Disclaimer: I do not own any videogame characters.
War of the Warriors: Crystals of the Sky
Chapter 5: A New Ally
Auron watched as Sephiroth crept closer and closer to him. The masamune began to rise in Sephiroth's hand. Sephiroth's glowing green eyes glared an icy look of death as they stared straight at Auron. Auron tried to get into a defensive position but was overwhelmed with pain from his wounds. Auron wouldn't go down without a fight but he knew that this could very well be his last battle. However, his own death was not what Auron was really afraid of. Auron knew that after Sephiroth finished him off, he would probably kill Talim and Chun-Li as well. Both of them were still unconscious and could not defend themselves. Even Auron could barely defend himself, but he still had to try.
Sephiroth was now within striking distance of Auron and effortlessly swung his sword. The attack was so slow that, despite his injuries, Auron could block it with relative ease. Sephiroth followed the slow attack with a quicker one that gave a small cut on Auron's arm. Then, Sephiroth stared at Auron with an evil smirk on his face. Auron knew that Sephiroth was toying with him and had been toying with him during the entire battle. It was like a cat toying with a mouse before killing it. In this case, Sephiroth was the cat and Auron was the mouse.
Suddenly, Sephiroth's evil smirk faded and was replaced with a much more serious expression. Sephiroth had grown tired of playing with Auron and had decided to end this once and for all. Sephiroth changed his stance and adjusted his masamune. Auron noticed the change in stance and prepared to make one last stand. 'This is it', thought Auron to himself as he took in what he thought would be his last moments. Sephiroth glared at Auron again as he was about to unleash the finishing blow; yet, he stopped when he heard a voice call out "Sephiroth!"
Both Auron and Sephiroth turned around at the sound of the voice to see a man with spiky, blonde hair with a ridiculously large sword on his back. The blonde-haired man suddenly grabbed his sword and pointed it directly at Sephiroth. Sephiroth had an evil smirk on his face again as he said, "So, we meet again, Cloud." "Sephiroth, you will pay for everything you've done!" shouted Cloud. Suddenly, Cloud and Sephiroth charged at each other. Cloud swung at Sephiroth with all of his might but Sephiroth nimbly dodged the attack. Then, Sephiroth slashed at Cloud, but his attack was blocked by Cloud's sword.
Meanwhile, Auron decided to take advantage of Sephiroth and Cloud's fight. Reaching into his pocket, Auron pulled out a hi-potion and healed himself. He then watched the fight between Cloud and Sephiroth unfold before him. Cloud was holding his own against Sephiroth, using his massive sword as shield to block Sephiroth's strikes. However, that same sword slowed Cloud down and gave Sephiroth the opportunity to dodge Cloud's attacks. 'That young man, Cloud, seems to be talented, but Sephiroth seems to have the advantage in experience and speed', thought Auron. At the swords of Cloud and Sephiroth continued to clash with each other, Auron decided to think of a plan to help Cloud. 'At least Sephiroth is distracted', thought Auron as he slowly walked towards Chun-Li. Once he reached Chun-Li, he took out a phoenix-down and revived her.
"What happened?" asked Chun-Li, who was still weak and groggy after being revived. Auron said nothing but stared at her, and then he switched his gaze to the two fighting men. Chun-Li stared at what Auron was looking at and gasped. "What going on? Who's that blond-haired man fighting Sephiroth?" asked Chun-Li. "Well," explained Auron, "the blond-haired man apparently knows Sephiroth somehow. I overheard Sephiroth call him Cloud. If it wasn't for him, we would all be dead by now." "Shouldn't we help him?" asked Chun-Li. "Yes," said Auron, "but we need to wait for the right moment first. If we catch Sephiroth off guard, we might have a chance to beat him."
Chun-Li nodded in agreement as they began to approach Talim, who was still unconscious. Chun-Li and Auron walked slowly towards Talim, careful not to attract the attention of Sephiroth. Fortunately, Sephiroth was too busy fighting Cloud to notice, and the sound of clanging swords covered up their foot steps. When Auron and Chun-Li reached Talim, Auron took out another phoenix-down and revived her. Talim opened her eyes and was about to speak when Auron motioned her to keep quiet. Then, Auron, Talim, and Chun-Li watched the battle between Cloud and Sephiroth while looking for an opportunity to catch Sephiroth off guard.
Cloud and Sephiroth had been fighting each other for quite some time now, and it was beginning to take its toll on them. Both were beginning to get tired but neither of them wanted to give up. They continued to swing their swords and dodge and guard each other's attacks. Suddenly, Cloud jumped up to slash Sephiroth horizontally, but Sephiroth blocked the attack and held his sword in a way that it applied pressure to Cloud's sword. As the pressure built up, Cloud began to loose his grip on his sword until it suddenly flew out of his hands and landed a few feet behind him. Before Cloud could react he felt Sephiroth's sword resting near his neck. "Looks like I won, Cloud", said Sephiroth with an evil smirk on his face. Sephiroth was about to go for the kill when he thought he heard footsteps behind him. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain from his back and turned around to see Auron, Chun-Li, and Talim behind him. 'How did they recover so quickly?' thought Sephiroth, who realized that one of them had wounded him. Sephiroth looked back at Cloud who had used the distraction to his advantage and regained his sword. Then, Auron, Chun-Li, Talim, and Cloud began to close in on Sephiroth.
'This could be a problem', thought Sephiroth as the four other warriors closed in on him. 'I probably could take on all four of them,' thought Sephiroth, 'but this wound on my back isn't helping me. Oh well, I already got what I came for.' Sephiroth took out a crystal and used it to create a bright light that instantly blinded the others. Then he took out another crystal and used the two crystals to create a portal to make his escape. By the time Auron, Cloud, and the others regained their sight, Sephiroth and the portal he stepped into had both disappeared.
"Darn it!" shouted Cloud as he tried to regain his sight. As Cloud, Auron, Talim, and Chun-Li regained their sight, they all realized that Sephiroth was gone. "Sephiroth, you coward! I will find you, and you won't escape next time", shouted Cloud. As Cloud continued to shout, Chun-Li realized she no longer had the crystal that she carried. "What happened to my crystal?", asked Chun-Li. "You dropped it and Sephiroth took it", answered Auron. "Oh no! That means Sephiroth has three crystals", said Talim. "Four", corrected Auron. "Excuse me, but what are you talking about? What are the crystals?" asked Cloud, who had overheard the conversation. "Well," explained Auron, "these crystals fell from the sky several days ago and they each contain a strange power within them. We are trying to gather them up before someone like Sephiroth gets a hold of them and unleashes chaos upon the world." "Yes," said Talim, "but so far we are not doing a very good job. We just found three of them, only for them all to be stolen by Sephiroth." Suddenly, memories of her village and her uncle flooded back to Talim, and she could not stop a tear from falling down her cheek.
After she dried the tears from her eyes, Talim turned back to Cloud and asked, "So, who are you?" "My name is Cloud Strife", answered Cloud. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Cloud. My name is Talim, that woman over there is Chun-Li, and that man over there is Auron", replied Talim. "So tell me, Cloud. How do you know Sephiroth?" asked Auron. "Let's just say that he took everything that I loved away from me and leave it at that", said Cloud, who obviously didn't want to talk about it. Auron just nodded his head and said nothing more.
"Well, what do we do now?" asked Chun-Li. "Before we leave, we should bury the ones who were guarding this place", said Talim with a somber look on her face. Everyone agreed and, with Cloud using his sword as a shovel, they buried the guards. "Well, perhaps we should try to find the rest of the crystals", said Auron, after they laid the guards to rest. "How do we find the rest of crystals?" asked Chun-Li. "Well," suggested Talim, "I could try to use my uncle's crystal ball to locate the crystals. I just hope it wasn't burned in the fire." "Fire?" asked Cloud. "Yes, my village was burned down in a fire caused by Sephiroth", explained Talim. 'That sounds like when he burned down my hometown', thought Cloud to himself. "Mr. Cloud, would you please come to my village and help us bury the villagers", asked Talim. Cloud really didn't want to go, but when he looked into Talim's eyes, he couldn't refuse and agreed to go with them. Everybody paid their last respects to the fallen guards, and they left the ruins and headed towards Talim's village.
A short time later, they arrived at what was left of Talim's village. The fire had burnt itself out and not a single building was left standing. All that was left was ash and rubble. They searched the remains of the village and gathered what few bodies they could fine. Talim wondered why so many villagers had disappeared and thought, 'Maybe some of the villagers managed to escape. Then again, their bodies may have been incinerated by the fire.' Talim hoped that the former was true instead of the latter; yet, if the former were true the villagers would have probably return by now. Since Auron, Talim, Chun-Li, and Cloud were the only ones in the village, the hope they had about villagers managing to escape was beginning to fade. As they continued to search for bodies, they eventually came to the body of the slain village chief. Although Talim had accepted the fact that her uncle was dead, it still didn't make it any easier to see him lifeless. Still, she held back her tears and turned to Auron to ask if they could bury her uncle first. Auron nodded his head in agreement and gently rested his hand on Talim's shoulder to comfort her. Then Cloud took his sword and used it as a shovel to dig a grave for the village chief. After the chief was given a proper burial, Cloud made graves for the few villagers he could find.
When the dead were all buried, Talim stood by her uncle's grave for several minutes. She could no longer hold back her tears and allowed them to roll down her cheek and drop to the ground. As Chun-Li watched Talim, she began to remember memories from her past. 'This reminds me of when my father was killed', thought Chun-Li.
After mourning for her uncle, Talim walked towards where her uncle's house was and started searching for the crystal ball. After digging through the rumble for several minutes, Talim finally found the crystal ball. Although it was dirty, it was otherwise unharmed by the fire. Talim held up the crystal ball to the three others and said, "With this crystal ball, I might be able to locate the crystals. Unfortunately, I've never used this before, so I might have to practice for a while." "Well, if it is alright with everybody, I think we should go back to Jonin and stay there until we can get some sort of plan", suggested Chun-Li. Auron replied, "I guess we could do that." "Okay, but let me visit my uncle one last time before we leave", said Talim as she went back to her uncle's grave to pay her last respects.
Meanwhile, Cloud approached Auron and said, "I was wondering if I could travel with you. After all, your group is going after the crystals, right? Since Sephiroth is also looking for the crystals, there is a good chance you will run into him again." Auron took a few minutes to think about Cloud's offer. 'Well, we could use all the help we can get', thought Auron. "Alright, you can come", said Auron.
After paying last respect to her uncle and the rest of the villagers, Talim walked towards the rest of her group who were gathered by the edge of where her village used to be. "Are you ready?" asked Auron. "Yes, I am", answered Talim. Then she looked at Cloud and asked, "Are you coming with us, Mr. Cloud?" "Yes", answered Cloud. "Alright everybody, let's go", said Chun-Li, and the group began to walk towards the town of Jonin.
Characters in this chapter: Auron (FFX), Talim (Soul Caliber 2), Chun-Li (Street fighter series), Cloud (FFVII), Sephiroth (FFVII)
Review Responses
SpartanCommander: Thank for that idea on how to add Spiderman to the story. I think I will add him, but it will still be a while. I'm glad that you are enjoying the story. Also, I am not planning on having too many cliff hangers, just one every couple of chapters.