-Chapter 4-
Author's Note: This chapter we get to see someone else more evil than ever return into the mix of things. More to come so keep reviewing and reading! Enjoy!
Not every dream can come true. Not everyone can be saved. Cloud felt his mind turn back to her, the one. Her name cannot cross his lips as it pains him to much to admit her death. Her life was taken to early, to god damn early. Cloud leaned against a wall in the temple as a circle formed around Yuna. What is all of this? The people, they so...different. He wondered as some started to weep for the girl. He meets her eyes and looks away. She reminds me of her. Cloud feels his heart thud immensely and decides to remove his position from the wall. Tifa puts her hand on his back and looks up and gives him a brief but noticeable smile.
"You alright?" she asks. Cloud negotiates an answer.
"Sure," he answers. Tifa nods.
"You know, if you ever want to talk, I'm here," she says and wonders off to marvel at the occasion. She's adapted well. Cloud assumes.
"Thank you everyone," Yuna says dressed in a cream dress with dark flowers embroided across it. Her hands are trembling as she desperately holds onto her staff, the one she started with, the one she would potentially end with. Her hair had been tied up into a bun, like the one she fashioned on her wedding day. Well, it wasn't really a wedding day, more like an interruption in her quest. She remembers standing next to him, the smug look across his face, a strand of pointing blue hair escaping his hat. Seymour. Tidus leaps in for a hug which makes her stumble and drop her staff as she grabs on to him for deer life.
"To Zanarkand," he wisphers in her ear. Zanarkand. The one place the two bonded and felt the world was but a distant hell and Zanarkand was their haven. She grips his clothing, tears welling up in her eyes.
"To Zanarkand," she repeats hushed as the hymns chime louder in the temple. Yevon was becoming impatient. The two let one another go and Yuna instantly turned her back, not wanting to show her weakness.
"Yuna, be safe," Lulu calls after her. The stairs feel like a mountain as Yuna hauls herself up, one at a time. Was this a final goodbye? Maybe it was supposed to end this way. Yuna takes a deep breath as the door opens and she disappears through it, into the bitter dark.
Everyone prays, except the outcasts. Cloud standing like a statue, Tifa and Barrett gazing at the door. A moment or two passes and the group decreases as they attempt to get back to normality. Lulu, Wakka and Tidus get comfortable on separate stairs and decide to wait it out. Tifa and Barrett join Cloud and exit the temple.
"Oh! Masteur Seymour!" a guado stood still as he witnessed a man return from the dead; the Farplane. Seymour wore the same robe her had worn when he battled Yuna and her guardians in the Macalania temple. The blue trail stroked the floor as he walked across it, straight past the watchers who stood with their mouths wide open. Seymour grinned as he took centre stage.
"Hello Guadolasam!" he beams to the confused crowd. "May Venon shine upon you and Spira," he continues his return speech as he notices Crusaders form on the ground, ready to pounce. Seymour laughs as his long nails point at their pathetic spears. "Well, we have some traitors here today," he glares at them. "Is that a way to treat a Masteur?"
"Remove yourself at once!" a commander growls. Seymour's eyes widen.
"Me?" he says with a sarcastic tone. "Don't you think it's a bit hot in here," Seymour's hands clench as the ground trembles beneath the soldiers and the innocent. Long pyramids of glass arise from the floor skewering the crusuaders with ease. "That's more like it!" Seymour declares as screaming breaks out.
"I think I saw Seymour out there," Tidus starts a conversation as Lulu and Wakka turn to him.
"You what?" Wakka asks.
"Seymour, he was on the beach...at least I think,"
"No time for thinking now, we got Sin back to deal with," Lulu buts in and pops a lid on the talking. Was it him? Tidus reimagines the events that took place on the Besaid beach. Fiends took to flight, Sin waded in the ocean, this supposed Sephiroth character walking across the sea as if it was no big deal. Then, a man with blue hair emerges from the light in mid air. It was, it must have been Seymour.
"How did this happen?" Tifa asks the million dollar question. Barrett shrugs.
"No clue," he says as they look over the evening bliss. The clouds are a pale purple colouring looming over distant mountains that peak with snow. A breeze lifts in the air as a close seems immenient in the day that the unfortunate happened.
You didn't think you could get away that easily? Did you? Me and you, we are one. Admit that I am your demon, the demon always wins. Cloud tossed and turned on the bed as his voice echoes throughout his head. Cloud, how could you be so foolish? Why follow someone you cannot defeat? I am infinite. Mother is infinite and the true leader of all worlds. Cloud shot up from his lying position. Smears of sweat dampened his face, his eyes were tiered and worn out. He gasped for air but felt like he was being choked. He scrambled out of the bed, dropping off it like a tonne of bricks to the floor of the tent. His vision was hazy, it was as if he'd been infected or had too much to drink, he wasn't in control, for sure. Cloud's willpower boosted him further to the opening, the ray of light pouring in from the new Besaid day. The a ringing in his ear erupted. No Cloud, we haven't finished talking yet. Sephiroth's voice sounds in the ringing ear.
"NO!" Cloud barks as he grips his head with both of his hands. Ripping at his spiky blonde hair, he falls to the floor. It's only a matter of time before you hear the screams of innocent people. It's time to remind you of Nibelheim. The voice trails off and Cloud's left there, on the floor. His knees up to his chin, sweat pouring down his fair skin. His eye's shocked. He gripped at the flooring and hauled himself to a stance. His balance was secure, just. Cloud managed to get to the fresh air and breathed in the sun and the cool air. Sephiroth was well and truly alive and well. Cloud hadn't been caught up in such a serious dream about the man with the silver hair before him and the group encountered him back at the SHINRA HQ. What did he mean? Targeting people, the innocence in this new world. He strived for Jenova's rebirth, but how? Cloud stood in the open air, looking towards the temple. He couldn't wait for them, for the summoner and her guardians. Sephiroth was his issue, it was time to put an end to these mind games,once and for all.
"Cloud," Tifa appeared beside him. She took in how dreadful he looked and an emotion of sorrow came over her face. "What happened?" she put a hand on his back. He sighed.
"It was him, it was Sephiroth," he told her as he looked away from her. Tifa hated Sephiroth as much as Cloud di, maybe more. Tifa found her father dead at the hands of Sephiroth's long sword. Ever since, she's wanted him cold. Dead. Buried. Forgotten. Her eyes widen as he tells her the series of events that elapsed in the tent.
"We need to go, before he does hurt people," Cloud insists. To his suprise, Tifa doesn't offer up any sort of argument. She simply nods and tells Cloud to get his stuff together while she collects Barrett. They would need to sneak off. Not that it would be a task, everyone's to caught up in the summoner's business.
Seymour sat at the elongate table that held pots filled with colourful fruits. He smirked to himself, thinking how much this would of cost. He bite into a pear and looked at one of the guards. He was in pure control of Guadolasam now.
"So, what happened to Yuna?" he asks in intrigue. The guard gulps, knowing Seymour is probably going to hate the news.
"Yuna and her guardians defeated Sin three years ago," he says as Seymour throws the half eaten pear at him. The guard catches it but before he can retain his eye's on the Masteur, he feels his throat being choked, by thin air. Seymour's hand is raised, clenching it slowly into a fist as he watches the guard fall to the floor. Seymour admires his work and then returns his focus to an orange.
"So, Yuna did do it, how wonderful," he speaks to himself. "Shame, I liked her a lot," he unpeels the orange with his sharp nails. "Oh well, no love loss, it will be a fine event, ending her pitiful life, along with his,"
Lulu, Wakka dn Tidus wait in complete silence. The song of Yevon is painful, thinking about what Yevon can bring to a summoner. They all hold onto the fact that Yuna had done this all before, so she should be fine. The again, Yevon can stab you in the back. Just as the worst sticks in each of their minds, the door opens.