A.N: Hey guys, here is the new chapter, and hopefully I haven't taken too long. I hope you enjoy, and will hopefully update again within the next month.
Warnings: Violence, violence, violence, sexual references, character death.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. Square Enix does.
Moving forward, Sephiroth swung Manasume in a wide arc, as Riku and Sora ducked underneath and split to come at Larxene from both sides. As a pair of short-swords whistled through the air towards her, the vampiress swirled out of the way, dodging both before being impaled by a carefully-timed stab from Manasume. Short-swords hacked at her in identical arcs and managed to nick her on the shoulder and cheek.
The vampiress looked down at the blood trickling down her skin and snarled, eyes virtually incandescent with rage as she licked the wounds and they closed rapidly, skin rapidly knitting itself back together. Static sizzled into existence around her, as multiple bolts of lightning arced out towards Sephiroth, Sora and Riku.
The two younger boys dropped and rolled, moving far enough forward to avoid the crackling bolts, as Sephiroth reversed his personal gravity enough to leap right over the lightning. Spinning into a somersault in mid air, Sephiroth pulled a selection of knives from various hidden pockets before hurling them at Larxene one-handed, before landing at her feet.
Letting his leg crumple under him, he landed in a half-crouch, one leg still extended with the blunt side of Manasume placed against his boot. Taking the residual momentum of his somersault, he let himself spin on the crouching leg, the blade accelerating sharply as the force of his spinning kick added to the momentum of the blow.
The blade sliced through Larxene's arm at the elbow, the black-robed arm falling to the floor with a blade still clutched in its hand. Larxene looked at them in furious disbelief, her rising anger threatening to cloud her judgement even further. As she clenched a kunai in her remaining hand so hard her knuckles whitened, the muscle and bone writhed, extruding filaments and fibres that begun to reweave her arm.
Focused on Sephiroth, Larxene never saw Sora and Riku's twin strikes coming. As a pair of blades sliced open her carotid arteries, she screamed in pain and flipped backwards, blood sparking as it flowed from her neck. Straightening slowly and painfully, her eyes went cold, fury giving way to cold implacable anger.
Sephiroth took a deep breath, warning Sora and Riku,
"She's very dangerous now. She's angry, but not recklessly, and she's ready for us now. Its her or us, so be ready to kill."
As they exchanged grim nods, Larxene suddenly screamed and began to spasm on the ground, jerking around like she was having an epileptic fit. As they tightened their grips on their weapons, they watched carefully for signs of deceit, and Sephiroth had a sudden feeling of realization as he saw wisps of dark smoke around Larxene out of the corner of his eye. His lip curled angrily.
"Zexion..."
Larxene blinked, looking around rapidly, disoriented by the sudden disappearance of the bastards who had just dared to injure her. All she could see was the swirling wind and flashing lightning of a storm, but oddly enough, she felt even more at home than she usually would in the heart of a tempest. That was when it hit her: she was inside her own head! As she began to put together the implications of that thought, the raging storm slowed slightly around her, as rage gave way to contemplation.
"Well, well, well..."
A smooth, dark voice came, as a dark shadow began to spread through the storm. "How extraordinarily predictable."
Suddenly the darkness swirled, coalescing into a familiar form, slate hair fluttering in an unseen wind as the lightning picked up on violet highlights. Black eyes gleamed with cold anger as the Schemer stared unflinchingly into her vicious eyes.
The storm began to flare, lightning sizzling and scorching through the sky to strike at the dark smoke of Zexion's mind. He smirked, and raised a hand, the darkness welling up around them and blotting out the sky.
"Your storms may rule the skies Larxene," he said cruelly, "But in here, I control the world and everything in it."
Suddenly, a blade came flying towards her, following her as she tried to duck, and impaled her in the shoulder, the unfamiliar feeling of pain coursing through her as the wound refused to heal. She screamed suddenly, as the metal dissolved into acid and began to slowly and painfully seep through her veins as Marluxia appeared to stand over her, using his scythe to perform the vampiric version of the death of a thousand slices.
"I'm going to let you out of here to finish playing your little 'game'," Zexion said, "But you're going to leave with slightly less assistance than you had coming in."
Larxene's eyes snapped open, the sight of Sephiroth moving swiftly but cautiously towards her the first thing to meet them. She flipped onto her feet, then swayed and nearly fell as she tried to move instantly into a knife-hand thrust that he dodged with ease. Feeling a disturbing lack of her normal grace, she suddenly realized that a sharp metallic pain was coming from under her ribs.
She looked down to see the handle of a knife sticking out of her flesh, and a wound that wasn't healing faster than it was inflicted, and no biting chill of silver to explain the mystery. She took a deep breath in to try to catch a scent that would reveal how he felt, and hopefully what he would do next, and the sudden absence of a sense she had relied on for centuries threw her composure enough that another blow got through.
Riku's small silver razor-edged crucifix buried itself in her arm, and as the silver began to sting she could almost see Zexion's evil smile as the crucifix burned her, like she was some sort of half-breed lower-caste Hollywood vampire. She hissed angrily, though the naive bastards probably thought it was in religiously-inspired pain, and attempted to hook the teenagers leg before realizing something: her normally perfect balance was shot.
In fact, she felt weak, and clumsy, and to her emerging horror - human. As her eyes widened with the terror of that realization she put together what the Schemer had meant. Sending her back less than she was before? Well, stripping away her vampiric advantages certainly accomplished that.
Perhaps her constant disdain for the others over the centuries had been foolish. After all, it had taken almost everything she had to muster the energy to shock Demyx, and his partner had just done something every one of the others had always assured her was impossible.
She pulled herself out of that train of thought just in time to pull back enough that the brunette's short-sword only got her chin, and not her jugular. Damn, she thought, that was too close, as she flipped gracelessly backwards in an attempt to get some distance. It was all becoming too much.
Larxene snarled, this entire situation infuriating her beyond measure. As her thoughts passed over the various irritants involved, they eventually settled upon the most infuriating one of all. Zexion. Static crackled into life around her as she became so angry she couldn't consciously notice the fact that her lightning hadn't gone the way of her other vampiric gifts.
The lightning crackled and roiled, before Sephiroth swiftly closed an outspread hand, a wave of water following his movements as it closed around her. That was the last she noticed before her universe dissolved into pain. And then?
Sweet black oblivion.
Sephiroth looked at Larxene's crumpled body disdainfully, the water around her still sparking and crackling curiously. He felt oddly reluctant to approach the blackened body, but knew that it was better to be safe than sorry. Gesturing for Riku and Sora to stay back, he made his way over, palming a silver knife as he went.
Glad they were going to be spared this, he waited until they were looking away before swiftly slicing into her chest and butchering her shrivelled heart, just to ensure she didn't come back, then left the silver knife embedded in her heart, moving her robes to hide it.
He looked up from the grizzly work just in time to notice Sora's cry of alarm at the orange glow coming from somewhere in the town.
"Riku," Sora cried, "That looks like its near Roxas' house!"
Sephiroth's eyes widened as he was struck with a sinking sensation of dread.
Flurry of Dancing Flames indeed.
Cloud growled, staring at Axel with unreasoning rage burning in his eyes. Pupils elongated as blue eyes slowly swirled into murky gold. A fist swung towards the vampire as Cloud moved forward so fast that Roxas' pain-filled eyes were barely able to follow. Axel seemed to blur, and Cloud's fist passed through where he was standing before slamming into the wall and dislodging several bricks. As Roxas gaped at his father's barely human strength, Axel smirked brutally.
"I should have known," the vampire snarled, "The smell should have warned me if nothing else, Spawn of the Lion."
As Cloud gave a furious roar and attempted to strike Axel, the vampire simply blocked the fist with his forearm, causing it to shatter with a loud crunch. Taking a deep breath, nostrils flared with anger, Axel smiled evilly before exhaling a sheet of flame that slammed into Cloud, filling the air with the smell of scorching flesh.
Cloud lunged out of the lingering plumes of ash and smoke, launching himself forward in an attempt to head butt Axel, only to meet a punch to the cheek that split his lip open. A burning hot hand closed around his throat, and he screamed as best he could as his vocal chords started to sizzle and char. Blood dripped into his mouth, and his eyes went wide.
"Oh shit," Axel swore, "Roxas, get the hell out of here." As the blond gazed at him in confusion he shouted, "NOW!"
Cloud spasmed in his grip, eyes flickering as the murky gold darkened into a deep red, his teeth extending into sharp points. Nails extended into talons as muscles lengthened and swelled across his body. Axel cursed as he hurled Cloud effortlessly backwards.
The blond spun around and ran at him, lashing out with long talons that met only air as a fist slammed into his back. With a loud roar, a ring of fire exploded into life around them.
Sora ran, his lover and Sephiroth loping along beside him. Desperately gasping in air, he ignored the burning in his legs, struggling to maintain the punishing pace he had set. As they made their way swiftly through the neighbourhood's backyards, they arrived at Roxas's place just in time to hear an inhuman cry of fury and the roar of igniting flames.
The brunette ran towards the door, calling up energy as he went and releasing a gravitational sledgehammer that smashed the door to pieces. Sephiroth gave him an approving glance as they moved forward, through the door and into the house, feet making as little noise as possible as they moved cautiously, clinging to every shadow.
As they reached the door of the living room, Sora frowned, puzzled by the sound of a vaguely familiar voice. Exchanging glances with Sephiroth and Riku, he reached out slowly, turning the handle before opening the door on a scene of total chaos.
Axel snarled, holding Cloud's outstretched talons away from his face one-handed, the other hand frantically trying to land one good blow. Fire swirled around them, as the vampire smelt Roxas running away, and finally released the restraints he was putting on his power.
He disappeared in a burst of flames, causing Cloud to stumble forward, slightly singed, even as a flash beneath him warned him of the red-head's whereabouts to late for him to block. Reaching downwards, he managed to get a grip on Axel's throat before slamming him against the wall, the redhead deceptively easy to hit.
Axel inhaled deeply before breathing out a cloud of ash and red-hot cinders in the blond's face, and then disappeared in another flicker as the wall behind him exploded outwards. From across the room he heard a disbelieving murmur as the blond vampire turned around, and took advantage of its implications, burning into existence behind Cloud and tackling him forward, before disappearing into a puff of smoke.
Sephiroth stared at the face of a man he had though dead and lost to him years ago, heart clenching painfully at the memories of all he had lost.
"Cloud..." He murmured longingly, before being cut off by a cruel laugh that reminded him of how much his lover had changed.
"Sephiroth?" Cloud asked with a mocking smile stretched across his face, revealing his prominent canines, "What on earth are you doing with my son?"
He nodded at Sora, and Sephiroth's brow furrowed in confusion. He had thought this man, now revealed to be Cloud, to be Roxas's father.
"No, no, never mind answering," The blond said with a mocking smile, "I'm sure I would have gotten to know Sora better were he a bit older, son or not."
Sephiroth stared at him angrily, hardly able to believe that this creature was a man he had once loved and respected.
"Cloud," he said, voice cold and harsh, "I don't know you anymore. You are no longer a part of my life or my heart."
The silverette raised Manasume.
"Now, get out of here before I'm forced to slit your throat."
A huge explosion of fire burst into existence around Cloud, clinging and burning, as waves of hot air slammed into him from all sides. Ashes and embers spiralled around him before striking him as a large wheel-like weapon slammed into his chest.
"That won't be necessary, Sephiroth," came a voice that none of them recognized, a pair of green eyes staring at them from the centre of the flames. "Though I must thank you for distracting Strife long enough for me to finish him. It's been a pleasure meeting you. Goodbye."
The flames vanished, leaving only a small pile of ashes on the carpet as Sephiroth stood in the centre of the room, his face stony.
"Come on you two," he said, "We still have to find Roxas."
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Many thanks as usual to my faithful beta.