Disclaimer: fanfiction, no own
Bombing Mission
Running down the long, twisting road, Sephiroth found himself coming up against a virtual wall of terrified people heading in the opposite direction. Not that he blamed them of course, this situation was nothing like any of them had suspected and it was probably only going to get worse before it got better. Not something that he wanted to consider but when faced with death it was best to laugh and welcome the old friend who had been waiting for you since birth. Skidding to a halt on a bridge, he glanced around, mainly to get his bearings and suddenly realised something. There were virtually no Solider troops running through the crowd or holding key locations. There were people, hundreds upon thousands of terrified people but no Shinra guards and grunts trying to maintain the peace. "What is going on here?" he whispered before deciding to move off once again.
However before he could even move a couple of feet, a searing hot red pain shot through his skull and the world around him began to turn a violent red colour, There you are my missing child. We shall see how much resistance you can put up when faced with my wrath.
Letting out a scream, Sephiroth felt as though he were trapped in some form of small pocket of reality, like a bubble, where only pain, torture and the honey dripping evil voice existed. It spoke words that became lost as his mind tried to lock itself down and protect itself but there was still understanding deep within his soul. Kill them all, they did this to you. Make them pay for every life that they destroyed and become my beautiful one winged angel.
His skin began to burn from inside and he felt an insane, deadly anger begin to seep forth. It was next to impossible to understand but suddenly he hated Shinra, he hated Hojo with a passion and he hated the world. They had let him be created this way and they had done nothing to prevent the situation in the slightest. What is most precious to you? the voice asked, so sweetly in his head once more and without his bidding the memories of his mother, his father, his best friend and his little sister rushed through his mind. All of the good times, all of the bad times, bringing tears to his eyes and a burning sensation, where the large dark mark which had marred him for some time, ripped along his back and down his forearms.
Give me the pleasure of taking it all away from you.
Vincent Chaos's voice broke through the carnage once more, sounding concerned and unusually worried for a personification of malice I would recommend that you find your son as quickly as possible.
Barely even pausing as he sent another wave of shots towards the door keepers to the reactor, Vincent knew he couldn't ignore the other when he spoke like that. Just he had to pick the most inopportune moment to raise the concern. Why, what's the matter?
There was a pause, almost as if the creature was thinking of the best way to describe the situation. In the end he only spoke one word, one tiny little word which would be enough to strike fear deep into the heart of the man who had lived through so many different battles with evil over the long years of his life. Chaos was good at the screaming and yelling but justification and rationalisation were definitely not his strong points in the slightest. Still the word he chose this time covered every last standing that Vincent needed without being over eloquent or riddlesome.
The word that Chaos spoke to Vincent was simply; Jenova
From high above the planet, the Goddess Cosmos stared down at the battle wondering how it had all come to this. Her hands were clasped in front of her, almost like she was praying whilst her long shimmering hair moved back and forth in a gentle breeze filled with concern, anguish and anxiety. "Please, they have to win else my path will prove to be futile."
"It is possible for you to change the circumstances, My Lady Cosmos," Izarra's voice crept into the great goddess's hearing though the creature did not show herself, "Your planets weapons have done that they can but I fear that it will take some greater intervention to bring this battle out to the best of your wishes."
Cosmos shook her head, "I cannot interfere until the time is right."
"Chaos interfered," the point was made with no real scathing remarks but there was a bit of a tease directed towards the Goddess.
A half smile formed on the shimmering maiden's lips, "He is merely a part of this planet and is not my eternal rival. He came from me to do the bidding and play his role out…I grant you that I did not expect him to grow a sense of passion but -"
"She will try to take the boy, turn this world into a vessel to capture the rest of the worlds and make them all her slaves with no alliance to you or Chaos. I know that you are merciful but there are times when being cruel and devious is the only path available my lady," Izarra spoke gently, seeming to speak from the depths of the grave even though she was standing only a few feet behind.
"Do you speak as a force for evil or a force for good?" Cosmos challenged, still not turning around to face Izarra in the slightest.
There was a long pause for a few seconds, and then a slight swirling mist of no discernable colour appeared on the table in front of Cosmos. Slowly a large map appeared, showing a large landscape with various towns and cities marked upon it. Small representations of figures appeared, some bathed in white whilst others where in darker shades of red, purple and black. The figures hand appeared next in the goddess's view, the two bone dice resting in between them. "I am merely a figure on a map in an ongoing game, only the dice decide my fate and they are rolled by yourself and Chaos. This world is no different from the plight down there and if it is not redirected then…"
"He will win ultimately and plunge the universe into an inescapable void," Cosmos muttered, gently taking the dice from the other's hand. They immediately turned into clear shimmering marble with golden numbers and symbols which remained fixed and perfectly formed. "I cannot loose what I set out to create…this is not interference, this is a choice between saving one world to change the fates of many others."
Throwing the two dice up high, Cosmos and Izarra watched as they crashed back onto the table top, rolled back and forth, clashed into one another and then landed still and silent. The golden numbers showed clearly enough, "A double One…it is indeed an unfortunate day but one that is necessary."
"Bombs all ready, high tail out of here!" Barrett yelled, dragging Yuffie out with him whilst the others were already twenty steps ahead of him. The countdown would give them just enough time to get out of the reactor unit but not completely clear of the blast zone.
Leaping clear of the doorway when it presented itself, Zack tumbled to the ground in order to protect Aerith from the fireball that ripped outwards before pulling himself upright and twisting suddenly at hearing yet another reactor go on the opposite side of Midgar. He grinned, "All right, only two left in operation! We're going to do this baby…" his words floundered in his throat as the young Ancient pointed up in terror towards the sky, her large green eyes wide and filled with something that he could not quite identify.
Twisting he stared at the long tendrils of dark red lightening that filled up the sky above, forming a long and complicated net that was slowly winding its way into a long column like a tornado as it headed downwards. The air around him appeared to freeze and yet burn at the same time, "What is it?"
"I don't know," Aerith replied, "But it appeared just after that."
Barrett cursed as he stared upwards, seeing another long winding cloud coming down bar this one was grey and black. Distantly he thought he could hear wailing and moaning somewhere but it was impossible to focus upon. Immediately he grabbed his PHS and dialled the first number he could find for the other team. "Cloud! Get your butts moving, something big is about to go down in Midgar and it's not going to be caused…"
There came another explosion, this time from way to the north which indicated that Cloud and Tifa had been successful in detonating their bomb whilst to the south there was also a plume of fire into the air which said that the trio along with Eisa had managed to activate the self destruct on the last reactor. For a long moment there was a harrowing silence throughout the whole of Midgar before two distinct screams, both recognisable yet completely alien to the entire group raced through the air, sending sharp spikes of hot horror and cold dread through them all.
"They're not supposed to battle," Aerith whispered gently, "They're not supposed to be together."
"Who?" Zack asked, trying to rid himself of the horror and finding that it froze his heart.
Aerith slowly turned to him, large glassy tears falling down her face, "Sephiroth and Eisa…they're not meant to be brother and sister…they're not meant to exist here in this reality. She comes from another place, a whole different existence. If they are each others salvation they destroy our world, if they destroy one another they change everything…"
"Bombs set! Let's move," Loz said, hurrying away from the device and nearly colliding with Vincent who strangely appeared to be out of his depth but quickly they were moving once again. It didn't take long for the self destruct to go off, but Eisa was there to protect them with a barrier spell. "Right, time to go and meet up with the others right?" the silver haired boy said with a grin which Eisa nodded to before realising that her father was moving away in the wrong direction.
"Father?" she asked, taking a couple of steps towards him and barely paying attention to the sudden increase of pain from her own geostigma, "We're supposed to meet up with the others in"
Vincent paused, "I know…but I have to find your older brother. Something is not right with him."
Loz swung his gunblade over his shoulder, "No worries, we can easily swing by and give Sephiroth a hand."
"No, you stay with Eisa and make sure that you both meet up with the rest of Avalanche. We'll catch up as soon as we can," he didn't know why but there was something in the air which made Vincent feel edgy. He wanted to run to his son but at the same time there was something making him want to remain with his daughter. She has Loz, she will be fine. Sephiroth is alone Vinny, we haven't got time to dawdle!
The young teens exchanged a glance before Eisa simply shrugged, "We'll tell them when we meet up. If worse comes to the worst we'll be in front of the Shinra building if we're not at the meeting place."
Turning back to glance over his shoulder, Vincent smiled briefly at his daughter but couldn't shake the feeling that this would be one of the last times that he would see her like this. He nodded and set off at a brisk pace, which meant he was out of sight within a few moments.
Loz glanced at Eisa, "What's the matter with Vincent?"
The girl shrugged in return, "I have no idea…come on, we best get a move on unless we want to face the hordes of Babylon by ourselves."
Soon the pair were running through the now virtually empty streets which was making even less sense as Hojo appeared to be quite happy to make them all wait for the big master plan that he had. Well whatever the old monster was up to they had no complaints as it gave them time to quickly sort out some pilfered armour as well as down a few replenishment drinks to make the upcoming battle a whole lot more comfortable to deal with.
Realising after maybe two hundred yards that Eisa was no longer beside him, Loz turned back to see that the black haired girl had stopped to stare up at a angel statue. "Eisa!" he called, waiting for her to look at him before signalling that she should follow him. He was surprised when all she did was go back to looking at the statue. Quickly he hurried back and tried to latch onto her arm, "Eisa? What's the matter?"
"Whose Eisa?" the girl asked, turning her usually red eyes onto Loz's only but he found himself shocked to see that they were a blanched white with a silver pupil, "I do not recall that name ever being associated with me."
Loz backed up half a step, even the voice was wrong. It was raw and rough, almost as if the speaker hadn't drank anything for a very long time. Somehow he knew that it was still his Eisa he was looking at but something was happening to her. He reached out and pulled her away from the statue on instinct, amazed to see her revert back to her usual self but looking utterly terrified.
"Eisa!" he tried to hug her, despite the fact that she had collapsed to her knees in groaning pain, "What's going on?"
"Run," the word came out breathy and the girl sounded like she had just ran several hundred miles, "Get away from me Loz!"
The white haired youth found himself pushed backwards, virtually half way down the street and just barely got to a stop before he saw the dark red looking vines tornadoing down towards Eisa. Before he could get into a crouched position to rush towards the girl, the child had looked up and seen the vines before letting out a scream filled with terror and determination. Suddenly there were matching red lines on her body, following the path of the geostigma and visible even through her clothing. The vines floundered for maybe a second before suddenly diving onto the girl and a dazzling red glow filled the street, forcing Loz to close his eyes.
When he opened them, Eisa was gone.
