Chapter 5

Kuja merely stared down the blade of the sword that still hovered inches away from the side of his face. His opponent was an impressive and handsome figure, his flowing silver hair adding to the menacing and foreboding feel. He tried to keep calm on the outside, but every part of his body was screaming at him to run.

Sephiroth pulled the sword back and swung again, and Kuja was barely able to duck in time. Frustrated, Sephiroth lunged. Kuja managed to roll away, but his shoulder was sliced open in the process. Another swing and he had a similar wound on his opposite arm.

"Kuja!"

"Here!" shouted Rakunya, tossing his katana to the injured Kuja, who managed to parry Sephiroth's next attack before unleashing a Fira spell. Sephiroth took the blow as though it were nothing, then unleashed his own powerful Fire spell. He found, however, that it was simply launched back at him. He glared angrily at Kuja as Carbuncle faded. He returned to his previous approach, but a quick thinking Garnet had cast Protect around him.

He spun suddenly, sensing Rakunya's attack before it connected, and, pushing off with his sword, he threw Rakunya against the crater wall. Rakunya hit hard, losing his gunblade in the toss. Before Sephiroth could move in for the kill, however, Selphie cast Wall around her fallen comrade. Zidane lunged at Sephiroth, but with a single spin, Sephiroth dodged the attack and sliced Zidane across his back, leaving a large gash.

He moved back towards Rakunya. Selphie tried to stop him, but one quick slice was all it took to silence her. All of the other fighters in the group had been taken down, and the large group of worthless flunkies was trying to protect the apparent head of this expedition, who was now the last fighter standing. Rakunya raised his right arm and cocked his pistol.

"That's as far as you go, Sephiroth," he warned. Sephiroth raised his blade, as if to cut through the SeeDs, clearing the path between himself and Rakunya, but Rakunya merely continued to glare at him. "That sword moves another inch and I'll end it right here and now."

Sephiroth tauntingly flicked his wrist, and, true to his word, Rakunya fired. The bullet never hit Sephiroth, however; his free hand had grabbed the bullet the moment before it hit his face. He didn't expect, however, that this little maneuver would give the closest SeeD time to fire an arrow into his stomach. The time it took him to remove the arrow was all the time the SeeDs needed to overwhelm him.

Despite their sword mastery, however, they proved not to be enough for Sephiroth, who caught several attacks at the same time with his sword and thrust the attackers into other SeeDs. A pair of whip experts grabbed his sword, but he simply snapped the blade back towards himself quickly, slicing off the ends of their whips.

The SeeDs prepared another assault, but all seemed in vain as Sephiroth cast his most powerful Bolt spell to immobilize all of them. The SeeDs out of the way, his focus drifted back to Rakunya, who had reacquired his gunblade and was preparing for Sephiroth's inevitable assault. As Sephiroth raised his blade, however, a shuriken lodged itself firmly in his shoulder.

Standing about where Rakunya had been moments before, the ninja Yuffie stood, poised for battle and in the processes of throwing a sword at Sephiroth. As he was expecting it this time, he managed to deflect it with his own blade. He took a swing at her, but he found himself distracted by Rakunya's Fira spell, which had connected squarely in the middle of his chest.

He turned to attack Rakunya, but he soon found himself lying on his back, underneath the force of the eidolon Fenrir. His raged increased as the eidolon vanished, however, and Eiko soon found herself pinned to the ground underneath Sephiroth's boot, his full strength bearing down on her, literally crushing the strength out of her. Again he was interrupted before he could make his kill, this time by the mighty eidolon Atomos. While it did little to him, it distracted him enough that Zidane was able to crawl away with Eiko under his arm.

Another wave of SeeDs came charging, and Sephiroth decided that enough was enough. He turned casually and impaled a row of them, then threw them off his Masamune into another row of SeeDs, pinning them to the ground with their own comrades. Sensing the next attack, he quickly spun around, slicing Rakunya's pistol and rendering it useless. Rakunya cursed, then threw the remains of his gun at Sephiroth. It connected and enraged Sephiroth further.

Raising his arms, Sephiroth softly chanted something incoherent. As he did, the ground beneath them began to shake and crack apart. It seemed, at first, as though something was coming out of the cracks in the ground, but everything stopped when another quake shook Sephiroth from his spot. None of the present party seemed to be expecting the aftershock.

Sephiroth looked up at the sky accusingly, then laughed. "Fine," he said. "If it is not yet time, I shall at least cleanse Mother's grave of the unworthy."

He leapt into the air and fired a blast of destructive energy directly into the ground. The resulting explosion and shockwave sent the occupants of the crater flying outwards. Sephiroth smiled as he flew past, knowing that he had succeeded in killing them all. He would return later to seal the crater from intruders, then again later to finish the job that he had started.

Yuffie shook her head as she flew, desperately trying to maintain consciousness and think of a way that she could save herself. Not far from her, she saw Rakunya, already lower than she was and completely stunned by the blast. If he was to survive, she would have to think of a way to save them both. Her mind raced as she searched for a way to live. She didn't have long; they're fate seemed to be an early end in a watery grave. At almost the last second, she grabbed at her bangle and activated a Materia, hoping that she picked one that would save them.

Author's Note: Suspense! Intrigue! And...a really short chapter, but hopefully I did good with it.

I am in need of Reviews! Five chapters, Five reviews...but I don't need balance like that. I want reviews!