(no subject)
Title: Storm
Summary: Jenova isn't asleep any longer, and she wants Gaia to bow down to her. Avalanche wants ShinRa to go down in a blaze of fire. Aerith, Zack and Cloud just want Sephiroth back.
Sequel to The Golden Chocobo.
Rating: PG-13 overall
Pairing: S+C, Z+A (and others)
Genre: AU, drama
Type: Multi-chapter
Disclaimer: FVII's not mine, just the idea~
Notes: K, peeps. Only one chapter left after this one.
Chapter seven
Pacing the mental 'space' he'd managed to secure for himself when Jenova invaded, Sephiroth scowled. If he could just find the strength he knew he had, he could cast her from his body... But he didn't dare to recall his memories, in the chance that she'd see any of them and take even more from him. He just needed...
A silent hiss, and he clenched his fist so the knuckles turned white, but there simply was no give. Jenova laughed somewhere, teasing his mind and urging him to dip into his memories... to share with his Mother.
Shaking his head, silver hair rippling like the surface of a disturbed pond, Sephiroth continued the angry pacing, waiting for the moment to strike. It must... it would come. It was just a matter of time. Time he wasn't sure he or anyone else, had.
Unnoticed by Sephiroth, immersed in his own thoughts as he was, green light flickered along his right hand and lower arm for just a moment, and a single black feather fell, disappearing before it met the floor he was pacing on.
***
The air was heavy with humidity; each intake of breath feeling as if half of the air was made of water. They had left the helicopter at the fringe of the jungle, struggling through the thick foliage on foot. Vincent had at least stated there was enough fuel to get them back to where Feather would be waiting.
Cloud thought he definitely preferred the grass plains around the Chocobo Ranch and Junon. Even the desert around the Golden saucer was better than this clinging, growing green and the sticking heat and moist air.
"Oh," Aerith's voice sounded rather breathless, but then, if they opened their mouths and tried to talk, they all did... except for Vincent. It was quite irritating. "Before I forget again, here, Cloud. Jessie and Tifa gave it to me so I could give it to you." Aerith found, with a bit of fumbling, a cell phone in her pack.
"So we could contact them if we needed." She ended with a grimace at the heavy air, apparently not very pleased by the difficulty this terrain was posing. Of course, that could be the reason the Temple of the Ancients was placed here... or they had actually liked this sort of surroundings.
Tucking the cell phone away in one of his pockets, Cloud nodded and then they continued, relieved when the jungle thinned out and finally left them in a giant clearing. Most of it was taken up by a stone structure built in ever-decreasing platforms, with a stair running up the front to the doorway on top of it. The rope bridge leading over the suspicious-looking ground and to the doorway in the wall surrounding the Temple looked surprisingly whole and sturdy.
Zack tested the bridge. It had to be old and decrepit, however new it looked, and it would definitely have to be sturdier than they thought before he allowed either Cloud or Aerith to walk across it and enter the Temple grounds.
It was impressive how the building had stood here for so long, hardly showing any signs of wear or tear. Moisture dripped down the giant stones making up the Temple, and vines crept up along the sides, but there were no giant cracks, or stones missing, only the faint, bluish fog clinging to the top of the Temple and blurring the air, moisture and vines.
If anything, the wall surrounding the Temple was in worse condition than the building. With a sigh, Cloud stared up at the opening on the top, took a deep breath in a silence that was as heavy as the air, and dashed up the steps. Better take them with speed, or he'd never get up. Chuckling softly as the other three had to fight their way up the stairs, he waited in the shadow of the doorway, the darkness slowly dissipating and letting him peek inside.
Nothing except a giant, empty room with a somewhat rectangular block of stone in the center. Probably some sort of altar.
"We're going in?" Zack appeared by his shoulder and looked into the room, looking vaguely suspicious about it all.
"There's nothing here except a piece of rock."
Aerith rolled her eyes and slapped her boyfriend lightly on the back of his head as she walked past, heading for the altar.
"The Keystone is also 'a piece of rock', Zack." Her voice muffled as she walked around the altar, concentrating on other things than talking, and then fished up the Keystone, its pale blue light bathing the chamber and twisting their shadows strangely. They stayed silent but right at her side as Aerith leaned over the altar, and placed the Keystone in a depression in the rock.
There was a loud, grinding sound, and the floor dropped away under them, darkness rising up and swallowing the small group and the altar. The Keystone's light caught one more shadow, flickering, before it descended too far below the edge to light up the chamber above.
***
The corridors were mostly empty. Not even dust coated the rough-looking but surprisingly smooth floors. The light was shivering blue at the corners of their eyes, at the end of a corridor, but never where they could stare directly at it.
Sometimes, Cloud wondered if the light actually came from very shy beasts that didn't attack them just because Aerith was walking serenely in front, a half-glazed look in her eyes as though she was listening to something else, further away than they could hear, but close enough she could hear the whispers.
Sometimes they came into rooms filled all sorts of things... devices, strange plants, a large pillar seemingly growing out of the ground and filled with blackness and starlight, a natural mako fountain, the Lifestream tingling both reassuringly and uncomfortably along his nerves and the light bathing them in soft green.
They even saw Meteor.
Or, rather, a large mural of it, and then Aerith had said, slowly, as if repeating what someone else was saying, that Meteor was the black materia, the ultimate black magic spell that could destroy the world. The temperature had seemed to drop dramatically at that declaration, a momentary lacing of ice crawling over the floor and walls, and then melting away.
"Is this it?" Zack stared down at the strange stone, kicking it lightly. It wouldn't budge.
"Yes. But we can't just take it. There're... traps, puzzles all over in the Temple, that must be solved for the black materia to be moved... and for each puzzle solved, the Temple will grow smaller, finally only leaving the black materia left." Aerith mumbled in answer, still not all present, and Zack frowned. He didn't like her having to be... so far away to listen to whatever was telling her this.
"And whoever solves the puzzles dies." Vincent's quiet voice seemed to echo much louder than it should in the chamber.
~See it? Take it. Give it to me. Give up, give in, give it to me, and you'll get to see--~
"Cloud?"
Head snapping up, Cloud smiled wanly at Zack and shrugged to show it was alright. That had never happened before. Aerith suddenly shivered and looked up, eyes clear and bright again.
That was a relief.
Cloud tucked away the unpleasant realization, and then snapped his head around to the corridor behind them. Sword in hand, Zack and Vincent reacted bare seconds after him, and all were facing the man as he came strolling through the doorway.
"Hello." Blue glowed with traces of violet, and the hair, hanging rather limply, seemed to reflect white as the blue light flashed over it. Kevin's voice was smooth and cold, and his skin was shifting into blue now, and it was not the fault of the strange light.
Something was very, very wrong.
"Nephew. And some others. Cetra..." There was a hiss in the end, curling with the air, tainting it, and one of Kevin's hands made a vague, grabbing motion in Aerith's direction, but he didn't move from his spot just on this side of the doorway.
"Professor Kevin. What are you doing here?" Zack frowned, hand tightening on the hilt of his Buster Sword and stance shifting to a better one, but he didn't move either.
No one did.
"I am... helping. She would have it no other way. Perfection..." Kevin swayed gently on his feet, gaze far away and dreamy before snapping into focus again. "Pity there was no chance to examine it more... But if this is as close to Perfection..." Kevin laughed, a slow, shivering sound that left echoes of mania trailing in its wake.
"Listen. Do you hear it? The Planet knows it will die... Will bow down to Me, take what I came here for..."
Four sets of eyes stared in fascinated horror and consternation at the Professor of ShinRa as he seemed to completely drift away into something Else.
"Jenova." Cloud hissed, muscles straining, wanting to move but not allowed to. The laughter danced in the still air again, deep and taunting, egging them on with a shade of violent red.
"Yess. So willing to Join with Me. So willing to absorb. So easy to sacrifice. Come north, mine. Give the black materia to Me, and Sephiroth is here waiting for you..." Kevin... or what was left of him, whirled around and disappeared into the darkness of the corridor beyond, Aerith halting Zack and Cloud with one hand each on their shoulders. Vincent was calmly re-holstering his gun.
"Not now! We need to get out of here. He's already started to solve the puzzles, and if we don't get out soon, we won't be able to." She shook her head, frowning. With frustration born out of not being allowed to pound the ever-lasting light out of someone who had been a thorn in their side for a rather long time now, both strapped their respective swords to their backs, reluctantly giving up the idea of the satisfaction of killing Kevin. Then there was only running, the half-lit, empty corridors and strange rooms disappearing in a bluish and dark gray-brown blur.
***
The ground shivered, once, twice and then there was a giant yawning feeling, as if air was quickly rushing in to fill a space that earlier had been occupied, and then there was only a shallow crater where the Temple of the Ancients had been.
The sides of the crater were smooth and sharp, as if someone had cut out a piece of ground with a sharp blade, leaving the ground almost reflectively smooth, like glass. Vincent looked down, calmly jumped in and bowed down at the bottom, coming up and dropping something small, round and black as a starless space in Aerith's hand.
The black materia.
"I wonder how far north, 'north' is?" Zack muttered thoughtfully as they all stared at the black materia, looking so innocent where it lay. Vincent shrugged slightly, a faint frown on his face.
"Jenova was found in the Northern Crater." He offered with a nod in the direction that presumably was north.
"Yes... That place is still wounded, despite the Planet's best efforts. It'll probably be easy for Jenova to use that very same spot if she wants to destroy the Planet." Aerith nodded and tucked away the black materia with her other, special materia. Black and white.
Maybe they were some sort of counter for each other? Cloud shrugged mentally and started to walk back to the helicopter. They, once again, had gotten a dotted line to follow, and it was only to go and fetch Feather and go north across the continent until they came to the sea and had to find some way of crossing it.
***
The waves crashed against the rock below the cliff they stood at, staring out at a wind-swept, churning sea. On the other side, marking land, giant, purple-black thunderclouds stained the sky. It had been very tiring to cross the continent, even if having both a black and a gold chocobo had certainly eased their way.
"I suppose I could get us over one at a time... But that would take a while." Cloud shook his head, frowning at the water. Alone, it wouldn't take him much time to cross the ocean, but being forced to go several times back and forth, and each time with someone on his back, would be tiring.
And they had Feather to think of, too; she wouldn't be able to cross the ocean without any help. The chocobo in question was staring at the churning sea with a definite apprehension in her blue eyes.
"Cloud. Your cell phone?"
Used by now to Vincent's short, and often rather strange, requests, Cloud handed over the device without a blink, or even turning around. Maybe they shouldn't have left the helicopter on the other side of the continent, but trying to get more fuel... that would just have been stupid to try, they all knew.
"Shera? Where's Highwind?" Vincent's quiet voice, and his reason for asking for the cell phone, finally called the other three's attention, and they turned to face Vincent, who looked strangely... normal, standing there talking into a cell phone.
It was creepy.
"Thank you." His manners, or rather, use of enough words so he sounded polite enough as he terminated the call without any 'goodbye', still seemed to be lacking, which was, in a way, reassuring.
"Call your friends. Ask for Cid Highwind. I can convince him to fly us over the ocean." Cloud stared at Vincent for a moment, but didn't bother with asking what the hell the ex-Turk was planning. He only took the proffered cell phone and called Tifa, giving over the phone to Vincent after she, rather bewildered and confused as to how Cloud could know they had someone named Cid Highwind with them, had put him on.
"Highwind."
/Fucking hell. Valentine? I hope you smell a damn sight better than last time I saw you, otherwise I feel sorry for the schmucks you're with now./
Cloud listened to the tinny voice on the other end, amused by just this small exchange. A look at Zack told him he was also listening in, and just as amused.
"We need transportation." Vincent didn't seem to be bothered by Cid's verbal prodding, calmly stating what he wanted. Cloud wondered if Vincent had just paused to give Cid the chance to say something, but not really listened.
/I'm not your personal chauffeur, Valentine!/ Cid's voice blurred with swearing at the end; he obviously wasn't very happy with the request.
"It's a ship, Highwind. It transports cargo." Vincent still didn't seem worried about not being able to get Cid to do as he wanted, his voice was the same soft, cool, almost-monotone that they all were used to as he delivered his arguments.
/Shit. What-fucking-ever, Valentine. Just let me dump these tree-hugging terrorists somewhere and give me your goddamn location./ There was a muffled protest of 'hey!' in the background, possibly from Yuffie, at being called a 'tree-hugging terrorist', but neither Zack nor Cloud heard if there were any other protests, as Vincent gave their location and terminated the call, giving the cell phone back to Cloud.
"He'll be here soon."
Transportation problem solved, and now it was just the last stretch of their journey, hopefully, left, until they could get Sephiroth back.
***
(I'm sorry for the shamefully short chapter, all. But, I promise, the next easily makes up for it~ *cackle*
Cid was so EASY to write~ The next/last chapter, as it is already written, will be out as soon as possible (aka as soon as my beta can beta it... and I need to finger on the end a little). :D)
Summary: Jenova isn't asleep any longer, and she wants Gaia to bow down to her. Avalanche wants ShinRa to go down in a blaze of fire. Aerith, Zack and Cloud just want Sephiroth back.
Sequel to The Golden Chocobo.
Rating: PG-13 overall
Pairing: S+C, Z+A (and others)
Genre: AU, drama
Type: Multi-chapter
Disclaimer: FVII's not mine, just the idea~
Notes: K, peeps. Only one chapter left after this one.
Chapter seven
Pacing the mental 'space' he'd managed to secure for himself when Jenova invaded, Sephiroth scowled. If he could just find the strength he knew he had, he could cast her from his body... But he didn't dare to recall his memories, in the chance that she'd see any of them and take even more from him. He just needed...
A silent hiss, and he clenched his fist so the knuckles turned white, but there simply was no give. Jenova laughed somewhere, teasing his mind and urging him to dip into his memories... to share with his Mother.
Shaking his head, silver hair rippling like the surface of a disturbed pond, Sephiroth continued the angry pacing, waiting for the moment to strike. It must... it would come. It was just a matter of time. Time he wasn't sure he or anyone else, had.
Unnoticed by Sephiroth, immersed in his own thoughts as he was, green light flickered along his right hand and lower arm for just a moment, and a single black feather fell, disappearing before it met the floor he was pacing on.
***
The air was heavy with humidity; each intake of breath feeling as if half of the air was made of water. They had left the helicopter at the fringe of the jungle, struggling through the thick foliage on foot. Vincent had at least stated there was enough fuel to get them back to where Feather would be waiting.
Cloud thought he definitely preferred the grass plains around the Chocobo Ranch and Junon. Even the desert around the Golden saucer was better than this clinging, growing green and the sticking heat and moist air.
"Oh," Aerith's voice sounded rather breathless, but then, if they opened their mouths and tried to talk, they all did... except for Vincent. It was quite irritating. "Before I forget again, here, Cloud. Jessie and Tifa gave it to me so I could give it to you." Aerith found, with a bit of fumbling, a cell phone in her pack.
"So we could contact them if we needed." She ended with a grimace at the heavy air, apparently not very pleased by the difficulty this terrain was posing. Of course, that could be the reason the Temple of the Ancients was placed here... or they had actually liked this sort of surroundings.
Tucking the cell phone away in one of his pockets, Cloud nodded and then they continued, relieved when the jungle thinned out and finally left them in a giant clearing. Most of it was taken up by a stone structure built in ever-decreasing platforms, with a stair running up the front to the doorway on top of it. The rope bridge leading over the suspicious-looking ground and to the doorway in the wall surrounding the Temple looked surprisingly whole and sturdy.
Zack tested the bridge. It had to be old and decrepit, however new it looked, and it would definitely have to be sturdier than they thought before he allowed either Cloud or Aerith to walk across it and enter the Temple grounds.
It was impressive how the building had stood here for so long, hardly showing any signs of wear or tear. Moisture dripped down the giant stones making up the Temple, and vines crept up along the sides, but there were no giant cracks, or stones missing, only the faint, bluish fog clinging to the top of the Temple and blurring the air, moisture and vines.
If anything, the wall surrounding the Temple was in worse condition than the building. With a sigh, Cloud stared up at the opening on the top, took a deep breath in a silence that was as heavy as the air, and dashed up the steps. Better take them with speed, or he'd never get up. Chuckling softly as the other three had to fight their way up the stairs, he waited in the shadow of the doorway, the darkness slowly dissipating and letting him peek inside.
Nothing except a giant, empty room with a somewhat rectangular block of stone in the center. Probably some sort of altar.
"We're going in?" Zack appeared by his shoulder and looked into the room, looking vaguely suspicious about it all.
"There's nothing here except a piece of rock."
Aerith rolled her eyes and slapped her boyfriend lightly on the back of his head as she walked past, heading for the altar.
"The Keystone is also 'a piece of rock', Zack." Her voice muffled as she walked around the altar, concentrating on other things than talking, and then fished up the Keystone, its pale blue light bathing the chamber and twisting their shadows strangely. They stayed silent but right at her side as Aerith leaned over the altar, and placed the Keystone in a depression in the rock.
There was a loud, grinding sound, and the floor dropped away under them, darkness rising up and swallowing the small group and the altar. The Keystone's light caught one more shadow, flickering, before it descended too far below the edge to light up the chamber above.
***
The corridors were mostly empty. Not even dust coated the rough-looking but surprisingly smooth floors. The light was shivering blue at the corners of their eyes, at the end of a corridor, but never where they could stare directly at it.
Sometimes, Cloud wondered if the light actually came from very shy beasts that didn't attack them just because Aerith was walking serenely in front, a half-glazed look in her eyes as though she was listening to something else, further away than they could hear, but close enough she could hear the whispers.
Sometimes they came into rooms filled all sorts of things... devices, strange plants, a large pillar seemingly growing out of the ground and filled with blackness and starlight, a natural mako fountain, the Lifestream tingling both reassuringly and uncomfortably along his nerves and the light bathing them in soft green.
They even saw Meteor.
Or, rather, a large mural of it, and then Aerith had said, slowly, as if repeating what someone else was saying, that Meteor was the black materia, the ultimate black magic spell that could destroy the world. The temperature had seemed to drop dramatically at that declaration, a momentary lacing of ice crawling over the floor and walls, and then melting away.
"Is this it?" Zack stared down at the strange stone, kicking it lightly. It wouldn't budge.
"Yes. But we can't just take it. There're... traps, puzzles all over in the Temple, that must be solved for the black materia to be moved... and for each puzzle solved, the Temple will grow smaller, finally only leaving the black materia left." Aerith mumbled in answer, still not all present, and Zack frowned. He didn't like her having to be... so far away to listen to whatever was telling her this.
"And whoever solves the puzzles dies." Vincent's quiet voice seemed to echo much louder than it should in the chamber.
~See it? Take it. Give it to me. Give up, give in, give it to me, and you'll get to see--~
"Cloud?"
Head snapping up, Cloud smiled wanly at Zack and shrugged to show it was alright. That had never happened before. Aerith suddenly shivered and looked up, eyes clear and bright again.
That was a relief.
Cloud tucked away the unpleasant realization, and then snapped his head around to the corridor behind them. Sword in hand, Zack and Vincent reacted bare seconds after him, and all were facing the man as he came strolling through the doorway.
"Hello." Blue glowed with traces of violet, and the hair, hanging rather limply, seemed to reflect white as the blue light flashed over it. Kevin's voice was smooth and cold, and his skin was shifting into blue now, and it was not the fault of the strange light.
Something was very, very wrong.
"Nephew. And some others. Cetra..." There was a hiss in the end, curling with the air, tainting it, and one of Kevin's hands made a vague, grabbing motion in Aerith's direction, but he didn't move from his spot just on this side of the doorway.
"Professor Kevin. What are you doing here?" Zack frowned, hand tightening on the hilt of his Buster Sword and stance shifting to a better one, but he didn't move either.
No one did.
"I am... helping. She would have it no other way. Perfection..." Kevin swayed gently on his feet, gaze far away and dreamy before snapping into focus again. "Pity there was no chance to examine it more... But if this is as close to Perfection..." Kevin laughed, a slow, shivering sound that left echoes of mania trailing in its wake.
"Listen. Do you hear it? The Planet knows it will die... Will bow down to Me, take what I came here for..."
Four sets of eyes stared in fascinated horror and consternation at the Professor of ShinRa as he seemed to completely drift away into something Else.
"Jenova." Cloud hissed, muscles straining, wanting to move but not allowed to. The laughter danced in the still air again, deep and taunting, egging them on with a shade of violent red.
"Yess. So willing to Join with Me. So willing to absorb. So easy to sacrifice. Come north, mine. Give the black materia to Me, and Sephiroth is here waiting for you..." Kevin... or what was left of him, whirled around and disappeared into the darkness of the corridor beyond, Aerith halting Zack and Cloud with one hand each on their shoulders. Vincent was calmly re-holstering his gun.
"Not now! We need to get out of here. He's already started to solve the puzzles, and if we don't get out soon, we won't be able to." She shook her head, frowning. With frustration born out of not being allowed to pound the ever-lasting light out of someone who had been a thorn in their side for a rather long time now, both strapped their respective swords to their backs, reluctantly giving up the idea of the satisfaction of killing Kevin. Then there was only running, the half-lit, empty corridors and strange rooms disappearing in a bluish and dark gray-brown blur.
***
The ground shivered, once, twice and then there was a giant yawning feeling, as if air was quickly rushing in to fill a space that earlier had been occupied, and then there was only a shallow crater where the Temple of the Ancients had been.
The sides of the crater were smooth and sharp, as if someone had cut out a piece of ground with a sharp blade, leaving the ground almost reflectively smooth, like glass. Vincent looked down, calmly jumped in and bowed down at the bottom, coming up and dropping something small, round and black as a starless space in Aerith's hand.
The black materia.
"I wonder how far north, 'north' is?" Zack muttered thoughtfully as they all stared at the black materia, looking so innocent where it lay. Vincent shrugged slightly, a faint frown on his face.
"Jenova was found in the Northern Crater." He offered with a nod in the direction that presumably was north.
"Yes... That place is still wounded, despite the Planet's best efforts. It'll probably be easy for Jenova to use that very same spot if she wants to destroy the Planet." Aerith nodded and tucked away the black materia with her other, special materia. Black and white.
Maybe they were some sort of counter for each other? Cloud shrugged mentally and started to walk back to the helicopter. They, once again, had gotten a dotted line to follow, and it was only to go and fetch Feather and go north across the continent until they came to the sea and had to find some way of crossing it.
***
The waves crashed against the rock below the cliff they stood at, staring out at a wind-swept, churning sea. On the other side, marking land, giant, purple-black thunderclouds stained the sky. It had been very tiring to cross the continent, even if having both a black and a gold chocobo had certainly eased their way.
"I suppose I could get us over one at a time... But that would take a while." Cloud shook his head, frowning at the water. Alone, it wouldn't take him much time to cross the ocean, but being forced to go several times back and forth, and each time with someone on his back, would be tiring.
And they had Feather to think of, too; she wouldn't be able to cross the ocean without any help. The chocobo in question was staring at the churning sea with a definite apprehension in her blue eyes.
"Cloud. Your cell phone?"
Used by now to Vincent's short, and often rather strange, requests, Cloud handed over the device without a blink, or even turning around. Maybe they shouldn't have left the helicopter on the other side of the continent, but trying to get more fuel... that would just have been stupid to try, they all knew.
"Shera? Where's Highwind?" Vincent's quiet voice, and his reason for asking for the cell phone, finally called the other three's attention, and they turned to face Vincent, who looked strangely... normal, standing there talking into a cell phone.
It was creepy.
"Thank you." His manners, or rather, use of enough words so he sounded polite enough as he terminated the call without any 'goodbye', still seemed to be lacking, which was, in a way, reassuring.
"Call your friends. Ask for Cid Highwind. I can convince him to fly us over the ocean." Cloud stared at Vincent for a moment, but didn't bother with asking what the hell the ex-Turk was planning. He only took the proffered cell phone and called Tifa, giving over the phone to Vincent after she, rather bewildered and confused as to how Cloud could know they had someone named Cid Highwind with them, had put him on.
"Highwind."
/Fucking hell. Valentine? I hope you smell a damn sight better than last time I saw you, otherwise I feel sorry for the schmucks you're with now./
Cloud listened to the tinny voice on the other end, amused by just this small exchange. A look at Zack told him he was also listening in, and just as amused.
"We need transportation." Vincent didn't seem to be bothered by Cid's verbal prodding, calmly stating what he wanted. Cloud wondered if Vincent had just paused to give Cid the chance to say something, but not really listened.
/I'm not your personal chauffeur, Valentine!/ Cid's voice blurred with swearing at the end; he obviously wasn't very happy with the request.
"It's a ship, Highwind. It transports cargo." Vincent still didn't seem worried about not being able to get Cid to do as he wanted, his voice was the same soft, cool, almost-monotone that they all were used to as he delivered his arguments.
/Shit. What-fucking-ever, Valentine. Just let me dump these tree-hugging terrorists somewhere and give me your goddamn location./ There was a muffled protest of 'hey!' in the background, possibly from Yuffie, at being called a 'tree-hugging terrorist', but neither Zack nor Cloud heard if there were any other protests, as Vincent gave their location and terminated the call, giving the cell phone back to Cloud.
"He'll be here soon."
Transportation problem solved, and now it was just the last stretch of their journey, hopefully, left, until they could get Sephiroth back.
***
(I'm sorry for the shamefully short chapter, all. But, I promise, the next easily makes up for it~ *cackle*
Cid was so EASY to write~ The next/last chapter, as it is already written, will be out as soon as possible (aka as soon as my beta can beta it... and I need to finger on the end a little). :D)