"So who will you fight for? The strong or the weak? The dream or the failure? Well? Speak up! I want to hear what your dream is so I can smash it!"
"For an evil version of me, you're pretty dumb, you actually think I would tell you things like that." Seifer now had his famous smirk on, and to top it off he did manage to put a big X on the evil Seifer's forehead. If the cuts were any deeper, Seifer could have taken off his skull, but he was merely toying with his double, trying to obtain what information he could about the one who sent this thing after him.
The pseudo-Seifer spoke with a venomous statement.
"I really don't need you to tell me, I just wondered if you'd admit you failed at life."
Bringing the Hyperion up and charging at Seifer, the evil being swung in a wide arc. Ducking down, rolling backwards and kicking him squarely in the chest, Seifer threw his evil alter-ego right into a wet wall with a loud splat. He didn't notice till later, that the force of the being hitting the wall had crushed his skull instantly.
With his customary smirk Seifer jibed, "And I never used my gunblade to kill you."
Cloud wasn't faring so well, though. The headache was straining his sanity, and with every pound into his psyche, he was becoming less and less stable.
"You thought you could escape Jenova, Cloud? It's part of you, now and forever, maybe it will even take over your body and be born again!"
"....No.......get.....out..........of......m...my.......HEAD!" with one quick slice he cut at the shadowy figure that held his mind in a crushing force.
A loud clash signaled that the being had deflected his blow with his own sword.
"So...you're stronger than that eh? Want to fight me the old fashioned way?"
"...B-biggest mistake....you'll ever make...." he said as he prepared to attack again.
He swung upward and the sword clashed again. Pressing his attack, Cloud forced the monster that was torturing him into the light.
"Me….? I'm fighting…me?"
"Who did you expect, Sephiroth? He's a weakling compared to me!!"
"You invade my mind, CLASH, you insult my integrity, CLANG," for the first time in his life, his anger had reached its peak. "You're worse than Sephiroth ever was!!!"
"I'll take that as a compliment!!!" the dark Cloud grinned maniacally.
"yeeeeaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!"
Cloud's stance was similar to his Omnislash, but there was much more rage there, and a red aura began to glow about him.
"Cherry Blossom…STRIKE!!!"
A red energy erupted in malestroms of rage. The force biting and tearing even into Cloud himself. But the anger kept him anchored. The force of the small 'Cherry Blossoms' or so they looked, were like small blades, cutting away at the dark Cloud at lighting fast speeds, until there was nothing left of the monster.
When nothing remained, Cloud slumped to one knee, eyes rolled up cunvulsively.
"Why fight me? It's inevitable, we are one and the same! Come and join me!"
"Why? So I can shed the blood of innocents, murder thousands in exchange for godhood? What would that lead to? Loneliness and no friends once again? Do you think I EVER wanted to be alone? I HATE BEING ALONE!"
For the first time in history, two Masamunes flashed across the battlefield that was a Zone Eater's stomach: one tainted with the blood of innocent lives, countless and ever-stained, the other a fierce shining steel, never tainted, a hero's blade.
It was a strange battle for Sephiroth, facing himself. He found his other to be every match to him, but wavering between stable and insane.
The lengthy katanas of incredible steel ground white hot against eachother.
"You'll....never...win..."
"I don't need...to win...you've already...lost!"
Slashes and what could be described as a 'deadly wind' blew across the dark slimy cavern.
"Eayah!" Sephiroth brought his blade in a sweeping arc, barely gouging a fresh cut across his dark nemesis' chest.
"The last...to cut me...was Cloud himself!" the being grinned in utter madness.
"Cloud will be the least of your worries, I guarantee you!" Sephiroth brought his wild blade around in a second angled spin that would have taken off the chattering creature's head had he not parried the blow.
"You forget I'm everything you are...and everything you're NOT!"
"That's right...ungh," Sephiroth matched the dark being blow-for-blow, mid-conversation with his words punctuating every strike, "I'm not a KILLER, I'm not a POWERMONGER, I'm not a LUNATIC, and most of all, I!! HAVE!! FRIENDS!!"
A wet thrust signaled the end of the fight.
".....Why....?"
"...Because I don't want to be alone anymore...."
".....maybe...friends....aren't.....bad....."
"They're...all I've got left." he said with a tone of sadness.
As Sephiroth swung his blade over his shoulder, he couldn't help but think that possibly he was more than what his enemy had said he could have been.
"I'm no god, but I know I'm destined to be a Zodiac Brave....that's all I can ask for. I have friends...but just as I need them...they need me. I'll find them."
With that thought, he ran hurriedly through the watery passages of the monster.
"Is this who you really are.....just an Ancient with no past? No future? What are you doing here?"
Aeris looked at herself in confusion and almost hatred, she at first ignored the hurtful words coming out of her doppelganger's mouth, but they only seemed to creep deeper into her heart. Deadening her resolve.
"Is this the real me? Am I who I think I am?" tears seemed to have dried up on her face like old scars. Her confusion was digging a deep abyss within her soul with which her nemesis hoped to bury her in.
"This is how you'll die you know, trying to save a world that never really belonged to your kind in the first place--"
A large purple blade thrust out of the evil Aeris's chest, and she fell, now silent on the wet ground.
Behind her stood Cloud, his sword falling from his hands.
Aeris stood up, eyes wide in surprise, "What you did...."
His eyes were blank and distant, as if living an old nightmare that repeated itself, "I never meant to do, not to anyone, not to you, not to anything....but I had to."
"...to protect me...."
He fell to his knees, silent beyond reckoning. Then for a long moment he spoke, still detached from his emotions, "I never thought I'd kill Aeris with my own hands....I never thought I'd fight myself, my dark half...."
"You did................right." she whispered.
"You're dead....Jenova's dead, Sephiroth's dead.....and......I'm still here...."
"Your wrong! I'm still here Cloud Strife! I'm here!" she quickly grabbed him and looked him in the distant mako-filled eyes, he blinked once, but it barely registered.
She shook him, but he was still trapped in his reverie.
"You.....died....because of me...oh, Aeris.....I would have given you my life in exchange for all you did for me."
That did it.
She slapped him back in to reality.
"Cloud! That wasn't me you just killed! You're a Zodiac Brave now! So am I! I am HERE with you NOW! The past you remember still has a chance of not happening yet! We can change the past! By changing the past, we can change the future! We can still be together! You......and me....." tears began flowing from her eyes again, but then her eyes met with Cloud's again.
"You're right......I was lost.....and you saved me again. I'm back, Aeris, and I'll never leave you, even if I have to go to your era, I'll never leave you! Jenova is dead....but you don't have to be..."
The familiar figure of Sephiroth stood behind the two. He had taken the Ultima Sword out of the dead demonic Aeris and was looking at the black blood that coated it. He looked up at Cloud.
"Let's make a promise, Cloud, you and I....." his eyes were dead serious.
Cloud stood, not quite recovered from his old nightmare, but still acknowledging the good Sephiroth.
Sephiroth lightly tossed his Masamune into the ground, before Aeris and Cloud.
"Promise me....that when this war is over.....we never shed blood again....."
Cloud took his sword from Sephiroth's hands and.....seeing the meaning in the promise said, he drove the sword into the wet tissue. Next to the Masamune.
"I promise."
A moment of silence filled the cavern as two legendary warriors stood side by side, thinking about what their lives had been.
".......we should find the others....." Cloud murmured.
".....we leave...." Sephiroth grabbed his sword and began to exit the area, when Cloud stopped him.
"....did you.....fight yourself....?"
"........I ......fought a shard of myself.....broken and twisted......I'm whole again now....and I know my purpose.......old friend."
Cloud could've swore a small smile creased across Sephiroth's face when he said those words.
