Welcome to Adventu, your final fantasy rp haven. adventu focuses on both canon and original characters from different worlds and timelines that have all been pulled to the world of zephon: a familiar final fantasy-styled land where all adventurers will fight, explore, and make new personal connections.
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year 5, quarter 3
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Sephiroth felt the resistance of flesh and magic, saw her blood, and then their eyes connected. Sharp blue on fiery yellow. She disappeared.
Laughter crackled above them like lightning. Sephiroth raised his sword defensively and thrust himself back again, careful to dodge any of her remaining orbs as he regrouped with the boy. There was nothing to say between them, and as she blinked back into view, two blades rose to her in unison.
She gathered magic to herself crying out something that made the boy tense. Sephiroth glanced towards him, taking a step back to manage whatever was about to come. The boy knew her well, it seemed, but he wasn’t keen on sharing his intelligence. Instead, he cursed and launched himself into the air (not particularly well) as Sephiroth prepared to cover the ground or him or whatever else needed it. As it turned out, nothing did.
Sephiroth smirked and readied his blade. The boy might have had a disadvantage in the air, but he didn’t. He willed himself lighter and threw himself upwards, angling his wing for balance as he used the nearby streetlamp for footing then a building’s edge before rocketing towards her. Dark power gathered around her in a chilling mist. She was casting which would leave her open to attack. If he could only reach her in time…
Sephiroth slowed his momentum, righted himself, visualized his strike, and then magic burst from her in shockwaves of black and violet. His eyes widened. He had time for nothing else.
It enveloped him in a caustic fog that knocked him out of the air, gasping for breath. He hit the ground hard, rolling on instinct as he clutched at his throat and squinted through the darkness that enveloped him. Where was she? He raised his head to see her flicker from sight once again. Would she strike while he was weak? He grit his teeth and forced himself upright, leaning on his sword to keep himself from staggering.
As quickly as it had come, it ended. Sephiroth steadied himself with a single breath before whipping around, eyeing what had been his blind spots as he backed cautiously towards the square. She was nowhere to be found. Had she not taken the opportunity to finish them? Her magic had been a distraction and nothing more.
Sephiroth fell to one knee, wincing. Her spell had drained him. He’d never felt anything like it (perhaps Demi?) and that disturbed him more than anything else. The lives taken here were only the beginning.
He braced himself, called for the materia in his blade, and cast Curaga. The healing spell invigorated him, but he still felt somehow slower. Weaker. Sephiroth held his sword in front of him, testing its weight.
”What was she?” He idly watched the edge of his blade. It was still stained with her blood. Was she human or merely something close?
Far away came the sound groans and lamenting cries. Civilian casualties. He flicked the blood off his sword and sheathed it. The battle was over. Now came the aftermath.
Sephiroth hadn’t expected it. Hadn’t Zack expected him to draw his line in the sand? If he refused to work with Genesis then Sephiroth had no choice but to pick one side or the other. And couldn’t Zack have guessed which side he’d choose?
’We used to be friends.’ Sephiroth had felt its stir when Zack had found him, when they'd greeted each other in the morning, when Zack had asked lightly if he needed anything before leaving him to the space he’d silently requested. Yet he’d never felt it stronger than now. Sephiroth had hurt him. It didn’t strike hard, but it struck him all the same.
They’d been friends once. Not close, but something more than a passing acquaintance. Something had bonded them together. Sephiroth had a feeling that he didn’t want to know what that was.
Whatever he’d felt, Zack brushed it off quickly. Still, he’d never been one to restrain his emotions. It had always been his weakness -- or perhaps in some small way, his strength.
Zack couldn’t remember either, and for a moment, Sephiroth’s lips twitched into a smirk. The blind leading the blind. For the first time, he and Zack were on equal footing. A strange feeling. Sephiroth had never been equal to anyone.
”I was attacked.” Sephiroth met his eyes without a hint of hesitation. ”A Shinra experiment. It had no reasonable motive.”Except to kill him. Sephiroth was no stranger to assassination attempts, but the monster that had attacked him had carried nothing but a blind, almost instinctual drive for his blood. It hadn’t been human. Or at least not entirely so.
’A crystalline form with jagged edges. A sickly glow of green and blue. Why did it feel so familiar?’
And why hadn’t he been surprised?
”There had to have been a source. It had no will of its own.” Sephiroth paused. A dry smirk crossed his lips. ”Hojo.”
He had not heard her words or her taunts. He knew only that she spoke too much and that her arrogance served as a distraction. His form came on instinct -- each sword strike as precise as the last. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven-
His last hit nothing but air. Her form was no mere illusion, and somehow she flickered between spaces faster than even his eyes could see. ’Enough.’ The air seethed with her power and her rage. Sephiroth raised his sword as he lightly back-stepped to the boy’s side.
Whoever he was, he’d already drawn their target’s ire. If he could hold his own, then they’d fight together. It would take them both to square her position.
The boy was looking at him. ”Does that thing work?” Sephiroth didn’t answer nor did he ask what he meant. Strategy was the only talk worthwhile.
”She can’t track two at once.” Or she wouldn’t have been caught by surprise. Despite her magic, she still had her own limitations. She was, in some sense, human.
Her laugh pierced between them -- wild and enraged. Sephiroth’s eyes narrowed. She had lost her sense of control. Sephiroth would not lose his.
She materialized her dark magic in spheres around her before scattering out in irregular patterns like bullets. He prepared to dodge them before he caught her in the corner of his eye. Close. The same magic sparked at her hand and he sidestepped on instinct. He felt it sear by him. He smelled the charring of leather, and then -- too late -- a crack of energy behind him. One of the scattered spheres.
It struck him like thunder. He grit his teeth against it, raising his sword in time to redirect the worst of it even as it sent him flying back. He allowed the momentum. His shoulder-blade screamed with an almost cold burn, but he forced his focus steady. He could assess his wounds once the fight had passed.
He used his wing to twist himself in the air, willing gravity to weaken as his feet hit a brick wall. He propelled himself forward, taking to the ground lightly as he side-stepped around the two, eyes sharp for her movements. She was an unpredictable target. Her spheres kept him from gaining ground.
The boy started taunting her. He raised his sword arrogantly (a bold move without his defenses) and slung words like arrows. Bleeding on the floor of a castle? He’d question when he had time.
If she hated the boy as much as he’d claimed, she wouldn’t miss the opportunity. Sephiroth darted behind her, waiting for a moment to strike. He calculated his angles, visualized his path between the spheres, and waited for her guard to lower. In a split second, he saw it and drove himself forward without hesitation.
He saw it in Fair’s face -- in the shock, the fear, and then the anger. He’d gone pale, and in that moment, Sephiroth realized that he’d made a terrible mistake. ’A bold move.’ If anything, Genesis had understated the situation. Sephiroth would have never brought him back had he known just how bold he’d been.
Genesis taunted him. Zack stiffened, fingers clamped around his arms as though to restrain himself. "Sephiroth is a terrible liar." Zack wasn’t wrong (why lie when the truth was more efficient?), but he still felt a prick of irritation cross his eyes. He looked between the two and became suddenly aware of the exact position of his sword. Not that he’d ever lost it.
“Where’s that blond boy you were always with? Or did you finally put him out of his misery?”
’Blonde boy?’ Sephiroth’s head spun for reasons he couldn’t understand. There was a flash of the Buster Sword, Zack squared his stance, and-
Cloud.
Sephiroth seized his sword on instinct, sliding it from sheathe and raising it in a breath. Zack held his own steady, eyes flared with anger. Nausea built at the back of Sephiroth’s throat. For a moment, he could have sworn he’d seen-
Blue eyes desperate with rage. Ruffled blonde. Not Zack, but another. A puppet. A worthless, weak, how had this happened? Impossible. Falling, falling, falling-
Sephiroth gasped for breath. Zack had lowered his sword. Sephiroth did the same. His palms were damp with sweat. There was that name again. ’Cloud.’ What did it mean? He’d never heard it before.
Zack straightened. He’d lost his uncharacteristic hostility, but tension sparked between the two like static electricity. 'What does this mean?' Sephiroth could have asked the same.
”Genesis-” Sephiroth started, but his voice had gone tight. It tangled in his throat and he cleared it before trying again. ”We have reason to believe that Shinra has infiltrated this country. We plan to seek them out.” He glanced at Genesis. What they would do from there was better left unsaid.
At first, he didn’t know what. Perhaps it was something in the air. Perhaps it was a sound so quiet he could hardly hear. Either way, his instincts stilled him, and he opened his eyes from where he’d been sitting cross-legged at the foot of his bed. Something was wrong. His eyebrows furrowed as he stood and drifted towards the window. There was something heavy in the wind like static before a storm.
Magic.
Something dark shimmered on the horizon. Sephiroth frowned, trying to make it out, but he didn’t have time. Not before the screams. They came from several blocks away -- wild and terrified -- and Sephiroth felt his fist tighten at the sound. He seized his sword and started out the door.
He’d heard it before.
He hadn’t realized that Genesis had been awake, and even when followed, Sephiroth didn’t pause to explain the situation. He kept his eyes ahead as well as his focus. The screams had stopped, and with it a shift in that nameless magic. He didn’t humor Genesis’ complaints (though he hadn’t asked him to come), and as the shouting started again, he only quickened his step. That was the sound of terror before the bombs fell -- that single moment of realization before fire lit the sky.
Genesis grabbed his arm, and Sephiroth blinked, startled, as he was pulled into a run. He didn’t have time to comprehend Genesis’ intentions. Not until gravity fell away, and they were left soaring, wings a mirror image like some kind of twisted bird. Genesis shot ahead, dragging Sephiroth along at a speed that he could only barely match. Sephiroth glanced at him uncertainly. He could never be certain what would motivate Genesis until he acted.
It didn’t take them long to reach their destination.
Chaos swarmed below them. Civilians fled in panicked circles, hunted by some sort of unknowable magic. Sephiroth’s eyes narrowed. Whatever it was sought to incite fear. A demonstration. Mangled bodies lined the streets, crushed and bloodied and almost unrecognizable. Genesis yawned his apathetic complaints and once again Sephiroth refused to waste his time with an answer. No one asked you to come. Genesis had never been one to act for the greater good, and neither had Sephiroth really. But if the city was under attack, he wouldn’t stand idle. He had itched for action long enough.
As quickly as Genesis had come, he was gone. Sephiroth hardly noticed him dive towards the ground and the civilians beneath. Had he been suddenly struck by goodwill? It was irrelevant. There was no point in preventing casualties when the main target had yet to be neutralized. Sephiroth stayed on course.
Without Genesis to guide him, Sephiroth chose to descend to the rooftops and use his weightlessness to dodge easily between them. The magic centered on a single point, and as he darted forward, he caught his target in the ruined square. Or so he thought. In a breath she was gone, flickering like an after image before he caught her again several feet away. His eyes sharpened on each incarnation.
Three seconds between. Distracted. She would circle the boy in exactly…
He dove down from above, sword extended and precise. He prepared a perfect Octoslash -- ready to strike once, twice, eight times. He had the advantage. There was no room for error.
Sephiroth stood at the shelf, eyeing them. It wasn’t an extravagant collection. With Genesis' spurious income (he still insisted it came from some kind of cult), they’d managed a small collection that they kept on a roughly hewn bookshelf that Sephiroth had purchased to keep them from piling haphazardly across the table. He’d organized them by topic and then by height. He’d flipped the binding text so that each ran in the same direction.
And now the edges were misaligned.
Genesis was sprawled across the couch where he'd stayed all morning, reading his plays and leaving almost no space to sit beside him. Every now and then, he read a line outloud perhaps to annoy Sephiroth or perhaps because that was his usual state of being. Sephiroth's eyes narrowed. When he had last left, the books had been perfectly in place. Genesis had either rifled through half of them or he’d unbalanced them for no other reason than to watch him set them right.
Sephiroth refused. Instead, he slid out a history of local battle tactics and brought it to the window, choosing to stand rather than sit at Genesis’ feet. He doubted he’d have had the space for it anyway.
Footsteps approached the door.
They were light. Close. Sephiroth glanced to Genesis to see whether he’d noticed or if he'd been too distracted by his play. There was the sound of leather rustling on cloth and then three knocks that rattled the door where it stood.
“Seph, I really hope you’re in there, cause I can’t find my keys and I need a shower. Pretty badly.”
Sephiroth blinked. Was that…?
He shot Genesis a sharp look. ”Behave yourself,” he said so that Genesis had no excuse to miss the warning in his eyes. After he was certain that Genesis understood, he made for the door and clicked the locks out of place. And then he saw Zack.
That hair. That sword. It unbalanced Sephiroth like it always did, particularly now that he’d grown unused to it, and Sephiroth tensed, trying to focus on the differences between him and Angeal. The slimmer form. The softer jawline. The brighter eyes and the weaker shoulders. Zack looked worse for wear though better than Sephiroth could have expected given the circumstances. His hair was wilder than usual. His clothes were disheveled. From the look and smell of it, he did in fact need a shower.
Sephiroth’s eyes cooled. He snapped his book closed in one hand.
”It’s been weeks.” Sephiroth hadn’t worried for him. He knew that Zack wouldn’t die easily, but his negligence had been noted. Sephiroth's derision was obvious. "You gave no warning.”
Behind him, something shifted. Sephiroth glanced to the side. He had almost forgotten Genesis.
Sephiroth felt himself falter despite himself Genesis had claimed from the beginning that bringing him here would only end in catastrophe. Sephiroth had largely ignored the warnings, brushing them off as nothing more than dramatics, but he suddenly questioned their validity. At the very least, adding another guest without Zack's permission had been inconsiderate.
Sephiroth took a long breath. So long as Genesis remained pacified, there would be little chance of a fight.
”There were unpredictable circumstances.” Sephiroth glanced behind him before hesitantly stepping back. There was no point in delaying any further. ”He needed somewhere to go. We’ve decided to stay together.” Sephiroth cast one last awkward look to the couch.
Sephiroth had no idea what Genesis was talking about. That wasn’t a rare occurrence, but it left him staggered nonetheless. Filling in for Loveless? Carrying up some stairs? Whatever doubts he’d had about Zack’s faults were dispersed in an instant. Whatever had happened between them had been dramatic, one-sided, and entirely Genesis’ fault. He was always more defensive about the fights he initiated than the ones he hadn’t.
Sephiroth crossed his arms. He gave no response to either Genesis’ praise or his taunts. Pretending he could have possibly “lost his edge.” Leaving the table as it was. Genesis would have never acted so slovenly unless he was provoking a reaction.
Sephiroth stood and waved his hand. ”I’ll handle it,” he said. He’d expected Genesis to pawn the task onto him -- by request or by simply leaving it as it was. He suspected that it would have bothered Genesis eventually, but there was little point in calling his bluff other than spite. Sephiroth refused to sink to his level.
Besides, the mess made him itch.
Sephiroth gathered the plates, glancing to Genesis as he spoke. Shinra had to be in the city. He wasn’t the first to consider the option. In fact, they had likely already tracked the two of them this far and perhaps to Zack as well. Shinra was the type for subterfuge, but they weren’t the type to keep their presence hidden.
”No one here knows them.” Sephiroth knew. He'd already asked. Again and again, he’d asked, unwilling to believe that anyone alive could have failed to recognize them. He still didn’t know how they didn’t. ”If they’re here then they’re keeping it quiet.”
The thought felt strange -- almost as strange as them not existing at all. He’d have sooner believed that Shinra had vanished from the earth than believe that they’d abandon their notoriety. Still, he was one to follow where the pieces led.
Zack, Genesis, himself. Why had they stumbled here together? And what didn’t he remember?
Sephiroth glanced to him. ”We’ll wait for them to make their move. Without a presence here, they won’t have the numbers to threaten us. That’s likely why they’ve stayed in the shadows.”
But why? The question pounded against his temples. Why didn’t they have a presence here? Why bring them together at all? Why-?
”Go bathe. You look like you could use it.” Sephiroth glanced to Genesis, casting him a teasing smirk even as his palm twitched. He longed to find somewhere silent to think. But then, that's what Genesis had dragged him from, wasn't it?
"Thanks," he said quieter than he'd have liked. For finding me. For listening. For pulling me away."For breakfast." He glanced one more time over his shoulder with the slightest of smiles before he turned to the sink and drew a sponge over the crusty side of a pan.
Not the best thing I've ever written, but it exists now lol
I knew mine was a special existence
Loveless. Sephiroth had never understood it. Even as he used the words to his own advantage (a potent weapon, he noticed), he could only blink in the face of Genesis' passion. His eyes flickered between surprise, joy, hunger, and resignation in the course of only a few seconds. As Genesis finally fell back into his chair, Sephiroth stifled a sigh of relief. For a moment, he had been quite certain that Genesis had intended to touch him.
His bold play worked as he’d intended at least. Genesis’ excitement made him more compliant to Sephiroth’s suggestions, and while irritation still crossed his eyes, it was nothing compared to the storm of dramatics that would have burst from him otherwise. If there were two things that Genesis was certain to reject, it was orders and caution.
”Bold?” Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. There it was again. The same strange hostility at the very mention of Zack’s name. While Genesis had never been on the “best of terms” with a great deal of Shinra as a whole, this felt personal in a way that Sephiroth couldn’t begin to understand. The last he remembered, Genesis had known him as nothing but Angeal’s admirer.
”Fair can be trusted,” he said. ”He’s simple. Even compromised, he’d be incapable of hiding his guilt.” Sephiroth glanced to Genesis and smirked teasingly. ”Are you sure you did nothing to provoke him?” In all likelihood, the truth could be found somewhere in the middle -- skewed in Zack’s favor. He doubted Zack was capable of malice.
”Fine, fine! Where did you leave the thing’s corpse then?”
Sephiroth blinked in surprise before his throat tightened again. The mutation. Of course he’d want to see it for himself. ”I left it by the coast,” he said. He placed his fork down and looked to the wall. ”It was resistant to my sword. I resorted to materia.” Fire, ice, thunder. They were impossible to wield with the precision of a blade. And once the smoke had cleared…
”The remains were negligible.” Sephiroth kept his eyes impassive. ”Their recovery is unlikely.”
I like how they play off each other on the basis of honor
I knew mine was a special existence
The novice did not acknowledge his mistake.
“Your wisdom only comes coupled with the power of retrospection,” he claimed. Nothing but an excuse. Sephiroth had dealt with more than his share of soldiers unwilling to shoulder their blame. To him, Sephiroth’s chastising was nothing more than the unjust blatherings of hindsight. If Sephiroth were to make a difference, he claimed, he would do better to use his sword than his tongue.
These accusations slid off him like water. Anger was not an uncommon reaction to failure.
’The one who takes action.’ Sephiroth gave him a dry look. ”It was your actions that killed those people. It would have been better had you done nothing.” At the word killed, the girl froze and stared at him in horror. She was beyond tears. Her hands trembled with shock.
Sephiroth paid her little mind.
The novice continued his tirade. How far would he go to defend his false honor? Sephiroth’s lips flickered with a smirk. ”A hero?” Those words meant nothing. There was nothing heroic in the sword no matter what the public told themselves. All that mattered were results. ”I have saved two lives today. Can you say the same?” Sephiroth flicked the dust from his sword and sheathed it at his side. He doubted he would need it again. So long as there were no aftershocks, this could be left to the town’s rescue teams.
”I don’t need to answer to you.” The man’s questions were insulting in themselves. He had sought to cause havoc? He had nothing but his sword? He’d drawn the center of a catastrophe? The disgraced would go to any measure to delude themselves. Sephiroth turned away, glancing over his shoulder to cast the man one last look of disdain. ”A master learns from his mistakes,” he said. ”A novice makes excuses. Which will you be?”
Sephiroth started away without another word. He didn’t need any.
’Asking to get attacked.’ Sephiroth shot Genesis a cool look. Perhaps he was right in that regard -- he had expected monsters after all -- but his general derision set Sephiroth on edge. Dangerous or not, Sephiroth had chosen such an isolated location for a reason. The city was too loud and far too populated. He’d have never found anywhere suitably isolated within its walls, and had he chosen to do so in Zack’s rented room…
Sephiroth felt his fingers curl. This training was one he refused to share with anyone.
And so he offered him nothing more than a solid, ”Yes.” Genesis didn’t need to know the where or the why. Only that it happened and that he refused to say any more.
”No,” he answered again. In truth, he wasn’t certain in what he’d seen, but he felt it all the same. He knew Shinra’s science department. He’d spent the majority of his life drawn into its depths, and he knew what they were capable of. He had never seen anything so human or twisted or crystalline, but his instincts told him its origin, and he trusted them implicitly.
”It was human. Or it had been. It was discolored and driven mad for my blood.” Sephiroth touched at his forehead and gave a short laugh. He didn’t understand why. ”A mako mutation. It didn’t need materia.”And its transformation... Sephiroth couldn’t find the words, and he didn’t want to. Speaking of it would solidify memories he didn’t want to resurface.
He did not expect Genesis’ reaction.
Sephiroth blinked at him. Twice. His chair nearly toppled backwards. The table shuddered under his palms. Genesis hardly noticed it as he looked Sephiroth straight in the eyes. His own were lit with fire.
After a moment, Sephiroth laughed under his breath. ”Corrupted by vengeance?” As melodramatic as his play read, there was no better way to describe Genesis’ fall. He had never been one to take slights lightly. In this case, he wasn’t wrong.
Then why did the thought of hunting them fill Sephiroth with such dread?
”The wandering soul knows no rest.” Sephiroth smirked at Genesis almost teasingly. That would distract him from Sephiroth's hesitation. Genesis would notice nothing else.
”We’ll need to gather intel. Making our move prematurely will put us at a disadvantage.” Sephiroth picked up his fork again and eyed the ill-fitting plate before him. After a moment's consideration, he grabbed the honey and poured it carefully into one even layer. ”There is nothing to be gained by acting blindly.”
Sephiroth shot Genesis a pointed look. Genesis was impulsive. He acted entirely on emotion, and without moderation, Sephiroth suspected he would have grabbed his coat and jumped out the window right then in search of his long-awaited vengeance. Sephiroth had always struggled to keep him in line. Angeal had always served as the link between them, but perhaps given the proper reasoning...
