Chapter 15:
Meanwhile, down in North Crater, Sephiroth extended his telepathic senses around the world and even up into orbit as he awaited the result of Bowser's assault on the Starship Mario. While he felt that if Mario left any of his allies onboard the ship that the assault would fail, he still hoped that at least a couple of the plumber's allies would be killed or otherwise taken out of action. That would make his eventual upcoming battle against the plumber a little easier. And right now, he needed all the breaks he could get. A part of him seethed at the thought of needing breaks in order to beat his opponents, especially since they were nothing but a couple of plumbers but here he was, still recovering from his last battle against the Marios. The last thing he wanted was to be caught flatfooted.
Using his telepathy, he was able to ascertain the fate of the assault party and he grimaced. This was not what he needed. He could also feel the approach of Aerith Gainsborough and he figured that Mario would not be far behind, assuming the two of them had not already joined forces. It would not be long now. He had to do something to bring down that ship, or something that would threaten the wound in North Crater enough so that Aerith's Holy would not be sufficient to stop it without the help of the Lifestream.
He considered his options. He could try to influence Bowser to send up more forces to take the ship but that would be a very long shot. If the first wave was beaten, then chances were that the next one would likely fall, too. While he could try to get Bowser and the Koopalings, themselves, to go up and take the ship, it would be a difficult task and there was no guarantee that it would end any differently than the battle outside of Midgar did. The only other possibility that he could think of was to try to use Graviga to pull down the ship to North Crater but for that to work, a lot of other things would have to go right, such as Aerith arriving lat enough that Holy alone would not stop the ship without causing a lot of damage. The problem, of course, would be that the ship was much smaller than Meteor had been and still might not inflict enough damage to force the Lifestream to well up to either heal the wound, or try to stop the ship from crashing, knowing what his plan was. Either way, though, it was his only real shot at the moment so he did what he could.
Standing erect, he looked up out of the crater and extended his hand. A turquoise glow began to emanate from his hand as he cast Graviga on the Starship Mario. The ship was large and heavy for such a spell but Sephiroth had all the power he had had when he had tried to take over the Lifestream over five hundred years ago. In addition, he did not have to pull the ship constantly. All he had to do was get the ship moving and let the planet's gravity do the rest. Still, he wanted it to fall faster, for the faster it fell and it got up to terminal velocity, the less likely Holy would be sufficient to stop it alone.
As he was extending his senses to ascertain the ship's position so he would know when he had pulled it far enough that he would no longer have to focus more magic onto the ship in order for it to crash, he felt the presence of Aerith Gainsborough approach. Narrowing his gaze above, he found the half-Cetra woman descending the crater, being carried by Mario, with several members of the plumber's party following the duo. He gritted his teeth as he identified exactly who in Mario's party had accompanied him, realizing that the party accompanying Mario was versatile and could fight both at close and long range.
As Mario and the others descended, Aerith spotted Sephiroth with his hand extended and, extending her senses and feeling the magic emanating from the former SOLDIER, knew exactly what he was doing. "Oh no," she warned. "He's already begun."
"What exactly is he doing?" Mario asked. "Has he cast Meteor?"
"No," Aerith answered, shaking her head. "He's using a Gravity spell to pull down a ship or other large body from orbit to crash into the crater. While normally it would not be enough to bring enough of the Lifestream to heal such a would, if he were to attack an already weakened part of the planet, that could be sufficient to force a large portion of the Lifestream to well up to heal it." She then turned to Mario and asked, "You came here onboard a starship, correct?"
Mario nodded.
"How big was it?" came her next question.
"It is fairly large," Mario answered. "It was originally a planetoid until a Luma, a being from the stars, converted it into a starship that was designed to travel the universe. It uses special stars called Power Stars and Grand Stars for power with the Grand Stars creating the portal that led us here from our world of Hylia."
Aerith began to grow concerned. "What would happen if it were to crash into the ground via reentry?"
Mario considered her question for a moment. He knew that the results would be bad, just not exactly how bad. He could not put a number in terms of tons of TNT to the crash or exactly how much damage would be inflicted but he knew it would not be good, especially if it crashed into a crater. As such, he answered, "I don't know exactly, but I would not want to be anywhere close to the crash site."
"The that's what he's doing," the half-Cetra woman concluded.
"Then we've gotta stop him now!" Yoshi Kid declared as he and the others went to charge Sephiroth.
Sephiroth saw Mario's allies coming and broke off his concentration for a second in order to deal with the allies. As Yoshi Kid extended his tongue in an attempt to grab him and swallow him, the former SOLDIER teleported into the air and began to cast Cometeor on the party, hoping to either kill or inflict a great deal of damage on them. Lady Bow quickly grabbed Yoshi Kid to make him both invisible and intangible as green meteors formed above the group. The rest of the group, knowing that taking a hit from one of the meteors could be fatal or debilitating, quickly rushed towards Bow so they could touch either her or Yoshi Kid so they could become intangible and, thus, immune to the meteors. They managed to reach them in time and the Boo managed to make them all intangible as the emerald meteors rained down upon them and exploded with each impact sending up dirt and debris that would have obscured the heroes had they not already been invisible.
Sephiroth grimaced as he saw them become invisible, knowing that they would be invulnerable to the attack, and any other attack he could throw at them while they were invisible. Still, it did give him a chance to use Graviga on the Starship Mario once more and bring it down to Gaia since without the spell, any crew onboard the ship would simply be able to fly it out of the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, onboard the Starship Mario, Luigi and his party outfitted themselves with their respective weapons, attack items, and healing items. Once they were ready, they assembled on the bridge and made their final preparations for going down to Gaia once more and facing down Bowser and hopefully stopping his plans once and for all.
"Okay, everyone ready?" he called out to the rest of the party, giving one last call before heading down to face Bowser, the Koopalings, and the remnants of the forces they had brought to Gaia.
Everyone answered in the affirmative, most of them presenting items like Thunder Rages and Shooting Stars to show that they were ready for the battle that they were about to initiate. Luigi gave a rare confident grin when he saw that the party was ready. He knew that this time, when they found Bowser, they would stop him. With the portal having been closed, the Koopa King was without reinforcements. It would be all or nothing for him now. In addition, there was no swamp with a Midgar Zolom to slow them down this time. Ms. Mowz and Goombario then went over to the sensor screen to input a series of commands that would program the Launch Star to take the group to current location of the stolen Grand Star.
He made his way over to the Launch Star that would take him and the party down to the last location of the Magikoopa who had stolen the Grand Star, he felt the ship lurch. Looking out at the stars, he could see them seem to move, which told him that the ship was moving. Turning to Goombario, he asked, "Hey, did you just fire up the engines?"
"No," the Goomba answered, moving from the sensor console to the ship's wheel, feeling that something was wrong. The ship should not have been moving at all since there was no one at the wheel. Checking the console at the wheel, he brought up the status of the ship's engines. When the information came up on the screen, he could see that the engines had not fired. Not even the thrusters had fired. There was no way the ship should have been moving. "The engines have not fired," he informed the plumber. "Neither have the thrusters. We shouldn't be moving at all."
"It's Gravity or a spell of that type," Nanaki stated from behind Luigi.
"Gravity?" the plumber asked.
"A spell that can be cast with the proper Materia," Nanaki answered. "In this case, Gravity."
"What does Gravity do?" Goombella asked.
"Normally, it would be used to pin an enemy to the ground and could be used to hurt them," Nanaki answered. "However, with other applications, it could be used to pull something towards the user."
"Oh no," Luigi said distantly in dread, knowing what was happening. "Sephiroth must be using a Gravity spell to pull the ship down to Gaia."
Nanaki nodded.
"So what do we do?" Kooper inquired.
"Goombario, reverse thrusters and start the engines," Luigi directed. "We have to get as much power as possible to the thrusters and engines. That's our only hope to break free of the gravitational pull." He then looked over at Nanaki and asked, "Will that be enough?"
"Hopefully," the leonine creature answered. "At least it'll take time for the ship to crash, and even if it does, it'll land more softly and, thus, not inflict a significant wound to the Planet."
"Roger," Goombario answered as he input the commands on his console and stepped onto the pedals to activate the ship's engines. The moment he did so, a clank could be heard and a dull roar began to sound as the thrusters and engines activated, pushing against the gravitational pull of both Gaia and Sephiroth's Graviga spell.
Luigi went over to the wheel to take direct control of the ship as well as maneuver it so that if worst came to worst, he could guide it away from any inhabited areas and soft-land the starship. Turning the wheel to the right, he attempted to turn the ship away from the gravitational pull, intending to use his momentum to try to slingshot the ship away from the planet. If successful, it would at worst force Mario and the others to rely on Dribble and Spitz of Diamond Taxi for transport from the ship to the planet's surface. At best, the would still be close enough to the planet for a Launch Star to launch the occupants down to the planet's surface.
As he spun the wheel, he could see the field of stars shift position, indicating that the ship was moving. Looking over at Goombario, he silently inquired whether or not it was enough to make a difference.
"It appears to be working," the Goomba called over to the plumber. "Our position is shifting a bit and our acceleration towards the planet is slowing."
Good, Luigi thought. If this kept up, they would be able to break free and hopefully prevent Sephiroth from calling the ship down to the planet. And without that, Sephiroth would have to take the long path towards taking over the Lifestream, assuming he would be able to do it at all.
Meanwhile, back down on Gaia in North Crater, Sephiroth was doing his best to pull the Starship Mario down to Gaia. Grimacing as he felt the starship resisting his pull, he pushed more energy into his Graviga spell, hoping that the additional energy would be enough to bring the ship down. It was at that moment that Mario and his allies became visible once more. The former SOLDIER grimaced once more, knowing that he would be in for a difficult at best, and possibly hopeless battle considering he had already expended a lot of energy in the effort to pull down the Starship Mario.
He extended his hand and created a series of flaming pillars around himself as he cast Firaga, hoping that the flames would both shield him from attack as well as lash out at the heroes. Unfortunately, though, he did not count on Aerith having Earth Materia. The half-Cetra woman stepped forward and cast Quake on Sephiroth, knowing that while the low power of the spell would be survivable, it would still inflict damage to the former SOLDIER even through the Firaga barrier. The ground shook and Sephiroth struggled to maintain his footing as he felt seismic shockwaves travel through him, inflicting minor damage but otherwise doing little to inconvenience him. Still, he knew that he could not both fight Mario and his allies as well as call down the Starship Mario. And given the results of the last battle and his current condition, he knew that if he fought Mario and his allies along with Aerith, he would lose. He needed reinforcements. That was when he made his call.
Bowser, he belligerently telepathically called out to the Koopa King, who was getting into visual distance of Junon, come to North Crater at once. Your Magikoopas can lock onto my signal and then summon you and your children. I need you.
Over near Junon, still in the grassy plains outside the city, Bowser heard Sephiroth's call and scoffed. "You're crazy. I'm this close to Junon and can gain access to prisoners and potentially enhance them to help replenish my forces. Oh, and by the way, I lost some more Koopas in that assault on the Starship Mario. You want it, you go get it yourself."
It's not the ship I need right now, Sephiroth answered. It's you. Mario and his allies, including someone from the past are currently engaging me in battle. I need your help.
"Why should I?" Bowser demanded. "Every time I've tried to help you on this quest, it has cost me and my forces dearly. I'm down to only seven SOLDIER Koopas, not counting me and my family. Why should I waste them helping you in a losing battle?"
Several reasons. First, if I die, you'll be stuck here with no way home since the Marios will control the only way off this world and back to Hylia. Second, if you want to create a new Lifestream on Hylia so your forces can use Materia, you need me to alter the flow of the Lifestream on Gaia so you can draw Lifestream energy up via a Mako reactor.
Bowser was skeptical but the other Koopas went over to him and one of the Magikoopas said, "Don't worry, sir. We'll do it. Just get into Junon to find some people to turn into your soldiers with the Jenova and Mako enhancements."
"Yeah," his sole remaining Koopatrol echoed. "We'll slow down Mario and his friends. And if we manage to kill one or more of them, so much the better."
"But," Bowser contested, but as he did so, a voice in the back of his mind told him to let them go and fight at Sephiroth's side and that if he did so, everything would turn out okay. Eventually, he acquiesced to their desires and said, "Fine, you all can go. But Kamek stays here. I need him for what is to come."
"Understood, master," Kamek answered.
The other Koopas did not indicate that they had a problem with Bowser's command but the Koopa King could feel that they were less than thrilled that Kamek would not be joining them. Still, they did not grumble at all.
The first thing the Koopas did was to have the Magikoopas increase their strength and defenses as well as their cognitive abilities. They also electrified them making them hazardous to touch, which would hopefully limit the offensive options of Mario's party. Once they were ready, the party went to assist Sephiroth, knowing that this would almost certainly be their final fight.
Once that was finished, though, the Magikoopa that had taken the Grand Star from the Starship Mario went over to him and presented the star to him, saying, "Master, take this Grand Star now. It may be our only ticket back home."
"Got it," Bowser said, accepting the star, which vanished from sight the moment Bowser accepted it.
Once Bowser got the star, the Koopa assault force departed from Bowser to help Sephiroth against Mario. The Magikoopas were the first to go to Sephiroth's aid. They vanished from Bowser's sight with a clap as the air rushed the void they had been filling. Then, after a few seconds, the rest of Bowser's soldiers vanished from the scene, leaving only himself, his children, and Kamek. Once the others had vanished, he proceeded to make his way towards Junon in the distance, the Koopa King being in no real rush to get to the city.
Back in North Crater, the Magikoopas popped into existence close to the former SOLDIER as he was doing his best to hold of Mario and his allies. He had cast Wall over himself along with another Firaga barrier but was making little headway against Mario and his allies. He could feel himself beginning to wear down as the fight continued, something that was not happening with Mario and his allies since they still seemed as fresh as they had at the very moment they had arrived on Gaia.
The Magikoopas were a godsend for the former SOLDIER and the moment they appeared, he cast Thundaga on Mario and his party, forcing the group to back away to avoid the vicious bolts of lightning. Not only did the attack force them away from the former SOLDIER, though, the noise generated by the lightning prevented them from noticing the arrival of the Magikoopas, which kept them from attacking the Magikoopas before they could summon the rest of their allies.
A moment later, the rest of their party arrived and glanced around to take stock of the situation and spot where Mario was located. They found him avoiding a blast of Thundaga from Sephiroth and preparing a counterattack. The lead Magikoopa then approached Sephiroth and said, "Don't worry, Master Sephiroth. We've got this. You go and bring down that ship. We'll cover you."
Sephiroth nodded as the Koopas formed up in front of him to face down Mario and his allies. He knew that the Koopas would not last long against the heroes, but if they could last long enough, he would be able to bring down the Starship Mario and force Aerith to use Holy to stop it, and hopefully bring up the Lifestream to assist it should the ship get too close. With Mario and his party occupied, he continued focusing on using Graviga to pull down the Starship Mario. Casting the spell once more, he could feel the magic emanating from his body connecting with the ship and arresting its momentum, once again pulling it down towards North Crater. The process was slow, though, slower than he would have expected, or liked. Still, he continued adding energy to his spell in the hopes of overpowering whatever was resisting him, for he needed the ship to either be in freefall or actually rocketing towards the crater for his plan to work. A soft landing would do him no good.
Meanwhile, the SOLDIER Koopas initiated their attacks on Mario and his party. The SOLDIER Koopa Troopas began the attack by casting Quake on the party. The ground shook, causing Mario to take to the air and for Koops to duck into his shell. Yoshi Kid and Admiral Bobbery steeled themselves against the attack and managed to endure it while only suffering minor damage. Aerith was more noticeably affected by the attack, though her own magical resistance minimized the damage she sustained. Still, the shaking ground caused her to lose her footing and fall. However, their attacks would ultimately not mean much since Mario and several of his allies were either able to fly or float.
Mario, noticing the electrical sparks emanating from their bodies, figured that the Koopas had been electrified by a spell from the Magikoopas and he quickly took aim with his Fire Flower, which he had intended to do anyway. Once he took aim, he unleashed a barrage of fireballs on the Koopas. While the Jenova and Mako enhancements had allowed the SOLDIER Koopa Troopas to survive individual fireballs, a full barrage of them was too much and the Koopas fell to the barrage. In a few seconds, both Koopa Troopas were nothing but ashes.
Once the SOLDIER Koopa Troopas were dead, the ground stopped shaking and the others could aid Mario in the fighting against the remaining Koopas. However, that did little to stop the others from pressing the attack on the heroes. Next to come were the SOLDIER Hammer Bros. Grabbing their hammers, they tossed a barrage of hammers at the heroes, forcing them to scatter so it would be more difficult to score hits on them. Besides, they had the advantage in numbers and the heroes were eager to use it. Mario attacked first by unleashing a barrage of fireballs on the Hammer Bros. The Hammer Bros., being more nimble than the Koopa Troopas, saw the fireballs bouncing towards them and managed to jump over them. However, in doing so, they jumped right into a Fan Slap by Lady Bow. The slap did not inflict much damage, but it did manage to stun them and knock them back to the ground, allowing Mario to finish them off with another barrage of fireballs. Now, all that were left were the SOLDIER Koopatrol and the two SOLDIER Magikoopas.
"Go get Sephiroth Gonzales, we've got this!" Yoshi Kid declared as he stuck his tongue out at the sole remaining SOLDIER Koopatrol, who had ducked into his shell and was about to charge into the ranks of the heroes. The tongue managed to latch onto the Kooaptrol and it drew the armored Koopa into Yoshi Kid's mouth.
Mario nodded in acknowledgment and rushed towards the silver-haired fighter, whose hand was still glowing as he used Graviga to pull down the Starship Mario, drawing out his hammer. Aerith Gainsborough joined him on the attack, drawing her staff as they both charged Sephiroth. They brought their weapons down on Sephiroth's head and body, managing to score clean hits on the former SOLDIER, something that surprised Mario despite the fact that Sephiroth was still recovering from their previous battle. The glow on his hand ceased as the impacts caused him to lurch forward and give off a grunt. He grimaced as he readied his sword and prepared to engage Mario and Aerith in battle once more, ignoring the Starship Mario for the time being.
Meanwhile, Yoshi Kid spit out the SOLDIER Koopatrol at one of the SOLDIER Magikoopas, who had taken to the air to bombard the heroes from out of their usual range. The shell managed to score a direct hit on one of the Magikoopas, knocking him off of his broomstick and sending him hurtling back down to the earth. He landed headfirst with a thud and a crack could be heard, indicating that he had at the very least injured his head, if not fractured his own skull. Watt made his fate certain as she unleashed a lightning bolt on the stricken Magikoopa, reducing him to ashes. Watt then finished off the SOLDIER Koopatrol with a series of lightning bolts, ending the threat he posed once and for all.
As for the final SOLDIER Magikoopa, he saw that there was little chance of beating the rest of Mario's party and considered his options. He could try to fight a losing battle but he knew that alone, he would not have much of a chance against this group of enemies. These allies were a lot more powerful than the ones crewing the Starship Mario before Luigi's arrival. He could also return to Bowser but he decided against that. He did not want to explain to the Koopa King why he was the only survivor of a battle against Mario. It would make him seem like a coward for running away from a fight and while Bowser may have been understanding of the situation, he was not certain Kamek or any of the Koopalings would feel the same way.
He then considered the option of making an attack run on the Starship Mario to take out its engines. If he was successful, he may have been able to force the ship to crash simply because the ship would be caught in the planet's gravity well. And even if it was not enough to pull the ship down, alone, without its engines, it would not be able to resist the pull of even a single casting of Graviga. Aided by the planet's gravity, the ship's fate would be certain.
With that realization, the Magikoopa immediately took off, ascending as fast as he could in order to reach the ship before he ran out of air or froze. However, his quick retreat did not go unnoticed. Lady Bow and Flurrie rocketed after him in hot pursuit, Lady Bow readying her fan for the engagement while Flurrie got out an Ice Storm, hoping to freeze the Magikoopa solid.
The Magikoopa saw the two allies gaining on him and held his wand behind him, firing off several shots. Not taking the time to aim properly, his shots went well wide and did nothing to slow down the two ghostly pursuers. Flurrie countered by rushing after the Magikoopa, hoping to get into range to use the Ice Storm. When she was confident that she was in range, she unleashed the Ice Storm, raising the snowflake above her head. The Magikoopa saw this and realized that he had only one chance to cripple the engines of the ship. Being buffeted by the freezing wind, snow, and ice, he realized that he was about to be frozen. With only seconds left, he extended his senses and zeroed in on the strongest energy source that was in orbit, for he still remembered the sensation of the power of the Grand Stars. He would have to be fast, though, because if Luigi and the others detected him or were waiting for him, they may have been able to stop him before he got off the shot. Zeroing in on that source, he teleported to the ship, which was outside of the planet's atmosphere. Knowing this was going to be a suicide mission, but not caring because Sephiroth needed this ship to crash into Gaia, he vanished from sight, leaving both Flurrie and Lady Bow perplexed as to what he was doing until they realized just how far this Magikoopa may have been willing to go.
"Oh no!" Lady Bow blurted. "He's teleported to the ship, itself! He's going to try to take it down in orbit!"
"Can he do that?" Flurrie asked.
"Not in one shot, I think," Lady Bow answered. "But if he disabled the engines…" she did not need to finish for them to realize that all Sephiroth would have to do then was use a single casting of Graviga to bring down the ship.
Up in orbit, the SOLDIER Magikoopa had reappeared a few dozen meters away from the rear of the Starship Mario. Wasting no time, he immediately fired off a bolt of lightning at the engines, scoring a direct hit on them before he froze solid in space. Electricity arced across the engines and smoke soon issued forth from the engines. His last act before succumbing to the freezing temperatures of space was to fire several 4-polygonal blasts of magic at the disabled engines to ensure that they would not be able to be repaired any time soon. As the blasts pierced the engine walls, he grinned as he froze, his mission having been accomplished.
Onboard the Starship Mario, Luigi and the others felt the ship shake from the impacts of the Magikoopa's lightning bolt and the subsequent 4-polygonal blasts. The party froze for a second before Luigi asked, "What was that?"
"I don't know," Goombario answered. "I'll check for damage."
He then went to check the ship's systems to see if everything was okay. Checking the systems, a hologram of the ship soon popped up with the engines being highlighted in red, causing his eyes to go wide. Looking at the readout and confirming his worst fears, he reported back to Luigi, "Luigi, the ship's engines have been destroyed. We're sitting ducks."
Luigi gave a sigh and then said under his breath, "Let's hope that's all we are." He knew, though, that the ship would soon begin to move.
Back down in North Crater, Sephiroth was doing his best to hold off Mario and Aerith as they continued to push their attack. This was made more difficult by the fact that the rest of Bowser's reinforcements had been destroyed. Seeing Aerith as the weaker of his opponents, he went to try to finish her off quickly by rushing her to stab her in the heart only for Mario to intercept him and unleash a mighty swing with his Ultra Hammer that forced the former SOLDIER to back off, allowing Aerith to get into position for an attack of her own. She swung her staff and forced him to dodge carefully since Mario was in the process of swinging his hammer once more. He evaded both attacks, but could feel the events of the day catching up to him and his energy waning. He was slower now than he had been against Mario and both the plumber and half-Cetra had options besides engaging in a physical fight; options that both fighters were soon to put to good use.
Mario unleashed a barrage of fireballs while Aerith cast Comet, bringing down a rain of meteors onto Sephiroth's head, forcing the silver-haired fighter to raise Wall over himself to blunt the impacts of the attacks. While Wall did manage to blunt the impacts of the attacks, they still inflicted significant damage to him. Added to the damage he suffered earlier, he knew that he would not last long if things did not change quickly, but change they did.
Sensing the damage done to the Starship Mario through his connection to the SOLDIER Magikoopa, Sephiroth's eyes flashed. This was his chance. Ignoring everything else, he raised his hand and cast Graviga once more on the Starship Mario, hoping to use the spell, combined with the gravitational pull of the planet, itself, to bring down the ship. The only issue would be that given his current condition, he was not sure if he would survive the ship crashing into the crater. That meant that he still needed Aerith to cast Holy in order to stop the ship from crashing.
Back on Starship Mario, Luigi looked out the field of stars and saw it begin to move. Ms. Mowz, who was at the wheel, soon called back to Luigi, telling him what he already knew.
"We're heading towards the planet," she reported. "Even worse, I can't get the thrusters online. Whatever took out the engines must have damaged the systems to the thrusters as well. We can't resist the planet's pull."
The others went to various ship stations to try to ascertain just how much damage had been inflicted and if they could potentially get thrusters back online to slow their descent. Luigi knew, though, that that was an unlikely proposition.
"Diagnostics indicate that the damage to the thrusters will take hours to repair, if not more," Kooper reported.
"So what can we do?" Goombella asked. She then turned to Nanaki and asked, "Do you have any other Materia on you that could stop this? Is there any other Materia spells that could stop this ship from falling?"
Nanaki shook his head in the negative. "The only spell I could think of would be Graviga, which is what Sephiroth is likely using to pull this ship down," he answered.
"Would killing him stop it?" came Goombella's next question.
Again, Nanaki shook his head. "If we did, somehow, manage to kill him, it still would not stop the ship since it's now caught in the planet's gravity well."
"What about having that Aerith woman use Comet to deflect us?" Bombette suggested. "It could cause us to soft land or at least not have us crash into a crater."
"Without a controlled reentry, it won't be enough to not cause the planet to try to intercept us," Nanaki answered. "The issue won't be the crash but the prevention of the crash. That's what Sephiroth is counting on. The only thing that can stop us right now is for Holy to be used this instant."
That was all Luigi needed to hear. He immediately got out his satellite phone and dialed Mario's number.
Down in North Crater, Mario and Aerith were continuing their battle against Sephiroth. With the other Koopas having been dealt with, the rest of Mario's party was now free to assist them in dealing with the former SOLDIER. They formed up on Mario and presented a united front against Sephiroth as Mario unleashed more fireballs on the silver-haired fighter. After that barrage, Mario's satellite phone began to ring. Picking it up with one hand while he continued to assault Sephiroth with fireballs and wear down his Wall shield, the plumber answered the phone in a belligerent tone, "We're a little busy down here."
"You're about to be busier," the older Mario brother heard Luigi answer. "Something or someone managed to take out the Starship Mario's engines and thrusters and we're being pulled into Gaia's gravity well. Our course projection lines up with North Crater. If you've got anything that can stop this ship from crashing, use it now. If there's anything we can do, let us know."
"Got it bro, thanks," Mario said, hanging up the phone. He then turned to the others and told them the situation. "Guys, we've got a new problem. The Starship Mario's engines are down and it's being pulled down to the planet. It's estimated point of impact will be North Crater. Any options?"
The rest of the party gasped as he informed them of the situation. Aerith merely looked down at the ground and fingered her Holy Materia. Sephiroth, on the other hand, could only grin. He vanished from the scene and reappeared a dozen meters above his opponents, out of range of all melee and close range attacks. "It's over now," he gloated. "There's nothing you can do. That ship might not be Meteor, but it will be sufficient for my purposes."
"Not quite!" Aerith declared forcefully as she knelt on the ground and folded her hands in prayer. Sephiroth still grinned.
"Not yet, Aerith," he said as he drew his sword and rushed down to stab her while she was defenseless. Mario, however, rushed towards him and barreled into him before he reached the half-Cetra woman and knocked him off course, and into a crystalline wall several meters away. The silver-haired fighter hit the wall with a thud and slid down it but did not suffer much damage. He quickly turned his head up to face the plumber and narrowed his gaze on the hero in red. Mario jumped away from the former SOLDIER before Sephiroth's reprisal swipe could cut him in half.
"It's too late Mario," the silver-haired fighter gloated as he stood up. "Even if Holy is used, it won't be enough to stop the Lifestream from welling up to assist it."
"It won't be necessary," Mario countered. "The ship's engines are down. There's no active thrust for that ship to power against Holy. Once Holy is cast, it'll stop that ship in its tracks. Then it can be used to either put the ship back in orbit or cause it to soft land."
Sephiroth could only chuckle. "If only the planet realized that. Remember, this is a planet we're talking about and the only true sentient being that could control its Lifestream is now praying to cast a spell to keep a ship from crashing before it's too late. While five hundred years is five to six lifetimes for you, for a planet, it's barely the blink of an eye. And besides, it takes a while for Holy to be cast. During that time, the ship will only get closer and closer."
Mario looked up into the sky and could see a dot in the distance getting bigger and bigger. He grimaced. The ship was closer than he expected. Looking over at Aerith, he saw her still praying, and Sephiroth doing absolutely nothing to stop her.
"It's too late now," he said once more. "The ship is too close and Holy wasn't cast fast enough."
With that, Sephiroth rose into the air and flew out of the crater. Mario went to chase after him but the former SOLDIER countered with a single Shadow Flare, firing off several flaming orbs of magic at the plumber, forcing him to open the cape so as to avoid losing his power-up should he take a hit. He dodged and weaved around the balls of fire but the evasion of Sephiroth's attack, as well as him looking back to make sure they did not home in on Aerith was all the former SOLDIER needed in order to gain an insurmountable lead on the plumber. It was then that Sephiroth cast Thunder, raining down a small blast of lightning onto Mario, not wanting to waste energy using a more powerful spell, guessing that the cape would absorb it. The bolt of lightning struck Mario's cape and caused it to revert to normal, causing the plumber to slowly float back down to the bottom of the crater while Sephiroth merely ascended to the top of the crater and waited for the inevitable.
Sure enough, as Mario was floating back down to the bottom of the crater, Aerith had finished her prayer and casting Holy. The half-Cetra woman stood up and stepped to the side as if in anticipation of what would happen next. The moment she did so, stream of sapphire blue energy erupted from beneath the surface of the crater and rocketed up to stop the fast approaching starship. The blue stream of energy collided with the Starship Mario and began to slow its descent.
Meanwhile, onboard the Starship Mario, Luigi and the others felt the ship shake as Holy collided with the Mario-faced vessel. It was as if an earthquake had begun and was getting worse. Luigi could barely maintain his footing as he struggled to stand, eventually having to ascend using his Cape power-up. The others were having the same difficulty remaining standing as well, with Nanaki digging his claws into the ground. Looking out, though, they could see that Holy was greatly slowing down the ship and the plumber began to become hopeful that Holy, alone, would be enough to either stop it or cause it to land softly enough that the Lifestream would not be needed.
"We have to get off this ship," the leonine creature called to the others. "Holy may well destroy this ship in its entirety especially if it's aided by the Lifestream. Either way, I would not want to be on this ship while Holy is trying to either slow it down or stop and destroy it."
"You don't have to tell me twice," Luigi replied as he made his way over to the Launch Star to make sure it was still functional. Fortunately, it was.
The party soon made their way over to the Launch Star. Luigi went down and input the coordinates for the star: the southern edge of North Crater. The ground bound allies lined up in front of the star and then jumped into it and spun once before being launched off of the ship and down to the ground in North Crater. The first to enter the star was Kooper, followed by Bombette, Goombario, Ms. Mowz, and finally, Nanaki. Meanwhile, Parakarry reached down and lifted Sushie while Lakilester let Goombella join him on his cloud. Once the ground bound allies had left the ship, Luigi rocketed up into the air, followed by Parakarry with Sushie, Lakilester with Goombella, and Vivian. The rest of the party abandoned the ship and followed the others to the ground. As they did so, they witnessed Holy combating the falling Starship Mario.
As for that battle, Aerith's Holy spell was actually holding its own against the ship and had already significantly slowed its fall. That caused Sephiroth to cast Graviga once more in the hopes of adding more "thrust" to the ship's fall, which would cause the Lifestream to rise and assist Holy. For a moment, he grimaced as he saw Luigi's party emerge from the Starship Mario and descend towards the planet. He almost breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that they were headed towards the southern edge of the crater, away from him. He grimaced as he hid from them, knowing that once Mario touched down on the ground of North Crater, he would likely rocket back out to join his brother and if they engaged him and kept him from reaching the Lifestream before it dispersed after stopping the Starship Mario's descent, his plan would be ruined, likely forever. However, as he used his spell, he saw that it did not have the desired effect. Holy was still holding strong and had all but stopped the ship's momentum in its tracks. Still, the battle was having an effect on the ground as the ground beneath the ship was beginning to shake and crack.
Down in the crater, loose rocks from the crater walls and cliffs were falling to the ground, forcing Mario and his allies to be on the lookout and/or take cover. Lady Bow went over to the plumber to cause him to become intangible so he would avoid taking damage from any falling rocks, but he waved her off and told her, "Go to Aerith."
At first, Bow did not know why Mario wanted her to go to Aerith but she saw that despite standing, she still looked to be deep in prayer. That was when she realized that Aerith was still doing something, possibly convincing the Lifestream to not intervene in the battle above. She then went over to the half-Cetra woman to make her intangible so she would not suffer from any collateral damage inflicted by the battle being waged above the crater.
Before the Boo could reach Aerith, though, a large rock came crashing down from above and landed mere feet away from Aerith, cracking the ground near its point of impact, the shock of the impact plus the splitting ground nearly throwing Aerith into the air. Still, it was more than enough to cause the woman to lose her footing and fall to the ground. Bow tried to reach Aerith before she hit the ground but was too slow and Aerith hit the ground. The half-Cetra woman rolled upon striking the ground and did not suffer any significant injury besides a few scrapes or bruises, but it did break her concentration for a brief instant. And it was in that instant when the Lifestream arrived.
Up on the surface of Northern Continent, Holy continued to push back against the falling Starship Mario, but it was slowly giving way to the falling ship. At its current velocity, it did not seem as if the eventual impact would cause much, if any, damage but that was contingent on Holy not weakening or potentially even giving out. As such, to give Holy the boost it needed to be sure that the ship would not crash uncontrollably into the crater, the Lifestream joined the battle.
The effervescent turquoise stream of liquid welled up from the crater and rose to assist Holy in stopping the ship. As the turquoise liquid joined with Holy in the attempt to stop the falling ship; Sephiroth looked on and almost grimaced, seeing that not as much of the Lifestream had joined to help Holy as he had hoped. Still, it was better than nothing and he would have at least as much control over it as he did during the Geostigma crisis, and would be able to gain control of the rest of it in little time.
Wasting no time, he rocketed up to the turquoise streams of energy to merge with it. As he did so, though, Luigi caught sight of him out of the corner of his eye. Seeing the former SOLDIER rocketing towards the Lifestream, Luigi immediately unleashed a Thunderhand lightning bolt, which struck the former SOLDIER squarely in the chest, inflicting significant damage to the already weakened Sephiroth. Still, it was not enough to kill him and Sephiroth continued to make his way towards the Lifestream.
Not long after, stars rained down from the sky onto Sephiroth from Mario using the Star Spirit power of Meteor Storm. The golden stars scored direct hits on the former SOLDIER and slowed his approach to the Lifestream, but it was still not enough to actually stop him. This was followed by a stream of fireballs from the crater below as Mario ascended from the hole, hurtling towards Sephiroth, doing his best to try to stop the former SOLDIER. The fireballs scored more direct hits on Sephiroth but the former SOLDIER did not slow down. Even without Wall, he was growing more resistant to Mario's normal attacks.
Eventually, the silver-haired fighter reached the Lifestream. Once he did so, he flew directly into it, not slowing down at all. Mario and Luigi continued to fire off lightning bolts and fireballs at the former SOLDIER, and even at the Lifestream, itself, but it was to no avail. Sephiroth had done it. He had managed to join with the Lifestream.
At first, there seemed to be no change in the Lifestream, itself. It remained a flow of turquoise threads forming what looked to be a river and was still assisting Holy in the fight against the Starship Mario. However, after a few moments, things began to change. While the Lifestream did not seem to change colors or structure, everyone present could feel a change in the air. Everything began to feel cold, wrong, as if the essence of the planet, itself was being corrupted.
Mario and Luigi rocketed towards the Lifestream to enter it and try to take on Sephiroth before he could completely merge with it but Eldstar and the other Star Spirits appeared in front of them in formation and stopped them, admonishing them, "It's too late. There's nothing you can do to stop him now. If you entered, even if you could withstand the mental strain, you'd never survive inside it long enough to actually defeat him."
Mario and Luigi grimaced but they could see Eldstar's point. The expression on the Star Spirit's face told them that the spirit felt the same as they did and that it was wisdom and possibly even experience that was speaking. After that, the brothers descended to the ground and landed, watching the battle between Holy and the Starship Mario. After a few more moments, the Lifestream broke off from the engagement and seemed to disperse almost as quickly as it had arrived on the scene, leaving Holy to contend with the falling Starship Mario alone.
The sapphire blue spell continued to push against the falling starship and was actually holding its own against it. While the ship continued to descend, it did so at a very slow pace, slow enough that any impact would inflict next to no damage to the ground. Sure enough, Holy continued to keep the ship from falling at a dangerous velocity but was unable to keep it in the air. Eventually, the Starship Mario landed relatively softly on the ground several hundred meters away. As it landed, Holy dispersed and a cloud of dust was thrown up by the impact. The crater, though, would be minimal and from what could be seen, the ship's structure, itself, was relatively intact. However, that did not matter at the moment. All that mattered was that Sephiroth had managed to merge with the Lifestream. Mario and Luigi could only look on in concern and fear as Aerith and the rest of the party emerged from the crater, along with Dribble and Spitz in their taxi arriving on the scene. Despite the reunion of heroes and their allies, they knew that they had failed. Sephiroth had won. He had managed to join with the Lifestream. And now, there may have been no stopping of his plans.
Meanwhile, over near Junon, Bowser, his kids, and Kamek had been trekking to the city when he and his children suddenly stopped, sensing that something had changed. Kamek noticed them stopped and sided up next to his king.
"What is it Master?" the Magikoopa asked.
Bowser gave a distant grin, much like the one that had been worn on Sephiroth's face when he had returned to Gaia, something that began to trouble Kamek. "Sephiroth has joined with the Lifestream," the Koopa King answered. He then proceeded to run forward. "Hurry," he called to the others. "The next phase of our plan is about to begin."
"What is that?" Kamek asked.
"We're gonna take over one of those defunct Mako reactors and get it back up and running," Bowser answered. "Once that's done, we're gonna gather as much Lifestream energy into it as possible so we can take it back home and create our own Lifestream for us and our forces."
Kamek looked over at Bowser and his children, noticing that the children had been silent the entire time. The children soon rushed after their father, readying their magic wands in case they had to deal with any resistance in Junon. Despite his misgivings, Kamek followed the group, suddenly thankful that he had not undergone the Jenova and Mako infusions, himself.