This is a collection of short stories following the adventures of Sephiroth at Renezka Fortress. It's probably easiest to read Arrival first. They are in no chronological order but they are interlinked.
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- Created By barquest
Rise of the Anti-Seph: Where the children play
Sephiroth tapped the table, boredly. Agreeing a permanent peace with Kefka was more difficult than he would have thought. Kuja sneezed and muttered something about "poor exposition". Suddenly, a scream rang out. Finally, something in...Rise of the Anti-Seph 2: Snow Angels
Inspired by the fact that I had my first snow day last week and The Guardian's coverage of how people in London responded to vast amounts of the stuff.
Rise of the Anti-Seph 2: Snow Angels
Fierce blizzards had turned much of Renezka fortress into a Himalayas look-a-like. Rinoa walked through the snow, humming happily.
"Isn't it beautiful, Squall? Squall? Do pay attention."
"Whatever. It's too cold."
"If you say so. What is that weird creaking noise?"
"Why would I know?"
Rinoa squealed loudly as she came round the corner.
"Look, someone's collapsed! We have to help them. Squall, go get help!"
"Ok."
Rinoa half-carried, half-dragged the unconscious young man back to her home, a small building by the gates. She carefully lifted him up onto the bed.
"Poor soul. Maybe you'll wake up when you're warmer."
Meanwhile...
"Kuja, it's my go with the catapult!" shrieked the Cloud of Darkness. Sephiroth frowned. His idea that the villains should work together had been fairly successful, but there were still some creases to smooth out.
"Seph, tell her that it's still my go!" yelled Kuja. The two squabbled loudly. Seymour was throwing snowballs at anyone who passed and Kefka was cackling again for some reason. Ultimecia and Mateus were having an argument about hairstyles. Sephiroth had a headache.
Suddenly, everything went quiet. Kefka giggled but covered his mouth quickly.
Sephiroth looked up from his book.
Kuja grinned nervously.
Sephiroth turned to look at the subject of the other villains' stares.
A small building near the gates had been the subject of an avalanche of snow, caused by a badly aimed giant snowball, fired from a catapult. It was now almost entirely buried.
"It was her!" screamed Kuja.
"Liar!" snarled the Cloud of Darkness.
Sephiroth stared at them. "Exdeath?"
"It was Kuja" he replied. Kuja went red.
Sephiroth smirked. "Good shot."
Elsewhere...
Rinoa pulled a hot water bottle out of the cupboard.
Suddenly, there was a massive crash.
She ran to the window. Nothing but snow.
A dreadful thought struck her. I'm trapped in a house with a guy I don't know who could be some kind of psychopath and attack me when I'm least expecting it!
Rinoa shook her head. She'd been listening to Squall and his "you can't trust anyone" rambling too much.
Seeing as she wouldn't be going anywhere soon, Rinoa settled down to watch the Doctor Who marathon.
Several hours later...
She stood up to get another cup of coffee. Rinoa suddenly noticed that the shower was running and that the young man was missing.
Rinoa grabbed the frying pan and hid behind the door, waiting for him to appear. You could never be too careful, right?
A few minutes later, the young man emerged from the shower.
"Huh? You're not even damp?" said Rinoa.
The young man looked confused. "Of course not. I was just poking about. Where am I and who are you?"
Phew, thought Rinoa, he's not a loony. A bit on the weird side though. She introduced herself and explained what had happened.
"Oh, that makes sense, I think. I'm... I'm um... I don't remember." he sighed.
"I'm sure you will, in time. We're not going anywhere for a while so would you like a coffee?" asked Rinoa.
"No, thanks. Have you got any green tea or apples?"
Alright, maybe he's a lot weird.
"No apples. Squall doesn't like them."
He stared at her as if she had suddenly grown another head.
"No apples? You don't mind if I just have a look around, do you? I'll find something."
"Knock yourself out," she replied. "Well, maybe that wasn't the best choice of phrase."
"Ooh! Chocolate biscuits! I remember back when Angeal used to throw these and Zack would catch them in his mouth. Things were so much happier back then. Wait, I remembered something!"
"Awesome."
The next few days passed slowly as the heroes dug away the snow from outside the house.
The young man remembered most of his past, but his name still eluded him.
"Memories are difficult things. Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess, if only I knew what it was."
"Don't stress yourself over it. Patience is a virtue."
"I know. I spent a long time in a cave waiting for something. Another memory! I'm on a roll today."
The door opened.
"Rinoa, we've cleared the snow. You can get out now." said Cloud. "Wait, you look familiar. Nah, must just be me."
The young man squinted at Cloud. "Can't be..."
Meanwhile...
Garland sat up. "I have a feeling something interesting is going to happen."
"Nobody cares, Garland," said Kuja, as he readied the catapult.
Near the gates...
Rinoa and the young man walked through the courtyard.
"I'll take you back to the main hall. Maybe someone who recognises you will be there." said Rinoa.
There was a sudden cruel laugh. Sephiroth sneered. "It's been a while, Genesis."
The young man blinked. "I... remember now. Oh dear."
Sephiroth grinned dementedly. "FIRE!"
Kuja stared Genesis in the eye. Then he loosed the catapult.
A huge snowball flew across the courtyard and hit him, sending Genesis flying backwards into a wall.
"Take that you dumbapple! I do like my puns," said Sephiroth. Kuja rolled his eyes.
Genesis giggled. "I like apples."
Rinoa abruptly felt the need to beat her head of the wall in frustration.
The End
Rise of the Anti-Seph
Sephiroth had been working at Renezka fortress for a few weeks now, and was settling in well. He had had several appointments with the psychotherapist and had made some new friends. He had also, unfortunately, met some old acquaintances.
However, he was unaware of the impending danger. A demented cackle echoed through the bowels of the fortress.
It had been a relatively dull day. Kuja yawned.
"See you tomorrow, guys. I'm gonna turn in for the night," he said as he got up from his chair. Ultimecia had already left and was watching a documentary about pirates in her room. Seymour slid slowly off his chair.
"Kuja, can you take Seymour back to his room first? The maester appears to have fallen asleep," said Sephiroth, looking up from his book. Kuja nodded, grabbing Seymour by the leg and dragging across the floor.
Sephiroth smiled. It was amazing how things had changed. He'd found people here that were just like him. Then again, Cloud was here. What should he do?
Just as he was contemplating this decision, there was a crash from behind him.
"You're so rubbish at Jenga, Fran!" laughed Freya, "let's play dominoes instead."
Sephiroth shook his head. Honestly, just people playing games, he should be less paranoid. Cait Sith hurtled across the room.
"Damn cat," said Auron.
The five of them were the only ones who stayed in the main hall over night, rather than returning to their rooms, and it is this that saved them.
On that night, each and every person (well, almost every person) vanished.
When Sephiroth went to find his friends and found nobody at all, not even Yuffie, he knew something was wrong. He walked quickly back to the main hall, just in time to see the others staring up at a large screen.
A strange, overly made up face framed by blonde hair appeared.
"Is this thing on?"
"Yes, it is. They can hear and see you and vice versa," droned a figure in deep green armour.
"Good. Ok. Here goes." The figure paused for a moment. "Greetings, fools. I seek the one known as Sephiroth's attention."
Sephiroth waved at the screen.
"Hmmmm. You don't look half as scary as they said. If you really are the strongest villain ever, then my oh my, taking over this place will be a pushover. Hey, Cloud, come and see this weedy mother's boy."
Sephiroth scowled. Nobody insulted his mother and got away with it.
"Cloud.... Cloud.... Cloud of Darkness, pay attention!"
"But I'm tormenting the prisoners, General Palazzo!" screeched a woman wearing, well, not very much actually.
"I don't care. Anyway, Sephiroth, it is my goal to take over the entire universe and become the ultimate villain!" he cackled," I, Kefka Palazzo, will become ruler of everything and you are in my way. I am the Anti-Seph!"
The screen switched off before suddenly turning back on again.
"Oh yes, I forgot. We have your friends and colleagues" barked Kefka as the camera panned over a hall full of people that had been tied up. Fran gasped when she saw the Cloud kick Balthier savagely.
Sephiroth stood completely still for a moment. The others turned to look at him. He had been a great leader once, and they needed his help.
*Beep biddly biddly beep*
"What's that?" asked Auron. Cait Sith scurried across the room and pulled a laptop out of a cupboard. He opened it, revealing a webcam and some other people that had escaped the mass kidnapping.
"See, I told you the secret passages to the lab were a good idea, Cid!"
"For once you're right, Vexen. Shalua, the display on the computer's weird. Can you fix it? Oh no, it's just Sephiroth," Dr. Cid laughed. Lucrecia frowned at him.
"What on earth? How did you escape being kidnapped?" asked Freya.
Dr. Cid smiled. "You can thank our irrepressible nosiness as scientists for that. Gast and Shalua were already here. Also, Zexion hit the alarm button so we used the secret passages that Vexen built to get to the laboratory. Zexion was unable to escape."
And so began a discussion over how to save the people of Renezka Fortress.
Sometime later...
"Come on you miserable lot. Don't you want to get rid of Sephiroth?" boomed Garland. The crowd remained silent.
"I know what we should do," smirked Emperor Palamecia,"let's find his friends and torture them. Then he'll give himself up."
"Brilliant! Who here is Sephiroth's friend?" yelled Kefka. Silence. "Tell me who you are or all of you will suffer."
Kuja winced. "I'm Sephiroth's friend," he said and braced himself. The pain he expected never came.
This was due to Seymour and Ultimecia declaring that they were also Sephiroth's friends.
"We're his friends too!" yelled Loz and Yazoo.
"And me," added Kadaj.
"I'm Sephiroth's friend as well," cried Yuna.
Soon the entire room was tellin how they were all friends of Sephiroth.
"I'm Spartacus," said Genesis.
Angeal shook his head,"wrong again, Genesis."
"Curses."
Back with our heroes...
"I know what we could do," said Lucrecia darkly,"we could use the other idea that Vexen had."
"That's incredibly dangerous. It might go wrong," gasped Shalua.
"We have to take that risk" she replied.
The scientists huddled together, talking in hushed voices about something that Sephiroth was sure was important.
"Ok. We've decided. We're going to implement Project:Irrigator," said Dr.Cid, "now you need to hold onto something and get ready to hold your breath."
"What!?" cried Sephiroth "But-"
"Here goes!" cried Vexen, "time to flush 'em out!"
He pulled the lever.
Nothing. Suddenly, Sephiroth heard the sound of rushing water.
"Uh-oh." He grabbed a pillar and clung on for dear life as a huge wall of water hit them. He could tell that Cait Sith was clinging to his leg.
About 30 seconds later, the water subsided. Sephiroth coughed.
Freya led them down to the hall where the others had been kept. Most people had been freed by the impact and Kefka, the Cloud of Darkness, Exdeath, Garland and Emperor Palamecia had been tied up in the middle of the room.
"Well, well" said Sephiroth, smirking,"you're all wet. Maybe we should hang you up to dry."
Several hours later...
Rinoa was walking past on her way to her art course when she heard something. She peered into the cloakroom and saw 5 unfortunate villains hanging from the hooks. "Mmmmf. Mmmm mmm!" said Kefka, whose gag prevented him from speaking properly.
Rinoa left the room, humming happily. Just when she thought her day couldn't get any better.
Dragonwings
"Make sure you're all ready for the big party on Halloween!" whooped Astralia through her microphone.
Sephiroth had no idea what he was going to do. He decided to ask Kuja when he ran into someone.
"Careful! You trod on my foot!" began Riku, who froze when he realised that he'd just yelled at Sephiroth. "Sorry! It won't happen again!" Riku rushed round the corner to avoid any further accidents. Sephiroth merely stood there, shocked. The resemblance was amazing. Surely Hojo didn't...?
"Oy, Seph! Over here!" bellowed Kuja. He quickly explained that Seymour and Ultimecia had come up with an amazing plan for Halloween. Sephiroth smirked. What had they thought of now?
Kuja and Sephiroth met the others outside Leri(the therapist)'s office. Seymour grinned dementedly and told Sephiroth the plan.
"You are kidding right?"
"Oh come on Seph," he whined, "we can't do it without you."
"Fine. I thought you wanted to win her back?"
Seymour shrugged and knocked on the door. Ultimecia giggled.
Leri's eyes widened when they explained the costumes that they wanted.
"They won't like it. They really won't."
"I know. It'll be brilliant. Mine isn't so important but Seph, Seymour and Kujster need really awesome costumes." screeched Ultimecia delightedly.
"If you insist" sighed Leri. She had a bad feeling about this.
The day of the Party
Yuna scratched her head. Her costume was that of a siren and the blue ribbons made her head itchy.
Suddenly the doors burst open. The room went completely silent apart from the sound of Yuna's glass smashing as it hit the floor.
"Go Go Dragonwings!" yelled Seymour as the four of them leapt into the room.
The Gullwings gasped in shock.
"SSK kicking serious butt" cheered Kuja, "Ultimecia, can you help me with this scarf?"
Demyx started to clap. Soon the entire room was cheering apart from Yuna, Rikku and Paine. For some reason, they were not impressed by Seymour, Kuja and Sephiroth dressed up as them (respectively). Brother merely wolf whistled at Ultimecia wearing a modified version of his outfit.
"We will have revnge!" shrieked Rikku as she fled the room with Yuna and Paine.
The end
Coming soon: Rise of the Anti-Seph
Arrival
Sephiroth yawned and rubbed his head. He'd woken up in a strange building but the last thing he could remember was insulting Cloud. How peculiar, he thought. There was no sign of anybody around. Sephiroth stood up and headed towards the door.
Suddenly, a message boomed overhead.
"Hello, and welcome to Renezka fortress. Each of you has been brought here due to your individual.... talents. You will meet people you recognize, and as such, combat is only permitted within the training grounds. You have all been given boxes containing maps of the fortress, keys to your rooms and cards with the name of the person you'll be working with. You may also have a piece of paper telling you if and when you have an appointment with our psychotherapist. Warden Astralia, out," purred a female voice.
Well, that explains a lot, thought Sephiroth as he opened the box. He carefully studied the map and headed out to the main hall.
The main hall was full of people rushing around and arguing. Sephiroth picked up a few snippets of conversation:
"Um, excuse me, I'm looking for Aerith Gainsborough. Does anybody know her?"
"Hey, is there anybody here called, let's see, Zell Dincht?"
"This is such a waste of time. Are any of you idiots called Sephiroth?"
"I am!" yelled Sephiroth into the crowd. He hadn't seen who was looking for him. He stopped to think for a moment. Aerith? He must have heard wrong.
"Aha! There you are! I'm Kuja." Kuja rolled his eyes, before waving his hand in front of Sephiroth's face, "Come on, pay attention to me!"
Sephiroth blinked. He introduced himself (basic SOLDIER ettiquete, you know) and started to chat to Kuja about what they'd been doing before they'd arrived here. It turned out that they both needed to see the psychotherapist, so (after much examination of a map) they set off towards the medical centre.
Kuja gasped, "Oh, no way."
A young man with blond hair and a tail had just come round the corner.
"You!"
"You!"
"Who's this?"
Kuja scowled. "This is my little brother. Him and his friends tried to kill me. He did try to save me afterwards but I still don't have to like him."
Zidane nodded to them and walked past, landing flat on his face when Sephiroth tripped him up.
"Oops."
Zidane ran off, looking annoyed.
"Ha! You're not as dumb as you look, Seph!" laughed Kuja.
"And you're not as girly as you look."
"Hey! Actually, you may have a point there. Hmmmm. Friends?"
"Friends."
The end (or only the beginning?)
End
