Disclaimer: The characters, items, places etc of Final Fantasy VII are property of Squaresoft Ltd. These objects are used without permission for entertainment only, not for making money. No infringement is intended.
This has shonen-ai in it and at least the implication of yaoi. If you don't like or can't tolerate that then don't read.
Oh, and if Sephiroth seems too much OOC, just remember that he is Cloud, and that Cloud is Cloud. ^_^ hehehe! You can work it out. The other thing is, Sephiroth's Cloud would have initially been older than Cloud, otherwise the timeline doesn't work, no matter how hard you twist it. This is set after the end of the game.
:: :: Conversation happening in someone's head.
~ * ~
The Other World
By Jade Tatsu
Chapter 5 - Summoning
Sephiroth jolted awake. He hadn't been talking to Cloud and so wasn't resentful of his current state. Besides which something was telling him that it was time to act. He peered around. It was night, or at least he thought it was and the lab was filled with gloom. Light was provided by random sources meaning everything was black and white and fuzzy. There were two points of colour, one soft circle of pink light surrounding the summon materia and a halo of green around Cloud's tank. The body was being matured so for the moment Jenova was asleep.
::It's time,:: something whispered to him, so softly he couldn't identify the voice.
But that was not important. It was time. He had to act now, while the lab was empty. Sephiroth moved to the bottom of his tank and then, after another brief glance around closed his eyes and extended his senses. A slight frown creased his forehead as he concentrated. He hadn't used these particular abilities in a while. They were the power Jenova's cells gave him and he only hoped that his use of them did not wake her up but there was no other way.
::Move! Or it will be too late!:: There was no mistaking the urgency in the voice and brushing dimly through the back of Sephiroth's mind was the thought that he should recognise it, even through the whisper.
I'm moving, I'm moving, Sephiroth replied as he opened his eyes and stared intently at the locking mechanisms, willing them to open. Physically he braced himself for the sudden rush, the draining of the liquid, the burning cold it would bring and the pain as he expelled it from his lungs. That was the worst. Humans just weren't meant to breathe the liquid and getting rid of it always left his throat and lungs feeling bruised for days.
With a soft click, the door sprung open with a spectacular spray of green liquid, splattering several work benches and generally flooding a small section of the lab. You were meant to drain these tanks before opening them.
Sephiroth was pulled out with the liquid and eventually came to rest in a puddle and quivered, trying to suppress the shudders that racked his body, trying to remain silent even as he coughed and hacked and gagged as he expelled the liquid. After a little while, when he was sure he could move without falling, he rose and looked around again. Apart from a slightly glowing green slick that covered his section of the lab it didn't look like anything had changed. So far no one had noticed his escape. Cloud was still asleep, there were no klaxons blaring and no lights flashing. It was eerily quiet but also very suspicious. Surely they would have had some sort of trigger mechanism on the lock? Telekinesis was one ability he had been documented as having from the beginning.
::Use the time you've got then. Move!:: That voice almost shouted at him and this time it was hauntingly familiar. He should know it. ::Move!:: It yelled again, cutting off his thoughts.
Sephiroth moved, paying no heed to the glowing trail he was leaving as he walked into the soft light created by the summon materia. He'd known what he had to do as soon as he woke up, as soon as Reeve had asked him about it. He reached out for it, whispering into the darkness, "No Reeve. I don't expect any of my friends to use it. I'm the only one who can." His hand closed over the red orb and he gasped in surprise as his vision went red. This wasn't what a summon was meant to do.
He was looking at himself in the North Crater, Ultima Weapon held before him. His friends stood around him, their weapons similarly barred and spells flickering through their fingers as they waited for a firm target to unleash them on. Slowly, as if emerging from mist, a figure made its way towards them. They were armed, a long thin sword cut the air before them and he, Sephiroth could see that the figure was male as he came closer, was dressed in a blue ShinRa uniform that was, despite the passage of time, immaculate. Blonde hair jutted up in uncontrolled spikes. Cloud.
He flicked his eyes over them and then smiled but it was like a predator and not the Cloud he knew. "So Sephiroth," he spoke. "You've come. Who are these?" With his free hand Cloud gestured towards Avalanche.
"We're the ones who are going to kick your butt into eternity!" Barret snarled, his sentiments echoed by the others.
Cloud laughed. He'd always been so confident. "That remains to be seen." Cloud turned his attention back to Sephiroth, giving him a look that was so questioning but so loving that spirit Sephiroth almost felt his heart break. It still hurt. "Can you do this?" Cloud asked him. "Can you really do this?"
"Hold it together," Cid admonished, his eyes like flint, never leaving Cloud.
"Well Sephiroth?" Cloud obviously wanted an answer. "Can you? Can you really drive your sword through me? You'll break your vow. You'll kill me when you promised to keep me safe."
No! This never happened! Spirit Sephiroth screamed at the vision. Cloud never said this. He never... He never mentioned the vow. He called him 'his son.' It was only Jenova.
::Shut up and watch. This is a vision of what could have been.::
No! I don't want to see it. This is what could have been, not what was.
::You have to see it, you have to know. This is still what could be if you don't stop Jenova. There is enough of Cloud still there, very deep for this to possibly happen. It is not all of Cloud, it is not the best part of Cloud but rather the body's memory of the soul that should inhabit it. It is not Cloud but it would behave like a twisted version Cloud and so you must see this.::
Reluctantly spirit Sephiroth looked back at the tableau being played out before him. He was a spirit watching the world, watching events so like the ones he remembered but so different and there was nothing he could do to change it.
Cloud had let several spells cast by Avalanche to hit him. His laughter could be heard within the dust they'd kicked up. "Please," he mocked them. "You don't think Wutai didn't try that?" He emerged from the dust, not a single point of hair out of place. "But it looks like I've missed one of them," he added, narrowed eyes focusing on Yuffie.
A sudden sadistic smile flickered across his face. A smile Sephiroth had never seen, not even on Jenova. No! Dread filled him. He knew what was going to happen. Yuffie, run! Spirit Sephiroth tried to scream, forgetting he was only here as a watcher and that physically he was back in the lab and could do nothing to change this. Run, now!
Cloud spoke again, addressing only Yuffie. "It's customary to exchange name and rank before a battle," he said in a polite civilised tone. "My name is Cloud Strife. I am ShinRa's General," he completed the formula.
Yuffie looked back in disbelief before she struck a pose. "Ya right," she said. "I gotta know who I beat so I can claim the right victory. The name's Yuffie Kisaragi. I'm the Heir to Wutai," she proclaimed grandly.
"Ah... Lord Godo's daughter," Cloud murmured. "So like your mother," he added jumping towards her, his eyes grinning at her stupidity. She'd left herself open naming herself. The ninja girl never had a chance. The only mercy was that it was quick. The Masamune slid cleanly through her left breast and she only had time to stare dumbly down at it, as a thin trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth. Cloud jumped back, not giving Tifa or Barret a chance to react and once the deadly support of his sword was gone, Yuffie collapsed, dead, into a small graceless heap.
"Not this victory, my child. Not for a thousand years."
Cloud's words finally sparked some response from the vision's Sephiroth. "Cloud, don't do this. This isn't you. Don't let Jenova win."
"Sephiroth, what's going on?" Cid questioned. He was suspicious. There was more to this fight than he knew about and he didn't like it.
"'Don't let Jenova win'?" Cloud questioned Sephiroth, ignoring Cid. "I haven't let her win. I won't let her win. And this will soon be over. There is just one more thing I need to take care of personally." Cloud's eyes fell on Tifa.
Even while he was speaking, he was fighting. They were all fighting. Spells were being hurled back and forth and there was the occasional clang as the Masamune locked with the weapons of his friends. Except for Yuffie the fight at least was how Sephiroth remembered it but as Cloud turned his attention to Tifa he felt his stomach sink. After Yuffie he didn't think it was possible. He was wrong. Of all the people of Avalanche Cloud would have something with Tifa. They grew up together.
No, Cloud. No! Spirit Sephiroth screamed as the vision's Sephiroth ran forward to attack Cloud. Cloud countered the attacks easily. He was not enraged, he was calm and logical in his fight, and he slowly drove Sephiroth back, before he once again turned back to Tifa.
"Tifa, my dear neighbour," he said in a voice that could have melted rock.
"Cloud," she responded but her voice betrayed her confusion. Why was he talking to her? They had been neighbour's so long ago.
"Do you remember that day?"
"Which day would that be?" She managed to maintain her composure. She was even trying to take Cait's share of attacking so that he could cast Life on the ninja. Yuffie was only dead if they couldn't get that spell cast and she wasn't about to let that happen. The girl, despite everything, was a friend. Besides which, no matter what he looked like, what he said, this wasn't Cloud. It was only a shell for something else.
"The day your mother died, of course. Which other day would I talk about? The day I left? That hardly holds emotion. The other one is so much more intense."
"What about it then?" She didn't know where this was going and everything she'd learnt about Cloud since he left indicated that she wouldn't like it. This was not the Cloud who'd left Nibelheim. This was not the one she knew.
"You remember, don't you, the way you climbed the mountain to see if your mother was there, the way I followed you when everyone else deserted you?"
"Yeah, I remember." Tifa was even more confused. These were things that had happened a long time ago. They were unpleasant but they weren't going to distract her.
"You'll understand soon Tifa," Cloud answered her unspoken questions indirectly as he flung a Flare spell towards Cait Sith, disrupting the Life spell the mog was casting. "You fell didn't you? At the Mt Nibel bridge you fell. I fell too but I didn't hurt myself, not then. My injuries came from someone else, didn't they?" The look he directed at her demanded an answer.
"I was in a coma for seven days," Tifa answered him. "I don't..." She frowned, readying an Ice 3 spell. "I don't remember." She cast it.
Cloud brushed the spell aside, or rather neutralised it with fire but that was nothing compared to his eyes. "But you do remember. You always remembered and that's what I want to know about. Why? Why didn't you tell them when you woke up what really happened, what really caused your injuries? I would still have been injured, I know but the truth would have been nice. Why did you let them continue to believe it was me?"
"I... Cloud... We were just kids!" Tifa managed to stammer.
"Old enough to know the consequences of truth. Or were you afraid? Why did you let them?" Cloud wasn't going to let the matter rest.
"Cloud... I... I couldn't. I just couldn't," Tifa said finally, tears streaming down her face. "Father was so angry, he wouldn't listen and I was afraid. I couldn't and it was you. I just couldn't. And after everything there never was the time."
"It was just me? The Cloud you could ignore. The Cloud you could make suffer because it was easier than taking responsibility for yourself. I followed you, Tifa. I trusted you... But that's all gone now and it's time for you to pay the price." Cloud jumped forward, slipping between Barret and Sephiroth to attack her.
He was brutally direct but at the same time he made it agonisingly slow. The Masamune flicked through several precise stokes. A deep cut in each arm before he jumped to the side and flicked his sword at her ankles. Hamstrung she screamed and fell to her knees. Spirit Sephiroth watched. He could do nothing more. He couldn't blame her companions for not helping her, Cloud was that fast. Tifa did manage to counter attack, a bolt of lightning springing directly from her into Cloud but he ignored it, or rather ignored the damage it did to him as he placed one more cut on her body before he jumped back barely missing deadly cuts from the visions Sephiroth and Nanaki.
Cloud resumed his place in front of them, a cold glee in his eyes. Tifa... Tifa had ignored the wounds inflicted upon her arms for the greater pain and was clutching her belly. But there was nothing she could do against the deadly presicion of that final stroke and already her shirt was stained red. With a strangled gurgling cry she fell, blood pouring from her mouth, trickling out of her nose and worse falling from her midsection. Her eyes locked on Cloud in one last silent appeal but he simply looked back no pity, no mercy in his gaze. "You had the chance, you did not take it."
"Cloud please!" The vision's Sephiroth still pleaded with Cloud. "Don't make me do this to you," he continued, his green eyes taking on a familar hardness. "It's only your body, I know, but it will still hurt. It isn't you I kill, it's Jenova."
Finally! Spirit Sephiroth thought. I finally worked it out!
"Isn't me?" Cloud questioned, disbelief in his tone. Black energy was beginning to form around him even as fought the combined attack of Avalanche. "You never did know me, not really." The voice was all Cloud's now and sounded slightly regretful. "You only saw what you wanted to see." Cloud discarded the blood slicked Masamune as the energy around him became a shield. He took a step forward, the Black Materia in hand. "But I forgive you," Cloud said, looking only at the vision's Sephiroth and continuing to walk forward. "You offered me love and you didn't let me be alone. I won't ever let you be alone," Cloud added as he reached the vision's Sephiroth.
With one swift move Cloud embraced him, dodging through his defenses and pulling him through the barrier and holding him close. The Ultima Weapon fell uselessly to the ground. "I won't ever let you be alone again." The black energy flared and even spirit Sephiroth felt the entire planet scream as Meteor fell.
NO! Spirit Sephiroth screamed. That didn't happen! It didn't happen. He came back to himself in a rush, gasping for breath and shivering in the lab.
::But it could have happened and it could still happen.::
"So?" Sephiroth was too busy remembering how to breath to ask anything really coherent.
::You have to stop it. You have to call the only one who can. Call him. Call him to this world before the events on his take him away.::
"Cloud?!" Sephiroth was instantly worried. That didn't sound good. I don't want to lose you again, he shivered. "Cloud!" The materia in his hand pulsed and sent out tendrils of red energy that locked onto his aura. Sephiroth gasped but did nothing to stop it as he felt his energy drain away, into the materia. Cloud. Come to me... I promise I will keep you safe. Cloud!
He was surrounded by grass, the wind was blowing, whipping his hair and snapping his clothing. Cloud stood before him, just out of reach looking at him with calm blue eyes. Sephiroth extended his hand, not bothering to hide his desire, his want, his need but he would not force him. "Cloud, come to me," he whispered. He smiled as Cloud began to lift his hand, ready to take his, ready to share his desire.
PAIN.
Sephiroth screamed as the world shattered around him. He had a glimpse of red shards flying everywhere before he fell, curling up, shaking in pain, darkness threatening his vision. It took him a minute to remember how to breath again and it was all he could do to lie there, sucking in huge lungfuls of air as the pain subsided. His vision cleared and he found himself looking into the barrels of several guns. He was surrounded. Sephiroth sighed and sat up slowly before he gasped, a wave of draining dizziness hitting him. His power was still draining away and his hands were streaming blood from several minor wounds the crystal shards of materia had caused.
Cloud looked over at him from his tank. "I don't know what you were doing, my son," Jenova's voice said. "However you had activated that materia but I have no interest in seeing this 'Lost Knight.' The battle is won, the materia is gone but do you know what happens to the summoned whose materia are destroyed mid way through summoning?" Jenova paused, waiting for an answer. When nothing came she continued. "They die. Ripped apart from within. Whatever it was Sephiroth, you just killed it."
"I... killed..." Blue eyes, glazed and dead. The stars reflected dully. A trickle of blood running to his chin. The spikes of hair drooping. "Killed... I... NO!" Sephiroth screamed again as the darkness closed in.
~ * ~
Cloud hid himself behind the Ultima Weapon's blade as a barrage of spells hit. He guessed the Turks were still pissed about those comets. He got a Regen spell cast upon himself and flung a Quake spell blindly from his makeshift cover. He could let them have it all one way.
They really mean business he reflected as a Fire spell sent heat waves around him. They didn't even stop to talk. There was a flash of lightning that didn't feel like magic. "Hey Reno! You still using that thing?" Cloud shouted. "Reeve cut your budget, did he?" If he could get them talking Elena was almost certain to blurt something out and right now he could use a lock on Reeves location.
"Shut up!" Reno said, directing a look at Elena.
Cloud grinned. So they did know something. Now to beat it out of them. He rolled around the blade, gripping the hilt of his weapon and jumped towards them. He directed a few swipes at each of them but they were wary and jumped away.
"Why don't you make this easy on yourself and just give up Strife?" Elena asked, trying to line up a lightning spell on him.
"Make what easy? I was happily living there. It was Reeve and you idiots who attacked me! And now I'm simply trying to see the sights of NEO Midgar and again you're getting in my way."
"You're a security risk to ShinRa and you don't even know it, Jenova's Puppet," Reno said, trying to angle around him but also cutting off whatever Elena was going to say.
Cloud blinked. "What did you say?" He asked slowly, carefully, sure he had heard wrong.
"I said Je-no-va's Pup-pet," Reno repeated grinning. "And you don't even know it."
Cloud closed his eyes as all three Turks fell back. This was apparently in their plan. Get him so angry he could not defend himself or place the doubt so that he would surrender himself.
Memories flooded Cloud. Five years of incredible pain with her sense in the background. Always she'd watched him, tying the strings to make him hers. Midgar Reactor #1, pain but a warning given. Nothing else just the warning. The Temple, that pain again but this time the strings were pulled and he couldn't fight, could only watch as his body gave Sephiroth the Black Materia they'd struggled so hard to get. The Altar. More pain than all the times before and this time the strings were pulled and then jerked in a desperate frustration as he cut some free. But I wasn't fast enough. I should have known She was there, waiting, just in case. The North Crater and all he had done, all the freedom was undone and the strings were tied tighter. But he'd broken free, after that, he'd cut all the strings, landing the final blow on the Sephiroth that was Jenova's. He'd cut that last string. There was no way he was still Jenova's. How dare they even suggest it? How dare they?
No, it's Reeve. The logic was simple. Reeve was going to pay for even suggesting it but first these idiotic Turks were going to pay. they were going to wish he was Jenova's because then he'd be merciful. ::I'll handle this. I'll show them what Jenova's Puppet can really do.:: Cloud's eyes opened, twin pools of icy blue rage and his lips bore a chilling half smile. The air around him snapped, alive with the spells he was casting and the Ultima Weapon had a Flare corona. They were going to pay.
~ * ~
Reno took a half step back as the air around Strife became literally alive with power. And his sword! He'd seen and fought Strife often and the boy had almost always had a different weapon but none of them had radiated energy. And this one was radiating the explosive power of a Flare. He spared a glance for Rude. The man could absorb fire but at this level was it still even fire?
Reeve, you *&^%$#) liar! You said Strife had gotten better but you forgot to mention he was about 50 *&^%$#@ levels above us. Reno really didn't need to use the yellow Sense materia that was in his hand. There was no way they were going to win. It wasn't luck that had brought Strife victory over Sephiroth as he'd assumed. It was sheer power. Sephiroth couldn't have stood against it and even if he was a power unto himself, Cloud probably equaled him.
I'll *&^%$#@ rip you apart myself Reeve, Reno thought, dodging and blocking spells for all he was worth. There was absolutely no thought to attack and the other Turks were similarly encumbered by Cloud's magic. Thankfully though, the blonde hadn't gone for his sword yet. I don't think any of us would survive that but how the *&^% do we get away?
As Reno ducked and weaved, doing his best to ignore or treat the hits that got through there was no answer forth coming.
~ * ~
Tifa ran. She didn't care that ShinRa would see her progress through Neo Midgar. That didn't matter. Cloud needed her. Cloud needed them. The other members of Avalanche pounded through the streets beside her. "Hurry," she panted, ignoring the pain in her side and the hoarse roughness of her throat. "Cloud needs us. If we don't get to him soon it will be too late. He needs us," she repeated as she raced around a corner, straight into hell.
"Or maybe he doesn't," Barret wheezed from beside her, summarising the scene as he quickly wove a Wall around them.
Cloud was there alright but so were the Turks. Cloud was in the centre and he wasn't moving as his three suited opponents ran around him forced to keep their distance. Cloud glowed red with power and the Ultima Weapon... It seemed alive and Tifa could feel its force from where she stood.
"No," she shook her head. "Something's wrong. Cloud's strong but there's no way he could be doing this." If anything the light surrounding Cloud got brighter as he seemed to land a few solid hits on Rude.
"It seems to me that the kid's doin' fine," Barret waved the Missing Score in the battles direction. "Heh! And he was meant to find us from the fracas!"
"No. Tifa is correct. Something is wrong," Nanaki agreed, trying look at the battle. "The spells are coming from Cloud but he is not the one casting them. I'm not even sure Cloud is awake. He hasn't moved." Nanaki stopped and squinted at Cloud. "There's something else at work here. I don't... Ulp!"
Nanaki fell silent. They all fell silent as the red light surrounding Cloud expanded, shooting upwards to become a pillar of ruby brilliance with Cloud standing... no hovering in the centre.
"No..!" Tifa breathed, stepping forward. "This is too much like the Crater!"
She would have said more but another being appeared in the light. A man, no... an angel. Long hair and feathers were about the only things that could be seen clearly. But the man was gesturing towards Cloud and he was responding, reaching out, his eyes looking into the others. There was the slightest, sweetest smile on his lips.
"CLOUD, LOOK OUT!" Tifa screamed, noticing too late as Reno lined up his weapon.
It was almost a dream, except it was real. The bolt from the Electro-mag Rod flew true, straight for Cloud's should blades but it hit the pillar of light first. Cloud didn't even flinch as the bolt made the light flare, obscuring anyone within it but then it cracked. Deeper, more intense energy crackled it's way through the entire structure and the whole thing fell apart, falling to the ground like crystal shards that vanished with a mismatched but harmonious chime. The smell of ozone hung in the air.
The only thing that remained was the broken Ultima Weapon and a single white feather, stained red that floated through the air, coming to rest on its shattered remains.
Cloud Strife was gone.
To be Continued...
Note: I don't actually dislike Tifa or Yuffie any more than any of the other characters. It's just that initially I was going to have Cloud kill everyone one by one until Sephiroth was alone but I decided that would take too long. By then Yuffie was dead so I didn't change that. But Tifa, Cloud would have issues with Tifa. He almost had to so that's why she also got his personal attention.
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