Only Cloud stood. All of them were speechless. Never in his entire lifetime had Cloud felt such hoplessness. Superman and Batman sat in quiet depression, felling an unescapable loss. The silence into them like knives, even Superman could not pick up a single sound, save the heartbeats of the three of them alone in that room.
"We can't stop him." Batman whispered
"We can't" said Cloud, stareing vacantly at the portal.
"We have to."
"How can we!" Cloud shouted turning to face Batman. "He's destroyed an entire universe with a thought! How can we defeat him!?"
"Think." Superman said in a cold voice rising to his feet. "That madman just murdered trillions of lives Cloud. Now you tell me how to beat him, or so help me, I will add one more to the list of the dead!"
Cloud turned back around, gazing at the portal. He was at a complete and total loss. Suddenly, something interesting caught his eye. In the rubble of one of the walls was a very familiar face.
"That's it!" Cloud yelled, motionaing Batman and Superman to follow him.
"What is it?" asked Batman
Cloud simply made his way over to the wall, and pulled out the body of Sephiroth, the one Superman had knocked unconscious.
"Superman." Batman questioned "Can you scan his body for anything we could use against the other one."
"Let's see." Superman said already eyeing Sephiroth with his X-ray and microscopic vision. "Cloud!" Superman gasped "Take off his right glove!"
Cloud did so and at once all three of them saw what could be their last chance. The Ego Gem, or a copy of it, was still burned into Sephiroth's hand! Without hesitation Superman ripped the stone from Sephiroth's flesh. He stared at it for a moment, and held it out to Cloud.
"Why are you giving it to me?" Cloud asked backing away.
"You are the one who has traversed dimension after dimension to get here." Superman replied "Of all of us, you should know how to use this the best."
Cloud stood and looked at the gem, and reluctantly took it in his hands. For a moment, their was silence. Then suddenly the gem came alive with glowing green energy that coarsed through Cloud's body, it felt as if he were going to die, there was a deep pain, and his mind became confused, but when he finally composed himself, everything was clear. The gem had now burned into his hand like it had done with Sephiroth, and it had enfused Cloud with the knloedge of how to use it.
"Well?" Batman asked.
"We might have a chance." Cloud smiled as he stretched out his hand. He closed his eyes, and with a thought, numerous dimensional portals began opening around the room, and out of them stepped a myriad of heroes. Aragorn, the Master Chief, Neo, Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swann were now standing in front of Batman and Superman.
"And these would be?" Batman asked raising his brow.
"Backup" Cloud smiled
"So we're going to go fight a demonic god with a Knight, an albino in a trench coat, a robot, and three pirates?"
Neo and the Chief pointed their guns at Batman and prepared to fire, Cloud jumped in the middle.
"Woah! Ok, lets all get along here! The gem has given me information we can use to defeat Sephiroth! I guess I should update you late arrivals to the current situation.
"Oh you mean the giant wingy thingy floating rather ominously in the sky?" Jack chimed in.
"Sephiroth has apparently appeared in the skies of all our worlds." Aragorn stated "Although he looks quite different than the last time we faced him."
"I'm guessing you gathered us all here to help you kill him?" asked the Chief "How are we supposed to do that? UNSC forces have already tried getting a lock on him, its like he's a massive hologram."
"I believe Sephiroth is using the gems to project himself into every dimension in prepearation of his godhood." Cloud explained. "But as I was saying the Ego Gem has offered up valuable information. There are only supposed to be seven Infinity Gems. Since Sephiroth duplicated himself and the Gem in his hand, there are eight at the present time. Theoretically if the two Ego Gems were to touch, it would cause a reality bending explosion of cataclysmic size."
"So the plan is to what exactly mate?" Jack asked leaning on the Chief taking a sip of rum.
"You all need to distract him long enough for me to reach his right hand. Once we touch the resulting explosion should eradicate all matter within a galaxy wide radius. At least, that's what the Gem tells me."
The group was silent for a long while.
Master Chief at last said what everyone else was thinking, "So we're not coming back."
All eyes turned to Cloud.
"I can send anyone who wants to leave home." Cloud said, not making eyecontact with anyone. "This isn't your fight, I'll understa--"
"Cloud." Aragorn interrupted "It is our fight, as much as it is yours. Our worlds are in danger too, and not just ours, but all worlds. We fight today not as representatives from our separate worlds. Not as Knights, not as soldiers, not as warriors. No, we fight as living things, as brothers! And we will not abandon you!"
Cloud could not speak, and neither could the others. They knew their time had come, but it didn't matter. All that mattered to everyone in that room, was stopping Sephiroth. (Okay, so all Jack cared about was rum. Just ignore that.)
"You guys are just like my friends back home." Cloud said at last lifting his head "You always know what to do, even if I don't."
"Oh enough with the sappy stuff already mate!" Jack cried taking another swig of rum "Today's as good a day as any to die! Let's get to it!"
The group all turned and faced the portal. It's eerie green glow still illuminated the room.
"For Gondor!" Aragorn shouted raising his sword, rushing into the portal.
"For Elizabeth!" Will was next, taking Elizabeth with him by the hand
"Lois." Said Superman, solomley floating into the portal.
Neither Batman or Neo said a word as they walked through.
"For Rum!" Jack yelled drukenly staggering into the portal.
Cloud and the Chief were the only ones still in the room.
"For Home." The Chief said quietly, as he made his way into the portal.
"Yeah." Cloud said raising his massive sword onto his shoulder. "For Home."