Author's Note: Fair warning, we are beginning the necessary filler. The plot will move more slowly now (for the most part), but it will be well worth the wait. There are SEVERAL cameos approaching that will later become full roles. I'm sorry if its getting a little confusing; it feels like I'm writing War and Peace with all of the characters I'm trying to incorporate seperately!

In the meantime, you now find out the fates of some of the crater's occupants, as well as your first hint (albeit a VERY subtle one) at who the mystery man is. Send me your guess if you have them. I love hearing what other people think my twists will turn out to be, which is part of the reason I write here more than my original stuff. A cameo to the first person to guess right. PLEASE, though, don't put your guess in the reply section if you want the cameo, because I don't want to let others know if you were right or not. Message them to me, and I'll reply to anything you send.

Chapter 6

Fortunately, Yuffie had equipped her father's Leviathan Materia shortly before leaving, expecting a terrible fight. She had completely forgotten about it when the fight actually broke out; seeing Sephiroth alive for a third time would do that to you. Nevertheless, it was still there, and when she summoned it she rode its tidal wave to safety on a lonely and remote shore.

She checked herself over, making sure that she was still in one piece and that nothing was missing. It was then that she remembered that she had been trying to save Rakunya as well. She scanned the beach, then saw that he was there, laying face down, not moving. She rushed over to him and turned him over, then gasped.

True, he was alive, or at the least he was still breathing, but the last half-hour had not been kind to him. Not only was his face cut from the rocks he had landed on, but his arm was still oozing fresh blood from a wound she hadn't realized he had. She looked the wound over closely. It was too clean cut to have been from a rock; this was the work of Sephiroth's blade. She stood up, searching frantically for something to tie his arm with, hoping she could stop the bleeding before he lost too much blood. The beach was bare, however, and she finally resolved to tear off a strip from her own shirt to bandage the wound. It wasn't great, but it would have to do. She thought about looking for help, but she didn't want to leave Rakunya alone, and she certainly wasn't strong enough to carry him. She decided just to sit there and watch him, waiting to see if he would come around.

Another hour passed before he finally did wake up, but he hardly moved at first when he did. His mind was still in shock over what happened. The entire journey through the crater seemed to be buzzing in his mind. The attack by Sephiroth, the sacrifice of the SeeDs, the explosion…that mind numbing explosion…he pondered that for a moment. He pondered the sheer force that explosion must have taken to create. He wondered how he made it out alive. He was the closest person to the source of the blast, except for…

"Yuffie!" he shouted, sitting straight up. He winced, then laid back down, clutching his arm.

Yuffie started awake when she heard him shout. "Rakunya?" she said timidly, wondering if she had simply dreamt it. She had been drifting off since she had decided to sit watch over him. "Are you awake?"

He winced again as he forced himself to sit up. "Good," he said, looking at her. "You made it."

Yuffie leaned over and hugged him, careful not to hurt his arm. "I'm so glad you're alive!"

Rakunya sat there and accepted the hug, his mind still swimming. "What happened?" he finally asked as Yuffie pulled away. "How did we survive?"

"I summoned Leviathan," she said. "We rode the tidal wave to shore." She looked around and added, "Though I'm not sure which shore…"

"We can worry about that later," Rakunya said simply. "Right now, I just want to embrace the fact that we're alive." There was a brief and almost awkward pause before Rakunya's mind began clicking. "Where is everyone else?"

Yuffie sighed and shook her head. "We were all scattered when the blast hit. I don't even know if the others are alive."

Rakunya cursed under his breath. He had let them all down; Eiko, Zidane, Selphie…he paused an extra moment on her name. What could have happened to her? Could she have made it out alive like he did? "As least you made it out, Yuffie," he said softly, realizing after the fact that it probably sounded more romantic than he had intended yet not rectifying this in the least.

Yuffie was a bit taken aback by his caring emotion but she quickly collected herself. "We don't know that the others are dead, Rakunya."

"True," he said. "But all we know for sure is that the two of us are alive. We have to make it back to tell everyone what happened. Squall, Cloud…" His voice trailed off. Should they really tell Cloud that Sephiroth had returned? Cloud had managed to defeat Sephiroth twice before, and never had it been enough. Perhaps this time the world needed someone else to face off against Sephiroth. Or perhaps he was mistaken, and perhaps Sephiroth's revival was merely a byproduct of the merger of the worlds. It was all still speculation.

He tired to stand, but he yelped in pain. Forgetting about his still-bleeding arm for a moment, he had tried to raise himself up with his bad arm. Yuffie rushed to his side, but he held up his good hand. "I'll be fine," he said through gritted teeth. "Just help me up and don't let me do anything stupid like that again."

She pulled him to his feet, and he leaned against her as he tried to regain his strength and balance. "Take it easy," Yuffie said as calmly as she could. "You lost a lot of blood."

There was a short pause, then, "You were right."

"Hm?"

"About Sephiroth. You were right. He is an amazing swordsman. Pictures and descriptions give him no justice."

"'Bout the only thing that would give him justice is that sword through his stomach," Yuffie muttered as they began walking slowly away from the ocean.

Selphie shook herself off, then fell over, her sense of balance having not quite returned. Slowly and carefully she stood, regained her balance, and checked herself over. Her Wall spell seemed to have absorbed most of the damage, but it didn't stop her from being thrown to Hyne only knew where. Even Hyne might not know, what with the different landscape and all, she chuckled to herself.

She looked around and saw the two tailed figures standing not far from her, the younger, clearly more shaken up, leaning on the elder for support. She looked curiously at the elder, who simply sighed. "I'm a sorcerer," he explained as he cauterized his own wounds with a small flame. "I've survived worse."

Kuja looked down at Zidane. Zidane apeeared to be in some pain, but the wound on his back was not nearly as deep as they had assumed; it wasn't even bleeding, and despite some stiffness, he could still move around perfectly fine. "Apparently we are not the only ones with interest in Jenova."

Zidane eased himself into standing alone. He turned and saw Selphie. "Hello," he said. "You were with us in the crater, right? I'm Zidane, and this is Kuja."

"Selphie," she said, shaking their hands. She took notice of Kuja's silver hair and remembered the fight from earlier and something that Rakunya had said during the fight…Rakunya…where was he?…"Do either of you know anything about Sephiroth?"

"He was the man that attacked us," Kuja said. "That is the extent of my knowledge."

"Sorry," Zidane concurred. "He sure was a damn good fighter, though."

Selphie hated to admit it, but Zidane was right. Everything about the fight, even the sword itself, told her that Sephiroth was a master fighter. He seemed to be unstoppable when he wielded that blade. She mentally scolded herself. No one was unstoppable. If they could defeat a sorceress from the future, they could stop Sephiroth.

"Do you think anyone else made it out?" Selphie asked timidly.

"I doubt it," Kuja admitted bluntly. He later added, "But anything's possible."

"Yeah," Zidane said. "We made it out, didn't we? I'm sure someone else was strong enough to survive." He winced suddenly, the cut in his back becoming painfully more evident.

"Are you going to be ok?" Kuja asked, a certain softness in his voice that neither had really heard before.

Zidane winced a little but he seemed to shake it off. "I'll be fine," he said casually. "At least until we make it to a town. Between the three worlds, I'm sure we're close to something."

Something, Selphie thought. Or maybe someone?

"Let's go," she said suddenly. "We might not know where we are going, but there's always a chance that we'll find one of the others.

Kuja looked as if he were about to say something, but he quickly changed his mind. There was no point in being pessimistic right now. If hope was what kept the other two going, then he would let them have it. He would ignore, for now, the fact that the odds were against them. Kuja had only made it out by slipping into trance at the last second, which allowed him to pull Zidane away unharmed. He assumed that he had misjudged Selphie and the Wall that she had been casting. The others, though…at the least, he was sure that Zidane's partners had no skills that would keep them alive.

He looked down and saw that he was still holding the katana. Swords felt strange to him; he had never relied much on physical strength. Magic was his area, but even that had failed him against Sephiroth. This blade, even though he had been unable to do much with it, had saved his life. Even if its owner was dead, there had to be something that he could do to show his appreciation.

"Selphie," Kuja said. "This sword…it belonged to you friend, yes?"

Selphie nodded. What if Kuja's right? What if no one else made it out of the crater alive? Was that the last time I'll ever get to see Rakunya?

"Then let's go," Kuja said firmly, breaking into her thoughts. "I need to return this."

"I still don't like it."

"Why not? Everything has gone as I said, has it not?"

"Yeah, but boss you're playing with a wild card."

The man in the chair laughed, chilling the blood of his associate. "So what if I am? I know what I am doing, and I know what Sephiroth will do. I have everything under control."

"Sir, I'm afraid I have trouble believing you. Sephiroth is moving too quickly, and you can't afford to have a rival."

He went to say more, but a hand gripped his throat, cutting off the air. He struggled to get loose, but his boss simply laughed and broke his neck. He fell to the floor, a disheveled mass.

"Anyone else having trouble believing me?" His other two associates shook their heads and muttered "No, sir."

He turned his back to them. "Good," he said. "Get this body out of my sight. It disgusts me."

Author's P.S.: A long chapter, I know, but there's going to be more like this now, maybe even some that are longer. Preview of next time: Rinoa fans will finally get to see what happens on her visit to see Odine.