Final Fantasy VII
Emerald Princess of Vernea
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The steam finally began to thin and disperse, slowly revealing the creature that had been born from the acidic mist. Its shadow became a visible form that sent powerful waves of evil throughout the air, standing well over ten feet tall so that the top of its body nearly touched the ceiling of the engine room.
It was clear from its overall appearance that it was no ordinary monster. They had never seen a creature like it before. Its body was made up of thick, rubbery skin that was deformed and disjointed with no real correlation. It had elongated shoulders that stretched out wider than humanely possible, the ends spreading like spider webs tipped with tentacles that curled round like claws. It had but one tentacle-like arm – the other looked like it had been ferociously torn off to leave but a few long strands of loose flesh that wriggled round of their own free will. Below its thin waist its body spread out again as though wearing a fleshy dress, with a single tentacle-like tail.
Lastly there was its face, set in deep on a long, craned neck that looked down at the group. That face was thin and bony, unusual after seeing the loose flesh covering the rest of his body. Its black eyes glared out emptily at the group one by one. Those eyes… they had intelligence, nothing that any real monster had ever truly shown before. It really was no ordinary monster.
Stretching and raising its fleshy arms, the creature let out a furious, heart-clenching screech. The sound echoed throughout the engine room as well as the lower decks of the ship. Lifting up its thick tail off the ground it pointed the tip towards Cloud and Tifa, who were the closest to it. The tail's tip began to glow brightly, before a beam of light abruptly burst out from the tail and zipped towards them. Cloud and Tifa jumped away from each other as the light struck the ground where they had stood, letting it fire into the ground.
The laser pierced the metal with ease, the edges around where the light went through melting and curling in on itself from the intense heat. The laser continued to move across the floor towards the body of the fallen guard. It missed him only by inches and stopped just before hitting the wall where the engines were built.
The creature's tail twitched violently as a parade of bullets suddenly flung through the air and struck its hideously malformed side. Sprays of green-black blood oozed from the wounds and slid down the creature's side. The creature shrieked again, the ground quaking beneath its flat, seemingly footless body. It slowly began to turn, a squelching sound coming from beneath it as it moved, the blood trickling down towards the metal floor. It eventually stopped as it faced Barret, who had moved away from the wall and was standing directly behind it, his gun-arm aiming for its head.
He immediately opened fire as the creature turned, and the bullets powered up to its already deformed face. The creature moved away in time, but at least two bullets connected with the side of its face. They seemed to cut right through with ease and sunk deep into the skin, as though there was no bone to cut through. The rest of the bullets missed completely and hammered into the back wall. The creature seemed to grin a large, black grin and began to advance on Barret, its tail sliding silently behind it. It raised its one good tentacle arm, the tip glowing, and prepared to bring it down on Barret.
Red XIII, unable to watch anymore, leaped up from the ground and clamped his jaws firmly around the tentacles arm. His sharp fangs sunk deep into the flesh, surprised at the firmness of it. A sour taste of rot and decayed flesh hit his senses and he almost let go, but he just curled his tongue back as far as it would go and held on.
The creature, enraged by Red XIII's attack, swung its arm furiously in an attempt to throw him off. It lifted its tentacle-arm high up into the air and swung it round, but Red XIII simply dug his claws into the arm, wrapped his tail around for extra support and held on.
Temporarily distracted in its quarrel with Red XIII, it was time for the others to attack. Barret opened fire again, sending more bullets up into the air. The creature's body shuddered again as more bullets were flung into its flesh, allowing more green-black blood to pour from its side. In response the creature raised its tail and moved it forward between itself and Barret, shielding itself from the bullets. Its tail was made of thicker, firmer flesh, and the bullets found it much harder to penetrate. Of course, lifting up its tail made the back of the creature bare and very exposed to a direct rear assault.
Cloud was kneeling on the ground right then, where he and Tifa had fallen after dodging the creature's tail laser. Standing up he lifted his sword and darted forward, levelling the sword in front of him. He then thrust it forward and buried it deep in the open flesh of the creature's back, even if he could only reach up to its lower waist. His blade sunk in only halfway – beyond that the flesh became more compact and harder to push the blade through.
Feeling the blade's sharp edges inside of it, the creature roared angrily. In retaliation it flipped its tail back with amazing force. Barret ducked in time for the tail to move over his head, but with his blade still stuck in the creature's side Cloud couldn't move away, and the tail struck him hard as it spun round. The blade came out as Cloud was thrown back to the far wall, where he crashed against it and fell to the ground, the sword clattering at his feet. Tifa immediately ran to his side and knelt beside him.
Retaliating from Cloud's assault, the deformed creature swung its arm around and threw Red XIII against the wall. A loud crack sounded throughout the room as Red XIII was slammed against the wall and released, also falling to the floor.
While the creature's arm was suspended in the air, a quick flash of metal zipped through the air, and the creature roared as its arm fell cleanly from its body and onto the floor, allowing even more blood ooze onto the floor. The creature thrashed and writhed, its roars almost ear-piercing, while the shuriken flew back like a boomerang through the air to Yuffie's hand where she was waiting for it.
It was then that the final direct assault took place. Barret, safe in his position, opened fire at the open wound of its arm where the flesh was ruptured and soft. Red XIII clambered to his feet and leaped up the side of the creature's body, dodging the bullets, and attacked its face directly, clawing and scratching and biting wherever he could. Yuffie guarded Aeris, throwing her shuriken so that it whipped round and cut more holes in the flesh.
It was enough. A final cry of despair and pain made Barret and the others all stop their attacks and step back. The creature's entire body shuddered before them like an out-of-control fit. Blood ran down over almost every inch of its body, its already misshapen form even more deformed by bullets, claws and blades. More smoke then began to seep out of those wounds, the same colour as before, and began to envelope the creature once again. Inside the cloud the creature roared, its silhouette burning as though on fire, until its cry and its form seemed to fade into nothing. The smoke slowly evaporated, and the echo of its cry died down to nothing and left the engine room quiet, bar for the rumble of the engine.
For a moment or two no one said anything, catching their breath after the creature's disappearance. Tifa was still kneeling by Cloud, tying a bandage from her own wrists around his wrist where the metal wall had cut through when he fell. All that remained of the creature to prove of its existence was the same arm-like tentacle that had been cut clean off by Yuffie's shuriken, although this time it wasn't wriggling or flopping. Now it was lying dead and motionless on the ground in a pile of ooze, a single ball of red materia lying silently next to it.
"Eeeew!" Yuffie squealed, her bones turning to jelly as she looked at the disgusting pile of flesh in the middle of the engine room. "What is it! GROSS!"
Everyone gathered around the dead tentacle-arm, including Tifa and Cloud, after Cloud assured her that his wrist was only scratched and not badly hurt. They all looked down at the pile of dead mottled flesh, unable to fight the feeling that they knew who or what the creature had been.
"I've seen this somewhere… before," said Tifa, confirming everyone's thoughts.
"That's what disappeared from the Shinra building," said Red XIII.
Cloud knelt down beside the immobile arm, unsure whether or not to touch it to make sure that it truly was dead and the creature would not be reborn from it. Red XIII was very observant, and had made the same connection as he did. "…Jenova," he said, his voice very low. "The arm of Jenova."
The name sent chills down everyone's spine. Apart from Yuffie, they all knew what 'Jenova' was. Jenova was the strange, headless creature that had been locked away in the Shinra science laboratory. At least, that was until Sephiroth appeared and released it, dragging it away from the headquarters. Cloud had almost forgotten about Jenova, the Ancient who was Sephiroth's mother. Except the creature they had just fought was certainly not headless. It had been alive and intact.
"Jenova…" muttered Barret, the sick taste of disgust in his mouth. "You mean he's been walkin' around with that thing?" He watched, as Cloud stood up mechanically, his Mako-eyes almost blank as he became lost in thought.
"So it WAS Sephiroth?" he said.
Those words were the realisation that everyone had feared. Somehow they had hoped, by some weird miracle, that Sephiroth was indeed dead and all the rumours were just rumours. Yet now it seemed that Sephiroth was alive, and they had seen it with their own eyes. Tifa secretly clenched her fists tightly in anger as her memories of Sephiroth haunted her. The memories that made her move to Midgar, where her only surviving friends still lived. Now she was being forced to relive those memories again.
"He said something about it being time for something," she said, trying to shake off the painful memories. She couldn't afford to lose herself to the fear that this could lead to her losing more people that she cared about.
"……Time… is now?" Cloud said, repeating Sephiroth's words. They made no sense, but that was no surprise. Sephiroth had seemed to be in some sort of trance throughout the whole meeting.
Aeris scratched her head. "Hmm… I don't get it," she said, giving up. "Hey, Cloud, can you explain it to us?"
Behind her, Yuffie nodded her head vigorously, clearly the most confused out of everyone since they had had little time to explain everything to her. Cloud sighed heavily. He was just as confused.
"…I'll try," he said. "But don't interrupt me while I'm explaining." He took a moment to collect his thoughts, then breathed deeply before beginning to explain the events so far. "Sephiroth went off searching for the Promised Land, so he could become the ruler of the planet… That was five years ago. Then Sephiroth came back and killed President Shinra. And then just now all of us saw Sephiroth. He was carrying Jenova with him… This much I do know. He told me he wants to go to the Promised Land with his mother, Jenova…" He shrugged. "I guess that's about it."
He stopped as the speaker above them crackled into life, and the strong but still anxious voice of the ship's announcer rang throughout the ship, making them all jump violently.
"Dock workers – We will be docking in Costa del Sol in five minutes. Prepare for docking."
Everyone immediately sighed with relief, glad to hear that news. Clearly everything was back to normal on the ship, despite the battle that had gone on below. Pretty soon they would be back on dry land and away from the cluttered, claustrophobic decks of the ship. Hopefully away from Sephiroth and the Shinra as well, although they knew that would be too much to hope for.
"Maybe we shouldn't stay in here anymore…" Aeris said as the voice of the announcer died down.
One by one everyone nodded and headed towards the door, Cloud picking up the ball of Materia as he went. Inside the new materia, also summoning materia dropped by Jenova, was the image of the fiery beast known as Ifrit. Cloud pocketed it and went to the door as Tifa walked out, before stopping and looking back at the emptiness of the engine room. Soon the ship staff would find the bodies of the workers in here, and he wondered whether Shinra would blame it on them or Sephiroth.
"Sephiroth… is alive… The Promised Land… Does it really exist…?"
He looked around one more time, until he finally turned around and left the engine room and its lost souls behind.
Costa del Sol
It wasn't long before the shores of the next continent finally came into view, just as the announcer had promised. It was still a few minutes before the port town came into view, much to the immense relief of the sailors who had all gathered on deck to watch it grow into view.
Slowly but surely, there it was. The port town and popular holiday resort of Costa del Sol, the opposite partner of Junon where the two continents connected through this one main ship line. Seeing the town with its long, sandy beaches and clear, lustrous waters was such a wonderful sight to the tired sailors. After the alarm had sounded and the bodies discovered, every one of them had become very anxious to get off the ship and onto the safety of the land again.
Finally the Shinra ship pulled into the dock, its engines grinding as they came to a stop. The anchor, previously hanging against the side of the ship's frame, was lowered carefully into the water so that it would hold the ship still and prevent it from drifting off into the ocean again.
There were a number of small motorboats docked in the quay, but the Shinra ship was the only large ocean-going vessel. It caught the attention of the locals and holiday makers who were bathing on the smaller boats, dressed in as little clothing as possible to soak up the sun. They all stood up in their boats and looked as the ship stood silent in the water.
Once all the sailors were out of sight inside the ship preparing to leave, a small door on the deck of the ship opened up beside the stairs that led down to the dock. Cloud and his team ran out of that doorway and down the stairs, hoping to make a quick and quiet escape before Rufus and the Shinra could spot them.
One by one they ran out of the door and onto the dock. They were immensely glad to feel the hot sun against their skin, warming them up within the space of a few seconds and relieving the horribly cramped feeling they had had in the depths of the boat. Even Yuffie, who had chosen to make her exit by jumping off the top of the boat and down to the dock, was no longer feeling seasick. In fact she was so perky that when she landed on the dock she ran around as though checking everything out, before she ran back to join Cloud and the group at the edge of the dock.
As she joined the group once again, she saw that their relief of being back in the sunshine was quickly dissipating. Costa del Sol was a holiday town as well as a port, and the sun was very, very hot. So hot in fact that the group were already beginning to sweat.
"Damn! Sure is hot here!" Barret exclaimed. "But I sure feel better now that I can say goodbye to that sailor suit." Beads of sweat trickled profusely across the black skin of his face and arms. He wiped his face and snarled at how wet it was. He shook his hand vigorously, shaking off the sweat drops. "Yo listen up!" he added suddenly, seeming to take charge again. "Y'all be sure to mingle like regular folks here!"
To one side Tifa rolled her eyes, while Aeris sidled over to Barret and stood close next to him with a sly smile on her face. "Oh, too bad," she said. She looked up at Barret and fluttered her eyelids. "I liked Barret's sailor suit. He looked so cute."
Barret stared down at Aeris, who continued to look up at him with the strange smile on her face. Around him he could hear the giggles of Tifa and Yuffie, as well as the stifled laughs of Cloud and Red XIII. "……" he muttered, looking around at the others forcing back their laughs. He snapped round back to Aeris, his eyes flared despite the sweat pouring down him. "What ya mean 'cute'?"
"Right… well, uh…" Tifa stammered. She hoped to calm down the situation before Barret exploded, for the veins in his neck were already flared to the max. "Barret, why don't you use that sailor suit for pyjamas. Right, Cloud?"
"I guess," Cloud replied absently. Then, realising Tifa had dropped him in it, he quickly shook his head. "Ahhh… You look like a bear wearing a marshmallow."
"The hell's that supposed to mean?" roared Barret, his fists up in the air ready to bring them down on Cloud and wipe the smirk off his face. "This happens to be the most comfortable, so shu'up!"
"Would you kindly hurry?" Red XIII said suddenly. He was crouched very low on the floor, his paws barely visible beneath his bulk, his tail lying flat against the floor, and he was panting heavily. "The heat here is drying my nose."
"Yeah, mine too!" said Yuffie, her hands covering her nose from the sun, and jumping up and down.
Cloud ignored Yuffie's statement, not even bothering to consider how her nose could be drying up like Red XIII's, and nodded his head. "All right. We'll take a break and then head off. Don't wander too far off," he added sternly.
"I'll wander wherever I damn well want!" Barret snapped. To prove his point, he ran off towards the town, leaving Cloud and his group behind without even a glance back.
Cloud shook his head, and looked down as he saw Red XIII slowly crawling past his feet. The mammal's feet were shuffling incredibly slowly across the floor as though he could hardly even move, and his fur was already damp and clammy. "It looks like my mane got messed up," was all he said as he crawled by. "I'm going to rest somewhere cool."
"Don't bother looking for me!" exclaimed Yuffie, and she quickly spun round and ran off. Cloud didn't even bother thinking where she would go. Somewhere with a lot of materia, most likely. He did wonder why she had made it her mission to travel with them. There was no motivation in her reasons. At least, not the same motivation as him and his friends.
"I think I'll go swimming," Tifa said suddenly, looking at Aeris.
"Sounds good to me!" Aeris replied with a grin. After all, Costa del Sol was a holiday down. Aeris then stopped as another sly grin appeared on her face, and she ran over to Cloud. "Hmm, Cloud, are you thinking of anything in particular? Your cool exterior's cracking…"
Cloud almost choked and glared at Aeris in surprise and shock. His face, already reddened by the heat, turned to a deep crimson and Cloud had to quickly turn away to hide the embarrassment. Aeris just laughed, pleased that Cloud had reacted the way she had hoped.
"Well then, let's go!" she said, turning back to Tifa, who was giggling.
The two girls then ran off laughing into the town, leaving Cloud behind on the dock. After taking a minute to cool down and return his skin to its normal colour, Cloud then made his exit from the dock and headed into the town.
He left just in time, too. Moments after Cloud disappeared from the dock, a helicopter bearing the Shinra logo flew in from the outside of the town and headed straight towards the dock. It moved over to a helipad at the far end of the dock, hovered for a second, before slowly lowering itself onto the pad. Its long tracks settled onto the pad, and the chopper blades slowly stilled. Only then did the doors to the ship open once again, and Rufus and Heidegger exited from the ship, along with two sailors who were very relieved to be back on dry land.
"What a long boat ride that was!" one of the sailors exclaimed. He took a deep breath, glad to feel its freshness, although it was still quite salty from being so close to the sea. Still, he was on land again, and that was all that mattered.
"Hmmm……" Rufus said thoughtfully. He looked around the dock, obviously looking for someone, but he couldn't see them anywhere. "Good work everyone……" he said instead.
"Gya, heh, heh… ha!" Heidegger coughed, catching the very angry glare from Rufus as he began to laugh again. He stammered nervously under his breath, before turning towards the helicopter. "Hurry up with that!" he shouted.
"Yes sir!" replied the pilot, who was standing beside the helicopter. He saluted and quickly ran back to work, preparing the helicopter for take off again.
Satisfied that the helicopter workers were now working instead of standing around, Heidegger turned back to Rufus. The Shinra President was standing with his arms folded and his head lowered in thought. There was also a frown on his face, so clearly he was thinking about what had happened on the ship.
When the alarm had sounded, Rufus had been rushed off to the emergency cabin to safety, and there he had stayed until the ship speaker had announced their arrival at Costa del Sol. He hadn't been able to see the sailors removing the bodies of the few that were dead, but he had heard the terrified rumours rushing among the sailors.
"I heard Sephiroth was on board," he said suddenly, not lifting his head or looking at Heidegger.
Heidegger froze, his voice stuttering a reply. "……Yes," was all he could muster.
"And it seems Cloud and the others were on board, too."
"……Yes," Heidegger said again, hanging his head.
"They all slipped through……" Rufus said quietly. He closed his eyes for a moment, thinking it all through and letting Heidegger sweat at the thought of what Rufus would do. There was no doubt in Rufus's mind that Cloud and the others had already escaped the ship and were hiding in Costa del Sol, if they hadn't gone on ahead of them already. "You messed up big this time, Heidegger."
"I'm ashamed of myself," Heidegger replied pitifully, trying to make himself sound as pathetic as possible.
Rufus slowly opened his eyes and looked at Heidegger in disgust. "Is that all you can do…?" he asked. "Give one word answers and apologise for everything?" He got no reply from Heidegger, but it was clear from the look on his bearded face that he was shocked, and couldn't look at the President, deliberately turning his head away so Rufus couldn't see.
"Ready for departure, sir!" came the pilot's voice from across the dock.
Rufus nodded and turned towards the helicopter. He was about to pass Heidegger, when he suddenly stopped and gave him a sideways glance. "……Do something," he ordered sternly under his breath. "I'll be expecting results."
Heidegger continued to say nothing as Rufus walked past him and headed towards the helicopter. Once Rufus was far enough away from him, Heidegger turned sharply towards the two sailors who were standing near to the edge of the dock.
Catching Heidegger's angry gaze one of the soldiers panicked and ran quickly, but Heidegger quickly cornered him at the edge. Without a single care for the sailor's well being he pushed the sailor harshly into the water. The sailor landed with a cry and a large splash, sending spray up into the air. Heidegger than grabbed the second sailor, who knew better than to run, and threw him into the water also, creating another large spray of water.
Once he was done with the sailors, Heidegger snapped round and turned towards the group of bathers who were watching from the presumed safety of their boats. All of the bathers panicked and ran inside their cabins as Heidegger stormed towards them like an out of control bull, but Heidegger stopped at the edge and shook his fists, cursing loudly at them.
The sound of the helicopter blades made him stop, and he turned just in time to see the helicopter rise off the helipad and into the air. He could just see Rufus in the passenger seat of the chopper, not even looking down at Heidegger as the helicopter turned and flew off away from Costa del Sol, leaving him behind.
