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

"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~