Chapter 10

"So you met at Odine's laboratory, huh? Odd that Squall would let his sorceress there unsupervised."

Immediately, Rinoa was taken aback by the fact that Cloud also knew that she was a sorceress. All she knew about him was that he worked with a group known as AVALANCHE when Sephiroth was still around. She also knew that he somehow knew the unconscious Vincent lying beside them. "Yeah," she finally said. "I'm still surprised that I met him there. What was he doing?"

"Getting answers," Cloud said simply. When this didn't suffice, he added, "Odine's fingers are in more pots than we like. Vincent was going to find out just how many pots that was."

Vincent stirred suddenly, startling Rinoa. He rolled over and sat up. "I see you made it in time to save Rinoa, Cloud." He looked around. "The dragon?"

Cloud seemed puzzled, but Rinoa nodded. "Tiamat is dead. You managed to kill him."

Vincent shook his head. "No," he said firmly. "Not me. I am sorry that you had to see that."

"What was that, anyway?" Rinoa asked.

Cloud looked at Vincent, wondering if he should explain, or, for that matter, if Vincent would explain; Cloud never felt fully satisfied with the story he had been given. Instead Vincent turned his head. "It's not important right now." He looked at Cloud's motorcycle. "Can you take Rinoa to the Forgotten Forest? I will meet you both there."

Cloud nodded, but Rinoa looked unsure. "Don't worry about him," Cloud said as he leapt onto Fenrir. "He has ways of getting around. Are you coming?"

Reluctant and hesitant, though at the same time trusting what Squall had told her of this Cloud, she leapt on behind him and clutched him tightly as he drove off.

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"Welcome back, Irvine," Quistis said formally. "I presume the mission went well?"

"Of course!" Irvine said. "Why wouldn't it? I was in charge!"

"That doesn't…" Quistis began, but she stopped short when she saw the young women in white robes who was standing next to Irvine. "Is that…Queen Garnet?"

Irvine nodded. "She's going to be a guest of honor as I go and report to Squall, if you don't mind."

Quistis sighed. "Just what Squall needs, more bad news. He just found out about Rinoa's plan to visit Dr. Odine…"

"Did she already go?"

Quistis nodded. "Still, if you have Queen Garnet with you, I'm sure it's important, so hurry yourselves up the elevator."

Without another word, Irvine led Garnet to the elevator and pressed the third button, followed by a key combination. "Special permission," he winked at Garnet. She knew he was trying to impress her, but she had already figured out that it would take special permission to just go and see the head of SeeD; in her mind his position made him a lot like her or her uncle, the regent Cid.

They entered his office. Squall looked up from his desk, immediately annoyed to see Irvine. I can't imagine why Irvine might annoy him, Garnet thought sarcastically. Before saying anything, though, Squall saw Garnet and immediately stood, more out of surprise than respect, Garnet guessed.

"Queen Garnet!" he said suddenly.

"Please, Squall," she said. "You know I hate formalities."

Squall sat down and looked at Irvine. "Stay quiet and let her talk," Squall said, his tone almost a warning. "We'll get to your report later." He turned back to Garnet. "What's wrong?"

"Well," she said. "I hate to be the one to tell you, but I think that you may have lost many valuable SeeDs on the mission to the Crater in the North."

Squall's eyes widened. Not only had he sent several SeeDs on the mission, but Selphie and Rakunya as well. If they had died on this mission…"What happened?"

"I met with them in the Crater; we were all looking for Jenova, it seemed. Instead, we found Sephiroth."

She proceeded to recount the highlights of the battle. As she did, Squall felt a part of him die. Selphie, Rakunya, he thought. Where are you? Did you survive? What if neither of you make it back?

As Garnet finished her story, Squall looked closely at Irvine. "Gather every available SeeD," he said firmly. "If what Garnet said is true, then only two of the SeeDs from the mission are alive, and we can't even guarantee that. Tell them that they are on a manhunt for Rakunya and Selphie. Now is not the time," he added as Irvine involuntarily grimaced at Selphie's name. "I know that the break-up has been hard on both of you, but she still needs to be found. Once you have done that, gather the old crew." Irvine raised an eyebrow, and Squall nodded. "We're going after Sephiroth."

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Selphie sighed. While she was glad to have the company, she was growing tired of Zidane, who, despite his injury, insisted on walking beside her and recounting all of his past with Kuja. Perhaps in better circumstances she would be interested, but she couldn't help but shake the feeling that something had happened to Rakunya. Where had he ended up? Was he alive?

Kuja seemed to take note of her general disinterest with Zidane and apparent mode of deep thought. "It's your partner, isn't it?" he asked sympathetically, cutting Zidane off.

She paused a moment, then nodded slowly. "I'm worried about him, that's all," she said softly.

She almost shook her head in disbelief. What was this? She had never let herself get down like this, not even when Galbadia had destroyed Trabia Garden. She always maintained at the least a happy visage, even if just a weak one. The death of a friend, though, seemed to be hitting her much harder than she had expected.

"Oh yeah," Zidane said as if suddenly remembering. "Rakunya was with you wasn't he? I wonder how he is…" His voice trailed off. Suddenly, he shrugged and kept on walking.

Selphie shot a glare at Zidane and had to hold back a growl. How dare he treat this so lightly! He was supposed to be Rakunya's friend, too, and it was if he didn't even care about what happened. Kuja also launched a death glare at his brother. He may not have known much about Selphie's partner, but a comrade that had fallen in battle was nothing to mock.

Kuja laughed internally at himself, not changing his external appearance. What a change had come over him! The incident with the Crystal had given him an entirely new outlook on life. The old him never would've worried about the death of a "comrade" unless he had something to gain from it, and what would he have to gain from a death he didn't cause? That was the old Kuja, however. He had desired redemption, and while perhaps still arrogant in his assumption, he believed that he was well along the path to such redemption.

"How can you take this so lightly, Zidane?" Kuja asked. "I had assumed that he was your friend."

Zidane shrugged again. "I made it out alive," he said confidently. When this didn't satisfy, he explained, "Look, I know Rakunya, and if I can make it through with a gash like this on my back, he certainly survived."

Both of them seemed to accept his explanation, but at the same time they were both clearly fed up with his way of handling things. And your gash isn't even that deep, Selphie thought bitterly. Ugly, but not deep. Rakunya was closer to the blast than any of us. She mentally stuck her tongue out at Zidane for being so perky when even she couldn't manage to do it.

She shook her head. Get a grip, Selphie. You have to focus on yourself now. You have to survive. The people around you have to survive. We need to get to a town. Once we do, then we can worry about Rakunya. No, stop thinking about him. You have to focus on you. You have to focus on making it to the next town, no matter how far away it is on foot. You have to stop thinking about him. She sighed. So why is it so hard?

Kuja suddenly held up a hand. "I smell smoke," he said nonchalantly.

All right, admit it, he thought. You haven't changed that much. Part of you is still a bit excited about the burning town, even if it is wrong…and wasn't started by Bahamut…or you…

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"Zidane?" he asked, barely conscious and not realizing how this could be possible.

"No," she said, shaking her head and making Rakunya's mistake obvious. "But we do look a lot alike," she added, her tone making it obvious that she was trying to make him feel not as bad about the mistake. "My name is Mikoto."

Rakunya tried to sit up, but he immediately felt sick, as if he was being thrown through a vortex. "Calm down," Mikoto said sweetly. "You still haven't recovered completely. You lost a lot of blood. The doctor still isn't sure how you survived."

"What's going on?" he asked. He weakly waved his hand. "Forget that, where's Yuffie?"

"We made her get some rest," a new voice offered from beside him. As his eyes focused, he saw that the new figure had distinct rat features, most especially the face and tail. She walked over to his bed and kneeled next to him. "You probably don't remember me, Rakunya, but I was the one at the bar whom you interrupted to surprise Zidane."

Rakunya thought back, or at the very least, he tried. It had been a while ago, and he still wasn't completely together, but he seemed to remember surprising Zidane in a bar in Alexandria at least. He did remember a rat face, and as he looked at her again, the clothes did seem familiar, but her name…

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I don't remember your name."

"Don't worry about it, we met in passing. I'm Freya Crescent. Are you up to answering a few questions?"

"I want…to see Yuffie," he said firmly, or rather as firmly as his weak state could manage.

Freya sighed. "She's resting right now. On the other hand, the three of us who are in here would like some answers."

Rakunya sighed. Even with his mind just coming back together, he realized that he had no choice but to comply, but he had something that they wanted apparently, and he was going to get as much cooperation with it as he could.

"If you aren't up to it…" a third voice offered, "…it could wait until tomorrow. The day is beginning to grow weary as it is, and I, for one, have had a long journey."

Rakunya lifted his head as much as he could for as long as he could, and the third sight almost made him immediately refuse to talk to them until the next day. "Do you have a beak and a top hat?" he asked the voice. He assumed that this was the doctor that Mikoto had mentioned, as Freya had the distinct appearance of a fighter.

The doctor nodded. "The name's Dr. Tot, and I do indeed have a beak and a top hat," he said, sounding quite amused.

At least I'm not seeing things, he thought. "All right, I'll talk, but I want answers, too. First of all, how am I alive?"

Dr. Tot shrugged. "I'm still not certain of that myself. You're the first patient that I've had in years. I only practiced in that field briefly, and only to further my knowledge, but when your friend heard Freya refer to me as 'Dr.', she immediately demanded that I do something to save you. She even grew violent about it, despite threats from Freya. So, with some quick thinking, we used some of Freya's dragoon magic to keep you alive long enough for us to bring you here.

"Even then it was risky. You'd lost a lot of blood, and if you were to be kept alive you needed more. Yuffie immediately offered herself for the emergency transfusion, but that didn't change the risk. We had no idea if your body would accept the treatment and if you would make it until you woke up, but it seems like between that and some powerful white magic, you've done quite well."

Rakunya was baffled by it still, but in the part of his mind that was still rational it made sense. "Next question: When can I see Yuffie?"

Dr. Tot gave a hearty laugh. "I'm afraid even after the procedure, your friend refused to leave your side. She needed rest, we could all tell that. Eventually, we had Vivi cast a potent Sleep spell on her. We sent him to go see what he could do about waking her up the moment you stirred. We haven't heard back from him, so perhaps the spell was a little more potent than we had anticipated. May we ask our questions now?"

Rakunya was still in no mood to answer questions; all he wanted to do was see Yuffie. Somewhere in his mind, he still believed himself to be dead, and seeing Yuffie would rectify that. He knew that she hadn't been mortally wounded during the fight. If she was alive, so was he. He nodded.

"Good," the doctor said. "Vivi, a Black Mage friend of Zidane's was here asking Mikoto about Jenova; apparently there was one outside of Alexandria; I wouldn't know, I was in Kalm at the time, taking a much deserved vacation. When I returned, however, Freya sought me out for the same reasons. Unfortunately, neither of us new much, just legends that had come with the merger of the worlds. Mikoto knew of Jenova's more 'recent' appearances in conjunction with Sephiroth, but I myself had heard tales of a being long ago by the same name. What, Rakunya, do you know?"

Rakunya sighed. "You're both right," he said weakly. "Yuffie knows more than I do; she's from that world. I guess, though, that Jenova came to the Planet over a thousand years ago, destroying an ancient race of people known as the Cetra. It had wanted to destroy everything, but the last of the Cetra sacrificed themselves in order to seal the creature in what is now the Northern Crater.

"Years later, Shinra scientists discovered the creature; one was even so bold as to move it to the metropolis of Midgar. Shinra then began several experiments with Jenova, one of which led to Sephiroth." His mind suddenly clicked. "Sephiroth!" he "shouted"; it still wasn't much, but the sudden presence of his voice shocked the others in the room.

"Is something wrong?" Freya asked him.

"Sephiroth is back," Rakunya said. "We fought him in the Northern Cave."

"Back?" Dr. Tot asked curiously.

"I thought he was dead," Mikoto mused, wondering if Rakunya was delusional.

"He was," Rakunya assured her. "Cloud killed him. In fact, Cloud killed him twice. Everything you heard about him being dead was true, but he's back."

There was a knock at the door. "Um…she's awake," a timid voice told them.

Dr. Tot nodded. "We'll have to see what we can do about alerting proper people in the morning. For now, you may see Yuffie, and then I insist that the two of you get some sleep."

The moment the company around him left, he felt Yuffie wrap her arms tightly around him, at which point he let out a yelp of pain, at which point Yuffie leapt back and began a stream of apologies. In her haste, she had hit his damaged, and, from what Rakunya could gather, hastily stitched arm.

"It's ok," he said softly. "I'm just glad that you're here."

"I can't believe you're finally awake! It's about time all that white magic did something for you!" Rakunya raised an eyebrow, so Yuffie explained, "That girl with that tail was casting all sorts of Cure and Life spells on you, anything to get you to come around. They wanted you to wake up so that they could be sure that you'd be all right."

"Hope they did everything right in their rush," Rakunya scoffed. As much as he enjoyed being alive, and as much as he appreciated the fact that he would likely be on his feet in a day or two, he knew that he wouldn't be completely healed for a long time, and he'd be more susceptible to similarly fatal wounds.

Yuffie misread these concerns as sarcasm, and she seemed ecstatic that he was already feeling good enough to be sarcastic. "I told you you'd make it," she said suddenly.

Rakunya chuckled a little. "Guess I should've believed you," he said. "Now I hope you don't mind, but I'm really tired…"

Yuffie sighed. "Alright, alright, I'll let you get some sleep," she smiled. "But tomorrow I'm waking you up early!"

Rakunya sighed as she left. His brush with death had made it painfully clear how much he cared about her, but even so, part of him still didn't want to believe it. He tried to brush it off as being a part of the moment, but he knew that that was a lie. No, he corrected himself. Not a complete lie. But you'll have to face the facts someday. You care about her.

There was still another nagging voice in his head, one that remembered Selphie and wondered how she was doing. He had grown close to his SeeD companion as well, and he knew that someday he'd find himself torn between the two of them. Hopefully, that day wouldn't come soon. He wasn't ready to admit his feelings for either of them, let alone decide between the two.

Yet another voice scolded him for his feelings. Now isn't the time to dwell on feelings, he thought as he drifted into sleep. Maybe someday. But for now, you have to learn to ignore them. You can't afford feelings right now…

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Author's Note: Yes, at the end this time, so that I didn't spoil Rakunya's survival. When I wrote Chapter 9, I honestly didn't know if I was going to kill him or not. I hadn't originally pictured the wound as leading to fatal blood loss but...Gollum's Song started playing, and depressing music does things to my writing. Fortunately for any fans of him out there, I changed tracks for Chapter 10 and let him live. There's other reasons, too, but you'll see those later.

Next Time on Mad World: Our next Final Fantasy character is introduced, playing a cameo supporting role for now, but like all of my cameos, this character will become VERY important later. Kuja shows off how much (and how little) he has changed, and a collaboration of minds gives insight to the crater incident. We also revisit Rinoa, Vincent, Cloud, and the two characters that are most fun to write for, Sephiroth and "Mystery Man".

Note: there will be SEVERAL times that I will offer cameos, mostly because I'd like to have a couple more OCs. The first is ongoing, and while I don't expect anyone to actually guess for a while (especially not guess right), I still offer it: The first person to guess who the mystery man is gets a cameo! I've mentioned this before, but I thought I'd like to reiterate it.