Chapter 21
"I hate interference, absolutely hate it! And on top of that, Genesis failed me! Why did you bother to bring that miserable wretch back here?"
"If nothing else," Sephirtoh sighed, growing tired of his "partner", "he is proof that they are indeed down there. Perhaps the time to strike is now."
The man laughed. "You're hopeless, Sephiroth! Utterly hopeless! Haven't you learned by now what happens when you rush into things?"
"This isn't exactly rushing," Genesis managed as he was healing himself. "They are down one in number. Even if he was not among their prime, they will likely be in mourning. Furthermore, another appearance by me shall frighten any morale left out of them."
The man shook his head. "They're getting help from someone…two someones if Sephiroth isn't lying. Go seal the entrance to that base we found."
Sephiroth shook his head. "Why bother? We have our proof." He turned to leave.
"Where are you going?" the man demanded.
"Genesis may take care of your dirty work, but this task has become a part of mine."
"And then what?" the man shouted. "We go and kill them. At least one will make it out a back door, and we'll spend our time gleefully hunting them down like deer. Then, their helpers, who we should really be worried about, will have had time to plot against us without us knowing it, and they'll strike while we're unprepared. Priorities, Sephiroth!"
"Fine," he laughed. "You attend to those details. That is your dirty work. Killing them is mine."
"We will kill them, Sephiroth, just not yet! If they're trapped in that hellhole…"
"They're aid will come to help them," Genesis struggled, realization dawning on him despite the pain of unnatural healing.
"Exactly! We force their hand, force them to make a move. If we know who they are…"
Sephiroth continued out the door. "We'll play your game for now, but if this turns out to be as great of a joke as your former plans, then we shall return to my plans, and you will do as I say."
Unfortunately, there had been no feasible way to leave, so it was decide to bury Irvine in the Crater. Quistis had objected at first, saying that they should bury him at Garden, but everyone realized that it was nearly impossible to escort him there; they weren't even close to the Ragnarok, and with Sephiroth frequently visiting the Crater, they couldn't guarantee they could even get him there.
There was a brief funeral, brief only because nobody had it in them to truly speak on his behalf. Squall attempted, Zell attempted, even Rinoa tried, but nobody could bring themselves to give a funeral speech. For most of them, his death was still sinking in; no one could believe the fact that he was dead, and some still seemed to be in denial.
The funeral was predominantly a time for Irvine's friends to stay around and grasp what had happened. As at the battle scene, Quistis was the first to leave and Selphie the last, some not even realizing she had left until they saw her the next morning.
Rakunya had only made a brief appearance at the funeral, arriving late and leaving early, not saying anything to anyone, not even Selphie and Yuffie. Some shrugged this off as grief, but Zell was the first to notice that something was strange. More people began to believe him when Rakunya seemed to disappear, not seen again for two days.
Yuffie wandered the corridors, wondering where her friend had gone, when she came across a partially opened door deep within the complex. She entered, and she noticed Rakunya, training himself. The blade he wielded, however, was not his own; if what Yuffie had heard was true, it was the blade of Genesis.
She watched as he gracefully brought the sword around, unaware of her presence. She marveled as he fended off imaginary attackers, moving his body fluidly as though it were one with the blade. He attacked imaginary foes, sidestepped imaginary attacks, parried imaginary blades…yet in the end, he fell with real pain, his arm not ready for the stress he was placing on it.
Yuffie rushed and caught him as he fell. He collapsed into her and let the sword fall at his side. He was still too weak for this training, and, Yuffie noticed, far too tired to continue it. She guessed that he had been in here since the funeral, and she wondered if he had taken time to eat or sleep.
He tried to stand, but she held him down. "You need to rest," she said gently.
"Fight through the pain," he responded, using the sword to pull himself up. He wearily brought the blade into a ready position.
"What are you trying to prove?"
"Nothing," he said. No lies, he scolded himself. Not even half-truths. You were weak. Pain stopped you. You're proving to yourself that it won't stop you again.
"You're in no condition to be doing this!" Yuffie scolded. "C'mon, let's go back to your room."
"Irvine was killed by this blade," he said, more to himself than to her, though he knew that she could hear him. "Genesis shall fall by it as well."
"Is that all this is about? Vengeance?" Rakunya glared at her, and she changed her approach. "Look, you can't get your vengeance in this state. You need to eat and sleep."
"I'll make it," Rakunya said, his voice seeming bitter. "I will not leave until I have mastered this sword." There was a brief pause before he added, "I will not fail him twice."
Yuffie sighed, then put her arms around Rakunya from behind. "Everybody's worried about you, Rakunya. We've all been wondering what happened to you. You left without telling anybody. Mourning is fine, but what you're doing to yourself isn't."
He knelt down as another wave of pain throbbed through his shoulder. He had dealt with these for his entire stay, but they were growing both in magnitude and frequency. "Perhaps you're right," he sighed, a tear trickling down his cheek.
"C'mon," Yuffie said softly. "Let's go back."
"I let him down," Rakunya said suddenly. "He was my friend, and I failed him. I couldn't save him from Genesis."
"You did the best you could, Rakunya. Nobody blames you for what happened. Come on, lets get you back to your room," she added, helping him stand.
He tried to walk on his own, but the pain in his arm could no longer be ignored, and he reluctantly accepted her support. Curse this wound, he thought. Damn you, Sephiroth. It's your fault I couldn't save Irvine.
They short journey was made in silence, ending as Yuffie helped Rakunya onto his bed. "Don't leave this time, okay?" she whispered. "I was really worried about you."
He smiled as he looked at her. "You know where to find me now. There's no need to worry."
"Promise me that you won't over do it?"
He wanted to dismiss her, tell her that he would train as long as it took, but he couldn't. He looked into her eyes and saw a genuine concern, and he couldn't force himself to disappoint her. "Okay," he promised. "For your sake, I'll back off."
"Thank you," she said as she hugged him. She backed out of the room and reluctantly shut his door, not wanting to leave his side.
After a brief rest, however, Rakunya left his room. Yuffie may not have blamed him, but there was still someone he needed to make amends with. He knocked softly on Selphie's half-open door. "May I come in?" he said softly.
He peeked into her room and saw her sitting on her bed, staring at the floor. He walked in slowly and sat next to her. There was a long silence before he finally managed to say, "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Selphie asked, forcing her eyes to meet with his. She immediately understood, and she turned her head back towards the ground. "Don't be sorry," she said, her voice softer. "It wasn't your fault."
"You don't blame me, then, for not being able to save him?"
A tear fell to the ground, and Selphie stared at it for a moment; she had forgotten that she still had tears left to cry. "How can I blame you?" she asked. "It was my fault that he died."
Rakunya threw his good arm around her. "It wasn't…"
"He sacrificed himself to save me. Maybe, if we hadn't had that fight, he would've thought about it first…"
Rakunya placed a finger on her lips. "Then we'll share the blame. This burden is too much for us to carry on our own."
"Then," she whispered, another tear falling, "you don't hate me for it?"
"Of course not."
"I thought you were avoiding me," she said. "I thought you blamed me for what happened. If I hadn't been so helpless…"
She threw her arms around Rakunya and began to cry, and he couldn't help by cry on her as well. The moment seemed to last forever, but at the same time, Rakunya felt something lift away as his tears shed, as though he had needed an emotional outlet this whole time. Why had he secluded himself? Shouldn't he have been comforting Selphie this whole time? She seemed to need this as much as he did.
She pulled away from him. "This is silly," she said, wiping her tears away. "Why are we blaming ourselves? Genesis is the one that killed him."
Rakunya nodded. "If nothing else, we can at least get vengeance. Finding Sephiroth is the key. We'll need to talk to Squall and Reeve about the quickest way to get to Sephiroth. They should've found something by now."
"They're gone," Selphie said, suddenly remembering the "conversation" she had with Squall. "They left yesterday to look for the Ragnarok. Squall said it wasn't showing up on Shelke's sensors."
"Then we wait," Rakunya said.
"The wait is over," Reeve said, passing Selphie's room. "If you two could meet us in the meeting room?"
"What's wrong, Reeve?" Selphie asked, afraid of the answer.
"The Ragnarok has been destroyed."
"Something is wrong," he growled.
"The hell you Trance for?" Amarant growled, assuming a battle stance. "You try anything on us…"
"I assure you, I don't know why I'm in Trance. Perhaps it is a side effect?"
"A side effect? To what?" Garnet asked.
"I'm not sure, but something is wrong. I felt it, if only for a moment. I can't really explain it…it was almost as if reality itself was torn for an instant, even though it is patched now. I haven't felt anything like this before. The closest was when the worlds fused together."
"You don't think there's another world, do you?" Zidane asked.
"No, but I do fear that this will take as least as much attention as our search for Eiko…there it is again! Just for a moment, and then it passes. Something is terribly wrong."
"We can't act on it," Freya grunted. "You can't even tell us anything about it. We have two much more important quests: One for Eiko, another for Sephiroth."
He was about to say that he felt it again, but this time he also saw it. A man with blonde hair and a white trench coat stepped in front of him, his weapon at his side. Behind him, a voice spoke to him. "Kome with me, Kuja."
"Why?" he asked, not sure if he was asking the man in front or the woman behind.
"Do as I ask and do not question! You shall regret any other kourse of action."
"Didn't you say you wanted to be redeemed?" the blond laughed as he stepped through a rift.
With great hesitation and reluctance, Kuja also stepped through the rift, disappearing to those around him in an instant.
Next Time on Mad World: Reeve's source decides to show up and inform the group of world happenings, but more information is disclosed than was intended...Also, why are the Remnants alive?