28
Mother
The world silenced. For the first time in Aerith's life, the voices of the planet stopped—not because she could no longer hear them. No. The planet was speechless.
The reconnaissance jets did not arrive at the Temple of the Ancients right away. Fortunately, even spy satellites could detect an ancient zigurat moving. And that was exactly what it did: crawling and scotting forward the rubble of its centuries-long resting place. Then the jets relayed the video to Junon. Massive uniform blocks morphed into discrete shapes. The central tower protruded up and out from its mass. Turrets at its peripheral jutted down, pushing away dirt and bedrock—lifting the building's superstructure. A wall at its aft forked and lifted its hind-quarters. Stone gave way to form joints. It stood, a corruption of machine and magic.
Then it walked.
"What the fuck is that thing?" Reno said.
Aerith could not draw her eyes away from the monitor. "That's it. That's Omega Weapon."
Tseng and Scarlet gave each other long, measured stares.
"Ready the fleet. Red alert." Scarlet's eyes turned to Tseng. "You know what we have to do, don't you?"
Tseng inhaled. "Yeah."
"Do you trust me?"
"Not even as far as I could throw you."
Scarlet smiled, but only for a moment. "Ensign Tilmitt, prepare the Zeus Cannon."
The female tech balked for half a second before affirming the command. She began typing at her console at a frantic pace.
"What's that?" Tifa asked.
Reno leaned in closer to her. "They say Shinra scrapped its space program. Not really. Its resources were diverted to that. A beam cannon in the sky. Capable of hitting anything; anywhere in the world."
Cissnei glared. "Reno."
"What? Shinra's in ruin and the fuckin' world's about to end. You're gonna get on me about leaking classified information?"
"Reno. Rude. I need you to go with Aerith and Tifa in the Highwind."
Reno and Rude stammered and traded glances.
"If this doesn't work, we're going to need to take that thing head on and even if it does work, we're going to need to clean up," Tseng said. "Only Aerith can tell us whether or not that thing's dead for good. Am I right?"
Aerith pulled her attention away from the monitor. "What? I… I don't know. I think so."
Tseng's gaze seemed to cut straight through her. "Can you do this? Both of you?"
Aerith felt strength in his eyes. She stood straighter. "We can and we will."
Tifa looked back and forth between Omega Weapon; plodding through the jungle with slow, rumbling steps; and Aerith.
Tseng stared at Aerith for another minute. "I'm sorry."
Aerith shook her head. She understood. "You don't need to be sorry, Tseng. But thank you."
Rude rubbed his head. "We'd better go," he said.
Aerith watched the bridge staff as Reno and Rude led Tifa away. Tseng stood side-by-side with Scarlet; Cissnei to her left. The tech began her countdown. "T-minus five…"
Reno grabbed her by the hand and pulled. Then they were gone.
They left the same route they entered, through a secured door and a maintenance hatch. The Highwind hovered overhead, humming audibly: its rope ladder still deployed. They climbed slowly and it moved before they reached the top. To the ship's starboard, a flight of airships ascended: shimmering, vengeful balloons.
Reno and Rude fought over the seat closest to Gippal for all of a minute. Gippal only watched, bemused.
Biggs scowled. Aerith could see his thoughts. We were scared to death of these people.
Johnny wore a concerned look. He paid close attention to the formation of airships out the plate glass window. "What's going on? Where's Vincent?"
Aerith shook her head. He was too far away to know for sure, but she knew just the same. "He's gone."
Johnny's face now reflected stark terror.
"Where are we going?" Gippal asked.
"To Omega Weapon," Reno said.
"What the hell's an 'Omega Weapon?'" Gippal asked.
"Go to the Temple of the Ancients, Gippal," Aerith said.
He was confused, but offered a glib smirk. "Yes, ma'am."
His second-in-command, a woman with short, gray hair, looked up from her console, clutching headphones close. "We've got a message from Tseng in Junon. He wants us to have a look at this surveillance footage."
"Put it through."
A monitor at the fore of the cockpit lit on. It no longer appeared to be in the distance. Omega Weapon filled the display. Each plodding step boomed and shook the earth.
Gippal's jaw dropped.
The first mate looked confused and then looked over her shoulder. "The Zeus Cannon is about to fire, he says."
Gippal's eyebrow quirked, concerned.
The walking ziggurat stopped, as though it could anticipate what was about to happen. The screen faded to white. Aerith thought it was interference. Then the roar of an immense explosion overwhelmed the airship's insufficient audio. The white gave way to flecks of black; scattered debris and rock. Then it gave way to static and a wobbling horizon. The camera lens zoomed and focused. A charred, black mass lay in the center of the lens' focus. It lay in the center of a crater of incalculable size.
Applause scattered the room.
Aerith did not applaud. She stood unsurprised by a shudder of movement and a glimmer of pale green. It arose, surrounded by a shimmering aura. Glowing lights like angel wings flanked its shifting form.
The light intensified. Turrets separated from its back, telescoping out and ahead. Light coalesced at their tips.
Arks of pure, holy white fired from its back, scorching the air in their wake, past the surveillance jets some; into the void of space others.
A warning alarm pierced the bridge.
Light like luminescent rainbows shot past them. One of the nearest airships vapiorized in their wake.
They turned. A horrible sound for several kilometers away rumbled. The ocean to their fore reflected the mighty flash from behind.
Aerith clenched her firsts; was barely aware of the first mate's parched voice. "Tseng, do you read? Tseng? Tseng?"
The light faded. Sound deadened.
The Lifestream whimpered.
Tseng. Scarlet. Cissnei. Barret. Thousands of others. Gone.
As the sky faded to pink and orange, streaks of sparkling white peppered the indigo sky: remnants of a shattered satellite.
Omega Weapon perched once more into the ground. Its two fore turrets lifted high above its mass. Its base glowed; fused.
Johnny leaned in closer to Aerith. "What's it doing?"
Aerith's lips stiffened. "It's getting ready."
Gippal watched with intent silence. Aerith could discern a flurry of comm. chatter even through the crew's headphones.
"How long until it's ready?" Wedge asked.
Aerith shook her head. "I have no idea."
"What's our time of arrival?" Rude asked.
"About five hours," Gippal said.
Reno walked past Gippal and picked up his radio. Aerith had never seen him so somber. She doubted many ever had. "This is Reno to the First Fleet. Hey guys. Just so you know, it's true. The senior chain of command at Shinra is basically fucked. That's it. When this is all over, we're gonna have a contest to see who can make the best incinerator out of airship parts. No more mako plants. No more leaders. Shinra's done. But you know what? You all see that big thing out there? If we don't stop it somehow, we're all dead. Maybe everyone on the planet. I don't really outrank any of you. Some of you outrank me. But I need your help. I think we can figure out how to take it down. You see… we have a secret weapon on the Highwind. It might be the only thing that can stop it. But we have to get close and we'll need your help. Do you copy?"
One by one, the dozen airships of the First Fleet reported in and formed a formation around the Highwind. Rude looked impressed, if one could ever tell anything at all from his expressions.
"What secret weapon?" Aerith asked.
Reno shrugged. "Hell. I had to say something. I guess we do have you."
"Me?"
"Yeah. That thing's a Cetra weapon. And you're the Last Cetra."
Aerith watched the monitor as Omega Weapon commenced its slow transformation. It would be a long night.
The stars shined brightest in the planet's ethereal core. Aerith had never seen them so bright—even the night before without the light pollution of Midgar. Even on the desolate, abandoned road to Nibelheim. Beads of pearly light twinkled: jewels overlaying the misty haze of the galactic center. Instead of illuminating her surroundings, she lay in a fog of shadow, sitting back to back with him. She had not felt the presence in so long, it almost hurt to be beside him. It was comfort. It was strength. It was compassion.
"Is it always like this here?" Aerith asked.
"It's whatever you make it out to be, really. It's the place you've always dreamed of combined with the place you know in your heart you deserve. That's why they call it the Promised Land."
"The Promised Land? I haven't heard that before."
"My mother used to talk about it. I never heard people talk about it in the city. On a clear night, you could see the Milky Way."
"I like it. I would have liked to have seen it with you."
He was silent.
"I miss you, you know," Aerith said. "I need you."
"How do you need me?"
"I've gotten into more trouble in the last couple of months than anytime in my whole life."
"You've managed yourself just fine, as far as I can tell."
"Easy for you to say."
"What makes you say that?"
Aerith smiled to herself. "I met Sephiroth. Did you know that? Maybe it wasn't all that far from here. He was in the Gold Saucer of all places. Not the real one, but a version of it here. He followed me there somehow. Do you want to know what he said?"
"What's that?"
"He said I should die. That only then could I win against Jenova and Omega Weapon."
"Well…" He hesitated. "Maybe you could that way. But that would be the easy way out for you, wouldn't it?"
"The easy way?"
"Right. Dying is easy. Sometimes… it's living that's hard. Anyone can die, anytime. Growing. Changing. Adapting. That's what's hard."
"Oh…"
"Do… do you love her?"
She sighed. "It's more complicated than that."
"Yeah. I know…"
Aerith stared into the sky. The stars darkened. The air vibrated above. "What's going on."
"It's starting."
"What?"
"The end of all of this. Omega's almost fully awakened."
"Can we do this?"
He stood. "You can. You have to."
"I know. I know you're right. I'm just glad I got to see you. One last time."
"No. I wanted to see you. I feel like… I need to be forgiven."
Aerith turned. The stars lit his shadowy profile—his lean physique—his spiked hair. "What?"
He regarded her with warm eyes of pale blue. "Promise me. After all of this is over you'll take care of her."
Aerith squinted; tried to discern his features in the dark. "Zack?"
No, he was not.
Someone squeezed her hand. "Aerith!"
Aerith lay sprawled against the airship's wall panels. Tifa sat up next to her, panicked. Aerith opened her eyes to see a faint shape in the distance through the airship's windshield. It grew larger and larger—its turrents nearly fused into a long pipe. No—a cannon barrel.
Aerith blinked and the flashes of luminous white light clipped the airship's bow. A flash illuminated the sky to their left. One of the airships split in half down the center. Another's fuel tanks exploded—debris falling and raining. Some of the debris collided with the turbines of a second airship and tossed it, tumbling to the ocean surface.
"Evasive maneuvers," Gippal cried.
The airship pitched and yawed. Johnny tumbled from his seat. Cait Sith tumbled through empty space and cracked against the windshield. Biggs swore loudly. The robot nearly clocked him in the skull. Reno and Rude clutched tighter to their chairs and to their credit, did not fall until the chairs' metal hinges buckled and released them. The slid along the floor from one end of the cockpit to the other.
Reno grasped at the control panel and crawled up its side. "Fire all missiles," he shouted into the radio.
Rockets flashed, streaking the night sky with vapor trails.
Omega Weapon grew larger and larger. The missiles collided with its surface and exploded, chipping away stone and metal. Omega Weapon healed itself before their very eyes. Another beam of light flashed from the weapon. An airship above and ahead of them disintegrated. The beam barely missed them.
A second later, the fuselage careened through the air, clipping the Highwind. The plate glass windshield shattered. Shards of glass and metal sprayed into the cockit and the airship's relative silence subsided to the roar of hundred-knot winds in Aerith's face.
Aerith spent the next moments, whether seconds or minutes, in abject terror. She held onto the arm of a chair until it snapped. She lost track of up from down. Her eyes closed for the debris. She felt someone grabbing her ankle and thought it might be Tifa. Another body slammed into her back before ricocheting off and away. The wind and explosive cracks of dying aircraft all-but deafened her.
And yet she could have sworn in the midst of it, she heard Reno shout, "Ram the fucker."
Because that was what happened.
The screeching of metal on metal was one of the most horrible sounds Aerith had heard in her entire life. She felt the jostle; the sudden stop and the world yanked out from under her. She was flying—free from gravity but a prisoner to intertia. She dared not look ahead.
Then she slowed—caught as though by the softest of gloves. She felt the sudden, strange calm. When she hit the alien, stone ground, she hit it hard, but at the falling speed from a second floor window—not airship cruise speed.
She sat in a haze. They all did. She opened her eyes to see everyone from the Highwind surrounding her in a chamber of dark stone—its crevices illuminated by flickers of green light shimmering like the reflections of a disturbed pool. They were injured, but not dead.
Tifa stood first. Her elbows and knees were badly scratched, but she was otherwise unhurt. "Was that you?" she asked Aerith.
Aerith fought off a wave of dizziness to stand. "No. It wasn't." Vincent.
Reno sat upright. Rude shrugged him off his back. Both stood and straightened their badly-torn jackets.
Johnny shifted to his hands and knees and vomited.
Biggs stood, almost entirely unscathed. "I'm alive?" he said.
The first mate whose name Aerith never got stood. Gippal's leg lay by her side. He was the only unlucky one.
Yet.
"What is this place?" Tifa said.
Aerith surveyed the dark, pulsing room of stone and metal. She felt echoes of the lifestream. Whispering voices communicated with each other all around, but they spoke a language almost as old as the Forgotten Capital. Aerith could hardly understand a word.
Aerith prepared to respond to Tifa when the unheard voices rose in alarm. "Look out!" she cried, too late.
Irridescent cords and wires fired out from the walls, whipping across the room, snaring arms and legs. Reno fell first, caught in the leg. The cords dragged him to the wall and lifted. He dangled free, yelling and screaming. They caught Rude in the torso and then the right hand when he tried to fire his pistol. It discharged harmlessly in the air. Omega Weapon squealed at the sound. The first mate and Johnny ended up bound together. Biggs lay at the midpoint of the room as though he were about to be drawn and quartered.
Tifa drew the Masamune and hacked at the cord before Johnny. After three or four slashes, it shattered. Another lashed out in its place. "Get off of him," Tifa cried.
Then she stopped.
She and Aerith stood at the room's center, unmolested.
Half a dozen cords shifted, poised. Blinking lights at their tips appraised them and then withdrew.
"Go," Johnny said. "You two have to do it."
Tifa's eyes darted left and right. "But…"
"Just go. You have to stop this thing. Don't worry about us."
Aerith pulled Tifa by the hand. "We have to go, Tifa. I'm sorry."
Tifa followed Aerith down a long, dark cordidor. The Masamune dragged the floor like a nail on a chalkboard.
Blue lights illuminated the floor ahead of them—pointing the way to a stone door. Aerith led Tifa into a small room. Its wall ascended upward at a steep angle. Before disappearing into black.
The ground shuddered. The floor moved. They began their ascent to the control center. Omega Weapon's voices hushed at their approach.
Tifa clenched her fist. "What just happened, Aerith?"
Aerith swallowed. "It let us through."
"Why?"
"I'm… I'm a Cetra. That has to be it."
"Omega Weapon detained everyone else. But not you or me. Why me?" Tifa turned to stare at Aerith with red-brown eyes, iridescent from mako.
"I have no idea."
"Don't lie to me, Aerith. And don't try to protect me. It's too late for that now."
"Tifa… I…"
"Is it the child I'm carrying? Or… not even that. Cloud contacted Jenova. So did Zack. But when we met Angeal after the Nibelheim incident, he knew what had happened. He said… he felt it. Only he was never in Nibelheim. He'd never seen Jenova. Genesis went mad long before Sephiroth—before the Nibelheim incident. Now all the SOLDIERs are dead. Just about everyone who's been in long contact with Mako like the SOLDIERs is dead now. Except for me."
"Tifa…"
"Outside of its body, Jenova existed in the Lifesteam, like a parasite. That's how it jumped so quickly from Sephiroth to Cloud. Because part of it was already inside of him, waiting. You told me once you had an unusually clear window into Cloud's thoughts. He could always tell when you got inside his head and he didn't like it. And he never let you heal him. On some level, he knew you'd know the truth. When I was stuck in the Lifesteam for a week, Jenova infected me, didn't it?"
"I… don't know…"
"Didn't it Aerith?"
"I don't know, okay?"
The floor stopped its ascent. Stone doors twice their height rested before them.
"I'm sorry, Tifa. I'm not that powerful. I knew something was different about you after you came out of the Lifestream, but remember, I loved Zack and he was a SOLDIER. I never felt Jenova inside of him, if it was there at all before the Nibelheim incident."
"If something happens to Cloud. If he dies, does that mean I'll…?"
"I won't let that happen, okay?" Aerith's voice squeaked.
Tifa stood taller. "Are you ready?"
Aerith nodded once.
They approached the door. It parted before them, enshrouding them in darkness.
The room glowed an eerie, pulsating green—at once mechanical and sickly organic. It buzzed with a strange, ancient life. And it was alive—an ancient, tired lifeform with a consciousness. That consciousness lay ahead—its brain very near, unseen.
"Why have you come? You should not be here." The voice was monotone yet feminine. It did not speak their language, and yet, they understood.
"Who are you?" Aerith asked.
"I was a Cetra."
Aerith searched for the voice in the darkness. "You have to stop this then. No one's left. I'm the last and I'm only half. There's no reason to do this anymore."
"Do you think I would create such a thing as Omega if I were not committed to the destruction of human life? I represent the first ones on Gaia, who have no voice. I shall therefore be the last."
Aerith's eyes narrowed. "You're the High Sorceress. The one who made Jenova and Omega. No. Some sort of recording. Or ghost."
The dull thump like a heartbeat of their surroundings accelerated and whined. The green light brightened.
Before a great altar, a metallic face stared at them against the wall. Green light struck spiked blond hair in front of it.
"Cloud…" Tifa stepped closer.
Aerith held her back. "She'll die too Cloud, you know that, don't you?"
The Sorceress spoke. "Cloud is no more. Only Jenova remains."
The heartbeat sound amplified. The explosions outside faded. The airship fleet never stood a real chance anyway.
Aerith's eyes narrowed. "What's happening?"
Did the Sorceress laugh? "When Omega Weapon fires, the world will perish. The light of the lifestream shall spread across the earth and return all borrowed things to Minerva. You have about two minutes."
Aerith started. She grasped the materia at her sleeve, focusing her mind on her target—the mechanical face—just like Yuffie taught her many months before.
Nothing happened.
"Your materia is merely a shard of the Lifestream. Did you possibly think you could use it against me?"
Tifa clutched the Masamune and rushed the Sorceress' avatar. Steel grated on stone as she slashed out.
Cloud's Buster Sword parried her. They stood locked hilt to hilt, preternaturally bright eyes gleaming. The pulsing sound of Omega Weapon amplified into a whirl. The green lights brightened and flickered.
Cloud pried her away with his foot, pushing her further away. She swung at him. He barely parried. Her wing went wild. She swung again and missed altogether. The blades locked again. This time, Cloud kicked her across the room, hard.
Cloud spoke in a chilling monotone. "You're barely trying."
Tifa stood and coughed, staring hopeless as Omega's Cannon primed and prepared to unleash the end of all things.
The whirl became a manic scream. Lights flashed. The room seemed to go mad all around.
Aerith nearly screamed over the noise. "Cloud, the SOLDIERs are dead. Shinra's gone. The last mako plant's been destroyed. It's over."
For less than a second, Aerith saw something human in his cat-slit eyes. It was heartbreakingly hopeless.
Cloud drew his blade and pointed. Not at Tifa. At Aerith. Then he lanced across the room. It could as well have been his soul itself committed to one decisive, fatal cut through Aerith's heart.
The sword pierced skin and bone and organ.
Tifa's eyes widened. Her lip quivered. Cloud's blood flowed down her blade and onto her hands.
Cloud dropped his Buster Sword he stared into her eyes. "Tifa… Finish it."
Tifa shook her head and drew backwards. "No… No…"
Cloud clutched the blade and pulled the Masamune deeper into his chest.
Aerith crawled closer, unscathed. Her eyes met Cloud's. Then Cloud's eyes lost their focus and saw no more. He tumbled to the ground.
Tifa stifled a sob and stood.
Flashing diodes of the brightening green cast the once-dark room in light as bright as a cool spring day.
The Sorceress babbled in a language long-since dead. Her last words: incomprehensible and drowned out by a horrible shriek sucked from Gaia herself.
Cloud's inert body slid from the sword. With a flourish, his one black wing ceased to flutter.
Aerith held Cloud's emptying vessel. She wanted to cry, but she had run out of tears. Instead, she whispered. "I promise Cloud. I promise."
Omega Weapon beseeched heaven.
Tifa screamed.
The Masamune sliced metal.
