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August 8th, 2003 - Continued"I think I'm gonna be sick..." From his room in the mansion, Bowser, King of Koopas, had seen two people walk up to the arena where the fights always took place. He had followed their movements for a while, but as they were engaged in all that "lovey-dovey" stuff, it gave him stomach pains to just look at it. He had seen them walking back, much later, after the stars had become the only things that illuminated the tiny village that the competitors called home. And to his chagrin, though not to his surprise, he had seen that they were Cloud and Aeris. All those lousy heroes... How'd they all get their girlfriends to come along? Ya know... It's a shame Toadstool didn't get invited to this whole tournament. Kidnappin her... Puttin Mario into such a frenzy. Those were the good old days. Bwahahahaha... I think too much. Bowser got up from the giant chair that the tournament overlords had given him. He would go downstairs... Get some fresh air... Bother Mario... He got to thinking, as he walked down the stairs. He had tried so hard to make this contest interesting for him... But so far, it'd kind of been a bore. There really just hadn't been much going on. There were only so times that you could mock the people in this tourney before it got old, and then, they started shooting random weapons at you. It'd been increasingly yawn inducing of late, the life here... Every day, there was one less person, and every day, the things that you could do got older. And of course, there was HIM. Bowser prided himself on fearing no one... But whenever HE was around, Bowser just got very nervous. The sheer power he had, and how much he enjoyed reminding everyone of his power... Too much for Bowser. It hurt the koopa, knowing that not one, but two people here outwitted him and created more havoc than him in every way. That clown... He had come here, expected that he'd be the one, taunting the villagers, giving everyone a hard time. And that "job" had immediately been claimed by Kefka. Of late, Sephiroth had been only too happy to remind him of this. "He's more of a villain than you'll ever be, turtle." You could get to a lot of thinking, on the stairs in this mansion. It's not that the flights were very long... It's just that they were all spiral, and that made walking from floor to floor take a lot longer. Especially for a koopa that weighed about a ton. Bowser was panting when he hit the first floor. ...I need ta work out more. Bowser quickly seated himself in one of the huge armchairs that sat on either side of the staircase, and fought to catch his breath. What could he do, now? Go play that weird game that those weirdos over in the Hero's Haunt played? Wander the dark hills of the village, see the vampire and HIM? Head over to the training center? It was all boring, to Bowser. It's just no fun here... Toadstool shoulda come. "Bored?" The voice came out of nowhere. Bowser had been so lost in thought that he hadn't noticed the footsteps of a black-clad figure, walking into the mansion. "You... But you... Uh... Never come here?" "I decided it was time for a visit." "...O...Kay..." Sephiroth smiled. Knowing what his reputation was throughout the remaining twenty-four players was certainly a good thing. He enjoyed that whenever he stepped into a room, all discussion stopped, and a gaze of fear from everyone met his eyes. Especially with Bowser. The fool... He doesn't know that through it all, he's still nothing but a puppet. Everything that he does is foreseen by me, and planned by me. There's no one here worthy of really associating with, no one that truly has a mind of their own. "...Bowser. Why not do something enjoyable for a change... Make mischief, or something. That's what you love to do, isn't it?" "Mischief?" Said Bowser, somewhat angrily. He didn't like to think that all his evil deeds and grand schemes were nothing but mischief. In the face of this blow to his pride, even his fear of Sephiroth departed... For a second. "Of course. All you ever do to enjoy yourself is plot mischief. You know nothing of true evil... You can't even take a life without feeling bad about it. I've seen your matches... You knock them out, or swallow them. Why not simply... incinerate them?" Sephiroth simply pointed to the nearby fireplace, and the flames that had been dying out only a minute ago burst into renewed vigor. As he looked over at Bowser, his devilish smile widened. The koopa king was simply speechless at the raw power he had seen. "So have fun, Bowser. Because evil's out of your league." Sephiroth gave a mocking smile, and then stepped out of the room. "Mischief... Mischief? I'll show him. I'll do something more evil than anything he's done this tournament." As the koopa muttered angrily to himself, he barely noticed Aeris, who had just entered the room and was heading towards the steps. In fact, he was very startled when he suddenly heard someone talking to him. "Hello, Bowser," Aeris said, in her usual sweet tone of voice, as she walked up the stairs, Bowser's eyes following her up to the second floor. What Aeris didn't just realize, was that she had just made a mistake in the grand scheme of things... And since she didn't look back at Bowser and see the grin suddenly widening on his face... She didn't get any warning of anything. Her... She's a lot like Toadstool. From a distance, Sephiroth watched Bowser, and saw the wide grin spread across his face. Now, he'll do exactly what I want. Because all he is, and all he will ever be, is a puppet. Truly ironic that his next opponent is exactly the same. The one winged angel only had one job left to do. Quietly, he snuck up to the second floor, where Aeris was retreating to her room for the night. "Silence," Sephiroth whispered. And Aeris Gainsborough never felt a thing. Just as she had during the journey to the Temple of the Ancients, she never saw Bowser and Sephiroth's plot coming. Not until it was too late. ---- Cloud Strife woke up late the next morning. He didn't have another match for a while, as his division had just ended, and he had slept in... A rare occasion for the hardened mercenary. Usually, he'd be training by now. But this morning... He just wanted to relax. Finally, he dragged himself out of bed, yawning. He'd had a clear, peaceful, and dreamless sleep, which had been welcome. Some of the dreams that he'd had in this tournament hadn't been exactly pleasant. Dreams of Sephiroth, and the fire that he possessed. Dreams of losing another one of his friends to death. Cloud wouldn't be able to rest easy until Sephiroth was gone. Still tired, he slowly walked down the mansion's spiral stairs, out the door, and headed for the small food court where all the contestants ate. He didn't see anyone on his way there... With only twenty-four people left in the village, it was far less likely that he'd bump into anyone. Most of the remaining players in the tournament were either extremely eccentric, a loner, or had their own group that they always hung out with. But the problem was, most of the groups were being torn apart by the tournament. The poker game might only have two players, Snake and Samus, by the end of the second round. The barriers that separated the tourney's participants into groups would have to be divided, soon, unless the participants wished to be all alone, by themselves, without anyone to talk to. Enough of the competitors were loners as it was. Even the food court wasn't all that crowded, today. Besides Cloud, who had just entered, only Squall Leonhart, who was just sitting at a small table in the corner, and Kirby, who had eaten more food than everyone else combined, and was still hungry, the large room was empty. A far cry from the beginning, when 64 people were packed into the room. Cloud walked silently over to the corner, and sat down next to Squall. The SeeD was simply sitting there, eyes closed. He appeared to be asleep... At least, he did until Cloud spoke up. "Squall?" The gunblade specialist opened his eyes, and looked at Cloud. "...What?" "Were you asleep?" "...Yes." "Sorry." Cloud and Squall both were men of few words, and this made most conversations between them almost comical. For either of the men to speak a full sentence was pretty rare... It was lucky for them that they had Aeris around to liven up the two of them, or else they'd likely cause anyone listening in to die of boredom. "...Squall?" "Yeah...?" "You seen Aeris?" "Nope." "...I'll go look for her." Cloud quickly got up, and walked out into the town. Even he, who wasn't exactly the most social of people, could get bored by talking to Squall. You were lucky if you could get a full sentence out of the guy... He was even less anti-social than Cloud, and that's saying something. ---- The training center only held Kefka, who was blasting Gato the robot with magic repeatedly, and Alucard, who simply trained in a dark basement of the training center, away from the light. It was odd to not see more people training at this time of day, but most of the contestants were already secure in their battle methods. Only gunsmen and swordsmen ever really used the training center. She wasn't in the shop, though Tommy Vercetti was, and he was arguing over the prices of random items. "C'mon, Mario, it's a CHAIR. You're makin me pay 100 coins for a chair? I don't even have a hundred coins!" Over in the shop's corner, Solid Snake smirked. Yeah, of course he doesn't. He lost it all to me last night in poker. Snake saw Cloud, with a confused look on his face, wander in to the back of the store. "...Anything wrong, kid?" Cloud shook his head, but the worry beginning to creep onto his face told the real story. He had lost Aeris once before... He didn't want to lose her again. And after she had always come in to wake him up, or at least waited for him in the food court, talking to Squall, he wasn't used to having to look for her. Sephiroth couldn't have... It's against the rules, he'd be kicked out of the tourney... Snake nodded, but knew that something was troubling Cloud. So when Cloud stepped out of the shop, and headed towards the stadium, Snake followed him, carefully and quietly. The mercenary walked by the stadium, and went up to the place where he and Aeris had been, just yesterday, and looked down upon the town. With a longing look on his face, he paused for a minute... And then came down, and headed for the entrance, with a now tiring Snake still following him. This guy's sure giving me a workout. Won't need to train today. Cloud Strife couldn't find Aeris anywhere. And now, real panic entered his body. He had seen every other competitor, besides Aeris, the big turtle, and... Sephiroth. But no one else was there to be found, today. He retreated back to the mansion, hoping to find her in her room. He climbed up the spiral stairs, quicker than he had ever walked before. By the time he reached the second floor hallway, he had broken into a run. He knocked on Aeris's door. No one answered. "Aeris!?" "I don't think you'll find her in there, Cloud." Cloud spun around, sword suddenly drawn, and held in battle position. But instead of Sephiroth or Kefka, as he was expecting, Solid Snake stood in front of him. "Easy, kid. I'm not here to hurt you, and I wasn't the one that... kidnapped her." Thoughts ran through Cloud's mind. A voice inside of him told him to kill Snake, that he was obviously behind it all, because he knew all this. A voice told him that this was nonsense, that it was obviously Sephiroth, his sworn enemy. Cloud's brain was indecisive, and didn't make for great leadership or the ability to think ahead. After all, that's why he had lost Aeris in the first place. And of course, Snake knew this. Even if he tries to kill me... I'll be away long before. "Check her room, Cloud." Wordlessly, but maintaining a battle stance and a suspicious look, Cloud slowly opened the door to Aeris's room, and looked inside. It was empty... Empty all except a small note, laid out on Aeris's pillow. Cloud walked over to the note, slowly. Someone had written on it... But it wasn't Sephiroth. It wasn't a neat, almost menacing style of handwriting... It was almost a scrawl, and barely legible Cloud read it, and all color drained out of his face.
Bowser had kidnapped her. Next Entry Back |