Darker Angel's Notes: Thank you for reviewing, everyone!! Chapters are slow in coming, and I apologize. It's a very difficult time to be writing, especially since it's the school year. Damned school... but I am not complaining... heh. Much.

Remind me to get a job so I can buy more Yu-Gi-Oh cards... I suck. *Pouts* I don't know how this chapter is going to turn out... it's the first 'edition' of it...so if it's choppy, I apologize again. And again and again...

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Spirit Hikaru

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Sephiroth explored the island mostly alone, but when the children came Hikaru taught the man the secrets of avoiding them entirely so they could return to the safety of their hidden points.

One such point was in the treetops, far from view but isolated. No child had the capability as far as Hikaru knew to reach this place. It was the focal point for their hideouts, where they could observe all but remain unobserved themselves.

The children were here today. Sephiroth was not alone. Before him, Hikaru moved amidst the undergrowth where the children didn't wander as they traveled toward their chosen watching place. Hikaru wore a bit of cloth, wrapped across his shoulder and ending in a pouch which contained a number of fruits and two coconuts.

They reached the tree. Hikaru shifted the makeshift pack and began to ascend. Once on the first branch, he reached his hand down to help him up.

"You can make it," the man said softly. "Give me your hand."

He eyed the stranger's hand. But eventually he grasped it strongly, pulling himself up into the tree beside him. Then they climbed further, Sephiroth no longer needing his aid as much the further they went. When they reached the top, there was a cliff that was part of the island itself, a rocky dirt-covered outcropping shaded by the tallest of tree-leaves. Here was a small dip in the top of it, preventing either man from inadvertly falling off through the canopy below.

The ocean and the surrounding isles stretched around them. On either side of the ridge, the trees rose tall and monumental, shading them from the oppressive sun. The stone was smooth and cool, and Sephiroth sprawled out on his stomach beside Hikaru.

He still couldn't see his face, even as they lay cramped up close together as they were. He set the parcel of fruits aside and turned to Sephiroth.

He spoke. "Tell me of the worlds where you came from."

"You know about the worlds...?"

"I know of many things. But you must tell me about your adventures." With child-like eagerness, he pressed close, head bent to listen while his glowing yellow eyes fixated beyond the gathering of the young people below on the sand.

They sat in a rough circle, the red-haired girl, the half-slouching and sprawling boy with the ball, the brown-haired little kid and hyperactive little girl in the yellow dress. All of them appeared to be talking about something of great importance, but the words didn't quite reach the watchers' ears.

Sephiroth didn't supply the stories he had to tell. The past bubbled against the surface like acid, threatening to wear away the lining of his sanity. His sanity remained intact... but only so much. The peaceful quality of the islands soothed his burning thoughts. But when Hikaru asked him... what of his adventures? He wanted to scream.

Dion... his brother, Vax, Axel, Kiriel... None of them mattered.

Ansem...

"I don't want to talk about it," Sephiroth stated flatly, leaning his chin on his folded arms, watching the children. They appeared as though they were smaller versions of serious adults in very deep discussion. The red-haired girl looked saddened... her eyes gleamed with tears, even from this far away.

"She is searching for her lost friends... they were taken by the Darkness and pulled beyond their world into another. The Keyblade master recovered the lost princesses of heart and stopped the Darkness. Thenceforward, the worlds were saved but in order for it to remain that way, the walls between the worlds had to be locked again so that no one could travel to the others. Her friends are lost..."

"Who were they?"

Hikaru answered quietly. "Sora and Riku."

Sephiroth watched the procession. The girl in the yellow-dress moved over to the red-haired girl and hugged her, where the red-haired girl started to cry softly.

"I know what it's like to lose someone..." Sephiroth said softly to the unhearing girl. "I know what it's like to feel pain... that you had failed..."

"You didn't fail," Hikaru interrupted, laying a hand on his shoulder. He gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Please don't say that... because it isn't true. You escaped from another world. You have defied the walls between worlds and now, you can do as you like."

"You don't understand!" Sephiroth shrugged his arm away, sitting up and reaching to grab one of the fruits. He bit into it, and felt the gentle sweetness of it dribble down his chin. He swallowed the mouthful and turned to glare at Hikaru. "And I didn't do anything. It was all him, he saved me from the darkness, and now he is lost to it forever!!"

Hikaru regarded him coolly with the emotionless yellow balls of light that replaced the reassuring eyes that Sephiroth needed now. He stared back, feeling the Mako blaze, and then tore his face away to stare at the dripping fruit.

"He isn't," Hikaru whispered. "He isn't lost. Why do you keep saying that? Who is he?"

"Ansem." Sephiroth's voice faltered slightly. A change overcame Hikaru but he did not notice. The strange man straightened up a bit more, his eyes dimmed and he sighed.

"Ansem was the man who unleashed the darkness," he responded. "He was the one responsible for the near destruction of the worlds. And then he was bound vanquished and banished to another realm. Is that him?"

"What?" Sephiroth turned, staring at Hikaru like a man who had been punched in the face without knowing the culprit. "Ansem?"

The masked man turned away and swallowed. "It is true. He who tried to unveil the shadows and bring them into the light suffered an untimely fate... an eternity in suffering. It is where all go who threaten the life and light of the universe. And you brought him back?"

"But he's gone! I lost him... besides, you've got him all wrong now. He's not like that anymore. The Heartless took his heart, but I found it even if his body was gone. And when the door opened... the Guardian..."

Suddenly Sephiroth abandoned the fruit. His body came to life as he lunged, grabbing the cloaked man by the throat and pinning him underneath all of his weight. He peered close, his fingers sinking beyond simple cloth, pinching the delicate windpipe. "Who are you?" he hissed, bending so that his forehead would almost be touching the edge of his hood. "Tell me who you are, Hikaru... what are you doing here? How do you know all of this?"

"I, too... am... a Guardian..." Hikaru whispered. In the shadows of his hood, Sephiroth saw a face. "It is what I have become..."

The silver-haired man slowly loosened his grip. He sat up slowly, his hand against Hikaru's throat. He felt the firm, living flesh underneath him jar with the coughs taken to clear the throat so he could breathe.

Can it be...?

His voice was firmer now, louder, clearer. "When I was murdered, my spirit wandered, so I took this body." He smiled grimly, shaking his head slightly.

That voice...

No.

"That's not true," Sephiroth hissed lowly. "I-- Ansem's spirit destroyed you!!"

"No... Perhaps you don't understand clearly, Sephiroth. I am the spirit of Feld Marsonis... my body died long before the Guardian of Tarbina ever came into being." He smiled, laughing softly. "In fact... it was my spirit that brought him into being... tossed to the ethereal winds, I found a haven inside that guardian's maddened mind."

Sephiroth seemed to listen with mute awe and horror. His eyes were still narrowed but seemed unfocused... glazed, it seemed, with dumbstruck apathy.

"I used him," Hikaru finished with a light push, forcing Sephiroth to sit beside him in the alcove, not on him. "And Ansem did exactly as I thought he would do to protect you... he destroyed the Tarbina Guardian's body... and led me here."

"What--" He couldn't speak. Words failed him. This monstrosity... whoever it was... was wily and cunning and had far more power over spiritual things than Sephiroth could ever imagine. Through simple chance, he had unwillingly guided this monstrocity to this peaceful place... and Ansem was lost forever and--

"What about Ansem?" Sephiroth demanded softly. His eyes began to blaze again. Furious, he stood up on his knees, clenching his fists. "Why did you save me?"

"That," Hikaru said quietly, "is a secret." With a satisfied smile, he closed his eyes. From that instant to the next, his body vanished altogether and left Sephiroth crouched alone, furious and wounded and enraged with no way to vent without gaining the unwanted attention of the gathering children below.

He took up the makeshift sack of cloth at last, wickedly infuriated. Without a glance he turned and flung the foul gift as far away from him as possible, and listened to its satisfying crash as it broke through the canopy, scattering colorful, multi-shaped orbs in every direction.