Notes: And here we really start coming into the parts more heavily inspired by the original fic, which was in turn inspired by The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The Big Bad is a Frollo counterpart and we are having a Hellfire scene, so this is a heads-up for that in case that will make anyone uncomfortable. The Hellfire scene in this version of the story is a lot more in-depth than the original fic's version.

Chapter Six

Regaining consciousness was not pleasant. Sephiroth grimaced, a pained grunt in his throat as he brought a hand to his head. Knocked unconscious twice in twenty-four hours. That was not a good track record. At least he was laying on something soft instead of the rock.

"Cloud?" he mumbled.

"Oh, thank goodness!" came Merlin's voice. "How are you feeling, Sephiroth? I was concerned you might be badly hurt or even paralyzed."

"I'm not paralyzed." Sephiroth sat up and promptly wanted to lay down again. "Where is Cloud?"

Worry flickered through Merlin's eyes. "Well . . . I'm afraid I don't know right now," he admitted. "The Restoration Committee is all out looking for him. You see, when you were hurt saving him, the spell over him broke and he couldn't deal with having attacked you and causing you to be hurt."

The two lower wings twitched and swished back and forth as Sephiroth processed this information. "What I did broke the spell?"

"Yes, that's right," Merlin said.

". . . Hm. How did Cloud feel about that?" Sephiroth asked.

"Unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to tell him what that meant," Merlin said apologetically.

"I doubt he would handle it well," Sephiroth said flatly.

"You seem to be handling it quite well," Merlin said.

"I am aware of my feelings. I simply thought they would never be reciprocated, so I never brought it up." Sephiroth sighed and laid back, staring up at the ceiling. "How long has he been missing?"

"As long as you've been unconscious," Merlin said. "That's been several hours now."

Sephiroth did not look pleased. "I should go look for him. Under the circumstances, I might be able to get through to him when no one else would succeed."

"I agree, honestly," Merlin said. "But you're too hurt for such a venture, Sephiroth. You must rest! Hopefully the Restoration Committee will find Cloud and bring him back here after all is said and done."

Sephiroth scowled more, but he had to concede to the logic of Merlin's words. He would be more of a liability than a help if he tried to look right now. Even if he just teleported, he might go places he didn't mean to go. That often happened if he tried to do it when he was injured.

"Where is this?" he asked at last. "It's not my home or Cloud's."

"You're at my home for now," Merlin said. "I teleported you in so you could lay on something soft without actually being moved until we were more sure of your condition."

"I see. Thank you," Sephiroth acknowledged.

"Of course, I ran several scans on you with magic to be sure you didn't need emergency medical attention!" Merlin continued. "When I was satisfied, I felt you should just rest instead of being poked and prodded all over."

"I would have to agree with that," Sephiroth remarked. He definitely felt like he was badly bruised, at least, and he carefully turned on his side so as to not have to lay on his hurt back.

"You were most certainly lucky," Merlin said.

"I've always had particularly high endurance," Sephiroth said. He wasn't indestructible, but he could in general handle more than most.

"Yes, I know," Merlin said. It was one reason why Sephiroth had been the most famous hero in their realms for some time. His heart was one of the strongest Merlin had ever seen. After the tragedy at the Dark Depths with Zack, Sephiroth had trained himself vigorously to be sure nothing like that could ever happen to him again. He could not be controlled any longer, and his heart was strong enough that he could control beings of darkness like the Heartless, if he chose. But he chose not to.

". . . What happened to the woman who was trying to kill me?" Sephiroth wondered next.

"She's been arrested," Merlin said. "I only hope we can hold on to her. It turns out it was the Evil Queen after all. She . . . well, she started this whole terrible thing because the new magic mirror she stole told her that you were the fairest in the land!"

Sephiroth gave him a blank look. "She repeatedly tried to kill me because I'm better-looking than she is."

"Yes, unfortunately," Merlin sighed. "You know how she gets about such things."

Sephiroth gripped a handful of quilt. "I might find that funny except for what it's been doing to Cloud. To think of going through this Hell for a reason like that . . . !" His eyes flashed.

"It is angering," Merlin said, and a bit of that anger slipped into his voice. Sighing, he added, "And yet if it weren't for her cruelty, perhaps Cloud wouldn't be aware that he loves you."

"I'm sure Cloud wishes he didn't know," Sephiroth smirked. "I doubt he will ever come to terms with it."

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that," Merlin said. "You didn't see and hear how he acted when you were hurt for him."

"How he acted is what worries me," Sephiroth said. "The whole reason why I would say 'I am Cloud' is because I understand his behavior and his feelings due to feeling them myself. And for Cloud to get this bent out of shape, his guilt is enormous. He is such a highly charged emotional person that I am afraid of what he might do to deal with these feelings."

Merlin's eyes filled with concern. "You don't think he might try to end his own life?!"

"No," Sephiroth said. "I know he would be aware that it would make my sacrifice pointless and he wouldn't want that. But he is a very self-destructive person, as we both know. He may lose himself to his darkness all the more. And in our world, when the heart can literally dictate so much, what might it do in response to Cloud's guilt and grief?"

"Perhaps I should go looking for him myself," Merlin said. "Every pair of eyes helps! But I hate to leave you here alone. . . ."

"I'll be fine," Sephiroth said.

"Yes, maybe so. . . ." Merlin walked to the door and opened it. Waving his wand, he animated the broom leaning on the wall outside. "Stay here with Sephiroth," he told it.

Sephiroth gave it a deadpan look. "You're leaving me with a sentient cleaning device," he said flatly.

"No, I'm leaving you with several sentient cleaning devices!" Merlin replied. "And I'll take some with me, as well! Don't worry, we'll find Cloud!"

Sephiroth sighed and leaned back into the bed. Cloud would have a lot of sarcastic cracks to make about the brooms. But Sephiroth would just stay quiet and unimpressed by them unless Cloud or another human came here and would hear his comments.

xxxx

Leon felt grim as he wandered through the streets of town, searching for any sign of Cloud. He didn't seem to be anywhere. No one had seen him, at least not clearly enough to be of any real help in finding him.

Tifa walked with him, the worry clear in her eyes. "We've been walking in this direction for ages and we haven't found any sign of him," she said. "He was flying this way, but maybe he didn't land anywhere."

"We have to keep trying," Leon said. "From what Merlin said, Cloud was acting practically hysterical. That's not good."

"I know," Tifa said. "He's been under a huge strain lately because of his feelings starting to change about Sephiroth, and then this mess had to happen to make it all worse!"

"Yeah, this is something else." Leon frowned. "Merlin said it was all over Sephiroth being better-looking than the shrew who tried to kill him?"

"And then she put Cloud under that spell when she realized they tricked her," Tifa said bitterly. "That was the worst thing she could have possibly done to him!"

". . . You're not mad at Sephiroth for what happened, are you?" Leon wondered.

Tifa blinked in surprise at the point-blank question. "It's not his fault that witch wants him dead for something he can't even control," she said. "But . . . he encouraged Cloud to go ahead with this bizarre plan to trick her."

"So did Merlin," Leon said. "They didn't know what else to do."

"I know," Tifa sighed. "I don't want to be angry at Sephiroth. He nearly got killed trying to save Cloud. I'm just so worried!"

"I'm worried too," Leon said. "Cloud's always been kind of out there. And don't yell at me for that; you know it's true. All of this going down and Cloud blaming himself for what happened to Sephiroth . . . it can't be good."

As they talked, they approached a cathedral. A priest, standing outside and looking worriedly into the sky, came to attention at their conversation. "Excuse me, but would you be talking about a young man with spiky blond hair and a wing?"

Both of them snapped to attention.

"Yes!" Tifa exclaimed, hurrying over to him. "You saw Cloud?! Is he here?!"

The priest sighed sadly. "I wish I could say he is. He was, and I spoke with him, but then he flew into a frenzy and literally flew away again. He went that way." He pointed towards the moon.

"Oh boy," Leon sighed. "What did he get upset about?"

Now the priest looked awkward and embarrassed. "I'm afraid I pointed out to him why the spell on him broke when that other man saved him. He . . . did not handle it well."

Leon facepalmed. "Yeah . . . he wouldn't."

Tifa ran back over to him. "We have to find him!" she said with urgency. Looking back to the priest, she said, "Thank you for your information. Did you see him start to land again at all?"

"I didn't, unfortunately," he replied. "I don't know how far he went. But . . . he was so upset and he was flying very erratically. If he didn't straighten himself out, I'm afraid he couldn't have stayed in the air for long."

"He could have crashed and got hurt," Tifa fretted. "Thank you! I'll call our other friends and we'll start searching over there."

Leon was already taking out his phone. "I'll call Yuffie. You call Aerith," he directed. "And we should call Merlin too."

Tifa nodded. She was already dialing.

"Hello?" Aerith sounded breathless but hopeful when she answered.

"We have a lead!" Tifa greeted her. "Cloud was at the big cathedral in town, but flew away upset again and headed towards the moon. We're going to check everywhere in that direction, but especially farther away from the cathedral since the priest didn't see Cloud come down."

"We'll start for there right away!" Aerith said. "We also brought the Gullwings in on this."

"Great!" Tifa said. "We can use all the help we can get. Tell them to all start looking North by Northwest of the cathedral."

"Sounds like an old movie," Leon muttered.

"Will do!" Aerith promised. She paused. "Tifa, if Cloud landed at the cathedral, what got him so upset he left again?"

"You know Cloud," Tifa said. "He didn't want to talk, and then the priest got him more bent out of shape by pointing out why the hate spell broke on him when Sephiroth saved his life."

"Oh dear," Aerith sighed. "Yeah, I can see that not going over well at all with Cloud right now when he's already so upset about hurting Sephiroth. Well, we'll keep that in mind if we find him first. I'll let Merlin know too. Thanks, Tifa!"And she quickly hung up.

Tifa stared down at her phone for a moment as she kept moving. "Leon . . . do you think Cloud fell out of the sky?" she had to ask.

"I think he'd be smarter than that," Leon said. "I don't think he'd let himself get physically hurt. But emotionally, he's going to be a basket case."

Tifa sighed heavily. "I know." Everything had to be so complicated. And as usual, Sephiroth was at the center of the problem once again.

"I wonder if Cloud will ever get himself straightened out about Sephiroth," Leon remarked.

"He'll have to," Tifa said. "He's being pushed further and further to his breaking point. I don't think he can take much more."

"I have to admit, I don't either," Leon said. "This might be the last straw."

"Aerith wishes they could be friends," Tifa said. "I don't know if that's really possible, but I wish at least that they could be on good terms."

"It'd be interesting to see if that's possible," Leon said. "Now they know they each love the other. You'd think that would make it easier, not harder."

"In Cloud's case, that just makes everything infinitely harder," Tifa sighed wearily. "Now he doesn't have any excuses to hate Sephiroth any longer, but I'm not sure he's gotten over those feelings. He thought he never would or could."

"Yeah, I can see that being a problem for him, alright," Leon mused.

Tifa nodded sadly. "I just hope we can find him relatively safe and bring him home. I'm worried he won't come home."

"At least if we can find him, the problems should be over," Leon said. "The Evil Queen's been arrested, so she can't try to hurt either of them anymore."

"Not with anything new," Tifa said. "But what she's already done could have repercussions for who knows how long."

Leon sadly couldn't deny that possibility.

As they ran, Tifa nearly went past a particular alley. But something made her stop and look. In the moonlight, a bat wing was clearly visible, wrapped around a person trying to make themselves as small as possible.

"Cloud?!" She ran over.

Blue eyes slowly looked up at her from behind wild blond bangs.

Tifa rocked back. She hadn't expected the sight of Cloud having actually been crying. "Cloud, we've been so worried," she said, trying to keep her voice kind and even.

"Why?" Cloud finally spoke. "I wasn't hurt. It was Sephiroth who got hurt. Or killed. . . ." He shuddered. "Don't you care about that?"

"Of course we care!" Tifa exclaimed. "But Sephiroth is alright! He's worried about you too!"

"He can't be alright," Cloud said bitterly. "You're just saying that to try to make me feel better. He was hit by a flying boulder, Tifa! A boulder I sent at him! If he's alive, he must be paralyzed! He won't be able to walk . . . or fly . . . and it's my fault!"

"He's not paralyzed!" Tifa insisted. "Merlin made sure of that and then took him home with him!"

"That's right," Leon said as he caught up.

Cloud looked from one to the other, wing twitching in his suspicion. "If he's alright, he'd be looking for me too," he said.

Tifa sighed. "Okay, he's hurt," she said. "Just not hurt in that way. Cloud, please just come home with us. The Queen's been arrested and the danger is over. Sephiroth really does want to see you."

"Of course he does," Cloud retorted. "He loves me, right?" He got off the crate. "After everything I've been doing to him—all the crazy accusations, always trying to fight him . . . kill him—he loves me." He blinked back new tears. "I can't . . . I can't do that to him. I can't selfishly go to him when the best thing for him would be for me to stay far away from him. Tifa, don't you get it?! All this time . . . I've hated him so much because of what happened to Zack . . . and now I . . ." He shuddered. "I went and got myself controlled by dark magic and did even worse than what I've been hating Sephiroth for!"

Tifa stared at him. She hadn't expected this. She wasn't sure at all how to handle it. "Cloud . . ."

Leon stepped forward. "Okay, so you screwed up," he said bluntly. "I get that. I know how rotten it feels. But that's all the more reason for you to come back with us. Talk to Sephiroth. Get it straightened out. Be grateful you still have the chance to fix this. Some things . . . can't be fixed. Not completely." A haunted look flashed through his eyes, the pain of having seen their home torn apart by the Heartless those long years ago.

"I can't fix this completely!" Cloud shot back. "All the pain . . . all the hate . . . all the horrible things I said and did. . . . I can't take any of that back. Sephiroth didn't stay lost in the darkness, but I did! I have! And I . . . still don't know how to find the light again."

". . . That's why we're here, Cloud," Tifa said. "To help you find it." She held out her hand.

Cloud looked at it. A flash of memory came back to him, words he had hated and reviled and had refused to accept.

"You turn your back on the present and live in the past, because the light of the present is too much."

Cloud looked away. Sephiroth was right. He was always right about everything. He knew Cloud too well. How could Cloud accept the light when it felt like all he deserved was the darkness?

"I . . . I'm not worthy of the light," he finally rasped.

"Well, if you stay in the dark, you're just going to keep hurting people some more," Leon retorted. "So even if you think you're not worthy of it, how about giving us a break and coming with us anyway, for our sakes?"

Cloud looked back and forth between them. "Sorry," he said at last. "I'm not worth it." And suddenly he was gone.

Tifa gasped. "Cloud?!"

Leon gawked. "Did he just . . . teleport?! How did he do that?! He doesn't know how to do that!"

Tifa shook her head. She couldn't care less about the how of that right now. She grabbed her phone to call Merlin for help.

xxxx

Sun blinked in confusion when she entered her home and found her mother parked in front of the widescreen TV, a remote clutched in her hand. Over and over, she rewound the footage on the screen and played it back. In her other hand was a sapphire-blue feather.

"That's Sephiroth's!" Sun exclaimed. "Where did you find it?!"

"Nevermind about that," Kala-Ansa shot back, her voice cold as always. "You know I have never wanted you to have anything to do with that winged demon."

Sun peered at the TV. "But you're watching video footage of him! Why?!"

"I said nevermind!" Kala-Ansa paused the recording and turned to fully look at her daughter. "What are you even doing up so late?"

Sun gave her mother a determined, defiant look. "I was looking for Sephiroth," she announced. "The townspeople are saying Cloud went nuts and Sephiroth was trying to stop him and got hurt. I wanted to see . . . if he was okay."

"Then I will tell you he is not okay," Kala-Ansa responded. "I found him lying lifeless on the ground, being tending to by Merlin."

Sun fell back in shock. "No! No, he has to be okay!" she cried. "He can't be dead!"

"I don't know if he was dead," Kala-Ansa admitted. I hope he is not. "But he is hurt and you are not likely to find him now that Merlin has him. Go up to bed."

"Merlin will help him," Sun said in determination. "He's going to get better! Just wait!"

"Sunrise. Go up to bed now," Kala-Ansa ordered. "I will not ask you again."

"You're not asking now," Sun retorted with a scowl. She ran up the stairs to her room and shut the door loudly, just barely below a slam.

Kala-Ansa normally would have scolded her daughter for that as well, but tonight she didn't care. She wanted to be left alone to pursue her developing interest. She turned back to the TV, pressing Play.

This was old footage of some previous fight Sephiroth had had with Cloud in the town square. He was moving swiftly, nearly flying even when on the ground, and often taking flight, his three blue wings spread as they lifted him above the housetops to meet Cloud, who was also in the sky.

Kala-Ansa was captivated. How had she never seen before how beautiful Sephiroth's hair was, how strong and manly his chest, how the sunlight caught each blue feather and made it sparkle and shine? He was a masterpiece.

She gripped the remote tighter. No! What was she thinking? She was pure and virtuous. She prided herself on that. Yet now she could not get these increasing images and desires out of her mind. If Sephiroth was still laying there on the ground, she would go to him, kneel down beside him, run her hands over his chest and lean in to kiss him. . . .

She leaped up, throwing the remote to the couch. These were treacherous, wicked thoughts. She would never think such things!

She looked back to Sephiroth's image on the screen, flying away from Cloud's attack and then coming in for one of his own. He was doing this to her! Somehow he was doing it, even though he had been unconscious when she had seen him.

The feather! That had to be it. The feather was cursed. It had put a spell on her!

She held it up, glaring at it, her eyes boring into it. She should cast it into the fire where it belonged. Then this new evil would stop. She had never paid Sephiroth the slightest attention before, save for her increasing indignation at the hold he had on her daughter. Now he was consuming her thoughts.

She stormed over to the fireplace, ready to cast the feather into the crackling blaze. But something held her back. She could not bear to rid herself of it. Instead she held it up and brought it close to her, running it over her cheek. It felt so warm, so good.

She could run her hands over all the cursed feathers, pet the wings, brush Sephiroth's long bangs away from his face and kiss him . . . tear his coat from his body and . . .

Her eyes snapped open and she whirled away from the fireplace. This had to stop. That other woman had the right idea; Sephiroth should die! He was the fairest in the land, more beautiful than anyone else, and that was dangerous, deadly. Kala-Ansa could not stop her string of increasingly lustful thoughts about him, and of course that was Sephiroth's fault! He was doing this to her! She would never think such things on her own.

But . . .

Did he really have to die? Couldn't he just live as her lover?

Yes, she had to try to make him hers. And if she could not, then it would be the flames of Hell for him. She would turn the town against him. She would get them to rally around her and help her destroy that evil man.

"God have mercy on him," she whispered low. "God have mercy on me. But Sephiroth will be mine or he will burn!"

At last she turned and cast the feather into the flames. But as the fire consumed it, her lust only burned stronger still.

Ending Notes: Sephiroth is having a lot of women trouble in this fic.