Markin: I am enjoying writing the smaller chapters a lot more as well. I don't always have a lot of time to write so I'm really happy to hear that you like them too. Sephiroth in 'General Mode' is a terrifyingly efficient thing to behold and awfully satisfying to write. :)

I do not own FF7 or any of its characters. Talin, Unit 28, and some other side characters are mine.

As always, I hope you enjoy and please R&R.


Chapter 63

Too consumed with his anger to think clearly, Rald blindly threw himself at the man who had ruined his perfect warrior. Sephiroth caught the wildly charging man and slammed him viciously against a stalagmite, controlling his strength only because he knew this man wasn't his to deal with.

The shout of rage that had accompanied the attack altered sharply into a sound of pain as the air was forced from his lungs. Had his focus been fully centered on this hated stranger, Seph would have been tempted to take his pound of flesh from Rald, but the General couldn't ignore the other cry that was still echoing off the cave walls.

At the moment Masamune cut through the flawed crystal, Talin felt like the world had fallen out from under him. For half a second, he couldn't feel the ground he was laying on. The spots that threatened to crowd his vision suddenly clustered together to leave only darkness. A ringing filled his ears... and in that darkness, he felt something words could never describe properly.

The Leash had always tugged at his mind, pulled and twisted and hurt him when he'd not listened or moved quick enough, but this was different. In one violent yank, it'd been wrenched away from him... and he was free...

The thought of that freedom left him groundless, freefalling, and unprepared for the cost of his long-sought salvation. Every muscle, every inch, and fiber of his body seized, and the space in his mind that had once been tied to the Leash collapsed. He'd been set free... to a world of agony.

Sephiroth reached Talin just in time to catch the teen as the seizure pulled the supporting arm out from under him. That violent convulsion cut off his screaming as well and by the time the spasm ended, the General had all but forgotten Rald's presence on the other side of the cavern.

"Talin?" The raw worry in his voice sounded foreign to his own ears, but he kept trying to rouse the young fighter. "Lieutenan-" Seeing his young trainee's eyes squeeze shut before slowly opening gave Seph hope, only to have it vanish seconds later. His eyes were open, they looked up to meet his own, but there was nothing behind them.

Remembering their link, the 1st found it and raced along the thread to find the other's mind. It had somehow remained remarkably strong, despite whatever Rald had done to keep them separate, but the emotional silence he felt in that ribbon of light caused his worry to morph into dread. Reaching the dark cloud of Talin's mind, Seph brushed his hand against its surface and felt only the chilling cold of an empty space.

The silver SOLDIER tried to hide his shock, but when he heard a bitter bark of laughter, Sephiroth realized that he'd been unsuccessful. Still holding his Lieutenant, the General turned with a near snarl to fix his eyes on Rald who still leaned pathetically against the stalagmite.

"Congratulations, SOLDIER," and the title was full of venomous disdain, "You wanted to 'rescue' him, and so you have. You also ruined any chance our village had of a future. Claim your spoils and leave! That half-dead mutt is useless to me now." Rald's tirade ended with a wince of pain as he turned to stagger over to the wall and headed towards the exit. He was infuriated, disgusted, and thoroughly ready to get away from the Shin-Ra SOLDIER who had tainted this sacred place with his presence, but the General wasn't about to let him walk away.

Sephiroth's previously suppressed anger burned to life within him at the way Rald spoke of Talin, but so did his fears for the redhead's condition. If he was... With a care he would only ever show his lovers, the silver 1st laid the unresponsive teen down and then released the ironclad restraints he'd kept on his ire. The older man had no warning of the other's approach till he was once more tossed across the cavern.

The pained and angry oath that followed the attack died a quick death on Rald's lips when he heard the fall of footsteps coming closer and turned to look behind him. A promise of violence danced in the glowing eyes that met his and the leader of Taka knew he'd lost his only chance to get away.

"What did you do?" The question was asked in so chill a tone, filled with such malice and seething hatred, that any rational being would have run screaming. Instead, knowing he was cornered, Rald bristled.

"What did I do? You're the one who destroyed the crystal!" A gasp of surprise as Seph once more seized and slammed Rald against a wall turned into a wheeze as he tried to catch the air that was knocked out of him.

"How does destroying the source of a compulsion curse do that to its target?!" The roared question rang in the chamber, the echoes bouncing back at them, and sending ripples across the lake of Mako below. The dark whispers that had been silent for so long, the part of him that craved the violence of battle, urged Sephiroth to take vengeance, but it wasn't his to take. Not unless... if Talin really was... He couldn't finish the thought.

"What did you think was going to happen? A happy ending?! I never made that leash to be removed, you fool!" Rald knew he was unlikely to survive this encounter and chose to vent his anger instead of pleading. Better a quick death and at least he could revel in the pain of Talin's 'savior'.

"What you did was akin to tearing a multi-barbed hook from a fish's mouth! He's braindead and useless and it's your fault!" The verbal jab hit home. With an angry growl, Seph tossed the reprehensible man away from himself.

"You're the one who chained and caged him, forced a life of violence upon a child, and yet you dare to say I'm at fault?" The glow in Sephiroth's eyes was by now too bright to see anything but the eerie green of Mako, but Rald thought he could just faintly hear the edge of uncertainty and denial in his voice.

Letting out a dark chuckle, the older man did his best to lean his weight against the wall behind him in an attempt to keep standing as he again taunted the SOLDIER. "Tell yourself whatever helps you sleep at night, but it was your sword that shattered the crystal and, by doing so, cut his life short. Even if he ever does wake from that coma, he'll be a fragile shell of his old self. You should have just used your blade on him instead of the stone." All while he'd been talking, Rald had moved carefully along the wall, but he wasn't heading for an exit.

"May the Goddess one day judge you for the sin of destroying her creation!" The venom in his voice was intermixed with a sick glee as Rald reached out for his goal, a dust-covered Materia embedded in the wall.

A scream of pain rends the air as Rald's shoulder is pinned to the rock wall by the General's great katana. Through the tears that flooded his vision, the old man could see a shadowed outline and the violent glow where his eyes should have been.

"What on this blighted planet gave you the right to abuse a child marked by this oh-so-wonderful Goddess?! What right did you have to defile him in such a way?!" With Sephiroth's face hidden by shadows, the booming voice sounded like it had come from everywhere. The question was imbued with such cold rage that Rald finally felt true fear and the chill of it made him tremble. What he saw before him was no longer a man, this was Shin-Ra's Silver Devil...

Talin felt as if someone had attached a live wire to all the nerves in his body. Every inch of him burned like fire, yet felt frozen like he was laying naked in snow. He was dying...he knew it. No one could survive such pain and live.

As the thought filters across what remains of his mind, a whisper of sound tickles his ear. The pain lessened... and then it came roaring back to ravage his collapsing senses. Through the ringing in his ears, he hears it again. A voice... a name, his name... Someone was calling him and with each repetition, the haze of pain cleared a little more.

"-in... Talin!" Unable to feel his body and unknowing if he could do anything more than scream if he did make any sound, the teen pushed a thought in the direction of that voice.

~Who? ~

"You know who, Talin. Now C'mon, you're stronger than this. Pull it together." There's encouragement in those words, but the young Lieutenant can hear the grave worry hiding behind the light tone.

~Am I... I'm dying... aren't I? It hurts so much...~ The last sentence trailed off as the pain spiked again through his tormented system.

"You won't die, Talin. You're strong." The words were insistent and full of... pride? Hope? "You remember those trials I told you about? You're so close to done with the hardest one. All you have to do now is come find me."

~Find you? Where? ~ Talin didn't think he could move if he wanted to. How could he find anyone if he couldn't move?

A quiet chuckle played in his ears before that deep voice said at last, "The place where all of this started... You ended up with a strong ally by your side, he'll help you, so come to me and I'll answer all your questions."


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See you next week!