fic: eir's tomorrow (ff7) - ch.14, part 2/2
part 1
…
Cissnei had taken them all to her room at the Inn, pointedly locking the door behind them. She had just finished explaining everything she knew about Gillian Hewley's presence as well as what she'd seen concerning the mansion when a dark shadow blocked out the window. Tifa unlatched it to let Vincent inside.
"That was fast," Elena commented.
Vincent shot her a wilting look as he pulled a pad of paper and a pen from the bedside table. "I'm already familiar with the mansion itself. I only wished to know its exterior." He pulled a small table doing service as a desk away from the wall and spread a piece of paper across it.
"How do you know the layout of the mansion?" Zack asked.
"Hojo interred me in a crypt just off the main corridor of the basement labs," Vincent said. Maybe it was the need to hurry and get to Cloud that was making him more forthcoming than usual. "After Cloud woke me some years ago, I ensured that there were no other projects of his remaining."
"Oh."
As Vincent's human hand smoothly guided the pen over the paper, he said, "Hojo's impatience will work to our favor. He did not wait for the construction to finish before relocating Cloud, which means that security won't be so effective.
"At the main gates are only three guards, likely to keep the villagers from suspecting anything."
Tifa cocked her cowgirl hat to one side and made sure her skirt was hiked up a little higher than usual before approaching the mansion's entrance.
"What's going on?" she asked brightly, pasting a smile on her face as she pretended to peer over the guards' shoulders.
"Just rebuilding, missy," said the tallest of the guards, "nothing to see here."
"But if it's ShinRa's mansion, it's gotta be absolutely gorgeous. It gonna take long to finish?" She made sure to keep her eyes wide with innocence, playing up the part of a fifteen-year-old girl from a rural village. One of the men couldn't seem to move his eyes higher than her shoulders. Tifa felt a little sick with herself, purposely pandering to the sort of attention she'd always hated getting. (If she didn't know better she'd say Elena sometimes looked at her like that too, but it was a ridiculous idea, anyway; they were both girls.)
"Depends on how bad this snow gets," the third groused, casting a dirty look over the mountain peaks surrounding them. Tifa resisted the urge to kick him in the shin. This was her home, damn it.
"Winters here get real rough," she agreed vaguely. And you'd never be able to handle them. "Think maybe I could get a look before we all get snowed in?"
The guards glanced at each other, and that was when Tifa saw Cissnei melt out of the shadows of the gate walls.
"Asshole," Tifa snarled, and promptly kicked the nearest guard in the knee. He buckled with a yell that was sharply cut off as a blow from her fist sent him reeling into unconsciousness. She turned in time to see another guard collapse and Cissnei yank her large shuriken from the third's throat. When her eyes widened this time, it was in horror.
"Cissnei, what…"
"Save your sympathy, Tifa," Cissnei said quietly. "We need to get going."
"Someone should remain with a PHS at the entrance to the labs." Vincent pointed at his makeshift map with a claw.
"Tifa, Cait Sith, that's you," said Zack, and when Tifa opened her mouth to argue furiously, he added, "Elena and Cissnei are both Turks, we might need their help. We don't know what we're gonna be facing in the labs and we can't afford to get ambushed by whatever backup Hojo might call for."
"But Cloud - "
"Whatever's down there won't be human. We can't risk it. Stay with Cait Sith so we've got a direct line to Reeve." Zack felt strange, like he was channeling Angeal or even Sephiroth. He was only seventeen, he wasn't supposed to be commanding anyone, but Angeal hadn't been around for a long time and Sephiroth wasn't there and there was no one else left but him.
"Please, Tifa," Elena broke in, utterly serious, and Tifa slowly sat back on the edge of the bed with a bitten-out, "Fine."
"Heard from Tseng that you're a right genius with technology, little missy!" Cait Sith chirped at Elena, jumping around on his Mog. Because of the tight confines of the room, Zack had to take a hasty step back to avoid getting a face full of fur. "Hojo's got some tricky security goin' on, so that's where you come in!"
Tifa, Elena, and Cissnei slipped through the gates while Vincent and Zack jumped the wall farther down, out of sight of the workers. Vincent led them along the perimeter of the estate, avoiding the construction crew around the front of the building. At the rear was what looked like an enormous sinkhole some twenty feet across, surrounded by a line of yellow rope marking off the circumference as a warning, with clods of soil and plant roots hanging over the edge into empty air.
"What the hell?"
"Quiet, missy, you'll bring the whole crew down on our heads!" Cait Sith whispered to Elena.
"It leads into the tunnels," Vincent murmured. "When you drop down, you'll be in a crypt. Go out into the corridor and to your left will be the main library."
Zack followed Vincent into the sinkhole, absently brushing the dirt off his gloves before helping Cissnei and Tifa down. Elena refused his help and jumped down herself.
It was eerie. The sinkhole was like a giant skylight several feet above their heads in what would've otherwise been a pitch-black crypt with crumbling stone walls and an uneven floor. Several coffins were arranged in a loose semi-circle around an enormous altar, one so cracked and greyed with age that the carved glyphs were nearly worn away.
"I remember this," Tifa said quietly. "The mansion burned down right before Cloud left and my dad had Missus Strife come out and take a look."
"Why?" Zack blinked, and Tifa shifted uncomfortably.
"Well, his family's lived in these mountains for ages. They say his mum came from one of the last original clans or tribes or something, which is why she's the only one that could read what that altar says."
"Cloud burned down the mansion," Vincent said from near the door. He was working open the rusted lock with a claw.
"Wait, what?"
Vincent cast them all a sidelong look. "There is much that has happened that none of you know, most of it concerning Cloud."
"Like what?" Elena demanded, like a dog that had gotten sight of a bone, but the lock suddenly popped off and Vincent pushed the door open. "Let's go."
"But - "
"We'll figure this out later, Elena, preferably with Cloud," Zack broke in, just short of a snap. Keep it together, Fair. "Cait, does Hojo have any special security? Maybe a mutated pet dragon in a closet somewhere?"
Cait Sith listed to one side briefly, presumably as Reeve took control. "No, Zack, not that I can tell. Be careful anyway."
"Intend to, sir. Tifa, Cait Sith," he said, "take my PHS and wait out in the corridor. Let us know if anything vaguely resembling a mad scientist comes down the tunnel. If anything else goes wrong, like, way wrong, get back out this way as fast as you can."
"And how're you guys gonna get out?" Tifa demanded. Vincent had already disappeared into the gloom, Zack and Cissnei close behind. Elena was checking her stash of Molotov cocktails as she grinned.
"We're Turks, we're worse than cockroaches." Then she kissed Tifa firmly, pulling away before the brunette could react and running into the corridor. "Don't do anything we wouldn't do!"
Zack swallowed a laugh as they left Tifa standing in stunned amazement in the light coming down through the sinkhole, Cait Sith looking nearly as surprised.
Cissnei and Elena allowed Zack and Vincent to take the lead, relying on the men's enhanced senses to keep an eye out for unexpected monsters or uneven ground, but they reached the library without incident. There was a keypad on the door and Elena immediately dropped to her knees, poking at it.
"Can you do it?" Zack asked quietly, scanning the corridor for either monsters or scientists. One hand rested on the Buster's hilt, just as Vincent kept a hand on Death Penalty. They were nearly obscured by the deep gloom of the tunnels, the light of the electric bulbs almost reluctant to push too far into the shadows.
"Of course I can," she scoffed, remembering to keep her voice down, and then pulled out…something. Zack had no idea what it was except that it looked a little like a pen and had a blinking light on the end. She started poking the keypad again with the pen-thing.
"Right," Zack muttered, "better you than me."
The keypad let out a soft bleep and Elena pushed it open with a pleased smirk on her face.
"Elena, Cissnei, you two stay in the library while Vincent and I get in the lab."
Elena opened her mouth to argue, but Cissnei put a hand on her arm. "We don't know what's going to be in there, Elena. Hojo might've created anything, it's better to let a SOLDIER and Vincent," because no one really understood what Vincent was, exactly, "take care of it. Besides, you and I need to go through the library. If what Vincent says is true, then Hojo will probably have left his reports lying around. We find the reports, we might find a way to fix whatever Hojo's already done to Cloud."
The blonde chewed at her lip anxiously. Then Tifa spoke up. "Besides, wouldn't Turks be best at finding the information that no one wants them to know?"
Zack snickered as Elena was visibly torn between arguing and preening.
"Look for anything labeled with 'C'," Vincent told the Turks. "Hojo's usual method is to take the first initial of his victim's name."
Dehumanization, Zack thought sickly.
Elena was already sitting down at the lone computer on the desk while Cissnei rooted through scattered papers and upended books. "Fine, fine," the latter said distractedly, "just get going."
"Zack," Vincent said quietly, staring at him across the small table, "I need to know that you'll be able to keep your head."
Visions of flying death machines and beheading flitted through his brain. "Huh?"
"The lab that Hojo uses for SOLDIER mako showers is just for show. The labs that hold his true experiments are…very different. He has no need to hide what happens there."
Vincent was chronically dramatic, yes, but the SOLDIER had the horrible feeling that this time it wasn't an exaggeration.
"Yeah. Yeah, I will."
The door to the laboratory was at the rear of the library and was already gaping open. Zack and Vincent entered, and Zack would swear that for a moment his heart stopped.
"Oh gods," he moaned, and even Vincent was struck into stillness because Cloud was there, but he was trussed up and spread wide, streaked with blood and full of needles and tubes -
Zack was moving, his world suddenly narrowed to Cloud. He slid to his knees and put shaking hands on either side of Cloud's face (he looked older, what the fuck), lifted his head, said. "Cloud, Cloud, wake up, it's okay now."
An unfamiliar voice growled, "You need to get him out of here."
Vincent twitched when the enormous red cat in a too-small cage spoke. He made his way around the operating table in the center of the room (shouldn't think too hard about where those stains came from), stripping off his cloak and tossing it to Zack with a sharp, "Wrap Cloud in that, Zack." No reaction. "Zack. Focus, Lieutenant!"
Zack caught the cloak one-handed on pure reflex. He could see only Cloud and the horrible stillness of his body and brilliantly glowing eyes that had no awareness, no fear or recognition. When he tried to remove the intravenous tubes he spent a long moment with his hands just hovering, utterly torn on where to even start and how to keep from hurting Cloud further, before finally reaching for the ones in the bend of Cloud's elbows. The skin was so thin and pale that Zack had to remind himself that he'd seen worse things in Wutai. But he'd never been so personally invested in a tragedy; that was war, people could point to reasons both good and bad, personal and public, for fighting, but this was senseless, cruelty for the sake of cruelty, and Zack tasted bile in his throat.
Beads of blood welled up with each IV he pulled out. The thick viscosity of mako required heavier tubing and wider needles, opening up veins farther, leaving purple bruises at each puncture site that alternated between healing and swelling as mako conflicted with the internal bleeding. Zack didn't realize he was crying as he crawled around behind Cloud (how the fuck did he get so much older, he looked like he was somewhere in his twenties) and wondered how to remove the wires forcibly holding those wings outstretched. Can't remove the restraints until the wires are out. If he falls over he'll rip right through them.
Oh gods.
He leapt up and started slamming through drawers, looking for pliers or cutters or something, and when he came across a pair of wire cutters he nearly didn't see them in his haste. Zack grabbed them, threw himself behind Cloud again, cut through the first couple wires before realizing that if the wings weren't supported when he got down to the last few then the weight of the appendages would yank them out. Some of the feathers were twisted or broken, and in one or two places the flesh had been torn until the bone shone pink-white in the harsh lights. Zack's stomach turned again when he wrapped one hand around the bone and cut the wires with the other.
There was no reaction from Cloud, and that just made it worse.
The first and then the second wing fell limply against the ground like dead limbs. The leather cuffs of the restraints were attached to thin chains bolted to two freestanding rebar, but Zack was pissed and scared and he snapped them easily, catching Cloud as the boy - no, man - slumped forward. Zack awkwardly pulled Vincent's cloak over Cloud's nakedness while whispering, "It's okay, Cloud, it's me, I'm gonna get you out of here and it'll be okay."
On the other side of the lab Vincent had found the passkey to the cage and was helping the cat limp out. Tight confinement and poor treatment had dulled his coat and wasted his muscle. It took the cat several moments to find his balance.
"What is your name?" Vincent asked.
"Hojo has named me Red XIII. A name with no meaning whatsoever to me. But I was called Nanaki by my people."
A humorless smile twisted Vincent's lips.
"You need to get Cloud out," said Nanaki. "If he is still in there, somewhere, then he won't last very much longer."
Vincent was familiar enough with Hojo's methods that he didn't need an explanation, but before he could say anything he heard Zack's half-incredulous, half-hopeful, "Cloud?"
The world burst into flames.
…
Inside Cloud's head was a howling storm and he could see through the eyes of minemychildren the others.
Angeal Hewley was born in Banora his family was poor the Buster Sword was his honor he loved Genesis but that love was going to destroy him.
Genesis Rhapsodos was born in Banora his family was wealthy his body was falling apart like a walking corpse losing bits of himself in the process.
Zack Fair was born in Gongaga his family was loving and probably missed him he was in love with a beautiful amazing girl he was going to be a hero except Cloud was breaking his heart oh god no.
Sephiroth had no last name and was created in Nibelheim he was so insecure in his humanity and his own heart on the inside he wantedneededdesired Cloud he was power he was a child he was god.
Cloud could see through Genesis' eyes and saw what Hojo was doing. Saw the sequence that Hojo was painstakingly entering into some kind of screen. Knew it would result in the mansion's destruction.
unacceptable
WEAPON, said the Planet. The relativity of events. The will to survive.
protect aeris zack sephiroth
a doctor gave me a number it was four
protect the other three
hojo wants reunion
Cloud had been taken apart and then put back together, he was as much a part of the Planet as the Lifestream and he. He had to protect, to save, because he'd failed before but he wouldn't fail again. Destroy Hojo, destroy ShinRa, and then there'd be no more laboratories and no more agony and no more Reunion or Remnants or Plague. He'd been the very last living thing and seen the end of the world.
(Remember the nine virtues, his mother had told him.)
So he reached out to the voice that was like the strong beat of a heart and tugged on it, sending Zack into unconsciousness. Zack was always the one determined to protect Cloud so it was better this way. Vincent was there too but he was good at surviving, so Cloud turned away. There was green crowding into his vision, and it was mako, pouring out of the tubes that were shattering. That was good because it meant that no one would be trapped inside the glass anymore, like being buried alive in acid-filled coffins. He lifted Zack onto the steel table (don't think about it, don't remember the knives and needles) so that he wouldn't drown in the onewas ever ever going to hurt Zack ever again, the mere thought was pulling on something deep inside Cloud, the pathway that kept him attuned to the Planet, and fire began licking up the walls like dragons. That was good because fire cleansed. Sometimes things had to be broken down before they could be remade into something better.
There were wings spreading from his shoulders. Cloud had never seen them before but no wonder Ifalna and Sephiroth had thought he was angel. (Must remember to give Ifalna's shawl to Aeris, it was only right that the daughter carry some other part of her mother that wasn't white or materia.) The wings stretched out to their full limit for the first time, and it made him feel powerful which meant he could protect the other three even more effectively, so he kept them wide and arched.
There was tiny, meek voice coming from a drawer. Cloud let some of this new power reach for it, and if the row of cabinets exploded, well, no matter. The voice came from a little materia, an icy one that wasn't round but carved and strung on a cord, and it seemed familiar. He took it with him and the weak voice quieted with contentment. He also picked up the sword that Zack had dropped, hilt fitting his hand so familiarly because once upon a time it had been his sword.
He walked through the library and remembered the reports that had driven Sephiroth into madness. He made sure the flames consumed them. He thought there might've been other people in the room but they weren't AerisZackSephiroth so it didn't matter.
He walked past Vincent's crypt and didn't see the altar turn charred-black.
He walked up the stairs that had been mostly repaired and came out into the mansion. It looked different but not enough, he could still see the similarities. Zack had carried him through here. Cloud remembered the glint of sunlight off the hilt of the Buster Sword and the pulse of Zack's heart, but that was all, he'd been too sick at the time to protect Zack in turn.
He made sure to burn it all. Won't let it happen again.
He walked out of the front door. There was screaming. Then the flames rushed forward like Cloud's honor guard, and the screaming stopped.
He walked through the gates and down the path towards the town. The town that had hated him and his mother for their last name. Because of the people's prejudices. Because they were so consumed with themselves that they feared what wasn't normal. Because they were the same people who let Hojo get away with hurting CloudZackSephiroth.
That was all right. Nibelheim had been rebuilt before, they could do it again.
The fire roared into a noonday sky and was echoed in the mountains.
…
The screaming outside started.
Zangan and Gillian were already up and dashing out of the cottage. Aeris, the kind girl, stayed to help Elfreda up. Fenrir streaked past their legs and out the door, and Aeris took Elfreda's hand as they followed.
It was noon but all Elfreda could see was fire.
Villagers were running through the town towards the gates, screaming and sobbing in terror and there were the words Strife and gods echoing through the roaring fire. Flames leapt and crackled along thatched roofs, swept across the ground like a flood to leap upon the people.
(Those Strifes, the villagers used to say. A bunch of witches. Superstitious heathens. Practically child abuse, that woman raising her son to believe in that crap. Better to forget such nonsense, learn to accept the changes in the world.)
"Zangan," Aeris was yelling, "they're at the mansion, Tifa and Zack and everyone!"
He hesitated, looking between the three women, but Elfreda barked, "We can take care of ourselves just fine, now listen to what the girl says!"
Mouth quirking in a wry smile, Zangan murmured, "Stay safe."
She huffed but there was a slight blush giving her away. "Don't be silly, Zangan, just go find the others while I take care of my son."
The flames forced him to take a second, smaller route out of the village towards the mansion, ducking low as he did so to avoid the worst of the smoke and heat that made the air shimmer. Fenrir was howling, teeth bared and tail stiff as a bottlebrush, and Gillian and Aeris were both grabbing at her and crying, "Elfreda, please, we have to get out of here!"
Then from the path came her son, and it was a terrible sight.
He was older, somehow, naked and pale, a red cloak he held around his shoulders with one hand, eyes that glowed like materia and turned molten in the light of the inferno. From his shoulders arched wings white as fresh Nibel snow, like the wings from a hippogriff or tycoon that had been bleached of color save streaks of blood that dripped to the ground. For all that Elfreda had believed he had some divine purpose, fear had never occurred to her; fear for him, yes, but never of him, because he was her son and she was his mother. Now she felt the fear and awe of a mortal in the face of a god.
The small Ice materia carved in the shape of an ornate hammer glittered from the space between his collarbones, as brilliant as his eyes, and the sword he carried in one hand could have been made in Thor's forges.
Aeris suddenly made a sound that broke Elfreda's heart, quiet and gasping like a hunter's poorly made shot that didn't kill a doe quickly enough. The girl dropped to the ground in unconsciousness, narrowly missing a rock near her head.
"Shit," Gillian breathed, and then with eyes wide in horror she threw herself at Elfreda, knocking her down as flames rushed between them. Coughing through dirt and smoke, Elfreda pushed the other woman aside.
"Gillian? Gillian, what - "
Soft brown eyes stared sightlessly at her and it didn't sink in for a long moment that Gillian wasn't just unconscious, she was dead.
(cloud had sensed the calamity's presence in gillian hewley she was angeal's mother she had seen so much death and lost so much that death was a mercy)
"Nebel!" Elfreda cried, scrambling to her feet, "Stop, bitte!"
The water tower was beginning to groan as its wooden supports sagged and then cracked, sending up plumes of sparks. The noonday sun was being swallowed up with smoke and ash and heat and some of the screams had turned into shrieks of agony as flesh bubbled and flaked from living bodies.
But her son didn't hear her. He continued walking, as relentless and pitiless as Hel. From him the fire spread like a wave to the cottages, the Inn, the gates, and then farther beyond, climbing up the mountainsides like packs of wolves and turning the trees into pillars of hellish light. Elfreda finally realized it wasn't a natural fire caused by any materia but something far more dangerous, something that didn't need a material source to consume and grow - snow melted into streams of freezing water that just as quickly evaporated into hissing steam and collected with particles of ash and fell back down to earth in black rain.
Hel had promised that their clan would live beyond all the others, but she had never said that theirs would be the cause for Ragnarok.
Elfreda's fear and awe hardened. She was a mother and she would do what was necessary to protect her child, even from himself, and her hand found the red materia in the pocket of her skirt.
Not Nebel anymore, she thought as those wings arched higher. Wolke.
She didn't have any silken rope that would bind a god (odd how she immediately thought of Aeris' hair ribbon and that unusual materia tied up in it) but sometimes another god could serve just as well. Elfreda had no regrets, she'd lived with honor and with pride and the traditions of her family, and as the fires finally came for her she activated the materia.
The last thing she saw was the sky opening up on her son and Odin.
…
Zack woke up to a world that was oddly muffled. There was movement, but he wasn't the one moving. Was someone carrying him? He thought so, even if those thoughts were rather muzzy. Sound trickled into his brain very slowly, a quiet shout somewhere, harsh breathing from the chest that he was pressed against. Weird, it was like he'd just come through a mako shower, only a thousand times more intense. Everything was distant like it was all happening behind a thick pane of glass.
"Angeal?" he managed, thinking that the person who carried him looked familiar. Only his voice came out more like aaan-jeeel, all long and thick like syrup. How much mako was in that damn shower, anyway? And why was Angeal, and yes, it was Angeal, and Zack shouldn't have been nearly so proud of himself for figuring out that much, crying? Was something burning? It must've been the coffee again, Genesis was going to be so irritated.
"Go back to sleep, Zack," it sounded like Angeal was saying, but the world was coming in a little more clearly and now he knew something was burning.
"Cloud?" and it was a little more human this time, just a little trouble with the 'L' part.
"Genesis is getting him, Zack, go back to sleep." Yeah, Zack totally wasn't imagining it, Angeal really was crying, and why had his voice nearly shattered on Genesis' name? Sure, the guy was an ass, but everyone had their issues. He wanted to ask but his head starting pounding like whoa, like he'd just had his ass kicked six ways from Sunday by all three generals, so he let himself fall back into darkness.
…
Neither Genesis nor Angeal had seen what Hojo was doing until the glass of the observation window suddenly exploded inwards from a percussive force. Only SOLDIER reflex and the thick feathers of their respective wings had prevented the shards from slicing their upper bodies to ribbons. An instant later a man in black leather slipped into the room through the now-empty frame with unnatural grace, a great metal claw lashing out and pinning Hojo's hand to the console. The scientist was mostly dead, only managing to cough up a fresh wave of blood through a garbled, "Valentine."
More glass was shattering in the laboratory and Angeal thought he stopped breathing when he saw Zack slump to a floor awash in spilled mako, when Strife lifted him like he was a child's toy doll and laid him upon the steel table. Not Zack, his mind screamed, and suddenly he felt all the regret and self-loathing slam into him. You left him behind without a second glance, even Strife noticed before you ever did.
There was the sucking sound of a sword being yanked out of a body. Genesis didn't seem to care about the stream of blood running down Rapier's blade and over his glove as he snarled, "Hojo is mine."
"Hojo doesn't matter anymore," the man (Valentine?) growled, and as they watched his skin was turning from parchment-white to slate-grey and black, scarlet wings wrenching their way out of his back with the shredding of muscle. "Cloud's lost, he's - "
"A WEAPON," Genesis supplied, but whatever else he was going to add was lost in the fire that erupted in the laboratory. Angeal was leaping for Zack before he was conscious of doing so, had to get him out -
Genesis saw the look on Angeal's face and smiled wryly to himself. So you've made your final choice, old friend, and he couldn't be surprised, wasn't even really hurt anymore.
His sense of self was threatening to get swallowed up by the roaring of Strife's mindless fury, tempting him to give in, to fall at the feet of this new god, but it was that very urge that strengthened his resolve and pride. A thoughttwist and he left Hojo behind, left Valentine-CHAOS behind and followed the destruction that Strife had left in his wake.
Perhaps he would die a hero after all, and the irony of it all made him laugh aloud.
The Nibel valley was already mostly consumed. Genesis could see that some of the fleeing villagers were enshrouded in flame as they ran until their bodies gave out and collapsed in on themselves. It wasn't just the town but the trees, then the mountainsides, and he knew as instinctively as he knew how to breathe that Strife would keep walking until the whole Planet burned itself out.
A WEAPON made from a human is the most dangerous one of all.
The airship that had brought them all here had taken to the sky to avoid the fire. Good, because Genesis wasn't going to be very happy if he sacrificed himself and everyone still died. Morbid humor. Sephiroth would've appreciated it.
("Humans always wish they were angels," he'd once told Sephiroth, and he added to himself, and this is what happens when they are.)
Strife was beautiful in the way that a hurricane or a battlefield was beautiful in its destruction. In the Lifestream that was a part of every living thing Genesis could hear the boy's sephirothprotectmine neveragain that was drowning out the sound of anything else. The Planet was waking up with its smallest and most powerful WEAPON and behind him the reactor was groaning, letting out metallic snapping and screeching as the mako surged up through the deep channels that had been drilled through the earth's surface. If it wasn't the fire that destroyed the town it would be the reactor's meltdown and the flood of distilled, acidic Lifestream.
There was something of freedom in seeing, and choosing, one's own death. Genesis activated the Barrier materia in his bangle as he strode down the path after Strife, blocking the waves of fire and heat that washed back towards him. He saw the water tower collapse, the cottages go up like torches. He saw Angeal's mother die.
The compassion he'd thought years-gone suddenly threatened to buckle his knees because after this, Angeal would have nothing, not even Zack, because he'd already hurt Zack too many times.
When Genesis was young and still living in the labs he'd heard the far-off calls of a woman's voice, or something that was a close approximation of a woman's voice, speaking of mothers and power and everything he'd ever wanted, until one day it was silenced as abruptly as a knife to the throat. Now that voice had returned and it was Strife's. He reached out, tangled himself with the rage that was all that remained of Strife's mind, and forced the boy to turn around. Above them came the ozone-smell of an Odin Summons.
killingragestop unnecessary he snarled.
protectatallcosts was the reply and Genesis fell to his knees with the force of Strife's cry, but he used the position as leverage to throw himself forward, black wing held high and Rapier steady in his grip. More sparks flew when Rapier struck the Buster Sword - shock, seeing Angeal's beloved blade - and the force sent painful frissons down Rapier's blade into Genesis' hands.
Strife wasn't human anymore, however, and he tossed Genesis back enough steps to be able to swing down with the Buster Sword, narrowly missing the redhead's body as he ducked to one side. Rapier was just as long as the Buster but narrower and therefore lighter, making it easier to swing more quickly. Genesis wasn't entirely sure that a direct slash would actually kill the boy - would he bleed red or mako, would the Planet keep bringing him back every time? - but he pressed forward ruthlessly, gaining a few feet of ground.
Above them Sleipnir bore Odin into the sky and the god drew his own weapon, called up the storms that were his domain and drove down against the unnatural fires.
i am weapon
Through the chaos threatening to grip Genesis' own mind he could see flashes of a future that never happened: Sephiroth being the one to burn the world, as terrible as Strife could ever hope to be; humans and animals alike turning into twisted dead things that still crawled on broken limbs and bled black acid; the Lifestream splintering and the Planet ripping itself apart. Knowing what it was like to live through it all.
And for a moment Genesis was lost in the horror, his soul turning into a gibbering mass of madness so he couldn't feel the Buster Sword split apart his ribcage.
never again
"And you thought you had to protect the Planet from me," Genesis managed to laugh through numbed lips, drowning in the blood filling his lungs.
Strife's eyes widened.
…
The SOLDIERs were slapping one another's backs in congratulations, though Sephiroth had been the one to take down the WEAPON. They weren't stupid enough to approach him. Almost no one in Mideel had been killed and the monster had been destroyed, and for them, that was enough.
Sephiroth stood beside the massive body of the fallen WEAPON and felt hollowed out. The body had been sliced into more pieces than was strictly necessary.
He wondered if he should return to Midgar or just go to Nibelheim, one never knew...
sephiroth
i need you
mine
now
his mind went greenblackblood as his wing burst from his shoulder in an explosion of feathers and he fell back into lifestream into cloud
…
Vincent tore out Hojo's throat with a flat, "For Lucrecia. For my son."
…
Aeris had never fully been unconscious. She'd sensed Cloud an instant before he reached out and touched something inside that sent her mind reeling, Gillian following almost immediately. Except whatever Cloud had done had killed her, killed Gillian, and Aeris lost a few moments to darkness. She came back to herself in time to see Elfreda reach for that materia, but then there were teeth gripping her around the waist and the pain sent her off again.
She came back to silence, and for a moment she thought she was dead. But her nose was thick with the stench of charred flesh and wood, and the sky was still dark with ash. Her head pounded and she thought there might be blood soaking her dress around her midriff, but she was alive, and something was whining beside her. Fenrir, his nose nudging underneath her shoulder as though he couldn't decide if he needed to hide or get her moving.
"Ow," she managed weakly, and with the wolf's nose against her shoulder she managed to sit up slowly, gasping when the movement tightened her abdomen. Aeris glanced down and realized that the only reason she was alive was because Fenrir had gripped her the only way he knew how and dragged her away from the flames. And, yes, a glance at the blood on his muzzle confirmed her suspicion.
"Good boy," she rasped, wryly, then coughed as her smoked-out throat protested.
There was no more fire, no more screaming. The Nibel valley was a burnt-out husk, snow and vegetation and buildings scorched away to bare grey rock. There was nothing left. No roots, no housing foundations, no bodies, except for the heap of white feathers and red cloth in the center.
Aeris was only able to get to her feet by leaning most of her weight against Fenrir. Perhaps Nibel wolves were even more intelligent than regular wolves because he seemed to understand, pacing slowly at her side and helping her hobble all the way to Cloud's side. She dropped back down to her backside and leaned over the blonde.
He was utterly still. A slight breeze likely left over from Odin's storm ruffled blood- and smoke-streaked feathers, but he didn't move, just remained curled in on himself with his forehead turned towards the ground. When she tentatively reached out for his mind, she found nothing.
"Oh, Cloud."
chapter 13 || main post || chapter 15
…
Cissnei had taken them all to her room at the Inn, pointedly locking the door behind them. She had just finished explaining everything she knew about Gillian Hewley's presence as well as what she'd seen concerning the mansion when a dark shadow blocked out the window. Tifa unlatched it to let Vincent inside.
"That was fast," Elena commented.
Vincent shot her a wilting look as he pulled a pad of paper and a pen from the bedside table. "I'm already familiar with the mansion itself. I only wished to know its exterior." He pulled a small table doing service as a desk away from the wall and spread a piece of paper across it.
"How do you know the layout of the mansion?" Zack asked.
"Hojo interred me in a crypt just off the main corridor of the basement labs," Vincent said. Maybe it was the need to hurry and get to Cloud that was making him more forthcoming than usual. "After Cloud woke me some years ago, I ensured that there were no other projects of his remaining."
"Oh."
As Vincent's human hand smoothly guided the pen over the paper, he said, "Hojo's impatience will work to our favor. He did not wait for the construction to finish before relocating Cloud, which means that security won't be so effective.
"At the main gates are only three guards, likely to keep the villagers from suspecting anything."
Tifa cocked her cowgirl hat to one side and made sure her skirt was hiked up a little higher than usual before approaching the mansion's entrance.
"What's going on?" she asked brightly, pasting a smile on her face as she pretended to peer over the guards' shoulders.
"Just rebuilding, missy," said the tallest of the guards, "nothing to see here."
"But if it's ShinRa's mansion, it's gotta be absolutely gorgeous. It gonna take long to finish?" She made sure to keep her eyes wide with innocence, playing up the part of a fifteen-year-old girl from a rural village. One of the men couldn't seem to move his eyes higher than her shoulders. Tifa felt a little sick with herself, purposely pandering to the sort of attention she'd always hated getting. (If she didn't know better she'd say Elena sometimes looked at her like that too, but it was a ridiculous idea, anyway; they were both girls.)
"Depends on how bad this snow gets," the third groused, casting a dirty look over the mountain peaks surrounding them. Tifa resisted the urge to kick him in the shin. This was her home, damn it.
"Winters here get real rough," she agreed vaguely. And you'd never be able to handle them. "Think maybe I could get a look before we all get snowed in?"
The guards glanced at each other, and that was when Tifa saw Cissnei melt out of the shadows of the gate walls.
"Asshole," Tifa snarled, and promptly kicked the nearest guard in the knee. He buckled with a yell that was sharply cut off as a blow from her fist sent him reeling into unconsciousness. She turned in time to see another guard collapse and Cissnei yank her large shuriken from the third's throat. When her eyes widened this time, it was in horror.
"Cissnei, what…"
"Save your sympathy, Tifa," Cissnei said quietly. "We need to get going."
"Someone should remain with a PHS at the entrance to the labs." Vincent pointed at his makeshift map with a claw.
"Tifa, Cait Sith, that's you," said Zack, and when Tifa opened her mouth to argue furiously, he added, "Elena and Cissnei are both Turks, we might need their help. We don't know what we're gonna be facing in the labs and we can't afford to get ambushed by whatever backup Hojo might call for."
"But Cloud - "
"Whatever's down there won't be human. We can't risk it. Stay with Cait Sith so we've got a direct line to Reeve." Zack felt strange, like he was channeling Angeal or even Sephiroth. He was only seventeen, he wasn't supposed to be commanding anyone, but Angeal hadn't been around for a long time and Sephiroth wasn't there and there was no one else left but him.
"Please, Tifa," Elena broke in, utterly serious, and Tifa slowly sat back on the edge of the bed with a bitten-out, "Fine."
"Heard from Tseng that you're a right genius with technology, little missy!" Cait Sith chirped at Elena, jumping around on his Mog. Because of the tight confines of the room, Zack had to take a hasty step back to avoid getting a face full of fur. "Hojo's got some tricky security goin' on, so that's where you come in!"
Tifa, Elena, and Cissnei slipped through the gates while Vincent and Zack jumped the wall farther down, out of sight of the workers. Vincent led them along the perimeter of the estate, avoiding the construction crew around the front of the building. At the rear was what looked like an enormous sinkhole some twenty feet across, surrounded by a line of yellow rope marking off the circumference as a warning, with clods of soil and plant roots hanging over the edge into empty air.
"What the hell?"
"Quiet, missy, you'll bring the whole crew down on our heads!" Cait Sith whispered to Elena.
"It leads into the tunnels," Vincent murmured. "When you drop down, you'll be in a crypt. Go out into the corridor and to your left will be the main library."
Zack followed Vincent into the sinkhole, absently brushing the dirt off his gloves before helping Cissnei and Tifa down. Elena refused his help and jumped down herself.
It was eerie. The sinkhole was like a giant skylight several feet above their heads in what would've otherwise been a pitch-black crypt with crumbling stone walls and an uneven floor. Several coffins were arranged in a loose semi-circle around an enormous altar, one so cracked and greyed with age that the carved glyphs were nearly worn away.
"I remember this," Tifa said quietly. "The mansion burned down right before Cloud left and my dad had Missus Strife come out and take a look."
"Why?" Zack blinked, and Tifa shifted uncomfortably.
"Well, his family's lived in these mountains for ages. They say his mum came from one of the last original clans or tribes or something, which is why she's the only one that could read what that altar says."
"Cloud burned down the mansion," Vincent said from near the door. He was working open the rusted lock with a claw.
"Wait, what?"
Vincent cast them all a sidelong look. "There is much that has happened that none of you know, most of it concerning Cloud."
"Like what?" Elena demanded, like a dog that had gotten sight of a bone, but the lock suddenly popped off and Vincent pushed the door open. "Let's go."
"But - "
"We'll figure this out later, Elena, preferably with Cloud," Zack broke in, just short of a snap. Keep it together, Fair. "Cait, does Hojo have any special security? Maybe a mutated pet dragon in a closet somewhere?"
Cait Sith listed to one side briefly, presumably as Reeve took control. "No, Zack, not that I can tell. Be careful anyway."
"Intend to, sir. Tifa, Cait Sith," he said, "take my PHS and wait out in the corridor. Let us know if anything vaguely resembling a mad scientist comes down the tunnel. If anything else goes wrong, like, way wrong, get back out this way as fast as you can."
"And how're you guys gonna get out?" Tifa demanded. Vincent had already disappeared into the gloom, Zack and Cissnei close behind. Elena was checking her stash of Molotov cocktails as she grinned.
"We're Turks, we're worse than cockroaches." Then she kissed Tifa firmly, pulling away before the brunette could react and running into the corridor. "Don't do anything we wouldn't do!"
Zack swallowed a laugh as they left Tifa standing in stunned amazement in the light coming down through the sinkhole, Cait Sith looking nearly as surprised.
Cissnei and Elena allowed Zack and Vincent to take the lead, relying on the men's enhanced senses to keep an eye out for unexpected monsters or uneven ground, but they reached the library without incident. There was a keypad on the door and Elena immediately dropped to her knees, poking at it.
"Can you do it?" Zack asked quietly, scanning the corridor for either monsters or scientists. One hand rested on the Buster's hilt, just as Vincent kept a hand on Death Penalty. They were nearly obscured by the deep gloom of the tunnels, the light of the electric bulbs almost reluctant to push too far into the shadows.
"Of course I can," she scoffed, remembering to keep her voice down, and then pulled out…something. Zack had no idea what it was except that it looked a little like a pen and had a blinking light on the end. She started poking the keypad again with the pen-thing.
"Right," Zack muttered, "better you than me."
The keypad let out a soft bleep and Elena pushed it open with a pleased smirk on her face.
"Elena, Cissnei, you two stay in the library while Vincent and I get in the lab."
Elena opened her mouth to argue, but Cissnei put a hand on her arm. "We don't know what's going to be in there, Elena. Hojo might've created anything, it's better to let a SOLDIER and Vincent," because no one really understood what Vincent was, exactly, "take care of it. Besides, you and I need to go through the library. If what Vincent says is true, then Hojo will probably have left his reports lying around. We find the reports, we might find a way to fix whatever Hojo's already done to Cloud."
The blonde chewed at her lip anxiously. Then Tifa spoke up. "Besides, wouldn't Turks be best at finding the information that no one wants them to know?"
Zack snickered as Elena was visibly torn between arguing and preening.
"Look for anything labeled with 'C'," Vincent told the Turks. "Hojo's usual method is to take the first initial of his victim's name."
Dehumanization, Zack thought sickly.
Elena was already sitting down at the lone computer on the desk while Cissnei rooted through scattered papers and upended books. "Fine, fine," the latter said distractedly, "just get going."
"Zack," Vincent said quietly, staring at him across the small table, "I need to know that you'll be able to keep your head."
Visions of flying death machines and beheading flitted through his brain. "Huh?"
"The lab that Hojo uses for SOLDIER mako showers is just for show. The labs that hold his true experiments are…very different. He has no need to hide what happens there."
Vincent was chronically dramatic, yes, but the SOLDIER had the horrible feeling that this time it wasn't an exaggeration.
"Yeah. Yeah, I will."
The door to the laboratory was at the rear of the library and was already gaping open. Zack and Vincent entered, and Zack would swear that for a moment his heart stopped.
"Oh gods," he moaned, and even Vincent was struck into stillness because Cloud was there, but he was trussed up and spread wide, streaked with blood and full of needles and tubes -
Zack was moving, his world suddenly narrowed to Cloud. He slid to his knees and put shaking hands on either side of Cloud's face (he looked older, what the fuck), lifted his head, said. "Cloud, Cloud, wake up, it's okay now."
An unfamiliar voice growled, "You need to get him out of here."
Vincent twitched when the enormous red cat in a too-small cage spoke. He made his way around the operating table in the center of the room (shouldn't think too hard about where those stains came from), stripping off his cloak and tossing it to Zack with a sharp, "Wrap Cloud in that, Zack." No reaction. "Zack. Focus, Lieutenant!"
Zack caught the cloak one-handed on pure reflex. He could see only Cloud and the horrible stillness of his body and brilliantly glowing eyes that had no awareness, no fear or recognition. When he tried to remove the intravenous tubes he spent a long moment with his hands just hovering, utterly torn on where to even start and how to keep from hurting Cloud further, before finally reaching for the ones in the bend of Cloud's elbows. The skin was so thin and pale that Zack had to remind himself that he'd seen worse things in Wutai. But he'd never been so personally invested in a tragedy; that was war, people could point to reasons both good and bad, personal and public, for fighting, but this was senseless, cruelty for the sake of cruelty, and Zack tasted bile in his throat.
Beads of blood welled up with each IV he pulled out. The thick viscosity of mako required heavier tubing and wider needles, opening up veins farther, leaving purple bruises at each puncture site that alternated between healing and swelling as mako conflicted with the internal bleeding. Zack didn't realize he was crying as he crawled around behind Cloud (how the fuck did he get so much older, he looked like he was somewhere in his twenties) and wondered how to remove the wires forcibly holding those wings outstretched. Can't remove the restraints until the wires are out. If he falls over he'll rip right through them.
Oh gods.
He leapt up and started slamming through drawers, looking for pliers or cutters or something, and when he came across a pair of wire cutters he nearly didn't see them in his haste. Zack grabbed them, threw himself behind Cloud again, cut through the first couple wires before realizing that if the wings weren't supported when he got down to the last few then the weight of the appendages would yank them out. Some of the feathers were twisted or broken, and in one or two places the flesh had been torn until the bone shone pink-white in the harsh lights. Zack's stomach turned again when he wrapped one hand around the bone and cut the wires with the other.
There was no reaction from Cloud, and that just made it worse.
The first and then the second wing fell limply against the ground like dead limbs. The leather cuffs of the restraints were attached to thin chains bolted to two freestanding rebar, but Zack was pissed and scared and he snapped them easily, catching Cloud as the boy - no, man - slumped forward. Zack awkwardly pulled Vincent's cloak over Cloud's nakedness while whispering, "It's okay, Cloud, it's me, I'm gonna get you out of here and it'll be okay."
On the other side of the lab Vincent had found the passkey to the cage and was helping the cat limp out. Tight confinement and poor treatment had dulled his coat and wasted his muscle. It took the cat several moments to find his balance.
"What is your name?" Vincent asked.
"Hojo has named me Red XIII. A name with no meaning whatsoever to me. But I was called Nanaki by my people."
A humorless smile twisted Vincent's lips.
"You need to get Cloud out," said Nanaki. "If he is still in there, somewhere, then he won't last very much longer."
Vincent was familiar enough with Hojo's methods that he didn't need an explanation, but before he could say anything he heard Zack's half-incredulous, half-hopeful, "Cloud?"
The world burst into flames.
…
Inside Cloud's head was a howling storm and he could see through the eyes of minemychildren the others.
Angeal Hewley was born in Banora his family was poor the Buster Sword was his honor he loved Genesis but that love was going to destroy him.
Genesis Rhapsodos was born in Banora his family was wealthy his body was falling apart like a walking corpse losing bits of himself in the process.
Zack Fair was born in Gongaga his family was loving and probably missed him he was in love with a beautiful amazing girl he was going to be a hero except Cloud was breaking his heart oh god no.
Sephiroth had no last name and was created in Nibelheim he was so insecure in his humanity and his own heart on the inside he wantedneededdesired Cloud he was power he was a child he was god.
Cloud could see through Genesis' eyes and saw what Hojo was doing. Saw the sequence that Hojo was painstakingly entering into some kind of screen. Knew it would result in the mansion's destruction.
unacceptable
WEAPON, said the Planet. The relativity of events. The will to survive.
protect aeris zack sephiroth
a doctor gave me a number it was four
protect the other three
hojo wants reunion
Cloud had been taken apart and then put back together, he was as much a part of the Planet as the Lifestream and he. He had to protect, to save, because he'd failed before but he wouldn't fail again. Destroy Hojo, destroy ShinRa, and then there'd be no more laboratories and no more agony and no more Reunion or Remnants or Plague. He'd been the very last living thing and seen the end of the world.
(Remember the nine virtues, his mother had told him.)
So he reached out to the voice that was like the strong beat of a heart and tugged on it, sending Zack into unconsciousness. Zack was always the one determined to protect Cloud so it was better this way. Vincent was there too but he was good at surviving, so Cloud turned away. There was green crowding into his vision, and it was mako, pouring out of the tubes that were shattering. That was good because it meant that no one would be trapped inside the glass anymore, like being buried alive in acid-filled coffins. He lifted Zack onto the steel table (don't think about it, don't remember the knives and needles) so that he wouldn't drown in the onewas ever ever going to hurt Zack ever again, the mere thought was pulling on something deep inside Cloud, the pathway that kept him attuned to the Planet, and fire began licking up the walls like dragons. That was good because fire cleansed. Sometimes things had to be broken down before they could be remade into something better.
There were wings spreading from his shoulders. Cloud had never seen them before but no wonder Ifalna and Sephiroth had thought he was angel. (Must remember to give Ifalna's shawl to Aeris, it was only right that the daughter carry some other part of her mother that wasn't white or materia.) The wings stretched out to their full limit for the first time, and it made him feel powerful which meant he could protect the other three even more effectively, so he kept them wide and arched.
There was tiny, meek voice coming from a drawer. Cloud let some of this new power reach for it, and if the row of cabinets exploded, well, no matter. The voice came from a little materia, an icy one that wasn't round but carved and strung on a cord, and it seemed familiar. He took it with him and the weak voice quieted with contentment. He also picked up the sword that Zack had dropped, hilt fitting his hand so familiarly because once upon a time it had been his sword.
He walked through the library and remembered the reports that had driven Sephiroth into madness. He made sure the flames consumed them. He thought there might've been other people in the room but they weren't AerisZackSephiroth so it didn't matter.
He walked past Vincent's crypt and didn't see the altar turn charred-black.
He walked up the stairs that had been mostly repaired and came out into the mansion. It looked different but not enough, he could still see the similarities. Zack had carried him through here. Cloud remembered the glint of sunlight off the hilt of the Buster Sword and the pulse of Zack's heart, but that was all, he'd been too sick at the time to protect Zack in turn.
He made sure to burn it all. Won't let it happen again.
He walked out of the front door. There was screaming. Then the flames rushed forward like Cloud's honor guard, and the screaming stopped.
He walked through the gates and down the path towards the town. The town that had hated him and his mother for their last name. Because of the people's prejudices. Because they were so consumed with themselves that they feared what wasn't normal. Because they were the same people who let Hojo get away with hurting CloudZackSephiroth.
That was all right. Nibelheim had been rebuilt before, they could do it again.
The fire roared into a noonday sky and was echoed in the mountains.
…
The screaming outside started.
Zangan and Gillian were already up and dashing out of the cottage. Aeris, the kind girl, stayed to help Elfreda up. Fenrir streaked past their legs and out the door, and Aeris took Elfreda's hand as they followed.
It was noon but all Elfreda could see was fire.
Villagers were running through the town towards the gates, screaming and sobbing in terror and there were the words Strife and gods echoing through the roaring fire. Flames leapt and crackled along thatched roofs, swept across the ground like a flood to leap upon the people.
(Those Strifes, the villagers used to say. A bunch of witches. Superstitious heathens. Practically child abuse, that woman raising her son to believe in that crap. Better to forget such nonsense, learn to accept the changes in the world.)
"Zangan," Aeris was yelling, "they're at the mansion, Tifa and Zack and everyone!"
He hesitated, looking between the three women, but Elfreda barked, "We can take care of ourselves just fine, now listen to what the girl says!"
Mouth quirking in a wry smile, Zangan murmured, "Stay safe."
She huffed but there was a slight blush giving her away. "Don't be silly, Zangan, just go find the others while I take care of my son."
The flames forced him to take a second, smaller route out of the village towards the mansion, ducking low as he did so to avoid the worst of the smoke and heat that made the air shimmer. Fenrir was howling, teeth bared and tail stiff as a bottlebrush, and Gillian and Aeris were both grabbing at her and crying, "Elfreda, please, we have to get out of here!"
Then from the path came her son, and it was a terrible sight.
He was older, somehow, naked and pale, a red cloak he held around his shoulders with one hand, eyes that glowed like materia and turned molten in the light of the inferno. From his shoulders arched wings white as fresh Nibel snow, like the wings from a hippogriff or tycoon that had been bleached of color save streaks of blood that dripped to the ground. For all that Elfreda had believed he had some divine purpose, fear had never occurred to her; fear for him, yes, but never of him, because he was her son and she was his mother. Now she felt the fear and awe of a mortal in the face of a god.
The small Ice materia carved in the shape of an ornate hammer glittered from the space between his collarbones, as brilliant as his eyes, and the sword he carried in one hand could have been made in Thor's forges.
Aeris suddenly made a sound that broke Elfreda's heart, quiet and gasping like a hunter's poorly made shot that didn't kill a doe quickly enough. The girl dropped to the ground in unconsciousness, narrowly missing a rock near her head.
"Shit," Gillian breathed, and then with eyes wide in horror she threw herself at Elfreda, knocking her down as flames rushed between them. Coughing through dirt and smoke, Elfreda pushed the other woman aside.
"Gillian? Gillian, what - "
Soft brown eyes stared sightlessly at her and it didn't sink in for a long moment that Gillian wasn't just unconscious, she was dead.
(cloud had sensed the calamity's presence in gillian hewley she was angeal's mother she had seen so much death and lost so much that death was a mercy)
"Nebel!" Elfreda cried, scrambling to her feet, "Stop, bitte!"
The water tower was beginning to groan as its wooden supports sagged and then cracked, sending up plumes of sparks. The noonday sun was being swallowed up with smoke and ash and heat and some of the screams had turned into shrieks of agony as flesh bubbled and flaked from living bodies.
But her son didn't hear her. He continued walking, as relentless and pitiless as Hel. From him the fire spread like a wave to the cottages, the Inn, the gates, and then farther beyond, climbing up the mountainsides like packs of wolves and turning the trees into pillars of hellish light. Elfreda finally realized it wasn't a natural fire caused by any materia but something far more dangerous, something that didn't need a material source to consume and grow - snow melted into streams of freezing water that just as quickly evaporated into hissing steam and collected with particles of ash and fell back down to earth in black rain.
Hel had promised that their clan would live beyond all the others, but she had never said that theirs would be the cause for Ragnarok.
Elfreda's fear and awe hardened. She was a mother and she would do what was necessary to protect her child, even from himself, and her hand found the red materia in the pocket of her skirt.
Not Nebel anymore, she thought as those wings arched higher. Wolke.
She didn't have any silken rope that would bind a god (odd how she immediately thought of Aeris' hair ribbon and that unusual materia tied up in it) but sometimes another god could serve just as well. Elfreda had no regrets, she'd lived with honor and with pride and the traditions of her family, and as the fires finally came for her she activated the materia.
The last thing she saw was the sky opening up on her son and Odin.
…
Zack woke up to a world that was oddly muffled. There was movement, but he wasn't the one moving. Was someone carrying him? He thought so, even if those thoughts were rather muzzy. Sound trickled into his brain very slowly, a quiet shout somewhere, harsh breathing from the chest that he was pressed against. Weird, it was like he'd just come through a mako shower, only a thousand times more intense. Everything was distant like it was all happening behind a thick pane of glass.
"Angeal?" he managed, thinking that the person who carried him looked familiar. Only his voice came out more like aaan-jeeel, all long and thick like syrup. How much mako was in that damn shower, anyway? And why was Angeal, and yes, it was Angeal, and Zack shouldn't have been nearly so proud of himself for figuring out that much, crying? Was something burning? It must've been the coffee again, Genesis was going to be so irritated.
"Go back to sleep, Zack," it sounded like Angeal was saying, but the world was coming in a little more clearly and now he knew something was burning.
"Cloud?" and it was a little more human this time, just a little trouble with the 'L' part.
"Genesis is getting him, Zack, go back to sleep." Yeah, Zack totally wasn't imagining it, Angeal really was crying, and why had his voice nearly shattered on Genesis' name? Sure, the guy was an ass, but everyone had their issues. He wanted to ask but his head starting pounding like whoa, like he'd just had his ass kicked six ways from Sunday by all three generals, so he let himself fall back into darkness.
…
Neither Genesis nor Angeal had seen what Hojo was doing until the glass of the observation window suddenly exploded inwards from a percussive force. Only SOLDIER reflex and the thick feathers of their respective wings had prevented the shards from slicing their upper bodies to ribbons. An instant later a man in black leather slipped into the room through the now-empty frame with unnatural grace, a great metal claw lashing out and pinning Hojo's hand to the console. The scientist was mostly dead, only managing to cough up a fresh wave of blood through a garbled, "Valentine."
More glass was shattering in the laboratory and Angeal thought he stopped breathing when he saw Zack slump to a floor awash in spilled mako, when Strife lifted him like he was a child's toy doll and laid him upon the steel table. Not Zack, his mind screamed, and suddenly he felt all the regret and self-loathing slam into him. You left him behind without a second glance, even Strife noticed before you ever did.
There was the sucking sound of a sword being yanked out of a body. Genesis didn't seem to care about the stream of blood running down Rapier's blade and over his glove as he snarled, "Hojo is mine."
"Hojo doesn't matter anymore," the man (Valentine?) growled, and as they watched his skin was turning from parchment-white to slate-grey and black, scarlet wings wrenching their way out of his back with the shredding of muscle. "Cloud's lost, he's - "
"A WEAPON," Genesis supplied, but whatever else he was going to add was lost in the fire that erupted in the laboratory. Angeal was leaping for Zack before he was conscious of doing so, had to get him out -
Genesis saw the look on Angeal's face and smiled wryly to himself. So you've made your final choice, old friend, and he couldn't be surprised, wasn't even really hurt anymore.
His sense of self was threatening to get swallowed up by the roaring of Strife's mindless fury, tempting him to give in, to fall at the feet of this new god, but it was that very urge that strengthened his resolve and pride. A thoughttwist and he left Hojo behind, left Valentine-CHAOS behind and followed the destruction that Strife had left in his wake.
Perhaps he would die a hero after all, and the irony of it all made him laugh aloud.
The Nibel valley was already mostly consumed. Genesis could see that some of the fleeing villagers were enshrouded in flame as they ran until their bodies gave out and collapsed in on themselves. It wasn't just the town but the trees, then the mountainsides, and he knew as instinctively as he knew how to breathe that Strife would keep walking until the whole Planet burned itself out.
A WEAPON made from a human is the most dangerous one of all.
The airship that had brought them all here had taken to the sky to avoid the fire. Good, because Genesis wasn't going to be very happy if he sacrificed himself and everyone still died. Morbid humor. Sephiroth would've appreciated it.
("Humans always wish they were angels," he'd once told Sephiroth, and he added to himself, and this is what happens when they are.)
Strife was beautiful in the way that a hurricane or a battlefield was beautiful in its destruction. In the Lifestream that was a part of every living thing Genesis could hear the boy's sephirothprotectmine neveragain that was drowning out the sound of anything else. The Planet was waking up with its smallest and most powerful WEAPON and behind him the reactor was groaning, letting out metallic snapping and screeching as the mako surged up through the deep channels that had been drilled through the earth's surface. If it wasn't the fire that destroyed the town it would be the reactor's meltdown and the flood of distilled, acidic Lifestream.
There was something of freedom in seeing, and choosing, one's own death. Genesis activated the Barrier materia in his bangle as he strode down the path after Strife, blocking the waves of fire and heat that washed back towards him. He saw the water tower collapse, the cottages go up like torches. He saw Angeal's mother die.
The compassion he'd thought years-gone suddenly threatened to buckle his knees because after this, Angeal would have nothing, not even Zack, because he'd already hurt Zack too many times.
When Genesis was young and still living in the labs he'd heard the far-off calls of a woman's voice, or something that was a close approximation of a woman's voice, speaking of mothers and power and everything he'd ever wanted, until one day it was silenced as abruptly as a knife to the throat. Now that voice had returned and it was Strife's. He reached out, tangled himself with the rage that was all that remained of Strife's mind, and forced the boy to turn around. Above them came the ozone-smell of an Odin Summons.
killingragestop unnecessary he snarled.
protectatallcosts was the reply and Genesis fell to his knees with the force of Strife's cry, but he used the position as leverage to throw himself forward, black wing held high and Rapier steady in his grip. More sparks flew when Rapier struck the Buster Sword - shock, seeing Angeal's beloved blade - and the force sent painful frissons down Rapier's blade into Genesis' hands.
Strife wasn't human anymore, however, and he tossed Genesis back enough steps to be able to swing down with the Buster Sword, narrowly missing the redhead's body as he ducked to one side. Rapier was just as long as the Buster but narrower and therefore lighter, making it easier to swing more quickly. Genesis wasn't entirely sure that a direct slash would actually kill the boy - would he bleed red or mako, would the Planet keep bringing him back every time? - but he pressed forward ruthlessly, gaining a few feet of ground.
Above them Sleipnir bore Odin into the sky and the god drew his own weapon, called up the storms that were his domain and drove down against the unnatural fires.
i am weapon
Through the chaos threatening to grip Genesis' own mind he could see flashes of a future that never happened: Sephiroth being the one to burn the world, as terrible as Strife could ever hope to be; humans and animals alike turning into twisted dead things that still crawled on broken limbs and bled black acid; the Lifestream splintering and the Planet ripping itself apart. Knowing what it was like to live through it all.
And for a moment Genesis was lost in the horror, his soul turning into a gibbering mass of madness so he couldn't feel the Buster Sword split apart his ribcage.
never again
"And you thought you had to protect the Planet from me," Genesis managed to laugh through numbed lips, drowning in the blood filling his lungs.
Strife's eyes widened.
…
The SOLDIERs were slapping one another's backs in congratulations, though Sephiroth had been the one to take down the WEAPON. They weren't stupid enough to approach him. Almost no one in Mideel had been killed and the monster had been destroyed, and for them, that was enough.
Sephiroth stood beside the massive body of the fallen WEAPON and felt hollowed out. The body had been sliced into more pieces than was strictly necessary.
He wondered if he should return to Midgar or just go to Nibelheim, one never knew...
sephiroth
i need you
mine
now
his mind went greenblackblood as his wing burst from his shoulder in an explosion of feathers and he fell back into lifestream into cloud
…
Vincent tore out Hojo's throat with a flat, "For Lucrecia. For my son."
…
Aeris had never fully been unconscious. She'd sensed Cloud an instant before he reached out and touched something inside that sent her mind reeling, Gillian following almost immediately. Except whatever Cloud had done had killed her, killed Gillian, and Aeris lost a few moments to darkness. She came back to herself in time to see Elfreda reach for that materia, but then there were teeth gripping her around the waist and the pain sent her off again.
She came back to silence, and for a moment she thought she was dead. But her nose was thick with the stench of charred flesh and wood, and the sky was still dark with ash. Her head pounded and she thought there might be blood soaking her dress around her midriff, but she was alive, and something was whining beside her. Fenrir, his nose nudging underneath her shoulder as though he couldn't decide if he needed to hide or get her moving.
"Ow," she managed weakly, and with the wolf's nose against her shoulder she managed to sit up slowly, gasping when the movement tightened her abdomen. Aeris glanced down and realized that the only reason she was alive was because Fenrir had gripped her the only way he knew how and dragged her away from the flames. And, yes, a glance at the blood on his muzzle confirmed her suspicion.
"Good boy," she rasped, wryly, then coughed as her smoked-out throat protested.
There was no more fire, no more screaming. The Nibel valley was a burnt-out husk, snow and vegetation and buildings scorched away to bare grey rock. There was nothing left. No roots, no housing foundations, no bodies, except for the heap of white feathers and red cloth in the center.
Aeris was only able to get to her feet by leaning most of her weight against Fenrir. Perhaps Nibel wolves were even more intelligent than regular wolves because he seemed to understand, pacing slowly at her side and helping her hobble all the way to Cloud's side. She dropped back down to her backside and leaned over the blonde.
He was utterly still. A slight breeze likely left over from Odin's storm ruffled blood- and smoke-streaked feathers, but he didn't move, just remained curled in on himself with his forehead turned towards the ground. When she tentatively reached out for his mind, she found nothing.
"Oh, Cloud."
chapter 13 || main post || chapter 15