Author's Note: Sorry for the wait. I was hoping to get caught up on writing before I posted this, but McDonalds had other plans...Anywho, enjoy!

Chapter 13

"Your ride is here," Tifa said with a smile.

Selphie burst out of the door, happy to see the Ragnarok parked a short distance away. Two figures came out of it, and she almost screamed when she saw the second one. She ran forward and threw her arms around Rakunya.

"I thought you were dead!" she said, tears on the verge of spilling over.

Rakunya hugged her back, carefully though awkwardly swinging his arm over her to avoid any further damage. "It's good to see you, too," he whispered. "I'm so glad that you're alive."

She pulled back and wiped away the tears that were forming. "What happened? How did you make it?"

"I almost didn't," he admitted. "Yuffie and I made it to the Black Mage Village, and they treated me there. What about you? I saw you get sliced at one point…"

"It looked worse than it was," she laughed. "I had Wall up…between that and my weapon catching most of his sword, I barely even got cut." She hugged him again. "Just think," she whispered. "We almost lost each other."

"Don't think about it," he whispered. "Just be glad that we're both alive. You'll need all the happiness you can muster," he muttered as an afterthought.

"Why?" she asked, pulling back and looking into his eyes as if searching for answers.

Rakunya sighed. "Squall's after Sephiroth. He collected the old fighting force to go after him. That means…"

Selphie sighed. "I'll be civil if he will," she said. Rakunya didn't entirely believe her, but he would have to accept it for now. They walked over to Squall who was already conversing with Cloud.

"It still doesn't seem possible," Cloud said, shaking his head in disbelief. "What could have brought Sephiroth back?"

"That's what we're hoping to find out," Squall admitted. "Hopefully a return trip to the Crater won't be in vain."

"It will be if you are unprepared," a shadowy voice offered.

Rakunya took note of this new voice for the first time, and immediately he wanted a new cape; not only was his torn, but this person's was far more impressive. The sun caught his golden claw, and Rakunya couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated. There was something else, too, that he just couldn't place. Something felt off about this man, as if he somehow wasn't human.

"We know what to expect," Rakunya told him. "Our last encounter gave rise to Sephiroth. Surely the Crater won't disappoint in that regard."

The figure made a noise, and Rakunya couldn't tell if it was a grunt of approval or a snort of disdain. "One can never be too certain."

"Then what do you propose we do?" Squall asked.

"There is nothing to be done except to arm yourself with knowledge," Vincent offered. "Your last encounter yielded Sephiroth. Fragments of Jenova were seen about the world. No one yet knows why the worlds merged in the first place."

"Are you suggesting that the three are related, Vincent?" Cloud asked suddenly.

Surprisingly, it was Rakunya who answered. "It makes sense, doesn't it? Sephiroth and Jenova appearing together, at least. I'm skeptical about blaming either for the merger of the worlds, though. Sephiroth was dead, and Jenova with him. Perhaps it's because of the merger of the worlds, not the other way around."

Hearing Rakunya's voice, Kuja stepped out of the building. "You are the SeeD that traveled with Selphie, correct?" After a brief nod, Kuja tossed the katana at his side towards Rakunya. Rakunya held out his hand and caught it, despite its odd angle, and swung it around into its hilt. "I do believe that sword to be yours."

Two others left the building as well, one of which Rakunya knew to be Zidane. "Freya's looking for you," Rakunya said. "Hard to say where she is now, but we saw her in the Black Mage Village."

Zidane sighed. "I wish I had a way to get to her…"

Hearing his voice, however, a teary Garnet came rushing at him and embraced him. "Zidane!"

Cloud led the others inside, where Tifa, Rinoa, and Red XIII still waited. Selphie half expected Squall to say something, but she knew that he'd just ask about her trip to Odine later and in private. "We need a plan of action," Squall said.

"Back to the Crater and show Sephiroth what we're made of!" Selphie said almost immediately.

It was Rakunya, not Cloud, who disagreed the most with this plan. "We're the only survivors of the SeeD mission, Selphie. The other SeeDs with us were nothing to mock, but Sephiroth tossed them aside like rag dolls, tossed us aside like rag dolls. Even if we go back to the Crater, we have to know what we're doing."

"And yet the Crater is the most likely place to find answers," Vincent said. "We go, but we do not go to fight. We expect a fight, but we are willing to retreat if the fight arises. We are not ready to attack Sephiroth yet."

Squall raised an eyebrow. "We?"

Vincent simply nodded.

"We're going," Cloud said simply. "Everyone except for Kuja and Zidane. We've made arrangements for them to return to Alexandria. They decided that they needed to collect themselves and mentioned others who might know something. They also had another with them that they want to search for."

"So we have our backup plan if we can't retreat," Rakunya chuckled. "Almost makes me want to find Sephiroth; I'd love to see you fight him, Cloud."

"Be careful what you wish for," Vincent growled.

They walked out and stepped onto the Ragnarok, with Rakunya trailing slightly behind. "Take care of her, Zidane," he whispered to his friend.

"You're going after him again?" Zidane stared at his friend with wonder. He couldn't picture Rakunya doing something so reckless.

"Maybe I'm just tempting fate, but we do need answers."

Zidane fished something out of his pockets. Rakunya almost laughed when he saw a pistol. "Take this," he said.

"And why do you have a pistol, Zidane?"

Zidane laughed. "After they treated my back last night, I couldn't just lay around and do nothing…Well, one of the drunken locals thought I was suspicious. I took the gun from him to keep him from shooting me."

Rakunya sighed. "Normally, I wouldn't, Zidane…but I think that we'll need all the help we can get."

He stepped on the Ragnarok, and he saw that Squall was waiting for him. Everyone was scattered around the "main" chamber. He took his place beside Selphie and wondered where Yuffie was hiding.

He glanced around and saw that everyone was anticipating the upcoming trek into the Crater in their own way. Everyone except for Vincent, at the least, for Vincent was simply standing in a corner, reminding Rakunya of a vampire with his pale complexion and stance. Vincent still gave Rakunya chills, and he couldn't help but stare as he tried to contemplate the uneasy feeling that this man gave him.

"You'll get use to him," a voice behind him said, breaking his train of thought. "Give it time, and you won't mind how creepy he is."

"We're taking off soon, so you might want to go find your corner."

Yuffie laughed. "The ride on this thing is so smooth, I hardly got airsick at all!"

Selphie chuckled, being the only other one close enough to hear her. Rakunya would've, but for a brief second, he swore he had seen Vincent raise an eyebrow of interest in their direction.

"This is it," Squall said, cutting into the relative silence. "We're headed into the Northern Crater. We have no idea what we're going to find, but it won't be good. We could face anything from monsters to Jenova to Sephiroth. It's impossible to know what to expect. Everybody spend the trip preparing yourselves for anything."

His gaze turned to Selphie. "Are you ready?"

He had barely finished his sentence, and already Selphie was rushing towards the controls. He shook his head, wondering how she could always manage to be so happy, when Cloud walked over to him. "We need to talk."

Squall raised an eyebrow, but Cloud continued, almost without pause. "Rufus has declared war on Esthar. He had a public announcement on the radio this morning."

Squall couldn't help but drop his jaw slightly. Was Rufus truly that crazy? "On what grounds?"

"Something about an assassin, but I don't believe him," Cloud explained. "We'll need to do something about it after this, don't you think?"

Squall cursed internally. "I suppose," he said. "Let's see what this yields, first. Then we can worry about which, if either, side we're on."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Laguna slammed his fists down on his desk. "We can't deal with this now," he fumed. "The troops aren't ready or anything…why would Rufus do this?"

"His public statement said that we hired an assassin, but you already know what I think," Kiros informed him. Kiros had taken a disliking to Rufus Shinra before he had even spoken. Something about the way the man carried himself told Kiros that he was looking for a way to get something from everyone. What he wanted from Esthar was anybody's guess, but Kiros had assumed that he simply wanted Esthar.

Ward raised his spear, an awkward gesture in his formal attire, but Kiros nodded nonetheless. "If it comes to it," he said, "we will fight for Esthar."

Laguna shook his head, having no idea what to do. Why did Rufus want a war? They both came from civilized times; weren't they beyond war? What was left for him to do? Esthar's military, while still powerful, had nowhere near the size of Shinra's army, and he had always wondered if Esthar's technology could put up with SOLDIER's skills.

"I guess all that we can do is call SeeD," he sighed dejectedly.

Kiros shook his head. "We already tried; we wanted to make sure Squall knew what was going on, but he's out on a mission right now. Xu didn't have any details, she just said that it had to do with Sephiroth."

Laguna fumed for a minute, then looked up at Kiros. "Keep contacting people. Any nation you can think of that might help us fight against Shinra is a potential ally. We need all the support we can get."

Kiros nodded and walked out of the room, with Ward following closely behind him. He walked over and laid his hand on a box he never kept far from his desk and wondered if the old machine gun would find use again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It had taken a lot of effort to tie the assassin to the chair, but the Turks had managed it, and Rufus was confident enough in their abilities to feel safe interrogating the prisoner himself. The assassin was alert, yet at the same time carried himself as though he was defeated.

"Hello," Rufus began. "Perhaps you'd like to begin by giving me your name?"

The assassin didn't even budge.

Rufus sighed. "They bought my story," he said delightedly. "But if I can't at least get you to say that you're from Esthar, would you mind telling me who did send you?"

"I did," the assassin growled.

"Oh really?" Rufus chuckled. "And just how much are you paying yourself?"

He was greeted by silence. He sighed, realizing that he was getting nowhere.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," he threatened. "Just tell me who sent you and that will be the end of it."

"It will end nothing," the assassin growled again. "You have begun something that you cannot end. I know what it is that you want from Esthar, and you cannot begin to understand the consequences of seeking it."

Rufus stood and turned as if to leave. "I don't know how you found out about Lunatic Pandora," he said calmly, his demeanor never changing. "I assure you, however, that I am in complete control of this situation."

"And when you resurrect the Lunar Cry before its time? Then what, Rufus?"

Rufus laughed. "It doesn't matter if that old fairy tale is true. I'll have the most powerful weapon on the planet, and then not even Sephiroth himself could stop me."

"You would risk destroying the world just to possess a weapon that you do not need," the assassin sighed. It wasn't a question, merely a statement. "If that is so, then it is more pertinent than ever that I kill you. I cannot allow a mistake like that to come to fruition, not again."

Rufus faced the assassin again. "This has happened before?"

The assassin, however, had spoken all that he would.

Next Time On Mad World: We get some insights into Rakunya. Namely, he's a bad poet and he doesn't like the crater. More importantly, we enter the crater, and lots of things "go down" there. Three new cameos, signs of Tiamat, and more theories abound. Eventually, you'll find out who's right, but not for a while.