Chapter 4: Time Materia

Sephiroth watched the puppet take Vincent out of the room, 'he's starting to break out of my control, just like what happened with Aries before I had to kill her. I never thought he would be strong enough to begin to break through so quickly though.'  Sephiroth had noticed that when Cloud picked up Vincent, for a moment his face had showed pity, just for a fraction of a second, but that was a fraction of a second too long for his books.  'I told Cloud to keep him alive, but I bet when I next see Vincent he'll be fully recovered.'  He drummed his fingers idly on top of one of Bugenhagen's machines, while gazing at the huge materia gathered in front of him.  He had heard that the huge materia could forge other materia together and create an entirely new piece, Cloud had done it and had obtained a Master Magic materia, he had let Cloud keep it because the guy was so weak he needed some extra help if he ever wanted to defeat anyone strong.  Sephiroth unequipped his favourite materia, Time, and casually threw it up into the air, and caught it again.  He loved this materia; with it he could slow down enemies so that he could take his time in attacking them, or else move so quickly no one could follow his movements with their naked eyes. 

Sephiroth missed catching it after the forth throw and the materia bounced across the floor, 'if no one saw me miss such an easy catch I'd die a happy man', he quickly looked around, no one had seen him.  His cheeks burned a bright red as he ran over the stone floor to catch it before anyone came in.  As the Time materia reached the centre of the stone floor it stopped mid-bounce and then floated about a metre above the ground.  It had bounced between the Huge Materia that had been collected there. 

"What the…?"

The four Materia surrounding it began to glow brightly, each in a different colour, 'what's going on?' the silver haired general jumped back to the edge of the room as bolts of green, red, blue and purple lightning darted out of the Huge Materia and into the Time materia. 

"Cool…"

In the Inn

Vincent woke up; his body tingled from the number of Cure spells that had been cast on him.  Next to him he could see Cloud taking a couple of Ethers, due to the loss of MP from the spells.  'Why did Cloud cure me?  Sephiroth must have wanted me alive and kicking for whatever it is he is going to do'

"Cloud?"

Cloud turned and looked at the man, Vincent still looked a bit weak, but he'd be okay in a couple of minutes. 

"What traitor?"

"Why did you…?  Why am I a traitor?"  He asked, changing what he was about to ask.

"You should know the story of how your ancestors were traitors to the only true race of this planet; the Centra.  Which means that you're a traitor too."

'Wow, Cloud, that was a great explanation if ever I heard one'.  He thought sarcastically.  But Vincent knew what he meant, how people, long, long, dead, had left the nomadic Centra, becoming lazy and stubborn, refusing to help the Ancients (the name those not of the race gave them) when it seemed like all was lost for them, many of them had died or were dying, but man had still not helped.  Sephiroth thought of himself as an Ancient, he almost was due to Hojo's experiments on him when in his mother's womb, but Sephiroth quite bluntly wasn't one, no matter what he thought.  After all Vincent had been in love with Sephiroth's real mother; Lucrecia 'and still am…'

"But doesn't that make you a traitor too?  You are not an Ancient."

Cloud looked confused for a moment as though thinking about what the raven-haired man had said "…Shut up!"

Meanwhile

Sephiroth watched the strangely coloured 'lightning' stop, and the Time materia fell to the ground.  He went over and picked it up, it seemed…different somehow.  It felt more powerful, it was a mastered piece of materia, but now it seemed like it had gone past that stage and gone on to be something even stronger.  He wanted to try it out 'Where's Vincent?'

He found Cloud and Vincent arguing animatedly about each of them not being traitors, Vincent was sat up in a bed, while Cloud was stood at the side of it, 'Great, how come I get all the freaks working for me?'

-Cough-

Cloud and Vincent immediately stopped their arguing and turned as one to face the door where Sephiorth stood.

"Er...Master, I was just...er…" 

"Shut up Cloud, get Vincent and take him outside, meet me there."  Sephiroth left the room abruptly and made his way outside and into the deserted night, rolling his eyes as he went 'Cloud has to be one of the most pathetic puppets ever, pity Zack was killed, he would have made a fantastic puppet.'

Cloud turned to Vincent "You heard the boss, get up." 

Vincent got out of the bed and followed Cloud outside, aches and pains gone, health now fully restored. 

Sephiorth was waiting, holding a piece of materia in his hands, near to where Cloud and the rest of AVALANCHE had sat and watched a bonfire late into the night months before, when Cloud and Vincent caught up. 

"Its about time.  Vincent, stand over there."  Sephiroth pointed about 20 metres from where he stood.  Vincent complied and waited 'what is Sephiroth up to?' 

"Now, charge at me." 

"Sorry?"

"I said to run at me!"

"Okay..." Said a confused Vincent.  He ran at the silver-haired man, 'I wonder why he's told me to do this.'

 "Slow!"  Sephiroth shouted, holding out his right hand towards Vincent, the left resting on the hilt of the mighty Masamune.

Vincent stopped dead in his tracks; a bright light surrounded him, and he collapsed onto the floor, limbs twitching uncontrollably. 

"That's never happened when I've cast Slow."  Said Cloud

Sephiroth and Cloud ran up to man, he seemed to be…changing.  Vincent looked to be shrinking slightly, scars healed; his face seemed less harsh and small wrinkles on his forehead and around his eyes vanished.  After a few minutes of fascinated watching, Cloud spoke again, "Er...Master…what's going on?  Since when did casting Slow do that to people?"

Sephiroth didn't answer, but instead stopped the Slow spell; the light around Vincent lessened and then faded away.  Arms and legs stopped their twitching as Vincent slowly got up, both Mako-infused men gasped, Vincent looked to be about 16 years old.

"What happened?"  He asked, slightly confused and disorientated, he staggered into Cloud, who pushed him away disgustedly. 

"It seems as though Slow, in this materia, no longer slows down people when it is cast, but instead goes one step further and reverses the aging process.  This could be interesting, Cloud come here, and lets see if the same thing happens to you."  Cloud held up his hands to Sephiroth, he didn't want to look like a 16 year old!

"I'd rather not, Master, I like being my age."

"You dare to defy me!?!  You're lucky I do not want to cast haste on you!"

Cloud quickly shook his head "No, no of course not, I was just saying."  'Anything not to have Haste cast on me.  How old would I look before he decided to stop?'

'What are they on about?' Vincent thought, 'What happened?  What did that Time materia do?  I feel…strange.  Why does it always seem like I'm one step behind, without a clue to where I'm going, or to what the heck is going on?'

"Well then, keep still"

"Yes, Sir."

"Slow!"

A bright light engulfed Cloud, and he too collapsed to the floor, limbs twitching madly.  Sephiroth and Vincent went over to him, 'Is this what happened to me?' Vincent thought curiously.  After about a minute Sephiroth stopped casting slow, "That's enough." he looked at Cloud's face as he was getting up from the stone floor, he looked about 17.  This was fun!  Who else could he 'de-age'? 

"How old do I look, Master?" 

"About 17" Said Sephiroth

"Aww man!"

"Well you're voice is like a 17 year old's." '…and you whine like one too'

"Is it?  I can't remember what it was like to be 17, what do I look like?"

"Why can't you remember?"

" I was in one of Hojo's experiments for about 5 years, so I missed most of my teenage years."  Cloud shrugged

"Hmmm, of course."