Chapter 19: Showdown part 2

(Same tags apply as in Chapter 1)

"Red! Watch out!" Cait Sith shouted to the lion-like beast.

Nanaki rolled forward, escaping the limb that had attempted to strike him. His one amber eye closed briefly and the entire area was filled with a green screeching mist.

The battle had been going for an hour and thirty minutes nonstop when Sephiroth's lost the use of what appeared to be a second head. Barret continued to unload his Missing Score into the mutated General as Cid lit a stick of dynamite and tossed it forward.

"Fuck! Get down!"

Both teams obeyed Cid's command without pause and hit the ground. A thunderous explosion was heard as Yuffie covered her ears at the sound. A distorted cry of pain was heard from the dark Sephiroth as everyone regained their footing.

Tifa ran forward and launched herself into the air and delivered a roundhouse kick to his chest. The room grew dark as several comets rained down from out of nowhere, courtesy of Cloud.

Sephiroth turned to face Cloud's team with a snarl on his face. The once empty eyes began to glow with a silver light as the distorted voice spoke. "Heartless Angel."

Vincent felt his energy bleed out of him at a astonishing rate as he collapsed to the crater floor with his team, trying desperately to stay conscious. He watched Yuffie crawl to her knees and shake her head slightly as if trying to clear it when her heard her whisper in a very weak voice "Cure 3…all."

Curing everyone had sapped Yuffie's ability to focus. She lost control of her limbs and collapsed back to the ground before she the green glow of the cure seeped into their bodies.

Tifa took advantage of the sudden boost of energy and quickly climbed to her feet and lifted her hand above her head. "White Wind!"

Yuffie was pulled to her feet by hands that felt almost like leather. She looked up to see Chaos pulling her to her feet. The young ninja's eyes widened at the most powerful of Vincent's transformations but that was hastily replaced with a grin of thanks and a nod of the head.

Cloud, Tifa, Chaos, Cid and Cait were attacking the dark form from all sides. There was a flurry of claws, spearheads, fists, blade edges and if one were to look closely enough, dice hitting the ground striking at the form. Barret was reviving the fallen Nanaki with the powder of the phoenix down.

It lashed out at the five who were still attacking sending a Cait and Tifa flying and the other looking for another opening for an attack. Yuffie felt the adrenalin that was pouring into her system from the last attack.

"All Creation!"

A bright beam of pure energy flowed from the tiny ninja slamming into the dark Sephiroth. There was no inhuman cry from the form still incased in the white light as it began to sink to the ground and disintegrate.

'I killed him…I killed Sephiroth.' She thought sadly.

Chaos collapsed to the ground and grasped his head in pain as he reformed as Vincent. Yuffie walked over to the group of people who were now standing near Vincent and pulled out a Megalixer, tossing the dust into the air around them.

Cid looked down at Yuffie as she helped Vincent to his feet. "God damn kid! Where in the hell did you learn that from? I've never seen so much energy outta someone so tiny!"

Yuffie was about to respond when the hair stood on the back of her neck and goosebumps appeared on her arms. She closed her eyes and shivered. Avalanche eyed the ninja with concern as her eyes snapped open, her face grim. "Its not over yet." She said simply.

Great gusts of wind tousled Vincent and Tifa's long locks. A vortex of swirling white clouds against what looked like a light blue sky formed before them. On wings of pure, brilliant white feathers, Sephiroth reappeared.

To Yuffie, the ex-General was hauntingly beautiful. His skin was no longer gray and had returned to the warm tan it had been, his chiseled chest was not covered by the long black leather coat he once wore and his eyes had regained their Mako green color. There was one thing that was different however…his right arm was now a black wing covered with glossy ebon feathers. She stared up at the green eyes with sadness and not realizing she was speaking aloud said. "He's a fallen angel…A One Winged Angel."

Yuffie readied her shuriken when the movement of his wings brought him closer to the ground. Cloud looked at Tifa, who was still staring at Sephiroth, and charged forward. The blond brought his weapon down in a diagonal swipe cutting through the barrier that protected the General. Though he the blade had made it way through the barrier, it was knocked off course and missed the One Winged Angel.

Tifa's fist became incased in white energy as she threw her hand forward sending a wave of energy at Sephiroth. The spell stopped short of hitting the General and collapsed the barrier. Red and Cloud ran forward as pandemonium erupted once again in the center of the planet. The sound of the two firearms that were being fired by Vincent and Barret was almost deafening.

Sephiroth's hand exploded in blue flames while his wings began to stir the air and Cid attacked him with his Venus Gospel. The blue flame shot out at Cloud and threw him into Barret, knocking them both to the ground.

"SHIT!" Cloud groaned slightly.

"Spike, get tha hell offa me!" Barret said as he pushed the blond forward.

Red went in for another attack, leaping into the air but Sephiroth was too high. "Cloud we can't attack him! He's too high!"

Suddenly the room grew dark as Neo Bahamut and Bahamut sent flares of absolute energy at Sephiroth. When Tifa and Yuffie's evocation of the two winged beasts ended, the two women sent flying fists and razor sharp metal at the flying form before them.

.::-o-::.

Dominance in the battle had shifted many times. Sephiroth would deal out attack after attack on Avalanche, managing to knock out a few from time to time. Then Avalanche would rise from the ashes of the Phoenix rebirth and continue their attack with renewed vigor.

Vincent leveled his gun at Sephiroth and fired four times in succession as the others continued their attack. It was pure bedlam. One moment there would be comets raining from the sky, or the temperature would drop drastically as the goddess Shiva sent torrents of ice at the General, and then there was the green mist and screeching of Ultima.

The gunman aimed again at the floating menace but froze as his crimson eyes locked with Mako green. He was stunned to see the sorrow and anguish in the General's eyes. Though he was still throwing attacks at the others, it was almost as if he was pleading for forgiveness and asking for Avalanche to end it all with one look. 'It must have something to do with Jenova's death. There must be enough Jenova still in him to control his body but not his mind…' the thought quickly raced through his mind.

Sephiroth's wing and arm rose as his voice traveled through the air and into the ears of the Avalanche member. "Super Nova."

Avalanche became paralyzed where they stood.

"Why can't we fuckin move?!" Cid yelled trying to struggle against his paralysis.

"How in the hell are we 'pose to know?!" Barret yelled back.

"Everyone calm down! Panicking won't do a damn thing right now!" Cloud said as he continued to struggle but got nowhere.

Tifa's wine colored eyes moved upwards and widened at the sight. "Oh my gods…"

The others followed her gaze and saw the raw energy slowly moving towards them. Sephiroth was floating above them, bathed in the yellow light of the energy as it engulfed him doing no harm to him.

The energy moved painfully slow before hitting the paralyzed fighters. Tifa felt the white hot searing pain rip through her body. It was as if the cells of her body were being ripped apart, one by one, by white fire. It felt as if the life was being sucked out of her body.

Her scream joined those of her teammates as the spell ran its course. The light disappeared and everyone collapsed to the ground moaning and failing at the attempts they made to get to their feet.

Vincent closed his eyes as the pain racked his body. 'Chaos…'

'About time, Vinnie!' Chaos' voice echoed in his mind.

'Just do it, Heathen!'

Yuffie heard the familiar sound of Vincent's inhuman scream. 'Chaos…' She watched as Chaos clawed at the General while dodging an attack.

With the last of her strength and a sudden influx of energy she pulled herself to her feet and weakly mumbled. "Doom of the Living." She ran forward with impossible speed in her current state, and began repeatedly slashing at the fallen angel. She saw a group of dice roll under her target as she dealt her final blow. A blast erupted from the dice, wounding the General.

She collapsed to the ground unable to move and breathing heavily when she saw Chaos break off from his attack and quickly fly over her. She heard a light pinging sound as an elixir landed in front of her. She downed the bottle quickly and got to her feet. Tifa was knocked out and the others were still trying to regain their footing. She ran to Tifa and sprinkled a phoenix down over her the realized she had a small problem.

The group was spread out too far for just one Megalixer to work.

She did not know how much longer Sephiroth could fight and she knew that these were her last two megalixers. They all needed to be up and an idea quickly formed in her head. She tossed the powder over Cloud, Tifa, and Cid since they were closer then threw the second pouch of megalixer into the air and quickly launched a mini shuriken at the pouch.

The deadly metal weapon spun through the air and through the pouch, instantly shredding it in mid air above the forms of Nanaki, Barret, Cait Sith and Chaos.

The young ninja jumped into the air and pumped her fist. "YES!"

All at once, a flurry of attacks was unleashed upon the angel.

Cid leapt into the air and drove his Gospel into its body, Red shot a beam of energy, and Barret took to the air and sent a plasma blast at him. Cloud tore at it with his omnislash. This time, there was no barrier to deflect the blows…no one missed.

They all hear Tifa as she called upon the ultimate summon. "Knights of the Round!" The thirteen knights dealt devastating blows to the fallen angel.

The darkness cleared as Vincent reverted next to Yuffie. Yuffie looked up at Sephiroth with wide eyes. His entire form was shaking slightly as his body slowly began to fall apart. A tear fell from her eye for the man who never had a chance.

"May you finally find the peace in death that you never had in life, Sephiroth. Let the planet and the great god Leviathan embrace you in the afterlife." She whispered.

His torso was rapidly breaking down when something made Yuffie gaze into his eyes once more. Apparently he heard her small prayer for his soul. His eyes closed and his head bowed slightly in silent thanks to the small ninja as his form vanished.

Cloud turned to face the weary group. "That's all we can do here…Lets go."

They all turned and began their ascent from the core of the planet.

.::-o-::.

Somewhere deep within the Lifestream, Lucrecia pulled her son into her arms and held him for the first time.

"Mother?" Sephiroth's soul questioned.

A feeling of warmth and love surrounded him for the first time in his existence as Lucrecia's soul spoke to him. "My son…my beautiful boy…"

.::-o-::.

The group made their way back up through planet's heart with Yuffie and Vincent leading the way. For some unknown reason, Cloud and Tifa had been delayed as the ninja and gunman scouted the surrounding area for a safe route while Barret, Cid and Red sat on a ledge below the pair, their bodies extremely sore and weary.

Cait pulled himself onto the ledge that the two men and crimson beast were perched on and yelled up to the ninja. "Hey Yuffie, found anything yet?"

She adjusted her almost empty pack and hopped to the larger one above her. "So far, this is the easiest path, follow the path Vincent took." She said as Cloud and Tifa finally emerged from below. They all began to make their way up to her position but were thrown back against the wall and ground as the earth began to shake.

Massive rocks were beginning to rain down from having been shaken from the brittle rock face. Vincent looked up just in time to see a softball-size rock heading for Yuffie.

"Yuffie watch out!" He yelled leaping the rocks with ease trying to reach her.

She ducked and went to cover her head too late. The rock smashed into the back of her head. The young ninja felt a horrendous wave of nausea flow over and dizziness hit her with the force of a freight train. She began to fall towards the edge of the ledge and squeezed her eyes tight, bracing for the pain at the inevitable death she was about to experience.

.::-o-::.

Tifa watched with the others in horror as the little ninja's balance was thrown off and she began to fall. "Yuffie!" She screamed as she tried to run forward but was restrained by Cloud's strong arms wrapping around her waist.

"Tifa no! You'd never make it!" he said as he held her to him. She turned and buried her face in Cloud's shoulder not wanting to see the demise of yet another person that she cared greatly for.

o-o-Author's Notes-o-o

GODS I'M EVIL!!!

What's gonna happen to poor Yuffs??? Well, I guess you gotta wait to find out! Tee Hee!!!

So you guys and gals, how was my crater fight scenes?? What did you all think of Sephiroth in the last few chapters? What about what happened after his death, what did ya think?? Please, PLEASE tell me how I did. I am rather proud of it, if I do say so my self. As you all can see, I also put my own little explanation of why Yuffie and Vincent weren't in the final FMV for the game…

I was really sad when I noticed after beating the game that they weren't in it. I really wanted to see how square would have made Vince and Yuffie look. I was hoping that Square would put out another version of FF7 that included them in the final scene.

I know that you are all probably pissed at where I left it once again, but hey, if I get some awesome reviews from you all, it might motivate me to post the next chapter… -hint, hint-

Ezri: Okay boys you can come out now!

-Sephy and Seph come out of a room. Seph is wearing a pair of goggles, his leather pants, his boots and holding the Masamune. Sephy is dressed similarly but is carrying a chainsaw and two pairs of goggles. Sephy walks over and hands the goggles and chainsaw to Ezri, and plants a kiss on her cheek before donning his goggles.-

Ezri: Thanks Sephy baby!! -puts goggles on and starts up her chainsaw- You take care of business while me and Seph take care of that hunk-o-wood over here. -pointing to the large writers block then charges at it.- Come on Seph!!! Charggggeeee!!!!

Sephy: While they take care of Ezri's writer's block, I'll take over this part. She would like to thank all of you who have reviewed her story, especially the last few chapters. She is grateful for each and every one of you…but since she didn't log on to the net before doing this, I can't acknowledge you all by name.

-a flurry of sawdust flies at Sephy and he brushes it out of his hair-

Sephy: She has been working hard at getting her chapters done for this story and apologizes for the wait. Right now, she's working on Chapter 27 and can see the end, its just that getting there has been the hard part, along with a lot of stress that's been goin' on for the last week or so.

I keep tellin' her to slow down so I can give her a massage but the only time she sits still is when she's typing…I would right now but she's over there laughing like a maniac with Seph as the cut into that block over there at 3:12 in the morning on a workday nonetheless!

She says that she wants to try and have this done by her birthday next month, but isn't sure if that can be done.

Anyway, Ezri has been bad and started three, yes you heard right, three new stories. Let me tell you about two of them, since the other is still in the planning process and doesn't have a name.

The first is called 'My Light'

It's a Reno/Aeris pairing and takes place before the events of the game. She isn't sure if it's going to be an AU or if the events of the game will be incorporated into it. So far its two chapters deep and she expects it to be around ten before its complete.

This is the only story that has actually made her really cry while writing it…so far. Planet, I even felt bad for Reno in this one.

And the second is a companion piece to 'An Unexpected Visitor' called 'All That I Have' and is still under the Yuffie/Seph pairing.

She can't tell you much about it, but she knows that it might be a one shot depending on what the reviewers say…there might be a tiny bit of citrus in it. It might be out as soon as this morning or tomorrow evening, depending on if I can get her to fall asleep tonight. -Sighs- She's so damn stubborn!

Ezri: DONE!! -She rides over on Seph's back- Okay Seph, you can go back on guard duty…we'll 'talk' later. -Winks at Seph, then jumps in Sephy's arms-

Hey guys! Lookie what we made!! -pulls out dozens of tiny wooden Chocobo key chains and tosses them to the reviewers.- Cute huh!

Ezri: Well peoples, they still have to find a way out of the crater and there are some interesting events that follow so be prepared for some drama. I gotta go finish working on All That I Have…Hopefully the A. Smiling writers block will come to and end soon now what Seph and I have made Chocobos out of it!

Sephy: See, what did I tell you…she won't slow down and relax!

-Ezri squeals as Sephy tosses her over his shoulder and starts for the bedroom-

Ezri: Ha! You think taking me to my bedroom will stop me from writing?!? My 'puter is in there -gives an insane laugh as she rests her head against Sephy's strong back.

Sephy: Then we'll just have to do something to take your mind off of your computer, won't we?

Ezri: …

Sephy: … … …. …

Ezri: OH!!! You're a bad sexy man! I guess we better be goin…See ya'll later!

Oh yeah, Angel280, take your time and have fun with your pup! I have a dog too, my little Geta, but she's a lazy girl who thinks she's human…I'll be waitin for that sequel but don't rush…take your time if ya be needin it!

And Lone Gunmen…I like long reviews!!!

Bye-Bye Peoples!!!

Edited 1/14/07

7/25/07

Edited because of change in formatting. Also re-numbering chapters. Minor content edits.