Heartstrings
Vincent Unleashed
by TacomaSquall
Part Nineteen
Tifa's eyes went wide at the sight of Barret's daughter as she transformed into the monstrosity that almost destroyed the world. It can't be! We killed her in the North Crater. I watched her fall beneath the Cosmo Memory and Chaos' Chaos Saber! Her disbelief held her stock-still, as the despoiler from beyond the stars completed the form-change.
Other members of AVALANCHE were not gripped by the same paralysis that held Tifa in its grasp, however. Yuffie called upon the power of the Barrier Materia on the Conformer to surround each of the heroes in a shimmering wall of energy to ward off Jenova's magic. At the same time, Hieros called upon the power of the Revive Materia, casting it upon Barret, before death could claim the big man.
Meanwhile, Nanaki drew upon the Time Materia socketed in the Escort Guard the Kyrrawlen wore. Linked to an azure-hued All Materia, each member of AVALANCHE felt time slow to a crawl, as their reactions were hastened.
Cait Sith cartwheeled downhill from Jenova, coming to a stop thirty feet downhill from where the alien had swatted him. When he came to a stop, he called upon the linked gems in the Starlight Phone. Jenova was surrounded in mystic energy that attempted to confuse her. Under the cover of the spell, the robotic moogle was able to hit her with an amplified screech that would have ruptured the eardrums of a human target. The attack only served to enrage the alien shapeshifter.
Cid called forth the Galian Beast. The members of AVALANCHE vanished, as the masking effect of the summoning kicked in. In their place, a crack sprouted in the earth they stood on. The ground began to shake, and the crack spread. Finally, a gout of lava burst upwards through the shattered ground. In the lava's heart, the Galian Beast howled in rage. It sprang forward and huffed a ball of fire at Jenova. The alien was not able to avoid the attack, and it seared her inhuman skin.
As AVALANCHE reappeared, Jenova smiled coldly. "You have had your shot. Now it is my turn." She threw her arms back, and spines sprouted from her chest. The foot-long, barbed spines tore their way free, flying towards the world's defenders.
The spines were deadly. Only Yager (due to his short stature), Barret (due to his still-prone position), and Tifa (due to sheer dumb luck) were unscathed by the hail of projectiles. Cloud was struck by three spines, one of which embedded in his sword arm. One spine whanged as it ricocheted off of a hastily interposed Flayer, leaving Cid open to the spine that struck his left knee. The others were hit by one spine each.
Grennek called upon the Wizard's Bracelet he had been given. "Ki-Rin, hear our call and aid us in this dark hour!"
Beyond the Planet's atmosphere, in the heart of the Sun, the Ki-Rin came into existence, freed from its voluntary captivity. In an eruption of superheated plasma, the Mako-twisted creature sped Planetward.
As it crossed the vacuum of space, its body cooled into solidity. The Ki-Rin had the body of a stag, with the tail of a massive ox. From the beast's shoulders stretched forth a serpentine neck that ended in a draconian head. Instead of scales, the dragon-head was covered in the same white fur that covered the rest of the beast's body. A pale yellow mane flowed from the beast's neck, not unlike the mane of a patriarchal lion. As its cloven hooves struck the debris of space, they emitted sparks.
The Ki-Rin raced into the Planet's atmosphere. It landed between the combatants and reared in front of Jenova. As the stag's legs came down, the Ki-Rin breathed a cone of eye-piercing radiance upon the shapeshifter. It then whirled and leapt back into the air. It flew low over the members of AVALANCHE covering them momentarily with the cloak of its flowing mane. They felt their wounds begin healing in much the same manner that they would under the influence of Regen spell from a Restore Materia.
As the barbed spine was forced out of Cloud's arm by the mystic touch of the Ki-Rin, Cloud brought the Ultima Weapon back over his head, as three golden Materia socketed in the massive sword shone brightly. With a cry of fury, the former SOLDIER charged Jenova, bringing his sword in a crushing overhand Deathblow. As the blow staggered her, two Materia, linked to the Deathblows, flared into light, and both health and energy were leeched from the alien and carried into Cloud's body. After his heavy blow, Cloud brought the sword upwards in a diagonal slash that creased Jenova's shark-like hide.
As quick as Cloud was, however, Jenova was quicker. As he darted backwards to rejoin his companions, who had not closed with her, one of Jenova's taloned hands snaked out and grabbed Cloud by his hair. With that grip, she dragged the SOLDIER to her side and raised her other hand to stab downwards.
Tifa screamed, "No!" Her rage propelled her forward, as she called upon everything she had learned from Zangan. Desperately, she rained blows down upon Jenova, in the Beat Rush. Then she leapt onto Jenova and used her for a springboard for the Somersault, following it with the sweep kick her master called the Water Kick. As the alien staggered, Tifa grabbed her and leapt upwards. They came down in the move Zangan called the Meteodrive. Stunned, Jenova released Cloud.
Tifa grated, "Leave my husband alone!" Jenova unsteadily rose to her feet, and Tifa met her with the magical uppercut she called the Dolphin Blow. As Jenova fell after the uppercut, Tifa grabbed her and leapt even higher than her last leap, delivering the bone-jarring Meteor Strike. Tifa then delivered the coup, unleashing the unfettered fury of the Final Heaven.
Jenova flew backwards from the impact of Tifa's blow. She slammed backwards into the massive chest of the black man she had felled with her surprise attack. He grinned. "Miss me?" He pulled the Missing Score's trigger and hit Jenova with the all out fury of the Catastrophe.
After Barret's attack, Jenova vanished in a flare of emerald light. Barret looked around in shock. "What'd I do, vaporize her?"
The other members of AVALANCHE looked around for the missing destroyer.
* * * * * *
As Barret activated the Mime Materia, Jenova had realized that she had another source of power, besides her innate abilities. She called upon the Materia the human child had worn around its neck.
She rematerialized on the other side of the Research Center. Her wounds, while not fatal, required a few minutes to heal, so she adopted the form of a Nibel pine and opened herself to the warmth of the morning sun, using the photosynthetic energy gained to speed her healing. She supplemented this energy by drawing from the life force of creatures that came too close to her and were able to be assimilated. She knew that she would be back at full strength in a matter of minutes, which the Materia had bought for her.
Jenova remembered a devastating magical attack that had been used against her pawns during her first attempt to feed upon this world, more than two millenia ago. As she rested, she tried to remember the details of the spell. When she faced AVALANCHE again, she was going to be ready. This time, they did not have Holy. This next time, victory would be hers…
* * * * * *
Janet De Vries addressed the gathered staff of the Research Center. "Our outside security cameras just showed the arrival of AVALANCHE and an altercation with an alien that seems to be Jenova." Now that there was confirmation, she chose not to mention Vincent's warning to her.
"What are we supposed to do about it?" asked a young scientist, well-known in the Center's ranks as a radical pacifist. "We are not SOLDIERs. We're scientists devoted to peace, not war."
Janet nodded. "I agree with you, Dr. Witt. However, Director Valentine knew that a time could come when the Center would need to defend itself. Hidden beneath the laboratory wing is a small armory and a ShinRa prototype war vehicle, called a wanzer." She looked at the Center's Chief of Security, Brett Jetzer, a slender ex-SOLDIER, with grey eyes and dark brown hair. "Brett, I assume you are the best person to pilot the wanzer. Can you tell us a little about the armory's equipment?"
Brett stood up, his lean, six-foot-tall frame towering over the diminutive Deputy Administrator. "We have enough ShinRa Type 2 machine pistols to equip each member of the staff, and give them three magazines of ammunition. More importantly, in the case of facing Jenova's attack, we have 4 ShinRa Type 4B squad support machine guns and one prototype man-portable fusion gun. The wanzer is armed with two arm-mounted Type 4B machine guns, and a 20-cell multiple launch rocket system."
Janet turned back to the remaining staff. "We cannot let Jenova take over the Center!"
* * * * * *
The members of AVALANCHE searched for Jenova outside the Research Center. For the past half-hour, they had scoured the front area of the former ShinRa Mansion, to no avail. She seemed to have just vanished into thin air.
The search continued, as they moved to the side of the Mansion, and from there to the back. From her shapeshifted vantage, Jenova watched her enemies draw closer and closer to her. Eventually, three of their number, the grizzled old pilot, the Frogman, and the Wutai-born ninja stood beneath her spread boughs.
It was time to strike.
* * * * * *
Yuffie stood beneath the boughs of a pine tree, her eyes scanning the area around her for any sign of Jenova. As she scanned, she pivoted on her left foot. As she placed her right foot down, she heard a soft crunching noise from beneath her foot. Perplexed, she looked down at the desiccated remains of a small bird, a red and black-hued cardinal. As she bent down to get a closer look at the bird, she heard Cid cry out, "What the hell?!?"
Yuffie turned and saw that Cid had somehow gotten himself entangled in the pine tree's boughs. They had bent with his weight and had him grasped like he was in a set of pincers. As she looked on, she saw the struggling pilot lifted into the air by the tree limbs. With a rush of horror, she realized that the tree was attacking him. She yelled, "Jenova's the tree!"
She felt a wave of revulsion as Jenova plunged both pincer-limbs into Cid's torso. The old pilot screamed in agony, as the branches drove inwards. The other members of AVALANCHE started running towards Yuffie and Yager.
Yager leapt into the air. As he hurtled towards the shapeshifter, she began changing her form from the immobile tree to a monstrous form reminiscent of a gigantic preying mantis. The Frogman struck at one of the two razor-sharp pincers that had impaled the Highwind's captain. The Slash Lance severed the partially shifted limb, and Cid fell ten feet to the ground, sliding off the still-attached pincer that held him. Blood flowed freely from both punctures, and Yuffie realized she could see Cid's stomach through one of the wounds. She fought a wave of nausea back.
Jenova called upon her mastery of sorcery to capture the agile Frogman in a Stop spell. Failing to resist the spell, Yager was immobilized. With a contemptuous wave of her arm, she impaled the ebullient Frogman through the chest. The talon that ended Yager's life exited his back, covered in the Frog's viscera.
There was a scream from behind Yuffie. "Yager!" As she screamed, Maiji called upon the power of the Master Summon, calling forth the mighty Titan. After Titan pulled the ground out from under Jenova's feet, Nanaki called upon the power of the FullCure Materia in a desperate attempt to save Cid's life. The wounds were too grievous for even that powerful Materia to handle though, and the last of his life's blood pooled on the ground beneath him.
Jenova responded to Maiji's summoning attack by casting a Silence spell upon the artist. It was foiled by her Ribbon. Before Jenova could act again, she was swarmed by Nanaki, Cloud, Hieros and Tifa.
For a moment, it looked like the alien would be overwhelmed by their onslaught, as sword, fist, fang, and saber rained blow after blow upon her. In desperation, Jenova cast her most powerful spell.
The members of AVALANCHE felt themselves levitated upwards. They were hurled up, through the atmosphere, carried in a frictionless bubble of air towards the sun. The members of AVALANCHE were hurled directly towards a cool spot of the sun. As they impacted, the massive furnace of the sun underwent a reaction, and the spot rapidly began to heat up, swelling outwards as the gases within expanded. Finally, the members of AVALANCHE were spewed forth by an eruption of a solar prominence. They fell back to the Planet. To Tifa and Cait Sith's surprise, they discovered that they had learned to cast the Sunspot Flare through their Enemy Skill Materia.
The Sunspot Flare's concussion blasted the members of AVALANCHE away from Jenova. Hieros, Nanaki and Barret dropped, spiralling into the oblivion of unconsciousness. The despoiler laughed in glee. "Who will be the next to fall before me?"
Tifa heard Jenova's taunt and felt the chill grasp of despair around her heart. She's so much more powerful than when we faced her in the North Crater. It's almost as if she was having to use some of her strength elsewhere before…
Within Tifa's womb, her unborn daughter opened her eyes, knowing that the time to use the power bestowed upon her by Sephiroth was now. Aeris' Mako-blue eyes flared into brilliance, as the baby drew upon her mother's reserves of energy.
Tifa felt the drain of her energy and slumped to her knees. As she slumped, she saw Jenova hurtle skywards in the grasp of an attack that Tifa had last seen used by the madman who almost succeeded in destroying the Planet. How did I use the Supernova?
In the void of space, Jenova hurtled to a dying star. As she drew closer, it exploded. She landed on the third planet from the star, a world not unlike the Planet, but without the puissant Lifestream. She watched as the two innermost planets were consumed by the expanding fury of the explosion. As the shockwave hit, she saw Sephiroth standing before her.
"Thus is my debt paid in full, Mother. As you were my death, so have I become yours."
Jenova's body was consumed utterly by the energy of the supernova. Nothing was left to reform. Sephiroth's last attempt to gain redemption was successful. His spirit joined the spirits of the departed within the Lifestream.
* * * * * *
The portal between Nessos and the Planet opened. A rift tore in the fabric of space, connecting the throne hall of Lord Tenarrus with the town of Nibelheim. One by one, the Horsemen of Tenarrus stepped through, followed by their dread master.
The Apocalypse had come.
End of Part Nineteen