Author's Notes: Been a while since I updated this... ::Looks down:: Gomen, gomen. Unfortunately, I write as my muses please and they usually only want to write a little bit at a time. Please leave me some reviews!!! (Thanks for all the wonderful reviews you've given already. ) Now... ahem... onto the story.

Chapter Six - Cruel Assumptions

"Who's Sephiroth?" Sora asked, his brows furrowed in confusion at Yuffie's obvious horror.

"Who's Sephiroth? Who's Sephiroth?!" She shrieked, beginning to pace back and forth. "He's only the madman who tried to destroy the world and the rest of us along with it. Cloud's arch nemesis. He's fucking crazy! He killed so many people, hell, he destroyed Cloud's hometown! What is he thinking!? Searching after Sephiroth after everything that man did?!?!" Yuffie cried, throwing her hands up into the air. "Cloud's lost it! He's fucking lost it!"

Sora raised both of his eyebrows. "Umm... why... why would someone like that be Clouds' light?"

Yuffie stopped in her pacing and mutterings and shot Sora a look that plainly said 'Are you stupid?' before she remembered he didn't know, he hadn't been there. She sighed, running her fingers through her inky black hair. "Sephiroth didn't always used to be the bad guy. In fact, he was a war hero. Everyone looked up to him. Boys wanted to be him, girls wanted to be with him, all that fun rot." The ninja rubbed at her temples absently. "Look, it's a really long story. Sephiroth basically had the nervous breakdown from hell and went insane." She shuddered, remembering the events that had taken place. "Cloud was in love with Sephiroth before it all happened, though. He knew the real Sephiroth, not the crazy madman the rest of us knew. He must not have..." She sighed and began pacing again. "He must not have given up on him like we all thought he did. But how can he still have feelings for that man?! He. Nearly. Destroyed. Us. All...!!!!"

Sora continued watching the girl silently, unsure of what to say in response to that.

"But he's friggin' crazy!" Yuffie cried again, muttering to herself before stopping and looking at Sora. "We've got to help him!"

"Help who do what?"

"Cloud!" She said in exasperation. "We've got to help Cloud! He can't... he can't... he can't just go after him! He can't... Sephiroth's dead! He's dead! What if Cloud's trying to get Sephiroth resurrected or something?! We can't let that happen! Aerith would just die!!" The ninja suddenly paused, furrowing her brows. "...again! But that's not the point! We must get Cloud to realise this is insane before he does something incredibly stupid and, trust me, Cloud is prone to do very stupid things sometimes!"

"Die... again?" Sora echoed, looking at the girl in confusion.

"Yes, yes, die again." She said, waving her hands dismissively. "Long story there, too. Summary is: She was praying, Sephiroth didn't like it so he jumped down, stabbed her right through her stomach, even smiled about it!, while we stood there looking like idiots and let that damned, ever-so-precious materia sink to the bottom of the freakin' lake!" Yuffie paused again, looking thoughtful. "I wanted that materia too." She frowned. "I tried to get it, afterwards. Threw myself right into the lake." Her frown deepened. "Vincent dragged me out and said it wasn't appropriate. Something about our friend just dying and it being incredibly rude to be more concerned with materia than with our dead friend. Stupid ex-Turk bastard." Sora looked at her blankly at this. "What?!" Yuffie cried, throwing her hands out. "She was dead! Boohoo and all that stuff! Nothing we could do about that, but that materia..." Her voice trailed off as she frowned once more. "We could have gotten that baby..."

"Umm..." Sora rubbed the back of his neck nervously, taking a step away from the ninja.

"Hey!" She cried, grabbing Sora by his arm. "Just what do you think you're doing, mister?! We've gotta save Cloud!"

"...I've got to get back to... y'know... saving the worlds... and all that fun stuff..." Sora said nervously, suddenly overwhelmingly grateful that the Keyblade had chosen him.

Yuffie frowned again. "But what about Cloud?"

"Er... Cloud's a big boy? He seems like he can take care of himself...?"

"Alright, fine, go!" Yuffie cried, suddenly pushing Sora away. "I'll just have to save him on my own!!!"

"...Right... bye then!" Sora scampered off, away from the ninja who had begun to seriously scare him. 'I'm so glad I'm not Cloud...' Sora thought to himself before turning his mind back to the object at hand; finding Riku.

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'I feel so stupid.' Cloud thought for the millionth time, eyes glued to the ceiling as he absently counted the cracks in the plaster. 'What's wrong with me? Why does Leon's feelings mean so much to me? I don't know what it is... I just... I want him to be happy... I want him to open up, to smile at least once a century... I want to know what his laugh sounds likes... I feel like... like I won't be happy unless he is... I need him to be happy...'

Cloud frowned, biting his lip. 'It shouldn't matter. It shouldn't bother me at all. I tried, out of the goodness of my heart, to make Leon happy in the only way I could think of, but it failed. I failed. Not the first time I've failed, either. I also failed in making him happy...'

The blonde winced. Even though it had been years since he had killed the one he loved, he still couldn't bring himself to say his name. The thought alone hurt too much. Cloud knew he had failed him, and that thought nearly killed him every time he thought about it. 'But... that's not fair, I know that's not fair... I did everything I could, everything I could think of I tried... but I... I still feel like... like somehow I didn't do enough... like there was something more I could have done to keep him sane, to keep him happy... fuck, to keep him alive... but I... I had no qualms in killing him, did I? I didn't even hesitate... I had... I had convinced myself that he was nothing more than the enemy, that he wasn't the man I loved... but he was, wasn't he? In the end, when it all came down to it, he was the man I loved... he looked so... so confused, so sad and remorseful... I could have... I could have stopped! ... But, I just killed him. I killed him and didn't think twice about it until some time later...'

Cloud shook his head. 'I got completely off track there... I need to let the past go already, like Yuffie says... there's nothing I can do about it now and, besides, Leon has nothing to do with the past or with him or anything else... he's in a class all his own... the super extreme class of confusion...' The blonde sighed to himself again, shifting in the bed until he was on his side. He proceeded to curl up into a ball tightly, hugging his knees to his chest. 'I just wish... I wish I knew what was going on... with me, with him... it's all so damn confusing sometimes! Especially when Leon won't say more to me than 'Whatever' or 'Tell it to a wall'... He makes this so hard... and, the sad thing is, I don't even think he knows he's doing it... he's probably confused about this whole situation, about me... ha, yeah, right... like Leon thinks about me... I'm sure he'd be revived before that happened...' Cloud sighed again. It seemed all he could do, and all he had been doing, was running in circles. He would have given his life to know the way out of the maze at any time. It was really beginning to drive him mad.

'I should probably get up...' He thought to himself, even as his eyes closed. 'Or, maybe... maybe I'll just get up after I rest for a bit... yes, rest, that's what I need...'

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"Darkness, darkness, I love darkness!" The amber-eyed man sang quietly to himself, watching the Keybearer struggle against the Heartless in Maleficents' sphere. He grinned wickedly as the Keybearers' companions fell down, unconscious. "Yes, my pretties, take them all out!!!"

"What are you doing?"

Ansem whirled around, the sphere immediately going black as he looked at Maleficent blankly. "Pardon?"

"Were you just singing to yourself?" Maleficent asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I certainly wasn't." Ansem said coldly, his eyes narrowing. "Don't you have something better to do, witch?"

Maleficent laughed. "Me? Nonsense. Everything is going according to plans."

"Hmph. Well, I certainly have better things to do than sit here and converse with the likes of you." Ansem hissed, turning away and beginning to walk off.

"Going to see the boy again?" The witch asked, her voice dripping with amusement.

Ansem paused for a moment, his eyes flashing angrily. "I've better things to do than that, as well." He replied smoothly before walking off.

Maleficent laughed. "I'm sure you do, Ansem, I'm sure you do."

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'Well, I can either practice by myself, read or sleep.' Leon thought grimly as he looked around the empty living room, none of the ideas to his liking. 'Practising by myself isn't challenging, I don't feel like reading and I'm not really tired.' The Gunblader sighed to himself, running his fingers through his hair. He was going to go out of his mind with boredom.

'Aerith went to the store... Cid is running the shop... Yuffie is Hyne knows, Hyne cares where and Cloud is still holed up in his room...' Leon frowned as he thought about the stubborn blonde. 'Well, at least now it makes sense as to why I miss him. I just miss the thrill of training and, whether or not I want to admit it, he's the best person to train with and definitely the only one to give a real challenge around here.'

Still, it was bothering Leon that Cloud was still refusing to come out of his room. He couldn't personally understand it. A fit, he could understand. A few heated words and a sworn promise for revenge, he could also understand. But completely withdrawing after getting beaten? The mere thought of it was beyond him.

'That's just a cowards' way of thinking. Cowards give up, quitters give up, Yuffie gives up if you give her something shiny, but... I don't know, Cloud just never struck me as one to give up... seems highly out of character for him....' Leon shook his head. He was wasting time thinking about the blonde again. 'Whatever... he can go tell it all to a wall...'

Just then the front door opened and then slammed shut. The pounding of footsteps that followed alerted Leon that Yuffie had come home from wherever she had been. 'Great...' He thought dryly as he braced himself for Yuffie's normal energetic and overly dramatic entrance.

He was a bit shocked when the ninja threw herself on the couch without so much as a greeting or a look his way. 'What is this? Out of character day for everyone? First Cloud becomes a hermit, then I start caring and now Yuffie isn't even- scratch that. I don't fucking care! I just miss training!'

Yuffie muttered something incoherently into the couch.

"What was that?"

The dark-haired girl turned over slowly, her eyes blank as she looked at Leon. "What was what?"

"Whatever you just mumbled."

"I didn't mumble anything."

Leon shrugged, indicating he didn't really care one way or another, which he didn't. "...Whatever."

Yuffie scratched idly at her leg. "I went to see Sora earlier."

"I asked him about Cloud, if he knew why he's been acting funny lately."

"..."

"D'ya wanna know what he said?"

"..."

"Fine, be a bitch." Yuffie muttered, glaring at Leon before flipping onto her other side and staring at the couch.

Leon sighed and wished he had something sharp so that he could stab Yuffie repeatedly. "What?"

"What what?" Yuffie asked, still sulking.

The Gunblader gritted his teeth. "What did Sora say?"

She looked over her shoulder at him and sniffed. "Now you want to know, hmm?"

"Yuffie..."

"Fine, fine! Jeez, don't bite my head off!" Yuffie sat up and looked at Leon for a moment before frowning. "Him and Cloud talked after the tournament for a few moments."

".......................And?"

"Aaaand... Sora said Cloud was looking for his light."

'Good for him.' Leon shot Yuffie a blank look, wanting to know what that had to do with him.

"Well, I went through all of the possible people who could be his light, right?"

"..."

"And you know, after cutting out about a million bazillion people because, let's face it, Cloud has a fan club, I finally came up with the person!"

Leon raised his eyebrow. "...?"

"It's Sephiroth!" She shrieked, before clamping her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide.

"Do you just want me to bring him out here and have you tell him?" Leon asked dryly.

Yuffie removed her hand from her mouth and giggled nervously. "You... you don't think he heard me, do you?"

"Seeing as how he hasn't yet come out of his room, I'd say either he doesn't care or he didn't hear you..." Was the stoic response.

Yuffie breathed a sigh of relief as she began twirling a few strands of hair with her fingers. "Anyways, it has to be Sephiroth. There's just no one else."

"You mean that monkey from your planet?"

Yuffie surpressed a giggle. "I'd hardly call Sephiroth a monkey, Leon. He was, after all, the best swordsman on our planet, not to mention one of the prettiest men alive and-"

"An insane psycho who tried to destroy you all, if I remember correctly?"

Yuffie nodded. "That too!"

"... I'm still failing to see how this is any of my concern."

The ninja shot Leon a glare before continuing. "Well, think about it, Leon! Sephiroth is dead. Dead. D-e-a-d. Not 'Aerith-Oh-Watch-Me-Come-Back-To-Life-See-Yuffie-You-Really-Could-Have-Gotten-That-Materia-If-Vincent-Hadn't-Been-Such-An-Ex-Turk-Bastard-Thing' dead but dead, as in 'He's-So-Not-Coming-Back-Boo-Hoo-And-All-That' dead."

Yuffie sighed in exasperation, throwing her hands up. "Leon, Cloud's gonna-"She paused, grinning sheepishly and lowering her voice before continuing. "Cloud's gonna try to revive Sephiroth!"

Leon raised an eyebrow but remained silent.

"Revive Sephiroth!" She waved her hands around, trying to get her point across. When Leon continued looking blankly at her, she sighed. "Leon, let's use some common sense here. Sephiroth is an evil, crazy bastard. We've already determined that. Cloud, blindly in love after all this time and everything that happened, isn't thinking straight and is trying to revive Sephiroth. Now, unless a miracle has happened sometime without anyone knowing about it, Sephiroth will still be an evil, crazy bastard upon revival. What do you think is going to happen then?" Another blank look from Leon. "He's going to try to destroy us all!" She shrieked, before clamping a hand over her mouth again. After a moment, she continued once more, making sure her voice wasn't loud enough to carry beyond the living room. "Leon, we gotta stop him! Sephiroth could do some serious damage! The Heartless are nothing compared to the Almighty Sephiroth!"

Leon sighed and rubbed his temples. "Okay, Yuffie, just answer me one thing. What in the hell do you think I can do about this?"

Yuffie shrugged. "I don't know." She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted a little bit. "But I know Cloud respects and values your opinion."

Leon snorted. "Yeah."

"I'm serious now! He really thinks highly of you!"

"Right."

"Leon!" She cried. "Stop being an ass! I'm serious!"

The brunette sighed again. "Sounds like it's his problem to me."

"Heeeello?! Were you not listening to a word I said?! Sephiroth. Will. Destroy. EVERYTHING. Including you!!!"

"Still his problem." Leon said wearily. "Once Sephiroth gets here, then I can see why it would be my problem as well. But, right now, it's all his."

"Leon!" She shrieked, jumping up and glaring at the brunette. "You are being selfish and stupid!"

"I'm hardly being either." Leon said coldly, glaring back at the girl.

"Okay, then you explain that to me, because I'm just not getting it!!!"

Leon snorted. "I don't have to explain anything to you, Yuffie." He said flatly, before turning around and walking out of the room.

Yuffie sighed to herself, balling her hands into fists and taking a few wide swings at the air. "Grrr! Is nothing going to go right for me today?! First, I hear the awful freakin' news about that and then no one wants to even bother helping me!!" She shot a glare towards the bedrooms. "I hate you all!"

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Sora, Donald and Goofy all proceeded into the Third District to find Cid. The usually perky brunette was silent. Not only was he tired, but he was thinking about what Yuffie had said about Cloud and that Sephiroth guy. 'I hope Cloud doesn't get into any kind of trouble... I mean, I want him to find his light and be happy and all that... but... he wouldn't really put others at risk for himself, would he? Well... not if he's anything like the person that Aerith describes him as... still... love can make a person do funny stuff.'

"Sora!" The brunette lifted his head at Donald's cry, his eyes narrowing as his Keyblade appeared in his hands, eyeing the Heartless that had appeared off in the distance.

"No problem." Sora said confidentially, even though his body was screaming in protest. 'I really need to get some sleep... my body's so sore from fighting and- what the?!'

Sora gaped as the Heartless were destroyed in an incredibly short amount of time. The trio shot a mutual look of confusion at each other before heading towards the area.

"There you are. What's going on?"

The brunette stared, blinking several times as aqua-eyes looked at him in amusement. 'Am I... am I dreaming again... is it... could it possibly be...'

"Riku!"

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Additional Author's Notes: Jeez. ::sweatdrop:: I thought I'd never get done with this chapter! And, what do you know? Absolutely NO Leon / Cloud interaction!! ::growls:: But, for the sake of the story, we must allow Yuffie to go about her business. (Be patient! The L/C loving will be in the not-too-distant future, I promise!!)

Oh, yeah... about Yuffie... honestly, honestly, Aerith is one of my favourite characters. I am not bashing her in this chapter, but I do have to agree with Yuffie on that. It drove me mad the first time I played FF VII. Why didn't they try to grab the damned materia?! Yes, okay, it might have not been proper to grab it right upon Aerith's death, as Yuffie wanted to, but you had to go back there. Why not grab it then?! ::falls over::

And Ansem... yes, yes, he had to make an appearance... as my main muse, he needed some kind of 'sacrifice' in order to help me complete this. (Because, let's face it, folks, Leon is not very inspiring on his own. And since Leon and Ansem are my two main muses, they must work together before I have something even half-way worth typing.) Now, why was he singing to himself about the darkness? I really don't know. My Ansem is overly creepy/weird/strange/cute like that. He felt the need to sing, so I let him sing. Besides, who doesn't sing silly little songs to themselves when they are alone? Masters of Darkness are not excluded!

Anyways, next chapter: Yuffie talks to Aerith (Eheheheheh). Cloud finally gets out of bed. Sora and Riku have their scene (Dun, dun, dun!). We just might see some more of either Sephiroth or Ansem, I have yet to decide which one. As far as Leon goes... well, Leon's going to do some inner monolouge. ::laughs evilly::

Long authors notes end now! Don't forget to press that little button in the corner (No! Not the X button! The bottom left hand corner!) and leave me a nice review. Oh yeah, and this hasn't been beta'ed, so point out anything wrong with spelling / grammar and I promise to get right on it.

P.S. Can you tell my Leon muse isn't too fond of poor Sephy? x.x