at it in amazement.

"Y-you did kill him. There's no way you'd be holding that otherwise.. Then who the hell did I send up?"

"Lightning." Tifa says.

"I want to go up." Barret repeats himself, taking a step closer to the man.

"R,Right.. I suppose I can't really deny you a fair trial.. Be warned though, only one of you can go up, and they have to talk to Dio."

"What!?" Barret growls.

"Hey, man! It's the rules! If I changed it there would be chaos." Mr Coates quickly defends. "And 'cause I sent two up by mistake, whoever loses comes back down here."

"Alright, Cloud you go. My ass ain't ridin' no chocobo." Barret instructs me.

I reluctantly agree and am about to be shown to the lift that would take me back into the gold saucer when Tifa grabs me by the arm and pulls me to one side.

"You can't let her win.. You hear me?" Tifa ask's, making sure I'm looking into her beautiful crimson orbs. "You get her send down here and save us."

"But-"

"No. No buts! You've done more than enough for her and she's abandoned us. If she win's, we all stay down here forever and there will be nobody to stop Sephiroth."

I give her a determined look and nod before continuing to the lifts. I don't want to have Lightning's fate in my hands, but I won't sacrifice myself and the others for one person. Not when we're after Sephiroth.. Even though it is her.. I try to clear my mind as the lift ascends and focus on the race, but as soon as the lift doors slide open, I see her sat on a chair with her back to me as her pale pink locks dangled over it's back.

"Care to explain the disappearing act?" I ask coldly.

She says nothing and keeps her back turned to me as she walks across the room and vanishes down a corridor. For the first time in what felt like years, I could feel the rage building in my body as I clench my shaking fist. Needing desperately to vent my anger, I chase after her down the corridor and I'm about to open the door when another female voice shouts me.

"That's the ladies bathrooms! You can't go in there!" Says a woman with strawberry blonde hair to which I nod and turn back to the door.

"I sear if you don't come out and explain yourself, I'll drag you out." I say angrily as I rest my head on the door.

"Didn't you hear?.. It's the ladies bathroom.." Her sarcastic voice sounds from inside.

"I've got a dress and a wig. Nobody will notice.."

"Wa?...Never mind... Not interested.."

"..."

Lightning's POV

I have to bite the back of my wrist to stop myself from laughing at the blonde's comment as my mind pictures him in a dress. Knowing it would infuriate him more, I respond with his favorite phrase, earning myself a brief silence before I hear the sound of his heavy boots walking away from the door. I almost wanted him to burst in an attack me just so the doubts in my mind could be put to rest. Whoever he is, and whatever this place is; real or not, I'm going to win this race, as it seems the to be the only way to progress. For better or worse. The only problem I have is, me and chocobo's don't mix. Every encounter I've ever had with one has ended in disaster, the last of which got me cast into a desert prison.

"All Jockeys, please make your way to the racecourse!" I hear Ester shout over the intercom.

I let out a sigh, knowing I'm going to have to leave the bathroom, but there's just a short race to my freedom. If suffering his disappointed looks for a few minutes gets me out of here then that's what I'll do. I finally peer around the bathroom door to catch the last of Cloud and Ester's conversation as he is given the basics.

"Come on Lightning!" She shouts, causing the blonde to glance at me before heading outside. "You're on the far end Chocobo. He's got a gentle nature so you shouldn't have much trouble with him."

I'm nearly blinded by the vivid colours of the circuit and the mass of lights that are trained on the Jockey's and their Chocobos as they all prepare themselves for the race to begin. I walk past Cloud, who's stare doesn't waver from the start finish line; before finally coming to the end chocobo. I sheepishly climb onto the bird, and adjust myself until I'm ready to go.

"I know me and chocobo's don't get on much, but I really need us to win this.." I say in a whisper, as I stroke the velvety feathers on it's neck.

A woman, wearing the tackiest bikini that I've ever seen, walks across the bridge on the start finish line that was shaped like a Mog, before finally stopping at the edge of the racetrack with the checkered flag raised high in the air. I can feel the feathered creature beneath me tense up slightly and lower his head, clearly understanding what was about to happen. A second later, the flag is dropped and we're off. I throw myself forward to stop myself from falling off, shocked at the way my chocobo was able to launch itself off the line. The roar of excited onlookers was deafening, and made any form of planning difficult. I quickly count the four chocobo's in front of me, noticing Cloud in third place almost instantly.

I hold onto the reigns tightly as I try to move my body in rhythm with the chocobo, which only works for a few seconds, until the track's surface changes to a dusty dirt path, giving the bird a softer footing and allowing it to speed up. As we're all heading around the long left hand turn, I spot that the next bend is a right and position myself on the outside of the track, In the hopes of cutting in on the inside of fourth place with the extra pace I would be carrying. I lean my body over the right side of the bird and it instinctively understands what I want from him, clipping the apex and storming past fourth place like he was going backwards.

The track starts to climb as the brightness is taken by the cave themed roof and walls. The only light came from large flames, that kept the chocobo's from straying off the track. A combination of my light weight and my strong chocobo keeps my speed constant as I navigate the elevated chicane, and I'm able to get right behind the blonde. We finally reach the summit and the dusty track descends sharply as the 'cave' ends and an artificial forest begins. Cloud gains a place as the rider's chocobo in front of him is distracted by the rabbits that roam between the trees and I'm quick to claim the place too.

I'm now in third place as the lights burst through the thinning canopy of trees, dazzling us all with the next section's brightness. A bridge of glass arches between the dirt track and a cave ahead, which is blocked by a raging waterfall. Rainbows of light circle the bridge as a tacky looking sun bounces around in the distance. I can feel the chocobo's talons fighting for grip on the glass floor, but it presses on valiantly, still right behind Cloud. The chocobo lowers it's head as it bursts through the waterfall, nearly knocking me off as the full force of the crashing water soaks me. I catch Cloud shaking his golden spikes to rid himself of the water like a dog and grin to myself briefly before mentally scalding myself for not paying attention.

My eyes adjust to the darkness once again, convinced the track was designed like this to disorientate the jockeys, to find we're in a huge glass tunnel that runs through the middle of an aquarium. Sharks smash at the glass as they see potential food sprinting through their domain, scaring the leader's chocobo into a frenzied panic, bucking his rider onto the ground, before racing off. Not wanting to meet the same fate, I take my hand off the reigns and rub the bird's long neck, calming it as it burst through a second waterfall and into a plain gray tunnel with bright flashing lights built into the edges of the track.

"Just Cloud left... We can do this.." I say to the bird.

After a brief climb, the dull tunnel ends and my eyes first find a volcano, with lava pouring out of it in the shape of a sinister face. I know it's not real, but the heat is there none the less and I feel the water on my skin start to turn into steam. The track here seems to be made of old wooden railway sleepers, which gives the chocobo ample grip to dig it's claws into the grain and push us forward.

I'm finally at the side of the blonde, who looks over with a worried expression. An expression that turned to panic as we faced the track again. Neither of us could tell where the track was. In front of us was a mix of colour made out of glass and mirrors, that had random objects like pyramids and ships embedded into them. My eyes widen as I don't see the ground, but our chocobo's don't falter and race one. I feel my stomach drop as we descend rapidly down the invisible track that I couldn't see to prepare myself for and the blonde does the same, gripping his reigns so tightly that his fingers turned white. A large object that resembles a face blocks half of the track, dramatically narrowing it, leaving us with a problem.

"I'm not going back to that prison!" I roar, pulling the reign in my left hand hard, barging my chocobo into the blonde's.

He pushes back a little, but as we're about to hit the obstacle, he eases off to let me through and follows behind so closely that I'm convinced I feel his breath on the back of my neck. Within a hundred meters, the mind bending, transparent track ends and another short, wooden bridge carries us over to the final stretch of the race. I cross, nearly jumping out of my skin as a red serpent jumps over the bridge in front of me, and my chocobo instantly becomes unstable and slows dramatically as it's claws are met with ice. A shiver runs down my spine and goosebumps run up my arms as I feel the temperature plummet dramatically. I can't help but look over my left shoulder as our pace continues to fall, only to notice third place, miles behind.

"Where the hell is he?" I mutter to myself.

To my horror, I find my answer as I turn my head back, only to find him on my right hand side, inches in the lead. We continue down the frozen track section, trading the occasional blow until we both spot the final corner. A sharp, almost ninety degree right that lead to the finish line. I pull my chocobo over to the left, hoping to use the wider turn to carry more momentum through the bend. In my head I've already won. Cloud will have to slow or run wide, leaving me to hit the apex and power to victory.

I lean in to the right, causing the chocobo to turn into the corner, and for a moment my plan works perfectly. I'm just about to overtake the blonde when I lean too far and my chocobo looses balance on the ice and comes crashing down. On instinct, I reach out and my fingertips sink into the back of Cloud's right boot, sending him down with me. We both slide over the finish line on our backs, giving every inch of my bare skin, freeze burn.

I try to get up, but my head is still spinning from the harsh landing. I try to focus on the blonde, who's holding a head that drips with blood as he slowly sits up. He looks at me with his piercing eyes, before something catches his eye. The next thing I know, his heavy boot is resting on my stomach and he kicks me across the icy track to the edge. I angrily try to stand but as I try, the remaining chocobos race past us, crossing the finish line. As soon as all the chocobo's had crossed the line, four security guards walk down the moogle bridge, accompanied my Dio, who looks amused with what he saw.

"I really thought one of you was gonna win." He says with a disappointed tone.

"I did win.." Cloud says bluntly. "I crossed the line first.."

"You have to cross the line on your chocobo, not your ass, boy." Dio laughs. "Okay, send them back down."

"Wait!" I shout. "You're building a battle square, right?"

"Yeah.. What of it?" He asks curiously.

"Me and him.. Winner is freed."

"I like your style, kid! Take them to the battle square!" Dio grins.

We're lead off the track and through some service tunnels until we come out at the battle square. The place is abandoned apart from us, adding to the tension. Why had I done this? Could I really beat Cloud? I guess I'd have no choice but to try. For the first time since the chocobo race, I glance at the blonde, who shakes his head at me in annoyance.

"Get inside the arena. Your weapons are waiting for you there." Dio commands.

"You can't expect me to kill her.." Cloud pleads.

"No, no, boy.. Just beat her. If she dies though, not to worry."

"Not likely.." I huff.

"In you get then!" Dio laughs. "We'll be watching from the viewing seats above the walls."

We're pointed to the stairs and I take the first steps through the archway and into the stone arena. As promised, my sword is on the far end of the arena floor and the blonde's is near the entrance. I step over his blade, resisting the urge to kick it away and continue to my own at a leasurly pace, until I hear the sound of steel on rock and rush to my own.

"FIGHT!" Dio shouts from above.

"Light.. Why do you want to fight me? All I've tried to do was help you.." Cloud asks, refusing to take an aggressive stance.

"Don't lie to me.. I know what this place is.. None of it's real, it's just a trick you've made in my mind." I explain.

"What?..."

"I don't know how to escape your powers, but I've had enough. Dead or alive. This ends now!" I roar, launching towards the blonde and slashing at him, causing him to quickly block the blow.

"Who do you think I am?" He asks with a hint of concern.

"Not who.. What.. Don't pretend your human, Orphan!"

A/N: Sorry for the delay, was going to include the fight in this one but i realized i hadn't put a chapter up in a while so fight comes next. Leave a review and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.

Wolf