Okies, I am sooooooooooo sorry about the delay. I just have a TONNE going on right now. My GCSE exams are coming up (REALLY improtant exams) and my mum is choking me with revision and coursework and I'm gonna die from the avalanche of work so my writing and drawing and video making has been pushed aside for a while. Fear not, however, I shall do what I can... though i don't promise much... TT


Shut Up and Climb, Idiot.

Riku, hurry!


Mickey was startled out of his half-sleep when various machines Ansem had insisted upon hooking Riku up to began to flash red. The rhythmic staggered steps the heart monitor had been taking became erratic, its monotonous beats becoming incessant and overwhelming. That was about the only machine Mickey understood and was able to read as the Ansem burst into the room with a man Mickey recognized had accompanied them from Destiny Islands. By the look on the blond man's face Mickey was correct in his assumptions about Riku's state and the man also knew Riku as was apparent by the shock in his face.

"Vexen! What is Riku's state?" Ansem demanded, immediately at Riku's side.

Mickey staggered out of his seat and backed away, he wanted to help but this was not his area of expertise and it would serve Riku best if he just let the scientists handle it. The blond man, Vexen, was at the computers with a rustle of the familiar white lab coat he wore, his pale green eyes scanning the data with a fearful air.

"His blood pressure is rising!" Vexen called over the emergency blares of the machines.

Ansem swore colorfully and Mickey would have been mildly amused if Riku's body hadn't that very moment arched off the cold metal cot, the thin blankets that had been placed around him for comfort were wrung and fisted in spasming hands as the silveret's body attempted to snap itself in half, moonlight coloured hair splayed across the makeshift bed, lips apart in a silent scream, eyes rolled back in his head. Mickey gasped and tensed, fighting between running to his friend and staying out of the way.

"Blood sugar level dropping!" Vexen called.

"Mickey, help me restrain him!" Ansem shouted to the mouse king.

Dutifully Mickey ran forwards and grabbed Riku's flailing arm, wrestling it down with fearful strength he didn't know he possessed. Removing a belt with quick thinking from his waist he deftly tied down Riku's left arm as Ansem did the right. Pinning down his legs Ansem nodded in approval as Mickey gagged Riku, preventing the silveret from biting his tongue off in his fit.

"Vexen, bring me a sedative!" Ansem commanded.

The blond scientist nodded, reaching into a drawer and taking out a needle and syringe. He handed it to the older scientist who removed its protective packaging, gave it a testing squirt and gripped Riku's arm gruffly before jabbing into a bulging artery and pushing all of the drug into Riku's body.

It took a few moments to take effect but eventually Riku's blood pressure returned to normal and his heart calmed and stopped beating so violently.

Mickey almost breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed Riku's chest heaving painfully, as if the young king of light couldn't get enough air. "Ansem, his breathing…"

The elder nodded. "Vexen, bring the…"

The conversation between the two scientists faded into the background and Mickey looked at Riku brokenly. 'I am so sorry, Riku,' the mouse said inside his head, too afraid to show his regret even before his oldest friend and his assistant. 'I never meant for this to... if I'd known this would happen… I never would have asked you and your family to come with us,' Mickey admitted. Finally putting words to the guilt and regret eating him up inside.

He jumped as Vexen put a hand on Mickey's small shoulder while Ansem busied himself setting up yet another machine to monitor Riku, this one to assist the man to breathe, a mask over his mouth with a pump regulating the breaths.

The blond scientist smiled down at Mickey sadly. "Riku will be fine."

Mickey frowned, "How can you know that? Look at him… he keeps coming inches from death and its only by a miracle is he pulled from it either by his own resilience or someone else's."

Vexen's smile didn't waver but became distant as he remembered something Mickey wasn't privy to. "I won't pretend I know Riku that well, we're only acquaintances. I am not even that close to Sora but I trust that little boy with my heart every day."

"Sora's a father, not a boy…" Mickey pointed out.

"He'll always be a boy to me." Vexen patted Mickey's shoulder. "I may not know either of them very well but I know them enough to know that they aren't going to go that easily. Riku's here because he's protecting Sora, right? Well, I bet Sora's only in pain because he's protecting Riku. That means they can't die, no matter how close they come to it." Vexen began to gently urge the king to the door. "Ansem tells me you've been at Riku's side since he was brought in; I think you'll need some rest before you do anything else. You'll do no one any good by being exhausted."

Mickey twisted his face at being bossed around by someone who was under his control but he saw the wisdom in the scientist's words. "Very well, inform me if Riku's state changes any."

"Affirmative. Oh, and when you wake, your first order of business may want to be locating Soku, Merlin's been looking for the boy all day and can't find him or the dark prince anywhere."

Two teenage boys who claimed love for each other were missing; Mickey tried desperately not to imagine what they were up to and replied. "Why did Merlin want to find Soku?"

Vexen shrugged, "I think he wanted Leon actually but couldn't find him either."

Mickey's eyes widened in horror. Soku and Everent going MIA wasn't that suspicious, but Leon too? Something was up, Mickey knew it! Fleeing down the corridor, ignoring Vexen's protests that his chambers were the other way, he left the gummi ship and sprinted to Soku's tent, disregarding the little voice saying he should knock incase Soku and Everent were… in the middle of something.

It turned out he needn't have worried, the tent was empty.

Mickey fled the tent and went to Leon's, it was also empty.

A final desperate attempt to find anyone who might know where the three males were led Mickey to Vincent's tent. Vincent would know where Leon was if not the two princes. Leon was Cloud's lover, and as Cloud's best friend Vincent would know where Leon was from association.

Vincent's tent was also empty.

Mickey collapsed in a breathless heap. He had been aware that Xikru and the others had been raring to get going to bring the others back but this…

They had gone on their own! Mickey punched his fists into the ground, almost wishing he could beat the stress out. He just knew this was all Xikru's fault.


Xikru threw down the oar he was using at the front of the boat with a resounding clatter. Screeching an indignant 'Hey,' the other four males in the boat jumped with fright and a scowl trying to shush the noisy embodiment of Riku's heart.

"How dare he?!" Xikru demanded of no one, his lips forming a childish pout.

"Xikru, shut up!" Leon hissed, threatening the teen the with his oar.

"What's wrong with you?!" Everent hissed angrily, "We're supposed to be breaking into the friggin' castle here, shut up!"

Xikru stuck his tongue out childishly and jabbed a finger upwards. "This the creepy way we get into your freaky castle?"

Everent rolled is eyes and nodded, he whispered to Soku, "I didn't know your father was so… childish..."

Soku shrugged. "I guess he must have been at sixteen."

"I'll have you know, I find that offensive." Xikru scowled.

Leon pushed Xikru firmly towards the ladder. "Shut up and climb, idiot."

Everent clambered up first, Vincent keeping the boat steady on the water with his oar jammed firmly into the silt bed of the waterway; Leon gave the two teens a boost up, Xikru nimbly jumping up after them as an ancient creaking sounded hollowly in the eerily silent underground tunnel as Everent opened the hatch into the kitchens.

Hitting him like a wall the dark prince gagged, his stomach heaving and threatening to empty itself as the male hastily covered his face and turned to the others in a hushed tone and ordered, "Cover your mouths. The stench is awful."

And he was right.

The stench of rotting food and decaying flesh that became oh so clear as the Prince rose to his full height, and spied the bodies around them that by all rights should never have been there, not after seventy years to degrade away.

Vincent picked up on this too, his sense of smell thankfully protected by his heavy collar. "Why are they still here?"

Everent suppressed a gag and blinked his watering eyes, the smell so pungent it was making him teary. Soku gripped his lovers arm nervously as he did all he could to bury his nose in his sleeve. "After the attacks, my father deemed the losses we suffered… salvageable." Everent coughed out as they staggered through the expansive kitchens, stepping disgustedly over grotesquely decayed corpses, their mouths agape in horror. Soku squeezed his eyes shut and let Everent guide him, shuffling his steps to avoid standing on anything.

"Salvageable? Do I even want to know?" Leon murmured through the leather cuff of his jacket, his eyes darting around for anyone that could possibly be lurking near by, but as Everent had expected, the kitchens were abandoned.

Everent made a pained face. "You probably don't want to know but… why let the bodies rot when you can use parts? Parts you can't synthesize like you can an arm or leg. Parts like… hearts…"

Soku and Leon froze, Vincent's only perceptible reaction being his pause in breathing for a moment. Soku choked and let out a gasp. "H-he… he t-took their h-hearts?!"

"Among other things…" Everent shrugged his shoulders, revolted by the topic of discussion. "He has always been obsessed with creating the perfect army to do his biding but after that last raid…" The prince snorted in vague amusement. "You had significantly dwindled our numbers to a point where Sephiroth was terrified Light would actually win. So much so he set about creating his army that much faster that he was forced to make short cuts using whatever means necessary. That's also where he made significant mistakes. And those mistakes resulted in the 'Children of Darkness', as I've heard Prince Consort Sora refer to them as." The neared the door to let them exit the kitchens. "Finally…" The prince muttered breathlessly and swung upon the door as quickly and quietly as he could.

Shutting the door with a sigh of relief, the group took a moment to catch their breath before Leon murmured suddenly. "How do you know all of this, I can hardly imagine Sephiroth would be the type to parade his failures about like that."

"I know. He's also not the fatherly type. I was raised by a woman whom I loved as my mother and she absolutely hated Sephiroth for her imprisonment." Everent looked away a moment. "Her revenge was to raise me to be his over thrower and not as he had intended. She told me everything she knew about his failures, helped me explore every inch of the castle so that, should the need arise, I could either break out or break in."

Soku bit his lip. "If she was imprisoned here… why did she never escape?"

Everent sighed mournfully. "Until I became fourteen and fully into my dark powers Sephiroth could find me at a moments notice and Fran would never dream of leaving me behind at his clutches willingly so… she stayed until my birthday. We had planned to leave then but Sephiroth was probably aware of this fact for the next day I was informed she was dead." Rubbing his face agitatedly the dark prince looked around the dimly lit, dark stone corridor they were huddled in and took charge. "Right, we need to find Sora, Cloud, and Sephiroth."

Xikru closed his eyes for a moment and raised an eyebrow as he chewed his lip. "I think… I think I can sense Sora in the lower parts of the dungeon but I can't be sure, nor do I have a clear picture of their energy patterns without using my full power to find him, but that would alert Sephiroth."

"Well, wherever Sora is, Cloud and Sephiroth are sure to be too." Everent surmised.

Soku gently took Everent's hand in his own and the plans were made. They would carefully journey to the basements of the castle and tackle one problem (guards and or obstructing persons) at a time. Not much of a plan, granted, but it was all they had.


Cloud felt as empty as a china doll. In fact, he felt exactly like a china doll. He was lying in one of the laboratories below the castle, bare for all to see and curled up as tightly as he could without aggravating the damage inflicted upon him by Sephiroth's vindictive and sadistic 'welcome home'. Inside he felt the resolve to continue, to play the part of the perfect doll at his 'masters' side. At this moment though he wanted nothing more than to run, to flee those encircling arms, that burning touch that left him hollow. Cloud would even embrace death had Sephiroth left him with anything to be of use.

The stone floor was cold to the touch but Cloud felt nothing as he lay there, eyes vacant and dazed as he heard Sephiroth busy somewhere in the same lab, mixing chemicals and injecting his 'precious' creations, the children in tanks he had grown for his use. Every so often Cloud would feel those mako-green, heartless eyes upon him and he would wonder where in the hell it all went wrong?

When had the mighty Sephiroth, a hero of Cloud's youth, become a nightmare that would haunt him until the day he died? That leering face with the touches that never made Cloud aroused or enticed, but made him recoil and tremble with fear. When had Cloud become the center of Sephiroth's world? He had just been doing what he felt was right and saving his world from the darkness. Sephiroth was enveloping it in the dark, though making his efforts in vain. Cloud had lost friends he counted as family to save his world. He thought he had lost everything and when Sephiroth offered him salvation, he had taken it. But… why him? What was so special about a blond boy who had failed at everything? There… there was nothing special.

Cloud's dull eyes suddenly sparkled for a brief moment.

Leon believed there was…

Leon believed he was special…

Leon loved him…

And there it was, the reason to continue and persevere through the pain, the humiliation and the torture: Leon.

Cloud was in love with Leon and he wouldn't let anyone harm him. He needed to hold onto that. He needed to hold that dear or he would lose sight of it… no. Cloud would never lose sight of that. Cloud loved Leon and Leon loved Cloud. He did. They did…

Shaking uncontrollably and thankfully free from Sephiroth's gaze momentarily, Cloud let the tears of joy and love he had for Leon trickle down his face in rivers of salt that he knew he would cherish. He would survive this.

Jolting at a hand on his side Cloud froze, daring to look over he was shocked to see Sora laying his head sadly and comfortingly against him. Cloud didn't dare breathe for fear of what might happen, then Sora looked up sharply and it was not yellow that met his gaze but blue. Pure cobalt that rivaled his own. Sora was with him, how? Cloud didn't care! He was so grateful for the comfort of having someone so gentle that he knew would never hurt him so close that he wriggled closer without a sound lest Sephiroth discover them and the two fell asleep, Sora determinedly keeping control through the night so Cloud had the comfort he sorely needed.

Riku, hurry, I need you now more than ever.


Sora...I'm coming...


Plea… se...


SORA!! WAIT!!


Monitors went wild, flashing and beeping filled the sterile room. With the beeping of the heart monitor, Riku awoke with a scream.

"Sora!"


Hurray for evil cliffies!! ...no? You don't like them? You throw pointy objects at them?! EEP!!! RUN TRAGEDY!!!!!

Lol. Anyway. Hope you liked the update. The reason (if you're getting bored of it) that Cloud keeps repeating that he and Leon love each other its because he needs that reassurance or he'll go insane! NOOOESSS!!! CLOUD WE LOVE YOU!!!! Lol.

Leon: steals Cloud MAH MAN!

Akaiba: EH!! You can't steal one of the main characters!!!

Tragedy: YAH! GIMME CLOUD!!!

Cloud: Guys... shut up! ////