Wow, such an amazing response to that last chapter! I'm floored at how great you readers are. That was some of the best feedback I've ever gotten! And lots of great questions, too. The story will remain Leon's pov until the epilogue, which I haven't decided will be from his pov or someone else (a surprise). Anywho, here's the second half of the fight. I hope it's still a good read!
Warning: This fic will later contain a whole variety of questionable material that is NOT SAFE for work. Or school. Or snoopy parents. You've been warned.
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Wake of Darkness
Part Three
Greater the Shadow (II)
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"It'll do."
The swell of hope that Leon felt when he saw Cloud standing—holding his gunblade—
"You know better than that, Cloud."
—was quickly smothered by Sephiroth's words and the unchanging smirk the man wore in response to Cloud's defiance.
No...
The word rose within Leon's throat but caught there as he glanced back at Sephiroth.
Even being soaked in rain, his dark form was frightening and beautiful. He held the Masamune's blade steady at Leon's throat, the quickening rain pelting against the metal in a series of soft, tinny rings. Water dripped from the glossy black tips of his wing and coat, and thinner locks of silver hair now framed his face. His eyelashes were dark, half lowered over his feline eyes, which seemed more unearthly than ever under the overcast sky.
Sephiroth lifted his free hand in Cloud's direction, his glove creaking as he curled his fingers—just a simple gesture. His expression didn't even change.
But Leon's attention snapped back towards Cloud as a scream tore from the blond's mouth.
Darkness had sprung up around him, or rather, from within him, smoky tendrils curling outward from his body like black flames. He collapsed back onto his knees with a hoarse cry, his wing snapping out and twisting inward again like a beaten animal.
The gunblade fell to the wet ground with a heavy clatter. All of Cloud's audacity from moments before had vanished, snuffed out as easily as a lit candle. Whatever Sephiroth had done to him over the past few months, he now had complete control over Cloud's body.
"I told you, Cloud." Sephiroth's voice was a delighted drawl again. "You belong to me."
...or did he? If Sephiroth had been compelled to set this ambush for Tifa, Cloud's light, maybe there was some part of Cloud that refused to give up. Even if the darkness had taken hold of Cloud's body, maybe his heart was still resisting.
Leon had to keep fighting, too.
With every muscle in his body screaming to give up, to have mercy, to lie down and accept defeat, he struggled to get back to his feet anyway. As long as his heart was in the fight, he wouldn't give up, not with people left to protect.
"Oh? What's this?"
Sephiroth had noticed his movement, but Leon tried not to think about how the warrior could send him sprawling back into the puddle with just a simple shove. One foot at a time, that was all he focused on. He planted a boot firmly against the slippery earth and pushed himself up.
Teetering at the edge of focus, he saw Sephiroth lift his sword back to his throat. "You're more resilient than I had anticipated. However..."
The sudden slap of wet feet interrupted him, and his eyes shifted towards the sound, narrowing as he spotted Aerith running to help Cloud. Leon couldn't even rasp out a warning when Sephiroth flicked his hand in her direction.
Energy crackled in the air, diffusing the rain and bending the light into dark spheres, like small black suns scattered amongst the area. Aerith's sprint didn't falter, and Cloud screamed her name as the dark energy quickly honed in on her.
Her voice rang out at the last moment, and a gust of wind sprang into existence around her, swirling into a protective eddy that deflected even the rain itself. The darkness struck her aero spell one sphere after the other with staggering force and then exploded, powerful enough to knock her to the ground even though her magic protected her from the brunt of the attack. She fell with a splash, her windy shield scattering with a burst of dying air.
Disbelief coiled inside of Leon, tense and cold like a snake as Sephiroth waved his hand at her again, and Leon was too far to stop whatever was about to happen.
Aerith's fingers clenched over her heart as a globe of blue light ripped out of her chest and slingshot to Sephiroth's palm. His fingers closed around it, and it dispersed into a curl of smoke before disappearing.
Osmose.
Relief washed through Leon, trembling his knees, but he held his balance and watched Aerith pick herself out of the puddle she had landed in, shaken but still alive. Without her magic, she was out of the fight now, but at least she hadn't been hurt.
Sephiroth calmly flicked his wet wing and returned his attention to Leon. "Now, where was I..."
"Sayin' your prayers!"
Through the drumming rain, there came the heavy SWOOSH of something rapidly spinning towards Sephiroth.
The Masamune flew out and deflected the object with a sharp clang, and with the sword no longer pressed to his throat, Leon reacted without thought, throwing himself out of the way as Yuffie's shuriken pierced the earth where he had just been standing.
"Oh, man!"
Rolling to a stop, Leon glanced up to the top of the cliff where a petite figure was framed against the gray clouds beyond. Yuffie stomped a foot and thrust an accusing finger in Sephiroth's direction.
"The Great Ninja Yuffie isn't finished with you yet, you prissy psycho punk!"
And before Leon could warn her to run, she leapt from the cliff and somersaulted down, right as another figure flew off it behind her.
It was Tifa, and her face was set with a grave determination that chilled Leon's nerves. Sephiroth, Cloud, Tifa—all the players had been assembled now. Maybe Leon had been the one to fall into his trap, but Sephiroth had still managed to lure his quarry into it.
Her feet hit the slant of the slippery cliff side and started to slide, but once Tifa found her balance, she began sprinting straight down the slope. As Yuffie sprang forward to retrieve her weapon, Tifa vaulted off the cliff with incredible speed, a heel angled out to attack Sephiroth, whose smile had taken on a dark, victorious edge. Sephiroth was well aware he had the advantage here.
He avoided her kick with a smooth sidestep, and as he whirled around to face her, she was already launching a series of quick, fierce punches and kicks at him, immediately putting him on the defensive. Sephiroth flew back to avoid them, chuckling, and flashed his sword towards her head, where it swept past her hair as she ducked out of the way.
"Hya!"
Then she flew at him again, leaving no room for play.
Everything was happening so fast that Leon didn't even seen Yuffie until she had dove into the fight. Her shuriken swung for Sephiroth's back, but the warrior blocked the assault and still had plenty of time to parry Tifa's powerful fist and snap his blade out to strike both of them.
"Whoa!"
Yuffie barely handsprang away in time, but Tifa leapt over it, sailing high, and with a sharp flap of his wing, Sephiroth launched into the air after her.
When Yuffie turned to join them, Cloud stopped her with hoarse command. "NO, Yuffie—take Aerith and Squall to safety!"
Leon clenched his jaw. There was no way he was going to leave the fight yet. "I'm fine," he gritted out as he struggled back to his feet again.
Now that he'd had a moment to rest, his knees felt more like they could support his weight, and the world wasn't spinning as much. His objectives were clear again—get his gunblade, check on Aerith, send Sephiroth back to the darkness where he belonged. And with Sephiroth distracted by Tifa, he could achieve at least one of those.
He had to hurry.
As he ducked into the fray, his instability drove him forward, his stumbling turning into a painful sprint. If he fell now, he wasn't sure if he could get up again, so he just kept going. The sounds of the fight continued on to his left, Tifa and Sephiroth and Yuffie's voices cutting through the downpour, and loudest of all—the slap of his boots against the earth and the rasps of his breath hollowed by his soaked hair over his ears.
And when his gunblade came within reach, he moved without hesitation and dropped to the ground into a slide. He caught the grip of his weapon and wrapped his wet glove around it, dragging it across the ground as he skidded on his knees to a stop right next to Aerith.
Her cold hands rested on his arm, and when he glanced at her, she had her eyes trained to the ongoing battle.
An explosion of darkness knocked Tifa backwards, but she landed in a crouch and slid several feet before she sprang forward again. Her wet hair whipped wildly around her as she spun, roundhouse kicking Sephiroth, who merely blocked the blow and smirked again.
The rain was coming down harder, but Leon could still make out their words as clearly as if he'd been sparring with them.
Sephiroth's sinister amusement: "Are you prepared to see your light vanquished, Cloud?"
Tifa's resolute cry: "Cloud has more than one light!"
Nearby, Cloud was on his hands and knees, wing tensed as he watched the fight with desperate concern, unable to do anything to help, just like Aerith, just like Leon.
As the Masamune swiped towards Tifa's legs, she hopped back, then slammed a foot down on the blade, pinning it to the ground, and before Sephiroth could throw her off, she lunged at him with an elbow to his face.
Sephiroth barely evaded it, and only by teleporting away.
But as soon as he faded out of the darkness again, suspended several meters off the ground, Yuffie leapt into the air with a swift twist, jerking her shuriken around for a vicious attack—
"Foolish girl."
Sephiroth folded his wing and dove to meet her, and as if her strength was nothing, he swooped in, snatched one of the shuriken's spokes, and whirled Yuffie around with unbelievable force.
With a yelp, Yuffie streaked through the rain and flew into the cliff side, back hitting the solid rock with a painful thud, followed by a scream as her shuriken suddenly stabbed into the cliff with her. Two of its points pierced the rock on either side of her neck, leaving her dangling like a worm on a hook as she held onto them and squirmed and kicked and yelled, trying to get free.
Another hindrance down, Sephiroth shifted his gaze back to Tifa, just in time to see the series of fire spells she shot towards him. The magic sizzled the rain around it, each ball of flame larger than the last, but their flight was short-lived as Sephiroth slashed right through them, dissolving the magic, and then burst through the fragments of fire and smoke to strike her down.
Every move they made was if the entire thing had been choreographed with how Sephiroth's blade always grazed past Tifa, only missing by a hair's breadth, and the way Sephiroth always teleported away just when Tifa seemed to be gaining the upperhand. The two of them read each other well, but Leon knew that this struggle between light and darkness couldn't go on forever. Leon had faith in Tifa's skill, but Sephiroth was both faster and stronger than she was, and she was ill-prepared. Didn't anyone have a damn potion? He could kill for one...
"Leon..."
He met Aerith's calm, encouraging smile, and noticed that her hands hadn't left his arm yet. A soft green glow emanated out from her fingers, and he felt the familiar rush of cool magic like before, only much weaker this time. Sephiroth's Osmose must not have taken all of her magic, then.
He gave her a questioning look that she discerned without him even having to say a word.
"You're more of a help than I can be right now," she said, slipping her fingers away. She could have healed herself, but she had saved her last sliver of magic to help him. Her eyes silently urged him onward, reassuring him, as if to say, I'm fine. Protect the others.
And as much as he wanted to thank her, he could only manage a stiff nod and hoped she understood. The cure spell had been weak, but it had been enough to restore some of the strength Sephiroth had torn away from him.
He slipped an arm around Aerith and gently hefted her up to help her to a safe spot. Behind him, he could hear the fight grow more intense as Sephiroth taunted Tifa.
"And where is this other light to help you now?"
"It's inside all of us!" Tifa cried. "Those of us who care about Cloud! We're his family!"
Releasing Aerith, Leon returned his attention to the desperate battle. Though he seemed completely uninjured, Sephiroth's amusement had vanished, and his eyes now reflected all the malice for which he was notorious. Tifa's fists were raised in defense, but Sephiroth stood calmly nearby, sword poised for attack but unmoving.
His wing spread out, soaked feathers glistening like wet silk, and he drew his sword back. "Then you shall all perish." His voice then was like the shadows in the corner of Leon's room at night, deep and smooth but dangerous, except Leon knew that the darkness here was hiding a monster. Sephiroth's lashes lowered at Tifa with dark intentions. "Starting with you..."
Her lips drew into a heavy line, but the furrow of her brows exposed her true apprehension. She was no match for Sephiroth's cruelty, even with the light on her side.
Leon drew away from Aerith and readied his gunblade, prepared to charge back into the fight.
But this time when Sephiroth and Tifa lunged for each other, there was no barrage of attacks, no dodge, no parry—
Sephiroth met her dead on, sweeping her kick aside before slamming the hilt of his sword into her chin, then striking her hard with its blunt edge. Her two weak spots, and he'd taken absolute advantage of them. She fell back with a twist, hit the ground with a wet crash, and landed on one of her arms. Leon knew from her cry of pain that the rough impact had damaged her arm, and not just a sprain.
Damn it!!
"TIFA!"
Cloud fought past the dark spell Sephiroth had on him and managed to shakily climb to his feet, his expression wrought with pain and worry. Tifa lay curled on her side where she had landed, unmoving.
Sephiroth calmly lifted a spread hand high into the air and tilted his face up as if to kiss the rain, his wing arching towards the heavens—and as the storm clouds began to swirl and break away from each other, he slowly lowered his gaze back to Cloud, whose blue eyes burned with a dark fury Leon had never seen in them before.
"Sephiroth, no!"
A smirk tugging the corner of Sephiroth's lips once again, he fanned his wing out above him. As the black clouds parted completely, the rain went with them, easing into a drizzle as the sky beyond brightened into a blazing red. The ground began to rumble, pebbles trembling beside Leon's boots.
Something big was coming.
Without further hesitation, Leon rushed forward, gunblade angled to strike, the memory of Tifa and Aerith and Yuffie and Cloud's wounded voices giving him the strength to keep moving. And in that same moment, Cloud's wing slashed the air, and suddenly he, too, was hurtling towards Sephiroth, weaponless but flying at an incredible speed.
They came at Sephiroth from opposite directions, but somehow the warrior was still prepared to meet them. The Masamune was a blur as it struck Leon's gunblade, sparks igniting between them, and before Leon could press for the offensive, he was being shoved away as Sephiroth whirled around, blade slicing through the rain.
Except this time he wasn't aiming to hit. The blurred strike released a sudden shockwave of energy that crashed into Leon and sent him flying back, skittering far across the clearing to the mouth of the trail, where rivulets of rain were cascading over the precipice into the abyss below. The slippery wasteland accelerated Leon's momentum and almost propelled him right off the cliff, but he drove his gunblade into the ground, slowing him enough to catch onto the ledge as he sailed over it.
Heart in his throat, he dangled from the slippery rocks, his gunblade standing upright in the earth and just within reach. Water rushed past him, a threat to his already weak grip, and he squinted past the waterfall towards the fight that continued on without him.
One second, Cloud was slamming into Sephiroth, and in the next, Sephiroth abruptly had him pinned to the crystal wall a meter off the ground, the Masamune's thin blade plunged through Cloud's chest and into the stone beyond.
Another scream of pain shook the air, this one followed by the growl of thunder as the storm clouds rolled together and the rain returned. The fiery sky was gone, and the rain blanketed Radiant Garden once again.
Cloud's black talons curled tightly around the sword's length, but Sephiroth's hold on the Masamune was absolute. Intense eyes narrowing, he shoved the blade deeper, driving it firmly into the stone to keep Cloud stuck like a butterfly pinned for display.
"Aagh—!"
Throwing his head back, Cloud wrenched his eyes shut, and his leathery wing shuddered in pain before sagging at his side. Panic flooded Leon as he saw a stream of crimson wash down the glistening blade and mingle with the rain. Sephiroth probably didn't want to kill Cloud, but he wasn't making it easy on him, either—the sword had pierced close to his heart.
Leon strained to lift himself over the cliff's edge, one of his hands curling around the blade of his raised weapon and using it to pull up.
"It's been a while since I've seen you this feisty, Cloud," Sephiroth said, and the cruel satisfaction that laced his tone sent Leon's nerves on edge all over again. Sephiroth stepped back, releasing the hilt of his sword, and left Cloud hanging there from the steep slope of the crystal wall. "I'd like to see you stop me this time."
Above them, Yuffie continued struggling with her shuriken as she yelled empty threats to catch his attention, but Sephiroth didn't even glance in her direction as he turned back towards Tifa and approached her with all the composure of an eagle that had already made its kill.
He lifted her by her tangled hair and wrapped his free hand around her neck, holding her high for everyone to see as he began to squeeze, slowly, to cut off her air. A choked sound escaped her, her lashes fluttering as she began to wake, and Sephiroth watched her with his dark smile.
"It seems your light has come to an end..."
"Think again, you pigeon-winged jerk!"
The rock around one of Yuffie's embedded shuriken points had splintered enough for her to free it, and as she planted both of her feet against the rainy face of the slope, she arched her body and shoved, freeing her weapon and herself. Flipping down and landing with only half of her usual grace, she brandished her shuriken and pointed angrily at Sephiroth.
"Let her go, or prepareto taste my fist!!"
Throwing her hand down, she disappeared beneath a sudden plume of smoke—an all-too-familiar stealth tactic of hers—but her agile feet slapping against the rain-slick earth gave her position away. Sephiroth was ready for her when she appeared at his side with her weapon spinning to strike his arms.
Wrenching Tifa around, he slugged Yuffie with her, the shuriken's edges missing Tifa's face by centimeters. With echoing cries, the girls went sprawling to the ground together into a tangle of slippery limbs.
Determined to return to the fight, Leon finally heaved himself over the ledge and collapsed into the stream of water. With a glance back at the crystal canyons surrounding the bastion in the near distance, he swallowed hard and drew in a heavy breath to calm himself down. He never would have survived that fall into the misty abyss.
Tugging his gunblade from the ground, he lifted its blade and pressed a brief kiss to it, silently grateful for its protection. Then he raised his eyes over its polished edge and assessed the battle he was about to leap back into.
Sephiroth yanked the Masamune out of Cloud, who slipped down the rocky slope into a weak slump, his corrupted hand stretched towards Sephiroth as if to stop him. The winged warrior flicked his sword free of blood and water before he closed in on the girls.
"Don't worry, Cloud. This will be quick."
Yuffie managed to sit up with a groan, a hand rubbing her hip, but as Sephiroth's shadow cast over her, she froze and looked up through her bangs with wide eyes. Her hand immediately went for her weapon, but it was trapped beneath Tifa, whose unconscious form had landed on her legs. Without tearing her eyes away from Sephiroth, she frantically shook the older woman. "Wake up—Tifa, wake up—!"
Sephiroth's wet boots stopped in front of them, his sword angled down at their faces. "Enough of your games." Then he drew his sword back, his forearm tensed to swing—
Yuffie screamed and bent over Tifa, her arms curling over her head—
And as the blade came down in a swift, steady, perfect arc, slicing through the air faster than the rain, the solid weight of a gunblade was there to meet it.
Leon's backward slide came to a halt against Yuffie's shivering form, and it took every ounce of his strength to keep his weapon suspended over them as Sephiroth's staggering force threatened to overpower his guard and finish its bloodbath.
"Squall!!"
He couldn't remember the last time he had heard the Great Ninja Yuffie sound so scared.
The Masamune grinded against his blade with an unyielding brutality that felt like he was holding back an entire flood. Arms trembling beneath the pressure, pain racking through his strained muscles, he squinted up through the pounding rain at Sephiroth.
Those green eyes were blazing with an intensity that Leon couldn't even comprehend. They saw straight through him, leaving him feeling close to insignificant in the wake of Sephiroth's fierce power.
But he kept his grip steadfast and clenched his jaw, narrowing his eyes right back at Sephiroth as he released an unrelenting growl.
Sephiroth's dark smile returned. "You refuse to cower like the others." He pressed forward, his wing arched with delight. "You must be begging for punishment."
In a move so quick he didn't even see Sephiroth flinch to do it, the Masamune twisted away and swept past his gunblade.
Leon felt the rush of the blade passing long before he felt the pain—a thin line of red straight across his chest, followed by searing hell as blood wept across his drenched shirt. Then Sephiroth's foot connected hard with his side, rolling him away from the girls, and a scream scorched his throat as Sephiroth sank the sword into his shoulder straight through to the ground.
"Leon!"
"SQUALL!!"
Aerith and Cloud's voices were distant through the drum of the rain. He could hear his own ragged breaths and the soft chinks as water hit the Masamune, but Sephiroth himself was silent as he slowly rotated the blade to earn himself another scream.
Leon threw his head back, clenching his jaw hard to stifle the cries demanding to be released, and growled deep in his throat. Sephiroth only chuckled.
A foot pressed to the side of his wound as Sephiroth slipped the blade out of him, only for his heel to replace it.
Rasping from the pain, Leon found his voice. "G-Get Tifa out of here! All of you!!"
Sephiroth's boot dug into the deep cut as Leon fought not to writhe in agony, unable to hold back his yells any longer. His fingers clenched against Sephiroth's ankle, weakly trying to alleviate the pressure, but Sephiroth easily kept him pinned.
He cracked his eyes open, vision blurry and his world careening, but he caught a glimpse of Yuffie—hands tucked under Tifa's arms—dragging her to safety.
"Are you that willing to play the martyr?"
Sephiroth's tone was saturated with dark relish.
There was the creak of wet leather, then more weight against his wound as Sephiroth slowly leaned over him, dragging the tip of his blade up Leon's throat as he had before, only this time with less care. As the edge grazed his cheek, it drew blood, and the warmth of the blood melded into the icy rain and slipped down his jaw into the puddles below. The blade lightly traced the cut across his face to the bridge of his nose to connect with his scar, moving Leon's dripping bangs aside to uncover his eyes.
Leon's hand tightened against the grip of his gunblade as he met Sephiroth's gaze. Obsidian feathers spread above him, shielding him against the rain and casting him in shadow, and Leon felt his breath catch as Sephiroth's smile twisted with pleasure.
Sephiroth's slick glove cupped his chin, and the Masamune slipped away. With a curious tilt of his face, Sephiroth studied him with dark admiration. "What makes you think your death will do anything to stop me from getting what I want?"
He didn't.
But that was because Leon wasn't planning on dying.
With a violent jerk of his arm, he angled his gunblade and plunged it into Sephiroth's ribs, driving it past bone and sinew, and squeezed the trigger three times.
The shots rang out, silencing the area with their echoes.
Blood trickled down the blade onto Leon's glove, but his gaze remained unwavering as he wordlessly watched Sephiroth's face. For just that moment, he had seen a flicker of surprise, but now those catlike eyes were narrowing into murderous slits, speaking clearly for Sephiroth without having to utter a word.
How dare you.
But when Sephiroth did speak, it was in a tone so quiet, so unsettling, that Leon's thundering heart missed a beat.
"I have a better idea."
Sephiroth's hand clenched into Leon's shoulder and pulled Leon up to meet him, driving Leon's gunblade deeper, inch by inch by inch, without even a grimace or sign of pain. His gray lashes lowered, but his surreal eyes remained level with Leon's as his voice dropped to a dangerous hush.
"You will take her place."
Fingers fisted into Leon's wet hair, and suddenly—
CRACK.
Fire lanced through his skull and exploded behind his eyes as his head slammed into the ground.
Then...
Comforting darkness.
The pitter-patter of rain faded in and out. The pain dimmed.
Somewhere amongst the gray edges of his mind, he recognized Cloud's voice, hoarse, screaming...
And somewhere beyond the stars swimming in his eyes, he saw his lids open, close, open—Aerith's pink dress—Yuffie's skinny arms under Tifa's—
They're safe...?
—close.
Velveteen black enveloped him, an icy and unfamiliar embrace.
He felt his mind slip, slip away...
And was welcomed into the darkness.
-o-o-
To be continued...
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