Chapter 10

The Outcasts

The Forgotten City was slowly being eaten away, water, earth and even the air itself was disintegrating. In the middle of it, standing on the altar, was a single man who seemed not to notice that the world was falling apart around him. As a piece of the ground disappeared inches from his feet it appeared he either hadn't noticed or didn't care.

His jet black hair fell just below his shoulders and his identical black eyes looked out over the water, looking for something.

He wore a long black overcoat that concealed inside a myriad of different blades, most were throwing daggers but two, one sheathed on each hip, were clearly swords. Completely straight blades, as thin as the Masamune but not nearly as oversized, everything else about the man was as dark as his clothing. Though his skin was white and a square belt buckle shone brightly silver, he was most definitely very dark. His expression and overall demeanour added to just how dark he seemed…which was fitting, because even the man himself didn't entirely consider himself a warm and inviting soul.

Another piece of the altar disappeared to nothingness and still the dark man remained indifferent.

Finally, what he had been waiting for came out of the water.

Sephiroth shot out of the water, Masamune Blade in hand, obviously prepared to fight Cloud and his allies. Instead he found only the single dark-clad man staring back at him. Sephiroth noted how the city was decaying but ignored it as he landed on the altar.

"I was wondering when you were going to be finished swimming," the dark man said gruffly, though the comment sounded amiable enough it seemed nothing could come from the man's mouth in any way friendly.

"Who are you?" asked Sephiroth.

"Well, my story's a little less complicated than yours, let's just say you and I have same but different goals," the dark man said, "my name is Feardorcha."

Sephiroth made no response.

"I know what you're thinking," Feardorcha said, "I thought I had a long and hard to remember name."

Again, nothing from Sephiroth.

"For future reference most people just call me Fear," the dark man said, "catchy, no?"

"What do you want?" asked Sephiroth.

"You actually, I've come to recruit you," Fear said, "my kind aren't too fond of you in particular, but with the Black Materia, which I can get for you, I can see your worth."

"Mother serves no one," Sephiroth replied. "She will rule this planet."

Fear crossed his arms, "Is that a no?"

"You will serve me once mother and I rule this planet," Sephiroth said.

"This planet," Fear said, "well, I'm afraid you set your sights far too low for me."

Sephiroth looked confused by the comment.

"I don't just want this planet…in fact this planet isn't going to exist for much longer," Fear continued, "no, I want the entire universe, and every universe that exists within existence itself."

"Impossible," Sephiroth replied.

"Oh, you old-fashioned bad guys," Fear said shaking his head, "you all think the world will revolve around you. Once you realize that you can revolve around the world, then you get the real power. You think injuring a planet and taking its energy is a master plan? That's small fish, my friend; I want every planet that ever existed in any dimension."

"If this is possible, then mother and I will find a way to do so," Sephiroth said.

"I already have, Jenova is a dull weapon, join me and you'll get everything you really want," Fear said, "but hurry because the world is coming to an end."

"Mother serves no one," Sephiroth said again.

"Very well," Fear said and then looked off to his left, "no luck, kill him for what he did to our fellow Cetra and let's get out of here before we're swallowed by the paradox."

Behind Sephiroth another person in dark clothing appeared literally from nowhere, this one was female. She had the same dark eyes and had long black hair that ran down to the middle of her back. The woman wore almost identical clothing to Fear as well. She held a sword that looked to be similar to the dual weapons Fear had sheathed, except she only carried one where he had two.

"Quickly Charna, we have less than forty seconds before this entire place is no more," Fear said.

Sephiroth had time to look over his shoulder before Charna drove her sword into his back and impaled him, the blade sticking well out of his chest.

The attractive woman put her mouth close to Sephiroth's ear, "Hurts, doesn't it?"

"Taste of your own medicine, my friend, maybe in other worlds you won't be such a backstabber," Fear said, "I think if I wasn't a Cetra and then an ex-guardian my calling definitely would have been in stand-up comedy."

Charna withdrew her sword and let Sephiroth fall unceremoniously to the ground, "Revenge is so much more fun when you get to do it twice."

Fear smiled, "You know eventually we're not going to have to visit different existences and then you can't keep getting payback for his killing the last of our kind."

"We may not be accepted with the other Cetra, but she was our sister," Charna growled. "I can't believe you'd try and get this bastard on our side."

Fear looked around and saw the world was on the very edge of destruction.

"Can we talk about this later, dear, the world is about to end," Fear said grinning.

"I've still got ten seconds, let me stab him one more time," Charna replied.

Fear shrugged, "Well, make it quick, you know I can't live without you."

"You'd live," Charna said as Fear disappeared from sight.

She drove her sword one last time straight into Sephiroth's back before disappearing herself. Not more than a second later what was left of the Forgotten City and the rest of the world in that existence ceased to exist.

§

Cloud felt like he was falling again, like he had been when he and Aeris had first been brought to the past. Then the wind was knocked out of him as he smashed to the ground.

He was on his back looking up at a blue sky, he could tell he was on grass and the sun was shining in his eyes. It was warm and Cloud thought he might be able to fall asleep, whether that was for lack of oxygen or how relaxed he was, he wasn't sure.

"I'm in paradise," Cloud muttered to himself attempting to stand up.

"Not quite, buddy," said the voice of Samael from somewhere.

Cloud wasn't sure of where the man was until Sam grabbed Cloud's hand and helped him to his feet. As soon as Cloud was on his feet Sam grabbed his right arm and growled in what appeared to be pain.

"You okay?" asked Cloud.

"Could be worse," Sam growled with a strained voice, "last time I pulled something like this the pain was in a worse place than my arm if you know what I mean."

"How did you get us out?" asked Cloud.

"I found a loophole, albeit an inconvenient one," Sam said, "whoever was keeping us stuck in the past loosened up long enough for me to get us through. Hell of a ride for me though, you okay?"

"Yeah, the landing hurt a bit, but otherwise fine," Cloud replied looking around, "where's Aeris?"

"I traded her to some homeless guy for a potion, my arm was hurting a lot more a while ago," Sam replied.

Cloud, naturally, didn't believe him.

Sam gave up the joke quickly as usual, "She's still unconscious. Being a Cetra like myself she was affected by the travel. I took the brunt of it but it probably still shook her up."

"Why didn't it affect me?" asked Cloud.

"You aren't Cetra, you were shielded by us," Sam said. "Let's face it, the two most important people here are you and Aeris. I took as much of it for Aeris as I could and she took as much of it as she could for you."

"My shields get the burden, great," Cloud muttered.

"Don't worry, it'll all wear off soon enough," Sam said waving his good arm dismissively. "If I had died, then you should feel guilty."

Cloud just nodded and waked over to where Aeris was sleeping. She was on her back and looked as if she had landed and a crew had come by to set her up like an ornament. Her hands were placed perfectly around the middle of her chest and her legs were positioned together and straight out.

"I know what you're thinking," Sam said coming up behind Cloud, "how the hell does she land like that?"

"Yeah," Cloud muttered.

"No," Sam said smiling and patting Cloud on the shoulder, "that's not what you were thinking, was it?"

Cloud looked back at him and Sam winked, "Any man in his right mind would think the same thing, I know."

Cloud just looked at him.

"How does she keep her teeth that shiny and white, I know, I'll just say what we're all thinking," Sam said smiling, "does she have some kind of special dental stuff, it's really amazing you know?"

"You're an idiot," Cloud stated.

"You'd be surprised how much I hear that," Sam said, "anyways, don't worry, she's all yours. I hit on her all the time but she's not my type."

"Are we still talking about her teeth?" asked Cloud.

"My friend, were we ever really talking about her teeth?" asked Sam almost wisely and then walked off toward a large boulder.

"No, I guess not," Cloud murmured.

Sam jumped atop the large boulder and winced as he put too much pressure on his bad arm. He got to a comfortable sitting position and looked off into the distance.

He rubbed his arm and looked around, "Now, Sammy-boy, where the hell did you take us?"

There were green fields as far as he could see until it all came to a halt at the water. Sam could make out a beach that made the barrier between land and sparkling water.

"Well, at least we're in the same general existence," Sam muttered.

Miles away from Sam's boulder sat Costa Del Sol.

Sam jumped down from that boulder and walked back to Cloud.

"Well, I have a general idea of where we are at least," Sam told Cloud who was still standing at Aeris' side.

"Where's that?" asked Cloud.

"Thankfully in a parallel existence to the one you know," Sam pointed over his shoulder behind him, "this way to Costa Del Sol."

Cloud nodded.

"I was hoping we wouldn't end up in an entirely different existence," Sam said, "I know some people in other dimensions but then it just gets really complicated."

"I imagine it would, seeing as I wouldn't exist there," Cloud replied.

"Not just that, the Cetra themselves don't exist there," Sam said.

Cloud just nodded.

"Nice people though mostly, it's a peaceful place now in most cases," Sam said. "No more psycho Sorceresses, I was there for a marriage too. Rinoa and…some guy…like a snowstorm, snow…storm…snow, it starts with a 's.'"

"Squall?" asked Cloud.

"Snow squall…yeah…that was his name, Squall," Sam said, "strong silent type, kind of like you almost, maybe a little more introverted."

"That place have as many problems as we do here?" asked Cloud.

"Sometimes worse, they had a time travel problem too," Sam said.

"Lucky them," Cloud muttered.

"Yeah, some sorceress from the future was messing with them from a machine that wasn't yet created. Then snowstorm and his buddies had to like do this complicated thing with a chick who can go into the past and then bring someone back…then there was something with time compression, it was pretty crazy," Sam said shaking his head. "Kind of like what we got going on now, but this is looking to be a bit more complicated."

"Well, we know we're still in a world like our own," Cloud said, "but are we in the one we need to be in to stop what we traveled in time to stop?"

"Add a few more 'stops' and that sentence there would be very confusing," Sam muttered, "as for the being in the time we need to be in…I'm not sure, I'm not sure what the right place looks like. Had none of this happened you would have gone directly there, but now that it's all become such a god damn clusterfuck I'm not sure."

"A clusterwhat?" asked Cloud grinning a bit.

Sam waved his hand dismissively, "Expression from a different world, don't worry about it."

"Guess we need to wait for Aeris' guardian to get back to us," Cloud said.

"If we find out who trapped you in the past we find out who created the building," Sam said, "I don't know if you were intending on fighting the guy who started this but at this point it looks like the only solution."

"Whatever it takes," Cloud said nodding.

"He's obviously quite a powerful dude," Sam said, "probably a Cetra."

"Cetra, what makes you say that?" asked Cloud.

"Someone with as much control and knowledge of time and dimensions as this guy has to be a Cetra," Sam said.

"Why would an Ancient want to do this?" asked Cloud.

"There's something of a legend in Cetra lore, most people don't believe it but I know it to be true…or at least at one point in time it was true," Sam said, "wanna hear my theory?"

"Sure," Cloud said.

"Well, there was this group of Cetra that was created long ago; they were outcasts of the general population of the Cetra because they were much more possessive about their control of the Lifestream. Where other Cetra were more than willing to give up and die, returning to the Lifestream, this group decided they didn't want to give up. They wanted to come back and take the planet for the Cetra again. This group steadily grew in support until they were a veritable small army. They were appropriately christened The Outcasts," Sam said.

"Even the Cetra have a dirty little secret," Cloud said.

"Doesn't everybody," Sam said nodding, "in any case, their leader was a very capable and powerful Cetra by the name of Feardorcha. To put it in simple terms he's like an exaggerated Sephiroth. Where good ol' Sephie wanted the planet, Fear wanted the planet and every other planet in every other existence possible. Feardorcha happened to be very adept in the ways of time travel as most Cetra are and took it upon himself and his army of Outcasts to once again restore the glory of the Cetra. Even though they are in no way accepted by the Cetra as allies everything the Outcasts did they did in the name of the Cetra. They never did a thing to harm one of their own kind, really they're what you would call…good bad guys, so to speak."

"So you think these Outcasts are still around and just started up with their domination of all existences thing?" asked Cloud.

"I've got nothing to back it up, of course, but I'd bet money Fear and his girl are behind this. No way they're dead, and they combined know more than enough about time and dimensions to do this kind of thing without trouble."

"His girl?" asked Cloud.

Sam nodded, "Fear's first loyal follower ever: Charna. Girl's almost as hot as Aeris."

"Is she as intelligent as him?" asked Cloud.

"Well, he might have fallen in love with her for her looks, but she has the same know how of time as he does," Sam said, "they say the two were inseparable as children, but were out of touch when they both became guardians."

"Like Aeris' guardian?" asked Cloud.

"Exactly, both he and Charna were trained in the ways of the guardians of the Cetra, so not only are they smart, but they can fight with the best of them," Sam replied. "In any case, when they got older they found each other again. This was about the time Fear started up the idea of the Outcasts. As I said, Charna was his first volunteer, which was also around the time the two fell in love probably."

"You say they have an army behind them?" asked Cloud.

"Well, if they are still around and assuming they still have their followers, yeah, they have an army something equal to that of Shinra probably now."

"That wouldn't be good for us," Cloud said.

Sam shrugged, "Not really, but I've seen you kick some ass before my friend and I must say I think it would take more than a few of those Outcasts to put you down."

Cloud nodded his appreciation, not expecting the compliment.

"You just look inadequate because you're traveling with two powerful Cetra with flashy magic and stuff," Sam said, "in reality I'm not sure you couldn't kill me."

"Who's gonna kill Sam?" asked Aeris sitting up slowly, Cloud and Sam turned to look at her.

"Welcome back," Sam said.

"You alright?" asked Cloud helping her to her feet.

"Fine," she said smiling to Cloud.

"Just filling Cloud in on the Outcasts," Sam said.

Aeris nodded, "Nasty bunch from what I know, why were you talking about them?"

"Sam thinks it's possible they could be involved in all this," Cloud said.

Aeris shrugged and yawned tiredly, "That's always possible I guess, but those guys haven't shown themselves for hundreds of years."

"Well then," Sam said smiling, "I guess they're overdue."

Suddenly the sound of a rifle being cocked interrupted them and they turned to see four Shinra soldiers aiming rifles at them.

Sam alone could have taken every one of the soldiers out but they all quickly lowered their weapons.

"Are you with Shinra?" asked one looking at Cloud.

Cloud noticed he still had the blue Shinra uniform without the helmet.

"Yeah, I got attacked and lost my gun, these two helped me out," Cloud said.

One of the Shinra men nodded, "Alright, hurry up and get back to your post in Midgar then, word is the city's under attack."

"Under attack by who?" asked Aeris curiously.

"Unknown as of yet, ma'am," said one of the soldiers. "I suggest you and your friend stay as far from Midgar as possible. Catch the boat across the water as soon as you can, soldier."

The four were quickly gone; obviously they were in a hurry and weren't interested enough in Cloud to make sure he followed them.

"Midgar under attack?" asked Cloud.

"Strange," Aeris said.

"Alright, put your money in kids," Sam said smiling.

"What?" asked Cloud.

"Ten Gil it's the Outcasts, who's in?" asked Sam.

Aeris nodded, "You're on, ten Gil it's not them."

"We have a wager my dear lady," Sam said.

"Well, can't lose money if we don't find out," Cloud said removing the Shinra uniform, "Aeris, toss me my sword, let's go see who our new enemy is now."

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-Hey, hope you enjoyed the new chapter, just wanted to throw in this interesting however pointless note: the name "Feardorcha" is actually Irish in origin and it means "dark man" from the Gaelic words fear meaning "man" and dorcha meaning "dark".

-There's something you can impress the In-Laws with…if you aren't married then impress the parents…you know what I'm getting at, anyways, if you're so desperate you need to impress someone with name meanings…might as well make it something cool like dark man, you know? Reviews always appreciated, thanks for reading!