Disclaimer - I don't own Final Fantasy VII or its characters. Ladies and gentlemen, the CLIMAX had finally arrived!


The Truth

'WHAT!!!' Zack Fair screamed out to the top of his lungs during his sparring with an annoyed Cloud Strife who is trying to chop his head off with his broad sword, because the blond hadn't forgotten what kind of rumor the porcupine hair teen had tried to spread and he had been annoying him ever since, and then there is his very first mission coming up. 'YOU'RE GOING TO WUTAI WITH GENESIS?!'

Three weeks ago, the day after their little talk, the crimson Commander called him and asked him if he might be interested to accompany him to Wutai for the next battle mission, he accepted it but since it wasn't really confirm yet, so he had kind of forgot it. Then last night, Genesis had called to tell him that they will depart in 3600 hours and he was really happy about it. His only mistake was that the first person he had announced to, it was none other than his best friend, Zack Fair, who is, probably, imaging the most gruesome and bloody deaths that might happen to him in Wutai...

Then there is Kadaj, who had been questioning him for three whole days about if he is in love or not, and then he had simply stopped his questions assault and had started to distance himself from him. Probably mad at him for not telling him his secrets, but how do you explain to someone that you have a summon creature as a friend since you have join SOLDIER and that you had slightly developed some feeling for it?

That is the reason why Cloud is now chasing after the raven hair Second Class around the training room, trying to silent him by chopping his head off, not exactly like really chopping his head off, but at least knocked it off.

'Nii-san.' A smooth voice called out.

Cloud looked over his shoulder to see Kadaj, in his 3rd Class uniform minus the helmet and the katana, standing next to the door and he yelled "just a second!" before he punched Zack's head swiftly and hard, not enough to make a concussion, but it will be enough to form a large bump on his head.

'What's up Kadaj?' Cloud asked, leaving a whining raven hair SOLDIER behind, as he threw his sword back to magnetic strap on his back and made his way to his silver hair friend.

'I want to show you something, Nii-san.' Kadaj spoke those words softly, then he grabbed Cloud's arm in a tight grip and ran down the hallway.

'Wait! Where are we going?' The blond SOLDIER asked as he tried to keep up the same pace as Kadaj without tripping. It was only after a few minutes of non-stop running in different corridors and set of staircases did the silver hair teen let loose of his hold over the arm.

'Hurry up, Nii-san!' Kadaj called out with a tiny smile. Cloud's brow frowned, Kadaj was acting strange, but not only that, his features seemed... A little off... Everything about him suddenly looked darker than usual...

Before Cloud could think of a reason for the bizarre change of his "brother", his cell phone started to ring and he slowed down a little to quickly pick up the call: 'Strife here.'

'SOLDIER Cloud Strife.' The other person on the other line said. The voice is easily recognized as the crimson Commander's.

'Yes, Commander Rhapsodos.' Cloud answered as he followed Kadaj towards another set of staircase.

'Since you are coming to Wutai, I will need to give you the necessary information for our operation, could you come to my office right now?' Genesis told him and the blond could hear some papers shuffling on the other side.

'Sorry sir, but I'm with Kadaj right now, could I come later?' The blond SOLDIER asked as he continued to follow his friend up the stairs.

'Where are you?' The crimson Commander asked.

That's a good question. Cloud thought and stopped to look around him for some kind of sign that will tell him on which floor he is right now, but when he saw the large number "67" on the wall, he felt his blood ran cold, because this level belongs to the Science Department where they did numerous experiences, from beast to human, the mere thought of it sent shivers down to his spine.

He took a deep breath to calm himself down as he said: 'I'm at the level 6-'

Before he could finish his sentence, the line was cut off and there isn't a dial tone, he removed the phone from his ear to look at the screen which was completely black out. Strange...

'Nii-san.' Cloud looked up to see the smiling silver hair boy waiting for him next to an opened door that leads to the specimen's containments, which was supposed to be close and inaccessible except for the scientist! 'Come on, we're almost there. You aren't afraid, are you?'

Something about the tone of Kadaj scared Cloud, but what it was, he doesn't know, nor does he want to know. It scared him at the thought that the boy who had known for six years was now enjoying taunting him.

He slowly climbed up the rest of the stairs and entered the containment laboratory with Kadaj in front of him. They walked through the hallway to large opening where there are boxes of different sizes and two large containment units, one was made in glass that had a platform that could ascend to the upper level and the other was built in complete metal. Cloud stopped next to metal one, while Kadaj continued walking without turning back, and peered through the small glass window on the metallic door for a second, his eyes widen in horror at what laid inside, a headless life form floating in some kind of red glowing liquid.

When the blond jerked back, the corpse disappeared and the whole place was filled with screams and voices: 'What the &#&*$ is this headless thing doing here?!'

'JENOVA?'

'Mother...'

'You came...'

'Why did you kill the townspeople?'

'Let's go to Promise Land together, Mother...'

Cloud fell on his knees clutching his head in pain, he felt as if someone had just pressed a white-hot wire on his skull. SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

Cloud. Moon's voice gently resounded in his mind just like a single drop of water dripping down into an agitated pond, clearing everything that disturbed his thoughts.

'What's all that?' The blond asked trembling slightly as he wiped away the sweat on his forehead and get back up. He expected that Moon had an answer to these sudden visions, but the summon creature remained silent in his mind. Letting out a heavy sigh, he followed the same path the silver hair boy took until he reached a small elevator and quickly got in, feeling a little unease.

On the upper floor, in between the glass container that's connected to the level below and the door to the observatory room stood Kadaj.

'Kadaj. What the hell is going on? Why do you want to bring me here?' Cloud questioned as he walked towards him.

When he was just behind him, the silver hair SOLDIER turned around to grab his collar and shoulder, pulling him down and roughly pressing their lips together. Cloud was frozen in shock, giving Kadaj the opportunity to slip pass his defenses and invaded his mouth. The blond immediately began to struggle and tried to pull back from the wild kiss.

'Kadaj-' Cloud stammered when he had managed to pull free, but his mouth was quickly covered by the other. The more he tried to break free, the more persistent the other became, as anger began to boil in chest.

Finally when he broke free for the second time, instead of trying to calmly talk some senses into Kadaj like he is used to whenever the slightly immature teen was misbehaving, Cloud angrily raised his hand and slapped the boy hard on the face, causing him to stumble a few steps back.

'I- I'm sorry...' The blond SOLDIER whispered regretfully as he stared down at the hand he used to slap his ever first friend. He felt his throat tighter when the boy suddenly laughed humorlessly.

'What does he have that I don't?' Kadaj asked his silver hair shield his face from Cloud, so he could hardly guess what he was feeling.

'What do you mean?' Who is "He"?

'What the hell does he have that I don't?' Kadaj yelled out angrily and a dark shock wave burst out and threw Cloud against the metallic wall. 'Why do you let him kiss you and not me?'

What? What is he- Suddenly everything seemed clearer to Cloud when he thought back at the almost lips-to-lips contact with Moon at the Fountain Place. Did he saw us?

'Wait Kadaj! We didn't-' But he was cut off by the enraged teen.

'I thought you love me more than anyone!' Kadaj shouted as the green shades in his eyes darken. 'I knew I should have trusted Mother! She is right about you! You just toy with me, by using my feelings!'

'WHAT? NO! I DIDN'T! LISTEN TO ME!' Cloud shouted desperately as he took a step towards the distressed boy.

'DON'T YOU COME ANY CLOSER TO ME, YOU TRAITOR!' The silver hair teen growled as he released another shock wave, but this time, Cloud was ready and a thin ice wall was formed in between them to shield the blond. However it wasn't enough solid enough to completely stop the wave and was broken into millions of shards, Cloud quickly brought his arms up to shield himself as best as he could from the sharp projectiles.

When he lowered his arms, he saw the black aura around Kadaj started to envelop him and turned his clothes into complete black leather from head to toe, covering almost every part of his body except his face, before the rest of it formed a double-bladed katana.

'Kadaj...?' Cloud said his friend's name, that now sounded foreign to him.

Faster than the SOLDIER thought that the silver hair swordsman could be, Kadaj dashed towards him with his katana ready to behead him, Cloud pulled out his broadsword in time to parry the upcoming attack, but this had only angered his opponent.

The young blond easily parried every slash and dodged every thrust that's coming for his blood, he felt as if he knew all of the swordsman's moves and his body moved on his own to block or evade the attacks.

Their sword dance continued like that, until the blond saw an opening and was about to strike back, but hesitated at the last second, remembering that this is not like in training and that the sword he had in his hand wasn't a wooden sword. His hesitation had given Kadaj the chance to cut two large gashes on his left arm and he quickly stumbled back a few steps to keep his balance.

The silver hair teen was about to finish off Cloud in one blow, but a red blur came out of no where and stood in front of the blond to block the deadly strike with a ruby red sword.

'Genesis...' Cloud's eyes widen in surprise as the Commander pushed Kadaj back.

'You're lucky that I have come just in time.' Genesis said before he looked over his shoulder. 'Are you alright?'

Cloud looked down at his wounded arm where the gashes had closed up due to his enhanced healing ability, but instead of newly healed flesh, there black rash-like scars over his arm. What the hell? Genesis' eyes narrowed at the horrible sight of the arm and muttered under his breath: 'Geostigma.'

'I did it, Mother.' Both SOLDIERs looked up to stare disbelievingly at the silver hair swordsman who is now giggling with glee and his eyes were burning with madness. 'I did it, Mother. I had given the traitor your mark.'

'You did well, Kadaj. Mother is very proud of you.' Someone said behind the silver hair teen. Then out of the shadow, two men walked to the sides of Kadaj, one with long-length silver hair and was slightly taller, the other had short hair with a muscular body, both them wore identical black leather clothes like the swordsman and they had all the same eyes.

'I haven't heard Mother laugh this happy for a long time.' The short hair man said to no one in particular.

'Here.' The long silver hair stranger handed Kadaj a handful of what looked like wet silver hair. 'This is Mother's gift for you.'

The wicked glint in Kadaj's eyes glowed brighter as he took the hair in his hand and looked at the two SOLDIERs saying: 'I'm going to show you my Reunion.'

Cloud didn't know what the Reunion is or cared, because his "brother's" safety is what's most important to him right now and he had a feeling that something really terrible is going to happen to Kadaj if he doesn't get the hair away from him. He quickly dashed towards the teen, ignoring the shouts of warnings of the crimson Commander.

When he was only a few steps away from the boy, Kadaj pressed the hair that had turned into an orb of black mist and his body immediately absorbed it as his face was contorted in pain.

'NO! KAD-' Cloud was quickly silent by a long blade impaled in his right shoulder and his sword slipped out of his loosen grip as he looked down at the somehow familiar sword before he looked up to meet the cold green gaze of the swordsman, but they were no longer Kadaj's. 'Sephiroth?' No, he isn't General Sephiroth... Sephiroth isn't evil. What the hell is going here?!

'It's been a while, Cloud.' The silver hair swordsman spoke in a soft silky voice lanced with venom which made the young blond shivered in fear. 'No, not Cloud. You are simply a mindless nobody.'

'JENOVA!' Cloud heard Genesis screamed behind him and the swordsman quickly pulled out his sword from his shoulder to leap back from the bloody red rapier of his opponent.

Genesis caught the young blond before he fell to the floor with one hand and the other holding his rapier tightly, Cloud winced slightly when his wounded shoulder was pressed against the Commander's.

Before either side could do anything, the red orb hung on the neck of the blond glowed brightly and a black phoenix shot out of it, sending a wave of fire towards the two strangers and the silver hair swordsman, who had simply cut off the fire with one swing of his sword.

'Moon...' Cloud whispered softly, but it was loud enough for both the phoenix and the Commander to hear it. Moon looked over its wings and looked deep into the blue sapphire eyes of the wounded boy.

It's alright Cloud... Everything's going to be alright... I promise... The black winged creature told the young SOLDIER in his mind as it turned its attention back to the three enemies. It's going to be over soon...

'So you have finally appeared G.' The evil Sephiroth said nonchalantly before a smirk was plastered on his face. 'Or should I say, Genesis Rhapsodos, Gaia's secret knight.'

'Genesis?' The blond repeated the name as he looked at the auburn hair man and the black phoenix back and forth, everyone in the room seemed to know what was going on, except him.

That is my true name and this is... Black feathers swirled around the winged beast for a moment before it was replaced by a man with shoulder-length auburn hair with mako-blue glowing eyes, wearing a deep crimson coat with the left half covered in straps, a black shoulder-guard on the right side and a single elegant black wings on his left shoulder. 'My true form...' Moon finished as he looked back at the shocked blond with almost sad eyes before he looked away again and a long bloody red rapier appeared out of thin air in his hand. 'Take care of him.'

Genesis simply nodded his head in acknowledgement as he picked up the forgotten words on the floor and pulled Cloud, who was too shocked to do anything than stared at his used to be winged friend, away from the upcoming battle, settling him on the wall and tried to stop the bleeding from the half healed wound by putting a certain level of pressure on it.

'Oh, I never thought you would regain your strength this fast with that many seals over you.' Sephiroth told the winged man truthfully. 'But for how long could you keep up with me?'

Then swords clashed and the two most powerful being in the world fought for the fate of Gaia's future, but none really mattered for Cloud, for he only cared about his friend's safety above everything, even the planet itself.

For several times, Moon was able to counter-attack with one of his generated swords when he parried the attacks of Sephiroth, but he had only made a couple of small scratches on his enemy who also did the same amount of damages and both injuries were quickly healed. This battle might end up as a tie, but when the silver hair swordsman jumped away from the ruby sword, dozen of generated ones appeared around him and slammed against his waist, hands and legs, pinning him in the air for a moment before engulfing him in a flaming orb.

Bright fire was formed around the fist of Moon, whose face was void of emotion, as he prepared for the final strike, but was interrupted by Cloud who yelled: 'NO! STOP! MOON!'

Distracted by the pleading tone of the young blond, Moon released his fireball that went off target and hit the wall behind it, creating a large hole to the night sky. An alarm rang loudly in the air. At that very moment, Sephiroth broke free from the fire by cutting through it with a sword wave and sent two more waves towards the winged man who lifted his rapier up to block the attack, but they were so powerful that they had flung him against the metallic wall which collapsed upon the strong impact.

'MOON!' Cloud shouted while Genesis was holding him back from running to the sides of the fallen figure on the wall before he turned his gaze towards the silver hair swordsman. 'STOP THIS KADAJ! THIS HAD ALREADY GONE TOO FAR!'

'Kadaj?' Sephiroth repeated and then he started to laugh manically. 'Oh, you mean the Remnant that Mother used to give me back my body.'

The spiky hair teen's eyes widen and shook his head, not believing a single word that was said, as the man continued with a smile: 'Kadaj, as you call him, no longer exists. His existence had cease when mine was reborn, but I'll tell you this, if it comforts you. He will lay forever dormant inside of me. No matter how many times you call to him, he will never answer, because he couldn't hear you at all.'

'Give him back.' Cloud whispered after a few minutes as he balled his hand into fist and the other went to clench the hilt of his sword tightly. Cold anger poured into his chest as the Lifestreams around him started to merge with his. 'GIVE HIM BACK!'

His cry had triggered his power over the ice element, a burst of icy wind whipped across the room and freezing everything on its path. Luckily for Genesis, his natural fire element power protect him from the outburst of Cloud, so he got only knocked back a few steps, instead of being frozen into a human icicle.

'GIVE KADAJ BACK!' The blond yelled to the three silver hair men as a cold hurricane blew towards them and the floor beneath his feet was covered with thick ice that slowly spread around turning the entire sector into an ice cavern.

'Don't you see it, Cloud? I'm Kadaj and Kadaj is me, but in a certain way he is not me. More like an illusion. And you my dear Cloud had simply fallen in love with this pathetic illusion.' Sephiroth told the angry blond as he sent a hurricane of his own which clashed against the other, canceling out each other.

The young SOLDIER ignored what the man had said to him and just concentrated on trying to land a hit on the agile swordsman with the sharp ice shards that he had conjured up from the cold air. He was so concentrated that he didn't notice the two strangers were activating one of their own spell, he only spotted them when they had release their magic.

'NO YOU DON'T!' Genesis shouted as he jumped in front of Cloud and slashed down vertically on the magic attack with his rapier filled with glowing runes and engulfed in flame. The collision of the two powers caused the thick ice beneath the feet of the auburn hair man to break, causing him to lose his balance for a moment which Sephiroth used to his advantage.

The silver hair swordsman thrust his katana towards Genesis, who lifted his glowing blade to block the attack, but this is what the man had wanted, the long blade of the katana slid through the fire and cut his left shoulder. Not caring about the wound he just received, Genesis pushed Sephiroth back with all his strength and Cloud made huge stalagmites of ice burst out of the floor, trying to impale his enemy.

The swordsman leaped back a few steps and was about to charge again, but he stopped abruptly as a disembodied voice echoed inside of everybody's mind.

My children, return for now. Our Reunion shall begin at where it had all started.

'Yes, Mother.' The three silver hair men answered together.

Then Sephiroth turned his gaze on the blond and snapped his fingers. A veil of black feathers swirled beside him, when it settled down, it revealed an unconscious Moon encased in ice. The silver hair swordsman told the two SOLDIERs: 'I think Mother will love this gift that I'll be offering to her. Don't you think so?'

'MOON!' Cloud shouted as he ran towards the frozen figure.

'NO! CLOUD!' Genesis yelled as he extended his hand to catch the boy's shoulder, but they were each suddenly surrounded by a circle of light, isolating in their own circle. Cloud was only a few inches away from his guardian, but everything quickly faded away as a bright light took over his sight. Then everyone in the room vanished without a single trace, leaving behind only the results of an unfinished battle.

***

Rain poured down at the small blond figure on the ground outside of a forest, Cloud shifted on the muddy ground before he opened tiredly before he let out a low groan, feeling every part of body was burning in pain, especially his left arm. He slowly got up in sitting position and looked around him, expecting to see his friends, but he is alone.

His head dipped down as the rain get rid of mud on him, then he lifted his head up and let out hollowed scream that echoed through the trees, disturbing the flying habitants in them and scaring them so much that they flew away.

'GIVE THEM BACK! GIVE KADAJ AND MOON BACK TO ME!' Cloud yelled at the sky above him as if the people who had taken what he treasured the most in the world would willingly bring his two closest friends back to him. Soon, everything went still and silence as crystal tears mixed with the cold falling rain.


I have finally finish my new chapter just before the exams! I hope everyone had enjoy this chapter and please review to tell me what you think about it! The next chapter might take a little longer, because I have exams coming up.

Author's note: Also, I was thinking about writing another Cloud/Genesis story after this one, but I'm stuck with two ideas and couldn't pick one, so if any of you are interested for another Cloud/Genesis story, please take a vote at the poll in my profile! I thank every single people who reads my story! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!