Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ A New Fantasy ❯ Winged ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

I don't own Final Fantasy. Second Fan-fic! (Nothing big, just a few changes in the way it's set up no biggy.)

Note: From now on, third person battles will be indicated with *//////////*


In the bustling city of Midgar where once stood the evil Shinra Inc, two figures could be seen walking down the street of the once upper city. The slums had been destroyed and everyone was moved up out of the dark, polluted area of the slums and into the light. The two figures couldn't be more different, one was tall while the other was short. One wore jeans and the other wore cotton black pants. One was dark and the other was pale.

But they had one thing in common, the swords that they wore. To the people of Midgar they had the look of mercenaries, especially since the tall one had on shades and the short one had a white bandana over his forhead. They both seemed to be looking for someone, you could tell by the way they looked at everything.

"They're not here." said the tall one.

"Well obviously, Javon, they weren't here the last two times we came here. What made you think they would be here now?"

"Just a feeling, Hiei. Besides, I don't see you coming up with any hints to where they might be." said Javon.

"Just because you are impatiant doesn't mean I don't have to listen to every little rumor that comes our way." snapped Hiei.

"Oh, be quiet." Javon stuffed his hands into his pocket and started walking faster, but Hiei was right beside him.

"You better be glad Gohan put you on an important mission like this. If it were up to me you probably would be in one of the patrol squads back home."

"Hiei if it was up to you, I would even be in the UDF. So just be quiet and let's continue the search."

Hiei's eyes flashed dangerously. "I'm in command of this mission. If anyone is going to be quiet, it's going to be you."

"Make me."

In a flash, Hiei drew his sword and struck at Javon. But just as fast, Javon had his katana up, stopping Hiei's blade. Hiei spun and struck at Javon's back, but Javon spun out of the way and had his sword back in it's sheath, ready to strike back at Hiei. Ignoring his stance, Hiei rushed at him ready to take his head. Javon attacked Hiei with a fast draw that would have cut him in half if Hiei hadn't jumped at the last second.

In the air, Hiei twisted and threw his sword directly at Javon's head. Putting his sheath up over him, Javon sheathed Hiei's sword without even looking at it. When Hiei landed, Javon flicked his scabbard at him which sent Hiei's sword flying at him, blade first. Hiei punched the flat side of the blade which sent it spinning then grabbed the hilt out of the air and set himself. All of this happened in about ten seconds, but then...

"AAAAHHHHHH!!" They both looked at the woman who screamed and they saw that she was pointing up. They looked into the sky and saw what looked like a Draghkar. They looked at each other and without saying a word flew into the air after it.

Relizing it had been spotted, the Draghkar let out a shrill cry and tried to flee from the two people it saw flying after it. As it turned in the air, Hiei's blade cut off both of it's wings and it went spiraling down to the ground. It landed in front of Javon who grabbed it and brought it's face up to his.

"who sent you?" he said to the Draghkar.

It hissed at him through it's sharp teeth then tried to slash him. Javon tossed it to the ground and, with a quick slash of his katana, took it's head off. The head flew and then hit the ground, while the body fell to the ground with blood flowing from the severed neck. After wiping off the blade, Javon put his katana back in it's scabbard.

"This can only mean one of the Forsaken are here. They are the only ones that can command these Shadowspawn." said Hiei.

"Draghkar, they could almost pass for a tall man if only they didn't have those big eyes, sharp teeth and claws. Not to mention those bat wings on it's back." said Javon.

"Well let's go, we still have to go find Cloud and Sephiroth before whichever Forsaken is here finds them first. Now remember, I'm in charge." said Hiei, glaring at Javon.

"Whatever." And they both took off, toward the south.
*--------------------*
"What do you think it is? I've never seen anything like this before." said Tifa.

"No clue, it looks like one of those land worms, remember the ones we fought on the way to Dyne? That guy who held a grudge against Barret?" said Cloud.

"Yeah but they weren't black."

She was right of course, they were big, brown and had no eyes. But this thing was completely different. The only thing that those two had in common were the fact that they were both worms. This worm was black and was shorter than a land worm, only about 11 feet long. It had eyes, which was surprising, and it's mouth was slightly open to show it's razor-sharp teeth. But the most surprising thing was were the tentacles growing out the sides of it's head, also the stubs that ran along it's body.

"Well whatever it is it's dead, let's just leave it and continue." said Cloud.

"Okay, let's go." said Tifa.

They continued their journey to the island where the Temple of the Ancients' once stood. For the past five years, Cloud and Tifa have been travelling around together just looking for a place to settle down together. They both didn't want to live in Midgar no matter how much it had changed, and living in that sorry excuse for a Nibelhiem was out of the question. So they have just been wandering around for five years, never staying in a place for more than a month, but as long as they were together they were happy.

But two years after they had defeated Sephiroth the entire group had decided to meet up at the island and remember Aerith. This year it seemed that only Cloud and Tifa would come because everyone else was to busy. Nanaki said demons seem to be gathering around Cosmo Canyon again, Vincent was busy with his new job as the leader of the Turks.

Barret was still trying to run Corral which had turned into a prosperous town, Cid was supposed to be launching into space in two days and was making last minute preperations. No one knew where Yuffie was, she just poppped out of nowhere sometimes, and Cait Sith was now a pile of scrap.

It was now time for them all to meet up, but even if no one else went, Cloud and Tifa would still go. They left the worm thing and headed south toward the island. They came across a couple of monsters every so often, but they were easily despatched. Over the years, Cloud kept up his training and was now about five times stronger than he was when he defeated Ruby Weapon.

He remembered that one-on-one duel with Ruby and he never experienced another like it. But when he had defeated Ruby Weapon and it disappeared, a sharp pain took him to his knees. It was in his left shoulder and ever since that day, the pain has been increasing, and now when it happened it was strong enough to almost make him pass out.

They made another ten miles and then made camp by a stream. After they set up the tent and ate dinner they retreated into their tent and went to sleep. Cloud was having a dream about his fight with Sephiroth when a sound outside the tent woke him up. He grabbed the Buster Sword and went into the darkness outside.

When he got out there he heard scuttling in the dark. He looked around but saw nothing in the surrounding darkness. This time when the scuttling came he knew which direction it was coming from. He hurried and relit the fire so he could see. The thing came into the light and Cloud gasped. It was the black worm thing. Before he could think he rushed him on small, clawed feet, now he knew what the stubs were.

It attacked with it's tentacles, but Cloud knocked them away with his sword. It kept coming and also kept up the attacks with it's tentacles. When it was about five feet away, Cloud figured out it's strategy, it was keeping him distracted with it's tentacles so it could get close enough to attack with it's teeth and claws. Cloud started to back up, but the worm jumped at him and at the same time, it grabbed his sword with it's tentacles to prevent him from blocking.

It landed on him, pinning him to the ground and holding his sword with it's tentacles. It snapped it's jaws at his face and tried to slash him with it's claws, but Cloud kept it away with his feet. 'If this keeps up, my strength will give out.' he thought. The worm was extremely heavy and Cloud was using all of his strength just to keep it away.

"Can't...hold...on." He was nearly out of energy, but right when he was about to give out the worm was knocked off of him. He looked up and saw Tifa with her foot extended. She bent down and helped him to his feet, brushing him off.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Don't worry about it, let's just kill that thing."

It got up and charged them again, flailing its tentacles and snapping its jaws. They both jumped to either side as it rushed past, and as soon as its back was turned, Cloud charged in with an attack. Before he could attack it from behind, one of the tentacles grabbed his sword and stopped him again.

The other came and knocked him off of his feet and sent him flying. He hit the ground with a loud thud and when he got up, he saw Tifa use a Bolt3 spell. Her ponytail pointed straight out behind her as she summoned the power and then fell back down when she unleashed it.

A massive amount of electricity appeared out of nowhere to strike the giant worm from all sides. When she had cast the Bolt3 spell, Tifa began charging up for another spell and at the same time, Cloud had gotten back to his feet and was charging toward where the worm was surrounded in smoke.

Before he got close enough to do anything, both of the tentacles flew out of the smoke. The first one grabbed Tifa around the neck and lifted her off of her feet, while the second hit Cloud in the chest with the force of a cannon ball, knocking him away again.

The smoke subsided and showed the worm looking at its captive prey struggling to get free. This time Cloud got to his feet, extremely pissed. Placing the sword on his shoulder, he took his stance and then screamed, "Blade Beam!" at the top of his lungs. The Buster Sword glowed with power and Cloud swung it down with all of his might. A blade of energy flew straight from his sword and severed the tentacle that had Tifa, causing her to fall painfully to the ground. The energy that broke of when the attack hit and cut the other tentacle.

It didn't shriek like Cloud expected it to but instead it grunted and then the tentacles were whole again as if they had never been cut. 'What is this thing?' thought Cloud. Instead of charging them a second time, it jumped in the air and started spinning. When it hit the ground, it borrowed right underground. Cloud and Tifa quickly began moving so they wouldn't be in the same place. They also spread out so it couldn't attack them at the same time.

Cloud heard it move underground and it sounded like it was about to resurface. The ground rumbled under Tifa's feet, knocking her off balance and the worm resurfaced in the same spot she was just a second earlier. When she hit the ground she staggered to her feet with an angry expression.

She charged it this time and used every attack she had. Beat Rush, Sommersault, Water Kick and all of those were thrown at the worm. It stood there and took every blow without flinching. She was about to do My Final Heaven and was running, but again those damned tentacles wrapped around her legs lifting her upsidedown.

Cloud was finally able to get close enough and stabbed the worm in the side with his word. "Climmhazard!" instead of jumping he ran to the side, still dragging the sword through the worms body. When he was done, a long gash ran length-wise along the worm. Again the worm grunted and the gash was healed good as new. 'That's it.' thought Cloud, 'Omnislash.'

As soon as he had the thought, the worms tentacle wrenched the Buster Sword from his grip and tossed it into the night. Afterward it wrapped around his waist and lifted him, squeezing him tight. Cloud's insides felt ready to pop and he could hear Tifa struggling to breath, another ten seconds and they would be dead. Just then the sun rose over the horizon.

When the sun rose, the tentacles had stopped squeezing and in fact were loosening their grip. He looked down and saw that the worm had completely stopped moving, even breathing. With a crash it hit the ground, in the exact same position as they found it ten miles back.

Cloud landed and Tifa staggered into him when she landed a second later. He grabbed her to prevent her from falling. They straightend together and looked at the black worm beast laying motionless on the ground, its tentacles unmoving.

"What...happened?" said Tifa.

"I don't know and I don't care." said Cloud. He went to where the worm threw his Buster Sword and found that it was still fine, dispite being manhandled and then tossed like a twig. He strapped it to his back and when he did, the pain in his shoulder took the breath from his lungs. He tried to grab his shoulder, but his arms were locked in place. He couldn't take a breath, he fell on his face struggling to breath through the pain.

"Cloud? Cloud!" Tifa was kneeling next to him, shaking him but it only made the pain worse.

"Cloud, come on please. Don't die on me."

He heard her voice but wasn't able to answer. The darkness started to close in around him, his sense of sight was gone. Soon, he couldn't hear Tifa's voice, then he couldn't feel anymore. And finally, thankfully, he passed out.
***
"Hello." he heard his voice echo in the empty place.

"Is anyone here?" no one answered. He looked around but only saw darkness. There was no light in the place that he was in. He walked around but it looked like he wasn't going anywhere. He called out again but still no answer. His pain was gone and he could hear his voice, he saw himself but around him was just pure darkness.

"Tifa?!" he called out into the darkness. A sound then reached his ears, he realized it was laughter. "Who are you?" again laughter, but this time louder. "Stop laughing and answer me!" he was started to get really annoyed, but the laughter continued and this time he almost recognized it.

"Surrender, Cloud. Surrender to your power, surrender to the pain, surrender to the darkness." Cloud reached up to grab the Buster Sword but found that it wasn't there. "Surrender. Surrender now."

"Who are you?!" he shouted into the darkness.

"You know who I am. Just open your mind and remember!"

The voice was extremely angry, probably because Cloud didn't know who it was. He had heard the voice before but for some reason he couldn't place it.

"I'm sorry I don't know, could you just tell me who you are?!" he shouted.

"Let me refresh your memory." it said quietly.

Cloud felt a breeze in the darkness. It swirled around him and made his clothes move with him. Suddenly it became violent, moving with a lot power behind it. "Surrender." The wind became full of black feathers swirling round him. He couldn't see anything even his hand. The black feathers started to glow with a greenish, white light.

"I'll see you soon." The feathers started to glow so brightly that they all seemed to be little suns and Cloud had to close his eyes. Again the darkness took him and he heard the echo of the voice.

"I am..."
***
"..you're stronger than this, I mean you did beat Sephiroth and Ruby Weapon. There's no way you could let a worm beat you like..."

Tifa's voice was the first thing he heard. He felt that his head was on her lap and that she was wiping his head with a wet cloth. He opened his eyes and saw that she was looking at him, worried.

"What happened?" he asked her.

"We fought the worm and when it stopped moving, you passed out. I have no idea why."

Cloud looked up and saw that the sun had arisen completely. "How long was I out for?"

"Only an hour. While you were sleep I took down the tent and carried you away from the worm in case it woke up and attacked again."

Cloud sat up and saw that the worm was nowhere to be seen but also noticed that they still seemed to be by the stream they had camped by. Tifa had just moved them a little down the stream to get away from the worm.

"You need some new clothes."

He looked at Tifa, "Why?"

"Look at yourself."

Cloud looked down and saw that his clothes were shredded. There were holes and big cuts in his clothes and his sleeves and one of his pants legs were ripped off.

"How did this happen?"

"The worm did it. You probably didn't notice because you were preoccupied, but when I kicked it off of you I saw that some of it's claws had gotten to your clothes if not to your skin."

"Well where's the nearest town?"

"About two miles from here."

They headed to the town, but Tifa was the only one who went in because Cloud's clothes were so messed up. Cloud waited outside for about forty minutes before she came back.

"What took you so long?" he asked when she finally came back.

"They had a lot of weird stuff so I picked some things that I thought would look good on you. Here, go get changed."

She handed him the bundle of clothes and he noticed that there was a golden, clawed gauntlet on top.

"What's this for?"

"So you can defend yourself without the sword."

'Whatever.' Cloud went behind a rock and started pulling his clothes on.

"Do I really have to wear this cape?"

"Of course. I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't want you to wear it."

After getting everthing on, he stepped from behind the rock and turned to Tifa.

"How do I look?" (Note: Cloud is now wearing the clothes he had on in Kingdom Hearts.)

"You look cool." said Tifa.

"Really?" he looked at the tattered cape behind him. "It looks weird to me."

"It looks fine, let's go."

They packed up everything and continued their journey to the island were the Temple of the Ancient's once stood. Before the day was done they had gone about twelve miles, not wanting the worm to catch up with them again, and the following day they rented a boat and were at the island before the afternoon.

On the Island, it was very quiet. For some reason that Cloud couldn't figure out, all the monsters on the island had gone away for some reason. He had no idea why, it was last year when they had come here that they relized it. But it didn't matter, the monsters on the island were too weak and would only be a bother anyway. When they got to the middle of the island, they had a big surprise waiting for them.

There were people around the hole in the ground were the Temple once stood and they were...

"Cid! Barret! Vincient! Nanaki! What are you guys doing here?!" exclaimed Tifa.

"Long time no see, huh Cloud?" said Barret.

"Nice clothes." stated Vincient who was comparing Cloud's gauntlet to his.

"You really didn't think that we wouldn't come, did you?" asked Nanaki.

"No but you all said you were to busy to come this year. And I thought you were supposed to be blasting off into space today?" Cloud said to Cid.

"Yeah well that was a lie so we could surprise you two here."

"Well anyway, we have a lot to talk about." said Tifa.

They sat down in a circle and started talking to each other. Nanaki talked about what happened in Cosmo Canyon that year, Cid, about the new rocket that was almost completed. Barret, about Corral and Marlene mostly, and Vicient, talked about how the Turks were doing in their fourth year as a peacekeeping unit. Cloud and Tifa told them about their travels, also about the worm that attacked them on the way to the island.

It surprised everyone, but they laughed it off, saying that if the worm ever got to the island, it wouldn't stand a chance against all six of them. Then the conversation turned to their earlier adventures and all the good times they had. They sat around and talked for about four hours, well into the afternoon. And soon it was time for them to go.

Cid stood up, "Well, I'll be heading back now. No doubt those sons a #!@$@ will mess things up if I not there looking over their shoulders twenty-four seven."

"Gotta get back to Corral and see this new thing that the excavaters dug up, they saw it might be a new source of energy."

"And it's almost grandpa's birthday. He may be gone, but me and some of the other villagers still celebrate it. He was a good man."

"Yeah," said Tifa, a little dissapointed that they would be splitting up again, "You guys take care on the way back, alright?"

"We'll be fine, don't worry about us. We can take care of..." Cid trailed off because in the distance, the sound of howling could be heard.

"what was that?" asked Cloud. The howling came again, but this time another howl came right after it.

"I've never heard howling like that." said Barret.

Again the howling came, and was answered this time by four more howls. Cloud turned to Nanaki and was surprised to see him in an attack position, "Do you have any idea what these things are?"

"No clue," he growled through clenched teeth, "but they're not natural."

"What do you mean, not natural?"

"They smell evil. Twisted. It's hard to describe, but they're not anything I've ever smelled before in my life."

"Can you tell us..." Cloud was cut off when a huge shaped erupted from the forest to his left and took Barret down.

"OH S#$!" shouted Cid. He spun the Venus Gospel into his hand and charged at the big, black thing on the ground that was mawling Barret.

Before he got to it though, another burst from the trees, then another and another until there was five counting the one that was still trying to get Barret. Barret cussed at the thing and was finally able to throw it off of him. It went over to where it's fellows stood, staring at the people they had cornered and Barret got to his feet.

"What the...?" They were really big, really black dogs. Dogs the size of ponies. They had sharp, dripping teeth and piercing yellow eyes. They growled at the people they surrounded, sizing them up, seeing which to attack first.

"Giant mutts." said Barret.

"Those aren't dogs, at least dogs don't smell twisted and evil and tainted and... AWRROOOOOOOO!" Nanaki howled and then charged the big, black dogs. Instead of meeting his attack together they split up to attack the rest of the group before they had time to react.

Cloud brought up the Buster Sword and slashed at the dog. It easily jumped over his swing and landed behind him. When Cloud turned around, the dog had already jumped at him, snapping it's powerful jaws as it flew at him. He brought his sword up to defend himself and when the dog hit him, they both hit the ground with the dog on top.

Using both his feet and sword, Cloud kept the demon dog away from him. It snapped at his head and tried to slash him with it's claws but he was able to move out of the way everytime. Some of the saliva dripped onto his cape that was under him, and when it hit, Cloud could hear it start to hiss and then smelled it burn.

Now he knew that the thing's saliva was acid, and when it snapped at him again, Cloud used it's momentum to flip it off of him. It landed on the ground on it's back then scrambled to it's feet, growling the whole time. Cloud then shouted to his friends, "Be careful! Their spit is acid!"

They couldn't answer because they were to busy fighting off the demon dogs. Cloud took a quick survey and saw that no one had gotten burned with the acid spit, then turned back to his dog which had gotten back on it's feet. It growled and charged again jumping at Cloud.

This time, Cloud saw that it jumped to early and was able to use the opening for a counterattack. He swung the Buster Sword and hit it in it's side. It let out a deep growl and went down again, trying to scramble back to it's feet. Before it could get back up, Cloud swung his sword over his head a couple of times then jumped in the air, "Meteor Rain!"

He slashed the air with his sword and nine small meteors came flying out of nowhere. They hit the demon dog and exploded. Cloud landed and was ready to help his friends when, "Cloud! Behind you!" shouted Barret. Cloud turned and moved out of the way just in time. The demon dog was still alive and had tried to attack him with his back turned. 'Damn. What does it take to kill this thing?' It charged and the fighting continued.

The battle raged on for a good twenty minutes, neither side gaining any advantage over the other one. All of the Final Fantasy fighters were tired but were managing to hold their own. Cloud was purely on the defensive, blocking and dodging the demon dog, barely able to stay alive.

He was getting slow with his defenses and once in awhile the demon dog would get past his defenses and slash him here or there, but he was careful not to let the teeth get to him. Suddenly it lunged at him and Cloud misjudged it's course. It rammed him in the chest and knocked him to the ground on his back, then it backed up and prepared for another strike.

"Cloud." The pain in his shoulder had come back.

"You can not die." It was the voice from his dream, after the fight with the worm.

"You owe me a rematch." A blinding flash of light appeared overhead. The demon dog stopped it's attack and started to back away. Cloud opened his eyes and saw that the light was coming from a strange symbol in the air. When he saw it, it began rotating, giving off more light.

Cloud sat up so he could see easier. He looked around and saw that the other dogs had left his friends alone and they were making their way to where he was. When they got to him, Vincent helped him to his feet, then turned to the magical symbol rotating in the air.

"What is it?" he asked.

"No idea." said Tifa.

"I know what it is," everyone turned to Cloud," it's Sephiroth, he's still alive."

"WHAT!?!" everyone shouted at the same time. In the sky, symbol had finished it's rotating and a ball of light appeared on the ground. The light grew brighter and brighter, forcing everyone to close their eyes and when they opened them, there stood Sephiroth.

Nanaki started growling, Cid spun his spear up and cussed again, Tifa put her fists up and Vincent and Barret both aimed their guns at him. He looked at them and smiled, disspite all the weapons and fighters before him. He then looked to the side at the dogs who were watching the newcomer with interest. Sephiroth turned to the dogs and, in a voice Cloud could barely hear said, "Time to die." and vanished in a ball of darkness.
*//////////*
Sephiroth reappeared behind one of the dogs. Before they could move, Sephiroth brought his 6ft Masamune out of the strap at his hip. He smirked and then spun himself in the air with the blade spinning. It hit the dog from behind and cut it to pieces. The other four dogs turned to Sephiroth and jumped at him at the same time but before they could get him, he vanished again.

The dogs collided in the air and Sephiroth appeared behind the second one a cut it in half with one quick slash. Vanishing and reappearing again, he cut the next one. He moved among all of the dogs and defeated each of them with one slash and didn't get one drop of blood on him.

Cloud watched in stunned silence as the last of the dogs feel. 'He's even more powerful than the last time.' He stood and put the Masamune back at his hip, then turned to face Cloud and his party. "Good to see you again Cloud." he said.

"It was you who was in my dream. What did you mean by surrender?"

Sephiroth opened his mouth to answer, but a voice boomed, "He means surrender to the Great Lord of the Dark!"

Everyone looked around and it was Nanaki who saw it first. A slash of white light appeared not to far from where they were. It rotated into a doorway, and out stepped a man. A tall man with close-cropped white hair, he wore a red silk coat with black stripes and black pants with silver-worked boots. He was lean and strong, looked like a fast fighter who valued speed over strength.

"Surrender to the Great Lord and you will live forever." his voice was strong and seemed to guarantee that what he says is true.

"Isn't that what you were going to say, Sephiroth? Surrender to the Great Lord of the Dark."

"No." he said in a flat clear voice. "I don't even know who you or this Great Lord of the Dark is."

"Me, I am one of the Chosen. My name is Be'lal." he said.

"Be'lal. Well I have no interest in joining you or anyone who calls themselves the Great Lord of the Dark. Sounds pretty evil to me." stated Cloud. Be'lal looked from Sephiroth to Cloud as he spoke and when he finished smiled.

"I'm not giving you a choice. You'll come with me wheter you like it or not. I was just giving you the chance to come peacefully so I won't hurt you. But if I have to drag you with me you will come. Or you could serve the Great Lord in death, beyond the grave. Either way is fine, but he would prefer you alive."

Cloud listened to this man and thought he was crazy. He just told them he would force them or kill them and he dosn't even seem to care that he is outnumbered seven to one. Barret seemed to be thinking the same thing because he said,

"Who the hell do you think you are you son of a @#&$?" Be'lal turned slowly to Barret, the smile gone from his face.

"Say something else, and I will kill you. The Great Lord didn't say that he needed you." his voice was cold.

"Say something like this?" Barret lifted his gun-arm, aimed and started shooting everything he had at the lone man. When the bullets got to the man, everyone of them seemed to hit an invisible wall of steel. They hit this wall and just dropped to the ground, but Barret still shot at him with everything he had. After awhile, Cloud heard the clicking that said Barret was out of ammo. But instead of stopping there, Barret charged up his energy and shot him with his Big Shot.

The red ball of energy flew at Be'lal and he raised his hand. The Big Shot hit his open palm and stayed there. Cloud watched, surprised as Be'lal held Barret's attack in front of him like a red ball.

"Do you think your pitiful powers could even damage me? You are a fool." he casually tossed the energy back at Barret. The energy moved with blinding speed and Cloud couldn't even follow it. One second it was in Be'lal's hand, and the next Barret was flying through the air. At the same time, Be'lal cast his hand out at Barret's body that was still in the air and fire consumed him. Barret screamed, the first time Cloud had heard him scream out of pain, and the fires died out. When they did, Barret was gone.

Tifa feel to her knees, her eyes tearing up, "Noooo!" she screamed. Everyone else was to shocked to speak, even Sephiroth. The only one unphased was Be'lal who turned and said, "Now he won't disturb us anymore. Now are you ready to surrender?"

Cloud was livid. One of his best friends was just killed. The pain that came in his shoulders was nothing compared to what he felt now, a bee sting next to being run through with a sword. The pain in his shoulder grew, but it wasn't really a pain, it was more like a feeling now. It had changed and now he could feel it growing throughout his body. It filled him with confidence.

"Surrender to you? I'll never surrender to murderers! You bastard you'll pay for what you did to Barret."

"Is that a fact?" said Be'lal.

"It is." said Sephiroth, from behind Be'lal. He swung his sword lighting fast but from somewhere Be'lal got a sword that seemed to be made of black fire. He blocked Sephiroth's attack and when the two sword's hit, sparks flew. Be'lal looked surprised.

"A power-wrought blade? But where's the heron-mark?" Cloud had no idea what he was talking about but charged in anyway. He ran up to Be'lal, jumped in the air and came down with his most trusted attack, "Braver!" Be'lal moved his sword to block the attack. He looked at Cloud and Cloud felt a force of something push him back, away from Be'lal.

"Like I said, The Great Lord would prefer you two alive, but if I have to take you by force then so be it." He flew into the air and floated over the square hole where the Temple used to be. 'How does he do that?' thought Cloud.

"Darkhounds, enough playing games. Reform yourselves and kill them all but the two that The Great Lord desires."

Cloud was wondering what he was talking about until he heard Nanaki start to growl. Cloud looked and saw that the demon dogs, the Darkhounds had indeed reformed. All six of them were growling deeply in their throats, all of them looking at Sephiroth. Sephiroth turned to them and said,

"Let me show you my true power." He crossed his arms across his chest. He closed his eyes and seemed to be concentrating really hard. His back arched and Cloud could see a bulge forming on his back, at the same time the spot were his shoulder used to hurt, started to pound. Cloud felt his skin start to stretch and the feeling in him grew greatly, and seemed to take over his whole body. Sephiroth seemed to be chanting something, and Cloud could feel himself saying what Sephiroth was saying but didn't understand the words.

"You are both Winged humans? I thought they were all extinct. You will definetly make good additions to our army."

Cloud didn't hear Be'lal talking, all that mattered right now was the chanting and the strecthing. He could feel it coming to the surface, almost breaking through. At the same time he and Sephiroth both looked up with dazed eyes, not seeing anything, and in the same motion cast their left hands out to their side.

At the same time a big, black raven wing erupted from Sephiroth's left shoulder and an equally black demon's wing came from Cloud's left shoulder. Cloud let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, he could feel the wing poking out of his skin but it didn't hurt. He controlled it, tried to make it flap, it worked. Everytime he thought about it the wing flapped and whenever he didn't want it to, it didn't.

He looked at Sephiroth because he had said something, "Let me show you to the Promised Land!" He threw the Masamune into the air and it landed in the ground, the blade sinking into the earth. Sephiroth started to glow with a greenish light with a little black mixed into it. Looking up Cloud saw huge rocks, hurtling toward the earth.

All of them were bigger than Cloud and there were about ten of them landed around the Darkhounds. A ball of swirling energy appeared above Sephiroth and at the same time, the rocks started to move in a big circle, keeping the Darkhounds the immediate area. One or two of them tried to run through, but were knocked back by the spinning rocks.

The ball of energy grew above Sephiroth and Cloud stood, feeling the power and could tell that it was very strong. With his own power in him, Cloud felt calm no longer fearing Sephiroth or the power he was gathering. When the ball of energy reached it's appex, Sephiroth tossed it into the spinning rocks area.

The ball hit the ground a exploded, sending an intense bright light from the center of the spinning rocks. The light went everywhere and for a split second Cloud could see nothing but white then when the light died down, he saw Sephiroth pull his sword out of the ground, "That is true power." he said.

Clapping came to Cloud's ears and he looked up to see Be'lal clapping, floating in the same spot he was when the Darkhounds had come back.

"Bravo! Bravo! I can see that the legends about the power of the Winglies isn't exaggerated. With the proper training you could become proper weapons."

Cloud was growing tired of his voice, he felt the power in him then willed it told it he wants to fly. He didn't understand how his power worked but it seemed to work on his desires and right now he desired to fly. Yellow lighting surrounded him, he felt himself get lighter and then felt his feet leave the ground. He went higher and higher, then told the power this was fine so he stopped level with Be'lal.

Be'lal still wasn't intimidated, "You can fly without ki energy, very impressive. That's the only way I can fly, you will be very useful."

"No one will use me. I'll kill you for killing Barret." He drew the Buster Sword and flew foward. Be'lal blinked at how fast he flew but still brought up his own sword in time to stop the attack. Cloud flew by and turned around in the air, he flew at Be'lal again and tried another attack. Be'lal blocked this attack too, he looked Cloud in the eyes, "You cannot beat me, boy. There's no why you are strong enough even with your Wingly powers unlocked. Prove your strength to me by killing these."

The air stiffened around Cloud and he was lowered down to the ground. When his feet touched down on the ground, Be'lal waved his hands over all of them. The sky turned dark and everyone looked around for what Be'lal wanted them to fight. He heard scuttling and could hear trees falling. Cloud looked to wear the noise was coming from and from the forest came four big familiar shapes.

"Merdrum! Fight them so I may see their powers!" There were four of the worms that Cloud and Tifa couldn't beat. They stood side by side, their tentacles waving in the air menacingly. Cloud knew that he could take on one of them now, but four, he was having doubts. He didn't have doubts for long because from the air, two shapes hurtled toward the island were all the action was taking place.
*//////////*
Javon flew as fast as he could, hoping he could get down there before the Forsaken Be'lal was able to act. Hiei right beside him seemed to be thinking the same thing. They both landed and took off toward the four Merdrum who were still standing there. Javon flew forward with blinding speed and slashed the first Merdrum. Almost instantly it healed itself but Javon had already moved on to the second one.

Hiei ran at the Merdurm facing him and it attacked him with one of it's tentacles. Cutting the tentacle as he ran by, Hiei got to the Merdrum. Before it could so much as flinch, he attacked with a flurry of attacks, each attack sent blood spraying from the Merdrum's body. When his combo ended, the Merdrum healed itself again like it did with Javon.

They both jumped and stood back to back, "Any bright ideas now, Hiei?" asked Javon, his glasses had little splatters of blood on it and so did his clothes.

"Just one," his Gigan eye under his white bandana began glowing, "Total destruction so they can't heal."

They nodded to one another then ran in seperate directions. Javon charged his two Merdrum, dodging in between their attacking tentacles. He stopped and when the tentacles came again, he slashed all four of them with one clean slice. In the same motion, he jumped back a little and held his right hand out to his side.

It glowed with a blue, eerie light, looking like blue fire but it was his ki not magic. He threw his arm forward and at the same time said, "Dragon Howl!" A small dragon appeared out of the blue, fire, ki energy and flew at the two Merdrum. It let loose it's breath as it went by, burning the two Merdrum with blue fire. Before the dragon even began to dissaper, Javon ran forward right in front of both of the Merdrum.

He had his hand on the hilt of his katana and the scabbard started to glow with a black light. He drew the sword and swung it at both of them, "Chaos Sword!" A dark energy erupted from his sword, hitting both of the Merdrum and they were obliterated in the wake of it's power.

Hiei was trying to charge up for his attack, but the tentacles kept interferring. He would cut them of but they would keep regrowing fast enough that it made little difference.

Tired of cutting the tentacles, Hiei rushed the two Merdrum. Thier combined four tentacles rushed at him, he cut them off and then with a burst of speed, went straight in between them, turning round so he was facing them from behind. 'Tasteless move, but necessary in this case.' He gathered the remaining energy that he needed, took his badana off so his eye could open completely. The Merdrum had finally found him but it was to late.

The tentacles flew at him again but he dodged them easily, getting in close enough to use, "Sword of the Darkness Flame!" His blade channeled the power of the Dragon into a sharp energy capable of cutting almost anything. The dark roaring fire sword almost seemed to burn with the need to release it's power. Hiei granted it's wish and attacked both of the Merdrum with quick slashes of the Darkness Sword, alternating between slashing one and slashing the other, Hiei slashed them to piecies in a matter of seconds. When he was done, only smoking smears remained where the two worms once stood.

Hiei looked up at the Forsaken and saw that he still hadn't moved. Then of to the side, he saw the purple portal open up, their gateway back home. Ingoring the unmoving Forsaken, Hiei went to the party in front of him. He and Javon knew that there was no time trying to explain what they were here for now with one of the Forsaken floating there, so they used their ki to push the unsuspecting party into the portal.

They screamed as they were sucked into the portal and Hiei and Javon, with one last look at Be'lal, went into the portal after them.

'Fools. Do they think they have escaped me?'The portal that they went through closed almost like a gateway. 'There is no way to escape one of the Chosen if they want you dead. You two have played into my hands and when Rico, Yusuke and Kazuma have found who they are looking for, you will see me again. And this time you won't survive such a meeting.'

Opening a gateway back to his room, Be'lal stepped through the gateway and let it close behind him.




The End of Chapter 1. Yes! My first chapter and I like it. Longer than the last chapter of A Fuedal Fairy Tale and I think that Chapters 2 and 3 will be the same. I wasn't expecting the first chapter to turn out like this or even be this long, but I liked how it came out. And yes Be'lal does mean Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara. Note: Javon and Rico are both original characters of mine, based loosly on my best friends. With Javon you will recognize his attacks if you've ever played a game called Star Ocean: The 2nd Story and for Rico, his powers come from an anime called The Slayers. Wait for him in the next chapter.

Any specific questions for me you can e-mail me, any comments, just review please? See ya later alligators.