melodiesoflife | Event || Doppelgangers

Event || Doppelgangers

Characters: All characters who signed-up for the event.
Where: Dreams.
When: Overnight from April 16th to April 17th.
Summary: The Heroes of Light have a shared dream— They find themselves in the body of a Hero of Light from two thousand years ago, both witnessing events and reenacting things that happened back then. But these Heroes of Light aren't just anybody; they are people from their homeworlds... And sometimes themselves. Please refer to the second OOC Post for details and plotting.
Warning: Battles, death, tragedies, bad things overall.

Common Dream || Mingle

Group A || The Dissensions
Group B || The Hacking
Group C || The Betrayal
Group D || The Enemy Within
Group E || The Plan
Group F || The Other Way
Group G || The End

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[There's no time to react, not a moment to turn her focus as the Esper comes at her without warning. Tifa had been so narrow in her observations that the attack strikes true, claws sinking deep into her skin and tearing a sizable chunk from her torso that leaves the young woman lying upon the ground in writhing agony.

Her voice is sharp, shrill, piercing as she cries out in pain. The amount of fluid which leaves her open wound disguises the color of the earth beneath her, changing the floor to a dark crimson shade that reflects a mirror image of her shuddering form.

Eyes do their best to keep on the figure which wounded her, scanning back and forth while their poor attempt at focusing becomes all the more arduous due to the shock coming from her injury. While her nerves were reeling, her pride had taken a large hit as well. She hadn't expected herself to be down so soon, at least lasting until the inevitable conclusion of the crystallization taking her. To fall in this manner would be inexcusable, but she at least would have the solace of having spoken with her childhood friend before falling in battle.]

Edited 2015-05-09 18:05 (UTC)

[ Ishtar was scanning, still on the crystal with Cloud. She had to hurry and let Cloud know, and she had to hurry and run to her allies’ side. ]

The bastard’s attacking our teammates! I don’t know what happened but he turned on us Cloud!

[ Maybe that’s not the best term my dear

No, he killed someone already! I can’t believe this!

Ishtar didn’t have time to argue with the voice penetrating her mind, she’s going to do what she can right now. With that being said, there was no time and Ishtar left the area to join back with her teammates in the battle. She didn’t want to let them take everything while she dill dallied the other way. With her sword drawn, she moved to flank herself between her allies, and preparing to strike when there was any attack. Sephiroth’s eyes connected with her fiercely and she returned the stare with a glare of her own, fire burning in those bright green eyes. She didn’t want to believe, but this was what it was turning into, so be it. She didn’t want anyone else to die right now. ]

I’m not interested in being reborn for something like this! We came to destroy it completely, not be reborn in the process! I’m not interested in you playing some kind of god right now Sephiroth!

[ She hissed, biting back tears that were welling in her eyes due to her own frustration. Croach was there, so was Tifa and Terra. Why was the girl so unmoving! What was going on with her and before Ishtar even had a word to shout at Terra, for she came at Tifa. Ishtar moved on her own, when Tifa was hit with the attack from Terra. She rushed to Tifa, ]

Tifa! Terra what are you doing?! Tifa's not the enemy Damn it!

[ She rushed to support her other teammate. She’s not a fighter, but maybe if she could heal them just a little. They might survive. What the hell was even going on. Everything was disjointed. Terra just turned on Tifa and Sephiroth, god. ]

Vlad cursed. A lot. Sephiroth was bad enough, but Terra helping -- willingly or not -- meant they were all going to die. While he'd grown up with a belief in reincarnation, he wasn't eager to try that. He'd have to hope that getting Sephiroth down would stop Terra.

'Loiosh, ready to provide a distraction?' he subvocalized. Hopefully, Sephiroth would discount his familiar as a pet, since Vlad normally didn't use him in combat. He could only hope that a moment's distraction would be enough to get a knife in his back.

Ready as I'll ever be, the jhereg replied. But you owe me some nice dinners after this.

'Sure. We'll all get a nice meal and a drink.' He doubted either of them would survive, but... maybe someone would.

Sephiroth's soliloquy echoes off the walls of the crystal passage with no indication of how far away the man actually is. It's a fruit held agonizingly out of reach and ironically it's probably not something Sephiroth had planned. Then again, it seemed as if Fate always wanted the moments surrounding him to be as painful as possible.

Cloud's heartbeat sang in his ears as he ran, his lungs burning from the effort but he didn't have time to slow down or rest. There was no clue how long the others had. What he was going to do to them. He could hear the calls for help but they were just so much background noise.

And then he heard the scream.

A new burst of energy, and that voice in his head screaming for him to go faster. The passage ahead was blocked but the crystal covering it looked thin. He had to hope! He lowered his shoulder and slammed right into it.

Shards of crystal rained down to the floor as Cloud burst into the room from an upper ledge. His momentum carried him beyond it and down to the ground, a long fall that knocked him silly as he was jostled in his heavy armor. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he looked around.

Sephiroth was floating and looking right at him. Terra was bristling with an anger and energy that he'd never seen before, and yet felt familiar. The shock from those who were remaining was palpable and Tifa...

No...

Time snapped back to normal flow and in all likelyhood only a scant number of seconds had kept him on the ground. He swept back to his feet and pulled one of the two swords from his back. He had been carrying a lot of weight there but with purpose. One of them was a battered sword that belonged to a friend, one he had used for the longest time and now kept as a reminder of what was important.

The other was a weapon, plain and simple. A symbol of rebirth and strength and unity. He'd beaten Sephiroth with this sword before and he'd do it again. He stood straight and put himself between Sephiroth and Tifa, watching Terra carefully. He pointed the First Tsurugi at the man in the black cape and glared at him with all the hatred he could muster.

There were no more words. There was no reason he could bother asking Sephiroth to give for what he'd done. This moment was inevitable and for once Cloud had been the only one not running from it. He'd been the only one ready for it.

[To stretch out his will within another's once more, yet still remain firmly within his own body was a sensation not savored for a very long time. Sephiroth exhaled slowly as Terra's work towards Tifa was done and his smirk folded further upwards on either side of his mouth as the young girls' cries betrayed well the extent of her injury even before the thick crimson began to pool on the floor beneath her.

Though, Terra's will is reigned hard backwards and her attention turned towards one of the others. Any one of the others, all of the others. He couldn't afford for Tifa to expire so early on, Cloud hadn't even caught up yet-]

You fail to see the obvious. [He spoke to Ishtar since she were the one who had made the attempt to continue the conversation.] None of you really have any choice in the matter-

[The sharp smashing noise, as Cloud broke through some upper part of the cave, resounded louder than any normal shatter of glass might. Even the thick black smoke starting to plume from Sephiroth's planted crystal wavered some in the disturbance, and then again when Cloud hit the floor.

Impressive. By the time he'd turned from watching Loioish, the familiar there but apparently without it's master, to face Tifa again there was a familiar sight all but thrust in his face. For a second, without even raising Masamune to deflect it, Sephiroth dropped gleaming green eyes down the edge of the blade that last time had claimed his life.

Not this time. They couldn't stop him, not now. Not again. The sharp 'ching' of metal followed as Cloud's sword is heavily batted aside and Sephiroth looks to take only one step back and is in the next second immediately beside Tifa. He twists his sword around as if defining an area surrounding Tifa, then pulls it up between two hands-

-at least Cloud may well take some comfort in how quickly, and without a single word that Sephiroth juts the point of Masamune down and up. All that's needed to put the struggling girl beneath him out of her misery. Of course, Sephiroth's eyes are locked with Cloud's, and his smirk is beaming as he pulls the sword free.]

[Terra feels the command drumming within her very soul. Her inhuman gaze shifts to the others leaving Cloud and Tifa to Sephiroth's furry. She doesn't care either way. Her claw twitches dripping with crimson liquid as her eyes settle on Ishtar and Croach.

Please don't do this. I can feel it too and it isn't you.

The voice cries desperately at Terra but it's lost within the darkness that has covered her sight. A low growl rippled from her chest as her arms rose in front of her lethal form. Energy surrounds pulls at the air tangibly shifting around her as she gathers more into the sphere's the float around her.]

Die.

[She releases her spell throwing ultima at the pair and anyone else who might be caught in it's area of attack. The orbs fly faster than most can react and a good chunk of the floor vaporizes with the spell.]

So you'll kill all the innocents of this world?

[Croach was doing his best to reign in his anger at Sephiroth and wasn't able to keep Terra from attacking Tifa. This man was willing to kill everyone to supposedly save the planet, but there had to be other ways to do so.

Terra's next attack had him jumping to one side, hitting the crystal walls of the cave as he let another arrow fly. He couldn't get out of the way of the attack and he hit the wall hard. Her spell had more magic in it than he believed possible. He didn't know how long he could do this, but if he could keep Terra distracted, maybe someone would be able to heal Tifa. Wincing, he let another arrow fly at Terra. Come on, focus on him.]

Edited 2015-05-16 03:02 (UTC)

[ Everyone was throwing themselves into battle, and she was preparing for that too, since there was hardly anything she could do right now to stop the fighting and Sephiroth. She bit back more tears as Cloud comes flying in.

At least, there was more help as she was relieved to see the blond. Everything was moving faster than she could keep up. Heal, heal, heal! She was trying her best to get that out of her mind so she could heal the other while trying to fight as well. ]

We're not going to let you do as you please!

[ Ishtar was sent flying a good couple of feet from the impact, in attempts to protect herself and Tifa since the other person was injured and she rushed over to heal them. Ishtar was covered in a good amount of wounds, though, she was still stable enough to keep her footing.

There were a good amount of injuries that made it hard for her to move, though, Croach was trying his best to keep the attention to Terra, judging from his move, so she had some time to attempt to save her teammate before saving herself. Everything hurt though. She was covered in injuries when she braced herself for the attack. ]

[It's all done in such a blur, all of it passing like a flash of light as the spell from the monstrous female passes by her while the kiss of Sephiroth's blade finds its way back into her torso. The second time it strikes her is far more painful than the first, despite how injured she already is from Terra's attack.

Eyes settle onto Cloud as he makes himself known, her vision going white as her eyes become a singular color of brown with a lack of irises in their center. She has a glazed look on her now, her mouth hanging open and saliva and blood pass through the small spaces between a few of her teeth. She looks more like a sacrifice than a victim, ritually killed as if her death might bring some shred of hope or power to those taking her life.

Her arm stretches out feebly, like a newborn trying to make contact with her Mother. Fingers flex with little energy, her limb falling to the dirt as it mixes with the red fluid that begins to pour out of her chest.]

C-.. C-..

[Her eyes remain open when the last of the light goes out inside of her heart, the ignition snuffed out by the loss of blood as her lifeless body, now limp, lies mercy to the whims of the silver-haired man whom she had thought an ally. Her eyes keep on Cloud while he remains alive, still, unmoving, and watching him as she isn't even able to utter his name one final time.]

Cloud's swords always carried weight. Emotional weight. Memorial weight. Historical weight Physical weight. And yet Sephiroth was able to knock the First Tsurugi aside with an unbelievable ease. The sword was pulled from Cloud's hands and wedged into the ground nearby with a loud thunk. If it was a one on one fight it would have been a mere distraction, but it was more than enough to allow the subsequent chain of events to go down.

Ultima went off. Cloud pulled the Buster sword from his back to brace himself. At one knee he couldn't do anything but watch as the Masamune was thrust into Tifa. Two women he'd seen killed by that blade. Two friends. Two promises. More than should have ever bloodied that sword.

His vision went red as he rose. He rushed to his fallen sword, grasping it in one hand and the other great sword in the other. By rights he shouldn't have been able to wield both at once but he was fueled by anger and rage. No others on the battlefield registered to him any longer. The threats to the other Heroes or to himself were inconsequential compared to the vengeance that had to be doled out to the Man in the Black Cape.

Cloud had failed. Utterly. He'd failed to keep any promise he'd made to Tifa in this realm and in this instance. Her blank gaze stood accusing of every word he'd ever said to her. Now he could only hope to bring about an end to the man...no, monster who had made it so. Vaulting off a stalagmite and screaming with the pure force of utter loss, Cloud brought both swords to bear on the man that was once his hero and now his immortal enemy.

Even if he'd had the mind to answer Croach and Ishtar's comments, there was not the time.

The pulse of Ultima, the raw and powerful spell cast from Terra in the direction of the rest of the team served well to set the scene in the seconds before he plunged his sword and ended Tifa's life. The after seconds of its cast made the cavern they were in hum with its passing, and Sephiroth imagined he could even feel the energy vibrating across the surface of all the many crystalline shapes that they were surrounded with. All that power, all that energy would finally be his. Who ever would have thought that his destiny would come to a head finally, on a foreign World from the one he had been initially born from.

His Utopia. Once he was assimilated with the Calamity and Crystallis was in his grasp entirely. Then the work could finally start. It wouldn't matter, how long it had taken and all those that had to die for him to attain it. Terra too, though useful in her off-the-scale magic power, could not be allowed to live. He urged her silently, to continue to finish them off.

Sephiroth smiled broadly as Cloud pulled himself to his feet and he chuckled deeply, glutted on the victory that he could all put grasp his hand around. His smoking crystal flared with a new pulse of inky black smoke and it pulled Sephiroth's attention for a split second as it started to lick at the first threads of his spirit- but that was all Cloud needed to launch his attack.

Like a battering ram being propelled through the air, on account of Cloud's heavy armor, Sephiroth made the last-second decision to dodge as opposed to attempt to parry; Cloud were already much too close for that.

"-tch." He grit his teeth as the thick steel of the buster sword grazed along the shining silver of his right-pauldron; sending a shudder down his arm as it chipped at the metal. But Sephiroth had managed to keep his footing well enough. He didn't hesitate to bring his opposite knee up and twist his frame to deliver Cloud a brutal knee to the ribs as his momentum continued to sail him towards the wall at Sephiroth's back.

The Hero of Gaia, and would-be Hero of Crystallis now had to be stopped...for the last time.

Terra placed herself between the other heroes and Sephiroth and Cloud. Something inside of her told her that the pair were the ones meant to fight. With her claws extended and magic humming around her she stared at Ishtar and Croach.

A shield built around her monstrous form and she summoned spheres of dark energy that hovered around her in threatening orbs. She didn't care what happened to her so long as she kept these two busy. She didn't really focus on Croach the tracker because of his insistence on being a tracker his skills were well known. He wasn't the sort who could pose any threat in a combat situation. Which meant that her first target would be Ishtar.

She waited keeping her eyes on them both while calculating her means of destroying the pair.

Cloud let out a bestial grunt as the knee caught him in the side. It wasn't the right angle to knock the wind out of him but the sheer strength and force that lay coiled within Sephiroth's body was enough to break a rib or to. There was no time to really assess the damage though.

He tumbled down and drove the swords into the ground to stabilize himself, skidding a good twenty feet as the slabs of metal tore chunks of stone and crystal from the floor and into the air.

His eyes flashed around the room. Sephiroth was the solid thread. The absolute one. If he won, if he lived, all was lost.

But lives would be lost to Terra if he didn't act. But trying to deal with her would leave him open to Sephiroth's attack.

He pulled his swords free but he hesitated, unsure which threat to meet. He couldn't deal with both at once by himself and he knew it.

Ultimately it was not Sephiroth's intention to technically 'live' through this encounter. All he needed to do was to continue to fight off Cloud's advance until his mortal coil began to become undone, until the very essence of his will started to merge with the Calamity in the window of weakness it had in the wake of the Spawn they had killed. But, he held it as a matter of pride that he did fully intend to finally finish off the perpetual thorn in the side that Cloud had maintained in being for so long.

Til now he had simply put up with it, skillfully playing out the Hero that Cloud had never believed but almost everyone else had.

Cloud's hesitation after skidding to a halt was almost perceived as an insult. He hadn't hit the wall which just meant next time Sephiroth had to try harder. Some habits died hard though when it came to simply playing with his one-time puppet. Sephiroth didn't even seem to need to take a breath before he'd turned and, with his long sword stretched out to the side and down towards the floor, charged at Cloud. Masamune being dragged first up, and then down in two consecutive arcs as he got within range.

Hopefully Cloud would snap out of it and get his guard up, since cleaving him neatly in two would be anti-climatic at best.

Ishtar stared down at Terra and back to her allies, Cloud and then Sephiroth. There were no words exchanged, however, the former princess kept her sword held in a guarding position. She was well aware of what was going on now and no matter how much she shouted and screamed, the situation was not going to change, so she had to take action, even if it meant she had to hurt her former allies.

That didn't mean she was going to easily do this. She was always the hesitant type, worried about others and afraid to hurt anyone. She didn't consider herself a fighter, and she could hardly hurt an insect but there were lives on the line and many people were already dead. She couldn't take anymore deaths. She knew that she was no match for Terra, but she had to get Terra out of the way. She wanted to help stop Sephiroth, even though she was not that strong.

She still had to keep fighting.

Terra's gaze was locked on Ishtar leaving Sephiroth to face Cloud. It was what he willed and so as a perfect little puppet she obeyed. Her claws came together as she began to cast once more. A triumphant growl rising in her chest as she stepped forward. She could feel the ebb and flow of energy, of magic and she knew that the princess could stand against her magic.

She'd kill her and then continue to play her role.

As her magic charged a cruel smile pulled at the corner of her lips. "You will not escape." Her voice was dangerous and it's obvious the Esper wasn't pulling her punches. She released the spell from her claws while jumping forward giving Ishtar no room to dodge as she cast Ultima.

The movement among the rest of the heroes brought Cloud some hope, even if it was a miniscule amount. With Ishtar still working to defend the others and keeping Terra's attention Cloud could at least focus on the greater threat. He didn't want it to be this way, the never SOLDIER always wanting to take everything on his shoulders, but a small corner of him was relieved that he wouldn't have the esper girl coming at his back.

The blonde swordsman lurched back as Sephiroth's blade came up, the tip of it catching the bridge of his nose and pulling first blood from this conflict. The following strikes were dodged more ably, twisting out of their way as he coiled up his own body. At the height of his movement he clutched onto the hilt of the Buster Sword with both hands and then leaped up. His feet caught the hilt of the First Tsurugi, separating two of its blades which he kicked in Sephiroth's direction.

He wasn't counting on the swords to actually hit, knowing Sephiroth was better than that, but the attack would at least give him enough time and space to get back on his feet. Yanking the Buster Sword from the ground he landed in a crouch before exploding forward in a thrusting stab with the massive blade.

"Sephiroth! It ends here!"

It seemed that Masamune sung with satisfaction as the tip nicked the bridge of Cloud's nose; the sword hadn't been turned on anyone here with lethal intention for a great many years and now the illusion were all over with.

Their battle continued, almost too fast for individual movements to be seen as Sephiroth curled his over-long sword back around for another slash at his opponent, then found he had to reposition himself quickly to avoid the two shorter blades as they went sailing in his direction from Cloud's kick. His attacking flurry interrupted as he seemed almost to teleport-dodge them.

Now they might understand the true weight of his custom jobs, the abilities for which he'd kept a careful control over until now, lest anyone be prepared for the inhuman parameters Sephiroth had as a combatant.

Still, it was a close call when Cloud thrust in with his stab, the edge of the Buster Sword scoring a line across leather as it passed flat with Sephiroth's back - his long silver hair losing a few threads in the process but for the most part it was still falling down into place by the time he moved next.

Which was a lunge forward towards Cloud, with Masamune curled back behind him, at the end of which Sephiroth dropped his shoulder and made to barge up into Cloud's chest with his pauldron. It only took a single drop of additional momentum fired into his now-charged being telekinetically to give even more thrust behind the manuever.

"It's over."

Naturally, once Cloud were up and more into that coveted range, Sephiroth spun and dragged Masamune horizontally in mid-air; across where Cloud might come down.

Sephiroth wasn't the only one who was moving at speeds that most of the other heroes would balk at. While Cloud's job classes didn't provide him the same benefits that they were for the silver haired man, nobody knew how to fight with these swords like Cloud did. The Buster Sword may not have been his originally but the style he used to wield it was all his own. He had spent long hours and days retraining himself to be able to use it the way he wanted even with the limits this world put on him.

As Sephiroth moved out of the way of the flying thrust Cloud revealed he wasn't done. The blonde twisted in midair with a speed and readiness most would find impossible and had the blade flat up against his body as the shoulder came in. He was able to block the impact but not the force, grunting as the flat of his sword bounced off of his chest and flung him back across the room.

Time seemed to slow as he saw Sephiroth ready his counter attack. The man was right. The two were terribly mismatched even if he was the only one who could fight him. Cloud's body would give out long before Sephiroth's power did. That one attack alone had knocked the wind out of him and he hadn't time to recover yet.

But he couldn't just give up.

He didn't have the same momentum as before. He wouldn't be able to dodge. He couldn't block. But maybe...

"Zack...forgive me..."

He dropped the buster sword, letting it fall past him and then kicked off of the handguard as he heard it touch the ground. The foothold was enough to push him out of the path of the Masamune, but the other sword took it at the wrong angle. The longsword sliced through the other SOLDIER weapon like butter and Cloud could almost feel it in his heart.

"NO!"

A smothered consciousness somewhere in the back of Sephiroth's mind also flared up as Masamune sliced through Buster Sword. That sword was the symbol of Angeal's pride and honor, regardless of how Cloud attached it to Zack and it burned at that consciousness - though only momentarily before the villain drowned the other voice in his head out again. He didn't even know the relevance.

At the same time, a more distinct pull at somewhere intangible, deep down, indicated that the connection Sephiroth were trying to forge with the Calamity was quickly getting to the point where he'd need to release control over himself. For a moment that seemed to drag on forever when compared to how quickly they had been moving in combat, Sephiroth raised a hand to his middle as if feeling that tug at the center of his torso. Almost as if he were winded, he stopped for that moment and needed to fight his will forwards before blinking it off and resetting his stance.

"This has gone on, for far too long, Cloud."

His eyes flared up with a color even more intense than he had ever had on Gaia as he pushed forwards then. Resuming his attack on his arch-nemesis with a far more urgent vigor. Every maneuver Sephiroth pulled in his flurry held no illusion of it's lethal intent; he wasn't playing anymore. He needed to finish Cloud now, and complete the transition.

In his tumbling Cloud found himself need the First Tsurugi once more. The blonde swordsman braced himself against it as he hauled to his feet, still goggling at what he did survive that attack. Or was it him? It was that tickling again, that other voice. It had been shouting in his ear the whole fight now it was quiet.

Good. Now he could concentrate on what he needed to do. He didn't need someone yelling at both him and Sephiroth to stop. This would never stop as long as one of them drew breath.

Flicking more catches he pulled another sword out of the compound weapon so that he had one in each hand. He tossed it aside and into a far wall before drawing another. He'd need all the blades out just in case.

"You're right it has. You should have died long ago. Or maybe I should have. Maybe neither of us should have left that reactor that day." He tossed another sword aside, stripping it down. Another pull and all he was left with was the base sword and the last remaining satellite piece. He settled into his stance just as Sephiroth began his attack.

Cloud was fast, and his swords rose to block each strike, but every fifth slipped through....and soon every fourth...and then every third.

Ishtar wasn't much help but if she could keep Terra at bay, things would end in their favour hopefully. She could only count on Cloud to handle this right now. Most of her allies were down and she was one of the few standing. Ishtar wasn't used to fighting and support was her forte, yet right now, she had to fight. She's not going to let herself be taken down easily. Ishtar made sure that she was locking gaze with Terra to tell her who her opponent was. Ishtar would rather not have Cloud get hit too. She had to steer the other away from the two men fighting.

"I'm not intending to escape. Even if I die, there will still be someone to stop you and Sephiroth!"

She bit back. She was not going to run away. Not that this time. She had to fight. Ishtar could only use what she had against the other and that was limited. Her fighting class lacked any sort of immunity to magic but switching classes right now wasn't a choice either. She was going to have to use her sword to hold off as much of the attack as possible. Ishtar let her sword glow with some power, before slashing it towards the other as she came jumping at Ishtar.

At the same time, she was trying to pay attention to where the fighting was going with the other two, but it was hard when she had a mad Esper coming at her.

Sephiroth didn't even hear Cloud's words as the Calamity had pulled determinedly at his core in those moments that the blond swordsman took to dissemble his the First Tsurugi, but in the first few moments of his renewed, urgent flurry of attacks Sephiroth had become more aware of the additional blades scattered around them.

A memory bugged, even though it had been at least 8 years since his plan had been thwarted by those same blades but Sephiroth could not allow Cloud the tiniest sliver of a chance to stop him in the same way again. Not this time.

As Cloud's defense began to crumble Masamune gouged keen, fine lines out of arms, legs and torso and it was as if the kiss of Cloud's blood on the air made the atmosphere hum with even more vigor. As if the blood of his nemesis was the final piece to make this attempt of Sephiroth's the successful one. Finally.

When Cloud were finally unable to lift his sword anymore, Sephiroth retreated. Stepping back firmly, with purpose as he looked down admiringly at his handiwork. If he were to relinquish all hold of his physicality for a great while, he'd at least want to do so with the knowledge that he'd finally settled the score. Fulfilled one destiny before moving on to the next.

Held out to one side, the crimson dripped from Masamunes' keen edge- this felt good. Sephiroth smiled down at Cloud, his expression dripping with victory.

"You...can't do anything to stop me."

Cloud fell to his knees, the last core sword of the First Tsurugi slipping from his bloody grasp. The blonde swordsman was a mess, covered in red from all the wounds cut into him. They were precision strikes, befitting Sephiroth's skill. He hadn't been so clumsy to merely gouge or dismember his nemesis, but rather he had made surgical strikes to sever muscles and cut veins and arteries. It wasn't simply that Cloud lacked the strength to move. He physically couldn't. And he'd bleed out, but not before witnessing what was to come.

Cloud coughed, a black red spattering hitting the floor in front of him. He could feel the blood filling his lungs as he tried to breathe. His reply came out as a slow wet gasping around each word, "I..told...you...*cough*...last...time....not just...me..."

He looked up through the red haze of blood in his eyes, and he smirked like he was the one getting a joke out even as he and the world both teetered near death. ".....Reunion..."

His body flared with the power of a Limit Break. Despite all of the battles here, Cloud had never used his own. He always muscled through the fights he had been in, never wanting to risk giving something away his enemy.

The blow came from behind, a hard fist colliding with Sephiroth from his blind spot. The impact came like a truck, full of force and fury and backed by a familiar golden glow. It was the same as last time, though this time the figure who had struck him was bare handed, though tethered to one of the fallen blades. And the figure, glowing hot and golden, was the only woman who would dare lay a hand on him. The Tifa Cloud knew, who would have, should have come from the girl who now lay dead on the ground.

Another strike as the first figure caught his attention, another golden woman and this one holding a staff which she swung into his gut. She cleared out of the way as another two leveled their guns at him and opened fire. Huge hands came down and grabbed his shoulders and kept him still as an animal, a girl with a shuriken and a man with a spear rushed him. With each hit the force of Cloud's memories surged into Sephiroth, pressing images of why he cherished each and every one of them into his mind. The bonds of his friends were never something he would get rid of, and they were what kept him going even now.

Cloud's body shuddered and a golden afterimage stepped out of him now, gathering the broken Buster Sword from the ground. Calmly it settled into a cool and confident pose, its own light filling the gap where the blade had once bit. It took just a second, only long enough to make eye contact with Sephiroth before rushing forward, launching into a flurry of bladestrikes.

And through the barrage his voice came cold and cool, "I'll never let you win. No matter how many times you try, I'll stop you. Not because of what you did to me. Not because of what you did to my friends. Because you're wrong. Because you think that nothing matters. You believe everything beneath you and throw it away. And what do you have left? You say want to take away what I cherish. I know why you're so desperate to destroy what I have."

The afterimages dispersed one by one, the last one dropping Sephiroth to the ground as it vanished. There was a beat and then a heavy thud as Cloud's body slumped to the ground as well, the vitality and spirit completely gone from it. But even as his soul had already passed from this plane, his voice echoed once more in Sephiroth's mind.

"Because you have...nothing."

Much like the deep crimson that had puddled under Tifa, so Cloud too became an island in the sea of his own blood. Except very much so in that case, Sephiroth's incisions had been made to bleed as if in some way Cloud deserved a larger pool. The sound of Cloud's wet inhalations and vocal chords was just glorious music to his ears after all this time.

It was only for a split second, though, that Sephiroth could register that flare of power that he'd not ever seen from his nemesis. That splitting second before a fist with the strike force of a battering ram cracked squarely into the space between his shoulder blades. Breath was knocked from him and the monster stumbled forwards, just barely catching a glimpse of the golden figure before-

"-nugh" The thick, golden guard stick came up seemingly out of no where and further buckled him; a first rush of -something else- passing his physical limitations and pressing against his soul. That Cetra-

Sephiroth had no idea as to what was holding him still, his focus reeling from those two first strikes as the tether with the Calamity in this world reverberated sickly in response. His whole form shook some more, was forced back and away with each strike as Cloud's limit break reached its finale. He teetered near to where his crystal, implanted in the ground, flared up with more black vapor as he neared it. Ripping metaphysical barriers down like a fire catching dry paper as the memories broke so much deeper than the bruised and ruptured bodily tissue that the attacks had dealt him.

At the end, Sephiroth dropped, without even realizing that he'd been lifted from the ground, bleeding black vapor from his outline as well as dripping scarlet of his own from the various holes and within torn black leather. Stuck on one knee, without his sword and instead his fist out in front as if to stop himself from falling forwards.

The mess of silver, black and red shuddered heavily and with an audible loud grunt of a noise he forced his weight backwards, from the shoulders as Sephiroth still pushed himself to get back up. His mind, what was left of his sanity, felt both splintered anew and violated by those images forced within it that weren't his own. All of those things stung more than any physical injury ever could. Pounded rapidly in his ears like his racing pulse which pulled fruitlessly at power to regenerate, power that the Calamity had already taken.

He knew, at the back of his mind that he only needed that last contact with his-

Suddenly, with the thick sound of edged metal being driven into a thick body of flesh, Sephiroth stopped abruptly. Eyes widened and pupils slitted...then didn't move again. A fresh, thick gobule of blood and thicker things spilled from his mouth as the point of the dagger sticking out of the front of him was withdrawn and the husk of what had been Sephiroth heavily fell forwards and then to one side.

Cloud might not see the assassin that had dealt the killing blow.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Event || Doppelgangers

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fyi - rounding this off after the next tag

Re: fyi - rounding this off after the next tag

To finish~