Chapter 49: Seto
Author's Note: The next two chapters are where I will more drastically than usual deviate from the plot. To clarify from a previous chapter, in the game they did sink the enemy submarine to get the piece of Huge Materia, but while that makes an exciting scene for a video game logically it did not transition well into my novelization, at least in my opinion.
In these chapters I would like to point out, without prematurely giving details of my version, the actual occurrences in the game:
The Huge Materia were actually not a terribly major plot point for the game. In the game they function primarily to award players the Zero Bahamut materia, as well as Master Magic, Master Summon and Master Command materias when players had attained Mastered versions of all the materia in a set category.
The Ancient Forest was an optional dungeon accessible only by mountain-faring chocobo or by defeating Ultima WEAPON. Its function is drastically changed in this version as well as a slight alteration to its location. Also this relates to a much earlier chapter, but for those who did not know, Greymare is an original character for this novelization.
The "key" which will be referenced in this chapter was actually found in an underwater tunnel underneath the northern continent and not in the location I reveal it to be in this chapter. Furthermore the sunken Gelnika is not in the path of the location of the key, nor is Emerald WEAPON a required target, but rather an optional boss in the American version of the game. The same is true for Ruby WEAPON.
I can appreciate to players of the original game how this chapter might seem a bit of a clustered mess, but I believe that the way I am choosing to tell this chapter is the best way to contain all the individual elements, most of which were optional in the game, yet I believe important in their own right to the overall plot.
So, in essence, with apologies to purists here is my version of how these events played out.
The escape pod landed in the ocean near Cosmo Canyon. It only took about two hours of waiting before the Highwind soared overhead to rescue the stranded group. The wreckage of WEAPON was terrible in this part of the world as well, however it did have its uses. A collapsed mountain side had formed a small bridge between the Nibelheim side of Mt. Nibel and the Rocket Town side. After bidding her a farewell, with Cid continuing to mutter "I'm sorry", they had one of their crew members take the dune buggy (which fortunately had remained untouched near Nibelheim) and used it to take Shera home.
The rest of them decided to go to Cosmo Canyon and plan what to do next. Bugenhagen seemed as gracious as ever to receive such a large host, commenting "oh, and two I haven't met yet," when setting his eyes on Vincent and Cid.
But Bugenhagen did much more than offer them food and rest, he had been observing the signs and had come up with a plan.
"You've been to the ancient city, have you not?" Bugenhagen asked.
"Yes grandfather," Red nodded. "That is where Aeris…"
Bugenhagen sighed and stroked his beard. "I was afraid of her fate from the moment I set eyes on her. The path of the Cetra was never easy. But she was a Cetra, and so was likely aware of her fate. I do not know if that will comfort you at all."
"She said something about trying to stop Meteor," Tifa said. "But never told us what it was. And with Sephiroth… I guess we'll never know."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Bugenhagen said. "She may have died, but the Cetra are powerful in their understanding of the Lifestream. Even in death she may be able to control things that we cannot see immediately."
"What are you suggesting?" Yuffie asked.
"I would like to see the ancient capitol," Bugenhagen said. "There may be some clue of what she attempted there."
"We searched the place very thoroughly," Cloud said. "But it's the best plan we have."
"Well go make your preparations. If you don't mind I would like a word alone with my grandson," Bugenhagen said.
The group left his observatory, leaving Bugenhagen and Red alone in the silence.
"Grandfather?" Red asked.
"I have news… about Greymare and myself," Bugenhagen began.
Red sat patiently. "What of it?"
"A fortnight ago, Greymare passed on, defending the canyon from a WEAPON attack," Bugenhagen said.
Red was stunned. He let out a gasp but it was a placeholder for a wail that longed to erupt from his body. Greymare, the mightiest warrior in the canyon, dead.
"What… what happened?" Red asked.
"He fought valiantly. Singlehandedly drove one of the WEAPONs back into the desert near the Gold Saucer. But the battle proved too much for him, as can be expected. He perished from his wounds in the Ancient Forest near here," Bugenhagen explained. "And I am afraid there is more."
"More?" Red asked.
"Greymare visited me in the night two days ago," Bugenhagen explained. "I do not have very long myself. Perhaps three days at best. Most likely less than that."
"Grandfather!" Red shouted. "You can't die! Not after losing Greymare as well. What will the people of the canyon do?"
"Death at my age is really not such a terrible thing," Bugenhagen explained. "I have lived a long and fulfilling life. And as for the people of the canyon, they will have you. That is what I have come to tell you."
Red couldn't bring himself to speak. That his grandfather was so unconcerned about his own death, it was an unusual concept to him. How could this not be tearing him apart as it was Red, who now felt so weak from the death of both his friend and the impending death of his grandfather. How could he go on after all of this?
"It has only been a few months since I last saw you, but I can see in your eyes you have learned so much and experienced many things. You are not so much a boy as last we spoke. You will not accompany us to the lost capitol, Nanaki. You must go to the Ancient Forest and face the trials within," Bugenhagen said.
"But I am still too young to be Chieftain!" Red replied.
"I know I am putting a lot on your shoulders, Nanaki," Bugenhagen said patting his head. "But you are the one who Greymare has chosen to follow in his path. You are destined to lead these people. Go through the Ancient Forest, and complete the trials within. We shall meet you on the other side, if fate permits."
Red did not know what else to say. To be separated from his grandfather in the last few days of his life to take a test within the Ancient Forest; a test which he did not feel ready for at all. But he could not argue. If Greymare had in fact chosen Red to replace him, then Red would not refuse the summons.
"Explain to the others where I have gone," Red said.
"Of course," Bugenhagen smiled. "Don't despair. I know we shall see each other at least once more in this life."
Tseng was laying in a makeshift hospital tent in Rocket Town. His arm had been horribly bludgeoned by the monster that erupted from Vincent in the battle. Reno, Rude and Elena had just arrived via chopper to help clear up the situation, but they all stopped by to check on their boss.
"Tseng!" Elena gasped, rushing over to his bedside.
"You look like hell, boss," Reno observed, taking a seat next to him as well. Rude elected to remain standing.
"All in all, I'm still better than when Sephiroth got to me," Tseng shrugged. "Chalk this up to another fine scar. Rude what are you doing here?"
"I've got news. We need to get to the sunken Gelnika and damn quick," Rude explained.
"What's going on?" Tseng asked, trying to sit up, but being forced to lay back by Elena.
"Hojo took one of the subs when he left Midgar yesterday. We believe he's heading for the sunken Gelnika to recover his creatures," Rude said.
"Why haven't we executed him yet?" Reno asked.
"Because we need that son of a bitch's technical prowess until we've dealt with Meteor. We can kill him after that," Tseng grunted. "Rude, Reno take a sub yourselves and get to the crashed Gelnika. Retrieve Hojo and bring him in by force if you have to. Then make sure nothing remains of the wreckage."
"What about me?" Elena asked.
"We'll need your help clearing up the situation here," Tseng said. He turned his head away just slightly. "Just stick with me for right now."
With the airship they were able to skip the journey through the Sleeping Forest and landed right on the ice floe just outside the Lost Capitol. Once inside the ancient city, Bugenhagen stopped for a moment and closed his eyes.
"You alright old man?" Barret asked.
"You can hear the cry of the planet," Bugenhagen entombed. "It is stronger in this place than any other place I've seen. Something is crying out, wanting to be released from this place."
"What are you-" But Tifa was cut off by Bugenhagen.
"No time. We need to find something like an altar. I'm sure there is one here," he looked over at the cliff face. "Over there!"
They followed Bugenhagen into the Citadel where the large jagged crystal stood. Barret, Cid, Vincent and Cait Sith had been each holding a piece of Huge Materia and brought it into the Capitol with them. As they approached the crystal, the materia began to resonate.
"As I suspected," Bugenhagen said.
Around the crystal were four large standing rings and a small hole was before the Crystal, with some odd ancient writing around it.
"Place the Huge Materia in those rings!" Bugenhagen ordered. "They are the power source, but not the key itself…"
Bugenhagen lowered his body towards the writing and began to work at deciphering the symbols.
"I wish Red was here to see this," Tifa sighed.
"Bugenhagen said he had stuff to do," Yuffie shrugged. "I don't know what's more important than saving the world, but obviously it's pretty important if he's just gonna ditch us like that."
"Young people never understand," Bugenhagen sighed. "The world is only worth saving if we make the world a place worth saving."
"Have you deciphered the writing yet?" Vincent asked.
"The key resides in a cave where the sun never shines. Now to the Cetra this passage is particularly important. Since they believe the mountains grew from the hills and the hills from the fields, at some point all places on the earth were kissed with sunlight. Therefore the only place where sun would never shine would be-" Bugenhagen awaited the answer.
The others rubbed their chins for a moment before Tifa came up with the answer.
"Someplace… underground?" She suggested.
"Exactly! But moreover, I believe this place is not just underground, but underwater. I know of many of the secret places of the world, having lived around so many of them. There is a cave that lies under a lake in a caldera just between Nibelheim and Cosmo Canyon. The overland route is beyond treacherous, there simply is no overland route. Furthermore it would do no good to take that route as again the place lies under the water," Bugenhagen against awaited a suggestion as though he were some sort of insufferable teacher.
This time the answer was much simpler, as they had not too long ago done exactly that.
"We need to use the submarine to get there," Cid said.
"Exactly," Bugenhagen smiled. "I understand you are in possession of one?"
"You might say that," Yuffie groaned, clutching her stomach in preparation.
Red ran through the hills that led him to the Ancient Forest. He'd heard Greymare and his mother mention the place when he was young. It was a place of trial for any new chieftain. Though what exactly lay inside the forest nobody ever spoke of, not even the chieftains of the time.
Greymare had not exactly been a proper chieftain, he never had the chance to take the trials due to the war with the Gi. However all the others, even Bugenhagen, looked up to Greymare as the leader. This would be the first time any had entered the Ancient Forest in a long time.
He reached the threshold of a large mountain covered completely in vines. This seemed more an ancient cave than ancient forest at first glance, but as he moved into the entrance of the mountain he saw the forest.
Light shone through cracks in the mountain top and vines, trees and plants of all sorts grew in great abundance in this place despite the low light.
"So what is the nature of this challenge?" Red asked to nothing in particular.
However, he received an answer. The forest itself seemed to echo back to him in distant voices of chieftains of old.
"To make it through the forest, nothing more."
It could not be so simple a task, and Red did not entirely trust his ears. However no other manner of trial presented itself immediately and so he began to walk through the forest.
The following day the members of AVALANCHE found themselves back in the submarine and near the opposite shoreline from where they had last left it. Bugenhagen had chosen to stay behind and continue deciphering the ancient writings. Yuffie and Cait Sith had remained with Bugenhagen as a sort of bodyguard, but the truth of it was Yuffie didn't want to get motion sick again and Cait Sith opted to stay with her to sooth her pride.
"Okay so there looks like there's an underground tunnel near Costa Del Sol," Cid said. "I bet that'll take us close enough the caldera he's talking about."
Cloud looked at the sonar projection of the tunnel. "That looks pretty tight. Not a lot of room to maneuver. Are you sure about this?"
"Not at all," Cid shrugged. "But what the hell else do you propose we do?"
"What's that?" Tifa asked, looking out a small porthole on her side.
Cloud looked out there with her and saw a wrecked Gelnika with another submarine docked near it.
"Crashed airplane," Cid said. "Gelnika model. That must be the one they scuttled."
"Another Shinra sub too," Cloud noted. "Actually, it looks like two of them,"
"We don't have time for pit stops," Cid said. "Besides I don't feel like trying to fight off an entire Shinra platoon, do you?"
"Right," Tifa nodded. "Let's head into the tunnel before we're spotted."
There wasn't an entire Shinra platoon aboard either submarine. Just Reno and Rude who now walked through the wrecked Gelnika with nothing less than absolute misery. The few chambers of the ship that they could get to that weren't completely waterlogged were still dripping and the hull threatened to cave in at any moment.
"Hojo!" Reno shouted. "Where the hell are you?!"
There was a distant cackling as Hojo was undoubtedly doing something with the samples he had aboard this plane.
Rude drew a pistol and Reno lifted his rod.
"I don't care what Tseng says, if that bastard doesn't come quietly, we take him out and say he got lost in the wreckage," Reno said.
"No problems with that," Rude grunted. "I wouldn't mind doing that anyways, whether he comes quietly or not."
"Let's try to play nice for now," Reno said.
They slunk through the halls of the enormous carrier. Half-tilted and half-flooded it was hard to imagine that this ship and the three others like it were once the pride of the air force. A pipe gave way and water exploded out of it, drenching Rude.
"Damn it!" Rude shouted. "Well now we have to hurry!"
The water slowly rose through the halls. They rushed to the last chamber which was an enormous main hall. Inside were several test tubes, however all the subjects inside appeared to have been killed.
Standing beside one, with one of his sleeves rolled up was Hojo. Before they could do anything, Hojo injected himself with a needle. He then turned around to the Turks and grinned.
"Hands in the air, Hojo!" Reno shouted. "Right now!"
Hojo raised his arms with the same cocky grin unwavering. Reno leapt over the railing, turned Hojo around and put him in handcuffs.
"So the lap dogs are here to spoil my fun again," Hojo smirked. "But you're too late you know."
Reno smashed Hojo's head against the test tube. It broke and the fluid used to preserve the specimen rushed through Hojo's face. He cursed silently and spit bits of the fluid out.
"You say anything to piss me off," Reno said. "And you die here with the rest of your freaks."
"Yo!" Rude shouted. "The main galley is flooded. If we don't hurry we won't be getting back to the sub in time!"
"You hear that?" Reno grinned. "The whole place is about to be flooded. Hope you had fun."
Hojo just continued to grin at Reno as he dragged them towards the submarine.
`The path through the Ancient Forest was more treacherous than perhaps any other road Red had traveled along in his journey. Jagged slopes and wide gaps with thorned vines in their pits made it clear that this trek was only meant for a member of his tribe.
"Yuffie might be able to cross these gaps," Red thought. "But poor Cait's mog would be hard pressed to make it across this."
His thoughts had turned to his friends, as they had often lately. Back in the Shinra Tower he had only been assisting the others as a means to find his own way home. He did not trust humans then, and his heart still bode some ill will towards the race. However, his journey had shown him the best of what humanity had to offer. His friends.
They had their flaws. Yuffie was spoiled, Cid was self-absorbed, Cait Sith never took anything seriously and Barret had a short temper. But despite these traits they were refusing to take the easy way out. They were fighting one of the hardest fights that any could be expected to undertake.
He came to a cliff that was completely impassable. The gap was far wider than Red could be expected to jump even at a full leap.
"Damn," Red thought. "I must have made a wrong turn."
As Red turned around he saw the image of a large grey wolf awaiting behind him. He knew that visage.
"Greymare?" Red asked.
The wolf howled and the earth seemed to stretch and groan. The gap was widening, with vines swooping in place of the new gap like a river.
"You are afraid still, Nanaki," said the voice. But it wasn't the voice of Greymare. There was another of his tribe who, before the arrows poison had completed, had grey fur.
"Seto?" Red asked. "Father?"
"You are afraid. But fear is not a sin," Seto said. "Only the foolish are fearless. But you cannot let fear conquer you."
"Father," Red continued. "I cannot make such a leap."
"You are my son," Seto said. "Your heart has already made the leap. Your mind is what holds you back. You strive to be wise, my son. So know when to follow your heart. Leap across this gap not with your feet, but with your very soul."
"It is too far. I will fall into the vines!" Red shouted.
Seto snapped at Red. "You will not, my son! Only the weak-hearted ever fall into vines. This forest will obey the will of the rightful chieftain. If you desire to cross this gap, the forest shall make it so. "
Red took another look at the impossible gap. He did not know what else to do. His father's spirit had come back at this time to tell him something and it had been how to cross the gap. Now that he knew the truth, he knew that his father would not lead him astray. He ran back a bit and then turned to face the gap.
"Show your heart to the forest, Nanaki!" Seto shouted.
Red ran as fast as he could to the edge of the cliff. With each pace he focused on the things closest to his heart. His friends, Greymare, his grandfather Bugenhagen. His mother. His father.
He leapt as far as he could. Again the earth seemed to groan and quake. The other side of the gap moved closer to him. With a firm grasp, Red caught the edge of the opposite cliff, and pulled himself up.
The mountainside smashed open and an enormous WEAPON with a bright red hide glared in at Red. This weapon would have looked almost like a man, except its head was long and protruded high above its shoulders and its arms were clawed and hung lower than it would on a human.
"Ruby WEAPON," Red hissed.
"You have already shown your heart to the forest! Now show it your might!" Seto shouted. "We shall defeat this menace together!"
Red leapt up as high as he could, the trees of the forest stretching their branches to give him more platforms to leap from. Seto leapt alongside him. Ruby WEAPON smashed through the branches, knocking Red back onto the ground below.
"Do not give up, Nanaki!" Seto cried smashing his spirit body into WEAPON.
Red pulled himself up again and once more began to climb the trees. His fury exploded in a crimson blur and he charged, straight through the WEAPON's chest. He fell to the ground and saw the Ruby WEAPON collapse against the mountainside, dead.
For a time, Red knew nothing at all. When he came to he saw Seto's shadow standing in front of him.
"Greymare would be proud," Seto nodded. "He is singing your praises from Luna as we speak, I am sure of it."
"Father," Red did not know what to say. Nor what should he say now that he was given the chance.
"You do not need to say anything my son," Seto said. "I have heard your heart often lately. You have become a fine warrior. You will be a great Chieftain. "
Seto's shadow disappeared and the path out of the end of the Ancient Forest opened itself for him. He walked through and saw that he was on the edge of a caldera between Nibelheim and Cosmo Canyon.
