Heartless Imperfection
Chapter XI
"This isn't going as planned!" Hojo ran at the glass encasing Aerith. The female was frightened, begging to be released. The black-haired man with glasses fumbled at the stasis lock. "Aha!" He opened it, and Aerith pushed the man down, and ran toward Cloud.
The mercenary smiled, but was thrown off-balance. It felt as if the building was experiencing an earthquake. Lights flashed, soon dimming, and turned off.
Sora couldn't see anything, though due to the lights turning off or his fading consciousness he didn't know, but he did feel the pain in his chest.
A large crash, the sound of glass cracking and flying, signaled the arrival of it.
As soon as the floodlights clicked on, the group could see Hojo being picked up by a long, purple tentacle. The tentacle could be traced to a headless atrocity. "Jenova…" Cloud said aloud, filled with awe. His glowing eyes studied the monster for but a moment, and Hojo was rejected by it with a vicious throw. The frail scientist hit a metallic wall, face first, and now lays motionless. Jenova stood many feet taller than anyone in the group, and had many tentacles originating from her smooth, sheer body. She was malformed, though no hint of humanity seemed to exist in the gruesome atrocity.
"We can take it, attack!" Cloud roared, and ran toward the monstrosity that was known only as Jenova.
Barret let out a grand roar as he began to open fire on the enemy.
The lights were on, he noticed. His friends were running at a huge monster, but they seemingly failed to notice the shadows forming on the ceilings and floor. One reached out and nearly grabbed Tifa, but the woman dodged it. "Heartless!"
The sardonic dark-embodiments have arrived. While Jenova dealt with Cloud, who seemed experienced enough to take it one on one, the rest of the group was forced to destroy the heartless.
Sora stood up, finding renewed strength. The chosen one of the keyblade put his experience to the test.
Now that Donald wasn't watching over his friend, he found everyone else was in a bit of trouble. He let out a quack of dismay and started to destroy the heartless with magic. Goofy did what he could, making them disappear by slapping then with his main weapon, the shield.
Sora hacked his way toward Cloud, gutting and destroying the Shadows along the way. They would disappear, but two more would take the place where one fell, occasionally three. Jenova spoke, though without a mouth, "Come to me, my children…"
So the Heartless seemed to gather by the indescribable monster, crawling all over it. Shadows formed into extra tentacles, arms, and a few formed into a head for the atrocity. "They make me complete, you see… If you should want to be complete, you would embrace your darkest sides…" She said, though no one knew what she meant.
"Attack!" Cloud roared, doing some damage to Jenova's side. The monster whipped Cloud away, and held off Tifa's punches by simply lifting her in the air. Barret's weapon seemed to be doing the most damage, causing Jenova to writhe in pain. The creature began to leak blackened substance, and screamed aloud in frustration, "You will not defeat me!" And lashed out at Barret, knocking the man off of his feet. He hit the floor, and dizzily aimed at the monster again.
Sora stepped forward, "Don't fire, I think the keyblade can finish it. You might hurt Tifa." It was true, the monster held Tifa in Barret's way. Knowing this, the big man put down his weapon, "Go on, kid. Save the day."
Sora would have smiled, and ran toward Jenova. Dodging a tentacle, hacking at another, the boy made his way toward it with the help of Donald's magic and Goofy's support.
He leapt up to the monster's "chest" area, and thrust his keyblade into it. Despite his doubts, the evil thing cried out, hurt inconsiderably.
At that moment, Sora was shoved hard, keyblade and all. He started to fall, and would have hit his head again if not for Goofy catching him.
"It's Sephiroth!"