Lost Fragments - The Traverse Town Cup Battle Series

Part 5

Aerith, Yuffie, Pandora, and Kydran all went to find Leon after his battle with Seifer, but he was nowhere to be found. Some of the people who had seen him pass through the exit gate told the group that he had left the waiting area and out into the courtyard, and the people in the courtyard said they hadn't seen him. Resigned, Aerith suggested they find Cloud. Kydran was a little more concerned about Leon, but the strained look on Aerith's face suggested they do otherwise.

"What is it now, Aerith?" queried Pandora as the four of them made their way back to the gladiators' waiting area, where Cloud would undoubtedly be preparing for his bout against Sephiroth. "What's wrong?"

"Something is strange about this tournament. First, Leon and Seifer fight, and now it's Cloud against… Sephiroth."

"Was Seifer to Leon what Sephiroth is to Cloud?" asked Kydran, inferring what he could.

"No," replied Yuffie after Aerith tried speaking and failing to do so due to her inner turmoil. "We're not sure what their relationship is. Sephiroth disappeared into the Darkness when Hollow Bastion was overrun, and Cloud never talked about him. But he's strong. Very, very strong. The only person I've ever seen beat him is Sora."

"…whaaat? That goofy kid? Sephiroth can't be that bad, then."

Aerith shook her head.

"From the energies I sense from Sephiroth… I believe he's Cloud's shadow. I don't think he always was, though. Something happened between them in Hollow Bastion, when the Darkness came, or somewhere in Ansem's experiments. Cloud has a very strong heart, and it's filled with Light, even though you can't see it. Sephiroth's Darkness mirrors Cloud's Light. It's made him more powerful than ever before."

Kydran pushed the large wooden doors to the waiting area open for the three women, and waved them in. Pandora offered a playful curtsy, and the black-haired boy grinned. Yuffie gave elbowed him jokingly, and Aerith followed her in, face unmoved. The tournament was doing a poor job of relieving the stress from her heart.

As the wielder of the Heart Key closed the door, Sora called to him from inside the room. The Keyblade Master rose from the stone bench he had been sitting on and approached his green-eyed companion.

"Hey, Kydran… you know what the next fight is, right? It's gonna be awesome!"

"Cloud against some Sephiroth guy. I don't know… Cloud's got that big freaking sword. Whoever this Sephiroth is is gonna have a tough time, I think."

"You'll see. Come on," Sora said, moving out of the waiting area. Kydran gave Aerith, Cloud, and, finally, Pandora a glance in turn, and then followed Sora to the stands. Pandora called after them, jogged to catch up with them, and they left.

Watching the three young ones leave, Aerith turned to face Cloud.

"What's going to happen, Cloud? You have to face Sephiroth. It had to happen sometime."

The spiky-haired blonde fighter folded his arms, eyes closed. The warrior considered the claw on his left arm for a moment, and then looked to Aerith with eyes of deep blue.

"The Darkness isn't in him any longer, Aerith."

"What do you mean? Is it like with Seifer?"

"Yes. Leon couldn't see. The Darkness is gone. Even within me."

"Why? What happened?"

"I don't know. It happened about a month before Sora came. The Darkness within me shriveled away…"

"It has to have something to do with that monster, the one that destroyed Traverse Town…"

Cloud nodded. Aerith took a breath, and moved closer to him. He wrapped his arms around her.

"Cloud… will you be able to stop him? He's so powerful…"

The flower girl received only silence, the answer she knew she would get. Sighing, she tightened her embrace.

"Don't let him win, Cloud. He'll kill you if you don't kill him."

Cloud only nodded as the bell tolled, calling him into the field.

Kydran sat with Pandora in his lap, in the front row of the stands, among hundreds of screaming spectators, Sora being one of them. He was not watching the two warriors within the pit. His eyes were distant, almost hazy. Something moved behind them, a movement as inconspicuous as the movement within the black orb at the base of the Xinlong. Pandora hadn't seen his eyes, but she knew that something felt wrong.

Her violet eyes shifted to Sora, who was at the edge of his seat, looking into the pit, straining to hear the words that Cloud and Sephiroth were exchanging. Both stood in the center of the large field, Cloud grasping the cloth-wrapped Buster Sword in one hand, Sephiroth standing fully upright with the Masamune tucked into the crook of his arm.

Kydran's arms tightened around her. Though he was seeing the other side of the coliseum, he was not registering it. He felt only the emotions of long-gone memories, those buried deep within, those thath ad been stolen from him that he knew he had to have but didn't. No images moved behind his eyes, only a deep ache in his heart that made him afraid.

The girl took his gloved hands in hers and squeezed them, bringing them to her heart and holding them here. She looked away from the two fighters, attention drawn away by Kydran. She didn't turn to look at him, but rather sensed for his emotions, trying to understand.

"Kydran…?"

Either he hadn't responded, or the crowd had drowned out whatever he had said as the bell tolled once more and the match began. His hold tightened. The girl grunted, surprised by the sudden pressure. It was tight enough to be uncomfortable.

(there they are)

She heard his breathing hitch, as though he were stifling a sob. She frowned, and turned to try to face him.

"Kydran, what's wrong?"

(what are you doing, ash-)

He only shivered in response. The sound of clashing steel rang out to reach her ears, but it wasn't registering. She wiggled, attempting to loosen his hold.

(this isn't you this can't be you you're not the one I love)

He squeezed tighter. This time, she was in pain; his grip was stronger than she thought it could be. She fought to speak, squeezing out his name, and then looking wildly around. Nobody was noticing her or the boy clutching her as though she was his heart.

"Kydran!" she strained. There was a flash of power from the pits, and the sound of a swordfight intensified. Her eyes shot around.

"Please… don't… don't ever leave me…"

Kydran's voice was distant. She struggled, but he only grabbed tighter. She felt her bones bending under the pressure. She fought to scream.

"So… SORA!" she finally squealed, managing to get the boy's attention.

"What?" Sora responded, the sound of her voice causing him to turn. His eyes shot open. "KYDRAN!"

Sora's hands shot out, grabbing a hold of the black-clad boy's to tear them off of Pandora.

The Keyblade Master blacked out.

Cloud stood facing his shadow.

The black-clad Sephiroth regarded the man across from him through burning emerald eyes. The man moved a bang from directly before his face and drew the Masamune from its place in the crook of his left arm, and spoke, his voice unmocking.

"Do you believe you can defeat me, Cloud?"

The spiky-haired blonde sank into his fighting stance, holding the Buster Sword out before him. His claw-like left hand screeched a little against the steel of the handle. The man's eyes narrowed.

"The Darkness is gone within you. I can feel the change, I can smell it."

"Only because it has changed in you, too," smirked the silver-haired fighter, resting his six-foot-long sword against his waist and planting his feet into the dust of the arena. "Come. Let us see which is stronger: a weak Light, or a shadow without Darkness."

There was a slight crunching sound that ensued as Cloud planted his back foot, bracing it as he pushed off for his initial bound forward. Sephiroth did not smile, not yet, but rather waited, eyes locked on his foe, his 'better' half.

Cloud was within range. The blonde-haired fighter reared his massive weapon back, preparing to bring it screaming down into Sephiroth's head, but instead he found the Masamune on a direct course with his knees.

Sephiroth had sunk into a deep lunge, and with one hand and brought his blade roaring from his side, with all intention of permanently impairing Cloud's ability to walk. The blue-eyed warrior replied by turning his attack into a parry, and was instantly aware that Sephiroth had taken control of the fight in that instant, placing Cloud on the defensive.

The taller fighter pressed his advantage, moving forward and swinging the weapon in an arc that would cut Cloud from top to bottom if it was not dealt with, to which Cloud defended with his own weapon. With Cloud's blade out of the way, the One-Winged Angel launched a boot out into Cloud's exposed gut.

The SOLDIER's eyes nearly popped out of his head, and he was sent stumbling back, hunched over, breathless. Sephiroth wasted no time, and although Cloud had gained some distance (with the help of the kick in the stomach), he hadn't been able to cover the six-foot range of the Masamune, which Sephiroth used to make a tip-cut to Cloud's head.

Cloud, however, was not unused to pain, and had had the presence of mind to lift his upper body just out of the reach of his attacker's blow. His opponent's swing, however, had been made across his own body, leaving all of Sephiroth's back exposed.

Blades clashed once again as Cloud's attempted monopolization of Sephiroth's opening revealed the sharpness of his foe's cunning. Sephiroth turned his weapon vertically, deflecting Cloud's vertical strike while allowing him the time to leap back a step, thus giving the One-Winged Angel the room to change the vertical blade to horizontal, and to drive the tip of the weapon toward Cloud's now-opened chest.

The sound of arguing steel rang out as Cloud defended, then countered, and was countered. The two danced about the center of the pit, their massive swords flashing in the daylight.

Cloud swatted away a half-hearted prod by the Masamune and launched forward with his own lunge. The emerald-eyes fighter grinned, leaping backwards and upwards, levitating out of reach. Cloud's eyes narrowed, and he followed his foe into the air.

Sephiroth, allowed time to call forth power, drew on not the Darkness that was now gone from within him but the power of the in-between he had found left in its wake, the power Seifer had not been able to wield. Azure lightning burst from his opened palm, and Cloud was barely able to avoid the lethal spray of heart-driven electricity. The man planted a foot in midair, and focused. A slight smile touched Cloud's lips.

The One-Winged Angel's eyes narrowed, for he knew what any show of emotion in Cloud's face could indicate; and suddenly, before the thought could so much as be completed, Cloud had already initiated a mid-air Sonic Blade. The spiky-haired gladiator's form blurred and was at once gone from sight.

Sephiroth winced slightly at the pain the Buster Sword brought as it bit into his side. The black-clad warrior hadn't been able to deflect it fully, and had only enough time to whip around in mid-air and deflect the next.

The sound of hypersonic movement and the clash of steel exploded outward, causing the crowd to draw back and cheer harder.

Cloud's advantage could only last so long, however, before he was forced to return to normal speed. An infuriated Sephiroth's emerald eyes narrowed on his opposing combatant, who was now standing far below him with his boots planted in the dust of the arena floor. Cloud looked up at his silver-haired shadow, and braced himself.

Violet energy radiated from Sephiroth's form. He was engulfed in an aura of the same color; the world seemed to turn dark. The silver-haired gladiator rocketed downward, left hand cocked back, Masamune in his right prepared to swing.

Cloud attempted to leap backwards from his place on the ground in a bid to get some ground between himself and his shadow, but Sephiroth was atop him immediately.

Before Cloud was able to move left or right, the One-Winged Angel released a pair of hexagon-grid spheres, glowing with azure heart-energy. The pair exploded into violet light at Cloud's sides, and in that instant Cloud was thrown into a flurry of parries, fighting to keep the Masamune from cleaving him apart.

Where did he get this power? The Darkness is gone from within him, thought Cloud, but in that fraction of a second he had lost the match.

Sephiroth's blade came down.