Valhalla Descending
315 years after Jenova left Gaia...
The World below was a remarkable work, the poles still frozen over a good portion of the planets' surface; only a belt around the equatoral section that was approximately 800 kilometers wide had anything that would pass for life. But their goal was not there, but much further up north, where a chunk of meteor had been spotted by the long-range sensor systems attached to the ship. The small but fast craft slowed once it reached a geostationary orbit, scanning again to find the Remnants buried beneath the ice. "Remember, " The pilot, a grizzled man with a grey beard that matched his salt and pepper black hair. He would chomp on his cigar as he talked, "One sample, then back to the ship. Then we are out of here. This place gives me the creeps." The last said under his breath as he turned back to the controls.
The science officer chimed in. " I have it, Captain and I am sending you the coordinates to a safe landing zone about 530 meters away. We can walk in, get the sample, and get back." The Captain would turn in his seat and inspect the younger man. "We need ta get closer. That way your time out there is lessened. The sooner we get off this rock, the better." The two men stared at each other but for the strong will of the Captain, the science officer had an equal power: fact. "Sir, Let me say it this way: where I designated we land is solid ice, where the rock is actually located on a pocket of water that seems to be being heated somehow but not hot enough to melt the surface ice. the ice is holding it in place but, it seems the meteor is warming the water, it seems to be the central source ot that heat." On a viewscreen the science officer brought a thermal image up, and the bottom section of the rock seemed to be giving off tremendous amounts of heat.
"Ok, I am aborting this mission, Prep-" A shot rang out and a puff of stuffing shot from the back of the Captains chair. He slumped forward, and the science officer would step up behind him shooting quickly in the back of the head. Then his form changed, no; it would melt into something far more grotesque. Genesis had kept himself alive though periods of cryogenic hibernation, but alas, his illness would become terminal soon without the Jenova cells. The degradation had not stopped at his body, his mind too suffered a horrible laspe of reason as he piloted the ship down to the landing zone. Bringing the ship in for a gentle landing, Genesis harbored far more serious homicidal tendencies now that he had degraded so far, the fact he could pull it together long enough to morph his form and assume the form of the scientist sent on this long-range mission performed under a veil of secrecy was nothing short of an angelic miracle...
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115 years before, Midgar
Many had come for the festivals now, even though none actually remembered the actual battle where Sephiroth fell after slaying his only daughter in a murderous rampage. Those who did come relished in the telling of the tale of Sephira and her journey to take on The Nightmare in these very streets. The spot where she had been killed, impaled on Masamune, had never been repaired, the main roads diverted away from what was now considered sacred ground. Every year on the anniversary of her death thousands of people laid flowers, all bought from the flower stand run out of an old church in the slums. Some say the church was good luck for those in distress, helped by kind spirits; others believed it a true sanctuary of peace that was inviolate even to war, a fierce guardian angel seemed to be protecting it. It was also here Sephiras' spirit had waited for Jesse, but for 2 centuries nothing had happened..
She had watched over him then one day, he simply vanished.. Sephira had searched for him, but by the time she found a trace, he was gone. Then the traces stopped, and she believed he died but.. then wouldn't he come to her or wouldn;t she know somehow first? years stretched into decades which agonizingly stretched into two hundred years. In the singlemindedness of her search she missed the signs Genesis walked the world again, the threat of Jenova tainting the Lifestream back again. Once she did notice, he was already on board the crew of the ship to leave Gaia on a deep space exploration.
114 years later
The ship left its' hyperspeed and began the 6 month-long trip towards the solar system where they had calculated Jenova had landed, the ship automatically starting the awakening process of one of the cryogenic sleep tubes on board. In the last 90 days, they slowly woke various crew members, a compliment of 150 slowly came from their deep slumber to begin preparing for an otherworldly expedition. Genesis blended in, faking his awakening near the middle of the mission with pure grace. The last to enter stasis, he knew once he entered sleep he would revert to his normal form, and they would be wise to who he really was. With that in mind, he executed his plan to covertly keep his identity, and managed to prepare the weapons he would need to sieze control..
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The ship landed at the designated place where the ice was solid, Then Genesis would raise the alert they had a saboteur on board and this person had killed the Captain. Able to sieze control in his guise now, he did just that and ordered the ground crew readied as the rest of the crew was launched on a search for the would-be killer and saboteur. Donning a suit to protect him from the extreme cold outside, Genesis slipped from the ship in the chaos and began the trek towards where the stone fragment was scanned to be. Over 1700 feet away from the ship, the stone would have been an easy enough thing to gather in optimal conditions; the sub-arctic winds blew at 40 or 45 Kilometers per hour, with gusts that shot upwards of 100 KPH at any given time, and the temperature was -129 degrees celsius or 200 degrees below 0 Fahrenheit. The sheer hostility of the landscape suited Genesis, a cold hostile land that reflected the aloof uncaring monster he had become in his single-minded drive to find Jenova and heal his broken form.
50 meters.. a hundred.. Travelling was slow, and eventually a snow-craft pulled up. The driver got off when Genesis waved him off and then climbed aboard, taking off before the man could board that craft and would have to be picked up by one of the ones a few minutes behind them. Genesis shot ahead now abandoning all caution as he made his way to the meteor that laid in the crater of ice.. Around it, the ice was slushy and not fully formed but as he neared, an ice bridge suddenly formed from it and he was given passage.
Jenova could sense him mow, she had called him from across the galaxy to find her, and bring her back so she could exact her revenge. in the hundreds of years it took her to get here and the hundred she had to wait for him to find her, she had plotted to poison Gaia and kill it by choking the Lifestream off and devouring all the souls and energy inside. If she could do that, she would have the power to use the world to transport her to the Promised Land as planned.
Like a shark smelling blood in the water she sensed him growing closer now. Come, boy, Come so that I can use you as a suitable vessel for my vengance...
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Genesis could head singing now, and the air grew warmer.. Looking at his gauges, ne noticed the air was not only breathable but almost tropical in temperature. Pulling off his helmet he took a tenative sniif and once he deemed the air breathable, dropped his helmet.
It was then that she chose to strike.
Jenovas' now awakened cells formed a mist that would permeate Genesis' body, causing him to convulse and drop to the frozen turf, blood running from his mouth, nose and the corners of his eyes. Minutes later when the rest of the scientists caught up, only a frozen form of Genesis, made whole again, remained in the now-cold pit there. The heat had died when Jenova transferred into Genesis, and now everything around them was a frozen wasteland. Wasting no time, they Covered Genesis up and took him back aboard, baffled that someone different was wearing Dr. Shindos' explorer suit.
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End Chapter 1