Chapter Text
Sephiroth beat Cloud in the skies above Midgar.
He’d meant to keep Cloud alive longer—to make him experience true despair. But then Cloud’s octaslash had actually hurt him, and he retaliated, hard. Cloud’s battered body couldn’t take it, and their mental connection broke before he hit the ground.
Sephiroth was left with a Cloud-shaped void in his consciousness and an unsatisfied craving for vengeance. Burning Midgar and corroding the lifestream with Geostigma helped.
At first, he sailed the cosmos with Gaia as his vessel, absorbing worlds as he went. He gained the ability to travel through time, space, and dimensions.
Yet no matter how much he consumed and grew, nothing filled the emptiness that resided where Cloud used to be.
So he sought entertainment and adrenaline, toying with the best fighters of every realm. But everyone was boring and no one came close to his prowess. Cloud remained the sole person to have ever had enough strength to defeat him.
Next, he tried sex. It was not hard to find willing partners, and each planet offered its own sexual flavors. But even with that variety, he quickly grew bored. He turned to unwilling partners, which was more entertaining, but it still lacked the fulfillment he craved.
His thoughts were consumed more and more with his old nemesis.
He started looking at alternative universes, and the solution to his problem became obvious. There were endless Clouds. When he focused on an individual one, he could feel a pull—a ghost of the connection he had once had with his Cloud.
He needed Cloud back, but he also craved that beautiful brand of despair that only his nemesis could give. He wanted to pull Cloud as close as possible, then tear him to pieces.
And as a god with access to infinite Clouds, he could have it all. He could fight, fuck, and kill him, again and again.
Perhaps total domination over Cloud would fill that horrible emptiness. It was only right that he own his puppet, in every possible way, in all realities.
He did not hesitate, picking his first alternative universe almost at random. His only requirement was that both he and Cloud existed.
Something that he hadn’t felt in a long time stirred in his gut—excitement perhaps—and Sephiroth knew he was on the right path. He flicked Masamune, slicing open a dark portal.
He was going to have so much fun.