Chapter 11: Cloud and The Masamune
"Die, Sephiroth!" Cloud screamed as his eyes narrowed in hatred. Sephiroth's hand started to loosen...
Suddenly, Vincent tackled Cloud as Sephiroth slipped, tumbling into the lifestream below. Cid followed Vincent's lead, leaping down and poising his spear against Cloud's neck. Cloud struggled against Vincent's tight grip on his arms and looked up to smile evilly at Cid.
"Oh, Vinnie and Cid! So good to see you two again!" Vincent shifted his grip on Cloud, pulling his arm up to pin Cloud's face against the rocky ground. Tifa got up slowly, holding her head where it struck the wall from Cloud's unknown magic. She moaned, imagining the bruise it would leave, then suddenly remembered about Sephiroth, hanging on the edge. She ran to the edge, only to find that Sephiroth wasn't there.
"Valeria!" She cried, choking back tears. Cloud laughed, coughing from the dirt so close to his face.
"I hope Sephiroth suffers down there!" Tifa spun around and glared at Cloud with tear-filled eyes. Red walked to the edge, peering over the lifestream carefully and started to ponder.
"If Valeria falls down there…why can't he swim?" Red's eyes suddenly went wide. Vincent shouted suddenly, sparks were flaring between him and Cloud pinned below him. Cloud's spell gave him the time needed to roll over and jump to his feet before dashing deeper into the cavern. Vincent cursed under his breath and got to his feet.
"Let him go." Said Tifa. "We need to get Valeria out of the Lifestream! He might drown down there. I should have known better after he said 'I can't get through the Lifestream this way.' That means he can't swim! How can we get him out of there?" Tifa joined Red looking down into the lifestream. Vincent walked toward the edge and looked back at Tifa.
"I'll get him. I'm a monster so the lifestream won't pull me down. Let me do it." Vincent transformed into his Chaos form, a tall black-winged dragon. Tifa nodded at Vincent before he turned and dove into the lifestream.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sephiroth floats into the darkness as he sleeps. He has no idea where will he float. He could feel the cold around him. He feels something hold him and pull him into a warmer place. He finally opens his eyes and finds that he is lying on the lifestream's riverbed. He gets up slowly and looks around; the place seems very familiar to him somehow. His boots don't have much grip on the ashy surface of the crater. He hears a whoosh sound around the place where he stands on. The place suddenly change it own form too quickly. The flames starts grow out and burns too fast. He realizes those houses that he had seen from the past.
The houses appear along with flames around Sephiroth. He looks down to a body that lies down on ground. He is about to check this body out but interrupted by someone. He spins around and sees someone standing in flame along with the Masamune! The shine comes out from the Masamune itself. The reflection of flames from the Masamune became shiny. Sephiroth take a good look at someone in the flame. The face from flame becomes reveal and smiles. Sephiroth's eye went widen in shock.
"You! You started all of this! Killed innocent people! All right, you cloned jerk, you stole my Masamune, you started to fire this place and you killed innocent people! That's enough!"
Sephiroth starts to run after the cloned. The cloned looks at him then turns around and walks through flames then disappeared. Sephiroth jumps through the flames to after the clone.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"I don't understand, Tifa…how did this happen?" Cid says as he inhales from a cigarette then exhale. Tifa shook her head then leer down and watches over Lifestream below.
"I didn't, neither. Then somehow, I saw Cloud's eye when he became a monster…just-just like that cloned in the past." Tifa sniffs softly from hard cry. Red walk over and sits next to Tifa then looks at her.
"Tifa, we're lucky to have Valeria. You know why?" Tifa shook her head and it gets her wonder too. "Aeris told him something that we don't know. He knew immediately when he saw through Cloud's eyes. Something Aeris didn't want us to know a truth of Cloud himself." Red explains as he believes that Cloud was linked to Hojo.
"Goddamnit, Red. Are you saying that Cloud was linked to Hojo? How is that possible? We were in the crater and heard everything between Cloud and that fucker!" Cid grumbles. Red sighs and nods.
"Anything is possible...Remember when we were at the Ancient's City? Cloud suddenly appeared when we faced Hojo. Then he disappeared right in front of us. I believe that he found Cloud and awaken something inside Cloud's mind. So, this has to be between Hojo and Cloud." Red leers down and watches over Life stream. Cid leers down next to Red and watches over Life stream.
"Hope Vincent finds Valeria down there." Cid sighs. Tifa looks at Cid with a puzzled stare.
"Well, I don't know much about you but you seem you miss him already." Tifa smiles at Cid. Cid spins his head and looks at Tifa with confused look.
"Me? Miss him? Hell no! He owed me 500 Gil! I don't want him to die without paying me goddamn 500 Gil!" Cid puts his cigarette to his lips. Tifa raise her eyebrow at Cid.
"500 gil? What is that for?" Cid lit his cigarette up and inhales then exhale.
"Well, we made our bets to see how fast between him and my Highwind's speed. I won and he was supposed to owe me 500 Gil in next day before he went on mission. I saw on News said that he died from unknown reason. But now, he's back and still owes me!" Cid chuckles as he remembers how fast Highwind could go than Sephiroth's speed.
"Ah, interesting. Highwind beat Valeria's own speed…how amazing." Red puts his paw on his chin. Tifa starts giggle from her view of imagine of Valeria and Highwind. The bubbles come out on surface of lifestream. Tifa notices it as she stand up.
"Find him, Vincent?" Tifa looks at Chaos whom breathes heavily for air. Chaos shook his head then he dive back in again to search for Sephiroth. Tifa sighs deeply and sits down.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sephiroth jumps through the flames. Crackles and popping sounds comes from flames becomes fades quickly. The Darkness appears before Sephiroth's sight. He sensed the danger is coming ahead of him. The flash begins too bright toward Sephiroth's sight as he feels that he is still jumping, or is it floating? The scene of darkness becomes blur and forms of something familiar. He feels that his feet have finally landed on the lifestream's floor. The blur becomes clear and a form of familiar place has begun to show clearly. He realizes this place from Cloud's described. He never has been to this place before. He looks up and saw someone near the door that lead to chambers and Jenova room. He walks closer and takes a look at someone.
"Shin-Ra…I hate them! I hate it all!" Sobbing escaped from the person's face. Sephiroth reach his hand to the figure's shoulder to see who it was. The face turns reveal as she reach the Masamune.
"Tifa?" Sephiroth's eye went widen. Young Tifa picks the Masamune up then run into that room. She didn't see Sephiroth standing right behind her, or heard his voice. He feels like he is ghost to them. He walks after her anyway to see what was going on. Once he enters the room, he saw Tifa went fly backward along with her blood on her chest. She was slammed against the wall before passing out. Sephiroth run to her and is about to touch her head. The clone stood on top of stair and turned around to face the metal door.
"Mother, Open it for me." The cloned says as metal door opens to let him in. Sephiroth growled and didn't like how this was going. He saw Zack fly out of metal door and hits on one of chamber.
"Zack!" Sephiroth cried out as he gets up and goes after where Zack is. However, Zack did not see or hear Sephiroth. He looks very worse from bruise and cuts all over his face and even his body. The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs caught his attention. A soldier looks up at Zack.
"Hey! Take my buster sword! He's monster." Zack coughs and groans. A soldier picks up buster sword and run to enter the metal door. Sephiroth heard a whisper from Zack; "He's not our. He is a clone because he doesn't have the talisman of the dragon. Where is real Sephiroth?" He falls to unconscious.
He knew…he knew it was not me! How did he know that beside talisman of the dragon?
Sephiroth fills up the questions with his mind. Then he could not stand this much longer. He runs up to top and through the metal door. He stopped and saw someone in blue uniform with buster sword. He couldn't see the persons face but watched the scene. The person ran up to thrust the buster sword through the clone's stomach.
"Urgh…Who-who are you?" The clone groans. A growl escapes from a person's lips while he pushed the buster sword deeper into the clone's stomach.
"Killed my mother, buried my town…Take it back!" he says as he looks at the cloned. Sephiroth realizes the voice that he knew from the past.
"Cloud?" he blinks like he never seen Cloud was that angry and emotionally. He also realizes that the cloned is still alive. It almost like impossible to alive from such big sword through the stomach. He remembers the cloned is full of Jenova cells that can regeneration quickly. The flashback blinds Sephiroth as a form of the place he was in had been changed. He stood still and shield over his eyes with his arm. A form changes has stopped and a voice appears.
"Sephiroth!" A soldier screams. The clone stopped and looked back at the soldier. Sephiroth opens his eyes and realizes this place.
"I remember this. Aeris showed me about this place. Wait a minute…I must be in lifestream! This…all this scene is showing me…oh, it is about the Masamune! It is telling me where the Masamune lies. What, the Masamune is lies at Mt. Nibel Reactor? This must be it!" He went silently as he look down below where the cloned fell into along with the Masamune.
"I can't swim…wait a minute…I remember I fell into lifestream in the crater!" He frowned from Tifa and others learning about his secret: he couldn't swim. He didn't want anyone to know his secret but he guesses that would be too late and his body was probably drowning right now. He sighs and about to jump into lifestream below…
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Chaos raises his eyebrow when he saw someone float along with vines all over it. He swims down fast and cut the vines with his sharp claw. He looks at someone then takes him up to surface fast.
Tifa stand up when she saw the bubbles comes out of lifestream. Two heads pops up and gasp for air.
"Vincent! You found him!" Tifa cried out. Chaos pulls Sephiroth to dry ground then transform back to normal self. Tifa runs down to Sephiroth's body and leer down. She looks at Sephiroth's face; his face already turned blue! She lows her head over Sephiroth's mouth to hear if he breathe but she finds that he was not.
"Valeria!" She starts to sob. Red put his paw on Tifa's shoulder.
"Tifa, You know how to CPR? Remember Cloud did CPR on little girl back then?" Tifa sniffs from being sobbing then nods.
"Yes, I remember. I'll try to do CPR on him." Tifa starts to feel that she is very nervous and is about to "Kiss" on General Sephiroth's lip! She snaps herself out of it and put her lip on Sephiroth's lip to blow the air into his mouth. Then she realizes that Sephiroth has four fangs; no wonder that he almost never smile with teeth!
"Breathe, Valeria!" Tifa inhale heavily then blow into Sephiroth's mouth. Cid lit his cigarette up and folded his arms.
"Well, I'm starting to miss him. Valeria, Goddammit, Wake the fuck up!" Cid cries out. Tifa gives another air into Sephiroth's mouth.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sephiroth jumps into lifestream and float down. He just floats low to below and realizes the shines from down there. He tries to swim down there but he notices a rope float up so he decides to take it and pull himself down to a spot. He realizes the Masamune is stuck in the sand. He reaches out his hand as he eyes on the Masamune. The Masamune begins to blur then shiny gets brighter.
Huh? What the hell…?
He blinks in disbelief and thought that he was only imagining. The shiny becomes shape of hand reach out from the Masamune. He realizes the hand belongs to Tifa! He decides to reach his hand to Tifa's hand then her hand pulls him into the Masamune. Shiny becomes too bright along with blur. Sephiroth closes his eyes and let his breathe out.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tifa gives a final air into Sephiroth's mouth. Suddenly, he coughs and gasps for air. Tifa gasps and starts crying because she is so glad that Valeria is alive! Sephiroth vomits the lifestream out and coughs at same time. Tifa picks Sephiroth's head to her lap and looks over him. Sephiroth breathe heavily and shivers from too cold. Actually, Lifestream was so freeze!
"Damn, Valeria, you scared the shit out of us! We thought were going to lose you. Actually, I thought you would never pay me 500 Gil!" Cid laughs. Sephiroth gives Cid a deathly glare.
"Cid! Grow up! Valeria, what happened?" Tifa looks over Sephiroth as she still holds his head on her lap.
"The Masamune is actually at Mt. Nibel Reactor. It is…(Cough) in that lifestream below where the cloned fell down. The Lifestream just…(Cough) showed me where it lies at." Sephiroth says as he rubs his chest. "My lungs feels like burned. (Cough) It's hurt."
"Are you saying that the Masamune the cloned used was fake? The True Masamune was at Mt. Nibel Reactor whole time?" Tifa boggles her head as confused.
"Damn, that Masamune looked very real. So, we should go to Mt. Nibel Reactor now?" Cid smirks. Sephiroth grunts as he stand up then he shook his head.
"No. Could this wait? I just…(Cough) can't go back there. I can't stand that place." He says as he looks down.
"Is something wrong?" Tifa says as she starts to worry. Sephiroth shook his head and smile.
"Something in the past that I cannot forget. I just can't go back there until time is right." He says as he clears his throat, "Could we go back to home? Well, any place is fine, actually."
"All right, Dragon boy, lets go back to the Highwind." Cid smirks as he puffs a cigarette. They walk back to Highwind and takes off from the Crater to Kalm town. Tifa starts to wonder what thing within Sephiroth's could hurt that badly. Something he was afraid of? Have he been to Nibelheim before he brought Zack and Cloud? Her mind begins fills up unsolved questions about Sephiroth's Past.
... To be continued. Chapter 12 coming up!