Kain held the lance up once more to ascertain the direction the trail headed, and grimly moved forward. From his view from the mountaintop, Kain could see a launch pad for some sort of small airship. His spear echoed with a burning anger, telling him that Sephiroth had been there. And, from the way the lance seemed to pull him eastward, Sephiroth had also apparently stolen some sort of craft and taken it east, over the ocean. The moonlight's reflection on the ocean seemed to mock him, teasing him that he had missed his prey.

He wanted to kick something. Just as it seemed that he'd almost caught up with Sephiroth, this had happened. Now the man was who knew how many miles ahead of him, and gaining more distance by the second.

Almost in abject spite, he drove the tip of his lance into the ground, letting out a howl of frustration. What was he doing here? He was no hero. He didn't even trust Golbez, and that was only natural. The man was Cecil's dark half, the opposite of what was Kain's best friend. Worse, he was no leader either. He had no right to be taking men into battle, much less against this Sephiroth. Already one of his men was down, dying. Maybe already dead. Who knew? Amarant was in critical condition, suffering from a wound the likes of which Kain had never seen before.

Did other 'heroes' feel the kind of frustration Kain was feeling? It always seemed as if Cecil never doubted himself, never questioned his own decisions. He picked the right course and stuck with it. He was calm and righteous, and nearly incapable of error. Oh, how Kain envied and loathed the man.

The hairs on the back of Kain's neck stirred, and he pulled his lance from the ground, spinning around. Behind him stood a figure swathed in red robes which covered battle armor. Four swords were tucked in his belt, and four arms were folded about his body, hugging himself. Kain recognized the man; Gilgamesh, Golbez's lackey.

"Where have you been?" Kain asked.

The four-armed warrior shrugged. "About. Fixing what needed to be fixed. Putting things back where they belonged. Things move too quickly, and not even I have enough hands to catch them all. Where is your party?"

Kain let out a sigh, shaking his head. "Back in the mountains. One of them was injured by Sephiroth. One… no, two others are seeking out a cure. I decided to follow Sephiroth's trail, to see if I could find out where he was going."

Gilgamesh nodded, taking each point in turn. He pointedly looked at Kain's spear, jabbing a finger in its direction. "Why is your weapon weak?"

"Excuse me?"

"Your lance. It was to have a great many charges in it. And yet, it is weaker than it should be. Why?"

"I picked up an extra person," Kain admitted, understanding the man's line of questioning. "Cyan Garamonde, a samurai knight from a land called Doma. He would have died if I hadn't take him—"

"Then you should have let him die. The Lunarians, as they call themselves now, try with all their might to make sure the dimensions stay intact. They have three… four guardians to help maintain that."

"Four guardians?" Kain asked. "I thought Golbez only had you. Who are they?"

Gilgamesh ignored him, continuing on as if he had never been interrupted; "And now, Golbez ups and decides he needs an errand boy plus a posse to help him. And to make matters worse, you're now recruiting people Golbez didn't tell you to recruit. Did it ever occur to you that maybe there was a reason you didn't know that there are multiple worlds out there before last week?"

Kain met the man's gaze and held it. He refused to apologize for saving another man's life. "I don't care about your rules, and I don't care about what Golbez wants me to do. I didn't ask for this. It was thrown on me. Golbez wants me to do this? Fine. I'll do it. But I'll do it my way. And if he doesn't like that, he can find someone else. I just want to go home."

"No you don't," Gilgamesh said contemptuously. "Why would you want to go back to your world? You're another man's shadow there. There's nothing there for you. Not even a woman."

"Was there something you wanted?" Kain asked, ice filling his voice.

"Sephiroth's crossed the ocean."

"I noticed."

"Don't be flippant with me. You have no hope of catching up with him. Not without my help. Luckily, I know of a source of magic, one that doesn't connect to Golbez in any way, which will allow you to teleport. It's something called a Materia, and as far as I can tell, it's currently a prize of some sort at a tournament. My divination spells won't tell me any more than that, though, but one of the other Guardians has been sent after it."

Kain threw back his head and laughed. Gilgamesh took a step back, eyeing him questioningly. The Dragoon smiled when he was done, and said, "Well, I guess fortune shines on us now. Shadow and Vincent are already going to pick it up."

"Who?"

"Shadow and Vincent."

"Who is this 'Vincent'?"

"Who are these 'guardians'?" Kain shot back.

"Fire, Earth, Wind and Water," Gilgamesh replied cryptically. "The same as what the other side has. Balance, and all that."

"The 'other side'?"

Gilgamesh shook his head ruefully. "No no. It doesn't work like that. We set up rules, even if you didn't know it. I answered one of your questions, now you answer mine. Who is this 'Vincent'?"

"I don't know, actually," he admitted. "He was fighting Sephiroth, and offered to help. He's from this world, so it's not like I haven't taken him anywhere I shouldn't have."

"But you will inevitably 'adopt' him anyway," Gilgamesh said in disgust.

"Maybe I will," Kain said, anger rising. He didn't like Golbez. But with everything Golbez had done, Kain felt that particular dislike became overshadowed by his newfound loathing of Gilgamesh. "Do you have anything else to say? Or did you just come here to insult me?"

"Come with me," Gilgamesh said, his eyes narrowing. It was obvious that the four-armed man didn't like Kain either. "We have long to travel to meet up with your wounded. I intend to get you this Materia before sunrise."

Chapter Twenty-One

Ninjas!

The crowd cheered as Shadow stepped into the ring. It was a sound he was used to. In his own world, thousands had given him similar praise whenever he entered the Coliseum, having bet fortunes in his name, and only once had he ever failed them. Then, he hadn't cared for their adulation, or their opinions, or the deafening roar of their voices. He cared not for it now. But the sound of it was… comforting, familiar.

The cheering rose to new heights as Yuffie Kisaragi entered the arena from the opposite side. Apparently, while he was a favourite among the fans, Yuffie was more so. He'd watched her fight over a video replay, studying her style, as she had likewise did for him as well. Her technique was flashy, flamboyant, and very showy, depending on fancy throws with her shuriken, and stylish Materia attacks. She didn't fight her opponent. She fought for her audience. And they loved her for it.

Already Shadow had devised several ways to get around her magical attacks. He'd fought the very best magic user himself, Kefka Palazzo. Some upstart wannabe ninja girl wasn't going to get the best of him. And this fight, he wasn't handicapped like he had with Rude. It'd taken him most of the entire time between matches to scrub and burn the poison completely off his blades, but it was worth it. He would not be unarmed this fight.

The referee signaled, and immediately he was in motion. But so was she. For every two shuriken he produced and threw at her, she through one. She wasn't as quick as he was, but she was the closest he'd ever encountered.

The two ran as they threw their projectiles, narrowly missing their opponents as each combatant would unexpectedly stop, or duck, or put on more speed to evade the pieces of hurled steel. One of Shadow's shuriken finally found its mark, and bounced off harmlessly. His eyes narrowed for a second, and he made note of it. So, she was faster than she looked. She was casting spells in addition to attacking. That was a protect spell his shuriken had just been deflected by. He found himself subconsciously reaching into his own mind, trying to access the Esper magic, and then stopped himself. The magic from his world was dead. No point in looking for something that wasn't there. Without the ability to dispel, though, the only way to negate her protect spell would be to strike it as often as possible.

Changing his tactics appropriately, he threw shuriken both high and low in a wide fan on either side of her. She took the time to try to discern what he was doing, slowing down, hesitating just enough that he was able to pull his two knives out and begin running forward.

Vincent paced the inside of his arena. With the first round ended, and the undesirables out of the tournament, several battles could be fought at once. Televisions were placed everywhere in Battle Square, so observers could watch whoever they wished, and tunnels had been erected between the stands so the people watching the fight live could hurriedly switch to different arenas to watch where the action was hottest. Vincent surmised that it was currently the fight between Shadow and Yuffie, as empty as his arena was. Given the… length … of his previous battle, people weren't so excited to watch him fight. A person who depended on a quick draw with a gun was boring to the average person. They had no idea the kind of skill that was involved. Still, he had some people waiting to watch his next match. Apparently, there was a better pool to determine not if Vincent won, but how quickly the match would be over. The main time people were betting was between six and eight seconds.

The Turk's next opponent was supposedly someone who, according to rumor, had bribed his way into the arena. Vincent had looked into it, immediately intrigued. His opponent hadn't apparently fought in the first match up at all, and ever more curiously, hadn't been seen entering Gold Saucer via the front gates. A quick examination of the video records revealed this to be true.

The opponent's door opened, and the crowd, such as it was, eagerly pressed forward to see who Valentine's opponent was. A collective groan was let out as the opponent walked in, an arrogant stride to his step.

Everyone seemed vastly disappointed at Vincent's 'challenge', and the Turk wasn't sure if he could blame them. It was clear why the contestant had to bribe his way in, like Yuffie doubtlessly had to. He was probably even younger than the little ninja princess. Probably sixteen, at most.

"Introducing our next opponent," the referee announced. "Zidane Tribal!"

Vincent didn't even get time to draw his gun before Zidane had thrown two knives directly at him.

Even as Shadow's blades were deflected once more by Yuffie's protect spell, the ninja princess danced backwards, throwing two, small throwing shaken. Shadow twisted just in time to avoid the first, but the second narrowly grazed across his chest, cutting cloth and skin alike. It would bleed very little, but enough to be a nuisance.

He kept moving forward, pressing his small advantage. One knife would go low, the other high, and the girl barely deflected both with two of her own knives, which seemed to appear in her hands as if by magic. Even so, as she parried the attack, Shadow spun, his left leg colliding with the shield where her head was. The girl involuntarily flinched despite the lack of impact to herself, and Shadow followed through as his left foot came down, crouching in one motion and spinning his right leg around in a sweep to catch her feet. The protect spell didn't stop the attack. Yuffie's feet came out from underneath her, and she fell to the ground. Her magical protection had blocked its last blow.

The assassin moved in quickly, hoping to stop the girl before she could cast another protect spell. Even as he lunged at her, a green blaze emanated from a bracer she wore, and a blaze of lightning caught him, striking him down and sending him sprawling.

He muscles spasmed, jerking about uncontrollably, but still he forced himself to roll away, even as shuriken struck the ground where he'd fallen. Instantly he was back on his feet, but Yuffie was there, pressing the attack, launching a high kick to his head. She was expecting him to still be weak. She was wrong.

Catching the foot with both hands, he pushed forward, sending her backwards and off balance. Had he been at full strength, he would have forced her to the ground with that move. Instead, she stumbled back blindly; her arms wind milling as she teetered about. Already he was moving forward, pushing the advantage. She barely blocked the three-punch combination he threw at her, but still managed a counter-attack.

She was good. In a few more years, she'd be his equal. Unfortunately, for all her pure skill and agility, Shadow had just as much, coupled with more than a decade of experience. And close as they were, she'd lost her main advantage of being able to cast spells. Even so, his muscles were on fire from the magical attack from earlier, and he knew he wouldn't be able to keep up with her pace for long.

"Not bad, gramps," Yuffie said, a pretend smile on her face as the two continued to throw punches and kicks at each other. "You're almost as quick as me."

Gramps? Gramps? From the moment he'd met the girl, there was something that had annoyed him. An air about her. The reason why was now abundantly clear.

"Quicker," he said through gritted teeth, and flung both arms forward in a push, knocking her off balance and smashing through her block. Before she could put up another defense, his left hand snapped forward in a feint towards her face, while the other darted towards her belt pouch. She instinctively attempted to block the attack that came for her head, an attack that never connected as Shadow threw his weight to his right. He yanked hard as his hand gripped onto her belt pouch, tearing it from her waist.

"Hey!" the girl cried, but Shadow back flipped away in an amazing display of acrobatics, bounding across the arena. The crowd cheered.

"Much quicker," Shadow said evenly as he came to a stop and held up the pouch that held her shuriken.

She lifted up her arm, and a look of concentration came across her face. He didn't wait for the magical attack. His arm snapped back and fired her pouch back at her. Focused as she was, she didn't see the projectile until it smacked her in the nose. Sprinting once more, he was on top of her before she recovered, delivering another blow to her face with the heel of his hand. Spinning around, he elbowed her in the stomach, and delivered a backhand into her nose.

Finally, she fell. Cheers erupted everywhere.

He took a moment to catch his breath. He felt about to collapse. He honestly hadn't expected her to be that good. Then again, it had been eight months since he'd last really plied his trade, in the final fight against Kefka. Of course he was rusty. That explained it. Not skill on her part. That had to be it.

He drew a knife, and began to bend down, ready to cut her wrist armor off her. Likely, that was where she kept her Full Cure Materia that Vincent had spoken of. Even as he did, the doors to the arena opened, and a platoon of samurai marched in, weapons half drawn.

He could take the Materia, but if he did, he'd be in for a real fight. One he would normally give even odds on, if not for his current fatigue. Amarant needed that Materia as soon as possible, but not at the risk of Shadow's own life. Another opportunity would present itself.

The assassin gave a mock bow to the samurai, and turned away, exiting the arena as they collected their princess. Even as he did, he saw Vincent sitting on a bench, cleaning his three-barreled gun.

"How many this time?" Shadow asked.

"Four shots," Vincent said simply.

Author's Note:

Once again, I apologize for the delays. My computer is a paperweight. Had to hook my hard drive into a friend's machine just to retrieve the stuff I'd already written. Expect more delays. I'll try to keep them to a minimum, but keeping to a steady schedule will be difficult.