By: Mags

It was a black and starless night, and the rain beat down hard against his face. His wet blonde hair was matted against his head in thick clumps. He brushed the hair away from his eyes and continued to peer into the inky blackness of the night sky. He hoped he could get out of here soon because water had begun to seep through his armor and into his clothes. He knew that he had to figure out where he was before he could find out how to get out, but he had no idea where he was. Suddenly, there was a bright, white flash of lightning and he was able to get an ever so brief glimpse of his surroundings. But that glimpse was all he needed to make his blood run cold. He was in the Nibel Mountains overlooking his beloved town of Nibelheim. Or rather, what was left of it. What he had just seen was the scarred, smoky ruin of what had once been his quiet, peaceful hometown. The rain had begun to smother the fire that had destroyed the town and had begun to mix with the ashes to turn it into thick, pasty mud. His mind was on fire with rage. He choked and held back a tear. There was only one man who could have ever been this cruel as to do this to him. He pained to even think of the name of his foe; yet at one time he had even considered that man somewhat of a friend. But he was a friend no longer. He was now and forever his mortal foe, and he allowed that man’s name to escape his lips in a whisper of pain: Sephiroth!

Suddenly, his mind went blank and his eyes rolled back into his head. He blinked several times, then rubbed his eyes. When his vision cleared, he had been teleported to another location, the Nibel Reactor. "This is where it all started," he thought to himself, "Where Sephiroth went mad over discovering the truth of his origin. Or so he had thought he had discovered the truth." He remembered the cursed place and the evil secret it had harbored, Jenova. His eyes went white and when he cleared his vision again, he was inside the reactor, at the base of the stairway that led up to Jenova’s chamber. He cautiously moved up the stairs, quickly steeling glances to his left and right, not quite sure of what of expect, but positive that he had to do this. He noticed areas of red out of the corner of his eye. He looked over at one of the containment pods, and saw that it still had the blood stain that Zack had left there when he had been run through by Sephiroth that day in the reactor. He walked back down the stairs and looked to his right, and sure enough there was the bloodstain that Tifa had left there when he had placed her there after she too had been assaulted by Sephiroth. He still remembered the fear he had felt when he saw her. The fear that she might die, that he would lose her, too. That she would die before she could have her revenge. Without even thinking about it, he walked towards the pod that Sephiroth and he had looked into that day. He remembered how calm Sephiroth had been, but how frightened he had been. "Weak is more like it," he thought. But he knew he was no longer weak, and nothing that was in these pods could frighten him. But how mistaken he was. Although he was now tall enough to not have to jump up to peer into the pod, he still fell back in fright at what he had just seen; a chill ran up and down his spine. He got up and looked in it again, expecting it to be something else, anything else, just not what he had just seen. But it was. In the clear liquid was Tifa. Her lifeless body floated in the pod, bobbing up and down like a beach ball in the ocean. Her body was stripped and scarred terribly, almost beyond recognition. The most notable scar being an ugly streak down her torso that he recognized as the one Sephiroth had given her when she had challenged her on the top of the steps of the reactor all those years ago. He couldn’t believe it. It couldn’t be real. He ran to another pod, and had the same reaction. It was Zack, in just as bad a condition as Tifa was, floating lifelessly in the clear liquid. He felt like he was going to be sick. He ran to another pod… Cid. He ran to yet another… Barret. He ran to even another… Vincent. He stopped and caught his breath. Then he leaned over the edge of the pod shelf and vomited. He couldn’t believe that this was happening. Suddenly, a loud clang and a hiss caught his attention and he whirred around to see one of the pods opening, but when the steam cleared it was not a horribly deformed monster or a dead body of one of his friends. No, it wasn’t a dead body. It was Aeris. She stood naked in front of him, her skin dripping wet from the steam. She stared ahead blankly, as if she did not even see him. She began walking up the stairs, towards the Jenova chamber. He called out to her, but she paid no attention to him. It was as if someone or something had possessed her, and he had a pretty good idea who it was. He hurried after her, not wanting to keep him waiting. He took a second to notice that she had an open wound in the small of her back, and for a second almost forgot why, but he quickly remembered. "Ever the one to pay attention to meticulous detail" he muttered to himself as he ran up the stairs after her.

When he entered the door to the Jenova Chamber, instead of the familiar machines he had expected, he found himself in the Forgotten Capital, the underground city that had been populated by the Cetra thousands of years ago. But now it populated only one Cetra. Aeris. She was now fully clothed, and has assumed her familiar spot on the altar. "Almost like a sacrificial altar" he thought to himself as he ran down the spiral staircase and to the pool that surrounded the altar. He hopped on the pillars one at a time, until he reached the altar. He wanted to run to her, to shield her. He wanted to save her, but he couldn’t. He was rooted to the spot. He reached out and called to her, trying to warn her, but she remained in place, reciting her ancient prayer. Aeris looked up at him and smiled at him, but remained silent. He loved that smile, he always had. From the moment that he had met her, there was something about her that he had always found relaxing and calming. Something that he had always liked about her but could never quite figure out what. By now he knew that he had loved her, even now he still did. But at the time, he was too single-minded and proud to be concerned with love. He couldn’t even notice Tifa’s blatant attraction to him. But he had eventually. He had found out what it was like to love. But now he was in danger of losing it again, if he didn’t stop Sephiroth yet again, and he had better start here, with Aeris. But he knew it was hopeless, he knew that there was nothing that he could do to help her. And as if on cue, that same familiar shadow came down to steal her from him once again, but this time it was different. The blade seemed to melt into her, to almost be absorbed by her, and the rest of the villain quickly followed. The Aeris/Sephiroth being then stood up and looked at Cloud with cold eyes. It then did a full spin and when it again faced him, it was only Sephiroth. He stared at the man who had wronged him so. A man with a heart as black as his trenchcoat. He glared up at Sephiroth, into his big green eyes. His big, evil eyes and stood transfixed for a minute. It hurt him so much to see this again. It was like a cruel joke. Sephiroth just stared at him for a minute then looked at the ceiling and spread his arms out, like he had done so many times before, and then levitated into the air. He then glared down at his little plaything with a malevolent grin. "This is just too easy", Sephiroth thought. But his "plaything" had other ideas. Like revenge. He glared up at Sephiroth with rage in his eyes. He could barely think straight, he was so mad. All he could think about was sinking his sword deep into Sephiroth’s torso, then pulling upwards very quickly, thus splitting his top half in twain. He couldn’t take it anymore. He drew his sword and called up to his enemy.

"Why are you doing this to me?" he called out. "How could you do this to me…to Aeris…to anyone? You’re a goddamn monster and I swear by all that is Holy I will kill you for what you have done to me, my friends, and the Planet!"

At this Sephiroth looked down and finally spoke, his deep voice echoing in the cavernous room. "You? Kill me?" he inquired sarcastically. "And just how do you intend to accomplish that? Unlike your weak flesh and bone, my spirit is not contained in a weak canister that can be so easily broken. And I am not governed by any laws or emotions or feelings of moral justice", he stated. "That is what separates you from me!" Sephiroth said, putting emphasis on his last sentence. He began laughing maniacally, a deep, evil laugh. "Therefore I will have no regrets slaying you on the battlefield. That is", he paused for a second and smirked "if you will stand your ground and fight!" His emphasis on his last few words clearly issued a challenge, and one that he was not about to back down from.

"I accept your challenge, Sephiroth! I will make you pay for all blood you have shed in the name of your twisted cause."

Sephiroth smirked again. "Commendable courage, little one. However, I assure you your false show of bravado s totally useless against one such as I."

But he was not intimidated so easily. "I don’t care what you think of me or anything else, Sephiroth! The bloodshed ends now, with your life!" As he drew his sword, the space around him seemed to shatter apart, like during the Knights of the Round summon. To prove his guess, a giant knight suddenly flew up out of nowhere. But Cloud didn’t recognize this knight. It was dressed in shining silver armor, and instead of a Long Sword, it was equipped with a Masamune. He also noticed that there was long silver hair flowing out the back of its helmet. But he didn’t have time to do much else, as the knight struck its blow and left. He winced in pain and clutched his chest and expected to feel a gaping wound. Nothing. Not even a scratch. But the pain was definitely there. As was the case with the next 11 knights. All were the same… silver armor, silver hair, and Masamune blades. But the pain was definitely there, however the wounds were not. He was suspicious, but it was hardly what he had to worry about right now. That last ‘knight’ had slashed him across his chest, and he felt like he had half of his rib cage broken and his heart about to explode. There was a burning sensation in his torso and back, and his mind was on fire with 12 ‘injuries’ boring their invisible fire into his mind like a drill through a stick of butter. He thought that he had known pain. How wrong he had been. And there was still one ‘knight’ to go. It seemed to take forever, but finally he saw the shine of the silver Arthur appear out of the inky blackness that currently surrounded him. It was the same as all the others, except bigger. The shiny, silver armor was the same, the billowing silver hair was the same, and of course, the glistening blade of the Masamune blade that it wielded. He looked on in anticipation of what he knew was coming.

The knight towered a good 10 feet taller than he, but he was no longer scared. E was beyond fear. He was on an adrenaline high that could keep him going for a good three hours.

"Let’s get this over with" he muttered under his breath as he clutched the handle of his sword tightly.

As if in compliance, the ‘knight’ reared back, poised to seemingly prepare to slice the man in half. The ‘knight’ swung brutally, but all it cleaved was blackness, as the man managed to miss the sword’s slash by a space that was all too close. But the man had other ideas then to let the so-called ‘knight’ take a second shot at him, and ran up the giant sword the monolith wielded and scrambled up the knight to his helmet and with one might tug, freed the helmet from the ‘knight’s’ head. The resulting tug sent him, still clutching the helmet, into the inky blackness that the ‘knight’ hovered in. But when he looked up at it again, he saw that it truly wasn’t Arthur who had been assaulting him. Behind the mask had been Sephiroth’s malevolent grin.

He was not surprised. The clues had been many, not far between. Suddenly, he was snapped out of his deep thought by a warm glow that began emanating from the Black Knight. To his amazement, Sephiroth’s body began to fade into the cold blackness that he had been trapped in for he knew not how long. Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t the only thing happening. Sephiroth’s head, although bodiless, had begun to grow to an enormous size. It was now almost as large as his entire body had been. And worst of all was the laughing. It was a deep, piercing laugh that made him, cover his ears in fear of going deaf, but it didn’t help much. It felt as though the laughing was not being emitted by any normal means, rather going directly into his brain. It was unbearable, and he though that his head would vibrate off of his shoulders if this kept up another minute. However, when it did, what happened made him with that Sephiroth had just kept his big mouth shut. Sephiroth began to make a deep inhale, sucking him into his mouth. At this point, the world around him seemed to shatter again, indicating the end of the Knights of the Round summon. But he really couldn’t tell, because the next area he had been teleported to seemed to be just as dark and empty as his previous location. But then the lights went on; or rather something lit up. And not just in the surrounding area, but in his mind, too, for he knew this place very well.

"The center of the planet" he cried in recognition.

"How perceptive, meat" said a voice from within his own skull.

He clutched his head and fell to his knees, his eyes clenched in pain. When he was finally able to rise to his feet again, he immediately looked up to see Sephiroth hovering above him, watching him intently, poised in his familiar battle stance, sword in hand and ready to strike. The last thing he ever saw was the large, glistening blade plummeting straight at his head…

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