Lost in the Shadows

Chapter 26 - Betrayal

Disclaimer: I do not own FF7 and its characters, settings or the like. These words, however, are mine.

"They're not the one's we need..." A voice whispered harshly. The person moved to stand over Cloud and Tifa's forms, their expression that of repulsion.

"Nope, not at all." The unknown turned and began to walk away, happy that he hadn't been seen.

Rude started and jumped up at the sound of a woman's scream; Yuffie's scream. His head snapped around to look at Reno. "Stay here and keep her safe."

Reno made to protest but Rude cut him short with a 'look'. Reno closed his mouth and nodded, lowering his eyes. Rude quickly grabbed a gun from off the table and hesitated before the door for a moment.

Rude tensed and strode out of the room without another look back.

"Let me go, old man!" Yuffie cried out, trying to break free of Cid's grip. Toyori was looking murderous and he was holding his weapon in a rather menacing manner.

"Stop it, brat." Cid whispered harshly. "Now is not the time to do anything stupid -- don't need you killed."

Yuffie's eyes filled with tears and she watched as Toyori leapt from the building. Yuffie's closed her eyes tightly and waited for it -- for Aerith's piercing scream and Sephiroth's shocked gasp.

"Yuffie, Cid, get out of there!"

Yuffie's eyes snapped open and she turned to face Vincent and Barret. Barret began to shoot a round of bullets at Toyori and Vincent shot at him as well with perfect aim. Toyori managed to evade all but Vincent's shots and when his foot touched the ground he was airborne again immediately.

Cid let go of Yuffie and she ran to the opening of the airship and grabbed their weapons. She threw Cid his large spear before running out in full force, ready to throw her shuriken. Cid's spear flew by her and into Toyori's arm. Yuffie nearly froze; that was far too easy. Her eyes widened when a dark purple miasma surrounded him. She was thrown back by the force and was heavily poisoned.

She executed a perfect back flip in midair and landed on her feet on the ground, but she fell over at soon as she landed and held her head in her hands, trying to steady her vision.

"Yuffie!" Barret called out, running over to her side. He pulled out an antidote and forced it down her throat, despite her protests.

"Rude! Get your ass over here!" Cid yelled, waving his arm. He stopped suddenly and called out a warning, "Watch out for Vince!"

Yuffie turned her attention to Vincent; he was transforming. He let out a half-human, half-demonic growl as deep brown hued skin began to form all over his body. Wings were protruding from his back and his eyes now had slitted pupils.

"Chaos..." Yuffie whispered. He'd only ever taken on that form once around them -- and they'd been in dire danger. What could have caused him to transform...?

"You could be quite useful... But enough of these silly games. It ends now." Toyori said. He jumped off of the ship and flew straight for Vincent, his double edged sword ready. He swung in such a way that everybody was sure he wouldn't miss -- but Chaos swerved out of the way with agility they'd never seen him use before, before launching himself right at Toyori, winding him.

Toyori fell back on one knee and his arm hung limply at his side. Chaos had managed to dislocate it.

Yuffie's shuriken, Cid's spear and bullet's from both Barret and Rude were flying at him with amazing speed, but he didn't even flinch. They watched in shock as he simply brought his fist up into the air and then back down onto the earth beneath him with a shattering sound.

Yuffie smirked -- what, did he break his hand?

Her face fell when the entirety of the earth around him and them began to fall into shambles. Most of them tripped and fell over, while a couple of them managed to keep their feet on the ground.

Toyori jumped high above all of the dangers flying straight at him before landing soundly on the ground again. Yuffie gasped as he walked effortlessly over the broken earth over to where Aerith and Sephiroth lay.

She stumbled when she stood and tried to walk after him. She despaired silently, as her weapon was nowhere reachable -- the same went for Cid. Barret was still trying to get up off his ass, as Yuffie so delicately put it, and Rude was --

Yuffie's eyes widened. "Rude, no--!"

Rude was obviously skilled on any range of terrain, as he ran straight up to Toyori, fists ready and gun at his side. He wasn't prepared at all for what came next.

Toyori, quicker then their eye's could see, plunged a dagger into Rude's chest. Right in the heart.

Yuffie let out a bloodcurdling scream. Aerith heard a thud come from right next to her but she refused to look.

Aerith shut her eyes tight, not wanting to know why Yuffie had screamed; or if what she was dreading was now laying right next to her.

'Dear Planet... Please, no... Not now, not him... Reno... Elena...'

She was crying silently now. "Why..." She whispered brokenly. "Sephiroth... Get off me... Wake up!"

"Rude, oh my god, oh my god!" Yuffie cried. "Oh my god, what have you done?"

Aerith tried to push him off with her hands but he was too heavy; she then tried to move her hips and use her hands to shift him off of her but he was simply immovable.

Before she could even comprehend what was happening, a rather sharp looking blade was heading right for her head. She moved out of the way just in time through instinct and she screamed in fear, but then the Planet let out a mind shattering wail and she let her head fall right back down and she fell quiet save for a few whimpers.

"Wha--"

Aerith's eyes snapped open. "Sephiroth?" Behind him, the blade was just about to cut through his neck but she must've seen the reflection in her eyes because he moved his head to lay right beside hers. Just as quickly, he was up again; he swung his leg out and caught Toyori off guard, knocking him over.

Toyori jumped back up on his feet. By then, Sephiroth was on his knees, Aerith sitting behind him in shock. He held his hands out as Toyori's blade came sweeping down and when the blade should have connected and ripped through Sephiroth's hands, the Masamune appeared.

Aerith stood up and backed up -- until she hit something. She looked down and let slip a small scream. Eyes wide she fell back, but she couldn't take her eyes off of him. Gaining herself, she moved to check his pulse.

There was none.

She let out a sob and brought her hand over his eyes, closing them. She stood slowly, using the ship's side as a stand. What had she been expecting? To find him alive? For the Planet to heal him like she knew it could have? She shook with anger and she turned to cast a powerful Ultima spell on Toyori when something took hold of her mind and body.

'Hello sweetie -- don't mind if I use your body, do you?' Kayana's voice reverberated throughout her head.

Cloud came to well after sunset, groggy and confused. Looking around him and seeing the still forms of Tifa, Cait and Red, it all came back to him. He stood quickly and went to Tifa's side. He shook her until she woke -- which she did rather strangely, sitting up quickly with a pained gasp -- before moving on to the other two.

"What happened?" Cloud asked Nanaki.

He shook his head and looked sadly at Cloud, equally as confused. "I do not know."

Cloud looked to the other two, but they didn't know what was going on either. Cloud sighed, wanting to know what had happened. Something told him it was extremely important he know -- but seeing as how that wasn't an option, he pulled out his PHS and punched in Cid's number.

A few minutes and rings passed without anyone picked up. He frowned down at the PHS that was now sitting in his hand.

"What's wrong?" Tifa said, shifting to look over his shoulder.

"Cid's not answering." He muttered. Cait jumped up onto his shoulder and curled his tail around Cloud's neck loosely.

"Do you think something is wrong?"

"I hope not. We can't get off this island to help, if that's the case, without him." Cloud answered. Today was not going very well.

Tifa sighed and sat back, scratching behind Red's ears absentmindedly. "Well, I guess we'll just have to wait. There's nothing we can do about it right now."

Cloud scratched the back of his head and stood, stretching. "I'll go see if we can get a room -- wait here."

Tifa nodded and he walked off. Red whined slightly and Tifa smiled encouragingly.

She smiled even though she didn't feel she had any real reason to.

Aerith couldn't stop the onslaught of pain flowing through her mind; she couldn't scream, she couldn't speak, she couldn't move. Not on her own, at least. Kayana was sending wave after wave of magic towards Toyori -- fake magic. He kept moving forward as though she was doing nothing at all. She couldn't understand it! What was going on here? Why couldn't she control her body?

All of her comrades were giving her looks -- she was the strongest spell caster out of all of them, so why wasn't she affecting him if the rest of them could?

She continued to cast spells until she ran out of magic power. That too, she couldn't understand. Why was something like this consuming it all?

She watched as Sephiroth and Toyori fought like there was no tomorrow; they were swinging their blades mercilessly, managing to stay far away from the rest of them the entire time. Barret and Yuffie were tending to Rude and Vincent and Cid were standing on the sidelines, unable to find anything useful to do. Aerith heard a PHS ring from somewhere not to far away, but nobody noticed or they simply chose to ignore it.

Aerith could only watch in horror as Toyori, who had turned and looked at her with a look of deep rage, ran straight for her. Sephiroth hadn't anticipated his moving towards her and he attacked, slicing through thin air. He stood motionless for no more then a few seconds before he ran after him yet again.

Aerith found this annoying -- why did he have to keep coming after her? Why couldn't he finish the job the first time? She grew angry as he came closer and closer, but she could hardly do anything about it.

She was going nowhere.

In the split second that Toyori lunged for her she felt herself inhabiting her body once again Her eyes widened as she realized what was going on.

Toyori jutted his entire being, elbow more then anything else, into her ribcage. She felt all the air inside of her leave her and just as quickly as she felt herself controlling her body, she couldn't. Sephiroth quickened and moved to catch.

She fell right through him.

"What..?" He gasped.

"Aerith?" Yuffie cried out -- Aerith could hear it all, but she couldn't fell anything anymore. Nothing.

Sephiroth quickly moved so he was kneeling beside her, not worrying about Toyori behind him, as he too had stopped moving. Toyori's face was expressionless as he watched the scene before him unfold.

"Sephiroth..." Kayana said mysteriously, walking out from the brush.

'Kayana!' Aerith thought. 'She did this!'

"What is this?" Sephiroth seethed. He turned to Kayana. "What is this!" He yelled, pointing at Aerith's slightly transparent form.

"They lied to you, Sephiroth..." Kayana said, ceasing any movement when she was beside Toyori. "The Planet, her parent's... Your mother, who claimed to love you." She shook her head with mirth. "They never sent back their precious Cetra daughter!" She said the word as though it were some vicious disease.

'What...'

"You're wrong." Sephiroth shook his head and laughed. "What have you done with her?"

"Surely Hojo's son would know a fake when they saw one? You know how powerful her magic is -- she didn't inflict any pain upon Toyori here."

"She is merely excess mako and lifestream remnants, embodying the long dead Cetra survivor." Toyori added, beginning to pace.

"Don't listen Sephiroth, don't listen!" Yuffie exclaimed, shaking her head. "They're lying! Aerith was here, I know she was!"

Kayana's eyes swept over Yuffie. "A young child would never know the difference." Yuffie moved forward, ready to give the woman a piece of her mind but Vincent moved and grasped her arm.

"How else would she simply... fall through you like that? She is not real -- she never was."

The first flicker of doubt entered Sephiroth's eyes; Vincent noticed immediately.

"Sephiroth--"

"Shut up."

Toyori smirked slightly. "Sephiroth, the Planet is just like Jenova. It wants to control you -- it wants you to save it. Not to be happy." He shook his head. "Once you've completed that task... Who knows what might happen to you."

Sephiroth lowered his eyes to Aerith. "But..."

Yuffie's eyes widened. "Sephiroth, how could you even begin to believe what he's saying to you?" Is his mind really so weak? Is this how Jenova managed to take control of him the first time?

Sephiroth stood slowly, his bangs hiding his eyes.

"Hey!"

Everyone looked up and watched as Tifa, Cloud, Red and Cait ran toward the group. "What's going on here...?" Tifa asked. "Aerith?" She gasped, surprised.

"Sephiroth, what's going on?" Cloud asked, his eyes hardening. Hadn't he told everyone this would happen?

Sephiroth laughed, startling them all.

Red walked forward to sit in front of the man and looked up underneath his bangs. "Do you wish to leave?" Red asked, fully aware that Aerith was beneath him -- Sephiroth seemed the bigger problem at the moment however.

Sephiroth whipped his katana out and swung it at Red; he seemed to know this would happen though and Red managed to evade easily.

"He believed her..." Yuffie breathed, turning to Vincent. "We have to stop him!"

"Sephiroth..." Tifa took a step forward but was met with the tip of the Masamune. She froze, taking her time to look him in the eye. "You have to know they're lying... Whatever they said... It's not true."

He laughed again. "You're the liars." That said, he turned and sheathed his blade. He took a leap and disappeared over the top of the trees.

Tifa fell to her knees and sighed.

"Hey, wait!" Yuffie yelled, running past Tifa as Toyori and Kayana both disappeared. Kayana's smile was ghostly and it shook her to the core -- there had to be more involved. Sephiroth wouldn't just readily agree with her... Would he?

"What's wrong with Rude?" Cait Sith asked suddenly. One look from Cid gave the arriving foursome their answer.

"This is fucked up." Cid swore, walking over to pick his spear up.

A sob coming from before them made them all stop and they watched as Aerith picked herself up off the ground, tears streaming down her face.