Disclaimer: I still don't own any Final Fantasy characters used in this. The only ones I own are the ones that are fillers like; Marcus, Raechel, and Nicholas as well as Sephiroth's klutzy house cleaner ^^;

AN: -bows low to the floor- I DEEPLY apologize to you guys for not updating more often ^^; Well, last Fall/Winter came and my Inspiration Fairy fly South for that time...and it was gone for a long time even into now. There were times I had tried coming back to this and working on it, but I just didn't feel like there was anything write for this Chapter. And this Chapter didn't end like I would've liked to had tied it out to be...I wanted it to be the climatic rollercoaster peak before I destroy your little lives with Nicholas and croonies vicious act on Cloud that would later tie to the ending...BUT. That just means there is one or more or two more chapters left of this!

-silence-

Okay. Enough of my b.s. Enjoy.

"You ready for this?"

Cloud hadn't spoken since leaving Sephiroth's place and getting through a worried phone call from Reno; the guy had only been calling to assure himself that Cloud wasn't lying face down in some gutter. Or as his imagination had put it and the fact that Rude had made Reno call and make sure that Sephiroth was with Cloud. The silence had continued through several red lights till they were in front of Cloud's apartment. During Cloud's conversation with Reno, Reno had brought up whether or not he had touched base with Zack and Angeal, or at least Zack. That was one person he didn't want to tell just yet about the fact he had nearly been kidnapped and possibly had other things done to him. Sephiroth was understanding of the fact that Cloud was in a stunned silence, the present was seeping into his subconscious and conscious mind as he sat there. Fingering his phone and worrying over the thought of calling up Zack.

Zack didn't need to know.

He already had one crisis on his hands and he didn't need Cloud whining to him about his near frightening experience with the paparazzi.

Sephiroth leaned over as he tried to look into Cloud's gaze that was hidden by blond bangs, "Cloud?"

"Sweetie? You're going to have speak up sooner or later…" a familiar subconscious voice spoke into Cloud's thoughts as it nudged at his mind, "Seph isn't going to wait forever to hear you speak…"

A nervous gaze turned up to Sephiroth's, "…When have I never been ready?"

"You can stay at my place with me today, you don't have to go and face the masses just yet and I'm sure Zack will understand or…"

"Or he'll find out sooner or later," Cloud broke through Sephiroth's words as he flipped his phone open and began pushing buttons for Zack's cell phone, Let's just hope he's in a good mood…

Angeal faintly awoke to the sound of a faint buzzing sound ringing out alongside the typical Jason Mraz tune of "I'm Yours" playing off of Zack's phone. If there was anything Angeal knew about Zack, it was that the boy could sleep through anything, especially his phone.

"Zack, Zack…wake up, your phone is going off and you've got to start making your way to the front door to get to classes this morning…"Angeal lightly shook at the young man's shoulder as much as he could with his lack of mobility allowed by his previous injuries, "Come on, Pup…I know you're awake…"

He could tell that Zack was awake to the world because he could feel the young man's fingers tapping against Angeal's thigh in his sleep to the beat of the tune, "Five more minutes…"

"No, your five minutes are up, and I bet you anything it's Cloud wondering why you aren't back at the apartment this morning to get ready for classes and he's probably called there looking for you."

Zack looked up with tired eyes as he grumpily open his phone and turned from Angeal, groggily answering, "Hello?"

Hours later, and just shortly before the start of classes, Cloud was standing out in the Courtyard of the College. After making contact with a rather angry Puppy and then with Reno; Cloud had made the step to go to classes. Sephiroth had been willing to call in favors to cover for Cloud attending classes, but Cloud had made promise after promise that he would contact Sephiroth once he got out of each class and before he headed for home. One thing that was still on Cloud's mind long after the call to Zack and Reno was the answering machine message left by Tifa; she seemed, as if she was trying to make sense of why she had acted towards Cloud all those years ago. And the way she had treated Reno among others she had harshly berated and treated years ago. A new message had been blinking after her old one. It seemed that she was recovering from whatever state of mind she had fallen into and wanting to make amends. At best, reconnect with Cloud as a friend; if he didn't want anything to do with her after their sorted past, she would be willing to accept all of that and move on with her life. All Cloud cared about was that she was willing to accept her short comings and her life better because of it.

"You ready for all of this, sweetie?"

"As ready as I'm going to be I guess…"

A familiar hand placed itself on Cloud's shoulder while a new one appeared on his other; one face was familiar while the other was a new found one that he had become familiar within a short time, "Ready to go and face the masses, Cloud?" Zack was the first to speak up for the silence hanging over the trio, "We can always just turn tail and run and hide out at some unknown coffee shop the rest of the day."

"You want him to just hide instead of letting all the curious little hetero fangirls here have their moment of touching the one responsible for stealing the God's heart?" Reno may not have been the most poetic of all people on campus, but his half hearted poetic words were simply translated as, 'Stop turning him into a damned pussy; he's a big shot now, big man on campus, let him have his fifteen minutes of glory.'

Zack shook his head as it then turned towards the sound of laughter coming from Cloud, "Come on you guys, we're going to be late for class."

Sephiroth had made promise after promise to Cloud that he would go home once he had left the boy off in front of the school. It was made true when Cloud had all but begged the man to just go home once Zack showed up. Not to mention Zack was rather displeased, particularly at Cloud for not calling him sooner and slightly less then pleased at Sephiroth. But that was soothed over by Cloud rapping his friend upside the head; causing a change in the discussion towards finding out what he did while he was gone off at Sephiroth's.

But there was one side of that promise Sephiroth couldn't keep.

He had been sitting out in the Parking Lot of the College campus, watching the little bobble of blond hair passing through the sea of students while the mouthy little pup like man stood at his side. Soon followed by a red headed monstrosity of sorts, he hadn't yet learned all of Cloud's friends names, or of them. Let alone, he had only begun to learn of whom Cloud truly was, his kinks, ticks, and quirks. What made Cloud who he was and why it was that after they had fallen asleep that the boy had dug in deeper against the man after their happy union of a good future?

"Honey, we really should be getting back to the apartment, I'm sure that Raechel has been calling your place non stop and I'm sure the little old lady you have around for keeping your castle immaculate is at her wits end with the phone ringing," a familiar inner voice spoke to the man while its fingertips lightly tapped against his subconscious; but something halted everything, "What do you want bet, a million to one that its Raechel?"

"Don't even joke about that…" Sephiroth faintly grumbled as he flipped the phone open to answer it, "Hello?"

A faint sigh was heard on the other end, it felt like one of those moments in a movie when a perverted stalker ends up calling your number only to heavily breath in the other end, "…Its me, Sephiroth…Could you come by my place later today?"

"Raechel, are you okay?"

When had she ever been okay and how could someone be okay after they had been jumped by the biggest weasel in this city and then waking up to find a note pinned to their bosom? Not sure of what happened the night before, but all that remained clear was, whatever had happened, it was meant as a warning, a message to be forwarded onto the Author.

Give up all your secrets or find all you hold dear taken from you.

"I'll tell you about it when you come over, I just need to talk to you about some details about this tale of yours that you and that cute little boy in your life are working on together," Raechel half heartedly chuckled as she winced; the forming bruised against her jaw made it painful to truly laugh hard enough for the moment, "I may not be your Employer or work for you like I use to but what's a few good moments between friends, hmm?"

A light chuckle escaped Sephiroth's lips, "The last time you said that we ended up drunk and you were ready to, as you put it, 'give it to me' in your stupor. Remember now, I'm not like other men and I've got some news for you that you'll be interested to hear…"

"Well, get your self over here and tell me."

"Alright, alright…see you then, Raechel."

A faint click of phones ending the call on either end was all she had to liven up her room as she looked out at the morning sun streaming through a half pulled aside curtained window. The note that she had found after the lost hours the night before was still at her side on the bed and the news was on; repeating over and over the same story as yesterdays. But new details were coming out regarding the Magazine Company that Nicholas had been up until recently employed with; word was now surfacing rumors of embezzlement and fraud were beginning to become known. Fraud in the case of money being taken for stories that never made the pages of the magazines they were meant to be in. The fraud went as far as the casing of changing the originally intended story to a story that was not even true. Even tales of bugs placed throughout the office which was the undoing of the office. The even more unfolding story of what had occurred yesterday afternoon had become a focus on the case of the Magazine Company; a possible ploy to try and cover the accusations that were now seeping into the Media.

"Heh, if you sad fools only knew the truth…" the click of a button upon the remote was the only sound that later cut through silence of the room.

"And so we take this cosign and do what with it, class?" each of Cloud's Professors had been told of his run in with the News Media the day before, and were willing to understand any changes the boy would showing, but, "Mr. Strife, would you like to come and lead the class?"

Yet another nightmare Cloud had had since he was in High School; it was a nightmare that reoccurred whenever he had had a hard time in classes that day. The nightmare was that he would be simply minding his own business, but yet, there would be that one person in class wanting to talk to him about the assignment on the board. And while the Teacher would be explaining it, just trying to ignore the student; the nightmare would turn his or her attention on Cloud. Asking him the very question of, "Would you like to lead the class?" He had never asked for the popularity he had seemed to have gained in just one short day; he just wanted to shrink away under the tables and slip away into the air vents.

"Mr. Strife, I asked you a question," the Professor spoke again as if Cloud didn't hear the Professor the first time around, "Would you like to lead the class since it seems you have the attention of your peers that I'm sure you could easily lead the class itself."

Cloud stared around the room; the room felt like it was becoming blurry as if he was back in his nightmare of the next thing he would be hearing would be his class mates laughing at him. While the Professor would be continually prodding him for an answer till all he could do to avoid the imminent was to pass out on the floor, but, if that was the case, then why there was a phone touching his shoulder.

"Remember that x equals 20, Cloud?" Zack winked at his friend as he turned his gaze on the Professor with a death glare of, 'Back off dude…go get your sadistic kicks somewhere else.'

"As I was saying…" the voice of the Professor seemed to drift off as the man turned back to the front of the classroom; the other students didn't seem know what to do except turn around and pay attention to the assignment.

Every moment of every story has its foreboding moments where all the pieces start to fall into places for a climatic peak of climax. Sephiroth could feel that he was reaching his own peak as he stopped in front of a familiar apartment door. It felt like it had been longer then a few weeks since Sephiroth had come to Raechel's building. The first time he had appeared at her place was the night he was asked, more like, demanded, he come over. It was after Raechel had determined Sephiroth had potential and that if she didn't sink her financial career like claws into him; she would be losing out on a money maker to someone else. But after the first book had been published, put out on the shelves and a swarm of fans had formed. They had avoided meeting at Raechel's place. She called it a way of keeping it simply acquaintances as well dispel, or keep away any possible rumors, that they were seeing each other outside of business. He saw it as a break any the tension he held over the situation; he never felt comfortable in social forms.

But, the last time they would meet up here again would be after Raechel had called Sephiroth to share a few drinks with her. It was the evening before it would be announced whether or not his highly acclaimed third book would be up a prestigious award. Not to mention, the possibility of it being turned into an eventually turned blockbuster film.

That night is all in the past…

Sephiroth raised his hand to knock, but the door knob turned as blurry eyes peered out from the crack between the door jam and the door; "Saves me the headache…" Raechel seemed groggy; vodka will do that to you to dull out the pain of getting slammed around by Nicholas.

"Point taken," Sephiroth placed his half formed knocking fist to his side, "What happened to you?"

Raechel gave a soft snort, "Nothing a few shots of Vodka in a pair of cheap high heels doesn't explain…"

"But I know you wouldn't believe that…"

Sephiroth took the invite as Raechel opened the door all the way as she cautiously shut the door behind him, locking it and ran a hand through her hair as she gathered her bath robe closer against her, "Guess you want to know about the precautions and the white lie…"

"As long as I've known you, I haven't known you to do something stupid when drunk and…" the man's steps stopped near a nearby trash can, picking through it, "there isn't any bottles or any of your usual signs of drinking alone to be found. What is really going on, Raechel? What do you call me about?"

The sunlight decided to become Raechel's spot light to bring light onto the definite reason for her call as Sephiroth turned around to Raechel's watery snort, "Raechel?"

"No, Nicholas. That little bastard jumped me on my way home last night…and…to add injury to insult," he watched her angrily walk over to where she had left the note he had pinned to her chest, "the little bastard is daring to black mail me if I try and go to the Police regarding his little act the other day at the Café…"

"W-Why…Why is he doing this?"

"Oh get over your innocent act, Sephiroth! Stop being a complete idiot! Open your damned eyes!"

Her hand sent a nearby glass into the wall where it shattered, "You knew what you were getting yourself into when you took my advice to go ahead and be a published author! And this thing you and Cloud have…well…that's just icing on the Paparazzi Sharks cake. Not that it's bad…"

"…My former Boss is in jail and Nicholas is on the run and who knows what that little bastard will come up to ruin you two next…"

Raechel sat away from him as she placed her head in her hands; her mind had been going over all the potential things still left. She knew as well Nicholas knew that she wasn't going to lie down, submit to him and let Nicholas go and ruin Sephiroth's life. She knew he already had it in his mind that she was going to go through with whatever she and Sephiroth, as well as Cloud, had planned. And once that plan came together as happy and fruitful as they had planned on it being.

That was when he was going to strike.

Hard.

And fast.

And with a deadly force.