Chapter 35: Battle against the Gi Tribe and knowing the truth about Red XIII/Nanaki father
After Bugenhagen pressed the huge, red button next to the metallic door and the door opened up in front of them, Cloud, Angelina, Kunsel and Red XIII stared into the opened door and they saw a tunnel inside, shrouded almost completely in darkness. They were unable to see more than a few metres in or what lay beyond it. Bugenhagen lowered his right arm away from the button, turned around to glance at Cloud, Angelina, Kunsel and Red XIII and motioned for them to come closer.
"All right. Come in, come in." said Bugenhagen.
"Hey. Aren't you coming with us, grandfather?" said Red XIII as he looked away from the shadowy tunnel at Bugenhagen.
"What are you crazy?" said Bugenhagen to Red XIII in surprised while shaking his head. "It's dangerous in there. I told you that! You want an old man like me going in there first? I'll be right behind you all."
Red XIII glance away from him back into the dark tunnel inside the opened door, swallowed hard and he step through the opened door into the dark tunnel, Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel followed closely behind him and Bugenhagen followed/floated closely behind them all, stopped for a second to turned around and close the door behind him (which plunged the tunnel into total darkness but thanks to the bright glow of the two fire torches which both Cloud and Kunsel brought with them, they could see a little ahead of them) then turned back and resumed following/floating behind them.
Cloud, Angelina, Kunsel, Red XIII stay close together as they walked down the dark tunnel, with both Cloud and Kunsel holding the torches up to show some light in front of them as they walked ahead until they stopped in their tracks in front of a large, naturally carved circular hole on the ground with a short wooden pole hammered hard onto the edge of the hole with a thick rope tied on the short wooden pole which leads down into the hole.
"Is this the way down?" Kunsel asked Bugenhagen as he stared down the large, circular hole.
"Yes, it is." replied Bugenhagen with a nod of his head.
After Bugenhagen confirm/tell them that the hole is the only way down, Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel then began climbing down into the hole while holding the thick rope tightly in their hands one by one, which is quite hard for the three of them since two of them needed to hold the torch in one hand to see where they're going while holding the rope with the other hand and as they look down, they could see several rocky ledges below them in the deep hole with some ropes and ladders attached at the edges of the rocky ledges. As for both Red XIII and Bugenhagen, they managed to jumped/floated down and landed easily and safely on the rocky ledge.
They continue climbing, jumping and floating down the rocky ledges, felt the air around them slowly getting colder and thicker with a deeper sense of unease and apprehension as they headed down until they finally reached the bottom, landed on the ground, turned and went through an open hole in the side of the rocky wall into the next area of the cavern.
Once they're in the next area, they saw that the place is a small maze of jagged rocky walls with broken holes on the walls and with dozens of sharp stalamites on the ceiling of the cavern. They also noticed some old skeletons with old and shredded clothes on them as they lie scattered everywhere on the rocky ground of the cavern along with some pale, ghostly figures smiling evilly at them through the walls, making both Cloud and Kunsel to scowled at them, Angelina flinched a little from their evil smiles, Red XIII bared his fangs and snarled at them while Bugenhagen himself ignore them. Bugenhagen then floated past Cloud and the others and began to guide/lead the way in front of them now, knowing which way to go despite it still being so dark until he stop near a dark shadowy hole, raised his left hand to halted Cloud, Angelina, Kunsel and Red XIII in their tracks before he floated into the hole, found an old and dusty switch inside, pressed it down and they soon heard a loud grating sound which echoes throughout the rocky maze and suddenly, a large hole opened up in front of them.
"Ho Ho Hooooo." chuckled Bugenhagen as he came out from the hole, floated toward the open large hole in front of them then turned to stared at them. "Every skeletons and ghosts here are members of the Gi tribe. Killed in a certain, fierce battle."
"A certain, fierce battle…?" asked Red XIII, confused.
"The vengeful spirits of the Gi tribe didn't disappear, and they couldn't return to the Lifestream…" Bugenhagen told them. "We still have far to go. Ho Ho Hooooo." Bugenhagen ceased talking, turned around and went boldly through the large, open hole, forcing the others to follow after him, all of them wondering about what Bugenhagen's up to.
"Weird old man…" Kunsel muttered in a small voice behind the others.
The next area after they went through the large, open hole was almost similar to the previous one, with many rocky paths heading into different and deeper parts of the cavern. Some parts of the rocky paths had some kind of slippery, oily substances, treasure chests and materia on them while below the rocky paths, Cloud, Angelina, Kunsel and Red XIII looked down and they could see a huge pool of red-coloured water with ripples forming and disappearing on its surface. By now, the 4 of them were very glad and grateful for Bugenhagen's helpful guidance as he continue guiding them down and across the right rocky path (while along the way, they fought against some Heg snake monsters and Sneaky step skeleton monsters and they managed to obtain some treasure and materia lying around on the cavern floor like Added Effect materia, Gravity materia, Black M-Phone, Ether, X-potion, Turbo Ether and Fairy Ring) until Bugenhagen stopped in front of another large, cave hole on the far, left corner in the cavern which lead into another deeper area and he turned around to glance at Cloud and the others.
"As you all can see, this cave hole behind me leads to the back of Cosmo Canyon." Bugenhagen told them. "It was unfortunate that the Gi tribe were bigger than us. If they attacked through here, we wouldn't have stood a chance."
"…" said Red XIII in thoughtful silence.
"Let's move on." said Bugenhagen to Cloud, Angelina, Kunsel and Red XIII before he turned around and headed through the cave hole. Cloud and the others resumed following after him, all three of them had the same thoughts in their minds that they were getting close to the truth now.
The next cavern area which they all went into is the same but slightly different than the previous cavern they had just left, its rocky paths spread off into 4 different tunnels with huge spider webs sticking on the cave holes of the tunnels entrance, blocking each of the entrances. As they approach the tunnels entrance with the webs on them, they were suddenly ambushed by several huge Stinger spider monsters and Gi spector monsters which appeared and dropped down onto them from the cavern ceiling. One of the Stinger spider monster pinned Angelina down onto the ground and just as its about to closed its jaws on Angelina's head, Cloud quickly killed off the Stinger spider monster he's facing with his "Climhazzard" limit break before he charge toward the one pinning Angelina and casted Fira on it several times until it move away from her and Cloud and burned to death.
"Thanks, Cloud." said Angelina, giving him a grateful smile.
"No problem, Angie." replied Cloud as he hold out his hand to help her up before the both of them charge toward where Kunsel and Red XIII were fighting the Stinger spider monsters and Gi spector monsters (and protecting Bugenhagen at the same time) and helped them finished off the monsters.
After Cloud, Angelina, Kunsel and Red XIII defeated/killed off the monsters which ambushed them, Bugenhagen thanked them for it before he continue guiding them through one of the tunnel entrance and they followed after him, walking down the rocky path until Bugenhagen came yet again to a stop before another cavern hole entrance, halted them and turned around to glance at them.
"This warrior went through the cave all by himself." said Bugenhagen. "Fighting the attackers of Gi tribe one by one…"
"Grandfather…" said Red XIII, slowly about to realise who the warrior Bugenhagen says to them might be. "Could that warrior be…"
"Ho Ho Hooooo. We're almost there." said Bugenhagen with a faint smile on his face as he cuts off Red XIII words before he turned around and went through the cave hole entrance, Cloud, Angelina, Kunsel and Red XIII resumed following behind him through the cave hole entrance and into what they presumed to be the final cavern.
The last cavern which they are now in is much larger than they thought, with many stalagmites and stalactites hanging above them on the cavern ceiling and poking up from the ground and on both sides of the rocky path which they are standing on has the same huge pools of red-coloured water they saw back in one of the previous caverns, only that this huge pools of red-coloured water is creating giant puffs of steaming foul air, filling the entire cavern with its foul smell. As Cloud, Angelina, Kunsel, Red XIII and Bugenhagen covered their mouths and noses from the foul smells of the water, they all looked up at the very head of the cavern and saw a huge rock carving, built in the shape of an evil-looking battle face/mask.
"What is this…?" said Bugenhagen as he stared at the huge rock carving, feeling/sensing a huge aura of anger/hatred/evil coming from the huge rock carving.
"Grandfather, is he…!?" said Red XIII from behind Bugenhagen as he also senses the huge aura of anger/hatred/evil coming from it.
"After death…The ghosts of the Gi tribe… Like stagnant air… This… can't be!" said Bugenhagen, in shocked then fear.
"What are you…" Kunsel began saying to both Bugenhagen and Red XIII and abruptly stop talking when he, Cloud, Angelina, Red XIII and Bugenhagen saw the huge rock carving suddenly came to live and morphed into one huge, tall and strong-looking skeletal ghost (named Gi Nattak) wearing a huge green and red-coloured armour on its floating upper skeletal body, holding a huge and menacing-looking red-coloured javelin weapon with some blue cloths tie on the javelin in its right hand and with two smaller floating fire ghosts (named Soul Fires) in front of it.
Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel immediately pull their swords and naginata out from their backs and raised it in front of them in preparation for battle and told Bugenhagen to stay back while Red XIII himself snarled fiercely at the three Gi tribe ghosts, remembering the fateful day when they came and attacked Cosmo Canyon, killing off some of the Cosmo Canyon people and his mother, who fought bravely to protect the canyon from them. Unable to contain his anger toward the three Gi ghosts in front of him anymore, Red XIII charge forward toward Gi Nattak, crouch down then jumped high up above Gi Nattak's head, landed on Gi Nattak's head and he began to bite and clawed Gi Nattak's head fiercely with his jaws and claws.
"Red XIII!" yelled Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel as they began to charge toward Gi Nattak, intend to help Red XIII out in fighting it but they got intercepted by the two Soul Fires near Gi Nattak and they fought against the Soul Fires instead.
Gi Nattak let out a ghostly yell before it raised its hand to grabbed hold of Red XIII and flung him away from its injured head. Kunsel saw it and he quickly run toward Red XIII and grabbed hold of him before he crashed against the cavern wall and fell into the foul red water below.
"Nice catch, Kunsel!" yelled Angelina at Kunsel when she saw Kunsel grabbed hold of Red XIII before he crashed against the cavern wall and Red XIII thanked Kunsel for it before they both charge toward Gi Nattak and fight it out of the corner of her eyes. The Soul Fire she's currently fighting took advantage of her split second distraction and sank itself into her body, causing her to widen her eyes before she let out a scream. She then stop her screaming, raised her naginata, charge toward Cloud who's fighting the other Soul Fire and she began attacking him, causing him to ceased fighting the Soul Fire in front of him, turned and fought against her instead.
"Angie! What are you doing!?" demanded Cloud in a shocked tone of voice.
"…" said Angelina, in silence as she swung her naginata at Cloud's head, causing him to duck down then dodged away from her second downward strike on him.
"She's being possessed by one of the Soul Fires!" Bugenhagen told Cloud in a loud and fearful voice. "You have to get it out of her quick or else it will keep on using her to fight you until you're dead then it will burn her from the inside out!"
"Say what!?" said Cloud as he stared at Bugenhagen before he dodged away from Angelina using "Vile Strike" limit break on him. "Forgive me for this, Angie." said Cloud as he stared at Angelina with an apologetic look on his face before he charge toward Angelina, raised and blocked against her naginata strike on him with his Buster sword, deflected it away from him before he clench his left hand into a tight fist and punched twice on her solar plexus hard. Angelina gasped in pain from his duo punches, dropped her naginata and she fell unconscious into Cloud's arms, at the same time the Soul Fire came out from her body and Cloud swiftly casted Blizzara on it several times in annoyed anger until it let out a screech of pain then it disappear into nothingness. Cloud then carry Angelina's unconscious body over to Bugenhagen, put her down on the ground and telling Bugenhagen to stay with her before he stood up, turned and charge toward the other Soul Fire and resumed fighting it.
After a while of Cloud, Kunsel and Red XIII fighting/using their Blizzara, Thundara and Shiva summon materia and using their "Climhazzard", "Sled Fang" and "Chain Strike" limit breaks on Gi Nattak and Soul Fire (who counter back at them), they managed to defeat both of the Gi tribe ghosts and watched as the two ghosts wail angrily in defeat before they disappeared from the cavern and from their sights, same goes for their aura of anger/hatred/evil and the huge stone carving, leaving the cavern with a calm feeling and revealing another cave hole which leads to the final area. Once the Gi tribe ghosts are gone, both Cloud and Kunsel put their swords back behind them and Red XIII let out a victory howl before Cloud turned and headed toward both Angelina and Bugenhagen and kneel down near her. Slowly she opened her violet eyes, glance over at Cloud's worry face and let out a pained groan.
"Are you alright, Angie?" Cloud asked her worriedly. "I'm sorry that I punch you twice just now but I had to try to get the ghost out from your body."
"It's fine… Cloud." said Angelina in a slightly weak/pained voice. "I know you had…to do it and I…don't blame…you much."
Cloud glance at her then smiled in relieved.
"Thank you, Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel. Because of the three of you, we managed to make it this far and survived." said Bugenhagen gratefully to Cloud, Angelina (who nodded as he slowly helped hold Angelina up with his left hand on her waist and her right arm over his shoulders) and Kunsel (who nodded to him) before he turned his head to glance at Red XIII. "And you too, Nanaki. You have grown strong."
"… Oh yeah, grandfather?" said Red XIII as he glance at Bugenhagen with a proud look on his face.
"Now I know that it wasn't a mistake in bringing you…" said Bugenhagen as he floated past them toward the cave hole. "Come, I have something I want to showed you. Right over here."
Bugenhagen went through the cave hole and Red XIII immediately followed after him, with Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel (who saw a Gravity materia lying on the rocky path and picked it up then put it into his pocket) followed closely behind them both. They walked on until they emerged out from the cavern, looked up and saw with surprised in their eyes that they're no longer within the cavern/canyon. Above them the sky had already turned into nighttime with dozens of bright stars and a large, white moon shining on the night sky, a cool, gentle night breeze blew at them from through the air and a large and tall rocky cliff in front of them.
"This is…" Red XIII began saying then finds himself unable to say it out as he stared up at the top of the rocky cliff and he felt his heart began to beat fast and his blood pulsing through his head and body.
"…The warrior who fought against the Gi tribe." said Bugenhagen to Red XIII who look over at him with a nod of his head. "He kept them from taking even one step into Cosmo Canyon. But he was never able to return back to the village… Look, Nanaki. Look at your father, at the brave warrior, Seto."
Red XIII look away from Bugenhagen back up to the top of the rocky cliff (Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel also looked up as well) and see the large, proud and firm-looking wolf/dog stone statue with many arrows piercing through his body and which turned him into a stone statue standing at the top of the rocky cliff, watching down over the canyon like a fierce/protective guardian and he recognized it instantly, for it looks so much like him, albeit an older version.
Both Cloud and Kunsel stared up at the stone statue in silence while Angelina felt sad/pity for Red XIII.
"…That's… That's… Seto…?" said Red XIII to Bugenhagen in surprised.
Bugenhagen nodded again to Red XIII before he stared up at the stone statue. "Seto continued to fight the Gi tribe here… To protect this canyon." Bugenhagen explain to Red XIII. "Even after the Gi tribe fired their poisonous arrows at him and the arrows turned his body to stone… Even after they all fled away… Seto continues to protect us. And he still continues to protect us, even now."
"Even now…" Red XIII repeated Bugenhagen's final two words in awed, cannot believe that the story he heard and what he saw in front of him turns out to be false.
"You thought that he was a coward and ran away. But he, alone risked his life to protect Cosmo Canyon. That is your father, Seto." said Bugenhagen.
"That… that is Seto?...!?" said Red XIII as he closed his eyes and shook his head for a few seconds before he opened his eyes and turned around to glance at Bugenhagen. "Did mother know?"
"Ho Ho Hooooo… she knew." replied Bugenhagen with a nod of his head. "The two of them made me promise to keep this cave shut. They asked me to seal it myself and not to tell a soul. They say we should forget about this cave."
Red XIII lowered his head to look down at the rocky ground, mumbling quietly under his breath and feeling stupid and ashamed of himself for assuming that his father, Seto was a coward who run away from Cosmo Canyon and leave his mother, Veanna and the canyon village people behind to fight against the Gi tribe for all these years. While Red XIII has lapsed into silence, Bugenhagen turned away from Red XIII and glance at Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel, who also turned to look at him.
"Cloud… would you and your 2 friends mind leaving the both of us alone?" asked Bugenhagen humbly to Cloud.
Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel looked over at Red XIII who's still looking down at the rocky ground in silence, lifted their heads away from Red XIII to glance up at Seto then lowered their heads to glance over at Bugenhagen and they nodded to him. All three of them turned around and went back into the cavern, leaving both Red XIII and Bugenhagen alone.
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Once Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel are gone, Bugenhagen turned to glance back at Red XIII. "Nanaki. I want you to continue your journey with Cloud and the others." Bugenhagen said to him in a stern/serious tone of voice.
"Grandfather!?" exclaimed Red XIII as he lifted his head to glance at Bugenhagen with a shocked look on his face.
"Listen, Nanaki." said Bugenhagen as he raised his left hand to cut Red XIII off before he could say anything then lowered his hand and turned away from him. "Cloud say to me that he and the others are trying to save the planet. To be honest, I don't think it can be done. For even if they do managed to stop every mako reactors on the planet, all it can do is postpone the inevitable. Even if they do stop Sephiroth, everything will still perish." Bugenhagen stop talking for a few seconds and turned back to glance at Red XIII. "But, Nanaki. I've been thinking lately. I've been thinking if there was anything WE could do, as a part of the planet, something to help a planet already in misery… No matter what happens, isn't it important to at least try? Am I just wishing against fate?" Here Bugenhagen shook his head a little. "I am too old to do anything about it… This year, I'll be 130. Ho Ho Hooooo. That is why, Nanaki, you must go with them! For my sake."
"Grandfather…" said Red XIII in a small voice.
"I wanted to show you your real father before you left…" Bugenhagen told Red XIII as he turned away from him again. "I'm so glad that you came back to Cosmo Canyon while I was still alive to show you."
"Grandfather… don't talk like that." said Red XIII as he shake his head rapidly and faint tears started to form/glisten in the corner of his good eye. "I don't want to think of life… without you…"
"Ho Ho Hooooo. Well, I've had a long, good life." said Bugenhagen.
"Grandfather! You must live!" said Red XIII in a loud, anxious then determined tone of voice as he glance at Bugenhagen. "I'll see to it. I'll continue my travel with Cloud and the others and I'll see to what's happening to the planet. And I'll come back to tell you about it."
"Nanaki…" said Bugenhagen as he turned around again to glance at Red XIII and saw as Red XIII suddenly jumped away from the rock he's standing on toward another rock about a metre away in front of Bugenhagen with a sudden fluidity in his muscles and a determined look in his eye.
"I am Nanaki of Cosmo Canyon!" said Red XIII to Bugenhagen in a voice filled with a kind of strength he had never shown before. "The son of Seto and Veanna, warriors of Cosmo Canyon! I'll come back a warrior true to my parents noble names! So please, grandfather…"
Bugenhagen continue to stared at Red XIII in silence, unable to believe that the young wolf/dog creature he's currently looking at was still the same one. The silence between them was broken by a sudden faint sound of something like droplets of water falling from somewhere above them and landed softly on the rocky ground. Both Bugenhagen and Red XIII turned around, saw some more of the droplets of clear-looking water falling down and landed on the rocks before they trickled down the side and they lifted their heads to look up and saw a sight which surprises them both.
"That's… Seto… Seto…" stammered Bugenhagen.
"Seto… Fa… Father…" stammered Red XIII in a shaking tone of voice as he saw more of the droplets of water fall from the edge of Seto's stone eyes, roll down and dropped from his stone face and landed on the rocky ground before Red XIII coiled his legs muscles to jumped up onto the top of the rocky cliff slightly below the one where the petrified (and currently shedding tears of joy and sadness) Seto is standing on, threw back his head and let out several loud, mournful howls into the night, which echoed fainted inside the canyon.
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After Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel make their way out of the cavern back into Bugenhagen's house, they then leave the house, went down the rocky stairs and through the inner canyon village until they rejoined with Laina, Tifa and the others waiting for them near the bonfire. Laina noticed that Angelina got injured and she quickly stood up, went over to Angelina while pulling out her Cura materia from her pocket to healed her. Once she's done healing her and she and the others heard from Cloud, Angelina and Kunsel about what happen to them while they were in the huge cavern with Bugenhagen, a frown look appear on her face (and on Tifa's face) for a short while before it faded away. After they heard their story and were relieved that they came back safely, all of them then stood up, turned around and walked away from the bonfire toward the inn inside the inner canyon to have their slumber before they leave Cosmo Canyon the next morning.
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The next day, all of them woke up feeling well-rest and a little energized before they left the inn, had some breakfast and drinks with the Cosmo Canyon villagers in one of the dining room inside the inner canyon, pay for their breakfast and drinks and they left the inner canyon, went down the stairs back toward the bonfire and they sat down in a circle around it.
"The mechanic who fixed the buggy last night told me that he's done fixing it." Angelina told Cloud and the others. "And he also told me that he had installed a wooden wagon behind the buggy so that some of us don't have to cramped ourselves into the buggy."
Cloud nodded to her before he stood up and glance around at all of them. "Shall we get going?" Cloud asked them.
All of them nodded up to him before they all stood up.
"So this is it, Red XIII…" said Aeris in a sad tone of voice.
"Don't be sad, Aeris." said Laina as she patted Aeris's shoulder. "It's not like we'll see the last of him. We'll see him when we came to Cosmo Canyon again next time."
Aeris glance over at Laina and slowly nodded.
"That's just the way it goes." said Barret. "…You came in handy at times…"
Cloud and his group then walked away from the bonfire toward the entrance of Cosmo Canyon. Just as they all went through the entrance, say their farewells to Charlie (who's still guarding the entrance) and was about to walked down the stairs, they all suddenly heard Red XIII voice yelling from behind them.
"Wait for me, everyone!" yelled Red XIII. "I'm coming with you all!"
Cloud and his group stopped in their tracks, turned around and saw with wide eyes as Red XIII came running down the rocky stairs of the inner canyon and came to a stop near them, his body breathing/panting slightly heavily from his downward run from the stairs and from behind him, they also saw Bugenhagen as he floated slowly down the stairs toward them.
"Cloud, everyone." said Bugenhagen as he glance at them. "Please look after Nanaki."
"What happened?" Cloud asked Bugenhagen, confused.
"I think I grew up a little." replied Red XIII in a happy and simple tone of voice. "That's what happened! Now let's go!"
Before anyone could say anything, Red XIII ran briskly past them down the stairs toward where the buggy car (with the Chocobo next to it) is. Cloud and his group then glance at Bugenhagen, who nodded to them before he turned around and floated away, back up the stairs. Cloud and his group then turned and went down the stairs toward the buggy car and Cloud, Angelina, Tifa, Barret, Kunsel and Red XIII went into it while Yuffie, Cait Sith, Nina, Carter and Selwyn went into the wooden wagon behind the buggy car. Both Laina and Aeris climbed up onto Celeste (after Laina untied Celeste reins from the buggy car right side window) and all of them left Cosmo Canyon toward their next destination.
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