Not moving.
His body was not moving. Why?
He felt so weak, even more so then when he had gotten the flu for a week. Lightning had told him to move, so why was he not moving?
'Get up', Cloud thought. 'Get up now or you're going to die.'
He felt like he was floating, like he was dreaming even. Except it was real. All of it was real.
"Kid, get the hell out of here!"
Lightning was yelling at him.
Somehow, Cloud got to his feet.
"Already needing someone else to do your thinking for you? You never had much free will."
And then the man was standing in front of Cloud and reaching –
"DOWN!"
Cloud dropped back to the earth and something swooshed over him. When he raised his head again, Lightning and Maybe-Sephiroth were gone. But….
CLANGCRASHCLANG!
He looked up.
And blinked.
Because there was no physical or magical law he knew of that should have allowed for two grown men to fight in midair.
"Keep moving!" Lightning yelled.
Cloud obeyed.
Dirt kicked up into the air as he ran, trying not to look behind him. He did not want to see if they were following. Just seeing the man in black standing nearby had loosened all his bones and turned him to jelly. If he saw them fighting and the man was still coming after him –
And then Vincent caught him by the shoulder. Cloud stopped too quickly, his feet flying out from beneath him, but Vincent kept him upright. The words tripped out of his mouth and became a jumbled mess.
"Lightning needs help it's that Sephiroth guy back there he needs help please!"
"I had guessed so," Vincent said calmly, like nothing at all was wrong. "The rest of the group is heading down the path. Follow them, quickly."
Then he was gone, running impossibly fast towards the sound of crashing steel. Cloud thought Vincent's order was the best bit of common sense he had acquired all week. He took off running as fast as he could down the mountain road. As he passed by the spot where he had last seen the group, he saw the sled laying abandoned on the road. It did not look like anyone had bothered to grab anything off of it, likely figuring it would just be dead weight. With Merry Weather only one or two more days away they could probably manage without the food, but the water? They needed that. He made a sharp detour towards the misshapen lump of bags and started tugging on the rope holding them down. He had just reached bag holding the water bottles when he paused, noticing that the sound of fighting seemed to have stopped.
Had it already ended?
They were fighting the greatest SOLDIER alive, there was no way they –
"CLOUD!"
It was the first time Lightning had ever said his name. The bizarre shock of it was enough to scramble Cloud's brain for a moment (he had only ever called Cloud "kid" before. Why? Everyone else was addressed by name), stalling the realization of just why Lightning would be yelling at him. That he was not murdered horribly then and there was only due to Vincent's freakishly improbable quick draw skill.
The gunshot was a comparably minor thing compared to the massive weight slamming into him and knocking him head-over-heels up the road. It only lasted a small second and then something grabbed his right foot in a vice grip that shattered the bones. Cloud could feel them break, every one of them. Before he even had time to open his mouth to scream, the horrible grip tugged him and turned his momentum to the left where the hard wall of the mountain waited. Then it threw him.
It was only after things had calmed down that he had time to process all of this. As it happened, what Cloud experienced was yelling/gunshot/ow/tumbling/AUGH/flying?/what? The last was the split second confusion following yet another abrupt change in velocity as Lightning appeared out of nowhere to grab Cloud before he could smash against the mountain and redecorate it with his insides. Lightning kept going with his chosen direction and Cloud had a dizzying view of the road shrinking beneath them as Lightning ran up the sheer mountainside like it was nothing.
Below and ahead was the Maybe-Sephiroth man, his sword flash-flash-flashing in time with Vincent's gunshots, and Cloud felt part of his brain explode when he realized, going by the sparks that flew every time it happened, that Vincent's pistol shots were being deflected at close range with a sword. No spells that he could see, just straight out "fuck you ammunition, blades are better." At any other point in his life he would have found that amazing, but all it did then was hammer in how utterly screwed they all were. Then the scene vanished as they reached a divide in the mountain, the rock disappearing beneath Lightning's feet to open out into one of the many miniscule valleys found in the mountain range.
Lightning set down a very dizzy Cloud and immediately went to the boy's injured foot. Cloud, now in a relationship with gravity that made sense, was able to focus on the feeling of multiple small bone breaks, torn flesh, and gushing blood. He did the rational thing and screamed his head off.
"Did he get anything else?! Cloud, did he hurt anything else?!" Lighting was yelling. Cloud wished he would shut up, that he would go away, that he had never come to Nibelheim. Everything had been fine before Lightning came.
Lightning, oblivious to Cloud's feelings, cursed when the boy failed to answer him and dug through one of his many pockets. He came out with a purple materia marble, which immediately took the place of one of the other orbs in his bracer. It came alive with purple light as Lightning leaned over Cloud and began tearing at the destroyed boot. Every movement sent white-hot lances of pain up Cloud's whole leg. His foot was nothing but a supernova of agony.
"I'm going to fix your foot now, but you have to hold still. Understand?" Lightning was calm again, or what passed for calm in the situation. Cloud hated him even more for it.
"Just hold still and I'll – "
Then the new materia flared a short, sharp burst of light beyond its earlier glow. Before Cloud could blink, Lightning had scooped him up and was jumping forward through the divide and out onto the slope. Why soon became apparent. The shelf they had been on disappeared in a shining flash, grinding down the mountain with the loud rumble of stone-on-stone. Silver hair and a black coat flew after Lightning, long steel singing in the wind. The pain was forgotten. Cloud grabbed Lightning's shoulder as hard as he could in the awkward, one-armed bridal hold Lightning had him in.
"Look out!" was on the tip of Cloud's tongue, but Lightning somehow already knew. The monstrous sword swung around Lightning's back, deflecting the cut without Lightning even turning his head. The long sword veered off to the left and the man had to follow it to avoid letting go. Then he landed on the mountainside, kicked off and came at them again. Lightning, somehow, realized it and twisted in midair. The sword whistled harmlessly overhead and Lightning swung the edge of his own sword up to slash at the bad man. Maybe-Sephiroth parried and used the force to push himself further away.
Then the mountain side was right there and Lightning had to do another one of those impossible mid-air twists to land on his feet. Every bone in Cloud's body rattled at the impact – the bones in his injured foot began howling again, so Cloud obliged them by also screaming – and it only got worse when Lightning started running down the side of the mountain to the valley below, his sword flashing out every second to block an attack from the enemy.
"Could use a hand here, Vincent!" Lightning yelled. The silver-haired man laughed. Lightning attacked with his namesake, but Maybe-Sephiroth let it hit his sword and, unbelievably, that seemed to stop the attack.
"He won't be joining us," the man said, sounding very satisfied. "The monster is likely bleeding out even as we speak."
You're the monster, Cloud wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut and held onto Lightning even tighter. Lightning was angry, Cloud knew. He could see the glowing blue eyes narrow at the thought of Vincent, but Lightning said nothing back to the man. Instead, he spoke to Cloud.
"Try to hold on tight and don't scream again. That hurts," Lightning instructed, and then he raised his sword in one hand to the bad man.
"You're going to fight me with that hindrance? This won't be any fun at all," Maybe-Sephiroth said, sounding amused.
"Not for you, no," Lightning said with finality. Cloud wondered about that, until he saw the red materia in the huge sword start to glow.
Cloud knew about the different types of materia. He had seen a few spells fired off by the general store owner during a demonstration at last year's New Year festival. They had only been low level green ones though. Common ice and fire spells. He had never seen a summoning materia before. No one in Nibelheim had anything so destructive.
Lightning, for whatever reason, did.
A glowing circle of black light sprang up around the enemy, cutting him off from them. He stopped, somehow not sliding down the rock despite his momentum, and glared at Lightning. His face twisted, rage and –fear? – making him a new kind of terrifying.
"I will not suffer these –"
CLANG!
The first sword cut straight through his middle.
A suit of armor – and it was only a suit of armor, surely, because no human was ever big enough to wear that thing – with a long plume dangling from the helmet and a heavy cape flew back into the dark void that had sprung up at Maybe-Sephiroth' s feet, leaving the man to somehow hold his torso together. Except, no, he hadn't been cut! The clanging sound had been a parry, not the armor moving. The long, thin blade had somehow been enough to stave off an attack from a sword that made Lightning's look tiny.
And then there was another knight springing from the void! There was another sharp ring of steel on steel! The second knight vanished as Maybe-Sephiroth staggered back from the force of the blow. That was all Cloud saw before Lightning's jump down to a small shelf left his tongue bleeding when his teeth crashed together. He winced, shutting his eyes against the pain, and when he opened them again he couldn't see what was happening with the summon materia. They were going further down, towards where one of the rivers carved a channel through the mountain.
"Wait!" Cloud yelled, his pain taking a back seat on his priority list. "You have to make sure it kills him!"
"That's the plan, but I have to get you safe first!" Lightning yelled back.
They were racing down the mountain at a frightening pace, Lightning's impeccable footwork being the only reason they still managed to stay upright. Cloud had no idea how he was able to do it while holding a buster-style sword in one hand and a teenager in the other, but Lightning did not seem to have any trouble at all. He stopped just before the drop into the water and set Cloud down.
"This'll have to do. Try to stay quiet until I'm done," Lightning said. Then he was running back up the slope, leaving Cloud to awkwardly hug his body against the rock and try not to put any weight on his injured foot. The boy looked up and found that he could just barely make out what was happening where they had been.
There were still knights diving at the dark man from the void. Lightning paid them no mind, sprinting back and jumping into the air in an arcing dive that would carry him right on top of his enemy. The big sword swung down at the end of Lightning's descent. Maybe-Sephiroth managed to dodge away, but the next knight to come at him seemed to have clipped something because that shining sword wavered and dropped a moment, before coming back up, but then….
Cloud could never tell how Lightning did it, but his strikes were always in perfect time with those of the summoned knights. Every time, he managed to drive the man in black into a position that left him too slow to completely block or dodge the next sword; never crippling, never defeating, but adding cut upon cut and all the while Lightning's sword was glowing brighter and brighter with a buildup of energy.
And then the summoning circle vanished.
The man in black disappeared. Cloud's brain only belatedly realized that he had jumped up into the air. He hung there like a massive black bird, kept aloft by the sheer anger he emitted. Lightning was only a moment behind him, the gigantic sword swinging up for a cut. Steel met steel and a sharp sound rang as the collision of blades forced both fighters away from each other. They fell to the ground, landed on their feet and rushed at each other again.
The sound of their swords meeting was so loud Cloud was amazed that neither weapon shattered. They just kept hammering at each, trying to find an opening that would end the fight. It only stopped when Lightning did something – probably a spell – that caused the whole mountain side to tremble and a large chunk of stone to powderize beneath the man in black's feet. Maybe-Sephiroth had to move down the mountainside then and Cloud could see him without that faint smile he had worn earlier.
…Wait.
'Shit, he's getting closer to me,' Cloud realized.
Did Lightning realize it? Probably not, given that he seemed hyper focused on the fight. But that man definitely noticed, because his eyes narrowed and then the sword was raised….!
"Lightning!"
The blond swordsman realized what was happening the moment Cloud yelled. Ice filled the air and hurtled in long spears to plant in front of Cloud. They slowed the man down for a just one second, but that was enough. Fire followed after them, forcing him away. He took to the air over the river and Lightning charged, passing by close enough that Cloud could see the sweat on his face, before launching himself after the man in black.
They both landed on the opposite slope, the man in black retreating upwards, with Lightning slashing every time he was in range. When he was not, spells burned, froze and shattered the rock as they missed by a moment the man that was their true target. Maybe-Sephiroth was being driven upwards, retreating even though he held the high ground.
'Lightning's going to win,' Cloud thought. 'He's going to kill this bastard, and mom and everyone else will be avenged.'
Faintly, he could hear Lightning say, "No more returns for you!"
(And what he could not hear: "Hm. Is that what you think?")
There was a flash of silver.
It did not pierce Lightning. He dodged, letting it pass him by. That the sword did not pull back was something he surely must have noted, but ultimately seemed to ignore. Cloud couldn't blame him. If he was fighting someone who seemed to be General Sephiroth's evil twin, he would certainly focus on nothing but the task at hand. Even so…
(The massive sword separated into seven different components, each flung into the air for easy use.)
To just let the sword pass by him without anything more than a cursory note of it….
(Omni-Slash was an old friend, one/two/three/four/five/six/seven/eight/nine/ten/eleven/twelve/thirteen/fourteen hits, then come together and slam it through the black coat to end it.)
That seemed awfully stupid, Cloud thought, as the sword careened toward him.
(Why was the bastard still smiling? Why was he always smiling?! He'd lost!)
He could not pull himself up the mountain side.
("I will return, Cloud. We will finish our business then. Until then…")
He could not go left or right in time.
("…I suggest you mind what's yours.")
Nothing to do….
(He vanished in a swirl of black ash, not even a body left behind. Of course not. He wasn't of the Planet anymore.)
…but let go.
(What had he meant? Mind what's…. Fuck.)
The water was fast, and cold, and dark, and deep. Cloud gave up on kicking quickly, his foot hurt far too much for it, and tried to claw his way to the surface again. But it was so hard and his arms were so tired it hurt… so… much….
(Cloud sheathed First Tsurugi, jumped for the river and prayed.)
As funny as Cloud just pulling the Knights of the Round out every time Sephiroth showed up and swatting him down like a fly with a newspaper would be, it would make for a very boring adventure story; not to mention you would also have to explain why he didn't just do it to finish the battle in the crater. So, here's my explanation - Sephiroth, being Sephiroth, can block, dodge and parry the knights with some success, providing Cloud isn't distracting him.
Omnislash still fucks him up, though.
The materia Future Cloud pulled out to use was a mastered Protect He figured he'd need it to keep little him safe and turns out he was right.
