Chapter Text
Cloud grit his teeth. Sephiroth was toying with him again. Hundreds of slashes, all over his body, enough to kill anyone without his absurd mako enhancements, enough to slice through muscles and tendons, but precise enough to avoid bone, enough to cause him to bleed out if it weren’t for his ability to heal.
They fought over the outskirts of Midgar, an area rich in mako energy from the destroyed reactors. Reactors that had died like each of their lovers, and most of Cloud’s friends. At least he’d lured Sephiroth away from the kids this time.
Cloud gave as good as he got, dealing harsh, unforgiving blows at a slower place. He wasn’t here to play, he was here to destroy. Again. The man he’d loved, for the umpteenth time, was hopefully going to die by his hand. Again.
Sephiroth, high on Jenova’s call, cackled wildly at each of his shattered bones. Of course, they healed rapidly, but it was exhilarating to have his mate match him so fiercely. Destroying the world that had hurt him and cast him aside was now second place to reveling in this beautiful man’s power. No one on earth or the core below or the heavens above could move like this, and it was worth ignoring the gnawing hunger of Jenova for a while to keep his Cloud fighting.
If he stopped, she’d consume him. They both knew that. So he promised her victory, just like she’d promised him; both playing the other as a pawn to get what they wanted. Connection for Sephiroth, a planet for her. Maybe next time, he’d spirit Cloud away into the cosmos, and let Jenova eat the planet. But would he fight so fiercely if he weren’t protecting something? Sephiroth didn’t know, and right now, he was busy. So he shelved that thought and slashed on.
Cloud was getting tired. It was time to end this. All his blades were in play, each component of Tsurugi suspended around him as he swiped and stabbed in rapid succession. He was getting closer. It was time. Cleave him in two. Just another opening and…
The ground rumbled, and suddenly split apart. A huge arc of green shot out of the earth, spewing debris hundreds of feet into the air. Cloud paused for a fraction of a second, long enough for Sephiroth to dart in and land more of his slicing blows, then suddenly everything snapped.
Cloud felt like his intestines were being ironed flat and turned inside out like a snake’s skin. His organs were boiling, his blood freezing, everything winding backwards and jumping forwards, all of it pain. He’d have screamed if he had been able to find his lungs.
Sephiroth was so focused on Cloud, he didn’t notice the green arc until it was all around him. It pulled apart his every cell, ripping and tearing at his DNA. If Jenova in Nibelheim had been the slow swallowing of cold, gelatinous mako, this was vomiting chicken spaghetti, sweating out pebbles of lard, and ejecting mucus from every orifice.
Everything went green.
Everything went white, then yellow, then dusty orange as Sephiroth took in the sight of the rapidly approaching desert ground. Of course, the outskirts of Midgar, where he had been…
THUD
THUD
CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG
Where Sephiroth had been fighting his beloved Cloud, listening to that sick alien witch, toying with both of them, threatening Cloud’s remaining loved ones after he’d killed all the others.
Sephiroth retched. How could he? How could he lay a finger on Cl-
CLOUD!
Surely that other thud…
Sephiroth scraped himself off the desert ground, feeling his flesh and bones knit back together at a much slower rate than he’d become accustomed to, and looked to his side. It was worse than he’d thought.
There was more blood than body, a crumpled mess of flesh sliced to literal ribbons; it was barely recognizable as a human, much less Cloud, but Sephiroth knew.
He lurched over, using his (dulled, why was it dulled?) magic sensitivity to locate a healing materia in the viscera. He grabbed it and started casting at the nearest wound.