Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts: Not mine. Phil? Not mine. Cloud? (no matter how many times I wish) Not mine. Sasha? Mine, but not in that sick sense. You sick sick people you.
A.N. Oh Boy, this took forever to do, I'm sorry. Stupid college had to start up. *growls and kicks College* Bad College, Bad! Anyways, yes, chapter 9 is up. I don't know… I like it, I think. No Riku though, but there's going to be more of him to come. And Sora. Don't worry, he hasn't disappeared.
I hope you enjoy this. I was wondering when to do this, and I thought this would be the best time. I'll explain more next chapter.
Chapter 9
Sasha lay on her back, staring up at the inky darkness that made up Limbo's sky. She twirled the stone containing the spirit of the Mountain beast on the ground with one hand, not really paying attention to it.
"Sephiroth?" She asked suddenly, "Why do you only have one wing?"
The man glanced over at her from where he was sitting on an old armchair.
"Because, I am not complete." He answered, went back to turning the pages of a musty old book that had appeared along with the chair.
"Not complete? What do you mean?" Sasha propped herself up on one arm.
"The scientist who… experimented… on me… created others like myself, using the cells from my mother, Jenova." Sephiroth began, and realizing that this would take some time, hung the book over the arm of the chair in order to keep his place. "The scientist predicted that at some point in time, all the cells of Jenova would seek each other out and join together. He called it The Reunion."
"And? Did it happen?" Sasha asked, stopping the spinning stone.
"Yes… but not perfectly. All of the clones had returned, all but one…" Sephiroth sighed. "So when the time came for me to begin my ascent, I was only partially complete, and could not achieve true perfection."
"So… what about this other clone?" Sasha asked. She wasn't unnerved by his talk of 'achieving true perfection'; it's just something you eventually get used to.
"He refuses to join me. So he must be eliminated in order for me to use the essence of the cells. Otherwise, I can never ascend." Sephiroth said. Sasha looked at him for a moment.
"Is he that one that killed you on that mountain thing?" She asked, and Sephiroth sighed.
"Yes, he's 'that one', as you put it." He looked at her, eyes narrowed. "Don't you have something you could be doing? Some place to go? Someone else to annoy?"
Sasha stuck her tongue out at him.
"If I did, don't you think I'd be gone already?" She huffed, swiveled around and sat cross-legged, her back towards him. She started playing with the stone again, rolling it from hand to hand on the ground. Sephiroth glared at her for a moment, then with a sigh picked up the book again.
A little while later she turned back to him, a quizzical look on her face.
"So, what was that amulet thing for, anyway?" She asked.
"The amulet…" Sephiroth began again, a little harshly, annoyed at being interrupted again. "The amulet has an awesome power. It would have helped us both greatly…"
"There's a 'but', isn't there?" Sasha said.
"But, it unfortunately is not responding to my attempts to unlock its power." Sephiroth said, getting a perplexed look in his eyes.
"So, basically, I went there, almost lost my mind, and all for three pieces of a stupid amulet that won't even work?" Sasha growled. Sephiroth turned to her.
"What's wrong with you? You seem so..." Sephiroth began, met her icy glare, "On edge."
"Nothing's wrong with me." Sasha turned away again, fluttering her wings angrily.
This was all very confusing to Sephiroth, who wasn't used to the girl being anything other than annoying.
"There's something wrong." He stated.
"No there isn't." She stated back.
There was a pause as each waited to see who would speak first.
"So…" Sasha said finally, breaking the silence. "Is there anything you want me to do? People to kill? World's to destroy?"
Sephiroth sighed, turned away from her. What to do? Was there anything more he could do? Was there any use in this?
"Sephiroth?" Sasha said, turning to him, and he realized that there had been quite a moment of silence.
"Nothing. There's nothing." Sephiroth turned to her slightly. "If you want you can go to some other world."
"What's left?" Sasha asked, happy that he hadn't pushed the subject of her being 'on edge'.
"Well, there's the Coliseum in Olympus." Sephiroth answered.
"A Coliseum? The kind where people fight against each other and they have animals and all that stuff?!" Sasha exclaimed, jumping up, and for a moment Sephiroth couldn't figure out if it was from anger or happiness. Then she smiled. "Ohhh… can I go? Pleeeease… I'll be good, I'll promise. I won't interrupt the fights or start hitting people for blocking my view or throw popcorn at the really annoying fighters or-"
"Alright, alright already. Just go." Sephiroth said, unable to stand her superfast speech at the moment.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Sasha dashed over to where her axe was and put it in its harness. "Just in case, you never know."
"Just… be careful." Sephiroth said.
"Aren't I always?" Sasha said, and with a wave was gone.
"That's a good question…" Sephiroth muttered. He looked off into the darkness for a moment, then turned to the book in his hands.
It was an old album, containing pictures of a group of friends, growing up together, going out together. Many, so many of them focused on the same silver haired boy.
Sephiroth snapped the album shut suddenly, glared at the words imprinted on the front.
My Friends, Best and Greatest: Anastasia Starler
With a feral roar he stood up and flung the album into the darkness, then collapsed back into a heap on the velvet armchair.
Sasha found herself wandering about in front of the coliseum. She glanced up at some of the statues and then made her way into the entrance of the coliseum. There were noises coming from the roped off hallway, and, curious, she climbed past them and crept closer. Soon she was able to make out words.
"So, it is possible to call anyone to come and fight?" The first voice asked.
"Even the gods themselves." A second voice, a little gruff, answered. "Why do you want ta know?"
There was a silence.
"C'mon, there's gotta be a reason." The second voice insisted.
Sasha crept a little closer to the opening of the hallway to hear better.
"There's someone I want to call to fight…" The first voice began.
"Yeah? C'mon, you can tell me. I'll get them for you, no problem." The second voice answered.
"His name… is Sephiroth."
Sasha squeaked. Sephiroth? He wanted to call Sephiroth? To fight him? Who was this person? She wondered, could it have been…?
But her thoughts were caught short by the fact that suddenly she was pulled out of her hiding space and standing in front of the two people.
"Now who are you? And what're you doing, nosing around other people's business?" The gruff voiced belonged to a goatman. He stood in front of her, wagging his finger admonishingly at her.
But it wasn't him she was looking at. She was looking at the other person. This man was blonde, shorter than Sephiroth, but he had that same shiny glint in his eyes that Sephiroth had, something Sasha was sure didn't come from insanity. His left hand seemed to be made of metal, and a gigantic sword was strapped to his back. Not only that, she could barely make out the black feathers of the wing he was trying to hide behind his cape.
Sephiroth's wing was on his left side.
This man's was on his right.
It was him.
She almost squeaked again, but by then the goat-man's words had penetrated her shock, and she quickly decided answering him to be most conducive to the prolonging of her life.
"Er… I came… to see a fight…" She said stutteringly, her wings fluttering nervously.
"Did ya miss the sign? There's no public fights, not until we fix up the rest of the seats…" The goat-man shook his head and muttered something about a 'demon dog from hell'. "so you're just gonna have to wait, kid."
"Okay. Um, sorry… I'll leave. Now." Sasha said, then turned and walked down the hallway. The second she was out of their sight, she took off running out the doors, and slid to a stop, clutching the stone around her neck.
"This can't be good."
"Hmph. Strange kid." Phil said, then turned back to Cloud, who was still looking after the girl, his eyes narrowed. "So, you still want that fight?"
Cloud took a second to answer, looked at Phil.
"Today."
"Er, are you sure? You had that run in with that dog a few weeks ago and the coliseum's still not in tip top shape, I don't know if-"
"Today." Cloud interrupted, his voice firm.
"R…right. Today." Phil said, unnerved by the sudden ferocity in the man's eyes. "You just sit down for a bit, I'll… I'll go get… the stuff…"
Phil left in a slow hurry, deciding not to try to talk the man out of it any further.
Cloud turned his gaze back to the hallway. That girl… did she know something? Had she gone to warn Sephiroth? No. He was probably just being overly paranoid. He should stop from thinking about it, it was just some accident on her part.
Besides, he had the fight to think about.
Thanks to:
Bluefox, who has disappeared. That was strange. If you're still around, thanks for your continued reading.
Sunnie: Thank you for that review. I'm not that amazing. *humble* I loved that chapter tho. You were the Mad Hatter? Did you have the hat with the card in it and tea cups and everything? And were you nice to that Dormouse?
Have some cookies. They might help that slushbrain of yours. And if not, they taste good. ^-^
And yes, I'm taking some writer's license with Sephy's back story. More to come next time.
Laters everyone. I'll be back soon. Hopefully. Blerk.
Meanwhile, why not go enjoy yourself at www .wickedtribe .net . The forums are fun. Really. Look for the Freak Dragon (that's me) and say hi. We're nice. Usually. And we don't bite. Much. ^-^