Chapter 33: K-A-I-R-I-BIRTH
Kairi stared at the colossal form of Zirconiade as it floated up in the air above Midgar. For a summon, it was very... metallic in appearance compared to the more animal like or humanoid ones she'd seen so far. Its coloring was mostly blood red or steel/gold. Its... torso? Hips? Were mostly six containers that had gigantic rings attached to them which had jagged blades connecting to them in place of 'legs'. Though hanging down from its torso were two hooks on either side of a segregating slab of metal that parted one set of ring containers from another. From the torso rose a smaller almost human like form, thin red arms, a smooth pale face, and an odd vertical circle of metal from its forhead connecting to the backside of its head. Attached to its back was a huge pinwheel like object that had four very pointy almost-lance-like extensions. From its shoulders, were black pauldron like objects that had a trifecta of metal wings. Finally, surrounding the summon, was an intense mako-like glow.
Yet... for as imposing as the summon appeared, it felt weaker than Felicia had been after the summon had awoken in.
Strange...
And then mother started screaming. "COCOON!"
What?
"That form is a cocoon!" roared Jenova, "Larval, preparatory! IT HAS THE POWER IT NEEDS TO CHANGE! KILL IT! KILL IT BEFORE IT CAN TRANSFORM!"
Ah shit.
"Alright, girls, Genesis, its time!" she said down the web, "Send me everything you've got!"
Kairi's vision swam as pure power flowed down the web into her. Her limbs felt aflame with energy, her chest seemed to want to explode with all of it. Her form felt so tiny to contain such gathered strength. Her eyesight sharped back into intense focus. She could literally see Zirconiade's metallic eyes narrow at her despite the great distance from ground to sky. She ran towards the nearest building at blinding speed, kicked off the ground, and began to run up the building, sprinting to the top before she gave a war cry and leapt with inhuman impossible strength and height at the World Burner...
Which didn't move at all.
She swung her blade and with a heavy metallic screech, carved open from slightly below its chest down into its metallic torso. She tore her sword free and plummeted. She curled and then rolled once she hit, the impact jarring, but nothing to her empowered mako strength. She sprung to her feet and glanced up in time to see fire gushing out of the wound she made... yet the summon still didn't seem phased. Then the fire began to move up its body, slowly engulfing the entire thing in a coat of burning energy.
"AGAIN!" screamed Jenova, fear in her voice, "AGAIN!"
Cracks began to splinter out from the wound, spreading across its entire metallic body.
"Too late," gritted out Kairi, gripping her blade tightly.
The mako glow around the summon began to bleed orange.
The air began to tremble.
Flakes of metal began to fall off the summon and levitate around it in a circle.
The summon spread its hands out to the side.
The flames began to burn so bright.
Brighter and brighter...
Kairi cried out and shielded her eyes as a nova of blinding burning energy blew apart the metal body. She felt its presence before her eyes adjusted, and Kairi trembled. The pure, raw, power that hurt her to even feel, emanating from the summon that was so titanic compared to what Felicia had achieved. Even with her children, with Genesis, it wasn't enough. Kairi wasn't strong enough. Her eyes adjusted, blinking away the blurriness, and she looked up to see its new form.
Gone was the metallic machine like form.
In its place was a huge woman-like form, easily twice the size of Shiva if not three times. It kept its red and steel coloring, its skin the steel, its armor the red, though with mako green laced through it like veins. Its eyes was burning orbs the looked down at Kairi like she was an insignificant pest. Upon its back were burning wings the beat with slow immense force, much like Felicia had when the summon awoke within her. The lance pinwheel that had been upon its back was instead held in one hand centered like a shield, transformed. The lances were gone, and instead, the jagged blades that had once been Zirconiade's legs went around the edges, definitely dangerous enough to kill with. Held in the other hand was a giant burning blade that looked an awful lot like the one that Felicia's sword had transformed into. It had more humanoid legs now, steel colored and smooth, ending in feet without toes. Even from the distance between them, Kairi could feel the heat, like a burning aura, that would probably ignite those who drew to close.
Kairi was fucked.
She was dead and she knew it.
"Not. Yet," snarled Mother, "There is one final chance I spoke of before. It is not yet time for our Ruinion, but I will will come as close to it as I can in this moment before we are physically aligned."
"Okay," answered Kairi shakily, "What do I have to do."
"Let me in."
A shiver went down Kairi's spine at the craving tone. "How?"
"Reach out your mental web to be and temporarily connect it. Do NOT allow your children to break the connection. Grip them tightly, and drag us all together," instructed Jenova, "You will only have one chance at this."
Kairi took in a deep breath, watching Zirconiade as it rolled its sword handle in its fingers, staring down at her. It raised its blade into the air, and a sphere of intense almost molten like energy began to form high above it in the sky.
"NOW!" screamed Jenova, "DO IT NOW!"
So Kairi reached out, grabbing her children, grabbing Genesis tightly, and then reaching down into her mind, down the connection between her and Mother, for Jenova. She took a sharp intake the moment she brushed against her, feeling... feeling pure, utter, malevolence, a presence so different and so alien to her. For all Mother called them the same species, Kairi had a hard time seeing any similarities between them. But she didn't have time to really figure out anything from a passing glance. She felt her children recoiling from Jenova, she couldn't let them break the connection or they were all dead. So she dragged Jenova to the web, connected, and...
They jolted.
They gasped.
Took a deep breath.
Blinked.
Let it out.
They... she...
Stared down at their hands, clenching and unclenching the empty one, marveling at herself. She felt... strange. Who... who was...
Kairi.
Jenova.
Genesis.
Her children, her so many children.
She was everything and more.
But ultimately, in this body...
"K-A-I-R-I," she sounded out, tasting the name.
Yes... that was who she was...
K-A-I-R-I.
Kairi.
A Mother to children much like Jenova was to her. Knowledge and power filled her that she parsed in seconds, abilities she could barely begin to fathom, and... information that Mother had withheld about her own power? Light? A wing? She searches for more, and yet... memories are either missing or blocked. Mother had shielded much of herself from their union, gifting mostly just power, experience, and knowledge around certain abilities. She has little time to dwell on it, and certainly no time to try and breach into what was hidden.
She threw out her right arm, and her white wing exploded through her clothing and extended off to the side. She reaches deep into herself, for the purity and light she felt, and bathed herself in it, an aura of light surrounding her. With a powerful beat of her wing, she launches herself into the air, using a insignificant flutter of energy to keep herself right within the air despite only one wing. For the fallen only bore one...
Fallen bore...
Where had that thought come from...?
She shakes her head and dismisses it, rising higher and higher into the air until she matches Zirconiade in the sky. The summon glared at her with pure hatred, pulling the now-massive ball of molten energy down and absorbing it into it's blade before swinging it at Kairi and launching a massive wave of orange energy at her. Kairi burst into the sky, launching herself above the attack before flapping her wing and coming back down, swinging a mighty blow. Zirconiade raised its shield and blocked, a shockwave energy erupting upon impact. Zirconiade shoved her off and swung its own weapon. Kairi backflipped through the air, her body barely slinging itself over the blade. She took the initiative while Zirconiade was offbalanced and surged forward, channeling her power down her sword to not let it be destroyed and then swinging and slashing into the summon's body.
Zirconiade shrieked as burning blood sprayed, but did not take it laying down. It swing its shield back around and slice into Kairi, digging the shield into her skin and half way through her ribs before she was thrown through the sky. Kairi howled in pain, flapping her wing and righting herself, free hand gripping the smoldering bloody wound... that was not healing.
Fuck.
Even with all this power, her wounds were still not naturally healing?! Could not overpower the might of the World Burner?
Well then.
Simple solutions first to test.
She casts Cure3 on herself, and lets out a shuddering breath as the energy tips the scales enough for her regeneration to knit her bones and skin back together. Yet... its still feels raw. Superficial healing enough to close the wound and stop the bleeding, but not a full cure in any manner of speaking. The wounds will add up over time, even if she heals the most dangerous parts of the damage away. She must be careful, for this foe is one who can actually kill her.
She dives back for the World Burner, and only now notices the heat emanating from it, like a hot summer day to her. Likely it would melt her children or other SOLDIERs merely to be in its presence. Genesis and Angeal, her brothers would not last long. Sephiroth would have had the most chance against the World Burner's true might, but even then... she doesn't know. She'd never seen the true depths of Sephiroth's power after all, but from what she has seen, she's not sure how long he would last. Mother had always said he was the strongest, her Chosen One, but Kairi remains skeptical until she witnesses it for herself.
Her though?
Kairi and Jenova and Genesis and all their children...
A ca-joined might, an army all in one.
Her blade clashes with Zirconiade's, equal force meeting equal force that sends both jarring at the impact. The clash again and again, energy erupting from each parry of a blade or block of the summon's shield. They battle through the air, the summon's giant form trying to stab and slash and batter away at Kairi like she were a gnat flying around her. Kairi is more careful, ignoring her favored form of just abusing her regeneration to plow through and win, not against this opponent. She is forced to give up far to many opportunities to flip or dodge out of the way of that damned giant blade and shield.
She flaps her wing and launched herself back, her bangle glowing as she snarls out, "Bolt3!"
It sparks and gushes from her hands, but the summon merely swats the spell away with its shield.
Alright then, lets see how it likes this!
She aims her free hand out at it, and pulls on her light. She calls forth the power even without needed to hit her Limit. "Light Nova!"
The energy explodes at the point of impact without Zirconiade having a chance to block, making it roar in fumble through the air. Kairi flies forward, wing beating heavily, closing the distance and swinging down at Zirconiade's back, her blade biting in and leaving a molten red line from where burning energy sprays out from. Zirconiade screeches in pain and springs, not catching Kairi with her weapon, but still managing to slam her with its arm and sending her rocketing away. Kairi uses the momentum to swoop down and then back up...
And then she notices the helicopters.
"IDIOTS!" she snarled.
Missiles rain from them at Zirconiade, impacting and exploding but doing nothing. Zirconiade rights itself in the sky then swings its sword. Unlike Kairi, the helicopters are not near as graceful. The energy impacts and turns them into molten, and then exploding scrap. But more and more of Shinra's forces come. Any and all of Scarlets robots with flight capabilities. Missile batteries all around Midgar lightning up. A torrent of missiles and gunfire erupt from all over. All for the World Burner.
And its all worthless, only serving to get in Kairi's way.
The aura of heat from Zirconiade becomes so very visible, and expands, turning all the robots into scrap and even setting distant helicopters ablaze. Zirconiade aims its sword down at Midgar, and releases a beam of burning energy from its tip at one of the missile batteries. The resulting explosion is far, far bigger than the size of the missile battery. Kairi snarls in fury, that definitely causes civilian casualties. She beats her wing, dives into the burning aura, through the torrent of missiles and gunfire, and swings at the summon, forcing it to fight her. The summon barely gets its shield up in time to deflect the blow, but that's fine. So close, Kairi raises a hand, ignites it with intense light, and smashes a Light Nova into its collarbone. The explosion sends Kairi and the summon rocketing away from eachother.
Kairi uses the momentum to surge towards one of the more distant and intact helicopters. The pilot is staring at her, mouth gaping. She moves around and pounds on the door, denting it a bit. A trooper opens it and steps back. She grabs onto the door and pulls herself in, folding her wing.
"PILOT!" she roars, "Get President Shinra on the damn phone and call this shit off! None of Shinra's none-SOLDIER assets are going to do anything against that thing! It will only draw the summons wrath. If its focused on me, its not focused on blowing away chunks of Midgar, am I clear!?"
"Y-yes ma'am!" stutters out the pilot, "U-um, 1st Class Sephiroth made contact about five minutes ago, he's heading for a helicopter to fly him back to Midgar, ETA less than 10 minutes!"
"Yeah? So fucking what?" she snaps out, "Unless he can pull a wing out of his ass as well what is he going to do when the summon is airborne so far above Midgar? Get him on damage control instead, if he can intercept any of the summon's wayward energy blasts that head ground-ward, he might be able to save lives down there."
"Y-yes ma'am," stuttered the pilot again.
"Now get yourself out of here and radio in what I s-," began Kairi before she notices the summon sending out another blast down towards another missile battery, blowing away another chunk of Midgar and who knows how many civilians.
Kairi snarls flings herself out of the helicopter, her wing beating and rushing again for Zirconiade. The gunfire, robots, and missiles stop coming about a minute later after Kairi has engaged the summon again. This time though, its changed up its arsenal. It aims its shield at her, and the center glows and spins rapidly before a massive beam of molten energy erupts from it. Kairi yelps, curls her wing to her body, and plummets down to evade it, but even then, it feels like her back just got a wicked sunburn. Her clothes also smell... crispy. She extends her wing, swoops down rapidly then skimming along the streets belong before surging back skyward at insane speeds. She gives a warcry and swings her blade. The summon spins away, its shield deflecting the blow.
The summon chucks its shield at her as she surges past, and as it spins, waves of fire erupt from it in all directions. Kairi ducks and weaves down, her wing feeling a bit burnt, and then notices the blasted shield is following her! How the hell...
Wait.
Shield in the sky homing in on her meant it wasn't in the summon's hand!
Kairi grins and swoops down for Zirconiade. The summon swings its massive blade at her. Kairi swings her blade down as she goes, sending herself spinning on impact, but that was her intent. She flips down and thrusts up with her feet as she impacts upside down on Zirconiade's chest, her feet cracking into it's chin and snapping its head upward, just in time for the stalker-shield to fly by and carve in a deep trench into its forehead. Zirconiade roars and a nova of fire erupts from it in all directions, sending Kairi screaming in pain through the air.
Kairi chain-casts Cure3 a few times on herself to stop the burning from turning her skin into goop. Her SOLDIER 2nd class uniform is more than a little charred and somewhat melted into her skin. Fucking hurts, but she's not going to waste further energy to deal with it now. Zirconiade has righted itself in the air, burning blood sliding down its face. It has its shield in hand again, its grip tight on both it and the sword. Then...
Then it brings them together, the shield shifting to wrap around the blade, jagged edges trailing along it. Zirconiade aims her sword into the air, and like the start of the fight, another massive sphere of molten energy begins to form. It begins to levitate higher and higher into the sky, then... then it sneers at her and glances down at Midgar before looking back up at her, gaze predatory.
Fuck.
Message received.
Its going to blow Midgar. If that hits, the entire city is gone. Its goading her, block the energy or watch it happen. She doesn't have a choice, if she lets it go she'd lose her children down there along with all the population. If the children in Midgar died, she'd lose chunks of her power and most likely not be able to go toe to toe anymore. She doesn't hesitate, as the summon lifts its sword, Kairi dives downward. It swings its blade, and the molten sphere surges down.
Fear pumps through body.
Fury burns in her veins.
Determination steels her limbs.
Her emotions peak.
Her power ignites.
She feels the Limit Break coming, but its not Light Nova. Not this time. Some people, if they have Limit Breaks at all, never find a second. Its taken her years for this moment, but she wont complain. She rights herself, flying just above the bricks of Sector 6. She feels the power, the word enters her mind, and she roars...
"LIGHT-ZANTETSUKEN!"
Her blade turns into a massive sword of light. She blurs, faster than sight can follow, and cleaves through the energy sphere, faster than the resulting explosion, and then through Zirconiade. The summon screams as its body is severed in two, the bottom below its torso falling away and disintegrating into mako green energy. The Limit Break fades, Kairi turns, triumphant...
Zirconiade spears its massive blade right through Kairi's body.
Kairi can't even scream.
The blade's girth penetrates her from her collarbone all the way down to just above her pelvis. Its... its utter agony. Pain unlike anything she's felt before. It feels like her body is melting from the sword onward, spreading through her. She... she... no... not... not like... not like this...
She aims her shaking sword at Zirconiade and releases a Light Nova, the explosion sending Zirconiade flying, wrenching the massive blade from Kairi in a brutal spray of blood. She plummets to the ground, impacting on Sector 6 hard enough to send a crater through the brick street, her vision blurring at the jarring force of impact. She spits up blood, gasping for air. She fumbles for her bracer, arms shaking, vision darkening.
Cure3...
Not enough...
Cure3...
Not...
C...cure... 3...
E... enou...
C... ur...
C...
"Goodbye mom."
One of her children within her presence blinks out of existence, then another, then another. Consciousness pooling away and sliding into Kairi in a way Kairi knows she cannot undo. She screams in suffering and loss. Sacrificial power briefly fills her, the wound stitching closed. She screams into herself for them to stop. But the parts that make her who she is don't listen. Another ten of her children are gone in as many seconds before Kairi is healed enough to stagger to her feat.
Thirteen.
Children.
Gone.
Dead.
Never coming back.
Never coming home.
She screams once more, light erupting from her and bleaching the area white. She flaps her wing in once massive beat and flies into the air, a snarl on her face. She surges for the form of Zirconiade. Even severed in half the damned thing still lives, its bottom half cauterized closed. Kairi might have just lost thirteen pieces of herself, but that still wasn't the same amount of damage that the summon had just taken. She is going to slaughter this abomination! Her children might have chosen to sacrifice themselves, but its the same as the summon outright murdering them to her. Her family tore apart that King Behemoth over Gale's singular death.
Zirconiade will know death.
Kairi glows with the power of a Limit Break but it simply can't be formed into an actual move. She surges at Zirconiade with powerful blows instead, her speed and strength surging in peaks, falling back on lows. Zirconiade had separated its sword and shield back into separate parts to try to keep something always between Kairi and ripping into its flesh. But it is sluggish compared to before, still stupidly powerful, but nowhere near its peak. Its sword and shield moving to parry and deflect but hardly to attack, then... opportunity.
She clashes her blade against the sword and lets it push her into a flip, the massive blade surging overhead. Kairi flips head over heals, gives a warcry, and brings her blade down on the summon's wrist holding the shield, severing clean through it. The summon screeches and flaps its wings backwards away. Kairi allows it to temporarily escape, she funnels her fluctuating Limit Break into one massive Light Nova and obliterates the summon's falling shield in a brutal blinding explosion.
She flaps her wing, breathing in deeply and raggedly. Fuck, when is the last time she well and truly felt exhausted in a fight? Even for their army in one body, throwing around this kind of power against an equal power is draining. Regardless, the summon is weakened and critically wounded, its time to end this. The summon must know its time is up, its blade melts into pure energy that pools into its hand. It gives a roar, all of its energy funneling into its sphere...
Kairi gives a battlecry and surges at it.
Zirconiade aims the sphere and releases a brutal beam of energy.
Kairi screams in pain as she flies through it, her clothes charring , hair burning away, vision blurring as her eyes damage, her skin melting, but she pushes through, bursts into the sky above Zirconiade, screams in fury, and rains down, her sword carving down through the summon's head, down through its chest, bisecting it in half...
The summon explodes.
Moments before it hits her she... Mother is... why separate... n-now...?
"You did well child," said Mother, "But a taste of our power when we truly embrace Reunion."
Kairi barely has a moment to orient her perspective, to be Kairi and not K-A-I-R-I, for her children to suddenly impact back into their own bodies, before the explosion engulfs her.
Sephiroth watches as the charred and blacked body of Kairi crashes down towards Sector 6. He leaps from his helicopter, limbs tight to his body. He hits the ground of Sector 6 and rushes forward, leaping to catch Kairi and spin around, using his body to shield her from anymore of the explosive energy that washes over them and sets the entirety of Sector 6 aflame. He waves a hand, a barrier appearing around them, before casting Full-Cure.
It does absolutely nothing.
He casts Sense, she's barely clinging to life.
He goes for his PHS and dials a number he oh so hates to. "Hojo, shut up and listen. You had best have developed something to counteract the Summon's damage."
"Ridiculous," rebutted Hojo, "I wasn't even aware that should be a task I waste time on."
Sephiroth grits his teeth. "Kairi killed the summon, but suffered critical damage and will die without extreme assistance. Full Cure is doing nothing, I doubt any medical potions or elixirs will do much considering her throat is likely seared closed."
He morbidly wonders if asphyxiation will kill her before anything else, SOLDIERs can go without breath for a very long time, but coupled with such wounds...
Hojo considers for a moment before ordering, "Bring her back to HQ."
"To your lab?"
"To the Mako Showers," corrected Hojo, "It seems its time for her to receive her 1st Class enhancements, if we wish for Specimen K to live. I will have the solution ready for injection, and the showers prepped with Mako by the time you arrive. The final enhancement should, theoretically, allow her to overcome the damage."
Sephiroth pushes aside his misgivings, aside his thoughts that so unstable a SOLDIER should never receive such enhancements, and rushes through the flames towards Shinra HQ as fast as he can...
Review Responses:
The Unplanner: Oops, went back and fixed it.
Patrick the Observer: Naw, Kairi's not dead. Critically wounded, but not dead. There is a very, very large hint about her potential fate in this chapter. Well, less of a hint and more of a bludgeon.
Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: Somewhat even when full-power VS full-power. Whether one was stronger than the other was irrelevant when they were still so stupidly power and capable of harming the other.
Spellflame: Piggyback? Not quite, incite them to die to save Kairi in that near-death sword-spear moment since they were temporarily connected via the web? Yeah she might have nudged them along, they're mere sacrificial pawns to her after all. If Jenova ever won over Kairi and took over her body/web, then yes, Jenova could consume her children. This merging in the chapter? No.
