The Song of Eternity
Canto 3
The Return of Sephiroth
Verse 9
The Death of Sephiroth
Four of the monstrosities destroyed,
One still alive,
It goes to its master,
The battle rages supreme until it is over.
Sephiroth looked up from his throne high atop the rebuilt Shinra building. He noticed a sort of electricity in the air as a SOLDIER came from the depths of the building and kneeled before him. "General, we have received word from the WEAPON project. They are being attacked by AVALANCHE," the SOLDIER informed Sephiroth, fearful for his own life.
"Those fools. I will kill them all," he angrily said to the SOLDIER as he stood and unsheathed his masamune. "Ready the troops, I will fly there directly. You will meet me there with the rest of my forces. It is time to end this conflict," Sephiroth ordered as the SOLDIER saluted and ran back into the building. He levitated a foot off the rooftop before settling back down after noticing a new shadow on his familiar rooftop. "Come out now, whoever you are," he ordered as the shadow moved.
The man who stopped into his view was different from the last time Sephiroth or anyone else had seen him. He was dressed the same, black trench coat, red hair in a pony-tail, but the bindings on his right arm were gone, revealing the metal of his artificial right arm. "You need to deal with me before you even think of going after anyone else," Keep said as he produced his red colored sword.
"That is a small threat human," Sephiroth laughed. "What is your name, at least let me know that before I kill you," Sephiroth asked as he went into a fighting stance.
"You already know my name, it is time to end your time here. This is not our world," Keep said calmly as he crouched, ready to strike.
Sephiroth looked at him with a puzzled look in his eyes. "Starmore… I've never met you, yet I know you and feel such hatred towards you..," Sephiroth's voice trailed off as he shook his head, as if to clear things. "No matter, you are still a human, an inferior breed!" Sephiroth shouted as he slashed at Keep.
Keep stood his ground and blocked the sword-strike with his own. In response, he swung at Sephiroth, who had to duck in order to keep his head. They floated up into the air simultaneously and circled each other, swords in hand, ready to strike. "You died years ago Sephiroth, let go. Let me end this, I want to talk to him," Keep pleaded with Sephiroth who seemed to be having some sort of a mental argument with himself.
"No! I am myself. You will pay for making me doubt myself," he screamed as he flew at Keep. Their swords clanged several times, neither causing any damage to the other until Sephiroth scored a hit on Keep, who in turn slashed into Sephiroth's midsection. They both flew apart from each other and inspected their own wounds. Keep covered the wound on his leg with his metal hand, causing a green light to heal the wound. Sephiroth on the other hand tried to look away as his mid-section healed, but found himself transfixed by what was happening. It looked like he had silver blood, and it was rapidly filling and healing the wound that Keep had caused. "What is this? What am I?" he questioned himself as Keep watched in a calm ferocity.
"You are a corpse, who refuses to go away. It looks like I will have to do this myself," Keep shrugged as he flew to the air above the stunned Sephiroth. Keep's body turned black as night. Then small points of light appeared and rushed to the surface of his skin. "Starlight Blast," he shouted before the light ripped from his skin and streaked down toward Sephiroth. Half of the light hit Sephiroth, the other half crashed into the Shinra building, traveling down to the very foundation and exploding, causing the once great seat of power to collapse and kill most of those inside or near the ground by it. As the smoke cleared around Sephiroth, he continued to float in the air, although covered by dozens of cuts, and bleeding profusely.
"You will pay for that!" Sephiroth shouted as he flew into a blind rage at Keep. He slashed at Keep with speed that Keep could not hope to equal, stabbing into his flesh several times and spraying blood everywhere. "Supernova," he shouted as he cast the spell, unleashing his ultimate destructive magic into the face of his foe. He whirled around as he heard another noise as the spell ran its course. "Ultimate WEAPON, good, it sensed the battle," Sephiroth concluded breathlessly.
As Sephiroth turned back, expecting to see nothing, or a charred corpse, he was greeted by an unwelcome surprise. Keep continued to float there in the air as a green glow emitted from his metal arm and covered his whole body, healing his wounds. "Nice, try. You're not gonna beat me so fast there. I am a lot like you, it takes a while to wear us down to he point of defeat," Keep taunted as he realized the WEAPON had arrived. "Two on one? Great," he muttered as he grasped his sword tightly. "Morons can't even kill WEAPONs by themselves," he grunted. He closed his eyes tight as half a dozen concussive blasts erupted from his body.
"Was that supposed to hurt me?" Sephiroth laughed as he stood side by side with the WEAPON.
"Nope, just supposed to let me get serious. I suggest you do as well. I will not be holding back anymore," Keep threatened as he gazed at his opponents. He stayed silent as he watched Sephiroth's face darken. He flew at the duo with speed greater than he previously showed. Sephiroth dropped out of the way as the WEAPON took the brunt of the attack. Keep flew back, away from the city as he dodged blows from the WEAPON and Sephiroth.
"Aaagh," he grunted as Sephiroth scored a god stab into his gut with the masamune. I can't take both of them. Keep tried to think of an idea as he struck back against the duo, but not really doing any damage. "Damnit! Starlight Blast," he screamed as he blasted the two of them with his ultimate energy attack. He drifted to the ground some as he flew as fast as he could in the direction where he assumed the others were. He was bleeding profusely from several cuts that refused to heal, despite his magic attempts. He glanced back in time to dodge an energy blast from the WEAPON. "They're too fast," he muttered as he looked ahead again and saw the signs of a battle. "Almost there," he whispered before Sephiroth blasted him with a Supernova blast, causing him to crash down into the remains of some sort of building.
Sephiroth and the WEAPON settled on the ground side by side, surrounded by the remains of the other four WEAPONs and the WEAPON project. Vincent watched him as he landed. Cloud, Tifa, Cid, Yuffie, and the Turks stumbled up behind him to prepare for the battle. Sephiroth looked at the eight of them in annoyance. "You are more trouble than you are worth. Surrender and you may live. Battle me and you will die painfully," he threatened them as he wiped some blood from his sword.
"It is over Sephiroth, we are going to stop you here" Vincent said as he pulled out his gun and pointed it right at Sephiroth.
"Didn't you learn from last time? You humans cannot beat me," Sephiroth laughed as Vincent lowered his arm and looked to the ground. "See, he realizes the futility," Sephiroth laughed as he pointed at Vincent.
"Cloud, stop the WEAPON quickly, then help me," Vincent whispered. Cloud nodded in response and stepped back from Vincent. "Time to work together," he said in a voice only one being could hear. Do not fail me Valentine. Chaos growled in his head as Vincent began to transform. A pair of black wings sprouted from his back as he rose to the air. His claw disappeared and his left arm was replaced with the dark muscled arm of Chaos. His skin turned darker and tougher everywhere else, with the exception of his face and right hand, where he gripped his Death Penalty.
"What are you?" Sephiroth stammered in wonder as he viewed the sight in front of him.
"Vincent?" Cloud asked as he looked on at what was transpiring.
"Chaos and I are working together for this. Stop the WEAPON. I will deal with my son," Vincent growled in an impossibly deep voice.
Sephiroth floated up into the sky with hate filled eyes to face the new threat. "WEAPON, destroy these humans, then find that other one if he is still alive," Sephiroth ordered as the WEAPON charged at the seven weary and wounded heroes. Sephiroth and Vincent circled each other warily. "Why did you call me your son? You are as old as I am and a demon. I may be evil, but I think the demon genetics would show," Sephiroth asked as Chaos's sword appeared in his left hand.
"I am over sixty years old. Hojo did this to me after he found out about me and your real mother, Lucretia," Vincent explained as he stared at Sephiroth with blood red eyes. Sephiroth looked puzzled for a second, which gave Vincent his chance to attack.
"Walls, regen, haste, whatever you have left, use it now!" Cloud shouted as he and the others scattered in the wake of the Ultimate WEAPON's attack. He felt a wall form over him as he unslung his sword and rushed up to the WEAPON. He slashed at it as Cid stabbed at it from the other side and Reno zapped it with his nightstick. The WEAPON roared and unleashed some new attack, sending an energy wave out from its body, causing the three of them to fly back through the air in intense pain.
"…" Rude stayed silent as he got up close to he WEAPON and began to deliver several punches to its exterior, not doing much damage. The WEAPON sent him flying back with a swipe of its arm, causing him to painfully crash into Yuffie. She swore as the Turk knocked her to the ground. Rude ignored her and handed her a piece of materia. "No MP left," he said before he passed out.
Vincent pressed his attack, forcing Sephiroth to block his sword strikes and take many small wounds from his Death Penalty. Sephiroth was sweating. He was in pain. He felt like something besides the demon in front of him was clawing at his head. And worse than that, he was losing. It was a new sensation to him. He could barely move fast enough to stop the strikes that Vincent was continually and untiringly raining down on him.
He cried out as he felt a bullet shatter his right leg. "Bastard!" he shouted as he angrily swung at Vincent, opening himself to a stab from Chaos's sword. He grasped his bleeding wound with his free arm as the Ultimate WEAPON unleashed another energy attack, knocking out everyone but Yuffie. "Kill her now WEAPON! I need assistance!" he shouted as he struggled to stand.
"You deserve rest my son," Vincent said tearfully. "Something brought you back for its own twisted purposed," he gestured at the wound as it healed. "You cannot bring yourself to look at the truth," Vincent added as Yuffie unleashed Knights of the Round upon the WEAPON, leaving it in a heap on the ground.
"I… I…," Sephiroth tried to speak, but found himself unable to move.
"Quiet. It ends now," Vincent said quietly as he put his gun to Sephiroth's head. "Goodbye," he added as he pulled the trigger, spraying blood and brain all over. Sephiroth fell to the ground with a thud as Vincent turned to go help Yuffie and the others. "Everyone alive?" he asked Yuffie who just shrugged as she bandaged a cut on her leg.
Barret and Nanaki made their way over and were helping Cloud and the others to their feet, using whatever items and MP they had left. Cloud groaned as he rubbed his head. "We win?" he asked as he staggered over and was caught by Vincent.
"Yes, I stopped him."
"That's good, we're all outta ether, MP, potions, everything," Tifa said as she emptied her item bag.
"Shit," Rude said as he pointed past everyone to where Sephiroth's body had got to it's feet.
"Ahhh, finally the human has fallen and I can take over," the half a skull spoke as the head healed itself. "It took far too long to gain control over this body, those alien cells were mucking up everything," it commented as its eyes reformed. "There you are, the strongest humans on this world. Too bad you're all exhausted," the head laughed as it unleashed an energy blast at them, knocking them all back ten feet and opening many new wounds. "This is my time. The time to make this world Terra!" the head shouted as it gloated over the barely moving forms of AVALANCHE and the Turks.
"Garland!" A voice roared from the rubble of the building as a body rose from the ground holding a blood red sword.
"Starmore," Sephiroth/Garland said with absolute hate in his voice. "You should not have come here Travis. What am I, the first one you found? It hasn't been that long," Garland asked as he walked over to Keep.
"You are the first, but not the last. I will kill you and hunt down the other eleven. I will not rest until nothing remains of Terra," Keep said venomously and he walked toward Garland and stopped when they were face to face.
"You're all alone now. No one to help you here. No brother. No genomes. No mages. Can you do it alone?" Garland sneered as the rest of Sephiroth's body reformed.
"I've always been alone," Keep stated as he floated into the air and away from Garland. Garland floated likewise until they were circling each other ten feet from the ground.
"Let's not prolong this game Starmore. We will use everything at out disposal, or nothing at all. Agreed?" Garland asked as he sheathed the masamune.
"Agreed," Keep nodded as he sheathed his sword as well. He closed his eyes and shuddered as thirteen concussive blast of power rocked his body. His body turned black as he prepared to unleash a Starlight Blast. "Ready when you are," Keep said in an unearthly voice.
"Here we go then, all or nothing!" Garland shouted as he thrust his own arms forward and shouted. "Ultimate Supernova!"
"Starlight Blast!" Keep shouted in response as both of their respective ultimate attacks raced toward each other and met, neither being able to push past the other. Both men were sweating as they concentrated and tried to break the stalemate, but to no avail. "Damn, here goes nothing," Keep muttered as his body went black again.
"That is not possible, you've used too many already! That was the data we had on you!" Garland shouted as he saw what was happening.
"Alpha kept a secret. Starlight Blast!" Keep screamed as another volley of light erupted from his flesh and overtook Garland's own attack. "It's over!" he shouted triumphantly as the energy wave ripped Sephiroth/Garland apart. He fell to the ground afterwards and rested on one knee for so long he forgot how long it had been. When he looked up, Vincent was calling his name, urging him to board the Tiny Bronco with the others. Keep nodded and joined the others on the plane before falling asleep.