well, gang, it was a great sense of relief and accomplishment that i got this chapter finished at 7:50 CST last night. (that's central standard time, for those who don't know. i'm from kansas and all). its been a real bear to get done, mostly because i lost the origonal draft for chapters 4-6. this would have all been up a looooong time ago if that hadn't happened, because this was all done back in like, february or something like that. chapters 7-10 should be up pretty quickly, as the origonal draft for those is finished, all i have to do is type them. yay!

be warned--the ending segments for the game have been completely re-written. i took the words artistic liberty to heart here. i always thought that scene where they were floating with Sephy before the final boss fights was so incredibly STUPID that i redid it. i like it much better in my story. hope you do too!

enjoy, and reveiw as appropriate if you would! TTYL
eerian

DISCLAIMER: all i own is the concept behind this fic. no characters, settings, or anything else. not making money either.


Chapter 6

Sometime during their fall after defeating JENOVA, Vincent whited out. He was brought back to consciousness by Tifa's groan of pain. A sentiment he could whole heartedly agree with, thanks to the throbbing in his head.

"Tifa?" Cloud asked. "Are you all right?"

Tifa's reply was preempted by Yuffie's wail of, "Oh my God! My head's gonna explode!"

Vincent looked to his left to see the ninja hanging in mid-air, head in hands. Good. She's all right.

"Yuffie?" Cloud asked. "Is everyone here?"

"I believe so," Nanaki replied, from across the circle they were in.

"But where the fuck is here?" Cid asked.

An excellent question. Chaos put in. I've never seen anyplace quite like this before.

Neither have I. Vincent looked at their surroundings with some trepidation.

The group was suspended in mid-air, the floor of the cavern they were now in nowhere in sight. There were a few boulders suspended in the greenish-white misted air, but that was all. With no ground to stand on, any combat they encountered would be difficult—only he and Barret would be at their full fighting capacity.

As he thought that, Sephiroth appeared—and Vincent felt his blood chill. The general would have no problems fighting without his feet on the ground.

Sephiroth laughed maniacally, almost as if he could sense the gunslinger's thoughts.

Cloud scowled and drew his sword. "Sephiroth!"

The white-haired general looked at the blond swordsman and waved his hand dismissively. "You cannot possibly stop me."

"We can, Sephiroth. And we will," Cloud told him.

Sephiroth doubled over laughing, as if Cloud's statement was the funniest joke he'd ever heard. "You are more of a fool now than you were when you served in Shinra's army! Have you learned nothing?" He spread his arms wide and looked skyward. "I am a god!"

Before he could consciously register what he was doing, Vincent leveled Death Penalty at Lucrecia's son and fired. "Here ends my penance," he whispered as the bullet left the muzzle.

Slowly, the general looked at his left shoulder, where the bullet had hit. He raised his hand to the wound, touching it with gloved fingers. Lifting those fingers to his eyes, his expression shifted from shock to anger.

Sephiroth lifted blazing eyes to Vincent. "You would dare?"

Vincent looked back at Sephiroth, impassive. Inwardly, his emotions were raging—his flight instinct was telling him to run like the wind. He did nothing, however, except meet Sephiroth's gaze down the barrel of his rifle.

"You. Will. Die." Sephiroth told him.

Faintly, Vincent heard Yuffie's startled gasp as Sephiroth began to transform.


To say that Sephiroth's new form was frightening would have been to understate the situation. To say that it was absolutely terrifying would be much more appropriate.

He'd become an oddly segmented beast, gargantuan and grotesque. He looked almost inscetoid with his multiple segments and his arms that ended in feathery, cilia-like extensions. He no longer had true hands, and his face wasn't entirely recognizable as his own.

Since Sephiroth's transformation had been so sudden, Yuffie was not prepared to find herself falling to a rocky floor. She was, in fact, still staring at him in horror as she fell, landing on her butt with a tooth jarring thump.

"Ow! Hey! Where'd the ground come from?"

"Doesn't matter," Cloud replied. Then he started shouting orders. "Barret, Cid, take the right. Nanaki, Vincent, Yuffie, left. Tifa, Reeve, we'll take him head on."

The ninja was silently glad that he'd broken up the teams like that. She wouldn't' have to worry about what was happing to Vincent while he was right next to her. And he was good at covering her back while she recovered from some of her stronger attacks. She was still scared spitless, but at least she knew Vincent would be there for her.

As Yuffie dashed to Sephiroth's left side, she heard Barret's machine gun fire, signaling the true start of the fight. She tossed Conformer at Sephiroth's head, and was disappointed when he deflected the brunt of the attack with one feathery arm.

After Yuffie's initial attack, she Vincent and Nanaki quickly fell into an attack pattern that, combined with the slightly more random attacks of the others, Sephiroth seemed to have trouble anticipating.

First, Nanaki would either cast a spell or attack physically. If he'd attacked, Vincent would shoot, covering his retreat. If he'd cast, Vincent would summon. Yuffie alternated between attacking and healing. It was a system that worked well, and kept them all on their feet.

The fight dragged on for almost ten minutes before Yuffie realized why their attacks kept taking Sephiroth by surprise. The general wasn't even fighting any team except Cloud's. He only bothered with the other teams when they launched a devastating attack on him. This realization gave her a renewed strength—if they could take out Sephiroth while he was distracted by Cloud, then everything would finally be over.

"Red, Vincent! We need to hit him as hard as we can while he's distracted with Cloud!" she shouted to her companions.

"What do you suggest?" Vincent asked as Nanaki cast a Fire spell on Sephiroth.

"Well, you slam him with Ultima or Bahamut Zero. Nanaki hits him with that Cosmo Memory I know he's been saving up." She tossed Conformer at Sephiroth, clipping him in the shoulder. "And I'll hit him with All Creation. Then we can go from there."

"It is as good a plan as any," Nanaki agreed. "If we can drop his defenses, the others may be able to defeat him."

"Indeed." Vincent held his arms out from his sides. "Bahamut Zero, come forth!"

Although they never saw the giant dragon during the summoning, his Tetra Flare attack hit Sephiroth dead on. Red XIII immediately followed the attack with Cosmo Memory before the general could recover. As the glow faded from Red's attack, Yuffie could see that Sephiroth had turned his head and was looking directly at them. Before he could counter attack, she took a deep breath and released All Creation.

As always, she was astounded by the energy coursing through her body as she released the attack. She felt like she could do anything, be anything. She could understand how Sephiroth could have a god complex—she certainly felt like one now.

And then, the power left her and slammed into Sephiroth. He recoiled a bit, as if in pain, then launched a fallen angel attack at them. Through her haze of pain, Yuffie could hear Cid, and then Barret, following their lead and attacking Sephiroth with Dragon Dive and Catastrophe. Sephiroth took time to fling a fire spell at Yuffie before turning to the other group.

The last thing she was aware of before she fell unconscious was Vincent's voice.

"Yuffie! Hold on."


Vincent wasn't precisely worried about Yuffie's condition when she fell. He was actually more worried about his—or Nanaki's ability to get to her in their own weakened states. She wasn't dead yet, but he knew she would be without some quick intervention.

As he was pulling out a phoenix down from one of his pockets, the cavern they were in was engulfed in a bright, white light. He was briefly blinded, and when he could see again, Sephiroth was gone.

And so were Cloud, Tifa and Cait Sith.

"Where are they?" Nanaki asked.

"How the hell are we supposed to know?" Cid replied as he and Barret came around from their side of the cavern.

Vincent threw the phoenix down on Yuffie, ignoring the bickering that broke out between Cid, Barret and Nanaki. They always fought when they were stressed or worried, and Vincent had more important things on his mind than their fight.

Please, be all right, Yuffie…

He was immensely relieved when Yuffie opened her eyes and asked, "Did we get 'im, Vinnie?"

Barret answered for him. "Dunno, kid. He's gone, but so's Cloud, Tifa and the damn cat."

"Well, then, what do we do?" She accepted the hand Vincent extended to her and got to her feet.

"I say we get the fuck outta here," Cid replied. "We don't know where they are, and it ain't safe to stay here."

As if to emphasized Cid's words, the ground below their feet shuddered.

"As much as I would like to look for the others," Nanaki added, "I must agree with Cid. There is no point in staying here at risk to our own lives when we do not know where to begin searching."

Vincent took Yuffie's hand and began pulling her to the cavern wall. "Come. We climb. If we get high enough, Cid can call the Highwind to pick us up."

Carefully, clinging tightly to the walls when tremors threatened to shake them off, the diminished party began to climb.


Vincent had never been so glad to see daylight as he was when they emerged into it from the depths of the Northern Crater. Their ascent had been almost as torturous—though much faster—as their descent. Though they were never attacked, they were nearly trampled on several occasions by monsters stampeding in fear. The tremors and earthquakes had dropped rocks on them and tried to throw them from cliff walls and ledges. They'd had to make their way over, or around, collapsed sections of the caves—often having to venture into unexplored territory as a result.

But, somehow, they'd managed to all survive and make their way back outside. Relieved, he used his claw to hold himself steady while Cid used his PHS to call the Highwind.

"We're gonna make it, right, Vincent?" Yuffie asked nervously.

"We are," Vincent replied. We must. We've come to far not to.

Remember that the gods are never fair, Vincent, Chaos told him.

I don't care. We are going to make it.

"Hurry up everybody!" Cid shouted at them as he began running for the crater lip. "Those losers in the Highwind are gonna meet us up there!"

As everyone broke into a run, Cloud's voice rang out from behind them. "Faster, guys! The crater's collapsing behind us!"

Vincent didn't know where the swordsman had come from, but the increasing earthquakes told him that Cloud spoke true. Looking over to make sure Yuffie was still there, he ran for the emerging form of the Highwind.