PART 2
Chapter XI
Rain fell from the dark skies, transforming the dirt road into a river of viscous mud. Darting across this muddy river was a black utility van. Confined in this van were Sephiroth, Zack, and Cloud. These three sat in the back while Cyan, the driver, sat alone in the front. All were dressed in their respective uniforms. Cloud and Cyan wore the drab blue colors of Shinra troopers, whereas Sephiroth and Zack donned the stylish black apparel common among SOLDIER members.
The screeching of windshield wipers and wheels digging into the mud resonated through the otherwise silent van. Another sound resonating through the van was Cloud's stomach-churning gagging. He suffered from terrible motion sickness, and was trying his damndest not to throw up all over the place. How embarrassing it would be, he thought, to vomit in the presence of his hero, Sephiroth. Cloud tried to put on a brave face, but it was nigh impossible to keep his lunch down with the van jostling side to side the way it was.
Zack, conversely, was full of pep and strutting around like a caged animal. He was restless. He hated sitting down and doing nothing. He also hated silence. Silence and inaction were unnerving prospects for Zack. Things always needed to be happening, was his mantra, and if things weren't happening, then you needed to make them happen.
"Sure is raining hard," Zack said aloud, hoping someone would respond. Nobody had uttered a word since they entered the van. That was over six hours ago.
The silence ensued.
Zack went over to Cloud, who was pale yellow in the face. Motion sickness was taking a dreadful toll on him.
"Hey, you doing alright?" Zack asked Cloud.
"I'm alright," Cloud gurgled, waving a hand as if everything was just peachy-keen.
That was the extent of their conversation. Zack saw no need to continue talking to Cloud. The poor kid was clearly in awful shape, what with his crippling motion sickness and all. No sense in exacerbating the problem by forcing a conversation, Zack thought.
With nothing better to do, Zack took to performing sit-ups. It helped relieve the tension in his cramped muscles.
"Hey, settle down," Sephiroth bellowed, irked by Zack's incessant fidgeting.
Zack got up from the dirty floor, and dusted the crude off his pants.
"They gave me new Materia," Zack told Sephiroth, seizing this rare opportunity to converse with his converse-shy mentor. "I can't wait to use it."
Sephiroth looked away. "Just a kid," he murmured to himself.
Zack scratched his head, unsure of what his mentor meant by that. Undeterred, Zack carried on, telling Sephiroth, "So, you going to brief us about the mission?"
"This isn't just a typical mission," Sephiroth said enigmatically.
Zack smiled widely. "Good!"
Sephiroth leered at Zack with his catlike eyes, and said, "Why do you say that?"
"I joined SOLDIER so I could be like you," Zack began, "but by the time I made First Class, the war was over. My big hopes of becoming a hero like you ended with the war. That's why I always sign up whenever there's a big mission. Kind of a way to prove myself."
It depressed Cloud to hear this. He shared the exact same dream as Zack, but unlike Zack, he had failed to realize that dream. Whereas Zack was now a proud member of SOLDIER, Cloud was just another faceless Shinra trooper, indistinguishable from the rest and just as expendable.
"Say, how do you feel, Mister Sephiroth?" Zack asked
"I thought you wanted a briefing?" Sephiroth replied.
Zack shrugged his shoulders. "Okay then."
Sephiroth stood up and homed in on Zack and Cloud with his catlike eyes, which emitted an eerie green glow. "Our mission is to investigate an old Mako Reactor," he explained, his voice sharp and uncompromising. "There have been reports of it malfunctioning, and producing brutal creatures. First we will dispose of those creatures. Then we'll locate the problem and neutralize it."
"Brutal creatures? Where?" Zack asked.
"The Mako Reactor at Nibelheim," Sephiroth answered.
Upon the mention of Nibelheim, Cloud wondered how Tifa and his mother would react to the news that he failed in his attempt to join SOLDIER. Would his mother be disappointed in him? Would Tifa care about him any less? Cloud tried not to entertain such disconcerting thoughts. Thinking about it gave him a headache, and as sick as he felt right then, he was afraid giving it anymore thought would prompt him to puke his brains out.
"Nibelheim, that's my hometown," Cloud said faintly.
"Is that so?" Sephiroth said, not particularly interested.
The van skidded to an abrupt halt, tossing the passengers to the floor—all except Sephiroth, that is. He stood tall and unfazed. A loud roar, akin to a crack of thunder, echoed from outside. Pounding footsteps followed this thunderous roar. From the sound of it, the footsteps belonged to a gigantic monster, which was apparently circling the van. Another thunderous roar echoed.
"What is that?" Cloud asked timorously.
"That's our creature," Sephiroth said, unsheathing his Masamune.
Zack flung open the van's back door, wielding his Buster Sword as he did. Though Zack was first to step out, Sephiroth seemingly flew past him.
The towering creature blocking the road was a dragon. Its eyes were bright yellow and its ghastly lizard grin was filled with fangs that resembled hundreds of tiny knives. The dragon's green scales glistened in the night rain.
Sephiroth, moving with the swiftness of a gale force wind, was within striking distance just as Zack was still trying to catch up.
The dragon snapped its head back and inhaled. Then, with a quick jerk of its neck, flames spurted from its mouth. Sephiroth stood unblinking as his body was engulfed by flames. Cloud, who was watching from behind the van, looked on in horror as he saw Sephiroth's body get swallowed up by a brilliant orange fireball. That horror lasted only a second, for no sooner had the flames engulfed him than he came barreling out the other end, unscathed. In one fell swoop, Sephiroth leapt into the air, and with a simple downward slash, the dragon was reduced to nothing, its ghastly lizard grin forever wiped off the face of the earth. The dragon had no time to shriek as its body was split in half by Sephiroth's invincible sword, Masamune. Blood exploded from its gutted torso like water from a collapsed levee. Steaming hot entrails spilled out of the gaping hole and into the cold mud. There, slippery intestines squirmed about as if there was still life in them.
Cloud looked on, agog, his jaw unhinged. It's often been said, but this was irrefutable evidence: Sephiroth's power was unreal!
