Author's Note: Another chapter already? I'm on a roll! Actually, I've already written through 14, so you'll be getting daily updates for a while now. I hope you all enjoy. We're continuing with this idea of necessary filler and set up, but its starting to get interesting as certain loose ends tie up and others unravel.

Chapter 9

Garnet floated helplessly, barely able to move. It had taken her last ounce of strength to cling to a piece of the wrecked airship, but where she had gone since then it was impossible to say. She had even lost track of how long she'd been floating and had relatively given up on the idea of being rescued. She was sure that she would be eaten by some sort of sea beast while she was out there.

Instead, however, she saw a ship come past her. She weakly called out for help, but she figured they had stopped more because they had seen her rather than having heard her. A ladder fell down the side of the ship, and two men in uniform swam out to rescue her. It took both of them to drag her up the ladder; she had been weakened by the attack, and hence was dead weight.

"Are you alright?" she heard a voice ask.

"Y-Yeah," she replied shakily. She coughed and struggled to stand, finally satisfying herself with just sitting up. "Where am I?"

"We're somewhere between Dollet and Balamb," the voice explained. "You're lucky we found you, miss. We just happened to be returning from a reconnaissance mission. Must've been fate that the timing lined up."

She looked up, allowing both of them to get a good look at each other for the first time. She didn't recognize the cowboy, though something about the way he carried himself made her realize that he was probably important, or at least thought that he was. He, however, recognized her immediately; he may never have met her, but he would never forget a face, especially one as pretty as hers.

"Queen Garnet!" he exclaimed suddenly. He bowed, removing his hat; Garnet couldn't tell if he thought this was proper to do for a Queen or if he was just continuing his gentlemanly air. She may have still been young and not know much about the world, but she had hung out with Zidane long enough that she knew the cowboy was hitting on her, even if he was doing a poor job at it. "What are you doing floating out in the ocean?" he asked suddenly, his tone becoming more serious, if only slightly.

She coughed up some seawater. How long was I out there? "I…I was in the Crater in the North," she said weakly. "We met up with a SeeD mission…we were all investigating Jenova…we were attacked…"

"Attacked?" Irvine said suddenly, his tone becoming more serious. "Was it another Jenova?"

Garnet shook his head. "I'd never seen him before. He had long, silver hair, and he wore a long black coat. His sword…it was so long…I've never seen anything like it." Probably because I'm always stuck in the castle, she grimly admitted to herself. Now was not the time to ponder it, though. "One of the SeeDs called him…Sephiroth, I think."

The cowboy thought for a moment. "I've never heard of him," he finally admitted, not happy that he was going to sound ignorant in front of her. "We're headed back to Garden…maybe Squall knows something."

So this is a SeeD ship, she though. Then he must be talking about Squall Leonhart. I hope he knows something. He's always been willing to help before…and at the least he'll want to find the other SeeDs…maybe he'll help me find Zidane.

"Well, it's still a good half-hour at full speed back to Balamb, so why don't you get some rest?" the cowboy offered. "By the way," he added, bowing again, more slightly this time, "my name is Irvine."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Irvine."

"Oh no, I assure you, the pleasure is all mine."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yuffie was disappointed. Where most of the continents had lush, rolling greens beyond their shores, this one seemed to be barren. The rocky terrain was doing nothing to improve either her mood or Rakunya's condition, and indeed he seemed to be growing weaker by the second. She, too, was staggering, but that was more from the effort of trying to drag around Rakunya than anything else.

Rakunya leaned into her slightly more for support, careful not to let any more of his weight rest on her. He knew that she was tiring, and he knew that he was too heavy for her to support him for much longer. She may have been strong, but hers was the strength of a ninja; ninjas were unaccustomed to carrying injured men around on their backs.

"Thank you," he said suddenly, breaking the silence of their journey.

She shifted uncomfortably under his weight, trying to reposition it a little and make it easier to hold. "For what?"

"For being here…for helping me off the beach…for offering to find help for me…"

"It's nothing," she insisted. Why was he suddenly getting like this?

"Maybe," he sighed. "But it means a lot to me anyway." He felt his eyes start to grow heavy, and he looked over at his arm. Despite Yuffie's best efforts, it was still bleeding, even if much more slowly. He knew that he couldn't survive all of the blood loss, and he knew that it would be over long before Yuffie could manage to drag him to a town. "Never blame yourself," he whispered.

She was too startled by his remark to say anything as they walked past a forest. Realizing that the only way away from the forest led to the beach, she limped forward with Rakunya still at her side. She looked at her friend and saw in his eyes that he was dying, and he knew it.

"No," she whispered, almost involuntarily. "We'll make it, Rakunya. Just stay with me till we pass this forest. There has to be something on the other side. "You can do it, Rakunya. Just hold on a little longer."

He looked at her, a smile on his face. "I'll stay as long as I can," he said. "But we both know that I can't promise much."

They walked on in silence, mostly because Yuffie didn't want to think about Rakunya dying. They had been great friends for far too long. She pushed herself, forcing herself to go faster, promising that she would do everything in her power to save him.

Eventually, though, she found herself needing to rest. Understanding, Rakunya eased himself off of her to sit next to a large tree. He wasn't sure how much longer he would last; part of him knew that this was his final resting place. You always did like the woods, he thought grimly.

Yuffie sat next to him, tears forming in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said at last. "I just couldn't go on."

"Take as much time as you need, Yuffie."

She cursed under her breath. Of all the days not to have a phone…Cid could've found them on the beach. She may have hated flying, but it would've been worth it to save her friend.

"Even if this is it for me, Yuffie, just know that I'll never blame you. You did all that you could."

Yuffie shook her head furiously, the tears coming easier now. "Don't talk like that, Rakunya. You're going to make it. You're strong. You'll make it, even if by the skin of your teeth."

He smiled as he looked at her. "I thought you hated clichés," he said weakly.

She threw her arms around him. "Don't go, Rakunya," she whispered in his ear. "I can't lose you."

With all the strength he could manage, he raised his arms and hugged her back. "I'll hold on," he said, although he wasn't sure that he entirely believed himself. "I'll try just a little longer for you."

"I'm sorry," she cried. "I'm sorry that I couldn't get you to a town in time. I'm sorry I didn't have the Full-Cure Materia on me today. I'm sorry I couldn't tie your arm better. I'm…"

He pulled back and put a finger to her lips. "If these are our last moments, I don't want them filled with apologies. None of this is your fault, Yuffie. Besides, even if you had Full-Cure, there's no guarantee that it would've worked. This is from Sephiroth's sword; you yourself said that wounds from his sword were a special case."

"It would've been better than nothing," she whispered. It can't end like this…

She called out for help, even though she knew that no one could hear her in the woods. Three times she cried, each time more exasperated, part of her hoping that despite the odds, somebody would actually come through this desolate place before it was too late.

At last she finally laid her head down on Rakunya's good shoulder and lay quietly in his arms, still crying. "Don't go," she whispered several times. "Please, don't go."

He slowly began unconsciously stroking her hair, as much a way to keep himself calm as to keep her calm. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm sorry it had to end like this."

She looked up at him and saw that he, too, was crying now. "What do you have to be sorry for?" she asked. "You can't blame yourself for this."

"At least," he admitted after a brief pause, "I got to spend my last minutes with you."

Those words made Yuffie break down and bawl into his shoulder, still chanting "Don't go!" She had never pictured anything like this, never thought that she would be there to witness Rakunya's last moments, especially not in the middle of the woods.

"Listen," he said after a short while as Yuffie calmed down from her hysterics. "I have a favor to ask."

"Anything," she told him, and for once she actually meant it.

"I don't care where I'm buried. I don't even care if you send people in here after my body. There is one thing, though…I think somebody's coming. I want you to go to the nearest town with them. Contact anyone you think needs to know that Sephiroth is alive. Maybe I'm feeling vengeful, but I want him stopped. Also…tell Selphie what happened."

She almost raised an eyebrow to this, but she decided not to say anything. "I know it probably seems like an odd request, but if there was anyone that I could be with in my dying moments, she's the only other one that I would've chosen. Please, tell her, ok?"

Yuffie nodded. "Hold on, Rakunya," she begged. "If you can stay just a little while longer, maybe whoever's coming can take you to a town, a hospital, somewhere where you can be healed. You don't have to die here."

"Maybe not," Rakunya said as he began to slip into unconsciousness. He saw the stranger that he had mentioned walk up behind Yuffie in surprise, but he could no longer make out any features. "Good luck," he whispered.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What are you doing?" the man demanded as the stranger impaled another one of his associates. "I still need them!"

The other turned to the one who dared speak out against him. "You need nothing," he growled. "I, however, need this facility. It shall make a convenient waiting place."

"Waiting won't help you get what you're after!" the man shouted as another of his associates was slain.

The man stopped suddenly, blade pointed at the man who had spoken to him for a second time. "How do you know what I want?"

"I know everything about this new world," the man chuckled, sitting back down. "To include you, Sephiroth."

Sephiroth flicked his sword in warning, moving it closer to the defiant fool. One of his flunkies tried to stop him but he was soon silenced.

"Now is that really necessary? It's getting annoying."

Sephiroth thought otherwise. To him, it was this man who was annoying, this man who insisted upon being calm and defiant in the face of death, yet at the same time…Sephiroth could not bring himself to kill this man. He knew that this man still had something to tell him, something important. "What are you hiding?" he growled.

"The way to extract what you need from Northern Crater without awakening the Weapons," the man laughed. Sephiroth hesitated, then lowered his blade and nodded, showing that he was willing to help. The man laughed, pleased with himself that it had been that easy to turn Sephiroth from a wild card to an ace that he could keep hidden dangerously up his sleeve.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Who hired you?" Rufus demanded of the assassin.

"You're in no position to make demands," the assassin growled.

"Nor are you," Rufus said with a slight smile.

The words hadn't even finished leaving his lips when the assassin fell over, twitching. Reno swung the rod to his shoulder and smiled, quite pleased that he had managed to save Rufus's life from a clearly dangerous assassin.

"Good work, Reno," Rufus nodded.

"What should I do with him, boss?" Reno wondered, poking at the twitching body.

"Throw him in a holding cell for questioning. We need to find out where he came from. Oh, and Reno?" he added as an afterthought. "Next time, the power doesn't need to be quite so high."

Next Time on Mad World: Who was the stranger, and did it matter for Rakunya and Yuffie? Also, more on Selphie, Kuja, and Zidane, and another character joins our huge cast. At this rate, it'll be like a bad soap opera, and I'll go over budget and have to start killing people off!