Hello! This is my first story on this web site, so I'm still struggling through the inner workings of the system here. So this story here, Shadow of Crisis, came about while me and a few friends were talking about the rumored remake of Final Fantasy VII for the PS3. After some thought, I said that I would rather see a game where you could play as Sephiroth and rise to the level of fame that he had before the game. And a few months later, I finished this story. Technically the story is complete, I finished typing it out last month (December), and will now start to post it. I'll try and keep up the regular interval of posting about every Tuesday and Thursday, weather permitting :) So, without further useless rambling, I present you my first Final Fantasy fanfic!

Chapter I

He was running hard and yet was running in place. His breathing was heavy and labored, as if the air was too thin to quench the thirst of his lungs. He tried to swallow, but he was only granted the tight ripping pain of dryness. He took the chance to look behind him, to see the Thing that was pursuing him. The sight sent a dark chill that made the sweat all over his body freeze in horror. The Thing was formless, yet had a shape, cloaked in a shadow of black fog. The sight was distant and yet was gaining with every agonizing moment. The only feature he knew that the Thing had was one red glowing eye. The enveloping shadow was growing nearer and would soon over take him. With a last ditch of effort to escape the unknown fiend, he let out a cry of desperation.

Quickly he sat up in bed, at last escaping the nightmare that had been chasing him. His body was covered in a layer of sweat that was now cold against the air blowing out from the air conditioning vent in the ceiling. Lightly, Sephiroth shook away the remnant of the nightmare and ran his hand through his long silver hair. The digital clock on the small nightstand showed that it was five minutes before six in the morning. He stood up and walked to the shaded window of his room. Quickly he pulled the cord for the blinds and took in the sight.

Below him, the cold gray steel of Midgar was colored a slight green from the glow of the Mako reactors, mixed with an orange hue from the rising sun in the east. From the window on the 48th floor of building C of the Shinra Complex, Sephiroth looked up and saw the large bulking form of the main Shinra Tower. Across the complex was the other twin building, building B, both of which resembled rounded nodes compared to the taller Shinra Tower. Building C held the main offices for SOLDIER and also served as their quarters when not on assignment. Building C also held the offices for the Turks, but Sephiroth did not pay them much mind.

Building B was somewhat of a mystery to him, all he knew was that Hojo had his secondary research facilities there, and the mere fact that the despicable so-called scientist could possibly be there at any moment made Sephiroth never want to pursue the mystery of that building.

Sephiroth turned around and paced the length of his room. He hated being here, especially when he could be out there on the front. The war with Wutai had been going on for nearly eleven years now and the end was still no where in sight. During the first few years of the war, the front line had moved from the edge of the Wutai Continent nearly to Costa Del Sol until the Shinra army was able to push the Wutai forces all the way back onto their own continent, but that's where the advance had stopped. For nearly five years, the line had only shifted a few miles if even that. The Wutai forces had control of the intricate mountains and canyons of their continent and were able to keep any attacking Shinra force at bay. A direct attack at Wutai by sea was impossible due to their guardian Leviathan that constantly guarded their borders. It was common knowledge that the Leviathan was a summon from materia, but no one could discern how they were able to make it stay indefinitely.

Of course Sephiroth knew that he could devise a plan to invade and even win this war, but the top brass of the Shinra military would never listen. Besides, they thought that their plans were much better and less flawed, but of course they could not lead themselves out of a wet paper bag. So, Sephiroth was relegated to leading his squad, consisting of three other members of SOLDIER, on raids that had no real meaning or strategic worth. Even so, he had made a name for himself, but he did not care about that. He merely wanted to fight, and that was what he truly excelled at.

Needless to say, Sephiroth was both surprised and annoyed when he and his squad were called back from the front. They were told that they were on leave, but Sephiroth knew the Shinra better than that. Whatever they had planned for him, he hopped it was worthy of his talents and his time.

With a sigh he stopped his pacing and headed for his shower. But just as he turned the water on, an alarm sounded in the hallway that echoed throughout the entire building. He quickly turned the water off, pulled on his long black coat, secured his mythril pauldrons, and grabbed his katana blade. Outside in the corridor, the alarm klaxon was much louder and red lights were flashing their urgent message. People were running around as if they had never been in a situation before in their lives. Sephiroth lightly sneered at their inexperience and stopped a young Shinra MP who was running by him.

"What's going on?" he asked the MP.

"It's a security breach, floor 62 of the main building!" the MP barked out as he saluted the SOLDIER First Class. Sephiroth nodded to the MP, who then continued on his way. As Sephiroth made his way to the nearest sky bridge that would take him to the main building, he wondered why someone would want to break into the Library. For files, presumably, but of what importance they could be he did not know. All he knew was that there was now some action that he could get involved with, and that brought a devilish smile to his face.

When he reached the end of the sky bridge, another SOLDIER member was fumbling with the access keypad that would open the doors to the main building. Sephiroth smirked to himself and raised his eyebrow as he watched the SOLDIER trying to remember the code.

"It's MAKO," Sephiroth said, making the other man jump and turn around. When he saw that it was his captain, he quickly saluted. Sephiroth brushed the salute away and put in the code himself.

"Honestly Bakusa, sometimes I think you would forget your head if it wasn't attached to you." Bakusa shrugged and scratched his head in embarrassment.

"I would have remembered it eventually," he said as he fell in step next to Sephiroth.

"Hm. That's why your still a Second Class," Sephiroth said dryly as he found the main elevator that would take them up to the 59th floor. The ride was quick, and when they entered the 59th floor Bakusa began to run for the main glass elevator, but Sephiroth's words made him stop and follow his squad captain.

"Those elevators are shut down during a security alert. We'll use the stairs." Sephiroth quickly climbed the stairwell, taking two and sometimes three stairs at once. The actions would have fatigued a normal man, but the adrenaline was now pumping full force through his veins causing him to pay little heed to any fatigue he may have been experiencing.

When they reached the 62nd floor, they quickly ran out to see several security guards and MPs sweeping the area. One of the guards looked up, quickly saluted, and said that the perpetrators had gone up. Sephiroth grinned, and quickly began to climb the stairs again. Above them, he could begin to hear the sounds of faint gunfire, increasing with every step he climbed. When they reached the 67th floor, the door was open and the gunfire could be heard coming from inside.

Sephiroth made a quick motion for Bakusa to keep up and he entered the research specimen containment floor. He was about to round a corner, when his instincts made him pull back just as the body of an MP flew and hit the wall with a dull thud. The unconscious MP slumped on the floor while letting out a defeated sigh. Sephiroth turned to Bakusa, who readied his metal knuckled gloves, and nodded.

In unison, both members of SOLDIER burst into the main containment area and saw pandemonium. On the far side of the chamber, what appeared to be a person wearing all black was running towards the specimen elevator. But between them and the perpetrator were over fifteen of Professor Hojo's research specimens, newly freed from their cages. The rapid staccato of gunfire made Sephiroth look to his left and saw the other member of his squad, Locke, crouched behind a crate firing away with his twin pistols at the ravenous horde of creatures. Locke looked up for a moment and briefly stopped his assault to speak.

"It's about time you got here!" With a quick nod from his captain, Locke stood up on the crate and provided covering fire for the other members of the squad. Quickly Sephiroth jumped out into the middle of the horde and began to swing his blade with deadly precision. Bakusa jumped onto one of the larger fiends and pummeled it to the ground with his ferocious punches. When the creature fell, he jumped off, flipped in the air, and landed in a crouched position. He jumped up to fight another creature, but he found that they were all dead.

"Oh come on man, leave some for us to kill!" Bakusa said as he shook his head. Sephiroth looked over at him for a moment and then looked to Locke without saying a word.

"That ninja broke open the cages when I started to fire at him. I would have got him if these things didn't start to attack so quickly."

"It doesn't matter," Sephiroth said as he began to run for the specimen elevator, the others quickly behind him. "If he keeps going up he's going to run out of floors pretty soon." On the 68th floor, they found several workers knocked unconscious or standing dumbfounded. One found the energy to point towards the stairs and motioned that he went up. Sephiroth quickly brushed past the man and lunged himself up the stairs.

On the 69th floor, the reception area for the President's office, they caught a glimpse of the ninja running up the purple carpeted stairs to the President's office. Sephiroth ran after him, making a sign for the others to take the other flight of stairs to trap the ninja thief on the top floor. Sephiroth had to quickly duck to avoid a shuriken that was meant for his head as he came into the 70th floor. He sneered and charged the ninja, who by now had realized that he had missed and was running towards the door that led out to the helicopter pad.

Sephiroth paused at the door and waited for the other members of his squad to get there before rushing through the door. They charged the helicopter pad area and saw the ninja looking over the ledge. Sephiroth let a grin come to his face as he realized that the ninja had no where to go.

"You're trapped. Do yourself a favor and give up easily. Otherwise, I can't promise you will have a pretty end," Sephiroth said as he held his sword at the ready, with the blade directly pointed at the ninja. Bakusa stood to Sephiroth's right, both of his fists at the ready. Locke was on the other side, both of his pistols aimed directly at the ninja.

The ninja turned around and took one step forward and then stopped. He tilted his head as if he was thinking of something, but what that something was Sephiroth had no idea. Quickly, with a speed rivaling that of a member of SOLDIER, the ninja performed a back flip over the ledge. Before he passed beyond sight though, his left hand began to glow a bright red, and he threw his hand out towards the squad. With a quick poof of red light, a large gray cat creature with a long tentacle on the back of its head appeared and growled intensely.

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow in bewilderment but brushed aside his confusion as the creature began to attack. As the creature lunged towards the three, both Locke and Bakusa jumped to either side while Sephiroth jumped over the beast. The creature skidded to a stop and turned back around. Sephiroth landed and turned to charge the beast and found that the creature was lunging right at him. Quickly Sephiroth stepped to the side as the creature passed by him by only a few millimeters. Sephiroth raised his katana to swing down at the creature but it jumped out of the way with just enough time to spare.

Locke tried to aim at the creature but its quick movements all around Sephiroth never gave him a clear shot, nor did he want to run the risk of shooting his captain. The creature dodged another one of Sephiroth's swings, but this time Sephiroth was ready for the movement. When the creature avoided his blade, he brought up his boot and kicked it hard in the stomach, making the creature fly towards the glass wall of the building. The creature was able to hit the wall with his paws, and recovered itself enough to make another attack. But the distance was all that Sephiroth needed to plan his next move.

Sephiroth placed his blade at his side and lunged at the creature with all his strength. The creature jumped off of its footing against the glass wall and was readying its claws for the attack. Sephiroth let out a smirk as he quickly brought up his blade in a lightning fast move that plunged his blade into the center line of the beast. With a quick chilling snap, the creature fell to the helipad in two separate pieces before it dissolved into red mist. The blow was so powerful that it not only severed the beast in two, but it broke the blade of Sephiroth's katana, sending the shards flying into the air.

Sephiroth looked at the hilt of his now useless sword and frowned in displeasure. Bakusa ran over to the edge of the helipad and looked over the ledge. He came back and shook his head.

"I don't see that ninja anywhere." Sephiroth nodded and started to make his way back into the building.

"Then there's nothing left for us to do. Let the Turks clean up the mess." Locke and Bakusa fell in step behind Sephiroth and started to talk about what they just saw.

"What do you think that thing was? I've never seen a summon like that before," Bakusa said as he scratched his head.

"Neither have I. I don't know what that was," Locke said as he placed his twin pistols in their holsters on his thighs.

"It was a Guard Hound, sometimes called a Storm Beast. I've never seen one that was gray though, or a summon," Sephiroth said as he opened the door and stepped in. Inside the Presidential office, President Shinra was all ready behind his desk. He quickly looked up to Sephiroth and began to walk determinately over to him, pointing at him with his freshly lit cigar.

"Just what the hell is going on?!? I want a full report now!" Sephiroth raised both of his brows and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. I heard an alarm sound so I came up here to find what looked like a ninja releasing the research specimens from their cages. After that, the ninja came up here and jumped off of the ledge." In a moment of silence, the President puffed on his cigar and blew the smoke into Sephiroth's face. The SOLDIER stood there unflinching, though a hundred ideas were coming into his mind. When the smoke cleared, Sephiroth looked into the eyes of the President and shot daggers right into the mind of the President. President Shinra blinked, loosing the battle of wills, and turned back to head to his desk.

"Well if that's all you know, then get out of my office." Sephiroth lightly nodded as a smirk came across his face, and then turned to leave the office. Locke and Bakusa gave each other a brief look of triumph and followed their squad captain out of the office.

President Shinra scowled as he watched the SOLDIERs leave his office. How dare that silver haired freak show insubordination to him? After all, he was President of nearly the entire world! In disgust, he threw his cigar into his crystal ashtray and hit the button for his secretary.

"Yes Mr. President?"

"Diana, get the heads of the departments into the conference room for the morning meeting."

"Yes Sir." Shinra sat back in his leather chair and lit another cigar. As he let the smoke roll off his tongue, he wondered just who it was who had tried to break into Shinra Inc. Within the hour, he knew he was going to get to the bottom of this, otherwise heads would roll.