THE RETURN OF EVIL:
CHAPTER FOUR
"Vincent, look, I found a pretty little white dandelion!" Cloud exclaimed as he cupper the flower in his hands and started to roll around in the mud with it. It was raining horridly, and when lighting ripped through the dark sky Vincent's intimidating silhouette appeared to the blond before it vanished. "Vincent, Vincent, woo-hoo!" Cloud said as he got up and followed after his companion. He slipped the dandelion beside his giant spike and into his hair.
"Hey Vincent, do you really think that was Aeris?" he asked as the other headed for a small cave some yards ahead of them. Vincent was silent the rest of the way there and when they both hunkered down within the deep recesses of the cavern he sighed.
"…I don't see what goal Aeris is trying to achieve, but that is most definitely her. And if she somehow revived Sephiroth…" He crossed his arms and bowed his head in thought. Cloud hugged his knees and rocked on his haunches and cast Vincent a curious glance.
"Well, why would she try to kill us?"
"…We're obviously the only ones who can challenge her. She has already incapacitated the rest of our group, and while we are the only two remaining you were also affected in a small fashion. Your condition frightens me, Cloud."
The blond giggled. "I know!" he squealed, and Vincent shook his head sadly while the storm outside raged on.
"In any case, she already sent one of her servants after us; it could only be a matter of time before another comes. And the one she did send after us she imploded…"
"Right! …Hey Vincent?"
"…What is it?"
"I'm hungry."
"Then go fetch something," Vincent responded, but then he seemed to reconsider and said, "No, wait, I should go with you. You're too much of a liability to allow going alone." They stood and departed into the forest to search for food for Cloud.
---
Meanwhile, Tifa was hot on their heels, trudging down the muddy path and scanning their footprints. Her legs and arms were caked in dirt and grass due to rolling around on the ground to find Cloud's scent. Her hair cascaded her face in giant, wet slops. She wrinkled her nose and proceeded forward, but something held her back. A twig had hooked itself on her shirt, but she plucked it off easily, and then examined her clothing.
"Oh, it seems I've gotten all wet because of the rain…" she mused. "…All the better for Cloud then… once I find him." She cackled evilly but then her smile vanished suddenly. It returned a second later, albeit more sinister. "You can come out now."
Behind her lightning flashed and the silhouette of a cloaked figure was shown. It chuckled curtly. "Your perception is brilliant," the person stated throatily. "I was quite sure my presence had been masked perfectly."
"It was," Tifa replied as she turned to face her stalker. She tilted her head to the side and stared at him quizzically; half of her face was shrouded in darkness. "However… I hope you know who you're dealing with Mr. Assassin."
"Oh, I think I do," he said. "My client informed me that you were skilled, but that when confronting you I would have no idea what to expect. From what I can tell, however, you are nothing special. I have participated in nine-hundred-ninety-nine duels, and from each one I have walked away the victor. I have faced warriors whose have slaughtered armies and slain giants." The assassin spread out his arms and revealed two blades from beneath his cloak. "I sincerely hope you do not disappoint me as my one-thousandth opponent. When you are writhing on the ground in agony and breathe your final breath, I shall spare you a final goodbye."
"Is that so…?" Tifa bared her teeth in a horrifying grin. "I will give you one chance; kill me if you can."
The man gave a curt nod and removed his blades from his sides and took them into his hands. He dashed at her so fast he was only a blur in the light give off by the lightning, and Tifa did nothing to stop him as he stopped behind her, his weapons stained with crimson. He smirked underneath his hood. "Farewell." He crossed his steel weapons in an 'X'-fashion over his chest. The expected result was for Tifa to fall and die, but instead she began to laugh.
"That was a nice try. You even managed to nick me, so I'll give you props for that, but… you had your chance, and now it's mine," she said coldly. The assassin glanced at his blades and saw that one of them was broken in two, and the other half was nowhere to be found.
"Impossible…" he muttered in disbelief. "How could you be so fast…? This blade made contact!" Tifa chortled and held up her hand. Grasped in it was the rest of his weapon. She turned around and raised it to her lips slowly before running her tongue over the steel briefly, but also sensually. The assassin staggered forward and saw a deep gash in his chest. He touched it gingerly with his fingers.
"It made contact alright…" She laughed and threw it to the side without a care. "Now then…" A bright, malevolent violet nimbus formed around that fist, and her pupils minimized to such a degree that the assassin backed away and fell on his bottom in sheer terror. He tried to scramble away but she stepped towards him with the most insane expression on her face. "Where are you going?" she asked madly while raising the fist. "Aren't you a proud, honorable warrior? You aren't trying to run away are you?" She cackled once more and then…
---
Cloud was crouched down within a patch of muffins, and his arms were stuffed with them. He was busily munching on one, disregarding the rain and wind and thunder. "These are awesome, Vincent, you should have one!"
His pale comrade cast a glance at a rickety, old wooden sign that was going to fly off if the winds picked up. On it in red, faded letters was: don't eat the muffins cuz there poisonus?
It was hardly a reliable message, but better safe than sorry. Cloud got to his feet and offered one of the muffins to Vincent, waving it around in his face. "Come on, Vinnie, you know you want to! They're so good! Just one, please, I can't eat all of them by myself."
"Then don't," Vincent said when a fell wind blew by. His brow furrowed. "Cloud, do you feel that?"
The spiky-haired blond blinked. "Feel what?"
Out of nowhere a purple flash blinded them. "METEOR STRIKE!" someone cried shrilly from somewhere not too far off in the forest. Where the purple flash was the trees were blown apart in a fantastic explosion that leveled the entire quadrant of the forest. Luckily, Cloud and Vincent had trekked quite a good distance to find the muffin patch so their area was, for the most part, not damaged all that much.
A muffin fell from Cloud's arms. Vincent's expression was stony. "We should move on, and quickly."
"But… but…" Cloud whimpered frightfully. Vincent took his arm and ran off into the darkness.
---
"Empress, shouldn't we have displayed our citadel's power? Wasn't that the initial plan?" the moogle named Nicholas inquired as he idled beside his mistress's desk in the reception hall. Aeris was peering out the grand glass window that made up her the entire back wall of the hall. She frowned.
"Nicholas, when your inauguration to become the next ruler of the planet is nigh, do you destroy a good quarter of it? Of course not. What purpose would it serve?"
"I don't mean to be rude, Empress, but by displaying your awesome power the people would be awestruck and horrified. They would acknowledge your greatness!"
Aeris seemed to contemplate this, but shook her head. "No, Nicholas. The cannon is for silencing any rebellion. And besides, who can possibly stop me?"
---
Sephiroth poked his head out of the chamber tentatively and took a look around. He was at the far end of a gigantic room, and lining the walls was an enormous, emerald stairwell. Against the walls were dozens of doors and branching corridors, but what really amazed Sephiroth was the legions of moogles that were marching around. There must've been hundreds of them, and each group was performing a specific task.
"…What are they?" Sephiroth murmured as he looked back at the unconscious one that was lying back in his cell. "I'll never find that damned Cetra if they spot me. There has to be a way to blend in somehow…" He peeked around and spotted a moogle entering a restroom nearby. Hanging off the door was a sign with an illustration of a moogle on it. Sephiroth noted there was only one. 'They must be intersexual or something…' he thought before making his way stealthily towards the restroom and slipping inside.
Fortunately, whatever moogles that were present were both in the stalls. He ran to the one at the end of the row and went inside when the other two left their respective stalls and began to clean up at the sinks.
"It's been a busy day, Jim, kupo," one of them said. The other one nodded while tapping his pom-pom.
"I just want to go home and kupo, you hear what I'm saying, kupo?"
"Definitely, kupo."
Sephiroth puked in his throat.
"Hey, what do you think Empress Aerith is going to do with the secret-weapon-we're-not-supposed-to-talk-about-because-it's-really-really-secret?"
"Gee, I don't know kupo. It's something dangerous, I think, kupo."
"Yeah, kupo."
Sephiroth steadily left the stall and approached them. "Secret weapon? What are you two talking about?" The moogles looked at him and shrugged.
"We don't know, kupo. Empress Aerith hardly says anything about, but supposedly it concerns that Siphon-y guy, kupo."
"Yeah, kupo."
There was a pause. "Hey, aren't you-," Sephiroth subdued them quickly with two chops of his hand. He looked the two of them over and sighed.
"Err, they're not exactly costumes…"
When Sephiroth stepped out of the restroom a pom-pom was taped to his head and one of the moogles was being held up in front of his face in an attempt to hide it. The rest of his body was perfectly visible, however. He received several looks from the moogles that passed by him, but that was all they were: looks. He waved at a few by moving the unconscious moogle's arm wildly and imitating their squeaky voices.
In fact, one of the ones that saw him hailed him and greeted, "'Ello there, Jim!" Sephiroth chuckled nervously.
"Hi, uh, Bob!"
"Ah, ther' ye go ag'n, Jim! It's Bonnie!"
"Oh, right! Bonnie!" He waved her—it?—off and kept on going for the enormous set of double-doors that were at the end of the hall. Miraculously, he reached it without receiving any other attention. He looked back at the hall, shrugged, and entered the next room. At the end of this room he saw her.
"I've found you at last, Cetra!" Sephiroth exclaimed as he tore his makeshift disguise off and discarded it. Aeris spun around in her chair and her moogle servant, Nicholas, turned with her.
"Oh, it's just you Sephiroth. Did you like what you saw of my citadel? Impressive, is it not?"
The silver-haired warrior half-shrugged. "I find it to be something of an acquired taste. Anyway, we have some business to take care of."
"Empress-," Nicholas tried to say, but she shushed him.
"You speak true, but what business could a tool have with its user?"
"What was that?" Sephiroth snapped. "I don't like being use, Cetra, and if you want to live just a little longer you'd best quiet down, although I have to thank you for reviving me. I can use this castle to inflict the wound on the planet Meteor could not, and my plans can proceed!"
Aeris smugly laughed at this, and Sephiroth glared at her hatefully. She crossed her hands before her chin and propped her elbows on the desk. "You won't get that chance. I revived you for the sole purpose of your JENOVA cells and the fact that you are perhaps the most powerful warrior that exists. You are also a guinea pig for a certain project of mine…"
"What do you mean by that?" he snarled, and Aeris snapped her fingers. Moogles crowded into the room from out-of-nowhere and suddenly he was surrounded by an army of them. The Empress stood and removed from underneath the desk a rather long katana and then threw it to him. Sephiroth caught it swiftly and the sheath was off in an instant. He narrowed his eyes at the woman. "What are you doing?"
"This is just the preliminary test, Sephie. Show me you are worthy of being my test subject by defeating them all!" She sat back down and Nicholas retreated to her side. Sephiroth chuckled and reasserted his grip on the Masamune.
"A test? Alright, then, Cetra, I'll play your game for now…" The moogles roared and pounced on him.
---
"How odd…" Cid murmured to himself as Barret began sipping his new cup of tea. There was a bar fight in one of the corners of the tavern and Red XIII was still incapacitated on the floor in a pool of alcohol and broken glasses.
"Who dat?" he demanded sheepishly suddenly before his head fell back and started snoring again. Cid and Barret looked at him and then back at the television screen.
"I say, Cid, don't you think Cloud and the others are in danger?"
"Oh no, Tifa was just in here looking for him. I don't see the danger."
"Still, didn't you notice something peculiar about Tifa? She seemed incredibly out-of-character…"
"We do as well, and I don't see any bloody difference!"
"Aye! Cheers!" They tapped their glasses together, finished their tea in one gulp, and then laughed heartily. As they were ordering another round someone barged into the tavern in a flurry of drunken movements and incomprehensible cries. It turned out to be Yuffie, and she was holding a cleaver in one of her hands. "Yuffie, what, pray tell, are you doing?"
The ninja girl spun around and wedged the cleaver into the wooden bar. "I don't know what the hell I'm doing, Barret, just give me ALL YOUR MATERIA! ALL YOUR MATERIA ARE BELONG TO ME!" She released the cleaver and then, without even realizing what she was doing, she sliced Cid's left pinkie off with it. The pilot howled and clutched his diminished hand in his other. Blood spilt out from the wound and Yuffie laughed crazily. "YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE, MAKE YOUR TIME!" she screamed when Red XIII sprang up.
"Who'd dun it?" he slurred when his nuzzle got caught in Yuffie's short shorts. She whipped around with dazzling speed and slapped him across the face, all the while raving madly as foam formed around the corner of her mouth. She ripped Barret's gun-arm off and then leaped on Red XIII, proceeding to beat him senseless with it. He was sputtering blood when the bartender threw a blender and nailed her right in the back of the skull. Yuffie was out in seconds.
Cid was still holding his wounded hand when he and Barret stepped over her to inspect the situation. Barret had stuck a wooden peg in the place of his gun, and said, "This is quite a bit less violent."
Cid nudged at Yuffie with the toe of his boot then sat back down at the bar. "What a day… Well, you 'ol chap would you like another glass?"
"Certainly!" Barret answered as he took his place beside Cid and waved his wooden peg around.
---
The ruins of Midgar were strangely beautiful this early morning. The sun was rising over the horizon and Empress Aerith's floating castle was still just as intimidating as the evening before. There were a few hobos here and there, but Reno and Rude weren't particularly concerned about them. They were too busy scavenging through the trash.
"Hey, Rude, what did Tseng tell us to find? I forgot," Reno said as he rummaged around a pile of rubble. Rude was admiring an antique lamp behind him. "Rude!"
"Hmm?" His silent partner tucked the lamp in the crook of his arm and said, "…We're supposed to gather anything that may assist Mr. Shinra."
"And he couldn't have been any more specific, right?" The redhead faced Rude, who held up the lamp. "Eh, screw the lamp, Rude," he said while hitting it out of his hand. It crashed into numerous pieces. Rude whimpered at this and wiped away at something under his eye with his finger. Reno sighed. "Hey, don't cry. I didn't mean it. We can find you another lamp."
The two Turks were about to move on to a different area when they were hailed from afar. "Reno, Rude, woo-hoo!"
They looked up and saw Cloud and Vincent standing on a mound of rock some ways off. The blond was waving at them very energetically; Vincent was shading his face with his claw in humiliation. Cloud pranced down to them and Vincent followed reluctantly.
"What… What are you doing here?" Reno questioned, and Cloud folded his arms across his chest in thought.
"Uh, well, we've been traveling through the forest all night, and look where we ended up: Midgar! Except it's really wasted because of Meteor…"
"Why were you traveling, anyway?" Reno asked him.
"We're being chased," Vincent responded for Cloud as he approached them. "Are you aware of Empress Aerith? She proclaimed herself ruler of the planet just yesterday."
"Oh yeah," the Turk said, gesturing at the black castle without much care. "Rufus isn't sure how to handle that exactly, but I'd rather just let you guys deal with it; you have a knack of saving the world and all that…"
"Rufus?" Cloud asked while breaking into a fit of giggles. "Didn't he die?"
Reno gasped and looked around. "…Just, just forget I said anything, 'kay?"
"'Kay!" Cloud exclaimed, but Vincent pushed him aside.
"Regardless of whether or not Rufus is alive, you should be making an effort to try and stop Aerith. We could use your help; the rest of our team is unavailable."
"Nah, that's alright. I'm not sure how she's alive but I don't really care. Did you find that lamp, Rude?" The bald man shook his head and went back to searching. "Well, you just keep on looking!" He looked back at Vincent. "Besides, why are you so intent on stopping her anyway?"
Vincent sighed. "She's sent assailants."
"Oh, I see…" Reno shrugged. "Eh, what the hell? You guys can come with us and I'll see what Tseng decide on."
Before another word could be said, though, the air chilled. The warmth of the sun was suddenly gone, and it was replaced by a horrible emptiness that filled each and every one of them. "Cloud! At last, I have found you!"
The group turned and saw Tifa, standing with her hands on her hips over the mound Cloud and Vincent had previously occupied. She smirked sadistically at them. Cloud let out a very high-pitched whine.
To be continued…
A/N: (DISCLAIMER) I do not own 'Final Fantasy' or any related matter, nor do I make any profit off of this work. By the way, does anyone have a suggestion for a better title?