All characters © their respective owners
-SILENTNIGHT.
Akuma: -grumbles- On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love wrote for me.
Warnings: Lots of people die. Does this need to be rated M? Cliché Sephiroth and Cloud interaction. Not trying to win any awards here.
-UNHOLYNIGHT.
He woke up not knowing what happened the night before. He woke up to see bodies littered everywhere.
He didn't know them all that well, didn't mean he wouldn't mourn them, didn't mean he wasn't shocked. The goddess Cosmos wasn't spared either, her lifeless body stained red and thrown onto the centerpiece of the sanctuary. The bodies of the Cosmos warriors were scattered erratically, the once white ground now splattered with shades of crimson, the once green trails of light turning wispy and blackish.
His first thought is that maybe Chaos' warriors had somehow broken in. But if that were true, then why didn't they kill him too? And why were his clothes and hands bloodied like this?
He has the urge to throw up at the thought. He couldn't have, right? This is a joke, isn't it? Why would he…? He didn't hate any of them so much that he'd slaughter them like this. And he hardly doubted he was strong enough to kill all of them or even Cosmos herself when he had failed to defeat Chaos once.
And besides, Order's sanctuary had never changed its color like this before. Their bodies weren't supposed to linger either. They should have evaporated and been cleansed or something for the cycle to repeat.
What happened?
He placed a hand against his forehead and tried to remember, his eyes wandering to the somehow uninjured tree near Cosmos.
That's right.
Zidane and Tidus had found one of those big fir trees. It was some kind of celebration. Bartz had been a little suspicious about it at first, but helped them decorate it anyway. Squall had questioned where they had found it while Firion figured that maybe it was just there the way his rose had strangely appeared. Cosmos was explaining what the holiday was about and what it meant to everyone else.
And he had declined celebrating to be on lookout duty. Cecil was his lookout partner at the time. He remembered hearing people laugh while he talked with Cecil about what their homes were like. After a while, Warrior of Light and Onion Knight came by to relieve them of their guard. He and Cecil had walked into the sanctuary to see Terra blushing madly and yelling at Zidane while the monkey child hid behind Squall.
More laughing. Talking. After that, he's not sure. Things go black after this.
It wasn't like he had never seen mass murder before. Although, this was the first time he had ever done one without even remembering if he did it. They at least deserved a proper burial. He was about to start with the nearest one – the youngest Cosmos warrior – when he heard soft laughter above and behind him.
"I didn't expect such a normal reaction from you." That voice… Cloud turned around, calling his weapon to his side, a glare conquering his features.
"Sephiroth! You did this!" he accused as he gestured to the bodies and sanctuary's current condition.
"Oh, is that so?" the madman asked calmly as he tilted his head slightly. "Then tell me this, puppet," he pointed his sword to Cloud's, "why is your sword stained red?" Cloud then looked at the weapon he called and widened his eyes at the fact that it was indeed bloodied. Likehis clothes and hands were.
"I couldn't have…I didn't…" Cloud shook his head slowly at the glaring evidence.
"There's the expression I wanted to see." The silver-haired general laughed lightly. "Who knew all it took was one command for you to turn on them like this? I would've thought you'd at least resist a-."
"Shut up!" Cloud stopped his hands from trembling - once he actually noticed that they were shaking - as he tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. "What did you do to me?" he demanded.
"Why do I need to explain anything to a puppet?" Sephiroth scoffed at the idea. "All you need to do is move the way I want you to."
"You don't control me anymore…" The blonde swordsman asserted as he raised his weapon. He charged the older man, jumping up to swing the buster sword overhead when Sephiroth blocked it with the Masamune. "And neither does Jenova!" He jumped back to cast Firaga as Sephiroth jumped out of the way.
vVvVvVv
A/N: Okay, I don't have time to describe the fight. My creator has finals to do and study for, and I'm running out of time to submit this before she finishes her picture, so…uh…use your imaginations.
vVvVvVv
"I expected a better fight than this." The champion expressed disappointedly. "I suppose with Cosmos and most of her warriors dead, you've probably been weakened considerably." He walked towards the bloodied fallen puppet and picked him up by the front of his ruined shirt. "How boring." Cloud weakly gripped the hands that were on him with his own trembling hands as he grit his teeth and glared at the other man. Sephiroth smiled slightly at the feeble attempt.
"I'll…I'll kill…you…" Cloud managed to say.
"Like you have in the previous cycles?" The other swordsman asked with what could have been innocence. "I don't think so, puppet." He stated as he threw the younger sword wielder to the ground, a small pained sound escaping the blond. "I suppose you could say that this is payback for all times you've killed me before I could regain my memories."
"…" Cloud remained silent as he glared defiantly.
"Wondering why I didn't just kill you, puppet?" Sephiroth asked rhetorically. It wasn't like either of them didn't already know. "As if that could possibly satisfy me. No, I have…other ideas." He smiled sadistically.
"Ah…!" Cloud gasped and held his head.
Fi…Firion… He could remember. He killed Firion first, snapped his neck while he was talking with Bartz. Then, Bartz had screamed and the others saw him dismember the wanderer of his leg afterwards before plunging the sword through his chest. Others were yelling and casting and there was so much anger. He could remember Warrior of Light guarding Cosmos after he had just slashed Terra in half. He didn't remember feeling any pain even though they did land hits on him. He only remembered feeling blood splash on him. Onion Knight tried to talk some sense into him. Tidus blocked Onion Knight from a killing blow and ended up dying himself.
And finally…he could remember Cosmos sitting on the centerpiece seemingly calm as her warriors were slaughtered. Warrior of Light was the last one to go, and he had walked to her slowly. She appeared to accept her fate, but the trembling in her body and the tears in her eyes betrayed her. She looked up to him with those eyes, and he seemed to just stare back at them before he decapitated her.
"…why?" Cloud asked without thinking. It should have been a happy night. It was a celebration.
"Don't break just yet, puppet." Sephiroth almost whispered. "I want to see more of that lovely expression."
vVvVvVv
"Would you look at that pretty little doll go?" Kefka cackled delightfully. "Can't wait to watch him drop like a fly."
"I fail to see the entertainment in this." Golbez stated.
"He's Sephiroth's toy. Let him do what he wishes." Ultimecia said, although the small smile on her face suggested that she was enjoying this too.
An unrecovered Cloud was slashing away manikins left and right with erratic actions. His eyes were blurry and unfocused as he did so, his movements excessive and not as sharp as they used to be, injuries and Sephiroth pulling the strings conducting this clumsy dance. He only wished that his mind was as blank as his look.
He could remember the look on Zidane's face before he slammed the blunt side of his sword against the back of the child's skull. The betrayed look on Squall's face before Cloud had redirected the lasers from Cecil's attack to burn holes into the SeeD. The distraught look on Cecil's face when Cloud had run him through after Squall died. He practically held Onion Knight's life in his hands before he crushed the youngest warrior's neck. He could remember Warrior of Light's last words before he had stabbed the man with the horns of the knight's own helmet, driving it in deeper with his foot to make sure he had finished the job.
He continued to cut the manikins down. He couldn't feel any pain, his body was going numb. The madman held his strings, his smile never faltering as he indulged in his sadism. The Chaos warriors watched and waited for him to break. Golbez only gave him a pitying look as the blond swordsman tried so desperately to forget, to escape, to do anything but this.
He woke up not knowing what happened the night before. He woke up to see bodies littered everywhere.
-ALLISCALMDOESN'TMEANIT'SRIGHT.
Akuma: And this is when you people complain about Cloud being a rip-off of Terra or about how there's no way Cloud could've killed everyone when so-and-so is the strongest in Dissidia. Look at how much I care! No, seriously, look. I've never seen anything smaller in my life. Except maybe Hoshi's brain.
Holiday moral: The most important memories can't be erased no matter how much you try.
Akuma: And because I know people are going to ask "Why didn't you use Terra at all?! She would have been a more original choice!" Kefka already controlled Terra in Dissidia, and she didn't kill everyone, so that wasn't going to work. And if you really want to see a story where Kefka controls Terra and has her kill off everyone, then write it yourself. I spent about an hour on this story, I'll bet you can write a better one any day.
To the first reviewer:
Akuma: Thanks for your input. Well, a while back, I submitted a story like this to another site. As you can probably guess, a bunch of FF6 fans were upset that I didn't use Terra instead of Cloud and they were complaining about how FF7 was too popular and saying Cloud was an awful character. I've never played FF7. Everything I know about the game is secondhand information from KN. I wouldn't care if they had just made suggestions, but they acted as if I was only allowed to write to please them. Naturally, my response was:
LOOK HOW MANY FUCKS I GIVE. And then I deleted the story. Months later, KN would ask us to do this stupid project, and I decided that this story deserved better, so I re-wrote it. I'm kind of bummed that I don't get to put in the fight scene, and KN is going insane because life is happening right now.
...although, I think it was better that I didn't write a fight scene because it kept sounding sexual somehow. I wonder if this is how Square Enix feels. This isn't an apology. I only had an hour to write this. Anyone who expects better than this from me in an hour's time is asking for me to be pissed off. KN would never be pissed off, but I'm not her, and I'm not a nice person. Happy holidays.