Chapter 35: Spirits of Familiar
"You watch them fight a losing battle, Kuja. You know as well as I do that these frail and insignificant primordial insects will be massacred."
"…Indeed I do. These four men, from four separate walks of life, still share something unique. There souls are strong…" Kuja sighed. The voice he responded to was dark and empty, but compassionate at the same time.
"Aye, perfect souls indeed. They will make great soldiers in the guise of a higher developed being."
"The EON Spawn are not any higher evolved than the monsters those four face. They are empty, hollow." Kuja stared at the arena.
"You talk in riddles, Kuja. I was thinking that there was a reason your soul was not able to fit into spawn. That you were higher than the whelps out there."
"Your army of beasts may have tougher hide, smarter brains, and sharper claws, but they lack a real soul. A soul birthed inside them."
"Hmph. You then deny yourself as a higher species, Kuja. For your background states that you, once, were just a tool created to house a soul as a power source."
"…" Kuja blinked. He had thought about this many times before. He was just a tool. A tool created by Gariland to help bring about the destruction of Gaia.
"I know your thoughts. You were once like I. You were created for a purpose, to bring about an age of higher creatures that lived in the realm of Terra. You killed men like cattle, harvesting their souls for the use of Terra."
"A messenger of Death."
"You and I work for the same purpose. I was created to bring about a revolution in the life forms of universes. A tool is what I am. The higher species though is neither man nor beast. It does span the distance of the stars, but is alone one creature. The future of life is EON, the highest life and the highest machine."
"And you are its angel of Death, are you not, Judgment?" Kuja glanced from the battle towards the taller, masked man.
"The evolution requires energy. Just like the Iifa Tree, EONs roots dig deep into several earths, drawing the souls it needs to quench its thirst. Souls are needed to create the antibodies, the EON Spawn, and the several other items involved. Even I must draw energy from the lifestream."
"The Lifestream?"
"The Lifestream, the soul cycle, it is all the same. Several names have been applied to the current of life force that flows beneath our feet."
"When the current runs out, what will you do then?"
"The planet will die and EON will shift from this realm into the next. I have seen enough of this. Those petty fools will tire and die eventually. There are other things that must be attended to…" Judgment walked away from the translucent Kuja and into the darkness.
{He must have not known about what happened after the destruction of Terra… He must not know why I am dead or the new style of thought I had when I was defeated. For if he did, I would not be standing here.}
** *
Lich fell dead below the knees of our heroes. A very weary Zidane, Freya, Vivi, and Steiner stood bleeding, sore, bruised, battered, and victorious. The arena lay strewn with the corpses of many a different beast and man. From the tiniest red orbs of Pandemonium to the greatest Iron Man: they were dead. The blood of the wicked and evil flowed freely from the hides of the reincarnated and ran by the heels of the four.
"I…I don't think I can continue…" Vivi gasped as he leaned on his cane.
"Master Vivi…we must continue, for the road is almost completed. As I can recall cough only three more scoundrels await us."
Freya, with her black eye and cut face, frowned. "I too grow weary."
"Do not fret now, malady! Help has arrived!" A familiar voice called from above. From the dark heights came Sir Irontail Fratley, dragoon of Burmecia.
Freya could not contain herself. Even with a broken leg she leaped over to her love in his outstretched arms. They quickly embraced each other, tears rolling from Freya's eyes.
"I thought you were dead!" Freya cried into his shoulder.
"What? Me? I'm Irontail, I can never die!" He smiled.
Steiner gave a round of applause. "Good show! Just in the nick of time!"
"C'mon guys! Let's get this over with and go home. I want to live!" Zidane said.
"As do I!" Steiner grasped once again the hilt of his mighty blade.
"Me too!" Vivi stepped off from his wooden cane.
Freya and Irontail looked at each other. "As do we!" They replied in unison.
The ground trembled and the dark earth cracked. Chunks fell down into a bright orange cloud below, leaving only one hill. The arena walls disappeared in the escaping yellow fumes. A great roar bellowed from below them. The Deathguise.
Kuja dared not interrupt, for he was saving his power for himself.
Over the hill rose a great stingray, tan was its flesh and gnarled teeth in its jaw. Its mighty wings spread openly over a distance, as its lined tail of spines fell into the sulfur clouds below. Deathguise bellowed once more.
"Do you remember how we did it before?" Zidane smiled.
Shaken by familiar fear, Vivi nodded. "Meteor!"
In mere moments, a giant rock burned through the sulfuric atmosphere and blasted into the face of Deathguise. The shockwave knocked the team backwards and Deathguise back into its yellow domain. But as expected, it came forward again.
Almost immediately, two spears flew into Deathguises heart, each doing considerable damage. The beast loomed closely, just enough space for the Burmecians to sail through the air, collect their weapons, and kick back to the rocky hill.
Steiner and Zidane, unfortunately, did not have the skills to attack the flying opponent. But the Deathguise clone was slow. Freya summoned up her strength and casted the cherry petal dragon Cherry Blossom. Using searing teeth of dragon and nature, Deathguise was defeated by much higher skilled creatures. As it fell, the yellow and orange clouds faded into fine dust and drifted down as well.
** *
The burning marsh had fallen from Clouds feet, sending him falling through a dark rocky tunnel. Cloud did not scream nor panic. He knew this is where he wanted to go. This tunnel of rock and earth would soon turn into a tunnel through the stars and space. And at the end, in complete cover of darkness, save one spot, is where Sephiroth would be waiting, Masamune in hand.
The echoes of voices talking, laughing, crying, screaming, singing, were heard through out his journey. These were the voices of the dead, the voices of Planet. How strange it is, that Cloud would experience this all over again. Maybe, just maybe, he would see Aeris, bathed in a green luminescence as he saw her those two years ago.
Cloud blinked. Sephiroth was alive, yet again. But the reason he was walking the earth again was different from the original time. If Cloud prevailed, the ending would not be the same to the nightmare as it was before. Tifa would not pull him from the collapsing rocks, she was well on her way to the Burmecian hand. EON still loomed on his world as well as this one. More combat, more blood called. The nightmare would be prolonged.
The trail of stars and space ended, thoughts ended. A thick blanket of darkness quickly swept over him, leaving only enough room for the one spot. The battlefield. But Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen.
{Once upon a time, there was a brave clone named Cloud Strife. Cloud Strife tried to save the planet with his friends. Their journey took them around the globe and inside the earth, where they faced the big old mean Sephiroth. But with determination, Cloud prevailed and sent Sephiroth into the darkness to die and the world was saved.}
"Come on out! You coward!" Cloud shouted.
{Hahahahaha! Oh what an amusing story indeed. Too bad there's a part two.}
"Where are you?!"
{Cloud Strife and his friends were living happily when a bright star appeared in the sky. The star turned out to be a fearsome alien named EON, whom collected the souls of people to live off. Cloud and his friends banded once again to face the monster, trotting the globe and then being sent to a new dimension. Cloud and his friends met with new allies and set out to fight EON. But EON had brought back the most powerful god anything had ever seen.}
Sephiroth's pale face and long white hair appeared from the darkness, with a wicked smirk across his face. He soon walked into the light. His transparency was the only thing that was different from the last time Cloud gazed upon him. "Cloud went to face the god inside the earth once more, and soon they met." Sephiroth laughed. "This is where the story changes, Cloud Strife. This is where I win." Sephiroth started to walk around Cloud, gripping his long sword. "and you lose."
"Enough!" Cloud screamed. He rushed towards the ghost, performing an awe-inspiring omnislash. But he soon realized that this didn't faze Sephiroth in the least. Cloud had just gone through him.
"Hahahaha! Your attempts are hideous. You can't even hit me!" Sephiroth gloated.
"Wha-How-…What are you?" Cloud stammered.
"The ultimate life." Sephiroth swung his masamune, the blunt end hitting Cloud and knocking him onto the floor.
Cloud picked himself up, brushing the cold dust off his blue uniform. Enraged, Cloud swung the Ultimate weapon again. It went flying through Sephiroth.
"Ha! I do not need the Black Materia to finish you off!" Sephiroth once again struck, sending a battered Cloud a great distance through the air and onto the cold ground. The light around the battlefield increased with Cloud's departure.
Bruised and beaten, Cloud struggled to get up, but couldn't find the strength. The ending would be different after all.
Sephiroths boots soon ended up in Clouds viewpoint. The ultimate life stood above him, an arrogant look upon his green eyes. "The End." Sephiroth whispered. He jammed the sword downward.
Cloud opened his eyes. A green force field had formed around him, leaving a bewildered Sephiroth. With surprisingly new strength, Cloud stood up. The black that was around them turned green and small bubbles floated lazily through the air. The presence of life stream. Aeris?
"What is this?!" Sephiroth shouted, frustrated.
"~Alone far away, I was searching through the dark~" A melodic whisper spread across the room, enticing both listeners.
"Memoria?" Cloud asked.
Sephiroth was silent, his bright mako eyes darting back and forth.
"~For traces of the love you left, inside my lonely heart~" Memoria appeared, silently walking inches above the green earth. Her voice seemed to be an echo of someone else's, being played through a recorder. Her eyes were no longer blue, but a bright green.
The ghost of the great god Sephiroth stumbled backwards. Memoria, or what seemed to be Memoria, approached Cloud, still singing the beautiful tune. Her body started to fade into a transparent shade, like that of Sephiroths, but with a blue hue instead. With a sudden white flash, Memoria was solid yet again, lying on the floor unconscious. But a spirit was still singing the song. The spirit of the Cetra, Aeris Gainsborough. Smiling, she still walked on air towards Cloud.
Cloud stood still. Shocked, he couldn't utter a single word, but the tears in his eyes said everything. Sephiroth glowered in the green glow.