A/N: Thanks for all the feedback! You guys are exceptional. Here, have a chapter.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Chapter 35
Hawke, Genesis, and Zack stepped into the bowels of the Nibelheim reactor.
Around them cold riveted walls disappeared into the darkness of a high ceiling. Weak artificial lights ran along steel girders, combining with the continuous glow of mako to give everything an unnatural green gleam.
They followed a rattling metal pathway through the reactor, the dull echo of their footsteps resounding in their wake. Every tiny little noise they made seemed wrong, as though they disturbed a reverent silence with their muddied boots and clanging armour. Whenever they paused the silence descended far stronger than before in a thick blanket that choked the very air. Hawke's skin crawled. Her staff and daggers felt small and trivial, even with no enemy to use them on.
The Veil felt very thin here. She didn't like it. It was so tattered she could almost see the air fluttering with the currents of the Fade. A lilting hum murmured just low enough that she couldn't quite hear it or even be sure whether or not it was her imagination.
They had yet to see any sign of Sephiroth.
Zack was looking uneasy. He kept glancing backwards and forwards with his hand straying to his sword as though expecting something to jump out at them at any moment. Genesis led the way silently and without expression. Hawke had no idea where in the monstrous structure they were but he obviously knew, somehow, and navigated the way without even glancing at the other paths.
It bothered her that the usual stench of darkspawn was missing. There was supposed to be an archdemon in here yet there wasn't the slightest sign of the Blight. If anything it was unnervingly clean and well ordered. She was reminded of the lab beneath the Shinra mansion.
The corridor opened up into a large chamber.
Genesis paused. A wall of mechanised pods stood before them. Each pod was easily big enough to hold a person and had a wealth of mako pipes feeding into it and a little glowing window set into the metallic case. They were perched on a tiered slope with a stairway running through the ascending levels to the top, where there was a platform and a doorway.
Standing on the platform was their missing Soldier.
From so far beneath him all they could see was his black coat, long silver hair, and the sickly green glint of his sword at his side. He was standing motionless before the closed door, starring up at the plague mounted above it. It had one word engraved into its bronze face: JENOVA.
Genesis took a halting step forward.
"Sephiroth?" Hawke called.
"It's sealed." They heard the General mutter at the door. The echoes of his voice carried the words down to them. He made no move so they went to him, walking up between the pods to the platform.
When they got to the top she noticed Sephiroth shaking his head slightly, as though disagreeing with something. In the distorted light he looked paler than usual.
"General?" Zack asked.
"She's here." Genesis said quietly. Sephiroth nodded slightly, the first sign he'd shown of actually acknowledging them.
"The demon thing?" the teenager asked, looking uncomfortably at the sealed door and the name scrawled above it. Then he looked back to the pods, which he had been starring at ever since they had entered the chamber. "Hey uh, what's with the containment tanks?" He asked.
"Experiments." Sephiroth said, finally tearing his gaze from the sign above the door. "Probably abandoned here by Hojo."
"Why? What are they?"
"Leave it along, Zack." Genesis said sourly.
Ignoring him, Zack stood by the closest one and leaned in to see through the little window, his hand resting on the metal casing.
The pod beeped, something from under his hand clicking. He pulled his hand back instantly, sending them an apologetic look just as the pod unsealed itself.
The door cracked open, steam and a putrid stench pouring out. Zack gagged as did the others when the smell reached them. Hawke coughed through it and for a moment she could have sworn the metal walls were the corrupted stone of the Deep Roads.
A clawed hand reached out from within the pod just as the last of the steam dispersed. Zack jumped back but Hawke instinctively lashed out with a strong electrical spell and a blood curling screech sputtered out with a wet gurgling. Left sprawled halfway out of the pod was a rotting and monstrous corpse.
"What is that?" Zack asked, coughing through the stench.
"That," she said, staring at the creature with a decade's worth of hatred "Is a Darkspawn." But it wasn't quite right. It was a little too… mutated? The legs were wrong and the head had fleshy tendrils shooting up from it that she'd never seen before. But the corrupted flesh was unmistakable, as was the red fleshy tissue covering the inside of the pod.
Genesis and Sephiroth looked at it with a mixture of revulsion and fascination. Zack just looked confused so she elaborated.
"Someone lost to the Blight."
"That was a human?" He asked, looking back at the body in disgusted curiosity.
"Not anymore." She said grimly. There was nothing left to be done for those already lost. A swift blade was the only mercy left to them.
A deep moaning started, reverberating around the chamber. Four sets of weapons flashed out immediately, but there was no attack forthcoming. They looked around for the source when a harsh banging sounded and Hawke realised it was coming from inside one of the pods.
There was a creak as hinges that had been welded shut strained to open. Glass smashed on one of the pods below them and the moaning became a chorus of growls that reverberated through the chamber.
Pod doors tore open, the hinges torn right off, and darkspawn started climbing out. Long clawed limbs, thick chittanous hide and eyes that glowed from too much mako. They streamed out, screaming from the pods and tearing towards the humans. There must have been more than one in most of the pods because there were dozens of them swarming in a mad frenzy. The screams and bellows echoed deafeningly around the reactor, making it sound as though the enemy was everywhere.
"Well done, Zack." Genesis sneered, readying his sword and staring down the charging horde.
The monsters were unarmed but vicious, large and bulky hurlocks lashing out with claws and razor sharp fangs. Having marinated in mako for so long had made them far stronger than the darkspawn of Thedas.
Hawke slashed at the first charging hurlock with her dagger but it barely broke through its hide. Stepping back she drew her staff and turned to magic. She sincerely wished to gut whoever had the bright idea to chemically enhance darkspawn. Unlike any normal animals they didn't stagger when cut or pay any mind to their own wounds that bled freely, they just kept attacking until the last of their limbs were hacked off.
And yet, as mindless as they appeared they fought intelligently. They immediately cut off the stairway, blocking it with their dead and trapping the humans on the platform. Hawke hadn't seen them this organized since Ostagar and fought all the harder for it.
The fight was quick and brutal. She cast as quickly as she could, lightning forking out from her staff and electrocuting strings of enemies. Beside her Genesis was alternating between slicing through the hurlocks and setting them on fire. Zack had just his sword and a shield materia and he made good use of both.
Sephiroth's katana whistled through the air ruthlessly, massacring the monsters with brutal efficiency. The hurlocks had picked him out as the primary target, swarming around him and latching onto his limbs.
Black blood sprayed in great arcs with the swing of blades, drenching them all. It plastered her hair to her face and her hands were sticky with it. Just the sight of it made Hawke want to panic but you could only catch the Blight through an open wound and there wasn't time to explain and she was pretty sure everyone but herself was already infected. They fought on, the steps running with black.
There wasn't enough room to manoeuvre and the edge of the platform fell away to the black void of the Reactor's core. There was barely room on the platform for one soldier to fight properly, let alone three plus a staff wielding apostate. They couldn't carve through their opponents without fear of wounding each other. The darkspawn kept pressing against them from all sides.
Snarling in frustration, Genesis turned and blasted straight through the sealed doorway behind them. The hordes screamed and leapt after him.
Behind the door was something that had Hawke staggering in surprise. Even the darkspawn faltered at its sight.
Towering over them was a giant metal effigy, suspended at the top of a large mako pipe. It was a winged monstrosity in the shape of a woman that looked like some kind of pagan idol. It was set up in front of a containment tank, hiding whatever floated within the green liquid. Only the ends of long silver hair were visible from the sides of the figure.
Was this it? Was this the archdemon plaguing the Fade?
The darkspawn screamed anew in its presence and attacked in a ferocious frenzy.
Around her own fight Hawke caught sight of Genesis fighting off several hurlocks. His strikes were missing the steady precision they had just before opening the new chamber; it looked like he was trying to edge away from the effigy and back into the other room. A quick glance showed Sephiroth had also lost some of his effortless grace, his attacks ragged and unsteady all of a sudden.
"Is that it?" Zack panted, ducking beneath his foe's strike. "Is that the demon thing?" He was closest to the metal statue and fighting in its shadow.
"Behind it." Genesis called breathlessly, slicing the claws off a Hurlock and kicking it back. "She's controlling them." He glanced quickly at it before looking away, sweat beading on his forehead.
Zack decapitated his opponent then turned and charged up the pipe towards the tank.
"Wait, no, Zack don't-" Hawke shouted, Sephiroth yelling out for him to stop as well, reaching out to stop him but the boy was already out of his reach.
He smacked into the metallic statue with his full force.
The figure was slammed back, smashing through the tank and crushing whatever it held. Zack jumped back immediately to avoid the explosion of glass and mako. The flesh was so corroded from years of mako exposure that it disintegrated into sludge on impact, stringy bits of tissue splattered on the pipes around it. The broken effigy lay in the wreckage of the tank, discoloured mako sliding down the sides. There wasn't even a corpse left.
For a moment nobody moved, even the darkspawn stood still. Hawke watched the Hurlock closest to what had been Jenova, the one Sephiroth had been fighting, waiting for it to transform.
But it wasn't changing.
Maybe… maybe it really was that easy?
"Well, that wasn't so difficult." Zack said, turning back from where he stood on the pipe.
A hope she had denied for so long snuck in, that for once everything had just worked out and nobody had-
Sephiroth cried out in agony. He clutched his head and stumbled back. The darkspawn all turned to him but didn't attack; they were looking up at him as though-
As though awaiting orders.
With a wrenching gasp the General stopped shaking, stilling completely. The sounds of battle had been replaced by a deafening silence as everyone held their breath. Sephiroth stood at his full height, his blade bloody in his hand. He looked back at Hawke and the two Soldiers, his expression completely empty, except for a twisted mirth that hid behind his eyes.
"Sephiroth?" Genesis asked cautiously.
"You ignorant traitors." He said, his voice low and reverberating with a power that wasn't his.
Zack looked at him in shock, uncomprehending. Genesis understood though and he looked as though he'd been struck. Hawke felt a stab of bitter regret and then cast the most powerful shield she could.
The Darkspawn charged, swarming Hawke and Zack. A second later Sephiroth's katana swung at Genesis.
Genesis leapt out of range, too shocked to do anything but get out of the way. He and Sephiroth had fought endlessly but never seriously. Not like this. A vicious blow threw him out of Jenova's chamber and he caught himself again halfway down the stairs.
Sephiroth flew after him, the blade of Masamune swinging sharply and he parried just in time. He rolled to get out of the way and then parried again and again.
This was no friendly spar.
This couldn't be how it ended. He refused for it to end like this. Genesis had envied Sephiroth, resented him, and at the height of his degradation he'd even come close to hating him. Having to face him in real combat now made him realise that this was a friendship he'd always taken for granted.
The look in Sephiroth's eyes was cold and empty and his strikes held nothing back. It was as though he didn't even recognize him. Or he just didn't care.
Meeting his eyes over crossed blades he didn't recognize the man he was fighting. This wasn't the quiet but opinionated General he'd argued with since the day he'd met him. This was something else, something far worse than the monster the people of Wutai had spoken of in hushed tones during the war.
This was Jenova.
"Dammit Sephiroth, snap out of it!" he yelled, blocking a heavy swing. "Don't give in to her!" He stumbled back and barely cast a barrier in time. No matter how strong and fast his enhancements had made him, his old friend was much stronger and infinitely faster.
They leapt about the chamber, the fight growing more vicious. Genesis took hits and failed to return them.
He railed at Sephiroth for giving in so quickly, desperately ordered him to remember himself.
The General didn't falter, he didn't even blink.
Finally, pride forgotten, he begged him not to do this.
His cries of protest at his friend's betrayal wilted away in the face of such a merciless attack. He remembered with stark clarity that he'd never actually beaten the General in a one on one fight.
Getting desperate Genesis threw a flurry of fire balls at him. Most Sephiroth just dodged but it gave him a break from the unending assault. Sephiroth retaliated with energy strikes that sliced through huge mako pipes and the reactor walls all of which Genesis dodged. He threw a simple entropic spell at him, one of the few non materia based spells that he had managed to pick up.
The possessed man cried out in pain, staggering back for a moment and Genesis seized the opening. Abandoning his materia he instantly focused on the odd array of simple magical attacks Hawke had shown him. They were draining and required untold focus, but as Sephiroth had never faced such magic before he didn't know how to defend against it.
The General gritted his teeth though and charged again. He practically flew at him, sword whistling through the air at impossible speeds. Genesis strained under the weight of the assault, his blade shaking under such a blow. The strain was wearing him down and he didn't know long he could keep this up. Sephiroth knew his fighting style far too well and Hawke's magic was draining him too quickly.
Suddenly he felt his energy return, a rush of strength flooding his limbs. A rejuvenation spell? A quick glance at Hawke showed her blasting the darkspawn against the reactor walls. It didn't feel like her mana anyway.
The faintest smell of flowers wafted through the air.
Realisation dawned but his moment of distraction had cost him. Sephiroth bashed him in the gut with the hilt of his blade, sending him stumbling back. He charged after him, sword flashing.
The blow didn't fall though. Zack stood before the General, holding Masamune back with his trembling standard issue Soldier sword.
Before Sephiroth could strike down at the boy Genesis leapt up and slashed at him, giving Zack time to gather himself and join the fray. Sephiroth danced between the two of them, sword swinging lightning fast between strikes and parries.
Zack was actually very good, Genesis noted. Angeal had taught him well.
Sephiroth was pushed back but he didn't falter. He growled at the change in the fight and leapt away from them, holding back for just a moment.
In the split second before the two soldiers charged after him, a giant wing sprung out from his back. Where Genesis' wing was a sooty black that consumed light, this was a silken shiny black. And unlike Angeal's, there was no blood on it.
The General instantly took to the air, flying overhead and raining energy strikes down from above.
Two could play at that game and Genesis followed him, angling his own wing and continuing the fight in the air. But Zack was left on the ground and the fight was again one on one.
"Get down!" Hawke yelled suddenly. Genesis instantly folded his wing and dropped to the ground. A massive electrical storm formed in the air, catching Sephiroth in its grip and burning straight through his barriers. Bolts of lightning jumped between metals pipes and girders, striking furiously at him and forcing him to the ground.
Sephiroth landed, his wing scorched and twitching. He sneered at the mage standing at the top of the platform, covered in blood and surrounded by darkspawn corpses. Genesis and Zack stood between them.
The three Soldiers charged.
Hawke stood above the melee and cast spell after spell, lightning and fire shaking the very air. Genesis and Zack held their own but barely. She'd heard the rumours of the Great Silver General and assumed them all to be exaggerated. This was not a good time to be proven wrong.
She also understood why Jenova didn't bother turning into a dragon.
He didn't know how to fight her magic though which was the only saving grace, but the man could take one hell of a beating. He shook off a horror spell like it was nothing while most would have fallen to the ground weeping. Between fighting off Zack and Genesis he threw magic at her that even she couldn't recognize. She didn't know if it was some power Jenova gave or if he just had remarkable materia but it kept her on her toes and her barrier a constant.
She sent a massive gravity spell at him, slowing him down drastically. Genesis and Zack wrestled themselves the upper hand in the melee. Lightning strikes and gnawing ice gripped at Sephiroth's limbs, throw off his aim. Jenova was not going to leave this Reactor, not inside Sephiroth, or anyone else. She wouldn't let it. Hawke descended halfway down the stairs, placing the entire chamber within range. Her staff swung in her hands.
Healing and support runes started to spring up on the ground around them as they fought. The wounds she'd picked up against the darkspawn stopped bleeding, the gnawing ache on her chest from a vicious claw reduced to a mere sting. The Veil fluttered and she recognized whose mana was streaming out around them. Sephiroth snarled at the change, looking around for the source of the new magic.
Aerith was still safe in Midgar though. She was going to be having stern words with the Cetra afterwards, but for now she was just grateful. Genesis and Zack's wounds were patching up and their energy returning. This was not the end.
Then Sephiroth sliced right through Zack's guard.
The younger Soldier staggered back under the blow, his sword flying from his hand. Before Hawke could summon a shield spell or Genesis could intercept him the General stabbed Zack straight through the abdomen.
"No!" She cried out, the spell she'd been crafting sputtering out uselessly. Genesis slashed at Sephiroth but it was too late. Zack fell as the Masamune was torn out of him. He collapsed onto the cold metal, red blossoming through his armour.
With a yell of rage Hawke threw a huge kinetic blast, flinging Sephiroth back against the far wall like a ragdoll. From the corner of her eye she saw a healing rune light up around Zack. Twisting green symbols spun around him in a swirl that she barely recognised. Still focusing on the enemy she raised her arms and summoned up a massive cloud of entropy, corroding mists that stung and clawed and threatened to break him into nothing but dust. She added a whirling Abyss spell that spun around the General, pulling him in and holding him in the eye of the storm. Sephiroth screamed.
Finally the raging maelstrom finally settled. Hawke could barely hear over her own panting. In the centre of where she had summoned the spell, in a ruined crater of twisted metal, stood Sephiroth.
He was breathing harshly and torrents of his own blood dripped down his arms, running the length of his sword still gripped tightly in his left hand. His ragged breaths echoed around the chamber and the rage in his eyes could have burned through anything.
He stretched out his right hand. Hawke threw her strongest barrier around herself and Genesis.
She felt the Veil stutter, pulling oddly towards their enemy. Panic welled up suddenly within her at, what was he doing? How was-
With a great cry Sephiroth clenched his fist and drew his hand back as though tearing something.
The Veil ripped open.
Raw magic flooded in from nowhere and everywhere, the green swirling energy of the Fade supplanting the metal walls of the reactor. Just as the sudden and inexplicable assault of unformed magic became unbearable Hawke felt her physical body collapse.
The Fade swirled around her.
A/N: For anyone who played Inquisition and is wondering about the logistics of that last bit, I urge you to remember that Gaia plays by it's own rules, and also I'd already plotted this out before DA:I released. Also, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment! I'll love you forever if you do, and I'll forgive you if you don't.
Next Time: Dreaming...