Diverging Paths Chapter 4
Trouble Arise
By Link Kokori
Only a second, Magus reassured himself.Only a second.
The footsteps turned towards the staircase...
And Magus leapt.
Doing a full frontal flip, Magus landed sure-footed on the top of the staircase.He snatched his scythe in both hands, and took a hard throw.As the sharp end of the scythe flipped forward to meet it's victim, Magus allowed a small smile on his face.This threat would end soon.
That was before he noticed the scythe coming back at him...it's sharp end aimed at his shoulder.
"AAGGGGHH!!" he bellowed as the sharp point of the scythe dug into his right shoulder, spraying blood.It began to flow out slowly, trinkling. "What the hell could be doing this?" he asked to no one particularly.But the voice answered, it's voice just seemingly feet away.
"Me do this to you.Me conquer you.Me kill you.Like Reptites."
***
The End Of Time was a particularly dangerous place.
"Epoch's out of commission...the place has been ruined...we're stuck here." Marle muttered, looking over the situation.
"Wait..." Lucca interrupted, pointing off into a point of the former street-like meeting place.A single shimmer of light appeared...and it began a form into a short pillar of light.Just feet away, another one began to form.
"Gates..." Lucca whispered. "We may not be so out of luck."
***
"Cid!" Shera hollered.Within seconds, Cid's footsteps were echoing through the airship.Bursting into the navigation room, Cid ran to her.
"What is it?" he said, not cursing at all.
"Look at the weather radar," she pointed out.Cid stepped over to the screen...and was suprised by what he saw.
A strong storm system was forming straight over Crater.
***
"I'm not really an expert at this..."Cloud whispered.Tifa just looked into his eyes and whispered back, "We've all got to learn sometime, Cloud," she said before cupping his face in her hands.Cloud's hands, uneasy, moved up and down her back, not knowing where to stop and lie.
"Are you ready for this, Cloud?" she asked.He just sort of whimpered as a reply.She took that as a yes.
She slowly moved her face towards his, her eyes slowly closing...this was going to be incredible.She was going to pour all of her love into this single kiss, to show him how she felt.
"COMIN' $^@$ THROUGH!!!" Cid yelled as he popped open the door.Tifa pulled away suddenly, and Cid looked at the two of them for a second.Cloud's eyes were still closed, his lips awaiting the kiss.Cid let them be, and rushed to the control panel.
"Buckle up," he uttered as he pulled the switch for takeoff.
The sudden force of the takeoff pushed Cloud down into the back of the cockpit, and his eyes popped open.
"What the hell?..." he muttered, noticing that Majestic had suddenly flown up into the air.As the ship tore through the sky towards Crater, Cloud managed to climb to a standing position.
Majestic pulled up to Crater, a soot-black cloud cover hovering over it with...green and red lightning flashing?No thunder rumbled...
"Something's seriously wrong here," Nanaki spoke up.The group had assembled in the cockpit, Crono and Frog included.
More lightning pushed and pulled, tore and ate away at the ground it struck.Fires burst out.
"We're pulling a bit too close," Cid said. "I'll try to pull away..."
As suddenly as a few seconds after the words escaped, a black lighning bolt surged down the middle of the Crater.Traveling like a well-prepared explorer, it swiftly dodged the obstacles in it's path.As it neared the center of the planet, it saw it's destination...
Safer Sephiroth.
"Shit!" Cid yelled, just as an explosion tore out of the Crater.Fires launched high in the air, lightning flashed second after second, pure chaos reigned.The fire pulled up and up, a pillar of destruction.
Back in Midgar, Reeve walked to a window in the ShinRa tower, rebuilt finally, without Mako running it.As he looked out at the horizon, he noticed that a tower of red was forming far off...
In Cosmo Canyon, Bugenhagen studied the stars...he noticed that something was messing with the lighting, and turned to a window to see what it was.He saw the flame tower.
"Something tells me that this isn't good in any way," Vincent muttered, just as a burning boulder ripped a hole through the outside deck of the airship.
Reeve spotted something...shiny, yet indescribable.Reminded him of Meteor...a boulder? he thought...just as it tore through the window, igniting the top floor into destruction.
"Shit!!!Shit shit SHIT!!!" Cid exclaimed, as he saw boulders fall all over the place.
Suddenly, everything was calm.The storm clouds cleared up in a matter of seconds...before a rather large hand burst through the rubble that had covered the top of crater.Muscles on the hand clenched and pulled away, revealing more of the arm...before it began to glow a bright neon green.The storm clouds returned, and the lightning bolts converged on the arm, breaking it free.As the arm pulled the rest of the body out, shiny silver hair glistened under the light of the destruction.
"No..." Cloud said, disbelieved. "No."
Safer Sephiroth was free.
***
"Me tell you that you no power next to I," the voice boomed.Magus, clutching his still- bleeding shoulder, closed his eyes tightly...damn him.Damn him to hell.
Toron stepped up into the throne room, a bearded face ravaged by the Reptite battles and black magic.
"Me rule world," Toron said. "You lay in world."
"Not yet," Magus said.
A Gate opened just behind him...and he was sucked in.
***
"Is it possible to get over there?" Marle cried over to Lucca.
"Possibly," Lucca yelled back.A tiny console was in the palm of her hand...she was busy pushing the buttons."There's something interrupting the Gates...it's rather large...could be Lavos," Lucca explained.
God dammit, Marle thought.
***
Safer Sephiroth spread his arms wide.The storm seemed to fluxuate, to change with every move he made.Lightning struck the form, and it tipped it's head back.It's chest suddenly started to glow a strange color, and lightning began to strike that spot.The form let out a mighty cry, before a small figure started to appear in front of it...
"No...it can't be..." Cloud said, his eyes locked to the event unfolding in front of his eyes.He began to take deep breaths...his eyes were wide as dinner plates.
The same silver hair...the green eyes...the build...the Masamune.
Sephiroth was reborn.
.