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Only
the Chosen
There
is not much of a summary that I can submit but I feel that I must warn
anyone who reads this may find it to be too controversial for some or
too offensive for others. All that I can ask is that you (the reader)
to view it with an open mind.
Note:
It is not intended for anyone who can't handle 'Rated R' material.
Disclaimer: The characters, items,
places, etc. of Final Fantasy VII are property of Squaresoft, Inc. No
infringement is intended.
"Only the chosen"
The dazzle of the green light
flowed over the hills. All of it came from the love and light of the planet.
The green glow of the planet clashed against the red and orange glow of
the Meteor attacking and destroying everything it touched. The people
were power less against the battle. A small group, however did all that
they could do by making it possible for the planet to defend itself, and
destroy the source of the evil… Sephiroth.
Cloud and his team could do
nothing now, but just watch and hope. Tifa was saying come on under her
breath, Barret was praying that his daughter was not under the meteor
in the city of Midgar. Cid only thought of keeping the Highwind under
control as it circled in the air to observe the spectacle. Vincent was
quiet and still leaning on the handrail. It was like as if all of his
sins that he had been burden with for so long wash away. Yuffie was petrified
and griped the handrail as hard as she could. Cloud was surprisingly calm.
In fact, it was a little disturbing to him that he had no thoughts at
all. It was an opening of a new level of understanding for him, yet his
mind was clear.
The white supernova of light
and energy caused everyone to shield their eyes. Cloud somehow was able
to withstand it. To him, it was like everyone was in a white room with
no walls, no floor, or no ceiling. It was boundless to him. Everyone seemed
to be frozen in time, yet Cloud was able to walk around and examine everybody.
It was a little freaky that everyone was frozen, then Cloud touched Tifa’s
arm, and quickly pulled back his hand when he felt what was like an electrical
shock run through him. Cloud just stared into Tifa’s covered face.
“You saved the planet, Cloud.”
A familiar voice said.
Cloud jumped and spun around
to the source of the voice. It was a glowing orb that was slowly taking
a human form. The features were still transparent, but it was becoming
recognizable.
“Aeris,” Cloud gasped.
“Yes, it’s me.” Aeris smiled,
as her body became more and more solid, she became real.
“How-“ Cloud walked to her.
“Don’t think, just listen.”
Aeris smiled. She was so happy to see him again, but she had to do what
the planet asked her to do. “The planet is grateful for what you have
done, but there is one more thing that you must know.”
Cloud waited quietly.
“The white materia is supposed
to eliminate all that threaten the planet, including Jenova specimens.”
A second figure stepped forward. Cloud stared at him in surprise.
“You…” Cloud started to say
to him.
The second figure raised his
hand as a gesture to ask Cloud to let him finish what he had to say. “Please,
before you say anything, I just wanted to say thank you.” He stood by
Aeris. They were at peace.
Cloud was confused. “For what?”
Sephiroth just smiled. “All
my life I was a prisoner, held by the Jenova cells that were within me.
In my mind, I was screaming trying to stop all of the evils that I was
forced to do. The only thing that I could do was wait to die, but the
torture didn’t stop there. What finally freed me was that final confrontation
that we had alone. It was then when you destroyed the Jenova inside me.”
Sephiroth sighed and lowered his head. “I am not as strong as you are.
You managed to conquer the Jenova cells within you. You were able to change
the essence of that anger and evil for the planet, into a driving will
to defend what you thought was right.”
Aeris chimed in, “Right now,
you are being judged by the white materia, for you are the last person
who still has the power to put the planet in danger again.”
“Me? But I would have no idea
how. Why am I still a danger to the planet?”
“Because of the knowledge that
you are about to receive.” Aeris said.
“Once the white materia is
finished, it will need a new guardian.” Sephiroth said.
“Normally, a Certa would protect
it and pass it on through generations until it is needed again.”
“But there are no more Certa.”
Cloud said. He had an idea why they were here.
“Not quite. You see, there
are those who have a mixed heritage of Certa and normal people. No mater
how distant that heritage is there is still a power with in all of them
to overcome any influence to hurt the planet. You are a perfect example.”
“Perfect example of what?”
Cloud was uneasy about what they are going say.
“Do you know why your father
died?” A third voice said.
“Mom?” Cloud was shocked.
“He died to protect us, to
save you.” She said.
“Why did you never tell me?”
Cloud was not expecting this twist of events.
“Because I was scared. You
see, your father was half Certa, and Shin-ra were after him. Together,
we fled Midgar, and tried to get as far away as possible. We settled in
Nibleheim, and were very happy. But it did not last for long. They found
him again. He told me that they would never stop until they had him, so
he fled to lure them away from me, and our newborn son.” She sighed and
tears streamed on her face. “They caught him, and he died by Hojo’s hands.”
Cloud fell on his knees, “I
never knew. Can I see him?” Cloud looked up.
“I’m sorry, but when the white
materia was used last time, it was to destroy him. He’s gone.” Sephiroth
said. “There was no one around to save him like you did for me.”
There was a flash of light.
Aeris spoke, but her voice
started to echo, “It has been decided. Your heart is true and strong,
instead of being destroyed, you will start a new race of Certa to protect
the planet. Your duty is to be the guardian of the white materia and pass
it through the generations. In return, you will gain new abilities and
communicate with the planet.”
“Like a Certa.” Cloud looked
up. “Wait, what about the black materia?”
“It has been destroyed.” Sephiroth
said. His voice echoed too.
“Remember us, Cloud. We will
be with you, always.” The echoes of his mother’s voice rang in his ears
as the three of them faded away.
I understand, but… Cloud thought.
Then he felt the touch of a hand on his face, and instinctively he opened
his eyes.
“Are you okay?” Tifa asked.
Cloud found himself buried
under some ruble. He sat up. He was back on the Highwind, but it looks
like it just crashed landed. He quickly looked to see if there were any
injuries. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Tifa helped him on his feet.
Tifa looked at him and noticed
that his eyes were a little distant. “Cloud? Are you sure that you are
okay?”
Cloud paused for a moment.
“I just need a little time to think, that’s all.”
“Hello? Is anybody alive in
there?” Cloud nor Tifa recognized the voice. Tifa went to see who it was,
while Cloud saw some movement.
“Barret! Are you okay?” Cloud
ran to help his friend up.
“Heh, that was one hell of
a ride!” Barret cleared the dirt on his face.
“I’m going to find the oth-“
Cloud was interrupted by a child’s voice.
“Papa!” Marline ran and hugged
her father. She was so happy to see him. It made even Cloud smile.
“Marline! But, how did you
get here?” Barret was rubbing her back in a warm embrace.
“Mr. Reeve wanted to help when
we saw the airplane go down.” Marline smiled.
Barret just remembered that
it was Reeve who was the Shin-ra spy that controlled Cait Sith, the fortune
telling toy cat riding on a huge Mog, and it also was him who kidnapped
Marline and Aeris’ adopted mother to force the group to not interfere
with Shin-ra.
“Marline, have you been treated
well?” Barret looked at her. She looked all right.
“Yep, Mr. Reeve took us to
a huge building and we got to ride an elevator and saw the city from the
top, and then we went on a helicopter ride to this town, and he even gave
me ice cream.” The way Marline said this, it was like she had a good time
under Reeve’s care.
Barret hugged Marline again.
Cloud’s attention was to the
others. They seem to be okay. They were talking to someone new, Cloud
assumed that it was Reeve. He then took one last look at the Highwind,
and saw the crushed remains of Cait Sith. It was no real loss because
he was just a remote controlled robot. Still, Cloud felt a little sad,
Cait Sith was a very interesting character.
"Aw, shit!" Cid complained. He just felt that he lost a dear friend.
"Relax, you can put it back
together, can you?" Yuffie was referring to the Highwind. She was just
anxious to do anything that would make Cid shut up, even if it meant helping
him, but Barret held her back.
"Just let him blow off some
steam, okay?" Barret felt sorry for Cid, but he would have felt even worse
for him if Yuffie did something to provoke him even more.
"It's so good to finally meet
you all," Reeve said, as he shook everyone's hand.
Barret seem to have forgave Reeve for kidnapping Marline
because in the end, he ended up protecting her, and Barret would have
no idea what to do if he lost her.
Everyone was rejoicing. Their
long battle was over, and it was time to start anew.
Cid calmed down a bit, and
was carefully examining the engine of the Highwind. He was surprised that
the ship was in better condition than he first thought. What gave him
hope was the idea that it was possible to repair the airship, so that
it would fly once more. Cid's concentration was broken by Barret's heavy
laughter.
Cloud seemed to have some kind
of idea, but Cid had trouble to hear what he had to say. He was too far
away, but from what he could tell, everyone seemed to loved his idea.
Barret even patted Cloud on the back. Well, it was more like hit on the
back, form the way Cloud almost fell over.
"Then let's hurry and party
hard at Cosmo Canyon!" Barret exclaimed.
Cid somehow didn't feel like
partying, he was just tired.
“Okay, first you move very
slowly, then move your wrist like so, and then you pull away quickly with
the materia.” Marline was going through the motions as she spoke.
“Very good!” Yuffie smiled.
“Teaching her to be a materia
thief already.” Nanaki said with a little humor.
“I prefer to say ‘Materia Hunter.’
Besides there is nothing else to do until we get to Cosmo Canyon.”
Nanaki stretched and yawned.
His comfortable position was making him sleepy. Yuffie had a point. The
trip to Cosmo Canyon had become boring.
“There must be something better
to do other than learning how to be a thief!”
“It’s not stealing, it borrowing!”
Marline pouted.
“That’s my girl,” Yuffie hugged
Marline. They became fast friends and were giggling at their little private
joke.
Nanaki let out a growl out
from his throat as Yuffie pulled her feet up on the seat.
“Um, nice kitty er, doggie,
um…” Yuffie trembled.
“Don’t patronize me, girl.”
Nanaki wanted to scare Yuffie so that she would behave herself. Secretly,
he was having fun.
Marline jumped down and started
to scratch behind Nanaki’s right ear. “Please Red, don’t be such a grouch.”
Marline was scratching lightly through Nanaki’s fiery red fur.
“A little to the left kid,
and you got yourself a deal.” Nanaki looked at Marline.
“Okay Red!” Marline smiled
and began to scratch away.
Nanaki didn’t mind being called
Red. In fact, that was what everyone called him, except for the people
at home. “Ooh, that’s the spot.” Nanaki smiled.
Marline giggled and Yuffie
relaxed a little. Nanaki closed his eyes. He was almost asleep.
Cloud also shifted a little
in his sleep and Yuffie noticed the materia in his sword. The Master Magic
materia was just too tempting to pass up as a prize.
It took less than a second,
and she had the materia in her hand. Unfortunately, at the same time,
Cloud started to lean on Yuffie as if she was a pillow. She was trapped.
Nanaki started to breathe heavily
as he drifted off to sleep. Marline saw Yuffie’s predicament.
Yuffie stayed still. She didn’t
want to wake Cloud up, but both of her arms were pinned. Marline took
out the ribbon in her hair and started to tickle under Cloud’s nose. She
was hoping that Cloud would move over and free Yuffie. Instead he opened
his eyes.
“Uh,” Yuffie had to think fast.
Marline quickly took the materia
out of Yuffie’s hands and put it back in Cloud’s sword. Cloud didn’t even
notice.
He sat up. Yuffie was free
again. Cloud didn’t say a word, but leaned the other way against the window
and fell back asleep. The materia was out of reach again.
Marline and Yuffie both let
out of sighs of relief.
“That was close,” Marline said.
“Yeah, at getting busted.”
Nanaki said. He was glad that he was naturally a light sleeper.
“You just don’t give up, do
ya.” Tifa yawned. She woke up when Nanaki waged his tail against her leg.
He did this deliberately.
Yuffie did give up and eased
into a comfortable recline in her seat.
Tifa stretched and noticed
that everyone else was a sleep.
“Man, I’m beat!” Yuffie yawned.
“Well, it has been a very long
day.” Nanaki was closing his eyes again.
“Believe it or not,” Tifa moved
her glove a little to see her watch. “It’s only two-thirty in the afternoon.”
“No kidding!” It was more like
seven PM to Yuffie.
“How much longer to Cosmo Canyon?”
Tifa asked.
“The last I checked, three
hours.” Nanaki said. His eyes were still closed.
“Are you sure that the driver
knows where Cosmo Canyon is?” Yuffie asked.
Nanaki simply looked at her,
“Cosmo Canyon is his home too.”
Yuffie felt stupid, but before
she could say anything, she heard a faint mutter.
Nanaki lifted his ears. He
heard something too.
“I think that Cloud’s talking
in his sleep.” Tifa concluded.
“I wonder what he is saying?”
Marline leaned closer to Cloud.
The four of them listened closely.
There was nothing else to do anyway.
“Tceles…” Cloud mumbled.
“T what?” Tifa asked.
“I think that he said tee cells.”
Marline said.
“It sounds like another language.”
Yuffie said.
“…b hsup.” Cloud muttered again.
“Bishop?” Yuffie asked.
“You know, I think that I heard
that phrase before…” Nanaki was trying to remember.
The vehicle suddenly hit a
rough bump and it tossed everyone inside. Barret and Cid grumbled a little
and went back to sleep. Reeve woke up in the front seat. Vincent just
watched the scenery as it passed by. Cloud didn’t respond. Yuffie grabbed
Cloud’s arm and let it drop.
“Man, he’s really out cold!”
Yuffie was simply surprised.
Tifa was getting worried. Nanaki
too. Cloud was normally a light sleeper. Sometimes, he would complain
about Barret’s snoring.
“Look at that.” Nanaki said.
Cloud’s lips were moving incoherently
as if he was talking to someone.
“Tceles b hsup.” Cloud muttered
once more.
Nanaki thought carefully. The
word, ‘Tceles,’ reminded him of something, but he didn’t know what. At
least he remembered that he saw it in the vast library at Cosmo Canyon.
But the information really specialized in the study of the planet, and
of the Certa race and culture. “Wait. I think it may have something to
do with the planet.”
“What do you mean?” Tifa asked.
“I think that the answer is
at Cosmo Canyon.”
“What a coincidence.” Yuffie
said.
“Do you think that we should
wake him?” Marline asked.
“I think we should let him
sleep.” Nanaki said. “Besides, it is still a long way to Cosmo Canyon.”
She stood up and stretched
as soon as she got out of the van. It felt good. She then closed her eyes
and inhaled deeply through her nose. Tifa loved the exotic smells of Cosmo
Canyon. She decided to buy some of the spices and inscents before it was
time to party, but first everyone had to unload their equipment and check
in at the inn.
“Hey, wake up. We’re here!”
Cloud smacked Yuffie’s arm.
“Mmm…huh? What?” Yuffie was
so groggy.
“We’re here.” Vincent calmly
said. “Get your things.”
“Yep. After we party hard tonight,”
then Barret lowered his voice, “and recover tomorrow,” Reeve and Cloud
thought that was funny. Then Barret finished. “Marline and I are going
to North Corel.”
“Are you sure that the people
are going to accept you?” Reeve asked. He remembered way back when he
first met Barret and everyone else as Cait Sith, and the mishap in the
Battle Square of Gold Saucer. As well as their unexpected stay in Corel
Prison.
“It’s going to be tough, but
remember the train that we stopped from crashing into town? Well, it made
everyone stop and think. In time, I think that it will be okay. Besides,
it’s still home. And Marline deserves to know where she came from.” Barret
decided that it was time to settle down to raise Marline in peace.
“That’s true. Then I would
like to wish you the best of luck.” Reeve admired Barret for his dedication.
“So what are you going to do?”
Barret lifted up some supplies.
“Well I guess that I am now
homeless since Midgar was destroyed from the Meteor. So that means that
it’s time to move on.”
“Any thoughts on where to go?”
“Well,” Reeve grunted when
his load became too much to carry, but he recovered. “Actually, I like
the big city with all the hustle and bustle of people, so I guess my next
stop is Junion.”
“Junion? What about family?”
Barret asked.
Reeve sighed. “I called my
parents to tell them to evacuate Midgar, but they figured since they lived
in the outskirts that they would be safe, but…”
“I’m sorry.” Barret meant it.
“I found out on the way here.
A friend in Kalam organized a rescue party for the survivors of Midgar.
He found my parents, but it was too late.”
“Why wasn’t the city evacuated?”
Barret asked.
“And go where? Everyone figured
that they were doomed. Many people panicked, and others just stayed in
their homes.” Reeve was angry that his parents didn’t listen to his warning.
“Then why did you take Marline
to Kalam?” Barret figured that Shin-ra would have had some way to figure
where Meteor was going to hit.
“I saw the calculations early
and decided to leave with her and Elmyra. That battle we had with Diamond
Weapon gave me enough time to do just that. When I came back, Scarlet
and Heidigger had me arrested for defecting. There just wasn’t enough
time to announce it to the public. I was just lucky that the guards were
too panicked. Otherwise I don’t think that I would able to escape.”
“Any survivors?” Tifa asked.
“They found 70 so far. Midgar
is in ruins.” Reeve said with a heavy heart.
There was a moment of silence
then Tifa spoke.
“But there were over three
million people in that city!”
“The death toll is unimaginable.”
Reeve wiped his eyes dry.
Tifa hugged Reeve, “I’m so
sorry.”
Reeve accepted Tifa’s affection.
“I’m going to be okay. Besides they don’t want me to mourn them.” Reeve
sighed. “At least they were happy and they are in a better place now.”
“That is a brave way to look
at it.” Barret put his hand on Reeve’s shoulder. “C’on. Tonight when we
party, let’s celebrate their lives. Besides I have to fulfill a promise
I made to some friends who didn’t make it to the end.”
Tifa immediately thought about
Biggs, Jessie, Wedge, and of course, Aeris. “He’s right. Let’s get ready
and party in their memory.”
That was the best idea that
Reeve heard all day. It motivated him to continue with his life and to
keep on striving. But more importantly, it made him feel better.
“Well in that case,” Reeve
let out a smile. “We have some major partying to do.”
He opened his eyes. The dead
silence was torture to him. He tried to move, but was covered in debree.
One of the first things that he noticed was that his body was stiff and
numb.
He just rested his head back
and closed his eyes. Trying to think rationally, he made an attempt to
remember what had just happened.
He recalled staring into a
sealed chamber. Inside, there were a few containers of some biological
goo. He knew that there was more, but this was all that remained. Suddenly,
there was a flash of memory that took him many years back. He saw the
complete source of the cells. A corpse of what looked like a woman with
wings and severely discolored skin. They tried to revive her. The horrific
and unnatural screams that he heard next forever echoed in his ears.
He suddenly felt like he was
falling. He heard voices everywhere. So many angry voices yelling at him,
until two individual voices appeared as the other thousand voices faded
away. These two voices were talking to each other, discussing his fate.
He was alone in a cold, dark
place. As he looked around, faces of the people he knew appeared and then
faded away. Most of them had suffered greatly because of him.
"We should have never interfered."
A woman appeared. She was wearing a lab coat, then she vanished.
"Lucrecitia," he called out
her name.
He then heard a child's giggle
from behind him. He spun around to see the child.
The child said nothing. The
young boy just looked at him with absolute disgust and walked away, fading
into nothing.
"Why did you interfere?" A
young man's voice asked.
He looked again. He saw a teenage
boy wearing a Shin-ra escort uniform. He had a fatal wound in his chest
and he was covered with blood. He recognized the boy, it was Cloud.
"Why DID you interfere?" Yet
another male voice asked.
He was becoming dizzy and everything
was becoming distorted. He saw the second young man and gasped in surprise.
It was the child he saw earlier but much older. The second young man had
a deep slash in his abdomen, there was blood everywhere. He stared at
him. There were terrible burns on his face. He couldn't face the second
figure anymore. He couldn't face his son.
"You have committed terrible
crimes against us." The first young man said.
"How do you plead?" The second
figure stood next to the first figure.
He closed his eyes. He wanted
this nightmare to end.
"Hojo."
He jumped and saw her again.
"Lucrecitia?" Hojo was disparately
searching for any kind of comfort.
"We should have never interfered.
Now we must pay."
"You? But why? How?"
"You interfered with Jenova.
I gave my son to Jenova. We must pay."
"Guilty." Cloud barked. But
it was only an image of Cloud.
"Death." Sephiroth barked.
He was only an image too.
"You may have escaped from
Holy, the white materia, but you can't hide forever." Lucrecitia was so
sad.
Suddenly Hojo's surroundings
changed. He was trapped with fire. A small town was burning to the ground.
He saw Cloud again. This time there was no injury or blood, only soot
on his face. Cloud was trapped in the past. He screamed in anger and ran
after Sephiroth.
Again, Hojo's surroundings
changed again. Now he was in the interior of the near by Makou Reactor.
Cloud ran through him as if he had no matter. In his hands, he had picked
up a sword.
"No!" Hojo screamed.
It was too late as the borrowed
sword bit into Sephiroth's abdominal cavity.
"No…" Hojo turned his face
away as his son slumped to the floor. Hojo began to run as an attempt
to escape. He didn't get very far as he saw the two of them again down
the narrow walkway. Cloud's back was facing him. Sephiroth was still standing.
Sephiroth thrust his extremely
long sword deeply into Cloud's chest. The madness that Sephiroth suffered
from gave him the strength to lift Cloud up while he was still impaled.
Cloud ignored the pain long
enough to grab the blade with his bear hands and jerked the blade suddenly.
Sephiroth lost his strength
and balance as Cloud slumped to the floor and Sephiroth fell off the narrow
walkway to the reactors below.
Cloud crawled a few feet and
collapsed again. Hojo watched as the same events all those years ago unfold
before him.
Cloud's blood puddled on the
floor and came into contact with Sephiroth's blood. At that moment, he
fell lifeless to the floor. They killed each other.
Hojo then saw himself run to
inspect the bodies. The other Hojo ordered to have Sephiroth's body to
be place into one of the many Makou chambers.
He then stood over Cloud's
body. The mixture of blood caused an incredible reaction. It glowed a
bright red and steam started to rise. This red glow was spreading all
through out Cloud's body.
Hojo had seen this reaction
before. It was the initial stages of Jenova cells fusing into a living
being. The younger Hojo ordered to have Cloud's body to be placed into
another Makou chamber.
Then everything faded away
and he was alone again.
"You should have left them
there." Lucrecitia said solemn then looked into his eyes. "But you didn't.
You repeated the cycle and played god. You used more Jenova cells to reanimate
them."
The surroundings faded again
to an underground lab. Hojo knew this place very well.
"Who said that you can play
god?" Sephiroth stepped forward. He was not wearing a shirt and his skin
was flawless.
"You should have let us die.
Why did you interfere?" Cloud stepped forward. He was also topless.
"Do you know what you have
done?" Sephiroth said.
"You are a monster." Lucrecitia
faded away.
"No wait!" Hojo tried desperately
to reach for her.
The thousand voices came back
louder, and angrier than ever, cursing his existence. Cloud and Sephiroth
stood still, staring at him with intense hatred.
Suddenly bright red slashes
appeared on their skin, each leaving a scar as the light faded. Every
one of those scars inflicted on both of them were by Hojo through his
gruesome procedures.
All for what? Hojo thought.
To advance science? No, it was to glorify himself. The many voices turned
into laughter, and Hojo was the fool.
In an instant, Hojo found himself
helplessly pinned. Standing over him was himself. He was going to become
the next specimen in this experiment.
Hojo screamed, begging himself
to stop, but to no avail. His screaming became more intense as his chest
was slowly cut open.
Everything suddenly became
white to him. That was when he saw it. An inity that was breathtakingly
beautiful, and extremely evil. Now everything was clear.
Jenova was far more superior
than the planet that gave life to these puny living things. The time has
come for him to evolve by absorbing the very essence of the planet to
gain his rightful place as a god.
Hojo awoke with a jump, and
with supernatural strength, tossed the debree away from him. He stood
up in the basement vault that was his private lab. He saw the anti-Makou
generators that ran along the parameter were still working. It protected
the last of the Jenova cells and himself.
He filled the syringe with
the remaining cells and injected himself. The rush of power that raced
through him was better than life itself.
He let out a scream to announce
his strength and to released some of his energy. He like his new found
powers. He had no use for the Jenova cells anymore, he can simply use
his own to raise an army of fighters of Jenova. He was ready to take on
the world, and all who stood in his way.
“To us.” Barret announced as
everyone raised his or her mug. Each of them were filled with a home made
alcoholic brew.
“Cheers.” Everyone said and
took a sip.
The amber light from the sunset
created a warm and cozy atmosphere. The tiring job of unpacking their
gear was finally over. After that, everyone was given a chance to shower
and change their clothing. Somehow, everyone looked the same. It didn’t
matter, because no one seemed to care.
“Hey, Cloud. There was a question
that I wanted to ask ya.” Barret took a healthy gulp.
“Sure, what is it?”
“During our final battle, were
you ever afraid?”
Cloud thought for a moment.
He couldn’t remember. “No, not really.”
“I was.” Tifa said.
“Me too.” Yuffie said.
“Nah, I never was.” Cid said
joyfully. He looked like he already got a head start for drinks.
“What about you?” Cloud asked.
“Well,” Barret had to gather
his thoughts. “The only thing I thought about was Marline. I didn’t want
to let her down.”
Cloud accepted that as an answer,
then looked at Reeve.
“Well, truthfully,” Reeve put
down his mug. “I was terrified. But I had to keep fighting, and I’m glad
that it’s finally over.”
Tifa smiled, it is not often
that a grown man is brave enough to say that he was afraid.
“Red?” Tifa asked.
“I really don’t know. I just
simply didn’t think about it.” Nanaki had his own place at the table,
and he was seated comfortably in a chair like everyone else, but instead
of drinking from a mug, there was a bowl in front of him.
“Hey, Vincent, how a-“ Yuffie
just noticed that Vincent was gone. “Where did he go?”
“Oh, he said that he had to
take care of something. It took a while to convince him to at least make
an appearance.” Cloud announced.
“I didn’t think that he would.”
Barret was handed another drink.
Yuffie stared into her mug.
She had barely taken a sip. Then she saw the signal that she was waiting
for. Marline had slipped pass the rest of the group, and waved briefly
to Yuffie then disappeared from view to their meeting place that they
arranged earlier. She had something to take care of too, but she wanted
it to be unnoticed. It was time for her to make her exit.
Yuffie stretched casually and
yawned. “Man, I think I drank too much, I think that I’m going to call
it a night.”
“Yuffie, sit down.” Cloud ordered.
“You are not leaving until you had at least two drinks.”
Tifa whispered to Cloud, “But
she is too young to drink.”
Cloud whispered back, “I know,
but she is obviously up to something, and I want to make sure that she
can’t do it.”
Oh, Tifa thought.
“Yeah, two drink minimum.”
Barret said.
“But I…” Yuffie wanted to be
able to think clearly while she took care of her ‘personal business.’
“C’on, you don’t want us to
think that you are up to something.” Tifa hinted.
Yuffie sighed, then figured
that she could wait a while so she can sober up to carry out her plans
with Marline. How is she going to tell Marline?
Vincent suddenly appeared.
Yuffie hated it when he did that; it always gave her a jump because he
was so quiet. Marline was next to him. It looked like she just got busted.
“I found her by the item shop,
she said that she was waiting for someone.” Vincent quietly said.
“Marline, you know that you
shouldn’t go out on your own like that.” Barret said.
“I know.” Marline was afraid
to get into trouble.
“So who were you waiting for?”
Cloud just started his second drink.
Marline couldn’t tell them
the truth, it will make everyone mad. Then she saw that Yuffie shook her
head briefly, then took a drink.
“I, I was waiting to play with
some kids.” Marline lied.
“Here, let me take her back
to the room.” Reeve got up. “Do you want to go and see Miss Elmyra?” He
was referring to Aeris’ adopted mother.
“Nah, there’s nothing to do
there.”
“Trust me, I have a surprise
for you, and it’s in her room.”
“What is it?”
Reeve whispered into her ear.
Marline’s face lit up with joy. “Really?”
“I promised, didn’t I?”
“Alright!” Marline jumped for
joy, and started running to Elmyra’s room.
Barret was confused. “Tell
me, what was that surprise?”
Reeve smiled. “Well, in Kalam,
Marline complained of being bored. So I told her that I would get her,”
He trailed off. He wanted everyone to try to guess what it was.
“What?” Barret didn’t want
to guess.
“A…doll?” Tifa guessed.
Reeve shook his head.
“A game?” Yuffie asked.
“Close.” Reeve smiled.
“Okay, I give. What is it?”
Cloud finally asked.
“A playstation.” Reeve smiled.
“But she is only four, how
do you know if she would even want something like that?” Barret was never
aware that Marline was interested in that kind of thing.
“Because she told me.”
Cloud smiled to himself. He
remembered when he was a kid.
“Reeve that’s so sweet!” Tifa
was delighted that Reeve did something so nice for her.
“Thank you, Reeve. Now I know
that she won’t be getting into trouble, unlike someone else I know.” Barret
was obviously referring to Yuffie.
“Hey!” Yuffie countered.
“I think that it’s now a four
drink minimum.” Reeve teased Yuffie.
“Hey wait a second. You said
only two!” She knew that this would definitely screw up her plans.
Cloud and Barret laughed. Cid
was smiling at the joke, his cheeks were red.
Yuffie picked up her mug and
took a sip. She couldn’t deny the fact that the brew tasted good. Then
she thought that since Marline was taken care of, she could carry out
her plans in the morning, or tomorrow night. Yuffie chugged faster. If
they are going to make her drink, then she is definitely going to make
then regret it. She chuckled to herself, what an interesting way to get
her revenge.
Yuffie slammed the empty mug
on the table. She didn’t notice any difference, maybe the brew was kind
of weak.
“Alright! Now we got ourselves
a real party!” Cid cheered.
Everyone also cheered with
Cid. They didn’t really care how loud they were, and no one else seemed
to mind the noise, in fact, there were other groups celebrating as well.
It was one big party!
The crackle of the flames in
the campfire at Cosmo Canyon eased Vincent’s mind as he was trying to
ponder his fate. He had no family, Cloud and everyone else were his only
‘friends’ but he felt no special bond for them. The thought of going back
in that coffin to sleep once more seemed to disturb him. He slept long
enough. Over 25 years was his best guess. Has it been that long? It was
before Sephiroth was born, not to mention Cloud, Tifa, Aeris, Yuffie,
and most likely Reeve as well. Cid and Barret were just children, and
Red was just a pup.
What a waste of his life.
What a waste of his mind, body,
and soul.
He remembered why he was put
in that coffin. Hojo put him there for trying to convince Lucrecitia to
cancel the experiment, and not to go through with it at all to spare her
unborn child. It was the only time in his life when he seemed to care
about the well being of others, even love them.
That came to an end when Hojo
shot him. Hojo was a very hateful person. He wondered what Lucrecitia
saw in him anyway. Not only did he try to stop Hojo in the beginning,
but Hojo was insanely jealous that Lucrecitia and Vincent were falling
in love.
What happened next was too
graphic to describe except that after Hojo shot him, he remembered being
placed on one of his many operating tables. It was there that Hojo did
some personal experiments that was for the sole purpose of torturing someone
beyond what can be done before. The Jenova cells were too valuable, so
Vincent was spared from that hell. He felt sorry for Cloud.
Whatever Hojo did to him could
not be understood, but it did give Vincent an unusual ability to physically
transform into other beasts as his limit breaks. Though the downside to
that was that he also went berserk, so he had no control of his actions.
He wanted to stop thinking
about it. It was all too painful for him to endure just by pondering it.
He stared into the campfire
that was called the Cosmo Candle. It is said that this candle burns continuously.
Though the only time it was extinguished, Cosmo Canyon was in great danger.
The Legend of Seto, Red’s father who gave his life stopping the attacks
for a force known as the GI. While Red’s mother died fighting the GI that
infiltrated the sanctuary of their home. Red found out about the truth
about his father recently, before that he grew up thinking that his father
was a coward.
Vincent started to wonder that
maybe he may still care about others after all by the way his thoughts
were drifting about other people that he knew well. However, he was no
closer in figuring out what he should do with his life next. He just sat,
quiet in deep thought as he watched the sunset.
“Hi everyone!” A woman stepped
into the pub.
“Hey, hey! Shera, how are you?”
Barret raised a mug.
“Hey Shera!” Cid stood up but
staggered so much that he was about the fall over.
“Okay Cid, I think that you
had too much.” Tifa pulled him down.
“Yeah, so how are you?” Reeve
asked. He knew her as Cait Sith, so he will have to introduce himself
to her later.
“Well, I was going to tell
Cid about the Highwind, and how we managed to transport the wreckage back
to Rocket Town, but repairs are estimated to be over three months. But
it looks like that I am going to have to wait until tomorrow.” Shera was
not surprised that everyone would be celebrating like this
“Nah, I heard ya.” Cid was
resting his head on the table. Of all of the people Cid has worked with,
Shera has been a very dedicated assistant, though a bit slow because she
tended to be a perfectionist in her work, but over all the best. Cid felt
that he could do nothing without her.
“Wanna drink?” Cloud smiled.
“Ahh…. What the hell? I can
crash in Cid’s room for the night. Um, you guys are staying at the inn
upstairs, right?”
“Hell yes. Isn’t that right
Yuffie?” Cid leaned on Yuffie as if she was his new best friend.
Man, what an ass! Yuffie pushed
Cid off her. Cid leaned back, and Yuffie pushed again. There was an empty
seat between Red and Barret, so she got up quickly before Cid could lean
on her again.
Whoa, this room is spinning,
Yuffie though. Tifa giggled at Yuffie because she was staggering pretty
badly.
“Uh, Yuffie, are you going
to be alright?” Nanaki asked.
“Yeah I’m fine, I just don’t
want to get all buddy, buddy with Cid. If you know what I mean.” Drunk
or not, Yuffie had an image to keep. So she made herself act as sober
as she can, to show that she was still graceful and dignified. She tripped.
Everyone couldn’t hold in their
laughter and there was a loud up roar. Yuffie couldn’t help it too, she
was laughing just was hard as everyone else. Cloud got up to help Yuffie
to her new seat. Everything was spinning for him too. Standing up strait
was extremely difficult for him, but at least he was not as bad as Yuffie
who couldn’t even get up from a crawling position.
“Well don’t just stand there.
Are you going to help me or what?” Yuffie realized that she was wasted
pretty badly.
Cloud lent a hand to help Yuffie
back up to her feet. She was almost there, gripping her hand on Barret’s
shoulder for balance, she finally sat down in her new seat. Cloud was
back in his seat too, but he had to grip his hand on the table in order
to keep form staggering himself.
“How about another drink?”
Barret asked Cloud.
“Nah, I think that I am going
to wait for a while.” Cloud rested his elbow on the table to support his
head.
“I could use another.” Tifa
smiled.
Cid fell asleep with his head
on the table.
“Me too,” Nanaki said.
“Cloud, you big wuss!” Yuffie
smirked. “I’ll have another drink.”
“Say whatever you like, but
I don’t want to get sick.” Cloud countered.
Tifa quickly changed the subject.
“Hey Barret, wanna play the gil game?”
“Yeah sure, count me in!” Barret
loved these kind of games.
“Me too.” Reeve said.
“Gil game?” Shera asked.
“You mean you never played
it?” Cloud asked.
Shera shook her head.
“So what is it? We are not
as ‘experienced’ as you guys.” Yuffie said.
“You don’t have to be when
you run a bar.” Tifa bluntly replied.
“It’s really simple.” Barret
put his mug down. “We put a drink in the center of the table, and bounce
a gil coin and try to land it in the drink. Whoever does that, gets to
choose who is going to retrieve it.”
“Eww, by sticking your hand
in the drink?” Yuffie asked.
“No, you gotta drink all of
it so you can get it back.” Tifa finished.
“The object of the game is
to be the last one not passed out.” Cloud added.
“Sounds like fun.” Nanaki said.
“Hey Cloud, can you bounce the coin for me?”
“Sure. As long as no one forces
me to drink it.”
“Okay I’ll do it.” Shera said.
She had the advantage over them because she was still very sober.
“Why not?” Yuffie shrugged.
Tifa put a new glass in the
middle of the table.
Marline was getting pretty
bored. What Reeve got her was nice, but so confusing. So she got easily
frustrated with some of the demo games. Not to mention that it took Ms.
Elmyra a while to figure out how to hook it up. She’s now asleep, so Marline
had no one to talk to.
The only thing that was on her mind right now was the plans that she made
with Yuffie. She really wanted to go and see what it was that she was
talking about. She had an idea.
If I was able to sneak out
like before, then I can do it myself, she thought. Marline turned off
the equipment and opened the door. She could see what was going on perfectly
from the second floor stairway of the interior of the inn and pub. She
slowly crept down, and stopped ever so often to see if the coast was clear.
At the bottom of the stairs, she sat and waited for the perfect time to
sneak past everyone and out the door.
The coin landed in the glass
with a clink. Cloud smiled, it was the third time in the row that he did
this successfully.
“Hmm….” Nanaki grinned. He
couldn’t make Yuffie drink it again, she had the last drink, and Barret
was no fun because it was too easy for him to finish the glass. Tifa?
Nah not her, Barret would probably target her. “Reeve, go get it.”
“Okay, but it is going to take
a while.” Reeve reached over and started drinking.
Yuffie was getting pretty hungry
and saw some crackers on another table in the center. The crackers at
this table were already eaten. Yuffie reached over. It was too far away.
So she scooted out of her seat and moved a few feet to the other table
and reached again. It was still too far away. She stood on the chair,
but her balance was too risky to stay like this. Finally, she climbed
on the table and got what she was looking for.
Reeve was still sipping away,
taking short breaks every few swallows. Yuffie wanted to see what was
going on better. Standing on the table was the best way to do this.
“Geez, Yuffie!” Nanaki exclaimed.
“What? I just wanted to get
a better view.”
“C’on, get down before you
hurt yourself.” Barret advised.
“Since when did you care about
me?”
“Fine then. Yuffie, get your
scrawny little ass off that table before I go and hurt you!”
Barret’s sudden change in tone
was enough to convince her and she got back into her seat.
“Man, I’m getting hungry.”
Nanaki said.
“Yeah.” Tifa replied and motioned
for the waitress.
That was easy. Marline thought.
She thought about thanking Yuffie when she got back.
Uh-oh, Vincent was still at
the Cosmo Candle. Marline hid, again waiting for the right time to go
up the steps that lead to the item shop, which was on the way to where
she wanted to go. Vincent just stared into the flame. It was now or never,
she wasted no time to the item shop and hid again, just in case he followed
her.
After a few minutes and no
Vincent, she cautiously got out of her hiding place and peeked out the
window. Vincent was still at the campfire. She was home free, as she started
exploring and trying to find her way to the observatory that was somewhere
on the fourth floor.
Elsewhere on the planet, it
was calm and peaceful. However it was short lived as the land was invaded
slowly by short, dark creatures. Each were mean, powerful, and can kill
very quickly. They were all under the command of their master, for he
created them. So they were blindly obedient.
They quickly separated into
smaller groups and began to travel to the various town and cities of the
world to carry out their mission with such incredible speed. However the
group that was headed for Cosmo Canyon had a special objective…
“C’on Barret. Drink it!” Tifa
said.
Everyone else dropped out of
this contest a while ago. It was just between Tifa and Barret. The smell
of food was a great motivation for them to stop drinking for a while.
Barret picked up the glass
and just stared at it. He couldn’t drink anymore. He thought that he was
going to be sick.
“Uh, maybe you guys should
take a break for a while and eat something. It will make you feel better.”
Cloud was begging to sober up, but he was having fun watching the show.
“So will you admit that I won?”
Tifa seemed to have played this game with Barret many times before.
He put the drink down. “This
time. But you know that I’ll win next time we play.”
Tifa grabbed Barret’s drink
and chugged it with ease, she retrieved the gil coin.
“Geez, Tifa! I had no idea
you can drink everyone under the table!” Reeve was just shocked. Apparently
he was not the only one, except for Barret that is.
“Heh, you have no i...” Tifa’s
voice trailed off and Cloud couldn’t hear anything anymore, only a faint
whistle, a cry for help.
To everyone else, nothing happened
and they were still talking to each other, unaware of this cry.
Cloud, Marline is in danger!
Aeris’ voice rang in his ears.
He looked up stairs, but the
door to Elmyra’s room was wide open. He stood up. Something was terribly
wrong.
“Where’s Marline?” Cloud said
with a little panic in his voice.
She pushed the door open and
entered the observatory. The sight was truly amazing.
“Wow!” She ran up to one of
the four large floating crystals. The huge materia.
Yuffie was right when she said
that this was best that the planet had to offer. Marline even saw her
reflection in one of the many flat, crystallized sides. This was pure
materia that was formed naturally. She was in awe.
Unfortunately she was not aware
of the three strange creatures that just sneaked in behind her. Their
target was insight, and they lunged to attack.
Marline shrieked in fear as
she was knocked over, and was cornered by one of them. The features of
the creature were never like she saw before with its long, domed head
with a huge mouth with sharp teeth, and tentacle like hands full of claws.
She shivered in fear as the dark colored creature growled and changed
its stance for an easy attack.
Suddenly it lunged at her,
and Marline could do nothing but shield her face and scream some more.
A surprise blow to her side
sent her tumbling out of the way, and now the creature was on top of Cloud.
Reeve was with him, and he quickly picked up the small child to get away,
but he didn’t make it to the door. Another creature tackled him, but Marline
was able to run out of there.
Reeve managed to kick the creature
out of the way, but it was after him again. Cloud wrestled with the other
creature that tried to attack Marline, but it was far stronger than he
was. The creature started to ram Cloud into the equipment, and finally
a strong slap sent him flying.
The next thing that Cloud was
aware of was a sharp sting raising up his arm. He quickly sat up.
“Cloud, you’re awake!” Tifa
took off the damp cloth that was pressed against his arm, the source of
the stinging pain.
“What the hell happened?” His
head was hurting, not to mention it was combined with a mild hangover.
“Vincent came just in time
and saved the both of you. He managed to kill one of those creatures,
but the other two got away with the huge materia.”
Cloud stood up. Despite of
his discomfort, he wanted to find out what exactly happened. “How long
was I out?”
“About three, almost four hours.”
“Four hours!” Cloud was in
disbelief. “…. Is Marline okay?”
“She’s a little shaken and
bruised, but she’s fine.”
“And Reeve?”
“He got a nasty scratch on
his leg, but also okay.” Tifa looked at Cloud. “Come here. That scratch
on your arm looks pretty bad too.”
Cloud sat beside Tifa as she
continued to take care of his right arm.
“What kind of ideas were you
putting into her head?” Barret was very angry.
“Please not so loud!” Yuffie
had her head in her hands.
“We all knew that you were
up to something. Was it to steal the huge materia?”
“No!”
Barret slammed his fists on
the table. “Don’t lie to me. You were weren’t you?”
Yuffie’s eyes started tearing
up.
“That’s enough!” Reeve couldn’t
watch this anymore.
“…. Y…yes. And I…I’m…. I’m
so sorry!” Yuffie was crying.
Barret got what he wanted.
The truth, an apology, and a guilt trip. He backed off. He is going to
have to have a very long talk with Marline later.
“But we got a bigger problem
to think about.” Nanaki was worried. “From what I could tell form that
creature that Vincent killed, it could have kill anyone in an instant,
but didn’t. I think that the target was the huge materia.”
“But why?” Barret sat down.
“In the wrong hands it can
be a very dangerous weapon.” Vincent reasoned.
“So what do we do?” Reeve asked.
“Head north to the City of
the Ancients and retrieve the white materia.” Cloud walked in, Tifa was
with him. He seemed to be fine.
“Yeah. Fight fire with fire.”
Barret stood up, then thought about something. “But who is going to use
it? The last I heard only an Ancient could use that materia and…” Barret
didn’t want to finish his sentence.
“We’ll figure it out when the
time comes. But it is the best thing that I can think of right now.”
“So how are we going to get
there?” Tifa crossed her arms.
“The Tiny Bronco is still here.”
Cid spoke for the first time. There was a huge bottle of aspirin in front
of him.
“But I thought that you wanted
to take it back to Rocket Town to get it fixed.” Reeve was talking to
Shera earlier about this. “That small plane still can’t fly.”
“But it can travel in shallow
water. We can dock at Bone Village and walk form there.”
“Alright. So who’s going?”
Cloud wanted to go now.
Barret was quiet. Then he made
his mind. “Reeve, can you stay here and take care of Marline? I need someone
who's strong enough to protect her in case those creatures come back.”
Reeve nodded.
“I’m going.” Tifa had no need
to think about this decision.
“Me too. I feel responsible
for putting Marline in danger. I feel that I have to make up for it somehow.”
Yuffie popped some aspirin as if it were candy.
“I think that I better stay
behind.” Nanaki said. “There are a lot of things that I need to look up,
and examine this creature. There are a lot of scientists here who can
help me. I think I will be more useful that way.”
“Okay. Vincent?” Cloud looked
up. Vincent was waiting by the door and only responded with a nod of his
head. “…. I take that as a yes. Cid?”
“There is no way in hell I
am going to let you jokers pilot that plane. Of course I’m going!”
Everyone nodded in agreement
and started their preparation to travel once again.
Everyone had to pack light
because of all of the walking that they were planning to do. Cid was in
the pilot seat checking the status of the Tiny Bronco.
“Hey, it looks like we have
to make a pit stop at Rocket Town to refuel.”
“Sounds good to me” Yuffie
wearily replied to Cid. She still felt like crap, and just wanted to sleep.
“Hey Cloud! Wait up!” Shera
ran to deliver a message. She was out of breath when she met up with him.
“Red wants to see you. He says that it’s very important.” She huffed.
“Thanks.” Cloud started to
walk over to speak with Red.
I wonder what for? Tifa thought,
and followed behind him unnoticed.
Nanaki’s home in Cosmo Canyon
was the living quarters that was adjacent to the observatory. Cloud saw
a very worried look on his face.
“Cloud, thanks for coming.”
“What is it?”
“I need to take a blood sample
from you.” Nanaki has to be blunt about this. He knew that Cloud didn’t
want to go through that any more than him. He was one of Hojo’s specimens
too.
“Why?”
“Because, I noticed that there
was some kind of bacteria on the creature that clawed you and Reeve up.
I think that it’s some kind of virus.”
“I see. And you think that
we have been infected?”
“I don’t know yet, but I got
a really bad feeling.”
“Alright.”
A virus? Tifa was outside the
door and overheard everything. Red, I really hope that it’s nothing. Tifa
didn’t want to even think what would happen if she lost Cloud. She really
cared for him, but there was something inside her that was wanting more.
She thought about the night before their final battle with Sephiroth.
She wanted to stay that way, and longed to be with him just like they
were on that night forever. The thought of what could happen really upset
her, and she ran off back to the Tiny Bronco. Everyone else had to know
about this too.
“That’s it?”
“Yep. Oh and uh, can you get
Reeve for me.”
Cloud nodded and left for the
inn to summon him.
Nanaki stared into the test
tube that contained the sample. It was a very odd shade of red. Must be
some kind of Jenova side effect. He put it in the test tube rack and was
looking over what he had found out so far.
He had trouble thinking because
he was getting tired of wearing his headband and slipped it off with ease.
He continued to review some more but something caught his eye. The sample
was beginning to glow a little and small swirl patterns emerged. Nanaki
moved his headband off the table to get a closer look. Nothing.
“Hey Red. You wanted to see
me?” Reeve was curious on what he was called up here for.
Nanaki pulled his attention
away from what he just saw and told Reeve what he told Cloud.
“Red? What’s the matter?” Reeve asked when he was done taking the sample.
“I want you to take a look
at this.” Red jumped down and retrieved his headband and placed it back
on the table. The same glow and swirls appeared.
“…. What the hell?” Reeve just
looked into the sample, though he had no idea what it was. Nanaki removed
the headband from the table again. The sample returned back to normal.
“Can you hand me one of your
materia?” A theory occurred to him.
“Sure.” Reeve reached over
the test tube rack and the sample reacted again. He pulled his hand back.
“That is so weird.” Reeve moved
his hand to bring the materia closer to the sample. The closer it was,
the more active it seemed.
“I am going to have to take
a look at it much closer.”
“Alright, I gotta get back
to Marline.”
Nanaki nodded and Reeve left
the room. What the hell is going on? Can he even help Cloud with all of
the shit that Hojo did to him? He hated it when he was captured a long
time ago form his own home for Hojo’s amusement. Though he was very grateful
that Cloud was the one who liberated him form the Shin-ra Headquarters
and have been fighting by his side ever since. That was how he met most
of them, and felt that he still owed it to Cloud to do this.
Nanaki started his work, but
the ironic thought of him studying Hojo’s work as a peer seemed to amuse
him. It was like revenge against him for the inhumanities that he committed
on an intellectual level.
It was rather a short trip
from Cosmo Canyon to Rocket town because of their mode of transportation.
Shera was the first to jump off.
“Thanks for the lift. Now let’s
get this baby refueled.” Shera ran off to get some equipment.
Cid was happy to be home again,
but something seemed to be not quite right…
“Captain, you’re back!” Two
technicians ran up to greet Cid.
“Captain we got big problems!”
The second technician reported.
Problems? Like what? Cloud
wanted to listen to their conversation, but his Personal Homing Signal
was beeping. A PHS for short, Cloud dug it out of his pocket and turned
it on.
“Cloud, this is Red.” Nanaki’s
voice came through the speaker.
“What’s up? Did you find anything?”
“No, I’m afraid not, but some
of the people here are missing.”
“Missing?”
“I don’t know what happened,
but Reeve is missing too.”
“Oh no. And no one has a clue
about what happened?”
“…. No. But I have noticed
that several of them were also scratched or bitten by one of those creatures
that took the huge materia last night.”
“Are there any victims who
are still there?”
There was a moment of silence.
“Actually, I’m beginning to
think that they were all victims.”
Cloud was silent.
“Cloud, are you there?”
“…. Yeah I’m still here.”
“Look, I don’t know what this
means, but you really got to watch yourself and make sure that you are
not alone.”
“I am not going to disappear.”
“… I really hope so, but still
be careful. Okay?”
“Alright, but please try and
find something and take care of Marline.”
“No problem, I've been doing
that already.”
“Red, you’re a lifesaver.”
“I know. Bye.”
“Yeah.”
“Missing! What do you mean
missing?” Cid had trouble believing what the technicians just told him.
“It’s just that. They started
disappearing soon after those creatures attacked.”
“You mean last night? They
attacked Cosmo Canyon too. Geez, many of them are out there?”
“I don’t think that it matters.”
Cloud said. “Red just called. Several people are missing from Cosmo Canyon
too, including Reeve. Red and I think it has something to do with those
creatures because everyone who was scratched or bitten disappeared.”
“But what about you?” Cid looked
at the bandage on Cloud’s arm.
“I don’t know. But we have
to act fast.”
Nanaki was pacing back and
forth in his home. He hadn’t taken a break all day and it was getting
late. He no closer to finding a solution than he was this morning.
“Excuse me Nanaki.” The woman
who owned the pub knocked at the door. She was holding a plate in her
hands. “I’d thought that you would be hungry, so I brought you something.”
A young woman walked in behind the first woman.
It was a very nice gesture
that brightened up his mood. “Thanks. I haven’t eaten all day.” He started
eating.
“Nanaki, I want to introduce
someone to you.” The pub keeper motioned for the younger woman to step
forward. “This is Heather. A student in biology, but she also she was
an intern of Hojo’s.”
“Really?” He noticed that she
wasn’t wearing a white coat, just a shirt and jeans.
“More like ex-intern. As soon
as I found out what type of experiments that he was doing, I had to quit.”
“Nice to meet you.” Nanaki
liked her already.
“Well, I see that you guys
have a lot of work to do. I’ll check on you later, okay?” The pub keeper
left.
“I don’t like this.” Tifa was
upset.
“I don’t like it either.” Cloud
said. He had just told everyone about what Red told him today.
“Poor Reeve.” Yuffie was having
chills up her spine.
“But where did they go?” Cid
took his feet off the table when Shera returned.
“Probably the same place where
those creatures came from.”
“Cloud, stop doing that.” Tifa
was being a little too protective.
“What?”
“Quit scratching your arm.”
Cloud wasn’t paying attention
about that and stopped what he was doing. His arm suddenly itched even
more. There was a look of mild annoyance on his face.
“So where did the creatures
come from anyway?” Barret was pacing back and forth in the dining area
of Cid’s home.
No one had a clue.
“Come to me my child.” A mysterious
voice echoed.
“Where?” He asked back. He
couldn’t see who was calling him because of the bright light behind the
figure. The only thing that could be seen was a vague silhouette of a
man.
“Come to me, in the land of
ice and rock. The gateway to the inside.”
“Who are you?” He shouted.
“Come my child. Be with me.”
Cloud awoke with a start. Whatever
that dream was, it was really freaking him out, and couldn’t stop sweating.
It was too hot in this room and he had to get out of there.
Come to me.
Cloud didn’t know what to think,
but he stepped out the back door of Cid’s house and sat on the grass.
It was a little cooler out here, but he couldn’t help but feeling that
he had to go somewhere.
Come to me, my child.
What am I going to do? Cloud
stared blankly at the horizon to the north.
Cloud don’t it’s a trap! Sephiroth’s
voice rang in his ears.
What the hell is this? Could
didn’t even dare to say anything out loud.
The huge materia. Someone is
trying to use it to make another black materia!
What! Cloud was shocked.
Up north in the crater. Hurry!
What about everyone else? We’re
going to get the white materia tomorrow.
Take them with you. They are
the only ones who can save you.
It’s very hard to fight this
feeling. What is it?
Jenova.
No. It can’t be!
Fight this feeling for as long
as you can, but sooner or later it will overwhelm you.
There was a knot in his stomach.
And then I’ll just disappear
like everyone else.
Hang on for as long as you
can!
The back door swung open, and
Tifa ran out. She was so glad that he was still here.
“I think I know why people
are disappearing.” Cloud was sorry that he worried Tifa this much. She
ran and hugged him.
She was just simply glad that
he didn’t disappear.
“Are you sure?” Nanaki asked.
“Positive.” Cloud’s voice came
through the speaker of his PHS.
“Well it explains a couple
things.”
“What did you find?”
“Well first these creatures
are not natural. They were created. Also they seem to have some kind of
venom sacks in their mouth and in their claws. Someone is definitely behind
this.”
“Any idea who?”
“No. But what I’m wondering
is how you managed to stay around for so long. Everyone else turned up
missing in less than 12 hours.”
“Red, I really have no clue.
I was hoping that you could tell me.”
“Alright, I’ll look at that
blood sample again. There may be a clue there.”
“Okay.”
“Goodnight.”
The speaker became silent,
and Nanaki returned to what he was doing.
“Hey look at this.” Heather
was looking through a microscope.
Nanaki looked through the eyepiece
and saw what looked like normal red blood cells with some kind of unknown
black slivers. They looked like tiny worms.
“Okay, and now look at this.”
She changed slides and readjusted the view.
Nanaki looked again. It was
the same thing that he saw before, but this slide had some kind of defense
against these parasites. It looked like an antibody attacking the invaders.
“Where did this blood sample
come from? Of all the people we checked, this is the only one that has
some kind of defense.”
Nanaki was silent for a moment,
then spoke. “It’s Cloud’s…”
He couldn’t sleep for most
of the night. He just kept pacing back and forth like a caged animal.
Thankfully, Tifa was with him.
He felt the need for someone to watch him and keep from doing something
stupid.
“Cloud, will you sit down?
You are really driving me nuts.”
He did, but he couldn’t stop
his hands from fidgeting. Tifa just noticed that the bandage on his arm
had gotten dirty and stained from the inside out.
“Do you have a tranquilizer?
I can’t take this anymore.”
“Yeah, sure.” She got one out
of her bag. Normally this would be used to cure someone from fury, or
the inability to fight correctly and becoming like a berserker, but Cloud
looked like he was heading that way anyway.
Suddenly he felt like he could
catch his breath again. Tifa began to remove the bandage.
“Oh man. This has gotten infected.”
What else is new? Cloud was
not at all surprised.
“I really think that you should
see a doctor about this.”
“Can it wait until morning?”
He was finally able to close his eyes and calm down.
Tifa sighed. When it came to
things like that, he would always procrastinate. Even as a child.
“Cloud, I am really scared.
I’m worried about you.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“No really. I care about you.”
“Mmm?”
“I just wanted to be able to
tell you something….” She just realized that he fell asleep.
Well at least someone is getting
some sleep, she thought. She curled up on the couch to watch him as he
slept.
The hum of the engines of the
Tiny Bronco propelled the seaplane as it traveled in the water. It was
a shame that there was no time to repair the tail, otherwise it could
take to the air. But it seemed to be for the best, Cid thought, because
there were only two seats on this plane, so everyone else had to resort
to riding on the wings. The second seat was used to store whatever they
had with them. It was smooth sailing, and Cid reached to the brim of his
cap to get a cigarette and light up.
Tifa loved the view. The bright
sun, the clear water, and the warm breeze. She watched as the dolphins
raced along side the Tiny Bronco trying to catch a ride in its wake. Though
the only problem for her was…
“Urk!” Yuffie hated being seasick,
and wondered why she kept putting up with it. She sat still on the lower
left wing, feeling every wave.
“Hey, are you going to make
it?” Tifa asked. She was sitting on the wing above her.
“Oh sure, just fine.” Yuffie
sarcastically said. She felt that she was going to be sick again.
“Maybe if you stop reading
that book you’d feel better.”
“I wasn’t reading it. It just
got in my way.”
“Can I see it?”
Yuffie handed the book to her.
“Hey do you have any tranquilizers?”
“No, I’m out.” Tifa never thought
about of the other uses of a tranquilizer until now.
“Here.” Cid tossed one to Yuffie.
She almost didn’t catch it.
“Hurry up and take it before
you ruin the paint job!”
“Gee, thanks for caring about
me!”
Tifa reclined back and read the cover of Yuffie’s book. ‘Materia Forever’
…. Figures, she thought. She opened the book and started looking over
the pages.
“Barret, I’ve heard that joke
before.”
“Damn it Cloud, you’re really
no fun!”
“Alright you guys really want
to hear a good joke?” Cid looked over to the lower right wing.
“Aright, let’s hear it.” Barret
was readjusting the gun prosthetic on his right arm. It has always proven
to be an effective weapon.
“Ok, so there was this Turk
who went into a Gay bar….” Cid started.
Heard it before, Vincent wanted to say. He knew all of the Turk jokes,
he used to be one. The shore of their destination could be seen. After
a few minutes he could see Bone Village. There seemed to be nothing happening
there. It is usually full of diggers searching for rare artifacts, but
it seemed to be deserted. As he watched, there was some vague movement,
then sudden flashes of light.
Gunfire.
“… and he says…” Cid was telling
his second joke.
“Quiet.” Vincent said. “Look
at that.”
“Are they under attack?” Tifa
asked.
“Cid, is there anyway we can
go faster?”
“Nope, unless you guys want
to start falling off.”
“Alright, everyone grab on
to something!” Barret yelled.
Cid increased the speed.
The gunfire stopped about a
minute before they reached ashore. Cloud and Barret jumped down and ran
to see if there was anyone left.
“Shit! We’re too late!” Barret
ran to one area to at least try to find one person. Cloud had just started
checking the foreman’s office and living quarters.
“Is this place deserted?” Tifa
asked. She had just caught up with them.
Cloud had a solemn look on
his face. He knew where they were taken.
Everyone wondered around aimlessly
in the small area of Bone Village. Tifa was on the upper level when she
stepped on something.
“Hey guys! I think that I found
something!” Tifa picked up a pair of shades, but one of the lenses was
broken.
“Yeah so?” Yuffie saw no connection.
Vincent took them from Tifa’s
hand and noticed what raised her suspension. A small emblem engraved on
the side of the frames.
“That is a Truks’ emblem.”
Vincent showed everyone else the marking.
“Why would the Turks get involved?”
Cloud examined the glasses and found the Shin-ra emblem on the other side
of the frames.
“Those damn bastards! I bet
that they have something to do with all this!” Barret wanted to avenge
the deaths of three of his friends by their hands.
“No I don’t think they have
anything to do with this.” Cloud said.
“What the hell makes you say
that?”
“Because in the foreman’s office
I found a log, but the last date was two days ago, and before that, it
was recorded that they were attacked by those same creatures and everyone
received some kind of injury.”
Yuffie heard a jingle at her
feet, and kicked some spent gun shells around, it was still hot.
“Oh yeah, what a coincidence,
everyone got a scratch.” Barret was all worked up, and wanted to kick
some ass.
Cloud shot him a look, he was
getting all worked up for nothing, and it was beginning to piss him off.
He walked away from the group, he had the sudden urge to punch something.
“Nice going.” Cid bluntly said.
There was a faint sound of
pops, it was coming from the Sleeping Forest. They were standing right
next to the entrance, though no one ran in just yet.
“Is that gunfire?” Yuffie got
closer to the entrance to get a better look, but she saw nothing.
Cloud took a deep breath and
re-joined the group, but he ignored Barret. It was better to wait until
he calmed down.
Tifa pulled out a rare artifact
out of her bag. It was the only way to prevent them from getting lost
in these woods and never being able to find their way back. Hence the
name, Sleeping Forest.
“Ready?” Tifa was preparing
to use this artifact, the Lunar Harp.
“Hold your fire! We’re almost
out of ammo.”
There were three individuals,
two men and one woman who were chasing after a creature. It was badly
injured.
One of the men open fire anyway.
It critically hit the creature and it stumbled. The three of them were
rapidly gaining up on the crippled creature, who suddenly disappeared
over a hill.
“Okay, we got him cornered.”
The leader said. He pulled out his primary weapon, an electrode rod. The
other two quickly took positions that would put them at an advantage in
this ambush.
Without a cue or a signal,
they made their attack. Surrounding the creature was easy.
Before the three could do anything,
more creatures surrounded them. They were the ones who were just ambushed.
They were fighting for their
lives.
“Cloud, will you wait up?”
Tifa was having trouble keeping up with him.
Cloud kept running until he
was able to get a good view of the battle up the trail. He counted at
least twelve creatures against three people.
“It looks like the Turks got
themselves in trouble.” Yuffie said. It was easy to tell that they were
Turks from the way they dressed. Like clones in dark suits.
“So what do we do?” Tifa asked.
“Not a damn thing.” Barret
refused to even offer help to them.
“Do you think that they may
know something that we don’t?” Yuffie was wondering if they were here
for the same reason that they were.
“Who cares?” Cloud started
running, he had his sword ready.
“Goddamn lunatic!” Barret was
in disbelief that Cloud was actually going to help out a Turk.
“If we do nothing, then we
have sunk down to their level.” Tifa took off as well. Yuffie followed.
Cid looked at Barret. “She
does have a point.” He took off behind Yuffie.
Reno had just barely dogged
out of the way, and skillfully used his weapon to paralyze another in
a pyramid shape field. He raised his electrode rod for another attack.
Elena was on her last magazine of her Makou gun, she had no other weapon
than that, except for the materia in her armor. The third individual,
Rude, had already run out of ammo and had to resort to his fists and materia.
Reno swung the rod in a devastating
attack against one of them, but he failed to notice the other creature
that was behind him.
The sudden yell of another
voice caused him turn just in time to see an enemy, Cloud, killing a creature
that could have surely killed him.
The other two looked up and
saw more of their enemies run to their aid. The battle was quickly turning
to their favor, but more of them kept on coming. Elena started to cast
fire on some of the creatures, but it had little effect, her other materia,
Mystify, was useless since it only could cast confusion.
Tifa kicked one of the creatures
while Yuffie attacked with her Shuriken. Cid had dived in beside Cloud
and both were covering each other’s back. His spear was proving to be
a useful weapon because it also pushed a creature back each time Cid attacked.
Tifa’s martial arts combo was
powerful, but it left her vulnerable from behind. There was a sudden sound
of gunfire. Tifa saw that Barret had just entered the fight. He raised
his gun arm and fired away.
Vincent was easily holding
his own ground with his handgun. Apparently, he tossed Elena a spare clip
because she was using her gun again.
Somehow during battle, the
bandage on Cloud’s arm was ripped off revealing the infected wound.
It was painful, but Cloud kept on fighting, favoring his other arm. He
charged into a large group of them, but suddenly all of them let out a
high pitched shrill that caused all of the fighters to cover their ears.
The creatures stopped attacking
and surrounded Cloud. The shrill noised changed to soft chirps as if they
were expressing some kind of affection. One of them nudged its head on
his injured arm as if it was a loyal pet, then ran off. The others followed,
leaving Cloud very confused.
“What the hell just happened?”
Cid was the first to speak.
Cloud didn’t care, his arm
just hurt.
“Where the hell did you guys
come from?” Reno demanded.
“You’re welcome.” Tifa remarked.
Elena let out a ‘humph’ sound,
Rude was quiet as always.
“We didn’t need your help.”
Reno said with an attitude.
Cloud just saw a small cut
on Rude’s cheek.
“You guys better keep an eye
on your friend there.” Yuffie remarked.
“If that cut was caused by
one of those creatures….” Tifa was interrupted by Elena’s sudden remark.
“We already know. Your friend
in Cosmo Canyon already sent messages out to the world.”
There was a catfight brewing
between Elena and Tifa.
“Well screw you too!” So much
for being kind, Tifa regretted for even trying.
“And what about you? What’s
so special about you that these ‘things’ all of the sudden became friendly?”
Reno was referring to Cloud. “And what the hell happened to your arm?”
Cloud was about to say none
of your business but Yuffie spoke.
“Because he was already scratched
up by one of them.” Tifa smacked Yuffie for giving out information.
“Heh, then you guys better
keep an eye on him.” Elena was waiting for another fight.
Barret pointed the Gattling
gun that was grafted into his arm at them.
“I suggest that you get the
hell out of here before I put some holes into you.”
Reno was glaring into Barret’s
eyes and decided that he was not bluffing. He made a slight motion of
his hand. Elena and Rude stared to back away, waiting for Reno to say
his last remark and move on.
“Next time.” Reno started to
make his exit.
“Hey, you forgot this!” Tifa
tossed the broken shades to him.
There was a look of fury on
his face, and he continued to walk away. Elena and Rude followed, but
not before Elena glared at Cloud, then quickly studied his arm. It looked
more like third degree burns that surrounded his arm with a few very deep
scratches in it. Cloud was watching her studying him. As soon as she realized
that she was gawking, the turned away and left with her comrades.
Cloud couldn’t take it anymore
and began to reveal this as soon as the Turks were out of sight. He clinched
his other hand onto his the upper part of his injured arm and closed his
eyes. The extra exertion from the fight only seemed to aggravate it. He
didn’t say anything, but just took a deep breath, and grit his teeth.
“I guess we should take a break
here.” Tifa suggested.
“Barret, I thought you said
that you weren’t going to help them out.” Yuffie was just curious.
“I wasn’t. I was helping you
guys. Screw them.”
“I think that this will work.”
Heather said as she carefully extracted some of the few rare antibodies
in the sample.
“We won’t know until we test
it, and I am not asking for volunteers.” Nanaki finished combining the
last of the inactive components of the remedy. Heather added the last
ingredient.
“I don’t know if that will
be enough.” She said vaguely, then had a quick flash of an idea. Suddenly
she started to quickly walk out the door.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“To get my bag. Before I quit,
I stole some of Hojo’s notes because I was planning to expose what he
was doing to the world, but I just remembered reading something that was
very similar to those anti-biotic cells.”
The rest of the way to the
City of the Ancients turned out to uneventful, but Yuffie was getting
a feeling of dread. She couldn’t stop thinking of the bad memories that
happened the first time they were here.
She also kept thinking about
what she saw that day. She had never seen another human being murdered
right before her eyes. There was no way that they could have gotten there
sooner. She had the worst feeling of vulnerability at that moment. Despite
being around friends who could protect her, there was nothing that could
be done against this killer.
Cloud was only a few feet away
from her, Yuffie recalled. He had his sword ready, yet this killer was
able to stun him enough so that he could kill the one person who stood
in his way. Yuffie had nightmares after witnessing the event, but she
wondered about Cloud. How did he feel when Sephiroth easily possessed
him as an attempt to make him do his dirty work? If Tifa wasn’t there
to yell for Cloud to stop, he wouldn’t have been able to snap out of it,
and most likely kill Aeris for him in that state, and would have never
been able to remember what happened.
When Cloud snapped out of it,
he was dazed. That was when Sephiroth came in for the fatal blow to poor
Aeris. Cloud was so close to Sephiroth when Aeris collapsed into his arms,
that he would have been an easy target too. She never knew why Sephiroth
didn’t kill Cloud that day, or why he kept tormenting him by possessing
him repeatedly. Did Sephiroth want to be defeated, or did he want to drive
Cloud insane?
Yuffie watched Cloud as they
approached a walkway made out of coral that led to the heart of the ancient
city. He seemed to be normal as he took the lead. Does he ever think about
what could have been? Yuffie kept watching Cloud, carefully thinking about
what and now. He’s hiding something, she thought, in fact, she was sure
of it. What could it be?
“I say let’s camp here tonight
because it is a whole days walk to Icicle.” Barret gazed at the ancient
ruin. Still the same, and the weather was getting colder as they continued
to travel north.
“Alright, I’m going on ahead
to get the white materia.”
“I’m coming with you.” Tifa
said.
“No. I think that I better
do this alone.”
“Why?” Tifa wanted to do what
Red asked her to do and keep a constant eye on him.
“Please, its something that
I must do. I don’t know how to explain, but trust me.”
Tifa was quiet, Barret put
his hand on her shoulder. “C’on Tifa. Give him a break and let him do
this.”
Tifa closed her eyes and nodded.
“I’ll be back, don’t worry.”
Cloud ran ahead to the center structure that led to the interior of the
city and shrine hidden underground that was made out of crystal.
“Does he know something that
we don’t?” Yuffie waited until she was sure that Cloud couldn’t hear.
“He's been acting strange.”
Tifa was making every effort to calm down and believe that he will come
back without fail.
“I think that he’s hiding something.”
“Yuffie, I want you to follow
and keep an eye on him, but don’t let him find you.” Barret requested.
“Relax, I am a highly trained
Ninja. He won’t find me.” She took off and quickly disappeared in the
shadows.
There was sudden panic in Cosmo
Canyon as the creatures returned. Everyone ran into their homes, Heather
was still outside when she saw one of them.
She hurried as fast as she
could to the pub, and saw a small boy trip and fall in front of her. He
was crying loudly. She paused just long enough to pick him up and start
running again.
The creatures rapidly came
closer to her, but Heather couldn’t run any faster because of the extra
weight.
Another creature jumped in
front of her, she skid to a stop. More creatures surrounded her.
“Hang on to me as tight as
you can, kid!” She was searching in her pockets to find a single orb of
materia that she always kept for self-defense.
A circle of green light and
a light breeze came out from nowhere, small blue sparkles of light appeared
as more circles of light emanated from her in waves.
A strong green mist covered
all the creatures, then a sudden force of energy hit them all at once.
The creatures shrieked out in pain, and started to run away.
She continued to run to the
pub, but her left ankle couldn’t support her weight correctly. The woman
who owned the Pub ran out and took the boy out Heather’s arms, and retreated
into the safety of the building.
Barret’s PHS was ringing loudly,
and as soon as he turned it on, he could hear Marline crying.
“Marline, are you alright?”
“Papa, I’m so scared! The monsters
came back!”
“Don’t worry Marline, daddy
will fix it. Just stay indoors.”
“I did, but I am really scared!”
Barret heard Elmyra’s voice
in the background. She was trying to comfort Marline.
“Marline, I want you to listen
to me. Tifa and I are going to get rid of the creatures, and rescue Reeve.
I’ll come back to you. I promise.”
Marline sniffed.
“Alright?”
“… Okay.”
“Aright then, I want you to
be a good girl, and be brave. It’s almost over.”
“Okay.”
“Okay, then. Can I talk to
Elmyra?”
“Sure.”
There was a moment of silence
then Elmyra’s voice came through.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Heather made it back to Nanaki’s
home, with her bag.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I just strained my ankle,
but I’ll live.”
“I saw you use the Ultima materia.
It seems to be an effective repellent.”
“Yeah, it took a lot out of
me. I won’t be able to use it again for a while.”
“Oh my god.” Nanaki just saw
a scratch on her wrist.
Heather was quiet, then looked
at Nanaki. “I guess that it would be a good time to test that antidote
now.” No wonder her hand was stinging so badly.
The tranquility of the crystalline
city was truly beautiful. It was a pity that no one lived here anymore.
The echoes of past generations of Certa whispered into his ears. He paused
for a moment and gazed at the structures.
Yuffie was following close
to him, unseen in the shadows. The light, cool breeze caused a faint whistling
sound through out the city.
Cloud had the feeling that
he was being watched, and turned around. He was alone, and continued his
way to the shrine.
On the platform that Yuffie
was on, she could not be seen, until she came out of where she retreated
to when Cloud started to turn to look her way. She was hanging on the
ledge to keep out of sight, and quickly hoisted herself back up when the
coast was clear to continue her watch.
The last landmark to the shrine
was a pool of water, and some steps that stood out from the water. He
was right back to where Aeris was slain. He stopped at the corner of the
platform and sat, looking into the water.
Yuffie kept quiet, and made
sure that she was carefully hidden. From her view, she watched as Cloud
looked deep into the water, but there wasn’t enough light to clearly see
the bottom. He stuck his hand into the water, then sat strait and looked
ahead.
“I know that you’re here, so
you don’t have to spy on me anymore.”
Yikes! There is no way that
she could be spotted.
He looked to the entrance that
led to the rest of the city. Yuffie was in another location.
“Well, come out.”
He’s bluffing, Yuffie thought,
and kept silent and still. She wasn’t going to fall for that trick.
He was quiet, and saw no one.
Maybe no one was following him after all, yet he still had the nagging
feeling of being watched. He shook it off as paranoia, and looked back
into the pool.
This is sacred ground Cloud,
there is no need to put a barrier between yourself and this place. Aeris’
voice sang into his ears.
“Sacred ground?” Maybe he was
being watched, but now that feeling was gone.
Take off your glove and bandage.
The water will help sooth it.
Cloud did what he was told,
but stopped to take a look at his hand. There was a tattoo there, but
it looked like it was never finished, only a few marks. There was no way
to determine what his number was in the Jenova Project. At this point,
he didn’t care about that anymore.
He slowly reached his arm into
the water. There was no more pain or irritation, just a cool refreshing
feeling.
He just realized that the barrier
that Aeris was talking about was his weapon and armor.
The white materia started to
glow, revealing its location at the bottom of the pool.
He removed the rest of his
armor, and placed his sword on the platform.
He looked again into the water,
the materia was still glowing.
“How can I use it?” Cloud wondered
to himself.
In time of great need, you
will know how.
“Is there anything else that
I should know?”
No because it will come to
you when you want it, but there is a question.
“A question?”
The persecution of the Certa
by Shin-ra is over, yet why do you hide from your friends?
“I don’t know. I guess that
I don’t want to be treated differently.”
They are your friends, and
a friend is a person who knows everything about you and loves you just
the same. By hiding from them, you're only hurting them.
“I guess that’s true. But what
if no one believes me?”
They will. You have to trust
them.
Cloud was silent, in deep thought.
Now go, and get the white materia.
The orb of materia was still
glowing at the bottom of the pool. Cloud jumped in to get the materia.
Who was he talking to? Yuffie figured that she has to go back and tell
Tifa about this, but she was not finished watching him.
“I don’t believe it. I thought
that this genetic line was dead.” Heather couldn’t deny the evidence.
“It looks like there was some
manipulation to his DNA. No wonder he was able to produce those antibodies.”
“Do you think…. Hojo was successful
in his attempt to transform someone into a Certa?”
“I don’t think so, we better
check Cloud’s personnel data. We’ll just have to hack into the Shin-ra
database that’s here.” Nanaki didn’t want to assume that Hojo was right,
it was still a monstrous experiment committed on innocent people. Out
of all of them, only two were able to function in the long run, while
the others became mindless shells who died off as time passed. The price
was extremely high, and it was only a relentless pursuit by Shin-ra to
find the fabled ‘Promised Land’ that can only be found by a Certa.
“Can I see your computer Nanaki?”
“Sure, and call me Red. That’s
what my friends call me,” He moved out of the way.
She smiled and started her
search, then she looked over the stolen notes. “He may have been
a genius in biology, but he was an idiot in everything else. He wrote
several passwords here.”
Nanaki watched as she was searching
the database like a pro.
In a cold, barren land that
was cruel to life, there was activity. The people who disappeared were
being summoned by a powerful unknown force, then they were met by another
creature. The people were not afraid, and the creatures were not hostile
to them. Each creature lead who ever came to them, one by one to their
master.
“Bingo!” Heather found the
personnel file.
Nanaki started reading it out
loud. “Name: Strife, Cloud. Birth date: August 19.” That’s less than two
weeks, he noted to himself. “Birthplace: Nibleheim. Height 5’ 7’’.”
He continued to read it, then
found something strange. “Father: Unknown?”
“Shin-ra always try to find
out everything about you, it’s very rare that they had to list something
as ‘unknown’.”
“It looks like that the last
update was five years ago because it says that he’s 16.”
Heather read the last part
of the file. “Died while on active duty on a patrol mission near Nibleheim.
Current commanding officer: Sephiroth.” She looked at Nanaki. “Died? But
didn’t you speak with him not too long ago?”
“It was just a cover up by
Shin-ra to hide the truth. Sephiroth found out that he was a product of
the Jenova Project and went insane. He burned Nibleheim to the ground
and killed most of its inhabitants, anyone who survived became Hojo’s
laboratory specimens.”
“But I was just there in Nibleheim.
It is still there, and full of people.”
“Yes, I know. Shin-ra rebuilt
the town and hired actors as ‘townspeople’. When we found out, it was
the biggest insult to Cloud and Tifa.”
“Tifa? Who’s that?”
“Another friend who is also
from Nibleheim. She was there when the Sephiroth incident occurred, and
was seriously wounded by him. She was lucky. Her mentor who was training
her in martial arts found her and escaped, carrying her with him before
Shin-ra came.”
“Hmm. I don’t get it. I know
that Shin-ra funded the project so that they can find the Promised Land
to strip it of its abundant Makou energy. But why go this far? I wonder
how many innocent people died just for this?” Heather was really disgusted
that she was even associated with them at all in the past.
“I remember Aeris telling me
that when she was very young, Hojo held both her and her mother captive,
until they escaped when she was five years old.”
“Why hold a mother and child
captive?”
“Because they were both Certa.
Aeris was half, while her mother was a pure Certa. Maybe there is some
kind of information on them.”
Heather found the data. “Whoa.
This is so weird.”
Nanaki looked at what she found.
A DNA model. “Hmm, there seems to be an extra element into it, instead
of the four that's found in normal strains for every creature on the planet.”
“It looks like they were never
to identify it.”
“Can you cross reference Cloud’s
sample with this?”
“Sure, and I can also cross
check with what’s already on record too.”
“How long will it take?”
“Um, not too long, but I would
think about an hour.”
“Speaking of time, how are
you feeling?”
“Fine. I think the antidote
works.”
“We have no time to be absolutely
sure, I’ll contact as many people I can so that they can come here and
get this. I think that we do have enough for everyone.”
“You did? That’s great!” Tifa
was delighted.
“What?” Barret wanted to know.
“They found an antidote.” She
replied to Barret.
Tifa was listening carefully
to the PHS that was pressed against her ear.
“Yeah.”
“Right. We’re heading there
tomorrow.”
“Um, he’s not here.”
“Don’t worry, Yuffie’s keeping
an eye on him.”
“That urgent? What’s the matter?”
“…What?”
“A-are you sure?”
“…No wonder he's been acting
strange.”
“And it was because of him
you were able to find the antidote?”
“Oh my god. I really hope that’s
not true.”
“You are?”
“Uh-huh. I understand.”
“Okay, thank you.”
“Take care.”
Tifa turned the PHS off, she
had a shocked look on her face.
“Well what?” Cid really didn’t
like the tone in Tifa’s voice during that conservation.
Tifa looked to the ground,
and took a breath.
“Hey guys! He’s coming back.”
Yuffie returned.
“What did you see?” Barret
asked.
“Well, not much. Except that
he was talking to himself a lot, it was like he was having a conservation
with no one.”
“Quiet. Here he comes.” Cid
said calmly.
Tifa stood up and ran to Cloud
and gave him a big hug.
“Thank god that you’re okay!”
Tifa was really upset, but happy.
“What’s wrong?”
“Um, she was just very worried
that you wouldn’t return.” Cid said.
“Cloud, they found an antidote.”
Barret said.
“That’s great. But how is everyone
going to get it?”
“Red said that he took care
of it, but wants us to continue to Icicle so that you can be treated.”
Tifa managed to regain her composure.
“So what is our next move with
the White materia?” Vincent was almost like a fly on the wall.
Cloud hadn’t thought about
it yet.
“I have a suggestion.” Yuffie
said, “Let’s eat. I’m starving!”
The distraction of preparing
for the night eased Tifa’s mind, and the rations that they bought in Cosmo
Canyon were actually tasty.
Cloud calmly stared into the
campfire. He was thinking about what he needed to say, but wanted to wait
for the right time and words. He took a breath.
“I have…” Cloud spoke at the
same time Tifa spoke “Cloud I…”
“You go first.” Cloud said.
Tifa was nervous. “Um, Cloud?
Why did you never tell us that you were an Ancient?”
There was a murmur among everyone
else. Could it be true?
Cloud sighed, then looked at
Tifa. “What tipped you off?”
There were more murmurs from
everyone.
“Cloud?” Barret was uneasy.
“I…I was about to tell you.”
“Are you saying that you’re
an Ancient?” Cid wanted to know more.
“So who were you talking to
at the pool?” Yuffie asked then covered her mouth.
Cloud looked at her, annoyed.
Then looked to the ground.
“Um, Red found out. It was
because of your blood that they were able to find an antidote. He’s also
trying to find out…” Tifa felt sorry for brining it up.
“If the Jenova Project was
a success or if I was born with it?” Cloud finished the question. He kept
his eyes fixed to the ground, never in his life has he felt this exposed.
If he started the conservation, it would have been on his own terms, but
now he was on the defensive.
“I’m sorry for bringing it
up.” Tifa really felt bad.
Cloud stood up to walk away.
“Excuse me.”
Tifa got up and followed him.
“After all this time…” Barret said. “Hell, I knew that he was messed up
from the first day that I met him, but … why did he never say a word about
it?”
Yuffie thought back to what
Cloud said at the pool. “Maybe because he didn’t want to be treated differently.”
“But we all knew that Aeris
was an Ancient, and we treated her just like everyone else.”
“Did we?” Vincent asked. “I
don’t think so, remember on how everyone kept their distance from her
while we were headed for the Temple of the Ancients, because no one knew
what to say to her? The only one who truly treaded Aeris like a normal
person was Cloud.”
“Yeah, I didn’t really speak
to her much because of that. I didn’t know what to think.” Cid admitted.
Yuffie looked to the ground.
She didn’t know what to say to Aeris either. “I wonder how she felt?”
“I guess there were several
times when I didn’t know what to say, and I kept my mouth shut.” Barret
sighed.
“Either way, Cloud didn't ask
to be this way. It was forced upon him. He’s probably resentful because
of it.” Vincent pointed out.
“What makes you so sure?” Cid
asked.
“I've been watching you all
long enough to figure it out.”
Yuffie hated this feeling.
“Aw c’on! It’s not like he died or anything! He’s the same person and
there is nothing different about him except what we know about him. That’s
no reason to punish someone just because they are different! Vincent’s
right. Its not like he asked for this or waited in line to be one of Hojo’s
guinea pigs. He had no control over this, and he's the same way now just
like he was this morning. So I think that we should ignore the fact that
he's an Ancient. He just wants to be just like everyone else.”
Everyone was silent around
the campfire. Then Barret sighed.
“Alright, then let’s not mention
it at all and pretend that this never happened. At least, until we know
exactly how he feels about this.”
Yuffie nodded in agreement.
“Okay so nothing happened.”
Cid took a drag from his cigarette.
Vincent was quiet. How did
he feel about this anyway?
They had no idea that they
were being watched by someone else and heard everything.
It seemed like everything he
knew that was constant in this world was suddenly turned upside down.
There are things that will always stay the same for everyone, and that
is usually where they draw their confront from. He understood that this
is really necessary for the planet, but he was never ready for this kind
of responsibility. The world was literally on his shoulders.
He walked to a grassy area
and sat on a hill. The only thing that he could see clearly was the stars
above him.
Cloud, don’t worry. Your friends
still care for you, they were just surprised. Give it some time to sink
in. This time it was his mother’s voice that whispered into his ears.
“Please, just leave me alone.”
He had his face buried in his hands.
“Are you sure?”
Cloud turned around and realized
that Tifa followed him. She sat down beside him.
“Hey, I am really sorry for
bringing it up like that. I should have talked to you privately first.”
“That’s alright. I was about
to say something anyway, but when you asked that question, it caught me
off guard that you already knew.” He was gripping the blades
of grass with his fingers.
“I’m sorry.”
They were quiet for a moment.
He was gazing at the stars.
“Cloud talk to me. Why did
you never say a word about it?”
“It’s… complicated. Do you
really want to hear the whole story?”
“No, not right now. I can wait
until you feel like talking.”
He paused and sighed.
“Can I…. Show you something?”
Cloud was hesitant, but he was tired of hiding it anymore.
“Yeah, sure.” Tifa looked into
his eyes. It reminded her of the day he left Nibleheim. They were so innocent,
yet scared of the unknown path that was up ahead. There was another that
is even more terrifying than before that was laid before him, and he had
no choice but to follow it.
He showed her his tattooed
hand. Tifa just realized that it was the first time since they met again,
and introduced him to Barret, that he never showed his bare hand until
now.
“Cloud, you don’t have to hide
like this anymore.” She held his hand into hers. Then grabbed his other
hand and removed that glove.
He was beginning to feel a
burden fade away. Tifa got closer to him, she smiled then gently pushed
back some of his hair that had been moving in front of his face because
of the wind. The touch of her fingertips made him want to touch her face.
Tifa let him put his hand on
her cheek. She couldn’t stop from trembling.
“There…. was something else
that I wanted to tell y-“
“Shhh.” Tifa gently placed
her finger on his lips and moved closer.
Cloud felt like that he was
losing control of himself as he beard his soul to her. He hugged her tighter.
The sudden feeling of euphoria was overwhelming and he didn’t want it
to stop. Tifa didn’t want it to stop either. There was an internal peace
that filled them, Tifa rubbed her hands on his back. Cloud stopped just
long enough to gaze into her eyes. Her hands continued to explore his
body.
He still had something very
important to tell her but that thought quickly faded away, as he started
to softly kiss her neck, the soft smell of her perfume kept him wanting
even more. Then he gasped in surprise when she reached in a forbidden
area. He kissed her again deeply.
What’s happening to me? Where’s
my self-control? I can’t believe that we’re doing this out in the open.
“Guys, I’m sorry to interrupt
but…” Barret had an urgent matter on his hands.
They stopped embracing. Barret
could hear Cloud whisper ‘damn,’ and let Tifa go. He was laying on his
back on the hill. The feelings of that he had just a moment ago quickly
drained out of him, leaving him exhausted and very embarrassed. It looked
like Tifa was feeling the same thing too.
“Yeah, what is it?” Cloud sighed.
“How dare you do this to me!”
Elena growled.
“Exactly, how long were you
spying on us?” Cid asked.
She glared at everyone.
Barret just returned to the
campsite, Cloud and Tifa saw what was so urgent.
“Why are you here?” Cloud asked.
“What makes you think that
I am going to tell you, Ancient?” Elena used that word as if it was a
racist remark. Tifa got into her face and grabbed her collar. She was
in a fury.
“Listen you little bitch, I
would just love to kick your ass into next week, and I am-“
“Stop it!” Cloud didn’t want
Tifa to get ugly about this. She glared once more into Elena’s eyes, and
backed away.
“I am going to ask you again.
Why are you here?”
“Humph! Why don’t you ask the
planet, or whatever it is that you do.”
Tifa took a step closer, she
was really fed up with her.
“I already did.” Cloud got
into her face. “Why the hell is Reeve so important to you?”
Elena glared even more. She
didn’t want to believe what she just heard everyone talk about earlier,
but this little demonstration proved to be extremely accurate. No, it
was just a lucky guess.
“Because he’s a Turk.” Reno
approached them, Barret pointed his gattling gun at him. Reno put his
hands up. “And we have a code. And that is to never abandon your own.
We learned about Reeve’s disappearance the moment we lost contact with
him while we were in Kalam. A little girl told us that he was missing
and that you already left to look for him. We’ve been following you ever
since. As soon as it was obvious that you were heading for the City of
the Ancients, we tried to get ahead of you.”
“Reno?” Elena was surprised
that he would just give out information like this, or even surrender himself
with out a fight.
“Rude disappeared, and as much
as I hate to admit it. They do have an advantage over us. It’s just pointless
to get in their way.”
“Wait, you want to join forces
with us?” Cid asked.
“He’s obligated to uphold the
code, and since he is the leader, he must do anything and everything possible
to protect his own.” Vincent said. “That was why he reluctantly helped
us when Elena and Yuffie were held captive by that man in Wutai. When
it comes to protecting each other, their word is their bond.”
Barret kept thinking about
his friends who died because of them.
“… Cut her loose.” Cloud reluctantly
said.
“But Cloud!” Tifa looked at
him.
“You got to be kidding!” Barret
didn’t want to hear it.
“Do it!”
Yuffie cut the ropes and Elena
stood next to Reno.
Barret lowered his gun, “Fine.
Just stay the fuck out of my way.”
Tifa couldn’t sleep. There was so much that was going through her mind.
So much has happened today, and she felt that she couldn’t catch up with
everyone else.
So what now? We have the Turks
hovering over our shoulder, and Cloud. She was sure that everyone’s view
about him has changed. She knew that her view on him changed. The thought
of that kiss tonight repeated over and over in her mind. She rolled over
to see Cloud while he was sleeping, only to find empty sheets.
She quickly sat up, and sighed
in relief to herself when she saw him sitting by the fire. She got up
to be with him.
“Sorry that I woke you up.”
“You didn’t. I couldn’t sleep
anyway.”
Cloud was massaging his upper
arm, it was the reason why he was awake.
“Does it still hurt?”
“Don’t worry about it. I just
have to hang on for one more day.”
“Let me take a look at it.”
Tifa was shocked at what she
saw. What started out to be a few simple scratches turned into a very
nasty infection that has spread almost to his shoulder. On the scratches
themselves, it looked like something was growing on his arm, as it was
pulsating with his heartbeat.
“Gruesome, isn’t it?” Cloud
was trying anything that would take his mind off it.
“Cloud, there is nothing I
can do. I don’t even know where to begin.” Tifa started to search her
pockets, “Here, let me use the restore materia.”
“No. I tried it already. It
just made it worse.” Cloud felt another wave of pain.
“Cloud…”
“Don’t worry. One more day
and we can take care of this.”
Tifa picked up her PHS, “I
am going to call Red, maybe he’ll know what to do.”
Come to me…
Not again, he thought.
Come to me now, my child.
Cloud was making every effort
to ignore that.
Tifa kept making attempts to
use her PHS. It wasn’t working.
“Here, try mine.”
Tifa tried again, this time
using Cloud’s PHS.
“Nothing. It’s dead.”
“Look at that.” He saw something
in the sky.
You didn’t come. Now you must
be punished for disobeying me.
Great, what could be possibly
worse?
Tifa saw red flashes of light
in the northern sky. “What’s that?”
There was a sudden tremor as
the planet screamed in pain, Cloud felt it too. It was making him sick
to his stomach.
“Wha?” Yuffie sat up. There
were more tremors.
“An earthquake.” Barret stood
up.
Reno noticed that there was
something wrong with Cloud. The tremors became more violent.
“No…” Cloud saw some creatures
come out to attack. He was in no condition to fight.
“Oh shit…of all of the possible
times of day.” Cid hated being awakened like this.
Tifa remembered what Red told
her. “Cloud, where’s your sword?”
He pointed.
She picked it up and was frantically
searching for the right orb of materia.
The tremors continued, and
the creatures surrounded them.
Suddenly a thick green mist
covered the creatures followed by a blast of energy. Just like Red said,
all of them shrieked and ran away. She turned to see Cloud. He passed
out.
“Tifa, what’s wrong with him?”
Yuffie ran to help her.
Vincent saw what was happening
to Cloud’s arm, and knelt down to get a closer look. He was running a
high fever. “We have to get him to a doctor now.”
Barret was cussing even more. None of the PHS worked. It was just a useless
piece of junk.
They couldn’t call Icicle
for help. Yuffie and Cid quickly got their things together. They had no
idea what time it was, but they had to move fast.
“He’s just going to slow you
down. You’ll never make it there in time.” Reno pointed out.
“Alright then I am going on
ahead to get help.” Yuffie was very adept when it came to traveling.
“With all of those creatures?
You’ll never make it on your own.” Tifa appreciated her eagerness to help
out, but it was too dangerous.
Yuffie hopelessly looked at
Tifa. She couldn’t think of anything else that she could do. Vincent stood
up.
“I’m coming. It’s safer to
travel in a group.”
Cid was pacing back and forth.
“Ah, the hell with it. I’m coming too.”
“Are you guys sure?” Barret
asked.
Yuffie put her pack on. She
was ready to go.
Barret reached to remove an
orb of materia from his gun and tossed it to Yuffie. It was another Ultima
materia. “I want it back when you return.”
Yuffie nodded and started to
run, but she slowed her pace so that Cid and Vincent catch up. Then they
were gone.
It’s amazing that he has resisted
me for this long.
He walked among the rows of
people who were under his power, they were all mindless slaves with no
soul, their eyes had faded to a silver-gray, and all of them were losing
the color in their hair and skin. They were becoming as white as the snow
around them. Slowly, their spiritual energy was being drained away, but
he needed so much more. He was well aware of a vast source of this energy
that was referred to as the Lifestream by philosophers. Right now, the
gateway to this stream was sealed shut. He couldn’t get through, but he
knew someone who can.
Creating a new Black materia
was going to take far more spiritual energy than to just simply use it,
but he needed a lot more people before he had enough to combine the four
huge materia together into one.
The Lifestream can supply all
of the energy that he needed. Until then, he had no choice but to use
whatever resources he had on hand. When the spiritual energy of each person
was gone, they will die, but it was only a small fraction of his need.
He also needed one last element,
but acquiring that will take time. It will not be long before he will
grow wearily of his calls and fall into his control.
He thought carefully. Most
of these people who became his children are not fighters, and they have
too many flaws. He will need stronger ones, but no one who came met his
expectations.
He had already decided that
this one was perfect for his needs, but he is only one person. Also, he
is an unstable one, and could become a dangerous threat if left unchecked.
He waved his hand and some
of his children came. The creatures that were keeping watch welcomed their
master with friendly chirps. He had to make preparations to make sure
that this one will be forever his, as well as his vast untapped powers.
“Look, all I am asking is where
do you think these people disappeared to.”
Barret really hated this guy,
and he wasn’t going to give out any information.
“Do you know that I lost several
friends because of what you did in Sector 7? And the only thing that I'm
thinking about now is whether I shoot you in the back, or blow that pretty
face of yours off.”
“Those were orders.” That was
all Reno needed to say.
“You bastard! You entered the
detonation codes yourself to blow that pillar up. You killed everyone
in Sector 7! You even killed many people who were living above that plate
when it came crashing down to the slums below!” Tifa shrieked.
“And you have no right to talk!”
Elena shouted. “Do YOU know how many people you killed because of your
terrorist activities in Midgar?”
“That was to save the planet
from you leaches sucking the life blood of it and killing us all!” Barret
shouted back.
“Oh yeah, you were really brilliant!”
Elena had a lot of sarcasm in her tone. “So your solution was to blow
up a couple Makou reactors to stop it? You idiot! That accomplished nothing
since they were easily rebuilt.”
Tifa couldn’t say anything
to counter what she said. What Elena said was unfortunately the truth.
“You want to know why I hate
you so much?” Elena was in Tifa’s face.
Reno crossed his arms. He had
a similar story to tell. It was the reason why he became a Turk.
“My brother was in the Sector
1 reactor when it blew up from a bomb that you placed on the core, and
what was worse, when you blew up the reactor in Sector five, I lost most
of my family and friends.” She pointed a finger in Tifa’s face. “And I
swear, someday I will make you pay dearly for it!” She looked at Cloud.
He was still unconsciousness, she pulled out her gun. “I can do it right
now and kill him right in front of you. I know how important he is to
you.”
“Goddamn you!” Tifa punched
Elena in the face as hard as she could.
Elena lost grip of her gun,
and punched Tifa back.
It was a wild brawl between
them, each were scratching and pulling hair.
Reno did nothing. He reacted
the same way when he encountered another terrorist group in Junion. They
killed many people who were important to him too.
Barret jumped in to try to
break them up, but he failed to and was smacked in the face for his trouble.
He backed away and saw Reno. He still did nothing except to sit down.
The only thing that he could think about was what happened on that day
many years ago when he was young. He swore that he would never let another
anti-Shin-ra faction to harm this many people again. Yet, it seemed that
over the years, he lost sight of that goal and became used to doing so
much dirty work. It even got to the point that he even enjoyed it.
The women seemed to be equally
matched for each other in unarmed combat. It was a constant stalemate
between them. Both of them were shouting derogatory names and profanities
to each other. Barret shouted several times for them to stop, but he was
ignored.
One final blow by Tifa sent
the two of them to tumble down the hill. Both of them were just simply
out of breath, and couldn’t fight anymore.
“This is pointless! It’s not
going to bring them back!” Tifa threw her hands in the air.
Elena shook her head and mumbled
out more profanities at Tifa, but it was barely audible.
Barret and Reno ran down the
hill. Elena just simply broke down and was sobbing, everyone that she
wanted to avenge their deaths for are not going to come back. She had
spent all of this time wasting her time and energy thinking about revenge.
Now she was just alone with nothing except for her pain. Reno sympathized
with her, but this was no way for a Turk to act, even for a rookie. Barret
and Tifa left them there and climbed back up the hill.
“You alright?”
“I’m fine.” She was okay, just
a bit bruised from the tumble down the hill. A quick use of the restore
materia was all that she needed to recover from the fight.
In a few minutes, Reno returned
back up the hill to get their gear together. Barret still glared at him.
“What? You want to fight me
too? It’s not going to prove anything.”
“No, but it will make me feel
better.”
Reno looked at Barret and Tifa.
“Look, let me tell you something. Almost all of us lost most of our family
and friends because of the likes of you and your rebellion factions. I
did the same thing that she did all those years ago. And what did it get
me? Nothing!” He let out a smirk, “You think that you are so self-righteous
about your ideals and goals that you become blind to all of the innocent
bystanders who just happen to be in the way. You think that were monsters?
I suggest that you take a long look at yourself. You’re no different!”
Reno started to walk back down the hill. Then realized that he had one
more thing to say. “For many of us, the Turks are the only family we have
left. That’s why we put up with you so that we can save our own. We have
no one else in the world who would even care.”
“… North Crater.” Tifa said.
Reno waited.
“That was where Cloud said
that they were being taken to.”
“Thank you.” Reno left with
Elena.
“Hey Tifa, mind if I ask you
something?” Barret waited a few minutes after the Turks left. “In all
the time that I’ve known you, I don’t think that I have ever heard you
say those words like you did during that fight.”
“I’ve never been that angry
before.” She was fine now. “Besides, I think that I have been hanging
out with you too much.”
Barret let out a laugh, it
was most likely true.
There was a sound of a horn
blaring, then a truck became visible on a trail that was to the west of
them. As soon as it reached its destination, Yuffie jumped out of the
back of the truck.
“Damn, that was quick!” Barret
figured that about three hours had past when they left.
“Well, we didn’t make it to
Icicle, she found us.” Yuffie was referring to the driver.
A young woman stepped out of
the truck, “It this the one?” She had a strange twain in her voice. She
must have been from a rural area.
“Thank you. …” Tifa wanted
to thank her by name, but she didn’t know it.
“Dee. Dee Mackclaine.” Dee
shook Tifa’s hand.
“Thank you very much Dee, I’m
Tifa.” She pointed to Barret, “This is Barret.”
Barret just nodded his head,
he had a lot of things to do.
“And Cloud.”
Dee walked over to where he
was sleeping. “Good lord! What the hell happened to him?”
“We were attacked by those
creatures…” Dee interrupted Tifa.
“Then we gotta get him back
to town! We just got some medicine that really works, and…” Dee saw some
movement. She had already learned the hard way that it was the creatures’
preferred way to attack.
“We have to go, now.” It was
all that Dee needed to say.
Dee had already returned to
her truck and turned the engine on. Barret was the last person to climb
abroad. The creatures were moving with great speed. Yuffie had already
used the Ultima materia, but they were so spread out that she only managed
to hit just a group of them. Barret pointed his gun arm and fired away.
The truck’s tires skid as the
sudden force of acceleration was applied to them. Then there was a sudden
burst of speed. Some of the creatures had jumped onto the bumper. Barret
was face to face with one, who was quickly introduced to his gun.
“Barret!” Tifa shouted and
started to try to move in to help.
He quickly turned to the side
of the truck and fired. It fell off and hit the ground with a thump.
The truck continued to speed
away. Tifa searched the other side for more creatures, it was clear. She
sighed with relief and turned to Barret.
“Shit.” There was a rip in
his one of his pant legs. He looked at the fresh wound, those damn bastards,
was the only thing that came across his mind. It stung like hell.
“Oh no.” Tifa didn’t want anymore
friends to suffer like this.
Yuffie was in the middle of
the front seat, and she opened the small window that was on the back of
the passenger compartment.
“What happened?”
“Barret got scratched.” Tifa
had to say loudly because of the wind, which was getting colder as they
were approaching an arctic area. It won’t be long before they will be
seeing snow.
Yuffie turned to Dee, and then
reached behind the passenger seat. She found a small box.
“Here.” Yuffie reached outside
and handed Tifa a first aid kit.
“Thanks, hey how long will
it take for us to reached Icicle?”
Yuffie turned to Dee and relayed
the question.
“About two hours.”
Not much longer, she thought.
“Hey Yuffie!” Tifa wanted to
know something.
“Yeah?”
“Why was she out here in the
middle of nowhere?”
Yuffie replied quickly. She
asked the same question earlier.
“Dee’s part of the local ski
patrol.”
“But why is she out here? There’s
no one skiing.”
“To keep a look out for the
creatures and warn everyone in town.”
Yuffie tuned back when she
heard a strange noise. Dee’s CB radio has crackled back to life. They
must be in range again. Dee picked up the receiver to inform someone on
the other end about what happened, but she was using so many code words
it that really confused Yuffie.
“Hey, do you guys know someone
by the name of Nanaki?”
“Yeah, he’s a friend of ours.”
Cid was pressed against the passenger door.
“He’s in town. He hitched a
ride with Frankie when he went to Cosmo Canyon to get the medicine.”
Yuffie had no idea who Frankie
was, but she was happy that Red was there.
“Hey, Tifa! Guess what?”
“Yeah?”
“Red’s in Icicle! He got a
ride from someone. He’s waiting for us!”
That was the best news that
Barret and Tifa heard all day. It won’t be much longer.
What is this place? He felt
like he had been wondering within this strange labyrinth for several hours.
Where was everyone? Who’s behind this?
There was a deep, malicious
laughter that echoed everywhere. Cloud was fed up with these games.
“Who are you, show yourself!”
Instantly the wall beside him
shattered into several pieces as if it was glass. It looked like that
it was leading to a cave. Deep inside, there was a strange green glow
that illuminated the depths the cave. He took a step forward then stopped.
It must be some kind of trap.
The earth shook as another
tremor was passing through. Again, he felt it. Might as well hit me with
a sledgehammer, he thought. He looked down the pathway that was still
the interior of the labyrinth. He could hear several voices. Are those
the missing people?
With extreme caution, he ventured
deeper into the labyrinth. Then the sudden crackling sounds quickly alerted
him that there were more creatures nearby. He reached for his sword. It
wasn’t there. He was completely unarmed and without any materia to fend
them off.
Great, now what?
“Look at that.” Vincent spotted more creatures. He stood up in the back
of the truck. They were becoming surrounded.
“Hang on, it looks like we
just encountered some more speed bumps!” They were almost to town. Dee
picked up the receiver and handed it to Yuffie.
“Here, call for help. I got
my hands full.”
“But, you were using all those
weird code words. I have no idea what to say!”
Cid snatched the receiver from
her hand and started talking. He knew all of the phrases and was using
them like a natural.
Cloud had been running. If he was going to fight, then he better find
another area to hold his ground instead of the confines of these walls.
Then he quickly skid
to a stop, it was a dead end. The creatures had cornered him. He quickly
took a stance, armed or not, he was not going to give up without a fight.
Tifa screamed, that last bump was very unexpected. Barret was literally
acting like a Kamikaze with his attacks, Vincent was covering for Tifa
as she was trying to make sure that Cloud would make it. One final bump
sent the truck flying and it skid on the side of its frame. All four of
them who were riding in the back were easily ejected away from the wreckage.
Tifa landed in the soft snow
and quickly jumped up. Where’s Cloud?
“Come here ya bastard! I got
somethin’ for ya!” Barret was still firing away. Then there was a sudden
click. He ran out of ammo.
Suddenly, more people had entered
the fight, some of them were using an Ultima materia, and they quickly
drove them away. Nanaki ran ahead of the group.
“Well, it’s about time!” Barret
was out of breath.
Tifa was searching frantically,
then stopped in shock when she found just the bandage. Then the torn remains
of the sleeping bag that he was in. There was no sign of Cloud. Tifa could
do nothing, but cry.
He couldn’t remember what had just happened, all he knew that there was
a strange blue light that attacked the creatures, and then they just vanished
into nothing.
Also the walls vanished, and
he was standing out in a vast open area. He looked around in all directions.
It was a dreary skyline as far as the eye could see and there were no
landmarks to help him figure out where to go.
He had to get back to everyone
somehow. This time he tried to ask the planet for help, but there was
no answer. It was not like he was being ignored, but it felt like that
he couldn’t talk at all, he couldn’t even yell to see if anyone was out
there. There was nothing that he could do except to pick a direction and
hope that it will get him back.
They had searched the area for over a half an hour before more creatures
were spotted again and they had to retreat. Tifa felt numb, she had only
one thing on her mind and everything else didn’t seem to matter. The rest
of the trip to Icicle was a somber one for everyone else. Tifa found that
she couldn’t even think.
Come to me.
Barret looked around. Who said
that?
Come to me now, my child.
“Did you hear something?”
Yuffie paused. “…No.”
Cid shook his head.
Nanaki stood up. “Was it something
along the lines of ‘come to me’ or something else like that?”
“Yeah.”
“All I can say is that it is
a good thing that we are almost there. This virus or whatever it is has
been taking effect faster and faster. People are starting to disappear
in less than 3 hours now.”
“But he was scratched over
2 hours ago.” Yuffie pointed out.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be in town
in about five minutes.” Dee announced to everyone.
Come to me my child.
“…What the hell is that?”
“Oh yeah, a lot of people reported
of hearing a strange voice before they disappeared. I just hope that we
don’t have to tie you up.”
Barret looked at Nanaki.
“…I’m joking. But seriously,
from what I gather these ‘calls’ have a powerful effect on people to just
go to the source. The only clue that we have is what Cloud told us.”
“Heh, so he hears voices huh?”
“I wouldn’t know, but Aeris
told me that she did all the time. Though most of the time it was just
like background noise to her.”
“Will you please stop it?”
Tifa was already upset and hearing them talk about Cloud like this was
making her feel worse.
“I’m sorry Tifa.”
Tifa sniffed, she was fighting
back tears. She knew that Cloud didn’t want her to cry.
“Red, what about this scratch?
It is starting to hurt like a moth…”
“Yeah, everyone said something
like that too when it came to their injuries.” Nanaki really didn’t appreciate
it when people used profanities when it was possible to express it in
another way. He was raised with the thought that it was simply disrespectful
to those around you, but he never said anything about it. He also understood
that there are times that it couldn’t be avoided, though it seemed that
Barret and Cid were the exception.
“You mean that Cloud was enduring
that for the last three days?” The thought just occurred to Cid.
“It looks like it. Also from
what I heard, as time passed, it just got worse and worse.”
“Man, that must suck.” Yuffie
was glad that she wasn’t scratched.
The engine of the truck turned
off. They finally made it.
“…Um, Red. I’m going to go
and see if I can find Cloud. But I don’t know what to look out for.”
“Tifa if you don’t mind waiting
for about an hour, then all of us can go and get him back together, alright?”
Nanaki knew that it was what Tifa wanted to hear, and there was no way
that he was going to let her go out there alone.
“Yay! Do-do’s back!” A little
boy ran past everyone else and hugged Dee really tight.
Do-do? Yuffie had heard some
strange nicknames but this one really stood out.
“Hey-a squirt!” Dee was trying
to walk, but the boy had tightly gripped her leg. Fortunately he was rather
light, and she could at least keep moving. “Okay, you can let go of me
now.”
He ignored her, as she kept
moving.
Tifa noticed that the whole
town population had been hiding out at the inn. It was the largest building
in town to accommodate the tourists who came to ski. Outside of the building,
it was completely deserted.
“Is everyone here?” Yuffie
asked.
“Yeah.” Dee managed to pry
the little boy off her. “It’s actually the safest place in town since
those monsters can’t break through the walls. We’ve been hiding here.
Everyone is really scared about this.” She turned to the little boy. “Hey,
you better get back downstairs, soon. It’s the safest place, okay?”
“Okay, and mom’s really mad
at you.”
“Sorry, but it’s my job,” she
knew that she will definitely hear about this later.
“Now scoot, and get back downstairs!”
He ran off.
“Now what do you mean that
they can break through walls?” Barret was wondering what hurt more: the
scratch, or the shot of the antidote.
“Yeah, most of the houses here
are old, and have wooden walls. But the inn was made out of sturdier materials.
They keep trying to get through, and I wonder how much longer these walls
will hold up. That’s why we have the kids staying in the pub down below.”
“Makes since. This is the closest
town to the North Crater.” Cid pointed out.
“North Crater? Is that were
they came from?” It was news to Dee.
“Yeah, we were trying to get
a friend of ours back who disappeared, but now it looks like we just lost
another….” Barret couldn’t believe that he just considered Cloud as a
causality.
Tifa quickly walked away, she
didn’t want to hear about it anymore.
“…So you guys are on a suicide
mission to rescue them?”
“Yep, that about sums it up.”
Cid thought that this mission was a bit on the suicidal side too, but
he liked taking risks like that.
“Dorothy Lynn! Did I, or did
I not tell you to not go out like that?” An older woman charged at them.
“It’s my job, I can’t just
quit. Especially now since they need me.” Dee was hoping that she would
start yelling at her a bit later.
“I don’t want to lose you like
I lost your father. Now please promise me that you won’t go out anymore!”
“…I can’t. I’m sorry. But it’s
my job to help out people, just like dad.”
“Um, miss?” Yuffie said quietly.
The woman looked at the small teen. “If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t
be here. She saved us.”
“Oh yeah and who’s going to
save my daughter when those, those ‘things’ try to hurt her!” She was
yelling at Yuffie.
“Mother stop it! These are
my guests, not punching bags!”
“Mommy, don’t be angry. Do-do’s
helping people too.” The little boy wanted his mother to stop.
She hugged the little boy,
she didn’t want to lose anymore loved ones. She started crying.
“C’on, I’m still here. Let’s
get you back downstairs.” Dee escorted her away. “I’m sorry about this.
I’ll explain when I get back.”
Yuffie was still shaken for being yelled at like that, and she felt sorry
for the lady. She was pretty sure that Tifa was feeling the same way too,
and at the moment, their situation seemed to be hopeless. Dee returned.
“I’m really sorry about that.
She’s been really upset ever since Dad disappeared yesterday. She’s scared
that I will disappear too since we both have the same job.”
There were more shrills outside,
the creatures came back. Suddenly everyone became quiet. Tifa and Barret
were looking out through a boarded up window. It looked like the creatures
were just passing through at the moment, but along with them, it looked
like there were a few people walking along side them.
“What’s going on?” Barret whispered
to Tifa.
She just watched closely at
the events outside. She was hoping to see Cloud among them, it would make
getting him back a lot easier. She sighed in despair. They were all strangers
to her. She walked away from the window.
“I’m tired of doing nothing.
We have to get going.”
“Tifa we are. We just have
to wait to make sure that Barret will be okay.” Nanaki sympathized with
her.
“I’m fine. I say that we leave
as soon as the coast is clear.”
“Yeah.” Yuffie picked up her
coat.
“I know a shortcut to the North
Crater. I can take you there. I’ll just have to take my Dad’s truck.”
“Can you? It will make things
much easier for us.” Tifa was becoming hopeful.
“Yeah.”
“We expect to do a lot of fighting
once we get there. Do you have any fighting skills?” Barret was assuming
control over the group.
“No not really. I’ll probably
just be in the way.”
“How about a weapon like a
gun?” Vincent asked.
“Yeah a gun, but I’ve been
only shooting at targets. I never shot at a living creature before.”
“I think that I have one that
you can use.” He walked away from the group to look through his items.
Aside from his most powerful gun, the Death Penalty, he also always carried
around a back up weapon. He knew that it wasn’t powerful, and that he
only kept it as a momento, but it would be a very good weapon for a beginner.
He returned with the second weapon and handed it to her.
She pulled it out of its hostler.
It was something that she could use with ease. She practiced a lot with
a similar gun at the target range. She then found the engraved label on
the side of the barrel, Quicksilver. She nodded to the others. She can
do this.
It looked like that he was
finally getting somewhere. The scenery was slowly changing, and it felt
warmer than before, but everything was also becoming darker too. He kept
having this feeling that there were other people who were ahead of him.
A vague movement of a shadow caught his eye. It looked like a person.
“He…hello?” He just discovered
that he wasn’t silenced anymore.
The shadow stopped. It was
definitely a person. He started running to this shadow, then he was able
to see who this shadow belonged to: a little girl.
She had a terrified look on
her face, but she seemed to be happy to learn that she wasn’t alone either
in this scary place. Cloud was kinda surprised. He was not expecting to
find child in a place like this. There were tears streaming down her face.
“Hey are you alright?”
There was even more terror
on her face.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
She tried to say something,
but no sounds came out.
“Do you know where we are?”
She just looked at him, then
tried to speak again. She was silenced. She can only cry.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going
to leave you, okay?” Cloud kneeled down to her level.
“Did you see anyone else?”
She shook her head no.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you
out of here.”
She jumped at Cloud and held
on to him tight. She didn’t want to be alone anymore.
“Can you tell me your name?”
She still couldn’t speak, but
her lips seemed to be easy to read.
“Your name’s Alice?”
She nodded.
“Mine’s Cloud.”
She blinked at him. She wanted
to say something.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be able
to speak a little later. I couldn’t speak for a while either.”
She nodded then looked to the
side, there were more creatures approaching.
There was no way that they
could survive a fight against so many of them. He picked up Alice and
started to run. The creatures kept getting closer, and closer. Cloud just
looked back to see where they were, but he failed to see that the ground
ahead of then suddenly dropped into a slope.
The fall down the hill was
quick and painless, just very unexpected. He kept on moving with Alice,
but it looked like the creatures had already caught up with them. They
were completely surrounded. Alice whimpered and hugged Cloud for dear
life. He was looking around for another option.
The creatures chattered together
in unison, and slowly moved forward on one side, while the other side
was slowly moving backward. They were forcing them to go somewhere. He
stood still. This was something that he refused to accept.
The one side got closer to
him, growling and snaring as they approached. Finally, one of them bumped
its head on his shin. A realization came to him.
This isn’t real. It’s some
kind of an illusion.
There was a sudden scream.
He quickly looked. They had Alice. He didn’t even realize that they somehow
managed to take her out of his arms.
“Hey!” He started to move in
their direction.
“Help me!” Alice suddenly was
able to talk again.
“Let her go!” One of the creatures
tackled Cloud. He was pinned to the ground.
She screamed once more before
a sudden flash of light temporally blinded him. A small group of those
creatures vanished with the girl.
“No!” He gave his word that
he would help her, and was frustrated that he failed.
More creatures surrounded him
and made sure that he pinned securely to the ground. For some odd reason,
they seemed to be interested in his left side. Suddenly one of them grabbed
him by the throat and forced his head down to the ground.
What the hell are they doing?
Cloud abruptly heard a loud ‘click’ and they let go of his neck, but they
were still restraining him. They were definitely doing something to him,
but what?
They’re not real, he kept thinking
to himself, and kept struggling. Then there was another mysterious blue
flash and all of them vanished into thin air again.
He was back on his feet. There
was that laughter again.
“Stop it! This has gone too
far!” He refused to be a part of this game any longer.
“It’s not real.” He was saying
this over and over to himself. The laughter became louder and louder.
“IT’S NOT REAL!” Suddenly everything
around him was falling apart, it was like glass shattering.
He suddenly looked around at his new surroundings. He knew where he was.
He was just here a few days ago to confront Sephiroth in that final battle.
Why was everyone being taken here? He saw what looked like to be hundreds
of people. Among them, he saw the little girl, Alice.
What happened to them? He saw
many people had the same infection that he had wherever they happened
to be cut. He wondered through the crowd and found Reeve and Rude.
“Reeve, wake up.” Cloud grabbed
him by the shoulders and shook him. It was like he wasn’t there.
“Please Reeve, snap out of
it!” It was hopeless, Reeve just blankly stared at him with silver eyes.
His skin and hair already faded away to white. There was that same laughter
again.
This time the laughter had
a face to go with it. He knew it very well.
My god, he didn’t even look
human anymore, and he stood in shock. He was sure that he killed him when
he tried to help Sephiroth, how was he able to survive?
The master made eye contact
with him. So he was able to break free anyway. No matter, he thought,
he already knew what to do.
The painful memories of being
held captive for five years began to flash through his mind. He had to
get out of there and go for help, but he didn’t want his friends to walk
into one of his traps either. He ran to find them.
The master calmly waved a hand,
and the creatures made no attempt to stop him. He was doing exactly what
he had planned. A smile crept up on his lips, and he couldn’t hold in
his laughter.
They had just arrived to the
path that lead strait into the crater. The laughter could even be heard
out there.
“It looks like that Cloud was
right.” He continued to race on ahead to take the lead.
“Reno! Wait up!” Elena was
exhausted.
The both stopped at the entrance
to a cave. It felt warm inside, and there was a mysterious green glow
from deep within.
They had no idea what to think.
Then there was a sudden movement behind them. With a jump, they prepared
for battle, then lowered their weapons when they realized that it was
just a truck.
“So I see that you finally
made it to the party.” Reno said with a grim humor.
“Cut the bullshit, we got a
job to do.” Barret bluntly said.
“Yeah, so do we. So stay out
of our way.”
“Fine, and you stay out of
our way.” Tifa barked.
Reno entered the cave.
“Ellie?” Dee thought that she
recognized the blonde haired woman.
Elena turned to see who said
that. She hadn’t been called that in a very long time. Then she just saw
someone that she hadn’t seen in a long time either. “Dee?”
“Ellie is that really you?”
Dee got closer.
Yuffie whispered to her, “Don’t
do it, she’s a Turk.”
Dee didn’t care, and hugged
Elena.
“I thought that I would never
see you again.” Everyone else was seeing a side of Elena that she always
kept to herself.
“Likewise.”
“Why are you here?”
“I’m here to get dad back.”
“Uncle Bob? What happened to
him?”
It was clear to everyone what
their relationship was to each other. Elena had a sad look on her face
as Dee told her what happened.
“Okay, this is really heartwarming,
but we're running out of time.” Barret cut in.
“Why are you with these losers?”
Elena asked.
“Because we’re going to rescue
everyone. Please, will you join us? The more people we have, the better
our chances will be.”
Elena looked at Dee, it had
been years since they last saw each other and she would do anything to
help her. She was contradicting herself. Helping her would mean
helping them. She didn’t know what to do.
“Elena.”
Her train of thought was broken.
“Elena, she’s your family.
Consider yourself lucky that you still have someone in this world. Rude
and I would give almost anything to see our families again. Treasure it
while you still can.”
She knew that Reno was right,
but if she was going to help her cousin, it would mean helping those who
are responsible for killing her immediate family in the first place.
“Please, Ellie. Help us.”
She looked at Reno. The only
thing that he was interested in was getting his friends back. He nodded
to her as a signal that he was going to let her make this decision.
After another moment of deliberation
to herself, she nodded. “…For you, anything.”
Almost everyone was silent.
No one was too thrilled about having to work with the Turks again.
Vincent broke the silence and
made his move.
“Let’s go.” He pulled out his
handgun.
The tunnels kept winding, and
it seemed to be a lot longer than he remembered. The instant that he started
running, the pain in his arm returned with a vengeance. It was forcing
him to slow down. Just about all of his endurance was gone, but he had
to keep going. It wasn’t much farther.
Suddenly he tripped on something.
His body was hurting even more. Now there was a sharp pain in his side
too. He looked down at it. His shirt was stained.
Was that blood? He stopped
to take a closer look. He didn’t like what he saw.
“That son of a bitch.” He whispered
to himself. The pain in his side was the result of yet another one of
his procedures. It looked like that when he tripped, he tore some of the
stitches. There was not much that he could do except keep moving. He tried
his best to keep constant pressure on that wound.
Finally, he was becoming very
dizzy and had to stop to rest. He heard some familiar voices, but he had
no idea if it was real, or an illusion. It felt like that it was quickly
getting colder. He must be near the entrance.
Just rest, he thought. Everything
was becoming too much for him to endure anymore.
Slowly, the whole group ventured deeper into the cave. The deeper they
ventured, the warmer it got. There was no need for anyone to wear coats
or anything to protect them from the cold out side.
They had only one objective,
but everyone was pretty much quiet, there was not much to say to each
other, and the tensions were unusually high among this group. Suddenly
Tifa saw Cloud.
The source of the voices were getting closer, he wanted to get up to meet
them in hopes that it was not an illusion, but was too tired to move.
“Cloud, can you hear me?” Tifa
wanted to get some kind response from him.
“…….Yeah. Please tell me that
this is real.” He was starting to shiver.
“Yes it’s real. C’on, we have
to get you out of here.” She tried to pull him up, but he screamed in
pain.
He couldn’t stop coughing,
and had a strange taste in his mouth.
“Shit, what happened to you?”
Barret asked. Seeing blood come out of someone’s mouth was not a good
sign.
Tifa gasped in shock. There
was a lot of blood, no wonder he’s shivering.
Cloud swallowed deeply then
took a breath. “… Hojo’s still alive.”
“Hojo?”
“Yes, he’s …… behind all of
this…..”
Tifa took out a restore materia.
“I don’t care if this will make your arm worse, but we got to take care
of that wound.”
He nodded, and prepared for
the side effect to his arm.
She literally put everything
she had into using this materia to access the higher level spell that
was called by some as ‘Cure3’. It was definitely working on clearing up
his side, but the infection on his arm was quickly spreading.
Cloud accepted the trade off,
and was finally able to get back up on his feet again, though he was still
shaking. He also felt a little dizzy and very cold, but at least the incision
on his side was healed thanks to Tifa’s efforts.
“I found Reeve.” He managed
to say, then looked at Reno, “…and Rude.”
“Where?” Reno asked.
“Just down there, but…” He
was still out of breath. “It’s like that they are not really there. Like
they were possessed or something.”
“C’on Cloud, we have to get
you out of here.” Tifa urged.
“…. No. We have to get everyone
out.”
“Here.” Yuffie handed him a
small object. The White materia, she was holding on to it for him.
He held it in his hand and
it briefly shone with a light blue light. It was responding appropriately
when it was held by someone who was compatible with it.
“C’on.” Reno told Elena.
“... Wait, it’s a trap.” He
started to walk towards them, but he had to put a lot of effort into it.
“But there’s no other way to
go. It’s not like that we can take a different route.” Barret observed.
“Then I have to come, I’ll
let you know when I see it so that we can avoid it.”
Cid saw something strange.
“What the hell is that around your neck?”
Cloud put his hand on the side
of his neck. What is that, some kind of collar?
“Man that thing looks really
high tech.” Barret was looking for a way to get it off him.
“I can’t find a lock.” Otherwise
Yuffie could try to pick it.
“There’s nothing we can do
out here. The answer lies deeper inside.” It was quite a while since Vincent
said a word, but then again, that was his way.
“Hey Cloud, I have the antidote
with me. We must treat you.” Nanaki said urgently.
He nodded. There were still
a lot of things that he had to do. He looked at the White materia. It
glowed again.
“Um, Cloud. I forgot to bring
your sword with us.” Tifa wished that she did, now he will have to go
unarmed.
“Don’t worry about that. I
can still fight.”
“I hope so…..” Barret’s voice
faded away just like the same way it did during that party.
He waited to hear something,
but instead he was beginning to feel strange.
It’s time to act.
That damn voice again. Cloud
quickly looked around thinking that they would be ambushed or something.
It looked like that it was clear.
You can’t resist me forever,
Cloud. You must be tired.
He was, but still he had to
fight it.
Rest.
He shook his head.
“No…” he managed to whisper.
Tifa was very worried, but he still couldn’t hear her.
Sleep now child.
He still kept fighting until
he fell into an unnatural sleep.
“Cloud?”
There was a strange laughter.
He looked up. Tifa was shocked. The color in his eyes had turned red instead
of the ‘Makou’ blue.
“Barret,” Tifa couldn’t speak
anymore when she was grabbed by the throat by him. It wasn’t Cloud, but
someone else in his shell!
“Let her go!” Barret tried
to make him let go.
He smacked his arm into Barret’s
face with an unnatural strength. Barret was slammed against the cave wall.
“Cloud stop it!” Yuffie shouted.
“…. Cloud, please.” Tifa struggled
to say.
“Cloud, what the hell’s wrong
with you?” Cid was helping Barret up.
“… He’s dead, and so are you!”
Even the voice that came from him wasn’t natural.
Nanaki charged at him. He was
armed with a syringe full of the antidote. A sudden flash of light easily
knocked him back. The antidote was all over the ground.
Reno charged him and swung
his electrode rod in the back of one of his knees. Normally it will knock
someone down no matter how strong they were.
He jerked a little as he temporally
lost support from his leg, but he quickly recovered. With a free hand,
he grabbed Reno by the collar and threw him just like he did to Barret.
“Don’t move.” Dee pointed the
gun at him.
It distracted him momentarily
and Tifa took advantage of that, by kicking him in side that she just
healed a few moments ago. He lost his grip on her, and she got away. He
then turned to the one who was pointing a gun at him. He was enraged that
he was distracted like that.
“What are you going to do,
shoot me?” He started to walk towards her.
“I…. I mean it! I’ll shoot!”
Dee was shaking. She had no combat training like everyone else.
He still walked to her.
“Stay away!” Dee took a step
back. Elena and Reno came to back her up.
“You can’t do it, can you?”
There was a look of extreme anger and hatred on his face. It was as if
his mind was becoming twisted for Hojo’s bidding.
Dee closed her eyes, and stared
to squeeze on the trigger. He just simply snatched it from out of her
hands.
“Pathetic.” He threw the gun
away from everyone’s reach. He turned to Tifa.
“The master demands to see
you.”
“Cloud snap out of it! Please.”
Suddenly there was a flash
of fire, and he staggered. Elena used her materia a second time, but when
the flames disappeared, he was gone.
“Where’d he go?” Yuffie was
quickly searching where he was.
Tifa screamed.
Cid turned, but she was gone.
“Goddamn it! Now he has the
both of them!” Barret wanted to put an end to this now.
There was a faint sound of
Tifa’s voice.
“We must hurry.” Vincent charged
forward. Everyone followed him.
Tifa woke up as soon as she
was thrown to the ground. Instantly those creatures surrounded her. She
couldn’t get away.
“So, you’re the one.” An unknown
voice said.
She quickly looked at her surroundings.
She couldn’t remember when she was taken, or how she got here.
“You should consider yourself
honored to be chosen.” He came closer.
She barely recognized him.
It was like as if he was showing his true form.
“Hojo.”
“Things have changed since
we last met, and now you will submit to me.”
“Ha! To you? Never!”
“You wouldn’t want me to erase
your memory like I did his.” He pointed to Cloud. He was perfectly still.
Just a soulless, mindless puppet waiting for the next strings to be pulled.
“No….” Tifa didn’t want to
believe that he was gone like that.
“You,” She wanted to kill Hojo.
No one deserved to die like that.
No, he not dead! She refused
to accept it.
With a simple wave of his hand,
the creatures cornered her to a small alcove with in the stone wall. The
only hope that she had was that everyone else would get here soon.
Hojo walked closer to her.
“So how does it feel to be chosen?”
She spit in his face.
“You don’t even want to know
your fate?” He wanted to break her spirit.
“Not particularly.” She was
trying anything that would stall him.
Please Barret, get here soon.
He motioned for Cloud to step
forward. The color in his hair and skin had already faded away even his
eyes had faded to a silver gray color. This time there was no expression
on his face, no personality like the one he showed in the tunnel. Just
gone.
“Perfect isn’t he?” Hojo walked
around him. “If I had known that he was already a Certa, I could have
done this a long time ago. Too bad his father didn’t survive very long.
He was of a more pure strand.”
“What?”
He smiled. “Didn’t you know?
No. Of course you wouldn’t.”
He continued his tangent blabbering,
“All his life his powers were dormant, but I revived them.”
“A hybrid of Certa and Jenova.
If he was of a more direct generation of Certa, he would have never been
able to survive this long.” He quickly turned to face Tifa. “Jenova cells
tend to have that effect on them.”
“It’s a pity that I was too
young and naïve to understand this. Try and create a Certa? That could
never be done. But an actual Certa, can be…enhanced.” He was looking for
the right word to describe it.
“What you see before you, is
the final product.” He was proud of his life’s work. “A genetic superhuman
with the powers of both Certa and Jenova. All of the changes with in him
have been infused into his DNA. Now he can do his real task.”
“What’s that?” Tifa was dreading
the answer, but she still had to keep stalling him.
“Ah, that’s where you come
in.” He looked at her and smiled. “Once he unlocks the secrets of the
Planet, and opens the Lifestream, I will ascend to the level of a god.”
“You’re crazy!”
“Am I? I have never been this
sure about anything in my life. It’s my destiny.” He took another look
at her, it made her feel very uncomfortable. “But what’s the point of
becoming a god, when there are only these worthless beings around? So
I shall destroy all of them and create a new race, using him as the proverbial
Adam, and you as Eve.”
She gasped. It was a fate that
became very terrifying to her.
“Seize her.” He ordered.
Cloud took a step forward.
Then it was as if that personality that she saw earlier came back, with
looks of anger, hatred, and those red eyes. There was a wicked smile on
his face.
“Stay away from me!”
The creatures parted a bit,
opening a clear path for him to walk through. Then closed it after he
past.
She backed away as far as she
could, but the creatures and stone walls surrounded her.
“Please Cloud! Don’t do this!”
He came closer.
She started to fight and kick
him away. “Somebody help!”
Then everything was dark, as
she slipped into unconsciousness.
“This way!” Barret was racing
ahead. Then quickly skid to a stop. The path separated into two directions.
“Damn.” Cid looked down one
path, then the other.
“Which way?” Yuffie huffed.
Reno picked the path to the
right. “We’ll go this way.” Elena and Dee stood next to him.
“Okay, we’ll take the other
way.” Barret said as the group quickly split into two.
Then a thought occurred to
him. He just treated Reno like he would to a friend, but he’s an enemy.
He must be going soft.
“Uh-oh. We got company!” Yuffie
saw so many creatures race towards them.
“Quick, hand me the Ultima
materia.” Barret looked at Yuffie.
“But I already gave it back
to you!”
He paused as he remembered
something.
“Shit!”
“What?” Cid kept his eye on
the approaching creatures.
“Tifa had the materia!”
“Oh man! We’re screwed!”
“Just stand your ground.” Vincent
raised his pistol to attack.
“Why do you hate them so much?
I mean, they seem to be nice people.” Dee was trying to start a conservation
to help distract herself for the moment.
“You know about the terrorist
activities in Midgar, right?”
“Yeah, it was in the news,
they killed a lot of innocent by standards from what I heard.”
“Well, the rest of my family
and most of my friends were killed because of that.”
“What?”
“Yeah.” Elena sighed. “So now,
you’re the only family that I have left.”
“I… I’m sorry. Mom’s going
to be very upset about this.”
“I doubt it, she never liked
her sister anyway.” It was one of the reasons why they didn’t see each
other in so many years.
“…So, what do they have to
do with it?”
“Because they’re that group!
They’re the ones who are responsible for this!”
Dee was shocked. They are responsible?
She always thought that that terrorist group was a bunch of murdering
monsters, but them? What was she going to do? Part of her family died
because of this. It was beginning to upset her. She really liked them.
Vincent’s advice paid off.
They were actually winning against them. Nanaki and Yuffie had already
used a limit break, each caused considerable damage against them. Slowly,
they started to back off, then turned around in a hasty retreat.
“Alright! We won!” Yuffie jumped
for joy, it seemed to be a long shot in this battle, but they still won.
Vincent looked to the ground.
“I think that we’re on the right track.” He touched the ground and then
lifted his hand up. “Cloud was here.”
“Vincent, mind if I ask you
something?” Cid was really bothered by this.
“Do you ever feel anything?
I mean, from the moment that I met you, there was always this exterior
that basically said to the world, ‘I’m here and I don’t care.’ I never
even saw you crack a smile. How can you be so cold about all this?”
“He’s right. Do you ever feel
anything?” Yuffie asked. “We’re your friends. You can be honest with us.”
“I lost that a long time ago.”
He caulked his gun. “And if we don’t hurry, Cloud will have that taken
away from him too.”
Nanaki had a chill up his spine.
“I guess that I was lucky.”
“Hey Red don’t worry, we’ll
get everyone back.” It was the only thing that Barret could think of to
say about this.
“C’on.” It seemed like Vincent
knew what to expect from him.
The tunnel lead to a huge room.
The three of them stood there is disbelief. They found the missing people.
Reno scanned the room with his eyes and then spotted a second tunnel.
It must be the way to Hojo.
Then he saw some movement from
that tunnel. Barret and his team just came through. At least they had
no risk of going in circles.
This sight appalled Dee. Men,
women, children, and the elderly were all victims of these creatures.
She wanted to free them. There were so many people in this room and she
failed to recognize anybody.
“If we defeat Hojo, then all
of these people will be free from his control.” It made sense to Vincent.
“It’s the only way to save them all.”
“I have to agree with him.”
Reno overheard that remark. Out of all of them, he trusted Vincent the
most. He was never involved in those activities in Midgar, and more importantly,
he was a Turk.
Dee had trouble facing the
group. Elena silently fumed, after this is done, then she will get her
revenge. It may not bring them back, but it will give their deaths some
meaning and justice.
He had just finished and pulled
it out. Hojo smiled. Them he turned to hand some items to a near by creature.
The procedure was over. He was sure that it was successful.
Cloud had stood still throughout
the entire episode. It was as if he was frozen. He could do nothing as
Hojo did his work.
Hojo started to walk away from
her, as she was still lying on the floor, unconscious. He was still holding
one of the instruments that he used to implant something in her. Cloud
was slowly becoming aware of what he just did to her.
Hojo’s expression changed from
delighted to a frustrated anger when he saw Cloud’s face.
A tear? Does he still have
some memories left?
With intense anger, he struck
Cloud’s face. He only jerked from the impact, but nothing else.
“Hey! Do you want to try that
on me?” Barret came in just in time to see him slap his friend.
He was surprised that the others
had made it this far. It looks like that he is going to have to take care
of this himself.
“Where’s Tifa?” Yuffie demanded.
“Oh don’t worry, she’s right
here.” The crowd of creatures started to move away, reveling Tifa. She
was starting to wake up.
Cid ran over to help her. She
felt very sore.
“You bastard! What did you
do to her?” Barret pointed his gun at him, but unfortunately, Cloud was
in the line of fire.
“He wants to create a superior
race using Cloud.” She got up on her feet.
He laughed. “And don’t even
try to bother to leave with her. She is very valuable to us.”
Tifa’s eyed widened. She feared
the worse.
“Oh god, no.” Did Hojo already
seal her fate? She felt so helpless.
“A superior race using Cloud…”
Vincent thought about this. “… And I assume also using Tifa?”
Hojo knew him, but he had also
forgotten about him as time passed. “My, you are a smart one, Vincent.
You always had the talent of observing everything, and understand completely
about it. That’s what got you into trouble the first time all those years
ago.”
Vincent didn’t care for his
comment; he knew that by the end of the day, only one of them would still
be alive.
“With Tifa?” Barret had a terrible
thought about what he forced Cloud to do. He had to say something. “So
you had to resort to possessing him to rape her?”
“Rape? That’s a very harsh
word.” Hojo crossed his arms.
Yuffie had that same feeling
of vulnerability again, but this time it was for Tifa and not Aeris.
Hojo waited to see the reactions
of everyone, before he ended this charade.
“To put your mind at ease,
my dear Tifa. He never touched you. That approach is too…brutal.” He really
didn’t care about that, just a bit sarcastic. “It would have also been
too unpredictable to risk.”
“So what did you do to her?”
Nanaki really wanted to make sure that Hojo could never hurt anyone ever
again.
“It was better that I intervened
by selecting the best traits from the both of them, and I’m sure that
you can figure out the rest.”
“You bastard.” Tifa was feeling
angrier than she felt violated.
“You know, for a while I thought
that all of these people who came to me were simply worthless, but it
seems that the only thing that they were useful for was luring you here.
Too bad that their usefulness has ended.”
He motioned for the creatures
to do this job.
“They’re going to have to get
by us first!” Reno had just entered the cavern.
For once, Barret agreed with
him.
Cloud blinked his eyes, he
was starting to wake up, but he could barely remember anything.
Cloud listen to me! Aeris shouted.
You have to fight him! Wake up!
Just try to remember. You are
much stronger than this!
His mind was blank.
Cloud, can you remember me?
It was his mother’s voice.
Please try to remember us.
There were brief flashes of
memory that came to him, but it was all still too vague.
Keep trying, and don’t lose
hope!
Everyone prepared to fight
against these creatures again, then they suddenly stopped. They seemed
to be confused as to what to do.
“Why have you stopped? You
will do my bidding!” Hojo was scolding them.
“No.”
Everyone looked around real
quick who said that?
“They will do mine.” Cloud
had broken free again. Though his complexion was still very pale.
“Cloud?” Tifa wanted to run
to him.
He just looked at Hojo, and
the creatures backed away, it was like that they were no longer a threat.
Tifa ran to him and started
sobbing as soon as she hugged him.
“Oh god Tifa, I’m so sorry.”
He was wishing that all of this had never happened.
“Your skin feels so cold.”
She felt that there was no need for him to apologize.
The rest of the group came
closer to them. They wanted to welcome their friend back.
“No! You can’t get away from
me that easily!”
The object that was around
Cloud’s neck started to glow. There were sparks that came from it, as
the collar became brighter. It was causing intense pain to him, and it
knocked everyone who was near by him away. This was Hojo last resort.
“You damn fool, this is what
you get for disobeying me!”
“Stop it!” Tifa yelled, but
he ignored her.
“After all I did for you. You
would have still been dead if I had not found you in that reactor!”
“You should have left me there.”
He managed to say.
“I gave you life again, and
THIS is how you repay me? Without me you would have been nothing more
than a corpse!”
“…. Go to hell.”
The collar had reached to full
power, and he screamed briefly. He fell to his knees as the collar appeared
to lose its effect on him.
He stood up and glared at everyone.
He had those same red eyes again. He then walked to face Hojo to await
his next instruction.
“I’ve put it off long enough.
Unlock the planet, now. It’s time that we finish this.”
He glanced at the creatures
momentarily, and then they took off to do something. Hojo may have lost
control over them, but he still controlled Cloud.
“Cloud stop!”
He walked past the group, to
the edge of a near by cliff. Down below was the source of the green glow.
“What are we going to do? We
have to stop him!” Yuffie didn’t know what to do next.
Nanaki looked at Hojo. He was
preoccupied.
“… The White materia.”
“But we don’t have it, Cloud
does.” Barret said to Nanaki.
Hojo laughed. “Wrong.” He held
it up. “I have it.”
Cid was starting to think that
the end was truly near.
Suddenly Yuffie charged him.
“Yuffie!”
She jumped into the air with
her Shuriken, but at the last moment Hojo caught one of the sides. He
grabbed her by the throat.
“Stupid child!” He threw her
into the crowd of creatures, her back slammed against the stone wall.
He quickly noticed that something
was missing.
“Tifa!” She tossed a small
orb. It was the White materia.
The second that Tifa had it
in her hands, she heard a scream from Yuffie. The creatures started attacking
her, and she suddenly had a very long scratch on her back. She curled
up into a ball. Barret wasn’t lying when he said that it hurt like hell.
Tifa shoved the materia into
Barret’s hand, and then she ran into the crowd of creatures.
Her hunch was right, they didn’t
bother her. She found Yuffie.
“You’re crazy running into
them like that.”
“Not as crazy as you attacking
him like that.”
There was a tremor as a major
gateway was being opened.
“Go, don’t worry about me.
Just hurry up and kick his ass.”
Reno tried to reach Cloud, but the bright light and increasing heat was
keeping him back. As the gateway opened wider and wider, a light green
mist surrounded Cloud. The rush of energy only seemed to make his stronger,
as he began showing a Jenova trait of flight. It was something that Sephiroth
did frequently while he was still alive.
Dee blinked in disbelief. That
was physically impossible.
More mist surrounded him, as
the gate became wide open.
He was back on the ground again,
and he walked past the group to reach Hojo. There was a very strange aura
around him that could even be seen.
Some of the creatures returned
with the four large crystals. The huge materia. They were place in a square
formation. Each of the huge materia had so much power sealed within it
that is started to float as soon as they were placed into position.
Cloud was standing perfectly
in the middle of them. All four of them started to glow. This wasn’t Hojo’s
doing, but Cloud’s under Hojo’s control. The light was gradually becoming
more and more intense.
Tifa held the White materia
in her hand. Barret had given it back to her when she came back. It too
was glowing.
She only had one thought. It
can free him.
She took a deep breath and
closed her eyes. Then she started to run into the light, to Cloud. As
soon as she entered the parameter that was created by the positioning
of the huge materia, she saw him. She didn’t know what to do with it,
but she pressed it against his chest. Her hand felt like that it was getting
very hot, and had to let go. A sudden explosion of light and energy knocked
her away, she crashed into Barret.
The light around him and in
the collar quickly faded. Cloud was awake again.
This was an outrage to Hojo.
Instantly the collar started to glow again.
This is becoming a stalemate.
Vincent had to act fast.
There was a single sound of
a bang that echoed everywhere.
Tifa screamed, suddenly time
slowed down to her. The only thing that she saw was Cloud suddenly jerking
back and fall onto the ground.
Vincent lowered his gun and
started to walk to where Cloud fell.
Everyone was silent. It was
just a shock, even to Hojo.
He looked very carefully at
him. Suddenly the collar lit up again, and Cloud was about to attack.
He had no choice but to aim his gun carefully, and shoot him at point
blank range.
He stopped moving, and Vincent
put his hands on Cloud's neck.
“No!” Tifa didn’t know what
to do.
“Do you really think that it
is really going to stop me?” He suddenly had a bright flash of orange
and red light around him. A limit break that he was saving just for this
event.
He was laughing hysterically,
and with an evil grin, he said his two last words. “Jenova Rebirth!”
More light was surrounding
Hojo as he started to lose his human form. This was terrifying to everyone,
even the creatures had already ran away. Vincent was still next to Cloud.
“Tifa, concentrate on fighting.”
Barret wanted to make sure that her mind set was to her best advantage.
More of the new traits could
be seen, as he became much taller, what was his solders had grown much
bigger with arching tips, the skin had changed into some kind of protective
shell, and was turning to a dark green all over.
There was a loud snap, and
he was finally able to get the collar off.
“Are you alright?”
He nodded, even though his
ears were ringing loudly.
Vincent helped him back onto
his feet. They both saw the last stages of Hojo’s transformation.
… In time of great need….
The White materia in Cloud’s
hand started to glow brilliantly. He knew what to do.
“Cloud!” Yuffie just now saw
him, he was all right!
He took a quick look at Tifa.
She was so glad to see those blue eyes again. Vincent backed away and
threw the collar to the ground. There were two bullets lodged into it.
It was destroyed.
He held the materia in both
of his hands. There was a more powerful blast of light that emitted from
him compared to when some one used normal materia.
Hojo had finished his transformation,
and launched a basic attack at him, Ultima.
It literally had no effect
on him, the mist just went around him as if he was in a protective shell.
Cloud was putting everything
that he had into using this rare materia. Swirls of green and blue light
surrounded him as he was charging up. He was no longer standing
on the ground, but floating above it. He was concentrating so much into
this materia, that he never noticed this.
He wasn’t going to give up
that easily. He started to use every single attack that only those of
Jenova can do. A fiery attack called ‘Red Light’ followed by an aquatic
attack known as ‘Aqualung’ and a fierce lighting attack called ‘Tail Laser’.
They were all easily deflected,
but Cloud couldn’t attack just yet.
There was a snare from Hojo.
He started using Sephiroth’s attacks. A mind altering attack, the ‘Pale
Horse’ that also had no effect. He wasn’t trough yet as he prepared for
a unique summon attack, the ‘Super Nova’.
Cloud felt that he was getting
stronger. As he was charging up, the materia was repairing the damage
done to him by Hojo. He was almost ready.
Cloud, we trust you.
He didn’t know who said that,
except that it was from the planet.
He just closed his eyes and
trusted his gut feeling.
Everyone else stood a good distance away from this fight. It was surprising
on how far this had gone. No one seemed to realize that once this was
over, they would be enemies again. Everyone just forgot about all of the
resentment that they had for each other, they were only one team.
His eyes were set on the target, he was ready. Cloud moved higher up,
and reached his arms above him. One final glare and he released everything
that he had built up against Hojo with a strong yell. Hojo never had the
chance to use the summon, and he was surrounded by this light.
The intense power quickly penetrated
the outer shell, and blew it away. He was literally being ripped apart
by this force.
He could hear Cloud’s voice
perfectly clear.
"You have committed terrible
crimes against us. No one will hear your plea now.”
Hojo was back in that dark,
cold place. Just like in the vision that he had before.
Cloud crossed his arms, another
figure came forward from no where. It was his son.
“You have no idea or comprehension
of all the pain you caused for so many people.”
Aeris appeared. “What a pity.
You already knew that down deep inside how insecure you are. You are only
a small person with no conscience or remorse.”
“You literally wasted your
life trying to achieve perfection, but you became something that was far
from that goal. You truly are a heartless monster.” Lucrecitia appeared
from behind him.
“The only thing that you have
achieved to do was to destroy so many lives. It’s now finally over.” A
woman with dark brown hair stood next to Aeris. It was her real mother,
Infana.
“Not only did you destroy lives,
but you also destroyed the lives of their loved ones as well.” Cloud’s
mother appeared. She put her hand on his shoulder. Cloud was kinda surprised,
she felt real to him.
“Your relentless thirst for
obtaining this power that you craved so much has stained my hands with
their blood.” An older man said. He was Hojo's predecessor, Professor
Gast. He started the research on the Certa by interviewing Infana.
He had him killed to obtain his position, he also knew that he was Aeris’
natural father.
“Because of you, I will never
be forgiven.” Gast said.
“Nor I.” Lucrecitia said.
“We are now going to have justice
for all that you done.” Cloud said finally.
“Just think, we’re just a few
people that you hurt. Think of the many other victims who have no
identity to you. Just nameless, faceless individuals.” Sephiroth wished
that his life had been better than just a Jenova slave.
“But you don’t really care
to know.” Another person appeared. It was Cloud’s best friend, Zack, and
coincidentally Aeris’ first love. Together, they endured five years of
his procedures, and they managed to escape together, but he never made
it, only Cloud survived.
More and more people appeared.
They were all attacked by him in someway. They crowed around Hojo.
“You were even cruel enough
to victimize children too.” Cloud knew a few who survived the fire in
Nibleheim only to be his specimens.
More and more people came closer
to him. With each touch, from any of these people transferred the pain
that they had suffered to him. After that, each person faded away. They
can finally have peace.
It was long and grueling to
him but time didn’t matter. What felt like hours or days to him was only
just a moment to everyone else. Finally, Cloud and Sephiroth remained.
Hojo had tried several times to say something or even scream, but he was
completely silenced.
“So what should be done to
him?” Cloud looked into Hojo’s eyes. They were on the edge of insanity.
“If he’s destroyed, then he
will never understand exactly what he has done.”
“It’s really upsetting to think
that everything that he has done is going to last many years after this.”
Sephiroth said nothing. He
knew what had already happened today.
“Of all the things that we
can do, there is no way to go back to change the past.” Cloud really wished
that he could, even if it was for only one day so that he can save Tifa
from all of this terror.
“And if we destroy his body
so that his mind can still suffer there will be a risk of him trying to
do something like this again.”
“So we have to go through with
it. He must be completely destroyed.”
“Well, I guess that leaves
only one thing left.” Sephiroth walked to him and put his hands on his
father’s face. The constant torture that he endured was from the moment
he was conceived poured into his mind. Hojo received it all in the short
span of an instant. Now he can rest too.
“Cloud, you’re the only one
left. Farewell for now, maybe we’ll speak to each other again.”
Cloud was alone with Hojo.
What do you say to someone
who has hurt you beyond description? Cloud could only think of one question
that he has been pondering for a long time.
“Why?”
Hojo was forbidden to speak,
but slowly Cloud figured it out himself. It was a trivial reason. To answer
an ancient question that man has asked since time began. Is there a god?
He only looked at him. He felt
an intense sadness within him. Of all of the reasons…. It was never worth
pursuing to find the answer for. What made things even worse, was
that this reasoning was twisted by the fantasy of becoming a god himself.
What if there was no god? What
if there was? There must be some reason why things are the way they are.
It was never meant to be messed with. The planet must have suffered just
like any other person. Justice must be served for the sake of the planet
and also for Red and Vincent.
Then he thought of Tifa. Her
suffering is just beginning because of him. How can he follow the ancient
rule of ‘an eye for an eye’ if the pain has yet to begin? He can’t.
The only thing that he could
do in her behalf was to take the pain that she already has, the source
of it, and pass it on to Hojo.
When he gives Hojo his own
pain, he decided to act as a receptor to take away the pain from the planet
and his friends, but Tifa was the only person who was really on his mind.
Hojo was showing that he was
afraid, and was desperately trying to get away from him. Of course, he
couldn’t go anywhere.
He took one last look at Hojo. He was truly a pathetic person.
Was he doing the right thing?
Cloud was beginning to feel like an executioner. What a terrible thought.
He thought about it once more.
He was doing this for everyone, they must have peace.
His hands seemed to lock around
his face. He saw many things: his own memories including the ones that
were buried deep inside his mind that he was not even aware of. Vincent
being shot and every second of what he experienced while he was on Hojo’s
table. Red being forcefully taken from his home and everything that was
done to him, even down to how he lost his right eye because of him. Tifa
and the thoughts and fears that she has, what exactly he did to her and
how it made her feel so violated, and degraded.
There was a moment, and Cloud
took a breath during this short interval as if it was a break. The planet,
every moment when Hojo changed something that was perfectly balanced,
the constant pain of having its own life’s blood being slowly drained
away for his purposes and for the people that he worked for as a source
of greed. The pain of the violent tremors that he caused, and also for
all that Sephiroth did because of him playing god with the Jenova cells.
The constant threats that it feared, and the release of the weapons as
a futile attempt to try to defend itself. The memory of that violent explosion
in the north crater that almost killed himself and his friends, and the
meteor with its devastating damage it caused.
Suddenly his grip was released,
and he staggered back. Cloud’s face was wet with tears for all of the
sympathy he felt for everyone. Hojo was in convolutions, it was the final
strain that his mind could take. It was totally destroyed.
Cloud stood and watched as
Hojo disintegrated. He was finally defeated.
He closed his eyes and sighed
with relief.
When he opened them, he saw
Tifa kneeling beside him. That last attack really exhausted him. He sat
up and hugged her as tight as he could. He was still overwhelmed.
“Are you alright?”
“I saw everything.” He whispered.
There was an intense feeling of disorientation, as everyone became aware
once again. Where were they?
Reeve looked around, it looked
kinda familiar. Then he saw some people that he knew.
Rude stepped away from the
massive group of people. Reeve ran to him, it was a welcome sight to find
a friend once again.
Suddenly an object in Rude’s
pocket was ringing loudly and constantly.
Reno heard the sound echo,
and realized that he had set his PHS to a constant re-dial and forgot
about it. He saw his friends, the Turks were together again as a whole.
Each of them was so happy to see each other again.
It looked like they were very
close, almost like an adopted family. Yuffie observed.
“Man, you guys missed on hell
of a show!” Reno was explaining to them what happened. Then he mentioned
Cloud.
“You mean that they’re here
too?”
Elena nodded.
“Hold on, I’ll be back.” Reeve
had to see everyone else too.
“What happened to the huge materia?” Yuffie seemed to have only one thing
on her mind.
“Gone. The planet took them
back.” Cloud got up.
“Oh man! So we came all this
way just for nothing?” Yuffie really wanted to be able to take them home
with her. It would make her father very proud.
“I wouldn’t say nothing.” Tifa
found something far more special than that.
“Oh please!” Yuffie rolled
her eyes. Then she saw what they were about to do.
“Aw c’on guys! Get a room or
something!”
They weren’t paying attention
to her, so she let out a quiet ‘humph’, and left them to say hi to Reeve.
“Barret!”
“Reeve!” It looked like that
their group was whole once again too.
“Oh, man it’s so good to see
you!” Yuffie gave him a huge bear hug.
It seemed that Reeve was a
part of both teams. He cared for both of them just as much, but…
“Um, Tifa?” Dee had to know. She had been really bothered with the whole
thing.
“Is it true, that you’re that
terrorist group who blew up those reactors in Midgar?”
Tifa had regrets over those
events. “I’m sorry, but it’s true.”
Dee was just simply torn, Elena
was standing back watching this conservation.
“At the time, we didn’t even
think that it would do as much damage as it did, we just wanted to disable
to core. But…”
“We had no idea that the first
bomb was so powerful.” Cloud joined in. “If you really want to blame someone,
then blame me.”
“Why? Barret only hired you
to take that job.” Tifa was wondering why he was doing this.
“Because both times, I was
the one who placed the bomb on the core and entered in the detonation
code. But...”
Dee didn’t know what to think.
Hearing this was hitting a few tender spots in Elena’s mind.
“I think that we were set up
when we were in Reactor 5.”
“What makes you say that?”
Tifa tried so hard to put these events out of her mind.
“Because Jessie and I made
sure that the second bomb was less powerful, and that it would only destroy
the core without destroying the reactor itself. When we were caught just
outside the reactor, that bomb had already gone off, the timer was set
for only 2 minutes. But then the reactor exploded anyway. It was much
bigger than the first explosion.”
“Are you saying that…” Tifa
knew how ruthless Shin-ra could be, they would even kill its own citizens
to protect its interests.
“Well, it’s what I think, but
there is no way to prove it anyway.”
“I wish that there was something
that I could do to start saying ‘I’m sorry’ but I don’t even know where
to begin.”
“So what Ellie said is true…”
Dee trusted them, but knowing this was hurting her.
“She has every right to hate
us, but you have to think about our side of the story too,” Tifa felt
that she at least owed an explanation. She knew that Elena was listening
to them. “All of us were badly hurt by Shin-ra. Barret lost his wife and
his best friend when they destroyed the mining town of Corel because of
their suspicion of using Makou generated power instead of coal. Red, Vincent
and Cloud were used as guinea pigs in their lab experiments. Yuffie’s
hometown, Wutai was conquered by the Shin-ra forces and killed many people
there. They took everything away from Cid, including his dreams of space
travel. And…” Her voice faded away, she didn’t want to bring those memories
back.
“Do you want me to finish Tifa?”
She nodded.
“Because of Shin-ra’s actions,
our hometown, Nibleheim, was burned to the ground. We both lost our families
that day. Then they tried to cover it all up by rebuilding it and made
it look like that it never happened.” He just had a thought. “You know,
I’m beginning to think that we’re the only survivors left from that disaster.”
“You all suffered just as much
as Ellie?”
“…In some cases even more,
because of Hojo.”
“I just hope that this ‘war’
is truly over. I don’t want to have these feelings of anger and hurt anymore.
Sometimes I wish that there was someone else other than us who felt the
same way.” Tifa sighed.
Elena heard too much, and walked
away. She was so lost in her grief that she never even thought about if
any of them lost something too. She had a lot of thinking to do.
“So what was this I hear about missing quite a show? What happened?”
“Well, it was so cool! I never
saw anything like that before.” Yuffie smiled.
“Yeah, it-“ Cid was interrupted
abruptly.
“Hey!”
Reno was walking strait to
Barret. He wanted to settle a score once and for all.
Nanaki groaned. Not another
fight.
They were both face to face
to each other. The tensions suddenly ran extremely high. Reeve was worried,
what was he going to if they started fighting?
They were glaring at each other,
it became a staring contest. Finally Reno ended it when he extended his
hand. It was a gesture of peace.
Barret was motionless. He still
wanted to avenge the deaths of this three friends, Biggs, Jessie, and
Wedge. He still never had gotten over them passing. Maybe it was time
to let it rest. He knew that all eyes were on him, it was all up to him
to decide what to do next. Then he thought about Marline, he just wanted
to make sure that she will never have to fight like they had to. It was
for her.
He accepted the gesture with
a handshake.
“I think that you restored
my faith for my family and friends. It’s time that I have to let this
rest.” Reno said.
“Yeah, me too.” His intense
feels of hatred seemed to vanish at that moment.
Tifa smiled, it was like she
had gotten her wish.
“Did I…. Miss something?” Cloud
was confused, what happened?
“You have no idea.” She walked
to the rest of the group.
He was kinda hoping that she
would tell him, and not leave him in suspense like that.
“So how are we going to get everyone out of here?” Cid was looking at
the huge crowd of people.
“Hmm…Good question.” Nanaki
had no idea.
As hard as everyone thought
about it, there were no ideas to figure out the answer.
“We have to do something, it’s
not like we all can just walk out of here, it’s just too cold.” Cid pointed
out.
“Hey Cloud.” Tifa just got
a long shot idea. “Didn’t Sephiroth say something that he could travel
in the Lifestream?”
“Yeah,”
“Can we?”
It was one of the wildest ideas
that he had ever heard, but it was the only one that seemed to make sense.
Though he had no idea if it could be done for this many people.
“Tifa do you have any idea
what you’re suggesting?” Barret wanted to find a more realistic way.
“We have no idea where it will
lead us.” Nanaki was looking at the open gate.
Reno walked to edge of the
cliff. “Can it be done?”
Cloud shrugged, even the planet
didn’t know.
“But if Sephiroth could do
it…” Yuffie’s thought faded away, and forgot what she was going to say
next.
“Yeah, but it also seem to
drive him even more insane.” An observation that Nanaki made a while ago.
“So there’s a risk involved.”
Vincent stated the obvious.
“I don’t know if it’s a good
idea.” Cloud finally said.
“I think that we should at
least try.” Reno spoke his opinion.
“Yeah, me too.” Tifa said.
Cloud sighed and thought for
a moment. Just about everyone was wondering what was going through his
mind. Is he really starting to behave like a Certa? He rolled his eyes
to himself and shook his head.
“Alright, we’ll try it.” He
was resenting the fact that it was put onto him.
“Cid, why is everyone putting
him on the spot like that?” Reeve whispered.
“Just watch.” He whispered
back.
He walked to the edge and looked
into the open gate.
I can’t believe that I have
to really do this. He put the White materia into his pocket. It couldn’t
be used for this purpose. He looked strait into the planet. Now how do
I do this?
Tifa was beginning to feel
guilty. Maybe they should have never pushed him like this. Will he be
able to do this under this much pressure? She was going to have to owe
him a huge apology when this is over.
From Reeve’s point of view,
he saw some kind of activity from inside the gate. Swirls of light started
to surround Cloud, and then he saw the same thing that everyone saw before
when he was opening the gate. Rude was watching this too, it was surprising
to the both of them.
Then suddenly everything disappeared,
and he dropped back to the ground, landing firmly on his feet.
“Damn it!” He really didn’t
want to do this anyway.
It’s not going to work this
way. It was a voice that he was unfamiliar with.
He looked again into the Lifestream.
You have to change your way
of thinking. As long as you resent it will never work!
He took a deep breath. Change
my way of thinking…
He made another attempt, the
swirls of light came back quicker and brighter than ever.
With a sudden flash of light,
it was all over. He looked around. They were all still here. He was too
tired to try again.
Did it work? Tifa looked around.
Everyone was still here.
“Hey look at this!” Nanaki
just looked inside the huge cavern where all of the missing people had
been. They were gone.
“Then why are we still here?”
Yuffie wondered.
“I can’t do everything,” Then
he shrugged, “Besides, I didn’t know where to go.”
“I guess that it’s alright.
I have to get my Dad’s truck back.” Dee just wished that she was able
to find him here.
“Then let’s go, I really don’t
want to stay here any longer.” It has got to be one of the worst days
in his life. At least it was coming to an end.
Ten people in the back of a pick up truck made it a very undesirable traveling
arrangement. Elena was up front with Dee so that they could talk alone
for a while. Everyone else did whatever they could to make the best
of this situation.
Reeve was so relived, this
issue of split loyalties seemed to resolve itself as he watched Yuffie
ask them questions about what it was like to be a Turk. He really didn’t
know if it was her legitimate curiosity, or if she was just making small
talk.
“Reno, how did everything go
in Kalam?” He wanted to know if there were more survivors found in Midgar.
“Well after we organized everything,
it seemed that everyone didn’t need anyone else to tell them what to do.
When we left to go find you, we found over 300 people.”
“Wait. You were the one who
organized the rescue party in Kalam?” Cloud thought that it would be very
uncharacteristic for an organization such as the Turks to do. They usually
worked for the highest bidder.
“Yeah.” Rude said something
for the first time.
“So you were the friend that
Reeve was talking about.” Tifa was pleasantly surprised.
It seemed that everyone had
badly misjudged the other. Reno was seeing the reasons why Reeve liked
them so much.
Cloud just nodded, no one told
him what happened, so he was just playing along with it. He was betting
that Tifa was enjoying this.
“Hey Cloud, I have never seen
that look on your face before.” Barret always liked to find new ways to
tease him. “Is that because you’re a blonde? You look so lost.”
There were some smirks and
giggles from everyone else.
Cloud knew that he was just
messing around, but this really was getting to him.
“Will some PLEASE tell me what
the hell’s going on here?”
Just about everyone started
laughing, and the joke was on Cloud, but at least he was finally able
to get an explanation.
“See? They seemed to be able make peace, why can’t you?” Dee pointed out.
“Yeah, but….” Elena sighed.
“You won’t understand, and I hope that you never have to.”
“Maybe, but everyone else does.”
“It doesn’t matter, they at
least had some time to think about it. It’s not fresh in their mind. They
didn’t have someone that they cared for die in their arms.”
“Why don’t you ask them? You’ll
never know if you don’t ask. And if you can’t ask them, then ask your
friend Reno, maybe he’ll know something.”
Elena sighed, then saw some
lights ahead they had just arrived.
“Will you stay here for a while?
I’m sure that your friends won’t mind to pick you up later.”
Actually, it didn’t seem to
be such a bad idea. Maybe she could use the time off to think it over.
She knew that everyone else was just planning to stay for only a few minutes
to re-fuel the truck so that Dee can take everyone back to Bone Village.
That was not going to be enough time for her to do what she needed to
be done.
“…Yeah, I’ll just let the guys
know.” Since she was the only girl in the group, that was what she always
referred them as. It was her own private joke.
While everyone was waiting inside the inn, Barret had the wildest idea,
but even he was having trouble to at least agree with it. Was it a good
idea? He kept thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong if
it backfired.
He just stood back and watched
everyone as they interacted between the two groups. It looked like that
everyone was being as diplomatic as possible, Rude looked like that he
was telling Yuffie some more pick pocketing tricks, and Cloud was actually
talking with Reno without either one of them hurling insults to each other,
though Reeve and Vincent was with them. Would it be a good idea?
“Alright Barret, whenever I
see you like that, it means that you have some kind of hair-brain idea.”
Tifa was remembering all the time he spent to carefully plan something,
like attacking those reactors.
“Nah, it’s dumb.”
“C’on, what is it?” Nanaki
was a little bored while waiting.
“Hold on.” He wanted to talk
to Reeve first before doing anything else.
“Well it was a good strategy, but you hit too high.”
“How so?”
“You didn’t knock me down when
you hit the back of my leg.”
“Since when did you become
such an expert?”
“C’on it’s one of the oldest
tricks in the book.”
“So exactly how much do you
remember?” Vincent just wanted to know.
“Well, not much. It was more
like,” He was trying to remember a little more, but couldn’t. “I dunno,
it feels like it’s just fading away. You know, like a dream?”
“Yo Reeve, can I have a word
with you?” Barret cut in.
As Reeve was leaving, Elena
came to speak with Reno. From the look that she gave him, Cloud got the
hint and left.
“Well hello there.” Tifa was wondering why a little girl would wonder
their way.
“Can I pet your doggy?” It
got Nanaki’s attention.
Tifa was playing along. “I
don’t know, you’re going to have to ask him first.”
“Oh gee, thanks Tifa.”
“…You can talk?”
“Yep. He’s just like any other
person.”
“It looks like Red made a new
friend.” Cloud was amused.
“Very funny Cloud.”
That name seemed to remind
the little girl of something and turned around. Cloud blinked in disbelief,
she looked like that girl…
“Are you Alice?”
Her eyes lit up. It was
him. She gave him a huge hug, though it was a bit tight. Tifa let out
a little giggle when she heard an ‘oof’ out of him.
“It looks like that you made
a friend.” Nanaki countered with a grin.
“…There you are!” A young woman
came over to them.
“Mama, look! He’s the one I
told you about.” Cloud let himself be led by her. “He found me in that
scary place and took care of me.”
“Oh really?” She looked at
him. “You must be Cloud. Thank you for taking care of her.”
“…Uh… well…I. “ He didn’t think
that he did a good enough job and didn’t deserved to be thanked, but he
had to say something. “Don’t mention it.”
“Hey guys! The truck’s ready!”
Dee announced to everyone, though the brief reunion with her father delayed
their departure for about ten minutes.
“Well I’m glad that she’s okay,
but we gotta go.”
Alice waved good-bye as everyone
left.
Barret insisted on returning to Cosmo Canyon and no one seemed to mind.
Thanks to Dee’s help, and the speed of the Tiny Bronco, their trip was
a little more than four hours. Tifa gave Dee her Lunar Harp so that she
could find her way back. It was also a token of her appreciation.
While on the Tiny Bronco, Cloud
took the opportunity to explain everything to Tifa. He started this story
from when they were still on the Highwind to about using the White materia.
There was still one thing that she wanted to know.
“What was all this talk about
you being dead? You look okay to me.”
He pulled knees up to his chest
in a protective position. It must have hit some kind of nerve because
now he almost looked like a scared child. He sighed, “I really don’t want
to talk about it.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know that
it bothered you so much.”
“Don’t worry, you didn’t know.”
It made Tifa feel bad for bringing
it up.
He sighed again, “But I guess
that you deserve to know, at least what I can remember.”
“Don’t worry, you don’t have
to say anything.”
The look he gave her, it showed
that he was hurt, but he started to gather his thoughts so that he could
explain it to her.
“Well remember when I told
you my story while we were in Kalam, but later it seemed that I was way
off on some details, and extremely accurate on others?”
“Yeah, it was so confusing.”
She thought about their encounter with the Lifestream once before, but
everything seemed to be a blur to her. The only thing that she could remember
was that it was at that time when he learned the truth.
“It turned out that for some
odd reason I had someone else’s memories, but I was still there just not
seen. Of course you knew that already, but there’s more to this story.”
She nodded.
“Well when I was telling you
what happened while we were in Kalam and had to end my story abruptly,
it was because I just simply couldn’t remember anything after that."
He paused for a moment so that she could have a chance to remember.
"That's when everything seemed to start. It was a very long nightmare
that lasted for five years.”
“Cloud I’m so sorry, you don’t
have tell me any more, okay?”
“No, I really think that you
should know.” He continued back to this story. “Well, after I saw you
pick up Sephiroth’s sword when he left it behind after he killed your
dad, and then ran up to him so you can confront him, I tried to help you,
but by the time I got to you, he had already snatch it out of your hands
and cut you across the chest.”
“Yeah, I remember that.” She
moved her top a little to show him part of the scar she got because of
it.
“Well I’m glad that you are
okay now, I really thought that you were going to die.”
“Thanks, and I’m glad that
you turned out to be okay too.”
He smiled a bit. “Well, my
friend, Zack made to Sephiroth before I did. That was a quick fight, Zack
fell down the stairs. It was then when he asked me to kill Sephiroth.
So I picked his sword, and charged right into him. He happened to be distracted
trying to get Jenova out of the chamber so it was easy to ram it right
into his stomach, but I didn’t stick around to see if he would die just
yet, I left and tried to tend to you.”
“I can barely remember that,
but at least I can remember a little.”
“Well to my surprise, I saw
him manage to walk down the stairs with Jenova’s head in his hands. I
was so enraged, that I didn’t think. I can truly say that what I did next
was the absolute stupidest thing I have ever done.”
“And what would that be?”
“I ran behind him and screamed
his name to get him to stop. Then suddenly I felt something very cold
right here.” He pointed at his chest, but it was a little above and to
the right of his heart. She put her hand over that spot and felt a huge
dip in his skin through his shirt.
“…Ouch.”
“I don’t remember much after
that, except him telling me to not push my luck. Then the next thing I
know, he fell off the platform, and I fell onto it. I tried to keep moving,
but everything felt very heavy and very cold. Then it was like I
couldn’t move at all. The scariest part was when I realized that I couldn’t
breathe, but I could hear Hojo’s voice. Then, nothing. I can’t remember
anything else after that except for a few vague flashes of being on one
of his tables and being inside a Makou chamber. The only thing that I
do know was that there was a lot of pain, and that Zack was there with
me. Then we escaped.”
Tifa wanted to hear more.
Cloud corrected his story,
“Well it was more like he escaped and dragged me with him. I was so drugged
up that I couldn’t remember anything. Then I woke up, the drugs were beginning
wear off and I found Zack dead. Someone shot him in the head several times
and must have left me for dead as well. I didn’t know what to think, so
I wondered ahead to the nearest town. Then completely blacked out.”
“…And that was when I found
you.” Tifa finished.
“Yeah, that’s the end of it.”
She sighed. Maybe it was a
little too much information for her. No wonder he’s so messed up.
For the rest of the trip, he
didn’t say too much after that.
This conversation was just
between them, while on the other side of the plane had a different mood,
it was one of excitement and eagerness.
It seemed that whatever Barret’s
idea was, it became the topic of conversation, and the cause for all of
the excitement.
Though Barret did have a question
to ask that had nothing to so with the current subject.
"Yo, Red. I've been meaning
to ask you something."
Nanaki gave him his undivided
attention.
"Now don't take this the wrong
way, but it's about you, Vincent, and Cloud." Then he reluctantly added,
"…And Sephiroth."
He nodded, he didn't mind the
question.
"Well even though you all have
something in…common," he had to figure out the right words to make it
not hurt any of them. "There's something that just doesn't add up."
It got Vincent's attention
and he listened quietly to what he was going to say.
"Well, we all know that Sephiroth
could do it, and uh, we all saw Cloud do just recently, and the first
time that I met him," Vincent nodded. "He did it too. But uh, why
can't you?"
"You mean to fly?"
"Yeah. For the longest time
I just assumed the it was that damn Jenova shit until something dawned
on me. With all of the stuff that happened recently that involved Jenova,
he seemed to be immune while it literally kicked Cloud's ass." Cloud heard
his name called and looked at Barret. "So it means to me that Vincent
doesn't have any of that shit and neither do you. But if that is the case
the why can they fly, but you can't?"
"Because I was never exposed
to Makou."
"But Shin-ra had a lot of people
to exposed Makou, especially whenever someone joins that SOLDIER group
because they thought that it would make them stronger."
"No that's what I meant. Those
people had a very low dose, while the three of them had been exposed to
so much of it, that it could easily kill someone if that person received
it all at once."
Vincent nodded, it made since
to him, he received a very intense therapy before he was laid to rest,
but it was just another attempt for Hojo to kill him.
"Are you sure about that, or
is it just a guess?"
"I spent a lot of time working
with a former intern of his. When she quit, she stole a lot of his notes,
that was what I read from it."
"Quit huh? Like suddenly getting
a conscience?"
"No, it was more like ignorance
then morals. That was why she quit."
"Hmm, so I guess that Cloud
was already exposed to a lot of it before he got that bad case of Makou
poisoning, that was the first time I saw him do that."
Cid wanted to know exactly
how much was too much. "Hey Cloud I hope that you don't mind me asking
you this but-"
"Five years." He bluntly replied.
"…Okay…" Maybe he should have
never asked.
"I think that it's time to
change the subject now." Vincent didn't want to hear anymore of it.
Reeve cut in.
"Going back to your idea Barret,
I think that it may work, though it's still a little crazy."
"…Sounds like fun." Nanaki
was taking his mind off the old subject.
Barret sighed to himself, it
looked like it would have been a lot better if he just simply kept his
mouth shut about it. Then he started back to the same topic that everyone
was talking about before this.
Yuffie on the other hand made
sure that she had plenty of tranquilizers and she slept most of the way
from Bone Village. Though it was a relief that there were people there
once again. Everything seemed to be returning back to normal, but what
was everyone going to do next?
Tifa spent a lot of time pondering
that. What was she going to do? The news that she from Red only seemed
to scare her about what lies ahead. She sighed and looked up at the stars,
though she knew that it was in the middle of the afternoon. The isolation
of the observatory was helping her to think.
She was recognizing constellations,
and her surroundings made her feel like if she was in space or something,
as she saw a few planets pass.
Holograms.
Tifa shook her head. Technology
these days, it’s even advanced enough to check out something like this
in only a few hours. She sighed again. How was she going tell Cloud? What
if he didn’t want anything to do with this or if she never saw him again?
He wouldn’t do that. She knew
him too well to know that, but she had no idea on how he would react to
this. If it was under different circumstances, she probably wouldn’t mind,
but this happened against their will. It was making her want to cry with
the thought of how easily they were both victimized like that. What was
making her feel worse was what Cloud told her earlier that day, she knew
that he really didn’t want to talk about it, yet he felt that he had to
tell her.
She heard a soft click of a
door closing.
“Hey.” If she wanted to tell
him, now would be a good time.
“Hi.” He was still rather quiet.
It was clear that he was a bit scared, or that he hadn’t really quite
recovered from what he was talking about earlier.
He had never felt this awkward
before when it came to speaking to her. They both knew each other all
their lives, but he was extremely worried about how much this would damage
their friendship. The thought of the worse possible thing that could happen
really terrified him.
It was a long moment of silence
before he sat down beside her on the floor.
“Um, Red just told me, but
no one else knows.” He said this quickly.
Tifa felt her heart sank, and
she just leaned against Cloud, resting her head on his shoulder. Tears
just ran down her face. “I’m so scared.”
“Yeah, me too. But we’re going
to stick together, alright? I’ll never leave you.”
Those words definitely made
her feel better, as she started to think about what to do now.
“You’ve helped me out so much,
and looked out for me so many times. Let me return the favor, I owe it
to you.”
“Really?” She didn’t even think
about the many times she did look out for him.
“Yeah, there are so many times
that you helped me, and I realized that I never had the chance to thank
you for it.”
“…Don’t mention it.” She whispered.
“Um, there was something that
I wanted to give you to show on how serious I am when I said that I’ll
take care of you.” He put a small object in her hand and closed it. “That
is, if you let me.”
She gasped in surprise when
she saw the object. A ring.
“…Is this a proposal?”
He nodded, then held his breath
waiting for the answer.
“Is this because of what happened?”
“No. I wanted to say something
some time ago while we were in the City of the Ancients, but there were
too many… distractions. It was just now that I had the chance to get something
for you to show for it.”
She froze. She couldn’t think,
or speak. Only feel her heart race. It was something that she wanted,
but now it all of the sudden it became real for her, she didn’t know what
to do. Then something inside her made her smile and she put the ring on.
“…Yes.” She was about to bubble
over with happiness, and she tightly hugged him.
He didn’t know why, nor care
how could one feel this happy, he just was.
“So what do we do now?” She
whispered.
“I don’t know, but Red has
invited us to stay here until we think of something.”
“He’s so kind, but what are
we going to do about this?”
“You could end it, or keep
it, I’m not sure. But whatever you decide, I’ll support you, okay?”
“It would be too cruel to end
it, and if…” She hugged him tighter.
“…And if we keep it, you’re
afraid that it may be another Sephiroth.” He had the same thought as well.
“Yeah that’s it exactly.”
“Tifa, do want to know what
I think?”
She nodded.
“How do you think Sephiroth
grew up? I’m willing to bet that it was not in a home with family, but
in lab somewhere.”
“Yeah, so?”
“…Did you ever think that if
he grew up in a different way, he would have never done those terrible
things?”
“I guess so.” Tifa knew that
he was referring to a child’s up brining, but there was another thing
that was on her mind.
She didn’t wanted to be reminded
of what Hojo did to the both of them everyday for the rest of their lives,
it would too hard to endure. It felt like that this whole thing would
have no meaning to it if they left it at that.
“I think that…” Whatever she
said next is going change their lives forever. Is it something that was
worth doing?
“Don’t worry, you still got
time to think about it.”
It seemed that she already
decided, but there was just one thing.
“If we do keep it, I want to
make it mean something other than this.”
“You mean like a closure to
put it behind us?”
“Yeah.” She kissed him. It
was making her feel better.
“Wait, you mean now? Here?”
She nodded.
“But what if someone walks
in?” He couldn’t ignore this feeling, but he had to be more realistic
about this.
“And what if they don’t? It
kinda makes it daring and exciting.”
“I guess so bu-“ He was interrupted
by another kiss.
It seemed that they both left
behind their logic and reasoning, and were acting solely on how they felt.
“Damn it, where’s everybody?”
Barret was pacing back and forth.
“Don’t worry they’ll come.”
Reeve looked at his watch, it was still too early.
Yuffie and Marline seemed to
be having fun on their own. Yuffie was showing her all of the possible
places that could be used as a hiding place.
“Yuffie are you putting more
ideas in her head again?” Barret really didn’t want his daughter to be
like her.
“No, not really. I’m just showing
her how she could hide almost everywhere. Who knows it might come in handy
someday. You know, if she is ever in danger?”
“Heh, it looks like she got
you there.” Reeve laughed.
“Heh, heh, heh…” Pure sarcasm
from Barret.
“Though it would be really
scary if she starts dressing like her.” Reeve was just making a joke.
“…And what’s that supposed
to mean?” She liked the way she dressed.
“Hmm? Nothing.” Reeve was playing
innocent.
“I know what that means. You
dress like a punk.” Cid was teasing her.
“Hey! You know that you’re
starting to sound like my dad, it’s not fair!”
“It looks like that you’re
starting the fun without us.” Reno and Rude walked in.
Barret was just reminded on
how crazy this idea was.
“Hey it’s Reno!” Marline ran
to say hi to them.
“Hey squirt! How are ya?” He
gave her a playful rub on the head that messed up her hair.
Barret’s jaw was about to hit
the floor. Then he looked at Reeve.
“Hey I couldn’t leave her alone
in Kalam when I went back to Midgar.” He held his hands up as if saying
‘hey don’t be pissed because of this.’
“Do you have any more gum?”
“No, I’m sorry. I ran out.”
“Oh. Well that’s okay. C’on
I want you to meet my daddy!”
“We already met.” Barret was
still a bit shocked.
There was a look of confusion
on Reno’s face. “She’s yours?”
“Reeve, I thought that you
said that she was your sister’s.” Rude said.
“I don’t have a sister. She’s
Barret’s kid.”
“Man, she doesn’t look anything
like him.” Reno wanted to say ‘no fucking way,’ but it looked like his
facial expression said it for him.
“Where’s Miss Elena?”
“She’s taking some time off.”
“Hey guys. Sorry that I’m running
a little late.” Nanaki just showed up.
“Red!” Marline gave Nanaki
a huge hug.
“Look at this.” Barret was
talking quietly to Cid. “It’s like she doesn’t care about how we think
or what happened in the past. Only who she likes or dislikes, and I don’t
see anyone who she doesn’t like, do you?”
“No. She doesn’t know anything
except what she sees. It’s like she’s setting an example or something.”
Cid was just thinking on how closely connected they really were, but they
just never cared to see it before.
“So I guess that leaves Cloud,
Tifa, and Vincent to show up.” Barret did a final head count.
“Do we have to wait for them?
I say let’s finish what we started.” Cid was just wanted to start having
fun and party again.
No one ever expected the possibility
of everyone actually sitting down at one table for a celebration.
“What do you mean finish what
you started?” Reno asked.
“Well the night after meteor
was destroyed, we celebrated. It was our way to honor all of those who
didn’t make it, for their sake.” Reeve quickly explained. “But we were
never able to finish it.”
“I see. It must’ve been a major
leap of faith for you to invite us like this.” Rude said quietly.
“Yeah it was. He had to talk
to me first to help him figure out if it was a good idea or not.” Reeve
found a seat.
“Why did you do it?”
“I did it for Marline’s sake.
I don’t want her to be forced to fight like we did.”
Reno looked at Marline who
was seated on Barret’s lap. Cute kid.
“C’on people! This is a party,
not some kind of hostage negotiation. Stop being so damn rigid and stiff
and sit your asses down and let’s get this show on the road!” Seeing everyone
trying to act so careful so that they don’t start fighting was really
annoying Cid to no end.
Vincent was once again back at the Cosmo Candle. Though it felt like there
was something missing. He didn’t know what it was, but it felt like excess
baggage. Though there was no obvious reason why except for the fact that
he knew that Hojo was defeated once and for all.
He had been spending a lot
of time thinking about what Cid said in the cave. How can he be so cold?
When was the last time that he felt anything? He was feeling something
now. He was alone.
Does he have to be alone?
Why feel something now?
His thoughts were drifting
to the past, long before he encountered Hojo. Everything that he could
remember seemed to be so foreign now. It was like those memories belonged
to someone else, not him.
Who was that person?
Who is he now?
It seemed that the most valuable
thing that Hojo took away from him was his self-identity. The name Vincent
was the only thing he had left of that life before. His last name had
no meaning and might as well be forgotten.
Why not forget Hojo? It was
just another chapter in life that finally came to an end.
What about now? What will this
new chapter bring to him? He didn’t know, except that this time he had
control.
What to do now?
What does he want to do?
He sighed and let his mind
go blank. There are people who cared for him, but how much he didn’t know.
Was that better than nothing? He looked at the pub.
They told him that he was welcome
to join them, but can he handle it?
He had that feeling again,
loneness.
There must be a reason why
felt like this. Maybe that it was at long last time to be human once again.
Human. It seemed that for all
of these years he was just a shell. Ever since Hojo did all of this to
him, he never thought of himself as a human being. It was a sad, but true
thought for him.
He closed his eyes, he felt
tired. Then he felt something on the side of his face. It had been a very
long time since he had that feeling. There were several times when he
thought that something like that could happen to him ever again. It just
did, perhaps it was time that he did something about it.
With a final sigh to himself,
he stood up. There was something that he could do about it now.
“I don’t see it.”
“It’s right there. Right below
the bright one.”
Cloud look up at the ceiling
of the observatory. He couldn’t see what Tifa was talking about. Then
suddenly a pattern appeared.
“Oh yeah, I see it.”
Tifa snuggled closer to him.
He had proven to be a very comfortable pillow. She sighed in contentment.
It really didn’t matter if
anyone came in now, there was nothing to see that would give anyone any
funny ideas. They were just looking at the stars, nothing more.
He was feeling pretty tired
yet his heart was still racing. It was an intoxicating feeling for the
both of them. It made it very easy to doze off.
Tifa had already did. He just
stared back at the ceiling.
What were they going to do?
They couldn’t go back to Nibleheim, it was simply a mockery to them now.
He kinda liked Midgar, but now it was in ruins…
He yawned and stretched. He
couldn’t think anymore so he just simply didn’t bother. He only closed
his eyes and started to drift off to sleep.
“I didn’t realize that you two were still here.”
Tifa opened a sleepy eye. It
was Red.
“C’on, everyone’s wondering
where you two are, and I can’t cover for you guys forever.”
“Oh yeah the party…” Cloud
had forgotten about that.
“It started over an hour ago.”
They were both groggy.
“Well are you coming or what?”
Then Nanaki smiled to himself, “Or I can let everyone keep on guessing
on what you guys are up to.”
“You wouldn’t…” Tifa was sitting
up.
“Well, I am running out of
excuses.”
“Alright, alright, we’re going.”
Cloud got up, then helped Tifa up.
It turned out that Nanaki was
only joking about everyone guessing.
Everyone started to guess several
hours later.
Tifa was thinking that it was
because what they announced to everyone is what started it.
They were having too much fun.
Yuffie had already retired for the night, this time they knew it was for
real.
Cid got into a competition
with Reno at who could tell the nastiest joke, of course they waited until
Marline fell asleep and Barret put her to bed.
Everyone else was laughing
so hard. It was hard to decide the winner of this contest. Eventually
Barret told a few, then Cloud, then just about everyone else was literally
taking turns at this.
Vincent sat quietly and watched
everyone. He was still thinking about many things, but at least that feeling
of being alone was forgotten. As he listened, it seemed that he had already
heard them all before. Then he surprised himself when he actually thought
of one. He closed his eyes and shook his head.
“What?” Tifa saw that.
“Nothing.”
“Yeah right. What is it?” Cid
lit another cigarette.
“Those jokes are so old. I’ve
already heard them all.”
“Alright then, since you know
so many, why don’t you tell us one.” Reno challenged.
Vincent quietly sat. Then shrugged
to himself. “Fine, I’ll tell you.”
Everyone who knew him were
kinda surprised with what he was doing. They never thought that he would
and they couldn’t blame it on the drinks since he only had water.
“There were three men and one
woman who crash landed on a deserted island. After a few months everyone
got extremely…”
Tifa was a little shocked.
Did he just say that?
“…So they decided that each
guy would take turns with the girl every week.”
Cloud and Barret exchange looks,
they were just simply in disbelief at what they were hearing since it
was from someone who was usually so silent and grim.
“So for three years everyone
was happy with that arrangement. Then one day for no reason, she died.”
Cid nodded. A joke about death.
It was starting to sound like something Vincent could do.
“For the first week, it was
bad. The second week it was very bad. The third week it was just simply
terrible.” His facial expression was the same as always, none. “The fourth
week it was almost unbearable. The fifth week was so bad, that they finally
had to bury her.”
“Oh man that’s so sick!” Tifa
was completely shocked.
“Uh, gross! That’s just…” Cid
was laughing too hard.
After a few more reactions,
then everyone started to calm down Barret really wanted to know something.
“Tell me something, what possessed
you to tell that joke?”
“You don’t like it?” His face
was still deadpan.
“It’s not that, in fact it
was funny as hell, but what made you tell it?”
“To prove a point. I heard
them all before, but it looked like you all needed proof.”
“Point taken.” Cloud nodded,
though still a bit shocked, but the reasoning definitely sounded like
him.
“That has got to be one of
the sickest jokes that I have ever heard.” Reno was still laughing at
it.
“…Yeah.” Cid knew that he beat
the both of them with just one joke.
Although Vincent told no more
jokes, everyone else had plenty to tell, though it was no longer a competition
at who could tell the nastiest one, Vincent won hands down. It changed
to see if they could tell ones that he didn’t know, or at least to get
him react in anyway. There was never a winner in that contest.
Vincent realized that he was
actually enjoying this attention. It seemed that he was never alone after
all. It was like those days long ago. It still felt alien to him, but
at lest he could relate to what it was once again.
This party turned out to be a success since before they knew it, the sun
was coming up. It was then when everyone started to say their good-byes
to each other. Though it became extremely hard for everyone. No one wanted
to go, but they wanted to be able to go home as well.
It was a good thing for Nanaki
that he was already home.
Reeve left with Reno and Rude
to pick up Elena. They were going to meet each other in Rocket Town.
Cid gave them a lift since
he was going there anyway. He didn’t know what to do there, but there
were a lot of projects that he wanted to finish.
Yuffie returned home to Wutai
to continue her training, but she promised Marline that she would write
to her, she talked Cid into making a short detour to drop her off.
Vincent decided to go on a
personal quest to some how regain some of the things that he lost. He
said his good-byes to everyone and then just disappeared early that morning.
That left Barret, and Marline.
“I remember when I first met
you Cloud. I hated your guts.”
Cloud let out a laugh, “Yeah,
when I first met you I thought that you were an asshole.”
“Who would have thought.” Now
they became best friends.
“You know, right now it feels
the same like it was when this whole thing got started in Midgar. It was
just the three of us against the world.” The third person that Cloud was
referring to was Tifa.
“Yeah it does in a way.”
“That’s so freaky.”
“Promise me something. Promise
me that we’ll always keep in touch.”
“Yeah, it’s a promise.”
“Take care Barret.” Tifa was
giving him a big hug.
“Yeah.” It was hard for him
to believe that it was finally over. He had some thoughts about what to
do, but now it was a reality. Suddenly he had no thoughts at all about
it, like if it was blocked from his mind.
“I hate long good-byes. We
are going to see each other again soon. So instead of saying good-bye,
let’s say that we are going to see each other again soon.” Tifa was giving
Marline a hug.
“Don’t worry, we’re going to
see each other soon. But it looks like that we just need a little time
to get it all together. After that, we’ll see each other often.”
Barret nodded. “Right. It’s
only going to be for a short while and we will see each other again.”
“Okay until next time then.”
“Yeah. Next time.”
Then it was just Cloud and Tifa.
Author’s notes: There were
a lot of lose ends that needed to be taken care of so I had to continue
on with the story. There wasn’t much that I can say, except it seemed
like this story seemed to write itself and I was just another reader,
I never expected to do this.
Yes I must admit, this story
is rather controversial but there seemed to be no other way to tell it
without resulting in this level of emotional impact for everyone. If anyone
did happen to find this story to be a little too offensive, or if they
strongly disagree with the basis of the theories of the actual story line,
then I apologize here. Please don’t e-mail me about it.
Another reason why I spent
so much time resolving the loose ends is because there will be no sequel
to this story that will be written by me.
So I submit it you, the reader
to enjoy. Thank you for taking the time to read it.
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