Chapter Fifty-Seven:

Cloud had dispatched the summon after the airship quickly and returned to find his sister encased in some strange summon and Vincent pointing a gun at a bound Niro.

"What is it?" He demanded. Vincent shrugged.

"She cast a few things, but it hasn't broken." He nodded at the piece of shit at his feet. "Should I kill him?"

Killing Niro would stop the summon, but he hesitated to take Caia's revenge from her. She, uh, they, probably had this in hand. However, if they didn't…

"You don't want to do that." Niro said, glaring at them.

"And why not?" Cloud said.

"It's separating the souls."

On the surface, that seemed like a good thing. He'd get his sister back and Sephiroth would be gone from his life again. Hopefully for real this time.

Then why did Vincent stiffen and Cloud feel an unreasonable amount of dread at Niro's words?

"Talk."

Niro stared at the summon that had begun to take on a ghostly shape. "She was supposed to be weak," he muttered absently. "I chose people who were weak. But they were all too weak to survive. And she's too strong."

Cloud knew this. Caia was never weak. She'd built an amazing life for herself. Had survived pulling her mother out of a burning building and watching her die, had loved fiercely the orphaned children in her life who'd needed a strong aunt.

Had never given up on him. Even when he could barely remember all she was to him.

"You're a poor judge of character if you thought she was weak."

Niro sighed. "I miscalculated. I intended to kill her soul and then torture him for as long as I wanted. But she's too strong. I can't pull a strong soul from their own body.'' He gave them a chilling smile. "You see the irony, don't you? Had she been weak enough to enact my plan, she'd have never survived." He sighed again. "So I'll take his. It'll have to be enough."

"Cloud." Vincent's voice was urgent. "I can't imagine it is good to have a soul ripped out of you. Even if it isn't the original."

Just then, the summon exploded out from Caia. He caught a brief glimpse of her before the creature howled and rushed back. Sephiroth struck, but the sword met only air before the ghostly thing flew inside her.

Caia jerked, sinking to her knees and he knew she fought some internal battle. Sephiroth's summon materialized at her side, circling her and crying.

"Knock him out." Cloud said, but it was too late. The phantom summon began to reemerge from her body, a shining blue ribbon clasped tight in its jaws.

"No!" Caia screamed, a sound of such anguish Cloud hoped never to hear from her again. She lunged forward, fingers going through the specter.

The next few moments happened so fast, Cloud didn't have time to make sense of them until later.

The summon began to vanish, as Niro lost consciousness, but not fast enough. The shimmering ribbon hung in the air, Caia reaching for it as the summon continued to tug it from her with its vanishing strength. Hero leapt as the summon finally vanished and swallowed Sephiroth's soul.

Hero fell to the ground hard, yowling and convulsing in pain. Caia reached out her arm, no doubt attempting to summon her back. Hero shimmered for a moment, then returned right where she'd started, keening cries intensifying. Caia's eyes grew wide in horror as the red materia pushed from her skin…and shattered.

Cloud's jaw dropped. He'd never seen materia break like that. He glanced at this sister and the multitude of emotions crossing her face. Shock. Grief.

Anger.

Then blue eyes they'd both gotten from their mother hardened and flashed red. And he knew his sister wasn't in the driver's seat anymore.

Rage. It trumped all other emotions. Choking her. Drowning her. Her vision was red. She wanted blood. To bathe in it. To feel life falter under her fingertips. Nothing else mattered but blood.

No. Elio mattered. Her family mattered. She was losing control, the Calamity sliding in where it wasn't wanted.

She closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. What had Sephiroth told her? The Calamity hated the body. Thought it was weak. Wanted only to recreate it to her liking. Focus on the body, to reclaim the mind.

So she focused on the pain. And when she did, she realized how much pain she was in. Shards of ice twisting her insides, her skin crawling with flames and biting insects.

But the worst was in her mind, the gaping, empty void where Sephiroth should be, now acid spreading with a vengeance.

He was gone. He was really, really gone. When Hero had grabbed him she thought to summon her back and gain him, but it had all gone terribly wrong. Now Sephiroth was gone, Hero lay dying, and Caia knew—knew—she didn't have long.

She'd never hold her baby again.

At least he's safe. She told herself. Or, at least, he would be. As soon as she took care of this asshole.

Niro Azuma. He'd taken everything from her. Twice.

Now the rage was her own, Jenova clear from her mind, as she stood slowly, and fixed her eyes on Niro.

He was sitting, clutching his head where someone had knocked him out, but he scrambled to his feet quickly when he saw her. He tensed and she felt him pulling energy for a spell, before it dissipated, a look of horror on his face.

"I disarmed him while he was unconscious." Vincent said. "He's all yours."

She had minutes before she collapsed, so she couldn't draw it out like she wanted. Before Niro had finished processing Vincent's words, she'd moved, calling her weapon with a thought, and stabbed him in the stomach. A slow death. She had some things to say.

Niro gasped and grimaced in pain. The smell told her she struck where she wanted. Sephiroth had trained her well. She slid the sword in slowly, to the hilt, and reveled in the pain on his face.

"You know my favorite part?" She purred while he gasped and flailed on her blade. "Sephiroth didn't kill your father. He took him, on orders, but he wasn't the one to take his life." Niro's eyes widened and he tried to speak, but gurgled on his own blood instead. Caia went on. She had no mercy for this man. "And the man who did? He's still alive. You wasted all of this—" she gestured at herself and the burning house below her. "And all the years of research to exact revenge on the wrong man."

She leaned closer, twitching the blade that was inside him, eliciting a scream. When he stopped, she whispered against his ear. "And I'm not even going to tell you his name before you die."

Then she moved, wrenching up with the strength countless hours of training and Jenova's alien cells had given her, and eviscerated him. She danced out of the way, pulling her blade from the body, and swung it with practiced elegance. Niro's head separated cleanly from his body. Elio was safe.

She collapsed.