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I'm just as eager to find out what happens next as you all. No joke!
Chapter 15.
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Tifa left shortly after our conversation. We had made no progress at all through the dungeon during it, and now I felt like I was walking backwards. Cait Sith came up to join me after Tifa left. "Have any problems up here?" he said. "Duh," I said angrily. He turned and we walked forward.
We ran into a few magic pots. We had learned through experience, like the scissors, that these were interesting enemies. They were practically invulnerable behind their pots, but give them an elixir, and just for a moment their arms and heads would appear to try and drink the bottle. We had packed plenty of elixirs for this very purpose. Cait Sith and I each threw one and then we rushed forward sending the little thieves into the after life.
I was surprised how few enemies were here. It was very strange. Here I was supposed to be fighting for my life and we had barely even found anything good to fight. On top of that, last time we had found the bottom of the Final Dungeon with ease, now we were going in circles. The white materia, as expected, had altered the scenery greatly, and it was driving me nuts. It didn't matter if we went left or right. Somehow we were stuck in the exact same area.
Then I had an idea. If we back-tracked a ways, then maybe we could find a new path.
It ended up working pretty well. After taking out some Tomberri's, we found ourselves suddenly before a pool of life stream. Cait Sith and I waited for the others before entering. Once again they gathered around me expectantly. This time I was a little more ready. "Alright. We all know why we came here. We are here to take out Jenova, destroy her and Sephiroth once and for all, and then, if our efforts prove fruitful, maybe the planet will reward us all and bring back an old friend." I paused and waved for them to gather closer. I whispered, "For Aerieth guys, do this for her." I saw their eyes invigorated. I also saw Tifa wipe away a tear. Was it a tear of hope? Was it sadness? Was it disappointment?
It was all three probably.
"I suppose we should break off into groups again, and attack from more then one place. I'm guessing Jenova is much stronger then before." "I'm with Cloud," Tifa quickly said. I totally had not expected that. "Ok…uh….who else want to join our little posse?" "I will," said Red XIII. 'Well, isn't this a little ironic?' I thought. Before we were done, Barrett and Cait Sith had paired off, and Cid and Yuffie also decided to look after each other. Because I was in the group with the threesome, obviously it was our job to go ahead and take whatever hit us head on. I jumped into the life stream. It was a strange feeling. It was a liquid, which made you hold your breath, but then you realized that you didn't need to breathe anymore, because your body was somehow invigorated when you were in it. It was safe for me to stay in the life stream a long time, since I was a clone of Sephiroth, as well as the fact that I had already experienced Life Stream poisoning before, so it wasn't a big deal for me. However, the rest of the group did not have the luxury of being practically immune to it as I did. As a precaution, we had agreed that if we had not found Jenova after one hour, the others were to bail and I was to join them as soon as possible, assuming I had gotten lost or was busy fighting Jenova.
Tifa and Red XIII jumped in and they quickly shivered. Red XIII even twitched a few times. It was always a shock for them. We moved forward, town the ever winding path. Quickly we ran into a Dragon Zombie. Before I was able to avoid it, it had cast shadow flare on me. I felt scorching, unimaginable pain piece me from all directions, and I fell upon my knee, barely conscious. Tifa ran forward and beat at the monster, sending it into a painful daze. Then Red XIII called upon Alexander, and the Dragon Zombie disappeared. I healed myself using a Restore materia, and we moved on. We then ran into an Iron Giant. Tifa went forward and somehow managed to punch the creature, as well as cast fire at the exact same time. The creature fell over with a thud. Then shortly after that we ran across a Behemoth. This time it was me who took it on. I rushed forward and slashed repeatedly as I had always done, and the creature fell to pieces.
We continued on, until finally we saw a bright red light in the center of some life stream that was swirling about it. We rushed forward expecting anything.
There she was.
Beside the red glowing light was the figure that Tifa had described. It was tall, though short in comparison to the other Jenovas. It had a single large tentacle that jutted out of the back of its head. But by far the most striking new feature was that when you looked at her, somehow you swore that she was the colors black and blue at the exact same time. You couldn't say that she was dark blue. No, she was both colors quite distinctly, and yet, both at the same time.
We stopped and Tifa whispered to us that this was indeed the Jenova that she had seen in her dream. She looked frightened. I wished I could have comforted her, but that was no longer an option. Red XIII looked at us and motioned that we needed to attack her as soon as possible. We moved stealthily forward, using the various floating rocks about us as cover. As we got closer we heard a strange chanting sound. It was dark and methodical—deep and monotonous. Red XIII suddenly froze, "That is the same chanting I heard in my dream when I touched the pillar of light…" As we moved forward and we got closer, we were able to see her in more detail. Her body looked like that of a woman's wearing a robe of some sort. She had four arms. Two looked normal, by human standards. Long, skinny, and attached near the top where the shoulders should be. The other two were large, and looked web like. These two were attached to her back…if you could really call it her back, and they were swaying back and forth over the object that was glowing red. It was then that we saw what exactly the red light was. It wasn't a light at all, it was a giant glowing egg, and inside, to my horror, was the body of Sephiroth. His eyes were closed, and certain parts of his body didn't seem right, like they were still being molded, like his nose for example. His nose was crooked, and way too small. His left arm seemed un-proportional to the rest of his body: it was fatter and shorter then it should have been. Also their were spots on his chest. As I looked closer I noticed that these weren't actually spots, they were holes. They weren't bleeding, but I could see his innards through these golf ball sized holes. Apparently Jenova had not yet finished completing Sephiroth's new body, for which I was very glad.
Red XIII suddenly spoke. "It is as I thought. Look at the red light. That used to be the white materia. Jenova has indeed corrupted its purity in order to assemble Sephiroth's body…That is why in our dreams the white materia transformed into the red materia, because that's exactly what Jenova has been doing…"
I motioned to the other two. It was now or never.
We jumped out from our hiding place and drew our weapons. Jenova saw us from her small head and instantly became alarmed. Her giant web like arms stopped swaying over Sephiroth's egg and turned toward us. Red XIII moved first. Using the Big Guard skill, we all saw ourselves suddenly moving much faster then normal, and we felt the presence of a strong shield in front of us. Jenova attacked next. Using a fire spell none of us had ever seen before, she blasted us from all directions. Even with the Big Guard, the fire still seriously scorched our body. Tifa moved next. Casting Ultima, Jenova was knocked back, but was far from done. I then rushed forward and slashed at her several times. I cut a large section of her body away. She moaned, and then one of her huge web like arms swatted me away like a bug. I am totally not kidding when I say I must have flown at least a hundred feet until I hit a huge rock.
It hurt horribly, but I laughed a little. "Tifa's punch hurt more then that…"
Red XIII cast a mass heal spell, and feeling our bodies rejuvenated we continued our relentless assault. Jenova lashed out at Red XIII who jumped out of the way to avoid it. Tifa jumped forward and kicked hard into Jenovas head. A large crack was heard and again Jenova moaned loudly, but she stood back up. She then turned back toward us and cast Ultima upon us. We were all unable to avoid it and we felt our lives slipping away under the enormous power of the materia.
"Final Attack….Phoenix!" I cried. A huge red bird came down and brought the three of us back to consciousness. It then turned and dished out a powerful fire attack upon Jenova. Jenova reeled, but still didn't go down.
Tifa cast Lightning 3, and one of the Jenova's arms fell off. Red XIII used his ultimate attack, Cosmo Memory, and created a gigantic crater in the middle of her body. I then cast Quadra Magic Contain, and Jenova's body began to shrink and fall apart under the enormous power of that materia combo. Tifa beat at her furiously with her fists. Red XIII bit, chewed, scratched, and spun his hair clip shredding away at Jenova's dwindling life. I then moved forward and in one great slash, tore off Jenova's head. She then screamed loudly out of the huge hole I had just created. The life stream circled and spun around the dead body, and then in one climactic even, Jenova imploded into a tiny version of herself, about half the size of a human. Then this shrunken, shriveled version of her, slumped over dead.
It was over.
"Wait guys," I said. "Remember last time. Last time we defeated Jenova all that was left was a tentacle, and she still came back. We have to burn Jenova until she's ashes." They both nodded and we formed a small triangle around the tiny body of Jenova. Preparing our most powerful materia, we all prepared to cast them simultaneously. Red XIII using Alexander, Tifa using Bahumut Neo, and myself using Knights of the Round, we focused, and then all at once…
…we screamed.