Chapter 6

Cloud flew up through the hole Sephiroth had made to find him waiting for Cloud. They both drew their weapons and flew at each other. Their swords clashed in the air sending sparks flying out in all directions. Sephiroth quickly then took a swipe at Clouds stomach which he evaded. Cloud then charged forward with his sword out to try and knock Sephiroth of balance, Sephiroth managed to fly out the way. Cloud had a better chance of managing to hit Sephiroth although his swords weight slowed him down. Sephiroth however was more powerful and quicker. Ratchet, Squall and Rinoa had run outside and were observing the battle from the ground. Cloud lashed out with a quick slash at Sephiroth's left arm which managed to draw a small amount of blood. This stunned Sephiroth for a minute. Felling that he'd won, Cloud swung his buster sword at Sephiroth's head, realizing to late it was a trick. Sephiroth flew under Cloud at tremendous speed appearing behind him before Cloud could do anything about it. Sephiroth brought his sword crashing down towards Cloud's left, Cloud yelled out in pain, and in his anger flew backwards into Sephiroth. Sephiroth lost his balance and fell out of the air crashing into a tree nearby, and sliding down to the ground. Cloud then clumsily flew back down to Ratchet, Squall and Rinoa. His last battle had really tired him out.

Yuffie forced herself to stay awake. She had grabbed hold of a branch a short way down and was now slowly trying to climb back up. Panting she put her right hand back on the top of the cliff. She was nearly there just a bit more. She pulled herself up using all the strength she had left. She just managed to pull herself all the way back up to were she had met Sephiroth. She stopped to rest now that she had reached the top. She had to do something, she did have some bandages with her but they were in her backpack which had fallen over the cliff when she fell. If she could just find someone…

Squall helped Cloud walk over to were their bandages were. Sephiroth had cut off Cloud's left arm from just below the elbow, which was now bleeding rapidly. Squall tried to wrap the bandages around Cloud's stump of an arm without causing him too much pain.

"Squall, I'm fine. Please 'it'll be okay." Cloud said, trying to stop Squall from bandaging his wound.

"It won't be "okay" you've lost a bloody arm for god's sake." After bandaging Cloud up best they could they set off to try and find Sephiroth. As they suspected he had gone, there was a small trail of blood leading a couple of meters but Sephiroth had obviously seen his mistake and stopped the trail of red he was leaving behind him.

They had been walking for what seemed hours looking for any trace of Sephiroth but there was nothing. Eventually they decided to stop for something to eat. Squall and Rinoa had gone further ahead to try and work out where they were, leaving Cloud and Ratchet back at the camp.

"I'm sorry." Cloud said to Ratchet.

"What for?"

"Your friend, I'm sorry for what happened."

"Lets just not talk about it okay? It hurts to think about it."

"I didn't take you for granted before, maybe just because of how you look, but now I see that you're just like one of us, you have friends and feelings about them."

"Hey, that's okay. Friends, right?" Ratchet held out his hand. Cloud smiled.

"Friends" and shook Ratchets hand.

"So… who is this Sephiroth guy and how come you've both got wings?"

"It's complicated all I can say is, his mother was injected with things called Jenova cells which sorta turned her half-demon, and I was a test and they used these cells on me as well." Ratchet didn't really understand any of it but before he could question Cloud on it Rinoa burst from out from the trees panting.

"We found someone else! Squall's with her now."

"Who is it?" Cloud asked.

"Yuffie, oh please hurry!" They all ran after Rinoa until they came to a cliff and found Squall holding a girl with short, black hair who was breathing slowly.

"Cloud, Squall…" she was speaking very quietly "he's here, Sephiroth… he threw my… shuriken... into…" She was getting quieter every moment.

"Yuffie rest, don't speak." Squall said.

"It's to late Squall… I'm… going… but before I go… just know that… I…" Her head then fell to her side. Squall laid her down and held her cold hand. She was dead.