Continued from page 3

Cloud and the entire crew reach the Crater.  Rufus, Scarlett, Heidegger, and Palmer are there.  They are looking at all of the Mako deposits and the materia.  Rufus believes that this is truly the Promised Land.  Cloud, still freaking out from the revelations of what really happened at Nibelheim.  Cloud had entrusted the Black Materia to Red XIII before he and Tifa left to go into the Crater.  Tifa appears, and beckons to Red XIII.  Red runs off to the Crater.  That, however, was not Tifa.  It was Sephiroth.  Red XIII reaches the Crater, and Cloud asks for the Black Materia.  Red XIII hands it over.  Tifa begins screaming, begging Cloud not to do this.  Cloud asks Hojo to give him a number.  He realizes that Hojo created him.  Hojo merely says "miserable failure."  Cloud then flies up to the Mako deposits resting on ancient branches.  Sephiroth is there, sleeping in a bead of Mako.  Cloud hands the Black Materia over to him, and ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!!!  The Crater begins to shake, the WEAPONS are awakened, and the Lifestream gushes forth.  The Shinra suits help the party, minus Cloud, escape.  Cloud disappears in a flood of Lifestream.
Seven days later...
Meteor has been summoned.  It hangs like an omnious bomb in the vastness of space.  It is quickly approaching the Planet.  Tifa and Barret are being held at Junon.  They are to be exectuted publicly.  Shinra needs a scapegoat for all the chaos; who better than AVALANCHE?  Tifa and Barret are taken to gas chambers to be executed.  Their deaths will be watched all over the television stations.  Tifa is strapped in first.  The clumsy guard drops his key, though.  The gas begins to flood into the chamber.  Then, WEAPON attacks...
Barret is in the main room, bound.  Cait Sith has infiltrated the room, and comes to help Barret.  The two try to free Tifa, but the door is locked.  Tifa manages to get the key and get out of the chair.  Cait Sith and Barret run to the airport.  They find Yuffie on the way there.  WEAPON fires it's laser, cutting a whole in Tifa's prison.  She climbs out.  Scarlett follows  her.  Tifa runs to the end of the great gun at Junon.  Scarlett catches up to her, and the two have a slapping contest.  The Highwind shows up, and Tifa is saved.  Now, on to find Cloud!
The search for Cloud takes the party to a small island named Mideel.  The doctor at Mideel is reputedly the best doctor on the Planet.  Tifa explores the town, looking for Cloud.  She stops to pet an abandoned cat, and overhears two men talking about a spikey-headed man who washed up a few days ago.  Could it be Cloud?  Tifa runs to the clinic.  Cloud is there, but things don't look good.  He has been exposed to an extreme amount of Mako and is suffering from Mako poisoning.  Tifa refuses to leave Cloud's side.  She is ready to nurse him back to health.  Barret and Cid leave her there, and begin to look for a way to stop Meteor. Once they get back to the Highwind, Cait Sith has some information.  The Shinra are gathering Huge Materia from the reactors.  The first two they are going for are the Fort Condor Reactor and the Corel Reactor.  Cid and two others head out to halt the Shinra's plans.  First stop: North Corel.  The Shinra have taken the Huge Materia from the reactor already.  They have loaded it on a train.  The tracks run right through the town.  If the Shrina continue on their present course, North Corel is going to be destroyed...again.  Cid and Crew hijack a train, catch up to the Shinra, fight them off, and stop the train in under 10 minutes.  The team now has the Huge Materia.  On to Fort Condor!  Once there, Cid helps to buy some troops.  They must keep the Shinra away from the Fort.  After the battle, the old man gives Cid the Huge Materia.  Two down, two to go!  Cid decides to go and check up on Cloud.  The crew returns to Mideel.  There has been no change in Cloud whatsoever.  Tifa is on the verge of collapse and despair.  Then, the ground begins to shake, and Ultimate WEAPON drops in.  Cid and the team defeat him, and Tifa grabs Cloud and tries to escape.  Everyone makes it out okay, but Tifa and Cloud are caught in a surge of Lifestream.  Tifa falls into an empty void.  Voices come at her, accusing her.  She runs from them, and quickly sinks into the darkness of the Void.  She awakens inside of  Cloud's consciousness.  It is time for answers.  She speaks with the Cloud over near the gate to Nibelheim.  This is Nibelheim as it was five years ago, the day that Cloud allegedly came back.  This time Tifa stops him.  Cloud did not come back to Nibelheim that day.  The young man that Sephiroth showed them from the picture at the Crater was there.  Next, Tifa moves to the Cloud over at the well.  This time, Cloud's memory conincides with Tifa's, the night of the promise.  But this is not enough to prove who Cloud is.  Tifa asks Cloud to think of a memory he has that she wouldn't know.  Cloud confesses that he wanted to join SOLDIER to get Tifa's attention.  He takes her back to the day that Tifa's mother died.  Tifa was wrapped up in her sorrows, and didn't notice Cloud at all.  Tifa remembered a legend about the spirits of the dead traveling over the mountains.  She thinks that if she can climb to the top of Mount Nibel, she will be re-united with her mother.  Some of Tifa's friends go with her, but they turn back.  Cloud follows her.  The two are on a bridge when it collapses, and Tifa was hurt.  Cloud got blamed for the entire incident.  After that, Cloud began to try to make Tifa notice him.  The two are a step closer to making Cloud whole again.  Tifa and Cloud then travel to the night that Nibelheim was set on fire.  Cloud remembered Sephiroth wounding Tifa, then Zack.  Cloud snuck up on Sephiroth and overcomes him.  Cloud was there, hiding behind a mask the entire time.  Cloud is now certain of who he is, and the two ascend out of the Lifestream.  Cloud rejoins the team, and they all set out to get the last two pieces of the Huge Materia.  First they go to the Underwater Reactor at Junon.  The Turks are there.  They leave the group a nasty machine to fight.  After destroying Carry Armor, the crew hijacks a submarine.  They go underwater, bomb the Shinra sub that has the Huge Materia, and collect it.  Three down, one to go!
The last of the Huge Materia has been packed in the Rocket at Rocket Town.  The Shinra think that ramming Meteor with a bomb of Huge Materia will destroy it.  Before the team can get to the rocket, they have to fight Rude and some of his goonies Cloud and Cid get on the rocket, and ride it to space.  The two climb up to where the Huge Materia is stored, break it out, and take it.  Shera is on board, due to a faulty oxygen tank!  One of the tanks explodes and traps Cid.  The team frees him, and Cid has renewed respect for Shera.  They board an escaped pod, and return to the Planet.  Once there, they head to Cosmo Caynon and Bugenhagen's Laboratory.
At Bugenhagen's Lab, they drop off the four Huge Materia.  Then, they begin to form plans about how to stop Sephiroth.  Sephiroth has summoned Meteor to injure the Planet.  This injury will cause a wound so severe that the Planet will have to use a massive amount of energy to heal itself.  Sephiroth plans to be there, to absorb the energy and become a god.  Bugenhagen tells the team to go back to the City of the Ancients.  They first must go underwater and hunt for the Key to an Ancient machine.  Once they find it, they return to the City.  Using it, they activate the Machine.  The Machine shows them Aeris when she was praying.  After she died, her White Materia fell into the water.  It began to glow green.  This change meant that the Planet had heard Aeris's prayer, and was calling on Holy to help.  But, Sephiroth is keeping Holy from moving.  The team must defeat him in order for Holy to save the Planet.
The team goes back to the Highwind.  Cait Sith tells them that the Junon Canon has been moved to Midgar.  Kwah ha ha and Gwh ha ha are planning to use it to destroy Sephiroth!  The team makes haste to Midgar to stop them.   Their plan is EXACTLY what Sephiroth wants. 
They reach Midgar just as Diamond WEAPON appears.  The team is able to stop him from getting to Midgar, but he fires his missiles, destroying the Shinra building and parts of Midgar.  Rufus goes out in a blaze of glory.  The Sister Ray fires, blasting a hole through Diamond WEAPON.  It is destroyed.  The laser blast continue on to the Crater, destroying the Barrier.  The team flies over Midgar, and parachutes down.  Hojo has taken over the Sister Ray, and things have just gone from bad to worse!  The team makes its way through Midgar to the Sister Ray.  They take to the abandoned train tunnels and head to the laser.  They run into Reno, Rude, and Elena.  Fighting is not necessary...it's a choice.
After leaving the Turks, the party reaches the Shinra Building.  Continuing on, the trio reaches the base of the Sister Ray.  Scarlett and Heidegger are waiting there, with a new toy: Proud Clod.
This boss is not too tough.  After demolishing Proud Clod, and Scarlett's and Heidegger's dreams, the three climb up to the Sister Ray and Hojo.  Hojo is trying to overload the Sister Ray, but he takes time to fight the party.  Hojo has infused himself with Jenova cells, and is more than willing to show off his new poweress.
Hojo takes three forms: Hojo, Helletic Hojo, and Lifeform-Hojo.  All three are powerful.  Hojo is a worthy advesary.  After defeating Hojo and saving Midgar, the trio is ready to go to the Crater and face off against Sephiroth.

Click here to go to the fifth page of the FFVII Story-line section.