FN: I'm going to do something rather cartoony with the titles in this chapter, bear with me/enjoy it.
Chapter 35 Will you defeat them, your demons? OR: I came, I saw, I kicked some ass!
"Which way do we go now?" The descent into North Crater had been easy up to this point, the group hadn't even encountered any monsters. Now things were about to get more difficult, the singular path they had been following broke into four. Sephiroth looked at the differnt paths, he didn't have time to pick the wrong one given how close Meteor was getting.
"Split up. James and Mirri, take the eastern path. Alex and Vincent head south. Niro and Melkore have the western path. Aeris, you're with me. None of you have my permission to die; we've done the impossible and that makes us mighty."
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Part one: You can try, you'll never break me, we want it all! OR: He wanted a thirteen but they drew a thirty one.
Mirri Catwarrior and James Firecat.
Mirri barely dodged the first sword stroke because surprise slowed her wits. Not surprise at being attacked, but surprise at who was attacking her. She didn't recognize the man's face, but she recognized the way his head seemed to barely be connected to his neck, and the wounds in his chest along with the uniform. He was the First Class SOLDIER she had killed in a "private" duel during their first attack on Shinra HQ.
He was dead, and so were the rest of the people who gathered to block her way. As if sensing her shock, the huge mass of SOLDIERS spoke with one voice. "The lady is a bad loser. Give up Mirri Catwarrior. We are the ones who you killed; we are the ones who you betrayed! We will not leave without extracting our price; we will drag you down to the pits of hell with us! It does not matter what you do, humanity no longer has anywhere to run or hide from the power of Jenova. Give up!"
Mirri steadied herself as her mind processed exactly what she was fighting. They might be dead, but these were no swirling spirits, if they could hit her, (and she knew they could because that first overhead sword stroke had broken the five of her blades it hit instead of her arm) she could hit them back.
"Give up... 'Give up' you say? Of course, such fitting words for your kind. You, who could not stand being human. Don't underestimate humanity, you undead freaks. Come on then, I'll fight you!" One of the soldiers rushed right at Mirri who stood perfectly still.
His body was sliced into pieces before he got within five feet of Mirri. His head slid off his shoulders, his arms out of their sockets, and his legs away from his torso. His entire body turned to dust as it exploded over Mirri who only blinked once.
The SOLDIERS stared in amazement at James. "What the hell are you?" James needed to think for a few moments before he answered taking a moment to reach a hand under his hat and scratch his left ear for a moment. "Isn't it a bit short sighted to suggest that form imbues function? Am I a lion? I don't think of myself as such, but you might as well, because I have a mighty roar." Mirri felt her lip twitch, it was time to point out where James' loyalties lay and how strong they were.
"James, light." Mirri reached into her pocket and pulled out one of Reno's cigarettes, apparently the Turk was good for something after all. James, seeing the cigarette took only a short moment to figure out what Mirri needed. He quickly extracted his tail from his pants and used it to light the cigarette (even if he did try to light the "color coded" end first) in no time.
Mirri held the burning cigarette out towards the assembly of dead men. "I don't smoke these, they're bad for my health and they cost too much. Besides, I prefer to be in the company of flames that rival my own. Look at James' tail, and notice that his flame can burn without producing smoke."
James himself took a moment twist his body around (and sadly his tail at the same time, thus failing to see it) to try and get a good look at his fifth appendage. Mirri continued pointing the cigarette forward like a gun. "I saw him come sopping wet out of the ocean, and the moment he was out of the water his tail rekindled itself. That is the kind of flame that I respect. The flame that burns without smoke, without fuel, it may be extinguished but it will rekindle itself on its own. You aren't even worthy to see that flame. You're nothing but fags."
Mirri used the Corel word for cigarette that also happened to have a completely different connotation when in Midgar. This meaning was not lost on the assembled revenants, one of whom lunged at her, only to receive the same dissection as the first one. "You can only extend your lives by burning up everything good around you and replacing it with smoke. God help someone if they actually come into contact with you, you're full of poisons."
Mirri loaded new blades into her gloves. "We will stomp you out, and extinguish your flames. Don't hold on anything back James, hit them with everything you have. But first, close your eyes."
Regardless of the fact that James was standing before numerous heavily armed foes, he closed his eyes. Mirri kissed him. After holding that kiss for about as long as she could count on her actions to keep the dead SOLDIERS too flabbergasted to react, she let it go and took a deep breath.
"You can open your eyes now James. Go show them why you're the joker in my deck." The joker, that was the perfect symbol for James, he practically danced (if without coordination) when he moved, and he considered it his job to make everyone happy. The fool, the idiot, the joker, it was the most valuable card in the deck and most carried only two of them, these SOLDIERS were about to learn why.
James finally opened his eyes and took off his hat handing it to Mirri. "I need you to hold onto this Mirri, and I suggest you cover your eyes." Mirri didn't. James stepped forward and faced the mass of dead bodies, at least two score of dead SOLDIERS. "I hate to do this, but you guys have made me. It's time for the gloves to come off... that's what I'd say if I didn't sort of need my gloves to fight you. Anyway, I have a question for you, if you put a cat in a box and open the box an hour later, what does it mean if the only part of the cat that remains is its smile? DOUBLE BLIND!"
As James cried out the name of his Limit Break, the flame on his tail grew stronger till it emitted such a bright light that Mirri's corneas just couldn't take it. When the light had passed and Mirri opened her eyes again, she watched the proceedings with a certain amount of detached amusement. The mass of SOLDIERs were trying to hack at James with swords, or shoot him dead with guns, which would have worked better if they could find James.
Actually, finding James was easy, the entire room was flooded with Firecats. Jameses (Jamesi?) were jumping here there and everywhere with strands of wire shooting from their gloves and ripping through the SOLDIERs' bodies. The SOLDIERs fought with the strength and courage of the dammed, literally. When James cut off their heads, their torsos would continue to fight onward. It wasn't until the bodies were sliced into six different segments that they finally turned to dust and vanished.
The SOLDIERS had meant to attack Mirri en masse, but now they found their numbers and enclosed terrain turned against them. Occasionally one of the Firecat's would be struck down, but it would simply vanish into wisps of smoke. Mirri watched it all happen and smirked.
"Nice to see that Jenova isn't the only one who can play mind games." James who happened to be standing right next to Mirri watching the multitude of him attacking the SOLDIERS like chocobos in a pen being slaughtered, nodded. "Yeah, you know I always thought 'frightened to death' was just an expression. Who would guess that it would be the actual truth? Of course this is more like "frightened back to death" since they're already dead, but still..."
Mirri nodded and fired her blades into the mass of SOLDIERS though it was thoroughly unnecessary. "Don't try to think about it James. Besides they're not really being frightened to death. They're just discovering the dangers of the modern world. So this is what splitting the atom could do?" James shrugged helplessly his ears pressed back slightly. "Actually this is just a study in reduction like Schrödinger's cat taught me. This is what life would be like if we were atoms instead of people. What isn't against the rules is compulsory."
Mirri snorted in humor at that explanation. James lived by it well enough most of the time, now he was just taking it to extremes. "So is each one of those actually you?" James flicked his ears slightly. "No, I'm me. Those are just carbon copies of me, literally, considering Schrödinger's cat said that they're mostly made of carbon atoms. If those SOLDIERS happened to be alive then they would be able to realize by now what's happening to them, but as they're dead, they can't.
Apparently Schrödinger's cat spends a lot of time with the undead and he told me that only the living are able to really 'count' for observation. Of course since he's undead himself he can do a lot more with it than I can, because he never actually observes himself. I'm always observing myself, so I know where I am, the key thing however, is that those guys over there don't know where I am.
So ergo, since my position can not be proven, I am everywhere and nowhere to them. Everywhere their blades strike I am not, and I strike from every angle." Mirri didn't need James commentary, she could see the SOLDIERS getting hacked to bits one limb at a time, and the countless number of James who were doing it. Of course to her the repetitions of James were ghostly figures that she could see right through.
But to the dead, well the saying was that the dead knew their own, to them those figures were as real as could be. Of course the only reason that the figures looked ghostly to her was because James was currently living thus quite aware of his own position. To an extent it made even Mirri's brain hurt just thinking about it. So instead she just laughed to herself as she watched those who had planned to slaughter her be slaughtered themselves.
It was a pleasant sight, particularly when the SOLDIER whose head was barely connected to his body apparently realized what was happening. He turned and raced at Mirri and James because they were the only two who were standing still. He dropped his sword as James took off both of his arms. Mirri then proceeded to take off his legs leaving his a only slightly headed stump on the ground. "Like I said before, you're nothing but a cigarette flickering in the darkness, easy to extinguish." Mirri slashed with her blades, and the boot descended on top of the cigarette quelling its flame for all eternity.
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Part two: Lets shout it loud and clear defiant to the end. OR: With our vengeance, we have no time to bleed.
Alexander Diamondclaw and Vincent Valentine.
"We'll make our stand here." Both Alex and Vincent were already hurting; neither was bleeding but both of them had been wounded about a dozen times. /Yes, let them come!\ Alex and Vincent had been making their way down the pathway when they had apparently run into every single monster that lived in North Crater. They had been in far too wide an area of North Crater to fight that massed army, so they pulled back.
Vincent had been rapidly loading and shooting rounds from Death Penalty, blowing big holes in the monstrous bodies. Alex had done everything in his power to hold back the massive rush that threatened to drag him down by sheer weight alone. They had pulled back till they had apparently made a wrong turn.
They had come to a cul de sac with only one way in, but at least the opening was narrow. There was now place left to run, Vincent loaded another bullet into Death Penalty with a jerk of its lever. There could be no fancy tricks with bullets this time, he had only one bullet filled with his blood left, and he had already wasted too many. These things, whatever they were (and there were monsters of all kinds) apparently had acidic blood, and shooting a single one caused the bullet which pierced its skin to melt into its base components a few moments later. Vincent brought Death Penalty up, steadied it with both hands, and fired into the darkness.
At least he had no lack of bullets, and he knew that from the cry of pain and rage that the shot had not been wasted. He jerked the lever back, and the empty casing shot out leaving a trail of smoke behind it.
Alex was taking a moment to lick his wounds; fighting foes whose blood burned his fur and flesh was a new experience for him. He was learned how to work around it however, and did so by applying the oldest of lupine tactics. Break the neck in one clean snap and then toss it away. Doing so allowed him to avoid any true contact with the things' caustic blood, but given the current situation, blows to the neck would soon be hard to achieve.
What they had to do was obvious, if the mass managed to force its way into the culdasac, neither the Garou nor vampire stood a chance. Vincent would keep shooting trying to kill them all off one at a time, while Alex did everything he could to hold them back for as long as he could. Vincent started to one hand Death Penalty, and his rate of fire went from impressive to miraculous considering his weapon.
He drew out a bullet from the bag strapped across his shoulder, holding it with his back two fingers. Then he griped the lever with the front two and thumb of his right hand and pulled it back. It took a simple twist of his hand to shove the bullet into the gun after the spent round automatically shot out of it. Then his front three once again jerked the lever forward to chamber the bullet. He took another bullet with his right hand as he steadied Death Penalty with his lefthand, and fired. By the time he had fired his right hand was once again pulling the lever back to load a new bullet.
Alex licked his paw for a moment and growled. /You know, we are going to die this time Vincent.\ Vincent's right four fingers and a thumb were doing the work of two hands. "I'm already dead Alex." The high "CRACK" of Death Penalty was music to both of their ears. /You know what I mean Vincent.\ A monster rushed forward, and did so far too recklessly. Alex standing slightly to the side of the opening easily crushed the things neck and airway with a paw swipe. It kept going forward and collapsed on the ground at Vincent's feat. "Yes I do. So is this how you planned to leave the world?"
Vincent fired another round into the darkness that held countless foes. /More or less, surrounded by foes, kicking, screaming, clawing, biting to the end, my death will do Fenris proud. Of course I never planned to die fighting alongside a vampire.\ Vincent loaded another bullet fired even as he was reaching for his next one.
"Well I always expected to die surrounded by human beings, fighting human foes, with automatic weapons. I didn't even know that all this occult stuff existed, let alone that I'd be a vampire. But more or less this is how I planed to die, fighting impossible odds with a friend."
These ones came slower, they were smaller, and the two were coming in together. However good their planning was, their timing was horrible. Vincent had the best shot he could have asked for, and he took it. One of the smaller monsters rolled over and died, as its head was blown in. Alex rushed the other one, and was careful to simply sever it's neck with a quick claw slash. He jumped back before the caustic blood could truly start flowing from the wound and also to clear Vincent's line of fire.
/Die with a friend? I could do that.\ Vincent loaded and fired very quickly not sure what shape the next threat would take. "I really doubt that the monsters are going to give us a choice on that one." Alex let out a low growl, using his nose to achieve the same level of perception that Vincent got with his eyes.
/Well look on the bright side, vampire, after dieing here in this way, I am sure we will go straight to Valhala. No waiting in the Fields of Slaughter for us! Straight to the land of wine and women!/ As soon as the 'words' were out of Alex's mouth it happened. Everything stopped, the snarling monsters fell back and a voice stretched out to them.
"Very well done Alexander. All you had to do was defeat us was ally yourself with the filth of the undead. What right do you have to call us fallen when you consort with such?" Alex's body went still. His pupils dilated, his lips drew back from his teeth, and his ears lay flat along his head. Vincent curiosity was assuaged as Alex identified the new threat /Black Spiral Dancers.\
Vincent had another round loaded but he couldn't see anything to shoot so he took a moment to steady Death Penalty with both hands and turned to Alex. "And those are..?" Alex entire body quivered with a mix of fear, hatred, disgust and excitement. /They were once the White Howlers, a tribe whose ferocity rivaled that of the Fenrir. They thought to use the powers of the Wyrm against her, but their minds were too weak. She tricked them, and, thinking they had achieved their aim, they disobeyed the Silver Fangs and attacked her alone. She devoured their totem and their souls, then sent them out to capture members of other tribes. They make their lair here, in the Planet's greatest infected wound, and take their name from the winding paths that lead to the center.\
Vincent looked into the darkness and swore to shame the Captain. "You're telling me they're evil werewolves?" Alex nodded /Yes. Make sure to aim for the head, you can't hope to harm them unless you shoot them in the head.\ "They're going to come in here and try to kill us?" /No, we are going to go out there, and we are going to kill them.\
"Dare I ask why?" /They try uphold their corrupted sense of honor, like covering filth with straw. They claim to be the strongest of the Wyrm's forces, and refuse to work with any of her other monsters, still showing the same arrogance that damned them in the first place. They are vile, monstrous failures, and they must be killed. They mock my honor as a son of Fenris because I work with you, when they will not work with vampires unless directly ordered by the Wyrm. They mock my honor, and they mock yours.\
"I'm neither Garou nor human, I'm a vampire; I have no honor left to mock." /You're a Tzimisce, are you not? It is said that those of your kind can not only control, but also take the form of wolves. In the name of Fenris I declare you of his Get, and those who disagree with my judgment can argue with me! Now then, in the name of Fenris, let us go forward and slay his foes!\
Vincent glanced at Alex and reached into the shadow of his cape. "Fine, we'll do that, but they'll expect us to come out as wolves. We're going to walk out, and we'll do it as human beings. If they expect us to fight tooth and nail, we will kill them with bullets. It's what the deserve for bringing claws to a gun fight, take this." Vincent produced a shotgun of the significantly illegal variety and passed it to Alex.
"The trigger fires the thing, and if you have to reload, well, spend all your shots before you try to, it's automatic so it will load the next slug instantly." Alex shifted to his human form, and slowly took the shotgun from Vincent. Not only was it automatic, it had also had its barrel sawed off, and Alex took it slowly and carefully. "This won't help me against a Black Spiral."
Vincent smiled as he spoke. "I bought this in Icicle Village; they sell all kinds of weird stuff up there to anyone with enough money. Like automatic shotguns, of course I had to take the barrel off myself. Oh, did I mention for some weird reason I was able to get them to make shells loaded with silver pellets? That was when we hated each other, and I thought I might need it. So consider it a bridge between Jenova and Garou. It doesn't have much range, so make sure you're close. Now let's go shoot their tails off."
"Their heads." Alex looked over the shotgun, and Vincent passed him a pair of clips, which he put in his pockets. "You probably won't be able to reload, if you need them, just slam them in where the first clip was..." Vincent pointed out all the necessary points and Alex stood up with the shotgun in a two handed grip. "You're a natural." "I know. We of the Get of Fenris are natural killers because we are nature's killers, now let us go."
Vincent and Alex walked out, and there were five men waiting for them. They were all dressed in tatters of black clothing and one of them pointed and accusing finger at Alex. "Heh, you make this hunt too easy, Alexander Diamondclaw. But we will still have fun defiling your corpse." Alex and Vincent exchanged one quick look. "Fine words for ones who could not frighten a poodle. You have made your threats, the Get of Fenris will now respond in kind."
The one who had pointed his finger at Alex never had a chance. Death Penalty cracked and the Dancer's brains blew out the back of his head. Regardless of if he could regenerate as a human, he was dead before he hit the ground. Vincent also had another round in the chamber before he did.
"The Get of Fenris have no need of Philodoxes when dealing with such as you, we will kill you to the last pup and bitch." The tainted werewolves transformed to Crinos before Vincent could kill another one as easily as the first. Their Crinos form was very different from Alex's, their fur was black and matted, their eyes as red as Vincent's. White foam seeped from between their jaws, and they surged forward with the strength of madness.
Alex waited for the last possible second and pulled the trigger. The Garou had made blades, and of course bows with silver tipped arrows for the last great battle they had fought against each other. An automatic sawed off shotgun, however, was something completely new to both the person holding it and the person about to feel the effect.
There was no small crack like Vincent's rifle; there was a thundering boom as a shell exploded inside the gun. The BSD who happened to be coming right for Alex then got a very unpleasant example of what prehensile digits could be used for. The storm of small silver pellets erupted from the gun's muzzle and tore into the BSD as it charged Alex. In a spectacular display of bloodshed, the thing was in pieces by the time it took it's next step. The empty slug shot of out of the gun, and a new one pushed itself into its place.
The second one was close enough to take a swipe at Alex, but he had much less practice hitting a Cetra body than Alex had at keeping one from getting hit. Alex dropped to the ground and fired. The tainted beast was caught totally by surprise as the shotgun reduced its innards to swiss cheese. It looked down at its wounds, almost as surprised as Alex that such a relatively small weapon could inflict such heinous damage so quickly. Alex, understandably, recovered much faster. His third shot took his opponent in the face point-blank, leaving little but bloody tatters behind. Vincent, meanwhile, was dealing with his own two foes, although his methods were far more fitting to his particular idiom. Vincent took a step back, then dissolved into shadows. The two fallen werewolves snarled and turned to face Alex, only to be struck from behind by a pair of shadowy figures. One of them was Tseng, although his entire body was in black relief, and Makomune's blade shone with a black parody of light. He leapt on one of the Dancer's backs and drove the blade through its head. The unfortunate monster slumped to the ground a moment later, dead without a mark on him.
The second figure was that of a giant two headed dog with eyes filled with the fires of hell. It slammed into the BSD, the hellhound might have been smaller, but it still ravenously tore into the BSD till one head crushed the skull while the other did the same for the neck. Alex looked at this odd tablue, but only for a moment, he could hear more BSDs coming.
Muttering a quick, "I don't care anymore" he turned in the direction from which the BSDs would come, and raised his shotgun. He even managed to slip a new clip into the thing before the next wave hit them. Dozens of corrupted werewolves charged them, met by Tseng's blade, the hellhound's jaws, and bursts of shotgun fire. When he ran out of ammo, Alex tossed aside the gun and shifted to Crinos. No matter how many they killed, the haunting howls and yips echoing through the caverns reminded them that there were plenty more. Eventually, Alex and Vincent were driven back into the cul de sac, in much worse condition then before. Tseng vanished as Vincent had retaken his human form, and the two lay clutching their wounds, which wouldn't heal but oozed blood and a strange greenish pus. /We're about to die.\
Vincent started laughing at Alex's morose words, as he lay on the ground, gripping Death Penalty with his bleeding hands. "No, they are. I have a plan, but it'll take a little while to execute. I'll also need your help. I'm going to ask a lot of you, but if this works, they will all die." /What do you need?\ "I need you to go back out there and give me as much time and as many corpses as you can." /If it will see this filth cleansed from my planet, I'd even give you my own.\
Alex slowly stood, shook himself, and loped to the choke point. /Mother Gaia, Sister Luna, in this tainted place, grant me your strength! HERO'S STAND!\ As the first Black Spirals drew close, Alex's feet seemed to meld partially with the stone of the cavern floor. His wounds stopped bleeding and began to heal, and he nearly doubled in size. He snarled defiance at the oncoming black tide, but his features contorted with pain as Luna's blessing took hold.
When the first twisted monstrosity came within his newly extended reach, he shredded it with foot-long, silver claws. He gutted the next one, tore a third in half and flung the pieces into the onrushing horde. His mind-voice roared in their heads even as they leapt upon him. /Though you be legion, my cause is righteous and my wrath terrible! By Gaia, Luna and Fenris, you shall not pass, nor shall one of you survive this day!\
The entire Black Spiral Dancer tribe must have turned up for the fight. They were a screaming, howling ocean, but Alexander was a mountain. Time and again they would break against him, the dead and dying trampled by the next wave. Vincent couldn't see much past Alex's massive form, but he could hear battlecries and death screams mingle in the chaos and smell the endless flow of blood from mangled corpses, mingled with the cleaner scent of Alex's own blood. Even a mountain may be worn away by the tides, and Vincent could see that he'd have to implement his plan soon.
Alex fell to one knee under the weight of his attackers, and before he could throw them off, a single Dancer leapt over him and charged Vincent, but dropped like a stone when he stood, drew Quicksilver, and put a bullet in each of its eyes. As it tried to rise, he tore out its throat. The twisted beast regrew its eyes just in time to drown in its own blood.
Turning from his victim, Vincent cast his awareness out into the unbelievable amount of blood coating the floor of the cavern. Blood was a simple thing, really. It didn't take much effort to convince it to go home, especially if you specialized in manipulating it. Hundreds of mangled corpses filled with blood and rose to their feet, missing limbs, torsos or heads forming out of bloody shadow. Animated by the hijacked blood of their tribe, the dead Dancers turned on their former comrades, turning the siege into a rout. Nearly half of the tribe was either dead or dying when Vincent struck, but those killed by his undead army stayed where they fell. Vincent slumped against the wall, a satisfied smile playing across his lips. He'd known it would work, of course. He just hadn't expected to be standing when it did.
As his fallen foes staggered to their feet and attacked his living ones, Alex fell to his knees, his vision swimming, his mind drowning in the scent of blood. His feet separated from the ground, he returned to his normal, 9-foot height, and he was dimly aware that he was about to pass out.
Not even the gifts of the Wyrm could save them from the holocaust that this section of the cave had turned into. Finally, when they were the only beings standing, the shadows departed from the undead Black Spiral Dancers, leaving the mangled corpses to drop to the ground.
Vincent looked down, he and Alex were the only two living (as much as that could be said of Vincent) beings that were left in these areas of the caves. As he became acutely aware of creaky joints and wrinkled hands, Vincent reached out once again, this time calling the blood into him. He stopped feeding when he reached his mid twenties, but the floors were still slick with blood.
"I don't care how much blood or how many souls we freed up, I never want to do that again." Alex staggered to his feet, dozens of fresh scars crisscrossing his body. /Be grateful that we are brave and have honor, for now I know what the Fields of Slaughter must be like./
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Part 3: A phantom to lead you in the summer. OR: I need a brain wash, grey matter bath.
Melkore Morningstar and Niro Rose.
Niro and Melkore were busily making their way down to the bottom of the world. Things were going fine, till some freaky guy with an extra finger on each hand got in their way. He actually had a lot of superficial similarities with Melkore. He wore a labcoat that, like Melkore's, was presumably once white, but his was even filthier. Beyond the normal "miscellaneous stains" that come standard with a life spent in a lab, his coat was stained with blood and way too short. His mini-coat and pants were covered in zippers, each presumably over a pocket(although Melkore was convinced that at least a few of them were just for show). He had blond hair, blue eyes, and glasses that would probably be best categorized as "way-too-many-focal." They consisted of about a dozen lenses of various widths and thicknesses, al on rollers so he could configure his glasses as microscopes, binoculars, or just about anything in between.
The man just looked at Melkore and Niro for a while. Finally, he and Melkore asked the same question at almost exactly the same time: "Who are you, and what the hell are you doing here?" Well, almost the same question. The stranger swapped all his 'w's with 'v's.
The man looked around the walls of North Crater and swore in a language that neither Niro nor Melkore could understand. When he finally started speaking in an understandable dialect it was still tinged with a strange accent. "Damn you, Schrödinger, you were supposed to be taking us back to the Panther's Den!"
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(Somewhere)
"Dam it Schrö, you're supposed to clear this kind of cameo with me ahead of time." "Hey, I told you about it as you were writing it, that's ahead of time." "Okay fine, but what the crap just happened?" "Herr Doctor wanted a cameo, you've given one to everyone else."
"Okay, but maybe you should have brought this to my attention before I was writing the final battle, as it isn't exactly the best place in the world for a guy with no weapons." "So what are you going to do about it?" "What do you think I'm going to do?" "Knowing you, you're gonna call in a reset." "Damn straight that's what I'm gonna do!"
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"I HOPE HANS CUTS YOUR EARS OFF WITH A RUSTY CHEESE GRATER!" "Excuse me member of the ignorant masses, what are you doing in the ACROSS secret headquarters?" "Secret Headquarters? Are you guys trying to conquer ze vorld also?" "Yes." "Vhat ze hell?"
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(Not so long later)
"HEIL, MIEN FÜRHER ILLPALAZZO!"
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(The somewhere mentioned previously)
"What the hell was that?" "That's something that I'm going to have to write as well at some point." "Yeah, I always wanted to spend some time trying to conquer the world east to west instead of the other way around."
"Fine, Fine! Now tell me what I'm supposed to do with the situation? Just because you're my muse doesn't mean you can tell me what to write about." "Fine, you want me to fix the problems on the other end of things?" "It would be nice." "Okay, I'll fix it."
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"Niro, did you just see a hole with arms go running by? Except it was more like floating than running because even though it had arms it didn't have legs or feet." "I thought I saw some guy who looked like James except shorter and wearing brown." "Right, then. Huh, I suddenly realized I don't care any more."
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Part Four: I'm just a man, I'm not a hero, I don't care we'll carry on! OR: I know who you are, the leader of lost souls.
Sephiroth Valentine and Aeris Gaste
Aeris and Sephiroth made their way through yet another winding corridor before finally coming to a huge, open room. There were four different passages that led into the room, so apparently the other six would eventually arrive there, but there was no time to wait for them. Jenova and Cloud were both eagerly awaiting them, and things only got worse for Aeris at that point.
Sephiroth suddenly froze and because of his greater height Aeris couldn't see why. She stepped into Sephiroth's back, stumbled, and fell over. Jenova did nothing, though Cloud advanced on her, sword raised. /Don't even bother trying to beg my son for protection, he can no longer hear you!\
Aeris had heard that before, but she didn't have time to contradict Jenova. She had to deal with Cloud first, and he was once again poised to drive his sword into her body. "Now just be a good little girl and die!" Mirri called it a 'coup de grace', Aeris called it 'what you did when you had the chance'. "I'm not that good."
In the time it took Cloud to go down, his eyes as crossed as his legs in pain, Aeris was back up. Cloud managed to regain his footing a lot sooner than most people would have and he had held onto his sword. He swung it wildly at Aeris, but by that time Aeris had fully transformed. Her entire body was coated with fur, and Cloud was still "fighting the last war" as Sephiroth would say.
Cloud was fast, but Aeris feinted to the left and lunged to the right. It was harder to do then if she had been fully human, but she still pulled it off. Then she went down on all four legs, and rushed Cloud. His blade whistled through the air and sliced through Aeris' left shoulder, but Aeris repaid that action in kind. She put her head down and threw her much greater weight against Cloud.
The wound in her shoulder hurt, Cloud must have gotten the Buster Sword coated with silver after he failed to kill her last time. That would have made him quite dangerous, except that after all 800 pounds of Aeris' Crinos form bodyslammed him, Cloud went bouncing along the rocky ground and this time he did lose his grip on Zack's sword. Aeris spun toward Jenova as she levitated in the air.
She growled words regardless of if Jenova was able to comprehend them. "I'm not fond of killing, but don't think I'll hesitate for an instant dealing with you!" Aeris hadn't been able to learn how to jump like Alex could, but to a certain degree it wasn't needed. She had plenty of lupine leg muscle, and the Crinos form was made for letting you do everything a wolf could do, but better. Jenova was only hovering about 10 feet off the ground, Aeris had no trouble jumping high enough to rip and tear at Jenova's body.
She was only able to effectively slash with one of her forelimbs because of her wounded shoulder. Still, she drew blood several times before landing. As she landed she congratulated herself, and then instantly regretted it. It was such an obvious thing, Mirri, Alex, and Sephiroth had all told it to her. "Don't get cocky." She had, and now she paid for it.
While she had attacked Jenova, Cloud had gotten back up and gotten Zack's sword back. As Aeris landed he tossed it at her, and it ripped through her body. If she had been in any form but Crinos, it would have killed her instantly. As it was, the blade wedged itself in her body, nearly blinding her with pain. It didn't quite cut her in half, but it still left her a crippled mess. Sephiroth was still standing as still as a statue, his body rooted in place. Aeris knew that, barring a miracle, she was about to die.
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"Why do you try to do me harm, my son?" Sephiroth's body refused to move, no matter how his mind screamed that he had to kill the women before him. She looked nothing like his mother had, he knew that now, but knowing he was getting played like a fool only made it worse. His mother's name was Lucresia not Jenova, and she had brown hair, not silver. Sephiroth wanted to strike Jenova down, but he couldn't move a muscle.
"Why do you still try to resist me Sephiroth? I gave you life far more then that pathetic wench whose womb you came out of. After all, what would you have been without me Sephiroth? A biological experiment? A physiological freak?" She said it so very sweetly, too. Sephiroth would have sold his soul to kill her, he would have taken help from any source he could find even if he had to give up his life after he did the deed. That's when the wolf came.
Its fur was auburn, almost the same color as Aeris' wolf form. It hit Jenova from behind, but she spun around to strike back. Even as the wolf tried to get at her throat, Jenova grabbed the wolf around its neck instead. It would have been over then and there, except that Jenova was unable to get a good grip with her arm thanks to the wound the wolf had inflicted on its first attack.
Even if Jenova couldn't break the wolf's neck, she could still strangle it. Sephiroth knew that he had to help the wolf. He couldn't escape a feeling of déjà vu, but his ruminations were interrupted by a blinding flash of light.
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"Hey, Seph...?" "One, where the hell, two, what the hell, three are you doing here?" James didn't have his hat on and he took a moment to scratch his left ear before he answered. "Oh, I've got no real idea. But apparently, Schrödinger wasn't kidding when he said I'd end up everywhere and nowhere."
"James, do you know those bad movies Melkore showed you? The ones with flashbacks inside flashbacks, that's about what this feels like." "So you want me to get out of here right?" "YES!" "Oh, I'd like to be here to help, but I'm sort of busy killing SOLDIERS and Mirri's busy watching while she laughs her heads off with the joy of seeing people slaughtered twice. Since I can't do anything else, let me give you some advice I see what your problem is, and I think I've got an idea.
You see, I was training with Alex once, and I asked him about Jenova and her legacy, cause I thought it was sort of my legacy, too. Alex said it wasn't, because even though Jenova can control monsters like vampires and people, she could never control animals. Apparently they don't think complex enough thoughts for her to latch onto them." Sephiroth resisted the urge to throttle this... whatever it was of James right then and there. "In case you hadn't noticed James, I happened to be a human being, and therefore somewhat detached from the "animal" category."
James looked patronizingly at Sephiroth, now that was an experience guaranteed to kill someone's ego. "Wow Seph, Mirri was right, you do have an underdeveloped imagination. It's your mind; it's easy to be an animal, hell you don't even have to be an animal that exists." As James spoke his body did not shift like Niro or Alex, he simply was. He was now a six limbed animal that had a vaguely feline body structure and thoroughly feline face, right down to the whiskers.
Not even the lack of the necessary vocal chords could make James be quiet, of course. Whatever the hell kind of animal he now was, it apparently had telepathy just so that he could keep talking. /See what I mean, it's easy! Of course now I've suddenly got this strange urge to eat celery, but that's neither here nor there. Now you just do the same!\ James exited off with a very giddy six legged stride.
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Sephiroth was back in his mind. He decided anything was better then just standing still, so he closed his eyes and turned on a part of his mind that he hadn't consciously used in countless years. "I will not die a monster." He imagined what he needed, and slowly he felt it happening. He felt the pair of wings growing, he felt fingers turning into talons, and he felt the paralysis lifting from his body.
A silver falcon dove straight at Jenova, a bone chilling screech echoing out of its beak. Its talons slashed across Jenova's face, blinding one of her eyes. It wasn't a critical wound, but it felt right in so many ways to see that face that Jenova loved so much slashed with red lines. It felt even better to see her cover her face with both tentacles, dropping the wolf and leaving her defenseless against it. It felt best of all to see the wolf go for Jenova's throat and succeed.
-----
Sephiroth was back in his body, wonderful. For some reason, he still had wings, but this was no time to question, this was time to act. Strife was in the middle of drawing Zack's blade from Aeris' body to kill her. He was focused on that one task with sadistic glee. He didn't have a chance in hell.
Just as the Buster Sword was about to bite into Aeris' flesh, a bolt of lightning struck Cloud, sending him sprawling. That got the attention of both of both of Sephiroth's opponents as they turned to face him while he finally descended down the slope. "Jenova, you forget one of the cardinal rules of the malevolently ambitious. Never create a superweapon that can be used against you."
Strife growled with animalistic rage as he looked at Sephiroth. "What do you think you are, an angel?" Then he leapt at him, Buster Sword flashing. Sephiroth easily blocked his overhand blow, and then did the last thing his opponent expected. Last time, Sephiroth had been trying to keep his distance; this time, instead of withdrawing backwards in hopes of claiming some high ground, Sephiroth pressed on. "No, but here's your chance to fly." He shoved upward, sending Strife several feet into the air, then executed a spinning slash as his opponent came back down.
Strife, of course, had no problem blocking it, but the impact sent him flying towards the ceiling. Jenova brought herself around to hover between Sephiroth and her puppet while he recovered.
"Can't you see that it's hopeless? Your Cetra bitch lies dying. Just like soon all of the inhabitants, no, this very world itself will!" Sephiroth slowly took one step towards Jenova. "She lies wounded. That girl won't quit while she can draw breath. None of my Seraphim will. Me, I've got a different problem.
Thanks to what Hojo did to me, thanks to what you did to me, I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard. Always taking constant care not break something, to break someone. Never allowing myself not to lose control, even for a moment or someone could die! But you can take it, can't you Jenova? What we have here is a rare opportunity for me to cut lose and show you just how powerful I really am."
Sephiroth twisted and made as if to sheath Masamune in preparation to use both of his hands for magic, but he somehow missed his target. He had been putting his heightened senses to good use keeping track of exactly where Strife was, and it had paid off. His blow at Sephiroth's "unprotected" back slammed up against Masamune and stopped short.
Sephiroth normally knew that you should never show your back to a foe; that was right there in Combat 101. Granted, Sephiroth had decided before this fight even started that he would be using the rule books as so much kindling. That's why once again he managed to take Strife by surprise when he jumped backwards, keeping his hands tight on Masamune's hilt and striving to force it upwards. Strife couldn't move aside without letting Masamune remove his head, so he held his ground, but while he could block Masamune, he couldn't block Sephiroth. Their combined weight forced him to the ground, and Sephiroth was prepared to go down. He rolled off his foe, needing to twist his body only once to find himself in perfect position. His blade arced out and drew blood as it sliced through Strife's leg. His opponent was quick to respond and Sephiroth rolled one more time to avoid an attempt at decapitation before rising to his feet to take a more traditional fighting stance.
Strife looked at his wounded leg, realized that he would have to finish things fast before his found himself weakening. He felt Jenova's will wash over him, granting him strength and speed well beyond what his body should have been able to produce. "OMNISLASH!" Strife leapt, dashed, and just generally flailed the Buster sword around, trusting in brute strength and the weight of the sword to see him through. Sephiroth stood his ground, blocking each stroke and spinning with the force of the blows, his lightning reflexes consistently putting Masamune in place to deflect every strike, sparks flashing at every meeting of the blades.
Sephiroth met Strife's final, overhead slash head-on. Sephiroth jumped backwards and readjusted his fighting stance. "Silver's mate in five moves." Strife edged closer to Sephiroth slowly. "What are you babbling about?"
Sephiroth slowly ran his left hand as far along Masamune's length as it would easily go. "You don't have a chance against us. Masamune, don't you feel sorry for the Buster Sword? All Strife can do is wave it about with every ounce of his strength like it's a log. No blade deserves that. A sword can live or die depending on its master. Let's put it out of its misery, after all I'm slightly worried about the woman I love. Silver's mate in five moves. Masamune and I are going to cut through the air five more times, and then you are going to die."
"Bullshit!"
Sephiroth placed both hands on Masamune's hilt and smiled.
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Aeris watched the fight through eyes blurred by pain and blood loss. "Wherever there is light, there is darkness. Silver Eclipse!" It might have just been some kind of delusion caused by Aeris' wounds but for a moment it looked like Sephiroth vanished. Then he reappeared, swung Masamune once through empty air, and sheathed it.
Cloud Strife's body split into six pieces. Both of his arms slid off of his torso, both of his legs came off at the knee cap, apparently severed by the same stroke, and then his head fell from his shoulders. All six parts of his body as well as the Buster Sword fell into the pulsating Lifestream below them, then Sephiroth began to slowly walk over to her.
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"Are you okay?" Aeris nodded weakly, the wound looked bad, but Sephiroth was no expert on animals. Still, if the nodding was weak, there was nothing pathetic in the spirit behind it; Sephiroth could trust in her determination to keep her alive.
The puppet dealt with and Aeris checked, Sephiroth finally turned to Jenova. "I have only one word left for you. Burn. SUPERNOVA!" It put James' ring of fire to shame. This was not red flame, this was flame so hot that it burned white. Nor was it a simple ring of it, it was a tidal wave. Jenova's scream echoed long his ears, and he enjoyed every single second of it. There was no ash left when the flame subsided.
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The Seraphim
Part Five: Son when you grow up, would you be the saviour of the broken, the beaten, and the damned? OR: Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me.
"This doesn't help anything you realize?" Niro as always was practical. Sephiroth slowly traced a circle with his eyes around the scared rocks that were all that remained of Jenova before he gave an honest answer with a smile on his face. "It made me feel better, that's something few things in the world can do." Niro checked his gun, he hadn't fired it once, and thus felt somewhat cowed by the others with their war stories.
But cowed was hardly the right word for Niro, he never backed down, he just faded into the background more. He did so now, though his voice did not fade away at all. "Just saying that we're all going to die when that rock slams into us. All we're looking at is mutual assured destruction."
Alex pawed the ground in irritation, he had been greatly impressed by Sephiroth and Aeris' depiction of Jenova's death and resented taking the focus off that event, hatred can often outlive the hated. /No matter what we do, we can't fight that thing. Let us rejoice that we have slain the Wyrm and in doing so assured our position in Valhalla.\ Aeris looked down into the pool of lifestream into which Cloud had dropped.
Its existence was a statement on how deep the caves of North Crater went. The group was now so far down that they had reached an area were the Planet's wounds had never healed. Looking at it, Aeris shuddered slightly. "If only I still had the White Materia. I think, I know, I could summon Holy if I had it. That could fight Meteor, fight and win now that Jenova is gone. If only I hadn't dropped it."
"Take it." Mirri opened her jacket and removed a perfectly round object that looked like it was an oversized white marble rather than materia. Six jaws fell slack, only James was immune to the surprise of the moment. Niro even went so far as to take of his glasses to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was. "Mirri... where did you get this?"
Mirri shrugged, her entire body practically radiating gratification, like a cat at a priceless (and defenseless) bird convention. "You gave it to me back in Bone Village." "How..." What Aeris couldn't put to words Vincent could. He slapped his face hard enough to shatter his red sunglasses (which had by some quirk of luck survived up to this point) into pieces of broken glass and bent frames.
"After you almost died, I went down to the bottom of the lake, got that thing, and climbed back out, I don't need to breath and my claw made getting down easy, it was only about 20 feet deep all told. I felt if it was important enough that you should have made Master... I mean Sephiroth upset it must have been worth getting wet over. Then I put in a pocket of my jacket... which I gave to you."
Aeris shuddered slightly. "I threw that jacket away when I got new clothing." Mirri finished. "Which I searched through, you wouldn't believe the kind of things James leaves laying around if you don't pick up after him, shoes, food, perfectly good ammo clips. It may have been my maternal instincts, but I couldn't help looking through your discarded clothes, and low and behold, this is what I found."
"Un. Fucking. Believable." Melkore might not believe it, but James did. "Oh come on, it's not like it was impossible. If anyone could have done this Mirri would have." Before anything else could be said, Aeris took the white materia from Mirri. "I released the seals back in the City of the Ancients, I should be able to use this anywhere."
Aeris held the White Materia and closed her eyes, everyone held their breath for what felt like a full sixty seconds but there was no visible response. "No, damn it! I can't believe after everything I've been through I'm still not strong enough!" /Don't blame yourself because it takes a pack to kill an elk.\ Though of all Alex's lupine phrases this one was probably the easiest to understand, with everyone going through the depletion of adrenaline and the general post-combat fugue, it lacked the inspirational touch he might have hoped for. "Which means we should do what exactly?"
Alex barked a laugh. /We only happen to be standing in the very middle of Gaia's most corrupted Caern. Even with the Wyrm herself slain, the taint still hangs in the air. You expect to be able to work gifts here without interference?\ Even Aeris was on her last couple of nerves, a rare occurrence. "I could shift just fine when I was fighting!" Alex gave her a deadpan(for a wolf) look.
/Shifting isn't a gift of Gaia, it's the birthright of the Garou. If, however, we're going to activate the power of Holy in here, we're going to have to find a focus to gather our power in, one that won't be obstructed, or better yet would be strengthened by the corruption of Gaia.\ Eyes slowly turned in the inevitable direction whenever anyone had a problem, towards Sephiroth.
"Just don't tell me we have to hold hands and chant." Alex proceeded to use his claws to make a rough circle in ground around them. /That should be enough. Also, Child of Gaia, you should shift to your Lupus form, even if it's not your true shape you will be more easily able to connect with your gnosis.\ Aeris looked at Alex, and then at the white Materia. "And I'm going to hold onto the White Materia with paws how?" Alex snorted in what Aeris felt to be a very unsupportive manner. /You expect me to know? This is the first situation I've ever heard of where a Garou has needed a materia.\
Sephiroth took off a wrist bangle that he had been wearing and proceeded to remove several mastered purple materia and one glowing yellow one from it. "I'm just eyeballing it, but this should work. Shift." Aeris tossed him the White Materia which he socketed into bangle and then carefully attached it to her left fore leg. "Now what?" /Now close your eyes and concentrate.\ "Yes everybody remember to think happy thoughts, till we all start to fly." "Melkore…" /It will actually work much better if you focus on what drives you.\
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/Not only will I destroy you Jenova, I'll cleanse the world of all of your works and pawns as well.\
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/To protect everyone and everything I can. There is a balance between life and death, we must strive so that we only kill to save life.\
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/What can humanity hope to accomplish as a mindless mass? Even some of the lowest forms of life understand there must be leaders. They can be ants, large cats, or primates, someone must be in charge. It matters very little in the whole whether the people choose the leader or the leader chooses the people, someone must rise above the ordinary. Some are born great like Sephiroth, some achieve greatness like Aeris, some have greatness thrust upon them like Vincent, and some like me, are simply great.\
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/Lucresia. Lucresia, for you, for your son, for your life, for your dreams, I will give everything, I would do anything for you.\
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/And hunters we shall be, for thee Fenris, for thee. I'll send forth a river unto thee, teeming with blood and souls shall it be. In they name, I am the last sight thine enemies see. In the name of Gaia, Luna, and Fenris, so shall it be!\
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/No way this is going to work. After everything else we've done we're still going to get squished like bugs just because it'll be funny to the gods that play pool with our planets.\
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/From survival flows opportunity. So we must survive, and to do that we must stop Meteror.\
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/You know if this works I should show Alex a oujia, oujy, ojie? Whatever, one of those boards. Of course we're trying to save the world not find out some trivial piece of information. So what drives me? I don't know, you just do what feels right, too much over thinking is bad for you. The best laid plans of sentients and sapients after all.
Come on, James, would it kill you to concentrate for once? This isn't even Sephiroth telling you to be serious, this is you telling you to be serious! Think about the giant rock that is currently on a collision course with this planet, which, all things considered, is a pretty nice place to live. Giant rock, giant rock... Dum de dum dum dum, giant rock dum de dum dum dum, gonna blow it up!\
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James Firecat's ears rose to their very peak, the fur on them standing on end.
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Behind his glasses Niro Rose's eyes fluctuated even more widely than normal before for the briefest moment going simply milk white.
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Melkore Morningstar could feel each and every string on Sylvia vibrate with the raw energy in the air.
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Alexander Diamondclaw literally gave his all as he poured forth his rage and gnosis into one single surge of raw power.
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Vincent Valentine could feel his body telling him that he was way too old for this kind of thing. He could feel his blood boil inside his skin. He could also feel it boiling outside his skin as in certain places old wounds tore themselves back open and blood pulsed forth. Interestingly enough the bloody splotches on his skin always seemed to take the form of a tear drop. The Turk promised himself then and there that he would try to have less to do with the occult for the remainder of his death.
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For the shortest moment possible Mirri could swear that she saw her parents. But she dismissed it and got back to concentrating, she knew she wasn't the first person to have odd flashbacks under heavy physical and psychological exertion.
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Aeris wished that she had more experience in Lupine form. There were so many different strange scents in the air, and she couldn't tell which she simply hadn't noticed before, and which were now being generated.
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Sephiroth felt it happening again. Just like when he had fought Jenova he could feel his power rising towards its peak. Except that it didn't stop there. Because it wasn't just his power, it was everyone's. He could actually feel the different auras surrounding the power that was going through him. The optimism of James', the confidence of Mirri's, the hope of Aeris', the strength of Alex's, the calmness of Niro's, the desperation of Vincent's, and the… Melkore-ness of Melkore's. Even his enhanced body could only take so much. He had to let it go, and soon. He reached deep into being, and found the words. "I am becoming death, destroyer of worlds. BLADE OF HEAVEN!"
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As soon as Sephiroth said those words the Lifestream below them began to bubble. It didn't last very long however before the bubbling gave way to something that was impossible to find a name for. It was as if the Lifestream was a living being in and of its self. It twisted snakelike as it began to make its way up from the depths of North Creator, somehow able to take each turn it came to without the slightest problem. With each passing second it grew larger, till it was just barely able to slip through the opening of North Creator into open air.
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It was a single rising column of solid green that could not be stopped. It went straight up from the Planet, and slammed into meteor.
It was like Melkore's cannon slug hitting the shield around North Crater. The column of green vanished, but not before the rock it hit against was blown into a million fragments so small they were not visible to the unenhanced eye, and all of them flying off in the opposite direction of the Planet due to the transfer of momentum.
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"I would like to take a moment and say, HOLY SHIT!"
"Don't mock it Melkore, I think it worked."
"It did work, Mirri, I can feel it."
"Oh, Sephiroth, you're putting on some lovely plumage on this time of year."
"I still have those?"
"Kind of hard not to notice them."
"How bad are they?"
"Bad? Those things look fantastic!"
"James just said they're fantastic, let me guess, 20 foot wingspan?"
"Not more then sixteen. On the other hand, now you could do your own duet of "ebony and ivory"."
"They aren't even the same color?"
"Don't worry, I think they look fine on you. Now all you need are the pairs to cover your feet and eyes, which cause anyone who looks directly into them to burst into flames."
"Mirri, I thought you said you hadn't studied theology?"
"I lied. I do that."
"Yeah they look fine on me now, but what about if our children have them?"
"Sephiroth, you're marrying Aeris. I'll give you some advice that I'm following. Worry more about the tail."
"Why would you have to worry about that? James is sterile."
"Hey, we just beat a several thousand year old alien; what are the odds I can't beat mother nature?"
"How do you plan to do that, let me guess..."
"Don't even start on it Melkore, besides you should be smart enough to know, hell smart doesn't even come into it."
"Let me guess! Let me guess! Test tube and a womb with a view. Guess it's gonna be tradition in my family."
"Oh god, that's the worst joke I've ever head."
"Don't worry Melkore I'll only let him say it once for every time you've gone beyond the bounds of propriety."
"It's going to be a long nine months, and you won't even have to carry the kid. You've got this planned from all angles, don't you?"
"I always do."
"Enough, let's get out of here. And remember, you still don't have permission to die yet and none of you want to find out what I'll do if you disobey orders. Let's go, I need to sleep. For a week."
End Chapter 36
FN: James must have a score card where he's marking off making an analogy to every single famous cat in literature. His line before using "double blind" makes reference to "Schrödinger's Cat" with the original meaning of the phrase and the most likely even more famous Cheshire Cat. Some of you might notice Sephiroth channeling Superman for a couple moments there right before he really gets into the fight. What can I say, it seemed appropriate and I'm sure some people (like Jenova) found the irony killing. Of course it's also proof of just what a versatile actor George Newbern is. Props to anyone who knows what character Sephiroth barrowed Silver Eclipse from. Sephiroth's line before he blows away meteor ("...Death destroyer of worlds") is what Robert Oppenheimer said on seeing the worlds first atomic bomb tested in Los Almios. In retrospect I probably could have fit in a lot more connections between Sephiroth and nuclear weapons, ohh well too late now. On the subject of Alex's prayer, in no way was this meant as a snarky passive aggressive aside on the subject of monotheistic religions which worship a deity who came back from death, whose next appearance will herald the end of the world, and promises the people who die serving him will go to paradise. Fenris worship is in many ways, much more up front about it's policy of slaying off those it considers its enemies and taking their land for your own. Of course some of you may not find that honesty refreshing, but my one track mind likes a religion that doesn't send mix messages. Also by and large I find it hard to imagine a "Buddy Fenris" hanging from the rear view window on my car. (In part because I don't have a car so don't know what it's rear view mirror would look like granted) Which is a shame in some ways because it would be an absolutely bitchin way to declare my love for this world and hate for the people who are trying to ruin it at the same time. Which brings me to my next topic I've heard "Masamune" translated as "Blade of Heaven" or close enough, in case you were wondering why Sephiroth used the phrase.
OWAN: My head hurts. Sorry about lateness of update, but I just can't get that broken up about it since we seem to have scared off one of our few regulars when we turned the Gold Saucer into a karaoke bar. I wish James would spellcheck his author notes, since I can't in all conscience do so. If you're actually reading, please let me know. I'd hate to think we were just one of the endless thousands of bits of wasted bandwidth on If you ask me later, I will blame this bout of insecurity on the upcoming midterms. Evil, evil midterms.