Oooooh, shame on me! If I remember correctly, I left you with quite the cliff hanger last….not that there will be anybody to read this chapter that read the other ones shrugs. Either way, my apologies for such the long vacation.

Chapter Eight: Why Wouldn't It Work Again?

Rykashi sat twiddling her fingers on the steps where Kuja had left her. She was rather nervous for him; after all, it was not long after he had been lying in the hotel room with his side practically giving the carpet a scarlet stain job. "I don't like this," she remarked audibly, close to jumping up with both keyblades in hand and taking off after him.

"Rykashi…" The icy voice froze her blood in mid-motion. She recognized it all too well- to the point where she could practically see the silver hair floating and whipping around in the night breeze. "I have been looking for you."

"Yea? Well you're wasting your time, Sephiroth," Rykashi snapped. "You abandoned me for refusing to kill an innocent boy. An unarmed and unconscious man!" She turned around and shot daggers into the mako-green eyes of the exact man she believed she was talking to. "You play a sick game, Sephiroth. I want no part of it anymore."

Sephiroth chuckled. "My dear, Rykashi, you have gone soft, as I feared." His boots clicked along each stone as he took step after step toward her defiant figure. "But I know what's really happened. You are bound to him now, your bloods have mixed. His destiny is entwined to yours. However did you manage to get into this mess, my dear?" He smirked at her and the look on her face at the vocalization of what she had already known. "But of course, it was that weak heart of yours. In that moment where he surely would have died, you chose the only course that would keep him alive because you could not bear to see him die. Your weakness has limited your destiny, Rykashi. You know as well as I do that now if his breath stops, yours does as well."

The events from that night flashed within Rykashi's violet eyes. Kuja crashing to the floor, his crimson blood flowing uncontrollably, and Rykashi herself saving him by binding their bloods together- all the memories flooded her mind as her hand absent-mindedly relocated itself to her own mark in the same place as his. "Stop it, Sephiroth" she whispered. "It was the only way."

"Ah, but I've only begun, my dear." His voice dripped in pleasure in response to the torment he was causing her. "You believe that it's not a bad match, you and he? You believe that in time, you may even learn to love the one that you've so easily bound yourself to." His hand took her waist uninvited and he cupped her face in the other large hand while tilting it upward towards his. "What about what you really desire, Rykashi? Will you be able to settle happily for what demon you have attached yourself to? I know his true nature; I've heard stories about him that would make you rue the day that you ever used that ancient spell to save the life of the Angel of Death."

"Angel of…." Rykashi questioned, her throat going dry as the pavement she sat upon. Before she could choke out the last word, his warm, moist hands violently crushed her face up against his in a violent kiss.

She was positively the ugliest creature he had ever laid eyes upon. Well, perhaps Brahne was uglier, but only because she was grotesquely fat, whereas this woman was thin, but Brahne did not surpass her by much. The black, twisted horns rose ominously from her green-skinned face. "Who are you that you had to wait for me?" he spat out at her, borrowing some of Rykashi's sarcastic tone. She eyed him and simply laughed- more like cackled. "I am one who knows the reason of your quest, as well as where to find the end of it. Other than that, you may call me Maleficent." She replied with a smile across a face that looked like it had died and was resurrected by some dark force.

"You know where to find my brother?" he stared at the creature Maleficent with absolute disbelief. "Yes, I do, child. And if you were to learn the dark arts like I have, you could find him easily. Come with me and I will show you, simple as that. " Kuja's head reeled. The thought of finding his brother quickly exited him, however having to trust this witch was not something he needed to do. The path of darkness had gotten him nowhere before. It had only earned him death and what would have been eternal damnation.

"I'll pass" he added with his own biting tone. "The girl and I will find my brother just fine."

"You do not trust me, do you Kuja?" she replied. "I am more trustworthy then the girl you were with. Such fickle creature is the girl between the darkness and light. One moment she is promising you to help find your brother, and the next she abandons you for the man under whose command she almost killed you."

"I don't believe you," he denied bluntly, turning his back and quickly stepping his way back through the twisted path he came towards the girl he had left behind- the girl he had quickly become quite fond of, truth be told. He had begun experimenting with the idea of staying with her even after he had found his brother- she was the closest thing to happiness he had ever known. Someone who was willing to be his companion despite all he had done in his past. "Not that she knows what you've done in the past." He said out loud to himself, rounding the very last corner and coming to a dead halt at what he was seeing.

He had shown up in just enough time to watch some mysterious silver haired man take Rykashi's lips onto his own. Her hands gripped the crossed belts across his chest with quite a bit of tension and his arms enveloped her, all the while he kissed her like hungry animal. A terrible pain gripped Kuja's heart and he nearly toppled to the ground as he clutched it. Was this his own pain? How could so much pain come from one person's heart? "You didn't believe me did you?" He recognized the dragon lady's voice as her long bony fingers creeped unto his quivering shoulder. "Now she's gone and broken your heard, the wench. She did not even have the dedication to hold on for a few minutes while you were gone."

"I'll come with you," Kuja stated blankly. Rykashi would pay for her betrayal after he found his brother. He would become strong enough to defeat her and the green eyed man with his bare hands.

"Excellent" Maleficent extended her arm and with a flick of her bony wrist, and mass of swirling black appeared. She maintained her place even after the blazingly angry boy disappeared into it.

In the meantime, Sephiroth had disposed of Rykashi by some means. Perhaps he had sent her on some false path to find the boy. Maleficent laughed at the notion that she would never catch the boy as he had already gone.

"So explain to me again, witch, exactly why I did this." Sephiroth asked in his deep tone. "Why the trouble of the deceit?"

"It worked once before between a boy and his best friend. One turned to darkness, just as Kuja has just done. The other should have followed suit, but he did not. We failed that one time. But we shall not fail this time." Her eyes gleamed. "This time, they are bound, and by more than just the mark. The Wielder of Fate will fall to darkness with the Angel of Death."