Chapter 8: Fail To Eliminate Them
After making sure the president was safe, Sephiroth ran down to the lobby of the building and slashed a few enemies. The stairway to the entrance was ruined so Sephiroth had to leap over the broken stairs and land in front of Zack, who was defeating the last of the enemies. There was a giant hole in the wall where the enemies got in and Sephiroth noticed they were Shinra machines but had a red X marking out the business insignia. Someone probably found the robots and programmed them to turn against Shinra but he had to be someone smart like a scientist.
"Genesis copies," said Sephiroth, looking at the defeated clones. "It seems Genesis and Angeal were behind this."
"I don't believe Angeal would do that, do you?" asked Zack, looking at Sephiroth stonily.
"I don't want to believe it…" he started but Zack interrupted him, "Then don't believe it."
A hint of a smile played across Sephiroth's lips as he said, "Very well, I won't believe it. Let's go, we need to protect the other areas."
Zack nodded and the two ran out through the hole in the building.
…
Once the two made it to Sector 8, Sephiroth decided they should split up so they could defend the other areas easily. He told Zack to protect Sector 8 and he'd go to Sector 5 to protect the civilians there but that was actually a cover up so he could go warn Haruka to hide just in case the monsters accessed the slums. Instead of going around the buildings, Sephiroth dashed up the stairs to reach the train station and cut across there to get to the slums. He ran through the small shopping center that Haruka showed him on one of their many dates and sped off through the gate. Hurriedly, he ran past some people and darted down the path that led to the church.
As soon as he got to the church door, he yanked it open and found Aerith and Haruka sitting in their flower patch, pulling weeds out. He dashed up to them and got their attention by tapping on Haruka's shoulder. The girl stood and looked at him with confusion written all over her face at the hasty appearance of the man.
"What's wrong, Sephiroth?" she asked anxiously, grabbing his gloved hands in hers. "Why do you look so anxious?"
"Look," he said quickly, "you and your sister need to go home. Genesis clones are probably around here so you need to hide."
"No," retorted Aerith, placing her hands on her hips, "we want to stay here." She gave him an angry look, pouting. "You can't make us leave, Soldier man!" Her green eyes now resembled an emerald fire.
Sephiroth raised his eyebrows in amusement and irritation. "Look, missy," he said sternly like he was her father, "I can physically pick both you and your sister up and carry you home if I wanted to, which I will do if you don't do as I say."
Haruka recognized his tone; it was the "warning: I'm dangerous" tone that he used when he was very pissed at someone. To avoid a full on argument, she squeezed in between the two and gave them both a disapproving look. "Sephiroth," she said crossly to the tense man, "don't talk to my sister like that. If she wants to stay, she can stay. And Aerith," she looked at the younger girl with the expression of a mom, "you must do whatever we say to stay safe. The last thing I want is this madman killing you. Sephiroth, why would Genesis attack us? We mean little to nothing to him."
"Because," replied Sephiroth through tight lips, "he knows how much you mean to me, and he would hurt both you and your sister just to strike my nerve. I don't want you to get hurt." He looked down to Haruka with a begging look on his face. "Please, Rukie, do as I say and go home now. You're not safe here; not without my protection at least and I can't always be there to protect you."
Haruka's face relaxed with a grin and she placed her hand on his cheek. "Don't worry," she assured him gently. "Aerith and I will be fine. There's a back door to the church we can sneak out of if push comes to shove."
A relieved smile spread on Sephiroth's angelic features. "You should know I'm breaking my mandate. I officially should be at Mako Reactor 5, and I'll go now. Be safe." His green eyes looked sad like he didn't want to leave her but she only gave him a smile.
"Be careful," she said lovingly, kissing him once on the lips but before she could get out of the circle of his arms Sephiroth pulled her back to him and kissed her once more.
"I will," he whispered, giving her one last kiss on the lips before heading out of the church.
As soon as he was gone, she asked Aerith mischievously, "Hey, Aer, do think he would notice if I tagged along with him?"
…
As soon as Sephiroth reached the reactor, he pulled out his phone to call Zack and once the boy answered he said, "Once you're finished, come to Mako Reactor 5."
"Did you find something out?" asked Zack eagerly from the other end.
"Angeal has been sighted," answered Sephiroth, pacing on the top floor of the reactor.
"Grr," growled Zack in frustration, "so it's search and destroy?"
Sephiroth answered in a pacifying tone, "The army is mobilizing but there's still time. You and I will find them before they do and…"
"And WHAT!" screamed the boy, causing Sephiroth to pull his phone away from his ear.
"Fail to eliminate them," finished Sephiroth, ears still ringing slightly.
"Furreal?" asked Zack the excited puppy Angeal has always described.
Sephiroth chuckled lightly and replied, "Yes, for real." He almost laughed at the ridiculous teenage slang he used but he did just to mock Zack in a friendly way.
"Excellent!" shouted Zack. "Er, probably!"
With that said, Sephiroth hung up his phone and placed it in his pocket awaiting for the boy's arrival.
"So is he coming?" asked a familiar voice that made Sephiroth's head snap up in surprise.
He turned and saw Haruka standing by the stairway of the reactor giving him a curious yet sheepish look. A muscle tightened in his jaw as he blinked and stared just to make sure he wasn't having an illusion. "Haruka," he said crossly, crossing his arms over his chest, "what the hell are you doing here! I told you to be safe! Why are you endangering yourself!" He clenched his fists wanting to punch something, preferably Genesis.
"Oh, excuse me!" demanded Haruka, placing her hands on her hips moodily. "I followed you because I hate being left behind! I hate seeing to have you go! I hate being useless! I-I even hate YOU sometimes, Sephiroth Crescent!" Her pretty face tightened in anger as she clenched her tiny fists tightly.
Sephiroth did a few cleansing breaths to control his temper and finally said, "I don't want you to hurt yourself. There could be danger."
"Danger," snorted Haruka in return. "I laugh at danger." She mockingly chuckled loudly for a few seconds before giving him a smile.
"I see nothing funny here," said a new voice and the couple turned to see Zack.
Next to Zack laid a clone of Angeal; Sephiroth could recognize it by the man's face. Of course Zack asked, "Is that Angeal's face?" while he crouched down and stared at the clone.
Sephiroth took Haruka by the hand and let her walk with him as he walked. "It appears," said Sephiroth gravely, "Genesis is not the only one who can be copied."
Zack looked up at them as the two walked past him and gave Haruka a brief yet charming wave. She only gave him a slight smile before looking at Sephiroth, who looked more somber than usual. Lovingly, she touched him on the arm and he turned to give her a tender smile before he started with a narrative.
"The company training room," he said reminiscently.
"Hmm?" both Haruka and Zack murmured at the same time as they stared at the man.
"We used to sneak in there for fun," explained Sephiroth, smiling slightly, "when the seconds were out…Genesis, Angeal, and I."
"You two were pretty tight, huh?" asked Zack, giving the man a sympathetic look.
"Hmph," murmured Sephiroth, letting the smile spread a little, "I wonder…" He gazed off into space remembering what went down in the training room.
(Okay, I am SO not going to type out the whole story of the training room incident! If you wanna see what happened, go to YouTube and type in Genesis and Angeal vs Sephiroth English and you'll see what happened!)
…
"So, was everything alright?" asked Zack once Sephiroth finished his narrative.
"Yes," replied the silver haired quietly, "as far as Genesis was concerned. But, as for Angeal…"
"Angeal?" questioned Zack, turning to look at the man.
"What happened?" asked Haruka gently, giving Sephiroth an empathetic look as she stood with him.
Sephiroth let out a light laugh as he smiled. "Later," he continued, "I received one of his famous lectures."
"About what?" asked Haruka, unfamiliar with the man Sephiroth described.
"Always the same," he replied, smiling at her lovingly. "Discipline, dreams, honor, et cetera." He looked down at the ground slightly as if reminiscing about that lecture he received after the incident.
"Ah," said Zack knowingly, nodding, "one of those, huh?"
Sephiroth gave a light nod as he walked over to look at the clone once more. "So it's true," he said sadly, "they're in league with Hollander."
"How could this happen?" asked Zack in a distressed tone, shaking his spiky head slightly as he held onto the railing of the platform the three were on.
Sephiroth and Haruka didn't answer but only stared at the clone dolefully. I don't know, Zack, thought Sephiroth. I just don't know…
A/N: Yes, finished finally. Sorry if it's short but I hope you all enjoy it! Please leave nice comments! I love to hear about my work!