Oooh, it looks like that last cliffhanger caught you guys off-guard! It's good to know that I managed to create an OC who's fate people care about. So, I'm back to finish the-
Bariss: [violently choking the author] "SHUT UP! I need to see how this ends! The monster doesn't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or anything else."
!
Chapter 124: Fall and Rise
"You son of a-!" Riku roared, rocketing at Sephiroth, backed up by his Guardian.
He, along with Yuffie, Mickey, and Vincent, had been going after Loz and Yazoo, respectively. They had gotten there just in time to see Nehrut stabbed by the silver-haired villain.
They weren't happy.
Sephiroth met Riku's enraged assault with a cool smile, deflecting both his and Red XIII's attacks simultaneously. Mickey joined in the attack a moment later.
Yuffie and Vincent stood over the sobbing Bariss and the mortally wounded Nehrut. "Tell me one of you has an Elixir on you." She asked through her tears.
Vincent spread his cape out to both sides, revealing that he had absolutely no pockets. Yuffie quickly emptied out her pockets, looking for anything that could possibly help. Unfortunately, the best that she had was a Hi-Potion, which wouldn't come close to curing the dying telepath.
Bariss looked back down upon Nehrut, realizing that he probably only had a few more minutes. Nobody could save him now.
She took his hand in hers, weeping silently. She whispered to him through her tears, "Don't die on me, please... I- I never got to tell you that I love you."
The truth was finally out. Nehrut didn't respond with words, but squeezed her hand. He placed his other hand –with great effort- over it as well, and ran the pad of his thumb over her burnt knuckle.
Vincent –reluctantly, despite what his typical neutral expression implied- left them to join the fight against Sephiroth, while Yuffie knelt down next to the two. She started tearing up as well.
"There's still hope." Came a voice.
The two women looked up. Standing a few feet away was the transparent figure of a women. This woman had long, reddish-brown hair, and bright emerald eyes. She wore a dull red jacket over a pink and white dress. A soft greenish glow surrounded her.
She looked down at Nehrut with a sad smile. "If we move fast, we can save him."
"Aerith?" Yuffie said.
"Who else?" She replied. She turned her gaze from Nehrut, to the fight against Sephiroth raging just down the street. "They can handle themselves for the moment. You need to follow me."
Not hesitating for a second, Bariss stuck the fallen Presul into her belt, and moved around to Nehrut's top half to lift his shoulders up. Yuffie grabbed his legs, and in a moment they could hold him up between them.
"What have you been eating?" Yuffie muttered irritably to the motionless Nehrut. The telepath was a lot heavier than he looked.
"Hurry." Aerith said, still in a calm, reassuring voice that didn't at all suit the horrible situation. She walked quickly down the other end of the street. Bariss and Yuffie moved as quickly as they could after her glowing form, managing to keep up with her even while holding the semiconscious Nehrut between them.
"Where are we going?" Bariss asked.
"You'll see. Just hurry."
!
It was dusk by now, and there was still a trace of blue and orange on the western horizon. The rest of the sky had gone dark, save for a few stars.
For what must have been the eighth time, Tifa drop-kicked Yazoo into a wall, and Sora was forced to dive out of the way. Loz rushed toward him, driving his fist at his face. Sora raised his blade to smack his fist out of the way. He struck forward, nearly running him through the chest.
Loz leapt backwards onto the hood of a car, setting off its alarm. Sora found it odd that the car –which quite clearly been long out of use- still had an active alarm. Apparently the noise it was making irritated Loz, because he stomped his foot down onto the hood with impressive force, smashing the alarm, and a section of the engine.
Sora transformed his blade into the Keyfist. He leapt up after Loz, aiming a massive punch at his face. Loz leapt backwards yet again, onto the roof of the car, denting it underfoot. Sora followed, aiming another punch at his face. He blocked the assault with his pilebunker, though in the process, lost his footing on the car's roof.
He fell back onto the ground, and met Yazoo before Sora could deliver another punch. Yazoo took a leap away from Tifa, and aimed his gun at Sora, who transformed the Keyfist back into a blade. Yazoo fired, but the Keybearer caught the bullets before they struck him.
At the same moment, Tifa aimed a lightning-fast barrage of punches and kicks at Loz's upper body, most of which connected with concussive force. She finished her assault with a roundhouse kick to the side of his face, which sent him flying completely across the street, and smashing head-first into the side of a building.
Cloud barely acknowledged him as he leapt over him. He drove his blade down onto Kadaj's with enough force to buckle his knees. Kairi came up on his other side, her Keyblade slashing at his midsection. Kadaj blocked it at the last moment, and jumped away from his two opponents.
He regarded them with an angry snarl, and clenched his free hand into a fist. Darkness accumulated around it, and he released it in a large ball toward Cloud. Kairi quickly put up a shield of Light, and which it exploded against. Cloud leapt over the shield, and landed directly in front of Kadaj. He slashed repeatedly at the man, who was giving ground so quickly, that he had him up against a wall in seconds.
In desperation, Kadaj sliced through a nearby light post at its base. It fell toward Cloud. While this only served as a temporary distraction, it still allowed him time to leap away from Cloud, and onto a nearby building.
"Loz, Yazoo! Wrap it up, we need to get back to brother!"
He kicked off from the roof of the building just before Cloud could reach him. He landed on the roof of the building on the opposite end, and sprinted across it as quickly as he could. He kept leaping across the buildings, and Cloud and Kairi followed after him.
Loz and Yazoo ran in the same direction. When Sora and Tifa began to pursue, Loz stopped abruptly. He struck the hood of a nearby car in with his pilebunker, leaving a hole in it. With astonishing strength, he lifted it into the air, and threw it at their pursuers. Yazoo lifted his gun, with a smirk.
He fired rapidly into the hole, striking several sensitive parts.
The front of the car exploded mere feet away from Sora and Tifa, and only a hastily conjured Reflect spell saved them. The wrecked car bounced across the shield, and onto the other side of them, smashing with a loud boom into the side of a building.
They barely paused to register the tactic before they took off after Loz and Yazoo at high speed.
!
Sephiroth parried yet another of Riku's strikes, and smacked away Goofy's shield as it flew at his head.
All of AVALANCHE –with the exceptions of Cloud, Sora, Kairi, Tifa, Nehrut, Bariss, and Yuffie- was fighting him now. The initial wave of Heartless he had sent had all been destroyed. He had plenty more he could have thrown at them, but this fight was just too fun, and he was always up for humiliating an enemy in battle.
"Really, this is pathetic." He taunted as he ducked underneath Axel's chakrams, while blocking a strike from Zack. Xonem appeared behind Sephiroth, his blade arms slashing at his neck. He turned at the last moment, catching the attack with his blade, and throwing it off of it.
He shot straight into the air, over the line of gunfire from Vincent and Barret. Donald shouted, "Thundaga!" and sent a dozen lightning bolts shooting up at him.
Sephiroth vanished before the attack hit him. He reappeared on the roof of another very high building. Riku was all over him almost the moment he landed, striking at his head thrice inside of a second.
"Riku, correct?" Sephiroth said, deflecting the blows. "Ruxik's told me a lot about you. He says you have great Darkness within you."
"I don't use the Darkness anymore." Riku snarled. To demonstrate his point, he punched out his hand, sending a large blast of Dawn at his chest. Musamune collided with it, scattering the energy uselessly into the air.
"Ah, of course. He said you'd deny it." Sephiroth lunged forward, nearly slicing the Keybearer in two. "But you can't escape your Darkness forever. It's in you. It's what you are."
"You're not the first person who's tried the whole Darkness spiel on me Sephiroth. It won't work."
The older swordsman chuckled. He slashed quickly down at Riku's legs, nearly removing them from his body. The Guardian emerged from Riku's back, and rushed forward with its fists clenched. It brought its massive hands down on Sephiroth, only to be blocked by the long blade.
Sephiroth smirked, and released a burst of blazing hot energy from his body. It struck Riku full on, and sent him flying from the building toward the street below.
Red XIII saved him from being crushed by his impact with the ground. He leapt up toward him, snatching his collar with his large teeth. His paws impacted with the side of the building he had fallen from, and he landed lightly on the ground. He lowered the groaning Riku carefully to the pavement.
Donald performed a quick Cure spell on him to treat the burns Sephiroth had given him. The Keybearer looked up toward Sephiroth, standing at the edge of the roof he had thrown him from.
"This is going to be really hard."
!
Aerith had led Bariss and Yuffie to an old church. It certainly wasn't Notre Dame. It was quite tall, but more traditionally- built, made of stone, and complete with a steeple. A round, stained-glass window was set in the front, just above the door. The doorway was empty, its doors broken off the hinges as a result of the destructive attack a few years previous.
The transparent woman walked inside, and the other two followed her.
The inside consisted only of a sanctuary. Wooden planks served as the floor, and rough wooden pews still remained. A large section at the center of the wooden floor was missing. In this space, several flowers (mostly white and gold lilies) had grown. There was a large hole in the roof, through which the night sky could be seen.
Bariss and Yuffie set Nehrut down carefully. His condition had only worsened on the way over. He was still breathing, but that was the only sort of motion coming from him. The rise and fall of his chest was the only sign that he was still alive. Bariss bent over him, and placed her hand to his neck. There was barely a pulse.
"You said you had a way to save him." She said quickly to Aerith. The one she loved only had minutes, maybe only seconds left to live. "Where is it?"
The green glow surrounding Aerith intensified, and left her body. It spread out across the patch of flowers, which also began to glow. Before their eyes, water began to bubble up from the soil beneath them. In less than a minute, there was a large pool of sparkling water in the middle of the church.
Understanding what Aerith intended, Bariss quickly pulled Nehrut toward the pool. She stepped in before him, sinking in up to her knees. With Yuffie's help, she lowered Nehrut into the water, allowing him to sink to the bottom.
She suddenly felt a tingling on her arm.
Bariss hastily lifted it from the water, and discovered that the burn that Sephiroth's attack had left on her hand was shining bright green –the same color as the energy of the Lifestream, she realized. Soon, the glow faded away, leaving the skin underneath completely intact.
Looking down, she realized that the wound in Nehrut's stomach was also glowing, and she felt the beginnings of hope rise up within her.
"Please stay alive, Nehrut..." She whispered, a tear falling from her face, into the water. "I won't last long without you."
"How precious..." Came a snide, familiar voice.
The three women looked up. Standing at the hole in the ceiling were Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo. Of the three of them, Kadaj was the only one who was holding his weapon. "You hope some magic water can save him... so cute!"
Bariss snarled, and uncoiled her whip. Behind her, Yuffie already had her shuriken ready to throw. Aerith did nothing, and merely looked upon Kadaj and his brothers with something that may or may not have been sadness.
"Go on ahead of me, boys." Kadaj said. "Tell brother I'll be along shortly. There are a few loose ends that need to be tied up."
Loz and Yazoo left, and Kadaj dropped from about twenty feet up, landing lightly on the ground, in front of the church's alter. He walked over to the edge of the pool, being careful to actually keep his feet from touching the water.
Bariss leapt from the water, onto the bank a few feet away from him. Her green eyes blazed with anger and determination. Her voice was low, menacing, and slow when she spoke. "Your brother just tried to kill the one person I love more than anything else. I've brought him here to get him fixed, and when he wakes up, I'm going to make sure he knows how I feel about him."
She suddenly shouted, "And there is no way in hell that I'm going to let a delusional Sephiroth wannabe STOP ME!"
The pure volume in her voice actually made Kadaj take a surprised step backwards, and Yuffie's jaw nearly hit the floor. Aerith smiled proudly.
Without further warning, Bariss attacked with a shout. And in the minutes where she battled Kadaj, she fought more beautifully than she ever had in her life.
Her whip flew at Kadaj's face, barely missing his left eye, but shearing off a lock of his hair as he leapt backwards away from the attack. She continued to harass him with the end of her whip, before she replaced it with her sai, and rushed toward him. He sliced at her waist as he approached, but she jumped over the sword, and drove her heel into his face.
He fell backwards onto the altar, and leapt off just before she would have been able to stab him. Bariss moved after him, aiming quick, lethal strikes at his upper body, and only narrowly missing each time. She pressed him back towards the edge of the pool. He seemed very nervous to be so close to it.
Kadaj pumped his legs hard, intending to leap across it, and over to the other side. When he was halfway across, Yuffie appeared in a cloud of smoke next to him, and drove her fist into his face, knocking him far off-course. As she herself fell into the water, she threw her shuriken at him. Its blades cut into his side, and he hit the ground ungracefully.
He was barely able to get to his feet before Bariss' whip took his eye out. He brought his blade up, managing to get the end of it wrapped around it. He pulled hard, and managed to release it from her grasp. Kadaj smirked, and ran forward with the intention of finishing her before she could bring one of her other weapons to bear.
He wasn't quite fast enough, and paid for his misjudgment with a narrow gash across his chest. Bariss then drove her elbow into his stomach, causing him to double over in pain. She brought her knee up to the point of his chin, knocking him backwards.
Kadaj quickly pushed himself away from her before she could end his life, and rolled to his feet. He leapt high into the air, toward a landing on one side of the church, near the gaping hole in the roof which he had entered from. Yuffie appeared next to him, swinging her shuriken at his head, which barely missed.
The two dueled back and forth for a moment before Kadaj was able to dislodge the ninja from the landing, and send her falling into the pool of water. But Bariss was there almost immediately to take her place, her reclaimed whip in hand. It whistled all around both of their bodies, leaving gouges on the wall and floor, and stinging wounds on Kadaj's arms and legs.
Kadaj's attacks were starting to become desperate under the pure power of her assault.
!
From Sora's point of view, it appeared that they had arrived just in time.
An entire building (mercifully empty, just like all the others in this slightly isolated section of the city) had collapsed due to the ferocious battle between AVALANCHE and the off-worlders against Sephiroth and his forces.
From what Sora, Cloud, Kairi, and Tifa could see, Sephiroth was dueling Riku, Mickey, Axel, Rude, and Zack simultaneously on the ruins of the collapsed building –and more than holding his own. Red XIII, Cait Sith, and Vincent were battling Yazoo in the remains of a one-story shop-like building. And Barret, Donald, and Goofy were fighting Loz on the street.
But Kadaj was suspiciously absent, as were Nehrut, Bariss, and Yuffie. A sinking feeling entered Sora's stomach when he realized just what might have happened to them.
He stretched out his blade, shooting a ball of fire into the shop where Cait Sith, Red XIII and Rude had been fighting Yazoo. It struck the latter man in the side, and sent him flying into the far wall.
He and Kairi leapt in through the shattered front window. "Where are the others?"
"Yuffie, the telepath, and his lady friend, you mean, lad?" Cait Sith said.
"Yes."
Sora began to suspect the worst when the cat lowered his head, as if hoping to stall for a moment. "What?" Kairi asked slowly.
"Sephiroth got to Nehrut." Vincent answered. "He was in bad shape."
Sora's face paled. "No..."
"Where are they?" Kairi asked quickly.
"Yuffie and Bariss took him somewhere." Red XIII answered solemnly. "Whether or not the young man will make it... we'll see."
Sora went silent, but in his head, he was screaming.
This isn't supposed to happen! Donald, Goofy and I got through all our first journeys all right! None of us are supposed to...
He was snapped out of his thoughts when a bullet whistled by his face, less than an inch from his nose. Sora and the others leapt back out the window as a hail of bullets shot at him. Yazoo continued to fire at the five of them, and Kairi fired a beam of Light into the store, striking him square in the chest.
He was on his feet again quickly, and sprinted toward the window, and leapt out toward them, still firing away.
Before he had touched the ground, Sora was striking. His blade met his waist, and sliced deep into it.
Yazoo fell to the ground with a scream of pain, and rolled to a stop in the middle of the street. Darkness seeped from the wound in his side in a massive flow. He writhed in agony on the ground for a moment, until he finally cried out, "Brother! Forgive me!"
With one final convulsion, his entire body transformed into black clouds instantly. The Darkness rushed past Sora and Kairi, up toward the battlefield where Sephiroth was now battling Cloud and Tifa in addition to his other opponents.
The dark mist that had once been Yazoo seeped into the man's skin, and his body let off a reddish flash. If it was even possible, Sephiroth's speed seemed to increase. Sora saw him land a glancing attack on Zack's shoulder, and less than one second later, injure Axel's leg.
"They're a part of Sephiroth..." Kairi said, her face the image of dawning comprehension.
"And as they fall, he becomes whole again..." Vincent caught on.
"Oh, this is bad..." Sora muttered. They had to end this fast, before Kadaj or Loz died and Sephiroth got still more powerful.
He leapt high over the heads of the others, aiming at Sephiroth with his blade held high. Almost casually, Sephiroth raised his blade over his head, and knocked his attack aside. Kairi had been right behind him in the air, and was nearly stabbed through the chest when Sephiroth struck out towards her. Only a sudden manipulation of the Light around her saved her, and sent her spinning to his other side.
Both of them struck at his back at the same time that Cloud stabbed at his chest. Rather than try to meet the three attacks at once, Sephiroth blasted straight up into the air.
"Well, as fun as this has been, I think it's time to raise the stakes and make things more interesting." He stretched out his free hand toward the place where Barret, Donald, and Goofy had been fighting Loz. "Return now, Loz."
The big man smiled even as he began to fade into black mist. "Of course, brother."
The mist rushed toward Sephiroth as he sheathed his blade. A scarlet glow surrounded his body, and he smiled. Cloud rushed up to attack him, but Sephiroth's hand shot out toward him, and a large ball of Darkness shot at him. It struck Cloud in the chest, sending him spinning back to the ground.
"Now..." Sephiroth began, raising his arms to his sides, palms up. The red glow surrounding him intensified, and the very earth seemed to shake. He raised his voice. Sora had never heard the man shout before, and it was unnerving. "Descend meteors of Darkness!"
The night sky was suddenly dotted with pinpricks of a fiery color. They were becoming larger by the second, and in almost no time at all, Sora recognized them for what they were.
"Not again..." He heard Tifa breath, an undertone of panic in her voice. All eyes were locked on the descending meteors.
!
Bariss and Yuffie could also see the imminent death approaching from the sky from the church.
The fighting paused briefly, and even Kadaj looked up through the opening in the ceiling to watch their approach. Almost immediately, he broke out into somewhat manic laughter.
"Looks like your sweetheart won't make it after all." He mocked, looking back at Bariss. "Such a shame. But look on the bright side! You get to go with him into the next life!"
Bariss roared at him again, her whip lashing out at Kadaj's neck. He leapt away from it, and landed squarely on the altar at the head of the room. He chuckled, apparently delighted that he could get the angered reaction out of her.
Yuffie's shuriken whistled at his head, and he smacked it away with his own weapon. Bariss put her whip away, and drew her sai and shield. She leapt onto the altar, and the duel between the two of them began anew.
Aerith turned her attention from the battle, as Yuffie ran to back up Bariss. She looked out of the hole in the ceiling, at the oncoming meteors. She knelt down, and her body began to glow.
!
The party pursued Sephiroth relentlessly across the city, back in the general direction of ShinRa headquarters, attacking at every opportunity. Hopefully, the meteors would cease their approach with his defeat.
Cloud and Sora were in the lead, the latter of them gliding on the Keyboard. Riku and Kairi were flying just behind them. Their attacks had yet to pierce Sephiroth's defenses, but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying. Sleeping Lion and the Buster Sword were blurs as they clashed with Musamune in showers of sparks.
Sephiroth rocketed into the air, landing on a high rooftop. "I've thought of a wonderful present for you." He said to Cloud, and acting almost as though Sora wasn't there.
The blonde swordsman rushed forward, stabbing at Sephiroth's chest. He pinned the large blade to the ground with one movement, and thrust his free elbow forward, catching Cloud in the chin. Riku shot forward, blocking the blow that would have taken Cloud's head off.
Sora ran to Sephiroth's side, and struck at his neck, only to have the blow parried. Cloud rushed forward again, and Sephiroth took to the air again to avoid the attack.
"Shall I give you despair?" He asked.
Cloud went after him, and the others followed the two back to the ShinRa building. Sephiroth landed on a balcony on the side of the building, and they stopped below him. He wasn't far below a section of the building that was just barely hanging onto the rest of the structure. It could fall, releasing nearly a ton of rubble and debris down to the earth with even a little force.
"On your knees... I want you to beg for forgiveness."
He gestured. With a mere twitch of his hand, all of the rubble hanging precariously above him fell without warning. Sephiroth vanished as the piles of rubble rained down toward Sora, Kairi, Riku, and Cloud.
The four of them flew down, away from the debris, and those of their party still stuck on the ground broke into a run in the opposite direction.
Those in the air were just able to get out of the path of falling rubble, and made it to a nearby rooftop. The debris crashed behind them, flattening a smaller building, and shaking the ground beneath it. A large cloud of smoke and dirt erupted from the crash site, and blocked out visibility for a moment.
So it was a miracle that Sora saw Sephiroth's blade slicing towards his neck in time to leap away from the attack. Cloud attacked him the moment he saw him, slashing rapidly at his enemy, only for his blows to be redirected each time.
Sephiroth flew away from them before Riku and Kairi could have their say, and landed on a roof across the street from them.
"You're too late." He taunted, waving toward the sky. The meteors were so close now that they were turning the night into an artificial day. Soon, they would hit Midgar, unleashing untold destruction upon the city. "Whatever happens next, you lose."
"We'll see about that." Kairi replied defiantly. She punched her hand out, sending a ball of Light at Sephiroth. His blade moved up to intercept it, but at the same exact moment, Riku had fired a blast of Dawn at him. The two of them continued to lay down fire against him, forcing him slightly backwards as he deflected the energy.
During the smallest pause in the combat, Sephiroth blasted into the air. Sora grimaced upon realization that a meteor was heading right for them. It was so close that it filled most of his vision.
But yet again, they were saved through unexpected means. All around the building they stood on, massive green tendrils of energy from the Lifestream burst from the ground. They shot over the building, and hit the incoming meteor full on. The massive chunk of burning rock came to a complete halt.
The tendrils of energy surged forward, and the tips stretched to cover the meteor completely. Soon, the rock was completely covered in pulsing green energy.
Without warning, it took off back the way it had come. The shining green rock soared back into the sky, showing no signs of stopping.
Looking around, Sora realized that the same thing was happening in other sections of the city. Not one meteor had impacted with the ground, or the buildings themselves. The green tendrils encompassed them completely, and sent them shooting back into space. The entire city was bathed in a soft green light.
"The Lifestream is protecting the Planet..." Roxas said in awe. "Amazing."
Sora silently agreed with his Nobody. But he had to wonder whether there wasn't somebody controlling the Lifestream, and urging it to do what was needed to protect its host world. But such speculation would have to wait. Already, Cloud had caught sight of Sephiroth again, flying back in the direction of ShinRa headquarters.
!
"No..." Kadaj moaned, looking out into the sky from the hole in the ceiling.
Bariss and Yuffie could see the miraculous actions of the Lifestream as well. The sky was filled with glowing green balls of rock blasting away into the sky like ghostly fireworks, save for the obvious fact that they didn't explode.
Despite everything, Bariss actually smiled. It was amazing, it was promising, and it was beautiful. She looked toward Aerith, who was still kneeling on the ground. She had no doubt that the woman was somehow responsible for what was occurring.
Yuffie grinned. "Lady, you are awesome!"
Aerith smiled, but apparently Kadaj didn't share Yuffie's opinion of her. "You witch! How dare you interfere with my brother's plans!"
Driven by his fury, Kadaj rushed at Bariss with renewed strength, his weapon striking at everything he could reach. By some miracle, he was able to strike the handle of her whip completely out of her grasp, and send the weapon spinning across the room.
She made a minor error, and soon found that her sai was missing from her grasp, as well. And the shield still on her back wouldn't help her much as a weapon, she knew...
I'll improvise.
Silently pleading with the universe to give her a break, she clutched the handle of Presul –which she had remembered to pick up after Nehrut had dropped it. He had said that one could only use the weapon if they had the permission of its proper owner, so she had her doubts that she'd even be able to hold it properly. Maybe she had only been able to bring it here by a fluke.
She drew it with a flash of blue light, and blocked Kadaj's strike at her head.
Now we're talking.
Bariss had never trained extensively with a blade longer than her sai, though she had been known to use 'improvised' weapons in the past. And of course, she had watched Nehrut very closely as he wielded the crystal blade.
In a fairly impressive maneuver, she slid Presul along the length of Kadaj's blade, and pressed it down to the ground. She lifted the blade back up, and slashed at his face before he could bring the weapon back up. His quick leap backwards saved him from decapitation, but not without a deep gash on his shoulder.
Bariss rushed forward, adopting a two-handed grip on her borrowed sword. She struck at his legs at the same moment that Yuffie ran in to back her up. She slashed at his head with her shuriken at the same moment Bariss attacked. The result: Two injured shins on Kadaj's part.
He desperately rushed away from the two girls, limping toward the side of the room under which the hole in the roof was situated. Yuffie teleported into his path before he could get too close, and drove her fist into his stomach.
She quickly followed up with an uppercut to his jaw that may have knocked a tooth loose. The force of the attack lifted him a foot into the air, and Yuffie only made it worse. She got into a sort of hand stand, and pumped her legs forward into Kadaj's chest.
He flew through the air, and into the space above the center of the pool of magic water. Before he could even hope to compose himself, Bariss had leapt into the air, Presul held high. With a shout, she drove it down into Kadaj's chest.
With a scream, Kadaj shot straight down into the water. His cries of pain were cut short the instant he hit the water.
He didn't even create a ripple against it. The moment he touched the embodiment of Lifestream magic, he dissolved into black smoke.
Bariss hadn't expected such an abrupt end to the fight, and fell into the water where he had landed with a loud splash. She got fully to her feet, dripping wet.
She looked over at Yuffie, who stood at the end of the pool. "Is that it?"
"I think so." She looked out the hole in the roof at the green meteors retreating into the sky. "Things should be over soon. The others still need to take care of Sephiroth, though..."
Bariss walked back to the end of the pool, where the two women had set Nehrut down. The telepath was still there, and the wound in his stomach was still giving off a faint green light. She bent down slightly, and placed a hand on his neck. His pulse was easier to find this time.
"I'm not leaving him, Yuffie." She said. "Not yet."
"Don't worry, I understand." Yuffie sat down by her at the end of the pool. She looked down at the telepath. "So you're really going to admit that you love him?"
"Yes."
"About time."
!
Sephiroth had gotten even stronger, and Sora could only assume that Kadaj had met his end.
His thoughts raced back to his last confrontation with Sephiroth at Radiant Garden. Compared to this fight, that one had been a walk in the park. Despite the fact that he was fighting alongside Cloud (having been separated from Kairi, Riku, and the others when Sephiroth called more Heartless to back him up) he was having more trouble than he had had in that one-on-one duel.
Sephiroth was giving them no room to breathe, let alone counterattack. Musamune was always in motion, flashing toward their legs, arms, necks, chests, or heads. And sometimes, they just weren't quick enough to avoid it entirely.
Sora now sported a scar on his left arm, along with a narrow gash on his hip, and right leg. Cloud had had a far more narrow escape, and the evidence was in the shape of the cut on his forehead above his left eye. Sephiroth had nearly taken the top of his head off.
The three of them were inside ShinRa headquarters itself, in what had once probably been an office area. With every movement, old desks and computers were cut to pieces. The warriors had already smashed through a few walls.
"It's over Sephiroth!" Sora shouted. "The meteors are leaving the Planet."
"Oh, but Sora, my primary mission is to capture you, not destroy the Planet." He replied. "That was merely a welcome bonus."
"Say goodbye to your bonus." Cloud slashed heavily at Sephiroth's waist. The blow was blocked, and Sephiroth stabbed quickly forward, forcing Cloud to move backwards. He then thrust his hand backwards, blasting the wall behind him open. Sephiroth leapt through the hole, and back out into the open air.
Cloud went after him first, striking repeatedly at him in midair. The two landed on a rooftop a fair distance from ShinRa headquarters, and Cloud continued his assault. Sephiroth made no attempt to strike back, until the worst happened.
Sora still hadn't caught up with them, but he could see Sephiroth's fist shoot forward, hitting Cloud solidly in the face. The blonde swordsman flew backwards. The Buster Sword fell from his hand.
Before he could reach out and grab it, there was a searing pain in his shoulder. Looking down, he saw the end of Sephiroth's blade running through it, pinning him in place on the ground.
He grimaced from the pain, and looked up at Sephiroth. He attempted to move, but only agitated his wound further in his attempts to escape.
"Tell me what you cherish most." Sephiroth said casually. "Give me the pleasure of taking it away."
Unnaturally, this remark seemed to give Cloud renewed strength. With only his gloved hand, he grasped the end of Musamune, and ripped it forcibly from his shoulder. He stabbed it into the ground next to him, and reached out for his own blade.
He slashed at Sephiroth as he came to his feet. The One-Winged Angel narrowly avoided the attack with a quick leap backwards.
Sora landed at Cloud's side.
"I pity you." Cloud said calmly to Sephiroth, his blade held before him. "You just don't get it at all."
Sephiroth responded with a cold smile, and rushed forward. Sora parried the blow before it could even get close to Cloud, who finished, "There's not a thing I don't cherish!"
With this profound statement, Cloud let of a bright flash of golden light, which then hung around him as though he were emitting it from some unknown power source. Just being close to Cloud gave Sora the same golden glow, and suddenly, he felt invigorated, unstoppable, and ready to take on the world.
"Let's settle this!" He exclaimed.(1)
In perfect synchronization, Cloud and Sora leapt to either side of Sephiroth, still shining. The struck their blades into the ground, and ran around Sephiroth in a circular pattern. Where their blades touched, they created openings through which bright golden light burst.
When the circle around Sephiroth was completed, Sora and Cloud leapt high into the air, to meet in the center of the circle. The moment their blades touched, the golden energy flooded into the circle, and exploded in a massive burst of light.
The explosion threw Sephiroth straight up into the air, and he didn't fall back to the ground until nearly ten seconds later.
"Almost there!" Sora prompted, landing with Cloud a few feet away from their enemy. The glow surrounding the both of them quickly changed from bright gold to sea blue.
Cloud blasted toward Sephiroth at high speed the moment the man got to his feet. He sliced upward when he was within range of him, sending the silver-haired man high into the air, wounded from the blade's impact with his chin.
He was nearly fifteen feet in the air, when Sora appeared a short distance from him. He thrust forward with his shining Keyblade, striking Sephiroth in the chest with incredible strength.
Sephiroth blasted away, colliding painfully with the roof of a nearby building. Before he could so much as move, however, Cloud was there again. With another upward slash of the Buster Sword, Sephiroth was airborne again, and within seconds, Sora had smashed him down again.
This continued for a few minutes, until the mighty Sephiroth was flailing around like a rag doll.
"It's over!" Cloud shouted.
He and Sora landed next to each other. The two instantly turned gold once more.
Cloud tossed his massive blade into the air, and the glow surrounding it intensified. Suddenly, large bars of golden energy shot from the blade, forming five swords of pure energy. Sora repeated him, tossing his Keyblade skyward, and producing three copies of it.
These ten shining blades hovered in the air for a moment in a circular formation, their tips pointing inward at the severely beaten Sephiroth. He gazed at them for a frozen moment, and then Sora and Cloud punched their fists together.
The ten energy blades surged forward at this movement. One at a time, they ran through Sephiroth, leaving no visible mark on him, but causing horrible damage to his body nonetheless.
The ten blades speared through him, and then shot into the air, forming one huge golden energy blade pointing directly down at the top of his head. Without warning, it shot down onto Sephiroth, and exploded on contact.
There was enough energy behind the blast to reduce the building they stood on to rubble. Sora and Cloud were forced to leap clear of what had become ground zero, and land on the street. The golden glow faded from their bodies.
"You're done." Cloud said to the pile of rubble.
The two walked cautiously forward, searching for Sephiroth, but still wary of a sneak attack. It didn't take them long to find him.
He was half buried under the debris. Darkness seeped up from the numerous wounds adorning his body. Sora was dimly aware of the rest of their party approaching from behind them, the Heartless seemingly having been dealt with.
"What do you know?" Sephiroth said weakly, his eyes shut tight. "You've actually won."
"Try not to sound too disappointed." Cloud replied.
Sephiroth chuckled weakly. "So suddenly you can tell jokes. Well, I've changed you quite a bit, haven't I?"
"You won't anymore." Sora said. "You're finished, Sephiroth."
"We'll see about that, Sora." He replied. "Make no mistake, the Brotherhood will catch up with you with or without me. And Serndask rewards those who are faithful to him. Perhaps he'll see fit to resurrect me, and I'll have a second chance."
He opened his eyes, and looked Cloud full in the face. He was smiling horribly. "Until then..."
At long last Sephiroth dissolved into white mist. At long last, the Planet was safe from his influence.
The One-Winged Angel would haunt them no longer.
In a symbolic act that only he could understand, Cloud stabbed the Buster Sword down into a chunk of rubble, under which Sephiroth had been crushed. He took the end of the large, durable bandage wrapped around its blade. Slowly, he unraveled it, and then held it between his hands.
With a firm twist, he ripped a small section of the end off. He tied this section of the dirty bandage around his arm, as a reminder of the struggles of the past. He allowed the rest of the bandage to fall to the ground.
With this small act complete, he took his uncovered blade, and placed it into the scabbard on his back. He turned to face his gathered friends. For the first time in ages, a genuine smile appeared on his lips.
"It's finished."
With those words, Tifa rushed forward, and embraced Cloud tightly. He seemed more than happy to return the sentiment, burying his face into the gap between her neck and shoulder.
Sora smiled fondly at the two, as the others around them surged forward to hug Cloud and Sora. Almost immediately, Kairi was upon Sora, kissing him senseless.
But she stopped too quickly for Sora's liking, and pulled back with a suddenly nervous expression. "Nehrut..."
!
The last of the glowing green meteors had vanished into the night sky moments ago. The tendrils of Lifestream energy had sunk back into the depths of the Planet. Midgar was safe at last.
Cloud had led them to a place where he believed that Nehrut, Bariss, and Yuffie were. It turned out to be the correct one. Before the doors of the church stood the transparent figure of Aerith.
While this greatly surprised Sora, he was spared having to ask a question. "I spent a great deal of time here, Sora. I'm a better sorceress than you probably expected. Now hurry, come inside."
Yuffie was still sitting at the end of the pool when they arrived, and most of them joined her there. Riku clasped her hand comfortingly, and she pulled him closer to her, as she gazed into the water.
Bariss hadn't left Nehrut's side for an instant. She was kneeling down in the water, with her hand on his neck, monitoring his pulse constantly.
"How is he?" Sora asked quietly.
"I can't say." Bariss had been hopeful at first, but Nehrut had yet to budge an inch. He had remained in the exact same position for practically an hour, and there had been little change in his condition.
Her hopes were growing dim, and she moved her hand away from his body to wipe away the beginnings of tears from her eyes.
As if this was some kind of signal, Nehrut's eyes opened beneath the water.
All was still for a few frozen seconds, before Nehrut actually realized that he was underwater, and in need of fresh air. He surfaced quickly, sitting up as much as he could, and coughing up water.
After he parted the dripping hair hanging over his eyes, he saw where he was. He looked at the assembled faces, all of them wearing identical expressions of equal awe and barely restrained joy.
"Did we win?"
This one simple comment broke the tension in the air, and they all cried out in happiness -save for Vincent and Rude, who smiled slightly.
Nehrut smiled, and his eyes settled on Bariss. She looked poised on a knife's edge between crying and laughing.
Slowly, he reached over to her, and took one of her hands gently in his. He leaned closer to her, and touched his forehead to hers. Their eyes locked onto each other's. He spoke his next words softly, to where only she would be able to hear them. That was fine, because they were meant only for her.
"I love you, too."
Bariss sprang forward, and finally gave into months of temptation. Her lips met his, and it was like a fire had been unleashed between them. She pulled him as close as she could, kissing him desperately. He gladly returned the kiss, tightening his hold on her waist.
The two fell over into the water, not caring where they were. They merely continued to kiss.
"Finally!" Axel shouted with a loud laugh.
A flash came from the far end of the church, just over the altar. Amidst the celebrating, Sora was the only one who noticed it. The Planet's Keyhole appeared on the wall, and he summoned Oblivion to his hand.
He pointed it at the Keyhole, and blue light shot from the end of the blade. It speared into the opening, and it let off more light. But in addition to the usual effects of a closing Keyhole, greenish energy poured out of it.
The magic of the Lifestream poured into the church, spreading across the ground. Before their eyes, the energy began to repair the heavily damaged church one bit at a time. Great sections of wall and flooring were rebuilt from timbers that had appeared from nowhere. Broken glass flew back up into the window panes.
It was a moment of pure magic, of love, and of victory. It was magnificent, and everybody present would cherish the memory forever.
At long last, Bariss pried herself reluctantly off of Nehrut, and looked down at him (she had herself propped up over him). She smiled, and a happy tear slid down her cheek. He reached up, and wiped it gently away.
"Don't scare me like that again."
Nehrut sat up, and pulled her to him. He gently cupped her cheek in his hand. "I won't. Promise."
!
You have no idea how long I've been waiting to write that. Feels good! Really, really good. Even better now that my windpipe has been released by Nehrut's biggest fan.
1) 'Ultima Slash'
So, hope that you all enjoyed this arc! And as a special announcement I tell you now that things are going to change within the fic… Up to this point we've been doing a lot of world-hopping. The format is going to change in a very significant way.
We're closing in on Pax Pacis… But until then…
Review, please!