The first thing Lightning heard was a groan.
Never a good sign. Her eyes shot open, and she leapt to her feet, gunblade out. "Where are we?" She snapped aloud, looking around. The setting around her three companions and Lightning herself was a rocky, gray mountainside, with scraggly bushes and small trees all around.
Definitely not the home of the Warriors of Cosmos.
Squall yawned in response, sitting up. "No idea." He grumbled, walking over beside her. "Did Cosmos bring us here?" Lightning shrugged, and didn't respond. Instead, she helped Cloud up, who was even more dazed. "Wow." He whispered, confused. "The home of the Warriors of Cosmos is way more...gray than Tidus and I thought."
"This isn't the home of the Warriors of Cosmos." Lightning muttered. " And you know Tidus?" She added. Cloud nodded and smiled a little "Yeah, he was my only friend back there. When they busted him out, I couldn't escape in time." He shuddered. "...Never mind. I don't want to think about it. Where are we?"
Lightning glanced around once more. "Looks like the middle of nowhere." She started. "Maybe something happened during the teleportation spell." Squall interrupted her, crossing his arms. "This has Ultimecia written all over it."
A rustling from the trees caused the trio to hush, as the bushes began shaking. "Someone's coming." Cloud gasped, holding his sword out. "They know I'm gone. They're going to kill me." Lightning grabbed his arm to soothe him. "They're not going to kill you. Stay calm." She whispered. Cloud shut his mouth and nodded, stil looking scared.
The rustling got louder, until a lithe blond warrior jumped out of the bushes, holding a dagger in one hand and a small sword in the other. He glanced up at them, confused, a yellow tail swishing dust up behind him. Before he could say anything, Squall stepped forward.
"Zidane?" He asked, tilting his head. "That is you, right?" The blonde's face lit up, and he tackled Squall in an excitedhug. "Squall! It's so good to see you!" The two immediately dissolved into eager, cheery conversation, while Lightning and Cloud just watched, confused. "Cosmos sent me to look for you." Zidane added, shifting on his feet. "Where have you been?"
Squall laughed, much more comfortable with the new warrior than with Lightning and Cloud. "Trust me, you're not going to believe it." Then he glanced at the other two. "But my companions here can explain it better." Zidane glanced behind him . "Ah, you must be the very pretty Lightning Farron." He said, shaking her hand. Lightning rolled her eyes goodnaturedly at his flirty tone. "Nice to meet you." She replied. Then he turned to Cloud. "Wait, I don't think we've met before."
Cloud smiled warily. "I'm Cloud. Ex warrior of Chaos. Nice to meet you." He glanced sideways at Zidane. "You look familiar." He added quietly. Zidane didn't hear the last part, and continued chatting excitedly with Squall, until Lightning cleared her throat. "We need to keep moving." She said with authority in her voice. "Let's go."
She stalked ahead, the group of male warriors following behind. None of them noticed the trio watching from high above in the mountains.
"Well," Ultimecia said smoothly, checking her perfectly manicured nails. "I guess you do know someone down there, Genome. Good for you to achieve something in your miserable life." Kuja hissed at her, and crossed his arms. "Do you not have anything better to do besides berate me, witch?"
"Shut up, the both of you." Sephiroth snapped, pulling out his katana. "Let's go, befroe they get out of our sight." Kuja yawned, not moving. "May I ask who died and made you the king?" He asked sarcastically, his hand sparking with magical energy. Sephiroth rolled his eyes. "Neither of you can take charge of a simple mission, so I'll have to be the one to do so. Now let's go."
He stormed off, Kuja following at a slight distance, still muttering about how he should be in charge.
Ultimecia watched them for a second, her face twisting into a smirk. "You believe I cannot take charge of anything? Watch and learn, angels, for I will eliminate much more than the light today."
***
"Zidane, you do know where you're going, right?" Squall asked, trying to keep his voice even. Looking surprised, the blond warrior huffed in response, and crossed his arms. "Of course, I do, Squall. A master thief always knows the lay of the land." He muttered haughtily. Then his voice dropped even lower. "We passed this rock before, right?"
Lightning groaned. "We're lost." She muttered, facepalming into her left hand. Cloud squeaked in fear beside her. "We're going to die out here." He whispered. "We are NOT going to die out here." Zidane interupted. "It's just through this clearing, I swear. And we are NOT lost."
The thief pushed through some more brush, as the unconvinced group followed him, arriving in a seemingly nondescript patch of land with barely any vegetation or rocks. It clearly wasn't non descript enough, as the second Zidane walked forward, he stopped immediately, his tail lashing. "We need to go back." He said quickly, sounding uncharacteristically disturbed.. "There is something very wrong here."
"How?" Squall snapped, taking a step forward. Zidane whipped around in shock. "Don't!" He started, when he suddenly attempted to tackle Squall away from the area. "It's a trap!"
It was just then said trap activated, and Zidane missed his friend, instead tackling Lightning and dragging her to the other side of the clearing. The girl let out a muffled squeal of anger, before throwing the thief off of her back, and standing up.
That's when she saw it. A monstrous sinkhole had opened up in teh soft ground, and Squall was clinging for his life to a small foothold of rock. Clenching onto his hand with an even more terrified expression on his face, was Cloud.
Lightning went redhot with rage, and whipped around to face Zidane, pointing her gunnblade at his throat. "Did you plan this?" She snarled. "Which one of Chaos's scummy warriors is hdiding in your form?"
"Oh please. Do not give him any of the credit." A voice cut Lightning off, and she glanced up to see Kuja sitting on a tree branch, watching the trap with great interest. "It is not his sinkhole." Zidane scrambled to his feet and pulled out his dagger, a weird mix of sadness, betrayal and anger going through his face. "This is your trap, isn't it?" He hissed.
"Of course it is!" Kuja replied, sounding mock offended. "Why would it not be?" Lighting grit her teeth, but before she could say anything, a different voice stopped her.
"You truly are useless, aren't you?" A cold voice cut through the clearing, and Squall glanced up, his face filling with fury. Kuja glanced behind him, before a strike of light hit him in the chest, causing him to fall from the tree. The light faded away to reveal multiple swords pinning the mage to the ground, a decent few of them going right through his arms.
Ultimecia stepped out of the shadows, and slammed her clawed food down on Kuja's chest, causing him to squeak in pain. "That incompetent jester was right. You only are good for menial grunt work." She hissed, digging her heel into his chest so he couldn't reply. Before Lightning, and espeically Zidane could do anything, another figure stepped into the clearing.
"Is this betrayal, Ultimecia?" Sephiorth snarled, bracing his katana. At his voice, Cloud whimpered, until Squall shushed him. The witch laughed out loud. "Good of you to notice." She snickered, before waving her hand.
The katana twisted suddenly, and stabbed Sephiroth in the chest, causing the man to cough, and sink down on one knee. "You..." He snarled, venom oozing from his voice. Ultimecia laughed even more. "I believe we call that poetic justice?"
Then she turned back toward Lightning and Zidane, who were in shock. "I suppose I'll have to dispose of you, since I twisted your spell to arrive here. But not in that pit." She snapped her fingers, and the pit vanished, flinging both Squall and Cloud out of it. "I'm not uncultured."
Zidane braced his dagger, looking like he was trying to ignore Kuja silently begging him for help. "Let them go." He snapped, incredibly serious. "You shouldn't betray your own allies." Lightning added. Now it was Squall's turn to laugh, stopping Ultimecia's probably snarky reply. "Have you two even met Ultimecia? I'm not surprised she didn't do this sooner!"
The witch shrugged languidly. "He isn't wrong. But, I will make this interesting." She snapped her fingers again. "If you can win my simple little game, I'll release these two for the rest of you warriors of Cosmos to do with at your leisure. If you lost-" Her eyes glowed maliciously. "Well, you know what I mean."
"We're in." Zidane said suddenly, ignoring Cloud's obvious dissent. Lightning held a hand up, bringing the attention to her. "What's your game, Ultimecia?"
The witch waved a hand, and an enormous silver and purple armored dragon descended to the ground, roaring suddenly. "Defeat Bahamut in a fight. That's all." She waved goodbye condescendingly. "Have fun."
Ultimecia vanished, leaving the monstrous roaring dragon in the wake of the four warriors. "Now what?" Squall snapped, bracing his weapon. Zidane answered his question by lunging at the dragon and stabbing it in the heart.
It vanished within seconds, which casued the group to jump. "Where did it go?" Cloud asked, looking around. "Nowhere. She wanted us to win." Lightning replied, keeping her voice even. "Which means-"
She stepped forward, and pointed her sword at Sephiroth and Kuja, who both looked back at her, terrified.
"We get to decide their fate."
******
Titles are not my strong suit.
Dissdia is so weird, but it is easy to write oneshots about.
Anyway, sequel time! It's a bit odd sure, but I liked writing the plot twist. Ultimecia is such a cunning villain, right up there with the freaky clown man. Sorry Sephiroth and Kuja, too obsessed with getting to your rivals to see it coming.
I'm glad I finally posted a true oneshot, it took a while. Vote, comment, etc. Have a great day everyone!