The Quest: In the Name of Friendship

by UkyoRafa

COMPLETE! A story about friends who are separated by the dark menace of the Heartless, and about their struggle against this dark force. Will they ever meet each other again? Crossover KH, Ranma 12, Final Fantasy VII, Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, etc...

38. Chapter 37: The Rage of the Forests

Hey, guys! The new chapter's ready!

Well, it took me a bit long to write it (considering I'm on vacation), but I was also busy with some other projects...

As I've said before, I'm nearly done. If all goes well, the story will be over in three more chapters. Hopefully, I'll make it before the next vacation!

I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my good friend Jorge Octavio, who returned from Spain after a year of studying there. Sadly, I won't be able to see him until the end of July. Until then, brother, take care! Hope you enjoy the movies!

Last but not least, I'd like to thank my friend Adrián for helping me with this chapter... I swear I don't know if he's one of the most creative people in the world or if he really is a nutcase :P Thanks, man!

See you later! Enjoy!

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Rage of the Forests

Narrator: Siegfried

I wished my brother was there. I was always the one who thought more clearly than the two of us, the one who had the better ideas (although he could occasionally come up with something brilliant), the one who usually kept his cool on extreme situations. My brother frequently became very mad and didn't think things thoroughly. Not that he was stupid: I just kidded him with that. Either way, he was much stronger than me and I felt safe at his side. He had always looked after me and now that a new monster was appearing before us, I longed for him to be at my side more than ever.

Somehow, I didn't think I was skilled enough to be part of the group. To be quite honest, I was most certain that of all the thirty-something warriors in the party (without counting the vampires), I was the weakest. Despite losing his powers, which I heard were truly terrible, Sephiroth was still a very competent warrior, capable of slashing down many Heartless with quick swings of his sword. Ariel perhaps lacked the physical strength to be menacing, but she compensated this by using her potent potions against her foes and her fencing, which she had been practicing longer than I had. And Merryck... that hobbit might've looked feeble and fearful, yet in reality, he was an extremely agile combatant. His small size only made things for his opponents worse, and he was almost as good a swordsman as Link or Cloud, even.

What about me? I wasn't even a vampire now. If I still had my dark powers (which I don't miss, so don't get me wrong), I might've proven myself a bit useful. But at that moment, I felt as a helpless child that had to be constantly taken care of. And such responsibility was taken by my brother's beloved and his closest friends. I was afraid they wouldn't be able to protect me as well as he would've wished... But I was even more afraid that they would be the ones killed because of my ineptness. Wilheim would've never forgiven me if that came to happen... would he?

Well, never mind. Whatever the case may be, I was about to learn that I had to take care of myself one way or the other, because, as much as my friends wanted to watch over me, not one of them would serve as my shield forever. Perhaps I had done well against the Heartless that appeared before us in Agrabah. But the Phantom was still nearly undamaged, and the companion who had been able to wound it was now lost to us – he had fallen under the grips of insanity and a cold wind blew from his body to the rest of us, warning us to stay away from him... and this current of air was even colder than the one I had felt against the Heartless of Agrabah.

Indeed, I would have to learn to watch over myself. But I didn't know about the terrible price that I would have to pay...

Ryu, Adrian, and Jon Talbain had just returned to our side with Felicia's unconscious body in Ryu's arms. As soon as they saw her, wounded and out cold, Sora, Aeris, and Donald cast a healing spell on the were-cat. She quickly came to and shook her head as she opened her eyes.

"What happened?" she asked. "That Phantom... His attack got me, didn't it?"

"Yeah, but you're okay now." Ryu said, as he let her float by his side. "Right now, though, there are more important matters at hand... It seems things are getting worse."

"Worse?" Felicia blurted. "But how...?" her eyes then noticed the morphed Octavius and fear filled her face. "What in the world...?"

"Demean..." I muttered, slowly approaching the elf and the fairy, who had yelled to all of us, a few moments ago, to get away from the beast. "What's going on? What's happening to Octavius?"

"It is an ancient curse, Siegfried." He explained. "A long time ago, the Narsua, the were-bears, would choose a fierce and skilled warrior and would ask him if he wished to become the protector of the woods. If he agreed, an eternal spell would be cast on him... The Rage of the Forests, it is called. And now he is under its effect and has become a terrible enemy."

"Octavius must have gotten extremely angry at the fiend." Tish inquired. "For the Rage of the Forests only wakes within a Narsua when he loses his heart to rage... Now he will stop at nothing to destroy him or whatever stands on his way."

"But that's good, isn't it?" I asked. "I mean, once the Phantom is destroyed, he'll go back to being his older self, right?"

"If he is tired enough..." Demean replied. "That we cannot know. And be that as it may, we still do not know the Phantom's weak point. If the beast is lucky to find it, then the Heartless will fall quickly. But if this is not the case, then we will have to aid him as best as we can without getting in the way of his prey, lest we want him to be murdered by the Heartless."

"And we cannot hurt him. He is, after all, our friend." Tish added.

"I say we wait a bit and see what happens." Ryu suggested.

"I'm with him on that." Adrian said. "Let's keep out of this unless there's no other choice."

"We will have to fight either way." Demean assured, making a chill run down my spine. "But I agree: we should wait as long as possible before intervening."

"I still have a question..." I muttered. "Peter said we would only fly with the help of a happy thought, right? How is it that Octavius can remain on the air when all he feels inside is hatred?"

"Simple..." Adrian replied as we saw the beast finally give one leap in midair, only to come crashing against the Phantom with gargantuan strength, making them both fall through the mist... "He falls like a rock."

"We have to get down there immediately!" Camille cried. "The rest of the vampires are there and they are unaware that the new beast is Octavius! We have to warn them!"

"Quickly now!" Gustav added, taking the lead. "There is no time to lose!"

With my heart practically stuck in my throat, I followed the rest of my friends as they darted to the dark, misty alleys, now invaded by a horde of Heartless...

Ukyo, Camille, Ryoga, Sakura, and Merryck remained very close to me, practically escorting me to the streets. I was really worried... they were more concerned about me than about themselves. I noticed this as they scouted the air about us and kept an eye on me constantly, each of them with their weapon or fists at the ready. I could only fly hastily by their side, sword and shield in hand.

I put my feet on the ground and felt all happy thoughts escape my mind. I wouldn't be able to fly once again, that was for sure. I really doubt any of my friends would be able to succeed in this, of course – except for the ones who possessed wings and did not need a joyful memory to soar the skies. Taking this into account, I had to be extremely careful. No doubt there were Heartless around every corner, just waiting for a chance to attack us...

"The battle cries of the vampires seem to be coming from that way." Camille said, pointing to my left. "Let us go quietly and hastily. We must be wary. We do not want to run into a horde of enemies; or into Octavius and the Phantom, for that matter."

"Come on, Siegfried..." Ukyo urged, pulling my arm as we followed the succubus's lead.

Indeed, I could hear our allies' groans and yells as they raged on. Yet what alarmed me the most was the fact that I had begun to hear other creature's roars, snarls that I had not ever heard before until recently. This, obviously, made me feel uneasy. My friends also heard these noises and raised their guards, looking warily at the direction from where the roars had come.

"I can only hope that Mr. Octavius defeats this Heartless ghost and recovers reason." Merryck said. "Otherwise, I don't know how difficult this new battle will turn out to be."

"If we face him together, then we'll make it for sure." Ryoga assured, confidently.

I, however, wasn't so sure. The rest of our companions still battled on furiously against the Heartless. It was very unlikely all of us would be available to face him. Nevertheless, I chose to trust in my comrade's words and kept on walking by his side without making a noise.

Then, all of a sudden, Camille stopped. She tilted back her head and stared to the mist that blocked the view of the sky. She remained this way for a few instants, with us looking at her, confused by her sudden reaction.

"Camille... what's wrong?" asked Merryck.

"Dear God..." she muttered... and without saying another word, she turned to us and flapped her wings so fiercely that she sent us flying into a wall. We didn't hit it hard; no one was injured. A second later, she herself jumped to our side as quickly as she could: for in the blink of an eye, two monstrous figures came crashing down through the mist, landing in the very same spot where we had been standing moments ago. They were, as you might've expected, the Phantom and Octavius.

The beast was smashing the apparition's magical, red orb as hard as he could, making the ground beneath him shake with every punch he gave – but the Phantom wasn't taking any damage. Yet neither was he dealing it out, for even though he hit Octavius hard with his bony hands, with his touch that, according to some of my friends, meant pain unlike any other torture, the beast kept on attempting to shatter his foe. There were wounds on his skin, but they were minimal and didn't keep him from attacking brutally... I didn't know which of the two was worse.

The Phantom finally flew away a few steps from Octavius. Somehow, by the way he had his hands clenched into tight fists, I could see he was really angry. But then, he noticed us. And so did Octavius. After staring at us silently for a few moments, both of them lunged at us with mad fury. I cried in horror and hid behind my shield, while the rest of my companions raised their fists and got ready to fight, despite the fright in their faces. The creatures, however, did not attack us, because one had blocked the other's path on his way to us and had resumed battle amongst themselves.

"Let us go!" Camille pressured and we hurriedly ran away from the Phantom and the beast.

Running down the street, we stopped short as we saw a big, familiar shape forming on the haze. As the silhouette exited the fog, we saw it was Olaf, who was seemingly worried but not at all tired.

"What in the world is that creature?" he asked, pointing at the beast.

"That's Octavius, the were-bear!" Ukyo cried. "He's lost all sense and reason and he's now gone wild! If we stand in his way, he'll tear us apart!"

"Indeed he will, I can sense his power and it is much greater than the one of the Phantom..." Olaf said. "Yet... if he fails to find his weak point, then he will fall, no matter how much strength in his arms there may be."

"We must find a weakness." Camille added. "We have to, lest we want..." and before she could continue, she unexpectedly closed her eyes and fell on the street, unconscious.

"Camille!" we all cried, panicked by this sudden turn of events. What could have happened to her? There wasn't an enemy on sight, not a soul to come attack us, to take us by surprise. At that moment, the Big Ben began to resonate furiously... and I knew.

"Did anyone cast the 'stop' spell on the clock again!" I wailed. My friends looked at each other and gave no answer.

"Damn it!" Sakura cried. "Where are they...?"

As an answer to her question, from the mist, emerged Will, accompanied by Sora, Dante, Donald, and Aeris. The latter four seemed completely exhausted.

"Oh, no..." said the sorceress, with guilt in her eyes. "We were too late..." and then, looking at us, she explained: "We just noticed the hands of the clock came back to life. We had to use most of our powers to stop them. But we weren't quick enough..."

"You should pay closer attention to those sorts of things! Because of that, Camille is unconscious! And where the hell is Tish?" Sakura reclaimed.

"Calm down, girl, this is not the time for fighting amongst ourselves." Olaf commanded with a booming voice. Then we all looked at the battle between Octavius and the Phantom, which still burnt on. "We have enough trouble already."

"Tish went with Demean, after giving us a hand with that spell." Dante announced. "Will and I thought of something that might turn out to be the Heartless weak point."

"From what I've heard, it sounds pretty logical to me." Sora added.

"Let us hope our method works, Dante." The dragon said. "But if we are to find out this, then we must drive Octavius back, even if it is for a few moments."

"What should we do?" asked Ryoga.

"You and Sakura could help us with that." Sora suggested. "Try unleashing your energy waves against him to push him back."

"And use your full power." Dante said. "The way things are looking, you won't even manage to knock him to unconsciousness."

"That is not a bad idea." Olaf said. "But what do you have in mind, dragon?"

"Magic." Will replied. "Physical attacks do not harm him, so we are going to conjure some aggressive enchantments against this fiend. We will cast different incantations. One of them ought to do the trick."

"I do not believe we have much more choice than that." The vampire sighed. "All right. Do it!"

"Quickly, boys!" Aeris exclaimed. "Focus your power and unleash it!"

With a nod, Sakura and Ryoga turned back to the battle, which hadn't progressed at all. They cupped the palms of their hands together and began to gather the energy about. A warm wind started to blow in the cold streets of London, and for an instant, lifted the mist enough for us to see the two creatures clearly as they raged on. It wasn't long before rays of power started to engulf both of our friends' hands. I could see the effort on their faces. Clearly, Sakura was struggling more than Ryoga to gather all of her strength on her projectile, but it seemed to me that the energy wave she was about to unleash was going to prove much more powerful than that of Ryoga's.

At last, with a cry, they fired.

"SHISHI – HOUKUDAN!"

"SHINKUU – HADOUKEN!"

Both beams of energy hit their mark and succeeded in driving the beast back into a wall. This came crashing down upon his body, yet it was unlikely he was beaten. The Phantom, finally free from Octavius's brutal attacks, turned to us and charged. At that moment, Will, Dante, Sora, Donald, and Aeris unleashed different spells on the fiend, while Ukyo and Merryck helped an exhausted Sakura to her feet and as I dragged a beat Ryoga behind the sorcerers.

"THUNDAGA!" cried Aeris.

"BLIZZAGA!" yelled Donald.

"GRAVIGA!" exclaimed Sora.

"STOPRA!" wailed Dante.

"Have a taste of my magical fire, demon! GRAAHH!" roared Will and the five different spells hit the Phantom's orb one at the time.

Aeris's thunder spell didn't do a thing to the monster; Donald's ice melted as soon as it touched the being's orb; Sora's gravity spell failed to stop the demon in his tracks, and Dante's conjure didn't even slow the creature down. But as soon as Will's magical fire touched the demon's orb, the Phantom became still and leaned his body back, his hands twitching frantically as an indescribable, soft moan escaped its mouth covered in shadows. Seconds later, the orb shattered into a thousand pieces and the specter fell to the ground. Yet after an instant, in which his body became slightly transparent, another orb appeared beneath him, a yellow one, this time. Looking closer at the devil, I noticed that his 'cloak' wasn't as long anymore... it had worked! They had weakened him!

"YES!" Sora exclaimed, triumphantly.

"To the skies!" cried Will as he grabbed Camille and Merryck, and allowed Ryoga and Sakura to climb onto his back. Afterwards, he began to fly as quickly as he could away from the fiend. Aeris, Donald, Sora, and Dante could still soar and they recurred to whatever happy thought they still held on to in order to follow the dragon through the mist. Meanwhile, Olaf grabbed Ukyo and I and then went after our friends, flapping his dark wings fiercely, with the furious Phantom following closely behind us.

Once we had escaped the alleys of London, there were many places to run to. We all promptly escaped the ghost's wrath as he realized he wasn't about to catch up with us. Instead, he stayed hovering in the air, immobile, waiting for us to make another move.

"We did it!" Sora cried, happily, with renewed vigor. "We found his weak point!"

"We just have to find out what spells affect which color." Dante added, smiling victoriously as well. "And then, this creature's dust."

"It seems to me he uses his own ethereal body to rebuild his orb." Will interjected. "If we can harm him enough so that he will have to use all of his essence to restore himself, then there will be nothing left of him to bring back."

"We still need Tish's help." Donald said. "By the way things are going now, I think a handful of us can take him. But we still need to stop that stupid clock if we want to stay awake."

"I agree." Will said. "But fear not: here comes the elf and the fairy." He added as we all turned to our right and saw how Demean and Tish came through the mist and flew next to us. They also still had happy thoughts of their own, I reckoned.

"We found his weak point, Tish!" Sora whispered. "Now we can take care of him easy!"

"That is good news." The fairy replied. "However, we have another problem. Octavius has lost sight of his opponent, and now he rampages across the streets. We need to stop him!"

"We will go and take care of that." Olaf immediately said. "You should stay here and defeat the Phantom with your spells. I will go down and battle him with Ukyo and Siegfried's aid." He added, much to my dismay. I felt a horrid chill run down my spine again, but chose to say nothing.

"Very well, but be very careful." Demean warned. "The beast is nearly unstoppable. You will have to use all of your power – and you will have to fight alongside as much vampires and allies as you can, regarding they are available to battle something else other than the Heartless – to emerge victorious."

"I want to go, too!" said Merryck, valiantly. "I can hang on to you, Mr. Olaf! Please, I wish to battle as well!"

"Another pair of hands will come very handy." Answered Olaf, in spite of Demean and Tish's worried stare. "No harm will come to him. I will not let anything happen to any of them. You have my word." He said, noticing how preoccupied they had become.

"All right..." they reluctantly agreed.

"Make haste." The dragon intervened. "The creature is relentless and this monster will attack at any moment. We will keep the hands of the clock frozen until we emerge victorious. Now, go!"

"Watch over us, Wilheim-honey..." Ukyo murmured as she held Renamark near her face, both of her eyes closed. For my part, I looked to the heavens and also prayed for my brother to take care of me.

"Hold on, my friends!" Olaf cried with his deafening voice as Merryck put his little, yet strong arms around his neck. "Let us give battle to this beast!" and so we darted to the streets of London yet again. The Phantom tried to follow but was hastily stopped by an arrow filled with lightning essence fired by Demean and strengthened by Tish. His orb didn't shatter this time. Nevertheless, when I turned to see him, I noticed many cracks on it. The Phantom, furious, went after his opponents, while these latter ones scattered through the sky.

As we landed, Olaf let go of us and Merryck climbed down his huge back. With his hammer at the ready, the vampire began to walk forward, to the place where the battle yells came from. But before that, we would have to prove ourselves against a small group of Heartless. These popped out of the ground and from the walls; there were many small, soldier-like Heartless and there were a few truly horrific ones. A trio of dark knights riding dark horses faced us, as well as a quartet of huge spiders. I gulped and raised my sword at them, ready to defend myself. Yet before I could attack, Ukyo threw herself at the spiders, which were the enemies that stood in front of me. With a quick, powerful slash, she managed to kill two of them, while the others leapt away and tried to capture her with black webs. She skillfully dodged their attack and left the rest to Olaf, who, with lightning speed, ran behind his preys and smashed them with his hammer. At that moment, the soldiers and the knights charged at us. I hid behind my shield and waited for the perfect moment to strike. However, I suddenly felt how someone pushed me with great strength. It had been Ukyo, who had moved me out of the way and had dexterously parried all of the knights' blows. With a sigh, I got up and put myself on guard again. This couldn't go on the way it was going...

Meanwhile, Merryck fought against the soldiers. As they swung their fists against him, he dodged their blows with ease and rolled under their legs. Before they could face him again, he would've already stabbed them with his blade on the back. That's the way he fought: waiting patiently for the opponent to make a mistake so that then he would perform a brief, lethal counterattack. Many of the soldiers fell before him. Nevertheless, they kept on appearing and attacking the little hobbit. I then lunged myself against them and successfully slew a couple of them with one blow. I then hid behind my shield as most of the fiends turned against me and attacked me relentlessly.

"Siegfried!" I heard Ukyo cry, with concern. As I looked at her, I saw that she had already slaughtered two of the knights and that Olaf was just a few seconds from smashing the third to bits with his hammer. They had both received a few cuts, but nothing spectacular. Ukyo was as strong as ever and Olaf's wounds were already healing...

Before I could say anything or move, Ukyo came to my aid. Merryck had already done most of the work and had disposed of almost all of the Heartless with his nimble feet and quick blade. My brother's beloved showed no mercy and hastily cut through the rest of the fiends effortlessly. More Heartless came to us, but soon fell before a wall of flames Olaf created about us. They were all reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye.

"That was a good warm-up fight." The Gangrel said, eager to do more battle. "We should get moving."

"Siegfried, I don't know if you should go on with us..." Ukyo said, softly. "Maybe you should stay here and hide..."

"I'm fine. I can manage." I quickly replied, somewhat vexed.

"I don't know..."

"You didn't even give me a chance to fight! Come on, I can do it! So step away!" I snapped. I really don't know what came over me, but I had said these words with much fury. The girl, seemingly hurt, merely turned away from me and sighed. "I'm sorry..."

"I'm just looking after you." She replied, dryly.

"Calm down, my friends." Olaf intervened. "The boy is right, Ukyo. You should let him stand on his own. Otherwise, he will never grow up."

"I won't go into detail, Miss Ukyo, yet do remember that there are no weaklings among us." Merryck added. "I am sure that Mr. Siegfried will do quite well on his own."

"If you insist." She muttered, walking towards the battlefield again, without looking at me.

But before she could go on, three vampires came out of the shadows to meet us. It was Adrian, Thor, and Lucrecia.

"Looks like we missed the action here." Adrian said. "Well, not to worry. There are plenty of Heartless for everyone. A lot of them, if you ask me."

"What do you mean?" asked Olaf, looking at him with a concerned glance.

"The army is endless, Olaf." Explained Thor. "I do not think we have ever battled so many fiends. It must be because, if I am not mistaken, our cunning warriors have managed to hurt the Phantom."

"On top of that, that beast is on the loose." Lucrecia added. "We've tried not to cross paths with it, since its power is something unimaginable. We need to fight it together, unless we want him to cut is into tiny bits and pieces."

"That were-bear sure proved to be a handful..." Adrian sighed.

"It seems to me that they've already explained you what's going on." Ukyo said.

"So no one is fighting against the were-bear?" Olaf questioned.

"No... We're still busy trying to put an end to the Heartless." Lucrecia replied.

"And has he not attacked anyone?"

"His kind of entertained killing Heartless..." Adrian answered.

"All right... then let us slaughter them promptly so that we can later put an end to his madness..."

With that said, we started to run to the battlefield as fast as our feet could carry us. Yet, without warning, we were cut short by another wave of Heartless. This one was seemingly larger than the last. There were lots of knights, about twenty, I should think, and a dozen of giant spiders. As we saw these fiends, we all quickly raised our guards and Ukyo stood in front of me, again. I was tempted to push her aside, but I simply decided to move away from her.

"Ah, knight-riders of doom!" Adrian cried. "It's time for you to meet your maker!" he leapt at them with such speed that it seemed to me that he had rather teleported in front of them. With one swing of his scythe, he cut off three of the horses' legs. With a bellow, the beasts fell to his feet only to have their heads and the ones of their masters cut off by another quick swing of his weapon.

As a response to this, two spiders leapt at Adrian. They were caught in midair by Thor, who slammed them against the ground and then beat them to death with his nun chucks. Meanwhile, Olaf, Lucrecia, and Merryck had gone into the battle – the female vampire attacked similarly to Adrian, although her moves were much more graceful, but packed less power; Olaf, as always, hit his opponents with the elegance of an elephant falling to the ground, yet with that same strength, and Merryck, who fought against the spiders only, rolled between his enemies' legs and slashed them so that, moments later, he would climb onto their backs and unleash the fatal blow to the heads.

I remained behind, doing my best to study my opponents' and my friends' moves. Ukyo stayed by my side, of course, almost infuriating me with her insufferable babysitting. And so, sick of this, I hastily hurried to my friends' side and jumped high into the air, throwing myself against a knight, successfully knocking him off the horse. With a speedy thrust, I drove my sword through his skull and killed him. I smiled triumphantly, hoping that Ukyo had seen that and she would let me fight at peace. Nevertheless, she insisted on remaining by my side, watching over my back with fierce swings of Renamark.

However, she failed to notice the knight and spider that had just popped out of the ground and stood before me. Both Heartless charged at me with anger and, unable to think of something to do to counter their attacks, I ran away from them. My friends were too busy to stop them and kept on battling. Only Ukyo noticed I was fleeing from the scene.

"SIEGFRIED!" she yelled, but her silhouette had already disappeared in the mist.

I ran through dark alleys and some abandoned houses, desperately trying to lose my pursuers in the fog, not to avail. At long last, I came to a dead end and turned around only to see that both my enemies had stopped their charge and looked at me with devilish eyes.

Well, Siegfried... I thought. You wanted to battle on your own, without anyone to look out for you. Now is your chance... This thought, however, wasn't entirely encouraging. With a deep breath, I readied myself for their charge and waited.

My hands were trembling. There were no allies on sight. If I made only one mistake, I would surely get killed. I had to concentrate. Hopefully, now would be the perfect time to use Thor's teachings. Yet before that, I had to remember what Shiryu had told me: "Always stay focused, always keep your cool, and never lose sight of your enemy."

Both Heartless gave out a battle yell and charged at me. I held my breath as I waited for them, thinking about what would be a good thing to do. Rolling under the knight's sword wouldn't be a good idea – the spider would catch me with its fangs before I would be able to get up. It wouldn't be wise to leap over the spider either, for the knight would cut me down effortlessly. The only thing I could to was to try and push the knight off his horse with my shield. Hopefully, I would hit his hand so hard that he would lose balance. And after that, I would have to get rid of the spider quickly, before the other find came to its aid. Yes, that's what had to be done. I raised the shield, and waited...

A loud roar echoed through the streets. The Heartless stopped in their tracks and looked up. Not a second passed and Octavius came down on both fiends. With his eagle-like leg, he squashed the spider and with his claws, he cut the knight and his dark horse into shreds. He then gave out a victorious howl to the knight as I quailed in fear against the wall behind me. Against the Heartless, I had a minimal chance of survival... but against this beast, I was as good as dead. And I reckon that he knew that the moment he turned to me and stared at me with his red eyes. After growling for a few moments, he let out another terrifying roar and charged at me. I found nothing else to do but to cover my head with my hands as I screamed in horror.

Octavius suddenly halted his charge. As I heard his footsteps stop, I turned to him and saw that two chains were around his arms. Shun stood about fifteen feet away from us; he was the one who had saved me. The Andromeda's saint's chains were resistant and did not break when Octavius tried to bite them.

"Get out of there, Siegfried!" he cried. "I'll hold him!"

With a nod, I ran away from the dead end. Octavius tried to bite my head off as I passed beside him, but Shun kept him from doing so. Once I was safely away from him, the saint grunted and sent a high-voltage current through his chains in the hopes of knocking the beast out. Yet instead of leaving him unconscious, Octavius became terribly angry and grabbed both chains with his arms. With a swift movement, he lifted Shun into the air and began to spin him madly. I could only watch in horror as he yelled in horror as his body went through many building's walls again and again. At long last, Octavius slammed Shun against the ground. He was terribly wounded and had his eyes closed...

Octavius closed in for the kill. Desperation filled me when he opened his mouth, green liquid dripping from his sharp fangs. I thought of nothing else to do but to grab a rock beside me and through it at his head. Of course, the pebble didn't even hurt him. I did, however, succeed in getting the beast's attention. I backed away into a corner as he walked at me, raising his claws over his head.

"PEGASUS'S METEOR PUNCH!"

"DRAGON'S FURY!"

The two attacks came from the top of one building which still stood and hit Octavius on the chest, knocking him down. Seiya and Shiryu landed next to me, saving me from the beast.

"Leave this place, Siegfried!" Shiryu said. "Take Shun with you! He's badly hurt and needs the mages' aid to recover."

"We'll take it from here." Assured Seiya, gathering all of his Cosmo-energy, ready to unleash another potent attack. Octavius had already gotten up, and there was hardly a scratch on his body. With a roar, he approached the two saints as I backed away and carried an unconscious Shun away from the battle.

As I reached a relatively safe distance, I turned around and saw with dismay that both of the saints were getting beaten by the beast. He had grabbed Seiya by the head and had slammed him against the ground viciously. Shiryu had rushed to his aid but Octavius responded by taking a swipe at him. The Dragon's saint managed to protect his head with his shield from the beast's claws, yet was unable to stop him from hurting his stomach. He fell on his knees, breathing heavily, a huge cut across his abdomen.

"...Oh, crap." I muttered to myself, realizing that it was my turn to save those two in whatever way I could. I looked for another rock to throw at Octavius, but didn't find any big pebbles nearby. Without much further thought, I threw my sword at the beast. The blade cut his arm and although the wound was all but serious, I again succeeded in infuriating him. He ran after me as Shiryu, with great effort, carried Seiya to a safe place.

I gathered all of my strength and threw Shun through a window into a house to my right. This time, I had to save myself. My breathing sped up as Octavius closed in on me. And finally, with a terrified yell, I rolled under his legs as he threw his claws at me. I evaded the hit and the beast practically shattered the floor behind me. I then stood up and began to run as quickly as I could, my speed fuelled by fear. Yet not even that would save me from the beastly Octavius. A quick leap was all it took him to catch up with me. He landed in front of me, cutting me short. Again, he walked at me and got ready to kill me.

However, I was saved once more. I felt a blow on my right shoulder and rolled over the ground. Hyoga had arrived just in time to push me out of the way of the beast's claws... He himself had managed to duck underneath another of Octavius's swipes and had gotten a hold of his legs. Hyoga then summoned all of the chilly air about to turn into a thick layer of ice that formed itself about the beast's legs. Octavius let out a shocked howl and threw his claws against Hyoga. The Cygnus's saint rolled away from the foe hastily. Only one claw penetrated his lower back, but it still wounded him deeply. With pain in his face, he got up and stood still while Octavius struggled to break free from the eyes.

"Hyoga!" I cried, running to him. "Are you all right?"

"I'm okay." He grunted. "Right now, you should get out of here... Get your sword and go help the others." He turned back and added: "Ikki and I will take it from here."

Looking in the direction he had glanced, I noticed the Phoenix's saint had also arrived at the scene and was gathering energy to unleash a potent attack. Hoping that these two would prove more of a challenge to Octavius than their comrades, I ran past Octavius and got a hold of my sword. And as I did this, I heard how the beast shattered the layer of ice covering his legs. Before witnessing the battle, I chose to hide behind the debris nearby. I poked my head over them and saw how Ikki unleashed his attack in a desperate attempt to drive the beast back.

"FLYING PHOENIX!" he wailed.

A boiling gust of wind came from his fists and successfully slowed Octavius down, but failed to stop him. Without giving it further thought, Hyoga unleashed one of his icy attacks on the beast, freezing the ground beneath him. But as he saw the ice crawl to him, Octavius gave a giant leap and landed between the saints. He used his fist to knock Hyoga out and he kicked Ikki in the stomach, burying his claws in his skin.

"No, no, no!" I cried, realizing that Octavius had but to twist his arms to behead both saints. Luckily, we were not alone. A swift arrow pierced the mist and hit Octavius on his shoulder. He took a step back, releasing his grip on Hyoga and Ikki, and looked up, to one of the neighboring buildings' roof. There stood Link, his bow unsheathed and at the ready to unleash another arrow.

I knew what I had to do. Taking a deep breath and as Octavius removed the arrow from his body and jumped at the Hylian, I left my hideout and ran to the saints. I had to make a big effort to carry them both next to Shun. I took off my shirt and put it on Ikki's stomach, hoping that he wouldn't bleed to death. I then got out of the house I laid them in and watch in amazement that Link still stood against the monstrous beast's blows.

Both of them leapt down to the street. Link skillfully dodged all of Octavius's blows by moving left and right, leaping away from him, and rolling under his legs. He used his shield once or twice, as well. Nevertheless, he couldn't find an opening to thrust his sword into the beast. I think he was waiting for the right moment to strike in a manner in which his attack wouldn't be lethal. After all, this beast was our were-bear...

Unfortunately, I wasn't the only spectator of the battle. While Link and Octavius raged on, a silent spider crept out of one of the buildings and shot its web at the Hylian's feet. Trapped, he fell to the ground, at Octavius's mercy. This time, I was too far away from them to do anything. I could only watch in horror as the beast got to Link and grabbed his foot. But instead of tearing him apart with his claws, he threw him as hard as he could at the spider, killing the Heartless instantly. Link went through the wall in which the giant arachnid had been and a cloud of dust came out of the hole he had left...

"LINK!" I cried, running at the building, but stopping short as I felt Octavius's eyes on me.

At that moment, another ally came from an alley that was on my left. I glanced at him and let out a gasp, not knowing whether if he came to save me or to aid Octavius in his endeavor...

Sephiroth looked at me and at Octavius, who had become still at the sight of this new creature. The warrior kept on moving his head from me to Octavius for a few moments with a stupefied expression on his face.

"...Is there no one else...?" he whispered to me.

I couldn't say a word. I only managed to barely shake my head.

"Goddamn it." He murmured. He took a deep breath and raised his sword, pointing it at the beast. That was a bit relieving, I must say. Yet I had no idea that this time, no one else would come to aid me to escape my fate... "Flank him."

"What?" I muttered.

"You heard me, damn it, flank him!" he commanded. "We won't beat him if you just stand there like an idiot! Flank him, now!"

Under other circumstances, I would've probably hit him on the jaw. How dared he order me around? But considering that he was quite the expert at fighting, that I was as novice as they came, and that we were facing a humongous, nearly invincible beast, I chose to heed his words. With a quick nod, I raised my sword and shield and faced Octavius from his left while Sephiroth did the same thing from the opposite side. The beast stared at both of us without moving, not knowing, I suppose, who to attack first.

"When I say so, strike his legs, got it?" Sephiroth said. "Answer back, Siegfried!"

"I got it, I got it..." I stuttered, my hands trembling madly.

"Ready? One... two... THREE!"

As he had instructed me to, I took a quick step at Octavius and ducked under his claws as he took a swipe at me at the last moment, and slashed his legs with my blade, while Sephiroth, taking advantage that the beast had concentrated on dealing with me, tried to thrust his sword through the fiend's stomach. Nevertheless, Octavius was completely aware that Sephiroth was near and managed to grab his blade before it utterly pierced through him. However, my ally succeeded in wounding him and yanked his sword away from the beast as we both hurried away from him. Although roaring madly, Octavius stood still, waiting for us to go after him once more.

"What are you doing?" I muttered, conscious that Sephiroth had moved in for the kill. "He's Octavius, goddamn it! Don't you dare kill him!"

"How very noble of you." He snarled. "Do you think you can tell him how very much you care about him after he's eaten your head off?"

"Don't try to kill him, Sephiroth!"

"It's either him or us, boy! Make your choice!"

I couldn't believe it. Sephiroth was right. There was no way we were getting out of this without killing Octavius. He was nearly indestructible... the only way to defeat him was to stop the beating of his heart. Now I wasn't only scared... I was incredibly heartbroken. This was something I couldn't escape from. If I chose not to fight, Octavius would slaughter me and would keep on wreaking havoc. More of my friends would be killed as well... Perhaps even Demean, Tish, Ryoga, or Merryck... or Ukyo. No. I couldn't allow such a thing. With tears in my eyes, I realized what had to be done just as Octavius got tired of waiting and began to run at us wildly.

"What now?" I quickly asked Sephiroth.

"Roll right!" he instructed. I became confused by his command, since he was at my right.

"Right...?" I muttered, all but frozen by fear, for Octavius was nearly upon us.

"ROLL!" he cried.

There was no time to waste. I rolled right with a desperate breath as quickly as I could, while Sephiroth rolled left. Octavius became confused with our maneuver as well and tripped with his own legs. He fell to the ground but quickly got up. Sephiroth had been about to lunge at the beast with his sword aimed at his stomach once more, yet he stopped short when he saw that Octavius was already on his feet... We were lucky we hadn't crashed against each other.

"Now what do we do...?" I questioned again, breathing hastily while the beast glanced at us with his red, rage-filled eyes, not daring to come after us again.

"I'm thinking..." Sephiroth whispered back, a thoughtful stare in his eyes. "All right." He finally said. "Get in front of me. I want you to run straight at him and roll through his legs. Take a swipe at them as you go. I'll try to cut off his head while he's busy trying to kill you."

A gulped down hard as a chill ran down my back. He was really thinking about doing it. But, like I said, we had no other choice.

"...Okay." I said. "I'll try..."

"Go as fast as you can." He kept on saying as I placed myself in front of him. "Roll underneath him at the last second."

"Okay..."

"Ready? Ready? GO!"

At his command, I dashed at the beast with my heart pounding out of my chest. Octavius roared and raised his claws. The more I ran to him, the bigger he became and the more afraid I grew. That didn't stop me, however. Like Sephiroth had told me to do so, I rolled under the beast's legs as he took a deadly swipe at me and, with a terrified yell, swung my sword at his ankles, successfully managing to inflict a small cut. Octavius howled in pain and began to search for me, yet quickly stopped looking as Sephiroth leapt at him and tried to behead him. The beast grasped the warrior's sword just as it made a small wound on its neck and then, taking a hold of his hand, threw him at me. We rolled over the ground and got up just in time to leap aside in order to dodge a brutal charge.

"Quick blows!" Sephiroth said aloud. "Unleash quick blows! We have to hold on until we see a real opening! For now, block the faster hits with your shield; avoid everything else!"

"Oh, God!" I yelped with fright as the beast began to attack the both of us with incredible strength. Most of his blows could've reduced us to half our former selves and these we evaded as well as we could.

I leapt back as much as I could, hoping that I wouldn't run into a wall, while Sephiroth kept Octavius at bay with his long blade. Whenever the beast would find a way around it, the warrior would leap away as fast as possible and then keep on pressuring from a safe distance. I wasn't as lucky. I had to be constantly facing the bloodthirsty creature, doing my best to score a stab or two by doing quick thrusts at his chest. I did manage to hurt him a couple of times, but the cuts weren't grave at all, not to mention the fact that it would take more than massive strength to knock Octavius out, and let's not talk about killing him. Yet the more he attacked, the more afraid I became of him and the more my desire to escape the fight, even if it meant putting his life to an end. Before this onslaught of claws and teeth, I had thought that maybe we could've found a way to beat him without murdering him, but now I wasn't so sure...

"Get away!" I cried, swinging my sword from one side to the other, hiding behind my shield. "Get away, Octavius! Wake up! It's me, Siegfried!"

"He's not listening to you!" Sephiroth roared. "Goddamn it, boy, keep on fighting!"

It was no use. Octavius wouldn't let us get away. And this time, he never spread his legs enough for one of us to roll underneath him. I think he got used to the trick and realized we would take advantage of his size whenever we could. I had to find another way to escape him...

It was then that I tripped and fell on my back. Octavius growled fiercely as he got ready to squash me with the sharp claws of his foot. I had dropped my sword because of the fall, and I searched for it frantically. In the end, all I picked up was a pile of dirt come from one of the buildings and threw it as hard as I could at the beast's eyes. Octavius let out a howl of pain as he covered his face and stepped away. I turned to Sephiroth and saw how he was getting ready to strike the fatal blow. Nevertheless, the beast was all but stupid: knowing well that he was at our mercy, he began to slash the air about him with great speed and power. Sephiroth dared not risk an attack, knowing that any mistake could cost him his life. With a sigh, he went to me, helped me to my feet, and we both took a few steps away from the creature... A breather, at last.

"That was close..." I muttered.

"Even if I would've tried to attack him, his skin is too tough for my sword to go through it with ease." Sephiroth commented. "I would've only gotten him madder by cutting him superficially. We can't afford to get him angrier: the more rage he feels, the stronger he becomes. We need to land one single, fatal blow."

"...I understand." I sighed, desperately. As Octavius started to recover his sight, a final question came into my mind: "Why didn't you kill me?"

"Not right now, moron." He growled.

"Who are you calling a...?" I began to say with anger, but fear came over me again as Octavius finally looked at us with his red eyes, fully recuperated from that last assault. "Okay, never mind..."

"Let's wait for him to make his move." He said. He pushed me with his arm to the side and added: "Keep flanking him – we'll have the advantage if he goes after only one of us."

"Right, right."

The beast remained still as he moved his head from us to the buildings to our right. These still stood, although they were somewhat damaged. Not much time passed before Octavius did something neither I nor Sephiroth expected: he jumped at one of the buildings and buried his claws on the walls and then began to crawl at an alarming speed at us. He was even faster than the Heartless spiders! I didn't think the buildings would hold his weight, yet he was so quick that the walls merely shook – they didn't crumble at all. I hoped that Sephiroth would hastily think of something to do, that he would come up with another strategy to counter this surprise attack of his. But my ally was, I think, just as shocked as I was.

"Son of a bitch!" he exclaimed in a whisper. "Run to the left! Run!"

I did as he told me to and heard how Octavius gave out a howl as he leapt at us. I cried in terror as I heard him fall behind me. The shockwave he sent through the ground knocked me off my feet. I quickly rose to my feet and turned, seeing that the beast had managed to wound Sephiroth on the back with his feet's claws. The warrior lay on the ground, blood gushing from his giant cuts. He was hopeless... Octavius was about to feast on him.

Yet the debris about saved us again. I noticed a rock at my feet and realized I had one chance to save Sephiroth's life. As much as I disliked him, he was our ally, and I had to help him. I quickly kicked the rock with all of my strength and hit Octavius on the nose. The monster, mad with anger, howled at me and pushed Sephiroth aside with his feet. I could see that he now meant to kill me no matter what: I had been getting in his way for a long time now, and I had to pay the price. Once more, I stood still, trembling with fear, not knowing what to do... The creature only came closer and closer.

"Under his legs!" I heard Sephiroth cry, all of a sudden. "Roll under his legs!"

I gave a quick glance at the beast's feet and noticed that, once again, he had been careless about keeping them together. Holding my breath, I followed Sephiroth's advice and barely cleared Octavius's claws. Once at his back, I swung my sword across his back, inflicting upon him that which was possibly the most notorious wound he had. The creature hollered with wrath as he felt my steel cut through his skin.

"Shield! Shield!" Sephiroth yelled.

Without giving it a second thought, I hit my face behind my shield. I then felt a powerful blow on it and fell on the ground, hard. It was amazing how resilient this thing was: it didn't have a single scratch. Anyway, there was no time to be marveled at the endurance of my shield; I had been lucky to survive the attack. I had to keep focused.

As the beast got ready for the next strike, I saw that he had all but forgotten about Sephiroth. This latter one had crawled against a wall, and was watching the battle carefully, holding his sword firmly, practically bleeding to death. Someone had to come and heal him before he kicked the bucket – and fast.

"What next...?" I murmured to myself, still filled by fear. However, terror had fuelled my senses: I was more aware of what was going on and I reacted faster to the openings my opponent allowed me to exploit. This doesn't mean, of course, that I was confident of my skills. On the contrary: Octavius scared the hell out of me with his mere presence.

The pause came to an end. Octavius lunged himself at me in the same way that a deadly lion leaps at a helpless baby zebra, his claws aiming at my stomach. But then I became aware that he was very low to the ground. With enough luck, I would be able to leap over him... My beliefs were confirmed by Sephiroth, who promptly advised in a loud voice: "Jump high!"

I did this and scarcely cleared the maddened creature. I actually fell on his back and quickly took advantage of this by thrusting into his flesh with my blade. Again, the wound was fairly decent, so to speak. Octavius roared as he made a fist with his claws and swung it at me. I managed to block the blow with my shield and fell off him. He got up in a second and did something unexpected...

While I was on the ground, I let out a horrified yelp as he came closer to me. I covered my face with my shield, thinking he would try to squash it with his legs, or to bury his claws in it. Instead, he took a hold of my shield and yanked it with so much strength, that he dislocated my arm and left me without said item. I cried in pain and crawled away from the beast as fast as I could...

"Get up, get up!" Sephiroth exclaimed.

Barely finding the strength to do this, I swung my sword madly at Octavius's face, who took a step back, and waited for an opening. Now he was fighting calmly, almost intelligently, I might say. With terror in my eyes, I tried to thrust at him as best as I could, remembering Thor's teachings: my swings had to be quick if I didn't want to be disarmed; I had to go for the enemies weak spots, such as the jugular, the stomach; I had to remember that my opponent could also become the attacker, and so on. But the Gangrel's knowledge didn't help much. I managed to touch Octavius's skin a few times, yet my blows didn't pack enough strength to even cut him this time. I was lost, and I knew this just as soon as my back hit a wall... I was cornered.

It was then that Octavius pulled his right arm back and got ready to strike my head with all of his power. And for a moment, in his eyes, I saw the same stare I had witness on Magnus's glance when he had drove his halberd through me...

"Move your head right!"

Hastily, almost instinctively, one would say, I did as Sephiroth told me to. Octavius's arm just about touched me, leaving a superficial cut on my cheek as he buried it with wild power in the wall behind me. His face was right in front of me and I had my blade at the ready.

"Pierce his skull!" Sephiroth cried hysterically. "KILL HIM! KILL HIM!"

My heart pounded so hard I thought my chest was going to burst. I had less than a few seconds to drive my sword through the creature's cranium and put an end to the fight. I knew this... but then, several thoughts invaded my mind with the speed of lightning.

Sephiroth had told me to murder him. Yet I had already done much killing in the past. I had been forgiven for my sins once... and when I had come back to life, I had sworn I wouldn't do it again. And this was no ordinary creature – this monster, standing with rage in front of me, with no other thought in his head that destroying me, was in reality Octavius, my friend. I couldn't bring myself to kill him. If he had to die, then it would not be by my hand, even if this cost me my own life.

Fear faded for a split of second and there was determination in my eyes. I grasped my sword firmly and with the hilt, hit the beast on the jaw as hard as I could. Octavius reeled back a bit, letting out a surprised grunt, (for I suppose he didn't feel a lot of pain), and allowed me to see his legs. I twisted my blade and aimed the tip at one of them.

"I'm sorry for this, Octavius..." I murmured and then, I thrust as hard as I could to one of his feet. With a loud yell, which had not been filled by fear, but by willpower, I pierced his left foot and buried my sword on the ground, nailing him to the pavement.

Octavius let out a most horrifying yell of pain as blood gushed from his foot. I tried to roll away from him as quickly as possible before he would tear me apart with his arms. There was, once more, a small opening between his legs, for his free foot thrashed madly and was far from the other. The wall behind me began to crumble under the might of his arm. I had to be fast...

The beast snapped its head forth and bit down. I gasped in surprise as I felt a strange pain throbbing through my face. I chose not to pay heed to this for the moment and rolled away from Octavius, who now struggled madly to remove the sword from his feet. It was then, when I had taken a few steps away from him, that the strange pain became unbearable. It was as if someone had spilled acid on the right side of my face. I yelled loudly as I tried to remove this substance from my body, but it was too late. No matter how much I scratched my cheeks and forehead, the acid burned like the flames of hell...

Unexpectedly, I found myself unable to yell and unable to keep standing. I fell on the ground and felt how my muscles began to tense. My head was directed at the skies. The mist had gone, but the rain still feel; nevertheless, it did not soothe my wound. I saw my friends fighting against the Phantom: his cloak had nearly vanished and his orb was riddled with cracks. It went after Dante and tried to hit him with his bony hands, yet the boy hastily flew aside and fired an icy spell at the blue orb beneath him. The Phantom thrashed and reeled back as more cracks appeared on the orb. And then, before he could do another move, Will appeared behind him and cast a mighty spell. A block of icy completely engulfed the Heartless and then broke into a thousand pieces. The orb broke along with the frost and the Phantom started to fall to the streets. And the more he fell, the more transparent he became... until at last, he vanished under the rain.

My head snapped left and tensed. I became unable to move my neck or any other part of my body, for that matter. All my muscles began to twitch as I started to drool uncontrollably. My vision became blurry and an intolerable pain began to invade my chest. I tried to yell, yet soon found myself out of breath. I couldn't breathe... no, it wasn't that. I was choking on my own tongue!

The pain grew stronger, my convulsions grew fiercer. I barely felt warmth on the right side of my face and I knew that I was bleeding. My hearing also began to fade: it's like when a terribly loud noise blasts near you and you can only hear a faint whistle... well, said whistling grew louder and louder, until the voices about me turned into faint echoes come from a deep cave.

As I kept on convulsing, I managed to discern how five figures had begun to attack Octavius. They were the five saints, who had fully recovered... Shun held his arms with his chains again; Seiya, Shiryu, and Ikki hit him madly on the face, chest, and abdomen, respectively, and Hyoga had already managed to freeze the leg I hadn't wounded. Next, five other figures came into view: one of them, I think, was Adrian, who started to strike the creature's jaw with the hilt of his scythe; the other was Olaf, I'm sure, for I could scarcely distinguish his immense hammer hitting Octavius on his back. Link had also recuperated from his fall and smashed the beast's face with his shield as well. The fourth was Gustav – he had summoned a horde of what seemed to be white spirits which attacked Octavius viciously, slowly wearing him down. The attackers were slowly but surely weakening him... the beast could now barely stand. And finally, the fifth figure appeared. I have no doubt that it was Ukyo who, with a loud cry, hit Octavius on the back of his head with Renamark's hilt. The legendary blade gave her so much strength that I, in my deranged state, felt the shockwave it emitted. The beast at long last closed his eyes and fell to the ground, breathing heavily. After that, it all started to turn black.

I could still feel the pain growing stronger, even though my spasms were beginning to fade. I was so scared... I wanted to call for help, but I was unable to speak. My tongue kept me from doing so. Yet all of a sudden, I felt a strange, unexplainable warmth invade my body. I knew it wasn't blood, for I hadn't been wounded in the stomach. And then, I heard faint voices, like the ones coming from a deep forest out into an immense, open field...

"...Poisoned...Esuna..." they said.

The hurt diminished a bit as the voices kept on repeating these words over and over again. Yet there was no way I could fight the darkness any longer. Fearfully, I gave up and let it take me.

(Change of scene)

"Guys... guys! I think he's coming to!" I heard Felicia say. I struggled hard to open my eyes and slowly, everything started to become clear once more.

"What... What ha...?" I stuttered. Seeing that I was lying down, I tried to sit, yet dizziness overcame me and I fell on my back again. Many of my friends came to see if I was alright. I could see that the cat-woman, the five saints, Link, Aeris, Gustav, Olaf, Adrian, Ryu, Ken, Sora, Goofy, Demean, Tish, Merryck, and Ukyo were standing about me. The latter smiled tenderly and put one hand on my forehead.

"Easy, sugar." She said. "You've done a lot already."

"What... happened?" I finally managed to say. I was still too weak to speak fluently.

"Octavius managed to bite you earlier." Aeris said. "I saw it from the sky. I thought you'd be okay, but his fangs had venom. A most potent one, I have to say. You nearly died..."

"That's why... I c-convulsed?" I asked.

"Yeah." Adrian replied. "It was pretty nasty. You looked as if someone was giving you electric shocks."

"O-Octavius..." I stammered. "Is he OK?"

"He's all right. Back to his former, charming self, now."

"That's good... I see that y-you guys are okay... How's... how's Sephiroth?"

"He had a bad cut across his back, but we quickly took care of it." Donald declared.

"You sure are lucky, Siegfried." Goofy added. "I almost thought we had lost you, when I saw you on the ground... I was very scared."

"Yeah, I was also very f-frightened." I said, with a weak chuckle.

I let out a sigh and relaxed. Everything had gone well. I closed my eyes for a moment and smiled. I then looked at my friends again. They were all smiling... but their smiles were strange. One wouldn't be able to tell if they were happy smirks or sympathetic grins. As if they felt sorry for something... As if someone had died.

"What's wrong?" I hastily questioned.

It was then that Ukyo's expression turned to a saddened one. Tears began to roll down her cheeks as she said with a broken voice: "I'm so sorry, Siegfried... It's my fault... I-I should've been there to look out for you!"

"Don't blame yourself, girl." Adrian quickly said. "This had nothing to do with you."

"I should've been there...!"

"What are you...?" I started to say. Yet, as I looked at her, I knew.

I could only see the people on my left. Every one of them had turned to Ukyo and tried to comfort her. Some of them also shed tears, though they did so silently. I couldn't see the folks on my right. I could listen to their comforting voices; I could listen to their breaths; I even felt Aeris's hand as she gently touched my shoulder. But, now matter how hard I struggled, I couldn't see them. And I had both eyes opened.

"...What's wrong with me?" I asked in a low voice as I felt my heart sink in my chest. Fear grew as I passed my right hand over my eye and saw nothing. Only its blurry silhouette through my left eye.

"Siegfried..." Demean said softly, kneeling beside the bed I lay on. I turned to see him and urged him to explain. "Octavius bit you on the face and hurt your eye. The venom flowed through it and destroyed your nerves as it touched them. The poison of the creatures cursed by the Rage of the Forests is extremely fierce... It is unlike anything I have ever seen before. No matter how hard all the magicians tried to cure the effects of the poison, they only succeeded in saving your life. Yet I am afraid they could do nothing for your eye..."

"This venom..." Tish added. "Is not ordinary venom. I fear it is... sort of fabricated venom. Created with magic, I daresay. And an ancient, powerful magic it is... The creatures infused with the curse of the Rage of the Forests are old, much older than Demean or myself. Against such elderly power, my own conjures paled. I..." a small tear came out of her eyes as she said, with a sob: "I am sorry, Siegfried. We could not heal you."

"Have... have I lost sight of my right eye?" I asked, still unable to believe this. "...Forever?"

"I am so sorry..." was all the heartbroken, little fairy muttered.

I couldn't breathe. I was completely shocked. I felt as if someone had hit me with an iron ball in my stomach. For a moment, I even felt like regurgitating. But I only limited myself to turn away from the elf and Tish and let out a long, sad sigh. Closing my eyes, I could only feel my friends staring at me with pity.

"Let us go." Gustav said. "The boy needs to rest a bit."

Everyone began to leave. But after a few moments, someone stopped and then I heard Adrian's voice as he asked Gustav:

"What about you, Gustav? Are you two staying?"

"I shall be with you all in a moment. Go comfort young Ukyo. She is very disturbed and needs your aid, also."

"Sure. Good luck." He answered.

Gustav sat down by my side and then another person mimicked him. It had been Olaf, who had also remained behind. And before long, came Rofell, too. The three elders sat near me, shielding me from the rest of my friends' preoccupied glances. I was somewhat grateful to them for doing that, although I wasn't sure I wanted them to see me themselves in such a state.

"How are you feeling, boy?" asked the bearded elder.

"I... I lost my right eye..." I whispered in a broken voice. I was now unable to contain my despair and sadness and these escaped in the form of tears, while I struggled hard not to sob.

"It is all right, lad." He said and rubbed my shoulder gently as I buried my face on the bed. Strange... even though he certainly looked like the type of 'Men-don't-cry' people, Olaf was actually the most sensitive of the vampires. "It is all right, Siegfried."

"It is truly a shame this happened, Siegfried." Rofell added. "A real misfortune. But great sacrifices do not go unrewarded."

"W-What are you t-talking about?" I asked, trying desperately to calm down my crying. Olaf noticed this and said:

"Do not feel ashamed, lad. Let it all out."

"You are undoubtedly a most valiant warrior, my good Siegfried." Gustav said softly, putting his hand on my shoulder. "You overcame your fear and saved your friends from a certain death. Few would have done that, for Octavius was truly a terrifying vision. And what is more – even in the face of death, you chose to spare his life. That is even more admirable. You might have lost your eye, but you have gained supreme glory, my brave friend."

My desperate sobbing grew fiercer. Even so, I felt a comforting warmth inside. Unable to answer with words, I limited myself to nod my head, both thanking him and asking him to go on.

"Few have achieved what you have done, Siegfried." Said Rofell. "I do not know if it will help you to know this, but we are most proud of you. And I am certain Wilheim, your brother, would also be proud."

I kept on weeping for a long time, clutching the sheets of the bed hard. The sudden mention of his name made me more miserable, yet it also gave me the courage I needed to get to my feet... eventually, of course. It took me a while to calm down. When I did this, I let out a long sigh and dried my tears. At least I could still shed them. Sitting down next to them, they all smiled at me kindly and I smiled back, struggling not to start sobbing again.

"W-What does it l-look like?" I asked in a low voice. I was afraid I would have a hole or a hideous cut on the right side of my face...

"Your eye is still there." Gustav said. "Its color has turned grey – very much like the one you had when you were a vampire." I was puzzled at first when he said this, but then I remembered they had read Wilheim's mind when they had met him. "The venom also kept your friends from completely healing the wound the fang made across your face. It left a scar – yet worry not, for it is a thin line that goes from your eyebrow to your cheekbone. It is notorious, yes. It does not, however, make you look horrid, by all means."

"...That's good to hear." I muttered. I was no longer as weak and felt enough strength to talk smoothly. "Thank you, Gustav. Thank you, Olaf. Thank you, Rofell."

"You need not thank us, Siegfried." Olaf said, putting his humongous arm around my shoulders and pressing me gently with a kind smile on his now merry face. "After all, what are friends for, eh?"

"Yeah... So, I won't need an eye-patch?" I asked.

"That is for you to decide." Rofell answered. "Although personally, the scar gives you quite a mysterious look. Some ladies might love it."

I let out a chuckle and nodded my head. Lowering my face, I sighed again and forced myself to say:

"Well, it could've been worse."

"Indeed, you were lucky, my friend." Gustav assured.

"It's a shame. I was starting to become effective. I don't think I'll do much good now with just one eye."

"Do not discredit yourself, my boy." Olaf said. "Your friends will make sure you are ready to carry on with the mission as soon as possible. And I say this because you must leave soon, now that the Heartless here are finished. But do not doubt that, if you were to stay here, we would be more than happy to help you go through this, my lad."

"Thanks... but... I can't stay, right?"

"Oh, of course you may." Rofell declared. "You are more than welcome to remain by the side of the vampires. Yet we can see in your mind that you are loyal and most brave (even though one does not need to have our powers to see this), and this is why you will go with your friends in search of the Heartless. Am I wrong?"

"...No, I don't think so." I chuckled. "Well, thanks a lot, guys. I... I can see why Wilheim liked you all."

"And I am sure all of us can see why you and he were brothers." Gustav added. He patted my back gently and they got up. I promptly did as they. "It seems to me that you are all right, now. You should probably lie down and rest a bit more."

"Thanks... but I need to go and talk to Ukyo." I said. "I... I'm concerned about her. I don't want her to blame herself. It wasn't her fault. It wasn't anybody's fault."

"Very well. If you feel you must... then off you go. We shall see you in a while, Siegfried."

"Go, my lad." Olaf said, rubbing my shoulder one last time. With a sigh, I started to look for Ukyo.

As I began to move about the vampire's hideout, I could see that all of the Vampyrs turned to me and smiled gladly. Some of them even bowed. Moved, I could only mumble words of gratitude and return the bows. I was happy to be by their side, and their kind words and their gentleness gave me courage. And as soon as I saw my friends, they started to do the same. They were all great.

Anyway, I couldn't find Ukyo anyway. So I decided to go to Adrian to ask him. Perhaps he would make a joke to make me feel better... he was good at that.

"Hi." I said, approaching him.

"What's up, Siegfried?" he asked, joyfully. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm better." I said. "I mean, it could've been worse, right?"

"It can always get worse." He agreed. "Unless you die. Thank God that didn't happen."

"Yeah, I understand." I said. "I guess now we both have scars, right?"

"So it seems."

"...How, if you don't mind my asking, did you get yours?"

"It's okay. It's something funny, actually. You're going to laugh a lot." He leaned against the wall and began to speak. "See, when I was a human, I used to be a lumberjack. I went to the woods with a couple of friends to chop down some trees. It was fun work. A bit tiring, but fun, nonetheless. We never got cold at nights. Anyway, the thing is, one day, we were chopping down a tree which had a very irritable inhabitant... I hit the trunk with my axe so hard that all the branches began to shake. A little squirrel lost its footing and fell from the tree... on my face."

Knowing where he was heading, I began to struggle to contain my laughter. It would've been most rude to explode in laughter at his tragedy. I certainly wouldn't have liked it if he had laughed at mine.

"Well, said squirrel started to trash like mad. It bit down on my face real hard and I let out a high-pitched yell. I sounded like a girl. Either way, I grabbed it by the tail and pulled it off my face. The thing is, it had already bit me and didn't let go. I pulled it in such a way that its teeth left this scar..." he paused for a few seconds and looked at me with a smile as he noticed I couldn't hold it in much longer. "Go ahead, laugh it up."

Just what I needed. I covered my face and laughed in a low voice, but for quite a long while, to the point where tears began to run down my cheeks again.

"I'm sorry!" I whispered.

"It's okay. I wanted to cheer you up, anyway." He said, chuckling.

"Jeez, it must've hurt a lot!" I exclaimed, looking at his scar. The squirrel must've been really big. "So you got bitten by a monster squirrel... you were lucky you didn't get a disease..."

"I know, but you were luckier to survive. Either way, it's much more heroic to get a scar from saving your friends than from a mad, miniature, otherwise harmless mammal."

I nodded my head, chuckling a bit more.

"Yeah... well, I needed that. Anyway... have you seen Ukyo?" I asked.

"She went outside." He replied, pointing at the door.

"I think I'll go talk to her. I'll see you in a while."

"Be my guest."

(Change of scene)

As I exited the hideout of the vampires, I let out a relieved sigh and smiled softly, noticing that I had slept through the day. The sun was already hiding behind the buildings. Octavius, the Heartless, and ourselves had managed to bring down some of them, but London still stood. We had saved the city, at the expense of some sacrifices that had to be made... my eye among them, sadly.

Will was resting near the hideout of the vampires, his arms crossed on the ground and his head resting on them. He had his eyes closed, yet he didn't sleep, or at least I hope he wasn't snoozing, because when I came out, he looked at me and smiled.

"It looks that you have finally decided to wake up." He said. "That is wonderful. I am glad you are well. Although I must say I am most sorry about what happened to your eye."

"Thanks, Will. It's alright." I replied. "I could've died, so I guess I just have to think that what happened to me is better than the alternative, so to speak."

"Indeed it is, lad. Besides, you might have lost your eye, but you won a kind of glory no one can take away from you."

"Thanks again... You did quite well yourself against the Phantom."

"Oh, it was a tough fight at the beginning, I will grant you that..." the dragon said, letting out a sigh and rolling his eyes. "Nevertheless, once we discovered his weak point, the fight turned much easier. Slow, yes, but steady it went."

"Now that I think about it, I haven't seen Camille... She's all right, isn't she?" I asked as the image of the fainted succubus flashed in my mind and nearly brought my heart to a halt.

"Be at ease, young Siegfried, she is all right." He said. "She was also concerned about you. She is not too happy about what happened, yet, as we have said to her numerous times, it was not her fault."

"It wasn't her fault at all." I said, firmly. "Nor was it Ukyo's... or Octavius, for that matter... By the way, where are they?"

"I believe you will find her easily. You just need to turn your head, lad."

I looked behind me and saw her. She was sitting down on the steps of a building, head resting on her hands. She looked very sad, but wasn't crying. Instead of witnessing the beautiful sunset on a clear sky in London (a rare thing, I've been told), she had her eyes pinned to the ground with a miserable stare.

"...OK." I muttered. "Thanks, Will. I think I'll go talk to her."

"If you feel in the mood for talking, then I suggest you also had a word with the were-bear." Will said.

"Why? How is he?"

"More miserable than usual, your friends say..."

"...I'll see him as soon as I'm done with my brother's girlfriend." I declared. "Well, I'll see you in a while, Will."

"Good luck, lad." Replied the dragon with a yawn and closed his eyes, letting his head rest on his hands again.

I approached Ukyo while looking at the sunset in tranquil silence. I was still marveled by the feel and look of it: I had been a vampire for too long and I even these last sunsets and sunrises marveled me. I was especially enthralled with this one, for it was truly beautiful. I could only hope that its splendor would bring some sort of peace to everyone's heart. I could also use some serenity myself. I was very calm; much more than my other friends, I would say, but there was still a bit of sadness in me. Hopefully, it would go after I had a talk with her. I especially needed to be at ease if I wanted to go and have a word with the were-bear...

Seeing me come close, she moved a bit so I could sit down next to her. What a relief... For a moment, I almost thought that she would get up and run away from me. But when I saw that didn't happen, I accepted her invitation and, with a sigh, took a seat.

"How... how are you feeling?" I asked in a low voice after remaining quiet for a few seconds.

"Funny that you're the one asking me that." She replied. "Yet, what can you expect? I feel like crap."

"Why is that, Ukyo?"

"Come on, Siegfried... you know why." she let out a long sigh. Looking at her, I could see she was struggling hard to hold back her tears. "I failed you, Siegfried... And by failing you... I let him down. I should've been there to watch over you. Maybe I would've been able to stop Octavius. I don't know... Either way, I'm sure I wouldn't be feeling so guilty right now." She turned to me and looked at me with her pretty, blue, sorrowful eyes. "I'm really sorry, Siegfried. I didn't mean this to happen to you. It should... it should've been me."

"Don't make me get mad at you, Ukyo." I said, both firmly and tenderly. "Please – and make sure you get it into your head – what happened to me wasn't your fault. And I'm sure my brother would agree with me. What befell me, I brought it upon myself. But I'm not sure I would've taken another path if I had the opportunity to do so again... At least I managed to save some lives, even if they saved me as well."

"Still... I promised I would look after you, and..." she stared at my scar and started to weep. "God, I'm so sorry I did that..."

"It's okay, Ukyo... come here." I said, putting my arm around her and gently lowering her head so she could let it rest on my chest. She cried quietly for a while, holding me tenderly. "You have to understand this is a dangerous mission... You can't expect yourself to be watching my back all day long, because if you do that, you won't be able to protect yourself and you'll end up getting killed. You have to trust me... Listen, I'm still here, right?"

"U-Uh huh..." she mumbled.

"It's not your fault. If you take care of me all the time, I'm going to start to worry about you; hence, I'm going to be taking care of you as well. Because, by God, I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you. Not after what my brother did to bring you back to life."

"T-thank you, Siegfried." She sobbed, drying her tears. She sat up straight and looked at me once again, and this time, smiled. "You're such a sweet man... It's easy to say why Wilheim took so much pride in saying you were his little brother."

"Thank you, sister-in-law." I chuckled. "And don't worry about me. I may have a bit of a hard time adapting to my new condition, but I'm sure I can manage."

"...Yeah, I'm sure you can." She said, wiping the last tears off her cheeks.

Before either of us could say anything else, another one of our companions emerged from the corner of the block. It was Sephiroth. He looked very tired, yet he also seemed at ease. He gave us a quick glance and went on, heading to the vampire's hiding place.

I let out a sigh, knowing that there was something that I still had to do regarding him.

"I'll be right back, Ukyo." I said. "This will just take me a second or two, I deem."

"Sure, Siegfried." She said, patting my back gently. And so, I got up and hastily caught up with Sephiroth.

"Hey!" I cried, making him stop in his tracks. He turned around and stared at me in silence. Funny... I could almost swear there was a faint smile on his lips. I remained quiet for a few moments, not entirely sure about what I should say. "...Go on, say it." I blurted at last, a little, I must confess, annoyed by that subtle smile.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I know what you're thinking." I went on. "I should've stabbed him, on the head, right? Otherwise, I wouldn't be like this. I'm a coward for having spared his life, right? I should've behaved like a man and killed him when I had the chance."

"You're right, regarding the first part." He answered. "If you would've killed him, you wouldn't be wounded now."

"This makes you terribly happy, doesn't it?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest..." he muttered and stopped smiling. "I don't find it hilarious or tragic. I'm just curious."

"...Huh?" I stuttered, finding myself at a loss of words.

"I clearly told you the beast would spare no mercy on any of us. For a moment, I thought you had understood my words. No, actually, I'm sure you did. So I'm curious: why, if you knew you could've died, did you spare his life?"

"Because he's my friend." I hastily answered.

"Ah, friendship. Yes, some say good things about it. Believe in it if you will." He turned his back on me and got ready to go back to the vampire's hiding place. I, however, still wanted to ask him a few more things. I couldn't let him go just yet.

"I'm not done yet!" I exclaimed. "Wait a second, will you?"

With a sigh, he faced me again.

"Do you... do you remember that I asked you earlier why you hadn't taken my life?" I questioned, now calmly.

"What? You still want me to answer that?"

"No. Truth to be told, I've got a better question than that: why did you save me?"

He let out a long sigh and broke eye-contact. He remained silent for a while. I could see he was thinking of something to say: this time, his answer wasn't going to be as mechanical as his other replies. For a moment, I was almost sure he would say something cold and hurting...

"Well, for starters, you had to stay alive." He confessed. "You were my only hope. If you had died, then I would've also been killed. On the other hand, whether we like it or not, we're companions. I know you're not exactly fond of me and, quite frankly, I don't like any of you. But I am doing my best to behave as my older-self, when I was but a young fool. I'm trying real hard to be a team player, boy. And if I am to be a team player, then it is my duty to aid my other companions as well. When I was in SOLDIER, I worked alongside many men and, when the time came, I helped them, unless I knew there was no way they would be saved or if by doing so I would put the mission's objective at risk." At last, he looked at me again and added: "Anyway, that doesn't matter. Satisfied?"

I quietly nod my head. And, after an instant, I forced myself to say: "Thank you, Sephiroth."

And again, he amazed me. Instead of saying something like 'As if I really cared' or some other stuff of the sort, he simply returned the nod and turned around. I was really, really shocked. It was as if I were talking to a different person...

"Sephiroth!" I heard Ukyo cry. We both turned to her as she ran by my side and stood still. "Look..." she began. "...I just want to thank you, for what you did back there. I want to thank you, for saving Siegfried's live. He..." I could see she was really having trouble saying all of this. "Without your help, chances are he would be dead right now. I mean it... thanks."

"Whatever..." he muttered and turned away. Yet, after taking a few steps away from us, he stopped, took a deep breath, and answered: "You're welcome."

With a faint smile, Ukyo and I looked at each other and went to the steps we had been sitting on. But then, it was he who stopped us.

"Ukyo..." he muttered and stood beside us. "I have a question I wanted to ask you."

"Yes?" she said.

"What did that guy, Olaf, meant when he said I would've made a fine Assamite?"

"Oh..." Ukyo murmured, lowering her head. "It's a vampire clan. They're not well-liked, I'm afraid. They're expert assassins. And most of them kill just for the heck of it, just to test their strength, so to speak..." after a small pause, she promptly added: "They're respected, nonetheless. Otherwise, they wouldn't be considered a clan."

"I see. And have you met any of these vampires?"

"No, this is the first time I've met another vampire other than Wilheim. Although he did come across one... anyway, I don't want to talk about that."

"All right. Now, if you'll excuse me, I do need to rest a bit." He said and this time, he entered the hideout. Will, who was nearby and had witnessed the whole scene, looked at us and said in a soft voice:

"It is hard for me to believe this is the same Sephiroth we faced in Never Land. He is so changed..."

"Because he's powerless, that's why." I replied.

"I'm not so sure, Siegfried..." Ukyo muttered. "Anyway, let's not talk about that, right now. I think you should get some rest."

"Oh, no. Before that, I have to talk to Octavius."

"Oh..." she mumbled, lowering her head again. "Right. I had forgotten about him."

"You... didn't say anything to him, did you?" I asked.

"No, no, nothing of the sort. After all, it wasn't his fault." She scratched the back of her head and walked back and forth for nearly a minute without saying a word. Finally, she stopped and said: "I'll wait for you inside, okay? Octavius shouldn't be far from here. You go look for him. But get back soon, all right? Even though you're feeling well, you still need to rest. And that's not just me saying it – Will agrees with me. Right, Will?"

"Of course I do, and I do not say this to be in good terms with her." The dragon chuckled.

"Okay. I'll try not to take too long, then." I said, and left.

(Change of scene)

Octavius walked about the streets near the vampire hideout with his head aimed at the sky. The sun had already gone down and the only sources of illumination were the light posts that hadn't been broken during the brawl, and these weren't many. The expression on his face was the same as usual: serious with a touch of sadness and anger. Yet his eyes were now a bit different. They shone as if he was about to shed a tear, although this didn't happen.

I approached him quietly, still unsure if it was a good idea to talk to him or not. He was back to his former self, yes; but I still felt a chill run down my back as I imagined him as the fierce beast he had turned into last night. I could still feel the venom of his fangs running through my face, destroying my eye...

There was no use in torturing myself with these images. I quickly forced myself to remember that I was there to speak to a friend in pain. I can only imagine how guilty he felt after what had happened. I had to let him know there were no hard feelings. Taking a deep, determined breath, I went to his side at a steady, yet convinced pace.

"Hi." I said to him as gently and as friendly as I could.

He gave me a quick glance and then looked at the sky again with tortured eyes.

"Why do you force me to endure such an ordeal?" he asked. "No, do not answer that. You are right: I deserve to be in pain, for I have caused much myself."

"No, no... Listen Octavius, I don't come here to blame you for what happened..." I murmured.

"Then you are an idiot." He said, a bit of desperation in his voice. Some of my friends would say that it was miraculous to hear some emotion on his words other than anger. "If you do not hold me responsible for the loss of your eye, then you are a fool... Sephiroth and the others told me what happened. You should have killed me when you had the chance."

"Don't say that!" I cried, also in despair. "I know you feel terrible for what happened, Octavius, but it wasn't your fault. You have this curse cast upon you: that's a shame, but you're not the one to blame for that! I came here to forgive you for what happened: why can't you forgive yourself? What's more, there's nothing to forgive... And I didn't kill you because you're my friend. Friends don't go around killing each other!"

There was silence among us for a while. Octavius stopped his frantic walking and sat down in a pile of debris.

"It's okay..." I went on, now a bit more calmly. "Really, it wasn't your fault. You just became mad because you thought the Phantom had killed Felicia, right? There's nothing wrong with that. You were just concerned about a friend."

"Your words might hold true, yet they do not justify my actions, nor do they console me." He answered, bitterly.

"But..."

"You said so yourself, young Siegfried." He interrupted. "'Friends don't go around killing each other'. Why do you still think of me as a friend after what I did to you?"

"Friends also forgive each other." I said, shrugging my shoulders. "Besides, you weren't yourself at the moment."

"That is of no importance. That did not stop me from doing horrible things in the past."

"...What did you do?" I asked.

The were-bear took a deep breath and turned away from me. I went by his side and sat next to him, waiting for him to decide whether he was going to answer my question or not.

"When I was young..." he said, at last. "When I had already had cast this curse upon me, I returned home. I was eager to see my mother and my pets... My father was a brave Roman soldier who had fought many hard battles well and had earned money enough to afford many pets and servants. He had just died recently at the hands of a being whose name I do not wish to mention for the moment. Suffice to say that this bastard is the being I look for – I only wish to destroy him...

"He arrived at our house one day and locked up the servants and my mother and most of my pets. He taunted me by facing me with a hostage: my little dog; a lovely, dark little canine, she was, adorable and tender. That bastard... he beheaded her in front of me." He made a pause and closed his eyes. I could see that all those images were appearing on his mind and that he was struggling hard not to let them drive him mad. "At that time, my feelings were not as hidden as they are now. I went mad with anger – and the Rage of the Forests did its work. No longer knowing friend from foe, I attacked whoever was closest. The bastard had already gotten away. There was no enemy in the house. Only my servants, the rest of my pets, and my mother..."

"Oh, my God..." I muttered, shocked.

"I killed them all. When I regained reason, my mother was just a breath away from death. I held her between my arms in disbelief as she told me in a whisper: 'I forgive you, my dear boy'. And then she passed away..."

I could not think of what to say. I never thought Octavius life had been so tragic. And chances are there are still worse parts of which I have no knowledge.

"So you see, young Siegfried..." he said. "The Rage of the Forests has burnt on my veins more than once. It is a terrible curse. The only way to stop it is to be void of feelings... for if wrath strikes my heart, then it is too late. That is why I am no longer a reliable companion: I have made a terrible mistake. I care for you... for all of you."

"But there's nothing wrong with that." I hastily responded. "If you care about your friends, then it's even better. That way, you'll fight more fiercely to save their lives, and you'll be able to trust them with yours. You're not a bad man, Octavius... The only thing you have to do is to watch your temper. More important, you have to understand that this mission is dangerous... any of us could die at any moment. I understood that when I fought beside my friends against the Heartless in the desert. Yet I also know they'll do whatever they can to save me."

"Hmm. So you think that, if a friend cares for you, he will fight with more ferocity to save you?" he asked, laughing low and bitterly.

"I know so."

"There is, however, a problem with your theory. Sephiroth was the one who saved your life, remember?"

"And I also saved his, I think... I talked to him and... Let's just say that I consider him very professional."

"If you say so..." Octavius sighed, getting up. "So you are saying I am not a threat to you?"

"By all means, no." I said, rising to my feet as well. "And I bet that all of my friends think the same... And to be perfectly honest, I think you should tell Felicia how you feel about her."

"I beg your pardon?" he muttered.

"That's why you got so mad, isn't it?" I inquired. "You care about her, don't you?"

"Yes, I told you I care for all of you, unfortunately, perhaps."

"No, no, that's not what I meant..."

"For God's sake, man, I am endangering you all by traveling by your side. I cannot let such a feeling invade my heart... It could very well be the worse thing I could do."

"I know why you think it's dangerous to have feelings, Octavius, but no man can be void of them. You have to let them into your heart, or you'll go mad. Perhaps you think that by being so dry and serious all the time you are keeping the door to you heart closed to them. In fact, you're just opening a window for desolation and frustration. Better to let some other feelings in. If you keep on going like this, you might even turn into a Heartless yourself."

The were-bear gave no answer. He only looked away and let out a sigh, his head directed to the clock tower as its bells tolled six o' clock. When all became quiet again, he looked at me and announced: "I am going back to the vampires' hiding place. I shall meet you there."

"I thought you didn't want to go inside anymore." I muttered, disappointed. It was as my words had gone into one ear and exited from the other.

"Yes, but, strangely enough, I do not think these vampires are like most of the ones I have met before. They remind me of a friend of mine. Perhaps not in behavior... yet they are not evil. By all means." He said. I could see he was about to make his way to our refuge, but something stopped him. He took a deep breath, turned to me, and said, with sincere gratitude yet with dryness in his voice: "Thank you, Siegfried."

"...You're welcome!" I answered late, a bit surprised by his words. Nevertheless, he had already gone. I had taken to long to answer him. At least there is hope. I thought.

I let out a long yawn. I was still pretty weak. I needed to rest a little longer, like most of my friends had suggested. There was still much fighting to be done, I deemed. All I could do was to relax a bit before our next raid on the Heartless. With any luck, their stronger minions had been already taken care of. I was not in the mood to face another Phantom that would piss off Octavius enough to trigger the Rage of the Forests.

It was no use worrying about that now. Besides, I was a little dizzy. I suppose I had just begun to experience the effects of the loss of my eye. I opened it widely and waved my hands in front of it. Nothing. Only darkness. Well, it was useless to cry about it again. What was done was done. I gave one last glance to the clear, now starry sky, and then headed to the vampire's hiding place. Once there, they provided me with a room in which I slept in peacefully.

(Change of scene)

It was night by the time I got up. I was feeling much better now. A little dizzy, still, but nothing terrible. As I looked about my room, I noticed someone else was with me. It was Sora, who was sleeping on a chair. He looked rather exhausted... Doing my best not to rouse him, I snuck out of the bed and headed towards the exit. However, the wood of the floor was a bit old and suddenly cracked loudly under my feet. The boy promptly opened his eyes and gripped his sword in alarm, only to relax again when he noticed it was I who had made the racket.

"Sorry I woke you up..." I said.

"It's okay, Siegfried." He replied, yawning. "You woke me up just at the right moment. We'll be leaving soon, anyway."

"Soon?" I asked. "I thought we would be leaving at daylight."

"That's not the best thing to do with a vampire around." He replied. His answer puzzled me and it showed upon my face. "Oh, right, you haven't heard. Adrian is coming with us."

"Adrian is joining?" I asked, with a smile. "That's good!"

"I know. The elders said he should come with us, while the rest of them stayed behind and looked over the city. Adrian didn't seem to like it at first. 'That's right, always bossing Adrian around! Always telling him what to do!' he said. 'Oh, well, but since I'm such a nice person, I guess I'll play along. I'll go, then. But no more "We should do something to screw Adrian up", okay?' That guy truly can't be serious."

"I know. Even the story about how he got his scar is funny... Although I didn't mean to laugh at him when he told it to me."

"I understand." Sora chuckled along with me. "I had a hard time not to laugh when his friend started to strike the air like mad and he got in the way trying to calm him down and to instruct him on how to fight."

"Ye—what?" I muttered. "What are you talking about?"

"The wolves." He tried to explain. "Remember? Three wolves came to his village, he and some other guy tried to stop them, his friend panics and starts to swing his weapon right to left, Adrian tries to calm him down, gets cut, and they both start arguing, forgetting about the wolves, which sort of got bored and ran away..."

"...Did you just make that up?" I asked, still confused by his words.

"No, that's the way he got his scar. I thought he had told you."

"He told me a squirrel had done it."

"A squirrel!" Sora cried with a big laugh. "You're the one who's making up things!"

"No, no, it was a squirrel! And he was a lumberjack!" I insisted.

"Maybe you dreamt that."

"Maybe you did."

Before we could continue the discussion, Ryu knocked on the door to our room and let himself in. Seeing us standing in front of each other, a little exasperation in both our faces, he felt compelled to ask: "What's going on?"

"Nothing, it's just Siegfried and I can't seem to agree on something." Sora stated.

"What do you mean?" the fighter questioned.

"He claims that Adrian got his scar because of a clumsy friend when both of them were trying to fight off three wolves." I answered. "When in fact he told me a squirrel bit him across the face."

"...I thought he had gotten it from an angry girlfriend of his." Ryu muttered, confusion in his eyes as he closed the door behind him.

"What?" Sora and I blurted.

We all looked at each other, not knowing what to say. What had gone wrong? It was impossible that the three of us were wrong... For my part, I wasn't playing a prank, and by the look in their faces, I was most certain they weren't joking either. Not much time passed before we all came to the conclusion that it was easier that one single person played a joke on three.

"I don't think he was telling the truth..." Sora murmured.

"I don't believe: I'm sure." I said.

At that moment, Jon Talbain opened the door to our room and also came inside.

"You should hurry up, fellows." He said. "Your other companions are almost ready to leave."

"Huh? You're not coming with us?" asked Ryu.

"Oh, no. I should probably stay behind and help the vampires watch over the city." The were-wolf replied.

"Are you sure?" asked Sora, raising an eyebrow. "You can come if you want to. There's plenty of space... Okay, maybe there isn't. But you'll be more than welcome, either way."

"I know, my friend, but I must decline." Jon answered. "Don't be worried about me: I trust that the truce between the vampires and I will last for a long time. I have spoken with one of their leaders – Olaf, and he has told me that, for now, I can consider myself as their ally. They will not harm me while I'm here, and I think that they won't attempt to seek me and destroy me when the war is over. Nevertheless, I also have the certainty that they will not try to make friends with those of my kind because of this little episode."

"...If you say so. Either way, it would've been nice to have you with us."

"I know. I do, however, have a favor to ask you."

"You want us to take special care of Felicia, don't you?" I guessed.

"Indeed." The were-wolf smiled. "Although I am sure that Octavius will be more than happy to do this."

"...You're not... upset about... you know...?" I asked.

"Oh, a gentleman doesn't discuss such things." Jon laughed, locking the door behind him. "Now look what you have done. I must change the subject, by all means. What were you fellows speaking about before I interrupted you?"

Respecting his wishes, I shook my head and replied, with a grin:

"We were speaking about Adrian's scar story. He told me that he had gotten it from a mad squirrel: Sora tells me he said to him that a clumsy friend of his cut him when they were fighting off three wolves, and now Ryu claims that an angry girlfriend of him scratched him, or something..."

Jon Talbain looked at all of us with wild puzzlement in his eyes for a few moments before replying in a murmur: "I thought he was a knife-juggler."

"A knife-juggler!" we all cried. Another moment of silence, and then we were all unable to contain our laughter.

"I can't believe him!" Sora exclaimed. "Four different stories! He is sure one hell of a liar! Even though the story was unreal, I surely believed him when he said it!"

"Guys, we're about to leave, come on!" unexpectedly called the crazy vampire as he opened the door, nearly knocking Jon to the ground as he did. "Sorry... We're nearly out of here."

"Hold on a second." I said. "Before that, we want to know how you got that scar of yours: the REAL story."

"I already told you, didn't I?" he said. "I think I told the tale to the four of you."

"You said to me it had been a girlfriend of yours who got mad at you and practically scratched you across the face." Ryu said.

"That's correct." The vampire answered.

"Yeah, but you told me it had been your friend, with the wolves, and all." Sora intervened.

"Yeah, that's right." Adrian replied, pretty convinced of himself.

"And the squirrel?" I asked, without giving any more details, hoping that he would answer something like 'What squirrel?' But no.

"Yeah, I know. It was pretty tragic."

"Weren't you a knife-juggler?" Jon added. I nearly burst out in laughter. Although the were-wolf never went into detail, I am sure the story was hilarious.

"Yes, I was."

"Okay, is either of these stories true?" asked Sora.

"Of course. They're all true." Adrian replied, to our surprise. "But then again, they could all be lies. Think whatever you may."

"...WHAT?" we all blurted out at the same time, and then Sora inquired: "So we could assume that a maddened squirrel who was your girlfriend and was helping you fight off a pack of wolves threw a knife at you so you could juggle it and cut your face by accident?"

"Okay, okay, I give." The vampire said, locking the door behind him. Again, we were isolated from the rest of our companions. I suppose he didn't want anyone else to listen to his madness... "I'll tell you what happened for real.

"When I was a human, I was the best there was in the house-changing business. Everyone who left their old house and went to a new one gave me a call so I could help them with their furniture. Yeah, I've always been strong... Either way, this one time, I was in this big house which had stairs in it. They said I had to take a huge mirror to the upper floor. And when I say huge, I mean it. If you could've seen that thing, you would've started to shake in your boots. But I decided there wasn't anything too big or heavy for me to handle. Big mistake.

"Actually, it wasn't my fault. I was on my own and no one even offered to lend a hand. I was doing really well until I got to the final steps. Some kid had already left a toy there... I slipped. The mirror broke into a thousand pieces and one of them got in here." He pointed at his scar... "It hurt pretty much, I can tell you that. And you know what the worse part was? They made me pay the stupid mirror! On top of things! Unbelievable, don't you think? Damn! I get mad just by thinking about it! Stupid kid! Stupid Mrs. Cadbury! Damn them!" and then, genuinely angry, he left us alone.

I wish you could've seen our faces. All of us stared at the place where he had been just seconds ago, speechless, our mouths and eyes opened widely, our bodies motionless. I suppose we all didn't know whether to curse him for being such a clown or praise him for his... originality.

"...I'm... I'm at a loss of words." Jon finally muttered.

"Oh, God!" Sora finally exclaimed and was twisted by laughter. He nearly fell to the ground, but held on to me to avoid this. "What in the world was that?"

"I have no idea..." I stuttered, between chuckles.

"My friends, we are late!" Demean suddenly cried. "We must go now, before sunrise!"

"I didn't know it was so late..." I mumbled. "Okay, enough laughs, guys. Let's go."

"Then make haste. I'll stay behind." Jon said. "I hope we meet again some other time. If that happens, I would appreciate it if you would tell me how he really got that scar. Or at least, I would like to hear another crazy story of the sort."

"We'll do what we can." Ryu assured, shaking the were-wolf's hand. "Take care of yourself, Jon."

"You too, Ryu. Good-bye. Good-bye, Sora, and Siegfried. I hope everything goes well."

"All right. We shall see you later, I hope." I said, exiting the room.

"See you, Jon." Added Sora, following Ryu and I.

I quickly said good-bye to all of the vampires. I surely was going to miss them. I told all of them that I hoped to see them again. Especially, I was a bit sad to say farewell to Rofell, Olaf, Thor, and Gustav. I was also going to miss Lucrecia... mainly because she was so beautiful and tender.

"Take care of yourself, my dear boy." The great Gangrel said. "And take care of your friends as well. Remember, you are more worthy than you might think."

"Do not forget what I taught you." Added Thor, patting my shoulder. "I wish we could have had more time together. Oh, well... perhaps when the war is over I will take you under my wing for another while."

"You will do just fine, my friend." Rofell declared. "I am sure you will make us proud."

"Go, good Siegfried." Gustav said. "And bring swift wrath to the darkness that lurks the worlds."

"I will t... I will." I assured, doing my best to be confident. "I'll see you then!"

"Good-bye, Will; good-bye, Peter." Merryck said to them as he shook their hands with a smile. "Keep guarding the world as you have thus far. I doubt you will have much more trouble."

"Let us hope you are right, my dear hobbit." The dragon replied. "I will pray for the safety of your journey."

"Take good care of yourself, Merryck." Added Peter. "And hold on to your happy thought, okay?"

"I will never let go, my friend!" Merryck assured, his smile growing bigger.

"Good-bye, vampires! Thank you for everything!" Ukyo exclaimed as she waved at the undead from our ship as it began to take off. "We'll see you again!" And so we were off.

Adrian went on Vincent's ship. That meant that, as long as he wasn't near, I had the perfect opportunity to speak with the person that surely at least had an idea of what happened to him.

"Hey, Demean..." I greeted, approaching the elf and the fairy.

"Hello, Siegfried." Answered Demean, with a smile. "It seems you are feeling better already."

"Oh, yes... I think I'll be able to handle it. It's bad, but it's not fatal, I guess."

"That is the spirit!" cheered Tish. "Do not worry; we will help you in any way we can."

"I know you will... thank you." I paused briefly and then asked: "So how long have you known Adrian?"

"For a very long time, actually." Demean replied. "We knew him before he became a vampire."

"Is that so? Then you wouldn't happen to know how he got that scar, wouldn't you?"

"You should ask him." Tish said. "I am sure he will tell you straight away." As I saw her and the elf, I noticed their smile had changed. It seemed to me that they could burst out in laughter at any moment. No doubt they already knew.

"Yeah, right." I mumbled. "And what do you think he would say this time?"

"Ah, I see you have already asked him, have you not?" Demean chuckled. "Well, what did he tell you?"

"I wasn't the only one." I answered and took a deep breath as I started to explain for the nth time. "He told me he got bitten by a squirrel; he told Sora that a friend of his had cut him during a fight with some wolves; he told Ryu a girlfriend of his had scratched him because she was angry at him, and he told Jon Talbain that he was a knife-juggler."

"A knife-juggler!" both of them cried and burst out in laughter. I merely shook my head and smiled silently as they knocked themselves out. "That is unbelievable!" he said, at last. "I do not think I have ever heard those stories before!"

"No, no, I think I remember the one of the angry girlfriend." Tish intervened. "I believe he had already told that one. Nevertheless, the others are new. I cannot believe how creative that vampire is. It seems to me that, over the years, he does not run out of ideas."

"So this isn't new?" I asked.

"By God, no!" said Demean. "He has been like this since I know him, I believe. He can tell all sorts of stories. He has only to think of a job found in his time and he can come up with a crazy tale. A detective, for example..."

"Or a mailman." Added the fairy.

"A baker, perhaps."

"A farmer."

"I also remember one where he was a carpenter."

"Let us not forget about the one where he was a watercolorist."

"Oh, that was a good one! But among his best is the one of the engineer..."

"I agree."

"Whoa! So... the list goes on?" I asked, stopping them.

"You have no idea." The fairy said. "He rarely tells a story more than once."

"...He really is nuts, isn't he?"

"Absolutely." Demean laughed. "But he is a good friend, and a superb fighter. I do not doubt he will aid us much in our quest."

"Yeah, I'm sure about it too, but..." I muttered, not really on the mood of changing the subject. "Do you know how he got it? I mean, for real..."

"Yes, we do." Tish said. She still smiled, yet her voice had turned serious.

"...And?" I pressed.

"I believe that if Adrian tells all of those stories, there must be a reason." Demean said. "Perhaps it would be best if you heard it from his own mouth."

"Uh-huh." I murmured, with a sigh of disappointment. "And don't you think he'll just keep coming up with silly tales?"

"Maybe, maybe not." The fairy said. "If you truly want to know, you will need to be patient. He does not tell people the real story of his scar so easily. Yet some people know how it happened, because he has told them."

"Were you among those people?"

"Not really." The elf responded. "For we witnessed how he got it in the first place. Yet let us not speak about it for the moment. In fact, I believe, Siegfried, that you could use a bit more training. We must, at least, train your new sight. What say you?"

"...Okay, I guess." I said, unable to hide the curiosity I had in Adrian's cursed scar.

I believe Demean and Tish were the only ones in the group that knew how he had been wounded. Perhaps some of the other vampires knew, yet I am not sure. One thing is certain, though: to this day, I only know a lot more of his crazy stories: I haven't got even a clue of how it really happened...