Across the Divide and Through Valhalla

Down to the Wire

Chapter 50

Caius watched them walk away with a frown. When Sephiroth joined him, his voice was low. "What will happen if her brand continues to change?"

Caius bit back on another curse and looked over to the man he considered a friend. "She will be transformed into a mindless monster filled with nothing but rage, pain, and regret. We will have no choice but to kill her. It would be a mercy."

Sephiroth took in a sharp breath. It was a fate far worse than he had anticipated. And he also realized she must already know. It explained her bitterness in the beginning. He took a deep breath. "How do we stop that from happening?"

Caius closed his eyes and shook his head. "We cannot. It is her focus. She must figure out how to fulfill it." Sephiroth wanted to curse as well. He had not felt this helpless in many years. It was a foreign sensation to feel it on behalf of another person, but he had to have faith that Sherry would figure it out. They had come too far for her to fail now.

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Genesis didn't let her take him far before he stopped her. "What happened? Why did he react like that? What are you hiding from me?"

Sherry shook her head. She knew she needed to at least tell him part of what would happen. If she did become a c'eith before she got them back, he would have to deal with her. She couldn't let him go into that blind. It was one thing not to tell him about her becoming a statue, as he would never see it, but this was different. She lifted her sleeve and showed him her brand.

He had seen it many times, but he had never known the significance of the changes it was undergoing. She forced herself to look at the nearly fully open eye-like image before she looked up at him. "My brand, if it opens all the way, then I will have been deemed a failure. L'cie that fail become c'eith. C'eith are monsters made of crystal, and hatred, regret, and pain. If that were to happen, you would have to kill me before I started destroying everything and everyone around me. The three of you are the only ones that would be strong enough to do so. Barring a small army, of course."

He grabbed her shoulders in a hard grip. "Why didn't you tell me!?"

She felt a few tears slide down her face. "I never thought it would get to this point. I thought Sephiroth would be gone already, and I would have figured out how to get you and Caius back to your worlds. It never should have come to this. Why is Sephiroth still here?"

Genesis took a step back at her question. He became defensive almost. "Isn't that your focus?"

She took a deep breath and tried again. "I know you have told me many times all the things you plan to change. All the things you want to tell Angeal. What about Sephiroth? He is your friend too. What will you tell him?"

Genesis sneered at her. "The General I have come to know here has mellowed some. I do not know all he has seen, but he isn't as brash or arrogant. We are closer now, but he isn't the same man I will go back to. That man is someone I may call a friend, but not a close one. We are as much rivals as anything."

Sherry froze as sudden understanding washed over her. Sephiroth hadn't disappeared because Genesis still didn't see him for what he really was. She gently took his hand and gave him a soft smile. "Genesis, you do realize that you are one of only two people that he sees as an equal. You are the only one that he never has to hold back against. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if he holds back against his enemies even just so he won't hurt innocents. Do you not see what that means? What that says about how he sees you?"

Genesis scoffed. "Nonsense. You are jumping at shadows. The man is too arrogant to see any such thing."

Sherry shook her head and started laughing bitterly. Her hand tightened around his. "Come with me."