All around him was suffering, lies, hate contempt, blood, wanderers with no soul. What
had he done to deserve to be punished so? His eyes were open but he could not see. Ears
desperately attempting to hear what was not to be heard. Where were the cries coming
from? The screams of agony were nearly inside of him.
“CURSE YOU!!!” He clenched his fists and lashed out but his arms wouldn’t move.
Beside him, many voices whispered, cackled and brought pity down upon him. Now, he
knew what this was all about. The sinner was on trial for the errors of his ways. Was
this hell?
“Show yourselves to me. I fear nothing.” As always, he spoke with barely contained
venom but the emotion that would have gone with it was absent.
An intense heat surrounded him from all angles, crushing him, burning his flesh. Still, he
could not see and he could not feel. At any moment he would spontaneously combust
and be done with his punishment altogether.
The pain grew and grew, washing through his veins and plunging out of his eyes and
mouth. Waves of disorientation and agony struck him but he refused to bend - to kneel -
to be that weak.
Screams from a world of sorrow drowned out the hearing he no longer had. Now he was
deaf and the trial had ended. Surprisingly, the lasting affect was a positive one.
“My thoughts are clear.” His eyes shot open to let in an explosion of light. Daybreak.
The air was so fresh and smelled of roses. He would have cheered but that would gnaw
away at the illusion that he could not be defeated. No. Relief was for the foolish and
damned. “Where am I? The last thing I remember…”
Long silver hair whipped about in the morning breeze, followed by a black leather cape.
Aquamarine mako eyes stared up at the sun and silently thanked the stars that the whole
ordeal was over. “How long was I…there?” And where exactly had there been? Oh
well, it didn’t make much of a difference.
“Cloud,” he hissed through his teeth. It served him right for underestimating Cloud and
allowing him too many chances. Well, there would be no more of that. Sephiroth was
slightly grateful that Cloud had never made SOLDIER. If he had…Cloud would not have
done such a crappy, careless job of annihilating him. To leave before ensuring that the
enemy was dead…a terrible, unforgivable mistake. One which Sephiroth felt very happy
to correct. “When I get my hands on you, Cloud, I’ll teach you how to do it right the first
time.”
In the next few days, Sephiroth traveled from one town to another, searching for Cloud.
By the end of the week, his nerves were wearing thin from the confusion which he
encountered. The destruction which he had caused was not evident anymore and the
terror which the townspeople used to have for him was gone. No one gave him a second
thought, it was as if they had never known there to be a Sephiroth.
Could Cloud be in Midgar? Why hadn’t he gone there first? Sephiroth had been tracking
the most feasible route on foot. If Cloud had taken off in a vehicle, boat or plane then he
would be long gone. This angered Sephiroth but he kept his mind on the the task at hand.
He was a man driven by an obsession and it involved hanging Cloud’s lifeless body from
the end of his sword.
More time was wasted on the way over to Midgar because Sephiroth had to take a
common boat over with a lot of common people. What he wouldn’t give to be able to
toss them overboard, one by one. To watch them drowning and begging for mercy.
Their kind was no good to him.
Within a few minutes of searching the outskirts of Midgar, Sephiroth ran in into some
fortunate luck. The first man he asked knew Cloud and where he was hiding.
Sephiroth was calm and collected as he walked down the street leading to Cloud’s small
house. Cloud must have made a small fortune fighting alongside Avalanche to be able to
afford it. A couple of times, the ground beneath Sephiroth’s feet trembled and vibrated
but he didn’t care.
At the door to Cloud’s house, Sephiroth pictured how surprised Cloud would be if he
knocked on the door. Then, his mind beckoned visions of Cloud impaled on his sword,
being thrown back into his house and nailed to the wall. Left to bleed, to die, just as he
himself had been given that same fate.
One of the windows in the back were left open and it was getting dark so Sephiroth easily
snuck in. It turned out to be the bedroom. This was where Cloud slept and had nice,
peaceful dreams. Well, there would be no more of that. Sephiroth nimbly crossed over
to the hallway, noting that the open closet had only been filled with mens’ clothing. So,
Cloud still hadn’t found a woman and now he never would.
Again, the ground seemed to groan under Sephiroth’s weight and he stopped where he
was. Was Cloud in the house? Had he heard? Sword drawn, Sephiroth kept going
because the prize was too sweet to deny himself.
Inside the living room, Cloud was watching something on the television. He was sitting
on the carpeted floor, leaning back onto the couch. The closer Sephiroth got, the more he
doubted that Cloud was awake. Two different swords were displayed on the wall with
hooks. They were far from Cloud’s reach so there would be no resistance.
Sephiroth moved closer and closer, raising his sword to strike as he came in front of
Cloud. A few strands of spiky-blond hair were blocking Cloud’s eyes, making Sephiroth
uneasy. Was he awake or not? Sephiroth slashed the sword downwards, Cloud remained
still. Just as the sword neared Cloud’s head, he abruptly halted the attack.
“Why can’t I do it?” Sephiroth grabbed Cloud by his shoulders, picked him up and
slammed him into the wall. “Are you awake now, accursed boy?”
Cloud’s breath was coming in short gasps after being roughly brought back to the world
of the living. His mako blue eyes were staring at Sephiroth, still not entirely conscious of
what was going on. Cloud lunged for his sword, punching at Sephiroth’s arms.
First Sephiroth released him, then he belted Cloud across the head with the flat side of
his sword. Cloud cried out and collapsed onto the couch, his head spinning. Sephiroth
tried to make himself strike again but found that he was disgusted by what he had done.
What was wrong with him? He had come here to murder Cloud in his sleep if that was
what it came down to. But now it didn’t seem very appealing to him. The whole idea
now seemed immoral and unjust.
When Sephiroth glanced down at Cloud, he saw that his temple was bleeding. Just how
hard had he hit him? Cloud couldn’t move at all because of the throbbing headache
piercing his skull. He shut his eyes firmly against the sight of Sephiroth, hoping that he
would make it quick.
“Today you are lucky.” Sephiroth stepped away and headed for the door. That was when
the tremors tore apart the ground and forced him to his knees. It felt as if the ground
were cracking deep within the earth and it actually was. He quickly looked towards
Cloud to see if he had begun a silent attack. Cloud was in the same position, not paying
attention to what was going on. Had he passed out? “Cloud, get up!” Why did he care
about Cloud being killed in his own home? He wouldn’t have to lift a finger if the
ceiling buried Cloud alive. However, as the whole house began to shake, Sephiroth
suddenly didn’t want to see Cloud’s body beneath large chunks of cement.
The shaking stopped and Sephiroth sighed with relief. Now was the time to leave and let
Cloud suffer on his own.
An enormous tremor smashed into Cloud’s house like a gunshot going off in a room full
of fireworks. The wall beside Cloud leaned inward and the lighting fixture above
creaked and swung back and forth. Then, the light snapped off of its restraints and
plummeted down. Without thinking, Sephiroth threw himself over top of Cloud and took
the pain himself. The light shattered into a million pieces of glass and covered
Sephiroth’s cape. Still, the shaking continued and grew more and more powerful.
Sephiroth glanced at Cloud and noticed that he was partially with it. He was giving
Sephiroth an odd look but not saying a word. “If you say anything, I’ll cut out your
tongue,” he threatened.
“We have to get underneath something.” Cloud struggled to get up but couldn’t stand the
pounding in his head.
Sephiroth aimed a cure spell at Cloud and relieved his pain. Immediately, Cloud jumped
to his feet and stumbled over the shaking floor to snatch up one of his swords at random.
Before he could turn to use it, Sephiroth had pinned Cloud to the wall using his entire
body. Cloud could feel the warmth from Sephiroth’s breath going down his neck. He
hated to admit it but Sephiroth was much stronger than he was.
“Are you finished yet?” There was something about the position that they were in which
was turning Sephiroth on. He sensed a hardness in his groin and automatically pushed
his hips into Cloud’s back.
“You attacked me,” Cloud reminded him. Then Cloud tensed when he felt something
jabbing his back and Sephiroth becoming a little bit friendlier. Above them, the ceiling
began to crumble and deteriorate. “Do you want to cooperate and find somewhere to
take cover?”
That was not what Sephiroth had in mind but he pulled Cloud away from the wall and
went for the bedroom. It was difficult to walk straight, especially when the entire living
room sank into the earth and the ceiling with it. Cloud was shoved underneath the bed to
be followed by Sephiroth. They stayed there for a few minutes, listening to the
destruction above.
“I think it stopped,” Cloud said, uncomfortable with how close Sephiroth was to him.
‘Wait.”
With one final groan, a piece of the ceiling rained onto the bed giving Cloud a near heart
attack. He stayed absolutely still while Sephiroth got out from hiding. “It’s over.”
Cloud crawled out after him and grew very serious. The window and the door were
blockaded by large sections of wood and cement. “Help me move this.” He began to tug
at the cement but couldn’t move it.
“Save your strength. You couldn’t move that rock if your life depended on it.” Was that
a joke? Since when did the great Sephiroth joke? There had been a time in his life when
he had felt free enough with others to cut loose. What had changed all that?
“My life does depend on it. I’m not spending another minute trapped in the same room
as you.”
“If it wasn’t for me, you would be dead by now.”
“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have been hit on the head with a sword and left alive to
argue about it. Now help me!”
Sephiroth sat down on the bed and started to polish his sword on the end of his cape.
“Go ahead and strain your back. I have better things to do.” Some part of him was
delighted when Cloud aimed for his face. He caught Cloud’s wrist and smiled at him. It
was a real smile and not one of the insane ones which usually ended in a fit of psychotic
laughter. “Had I known you were this amusing to watch, I would have caved in this
planet long ago.”
A traitorous grin came to Cloud’s lips but he hurriedly set his mouth back in a straight
line. Why should he want to make jokes and laugh with Sephiroth. Hadn’t Sephiroth
come to kill him? “Have you thought about food, water and air?”
“Oh, those boring things. We will be rescued shortly so sit down and behave yourself.”
“How can you be so sure someone will decide to dig up this old house?” Cloud went
back to his efforts of clearing the window. “No one knows where I live.”
“And your friends?”
“Avalanche was over and done with the moment your threat to the earth ended. We
couldn’t keep going around acting like some self-righteous gang. I prefer to forget
about your reign of terror.”
“You have an incredibly lousy memory, Cloud. I hope that you do not forget about this.”
There was a hint of suggestion in Sephiroth’s tone of voice but Cloud pretended not to
hear it.
Cloud returned the intense stare of Sephiroth’s and gave up on trying to move the one
piece of rock. “The sooner I get out of here, the sooner I intend to forget about it.”
