Emerald Dawn
Vincent fled to the highest peaks of Nibel and watched the sunrise creep across the horizon. The glowing pillar of Lifestream in the mountains had apparently disappeared as the one in Cosmo Canyon did. It was a curious change in events but not the most urgent in his mind at the moment.
Vincent squatted on the edge of a precipice jutting off the northern side of the tallest mountain of the Nibel Mt. range. Heralds of the dawn soared overhead, screeching and circling the vault of the light blue sky. It was a beautiful scene but he wasn't touched by it. He was angry and miserable at the same time and these feelings consumed him to the very brim.
"Why now?" he asked himself. "Why? But I've always had nightmares. Born of my guilt. What I wasn't able to do for Lucrecia, and ultimately, Sephiroth. But… Is it time? Is it finally time for Jenova to truly take me over? To destroy my human side and unleash the shackled monster? Jenova… I can't stand it. But there's nothing I can do. Nothing…" He looked at his claw. This was it. This was Hojo and underneath…Jenova, and Chaos. The Beast that tears at his intestines trying to get to freedom above his skin.
His-
A distant rumbling sounded. Vincent scanned the horizon, standing erect. Besides the sunrise, something else rose as well. A moon, or what resembled a moon, inched upon the land with the seeming speed of a snail. Like Lifestream trapped in a perfect sphere. Beneath its rays materialized a shade like nothing else he ever saw.
"What is that…?" He narrowed his eyes to attempt a better view of the mobile spectacle, but it was still too far off in the distance. A sense of uneasiness churned in the pit of his stomach. "This is… What is this feeling? It's wrong, all wrong. Whatever that thing is, it's…wrong."
Vincent lingered about Mt. Nibel, observing the great spherical object become larger and larger by the hour and by the day. After the second day, it was about as intimidating as the sun but never setting and never rising, only moving forward, its shadow following in unbreakable pursuit. Vincent found himself held in too great suspense and restlessness because of this mysterious thing that unnerved yet fascinated him at the same time. He was unsure of what to do. What would happen when it came close enough? Was it really dangerous was the most important question that Vincent focused upon.
More days passed and the sphere was only miles beyond Rocket Town, its luminous glow stretching out far before it. It was mesmerizing. Then Vincent knew. It was one thing he often pondered for himself, secretly, but not for…them.
"…Death…"
The Light. The light of that emerald moon shone down on Rocket Town, bathed it in its eerie beams, and for an instant, it was all too beautiful. The light. What the dead must see welcoming them when they returned to the Planet. Calm. And the people of Rocket Town would be experiencing the very same soon enough. For he knew.
There was a blinding light that lasted for but only a second, subsequently followed by an earsplitting boom. Vincent was knocked off his feet by the intensity of that boom, momentarily disoriented.
"…ugh, what…"
He labored to recover, pulling himself up from the ground. He gasped.
The land was awash in flame, the burning shade of the emerald moon. He knew it. His instinct whispered that this would happen. He could almost smell impending doom and death nowadays. Because he had been subjected to such in earlier years and was no stranger to it, no stranger at all. And now, as he stood on the peak of Mt. Nibel, he witnessed destruction of a people. He was overwhelmed with shock, a shock he hadn't felt since Lucrecia's fall.
"That… It will be coming this way, too," he muttered to himself. "Coming…to destroy. Whatever you are, you'll be coming…"
--
Vincent hastened back to Cosmo Canyon to meet with Nanaki. He found him out by an unlit Cosmo Candle. Heeding Vincent's return, he hurriedly trotted up to him.
"Vincent, where have you been? Did you hear? A sonic boom went through the canyon this morning. No one knows what caused it yet," Nanaki said.
"It was something in the sky," Vincent responded promptly.
"What?"
"It was…I don't know what it was. But Rocket Town is gone."
"What?!" Nanaki exclaimed. "Gone? How?"
"That thing, it… Light came down and everything was on fire. I don't know if anyone survived..." Vincent shrugged and shook his head.
"No. That's not good, that's not good at all! What'll we do? How do we stop it?"
"No doubt it's going to come this way."
"Which way did this thing come from? Do you know?" Nanaki asked, on the verge of snarls.
"North," Vincent replied.
"From the north… Hey, maybe it came from the Crater. Maybe it IS Sephiroth all over again! Vincent!" He looked to the other with not-quite-rage in his eye. "We have to do what we can, no matter what. We can't let anything happen to the Planet, not again, not like before. We worked too hard to keep it. And no one's going to take it away. No one."
When Nanaki and Vincent went to Nibelheim, they were astonished by what they saw. Even though the sphere in the sky was nowhere near where they stood, the mountains behind the town were suffering the gravitational pull of the encroaching object. Chunks of rock drifted into the sky, with the peaks themselves whittling down to little more than stony hills. It was as though a still rain of jagged boulders strung over Nibelheim.
"That DEFINITELY doesn't look good," Nanaki said.
"Destruction never does," Vincent noted simply.
"I hate it when things threaten the Planet," the other added crossly.
"…no one loves it."
"True. Except the one doing the threatening."
Vincent glanced at his claw then at the sky. "…hmm."
"You know, if I had enough time, I'd go to Junon and see if I could get help. I made friends over there. They have weapons that used to belong to Shinra," Nanaki said.
"Send someone else to get help."
"I could , couldn't I? But…would they make it back in time with the cavalry before that thing hits Cosmo Canyon? And by the looks of those mountains, I think Nibelheim is pretty much lost. I say we evacuate the people so, at least, there won't be any casualties when it comes," Nanaki proposed.
"..."