Chapter Four-Travel Preparations
Staring with awe at the large ship the Highwind, Aeris couldn't help but smile. After all her dreams of riding upon this ship they were finally coming true. She sighed and continued to load with the others. They all looked the same as they had about a year or so ago. All wearing the same uniforms, weapons, and materia at hand. Their faces however, were not the same. Instead of the fresh, sort of youthful determination on their faces, experience, and pain had hardened them. They were worn, either by death or by heartbreak. No they were not the same in that retrospect, though they might appear to be by the untrained or unknowing eye. But despite this, they still were going. They were the only ones who could do it. The Planet had blessed them all at the hours of their births, giving them gifts, making them, more than humans. They were her Summoned Ones; they were what she had poured all her work into creating from the moment of their conception of their mothers and fathers. They were her last hope. Gaea, the Planet's spirit knew that. Shaking her head, she continued on with her work.
******
Half an Hour Later…
As she gazed out over the landscape flying below them, Cloud placed his arm around her shoulders and said
"Are you alright hun?" Turning a bright shade of red, she nodded saying
"Yes…just thinking."
"Really about what?"
"Oh life, death, how big our family is going to be…"
"Wha!?"
"Hee hee, just kidding goofball."
******
Gazing at the small rag-tag group, Sephiroth could not help but laugh.
"Foolish mortals, have they not realized that struggling against me is futile?" Shaking his head, he leaned back into the stone throne and sighed
"It does not matter, when they all are but the last ones alive on this Planet when I have giving new life to the rest of their race, then they will realize the truth. They are nothing but pieces in my puzzle."
******
"So where to?" Tifa asked.
"Hmmm, how about the Northern Crater? I mean we could find somethin' useful there." Cait Sith suggested. Nodding Cloud said
"Right, to the Northern Crater it is then."
"You got yourself a deal there kid." Cid chuckled pulling on the throttle. Aeris however did not easily understand
"Northern…Crater?" Red XIII approached her and said
"Yes, Sephiroth's final resting ground. After he killed you he settled in an old wound of the Planet's where large quantities of Spirit Energy were gathered in order to summon Meteor, we called it the Northern Crater."
"I see." She said quietly.
******
"We're here folks." The group clambered out of the ship onto the cold, rocky ground below them. Looking around, nothing really seemed to have changed. The walkway which they had used to get to the bottom before was gone, destroyed when the Lifestream gushed out. Staring down into the endless abyss, the group exchanged doubtful looks.
"Damn man! Ain't no way we gonna ever git down there now!" Barret grumbled. Shaking his head, Cloud turned to the others, shrugging,
"Guess there's no way we can get there now. Let's go back to Nibelheim and try and think of something else." Nodding the group left, unaware of insane joy dancing in the madman's eyes as the walkway reappeared.
"You'll be back, I know you all will."
End Chapter Four.