Oblivion's Beginning

Standard disclaimers...blah blah blah.
I haven't decided if I like the way this chapter came out, so I may edit it before I put up chapter five.
Enjoy!

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Oblivion's Beginning
Chapter 5

"Bloody Hell!" Exclaimed the dark figure as he pulled tufts of brown, pungent fur from the joints in his mechanical arm. It was rare for him to speak, let alone curse but the damned creature that had attack him deserved no less than his complete ire. The edge of his red cape was snatched up and used to wipe off the grime from his pistol as he kicked the ugly beast once last time in frustration. It had scratched the hell out of him, clawing deep grooves in his chest that he was too exhausted to heal and just like some damned cat, they stung like hell. Never mind having ruined his clothes and that fact that he was still bleeding. "I wonder now if coming here was such a good idea. Probably not.” And now he was talking to himself, surely that could not be a good sigh.

With a sigh, he holstered the gun and turned to proceed through the twisted metal that rose out of the ground in some macabre tribute to the fallen city of Midgar, but he didn't get far. Not a dozen steps and he heard a soft growling behind him and when he turned, he found to his utter horror and dismay that the animal he'd just killed wasn't dead at all. "Oh fuck...” He had just enough time to dive out of the way as the large animal that resembled something of a cross between a grizzly bear and a giant boar with wicked tusks and coarse fur that was almost as dangerous as the rest of it, lunged at him. It was three times his size and probably weighed near a half ton. Coming up in a crouch he pulled his pistol and fired rapidly at the beast that'd turned quickly and was now charging him. This day, Vincent Valentine had been lucky. When the dust cleared, the creature fell once more at his feet, inches from skewering him with tusks that were easily as long as his arm. He jumped to his feet and reloaded the pistol, then fired a full clip into its head to make sure it didn't get up.

"Let's try this again," once more he headed off into the ruins, this time scaling the wicked metal that was sharp enough at points to rip him to shreds should his step falter and he slip. Eventually though he found what he was looking for, a place to camp for the evening so he could rest up and heal himself in the morning. A small campfire was built and he relaxed against what used to be a large building. He didn't close his eyes, not yet. Sleep wasn't that easy to come by, not after the information he'd learned, not after what he'd set out to do. He just hoped he wasn't too late.

Some distance away, a younger man sat atop the ruins of one of the support towers that had held the upper levels of the city. Now it served as a look out where he could monitor the scattering of people below. The area was anything but safe. Ever since the destruction of Midgar, the creatures had ruled the area and while he thought the destruction of meteor and Sephiroth's death would bring an end to the mutated monsters that had roamed the wilds for as far as he could remember, it hadn't. They'd gotten worse, more dangerous and somewhere deep down he knew it was his fault. It was always his fault. He'd not been fast enough, strong enough, smart enough to see what had always been right in front of him and it had cost him dearly. This was his penance, keeping these people safe. However, that was easier said than done when they went and did stupid things like lighting fires away from the makeshift village. That was just asking for trouble. Cursing to himself, he stood and stretched a bit before picking up that massive sword and sheathing it across his back. Soon he was picking his way down the rubble and heading off into the distance to go make sure the owner of that fire wasn't being scouted for a midnight snack by something.

Sleep had finally come to the dark haired loner, but it was short lived when he woke to the sounds of metal crunching and scraping against each other behind him. His eyes opened a bit and a slow smirk crossed his face. "It took you long enough. I was beginning to wonder if you were even going to bother showing up."

The blonde just stared, his blue eyes wide with shock. Of all the people and things he'd expected to find out here in the middle of nowhere, Vincent wasn't one of them. "I...thought you...” It took him a few seconds to compose himself, and in the meanwhile he finished making his way down the hillside to take a seat near his friend. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Obviously, and yet here I am. You don't look like you're doing too badly."

"I think I'm doing better than you by the looks of things. Would you like some help with that? " He held out his hand, offering a small bottle which was pulsing with magical energies.

"Thank you,” he took the bottle without protest or question, swallowing it quickly though even the dour and serious man could not hide the grimace as he did so. That stuff always did and forever would taste awful.

"Welcome. Um...not to sound ungrateful for the visit, but what are you doing here? You never leave that cave unless it's something important." He ran a hand through untamed locks as he waited for an answer.

"You know, Cloud, if I were anyone else I would be insulted. It's nice to see you too, but you're right, there is a reason I'm here and it is very important. Something's brewing, something big and you're not going to like it,” he paused there, gauging the younger man's reactions up to that point. So far not bad, now for the worst part. "Sephiroth isn't dead."

He didn't say anything at first as it took a few moments for the shock to wear off and for his words to sink in. "What!?" As Vincent predicted, he flew off the handle, rising up and drawing his sword as if the silver haired demon himself was going to come out at that very moment to face him. "What the hell do you mean that bastard is still alive? He can't be! Do you hear me? He just fucking can't be! I killed him, with my own two hands, I killed him!"

"Cloud, sit down and calm down or I'm never going to be able to get to the important part of this story,” not that his request was likely, at least not right away but after a few more minutes of arguing and tantrums, Cloud obliged, albeit grudgingly.

"Fine. So what the hell is going on?"

"Very well. I don't know if Sephiroth is our main concern or not because Jenova is also reborn. I'm not sure exactly how, but from what little I have been able to piece together, he's alive for the same reason you aren't dead."

He looked awfully confused and shook his head, "I don't follow you. What do you mean?"

"I mean, that you didn't survive falling into the life stream. You did die, at least that's the theory."

"Okay, now you've lost me. If I died, how the hell am I sitting here now?"

"Because of Jenova."

"Jenova? What the hell?"

"In SOLDIER, you were subjected to tests that infused you with cells from Jenova, so was Sephiroth. When you were both killed, him in a number of ways and you from falling into the life stream, you died. However, the life stream is a pure force of nature. It is the opposite of Jenova, and therefore your bodies were polluted and had to be purified. You could not become part of the natural order until that was done. "

"I'm still not sure that makes sense."

"Basically, the life stream dissolved your bodies, but it couldn't dissolve the genetic structure because of the Jenova cells, so your bodies were remade and you ended up back here. For all purposes, you're almost immortal."

He just stared at him blankly. "Huh?"

"Each time you die, a little more of the corrupt cells in your body will be extinguished and you will be reborn each time until finally no more is left in your body and the life stream can finally absorb you into itself. " Once again, Cloud didn't say anything, but he no longer looked so confused. "Haven't you noticed that you haven't aged a bit? "

"Well, yes, but...I thought that it was just because of the Mako or the Jenova cells, whatever you want to call it. I thought it was normal and would eventually wear off."

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you but no, it won't be wearing off. "

"So, we have to do this all over again. Kill Sephiroth before he can destroy the world. How many times are we going to have to kill him before the bastard stays dead?"

"Honestly, I've no idea. I'm not sure he's the enemy though. Jenova is, always was. If she's joined with him again, then we're going to have an even tougher fight on our hands. She'd had time to plot her revenge Cloud. It's going to get nasty and I think all these strange mutated creatures are her doing. I don't know how, but if I didn't know better...I'd say she's gotten stronger."

"Then if she’s not already joined with Sephiroth, we need to find him and kill him before she can. I will see that bastard dead before my time is over, so help me."

"Well, that's all well and good, but you can't exactly do that sitting here and sulking in these iron ruins, now can you?"

"No, I can't. But where do we start?"

"That is a good question, a very good question. Let's sleep on it and decide in the morning. I don't know about you but I'm exhausted mentally, physically and spiritually." Cloud merely nodded to that and decided to sit watch over his friend. He wouldn't be able to sleep, not after that little story; especially not with the dreams he'd been having. It was actually only a few hours until dawn, but those few hours had turned into eternity for him.