Final Fantasy VII: Another Story

By:

Mystwalker

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII.

A/N: Super sorry for the lateness! I was at a week-long conference, and then when I got home, I didn't feel much like writing! Enjoy this chapter and thanks for sticking with me.

Thanks go to JazzQueen, Furionknight, Irish-Brigid, Madcap Minstrel, DJ Meltdown of Ground Xero, Roza Anne, and Eavenne for the reviews and support!

Madcap Minstrel, it probably went something exactly like that, lol.

XxXxX

File 040: Over the Wall

Vincent stood outside Holzoff's hut in the early morning, contemplating the cliffs. They rose up near the back of the house like a solid wall of black stone, high enough that from here, it was impossible to see the top of them. The cliff protected the house from the winds, but in the distance, he could see the winds kicking up ice and snow like a fine mist in front of them as they swooped down from the clifftops, scouring the Glacier clean. In the sky above, the sun struggled to break through the haze of predawn, shining brightly through crystalline structures built by the wind and creating shapes of faint gold and blue on the icy landscape.

Behind him, he could hear even from the distance the others' soft snoring and even breathing. Most of them were still asleep, their climb not starting for another hour. While he often woke earlier than any of them did, this day was different. This day, he couldn't point to what exactly had woken him up, only that he felt restless somehow, as though something inside him had forced him to come outside and look northward. At the wall, and what was beyond it.

The Northern Crater.

Unlike Aerith, he had no true feel for what they would find there. But something about this place made his skin crawl.

He folded his arms, leaning against the wall as he studied the cliffs. After a few more moments of this, he decided that being out here would not bring him answers. He turned, about to head back into the hut when he heard a sound from behind him, the snow and ice crunching as someone leaped from one of the first floor windows. Vincent glanced over his shoulder, although he already knew who he would see.

He wondered, for an instant, what Yuffie's vendetta was against doors.

She closed the window behind her, a smile on her face as she brushed a few loose shards of ice off the shoulder of her winter jacket. "Thought I'd find you out here," she said, settling herself against the wall next to him. She was close enough that her arm brushed against his, a fact that did not escape his notice. Ordinarily, he might have said something, but Yuffie appeared to be either immune or willfully oblivious to requests for personal space, and he didn't like wasting words. He kept his eyes straight ahead of him, keeping his arms folded across himself as her own eyes swept over the landscape, taking it all in the way he had earlier.

The silence, once deep and comforting, seemed to be stretched thin now that she was here, as if the very air seemed aware that silence wasn't her natural state and that she was probably, at that very moment, looking for something to say to fill the void. He sighed inwardly, tempted to leave her to it, if only for the sake of a few more moments of quiet. But the silence wasn't as peaceful as it had been, so, resigned to his fate, he raised his eyes, fixing them on the base of the cliffs.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked, just as the words she was struggling with threatened to spill out of her mouth.

"Nah," she said, seizing upon the thread of conversation he held out and running with it like an out-of-control train. "Barret snores. Everyone else is still out of it, though. It's pretty fun to watch. Seph is doing that thing where he sleeps like the dead up until you get within three feet and then it's Masamune to the neck. That's an old wartime thing, isn't it? Anyway, Cloud's cuddling a sack of potatoes—he's gonna get a surprise when he wakes up and finds out it's not Tifa—and Seph and Cissnei are holding hands, which would be really sweet if they weren't also holding weapons in their other hands—now it just looks kinda creepy—"

"Can I help you with something?" he asked, cutting short what promised to be a very long and very informative dissertation on the sleeping habits and positions of their traveling companions.

"Just wondering what you were doing out here," said Yuffie, studying the cliffs in front of her. "Gawd, Vin, don't you even feel cold? It's freezing!"

Vincent said nothing, his frown deepening as he kept his eyes fixed in front of him. Beside him, Yuffie's eyes widened as she realized what she had just said, and she turned towards him, holding her hands out in front of her and waving them as if she was trying to deflect the words away. "Not—not that that's a bad thing!" she said. "I mean—I'm not trying to pick on you for being different or anything—I'm just curious, because you know, different isn't always bad—I mean, your transforming is actually kind of cool, and I—uh…" She trailed off as Vincent glanced at her, frowning.

"I should…stop babbling, shouldn't I?" she asked, giving him a sheepish smile.

"Probably," said Vincent, looking away from her again. Yuffie exhaled, slumping against the wall and falling silent. He listened to the scraping sounds as she drew her foot over the packed ice beneath her, again and again, then exhaled, raising his eyes to the sky. "I don't feel the cold as strongly as you do. However, I still feel it."

"What about heat?" asked Yuffie.

"I dislike heat."

"Not helping the whole vampire image there, Vinnie."

Vincent grunted in response, looking back at the cliffs again. Time seemed stretched this far north, but if he was right, it would only be a few minutes until the rest of their party woke up and activity started again. Yuffie fell silent, the smile fading from her face as her eyes landed on the cliffs.

"…What do you think's on top of that?" she asked, and he had the feeling that that question was the real reason she had come out here in the first place.

"The Northern Crater," said Vincent, his frown deepening.

"Yeah, but what else?" asked Yuffie. "You ever been up there, Vinnie?"

"No…" he said. "But I have heard reports about it."

"During your time as a Turk?"

"In part."

"In part?" Yuffie repeated.

Vincent shrugged, and Yuffie let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm never going to get a straight answer out of you, am I?" she asked.

"Hn," he said in response.

"Well, whatever." Yuffie turned away from him, settling back against the wall with a huff. "Do you think we're going to run into a fight up there?"

"If the Tsviets are heading that way?" asked Vincent. "Almost certainly." He glanced at her, noticing that she had fallen silent again. "Are you afraid?"

"Nah," said Yuffie, hugging her arms close to herself. "Just thinking. You know, don't laugh, but the more we do this, the more I think I don't actually like fighting. I know. Crazy, right? Especially since I'm so awesome at it."

He said nothing, his eyes moving back towards the cliffs. He was once again reminded of how young Yuffie was. Certainly too young to be expressing sentiments like those. But after everything that had happened, perhaps it made sense. Thirty years ago, before Hojo, before Lucrecia, things had been a little peaceful.

This world, however, wasn't a world for the young.

He straightened up, turning away from her and heading back towards the door of the hut. Yuffie's eyes widened, and she straightened up as well, turning towards him.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

Instead of answering, he looked back at the cliffs ahead of them. "Don't worry about the fight," he told her. "Focus on the climb. That will be difficult enough."

Yuffie blinked at him as he started to walk away, opening the door. He had just started to step inside when he heard her rejoinder.

"Hey, I'm not worried about the climb!" she said. "After Da Chao, the climb is nothing! Just you wait, Vinnie! I'll definitely beat you to the top!"

XxXxX

Cloud braced himself against the rock wall, watching as Yuffie's hand slipped and Vincent reached out and caught her by the wrist, stopping her from falling through the air. She shivered as she dangled there, one hand on the rope around her waist as Vincent glanced at her from his position on the wall.

"You were going to beat me to the top?" he said dryly, pulling himself up onto a ledge and taking her with him.

"Sh—Shut u-up, V-V-Vinnie!" said Yuffie, her lips chattering as she wrapped her arms around herself and took shelter in the ledge. "It's c-c-cold—."

Cloud looked away from them, reaching for the next handhold and pulling himself up. He reached up with both hands, pulling himself up onto a ledge and reaching down to pull Tifa up with him. The ledges gave some safety from the biting cold wind that whistled through passages and holes in the cliff, but it was still freezing. He paused to catch his breath as Tifa pulled her climbing ropes up with her, rubbing at her arms to massage some of the feeling back in them.

"It's so cold," she said. "I didn't think anything could get colder than Mt. Nibel in the winter."

Cloud didn't respond to that, her words bringing back the memory of their ill-advised trek through Mt. Nibel, and of the time that Tifa had fallen off the edge of the cliff and he had been forbidden from seeing her. It was such an old memory, and yet, when he thought about it, he still felt guilty. He looked away from her, scanning the cliff below them and taking note of the others.

The only person not currently making the climb was Nanaki. They had him waiting at the bottom of the cliff, with plans of either pulling him up when they got to the top, or depending how the winds were, having Sephiroth flying. He didn't think the latter would help, though. If the winds were this strong from here, he could only imagine what they would be on top of the cliff, although, he mused, if anyone could fly through them, Sephiroth probably could. The ex-SOLDIER was currently in the lead, pulling himself up easily from handhold to handhold with Zack and Cissnei struggling to catch up about ten meters below him. Cloud watched as Sephiroth swung from handhold to foothold without missing a beat. He barely seemed to have to get out of the wind, stopping at ledges only for a few seconds before continuing on.

Zack climbed next to Aerith, showing her where the hand and footholds were as the two of them made a slow, but steady pace up the cliffs, their lines clipped together for added security. Aerith seemed to be having some difficulty, but Zack was with her, so they made good time. The others, besides Vincent and Yuffie, who were at the same level as Cloud, climbed below him, making their way up the cliffs. In particular, Cid grumbled as he and Shelke had to help Barret up, his gun arm being virtually useless for holding onto handholds. Shalua's prosthetic arm could actually grip things, and she stabbed it into the rock, glancing down at them and saying something Cloud couldn't hear about improving Barret's gun arm.

He looked away from them, satisfied that they were doing fine, and looked back at Tifa. She looked warmer now, some of the color having come back into her face. There wasn't much room on the ledge, and he flinched when he realized how close they were to each other. "Are you doing okay?" he asked, doing his best not to think about it. His mind, however, kept replaying that moment in the Gold Saucer's gondola, and he wondered what would have happened if it hadn't stopped the moment it had.

"F—Fine," said Tifa, her face reddening slightly as she noticed their proximity. "Just a little cold, that's all."

A little cold was probably a huge understatement, but Cloud decided not to call her on it as his eyes moved up the rest of the cliff, taking in what they still had to climb. They were a little past halfway up the cliff, but the expanse of dark stone above them was discouraging.

"It's not much longer now," he said. "Come on. We can probably make it to the next ledge."

Tifa nodded, and the two of them placed their hands on the cliffside, finding handholds and footholds as they pulled themselves back up and onto the rocks. They said nothing as they worked, focusing on trying to find places to put their hands and feet and stay out of the wind. By the time they made it to the next ledge, they were cold and shivering, and had to stay there for a minute, their backs resting against the cliff wall as they fought to catch their breath.

"If we make it through this," said Tifa, "I'll never complain about Mt. Nibel again."

That made Cloud look up. "Are you planning on going back there?" he asked. "To Nibelheim?"

Tifa fell silent, drawing her legs up and resting her arms around her knees. She looked out at the expanse of white below them, shaking her head. "Probably not," she said. "Like you said at the Gold Saucer, there's nothing there anymore. But, you know, sometimes I forget, and I start thinking that when I go there, it will be just like I never left, and everyone will still be waiting for us, like it was before. Do you ever think things like that, Cloud?"

"Sometimes…" said Cloud. He didn't add that sometimes, when his memories were confused, he really did forget about what happened at Nibelheim, if only for an instant. During his time in Hojo's lab, he'd had a lot of dreams of simply being there, back before the Incident, or as if the Incident had never happened. He inhaled sharply, drawing himself to his feet. "But there's no point in thinking about it, is there?" he asked. "The people who lived there…are never coming back."

"Yeah," said Tifa, getting to her feet. She picked up the coil of rope beside her and slung it on her arm, surveying the distance between them and the next ledge. "I guess you're right. It just makes me wonder…is there really going to be anywhere for us after this?"

Cloud said nothing, realizing that that was a question that didn't have an answer. If they survived all of this, if they managed to stop Genesis and reclaim the Black Materia, and save the world, they would still have Shinra to deal with. And that meant that they couldn't live anywhere near Shinra influence. Which meant that they probably couldn't live anywhere. He thought of Sephiroth and Cissnei, living in an abandoned town for five years because there was literally nowhere else to go.

There didn't seem to be much of a way out at this point. They had to stop Genesis, and they had to stop Shinra. Or, nothing.

He kept that thought in his mind as he reached for the cliffs again, pulling himself up as he and Tifa made their way towards the next ledge.

XxXxX

"Hey!" shouted Zack, looking up from his perch on the cliff as Sephiroth continued to climb above him. "Hey, Seph, what's the rush?"

Sephiroth didn't respond, continuing to move with single-minded determination. He was already several feet higher than Zack and Cissnei, who had fallen behind, and much, much higher than the tail end of their group. Zack shook his head as Sephiroth pulled himself up onto a ledge without even bothering to look down, scratching the back of his head and glancing down at Aerith.

"Sheesh," he muttered under his breath.

"That's just how he is," said Cissnei from her place on the wall beside him, her fingers closed around a handhold. "You know how Sephiroth gets when there's a job he wants to get done."

"Oh, I know," said Zack. "Believe me, I know." He exhaled, glancing down as Aerith maneuvered herself up onto his level. "How you doing, Aerith?"

"You mean aside from how I was when you asked me that three minutes ago?" asked Aerith, clinging to the wall and giving him a smile. "I'm fine, Zack."

Zack returned her smile. "Just making sure," he said, looking back up at Sephiroth. The silver-haired SOLDIER had closed his hands around a large ledge, and as Zack watched, he pulled himself up almost effortlessly, walking forward and disappearing. "I think Seph found a cave," he said, glancing at Cissnei and Aerith. At Cissnei's nod, Zack looked down, ignoring the dizzying height and focusing on the other climbers. "Hey, guys, there's a cave up here!" he said.

A few of them looked up at his words, but most of them continued to concentrate on their climbing. He couldn't blame them. The cliffs were high, and he was already getting tired. He looked at Cissnei and Aerith and saw about the same levels of tiredness from their expression. "Come on," he said, continuing to climb. "It'll be good to get out of the wind."

They nodded, following him as he climbed the rest of the way up the wall towards the cave that Sephiroth had found. About halfway up, a sudden roar made him pause, clinging to the hillside. He looked up, his eyes wide as a gout of fire suddenly exited the cave, sweeping into the air above them for a moment before disappearing. "What the hell?" he asked, speeding up. He exchanged a glance with Cissnei, who started climbing faster as well.

Zack grabbed hold of the ledge as he reached it, pulling himself up and drawing his Buster Sword. He stepped forward, ducking into the cave, and had to pull himself against the wall to avoid getting hit by the blast of ice that shot from the center of the cave towards the entrance. In the center of the cave, Sephiroth had his sword drawn, and seemed to be fighting what looked like a giant, two-headed dragon. As Zack watched, Sephiroth pushed off of the wall, easily dodging one of the heads as it swiped at him. He swung Masamune with his left hand, the blade leaving another long gash on the dragon's flank as he landed on the ground and turned, raising his sword just in time to catch the second head as it lunged. The first rose up, spitting out a gout of fire, and Sephiroth swiped Masamune through the air quickly, the sword moving fast enough to cut through and disperse the flames.

"Seph!" he said, gripping the Buster Sword in both hands and charging forward.

The shout drew the dragon's attention. Zack's eyes widened as both heads suddenly converged on him, roaring and hissing. The heads both breathed, a mixture of fire and ice rushing towards him. He raised his Buster Sword as the blast struck, the combined breath attack slamming into the Sword's flat and knocking him back. Zack landed on the ground of the cave, letting out an 'oof' as the impact knocked the wind out of him and sent him sliding back a few feet.

Sephiroth took advantage of the distraction to charge forward, swiping his sword out through the air. Masamune caught the dragon in the side, slicing straight through its heart. It roared one last time and then collapsed, landing on the ground with a thundering crash. Sephiroth raised his sword, swiping it in front of him to get the blood off before replacing it on his back.

Zack groaned as he stabbed the Buster Sword into the ground beside him, using it to pull himself back onto his feet. Behind him, Cissnei and Aerith rushed into the cave as well, weapons drawn. They came to a stop as they realized the battle was over. Zack placed a hand on his head and shook it, frowning. It hurt from where he had hit it on the way down.

"Thanks for the distraction," said Sephiroth calmly, walking past Zack towards the exit.

"Thanks for the distraction, he says," Zack muttered under his breath, getting to his feet. He was pretty sure he caught the hint of a smirk on Sephiroth's face as he passed, telling him that the other ex-SOLDIER was enjoying this. He glanced back at the corpse of the dragon before following Sephiroth out of the cave.

Sephiroth was standing near the edge of the ledge, his eyes trained towards the sky. Zack looked, and realized that the top of the cliffs was not far above them, just a few more feet. He glanced at Sephiroth.

"Looks like we're almost there," he said.

Sephiroth nodded in response, walking over to the wall. "Come on," he told Zack. "It's not much farther."

"Are you going to actually let me keep up with you this time?" asked Zack, placing his hands on the wall beside Sephiroth. He searched for a foothold, finding one and pulling himself up.

"It isn't my fault if you can't keep up," said Sephiroth, turning his face away to hide his smile as he started climbing.

"Oh, yeah, sure," said Zack as Sephiroth pushed himself upward with ease, taking the lead. "Show off, why don't you?" he shouted over the wind as Sephiroth continued moving several feet above Zack's head.

"Stop complaining. It builds character," Sephiroth said, before moving out of earshot. Zack muttered something under his breath, pulling himself up off the wall after the other SOLDIER. He glanced at Cissnei as she started climbing alongside him, then back up at Sephiroth.

"Ciss," he said. "I'm sorry, but I'm gonna push your boyfriend off the mountain."

"Go ahead," said Cissnei, smiling at him. "He can fly anyway."

"Right, yeah, keep reminding me," said Zack, following Sephiroth's lead. He looked up, watching as the ex-SOLDIER reached the top of the cliffs and pulled himself to his feet, disappearing from view. The sight of their destination spurred him on, and it wasn't long until Zack had reached it as well, pulling himself up and over.

There, he froze. The tops of the cliffs were flat, the other side sloping gently down into what looked like the center of a large crater. And in the middle of that crater, a stone structure rose many feet off the grounds, the wind howling and swirling fiercely around it so that it seemed protected by a wall of snow and light. Sephiroth stood near the inner edge of the crater wall, staring at the structure with his hand on his sword. Zack walked over to him, not taking his eyes off the place.

"Is that where we're going?" he asked Sephiroth as Cissnei and Aerith made it to the top, Cissnei helping Aerith up onto the rim of the crater.

"It looks like," said Sephiroth.

Zack nodded, his eyes fixed on the outline of the Whirlwind Maze. After a while, he turned back towards Cissnei and Aerith, who were standing transfixed, their eyes on the Maze as well. "We should get started then," he said, walking over to the crater's other edge. He looked down, his eyes fixed on the other climbers. He guessed they'd all be at the top in the next hour or so, which meant they'd soon be down in the Whirlwind Maze.

And then who knew what would happen next?

END FILE