Thank you, Imperial Panda for your review.
Thank you, Linker27 for your review and for beta-reading for me
Sephiroth sighed as he looked over at Zack, silently praying his second in command would
stop jumping around like a 12 year old girl. Though the younger man was the closest thing the
General had ever had to a friend, Zack was constantly doing stupid thing that made him wonder
about the boys sanity. Deciding to ignore the younger SOLDIER, Sephiroth turned his attention
to the young rifleman who looked very uncomfortable and had looked that way since the mission
had started. He'd gotten sick in the buggy on the way to Junon and then he'd lost his lunch on the
second rifleman on the ship and now he was about to get sick here.... Sighing in frustration, he
turned his attention back to his second.
"Hey, Calm down." Sephiroth leaned back and watched Zack impatiently. The boys antics would
be amusing if his headache (something he had dealt with his entire life) wasn't getting worse by
the moment.
Zack turned and looked at him pouting." I can't help it! This the first big mission I've been on!
They even gave me a new materia!....So what is this mission about anyway"
"The Nibelheim reactor is malfunctioning; not only is there danger of explosion but the
increase in Mako energy is causing the local fauna to become increasingly violent...and attracting
much more dangerous creatures to the area." Sephiroth's eyes narrowed as he noticed there was
no mention on the mission report of what kind of beast had migrated dangerously close to the
village. "Our job is repair the reactor and exterminate any creature that has been affected by the
Mako"
"That's it? Aw man.....what's the glory in that ?" Zack sat on the floor of the vehicle pouting
again. Sephiroth shook his head slowly "The kind of glory you want Zack is best forgotten"
The General was about to continue when something rammed the truck causing Cloud to fly into
the opposite wall and Zack to fly right into him. The black haired boy quickly sat up and looked
around "What was THAT!?"
"I think that is our monster." Sephiroth stood and walked out of the truck, "Zack hurry up."
It was raining heavily and the ground was a swamp of mud and unusually thick fog.
Sephiroth heard Zack stumble behind him as he crept closer to the massive creature who stared
back at him with a ravenous look in its eyes. The Dragon bared its yellow teeth at the pair and
attacked quickly. It was perhaps the headache that caused the miscalculation, but regardless the
General was not fast enough and found himself once again being knocked over by Zack.
The Masamune flew from his hand and was lost in the thick mud. The dragon was nearly upon
them when the beast was distracted by a small almost unnoticeable chime. Through the rain
stumbled a child soaked ,trembling ,and dazed.
Sephiroth acted with everything his training had taught him. Moving faster that any man should
have been able to, he cut off the dragons path to the boy before the beast could crush him in its
jaws. The dragon attempted to snap at him only to have its snout trapped in Sephiroth's grasp.
As the beast struggled, Sephiroth used all the strength he could muster to twist the beast's head
until he heard a loud snap. After a few death throws the creature went still.
"That was the freakiest thing I have ever seen you do." Zack commented, blinking, as he handed the recovered Masamune to its owner. Sephiroth sheathed the sword and knelt to check on the child who now sat on the ground staring at the dragon's corpse. "Are you all right?" He asked as he looked over the superficial wounds and bruises. The boy looked at him for a moment before his eyes rolled back and he fainted.
Sirius was floating; everything around him was warmth and light. He could hear a sound
almost like a heart beat that became a whisper and then a sound almost like a phoenix song (though
strangely he felt he could understand it). Sirius slowly opened his eyes as the song instructed him
to and looked at the shadowy figure beside him.
"Do you sense it?" the song seemed to ask, "the terrible spell the dark mother has placed on him?"
He did. It was cold and dark and painful; a terrible thing for anyone to suffer though.
"You can break it." the song continued "You can save him. Don't worry, don't be afraid, we will help you. That is why
you're here." with the energy of the strange song serging behind him Sirius knew what to do.
Sephiroth was startled as the boy sat up in the bed suddenly and looked at him with mako
green eyes. hadn't they been grey before? he asked himself as the boy got to his knees and
looked at Sephiroth blankly. He was about to ask the child if he was alright when it felt almost as
if his head had exploded from the pain, and most frightening of all he could make out a woman's
voice in his head. "HE IS DANGEROUS! KILL HIM! KILL HIM NOW!" Before he could react
to anything however he suddenly felt warm lips against his own. There was a surge of some kind
of energy almost like an electric shock and with a horrible scream the woman's voice was
silenced and the pain he had dealt with all his life was gone. The boy jumped back, now silver
eyed, and blushed furiously and stammered what was most likely an apology though Sephiroth
could not tell as the boy seemed to be speaking a different language.
Some hours later Sephiroth found himself leaning against the well in the center of town
while he and Zack watched Tifa, the young village girl who would be their guide, play simple
word games with the boy who's name it was discovered after several minutes of confusion was
Sirius.
"So...He can't understand anything we say and we can't understand him?" Zack asked looking
over at Sirius who was repeating Tifa's words for objects then supplying the word in his own
language which Tifa would then repeat.
"No, and no one knows where he came from either. He has been affected by mako; you can tell by his eyes.
Though until we can understand one another we won't know how he came in contact in the first place." Sephiroth's eyes
narrowed as he watched the two continue their game. Who was he? Where had he come from? The boy had some kind of power
similar and yet very different from materia it was strange.
"Yo General!!" Sephiroth,startled, glared at Zack who grinned back "You ok? You zoned out
for a minute there"
"I'm fine, just thinking. We should all turn in. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."