【SC】Endless Journey

Sephiroth maintained the movement of the two at the end and took a nap until it was dawn, when he suddenly felt the person in his arms move.He hugged him subconsciously, and was about to lower his head to ask, but Claude pushed him against the wall with such force that he almost smashed into pieces.

"Sephiroth—"

Sephiroth looked up, and saw that the other party's face was full of unprecedented anger and disappointment.

"How could you!... How could you..." Claude was trembling with anger, but he couldn't say the second half of the sentence.

Sephiroth didn't know what happened, and stretched out his hand to Claude in confusion, but was swung away by the other party.

"Don't touch me!" Cloud growled.

The blond young man jumped out of bed, quickly changed his clothes regardless of the body fluid flowing down his thighs, then grabbed Murasame and threw it on him.

"Take your knife and come out with me!"

Sephiroth was stunned for a few seconds, and Claude had already slammed the door with the six-style.He had never seen Claude so angry, nor had he been stared at by the other party with such despair and hatred.Sephiroth suddenly had an ominous premonition, so he hurriedly changed his clothes and left the hotel.

Claude walked quickly, without any intention of waiting for him.He followed the opponent not far behind, and found that Claude was leading him to the countryside.

When they were far enough away from the town outside the golden saucer, Claude finally turned around and raised the six poses in a very familiar gesture that Sephiroth had rarely seen him use.

It was the mother's opening gesture - Sephiroth recognized it immediately.

"Draw the knife." Claude said coldly.

The last time Cloud ordered him like this was two and a half years ago, and Sephiroth knew he meant it.Although he was confused by this series of events, he still raised Murasame without hesitation.

"Claude," Sephiroth hoped to figure out the reason before the opponent made a move, "what happened?"

The moment the voice fell, the cold blade had already swung in front of his eyes.

Claude didn't give him any time to breathe, and the epee slashed at him like a storm.Sephiroth was still looking for a gap to counterattack, but finally found that as long as they were still within the reach of Murasame, he could only block them.

He jumped back to open the distance, but Claude rushed over him as if ignoring the gravity of the planet, and smashed him back to the ground while he was still in the air.Just as Sephiroth adjusted his landing posture, the sword wind hit the position under his feet again.

A strange sense of familiarity flooded into my mind, and before Sephiroth could react, his body had already unfurled the black wing spontaneously.There was a loud noise in the open field, and after the smoke cleared, he found himself hanging in the sky.

Sephiroth came back to his senses a little, and looked down at Claude on the ground.The other party is already in the jumping position, and seems to be ready to chase and kill him at any time.

As if he knew what the other party was going to do next, he mechanically raised Murasame and swooped down towards the other party first.The blade turned into a silver arc, and attacked eight times in front of him before it fully landed.Claude was briefly suppressed, but when he cut the last knife, he raised his hand to hold him, and threw him hard.

The distance between the two was opened again, and a trace of blood appeared on Claude's cheek, and Sephiroth's entire arm was in pain.

……not long enough.

Sephiroth held Murasame tightly, his body accusing him.

To use this move, you need a longer sword, with a blade at least twice as long as Murasame.Like... authentic.

Claude, however, seemed to be deeply irritated by his actions. The other party suddenly rearranged his posture and spun the Six Forms twice on his head, covering his body with blue light.Sephiroth's pupils shrank suddenly. He had seen this scene in a dream and knew the power of this move, so he immediately raised his knife to block it like that man.

The blond young man rushed towards him again, the cyan light was like the tail of a comet.Sephiroth was ready to defend, but at the moment when the blades met, the Six Styles suddenly split in front of his eyes, and five side swords of different shapes formed a circle around him, and Claude was like this in front of his eyes. Disappeared, and then his body was greeted with piercing pain from all directions.

—Is this what death feels like?

Sephiroth watched helplessly as the blue flames flew past his eyes along with the blade, but he had no chance to lift Murasame up to resist.

For the first time, he realized that death was so close to him, and his heartbeat began to speed up crazily.

At the last blow, his arm moved suddenly, and he raised the knife to hold Six Styles.However, that blow was so powerful that Murasame, who had accompanied him through countless battlefields, uttered a crisp clang under the impact and was completely broken in two.

Sephiroth thought for a moment that he would end like this, but the six forms stopped only an inch away from his chest.

"...You want to know the reason." Claude asked in a low voice, his expression dimmed in the backlight.

Sephiroth hesitated for a moment, and finally replied: "Yes."

Claude seemed to have lost the strength of his whole body, and slowly put down the six stances. His pale face made him look weaker than ever.Sephiroth suddenly had a feeling that he might be about to learn the truth that he had been pursuing since he was born, at a very, very wrong moment.

"I am him."

Cruel words came out of those familiar lips.

"Here's the answer you've been wanting to know, about how much I know about your mother. I know it all, because I am Cloud Strife."

Sephiroth froze.

His world was hit like never before, and his mind instantly went blank.

Pete was awakened by a loud noise from afar.

He thought that Midgar's army was chasing here, so he immediately jumped up from the bed and found that Angel was already checking the situation by the window.

"It's the direction outside the town. There's a lot of smoke rising over there. There may be a battle." Angel frowned.

"Do you want to go and see? What if it is someone from Midgar?" Pete asked uncertainly.

Angel nodded, and the two quickly changed their clothes, grabbed their weapons and headed towards the direction of the sound.

When the two rushed to the scene, they found that the battle was over.Sephiroth was lying motionless on the ground, with several glaring knife wounds running through his body, and the village rain in his hand had been broken in two at some point.

"Sephiroth!" Pete was shocked, he had never seen Sephiroth in such a mess, something unbelievable must have happened here.

Angel immediately stepped forward to check Sephiroth's condition, confirmed that the other party still had a pulse and breathing, and finally heaved a long sigh of relief.

"He is still alive, and those injuries have avoided the vitals."

Pete hurriedly knelt down and helped Sephiroth up with Angel, and patted each other's face lightly: "Sephiroth, can you hear me? What happened just now? Why isn't Claude with you?"

As if stimulated by that name, the slack vertical pupils shrank again, and one hand grabbed Pete's neckline violently.

"Hurry up and chase Claude, we must stop him!" Sephiroth's tone was extremely eager, but his expression revealed an indescribable weirdness.

Pete was very confused, so Angel quickly winked at him: "I'll take care of this, and you should do as he said first."

Pete nodded, took one last look at Sephiroth, and quickly chased in the direction pointed by the other party.

Claude walked alone in the endless wilderness, frustrated.

For so many years, he has always thought that Sephiroth has gradually grown into a normal person as he wished, but just last night, Sephiroth used the control of his mother's body on him, allowing him to have sex with the other party completely involuntarily. There is a relationship.The moment he woke up, the familiar and strong regret, nausea and self-loathing rushed into his mind. He wanted to scream and tear himself and the other party apart, so he picked up the Six Styles and smashed the world that he had worked so hard for for five years. into pieces.

The deepest pain the real Sephiroth ever caused him was not killing his mother and burning down his hometown, but controlling him while he and his companions fought desperately to prevent the destruction of the planet, let him put everyone The props for destroying the world that were taken back in blood were handed over to the opponent, and he was controlled to swing the blade of destruction at Alice.

That was the man's malicious mockery of him. Sephiroth hated him, laughed at him, nakedly showed his powerlessness and weakness to the entire planet, and cut his soul piece by piece with the sharpest knife.It took him a long time to piece himself back together, and he was still guarding against it even decades later, but he was never guarding against this Sephiroth, the one he had raised with his own hands and poured his all into. A caring child, when he found himself being unconsciously controlled by the other party, he was instantly desperate to the point of despair.

Sephiroth had awakened the essence of that man a long time ago, and only pretended to be "normal" to take care of his mood.

He'd had plenty of chances to spot things, but he loved the kid too much to ignore them.

For a moment, Cloud really wanted to kill Sephiroth, but he didn't stab the sword in the end.Sephiroth's expression was so bewildered, he really didn't know about the mind controlling him.

Claude was already on the verge of collapse, and he didn't have the energy to accompany him to act out the drama of brother, mother and child.He knew that if he looked at the other party one more time, he might not be able to help but strike, so he told the other party the truth, and then turned and left decisively.

Claude returned to the hotel, cleaned his body in the bathroom, and then packed his luggage to prepare to leave.The moment he opened the door, he suddenly found Pete standing at the door.He stared at the young man in silence for a while, then quickly walked around the other side.

Pete watched his back worriedly, and soon caught up.

"You were the one who fought Sephiroth this morning?"

Claude's footsteps were stagnant, which was a default.

Pete opened his mouth and wanted to ask why, but he remembered Sephiroth's real identity and probably guessed the reason.

"He—knows what he is?"

Claude nodded slightly and headed towards the cable car station.Pete took a few steps forward, walking side by side with him.

"Is it really okay to leave him alone now? He asked me to stop you, and it seems that he doesn't want you to go. I think you can consider talking again, after all, he hasn't really started to destroy the star yet..."

Pete couldn't finish the sentence, because when he got close enough, he saw Claude's side neck hidden in the collar, which was full of shocking pinch marks and hickey marks.

Pete froze, and then began to feel angry at his ignorance.

"He did this to you?! But you're—you're..."

--brother.

Claude's back was trembling, and Pete knew that even saying that word was too cruel to him.So he walked quickly to the opponent and stopped the opponent's footsteps.

"Claude, is there anything I can do to help?"

The young man nodded slightly, avoiding his sight.

"No. This matter has nothing to do with you. You and Angel had better leave quickly. I know there is a place where you can hide for a while. Midgar won't find that place..."

"Claude!" Pete held his shoulders and forced him to look at himself, "I know you don't want me to get involved, but if what you said is true, Sephiroth awakened and there is no one on this planet People can be alone. Zack and Cloud Strife are friends, can we be friends too? Friends should help each other, even a little, let me help you save the planet?"

Pete's expression was so sincere and dignified that Claude suddenly remembered the black-haired young man who handed him the Destruction Sword.

He hesitated for a moment, and finally whispered: "There is a person... Please help me find him and ensure his safety."

Pete's eyes lit up instantly: "No problem! Who is it?"

"His name is White Black, and he was a researcher in the underground laboratory destroyed by Sephiroth, and the only survivor of that incident. He may know something about the Redeemer... who created us I need information about that order of my life."

Pete memorized the name silently, and then remembered something: "How do we contact you if we find him? Where are you going next?"

"You can send a letter to this mailbox, and I'll check it anytime." Claude took Pete's communication terminal, clicked on the mailbox, and sent an email to the encrypted mailbox he used when he was in the institute, "I accept I'm going down to Cosmic Canyon, where I have a friend of mine, and I'm going to investigate the truth of the year. About ten years ago, someone found Cloud Strife's crystal in the Great Northern Hole, and put me Clone with Sephiroth. This person is likely to be related to the establishment of the Redeemer Order, and knows the existence of Sephiroth. If I guess correctly, this person is the mastermind behind the whole thing."

Pete nodded and watched him walk into the cable car, then turned and walked back to the hotel.

Seeing him returning alone, Angel didn't seem surprised, but pulled him to a secluded corner and asked in a low voice, "Claude has left?"

"Well." Pete was in a very complicated mood. He didn't know whether he should tell Angel about Sephiroth, but then he and Angel went to find the researcher named White Black, and he should let him know the reason for his actions. .

Angel saw his struggle and patted him on the shoulder: "No matter what, the person I trust the most is you. If you trust Claude more, then I will support your choice."

"Angel..." Nothing made him more grateful than the trust of the officer who brought him up single-handedly.Pete pondered for a few seconds before deciding to talk to Angel: "Angel, I have something very important to tell you."

So in the next hour, Angel experienced the same spiritual baptism as Pete had when he talked with Claude.

"You mean...the prototype of Sephiroth is the disaster 200 years ago, and Cloud is the clone of that Cloud Strife?" Angel was shocked.

"Yes, so it's inevitable that this kind of thing happens." Pete smiled wryly.

"The story of the redeemer turned out to be true... I always thought they just compiled a myth based on legend." Angel folded his arms and fell into thought, "If Claude knew about this from the beginning, why did he have a relationship with Sephiroth?" Living together for so long, and still as brothers? Based on the results of their battle today, he should have many chances to kill Sephiroth."

Pete was silent.

He thought of Claude's tired eyes and the hickey on his neck, and roughly guessed the intricate relationship between the two.But this kind of thing was too shocking to Angel, out of goodwill, Pete decided to hide it a little bit.

"They... After all, they grew up together, almost like brothers. And you also know how much Sephiroth values ​​him, so Claude always thinks he still has hope. It's just that they had a quarrel yesterday, so..."

After thinking about it carefully, Angel agreed with him: "Then the top priority is not to let them meet, so as not to happen again today."

Pete nodded vigorously, and he didn't want to see his former friends and past life friends kill you for something that hasn't happened yet.

Angel sorted out the current situation and re-planned their next mission: "We need to keep an eye on Sephiroth, don't let him act alone, and find White Black at the same time. If we can investigate the background of the redeemer and The planning behind the scenes may be able to stop things from getting worse."

As expected of Angel, he can make a quick judgment at any time.Pete showed a look of admiration.

"Anyway, go talk to Sephiroth first, lest he worry about Claude's current situation. We will pack our bags and set off tomorrow morning. I have acquaintances who should be able to find White Black from the military intranet. Tonight, we can start Contact him..." Angel said as he knocked on Sephiroth's door, but found no response for a long time.

The two looked at each other, and suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Sephiroth? Are you there?" Angel tried to turn the handle, but found that the door was unlocked.He slammed the door open, and there was no one in the room.

"……Oops."

Pete was stunned at the door for a second, and immediately took out the communication terminal to send an email to Claude.

After Cloud turned and left, Sephiroth lay down on the field for a long time.

For a long time he didn't think about anything, just looked at the sky above his head.The morning star faded before his eyes, the morning glow covered the sky, and was replaced by the pale morning light.

His soul seems to be floating outside his body, observing everything on this planet—dawn and dusk, microorganisms are born and die in the dust of the air, and the cells in his body are also constantly experiencing the cycle of life and death. .

It wasn't until a certain name came to his ears that he suddenly came back to his senses.

— Claude.

Just thinking of the name gave him a severe headache.

...Ah, yes.cloud.

It is his brother who has no blood relationship, his destined enemy, and the mother who entrusted all his emotions and thoughts when he was young.

All the clues are collected in one place, all the reality and the dream images are merged into one, the eyes of despair and despair overlap, and the strong hatred and love in it have really existed.

There have been feelings of worshiping him, feelings of wanting to kill him, feelings of caring for him as a child, and deep disappointments with him.

He should have thought that, as the other party said, there is only one Sephiroth from beginning to end, so there is only one Cloud Strife.They are a perpetual existence in the life cycle of the planet, and they themselves must be unique.

Various emotions gradually emerged from the memory that was originally read like a bystander, and Sephiroth began to feel a part of the man return to his body.

... No, not the man, but himself.

He still remembered Cloud's last glance at him before he left, the heartbreaking despair was deeply imprinted on his irises, gradually merging with the little soldier who impaled himself in front of the magic jar.

Sephiroth struggled to get up, and grabbed the black-haired soldier by the collar: "Go after Claude, and stop him."

He doesn't have time to chase Claude, he has more important things to accomplish.Sephiroth needs to find all of himself. He needs to know what kind of life he is, why he came to this world, what happened before he met Cloud Strife, and why they met each other. have the same genes.

When Angel carried him back to the hotel, his injuries had recovered enough to not affect his actions.Although Claude hated him so much, he still avoided all the vital points on him.The mother's identity has always had an impact on the other party's thinking, which is much more profound than he thought.

Sephiroth walked into the bathroom, took off the clothes he could no longer wear, and watched the wounds on his body heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.He touched a certain place between his ribs, there was obviously no scar there, but there was a faint pain that seemed to be imprinted in the genes and pierced by a sharp weapon.

...Where is it?

The burning village in the dream, the magic pot containing something is in the hometown of Claude Strife. He may find clues there, but he can't remember what the village is for the time being. Location.

Another place he could think of that was worth investigating was the huge hole left in Gaia by a meteor that fell with disaster 2000 years ago.Although several epochs have passed, there may not be any original clues left in the big void, but there must be some reason for Claude to choose to sleep there.

After the destination was decided, Sephiroth left the hotel quietly.He carefully packed half of Murasame's severed blade into his luggage, put the rest back into the scabbard, and hung it on his waist as if nothing had happened.

Even if he can't fight with a full sword, he can still use magic, and Bahamut's summoning magic stone is still in his hand.There is nothing worse than fighting Claude, not to mention that no one can interfere with his decision now, and he can destroy everything that threatens him without any scruples.When the disparity in strength reaches a certain level, it makes no difference whether the enemy is one or a thousand.

Sephiroth headed north all the way, passing through Klier and North Klier, crossing the strait strewn with archipelagos between the Western Continent and the Northern Continent by boat, and finally set foot on the snow-covered land of the Northern Continent a week later.

The moment he set foot on the Northern Continent, a strange noise suddenly appeared in Sephiroth's mind.

"Re...union."

The only voices that have been directly in his mind since he was born are his mature self and Cloud Strife, but this cacophony is unlike any he has heard in the past, it is a completely unfamiliar voice, he can even He vaguely felt its location, as if he could sense that Claude was heading southwest away from him.

There is a genetic connection between him and Claude, so they have been able to sense each other's condition at a spiritual level since childhood, but the owner of this voice has never participated in the communication between him and Claude, and where did he come from? appeared?

Sephiroth walked in the direction of the sound for a day and a night, and was gradually led into the wasteland with only ice and snow.There are no landmarks in this area, and the surrounding areas are almost identical. At first, Sephiroth could still rely on the stars to guide his direction, but when a snowstorm blew up on the wasteland, he immediately lost his coordinates.

The clothes on his body were still the ones on the golden plate. Although his physique could withstand the extreme cold, the material of the cloth and luggage could not.Sephiroth realized that he had to return to the inhabited place to prepare again before continuing northward. He was about to fly above the clouds to position himself when something invisible suddenly attacked him.

"who is it?!"

Sephiroth instinctively drew his sword and swung it out, the air flow from the sword scattered the blizzard flying in front of him.

He didn't have the real feeling of hitting anything, but he could feel that thing was approaching him.Murasame, who was half short, could hardly clear his surroundings with just the pressure of the sword, so Sephiroth turned to release flame magic when the breath approached.

"boom--"

The high-heat fireball evaporated the snow under his feet and in the air, and the ice field was instantly filled with water vapor. Sephiroth saw some kind of flowing track in the water mist, and secretly clenched the handle of the knife with his fingers.

He was about to swing the Broken Blade out in a cohesive posture, when he suddenly noticed the presence of a third creature, so he turned around and slashed at the new intruder.

"Three men in search of the 'Gift of the Goddess', but the war drove them apart. One became a hero, one became a wanderer, and the remaining one became a captive."

A red sword caught Murasame.After the water vapor dissipated, a man with short brown hair appeared before Sephiroth's eyes.

The man has blue pupils similar to Claude, and the center of the iris is slightly smudged with a circle of demon-like green.After seeing his vigilant expression clearly, the other party raised the corners of his lips with a little playfulness, and unfolded a black wing similar to his.

"Which one of them are you, Sephiroth?"