Authors notes: Hey, hey, chapter two! I have no real idea why I'm continuing this other than the fact that a few friends found the title amusing. If you thought the first chapter didn't suck as bad as I claimed it to be, you probably wont be disappointed with this chapter. It sucks. Really.

This chapter is in the FF7 world as well. Anyone reading this far may wonder where the heck the FF8 comes in, or how Spike and Jet ever make it into the story. Well. I'm not going to tell you. It'll get there, It'll just take a while. All the main plot happens in 7, some weird and virtually pointless stuff happens in 8, the Internet will be brought in, and our lovely Bounty Hunters.. But I'm not saying when or how.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Planet, the Other Planet, Sephiroth, Vincent, Reeve, Reno, Elena, Rude, Cid Highwind, Shera, Chaos, Seifer, Zell, Squall, Selphie, Irvine, Rinoa, Headmaster Cid, Quistis, Xu, Rajin, Fujin, Kawadoki (Probably spelled wrong several times), Balamb Garden, Spike, Jet, Swordfish, The claw thing Jet flies, or the Internet. I don't actually like Cloud, so he's being excluded from this fic.
Info and Cyber are borrowed characters and I have been given full permission to use them within this fiction. Dolphin of Yaoi, thank you. Katelynne, Zane, Droxis, Apothis, various short lived characters and anyone else you don't recognize are probably mine. 'Hyperstyle' is mine, and if you'd like to use it, feel free, just give me credit for it. Anything not mentioned here I've probably forgotten about.

Shoutout:
Thank you, nny777slavelabor. You're review on chapter one reminded me this piece of crap existed. Being Sunday and having two hours left to sit around in the house, I decided to work on it. Thus, Chapter Two was born.

Twisting Heads

World: Seven
Time: Several years past the whole defeat of Sephiroth. A day or two after the first chapter.
Location: Rocket Town
Warning: This is not a Mary-Sue, but it still sucks like one.

A few days later after the two had fully formed and Cid's instances had actually managed to get people to stop spitting on Zane as if he was nothing more than Cid's captive, they'd actually started swapping tales and stories of way back when. Zane admitted to having a bit more fascination with air and the ever looming space than the average person did and even discussed a few planes he'd developed models for back when he was in a younger state of mind.
In return, Cid shared now pointless information of the rockets and the planes he'd developed in the peak of ShinRa's power rage. Shera percolating over the two, serving them tea and getting yelled at now and then, quite usual all things considered.
Mortal wounds and minimal broken bones being changed to nicks and cuts or healing state from solid doses of Cure around those few days left both men in very good condition. And both of them restless. There was very little work to be done, and the Highwind still off limits to Zane, he was growing rather tired of town life quickly. Plus, the more he lingered, the sooner someone he couldn't face would arrive and he'd have to make some pretty fine excuses for being unavailable.
Noticing his discomfort though not as to why, Cid nudged him in the back while passing.
"How about a sparring session on the beach, Eh Zane?" Smoke wafting by again. Zane had long ago stopped wondering if there was a time he ever didn't have a cigarette hanging from his mouth.
Zane nodded and smiled broadly, moving to fetch his lance by the door, still wearing his uniform. He'd refused to trade it in for something else under the words that he hadn't earned the right to live as a normal person yet.
Shera packet them lunches, insisting they wait five minutes for her to do so. And yelling back at them, insisting on 'no violence in the house' when they started poking each other with spearheads from impatience.


Once out on the beach without worry of the townsfolk nor Shera to bother them, simply the company of the ever changing waves and each other, they took a moment to take in the sight of their area and enjoy the fresh ocean air.
"Ready to be beaten bloody?" Came Zane's jovial tone to Cid, who'd promised to go one limit lower this time, as did Zane.
"You wish, dipshit." Replied Cid, already grinning in anticipation of their precious little battle. "No Final limits, but everything else is fine, agreed?"
"Agreed. I'll still win." Zane drew off a materia from his armlet and changed it to his lance for a little more power, adding an ice element to the weapon itself as it was junctioned to his only summon, Shiva. Cid's manipulation of his materia was unknown to Zane and made it more interesting.
Taking their stances, Cid losing his flight jacket and leaving him with nothing more than a shirt to Zane's flimsy uniform without armor pads or bear skin cape, they squared off, and circled each other slightly.

The battle that proceeded was indeed one meant to fully test their skills as fighters. Cid was excellent with his Dragoon Lance, and heaving the ballast to strike when the enemy would expect a jab, or jabbing a foot or joint or other critical location to the well being of his opponent, weakening him much faster than the full on jabs and blows to Cid's own body.
Breaking apart, casting the lowest level version of Cure available to them, they went at it again. Zane changed tactics to striking Cid with Lightning and catching him in the side when he stumbled. Feeling the countermeasure of fire at his back, he just wrenched his emerald weapon hard into Cid's side before leaping back and away, screaming in pain from being surrounded with flame.
Their battle continued in a dance of hard, fast movements, brilliant displays and flashings of low level or higher level magics, never quite reaching full potential, and yet never quite healing completely either. They'd made the provisions to all their battles with unspoken word in advance. It was one thing to battle a monster, and another to battle a friend.

*-*-*

Back at the house, Shera answered a soft and quite memorable tapping knock on the door. She opened it and smiled quite pleasantly. "Vincent! How good to see you!"
Vincent just nodded, no particular expression on his face as it seemed was the norm. "I am not intruding on your afternoon, am I?" Hovering there on the step in his normal black and reds, somewhere between intimidating and foolish as it was a rather heated summer day.
"No, no, not at all. Do come in, I've got a fresh pot of tea on the stove." She stood back slightly, offering him an invitation into the house.
Vincent hesitated however. "Where is Cid? I'd like to discuss a matter with him."
She smiled at him lightly, knowing full well Vincent spoke to very few people, if any at all, outside of Cid since the end of the world was supposed to happen. "He's out on the beach with Zane."
"Zane?"
"Come in, I'll catch you up on everything." And Shera pulled the victorian-esque warrior within the shading of the home, shutting the door and chasing him into a seat for some tea and a discussion.

*-*-*

Zane panted, taking several more blows, nearly falling from the aggression. Their battle had to be a fast one as, though their training and experience had been long and hard, their injured arms could only take so much shifting and moving of weight before the strain was realized and began to settle in. They'd been exchanging blows less and less and using more magics, Cid with fire and wind while Zane preferred lightning and ice.
Just now, however, Zane was working on summoning Shiva as his last ditch effort to bring the younger, more energetic Cid down to his level of pain and equalize the tables again. Thirty years unsettled may have brought him strength and wisdom, but it had also made him older and his muscle weren't quite what they used to be. Another few blows and he had stepped back, slamming the brunt of his weapon against Cid's knocking hit back and causing him to stumble.
"Diamond Dust!"
"Aw crap."
Zane found himself being pulled back into another world adjoining the one he was accustomed to. The world of Summons, so to speak. Hovering there as Shiva traded places with him, welling up into the vision of the enemy of the day. Almost immediately Zane was given a sense of something being wrong. Watching as Shiva welled power in her hands, he heard screaming in the back of his mind, that area that seemed connected to the planet.
Cid on the other hand was bracing for the blow, trying to heal himself from what he expected of the razing winds and Ice of the Summon that had been unleashed on him. Looking up at the mighty woman, nearly a goddess of valued legend, he just smirked. "Gimmie yer best shot, bitch."
Tightness curled around Zane's heart as he felt himself floating in this other world, his eyes widening as he watched from the side and just behind his Summon, watching darkness from the ethereal realm he was in dripping down onto Shiva's back and starting to spread like a virus. Once the power of the summon reached her limit, the standard attack was released down upon the opponent, covering him over in a blast of icy wind, razors of icicles assaulting the lancer man before shattering painfully.
"That all ya got woman?!" Cid laughed as he stood again, waving a gloved fist after the vanishing Summon. Or more precisely, waving his fist after the Summon that was supposed to be vanishing. It didn't. Shiva was glaring at him, her hands on her hips. "Uh-oh."

Zane watched from his helpless other world as he could see the blackness spreading, filling his beloved summon with sickness and disease. His mouth moved and his vocal cords screamed in warnings left unheard to his warrior partner. Shiva was changing quickly in the eyes of both men as her delicate form change to something looking more starved and hungry, growing claws and sharpened teeth as her suddenly vicious form of living ice suddenly pounced down on the intended victim of the afternoon.
Cid's screams did not reach the dead silence of the ethereal realm in which Zane hung, displaced and unheard as there was no source of sound. Yet there was something else. A spreading feeling of terror and helplessness. As Zane reached out in some desperate form of communication with Cid, he found shackles and chains of dark energy around his wrist, stretching out behind him. He turned away from the sight of his friend being mangled by his insane Summon to see what had unknowingly captured him and could only stare into a voice of a creature, blacker than the very void itself, devouring all things bright and living into itself for destruction.
"No..." Zane found himself speaking in surprise and horror as the voices in the back of his skull went silent, the warning lost futilely. Even this moment of looking back, he'd missed the killing blow to his lover which had ended this strange entrapment as the need to exist ended. The blackness reached out and latched a large hand around the bulk of Shiva's body, pulling it back into the ethereal realm and booting out the momentary puppet it had made Zane into, leaving the man in his own sunny little world once more, next to Cid who was not breathing from the deep gash in his chest.
"Cid!" Zane exclaimed in shock, quickly casting Life on the fallen man, followed with a heavy dose of cure. Though his own experience had badly shaken him, he was not prepared to lose Cid over some foolish little mistake or evil within the planet's core. More willing to forget what he'd seen all together, he pulled the partially healed and revived man into his arms, nearly to drop him again from the bitter cold coursing through his body.
He cursed almost as valiantly as Cid did on his worst days and recalled back to his ShinRa training. Remembering how some troops seemed more susceptible to Hypothermia than others when they had traveled to the far northern cities for patrol and control. Half the time their invasions had completely failed from the sickness and dangers of the snowy lands and soldiers unprepared for what they had to face, so after a while, everyone had been trained with certain degrees of knowledge in the area.
"C-c-c-c-f-f-fuck-c-c-cold.." Came the weak voice of Cid, breathy and barely alive even with the healing as the temperature fought the magic with intent to keep him dead. He wasn't even warm enough for his body to shiver, simply laying there on the sand as Zane watched over him with a desperately thoughtful expression.

"I know, I know, just hang in there, Cid. Hang in there." Zane spoke suddenly and moved beside him, starting to dig in the sand with his hands, a set course within his mind. There were several actions to perform and he had to do all of them before Cid slipped into unconsciousness again. If he did, Zane might lose him forever as healing and life magic could only do so much from experience. He dug a shallow trench out quickly with his hands, one that would accommodate for most of Cid's height and a touch deeper still before pulling the freezing man into it.
"The sun is on our side, and the wind's aren't too bad." Zane spoke as he worked, giving Cid something to concentrate on, worried even as the man's skin held the blue-grey tint of death warmed over. "With all this heated sand, I should be able to get you warmed back up again. And the driftwood out here should be some good fire stock."
He departed from Cid a moment and gathered up some of said driftwood, starting to build small piles near his head and by his feet after stripping him down to nothing so he could fully accept the heat of the sun and the sands, knowing full well he'd have to crawl in there with him as soon as he got the fires and spare wood attained. It was standard procedure, he had no qualms with doing it.

*-*-*

There was desperate pummeling of fists on the door to Cid's home in the middle of their casual conversation and Shera once more went to get the door, wondering what could possibly be wrong now in a wonderful day like this. "Er, ye-"
"Where's the captain, we've got an emergency!" The Watchman from one of the outer homes barged forward, gripping Shera by her slender shoulders.
"He's out with Zane, I'm sure he's quite alright. Please calm down Mr.Rictor, what's going on? Wont you come in?" Shera sighed a bit, wondering if today was going to be normal or not.
"There's no time, someone has to get the Captain! First the SOLDIER, and now this.. That Black Patrol is approaching!"
Shera rose a brow but ti was Vincent, who'd moved up beside her, that spoke first. "The Black Patrol?"
"Yes! They may not be backed by ShinRa anymore, but that's only made them more dangerous without rules to guide them! The Turks are coming, HERE, the chocobos just came over the mountains!" Mr.Rictor almost screamed in his face. The large man was quite scared, apparently hearing one too many campfire stories of what The Turks were capable of and had been set off into a blind terror that he thought only a leader could get them out of.
A metal claw peeled back the frantic man's fingers from Shera's shoulders and he shoved the man out, following him. "Well, the Captain seems somewhat indisposed. Why don't we go meet him ourselves? I'm sure we can turn them away without any trouble, my dear Rictor."
"Thank you, Vincent." Shera said tiredly after him. The stoic figure just waved his human hand back towards her by way of 'see you later' and lead the man off through the minuscule town to what could be considered the entrance to Rocket Town.


"Strange. There's four of them. Last I checked, the Turks only numbered in three's." Vincent spoke aloud to himself, perched atop a simple Mountain Chocobo. He'd gotten Frista from Cloud before they had all gone their separate ways as a parting gift for not getting to know him better through their escapades of the planet saving ordeal. The bird had been his only companion as of late, outside of rare visits to Cid and Shera for a cup of tea and talks of the world.
Sitting there on his Chocobo, he mused over watching their chocobos being driven hard, as if there was a sense of urgency behind the blazing riders, kicking up dirt and dust behind them, taking no care weather or not they were seen. He sipped a bit of water from a flask from his saddlebags and made mental notes of the riders. The blazing redhead in the suit marking the presence of the cocky Reno. Rude seems to have been polishing the bald scalp of his as it almost seemed to glint in the sunlight as the bulky man clung to his hefty bird. Elena was there, a bit older along with the rest, riding her chocobo expertly, rolling with the bird's every motion and nearly getting ahead of the lead bird several times.
And yet, the man on the lead chocobo, though familiar, he could not seem to quite place. Black hair, bearded and in a navy suit, seemed to be spurring most the desperation. A jockey whip in his hand as he whipped his bird now and then as he saw the town ahead of him, though wary of the chocobo waiting for them in front of the town.

*-*-*

"Cid." Zane spoke softly, fires roaring around them. The older man laying nude with his fallen brother-at-arms, holding him tight and close to himself, sharing his warmth and the heated sand he'd poured between the cracks of their bodies. He'd spoken to him softly the entire time, and had finally come to admitting his fears. "Cid, don't die on me like this. You're the first person I've ever thought could understand."
"Zuh-Zane.." Cid replied, his eyes barely open, unfocused though directed at the man. Conscious, but barely on speaking terms, a slim shiver to his body and the flaming heats surrounding him.
"You cant go like this. Not like this. We've so much to discuss still. So much to explore. You haven't even told me half your ideas, I know that. I saw how many of your projects ShinRa rejected. I saved every one of them. Cid. Please. Don't go like this."
"Zuh..." Cid rolled his eyes slightly. Good lord this was sappy.
"Cid." His voice growing softer and husky, shifting his weight to press the pilot down into the sand, brushing his lips over the man's cheek to his lips before kissing him. Cid found himself with a completely different reason to focus, his eyes widening slightly in surprise. Too weak to retaliate or even join in, all he could do was stare as Zane's tongue licked ad his lips as if he were ice cream.
His chin was gently pulled down as Zane continued to share his warmth on a much more intimate level, his tongue pressing into the pilot's mouth. His warmth against the pilot-sicle began to increase as even kissing the man in such a manner seemed to excite and intice him in a way he'd never even truly shared with his wife.
The two of them became quite entranced with the shared kiss, Cid struggling against his own natural intolerance to the cold and the grayness that was trying to rake him into the world beyond. A sweet kiss beyond comparison of any other he'd really received, even in his younger years. Losing themselves in the desperate hunger for heat which was becoming mingled and confused with an unknown passion, that the approaching footsteps were lost in the crackle of both internal and external flames.
"Ooh. Nice." Vincent cracked a smile at the two squirming men on the beach, glancing over at his gaping companion. Frowning once more at the shattered dreams that expressed on the younger man's face.
"DAD?!?!!" Shrieked the navy suited man.
Zane froze. His eyes going wide as dinner plates, pulling his tongue from Cid's throat and lips apart, looking further up the beach. "Oh gods no... Reeve?"
Reeve stumbled back in complete shock, slapping Vincent's hand away when he'd been offered support, and just lunged back onto his chocobo and back into town where he'd left the rest.

---

End Notes: Okay, Sephiroth didn't show up, but there IS an appearance in here somewhere. I just have to remember when he shows up. I think chapter three is going to be the FF8 world though, I need to go set up those characters somewhat before the Seven world progresses any more. That and its cute.

Next Chapter!: Hm.. Well, it'll either be a continuation of the Seven world, or the setup of Jarod's relations and setup for the 8 world. The Cowboy Bebop and Internet stuff doesn't come up for a while yet, so don't hold your breath.