Hey its me again, hope you have liked all the previous chapters since now its time for chapter 3!
it may seem a bit repetitive at parts but its not my fault i am a bad writer.

Disclaimer: This Fan-fic was wrote by MasterMantis and i do not own Squaresoft or any other form of Final Fantasy

except characters and profiles made by me.

Mark of the Dead: Part 3

Chapter 3: The Second Coming

All chapters will now be based in Clouds world.

The rain lashed against the side of the Highwind as it flew towards the red sphere at amazing speed. Since

the highwind had left Midgar the sphere had got even closer to the planet and was now only 30000 feet off

the Planets surface and the people were starting to panic.

"We are just approaching the sphere, captain, sir." announced the co-pilot of the highwind.

"Good, when we get close start circling the sphere so that we can get a good look at it." Replied Cid.

"Yes sir." The highwind started to circle the energy sphere slowly.

" It doesn't look too bad does it?" asked Tifa who was standing near the main window looking closely at the

sphere. As she said this the highwind gave a violent shake which threw everybody off their feet. Cloud got up

and looked over to Cid who gave a nod.

"Fly into it." he ordered.

"What!! You mean we are gonna just fly straight into that thing?" exclaimed Barret. Mantis looked at Cloud and

nodded his agreement.

"Oh great! This will be fun."

" Barret...shut up." Cloud told him as the Highwind flew staright into the energy sphere. The ship gave another

huge shake as it was surrounded by orange and blue flames.

"I think i'm gonna be sick!" Yuffie shouted as the ship gave another huge shake knocking everybody over once

again. The moment of turbulence then ended and the shaking stopped as the highwind emerged over what looked

like an ocean.

"Whats that down there?" asked Red XIII as he spotted what looked like ruins of a city floating in the water. The

highwind lowered towards the ruins and hovered over the water.

"Lets go." said Cloud as he made his way towards the hatch that led outside followed closely by Mantis and Vincent.

"I think i will stay and guard the ship." said Yuffie.

"Yeah me too." said Cid. Tifa looked at both of them and laughed as she dashed after the others.

"Hey wait for me!" shouted Barret as he ran after them. The hatch opened and Cloud climbed out and jumped down to

the water landing on a large walkway that was half sunk in the water. He was followed by Mantis, Vincent, Red XIII,

Tifa and Barret.

"I will stay here and make sure nobody tries to get onto the ship." Barret told the others as they made their way across

the walkway. The group got off the walkway and found they were standing on what seemed to be a dock, in front of them

was a huge building that looked like the ruins of a stadium of some sort.

"What the hell happened here?" asked Cloud. Nobody said anything.

"Lets go in there." Mantis pointed towards the huge building and started walking over to it without waiting for an answer.

They entered through the gate and saw it was a stadium. The stands went round in a full circle around the stadium leaving

a circular area in the middle which no doubt had some sort of sport or game take place on it. The whole place was flooded

and in the faint light Cloud could make out the shape of bodies scattered around floating in the water. They walked over to

the centre of the stadium and found more bodies. Cloud kneeled down to look at them and found that one of them was still

alive making him jump back in shock falling into the water. Tifa giggled and Red XIII let out a snort of laughter. The girl

coughed and opened her eyes, she had brown hair down to her shoulders and Green eyes. She wore a strange outfit and

very small and tight shorts. Mantis helped her out of the water and sat her on a small piece of rubble. She looked up.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Mantis." he told her.

"I'm Cloud, this is Tifa, this is Vincent and this is Red XIII." Cloud introduced the group to her. She smiled

and said.

"My name is Yuna." She told them about herself and Spira.

"How did you get here and what the hell is this place?" asked Cloud.

"This is the remainds of the city Luca. It was attacked by a man that we thought we had killed 2 years ago but he seems to

have been revived some how." She said.

"How come the remains of a city from Spira is hovering over our world?" asked Tifa.

"I'm not sure. All i know is that we were playing Blitzball and Seymour turned up then we got hit by a huge tidal wave." She

looked concerned.

"Have you seen anybody else alive here?"

"No." Mantis told her. Tears appeared in her eyes and she put her hands over her face.

"Everybody.......dead.......after all we did to stop the evil......it has finally come for us." Suddenly a voice echoed in the backgroud.

"Yes all your friends are dead. They didn't stand much of a chance really. Too be honest i am suprised even you survived." The

voice said with a tone of smugness. Cloud looked around and Mantis ran over to the main gate and looked around outside.

"There is no point in looking for me. It is i who finds you." The voice once again started.

"This world will go the same way as Spira." Laughter echoed everywhere around them and a man appeared at the top of the stands

looking down on the Group. It was Seymour.

"The prophecy says of a man who had the power to conquer and destroy all but he would come to and end before he could

unlock his full power." He started to explain."This man was said to be on this world and he went by the name of Sephiroth."

At hearing this Cloud jumped up in horror.

"I wont let you!!" Cloud shouted at him.

"What could you do to stop me? You think you have the power?" Seymour laughed a manic laugh and vanished from the stands.

The ground started to shake and roars could be heared in the distance.

"Back to the highwind!!" Shouted Cloud as the roars got closer and giant shadows could be seen in the sky. As they ran back

down the walkway they could see Barret firing madly into the air trying in vain to hit these creatures, one of them landing just in

front of the group blocking their way back to the highwind. Cloud drew the ultimate weapon and charged straight at the creature

slicing it as hard as he could, it fell to the floor dead but another one just took its place.

"How are we supposed to get back to the ship now?" asked Tifa as a another creature swooped down and lifted Red XII off of the

walkway carrying him away but it did not suspect Red to bite and claw at it bringing it crashing down next to Barret. Red bounded

onto the highwind and Barret continued firing at the creatures who were now diving staight at him.

"Dammit." exclaimed Cloud as he cut yet another creautre down but was quickly blocked by another.

"We will never get through!"

"Stand aside." ordered Mantis as he pulled out his 2 guns from his belt and walked straight at the creatures firing madly. Each shot

blew huge holes in the creatures but they still wouldn't let them pass, another swooped down and picked up Tifa and flew away

with her in its claws. She screamed and screamed for help.

"TIFA!!!!" Shouted Cloud as he closed his eyes and concentrated all his mind on summoning Leviathan, a huge water serpent

appeared from the water and jumped up into the air snatching the creature that was carrying Tifa in its mouth bringing it down. It

let go of Tifa as it screamed in pain but she was caught quickly by Bahamut who had been summoned by Mantis. Bahmut placed

her next to Barret and then started to attack the creatures. Mantis continued to blow creatures heads of with his guns and Cloud

now started to use his materia to attack the creatures who were flying above them out of reach.

"This is getting annoying!!!" shouted Mantis as he shot creature after creature covering the walkway in their green blood until his

guns clicked empty.

"Shit" He said as 2 more creatures dived straight at him but he wasn't finished yet. He drew his huge sword and started to cut his

way through the creatures. Cloud couldn't help but think how much Mantis looked like Sephiroth with that sword and it made him

feel a chill down his spine, the sword looked like a perfect replica of the Masamune.

"Ok nearly done!" Mantis shouted to him as he cut through the last 3 creatures.

"Now RUN!!" He shouted at the top of his voice to the group as he ran through across the walkway sliding on all the green blood.

Vincent fired off another clip and another 10 creatures fell into the water sending it black. The group finally made it back onto the

highwind closing the hatch as soon as they got on.

"GO GO GO!!!" shouted Cloud as the creatures all started flying at the highwind trying to destroy it but the newly added onboard

guns killed most of them as the ship took off and headed away from the ruins hoping to soon get out of the sphere.

The sky over Midgar darkened and the rain lashed against the windows of the ShinRa HQ building. Reeve looked up at the sphere

and saw that something seemed to be happening to it. As the Highwind flew out of the sphere at top speed the sphere gave a soft

whistle and exploded sending light particles everywhere. The sky was lit as the highwind made its way back to Midgar to inform

Reeve about Seymour and Sephiroth. It landed and the group took the train too the ShinRa HQ, Yuna sat the on the train by herself

thinking about her hatred for Seymour and what he had done to ruin her life.

"Now approaching ShinRa Head Quarters." announced a voice over the loud speaker.

"Thats our stop." said Cid as the train began to slow down and they stood up. Only Cloud, Mantis, Cid, Tifa and Yuna had gone

to the HQ the rest had stayed on the highwind to wait for them. The lift arrived that took them up to the 69th floor and Cloud and

co stepped in.

"What do you think Reeve will do about Seymour?" asked Cid as he lit up a Cigarette.

"What can he do? None of us know where he is." Tifa said.

"I can probably guess." said Cloud as the lift stopped and the doors opened. Reeve was already standing waiting for them.

"Well? What happened?" he asked. Cloud explained all about Seymour and his plan to revive Sephiroth, once he had done Yuna

also started to explain all about her past and how Seymour got to this world. Reeve was shocked by all this and had to hear it all

twice to fully understand what this meant.

"If Sephiroth is revived then we will have a huge problem on our hands." he said as Cid lit yet another Cigarette after throwing the

first one out of the open window. Reeve continued to speak.

"This means that we.....i mean you..... have to kill Seymour. But where could he be?" Cloud stepped foward and told them.

"He must be going to the Northen Crater. Thas the only place i can think of where Sephiroth could possibly be revived." Of course

said Reeve.

"This means you must to the crater and go down it too look for Seymour!" exclaimed Reeve making Cid drop his Cigarette prompting

him to get another one, Tifa sighed, Cloud nodded and Mantis who had been looking out of the window at the rain pouding against

it turned around and smirked.

"Ok......er....we will go right away.....shall we?" asked Cid clearly not in a hurry to go back down that cave where that had beaten

Sephiroth 2 years ago.

"Yes." Cloud answered and he turned and went towards the lift followed by Mantis and the rest of the group. On the train journey

back to the terminal Cloud decided to thank Mantis for his help in the sphere.

"Hey thanks for the help in the sphere." Cloud started but Mantis gave no answer only looked at him. Then after a minutes silence Mantis

turned and said to Cloud.
"How could this Seymour revive Sephiroth?" Cloud shrugged his shoulders as Mantis continued.
"And what prophecy is this he spoke of?" Cloud once again shrugged.
"Oh excellent, we are walking straight into Seymours hands, how do you know this wont be some kind of trap?"
"I dont." said Cloud as the train began to slow down and it stopped outside the terminal.

Yuna got up stood on the platform looking at the highwind, the rain ran through her hair and soaked

her clothes as she sighed and walked over to the airship. The preperations were complete after a few more minutes and the highwind

took off into the air cutting through the rainfall as it went.

"The northern crater...................Sephiroth..............We will not let you return." Cloud said quitely so himself.

That was the end of part 3 of Mark of the Dead.

Phew.....that was a big chapter. Parts of it may seem rushed but did you like it?

Please R & R