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ff7_fanfiction2011-09-14 12:47 am
ebonrune) wrote in ff7_fanfiction2011-09-14 12:47 am
Entry tags:
The Planet's Enemy: Chapter 14
Title: The Planet's Enemy
Author: Ebonrune
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Possible swears and violence
Disclaimer: I of course, do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the compilation. That pleasure belongs to Square-Enix.
Status: Complete
Summary: It's been half a year since Omega was sent back to its rest and everyone has moved on with their lives. As Cloud and his friends soon discover however, the past refuses to remain buried.
Author's Notes: This story occurs post Dirge of Cerberus and makes references to it, as well as Crisis Core, the original Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children Complete, and Before Crisis--a game released on cellphones only in Japan. As well, I've chosen to use the fan names (according to the Final Fantasy wiki) for Cloud's various swords, since they don't have official names and 'Tsurugi' is Japanese for 'sword'. As the swords are not labeled which is which on the wiki, here's the picture for your reference.
Prequel: Ties of Friendship
Chapter Links: One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fifteen
It had become clear very quickly that the route Shelke took them through to get into Deepground was the same path Vincent had taken about half a year before for the same purpose. Bullet casings were abundant, as were the shattered carapaces of Bizarre Bugs and the occasional live one, easily dealt with by one of the four swordsmen. As they continued further, following the path Vincent took, they also came across the occasional human remains. Well past rotting and stripped down to bone and dried tissue, they were unpleasant sights but nothing Cloud and the others were unable to handle.
When they found an elevator just past the remains of a couple of large robots--very much like the one Cloud had noticed under the stairs in Shinra Manor in fact--and took it to the administrative level from which they would have to proceed, the smell of rotting flesh became much more apparent. Not being in a damp environment like the others and without Bizarre Bugs to scavenge the remains, they weren't decomposing as quickly. They proceeded past that room very quickly. In spite of the smell in the next room they found however, here Cloud found himself compelled to pause.
"What are these things?" With a hand over mouth and nose to block out part of the decay smell and muffling his voice, he approached a display case to peer at the green crystal inside of it. "Aside from size and color, doesn't this look a lot like...that other crystal?" He inwardly winced, belatedly remembering the Turks that were with them.
"Other crystal? Oh." Zack stepped over too, broken glass crunching under his boots and peered into the display case as well. "They sure are pretty, but I think they're just materia." He reached in to grasp the large crystal and take a closer look at it. "Yeah. This is a Poison materia. Wonder why it looks like this though?"
"Deepground was experimenting with the formation of materia." Shelke spoke up, glancing narrowly at Rude and Reno. "They hypothesized that changing the shape might enhance the magic output. The materia in this room are some successful results of those experiments."
"It doesn't feel any different to me." Zack said. "And it sure would be hard to junction." He held up the Buster blade to indicate the empty materia slots."
"Indeed." Shelke agreed, moving to step past them into the next room, starting to look a little ill. "There is proper materia in the next room however, I believe." He glanced back. "Time is of the essence if you wish any chance at all of finding your friends, Cloud Strife."
"Right." Cloud agreed and moved to follow Shelke. As she'd said, in the next room was properly shaped materia and they paused once again so that Angeal, Kunsel and Zack could grab anything that might be useful and then quickly continued onward. The remainder of the trip through the administrative floors and the elevators they had to take was mostly uneventful save for the continuing discovery of rotting corpses and when they finally reached the large cargo elevator that Shelke told them would take them to Deepground proper, everyone was well sick of the smell of death.
As they descended into the depths of the earth, the temperature rising, Cloud looked around the cargo elevator and realized a quite potentially dire problem.
He walked over to their guide. "Shelke." He addressed her. "There are broken mako containers on this thing and....I realize I should have thought of this sooner, but is there a lot of exposed mako in Deepground?"
"It is quite possible." Shelke responded, tilting her head slightly at him.
"Shit." Cloud pushed his hair back and looked off at the far wall for a few moments. "I might actually have to sit this one out, then. I seem to ah....zone out around too much mako."
"Hm. Problematic." Shelke thought for a bit, then nodded to herself. "Do not worry, Cloud Strife. I believe there are measures in Deepground to take care of that, for when receiving 'guests'."
"Guests?" Cloud arched a brow at her.
"Such as President Shinra." Shelke elaborated coldly.
"Oh." Cloud was distracted when the elevator came to a shuddering stop in front of what looked like an enormous vault door. They all watched as it slid back and opened, releasing a sudden assault of mako smell that made the SOLDIERs gag and nearly sent the Turks to their knees. Shelke was the only one unphased and after a few moments, she stepped forward into Deepground. Once the others recovered, they forced themselves to follow.
Cloud felt hazy almost immediately, as unlike at Mideel, this mako was undiluted. As a result, when he saw the sight before him, he was almost certain that he was hallucinating.
"Is that....a city?" He stepped forward to the railing and grasped it, staring at what appeared to be buildings surrounding the mako reactor in the middle. "Zack! Are you seeing this, or am I imagining things?"
Zack came to stand beside him and leaned forward, squinting. "No. Those are definitely buildings." He agreed. "A whole underground city from the looks of things."
"An undergound city. The Midgar below Midgar." Cloud shook his head slowly. "I thought the slums were bad, but this is definitely worse."
"Our own Hell." Shelke stepped over, holding a mask out to Cloud. "Put this on. It should lessen the effects." She too looked over the city, and then sighed. "Normally the mako surrounding the reactor would be covered. It was uncovered before as per Weiss' orders to make the sacrifices for Omega easier. Hopefully the mask will still work for you."
"Hopefully." Cloud agreed. He reached out to take the mask and put it on. Taking in a few breaths, he shuddered as his ears seemed to pop and suddenly he wasn't looking at the world through such a green-filled haze. "Oh, good."
"If your friends are alive, they will likely be on the far side of this." Shelke turned away. "We will have to hurry."
"Lead on, Shelke." Cloud glanced at Zack, and then at the others. Kunsel looked a little shocked and disturbed at his surroundings, while Angeal seemed to be nervously checking the sword Zack had won for him at the Saucer, junctioning and unjunctioning one of the materia. Reno and Rude had the same masks Cloud did. Rude seemed calm, but then it was hard to read anything on him as long as he wore his sunglasses. Reno on the other hand appeared to have gone pasty pale, his eyes wide in imminent panic as he looked around.
Cloud walked over to them, planting himself in front of Reno. "Nervous, Reno?" He asked almost caustically. "Know something we don't?"
Reno focused on him, and Cloud heard him gulp. "I've never been down here, yo. How would I know anything?"
"If you don't know anything, then why do you look so scared?"
The Turk's eyes abruptly hardened, and he leaned forward slightly. "'Cause Nero the Sable and Weiss the Immaculate are down here somewhere, and I ain't keen on getting killed, yo. This business ain't things Turks are meant to be messing with."
"Then you shouldn't have come." Cloud turned away. "Alright! Let's move out!" No more wasting time. His friends lives depended on him finding them quickly.
------------------------------------------------------------
It had been easy going at first with Reeve and Yuffie trailing along behind Vincent as he tried to find a way out and other than the occasional Gargoyle swooping down on them, there hadn't been any monsters or other enemies. He had begun hoping that escaping would be easy.
He should have known better.
The first problem that developed was obvious--they were succumbing to the mako. With the experiments that had been done on Vincent, he was fine--in fact, the mako smell seemed to be alleviating the pain of his increasing arthritis--but Reeve and Yuffie were becoming progressively slower and more sluggish as they went along. Soon Vincent was checking behind himself every few moments to make sure they hadn't gone tumbling over the railing or simply collapsed. Yuffie was leaning heavily on Reeve, who was relying heavily on the railing to stay upright and continue following Vincent when the second, more dangerous problem showed itself.
They had just managed to scale some stairs when darkness abruptly oozed out of the grating ahead of them and coalesced into one of the last people Vincent had wanted to run into.
"Nero." Vincent growled, bracing himself in case Reeve or Yuffie ran into him. His hand dropped to Cerberus, but he didn't draw the weapon.
Nero tilted his head and gave a slow blink, regarding Vincent with apparent bemusement. "Vincent Valentine." He spoke at last, lips barely moving. "What a pleasant surprise. My brother and I thought you would have died by now, but it seems that your decay has been slower than we had anticipated."
"It's called old age." Vincent did draw Cerberus now, aiming it at the Tsviet. "Let us pass."
"Let you--ah yes, I see." Nero's gaze shifted to Yuffie and Reeve briefly before returning to Vincent. "They are of little concern to me. But you on the other hand...." He snapped his wings open, the darkness that made up the spaces where the membrane should have been, writhing. Before Vincent had time to do more than instinctively protect his face, the darkness enveloped him.
Unlike earlier when the darkness had just been used as a method of transport, this time it was not silent. Distant voices began to encroach, talking, screaming, crying. All around Vincent, overlapping into a discordant cacophony. He hunched up, clapped his hands over his ears to try and drown it out, but it continued, hammering in his skull. He squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth against the terror. This was a nightmare!
He felt cold things skitter over him like spiders made of ice. Over his limbs, face and torso where they seemed to gather over his heart. All at once, the discomfort became real pain stabbing into his chest and drawing a scream of agony out of him. Jerking upright from the pain, his eyes flashed open. For a moment he thought he saw something in the inky blackness staring back with eyes made of molten gold, and then he found himself spat out onto a hard stone surface. He scrambled to get to his feet, hand to his chest.
"Oh. Well, this was not what I expected." Vincent focused on Nero when the younger man materialized in front of him. The Tsviet tilted his head at Vincent, as if curious. "It would seem that I will simply have to do this another way. Very well." He lunged forward, hands reaching for Vincent, dark-nailed fingers curled like claws.
Vincent threw himself backward, wincing when his aged body protested. He had no idea what Nero intended, and he didn't plan on finding out if he could help it. Taking in his surroundings with a quick glance, he realized that this was the last place he'd fought Nero, a twisted dimension of molten lava and floating rocks. He brought Cerberus around and fired off rapidly, but every shot was met with darkness, absorbing his bullets. How could he possibly fight him like this?
He continued to jump backward, but Nero seemed to be enjoying the chase, apparently allowing Vincent to stay just ahead of him and tire himself. He knew the older man couldn't keep evading him for much longer.
I have no choice. Vincent threw open the padlock in his mind and invited the killer out to play. He came to a stop, the energy of transformation overtaking his body. When it had faded once more, Hell Masker stood in Vincent's place. Like with Chaos and Galian, it too had a changed appearance from when Vincent had first learned of its presence. Hell Masker wore a black trenchcoat, buckled up all the way to the neck. His mask was bone white, completely smooth and featureless save for the eye holes from which scarlet eyes stared. Cerberus had been replaced with a chainsaw, but across his back was strapped a rifle. Hell Masker didn't take notice of that however, instead focusing his eyes on Nero, who had stopped to watch the transformation take place and was now staring at him in puzzlement.
"Another form?" Nero said at last, musingly. "Hm." He gave a wide smile, unnerving not only because of his suddenly revealed sharp teeth, but because he apparently didn't know how to make the expression regardless. "Good. I was concerned this wouldn't be a challenge."
Hell Masker responded to this sentiment by grasping the chainsaw in both hands and revving the motor.
Nero's smile disappeared, though his eyes still showed amusement and he extended his hands. Darkness swirled around them, and when it faded once more he held a handgun in each hand. Without giving Hell Masker further time to prepare, he began firing.
Hell Masker gave a sibilant hiss and rushed forward, swinging with the chainsaw. Much to Vincent's inward dismay however, while the bullets were piercing into his flesh readily enough, the chainsaw was being deflected by darkness every time it should have made contact. Finally Hell Masker flung his chainsaw in absolute frustration, only to watch it be swallowed by the darkness.
"Hm. And what did you hope to accomplish?" Nero paused to reload, dropping his spent cartridges to have them promptly replaced by new ones through the darkness.
Hell Masker hissed again. He didn't seem to be afflicted by the same aging problem as Vincent, but he was still injured and once he fell, this was over. There had to be some way to defeat Nero!
While Nero appeared to be gloating over his apparent victory, Vincent tried to think of a solution. Before he could begin to seriously give it any thought however, he heard an unexpected noise and Hell Masker looked up in time to see his chainsaw falling toward his head.
He launched himself backwards, only to give a scream of pain as the rotating blade sliced over his body before hitting the ground and spinning in a stuttering circle before the chain broke and flew off the walkway into the lava. Hell Masker looked down at the damage to find that the chainsaw had sliced down across his body from one shoulder to the opposite hip. The wound didn't seem to be overly deep, but it was large and far more painful to the monster than the bullet wounds were.
Taking stock, Hell Masker went to lunge toward Nero anyway, enraged at being hurt by his own weapon. His foot slipped on something behind himself however and he went down hard onto his hands and knees. Hell Masker quickly scrambled back up again while Nero watched in idle amusement, evidently in no rush to finish his opponent off. Hell Masker looked behind himself and then turned to pick up the rifle that had been strapped to his back and then cut free by the chainsaw.
Death Penalty? It wasn't in the handgun form Vincent had last used as Chaos, but was instead in its original state as a rifle with only a tassel decoration on the end of the barrel to in any way indicate it was special. Hell Masker stared at it in confusion for several moments before turning back to Nero and firing at him.
The darkness appeared once again in order to absorb the bullets and for a moment Vincent felt despair. Then he saw Nero's eyes widen in surprise and watched him stagger back. The darkness dissipated to reveal a blooming hole in his chest where the bullet had hit him.
Hell Masker wasted no time. Now knowing that Death Penalty's bullets would work even through the darkness, he fired off shot after shot, each shot knocking Nero off balance and not giving him the chance to retaliate. He advanced on the other man, firing as quickly as the shotgun would let him until Nero finally collapsed to his knees.
"Hgn..." Nero looked up to see Hell Masker coming over. "You may....vanquish me....but you will....not escape...."
Hell Masker pointed the barrel at Nero's head. ".....You were born of Grimoire's experiments, weren't you?" His voice came out hollow from behind the mask, though at a higher pitch than Vincent's own voice.
"......That is....correct." Nero flashed his sharp teeth at Hell Masker. "I was the only....survivor of the....stagnant mako....experimentations."
"Then I am sorry." And with those words, Hell Masker pulled the trigger. A flower of blood bloomed on one side of Nero's head and again on the other side as he slowly fell.
The energy of transformation overtook Hell Masker's body and Vincent then took his place, promptly falling to his knees with a grunt of pain. He brought a hand up to press uselessly to the wounds riddling his torso. Hell Masker could endure most of the pain, but he could not and after only a few moments, he collapsed facedown.
At least I stopped one of them... He thought before darkness overtook his vision.
------------------------------------------------------------
"VINCENT!!!"
Cloud and the others all froze in place as the anguished and panicked scream ripped through the mako-filled air.
"That was Yuffie...." Cloud started forward. "Yuffie! YUFFIE WHERE ARE--guh!" He found himself yanked back by his hair and a hand covering his mouth.
"Yelling down here is inadvisable." Shelke hissed by his ear before releasing him. "I believe I know from which her voice originated." She stepped past Cloud to lead the way, but even at a trot--about as fast as it was safe to travel along the walkways--it took almost five minutes for them to reach their objective.
They found Yuffie and Reeve sitting on the walkway, Yuffie had her face buried in Reeve's chest, sobbing against him. Reeve was awkwardly trying to comfort her and didn't seem to notice any of them until Cloud stepped over and crouched. When he looked up, his half-vacant expression told Cloud things were not going well.
"Oh. Clod." Reeve slurred. "Ish good yae've come. We need tae get oot ov 'ere."
Oh wonderful, the mako vapors were making Reeve talk like a drunk Cait Sith. "What happened?" Cloud asked, "To Vincent, I mean." Best to keep it simple.
"Vincento wa," Yuffie started rambling in Wutaiese. "atashi-tachi to atta. Kare wa atashi-tachi o shutoku suru tsumoridattaga, sonogo Nero wa arawareta to kare o totta!"
Even better. Cloud put a hand to his face. "And what's that in Gaian?"
"She said Nero took him." Reno spoke up. He looked around warily. "We should hurry and get out of here, yo."
"Then you and Rude can get them out of here, and the rest of us will continue on to find the others."
"Uh uh." Reno made an 'x' with his arms. "No can do, spike. I'm supposed to stick with you, yo."
Cloud stood up to face them. "Then Rude can do it."
Rude looked at his partner, looked at Cloud and then mutely shook his head.
Cloud put a hand to his face again. "Fine. Any volunteers, then?"
After a few moments of silence, Angeal stepped forward. "I'll take them."
Cloud arched a brow at him. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Angeal stepped forward to hoist Reeve up and tucked an arm around Yuffie's waist to out right carry her. She squeaked, but didn't seem to have the presence of mind to fight back. "I'm strong enough to help both of them. I'll get them out of here."
"Alright." Cloud stepped back to let him past and the others also moved out of the tall SOLDIERs way. Cloud caught a worried look on Zack's face, but then turned away. "Let's continue on, everyone."
"He answered too readily." Sephiroth seemed as troubled as Zack looked. "I'm not sure I like this."
"Do you think he'd hurt my friends?" Cloud asked him before remembering Sephiroth wouldn't care.
"......I'm concerned he may hurt himself, Strife." In that moment he sounded completely sane, worried for a friend. Cloud glanced back at Angeal, who had made remarkable progress up the walkway. If he kept that rate up, he might make it out in half the time it took all of them to make it this far--provided he could remember the way out, of course.
".....Somehow I don't think he will." Cloud couldn't believe he was trying to offer comfort to the man who'd burned his hometown and tried to destroy the planet. "He's taking them out, so he'll feel responsible for their safety. If he did anything to hurt himself while watching over them, it would go against his honor, right?"
Sephiroth laughed softly, but it was a relieved sound and then abruptly he became silent again. Cloud shook his head slightly at the odd exchange and then focused entirely on the task ahead. He didn't know what he'd do once he found his friends and the occupants of the hospital and Khymera Enviro, but that was a problem he'd tackle once he knew they were safe.
------------------------------------------------------------
"Viincent." A soft, teasing female voice was calling to him. "Viiiiincent. Wake up, sleepy head!"
Vincent opened his eyes and stared up at the pink blooms of a cherry blossom tree, he then turned his gaze to the left and blinked at the woman sitting there beside him.
"There you go." Lucrecia said with a cheerful smile. "I thought you were going to sleep the whole day away!"
Vincent moved to sit up and looked down at himself. While Lucretia was wearing a cheerful yellow and blue flowered yukata, he found that he was wearing a plain brown kimono. He looked back to her again with a confused expression. "What's going on...?"
"Hm?" Lucrecia tilted her head slightly. "You decided to take a nap after our picnic, that's all. What's wrong?" She reached out for him, but he drew back.
"No. This isn't right." What was going on? The last thing he remembered, Nero....he'd been battling Nero. "Where are we?"
"Wutai, of course." Lucrecia looked perplexed. "We moved here after we got married. Don't you remember?"
Vincent shook his head. "No...no....I...." He paused when he heard a baby's cry come from the basket beside Lucrecia and watched as she turned her attention to it, reaching in and pulling out a brown haired, red eyed infant. "....What?"
"Vincent!" Lucrecia turned to him, upset. "Surely you remember our son at least!" The baby started crying louder and Lucrecia rocked him in her arms.
"Our...son....?" No. This couldn't be right. This wasn't right! Yet, everything around him seemed so solid, so real. The smell of the blossoms, the feel of a slight, warm breeze on his face. He looked at the infant and frowned. No...this couldn't be real, but as the seconds passed, he was finding he very much wanted it to be.
"I'm sorry." He apologized. "My nap must have addled me."
"Yes, I know." She sighed. "It's not your fault. After you took that bullet....well, never mind all that." She held the now calm infant out to him. "Sephiroth, say 'ohaiyo' to your daddy."
And just like that, the illusion broke. Vincent all but leapt to his feet and backed away from Lucrecia and the baby as if they were venomous. "What is this?!" He demanded to know. "This isn't real! None of this is real! Who are you? What is this?!" Where was Cerberus? He looked around quickly for it.
"Vincent!" Lucrecia held the baby close to herself. "Calm down. You're going to upset him!"
"What is this?!" Vincent all but yelled. "You're dead, you died....this isn't real! You're not real! None of this is real!"
Lucrecia stared at him in pained dismay, but then his surroundings and her quickly began to fade away until there was only darkness. Now, instead of Lucrecia kneeling there on soft green grass, Vincent was faced with a demon glaring at him out of the black.
"Chaos." He acknowledged the protoweapon with a grim realization. He might have killed Nero, but Chaos could not die and now it had come for him.
Chaos hissed, the sound very much like a steaming kettle. "We give nice dreams, and you still will not die. You are stubborn."
Vincent blinked once. The protoweapon had never before shown any capacity for speech, opting instead to simply be the source of his worst nightmares. That it would give him pleasant dreams now however was almost more unnerving than its sudden capacity for speech. He stood there mutely, just staring at it.
Chaos hissed again. "You freed us from infection, we express grateful." It flexed its wings and tilted its head. "You decay."
"......It's called old age." This had to be another dream, Chaos simply did not talk. It was a being of destruction, pure and simple. "What do you want, Chaos?"
"We express curious." Chaos began to stalk around Vincent, forcing him to turn to keep Chaos in his view. "Infection left thoughts, left self. Infection present, but sleep now. We awake. Trapped in, but now free. You decay."
The more it talked, the less sense it seemed to make. ".....Lucrecia put you in me so I would stop dying." Vincent spoke softly after a few seconds to try and decode what the protoweapon was saying. "So....without you, I'll probably die." Acknowledging that, he could almost feel his organs beginning to rot and he put his arms around his midsection in a futile gesture.
"All die, join Stream of Life. You fear?" Chaos smiled ferally. "We smell fear."
"....It is man's nature to fear death." Vincent replied, continuing to turn as Chaos paced around him. "But.....listen to me." His hands spasmed on his arms and he winced, but then continued. "Weiss wants to awaken Omega again, right? It's too soon. The Planet isn't ready. We're not ready."
"All die." Chaos repeated, though it stopped its pacing and stared at Vincent. It remained staring at him in silence for several unnerving moments before it curled its lips back and snarled. "You chained us."
"Not by choice." Pain was building in his body, he had to try to reason with it quickly. "Help me. Help me stop Weiss, then I'll free you....somehow. I'll let you return to your sleep."
Chaos laughed coldly. "You bargain? You reason? We are weapon, we are tool."
"Help me!" Vincent forced all the authority he could into his voice, channeling his worry and fear into anger. "Damn you! It wasn't our choice to be thrown together, but I need your help. Omega can't rise. It isn't time!"
Chaos looked at him in silence, watching Vincent wincing in pain as his body betrayed him. Finally, the protoweapon gave a put-upon sigh.
"We agree. Too soon." Its form dissolved into the black surrounding them, but a few seconds later it swarmed in on Vincent, smothering him and driving him to his knees as a new level of pain ripped though him.
Vincent gave a strangled scream and collapsed onto his side, writhing helplessly as agony rolled up and down his body, overwhelming him and stealing breath and thought until all he knew was the pain. Finally, the pain faded away again and he lay there in a darkness that was no longer threatening. The pain was gone and in its place was a familiar strength. He slowly moved to stand up and looked at his once more steady hands. He touched his face with his right and while he couldn't be certain, it felt like the wrinkles that had been etching their way deeper into his skin had smoothed out. Had Chaos somehow reversed the aging, and if so, why? To make him a more useful host perhaps?
Well, he couldn't spend the time thinking about it. Without the protomateria, Chaos could conceivably take control of him at any time. He'd have to move quickly before that happened, there was something important he needed to do before confronting Weiss.
------------------------------------------------------------
By the time Angeal had hauled Yuffie and Reeve along with his heavy sword out of Deepground, he was about ready to take a break. Exiting the Shinra building, he saw what appeared to be a crumpled mass of tattered black clothing and he set Yuffie and Reeve down on the steps so he could go investigate. As he got closer, the mass shifted and he saw that what had looked like bits of clothing were actually feathers. The figure raised their head then and all doubt was eliminated.
".....Genesis?"
Genesis offered a weak smile and pushed himself more upright. "My friend," He rasped. "the fates are cruel. There are no dreams, no honor remains. The arrow....has left the bow of the goddess...."
Angeal knelt by his side and put a hand on his shoulder, looking at his childhood friend in concern. He was obviously degrading, his hair turning white, his clothing becoming faded and both his clothes and skin gaining a marbled appearance. It was painful seeing this happen to him a second time, but Angeal knew there was probably nothing he could do for him.
"What are you doing here?" He asked instead.
Genesis gave another weak smile. "I came to find Weiss. He betrayed me...." He dropped his head, giving it a weary shake. "I should have listened. It was all a lie. He....his brother took my body for his own. This is a copy."
"A copy?" Angeal's eyes widened slightly. "You put yourself into one of your copies?"
"It was the only thing I could do. The darkness..." Genesis gave a shiver, but then he lifted his head again. "I felt fine until a few minutes ago, but now....I feel myself ebbing away....Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul. Pride is lost, wings stripped away. The end is nigh..."
"......Genesis......" Angeal's eyes flicked over him. There had to be something he could do for him! "Don't you give up on me, Genesis! Don't you dare!"
Genesis gave a soft chuckle. "I'm sorry Angeal. About before, I mean....I just didn't want to be alone. I didn't know you would want to die because of it...."
".....It's forgiven." Angeal looked at his surroundings now, seeking inspiration, something to tell him how to help Genesis. "Save your strength."
"Tell Sephiroth I'm sorry too...would you?" Genesis shifted to lean his head against Angeal's shoulder and closed his eyes. "Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess." His voice was fainter now. "We seek it thus, and take to the sky. Ripples form on the water's surface, the wandering soul....knows no rest....." He fell still.
"......Genesis?" Angeal looked down at him and gave him a slight shake. "Genesis?" He felt about to panic when Genesis made a sound and shifted to become more comfortable against the other man. He was simply asleep.
Angeal slowly shifted to sit on the ground, holding his longtime friend close to him and listening for every breath. If there was a way that he could save Genesis, he would find it. This was their second chance, their chance to do the right thing in spite of being monsters. This time Angeal had no intention of giving up so easily.
Author: Ebonrune
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Possible swears and violence
Disclaimer: I of course, do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the compilation. That pleasure belongs to Square-Enix.
Status: Complete
Summary: It's been half a year since Omega was sent back to its rest and everyone has moved on with their lives. As Cloud and his friends soon discover however, the past refuses to remain buried.
Author's Notes: This story occurs post Dirge of Cerberus and makes references to it, as well as Crisis Core, the original Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children Complete, and Before Crisis--a game released on cellphones only in Japan. As well, I've chosen to use the fan names (according to the Final Fantasy wiki) for Cloud's various swords, since they don't have official names and 'Tsurugi' is Japanese for 'sword'. As the swords are not labeled which is which on the wiki, here's the picture for your reference.
Prequel: Ties of Friendship
Chapter Links: One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fifteen
It had become clear very quickly that the route Shelke took them through to get into Deepground was the same path Vincent had taken about half a year before for the same purpose. Bullet casings were abundant, as were the shattered carapaces of Bizarre Bugs and the occasional live one, easily dealt with by one of the four swordsmen. As they continued further, following the path Vincent took, they also came across the occasional human remains. Well past rotting and stripped down to bone and dried tissue, they were unpleasant sights but nothing Cloud and the others were unable to handle.
When they found an elevator just past the remains of a couple of large robots--very much like the one Cloud had noticed under the stairs in Shinra Manor in fact--and took it to the administrative level from which they would have to proceed, the smell of rotting flesh became much more apparent. Not being in a damp environment like the others and without Bizarre Bugs to scavenge the remains, they weren't decomposing as quickly. They proceeded past that room very quickly. In spite of the smell in the next room they found however, here Cloud found himself compelled to pause.
"What are these things?" With a hand over mouth and nose to block out part of the decay smell and muffling his voice, he approached a display case to peer at the green crystal inside of it. "Aside from size and color, doesn't this look a lot like...that other crystal?" He inwardly winced, belatedly remembering the Turks that were with them.
"Other crystal? Oh." Zack stepped over too, broken glass crunching under his boots and peered into the display case as well. "They sure are pretty, but I think they're just materia." He reached in to grasp the large crystal and take a closer look at it. "Yeah. This is a Poison materia. Wonder why it looks like this though?"
"Deepground was experimenting with the formation of materia." Shelke spoke up, glancing narrowly at Rude and Reno. "They hypothesized that changing the shape might enhance the magic output. The materia in this room are some successful results of those experiments."
"It doesn't feel any different to me." Zack said. "And it sure would be hard to junction." He held up the Buster blade to indicate the empty materia slots."
"Indeed." Shelke agreed, moving to step past them into the next room, starting to look a little ill. "There is proper materia in the next room however, I believe." He glanced back. "Time is of the essence if you wish any chance at all of finding your friends, Cloud Strife."
"Right." Cloud agreed and moved to follow Shelke. As she'd said, in the next room was properly shaped materia and they paused once again so that Angeal, Kunsel and Zack could grab anything that might be useful and then quickly continued onward. The remainder of the trip through the administrative floors and the elevators they had to take was mostly uneventful save for the continuing discovery of rotting corpses and when they finally reached the large cargo elevator that Shelke told them would take them to Deepground proper, everyone was well sick of the smell of death.
As they descended into the depths of the earth, the temperature rising, Cloud looked around the cargo elevator and realized a quite potentially dire problem.
He walked over to their guide. "Shelke." He addressed her. "There are broken mako containers on this thing and....I realize I should have thought of this sooner, but is there a lot of exposed mako in Deepground?"
"It is quite possible." Shelke responded, tilting her head slightly at him.
"Shit." Cloud pushed his hair back and looked off at the far wall for a few moments. "I might actually have to sit this one out, then. I seem to ah....zone out around too much mako."
"Hm. Problematic." Shelke thought for a bit, then nodded to herself. "Do not worry, Cloud Strife. I believe there are measures in Deepground to take care of that, for when receiving 'guests'."
"Guests?" Cloud arched a brow at her.
"Such as President Shinra." Shelke elaborated coldly.
"Oh." Cloud was distracted when the elevator came to a shuddering stop in front of what looked like an enormous vault door. They all watched as it slid back and opened, releasing a sudden assault of mako smell that made the SOLDIERs gag and nearly sent the Turks to their knees. Shelke was the only one unphased and after a few moments, she stepped forward into Deepground. Once the others recovered, they forced themselves to follow.
Cloud felt hazy almost immediately, as unlike at Mideel, this mako was undiluted. As a result, when he saw the sight before him, he was almost certain that he was hallucinating.
"Is that....a city?" He stepped forward to the railing and grasped it, staring at what appeared to be buildings surrounding the mako reactor in the middle. "Zack! Are you seeing this, or am I imagining things?"
Zack came to stand beside him and leaned forward, squinting. "No. Those are definitely buildings." He agreed. "A whole underground city from the looks of things."
"An undergound city. The Midgar below Midgar." Cloud shook his head slowly. "I thought the slums were bad, but this is definitely worse."
"Our own Hell." Shelke stepped over, holding a mask out to Cloud. "Put this on. It should lessen the effects." She too looked over the city, and then sighed. "Normally the mako surrounding the reactor would be covered. It was uncovered before as per Weiss' orders to make the sacrifices for Omega easier. Hopefully the mask will still work for you."
"Hopefully." Cloud agreed. He reached out to take the mask and put it on. Taking in a few breaths, he shuddered as his ears seemed to pop and suddenly he wasn't looking at the world through such a green-filled haze. "Oh, good."
"If your friends are alive, they will likely be on the far side of this." Shelke turned away. "We will have to hurry."
"Lead on, Shelke." Cloud glanced at Zack, and then at the others. Kunsel looked a little shocked and disturbed at his surroundings, while Angeal seemed to be nervously checking the sword Zack had won for him at the Saucer, junctioning and unjunctioning one of the materia. Reno and Rude had the same masks Cloud did. Rude seemed calm, but then it was hard to read anything on him as long as he wore his sunglasses. Reno on the other hand appeared to have gone pasty pale, his eyes wide in imminent panic as he looked around.
Cloud walked over to them, planting himself in front of Reno. "Nervous, Reno?" He asked almost caustically. "Know something we don't?"
Reno focused on him, and Cloud heard him gulp. "I've never been down here, yo. How would I know anything?"
"If you don't know anything, then why do you look so scared?"
The Turk's eyes abruptly hardened, and he leaned forward slightly. "'Cause Nero the Sable and Weiss the Immaculate are down here somewhere, and I ain't keen on getting killed, yo. This business ain't things Turks are meant to be messing with."
"Then you shouldn't have come." Cloud turned away. "Alright! Let's move out!" No more wasting time. His friends lives depended on him finding them quickly.
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It had been easy going at first with Reeve and Yuffie trailing along behind Vincent as he tried to find a way out and other than the occasional Gargoyle swooping down on them, there hadn't been any monsters or other enemies. He had begun hoping that escaping would be easy.
He should have known better.
The first problem that developed was obvious--they were succumbing to the mako. With the experiments that had been done on Vincent, he was fine--in fact, the mako smell seemed to be alleviating the pain of his increasing arthritis--but Reeve and Yuffie were becoming progressively slower and more sluggish as they went along. Soon Vincent was checking behind himself every few moments to make sure they hadn't gone tumbling over the railing or simply collapsed. Yuffie was leaning heavily on Reeve, who was relying heavily on the railing to stay upright and continue following Vincent when the second, more dangerous problem showed itself.
They had just managed to scale some stairs when darkness abruptly oozed out of the grating ahead of them and coalesced into one of the last people Vincent had wanted to run into.
"Nero." Vincent growled, bracing himself in case Reeve or Yuffie ran into him. His hand dropped to Cerberus, but he didn't draw the weapon.
Nero tilted his head and gave a slow blink, regarding Vincent with apparent bemusement. "Vincent Valentine." He spoke at last, lips barely moving. "What a pleasant surprise. My brother and I thought you would have died by now, but it seems that your decay has been slower than we had anticipated."
"It's called old age." Vincent did draw Cerberus now, aiming it at the Tsviet. "Let us pass."
"Let you--ah yes, I see." Nero's gaze shifted to Yuffie and Reeve briefly before returning to Vincent. "They are of little concern to me. But you on the other hand...." He snapped his wings open, the darkness that made up the spaces where the membrane should have been, writhing. Before Vincent had time to do more than instinctively protect his face, the darkness enveloped him.
Unlike earlier when the darkness had just been used as a method of transport, this time it was not silent. Distant voices began to encroach, talking, screaming, crying. All around Vincent, overlapping into a discordant cacophony. He hunched up, clapped his hands over his ears to try and drown it out, but it continued, hammering in his skull. He squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth against the terror. This was a nightmare!
He felt cold things skitter over him like spiders made of ice. Over his limbs, face and torso where they seemed to gather over his heart. All at once, the discomfort became real pain stabbing into his chest and drawing a scream of agony out of him. Jerking upright from the pain, his eyes flashed open. For a moment he thought he saw something in the inky blackness staring back with eyes made of molten gold, and then he found himself spat out onto a hard stone surface. He scrambled to get to his feet, hand to his chest.
"Oh. Well, this was not what I expected." Vincent focused on Nero when the younger man materialized in front of him. The Tsviet tilted his head at Vincent, as if curious. "It would seem that I will simply have to do this another way. Very well." He lunged forward, hands reaching for Vincent, dark-nailed fingers curled like claws.
Vincent threw himself backward, wincing when his aged body protested. He had no idea what Nero intended, and he didn't plan on finding out if he could help it. Taking in his surroundings with a quick glance, he realized that this was the last place he'd fought Nero, a twisted dimension of molten lava and floating rocks. He brought Cerberus around and fired off rapidly, but every shot was met with darkness, absorbing his bullets. How could he possibly fight him like this?
He continued to jump backward, but Nero seemed to be enjoying the chase, apparently allowing Vincent to stay just ahead of him and tire himself. He knew the older man couldn't keep evading him for much longer.
I have no choice. Vincent threw open the padlock in his mind and invited the killer out to play. He came to a stop, the energy of transformation overtaking his body. When it had faded once more, Hell Masker stood in Vincent's place. Like with Chaos and Galian, it too had a changed appearance from when Vincent had first learned of its presence. Hell Masker wore a black trenchcoat, buckled up all the way to the neck. His mask was bone white, completely smooth and featureless save for the eye holes from which scarlet eyes stared. Cerberus had been replaced with a chainsaw, but across his back was strapped a rifle. Hell Masker didn't take notice of that however, instead focusing his eyes on Nero, who had stopped to watch the transformation take place and was now staring at him in puzzlement.
"Another form?" Nero said at last, musingly. "Hm." He gave a wide smile, unnerving not only because of his suddenly revealed sharp teeth, but because he apparently didn't know how to make the expression regardless. "Good. I was concerned this wouldn't be a challenge."
Hell Masker responded to this sentiment by grasping the chainsaw in both hands and revving the motor.
Nero's smile disappeared, though his eyes still showed amusement and he extended his hands. Darkness swirled around them, and when it faded once more he held a handgun in each hand. Without giving Hell Masker further time to prepare, he began firing.
Hell Masker gave a sibilant hiss and rushed forward, swinging with the chainsaw. Much to Vincent's inward dismay however, while the bullets were piercing into his flesh readily enough, the chainsaw was being deflected by darkness every time it should have made contact. Finally Hell Masker flung his chainsaw in absolute frustration, only to watch it be swallowed by the darkness.
"Hm. And what did you hope to accomplish?" Nero paused to reload, dropping his spent cartridges to have them promptly replaced by new ones through the darkness.
Hell Masker hissed again. He didn't seem to be afflicted by the same aging problem as Vincent, but he was still injured and once he fell, this was over. There had to be some way to defeat Nero!
While Nero appeared to be gloating over his apparent victory, Vincent tried to think of a solution. Before he could begin to seriously give it any thought however, he heard an unexpected noise and Hell Masker looked up in time to see his chainsaw falling toward his head.
He launched himself backwards, only to give a scream of pain as the rotating blade sliced over his body before hitting the ground and spinning in a stuttering circle before the chain broke and flew off the walkway into the lava. Hell Masker looked down at the damage to find that the chainsaw had sliced down across his body from one shoulder to the opposite hip. The wound didn't seem to be overly deep, but it was large and far more painful to the monster than the bullet wounds were.
Taking stock, Hell Masker went to lunge toward Nero anyway, enraged at being hurt by his own weapon. His foot slipped on something behind himself however and he went down hard onto his hands and knees. Hell Masker quickly scrambled back up again while Nero watched in idle amusement, evidently in no rush to finish his opponent off. Hell Masker looked behind himself and then turned to pick up the rifle that had been strapped to his back and then cut free by the chainsaw.
Death Penalty? It wasn't in the handgun form Vincent had last used as Chaos, but was instead in its original state as a rifle with only a tassel decoration on the end of the barrel to in any way indicate it was special. Hell Masker stared at it in confusion for several moments before turning back to Nero and firing at him.
The darkness appeared once again in order to absorb the bullets and for a moment Vincent felt despair. Then he saw Nero's eyes widen in surprise and watched him stagger back. The darkness dissipated to reveal a blooming hole in his chest where the bullet had hit him.
Hell Masker wasted no time. Now knowing that Death Penalty's bullets would work even through the darkness, he fired off shot after shot, each shot knocking Nero off balance and not giving him the chance to retaliate. He advanced on the other man, firing as quickly as the shotgun would let him until Nero finally collapsed to his knees.
"Hgn..." Nero looked up to see Hell Masker coming over. "You may....vanquish me....but you will....not escape...."
Hell Masker pointed the barrel at Nero's head. ".....You were born of Grimoire's experiments, weren't you?" His voice came out hollow from behind the mask, though at a higher pitch than Vincent's own voice.
"......That is....correct." Nero flashed his sharp teeth at Hell Masker. "I was the only....survivor of the....stagnant mako....experimentations."
"Then I am sorry." And with those words, Hell Masker pulled the trigger. A flower of blood bloomed on one side of Nero's head and again on the other side as he slowly fell.
The energy of transformation overtook Hell Masker's body and Vincent then took his place, promptly falling to his knees with a grunt of pain. He brought a hand up to press uselessly to the wounds riddling his torso. Hell Masker could endure most of the pain, but he could not and after only a few moments, he collapsed facedown.
At least I stopped one of them... He thought before darkness overtook his vision.
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"VINCENT!!!"
Cloud and the others all froze in place as the anguished and panicked scream ripped through the mako-filled air.
"That was Yuffie...." Cloud started forward. "Yuffie! YUFFIE WHERE ARE--guh!" He found himself yanked back by his hair and a hand covering his mouth.
"Yelling down here is inadvisable." Shelke hissed by his ear before releasing him. "I believe I know from which her voice originated." She stepped past Cloud to lead the way, but even at a trot--about as fast as it was safe to travel along the walkways--it took almost five minutes for them to reach their objective.
They found Yuffie and Reeve sitting on the walkway, Yuffie had her face buried in Reeve's chest, sobbing against him. Reeve was awkwardly trying to comfort her and didn't seem to notice any of them until Cloud stepped over and crouched. When he looked up, his half-vacant expression told Cloud things were not going well.
"Oh. Clod." Reeve slurred. "Ish good yae've come. We need tae get oot ov 'ere."
Oh wonderful, the mako vapors were making Reeve talk like a drunk Cait Sith. "What happened?" Cloud asked, "To Vincent, I mean." Best to keep it simple.
"Vincento wa," Yuffie started rambling in Wutaiese. "atashi-tachi to atta. Kare wa atashi-tachi o shutoku suru tsumoridattaga, sonogo Nero wa arawareta to kare o totta!"
Even better. Cloud put a hand to his face. "And what's that in Gaian?"
"She said Nero took him." Reno spoke up. He looked around warily. "We should hurry and get out of here, yo."
"Then you and Rude can get them out of here, and the rest of us will continue on to find the others."
"Uh uh." Reno made an 'x' with his arms. "No can do, spike. I'm supposed to stick with you, yo."
Cloud stood up to face them. "Then Rude can do it."
Rude looked at his partner, looked at Cloud and then mutely shook his head.
Cloud put a hand to his face again. "Fine. Any volunteers, then?"
After a few moments of silence, Angeal stepped forward. "I'll take them."
Cloud arched a brow at him. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Angeal stepped forward to hoist Reeve up and tucked an arm around Yuffie's waist to out right carry her. She squeaked, but didn't seem to have the presence of mind to fight back. "I'm strong enough to help both of them. I'll get them out of here."
"Alright." Cloud stepped back to let him past and the others also moved out of the tall SOLDIERs way. Cloud caught a worried look on Zack's face, but then turned away. "Let's continue on, everyone."
"He answered too readily." Sephiroth seemed as troubled as Zack looked. "I'm not sure I like this."
"Do you think he'd hurt my friends?" Cloud asked him before remembering Sephiroth wouldn't care.
"......I'm concerned he may hurt himself, Strife." In that moment he sounded completely sane, worried for a friend. Cloud glanced back at Angeal, who had made remarkable progress up the walkway. If he kept that rate up, he might make it out in half the time it took all of them to make it this far--provided he could remember the way out, of course.
".....Somehow I don't think he will." Cloud couldn't believe he was trying to offer comfort to the man who'd burned his hometown and tried to destroy the planet. "He's taking them out, so he'll feel responsible for their safety. If he did anything to hurt himself while watching over them, it would go against his honor, right?"
Sephiroth laughed softly, but it was a relieved sound and then abruptly he became silent again. Cloud shook his head slightly at the odd exchange and then focused entirely on the task ahead. He didn't know what he'd do once he found his friends and the occupants of the hospital and Khymera Enviro, but that was a problem he'd tackle once he knew they were safe.
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"Viincent." A soft, teasing female voice was calling to him. "Viiiiincent. Wake up, sleepy head!"
Vincent opened his eyes and stared up at the pink blooms of a cherry blossom tree, he then turned his gaze to the left and blinked at the woman sitting there beside him.
"There you go." Lucrecia said with a cheerful smile. "I thought you were going to sleep the whole day away!"
Vincent moved to sit up and looked down at himself. While Lucretia was wearing a cheerful yellow and blue flowered yukata, he found that he was wearing a plain brown kimono. He looked back to her again with a confused expression. "What's going on...?"
"Hm?" Lucrecia tilted her head slightly. "You decided to take a nap after our picnic, that's all. What's wrong?" She reached out for him, but he drew back.
"No. This isn't right." What was going on? The last thing he remembered, Nero....he'd been battling Nero. "Where are we?"
"Wutai, of course." Lucrecia looked perplexed. "We moved here after we got married. Don't you remember?"
Vincent shook his head. "No...no....I...." He paused when he heard a baby's cry come from the basket beside Lucrecia and watched as she turned her attention to it, reaching in and pulling out a brown haired, red eyed infant. "....What?"
"Vincent!" Lucrecia turned to him, upset. "Surely you remember our son at least!" The baby started crying louder and Lucrecia rocked him in her arms.
"Our...son....?" No. This couldn't be right. This wasn't right! Yet, everything around him seemed so solid, so real. The smell of the blossoms, the feel of a slight, warm breeze on his face. He looked at the infant and frowned. No...this couldn't be real, but as the seconds passed, he was finding he very much wanted it to be.
"I'm sorry." He apologized. "My nap must have addled me."
"Yes, I know." She sighed. "It's not your fault. After you took that bullet....well, never mind all that." She held the now calm infant out to him. "Sephiroth, say 'ohaiyo' to your daddy."
And just like that, the illusion broke. Vincent all but leapt to his feet and backed away from Lucrecia and the baby as if they were venomous. "What is this?!" He demanded to know. "This isn't real! None of this is real! Who are you? What is this?!" Where was Cerberus? He looked around quickly for it.
"Vincent!" Lucrecia held the baby close to herself. "Calm down. You're going to upset him!"
"What is this?!" Vincent all but yelled. "You're dead, you died....this isn't real! You're not real! None of this is real!"
Lucrecia stared at him in pained dismay, but then his surroundings and her quickly began to fade away until there was only darkness. Now, instead of Lucrecia kneeling there on soft green grass, Vincent was faced with a demon glaring at him out of the black.
"Chaos." He acknowledged the protoweapon with a grim realization. He might have killed Nero, but Chaos could not die and now it had come for him.
Chaos hissed, the sound very much like a steaming kettle. "We give nice dreams, and you still will not die. You are stubborn."
Vincent blinked once. The protoweapon had never before shown any capacity for speech, opting instead to simply be the source of his worst nightmares. That it would give him pleasant dreams now however was almost more unnerving than its sudden capacity for speech. He stood there mutely, just staring at it.
Chaos hissed again. "You freed us from infection, we express grateful." It flexed its wings and tilted its head. "You decay."
"......It's called old age." This had to be another dream, Chaos simply did not talk. It was a being of destruction, pure and simple. "What do you want, Chaos?"
"We express curious." Chaos began to stalk around Vincent, forcing him to turn to keep Chaos in his view. "Infection left thoughts, left self. Infection present, but sleep now. We awake. Trapped in, but now free. You decay."
The more it talked, the less sense it seemed to make. ".....Lucrecia put you in me so I would stop dying." Vincent spoke softly after a few seconds to try and decode what the protoweapon was saying. "So....without you, I'll probably die." Acknowledging that, he could almost feel his organs beginning to rot and he put his arms around his midsection in a futile gesture.
"All die, join Stream of Life. You fear?" Chaos smiled ferally. "We smell fear."
"....It is man's nature to fear death." Vincent replied, continuing to turn as Chaos paced around him. "But.....listen to me." His hands spasmed on his arms and he winced, but then continued. "Weiss wants to awaken Omega again, right? It's too soon. The Planet isn't ready. We're not ready."
"All die." Chaos repeated, though it stopped its pacing and stared at Vincent. It remained staring at him in silence for several unnerving moments before it curled its lips back and snarled. "You chained us."
"Not by choice." Pain was building in his body, he had to try to reason with it quickly. "Help me. Help me stop Weiss, then I'll free you....somehow. I'll let you return to your sleep."
Chaos laughed coldly. "You bargain? You reason? We are weapon, we are tool."
"Help me!" Vincent forced all the authority he could into his voice, channeling his worry and fear into anger. "Damn you! It wasn't our choice to be thrown together, but I need your help. Omega can't rise. It isn't time!"
Chaos looked at him in silence, watching Vincent wincing in pain as his body betrayed him. Finally, the protoweapon gave a put-upon sigh.
"We agree. Too soon." Its form dissolved into the black surrounding them, but a few seconds later it swarmed in on Vincent, smothering him and driving him to his knees as a new level of pain ripped though him.
Vincent gave a strangled scream and collapsed onto his side, writhing helplessly as agony rolled up and down his body, overwhelming him and stealing breath and thought until all he knew was the pain. Finally, the pain faded away again and he lay there in a darkness that was no longer threatening. The pain was gone and in its place was a familiar strength. He slowly moved to stand up and looked at his once more steady hands. He touched his face with his right and while he couldn't be certain, it felt like the wrinkles that had been etching their way deeper into his skin had smoothed out. Had Chaos somehow reversed the aging, and if so, why? To make him a more useful host perhaps?
Well, he couldn't spend the time thinking about it. Without the protomateria, Chaos could conceivably take control of him at any time. He'd have to move quickly before that happened, there was something important he needed to do before confronting Weiss.
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By the time Angeal had hauled Yuffie and Reeve along with his heavy sword out of Deepground, he was about ready to take a break. Exiting the Shinra building, he saw what appeared to be a crumpled mass of tattered black clothing and he set Yuffie and Reeve down on the steps so he could go investigate. As he got closer, the mass shifted and he saw that what had looked like bits of clothing were actually feathers. The figure raised their head then and all doubt was eliminated.
".....Genesis?"
Genesis offered a weak smile and pushed himself more upright. "My friend," He rasped. "the fates are cruel. There are no dreams, no honor remains. The arrow....has left the bow of the goddess...."
Angeal knelt by his side and put a hand on his shoulder, looking at his childhood friend in concern. He was obviously degrading, his hair turning white, his clothing becoming faded and both his clothes and skin gaining a marbled appearance. It was painful seeing this happen to him a second time, but Angeal knew there was probably nothing he could do for him.
"What are you doing here?" He asked instead.
Genesis gave another weak smile. "I came to find Weiss. He betrayed me...." He dropped his head, giving it a weary shake. "I should have listened. It was all a lie. He....his brother took my body for his own. This is a copy."
"A copy?" Angeal's eyes widened slightly. "You put yourself into one of your copies?"
"It was the only thing I could do. The darkness..." Genesis gave a shiver, but then he lifted his head again. "I felt fine until a few minutes ago, but now....I feel myself ebbing away....Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul. Pride is lost, wings stripped away. The end is nigh..."
"......Genesis......" Angeal's eyes flicked over him. There had to be something he could do for him! "Don't you give up on me, Genesis! Don't you dare!"
Genesis gave a soft chuckle. "I'm sorry Angeal. About before, I mean....I just didn't want to be alone. I didn't know you would want to die because of it...."
".....It's forgiven." Angeal looked at his surroundings now, seeking inspiration, something to tell him how to help Genesis. "Save your strength."
"Tell Sephiroth I'm sorry too...would you?" Genesis shifted to lean his head against Angeal's shoulder and closed his eyes. "Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess." His voice was fainter now. "We seek it thus, and take to the sky. Ripples form on the water's surface, the wandering soul....knows no rest....." He fell still.
"......Genesis?" Angeal looked down at him and gave him a slight shake. "Genesis?" He felt about to panic when Genesis made a sound and shifted to become more comfortable against the other man. He was simply asleep.
Angeal slowly shifted to sit on the ground, holding his longtime friend close to him and listening for every breath. If there was a way that he could save Genesis, he would find it. This was their second chance, their chance to do the right thing in spite of being monsters. This time Angeal had no intention of giving up so easily.