"Hm" you scoff as the new Soldier First-Class, Zack Fair, decapitates the lizard-like monster. The brunette leans forward to examine the face on the reverse of the now separate head. Even from your hiding place, you could make out the angelically peaceful likeness carved in.
Landing behind the Soldier with as much presence as a feather, "It appears that Genesis isn't the only one who can be copied", His name rolls off your tongue with ease.
"What?" Zack asks, getting up from his kneeling position to properly address such a high class Soldier as you.
"The company training room" you start, remembering with some amount of nostalgia, "We used to sneak in there, when the seconds were out Genesis, Angeal, and I."
"You guys were pretty tight, huh?" the brunette inquires, willing to listen to any of your stories.
But, the memory is confusing when you look back on it, "Hmph, I wonder" you trail.
"Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess. We seek it thus, and take to the sky," a lyrical, hymn-like voice fills the air; "ripples form on the water's surface. The wandering soul knows no rest."
Genesis is reading from a white leather bound book as He sits on cooling ducts for the large cannon the simulation created. Sunset, monstrous metallic cannon beneath your feet, a calm but moving ocean beneath you; everything is perfect, save for Angeal. Damn him, and damn your love.
You look to the auburn-haired beauty, "'Loveless' Act 1."
"You remembered." He marvels with a smile, closing the book he had memorized.
You retaliate with a smirk, and a few taps to the side of your skull, "How could I not, when you've beaten it into my head?" Flashily readying your sword, 'let's go',
Genesis draws a broad rapier, with a crimson blade that matches His trench coat.
"Don't take Sephiroth lightly" Angeal warns; a short, thick sword in his hands, nothing compared to the monster of a sword on his back.
"Duly noted" He remarks, taking a jogging start; both swordsmen jump an inhuman distance, slashing in a downward arc.
First is Angeal, and his animalistic, prudent yet effective ways; easily swatting him aside, next comes the object of your affections. Genesis, his more dance-like, chains of boastful stabs and slashes attacks.
You've analyzed their styles long ago, and memorized them. Horizontal left, horizontal right, upward arc, left, downward arc, He is quite predicable. Pushing Him back with blocks, Angeal returns. Harsher, stronger slashes, but they pale in comparison to the beauty of His. With both Soldiers in front and behind you, they launch together again.
Raising your elongated katana, you lock both their blades, sparks rising from the tension. Not taking your eyes off the auburn thespian, you move a single foot as a warning. Both quickly jump back when you move; lest they receive broken wrists, again.
First this time is Genesis, only three slashes, and he backs away. Angeal replaces Him, with a strong overhead strike. You take a step back, knowing what He was planning. Genesis uses Angeal's back like a springboard, and spins in at you with his rapier at waist-level. Like a razor-aided mid-air pirouette. One block, and His attack is rendered useless. Lurching forward, the raven lazily slashes, then locks blades with you, trying to stare you down, but fails.
"Ha" you laugh, "is that the best you can do?" You push the raven back, and ready your katana again, 'come on'.
"All hail Sephiroth, eh?" Angeal asks, not surprised by your smug challenge.
Looking up, His gaze causes a chill to run up your spine.
"Angeal, stay back" auburn orders. Then melodramatically drops His head, "I shall take Sephiroth alone."
"Genesis-" Angeal tries, but He does not stop, and walks to you.
As He draws flames to his rapier, runes that were non-existent now appear in the heat, "The world needs a new hero." You nod; half understanding his incompetence disorder.
"Hmph, come and try" you smirk. "So smug, but for how long?" the auburn asks before launching into a new farce.
He slashes, you parry, normal. But, now there's a force behind it, could it be the flames? Taking the offense, you slash at his midsection; he ducks, and spins around to slash overhead. With no time to jump back, you block, and are quite surprised.
The slash auburn launched had enough force behind it to crash through you, and dent the cannon a few feet. Hiding your surprise, you look up to the face that haunts your every thought.
He must have seen your torment, since he smirks in a different way, a knowing way. Slashing only to make room to breath without inhaling his sweet scent, you take a step back, cursing yourself for being so obvious.
With a new vigor, and a new knowledge, Genesis launches himself at you again. The sparks coming off your's and his blades nearly blinds you, it's so bright. Without your sight, you take the defensive, and parry slash after slash. Opening your eyes only so often, his visage is there, burned into your retinas, smirking.
Taking a step forward, you offset his movements, creating an opening. An upward arc that starts with half your katana in the cannon launches auburn into the air, but still he smirks. To hell with stances and technique! You slash wildly, unable now to hold your anger, and strike overhead, throwing him downward.
Genesis stops himself in midair, and draws yet more flames. With one wave of a hand, seven flames fly at you. A few more waves and he is content with his own energy stores. A few simple blocks, and the shock-and-awe spell is little more than fireworks. But he smiles a golden smile, and flourishes his gloved hand again, back towards him. Heat, damn him you curse as the previous fireballs fly at you once again. A few slashes put a dozen out, but there were too many, and they consume you.
Groaning with effort, Genesis pulls energy he didn't have, and summons one last fireball; larger than the rest, larger than the tower of flames that engulfed his rapier.
Angeal jumps up, seeing the massive amount of energy, and stops him, "You'll destroy us all!"
Nevertheless, Genesis forces the flames to Angeal's face, "That's no way to talk to a hero!"
With no remorse, Genesis watches the raven fall with a trail of smoke. Deciding to end it, you slash from your fiery cocoon, a blue shockwave making its way to the trench coated man.
Auburn blocks, and dissipates the amount that was headed for him, but can't do a thing about the two halves left. You launch another shockwave, but it misses your target altogether, and cuts the cannon barrel a quarter mile below you two.
Two more blocked shockwaves, and Genesis's feet hit metal, what's left of the barrel. You also land on the barrel, but the amount that you're most recent shockwave cleaved and you start to fall with it. Locking eyes nothing is held back, your want, your hunger, your very need is put out before him. Auburn keeps a straight face, not reacting in any way whatsoever.
Rage once more bubbles from your stomach. Slashing the falling metal, you jump to the man who spurned your love. Wide, random slashes, force Genesis back, his prior strength all but vanished. Your slashes cause amount of the cannon to flay out between you two. Continuing your assault, you launch him back, metres and metres back.
Surprised by your ferocity, Genesis was caught off guard, and sent flying backward, hitting the floor akin to a stone skipping water. Stopping himself, He looks up, and sees you flying at him, he sets his feet, and raises his blade. Falling before him, your blade falls down, to finish the man. With the very last of his energy reserves, Genesis draws another tower of flame to his blade.
"Enough!" the previously discarded Angeal calls, stopping Genesis's rapier with his own shortsword, your katana hitting the quillions of the blade on his back.
Infuriated that he'd dare to step between you two, your katana clatters to the ground as you push the raven out of the way. Pulling Him to you by the waist, your lips meet his in sweet, eternal harmony.
Bliss fills you, until the fist to the stomach knocks the wind out of you. The fist belonged to the man whom you were forcing yourself on; Genesis steps back, dropping his rapier. With a wipe of his lip on his sleeve, and fear in his eyes, auburn runs out of the now plain, white room. On your knees, sobs trying to force themselves out of you. Angeal just shakes his head, and follows the scared man.
"Damn it" you whine, hot tears snaking down your cheeks. Blindly making your way to the elevator, you try to still the long held back drops, but fail. Sobbing his name, you punch the walls of the elevator, denting it a good half foot. Unable to neither see nor think, the task of finding your room is much more difficult. Stumbling through the corridor, eventually, after promising to kill a Soldier if he ever told anyone he saw you cry, you find your room.
As you fall to the hard bed, the black trench coat that hides you from the world falls down, acting as a make-shift cushion. Why didn't you hide it better? Just kept acting like everything was normal.
A knock on the door draws you are from your self-loathing.
"What?" you ask the door, not caring if it's a superior, or the newest Soldier.
But a calm voice answers: "Sephiroth, can we talk?" Angeal, thank god. He could talk to Him; explain that you didn't know what you were doing.
"Come in!" you urge him, sitting up, wiping away the tears that swamped your cheeks.
The door slides open, you expect dark blue pants, but the sight of blurred red interrupts your hopes. You should've seen it coming, it was so obvious. Despite your hopes, Genesis walks into your room, taking pains not to look toward you.
"What- What was that?" He asks, waving an arm to the simulator, anger laden in his velvet voice. Sobs erupted, hiding your love was easy enough, but now that he knows, to make matters worse, he's scolding you.
"W-Wha- Do you li-" auburn starts, but you could not stand the question.
"I love you!" you yell, not caring who heard, as long as He did.
"Good, that makes sense" His remark makes your heart well up with new, alien emotions.
"What? Your friend loves you! Loves you!" you start, standing up, shaking your head, silvery locks bouncing and whipping about. "I-I kissed you! I dream of you!" you choke, sobs vying for control of your throat. You try to yell more, but your vision becomes blurry, and a massive headache erupts from your temples.
"Seph-umph" Genesis groans, lurching forward to catch you, since he's the smaller one.
Through the haze of pain, uneasiness, and vertigo, a bliss, a warmth breaks, and pulls you to reality. Opening your eyes, Genesis, was holding you against your wall, his lips against yours. Your heart practically stops, and beats out of your chest at the same time. Another wave makes itself up and down your frame.
Despite the pleasure, and the want of yours for this to never end, the auburn dream pulls away with a smile.
"What" you huff, trying to catch your breath, and failing terribly.
"I wanted to" He explains with a smirk, sitting down on your bed. Following suit, you sit beside him, not too close, but not close enough.
"How long?" He asks, looking you in the eyes, his chestnut pools trying to drown you in their depth
Feeling stupid, you answer: "A-A few months."
Smirking again, Genesis quickly straddles your hips, his arms draped over your shoulders. "Have you dreamt of this?"
Blushing, you look away, "y-yes" you mutter.
Using one hand to force you to look at him, you were not much trying to resist, "Tell me" the auburn chuckles.
Deciding a better route, you lunge forward, taking his soft lips in your own. "Hmhmhm, tell me, was this in your dream as well?" he asks, pushing you down onto the bed.
The rest of the night passed in this fashion, until a dull golden light falls through the window. "Good morning" you greet the brunette in your arms, lightly shaking him.
"Hm?" he grunts a response, his beautiful eyes still glazed from sleep. You were about to say something romantic, but a high, sharp alarm bring an end to it all. The lights flashed red, both of you sit up, both nude.
"Sephiroth! The Wu-Tai are attacking!" a passing soldier informs you from the other side of the door, than asks: "have you seen Genesis? He's nowhere to be found?"
Trying to hold in your laughter, you respond "Y-Yes! He was going to try and help repair the training simulator!" The Soldier doesn't say anything, but instead just runs off, in search of Genesis.
"Go on" you tell him, giving the brunette a playful shove.
Confused, he looks back at you. "What? You're not-"
But you cut him off. "The world needs a new hero" quoting his murderous yell.
Smiling, he pecks your lips, and hurriedly gets dressed. Shaking your head at him using the door, you watch as he cuts down Wu-Tai like wheat. But, he does so in a queer fashion, seven horizontal slashes, then a powerful over-head slash. You chuckle at the realization it's your own Octaslash.
"What the hell happened?" you yell more than question the doctors. Genesis was there, but he was on a gurney, his own crimson ether staining the red trench coat.
The medical staff does not answer your question, but instead wheel him into a "Staff Only" part of the medical wing. It took a few guards and Angeal to hold you back. Sobbing, you fall to the floor.
It was your fault, you were not there, it was your Octaslash, you kept him up most of the night, you weren't there.
Genesis survived the wound, it hit a major artery, but he made it through. One of the Wu-Tai cowards slashed him while he had his back turned. His fire seems to have died down, both literally and metaphorically. His silken brown hair has become drier, almost to the point of being mistaken for straw. His eyes have a glaze, even in the middle of the day, or on the most exciting of missions. Despite his constant telling of "I'm fine", or "Don't worry", a fear consumed you. Only a few weeks after the incident, did your worries become real.
While the seconds were out once again, you, Genesis, and Angeal were walking to the simulator. You and your love hand-in-hand, while raven wasn't all for it, he supported his friends.
"Genesis, come on, you can't dodge this anymore" Professor Hollander practically yells, though, he was only a metre away. Auburn looks away, like he knew already. The over-sized professor moves away from his door, beckoning your lover to come, "The blood transfusion".
Feeling chivalry for your lover, you step forward, "Gladly," but a chilling hand grasps your shoulder. Genesis was shaking his head, and Hollander points a pudgy finger at Angeal.
Like a silent condemnation, raven's face visibly pales. Without a word, brunette follows the professor, his head hanging. Raven lays a hand on your shoulder, a futile attempt at reassurance. Shrugging it off, you turn from the scientist's kind words and leave.