Butterfly Effect: Chapter 51
Jan. 13th, 2012 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bard_linnAuthors: Bard Linn and Kiraya
Genre: General/Drama
Pairings: ZackxSeph, ReevexAeris OCxOC, Assorted Past
Rating (Overall): PG-13
Warnings: None this chapter.
Summary: "The bitch was going to die."
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all associated characters and symbols are the exclusive property of Square Enix and its associates. We’re just borrowing them for a while.
Chapter 51
They didn’t leave right away — it would be better, they agreed, at least try to get permission to take a leave of absence — but after that night, all three SOLDIERs continued to feel Jenova’s influence. Cloud was by far the worst off, to the point that he’d sometimes find himself sleepwalking, heading north (until he walked into a wall and woke up, anyway), though the others had their own problems. Zack found himself losing time, as he had when Cloud had borrowed his body, and Sephiroth faced an insidious foe: he found himself more easily growing frustrated, angry, inclined to lash out at others. They did their best to spend time apart; Zack moved back into his own quarters, and Cloud bunked with Vincent (Chaos’s presence had a wonderful way of disrupting Jenova’s siren song). All three reluctantly submitted to Matheson’s testing, and the results indicated that their J-cells were rapidly growing more active and plentiful.
“At this rate,” Zack muttered, “we might as well just give up and burn down the building.”
“Don’t joke,” Cloud replied, even softer, as he glanced at Sephiroth, who was showing those subtle signs of his irritation again. Zack sighed. All of SOLDIER was worried about the pair of them, as they hadn’t been so standoffish with each other in years. Zack didn’t honestly know what was worse: those trying to give them suggestions on how to get back together, or those who were shoving Cloud at either Sephiroth or himself (or both).
“The President refuses to listen. He says that Cloud destroyed Jenova in Mideel, and until he gets information conclusively proving otherwise he’s not sending us anywhere. He offered to send a SOLDIER squad if we could provide him with a location.” Sephiroth looked at the map in his office. “But all we know is north.”
“Probably on the Northern Continent,” Zack mused, “but more than that… who knows?”
“Even if we did send a squad, we can’t be sure they’d get back,” Cloud pointed out. “If Jenova could take over Zack, who knows what else she could do?”
The vision of an alien lifeform playing puppetmaster with their fellow SOLDIERs made all three suppress a shiver.
“How are things with Aeris?” Zack asked after a moment, turning to Cloud.
His friend shrugged. “As good as we can get. We think she can cast Great Gospel, but she doesn’t want to do it for kicks. We aren’t sure how powerful it’ll be.”
“Bringing — or sending — Ms. Gainsborough on this mission is out of the question. Mr. Tuesti was quite clear about that.” Sephiroth took a long drink of his coffee before picking up his pen, apparently ready to go back to his work.
“We… think she can do it long distance. Getting her near Jenova isn’t something we want, either.” Cloud took a deep breath. “Reno has some gold chocobos at the ranch. There’s six of them, already broken to saddle.”
“They should be able to take us wherever we need to go.” Zack nodded grimly. “We can’t just wait anymore. It’s probably been too long as it is.”
“Agreed. However…” Sephiroth gazed at Cloud sternly. “I don’t think we should bring you with us; you’re too unstable. And no sneaking off to meet us, either.”
Cloud smiled, and Zack suppressed a shiver. “All right. Have fun finding Her.”
“She’s north—”
“Yes, but that’s all you have to work off of.” Cloud’s expression was stubborn. “I’m more sensitive, and what’s more, we resonate. She’s infecting a Cetra body; I’m probably the closest thing we got to that.”
Zack gave him a look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s a long story, but I haven’t just been Aeris’s guinea pig. I’ve been learning a bit myself.”
“And so you can’t figure out how to take care of stuff from here?”
“I’ve only been doing this for a couple months,” Cloud reminded him. “Maybe in a few years I’d be able to do it from here, but we don’t have that kind of time. And no, Aeris can’t locate her either. As we get closer I should be able to tell, though. I could in Mideel, even though I wasn’t sure what it was.”
“And she could likely sense you in turn,” Sephiroth pointed out. “You could be leading us all into a trap, and if you’re under her influence…”
“I could be.” Cloud spread his hands. “But do we have much of a choice? Better to walk into a trap armed to the teeth and ready for it than to wait until we can’t fight it anymore.” He met Sephiroth’s gaze without flinching, and in that moment Zack was prouder than he’d ever been of Cloud. He’d changed so much from the shy kid Zack had first taken under his wing; he was strong, confident, and willing to stand up for what he felt needed to be done.
“Can’t argue with that.” Zack grinned. “Let’s do this.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Before dawn the next day, two motorcycles left the city, each carrying two passengers. Only Cloud had a PHS, a civilian one he’d bought for cash in the slums. While lacking some of the capabilities the military ones had, it would allow him to contact Aeris when they needed to and hopefully avoid being tracked, at least for a little while.
They made their way east to the ranch, making off with Blondie and three of her siblings. Cloud felt a bit bad about that, but left a note promising to pay Reno and Rude back once they returned with the birds.
The gold chocobos were as good as legend claimed, trotting across the sea between the continents with astounding ease. On their second day on the Northern Continent, however, they encountered a rather strange problem. As they entered a forest, the members of their party would find themselves overcome with weariness until they awoke on the northern edge of a little archaeological settlement, no further than they had been hours previous. Finally, Sephiroth suggested they travel further east, skirting the mountains of the coast until they could approach the valley where that presence waited from a different angle.
“It’s here,” Cloud whispered. The silence over the city seemed sacrosanct; speaking at all seemed wrong, as if they stood in a great tomb.
“Where?”
Cloud pointed, indicating the path. The pressure in his mind had grown ever since they reached the Northern Continent, but now that they had managed to circumvent the forest, it was a constant unnerving feeling, like an unidentifiable background noise. Sephiroth and Zack were also showing signs of irritation probably caused by it, though they didn’t seem as uneasy as Cloud who could also feel the Lifestream bubbling here, deep and raw and powerful and so close to the surface it was almost as if he could taste it. I may not be able to hear it like Aeris can, but when it’s this intense it’s pretty hard to ignore. Pulling out his PHS, he sent her a quick message. She needed to be ready.
The group tethered their mounts and headed down into the city, the eerily oppressive silence only growing more so as they continued on. Occasionally a monster would appear, but other than that nothing interrupted their pilgrimage.
All the paths led to a shell-like building in the center of the city, where the only way forward was down a winding set of stairs. Cloud fought with himself every step of the way; part of him wanted to run forward into join Jenova, while the rest of him wanted to flee as far as he could from this disease that corrupted everything it touched.
And suddenly there they were. A horrible creature, like something out of a child’s worst nightmare, floated in an altar-like space. A bloated spherical thing with two tentacles, Jenova’s form did not resemble the one they had fought in Mideel at all.
“Zack, Sephiroth — take the front,” Cloud said quietly. “Vincent, if you could provide them some backup, Aeris and I’ll get to work.”
Zack and Sephiroth nodded and moved forward, drawing their blades. Vincent stood close to Cloud, his position one that would allow him to provide covering gunfire while keeping an eye on Cloud at the same time. They had asked him to accompany them for this; if worse came to worst, at least someone unaffected by Jenova’s influence could try to take them down.
Cloud knelt, his sword on the ground before him — not Shiranui, but a weapon he’d picked up on his travels, a single well-balanced blade. Ignoring the battle, he closed his eyes and folded his hands over the hilt. He had to reach Aeris and bring her here. Hopefully the part of him that called itself Jenova’s ‘son’ wouldn’t escape his bonds before he returned.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Aeris jumped a bit when her PHS rang. A short message showed on the screen: get ready. She immediately abandoned the flowerbed she’d been working on, causing Tifa to watch her worriedly as she hurried from the garden. “What’s up?”
“There’s something I have to do at the church.” She lengthened her stride; it wouldn’t be long before they began fighting, and she wanted to be in position before then.
“…does this have to do with Cloud’s mysterious disappearance?” Tifa asked quietly as she matched Aeris’s pace. Receiving a sharp look in response, she shrugged. “Look, they may not be broadcasting it, but just about everyone knows Sephiroth and Zack are missing. Tseng wanted to know what happened, so he went looking for Vincent or Cloud — and they’re both gone too.”
“There’s something they have to take care of.” Tifa gave her a curious look, but Aeris, always careful about what she said around Turks, didn’t elaborate further. Even though those new allegiances made Aeris more reserved around Tifa, she could tell it had been good for her, at least socially; Tifa’s partner, the taciturn Rude, was a fantastic match for her in combat, enough so that their sparring had started attracting spectators. And while Tifa might not enjoy all of her assignments, it was surely nice for her to have a peer group of women of a similar mindset: they didn’t want to have children or settle down, they wanted adventure, and they wanted to push themselves to the limit. She had struggled some with the decision the last couple of months, it seemed, but honestly it was clear Tifa had found her place.
Once she’d rather firmly shown Reno his in relation to her.
As they boarded the train, Aeris silently recited what she had read in the Cetra manuscript Cloud had retrieved. Fire and water are the elements of purification. Water can bring great relief and cleanse one who is tainted; fire can burn out the taint more aggressively, though not without cost to both the caller and the one to whom she ministers. Only one of our people has successfully called Soulfire down on the Crisis’s spawn, and he returned to the Planet soon after. We can only conclude, then, that water may be the best way to seal the Calamity forever.
Cloud had used Soulfire on the piece of Jenova in Mideel; Aeris had been sure of it the moment she had read its description, and its side effects. They couldn’t know if Cloud would be able to do so again — or if it was really him who had done it at all; it was quite possible that the Planet or the souls of the Cetra in the Lifestream might have worked through him — and even then Cloud had been badly wounded in the process. If he tried to replicate it in a tougher fight, how much worse might the backlash be? Aeris hoped that the Great Gospel spell would allow them to successfully seal Jenova, giving them time to find another method to destroy her later.
Inside the church, she settled herself into the flowerbed, grasping her mother’s materia tightly, more for comfort than anything else. Closing her eyes, Aeris reached for the Lifestream. The babble of the Voices surrounded her for both a moment and an eternity, all sense of time fading as she listened to their broken conversation. Their agitation was quite clear; they weren’t happy about Jenova’s active state, or the fact that those most tainted by her touch were so close to her.
-Aeris!-
Cloud’s mental voice, much stronger after practice, touched her mind. She took his spiritual ‘hand’ and let herself be pulled towards him, leaving her body behind. She hoped Tifa wouldn’t try to interrupt her — at best she’d get no response; at worst she might manage to pull Aeris back to her body.
-Worry about that later. Focus!-
Cloud’s words, similar to the ones he had used when training her years ago, snapped her attention back to the moment. In a few seconds they had traveled the length of the continent, and were flying into a silent city. -I thought you couldn’t see the world while you were like this?-
-I can’t. It must be your influence.- Cloud drew Aeris down, and she shuddered when she saw Jenova’s form, lashing out at the others.
-Focus,- Cloud reminded her again before settling back into his body, his face twisting with pain. Aeris’ eyes widened in realization: he must be fighting the portion of his soul corrupted by Jenova.
So she did as Cloud requested, trying to settle her mind into the proper focus to cast the Great Gospel. It was hard — she wasn’t used to doing this without the reassuring solidity of the earth around her, and the sounds of combat made it difficult to concentrate. Zack staggered to his feet as Sephiroth lopped off one of the tentacles, though not without taking a few wounds himself. Aeris couldn’t close her eyes to block out the carnage, but she could focused on the water behind Jenova, lying placid in the basin below. With all her heart she prayed. Gaea, Mother of All…
Her prayers were answered.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sephiroth regarded the monster before him with icy rage. This creature had tried to turn him against his friends, had attempted to manipulate him into following it, had nearly taken Zack from him, and had tried to use Cloud to lure them into its power.
No more.
As if sensing his mood, a tentacle shot out, slapping at Zack, who managed to bring up the Buster Sword and deflect it. Sephiroth lunged, managing a shallow cut before it recoiled. “Tough skin. Very tough.”
“Damn. Things can’t ever be easy, can they?” Zack eyes the creature with distaste. “Materia?”
“If you think you can cast properly.” Sephiroth didn’t trust his own abilities at the moment. The insidious voice that had called to him constantly since they had stepped within the city hampered his concentration, and he didn’t want to bring the building down on their heads with a miscast spell.
Zack shook his head; apparently he was having the same problem. “I guess we’re back to the old standby, then.”
Valentine’s gun sounded; the bullets ricocheted off the creature’s carapace. Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, impressed in spite of himself. Zack lunged forward, trying to slice off one of the thick tentacles, but for all his trouble barely managed to break the skin. “Seph, I think we’ve got a problem.”
“I’ll try to open up wounds; you work on making them worse.” Sephiroth was as good as his word, using his speed to close the distance between him and his target; the tentacles moved with such speed, however, that he only managed to graze one of them. Zack focused on attacking there while Sephiroth reversed his momentum and came at Jenova from another angle. This time he managed a decent hit, a wound at least three or four inches deep; a bullet from Valentine’s gun blew past him, hitting the creature dead-on.
“Damn, these things are annoying,” Zack huffed as he tried with little success to widen the cut Sephiroth had made. “Ugh. You know what? Let’s go for broke.” He launched himself into the air, raising the Buster Sword above his head, ready to plunge it into Jenova’s main body—
—only to catch a tentacle to the chest, slamming into a wall with a sickening crunch. Sephiroth felt as if time slowed to a crawl at the sound, and regardless of all of his training, looked apprehensively over his shoulder at the man who had become his partner in all things. For an unbearably long moment Zack was still, and then he managed to twitch, just a bit. Valentine was already raising his arm, a green materia — whether it was a Restore or a Life, he couldn’t tell — flaring with power in his bracer.
The relief that came over Sephiroth as he realized that Zack wasn’t gone yet gave way to a towering anger that scoured Jenova’s cajoling from his mind. How dare this thing try to take from him the first person who had accepted him unconditionally? He contemptuously batted the tentacle that had reached for him while he was distracted out of the way, and with cool precision swung the Masamune at the cut that Vincent had enlarged with his shots. The sharp blade managed to cut through the limb entirely this time, and the other tentacle whipped toward him in response. Sephiroth dodged the mindless attack, ignoring whatever it struck behind him. All his being was focused on one truth: This creature was going to die.
::betrayer do not court that vermin you are worth far more than he::
“He’s worth a thousand of you,” Sephiroth snarled, and whirled to slice at Jenova’s remaining tentacle. Another shallow cut, though this time his foe seemed to understand the vulnerability and managed to move away faster.
Suddenly, it began to rain.
For a moment everyone froze, stunned — how could it rain indoors and underground? And then Sephiroth saw the water glowing behind the altar, bursting into mist and gently drizzling down over them. Everything it touched seemed to be somehow more. Sephiroth was reminded of Wutai, a mission which had had them out in the field for weeks, barely managing to eke out an existence on the meager leavings of the battered island. When they finally had returned to civilization, the simple act of taking a shower seemed to clear so much more than grime away, revitalizing them and making them feel human again.
This rain was like that, only better.
Jenova screamed at the touch of the water; it burned her flesh, hissing as it turned into steam. Behind him, Sephiroth heard someone rising to his feet — Zack, who spoke in an awed whisper, “Well, I’ll be damned.”
Sephiroth felt the beginnings of a smile, and didn’t even try to stop it as Zack moved to stand where he belonged at his side. Sizing Jenova up again, he realized abruptly that he could think clearly — whatever the rain had done was muting her voice as well. “Let’s finish this.”
Zack grinned at him. “Sounds good to me.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cloud settled back into his body. He had intended to join Zack and Sephiroth in fighting Jenova — they looked like they could use the help — but found his unwelcome partner nearly free of the bonds Aeris had woven around him. I can’t believe this; we spent weeks on those! With a shake of his head, Cloud pulled up a mindscape of the gym he and Sephiroth had sparred in a few weeks ago, and materialized Shiranui in his hands. “Hey!”
His double turned and glared at him with cat-slit green eyes. “Traitor! You have brought the Enemy with you. She will not seal Mother!”
Cloud wasn’t really in the mood for talking. He rapidly closed the distance between, but his doppelgänger summoned a blade of his own, blocking his thrust. They clashed again, and Jenova’s puppet jumped backwards. Cloud followed him; he couldn’t let him get free or else he’d turn against the others—
Pain broke Cloud’s concentration. The settings he had crafted vanished. He felt dizzy, his head aching strangely. Taking advantage of his disorientation, his double cried silently to the creature before them, Mother, they have brought the Enemy. Run! Do not let them seal you away! I will fight. Go!
And Jenova’s presence began to fade. While the creature before them was still real, some fraction of its consciousness was vanishing, departing for a different vessel. Cloud looked around, fighting to ignore the pain of his head wound as his mind raced. Where was she going? Zack? Sephiroth? Surely not Vincent—
Then the rain began to fall.
It was like taking the first breath of fresh air after leaving the city. Cloud suddenly felt alert and calm, his wounds healing before his eyes. Jenova’s presence diminished, but for a different reason — and the puppet in his mind wailed in agony as the rain continued to fall. Cloud breathed a sigh of relief as he turned his focus to the creature before them. Aeris had managed to cast the Great Gospel; would it be enough?
Revitalized by the rain, Sephiroth renewed his attacks, Zack at his side. Death Penalty sang out as Vincent targeted the areas made vulnerable by their blades. For a moment, Cloud felt a wave of hope rise in his chest. They could win this battle; they wouldn’t even need his help…
Then he felt the shift. Even as Sephiroth continued with his relentless strikes, Jenova began to gather power. The spell felt unlike anything Cloud had ever seen cast — but he knew it was something big, as did Sephiroth, who shouted a warning to Zack.
You’ll never stop Her. Even if you kill this piece of Her, enough has escaped. We’ll heal and we’ll crush you like the traitors you are, his dopplegänger snarled, bringing up Cloud’s mindscape again and shoving him down. Cloud fought, managing to put a knife through the puppet’s shoulder, but he already knew it wasn’t enough. The puppet was right; Jenova would escape, and then they would have to do this again… or she would go into hiding, waiting centuries if necessarily, regaining strength and biding her time until there was no one who could stop her.
No.
Cloud stopped fighting. Jenova’s puppet continued to hammer him into the wall of their mind, but he did his best to ignore it. Instead he reached out with his mind, seeking first to touch the Lifestream, then following it deeper.
-No, Cloud! Don’t!-
He ignored Aeris’s cries and continued down, reaching for the well of power that sang beneath the flow of the departed. All souls came from here, the heart of the Planet. While they returned to the Lifestream after death, this was their true home. Here was kindled the spark of life in every living creature, and with enough focus one could call this fire into the corporal plane. This was the power of the Weapons that slept in the north, the power of the Summon Spirits waiting beyond the edge of mortal consciousness.
Cloud had never purposefully done this before. Only once had he wielded this power, and for something with far greater knowledge and experience working through him, using him as a passive conduit. If it hadn’t been for Aeris’s intervention back then, his mind would have been burned out completely.
I can’t let her get away. What part of his will wasn’t focused on seeking the power of the Planet reached out and grabbed his counterpart’s shirt roughly. One way or another, the puppet wouldn’t be coming out of this intact.
Aeris was still frantically pleading with him to reconsider. -I’m sorry,- he told her as he released his hold on her spirit. Even if he hadn’t been sending her away for her safety, he couldn’t have spared the willpower to keep her here.
White-hot fire raced down his blade, and his eyes snapped open and as he rose to his feet. The space between him and his enemy vanished in a few steps as he raised his sword high and brought it down, faster than the eye could follow. He raised the blade and struck again, over and over, the movements so quick it was almost as if they were a single perfect strike — the Omnislash.
Cloud only regretted he wouldn’t get a chance to teach it to Zack.
Jenova’s scream stung ears and mind alike as the flaming blade sliced into her, burning through her defenses and consuming the soft flesh beneath. Zack dropped to the ground cursing, his hands over his ears, and Sephiroth looked as if he wished to do the same. Cloud couldn’t see Vincent, but he could sense Chaos’s approval.
The bitch was going to die.
Even as the vessel before them writhed and burned under his attack, Cloud could sense the power reach further. It continued to burn through his arms and hands, down his blade and into Jenova, a white comet of power that vanished from the material plane to reenter the spiritual one. Her puppet, his own corrupted mind, vanished under the onslaught. Cloud felt his control waver, but stubbornly held on. They weren’t done yet.
Jenova had sought to hide her spirit in other vessels, but Soulfire was not limited by physical constraints. And she had really ticked off the Planet, which was more than happy to give Cloud the power he needed to destroy her for good.
The Crisis’s screams tripled as far away the white-hot flame engulfed two other vessels. Cloud could barely make his eyes to stay open, but forced the power through himself until the last of her cries died — and abruptly the Soulfire let him go. His sword, twisted into unrecognizable dross by the heat, dropped to the floor with a clang, and Cloud wasn’t far behind.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Valentine moved almost faster than Sephiroth could follow, catching Cloud’s badly burned body as he fell. Carefully carrying him over to the basin’s edge, he scooped up some of the water and poured it into Cloud’s mouth. “You should drink as well,” he instructed. “It will help purify you of any remaining traces of Jenova.”
Zack hurried to do so, not bothering to use his hands but just lowering his head to the water, taking huge gulps. Sephiroth, for his part, took a few restrained sips. The water was amazingly cold and pure, as if from a mountain spring — it certainly didn’t taste like it had been sitting still and undisturbed for years or possibly centuries.
“Is Cloud okay?” Zack asked, looking concerned as he touched his friend’s forehead. “He feels hot…”
“Put him in the water,” Sephiroth suggested. “Maybe it’ll heal him.” He refused to accept the possibility that he might already be too far gone for that. They stripped him down and lowered him into the basin, but despite the cold, Cloud didn’t wake. After a few uncomfortably long minutes, Sephiroth looked at Valentine. “What’s wrong with him?”
The Turk shook his head. “I’m not sure. Chaos says… he drew upon the power of the Planet in a form that may have destroyed his mind.”
“What?” Zack looked outraged. “What the hell was he thinking?”
Valentine was silent for a moment, his head cocked as if listening to a voice they could not hear. “Apparently Jenova had two more hosts in addition to this one. The power he used managed to kill them both.”
“…and if he hadn’t, She would have waited until She had recovered and could strike again,” Sephiroth summarized, remembering Gast’s notes on how well preserved Jenova had been even after centuries underground.
“But…” Zack cursed. “Cloud shouldn’t have sacrificed himself to kill that bitch!”
The looks on his companions’ faces showed their complete agreement.
“…So now what?”
“Now we wait,” Vincent said gravely, settling himself in a position to do so.
Zack opened his mouth, no doubt to protest; Sephiroth, already moving to sit, shook his head. With a sigh, Zack followed suit, and from the hunch of his shoulders Sephiroth could tell he was trying not to be unnerved by how Vincent watched Cloud’s body intently, his eyes seeming almost to glow like coals in a fire.
Time crawled by. The light drizzle that was all that remained of that healing rain tapered off and finally ceased altogether, and still Cloud didn’t move. They didn’t speak; none of them wanted to give voice to the possibility that he wouldn’t awaken.
When Sephiroth had reached the point that even he was fighting the urge to pace, he broke the silence. “His lips are turning blue; we have to take him out of the water.”
“But the water is supposed to be helping him, right?” Zack jumped up for at least the dozenth time. “I don’t know if we should…”
“I’d prefer to take the route that we know won’t inflict hypothermia on him,” Sephiroth said brusquely, and rose. “I think we’ve put him in enough danger today as it is.”
“Sorry,” came a weak voice, barely more than a whisper.
“Cloud!”
Tired blue eyes looked up at them. “Why am I wet?”
Zack hauled him out of the water. “We thought it’d help heal you — I mean, hey, no more burns, right?”
“‘S great, but I’m freezing.” Cloud shivered. “Too bad you ditched your cloak, Vincent. I could use a towel.”
“I doubt anything here is still usable… and we left the bedrolls outside. I’m sorry.” Sephiroth handed Cloud his clothes.
He grimaced before stiffly pulling them on, not even bothering to wait to dry. “Call Aeris,” he told Zack, nodding at his PHS. “I lost my hold on her.”
Zack nodded and dialed her number. “Aeris?”
“Zack! Oh, thank Gaea — is Cloud all right? I lost him.” She sounded near frantic.
“He’s okay. A bit wet, but all right other than that.” Zack grinned at his friend.
“Ah — sorry about that. I think it’s part of the Great Gospel.”
“Either way, Aer, that was pretty damn impressive. We couldn’t have won that fight without your help. And all the way from Midgar, no less!”
“Thank Cloud — he’s the one who got me there.” Aeris’s voice turned scolding. “And tell him if he ever worries me like that again he’ll find his pillows restuffed with nettles!”
Zack chuckled and dutifully repeated her threat. Cloud just shook his head, but he was smiling.
“Anyway, you should come back soon. You’ve been missed, and I think the President is about ready to send someone after you.”
“Will do.” Zack hung up. “We better go. Sounds like Shinra is not happy.”
“Right.” Cloud unsteadily got to his feet, only to be swept into Valentine’s arms. “Dammit, Vincent! I’m not six anymore!”
“You’ve had a very trying experience, and it’s important you don’t relapse,” the Turk calmly justified. “You should take the time to recover.”
“I’m fine. Aeris’s power works miracles.”
Sephiroth gave him a significant look — he had the feeling ‘working miracles’ was a rather apt description of what had happened — and Cloud glared defiantly back. Sephiroth’s lips quirked; he had all of Zack’s stubbornness and more, it seemed. Somehow he had forgotten that in Cloud’s time away. “Well, then… Only until we reach the chocobos.”
They left the silent city quickly. Cloud looked around as they passed the pale shell-like buildings. “You know, maybe we should tell someone about this place. It seems to be pretty well preserved.”
“I think we’d best leave the Ancients’ secrets to themselves,” Valentine put in. “This place is beautiful, and remarkably well preserved. I somehow doubt ShinRa — or anyone else, for that matter — would keep it like this.”
“You’re probably right. I just feel like we could learn so much about them from what’s here… I know Aeris wants to know more about her people.”
“Come back up and look around yourself sometime in the future,” Zack suggested. “It isn’t going anywhere.”
“Good idea. And if that water holds its power, we should probably get some more of it.” Sephiroth tilted his head questioningly, and Cloud elaborated, “Every SOLDIER had Jenova cells. It would be best to give everyone some just in case, right?”
“Probably,” he agreed.
They walked bit longer in silence, each alone with his thoughts, until Zack spoke up again. “What did you do in there, anyway? That fire-glowing thing?”
Cloud frowned, thinking. “I’m… not really sure how to describe it. It’s all pretty blurry, actually; I can’t remember it clearly. But I used the power of the Planet somehow, and I just… I know Jenova’s dead.” The certainty in his voice was comforting, but Sephiroth wondered how much Cloud really remembered and how much he didn’t want to tell Zack — who never let the complexity of a technique stop him from trying to learn it. With those kind of side effects, though, Sephiroth thought it was probably for the better. “Now we can all go back to work in peace.”
“Peace?” Zack snorted. “Yeah, right — we’ve got another batch of SOLDIER exams coming up, and I need to work on another set of partnerships.”
“Poor baby, defeated by paperwork,” Cloud teased. “I’m sure we can find you some help.”
Zack gave him a halfhearted glare. “And I don’t suppose you can teach me the Omnislash, either — unless I’m mistaken and that’s not what that was?”
Cloud shook his head. “No, it was, and I can — I figured it out before we left Midgar.”
“So why didn’t you show me?”
“I think I remember something about avoiding each other so ‘the crazy alien bitch doesn’t hijack our minds,’” Cloud replied. “But I can show you now.”
“You better, or I’m gonna dump all the SOLDIER applicant paperwork on you,” Zack threatened. Sephiroth felt his lips twitch in amusement; he would think of paperwork as punishment.
Finally they reached the spot they had tethered their mounts. All four took the opportunity to change, and prepare a short meal. As they saddled up, Zack frowned. “You know… there’s one thing about this that kind of bothers me.”
“What’s that?” Sephiroth asked as he watched Cloud swing into the saddle. He looked like he was doing okay, but Sephiroth made a mental note to watch him. Cloud was the type who would overextend himself rather than confess any weakness.
“I never got to kill anything that really mattered!” Two pairs of eyes looked at him; Valentine just ignored them and finished saddling his bird, which rolled its eyes and shifted from foot to foot nervously for a moment before settling down with a resigned ‘kweh.’ “I mean, you got to kill that Hojo clone, Seph, and Valentine got to kill the real thing—” here Valentine looked rather pleased with himself, for which Sephiroth frankly couldn’t blame him “—and Cloud got to kill the alien bitch! All I’ve gotten to kill is a bunch of random monsters and sometimes a dragon.”
“And mosquitoes,” Sephiroth deadpanned.
Zack stared at him; Cloud laughed outright. “In that case, how about we let you kill anything that pops up between here and Midgar?”
“Very funny, Cloud.” Zack nudged his mount forward. “Race you home!”
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Genre: General/Drama
Pairings: ZackxSeph, ReevexAeris OCxOC, Assorted Past
Rating (Overall): PG-13
Warnings: None this chapter.
Summary: "The bitch was going to die."
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all associated characters and symbols are the exclusive property of Square Enix and its associates. We’re just borrowing them for a while.
Chapter 51
They didn’t leave right away — it would be better, they agreed, at least try to get permission to take a leave of absence — but after that night, all three SOLDIERs continued to feel Jenova’s influence. Cloud was by far the worst off, to the point that he’d sometimes find himself sleepwalking, heading north (until he walked into a wall and woke up, anyway), though the others had their own problems. Zack found himself losing time, as he had when Cloud had borrowed his body, and Sephiroth faced an insidious foe: he found himself more easily growing frustrated, angry, inclined to lash out at others. They did their best to spend time apart; Zack moved back into his own quarters, and Cloud bunked with Vincent (Chaos’s presence had a wonderful way of disrupting Jenova’s siren song). All three reluctantly submitted to Matheson’s testing, and the results indicated that their J-cells were rapidly growing more active and plentiful.
“At this rate,” Zack muttered, “we might as well just give up and burn down the building.”
“Don’t joke,” Cloud replied, even softer, as he glanced at Sephiroth, who was showing those subtle signs of his irritation again. Zack sighed. All of SOLDIER was worried about the pair of them, as they hadn’t been so standoffish with each other in years. Zack didn’t honestly know what was worse: those trying to give them suggestions on how to get back together, or those who were shoving Cloud at either Sephiroth or himself (or both).
“The President refuses to listen. He says that Cloud destroyed Jenova in Mideel, and until he gets information conclusively proving otherwise he’s not sending us anywhere. He offered to send a SOLDIER squad if we could provide him with a location.” Sephiroth looked at the map in his office. “But all we know is north.”
“Probably on the Northern Continent,” Zack mused, “but more than that… who knows?”
“Even if we did send a squad, we can’t be sure they’d get back,” Cloud pointed out. “If Jenova could take over Zack, who knows what else she could do?”
The vision of an alien lifeform playing puppetmaster with their fellow SOLDIERs made all three suppress a shiver.
“How are things with Aeris?” Zack asked after a moment, turning to Cloud.
His friend shrugged. “As good as we can get. We think she can cast Great Gospel, but she doesn’t want to do it for kicks. We aren’t sure how powerful it’ll be.”
“Bringing — or sending — Ms. Gainsborough on this mission is out of the question. Mr. Tuesti was quite clear about that.” Sephiroth took a long drink of his coffee before picking up his pen, apparently ready to go back to his work.
“We… think she can do it long distance. Getting her near Jenova isn’t something we want, either.” Cloud took a deep breath. “Reno has some gold chocobos at the ranch. There’s six of them, already broken to saddle.”
“They should be able to take us wherever we need to go.” Zack nodded grimly. “We can’t just wait anymore. It’s probably been too long as it is.”
“Agreed. However…” Sephiroth gazed at Cloud sternly. “I don’t think we should bring you with us; you’re too unstable. And no sneaking off to meet us, either.”
Cloud smiled, and Zack suppressed a shiver. “All right. Have fun finding Her.”
“She’s north—”
“Yes, but that’s all you have to work off of.” Cloud’s expression was stubborn. “I’m more sensitive, and what’s more, we resonate. She’s infecting a Cetra body; I’m probably the closest thing we got to that.”
Zack gave him a look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s a long story, but I haven’t just been Aeris’s guinea pig. I’ve been learning a bit myself.”
“And so you can’t figure out how to take care of stuff from here?”
“I’ve only been doing this for a couple months,” Cloud reminded him. “Maybe in a few years I’d be able to do it from here, but we don’t have that kind of time. And no, Aeris can’t locate her either. As we get closer I should be able to tell, though. I could in Mideel, even though I wasn’t sure what it was.”
“And she could likely sense you in turn,” Sephiroth pointed out. “You could be leading us all into a trap, and if you’re under her influence…”
“I could be.” Cloud spread his hands. “But do we have much of a choice? Better to walk into a trap armed to the teeth and ready for it than to wait until we can’t fight it anymore.” He met Sephiroth’s gaze without flinching, and in that moment Zack was prouder than he’d ever been of Cloud. He’d changed so much from the shy kid Zack had first taken under his wing; he was strong, confident, and willing to stand up for what he felt needed to be done.
“Can’t argue with that.” Zack grinned. “Let’s do this.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Before dawn the next day, two motorcycles left the city, each carrying two passengers. Only Cloud had a PHS, a civilian one he’d bought for cash in the slums. While lacking some of the capabilities the military ones had, it would allow him to contact Aeris when they needed to and hopefully avoid being tracked, at least for a little while.
They made their way east to the ranch, making off with Blondie and three of her siblings. Cloud felt a bit bad about that, but left a note promising to pay Reno and Rude back once they returned with the birds.
The gold chocobos were as good as legend claimed, trotting across the sea between the continents with astounding ease. On their second day on the Northern Continent, however, they encountered a rather strange problem. As they entered a forest, the members of their party would find themselves overcome with weariness until they awoke on the northern edge of a little archaeological settlement, no further than they had been hours previous. Finally, Sephiroth suggested they travel further east, skirting the mountains of the coast until they could approach the valley where that presence waited from a different angle.
“It’s here,” Cloud whispered. The silence over the city seemed sacrosanct; speaking at all seemed wrong, as if they stood in a great tomb.
“Where?”
Cloud pointed, indicating the path. The pressure in his mind had grown ever since they reached the Northern Continent, but now that they had managed to circumvent the forest, it was a constant unnerving feeling, like an unidentifiable background noise. Sephiroth and Zack were also showing signs of irritation probably caused by it, though they didn’t seem as uneasy as Cloud who could also feel the Lifestream bubbling here, deep and raw and powerful and so close to the surface it was almost as if he could taste it. I may not be able to hear it like Aeris can, but when it’s this intense it’s pretty hard to ignore. Pulling out his PHS, he sent her a quick message. She needed to be ready.
The group tethered their mounts and headed down into the city, the eerily oppressive silence only growing more so as they continued on. Occasionally a monster would appear, but other than that nothing interrupted their pilgrimage.
All the paths led to a shell-like building in the center of the city, where the only way forward was down a winding set of stairs. Cloud fought with himself every step of the way; part of him wanted to run forward into join Jenova, while the rest of him wanted to flee as far as he could from this disease that corrupted everything it touched.
And suddenly there they were. A horrible creature, like something out of a child’s worst nightmare, floated in an altar-like space. A bloated spherical thing with two tentacles, Jenova’s form did not resemble the one they had fought in Mideel at all.
“Zack, Sephiroth — take the front,” Cloud said quietly. “Vincent, if you could provide them some backup, Aeris and I’ll get to work.”
Zack and Sephiroth nodded and moved forward, drawing their blades. Vincent stood close to Cloud, his position one that would allow him to provide covering gunfire while keeping an eye on Cloud at the same time. They had asked him to accompany them for this; if worse came to worst, at least someone unaffected by Jenova’s influence could try to take them down.
Cloud knelt, his sword on the ground before him — not Shiranui, but a weapon he’d picked up on his travels, a single well-balanced blade. Ignoring the battle, he closed his eyes and folded his hands over the hilt. He had to reach Aeris and bring her here. Hopefully the part of him that called itself Jenova’s ‘son’ wouldn’t escape his bonds before he returned.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Aeris jumped a bit when her PHS rang. A short message showed on the screen: get ready. She immediately abandoned the flowerbed she’d been working on, causing Tifa to watch her worriedly as she hurried from the garden. “What’s up?”
“There’s something I have to do at the church.” She lengthened her stride; it wouldn’t be long before they began fighting, and she wanted to be in position before then.
“…does this have to do with Cloud’s mysterious disappearance?” Tifa asked quietly as she matched Aeris’s pace. Receiving a sharp look in response, she shrugged. “Look, they may not be broadcasting it, but just about everyone knows Sephiroth and Zack are missing. Tseng wanted to know what happened, so he went looking for Vincent or Cloud — and they’re both gone too.”
“There’s something they have to take care of.” Tifa gave her a curious look, but Aeris, always careful about what she said around Turks, didn’t elaborate further. Even though those new allegiances made Aeris more reserved around Tifa, she could tell it had been good for her, at least socially; Tifa’s partner, the taciturn Rude, was a fantastic match for her in combat, enough so that their sparring had started attracting spectators. And while Tifa might not enjoy all of her assignments, it was surely nice for her to have a peer group of women of a similar mindset: they didn’t want to have children or settle down, they wanted adventure, and they wanted to push themselves to the limit. She had struggled some with the decision the last couple of months, it seemed, but honestly it was clear Tifa had found her place.
Once she’d rather firmly shown Reno his in relation to her.
As they boarded the train, Aeris silently recited what she had read in the Cetra manuscript Cloud had retrieved. Fire and water are the elements of purification. Water can bring great relief and cleanse one who is tainted; fire can burn out the taint more aggressively, though not without cost to both the caller and the one to whom she ministers. Only one of our people has successfully called Soulfire down on the Crisis’s spawn, and he returned to the Planet soon after. We can only conclude, then, that water may be the best way to seal the Calamity forever.
Cloud had used Soulfire on the piece of Jenova in Mideel; Aeris had been sure of it the moment she had read its description, and its side effects. They couldn’t know if Cloud would be able to do so again — or if it was really him who had done it at all; it was quite possible that the Planet or the souls of the Cetra in the Lifestream might have worked through him — and even then Cloud had been badly wounded in the process. If he tried to replicate it in a tougher fight, how much worse might the backlash be? Aeris hoped that the Great Gospel spell would allow them to successfully seal Jenova, giving them time to find another method to destroy her later.
Inside the church, she settled herself into the flowerbed, grasping her mother’s materia tightly, more for comfort than anything else. Closing her eyes, Aeris reached for the Lifestream. The babble of the Voices surrounded her for both a moment and an eternity, all sense of time fading as she listened to their broken conversation. Their agitation was quite clear; they weren’t happy about Jenova’s active state, or the fact that those most tainted by her touch were so close to her.
-Aeris!-
Cloud’s mental voice, much stronger after practice, touched her mind. She took his spiritual ‘hand’ and let herself be pulled towards him, leaving her body behind. She hoped Tifa wouldn’t try to interrupt her — at best she’d get no response; at worst she might manage to pull Aeris back to her body.
-Worry about that later. Focus!-
Cloud’s words, similar to the ones he had used when training her years ago, snapped her attention back to the moment. In a few seconds they had traveled the length of the continent, and were flying into a silent city. -I thought you couldn’t see the world while you were like this?-
-I can’t. It must be your influence.- Cloud drew Aeris down, and she shuddered when she saw Jenova’s form, lashing out at the others.
-Focus,- Cloud reminded her again before settling back into his body, his face twisting with pain. Aeris’ eyes widened in realization: he must be fighting the portion of his soul corrupted by Jenova.
So she did as Cloud requested, trying to settle her mind into the proper focus to cast the Great Gospel. It was hard — she wasn’t used to doing this without the reassuring solidity of the earth around her, and the sounds of combat made it difficult to concentrate. Zack staggered to his feet as Sephiroth lopped off one of the tentacles, though not without taking a few wounds himself. Aeris couldn’t close her eyes to block out the carnage, but she could focused on the water behind Jenova, lying placid in the basin below. With all her heart she prayed. Gaea, Mother of All…
Her prayers were answered.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sephiroth regarded the monster before him with icy rage. This creature had tried to turn him against his friends, had attempted to manipulate him into following it, had nearly taken Zack from him, and had tried to use Cloud to lure them into its power.
No more.
As if sensing his mood, a tentacle shot out, slapping at Zack, who managed to bring up the Buster Sword and deflect it. Sephiroth lunged, managing a shallow cut before it recoiled. “Tough skin. Very tough.”
“Damn. Things can’t ever be easy, can they?” Zack eyes the creature with distaste. “Materia?”
“If you think you can cast properly.” Sephiroth didn’t trust his own abilities at the moment. The insidious voice that had called to him constantly since they had stepped within the city hampered his concentration, and he didn’t want to bring the building down on their heads with a miscast spell.
Zack shook his head; apparently he was having the same problem. “I guess we’re back to the old standby, then.”
Valentine’s gun sounded; the bullets ricocheted off the creature’s carapace. Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, impressed in spite of himself. Zack lunged forward, trying to slice off one of the thick tentacles, but for all his trouble barely managed to break the skin. “Seph, I think we’ve got a problem.”
“I’ll try to open up wounds; you work on making them worse.” Sephiroth was as good as his word, using his speed to close the distance between him and his target; the tentacles moved with such speed, however, that he only managed to graze one of them. Zack focused on attacking there while Sephiroth reversed his momentum and came at Jenova from another angle. This time he managed a decent hit, a wound at least three or four inches deep; a bullet from Valentine’s gun blew past him, hitting the creature dead-on.
“Damn, these things are annoying,” Zack huffed as he tried with little success to widen the cut Sephiroth had made. “Ugh. You know what? Let’s go for broke.” He launched himself into the air, raising the Buster Sword above his head, ready to plunge it into Jenova’s main body—
—only to catch a tentacle to the chest, slamming into a wall with a sickening crunch. Sephiroth felt as if time slowed to a crawl at the sound, and regardless of all of his training, looked apprehensively over his shoulder at the man who had become his partner in all things. For an unbearably long moment Zack was still, and then he managed to twitch, just a bit. Valentine was already raising his arm, a green materia — whether it was a Restore or a Life, he couldn’t tell — flaring with power in his bracer.
The relief that came over Sephiroth as he realized that Zack wasn’t gone yet gave way to a towering anger that scoured Jenova’s cajoling from his mind. How dare this thing try to take from him the first person who had accepted him unconditionally? He contemptuously batted the tentacle that had reached for him while he was distracted out of the way, and with cool precision swung the Masamune at the cut that Vincent had enlarged with his shots. The sharp blade managed to cut through the limb entirely this time, and the other tentacle whipped toward him in response. Sephiroth dodged the mindless attack, ignoring whatever it struck behind him. All his being was focused on one truth: This creature was going to die.
::betrayer do not court that vermin you are worth far more than he::
“He’s worth a thousand of you,” Sephiroth snarled, and whirled to slice at Jenova’s remaining tentacle. Another shallow cut, though this time his foe seemed to understand the vulnerability and managed to move away faster.
Suddenly, it began to rain.
For a moment everyone froze, stunned — how could it rain indoors and underground? And then Sephiroth saw the water glowing behind the altar, bursting into mist and gently drizzling down over them. Everything it touched seemed to be somehow more. Sephiroth was reminded of Wutai, a mission which had had them out in the field for weeks, barely managing to eke out an existence on the meager leavings of the battered island. When they finally had returned to civilization, the simple act of taking a shower seemed to clear so much more than grime away, revitalizing them and making them feel human again.
This rain was like that, only better.
Jenova screamed at the touch of the water; it burned her flesh, hissing as it turned into steam. Behind him, Sephiroth heard someone rising to his feet — Zack, who spoke in an awed whisper, “Well, I’ll be damned.”
Sephiroth felt the beginnings of a smile, and didn’t even try to stop it as Zack moved to stand where he belonged at his side. Sizing Jenova up again, he realized abruptly that he could think clearly — whatever the rain had done was muting her voice as well. “Let’s finish this.”
Zack grinned at him. “Sounds good to me.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cloud settled back into his body. He had intended to join Zack and Sephiroth in fighting Jenova — they looked like they could use the help — but found his unwelcome partner nearly free of the bonds Aeris had woven around him. I can’t believe this; we spent weeks on those! With a shake of his head, Cloud pulled up a mindscape of the gym he and Sephiroth had sparred in a few weeks ago, and materialized Shiranui in his hands. “Hey!”
His double turned and glared at him with cat-slit green eyes. “Traitor! You have brought the Enemy with you. She will not seal Mother!”
Cloud wasn’t really in the mood for talking. He rapidly closed the distance between, but his doppelgänger summoned a blade of his own, blocking his thrust. They clashed again, and Jenova’s puppet jumped backwards. Cloud followed him; he couldn’t let him get free or else he’d turn against the others—
Pain broke Cloud’s concentration. The settings he had crafted vanished. He felt dizzy, his head aching strangely. Taking advantage of his disorientation, his double cried silently to the creature before them, Mother, they have brought the Enemy. Run! Do not let them seal you away! I will fight. Go!
And Jenova’s presence began to fade. While the creature before them was still real, some fraction of its consciousness was vanishing, departing for a different vessel. Cloud looked around, fighting to ignore the pain of his head wound as his mind raced. Where was she going? Zack? Sephiroth? Surely not Vincent—
Then the rain began to fall.
It was like taking the first breath of fresh air after leaving the city. Cloud suddenly felt alert and calm, his wounds healing before his eyes. Jenova’s presence diminished, but for a different reason — and the puppet in his mind wailed in agony as the rain continued to fall. Cloud breathed a sigh of relief as he turned his focus to the creature before them. Aeris had managed to cast the Great Gospel; would it be enough?
Revitalized by the rain, Sephiroth renewed his attacks, Zack at his side. Death Penalty sang out as Vincent targeted the areas made vulnerable by their blades. For a moment, Cloud felt a wave of hope rise in his chest. They could win this battle; they wouldn’t even need his help…
Then he felt the shift. Even as Sephiroth continued with his relentless strikes, Jenova began to gather power. The spell felt unlike anything Cloud had ever seen cast — but he knew it was something big, as did Sephiroth, who shouted a warning to Zack.
You’ll never stop Her. Even if you kill this piece of Her, enough has escaped. We’ll heal and we’ll crush you like the traitors you are, his dopplegänger snarled, bringing up Cloud’s mindscape again and shoving him down. Cloud fought, managing to put a knife through the puppet’s shoulder, but he already knew it wasn’t enough. The puppet was right; Jenova would escape, and then they would have to do this again… or she would go into hiding, waiting centuries if necessarily, regaining strength and biding her time until there was no one who could stop her.
No.
Cloud stopped fighting. Jenova’s puppet continued to hammer him into the wall of their mind, but he did his best to ignore it. Instead he reached out with his mind, seeking first to touch the Lifestream, then following it deeper.
-No, Cloud! Don’t!-
He ignored Aeris’s cries and continued down, reaching for the well of power that sang beneath the flow of the departed. All souls came from here, the heart of the Planet. While they returned to the Lifestream after death, this was their true home. Here was kindled the spark of life in every living creature, and with enough focus one could call this fire into the corporal plane. This was the power of the Weapons that slept in the north, the power of the Summon Spirits waiting beyond the edge of mortal consciousness.
Cloud had never purposefully done this before. Only once had he wielded this power, and for something with far greater knowledge and experience working through him, using him as a passive conduit. If it hadn’t been for Aeris’s intervention back then, his mind would have been burned out completely.
I can’t let her get away. What part of his will wasn’t focused on seeking the power of the Planet reached out and grabbed his counterpart’s shirt roughly. One way or another, the puppet wouldn’t be coming out of this intact.
Aeris was still frantically pleading with him to reconsider. -I’m sorry,- he told her as he released his hold on her spirit. Even if he hadn’t been sending her away for her safety, he couldn’t have spared the willpower to keep her here.
White-hot fire raced down his blade, and his eyes snapped open and as he rose to his feet. The space between him and his enemy vanished in a few steps as he raised his sword high and brought it down, faster than the eye could follow. He raised the blade and struck again, over and over, the movements so quick it was almost as if they were a single perfect strike — the Omnislash.
Cloud only regretted he wouldn’t get a chance to teach it to Zack.
Jenova’s scream stung ears and mind alike as the flaming blade sliced into her, burning through her defenses and consuming the soft flesh beneath. Zack dropped to the ground cursing, his hands over his ears, and Sephiroth looked as if he wished to do the same. Cloud couldn’t see Vincent, but he could sense Chaos’s approval.
The bitch was going to die.
Even as the vessel before them writhed and burned under his attack, Cloud could sense the power reach further. It continued to burn through his arms and hands, down his blade and into Jenova, a white comet of power that vanished from the material plane to reenter the spiritual one. Her puppet, his own corrupted mind, vanished under the onslaught. Cloud felt his control waver, but stubbornly held on. They weren’t done yet.
Jenova had sought to hide her spirit in other vessels, but Soulfire was not limited by physical constraints. And she had really ticked off the Planet, which was more than happy to give Cloud the power he needed to destroy her for good.
The Crisis’s screams tripled as far away the white-hot flame engulfed two other vessels. Cloud could barely make his eyes to stay open, but forced the power through himself until the last of her cries died — and abruptly the Soulfire let him go. His sword, twisted into unrecognizable dross by the heat, dropped to the floor with a clang, and Cloud wasn’t far behind.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Valentine moved almost faster than Sephiroth could follow, catching Cloud’s badly burned body as he fell. Carefully carrying him over to the basin’s edge, he scooped up some of the water and poured it into Cloud’s mouth. “You should drink as well,” he instructed. “It will help purify you of any remaining traces of Jenova.”
Zack hurried to do so, not bothering to use his hands but just lowering his head to the water, taking huge gulps. Sephiroth, for his part, took a few restrained sips. The water was amazingly cold and pure, as if from a mountain spring — it certainly didn’t taste like it had been sitting still and undisturbed for years or possibly centuries.
“Is Cloud okay?” Zack asked, looking concerned as he touched his friend’s forehead. “He feels hot…”
“Put him in the water,” Sephiroth suggested. “Maybe it’ll heal him.” He refused to accept the possibility that he might already be too far gone for that. They stripped him down and lowered him into the basin, but despite the cold, Cloud didn’t wake. After a few uncomfortably long minutes, Sephiroth looked at Valentine. “What’s wrong with him?”
The Turk shook his head. “I’m not sure. Chaos says… he drew upon the power of the Planet in a form that may have destroyed his mind.”
“What?” Zack looked outraged. “What the hell was he thinking?”
Valentine was silent for a moment, his head cocked as if listening to a voice they could not hear. “Apparently Jenova had two more hosts in addition to this one. The power he used managed to kill them both.”
“…and if he hadn’t, She would have waited until She had recovered and could strike again,” Sephiroth summarized, remembering Gast’s notes on how well preserved Jenova had been even after centuries underground.
“But…” Zack cursed. “Cloud shouldn’t have sacrificed himself to kill that bitch!”
The looks on his companions’ faces showed their complete agreement.
“…So now what?”
“Now we wait,” Vincent said gravely, settling himself in a position to do so.
Zack opened his mouth, no doubt to protest; Sephiroth, already moving to sit, shook his head. With a sigh, Zack followed suit, and from the hunch of his shoulders Sephiroth could tell he was trying not to be unnerved by how Vincent watched Cloud’s body intently, his eyes seeming almost to glow like coals in a fire.
Time crawled by. The light drizzle that was all that remained of that healing rain tapered off and finally ceased altogether, and still Cloud didn’t move. They didn’t speak; none of them wanted to give voice to the possibility that he wouldn’t awaken.
When Sephiroth had reached the point that even he was fighting the urge to pace, he broke the silence. “His lips are turning blue; we have to take him out of the water.”
“But the water is supposed to be helping him, right?” Zack jumped up for at least the dozenth time. “I don’t know if we should…”
“I’d prefer to take the route that we know won’t inflict hypothermia on him,” Sephiroth said brusquely, and rose. “I think we’ve put him in enough danger today as it is.”
“Sorry,” came a weak voice, barely more than a whisper.
“Cloud!”
Tired blue eyes looked up at them. “Why am I wet?”
Zack hauled him out of the water. “We thought it’d help heal you — I mean, hey, no more burns, right?”
“‘S great, but I’m freezing.” Cloud shivered. “Too bad you ditched your cloak, Vincent. I could use a towel.”
“I doubt anything here is still usable… and we left the bedrolls outside. I’m sorry.” Sephiroth handed Cloud his clothes.
He grimaced before stiffly pulling them on, not even bothering to wait to dry. “Call Aeris,” he told Zack, nodding at his PHS. “I lost my hold on her.”
Zack nodded and dialed her number. “Aeris?”
“Zack! Oh, thank Gaea — is Cloud all right? I lost him.” She sounded near frantic.
“He’s okay. A bit wet, but all right other than that.” Zack grinned at his friend.
“Ah — sorry about that. I think it’s part of the Great Gospel.”
“Either way, Aer, that was pretty damn impressive. We couldn’t have won that fight without your help. And all the way from Midgar, no less!”
“Thank Cloud — he’s the one who got me there.” Aeris’s voice turned scolding. “And tell him if he ever worries me like that again he’ll find his pillows restuffed with nettles!”
Zack chuckled and dutifully repeated her threat. Cloud just shook his head, but he was smiling.
“Anyway, you should come back soon. You’ve been missed, and I think the President is about ready to send someone after you.”
“Will do.” Zack hung up. “We better go. Sounds like Shinra is not happy.”
“Right.” Cloud unsteadily got to his feet, only to be swept into Valentine’s arms. “Dammit, Vincent! I’m not six anymore!”
“You’ve had a very trying experience, and it’s important you don’t relapse,” the Turk calmly justified. “You should take the time to recover.”
“I’m fine. Aeris’s power works miracles.”
Sephiroth gave him a significant look — he had the feeling ‘working miracles’ was a rather apt description of what had happened — and Cloud glared defiantly back. Sephiroth’s lips quirked; he had all of Zack’s stubbornness and more, it seemed. Somehow he had forgotten that in Cloud’s time away. “Well, then… Only until we reach the chocobos.”
They left the silent city quickly. Cloud looked around as they passed the pale shell-like buildings. “You know, maybe we should tell someone about this place. It seems to be pretty well preserved.”
“I think we’d best leave the Ancients’ secrets to themselves,” Valentine put in. “This place is beautiful, and remarkably well preserved. I somehow doubt ShinRa — or anyone else, for that matter — would keep it like this.”
“You’re probably right. I just feel like we could learn so much about them from what’s here… I know Aeris wants to know more about her people.”
“Come back up and look around yourself sometime in the future,” Zack suggested. “It isn’t going anywhere.”
“Good idea. And if that water holds its power, we should probably get some more of it.” Sephiroth tilted his head questioningly, and Cloud elaborated, “Every SOLDIER had Jenova cells. It would be best to give everyone some just in case, right?”
“Probably,” he agreed.
They walked bit longer in silence, each alone with his thoughts, until Zack spoke up again. “What did you do in there, anyway? That fire-glowing thing?”
Cloud frowned, thinking. “I’m… not really sure how to describe it. It’s all pretty blurry, actually; I can’t remember it clearly. But I used the power of the Planet somehow, and I just… I know Jenova’s dead.” The certainty in his voice was comforting, but Sephiroth wondered how much Cloud really remembered and how much he didn’t want to tell Zack — who never let the complexity of a technique stop him from trying to learn it. With those kind of side effects, though, Sephiroth thought it was probably for the better. “Now we can all go back to work in peace.”
“Peace?” Zack snorted. “Yeah, right — we’ve got another batch of SOLDIER exams coming up, and I need to work on another set of partnerships.”
“Poor baby, defeated by paperwork,” Cloud teased. “I’m sure we can find you some help.”
Zack gave him a halfhearted glare. “And I don’t suppose you can teach me the Omnislash, either — unless I’m mistaken and that’s not what that was?”
Cloud shook his head. “No, it was, and I can — I figured it out before we left Midgar.”
“So why didn’t you show me?”
“I think I remember something about avoiding each other so ‘the crazy alien bitch doesn’t hijack our minds,’” Cloud replied. “But I can show you now.”
“You better, or I’m gonna dump all the SOLDIER applicant paperwork on you,” Zack threatened. Sephiroth felt his lips twitch in amusement; he would think of paperwork as punishment.
Finally they reached the spot they had tethered their mounts. All four took the opportunity to change, and prepare a short meal. As they saddled up, Zack frowned. “You know… there’s one thing about this that kind of bothers me.”
“What’s that?” Sephiroth asked as he watched Cloud swing into the saddle. He looked like he was doing okay, but Sephiroth made a mental note to watch him. Cloud was the type who would overextend himself rather than confess any weakness.
“I never got to kill anything that really mattered!” Two pairs of eyes looked at him; Valentine just ignored them and finished saddling his bird, which rolled its eyes and shifted from foot to foot nervously for a moment before settling down with a resigned ‘kweh.’ “I mean, you got to kill that Hojo clone, Seph, and Valentine got to kill the real thing—” here Valentine looked rather pleased with himself, for which Sephiroth frankly couldn’t blame him “—and Cloud got to kill the alien bitch! All I’ve gotten to kill is a bunch of random monsters and sometimes a dragon.”
“And mosquitoes,” Sephiroth deadpanned.
Zack stared at him; Cloud laughed outright. “In that case, how about we let you kill anything that pops up between here and Midgar?”
“Very funny, Cloud.” Zack nudged his mount forward. “Race you home!”
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