Climbing the Summit and Reaching the Center!
We rested up and warmed up in Holzoff's cabin and enjoyed the food he had. The next morning we were climbing the wall of the crater, well I was flying up and Yuffie was using her ninja skills to run up the cliff face keeping pace with me. We wound up waiting for the others in the cave that went through the wall and played a brief game of I spy before we lost interest. I then started hunting blue dragons with Bahamut, trying to get enough dragon armlets for everyone since I didn't know if the two headed dragon Schizo would flee at the sight of his king and god of gods or not.
It was a good thing I did that because as we walked through the cave Schizo ambushed us, and the idiotic dragon didn't flee from the sight of Bahamut and openly roared a challenge. The strangest thing yet happened, both Bahamut and I opened our wings and growled out a warning and charged at the same time, Bahamut with his claws and me with my Masamune at the ready. When both Bahamut and I ripped Schizo a new one it fled, and I dismissed my patron deity. Everyone was looking at me like I was an alien, and Yuffie asked the question I knew was coming, "Shiro, what the hell?"
I shrugged, "Great minds tend to think alike, especially when your patron deity is being challenged for supremacy."
Yuffie and Tifa put their hands on my shoulders, and Yuffie said with a straight face, "Girl we have got to get you out of the woods and into civilization."
I laughed, "Well, you haven't succeeded yet and we're in my turf. We should be near the inside of the crater now, and we should probably rest up before we climb down."
We spent that night inside the crater wall with us able to see down below, then waking up early we followed Cloud down the wall and immediately we noticed the Highwind. I gave an involuntary shiver, Hojo would be there and if he couldn't get his hands on Sephiroth and Cloud then he'd try to get his hands on Nanaki and me. I chanced a quick look down to see the Neo Bahamut materia and scooped it up, hoping Yuffie wouldn't notice. She didn't, and we continued down with me flying overhead. When we reached the wind I yelled down to the others that they have to cross when the wind wasn't blowing, and demonstrated it by diving through the calm and even went ahead to dive through the calm without the green waves. I then started to plan our escape while everyone caught up to me, and we watched the Nibelhiem event from Cloud's "memories". Then another piece of Jenova came to attack us.
This was the time that I'd figure that I'd summon Shiva, since she threatened to freeze me into a Shiro-cicle. Yeah, that didn't sound fun so I summoned her and left her to have fun fighting Jenova, while the rest of us continued past. Thinking back maybe we shouldn't have done that, but Shiva didn't say how she wanted to be summoned just that she wanted to be summoned or it was Shiro-cicle time. Then outside the next area of waves, wind, and lightning Cloud tossed the black materia to Barret and told him to stay and guard it, which Barret did without complaint.
We dove through the calm and another scene from the Sephiroth simulacrum followed this time showing the truth with Zack the puppy. Poor Zack. Anyway, Cloud watched the whole thing complaining that it wasn't true, and we continued on after the peek into the past. I froze when I saw Hojo, and Nanaki beside me, but everyone else was too concerned with what Hojo was saying and Cloud's seizure. I entered a cold sweat when I saw Tseng and Elena, and like a good friend Nanaki nosed my hand to help calm me down. Meanwhile, Cloud was performing some inverted acrobatics thanks to Sephiroth and was giving the aforementioned villain the materia that could destroy the planet. Then all hell broke loose with the Weapons, all five of them, and I took up the rear of my friends. I thought that by doing that I could prevent Tifa's and Barret's capture, and maybe accelerate the process of defeating Sephiroth, but no! Not only did Tifa and Barret get captured, but me as well.
The first thing I knew was happening after suddenly being tossed onto the deck of the Highwind was that Hojo had an evil glint in his eye and Reno was standing in front of me. The first thing I could hear after my ears adjusted to the pressure was Reno saying, "Keep your damn hands off my sister!"