~ * ~
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 8 - Calm
"Tell me again why I took this job," Harker complained as he trudged down the long spiral incline. Already the thought of the leg aching climb back up was beginning to fester in his mind.
"To see the sights! What other company sends you to exotic locations and then pays you to see the sights, take the grand tours?"
"The sights..? Yeah!" Harker gestured around him. "I'll write it up in my report... White, white and let's not forget more white! Why can't the emergency calls come from Costa del Sol? At least then I could enjoy the sights!"
"Just keep walking and we'll eventually get to the bottom of this bloody crater."
"It's not that I mind that much," Harker continued to complain. It made the journey faster, at least for him. His companions usually didn't like it much but Mendal was used to him. "It's actually rather good to be able to answer those 'Oh, and where does your job take you?' questions with the witty and cutting reply 'It took me to the North Crater last week.' But why now? Why in the middle of this bloody storm do we have to go all the way to the centre, chasing after some signal some Sensor Tech back in warm NEO Midgar things they've found. I mean really. Would it kill them to let us wait until the storm passes, until this bloody place thaws out? And why do these sensor glitches always, and I do mean always come from beyond the black stump? Why can't they come from somewhere like the Gold Saucer or Wutai or Costa del Sol?"
"Would you get off Costa del Sol?"
"All right already... Geez!"
"And I'd watch your mouth too. Scatterbug is that our orders came from higher up. Higher up being the R man himself. Anyway, you've heard the rumors about this place. Do you really want to be walking around here when everything else can too?"
Harker patted a bulge under his coat. "Got my solution to the bugs right here," he said. "And that's all lies anyway. You're really telling me The General came up here to die? Yeah right."
"All right, you're on. Bet ya 100 biggies that we do find something."
"Heh! You might as well pay me now because all we're gonna see is snow, snow and more snow."
~ * ~
::Someone's coming.::
"Huh? You can see outside?" Cloud asked. He didn't know how long he'd been trapped in the nothingness but he did know he'd gone way passed bored. "Why didn't you tell me?"
::I can't see that much and until now there has been nothing to report. But for now it's important that you stay still. And whatever happens don't try to contact them. You'll know when it's time to come out and despite how bored you are now isn't the time.::
"All right, all right." Cloud settled as much as he could. Someone was coming. Great. He couldn't hear them let alone see them so how was he supposed to contact them? And he didn't have the slightest idea on how to get out. 'You've gone insane."
::You'll see.::
~ * ~
"Holy sweet mother of God!" Harker breathed when all of a sudden the ice and snow and wind vanished between one step and the next and he found himself looking at... something. He didn't know what.
"That's not... that's not The General is it?" Mendal asked, pointing upward with a trembling hand.
Harker followed his gesture. "Oh my God!"
What he could see almost defied description. It certainly defied gravity. They were standing in a crystal cavern and its sides sparkled, except it wasn't an ice sparkle, it was the sparkle of materia. The entire structure was made from condensed mako. Suspended, hovering in the centre in a huge jagged chunk of pale blue tinted materia was The General, Cloud Strife. He was dead. He'd been dead for a very long time, if the icicles that had formed on the hilt of the blade that had run him through and was protruding from the materia was any indication. The blade itself appeared to be glass or more purple toned materia, edged in clear. But what was most startling of all was the General's expression that could impossibly be seen clearly. His hair still jutted proudly but his eyes were closed and his mouth was curved in a soft smile. He looked truly at peace, with his hands folded on his chest holding a white and black materia, as if the violence of his passing had not caused him pain. Or as if this was a set up and he wasn't really dead.
Harker shook his head, forcing himself to look away as he remembered his orders. "I think it's fairly safe to say we've found something, but even if we drag the whole team down, how are we supposed to carry it out, much less to HQ?"
"Harker!" Mendal hissed. His eyes hadn't left the General. "I think it moved!"
"That's impossible. It's frozen solid." Still he swung his gaze back and began to meticulously examine the entire structure. He barely noticed his pounding chest or his ragged gasping for breath, he was too lost in a dark anticipation. The place had that sort of effect. "You're just imag... Oh #$%@!"
Harker's voice froze in his throat as blue eyes snapped open and pierced him. He stopped breathing and his mind was running in a terrified circle, screaming that it was impossible. He wasn't seeing this. He couldn't be seeing this. The General's eyes couldn't be open, he couldn't be looking at him with a mixture of faint annoyance and reproach which settled into a stern expression. He couldn't.
Harker blinked and gulped. In the instant of darkness caused by his eyelids he prayed to any power that was there that this wasn't so. The powers that be weren't listening.
Slowly, as if unsure how to do it, the General moved but his eyes never left the two quivering forms below him. He slowly uncrossed his arms, moving to hold both materia in his left hand. He moved his right hand to the blade impaling him and without flinching or moving or crying out, without showing any sign of distress he began to push and pull the weapon from his body. The materia surrounding him seemed to liquefy as the blade moved through it.
Eventually, after what seemed like eternity the point of the weapon emerged from the General. Impossibly his clothing, his skin, everything was intact as he twisted savagely and after a moment's pause threw the weapon to the ground. It drove itself into the soil not ten centimetres (4 inches) from where Mendal and Harker stood in disbelieving, terrified attention. The General shifted his gaze to the weapon he had just discarded and his voice seemed to come from everywhere, echoing around them. "The Masamune is not for you. It is Sephiroth's now, so my guardianship of this weapon is over. It is time. Jenova must die. I have rid myself of Jenova so let me return to sleep." With that his eyes closed again and his arms once again crossed his chest, holding close their materia. "I hope, for his sake," the General's voice whispered again, "that you can do what I failed to do. Then Xanado awaits you."
Everything fell silent and then was plunged into darkness.
"What the hell?" Mendal screamed hysterically. Now that he couldn't see he remembered how to breath but the terror was still there. With fumbling hands he reached for several items on his belt. Harker was faster and the flare lit up, illuminating them both in a sudden harsh light.
"I have got no *&^%$#@ idea," he snapped back, his voice just as panicked. With a shaking hand he held the flare high peering into the gloom that was above them but even in the murky light it was easy to tell that the materia was gone. It was all gone and the only thing that remained, startling, terrifyingly close was the weapon the General had thrown. They were, for now, safe, surrounded by a cave.
"It's got to be at least six feet long!" Mendal squeaked as he looked at it. It was so close he could hardly look at anything else. The blade was huge, heavy and double sided, a broad sword made of materia.
"There is now way anyone could wield this!"
"He threw it like it was nothing."
"That's why he's a General."
They both danced around what they really needed to discuss.
"What are we gonna tell the others?"
"What can we tell them?" Harker asked, gesturing with the flare. "It's not like we've got an abundance of evidence. We've only got this," he rapped his knuckles against the sword. "I say we just forget this ever happened. We came to a cave, we found this sword and that is all that happened. We didn't see no General, and we definitely didn't see nor hear no corpse. A cave and this sword. That's it!"
Mendal nodded. "A cave and this sword. Nothing else happened," he agreed readily. He didn't want to report what had just happened. Visions of padded cells and white clothing for the rest of his life ensured that. He didn't even want to remember it but... "What do you think he meant? 'I hope you can do what I failed to do'?"
"He didn't mean us! There is no way he meant us. I mean, if he failed, the General, a SOLDIER, what chance do we have?"
"Then who was he talking to?"
"Not us. I don't know. He was looking at the sword, maybe he meant that! It doesn't matter. A cave and this sword. That's all we gotta remember," he added throwing some rope over the sword to make a sketchy strap. It was the only way he could see to carry it and HQ was expecting something. "Forget wielding this thing! How could anyone carry it?" He asked as he heaved its weight on to his back. "Let's go. Cave and sword. That's it," he began walking.
A smile flickered across Mendal's face. "100 biggies," he said.
"100 what?" Harker puffed as they emerged into the ice and snow and wind.
"You owe me! The bet, that we'd find something? I'd say we found something, even sticking to our story. So you owe me 100 biggies!"
"Ugh! Me and my big mouth."
~ * ~
"What was that?" Cloud questioned the nothingness around him. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was moving, even if he wasn't doing anything. Perhaps he was riding in something.
::That was a message from the past that you'd do well to heed.::
Cloud had been waiting for whoever the voice said was coming to come when all of a sudden something, someone had spoken. The voice hadn't sounded in his thoughts but was all around him. "The Masamune was never mine, it always did belong to Sephiroth," Cloud objected. "That doesn't make any sense."
::In your world, the Masamune was Sephiroth's. In Sephiroth's world, it belonged to you but he took it up.::
"All right. I guess that helps. But shouldn't Jenova be dead?"
::She should but she's not.::
"Great," Cloud hung his head. "Just what I need, another run in with Jenova."
::There's no avoiding it.::
"'I hope for his sake you can do what I failed to do,'" Cloud smiled. "I will," he promised. "I will kill Jenova and survive because I've got something I'd never thought I'd have to live for." He frowned slightly. "I don't know what 'Xanado' is though," he added, looking confused. "I hope it's good."
::You'll find out,:: the voice laughed. ::You will find out.::
"Hey, what's so funny?"
::You! You don't know what Xanado is.:: The voice laughed again before it turned sadly serious. ::Don't ever lose it Cloud. Don't ever lose your innocence. Don't lose that sense of wonder.:: The voice Cloud know was his was on the verge of tears. Its presence vanished from his mind leaving him even more confused.
"Well, I do hope it's good," he said after a moments silence.
~ * ~
"Sephiroth..." That annoying lab rat was back. "We've got something to show you," it continued in an unbelievably chirpy voice.
Sephiroth looked down dully. Didn't they understand? He didn't care. He'd killed the one person he did care about all while selfishly calling for their help, without even considering how they'd feel to be ripped from their world. I said I'd go to his. He said nothing about coming here. I don't deserve to live, to exist. He'd tried giving into Jenova again but any sense of her presence had left him. She didn't care and she didn't want him anymore. Not when she now had the perfect body, one devoid of any personality to interfere with her. And in the tank he was in he couldn't starve himself and with so many people around him he couldn't attempt to kill himself by any other means. Even if he escaped none of the troops would shoot him. They'd uselessly die if he choose to kill them.
A small jolt of electricity passed through him. "Hey Sephiroth! Are you listening to me?" It sounded like the lab rat was becoming annoyed. Let him. Nothing matters now. Sephiroth continued to float, completely unresponsive to what was around him.
"Sephiroth." The voice was clipped and formal.
Sephiroth let his gaze shift slowly to the speaker. What did Reeve want now? He couldn't give him anything else, except his life, which he'd gladly part with but Reeve didn't want that.
"You might be slightly interested to know that we've retrieved your sword. It's got some very interesting materia fused into it but I know for a fact you removed them." Reeve sighed. "It's all just one big puzzle but don't worry Sephiroth, we'll solve it with or without your help."
"How was Cloud?" Sephiroth asked dreamily. "I hope you didn't disturb the dead too much." He'd left the Ultima Weapon impaling him. He hadn't had the strength to remove it after he'd closed Cloud's eyes and given him the final guardianship of Holy and Meteor.
"Cloud? According to all reports, the sword was not with Cloud."
"That's nice. You didn't disturb him at all." Perhaps one of Avalanche had done the decent thing then. Sephiroth let his gaze float away. It drifted up to the place where the Ultima Weapon was being set up in the lab in place of the summon materia he'd used to kill Cloud. Replacing one for the other. Will they never stop reminding me?
"A weapon produced by the Planet," Reeve was droning on. "A weapon you, Jenova's Child, should never have been able to use."
"Uh, uh, uh!" Cloud shook his head in the far tank. "Not anymore Reeve. Sephiroth is no longer my child," Jenova continued. "I have no need for a child now."
Reeve nodded, turning to face her slightly. "Still, it is good to have this sword. It is a powerful weapon in its own right."
Sephiroth didn't even hear him. He was too busy examining the blade. At first he hadn't cared but then his eyes had picked out two points on it and it had captured his whole attention. Meteor and Holy. The two of them were side by side in the hilt. That's impossible. I gave them to Cloud. As the blade was rotated for its initial inspection he could see other materia in there. A red summon, he couldn't tell what it was from here, a couple of green materia that shone powerfully and a single support materia and an independent slot. Well, those aren't the one's I was carrying.
That is my weapon, Sephiroth was forced to the silent conclusion as he continued to look at it, repulsed and fascinated at the same time. There was no way he would ever forget every detail of it. It's the weapon I used to... Why did I even listen to that voice..? It hadn't spoken to him since.
Because it offered you hope and you didn't want to see the possible other consequences.
You don't have to remind me, you know. Sephiroth answered his internal judge and jury as the complete apathy, the lethargy he'd grown used to over the past couple of days returned. So they've brought the Ultima Weapon here. It will achieve them nothing and it is a fitting reminder of how much I deserve to suffer... Even if I wanted, I should have considered him but instead I killed him. I never should have listened. I should have kept what I had, been content to know that he was there somewhere and that he was happy there. I don't deserve to live...
Sephiroth's eyes closed again and whatever Reeve said as he left was lost as his thoughts continued to spiral down.
~ * ~
Sephiroth jolted away in time to see Cloud's tank discharge its contents in a spectacular waterfall of glowing green colour. He sighed and waited for the alarms to start and for the troops who were lining the walls to politely insist that she return to her tank. They had instructions to be exquisite to Jenova, orders they would obey because they were the only things between them and death.
But nothing happened, nothing moved except for Cloud's body as it spat out the green liquid. And except for the soft noise that caused there was nothing.
"I wouldn't worry about it Sephiroth," Jenova spoke to him as she rose. "I wanted us to be alone for this."
Sephiroth's heart twisted as he looked over. Jenova, Cloud, he wasn't sure where the line was anymore. Oh, it was Jenova's personality, her will, her actions but it was Cloud's body. It had been easier when it was a child but now, it had been grown nearly to adulthood, nearly exactly how Sephiroth remembered. Slim yet firmly muscled, exquisitely delicate and graceful but in his own way strong. And after Cloud had merged with Jenova, incredibly powerful. When Jenova closed those glowing blue orbs he could almost delude himself that he had done nothing, that this was all just a dream and he'd soon awaken to find Cloud sleeping peacefully in his arms, probably gnawing on the ends of his hair as he tried, usually without success to flick away one of Cloud's spikes that always seemed to brush under his nose in the most irritating fashion.
This isn't a dream. This is reality. You killed him so don't ever think that you can forget it, even for an instant.
"What do you want Jenova?" Sephiroth questioned, wondering where he got the strength to bother.
"Want... Not much." She walked over to the Masamune and picked it up. "I only want your head, to relive you of that miserable excuse you call a life. I'll even be merciful. It won't hurt... much."
Sephiroth snorted. "It won't hurt at all," he muttered. "It can't hurt anymore."
"You'd be surprised," she said, peering up at him from outside his tank, those features, her features, Cloud's...
Cloud has every right to kill me.
"Now, what should I cut first?" Jenova questioned, altering the aim of the Masamune experimentally as she considered. Her voice, Cloud's voice even speaking against him was so sweet. Sephiroth closed his eyes, just wanting to hear her, hear him, without seeing her eyes looking out from his body.
"Ah... I know!"
So sweet, just like the past. Why was happiness only there and such an impossibly dream here? Cloud...
'Ah... I know... The thing I like best about you!' His blue eyes had shone. 'The thing I like best about you Seph, is you. The way you can't be beaten, the way you never give up, no matter what's happened. Because of that I know you'll always come back to me.'
I'm coming Cloud. Just wait a little longer. When you kill me, as I killed you, I can join you.
::So what about the rest of it, hmm? 'The way you can't be beaten, the way you never give up, no matter what's happened?' You're just going to die now?::
Sephiroth's eyes snapped open, just as Jenova drove the Masamune through his tank into his side. The voice was back. The voice he knew so well. He didn't have time to register anything else. With a sudden fault appearing in the structural integrity of the tank the whole thing exploded outwards from that point. Jenova had had the sense to step aside so she wasn't hit by the flying shards of glass tank wall and green liquid. Sephiroth of course had no choice. He was slammed up against the tank wall for an instant before, with his extra bulk and the vacuum like pressure, the hole expanded and pushed him out. He didn't even feel the scratches he'd acquired. The pain from the wound in his side took over everything as he began coughing involuntarily.
Eventually he stilled and lay there, shivering in the moisture, watching red and green mix together. They didn't make a particularly nice colour. Jenova took a few steps towards him. "You're not even going to fight me?" she asked, poking his shoulder with the flat edge of the Masamune. "How disappointing and how pathetic. The great Sephiroth not even acting to save his life."
::She's right, you know,:: that hauntingly familiar voice said as Jenova began to flick the Masamune over him, inflicting tiny cuts just deep enough to draw blood but do no further damage. ::Shouldn't you at least honor his memory? Honor what he believed to be true, even if at the moment it's not?::
I can't fight her. I can't fight him... Not again.
::I'm not asking you to.::
You're asking me to fight his body. I can't... I know it's Jenova but I can't...
::You're not listening to me. All I want you to do is honor him. Why don't you just say what you truly feel?::
Sephiroth coughed, not knowing to be sad or amused. Cloud, Jenova was attacking him but at the same time he was telling him to fight. Which one? Which one was real?
"Who are you talking to?" That was definitely Jenova.
Sephiroth laughed but with his throat raw from coughing it didn't sound amused. "Cloud..." he whispered. "I am so sorry..." He slowly tilted his head towards the Ultima Weapon. The materia on it glittered dully. "I should never have killed you either time. I should have been stronger, found another way." Jenova was talking at him. He ignored her, he wasn't talking to her, no matter what she thought. "Cloud..." Blue eyes, soft spikes of hair and an incredible love no human should have been able to offer. That was Cloud. That was what he remembered, what he would always cherish. "Cloud..."
"You're boring!" Jenova said, taking a deliberate stance. "I thought you'd be fun to play with but you're boring me, and now you're just mumbling so I'll have to put you out of your misery." She altered her aim, angling the point of the Masamune for his heart.
Sephiroth looked up and smiled. Cloud... Death wouldn't really be that bad.
Jenova if anything, was insulted by his smile. "Die!" she screamed, thrusting downwards. Sephiroth didn't move.
Something else did.
To be Continued...
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