Chapter11

Note: Sorry for the long absence, but I've been without a computer for a long time…and still don't have the internet.  So…I still don't know how often I'll be posting. And…since I don't remember where the last chapter left off… I'll start this one by backing up just a bit.

Disclaimer: Any aspect of Final Fantasy I use in this story belongs …well not to me at least.

…. "Well, looks like we're gonna need a phone."

"Looks like," Vincent affirmed. "Are you all right?" He asked, taking a seat next to her.

Harper smiled. "Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"What I said before, about Kadaj being able to recreate Sephiroth…"

"What about it? Why should that bother me?"

It seemed like she was fine…seemed. "He would be…"

"I know…" she sighed. "Look, here's the deal: I tell if you tell."

Vincent was slightly suprized—he could hardly ever get around Harper's façade. "Okay."

Harper hesitated a moment before beginning. "It would be…hard, to see him if Kadaj managed that." Vincent gave her a knowing look. "All right," she rolled her eyes, "So it'd be pretty bad for me, and joyous for him to see the reality check on my face." Harper sighed again a moved to sit closer to him. "So, that's me. What about you?" She knew there was something.

"I just have some dark, murderous corner in me…" he looked at her.

Harper smiled and rested her head against Vincent's shoulder. "Okay." When she looked up, he was looking back at her, and she smiled for him.

"We will have to go to Midgar. Cloud will fight these next battles, he may need everyone."

"That's fine," she said. "We'll go to Midgar." She smiled up at him again. "When do we leave?"

"Soon, but not yet."

Kadaj walked daintily to the edge of the unfinished room. President Rufus Shinra was waiting for him. "Say, Kadaj, I've got a question for you."

"I've got an answer."

"You said you needed Jenova cells in order to return to what you were. What does that mean?"

"Him," Kadaj said simply. "He's coming back."

"Sephiroth," Rufus whispered as realization dawned on him. "The nightmare."

"So they say," Kadaj spat.

"You mean…?"

"I don't know Sephiroth," he explained. "But I know he's close…It gets under my skin. What if Mother loves him more than…?"

"Poor little avatar," Shinra falsely sympathized.

Kadaj pulled himself together. "It doesn't matter. You'll meet the same fate either way! Mother came to this planet after a long journey, to rid the cosmos of fools like you. But, you know as well as me: nothing's changed since Mother came here. I have to change it, to make her happy…there's nothing I wouldn't do, if only she asked."

The President chuckled. "It's Nightmare Junior."

"As long as you exist, the nightmares will come again and again."

"The Lifestream courses through our planet…" Rufus said darkly, "…back and forth across the borders of life and death. If that cycle is the very truth of life…" he theorized, "then history, too, will inevitably repeat itself. So go on, bring your Jenovas and your Sephiroths. It won't matter. We'll do as life dictates…and stop you every single time." Shinra was confident in that.

"Mister President, is that an excuse for taking Mother? Don't tell me you're feeling remorse."

"Remorse?" Rufus asked. "Why, I've never had this much fun."

Kadaj grinned, activating some of his stolen Materia, and turned to face Shinra. "Good. Now let's put an end to all this." Without further ado, Kadaj lifted his hand skyward and summoned…Bahamut.

When Vincent and Harper got to the centre of Edge…everyone was in a frenzy over the Bahamut rampaging through the city. The only thing Vincent asked Tifa was, "Where can I but a phone?" Barret, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Yuffie and Cid were already there; Cloud drove up on Fenrir just after Vincent and Harper joined the fight.

Cloud's swords popped out when he opened the containers on Fenrir's sides. "Marlene's safe. I took her home."

Tifa nodded.

"It's easier now," Cloud stated cryptically.

"Hm?"

Cloud leaned forward and selected another sword. "I was ready to drag myself along until there was nothing left."

Tifa smiled. Her Cloud was back.

Denzel was beside her, also back to his old self. "I'm going back to the bar; I'll be waiting with Marlene." He turned and jogged off a little bit, then turned back. "You're gonna come home, right, Cloud?"

Cloud nodded. That was good enough for Denzel—he turned and went back to find Marlene.

The next time everyone was together, save Cloud, was in the Shera after the battle with Bahamut. Cloud had sped off after Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo, who were now in possession of Jenova's head.

Cid swooped in low over the fight between Cloud and Kadaj. Yuffie stubled forward yelling, "Cloud, I brought you materia!" even though she knew he couldn't hear. The Shera jerked, making her almost drop all the many orbs she cradled. "Geez, careful!"

"Yo, Cid!" Barret called. "Land this junk heap!"

"Shut up!" Cid returned, hurt by Barret's insulting his new airship. "You want off, you jump!"

"Let Cloud fight his own battle," Vincent said. It was more an order than a suggestion. Harper had found him a new spot to stand—right next to the cockpit. She stood beside him.

"Wha…?" Yuffie was lost.

"Kadaj is an avatar of Sephiroth." Vincent explained. "Think of him as a sort of larval form." He tried to simplify the situation: Yuffie understood simple things best, when it came to science.

"Larva? You mean he's some kind of insect?!" Maybe "larva" wasn't the best word to have used.

Cait Sith then said something indiscernible, but they supposed it meant something along the lines of "be quiet!"

"So," Cid started, looking to Vincent. He saw Harper and remembered her kidnapping. "…That punk's gonna become Sephiroth?"

"Wait," Tifa interrupted. "Cloud…does he know?" She also looked to Vincent.

"…Probably."

"Then you're right," she turned back to the viewing window. "This is his fight."

"Someone explain what's going on!" Yuffie pleaded.

"This is man talk," was Cid's explanation.

"Sexist!" Yuffie protested. "Sexist!"

Cait Sith held his head before thumping Red's head in exasperation, shouting again at her to be quiet.

"Some of the men ain't following either," Barret complained.

It was Tifa's turn to do some explaining. "During our last battle two years ago…do you remember what it was like to be strong?" It had gotten hard for her to remember. "It's only been two years…but somehow that strength had slipped away. I think Cloud's found it again, though."

Barret scoffed, ever-doubting. "I'll give him ten minutes."

Yuffie finally caught up. "That's Cloud: pain in the rear."

"You said it," Tifa agreed.

Understanding that they would let Cloud fight Kadaj on his own—at least for ten minutes—Cid pulled the Shera away.

Below, Cloud grinned and continued with the fight.

Harper had stopped hearing the conversation a long time ago. She had never realized what Kadaj was. She thought that they could re-create Sephiroth with…she didn't know what she had thought. She only knew that Kadaj had to be kept from absorbing Jenova's cells…

"Cid," Harper stood determined, "Set the Shera down."

"What?"

She sighed, people looked at her. "Never mind." Harper grabbed up her sword and ran out of the room.

"Where's she going?" Cid asked of Vincent.

Valentine understood what was going on, and ran after he while repeating Cid's earlier law, "'If you want off, you jump!'"

"Oh," was all Cid could say.

"Harper!" Vincent called as he ran after her. She was navigating the Shera's labyrinth easily.

"I have to stop Kadaj!"

"Cloud's doing that now…Harper!"

"No, I have to before…" Vincent got hold of her arm. "Vincent, please just let me do this." They stood on deck, with the wind from the propellers whipping their hair every which way.

"Be careful," Vincent squeezed her hand.

"Of course I will be," she told him, kissed him, then jumped the railing. By the time she found Kadaj, he was no longer Kadaj, but Sephiroth. She was too late. Cloud was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Cloud?"

"Right now, wondering where I am. I knew you'd come, to save the world from this," he gestured to himself, "your insane father." Sephiroth grinned wickedly. "I've been waiting for you. It is time to show me what all that gil I poured into your training has wrought."

Fighting Sephiroth was like fighting herself ten times lumped into one fight. His style was the same as hers—aggressive yet subtle; a strike when and where one couldn't be foreseen, and a parry to a move most would deem invariably fatal. But it was also so much more.

Harper did her best to match him, and failed miserably because of her divided heart. She knew that the man before her was not the loving father she had come to know, but the ruthless killer who stile happiness from everyone and everything. The man she fought wasn't her father, and yet, he was.

Within minutes, Harper was slammed against a wall, and when she regained her senses the first few inches of the Masamune were piercing her right shoulder, pinning her to the wall. The injury was little more than a dislocated shoulder, unless she moved. Movement would cause her sub-clavier artery to be severed or muscle to be sliced, rendering her sword arm useless in a fight. As long as she was still, it wasn't a bad injury, but it still hurt like Hades.

Sephiroth stared down the length of the Masamune at her, still grasping the hilt. "A little while from now I will have Cloud Strife pinned to a wall much like you are now. I will ask him what he holds most dear, and then take it from him." He twisted his sword a fraction of an inch, making Harper cry out in pain. "And you? You will join the other remnants and eat away at the planet. But, you are different from them, stronger because you are my child. You will be a great help in the search for a new planet." He pulled his sword out; her arm would be all right.

"What's wrong with this planet?" Both ad resumed the "ready" stance, their katana cocked over their heads.

"Everything. It dies even as we speak."

"The Lifestream is healing it!" Harper objected.

"Oh," Sephiroth mocked, "I suppose I'll have to reconsider." He launched a flurry of attacks.

Vincent was through pacing. "I'm going look for her," he announced. She had been gone too long. After Harper had jumped, Cid had put the Shera down to wait near where she went overboard.

"I'm coming," Cid said as he caught up.

"Fine."

A/N: Thanks for waiting! I'll be updating a little more often now… We only have a few chapters left…though I don't know how long I'll be able to draw it out…Please review!