Hi. Ok, I said I was gonna take a break for a while but I decided to quickly put this chapter up. So… read and tell me what you think! And I do not own Final Fantasy VII.
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Chapter 9
We walked out of the barn into the storm and I hardly even noticed the cold weather. But standing in the rain made me feel a little better about what had happened. It was too late to complain about that now.
"This feels way too different", I said.
"I know. But you have to get used to it", Cloud replied.
We kept walking toward the castle. We still didn't know what we were going to do when we got there, but we still needed to find Sephiroth. The anger I had toward him was raging inside me. At least now I had the strength to fight him. I felt something sharp in my mouth and I stopped walking. Cloud turned around.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Fangs. I actually have fangs", I said with a worried expression on my face.
"It's okay, Aeris. You'll get used to it", he said.
"Wait a second, you don't have fangs", Darius said.
"Yes, I do. You just can't see them because all vampires have an ability to hide them", Aeris replied.
"Okay then, let me see them", he said.
"You might get scared. I don't want to scare you away", she said smiling.
"Please? I won't get scared", he said. She laughed.
"Okay, but you'll regret it", she replied. She flashed her fangs at him and his eyes widened.
"Woah. Okay, remind me to never ask you to do that again, alright?" he said, obviously shaken. She looked down and laughed.
"Alright", she said with a smile.
"Okay, back to the story", he said trying to calm down.
"We continued to walk and I began to sense things around me. They were miles away but I still felt their presence. They were things like birds and other wild animals. It became quite distracting and I found out that I could block these feelings out completely. We eventually came upon the moat that was around the castle and the drawbridge was up.
"How are we going to get across?" I asked. Cloud looked straight ahead.
"We'll jump", he said.
"Jump?! Are you crazy?" I asked. "No one could get over that!" He looked at me.
"Are you sure about that?" I nodded. "Watch", he said. He took a running start and he leapt off the ground. He flew over the moat and landed easily on the other side. "Your turn, Aeris", he said.
"I-I can't do that", I said, visibly scared.
"Yes, you can", he said back to me.
"No, I can't", I said backing away.
"Aeris, it will take a while before you can truly understand how powerful you are now. But I know for sure that you can jump if you just tried."
I finally just stopped thinking and I started running. Right at the end of the ledge, I jumped and I easily flew across to the other side.
"See? I told you", he said.
"Wow, that was almost too easy", I said looking at him.
"Yeah. Now let's look for a way to get in."
We walked around the castle and we found an open window. We jumped through it and looked around.
"Oh my God, what happened here?" I asked.
"I don't know", he answered slowly.
The room had been destroyed and there was blood everywhere. It was then that Cloud realized which room it was. He walked over to the bed that had been ripped apart.
"This is my parents' room", he whispered. He closed his eyes. He looked like he was trying to sense a presence. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and looked down. "Th-they're dead", he replied.
"Are you absolutely sure?" I asked. He nodded.
"There's not one living person in this whole castle", he said. "Let's keep going."
All of a sudden, both of us sensed something at the same time. Whatever it was, it scared me.
"What is that?" I asked.
"I think we found him", he said quietly. He walked over to me. "Okay, you have to try to learn how to block your thoughts from everyone around you", he said. "If you don't, Sephiroth could find us before we find him."
I tried blocking my thoughts. "Like that?" I asked. "Can you read my mind now?"
"Okay, stay like that. Let's go", he said. He took my hand and we walked out of the room. We went into another room that was full of weapons.
"If we're going to fight Sephiroth, we're going to need weapons", he said. "I have my sword. What do you use?" he asked. I never used a weapon before so I looked around to see what I could easily use. Finally I chose to take a staff that was leaning against the wall in the corner.
"I'll take this", I said.
We walked out of the room and into the hallway. The whole castle seemed to be in bad shape. Things were scattered across the floor and the stone walls had holes. We entered the main hall and we looked around.
"He's in here somewhere", Cloud whispered. Even when he whispered, his voice echoed through the hall. It was the biggest room in the castle so Sephiroth could've been anywhere. We kept walking and I became even more scared. It was just too quiet. The only things we heard were the rain silently hitting the walls and the low rumble of the thunder. A sudden gust of wind blew in through the window and all candles except for one went out. The room went dark. I tried to feel for Cloud's hand.
"Cloud? Where are you?" I whispered into the darkness. Only silence answered.
"Cloud, can you hear me?" I said a little bit louder. I turned around and I saw a faint outline of a figure walking toward me. I began to walk toward the person when a flash of lightning lit the room. I easily saw who it was. I froze in fear.
"Sephiroth", I whispered. He stopped walking and all of a sudden, all the candles in the room lit up again. I looked for Cloud and he wasn't in the room. I was still too scared to move.
"You look familiar", he said to me. He walked up to me.
"I should!" I yelled without thinking. Right after that, I knew that was a mistake. I held the staff tight in my hands. He looked into my eyes and I felt my mind being looked into.
"You're the little girl", he said finally. "Yes, I recognize the pendant". I notice that he was curious about me being a vampire, so he read my mind again. I tried to block him but he was too powerful. It almost hurt when he did that.
"So, the brat prince made you", he said.
"Brat prince?" I asked.
"Yes. He thought he was too good for my daughter", he replied. "But that shouldn't matter to you. I am surprised you made it this far in life. But you gave it all up just to be with him?"
"Yes", I replied. He laughed.
"Foolish girl", he replied. "I have no time to hear your pathetic words, so I shall kill you quickly", he said as he raised his sword over his head. "You are no challenge for me".
I closed my eyes and awaited my death. But then I heard Cloud.
"Aeris, no!"
I quickly turned around and I felt Sephiroth's sword enter my back and go through my heart.
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Ok, that chapter was horrible in my opinion. But I guess it has more action than the other chapters. Although I don't know if that's a good thing! ^_~ Sephiroth is pretty mean in this story, huh? I was originally working on a different fic where Sephiroth turns into a good guy, but I put that one on hold for a while so I could write this story. To answer Chaos Winged Mage's question, if I get a good idea about a chapter, I quickly type it up. I've been getting lots of ideas lately so I kept adding chapters. But the chapters are also a little short! If I wanted to write a really excellent story, I would probably take a few weeks for each chapter also! But I have lots of plans for this story so it shouldn't turn out that bad. I also have a plan with other stories but I'm not saying anything just yet! But, anyway, gotta go!
Yunalesca Strife ^_^
