Chapter 42: End Onyx
May It Be - Enya
May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be when darkness falls
Your heart will be true
You walk a lonely road
Oh! How far you are from home
Mornië utúlië (Darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornië alantië
A promise lives within you now
May it be the shadow's call
Will fly away
May it be your journey on
To light the day
When the night is overcome
You may rise to find the sun
Mornië utúlië
Believe and you will find your way
Mornië alantië
A promise lives within you now
A promise lives within you now
The Cathedral of Evolution was crumbling. The metal bars and twisted pipes fell to the wooden floor. The stained glass windows, recently smashed by Grand WEAPONs demise, fell from their sockets and onto the black iron pews. Cloud just stood there, watching the rafters of torment and misery fall, letting in white light. Like a slow dream, the chains of life collapsed. Noisy and silent at the same time, large chunks of midnight metal crashed through the floors around Cloud and Zidane. Bolts and screws rained down in the white light. Thunderous crashes were drowned out by the silence. Debris the size of large automobiles broke from their restrains and fell with the rest.
"Cloud! We have to get out of here! Now!" Zidane screamed over the deafening roar. "The whole cathedral is collapsing! If you don't move now, you'll be crushed!"
In a mind splitting shock, Judgment, the dark weapon of EON, appeared in Cloud Strife's eyes. Cloud instantly awoke from his trance, just in time to be pushed out of the way of an enormous support beam crashing down from the high arches above.
** *
"And God's wrath descended upon the tower of Babel…" Vincent recited as he watched the cathedral, the apex of EON, collapse within its self.
The yellow brick walls had long collapsed, revealing a platform of ancient clay to look upon the windy red skies and the cathedral of Evolution far away. AVALANCHE and the Gaian heroes watched in awe as the structure collapsed.
"I guess this means Grand WEAPON has been defeated." Vivi stated as he sat by the fallen form of Kuja. His hand had to be constantly on his tower of a hat or it would fly away in the strong winds.
Vincent's cape billowed in the wind, as did Tifa's long hair.
"Cloud's over there, I can feel it." Cid said as he coughed. He leaned on Irontail's back, who in turn leaned on his. Both had broken arms.
"Yes, I can feel his presence too." Steiner agreed. He stood up near the edge.
"Cloud…" Tifa's eyes welled up in tears as she looked upon the destruction.
"Judgment is bound to show up anytime now. Only he exists to protect EON." Red commented.
"I have a feeling EON has another trick up his sleeve…" Freya added. "It has to have some monstrous form within its heart."
Kuja's gray hair followed the wind, a calm look upon his face.
"If we survive this, some strange things are going to result…" Yuffie whispered.
"If we survive this, I'm never going on a damn adventure again! Just going to settle down with Shera…" Cid spat.
"Wait! There's a girl out there!" Fratley pointed out with his arm.
"What?" The crew shouted in unison.
Sure enough, Memoria was walking through the red windy skies towards the cathedral. Her faint figure was barely traceable, and the winds howling blocked any message from reaching her ears.
"What the hell is she doing?!" Barret shouted, nursing his gun arm.
"She'll be killed out there!" Yuffie added.
Vivi's yellow eyes suddenly flared up. He immediately jumped up. "Judgment's over there! I-I just saw him!"
Everyone turned back to the disintegrating building upon the back of EON. Agitation, anxiety, and fear showed in their assortment of eyes.
** *
Most of the large chunks had fallen, leaving a gaping hole for the sun to shine. Bottomless pits now scarred the floor, along with pieces of the cathedral. Zidane and Cloud leaned against a shattered wooden pillar. Exasperated, they sighed the minutes away.
"Grand WEAPON… they did say he possessed the ultimate soul. I wonder who's it was…" Zidane finally said, watching the remaining nuts and bolts clatter down.
"…H said it was the master of Terra, whoever that was." Cloud replied.
"Gariland? Hmm. That would explain it."
"Explain what? He wasn't hard enough for you? He was for me."
"No, no, no. He was tough. Nothing seemed to effect him until you did Great Gospel, or whatever that was."
"Yea. Thank Aeris for that, wherever she is…"
"Yea, but Grand WEAPON was destroyed because the soul wasn't strong enough to handle Final Fantasy. He was loading up on power, trying to summon enough energy to do the attack and destroy your world. But when you did Great Gospel, the massive energy from that was sucked up and overloaded him, like an airship engine. With so much energy…"
"He couldn't handle it anymore and released it all in an explosion. No wonder I'm not feeling that invulnerability rush, he soaked it all up!"
Zidane turned his head, wide eyed, at Cloud. "That summon you did was supposed to make us invincible?!"
"Yea. We had only used it once before…" Cloud started thinking about his past, about Aeris. "…Zidane."
"Yea?"
"I want you to find a way back to everyone and see how they're doing. You have the acrobatic skills to do it."
"But what about Judgment?! He should be here any minute!" Zidane suddenly jumped up and barked at Cloud, who stood up as well.
"…I don't know…a feeling is just telling me to go alone. You have a fiancée, right?"
"Y-yea, but what does that have to do with anything?!"
Cloud smiled, and placed his hand on Zidane's shoulder. "There's no sense in both of us dying and both of our loved ones going through something horrible. I know what people go through when they're loved one dies. Zidane, don't let Garnet lose you."
"…You're right. I should get back to my friends. …What should I tell Tifa?"
"Tell her I love her, and I'll be back for her." Cloud grabbed the hilt of the Ultima Weapon on his back and turned the opposite way of Zidane. "Now go."
"…See ya 'round Cloud Strife." Zidane picked up the tower and leaped across iron pews and pits to reach a doorframe and flipped through it.
Cloud swallowed a bit and stepped foreword, up some battered stairs until he reached a broken statue. A statue of a woman with butterfly wings, with a sword in one hand and a double helix in the other. Pieces surrounded it's foot and Cloud who, from there, could now see clearly out of the collapsed ceiling into the windy red sky. His spiky blonde hair began to sway with the incoming breeze.
{{"You haven't been alone, Cloud. You have had friends and loved ones around you ever since I passed on. I joined the planet. I had to. And you had to stay and play your own part in life. You love Tifa, and you love your friends and planet."}}
Cloud closed his eyes, sensing what was around him. Gradually fingering the handle of the Ultima Weapon, he slowly drew it back out in front of him.
{{"All life wants is death, but death comes through evolution. The stronger species wipes out the weaker ones. The EON seed has already sprouted roots and will soon evolve. I am the pinnacle of evolution, through technology, magic, and flesh I am spawned. I am Judgment. EON will soon evolve and bring death to your worthless world."}}
With a shriek of a thousand eagles, Judgments appeared in a hundred random spots in Cloud's mind. The six black winged figure's eyes glowering an evil, insane glare. From deep inside that vertical helmet, he laughed. Mocking the poor ex-mercenary.
Zidane was long gone. Cloud opened his eyes. Tightly gripping his sword, Cloud commanded the heavens. "I'm here Judgment. We are here. You are losing, your plot has failed. Now show me your face and fight!"
A dozen blackbirds escaped from the carnage of rafters above, crying out in their shrill bird tongue. A dark voice opened and sent words to Clouds ears.
"Cloud Strife of Nibelhiem, you are stronger than what we originally thought. You all are stronger than we originally thought. The destiny of evolutionary revolution and conquest of the gods has not been foiled though…"
Judgment floated out from a dark pit before Cloud, handling the divinity carefully and elegantly, the way a master swordsman should. He quickly flapped his upper wing set and landed on the dirty wooden floor. "Simply delayed. The extermination of your kind begins with you, and then your party."
Sweat rolled down the side of Clouds face. Finally a chance of revenge has opened, and Judgment stood laughing within.
"Do you honestly think you can defeat a higher forces weapon? Grand WEAPON may have had a weak soul, a flaw I overlooked, but I possess my own."
"CLOUD!" Memoria appeared to the left of the statue, slightly behind Cloud. "Cloud, you must go! I will handle Judgment! Aeris simply borrowed my body for a short time, but I still can manifest powers beyond your imagination!"
"W-where to?!" Cloud stepped back. Secretly he wanted to fight the creature that haunted him, but he knew his powers as a human being were limited.
"Quickly leap down one of the pits! They will lead you to Zodiak Life, the true monster!"
{{"Cloud, I don't belong here anyway. I did what I wanted to do in Memoria's body. Sephiroth can plague you no longer. You can fight Zodiak Life now."
"I don't care! I don't give a damn who Zodiak Life is or about EON anymore! I just want you to stay!"
"You must fight him. Think of Cid, Vincent, Reeve, Yuffie, Nanaki, Barret, and Tifa. They want to live…" Aeris coughed. "And you should to. Cid will one day have kids. Give them a chance to live."
"Oh Aeris. I …"
Aeris smiled, her green eyes beaming. "I know what you're thinking Cloud. I will always live in your memories and in your heart, but you must move on. You love Tifa. Live, for her. Good bye… Cloud…"}}
With a look of determination, Cloud quickly leaped down the staircase and through the pit that the damned villain had risen from.
"Damn you, infernal wench! You are dealing in things you should not!" Judgment spat.
"You are wrong, Judgment. I am here to rid the multiverse of you." Memoria said as she places the baby moogle in one of the statues palm.
Judgments white eyes flickered. "You look familiar. Your powers are high. Where have a dealt with you before?"
"Many thousands of years ago, you and EON came to my world. I was its WEAPON. But I was weak and foolish. I left and his when you started your carnage. All of those lives you killed… could have been saved by me if I had acted…"
"And you're here to take revenge, right? Mwahahahha!" Judgment began to cackle.
"No, I am here to correct an error I made a long time ago. Because of my guilt and shame, I began to help others in need of help. And I'm here to finally stop your path of destruction!" Memoria clenched her fists.
"What a touching story. A fool you were than and a fool you are now. Prepare to die!" Judgment made a quick and powerful ram, knocking the Weapon outside the cathedral and into the red sky and made a pursuit after her.
Not being able to concentrate, the teen aged girl fell screaming, thousands upon thousands of feet above the ground. With a quick dive, Judgment caught her by the hand, and raised her face to meet his helmeted face. "Let's take a look at you before you die." With intense examination, his eyes darted back and forth, trying to remember. "…Memoria."
Memoria swallowed.
"I-I don't recalling ever seeing you before…but at the same time I do."
A flash brightened the inside of his helmet, and his blazing pupil-less eyes morphed towards a set of blue human eyes, and a face of a man to whom they belonged to. "Memoria of Burina?" Judgment cried out in a human voice
"F-Felrain?" Memoria choked out.
A dark flash occurred, and Judgment shook his head. "No! Felrain is dead! That WEAPON was weak and foolish. I have taken his place!" The dark voice returned, with the blazing eyes and pitch-black face. "I'll have to kill you, to rid EON of WEAPON enemies."
Memoria broke loose of Judgments grasp and floated in the crimson air, watching his every move. "Why must you listen to EON, Felrain?! EON is nothing but a virus upon our glorious worlds!"
"Fool!" Judgment knocked her over the head with the hilt of the divinity. She sprawled a couple yards below. "EON is supreme. All who oppose will not become advanced beings!"
"Felrain, Judgment, you leave me no choice. My powers deal with the light and healing, while yours with the dark and destruction. I call forth the fallen!"
The earth below begun to shake, and from the dead rock, emerged creatures of unimaginable size. In the sea rose the Sapphire WEAPON. From the land rose the Diamond WEAPON, the Ultimate WEAPON, the Ruby WEAPON, and the Emerald WEAPON. Roaring and bellowing with enormous might, the creatures readied their attack.
"These are the WEAPONs of this world. You have killed some, while others were slain by the ones here. But they must protect this higher force from you!"
Judgment became somewhat shocked.
The WEAPONs started to close in, all arming their tools of destruction. Judgment awoke from his shock to try and defend himself from the attack of the WEAPONs. His amazing speed and strength kept him from being incinerated or slain by the mighty. Memoria, the young girl, watched the stand still. She was not able to act, for she now knew that Judgment was the same as her ancient love, Felrain.
Aire tam storm, Ruby beam, Diamond swarm, Sapphire beam, and Shadow flare blazed one after another for an eternity. Flare, Ultima, and other strong magic, plus the divinity's exquisite slashing, kept Judgment alive and keeping the WEAPONs from over-running him.
"Judgment Slash!" A weakened Judgment cried. With a burst of EONs energy, Judgment slashed through the Ruby WEAPON, sending it to the earth in two pieces.
"No!" Eyes brimming with tears and more down her check, Memoria sobbed. Her brown hair followed the wind as she watched the battle of WEAPONs rage. Finally summoning the strength, Memoria placed her hands out.
"Forgive me, my love." Memoria sniffed. "Ultima Void!"
An enormous explosion of Ultimas power generated from the center of the onslaught, pushing its way outward, disintegrating the giant WEAPONs. Crying openly, Memoria searched the explosion that silently engulfed the entire continent, and EON.
** *
"Did you see that?! The WEAPONs weakened Judgment down and suddenly exploded!" Zidane shouted as he reached the group.
Yuffie was hiding he face in Vincent's arm, while the rest watched in awe as the flash dimmed.
"…Some of us have bad memories of WEAPONs…" Vincent said, patting Yuffie's back.
"Judgment had to have been one strong muther to fight all of the WEAPONs at once."
"Why is it that this world has multiple WEAPONs, while we have only Necron?" Steiner gasped.
"…Vivi, is Judgment still there?…I do not see him." Freya asked.
"I-I don't know…" Vivi replied, shaken.
"I don't see a damn thing. This is a good sign!" Cid smiled.
"I hope it is. I doubt Judgment survived that…" Red XIII said.
"That means Cloud has gone to fight EON." Tifa smiled.
Zidane remembered the message, and in his mind doubted that Cloud actually did make it.
"Tifa, Cloud wanted me to tell you something…"
** *