Written by Benoit Goudreault-Emond
9. Cracks in the foundation can be seen
"Are you out of your mind?" was the most polite answer Cloud got from his friends. The other answers are definitely not fit for print. When the screams of outrage died down, Cloud still looked as determined as ever.
"Listen to me!" Cloud said forcefully. "This is the fifth time I fail in my life! I failed entering SOLDIER; I'm the only one who paid for that. I failed Tifa and Zack; my only consolation is that Tifa survived. Because of my own shame and weakness, I gave the Black Materia to Sephiroth. Aeris died because of that. I gave Sephiroth the Black Materia once again. I nearly died for that, and the whole Planet could have been destroyed! Just now, I was not able to muster the courage to do what Aeris asked of me. As a result, millions will die at the hand of a WEAPON... because I was too weak to do what I knew I had to do." He paused, catching his breath. "Aeris would not be in the state she is now if I hadn't failed at my duties as her bodyguard. She would be resting peacefully in the Lifestream if I had been strong enough to live with the fact that I had failed, but I was unable to accept it. Now, innocents will pay because of my damn pride, as Tifa almost paid with her life."
"That's bullshit!" protested Cid. "All of us wanted her back! You didn't have to ask Nanaki to look for a way to do it--he did it on his own! The world doesn't revolve 'round you, bub--it's time you realized it!"
Cloud shook his head sadly. "Even if you're right, it doesn't matter. The fact is, if she lives, millions will die. She won't allow it; I won't allow it. I must kill her, as she asked me to."
"They won't die if we stop the WEAPON," Nanaki pointed out. "The WEAPON is the danger, not Aeris. The time we are spending arguing pointlessly here would be better served in stopping that monstrosity."
"How do we know she won't summon another WEAPON once we deal with this one?" countered Cloud.
"How the hell do you know she will?" questioned Barret.
"I don't. She's the only one who knows. So, whatever I decide to do after, I need to find her first," asserted Cloud.
"What about the WEAPON? Won't you help us fight it?" asked Tifa.
Cloud gave her a sad smile. "You'll manage." With that, he turned and left, walking southward where Aeris had gone.
"You're a damn fool!" roared Cid. He stomped off to the Highwind, fuming. The other members of AVALANCHE followed him. However, Tifa stayed behind, undecided. Barret noticed and told Cid. Ordering Barret to keep going, Cid ran back to the young lady.
"You're just dyin' to go with him, don't you?" he asked her.
Tifa nodded. "But I really should help the team against the WEAPON, shouldn't I?"
"That'd be sensible," replied Cid. He paused, then said, "But it may not be right."
"I don't understand," said Tifa with a puzzled frown.
"Well, remember when Cloud was sick and the Lifestream erupted? The sensible thing for you to do would have been to leave him there. Only one death instead of two, and he was a vegetable at the time, anyways. But you did the right thing instead. And not only you didn't die, but you saved Cloud as well, curing him while you were at it! So, you see, sometimes the sensible thing is not the right thing."
"So you're essentially telling me to follow my heart?" asked Tifa slowly.
Cid nodded. "I'm not too good at doing that, understand... I only listen to what's here," he said, tapping his forehead. "I never could understand whatever this was telling me," he continued, pointing to his heart. "Maybe I just don't know how to listen. But you do. That's a rare gift. I guess what I'm trying to say is, a lot of people like me will do the sensible thing, but there are a few that will follow their heart. And of those few, there are none that have a heart as big as Tifa Lockheart's. People like that are those that make a difference."
Despite the gravity of the situation, Tifa smiled at the compliment. "Well, whether you're right about my heart or not, what you said went straight to it! Still, I feel bad leaving you to fight..." she drifted off, a thoughtful expression on her face.
"What is it?" asked Cid.
To Tifa, it was almost as if she had found the missing piece of a 1000-piece puzzle. She suddenly knew, with absolute certainty, what she had to do.
"Hey! What is it?" repeated Cid.
"Cid! I have to go after him! Can you handle the WEAPON?" Tifa asked him hurriedly.
"I wouldn't have given you that speech about listening to your heart if I couldn't! We'll be fine. After all, I've got to do the sensible thing---"
"Right!" she cut him off. "I think I can save her!" Tifa said, turning around, sprinting southward.
Cid was flabbergasted. "What? Who? How?"
Tifa was already some fifty meters out. "Aeris! No time to explain how!" she yelled over her shoulder, not slowing down. "Hold off the WEAPON as long as possible! I don't know how long this will take! Good luck!"
"Yeah, good luck to you too!" Cid yelled back, still wondering what Tifa was thinking of. He finally shrugged and strode off to the Highwind.
"Get your sorry ass in here!" Cid heard Barret bellow from the Highwind's bridge.
"Aw, pipe down, Wallace!" Cid yelled back as he ran to the airship's ladder. He scrambled to the bridge. Under the impatient stare of his teammates, he gunned the engines and lifted off.
"Okay, everyone, this is it!" Cid practically had to scream the words over the noise of the engines. He was pushing them past the safety limit by a wide margin. "So, does anybody have any idea how the hell we're going to tackle that menace?"
Reeve spoke up. "Don't you have some sort of air-to-ground missiles on this ship?"
"Sure," replied Cid. "Somehow, I don't think that'll do much good, though," he warned.
"Which means we'll have to get down and fight it," Nanaki pointed out.
"I don't think that's very smart," countered Cid. "The last WEAPON we fought was hard to beat, even with mastered Materia. To fight one with stuff that just got off the shelves..."
"We've grown stronger since," replied Nanaki.
"True, but I'm still not goin' in there guns blazing unless we have some sort of plan," said Cid.
"How about we go in and kick some WEAPON butt?" asked Barret. Everybody looked at him strangely. "Well, that's a plan, ain't it?" he protested.
"I think Cid had something more sophisticated in mind," replied Vincent.
"Times like this, I miss Spike and Tifa most," muttered Cid under his breath, as the other AVALANCHE members were arguing over what to do, exactly. No one seemed to have a clue. They were out-gunned, desperately so, and they all knew it. Still, they had to do their best, or everybody in Midgar would die. Cid let them blabber for a while, then raised his voice. "May I have everyone's attention, please!"
Everyone fell silent and looked at him.
"Look, folks, I know we're hopelessly out-gunned, but we must try and slow down that thing. I don't think we have a snowball's chance in hell to destroy it unless we get better Materia. Since no one has a good idea, I think we should do hit-and-run attacks on that horror and have Reeve keep trying to reach Yuffie. If we can't reach her, we go all out and hope we destroy it, although I think that would be a waste of lives. Does anyone have any better idea?"
No one spoke.
Cid sighed. "I was sort of hoping one of you did," he said wearily. "All right, then... let's go foolishly risk our lives again. Hang on to your hats, because we're OUTTA HERE!" he managed to say the last with some enthusiasm, driving the engines a further notch in the red. The engines seemed to groan in protest. Come on, baby, Cid pleaded. Just hold on a little longer, OK?
"There's the thing!" said Reeve, looking through his binoculars. "Turn 23 degrees starboard!"
"Roger," said Cid, banking the airship. The WEAPON was walking ponderously, but it sure covered a lot of ground in a short time with its giant legs. Cid had pushed the Highwind quite hard to catch up. Presently, he was cursing Cloud Strife and his foolish notions of having to kill someone they had just brought back.
However, now that the Highwind was closing on the WEAPON, Cid began doubting whether what he was doing was the right thing to do. Despite what he had said to Tifa earlier, he had no illusion about their chances. He knew that if they couldn't reach Yuffie and get some proper Materia back, it would mean certain death to AVALANCHE and the Midgar population. He had turned his back on Cloud in anger. But presently, the anger had evaporated, and Cid wondered whether it would have been best to stop Cloud from killing Aeris. It seemed such a waste to kill the sweet girl they had just resurrected... He shook his head. It was too late to do anything now. He could only hope that Tifa would reach Cloud in time to save Aeris. If it wasn't too late already.
Cid forced himself to consider the task at hand. He was supposed to be leading this outfit, not to brood constantly! "All right, listen up!" he yelled over the groan of the overstressed engines. Everyone turned to him. "I'll open with a pass of missiles, and dodge any countermove this thing does. I want everybody to use long-distance attacks as we move away. Materia, cannon, anything you have."
"What do you hope to achieve?" asked Nanaki.
"If at all possible, we must try to topple this thing," Cid replied. "That will stop its progress and buy us more time."
There were murmurs of assent. Everyone thought it was a good idea.
"OK, then. Start firing on my signal," Cid ordered. With that, he closed the throttle slightly to slow down the airship and relieve the stress on its engines. Then, tipping the nose of the ship down, he aimed at the WEAPON's back. He waited until his range indicator flashed, then pressed the trigger. Two missiles detached themselves from the belly of the airship and sped towards the WEAPON. They hit, producing an intense flash that forced everyone to shield their eyes. The WEAPON was enveloped in smoke. Out of the smoke came several bolts of energy, aimed at the Highwind.
"Hold on!" warned Cid as he started some complicated evasive maneuvers. The airship managed to dodge the bolts, but barely. The rest of AVALANCHE opened fire, unleashing bullets, lightning bolts, fireballs and ice crystals towards the WEAPON. One energy bolt from the WEAPON hit the ship with considerable force. The Highwind was not harmed, but the strength of the blow was enough to move the airship off-course. Cid cursed as he was fighting the controls to regain attitude. When he managed it, the WEAPON was out of range. All smoke around it had cleared. Reeve looked at it through binoculars and announced grimly that the WEAPON was still moving and seemed unscathed.
"Well, we'll just have to try harder, I guess," said Barret, attempting to sound cheerful and failing. He, too, was sounding quite grim.
Cid headed back to the WEAPON again, and the sequence of events repeated: missiles fired, energy bolts countered, AVALANCHE members pummeled the WEAPON with all they had until it was out of range and the smoke cleared. Twice more this sequence repeated. In the last pass, the Highwind's rudder was hit very badly, making the controls very sluggish. It was clear that this was not working: the WEAPON was still walking ponderously towards Midgar, unharmed and apparently unfazed by the attacks. Furthermore, the sluggish controls made it very difficult for Cid to maneuver in any way. He knew that if they went in the same way again, most energy bolts from the WEAPON would find their way to the airship.
"Well, that's that," Cid conceded. "Looks like this wasn't such a good idea after all. And now, we can't try it again because the controls are busted. Anybody have a better idea?"
"We're running out of time," Nanaki remarked. "We must try to topple it now!"
"Agreed," said Vincent. "But how?"
"I know I'm gonna regret this," muttered Cid. Then, louder, "All right, everyone, get your parachute! I'm gonna ram the legs!"
Exclamations of surprise were heard around the group.
"Cid, have you lost your mind?" asked Barret. "You know what this'll do to the Highwind?"
"Yeah," Cid replied. "It'll scrap it. I'm out of my mind to even consider this... But there's no time to figure out something else! Come on, get your 'chutes!"
Everyone complied, hurriedly putting on the backpack that contained their parachute. Despite the gravity of the situation, Reeve couldn't help chuckling inwardly when he saw how massive Barret's backpack was; the 'chute had at least twice the surface of everyone else's.
Cid lined up the Highwind and opened the throttle to full. He told everyone to "get the hell out," and blocked the steering wheel. As he prepared to jump, he looked back one last time at the bridge of his beloved ship, getting almost teary-eyed. Then, reminding himself of why he was doing this, his resolve firmed, and he jumped overboard, following the others.
The Highwind collided with the WEAPON's left leg when Cid was halfway to the ground. The shock wave hit everyone hard, but the parachutes held. There was a loud crash. Barret cheered, but others held back. There was no way of knowing whether the crash had had the effect Cid had hoped for, as black smoke from the explosion of the missiles that had still been attached to the Highwind's underside was blocking the view.
Finally, the smoke cleared as the members of AVALANCHE touched down. The WEAPON was down, its leg obviously damaged, crooked at an angle that made walking impossible. However, the creature was still progressing towards Midgar, using its arms to crawl across the ground.
"Well, at least, we slowed it down," Reeve pointed out.
Cid didn't look too pleased. "I was sort of hoping to get rid of the thing. You know, make the loss of my baby worth it. Shoulda rammed in the first place, with all missiles still attached--wouldn't have been such a waste..."
"Cid," said Vincent, as he gripped the Captain's shoulder.
Cid turned to him.
"The WEAPON will surely cross the mountains to get to Midgar," speculated Vincent. "It looks like it will end up in the Midgar swamp."
"Your point being?" snapped Cid.
Vincent ignored the pilot's bad mood. "The Midgar Zolom is still in there, isn't it? That beast packs quite a punch, as I recall. Maybe if we get it to attack the WEAPON..."
"It doesn't pack that much of a punch, Vincent," Nanaki reminded him.
"Yeah, well, I guess it's better than fighting just the five of us," Cid admitted. "Anyone have better ideas?"
As before, nobody spoke up.
"Great," said Cid, not sounding very enthusiastic. "I guess we better head for the Myrthil Mines, then--the WEAPON can surely climb the mountain, but I'd rather not do that, myself."
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Benoit Goudreault-Emond April, 9 2001