Author's comments:
Alright! Chapter 9 is up. This has been a hectic time for me and I've made a couple changes to the way this chapter plays out. You'll see the second part of this in Chapter 11. Chapter 10 is going to make many people drool though, early warning. To my main reviewer: The full cast will be back in for Chapter 11, instead of Chapter 15 as planned. To my other readers: Thank you for reading this story! Please leave your comments! I'm getting desperate for more reviews. :D
Final Fantasy 7: The Rebirth of Sephiroth
Chapter 9: Reawakening
Cloud and Tifa sprinted through the woods, searching for their hunters was fruitless in the end. The three had traveled far into the woods and at last they reached a rock and saw the remains of the house which Sephiroth was purposively hiding in.
Cloud looked at the house and shook his head, "Sephiroth would never do this unless he had a purpose, but what was it? What are you thinking…"
Tifa sat down on the rock and looked out at the beautiful trees, the peaceful state of the forst. Lush leaves, birds chirping, the forest was alive with beauty and sound. She stretched out her feet and looked down at her black shirt, it was covered in sap and some dirt; the forest wasn't all that wonderful when you look too closely. With her left hand Tifa brushed off the dirt and sighed, stretching her arm out on the rock, she felt something thick and pulled on it without looking, it was a tuff of overgrown moss or maybe short grass.
As she pulled she ripped it from the rock she felt something splatter onto her vest, it was dark crimson and she turned with horror to what she held in her hands. She held a broken and fractured skull in her hand by the victims hair. She screamed, "OH DEAR GOD! AHHHHH!" and shook her arm wildly, throwing the disgusting remains into the woods. Cloud turned just in time to see the piece of head as she threw it into the woods.
Tifa started to shake and closed her eyes, losing all the color in her face. She put both arms together and hid her head into her right arm over her left arm and screamed and screamed over and over, "NO! PLEASE NO! NOT AGAIN! NOOOOOOO!" Tifa's form became weaker and weaker as she broke into sobs and refused to acknowledge anyone's existence. She reverted to the child she was twelve years ago, overwhelmed with death and afraid to witness the gruesome reality. Truth be told, even she was shooken up at Aeris's death from Sephiroth.
She was a strong woman, but the one she could not take well was death. Her fears realized once more when holding the piece of Adam in her own hand. Grasping her herself with both hands she let the long delayed tears come loose, simply overwhelmed by what she seen.
Cloud was more reserved and acted like it, leaning down and comforting Tifa, embracing her in both arms. He gently hugged her and Tifa looked up at her husband's face. The tears stopping flowing and she regained her composure, reaching out and embracing Cloud tightly.
Blonde overwhelmed with disgust at the affection turned away rolling his eyes at the lovers, "Jeeze…this stuff again." He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a black phone, different than his other phone to contact Yuffie. A voice spoke from the phone, a cold voice, business-like and uncaring, "What do you want?"
Blonde became flustered his cheeks puffed out as he inhaled, almost choking on the air, "Sir…"
"Spit it out, I don't have time for your games, Blonde."
Flustered and worried Blonde spoke into the phone, "Target lost." Awaiting Reeve's replies was the most dangerous part of his job. His heart jumped when Reeve sighed and commanded, "Kalm, now." The head of the W.R.O. was always liked that, making him scared like a child about to confess a secret love or a nervous boyfriend about to ask his girl to marry him. Such trivialities between him and his boss were scary for the brief moments in which they communicated.
His brown furled a little at remembering Cloud and Tifa, as respectable as they were, embracing each other and began to feel incredibly jealous of their open relationship. Love was one thing Blonde had never known, even the scent of his own mother eluded him. His childhood stolen by Hojo and his experiments to make perfect SOLDIERs. He silently condemned his creator and closed the top over the small black phone, placing it into his pocket once more.
He turned his attention to Cloud, still embracing Tifa and felt disgusted again. He cleared his through with a few fake coughs, forcing Cloud and Tifa to stand on their own two legs without embracing each other like children before a final goodbye. He brushed his long hair back with a wave of his hand, "Reeve is going to meet us at Kalm. This is going to get a little hairy." He straightened his black Turk-like suit, cracked his neck with a twist and headed north towards the exit, and on his way he just about snapped, broke or twisted every branch in his way. He left a humbled Cloud and Tifa behind who quickly quickened their normal pace to catch up to Blonde who was almost out of sight by the time they realized they were heading to Kalm.
Reeve sat in his chair, idly tapping a black ball-point pen on the table of his office. The elegant table was in pristine condition except for several deep scrapes into the desk, of about the same size and thickness of the end of a ball point pen. The first of which looked aged and rather old, but could possibly be from two years ago with Deepground.
He reached under the desk and pulled out a heavy book, bound in leather with the words, "AVALANCHE" on it. The book made the desk shake as he dropped the dusty book on the table. The pages still fresh and unopened, but covered with the dust of the years that passed from the incident Reeve hoped would stay dead. He reached over and grabbed a beautiful cup with painted roses on it, filled to the brim with black coffee, and took a deep drink and finished the entire cup in an instant. Letting out a deep sigh of contemplation he opened the electronic pages, reliving the troubles of his younger years.
Barret Wallace, leader of the 2nd AVALANCHE. The man looked no more special then anyone else, his bulk covered up his passion and genius. For years he eluded the Turks and made at least two successful missions against the Mako Reactors before months of planning and an elaborate trap was sprung on him and the team in No. 5. Reeve had great respect for the man and had no animosity between what was once the most villainous and dangerous man in Midgar. The defiant look on his face in the picture of his profile was testament to the conviction and passion of this extraordinary man, who endured severe pain and trauma into a literal and metaphorical weapon against Shinra. Reeve hoped that him and Barret could continue in renewed vigor to meet a now unified goal of protecting the planet.
On the next page was the beautiful Tifa Lockheart, another legendary figure who had eluded Reeve. Fists of fury, kicks of awesome power. With a single hit she could kill a normal man, trained under a elite master in the ways of martial arts. Now the wife of the most powerful man in the world. The page describes how she settled down with Cloud after what was the latest crisis to the planet. She had grown into a powerful and commanding woman, running a successful bar and delivery operation as well as assisting the W.R.O.
Reeve turned another page of the book, this time the electronic paper of the book reacted violently and a image protruded from the paper. A hologram of the most powerful two men in history stood side by side. Sephiroth and his eternal enemy Cloud. Sephiroth stood facing Cloud, swords clashed in mid-air. The only picture recorded from the fight over Midgar. It seemed as if Sephiroth's defeat was unexpected, but Reeve began to think about the situation.
He twirled in his chair, "Sephiroth…Sephiroth…Sephiroth…SEPHIROTH." A image manifested in his own mind of the laughing figure of Sephiroth, sword clenched in hand. The image of the madman himself upon receiving one of many of his orders in Wutai. He was cold and brutal, he would never lose, even in the beginning war games he lost the first two rounds of a new game before he mastered it, but even more brutal was his fight with Sapphire.
Many years ago in Midgar, when the land was much greener with life, the elite training facilities established by Shinra had once challenged Sephiroth. He was still a young man and was aspiring to be the best he could be and had entered into a showdown between the product of Deepground.
"Sephiroth, what are you doing?! Sephiroth?" called a blue haired boy. His dyed hair was short and spiky, although young he carried an oversized cleaver on his back, similar to Zack's sword. Encased in what appeared to be chains and heavy weights on his legs and arms the youthful boy was absolutely heartless.
Sephiroth looked up and drew his katana, of which was around four feet long. This was his first blade and the first weapon he would kill with. Sephiroth's eyes focused on the man, "You have a death wish or something?" Sephiroth's eyes narrowed on the boy coldly.
The two stood in a white walled room, heavy steel reinforced walls surrounded the two, the room was a sparring match for SOLDIER. Thick plate glass surrounded the top of the room up around fifty feet from the floor. Hojo stood against the glass, smirking down upon his son, "You know Azer, that my boy will slaughter this upstart. Hee hee hee."
A bearded old man in his wheelchair simply turned and laughed derisively at Hojo, albeit coughing a few times in the middle of it. The wheelchair confined man covered in his long beard had a bald head and a withered body, it looked as though he would die shortly from some illness that ravaged him.
"Hah. You're still young. Your opinion and such doesn't matter at all. Sapphire will defeat your prodigy."
Hojo grinned, pushing his glasses back in place, staring intently down at the two boys who were about to fight for their pride and honor as SOLDIERs.
Sephiroth pointed his sword at Sapphire, "You really want to die. Don't you? Your pitiful existence in this world is further marred sunlight. Vampire. Come, I'll send you now!"
The cold eyes of Sapphire grew impossibly cold, the eyes of a being of pure hatred. Sapphire was a test subject for what would be later be called Deepground and would have fourteen battalions to serve as the ultimate army of Shinra, a competition of SOLDIER in the military. Today was the fight between the ultimate product of SOLDIER and the ultimate product of Deepground.
Sapphire charged at Sephiroth still in the process of ripping his Zanbato off his back. Sephiroth spun and slashed his katana at Sapphire, the Zanbato parried Sephiroth's attack and nearly cut off Sephiroth's arm in the process. The Zanbato cut into the left shoulder paldron, cracking it and wedging into the flesh, cutting through the skin. Sapphire tried to lift the sword, but the odd angle made it difficult. Sephiroth raised his left hand into the air and stabbed at Sapphire, piercing the boy in the heart. A shower of blood erupting from the wound along with a bitter cry as the sword cut through him. Blood erupted on Sephiroth's face, showering him in the crimson tears of his enemy, "Die you little vampire, die."
Hojo started laughing as he heard what Sephiroth said, but a worried Azer growled, "He's a monster…you're boy is a monster! How'd he survive that hit?" Hojo turned to Azer and laughed more, mocking his rival. Showered in the blood of Sapphire, Sephiroth drew back his sword and watched the body slump to the ground. Reeve stood silently watching the fight, like many of the other Turks. They had witnessed an anti-climatic fight between two competing projects.
Reeve remembered the look on Sephiroth's face, he was just as arrogant as Sapphire, but somehow fate was on Sephiroth's side that day. It kept on being on his side throughout the war and long after. Sephiroth was the perfect soldier, but he soon became the world's biggest problem and through a combined defeat of Shinra and AVALANCHE he was stopped, but with no body ever recovered, was this his third attempt they now faced?
The story surrounding Aurum was unusual, but it had the feeling of Sephiroth to it. Aurum literally destroyed an entire town and burnt it to the ground after stealing huge amounts of gold. The gold pieces were extremely heavy, but within just hours after the destruction not a single piece of gold was found in the bank or anywhere. Reeve decided to call in everyone before it was too late and picked up his black phone.