All That's Evil
by Semdai
Chapter Four : Desperate Times and Desperate Measures
Sephiroth cradled Basil's head in his arms. Basil moaned weakly, but otherwise didn't respond. Sephiroth cursed himself for his failure to protect his friend.
Basil's wounds were very serious. His body had been badly gored by the Banshee, Anema. His eyes, mercifully, had escaped Anema's tearing claws. The rest of him hadn't been so lucky. Several of Basil's organs were damaged, including his stomach, lungs, and intestines. Sephiroth balled his hands into fists, hands soiled by Basil's blood. No death he had ever witnessed in his life before had pained him. But, Basil's suffering anguished him more than any torment he had ever suffered in his life. More than when Cloud had thrown him into the lifestream so many years ago. More than when Avalanche had defeated him and stopped Meteor.
It pained him because he had never seen a friend writhe in the agony that Basil suffered now. Nothing he had ever witnessed before could compare with this. With the sight of Basil's frail and scrawny body gored deeply, bone and flesh alike torn to shreds.
" Sephiroth..." Basil coughed weakly. Sephiroth went down on his knees before Basil.
" Basil," he cried, " speak to me." Basil groped blindly for his friend. Sephiroth took Basil's hand which was cut and bloody.
" I think... I'm dying..." Basil moaned.
" No, Basil, no," Sephiroth protested, " you can't die now. You're still young. You've got your whole life ahead of you."
" It's okay, Sephiroth," Basil reassured, " I don't mind dying, as long as you're here with me. You're the best friend I've ever had." Sephiroth was caught off guard by Basil's words. Nobody in the world cared about him like Basil did.
" You're the only friend I have in the world," he sobbed, " please don't die, Basil." Sephiroth was shocked to hear himself beg like this, but he couldn't help it. Basil's eyes opened slowly. Sephiroth could see the tears welling up inside them.
" We all die sooner or later," Basil murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.
" I promise you this, Basil," Sephiroth swore, " I will make Shivra pay for what she has done to you." Basil's grip on Sephiroth's hand tightened.
" It doesn't matter," he relinquished.
" Yes it does, Basil," Sephiroth insisted, " she has to pay for this!"
" There's something...I have to ask you... before I go," Basil started.
" Yes?" Sephiroth answered eagerly.
" Did you ever...kill a man...named Tseng?" Sephiroth was confused. He did remember the day he had killed Tseng, only because it hadn't been very long ago.
" Yes," he repeated, " why?" Basil closed his eyes.
" Because..." Basil paused, " he was... my older brother..." Sephiroth was dumbfounded.
Suddenly, Basil began to cough, swallowing the small gushes of blood that his body regurgitated as he did so. Sephiroth leapt to his feet and cradled Basil in his arms. Basil's body shuddered violently. He let out a small gasp. His eyes rolled up in his head. He gripped Sephiroth's wrist tightly. Sephiroth held him until his body relaxed, then he buried his face in Basil's blood-clotted hair and began to cry for the first time in his life, ashamed for the first time about having killed someone. ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ Lucius slowly opened his eyes and looked around him. He was in his room, lying on his bed. Aeris stood over him, examining his wounds.
" I see that you're awake," she observed, tying the bandage on his arm.
" How long have I been out," Lucius asked.
" Several hours," Aeris replied, " Gavial brought you and another person here this morning. You were unconscious. You're really lucky you know, another hour and you'd probably be dead." Lucius tried to remember how he had gotten out of Sephiroth's cave.
" Who was with me when Gavial brought me here," he asked.
" You really should rest," Aeris insisted. Lucius sat up defiantly.
" I gotta check on Gavial," he asserted, getting up. Aeris didn't move to stop him.
Lucius gripped the wall for support as he made his way toward Shivra's room. Rufus was there standing in front of the space that Shivra had carved out of the wall to make a desk. He noticed Lucius as soon as the boy entered the room. Rufus picked up a photograph from the desk. It was a picture of Shivra, Zack, and Lucius. In the picture, Lucius was holding a baby dragon. Shivra and Zack were behind him. They all were smiling.
" For two years the only thing I've been able to dream about is the woman in this picture," Rufus said quietly, " her face haunts my dreams like some memory that I'm supposed to know but can't remember." Lucius came up beside Rufus.
" That's my family about five years ago," Lucius explained, " the woman behind me in the picture is my mother."
" And the man next to her," Rufus asked, " is he your father?"
" No," Lucius explained, " he's my uncle. I don't know my father."
" You've never met him," Rufus asked. Lucius shook his head.
" My mother had to leave him before I was born," Lucius clarified, " We planned to go back and find him when I was older, but he disappeared about two years ago."
" You're really lucky," Rufus started, " I have no memory of my parents or where I grew up. I've lived for two years with this scar and I don't know what it means." Rufus pulled back his hair and showed Lucius the scar that ran across his head.
" Don't worry, Rufus," Lucius comforted, " I think I know who you are." ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ Zack pressed his chocobo on. He pulled to the head of the group. Cloud called to Zack, asking him to slow down, but Zack was lost in his thoughts. Cloud spurred his bird, soon pulling in front of Zack.
" What's the matter with you," he demanded, forcing Zack to halt his chocobo. Tifa brought her bird up beside Cloud. The others formed a semi- circle around Zack.
" I'm fine," Zack insisted, " I've just got a lot on my mind."
" You can tell us, Zack," Tifa vented.
" I said I'm fine," Zack persisted.
" That's bullshit, and we all know it," Tifa retaliated. Cloud looked astounded with Tifa's outburst. She almost never spoke like that. Zack backed his chocobo up slowly and hung his head.
" I was just thinking about Lucius, how we used to laugh and joke around while we trained our chocobos out on the plains. Those were the times, before he started to have the flashes."
" What kind of flashes," Vincent asked. He seemed fairly interested in Zack's tale even though it was very unlike his usual attitude.
" It started as just dreams, nightmares that made him wake up in cold sweat. He said he was dreaming about a giant winged creature tearing its way out of his body. At first we thought it was just bad dreams since he was only about four years old, but then he started seeing things in the daylight. His brain made him relive his dreams during the day, making them even more frightening or so he said," Zack explained. Vincent furrowed his brow and sighed deeply.
" What's wrong, Vincent," Cloud asked. Vincent looked up.
" Just thinking," he replied, " about my past." ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ Sephiroth pocketed two materia orbs as he slipped into the caves. He had only been there once before, but he was confident that he could find his way. After all, who needs a guide when anger is your fuel. Sephiroth made his way carefully through the passages that he concluded had been recently used. He came out in a large cavern which contained, much to Sephiroth's surprise, an enormous creature partially submerged in a pool of water. Sephiroth did not know that the giant, sleeping dragon before him was Gavial, if he had things might have gone down a totally different road than they did. For a moment, Sephiroth considered stopping to kill the dragon, but then he remembered his motives and decided it would be better not to provoke the sleeping beast and continued on his way.
Gavial was not a stupid dragon. She had not at all been asleep during the time that Sephiroth spent in her presence. She had chosen to remain quiet and under the impression that she had been sleeping. After Sephiroth's departure, Gavial lifted her wet body out of the water and moved to block the exit out of the caves. ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ Sephiroth listened carefully at the entrance of the cave. He could hear sounds inside, someone humming while they cleaned. He stole a glance inside the cave and grinned when he recognized Aeris. Sephiroth wasted no time. He dashed inside and apprehended Aeris from behind. She let out a scream as he overtook her. A scream that echoed throughout the mountain. ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ " Aeris," Lucius gasped. He spun on his heel and bolted for the door, grabbing a random weapon off the wall as he passed it. Rufus ran after him. Lucius grinned to himself when he noticed that the weapon he had grabbed was his shamshir, a light and deadly sword. The two came to the source of the scream and found Sephiroth with Aeris in tow. Lucius felt his blood boil.
" Lucius," Aeris cried, " help me!" " You again," Sephiroth growled, " how many lives do you have?"
" Enough to last me until the day you die," Lucius hissed. Sephiroth snorted.
" I'm afraid I can't play with you know, boy," he taunted, " I have somewhere I have to be."
" Don't tell me the Great Sephiroth is afraid of a child," Lucius baited, " what would you say to that, Rufus?"
" Pussy," Rufus jeered.
" That won't work with me," Sephiroth reminded, " and it would be a pleasure to bring back your head as a souvenir, but like I said I don't have the time."
" Excuses," Lucius snorted.
" I'll give you my parting words then," Sephiroth decided. Whatever Sephiroth's parting words were, they never found out. Because at that moment Gavial appeared behind Sephiroth and roared a challenge. The next moment was chaos. Sephiroth didn't bother to look behind him or add another comment to the conversation. He simply vanished, without a trace. Gavial snorted and roared in confusion.
" Shit," Lucius cursed. ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ " What do want with me," Aeris demanded as Sephiroth shoved her inside a cave. She looked around the cave to see that it was inhabited. Sephiroth pushed her toward a bed-like structure. Aeris covered her mouth with her hands at the sight of the man lying on the bed. He was mangled and bloody and didn't seem to be alive at all, save for the erratic rise and fall of his chest.
" I want you to help him," Sephiroth said coldly, placing a hand on the injured man's forehead.
" Who did this," Aeris asked as she tried to settle her stomach and study the man before her. He seemed to be in his early twenties, his tawny hair was short and bloody. One of his ears had a piece missing and his clothes were ripped and torn. His eyes were closed so she couldn't tell what color they were.
" Shivra did this," Sephiroth seethed, " and I want you to undo it." Aeris was confused. Sephiroth didn't care about anyone, so why did he want her to save this man? And why had Shivra done this? Was Sephiroth even telling her the truth?
" I don't know if I can," Aeris stammered as she began to examine the wounds. They were deep and serious. The sight made her sick. " These wounds are very serious." The look Sephiroth gave her then made her cringe in fear. " I'll do what I can."
Chapter Four : Desperate Times and Desperate Measures
Sephiroth cradled Basil's head in his arms. Basil moaned weakly, but otherwise didn't respond. Sephiroth cursed himself for his failure to protect his friend.
Basil's wounds were very serious. His body had been badly gored by the Banshee, Anema. His eyes, mercifully, had escaped Anema's tearing claws. The rest of him hadn't been so lucky. Several of Basil's organs were damaged, including his stomach, lungs, and intestines. Sephiroth balled his hands into fists, hands soiled by Basil's blood. No death he had ever witnessed in his life before had pained him. But, Basil's suffering anguished him more than any torment he had ever suffered in his life. More than when Cloud had thrown him into the lifestream so many years ago. More than when Avalanche had defeated him and stopped Meteor.
It pained him because he had never seen a friend writhe in the agony that Basil suffered now. Nothing he had ever witnessed before could compare with this. With the sight of Basil's frail and scrawny body gored deeply, bone and flesh alike torn to shreds.
" Sephiroth..." Basil coughed weakly. Sephiroth went down on his knees before Basil.
" Basil," he cried, " speak to me." Basil groped blindly for his friend. Sephiroth took Basil's hand which was cut and bloody.
" I think... I'm dying..." Basil moaned.
" No, Basil, no," Sephiroth protested, " you can't die now. You're still young. You've got your whole life ahead of you."
" It's okay, Sephiroth," Basil reassured, " I don't mind dying, as long as you're here with me. You're the best friend I've ever had." Sephiroth was caught off guard by Basil's words. Nobody in the world cared about him like Basil did.
" You're the only friend I have in the world," he sobbed, " please don't die, Basil." Sephiroth was shocked to hear himself beg like this, but he couldn't help it. Basil's eyes opened slowly. Sephiroth could see the tears welling up inside them.
" We all die sooner or later," Basil murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.
" I promise you this, Basil," Sephiroth swore, " I will make Shivra pay for what she has done to you." Basil's grip on Sephiroth's hand tightened.
" It doesn't matter," he relinquished.
" Yes it does, Basil," Sephiroth insisted, " she has to pay for this!"
" There's something...I have to ask you... before I go," Basil started.
" Yes?" Sephiroth answered eagerly.
" Did you ever...kill a man...named Tseng?" Sephiroth was confused. He did remember the day he had killed Tseng, only because it hadn't been very long ago.
" Yes," he repeated, " why?" Basil closed his eyes.
" Because..." Basil paused, " he was... my older brother..." Sephiroth was dumbfounded.
Suddenly, Basil began to cough, swallowing the small gushes of blood that his body regurgitated as he did so. Sephiroth leapt to his feet and cradled Basil in his arms. Basil's body shuddered violently. He let out a small gasp. His eyes rolled up in his head. He gripped Sephiroth's wrist tightly. Sephiroth held him until his body relaxed, then he buried his face in Basil's blood-clotted hair and began to cry for the first time in his life, ashamed for the first time about having killed someone. ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ Lucius slowly opened his eyes and looked around him. He was in his room, lying on his bed. Aeris stood over him, examining his wounds.
" I see that you're awake," she observed, tying the bandage on his arm.
" How long have I been out," Lucius asked.
" Several hours," Aeris replied, " Gavial brought you and another person here this morning. You were unconscious. You're really lucky you know, another hour and you'd probably be dead." Lucius tried to remember how he had gotten out of Sephiroth's cave.
" Who was with me when Gavial brought me here," he asked.
" You really should rest," Aeris insisted. Lucius sat up defiantly.
" I gotta check on Gavial," he asserted, getting up. Aeris didn't move to stop him.
Lucius gripped the wall for support as he made his way toward Shivra's room. Rufus was there standing in front of the space that Shivra had carved out of the wall to make a desk. He noticed Lucius as soon as the boy entered the room. Rufus picked up a photograph from the desk. It was a picture of Shivra, Zack, and Lucius. In the picture, Lucius was holding a baby dragon. Shivra and Zack were behind him. They all were smiling.
" For two years the only thing I've been able to dream about is the woman in this picture," Rufus said quietly, " her face haunts my dreams like some memory that I'm supposed to know but can't remember." Lucius came up beside Rufus.
" That's my family about five years ago," Lucius explained, " the woman behind me in the picture is my mother."
" And the man next to her," Rufus asked, " is he your father?"
" No," Lucius explained, " he's my uncle. I don't know my father."
" You've never met him," Rufus asked. Lucius shook his head.
" My mother had to leave him before I was born," Lucius clarified, " We planned to go back and find him when I was older, but he disappeared about two years ago."
" You're really lucky," Rufus started, " I have no memory of my parents or where I grew up. I've lived for two years with this scar and I don't know what it means." Rufus pulled back his hair and showed Lucius the scar that ran across his head.
" Don't worry, Rufus," Lucius comforted, " I think I know who you are." ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ Zack pressed his chocobo on. He pulled to the head of the group. Cloud called to Zack, asking him to slow down, but Zack was lost in his thoughts. Cloud spurred his bird, soon pulling in front of Zack.
" What's the matter with you," he demanded, forcing Zack to halt his chocobo. Tifa brought her bird up beside Cloud. The others formed a semi- circle around Zack.
" I'm fine," Zack insisted, " I've just got a lot on my mind."
" You can tell us, Zack," Tifa vented.
" I said I'm fine," Zack persisted.
" That's bullshit, and we all know it," Tifa retaliated. Cloud looked astounded with Tifa's outburst. She almost never spoke like that. Zack backed his chocobo up slowly and hung his head.
" I was just thinking about Lucius, how we used to laugh and joke around while we trained our chocobos out on the plains. Those were the times, before he started to have the flashes."
" What kind of flashes," Vincent asked. He seemed fairly interested in Zack's tale even though it was very unlike his usual attitude.
" It started as just dreams, nightmares that made him wake up in cold sweat. He said he was dreaming about a giant winged creature tearing its way out of his body. At first we thought it was just bad dreams since he was only about four years old, but then he started seeing things in the daylight. His brain made him relive his dreams during the day, making them even more frightening or so he said," Zack explained. Vincent furrowed his brow and sighed deeply.
" What's wrong, Vincent," Cloud asked. Vincent looked up.
" Just thinking," he replied, " about my past." ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ Sephiroth pocketed two materia orbs as he slipped into the caves. He had only been there once before, but he was confident that he could find his way. After all, who needs a guide when anger is your fuel. Sephiroth made his way carefully through the passages that he concluded had been recently used. He came out in a large cavern which contained, much to Sephiroth's surprise, an enormous creature partially submerged in a pool of water. Sephiroth did not know that the giant, sleeping dragon before him was Gavial, if he had things might have gone down a totally different road than they did. For a moment, Sephiroth considered stopping to kill the dragon, but then he remembered his motives and decided it would be better not to provoke the sleeping beast and continued on his way.
Gavial was not a stupid dragon. She had not at all been asleep during the time that Sephiroth spent in her presence. She had chosen to remain quiet and under the impression that she had been sleeping. After Sephiroth's departure, Gavial lifted her wet body out of the water and moved to block the exit out of the caves. ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ Sephiroth listened carefully at the entrance of the cave. He could hear sounds inside, someone humming while they cleaned. He stole a glance inside the cave and grinned when he recognized Aeris. Sephiroth wasted no time. He dashed inside and apprehended Aeris from behind. She let out a scream as he overtook her. A scream that echoed throughout the mountain. ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ " Aeris," Lucius gasped. He spun on his heel and bolted for the door, grabbing a random weapon off the wall as he passed it. Rufus ran after him. Lucius grinned to himself when he noticed that the weapon he had grabbed was his shamshir, a light and deadly sword. The two came to the source of the scream and found Sephiroth with Aeris in tow. Lucius felt his blood boil.
" Lucius," Aeris cried, " help me!" " You again," Sephiroth growled, " how many lives do you have?"
" Enough to last me until the day you die," Lucius hissed. Sephiroth snorted.
" I'm afraid I can't play with you know, boy," he taunted, " I have somewhere I have to be."
" Don't tell me the Great Sephiroth is afraid of a child," Lucius baited, " what would you say to that, Rufus?"
" Pussy," Rufus jeered.
" That won't work with me," Sephiroth reminded, " and it would be a pleasure to bring back your head as a souvenir, but like I said I don't have the time."
" Excuses," Lucius snorted.
" I'll give you my parting words then," Sephiroth decided. Whatever Sephiroth's parting words were, they never found out. Because at that moment Gavial appeared behind Sephiroth and roared a challenge. The next moment was chaos. Sephiroth didn't bother to look behind him or add another comment to the conversation. He simply vanished, without a trace. Gavial snorted and roared in confusion.
" Shit," Lucius cursed. ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ " What do want with me," Aeris demanded as Sephiroth shoved her inside a cave. She looked around the cave to see that it was inhabited. Sephiroth pushed her toward a bed-like structure. Aeris covered her mouth with her hands at the sight of the man lying on the bed. He was mangled and bloody and didn't seem to be alive at all, save for the erratic rise and fall of his chest.
" I want you to help him," Sephiroth said coldly, placing a hand on the injured man's forehead.
" Who did this," Aeris asked as she tried to settle her stomach and study the man before her. He seemed to be in his early twenties, his tawny hair was short and bloody. One of his ears had a piece missing and his clothes were ripped and torn. His eyes were closed so she couldn't tell what color they were.
" Shivra did this," Sephiroth seethed, " and I want you to undo it." Aeris was confused. Sephiroth didn't care about anyone, so why did he want her to save this man? And why had Shivra done this? Was Sephiroth even telling her the truth?
" I don't know if I can," Aeris stammered as she began to examine the wounds. They were deep and serious. The sight made her sick. " These wounds are very serious." The look Sephiroth gave her then made her cringe in fear. " I'll do what I can."