Calamity's Reign

by WavesBlade

AU: What if Jenova isn't just some kind of sentient alien-virus? What if it was but one of many, the first of it's race that Gaia encountered? During one of Sephiroth's revivals post Deepground, a meteor crashes upon the ruins of Midgar, destroying it utterly. Out of the rubble climbs another of Jenova's kind... a new Calamity From the Sky. They are coming, they are all coming...

12. Catch Up

Calamity's Reign: Chapter 12 - Catch Up

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Aerith watched as the WRO headquarters located on the north eastern tip of the Eastern Continent finally came into view. It's structure faintly reminder her of Shinra HQ, but, without the ominous feeling and the stench of pollution in the air. The group landed at the front door, and the flyers set down their passengers.

Kunsel walked to the door, giving a brief nod to the soldiers on duty. "I'm taking them to Mr. Tuesti."

They saluted and opened the door for them. Aerith gave them a brief smile and followed the group. She couldn't help but notice as the entire group shifted to keep her in the middle, protected. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Some things would never really change.

She kept her eyes open as they waded through the building. Unlike Shinra, the employees here didn't seem to be in a daze, dead to the world, keeping their head down fearfully and just trying to survive to the next paycheck. There was no mad scientists to be afraid of making them disappear and become experiments. No psycho leaders like Scarlet or Mr. Gyahahah to be worried about crossing paths with. The people here seems content in what they were doing, happy to be trying to help make the world a better place. If only Shinra had been like this from the get go, the world would have been a lot better off than it is now.

They were led deep into the building, to a conference room, Kunsel opened the door and waved them in. Aerith was a bit surprised that Reeve wasn't the only one there. In fact... there were actually a lot of people there, most of them Shinra...

Reeve sat at the front of the table, looking over a number of pictures in front of him. Next to him, papers sprawled out infront, was Rufus Shinra, with Tseng and Elena standing a bit behind him, hands professionally behind their backs. On the other side of Reeve was an older man that vaguely seemed familiar... she knew she had seen him somewhere before, years ago... wait a minute...

Verdot.

Veld Verdot.

Former head of the old guard Turks. Why in the world was he here?

Behind him, mirroring Tseng and Elena were another pair of old guard Turks. One she vaguely recognized as Cissnei, the other was a blonde man with sunglasses and an unlit cigar sticking out of his mouth. That Turk had a dark and deadly aura about him that put Aerith on edge. He reeked of death, more so than most Turks she had ever met in her life.

The final member of the table was a middle-aged brown-haired blue-eyed white-cloaked woman in what looked like a strange green military garb. She also tickled a memory, but, it was even fainter than Veld's. There was something odd about her. Aerith hesitated momentarily as the others entered the room before subtly tapping into Holy and using the its power to analyze the woman. There was... a strange fluctuation in the lifestream within the woman's body. An echo of an immensely powerful presence that used to reside in her...

"The former host of Zirconiade, The One Who Will Burn The World," Minerva whispered into Aerith's mind.

Aerith's eyes widened slightly before she controlled herself. She had learned much in her time in the lifestream. Zirconiade was an entity that was NOT meant to be on the living world until the day of judgement when it was time for Omega to leave to find a new world.

"Indeed, we had to intentionally weaken Zirconiade for the humans to defeat, lest the world perish and the lifestream die," whispered Minerva.

The occupants of the room stopped their talking and browsing of pictures and files to stare at the newcomers. Reeve... didn't look happy. She also noticed he didn't look surprised to see her, Zack, or Angeal. That was curious...

"Thank you Kunsel, you may leave. The rest of you save for Genesis, take a seat. You Genesis can stand, I don't appreciate my employees being kidnapped," said Reeve, his voice thin.

"Tsk," said Genesis, leaning against the wall near the door after Kunsel left.

"Heya Ciss!" said Zack, waving to Cissnei.

Aerith's eyes briefly flickered to the woman. She did not acknowledge Zack, and intentionally kept her gaze away from him. Aerith however caught a glimpse of pain, and a lot of anger, frustration, and especially sadness and grief in her eyes. Aerith didn't know much about the woman, but, Zack must have meant something to her. She wasn't one to be jelous, but she'd ask about her later, and maybe tease Zack while she was at it.

"Er...," murmured Zack, appearing a little unsettled.

Reeve turned to the blonde sunglasses Turk and held out a number of photos. "Legend, if you would?"

Legend? Aerith had never heard of that Turk before.

Legend smirked, grabbed the photos, and walked them over to Cloud. He set a cluster of them down, one group of photos at a time. Aerith leaned forward to get a look at them as well.

The first set was a picture of them working to seal the Midgar Crater, followed by individual close ups of each one of the newly revived human WEAPONs. Aerith was a bit curious how they got those photos. No one had been close to them that Aerith had saw or felt, could camera's really zoom that far and be that clear these days?

The second set was a picture of Sephiroth and Tifa walking through a town. There were a number of other photos of the two. Several focused on capturing just how much Tifa had physically changed, a snapshot of her hair, her eyes, and her wing. There were also several pictures of them sparing with one another.

The next set was an overview of the destroyed city of Edge, including makeshift gravestones that Cloud had gone to set up every now and then during the last few weeks. The pictures clearly showed the destruction, and plenty of blood-splatters that made Aerith's stomach twist.

The final set kind of impressed Aerith. It was pictures of the battleground at the Mideel mako lake. Somehow the Turks had learned of what happened there, or at least figured there had been a battle. Two photos were taped together, a before and after of the height of the Mako lake.

"Someones been keeping secrets," said Legend with a smirk and a glint in his eyes.

Cloud shot him a look. "Watch it Turk."

Legend merely smirked before taking back the photo's and returning to his origional position.

Reeve cleared his throat. "Cloud. Are we not friends? Co-workers? Working to better and restore the planet?"

Cloud leveled his gaze. "I'm a glorified delivery boy for Strife-Delivery-Service, restoring the world is your job."

"Was," said Zack with amusement, "You kinda joined in by helping patch up the crater."

Cloud shot him a look. "Not helping Zack."

"Don't even tried to dodge the question Cloud. You should have contacted me! I was completely left in the dark about something so extremely critical! Rufus of all people, no offense Mr. President, was the one who came and filled me in on what he had discovered," scolded Reeve.

"Aerith Gainsborough, Zack Fair, and Angeal Hewely brought back to life. Genesis Rhapsodos returning to the stage, without his degradation. Sephiroth once again returning. Tifa somehow being transformed into what looks like a remnant or a Sephiroth clone. Edge destroyed, and whatever the hell happened at Mideel, I assume it has to do with the 'new Jenova' that Rufus was clued in about. Our lifestream readings on the day that Edge was destroyed sent the Lifestream Management Department into a state of permanent panic, they were down over fifty percent from their last readings!" exclaimed Reeve.

"Damn... over fifty percent?" muttered Zack, "It really took a lot to bring us back and fight off the space tick."

"Don't interrupt," scolded Reeve.

He turned back to Cloud. "Do I need to go on Cloud?"

Cloud sighed. "Reeve... look, I'm sorry, okay? A lot happened in not a lot of time. It never occurred to me to clue you in after it was all said and done. I had a lot on my mind."

Reeve sighed and rubbed his forehead. "That's no excuse to..."

"Enough," interrupted Veld, "Otherwise were going to be here all day. Strife, full report on what happened."

Cloud blinked a few times. "Who the hell are you, Turk?"

Rufus coughed. "That, Cloud, would be Veld Verdot, former leader of the Turks prior to Tseng. It's not a wise idea to disrespect him."

Cloud frowned and studied Veld. "Is that so? Where were you during Meteorfall?"

"Aiding in the evacuation of Midgar if you must know," answered Veld dryly, "Be thankful we were retired during and proceeding the crisis, otherwise you and your group wouldn't have made it far."

Cloud narrowed his eyes, but before he could say anything Aerith put a hand on his shoulder. "Cloud... were not here to fight."

Cloud sighed and scratched the back of his head before beginning to speak, "I was returning to Edge after taking a walk when I was attacked by Sephiroth. We dueled briefly before the rest of AVALANCHE began to arrive one by one, apparently Sephiroth had alerted them in order to draw them into the fight. Barret was disarmed, Tifa almost killed, and Vincent was killed by Sephiroth before the fight was interrupted."

Veld narrowed his eyes. "Vincent is dead?"

"Not for long, he was revived," answered Cloud.

Aerith spoke up. "A meteor fell on Midgar. Inside the lifestream, Minerva and I had to divert focus from the battle in order to brace for the impact. If the meteor had hit full force, it would have been just as devastating as the one that made the Northern Crater, and would have probably made the Eastern Continent largely uninhabitable."

"Minerva?" questioned Veld, "As in the so-called Goddess?"

Genesis growled. "There is no 'so-called' about it, Turk. Minerva IS the Goddess of Gaia. She is the avatar of the planet itself. She's the one that healed me of my degradation, and the one that revived the others. She is due far more respect than you, Turk."

Veld studied Genesis briefly before barley nodding in acknowledgement. "I suppose a real deity would be due some respect."

"Please, continue," interrupted Reeve.

Cloud cleared his throat. "After the meteor hit, I felt a presence in my mind that felt similar to Jenova. Sephiroth felt it too and abandoned the fight to chase off after it. I left Barret to take care of Tifa and pursued him with Nanaki, Cid, and Yuffie. When we arrived, we found another Calamity from the Skies feeding on Mako bleeding out of the wound the crater had left."

Reeve slowly shook his head. "Another Jenova... I'm going to have to interrupt, please tell me it's dead, otherwise I'm going to have a stroke."

Cloud nodded. "It is."

Reeve leaned back in his chair and sighed heavily.

"The Calamity called itself Morbunova. It and Sephiroth argued for a bit, something about only the strongest having the right to consume the planet, and fought," said Cloud.

"So, Sephiroth was not allied with the new Calamity?" clarified Tseng.

Cloud nodded. "To be honest, he later said that he felt compelled, as if it were instinctual, to fight it."

Tseng seemed thoughtful. "Interesting, and important to note."

Cloud crossed his arms. "The Calamity attempted to use Reunion and take control of both myself and Sephiroth. We fought Reunion off and fought together against the Calamity."

"Wait, you and Sephiroth fought TOGETHER?" exclaimed Reeve.

"It's not what I imagined I'd be doing when I woke up that day," said Cloud dryly.

"Sephiroth temporarily sealed the crater off to prevent the Calamity from continuing to feed off the Mako," continued Cloud, "The Calamity spawned a monster to stall us and ran afterwards..."

Cloud trailed off, a pained look on his face. "..."

Aerith took pity on him and took over. "Morbunova came across Tifa and Barret. Neither of them were in condition to fight it. It knocked Barret out and infected Tifa. It poured through her mind and memories before trying to re-create Sephiroth using her body. It... destroyed and replaced her memories with lies. While Cloud and the others pursued Morbunova... Tifa's infection and transformation completed. She..."

Aerith sighed. "She burned Edge to the ground and killed everyone in it."

There was a heavy silence.

Tseng cleared his throat. "I haven't been able to get in contact with Reno and Rude. I already assumed the worst, but..."

"They're dead," said Aerith quietly, "I watched Tifa kill them from the lifestream."

Tseng held his composure well, but there was very real grief emanating from him and plaguing his eyes. "I see."

Tseng turned to gaze coldly at Cloud. "I'll be clear in voicing my displeasure of not being alerted to the status of my men."

"It wasn't Tifa's fault...," began Cloud.

Tseng held up a hand. "I am not assigning blame Strife. I merely wished to know the fate of my men. Aerith said Lockheart's memories were wiped, and I believe her. I have a full personality profile on Lockheart, she would not have harmed a hair on a child's head without something so drastic happening."

"Though, I hope you have an proper explanation prepared of why she's roaming freely," he added in.

"We do," said Aerith quietly, "It'll come later on."

"The Calamity escaped us and returned to Edge to pick up Tifa and infect the corpses of the cityfolk," said Cloud, his voice heavy, "It flew off afterwords to Mideel. We pursued them. It... threw their corpses into the lake to infect the lifestream..."

"Good gods..." murmured Reeve.

"Umm Cloud, I should interrupt here," said Aerith, "A lot happened in the lifestream while you were flying."

Cloud nodded. "Okay."

Aerith cleared her throat. "Minerva and the planet were in a state of panic after Tifa was infect and it became clear just how dangerous the new Calamity actually was, and what its arrival meant. It had spoken to Cloud and Sephiroth of something called a 'Death Call' that had been sent into space when Jenova had died. This call apparently draws other Calamities to it."

There was a deathly silence in the room.

"So then, were assuming that there are more, potentially many more, of these things out there?" asked Zirconiade's former host.

Aerith nodded and decided to lie-slightly to get a question answered. "Yes. Umm... miss... what's your name? I feel like we've met before."

"Elfe," said the woman, "Or Felicia Verdot, I answer to either. We... briefly met in your church. I'm surprised you remember me."

"You had an old voice echoing from your body, it left an impression," said Aerith quietly.

Elfe briefly stiffened before nodding. "I see."

Cloud gave Aerith and then Elfe a curious look, but they both ignored him.

Aerith picked up where she had left off. "Feeling she had no other choice, Minerva decided to take maters into her own hands to try and handle the crisis and prepare for further Calamities. She revived Vincent and merged him with Chaos and then had him fly to the Forgotten Capital. He retrieved the Holy Materia and my body from the lake. Minerva had him insert Holy into my heart and revived me, transforming me into her Holy WEAPON."

Tseng blinked a few times. "WEAPON? Forgive me, but..."

She smiled. "No, I'm not a towering monster. The WEAPONs of old were useless every time they were called, both during Jenova's original arrival, and during Meteorfall. Minerva desired... different... kinds of WEAPONs. One's that could think and act for themselves on the planet's behalf, with different functionalities and purpose. Vincent, myself, Zack, and Angeal were all revived and transformed into human-hybrid weapons."

She reflected briefly. "Well... I'm a human-cetra-weapon hybrid I guess."

She turned towards Genesis. "He was Minerva's first attempt at creating a hybrid WEAPON, the first of us upon which she created her template."

Tseng cleared his throat. "You specifically were infused with the Holy Materia. What exactly does that imply?"

Aerith hesitated. "Truth be told... I'm not exactly sure. I can call upon the power of Holy because, simply put, I AM Holy. I haven't exactly experimented to see what other changes Minerva gave me. I've been more concerned with sealing the wounds to the planet."

Tseng nodded, but said nothing else.

"Is that a wise use of time?" asked Elfe, "Training your power and seeing what your capable of before another Calamity shows up might be a better option."

Aerith hesitated. "Maybe... but... the Calamity's appear to be drawn to Mako, and feed off it, empowering them. Sealing off open wounds is also important."

Elfe tilted her head in acknowledgement. "Point taken, but, that can be done without using your time."

"Not if the lifestream is to be properly threaded into the wound to properly heal it," Aerith countered.

"Ladies...," said Veld.

Elfe shot her father an annoyed look, but went silent.

Aerith resumed speaking, "After we were all revived, we began flying towards Mideel where Cloud and Sephiroth were fighting Morbunova and Tifa. Cloud?"

Cloud sighed. "Morbunova and Tifa had been feeding off the Mako, empowering both of them. Tifa had gained enough mako to fight either Sephiroth or myself head on."

That statement put a lot of the Turks on edge.

"Sephiroth fought the Calamity while I fought Tifa. Neither of us did particularly well, and... I couldn't bring myself to fight her anywhere near close to my full strength. Sephiroth forced us to switch. I didn't see a lot of their fight, but, both Sephiroth and Tifa messed eachother up, badly. I caught a glimpse of the end of their fight, Tifa took his limit break and then hit him with her own, including a new Calamity infused addition to it, and defeated Sephiroth" said Cloud.

"She BEAT him?!" exclaimed Reeve.

There was open shock on almost all of the Turk's, and Rufus's face.

"I don't know how, I can't give a play by play, but I did hear Sephiroth cry out in surprise at one point, so I figure she took him off-guard with something. He's always been arrogant, it's one of the reason's I usually come out on top when we fight even if he was winning for the majority of our battle," said Cloud.

"That's besides the point," said Tseng, his voice showing a hint of stress, "That there is another Sephiroth-grade entity on the planet is considerably alarming."

Cloud sighed. "She's not a threat, okay?"

Aerith did her best not to flinch or give anything away at those words. What she had felt with Tifa's Reunion last night clearly argued against that, as much as she didn't want it to.

Cloud continued speaking, "Genesis arrived at that point and stopped Tifa from killing him. He engaged Tifa while myself and Sephiroth fought the Calamity. We double-teamed hard, overwhelming it until Tifa interrupted..."

"Sorry for not keeping her on a tighter leash by the way," said Genesis.

Cloud shot him a look before resuming, "And then it dove into the Mako lake, absorbing a lot of the infected Mako and growing insanely powerful. I had never fought something that powerful before. It... destroyed both me and Sephiroth. I was knocked out of the fight at that point, took a claw through my chest. If Zack and Angeal hadn't arrived at that point, both of us would have died."

"I stand corrected," murmured Elfa, "Sealing the wounds is a very high priority if that's how strong it can get."

Aerith couldn't help but smirk at that a little smugly.

"Angeal, Sephiroth, and Genesis fought the Calamity while Zack held off Tifa. I'll admit... seeing all three of them fight alongside each other was something else," said Cloud, "The Calamity was stronger than any one of them, and could regenerate it's wounds almost instantly, but, it didn't seem to fight well against multiple strong opponents. It couldn't properly adapt to it."

Tseng took out a notebook and jotted down a note. "That would be an important thing to remember then."

Cloud nodded. "Vincent arrived a bit after in the form of Chaos and barreled into the fight. Aerith arrived as well, asked us to guard her, and began to pray. While Vincent, Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis fought the Calamity, Tifa caught sight of Aerith and panicked. She rushed at us. It took all of us to delay her long enough for Aerith to finish her prayers."

Aerith took over. "I inserted all the memories of Tifa's real life I could get from the lifestream into her head and knocked her out. I then unleashed the full power of Holy on the Calamity, attempting to seal it away. Sephiroth however suggested we launch it into the sun. I fed the tainted lifestream into the Calamity to purge its influence from the planet, then we all combined our efforts to blast it into space. Afterwords, we made a truce with Sephiroth and took Tifa to the Highwind, and began transplanting other's memories of her into her head to try to fill in the gaps."

Reeve frowned. "If her memory was restored... then why is she with Sephiroth?"

"Guilt if I had to guess," said Aerith, "It ate away at her, made her think she was a monster. Not to mention, she has two warring lifetimes worth of memories in her head even though she knows which one is the real one."

"Or, she left because Vincent is an idiot," muttered Cloud.

Veld raised an eyebrow. "Elaborate."

"Tifa woke up in the middle of the night and left with Sephiroth. Vincent, who was on watch, didn't bother to stop them from leaving," said Cloud crossly.

Veld frowned briefly. "Hmm... Vincent rarely does anything without a reason."

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "You say that as if you know him."

Veld grew amused. "We used to be partners."

Cloud blinked a few times. "Oh."

"So then, that's the gist of it?" asked Reeve.

Cloud nodded. "Yes."

Reeve sighed. "So, to summarize: A city wiped out. Tifa infected and changed. A truce of all things with Sephiroth. A lot of heroes revived. And were assuming more of these Calamities are on the way."

Cloud nodded. "Yeah that about sums it out."

Tseng seemed thoughtful. "Such a roster that we now have seems to heavily tilt the scales in our favor, especially if Sephiroth holds true to this truce and continues to fight off other Calamities."

Aerith slowly shook her head. "The Calamities cannot under any circumstance be underestimated, Tseng."

Tseng nodded. "Of course."

"Do we have any clue when more will be arriving?" asked Reeve.

Aerith shook her head. "No. Minerva only felt its arrival when it approached the atmosphere. We have no clue about the time-frame for any others arriving. It could be days, weeks, months, years..."

"Or even centuries or millenniums," said Reeve crossly, "We need to start thinking longterm. Cid and I have discussed space travel in the past. It takes a long time to fly through space, even on the back of a meteor. None of us are going to be around in a hundred years or so, we need fail-safes and plans in place to..."

Aerith cleared her throat. "WEAPONs do not age."

Reeve visibly paused, a surprised look on his face. "You... won't age?"

Aerith shook her head. "No. We're here for the long haul, permanent guardians of the planet. Even if we die, Minerva will most likely resurrect us when she has enough lifestream available to do so. For that matter, neither will Cloud, Sephiroth, or Tifa age with the Calamity cells inside of them."

Tseng hesitated. "It may be prudent to see then if more WEAPONs could be made. I... do not wish to impose, or force the hand of you or the Goddess, but, if she is looking for more WEAPONs, she might wish to ask Reno and Rude."

Aerith closed her eyes painfully. "Tseng... I'm sorry... they were infected by the Calamity. The tainted lifestream that was fed into him... they were part of it. They're... gone..."

Tseng closed his eyes and sighed heavily. "I... see..."

"I'm sorry," she whispered again.

"Whom we choose to make into a WEAPON is not based on the desires of mortals," murmured Minerva in her head.

"Don't be rude", scolded Aerith, "He's grieving."

Minerva ignored her. "However, on the note of further WEAPONs... he may have a point, but not in the manner he is thinking. Each WEAPON must have a purpose and an identity. There is only one among them that we would choose to take up the mantle, and not in a way that relates to the rest of you."

"What do you mean?" asked Aerith.

"We wish to speak to one we would choose, may we use you as our conduit?" asked Minerva.

Aerith hesitated at that.

"Aerith? Is something wrong?" asked Tseng, noting the look on her face.

"Minerva wishes to speak," she murmured.

Reeve seemed startled. "The Goddess wishes to speak to us?"

"To one of you," clarified Aerith, "Tseng apparently gave her an idea."

Rufus, who had been silent up to this point, waved his hands. "By all means, we give the floor to the Goddess."

Aerith closed her eyes, sighed, and relaxed her mind. "Do as you wish Goddess."

Aerith felt the Goddess take control of her body, her eyes opening and shining a deep blue before Minerva had her turn to face Elfe. "Child whom once bore The One Who Would Burn The World."

Efle gave a start. "She... you can talk through the Ancient?"

Minerva ignored the question. "You once used the power of the World Burner in an attempt to fight for us, though your actions and allies were... questionable in nature."

Efle frowned and crossed her arms. "I don't regret forming AVALANCHE, we did what we thought we had to do."

Cloud gave her a surprised look. "You formed AVALANCHE?"

Minerva held up a hand for silence before leveling Aerith's gaze on Elfe. "We would not force your hand, but, you are most adapted to Zirconiade's presence. If you agreed to it, we would bestow upon you the position as The One Who Will Burn the World."

Wait, WHAT?! Was Minerva thinking what Aerith thought she was thinking? Zirconiade having a physical presence on the world, even through a host, was incredibly dangerous!

Elfe glared at her. "I'm not interested in having that life-leeching materia stuck in my hand again, no thanks."

Minerva shook her head. "You misunderstand. You would not bear the World Burner, you would become her, merge with her."

"I'm not interested in losing who I am, find some other sacrifice," said Elfe coldly.

Minerva gave her a patient look. "A merge is not to lose who you are. Vincent Valentine and Chaos now exist as two pieces of one whole. While at times they can merge their consciousness into one powerful being, they still are their own selves. The same would be true for you and Zirconiade. You would not disappear, and as The One Who Will Burn the World, you would be second only to our Holy Weapon in status and strength."

Elfe did not reply, she merely stared at her silently, brooding.

"Wait... I'm... stronger than Zirconiade?" asked Aerith with disbelief.

"You have little concept of just what you have become by merging with Holy, beloved daughter," answered Minerva.

"The choice is yours to make if you so wish it. Merely approach our beloved daughter if you come to agree to it. We have said our piece," spoke Minerva.

"Wait, before you go Goddess, may I ask a question?" said Reeve with hesitation.

Minerva turned her head to look at him. "You have acted well in our service, we grant you an audience."

Reeve grew a bit nervous. "I'm... very concerned about the state of the lifestream right now. Are our readings correct? Just how bad off is the planet right now?"

Minerva sighed. "We are but a fragment of our former self. The days before the arrival of the Heaven's Dark Harbinger are but a distant dream. While we are weak for the moment, so long as we are not heavily wounded again in the near future, infected by Calamity, or forced to revive and make anew the body of a WEAPON, we will survive. Though, the process will be slow if we are conscious for the healing. While our beloved daughter and the other WEAPON's would be opposed to it, hibernation may be the best course of action."

"What does it mean for a planet and it's Goddess to hibernate?" asked Reeve with confusion.

"It means that no use of the lifestream would be allowed. No use of Materia. Our WEAPONs would not be able to tap into their full powers. No new life would be born, whether it be man, beast, or plant," answered Minerva.

Reeve's eyes went wide. "But... that would result in the extinction of the human race!"

"You may find our answer cruel, but, we are not reliant on humanity's survival to see to our own," said Minerva.

A heavy silence descended on the room.

Tseng cleared his throat. "Goddess, correct me if I'm wrong, but, the lifestream exists in all living things, correct?"

Minerva briefly acknowledged him. "It does."

"Then, if we were to cull monster populations and return them to the planet, would that aid in the process?" inquired Tseng.

Minerva tilted her head. "To a degree, yes."

Tseng made a note on his paper, but said nothing more.

"Hibernation may be survivable for humanity, I have an idea that you may be interested in," offered Rufus.

Minerva glanced at him coldly. "The name Shinra has plagued and heavily injured the planet in so short a time. Choose your words carefully."

Rufus winced momentarily. "Well... if scheduled properly, humanity could survive brief periods of hibernation. If population is properly managed, and food properly preserved and distributed during those times, and given a chance to recover and flourish periodically, it could allow the healing of the lifestream to speed up."

Minerva studied him for a moment. "Hmm. Make your 'schedule' and approach our beloved daughter with it. If we agree with it, we may follow through with the concept."

Rufus nodded. "Very well."

"If I may ask one more question?" said Reeve.

Minerva gave him a patient look. "You may."

"Aerith said you could feel the Calamity's presence when it entered the atmosphere?" asked Reeve.

Minerva nodded. "I could."

"How far out into space can you sense? Can you, I don't know, send out a pulse of some kind to detect the Calamities?" asked Reeve.

Minerva shook her head. "No. Releasing lifestream into the void would cause it to disapate without our continual hold and focus. The cost on the lifestream to even go beyond what you call our 'solar system' would be to much for us to bear at the moment."

Reeve appeared to ponder her words deeply. "Hmm... but... no that's a bad idea... but... what about...?"

Minerva cocked her head. "Speak your mind, child."

Reeve hesitated. "If we were to contain and protect a tiny bit of the lifestream in say... a special mechanical probe, and have it relay any findings back to us, would that work? We could send out probes in all directions to warn us of any Calamities coming."

Minerva pondered his words for a moment. "We are unwilling to sacrifice anymore of our lifeblood for the time being. However, should Shinra's 'scheduled hibernation's' show merit, after the first hibernation we may be willing to attempt your idea. Otherwise if we bear the healing process fully conscious, it will be some time before we can sacrifice any of our lifeblood for such an endeavor."

Reeve nodded. "Very well. Either way I'll start research and plans on creating a deep space probe. Thank you, Goddess, for your time."

Minerva tilted her head in response.

"Goddess," said Tseng.

Minerva turned her head.

"Can you 'partially' hibernate?" inquired Tseng.

Minerva frowned. "Partially?"

"If you disable the use of materia, that alone, I imagine, would help greatly. Especially if following a cull of monster population when humanity would not necessarily need materia to defend itself," offered Tseng.

Minerva pondered his words. "It is a strange thought, to 'partially' hibernate. It may be possible, and offers an option between full consciousness, and hibernation or scheduled hibernation. We will... attempt to discover if such a thing is possible."

She cleared her throat. "Make your plans, do your research. Within three months time we will convince, you will present your findings and offer your opinions, afterwords, we will make a choice."

With that, Minerva gave no more options for a response as she left Aerith's body. Aerith shivered and put a hand on the table for support.

She slowly shook her head and sighed. "I... don't think I like doing that."

"I don't think she likes me," said Rufus dryly, "Don't know why. My old man did most of the damage."

Aerith shot him a look. "'Most' being the prime word, still implies you did some damage as well."

Rufus shrugged. "I'm trying to make amends."

Veld cleared his throat. "I believe were done here. Cissnei, Legend."

Veld rose to his feet and made for the door, his two Turks following suit.

Zack stepped forward. "Hey, Cissnei, could I talk to you for a sec?"

Veld paused, glancing at Cissnei, eyebrow raised.

Cissnei frowned. "..."

Cloud studied her for a moment. "Zack... do I know her from somewhere? She seems vaguely familiar."

Zack glanced over at him briefly. "I'm surprised you remember. It was during your whole Mako poisoning thing, she kind of let us go when she found us and gave us a motorcycle to escape Shinra."

Veld and Tseng both sharply looked at Cissnei, who winced under the weight of their gaze. "Zack..."

"Oh, uh... sorry Ciss," said Zack sheepishly.

Aerith gave Cissnei a very warm smile, a Turk with a heart, who would have thought it? "You did a good thing."

She glared at Tseng and then Veld. "And I don't want to hear a thing contrary to that!"

Tseng merely stared at her unblinking, and Veld chuckled softly before speaking, "Five minutes to talk with your, friend, Cissnei, then were leaving."

Cissnei sighed and left the room, Zack following her.

Rufus cleared his throat. "I believe were done as well. Tseng, Elena, lets be on our way. We have a lot of work to do."

Rufus walked to the door and paused briefly to address Veld. "Your more than welcome to rejoin the fold if you so wish. Our resources would be at your disposal, and your help would be greatly appreciated."

Veld merely shrugged. "I imagine it would. I'll pass word onto the others, but, that's their choice to make."

Rufus nodded and walked out, Tseng and Elena on his heels.

Veld made to go as well before pausing and glancing back at Elfe, who was still sitting at the table. "Felicia?"

Elfe rubbed her forehead, but did not respond. "..."

Veld frowned. "You have every right to refuse the Goddess."

"Do I?" murmured Elfe, "I remember how strong I was with just a shard. I could be strong enough to make a real difference if I agreed to it."

"You have a right to pursue your own personal happiness," said Aerith, "Don't let anyone, even the Goddess, imply otherwise."

Elfe sighed and rose to her feet before leaving the room. Aerith couldn't help but be a bit miffed with Minerva. She felt as if the Goddess were pressuring the woman into the choice. She had been very insistent. The whole thing left a very uneasy feeling in the pit of Aerith's stomach. Zirconiade was an entity based entirely on destroying the remains of the planet after Omega had taken the lifestream into space. Why in the world would Minerva give the World Burner a human host? Even if Elfe could somehow temper the entity, it was way to risky in her opinion. Though, on the other hand, the World Burner could probably take on a Calamity head on and win single-handedly if Aerith had to guess. The only problem with that would probably be the collateral damage...

Reeve cleared his throat. "Well, thank you for coming and explaining things, even if it was a bit late."

Cloud nodded, but choose to remain silent.

"Your welcome to stay the night if you so wish," offered Tseng.

Aerith shook her head. "Thank you, but, we need to finish healing that wound to the planet as soon as possible. Then, perhaps I'll follow Elfe's advice and try to learn more about my own power."

Reeve nodded. "Very well."

They left the conference room and started heading for the exit.

"Being in there reminded me of way to many meetings back in HQ," murmured Angeal.

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "That why you were so quiet?"

Angeal shrugged, a contemplative look on his face.

"At least you didn't have Reeve shooting you dirty looks every other minute," muttered Genesis.

They exited the building and waited until Zack came down after them. He seemed a bit downcast, did his talk with Cissnei not go well?

Aerith looked at him questioningly. "Everything okay?"

Zack shrugged. "Yeah, I guess..."

Aerith frowned. "Zack..."

He sighed. "I guess my biting the dust hurt a lot more to some people than I ever thought it would. Coming back to life doesn't change that."

He smirked at her. "Anyway, c'mon, lets go, we've got a major pot hole to go fill."

Aerith sighed and let him hold her bridal style and fly into the air. She wished he wouldn't hide behind that goofy happy-go-lucky facade all the time. When he hurt, he ought to let her in to help. She'd let it slide for now though. She had a lot of thinking to do of her own. About her own powers. About Minerva's potential plans. And about the Calamities...

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Author's Notes:

Maybe some Before Crisis lovers might hate me for it, but, Zirconiade is supposed to be an ultimate summon, the literal ender of the world, the world burner. A bunch of none-enhanced Turks beating it doesn't really fly in my book. So... in my own lore for this, Minerva deprived Zirconiade of its full power because the planet pre-maturly being burned isn't high on her to do list.

SPOILER WARNING:

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The next chapter's tittle will be called: The 2nd Nibelheim Incident. I'll leave you all to guess what that means. Mwhahahah ^_^.