The Dawn of Our Twilight

" Gen ! Gen ! Genesis ! "

A voice he vaguely recognized, as if in a dream, kept calling his name.

" 1st Class SOLDIER Genesis Rhapsodos ! Open your eyes ! "

The command pulled him out of his stupor with great difficulty. A moan of pain escaped his lips as he struggled to open his eyelids. Unfortunately, his eyes, affected by a Blind spell cast on him hours ago—or was it days?—failed to discern anything. He had lost track of time while held captive in his tiny cell at Fort Seiryu, a not-so-pleasant tourist destination located in the Wutai region. To say he was at rock bottom and on the brink of death wouldn't be an exaggeration.

The chain that had kept his wrists firmly above his head was broken, and he felt his weight shift abruptly forward. However, it wasn't the discomfort of the rough cobblestones that greeted him, but the embrace of another body, providing him with immediate relief from the cold.

" Hold on, Gen! I'm getting you out of here. " reassured the person who had come to his rescue. He recognized that voice, the deep and melancholic timbre. And that scent… he marveled at the fact that, unlike his sight or hearing, his sense of smell still functioned perfectly, identifying the distinctive fragrance of leather and fire. The result of persistently using incendiary magic had infused his trench coat with this unique smell. Far from being a scent of burning or charred material, it resembled something light, almost like the smell emanating from a fireplace—a comforting fragrance.

" Se... Sephiroth ? Is that you ? " the SOLDIER managed to articulate, his mouth dry, lips cracked, and throat burning, making speech difficult.

" Yes. " came the reply.

Just right ! Well, ok but…no ! Far from feeling reassured or relieved that his comrade had come to his rescue, being saved like a damsel in distress by Sephiroth didn't sit well with him. Grimacing, not from pain but from shame, he retorted pitifully : " You... shouldn't... have... come… "

" I'm glad to see you too, Gen." he heard his savior say as he worked on removing the heavy metal chains that bound his ankles.

The Wutai warriors weren't stupid; they knew that keeping a captive SOLDIER required drugging, torture, and sufficient restraints to extract information about the enemy. Unfortunately for them—or perhaps fortunately—it seemed they had captured the most stubborn SOLDIER in the entire Shinra corps. That's why he found himself in such a wretched state. His captors must have given up on getting any information since they hadn't given him a single drop of water in two days...

CLANG!

The chain was broken with a swift motion. " We mustn't linger. " the warrior said.

" Can you walk ?

- I'll try."

Sephiroth helped the redhead to his feet, attempting to place his comrade's arm over his shoulder. However, the bulky pieces of armor made it challenging to find a comfortable position.

With trembling limbs, Genesis took a few laborious steps, leaning on his friend for support.

" We won't be fast enough this way. " Sephiroth protested. " I'll carry you on my back. Can you hold on to my shoulders ? "

Genesis's ego took a hit. To think he had followed this scout to prove that he, too, could be a hero ! Now, his survival depended on his rival ! It was infuriating.

" Where are the others... the other SOLDIERs ? The rest of the army, where are they ? " the captive inquired.

No response.

" Please... don't tell me... you came... alone ? "

" It was that or leaving you here to die ! Shinra refused to provide me with men to attack the fort, let alone to rescue a single SOLDIER !

- Gaia, you're insane ! "

Well, he had another bout of heroic fervor ! Sephiroth had already earned a colossal reputation due to the number of battles he had won, thanks to his prowess. Now he was attacking heavily guarded forts alone, all to rescue a fellow SOLDIER ! The jealousy and anger Genesis felt surged even higher.

" I've already taken care of about half the soldiers in the fort ! If we hurry, there should be no problem !

- But... that means there's still... the other half ! "

Blind and missing several other faculties, Genesis had no choice but to let himself be carried on his comrade's back. As he held on, he complained :

" Your hair is tickling me ! "

Why on earth did Sephiroth let his hair grow so long!

" Yet you'll have to put up with it ! " his savior retorted, slowly but surely starting to regret coming to rescue the redhead.

In Genesis's mind, two distinct futures suddenly appeared : one in which they survived and left the fort, and the other in which they both perished under enemy fire. In the first case, he would owe Sephiroth eternal gratitude, which made him nauseous ! Thus, he almost preferred the second option. It would spare him the humiliation of acknowledging his colleague's heroism !

After being jostled on the back of the 1st Class SOLDIER like a sack of sand for several meters, they were suddenly apprehended by the shouts of guards :

" There ! They're trying to escape ! Stop th... AaarRgGhhgh ! "

Unable to use his katana because of the cumbersome burden on his back, Sephiroth had opted to use magic. Genesis felt the warmth of the spell before the guards' cries of agony followed. One day, he would have to analyze Sephiroth's psychology to understand why he always used Fire. Why not Thunder or Ice ? Always Fire ! It had become pathological ! Was it some repressed cruelty ? After all, electrocution or instant freezing would be more preferable than burning, wouldn't it ?

Lost in his thoughts ( Well, what else could he do ? ), he heard the guards' screams grow fainter as the distance to the fort's exit decreased. His blindness seemed to focus his attention on strange things.

Under his palms, wrapped around the exposed clavicle, he felt the young man's heartbeats becoming increasingly erratic. Why did he never wear the uniform sweater ? Was it to provoke them, as if saying : " See ? My heart is exposed to your bullets ! Go ahead ! Try to hit it ! " Such a show-off !

And those hair strands tickling him everywhere annoyed him ! Having lost his jacket during the whip sessions at the fort, he was half-naked and could feel his friend's abundant hair. Under less dramatic circumstances, he might have loved running his fingers through it.

Ah, his hair had also absorbed the fireplace scent !

Engaging in these strange musings, Genesis thought that dying in the arms of the young hero, like in his favorite play, would be a poetic way to go. He imagined taking one last look at that beautiful face, that peculiar gaze. Oh, wait, no ! He was blind ! And no eyedrops in sight ! Life really wasn't fair !

Suddenly, the abrupt movement of his improvised mount surprised him. " Seph' ? What's... going on ? "

" I have an idea. "

Was it good news or bad news ? Genesis wondered as he felt Sephiroth turning around. A few seconds later, he was gently placed against a rather uncomfortable wall.

" I'll come back for you. Wait for me ! "

As if I had a choice ! " he thought, grumbling, before hearing Sephiroth's steps fade away.

" I hope he doesn't forget me. " he thought, praying that he wasn't abandoned in too exposed a spot.

Half a minute later, machine gun shots rang out about a hundred meters away, accompanied by the panicked shouts of infantrymen.

" There! He's heading for the hangar ! Hurry ! "

More gunshots. A pause. More shots and screams :

" Faster ! Faster ! "

A few more seconds, then...

BOOM!

The first powerful explosion resounded.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two more explosions, followed by:

" It's too late ! Abandon the fort ! Move ! "

Wide-eyed, Genesis understood. The powder stock. This... this madman had set fire to the powder stock!

Hastily approaching footsteps and Sephiroth's voice exclaimed : " We need to get out of here immediately! Hold on, I'm going to jump!"

The hero retrieved his precious burden and, with a powerful leap, cleared the fort's high wall.

As soon as they landed on the other side, a gigantic explosion shook the ground, accompanied by a deafening noise, propelling them violently more than a hundred meters away. Genesis sprawled in the mud and rolled in pain. His ears were ringing, but despite feeling stunned, he managed to stay conscious. He called out to his friend as he immediately sat up on his forearms :

"Seph'?"

A brief silence.

"Sephiroth?

- I'm here..."

Oddly, Sephiroth didn't rush over to lift him up onto his back.

Doubting, the redhead dragged himself pitifully toward the sound of his comrade's voice. Hesitant, he groped around, searching for his body, and found it... with something extra:

"Seph'... you're... wounded...

- A piece of metal... it's not serious...

- Not serious ? " The piece of metal in question, from what he could tell through touch, was about ten centimeters long and several centimeters wide, piercing through the SOLDIER's right side, hitting his liver and kidney.

"Do you have Cure?"

"No. And neither you nor I... would have enough strength to use... magic again...

- You mean...

- I used... all the energy I had left... to set the hangar on fire...

- Why did you do that ? It was foolish !

- With an explosion like that... I had to finish destroying the fort... Shinra will probably... send helicopters... within a few hours...

- And what makes you think we'll last until then?

- We'll endure..." he assured.

Was he genuinely confident, or was it self-assurance?

"Yeah... if we don't get caught before that!

- The few... remaining soldiers will probably... run away..."

Sephiroth's speech was broken. He was gasping for breath. That wasn't normal. A bad feeling seized the redhead, and he checked the rest of Sephiroth's body for other wounds. A sticky substance and the trench riddled with holes in the chest area helped him understand:

"You also got shot?!"

"Yes... a whole fort by myself... I may have overestimated... didn't move quickly enough... to avoid the last bullets..."

Unconsciously, his blood-soaked palm moved from the wound to Sephiroth's face.

"What are you doing?" Sephiroth asked.

"I'm making sure you keep breathing!"

A fleeting smile appeared under his fingers.

Since they had gotten outside, the rain of the season had not ceased for a moment. Soaked to the bone, covered in mud and blood, the scene of the young Hero and his comrade was not a pleasant sight. Thank goodness Midgar's journalists never wandered around in the field!

The said hero, feeling his body temperature dropping dangerously and realizing that he'd better not fall asleep, murmured:

"Talk to me...

- You want me to talk to you?

- Yes...

-And what do you want me to talk about?

- Recite... Loveless..."

Ah, yes! He should be able to do that! Without thinking, he mechanically recited the second act of the play:

"There is no hate, only joy, for you are beloved by the goddess, hero of the dawn... healer of worlds. Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul. Pride is lost, wings stripped away, the end is nigh..."

Gradually, the breath on his thumb, which he still held close to Sephiroth's lips, became more scarce:

"Seph'? Sephiroth!"

Worried, he put aside any lyrical impulses and repeated:

"Sephiroth! If you're pulling a joke on me, it's not funny at all!"

Still no response.

"Sephiroth! I forbid you to die! Do you hear me? You are 1st Class SOLDIER Sephiroth! The Great Hero! Everyone's idol! You can't die! If you die, the President, Heidegger, Lazard... even Angeal! They'll all chew me out! Do you hear me! SEPHIROTH!"

No, he no longer heard, and for the first time in his life, Genesis was terrified. With his throat constricted, forcing back tears, he rested his head on his comrade's chest. There, he focused on the heartbeats. Weak, but still there. Holding himself still, listening closely, he closed his eyes. Gradually, the gentle rhythm of the heartbeat plunged him into a semi-lethargic state. The last thing he heard before he himself sank was the hum of the helicopter blades approaching...

Thirteen days ago:

"Please, answer…" pleaded the young SOLDIER, PHS in one hand, sword in the other. Standing alone in the middle of the vast battlefield, where a few flickering remnants of fire magic still crackled here and there, the corpses of the monsters he had disposed of lay all around him.

Frustrated by the lack of response from his friend, he hung up and tucked the device into his inner pocket. To say it was a bad sign would be an understatement. It was a trap. A stupid ambush! Why hadn't the redhead listened and insisted on splitting up? His instincts had warned him that it was a trap! Why did Genesis always go his own way? Because he was a stubborn mule and a triple imbecile who harbored some inferiority complex, always wanting to prove he was equal to him on the field! Tsss!

And now? If he judged correctly, the scout that Genesis had chased was heading East. Towards the Wutai fortress. That idiot ventured alone into a fortress filled with Wutai soldiers. Did he ever think about the consequences of his actions?! And the fact that he didn't answer his phone proved that either this idiot lost it during his run, which was unfortunately highly unlikely… or…

Sephiroth stifled a curse. What to do? Return to their base camp. Inform headquarters and wait for them to send reinforcements. Angeal had been injured on a previous mission and sent back to Junon a few days earlier, so there was no way to ask the other hothead's best friend to come to his aid. He could only hope that Shinra would agree to provide him with troops to attack the enemy fort.

Resigned, letting out a soul-piercing sigh, the young man turned back towards the camp.

Three friends go into battle.

The first is taken prisoner.

The second goes on a journey.

The one who remains becomes a hero.

After covering nearly twenty kilometers that day, the sky, threatening until then, finally unleashed the storm. It was under this pouring rain that he suddenly spotted a distant silhouette. Given the location, it was unlikely to be a mere traveler. In recent years, the continent, ravaged by war, was not exactly conducive to tourism.

As he approached, he noticed the massive weapon the individual carried on his back, which confirmed the suspicion that he was a soldier or a mercenary. With a stature and build superior to his own, the stranger wore a dark trench coat, and a hood concealed half of his face. When only a few meters separated them, the cloaked man called out in a powerful, raspy voice:

"Hey! You're from SOLDIER, right?"

"Possible. And you, who are you?"

"Glen. Glen Reiner. I was part of the 'Special Ground Research Team.' A colleague, so to speak."

"Were you?"

"Yeah. I, so to speak, had a few disagreements with Shinra. Now I work for Wutai. I'm a hero!"

"In that case... that makes you an enemy."

In his right hand, he generated a growing fireball. His opponent had already grasped his axe, equipped with materia.

The roaring Fire spell reached its climax, signaling the beginning of hostilities. The enemy didn't flinch and evaded the fireball by leaping quickly to the side. The flaming sphere struck a cluster of trees that, despite the rain, instantly caught fire. Glen wasted no time and counterattacked with a lightning-fast series of axe strikes executed with deadly precision. Strikes that Sephiroth easily evaded, surprising his adversary.

"Wow! Hey! Aren't you the one everyone's talking about? The young Hero?"

"SOLDIER Sephiroth, is it?"

The man's face twisted into a wide grin. "Hey! Hey! Hey! That means I can finally go all out!"

Another clash of blades. Sephiroth had just parried another blow, blocking the axe with his sword and absorbing the impact with his metal bracelet. This former Shinra soldier was obviously skilled.

"And I'm sure the guys in Wutai will go wild when I bring back your pretty little head, decapitated!"

Another sharp ice spike almost struck Sephiroth, but he activated a Shield just in time. It was followed by another frontal attack that nearly knocked him off balance. His opponent had the advantage in size and weight...

"Two SOLDIERs in one day! It's going to be a party at the camp tonight!"

"Two?"

"Yeah! They captured one of your buddies this morning! Don't expect to see him in one piece again! If you ever see him again, Ah! Ah! Ah!"

The sinister laughter and the blow he failed to dodge without sacrificing a tiny strand of his silver hair were the final straws. Sephiroth rarely lost his temper, but this individual had struck where he shouldn't have. He wanted to "go all out," he said. Yes, an excellent idea; he wouldn't be disappointed…

Until now, Sephiroth had been on the defensive. Change of tactics:

A gigantic swing of his katana, which the enemy barely managed to parry, made him retreat several meters, ruthlessly cutting through the already scorched trunks around them. Followed by another strike. Then another. And another… The ground gradually became covered in deep crevices that became perilous to avoid.

His adversary, who had boasted of being able to defeat him, turned pale and realized the fatal error of judgment he had made.

After bravely facing this unleashed demon for a few minutes, Glen failed to dodge the last strike, and a thunderous scream escaped his throat as his arm was severed at the elbow. No axe. No more fighting. Kneeling down, he surrendered.

With Masamune's tip poised in front of his throat, Sephiroth asked, "The SOLDIER from this morning, where was he taken?"

"The Fort... Seiryu... to the East..."

The sword was withdrawn.

"You're not going to kill me?"

"You're disarmed."

The demon warrior turned his back, intending to leave him there. With one arm gone, the man would rather die! With his left arm, he awkwardly grabbed the axe that remained on the ground and was about to strike from behind. He suspected he wouldn't be fast enough. In a fraction of a second, Masamune pierced his heart. Thus perished Glen Reiner.

If Sephiroth had to explain the reason why he had besieged the fort alone that day, he wouldn't know what to say. He was aware of the danger, aware of the risks. Aware that even for him, attacking a heavily guarded military stronghold was a bad idea.

But he also knew that he would never see his friend alive again if he didn't intervene.

He had waited for several days, trying to persuade his superiors to provide him with troops. The refusal was categorical. No way they would risk a massacre for a single SOLDIER, even a 1st Class. After all, there were other elite warriors!

To avoid facing their Hero's request once again, his superiors sent him on another mission. This one took a few more days.

After twelve days of waiting, feeling the hope that his friend might escape on his own fade away, he made his decision.

On the thirteenth day, he set out alone towards the fort. He had to focus all his strength and attack quickly. Wutai's forts were all built according to a similar architecture, so he had no trouble orienting himself and finding the dungeons in the underground.

About twenty doors in a long corridor, with only one closed. When he laid eyes on his comrade, his blood boiled. Bound, half-naked, and with a bleeding torso, the state in which he found the SOLDIER was worrying.

Driven by instinct, he knelt down and tried to call his name to bring him back to consciousness:

"Genesis? Gen'! Gen'! Damn it!"

Sephiroth rarely cursed, but finding his friend unconscious had panicked him. And if he was too late? He grabbed the vial of Elixir he had brought with him, uncorked it, and held it to the redhead's mouth. Unconscious and unable to swallow, the liquid spilled out of the corner of his lips.

Well, in that case, no choice:

Without much thought about what he was doing, he brought the vial to his own lips and poured the contents into his mouth, without swallowing. Then, resolute, he leaned over his friend and pressed his lips to his, letting the potion flow into the redhead's throat. He only broke away when he was sure that he had indeed swallowed all the healing liquid.

With relief, he watched his friend slowly regain consciousness. A strange thought then struck him: that idiot Genesis had forced him to give him his first kiss!

End of the chapter

Autor's note : Sorry i'm not an english native ^^;; So there are probably some errors in the texte ! Please feadback and tell me ! :)