FINAL FANTASY VII

THE CHANGE OF TIME


Chapter 9


Sephiroth spent the following days following Cloud's progress. Cloud had journeyed over the Nibel mountains, travelled to Rocket town where they had picked up some old pilot who f-Aeris identified as Cid Highwind. Then they had gone to the

Gold Saucer searching for seomthing called a keystone. Now the silver-haired general watched as they entered the Temple of the Ancients.

However, as interesting as this all was, Sephiroth wanted to get some action for himself. He had been doing nothing but observe for the past saeveral days. So now he was taking a break from all that. Now he stood a little ways away from the

pool that let him watch what was happening, and was going through several conditioning kata's with the Masamune. These were designed to keep him in shape, he didn't want to finally get some action only to have gotten out of shape and not be good enough for the job.

f-Aeris approached him with a somewhat worried expression on her face.

"What is it?" Sephiroth asked not taking his attention off his blade. Nor did he stop his practice.

"Well, i think its time for you to get involved again." f-Aeris said.

Sephiroth ceased his kata and calmly asked "What must i do?"

She smiled as she explained "Well, it would certainly help if Zack knew more about the situation, not the time travel part though."

Sephiroth quirked an eyebrow as he said "Then how do i explain my future self?"

"Say he's an evil clone who thinks he's you." f-Aeris replied with a shrug.

"Fine, how do i get out of this place?" Sephiroth asked.

f-Aeris smirked and snapped her fingers, and Sephiroth was standing outside the Temple of the Ancients.

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Cloud, Aeris, and Vincent now made their way into a room within the temple. They had seen it before in a vision where f-Sephiroth had attacked Tseng. Cloud looked at the markings on the wall and said "Aeris, what do these markings mean.

Aeris examined them. They showed people, appearantly praying, and a large thing falling towards them, then fire and ruins. "This is the ultimate black magic, Meteor. It says, that the Black Materia will call to a small planetoid drifting through the cosmos, then bring it here to destroy the planet." Aeris explained.

"So thats what Sephiroth plans to do. I don't care what he thinks, we must stop him here!" Cloud exclaimed in determination.

A sudden chuckling drew their attention to their right where about fifteen feet away stood f-Sephiroth looking at further markings, depicting mass destruction.

The group rushed over quickly.

"Sephiroth!!" Cloud declared as he drew the Buster sword. Aeris readiedn her staff while Vincent aimed his gun.

f-Sephiroth turned a smirk on them then began walking away. Cloud and the others quickly followed keeping their weapons prepared. f-Sephiroth drew the Masamune as he said "Soon i will cease to exist, but then i will be reborn as a god."

"How do you plan to do that!?" Cloud demanded.

f-Sephiroth smirked as he explained "When the planet suffers a wound, spirit energy gathers their to mend it." Sephiroth turned his sword and plunged it into the ground. "Now imagine a wound so great, that it threatened the life of the planet

itself. I will merge with all the planets energy and become a new lifeform, and i will governt his planet as is my birth right." He twisted his blade around, then in a flash of light he vanished.

The room suddenly began to shake voilently. "Sephiroth?" Cloud asked slowly.

"Hehehe, it isn't me." The evil mans voice said. Then a massive red dragon exploded out of the ground and let out an earth shattering roar.

Vincent was the first to react, emptying he gun in less then a second causing the large monster to real backwards in rage, then Cloud hit it with a bolt 2 spell which didn't seem to hurt it, made it mad though. With a mighty roar it unleashed a

surge a flame at him causing the group to scatter, then the tail came around at Cloud who swung his sword around knocking the tail to the sidethen rushed forward and swung his sword around for the monsters side, but the blade only left a small indentation in the dragons side, doing no real damage at all.

Vincent quickly reloaded his gun and emptied it at the dragons face, only doing minimal damage. The dragon took a swipe at the red caped man but Aeris cast a protect speel preventing him from being hurt while Cloud sent one bolt spell after another keeping the dragon at bay, but not doing any real damage.

Aeris focused and an ice 2 spell caught the dragon in the side as it turned on Vincent, but when the spell hit it stumbled backwards, showing signs of real damage.

"GUys, its vulnerable to ice magic!!" Aeris yelled.

Cloud nodded his understanding and reached into his pocket revealing his old ice materia, he didn't use it much but he thought it might be a good idea. He slipped it into his blade, it was only level one. He quickly began firing off ice spells as

fast as possible, quickly driving the dragon back across the room. Vincent continued to load, then epmty his gun.

Aeris fired another ice 2 spell causing the dragon to roar in pain before finally collapsing under the relentless assualt.

After a moment, the dragon's body retracted and formed a small red sphere. Aeris slowly retrieved the sphere.

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Zack paced around just outside the temple waiting for the others to emerge. The rest of AVALANCHE was waiting inside the temple's main entrance, he was outside because he felt like he didn't belong. He paced relentlessely, nhe coldn't

think of anything better to do, so he paced.

"Zack." A voice nearby said.

Zack whirled to see Sephiroth standing there, his long blade sheathed at his side. "Sephiroth!" He exclaimed drawing his own sword and bringing it to a ready stance.

"Lower your weapon SOLDIER, before i give you another paycut." Sephiroth ordered.

"You threatened Aeris, what makes you think i'll do as you say!?" Zack demanded.

"Because, i am not the same Sephiroth that threatened her." Sephiroth said in a monotone.

Confusion flooded through Zack as he asked "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Hojo cloned me, my clone is obsessed with world domination, and will stop at nothing to get it. Now, Cloud and the others must not know about this." Sephiroth explained.

Suspicioun fell over Zacks face. Had the Sephiroth who threatened Aeris not told him to keep his mouth shut.

Seeing the look on Zack's face Sephiroth said "I have a plan, but if Cloud know's about the clone i won't be able to do it, i need you to trust me."

"Alright, but the first sign that what you are saying is a lie, and i'm telling them." Zack said.

Sephiroth nodded, then vanished.