The Song of Eternity
Canto 3
The Return of Sephiroth
Verse 8
Fall of the WEAPONs
The WEAPONs reborn,
Battling the ones who have waited years for freedom,
And evil arrives in the moment of victory.
"…" Rude 'said' in annoyance. He was silent by nature, but this was a time that he really needed his voice, but could not use it. The Diamond WEAPON had silenced him along with Reno and Elena when it attacked them. He dove out of the way as an energy blast tore into the ground where he was just standing. The WEAPON turned away from him to focus on Reno who was attacking it with his nightstick.
Rude took the opportunity to pull Elena to her feet. He pointed to his mouth, then over to where Cid had fallen to the ground. He pushed her in the direction, hoping that she would get the plan and grab a remedy or an echo screen. He turned his attention back to see Reno bleeding from a wound to the shoulder. He frowned and rushed to the WEAPON and tried to damage it with his fists. He pulled his hands back after the first couple strikes. He rubbed his knuckles in pain as he stepped back, hoping he got the WEAPON's attention.
The WEAPON turned to face him, swinging wildly with an arm. It connected, sending Rude flying until some rubble stopped his momentum through the air. Reno helped him up and they both stood there gazing at the WEAPON as it advanced on them. It stopped in its tracks as several Comets came out of the sky, staggering it from behind. As the WEAPON slowly turned around to face the new threat, Elena dashed around the WEAPON quickly and handed Reno and Rude echo screens.
"About time," Reno said as he finally found himself able to speak. "Here, Megalixer time," he said as he cracked open the bottle he produced from his jacket. He stood up straight as the wounds healed and brushed some of the blood from his clothes. "I never get used to this," he muttered.
Rude pointed at the WEAPON that was turning around, finding out that its attacker was now behind him. "Knights of the Round," Rude said quietly as the Turks disappeared and the space around the WEAPON changed colors as the legendary knights attacked the Diamond WEAPON. As the spell finished up, the WEAPON stumbled a little, but then refocused its attention on the Turks. "Run?" Rude suggested as a salvo of energy, much like the attack it used on Midgar, streaked at where they were standing.
The dirt exploded all around them as it hurled them into the air. After what seemed like eternity, Elena crashed into the ground, landing on her arm, breaking it. She gritted her teeth as she pushed herself to her feet with her good arm. "That was not good," she whispered as she looked at the WEAPON. "It's a lot tougher than Cloud said it was. Must be because of whatever Sephiroth did to it," she reasoned as she grabbed for the Comet materia. "Time to show it what a Turk is made of. Comet 2!" The comets crashed into the back of the WEAPON, sending bits of metal flying to the ground.
Reno got to his feet and noticed two things. One, the WEAPON was headed towards Elena. Two, he had a rock sticking trough his midsection. "Here, potion, potion, potion," he muttered as he pulled the rock out and poured the potion's contents all over the bloody wound. The blood stopped flowing and Reno shifted his focus to the WEAPON. "Mime!" he shouted as he grasped the yellow materia and comets more comets crashed out of the sky into the WEAPON.
Rude wiped the blood from his eyes as he saw the blurred shape of the WEAPON. "…" he stayed silent as he pushed the huge rock that had fallen on top of his legs. "…" he grunted as the rock did not move. "Bolt," he said quietly as the rock shattered. He scrambled to his feet and assessed the situation as Reno mimed Elena's Comet attack. Several small pieces of metal fell from the WEAPON as the comets hit. "Not working fast enough," he said as he looked through the materia in his Escort Guard. He smiled as an idea occurred to him. "Blizzaga," he said calmly as he unleashed the cold spell at the WEAPON.
Elena backed away from the WEAPON as Rude blasted it with the cold magic. She stumbled over to Reno, and shouted over the sound of the WEAPON freezing. "What's he doing?" Elena shouted in Reno's ear over the deafening noise of the battles raging around them.
"I think I get it," Reno said as realized that Rude was not stopping with the spell. "Get ready to hit it," he ordered as he handed her his nightstick. "Mime!" He shouted as he blasted the WEAPON from the other side.
Elena watched as the WEAPON started to move slower and slower. The metal all over the WEAPON was covering with frost. She could feel the cold from where she was standing fifteen feet from the WEAPON. Finally Reno and Rude stopped casting their spells on the WEAPON and she rushed in and struck the WEAPON with Reno's nightstick as hard as she could. There was a loud crack, and she went back to Reno's side handing him his nightstick as Rude made his way over. The frost thawed for a few seconds until the WEAPON moved towards them. As it moved, several large chunks of its exterior fell off onto the ground, revealing a huge hole where Elena had struck it.
"Damn thing doesn't want to die," Reno spat as he looked at the area they had uncovered. "Okay, here's the plan, distract it," Reno said as he pushed Rude and Elena off to the right as he went to the left.
"Great," Rude said as he pulled out his brass knuckles. He rushed in, with Elena right behind him, backing him up with several well timed Firaga spells. The WEAPON focused its attention on the human attacking it. It swung its massive arm, hitting Rude in the midsection, sending him backwards into Elena. It stepped forward, trying to finish off two of the irritating humans that were bothering it.
"Not so fast there," Reno shouted from the back of the WEAPON where he had climbed. "Let's see how this feels," he said as he stuck his nightstick in the wires that Elena uncovered. He then activated the electric charge attack in his nightstick and was blown backwards from the blast. When he opened his eyes, Rude and Elena were helping him to his feet. "It dead yet?" he asked as he felt injuries all over his body from the explosion.
"Yes, you deactivated whatever it was that Sephiroth did to it," Elena said as they looked at the still form of the Diamond WEAPON. "Looks like the others are about done too," she said as she looked over the rest of the battlefield.
"Crap," Rude said as he pointed to the sky.
Cid was roughly shoved out of the way by Cait Sith as the Ruby WEAPON's arm came down and crushed the cat and moogle. "Shit! You okay Reeve?" Cid asked as he crouched cautiously by the mangled remains of the fortune teller.
"I'm fine, Cait's done for though," Reeve's voice said from what little was left of the robot. "The power on this thing's gonna go out in a few seconds, good luck guys," Reeve's message ended in static and finally went out.
"What's going on old man?" Yuffie asked as she came over to the mangled remains of Cait Sith.
"Damn cat got himself squashed," he said as he lit up another cigarette. "We need to work on that thing," he gestured at the Ruby WEAPON. "Got any ethers?"
Yuffie shook her head, but produced an elixir and tossed it to him. "You better get using that Knights of the Round quick old man," she said as she struck at the WEAPON.
"Working on it, kinda have the small problem of no MP right now," Cid grumbled as he downed the elixir. "Look out!" he shouted as the Ruby WEAPON reached down and grabbed Yuffie. "Put her down you stinking WEAPON," Cid shouted as he stabbed at the WEAPON with his Venus Gospel. "Oops," he laughed as the WEAPON hurled it's arms skyward, tossing Yuffie in the process. "Tuck and roll kid! Knights of the Round!" He disappeared as the knights appeared and attacked the WEAPON. After Arthur attacked Cid reappeared to see the damaged, but standing WEAPON.
"Let's try this again," he said as he unleashed another pair of Knights of the Rounds summons. "You've got to be kidding me," he muttered as the WEAPON shuddered, but did not fall. "I'm already outta MP here damnit," he swore as he readied his Venus Gospel. He rushed at the Ruby WEAPON and stabbed it with his spear. He stood back from the WEAPON for a second before it zapped him with an energy ray. "Crap," he swore as he got back to his feet. He squinted at the WEAPON as he saw something hit it from above.
"Stupid WEAPON! Throwing me into the air!" Yuffie shouted as she somehow landed on the WEAPON, unleashed her limit break, and continued attacking the WEAPON. Cid joined in, stabbing in at the torso area of the WEAPON. "Ultima!" Yuffie shouted as the WEAPON fell to the ground in a heap of metal.
Cid leaned on his spear as he lit up a cigarette. He nodded as Yuffie stumbled over. "That was fun," she said sarcastically. "Looks like everyone else is finishing up too. So I guess we won," she shrugged.
"Try to find a megalixer or something, we've got company," Cid said as he stamped out his cigarette.
"Knights of the Round!" Cloud shouted as he and Tifa disappeared and the summon ran its course. When they reappeared, the WEAPON had massive damage done to it. "Sephiroth didn't have a chance to fix it up like the others. It's weak," Cloud said to Tifa. "Haste!" he shouted as he cast the spell.
"Regen!" Tifa shouted as the green light covered them both. "So what are we gonna do, the best spell we have is Quake or something," Tifa asked as she got her Premium Heart ready.
"Easy, just keep hitting it," Cloud said as he started to slash at the WEAPON repeatedly. Tifa joined in, punching from the other side, both of them causing huge chunks to fall off of the injured WEAPON. "Omnislash!" He screamed as she cut apart the WEAPON, finally causing it to fall to the ground after five minutes of constant hacking at it. "You okay Tifa?" he asked as he hugged his wife.
"Fine, but what was it so easy?"
"Near as I can tell, Sephiroth didn't have enough time to get it working again," Cloud guessed as he looked up into the sky. "This can't be good," he muttered as he prepared for battle.
"Think we should join in?" Barret asked Nanaki as they looked on at the scene in front of them. Vincent had transformed into Chaos and was ripping into the half-head of the Sapphire WEAPON. "I don't want to get too close to Chaos there. It looks like Valentine lost control, Chaos is going nuts," Barret said timidly as he stared at the fight.
"You realize you do have a gun. You don't have to get close to shoot the WEAPON," Nanaki pointed out.
"Damn, you're right," Barret said as he took aim and fired at the WEAPON. Nanaki charged around to the other side of the WEAPON and attacked as well. Chaos had clawed his way into the hole that he made and continued to toss wires and metal out the hole. Barret used his Catastrophe limit break and listened, hoping that Vincent/Chaos survived from his position in the WEAPON. He stopped shooting and listened to see if he was still alive. He heard gunshots and saw Vincent leap out of the hole as smoke and fire billowed out of the hole.
He landed next to Barret and wiped some blood from his eyes. "No more blasting the WEAPON when I'm inside it," he muttered as he reloaded his gun.
"Not my fault you and Chaos went nuts and crawled into the damn thing," Barret swore as another explosion rocked the WEAPON as Nanaki ran through the torso, creating a huge hole. "Think it's dead yet?" Barret asked as Nanaki came over and the WEAPON slumped to the ground.
"Hoped so," Nanaki added as he shook, spraying blood from his coat everywhere.
"That is disgusting," Vincent said in annoyance as he wiped the blood from his claw.
"This coming from a guy who turns into a demon," Barret joked as the WEAPON shook as a small explosion rocked it. "Is that thing safe?"
He barely finished the question as the WEAPON exploded, sending shrapnel flying in their direction. Nanaki and Barret cried out in pain and shrapnel cut into their midsections. Vincent caught a shard of metal in his leg and grunted as he pulled it out. "You two, take this," he said as he tossed them a restore materia. "I need to go take care of that," he finished as he walked in the direction of a huge shadow covering the ground.