Chapter Four: A Dark Stranger

His red cape trailed along the ground, and his metal claw glinted in the sunlight. He narrowed his eyes at the sight of a motor bike. He stopped in front of it and stood deathly still, listening intently. He could hear Cloud's voice, he seemed to be talking with someone. He found out that Cloud was in a house. He stepped up to the door without the slightest care, he opened the door and what shocked him was that as soon as he opened the door, a girl jumped at him, yelling, "Vinnie!"

Riku stared at Yuffie as she hugged the dark, shadowed looking man who seemed emotionless as he pried the excited ninja off of him. As Riku looked at the man, he felt a sense of forbidding, something about the dark stranger unnerved him, and it wasn't just his appearance of bloody crimson eyes, a red cape that flowed like blood, the black leather suit, or metal arm that made the man seem so…inhuman. It was just the dark aura around him, the way he seemed so emotionless as he walked past Yuffie and straight to Cloud, who looked rather surprised.

Riku stayed silent as he watched Cloud's dark blue eyes flash, "Vincent? Why are you here?" Cloud asked. Riku could hear the confusion and shock in his voice.

The man who was now known as Vincent, blinked, glancing around him before responding, "It is because, from my understandings, you have been searching for Sephiroth, am I correct?"

Riku shivered at the man's cold, emotionless tone that was dark and hinted the evil within. Riku looked over at Sora and saw that Sora was staring wide-eyed at Vincent, while Kairi seemed to be hiding behind Sora. Aurithia and Arkath watched without emotion, but their eyes both showed knowing. Did they know something about the dark stranger named Vincent? Aerith, Tifa, and Yuffie were looking at Vincent and Cloud expectantly. It was clear that they knew Vincent, though Riku didn't know how. Leon had taken a few steps away from Vincent, but his expression did not change.

Cloud nodded, "That is true, but what do you want to tell me?"

"Sephiroth-he is a problem. I have not been here long, I admit. In fact, I have just arrived only moments ago. I see that a war has gone through this area. Anyway, Sephiroth has a plan to do something about you. We are unsure who he is working for, but it just so happens that Rufus picked up something about it somehow. We don't know. How I got here, was actually using one of Cid's rocket-it worked, though not in a way we planned, but at least I made it. Along with a few others. They are outside right now. We were wondering what you were doing, and so we all came. Actually, it was Marlene who dragged me along, but yes, they are waiting." Vincent replied, turning away from Cloud and ending the conversation.

Riku swore he heard Cloud laugh and he wondered why. He didn't have to wonder long because at that moment, the door flew open again to reveal a girl about seven. She was looking at the room for a moment before rushing up to Cloud, "Cloud!" she shouted joyfully. "Aunt Yuffie! Tifa!" Riku watched them all greet the girl, but he noticed Aerith looking at Marlene with a smile, but he had backed away from everyone and was in the shadows. He wondered why, but he never would get his answer because a sudden voice spoke up, "Riku, Sora, Kairi, we must be going!" Aurithia snapped.

Riku jumped at her tone and turned to face her. He hadn't expected here to sound so demanding of them considering he had just died and woke up again and Sora had just woken up from a nightmare,. None of them had had any sleep and here Aurithia was wanting to leave! Well…maybe he could sleep in the Gummi ship. That would be nice.

"Alright…" he sighed reluctantly, though he knew that they had to be on their way. Sora and Kairi stood up and walked over to him. Riku noticed that Vincent and the girl were looking at him as if something were wrong, but as they saw him looking, they turned away. He blinked, brushing it away.

Axel remained where he was standing, along with Arkath. Aurithia, seeing the trios confused looks, explained, "They are going to stay behind. Remember, we are unsure if Organization XIII has truly been destroyed. If they have not, they can cause much chaos with the data they have stolen from Merlin's computer."

Riku nodded, understanding as Aurithia began to lead them outside. As they exited Merlin's house, Riku noticed a few people standing outside, one was a big red dog with a XIII marked on his shoulder. He had one eye and as they past, he approached Riku and sat down, staring intently at him. Riku stopped and looked back at the dog, "What?" he asked.

The red dog dipped his head, "Oh it is nothing you should be concerned about. You just remind me of someone who is now dead," the dog responded with a kind voice.

Riku's eyes widened, "You can talk?"

"Why yes of course, but you must return to your friends, or you will be left behind," the dog responded with a small smile. Riku blinked and then turned to look back at Sora, Kiari, and Aurithia. They were quiet a ways ahead. He nodded to the dog and then dashed off.

&&&

A dark figure stood up, a black hood hiding his face. He was at the way end of a long table that seated ten people. "We have a traitor in our midst," he hissed, his eyes glowing from under his hood. More people sat at the black table, hoods also hiding their face. The room was painted black and made of metal, making it feel very cold. Candles lit the room in a haunting glow, shadowing the place.

One figure, one that was towards the middle, also stood and spoke up, "Yes, and we must kill that traitor. How do you propose we do that?" she had an icy voice and sounded slightly curious. Her question made many of the hooded figures turn to look at her. Another figure stood up.

"With this," a gruff voice responded, taking out a pistol from his cloak pocket. There was a small, evil chuckle in the room as they imagined the traitor being shot to death by a little gun such as a pistol. It was small, but powerful.

"Also, we must plan out how we find the Keyblade Master and his friend, the Dark Keyblade wielder. Last time we targeted the Keyblade wielder. That was our mistake. I did not realize that he had such a strong heart, I was ignorant, I admit to you, my minions, but this time, I shall not make that same mistake. No, instead, I will use the one who has his blood coursing through his veins." The first one at the very end of the table said in a cold tone.

One stood up, slightly shorter than everyone else, "Do you mean you want to use the one who has Ansem's blood in his veins?"

"Yes, you idiot," a colder voice snapped. It was a man sitting next to the first hooded-figure who seemed to be the leader.

"Our plan will not fail."

&&&

Sephiroth grinned as he approached the castle. His Mako green eyes flashed wickedly. He would take his plan into action very soon. But first he must find the alliances with the ones who hated the Keyblade Master. Approaching the castle, Sephiroth kicked open the doors, not bothering to make his appearance known to anyone.

When he entered the black-and-white castle, he noticed that it appeared empty. His sharp hearing, however, picked up sounds coming from a room very far off, maybe five or six floors up towards the top.

First I must find the enemies to the Keyblade Master. Once that is done, I will make an alliance with them. I will help them kill that Sora kid, then they will help me get to Cloud. I will snuff out the light that was hardly there in Cloud, then my rein shall come.

"Hey!" a voice suddenly shouted. Sephiroth turned to see a cloak figure running towards him. "If you're going to come into this castle, you have to have a black cloak on! Not a black cape or suit!" the masked stranger snapped.

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes, but nodded, not wanting to start anything. The man nodded in turn and walked briskly over to a closet that just so happened to be close to the door in case something like this happened and took out a large black cloak and tossed it Sephiroth's say. Sephiroth caught it and glared at the man. He unstrapped the Masamune from his back and laid it on the floor. The man gave him a look before running out the doors. Obviously the man was not a resident of the castle. Sephiroth slipped the cloak on over his armor and suit. The black wing on his right shoulder was gone for the moment, which was a good thing-it would stand out too much. Then he took the Masamune and strapped it back onto his back. Then Sephiroth pulled the hood over his head so no-one would know it was him under the hood.

The one winged angel turned to the staircase, and began his short flight up the stairs. He was somehow able to skip five steps at a time, as if gliding over them as he made his way to where the voices were coming from. Within seconds, he reached the meeting room door and heard voices speaking.

Without knocking, Sephiroth opened the black door and was greeted by a black room light by candles. Eleven cloaked figures sat in chairs, well, actually the one at the far end of the table was standing. Every hooded-head turned to look his way.

"Who are you?" one person demanded, her voice sharp. "You're not aloud in our meeting room-get out!"

Sephiroth glared at the speaker, though he could not see her face. "I advise you to keep your mouth shut woman or you will end up just as all of my other enemies here do."

The cloaked man who was standing came up to Sephiroth, "Ignore her, she is of no importance, Sephiroth. I have been expecting you."

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, "Have you now? Then you must know that I wish to help you kill the Keyblade Master in exchange for Cloud's submission?"

The hooded man nodded, "I see, though I do not know how we are supposed to help you get to Cloud."

"That is simple," Sephiroth mused, "make him mad, depressed, weaken him. He is too resistant for me to do anything at the moment. And without his submission, I cannot even begin to rule the worlds because he will stop me very step of the way, like he did last time."

"Hmm…alright, we can do that, I guess, but now you must know our plans for the Keyblade Master's destruction."