Hey guys I know it hasn't been a year yet, but here is the latest chapter of FINAL FIRE EMBLEM as it were. I do intend to finish this story at some point, I am just not sure when. I hope you enjoy it and I believe now I am willing to pair Cloud with either Emmeryn or Tiki

Please Read and Review no flaming thanks.

Chapter Seven

"My name is Cloud. SOLDIER, first class." Cloud Strife, Crisis Core

Cloud now took in a deep breath as the sun now begun to sink once more over the horizon. He had allowed for the whole day to pass and the Shepherds to make ready for what was to come. Now as he stood watching the sun set behind the sand dunes, he turned to look at the castle behind him. Now with an almost complete Fusion Blade in his right hand, only missing the Hollow Blade, that he now held in his left hand.

A lot of blood would be spilt this night, more so on these two weapons than on any others, it had to be this way. Deprived of the Lifestream or rather the two who would speak to him from it, Cloud now brought up the almost complete Fusion Blade in front of his face now as he looked into his own reflection.

He recalled that one last fight with Sephiroth, the words that Zack had said to him there and he now repeated the first part at least. He recalled it was Zack who had died on the cliffs over looking Midgar, while all he had been able to do was watch.

Now Cloud said those same words while looking into his own sword "Embrace your dreams and no matter what happens, protect your honour, as SOLDIER!" With that Cloud dashed forth towards the castle, with the sun at his back, many were about to die.

With Emmeryn

The Exalt could not condone what was about to be occur, in her heart she was too kind a soul to do so. Yet as it was, there was nothing she could do or say to reject what Cloud was about to do. He alone was going to enter that fortress and flush out the Mad King.

While there had been some among them who agreed with the plan. Emmeryn had been firmly against it, all lives to her mattered, that is why when she first met Cloud Strife, she had been ready to die by his hand, if it was to safe her younger brother and sister.

But Cloud had not taken her life that day and he had fought side by side with the Shepherds, again and again he proved to be so much more powerful than any one human should be. He had told her that he was was a monster, why he had no said. But if Emmeryn were to hazard a guess, she would say it had to do with how his mother died.

He had also spoken of the value of a life and how a price cannot be set on it. All in all, Emmeryn was able to see that Cloud deep down was a very kind soul, so how can he kill and commit such acts of wanton destruction with such ease.?

With Cloud

The first of the Plegian guard did not even have time to scream as Cloud had sprinted across the sand, moving and speeds that not even a Falcon Knight could. There was no bell to be rung, no cry to be sounded as the Hollow Blade swiftly severed the head of a soldier as if the flesh was nothing but hot butter.

The other soldier who had been right beside the one who was now headless also did not have time to react as the almost complete Fusion Sword not plunged into his chest. The blade went all the through the body and in fact, Cloud did not bother to get it off.

No gravity did the rest for as the body now deprived of its strength, slumped to the ground, the blade sliced through was was left of the body with little to not trouble at all. Now as the blood splattered and sprayed all over him and the area around the two bodies. Cloud looked into the courtyard and saw that there were a lot of enemy units in it. Not all of them had seen Cloud, but Cloud decided to wrap this up as quickly as he could to move into the castle.

Sliding the Hollow Blade into its rightful place to create the full Fusion Sword, Cloud now lifted it up over his head as he spun it in his hand. The blue energy that formed around it, told Cloud that it was now fully charged and all he needed to do was use the Limit Break. Now bringing the sword down to behind him in an upward slashing pose. Cloud put both hands upon the Fusion Sword as he now swung forward.

As he did this, a twisting whirlwind appeared from it and swept into the courtyard. Those who happened to be in said courtyard were caught in this whirlwind and unable to do anything other than let it take them, but that was not all. Those located on the other walls over looking the courtyard were caught up in it as well. Even though some tried to hold on to part of the walls or battlements, it was all for nought. Not a soul in who was caught in it would live to tell the tale of it ow as the whirlwind threw them all up into the sky.

Bodies, swords, axes, pikes, spears, bows, arrows, tomes, robes, armour all of it was up in the air now and all of it came back down to the ground with a crash that could have woken up the Fel Dragon Grima. Now Cloud was the only one left in the courtyard, but the night was young and there was still so much left.

With Robin

Robin awoke with a jolt, he had been running towards that familiar light, he did not know how long he had been running but it had been awhile. But all of a sudden a sharp noise like the sound of hundreds if not thousands of people threw their weapons and armour up into the air.

Then expectedly it all hit the ground with a sharp harsh and fatal crash. But that aside, he had to see where he was, so Robin now took a quick glance around. From what he could tell he was in a tent and it was in the desert, so that meant Chrom had won the battle, but was still here?

Upon trying to get up, Robin found that his back hurt a lot, like. The pain was directly linked to his lower spine, he could walk, but he did need to get some more rest before he would care to test out how much damage had been done to his body. He was able to recall that he had been hit in the back and the laughter he heard, meant it had to be that woman who did it to him.

Now straining his voice Robin called out "Hey Chrom, Lissa, Fredick, anyone, can you hear me, I'm up, tell me what I missed?" At first he got no reply, it was as if either everyone in the camp was dead or they were all at one place watching something go down?

Robin hoped that it was the later for the sake of his friends, if his memory was to be trusted, the Exalt had been saved, but? What now, he knew better than any, they could not just pack up and leave, Ylisse was I ruins and no doubt the Mad King Gangerl would seek out vengeance against them for this. No, if Gangrel was in the his castle, what could they do, to assault it with the forces they had would be folly.

Robin took into account Cloud Strife and what the man was capable of, but Cloud could not be everyone at once and some of the Shepherds were bound to die if they were to lay siege to the castle itself. No the only choice they had was to draw the Mad King out of the castle to fight so they could beat him down and cripple the morale of the Plegian army in one blow.

But the question that he wanted to know the answer to was how, how does one get a King to come out of his well defended Castle and fight them in the open? Sure his is called the Mad King, but it is often the mistake of taking the word mad to mean stupid, the two are not the same, but madness can lead to a few if not many stupid actions. Now even though it hurt him, Robin did his best to sit up as he tried to work it out in his mind. Robin now spoke his mind out loud as he asked the air "Just how do we get the Mad King out of his castle?"

It was at this point a rather soft voice said to Robin "I see that you are up."

Robin jerked in fear and this hurt his body, causing him to roll over and almost fall out of the make shift bed he was in. The reason why he did not fall out of it, was due to the fact that the armoured arms Kellam had managed to brace him just in time. Robin gave a blink as he now said "Ah Kellam, sorry you scared me for there."

In reply to this Kellam said "I didn't mean to, by the way Cloud is currently chasing Gangrel out of his castle so Chrom can take him down."

Robin reply just said "What was that, Cloud is now doing what?"

With Cloud

The inner gate to the Plegian Keep was now broke, those behind it had been caught in the Blade Beam which sliced all that was in its path, right in half. Now in the night as the blue glowing eyes of Cloud drew ever closer to the ones left inside, he could hear them shaking in fear.

Not all of them were evil, if that was the case, did they not deserve to live or did they deserve to die. For some reason Cloud did not know why, but he quoted lines from Angeal Hewley "I've become a monster, a monster's objective is usually world domination or revenge."

Fact was he had no idea that he had just spoke the words the first owner of the Buster Sword had spoken. Out of the two options, Cloud knew what one this was, this was not a desire to rule over the world, this was just some cold hard revenge.

All those who had lost their lives or had lost loved ones, were about to be avenged. Cloud now let the Hollow Blade slip out of the main part of the Fusion Sword and fall into his left hand, now with a blade in each hand he advanced in the keep. As he did this the first lines of lance wielding soldiers charged at him with their weapons out ready to kill.

But to one such as Cloud Strife, they may as well been standing still. Within the blink of an eye, Cloud now sprung into action. Jumping over the spear line that was coming towards him, managed to do flip his body so that the top of his head was facing to the ground. As he did this, he spun both of his swords in his hands as he now cut off the upper part of the first wave of soldiers heads.

As he now managed to flip his body back to its correct position he landed with a rather loud thud. Just as he did for added effected the top part of all the soldiers behind him heads fell off. All of them been cleanly sliced as if they were made of wet paper.

Cloud now looked up to see the 2nd wave of soldiers, there were a few Berserker units in this lot. He could see the fear in the eyes of most of them. All of them must have been used to killing those who could not fight back, but face to face with a real monster, they stood not a chance not one at all.

Now getting up rather casual and in a neutral position Cloud looked at all of them as he now said "Not interested, where is your Mad King?" It would come down to which one they would fear more, the Mad King who was a nasty piece of work or the glowing eye monster who just killed many of them with ease?

The Berserker units now looked to one another and fled before Cloud, after all to them at this point, it was the glowing eyes monster who was clearly the bigger threat. In fact they were pretty sure that the sword drew power from the souls trapped within it. Had they asked the asked the stoic warrior if that was true, they would have been told it was not so.

Or he would have just ignored them and continued on to where the Mad King now waited. He was not going to kill him, no he was just going to force him into a battle with Chrom. But he did have one person in mind, that he had to take care of, it was that woman who rode upon the black pegasus.

She clearly was more of a threat that Gangerl in Cloud's eyes, he knew she had almost taken out Robin twice. Not only that, but she rubbed him the wrong way, the vibe she gave off was one not like Hojo, but like one of the other Shinra scientists. She had ulterior motives for this entire war, it gave Cloud the urge to kill her, to put her plans to an end. People were not puppets to be used by others who thought they were superior. "Our future our reality is our and ours alone."

He found here or rather she came to him, spell book in hand a smile upon her face. She looked at Cloud and asked "Oh pray tell, do you believe that what you do here will change anything, do you believe that all you have done will change anything, do you believe that your actions matter before Grima. It is not today and it will not be tomorrow, but one day all you cherish will be taken away from you!"

Cloud raised an eyebrow to that then cast Firaga knocking the dark lady off her steed and onto the ground. Moving to her faster than she could react Cloud put his foot upon her chest pinning her down while he pointed the Hollow Blade at her neck. In this position he asked her "Tell me, what is it that you believe will happen?"

This was followed by silence before the burnt form of the dark lady said "Grima will consume you and my Master will rise once more and he shall bring Grima forth into this world. Your victory here it means nothing, all of your victories, all the actions that you take, they mean nothing. I fight for my God and my Master who raised me as his own, what do you fight for."

Despite her saying this not a word reached Cloud, no now as he stared into her eyes, he did not see a dark lady. He did not see someone who was evil and had been raised by those who sought the end of the world. He saw something that he had once seen in himself, from a time of his life that he regretted the most, a time when he had been nothing but an empty puppet.

She was just like him and just like him, she did not know her memories were false. If one were to ask Cloud how he knew, he would not be able to give a straight answer. But it was a familiarity that he saw in her eyes, something that he had seen in his own and the other Sephiroth Clones. He would spare this dark lady so she could find out the truth about herself, just as he had done.

He also felt that the Exalt would approve of him sparing her, though that was secondary to Cloud. Now as he took his foot of her chest and fused the Fusion Sword he channelled a part of him that he truly hated. A part of him that would forever stain his memories and who he was, the part of him that was Sephiroth.

With that in his mind and in his heart he told her "Leave this place now if you desire to survive, I see no point in killing you, after all you are but an empty puppet."

If she desired to attack him she didn't, after getting hit by the Firaga she probably didn't have the strength to do so. He had also learned of this Grima and that her master was actually someone who they had taken down before from the way she put it. But now as he left her, her hoarse voice called out "Do you seek to mock me, are you sparing me as an insult, come back here and kill me!"

Cloud did not turn his head as he continued on, but he did tell her "Not interested."

With Robin

Robin had rushed to the front perimeter of the camp to see what it was that Cloud was doing. But when he got there he realised that any worries he had were for nought. Cloud had made short work of any defences on the outside and was now clearly flushing out those within in. He couldn't help but ask "Just what type of hell creates a warrior such as that?"

The castle was falling there was no doubt about that, Cloud was effective, ruthless and way too fast for anything Gangrel up his sleeve. He knew he should have been focusing on what was going on and trying to find out what to do next. But for some reason he wanted to find and speak with Lucina or at least catch a glimpse of her at the very least if all else was impossible.

Then again, she was a lady who had things to do and he was a man who had things to do. So now might be his only chance to find her, the only question was where to look. Robin found himself now walking back into the camp unsure of what to do next. Should he try looking for her or should he start drawing up plans on how to beat Gangrel once Cloud flushed him out?

Sure Chrom had to do it on his own, but Robin knew that the King of Plegia was not going to play fair at all. In fact he was pretty certain the man would find a way to cheat as it were, but then again in war was finding a way to win cheating? His mind was a little out of it either due to being out so long, not knowing what to do next and the sudden desires he was feeling.

Now as he was about to walk where his tent was supposed to be he bumped into one of the last people he wanted to see, Sumia. For Robin he simply stepped to the side as he said "Sorry, I'll get out of your way."

but Sumia she did not react like that, no she tried to hug him and he had to avoid her as she said "Robin, you are up, we've all been so worried about you!"

Now as Robin dodged her hug she suddenly recalled something and took a step back saying "I'm, I'm so sorry, it is just that we were all worried about you, this is the second time you've been in danger."

Robin wanted to leave right then and there and not have any more of this discussion. It would appear that he wasn't truly over his feelings after all. That and given his current state of mind, it would not be for the best if he we to tarry long here. So now with as friendly a smile as he could muster he waved to her saying "Yeah I am certain that even if I were to die, you'd be able to come out on top, see ya later."

As he was about to leave he now felt Sumia's rather strong grip latch onto his arm, not letting him go. He clearly had not picked his words wisely as it were and Sumia's eyes were watering up now as she said "Don't ever say that again, none of us would be fine if you were to die, none of us!"

Yes he had picked the wrong words as it were and even worse yet he had caused her to cry. Why did he care any more, why did it matter? Then again what type of ass hole makes a girl cry like that, so Robin said "Sorry I'm just a little out of it, waking up from the dead is not a good thing to experience you know."

Sumia suddenly seem to recall that Robin had indeed just gotten up from a close death experience and she let go of his arm. Taking a step back she said "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to try to hurt you, I just-?'

Robin now with a sigh said "I know, I know, just let it go, I need to go do some things myself, later Sumia."

That was as friendly as he was willing to get with her so now he promptly left, though he did not hear her walk away. But that was not his concern she could do whatever she wanted to do, it was Chrom who was meant to watch her back more closely now. Sometimes though one should know that when you create some bridges you burn down others.

With Cloud

He was now at the inner sacrum of the castle, the inner most throne room. The one known as Mad King Gangrel sat upon his throne. If it was madness, cowardice or acceptance, Cloud did not know or care what feelings the man had. But now Mad King Gangrel spoke saying "Ahh this is how it should be at the end, just like this, alone that is how we will all live and all die. We men are beasts after all and when we die we are all alone."

In retort to this Cloud simply said "No, I will not be the one to kill you."

Gangrel seemed to be a little intrigued by this and he now raised an eyebrow as he asked "Oh and who is going to kill me if not you, there is no one else-!"

The mercenary did not let him finish that sentence now leaping forward with inhuman speed and grabbing him by his shirt. Now using the enhanced speed and strength he possessed, Cloud lift Mad King Gangrel with a single arm and now carried him and then through him outside the castle.

Finding this man had been the only real issue Cloud had faced, but once he had found it, the rest was simple. Looking down now at the Gangrel who to his credit was rising up from the sand, Cloud told him "You will die knowing you have been defeated, utterly defeated."

This earned Cloud a glare from said man who looked up at him and taunted the SOLDIER saying "Come on do it, you want to don't you, what is holding you back, do it!"

Cloud stared at him for but a moment longer before he state "You are not mine to kill, that right goes to the one whose home you tried to destroy, you will learn that they are not as weak as you thought."

Now as Gangrel managed to get a hold of himself he sneered at Cloud saying "The Exalt couldn't possible do that, that pretty little fool hasn't got the stomach for it, who next then that imbecile Chrom is it?"

Replying to this Cloud said "When you fall, you will learn that you were wrong, when you fall you shall know the depths of-."

Cloud did not finish this sentence at first, he did not want to, saying that word, made him sound and even feel more like the one he hated the most. Gangrel for the most part seemed to be a little confused by what Cloud had just told him. But he never got the chance to ask what it was Cloud meant to finish with as Chrom had arrived.

The leader of the Shepherds now called out to the Mad King stating "King Gangrel, for your crimes against my people, against my sister and against Ylisse, I will judge you hear and now by combat!"

Dusting himself off now Gangrel bent down and picked up a nearby sword before he sneered at the price of Ylisse saying "You can come and try boy, I am a man and all men and women are just beasts, we fight, we kill and we devour, in the end we all have our own selfish goals in mind, remember that little prince!"

Before Chrom could retort, Cloud did so for him stating "Those are your ideals and how you live, knowing this, there is no way one such as Prince Chrom could lose to one such as you."

With s slight nod to Cloud, Chrom thanked the mercenary and then drawing the Flachion and brandishing it in two hands he declared "Mad King Gangrel, defend yourself!"

So how did you guys like it, next chapter will be the real show down between Chrom and Gangrel and then it is onto rebuilding and then to Valm and then to Plegia and then to Girma and then it will be over.

SO STAND BY FOR FINAL FIRE EMBLEM (coming as soon as the author gets it out)

Also please review and let me know what you think.