Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, or any of their characters.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
" Prepare to die, Cloud Strife! You will pay for what you have done to us!" Kadaj screamed, infuriated. He charged at Cloud, who held up the Buster Sword in defence. The clang of Souba's steel slamming into Cloud's sword was immensely loud, and a shower of sparks soared through the air. The blonde was knocked flying yet again, with a look of shock on his face.
' He was strong before, but not this strong!' He cried in his mind to Sephiroth, hoping the ex-general would have some sort of plan to stop this maniac.
' JENOVA has fused minds with him completely, causing the JENOVA cells in him to spread. This spread of parasitic cells has not only made him immensely strong, it has also guaranteed his death if he is separated from her.' The silver haired man in his mind explained. ' There is no choice but to somehow kill him, in order to release him.'
' But how do I kill him?! He just flings me back and attacks again!' Cloud screamed in agony as his body slammed into the ground.
' Somehow, you have to separate him from JENOVA, and then you'll have to destroy him.'
' You're not much help sometimes, Sephiroth.' Cloud muttered in his head, before forcing himself to his feet. He staggered a bit, and slowly regained his balance. Painfully, he held up the Buster Sword in front of him again.
"It's no use Strife!" Kadaj laughed wickedly at him, throwing an attacking Cid to the dirt below and stepping on him. "Give up! You're going to die, that's inevitable!" His eyes flashed with aqua light and another burst of blue beams flew from his hand.
" Great." Cloud grunted, rolling onto the ground and out of the way. With Cid and Vincent down, and Tifa gone, he was alone to face his enemy.
Kadaj looked at him, an angry glare taking over his features. "This time I won't miss you..." He hissed, before running at him, full speed. He swung his two-bladed sword at Cloud. Cloud simply stared, for this time, just as Kadaj had said, it was going to hit.
He braced himself to be sliced in half, closing his eyes tightly. Suddenly, he heard Kadaj scream and drop to the ground. He opened his eyes to see Kadaj holding the sides of his head, tears of pain streaking his face. His eyes were flashing between black and green, and Cloud could see the struggle he was going through in his mind. Kadaj slowly and shakily turned his head toward Cloud, one eye black, the other green.
" Help...me..." He whispered in his own voice. The silver haired man stared at him like a child who was being beaten, and indeed JENOVA was giving him quite a mental and physical beating right now.
"How?" Cloud just stared in shock at the younger man.
" Destroy me... Now... While you have the chance... Kill me!" Kadaj gripped his head harder, his teeth clenched together to the point that the blonde was surprised they didn't shatter.
' Do it! Remember what I told you!' Sephiroth yelled.
' You seem to like the thought of death again.' Cloud suddenly felt the rage coming from the other presence in his mind. He could tell that by bringing up what Sephiroth had done before, he had managed to enrage him.
' You know very well I was under the same influence he was... Don't you dare compare me now to the monster I was... The only way to stop this now is to kill him!' He was practically snarling in Cloud's head.
Cloud stared at the now sobbing man in front of him. No. Not a man. A BOY. He hesitated with delivering the fatal slash to him; this boy hadn't even had a chance to live. He hadn't even had a chance to grow up and live a happy life. If he ended his life now, Kadaj would never see any of the good things life had to offer...
He lowered the sword to his side. He couldn't do it. He couldn't kill him. "I can't..." Cloud said shamefully. "I can't kill someone like him... I can't have someone else's death be my fault... Aeris... I let her die... She could have lived. She could still be here with us now... It was my fault that I couldn't protect her!" Cloud felt warmth sting his eyes and a few drops of salty liquid flowed down his face.
' Then I'll do it.' Sephiroth took over his body. "The blood of one more person isn't going to stain my soul any more than it's already been stained." He said aloud, swinging Cloud's sword down at the crying teenager below him.
' NO!' Cloud resisted Sephiroth, and kept his sword from striking.
' WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!' The ex-general yelled, as Cloud fought, gained control of his body again, and started to run.
Cid regained consciousness around the same time. He groggily lifted himself to his feet, staring around. He saw Cloud running, Vincent still laying there, and Kadaj in a
"What are you fuckin' whining about?" He groaned, rubbing his head.
"We... need to... leave..." Vincent struggled to his own feet.
"I thought that damned traitor got some Rhino Stinger virus in you or something?" The pilot leaned on his spear, ignoring Kadaj and staring in bewilderment at Vincent.
"The JENOVA cells in me countered the GeoStigma virus. One with JENOVA cells in them, is a part of JENOVA, and therefore the parasite cannot infect itself." Vincent stated simply, his smirk hidden beneath his collar.
" Alright, whatever. We should catch up to Cloud, before he fuckin' ditches us." The two nodded at one another and ran to the best of their abilities after their friend.
' YOU BECAME WEAK!' JENOVA scolded Kadaj in his head, striking pain through his body.
' I'm sorry... I...' The young silver haired man whimpered.
' DO NOT FIGHT ME! YOU WILL KILL CLOUD!' She screeched, regaining control of his body. He stood, the hollow look returning to his face.
Fortunately for the ex-members of AVALANCHE, the pain he had gone through was too much for his body, and he blacked out.
The motorcycle being driven had since run out of fuel to power it. Yazoo and Tifa had become stranded, and though they knew where they were, they had no will to really move on at this time.
As they speechlessly sat around the lame materia made fire Yazoo had constructed for them, Tifa decided to take the time to notice his wounds.
" You're hurt." She stated, breaking the silence. He looked up at her emotionlessly, and she looked away shamefully. Tifa turned a slight red as she realised how foolish and obvious her statement had been.
He didn't say anything. His response was a simple grunt, and he lowered his gaze back to the fire he had been staring at.
"So... Where do we go from here?" She asked.
He stayed quiet, narrowing his eyes at the dancing flames in front of him.
"Ok, you don't want to talk, I get it." Tifa sighed.
"I will take you back to your friends. Then, I will leave."
" Marlene told me to say hello to you."
" Hmph." He grunted again, looking away.
" What's wrong? You seemed to like her enough the other day."
"I... Never mind. It's useless talking. Get some sleep, you'll need it." Yazoo glared at her, and the look gave her chills.
"No, go on. I'm curious." She tried smiling at him, but his gaze only hardened. Her expression changed to fear from the intensity of his anger. "What did I do?" She asked, her voice shaking slightly.
Upon not only seeing, but also feeling her fear, his own expression softened. His eyes changed from green, to yellow, and his voice became less of a growl. "You did not do anything. I am merely... Thinking about other things..." A green tinge returned to his eyes, his pupils narrowing as he looked away yet again.
"Kadaj and Loz right? You're thinking about them, and what you and Loz were told..." Tifa's sympathetic look urged him to respond.
" ...Yes..." He whispered, looking back at her.
"Why are you upset about that so much?" She asked. "About being an... experiment I mean..."
" Because." Yazoo's eyes turned a deep purple colour. "How would you feel, if you were created in some glass tube, for nothing more than the viewing pleasure of the world around you? What do you think it's like, being told you were created unnaturally, and cast aside as a failure? I was supposed to be... a super clone of the one known as Sephiroth. My creator assumed, that as the second of his creations that his technology was perfected, and I would take in my first breath of air as a stronger, smarter and better version of SOLDIER's precious General. However, to their disappointment, I was weaker than that of their first creation. Even now, compared to Loz and Kadaj I am physically weak, even though I am stronger than a normal human from mako... The only reason I was kept was supposedly because my brain advanced past that of Sephiroth's, and they thought I would be of use."
Tifa seemed shocked that such an amount of words had just poured out of him, and was even more amazed as he continued.
"Loz was a failure, because although he had been born with greater strength than Sephiroth, his mind never developed like it should have. He is emotionally weak, and can over-react to things." He added to his explanation. "I was created to be emotionless, uncaring of those around me. No matter how hard they'd tried in the past, they could never create a specimen that felt nothing, that only focused on what it was tasked to do. I was no different. Upon my creation, I came complete with a weak body, and feelings towards those around me. I had apparently almost died when I was first released from my glass prison, due to the frailty of my body, but they sustained my life because of my mind, only to reseal me in my prison again..."
"How do you know all this? Did Kadaj tell you?" The woman was shocked that he had suddenly recalled so quickly what had happened to him.
"Once I was told of how I truly came to be, my memories of those events were recollected. It is the way my mind was created to work: once I was told of my true beginnings, I would have a chance of growing insane. Since this was unwanted I was lied to. Kadaj was lied to. Loz was lied to. We have all been mislead in our lives. I don't even know if these memories are true, for all I know I could have been created with a mind full of lies..." He had managed to maintain eye contact with her for the entire time, and although she blushed from his gaze, he hadn't noticed.
What she had noticed was that his eyes had gone through a rainbow of colours while he had explained all of that to her.
" Yazoo..." She said his name softly and sadly.
He cocked his head to the side, indicating he was listening.
She rose from her place across from him and sat beside him. Tifa was surprised that he didn't at least move away from her. Instead he simply looked at her.
His expression changed to shock as she hugged him tightly, laying her head on his chest. Yazoo was unaware of what he was supposed to do.
' I somewhat... like what she's doing... By putting her arms around me, she has made me feel better... But how? Is this what humans feel when they are embraced like this? Do they feel this... strange feeling?' He thought, clearly flustered. He returned the embrace and she looked up to see his eyes go from yellow to blue, his pupils becoming larger.
Then she was completely taken back by his next expression: a smile. Not just a small, friendly smile like he had given Marlene; but a warm and happy looking smile.
For the rest of the night, she put her worries of her friends aside slightly and she fell asleep to the sound of his heart beating, taking in both the warmth from the fire, and his warmth.
' She's listening to my heart...' He thought. Then his happiness faded. ' The sound of your synthetic heart. It's pathetic enough that you're even showing feelings toward this woman, let alone opening up to a human.' The voice of his creator echoed in his head. Yazoo knew it wasn't real, that this voice was only he putting his own self down, but he listened anyway. ' You're fake, not even good enough to hold her in your disgusting arms. If you let yourself love her, you'll only be that much more of a failure.'
Yazoo growled lowly and picked Tifa up. Quickly extinguishing the fire with an Ice materia, he walked off to take her back to her friends, unsure of how to deal with his mixed feelings right then.
A/N: There. I updated. So this chapter isn't too great, oh well. My eyes hurt from staring at the screen so this is the best I'm doing for now. I also apologize if it seems mushy. I myself am not too much of a fan of mush, but I tend to accidently write it. If it's that bad, I'll just re-write it. Oh well, please R&R! I appreciate any reviews received!