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Legacy of the Lifestream	By : butabara Category: Final Fantasy VII > General Views: 2387 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not Own FFVII or its affiliates. I make no money from this execise in literary creativity.

Chapter List
- 47
- 48
- 49
Chapter 47: Threadbare
Sassi’s in trouble. Thump. Worse than ever. Gasp. I’m losing her! Thump-gasp-stumble.
Harmony lost her footing and crashed to the ground under the onslaught of pain and panic barreling through her. Her instincts screamed. Roared. Beat at the insides of her brain and left her blind, silent, and deaf. The flickering power of the Lifestream behind her eyes begged to be released to Guardian Mode again but the power, like before, failed to connect. What was happening?
Harmony scrambled to her feet and darted in the direction Sephiroth had gone. He was far ahead of her, but she could feel the power he left behind. It wasn’t needed – both of them would always be able to find their Cetra when either was in danger.
A pulse of the darkest, heaviest, most suffocating energy that the witch had ever felt washed over her and stole her breath, and Harmony whimpered in pain. Her limbs wanted to lock up. Her organs wanted to cease function. God, she wanted to die if it meant the pain would stop!
But no. No. Sassi. Protect your Cetra to the death! The Lifestream screamed in her mind. And she would. Always. Until all the lights in the cosmos burned out, and she herself met her ultimate end. She could feel something cracking inside her. Could feel it breaking away like threads of a too-stressed rope. With each snap, her consciousness of Sassi’s location became weaker and weaker and Harmony’s voice left her with a shriek of denial when she realized what it was.
The bond.
The bond was breaking.
“NO!” She howled to the darkened sky, and her power overcame her before logical thought could warn her against it.
Blinking to an unknown or unseen place was horrifically dangerous. One could end up in a wall, or a tree. One could become lost in the void, body broken down to billions of tiny atoms unable to draw back together and doomed to float through oblivion forever.
She didn’t care.
The first thing that Harmony’s eyes registered when she appeared in the center of hell was Yazoo draped around Aerith, covering her with his body in an attempt to shield her from the dark power writhing in shadowy tendrils behind her. A small part of her snarled at a Remnant of Jenova’s dangerous proximity to any Cetra, but a bigger part beat that anger down. Where was Sassi?!
She whirled around, eyes searching and lids closing over shining green in confusion. Vincent was on the ground before her; she was almost on top of him. He was writhing, screaming, crying out in pain and denial, begging someone, anyone to stop ‘the beast,’ even if it meant killing him.
Harmony was prepared to do it. Her beliefs flew away into the storm, the need to protect her Cetra overriding the need for spiritual peace and her hand hovered over Vincent’s form. She drew lightning into her palm, the crackle illuminating Vincent’s pained features and setting aglow his anguished red eyes.
“Do it.” He managed to choke. “Don’t let her do it! He’ll kill everything!”
Harmony stopped. Who? ...Oh, God…
“Sassi!” Harmony cried as she turned once more. Her eyes went wide and it felt as though she’d been run clean through the heart; she dropped to her knees, hands braced in the dirt and arms shaking in uncontrollable tremors.
Sassi’s eyes pierced the darkness, beaming with angry, cold blue and set on Vincent’s form behind her.
Another thread snapped.
“Aerith-what’s-happening?!” Harmony wheezed out through the tightness in her throat.
“I don’t know!” Aerith cried. “She’s summoning Chaos! But I don’t know how!”
And Harmony whipped her head back around to Vincent, and felt all of the blood in her body run cold. He was on the ground, still and silent, staring listlessly at the raging sky. Tears streamed into his hairline, from pain or terror or betrayal she couldn’t even begin to guess. A pulse of deep, ancient magic drew her gaze away, forced green eyes to focus on the form right beside her.
Chaos. The fanged creature she had seen surrounding Sassi, and standing beside her remnants when her shift to Guardian mode began.
Despair overtook her. Horror. She felt empty and she couldn’t force herself to move through the power the beast exuded. She heard the cries of alarm from her left and knew that every other person in the clearing – save for Sassi – found themselves in exactly the same position.
A clawed hand lifted and Harmony flinched, tried to scramble away but her limbs wouldn’t obey her desperate command as those wicked fingers caressed almost lovingly over her jaw.
“What a good little Guardian.” the beast purred. His voice was terrifying, yet soothing in a damning way. It almost made her want to give in; to ask the creature to kill her, to keep his promise and give them all peace… Eternal peace…
A sharp tug on her senses snapped her out of the trance. Focus, girl! We are losing her! And they were right. So many more strings had snapped while Harmony was caught in the demon’s power.
“Fuck. You.” she snarled through gritted teeth, then yelped as claws slashed down her cheek.
“Perhaps later, dear one.” Chaos crooned, and Harmony watched in disgust as the demon licked her blood from his hooked claws. “Ah, what a delightful vintage. Yes, I think I’ll save you for last.”
Harmony shuddered and cried out again when Chaos stood and kicked her arms out from under her. She crashed to the mud with a snarl and finally, her limbs remembered how to move. One hand whipped out before her, lightning tingling at her fingertips and she let out a vicious battle cry and aimed at Chaos’s retreating back.
And then he wasn’t there.
She screamed in pain when a booted foot crashed hard at the base of her spine, and her panicked mind registered the wet snap of bone. She tried to struggle, and sobbed in horror when her hips screamed and her legs would not cooperate.
He’d shattered her pelvis. And probably a few vertebrae in her lower spine.
“You bastard!” She wailed when he ground his foot against the injury.
Chaos only smirked above her, and in the next instant Harmony found her hands pinned high above her in the mud, impaled in place by her own sword. She shrieked again and buried her face in her shoulder to muffle the broken sob that followed.
“Hm. That little toy certainly has a bite.” Chaos chuckled. He shook the hand that had wielded Hogo-sha no Kokoro, wringing away the freezing pain the sword released to deflect his touch.
The personification of Death once more locked his focus onto the Cetra that freed him. Slow, deliberate steps squished in the mud, falling closer and closer to Sassi’s blank form until he towered over her. Her eyes stared into his with dark expectation. Hope. Desperation. He reached out and cupped her cheek in his palm. “Thank you, dear Lady.” He whispered, and then dropped to one knee in a feigned show of fealty. “I am yours to command.” For now.
“Kill them.” Sassi said blandly. “All of them. Every member of Gaia’s Retaliation in every inch of this world.”
Harmony thrashed and choked as the bond was strained once more, several threads snapping all at once. “S-Sassi please...” she whimpered. “Please don’t do this!” There was something about Sassi’s features that hurt even more than the crushing power trying to force her to protect her Cetra. More than the physical injuries to her body. More than the fear of losing the only thing she breathed for. Why the Hell wasn’t she shifting to Guardian mode?!
And where the ever-loving-fuck was Sephiroth?!

!@#$%^&*()

Furious green-and-yellow eyes glared at the white-haired male before them. Sephiroth’s wild race toward his Cetra was interrupted, quite forcefully – by the very man that had triggered the Guardian’s shift in the first place.
“I’m supposed to keep you busy, so that the Big-Bad-Wolf and Little-Red-Riding-Hood can go after your Cetra.” Weiss smirked. He wasn’t positive that’s what Valentine was doing, but he figured it’s what he would have done in that situation so he knew it was a pretty safe assumption.
“Get out of my way, Demon.” Sephiroth snarled threateningly. He leveled Masamune at the man. “You’ve been given a second chance at life. Are you really going to waste it by falling on my blade?” His mind was whirling with confusion. Vincent and Sytherea were going after Aerith? Why? Gods, he didn’t have time for this! Every second that passed the power meant to lead him to his Cetra became more and more painful. She was in danger. More than ever before. More than him, so long ago in a time so very different.
Weiss seemed to know it, and his lethal grin grew to stretch across his face. “Can you feel it, yet?” he hummed. “The power of the Planet itself, singing of The End? Perfect Peace… Chaos is rising.”
Sephiroth’s heart plummeted to his toes. That was why it was so painful! That was why Harmony had blinked! He knew he was close; he could feel not only his Cetra, but the strength of Jenova that bound him to two whom were – at one point – an attempt to recreate him.
And he could smell gunpowder. It seemed that Weiss had been truthful. For the first time, Sephiroth reached out. He’d never tried to speak to the Lifestream before; he knew that unless they wanted to hear him, they wouldn’t. He and Harmony were not Cetra, they didn’t have that connection.
But he was desperate. If you can hear me, help me. Please! He thought of white and flowers, sending the plea to his memory of Aerith’s description.
Silence, and then finally, ...You may be asked to do something you will not like.
Sephiroth hissed and dodged, his inattention spurring Weiss to attack and he barely avoided a downward slash that would have cleaved him clean in half. Then I will do what I must! Please, there’s no time!
Very well.
A vision of Aerith standing in a small clearing and shielded by Yazoo appeared behind his eyes, and with a taunting smirk at the white-haired Tsviet, Sephiroth drew his power in on itself and vanished.

!@#$%^&*()

“Yuffie!” Kadaj called. He’d caught a glimpse of shimmering gold as it darted through the bush beyond the battlegrounds. He knew she’d be the only person riding a gold chocobo into this battle. A great squawk and a startled gasp, and Yuffie burst through the foliage at his right.
“Kadaj.” She said, serious. “Where’s everyone else?” Kadaj quickly made his way to her side and launched into a quick summary of the battle so far.
“Please tell me your father sent reinforcements.” Kadaj panted when he finished his tale. The look on Yuffie’s face – a flash of pain and anger – gave him pause. “Yuffie?”
“Emperor Godo has passed to the land of our Ancestors. The Wu Sheng are under my command, and are as we speak hunting to gather the remaining GR soldiers attempting to flee.” She recited stoically. Her head whipped around when better than a dozen of her ninja burst through the trees, their yellow birds dancing nervously. “Xiao, Feng, I want you to stay here and begin searching. Transport those still living to the palace, burn the rest.” She ordered.
Her gaze turned back to Kadaj. “I could use a ride.” He said when he was sure he had her attention again.
Yuffie nodded. “You can take Xiao’s bird.” She motioned to the man and he nodded, walking the jittery chocobo to them and handing the reins to Kadaj.
“Good luck.” The man said with a respectful bow.
“You too. We’ll all need it.” Kadaj swung himself onto the bird and nodded his head further into the trees. “Harmony and Sephiroth took off that way.” He said. “They were heading after Sassi, Loz, Yazoo, and Aerith. I think something’s wrong. I thought I saw Vincent and Sytherea head off that way, too.”
“The Lady Sytherea is here?” Feng gasped, grabbing at his heart. “My Lady, we must-”
“You must do as you’ve been ordered, Feng!” Yuffie snapped, then sighed. “I’m… sorry. Don’t worry, the daughter of Leviathan is more than capable of protecting herself. Send Lei Wan and his unit after me when he gets here. And keep Michael busy, yeah?”
“As my empress commands.” Feng huffed.
“Good. Let’s go!” Kadaj said, finally unable to keep the stranglehold on his calm in place.
At least Sephiroth wasn’t seconds away from killing Harmony anymore, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that things were about to get much, much worse.
- 47
- 48
- 49
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Legacy of the Lifestream