A/N: Sorry for the lateness of this update, but since it's a good one I think it's worth the wait :)
Chapter XXV
Mortis let a wicked smirk come across his face as he looked on at the four people who once called him friend as they stared back at him in an enraged stupor. Mortis raised his left hand in a non-threatening manner and a dozen more torch fires lit, filling the chamber with their flickering light.
Now that the chamber was filled with more light, Sephiroth was able to see Mortis clearly, dispelling any possibility that it was not him. It indeed was Mortis, though now he was wearing a black uniform with a red cape draped over his right arm. The scar was more pronounced now in the light, and the fires glimmered off of his defunct eye, making it appear to be a deep shade of crimson.
"Hmm, you look as if you've just seen a ghost," Mortis said as he gave a slight sneering smile, barring some of his white teeth. Bakusa swallowed and broke the silence on their end.
"Y-you're supposed to be dead," he said in a small voice. Mortis let out a crackling laugh that seemed excruciatingly loud in the small chamber.
"Astute as ever, Bakusa. And here I was thinking that Locke was the more intelligent out of the two of you." Sephiroth glared at Mortis, but Mortis only continued on his chuckling manner.
"What's going on here Mortis? When did you join the Brotherhood? Was it after we left you in that cavern?" Sephiroth asked in a shaking voice; it took all of his mental strength to hold back from just lunging at the traitor. Mortis could see this, and again let out a light laugh in his deep signature.
"You truly are just a simple pawn of Shinra, boy. Anyone with the slightest hint of intelligence would have known what was really going on. But don't feel sorry, I was once just as you are, a tool to be used indiscriminately. But I realized this, and quit Shinra's personal dog pen and went out into the world. But it was out there that I soon realized that the entire world is run by Shinras, all exploiting others for their own gain. It was then that I found the Brotherhood. Before long, I rose to become their Leader, and I will enact what it is that they have preached for hundreds of years."
"The Awakening?" Sephiroth said in a sarcastic tone in an attempt to provoke Mortis into making the first move. However, Mortis only nodded, and continued to explain.
"Yes. To many in the Brotherhood, it was only a legend, but I found a report telling of these things they call Weapon. I realized that if I were to awaken one of these monstrosities, I could cleanse this world of all the Shinras, and of all those who would rise to take their place!"
"You're insane," Sephiroth said blatantly. Mortis stared at Sephiroth with a sneer, but then started to laugh loudly again.
"Perhaps you're right boy. Perhaps you're right. But there's nothing you, or anyone else can do to stop me!" Sephiroth quickly scanned the room to see if there was some sort of trap that Mortis had waiting for them, but he could see nothing besides the strange computer-mechanical contraption holding the two Huge Materias and the large stone figure of the prone sleeping Dragon. Sephiroth quickly entertained the idea of just attacking Mortis head on, but he knew that Mortis could not be underestimated like any of the other members of the Brotherhood; he was after all, a member of SOLDIER. He knew that he would have to distract Mortis in some way to lower his defenses for just a brief moment to leave him open for attack. It was then that Sephiroth's gaze drifted back to the two Huge Materia crystals in their experimental tubes.
"How do you plan on awakening that thing with only two of the Materias? We stopped you from getting the other three, remember?" Mortis lightly shook his head and then let out another chain of gravely laughter.
"Oh, one is plenty to awaken Him, it always was. The more crystals that I can expend only make the Ryuujin that much more stronger. In actuality, though one is enough to awaken Him, I wanted to be sure. Because you see, there was one variable that worried me; you, Sephiroth. I had heard the stories about your strength, whether they be exaggerated or not. I had to know for myself just how strong you were. That's why I had one of my operatives break into the Shinra library and steal your file. It didn't reveal anything other than what was public knowledge." Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at this, but began to wonder something else.
"If you sent an operative in, why did you come back to SOLDIER on the same day?" Mortis smirked, and obliged Sephiroth with the answer.
"That's simple, boy. I learned that the Wutai Army had found the yellow Huge Materia here on this continent. I made a deal with them for it, in return I offered the Brotherhood to fight on their side. Rumors had come to me about another Materia being near Mideel, but I needed to know where the others were at. I let a Wutai transport ship be seen, and then came back to SOLDIER just when they were going to send an investigative team. I knew then that that despicable scientist Hojo would be able to locate the other crystals. After that, it was only a matter of making it appear I was dead, and send my operatives to retrieve the other Materias. You did prove to be stronger than I thought; after all, you stopped all of my operatives from retrieving the Materia crystals. But, I did fight along side you and I know that two of the crystals will be enough to make the Ryuujin stronger than you can possibly imagine."
Sephiroth sneered at this, and threw all caution to the wind. He quickly dashed towards Mortis with his Masamune held high. Mortis saw the attack coming and quickly brought his lance up to parry the blow. Once the massive blade bounced off of his lance, Mortis jumped back to the platform and laughed louder than he did before.
"I wondered how long a brash boy like yourself would listen to my talk before attacking. Now, let me show you the fully mastered technique of Transmogrification!" Suddenly Mortis opened his wounded eye, revealing that there in fact was no glass eye, but the red orb of a summon materia!
The orb began to glow with a fierce fire of power, but instead of being consumed in red flame like the others before, Mortis was covered in flickering black flames. The flames began to grow and form a strange husk over Mortis that was twice his normal size. Mortis brought his arms together as the flames consumed him, and then he pushed his arms out, sending the black fire away from his body. Mortis was now transformed into a twelve foot tall black armor-clad knight of a period long past. Both of his eyes glowed a deep crimson as he looked down at the now small silver haired soldier. Mortis now sneered and showed his long black fangs. In a voice that was much deeper and had a demonic echo, Mortis taunted the four small members of SOLDIER.
"The process took years to master, but now, I can fully control the transformation. Now, you pitiful dogs, you will taste the fell blade of Odin: the Zantetsuken!!!"
Mortis then held out his right hand, where the blade was summoned by a tower of black flames. The sword was nearly twice as large as Sephiroth was tall, and was strangely designed with small metal blades that jutted out from the main blade giving it the appearance that the smaller blades were like flames from the main sword. The steel was a strange luminescent black that seemed to absorb light more than it did reflect it.
Sephiroth did not wait for Mortis to attack him, instead choosing to move first. Sephiroth quickly lunged forward at Mortis, holding his Masamune high and aiming the tip directly at Mortis's heart. The Masamune was brutally deflected by the massive Zantetsuken. The shear force of the towering blade caused Sephiroth to slightly loose his balance as he continued to charge. Sephiroth attempted to bring his Masamune back into range for another attack, but Mortis raised his free hand, and blasted Sephiroth quickly with an unrelenting surge of lightning. Sephiroth only had the time to brace for the attack, which sent him reeling backwards only to be stopped by the far wall.
Locke, as he watched his General flying to the wall like a rag doll, quickly brought up his twin pistols and opened fire with a mighty barrage of bullets, but looked on in shock as the bullets only seemed to be absorbed by Mortis's armor with tiny flickers of black flame. Mortis obviously could tell he was attacking because he now focused on Locke, and sent a spiraling fireball in his direction. Locke let out a curse as he ungracefully jumped out of its path of destruction. The fireball hit the rock wall behind him and dissipated away from it's focal point.
Loran took the moment of Mortis's distraction to charge him from his flank. She quickly unleashed a series of swings with her short swords, but her blows merely ricocheted off of his demonic armor. By the time she was able to locate a chink in his armor, Mortis was quickly turning on her with a massive downward swing from the Zantetsuken. Loran saw the deadly blade swinging down in her direction, and quickly performed a back flip to get out of it's deadly course. She landed in a crouch just as the blade hit, shaking the ground as the earth split in a thousand different cracks and fissures.
Bakusa took in a deep breath and charged in while the Zantetsuken was lodged in the ground. Mortis caught his movement from the corner of his eye and tried to pull the mighty blade from the ground, but Bakusa was too fast. Mortis then placed all of his weight on his right leg and lifted up his left into a swirling roundhouse kick directed towards Bakusa's head. Bakusa was able to slide under the kick, and then jumped forward with an uppercut directed at Mortis's crotch. The blow connected, but Bakusa withdrew his numb hand since it was like hitting a solid granite wall. Mortis pulled back his left fist and hurled it down at Bakusa. Though his hand was throbbing, he saw the enormous fist coming his way, so he scrambled out of the way just as the blow connected, shattering the earth as if it were a thin piece of rice paper.
Sephiroth steadied himself and shook the cobwebs from his mind after hitting the wall. When he looked up, he saw Bakusa get away just before Mortis's fist hit the ground. Sephiroth sneered and firmed his grip on the Masamune and again charged. Mortis saw him coming and again pulled on the Zantetsuken, this time dislodging it from the ground. Sephiroth knew that the massive blade was heavy, and if Mortis could hit his own with a great deal of momentum, it would again send Sephiroth off balance. Instead of getting into a duel with Mortis, Sephiroth lowered his blade to where the tip dragged the earth behind him. With an ethereal fire, the Masamune began to glow with spirit energy just as Sephiroth swung the blade at Mortis, flicking the spirit energy at Mortis in a rocketing arc of power. Mortis merely broke the blast with a swing of the Zantetsuken and put a smirk on his face at the seeming weakness of Sephiroth's attacks. But this is what Sephiroth wanted Mortis to think. After he had sent the spirit wave at Mortis, he hunched down onto the ground to get more momentum out of a leap. When Mortis had been focusing on the spirit wave, Sephiroth had lunged from his crouched position and swung the Masamune in a devastating arc that connected with Mortis's armor breastplate. The blow visually stunned Mortis, but as Sephiroth tried to land behind Mortis, Mortis's free hand grabbed Sephiroth and flung him back against the wall. Sephiroth was able to land instead of impacting against it, but he needed a moment to catch his breath.
Locke, who's pistols were now re-equipped with Ice Materia, again unleashed a barrage at Mortis. These bullets did not seem to do any damage either, so before Mortis could respond, he focused on his Fire Materia and unleashed a powerful blast of fire. The blast hit Mortis head on, and though it did not knock him down, it did faze him slightly, causing him to catch himself with a braced foot. Loran took advantage of Mortis's awkward footing and attacked from his behind. She swung her blade at the back of his knee at the unarmored tendon. The blade sank home, spilling the dark red blood that looked black in the lighting. Mortis let out an angry groan, and then backhanded Loran away from his knee. Loran flew backwards and impacted on the wall. She grunted, and slowly picked herself up. Locke looked her way in concern, but she lightly shook her head signaling that she was fine, only winded.
Bakusa, now with a useless right hand, focused on his Materia to save his body from further injury. He chose a Lightning attack this time, and quickly ran in a parallel motion to draw focus away from his injured team mates. The massive crack of thunder sounded as the lightning arced out and struck Mortis. Mortis turned to face Bakusa, though the lightning only seemed to be absorbed by his hell-spawned armor. Bakusa let out a curse at the seeming lack of any Materia that worked against Mortis. But the distraction he gave was all that was needed.
Sephiroth was again on the move and closed the distance between him and Mortis before the traitor could ready the Zantetsuken for another momentum filled swing. Mortis only had the time to bring his demon blade up to block the swing from the Masamune. The two blades collided with an ear-wrenching twang that sent sparks flying. Sephiroth quickly pulled the Masamune back, and again swung from the opposite direction. Mortis moved his blade to block this blow, but the weakness that Sephiroth was looking for was found: the Zantetsuken was too large for quick combat. Sephiroth utilized this weakness and continued the savage barrage of attacks from all directions. Each of them was deflected by Mortis, but there was no way the Odin-fused former SOLDIER could keep up the defense. Mortis knew this, and when Sephiroth swung the Masamune from above, Mortis swung his tree trunk of a leg into Sephiroth's abdomen, forcing the air out of Sephiroth's lungs. Though Sephiroth tried to fight the urge to fall to his knees to catch his breath, it was nearly impossible to not do so. In this moment of weakness, Mortis prepared to swing the Zantetsuken down on Sephiroth, killing the silver haired menace once and for all. As Mortis prepared to swing his blade down, a sudden explosion of a grenade on Mortis's head made him turn around. The distraction was all Sephiroth needed to get away and regroup himself in relative safety.
Locke let out a cheer of triumph as his grenade connected. But his cheers soon went away once he realized that Mortis was coming for him. In no way did Locke want to engage Mortis in close quarter combat, so he began to run along the wall, keeping his distance from Mortis, all the while firing with Fire enhanced rounds. This time, the rounds seemed to connect, but still were too small to do any real damage to Mortis. Mortis tried to chase Locke around the large room, but soon gave up and just launched a Lightning blast at the constantly moving SOLDIER. Locke took the hit directly, and it sent him hurling back where he landed with a thud on the rock floor. His hair was now standing up on end and he was covered in a thin layer of soot. Mortis was about to finish him off, but Loran caught his attention by throwing one of her short swords at him.
The blade bounced off of Mortis's armored back, but it did the job she intended. Mortis sneered and showed his black teeth as he prepared the Zantetsuken for a death bringing blow. Loran had seen how the only element Materia to stun Mortis was Fire, so she now unleashed a wave of fire at the traitor. The blast hit him hard, and though he seemed fazed, he continued to charge Loran.
Bakusa, though as simple as he might have been, was not one to let a lady be attacked, so he forgot about his throbbing hand and charged Mortis, striking him in the small of his back with his left leg. Mortis then backhanded Bakusa with the hand that was holding the Zantetsuken, but as Bakusa flew backwards, he was able to right himself and used the wall to jump back at Mortis, this time swinging hard with a massive roundhouse kick to Mortis's head. Mortis blocked the kick with his armored forearm. Though the pain was now shooting through Bakusa's leg, he did not let that slow him down. When Bakusa landed on the ground, Mortis swung at Bakusa's head, but Bakusa ducked and swung his left leg at the injured knee of Mortis. The kick landed, but Mortis caught Bakusa's foot by clenching it against his injured leg and his free leg into a vice. The pain ripped though Bakusa's ligaments and he clenched his teeth to stop himself from letting out a cry of pain, which he knew was what Mortis wanted to hear.
Loran quickly grabbed her other short sword off of the ground and ran at Mortis to get him to release Bakusa. Mortis saw the pain course through Bakusa's face, but let him go to fight Loran. Mortis sneered as he gripped the Zantetsuken with both hands, and then swung hard at her. Loran saw the massive blade coming, and placed one of her blades into the path of the demon sword. The massive blade struck her sword with a tremendous force, and shattered the blade into a thousand shards. In her shock, she did not see that Mortis was now readying another swing to cut Loran in two. But just as he was about to begin his swing, Bakusa jumped onto Mortis's back, and applied a choke hold. As Mortis fought off the annoyance on his back, he kicked out with his good leg and struck Loran directly in her chest, sending her reeling back away from the fight.
Mortis tried to shake Bakusa off, but the orange haired SOLDIER was proving to be resilient. Mortis could see the edges of his vision begin to blur, and could feel the tingling sensation of Odin begin to leave him. He was not ready for this fight to end, so he grabbed Bakusa's legs, and launched himself into the air, flipping and landing onto his back, crushing Bakusa beneath him. As soon as they hit, Bakusa's grip weakened. Mortis got to his feet and was ready to end the pathetic boy's life.
Locke, with as much speed as he had ever mustered in his life, ran forward and slid as he tried to stop his advance. Quickly he began to unleash a barrage of Fire rounds into the side of Mortis. Though Mortis was getting tired of these distractions just when he was going to finish off one of these attackers, he could see that Bakusa was done fighting. Mortis then gripped his Zantetsuken and prepared to split Locke in two, from head to toe. Locke could see the blow coming, and for a moment thought that this was to be his last moment on earth. But Mortis did not swing his blade down. Instead, he bellowed as the thin blade of a sword sunk into his left flank, and pulled out revealing a deep cut into his side. Mortis turned and hurled himself at Sephiroth, who was now smirking at the injured Mortis. Locke let out a sigh of relief and pulled Bakusa away from the battle and hid Bakusa among the broken rocks near the entrance.
Mortis swung the Zantetsuken and the Masamune met it, again releasing sparks. Together, for what seemed to be an eternity, the two blades struck each other, releasing their anger upon one another with unrelenting fury. Again, Mortis started to show signs of fatigue as he swung and parried with the massive Zantetsuken, and he again used a dirty trick to buy himself some time. This time, Sephiroth was ready for a kick to his stomach, but it was a flying elbow that took him off of balance.
The elbow was not enough to put Sephiroth on his knees again, but it did push him back for a second. It was then that Loran charged with her single short sword, ready to give aid to her General. But Mortis saw her coming. He feinted weakness, and at the last moment he brought the demonic Zantetsuken into an arcing uppercut, hitting Loran across her lower abdomen. The blow sent her spiraling back, and when she hit the ground, her body began to convulse in shock.
Sephiroth watched her limp fragile body fly through the air and thud on the floor. Mortis turned back around to Sephiroth and let a devilish smirk cross his cruel face. Sephiroth's face filled with anger and he charged Mortis with a renewed vigor. Mortis was taken back by this newfound level of speed and was not able to block the Masamune as it swung for his head. Mortis only had enough time to duck his head and the Masamune bit into his shoulder. Mortis pushed the Masamune blade out of his shoulder and brought the Zantetsuken around for a swinging blow. Sephiroth ducked under the demonic blade with a proficiency that was not known to any man and then swung again for Mortis's head. Mortis was able to correct his swing and was able to block the blow with the Zantetsuken. Sephiroth pressed with all of his might against the demonic blade, and Mortis pushed back against the silver haired warrior. The two blades protested the amounts of pressure that they were under with metallic grunts that fell upon the deaf ears of their users.
As they had their face off, Locke got to Loran and picked her up to carry her to where Bakusa was. When he placed her down on the ground, the light from a nearby torch showed the level of damage. The color had faded from her face, leaving a pale thin resemblance of her former color. Her eyes seemed to be bulging out in their deep purple sockets as they frantically scanned the area focusing on nothing. Her breathing was erratic and she continued to convulse. Locke focused on the wound on her abdomen and saw that the flesh seemed to be rotting. He quickly focused on his Restore Materia, and sent wave after wave of mastered Cure spells into her. The wound slowly healed, but her color was still not returning. Locke did not know what to do, so he frantically looked up and caught the final moments of the battle.
Sephiroth and Mortis continued to push their blades against each other, each showing signs that the struggle was wearing out their endurance. Mortis let a strained smile come across his face, and he spit out a comment at Sephiroth.
"You can't possibly win, boy. Surely you must see that." Sephiroth only locked gazes with Mortis and briefly let a flicker of a smirk cross his lips before he made his move. With a last push of strength, he pushed Mortis back slightly and then fell to a crouched stance. From there, he unleashed a massive Fire Materia blast into Mortis's abdomen, which sent him stumbling back in his weakened state. Before Mortis could recover, Sephiroth lunged forward and pierced Mortis's chest with the blade of the Masamune. Mortis took in a deep breath of shock as the cold steel blade skewered his entire body. Sephiroth smirked as he saw the look of utter defeat in Mortis's eyes.
"What was that?" Sephiroth said sarcastically before he used his full strength to push the Masamune blade through Mortis's upper torso, splitting him in nearly two pieces. Mortis fell back and stumbled onto the platform that held the machine's controls. He tried to speak, but only coughs of blood came sputtering out. As he fell onto the metal grating of the platform, the black flames again consumed him, but this time they faded away and revealed a bloody mess that used to be Mortis. The Materia in his eye was now a dull red, and it shattered in his skull as he fell back for good against the grating. Sephiroth let out a sigh of relief before he ran to where the others were at.
Locke was frantically trying to use his Restore Materia on Loran, but he stopped when Sephiroth kneeled down beside her and quickly looked at her condition. Locke was breathing frantically, and shook his head in frustration.
"I've used Cure on her more times than I can count, but she isn't getting any better!" Sephiroth did not respond, but instead removed his Restore Materia and replaced it with his Revive Materia. He lightly placed his gloved hand on her abdomen and then focused on his Materia. Soon blue soothing pulses of energy flowed out from his hand and coursed through Loran's body. For a moment, it seemed as if the Materia was doing nothing, but Loran sharply opened her eyes and took in a deep lung burning breath. After she had breathed in quickly, she laid back down and lightly smiled.
"Did we win?" she asked weakly. Sephiroth lightly nodded and then looked at Bakusa, who was now flexing the fingers in his right hand.
"You all right?" Sephiroth asked. Bakusa made a fist with his right hand, and then nodded. Sephiroth then stood and gave his squad a nod.
"All right. Let's get out of here and see how the battle outside is going." Locke helped Loran up, and though her color was now returning, she was still rather weak. But just as they were about to leave, the sudden alarm klaxon from the machinery sounded. Sephiroth turned around just in time to see the emaciated body of Mortis slide off of the control panel. Mortis gave one final grin, exposing his broken and blood drenched teeth before he slumped over for the final time.