Character Manipulation
As soon as he had come, Sephiroth was gone. Cloud could not even recognize the moment his neck was free of the blade. The ground twisted and turned with tremors that shook the party almost off their feet. Immediately afterwards, the team felt the awesome presence of a powerful enemy; one that they could not see.
The floor once again began to rumble violently. The ground beneath them rose upwards as a platform, and at first they believed that they would rise into the ceiling and be crushed. Not long after they realized that the ceiling was also rising in proportion with the floor, but only on their side of the room. The entire hallway was now slanted, as if uphill. The alter with the next piece of the Diamond Breaker was now at the foot of this hill; they needed to look over the edge of the floor to see it beneath them, yet still a great distance away. No one knew why this was all happening until they realized that their footing was starting to slip because of the angle of the floor.
Tifa's nearly lifeless body suddenly began to roll downhill towards the alter. Cloud extended his body to try and grab her, but Vincent grabbed him. The hill was too steep and he could not afford rolling downhill with Tifa. The party watched helplessly as Tifa's body built up momentum and rolled faster and faster. It appeared that she would hit the wall near the bottom with so much force, it would make the Masamune wound pale in comparison.
Halfway down her descent, the floor began to right itself. So quickly in fact, that most of the team had been in the air for a few seconds before landing back on their feet. By now Tifa was at the end of the long hallway. She began to slow down and stopped just before touching the alter wall.
The party breathed a sigh of relief. Cloud began to make his way towards the end of the hallway to reunite with his companion. His fourth step was interrupted; the alter moved aside, revealing a smaller pedestal. On the pedestal, staring at Cloud knee-length was the Yellow Huge Materia. The materia glowed and sparkled. Tifa vanished and in her place a large dragon began to appear. Cloud actually needed to run a few feet in the opposite direction to avoid starting the battle directly beneath this new boss.
The dragon was in every way more distinguished than Kamaya. The Amber Dragon of Command, Omisedion, now stood in the way of the planet's defenders. It was about the same size as Kamaya, but much fiercer. It had two more rows of teeth than its predecessor, and a beautiful layer of golden armor extending all the way down to its heavily plated, spiked tail. Cid struck first with an "Ice 3" spell that did an average amount of damage to the dragon. No particular attack seemed to work well, but no attack stood out due to the high resistance of this non-elemental dragon. Barret stood in for Tifa, the warrior who should have been standing beside Cloud, helping him win. Barret attacked quickly with his Level 4 Limit Break "Catastrophe." After leaping high up into the air until he was well over the dragons head, he unleashed a radiant blast of energy from the gun grafted into his arm. This nearly beat the dragon on its own!
Omisedion attacked with various attacks known from the team's own command materia. It slowly turned around; it wasn't likely to be retreating. After making a half-circle with its body, it swung its large spiked tail around its torso and hit Cid hard, knocking him into a wall. The attack was "Deathblow," and it was strong enough to take Cid out of the match. Cloud felt confident that he could take the dragon out successfully with his next sword technique, but decided that he would spend his first turn saving Cid. Cloud activated "Life 2" from the sparkling green crystal in his Hard Edge's materia slot. Cid awoke, startled, but read to continue fighting nonetheless.
Cid next attacked the dragon with "Slow." The area around the dragon became hazy. The spell created a metaphysical clock, and as its hands spun round and round counter-clockwise, the dragon appeared to relax. Its chest fluctuated at a reduced pace, and the slower breaths of the dragon further signified that the spell had worked. Though the dragon may have been slowed, it still attacked with a unsuspected command; "Mime." The very same ethereal clock came into view, only this time it split midair into three. Each clock made its way to the battling team's heads and reversely spun. Everyone was slowed. It now appeared that Cid's turn would mean nothing; the team and the dragon now moved at the same sluggish pace.
Next was Barret's turn. Activating his Enemy Skill Materia, he used "Beta," an incredible fire-based explosion learned from his encounter with the Midgar Zolom. The "Beta" technique was not easily acquired; the Zolom was far too powerful to face on first encounter and was avoided by chocobo. Upon a second return to that side of the continent, the party reencountered the Zolom and survived the attack to add it to their collection of Enemy Skills. The amazing flame blast hit the creature with thousands of points worth of damage. The Amber Dragon of Command began to slouch over as it became harder for it to stand. It would focus all of its energy into one strategy.
Omisedion lowered its head to the party's level. It opened its mouth wide, unhinging its jaw. As the team stared blankly at the dragon what would happen next, the darkened walls of Omisedion's throat was illuminated with gold. Cloud knew what this meant; the dragon would use its last, probably most powerful attack in an effort to take them with it. The Yellow Huge Materia's bright beam of light crept its way out of the dragon's mouth and swirled through the air. With a quick bolt of speed, the light erupted into Barret who hit the floor hard.
For a moment Cloud thought that the battle was over. It appeared that Barret had been the sole-defender of the dragon's final move. Barret, despite not having moved since the attack, seemed to be very okay. Omisedion then began to evaporate. In a few moments, all that was left was a lingering cloud of yellow smoke; smoke that then found its way into Barret's body.
"Manipulation" took effect on Barret. He began to shake convulsively, obviously trying to fight it off. "Not gonna #& get me….," he mumbled. Then, he doubled over backwards in an unpleasant looking contortion. Barret stood himself upright and proceeded to walk towards the other end of the room. After putting a fair amount of distance between him and Cloud, he turned slowly to face his long-time friend and rival, and shot him.
"What's wrong with you; have you lost your damn mind!?" Cid's words reverberated through the room and was followed by another "crack;" Barret's gun arm. Cid's wound appeared to be far worse than Cloud's was. Cid fell to his knees and cast a "Cure 3" spell for both him and Cloud. They realized that reasoning with the chaotic puppet Barret would not be persuaded, yet they could not attack them. He was a friend; a hero. A new strategy would need to be devised.
Cloud new of a healing spell that could help in this situation. Cure spells would not work because they would only heal their enemy's injuries, but there was another. The tricky part of it was if it was to work, Barret would need to cast it upon itself.
Running up to Barret, Cloud leapt off of the ground and raised his sword across his stomach. Barret knew this attack and had seen it against many enemies before. It was the Limit Break "Meteorain." Barret instinctively raised his machinegun arm to protect his face from the coming collisions. Cloud had counted on this. When Barret stopped looking to hide from the attack, Cloud landed and removed the materia from the slots on the gun. He replaced all the attack material with a single Cure materia. Barret was enraged and began to shoot his gun off in various angles, recklessly ricocheting bullets off walls and missing all possible targets. When he was finally exhausted he attempted to heal himself with the crystal Cloud had given him. The results were not of a standard cure spell. A powerful, green aura surrounded the manipulated ally and the "Esuna" spell took effect. When Barret returned to his senses, he had no recollection of how he came to stand on opposing sides of his team.