The Black Threads of Fate

Chapter 6: Dark Return

'I remember this village...THE village...the village I spared…' The one winged Angel thought as he walked slowly down the main street of the village, people moving out of his way in shock as it seemed their would-be conqueror had returned to haunt them yet again. Children ran, old men and women alike scuttled to a fro just to get away from this deadly SOLDIER.

'Nothing has changed..…' he thought as he walked slowly up to the shrine at the head of the village.

Yuffie knew why everyone began to scatter before she heard the frightened screams of the children. The people of Wutai were strong, and little was enough to frighten any of her people, especially enough to scream. She was very young when she had heard the screams last time, but old enough to remember the names and faces of whatever people had caused it. She stopped, shivering slightly, but had the courage to turn around and see who was walking past them to the shrine on the other edge of town. The long hair, the angelic features. Yuffie knew only one person who could ever be so formidable, yet look so attractive.

"S-Sephiroth..." Her frightened voice squeaked softly as she watched the man walk past. She had been naive and unafraid the first time, but she had grown since then. For the first time in her life, she was afraid of someone.

Sephiroth took no heed of the little girl that seemed to trace his movements with her stare.

'Hmrph...these people do not even notice when I am angered or whether there is nothing to fear from me...odd.…' His thoughts were interrupted by him slamming head on into the little girl.

Undaunted Sephiroth caught her before she fell to the ground and in the same motion stood her straight back up and continued walking.

'Troublesome people...they don't even watch where they are going…' The black trench coat billowed in the wind that had sprung up spontaneously since he had arrived and his silvery locks seemed to dance in the breeze as Sephiroth walked up the steps to the temple and with a single easy gesture flung open the heavy mythril doors and calmly walked inside.

'I...I must see...if anything has changed since the last time I was here..…' he thought to himself.

Yuffie stood there in a daze, unsure of what had just happened. She remembered talking with Vincent, and then suddenly being caught in fear at the sight of Sephiroth returning to the village. She had been sure she was standing out of the way: She was barely in the middle of the street when the taller man had passed. A harsh shove, a gentle hand, and then The young ninja standing there dazed as the angelic being continued onward toward the shrine.

'I must be going crazy. Sephiroth shouldn't be here...he wasn't supposed to come back…'

Her expression hardening, Yuffie removed her parcel of bamboo and handed it to Vincent.

"Wait here, I'll be back in a minute." Her fists clenched, her mind whirled in curiosity as she headed after Sephiroth toward the shrine. her heart felt icy cold with fear, but she couldn't help but deny any idea that such a horrible, evil man could come back to haunt her beautiful village.

With his superb hearing, Vincent easily heard the name the girl Yuffie had uttered. What reason did he have for being in the village of Wutai?

Vincent knew nothing of the previous towns and cities that Sephiroth had single-handedly destroyed, having been Hojo's personal pet project at the time.
For one who knew nothing of the pathway Sephiroth had cut through the many citizens of various towns, he easily recognized the cold, homicidal glare of a seasoned murderer.

In one fluid motion he pulled Yuffie protectively behind him, keeping her out of Sephiroth's direct line of fire.
Vincent's face retained its usual calm mask, and yet, somehow, something was different. Despite his calm exterior, his crimson's eyes gleamed savagely, like a wolf waiting in the dark for its prey.

Just like Yuffie, one word was enough. That one word, spoken in almost every tone, the one word that could make women and men alike cower in fear.

"Sephiroth..."

Vincent said it, monotonously, as if the man before him was the devil incarnate in an angel's body.

Confused, Yuffie pried Vincent's fingers off of her green shirtsleeve. She hardly noticed the tone in his voice when he uttered the strange man's name. What she did notice was the sudden fire in his eyes. The fire showed pain, and it burned brightly. Yuffie longed to dull that pain somehow.

"Vincent...are you alright?" She asked, reaching up and placing a small hand on his muscular shoulder. She had completely forgotten about Sephiroth: All that mattered now was helping her new friend.

"Come on...we'd better go talk to Neerija. It's probably the best thing to do for now."

Sephiroth looked around the velvet red Temple, short stubby bald monks in grey robes shuffled around in the temple totally ignoring the tall silver haired warrior that stood in their midst.

'Peace...such a rare feeling...…' the tall muscular armored man thought as he walked amoung the monks till he found what he was so desperately searching for...a koi pond. Sephiroth leaned over the ledge of the upper balcony of the Temple.

'The gardens...at last…' he thought softly to himself as he gracefully jumped down from the ledge and landed with almost feline grace on the cobblestone path of the gardens of the Temple. Sephiroth smiled a little.

'It's so...calm...peaceful...removed...from the real world…' he thought as he sat down on his favorite meditation rock that overlooked the water fall and the lake. He closed his eyes opening himself to the current of the life-stream, he could feel the monks inner peace resounding and echoing through the temple. He felt the stunning presence of the...the...light. He couldn't explain how he felt , he felt at ease, calm, welcome. As he meditated, the surroundings assumed their rainbows of color inside his head everything glowed and wavered as if in a rushing body of water...a stream...the life stream. Everything had its color, its vibrancy, its emotion...except him.

'Nothing has changed...it is as I thought...I am.…' the picture in his mind zoomed out as he stood apart from everything, where there was color in everything else...there was only void in him...blackness...eternal void...I am a monster... his eyes narrowed.

'I am not the monster here...THEY ARE!' It all suddenly became clear to him, it was all an abomination, the color, the life, the hate, the love...

'All is skewed here...it has gone horribly wrong...and must be made right.' He clenched his fist and rose from the rock slowly lifting himself in the air with the sheer force of will.

'I will be the one to right these deformations...these...freaks...I will annihilate them all...and a new perfect race will rise from the ashes...a new race of Ancients...a new Cetra…' Sephiroth's eyes finally opened to see himself hundreds of feet in the air above Wutai.

'…and Gods we will be...rulers of the sea...sand and land.…' finally a crooked grin spread across his face, a piece of his mind seemed to snap into place and he let out a deep bellowing laugh.

"I HAVE MY PURPOSE NOW!!! I WILL CARRY OUT YOUR PLAN MOTHER!!! YOUR WILL BE DONE!!!" With that the mighty one winged angel flew off at the speed of sound finally using a fraction of his Legendary power.

'None shall be spared...and they will pay for their crimes...for mutating...from the perfect Cetra...to these base life forms...and I will rule this new earth...this...perfection...as their King...but where to rule them from...why not serve irony and rule out of the hollow shell of my fallen bretheren...but first...to Midgar...to bring that giant lumbering beast to its knees...once it falls...yes...I shall have all the influence I need...and I must seek out my bretheren...my fellow experiments...those with Mother in them...I must go to Midgar...to fulfill my purpose.'

Yuffie tried to focus on getting Vincent to visit the elderly woman across the way, but it was more difficult than she thought it would be. Her mind kept on going back to Sephiroth.

'I can't believe he came back after all these years…' Like the other people of Wutai, she was certainly suprised that the warrior had returned to their peaceful village. He was respected for sparing their village, that much was true. But he was still hated for destroying fellow villages, women and children, and even some of the elders were taken when he had first come. But that was a long time ago, and until now the fear for him had almost vanished. But now, as Yuffie watched the angelic man scream something about his mother high above the shrine, it suddenly became clear to her.

"I don't think my home is safe anymore..." She murmured.

Vincent couldn't help but notice Yuffie's stiff motions as she led him through the village. He himself could not complain, following after her but never letting the sight of Sephiroth's aloft form leave his peripheral vision.

That animalistic scream echoed within his head, long after it left the one-winged angel's lips.

We are both monsters...' He couldn't help thinking as he descreetly watched Sephiroth.

'We do not belong here...abominations of nature...'

His thoughts were headed in their usual morbid and depressing direction. Even Yuffie's attempts at maintaining a cheerful face failed.
Vincent heard her soft, muttered words and silently agreed, wholeheartedly with her prediction.

"...I do not think it ever was..."

Suddenly becoming fearful, the young ninja looked over to Vincent, desperately trying to hide her fear from him.

"We...we'd better get you to Neerija...there might not be much time left to do so now..." She took him by the hand (not noticing that her hands had grown ice cold from the fear of the situation) and continued leading him toward the hut. As they approached the large tabby cat sitting atop the house opened one eye, yawned widely, stretched it's huge body, and hopped down from the house with grace. With a swish of it's long tail it walked on in front of the two inside of the home.