Tseng Survives Tseng was with Elena inside the Temple of the Ancients, looking at the pictures on the wall. There was one image that disturbed him. It looked like a meteor was crashing in to the Planet. He moved down to look at the next one. “Tseng, what’s this?” Elena asked him after a while. “Can we find the Promised Land with this?” Tseng shrugged. “...I wonder.” He looked at her. “Anyway, we have to report to the President.” Elena nodded and ran past him on her way out. She stopped and turned around. “Be careful, Tseng.” “Yeah...” he said absently. “Hey Elena, how ‘bout dinner after this job’s over?” “Th...thank you very much,” she stammered. “If I may be excused...” She ran out. Tseng turned and walked closer to one of the murals. “Is this the Promised Land? No, it can’t be...” He had the odd feeling that he was being watched and turned around to find he was not alone. “Sephiroth!!” he exclaimed. “So you opened the door. Well done,” Sephiroth said. “This place...what is it?” Tseng asked him, stepping forward. Sephiroth moved closer, sword drawn and held casually at his side. “A lost treasure house of knowledge. The wisdom of the Ancients...” He turned away from Tseng, raising his arms and lifting his face towards the ceiling. “I am becoming one with the Planet.” Tseng shrugged, trying to act casual and keep calm. “One with the Planet?” Sephiroth turned to look at him again, lowering his arms. “You stupid fools. You have never even thought about it,” he said, turning away again. “All the spirit energy of this Planet. All its wisdom...knowledge...” He paused, breathing deeper now, caught up in his plan. “I will meld with it all. I will become one with it...it will become one with me.” “...you can do that?” Tseng asked him. He didn’t believe it, but the idea scared him. And what if it actually was possible? “The way......lies here,” Sephiroth said as he suddenly ran forward and slashed into Tseng with his long sword. “Only death awaits you all. But do not fear,” he said as Tseng fell to the floor. “For it is through death that a new spirit energy is born. Soon, you will live again as a part of me.” Tseng could hear Sephiroth’s laughter as he fell unconscious. Tseng awakened several hours later to the pain of his wound. He crawled out of the room and along the hands of the clock, gripping them tightly so as not to fall. He made it across and dragged himself out through the door, finding himself back in the entryway. Feeling he needed to rest, Tseng collapsed in front of the altar and pressed his hand against the gash, trying to stop the bleeding. After a while, he could not tell how long, he heard voices outside. “...Black...materia...” something said in a rasping voice. “Look......” It was Aeris’s voice. “It’s a number nine tattoo.” Tseng took a moment to recognize the other voice. Vincent Valentine, former Turk. He saw Cloud run in followed by the other two. “Hey! It’s Tseng!” Aeris exclaimed in recognition. She sounded cheerful, but Tseng could see the expression on her face fade as she saw that he was wounded. Cloud walked closer cautiously. “Tseng? Of the Turks!?” “Uh…I've been had,” Tseng groaned. “It’s not the Promised Land...Sephiroth’s searching for...” “Sephiroth? He’s inside!?” Cloud demanded. “Look...for yourself...” Tseng told him. “Damn...” he said, slamming his free hand against the floor. “Letting Aeris go was the start...of my...bad luck...” He cringed in pain. “The President...was wrong...” Aeris stepped forward. “You’re wrong,” she told him angrily. “The Promised Land isn’t like what you imagined.” She paused. “And, I’m not going to help,” she continued. “Either way, there was no way Shinra could have won.” She ran over to stand between two of the pillars, hiding her face. “...pretty harsh. Sounds like something...you’d say.” Tseng turned to Cloud and managed to limp forward. “The keystone...Place it...on...the altar...” he gasped, then gave the keystone to Cloud and stumbled over to the side, out of their way. Cloud ran over to Aeris and turned his back to her, scratching his head. “You crying?” Aeris shook her head, but as she turned around, Tseng could see that her eyes glistened. She blinked back the tears. “...Tseng’s with our enemy, the Turks, but I've known him since we were little...” she said. “There’s not a lot of people I can say that about. In fact, there are probably only a handful of people in the world who really know me.” She frowned and Cloud walked over to Tseng. Tseng looked up at him and past him to Aeris. She looked back at him in worry. “I am......still alive...” he said, trying to reassure his childhood friend, but wincing as another wave of pain came over him. Cloud nodded and walked over to the altar. “Let’s put the keystone in.” Tseng watched as the three disappeared through the floor of the entryway. He cringed at the pain and passed out again. Tseng awoke to the shaking of the Temple. It stopped for a moment. He looked around, wondering if he had imagined it. Then it shook again, longer this time. What’s going on, he wondered. Whatever it was, though, it couldn’t be good. Tseng crawled around the side of the platform and out through the doorway. He paused to catch his breath, then began his descent down the steps, half-sliding, half-crawling. He rested again at the bottom before crossing the bridge and going over to lie down against a nearby tree. I’m missing dinner with Elena, he thought, immediately wondering why it was so important to him. Sure, he liked her, but…he was lucky enough just to be alive. Cait Sith bounced inside the Temple. Five minutes later, he saw Cloud, Aeris, and Vincent come out and walk down the steps. Aeris was smiling and Cloud looked somewhat embarrassed. Vincent was cool, like the former Turk that he was. They crossed the bridge and waited a ways off to Tseng’s right. He watched as the Temple began rumbling and shaking. Then it shrunk out of sight into a hole. Cloud led the way down into it. Vincent stayed at the edge of the pit. The other two disappeared from Tseng’s view. A while later, Sephiroth descended from the sky into the hole. Tseng shrank back, even though he knew Sephiroth was not coming for him, and hid behind the tree. A while later, he heard Cloud curse and someone pounding on the ground. Softer voices were saying things, but Tseng couldn’t make them out. He lay back down and slept. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elena stepped out from behind the tree where she had been hiding. Cloud, Aeris, Vincent, and Cait Sith were gone now. She guessed that Sephiroth was, too, but she hadn’t seen him leave. She hadn’t seen Tseng leave either. Maybe he had gotten out while she was talking to Rude and Reno about staying to wait for him. She had had a bad feeling about the Temple, as if something terrible was going to happen. That was why she had warned Tseng. Elena brushed the bark off of her hands and looked around, hoping to find him somewhere. She walked to the bridge. “Tseng?” she called out hesitantly. She heard a noise from somewhere behind her and to her left. She turned around and walked a few steps in that direction. “Tseng, are you there?” “Elena?” came a confused reply. She brightened at the sound of Tseng’s voice and moved towards it. She found him lying on the ground a little ways into the forest. “Tseng...” she said quietly, eyes widening as she saw the blood. She knelt down beside him. “What happened?” Tseng flinched. “Sephiroth...” he said. Elena narrowed her eyes. “Sephiroth,” she growled. Her voice softened. “How bad is it?” Tseng winced and said nothing. Elena shook her head worriedly. “I need to get you out of here.” She Cured him as best she could, but Tseng couldn’t walk. Elena managed to tug him to his feet and he leaned heavily against the tree. Elena put his arm across her shoulder and put hers around Tseng’s shoulder. “Lean on me,” she instructed him. She helped him limp over to the site the other Turks had said they’d bring the helicopter to in a few hours. She carefully lowered Tseng to the ground and sat down near him. “Rude and Reno will be coming back for us in a little while,” she told him. Tseng nodded and closed his eyes. Elena frowned and bit her lip. He looked pale. She turned away, bringing her knees up to her chest and tilting her head back to look at the darkening sky. A few stars were already visible. “Elena?” She looked over at Tseng who had opened his eyes again and was staring upward. “Yeah?” “Thanks...for staying behind...” He looked at her. “...to wait...for me.” Elena managed a weak smile, then said, “Don’t. It was nothing.” Tseng shook his head and tried to prop himself up on an elbow. He fell back. “No...if you hadn’t...I might have...” Elena blinked back her tears and shook her head violently. “No. You’re strong. You’ll be okay.” Tseng attempted a smile, but ended up wincing. He looked away, shutting his eyes. Elena moved closer to him and took a look at where the wound was. Fresh blood glistened in the faint light. Elena unzipped his jacket and untucked his shirt to get a better look. She gasped a little at the sight of the long, deep gash in Tseng’s abdomen. She bit her lip in worry and covered it with her hands to try and stop the bleeding. Tseng grunted softly from the pressure. A little while later, Tseng fell asleep. Elena tried to stay awake to watch over him, but eventually, she, too, dropped off. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tseng awoke to find Elena lying next to him, asleep. Her hands were resting lightly on his wound. He shifted and she opened her eyes and blinked at him. Tseng smiled slightly and blushed at being this close to her. Elena turned red and sat up, looking away. Tseng noticed she seemed to be looking at something and followed her gaze. There was a dark speck in the sky that looked like it was getting larger. Tseng squinted at it and, when it got closer, identified it as a helicopter. He could hear the noise of the helicopter blades. Elena glanced at him to see whether he had noticed, then turned back and continued watching it. The chopper landed nearby and Reno jumped down from it. He ran over to where they were. “Hey—what happened?” Reno asked, noticing the gash Tseng bore. Elena answered for him. “Sephiroth did it to him.” Reno raised an eyebrow. “Sephiroth was here?” he inquired, choosing not to use any of his normal sneering comments. Elena nodded. “We have to get him out of here quickly. It’s bad.” Reno nodded and bent down to help Tseng up. Tseng leaned on him heavily and Elena moved to his other side to help. The three of them made their way slowly back to the helicopter and Rude helped lift Tseng up onto it. The helicopter flew back to Midgar. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was eight days later. Tseng was lying on a bed in a house in the Sector 8 slums. Looking out the window, he could see Meteor looming over them. Soon, it would begin to rip Midgar apart. Reeve had ordered them to take shelter in the slums, but now it seemed as though it wouldn’t matter where they were. Shinra’s rocket had not destroyed Meteor. He didn’t know why the cannon had been fired at the Northern Crater. It had something to do with Sephiroth. But it was Mako energy that had been fired, and Mako was just condensed spirit energy. Sephiroth would be counting on spirit energy for his plan. Tseng no longer doubted that it was possible. He frowned at Meteor through the window. He was curious as to what time of day it was. With Meteor taking up whatever view there was beyond the ragged edges of the plate, it was impossible to tell. He supposed that it didn’t matter much anyway. They would all die soon... Tseng wondered if Cloud and his group were doing anything to stop it. He had heard that Aeris had done something to try and prevent Meteor from hitting, but what it could possibly be, he didn’t know. Maybe it was that White Materia that she had always kept in her hair…If Meteor was from the Black Materia, then maybe the White Materia was the magic that could counter it. What Tseng didn’t know was whether she had managed to use it or not. She had died praying, or so he had been told. Killed by Sephiroth...He hoped that Cloud and the others would kill Sephiroth, to get revenge for Aeris. Most of Shinra was already gone. The President, Palmer, Rufus, Heidegger, Scarlet, Hojo…they were all dead, not to mention countless Shinra employees. The Turks seemed to be the only ones who had survived out of the higher order of Shinra’s workers. But Tseng considered Shinra dead. He certainly wasn’t going to work in its name anymore. He glanced at Elena, who was sitting in a chair beside the bed, looking out the window. She had been by his side for most of the days since his injury, with the exception of the time when she had been sent to fight Cloud with the other Turks. Cloud, however, had had more important things to attend to. The Turks were no longer a group of people that worked together for Shinra. It was just how Tseng continued to think of everyone. They were the Turks. They had always been the Turks. He and Elena were the only members that openly showed their friendship. Tseng had felt less inclined to take everything so coolly after his incident with Sephiroth. He saw no point in hiding his feelings now, especially since it was the end of the world. Even so, he and Elena were constantly under attack by Reno’s jokes. He shook his head. It didn’t matter anymore. Meteor seemed to be getting closer by the second. Tseng blinked as a tendril came down in the ruins of Sector 7 and began making an even bigger mess. It had the destructive power of a giant tornado. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Elena stiffen, but whether it was in fear or anticipation, he could not tell. He watched as the tornado worked its way through the rubble, sending pieces flying into the air. He suspected the same thing was going on above the other plates. Suddenly, a blinding flash of light caused him to close his eyes tightly. He managed to open them just enough to see that some kind of magic had cut through underneath Meteor. He could no longer make out the tornado. Was this the White Materia’s magic? He continued to watch through squinted eyes as the white light slowly began changing to red as Meteor pushed through. “It’s too late...” he whispered quietly. Elena looked at him through eyes that were slightly wider now that the light was not so bright. “Too late for what? The world was going to end anyway...” “Aeris’s prayer.” Tseng gestured towards the now red light. “It’s not working...” Elena turned back to the window and Tseng followed a moment later. Meteor seemed only to be drawing power from the light. The red tendrils came down bigger and in greater numbers, ripping up the fallen plate. One passed close by and he heard Elena gasp, barely audible above the roar. Without realizing what he was doing at first, Tseng reached out and grasped Elena’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. He shot a glance at her. She looked frightened and did not seem to notice that she was gripping his hand tightly. Tseng turned back to look out the window. He became aware of another presence there. He looked around the room, but could see no one other than Elena. She looked at him, confused. “What is it, Tseng?” “I don’t know...” he said uncertainly. Looking back out the window, he noticed a cluster of tiny green lights in the distance. They came closer and Tseng noticed others as well. He blinked. “Aeris...?” “Aeris?” Elena asked him, puzzled. He continued to watch the green as it swirled and twisted closer. “I can feel her presence...That must be...the Lifestream?” Elena sat very still for a moment. “...I can feel her, too. But why is the Lifestream above ground? What’s it doing?” “Maybe it’s come to stop Meteor...” Tseng guessed. He certainly hoped so. The Lifestream moved swiftly closer until it filled their entire view. It flared brightly just as the white magic had done. Tseng closed his eyes. The brightness lasted for a long time and he could feel everything around them shake. Eventually, the light faded and Tseng opened his eyes. He could see wisps of the Lifestream fading back into the ground. He looked up and saw...the sky. Meteor was gone. It was almost dawn. The sky was beginning to lighten up. Tseng looked at Elena at the same time she looked at him. In the joy and surprise of the moment, Elena jumped up and threw her arms around him. Without really meaning to, Tseng returned the hug. They both blushed fiercely and Elena stood up, straitening her jacket. Tseng noticed that Reno was standing in the doorway, smirking at them. Elena noticed him, too, and put her hands on her hips. “Reno,” she began in an exasperated tone, but stopped short when she realized he hadn’t said anything about it. Reno laughed. “I guess I’d better leave you two alone, huh?” he said, tone implying what he thought they would be doing. Elena glared at him as he walked out, then sat down in the chair again. “Well, I guess it’s not the end of the world after all...” Tseng said. “Yeah. But there’s no more Shinra. We won’t be the Turks anymore...” Tseng shook his head. “No, we won’t.” There was a long pause. “I wonder if Aeris is in the Promised Land now?” “She deserves it,” Elena said. “She saved us. Without her, we’d all be part of Sephiroth...” Tseng nodded, but said nothing. “What are we going to do now that we don’t have to work for Shinra?” “I dunno,” Tseng said. “Maybe we could go find Cloud sometime and thank him. Likely he and his crew had something to do with this.” He gestured out the window, towards the sky. “But for now, I just need to recuperate.” He glanced at Elena, who nodded. The sky was so beautiful now. He felt Elena’s hand touch his. Tseng smiled as he watched the sun rise in a sky without Meteor.