Calamity's Reign: Chapter 7 - Holy
Aerith Gainsborough smiled faintly at her old friends, half pleased half impatient at their stunned silence. "Guys?"
Cloud was the first to recover, his eyes focusing. "What do you need us to do?"
She smiled mischievously at him. "Be my bodyguards."
That got a wry smile out of him.
She cleared her throat. "I'm going to channel Holy, once I do, I'm pretty sure that's going to get the Calamity and Tifa's attention. I'll need you to keep them away from me, it will take a few minutes at most."
Cid whistled. "Shit, Holy? Damn, Holy's going to waste that son of a bitch."
Aerith pursed her lips and shook her head. "No, it won't."
Nanaki frowned. "What is your intentions then?"
"To seal it, just as Jenova was two-thousand years ago," said Aerith.
Yuffie made a few frustrated arm thrusts. "It's not quite the same as getting rid of it, but putting it on ice is a close second I guess."
Aerith nodded and knelt on the ground, clasping her hands together. "I can't go father than here, what I intend to do has a range limit."
Cloud nodded and hefted his sword, his face growing sad. "We'll keep you safe, this time, we won't fail you."
Aerith smiled sadly. "I never held it against you, against any of you."
With that, she bowed her head and closed her eyes...
Tifa Lockheart slammed a fist into Zack Fair's sword arm's elbow, eliciting a pained yelp from him. "Yeeeesh! Go easy on me, this body's new!"
Tifa scowled at him, ducking under a counter-slash. "You should have either stayed dead or stayed out of the way!"
Tifa pushed up on the flat of Zack's sword and leaped up, smashing a fist into Zack's chin and sending him flying, landing on his back a ways away. She smirked at that, Cloud's friend was good, she could give him that, but not good enough. Speaking of Cloud, she shot a glance his way, making sure neither him or his friends were trying to interfere in either fight. The moment her eyes laid upon them, she was stunned, not by them, but by who was kneeling behind them. Aerith...
Tifa murmured with disbelief. "She's... alive..."
Her eyes narrowed as a flicker of white green energy began to rise from Aerith. "That energy..."
She knew that energy, but from where? Where had she seen that glow before? Wait... when Aerith had been killed by Sephiroth. The Materia that she had dropped, the Holy Materia, it had glowed that color...
Pure panic played across her face and she screamed. both physically and mentally at the same time, "FATHER! We have to kill her!"
Tifa bolted, not waiting, rising to take to the air, she gave a yelp as Zack threw himself at her, tackling her to the ground. "Oh no you don't!"
"FATHER! We MUST kill her!" Tifa screamed again mentally.
"I am busy my daughter," came a distracted reply.
She glanced up, sighting Father battling Chaos, Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal at the same time. "Ignore them!"
Father hissed in her mind with agitation. "If you cannot kill one simple woman yourself than what worth are you as my child?"
She winced painfully, Father's words cutting deep into her. "I... I won't fail you..."
She wished he would understand, wished him to know just how absolutely dangerous Aerith actually was. Half Ancient, caller of Holy, bringer of the Lifestream even while dead, healer of Geostigma... she was more dangerous to Father than all the rest of them combined, but he was too distracted to know her true threat. It was up to Tifa to kill her.
Tifa gave a roar and bucked Zack off of her. She flew into the air and dove right for Cloud and his friends. Cloud hefted his fusion sword and leaped at her, unbridled determination in his eyes, a look she hadn't seen in a long time. But he wasn't strong enough, not after taking the wound Father had given him. Tifa caught his blade between her palms and wrenched, ripping it out of his hands. She smashed a fist into his chest, latching on as he did, turning him, and throwing him at Zack who was flying at her. She watched as they hit and plummeted to the ground.
She dove, not even bothering to dodge as Barret unleashed a barrage of bullets her way. They stung, ripped into her, but she had no time to care for her wounds, the energy around Aerith was increasing.
She landed and grabbed Barret's gun arm, crushing it in her hands. "Give Marlene my regards."
Tifa smashed a hand into the side of his head, sending him sprawling away unconscious or dead, she didn't care which. Cid lunged at her, but Tifa caught his spear behind the shaft and wrenched it out of his hands. She spun it and then stabbed is straight through his leg, making him scream and fall to the ground. Nanaki charged her, unleashing a fire spell and leaping. She batted aside the spell and grabbed his paws, pulling him down upon her knee and driving it up into his underbelly as hard as she could. There was a loud satisfying crack before she tossed him aside and...
She gave a cry as something cut into her back. She staggered and turned, sighting Yuffie draw her bloody shuriken back. Tifa growled in rage before lashing out with a foot, smashing it into her rib-cage, cracking it, and sending her flying. She shook her head, trying to clear the throbbing pain from her mind. Maybe not dodging all those bullets had been a bad idea. But it didn't matter, there was no one else in her way.
Tifa rushed at Aerith and drew her fist back, ready to drive it forward and into the flower girl's skull...
CLAMP
Zack Fair's hand grabbed her wrist. "You wont lay a finger on her!"
Tifa turned her head and glared full force at him. "I won't let her kill my Father! I'll kill ANYONE who stands in his way!"
"That thing isn't your dad!" Zack yelled at her.
Tifa slammed her head forward into his and drove her knee up into his groin. Zack wheezed and fell back and to a knee. Tifa planted her foot forward into his stomach and sent him sprawling. Once more she turned, ready to kill Aerith...
STAB
Tifa froze, shock on her face, she looked down, sighting one of Cloud's fusion swords stabbed clean through her stomach. "C-C-Cloud..."
She felt his sword shiver, she looked back, sighting his pained and tear stricken face. "I'm sorry Tifa..."
No... no... it... it wouldn't end... not like this... she... SHE... SHE WOULDN'T LET IT!
She gave a scream of raged and booted her foot back, slamming it into Cloud's stomach and sending him flying back. She reached around, grabbed the hilt of his sword, and wrenched it out of her with a scream before tossing it aside. She turned once more, and raised a fist, ready to bring it down.
"Sephiroth... won't get the satisfaction... of killing you this time... I will," hissed Tifa.
As she brought her fist down, Aerith opened her eyes, and at that moment, Tifa knew it was too late. They were glowing the same shade as the energy around her. Aerith reached up and caught her fist, easily, and stopped it in it's tracks.
Tifa's eyes bulged, fear rocketing down her spine. "No..."
Aerith spoke with a duel voice, one clearly hers, one another belonging to an unknown powerful female voice. "You have forgotten who you are my child, let us remind you."
Aerith stood and placed a hand on Tifa's head. Memories, years worth of memories, so familiar and yet not, flooded her mind. She stood there, stunned for a moment, before she fell to her knees and pitched to the side unconscious...
Aerith watched sadly as Tifa fell, it was to much for her mind to handle at the moment.
"We have parted onto her all memories we could attain of her life from the lifestream," Minerva's voice echoed in Aerith's mind,"We have fulfilled our end of the bargain and more, now, end it."
Aerith nodded and raised her hands into the sky and whispered one single word, filled with such power that it shook the foundations of the world itself, "Holy."
White and blue energy rushed out of Aerith's body and into the air. It flew towards the Calamity, forcing aside Vincent, Genesis and Angeal. Aerith had to put in her own personal focus to not allow it to harm Sephiroth, he had earned his respite from the planet's wrath for now. Holy closed the distance and slammed into the Calamity, trying to wrap around it.
The Calamity screeched and struggled, trying to escape Holy's grasp. Aerith shivered, with Holy touching it, trying to force its mind to submit, she held a brief access to it. In the span of a single moment she saw worlds burn and crumble. It left her stunned, shocked. How many... how many people? How many innocents had this thing consumed? How many lives had it ruined?!
Aerith was not one for anger, not one for rage, but she felt them at that moment, felt them to a degree that rivaled her resentment towards Hojo. This thing was an abomination. She doubled her efforts to contain and trap the Calamity, vowing that it would never see the light of day or harm another life again.
Everyone else landed near her. Zack stood at her side. Cloud and Angeal moved to aid the wounded. Genesis crossed his arms and stared up at the spectacle. Sephiroth merely stared at her, eyebrow raised, not seeming at all surprised to see her there.
"Can Holy kill it?" asked Sephiroth.
"No, the planet is to weakened to give it enough power to kill it," said a strained Aerith, "Were going to seal it instead."
Sephiroth frowned. "And leave it as a problem to handle generations from now? Foolish."
Aerith didn't take her eyes and focus off the Calamity. "There's nothing else can we do."
"I beg to differ," said Sephiroth.
Aerith briefly broke her focus and stared at him. "What do you have in mind?"
"If it's not dealt with, it will continue to be a nuisance, if not now then later. It may also be able to affect Lockheart, and the tainted lifestream even if sealed away," said Sephiroth.
"I've pondered the situation, and the only way I can come up with to deal with the nuisance is to remove it from the planet completely," continued Sephiroth.
He pointed at the tainted Mako lake. "Bleed the planet of it's sickened blood, feed it into the nuisance..."
He pointed straight up at the sun. "And send it into oblivion, burn it onto ash."
Aerith stared at him silently for a moment, working it over in her mind. "If I feed it the rest of the tainted lifestream, I don't know if Holy can hold it, and it certainly wont have enough power to send it into space."
Sephiroth didn't seem impressed. "Then we will handle the rest. Genesis, I believe now would be the time to show off."
Genesis gave a hint of an amused smile. "The arrow has left the bow of the goddess."
Aerith shivered as she felt Genesis begin to draw out his pure, raw magical power. She was... hesitant to try what Sephiroth was suggesting, but, if it worked, they would have all traces of Morbunova off the planet and sent to burn in the sun, save for what cells remained in Tifa. Her real concern though, was taking more lifestream out of the already weakened planet.
"If it can save the rest of the lifestream from being tainted, do it, we will weather the pain," ordered Minerva in her mind.
Aerith sucked in a breath and then slowly let it out before closing her eyes. She called out to the lifestream, and even tainted as it was, it answered. She delivered it through a small gap in Holy, feeding it into the Calamity. She shivered, her arms beginning to quake, as Morbunova's power grew. When she finished, when there was no blackened taint left in Mideel's Mako lake, she couldn't help but fall to a knee, sweet rolling down her head and dampening her clothes. She wouldn't be able to contain Morbunova for much longer, Holy was going to fail shortly.
"Brace yourself," ordered Genesis.
Aerith obliged, and immediately Genesis unleashed a massive burst of fire and light, roaring at the top of his lungs, "APOCOLYPSE!"
He wasn't the only one acting, everyone started releasing their own magic attacks high into the air. The ground shook, the Mako lake itself began to churn, large tendrils of the lifestream shot up into the air and slammed into Holy along with the immense magical barrage, proving Minerva's own desperation to see the Calamity gone.
Their effort was staggering, launching the bound Calamity high into the sky. With one final burst of effort, she pushed with her own power, completely draining her reserves into Holy, and launched the Calamity out of the planet's orbit on a one way ticket to the sun.
Aerith collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily with exertion.
"Will Holy last long enough to guarantee the nuisance's arrival into the sun?" asked Sephiroth seriously.
Aerith closed her eyes. "I'll keep... you posted..."
No one went far, each group separating. AVALANCE and Zack all gathered around Aerith and the unconscious Tifa. Genesis and Angeal quietly spoke to one another off to the side. Sephiroth stood the farthest from the group, his arms crossed, staring up into space.
Aerith could feel Holy accelerating through space, pushed on by everyone's magic. Hours passed by as it continued to ramp up speed and distance, and the strain to merely keep track of Holy at the growing distance started to give her a headache. Finally, she felt it hit the sun and dissipate.
She breathed a sigh of relief. "It's gone."
Everyone save for Sephiroth glanced at her with relief, the one-winged angel merely gave a, "Hmph."
Yuffie hesitated and then pointed a finger at Tifa. "What about her?"
Aerith sighed. "I'm... not sure on how much we can do for her. I have something planned, but, even then it wont fix everything."
Yuffie tilted her head. "Why not?"
"Because...," she began but trailed off, uncertain of if she should reveal just how bad the damage actually was.
"Give it to us straight yo," said Barret bitterly, "Can she even be helped?"
Aerith grew nervous at his tone. It was laced with so many emotions. Anger, hate, pity, sadness, regret. Even IF she could have undone everything Morbunova had done to Tifa, it wouldn't repair the damage of what had been done between them and her. She looked around, sighting AVALANCHE looking at her grimly and sadly. Genesis and Angeal kept passive faces, they didn't have any vested knowledge or interaction with Tifa. Zack shared the sadness as well. Sephiroth she couldn't get a read on, he simply watched with seeming indifference.
Aerith sighed, licked her lips, and began to speak, "Tifa's... well... we can help only up to a certain point. The Calamity... it... completely wrote over her memories, consuming and replacing them as it went with awful fake memories. I... its... really bad, it's the reason she tried to kill us so badly. What it made her think we'd done to her over her lifetime was awful. And beyond that, her previous life is gone from her mind, there's nothing left."
Cloud was stunned. "How... how could it even do that?"
Aerith shook her head. "The Calamities can effect people at the cellular level, that's... well... out of my knowledge range. What it did to her memories was one thing, what it did to her body was something else entirely. From what I could figure. it tapped into her knowledge of Project S and tried to remake the process used to alter Sephiroth when he was still a fetus."
Sephiroth cleared his throat. "Tried to?"
Aerith hesitated. "Tifa didn't have the complete knowledge or understanding about Project S, I don't think anyone but Hojo did. The Calamity I think took a few liberties in what it did to her. The fact that she could outright consume Mako like that... Sephiroth are you even capable of it? Do you feel compelled to do so?"
Sephiroth shrugged. "I've never tried to 'eat' Mako before. I had planned to absorb the lifestream at one point, but, I never got the chance to put that plan to the test. Now that I think on it, I'm not even sure it would have worked. Not my brightest idea, but I wasn't particularly lucid back then. As for being compelled? No, I don't feel any particular desire to feed off the lifeblood of the planet. Ride it's corpse through the cosmos? Perhaps, but even that is just a fancy based of Mother's will."
"Why so worried?" asked Yuffie, "Eating Mako enhanced her just like it did the SOLDIERS, plain and simple."
Aerith bit her lips nervously. "No Yuffie, it didn't. I... don't think any of you understand how bad this actually is. When a SOLDIER is enhanced, the Mako binds to them, it's a part of them, and will return to the planet when they die. The Mako she and Morbunova ate, it won't ever return. What Tifa devoured, she did so completely. It was converted into pure physical, magical, and spiritual power. She... ate lifestream Yuffie, she ate souls of the planet's children floating in the lifestream."
The group went deathly silent, save for Sephiroth who chuckled and said, "So she's more Calamity then the science project I am."
Aerith hesitated before nodding. "From what I understand, Hojo was very specific in what he introduced into Lucrecia when she was pregnant. It wasn't pure Jenova cells, but altered ones. He picked and chose what to carry over from Jenova, and what to add from other sources. He focused on pure, raw power and potential rather than the abilities of the Calamity itself."
Genesis stepped forward, a concerned look on his face. "Can she make copies?"
Angeal stiffened in the background, Zack tensed, and Sephiroth frowned intently.
Aerith tilted her head. "Copies?"
"I'm... not proud of what I did when I was degrading, but, I could... well... genetically imprint myself onto other people. Angeal could do the same, but only ever did so to monsters. We turned people and monsters into copies of ourselves," explained Genesis.
Aerith felt sickened. "I... oh gosh... I don't know."
Sephiroth's voice was thin. "You accused us of not understanding the severity of the situation Lockheart represents, when in truth, you don't either. The only thing that had complete knowledge in that regard was the nuisance itself."
The group went silent for a moment before Cloud spoke up, "There's something else I've been wondering..."
"What is it?" asked Aerith.
"Jenova and Morbunova, their presences were similar, yet distinctly different. Aside from the ability to change things at the cellular level and try to control them, do we know if they share any of the other same capabilities? Or do they have entirely different skill sets? There's far to much of an unknown when it comes to Jenova's race," said Cloud.
Aerith nodded grimly. "Agreed, and unfortunately, that may come back to bite us, not even counting Tifa."
Yuffie frowned. "Waja mean?"
"Minerva fears that more Calamities will be coming," said Aerith grimly.
Yuffie coughed and gagged. "Whaaaaaat!?"
Aerith nodded and then hesitated, turning to Sephiroth. "You have no love of the other Calamities..."
Sephiroth nodded. "Correct. When I felt its presence I... to be honest, felt compelled to confront and kill it. I'm uncertain as to where the urge exactly came from."
"What about Tifa?" demanded Cloud.
Sephiroth paused, thinking for a moment. "An interesting point to make Strife. No, I don't feel compelled to kill Tifa as I was for the nuisance. Perhaps she's different enough not to trigger whatever impulse it is."
Aerith felt a little relieved at that, and resumed, "What I want to say is, Sephiroth..."
"You desire my aid?" said Sephiroth smugly, a hint of amusement on his face.
Aerith pursed her lips. "Or at least for you to stay out of the way. I don't want us to have to fight. You won't survive if you challenge us, but I'm not foolish enough to think we'd come away unscathed in a fight if it came down to it, and as such I don't want to risk losing any of the planet's defenders, the planet won't be able to revive anyone again anytime soon. So..."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "If you won't help us, then at least leave Cloud and the rest of us alone."
Sephiroth met her gaze unflinching. "..."
Yuffie scowled. "Leave Mr. Scruffy Pants for later, what can you do to help Tifa?"
Aerith held Sephiroth's gaze for a few moments longer before turning. "I need your memories, all of your memories, about Tifa. Any interactions you had, no mater how small. All the memories you all can recall. I can gather them, organize them, and try to rebuild as much of her original life as I can. Coupled with what I was able to retrieve from the lifestream itself, I hope it can counteract Morbunova's false memories."
"Retrieved from the lifestream?" asked Cloud.
Aerith nodded. "When you and Tifa fell into the lifestream here during Meteorfall and she helped fix your memories, she left an imprint here, you both kind of did. I used that to try and re-construct as much of her pre-Meteorfall life and during Meteorfall life as I could. I also used memories from the recently departed of Edge to try and fill in some of her more recent life."
"I'm surprised they'd so willingly help their murderer," said Sephiroth with amusement.
Aerith pursed her lips again. "I didn't give them, or Minerva, a choice. I'm the Holy WEAPON of the planet, if they wanted my help, they had no choice but to give me what I wanted."
She smirked. "I might have also threatened during the trip here to use the power of Holy to try and escape the world with my friends and leave Minerva to rot if she didn't help."
Sephiroth scoffed. "And the Goddess of the planet didn't call that bluff?"
"Who said I was bluffing?" challenged Aerith angrily, "Tifa fought just as hard as the rest of AVALANCHE, she was a champion of the planet, if Minerva would turn her back on Tifa when she needed her the most, then she would be no goddess of mine."
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, looking over Aerith for a moment. "This may not be the most appropriate time, but, there was a reason beyond trying to stop Holy that I killed you. Underneath that flower girl facade, you are far too willful and dangerous for your own good."
Aerith stared at him for a moment, unsure what to make of that statement. "Thanks...? I guess..."
"Aerith, when can we begin? Tifa won't stay unconscious forever," said Cloud.
Aerith nodded and stood up. "Let's get her onto the Highwind first, then, we'll begin..."
Author's Notes:
Scoreboard: Calamity's 0, Gaia 1 (or 2 counting Jenova?).
Morbunova's gone, but, Tifa remains. How that pans out will remain to be seen, but one things for certain...
It won't ever be the same again...