Chapter 32: Beyond the Swarms
"Before we go down there, there's someone who wants to say hi to you." The Regent spoke over the Speaker.
"Hi Zidane!" Eiko's voice came over the static.
Zidane smiled and glanced over his shoulder, at his other teammates. Freya, Steiner, and Vivi were paying attention.
For some unknown reason, tears welled up in Zidanes eyes. Even with all this hope that they conjured up, there was a chance they wouldn't be coming back. They were soldiers, men of glory and honor. To be admired by the common folk. There was a chance, as soldiers, that all the friends he made would never see him again. Yet the chances, as a hero, were much better that he be remembered.
Half choking, Zidane sputtered. "Hey Eiko."
"Hello comrad." Freya said. She could sense Zidanes emotions, and she, too, was feeling this. But her love was down there and she must defend him and her home to the death.
"Greetings lady Eiko." Steiner wiped his eyes with his gauntlet.
"Hi Eiko." Vivi said, sobbing.
Even with enormous trust in his new allies, Cid had to lean to Barret. "What's with the water works?"
"Hey everybody. I'm helping too! I saved the world once too!" The 8 year old said. "I'll be helping with the fleet from Fathers ship!"
"You'll be of great help." Freya replied.
"Regent, you ready?" Steiner called into the speaker.
"Lets go." Regent Cid replied with a shout.
The Red Rose and her many escorts left the last of the light. The fog deepened as a hail of rain and ice slid across the damaged Red Roses bow. Lightning crackled to the east. The hundred Lindblum and Alexandrian combined fleet dove, aiming their guns at the approaching hordes. The Burmecian Hand loomed in the foggy distance, and its protectors, the EON Spawn, swarmed closer every minute. Several thousand feet above the cold wet surface, the ships flew in a speedy mass, closing the distance between them and the hand.
** *
Eiko, in the airship Hilda Garde 3 with her stepfather, sweated. She saw her father making the calculating motions with his head. She sighed and kept a glance out the wet gray window.
"Just get them there… Make a safe route…" Regent Cid muttered. He started to fiddle with his beard.
It was then when Eiko truly started to respect her stepfather.
** *
The cold air blew past Yuffie's hair. Freezing, wet, and wearing very little, she still managed to keep her eyes on the approaching enemy. Now was the time to prove she was a great warrior. Once again. The sounds of cannons rang through the air. The barrage had started.
The hordes fired small missile like projectiles from their mechanical parts of their horrid bodies. The cannons pounded, sending numerous spawn to their doom. Each ship was firing somewhere, sending hundreds of fiery cannonballs through the blanket like swarm. And soon the airships and the EON spawn clashed. The main directive was not to destroy the enemy, but to keep a path clear for the Red Rose.
The Red Rose flew unevenly, trying to avoid collisions with the friends and foes. Cid Highwind had taken over Steiner's job as pilot. All around them, airships were being pulled apart and vile creatures caught in flame. Wood, steel, canvas, ammunitions, and humans fell from the deaths of airships. The missiles may have been small, but the can at least blow a person up. The airships had caused a much greater number of EON Spawn deaths.
The Burmecian hand was slowly growing larger as the Red Rose sped towards it. If any a time was the time for judgment upon the souls aboard the Red Rose, this was it. Yet her allies would not let her fall. A path, small or wide, was kept open no matter what. Even if it meant death for the crew aboard her allies.
Eiko could no longer stand to watch the bloody battle out there. The first time the massive dogfight occurred, she was on the lead ship, and hadn't had to worry about the ships behind her. Yet this wasn't a vain suicide. If the Red Rose could get into the Burmecia Hand, it would be a success. She glanced around the bridge, watching the crew's faces. All had a stern face. They hadn't regretted their decisions and would fight to the death to get Zidane and co. into the lion's den. Such people, such heroes, would save them all.
Chimera Spawn, larger types of spawn that had a large human torso, a mechanical eye for a head, a mechanical dragons head on the right soldier and an organic rams head on the left shoulder, with a long snake tail instead of legs and an embryo like creature at the end made up the gorilla like walking Chimera Spawn. It's many butterfly wings kept it into the air as it shot multiple bullets into the airship mass. These more "evolved" monsters were starting to take the place of the EON Spawn in the massive struggle.
"Something else is coming!" Cait Sith shouted over the hailing winds. Just about everything on the deck of the airship was broken into pieces. The blood of both sides stained the rain-drenched ship as the heroes stood heaving. The foreign creatures seemed millions of miles away…
And not a second after Cait Sith's warning did they storm by into the fleet. The sound was like that of a freight train screaming by. The ship rocked in the storm. Pieces of the side came splintering off. Momentarily paralyzed by the force, the heroes of the Red Rose recovered. The Chimera Spawn had passed and it was only hope that the Lindblum and Alexandrian fleets combined could destroy the Chimera Spawn. But in the middle of the maelstrom of formidable beasts, Cait Sith looked abroad, beyond that of the hideous mutations.
"We're closing in!" Cait Sith shouted. "We're almost theeaAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" A Chimera Spawns gigantic hand came out of nowhere and pulled the robot off the flying boat. The Chimera Spawn was than pulled by Cait Sith's mog hand, that instinctively grasped it. Screaming in a digital tone, the large Chimera Spawn was pulled off the ship and flung into the flooded wetlands thousands of feet below, taking Reeves robotic form with him. Thunder clapped.
"CAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTT!!!!!!!!" Cid shouted as he lunged towards the bow, but it was too late. Yuffie and Barret reached the scene just in time to see the final boards fall down. Lightning flashed.
"Cait Sith was just a robot, Reeves still alright!" Yuffie tried to say something amidst the sudden confusion. The rain was growing weaker as the Red Rose pulled out of the final waves of villainy and into the hand of EON.
"Just a *(^%ing robot?! He was our goddamned link to OUR world! He was our link to Shin-Ra! To Shera…" Cid collapsed onto the drizzle-bombarded planks.
Barret looked up at the approaching sun light shafts. The Burmecian hand, EON, and Judgment, were the next stop. "There ain't no getting off this train we're on…"
** *
Judgment pulled free of fleshy tendrils clutching his mechanical rotten body. Eyes glowing pure white, like an evil fire, he blazed the inner walls of Midgar EON, a name dubbed to thee by the humans. Judgment was growing weak. His energy was being forced into the other world, the Burmecian Hand, to help keep the "anti-bodies" production going. Catching his breath, Judgment staggered down the fleshy pink tube into an airlift. Upon riding the lift, Judgment came to an astonishing view. In front of him was a huge empty cylindrical room, stretching in both directions as high as the optic sensor could see. In the middle of this dark and grotesque body organ was a beating human heart, the size of a small building. How long had Judgment been in energy transplant mode?
** *
"Damnit!" Reeve slammed down his controller. Clenching his teeth, he jumped up and stomped his foot, swearing every word in the Jonun dictionary. He immediately set to punching out several of the televisions, monitors, and equipment built for Cait Siths use, swearing and cursing everything in existence. What could he do?
In the time since Reeves last report on the Midgar EON, it evolved. Like an enormous blob, it spread over the craters rim and its enormous roots and tentacles spread over the eastern continent, like a living technological forest. Reeve had been teleported by his deceased wife's soul to Costa del Sol, where they had been monitoring it and Clouds expedition since. Very little has happened, like an eerie silence. Judgment had been planning something.
"Sir! Please don't!" An advisor said, but he only added to Reeve's frustration. The advisor soon found a fist to his face. Letting out a scream of rage, Reeve fell to the floor on his hands and knees. Several police officers, advisors, presidential staff, and EMS workers soon arrived at the Costa del Sol embassy. AVALANCHE was all alone…
** *
"Grand Weapon…" A voice muttered in the darkness of Judgments mind. "…has found a soul fitting…"
From the walls behind Judgment on the verge of the heart room, sprang two ghostly figures, mal-processed souls. One had a positive charge to it, the other an evil charge. The first, Kuja. The second, Sephiroth.