Scales and Legs

Sephiroth is the General at ShinRa. Cloud is a merman on Gaia. Their destinies intertwine. What becomes of them?

Prologue

Under the surface of the Junon Sea, silence pressed against the tapered ears of Cloud Strife as his dark blue tail pumped behind him, leaving after currents in his wake. His blonde spiked hair flowed about in the water as he went about his afternoon swim. Years ago, there was a peaceful civilization that dwelled in the sea, home to his kind. But, why were their ruins?

Because of a savage war that took place many years ago between land and sea when the boy was only five. His mother and father were killed during the war, along with the rest of his friends and family. Why it happened, he didn't mostly remember. He learned to get around on his own after the war left him as the only survivor... or so he thought.

Years went past and one fateful day, he discovered that he wasn't the last one! He met Aerith, who was a priestess to the king, Zack, the king's bodyguard, and Vincent, a quiet merman who lost his beloved during the war. Aerith had long, brown hair, bright green eyes and a pink tail. Zack had black spiky hair, turquoise eyes and a violet tail. Vincent had long, black hair, crimson hued eyes, and a tattered crimson and black scaled tail. The four were reunited and they now live among the ruins, trying to piece it back together. While the others were working at the ruins, they saw a huge, distant shadow on the surface, blocking out most of the sun's light that shone down below.

"What's that?" Zack asked, swimming upwards a little.

Vincent said nothing as his enhanced vision tried to figure out what this thing was. Suddenly, they heard loud, yet muffled shouts above the surface.

"Is that... a battle we hear?" Aerith wondered.

Cloud, being the curious one, swam towards the surface with the others following. As they got closer, the shouts got closer and became louder, but they were followed by clanging of swords. The four surfaced and they saw that a full out battle was under way.

"There's a Wutaian ship!" Zack pointed out to the distance, recognizing the design from the war years ago.

The ship was closing in fast and since it was bigger than the twenty others, the others guessed that it was the flag ship of the fleet. They looked to the far right and they saw a fleet of ShinRa ships coming, their own ships outnumbering the enemy's by double the number.

"We better go back under fast! This is about to get uglier than it is!" Zack said and they dove back underneath the surface.

However, Cloud swam cautiously around the ships, keeping track of the battle and making sure he stayed out of sight of anyone that happened to be looking out of the sea.

"Hey spike, let's go!" Zack called to him.

"Something's not right. The Wutaians... they're as if... they're just playing with them," Cloud pointed out, seeing something afoot about the enemy's movements and attacks.

"What do you mean?" Aerith asked, coming back up when she saw that the two boys didn't follow her and Vincent.

"... I think... the enemy's setting them up!" Cloud suddenly realized.

Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard and the blonde mermaid tried to dive out of the way, but something hard hit him in the head and all went black...