Disclaimer : I don't own Final Fantasy : Unlimited or the characters in it. There may be a few OCs I haul off and throw in there, but not for a while.

Warnings : Yaoi which means male/male. Come on, what else do I write? Expect violence, mild child abuse/neglect, language, sexual situations, and anything else especially good. You don't like it, don't read.

Land Of Confusion

Chapter 1 : Stranded

by Reppa

As the darkness settled around him like a protective cloak, his partially closed eyes flickered briefly when a voice penetrated the silence. It was a soft, somewhat weakened voice, but one he recognized all too well. Maybe too well for his own comfort. The gentle sigh filled him with a foreign warmth, a warmth he didn't remember save for a shrouded sliver of memory bound in the back of his mind. Whatever it was, he had felt it before and it made his chest ache. Black Wind...Kaze...

White Cloud...Makenshi...The words didn't pass his lips, but he reasoned the other realized...felt them to some extent as they both fell back into the dark. Again he found himself descending into a sound slumber, much like what had him buried away for the past twelve years. Last time, he had fallen with panic, struggling to beat back the sleep in order to keep fighting, yet this time he embraced it with slight relish. It was release, a time of peace he could finally relax into after so long, even if he was certain it would not last. And it didn't last, not even for what felt like a few minor minutes as his back came into harsh contact with a hard surface, reality slamming him back to life.

A breath of air was knocked from him momentarily, a slight spray of rain on his being, sprawled on his back with his bright blue eyes staring blankly into the sky. The fall left him slightly dazed. It was still day, the sky was riddled with a multitude of fluffy, white clouds and Kaze was aware that what he was laying on rocked and dipped. His right leg was knee deep in warm sea water and he could feel the heat of the object he laid on beating on his back. The man had landed on a long slab of metal, which explained why it felt so hot, it had soaked up hours of pounding sun rays. It's coloring was familiar and it was part of the remains of the submarine so it seemed. Remains from something else shared the water's surface with Jane's corpse, dark and twisted. He deduced they were leftovers of Gaudium.

Slowly, the long haired man propped himself up on his elbows, he blinked several times, adjusting before glancing around the barren surroundings. What he looked for was some sign of white...wondering if White Cloud had fallen to the sea with him. There was no one as far as he could see, just himself, beached on the slab of Jane's metal. Alone.

His expectations to catch sight of Makenshi died, Kaze knew he wouldn't luck out as to find his enemy there...Or whatever Makenshi truly was to him...His gaze made one more sweep, looking for the humans this time, in case he missed them on the first glance. They were no where to be seen either, he assumed on the chance of hope that they were all right.

All worries aside, it was time to focus on himelf...He sat up fully, pulling his leg out of the water and giving it a shake. Where he would eventually end up, that concern simply rolled off his back. More than likely, the metal was bound to float somewhere. He didn't care where, as long as no danger waited to nip at his heels all over again. From there, Kaze would search for Makenshi..."Follow the white rabbit..."

It had been several days...and even still, his eyes were heavy with wearing fatigue. The battle against the Count had drained a great deal from him. Moaning, Makenshi rolled onto his side, feeling the sinews of woven grass beneath him and wincing for a moment as the battle wound ached from his movement. Clux had found and delivered him to a small island a ways from the remains of the submarine and Gaudium to tend to his wounds. Though it had been quite the strain on the diminutive puppet to carry his bulk there, however lightweight he was, she had managed to locate a small village in the midst of the island's jungle vegetation. There they had stayed for the next few days, resting and recuperating.

The inhabitants of the village proved to be friendly and very helpful despite the lack of communication. Lion-like humanoids with brilliant colored fur, squeaked at him here and there. Maybe they were asking him a question, telling him to do something, unfortunately, he couldn't understand. They couldn't speak the common tongue. Luckily, there were a few beings in the village that he could speak to and who in turn, understood their village companions. They had waxy light ochre skin, strange faces, and long, large hands. They referred to themselves as Shumi, and the brightly colored creatures as Moombas.

Not opting to remain bedridden all through the day, the etude carefully removed himself from the cushioned grass mat on the floor to groggily step to the abode doorway. Moombas pranced around in their chores and Makenshi stood in the doorway, watching the long fringed palms sway in the pleasant breeze. The air was cooler than he thought it would have been as the area seemed tropical in nature, he wasn't sure how the climate was year round.

"Kukuruyu..."

His light green eyes shifted from the calm scenery to look up on the fairy puppet joining him. Her wide, gold eyes looked mildly concerned, but she seemed to figure he was fine on his own, floating down to hover at his side. "Hello, Clux." Makenshi greeted her, his soft voice somewhat tired. Maybe dragging himself out of the bed hadn't been the best of ideas, but his body was steadily growing sore from laying about like that. "Do you know anything about the woman and the children? Are they all right?"

"Ku-kukuruyu." Waving her small hand in a wide circle, the petite marionette pointed towards the sky while with her other hand, palm smoothed, she moved it as if something were flying. Clux more or less explained to him that the organization the woman and children had traveled with this entire time rescued them via an airship. "Kuruyu."

"My thanks...and the Black Wind?"

That was where she faltered briefly and shook her head. Kaze proved to be a difficult man to track down half the time, his means of transport across Wonderland being quite the enigma. In the time she had to follow on Oscar's behalf, she had required the humans to locate him several times. Kumo just sighed, lightly chuckling as he shook his head with her. He wasn't surprised, and he would be even less so if the gunner turned up out of the blue. And with his gun aimed at his temple most likely. "I guess we'll have to look forward to the reunion...When I'm better." After the slight pause, he continued with a faint smile, getting a slight glare from the puppet. It would be highly unlikely for her to let him venture off without healing up to perfection.

Oniichan, oniichan...!

Someone, shut her up...

He stirred, when did he ever want his sister to shut up?

Oniichan...!

Shut up, go away.

But, oniichan...

The little voice whined in protest and the feeling that rocked his body, like he had reached out and shoved another away from him woke the man from his sleep. Kaze stirred shakily, opening one eye as he huffed with slight confusion. Had that been Aura? Maybe, when she was younger...for a moment, she had sounded pitiful and whiney and whoever addressed her back had a surprisingly decent deal of malice in his voice. Spite, anger...Kaze told himself it was anyone but him, never had he felt that way towards his sister, he had loved her. He assured himself, convinced himself they must have had another sibling that he couldn't remember and left it at that.

He assumed whatever voices had vocalized themselves in his head were just the result of his stranded state. Curled up on his side, the summoner lifted his head a little for a quick scanning. There was no land, there were no boats, no signs of civilization and he wondered how long he would end up floating there on the sea. Kaze didn't have eternity at his disposal and he hated the ocean to begin with.

Careful as he moved, the gunner sat himself up and pulled back his long, dark cloak to feel at his belt. The belt that had notched all the soil bullets he'd collected after so long...all his summoning bullets were gone, used as fodder for Chaos. The thought made him sick. It would be a while before he had any further chances to use the Magun. A gun was useless without the ammo. Speaking of which...His gloved hand slid over his torso to finger the pockets of his vest, pulling out a black metal bullet from the right to load into his gun. He sat his secondary gun in his lap, flipping open the latch to the emergency cylinder to load the small flare bullet in. Though the gun seemed to other to have limitless ammo, it was running short on the pellet bullets now...and he had no more to reload and had no where else to secure a new supply. His arsenal was running painfully short, heavens forbid he run into any trouble.

With a weary sigh, the Black Wind aimed towards the sky and let out a shot. The bullet flew through the air with a sharp whistle, eventually exploding into a surprisingly large ball of fire and lightning, resounding with a roar and crackling violently. Kaze hoped he hadn't just wasted his black bullet...one of his specialty ammo infused with black magic. Prior to Windaria's destruction, he had only managed a handful of them before rushing to encounter Chaos. A few flare, a few thundaga...but nothing extraordinary.

The flare of energy lasted high in the sky for mere moments before the fiery glow and smoke eventually died down, the blitz of sound dulling to a broken howl. Soon there was nothing but silence save the churn of the water around him.

You're so stupid, you're stupid...

Kaze abruptly jerked his head around in mild alarm, as if expecting the person insulting his intelligence to be just behind him, even though it felt like they were insulting someone else. But he was alone...Wherever the voice had come from...It had to be in his head, like from before, and strangely the voice was familiar. "I'm going crazy..." He mumbled, blaming it on the sun that was slowly fading into the horizon and the sickening motions of the water. He was hearing voices and now he was wasting his diminishing ammo, all he needed now were sharks intent on eating him.

Soon, he laid himself back down on the warm metal, resting his cheek lazily on his free hand, bright blue eyes half closed. He fidgeted briefly, a low humming in his ear. The long haired man ignored it, it was just more mind tricks. Slowly, he dozed off, ignoring the constant low hum in his ear, however irritating it was.

Kaze continued his small catnap, until the hum started to grow just a little louder. He calmly opened his eyes, not moving as he listened. As the sound grew louder, as it grew closer, the air started to stir. Now he lifted his head, the shift of the air growing faster, flicking his long, crimson-brown hair wildly. The summoner looked from side to side before turning his attention upwards, brows arching up in surprise.

End of chapter 1

If you've played Final Fantasy VIII, then you'll know what the Moomba and Shumi are.

And one more note, if anyone noticed, introducing black magic and blue magic in the form of modified bullets. Figured that would make it interesting. Don't know about white magic, though it would be ironic if you needed to be shot to be healed. Hehe...