Part One: War of the Gods
Chapter One
In the endless mural of life all things existed together, providing shelter, food, and company for one another. In the gentle sunset doves would fly off in great flocks, and dolphins would soar majestically through the water playing with one another. A chocobo would share its own greens with another and the two would lean into each other, sleeping in their warmth.
Life in the world had been going pretty good. In fact, no signs of danger had been seen after Sephiroth had been killed and Meteor stopped. The world had continued, as it always should have. Chocobos ran along the fields, humans lay in their homes, birds flew as free as could be, and...
Those who had no place to go had disappeared.
A pair of brilliantly blue eyes tore through the miraculous beaut, so cold and dead they belonged to no ordinary individual. Blonde bangs slowly crept down the sleek forehead, blocking the large pupils from the sight.
Cloud's mouth stayed in a straight line and he continued to stare far into the horizon, viewing the mountains which loomed over all in sight, their overcastting shadow creating its own ecosystem.
His eyes only showed what his vision could see, while his mind was trapped in memories he begged every day to forget. But he would awake every morning and instantly the pain would return. The sorrow. The guilt of it all.
He rose from his position; a smooth boulder that was the only identifiable mark within miles to show there existed more than level ground. Slowly turning around he came face to face with a black chocobo, its coal feathers contrasting against the gloriously beautiful day and the suns gentle rays.
Cloud faked a smile, patting the chocobo behind its ears and picking himself up. "Hey there, little buddy. We better get going." Cloud had discovered Seko a few months ago as he lay outside for a long time - and it was the strangest creature he'd ever laid eyes on.
Despite the markings akin to that of Nanaki's (several red scars were scraped across him) he held a great power that Cloud could not sense. With all creatures on the Planet you could sense how much Spirit Energy they used, but with Seko it was different. It was obvious the black chocobo was faster and more intelligent than any other was, but no signature was left.
At first Cloud thought it belonged to someone from the Chocobo Farm (only a few miles away from Clouds 'thinking place'), but Chole had insisted he'd never seen it. Chole had been the only person he ever got used to at that place.
So the chocobo was Clouds. Thinking back to a bit of the language he learned from his stay at Fort Condor, he named it Seko, meaning Midnight Beast to a very rough translation. It somehow fitted it and the two became great friends.
The three years that had passed after Sephiroths demise and the Planets safety were ones filled with nightmares, horrible visions and headaches that caused Cloud to scream in agony every night, unable to sleep. He would wake up sweating, clutching his sword acting like he was finishing Sephiroth off. Or sometimes he'd wake up feeling himself being controlled by Jenova, manipulated in some way.
That was the one thing he could never forgive Sephiroth for. The dead General had been innocent of all his crimes. Jenova...
Climbing atop the large bird Cloud sighed in relief at going back to his home. He wasn't quite sure why he bothered to come out here so often, but it definitely made his visions occur less often. The chocobo chirruped merrily before running down the fields, all the other beasts moving away from it.
That had been another interesting something to learn. Everything else was scared of Seko - perhaps more so than Cloud. Saying the bird was stronger than Cloud was preposterous, but the mysteries it lay in were far greater. After all, it had battle scars, while chocobo's hadn't been used for war in hundreds of years.
Soon the two comrades came to the twenty mile stretch of bogginess that would set them back an hour or so, and Cloud had to cover his nose from the stench. The mist forced him to close his eyes and he could only pray chocobo's were used to this. They ran into no trouble at all besides the horrible stench and vision troubles but Cloud could somehow feel something was amiss.
The mercenary always used to get a tingly feeling when something bad was about to happen, and he was getting that feeling right now. So as they neared the mountainside and the black chocobo cautiously hopped up it, Cloud subconsciously checked his materia.
He had made a few 'upgrades' to the Buster Sword, so it could hold eight pieces of his precious materia. He was so used to the magic by now he doubted he'd survive a day knowing it wasn't there.
Fire... Ice... Earth... Wind... Making sure it was all there, in their correct places and assuring himself nothing had been incompatible (A/N: You will know what I mean by this when I release my My FF7 World Chapter) he slowly slid the sword itself from his back.
Seko finally stood at the top of the mountain and looked downwards, Cloud gasping and his eyes widening. There were thousands of monsters down there, of all types and most of which he'd never seen before. And... they were strong, much stronger than normal ones. It was as if some sort of army was being gathered.
"Seko, down!" he hushed quietly and slid off the bird, ducking behind a small boulder so as not to be spotted. He needed a plan, but didn't know what magic he had that could destroy that many monsters in one blow.
No... He knew all right.
*
Tifa wiped her hands by means of her apron, then pulled it over her head throwing it off. Sighing she looked around 7th Heaven, wishing something exciting could happen. There was two men in a corner chatting away as they drank from their mugs of beer, Barret was upstairs sleeping away, and Marlene was talking to Danny.
Usually at this point Barret would go storming over to the fifteen-year-old boy and tell him to go clean up outside or give him some other unimportant task. The man disapproved of Marlene, now only thirteen years old, and Danny talking. They weren't in any type of romantic relationship, as far as Tifa could see, but Barret still got furious over it.
Though personally she thought it was cute, seeing the two playing puppy love. Whether or not either realized it they made a great couple. But if they ever were to date Barret would be in hysterics from the age difference.
"Hey Marlene!" Tifa called over. Looking away from her conversation the thirteen-year-old only halfway stared at Tifa. "I'm goin' out, you watch the place." Nodding she just turned back to Danny, and began giggling at the first thing he said.
Smiling to herself she busted out of the cold and dark bar and glorious sunlight shone inside, and dust flew off from the door. Up here in Kalm the sun was so amazingly bright but as always 7th Heaven remained a bit gloomy. Rubbing her eyes for just a moment she decided to go do some shopping. So the first place she went to was her friend Larry's weapon shop.
"Hey Larry!" she said enthusiastically coming through the doorway, skipping to the counter.
"Hey Teef. 'Sup?" he asked coolly, not really bothered by the fact a gorgeous woman was inside his store. He was about the only guy in town not all that interested in Tifa as a sex object.
"Oh, nothing. I was wonderin' if you got anything new in stock. You know, weapons or materia, or something." Batting her eyelashes at him he couldn't resist a smile.
"Actually yeah, I just got somethin' this morning. Some new gloves I thought you may have been interested in." Ducking behind the counter Tifa could hear him shuffling around, muttering to himself about something. After a few minutes he finally came out with a small gray box, a Celtic dragon symbol on the front.
Sliding it over to Tifa she pried open the lid and took out the two fingerless gloves. She slid both onto her hands and admired every little detail on them. They were a velvety black, yet somehow they still seemed to shimmer in the light in their own special way. They ran down her wrists tightly, yet still allowing comftorablity, and stopped about halfway down to the elbow.
The true beauty though was two sketchy figures of dragons that were facing one another from each wrist, growling. The pictures seemed to be alive and brought out a message, reminding the wearer to stay strong.
The cool leather felt like glass, cold at first but slowly becoming irresistible. Tifa's large eyes widened as soon as she noticed the materia slots. On each glove there were two pairs of linkable slots. Not many weapons could have this much materia connected to it, and she'd never seen gloves that could do it.
"I'll take it. No matter how much it costs."
Larry began laughing. "Aw, come on Teef! These things cost fifty-thousand gil, there's no way you can afford it."
"Not in cash, but if you put it to my credit card I have enough to buy twenty pairs of these." His eyes widened. Everyone knew Tifa used to be an 'adventurer' but no one was sure if she got any treasure from it.
"Uh... Sure thing, just hand it over." She flipped it over to him as she began brushing her fingers over the tough leather, and it was indeed tough. "Sign here," Larry muttered handing over a piece of paper. She signed it and took the other paper, then skipped out of the shop happily.
She decided the best place to try them out would be the mountain. After one of Weapons attacks it had been knocked down into the ground, which made it push all the earth up from the collision and form a large mountain at the back of Kalm.
Jogging up the mountain she managed to reach the top after an hour or so and looked around just for curiosity sake. Scanning from the left she could almost make out Chocobo Ranch's pastures, and looked along the mountain range stretching around the continent. She also saw Midgar, still being repaired.
She sighed. For some reason she thought by coming up here she would be able to see Cloud or at least feel his presence. But it was to no avail. The three years without him had been hard on her, but she learned to cope with it.
Turning to the rocky wall she began to bring back a fist, preparing to see the strength of the gloves. The right fist slammed into the wall and she felt no pain, but after a few seconds passing it began to crack, and a good foot-long chunk fell from it. Grinning she began pounding with both her fists, her energy never falling away even for a second.
The greatest way for her to release all the stress she built up was by fighting, and since the monsters had mysteriously become calm she took it out on inanimate objects.
After another hour of pounding away a cold hand fell onto her shoulder, and she jumped up at first. Tifa dropped to the ground and spun preparing to kick the stranger in the chest and stopped just in time as she saw it was Barret. "Sorry Barret, didn't know it was you."
"Dat's alright, Tifa. Jes came on up here wonderin' if ya were ready to come on down?" he asked softly. He had decided to be much easier on people after Reeve made him realize just how rash his actions in Avalanche had been.
"Yeah, you're right, but can't we stay up here for just a bit longer..?" He nodded understandingly. They walked to the edge of the mountain and stared out towards the horizon, towards where Cloud would be.
Tifa found Barret poking her a few hours later, waking her up. When she simply muttered, unaware she had ever fallen asleep, he carried her down to 7th Heaven.
*
Cloud stood behind the small boulder, his eyes squeezed shut and both his arms shot downwards, as if they were trying to escape from his body. His thin lips were mumbling words.
He was searching for that element, the one that belonged to none. For this particular spell he need not call on the powers of wind, fire, lightning, water, earth or any other common-found element. With this he had to search in the back of his mind, experience the pain it felt, and the joy of victory.
Cloud would feel the sorrow of it as its land was completely destroyed, the people screaming as they burned alive. The land it had come from had been so destroyed it affected it, giving it no element. The destroyed land had nothing to offer the stone, so instead it took the power of emotions.
Cloud began to feel his heart race, the soft yet recognizable footsteps as Seko stepped back in alarm, the screams of all sorts of beasts far below. When in this state of tranquillity his senses heightened, and new ones opened up to become his.
Swinging one hand swiftly, leaving images of itself behind, Cloud brought another hand forth and screamed. "ULTIMA!"
The monsters below suddenly took notice of the intruder. Particles of green energy swam inside the mass of raw magical energy swimming around Cloud, preparing to become the most daring attack. It sloshed back and forth like it were a pool, and Clouds body slowly began to pull from the boulder, raising into the air like he were being pulled by his hair.
His eyes snapped open and the green mass of energy fell forth, swimming down the mountainside into the canyon and pouring over the monsters. It spread as it fell forth, from the twenty-foot pool to a fifty-foot one in a matter of seconds. The beasts were screaming as their skin was burning, like some acid cutting through them. Yet the energy was so light, it didn't touch the ground, it just swayed above like some fog.
After a few minutes of the high-pitched wailing and cries, the screams died down. Not all the monsters had died, but all within sight of Cloud were either dead or too frightened to attack. Far from Clouds sight a single man walked outside of a cave, garbed in a violet cloak. Though the distance was far too great to be sure, Cloud knew he was snarling.
With one pale, scrawny hand pointed at Cloud two small winged enemies flew from the cave. Sighing, Cloud drew his sword before him, prepared to fight. "Seko, the moment I hack and slash these two we take off that way," Cloud pointed vaguely west," and don't turn back. Got it?" The large bird gave a vigorous nod and Clod readied himself for the attack. It wouldn't take long.
They were much faster than he had estimated, for they were upon him within seconds. The first blue-and-green dragon slapped Cloud with a wing, which made it stray from a steady course but also caused the mercenary to fly back a few feet and slam into a mountainside.
"Ah shit..." he said weakly, getting up slowly. "Okay, stronger then I thought. Still no problem." The second dragon, this one red-and-orange, came flying towards him and quickly flew upwards, just as Cloud had leapt outwards slashing. He came only inches below it and hit the ground, skidding for a moment before launching back with an outstretched leg.
This time one of the dragons' sharp talons cut through his left calf and held onto it, the blonde's blood quickly sliding towards his head (he was, after all, being flown upside down). Clutching his sword tightly he prayed this would work, and turned his waist, swinging his arms around the neck of the dragon only slightly larger than him. Holding on with both hands of his sword again, he used it to launch himself onto the dragon.
That had been his plan to start with, anyway. Instead, the egotistical psycho overshot the back and flew from it, falling about a hundred feet. "Shit shit shit shit shit this is gonna huuuuuurt!" Meeting a rough but somehow not as hard as expected landing he sighed in relief seeing he had landed on his chocobo.
Standing on top of the chocobo he awaited the two dragons to come in for another attack. He decided his materia to be used and began to get a feel for the surroundings.
With his mind he could picture the tanned mountains baking in the sun, the heat the rays were causing. He could feel the compressed heat left in between canyon sides and at last had gathered the needed energy.
He began laughing madly as the ice dragon came soaring in from the left. He pushed his hand out and lifted his palm upwards, red particles gathering. His eyes glowed an eerie blue for just a moment before a swirling mass of fire shot out. It was like a beam of it, but so much more. It was a large source of immensely hot fire, put in simple terms.
The ice dragon only managed to give one shriek before being blown away by it, a gaping hole in its stomach.
The fire dragon obviously decided to play it smarter, seeing his comrade was down so easily. It swooped in from behind and with its mouth open blew a ball of fire towards Cloud, forcing him to be launched dozens of feet to the left. Seko continued on for a few minutes before noticing its owner missing, so retreating was out of the question.
Cloud had tumbled halfway down a hill and was finally getting up, seeing his arm was now without a doubt broken. Oh well. It won't be too much of a problem. The one threat to his victory was the fact that his sword had gone missing. That left him with no materia at all.
The fire dragon came flying down towards him once again, and at the last second he pulled off a back flip, arching his back in such ways it should have been impossible. Landing on his two feet quite smoothly he brought back one fist, prepared for the winged enemy to come against him again.
When it did come it decided to use something new, not trusting its clever foe. Cloud was prepared to punch it as it came head-on, but instead the creature stopped in mid-air just in front of Cloud, bringing its wings up. Cloud fell back from the huge amount of wind blowing into his face and could feel his arm twisting yet again.
Muttering under his breath he rolled away to dodge any attacks, but the dragons' lightning-fast reflexes left Cloud with yet another cut into his leg. Tears filled his eyes from the burning sensation he was feeling but he still managed to stand up.
"That's it. There is only so much bullshit I can take." He started a limping run after the dragon that was just about to turn back for its own finishing move. His speed quickly doubled and he continued going faster, till he was about ten feet from his enemy. Jumping through the air he grabbed the dragons' neck with his good hand and slammed it into the ground when he landed.
Snapping its neck with his foot just to be safe, he turned back to Seko who was almost back to Cloud. "Come on boy. Let's hurry up." he said, gathering his sword with his left hand.
Swinging one foot over the chocobo the two rushed off across the mountains, a trip that would last until afternoon the next day if they didn't stop. But most unfortunately, it wasn't quite over yet.
Standing just before Cloud was the violet cloaked man, his hood casting over his face so his features were hidden. He simply waited there, seemingly staring straight at Cloud. "We shall finish this later." His voice was raspy and dead sounding, as if he hadn't spoken for years and it was unused. Cloud merely nodded. "North of Junon... you may find my apprentice. There we shall see your potential."
Cloud gave another short nod and the violet figure disappeared, slowly fading away. He hadn't had a fight in a good long while, this would probably be tougher than the one he just had. "Come Seko, let's hurry."
*
Cloud slowly lay up from his position on the grass, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. His right arm felt twisted still and the burning sensation was increasing, a fever beginning to spread to Cloud.
Seeing it was still nighttime he guessed he had only been asleep for a few hours, but felt completely regenerated. Well, not completely regenerated seeing his energies. But his weariness had been washed away and his leg had already begun to heal.
Shaking his head to wake himself up he turned around, looking for Seko. The bird was dozing near by enjoying himself. Ah, let him have his rest. He shouldn't have to go through this anyway... Sighing he gazed towards the stars far above. Each were twinkling with energy and showed their own emotions.
Continuing to stare upwards his thoughts began to drift... To a woman he had once known...
Shaking his head again, feeling that groggy feeling, he knew it was a bad idea to think of her. It always was. After they had defeated Sephiroth Cloud knew he could never be with civilized people again, his mind so corrupted. He was weak, and that was all there was to it... Physically built as the worlds strongest, mentally that of a seven-year old child.
Seko chirped merrily, getting up and walking over to his owner. "Hey boy. Ready to go? I'm afraid you're not going to see my own home, and we aren't resting for a while. So if you want to sleep a bit longer go ahead."
The chocobo only stared into his tormented eyes and waited for Cloud to get atop of him. "Fine," he said smiling. Seko was so naive, just as he had been when in ShinRa.
A painful burst shot through his head, his eyes clenched tight and his left hand already raised to his head, holding it in pain. He... just couldn't... think those thoughts. Breathing deeply he dropped his hand, and put it to his back. Unstrapping the sheath to the buster sword he switched it to suit his left hand.
"Let's go!"
*
Clouds brilliant blue eyes cracked as if they were lightning for just a second, before settling down to the tamer shade of the color. As often happened when the wanderer was nestled deep in his thoughts, unaware of his surroundings.
Seko was cautiously hopping along the loose rocks on the mountain. The large bird was not afraid - he was just in no hurry. So the two made their way up along the colorful mountains, head off in a supposedly western direction (North, east, south, and west had never really been used on the Planet. Navigation was often complicated seeing as how there were no stars to point them towards places).
It would only be a week or two before they met the impossibly hard task of defeating an unknown enemies apprentice. The fact the person was still in training left Cloud feeling a bit relieved, but he had learned to never under estimate an enemy. It could be ones downfall.
Sighing as he snapped back into reality, Cloud unsheathed the large sword and held it up, testing the weight and making calculations in his head of how well he could wield it.
*
Tifa was still laying awake in her bed, at what she estimated to be about three in the morning. She had this feeling that something was horribly wrong, and if she didn't set out to make it right soon enough, it would stay that way. But in moments like these it was wiser to think about what was happening, and not act irrationally.
But Tifa was not one of those people to go by what was 'wiser'. She acted on instincts, and right now they were yelling 'Go for it'.
So while it was still late, she slipped into suitable clothing, grabbed her gloves from the desk and set out with some food in a bag. She calmly walked through Kalm until she made it to the edge of town. Turning back for a moment, she whispered something quietly, letting the wind carry her message.
Marlenes eyes suddenly snapped open, as if she had never been sleeping at all but just closed her eyes for a moment. She was nearly positive she had heard the faintest sound of someone saying "I'll be home soon."
Authors Notes: *twitches* Er... Is this good? Hope it is... I wasn't quite sure how to handle everything with Tifa so I was kind of just making that up there.
But I hope you like it. Everything with Cloud suddenly makes more sense... Meaning there's no gigantic dragon, nor is there a meeting with two strangers that freak him out.
I like my idea of ultima. Since it came from North Corel I thought about ultima being from there, and after a while it made sense that ultima was the power of emotions. As it travelled down the mountain it sort of picked up stronger emotions from the animals and stuff, which was why it was so powerful.
If you don't like anything with this, please tell me. I tried desperately to make this chapter better. Unfortunately, the next one is shorter and not as good (but I improved it compared to Chapter Two of the original fic).
Chapter One
In the endless mural of life all things existed together, providing shelter, food, and company for one another. In the gentle sunset doves would fly off in great flocks, and dolphins would soar majestically through the water playing with one another. A chocobo would share its own greens with another and the two would lean into each other, sleeping in their warmth.
Life in the world had been going pretty good. In fact, no signs of danger had been seen after Sephiroth had been killed and Meteor stopped. The world had continued, as it always should have. Chocobos ran along the fields, humans lay in their homes, birds flew as free as could be, and...
Those who had no place to go had disappeared.
A pair of brilliantly blue eyes tore through the miraculous beaut, so cold and dead they belonged to no ordinary individual. Blonde bangs slowly crept down the sleek forehead, blocking the large pupils from the sight.
Cloud's mouth stayed in a straight line and he continued to stare far into the horizon, viewing the mountains which loomed over all in sight, their overcastting shadow creating its own ecosystem.
His eyes only showed what his vision could see, while his mind was trapped in memories he begged every day to forget. But he would awake every morning and instantly the pain would return. The sorrow. The guilt of it all.
He rose from his position; a smooth boulder that was the only identifiable mark within miles to show there existed more than level ground. Slowly turning around he came face to face with a black chocobo, its coal feathers contrasting against the gloriously beautiful day and the suns gentle rays.
Cloud faked a smile, patting the chocobo behind its ears and picking himself up. "Hey there, little buddy. We better get going." Cloud had discovered Seko a few months ago as he lay outside for a long time - and it was the strangest creature he'd ever laid eyes on.
Despite the markings akin to that of Nanaki's (several red scars were scraped across him) he held a great power that Cloud could not sense. With all creatures on the Planet you could sense how much Spirit Energy they used, but with Seko it was different. It was obvious the black chocobo was faster and more intelligent than any other was, but no signature was left.
At first Cloud thought it belonged to someone from the Chocobo Farm (only a few miles away from Clouds 'thinking place'), but Chole had insisted he'd never seen it. Chole had been the only person he ever got used to at that place.
So the chocobo was Clouds. Thinking back to a bit of the language he learned from his stay at Fort Condor, he named it Seko, meaning Midnight Beast to a very rough translation. It somehow fitted it and the two became great friends.
The three years that had passed after Sephiroths demise and the Planets safety were ones filled with nightmares, horrible visions and headaches that caused Cloud to scream in agony every night, unable to sleep. He would wake up sweating, clutching his sword acting like he was finishing Sephiroth off. Or sometimes he'd wake up feeling himself being controlled by Jenova, manipulated in some way.
That was the one thing he could never forgive Sephiroth for. The dead General had been innocent of all his crimes. Jenova...
Climbing atop the large bird Cloud sighed in relief at going back to his home. He wasn't quite sure why he bothered to come out here so often, but it definitely made his visions occur less often. The chocobo chirruped merrily before running down the fields, all the other beasts moving away from it.
That had been another interesting something to learn. Everything else was scared of Seko - perhaps more so than Cloud. Saying the bird was stronger than Cloud was preposterous, but the mysteries it lay in were far greater. After all, it had battle scars, while chocobo's hadn't been used for war in hundreds of years.
Soon the two comrades came to the twenty mile stretch of bogginess that would set them back an hour or so, and Cloud had to cover his nose from the stench. The mist forced him to close his eyes and he could only pray chocobo's were used to this. They ran into no trouble at all besides the horrible stench and vision troubles but Cloud could somehow feel something was amiss.
The mercenary always used to get a tingly feeling when something bad was about to happen, and he was getting that feeling right now. So as they neared the mountainside and the black chocobo cautiously hopped up it, Cloud subconsciously checked his materia.
He had made a few 'upgrades' to the Buster Sword, so it could hold eight pieces of his precious materia. He was so used to the magic by now he doubted he'd survive a day knowing it wasn't there.
Fire... Ice... Earth... Wind... Making sure it was all there, in their correct places and assuring himself nothing had been incompatible (A/N: You will know what I mean by this when I release my My FF7 World Chapter) he slowly slid the sword itself from his back.
Seko finally stood at the top of the mountain and looked downwards, Cloud gasping and his eyes widening. There were thousands of monsters down there, of all types and most of which he'd never seen before. And... they were strong, much stronger than normal ones. It was as if some sort of army was being gathered.
"Seko, down!" he hushed quietly and slid off the bird, ducking behind a small boulder so as not to be spotted. He needed a plan, but didn't know what magic he had that could destroy that many monsters in one blow.
No... He knew all right.
*
Tifa wiped her hands by means of her apron, then pulled it over her head throwing it off. Sighing she looked around 7th Heaven, wishing something exciting could happen. There was two men in a corner chatting away as they drank from their mugs of beer, Barret was upstairs sleeping away, and Marlene was talking to Danny.
Usually at this point Barret would go storming over to the fifteen-year-old boy and tell him to go clean up outside or give him some other unimportant task. The man disapproved of Marlene, now only thirteen years old, and Danny talking. They weren't in any type of romantic relationship, as far as Tifa could see, but Barret still got furious over it.
Though personally she thought it was cute, seeing the two playing puppy love. Whether or not either realized it they made a great couple. But if they ever were to date Barret would be in hysterics from the age difference.
"Hey Marlene!" Tifa called over. Looking away from her conversation the thirteen-year-old only halfway stared at Tifa. "I'm goin' out, you watch the place." Nodding she just turned back to Danny, and began giggling at the first thing he said.
Smiling to herself she busted out of the cold and dark bar and glorious sunlight shone inside, and dust flew off from the door. Up here in Kalm the sun was so amazingly bright but as always 7th Heaven remained a bit gloomy. Rubbing her eyes for just a moment she decided to go do some shopping. So the first place she went to was her friend Larry's weapon shop.
"Hey Larry!" she said enthusiastically coming through the doorway, skipping to the counter.
"Hey Teef. 'Sup?" he asked coolly, not really bothered by the fact a gorgeous woman was inside his store. He was about the only guy in town not all that interested in Tifa as a sex object.
"Oh, nothing. I was wonderin' if you got anything new in stock. You know, weapons or materia, or something." Batting her eyelashes at him he couldn't resist a smile.
"Actually yeah, I just got somethin' this morning. Some new gloves I thought you may have been interested in." Ducking behind the counter Tifa could hear him shuffling around, muttering to himself about something. After a few minutes he finally came out with a small gray box, a Celtic dragon symbol on the front.
Sliding it over to Tifa she pried open the lid and took out the two fingerless gloves. She slid both onto her hands and admired every little detail on them. They were a velvety black, yet somehow they still seemed to shimmer in the light in their own special way. They ran down her wrists tightly, yet still allowing comftorablity, and stopped about halfway down to the elbow.
The true beauty though was two sketchy figures of dragons that were facing one another from each wrist, growling. The pictures seemed to be alive and brought out a message, reminding the wearer to stay strong.
The cool leather felt like glass, cold at first but slowly becoming irresistible. Tifa's large eyes widened as soon as she noticed the materia slots. On each glove there were two pairs of linkable slots. Not many weapons could have this much materia connected to it, and she'd never seen gloves that could do it.
"I'll take it. No matter how much it costs."
Larry began laughing. "Aw, come on Teef! These things cost fifty-thousand gil, there's no way you can afford it."
"Not in cash, but if you put it to my credit card I have enough to buy twenty pairs of these." His eyes widened. Everyone knew Tifa used to be an 'adventurer' but no one was sure if she got any treasure from it.
"Uh... Sure thing, just hand it over." She flipped it over to him as she began brushing her fingers over the tough leather, and it was indeed tough. "Sign here," Larry muttered handing over a piece of paper. She signed it and took the other paper, then skipped out of the shop happily.
She decided the best place to try them out would be the mountain. After one of Weapons attacks it had been knocked down into the ground, which made it push all the earth up from the collision and form a large mountain at the back of Kalm.
Jogging up the mountain she managed to reach the top after an hour or so and looked around just for curiosity sake. Scanning from the left she could almost make out Chocobo Ranch's pastures, and looked along the mountain range stretching around the continent. She also saw Midgar, still being repaired.
She sighed. For some reason she thought by coming up here she would be able to see Cloud or at least feel his presence. But it was to no avail. The three years without him had been hard on her, but she learned to cope with it.
Turning to the rocky wall she began to bring back a fist, preparing to see the strength of the gloves. The right fist slammed into the wall and she felt no pain, but after a few seconds passing it began to crack, and a good foot-long chunk fell from it. Grinning she began pounding with both her fists, her energy never falling away even for a second.
The greatest way for her to release all the stress she built up was by fighting, and since the monsters had mysteriously become calm she took it out on inanimate objects.
After another hour of pounding away a cold hand fell onto her shoulder, and she jumped up at first. Tifa dropped to the ground and spun preparing to kick the stranger in the chest and stopped just in time as she saw it was Barret. "Sorry Barret, didn't know it was you."
"Dat's alright, Tifa. Jes came on up here wonderin' if ya were ready to come on down?" he asked softly. He had decided to be much easier on people after Reeve made him realize just how rash his actions in Avalanche had been.
"Yeah, you're right, but can't we stay up here for just a bit longer..?" He nodded understandingly. They walked to the edge of the mountain and stared out towards the horizon, towards where Cloud would be.
Tifa found Barret poking her a few hours later, waking her up. When she simply muttered, unaware she had ever fallen asleep, he carried her down to 7th Heaven.
*
Cloud stood behind the small boulder, his eyes squeezed shut and both his arms shot downwards, as if they were trying to escape from his body. His thin lips were mumbling words.
He was searching for that element, the one that belonged to none. For this particular spell he need not call on the powers of wind, fire, lightning, water, earth or any other common-found element. With this he had to search in the back of his mind, experience the pain it felt, and the joy of victory.
Cloud would feel the sorrow of it as its land was completely destroyed, the people screaming as they burned alive. The land it had come from had been so destroyed it affected it, giving it no element. The destroyed land had nothing to offer the stone, so instead it took the power of emotions.
Cloud began to feel his heart race, the soft yet recognizable footsteps as Seko stepped back in alarm, the screams of all sorts of beasts far below. When in this state of tranquillity his senses heightened, and new ones opened up to become his.
Swinging one hand swiftly, leaving images of itself behind, Cloud brought another hand forth and screamed. "ULTIMA!"
The monsters below suddenly took notice of the intruder. Particles of green energy swam inside the mass of raw magical energy swimming around Cloud, preparing to become the most daring attack. It sloshed back and forth like it were a pool, and Clouds body slowly began to pull from the boulder, raising into the air like he were being pulled by his hair.
His eyes snapped open and the green mass of energy fell forth, swimming down the mountainside into the canyon and pouring over the monsters. It spread as it fell forth, from the twenty-foot pool to a fifty-foot one in a matter of seconds. The beasts were screaming as their skin was burning, like some acid cutting through them. Yet the energy was so light, it didn't touch the ground, it just swayed above like some fog.
After a few minutes of the high-pitched wailing and cries, the screams died down. Not all the monsters had died, but all within sight of Cloud were either dead or too frightened to attack. Far from Clouds sight a single man walked outside of a cave, garbed in a violet cloak. Though the distance was far too great to be sure, Cloud knew he was snarling.
With one pale, scrawny hand pointed at Cloud two small winged enemies flew from the cave. Sighing, Cloud drew his sword before him, prepared to fight. "Seko, the moment I hack and slash these two we take off that way," Cloud pointed vaguely west," and don't turn back. Got it?" The large bird gave a vigorous nod and Clod readied himself for the attack. It wouldn't take long.
They were much faster than he had estimated, for they were upon him within seconds. The first blue-and-green dragon slapped Cloud with a wing, which made it stray from a steady course but also caused the mercenary to fly back a few feet and slam into a mountainside.
"Ah shit..." he said weakly, getting up slowly. "Okay, stronger then I thought. Still no problem." The second dragon, this one red-and-orange, came flying towards him and quickly flew upwards, just as Cloud had leapt outwards slashing. He came only inches below it and hit the ground, skidding for a moment before launching back with an outstretched leg.
This time one of the dragons' sharp talons cut through his left calf and held onto it, the blonde's blood quickly sliding towards his head (he was, after all, being flown upside down). Clutching his sword tightly he prayed this would work, and turned his waist, swinging his arms around the neck of the dragon only slightly larger than him. Holding on with both hands of his sword again, he used it to launch himself onto the dragon.
That had been his plan to start with, anyway. Instead, the egotistical psycho overshot the back and flew from it, falling about a hundred feet. "Shit shit shit shit shit this is gonna huuuuuurt!" Meeting a rough but somehow not as hard as expected landing he sighed in relief seeing he had landed on his chocobo.
Standing on top of the chocobo he awaited the two dragons to come in for another attack. He decided his materia to be used and began to get a feel for the surroundings.
With his mind he could picture the tanned mountains baking in the sun, the heat the rays were causing. He could feel the compressed heat left in between canyon sides and at last had gathered the needed energy.
He began laughing madly as the ice dragon came soaring in from the left. He pushed his hand out and lifted his palm upwards, red particles gathering. His eyes glowed an eerie blue for just a moment before a swirling mass of fire shot out. It was like a beam of it, but so much more. It was a large source of immensely hot fire, put in simple terms.
The ice dragon only managed to give one shriek before being blown away by it, a gaping hole in its stomach.
The fire dragon obviously decided to play it smarter, seeing his comrade was down so easily. It swooped in from behind and with its mouth open blew a ball of fire towards Cloud, forcing him to be launched dozens of feet to the left. Seko continued on for a few minutes before noticing its owner missing, so retreating was out of the question.
Cloud had tumbled halfway down a hill and was finally getting up, seeing his arm was now without a doubt broken. Oh well. It won't be too much of a problem. The one threat to his victory was the fact that his sword had gone missing. That left him with no materia at all.
The fire dragon came flying down towards him once again, and at the last second he pulled off a back flip, arching his back in such ways it should have been impossible. Landing on his two feet quite smoothly he brought back one fist, prepared for the winged enemy to come against him again.
When it did come it decided to use something new, not trusting its clever foe. Cloud was prepared to punch it as it came head-on, but instead the creature stopped in mid-air just in front of Cloud, bringing its wings up. Cloud fell back from the huge amount of wind blowing into his face and could feel his arm twisting yet again.
Muttering under his breath he rolled away to dodge any attacks, but the dragons' lightning-fast reflexes left Cloud with yet another cut into his leg. Tears filled his eyes from the burning sensation he was feeling but he still managed to stand up.
"That's it. There is only so much bullshit I can take." He started a limping run after the dragon that was just about to turn back for its own finishing move. His speed quickly doubled and he continued going faster, till he was about ten feet from his enemy. Jumping through the air he grabbed the dragons' neck with his good hand and slammed it into the ground when he landed.
Snapping its neck with his foot just to be safe, he turned back to Seko who was almost back to Cloud. "Come on boy. Let's hurry up." he said, gathering his sword with his left hand.
Swinging one foot over the chocobo the two rushed off across the mountains, a trip that would last until afternoon the next day if they didn't stop. But most unfortunately, it wasn't quite over yet.
Standing just before Cloud was the violet cloaked man, his hood casting over his face so his features were hidden. He simply waited there, seemingly staring straight at Cloud. "We shall finish this later." His voice was raspy and dead sounding, as if he hadn't spoken for years and it was unused. Cloud merely nodded. "North of Junon... you may find my apprentice. There we shall see your potential."
Cloud gave another short nod and the violet figure disappeared, slowly fading away. He hadn't had a fight in a good long while, this would probably be tougher than the one he just had. "Come Seko, let's hurry."
*
Cloud slowly lay up from his position on the grass, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. His right arm felt twisted still and the burning sensation was increasing, a fever beginning to spread to Cloud.
Seeing it was still nighttime he guessed he had only been asleep for a few hours, but felt completely regenerated. Well, not completely regenerated seeing his energies. But his weariness had been washed away and his leg had already begun to heal.
Shaking his head to wake himself up he turned around, looking for Seko. The bird was dozing near by enjoying himself. Ah, let him have his rest. He shouldn't have to go through this anyway... Sighing he gazed towards the stars far above. Each were twinkling with energy and showed their own emotions.
Continuing to stare upwards his thoughts began to drift... To a woman he had once known...
Shaking his head again, feeling that groggy feeling, he knew it was a bad idea to think of her. It always was. After they had defeated Sephiroth Cloud knew he could never be with civilized people again, his mind so corrupted. He was weak, and that was all there was to it... Physically built as the worlds strongest, mentally that of a seven-year old child.
Seko chirped merrily, getting up and walking over to his owner. "Hey boy. Ready to go? I'm afraid you're not going to see my own home, and we aren't resting for a while. So if you want to sleep a bit longer go ahead."
The chocobo only stared into his tormented eyes and waited for Cloud to get atop of him. "Fine," he said smiling. Seko was so naive, just as he had been when in ShinRa.
A painful burst shot through his head, his eyes clenched tight and his left hand already raised to his head, holding it in pain. He... just couldn't... think those thoughts. Breathing deeply he dropped his hand, and put it to his back. Unstrapping the sheath to the buster sword he switched it to suit his left hand.
"Let's go!"
*
Clouds brilliant blue eyes cracked as if they were lightning for just a second, before settling down to the tamer shade of the color. As often happened when the wanderer was nestled deep in his thoughts, unaware of his surroundings.
Seko was cautiously hopping along the loose rocks on the mountain. The large bird was not afraid - he was just in no hurry. So the two made their way up along the colorful mountains, head off in a supposedly western direction (North, east, south, and west had never really been used on the Planet. Navigation was often complicated seeing as how there were no stars to point them towards places).
It would only be a week or two before they met the impossibly hard task of defeating an unknown enemies apprentice. The fact the person was still in training left Cloud feeling a bit relieved, but he had learned to never under estimate an enemy. It could be ones downfall.
Sighing as he snapped back into reality, Cloud unsheathed the large sword and held it up, testing the weight and making calculations in his head of how well he could wield it.
*
Tifa was still laying awake in her bed, at what she estimated to be about three in the morning. She had this feeling that something was horribly wrong, and if she didn't set out to make it right soon enough, it would stay that way. But in moments like these it was wiser to think about what was happening, and not act irrationally.
But Tifa was not one of those people to go by what was 'wiser'. She acted on instincts, and right now they were yelling 'Go for it'.
So while it was still late, she slipped into suitable clothing, grabbed her gloves from the desk and set out with some food in a bag. She calmly walked through Kalm until she made it to the edge of town. Turning back for a moment, she whispered something quietly, letting the wind carry her message.
Marlenes eyes suddenly snapped open, as if she had never been sleeping at all but just closed her eyes for a moment. She was nearly positive she had heard the faintest sound of someone saying "I'll be home soon."
Authors Notes: *twitches* Er... Is this good? Hope it is... I wasn't quite sure how to handle everything with Tifa so I was kind of just making that up there.
But I hope you like it. Everything with Cloud suddenly makes more sense... Meaning there's no gigantic dragon, nor is there a meeting with two strangers that freak him out.
I like my idea of ultima. Since it came from North Corel I thought about ultima being from there, and after a while it made sense that ultima was the power of emotions. As it travelled down the mountain it sort of picked up stronger emotions from the animals and stuff, which was why it was so powerful.
If you don't like anything with this, please tell me. I tried desperately to make this chapter better. Unfortunately, the next one is shorter and not as good (but I improved it compared to Chapter Two of the original fic).