Chapter After Next (don't need a number if the chapter's got a name, anyways)

The creep in the black cloak hovered near the metal chocobo pens that had been recently welded into the cargo bay's hull, stroking one of the giant bird's head, soothing the nervous creature. "You mind taking your hood off? I don't like having people I don't know on my airship." Cid firmly asked, gripping a wrench in his toolbag that hung around his waist.
"I assure you, you won't be needing to worry about me. And you wouldn't really be so daft as to club a harmless researcher's skull in with a tool, would you?"
Cid didn't like it, but he had to admit it'd be a rather stupid move, but he'd rather safe than dead. Sensing that he wasn't going to move on, the hood was finally pulled back to reveal thick white hair, a bit greyish and dull from lack of a shower. Amber eyes, strong jaw and a cat-like expression in his eyes, sure wasn't Sephiroth, but damn close to it. "So you're Ansem, huh? What are you doing with those kids?"
"Watching what happens. Tell me, were you one of those legendary heroes from so long ago that defeated the Mako-enhanced general?"
"Sephiroth was a long time ago, and we all went our own ways after that. You some sort of history professor?"
"He was, well, is a descendant of mine, my nephew, in fact. He was just as vile then, but your modern science and Jenova made him stronger."
Cid didn't like this at all. There was enough resemblance to suggest that the two might've been blood, and Ansem radiated the same sort of charming eerieness. Come to think of it, Riku seemed to have some similar traits as well. "If I heard right, they say you're from the past, like some sort of time-traveling mad scientist from the middle ages."
Ansem bristled at the words "mad scientist". In comparison to the blasphemous uses of technology he'd seen thus far, he was only a mildly ADHD-impaired scientist. "Think what you will" was his irrate answer.
"Egh, don't explain how Sephiroth coulda been born centuries after Ansem's death. That's gonna keep me up at night." Cid stared up at the ceiling and habitually searched his shirt pocket for his lighter, and groaned as he remembered. "Oh yeah, I quit."

The living quarters had been significantly improved from their previous condition, newly outfitted with windows, bathrooms, new mattresses and a light coat of paint. The frankness of the rooms spoke of living with the necesseties, as opposed to the more indulgent feel of the Al-Bhed airship. "Man, this feels too much like my Garden field training days." Erik mumbled as he sat down on a lower bunk and stared at the middle of the room's floor, as did Irvine, Sora and Red, each with an appropriate look of glumness.
In the middle of the floor lay what had survived of their belongings. Sora's clothes bag, only half full, Irvine's ammo box and Erik's mauled duffel bag, which held a great deal of everyday items, minus clothing. "Well, I guess most of us will be running around naked unless we find some clothes on this ship." Irvine commented, pointing out the overly obvious.
"Maybe some of the crew will lend us some." Sora suggested.
Erik leaned back on his hands and looked at his threadbare shirt, which might have been white at one time, and his jeans, which were starting to remind him of an old workshop rag. "Only option we got. Let's ask Cid about it."
Red slightly nodded and followed them out into the hallway, where the temperature in the air was five degrees colder than the already cool rooms, and up along the hallway rollercoastered at varying degrees, from painingly cold to queasyingly warm. The dim lighting and lack of windows didn't help at all. Soon the claustrophobic tunnel opened up into a well-lit cafeteria. Kairi and Jerdania clattered down the metal stairway at the opposite end of the room, carrying large bags that appeared to be incredibly heavy. The boys crowded around as the bags were set on a bench's table. "We told Cid about our situation, and the crew put together their extra supplies for us." Kairi explained, pulling out boxed sets of medical supplies and neatly bundled clothing.
Erik chuckled. "Takes care of my problems. I'll just take these and be on my way."
Greedily scooping up a wad of clothes, he made for the hallway and felt something leathery slide down his chest to his stomach. This sensation, combined with his exhaustion and recent trauma, triggered an interesting reaction in him. He jumped and make a strange "ga-aah!" noise as he tossed the clothes and swatted at his shirt before finally squealing, unsticking his shirt from his belt and hurriedly tearing it over his head and flinging it across the room where it hit the wall and fell to the floor in a slumped, dejected manner. At first the girls had yelped at Erik's sudden panic attack, then burst into helpless laughter as they watched him hop around in a paranoid manner while various tropical bird calls escaped his lips, ranging from "Hyneohhyne!", to a soprano warbling.of "Eyahnghra, tickle-not-there!". He completed this marvelous display by grabbing at a leather string that had snaked partially into his pants and flicked the harmless thing away from him. The leather pouch which had been attached to the string flopped on the floor next to it. Despite the deceptive length of the paragraph, the actual scene lasted only five seconds, and the laughter would take another five minutes to dissipate.
Still giggling, the girls helped Erik re-bundle the clothes while he grudgingly rolled his eyes and pulled his shirt back on. As he did so, Kairi and Jerdania exchanged a quick glance, blushed and tried to preoccupy themselves with anything. Jerdania shoved the re-assembled pile of clothing into Kairi's arms, then knelt down to pluck the small leather satchel off the ground. The leather wasn't cold like the floor, but instead radiated a considerable amount of heat, and it even seemed to be glowing from the inside. "Is this...what I think it is?" She softly asked herself as she stood up, and gazed over at its owner.
"It's something I found in the temple." Erik lied, feeling that it was partially his fault that Riku had gotten killed in the first place. Then again, Serena seemed to know that all of this was going to happen... come to think of it, he couldn't even bring himself to look at her face, let alone anyone else's... it was his fault, despite his mental arguements.
"You stole it?" Kairi gasped.
"No! It was given to me!"
"But you just said you found it, Erik."
"Why did you leave the group in the first place when we were in the Ancient Temple, anyways?" Jerdania joined in the fray now.
"I don't know, alright!"
Kairi sighed and looked past the angry scowl on his face. "You knew what you were looking for, didn't you?"
Erik slumped down on a bench and pinched the bridge of his nose as a migraine danced across his forehead. "In Guadosalam, I heard Red talking to someone... they saw me, and Ansem told me what to do, and he gave me that leather bag, said there was something really valuable in it. I don't know, I really didn't think anyone would get hurt. It's my fault Riku's dead."
"Erik..." even Irvine couldn't say anything.
"I'm sorry, I thought that because Red knew him, I could trust him. He acted like he was going to help us. Please, just don't tell Akirame, very first chance we get I'll grab all my stuff and head back to Winhill. Take the stupid pouch, I don't want it."
Kairi and Irvine glanced at each other, wondering what it would be best to do, while Jerdania carefully removed the drawstring from the bag and glanced inside. "You guys, this is pheonix down. I think Ansem knew what he was doing."
"Pheonix down? But... do you think Aki'd even let us?"
"Something tells me she would, if she did it herself... and if it works and we get Riku back, then for sure he'll know what do to next."
"And if it doesn't work?"
"We drag Ansem to the cargo bay, open the hatch and kick him into the ocean."
"Guess there's nothing else we can do... Jerdania, you know how this stuff works?" Kairi asked, taking the leather pouch and weighing it testily in her palm.
"I think so, you'd just take the stuff and sprinkle it over the body. In theory, they say that the way it works is that when someone dies, their soul goes into the lifestream, where normally it's cleansed of all memories, then recycled into a new body. The Pheonix is supposed to be a sort of angel, since it's the only known creature that can actually come into contact with the lifestream and be unharmed. If someone dies before it's their appointed time, putting pheonix down on the body summons the pheonix to the lifestream, where it retrieves the soul ---provided it's still intact--- and returns it to the body."
"So...who wants to be the one to go and talk to Akirame?" Irvine idly posed the question.
"Why don't we ask Serena to do it?"
Everyone stared at Erik. "I mean, her being the sage of this group, next to Ansem of course, it makes sense."
"Sounds like a solid plan to me," Irvine leaned back against the bench and tossed the leather pouch to Erik. "Go knock yourself out."
"Hey! What are you guys going to do then?"
"Absolutely nothing, because that's all we can do. You said Riku's death was your fault, this is your chance to make ammends with that."
"Fine then, I'll do it."
"That's a good boy."

In general, people who are more aware of their enviroment, who possess that ability which is so difficult to describe in words, let alone text, that ultimately keep them out of serious trouble, and keep them from saying the wrong thing at a social event, right now notice the strange, nonchalant way our heroes seem to be handling the situation.
Don't look at me like that, I know exactly what you're thinking. "Oh no, it's going to be another long paragraph about insights and psychology. Time to get the popcorn." If you're going to be like that, I might keep going on forever, and you'll never know if Akirame saved the world from destruction. But don't worry. If I ever do decide to get unbelievably theological, I'll write it all in a seperate book, and might talk about it for a bit on some late-night tv show.
Where was I... ah yes. In a rather unrealistic way, our heroes seem to have somehow come to terms with the recent events, in fact starting with why they all got together and went on this journey to begin with. Well, perhaps an explanation is required. People who know that soon someone they love dearly will have died, or has already died, or in some cases deserves to die, can handle things in one of a few ways. Some people are the kinds who let it become their entire life, who will spend every single second just worrying, plotting or generally just losing their minds. They think far too much about it, and like any poorly built structure, it will all crash down on them. We all know it, or at least those of use who are reading this and are managing to keep up. Now, other people tend to harden themselves, and bear everything right up until the skies have cleared. They make a shell around their minds, and crawl inside to hide, because everything will hurt far less then. The trouble is getting them to come back out, once they realize how easy life can be when you find you can live life without so much as a scratch. Of course, there are more types of people than that, but I can only bore you for so long.
Our hereos... aren't exactly hereos at all. They're just normal people, who have to cope with trauma, and work through difficult crossword puzzles. Sometimes they even give up. Sometimes they fail. Of course, they all very much know what is going on around them, and that it is so much bigger than them, and that they really have to right/deserve to have such huge roles in everything. As the reader, you all can imagine for yourselves how on earth they're scraping by with this, unless I feel the need to include mention of it, to help set the mood. It's just that there is, in fact, a plot inside all this, and it really needs to keep going.
And thankfully, all of that needless insight covered just enough time so that I wouldn't have to think of a way to explain anything about Erik, despite Irvine's comment and all that, deciding to go to Serena, to ask her for back up in approaching Akirame, or what exactly he might have felt in his heart about everything. I get to jump straight to "Erik stopped in front of Serena's room," or better yet, "after explaining the situation, Serena agreed."
That's why I'm a good writer. I know how to pull cheap tricks like that.