Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, Advent Children, or any of their characters.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
"So, what brings you back here suddenly Yazoo?" Kadaj hollered over the roar of the two engines. He looked over at his elder brother, a hint of amusement crawling across his features.
"I never left. I simply went to spy on them under my own terms, brother." Yazoo lifted his one hand to push aside a few stray locks of silver hair. His face remained completely emotionless and cold.
"Do not call me that." Kadaj glared at him. "Neither of you." His gaze wondered over to Loz, who was looking at him puzzled.
"Why not?" He asked with a quizzical look on his face, completely dumbfounded.
" Because. Didn't I ever tell you two?" A smirk crept across Kadaj's face as he screeched to a halt, as did Loz.
"Tell us what?" The oldest of the three got a look of slight annoyance on.
"Only one of us is truly the brother of Sephiroth. Only one of us is truly even a natural being. You fools are nothing more than pathetic creations, both failures... Both of you are insignificant to this world. I am the true brother of Sephiroth, you two are nothing more than experiments made in his image." Kadaj laughed at them both, as he caught notice of both of their expressions. "Loz and Yazoo... Or should I say Project L02 and Project Y4200... Ha. It doesn't matter. You are not related to myself in any way. You're clones. Loz..."
Kadaj's gesture toward him caught the attention of the eldest of the three. "You're lying..." He managed to say to the younger man.
Kadaj merely ignored the comment and continued. "You were the first of us to be created. Twenty-seven years ago, Shin-Ra Inc began adapting clones of Sephiroth, even though he was still young. You were created first, intended to be superior to Sephiroth in every way possible. You failed, and were sealed in a mako-filled tube for twenty-three years. The same became of Yazoo, almost immediately after his creation twenty three years ago."
"How do you expect us to believe you?" Yazoo growled at him, eyes full of anger. He knew deep down that this man wasn't lying to him, but he didn't want to believe it.
" Yazoo... Loz..." He smiled, and in a voice laced with venom he continued on. "Neither of you has the right to call me brother. You have the right to call me master... I am JENOVA's only child now..."
"Why are you telling us this now?" Loz seemed angry as well.
" Because. You and I both know very well you two won't bail on this. What else would you have to live for? I'm right, and you know it. Now go! Go to the lab, and bring me Mother's head!" Kadaj yelled, slamming on the gas, and speeding off towards the ruins of Midgar. He knew that while he visited his brother there, they would go and get it.
" Should we go...?" The older of the two broke the 10-minute silence that had befallen them since their 'brother' had left.
"We should. He is right, what more do we have to live for...?" Yazoo didn't seem to want to talk anymore.
Loz simply stared at the ground for a moment, before tearing off once more toward their destination.
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Cloud wandered out of the small ruin they had found to shelter themselves in. The others had long fallen asleep, but he just couldn't. He couldn't help but keep himself absorbed in his current train of thought.
"What is the afterlife like?" He said aloud suddenly. He fiddled with the small pink ribbon that was fastened on his arm; a memorial item that he had used to remember the one he lost two years ago. The day she had died, her ribbon had fallen from her hair. Cloud and the rest of AVALANCHE had taken a strip from the piece of fabric and fastened it to their arm in memory of the half-cetra.
Cloud stared at the starry sky, wondering if Aeris was out there somewhere. He pondered what she was doing, and if she was happy in death. "What is it like to be dead?" He hung his head once more and closed his eyes. Did she even miss him? Did she even feel his absence?
As he opened his eyes, everything became white. Brilliant white light filled his vision, and slowly faded to become a field of various types of flowers. Cloud stared in shock for a moment, blinked and shook his head.
"I must be tired." He said aloud, but it was all still there in front of him. He decided while he was there he might as well walk around.
He turned and his heart nearly skipped a beat. In the distance was a figure, clothed in a worn, pink dress, with a short red jacket over top. Her long brown hair cascaded down her back, and she wore a pair of old-looking brown boots that didn't suit the rest of the outfit. She was turned away from him, and seemed to be tending to a patch of the various flowers around there.
Hope filled him and he dashed as fast as he could at the figure, which stood slowly and turned to face him. Aeris smiled as Cloud approached her, as did he.
"Aeris!" Cloud seemed a lot happier than he normally did in the past two years. The one he had lost, was standing right in front of him.
"Cloud..." She said softly. "It's very good to see you..." She walked over to him and the two shared a friendly embrace.
"I've missed you." He looked down at her and spoke gently.
"I've missed you as well, Cloud. As much as I want you to stay with me, our time together now is short. You are only here for a matter of moments and in that time I have to tell you what is going to happen." Her smile faded slightly, into a look of sadness. "As Yazoo may have told you, JENOVA wasn't destroyed, and she took on another person to be her puppet. That person is Kadaj. JENOVA's power has been stored in his body, not only causing his actions, but increasing his power as well. He, Loz, and Yazoo are not truly your enemies, they are merely misled. JENOVA is trying to manipulate them into restoring her physical self."
" JENOVA can't be restored, can she?"
"She can Cloud. It's a very real possibility. And The Planet knows this, as it has been screaming for me to reach out to you. It's in danger once again, and you need to stop the parasite before it succeeds in its goal." Aeris pulled from the blondes embrace gently and turned so she stood back to back with him. "I'm sorry our time has been cut so short... I hope we can visit again sometime, Cloud." They turned to face one another again, and the girl gave him a sad smile.
"Aeris!" Everything began to fade out into white, and before he knew it he was laying on the ground, with Tifa, Cid, Vincent, and Barrett looming over him.
"Are you alright?" Tifa asked, helping him to his feet.
"Yeah... I'm fine..." Cloud rubbed his head slightly.
"You gave us quite a fuckin' scare there! With your damn screaming and yelling and such." Cid remarked.
"Don't you go makin' us all worry about your spiky ass!" Barrett chuckled at him and gave him a friendly punch in the arm.
"I'm sorry. We should all get back inside. Tomorrow afternoon, we'll head back to the orphanage and take the High Wind elsewhere to some place safe." He received a nod from everyone, and they walked back inside the run-down building.
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"Such a horrible place for you to be kept my brother..." Kadaj said to the man in the wheel chair behind him. The white sheet was over him once again.
The figure gave no response. And Kadaj looked back from his standing place, averting his gaze from the large hole in the wall. He turned and walked over to the cloaked figure, taking slow, light steps. He knelt down and gently grasped it's hand, feeling the cold from it even through his gloves. Kadaj pressed his lips softly to the icy hand, before looking up at the face of the figure.
He stood up again, and stared down at his 'brother'. "My brother... Why have you been left in such a place...?" Kadaj stared at the unmoving, silent man. He wondered what he could possibly be under this sheet.
Unable to stand it he grasped a fold of the dusty, white fabric and threw it off to expose Sephiroth's body. At first, he thought him to be dead, but as Kadaj looked into the man's blank eyes he realised that he was missing a soul, but was very much alive.
"Who has done this to you?!" Kadaj seethed through clenched teeth. " My brother... I swear revenge upon those pitiful humans for what they have done!"
' You fool.' JENOVA's voice rang out in his mind.
" Mother?" He winced at her tone of voice.
' You have been stalling all this time, holding off on Cloud's death... Why is that?'
" Mother... I..."
' You are just like Yazoo and Loz. You were created just as they were, and you were too foolish to not even realise how I used you. Sephiroth is not your brother. I am not even your Mother, Kadaj. I used you to gain power over the three of you, so I could feed from this planet.'
"No..."
' Yes. Isn't it ironic that you would shun the other failures like that, only to find out what a failure you truly are yourself? I'm tired of my plans being stalled, Cloud will die, NOW!' JENOVA surged all of her energy into Kadaj, who cried out in agony. He slumped over to his knees, grasping his temples.
" WHY?!" He screamed, feeling her taking over every essence of his being. He felt helpless, as if his soul had been discarded into a corner of his mind. A dark corner, one from which he could do nothing except view the destruction that was going to occur. But then he felt something else: the want... no the NEED to partake in this destruction. His mind combined with that of JENOVA's and he felt nothing but blind rage, and a thirst for blood he had never felt in his life. Kadaj rose to his feet, in a slow, jerky movement. He fingered the hilt of his double-bladed sword and drew it, staring at his reflection in it.
His eyes were hollow and black, with silver slits for pupils. His skin was a lot paler now, and he smirked viciously as he slashed at nothing in particular.
He ran outside, with an even more unnatural speed than before. Kadaj laughed as he felt the absolute power flowing through every inch of his body, and he drove a glowing blue fist into the motorcycle before him.
"We have no use for such vehicles!" Kadaj spoke loudly, and his voice now seemed to be a combination of both his and JENOVA's. "Cloud... You had best look out... We're coming for you!" He hissed at the thin air, revealing the fact that his canine teeth had become fang like. With a burst of incredible speed he dashed off toward the direction he felt the presence of Cloud in. Kadaj would kill him now, no matter what.
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A/N: Whew, another chapter out of the way... And another one to follow shortly. Oo; Hope it was enjoyable, R&R! (Points to the purple button below) Please, I'm desperate!