We finally got a reviewer! -does a hppy dance- Somebody likes us, sombody likes us! -cough- Right...um, anyway, The Great Susinko, I dedicate this chapter to you. Everyone else, please follow her example and review.

(This is totally a page break)

Back at Rasputin and Riou's house, the two had decided that, after the news, they would leave. They wished to see the news to see if Sephiroth's resurrection had been reported. However, they were half way through and he hadn't been mentioned. So they decided to leave. It was then that they heard the report they had been waiting for.

"This just in." the reporter said, "There has been a disaster in the city of Edge. The people are rioting and several dozen citizens are confirmed dead."

Rasputin stopped, foot halfway out the door. He turned around and sat on the couch, after pushing Riou off.

"Bingo." he said.

The news crew had moved to the scene, where a fire had broke loose. The reporter came to a stopped train and knocked on the door.

"Excuse me, may I ask-"

The door opened and the reporter stopped. The people were literally missing chunks of skin, and they all had a vacant look in their eyes. The reporter screamed and tried to run, but the dead men and women grabbed him and dragged him into the car.

Rasputin looked over at Riou.

"What's going on?" Rasputin asked.

Riou shrugged

"I changed the channel. It's just a movie."

"Somebody fucking help me!"

At this Rasputin began to doubt.

"You can't say fuck on TV!"

"It could be a movie channel, like HBO or something." Riou said.

They looked at the screen. KNN. Kalm News Network.

"Oh crap!" Riou yelled. "What do we do?"

Rasputin grabbed his phone.

"We call Cloud." he said, and dialed the number. The phone rang four times, and the answering machine picked up. Rasputin growled and closed his phone.

Riou entered the room and threw Rasputin his gun case.

"Have you seen my wakizashis?" he asked.

Rasputin sighed.

"They're in the holsters at the small of your back, like always."

Riou reached behind him and felt his weapons.

"Shut up."

"Idiot."

Riou grabbed his third weapon, a warhammer, and strapped it to the third holster on his back.

"We better get going," he said. "The girls might be in trouble."

They each grabbed their bags, which Rasputin quickly put his gun case in, and put them on their backs, then walked outside.

"Chocobos aren't fast enough for this." Rasputin said. He walked behind Riou and grabbed his arms, as if trying to put him into a submissive hold. "I hope you aren't afraid of heights."

Riou was about to ask why, when two pterodactyl-like wings sprouted from Rasputin's back. He jumped and the great wings began to flap. He began flying very rapidly toward Kalm. Riou began kicking his legs frantically.

"I'm terrified of heights, as it so happens!" Riou cried.

"Well, we'll be in Kalm in twenty minutes. Deal with it."

They flew in silence for several minutes. Riou's eyes were closed tightly and Rasputin was concentrating on his path. However, he saw many disturbing things. In the mere two miles separating their house and Kalm, fires had broke out, and there were bodies littering the ground. It took all Rasputin's control not to vomit.

"Riou," he said, "you may want to see this."

Riou hesitantly opened his eyes and saw the carnage below. He gagged a little, but didn't want to throw up inside his mask. Many of the people, who, even from this height, were obviously dead, began getting up and migrating.

"Man…" Riou said. "We're so screwed. It's times like this I miss Icicle."

"Like you've experienced times like this…" Rasputin said, then it hit him. "Oh no! My family is in Icicle! I have to make sure they're okay!"

Riou slipped out of his hands and began falling. Rasputin went to catch him, but Riou held out his palm.

"I'll meet up with you later!" he yelled, and a white smoke appeared around him, and with a poof, he was gone. Rasputin stared at the spot where he had been seconds before.

"Why didn't he just do that to start with?" he muttered aloud, and began toward Icicle.

(Part two)

In a tuft of white smoke, Riou appeared, kneeling, in the middle of a desolate street in what he thought to be Kalm. Cars were overturned, building were smoldering, and bodies were all over. Riou was already almost panicking as he stood up.

'I'm too late…' he thought, as he began to walk down the street. He saw a tuft of blond hair and ran to it, feeling a lump in his throat.

"Cloud! No!" he cried. The figure stood up and he stopped, seeing that it wasn't Cloud, but a chocobo. He sighed and relaxed. "Jeez, don't do that, you stupid bird."

The bird turned and revealed that it's eyes were white. Well, eye; half it's face was gone, and the other eye was vacant. It let out a guttural cry and charged at Riou. Riou proceeded to let out a small, girly scream and turn tail, hauling ass.

(Part three)

Rufus sat on the stairs of the bar leading to his makeshift bedroom, drinking a beer which he had insisted on paying for, even though Tifa tried to give it to him. He was trying in vain to drink away his pain.

"Damn you, father…" he muttered, crushing the empty can.

Tseng had stayed behind at the Shinra building, saying it was his duty to help the men and women who worked there. The rest had agreed, ruefully. However, they had barely made any distance when another zombie jumped onto the helicopter. The managed to keep it at bay until they reached the slums, then crash landed. They were close to a secure-looking building, and they ran to it. However, they were quite a way away, and before they could reach it, Reno, being held back by the vending machine, had been bitten in the small of his back. Ten minutes later, he was dead. Three minutes after that, he was back. They didn't have the heart to kill him, and he was now in the basement, still stuck in the machine.

Rude walked up to the President, the two of them being the only still awake. He stared toward the basement stairs for a minute.

"Do you think we can cure him?" he asked, finally.

Rufus shook his head grimly.

"I…don't know. We'll have to ask Luna if we can try her cure, but she hates me, as does Rasputin. I've contacted Highwind, though. He should arrive in the airship soon."

Both men's attention then turned to the outside when they heard the distinctive "wark" of a chocobo and the blubbering of a grown man. They each looked at each other.

"Riou?"

"Riou."

The men walked to the door and peered out, seeing a speck running toward them.

"Five gil says he gets here in one piece." Rufus said. Rude shook his head.

"I say he falls."

"You're on."

(Part four)

Rasputin was staring at the dead bodies littering the snow-covered streets of Icicle. He landed in a deserted street, probably the only one not littered with the dead and the turning, and his wings disappeared.

"My God…" he said, this time actually throwing up. When he was done, he wiped his mouth and sighed.

"At least Riou isn't here. He might see someone he thinks he knows…"

His head snapped to attention when he heard groans and screams from the next street. He drew his handguns from his coat and began running to the next street. When he got there, he was utterly shocked by what he saw.

Sephiroth was surrounded by zombies, and was hacking them to bits. The groans were of the creatures, and the screams were coming from him. Not screams of fear, but adrenaline.

"Sephiroth! What are you-"

His voice caught the attention of some of the zombies and Sephiroth barely even glanced at him before going back to hacking and slashing. However, the zombies were quite interested. They ran toward Rasputin hungrily. He put a bullet in the first two, each in the chest, but neither stopped moving.

"What the hell?" he cried, shooting them each in the neck.

"The head, you fool, the head!" Sephiroth cried, cutting off a head.

He impaled a zombie coming from behind in the chest, then brought his sword up, splitting it's head, neck, and upper torso in half. Rasputin took his advise and shot each monstrosity between the eyes. He looked around and realized he was surrounded.

"What are you doing here?" Sephiroth asked, cutting a woman in two, vertically.

Rasputin shot three rounds, ducked, dodging a zombie that jumped at him, and shot that one in the head before it hit the ground.

"I was about to ask you the same!" he said, standing and whirling around, eliminating two more men. "What the shit's going on?"

Sephiroth back flipped onto a nearby building, landing crouched on one knee.

"I do not know, but these things are very hard to kill."

Rasputin ran out of ammo and quickly followed Sephiroth's example and landed on the roof across from him, and began reloading.

"Yeah, well, so are you…" he said. "But…it can be…" he finished loading. "…done!"

Rasputin fired three shots and hit Sephiroth in the chest, stomach and head. The Dark Wing fell and landed on his back, barely still on the roof. Rasputin laughed.

"Ha! I did it!" he cried. "Now to get out of-"

"You really should stop doing that." Sephiroth drawled, slowly sitting up. "It isn't pleasant!"

Sephiroth quickly cast a Fire 3 spell without a materia. It was coming at Rasputin fast. His eyes were wide.

"Gilgamesh Barrier!"

The fire hit the house, which exploded, sending fiery splinters flying through the town, which landed and quickly caught the whole town on fire. Smoke billowed out from the house, and Sephiroth was standing in the temporary clear the explosion had created.

"A Gilgamesh technique." he said, thoughtful. "Impressive."

The smoke began to move away as Rasputin walked through, his eyes glowing bright red. A flaming zombie lunged at him. Without looking, he blew it's head off.

"I have had it."

(Part five)

Riou was running down the street as fast as he could trying to get away from the zombie bird, which was gaining rapidly. He goose-stepped over dead bodies. He saw a pile ahead of him and grinned. He jumped over them, then rebounded off of a car. However, as soon as he touched it, it exploded, sending him flying. He hit the ground hard.

Riou gazed from his position on the ground, seeing that the chocobo was increasing speed. He yelped, scrambled up, and began running again. He saw a building that looked sturdy, Rufus and Rude staring out at him.

"Out of the way!" he cried. "Out of the way, for the sake of your father's race!"

Wow.

He needed to stop reading Stephen King.

Either way, both men moved as Riou zoomed past them and into the house. Rufus grabbed his shotgun and fired, killing the dead chocobo and coming inside.

"You owe me, Rude," he said. The bald man sighed and started going through his wallet.

"He did fall…" he muttered, then glanced up. Riou seemed to have awoke all of the zombies in the town. Rude walked in and slammed the door just as the first rays of sunlight began to come out.

(Part six)

Rufus was leaning on the wall, staring out the window.

"What a way to go…"

"The sun's coming up…" Rude said. "They're slowing down."

Riou sat down, panting.

"Whew…"

(Part seven)

Rasputin fired wildly at Sephiroth.

"Die! And this time, stay dead!"

Sephiroth spun the Masamune to deflect his adversaries bullets. A zombie flung itself through the flames around them and ran toward Sephiroth. He deflected a bullet at an angle, and it killed the once-man.

"Hey! Don't use my bullets to defend yourself!"

Rasputin stopped to reload again. Sephiroth held out his right hand.

"Stop!"

All the fire stopped immediately. The zombies froze in their tracks. The zombies that were on fire stopped and froze at the same time. Rasputin gazed around him, dumbstruck.

"What have you done?"

"We have a very limited amount of time," Sephiroth ignored Rasputin's question completely, "Now then, do you know-"

Rasputin charged at the silver-haired man in from of him, hoping for a point-blank shot. Sephiroth growled and disappeared, reappearing behind Rasputin, the blade of the Masamune pressed against his neck.

"Listen to what I have to say or I will act as if you were one of these creatures and decapitate you."

"I hate you." Rasputin snarled.

Sephiroth pressed his blade harder, so that it drew blood.

"I can only keep them frozen for a few minutes, and the fire gives us even less time."

"Fine. Speak."

"Do you know where these creatures came from?" Sephiroth inquired. A twinge of doubt came from Rasputin. He had been sure Sephiroth had done this. But then, why would he kill them?

"I don't know." Rasputin said, then ventured to guess. "I think the Mako from the shot that apparently revived you mutated these people as well. They seem to take after you."

"Doubtful."

"It's the best I've got."

"Why are they harder to kill than normal humans?"

The fire flickered ever so slightly. Rasputin saw in the glass on the ground that this distracted Sephiroth. He quickly turned around and held the gun to his face. Sephiroth's eyes widened.

"Like I said, they take after you!"

He pulled the trigger, fully expecting Sephiroth to somehow dodge, but to Rasputin's sheer elation, the bullet hit Sephiroth in the face and sent him flying onto his back. Rasputin didn't give him any chance to move. He unloaded his gun, fifteen shots, on Sephiroth's face. He looked up and saw that the sun was just starting to rise.

(Part eight)

Riou growled and walked out of the building, just meters away from the shuffling crowd. He motioned to Rufus, Rude, and the newly awakened Elana to stay inside.

"What the heck are you doing?" the blond girl asked.

"Trust me."

He waited for the horde to begin advancing toward him and held out his warhammer. Although his mask hid his expression, Rufus knew he was grinning. As soon as the horde was within grab-you-and-rip-your-face-off range, the weapon's tip opened in a mechanical way, and a huge beam of energy flew out, killing all of the dead.

(Chapter end)

Ooooh, Riou's showing off some power. Fun, huh? I've come to realize that I use the minor characters of the game quite a bit more than the main for a while. Hope you don't mind. Well, that's all for today. See you next week.