Chapter 11

Selphie sniffed the air, and she realized that she, too, smelled smoke. She wondered how far away it was when her train of thought was interrupted by a large, orange beast that ran in front of them.

"Back away," the thing said. "Kalm has already been evacuated. There's no need to get any closer."

Zidane went to argue, but Kuja chuckled slightly. "Of course not," he assured the beast. Manipulation had been part of his trade, and he knew that if he let Zidane handle things, this beast would never take them where they needed to go. "But we certainly aren't turning around, either."

"What do you want?" the creature asked, eyeing Kuja curiously.

"For one, I'd like to know how the fire got started," Kuja smiled, his eyes darting carefully over to the beast's tail. He knew that if he had let Zidane handle it, the tail would've been the first thing mentioned, but Kuja didn't want the flame directly mentioned at all. He wanted to subtly make the beast think that they suspected him; it could prove to be a useful bartering token later.

The creature ignored his glance. "We're still looking into it," he said with no change of tone present in his voice.

"Oh really?" Kuja said. He noticed Selphie's demeanor change, and as he had come to same conclusion that she likely had, he decided it was best to hurry up so that this conclusion was not made known. The beast would certainly refuse help if he thought that the fire was caused by someone expecting them.

"Let me cut to the chase," Kuja said, still smiling the same smile he had worn in the old days. "We need to be taken to a town, and since you seem to know this area so well, and the nearest town was so conveniently burned down…"

The creature pointed. "Midgar is less than a day's journey that way." For a brief second, Kuja lost his calmer appearance, letting show that something wasn't right, and in that brief moment, he saw the beast smile. The beast had been playing the game as well as he had. "I can take you there if you give me your names, at the very least."

Kuja bowed, more a sign of mockery than respect. "I am Kuja. The associate to my right is Zidane. The other is…"

"Selphie Tilmitt, a SeeD," she said, glaring at Kuja. "Your way takes too long, and we need answers. Even in Midgar, SeeD gives me certain connections."

"That it does," the creature nodded. He had suspected this whole time that the man before him had been taking a roundabout path to get what he wanted, but it had only served to throw suspicion on him. "I am known in these parts as Red XIII, or Red for short. As long as we are dropping names, I am a member of AVALANCHE."

They walked for nearly an hour in silence before Selphie said, "Mr. Red?"

"Just Red, if you don't mind."

"Sure. You said you were with AVALANCHE?"

Red nodded. "I wouldn't say I'm necessarily a card carrying member, but I was with them when Sephiroth was defeated."

The final recognition of AVALANCHE clicked with Selphie. "Sephiroth isn't dead!" she exclaimed.

Red stopped moving, causing Zidane to nearly run into him. Kuja grabbed Selphie's shoulder and pulled her back. "Is this the best time?" Kuja asked. "We have no proof of his story, or of ours for that matter. Shouldn't we at least wait until we've met the rest of his group?"

"That's impossible," Red growled.

Selphie shook her head. "What's impossible is that we ended up near Midgar. We thought that we were just thrown out of the Crater, not teleported away."

"Prove it."

To everyone's surprise, it was Zidane who came up with the proof. He spun around and pointed to the large gash on his back. "That was done by Sephiroth's sword. It isn't deep, but we still need to get me to Midgar to get it treated. Any more questions?"

"Yes," Red nodded as he began walking again. "What were you doing at the Northern Cave?"

"Investigating Jenova," Kuja explained, resigned to follow Selphie's open honesty. "I'm sure you heard about the three attacks." To this, Red nodded, so Kuja continued. "Zidane and I were travelling with two others. We met briefly with President Rufus Shinra, hoping that he would have some answers. Any that he did have were hidden from us, however, and he suggested that we go to the Northern Cave…" His voice trailed off. Rufus knew.

"That bastard," Kuja said suddenly, anger uncharacteristically consuming him. "Nobody fools Kuja."

"Don't jump to conclusions," Selphie said as Red nodded at Kuja's guesses. "Don't forget, Rufus hired SeeD to investigate the Crater for him as well."

"Perhaps he knew nothing," Red admitted. "However, I suspect that even if he wasn't trying to kill you, Rufus knew that Sephiroth was in the Crater. At the very least, he expected you to find a Remnant."

"A Remnant?" Zidane asked. "You mean like a piece of Jenova?"

"Indirectly. The Remnants roamed our world shortly before the merger. They were fragments of Sephiroth's will, manifested on the Planet to carry out Jenova's will. Perhaps Rufus assumed that one of them would be found in the Crater when you entered. At the least, if he hired SeeD, he was expecting a battle."

Calmer, Kuja thought back to the conversation they had with the President. He was annoyed at their presence, but he had not seemed to be murderous; vaguely curious was the best way to describe his mood. Kuja had noticed only one change in Rufus. It was during the introductions, when Eiko had introduced herself as the last summoner of Madain Sari…

"Rufus had a hand," he reaffirmed. "But he didn't want us dead. Sephiroth himself was the surprise. Red XIII is right; if Rufus hired SeeD, then he must've been expecting a fight. He didn't expect Sephiroth himself, however. He expected something that SeeD could handle. One that was in our midst had introduced herself to Rufus as 'the last summoner from Madain Sari'…"

Zidane's head turned and fists clenched with realization. "He wanted to kidnap Eiko during the fight!"

"He had probably radioed the instructions to the pilot of the Shinra airship the SeeDs had used to get to the crater." He laughed suddenly. "Rufus Shinra, you are a clever man," he chuckled.

"Good thing we're more clever," Zidane chirped.

Red simply rolled his eyes. "We're here," Red said, pointing to a small building at the outskirts of the city."

"This?" Zidane said suddenly, his tone changing to something resembling disgust. "This is your headquarters?"

"It's where we stop," Red said. "Tifa will be here; she's watching the place while a…friend…of ours investigates Shinra from the inside."

"If he's on the inside, he should be able to get better housing," Zidane mocked.

"Much of Shinra's property was destroyed. Even some of the executives live out here, at least until the main city is rebuilt. Perhaps Rufus should have seen to that before restoring his tower…"

Red knocked on the door, and a woman answered. "Hey, Red," she smiled. She looked at the crew behind him. "Friends of yours?"

"Welcome nonetheless," Red said. "May we come in?"

The moment Tifa shut the door, Red's tone changed. "Call Cloud," he demanded.

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Cloud sighed as he hung up his phone, then called Vincent. "We're making a detour," Cloud said. He heard Rinoa whisper the word in disbelief, but he ignored it. "Meet us in Midgar."

"What detour?" Rinoa demanded again as he hung up the phone.

"It shouldn't take long," he said. "We need to stop at Midgar. We aren't far from there now; that's where these tracks lead first. It shouldn't take long. Once we're done there, you can have your…meeting…with Vincent."

Cloud was right, it hadn't taken long for them to get there; at most, Rinoa guessed, they had been driving for a half-hour, despite the fact that the sun was almost set. Cloud walked inside as Rinoa waited by the door, but she changed her mind the instant she saw:

"Selphie? What are you doing here?"

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"You should've just killed them, Sephiroth."

He laughed. "What difference does it make to you? Besides, I thought you wanted them all together."

"If you lead them here before I'm ready…"

"Don't worry. You have your plan, I have mine."

The man scowled at Sephiroth. "I can't have you die, Sephiroth. I still need you."

"Who said anything about dying?"

"Twice, Sephiroth, and if this makes three…"

Sephiroth tensed angrily and glared at his new "partner". "I learned my lesson last time. I was toying with Cloud. I hadn't expected the need for more than that. I was wrong. Besides," he added, smiling into the shadows, "if something goes wrong, I have a backup plan, something you still lack."

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"You're lying," Cloud said simply. "Sephiroth is dead."

Selphie shook her head. "Why would we lie to you, Cloud? We saw Sephiroth in Northern Crater!"

"Perhaps they are correct, Cloud," Vincent said, not moving from his shadowed position in the corner. "Perhaps Sephiroth is alive again as a byproduct of the merger."

Cloud shook his head. "He would've done something by now."

"Then some other way. Think, Cloud. He survived the fatal attack in Nibelheim. He came back from the dead two years after the incident in the Northern Cave. Did he not say that he would return?"

A sudden silence fell over the room. Until then, Cloud had assumed that he was the only one who knew what Sephiroth had said in his final moments; the others in the room were clueless at the very least. He should've known that Vincent wasn't so clueless.

Cloud nodded. "You four can rest here for the night. We're investigating this in the morning."

Author's Note: I know, I know, more filler. All of it is necessary set up, trust me. Don't forget the little button that says "Submit Review"!

Next Time on Mad World: Most of the loose ends to the Crater survivors are tied up, and we have our next highly important Cameo appearance. Believe me when I say that fans of CHARACTER NAME IS CENSORED TO PROTECT THE PLOT will not be disappointed by GENDER CENSORED FOR SAME REASON role in the story.