"The Unlikely Team"

X-over

Sephiroth: Leader (Final Fantasy VII)—After Advent Children—Height: 6'1 Age: 32

Vegeta: Foil/Ego (Dragon Ball Z)—After Omega Shenron—Height: 5'6 Age: 67

Lang: Arbiter (Legaia 2 Duel Saga)—After End of Game—Height: 5'4 Age: 16

Ziggy: Order (Xenosaga)—After End of Xenosaga III—Height: 6'3 Age: 128

Chapter 1: Awaken in a New World

He examined his blade once again as boredom began to overtake him in its lasting grip. The sword was extraordinarily long and thin. Though it served as an extremely useful weapon to Sephiroth, it could also be extremely annoying. It wasn't as if he was fighting someone every waking minute of his life. Getting vanquished by Cloud—his arch nemesis—repeatedly was not his idea of fun. He enjoyed testing his skills against a worthy opponent, but it would have been nice if he could reclaim his winning streak. Claiming to bring about destruction and actually doing it were two different things. Being the token "bad guy" was not all it was cracked up to be especially since he didn't see himself as being one.

His plans of grandeur had been continuously foiled time and time again by the same Cloud who was so inferior to him that he wasn't really much of a match. The second time had been won purely by luck. To think that he could be defeated by a glorified sword move was ludicrous. And yet it had happened. That was clearly not the end of the fight and Sephiroth knew that he would find a way back to the living.

But not this soon and with no explanation. Someone or something had brought him here to this unfamiliar world and Sephiroth wanted to know just who that person was. Here lied the way to his ultimate goal even if that goal mirrored Jenova's will—he realized that it was his true desire. The cosmos was a vast place even for a god like him.

Although, he did not feel much like a god at the moment. He didn't feel as powerful as he usually was—instead he felt oddly vulnerable. It was exactly the reason that he was quite on edge at the moment despite his calm exterior. The Masamune felt a little heavier than what was proper and even more he didn't feel in control anymore. Feelings like these were supposed to be foreign to such an ascended being like Sephiroth yet there they were present and undeniable.

Just then he heard a sound. It was very slight, though he could tell that it was a footstep. Then he heard it again and again. Patiently, Sephiroth waited until the intruder was two paces behind him. Then suddenly within a millisecond, Sephiroth not only stood up from his sitting position, but also spun around and thrust out his blade. Luckily, Sephiroth had measured right—his blade only nipped the skin of the intruder. The blade was at chest level of the newcomer.

"Odd that you should sneak upon me in such a way" Sephiroth asked in his characteristic low, serious tone.

At that moment, Sephiroth sized up the new individual of which was a male. He appeared to be around sixteen. His hair was a deep black as was his eyes though Sephiroth also caught a glint of red in them. He wore a red and gold jacket that was currently open and revealed a softly muscled stomach and chest—he was definitely young. The thing, however, that caught his attention was the elaborate crimson tattoo that ran down the right side of his chest. He wore a sword at his side and his hands were covered with black leather fingerless gloves.

The youth raised his hands up in a sincere surrender signifying that he did not want to fight.

"I hope I didn't give you the wrong impression. I woke up this morning and found myself in this forest. You are the only other person I've seen."

Here stood an extremely imperfect being that, even now in that brief moment of meeting, feared him. Sephiroth found that he fancied this reaction—at least he could exert control over some part of this strange circumstance. His guard, however, had not lowered at all.

"I suppose I could say the same, but it is not the first time I have woken to a place entirely foreign to me."

"My name is Lang by the way," he said before a deafening silence could sabotage their conversation

"Sephiroth," the tall swordsman said as he finally sheathed his blade.

Introductions were so far away from the swordsman's everyday activities that he found that he was no good at it. Besides, it wasn't often that he met a person who didn't already know him. There were far too many distinguishing traits about him to ever forget who he was and what he stood for.

Another bout of deafening silence threatened to interrupt things, but once again Lang deflected its advance. "So, you're a swordsman as well?"

"Among other things" There was a beginning of a grin working on his face.

Sephiroth wondered when the teen would run off in utter fear—he gave it a few more minutes if the kid had any sense at all.

Lang's eyebrows furrowed in slight confusion with Sephiroth's last statement. "I'm sure you're a great swordsman—I wouldn't dream of dueling you."

Lang was acutely aware that this conversation was going nowhere and that the only thing that they had in common was the fact that they both happened to wield a sword. One glance at Sephiroth's incredibly long sword made his own broad sword seem rather insignificant. Sephiroth's blade just seemed so much more durable and powerful even though Lang's sword had served him quite well in tight situations. Not only this, but Lang felt like a complete midget in front of the other. He saw no reason, though, to run. As long as Sephiroth was willing to talk then Lang felt as if all was well.

"And how did you come to such a conclusion?"

"Let's just say, I know when I've met my match. Besides, I'm a bit of a rookie."

"I can tell." Sephiroth was only vaguely impressed. Lang insisted on intruding on his blissful solitude and Lang seemed rather oblivious to his imposing aura. It was only right that he asked a rather burning question of his own. "Are you headed to somewhere in particular?"

"No. I'm just bored out of my mind. At least, however, there's someone to talk to." Lang gave the other a courteous smile.

Sephiroth turned away from Lang as he did this, "Don't fool yourself into thinking that since we're in the same boat, our friendship is inevitable. Be careful of who you choose to trust."

"I suppose I'm a bit naïve, but would you rather that you were alone?"

"This forest," Sephiroth said slowly, "Eventually it will end. If one was to walk in a particular direction that person would predictably break free of the forest. Don't you agree, Lang?"

"Sure, I can believe that."

Sephiroth started off, unconcerned about whether the other would follow or not. Lang, of course, trailed the other close behind. Eventually, Lang built up the courage to walk side by side. Sephiroth truly was an intimidating presence.

Vegeta found himself in the same forest, though in his case, boredom was not his main concern. Since he woke up in the forest that morning, he had eaten nothing and there seemed to be nothing in his surrounding that was even close to being edible. He paced around on the leafy ground angrily. It angered him that food seemed to be the only thing his mind would focus on, there was something a lot bigger happening now. Obviously, this was not a dream. He had pinched himself before and not only did it hurt, but he also drew blood—this was reality. Sadly, this reality lacked food.

There was a tree near Vegeta and just then his fist shot out forcefully at it. Instead of snapping the tree in half as he expected, the tree merely shivered briefly under the impact. Venting his innate anger on inanimate objects was a bit of a pastime for Vegeta and it always ended up with the object getting the worst end of the stick. Trees didn't just tremble under his wrath—they fell.

"What?" Vegeta asked angrily, presumably to the tree.

He jabbed at the tree once again, this time using even more strength. The tree shook a little more.

"What is this thing made of?" Vegeta questioned incredulously.

Vegeta threw even more punches at it and he received the same result. Not to mention that his knuckles were beginning to redden with irritation. His anger was building as the stubborn tree seemingly spat in his face or at least according to Vegeta's perspective.

"Fine! I'll show you tree—you won't be standing for long!"

His hand shot out and he attempted to charge a ki blast. However, the ki blast would not form no matter how hard he willed it. His eyes remained trained on his hand for long seconds before finally putting it back down. He was so used to the energy flowing through his veins coming visibly forth that his mind could not register his failure to do so. There was something terribly wrong. Where was that warm flow of energy? Why did it seem so nonexistent? It was almost as if someone had stolen a part of his very being. For the first time in what felt like literal centuries, he felt utterly vulnerable. He took a rather heartfelt fist to the stubborn tree

"Damn it all. Have all my powers left me?"

If he couldn't pull off a ki blast, he knew that he also could not power up. He didn't even try to attempt as much. Of course, this too also included his ability to fly. This, however, he did try. Flying was something that had come naturally to him. Surely this ability couldn't be absent from him. Despite this conjecture, his body would not follow his commands and he remained standing on the ground. With a huff, he decided to climb the tree midway and then jump off of it to see if this inability was true. He soon found himself crashing uncomfortably into the ground. This was when he became aware of another presence. He had been so concentrated on himself that he had not noticed anyone else. On second thought, since all things that required ki was off limits, it was no surprise that he had sensed no one approaching him. He would simply have to rely on his natural abilities as a Saiyan that did not have anything to do with ki consumption. His knowledge of combat was eternal—only that was impossible to steal from a Saiyan.

"Who are you? Show yourself." Vegeta commanded as he stood up from his embarrassing fall.

The footsteps that he heard immediately afterwards were heavy and extremely noisy—to him at least. Furthermore it sounded metallic. Slowly, a short haired blond man came from around a tree and approached the other cautiously though he made all the noise in the world. Vegeta noticed then that from his stomach down his body was composed of metal. One hand was gloved while the other one was completely mechanized. Vegeta looked directly at the other's face. His small, serious eyes were blue and his mouth straight and unexpressive. If anything, the man wore the plainest expression that Vegeta had ever witnessed on a human.

"I have shown myself," the man said in a predictably plain but shockingly deep voice.

"Yeah, so you have. Why were you spying on me?"

Vegeta was hoping that the fact that he pretended to have known of his presence for awhile would surprise him but the other's expression did not indicate as much.

"I would have shown myself sooner, but seeing a stranger who spends his free time attacking trees quickly changed my decision. It did not seem very logical."

"What are you—a robot? An android?"

The other shook his head, "No, I am a cyborg."

"Hmph. Same difference."

"And what are you? A human would have experienced a great deal more pain after attacking a tree as you did."

"I'm a Saiyan. A Saiyan Prince by the way."

"A Saiyan Prince, you say?" Ziggurat was motionless for a moment and then responded moments later, "My records show that there was never an existence of this particular race."

"Well, you're not too far from the truth," Vegeta reassured, noting that the Saiyans were indeed a dying race though ironically being known for their resilience. "So, have you been here long?"

"We have not established our names," Ziggurat reminded the other.

"Alright since you want to know so badly, it's Vegeta."

"Ziggurat 8. Because of your claim to an unknown prince hood, would that not make you Prince Vegeta?"

"I haven't been called that in so long," Vegeta said distantly, "Vegeta would be fine. Besides, it sounds better when I say it."

"And that would be when you're referring to yourself."

"Yeah. So?"

"Do you often refer to yourself in third person?"

"Not often, but every once in awhile…" Vegeta's eyebrows furrowed at this. "I feel as if you're scrutinizing my sanity—what's with all the questions?"

"It's not often that I come across someone so close to being legally insane."

"What did you call me, you robot?" Vegeta's eyes stole a glance at the tree. "For your information, under normal circumstances, that tree would not be standing right now."

As usual, the cyborg's expression was hard to read. It was difficult to tell if he was convinced of his explanation or not.

"Hmph. Whatever," Vegeta said quickly.

"I have been here since morning—if I may answer your previous question."

"Yeah? Well, me too. I guess you wouldn't know how to get out of here, would you?"

"No, I wouldn't."

"You're the logical one. What would you do next?"

"I would first map out the area."

"Map out the area, huh. And how do you plan on doing that?"

"Well, since there is no previous map of this area—we have to explore it first."

"I knew you were going to say that."

"Is that so? It seems you're not as illogical as I once thought."

"I like to surprise my enemies," Vegeta said with a grin.

Once again, however, Ziggurat's facial expression showed no signs of surprise or amusement. Vegeta grumbled at this—it reminded him incessantly of the blonde android by the name of 18.

The two soon took off in a general direction. Vegeta imagined that the other knew the exact direction they were going and that Ziggurat was already vigorously scoping out the scenery and creating a very accurate map. That was fine with Vegeta as far as he was concerned. What he was not comfortable with was the silence. Vegeta found that unless spoken to, Ziggurat was content to remain silent.

"I just noticed something," Vegeta said suddenly, "This forest—it's far too quiet."

"Or could it be that you like to talk?"

"No, not that," Vegeta said with a slight edge to his voice, "The birds, the squirrels—you know, wildlife; everything is too still."

Ziggurat stopped walking when Vegeta said this. Vegeta did the same.

"You are right. There are no sounds."

The only thing that made any type of noise was the soft rustling of leaves caused by the continuous zephyr passing over them.

"It makes me think that this place might not be reality," Vegeta said pensively.

"That is hard to say. The environment is real enough, but there are certain aspects that contradict this. If you notice the trees, all of them are identical all the way down to their cellular composition. The air, though realistic, is far too clean. In an idealistic world, the air could probably match this quality, but I have never come across the likes."

"It's either one or the other," Vegeta said stolidly.

"Or an extremely advanced virtual reality."

"There's just no way," Vegeta said walking over to a tree to touch it. "It feels real. I think I'd be able to sense if it was a fake."

"I believe that it is real and so are the countless other identical trees. There may be a chance that there is another presence at work here."

"If there is, he picked the wrong person to mess with."

"So you assume this person is a 'he'?"

"No, but it's easier to just say that than 'this person' all the time—we'll find out the actual gender soon enough."

"I see," Ziggurat replied with little pretense.

The duo continued on through the forest as there was little else they could do for the time being.

AN: A bit of an abrupt ending, but when I wrote this eons ago, I wrote in a continuous fashion without any chapters. Anyways, let me know if you're interested in seeing what happens next or if this entire idea is utterly stupid. 'Til next time!