Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy- Final Destination Part 2 ❯ The Fall of the Church ( Chapter 9 )

"Let me go!" Salira yelled as she tried her best to struggle free. It was no use; Sephiroth had an excellent grip on Salira's neck. A small smirk was noticeable on his face. "I will not join SOLDIER no matter what you do to me!" The more she moved, the more Sephiroth tightened his grip. Before long, Salira could feel the pain in her neck and stopped. Sephiroth loosened his grip a bit once she calmed down and looked at Leigh; his face expression proved that he was enjoying this mayhem.

"NOW LEIGH!" Yuffie shouted, still struggling to keep a hold on Sethrinn, who was beginning to falter in her flight under the ninja's added weight. Sephiroth's attention immediately turned to Yuffie. Leigh nodded and activated a yellow Materia stone on her pistol, then aimed the spell at Sephiroth, careful to aim that it would hit him from the side where Salira would be less affected. "SHADOW FLARE!" While the beam headed at Sephiroth, Leigh threw the small pistol, without Sephiroth noticing, to Salira. Salira finally jerked herself loose, but Sephiroth still held her by her wrist, tightly. She caught the gun flying to her and got it ready to fire at Sephiroth.

Sethrinn teleported out from under Yuffie. "Is that the best that you can do?" Sethrinn sneered as she hit Yuffie with the hilt of her sword in the back; then teleported to Leigh and did the same thing, soon pinning her to the ground.

As the blast flew out of Leigh's gun, Sephiroth turned his head. Sephiroth's eyes distinguished shock for a mere second before his sadistical grin returned. The beam smashed into and invisible wall around him bouncing off into a nearby building. "I think you forgot about my Wall spell." Laughing, he kicked the gun out of Salira's hands and into his own; he noticed once Salira cocked it. Light began to glow around his hands and absorbed into the gun. Taking aim, he fired four shots at Yuffie each with a word in between, "Get...Away...From...My...Daughter!"

Yuffie rolled out of the shots, "You'll have to do better than that!" She noticed Sephiroth's grin and sensed something strange. He finally replied, "But I have, my dear." Yuffie turned around to see his view and it was clear what the problem was. The bullets had turned around and were coming in quickly.

"Aw, crap," Yuffie groaned. She cartwheeled forward then broke into a run as the bullets began to catch up behind her. She leapt up a wall and onto a roof, and, in the chase, one of the bullets was embedded in the wall. Three still to go, and Yuffie had no idea how long brick would hold the fourth back, or if it had even stopped it for good. Bloody Turks, she thought as she bounded from roof to roof, circling around, always keeping Sephiroth and the younger combatants in sight. Would be so like Athrin to slow things down.... Vincent, just let Rude and Elena give him a good knock on the head and get your arse down here!

Yuffie ground to a halt, backflipped, and cartwheeled to the side as the three bullets still in motion suddenly were in front of her coming toward her. She only evaded them slightly, and heard a ka-tink sound as one struck a blade of her shuriken as it passed. Two seconds slower and that would have been my leg it hit... five seconds and it would have been my chest....

Leigh, meanwhile, was lying on the ground, pinned by Sethrinn, her unarmored left hand fending her opponent's hands away from her throat, and her armored right hand pinned underneath her back. She thrashed about, trying to free her right arm, and was finally able to roll enough to get it free; she then reached up and grabbed a fistful of feathers from Sethrinn's wing and pulled them out. The demiangel gave a shriek of surprise and/or minor pain and flinched back, allowing Leigh to roll away and get to her feet. Sethrinn charged, sword out, and Leigh did the only thing she could - grabbed the blade with her armored hand. She could feel the pain, see the blood seeping out, dripping down the Masamune replica; the sword had cut straight through the golden gauntlet and into Leigh's palm but had stopped there. There's nothing else I can do now, she thought, gritting her teeth behind her shroud. I'm unarmed save the transformations and too drained to be able to use them... and even if I could I'd lose all comprehension and intelligence and probably end up on the ground again all beat up. Sephiroth has my gun and all my Materia, and he's using them to chase Lady Kunesagi around the battlefield in circles. Everyone else is trying to fight either him or Sethrinn....

Leigh let go of the blade and rolled aside clumsily. Unprepared for the sudden lack of resistance Sethrinn also tumbled forward, but since she had been airborne she recovered much quicker and was charging again by the time Leigh was back on her feet. I can only pray the Turks saw the flare. If not I don't, know WHO could save us now, we can't defeat Sethrinn AND Sephiroth together....

It's all too easy... Mother if you could only see me now!, Sephiroth wickedly thought. "Now is your end children! Now is the time of a new era, one which you shall not see!" Swooping down, the unspeakable evil deftly slashed at the column supports for the nearby buildings. They began to buckle under the pressure as Sephiroth flew back up firing down a barrage of bullets at the crowd. Humph! This weapon is pitiful. Being sure to retrieve the materia, he threw the weapon at the ground, smashing it. "Watch this children!" Without aid of armor or weapon, he deftly combined Leigh's materia into one condensed one. Its huge glow filled the dark plaza. "Let this ultimate materia be sacrificed. Let its true potential be shown for one shining moment show me chaos on earth. Bring down Hell on these lesser beings! So says your God!" Thrusting the materia down to the ground it began to crack, exposing the power of Ultima.

The unknown young man walked up to Lega and Shade, his eyes still looking up at the chaos, shocked of what was happening. Lega watched in fear, his eyes widened as he watched. Shade looked at the young man approaching, then back at Sephiroth. "Ok…this is bad. I wasn't expecting this! If we stay here we could all die…but if we leave, Salira is going to…" Raven swore he heard something above him crack. He looked up and saw that some debris had fallen from the decaying buildings. "Shit!" Raven yelled as be was buried in the debris falling. "Raven!" Lega screamed as he ran over to where Raven was buried, and frantically searched for him.

The bullets that had been chasing Yuffie about dropped suddenly as Sephiroth's attention was distracted from them to the combining of Leigh's various Materias. The next thing she knew the building beneath her was crumbling. She looked over at where Leigh was and noticed she was no longer battling Sethrinn - she had flown up to where Sephiroth was, Salira still dangling from his grasp, to avoid the blast Yuffie recognized all too well as the spell Ultima. "Everyone!" she shouted, leaping from collapsing building to collapsing building. "Run for it! Try and get to me!"

The others, but Lega, Sicotto, and Raven, were soon on their feet, running through collapsing alleyways if they weren't as nimble as Leigh or Yuffie, who were easily jumping from roof to roof in the tumbling square. At one point the ninja's leg slipped through a weak point in one of the shingles, but only for a moment, as she was able to slip loose before the building pinned her leg in an irretrievable position beneath the debris it would soon become. It wasn't long before the two of them were beyond the ring of buildings Sephiroth had transformed into a domino effect, but they were still not safe from the effects of Ultima. Balancing on a still-stable, untouched building's roof, the two pondered what to do next while waiting for the others to arrive. Until a single voice could be heard far ahead of them; "Holy Crap, what is that!?" Leigh and Yuffie exchanged knowing looks. Both were thinking the same thing. That sounded like Athrin....

Salira didn't know what to do. She dangled from Sephiroth's grip. Their all going to die because of me, she thought. She looked down once she heard a crash and saw that Raven was buried. "Raven!" she screamed. Salira noticed that her larger sword was nowhere to be seen, but she remembered about her replica of Masamune and held her free hand, soon gripping on the long sword's hilt as it appeared. "It's time to pay Sephiroth!" Salira sneered while she swung her sword at him. Father…Where are you? We need your help…, Salira thought to herself as she swung her blade at Sephiroth.

Blocking the pitiful replica, Sephiroth knocked it back and aimed the tip of his blade at Salira's neck. "Foolish Girl! You can't beat me and even if you did you'd fall to your death. Now put the sword down or I'll consider dropping you into the abyss!" He pushed the sword into her skin but without breaking the skin or drawing blood. "Drop It!"

Raven dug his way out of the rubble. "Damn this isn't good...huh? Someone else is here!?" Raven sensed another person entering the scene. He looked back at what use to be the entrance of the church and saw a strange figure with a huge sword in his hand. Is that? No, it can't be! It was easy to see who the newcomer was; the height, the stance, and the sword. It can only be one person: Cloud Strife himself.

Cloud stepped forward. Never again will he let his daughter come into harm. He found out of Sethrinn's truth soon after he left in search of Salira. `Sephiroth! Let her go now!" Cloud demanded as he swung his sword into an attack position. "I will not ask again!" Once the sight of Cloud reached Salira, a smile could be seen on her face.

In the shadow cast by the by the church's rubble, a feminine dark figure was well hidden. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and watched the crowd of fighters. Salira was uselessly trying to free herself of Sephiroth's grip. She saw Cloud appear and confront Sephiroth. The female hid herself apprehensively, the last person she wanted to see her was Cloud, or any of the others; but they had more crucial problems at the time to notice her. A shadow was of no importance. She, herself, had just came out of a battle a moment before, she was still out of breath, but at least she defeated the enemy. She pulled out her sword, just in case. She wished she could use her pistol, but she already used all of her bullets, so her sword had to suffice this time. She saw the smile on Salira's face as her father came to the rescue. How I loathe her, if only… She shook her head. The tide turns… Her attention was easily detracted by, what she called, a nuisance.

The unknown male hit the ground. Apparently, he stayed behind. Not only did he, but so did Shade. He held his head and screamed as he stood up. "AHHHHH! NO! HOW COULD THIS BE! HE'S DEAD! AHHHHH!" he screamed as he shot out waves of black energy in all directions. He somehow had lost control for the time being. Many of the fighters dodged the frantic waves, but Strife, Sephiroth and Sethrinn stayed put, for they were in no harm of the waves. The waves missed them entirely. The female lurking in the shadows returned back to looking at the two rivals.

"Strife! You think I am a fool! I can kill her twenty different ways before you could swing that thing! Just move and I will impale her!" Sephiroth yelled at Cloud. Salira's smile soon faded on her face and it turned into a horrified look. "Sethrinn, I grow weary of this battle. Let's leave before we fall asleep." Drifting higher and higher, until he could see them all, Sephiroth drifted there with the hostage in hand. "Fools... You forget my power! Cloud this is not the end! This is not even the beginning! My story continues this day; you will not live to see the next week! Believe me if I see your face again, your daughter dies!"

The hidden female grin wickedly. Finally, Salira is going to be taken hostage. She came a little closer to see what was going on, and saw that neither the general nor his daughter were having trouble. She wanted some action, but she tried to stay content in watching for once.

The young man's eyes turned blood red and he looked to the sky seeing a man holding a girl up in the sky. Orange light surrounded the young man as he stood up. "SONIC WAVE!" he shouted as he shot a large beam at the man in the sky. "It's time for my pay back for what he did to her!" he said fairly loud enough as he started to float up into the air behind the wave Spear drawn. The attack, however, ceased. They all forgot that Wall was still affected.

The female in the shadows jumped. "What the Fuck? Damn it!" The words were covered by the sound made from the Sonic Wave attack, but people who were closer by could definitely hear her. Luckily, the people were to concentrated on what was going on with Sephiroth, Salira, and the young man to notice anything otherwise. Why she could probably sneak up right behind them and they wouldn't notice. She sighed in relief, but still kept her sword close to her body, ready to attack anyone who dare come close.

Shade walked up behind Cloud after avoiding the waves and looked up to see a boy floating up into the sky. "That kid's clueless," he murmured to himself. He stood next to Cloud and faced him, "I can help you get the girl. That is, if you're willing to help me." He drew his sword to show Cloud this was no joke.

"I'm willing as well. Count me in!" Sicotto joined in.

"Cloud!" Lega yelled as he ran up to Cloud. "I am also willing to help you. Because I know I can't defeat them by myself and I promised you that I would keep Salira safe no matter what, so whatever you tell me to do, I will do it! Just as long as this pain ends and Sephiroth and Sethrinn are dead once and for all!"

The young man started to move faster as more dark waves emitted from his body. He clasped his spear so tight, his fingers started to bleed. "Unhand her now unless you want to die!" he yelled out as he dashed through the air towards Sephiroth. He was no threat to the great being. Sephiroth simply moved to the side and watched as the young man rammed into a broken post.

Raven walked up to Cloud and the others, blade drawn and ready for battle. "So what now, Cloud? It's you, Lega, Sicotto, Shade, and me. What's the plan?"

Cloud looked up at his daughter dangling for her life. "...We get my daughter back! That's what we do!" He walked forward into Sephiroth's main view. "Come down here Sephiroth! We have unfinished business!" He slashed his sword about a few times, ready to fight.

If Cloud thinks he can get his daughter back with that pathetic group he must be joking! The female pushed over a huge piece of rubble from the church that was blocking her view; it kept on rolling until it came to a stop on Raven's foot, crushing it. Not noticing that the rubble injured one of her enemies, she took out her sword and started to twirl it around, ignorant of the danger.

Yuffie heard the sound of the rubble shifting and immediately turned back around. It was only then she noticed Cloud, and the hidden female moving out of one of the collapsed buildings. The way she was brandishing her blade was definite of an attack. She hurled her shuriken and at the same time shouted, "CLOUD! BEHIND YOU!"

"What the…" Cloud mumbled as he turned around to see what Yuffie meant. But he saw nothing. The female was too quick and she silently hid in the shadows once more. Cloud observed the room, seeing nothing; he turned back and faced Sephiroth. "Ow! Shit!" Raven yelled once he felt the rubble on his foot and quickly pushed it off.

Leigh, meanwhile, had been bounding from roof to roof toward the sound of Athrin's voice and had come across the other four members of the Turks - him, her parents, and Rude. Not a word had passed between the five of them - she'd leapt over an alley, catching their attention, locked eyes with her father, and led them back toward the battlefield. As soon as Vincent arrived and caught sight of Sephiroth with Salira, Sethrinn, Yuffie, the hidden female, and Cloud, weapon drawn he moved up to Strife's side silently, his attention on Yuffie and the unknown female. Rude, Athrin, Elena, and Leigh waited on the sidelines, ready to move at a moment's notice.