Thanks once again to Wintersheart1766 for doing a wonderful beta job, and to HunterBelmont for putting up with me whilst I bitched about everything bothering me lately. Good boy.
Warnings: I'm not feeling well enough to be witty, sadly. Check previous chapters!
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Crimson eyes drifted open a few moments after the impact, the gunman cast a cautious gaze into the blackened abyss, a half conscious blonde sheltered in his arms. Blue eyes remained closed, as a limp body shifted against him slightly with the stream's current.
"Cloud," The ex-Turk murmured, but drew no response from his blonde companion. Vincent allowed his body to continue drifting through the current, until he felt his feet touch a solid surface that had suddenly materialized below him. He looked around at his new surroundings; the identity of which was quickly being revealed. Cloud's limp body slipped from his fingers; Vincent's grip loosened by the wave of nausea that washed over him. Vincent felt his chest constrict tightly, his breath stolen from him as he realised their current location.
"Nibelheim," A smooth voice muttered against his ear, Vincent spun around sharply to meet intense emerald eyes just behind him. Sephiroth walked casually towards the town's archway as the gunman reached into his cloak, and drew out his pistol.
"You can't kill me here, Valentine," Sephiroth chided, allowing a smirk to creep across his lips, "This place is holy. If you listen hard enough, you'll hear her screams."
"She's being poisoned by your presence," Vincent replied coolly, and the ex-General offered a small laugh.
"Not mine, no," Sephiroth mused, tapping his forehead, "Hers. It's her presence that the planet begs to be free of. I've figured this out, Vincent. Jenova herself may be dispersed into this system of consciousness, but she cannot reside in another being as long as that being resides within the stream itself."
Vincent's lips parted slightly in unspoken words, before Sephiroth took a seat beside a fence post, the gesture almost unsettling in its overall casualness.
"Cloud was here with Tifa once," Vincent remarked cautiously, and Sephiroth nodded.
"I'm aware. I couldn't reach him here, and that's when everything started to fall together, you see. Impurities are often held back in here," Sephiroth murmured, seemingly impressed with himself, "Listen to yourself now, Valentine. Listen to your consciousness. What is it that you hear?"
The gunman did as Sephiroth suggested, after deciding the former general posed little threat to him in such a situation. Vincent furrowed his brows slightly, raising crimson eyes to meet curious green.
"I hear nothing."
"Nothing?" Sephiroth asked, throwing a suggestion in the single word that Vincent was yet to pick up on.
"That in itself should be telling you something," Sephiroth mused, pulling himself to his feet, "Should it not?"
…Chaos… Galian… Hellmasker… Gone?
Vincent felt a mild panic squirming its way through his very core, the silence becoming deafening in its entirety. For years, he had suffered through inner conflictions with his own demons, an inner reflection at the mistakes… no, the sins that he had committed. Now, he was hearing only Vincent.
"Why Nibelheim?" Vincent asked; evasively refusing Sephiroth the confirmation of what he already knew. The ex-General turned to face the gunman, eyes cast down, before slowly returning his gaze to Vincent.
"Why Nibelheim?" Sephiroth repeated, "What does Nibelheim mean to you?"
The former General's eyes then momentarily settled on Cloud, "Why Nibelheim for him?"
Vincent turned his gaze as Emerald green eyes settled on his own.
"Why Nibelheim for me?" He asked, as Vincent stooped to check on the blonde who was slowly beginning to stir. Vincent knew he need not reply for Sephiroth to provide an answer, and he was right, as a small laugh exited the man's lips.
"We've all experienced losses in this place," Sephiroth said softly, Vincent refused to raise his eyes as he heard footsteps approaching, "But there have been gains here also."
"I have gained nothing in Nibelheim," Vincent replied curtly, finally raising his eyes to meet Sephiroth's. A now familiar smirk crossed the ex-General's lips, as he shook his head.
"You gained, Vincent. Those gains need not be positive ones, but they are gains nonetheless," Sephiroth explained quietly, now standing beside the ex-Turk, offering a downwards glance at the unconscious blonde as Cloud let out a small groan.
"What we all gained, Vincent," Sephiroth paused slightly, "Was power; albeit for you, uncontrolled power; for Cloud, unrelenting power and for myself? Well…"
"Unimaginable power," Vincent offered, and Sephiroth let out a small laugh.
"Yes, unimaginable, but unwanted. I had this strength within me the entire time, but it was self awareness that brought out the darker intention that the power could offer."
"If it is unwanted, then you need not let yourself be controlled by it," Vincent said softly, as Sephiroth offered a distant smirk, slowly walking back towards the town's gate.
"Not everything is lost, Sephiroth. Sephiroth is not lost," The gunman spoke again, his love for the mother of the man before him driving him to seek any option of salvation that held the slightest chance of being realised.
"Perhaps; after all, how can one be lost when they have no place left to go?" Sephiroth asked as his eyes settled innocuously on the sign hanging above the village entrance, his attention straying from Vincent for the time being.
An extended period of silence settled between the pair until Cloud suddenly opened his eyes, seemingly still unconscious
"Cloud?" Vincent murmured, shaking the blonde slightly.
"He'll take a little longer to resurface," Sephiroth said flatly., Vincent felt a shiver of panic bristle through him, as he recalled the catatonic state the Lifestream had left the blonde in during one of his previous excursions within its depths..
"He's alright," Sephiroth reassured quietly, "I would not have allowed him here should he be at risk of harm. He has become… valuable to me."
"Valuable to you as a friend, perhaps?" Vincent chanced, and a smirk crept along Sephiroth's lips once again.
"A Friend? Perhaps; partially, yes. Primarily, however, he is my burden, and therefore my salvation," Sephiroth paused, "And so I cannot allow myself to lose him just yet."
"How is Cloud your salvation?"
"Cloud will kill me. Whether it is at this crater at this time, or another time, or any other place or time after that," Sephiroth paused again, offering a knowing smile, "There will be many more times to come, after all."
Vincent held back the temptation to scoff, "How do you expect him to take your life more than once?" Sephiroth laughed lightly.
"Perhaps you've forgotten," he murmured, "he has killed me once before, as I have killed him. You may not understand, but as long as one of us lives, the other shall never truly die."
"Then what do you hope to achieve from this? Having Cloud kill you is one thing, but then what? If you are only to return again and again, the notion would be utterly pointless," Vincent said smoothly, placing the back of his hand against Cloud's sweaty forehead, "What do you hope to gain?"
"Freedom," Sephiroth whispered softly, his hands rising above his head as he stretched fingers into the black abyss above, "Be it for all eternity, a year, a single month, or a solitary day…"
Green eyes lowered and Sephiroth's gaze settled again on the crimson eyes of the gunman standing before him.
"Freedom, Valentine."
Vincent felt the bile rising in his throat, as his chest grew tight restricting his breath painfully once again, and for a fraction of a second as he looked into Sephiroth's eyes, he could see her looking back at him; His beloved, his unrequited deity of worship, the face of his deepest most unforgivable sin. Sephiroth faltered also, his gaze shifting to the floor to his right, his smirk slipping away, and a softer more melancholy undertone briefly adorned his lips.
"You see her within me at times, don't you?" He asked quietly. "I too can sense her presence within me, but only rarely; when the toxic hold over me dissipates, when I'm closest to the planet, I can almost feel her; my real mother, that is."
Vincent remained silent, his ears finding it difficult to accept the words now falling from the lips of his long dead lover's only son.
"You knew her, Valentine. I can tell by the longing in your eyes. By the hurt, the unimaginable pain that burns within them, every ounce of suffering you feel within you, I feel it echoed through my veins. Had she been able to hold any love for me, perhaps things would have been different," Sephiroth murmured.
"She told me once, that to have never been able to hold you was her one true sin," Vincent offered in softly spoken words. Sephiroth choked out a small laugh, broken emerald eyes rising to meet Vincent's.
"And to disgrace her spirit by calling this- this toxicity within my veins by the title of mother," Sephiroth paused, "Is just one sin out of my multitudes."
Vincent choked slightly, the air around him too thick, too toxic in his lungs, as her voice, her smell, her simplest touches, reeled through his sensory memory; burning him to his core.
"With her dwelling like a parasite within me, no amount of prayer to this planet will ever remove my sins," Sephiroth murmured, "I will forever remain unforgiven."
Cloud startled from his position on the ground below him, his body sitting upright as he gulped down air as fast as his lungs would allow, blue eyes burning brightly with mako and a stunned sort of horror. Sephiroth gave another knowing smirk at the sudden revival before turning away and drifting back towards the town gates.
"Cloud," Vincent said softly, drawing startled eyes to meet his own as a metal claw rested gently on his shaking shoulders. The blonde then struggled to compose himself and regulated his breathing as he ran an unsteady hand through his hair.
After a few moments, Cloud turned to face his former idol, pain radiating through his eyes.
"The planet…the planet showed me…" The blonde struggled for words, as he took a few steps towards Sephiroth.
"Cloud," Vincent warned, as the blonde approached the ex-General, but Cloud pressed on.
"I saw it… Your ch- childhood, in the labs. Why would they do that to you? Why would they do that to anyone?" Cloud whispered, transfixed by the images behind his words and his seemingly desperate need to reach Sephiroth's side.
"Monsters aren't born, Cloud…" Sephiroth smirked slightly, pushing the blonde back into Vincent with a single shove of a well placed hand.
"They're created," The ex-General finished, closing his eyes as the planet's cries reached their ears, her Lifestream swirling into violent activity with the sound. Vincent snatched at the blonde's wrist, as Cloud abruptly began floating away from him, eyes wide with confusion. Sephiroth's words echoed in Vincent's ears, as Chaos began to return to him, the demon's thoughts mirroring his own.
"So this is the power of Chaos?" Sephiroth murmured, the beast impaled on the end of Masamune, the wound in Sephiroth's shoulder still knitting together, "You're no beast, nor are you a monster. You were always a threat to this world. Yet, you weren't truly a force to be reckoned with. Not entirely. Not until you merged with Valentine in any case; it was then that you were truly created."
Vincent's eyes snapped open as the Lifestream burst, sending he and Cloud sailing through the air, and then plummeting into a spiraling descent back to the crater's depth's The gunman had managed to pull the still dazed blonde firmly against his chest, holding him there until they hit the rocky ground, Cloud fell soon after impact. Vincent let out a low groan, the force of the landing jarring his bones causing him pain that that was all too familiar to the former Turk. Crimson eyes lifted from their position on Cloud to meet Emerald green, as Sephiroth slowly stood from his crouched position on the crater's floor, black wing unfurling behind him like the shadow of their impending doom.
"You're not ready to face this battle," The former General smirked, "Bring the others if you wish, so long as Cloud is the one who deals the final blow."
"If it is death you seek why not seek it now and allow a swift victory?" Vincent asked, standing on his feet as Cloud managed to do the same beside him.
"I shall die as the SOLDIER I once was," Sephiroth said smoothly, "Not the puppet I have become."
With that, another glow began to radiate from Sephiroth's hand, the blinding light causing Vincent to shield his eyes as the ground shifted once more beneath his feet. He expected to be engulfed by the stream once more, but as his surroundings darkened amidst the toxic haze, his body fell to the earth and all of his strength drained from within him against his will. He heard as Cloud fell beside him, and tried desperately to lift his body from its earthen hold, but try as he might he could barely lift a single finger. When the darkness finally dissipated, he found himself surrounded by snow, the Cryptic nestled beside him, still guarded from the snow.
He watched as Cloud sat up, his eyes taking in their surroundings; upon realising where they now were and Sephiroth Wasn't; the blonde pierced the silence of the snow capped mountain, letting out a listless cry while slamming his fists into the icy ground in pure frustration, the ex-General's name wrenched from his lips in an enraged roar. The painful sound echoing through the Gunman's heart.
A/N: Like? Love? Hate? Tell me please. I'd love more reviews for this story, and it would totally give me a cheer me up booster. Really. Love you all. *heart*