Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Counterfeit God: Part II ❯ Chapter 3
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Shiratori-Strife Inc 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Drama / Angst | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 12.04.2006 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 137 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Drama / Angst | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 12.04.2006 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 137 | Status: Completed
3
---“Now Morghann, are you sure you have all of your arrangements taken care of?” Sirius asked in a serious tone.
The brunette gave a light chuckle as she stared across the table at her friend. “Of course, you don’t think I’d be a week before the wedding and not have every possible detail covered, do you?”Sirius smiled as she took a sip of her black coffee. “I was just making sure. Weddings are big things to plan. I can’t even imagine planning my own. Cloud will most likely leave everything to me anyway.”“Reno didn’t help much either, so I feel your pain.” Morghann replied.Both women had taken the greatest care in planning down to the minutest detail from the ceremony to the reception. With the lull in battle, things seemed like they would stay peaceful forever, but the two of them knew otherwise. Things were only going to get harder from then on out. Training had become part of the rigorous schedule at the Seventh Heaven. The men would spend hours upon hours during the day sharpening their skills with their respective weapons while they left the strategizing to Vincent and Cloud. It seemed that they were the group’s unofficial tacticians. Sirius would sit in from time to time and give her input, having known some of the deranged scientist’s personality traits from her time at Shinra’s lab. “Do you ever feel like we’ll never be able to win this battle?”Morghann’s question jerked her from her thoughts. “All the time. I have nightmares about being in his damn machine being the lifeless puppet that powers it. I want to wake up screaming from these dreams, but I don’t because I don’t want to upset Cloud.”“I’ve been having visions lately, Sirius, dark visions of the battle ahead. All I see is blood. There is so much blood and death that I don’t know how we can possibly survive.” Morghann confessed, lowering her eyes. “I just pray that they’re bad dreams.”“How can one person cause so much fear and destruction?” Sirius asked as her grip on her mug tightened. “I just don’t understand the point of this whole thing. Sure, revenge is sweet, but at the cost of so many extra lives? Eko is a coward!” she spat.Her friend nodded slowly, seeming to agree with the statement. One person killing that many other people was barbaric. What Morghann had seen looked like a massacre on some field. The images of the lifeless bodies sent chills up her spine. I know, Sirius, but it isn’t Eko that’s going to kill all of those men. It’s you.---Cloud entered the bar weary from another day of training. Vincent’s newest recruits were taking well to the tactics that he and Reno were teaching them. For the first time in months, hope sparked from somewhere deep down inside him. Sighing, the blonde bypassed the kitchen and headed straight for the roof. The calm of the sky always relaxed him at the end of a hard day. He knew that his daily training session with Sirius would take place soon, so he was resting up. Footsteps on the shingles caused Cloud to open his eyes and glance at the person who had joined him. A look of mild surprise crossed his face when he saw that Reno and not Sirius had joined him.“You look beat, yo. I’m feeling it too. It’s crazy training all those boys to fight against Eko.” The red-head stated as he sat down beside him.
“What’s up, Reno? You usually don’t come up here.” The blonde asked in a forward manner.Reno frowned as he stared out at the city below them. “Morghann told me about a vision that she’s been having. There’s this field covered in blood and butchered bodies are lying everywhere. It would’ve taken an army to do that much damage, but there’s only one person left standing and she wasn’t able to see who it was until last night.”“Why are you telling me this?” Cloud frowned, a cold feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. “That one person is Sirius, Cloud. Morghann believes that she’s the one that will kill all of those people.” Reno said quietly. Cloud’s whole body went rigid. He knew that Sirius was a fierce warrior, but there was no way that she would kill that many people. Not unless she had to. Was that some indication of what the future was to bring? The blonde shook his head. No way. That was not going to happen.“I don’t believe it.” He said. “There’s no way she’d do that.”The redhead was silent for a moment. “She does have the Sephiroth gene in her, Cloud. Whatever she’s going to face could’ve caused his characteristics to become too powerful for her to control.” He explained. Reno was unaware of the delicate band that his words came in contact with and decimated.“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” Cloud roared. “Sirius has been fighting the Geostigma and the Sephiroth gene her entire life! She wouldn’t kill those men without good reason!”“Good reason or not, she still massacres them, Cloud!” Reno shot, becoming defensive. “Morghann’s visions have never been wrong, you know that!”The blonde grew silent and seemed to withdraw into himself, staring up at the sky. The stars twinkled brightly above him as he felt a headache growing. He didn’t understand this at all. This was the first time in months that any evidence of their final battle had crept up on them. How long did they actually have? A year? A bit longer than that? Cloud couldn’t help but notice the nausea that he suddenly felt. His fiancé was going to go on a rabid killing spree sometime in the near future and he didn’t know the cause. If he didn’t have his pride to ensure, he would’ve thrown up. Rising from his position on the roof, he spared a fleeting glance at his companion before leaving.“I’m going to bed. I’ve had enough training today.” Green eyes widened a slight fraction. Never in his life had he heard Cloud so weak, so vulnerable, so…broken.---“Now, my SOLDIERs, I’ve called you here because society had no further use for you. They would rather train a new generation and destroy it than use what they already had.” Eko droned, a sea of ex-SOLDIERs ahead of him. Playing on their betrayal and jealousy was working to his advantage. “One last battle and I will cure you of your Mako poisoning so that you may live normal lives. Now, one year from now, I’m sending three hundred of you to capture this woman.” He explained, projecting a picture of Sirius on a large screen. “I know what most of you are thinking, but she is not to be taken lightly. Sirius Maelstrom, Subject 55690 of the Shinra Corporation, is the clone of Sephiroth and the clone of Jenova. She is dangerous and there’s no doubt that some of you will die. I want her brought to me alive. I don’t care what condition she’s in. You have a year to train, gentlemen.”Eko smirked as he exited the underground training facility that had come to be his base of operations in Mideel. Shinra had forgotten about this old SOLDIER production lab a decade ago. Their mistake had profited him greatly. There was one other thing that he needed to have taken care of. Sheena, his spy in Midgar, would take care of the abduction of Shiratori’s brat. Morghann had been his primary subject for a while, but upon discovering that Sarah Shiratori had both the ability to control the Lifestream and had the strength of the Mako injections passed to her by her father, she was a far better choice. The idea to summon all of the former SOLDIERs had been sheer genius in itself. Eko knew that there was jealousy from not being called upon by Rufus Shinra for help and passing the torch to the next generation of SOLDIER. His luck couldn’t have gotten any better. It was only a matter of time before Sarah Shiratori and Sirius Maelstrom were his. Then his revenge would begin.
---Sirius felt another wave of pain wash over her as she slid down the shower wall to sit in the tub. It was to be expected since she hadn’t had an issue with the Geostigma in quite a while. It was best to get it out of the way now instead of in the middle of Morghann and Reno’s wedding. Gritting her teeth, she attempted to stand, but failed. Warm jets of water soaked her thoroughly as she sat there digging her fingernails into her arms. She was pretty sure that Cloud was asleep and only hoped that he’d notice that she wasn’t in bed soon, but she was sure that if he didn’t, the murderous shriek that tore from her throat would. Sirius clenched her eyes closed as the pain seemed to overwhelm her, obscuring her vision.Within a few seconds, Cloud had burst into the bathroom, panting from the exertion. He looked frantically around the small room for Sirius, not registering the sound of the shower right away. When it finally did, he threw back the curtain to see Sirius curled up in the corner of the bathtub, soaked by the water and trembling from the pain. The blonde cursed as he shut off the water and grabbed a towel, pulling her to him and wrapping her up in it. Her wet hair was plastered to her body as she leaned against him sobbing quietly. Cloud kissed her on the top of the head and lifted her gently from the tub.“I’m sorry, Cloud.” She said, her voice cracking. “Geostigma.”“I know, Sirius. I know.” He replied as he pulled one of his few dress shirts from the drawer and placed it on her, carefully fastening the buttons. She collapsed into his arms as he carefully shifted around her to his side of the bed. “It’s not your fault, so don’t apologize.”She only nodded as she rested against him, fighting the bile that was rising in her throat. She would not give into the pain. She would not give into the Geostigma. It would be like giving into Sephiroth. That was one defeat that Sirius was not willing to accept. “Wouldn’t it be something,” Sirius panted, “if I suffered from the Geostigma during the battle with Eko?”His lips pursed into a tight line. “Don’t say things like that, Sirius. I’m scared enough for your safety as it is.”The white-haired woman looked up at him weakly. “Why would you be scared?” she asked, biting back another cry. “I’ve been training for months now.” She knew that he was hiding his thoughts from her, his fear eclipsing them.“Sometimes things happen that are unexpected. You should know that by now. War is unpredictable.” Cloud said smoothly, his eyes hardening for a second. He could sense her trying to delve into his mind, trying to learn what he was hiding. “Cloud…” Sirius groaned as another wave of pain hit her. “What are you so scared to let me know? What are you trying to protect me from? It’s not worth lying to me about.”“Yourself.” Were the only words he uttered.
---Tseng sat in the break room of the Shinra building with Elena across from him. Both Turks had noticed how much their boss had increased the workload in the past couple of months. Rufus was starting to feel nervous about this attack. Neither of them could blame him, however. With SOLDIER being a complete success, it was only a matter of time before something actually happened. Elena sipped on her coffee with a delicate poise before turning her eyes to him.“Tseng, I can’t help but have this bad feeling, like something’s going to happen soon. I can’t really explain it.”The dark-haired man put his tea down and gazed back at her. “Let’s get through Reno’s wedding next week and then we’ll scour every possible inch of ground that we haven’t already. I understand that you’re feeling anxious.”The blonde shook her head. “It’s not really anxiety so much, but it’s like there’s a pressure all over me that’s telling me something bad is going to happen. I know it sounds silly.”“No, it doesn’t.” Tseng shook his head. “I’m sure the boss has been feeling it too. That’s why it’s been so crazy around here.”“So I’m not crazy?” Elena asked, looking up at him with a flirtatious smile. “No.” Tseng smiled as he reached out to take her hand. “You’re not.”---End Chapter
---“Now Morghann, are you sure you have all of your arrangements taken care of?” Sirius asked in a serious tone.
The brunette gave a light chuckle as she stared across the table at her friend. “Of course, you don’t think I’d be a week before the wedding and not have every possible detail covered, do you?”Sirius smiled as she took a sip of her black coffee. “I was just making sure. Weddings are big things to plan. I can’t even imagine planning my own. Cloud will most likely leave everything to me anyway.”“Reno didn’t help much either, so I feel your pain.” Morghann replied.Both women had taken the greatest care in planning down to the minutest detail from the ceremony to the reception. With the lull in battle, things seemed like they would stay peaceful forever, but the two of them knew otherwise. Things were only going to get harder from then on out. Training had become part of the rigorous schedule at the Seventh Heaven. The men would spend hours upon hours during the day sharpening their skills with their respective weapons while they left the strategizing to Vincent and Cloud. It seemed that they were the group’s unofficial tacticians. Sirius would sit in from time to time and give her input, having known some of the deranged scientist’s personality traits from her time at Shinra’s lab. “Do you ever feel like we’ll never be able to win this battle?”Morghann’s question jerked her from her thoughts. “All the time. I have nightmares about being in his damn machine being the lifeless puppet that powers it. I want to wake up screaming from these dreams, but I don’t because I don’t want to upset Cloud.”“I’ve been having visions lately, Sirius, dark visions of the battle ahead. All I see is blood. There is so much blood and death that I don’t know how we can possibly survive.” Morghann confessed, lowering her eyes. “I just pray that they’re bad dreams.”“How can one person cause so much fear and destruction?” Sirius asked as her grip on her mug tightened. “I just don’t understand the point of this whole thing. Sure, revenge is sweet, but at the cost of so many extra lives? Eko is a coward!” she spat.Her friend nodded slowly, seeming to agree with the statement. One person killing that many other people was barbaric. What Morghann had seen looked like a massacre on some field. The images of the lifeless bodies sent chills up her spine. I know, Sirius, but it isn’t Eko that’s going to kill all of those men. It’s you.---Cloud entered the bar weary from another day of training. Vincent’s newest recruits were taking well to the tactics that he and Reno were teaching them. For the first time in months, hope sparked from somewhere deep down inside him. Sighing, the blonde bypassed the kitchen and headed straight for the roof. The calm of the sky always relaxed him at the end of a hard day. He knew that his daily training session with Sirius would take place soon, so he was resting up. Footsteps on the shingles caused Cloud to open his eyes and glance at the person who had joined him. A look of mild surprise crossed his face when he saw that Reno and not Sirius had joined him.“You look beat, yo. I’m feeling it too. It’s crazy training all those boys to fight against Eko.” The red-head stated as he sat down beside him.
“What’s up, Reno? You usually don’t come up here.” The blonde asked in a forward manner.Reno frowned as he stared out at the city below them. “Morghann told me about a vision that she’s been having. There’s this field covered in blood and butchered bodies are lying everywhere. It would’ve taken an army to do that much damage, but there’s only one person left standing and she wasn’t able to see who it was until last night.”“Why are you telling me this?” Cloud frowned, a cold feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. “That one person is Sirius, Cloud. Morghann believes that she’s the one that will kill all of those people.” Reno said quietly. Cloud’s whole body went rigid. He knew that Sirius was a fierce warrior, but there was no way that she would kill that many people. Not unless she had to. Was that some indication of what the future was to bring? The blonde shook his head. No way. That was not going to happen.“I don’t believe it.” He said. “There’s no way she’d do that.”The redhead was silent for a moment. “She does have the Sephiroth gene in her, Cloud. Whatever she’s going to face could’ve caused his characteristics to become too powerful for her to control.” He explained. Reno was unaware of the delicate band that his words came in contact with and decimated.“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” Cloud roared. “Sirius has been fighting the Geostigma and the Sephiroth gene her entire life! She wouldn’t kill those men without good reason!”“Good reason or not, she still massacres them, Cloud!” Reno shot, becoming defensive. “Morghann’s visions have never been wrong, you know that!”The blonde grew silent and seemed to withdraw into himself, staring up at the sky. The stars twinkled brightly above him as he felt a headache growing. He didn’t understand this at all. This was the first time in months that any evidence of their final battle had crept up on them. How long did they actually have? A year? A bit longer than that? Cloud couldn’t help but notice the nausea that he suddenly felt. His fiancé was going to go on a rabid killing spree sometime in the near future and he didn’t know the cause. If he didn’t have his pride to ensure, he would’ve thrown up. Rising from his position on the roof, he spared a fleeting glance at his companion before leaving.“I’m going to bed. I’ve had enough training today.” Green eyes widened a slight fraction. Never in his life had he heard Cloud so weak, so vulnerable, so…broken.---“Now, my SOLDIERs, I’ve called you here because society had no further use for you. They would rather train a new generation and destroy it than use what they already had.” Eko droned, a sea of ex-SOLDIERs ahead of him. Playing on their betrayal and jealousy was working to his advantage. “One last battle and I will cure you of your Mako poisoning so that you may live normal lives. Now, one year from now, I’m sending three hundred of you to capture this woman.” He explained, projecting a picture of Sirius on a large screen. “I know what most of you are thinking, but she is not to be taken lightly. Sirius Maelstrom, Subject 55690 of the Shinra Corporation, is the clone of Sephiroth and the clone of Jenova. She is dangerous and there’s no doubt that some of you will die. I want her brought to me alive. I don’t care what condition she’s in. You have a year to train, gentlemen.”Eko smirked as he exited the underground training facility that had come to be his base of operations in Mideel. Shinra had forgotten about this old SOLDIER production lab a decade ago. Their mistake had profited him greatly. There was one other thing that he needed to have taken care of. Sheena, his spy in Midgar, would take care of the abduction of Shiratori’s brat. Morghann had been his primary subject for a while, but upon discovering that Sarah Shiratori had both the ability to control the Lifestream and had the strength of the Mako injections passed to her by her father, she was a far better choice. The idea to summon all of the former SOLDIERs had been sheer genius in itself. Eko knew that there was jealousy from not being called upon by Rufus Shinra for help and passing the torch to the next generation of SOLDIER. His luck couldn’t have gotten any better. It was only a matter of time before Sarah Shiratori and Sirius Maelstrom were his. Then his revenge would begin.
---Sirius felt another wave of pain wash over her as she slid down the shower wall to sit in the tub. It was to be expected since she hadn’t had an issue with the Geostigma in quite a while. It was best to get it out of the way now instead of in the middle of Morghann and Reno’s wedding. Gritting her teeth, she attempted to stand, but failed. Warm jets of water soaked her thoroughly as she sat there digging her fingernails into her arms. She was pretty sure that Cloud was asleep and only hoped that he’d notice that she wasn’t in bed soon, but she was sure that if he didn’t, the murderous shriek that tore from her throat would. Sirius clenched her eyes closed as the pain seemed to overwhelm her, obscuring her vision.Within a few seconds, Cloud had burst into the bathroom, panting from the exertion. He looked frantically around the small room for Sirius, not registering the sound of the shower right away. When it finally did, he threw back the curtain to see Sirius curled up in the corner of the bathtub, soaked by the water and trembling from the pain. The blonde cursed as he shut off the water and grabbed a towel, pulling her to him and wrapping her up in it. Her wet hair was plastered to her body as she leaned against him sobbing quietly. Cloud kissed her on the top of the head and lifted her gently from the tub.“I’m sorry, Cloud.” She said, her voice cracking. “Geostigma.”“I know, Sirius. I know.” He replied as he pulled one of his few dress shirts from the drawer and placed it on her, carefully fastening the buttons. She collapsed into his arms as he carefully shifted around her to his side of the bed. “It’s not your fault, so don’t apologize.”She only nodded as she rested against him, fighting the bile that was rising in her throat. She would not give into the pain. She would not give into the Geostigma. It would be like giving into Sephiroth. That was one defeat that Sirius was not willing to accept. “Wouldn’t it be something,” Sirius panted, “if I suffered from the Geostigma during the battle with Eko?”His lips pursed into a tight line. “Don’t say things like that, Sirius. I’m scared enough for your safety as it is.”The white-haired woman looked up at him weakly. “Why would you be scared?” she asked, biting back another cry. “I’ve been training for months now.” She knew that he was hiding his thoughts from her, his fear eclipsing them.“Sometimes things happen that are unexpected. You should know that by now. War is unpredictable.” Cloud said smoothly, his eyes hardening for a second. He could sense her trying to delve into his mind, trying to learn what he was hiding. “Cloud…” Sirius groaned as another wave of pain hit her. “What are you so scared to let me know? What are you trying to protect me from? It’s not worth lying to me about.”“Yourself.” Were the only words he uttered.
---Tseng sat in the break room of the Shinra building with Elena across from him. Both Turks had noticed how much their boss had increased the workload in the past couple of months. Rufus was starting to feel nervous about this attack. Neither of them could blame him, however. With SOLDIER being a complete success, it was only a matter of time before something actually happened. Elena sipped on her coffee with a delicate poise before turning her eyes to him.“Tseng, I can’t help but have this bad feeling, like something’s going to happen soon. I can’t really explain it.”The dark-haired man put his tea down and gazed back at her. “Let’s get through Reno’s wedding next week and then we’ll scour every possible inch of ground that we haven’t already. I understand that you’re feeling anxious.”The blonde shook her head. “It’s not really anxiety so much, but it’s like there’s a pressure all over me that’s telling me something bad is going to happen. I know it sounds silly.”“No, it doesn’t.” Tseng shook his head. “I’m sure the boss has been feeling it too. That’s why it’s been so crazy around here.”“So I’m not crazy?” Elena asked, looking up at him with a flirtatious smile. “No.” Tseng smiled as he reached out to take her hand. “You’re not.”---End Chapter