Author's Note: Alright, its time for the next chapter. Who's ready to see what's in the Crater? On a different note, PLEASE don't judge my poetry by the first lines...Also, I don't remember if I mentioned this yet, but I am planning on adding some Dirge of Cerberus to this. I've looked back over my other chapters, and aside from a missing reference or two, I don't see where this is going to interfere at all, and it will help explain a few things, like how Rufus managed to come back to power.

Chapter 14

"Another journey into death's door," Rakunya began. "Another peek into nevermore. Another glimpse at an uncertain fate. Another look at what soon will be late."

"Cheer up, Rakunya," Selphie said. "No more depressing poems. Don't even finish that one!"

Rakunya chuckled. "All right, Selphie. I'll stop."

They proceeded to walk down the side of the crater, slowly progressing deeper and deeper into what Rakunya feared would become their own personal hell. Who knew what Sephiroth had planned for them? He shook his head. That wasn't the focus. The focus was finding out why Sephiroth was there. Then they could focus on staying alive.

Yuffie looked nervously at her friend. Part of her wanted to cling to him for support, but part of her also wanted to prove to Cloud that she had grown up since the last time they had met. She felt like she had become stronger and more independent, but for some reason it bothered her that Cloud would always think of her as the immature thief she had been.

She had changed a lot in the past…exactly how long had it been? Two years? Three? She didn't think it had been a full three years since the merger of the worlds, but she guessed that it must've been about two. It seemed hard to believe sometimes, yet at other times it felt as if it had always been this way, as if she had always lived outside Fire Cavern, as if she had always known Rakunya…

"There's been a fight," Vincent said, breaking her train of thought. "Recently, from the looks of it. Are these the remains of your battle against Sephiroth?"

Rakunya looked at what Vincent was pointing at: three deep gashes cut directly into the rock. It looked almost as if they were claw marks, but they were too deep to have been made by anything Rakunya knew of, with the possible exception of Sephiroth's blade. He shook his head.

"I thought not," Vincent said. He pointed further ahead, almost directly across the Crater from their current path. "The location of that hole, has that anything to do with it?"

Rakunya shook his head again. "Sephiroth's explosion should have left its mark further down. We haven't been travelling long enough to see what remains of the fight."

"What could've made marks like these. Vincent?" Tifa asked gently. For some reason, she was immediately reminded of Loz, but she dismissed the thought as quickly as it had come. There was no possible way that Loz's "claw" could've left a mark like this.

"Then my suspicions rise anew," he mused. He turned to Tifa. "This appears to be the work of a dragon."

Tifa gasped. "A dragon?"

Vincent nodded. "One whose rest was undisturbed by the merger of the worlds, where he found himself sleeping within this crater. He was awoken before his time, and he was furious."

"Tiamat?" Rinoa asked shakily. Squall raised an eyebrow; Rinoa had not mentioned anything about Tiamat.

Vincent nodded. "I believe so. He was awakened to be used for a purpose he did not desire to fulfill."

"Then, when he attacked us…"

"He was being controlled," Vincent finished.

Squall stared at Rinoa, then at Vincent, partly in shock that they had fought the monster and lived, and partly in shock that Vincent was perceptive enough to deduce these conclusions. He thought back briefly to what he remembered of Tiamat.

"Can Sephiroth control a dragon like that?" Squall pondered, not really expecting an answer.

"It would be one explanation for him being up here," Rakunya affirmed. "We did notice that he was trying to summon something."

"The ground shook and everything!" Selphie chattered in agreement.

Zell let out a low whistle. "Man, if this Sephiroth guy can control dragons, what else can he do?"

"This was not the work of Sephiroth," Cloud and Vincent said in unison. Everyone stared at Cloud, who continued, "If Sephiroth was after the two of you, he would've done it himself."

Vincent held a different explanation. "A beast such as a dragon cannot be controlled through ordinary means, nor by any means of Sephiroth."

Zell nodded in agreement. "Yeah, dragons are way too good for that!"

"Stuff it, chicken-wuss," Seifer grumbled. "Are we going to sit around staring at claw marks and holes or are we going to find this punk?"

"Sephiroth is not all that is in this Crater now," Vincent said wearily. Part of him wanted to let the fool rush to his death at Sephiroth's hands, but although he was cold, his conscience was not. "Something awoke a dragon from this crater. Whoever or whatever it was may still be in this Crater. It may prove to be a greater threat than Sephiroth."

"I don't care about this 'new threat'!" Seifer shouted. "I'm here to get Sephiroth. Now are we going or what?"

"Calm down, Seifer," Squall sighed. "There's more to this than we thought."

"Isn't there always?" Quistis grumbled. She had hoped that they were done after the defeat of Ultimecia, but it seemed that something would always happen.

Vincent nodded at her statement. "We'll go further down," he said. "No more answers may be found here."

They proceeded further down in relative silence. Rakunya heard small conversations here and there, but there was nothing of interest, just small talk to lighten the mood. Rakunya didn't want a lighter mood; he wanted to be alert. More importantly, he wanted answers. If Sephiroth wasn't behind this, than who was?

"Squall," Selphie said suddenly. "You don't think Ultimecia's involved, do you?"

Squall thought for a moment. He hadn't considered it, but it was a definite possibility. Tiamat had been one of the Guardians of the castle…

"Unlikely," Vincent spoke up after a brief silence. "Ultimecia was from the future of your world, was she not? I doubt we have come to her time yet."

They stopped shortly afterwards as Irvine let out a low whistle. "This is what Sephiroth did?"

Sure enough, they had come to the place where the battle had taken place the day before. The land still smelled scorched, and blood could be seen on the walls and ground. There were no bodies left to tell of the noble sacrifice the SeeDs had made in an effort to stop Sephiroth, although Irvine thought for sure that he smelled burning flesh.

Rakunya walked over to a wall and noticed the hilt of his gunblade sticking out. With a swift tug, he yanked it out of the wall and looked it over. It was charred, and he wasn't sure that the trigger still worked, but it was better than nothing. He swung it onto his shoulder.

"Let's go," he said solemnly, reminded in part of his vendetta against Sephiroth. "Sephiroth killed the rest of our expedition here. Their sacrifice cannot be in vain."

Yuffie looked in awe at her long time friend. A new fire burned behind his eyes, one of anger and determination. She had never seen him like this before, but something about it demanded respect, and he had instantly won hers.

Instead of continuing on, however, the group froze as Irvine cocked his shotgun. "We're not alone," he explained.

Selphie and Zell immediately began looking around for this unseen threat, forgetting that as a sniper, Irvine was likely to have better vision than both of them. Even so, Selphie found the threat as a doubled katana was brought down right in front of her face. She shouted in surprise and leapt back, readying her nunchaku.

Cloud spun to see what the commotion was, and upon seeing he immediately began to assemble his sword. "What are you doing?" he spat.

Rakunya immediately spun, facing Cloud rather than the direction Irvine had his shotgun pointed, expecting to see Sephiroth. Instead, however, was a younger man with much shorter hair than Sephiroth's, though it was still silver. The outfit was similar, yet more simplistic in its own way. His sword, which consisted of two katanas, was resting casually by his side, gripped tightly yet not in a battle position. There was something else as well, something that Rakunya couldn't put his finger on; it was as if there was a link to Sephiroth, yet at the same time he was separate.

"Kadaj," Vincent growled. "A remnant of Sephiroth. What purpose do you have, now that Sephiroth is alive?"

Kadaj simply smiled, then made a brief motion with his free hand. Yazoo leapt down in front of Irvine. He smiled, his hair flowing behind him in the wind. He raised his pistol, as if daring Irvine to shoot. Irvine simply smiled in return, the cocky smile of a man who knew that he would win a shootout.

Tifa yelped in surprise as Loz came up behind her. She backed away carefully, slowly, keeping her eyes on him the whole time, not trusting him to wait for Kadaj to attack. At the same time, however, she didn't want to fight, although Loz's immediate battle stance told her that he had different plans.

"Sephiroth asked us to keep this area free of intruders," Kadaj explained. He turned and stared at Cloud. "And since you weren't invited, I guess that means you, brother."

Seifer pulled Hyperion out from his side. "Looks like your plan to retreat failed," he growled at Vincent. "Good. I've been itching for a good fight."

Rakunya chuckled as he stuck his gunblade in the ground and unsheathed his katana. If it was going to become a fight, he wanted it to be a duel. "You would risk a fight against all of us?" he asked. "You are not Sephiroth. The odds lie in our favor."

"Don't aggravate them," Cloud warned.

Kadaj smiled at Rakunya. "Are you challenging us?"

"Merely stating the facts," he said as he walked closer to Kadaj.

"What are you doing?" Yuffie asked, pulling on Rakunya. "You arm isn't healed yet!"

"I'm just saying that you may wish to reconsider before you lash out," he said, ignoring Yuffie.

"Why would they?" another voice asked.

Everyone, the remnants included, turned their heads towards a rock ledge on which Sephiroth now stood. Cloud growled. "Sephiroth! What do you want?"

"The death of the unworthy," he explained casually. "When Mother came to our planet, she sought to destroy all that lived. It was detestable in her sight. We all know how her story ends. I, however, am here to finish that work for her."

Vincent raised Cerberus. "You lie," Vincent said. "If that was still your desire, you would not have secluded yourself to this crater."

Sephiroth seemed pleasantly surprised that his description was not taken at face value. He nodded at the man he knew to be an experiment. "You are perceptive indeed. If you must know, then suffice it to say that I am looking for power."

"A power that can only be found in the Crater," Red XIII mused. "What do you still need Jenova for?"

Sephiroth laughed at the beast. "There are other powers in this world now, powers that you cannot even begin to imagine. These powers shall make me the strongest being on the planet, allowing me to rid the world of those I deem unworthy of life. That much of my goal has not changed; I still seek a paradise for the worthy, and there are so few who are worthy here…"

His train of thought was interrupted as Cloud leapt through the air at him, bringing his massive sword around in a fatal swing. Sephiroth raised his blade and blocked it easily, throwing Cloud to the ground. He raised his sword, ready to bring it down for a fatal blow, but his sword was blocked by Rakunya.

"We don't die, Sephiroth," Rakunya growled, anger filling him as he recalled the SeeDs who had been slain. "Not today."

He brought his katana around, but Sephiroth kicked him squarely in the chest before he could complete his swing. He returned his attention to Cloud, who was up again and swinging violently at him. Sephiroth parried each attack, then struck Cloud's shoulder.

Suddenly, Irvine and Yazoo shot at each other simultaneously, and Loz and Tifa moved to strike each other. Loz knew that he was faster. He could feel the impact before it happened, saw his punch connecting, saw her on the ground, helpless.

His punch never met her, however. There was a blinding flash of light, and when it cleared, the "intruders" were missing. Loz nursed his bruised knuckles; his punch had indeed connected, but it had met the cave wall rather than Tifa.

Sephiroth growled. "Find them," he ordered his Remnants. "You will not rest until they can trouble us no more.

Author's Note pt. 2: Yes, yes, I know, very deus ex machina, but when's the last time ANYTHING has EVER gone right for an expedition into the Crater? Once? And even that barely counts, because Midgar was still torn to shreds. Anywho, enjoy the cameos, they are important (I feel redundant...).

Next Time on Mad World: Chapter 15 is dedicated to the villains, namely Rufus, Odine, Sephiroth, and CENSOR. We get some slight insights into Sephiroth and mystery man, and we begin to see what exactly Odine is up to, as well as where his loyalties lie.