A/N: Back again! And here I have for you the twentieth chapter (party party woot woot!). One hopes it'll be a good one! So please enjoy!

Ryuu: You know, just because I read about a grand total of 5 volumes of Gravitation doesn't mean to say everything I do will be sunshine and roses. I'm THINKING of doing a character death. I just don't know IF I will do it. This is medieval warring times, man. The course of true love never does run smooth...especially if you're two blokes...especially if you're two blokes who hate each other...yeah...
bliss: So am I (happyhappygrin)
Lokki Abumi: Take your time with the art piece! No rush XD! And I think I did well in that retake (I wouldn't say I aced it but I'm pretty sure that third time's the charm -thumbsup-)
Woot: You can bet your bottom dollar that something unexpected will happen!
Riku's Fond Memories and Black Wolfess: The fluff only lasts for so long -shakes head sagely- only for so long...

Ok, you're probably going to eat me alive for one reason or another but...please read and enjoy! Reviews are my snow-white jelly with strawberries (it does exist! I found it in a japanese cook book!)

Freedom. Cloud repeated the word over and over again throughout this day. It was the day that Yazoo's and his plot would come into fruition. And yet, his mind was plagued by uncertainty, many factors from the last couple of days and his own thoughts creating doubt in his troubled head.

For one, he was still reeling after giving himself up so easily to Leon's dissolute methods of making him submit. And actually enjoying it much to his dismay. Then there were the small moments of kindness Leon showed to Cloud from time to time. Such as being oddly gentle or allowing him his freedom. It was making Cloud's want to kill him wane.

Then there was the thought of being reunited with the people of Hollow Bastion. Would they really welcome him with open arms if they knew what had become of him? There was no doubt in his mind that Sephiroth would make it seem like Cloud had been an unwilling companion in the king's bed and yet…what if he would not truly be accepted? There was also the fact that Yazoo, for all his brains and careful deliberations, had planned a murder scheme that was so full of holes that it was incredibly risky. What if he failed?

The only thing that seemed to keep his resolve firm was the memory of Roxas. That sweet child had died…for nothing. He had sacrificed himself to be with Cloud that fateful battle, and now had paid the price. And Cloud would not rest until his young brother was avenged. He absolutely could not, and would not, do such a travesty against his brother.

If his fate was to die at the hands of Radiant Garden, then he would die avenging Roxas. Then maybe, he would get some form of redemption for his honour and his pride.

Zexion sharpened his dirk, watching the cold steel glimmer in the candlelight as he sat in the dimly lit guards' post. A group of men were waiting for orders, spears and swords ready, eyes sharp and bodies protected by leather breastplates and guards. Zell looked over to him, mace hanging off his back but wearing his specially made gloves with welded metal guards. "So…you're saying that this 'Yazoo' guy will turn up tonight?"

"He will. If the off chance that Cloud does kill the king happens, he will try to make an escape to the Archadian kingdom with Yazoo," Zexion re-itinerated. He then sighed. "But I could tell that Cloud's just being used as a pawn in a complicated game of chess between us and the Jenova family…maybe they are pawns themselves to an even greater opponent."

"Huh?" Zell looked at him with confusion. The captain's right hand man was not known for his intelligence. He was more known for his fists and fighting ability. "In simple English?"

"Our main enemy is uncertain," Zexion muttered, pondering over the possibilities of the Archadian Empire plotting ways of taking down the ever growing Radiant Garden Empire.

It was entirely plausible. After all, the Archadian Empire had been well established long before any of the young important members of court were born. The rise of a rival empire would affect its already doddering trade routes with independent kingdoms, and Dalmasca, supposedly one of the richer kingdoms with its skilled craftsmen and wealth of materials for pottery and stonework, was now fully capable of turning back the Archadian's forces with a powerful ally at its side. It was no wonder that Terms of Peace were being drawn up by the Archadians. Though Zexion had a feeling that such a document was only going to be a temporary measure for the stalemate between the two empires. How long would it last, even the advisor was unsure of.

"Why chess?" Zell asked, thoroughly confused.

"It's just an analogy for this war game."

"Oh…"

"Well, can't ponder over it for too long. You there, report to the castle wall guards. Their orders are to double the patrol and keep a sharp eye out for a rider and possibly two horses outside the walls. The rest of you, we will use the escape tunnels into the ditch and surprise attack our trespasser if he dares to show up."

"Sir!" the room echoed with the shouts of men, the sounds of clinking armour fading into the air.

Cloud was staring at Leon's sleeping form, sapphire eyes looking very troubled in the light of the full moon. The king seemed so peaceful, even though he was in a dreamless sleep. He had to kill the monarch, or take his own life if he failed his mission. But could he do either was the question. Taking a deep breath, he slid out of the bed they had shared on numerous occasions, sometimes forced, sometimes willingly, but either way Cloud had felt some sort of humiliation. Very carefully, he padded over to the bearskin rug, pulling out the dagger that had been concealed in its head, the glittering emerald eye of the coil snake on the handle looking at him encouragingly. He kissed the blade, praying for success or a swift death if Hyne forbade Leon's life to be taken.

Slowly, he travelled back to the bed, pulling the covers back to reveal the king's naked chiselled chest. Those were muscles that had defeated him so many times before, both in battle and in bed. Now he was going to still them, once and for all. He raised the knife, looking at the king with a faltering determination that he always tried to reconstruct at every chance, only for it to crumble once again.

"I have to do this," he muttered quietly to himself. "This is for Roxas."

The knife plunged down to the soft flesh that protected the king's heart.

Leon's eyes opened.

Zexion pushed at the soft turf that blocked the way out of the escape tunnel, his clothes and face dirty from the mud and sweat. His eyes, now used to the darkness, flicked from side to side, ever wary for the presence of the still mysterious "Yazoo". Once sure that all was quiet, he crawled out of the tunnel and into the wide ditch that acted as a moat in the rainy seasons. Crawling on his belly, Zell and the rest of the armed guard crawled out, silent as shadows in the dark of night.

If Yazoo was as clever as Cloud seemed to believe, then Yazoo was going to find out the consequences of being lax with his plots and planning.

Cloud stared at the hand that had gripped his wrist, the still clean blade merely scratching the skin of the king's chest. His heart raced as storm-grey eyes met sapphire-blue, his face emotionless and yet there was a smug look in his eyes that told Cloud that Leon had known all along. The blond retreated, forcing his hand away and putting the blade to his neck. Leon sat up, looking at him for a good long moment.

"What are you doing?" he asked, quietly.

"It's a death penalty to try to commit regicide," Cloud answered, trying to stay calm, but his voice was anything but that. "I'll save your executioners some valuable rope…or maybe even spare them from blunting their axes."

"Put the dagger down," Leon ordered, seeing that sparkling emerald eye of the serpent-headed dagger.

"Why? Want to humiliate me even death? Have your people degrade my corpse even further? Why bother?"

"If I wanted to degrade you even further, I would've let you kill yourself anyway." Leon only gave half the answers. He never said why he was bothering to keep Cloud alive.

"Then let me go! You've taken everything away from me except my life!

"What's that supposed to mean? I understand that I conquered your home, took you away from it and separated you from your brother but-"

"My brother's dead!" Cloud yelled at him, the blade shaking in his hold. "He's dead! And I wasn't even there to protect him!"

"If your brother was dead, Sir Axel would have told me."

"He's dead! He's dead!" Cloud was shrieking at this point, still shakily holding the blade to his throat. "It's all my fault…it's all my fault…"

"The former fourth prince of Hollow Bastion was spotted with Lady Kairi of Aurelias yesterday in Aura Town Market Square," Leon reported, crossing his arms across his chest, watching Cloud's shocked reaction. "He had been attacked by a man known as Yazoo of the House of Jenova, who we have reason to believe has trespassed on the castle grounds several times now. Does the name ring any bells?"

Cloud's eyes widened, unsure of what was now going on. All that mattered was…Roxas was alive. "Roxas…alive?"

Leon nodded his head. "I would've allowed you to see him…but I'm afraid I had to treat you differently."

"So how long did you know?"

"Zexion followed Yazoo one night."

Cloud nodded his head, feeling the tip of the blade tickle his Adam's apple. "It still doesn't change the fact that I tried to kill you…"

"True. But it doesn't help me if my concubine is the only one who can tell me more about the Jenova family and he's lying dead on the floor."

"Roxas knows enough."

"Not as much as you do." Leon slowly stood up, reaching out to Cloud. "I need you to stay alive."

Cloud took a step back, holding the handle with both shaking hands. "I'm not going to do what you want."

"Do you really want to die that much?"

"Yes!"

"Be honest with yourself," Leon said calmly, only a long pace separating him and the otherwise hysterical blond. "Do you really want to die, knowing that your brother is still alive? Do you want to abandon him and make him lose someone who is incredibly important to him? Do you want to leave him alone in this world?"

Cloud took a deep breath, pulling the blade away slightly at the thought of Roxas being left alone. Leon slowly wrapped a hand around his right wrist, pulling it away from his neck and then forcing the concubine to drop the dagger with a sharp twist and flick of his own wrist. The dagger clattered to the floor, the emerald eye seething in the light, as if angry that it had been cheated of blood. And it didn't matter whose blood it had spilt. Cloud let out a pained wince.

"I can't let you go unpunished though," Leon whispered quietly, no amount of smugness or arrogance in his voice. There wasn't even pity or sympathy. His voice was barren of emotion, just like the landscape of his kingdom was barren of grains that could be grown for food.

"Then have me executed."

"I already told you. I can't." Leon looked at him with stormy eyes that were devoid of feeling. "This…is for your own good."

"My own good? My own good?! Since when have you cared about 'my own good'?!"

"For a while," Leon muttered, hearing guards clattering outside. Cloud gave him a pleading look.

"Just let me go. They'll kill me on the spot. Just let me go and save you all the hassle."

"No." The guards burst in, immediately surrounding Cloud, roughly grabbing him by the arms, uncaring that he was stark naked. They had their eyes averted from their king though. He too was without clothing.

"My liege, what is your orders?"

"We'll have him hanged for plotting treason!"

"Hanging's too good for him! We'll have him burnt!"

"Silence!" Leon bellowed, watching the guards freeze at the sound of their king raise his voice. "If I want your advice on how to dispatch would-be assassins, I'll ask for it!" He then turned his eyes on Cloud, who looked at him as if he were trying to regain any pride within him. "Take him to the dungeons. Tell the torturers to prepare their gift from Bhujerba to be used. And for pity's sake, put some clothes on him. There are ladies here who would be disturbed at seeing a man being so immodest."

Salutes and calls of respect to the king as Cloud's head was forced through a long tunic and marched out the room, wondering what Leon had in store for him…and if Death would come soon enough to him.

Zexion's indigo eyes watched the arrival of a cloaked man on a grey horse, the figure creating a spectral image in his mind's eye. If all had gone well, the treacherous concubine would have been caught by the king or his guards. The fate that would befall on him would be the decision of the king. For now, Zexion's mission was to bring in or eliminate the silent, fleeting foe that moved and spoke as if he were not of this earth at all. Slowly, carefully, softly…he crawled forward, his inky tunic caked in dirt and soiled by earth keeping him hidden. His group followed just as quietly, eyes aimed upon the ghostly moonlit form.

Yazoo jumped off the mare he had stolen from the tavern keeper's stables, eyes and ears awaiting a sign that the young former prince had done the deed and was either caught (which was preferable) or had escaped (which was not, but manageable). His plan –or should he say his brother's plan- had been executed flawlessly so far. The former third prince of Hollow Bastion was so hot-headed, so hungry for pride and honour that he would jump into a chance to salvage his and win glory for Hollow Bastion without a second thought. And those of Radiant Garden were such brainless barbarians that none of them would foresee their sovereign's murder coming upon them and yet would hunt down the king-killer with savage bloodlust. With only a child to lead them after history repeating itself once more tonight, Radiant Garden would be sure to fall.

Yazoo, however, never took account of the almost shadowy presence of the court of Radiant Garden's chief advisor, a man not borne from the wild lands, and yet was treated like a son of a barbarian court.

Zexion stood at that point, taking the dirk out of its sheath and into his dominant hand. "Yazoo, I presume."

The cloaked man stilled, turning his head slightly to look upon the man that had seemingly shot up from the ground. "And to what do I owe you this pleasure?"

"No pleasure, other than in ensuring my king's life," Zexion replied, taking cautious steps forward. "Especially since you have played the part of the composer in this plot against his life."

"So there are wise men among a court of barbarians."

"You do not give our people much credit. They are far wiser beyond their own years in knowing what can and cannot be done with these lands that only know barrenness and harshness."

"You conquer lands-"

"For our people's benefits, and eventually we bring those conquered people into our own bosoms and treat them as our own. And if you are so against us conquering lands to extend our empire, why find an alliance with our rivals, the Archadians, you are subject to crimes far worse than ours?"

"I need not answer your prattling." Yazoo's anelace was unsheathed, swiping at Zexion, but the slate-haired man parried the attack with a swiftness that was only seen in battle. Yazoo smirked. "A master in the combat of long daggers I see."

"A combat I only mastered if the fates brought me to battle."

"Then you shall give me a good and just fight tonight," Yazoo smirked. "Fighting green girls and whelps give me no amusement."

"Do not mock my intentions," Zexion retorted, signalling for his group of men, now lead by Zell, to appear. "I fight for my king and for honour, not for sport."

Yazoo looked around, not even looking perturbed by the sudden numbers that had appeared before him. "My my, this is interesting indeed. I will obviously have to tell him that Radiant Garden is not a kingdom to be trifled with."

"Less talk, more action!" Zell yelled as he swung his mace at Yazoo who barely dodged him.

"For once, I agree with you," Zexion muttered as he lunged forward towards the cloaked figure.

Cloud's eyes were glowing proudly as he was stripped naked once again and made to kneel on the stone cold floor of the dimly lit dungeon, his hands bound by ropes behind his back. The torturers were busy bringing out their "Bhujerban Gift" while guards watched over him, eyes glaring at him. His crime was to still be living and breathing after trying to assassinate their king. Cloud knew that he had gotten off lightly. If he had succeeded, no one would be able to save him from the punishment that truly fitted the crime.

Leon came in, taking a seat on the wooden chair that had been left there for visitors and interrogators when they came to visit. He had been clothed in a simple brown tunic and trousers, but his magnificent lion-skin cape had been wrapped around his shoulders. His stormy eyes and face were still expressionless, hiding anything he could be feeling.

"You hesitated," Leon stated at long last.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cloud demanded, anger returning to his voice.

"If you wanted to kill me, then you should've done it, not talk about it so much." Cloud knew Leon was right. He had the means and strength to do it but it seemed that he lacked the will to do the deed. And this was where it had landed him. Cloud snarled, not willing to admit defeat. "I spared your life that day on the battlefield Cloud when it was more convenient to have you killed then. I saved your life the other day. And I've saved your life now."

"That supposed to make me feel special?"

"Ask yourself why I still haven't gotten rid of you."

Cloud thought on this for a long while. "You said you wanted answers."

"Correct."

"So you're now going to torture them out of me?"

"No."

"No?"

"You're going to get punished, first and foremost." He nodded to a torturer that had appeared, holding what looked like a long black genital-shaped pole on a black pedestal decorated with strange and exotic colourful markings. Cloud looked at it in alarm at the strange new thing.

"What the hell is that?!"

"A lingam," Leon replied. "In Bhujerba, they use it as a way to worship their gods, but it also has another use."

Cloud was roughly brought up to his feet. The lingam was placed upon the floor and he was made to kneel over it, the tip of the lingam brushing against his buttocks. "Wh-what?! Stop this!"

"The word linga can mean several things," Leon continued, clearly not listening to Cloud. "It can mean a mark or a sign from the heavens, a characteristic of worship or, in this case, a link to the phallus."

"What?!"

"That's the interpretation we take in this case," Leon smirked. "As a torture device, it's far more effective than the Judas Chair."

The blond barely had time to speak as he was shoved hard down upon the lingam, his eyes widening and screeching in pain. If there was a pain far worse than being raped, being forced upon this thing was it. And he wasn't even being allowed to move off of it.

"Keep him there," Leon ordered. "Maybe he'll loosen up a bit once he understands what his position is."

"Anything else we should do, my lord?"

Leon stood up, not even giving Cloud a glance. "Have him flogged with the cat-o-nine-tails and then have his head dunked in the trough. Do not kill him, but neither are you allowed to be soft with him."

Cloud cried out in agony, his eyes barely able to follow Leon's departure.

Why wasn't he going to be executed for what he had done? Why was he still alive now?

Zexion was growling like an injured animal as he saw several men try to catch up with the fleeing silver-haired form of Yazoo of the House of Jenova. Lying in Zell's arms, one hand clasping his bloodied stabbed side, it was not only his body that had been wounded. So was his pride. His plan to capture and eliminate Yazoo had backfired, showing that he had been quite lax in his own planning as well.

"We need to get you back inside!"

Zexion didn't even respond to Zell's yell. "Yazoo…I'll remember this…"

"You! Carry Lord Zexion back into the castle and get the chief medic to treat him! The rest of you, return to your posts! This mission is now over! Move out!" Zell ordered, taking over command for the fallen advisor. Zexion's eyes never left that diminishing figure, as if hypnotised by the strange allure of the silvery-haired stranger from the East.

It was a week after the event at Aurea Castle, but news travelled slowly on the open road. The air was thick with the bird calls of the moors but also with a strange and foreign voice; singing and the sounds of little bells jangling as a traveller walked and hop-skipped along the road, a strange elongated instrument that was not far off a lute chanting a note lyrically every so often. His eyes looked up at the bright sunny blue summer sky, filled with the delight of warm weather and a good wind at his back after his hard walk down from Midgar to Alexandria in the winter and from Alexandria to Lindblum during a windy spring.

What filled him with more joy was at the notion of meeting a very special person after yet another yearly absence. But then again, the travelling bard (for that what he was) was like Adonis or Persephone in the songs and tales he voiced; doomed to spend a certain time with one person and then the rest of the year apart from that person. No matter, he was excited to see the other. No one could take that away from him. He danced slightly in his steps further towards the East of Radiant Garden (or "Less-East" since Aurea Castle had become more central since the empire's conquest over Hollow Bastion). Next week was the "Wild King of the Moors'" birthday and he had to perform for him…for old time's sakes.