Author's Beginning Note Thingy: WARNING, complicated chapter filled with meaty plot devices concieved by an immensely bored and tired mind ahead. I hope it all makes sense...
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"No." was the swordsman's immediate answer.
"Lesser of two evils my ass!" Cid broke in, "You don't even know that!"
"Think about what you're saying! You're talking about using him as a sacrifice!" Cloud's usually even voice shook with anger, "You're crazy! Yeah, we've killed Jenova once, but do you have any idea what we went through to do it?!"
"Probably no-"
"Shut up, Reno!" he yelled, "And that was Jenova without the added bonus of all the lifestream energy in the world, when we were at our full strength, when Yuffie and Barret and probably Vincent, by now, weren't dead!"
"Cloud..." Tifa pleaded, the flush of fiercer emotion brought out by the Turks' idea already draining from her cheeks, "...please..." she reached out and wrapped her cool fingers around his forearm, but he pulled it away when he noticed the nervous glance she took at Kadaj when she spoke. He still slept peaceful and undisturbed, blissfully unaware of the discussion that raged on over him about his own fate.
"We're not doing it." Cloud said with a fervent shake of the head, "That's final."
Reno's eyes were narrowed and it was clear to see that his blood boiled beneath the surface of his pale skin. "Allright." he said icily, struggling (and meeting with decent success) at keeping the level of his voice down. "Allright, Strife. We'll do it your way. Ah, what is your way again?"
Cloud was immediately silenced, to even his own surprise, though the fury raged on in the expression on his face… but his throat had closed and no words came.
"What? No plan?" Reno cocked his head to one side.
A heavy silence hung in the air around them, and far off on the horizon lightning whipped at the earth and thunder boomed across the beaten landscape. Cait Sith turned a worried glance over his furry shoulder at the two parties facing off. Tifa only had eyes for Cloud, and they were moving over every aspect of his posture, the forced way his back was propped up, painfully straight at the base and hunched at the top, the way his arms hung, leaden, the thick black lines under his eyes that weren't stains of ash.
"Cloud...?" she finally said, clearing her throat. He looked up, his eyes mad, but unusually dull. Cid peered at him unsurely for the second before he turned away. His fervor gone, he further slumped, the fire sucked right out of him. "Cloud, you're exhausted." the fighter finished, "You didn't sleep last night." it didn't take a Turk to tell.
Cloud mashed his lips together. For the thousandth time that hour the words ran through his head along with the accompanying sting of guilt: No time to rest right now, no time. Not for him, not for Vincent, not for the planet or anyone... but Tifa was agonizingly correct. He was exhausted. It was all he could do to remain upright at the moment, which was no doubt somewhat attributed to the waning supply of mako in his system. If it weren't for that… maybe he would be okay. He badly needed sleep, though it was unlikely he'd feel any better when he woke up.
Nevertheless...
"Allright, here's how it's going to be." the blonde croaked. "I'm going to take a nap." Reno snickered, but a collective glare from Avalanche (and his own partner) shut him up. "Reno and Elena are going to stay here with us," he addressed his own group, "Cid and Nanaki, you keep an eye on them." the two nodded, and the Turks gave no complaint. "Tifa, go sit by Cait and take care of Kadaj if he wakes up and needs anything." she was the only one he could trust with the boy right now, and thankfully she also nodded in assurance and agreement with his 'order', her fingertips straying across his back as she moved away to the boy's side.
Cloud lowered himself to the rocky ground, lay his head back... he didn't even remember closing his eyes before sleep was on him, aggressively.
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You are family. the voice was cold and hypnotizing, Do as you're told, my son... my... you were always my favorite child, my favorite... puppet.
Cloud gasped and tried to claw at the dense blackness, but it was thick as molasses, and his limbs wouldn't move. They felt chained to his sides. He could almost feel the arms of that darkness surrounding him, drawing him into a poisoned embrace, as malicious and loveless as silken ice...
Your mother loves you, Cloud... and your brother Kadaj... loves you too. Save him, save him and save me. You don't want your mother to die... the hideous echo washed out like the tide of a polluted ocean and left him there alone.
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"They're on the right track, you know."
The air was balmy warm and the sky was white, pure white... not the blue of a natural day, but not the disheartening lit black of a scorched atmosphere. For a moment, the rocky bed beneath him was like soft grass, and Cloud thought he felt sunshine... until he realized the bed beneath him was grass, and the world was warm all over.
Sitting up straight with a gasp, he looked around wildly. Where was he? Was he... was he dead? It felt like that... he'd been dead (or at least very close to it) before... but no, this was far too tangible for that. And he saw... he saw...
Over to his right sat two women, kneeling in the lilies casually, looking almost as if he'd just dropped in on their picnic. They were both beautiful, but their young faces were grim and marked with care.
"They've just got a really bad idea." said the same one as before, softly.
"Aeris..."
She smiled encouragingly.
"Aeris…" he repeated, muttering, and pushing a hand self-consciously through his yellow head of spikes. "…and..." his focus shifted from the first miraculous specter to the second, which he also recognized, despite it being far less familiar. It was likely only the recency of his meeting her that allowed for the recognition, "...Lucrecia?"
She smiled as well, that same sad, slow smile that Aeris had, with the same shadow of predetermined defeat in her eyes.
"Is this a dream?" Cloud shook his head in confusion. It had to be, but everything was so real... the warmth of her smile, the shade of her dress... the light, the leaves of the flowers shaking in the soft breeze, the smell of the grass...
"Something like that." Aeris said, her voice just as soothing as he'd remembered it, yet tinted with urgency. "Cloud, listen..."
Despite the sensation he was getting that the world was spinning, the haze of wooziness in his mind, Cloud fell instantly silent and at attention. He'd never considered himself a spiritual person until he met the unfortunate flowergirl... ever since, he'd never disregarded a single sign that the planet had chosen to give him, and he especially wasn't about to start now, in the time of most dire need.
"It's about Deepground." Lucrecia spoke delicately.
"How do you know about them?" Cloud asked, astonished, to which the two women sent him almost motherly, quieting looks, and he shut his mouth. That question was not important, he realized, it wasted the time he held so preciously, and these two… spirits, angels, whatever he should call them, didn't need to answer it.
"That's where Vincent is." she said almost dreamily, looking off into the white distance over his shoulder.
The swordsman felt his heart skip a beat (which was a good thing, to know it was still beating), and a flood of relief rise from his toes to the top of his head. "Thank Shiva... then he's alive."
"For now." Lucrecia said weightily, and her face was still just as grave, with every drop of intensity in her stare directed entirely at Cloud, and he sputtered and drowned in its depth, hunching his shoulders and looking down. She then stared off, letting her ethereal gaze settle somewhere else, on something that didn't exist or had been swallowed up into the whiteness, and said lightly "I haven't seen him in a long time..."
"You've said that before." Cloud muttered.
"I do know..." she went on as if she hadn't heard him, "...that you must go to him."
"Yeah." Cloud breathed, nodding, "We are."
"No." Aeris snapped, her voice far more forceful than he had ever heard it. "We mean you, Cloud, and only you. If there's any hope for Vincent, for the entire planet, you have to go to him alone. Especially now that-"
"Kadaj..." the swordsman cut in, suddenly understanding, "...it's him, isn't it? Reno was right. That's what you meant when you said-"
"That they're on the right track." Aeris finished off his sentence, her speech gentle once again. She sat back on her heels lightly. "But they've just got a really bad idea. Kadaj is..." she trailed off, looked to her companion. Cloud's gaze shifted too, eagerly, hanging on every word that came out of the two maidens' lips.
The scientist worked her skirt between her hands nervously. "...Kadaj is an avatar of Sephiroth." she said softly, the regret pooling in her brown eyes for numerous reasons. "And almost all that is left of Jenova." she looked up and stared pointedly at Cloud, a look he didn't catch.
He sighed and sat back. So his worst suspicions were true... spoken out of the mouth of the mother (both of them, now that he thought about it, and shivered) herself. "So what will he do?" the swordsman asked bluntly, "If we follow Reno's plan introduce him to the lifestream and then use him as a... as a..." he stumbled on the final word because of the look in Lucrecia's eyes, but at last swallowed and finished it, "...sacrifice?"
"It's not that simple." Aeris answered, and she looked at Lucrecia as well. The other woman was stiff, her eyes blank and her face unmoving. The Ancient sighed. "Ruling out any number of variables, if everything went according to the way Reno says it would…" she added a complimentary eyeroll along with the Turk's name, which made Cloud smirk and snicker under his breath. It was a wonder to see her again, she hadn't changed one bit… and the horrible thought occurred to him that he would probably never have another chance like this, to be here with her, and here he was spending it talking over tactics.
"…then yes," she finished, "the lifestream would disperse back into all corners of the planet... but, it would take from Kadaj every bit of Jenova that was left with it." it was just now he noticed that her fists were clenched, her knuckles white, and she spoke through slightly clenched teeth.
"Can you imagine, Cloud? Jenova cells being spread all over, all over the world... and on it's ravaged surface that tainted lifestream would be used to heal. Jenova being reborn, if only in part, in all living things. Can you imagine it?" her voice seemed on the verge of tears, and it shook with every word she said, "Every blade of grass, every bird in the sky, everything, even people... growing and growing and spreading more and more until Jenova would become the planet." her striking eyes were wide with horror.
There wasn't a word powerful or all-encompassing enough for the emotion Cloud felt. Aeris was always optimistic, happy, even proud, nothing ever dampened her spirits... and the hopelessness in her eyes, the fear in her voice... he wanted to protect her, to save her in any way he still could from this oncoming disaster, and yet her loss of hope practically paralyzed him. "What about..." he gulped, "...Deepground?" Reno's so-called wildcard, Elena's so-called greater of two evils. Given the aspect of their Jenova-based plan that the Turks had not taken into consideration, these Soldiers were looking alot more friendly all of a sudden.
"That's where it gets complicated." Aeris told him, the distress banished from her tone as suddenly and surprisingly as it had just gotten there. "Lucrecia?" her voice was quiet and unassuming as she looked to her companion, who by now had recovered from her statuelike state.
"Deepground..." the woman started in a quivering alto, then diverted. "...a long, long time ago, I came up with a theory." she began, and Cloud, taking the cue, sat back and got comfortable for the backstory he could feel coming.
"You are more familiar than most, I can probably assume, with the Weapons of the planet." she said, looking up and shaking the river of pale brown hair back behind her. The swordsman hadn't exactly noticed it until just now... how solid she was. Even the starched white of her labcoat against the colorless background didn't blend in with it. She was decidedly there unlike before when it seemed to take all the energy she could hold just to keep her form distinct. Something about that definition, the solidness of things here - less surreal, less dreamlike - made them easier to take. He nodded in response.
"Sapphire, Diamond, Emerald, Ruby and Ultima are just the tip of the iceberg." she said, "The first wave, shall we say, designed to protect the planet from a conceived threat, and as you know... they failed."
He knew indeed. Cloud remembered the fierce battles with Diamond and Ultima, remembered the impact of Emerald and Ruby into the oncoming meteor, the way they had done nothing.
"The planet has a failsafe for times like this. When all hope is lost, all options have failed, and there's nothing left to do but die..." she stopped and shook her head before becoming too morbid. "You see, the planet, like us, belongs to a larger lifestream, and when it comes time for it to be destroyed the energy from our world as a whole must be taken away to rejoin that cosmic cycle... but the space it must travel is so vast, it needs a vessel to help get it there." She took a breath, then sighed, seemingly preparing herself for the long explanation, clearly unused to discussing it with someone who wasn't as completely an intellectual as she. Cloud felt more than a little inferior, and guilty. "My theory states that the planet has two final entities, similar to the protective Weapons, involved in that process - you might be familiar with at least one of them: Chaos and Omega."
Cloud's heart jumped, and an instinctive spike of panic shot through his mind at the mention of the first. Oh yes, he was familiar with Chaos... the most destructive and terrifying of Vincent's 'demons', and also the most powerful. It had been Lucrecia herself that had given it to him, he remembered the return trip to that sparkling cavern where he had first met the woman, Vincent at his side. He was there when his friend had first received the creature, he saw first-hand the carnage it was capable of. What could Chaos possibly have to do with saving the planet?
"Omega is the being that does that, transporting the energy of this planet away when it dies. Chaos is essentially the bringer of death, sent out to harvest every last living soul, every remaining ounce of lifestream before the end so that it may all be taken away to safety." Lucrecia's voice had filled out from the meek whisper it was before. She was wading deep into her old expertise, and as ironic as it did sound, some life seemed to return to her as she went on. "That, I think, is why Deepground is holding him. They already have the second half of the equation: the human host to Omega. Vincent is the first, and now all there is left for them to do is awaken the beast inside him for the premature destruction to begin."
"Premature..." Cloud repeated, "...you mean... the planet isn't supposed to die yet?"
Lucrecia shook her head, "I don't think so... and in any case, do you want it to?" her lips perked faintly into the semblance of a smile. "The lifestream is already gathering, Omega is already prepared to take it up, and the longer it remains trapped in Midgar, the more the rest of the world withers, dies little by little, and the farther everything sinks into the inevitable. If the lifestream is restored the world still be saved, but the longer it stays away, the less chance there is of that happening."
The blonde shook his head, "If that's true..." he started, already beginning to feel the cold void of doubt taking shape in his heart, "...then how come Chaos hasn't come yet? It's not like Vincent has complete control. I've seen him lose it plenty of times, and once he's out, I don't think Chaos needs Omega's invitation to kill."
"That's true." Lucrecia said, "Your question is valid."
As miniscule and unimportant as that small compliment was, Cloud felt bolstered that he had managed to pick out sense from the scientist's thick explanation.
"And it leads down an avenue of my research that I admit I didn't explore as much as I should have... but I will help you there in any way I can." she assured softly. "I believe there is away to avoid this destruction and I admit it's all very..." she paused again, searching for the proper words, "...mystical and unscientific... but, it's all we've got left, so we have to try. A vast majority of my research on this subject has been derived solely from fragments of text left behind by the Ancients… Aeris has helped me fill in a few blanks regarding our current situation." The flowergirl nodded recognition of her own contribution, and motioned for Lucrecia to continue. "During the time when Jenova first landed on the planet – the first meteorfall, quite parallel to this – there was another scare that Chaos might be let out before his time." she said.
Aeris picked up where she left off, "Back then, there were three Ancients who worked tirelessly to keep the planet's own defense system from destroying itself: Eurynome was the original creator of Chaos, Sigyn restrained him as he struggled to escape his bonds, and Indra was eventually forced to destroy him and send him back to the planet." she spoke as if she had close friendships with all three, which Cloud didn't doubt was possible. "These Ancients, in death, eventually combined and became what we now call the 'protomateria', and embody its three main uses."
The swordsman's head was already spinning, "Protomateria?" he asked meekly.
Lucrecia offered a sheepish nod of the head and explained, "Chaos is meant to be Omega's servant, sent out to kill, but only at his master's bidding. One of the uses of the protomateria is that it allows whomever possesses it to have a measure of control over Chaos. Vincent has it now… I suspect Deepground is working on a way of extracting it from his body so that it might be given to Omega. If that happens, the beast will awaken for sure." the ominous end to her speech left Cloud with the feeling that it was finished, but no, the story went on…
Aeris cleared her throat, "Some lore suggests that Eurynome, Sigyn and Indra were not completely absorbed into the protomateria, which, by the very cyclical nature of the lifestream, means that whatever miniscule parts of them remained could be reborn within others, along with the unique powers over Chaos each one held."
"If this is true, then I am, of course, Chaos' creator, Eurynome..." Lucrecia sighed, pressing a hand to her chest. "I gave Vincent the protomateria when he visited me at the fountain in Nibelheim, I activated the dormant monster within him…" she trailed off heavily, "I believe the reason that Deepground is having so much difficulty awakening him now is because of the presence of Sigyn, or some part of her. Someone down there with Vincent is helping him keep Chaos in check, whether they mean to or not. I doubt they even know they're doing it. It's bought us some time, but we can't count on it lasting forever."
"That's where you come in." Aeris spoke.
Cloud looked dumbfounded, "Me?" he asked, "What do I have to do with any of this? To rescue Vincent, to go into Midgar alone, ensure that Kadaj doesn't taint the lifestream... is... is that what you mean?" though he knew better than to fool himself into thinking it was.
Lucrecia shook her head, confirming the blonde's suspicions. "No, Cloud. Your role is far more important. You are the destroyer."
His heart sank into his stomach, and the swirl of doubt that had started there turned straight to despair and swallowed it whole. "Then…" his voice was weak when he heard it, "...I have to kill Vincent?"
The women both winced, and Lucrecia quickly stepped in, "The... term isn't exactly accurate in that sense..." she said quietly, "...again, it's more complicated than that. You do not so much destroy Chaos as you... recreate him."
Cloud stared at her skeptically, disliking the technicalities.
"You have the ability, as the partial reincarnation of Indra and the third force that acts on Chaos, to redirect his power and his purpose. If you get close enough to him, you will be able to manipulate the protomateria from within his body, converting it." she explained, "Instead of collecting, for Omega, all the energy on the planet, you will instead be able to take what has been already gathered away from him using Chaos as a catalyst."
"Using Vincent's body as a tool." Cloud reworded. His eyes, though now almost completely bereft of their glow, were bitter and cold. "And then what?" he spat.
"Then..." Aeris breathed, forging on through the deepening gloom of her friends' fates, "...you will be in possession of the converted protomateria, the 'primamateria', as the Ancients called it. But, that kind of energy can't be contained for long... you must only hold it until Omega dissipates, and then release it back into the planet... and the world will return to normal." over the course of this final speech, the look in her eyes dampened. Cloud caught the missing information, the facts she was holding back. He knew what they were, but wasn't sure if he was angry or grateful that she hadn't relayed them.
There was a long silence between them, during which the two sides stared unblinkingly at one another across the plains of death. Thoughts passed out like spidersilk over the empty space... and understanding hung heavy in each unspoken word. They were all thinking it: Vincent had to be told... he couldn't just be taken up and used as an element of this plan without knowing what he was for. That, and Cloud... why Cloud? Aeris bit her lip. She could see it in his eyes, and after not much longer, the flowergirl sighed. "Lucrecia and I have thought this over for a very long time." the girl said, "We wouldn't be bringing it up to you if we weren't very sure..." her eyes crinkled with sympathy and she reached out and lay her hand on Cloud's shoulder.
"So you're saying I have a piece of an Ancient, of… of Indra in me?" he shook his head quickly, denying. It was impossible, ridiculous! Him? He wasn't anything special, never had been, he was… only human. Except…
The swordsman struggled to calm himself. Supposing they were right… assuming this wild plan were plausible and all this information somehow true, then… "I underwent experiments too," he said softly, "I have Jenova in me. If the lifestream goes through me, won't it have the same effect as it would going through Kadaj?"
Aeris smiled reassuringly at him, and gave his shoulder a little squeeze, "We've already thought of that." she looked at Lucrecia.
The woman picked up the ball easily, jumping right back into her scientist-mode. "Jenova thrives on the power of mako energy..." she explained, "...which is very rapidly being eaten up by your body. But Deepground, as a variation on the Soldier program, used a different material to make its members strong: G-substance. There are huge stores of it down there which you will have complete access to if you manage to infiltrate their base. G-substance is essentially the opposite of mako... unprocessed, raw, stagnant... and we believe Jenova will be averse to it. Taking enough in will essentially destroy any trace of her left in your system."
For the first time that night, Cloud couldn't grasp what he was hearing. Jenova… gone? No more visions, no more pains, no more shrieking voices of beings from Hades knows where and thoughts that weren't his own in his head? Five years it had been with nothing but that, no way to shut it out… if he could again experience silence, even for a blessed minute before the end... Suddenly the plan made sense. Despite the outlandish plots, the lofty and disconnected reasoning, the huge sacrifice, he internalized it, managed to wrap his head around it, and understood. "Ancients... if this works..."
"If this works..." Aeris said with the touch of a giggle in her voice, "...you will be the single greatest savior this planet has ever known." she moved her hand to his cheek, smiling directly at him, "…and your memory will live on long after today's greatest cities crumble into the dust, and the very surface of the world has changed beyond our own recognition."
Cloud laughed breathily, his head still light with the sheer immensity of his task. "I always wanted to be in the newspapers…" he murmured, closing his eyes at the misty memory that floated across his brain. Oh, how ironic.
Aeris' smile remained, but her eyes dulled. "We have to go now." she said, "There's still alot for us to do. Even the dead don't rest in peace in times like these."
The swordsman's heart sank like an anchor yet again, and the light completely left his eyes as well (in more ways than one). "Aeris..." he weakly said, "...no. Wait." the importance, the destiny, great sense of worth and the pride were all zapped from his mind as if they never came, and he could cling to only one thought. "What if I never see you again?" he was panicked, breathless. All this time and the object of his deepest regret had been sitting in front of him, he'd hardly spoken a word to her... said nothing on that long list he'd compiled of things he'd wished he'd said... once again she was fleeting away and out of reach.
She smiled with pity as she faded into the background and the rush of reality came bubbling back up. The light was gone, the heat... the course grass was replaced by jagged stone, and Cloud felt a weight back in his limbs as he became once again aware that he'd been asleep.
Her voice echoed, though, in the back of his mind as he woke up, Don't worry. she assured him, You will.
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Author's Ending Note Thingy: Okay, I hope the wacky theories don't scare you off. I wouldn't be surprised if they do, this all is the result of me staying up way past my bedtime and pondering beyond the level of depth any story really has. This chapter is twice as long as anything that's come before it… so I think that after posting this, I'm going on a looooong break. XD
