Shifting Sands Ch.7
By V.Valentine
"Around The World"
A/N: Well, it's about time I updated this, isn't it? Valentine's Day is finished, and I'm already working on the sequel to it. And maybe I'll put another story before the sequel to Valentine's Day. But I apologize for the wait, and I'll try and finish this one more quickly. As always, I own nothing of what I'm writing about, and making no profit off of anything. You know, that old chestnut. Onto the story!
"Take that, you god-damned robot." Cid exclaimed as he finished working on the last of the drones in that area. Wiping off the sweat on his forehead with his scarf, he moved over to join the others, just as they were taking a moment to relax. "I don't know how much longer I can do this, Spike. I may be the best there is, but I'm getting old." Cid said tiredly, moving to rest on a railing.
"We're all tired, Cid. But if we don't end this now, these things are going to take over the planet. And after all of our hard work and sacrifice, we need to make sure that doesn't happen." Cloud says, as he looks to Yuffie. "Anything you can do for him?" Cloud asks as he looks to the young ninja.
Rummaging through her sack, Yuffie pulled out a green materia and set it into her conformer. "Regen!" Yuffie called out as the comforting red light of Regeneration flowed over Cid. Soon, after the light was gone, Cid moved to stretch out his limbs for a moment.
"That feels better. Thanks, Squirt." Cid said with a grin, then picking up the Venus Gospel in his hands, ignoring the deadly look that Yuffie was shooting him. "Just you wait, old man. When you sleep, that's when I'll get my revenge." Yuffie said venomously, as Red XIII gently pawed up to her.
"As much as I would like to see this battle of wits continue," Red begins, the obvious sarcastic tone of the message clear. "We should probably be advancing before more of the drones come." Red says, motioning up to the path in front of them all. "The smell coming from this way is a more foul than the others. I think our target will be there." Red says, moving out in front of the all, as soon the others were following after him.
"I wonder how Vincent's doing with all of those drones back there." Cloud wondered to himself, as he shook the thought away from his head, and continued to proceed onward.
Meanwhile...
Chaos sat on top of a makeshift throne of dead Borg bodies neatly stacked in a shrine fashion. Recently tearing off one of the drone's arm, Chaos was quick to tear the skin and muscles off of it, and eat it; the extent of fighting the drones made him hungry. He knew Valentine didn't have the stomach for it, so Chaos remained in control for right now.
But seeing that there was nothing more to eat here, Chaos tossed the arm away and lowered his head slightly, just as Vincent's features began to show through. Just as quickly the transformation happened the first time, it ended the same way. Vincent looked to the pile of dead bodies he was sitting on top of, and then slowly climbed down off of it, grabbing Death Penalty in his hands then holstering it.
Taking a moment to look over Chaos's handiwork, Vincent looked to the massacre in front of him, then showed a face of disgust as he lightly placed a finger in his mouth from his good hand. Wiping the horrible taste out of his mouth, Vincent looked to the blob that was on his tongue. Shaking his head lightly, he wipes it off on his cape. "I thought we agreed about not eating anything that takes 10W-30, Chaos." Vincent said with a sigh to no one in particular, then moved down the hallway, trying to catch up with the others.
"Lock on all phasers and photon torpedos to the Borg energy conduit." Janeway barked as she looked to the massive ship that was the Borg Vessel in front of her. "Fire at will." Janeway commanded, looking off to see the brilliant amber lights of the phasers and photon torpedos hit up against the Borg Cube.
"Borg Shields are down to 90%. They are rapidly rebuilding." Tuvok stated as Chakotay moved to look at his statistics panel to the left of his chair. "Keep it coming. I'm looking at energy fluctuations all through out the ship." Chakotay said, as Tuvok nodded, and fired another volley of phasers and torpedos at the Borg Cube.
"Tom, keep us moving around the cube. Maybe that'll distract them and throw off their aim." Janeway stated, as Tom looked back to her and nodded. "Yes ma'am." Tom said with a semi nervous smirk as Janeway looked over to Harry. "Any word on our team inside?" Janeway asked, as Harry checked to see if he could get any readings on them.
"I've got some strange readings on here, Captain." Harry announced, as he looked them over. "All of them seeing to be using an energy source that our sensors can't even identify. And one of them just changed into something completely different from what the sensors had on him before." Harry says, looking over to her. "I can try to patch us into one of their viewers to get a look inside." Harry theorizes as Janeway thinks it over for a moment, then nods.
"Do it. On screen, Mr.Paris." Janeway stated, as Tom nodded, then turned on the viewing screen to look inside the Borg Ship. All of them were now looking inside the Borg Pathway, and then looking to Chaos as he was ripping the drones he had just fought. "One of Species 8472?" Tom asks, looking to chaos and trying to decide what to classify it as.
"No, it looks different from them. Harry, can you identify who or what that is?" Chakotay asks, as Harry nods and tries to confirm the species identity. His eyes widening a moment, Harry looks back to Captain Janeway and Chakotay. "You're not going to believe this, but it's one of them. It's Vincent." Harry said, as Janeway looks from him to Chaos on the screen, still destroying drones left and right.
"That can't be. Is he a shape shifter?" Janeway asked, as Harry shakes his head. "No, he's not one of them. I can't see anything that would link him to the Jem Hadar or the Dominion." Harry says, as he too looks to the screen. "I think he's naturally like that." Harry finishes, as Janeway sits back in her seat. "Well, it looks like the Borg are having more trouble than they expected." Janeway says with a slight smile.
"Captain, the Borg Shields are now down to 35%. They just suffered a massive power loss." Tuvok stated, as Janeway looks back to him. "How?" She says, as Tuvok looks back to her. "They just transported a large quantity of something off of the planet, and back to the Gamma Quadrant." Tuvok finishes, looking back to his panels.
"What would they take off and send back there?" Janeway wondered as she looked back to the Borg Cube in front of her. "I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Fire at will." Janeway commanded, as Tuvok nodded, and fired another volley of phasers and torpedos at the Borg Cube.
Meanwhile, back in the Gamma Quadrant...
The Borg Queen looked on in satisfaction as the newly received energy source from the planet materialized in front of her. Reaching out, she lightly skimmed her fingers across the containment center for the material. It's emerald green glow shined brightly, illuminating her chambers as she looked over it in affection.
"If we needed to describe it, we would call this pretty." The Borg Queen said with a small smile, as she looked it over, then moved back to her throne. "Proceed with the scan." The Borg Queen said out loud, as tubials dropped from the ceiling and injected themselves into the green material.
"First scan shows a high energy content. A hundred times more powerful than diliththium." The Borg Queen said with an amused look as she read over the readings. "A high reproductive rate, and endless possibilities for application use...What?" The Borg Queen began, but look shocked as she looked to the container.
When she had turned away, she hadn't noticed the now shadowy figure inside of the container. He had a human appearance, a warrior by the looks of him. And as the emerald liquid showed more of his features, his platinum silver hair could be seen. His skin soon regained its peach color, as a pair of black pants and a black coat appeared on his body.
But what stuck out most of all, was the large object in his left hand. Possibly more than six feet long, it almost was partly two things, being slightly separated at the base. And as the Borg Queen looked to the figure, in a flash, a pair of emerald piercing eyes was upon her. With a quick slash of the object in his hands, he cut open the container in half, sending the green liquid around him splashing out as he stood in the center of the remains of the container.
Sheathing Masamune at his side, Sephiroth's eyes slowly looked up to the Borg Queen, meeting her emotionless eyes dead on. "I assume you're the one that brought me here?" Sephiroth asked mildly, slightly looking around, just as the Borg Queen looked back to him and nodded. Sephiroth looked back to her for a moment, before letting a smirk grace his face and unsheathing Masamune from his side, and a instant later lopping off the Borg Queen's head.
Seeing it roll around on the ground, he let the smirk remained as he sheathed the mighty weapon once again. "I thank you." He said coldly, looking over he head and body. "What manner of being are you?" He asks to himself, then stopped, just before turning around to see at least a thousand Borg drones standing behind him, their red sensor lights scanning over him.
Sephiroth turned and looked them over for a moment, before unsheathing Masamune and gripping it in his hands again, raising it up to be horizontal to his face. "Let's play." Sephiroth said with a slight smirk, before leaping towards the Borg Drones, Masamune already raised up for a killing strike.
A/N: Dun dun dun! Sephiroth is back, baby. And he's gonna kick some ass. But a good question might be is who brought him from the lifestream to the borg ship? I promise you all answers in the next and final chapter of Shifting Sands!
