God I'm late. I'll have to punish myself. Wait, why do I care? No one's reading this. You're fools, y'know. It's the greatest story ever.
(This is totally a page break)
A Corel Prison guard leaned against the gate of the Gold Saucer, panting heavily, as his partner ran past him.
"This…job…sucks." he breathed. His partner turned around and slapped him.
"We've gotta do this for the survivors! The elevation is important."
The first guard nodded, and looked over the edge, seeing the horde they had just barely managed to get away from. He picked up a rock and nodded. Throwing it over, he said, "I feel sorry for the prisoners."
(Part Two)
A gun appeared over the canyon, something that was once pale but now burnt almost into pure black attached. It was an arm. Another appeared shortly after, and soon, an entire person appeared, black hair longer than he would have liked, skin burnt and cracking. Skinny didn't even begin to describe him. He pulled himself up, and lay on the ground, panting.
"So…so long…" Dyne said. "It took too long for me to climb this canyon…" he coughed, and stood. "But I'm alive…Barret….I'll find you. And when I d-"
He was cut off. A rock fell from the Saucer, and hit him in the head. He grunted and fell over the side again.
(Part Three)
Riou leaned out the side of the hastily made sidecar, the wind blowing his hair everywhere. He had wanted to drive, but his three companions had decided that that was not a good idea. Cloud was piloting the motorcycle, Vincent sitting behind him, and Rasputin and Riou on either side of them.
"You're gonna fall out."
Riou shook his head.
"Am not! I'm totally…oh my sweet God in heaven."
"Riou?"
Everyone looked at what he seemed transfixed by. It was the Canyon. The truck stopped, the motorcycle not far behind it. They stared at a massive fire. Cosmo was in flames. Every citizen, had they been alive or struck with the Syndrome, now lay dead. A building toppled. As it fell, Red XIII, through his grief at the sight of his home engulfed in embers, saw him. A lone figure stood, hair wildly flapping in the wind.
"It was him!" Red screamed. "Sephiroth!"
Riou and Rufus had already seen him and drawn their weapons. Cloud was next, followed by Rasputin until everyone had a weapon, minus Rude, who fought with his fists anyway. Silly Rude. Sephiroth laughed from his vantage point above them and pointed his sword-not to Cloud, but Riou. This shocked everyone.
"Boy," Sephiroth called, "does this blaze remind you of anything?"
All eyes turned to the masked man, most in question. Rasputin's, however, contained horror. Riou jumped off of his bike and drew his wakizashi. He began running, ignoring the shouts of protest.
"You bastard!" Riou yelled. Sephiroth jumped off of his perch above them and grinned.
"Riou! No!"
Riou's world went blank. Everything was gone except for an unimaginable sense of pain. He saw nothing but white. He was vaguely aware that he coughed, completely unaware that there was blood in the cough. He was even less aware of the fire that burned his arms. He came back to the world as he felt himself being lifted, impaled at the stomach, weakly clutching the Masamune. Sephiroth was laughing.
"I find it funny, Riou," Sephiroth said, "do you not? After all, I killed your mother in a smiliar fashion."
Riou let his hands drop. His vision was going out.
"Monster…"
Sephiroth pulled his sword back and flung him to the ground. The group was already on the approach, wanting to help. Vincent reached him first. He knelt and held Riou in his arms.
"Can you breath?" he asked. Riou barely moved, but the movement was a nod. Rasputin arrived and knelt to his friend. He took him from Vincent as though they were passing an infant. The entire party was now gathered around him, forgetting Sephiroth for a moment.
"Riou," Rasputin said, eyes filling, voice quivering, "do you have a Cure materia? We can fix this."
"No materia can 'fix' an injury inflicted by my blade." Sephiroth sneered. Rasputin glared at him.
"Son of a bitch!"
Riou laughed weakly and Rasputin's attention again went to him. The masked man held out materia. It was pure white.
"Don't worry about me."
"No!" Sephiroth yelled, and lunged at Riou, Masamune raised.
Sephiroth was about to get his job done when the people he killed began rising up through the fire. He was thrown off balance when one of these people grabbed for his leg. He decapitated it, then turned back to his target.
Riou struggled to his feet, holding his wound to stop the bleeding. Rasputin held his shoulders, keeping him steady. Cloud and Vincent drew their weapons and began to fight off the oncoming creatures; they refused to refer to them as zombies. Rufus and the others gazed at the four for several moments. Tifa and Luna began to move toward him, to help with the hole in his stomach, but Riou held out his hand, then turned to Rasputin.
"Raz…"he said, "hold then off for me. I'll take them all out at once with my Limit."
Rasputin nodded, and turned to the others.
"Don't worry about him," he said, drawing his guns, "just keep them off of him, along with tall, dark, and evil."
There was hesitation in the faces of most of the group. Rude and Rufus where the only two who began moving, wordlessly, toward the horde. Elana and Luna began to protest.
"Go, damn it!" Rasputin said, and leapt to the horde, shooting several people in the head. Cid growled, cursed, and followed. Soon, everyone else followed.
Sephiroth chuckled lightly, getting out of his offensive stance and gazing at Riou, who was holding his wakizasis at his sides.
"I can't help but be curious." Sephiroth said to himself. Cloud, who happened to be next to him at the time, cut down a woman and snared.
"You'll see soon enough, Sephiroth."
Vincent was shooting with both the Death Penalty and the Cerberus, jumping over small groups, and easily taking out several with each shot. However, he knew that an entire city of enemies would be a problem. He turned to Sephiroth.
"Sephiroth!" he cried, "I know we've always been enemies-" he shot one that was going after Riou- "but we need help."
Sephiroth crossed his arms and sneered.
"No."
Rasputin growled and jumped over Elana, shooting a creature as Rufus slid on his back below her, shooting wildly.
"They'll com after you, too!" Rasputin said to Sephiroth. Cloud stopped by Riou.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
Riou nodded. He crossed his blades in an 'x' shape, and a flame swirled around him.
"Hell's Lunge!"
Riou threw his weapons. They made an arcing path, cutting down dozens of zombies before boomeranging back into his hands. As soon as they entered his hands, the fire around them dissipated and concentrated on the path. Riou cut off two heads, then sheathed his swords and took out his warhammer. He ran. He ran hard. As he ran, he made wide arcs with his weapon, taking out anywhere from five to nine people with one swing. He reached a wall of fire and jumped through, his warhammer catching flame.
It was a little known fact, but Riou liked his warhammer much more than his wakizashis. So it was a large surprise when it caught flame, because Riou allowed it to happen. Everyone had stopped fighting to watch his Limit. Cloud and Rasputin where the two who were shocked by the fire.
Riou emerged on the other side of the flame wall and continued running, still taking out several zombies in a single hit, but now leaving a streaking fire path. Even those he missed caught fire. He slashed and hacked away, killing everything in his sight. He went on for three minutes, and by the end of it, all of the men, women, and children that had been turned were dead.
Riou put his warhammer away and turned to the group. He gave a weak thumbs up, then fell to the ground.
"Riou!"
Rasputin ran to help him. When he reached him, he picked him up as if carrying a bride, and shook him, trying to wake him up. It did no good. By then, then entire group had circled around them in concern, save for Sephiroth, who was still in shock that the masked idiot had held so much power. He barely noticed that his enemies where beginning to walk away, hoping to find a doctor that was still alive. He noticed even less when a zombie jumped out at him. It was a woman, who's left half from the shoulder to the hip had been cut off. She was on fire, but she was hungry. Sephiroth turned just as she almost had her fangs in him.
'Impossible!' was all he could think before-
Blam!
The woman fell, her head, neck, and chest now missing. Sephiroth gazed at the body for half a second, then turned around, seeing Vincent putting away his gun.
"Why-"
But he would get no answer. Vincent turned wordlessly and ran to catch up with his group. Sephiroth stood amidst what was left of the city of Cosmo Canyon, astonished at his being saved.
(Part Four)
After the wanderers had left the area of the Canyon, they had gained a sense of calmness. Cloud said that Sephiroth would probably be no problem for a while, so they were good. Rasputin had decided to carry Riou to the vehicles, which they had found destroyed. A likely cause? Fire. So they began walking aimlessly. It was almost sunrise.
There had been small talk amongst them, of course, but nothing really serious. Rufus was on the phone, and Rude was listening intently. Rasputin decided to ask a very important question in a very sophisticated manner.
"Vincent, why in the name of Hades' left nut did you save him?"
Okay.
So much for sophisticated.
Here's an unnecessary sentence.
"Just as Cloud thought that I should be the one to kill Hojo," Vincent began, (after the battle, Hojo had been left twitching on the ground. Cloud told Vincent to put a bullet in his head) "I think Cloud should be the one to kill Sephiroth."
Rasputin growled.
"Stupid honor systems."
Riou stirred, and raised his hand.
"Chocolate bunnies…"
He then passed out again. Rude lifted his head up.
"Poor guy."
Rasputin jumped and almost dropped his friend.
"Holy shit, where'd you come from?"
Rude shrugged.
"My mother." he said, then pointed ahead, where a truck had been left, abandoned. "We have word to go to the Gold Saucer."
He lifted Reno's limp body and put him in the back of the truck.
"Hey, why did we free him?" Cloud asked. "That was the authors' only running joke."
Rude shrugged.
"God bless him, though," he said, "Nathan is the greatest."
At that point, a large teen in a green Family Guy "Everybody loves a fat guy" t-shirt and blue jeans appeared. He had brown, messy hair, and was growing a stubble of beard.
"You and Tifa aren't gonna do it," Nathan said, "so quit sucking up."
Next to him, a girl of sixteen appeared, with short blond hair, faded blue jeans, and a striped shirt appeared.
"Yeah," Liz said, "let's have Riou do it, cuz he's so perfect and cool."
Nathan growled at her as a fifteen year old boy appeared next to them. He had shoulder-length blond hair, was wearing a black Devil May Cry "Rebellion Hath Spoken" t-shirt and baggy black pants adorned with chains.
"No more author interjections, guys!" Corey said. "This is fine in the notebook, but I gotta put this in paragraph form, don't forget! Jeez."
Liz sighed.
"You guys depress me." she said, and disappeared. Nathan sneezed and disappeared with Corey.
Cloud blinked and looked at Vincent.
"What was that about?"
Vincent shrugged.
"I think Corey just wanted people to know what they look like."
I did. So sue me. Anyway, on with the story.
(Part Five)
Riou groaned and opened his eyes. He was dizzily aware that he was laying on the ground. He coughed and felt his stomach, trying to find his wound. It was gone. That woke him up quickly. He sat up and looked around. The sky, ground, and everything in between was totally black, except for what Riou recognized as the Lifestream flowing in the sky.
'Am I dreaming?'
He stood and noticed that he could see with his entire field of vision. He touched his face. His mask was gone. He looked down and saw that everything else was where is should have been. He looked around and saw his reflection in the Lifestream above him. The scars that were the reason for his mask were gone. He was staring at what his face should have been; that of a handsome young man. Tears filled his eyes and he dropped to his knees.
"Where am I?" he cried out. His voice echoed as a figure in a black cloak appeared behind him.
"The collective unconsciousness." he said. Riou turned around and gazed at him.
"Jesus?"
The figure laughed softly and took off his hood.
"No. I'm just the Doorkeeper."
The figure had mako eyes, and long, spiky, black hair. Riou scratched his head.
"You look familiar…" he said. "What's your name?"
"Zack."
Realization hit Riou in the face. Hard. With brass knuckles.
"I thought so!" he said. "Hey, anyone ever tell you you look like Cl-"
Zack had a scythe pointed at Riou quite quickly.
"Say it and you die."
Riou crossed his arms.
"Fine…So why am I here?"
Zack put his weapon away and turned around as millions of white doors appeared.
"The flash of light before your eyes that's supposed to happen when you die…Ever since I was killed, that's been me. If it weren't for your materia, you'd be dead already, and you wouldn't have had those few minutes alone."
Riou stared at him as he walked toward a door. He pulled out a golden key from his sleeve and unlocked it, and slowly, slowly opened it.
"This is your childhood." Zack said.
Riou materialized a box of popcorn.
"Alrighty, let's go." he said.
"Right, let's…where did you get that popcorn?"
Riou grinned.
"Mastered Popcorn materia."
(End o' the chapter)
Well, that's a bit of fun, huh? I DON'T CARE IF YOU AREN'T READING! I'll torture you by putting the entire thing up anyway. Ha!