Final Fantasy VII: Unheard Voices
CHAPTER 1
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7, or any for that matter was not my idea. I do not own Final Fantasy:D
Sephiroth motioned his hand to Cloud as a distant sound was heard somewhere not too far off in the wreckage. "If you're not patient Cloud, you might get hurt." Sephiroth said with a slight smirk, which was rather rare coming from such a pensive guy.
Supposedly, an attack from an unknown source had completely obliterated a ShinRa mako reactor, which once stood here. There wasn't much left to the site, except loads of washed out remains of what used to be a life sucker of the planet. President ShinRa, however, through careful speculation from the Turks, was told that there was in fact an attack on the reactor, and it wasn't any ordinary explosion caused from accidental leaks. Sephiroth and Cloud were appointed to scout the area in search of survivors and possible clues leading to who might've done this.
As Sephiroth and Cloud continued ravaging their way through the remains, Cloud spotted a soldier, still alive, however, who had his legs punctured by a large rusted metal exhaust pipe.
"Sephiroth over here!" Cloud said, running while simultaneously reaching into his pocket for his phone to call for a ShinRa medical helicopter. Cloud, bent down and examined the soldier. "You'll be alright we just have to get this large pipe off of you" Cloud said as he began to desperately try to mount the pipe, but to no avail. The grim looking soldier had given a small smirk and then once again shut is eyes while slighty grinding his teeth and elevating his chest in pain. "Hey, Sephiroth, I could use your hand here ya know...Sephiroth?", Cloud said turning his head back to the soldier, "listen I need you to tell me everything that happened here."
"It was a...normal day...we were struck down by..." The pale soldier said while tightening his grip to the dirt on the ground due to the agony he was going through.
Sephiroth, to Cloud's surprise, had a look of annoyance. He then slowly began to put his head down while simultaneously reaching out for his masamune. Suddenly, the scene fell dark and the soldier was put out of his misery when a distant shot landed at his neck causing blood to burst out of his eyes like a fountain of death. Cloud quickly pushed himself back and fell to the ground in shock.
"So...they finally show themselves." Sephiroth whispered to himself.
Cloud arose, his legs shaking, bewildered only to see that he and Sephiroth had been surrounded by a group of thugs armed with machine guns. From the looks of it, the leader was the cocky looking guy with the large feathered hat and a smoke pipe shoved in his large mouth. He had a tacky purple leather vest on and a rather long set of dark green pants which had been torn at the very bottom. And his pathetic sized army had no sense of style, to say the least.
Sephiroth's head slowly began to rise. "Cloud, it's time." He said with his eyes shut and head slightly tilted which caused a ray of seclusion guarding his eyes followed by the lukewarm tone of his voice. Sephiroth's eyes soon began to glow with hostility.
Cloud, regaining his composure, slowly reached for his buster sword attached to his back.
"Uh u uhhhh, not soo fast little kiddies. Before you begin your senseless attack which will ultimately end in misery, allow me to introduce myself. I am Cornea of the Slums." He said bowing down with a conceited looking grin on his long wrinkly face. Cloud, his eyes twitching in annoyance from the unpleasant sound of Corneo's voice, was pleased to see that Sephiroth had already slain three fourth's of Corneo's pathetic army and so he motioned his arm away from his buster sword seeing it unnecessary to fight due to the situation.
"Why you!" Corneo sharply said while shivering in fear from the presence of Sephiroth. Before Corneo could finish what he was going to say, Corneo's group of untrained thugs was lying on the floor in pieces. It actually wasn't a pleasant sight, in all honesty.
Sephiroth sluggishly made his way toward Cornea with a grand smirk on his face which reeked of the desire to kill and the sense that a human life was a mere dysfunctional existence and that all of them had to be wiped out. Suddenly, a ShinRa copter landed on the site, blowing hoards of dust at Sephiroth and Cloud, which didn't really please them, sadly. Before the copter could even land Tseng and Elena made there way out landing with ease. Corneo, out of instinct, put his hands up in surrender and began to cry miserably. "I didn't do it...I didn't do it!" He kept repeating to himself as he kneeled down and the rugged floor with tears slithering down his rough face.
"Well, it looks like you've found them...or should I say him, Cloud." Elena said in a serious tone as she passed by him, making note of all the unanimated waste which was due to Sephiroth. Cloud didn't really feel that he deserved any vocal reward, whether it be sarcastic or true; he didn't really get a chance to do much. Not only that, the soldier the was caught under the pipe, Cloud felt wholly responsible for his death. He began to try to block out all thoughts in a desperate plead to separate himself from reality, which is something that was quite normal, coming from him. Tseng, walking up to the little cry baby, Cornea, injected him with a sleep tranquilizer.
"Good work. We'll take him in for questioning, if we didn't come in time he'd probably be in pieces now." Tseng said glaring at Sephiroth, who's known to needlessly kill everyone who gets caught in the sight of his mako gleaming eyes, "We'll be off then." Tseng said, in a gesture noting Sephiroth and Cloud to aboard the copter with them.
Sephiroth turned away from the copter causing his long black trench coat to flow along the path of the rigid air. "There's more to it than that, something you Turks wouldn't understand." Sephiroth declared slowly walking to a set of rusted old stairs which led deep within the earths core. It happened to be, that this was the only part of the reactor which had still been intact. Sephiroth stopped and tediously tilted his head, with his long silky silver hair covering most of his face except one eye which peered toward Tseng. "We build these reactors and destroy the very life of the planet. Is it possible, that perhaps the life stream is fighting back? Hmph..." Sephiroth slowly began to walk down the rusted set of stairs while sheathing his blood infested masamune. "Cloud..." Sephiroth called as his head disappeared.
Cloud walked up to Tseng. "He's a confusing guy sometimes...but I'm going to trust his judgment and go along with him. He does have that trait where he does seem to go beyond the obvious and discover exactly what we've been looking for." Cloud gives off a slight smirk at the austere Turk and makes his way down the rusted old stairs leading to the core of what was left of the reactor. Tseng shut the door to the copter which soon was in the frosted air above.
"Sephiroth, I don't really understand...why are we here?" Cloud muttered under the eerie darkness of the room. "We've caught the bad guys didn't we?"
Sephiroth puts his arm into a deep pocket of his rugged leather trench coat and grabs a dazzling golden materia and in a short whisper says "Light." The once dark room illuminated through the gleaming materia. "Hold this Cloud." Sephiroth said as if he didn't even take notice that Cloud had said anything of significance, and continued walking deep within the silent reactor which was once a noisy place with all the machinery working to carefully suck the mako energy out of the planet without fault.
"Sephiroth?" Cloud daringly said, peering his head closer to him, hoping to be an annoyance.
"Cloud, didn't I say that patience might keep you from getting hurt. Even if I explained it to you, you wouldn't understand. It's just that...I have to go. I hear the voice calling me from within the deep craters of the planet. She is calling me, Cloud. No matter where I go She is that echo that guides me through out life. And her voice has never been louder, until now. It seems that fate has brought me here, although I don't necessarily believe in destiny. Perhaps, through the choices one makes, they inevitably end up where they have to be, but not by destiny or anything of that matter, but instead by the natural flow of time as it has been since the beginning of life, if there ever was a beginning for that matter. The way I see it, is that unless I follow the path that I have chosen through the events in which has passed through my life, I would be rejecting my very own existence, which I come to question very often." Sephiroth murmured as he took out his hand and began to look at it as though it was something distinguished.
Instead of speaking out of audacity, Cloud kept quiet and gave a slight nod as though he understood what Sephiroth meant, even though he was still rather perplexed; he had reason to be, in all truth. Why? Becuase Sephiroth wasn't the only one being called out by the unfathomable voice. Cloud also, had been receiving a distant sound of calling, as though he was not meant to be where he was, but instead, he was destined to be with this anomaly. Sephiroth had always spoken of this voice that he constantly heard, which in a few instances, he'd classify as 'Mother'. Maybe that's why, although they didn't mix well as 'partners', he felt an emaciated connection of similarities which inevitably drew them together, in a sense.
Cloud shook his head, trying to come to his senses.
"You're close, Cloud." A voice softly said in the depths of Clouds puzzled mind. Cloud tried his best to ignore the voice, and ultimately attempted to keep it secluded that Sephiroth wouldn't find out, even though he didn't know why.
Sephiroth continued walking through the tunnel-like sects of the reactor, as though he had known that place. Suddenly, we stopped at a room with layers of lofty capsules holding some sort of jelly green liquid inside, possibly mako energy. There had been soldiers everywhere, the room had been covered in blood, which seemed to be leading straight from a rather creepy looking room a few stairs up. A foul stench filled the air, and you could notice it if you looked into Clouds face of disgust, even though it didn't really seem to have any effect on Sephiroth.
Sephiroth, as if being oblivious to image of death stamped all over the horrid site, began to slowly make his way up to the bizarre room.
Cloud, desperately grabbing a rusted metal pole on his side, dashed to the ground and on his knees clutched his round head. "Get out! GET OUT! I don't have a mother!" Cloud shouted to himself. "Stop messing with my head! Agh!" Clouds eyes began to shut tighter as though a dark revelation was being set before him. Shortly after, the voices which had once been needlessly echoing in Clouds bewildered mind had melted away and Cloud had regained some sense of truth and reality which caused him to slowly open his eyes noticing that Sephiroth had just walked through the odd room. Regaining the strength to move, Cloud dashed through the stairs, almost as though he felt he had to rescue Sephiroth, but save him from what? Perhaps Cloud had his own definition of what could be harmful to the human spirit and what could bring life to those who need it, or perhaps, maybe Cloud was jealous. Although this thought had been in his mind far longer than desired, he knew that Sephiroth was the first to ever mention the appearance of the 'voice'. Was it that Sephiroth was more important or possibly that Cloud was utterly nonessential. Cloud knew how it felt to be lonely, and although it was a disease that he was born with, that disease never really healed during the course of his life. He had always felt the need to be able, in a sense, to touch the love of another's heart. A love not led by jealousy or deceit, the kind of love that comes from the depths of a persons spirit. Cloud had been through times where he began to desperately love those around him, in a desperate attempt to at least be able to pour out his sorrows and secrets upon another, but he'd never truly felt the touch of the pure attachment which was exclusively meant for him.
As Cloud finally entered the room, which was eccentrically dark, he came to a stop as he saw Sephiroth standing in front of a ray of light which seemed to actually pass through his physical body. His eyes began to burn causing him to guard it with his arm because the vivid light was so radiant even though it didn't really seem to illuminate the ghastly small room. He had ran up here so that he could drag Sephiroth out of this place, but seeing Sephiroth made him change his mind. He had a smile on his face, like none he'd ever seen. A smile which portrayed true happiness, and it was the first time he had ever seen it on the pensive general.
"Mother...I am here." Sephiroth murmured under the breath of his lips. "I have come Mother." Sephiroth's eyes began to steam with an aura of emptiness as the light suddenly began to glow stronger. Sephiroth began to elevate from the ground, in a rather calm manner, as a murky grand wing bursted out of his back. He suddenly fell to the ground and the once bright light ultimately diminished.
Cloud stepped back out of fear and drew his buster sword gripping it tightly as a drop of sweat slowly slithered down his dirty face. Even though he couldn't clearly see Sephiroth very well, he could here him lifting himself through the crumbling sounds of his protracted leather coat. Slowly and involuntarily stepping backwards, Cloud reached the stair face and accidentally lost his step and tumbled down the stairs like a boulder racing it's way down a slippery hill.
As Cloud came to a stop, he began to drag his beaten up body to his feet while picking up his buster sword as he peered his eye up at the room awaiting Sephiroth.
Sephiroth began to slowly walk down the rusted old stairs with his wing flapping on his right side. His eyes had an empty look to them, as though he was blindly living out his existence.
"Sephiroth what happened to you!" Cloud shouted gripping his buster sword tighter as Sephiroth didn't seem to take care in what Cloud was saying. Suddenly a guy standing around in a peculiar corner, with his arms crossed, of the room revealed himself.
"I don't know who you are," the man said slowly walking along the metal ground, "but you have made the same error as I have, four years ago." He said with a bitter expression. The man didn't look very ordinary, he had short dark purple hair and a pale face with strange marking inked into his very skin. His slender eyes blazed with the stains of blood, which went nicely with his diminutive dark shades. He wore an odd looking vest which seemed to be holding itself together by the tens of belts strapping it together, and long silver boots went over his stained yellow pants which seemed to look very rough. Along his long emaciated arms were streaks of torn leather which didn't really seem be attached to his vest. "If I were you I'd step away from your friend." He said in an urgent tone.
Cloud suddenly focused his concentration back on Sephiroth who was nearing him very quickly, still with his lengthy blood rusted sword out. "What do you mean? The same error you committed four years ago? What error!" Cloud said dropping his buster sword on the metal ground causing a loud band to shake the room. Cloud didn't have what it took to attack Sephiroth, to attack a friend. Sephiroth, finally reaching Cloud, came to a halt. Cloud stood there, in fear, as he began to violently tremble. Suddenly Sephiroth slashed his sword at Cloud causing him to bend down. As Cloud fell to his knees he quickly rolled over and grabbed his buster sword causing his sword to clash as he dodged Sephiroth's next attack while still desperately trying to get to his feet, which he managed to right after quickly evading a swap of Sephiroths blade which seemed to be tearing up the very ground of the room with every thrust.
"Hey, you! If you need my help...", the odd guy said moving back into the corner with one leg on the wall supporting his weight with his arms crossed and a cocky smirk struck along his pale face, "just ask!"
