3wingedangel | Various PSLs

"How should I know?" Cloud takes another step forward. "You're the one always going on about darkness this and darkness that. Well, the light returned to this place, and if I get rid of you, it'll return to me, too."

And one more step.

"And then whatever your nasty plans are won't matter anymore."

"You're so sure of that, Cloud?" Sephiroth moves to draw his sword into position for a fight. "You used to accept that it was your own fault you fell into the darkness. Then you started blaming me because you couldn't accept what you'd done. You can't accept that you're the one who hungers for the darkness. Defeating me won't solve that problem for you."

((OOC: Should they start fighting and end up teleporting somewhere where there's a problem they plunge into, like a monster after them?))

"Shut up! I've had enough of your lies!"

Cloud doesn't stop to think too hard about what Sephiroth's saying, because to some extent, he can't. His heart clings to a solution, to something he can fight, because he knows he's still missing some key memories - memories that, if he were to dredge them back up or restore them somehow like Sora seemed to think he could, might either help him or break him. What happened to make him lose his heart in the first place? How did he regain it?

It's too difficult to think through and it gives him a headache when he tries, so he's stopped trying.

Now this, this is simple: just him and Sephiroth, blades drawn and ready. Cloud punctuates his shouting with his footsteps as he charges forward and leaps to close the distance between them, bringing the Fusion Sword swinging down hard.

((OOC: Sure! Maybe Cloud accidentally opens a darkness portal, like subconsciously reaching out to the darkness in his desperation to win, Terra-style?))

((OOC: Sure! That would be perfect. And I'm a hurt/comfort junkie. How would you feel about the problem they plunge into ending up with Sephiroth supposedly killed, especially if it happens because he's trying to protect Cloud from a sudden attack from the monster or whatever it is? Then he's dead but of course doesn't vanish into Cloud's heart or whatever Cloud thinks would happen. (He'd come back, of course, maybe after a brief out of body experience.) ))

Sephiroth meets Cloud's attack and forces him back, wings spread to add extra weight to the push. "You fight me because you enjoy it, because you're too afraid to actually do something to face your real problems. It's so much easier to think someone else is at fault for your own sins, isn't it? 'The Devil made me do it' used to be an argument people used a lot when they did something wrong and were ashamed to own up to it. Most people these days know that's idiotic. But you're still clinging to that type of mindset."

((OOC: Ooh, works for me!))

Cloud snarls at Sephiroth as he skids back but stays on his feet, and then he's charging back in again.

"My mistakes are my own. I know that. But you? You are my sins!" He punctuates it with a flurry of blows designed to put Sephiroth off-balance.

((OOC: Great!))

Sephiroth meets all of the rapid-fire blows head-on and then crosses the Masamune against Cloud's sword, again trying to force him back.

"Exactly my point," he says. "You're projecting your sins on me. And what do you think will happen if you win this fight, Cloud? Why do you think it will be different from any of our other battles? It doesn't matter what you do; you can't eliminate me. You have enough strength and skill that you could. But you cling to the idea that I will just up and disappear somehow, and that never happens."

Cloud holds his ground this time, maintaining the clash as he narrows his eyes.

"Changed your tune? Whatever happened to 'I am you', and 'your darkness keeps calling me back'? You really think you can deny it all now and I'll just believe you?"

Sephiroth smirks darkly. "I don't deny it. But you never understood what I really meant. Think about it, Cloud. If your darkness calls me back, I can't be your darkness."

"Stop trying to confuse me!"

Cloud jumps back, letting the force of Sephiroth's clash propel him further into the air as he reaches with one hand to call a bolt of lightning down on his foe before landing in a half-crouch.

"I know what I have to do. I won't let your poison drag me back down into the darkness."

Sephiroth looks up, actually startled by this. Cloud rarely uses these powers. He barely leaps out of the way in time to avoid the lightning.

"Really? And what are you going to do about it?" he asks. "If it's magic you want instead of swords, I can deliver that as well."

He starts to raise his hand to summon pillars of fire.

As the fire rises, Cloud can feel the force of it pulling him in. He tries to plant his feet, but the magic's too powerful - he finds himself sliding closer despite his best efforts. Gritting his teeth, he lifts his sword in a defensive position, but he can't see any way to avoid the flames short of getting above them somehow. But leaping now would just send him hurtling into them faster.

He has to do something. He refuses to accept defeat at the hands of his own Heartless.

The pillars' force only gets stronger the closer Cloud's dragged toward them, and eventually it knocks him off his feet. It's an instinct rather than a conscious thought when he reaches out with one hand in a desperate, last-ditch effort to shield himself...

...and the ground seems to fall out from under him as he drops down through a portal of dark energy with a surprised sound, simply vanishing. The darkness itself, though, does not vanish. It exerts a fell gravity of its own, and it spreads.

Sephiroth grunts in surprise as the portal opens and he falls in as well. "What have you done, Cloud?" he demands. "You're tapping into the darkness again? You always fall back on it in tight situations. Strange that you want to give me what you think I want!"

He spreads his wings as he falls. Where are they going to end up? And what's going to happen back in Hollow Bastion? He had seen the darkness spreading. They need to get back somehow. But first they have to get out of this....

At the other end of the portal, a monster growls and then roars. They're falling right into its domain.

"A lecture about the darkness? From you? Don't make me laugh." Cloud's disdain at the hypocrisy is real, but it's also covering a bit for how unsettled he is. He didn't even know he was capable of opening portals.

He has no idea what new mind game Sephiroth is playing with him now, but he can figure that out later. Right now, there are more pressing issues.

Like whatever is roaring at the end of this descent.

Cloud flips his sword around in his hands and shifts so that if whatever's down there happens to be standing just beneath the churning inkblot that is this portal, it's likely to get a very large and unpleasant sword-shaped wake-up call.

Sephiroth grunts. The majority of what he usually tells Cloud are things Cloud doesn't want to face, but he always tends to get blamed for whatever Cloud is doing, like falling into the darkness and making deals with underworld gods. Still, this is hardly the time to be arguing about it.

He is also preparing for a fight. Cloud's idea is a good one, for once, and he readies the Masamune likewise.

As the end of the portal nears, the monster is nearby but not directly under it. It roars at the portal and at them coming out of it. Then it blasts at them.

Sephiroth blocks the blast and retaliates with his energy orbs. He lands on the ground but soon is in the air again, slashing at the monster as it snaps at him. When it sees Cloud, it blasts at him too.

Cloud lands before the attack comes his way, so he rolls under it to get closer to the beast. Much as he'd like to take Sephiroth on while he's distracted by this thing, the monster won't discriminate. So: take it down first, then deal with the other monster here.

He strikes hard and fast, relentless, and the beast roars but seems hardly the worse for wear despite taking every hit. "What is this thing?" he says, pausing to sheath his blade in crackling lightning.

Edited 2024-09-24 22:45 (UTC)

"Some type of dragon or wyvern, it seems," Sephiroth says. "We must have fallen into its treasure horde."

Even his Heartless Angel attack isn't slowing it down. Now he's growing honestly concerned.

"We don't stand a chance. I'll just make a portal and we'll go out the way we came in."

But as he's starting to try to do that, the thing lunges again. He has no chance to concentrate. He blasts it back with his energy orbs and flies back over to Cloud. "Come on! We'll go in the sky and I'll make a portal where it hopefully can't reach in time." He reaches to grab for Cloud's arm.

((OOC: Maybe Cloud won't agree and Sephiroth is hurt/killed trying to save him when the monster attacks again during the argument?))

Various PSLs

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sorry for delay, work gets super crazy sometimes!

Totally understandable!