Chapter 6: The Calm before the Storm



Where am I? Wait… those stairs… I'm in the Crystal Shrine, but how? Caden looked around his surroundings. He could quickly confirm being in the Crystal Shrine, but something seemed different. "I must have been sleep walking… Wait a minute… who's down there?" Caden looked down and saw two people by the altar, except the White Materia's pedestal was missing. He looked closer and saw that one of the two figures was Cloud, but the other was, "Aeris?" Caden began to wonder. I can't see through her like before. It's like she's alive again.



Cloud looked down at Aeris as she prayed. No! Not again! Not this nightmare! Why? Unlike all the other times, Aeris did notice him. She looked up at Cloud, but it was too late in the memory to do anything.



Caden watched the two figures, who seemed to move little at all. However, something caught his eye at the top of the stairway. Who is that? Sephiroth? I wonder if he followed me down… Wait, that's not Sephiroth. Caden could see the mysterious man's eyes, they weren't human. The man's eyes had something almost evil about them. The man walked to the railing of the stairway. Caden looked down again, and saw Aeris completely unaware of the danger over her. No! He's going after Aeris! Caden began to run up the stairs, but the man saw him. He turned and gave a sadistic grin, and jumped. "NO!" Caden yelled. He could only watch from his lofty position as the man fell, sword pointed down.



Cloud could only stand still as he watched the shadowy figure descend. A phantom from a past he wished he could change. With sword posed in position, he fell.



Caden turned away as the man's sword pierced Aeris. He began to run down the staircase even though he knew he was too late. He arrived next to Cloud as the shadow man pulled his sword away, dripping with blood.



Both Cloud and Caden woke up in a cold sweat, and soon realized they both held something. They looked down at their hands to find Caden's scabbard and sword. Cloud let go immediately, but Caden did not. Instead, he removed the blade from it's covering, and looked at the White Materia. It was glowing brightly at first, but it soon dulled to its normal clear color. "The White Materia… It was glowing. It had to have something to do with that dream," Caden said to himself.

Cloud got up from his bed and looked at Caden. "What dream…?"

Caden tried to recall the nightmare he had just endured. "It was… disturbing to say the least. I was in the Crystal Shrine, and Aeris was there. A living Aeris. Then there was this man that looked like Sephiroth, but he had eyes were strange. Almost unhuman. He jumped off a ledge, and drove his sword…"

"…Into Aeris," Cloud interrupted. "…It's the nightmare that has haunted me for twenty years… since that day…"

"…Is that how it… is that how it happened?" Caden asked in dismay.

"…Yes… but how did you…?" Cloud was confused. "I had the same dream…"

"The materia…?" Caden said as he inspected his sword and at the once glowing materia on it. "We both woke up with it in our hands, and the materia… was glowing. …I think the planet wanted me to know." Caden put his sword away and looked around at the empty beds around him. "Hey, where is everyone?"

"They're probably around somewhere. Sephiroth didn't even take his cloak," Cloud said, pointing at the black cloak neatly laid on a chair.

Caden looked at the cloak. It was just a simple hooded wool cloak, nothing unusual about it. "His cloak was different in the dream. He had steel plates on either shoulders, and it wasn't hooded."

Cloud pondered Caden's words. "Strange… so much detail from a dream that wasn't your own."

Caden was silent for a moment. He looked at his sheathed sword and wondered how the materia forced two minds to endure the same nightmare. Both he and Cloud took their coats, and left the building without saying anything else.



They didn't have to search very long, as Sephiroth and Bowden were near the entrance to the crystal shrine. Sephiroth was bringing pails of water to the flowerbeds, and Bowden was by the lake dipping his hands in so he could wash his face. Aeris appeared next to Bowden. "Good morning everyone." Bowden gave out a loud scream, and crab-walked away from water faster then Caden had ever seen.

Caden stepped out of the cavern. "Come on, Aeris, you can't scare the crap out of Bowden on an empty stomach. You gotta wait until at least after he's had something to eat. "

Bowden fell on his back after stopping. "Sure, scare the crap out of the explosives expert why don't ya!"

Aeris laughed a little. "It's what I do."

Caden walked up to Bowden and helped him up. "Come on, Bow. A couple of years and a giant turtle don't make you an expert. You're more like a 'damn good' explosives specialist." Bowden shrugged off Caden's comment. Caden again examined the surrounding area, and realized that someone was missing. "Hey, Where's Mar?"

Aeris pointed towards the building behind Caden. "Marlene went down into the Crystal Shrine a while ago. She wanted to think some things through."

Bowden kicked some dirt in front of him. "Yeah, I tried to follow her, but I tripped over that big floating fish."

Caden began to walk towards the door of the building behind him. "Well, I'm going down to see what she's up to." Caden walked through the door, but turned around again and glanced at Bowden. "Oh, Bow, watch out for the fish."



Marlene sat on the altar of the Crystal Shrine looking at her reflection in the water below. She was deep in thought, holding the pendent she had carried with her for most of her life. Papa, why didn't you tell me? She broke from her trance like state with the sound of footsteps approaching. "Caden, what's wrong?"

Caden stopped right behind her. "How did you know it was me?"

"Only you, me, and Aeris can come down her alone, and Aeris doesn't have footsteps." Marlene smiled a little. "Besides, you have a very 'unique' footstep."

Caden looked at his boots, and the metal trim on the outer curve of the sole. "I guess so," Caden said as he sat next to Marlene. "So what's on your mind?"

Marlene jingled her pendent in her hand. "Just wondering why I was never told about this before." Marlene looked at Caden. "I made a fish disappear. That's not normal."

Caden shrugged. "And a giant floating fish is?" Caden asked, with a slight laugh. His face grew serious again. "I've known about my heritage for about two months, and mine's stranger."

Marlene looked at Caden with utter amazement. "But how do you deal with it?"

"Faith… and the occasional prank." Caden wryly smiled for a moment, then relaxed again. "But really, it's faith. Even when I face my past, it's my faith that will keep me going."

Marlene looked at Caden with concern. "You mean our little side trip from Rocket Town?"

Caden looked up at the Crystal Shrine's ceiling. "…Yeah." Caden bought his attention back down to Marlene. "Before we go to Midgar… I need to face it. We're going after something that holds the final key to my past. I need to know I can face it."

"…That's why we're going," Marlene said with a caring tone. "Remember, we're with you."

A smile began to creep across Caden's face. "Thanks Mar."

Marlene smiled as well, but her attention soon shifted to the pendent in her hand. "I've been hearing voices since I was four. Papa always said I had an over-active imagination. Guess I was wrong." Marlene tried to …I never knew my mother… She died when I was a baby… and my father… my real father died because of the Shinra. Papa tried to save him, but… That's how he lost his arm…"

Caden put his arm around Marlene shoulder in support. "Maybe this is something we shouldn't talk about just now."

Marlene shook her head. "No… I need to." Marlene looked at Caden. "You're able to talk about who you are, even when Sephiroth's around… What am I suppose to do if I can't talk about my past."

Caden continued to hold Marlene as he responded. "I have my own struggles to deal with… You can't compare your's to mine. Our situations are very different."

"Not as much anymore." Marlene said as she began to smile again.

Caden smiled as well. "Yeah, you're right. Both Cetra without a clue to what it really means." They both laughed, their spirits lightened. "You think everyone's waiting for us? I did leave my father and… Sephiroth… alone… with… Boooh shit!" Caden stood up and began to move towards the stairs. "We gotta move quick!" Marlene followed Caden out of the Crystal Shrine.



When Caden and Marlene reached the others, they did not find Cloud and Sephiroth with their swords at the other's throat. What they found was the two talking, calmly. Caden, though thoroughly confused, listened as Cloud presented a question to Sephiroth. "So how many inactives are there?"

Sephiroth thought for a second. "One, maybe two hundred, but it is the actives that have the worst problems. Luckily there are only six of us… that I know of. …Mother has the worst case I've seen though…"

Cloud did not look at Sephiroth, but asked, "How advanced is her case?"

Sephiroth looked down at dirt by the rock he sat on. "She is almost like him."

Cloud became concerned with were the discussion was leading. "What's she using to keep from converting completely?"

"This," Sephiroth said as he pulled a small vile from his shirt pocket. There was a small amount of a strange green gel.

Cloud stared at it in fearful awe as he gazed at the material, feeling that it was what he feared. "Mako?"

"No, it is a chemical that carries a small electric charge," Sephiroth said as he returned the vile to his pocket. "According to Hojo's reports, Jenovans react to Mako in the same way an animal reacts to food. It is like Jenova cells feed off of it. This gel mimics the proporties of Mako, but it also slows the growth of the cells."

Cloud was still skeptical, but softened his criticizing glare. "How did you figure that out?"

"I didn't just spend the last ten years reading old files on the Jenova Project for to pass time. My mother was a researcher, and the man who actually raised me was the most renowned scientist on the planet," Sephiroth said slightly arrogantly. "I did research. …Even though I've only been doing research for ten years, I'm already a better chemist then Hojo ever was."

Caden walked up to Sephiroth. "You seem to put Hojo down a lot considering he's…"

"…My father," Sephiroth interrupted. "He was the one who told me my mother was Jenova, and thanks to his psychotic experiments my mother is even like that thing. Some father."

Caden still had questions. "Wasn't it Professor Gast's project though?"

"Professor Gast never wanted Mother to be used like a lab rat, but Hojo did it anyway," Sephiroth said with anger. It was not directed at anyone there, but the feeling was all the same. "Professor Gast stopped the project when I was thirteen. He stayed with Shinra doing other research on Jenova, but Hojo continued the Jenova Project against Professor Gast's orders. They both knew then that Jenova was alien."

"How did he know that Jenova was alien?" Caden asked.

Sephiroth looked at Caden. "It is amazing what you will believe with a sword at your neck." Caden stood still, confused. Sephiroth tried to clarify. "…Ifalna held Masamune before me, remember. Her family had guarded Jenova for generations, so when it disappeared, she followed."

Caden was still confounded, but this time for a different reason. "How do you know all this?"

"I was there that day," Sephiroth said with a slight laugh. "It was the only time that Ifalna and I ever fought... I was reminded many times in my crystal prison, because the spirit energy that encapsulated me was…"

Aeris interrupted Sephiroth. "…Mom."

"…Yes, She and your father kept me in sort of conscious stasis. We could see outside the shell, but not react to it." Sephiroth's voice had a sense of sadness to it. "They kept me safe for fifteen years… by becoming materia… Ifalna once told me that materia was not the end, just another phase. One that can be reversed, but only if the spirit energy is prepared. After I was freed, the materia reverted into spirit energy and returned to the planet."

Caden, still struck by many questions, spoke up again. "So what would cause spirit energy to become materia without being prepared."

Sephiroth peered through the cavern's exit. "By being forcefully extracted, condensed, and processed into Mako. It is then condensed further to produce materia."

"All the more reason to get this over with as soon as possible," Caden said, trying not to push the subject any further.

Sephiroth, however, had not finished. "It gets worse. The planet's consciousness is in the Lifestream. If there is no free moving spirit energy in an area, then the land dies. If the event is global, the planet can not hold itself together. It literally crumbles into rock."

Caden was silent, because he had too many questions to ask. He decided to avoid badgering Sephiroth, and instead noted the time. "We better get going soon. It'll probably take us all day to get to Bone Village."

Aeris approached Caden. "Before you go, there is something else I need to tell you."

"What?" Caden asked, a little surprised that Aeris had forgotten something.

"You may come across some of your ancestors in the future," Aeris said. Caden was too confused to say anything, so Aeris continued. "When the spirit energy of a descendent of Ifalonoe becomes materia, it is always summon type materia."

Caden took his pendent into his hands, and looked into the green orb resting in it. The glyph of summoning and the image of a serpent shone through the sea of green. "I wonder who I've been carrying around with me."

Aeris gazed at Caden's materia, like she knew who was contained in the green jewel. "You will find out, soon enough."

Not entirely satisfied with Aeris' response, Caden turned and faced the entire party. "Well everyone, we better get going."



It had been three days since Caden and his party left the City of the Ancients when they arrived at the foot of Mount Nibel. Caden looked up at the summit of the lumbering behemoth before him. The mid-day sun rested over a set of stone spires like a beacon. Below that, he saw the destination they sought. "Mako Reactor One… this is where it began," Caden said melancholically.

Cloud walked up behind Caden. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Caden turned around, and tried to smile. "I need to… If I can't face this, my offensive is gunna be the shortest one in history."

The group made their way up the mountain. It didn't take nearly as long as Caden had first anticipated. Only an hour had passed between the start of their hike and their arrival. Caden began to walk up the stairs that led into the reactor building unsure of what he would find. He approached the door and turned around. "Well, anyone coming, or am I going in alone." The others followed Caden as he entered the relict of the Shinra's dominance. It was dark, as there had been no power generated for fourteen years. "It's a good thing we brought those lanterns." Caden removed the lantern that he had placed inside his coat, and lit it.

Marlene looked into the now dimly lit chamber before her. "So this is what a Mako Reactor looks like," Marlene said in awe.

Bowden also peered through the broken darkness, but was not as awe struck. "Eh, doesn't look nearly as impressive as the Junon or Midgar reactors."

Marlene turned around and looked at Bowden as if he had just feigned expertise. "And what would you know about Mako Reactors!?"

Bowden let a cocky smile creep across his face. "It's been a hobby of mine for a while now." Bowden began to look a little more somber. "My dad was in SOLDIER Garb and use to guard the Junon reactor. He was restationed to the front lines when WEAPON attacked… He died in the first wave… I never knew him. My mom decided that she needed to get out of Junon after that; so we moved to be closer to my grandmother in Gongaga… The reactor ruins still stand like some techno-ghost left by the Shinra."

"…Sorry… I didn't know," Marlene said apologetically.

Bowden shook his head. "No need to apologize, there's no way you would've known…" Bowden said. "We better keep moving."

Caden led the group down to the gantry below. He began to walk along it, but realized the silence around him. "Sephiroth, you've been awfully quiet."

Sephiroth did not respond immediately. "The last time I was here, I learned everything about my family was a lie, then used as a puppet by my so-called 'mother.' I am sorry I am not very enthusiastic about being here"

"I understand..." Caden said respectfully. Caden looked ahead again, but something soon caught his eye. In the gentle light given off by the lantern, he saw a slight reflection just off the side of the gantry. "What is that?" Caden approached the walkway's edge and looked down at what gave the reflection. "Looks like some old armor on… a… cloak…"

Sephiroth walked up behind Caden. "Even after all these years, it hangs here... Yet another ghost of my past sins…"

Caden shook of Sephiroth's comments. "I'm gonna try and get it." Sephiroth tried to object, but couldn't make out any words. Uninterrupted, Caden climbed off the gantry. The entire reactor building grew silent, as Caden continued further down to the cloak. When Caden reached the dark cloth, he confidently grabbed onto the cold steel of the armor, and made his way back up to the gantry above. When Caden reached the top of the gantry, the room breathed a collective sigh of relief. After bringing it up, Caden handed the cloak to Sephiroth.

Sephiroth took his forgotten garment and search through a pocket on the inside. When he found what he was searching for, he threw the cloak down into the bawls of the reactor. Caden watched as it once again slipped into darkness. Sephiroth showed no emotion to what he had just done. "It was a symbol of a past I wish I could forget… or atone for. Let it make its journey to the crater."

Caden looked at Sephiroth's hand. "What did you take from it?"

"It is a key card that might help us in Midgar," Sephiroth said as he held up the plastic card. "It should give use almost unlimited access to the entire city; that is if the Shinra did not change all the codes"

"Oh…" Caden looked at the rest of the group, who where now all looking straight at him. "Ok, you're probably wondering why I went 'monkey.' Well, I... felt like it. Besides, there was no other way to get it."

Marlene relaxed her gaze. "Just like when we were kids."

"Hey don't blame me for my tree climbing. You were the real monkey," Caden said jubilantly

"Anything to get away from the crowds," Marlene replied with a slight laugh.

Caden peered ahead through the darkness, an grew serious again. "We better keep moving…" Caden started to walk with lantern in hand, and the others followed; they entered into the next chamber silently. They had barely entered the room when Caden began to feel weak.

Marlene ran up behind Caden to catch him if he began to fall. "Are you ok?"

Caden tried to shake off his sudden fatigue. "Yeah, just a little light headed," Caden said as he held his head and stared down to what appeared to be a large metal door. "The hell?" Caden moved the lantern over the mysterious object. The light shone on it, as well as a large pod that it once attached to. He walked silently over to the pod, as if drawn to it. There was a plaque on the side of the pod with the words 'Cell Samples Gast A. and JC001: Sample JC014' written on it. Caden laid his free hand against the cold metal. In an instant, Caden's mind went blank.



Caden began think clearly again. He looked around him, but he was no longer in front of the pod. Instead he was confined; suspended in the thick green slurry of a Mako pod. He could hear two men talking outside his confinement. One of them was just inside the doorway that led into the pod room and the other sounded as if he were above the pod Caden was trapped in. The man in the doorway walked up to the pod. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

The other man picked up a wrench and adjusted a valve. "Quit yer yappin. We gotta get this done… This place gives me the creeps." He finished his adjustments and dropped the tool. "There, we're done." The whirs of machinery stopped and the building went dark. "Go tell that IU guy we're done..." The sound machinery interrupted the man. "What the hell was that?"

The man by the door turned on a flashlight and pointed it to the ceiling above his companion. "S-s-sir…" he tried to utter, but was paralyzed with fear.

"What!?!? You useless bag of shi…" A blade at the end of a robotic tail pierced the man in mid-sentence, and pulled away with the same stealth and speed. The robot attached to the blade dropped down behind the now lifeless body. It was small for a guardian robot, only two meters tall. Its four legs were poised to attack, and its two rifle arms aimed at the next target.

The man left alive dropped his flashlight as he ran from the robot. "The hell is a guard scorpion still doing here!?" The robot answered with a volley of gauss rifle fire, killing the man.

Caden could barely see anything, but he could hear it clearly. Caden looked down at his hands, but they were the hands of a child. These hands began to force the pod door of its hinges, crashing to the floor below. Caden could see through the child's eyes as he ran from the pod, and the sound of the robot. He took the coat from the bullet riddled dead man on the gantry, and wrapped himself in it. He ran out of the dark reactor building, but stopped in front of a third man. His eyes burned bright blue in the dark storm riddled sky. The chocobo he rode stared ahead menacingly, and warked a startling scream. The man pulled a sword from of his back, and held it ready to strike down the child. The child coward in fear covering his face with his right hand, but no harm came to him. The man lowered his sword, and got off his chocobo.



Caden came out of his vision. He was dazed, but otherwise fine. "I saw it… I saw… my birth… It was… here… This was my pod… ...My pod…" He took his hand away from the relict before him. Caden's mood quickly changed though, to that of anxiety. "We have to get outta here, now! There's a big, nasty, robot guard some where in here."

Sephiroth looked at Caden with surprise. "Whatever you saw in that vision is just that, a vision. There is no way a robot in here is going to be operational. The battery would have exhausted years ago." Sephiroth walked up a couple of steps and faced the group again. "Even if there were some way for the battery to remain charged, I shut down all the defenses twenty five years ago. Only myself, Hojo, or the President could reactivate them."

"Ok, then what's that?" Caden pointed over Sephiroth's head at large robotic tail.

Sephiroth turned around and faced the owner of the robotic tail. "That would be the reactor's defenses…"

"Everyone, watch out! This thing can do some really nasty shit with its tail," Caden said as he unsheathed his sword and prepared for an impending attack. "At least this thing looks slow." The robot jumped over the party and landed behind Caden with lightning speed. Caden turned and deflected the tail blade as it came down hard.

Bowden pulled two daggers from their sheaths, and prepared for another attack. "#@$%! What the hell you talkin' about!? That ain't slow!"

Marlene took an arrow and nocked it into her bow. "Then we have to slow the damn thing down."

The robot swung its tail down at Caden, but he was able to deflect the attack. "I'm up for suggestions. Hey mister everything Mako, what do you suggest?"

Bowden stepped back slightly. "Run and don't look back! That thing was the original prototype for the X-AM9A Guard Scorpion. It just happens to be smaller, faster, and may I add… STRONGER!"

Caden slashed at the mechanical fiend before him, but the robot dodged the attack with great ease. "That's not encouraging, Bow!"

Sephiroth stayed back and watched. He soon saw the answer Caden wanted. "You see that hump on its back. It stores the batteries and power management. Destroy that and that thing is done for."

Caden swung again at the robot, but it jumped away into the darkness that surrounded them. "I'd do that, if it would just stay the @#%$ still."

Bowden searched around the lit area frantically. "The hell did it go!? Next time I see that thing I'm…"

"Bow, shut up! I can hear it." Caden said as he walked to the edge of the light. He heard a volley of weapons fire and ducked into the shadows narrowly avoiding the shots. "We need more light in HERE! Fire!!" On his command, a pod burst into flames next to the robot. It was on the left side of the staircase.

The robot began to move towards Caden. Marlene stepped into its line of sight. "Been nice seeing you!" Marlene said as she fire an arrow at the robot. The arrow pierced a sensor on the robot's head. It stumbled backwards blindly, and crashed into a wall.

"Bow, now's your chance. Give that thing the adamantaimai treatment," Caden said while pointing at the crippled robot with his sword.

"One ka-boom make-over coming up!" Bowden said as he pulled out a small package of explosives from his satchel. He ran and jumped up onto the robot near the hump. It bucked, but Bowden diligently stayed on. When he had planted the ordinance, he jumped off and detonated it. The explosion tore open the hapless automaton in a spectacular orange blast. The resulting light brilliantly lit the rest of the chamber.

Caden stepped back in dismay at the sight of many pods. "…Wo… Guess I wasn't an only child."

Sephiroth looked over the rows of pods. "No, the rest were normal members of SOLDIER put through extensive Jenova and Mako therapy. By the end, they were no longer human. Didn't even look it."

Bowden walked over to what remained of the robot. He looked at one of the huge mechanical legs. "Hey guys, look at this!" Everyone immediately crowded around Bowden. "Look at that… It looks like some little kid tried to crush the leg." He pointed to a depression. It was several centimeters deep, but it looked as if the hands of a child had grabbed it. "Caden… did you…"

"No, I ran… …So there's another… Wonder if I'll meet him out there."

"Well I hope not!" Marlene said, horrified by the thought of finding the person who had, as a child, tried to tare a homicidal robot apart with his bare hands. "Look at what he did here! Who knows what he's like now!"

"Right, who knows. For all we know he could be a leader or a soldier. A doctor, or even a madman. We don't know, do we? He could be anything. Besides, he was probably killed by this thing," Caden said, trying to defend the reasoning of his search. Caden looked to his left and found another ruined pod. "That must have been his pod… The door has the same damage as mine."

Bowden looked up at the same pod. "Shit! That's a lotta power…"

Caden looked at the plaque that was placed on the side of the pod. The words 'Cell Sample Gast A. and JC001: Sample' were on it, but the sample number was 'JC015.' "Kinda like what's inside of me…" Caden said, not looking up. Bowden was silent, for a change. "Just a scared little kid with the strength of a dragon…" Caden paused, but immediately turned around and walked down the stairs again.

Cloud intercepted Caden. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I just a lot to take in today." Caden faced turned around. "Guys, thank you for coming with me…" Caden let a smile creep across his face. "Now I know I can face whatever's waiting in Midgar."



By the time the group reached the foot of mount Nibel, the sun was already low in the sky. The day had been long and tiring, but Caden thought it was worth it. He was quiet as he sat on a rock and watched the sun set over the mountains. A cool breeze blew through his hair, but he did not notice. He watched as the sun ducked below the peaks and spires.

The thought provoking silence soon gave way to the sound of footsteps, as Marlene walked up behind Caden and grabbed his shoulder. "Hey Caden, food's ready."

Caden didn't turn around. "Give me a minute or two. I'm just trying to absorb the day."

"I understand." Marlene sat on the rock next Caden. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

Caden looked at Marlene. "What?"

Marlene pointed at the mountains. "The sun, the mountains, even the reactor in this light."

"Really? They all used to give me nightmares when I was a kid. Guess I know why now." Caden smiled a little. Marlene began to smile as well. They both sat on the rock and watched the mountains slowly veil themselves in darkness. When the last rays of light passed below the mountain, Caden stood up. "Well we better not let the grub get cold. There's nothing worse than my father's cooking cold."