Another Time, Another Place
Authors Notes- An almost novel-length Final Fantasy crossover bringing Kuja to the world of FF7 as another threat appears. Features slash and several pairings, along with the return of some characters I was too sentimental to kill off. Feedback would be greatly appreciated as I spent a long time working on this- it ran to over 50 pages of tiny font in the end. I apologise for any details which may be wrong within this fic. I haven't played either game recently.
Pairings- Sephiroth x Kuja, Cloud x Aeris, Vincent x Tifa, Rufus x Tseng, Reno x Yuffie.
Disclaimers- I own none of the characters mentioned hither.
As they lay recovering on the side of the crater, it was Cloud who first looked up and saw the sky was an ominous red. There was a sickening sensation as he squinted- and saw the familiar fiery ball of Meteor darkening the skies once again. His heart fell, and seemed to shatter into a thousand pieces on the snowy ground. They had come too late now..
"What's wrong?" Tifa asked, sitting up and brushing the dust from her clothes. "I'm sure Kuja will be okay. He can take care of himself-"
"It's not that," Cloud replied in a faint, lost voice. He pointed upward. "Meteor has been summoned,"
"....So it's over," Vincent turned away from the group. "There's no way we can stop it now. The White Materia is lost,"
"Nothing.." Tifa echoed his words. "No way to call Holy. No Shinra to stop Meteor. This is the end,"
"Not quite," Cloud sighed, standing up and checking his Materia. "We can still kill Sephiroth. Even if the Planet will die, we can stop him using it for his own purposes,"
Red XIII trembled. "It's my fault, isn't it?" He asked timidly.
"Of course not," Cid knelt besides the young creature with surprising gentleness. "It's all that goddamn Sephiroth's fault. You just did your best to help yer friend,"
"Is it worth continuing?" Rufus stared up at the reddening sky. "Meteor is nearly upon us. Whatever the Planet brought me back for, I have failed,"
The group sat in absolute silence as the tiny ball of destruction hurtled towards Earth with fearsome speed.
- - - - - - - - -
"The end.." Kuja echoed Sephiroth's words. "I've faced my own death before. I don't suppose any of it really matters any more,"
"Never mind," Sephiroth said in a flat, neutral tone "There's nothing to do now but wait. You will die instantly and join the Lifestream, becoming a part of me," He explained his plan slowly, green eyes glowing intensely. "I will become a God once Meteor strikes. All the power of the Lifestream concentrated here- nothing to do now but wait,"
"I used to be like you," Kuja said quietly. "That's why dying doesn't scare me any more. I'm probably worse than you anyway. I destroyed a whole planet simply to prove I was the best- and not a failure I was told I was,"
Sephiroth looked up oddly. "You're.. like me?" In his years of wandering the Planet, killing for Shinra and finding his own identity, he had never found another soul who had thought the same way.
"Yes," Kuja replied, his eyes far away. "I killed more than you. I created whole armies of people to use and destroy. I destroyed towns, cities, anything to prove myself to my maker. And then I killed him eventually," He shrugged his narrow shoulders. Sephiroth regarded him intently.
"Tell me more?" He asked. Kuja nodded and began his tale. It took much of the night to share, but somehow he had connected with the tall, feared man. They were more alike than they had realised. But like Kuja, if Sephiroth learned what it was to live, it was too late now. After they had finished talking there was silence. Green light from the lake danced across both faces as they sat, lost in memory. Kuja brushed his hair back, troubled by thoughts of all those he had toyed with. After a long silence, staring into the mage's quiet, eerily perfect face, Sephiroth leaned forward and kissed him. It seemed as natural and as simple as that. The night passed slowly as green light flickered across both of them and they learned what it was to love for the first time.