Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ The Whys of What Ifs ❯ Ch. 4 Dark Approaches - Help Arrives ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Author's Note: The second Sephiroth will be referred to as (Sephiroth).

The Whys of What Ifs

Chapter 4 - Darkness Approaches: Help Arrives

(Sephiroth) waited in the interim area between dimensions. He thought that he liked the black-grey mist better than the Planet. The mist only mirrored his emotions, few as they were since that day. It seemed that the only emotions he had left were contempt, despair, and boredom. (Sephiroth) did not like it when the bright rays of the sun on the ground or the freshness of nature at work contradicted his thoughts. He preferred nothingness.

'A day and a night,' (Sephiroth) thought, 'is a small time in which to change your life.' That day was supposed to be one of triumph. He had killed the only true threat to Jenova's plans. It was supposed to secure their ultimate victory.

Then she had told him the 'truth'.

It had broken (Sephiroth). Whatever righteousness or hope he had vanished.

He had wondered on that day: 'Could the blood of the innocent be washed away? Or did it stay, staining my hands until my day of judgment?'

She had supplied an answer. The Planet was not enough to satisfy the demon's thirst for blood and power. A planet named Earth was the next choice. It possessed a light of such strength that ultimate power would be assured when it was consumed. (Sephiroth) hated it, but he fallen so far. How much farther could he possibly fall? 'Sometimes one must step down to step ahead.' He thought without much emotion.

(Sephiroth) tried to wipe the thought from his mind, his anger rising briefly before he squelched it. He would not allow thoughts of that bitch to ruin his concentration. He had a plan. He could not, would not allow anything to interfere with it. He would obtain the power he both wanted and needed. Then he would hoist the Demon Queen with her own petard.

(Sephiroth) watched his destination while he waited. With new knowledge had come new power, and he used his power to effect. The minion he had created had only slowed the fool for a few moments before it was destroyed. He smiled briefly though, watching as its destruction caused a fight to begin between his alternate self and the guardians of that world. The Sailor Senshi, he recalled their being called.

He snorted with contempt. Earth must have been a very peaceful planet. Fool and weakling his alternate self was, but the fool was still a Sephiroth. Eight girls dressed in fukus and a man dressed in formal wear were no match for him. He idly wished the guardians some luck. Not to defeat his counterpart of course. He simply wanted them to damage his counterpart enough that he would be easy enough for his minions to capture before the guardians of the Earth bit the dust. He laughed, a sound without joy. No one would stand against his ultimate plan.

All those who stood against him were merely playthings.

Pawns.

Puppets.

The mist around him shifted for a moment, breaking his train of thought, and nine grotesque figures stepped before him. The demonic minions that Jenova had taught him how to make. (Sephiroth) eyed them briefly with a tinge of disdain. He would much rather have simply dealt with the fool directly and have done with the whole matter, but appearances must be kept. Jenova wanted him to use minions, and so minions he would use. For now.

"You know what to do." It was not a question, but with beings of such low intelligence, (Sephiroth) thought that it should be.

The demons cackled amongst themselves, nodding. (Sephiroth's) eyes flared with contempt. "Then do it and do not return until it is done! Go!" (Sephiroth) demanded, gesturing away from him.

The demons cackled again and faded into the mist. It would take them at least another three minutes to reach their destination.

'Three minutes to live,' thought (Sephiroth). Fools. His other self would tear them apart in a matter of seconds after he had finished with those Senshi. They were only pawns to play in his rook's gambit. He smiled and summoned his rook.

A man, dressed in a long, black robe with a hood that covered his face, appeared almost immediately. "What is thy bidding, my master?" the man asked feverishly.

(Sephiroth) almost smiled. Jenova wanted him to use minions, so minions he would use. He much preferred his sefers to the demonic minions that Jenova insisted that he use, though. Since they, like him, had once been human, he could exercise complete authority over them and still allow them a thread of self-conscious intelligence. This made them self-reliant to a certain degree. The demons were hopeless. They not only were less intelligent than cold slag, their power was pathetic. The demons' power was like an ant's compared to any one of his sefers and his sefers' power was like that of a cockroach compared to his power. Although the sefers were almost mind-dead, they still remembered parts of their pasts. Their guilt bound them to him.

But they were only pawns and he would not allow his conscience to bother him over their fates.

"I have given you the power of Jenova. Use it to capture that fool alternate self of mine so that he may be shown the light." (Sephiroth's) smile was positively cruel. There would be no light at the end of the tunnel for the fool, no mercy, and certainly no truth. There would be only the fires of hell.

"It shall be as you say, master." The sefer bowed and shimmered, the powers of Jenova flowing through him. (Sephiroth's) mirror image stood before him in the next moment. The sefer turned to leave.

"And Kurt? " The sefer paused. (Sephiroth) had never before referred to him by his real name and the sefer had been unsure that (Sephiroth) even cared enough about them to find out. He had certainly never asked him.

"If you do not complete your mission, do not bother returning. The plan has no place for weaklings." (Sephiroth's) eyes were positively artic.

Kurt flinched and gulped, an odd combination when used on his borrowed face. He then gathered up his courage and marched forward resolutely into the mist. He would accomplish his mission or die trying.

(Sephiroth's) eyes shifted to a combination of amusement and contempt. He would not have wanted to be the sefer when his battle started. Even if deeply tired and badly torn, his other self still had more battle experience than all of his sefers combined. It would not equal the power difference between the sefers and him, of course, but the minion would be lucky to finish the battle with two broken arms, a fractured kneecap, and a split skull. (Sephiroth) did not doubt the sefer, but his minions were too confident. Confidence in battle could get you killed. Effort and determination were far better than confidence. Nothing bred effort and determination better, in (Sephiroth's) mind, than desperation. And what better source of desperation than fear? Especially the fear of his wrath.

(Sephiroth) always liked playing with a loaded deck.

(Sephiroth) suddenly groaned as he recalled practical necessity. Thinking about obtaining unlimited and godlike power was nice, but the actual effort involved was stupendous. He had to actually tolerate people he would much rather have thrown off catwalks. The thought that he had endured similar people when he had worked at Shinra did not improve his sour disposition.

(Sephiroth) resigned himself to his fate and opened the portal to his temporary home. It was in range of black mountains with winding paths where thunder boomed and lightning flashed that his new home was located. If it had simply been the dark and gloom, (Sephiroth) would have had no problems with it. It was that stupid white castle.

He hated the thing. It was grandiose; with it's polished white marble and pennants hanging from each of its four smaller towers and a huge banner atop its central tower, it seemed to be something out of a fairy tale. The towers were slim and elegant, almost frail. It hardly seemed to be the dwelling place of some great evil force. (Sephiroth) thought the owner either a hypocrite or overly righteous, as he had been. He hated the person already.

Jenova had told him that both the vision of power on Earth and his newly increased power had come from the resident of that tower. (Sephiroth) was told that all the inhabitant had wanted in return was revenge. Revenge on what, Jenova either didn't know or wasn't telling if she did. He did not care. He would merely do what he had to. He had sealed himself to this fate long ago.

He walked up to the door, knocked, and waited.

Less than a minute later, the great door opened. (Sephiroth) let loose a small gasp as he recognized the doorman.

Cloud.

But he was different. His eyes were dim, unfocused, and hazy. (Sephiroth) had never seen him like this, not even when he had controlled him. At least then, Cloud had possessed some kind of intelligent emotion in his eyes: anger, hate, despair. But his gaze was now empty. His mind was gone. Whatever else was in this tower had tower had stolen it.

(Sephiroth) shuddered. He now had to meet and live with whatever had done this.

"Ah, yes. (Sephiroth). My mistress has been expecting you. If you will follow me?" Cloud gestured toward the right staircase, his tone friendly, but his eyes were still empty.

(Sephiroth) recovered himself and nodded stiffly. Cloud turned around and began his march up the stairs to their destination; seemly taking it for granted that (Sephiroth) would both follow and not kill him while his back was turned.

'He probably doesn't have enough mind left to think about it.' (Sephiroth) thought.

(Sephiroth) followed Cloud up the stairs a moment later, wondering what he had gotten himself into.

* * * * *

Sephiroth was not having a very good day.

He had been snatched from the Planet by a mysterious, white fog and dropped in the middle of a park on what may not even be his own planet. He doubted it was, the place had a unique look and smell, unlike any other location the SOLDIER had ever been. Even as Sephiroth was trying to reorient himself to his surroundings, a grotesque half-human, half-lobster creature with large, armored claws the size of tennis rackets had appeared out of the receding mist and attacked him.

It was immensely strong but seemed to have little or no battle experience. A creature with weapons similar to those heavy claws risked much by holding out its only offensive and defensive weapon at a length where it would not be easy to recover or react. Therefore, it was tantamount to suicide and plain foolish to hold its claws at full length in front of its chest merely to block a probing slash, even from a weapon as powerful as the Masamune. Especially with a weapon as powerful as the Masamune. All Sephiroth had needed to do to defeat the creature was let the remove his sword quickly, unbalancing the creature, spin around, striking the monster in the face with the sword's hilt in the process, and cleave the infernal beast in half.

Sephiroth had smiled. It was too easy.

That had been until a missile of fire had swept along his Masamune, temporarily altering its nature in its wake, and scorched the general's right arm, destroying the cloth of his battle uniform and the skin of his right arm to the shoulder joint.

Sephiroth grimaced in pain as he held the charred arm, but he did not worry overly much about the wound. He had endured horrific injuries before and healed himself without much fuss. Sephiroth never questioned his abnormal regenerative abilities. They were there therefore he used them.

Sephiroth looked up at his assailant, a girl dressed in a sailor suit and red mini-skirt, and flashed her a quick grin. "You want a piece of me? Heh. Fine." With that challenge, Sephiroth ripped the chaff off his arm to reveal that it was in perfect condition.

The girls shot him looks of amazement and shock. One, a tall blonde with short sandy hair, said in a deadpan voice: "There's no way. There's no way in hell. Mars's attack turned that arm into a cinder. It looks like nothing ever happened to it. How the hell did he do that?!" The voice actually sounded outraged when she said it, as if Sephiroth's recovery from the wound insulted her.

Sephiroth picked up his sword again, chuckling and casually retrieving his two materia from his inner pocket. "I don't know who any of you people are, but it's been a while since anyone inflicted that much damage on me." There was even a slight edge of respect in his tone. His pride was unruffled by his forced departure.

"But I'll show you that it takes far more than that to kill me." His arrogance was still strong, even after he was forced to leave the Planet. Sephiroth placed the materia in the proper slots on his Masamune, linking their power. His multi-assault weapon was now ready. Sephiroth did not mind the odds: eight girls in what seemed to be a battle uniform, at least one of which had elemental power. Only two of the girls seemed to have any other weapons: the sandy-haired blonde had a saber held in a jeweled scabbard and a short, raven-haired woman was armed with a slightly ornamented but otherwise deadly poleax. He knew of no warrior who could match his sword skill and, although fighting a poleax would be far more difficult, the polearm's shaft could probably be broken with one good swing from his Sword of Destruction. Unless the others had hidden weapons or stronger elemental attacks, Sephiroth was confident that he could defeat them.

'And defeat them I will.' Sephiroth thought calmly. His pride did not allow for anything less.

Sephiroth brought the glowing Masamune up in a double-handed attack position.

Sephiroth felt that no one should suffer defeat at his hands without knowing his name. He liked the 'unconscious' respect of his foes. "My name is Sephiroth. En Garde." He charged forth.

Two of the warriors, the tall blonde and an aqua-haired woman, standing to the blonde's left, stepped up to stop him. Sephiroth grinned. 'They'll need more than that to defeat me,' he thought. Far more.

"World Shaking!" the sandy-haired blonde called, releasing a giant orb of orange energy in his direction.

"Deep Submerge!" the aqua-haired woman called, releasing an equally large orb of bluish-white energy in his direction at the same time.

Sephiroth gauged the energy orbs' strength and groaned. 'Okay, maybe not,' he thought. If both of those attacks connected fully, the chances of him walking away were slimmer than a snowball's chance in hell. He had to think of something… He glanced at the Masamune's crimson glowing blade peripherally and it suddenly clicked.

Sephiroth knew how to stop the twin attacks.

It was risky, but letting the two attacks hit him was a definite dead end. He had to do it and he couldn't waste anymore time.

Sephiroth raced forward and jumped up as the two orbs raced, side-by-side, towards him. He swung his Masamune as hard as could to the left, letting the inertia carry him all the way around as the orbs bore down on him, looming large in his vision. As his sword neared the contact point, Sephiroth prayed that his millisecond guess was correct.

It was.

The Masamune, charged with fire energy, slammed into the side of the blue orb. The energy orb was pushed away by the blade, following the course of the blade as Sephiroth landed and continued to spin. He grunted as the job of guiding the attacks became much harder due to the lack of freefall. Sephiroth completed a half turn and let the inertia bring him part of the way around before he pulled the Masamune away from the attacks and let them continue on their way.

Sephiroth's guess had worked. The bluish-white orb had been charged with water energy, and, by bringing it into contact with his flame-charged blade, Sephiroth had pushed the magical assaults away from him and sent them back toward their spell casters. The instance made him believe that the women-warriors had elemental attacks related to the colors that they wore.

He glanced quickly at his Masamune. Most of the red energy was gone from it, drained by the dual guiding. Sephiroth looked back at the girls as the dual attack exploded in their midst. He always loved that particular property of the Sword of Destruction: anyone that tried to use an elemental attack on him always ended up with it thrown right back at their faces. Never literally, though. Sephiroth suppressed a grin; the only emotion reflecting on his face was a tinge of amusement in his sparkling, emerald eyes.

Sephiroth waited as the smoke cleared. It revealed that three of the girls were down, the water-user, the fire-user, and, if the theory of color holding to element held, an ice-user, a short, dainty, blue-haired woman. The rest, except for the polearm-holder, appeared to be bruised and torn by the concussive force.

She looked wholly uninjured, her weapon held in a defensive posture. The air around her was distorted, like something invisible was there. 'She's got some damn strong barrier magic.' Sephiroth realized. Either that or she had healing power equal to his, which Sephiroth doubted strongly. Even if he never seriously questioned it, Sephiroth knew that regenerative powers like his were extremely rare and unusual. Dressed in black, the only element Sephiroth could correlate to her was Death. He almost winced at that: a fighter with a weapon that was hard to counter, spells that were almost impossible to dodge, and protection against everything he could throw at her. Sephiroth decided that he had to take her out. She represented the most threat to him.

Sephiroth raced towards his target as another of the girls, this one dressed in green, raced towards him. "I'll get you for that! Let's see if you can dodge this! Thunder Dragon!" She yelled heatedly as she closed the distance. A massive bolt of lightning flashed towards him. Sephiroth smiled grimly. An attack that he could easily avoid had just come his way. He tossed his sword into the air.

The deadly bolt of lightning cleanly arched and struck the blade, diverting the attack away from Sephiroth. "That's impossible!" The soldier's eyes widened in shock as her attack missed. Some of her charge velocity faded.

Big mistake.

The SOLDIER closed the distance between himself and his foe as the rest of his attackers rushed in. They were too late for the one in green. Sephiroth jumped up and dropkicked her, sending the sailor-suited warrior into a nearly tree, where she lay, moaning weakly. Sephiroth quickly twisted his legs in the air and landed perfectly.

"Jupiter!" the group cried out in concern. Sephiroth eyes narrowed. 'At least I'm learning their names.'

The sandy haired warrior rushed in and attempted to smash him in the face. Sephiroth easily avoided the reckless attack and grabbed the soldier's fist, tossing her over his shoulder and slamming her into the ground, rapping her head harshly. She moaned once in pain and passed out.

As the Masamune spun towards the ground, it intersected a thin missile that had been heading his way, pinning it to the ground. Much to his surprise, Sephiroth saw that the attack was really just a rose. He glanced to his left and up to locate the source of the odd projectile. On top of a nearly lamppost stood a man dressed in a formal tuxedo, complete with domino half-mask, cape, and top hat. Sephiroth noticed that the man stood balanced on top of the lamppost effortlessly, his arms crossed across his chest.

"Tuxedo Kamen, you came!" cried a blonde in a more elaborate battle uniform that included attached angel wings. From her uniform, Sephiroth figured that she was the group's leader. And from the tone of her voice, the woman was either the girlfriend or wife of this 'Tuxedo Kamen.' Sephiroth almost frowned at the idea of relationships within the ranks of soldiers, and then struggled to prevent a grin from appearing on his face from a stray thought. 'Blondes and gentlemen. Should have guessed.' the general thought humorously.

"What dark force desecrates this beautiful park with its foul presence? Be gone, evil creature, or I, Tuxedo Kamen, shall forcibly return you to the depths that have spawned you." The newcomer announced boldly, pointing a small cane at Sephiroth that he had pulled from the tuxedo's inner pocket.

Sephiroth allowed himself to smile jauntily as he tugged the Sword of Destruction from the ground. "And I'd advise you to point that cane away from me and stop name calling, Cape Boy. Unless of course, you want me to shove that stick somewhere quite uncomfortable."

Sephiroth was able to read utter shock on Kamen's face. 'Keep your opponent off-balance and you have the key to victory,' he thought almost laughingly.

Tuxedo Kamen quickly regained his composure, his face screwing up in anger and indignation. "Fine, let's see what you've got!" Sephiroth watched in slight surprise as Kamen leapt high into the air, far higher than any normal man could jump and higher than Sephiroth could manage without a running start. "Take this!" The tuxedo-clad warrior challenged, extending his cane to an extreme length without another word. The point of the cane closed in on the SOLDIER.

Almost negligently, Sephiroth brought his sword back and said, "I tire of this." Using all of his strength, Sephiroth slashed out, bringing the edge of his blade in contact with the outermost point of Kamen's cane. For the moment, the two magic weapons fought, trying to use their innate magical natures to overcome the other. Sephiroth raised his eyebrows. He was glad that he had held nothing back against this attack. It could not be proven by his words, but Sephiroth respected his opponents' abilities as warriors.

Finally, the cane splintered under the extreme force of holding off the Sword of Destruction. Cracks appeared along the wood and finally erupted from the absorbed magical energies, knocking Tuxedo Kamen to the ground.

"Mamoru!" the blonde leader called, rushing to the caped hero's side.

Sephiroth did not attack her, vulnerable though she was. If she was tending to Kamen, she was no threat to him. He would not attack anyone unless they were a direct threat to him or his mission. Besides, if the weapon he wielded was any indication, Tuxedo Kamen was incredibly strong, almost an equal match for his power.

Sephiroth was so occupied in watching the fallen warrior being helped that he barely had time to react to the attack of the black-uniformed soldier with the poleax. He was surprised and only had time for a clumsy block, but it did not matter. At the point of contact of the two mighty weapons, the purplish-black auras of the two weapons glowed with incredible power. At first Sephiroth thought that the weapons were gearing up for a contest of strengths, but he swiftly realized, to his horror, that the auras were backpedaling unto their points of origin.

At critical mass, the energies exploded, sending the two black-clad warriors in different directions. Sephiroth plowed into a tree, which cracked and sagged under the force. The sailor soldier crash-landed into a blonde-haired warrior with long hair, who was knocked senseless by the blow. Sephiroth staggered up, covered in cuts and lacerations, with many splinters from the great tree imbedded into his back, arms, and legs, his trenchcoat shredded, to assess the situation. Although the blonde woman seemed to out of action for at least a little while the other soldier was struggling up, her face set in determination.

"Hotaru! Are you alright?" the leader asked, her tone filled with concern.

'Hotaru. That's a Wutanian name. But this most definitely isn't Wutai. Where am I?' For the record second time that day, Sephiroth felt a wave of despair wash over him.

"I'm alright, but I think that the rest of the Senshi will need my healing powers after this one." The dark-clad Senshi smiled weakly at her leader, but her smile faded somewhat when she turned to Sephiroth.

Sephiroth quickly checked his sword and materia to make sure that they had endured the explosion with no damage. The Masamune was undamaged, but the materia was a different question. The All materia was shattered, a sliver of it jammed into his Poison materia, which was probably useless now. His multi-assault weapon had vanished before it could be used even once. Sephiroth could only think, somewhat wryly, "That's two battle plans scrapped in ten minutes. A new record."

Sephiroth decided that he wouldn't fight these Senshi anymore. Any lost pride had been avenged. Any further conflict with this group of warriors would most likely end up with his defeat. He would call a truce.

"Further conflict between us would not be profitable. I suggest a mutual truce to settle our differences. I really don't want to fight you." Sephiroth announced to the two Senshi still standing.

"You wouldn't happen to be a general, would you, Sephiroth?" Hotaru asked him with a soft, sweet smile. For the first time, Sephiroth realized how beautiful the dark-clad soldier was. Her short raven-black hair framed her beautiful face. Her eyes were a majestic purple, that Sephiroth thought could probably become hard amethysts if anything displeased her. The eyes of both a soldier and a woman… Sephiroth shook himself mentally. Hotaru would begin to suspect something if he kept staring at her like that.

"Yes. How did you know?" This woman now piqued Sephiroth's curiosity. This beautiful, woman warrior. Hotaru smiled, but with a small gasp of shock, rolled to the side to dodge slashing claws.

Damnit. The monsters had reappeared in force this time. There were now nine of them.

Sephiroth jumped back several meters to avoid similar attempts on his person. He was now getting extremely angry. He had thought that he would have a small break from battle and this wasn't it. These monsters were really starting to make him mad.

Sephiroth felt a small black aura surround him as he called out one of his desperation techniques: "Silver Seven Slash!" Sephiroth phased out of the battlefield and seemed to disappear entirely. Suddenly, seven of the monsters froze as meter long glowing silver lines appeared on their bodies. As Sephiroth phased back in, some thirty meters distant from his previous location, the monsters dissolved into dust.

Sephiroth sagged forth; most of his energy consumed by the limit-breaking move, then caught his balance and turned around. There were two monsters left and one was headed his way. He did the only thing he could do.

He ran away.

Sephiroth used a tree as a pivot point for a turnaround. He kicked off it and used the last of his energy to deliver a roundhouse kick that caved in the monster's skull. The monster immediately dissolved into dust. Sephiroth landed on his hands and knees, utterly spent.

He sensed a shadow above him and looked to find the last monster standing there, claws poised to rip his throat out. Before it could even begin the motion to claim Sephiroth's life, Hotaru's polearm cut through it's back like so much cheesecloth, the point of the weapon emerging in the middle of the monster's chest. It gave a brief scream and faded into dust. Sephiroth looked at Hotaru and said one of the most difficult phrases of his life, although it did not seem so hard now: "Thank you."

Hotaru smiled and said wearily: "It's no problem. Come on, we've got to get you somewhere where you can rest. You look exhausted." Sephiroth watched, only partly in amazement, not much amazed him anymore, as Hotaru's weapon faded into the ether. Hotaru helped him stand, lending him her shoulder to lean on. Sephiroth was so tired he almost did not care that he was accepting help.

The sound of clapping rang out.

Sephiroth turned to his left, seeing a sight he did not think he would ever see again: Zack, smiling self-assuredly. Hotaru tensed slightly, but Sephiroth alleviated it with his next statement.

"Zack! I thought I'd never see you again! How the hell did you get here? The fog?"

Zack's smile quieted, becoming more somber. "I'll tell you later. Right now, we have to move to a more secure location." His eyes began to scan the location, then stopped abruptly, and he exclaimed: "Shit! A sefer!"

Sephiroth looked to that location and swiftly repeated the vile curse. Standing in front of him, some twenty meters distant, was a mirror image of him holding a bluish spear made of energy.

"My master has declared that all of you must die for your follies!" The dark being hurled the spear as he said so. Sephiroth froze as he realized the destination that it's trajectory would put it at.

Hotaru.

It would slide through her petite form like nothing and kill her instantly.

Sephiroth had no time for thought of how Zack got there or what the mirror image really was. He only thought, "She doesn't deserve this. It's not her fight." He pushed her aside and took the blow for himself.

The spear went into Sephiroth's chest, the force knocking him back into and pinning him to a nearby tree.

"Sephiroth!" Zack, Hotaru, and the blonde called out in horror.

He tried to pull the spear out, but the energy burned his hands the same as it burned his insides. His lungs were on fire. Sephiroth couldn't heal them unless the damage stopped.

He tried to hold on to consciousness. He failed.

Sephiroth let go.

His second wind took over.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Chapter 5: The Fury Within - Hard Knowledge