Chapter 9
"What's going on here? Cloud isn't answering his PHS!" Reno had been trying to contact Cloud since Elena had updated the rest of Shinra about his progress. "You said an airship exploded the last time you called him, Elena. What's going on at all?"
The female Turk shrugged. "I don't know... maybe he's busy fighting Jenova." A bright blue glow in the centre of the room caused the Turks to notice two male silhouettes standing within it.
"He ain't. He jes' got possessed by 'er."
Elena gasped. "Barret? I thought you were at the-" She looked behind where the large man was standing. "And Sephiroth too? But... this is..."
"It seems that Jenova sent us back here. I haven't seen anything unusual other than something strange in the sky." Sephiroth stepped forward. "Barret is right. Jenova possessed Cloud. However we can't get back to the Northern Crater..."
"Cid an' the Highwind... if his airship hadn't crashed we'd still have a chance!" Elena asked Barret to go into more detail about what happened and he did. She bit her lip and gently patted the large man on the arm, trying to comfort him. "Damn, nothin' seems t' be goin' right for us at all! First we almost get killed by some weirdoes tryin' to bring back Jenova, then we lose th' Highwind, then Jenova tries to kill us... DAMN! I ain't standin' for this no more!"
Sephiroth was looking up at the darkened sky when he felt his head spinning. He held a palm to his forehead and took a few deep breaths. "Something is coming back to me, another piece of my missing memories. That, in the sky... isn't that... Meteor?" He kept looking up, and the others came over to look as well. All eyes were widened in shock.
Reno could only stare. "This is probably the worst case of deja vu I've ever experienced..."
Back at the Northern Crater, Cloud was tied up in a mental war with Jenova. His subconscious had recovered from the initial shock and was now fighting back. Within the boundaries, Cloud himself and Jenova stood facing each other.
"Not this time. Not after what you did to Barret." Bright yellow light burned forth from where Cloud stood, forcing Jenova to recoil and step back. He stepped forward. "You won't get away with this again, Jenova."
The creature laughed, her visible eye glowing brightly. "The Planet will be mine... but why would you forgive the man who burned down your home so easily?" Blue lightning arced from where she stood, striking Cloud and knocking him backwards. The light surrounding him started to fade.
He recovered quickly. "I haven't completely forgiven Sephiroth... at least, not yet, anyway. But maybe in time I will. Then again, this whole thing was really all your fault..." The light became more blinding and a wave of it swept outwards, throwing Jenova backwards and downwards. Cloud smiled and advanced on her. "I'm not letting you take the Planet this time!" More waves of light assaulted Jenova and her grip on Cloud's mind loosened.
"But Meteor... it is coming once again..." Cloud didn't let her snakelike hiss bother him and he kept advancing, the light forcing Jenova from his mind. She rematerialised outside of his head, in front of where his unconscious body lay. "And soon... the Lifestream... will be mine..."
Reno and Elena had immediately called the President after they discovered that Meteor was in the sky once more. Since the last time, the Shinra Defence Department had drawn up emergency evacuation plans to use should such an incident reoccur. Warnings had already been issued throughout Midgar, and soon the rest of the towns would follow. In the meantime, the Shinra military had been put on high alert.
"Alright, the people should be safe now." The President's face turned grave as he looked towards the two Turks. "Well... not completely. We still have Meteor to deal with. Midgar just about managed to stand up to the last one, but we can't take another one."
Elena sighed. "If what Barret says is true, that Cloud's been possessed by Jenova... then what? That complicates it massively." President Rufus hushed her and told her that if that was the case, they would have to kill Cloud as well. The female Turk shook her head and argued they shouldn't kill someone who was innocent but possessed, but the President remained firm. If that was what had to be done, then so be it.
"Maybe we should go back to the Northern Crater and see what the hell Kadaj and his goons are doing." Reno stepped forward. "They might know how to stop it, or at least if they don't, we can get rid of the bastards." He walked to the intercom on the wall and issued a command to the Military Department, telling them to prepare some planes, jets and soldiers. This called for a full scale attack.
"This might not be such a good idea, Reno. Don't forget how much trouble that we had dealing with Jenova back then." Elena seemed rather saddened. "Especially that time when Sephiroth dealt my love Tseng that mortal wound..."
"That's the thing. Jenova and Sephiroth were together then. I've got a feeling that without him, Jenova will be much weaker. Elena, stop worrying." Reno placed a hand on the female's shoulder. "We are gonna do this, no matter what. I've called the Military Department so we've got reinforcements."
The two Turks headed to where Sephiroth and Barret were waiting. "Right, you two. You're coming with us back to the Northern Crater. I've arranged for a plane to take us there." Reno looked towards Elena. "You go and get Rude, then wait for us in the plane. The President'll brief us when we're all there." The female Turk nodded and went away.
"S'about time! I've gotta save Cloud from that bitch an' give 'er a piece o' me!" Barret clenched his fist. "An' she sure as hell ain't gettin' away with settin' off another Meteor!" He looked towards the man in the Black Cape. "Are ya wi' me?"
"I should never have believed anything about Jenova in the first place. I'll go with you, Barret. Let's save Cloud and stop this!" However, seeds of doubt had been sown in Sephiroth's mind. His memories were still patchy, but part of him wanted to let this continue happening. He still wasn't fully sure of who he was, but he thought it best to go with Barret for the moment. His eyes flickered as he looked towards the large man. "I don't understand this thought I have about just... not doing anything, but sometimes that's how-"
Barret interrupted abruptly. "Like hell yer gonna hold me back from savin' my friend! Damn, jes' 'cause yer havin' other thoughts don't mean ya 'ave ta listen to 'em! Ya said yer wi' me, so let's go!" He followed after Reno who was heading down to the Military Department. Sephiroth hesitated a moment before he too followed.
"As you said, Reno. Two planes, three fighter jets, five elite pilots and forty of our best soldiers." The commander of the Elite Shinra Military saluted Reno as he spoke. "They know of all the rammifications and they're prepared to die for the cause." The Turk nodded and ushered everyone towards the back of the plane hangar where the President was stood waiting.
He stepped up to the podium he had set up before addressing everyone. "I won't keep you long. This is just a brief of what must be done." The others fell silent. "The rest of the world is relying on you who stand before me, the most elite in the Shinra military, the Turks and our new allies. Jenova has returned. Meteor approaches once more. If we don't do anything, the world will fall. It is now up to you to stop this happening, and I wish you the very best of luck. I believe Commander Sachs has the plans for how the attack will go?"
The commander stepped forward and bowed his head, thanking the President for his speech and unrolling a chart with an aerial view of the Northern Crater and some lines on it. "Alright, men!"
"And women..." Elena mused, but no-one took notice of her.
"Here is what we are going to do!" The commander pointed to three sweeping blue lines on the chart. "Our fighter pilots will go in and do a preliminary sweep of the area before they return. Their report should hopefully help improve our current plan of attack. The two other planes, the rest of us will be in those. One plane will be sent out and the troops will head down to the surface. The other plane will only be sent in if the troops in the first lot all fall." The rest of the group disputed the plan, but it was all they had.
The troops were split evenly between the two planes, and the fighter jets were manned by the top three pilots. When everyone was ready, the fighter jets were launched first, leading the way for the other two planes. For everyone, it was all or nothing.
Within minutes the fighter jets would be approaching the Northern Crater. They got into formation and flew over the area as the commander directed, doing their preliminary scan. The leader gave the report.
"Commander Sachs, our preliminary report looks clean. Four lifeforms, one definitely showing up as Jenova. Cloud is there, doesn't look like he's possessed..."
The commander thanked the leader and told the fighters to fall back for the moment. The first plane was sent in, the soldiers paradropping to the ground nearly two miles from their destination, but they had sound reasons for doing so. As they made their way up to where Jenova was, one of them spotted what looked like a blackened arm protruding from a wreck of twisted, melted metal.
"Looks like we weren't the only ones trying to stop Jenova here. We found someone else." He sent a quick report to Commander Sachs, who told the squad to unearth them. They did so, and they found a man who seemed to be lifeless. Luckily one of the men was a doctor and he gave Commander Sachs a quick diagnosis on the man's condition.
"Seems like he's a male, early forties, clothing burned away slightly. Seventy percent burns, most second degree, some third degree." He bent down to check the man's vitals whilst he continued to report. "No breathing or pulse. I'll give him CPR." He did so, but after several tries he couldn't detect any signs of recovery. He gently closed the man's eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry, Commander Sachs. He's dead."
"Let's go on." The squad leader hurried on with the others. Meanwhile, Commander Sachs was watching over in the other plane, along with Barret and Sephiroth. He gave the two men a stern look.
"I know you want to go down and help, but we're sticking with our original plan."
Barret stamped his foot on the ground. "The hell are we gonna do then? I ain't one to sit round!"
"If you had any sense you would let us go as well." Sephiroth was firm. "Some of my returning memories are telling me that you're not quite as resourceful as you like others to think." He advanced on Commander Sachs. "As much as I appreciate your plan, it doesn't work well for me and Barret."
"Damn right it don't!" The commander still refused to let the two of them go after the other soldiers. Barret ushered the man in the Black Cape to one side out of the commander's earshot. "Let's jes' take matters into our own hands. We gotta help Cloud, so we're gonna set off now. I think I saw where they got their parachutes."
"After you." Sephiroth followed Barret to a hatch in the main body of the plane. The large man tossed him what looked like a backpack and told him to put it on whilst he unhooked the catches on the hatch to get it to open.
"Right, on the count o' three! One... two..."
"What do you think you're doing, you two? I said you weren't leaving this plane just yet!" Barret looked behind him and only just noticed Commander Sachs. He ignored the commander and pushed open the hatch, jumping out of the plane. Sephiroth jumped out after him.