Chapter 39: Jenova Absolute
"I am not one to be laughed at."
Kairi twitches as Genesis releases a fireball right at Jenova. The Crisis merely flicks a tentacle, and a Reflect appears, bouncing it right back at him. Genesis dodges, and then Jenova acts. She weaves a sphere of energy between her tentacles and detonated it, a distortion covering the area in a large degree.
Kairi began to raise her blade, wing flexing to charge at Jenova, and then she realized how slow she was moving and cursed herself silently. She was nigh immune to most status ailments that directly affected her body. Slow was not one of them. It did not directly interact with her body, merely the space around it. To her surprise though, everyone was slowed, including Chaos, including the WEAPONs, and where they were all slowed, Jenova moved like she was hasted while in the distortion field.
Jade WEAPON unleashes its bombardment as Ultima WEAPON begins charging energy within its core, Chaos shifts his gun arm slowly, trying to predict where Jenova is going to be despite the slow. She can feel Genesis's irritation as a green shine of materia casting surrounds him, a quick thought aimed to her, "Ten seconds until DeSpell, apprentice."
In those ten seconds, Jenova destroys any thought of an advantage they might have had.
Jenova's form surges up and around Jade's bombardment then lashes out with her tentacles. A mist begins to form around Jade, perhaps defensive in nature, but to little to late, the tentacles burrow into Jade... and bulges start pumping down them, spilling black ichor around and into the wound. Kairi is briefly confused until Genesis finishes casting DeSpell, banishing the distortion field, and then Chaos screams.
"SACRILEGE!"
The Jade WEAPON begins to screech, twisting and distorting and mutating, its sleek metallic nature starting to turn fleshy, slimy, and disgusting, tentacles bursting out of its body and wrapping around itself. A chill rockets down Kairi's spine. The cells... oh gods her cells... it had never really hit, but what had Sephiroth once accused her of? Infecting Genesis with her cells?
He was right.
She had infected Genesis.
Had infected all of her children.
That is the truth of being a Calamity.
A horrified sob escapes Kairi. "We... we're an infection..."
Chaos briefly looks down at her, pity in his eyes. "You saw, but you did not see. You heard, but you did not listen. You both felt and did not think, and thought but did not feel. Only now, at what may be our end, do you understand what you truly are."
Kairi swallows thickly, closing her eyes to pinch off a tear, before opening them and taking a shaky breath, fists curling tightly, face turning from horror into determined rage. "I... I refuse. I REFUSE!"
Light blazing ignites around her, intense and wild, white lightning crackling around this. "I AM NOT THIS! I AM NOT YOU JENOVA! I AM ME! NO ONE ELSE! DO YOU HERE ME? I AM KAIRI! K-A-I-R-I! I MAY BE CALAMITY, BUT I AM NOT YOU!"
Jenova lets a mocking response filter through the air, more mental in projection than actual words. "You are what I made you to be, foolish daughter, the perfect vessel, a weapon."
Kairi blitzes upward, screaming in rage, swinging her blade of light and cleaves it right into the tainted Jade WEAPONs left wing, the light sears into it and spread, burning it. The WEAPON tries to turn, tries to attack, but its made for raining death, for a bombardment. Kairi stays above it and tears into it furious brutal blows, white lightning crackling along its body as she carves chunks out of it. Then Ultima WEAPON finishes charging its attack and releases an intense blue beam that blows a hole clean through Jade's center. The infected WEAPON releases a mournful call, and plummets to the ground, impacting hard.
"Genesis," snapped Kairi, "Incinerate the corpse! Leave Jenova nothing to use!"
She surges up at the Calamity. Like rolling a ball, Jenova rolls its tentacles infront of her, crafting a sphere of black energy. It shoots it at her, but Kairi easily dodges it, screaming as she drives her blade hilt deep through Jenova's torso and into its cell-sack. There is a hiss of pain that becomes a hiss of laughter before Jenova grips her with its tentacles and shoves her away and through the air.
Kairi readies her blade, but is forced to fly backwards as Ultima WEAPON decides it wants a piece of Jenova, huge claws raking through the air to slash into the Crisis, battering Jenova around like a rag doll. Kairi scowls and glances down to see Chaos's gun moving with the fight, waiting for the right time to shoot. She flies down to him.
"Send the WEAPONs away," she orders in irritation, "If Jenova infects them, they'll just be sent against us."
"I am not in control of them," chided Chaos, "This moment is what they were created for, Calamity of Light. Whether they aid us in striking down the Crisis, or become consumed by its will, it is not upon either of us to decide. They were made to fight the Crisis."
"Piss poor design to be susceptible to it," snapped Kairi.
"There are very few things that aren't," said Chaos mildly.
Kairi frowns. "Are you?"
Chaos shrugs in a manner that is oddly human. "If I have the strength, I can purge the infection out of me before it can take route, if I am weakened? Then I am susceptible in the same manner as you, as your champion, and as the rest. Sheer will will determine if I am to be a slave or not, to defy its dominance and fight for my right to be destroyed and born anew."
"I... I'm already a Calamity?" she asks with hesitation, "I can't be..."
"How do you think she will puppet your body if she can't convert and control your own cells?" asked Chaos scornfully.
BOOM!
Ultima WEAPON screeches, being launched backwards by a massive sphere of red energy that detonates and sends it crashing to the ground, searing wounds over its body. Jagged claw marks liter Jenova's body generously, but black ichor spills out and covers them in rotting flesh or writhing tentacles.
Kairi flexes her grip. "Okay, so the problem is, Jenova is stupidly magically powerful, but getting in close risks her taint."
Chaos doesn't answer the obvious, instead taking the finally clear shot and shooting endlessly at the Calamity. Each shot tears through Jenova in a spray of ichor, earning satisfying screeches. Jenova waves a tentacle, and a barrier appears, flashing at it takes each shot. The Crisis raises its tentacles into the air... and begins gushing out ichor out of the ends that dissipates into a dark mist, rising higher into the air. Kairi grits her teeth as she sees the Calamity once again tainting the skies dark, an Ichor Storm forming in seconds, raining death and decay and taint down across the area with little acid-like droplets. Only this time, its far more intense. The clouds spread, blotting out the sky, staining the area in dreadful dark and grey hues. Its like a hurricane, winds blowing against them, buffeting them with burning rain and making it very difficult to see.
Kairi grits her teeth, trusting her light to mitigate the worst, then she hears Genesis screaming in pain. She feels it, clawing at him in the web, something trying to burrow in and take him away.
Kairi's eyes narrows into slits.
Genesis is HERS.
No one takes away what belongs to her.
She swoops down through the skies, homing in right on Genesis and lands before him. He's on his knees, clawing at himself, coat drenched and stained in writhing ichor. Kairi lets lose a possessive roar, morphing her arm into her own tentacle, and stabs him with it. She hates herself for it, for the imitation of Jenova, but she pours a fresh wave of herself into him, and not only that, but wraps him in her light, burning away any taint lingering on his clothes and flesh, preventing anymore from finding there way in. She withdraws the tentacle and reforms her arm as he gasps and sways.
"Goddess," breaths Genesis in desperate prater, "I NEVER want that voice in my head again."
She holds a hand out to him. "Its time Genesis, master and apprentice, together."
Genesis huffs, taking her hand and letting her haul him up. "I only call you that out of habit you know, you've more than earned your wings. Well, wing."
Kairi swats at him, then they both flex said wings, taking into the sky, both illuminated in light, the only difference her sword glows white while his glows runic-red. They find Chaos mid-fight with Jenova, both of them dodging one another's bullets and magical attacks. For a huge ball of flesh, Jenova is surprisingly quick. Kairi and Genesis take her by surprise, both of carving red and white lines with their swords through its flesh as they strafe it, flying away as it whirls and screeches, swinging its own tentacles in a counter attack. Genesis dodges, but Kairi takes the most wicked backhand of her life, seeing stars for a moment and sent flying.
She grits her teeth, corrects her flight, swooping down then back up then heading for Jenova for another strafing swing. Then Jenova swings a tentacle and releases a Bolt 3, or at least something similar. Sure hurts as fucking much as one when it rolls over her body. Kairi loses her coordination for a second, and that's enough for Jenova to stab her with a tentacle, a bulge of cells rolling down it...
Genesis is there and cleaves through the tentacle before the cells can reach her. Kairi rips the other half of the tentacle out of her, flings it away, and sets it ablaze with a flick of her wrist, light incinerating it. Genesis pays for his heroics though, Jenova lashes out, and her other tentacle arm slashes clean into Genesis's back, earning a scream from him and sending him plummeting down, a curse on his lips as he fumbles with his wing.
Then a loud growl, heard even through the downpour, rips through the air.
Kairi tenses, preparing herself to fight another infected WEAPON, only to find Ultimate WEAPON rising through the air, surrounded by a blue barrier to protect it from the Ichor Storm. It bellows a might challenge, energy pooling in its mouth, and shoots said energy from it right at Jenova. The Calamity hisses and drops with surprising speed as if gravity just realized it could grab her. The beam misses, and then Jenova launches herself forward, the ball of infection and death she is racing for Ultima. Chaos chooses that moment to intervene, moving so fast he might as well be a blur of red and black, slamming into the Calamity and forcing her off course, claw ripping into its side, forcing its gun into another spot and firing point blank. Jenova screeches, spinning through the air, tentacles reaching for Chaos, grabbing him, and flinging him away.
Then she turns her attention fully onto the summon.
Kairi recognizes the Big Bang spell the moment its cast. She only saw it once before, but its difficult not to recall that type of agony. Lightning forms in a cackling chorus around Chaos, surging and embedding upon him with intense shocking force before exploding in a massive sphere of fiery death. Chaos, charred and battered, is flung out of the spell and crashes down on the ground far below. Not dead, but definitely slow in picking himself up after that.
"Merciful goddess, seeing it in the flesh is something else, what in the world is that spell?" demands Genesis, flying back up to her, shocked.
"I don't think it is of this world," said Kairi sourly, "I'm not sure I want to know what she ate to get that kind of malicious spell, I swear the lightning exists only to hurts."
Ultima takes advantage of Jenova's shift in focus and fires another beam of energy from its mouth, hitting the back of Jenova's cell sack and blowing it apart in a spray of energy and black ichor. Jenvoa hisses in pain and spins around, her two tentacle arms surging and stretching through the air for Ultima, hitting and embedding onto its shield. The cells that had been exploded all over the place, falling through the air, stopped. They began to swirl and rise, rushing for Ultima's shield, pressing against it and spreading, a dark taint beginning to wrap itself around the shield.
Kairi swore and beat her wing, rushing for Jenova while yelling for Genesis, "Burn the cells off the WEAPON's shield!"
Jenova apparently has great hearing even through the Ichor Storm, because she's already turning as Kairi comes for her. A flick of a tentacle, a wry cry, a swing of a blazing sword, only for it to flash against a barrier Jenova cast. Kairi snarls and slashes into it again and again, cracks of light spreading through.
"KAIRI LOOK OUT!"
Kairi looks up, and has a brief moment of horror to realize all the black ichor, all the cells that had been rushing for Ultima, had changed course and were rushing for her. It had been a trap. The moment ends, and Kairi is wrapped in enough cells to coat her entire body, wing and all. Then the agony rips through her, Jenova's presence once again in her mind, but there is no falseness this time, just all consuming malice and hatred. In a split second Kairi feels Jenova reach in and cut off the Light. Then Kairi screams, feeling cells pour into her mouth, her skin, her nose, her ears. They claw at her mind, claw at her web, injecting her filth and taint.
"GET OUT!"
"GET OUT"
"GET OUT!"
On and on from the depths of Kairi's ca-joined consciousness the words rip through the web in her children's voices, one by one until it becomes a chorus that rebuffs Jenova's taint from the web. Kairi fights with all of her might, over a hundred SOLDIERs combined with their mother to force Jenova back. She reaches for her Light, reignites it, curls into a ball, then throws her limbs out to the side with a scream. Light ruptures off her in a nova, incinerating the cells covering her and forcing Jenova away with a screech.
Kairi takes in ragged breaths, seething in fury. "So long as my children stand with me, you will NEVER take me Jenova!"
The Calamity hisses in rage, before it cools into cold calculation, its twisted voice echoing, "Easily solved."
Jenova's eyes flash behind her mask, and agony rips through Kairi's head. She has a brief moment to realize 'mental attack' and is confused as to the how of it, before her sight blurs and it feels like a limb was just ripped off, thoughts becoming jumbled. She feels some of her children becoming separate again. Then it hits her with surprise. Jenova literally knocked them out of the merging?!
How the fuck?
Kairi swings her sword, releasing a blazing wave of light at Jenova that forces the Crisis to stop its mental attack and dodge. Kairi keeps up the offensive, all the while she forces herself to think. Jenova is the more experienced Calamity by far, not that Kairi wants to really delve anymore into what she is than she has. She knows their capabilities in a way Kairi wont unless she lives as long as Jenova has. It hits her with fear for one simple fact:
She has no idea how to defend the mental web from outside attack.
They can drive the taint out yes, but how do they prevent Jenova from getting in in the first place?
A massive beam of blue energy shoots out, and Jenova barely dodges Ultima's attack, but not Genesis's rain of fireballs that pepper her through the air.
"Calamity of Light," came Chaos's rasping voice.
Kairi turns her head to see Chaos flying up wearily. "What?"
"I am unable to do the deed myself," said Chaos, "The rules I am bound to prevents me from doing so, thus I ask: Remove the Protomateria. I cannot fight the Calamity at my full strength with it in me."
Kairi nods, reaches for the glow of his chest, wraps the materia in her hand, and yanks it out, pocketing the thing.
Chaos hisses in pain and flaps his wings, putting distance between them as he begins to transform into the purely demonic looking form. Chaos flexes his mighty wings to their full length and lets out a roar. Chaotic energy rips from him in a ripple, seeping into the air and disintegrating the Ichor Storm. With a single beat, he launches himself through the air towards Jenova, ripping into her with powerful lashes of his claws, knocking her around like a screeching ragdoll. Kairi wipes sweat from her forehead and relaxes the light around her body, keeping it up all the time to ward off the Ichor Storm was a little tiring. She watches, a little frustrated, as despite all the punishment they inflict, Jenova is still going strong.
She takes a moment to reach back down the web for her dislocated children, to see if she can pull them back in, and then pauses when she finds them unresponsive. She gently caresses their consciousness, baffled to find them basically comatose. She searches for damage, but instead finds magic woven upon them forcing them to slumber. Kairi scowls in irritation, Jenova was keeping them from rejoining the merging, and Kairi wasn't quite sure how to remove it. Not without taking time and focus she can't sacrifice right now.
Jenova's suddenly very loud screech redraws her attention in time to see Chaos literally rip the Crisis in half. Two sides fall apart, and Chaos roars with viscous delight. Then the halves twist and warp and then there are two Jenovas flying around. Both fling their tentacles at Chaos, wrapping around his limbs, and pouring lightning down through them. Chaos roars and struggles in their grip. Kairi starts flying to help, but Genesis is there first, blasting one of the Jenova's away with a barrage of fire.
Jenova casts another reflect, and Genesis's response is to run his hand along his blade, ignite the runes on it, then drive it through Jenova's reflect, and embeds it right through the mask between its eyes. Red energy spills out of the blade, streaking through Jenova's body like cracks, and then proceeds to blow that Jenova to bits. Kairi's satisfaction over seeing her Chosen One deal the blow is brief, before it warps into irritation. Blowing Jenova up is well and good, but if she's splattered instead of incinerated... well... Kairi already sees the pieces pooling together as they fall and land on the ground below and... oh, oh joy.
The Tower of Flesh is back
In fact, there are multiple of them growing.
Kairi watches, incredulous, as Jenova's creations replicate and grow at an absolutely absurd speed. The Towers of Flesh, four of them, one for each of them unfurl themselves and roar. Tentacles spurt out of them in explosions of ichor and chase after the combatants. Kairi snarls and cuts down or burns away with the light any that come for her...
Then Jenova, the smaller form regrowing into proper size, shoots past her down the mountain. "The f... is she running?!"
"The town!" roars Chaos, fighting against tentacles trying to keep him constrained, "The Crisis goes to feed!"
No.
Nonono, she had already lost two of her children, she failed them, to lose their family and town too?!
Kairi blitzes through the tentacles swarming for her, caving a blazing path and shooting after Jenova...
Then a tentacle grabs her foot and throws her to the ground before pulling her back.
NO!
NO NO NO!
Kairi screams in rage, turn, aims a hand, and lets loose the strongest Light Nova of her life, detonating the Tower of Flesh at the middle, her light crawling up the rest of it and starting to burn it unto ash. Kairi scrambles to her feet, running, leaping, and flying as fast as she can...
To little to late.
Jenova floats in the center of town, many small tentacles having broken out of her cell sack and scouring the town, stabbing into each citizen and infecting them with cells. Kairi sees Cloud's mom, and her heart breaks to see the woman's eyes bleeding black. The infected come, Jenova sets down at the center, and they throw themselves upon the Crisis, flesh melting into ichor that is absorbed, consumed into the Calamity.
Kairi sees red.
"JENOVA!"
Kairi barrels into the false mother, screaming in rage, slashing into her in a blinding flurry.
Its only in hindsight that Kairi realizes following Jenova alone was a mistake, especially after the Crisis freshly fed to gorge itself. She's not even sure which spell Jenova used, one minute Kairi is tearing into her, the next an explosion flattens Kairi to the ground. Then tentacles stab through her wrists and knees, pinning her down. Jenova floats above her, staring down, and attacks her mind once more. Kairi screams and screams and screams as Jenova rips Kairi's children out of the merger one by one, rendering them unconscious until...
Until...
Until K... A... I... R... I...
Kairi gasps as the merging fails and she's suddenly all alone in her mind and body. Every single one of her children had been knocked out, Genesis was busy facing a Tower of Flesh. She was, for the first time since she had been infected by Jenova, alone in her own mind.
"It ends my daughter," speaks Jenova in a false-sympathetic tone.
Then a beam of energy hits Jenova, throwing her away from Kairi with a screech, wincing as the tentacles are yanked from her limbs. Only... that beam hadn't come from the mountain...?
Kairi rolls, casting a quick Cure 3 to jumpstart her regeneration, and looks to the east. "So much for the WEAPONs not arriving in time, or at least that one."
Flying slowly towards the town is a gigantic emerald colored WEAPON. It had two gigantic parts, a kind of huge leg/torso merge for the bottom, then a winged top instead of arms. Like Ultima, at its center was a red core, unlike Ultima, it also had similar blue and yellow cores on its wings that started shooting beams of energy at Jenova and any infected human that hadn't been consumed. This WEAPON though... she can feel its raw power even at the distance. Its much, MUCH, stronger than Ultima is, or Jade was.
Then the top part separates from the bottom, leaving the middle red core shinning intensely between them.
Kairi's eyes go wide, and she books it the hell out of town, flying as fast as she can before a massive beam of energy rips out of the WEAPON and blows the town away in a flash of red. Her heart constricts in grief for a moment, at the loss of it all, two children dead, their families gone, their town destroyed, nothing left...
And of course, Jenova has also flown out of the town too.
Jenova regards the WEAPON, and starts laughing.
"How kind for the Planet to deliver me such a delightful tool to use."
Jenova races for the WEAPON.
Oh fuck no.
If Jenova infects that thing...
Kairi rushes after Jenova, only for the egg sack to open from behind, and out of the disgusting stretchy mush flies mutated monsters vaguely shapes like humans. They rush at Kairi, and she cuts into them, trying to blow through them faster. But just like the town, she is prevented from interfering in time...
Except apparently this WEAPON is no joke.
The top part of the WEAPON flies off the bottom as Jenova arrives and reaches its tentacles for it. Then pure death rains down from the WEAPONs wings, and Kairi can only smile as Jenova screams and is decimated, most of her incinerated by the attack. "Wow... I take back what I said. The Planet made this WEAPON right."
Then the smile fades, and horror crosses Kairi's face.
Jenova's body had been destroyed.
The tentacles reaching for the WEAPON had been outside of the attack. They surge through the air and wrap around the WEAPON's core, dissolving into ichor that seeps into it. The WEAPON lands on the ground, staggering and roaring. Black lines begin to spread through its body, Jenova's taint growing rapidly. Kairi curses to herself and bum rushes the WEAPON. She makes a strafing attack while its still fighting the infection, slashing her blade along its wings and destroying the energy cores there that would fire lasers. Then the WEAPON counters, its gigantic wing slamming into Kairi with so much f...
Kairi blinks and comes to, finding herself on her back a ways away from the WEAPON, shakily reaching a hand to her face and coming away completely bloody. "H...holy ... sh... shit..."
How hard had it just hit her to black her out? With 1st Class Enhancements?! With her endurance?!
Her arms are shaking with effort to rise to her feet, stuttering out, "C-c-cure 3-3-3!"
Then she looks up, and wishes she really hadn't. The WEAPONs coloring now looks like puke, fleshy and rotting, tentacles writhing all over its body, and where its core had been, Jenova's form has regrown instead, both parts of the WEAPON attached to her. The Crisis had infested the WEAPON, turning it into its active body. All Kairi feels is utter dread. She doesn't have her children for strength anymore, and even if she did, that WEAPON would still have given her a run with her money.
"Blasphemy!" came Chaos's furious shout.
Kairi feels relief when Chaos sets down next to her, Genesis shortly after, and Ultima WEAPON roaring as it surges at the other WEAPON, claws and feet smashing into it and taking it to the ground.
"The Crisis took Emerald WEAPON," snarled Chaos, "I had forgotten this one did not only swim, but could fly as well. This bolds ill for us."
"How bad?" asked Kairi.
"It is arguably the strongest or second strongest of the Planet's WEAPONs," said Chaos, "If one does not count my Brother, myself, of Zirconiade at her peak."
"Can... can we call your brother out somehow?" asked Kairi.
Chaos shakes his head. "Omega is a failsafe, meant to carry the lifestream to a new planet, and will do so if we fail to defeat the Calamity. While he can fight if need be, it is not his proper function. His power is in his control of the Lifestream. No, we must face Emerald ourselves, and without your champion."
"Pardon?!" demanded Genesis.
"I am aware of the WEAPONs abilities," snapped Chaos, "This one can kill you instantly, damaging you proportional to the magical power you contain within yourself, and your materia. Which I feel are your proficiency."
Genesis pales. "I see. Long range support then."
"No," said Chaos in considering, looking at Genesis thoughtfully, "What materia do you have on you? I feel... a gravity?"
"Generally not useful on powerful monsters, they tend to be immune," said Genesis dryly.
"That's the point," said Chaos, "Are you capable of manipulating and controlling its effects?"
"To a degree, why?"
"We need the other WEAPONs to destroy this one," said Chaos, "I suspect they will be on the coast now if we are lucky. Use Gravity to float them here faster, it can manipulate the area around them, but wont damage them."
"That... is surprisingly clever," said Genesis, sizing him up.
"Go," orders Chaos.
Genesis takes to the sky and flies off as quickly as he can.
"You said you were stronger than Emerald though," said Kairi cautiously.
"If I can work myself to a Limit Break, it is likely that I can severely damage it," said Chaos, "Were it not infected with the Crisis, it would be a fatal blow. Now? The taint would regenerate the wound over time."
"You mean like when you disintegrated the other mes when we were fighting?" asked Kairi.
Chaos nods. "They were simple creations, and not close to as powerful as Emerald. It wont have the same effect."
Dammit.
There is a monstrous scream.
Kairi looks over, wincing to see Jenova blowing off one of Ultima's arms and wings in a brutal energy blast. Ultima is thrown away, crashing into Nibelheim's corpse, laying weakly on the ground.
"We fight," snapped Chaos, "Prepare yourself. Be opportunistic, attack only when you can escape unscathed. You are powerful, you are enduring, but you are young. That is why the Crisis struck you now. You are nowhere near your peak, Calamity of Light. Emerald wouldn't have been able to best you with all your children and the Crisis filling you as they did against Zirconiade, but now with neither? Easily, even without the Crisis's taint."
In short, despite her power and regeneration, in these titanic struggles he's saying she is still too weak.
It grates.
She is powerful together with her children, strength in unity. Stripped from that...
She swallows thickly and brushes the thoughts off. "Alright, lets do this."
The first thing she notes when the lasers start flying at their approach is that Jenova regrew the energy cores on the wings. Bitch. The physical damage, as much as it burns, she can take shots. The ones that sap away at her energy though, those she learns very quickly to take extra care to stay away from. Kairi has to be very, very careful when she goes in to attack. As giant as Emerald is, it can move fairly fast. Kairi had already been knocked out briefly once by a blow, if Jenova hadn't been busy infecting the WEAPON it could have used the opportunity to do the same to Kairi. She can't take that risk a second time...
But its like they do nothing.
There attacks barely scratch the thing. Kairi's sword and light attacks leave scorches and blazing lines, but soon fade away and close. Chaos's claws rip out small chunks, his attacks melting away similar amounts, but Jenova regrows them. They fly around Jenova-Emerald like gnats, and are swatted at like them...
Then a wing clips Kairi.
She can't scream.
Only pukes blood at the force of the impact.
She is sent flying, crashing into the ground, vision blurry.
An orange glow surrounds her.
She takes in a breath, rises to her feet, and releases the Limit Break, her sword igniting and expanding in size. "LIGHT-ZANTET..."
Jenova fires a beam of energy from Emerald's core and blows her away mid-limit break.
Kairi can barely feel anything but pain. Her vision is blackened, probably because she doesn't have eyes anymore. She's fairly certain half of her body was melted away, judging by the lessening of cells she can detect. She lays wherever she landed, defenseless, helpless, and has never felt so in her life. Its like she's back in the labs again under Hojo's knife, but worse with much higher stakes. She hate hate hate HATES it! She can do nothing but will herself to regenerate. Considering her ability, it wont take more than a minute if that.
Its one of the most terrifying minutes of her life because she has no idea whats going on around her.
Is Jenova about to infect her?
Did Chaos die?
Has Genesis reached the WEAPONs yet?
Kairi's vision returns about the same time as her ears regrow, and she hears the sound of roars and energy blasts in the distance. She looks over, heart hammering, and sees Emerald falling backwards onto the ground, shaking the very earth in impact. One of Emerald's wings had been destroyed, ash flowing through the air. Chaos has the afterglow of a limit break fading away, but instead of continuing its attack, he slowly descends to the ground, falling to a knee, the rise of his chest Kairi sees at the distance suggest exhaustion.
Kairi briefly looks down at herself and scowls, willing parts of her skin to change in appearance to at least look like clothing. Waste of time and energy or not, she's not fighting naked. She rises to her feet and looks around for her sword, only to find it broken and half melted. Damn. Light attacks it is then.
She glances up in time to see Emerald regaining its footing and lumbering towards Chaos, energy glowing intensely in its core...
Then Ultima Weapon is there, it slams into Emerald, and a dangerous glow illuminates its body. Chaos gives a mournful howl and crosses his arms defensively in-front of him. Kairi figures out why a moment later.
Ultima detonates itself.
Kairi screams as energy washes over the area, crossing her own arms infront of her, trying to cast barrier, but realizes all of her materia were disintegrated by the energy beam. Damn it!
She cringes, her arms half melted disgustingly and painfully by the time the explosion fades. She struggles for a moment, willing her cells to heal and reform herself proper, falling to a knee and breathing in tiredly. This fight had been going on far to long, even she's getting tired. She squints, trying to look through the dust and remaining energy, and then sights Jenova-Emerald, still more than alive, but once again knocked to the ground, heavy burn marks all over it, chunks of smoldering flesh falling off it as it once more rises to its feet.
Then a new roar fills the air.
Kairi turns her head to see a gigantic sapphire colored part-octopus part-fish part-something being levitated through the air towards them by Genesis at fast speeds. He lets go of the gravity and sends the WEAPON flying at Jenova. It latches onto Emerald and takes it back to the ground, energy pooling into its mouth before it shoots a beam right at Jenova's body at the center. Jenova doesn't have the chance to scream before the WEAPON blows her away and splits Emerald in two.
Unfortunately, both parts still function on their own.
The legs kick the new WEAPON away, the impact sending a sonic boom through the air. The top part flies over the new WEAPON, crackling with lightning and power, and rain down death upon it. Kairi's jaw drops in horror as the new WEAPON is killed almost instantly. The energy attack blows gigantic chunks out of the WEAPON, almost cutting it straight in half. It flops to the ground with a exhale of air, almost a sigh, and doesn't move.
"FUCK!"
She can hear Genesis's exclamation even from here.
"Return for the next!" roared out Chaos, "We can stall for only so long!"
"There's only one left, its a big oaf of a WEAPON left, silvery in color, lumbering this way, I don't think it will be useful!" calls down Genesis.
"Just GO!" roars Chaos, sending Genesis off as the demon rises to his feet, tilting his head. "If he means Diamond, where is Ruby?"
Jenova restitches the parts of Emerald back together, her body reforming at the center. The infected WEAPON turns towards them, energy glowing along its wings...
...and then the ground erupted beneath Jenova-Emerald, and out of it emerged pale spiky metallic tentacles that speared into Emerald. Following the tentacles were two large ruby-colored and plated arms. The Ruby WEAPON, and it can only be one, pulls itself out of the ground, slams itself into Emerald, and then turns the area green with a surprise point blank Ultima. The energy rips into Emerald, burning away chunks of its flesh. But Ruby does not let go of Emerald, it forces its face close, opens its mouth, and then shadowy energy pools in it before it releases the attack.
Kairi's only heard of this in passing, from Sephiroth detailing some of his most dangerous monster encounters. Seeing Shadow Flare in person is breathtaking in how destructive it is. The entire area is bleached black and white and gray. Its like a distortion that bends the very reality around them. The result explosion is blinding, and the snapping back to color is disorienting. Half of Emerald's front was blown away by the attack. Ruby then proceeds to pick Jenova-Emerald up and toss it away like it weighs nothing.
The resulting impact against the mountain still sends a minor earthquake through the area. Ruby WEAPON roars in challenge, the earth shaking with each mighty step as it approaches the downed Jenova-Emerald and lays into it with brutal crushing blows. Jenova lashes out with a horde of tentacles from Emerald's body... and the loud 'pings' sounding off as they bounce from Ruby's carapace harmlessly is satisfying... and yet...
Kairi flies over to Chaos, landing next to him. "Can Ruby win?"
"...I don't know," admits Chaos, "Ruby and Emerald were of comparable strength upon their creation despite their different roles, Ruby more defensive with brutal counters, Emerald more offense with pure destructive force. With the Crisis's taint, Emerald would be stronger, but the element of surprise has given Ruby an incredible advantage it is using well."
"Its eyes and mouth are vulnerabilities she could infect it through," mutters Kairi, "Even if Ruby kills Emerald, Jenova is likely to take over Ruby, and we're really fucked then if that thing is as durable as it looks combined with Jenova's taint."
"Perhaps," muttered Chaos, "Though Ruby is likely to detonate itself if it can before it allows a Calamity's taint to take it. It has the capability, and the Crisis cannot quickly get to and infect its core to stop it."
Kairi frowns thoughtfully. Really though... is it complaining to realize just how tiring, upsetting, and frustrating this is? No matter what they've done, Jenova keeps surviving and infecting these monsters. She's tempted to lay the blame on the WEAPONs, but really, even if they hadn't shown up, would she, Chaos, and Genesis really be doing that well against Jenova? She doesn't know, but still, this Calamity-infecting-bullshit ticks her off, its not like they can do the same to something she makes...
Kairi freezes.
Slowly, she looks down at herself.
She doesn't think she'd know how to take over something of Jenova's...
But...
A WEAPON?
Could she do that?
Give it her powers?
She looks up at Ruby, but dashes the idea. Its locked in combat, and Jenova wont give her the time to do it. But the remaining WEAPON that Genesis is bringing...
Kairi swallows thickly and struggles with herself. She has NEVER infected someone or something against their will. Even if she got the Planet's permission to do it... was this crossing a line? She had never used herself this way knowingly. What she had done to Genesis had been instinctual, but this... infecting something with the desire to use it as a weapon... it sends shiver of apprehension down her spine. She doesn't want to be Jenova... she doesn't want to be that kind of Calamity...
If there is any other kind...
She watches Ruby and Emerald duel with mighty blows, devastating energy attacks, and brutal magic, struggling with herself the entire time. Emerald is slowly regenerating the wounds Ruby inflicts, and finally pushes Ruby off its offensive, 'elbowing' Ruby with its wing and sending it staggering back, following with an energy blast that sends Ruby crashing onto its back by the force of it, even if the attack does little but scorch its carapace.
Nothing Emerald can do will really damage Ruby.
Nothing except for that devastating attack where it detaches the top part of its body. If that hits Ruby, will it survive?
Terror coarse through her when Jenova starts to do just that...
Except Ruby stretches its arms up, tentacles reaching to wrap around Emerald's top half before flinging it back at the rest of Jenova-Emerald, both parts tumbling to the ground before flesh stretches to reconnect. Ruby is one tenacious monster, Kairi will give it that. It will be a wall that Jenova crashes against again and again, but...
Kairi doesn't trust that wall not to crack and break.
"Chaos," said Kairi quietly, "Ruby will bloody Jenova, I have no doubt of that. But... I don't think it will win."
Chaos nods in agreement. "I am taking the time to recuperate. Getting involved at this point will get us killed."
"Even if we were both at full strength, I don't think it would do good against a Jenova infected Emerald WEAPON, or Ruby," said Kairi, "I...
She licks her lips. They're going to lose this. Jenova will use Emerald to defeat Ruby, or infect Ruby if Emerald dies. When either happens they'll be down to the lumbering Diamond WEAPON they spoke of, Chaos, and Genesis against Jenova and Emerald or Ruby. If Diamond is as slow as Genesis made it out to be, it wont be able to dodge Emerald's mighty attacks, it will die swiftly. They wont win. But... all things considered...
Chaos turns his head and nods to the east. She looks to see Genesis levitating a gigantic silvery behemoth of a WEAPON. She can feel his exhaustion down the web from maintaining the gravity spell for so long and carrying so much. Diamond WEAPON towers just as high if not higher than Ruby does. Its head is nestled between two giant almost cauldron like shoulders. The rest of its body is humanoid in shape, with muscular arms and legs. It honestly almost looks like it has a cape trailing behind it made out of its flesh. She sizes it up and comes to a conclusion:
Diamond WEAPON looks sturdy, a walking juggernaut. If she did what Jenova did... infected it... gave it her regeneration and endurance...
"Chaos," said Kairi with hesitation, "I... I want to..."
She swallows thickly. "I want to infect Diamond WEAPON."
Chaos whirls on her, eyes blazing. "What?!"
"When Jenova tried to infect Genesis, I rebuffed her out of the web, and out of his body," explained Kairi, "If I take a WEAPON, then Jenova can't take it. Its only a matter of time before she wins this current fight one way or another. We NEED an advantage."
Chaos's jaw clenches, he looks like he wants to rip her throat out. "Swear on your life, no, swear on your children's lives that if that WEAPON is still alive at the end of this you will allow it to be killed."
Kairi nods. "I will."
"You swear that you will not use it against the Planet..."
"I. AM. NOT. JENOVA!" she snapped at him.
Chaos regards her icily, "No, but you could be. You could become so much worse."
He seethes and spits at the ground. "Go Calamity, prove yourself what you are."
Kairi glares at him, but takes to the sky, flying towards Genesis and calling out, "Set it down!"
Genesis doesn't need to be told twice, briefly dipping in the air as he lets go of gravity, so tired his wing beats are slow and struggling. "This is why I usually have Angeal bring takeout, far to much effort."
Kairi doesn't have it in her to laugh at the joke, not now. She lands upon Diamond WEAPON's head, hesitates for a single moment, then presses her hands down. Her skin seeps out redish goop that slides down its face and into its eyes, seeping in and beginning to spread through its insides. Its too slow though, so she forces more of herself, her arms melting into more goop, more cells, more that is HER. More and more of her body goes, until she's mostly just a head and torso loosely wrapped around important internal organs resting upon the weapon.
Kairi has never, ever, hated herself like she does now. She's forced herself upon the WEAPON, and she can feel its hatred of her, how much it loathes this, how much it doesn't want this. It only obeys because of a command Kairi finds in, a woman's majestic voice ordering it to still itself. It makes her want to cry though, to feel that hatred of her in her mind connected to the web, because she is not Jenova. She does not want something that hates her to be a part of her, connected to her, this is not one of her children.
As much as it is a monster, it is her victim.
"Apprentice, what the fuck!?" exclaims Genesis, touching down upon its head, staring at her with something akin to horror.
"What? Dontcha ya know? Girls like diamonds," said Kairi with forced cheek.
All the while, her lips wobble.
Her eyes water.
Tears slide down her check.
Because she is a monster.
She can decry it all she wants.
She's just like Jenova.
She has to be if she wants to win.
What she doesn't do is twist and warp its body like Jenova did to the two WEAPONs she infected. Kairi doesn't even understand why or how. All she manages to do is seed herself through the WEAPONs body, filling it with all that is her. The most she can see is the diamond coloring of the WEAPON shifts red slightly, nothing else changes. Part of her, a sick part of her that is Calamity, loves what she's just done. There is an awful, awful pleasure at taking the WEAPON that wars with Kairi's conscious thoughts.
She regenerates her body over the course of a few minutes, slowed only by pouring more cells into the WEAPON. When she's done, she stands, feeling the powerful, hateful, awareness in her mind.
DEFEND PLANET!
DESTROY THREATS!
TARGET CALAMITY!
TARGET CALAMITY!
TARGET SELF!
The last two single-minded thoughts are constrained though, and something in her cracks to realize that even only mildly sentient as the monster is, it wants to kill itself (and her) rather than be a part of her. It... it hurts... fuck, why does it hurt so much? She doesn't want this either, so why...?
Genesis gently wraps his arms around, voice soothing, "Apprentice, I'm sorry, but now is not the time for tears. Dry your eyes, end this fight, and cry yourself silly after."
Kairi takes a ragged breath, reaches up for her face, but finds her own tears have been absorbed back into her flesh. A moment of self-loathing and hatred takes her. Is she so inhuman, so monstrous, that she can't even properly cry anymore? Can't wipe away her own tears without what she is making herself known?
She forces the thought away and leans back against Genesis for desperate support, clutching him in the web, pulling on his focus and discipline enforced calm to help stabilizes herself. Its a struggle to push aside the self-loathing, the frustration, the helplessness, it takes her far to long to do so and she knows Ruby is being punished for it.
Finally, she pulls herself together and steps away from Genesis, face turning to the titanic struggle off in the distance. Ruby is battered and bruised, there are almost no parts of its body that aren't scorched, or don't have pieces of carapace broken off. Jenova-Emerald is in better shape, if only because Jenova's cells help regenerate the wounds it takes, even still, the infected WEAPON looks freshly battered by some spell or another, burnt chunks flaking off revealing writhing flesh and tentacles underneath. Honestly, Kairi is still confused by why Jenova takes on that kind of appearance and infection.
Kairi certainly hasn't turned Diamond into that on the inside.
Maybe its a fear tactic...?
She shakes the thought off as unimportant and... its hard to explain. She reaches into Diamond's mind, asking for capabilities. The response isn't in words, but flashes and concepts that rush through her at blinding speeds. She blinks slowly, taking it in, before nodding and giving it a nudge, "Forward."
Each step is powerful and earth shaking, she can feel Diamond assessing the battle. Its desire is to attack, energy wanting to pool into its cauldron-like shoulders, to open the barrier around its core and unleash an relentless barrage of power. It holds itself back though.
WEAPON ALLY!
ENGAGED CALAMITY!
So Diamond slowly stalks forward instead, heading to enter into melee instead because its apparently a team player. The fight worsens as they thud closer and closer. No matter how many times Ruby batters Emerald, it comes back. No matter how many Ultima spells it devastates Emerald's body with, it begins to regenerate. No matter how many Shadow Flares it has released, Jenova simply wont die. Emerald WEAPON is in shambles, larges chunks burnt away, cracks seeping black ichor by the truckload all along its body. Yet Jenova forces the infected WEAPON onward, taking another battering blow from Ruby's mighty fists, staggering back for a moment, before stepping forward again. Emerald's torso explodes outward in a torrent of ichor and tentacles, wrapping around Ruby's raised fist and yanking it forward. Emerald falls backwards, Ruby falls forward ontop of it.
Right where Jenova wants it.
Kairi watches grimly as Jenova mutates Emerald's top half, rather than the giant wings, it morphs into a kind of cannon-like form, glowing intensely with power. It doesn't rain death anymore, it fires it instead, and Ruby takes a point blank shot right to its neck that blows its head clean off. Emerald stands up and positions the WEAPON's corpse, pouring ichor down into it through the severed neck. Diamond roars in fury, and stops holding back its desire. Its shoulder-cauldrons open, as does its chest cavity around its core. Energy begins forming quickly, and Kairi pours her Light into the mixture as well. The barrage they unleash together is blindingly devastating.
Chunks are blown out of Emerald that are disintegrated as they fly through the air. The main beam from Diamond's chest sails through the air behind the shoulder barrage, closer and closer...
It blows clean through Emerald's body, ripping it from Ruby's corpse, sending it sailing backwards where it impacts against the mountain and explodes into bits and pieces that steadily burn into ash. The damage has been done though...
Ruby's corpse begins to twitch and mutate; all Kairi can mutter bitterly to herself is, "Fucking called it."
Once more Jenova's taint infects a WEAPON, twisting its ruby colored carapace a sickly red-tealish color. It picks up its severed head, placing it back into position, tentacles reaching out to pull it down and reattach, its eyes turning a sickly red of Jenova. It turns towards Diamond, and stands in the middle of the energy barrage. Countless blasts explode against its carapace, but combined with Jenova's taint regenerating the damaged parts, nothing damaging lands.
"Stop," Kairi commands, "You're just wasting energy. Big beam or nothing, smaller attacks will do nothing to that thing."
Diamond's barrage fades away, and its shoulders seal close. It gives a bellow and stalks forward in giant steps, Ruby rushes to meet it. Jenova-Ruby raises a mighty claw and brings it down hard towards Diamond. Kairi finds she doesn't have to really direct the creature, it has enough intelligence generally to fight. It raises an arm and deflects to blow, bringing back its on fist before stepping forward and punching Ruby with such force the shockwave nearly throws Kairi and Genesis off its head. Ruby is sent staggering backwards by the blow before digging its foot into the ground and righting itself.
Green energy glows around Ruby's claws, and Kairi takes the initiative to grab Genesis and book it the hell out of the battleground. The roar of Ultima crashes behind them, and Kairi chances a look behind her to see Diamond standing in a sea of green like a boulder in a stream, undaunted, an aura of light surrounding it protectively. The Ultima fades, and Ruby seemingly stares at Diamond in what Kairi assumes is in disbelief. Not that she can read monster-faces.
Diamond proceeds to take the imitative, steps forwards, swings upward, and slams a massive light-infused fist into Ruby's face, a flash of light rippling out on impact.
"I'm not a child in need of my hand held, apprentice," huffed Genesis, "I know when the time comes to withdraw."
She lets go of him, and they maintain their distance a safe ways from the battle. Apparently her regenerative capabilities were not needed at all, because infused with the Light, Diamond was brute force plowing through just about everything Jenova-Ruby sent at it and raining heavy blows upon the infected WEAPON. Give already stupidly powerful monsters a boost and they take off with it, who knew?
She just hopes its enough.
Then Ruby hits Diamond with a Shadow Flare, and the resulting explosion when darkness met light was very, very unexpected and violent. Even at their distance, both Kairi and Genesis are clipped by the explosion, burning them and sending them spiraling away. Kairi hits the ground painfully and groans. "The hell was that!?"
Genesis mutters something suspiciously like a LOVELESS quote under his breath but picks himself up and dusts himself off. "Come apprentice, did you never have a science class in your youth, hmm? Certain things can react rather... interestingly with one another. I'm assuming the energies don't play nice."
Kairi nods and stands up, crossing her arms and watching with frustration. She itches to fight, but a Jenova dominated WEAPON is beyond her capabilities to fight, and she has little interest in burrowing herself into Diamond. She waits as patiently as she can for the remnants of the Shadow Flare to fade, and isn't disappointed to see that Diamond took the initiative to open its chest cavity and start charging another beam attack. Ruby was knocked to the ground by the prior explosion, tentacles and its two claws pushing against the ground to get it back on its feet...
Just in time to take a massive beam right to its chest.
Jenova-Ruby is sent flying through the air, over Nibelheim's corpse, and into the grasslands outside, touching down and skidding along until it comes to a rest. Diamond WEAPON turns and starts moving forward, one giant step at a time, its shoulders opening up and releasing a barrage of attacks against Ruby's downed form. Kairi takes once more to the skies, Genesis at her heels, and follows behind the WEAPON at a safe distance. Ruby pushes off the ground and faces the attack, its mouth opens, but instead of a roar, its a hiss so much akin to Jenova's. Kairi squints, and before the barrage hits, she can see that Ruby's chest carapace was cracked by the beam.
Countless explosions pound on Ruby's body, but the Infected WEAPON stalks forward through them. It raises its arms into the air, then stabs them down into the ground. Kairi is a little baffled by what its doing, until tentacles shoot out of the ground at Diamond's feet and yank them out from underneath it, toppling the WEAPON over. The tentacles wrap around Diamond as it struggles, keeping it from rising. Ruby withdraws its claws, now missing the sharp parts of it, but they'll regrow soon enough. Ruby stalks forward in powerful strides, heading for the downed WEAPON.
Genesis thumbs his sword. "Fancy a rescue mission?"
Kairi eyed Diamond WEAPON, gliding over its thoughts, and said, "Nope."
"No?"
"Nope, doesn't need us," she said, "I think the best thing we can do is stay the hell out of its way."
When Ruby closes the distance, and raises its now regenerated claws to strike, the light surrounding Diamond intensifies. White lightning crackles around it, its core turning from a glowing red to a blinding white, and releases a nova of Light from itself that incinerates the tentacles wrapped around it and sends Ruby staggering back, screeching in surprise. Diamond rises with surprising swiftness for one so gigantic, moving to grab Ruby, pinning its flailing arms to its side and holding it in place. Diamond's chest cavity opens yet once more, its core glowing brightly.
Ruby screeches.
Diamond fires point blank.
It blows right through Ruby's chest and out the other side, sending Ruby flying out of Diamond's grasp, carried by the attack. It lands a distance away and does not move for a long minute. Kairi knows its not dead, but she's not sure what Jenova is doing...
Ruby WEAPON's carapace erupts in a spray of ichor, blasting off the protective shell, rising to its feet with incredible swiftness, slimy black wings forming and stretching out behind it, two monstrous fleshy arms erupt underneath both of its arms, six in total. All along its body, its ruby-plated exterior falls off the reveal the horrors underneath. Kairi felt the urge to vomit at the sight. Rotting flesh, writhing tentacles, pulsations that continually burst into ichor and reformed to make more cysts, gigantic faces stuck screaming outward in its flesh, and eyes, so many eyes blinking outward, the hole in its center from Diamond's attack sealing and forming into Jenova's mask, two red eyes gleaming out underneath it.
It was a monster in every definition of the word.
Kairi gags and flaps her wing reflexively to back away. "She was mutating it underneath the entire time."
"Merciful goddess," said Genesis, face going grim.
"Diamond I fear, will no longer hold the advantage," came Chaos's voice, the demonic looking summon setting down next to them and watching the newly mutated Ruby WEAPON warily.
Kairi swallows thickly. "Genesis, I really think we'd need her wrath more than her mercy at the moment. Chaos, is... can your Goddess do anything? Do we have anything left?"
Chaos turns his head, staring to the east. "The Last Daughter of the Cetra prays, has been praying since near the beginning, but she is merely a young woman, and struggling to do something she should not have to with so little training and understanding, especially in so foul a place disconnected from the Lifestream. She is close though... so close... and I've never born witness to it myself..."
"To what?" asked Kairi, "What is she praying for?"
"Holy," said Chaos softly, "The last line of defense."
"And... what will Holy do?" asked Kairi.
"I don't know," admits Chaos.
"Kairi," said Genesis, demanding her attention, "Its attacking."
She turns her head in time to see Jenova-Ruby flying through the air at alarming speeds for Diamond. Diamond had opened its shoulders again, firing a barrage. Each shot does impact and damage Ruby now without its carapace, but Jenova doesn't really seem to care or be phased. It slams into Diamond, six arms reaching for the top part of Diamond's left shoulder, and proceed to rip it off.
Kairi buckles to her knees at the wave of pain that rips down the web from the WEAPON. "FUCK!"
"Oh that's not good," muttered Genesis, "Kairi, can you, I don't know, mutate it too?"
Kairi shook her head. "I don't know how, and even if I did... I don't think I could bring myself to afflict that upon the WEAPON. I've already violated it enough as it is."
Chaos regards her for a long moment before he sharply turns his head to the east, a feral grin spreading across his face. He flexes his wings and rising slowly into the sky, an aura of black and red energy surrounding him. "The end begins. The Last Daughter has finished her pray, Holy is coming. I ready myself, do not interrupt. This will likely be our last chance."
A shiver rolls down Kairi's spine at the intensity of the energy forming around Chaos, the -danger- she feels radiating off him makes her want to flee. The very sky around them is starting to darken from his power.
Another horrific spike of pain rips a scream from Kairi again, and she turns to see Ruby had ripped the top off the other shoulder of Diamond WEAPON, and opened its mouth to pour a beam of energy down at the revealed energy cores destroying them and earning a roar from Diamond. A green glow surrounds each of Ruby's six hands, and Kairi suckers in a breath, eyes going wide, as she feels...
"DOWN!" she screams, throwing herself to the ground and covering her head.
Jenova-Ruby hits Diamond with six Ultima spells at once.
Kairi nearly blacks out from the agony, the corrosive energy blackening the very grass around them as it washes over the area doesn't help. When the Ultima's glow fades, Ruby picks up Diamond, scorched and bleeding all over its body, the light aura gone, and throws it to the ground on its front. Jenova raises its claws, all six of them, and begin slashing into its back. Kairi digs her hands into the dirt, writhing on the ground in pain. She briefly considers cutting the connection, but no, that's not going to help. She takes as much pain as she can barely manage off of Diamond, and pours her power down the web, ordering 'regrow' to the WEAPON, focusing her energy into regeneration.
Diamond struggles, trying to rise to its feet, but Ruby kicks it back down, one foot planted on its back. It reaches down for Diamond's neck, all six claws digging in and trying to rip the WEAPON's head from its place between it shoulders. Then...
It stops.
Jenova-Ruby lets go and steps off Diamond's back.
It turns its body, its head looking in their direction, then looking up, right at Chaos.
Jenova hisses, screeching in rage.
The very air starts to tremble.
Darkness rushes over the horizon.
Chaos blazes in the sky, illuminating blood red...
Jenova aims her hands, all six of them glowing green...
But Diamond had taken the chance, wounds healing slowly, lumbering to its feet, and wraps its mighty arms around the Crisis, forcing its arms down and locking it in place.
"CRISIS!" Bellows Chaos, "Two thousand years ago you slaughtered the Cetra, fed on the divine, gluttoned yourself on the Lifestream and the souls therein, only to be stopped and sealed by the survivors at the near dawn of the end. Once more you rise from the foolishness of mortals, their ignorance whelping you children that would have handed you the Planet if not for your own hunger turning them upon you. No more Crisis. NO MORE! My duty would bid me cast this only to reap the world and return it to the Lifestream, my resolve would have me send you on that journey instead."
"Quam ad mortem iter."
Kairi doesn't recognize the language, but the red and black energy that swoops out steals the breath from Kairi's lungs, and for a moment, it feels like she's dying. Then it passes and Kairi watches as nothing short of death surges through the air and slams into the entrapped Jenova-Ruby. Jenova screeches so loudly Kairi's eardrums rupture, blood spilling out of them, her nose, her eyes. She buckles to her knees, clutching her head in pain, watching Ruby's body blacken from the attack. The eyeballs all along its body burst, the faces melt away, its skin decays and some of it falls off into mush. The WEAPON writhes in Diamond's grip, but is noticeably weakened, flailing sluggishly.
Kairi wipes her bloody eyes on her arm, blinking back blood that returns to her. "So this is it huh, Chaos's true power."
Kairi is pretty sure, even with Jenova fueling her in that fight, if Chaos had gotten the chance to charge and release this, she would have been dead no question.
Genesis shakily moves over and grabs her arm, pulling her up. "And yet it hasn't succeeded in actually killing the damn thing."
No, it hadn't.
Then... then a brightness starts to illuminate the darkened sky off in the distance. Kairi watches as a bright light starts to appear in the distance, growing closer and closer by the second until a stream of blazing and twinkling blue and white light surges through the air right at Jenova trapped in Diamond's arms. A warmth fills Kairi's core, and she smiles softly, the energy almost feels similar to her Light, welcoming...
Home.
The energy hits the WEAPONs and wraps around them in a vortex, looking like it was trying to squeeze the life out of the Crisis. Jenova screeches and writhes, caught between Diamond and Holy. The pressure and shockwave that rips from the contact brings Kairi to her knees once more, shaking. Energy swirls around the WEAPONs in a spinning nova, wisps going to and fro along the area, and Kairi watches as a strand of Holy comes so close, she reaches out to touch it...
"One such as vile as you cannot touch what is pure, the days of your innocence are long over. The Planet stays your execution for now, but we will be watching."
Kairi cries out in pain, bewildered that Holy burns her, confused by the voice. She swears she's heard it before...
Kairi struggles to rise to her feet, wrapping herself in light to give her protection from the pressure. Chaos lands next to her and growls. "My power burns away at its lifeforce, Holy purifies and burns away at the flesh, smothering the infection and yet it still thrives. The higher powers are ready to face it within the Lifestream, and yet... why will the Crisis not DIE?!"
Kairi blinks and stares, squinting to try to see through the vortex. The energy it burning Jenova, she can see that, yet... Jenova is STILL struggling. Still fighting Diamond's grasp, fighting against both Chaos and Holy's power. Could Jenova really, truly, overcome this?! Fighting does not mean winning after all, yet...
Kairi considers it, playing back the battle she had both been a part of and witnessed as Jenova fights against its death. Jenova had fought so brutally, so endlessly, so much corruption... infected WEAPONs, killing them, forcing Ultima to detonate itself to damage...
Detonate...
Kairi's eyes go wide, a gasp escaping her lips. "That's it..."
Chaos turns its head. "What?"
"The answer," said Kairi grimly, face solemn, "You want Diamond WEAPON to die after, to be released from my cells, my... my infection, well, lets give you what you want."
Chaos frowns. "Now?"
"Yes, now," she said softly, "Just like Ultima WEAPON."
Chaos's eyes widen for a moment before he nods. "Do it."
Kairi closes her eyes and reaches out. "WEAPON?"
CALAMITY.
'What are your targets?'
TARGET CALAMITY!
TARGET CALAMITY!
TARGET SELF!
She feels the constraints still on the last two, and burrows her focus in, prying off the lock. 'Initiate target self. Destroy the Calamity."
Kairi kneels down and opens the web, light blazing around her. She pours herself down the web, all of her light, all of her power, she feeds it into Diamond. Even within the light of Holy, the blinding brightness from Diamond's core is intense. Kairi smiles at it one last time and whispers...
"Thank you."
Diamond detonates itself.
Kairi watches as Jenova-Ruby gives one last screech before it disintegrates between Chaos, Holy, and Diamond's sacrifice.
Then the world turns white as the energy ruptures and washes over the horizon in all directions...
When Kairi comes to later, she groans and sits upward, coughing. She blinks a few times, and finds the sky clear. Chaos's darkness is gone. Holy is gone. Both WEAPONs are gone...
She rises to her feet, looking around. Genesis is still unconscious, Chaos she sees at a distance, flying towards them. She sees the protomateria in its hands, and her hand goes to her pocket... oh right, she was wearing 'skin clothes', her actual clothes had been burnt away, she had lost the protomateria somewhere in all that mess. Oops.
Chaos lands and hands her the materia, briefly slicing open his chest. "Insert it."
She does, and she watches as Chaos writhes and turns back into the demonic looking Vincent. Chaos straightens himself with a huff. "Its finished for now. I have scoured the area and have yet to find any of the Crisis left. The explosion purges the area."
"So... she's fighting in the Lifestream then?" asked Kairi.
Chaos shakes his head. "No. We suspect that the Crisis has shifted its consciousness to the next largest cluster of cells, and yet... we have a difficult time on feeling where."
Kairi nods, tired, and more than bitter its not quite over yet. But... this battle is at least. When they return to Midgar, they can get the rest of SOLDIER involved, Sephiroth and Angeal involved, and they'll be ready. Kairi waves a hand, a brief sputter of light washing over Genesis and dragging him back to the waking world. He groans and sits up, massaging his shoulder...
Then Kairi frowns, poking down the web. "My children are still asleep. Strange."
Could Jenova maintain that after losing so many cells?
She scowls and looks over the area, an uneasy feeling in her gut. she pauses her sight on a bleached crater in the ground, where Diamond had detonated. She feels... a pang of loss. For so brief a time Diamond had been a part of her web. As much as it had hated her... Kairi felt grief over its loss. Its ridiculous, it had been a monster... yet... it had been her monster. She walks forward, intent on paying her respects at the crater, like a grave...
Then a slimy silver tentacle, a hidden threat, one that had been a part of Ruby WEAPON, erupts from the ground and stabs clean through Kairi in a spray of blood.
Kairi coughs up blood, shocked.
"Kairi!" roars Genesis.
The tentacle melts into ichor, swarming over her body, into her body.
"WHERE ARE YOUR CHILDREN NOW, DAUGHTER?!" screams Jenova in her mind, sounding equally insane and victoriously, "YOU. ARE. MINE!"
Kairi screams and falls to her knees, clutching at her head as pressure mounts, as Jenova fights her for control of her body. Kairi grits her teeth, gasping in pain...
There is a click of a gun, and Chaos has the barrel inches from her face.
"Don't you dare," snarled Genesis.
Chaos stares down at Kairi's shaking form. "If the Crisis takes her, she would thank me for release."
Kairi swallows, hugging her arms to her chest, black ichor seeping out of her eyes, a sob ripping from her lips. She closes her eyes, shaking her head back and forth, feeling Jenova's cells underneath her skin writhing and roiling, attacking and converting her own. Kairi might be alone, but she will not submit, she will never surrender. It will kill her, kill Genesis, kill her children, kill everyone... she can't let it win.
She screams in effort, pushing her presence against Jenova's trying to force it out, pushing it away...
Then she pushes it down, going for containment instead for the moment, with unexpected results.
Her eyes roll up into her head.
She collapses onto her side...
...and she dives.
Author's Note: Cetran = Latin just because.
The finale is up next! Dive to Heart baby wooo!