Aeris: What am I doing here?
Hika-chan: The disclaimer.
Aeris: *blink blink*.... But I'm not even in this story...
HC: *doesn't seem to get the point* so?
Aeris: *sighs* Final Fantasy VII and all characters therin don't belong to Hika-chan over there.
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Beautiful Nightmare
An FF7 Fanfic by Hika-chan
Chapter 8: The Reaper

The creature swung down at both Vincent and Rufus who scattered, narrowly dodging the deadly blade. "Its blades are heated!" Rufus warned as he took a shot at the creature.

"We have to lure it out!" Vincent shouted back, "Reno and Yuffie are still in the corridor!"

Elena chanted quickly, "Chigali Pandemos, Come upon us great guardian and sheild us with your light, Barrier!" the magical shields formed before her and the two gunmen as Rufus scrambled to dodge another strike. Realizing Rufus probably could not keep this up too long Vincent shot the reaper. The first shot hit it in it's ribs and the other bounced off one of its metal forearms. But at the least the monster turned to the man, giving his ragged comrade a chance to catch his breath.

On the other side Yuffie began casting her own spell, "Irisia mercurious, Of winged feet and speed of light, grant us a small amount of your power, accelera." A red glow encompassed the ninja and turk, speeding up their reflexes and perceptions.

About this time Reno realized how bad this fight would be for him. Fuck, he thought, I'm the only one without a range weapon. This is going to suck! He watched the creature's movements as it followed after vincent who shot it, trying to pull it towards the front of the building. Then he noticed Elena casting again

"Yuki forzenta freezia, Lady of snow, maiden of the north, guardian of the winter's secrets and its children. I bid thee aide us in our battle. I summon thee SHIVA!"

"Yuffie now!" The two ran out on either side of the creature as the ice spirit cast snow and ice upon it. With it slightly phased out of their reality and under assault they could run pass it without fear of its attacks. Yuffie skidded to a stop when she felt the summon's presence fading. Throwing her Conformer at the reaper. It swung around slicing into the creature's back before returing to her. It almost turned in her direction when Reno jumped into it's blind side ramming his electric staff into its side. It let out another shriek and violently turned in the direction of the rapidly retreating Turk.

Vincent, now directly out of the line of fire began casting as well, "Huraja raido, from badamoor I call forth the living energy. From the sky and the earth strike down the enemy before me, Teijin!" The monster once again cut off it's attack its screaching voice either drawing or scaring off nearby monsters. It spun once again to face Vincent, but on its way around, the reaper's tail, seemingly of its own accord whipped around Yuffie's ankle and swung her around behind it.

The ninja girl slammed into the ground, knocked breathless by the impact. As the creature began moving forward it dragged the temporarily helpless girl across the rough ground behind it. Seeing this Rufus decided to see if he could slow the creature, giving her time to recover. Firing upon the beast seemed to do that quite well. Her conformer still in her hands Yuffie brought her arm up and sliced the tip of the tail off. Screeching once again the beast swung at Rufus before swinging on Yuffie. Man this thing is dumb! Yuffie thought, somersaulting back away from it, It keeps going to attack the last thing that hit it.

Reno jumped in again as Yuffie once again threw her weapon, slicing one of it's smaller arms before being deflected by one of it's blades. Yuffie cursed as her weapon fell to the ground, far too close to the creature for comfort. Reno thrust his weapon into the base of the creature's spine only to have it's tail wrap around his waist and fling him into a wall, where he landed not too far from Elena. She looked up seeing the reaper cross its blades infront of itself, the red glow of the blades increasing. Frantically she began casting, praying to finish before the monter's attack "Ge hecaton junovo, come forth and guard us against the light and force of those who would attack us. Force shield!" The magic barrier went up infront of her and Reno less than a split second before the flame hit it. A few licks of flame even made it through to scorched her clothes. The young Turk kept pouring energy into the barrier as the flame was not going down. She could feel the heat boring down on her skin, like she was far to close to the sun.

Seeing the Turks in jeopardy both Vincent and Rufus unloaded on the creature. It turned its head spread the fire across the room hitting both Rufus and Vincent. However the ex-Turk was far from finished. A quick reload and Vincent shot the reaper again and again. It slammed one of it's blades into the ground and a trail of fire ran straight into Vincent, knocking the man from his feet.

His sense returned Reno stood and cast several cure spells, starting with Vincent and Rufus, who had taken the full brunt of the fire attack. Yuffie at the same time decided a little more offensive was neccessary. "I'll show you a reaper. Dis Plutoss, I call thee forth from your land, come from below and show my foes the price to be paid. Show them the pain of Tartarus. I summon you Hades!" As she bid Hades came forth chanting foreign words over his black cauldron.

The damage was done but when Hades left the beast continued his pace towards the now recovering Vincent. It grabbed him with its clawed hands, lifting him from the ground, the claws digging into his upper arms. He winced in pain, pulling his left forearm back as far as he could before jamming all five of the points of his claw into the creature. Seemingly blind to the pain the reaper only brought its heated blades to Vincent's back. His head arched back in pain as he cried out.

Not knowing what else to do Yuffie ran forward, scooping up her conformer and slashing the beast across the back, once again she met with the tail, thrown off as Reno spun his nightstick a large ball of electricity forming before he flung it at the creature.

Aside from reactions from it's tail the reaper's sole attention was on the man in its hands. Bending forward it bit into Vincent's shoulder. The whole of his eyes went white, then glowed red. A low growl emmitted from the man's throat and his skin began to darken as two black wings flung out from his back, forcing away the reaper's burning blades.

"Oh shit," Yuffie cursed, "Everyone back off!" Elena caught the hint, she had never seen Vincent's limit before but she had heard of it from Reno.

Rufus turned to her confused, not having any clue what was going on. "What?"

Yuffie ran towards the blonde and pulled him behind a section of fallen wall. "Look Vincent's going into his limit break," she whispered hoarsly, "He transforms into a monster and goes beserk any questions?"

"He what?"

She didn't really think he would ask any. "Watch."

Vincent's clothes seemed to fade away as the tail grew forth and his mass grew. His face contorted and with a final roar Chaos was in the arms of the reaper. Chaos grinned, his left hand already in the reaper's torso, he bent his claws fingers in then ripped out a large portion of monster's gut. Then Chaos through its arms out ripping the reaper's claws from his arms, before slashing down the reaper's chest with his right hand. The reaper fell back down onto the ground looking up it saw Chaos coming down on it from above. Slashing with it's right blade it rolled out of the way, cutting into Chaos' arm.

The ground under Chaos cracked and buckled as it landed then charged toward the reaper. Slamming his opponent into the wall. Chaos wrapped his hands around the reaper's neck. Pushing off the wall the reaper threw the both of them off the wall and slammed Chaos into the ground. The floor broke under them and the two creatures fell through to the floor below. The reaper, now on top, pressed the blunt side of it's blades into Chaos' chest, slowly burning throught the hell beast's skin.

His hands still around its neck Chaos brought one hand back a ball of energy forming in it's palm. Seeing the ball, the reaper tried to pull back but Chaos dug his claws into its neck. A sadistic grin spead across Chaos' face at the fear in the reaper's eyes. When the energy ball could hardly fit in his palm Chaos pressed it into the reaper's face and the beam shot out through its head. One floor above the others covered their heads as the beam shot through the ceiling raining rubble down upon them.

The reaper's body went limp and Chaos through it off to the side. A triumphant roar escaping from his throat. "Is everyone ok?" Chaos looked up at the voice, he grinned, more prey.

"oowww..." Elena whined rubbing her head, "I'm ok."

Reno stood and brushed himself off, "Are the disks ok?" Elena checked her case quickly and nodded to him. "Good. How about you two?" he called across the room.

"We're-" Yuffie stopped when Chaos jumped into the room. He looked around as if trying to pick an appetizer from the menu. "Hey Vinny?" It turned toward her, "Uhh... Vince? Vincent?" Chaos stalked toward her, slowly, diliberately. "Hey it's me Yuffie remember? You're new nanny kinda person? Uhh come on out now, ya know we gotta get back to Kalm." He reached towards her. "You remember right? Ralena and the baby?"

Chaos stopped, frozen in its tracks. "Yeah," Reno spoke up, unlike Yuffie he did not sound afriad. "And you can't expect to marry my sister lookin' like that!"

Reason suddenly found its way into Chaos' eyes. Bloodied hands went to it's head, grasping it in pain. The loud pained roar slowly changed into Vincent's voice as the body shrunk back down to human size. Back in conrtol Vincent fell to his hands and knees breathing hard.

Reno and Yuffie walked up to him, the other two were far more reluctant to approach. The young ninja knelt down infront of him. "Hey you ok there Vince?"

"Yuffie."

"Yeah?"

"Don't call me 'Vince.'"

"Sure whatever you say Vinny."

"..."

***

Rufus winced when they left the building. It was late in the afternoon, and though the electric lights had been on it was nothing compared to how the sun glared down at them. "Was it always that bright?"

"eh?" Yuffie turned back at him then looked up to the sky, "Yep 'fraid so." Yuffie looked back at him as he blinked, one hand sheilding his eyes protectively. He's so pale... she thought. Indeed he looked like some form of walking dead, in the sunlight. The lightness of his skin reflecting nearly all the light that hit it. Dark circles were under his eyes and his wild hair and tattered rags made him seem like little more than a ghost. "Com'on let's go Casper."

"What did you call me?" He gave the ninja a queer look before she giggled and continued on. A few minutes later his eyes adjusted better and he could not help but notice the many things he took for granted before. Even the stale wind that blew over the city was like heaven on his skin. When they reached the end of the city and he finally looked over the wall he was all but frozen.

Spread out before him was nothing but an endless field of green grass, and far off in the distance some mountains. He just stared at everything as the others climbed down off the wall. The grass, the sky, the mountains and the clouds. He could not help but notice the difference in how fresh the air was compared to that from within the city. He jumped when he felt a hand land on his shoulder. He turned seeing Vincent, he had been keeping the dark man in front of him since the incident within ShinRa Tower, but now that was all but washed from his mind at the scene before him. The corner of Vincent's mouth turned upward ever so slightly not quite qualifying as a smile. "Everything seems much better doesn't it?" he asked.

Rufus simply turned back to the scenery and nodded. "Not just that... it's all... new."

"It does seem like that way I'm sure..."

"Hey! Come on you two!" Reno called, "Let's get in the goddamn car, the faster we get back the faster we can eat I'm fuckin' starving!"

***

Ralena sat at the table flipping idly through some cook book she had gotten from a woman whose child they had taken care of after meteor. She listened as Sephiroth playfully pounded on the keys of the piano, not really playing anything but still managing a bearable tune. She was really getting worried now. It had been almost eight hours and still no word. *ring* She got up and eagerly answered the phone, "Hello?"

"Hello Miss Salvatore?"

Ralena sighed inwardly at her dissapointment, "Yes."

"This is nurse Grey at the hospital, it seems we've misplaced your blood sample, I was wondering if you could come back in tomorrow so we could get another sample."

"Uh yeah, sure ok."

"Is 10 a.m. good for you?"

"Yes that's fine."

"Alright, we'll see you then. Goodbye."

"Bye." Ralena sighed as she hung up the phone. hmm how odd, oh well. Before she even reached the table the phone rang again. "Hello?"

"Yo sis what's up?"

"Reno! oh thank god I was starting to worry!"

"Worry 'bout us? Aww you know we can take care of ourselves. Listen we'll be back in about two hours.. sooner if someone let's me drive." In the background Ralena could here a several shouts of protest. "Alright geeze, bunch o' wusses these girls are. I mean you almost hit one rabbit and they never let you drive again."

"Yeah," she heard Elena mutter sarcastically, "Just a rabbit... and a chocobo, and a wolf AND a FRIGGIN TREE!"

"Oh come on I missed that by a good two feet. Anyway, we got a survivor so you better have a lot of food when we get back, he ate half our lunches, so we're all hungry."

"A survivor?"

"Yeah, hey hold on... what?... hey you wanna talk to her you call her on your phone dammit!.. hee hee just kidding man lighten up. Yo here's Vinny for ya."

She laughed inwardly as she could almost here Vincent say "..." but soon his voice came over the phone. "Ralena?"

"Hey you."

"How are you feeling?" Ralena giggled as she heard a small chorus of "awwws" from the background.

"I'm good, no real dizzy spells today, I've been taking it easy. How did the mission turn out?"

"We picked up allot of disks, but Elena says it's going to take a while to go through all the information."

"And our survivor?"

"He-" Vincent was cut off as she could almost hear a small battle occur over the phone. "He will need some clothes, some of mine will do for now." Vincent paused a moment to glare at Reno.

"I need to shave too," she heard a vaugely familiar voice say in the background.

Seemingly at the end of his patience Vincent decided to cut the phone call short. "We'll be there soon, hopefully I will not have killed your brother by the time we get back."

Ralena laughed, "Alright see you then. Bye."

***

Back in the car outside Midgar, Rufus could not help but marvel at the casual human contact going on. It was so refreshing to once again see people talking and chatting so casually. Even Vincent who had not seemed very human to him at all had made a joke, at least he assumed the part about killing Reno *was* a joke. It had been very nice to no longer be in a survival situation now that they were finally out of Midgar.

"So what do you we'll be eatin' when we get back?" Yuffie asked beside him. She was in the back between himself and Reno. Rufus himself was on the passengar side behind Vincent.

"I bet sis is gonna try an' think of something to cook for a whole ten minutes before she gives up and orders out."

"You wanna take a bet on that?" Yuffie asked wryly.

"You don't think she will?"

"I'm gonna say she decides to order out in five minutes."

"Less than that," Elena said from her position in the driver's seat.

"Alright, you're both on," Reno said, "20 gil each."

Vincent was looking out the window and muttered, "I say Sephiroth comes up with the idea first."

Rufus nearly jumped at the name. "You are so on my man!" Reno said.

"Who?"

"Who what?" Reno asked.

"Who did he say would come up with the idea first?"

Reno looked up at Vincent, then Yuffie then back at Rufus. "Oh shit I almost forgot about that. Well since we got some time uhh... who wants to tell him about all this?" In the end it was up to Yuffie and Reno to tell the tale, with occasional corrections from Vincent.

"Soo.. he's... a kid?"

"Yeah. You're not gonna believe it when you see it either. I mean even though he's a kid, it is so wierd to see Sephiroth scared."

"But.. it's Sephiroth..."

Since the story had begun Vincent had put the sun visor down, watching Rufus' reactions through the mirror on it. "Rufus."

The ragged man looked up at the red eyes in the reflection. "Yeah?"

"Just so you understand, if you ever hurt the boy..." he let his threat hang in the air then flipped up the visor.

"We're here." Elena declared a few minutes later. Rufus looked out the window at the city of Kalm before him, bathed in the red glow of the late setting sun. Once again he was completely and totally amazed at the sight before him. As they drove through the roads it was nothing like the town he had once known. It was much larger, and while there were many roads and buildings there seemed to also be many trees and plants placed strategically around and between them. When it looked as though they were about to drive out of town Elena finally stopped at one of the last houses. "Ahh... home sweet," Elena stopped, "well it's not my home so nevermind."

Reno jumped out of the car before Elena had fully stopped, "FOOD!" he cheered and ran up the walk way.

Slightly more composed, but still anxious Yuffie was next, "You better not eat it all!"

Elena simply shook her head and walked up after them. Rufus stopped and stared at the house, Vincent took a few steps forward then stopped. He turned back and gestured to Rufus that it was alright to follow. Rufus nodded and followed the him up the walkway. "Vincent Vincent Vincent!" He heard a boy yell as he ran towards him at the door. But the white haired boy stopped when he saw the ghostly man behind him. Sephiroth skidded to a stop then ran behind Ralena, peaking out from behind her.

"Sephiroth!" the red head seemed quite surprised, "What's wrong?"

"'Lena is that a ghost?" Rufus simply stared at the scared child, completely dumbfounded.

She knelt down beside him, "No, that's just a man who has been through a very rough time." She looked up at him, then back to the boy. "I'm sure you won't find him so scary once he's cleaned up."

"What's for dinner?" Vincent asked casually, picking up the boy.

"PIZZA!" Sephiroth shouted triumphantly, his fear of the ghost man forgotten.

"I wasn't sure if I could cook enough food so I asked Sephiroth and well..." she shrugged, "Pizza." Suddenly she heard a curse from the kitchen. "What are you whining about Reno? I got your favorite, ham and pineapple right?"

"Not that, I lost the goddamn bet!"

"Oh quit it," Elena said, "You're not the only one."

Ralena turned a questioning eye to Vincent, "What bet?" She was answered with a grin then he walked into the kitchen. Ralena shrugged content to be left out of this one. Rufus felt very out of place, he looked down at his rags and he was very sure that he probably smelled bad. But on the other hand he was really hungry. "Would you like to eat or shower first?"

"huh?" he looked up at the red head before him. "Well I'm hungry but..."

She waved a hand at him, "Oh don't worry about it, I'm sure they can put up with it... Do I know you?"

"Kinda, we met once after you hit Palmer with a truck."

"Oh god." She moaned, at first Rufus thought she was upset that he had been the one to arrest her. "Is that how everyone is going to remember me? 'the chick who hit Palmer with a truck?' What the hell?"

Rufus just stared at her then laughed. "Sorry I.. I didn't mean it like that. I'm the one who arrested you. I'm Rufus Shinra."

She squinted her eyes and looked at him closer, then she backed up with a smile, "Oh. well... ok then. Go on and chow down."

Rufus let out a sigh of relief and headed into the kitchen. "I swear Reno if you don't leave me some of that ham and pineapple I'm gonna fire you."

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Hika-chan: Wow I started writing in the spells again! I haven't done that since.. since.... the first chapter of Empathy!! Holy crap! :) Was it ok? I don't think I'm very good with battle scenes but I dunno... you guys have to tell me! review reveiw reveiw! :)
Rufus/Reno/Yuffie/Seph: PIZZA! *runs HC over*
HC: *cough cough hack cough* Oh yeah, more fun bad guy stuff next chapter I promise... Wait a sec did they say pizza? *runs off after them* Save some for me!!
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