Title: Shady Impulses
Chapter: 2: The Execution
Previous Chapter(s):
1: The PlanGenres: Humor/Romance
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Sephiroth/Cloud Strife, slight Golbez/Cecil Harvey, Squall Leonhart, Tina Branford & Chaos
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers for Dissidia. Cross-dressing. Warrior of Light still managing to be a sadist when he's not physically present in this chapter.
Disclaimer: Dissidia ~Final Fantasy~ belongs to Square-Enix.
A/N: I don't know why, but some Golbez/Cecil just crept into this chapter. ^^" It can be taken however you want it to be though. Also, Chaos' main hall in this is like a cross between the Old Chaos Shrine and the Edge of Madness battle maps. I confused the two together when I was writing, but it fit the scenario so I didn't change it.
Summary: Deciding that fighting through Chaos' forces made the going too slow, Cosmos' heroes contemplate a different tactic that would lead them to Chaos. Men fell prey to beauty, who was to say that gods wouldn't too? Of course, there's just a slight problem there...
It was yet another boring day in Chaos' domain for Sephiroth. Cosmos' band of merry do-gooders had - surprisingly - yet to make a move for quite a while now, and it was getting seriously stifling. Things were quieter, literally, now that Kefka had disappeared at the hands of that little female mage whom the clown had said was under his control.
For that, Sephiroth was exceptionally glad. He really hated the grating laughter that the clown loved to emit at random intervals for no apparent reason. To think he was called insane and psychotic back on Gaia. Those people clearly hadn't met the really insane.
He was unconcerned with the rest of Chaos' warriors and had no intentions of being dragged into whatever ploys they had. The Emperor and Ultimecia had tried to tempt him once and had even resorted to threatening him (as if they could've succeeded), but he was uninterested in ruling this world. He worked for his own desires and goals, and as long as the others did not get in his way, he would let them live. After all, in this world, the war was an endless cycle and he was seeking to break out of it.
One of his desires, that may or may not have anything to do with his ultimate aim to become a god, however, was one Cloud Strife who had been transported to this world too.
He was very tempted to seek out his little puppet even though he had made a point to himself that Cloud should be the one coming to him instead of the other way around now. The puppet followed the strings, not the puppeteer. Still, Cloud had always been more stubborn than most. It was an endearing trait, if annoying at times, seeing how the blond always struggled against him even if it was clearly futile.
Hmm... Cloud's struggles were also so... delicious...
Well, if he wasn't going to seek out his lovely puppet, then he would have to find something else to entertain himself with. Seeing as most of the other fighters liked to keep to themselves and he couldn't stand most of them, he would have to fall back onto sparring with the Imitations. Or rather, beating up poor, hapless Imitations that stood no chance against him.
It certainly didn't give him the thrill that fighting against Cloud did (nothing could compare to his pretty blond puppet, not even those that took his form), but it was better than nothing.
The strongest Imitations always appeared near Chaos' main hall... if it could be called a main hall in the first place, seeing as there were no real walls surrounding Chaos' throne, just many pillars. So it was the barren landscape that surrounded the hall where he headed to.
It came as no surprise to him that Chaos was lounging on his throne (it was what the God of Discord did almost all the time), but something else was different in the hall, Sephiroth noted as he teleported to the side of the entrance. There was a lavish dinner table laid out in the usually empty hall. As he turned to regard the horizon, he spotted - of all things - a chocobo carriage making its way towards the hall. Now, this could prove interesting.
Keeping himself as unobtrusive as possible, Sephiroth waited as the carriage drew near. It stopped in front of the steps leading up to the hall. The carriage driver stepped down first and opened one of the doors, holding a hand up to assist whoever was inside. He watched in surprise as three young ladies dressed in finery came out of the carriage.
Was Chaos having some sort of a dinner date with those three ladies?
As the ladies approached the towering steps, some unknown force kept drawing his eyes to the lady dressed in a lilac ball gown. The blonde lady... There was something inherently familiar about that person, though he couldn’t pinpoint it just yet. As the trio and their faithful, well, butler he supposed, ascended the stairs and drew closer to where Sephiroth hid, he caught sight of the blonde's azure eyes.
They glowed.
There was no way that Sephiroth could ever mistake the mako-induced glow of a SOLDIER's eyes, having had them himself since he could remember. Then at that moment, his JENOVA cells practically sung in delight in recognition of his precious puppet.
Cloud.
The realization then begged the question of just why was the blond man cross-dressing? Upon closer inspection, Sephiroth also realized that he recognized the other two ladies. Well, the other lady and another of Cosmos' heroes cross-dressing, to be precise. He recognized them to be Tina Branford, the girl Kefka was always going on about "controlling her" but who had eventually defeated him instead, and Squall Leonhart, the young commander that Ultimecia loved to play with. Also, the butler was starting to look familiar... Cecil Harvey, Golbez’s younger brother, wasn’t it?
Apparently, considering the real identities of Chaos' visitors, this was some sort of... assassination attempt.
Sephiroth's lips curled into an amused smirk. Well, the Goddess of Harmony sure knew how to pick her heroes. He had to give them credit for creativity and ingenuity, while he absently wondered who suggested this idea in the first place. Certainly, Chaos would probably not see this coming until much later. If not for the combination of Cloud’s striking blue eyes and the JENOVA cells in him, Sephiroth was quite sure that he would not have noticed anything amiss at the first glance.
Well, that said, Cloud did look particularly arresting in that strapless lilac ball gown and with long blond hair that had to have been achieved with the help of a wig.
Hmm... Strapless...
"Cloud, you've come to me after all," Sephiroth murmured to himself, satisfaction clear in his voice.
Well, not specifically to him, he supposed, but those were just a matter of semantics and Sephiroth was not going to harp on them. Not when his puppet was so, so close.
He slowly drifted through the black shadows with practiced ease, following the entourage at a safe distance, not wanting Cloud to sense his presence too early into the game. His interest was now piqued and fighting Imitations held no more appeal. How could they possibly compete, when he had Cloud before him and all dressed up like that?
He had to fight the temptation to send a mental call out to Cloud. No, he would have to wait and watch what they would be up to before deciding if he should make an appearance. It was still far too early in the game for the cloaks to be removed.
The carriage ride to Chaos' domain was surprisingly free of troubles (well, other than the fact that the others had to drag Bartz away from the chocobos after he saw them), though Cloud wished the time before that was just as event-free. They hadn't been able to avoid Warrior of Light's camera and with everyone else against his and Squall's protests... Well, they had to subject themselves to having more than just memories of this horrible mission.
But that was over, and Cloud was determined to put it out of his mind. Back to their journey, they weren't waylaid by any of Chaos' main forces nor stray Imitations. There were pros and cons to that, Cloud decided. The good part was that he hadn't run into Sephiroth (Yet, Zack-voice commented too cheerfully and very unhelpfully. Cloud told Zack-voice to shut up and not jinx him), which was a very, very big relief in the grand scheme of things.
Cloud did not think that he would be able to live it down if Sephiroth saw him in this ensemble. If Sephiroth ever gave him any amount of respect as a warrior, it would definitely be gone if they met right now.
The rest of Chaos' forces may not recognize him, but Sephiroth would, assuredly, recognize the glow of mako in his eyes. Most importantly, there were the JENOVA cells in him. No amount of elaborate disguise and make up could get rid of the fact that he indeed had JENOVA cells in him and so Sephiroth would know that it was him at once. Cloud just prayed that his enemy wouldn't appear any time soon. Or at all.
The bad part to the lack of trouble on their journey, however, was that they arrived at Chaos' domain way too fast for Cloud to settle his nerves. It wasn't that he was really afraid of meeting Chaos. After all, he'd faced down countless enemies to just treat this as yet another battle but with someone more dangerous. It was probably the fact that he was wearing what he was wearing to meet the God of Discord that made things feel that much less... safe.
When he exited the carriage with Cecil's help (though it was for appearances sake than any actual need for it), he took the opportunity to scan the surroundings. It was completely barren, like most of the landscape they'd seen since they entered the inner regions of Chaos' territory. The large plateau before him was Chaos' main castle he supposed. There seemed to be no one else around, which if was actually true, would be very good. The less interference they had, the better for them.
As the four of them ascended the long stairway, Cloud started to get a strange feeling, like he was being watched. He discreetly glanced around, but couldn't pick out anyone else. It was possible that his nerves were playing tricks on him, but he didn't think so. He had learnt to trust his instincts long ago, so he wouldn't dismiss this. However, there was no need to get into a panic. He would wait until he could determine what exactly the problem was before acting on it.
As they reached the top of the stairs, they were greeted by the sight of a lavishly decorated long dining table. There were three seats and Chaos was sitting high up on his throne, having his own table placed before him. Cloud was ridiculously reminded of fairytale stories about castles, princes and resplendent balls.
However, the only "happily ever after" here would be Chaos' defeat. No princes and princesses (or not-princesses) would be "getting married" if Cloud had his way. And he was determined to get it. He didn't think he'd face any problems on the part of his comrades too.
A short while later, Tina, Squall and Cloud were all comfortably seated at the dinning table. Cecil, as their supposed butler was standing off to the side, being as unobtrusive as possible like what a good servant was supposed to be. Squall would've given almost anything to take up Cecil's role instead. Anything to get out of this dress that became increasingly uncomfortable as time passed.
Not to mention that he really hated the look in Chaos' eyes when the God of Discord had given each of them a thorough once over.
At that point in time, Squall had been hard pressed to not glare defiantly back at the god. But he managed to keep himself in check and fell into the role of an aloof, disaffected... ice princess. Or so the file Light had given to him had said.
The background that Light had given him was acceptable, he supposed. He didn't have to act aloof and uninterested since he generally was that way. But no amount of aloofness would be able to explain why he (well, she in Chaos' mind) was glaring death at the god when it was the first time they'd met. It would set off alarm bells in Chaos’ head, and it wasn't in the plan to let the god find out about their real identities until later.
Like after they had sufficiently lowered Chaos' guard through a combination of their acting skills and, hopefully, a good amount of potent alcohol.
The dinner itself began shortly after, with Chaos addressing each of them individually over the course of the meal. Squall had no problems keeping his answers curt and disinterested (though he had to make himself not add a frosty edge to his tone), but it was annoying having to pitch his voice like a girl's. He was rather glad that Chaos soon turned his attention to Tina and Cloud. He'd always preferred staying in the background if he could help it.
"The lilac color of your gown sets of your blue eyes beautifully, Miss Clara. You have beautiful tastes."
"Thank you," Cloud replied softly to hide the masculine quality of his voice while coming across as appropriately demure.
"Miss Terra, your hair is extraordinarily vivacious. It is most fitting for a young lady like yourself."
Tina smiled brightly, and both Cloud and Squall had the feeling it was mostly genuine pleasure she was feeling at the compliment despite who it was coming from. Being the lone girl in their group, wherein everyone spent more time fighting than anything else, probably took a toll on her.
The trio alternated between eating enough to be polite and pretending to drink the champagne that Chaos freely offered, as well as getting the god to drink more of the same alcohol. However, after what felt like mere moments later, Cloud decided that he must have done something really wrong recently - although he had no idea what grievous mistake he had made - for Lady Luck to be forsaking him so often.
Like right now.
It turned out that Chaos, once appropriately tipsy enough from the champagne that the god served and drank in copious amounts, turned into a much more leery version of Don Corneo, in addition to the fact that he became a little more loose-lipped. The difference was that, unlike the cowardly Don, Chaos would be less easily intimidated when Cosmos’ warriors chose to reveal themselves.
But perhaps the worse thing was that, for some inexplicable reason, Chaos was taking an interest - a particularly strong interest - in him. Not Tina, not Squall, but him.
Gaia, why?
The only thing he had in mind to explain Chaos' interest in him lay in something the God of Discord had let slip a short while ago. Something about having a wife in the past although apparently those memories weren't really clear, which now led Cloud to conclude that... Perhaps this ex-wife of Chaos was blonde. With this realization, he began ruing the fact that Tina had chosen to change her hair color to green for this mission.
At least Chaos hadn't done what Don Corneo had. Though that was likely to be because the Don's purpose of selecting girls was for bedding them. Chaos, at least, seemed to be less inclined on that immediately. Regardless, Cloud didn't like how Chaos' eyes seemed to drift towards him a lot more often and how he had started asking Cloud a lot more questions.
"Clara dear, what do you like t'do in your spare time?"
And getting a lot more informal with addressing him, well her. Cloud really, really hated being himself right now.
Unbeknownst to Chaos and Comos' heroes and heroine, they were being watched carefully by Sephiroth. The silver-haired General had started his observations of the "dinner date" with an air of amused curiosity, but that had started to change - and deteriorate rapidly - once he started noticing that Chaos was taking an increasingly growing interest in Cloud.
His Cloud.
That did not sit well with Sephiroth. No, not at all.
Sephiroth's green eyes narrowed as he watched the scene unfold before him. While his puppet was doing an admirable job of pretending to be disaffected (or rather, acting like a completely naive little girl that couldn't catch innuendoes even if they stripped down and danced naked in front of her) by the increased attention the god of discord was showering him, Sephiroth could tell that Cloud was uncomfortable. Cloud's unease probably stemmed from the fact that Sephiroth could remember that this was not the first time Cloud had cross-dressed.
During that first incident with Don Corneo, the Don had picked Cloud out of a trio with the intention to... bed...
He let out a low but feral growl, and had to force himself to let go of the side of the pillar he was standing in the shadow of before it completely crumbled to bits. That very same pillar now sported damage in the form of cracks from where Sephiroth's fingers had clenched around that portion of it with enough force to crack and crumble some of the old stone. He would not let that incident with Don Corneo repeat itself in any way, shape or form.
Cloud was his. If Chaos dared to lay a hand on Cloud with even the tiniest amount of amorous intention, God of Discord or not, Sephiroth was going to kill him.
One should never underestimate Sephiroth in normal circumstances, but when he was in a rage, it would be tantamount to suicide to do that. Or when he became, literally and figuratively, a possessive, green-eyed monster.
As Sephiroth became engrossed in his careful eyeing of the interactions between Chaos and Cloud, he never noticed the appearance of another warrior of Chaos. Until the armored man was almost right behind him, that is. Let it not be said that Sephiroth let his guard down. Well, not too much, that is.
"Golbez," Sephiroth acknowledged without looking away from the proceedings before him. "Why are you here?"
He wasn't the only one who knew that Golbez had very questionable loyalties to Chaos. Well, probably all of Chaos' summoned warriors had a certain degree of questionable loyalties to the god, but since they opposed Cosmos' chosen ones, they were naturally allotted to be on Chaos' side. But for some, it wasn't that clear-cut.
It wasn't too hard to see that Golbez had a yearning to return to the light, and that his younger brother was eager to welcome him back and walk a common path of good with him. In fact, Sephiroth wouldn't be at all surprised if Golbez had a hand in organizing this little fiasco that was happening right now. Especially since Cecil was present in the party too.
"Why are you here then, Sephiroth?" Golbez asked instead.
"My puppet is over there. It is natural for me to watch him."
Golbez cast his gaze to the trio at the dining table briefly, knowing that Sephiroth referred to Cloud Strife. He already knew what was happening at the table and Chaos was taking an interest in Cloud out of the three. For some reason, the way Sephiroth was acting and sounding right now was just like a jealous... lover...
Behind his helmet, Golbez blinked. Twice.
Well, that was certainly news to him, and he dared to bet that it was the same for the rest of Cosmos' heroes. When Warrior of Light had approached him with the plan, he'd agreed to deliver the message to Chaos and to try and keep as many of Chaos' other warriors out of the way as possible. For most of them, it had been relatively easy. He didn't expect that he would have to deal with anyone acting like a jealous, possessive lover of all things.
He had approached Sephiroth with the intention to lead him away from the main throne room without incident, but seeing things as it stood now, that would be nigh impossible. Well, things rarely ever did go entirely according to plan. Hopefully, this would just be a minor complication.
Even so, Golbez decided that it would be better if someone else knew of the wildcard that was Sephiroth hovering around. The only person he could inform was Cecil (this was probably one of the few times that he was glad his younger brother was so trusting of him), who was standing inconspicuously to the side, playing the role of a discreet butler to perfection. Chaos wouldn't take note of Cecil as long as his brother remained unnoticeable.
With a last look at Sephiroth's tense posture and hoping that Chaos wouldn't do anything to Cloud and set off Sephiroth, Golbez teleported to where Cecil was. He made sure to not startle his brother by not appearing right behind the other man. Cecil's back tensed when Golbez first appeared, but relaxed after his younger brother realized who it was.
"Act like I’m not here, Cecil," he said quietly as he approached his brother from the shadows. "I have something to tell you regarding your plans on killing Chaos."
"What is it, brother?" Cecil murmured, but the knight made no other indication that he was no longer alone.
"Sephiroth is watching in the wings nearby. For some reason, he is acting like a... possessive lover over Cloud."
Golbez saw Cecil jerk in surprise a little, and then his younger brother's eyes turned to the side to regard him. Surprise was clear from the profile view he had of his sibling's face.
"What?"
"That is merely my observation. However, I fear that he may jeopardize your plans, especially if Chaos continues to pay so much attention to Cloud."
"Brother, did you have a hand in... arranging this dinner?" It was too unlikely for his elder brother to know this much about their plans without having been involved.
"Warrior of Light approached me," Golbez admitted. "I sent the message about this "visit" to Chaos, and tried to keep anyone else away. Sephiroth, however, I will have no choice but to let him stay. He won't be going anywhere without a fight, and that is not what's needed right now."
"Why would Sephiroth be so concerned over Cloud? Aren't they bitter enemies?"
His younger brother was always a little naive, even though it could be quite endearing. Golbez wondered if it would be a good idea to enlighten Cecil that intense hatred could turn into an obsession (which seemed to be the case for Sephiroth) and a desire to possess the object or person of hatred in almost any manner. No, not now, Golbez decided. There wasn’t time for this. It would likely require a lengthy explanation on his part, and there was no room for too much distraction for Cecil right now.
So instead, he merely replied, "I do not know. The mind can work in strange ways."
Cecil seemed to accept his words for now, and merely nodded briefly in acknowledgement.
"Be alert, Cecil, and be ready to improvise if Sephiroth does make an appearance."
"I will, brother. Thank you for warning us."
Just as he was about to teleport back to where Sephiroth was to keep an eye on the other man, Cecil suddenly spoke to him. "Brother, if I were in Cloud's shoes... Would you be acting like Sephiroth?"
The image of Cecil in a dress and pretending to be one of Chaos' potential dates flashed through Golbez's mind, and Golbez found that he actually had more of an imagination - and quite a wild one at that - than he thought he had. If Chaos dared to... If the god dared... He was going to tear-
"Brother, you're going to destroy this pillar and cause an alarm if you don't get a hold of yourself."
Cecil's calmly spoken words interrupted the red haze forming in his mind and Golbez blinked rapidly to clear his head. He had just had the sudden realization that if Warrior of Light had come to him with his original proposition but with Cecil more directly involved than being just a butler, he might not have been so quick to agree to be their messenger.
He glanced at his younger brother and saw that Cecil had turned his head slightly to look at him. There was also a rather uncharacteristic spark of mischief in his brother’s eyes and a rather playful smile on his brother's lips.
"Cecil..."
"I'm glad I mean so much to you, brother."
Golbez did not know if he was merely imagining things, but there seemed to be a subtle undertone of something in Cecil's tone of voice. At a lost for words, he slowly let himself fade away to the other side of the hall where Sephiroth was, all the while watching his younger brother.
Well... Perhaps Cecil wasn't as innocent as he'd thought.
Cloud fought back the urge to snatch his hand away from Chaos' grip. It wasn't that the god was hurting him, but he was already wary of what the other was going to do and reflex and instinct were combining to make him want to get out of Chaos' hands immediately. His only consolation was that his comrades were all alert and ready to jump in should the need arise... and their presence would likely ensure that Chaos didn't do anything inappropriate.
He hoped.
Chaos was a god after all, and his ego was likely to be enormous. Furthermore, in the god's eyes, none of them looked like they were able to fight or even put up much of a resistance and thus Chaos might take some liberties. Well, Cloud really, really hoped not.
Instead, he forced himself to act like he was bewildered by what was happening, as was fitting of the naïve and innocent image given in his made-up background. "Ch-Chaos...?"
"D'not worry, little dear (and Cloud had to really force himself not to gag). Come with me, there's a place that I would like to show you."
Gee... That mysterious "place" wouldn't happen to be your bedroom, would it? Cloud thought a little sarcastically, but outwardly, he kept up the innocent, wide-eyed expression on his face. Although, he had a feeling the reason why his eyes were wide now could probably also stem from the impending horror that was slowly but surely creeping up on him.
The amount of déjà vu in this mission was just not healthy. Not even for mako-enhanced individuals like himself.
"But... what about the others...?" he asked softly then, turning to look at his comrades with the intent to gauge their reactions though Chaos wouldn't suspect that.
He saw Squall's fingers twitch, as if he was getting ready to summon his gunblade. The brunet had managed to not give Chaos his Glare of Death throughout the dinner, but Cloud decided that with the way Chaos was focused on him now, Squall's current glare would fly completely over the god's head. Tina looked tenser and he could see a faint aura of power gathering around her hands. Cecil had moved closer to their table, his eyes trained on Chaos guardedly.
"Oh do not worry about them, m'dear. I will call for them in due time. Now, come with me, my sweet." Then, Chaos' grip tightened around Cloud's arm, while another of the god's arms went around his waist, threatening to dip way too low for Cloud's peace of mind.
The next few moments then became, almost literally, an explosion of action.
Bare moments after Chaos' arm had gone around him, his JENOVA cells suddenly screamed to life and he knew without a shadow of doubt that Sephiroth had appeared. Before he could even feel the dread of meeting the ex-General in his current attire, he saw several flashes of familiar silver light that resulted in several stone pillars seemingly exploding and then come crashing down to hit Chaos.
Perhaps it was because of the amount of alcohol that he'd imbibed, Chaos was slow to react. He was unable to dodge the falling pillars, although the god did let go of Cloud. Cloud immediately jumped backwards to escape the deadly rain of debris. At the same time, his eyes quickly searched out where Sephiroth could be. There was a flash of bright silver coming from somewhere behind Chaos and Cloud immediately turned his eyes in that direction.
The Masamune in Sephiroth's hands was cutting a furious and devastating path, destroying the surrounding structures and sending debris and shockwaves hurtling towards Chaos, who was still dazed from being hit by the pillars' rubble. Sephiroth was leaving the god next to no time to react, given the god's half-drunk state, attacking from the front, the back and then the top and even smashing the god down into the hard floor.
Cloud only had enough time to register his shock at Sephiroth attacking Chaos, before Sephiroth's lone black wing materialized in a blaze of purple aura, looking for all the world like an avenging angel. Then the next thing Cloud knew, a powerful arm was pulling him back against a firm chest and only the unexpectedness of the entire situation kept him from instinctively attacking once he confirmed that it was Sephiroth.
"Sephiroth! What are you doing?!" he exclaimed as he was transported backwards by his enemy. Although... Was Sephiroth still the enemy, considering current circumstances?
"Chaos should know better than to touch what does not belong to him."
"What?"
Sephiroth ignored his bewildered puppet's exclamation. While he was now calmer with Cloud next to him and away from Chaos, he still did not let Chaos out of his sight. He was going to crush the lecherous god who dared to touch his Cloud. Extending his wing, he rapidly took both himself and Cloud backwards. Then he set Cloud down on the most undamaged portion of the hall.
Turning Cloud around to face him, he looked at those glowing blue eyes and commanded, "Stay here."
He did not wait for a reply before taking to the skies, knowing that with his puppet's track record, the blond would most likely not do as told. So he was going to finish this before Cloud could get himself involved. He wasn't letting Cloud anywhere near Chaos.
Up in the air, he spotted the rest of Cosmos' warriors, mostly appearing stunned at what they were seeing. The only one who wasn't was Cecil, but Sephiroth wasn’t surprised. He had guessed correctly that Golbez had been involved and had told his brother about his presence. Regardless, Sephiroth wasn't going to let any of them interfere. Chaos was his to deal with, and he would not be denied his rightful prey.
"Even the gods will meet their match, Chaos," he declared, and then he let the magical energy he'd been gathering surround the god.
The Heartless Angel attack scored a direct hit, and shortly after, he descended rapidly, Masamune ready to impale Chaos through the back. Unfortunately, Chaos managed to dodge being stabbed by his blade, but was unable to make it out of the range of the fissure that erupted from the ground. Immediately, Sephiroth moved into his next attack, and this time, all eight strokes connected.
Standing to the side of where the fight was taking place, the other warriors of Cosmos watched with varying degrees of surprise. For Squall and Tina, they were stunned by the fact that Sephiroth, one of Chaos' summoned warriors, was fighting the god. For Cecil, he was more shocked by the vehemence and viciousness behind each sharp stroke of Sephiroth's long blade than his appearance.
Regardless of their reasons for surprise, none of them could decide whether it would be a good idea to join in the fray. Sephiroth seemed like he was handling Chaos very well; the god had hardly landed more than two blows on the silver-haired man, and Sephiroth had shrugged them off almost like he hadn't even felt them. But other than that, there was a distinct sense that Sephiroth was not going to tolerate anyone else interfering.
None of them missed the fact that Sephiroth had come out of seemingly nowhere the instant Chaos had made a move on Cloud, and the next thing the silver-haired warrior had done was to pull Cloud right out of the destruction zone.
"...Should we... help?" Tina asked uncertainly, not missing how ironic it was for them to be aiding one of Chaos’ forces even if the said person was now turning against Chaos.
"I'm... not sure..." Cecil replied.
"I'm getting the feeling that Sephiroth doesn't want anyone to interfere," Squall added. "We should regroup with Cloud."
Just as Squall finished speaking, there suddenly came the sound of an explosion. All three pairs of eyes darted towards the direction of the sound and immediately widened. An orange-red fireball was rapidly expanding outwards in all directions, and it looked like it would hit them too. Immediately, all three of them dashed backwards until they were out of range.
When the fireball exploded yet again, they had to shield their eyes from the blinding white light and searing heat released. They could hear sounds of stone crumbling and over that, the sound of a groan of defeat that sounded like it came from Chaos.
Finally, they deemed it was safe to lower their hands and survey their surroundings. Everything that had been in or too near to the center of the explosion had been charred black or turned into ash and soot. Chaos was nowhere to be seen, but a couple of pyreflies could be seen floating away. Hovering in the air above all the destruction was Sephiroth, with his long black wing outstretched. There was a very satisfied smirk on his face.
"You may be a god, Chaos. But you will not touch what is mine." With that proclamation, Sephiroth descended from the air and swooped down in the direction of where Cloud was.
Cloud stared at Sephiroth in disbelief. Did Sephiroth really kill Chaos? And because of him?! He couldn't seem to process what he was seeing, couldn't really accept it. Because this was Sephiroth, the Sephiroth who had gone insane and wanted to destroy Gaia using Meteor, but it now seemed that the very same Sephiroth had killed the God of Discord to... To save Cloud?
No, he wasn't thinking of Sephiroth like a knight in shining armor coming to save the damsel in distress. (Sephiroth knew well enough that Cloud was a far cry from a damsel in distress - cross-dressed or not.) But it did make him wonder if he was catching a glimpse of the General that had existed... before the madness took him over. The thought that the sane Sephiroth might still exist somewhere in the current man's psyche was enough to make Cloud pause... and become all sorts of confused and hopeful.
Take a chance, Spike, Zack-voice said, after having been silent for a good long while.
Then suddenly, Sephiroth himself was in front of him. Masamune was nowhere to be seen, although the black wing was still materialized. Without so much as a word to Cloud, Sephiroth abruptly pulled the blond to him in a tight, possessive embrace. Upon realizing that his cheek was pressed against the other man's chest, Cloud flushed. Instantly.
"What are you- Hey, Sephiroth! Where..."
Cloud's voice faded as Sephiroth teleported the two of them away from the destroyed throne room, leaving behind three stunned warriors of Cosmos and one warrior of Chaos. Golbez had not anticipated such a huge reaction from Sephiroth. Chaos was dead, but by the hands of his own warrior... Nothing like that had ever happened in the previous cycles, and Golbez was unsure of how things would end this time.
Chaos was not meant to be killed by one of his own forces.
"We need to chase after Sephiroth! He took Cloud!" Tina exclaimed worriedly as she wrung her hands.
"No. After killing Chaos to keep Cloud safe, Sephiroth will be unlikely to harm him," Golbez reasoned as he materialized near the trio.
"Brother!" Cecil greeted him with a smile, which faded a little as he continued speaking, "That may be true... but I'm still worried about Cloud."
"...I will check in on them for you," Golbez offered, albeit a little hesitantly. "All of you should return. Warrior of Light did say that you must return immediately upon Chaos' defeat."
Squall's eyes narrowed. Cecil's brother and a double agent or not, he didn't really like being told what to do from Golbez. "You can't force us to leave."
Golbez raised an eyebrow behind his helmet. Warrior of Light was right in telling him that Squall was a stubborn one, and one to look out for. "You will go back, Leonhart. Or you may find that Ultimecia will soon have a present to give to her Knight... What was his name again? Seifer?"
"...?!"
"You didn't think that Warrior of Light took those pictures just for the sake of having memories, did you? They also make good blackmail material, wouldn't you agree?"
Squall glowered at the masked man before him while mentally cursing Light to the deepest, darkest depths of hell as creatively as he could. He should've known that those pictures were going to haunt him. Only because it was Mr. Radiant-and-Closet-Sadist had they come back to bite him so very soon.
Fine, he was a little concerned about Cloud, but the older man knew how to handle himself in a battle. Cloud would probably be all right.
"So, does anyone else have any other protests to make?" Golbez asked expectantly.
He received silent shakes of heads along with one positively smoldering glare. All right, at least nobody was protesting now. Another of his reasons for making the other three not go after Sephiroth and Cloud was because he didn't think that Sephiroth would take the appearance of more interruptions kindly. Golbez was going to spare Cosmos' warriors from accidentally facing the Sephiroth that had pretty much single-handedly taken down Chaos.
Even if the said god had been drunk.
Golbez watched as the trio started on their journey back before teleporting away to observe what was happening with Sephiroth and Cloud. He had promised Cecil. Merely observing (unlike what Cecil and his comrades would do if they'd gone in search for Cloud) had a smaller likelihood of accidentally pushing Sephiroth's buttons and inciting the man's wrath.
Then, when Golbez finally found the duo in question, he was very, very glad that he had kept the rest of them away.
Cliffhanger? Hmm... xD
Somehow this chapter doesn't feel as amusing to me as the previous one (even though I just realized I made a pun with the chapter title ^.^). Oh well. I fail at coming up with cheesy pick up lines/compliments that fit my mental image of Chaos. It was quite difficult to describe the fight (esp. his Heartless Angel attack) and Sephiroth's Ex Burst, without making it over the top like in the actual game. ^^" I hope it came through properly. Also, I know that after Ex Bursting, Sephiroth shouldn't still be in Ex Mode. Let's just ignore this, 'kay? xD
The next chapter will most likely be the epilogue, and I think there will be an extra coming up. Though I will be posting that as a separate one-shot. It'll be a missing scene sort of thing. You'll understand when the epilogue comes up. ~.^
Hope you enjoyed it so far and feel free to comment!
x-posted to:
myprettypuppetffchaoticcosmos