A/N: The longer chapter I promised. I had some internet issues before, so this was supposed to go up a long time ago. Sorry.

Chapter 17

"Aries is here!"

Sye's expression remained unchanged. "What? I thought he was gone."

"He's not." Ryo snapped.

"How do you know?"

"Seiji is missing." Ryo's face was straight and hurt.

Sye rubbed his eyes and combed his fingers through his hair. He was quiet, then he yawned.

"Say something." Ryo begged.

"What do you want me to say? I have no words of wisdom and I'm not in the mood for anything right now."

"What!" Ryo cried out in anger. Sye remained patient.

"Listen to me!" He hissed, his expression unchanged, but his voice more forceful. "What can we do! Right now I'm ready to say fuck the world. Let the end of mankind as we know it come. Ryo, I know you're worried about Seiji and I am too, though I don't seem it. What can we do? Aries –being the chicken that he is- will have returned to his little safe-haven with Seiji which is in the other dimension. We can't do anything until sunrise. It only takes two of us to travel back to that era, but it has to be done in the daytime; that's the only place Seiji could possibly be and you know it's a trap. We're going to need to be rested in order to have the strength to save him."

"You have a way back there? That guy gave you something?"

Sye nodded.

Ryo hated it, but he found sense in Sye's words and he knew Sye really did care, he was just tired. Rowen came up behind Sye and rested his chin on Sye's shoulder. He glared at Ryo, now more calm. Ryo watched him for a moment, then looked back at the street fidgeting.

"Come in." Sye murmured to him and Ryo smiled briefly.

"Thanks." He stepped into the house and felt the heat.

"I don't know how thankful you should be; its boiling in here." He paused thinking for a moment. "I would offer you my mom's old room to sleep, but its probably hotter there than this room is, and I haven't had the chance to clean up in there. You know, there might be some mess on her sheets from that boyfriend of hers."

Ryo nodded.

"We don't have a guest room, but you could sleep on the chaise in my room. It's nice and cool in there."

"Thanks." Ryo smiled as Sye led him to the room. "Sorry about disturbing you." He saw the comfy looking chair and immediately fell in love with it. Sye gave him a pillow and a few sheets and Ryo made his little bed on the chair, with one leg over the arm of the chair. He pretended to sleep while he watched Sye and Rowen get into Sye's bed slowly.

Sye was extremely tired and slow. He kicked his shoes off and slipped into the bed, pulling the covers up so his legs were exposed to the air, but not the rest of him. Rowen lavished kisses on Sye before they both finally fell to sleep in each others' arms.

Rowen and Sye lay in each others' arms when morning time came. The heat was back, but still the room wasn't that bad.

"Wake up." Ryo insisted standing over them, ready to start the trick it would take to get to the other world.

"Oh, Ryo!" Rowen groaned, glaring at the clock, then pulling the sheet over his and Sye's heads. "It's too early! I don't even get up for school, this early!"

"We have to find Seiji! Get up you lazy asses! I'm not asking, I'm telling and if you don't get up you'll end up with a few more black spots on your body!"

"If I let you punch me will you go away?" He snapped. His voice muffled from beneath the blanket. Ryo pulled the sheet off of them.

"No! Get up now!" Ryo shouted. Sye sat up and crawled over Rowen, falling out of the bed and onto the floor at Ryo's feet.

"Watch out for that first step." He joked and stood up with Ryo's help. He leaned over Rowen. "Come on, baby." Sye kissed his cheek.

"Hmm." Rowen purred.

Sye kissed him again on his neck.

"Hmm." Rowen smiled.

Sye sucked at the flesh hard and bit down gently and Rowen gasped. "Get up or I'll stop." He whispered into Rowen's ear and he sprung up quickly.

"I'm up!" He yelled. "Keep going." He begged reaching for Sye, who smiled and walked out of the door to the bedroom. Rowen glared angrily at Ryo. "Damn that Aries! Why did Seiji have to go missing, yesterday! Couldn't he have gone missing today or something?"

"First is the worst, second is the best." Ryo chimed smiling.

"We already had a first, but a god-damned cop found us. We already almost had a second too, but my mom found us. We were working on our third when you found us. How many fucking tries do I have to wait?" He scowled.

Sye came to the door again and leaned on the frame, crossing his ankles and glaring at Rowen.

"Would you seriously still want to have sex, knowing that Seiji is in trouble and possibly in pain right now?" Sye raised his brow.

"No." Rowen growled. Sye walked over to the bed he still sat on and crawled over next to Rowen kissing his ear gently. He kissed Rowen on his face between his words:

"Look at it… this way. When we get back… Ryo will… have Seiji… and we… will be alone… for the rest… of the night… and morning… and the day after… and the day after…"

"The day after is school." Rowen corrected, not smiling anymore.

"I'm willing to take a sick day." He insinuated and Rowen laughed smirking. They kissed. "We have to go now though." He stood up and Rowen did too.

As they stepped outside dressed again, Sye fingered the sword in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked it over again, letting Ryo look at it.

"So can we do this right here?" Ryo asked.

"Sure, why not?" Rowen sighed and looked at Sye who shook his head.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why?" Ryo asked.

"We should probably go back to where it happened the first time."

"Why? That place is closed off and cops are everywhere because five people mysteriously disappeared." Ryo told them frowning. "I was barely able to get my bike away from there. It's not like they know what we look like, but still."

"I'll try to explain this simply." Sye started. "Their world is mirrored exactly to our world. A different chain of events caused their world to evolve more slowly and differently than ours. But if they had evolved the same, then exactly where I am standing right now, Sephiroth would be standing, only in his world and there would be a building behind him, like my house is behind me now. Get it? Since the worlds grew up differently though, in their world, there isn't a building there. You understand?"

"Wait!" Rowen went through it in his mind. "So, since we started near the Gathering, if we go back there and travel to the other world, then we'll end up in the same place we did before, but if we go over to my house and travel back, then we'll end up in that cavern again on that huge mountain with all the caves."

"Yes." Sye nodded and smiled. "And if we try it from here we might end up in a cave wall."

"Okay. I get it. So we better get back to the Gathering." Ryo sighed. "But how will we do it?"

They piled into Rowen's parent's car and took off, without their permission, to the Gathering. After parking a distance away, they approached as if they had no idea what had happened.

Yellow tape surrounded the area. It looked like the worm hole had disappeared some time after they had entered.

"Should we just do it from here?" Ryo asked.

"We might end up on a tree or something." Sye replied. "You want to take the risk?"

They didn't need to think about the answer. They just looked around the corner at the two guards that stood there.

"I'll handle this." Ryo pushed his sunglasses up his nose and slinked his body over to the cops.

One of them was an unattractive women who immediately found herself staring at Ryo. He was gorgeous and quite seductive when he wanted to be. He came right up to her. The other fellow, was asleep in a chair leaning up against the building. He snored lightly.

She had seemed tired, but immediately perked up. He gave her one of his infamous smiles and she was hooked like a teenager again. Even though she was older than him, she assumed because of his attitude, style, and height that he was older than he was.

"Hello." He whispered seductively quiet.

"Hi." Her voice cracked and she tried again. "Hi." She smiled. Her teeth were an unattractive yellow color with blotches of white. His were perfectly white and handsome.

"That bastard could attract the Devil if he wanted to." Rowen groaned.

Sye shrugged and they both continued to watch.

He spoke with her quietly, then winked at them and gestured for them to walk over. Sye and Rowen put on their cool facades and walked over to her.

"Hello." Rowen greeted smirking.

"Hi." Sye smiled intimidating her. She blushed deeply.

"Are we set?" Rowen asked leaning over to Ryo, who nodded.

"Thanks." Ryo smiled warmly and she watched them, walk under the tape to the middle of the circle. Ryo waved to her and she waved back like a dope. "Do your thing." Ryo told Sye quickly.

Sye took out the small sword and gasped as he cut his hand open by mistake. "Damn thing's sharp." Sye commented as a drop of his blood fell to the ground. He felt something powerful go through his body and immediately smoke started to come from the ground where his blood had fallen.

The dragon-man from before rose up from it and they could hear the girl screaming and waking the other guy, but they both fell silent as the dragon-man waved his hand to them. They both fell to the ground asleep. The man looked at Sye lovingly.

"I promised I'd come back." Sye told him. The man's gaze fell on his bloody hand. He gently took Sye's hand and brought it to his mouth.

Rowen and Ryo were grossed out and pissed that the thing would do that.

The man licked Sye's wound and it tickled Sye at first, but he moved his mouth over the vein in Sye's wrist, kissing it at first, then he bit into it.

Sye opened his mouth, wanting to cry out, but he stayed silent and he held Rowen back.

"No, shh. He wants this and I think if he'll take us to save Seiji, then it's worth it."

Rowen disagreed hatefully, but silenced himself. Ryo stood in front of the monster angrily. He wanted to tear him off of Sye. He could see the life slipping from Sye as it had from Prince Ryo when he had prayed to these things.

"Stop." Ryo snapped maliciously. The demon went on longer, then let Sye go and stood up straight, though his height wasn't much. He looked only at Sye, who was breathing heavier now.

He spoke in that weird language again and Sye nodded, understandingly.

"It has to be done." Sye rasped, painfully. "There has to be one close to death or it will not work." He held his wrist to his chest tightly.

"Aries wasn't close to death." Ryo replied.

"Aries worked with dark powers to do what he did. He was close to death all the time." He paused breathing. "We should go. Prince Ryo will heal me, I think, anyway." They agreed and Sye spoke to the thing in the same language as before. It opened up another portal and let them all go before him and the portal closed behind them all.

Again they were in the forest and lying on the ground.

Looking around they didn't see the dragon-man any longer.

"Hey, we aren't hurt like before!" Rowen pointed out.

"Yes, I know." Sye whispered weakly, leaning against a tall tree with blue and green leaves. "Because there were two dead travelers, so to speak. For each traveler through the portal that is alright, there must be one that is of the dead. The dragon and I were the dead, you two were the passengers." They nodded understanding.

"How do you know?" Rowen asked.

"He told me." Sye replied.

"In those few words?" Ryo asked.

"Those few words to you, spoke volumes to me." Sye answered. "You just can't hear him like I can."

They heard heavy footsteps and were immediately frightened when Wolf came charging into the clearing and up to Sye. He nudged his face into Sye's chest and licked him lovingly. Sye laughed as best he could and pet his friend.

"He has taken quite a liking to you." General Seiji whispered smiling as he gracefully walked into the clearing as well. Prince Ryo was right beside him.

"You are all here." Prince Ryo smiled, then frowned. "Aside from Seiji. Where is he?"

Ryo growled standing and pulling Rowen up next to him.

"Aries took him." Ryo told them and they seemed questioning.

"He was destroyed, though." Prince Ryo replied.

"No, he wasn't." Ryo insisted. "He took Seiji."

"Did you see him do it?" General Seiji wondered.

"No." Ryo sighed.

"How do you know…?" General Seiji started.

"The dragon!" Sye interrupted. "He asked me if that was why we were coming back here. He knew that Aries wasn't dead."

"What?" They all questioned.

"Well, one of them is." Sye groaned painfully, holding his wrist. Prince Ryo went to him quickly and healed him. He stayed kneeling in front of Sye, while General Seiji watched.

"What is it?" Prince Ryo whispered. "What has happened?"

"There's… so much to explain." He tried in vane to catch his breath. "Maybe we could go somewhere warmer." He raised his brow slightly, then his eyes fell shut. "Something else is wrong… Rowen, I'm… Sephiroth…" He fell unconscious.

"Sye." Rowen sighed and knelt beside him, picking him up into his arms. They all stood.

As they walked back to the palace they exchanged words and sorrows.

It turned out that Sephiroth had been killed in an attack as they had been traveling back to the palace. He had been buried the day before. Ryo explained everything that Sye had told them so far about the rules of traveling through worlds and such. Some of the details about how they got there made Prince Ryo and General Seiji cringe.

"What a loyal beauty." Prince Ryo whispered as Rowen laid Sye on Ryo's bed. The Prince pet Sye's hair gently. "He was so much like Sephiroth, but much more of a risk taker. Asriel was ruined when it happened." He went on. They looked at Rowen and he sighed.

"Where is he?" Rowen asked.

"I called for him." Prince Ryo replied.

"My Prince?" Asriel rasped from the door. They all turned to him. They could tell by the sight of him that he had been crying. He leaned against the door defiantly. Rowen felt sorry for him as they all did. Asriel saw Sye on the bed and gasped.

"You came so quickly." The prince stood and walked closer to him. "I hadn't expected you so soon. I am sorry you have to…"

"Sephiroth." Asriel moaned and turned away from them. "What's wrong with him?" Asriel wondered.

"I'm just weakened from the journey." Sye answered tiredly. Rowen was by his side in an instant and embracing him. He could barely hold himself from tears. It was horrible to think that Sye would not be with him forever. Rowen helped Sye to sit up. "Hello, Asriel. I'm sorry about Sephiroth." He tried to smile, but failed. "We should find Seiji quickly. This world doesn't like me. I'm supposed to be dead to it, and it doesn't like things amiss."

They understood.

"So what is this about Aries?" Prince Ryo asked. "The dragon fellow killed him. I saw it. We all saw it."

Sye nodded. "Yes, we saw him kill the Aries of this world, but the Aries from our world was the one he referred to as his prince. This Aries that served you," Sye gestured to the Prince, "he was actually loyal to you at first, then he stumbled onto our world and met our Aries and our Aries made him do all sorts of things. Your Aries went corrupt and they both visited each other's worlds. You understand. He really couldn't shape shift, he was lying to you." Sye stated and paused, catching his breath. "He can however travel through worlds and he taught our Aries to do it. Sephiroth said it, I think: Any ability one of us has, our counterparts must have, only buried deep inside of them. Aries learned that and he ordered your Aries to go after Ryo and so on and then he ordered him to call forth the dragons and so on. They both didn't know however that Prince Ryo was so fluent in the language and the rituals, or that whoever gives up their soul must give up their life and the right to any requests from the beasts."

"Understood." General Seiji nodded. "Do you have any clue as to where the other me is?"

Sye shook his head. "Aries took Seiji so he could lure Ryo out here. I imagine Aries is feeling just as sick as I am right now though. He has been here already a day."

"How do you know he hasn't already slipped back to the other world?" Asriel wondered, stepping closer.

"I asked the dragon to prevent anyone from leaving this world or entering it unless it is through him." Sye answered.

"Again, how do you know Aries is here now?" Asriel replied.

"The dragon told me he was." Sye leaned onto Rowen and closed his eyes, just resting his eyelids. "Seiji is here somewhere." Sye whispered.

"Where?" Ryo asked nervously. He came closer to Sye and pet his hair tenderly.

"I don't know." Sye leaned into the touch. "Aries will come to us though. He knows we're here and he knows I am the thing stopping him from leaving this pain. He must have recently realized where the source of it is coming from. He'll want out and quickly. Probably, some kind of trade. I don't know, but I'm so tired." Rowen held him tighter and kissed his lips gently.

"You may rest here of course." The Prince gestured to his room. "Rowen, will you stay with Sye?"

Rowen nodded and laid Sye down gently.

"We should probably all stay close, so I suggest we spend our time in the Hall, so that way we will be within shouting distance and we are together." They left as the Prince finished. Down the hall and into the gathering area called the Hall.

They waited and talked again about their different worlds and so on.

"Your father is dead?" Ryo asked.

"Yes." Prince Ryo nodded. "And without being able to write me out of his will, though I doubt he would have. I am King now. There is only the ceremony left now to make it official."

"Good for you." Ryo nodded.

After about an hour of silence from the outside, they finally heard an odd sound. The clambering of a horse up the steps and in to the Hall. Aries rode on a tall black stag right into the room with Seiji bound and gagged, a sword to his throat, in front of Aries.

Everyone stood.

"Where is he!" Aries spat immediately.

"Who you looking for?" Sye asked, raising his brow as he entered, his arm around Rowen's shoulders.

"You little monster!" Aries hollered. "What have you done?"

"What crawled up your ass?" Sye snapped frowning.

"Why can't I leave this world? What have you done?"

"How do you know it's me?"

"You're always causing trouble for me! I demand you tell me what you've done!"

"Why should it matter? You can't leave and that is the real point. I control whether you can or not, so just give us Seiji and I'll make it so you can leave." Sye compromised.

"You won't let me leave this place back to the other world. I don't trust you!"

"You're going to have to start." Sye growled. He sighed exasperated. "Tell you what? You give them Seiji and I'll go with you. We'll both go back to the other world together, then you can run off, or do whatever. As long as you stay away from us and you won't be in any pain any longer."

"How'd you know about that?" He hissed.

"I know about a lot." Sye replied.

"No, Sye." Rowen insisted. "I'm not letting you do that."

"Where's the profit?" Aries asked curiously looking around. "He's the only one of you that isn't present."

"Doesn't matter." Sye replied coolly. "Make your decision now or you won't ever be able to get home."

Seiji shook his head furiously to Sye. He tried to get free of Aries and Aries pushed the blade closer to Seiji's neck.

"Fine." Aries answered. "Come here, boy!"

Sye steadied himself, and tried walking closer, but Ryo jumped in front of him.

"You're just being stupid now." Ryo barked and hit Sye, but not as hard as he had previously. Sye didn't react, he just hugged Ryo.

"You're so warm." He whispered. "Protect them, Ryo. I have a plan for this devil." He whispered it so no one but Ryo could hear him.

Ryo was baffled, but he released Sye so he could walk over to Aries. Aries pulled Sye close.

"Pull him down and place him on the ground." Aries ordered glaring at the others. Making sure they didn't approach.

"Sorry about this, Seiji. I'm not so strong right now." Sye apologized as he pulled Seiji off the horse and to the ground with a thump.

Aries immediately grabbed Sye and pulled him forcefully up on to the horse, in Seiji's place. Aries turned and left before any of them could react at all.

They ran to Seiji and untied him quickly.

"What the hell is he thinking!" Seiji snapped as soon as he could speak. "We have to go after him!"

They all agreed and ran to the stable where ample horses waited to be ridden.

Sye's stomach started to churn after a while and he wondered if Aries was in the same pain as him.

"Where are we going? We could have just done this in the courtyard you know." Sye sneered.

"Shut up! I've done this enough times that I know the safe places to travel from."

Sye shrugged. "The farther you travel at this slow pace, the longer they have to catch up to us."

Aries found sense in this and he just then realized he could vaguely hear horses from behind them.

"Damn it!" He hissed and pulled the horse off to the side quickly. Aries dismounted and pulled Sye down with him.

A heavy gallop could be heard coming much faster than the horses. Aries pulled out his sword, readying himself. He slid it against Sye's windpipe and waited.

Every one of Sye's friends and companions entered the small clearing soon after, but Wolf was at the head of them. His ears were back, his tail swishing dangerously behind him, his red eyes narrow, his claws digging into the ground, his fangs bared, and a blood curdling growl escaping from the deepest part of his throat. He lowered his body slightly, ready to pounce Aries and snap his head off his shoulders.

"Call the thing away!" Aries ordered.

"He won't listen to us." Rowen replied calmly. "He only responds to his master."

"Who is his master?" Aries wondered, angrily.

"The one in your arms." Rowen answered. "But his master is in danger so he will continue to hate you until you release him. You picked the wrong beast to piss off, Aries."

"Fuck you, boy!" Aries shouted.

"Are you alright, Sye?" Prince Ryo asked quickly.

"Wind Talker." Aries growled, referring to Sye. "Call the dragons here." He demanded.

Sye raised his hand to the sword and slit his palm open on the edge without even wincing.

"Uh, Sye." Rowen closed his eyes distastefully.

Everybody frowned, or seemed to disagree with the action, especially Asriel, but they stayed still.

"Sephiroth." Asriel whispered to himself, thinking of his lost love and how valiant both of his halves were.

Sye held his hand out palm down over the ground as his blood dripped to the ground and he mumbled some things to no one in particular while watching his blood drip.

"What's he going to do?" Rowen asked Ryo.

"I don't know, but if he gets himself hurt, I'll kill him." Ryo frowned.

The dragon appeared in a puff of smoke from his blood and immediately assessed the situation.

"Where's his other half?" Prince Ryo wondered aloud, without expecting an answer.

The dragon-man turned his body to Wolf at first. He was still growling, but backing up a few steps from the dragon, who turned back to Sye.

"My God." Prince Ryo whispered moving closer to General Seiji.

"I know." General Seiji murmured taking the prince's hand in his.

Sye seemed to be in a dazed trance. He appeared weak as he lowered his hand.

He started to speak in that language again and Aries looked at them both oddly.

The onlookers just waited patiently, knowing what was coming, but fearful that Aries might just kill Sye.

"What are you telling him?" Aries snapped. "Stop!" He ordered, but even as he tried to cut Sye, the dragon grabbed the sword and tossed it away from Aries and into a very thick rock. The sword looked to be stuck there for a very long time.

The dragon stared hatefully at Aries, but his expression never really changed, it only altered slightly and it conveyed so many different emotions with those slight movements. The dragon punched Aries and they could all hear bones crack in his face. Aries fell back against a tree and Sye fell forward onto the dragon, who caught him and moved away from Aries only a few steps.

Wolf leapt onto Aries and started to tear him apart. His fangs found their mark in Aries' chest. He dragged Aries into the woods after he stopped struggling and they all tried to ignore the bones crunching as they turned to Sye.

Rowen walked up to them carefully, but Sye motioned for him to stop.

They both started to glow and everyone in the clearing had to close their eyes to keep from going blind from the light.

The light stopped after a second and Sye stood of his own strength and stretched. He was healed and it looked, fully regenerated.

The dragon stood a few inches shorter than him so when Sye looked down on him and smiled it seemed weird. The creature appeared caught off guard by the gentle smile toward himself. He watched Sye as he turned to Rowen and they embraced.

"What happened?" Rowen asked.

"He healed my wounds." Sye whispered and turned back to the dragon. They exchanged a few words and Sye hugged Rowen again.

The dragon opened another portal and Seiji and Ryo came closer.

"You sure you're alright?" Seiji asked. "You're totally healed?"

Sye showed them his palm and they saw the scar there.

"It's permanent, but other than that, I'm totally fine and now that we're leaving I'll be totally cool." They all turned to their counterparts.

"We didn't get to say our good-bye's before, but now we can. Thank you so much for your kindness and help in finding both Seiji and Sye… and me." Ryo smiled his drop-dead-gorgeous smile and the general seemed to melt slightly at the action. Ryo shook their hands and Seiji did too.

"Thank you so much." Sye laughed.

"It was fun." Rowen smiled wryly. "I guess."

"Sephiroth." Asriel cried after Ryo and Seiji had gone through the portal. Sye and Rowen turned to Asriel questioningly.

Asriel approached.

"May I have one last kiss? The one I didn't get to have with my Sephiroth."

Sye frowned and seemed sorry about what he was about to say.

"I'm not Sephiroth." Sye replied. "I may have been his double, but we were really nothing alike. Common aspects, yes, but we aren't the same. You lost Sephiroth and I am truly sorry about that, but you are also not my Rowen." He turned away. "I'm sorry, Asriel."

Rowen seemed surprised as they waved goodbye and jumped through the portal and out the other side.

It closed behind them. They entered their world only a mile from Rowen's parent's car and sighed with relief.

"You turned him down." Rowen whispered disbelievingly.

"Don't be so awestruck." Sye laughed. "I love you, not him, even if you are alike in some ways."

Rowen laughed and kissed him.

"Let's head toward the car and I'll drop you guys off wherever, okay?" Rowen asked Seiji and Ryo.

"Yeah." Ryo nodded, taking Seiji's hand and directing him toward the car.

They walked the mile quickly and Rowen drove Ryo and Seiji to Seiji's apartment, then drove Sye to his home and dropped off the car at his parent's house.

Rowen quickly made his way over to Sye's house and found Sye in his room on his bed asleep.

"I'm confused." Rowen announced after he had watched Sye sleep for a while. Sye awoke easily and sat up as Rowen came over and laid on top of him.

"Why?"

"How come it takes two dead people to go one way, but no dead people to go the other?"

"It's not the hardest thing in the world to travel back to your original dimension. It is easier to put things right and harder to change things. The space time continuum likes things to be in order; it doesn't like people that aren't in their right worlds, so it would prefer to easily let you travel back to your own and make it hard for you to leave your own world. It's like a round-trip plane ticket. You only pay for one way, but you get the trip back. Understand?"

"Yeah." Rowen answered and kissed Sye abruptly. "It's Thursday, I believe. That means we have four days to literally screw around." He smirked and Sye outright laughed.

"Nothing to interrupt us this time." Sye chuckled and Rowen started to remove his shirt.

"Good."

A/N: Hopefully it was alright. Drop me a line if you have any questions, concerns, or if you justneed to scream at me in general.