Chapter 23: One day more.
"Can you feel it?" From the look on her face the Child of Gaia clearly couldn't. Alex tried not to snarl in anger, this wasn't at all what his own training had been like. His fur (what little he had left) instantly bristled in irritation at assuming this would be as easy for her as it had been for him, there were great differences between them.
Alex had been born for this, bred for this, desired this since the day he was old enough to understand it. The Child of Gaia had known about the change for less than a year, and had lived for far longer without knowing anything about it. The Child of Gaia knew nothing about the Garou, it was akin to teaching a newborn cub first to open his eyes and then how to tell things by what he saw.
Except it was far more difficult then that. By the time Alex was able to open his eyes he had already been able to name things by their scent. It was thus a simple matter of learning to match sight with smell, the Child of Gaia needed to be taught the names themselves. Nor did Alex like the fact that he had to do this teaching in homid form. Gnosis was always the easiest to touch Lupus form, but the teacher should be in the same shape as the student.
His father had always shifted to lupus for Alex, so Alex would shift to homid for the Child of Gaia. Hopefully she would at least be able to shift controllably soon enough. Once she had that he could start teaching her how to use her gifts (whatever they where, Alex knew most of the Red Talon and Silver Fang gifts, a couple of the other tribes, all of the Get of Fenris ones, but none of the Children of Gaia) and how to Umbra walk. But that was eating the chocobo before you caught it.
Alex was normally comfortable enough in homid form, but tonight was an exception. It was cold, Alex wandered how the humans could possible stand it to live some place so cold to them? Of course, as a wolf this far north was where his tribe had once dwelled and he was still suited to Gaia's fluctuations. Humans were not, Alex's dedicated clothing was made for the Canyon he and his parents called home, this far north, it left MUCH to be desired.
Alex pushed away all thoughts of discomfort, damn it all, Alex was good at ignoring pain, but this cold still got to him, and the Child of Gaia as well. "I can't feel anything Alex." Alex gnashed his teeth in anger, or possibly because he was shivering. They were doing this outside for a reason! "Try again Child of Gaia!" She was trying, Alex would give her that, however, the ability to try didn't mean anything if there was no hope of success.
"Child of Gaia, this should not be so difficult, you aren't even touching your gnosis or rage, you're just touching the silver light. This shouldn't be difficult, look up at the moon, and tell me what you feel!" She looked up, the cold was probably getting to her even worse then it was to Alex, but at least she didn't complain about that. "I don't feel anything, Alex."
Alex bit back a few choice oaths. If she couldn't feel anything then they would have to try again later. "Fine, Child of Gaia, forget about it. I thought that this would be easiest for you during the full moon, transformations are always easiest during the full moon. However if I'm trying to get you to recognize you own strength perhaps we should try during the quarter moon. You are a Theurge, you identify most with the quarter moon. We will retire for the night, Child of Gaia."
Alex finally allowed himself another shiver and a growl of displeasure at the situation. "Alex..." Alex stopped gripping his body with both hands in a futile attempt to slightly warm himself and turned his attention back to the Child of Gaia. "Yes Child of Gaia?" "Why don't you ever call any of us by our names?" You have to choose your battles and where you fought them, Alex distinctly wished he didn't have to fight one out in the snow. "I'll explain as we walk back, Child of Gaia."
To a reach a place where they had a chance of success, the two had walked a significant distance away from the village, it would take them long enough to walk back without Alex explaining first. Alex also swore that he would never again say that his true coat was somewhat of a disadvantage to him in Cosmo, it was just fine for this place. A quick battle took place between pride and desire. Unfortunately, while Pride was fighting Desire, Prudence and Impatience snuck up on Pride and beat him with big sticks. Alex gave a mental shrug and began to shift.
A few moments later, he once again had his coat, and no longer felt the biting cold, maybe his comfort would inspire the Child of Gaia to want this for herself with more fervor. /It's simple. Though we may be the last of our kind, we were once quite numerous. All Garou where divided into different tribes, and those tribes further divided into packs. Packs never, hear me Child of Gaia, NEVER contained members who where of a different Tribe.
If you have not noticed, this group contains representatives of many Tribes even if we are the only Garou. The Black Fury, a fierce female who sees herself as a guardian of nature and the weak. The Bone Gnawer who will go wherever he feels, and is tied down only by friendship. The Silver Fang who is a leader born and bred and shows it with every movement. You, Child of Gaia, who seek to bring peace to all of Gaia and its inhabitants.
The Shapeshifter who puts Shadow Lords to shame when it comes to deception. I will say for him however that he fights a great deal better then Shadow Lords do. The Glasswalker, who were once called the Warders of Men because they happen to have a special appreciation for human science.
They also claim they where once called "The Rock Sliders" because they understood that things fell downward while all other Garou just fought, but that is another story entirely.
Of course, we also have the Vampire, A Tzimisce rather then a Gangrel, I am starting to think, though he hides his native soil well. Know that neither of those things is a statement of praise, he does not hide it well enough to escape me. The smell of Gaia's soil emanates quite strongly from the heel of his boots, which is why he can walk in sunlight and cross water.
A Tzimisce is of course even more dangerous then a Gangrel, at least Gangrels fight with claws, the only thing worse then Tzimisce is a Follower of Set. More then a few Tzimisce have been known for being able to manipulate my four legged kin, something that no Garou worthy of the name should ever except.
Now my point, since we have members from so many different Tribe, and a vampire, we are clearly not a pack. Thus it would be most unacceptable and offensive, not to mention an insult to your honor to refer to you by your names without being specifically invited to do so. When different Tribes interact certain custom dictates it to be proper for us to address them by their Tribe, and if more than one is present then by there Tribe, Auspice, that's what phase of the moon they where born under, and Breed.
The Child of Gaia was suitably shocked by this information. "You're saying that we should be calling you Get of Fenris instead of Alex and that we've been insulting you every time we haven't?" Alex scoffed into the snow and gave his previously planned answer. /When dealing with humans I find that it is prudent never to assume intentional insult, when simple ignorance will do for an explanation.\
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The group struck out early in the morning again. Though the sun shone, it provided little warmth for Aeris. Thankfully, the white fur lined winter coat that she was wearing on top of her normal jacket and vest did bring her some comfort. Her coat was only different in size from the one that Mirri was currently wearing on top of her other clothing. James had somehow managed to find a heavy cloak in the shade of red that matched the rest of his outfit, and it was currently resting on top of his jacket.
Interestingly Alex had needed no convincing to outfit himself with something heavier then his normal green tunic, in fact he had been rather surprised at Aeris' question. /Do you think I can't tell which way the wind blows? If we are to proceed we must be fully armed against the elements.\ Of course, Alex was also breaking the trail for the party currently, his large paw prints leaving an easy to follow trail.
Melkore had thrown on the heaviest coat he could find, no outdoorsman he. Vincent, Sephiroth and Niro however had neglected to find any new clothing for the trek farther ahead. Vincent because the phrase "body heat" or "Hypothermia" were somewhat meaningless to someone who was dead, Niro had insisted that the cold didn't bother him, and Sephiroth hadn't cared to give any answer.
If Melkore looked ridiculous in his incredibly heavy coat, at least Aeris couldn't hear his teeth chattering the way hers were at the moment. Something very heavy, black, and incredibly warm suddenly descended on Aeris' shoulders and swept around her an entire body bringing blessed relief from the cold. She felt it, and slowly realized that it was Sephiroth's military outfit. She turned around, Sephiroth was standing behind her, slipping a black t-shirt on to replace his cloak. "Thank you."
She hoped he would attribute her rising color to the cold: he was cut, and the shirt was thin enough that she could still see that quite plainly. She had known he was strong, but she'd also known that that could be attributed to the SOLDIER enhancements, she hadn't expected it to be so evident on his body. She stifled a "meep" and turned around, beginning to walk again.
"Don't thank me, you need it a lot more then I do. I didn't get a sword driven through my chest just so you could die of exposure." That almost sounded like a joke, but Sephiroth's voice didn't show the slightest hint of humor. Maybe, he was right, she was finally starting to mesh.
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Progress only got more and more difficult as time passed. By what Sephiroth judged as noon they had come to the foot of a huge mountain, and had to begun to climb it. It was a slow process, and everyone had to help everyone. James for his part became the party's official marker for knowing which way to proceed.
His bright red clothing made him stand out far better then anyone in the snow and mist that covered the mountain, and the sight of him worked like a red flag. Vincent and Niro hung back helping in any way that they could, as both of them could ascend without much trouble. Mirri was leading the way, leaving blades embedded in the rock to provide the rest of the group with necessary handholds.
James followed directly after her, simultaneously making him close to Mirri, and allowing the rest of the group to keep their eyes on him showing them the way. The group made progress, and if the cold was harsh it was neither deadly nor unbearable. At least until nature opened up on them with both barrels. Howling winds and freezing sleet attacked the group, small pieces of ice like little shards from the ninth circle of hell broke painfully against any unprotected skin. Sephiroth broke from his place in line and caught up with Mirri and James in a few leaps before coming to rest on an outcropping just above them. "Mirri, we have to stop: my troops are freezing, and James' hat has developed icicles. Also, Melkore won't stop bitching and I don't feel like dealing with him right now."
Mirri stopped on a plateau, and in the snow it was easy to lose sight of her. A beacon of bright crimson shown through however, and no one had any trouble seeing James even in the storm. While James was busy being a visual representation of hope, Mirri had already got to work.
She wasn't exactly the best equipped person for the situation, but she had managed to make some progress trying to dig through a mound of snow between them and entering the mountain. When Alex arrived he got to work with a body much more suited to the task, soon the entire group managed to pass through the opening Alex had dug. Once they where inside, conditions were noticeably improved. The passage was apparently pretty wide, even if it was only about six feet high.
Through various processes members of the group began to remove the sleet and snow that had landed on them. Niro transformed, and there were two "Alex's" in the small passage. If the cold didn't bother Niro, he apparently liked the warmth that Alex's shape brought to such situations. "Alex, Niro you two make sure nothing else gets in, I'll go see how far this thing goes..." Alex glared at Niro, and his fur bristled, clearly not enjoying this experience of finding a living looking glass.
/As you say, Silver Fang. We should be fine so long as the snow does not block the air into this place. Niro, we sleep in shifts to make sure one of us is on hand to dig out if it starts to get covered in snow.\ Niro flicked his ears, but as he wasn't Alex, he couldn't answer in anything other then a "yip" that Alex clearly understood well enough.
"Aeris come with me, the farther in we get, the warmer we get, and it's far too easy for normal humans to die in their sleep if they aren't kept warm." Mirri cast a look at Sephiroth that had a connotation James had no hope of understanding. Melkore did similarly a few moments later, though his was slightly more evident in meaning to anyone other than James. Sephiroth quelled them both with a glare of his own, and one that James could understand.
It said, "This is no time for making jokes, shut up and follow orders!" The two reacted to it the same way James did whenever he got it, they shut up and followed orders.
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Sephiroth looked around and everyway he looked he saw walls closing in on him. But he'd rather look at those walls than what he knew he would see if he wasn't looking at them, what he would see if he turned around. So instead he just stared at the walls like a disobedient child, not that it helped. He didn't need to see it again, he had seen what had happened in this house once before and hearing it again made it play before his minds eye again.
"Success, Gaste, that's the difference between us, you have your head in the clouds and play around with ideals, while I actually work. But I knew that however prudish you were, if I waited long enough I would find success." "Hojo what are you doing here?" "I was starting to lose faith Gaste. I was starting to wonder how someone like you could so misuse your intelligence, but deep down I knew it would come to this. You would steal my test subject 'rescue her from my clutches' and the results, like any reaction were predictable. It is such a pity for you that you failed to understand just how far money can reach."
"Hojo, you can't be serious." "I always am Gaste, unlike you. So where are you going to run this time? When I leave this place I'm taking your bitch and her pup with me." "That's my daughter!" "To you quite possibly, if you've deluded yourself to thinking so. But don't you wonder why Shinra didn't care when one of there top scientists and a one of a kind lab specimens vanished? They didn't because I told them not to. I let you live your pathetic little lives, because you have now created something that this Planet has never seen before, a hybrid human Cetra! Now that she is old enough to survive if separated from her mother, this triumph of science over all obstacles will now serve my purposes."
"What purposes?" "You can't guess Gaste?" "I'd kill myself before letting you do such a thing!" "Feel free to Gaste, Shinra no longer needs your brain or your body, your usefulness to them has passed. I just need them. They are the keys to opening the door to paradise." "I could never allow them to be used in such a manner!" "Yes, but Dr. Gaste I could. In fact, my mistress is quite insistent upon it. So as a last act of charity to the man who taught me much, however useless most of it was, I will save you the cost of a bullet." Sephiroth forced himself to turn around, everything was large, but then he knew that was because he was only eight years old. He watched, Hojo wasn't a very good shot but at point blank range against a target frozen with fear and disbelief he didn't need to be.
Dr. Julius Gaste, a man who had only wanted to make the world a better place, died a death as violent as it was quick and hopefully painless. The bullet slammed through his skull, through his brain and out the other side. An inhuman shriek of pain rose from the throat of Aeris' mother, and the bolt of lightening summoned from her hands knocked Hojo into a wall of the house. A guard drew his pistol and fired it.
Aeris' mother dropped blood streaming from her chest. Hojo got back up, and raced over his gun in hand, and reached into his lab coat for another pulling out an odd shaped gun. "You idiot! You just damaged the subject!" Hojo shot Aeris' mother with the odd shaped gun, which turned out to be a tranquilizer. "The tranquilizer will slow her blood flow, so she should survive. But it doesn't matter to you." Sephiroth watched as Hojo shoved the gun that had killed Dr. Gaste under the jaw of the guard who had shot Aeris' mother, and pulled the trigger.
That was what made it unhallowed. That was the true desecration. The fact that Dr. Gaste was not alone on the floor of the small house, he died with some no name guard, and Hojo hadn't cared about either of them. Hojo's eyes came to dwell on Aeris now. "What are you standing around for? Can't you handle a child? Fine, I will do it myself!" Hojo loaded his second gun, and shot Aeris with a tranquilizer dart as well.
"And for Shinra's sake, someone shoot that camera!" A guard fired, and that was all there was that had been recorded. Sephiroth watched as one of the guards slung Aeris over his shoulder and two more grabbed her mother. Sephiroth watched and felt Masamune dragging down on his shoulders, it was too heavy for him to lift while he was this young.
But he didn't need Masamune to kill. He carefully unclipped the strap and let it fall to the floor freeing him from its encumbrance and reached for his magic. Sephiroth had been called a deamon child by more than one lab attendant or nurse who had seen what he could do without lifting a finger or uttering a word if he concentrated. Flames danced around him, he felt them race up and down his body. Sephiroth was on fire, but he didn't care, some doctor had told him about it once, something about how since every part of his body was inundated with Jenova cells, his skin was fireproof. Mostly. This time his skin was turning black, but of course he couldn't feel any pain. He was Sephiroth, pain was something that happened to other people.
The black skin continued to burn, and after a moment, it finally turned into ash and fell right off of Sephiroth. At least most of the ash fell off of him. On his hands as the black ash kept burning, it began to mesh together, turning into gloves. But that young skin needed to go, what was underneath it was what mattered, Sephiroth took one step forward and sneezed slightly. The ash fell to his feet and then encircled them, turning into boots.
The ash flew upwards and clung to what little hair he had, and burned till it went from black to white, and then to silver. It burned against Sephiroth's hair like two pieces of metal being fused together, and it only ended when Sephiroth had hair down to feet. The ash clung to every exposed part of his body, turning into clothing. Underneath the ash like a field having been given new life by fire, new skin grew, lots and lot of skin. After that one step forward, his bones suddenly realized that they weren't large enough and weren't strong enough. So they like any other part of Sephiroth, they didn't complain, they acted to rectify the problem.
In another step forward it was done, Sephiroth had completely shed his first layer of skin like and like a snake discovered that he was larger for the process. Unlike a snake Sephiroth had grown at least double his height in one shedding, he was now his current age, his hair only going down to his waist. He brought a boot down hard on Masamune's pommel, and the sword and sheath flipped upwards through the air. He carefully grabbed its hilt with one hand, its sheath with the other. He pulled down on the hilt with one hand, and up on the sheath with the other, allowing Masamune's naked blade to shine in what light there was. He smiled at Hojo and the guards. "Welcome to my hell."
Flames surrounded Sephiroth, flames shot out in all directions with explosives force determined to burn the entire would to ash. Sephiroth's eyes shot open too late to do anything about what he had done in his sleep. The section of the cave that he and Aeris had chosen had once been as cramped as the rest of this cursed place. Now it was decidedly un-cramped, as solid rock had dissolved into nothingness in all directions from where Sephiroth had slept in a 10 foot sphere.
If Aeris hadn't been sleeping right next to him, she would have reduced to ash so quickly she wouldn't have even known it. Sephiroth felt sweat roll down his face, sweat that had nothing to do with the residual heat that his spell had generated.
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James and Mirri where curled in one interconnected bundle. James' tail was wrapped around Mirri's neck, his head leaning against Mirri's legs. It was a simple arrangement designed for maxim comfort from minimal space. Mirri woke up from her dream and smiled.
It was a dream she had been having often since the Temple of the Ancients, she relived her vision. She could dream that dream for the rest of her life and never grow tired of it, because it was fun. It was fun and it was justice, to destroy the people who had decimated her family's name and land. "War."
Mirri smiled as she said the word, she could never quite get enough of that word. It summed up human stupidity, that a single word like "war" could be used to explain the hell on earth that it created. As Mirri spoke, James began to stir, red limbs stretching this way and that to signify his own removal from the world of dreams. Mirri personally couldn't wait till she made her dreams reality, destroying Shinra would be wonderful.
"It's fun isn't it?" James twisted now that he had finished stretching, so that his head could transfer itself from looking away from Mirri's legs to looking at Mirri's eyes. "Were you having good dreams too Mirri?" Mirri nodded as she spoke, flexing her gloves as she did before combat. "Yes, I was just thinking of how beautiful this war against Shinra is."
James smiled, such bright white teeth, such sharp pointed canines for such an innocent face. "I can't say I'd call it beautiful, but neither can I say I'm not having fun." Mirri slowly rose to a half crouch, while James remained lying at her feet, his arms crossed over his chest, like a ready animal.
They said that cheetahs used to be used to hunt, that they would be carried on the backs of Chocobos to the hunting grounds. Then they would be released and with a sudden burst of speed they would take down their prey before being taken back to their homes.
Maybe, James was like that, he should be taken to his target, and then released to act so he didn't wear himself out on the way there. You didn't try to teach a cheetah why or how he hunted, you just pointed him out and let him go. Mirri submitted to the unspoken wish James' body language desired. She used her left hand to push James' hat aside slightly and scratched his left ear. James purred as her gloved hand came into contact with the tips of his ears.
"My cheetah." James couldn't have a chance of understanding what Mirri had said. However, James had never been the type who allowed simple lack of background knowledge stop him from speaking before, he saw no reason to do so now. "My lady!"
Mirri continued to scratch James' ear her hand slowly going up and down the entire length of his ear. James' purr continued in time with Mirri's hand moments. "Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a lady of wealth and taste." Mirri's' voice wasn't particularly suited to the words, but James didn't care in the least. Between the two of them, the rest of the world didn't exist.
"I've been around for a long, long, year, stole many a man's soul and faith." James continued to purr, and when he spoke, his voice was a purr. "If it's your war Mirri, then it's my war." Mirri continued to scratch James' ear, and James continued to purr as Mirri continued to sing. "But what's troubling you is the nature of my game."
Those words hardly suited the situation but James didn't care. "War..." Mirri had never heard the word spoken like that. It was like a kitten's hiss. A small pathetic thing having not yet grown into its ears, paws or eyes, it had precious little in the way of real skin.
Still it stood confidently before a trained attack dog, and hissed its battle cry. It hissed with all the strength of a lion roar, and it did not know fear. Tremble, leaders of Shinra, before this small kitten. Tremble, before the pacifistic killer.
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Aeris, as Sephiroth exted, tried to put the best face on the situation. "Don't worry Sephiroth, it was just a nightmare, everyone has them." Sephiroth cast a stern glare at her, he wasn't a child who needed coddling, he knew his weakness as much as he knew his own strength. "No it isn't Aeris. I've talked with Mirri about it, and I trust her for giving me an accurate physiological diagnosis more then I would trust any other doctor. Mainly because I believe that you can't trust someone to be able to cure something until you've seem them cause it. Mirri explained that it's a holdover from my time growing up in Shinra's labs, 'claustrophobia', or fear of enclosed spaces."
Neither of them cared to add the comment that after what Sephiroth had done, the space they currently occupied no longer qualified as "enclosed" in any real sense. "So was that the reason, that night I found you in a tree?" In for a gil coin, in for a stack of them, Sephiroth thought bleakly. "Yes, I couldn't stand it inside, so I went outside. That's what Mirri suggested I do in any situation. It's worst in places I'm not familiar with, in Mirri's house it wasn't so bad. Most of the time it doesn't truly effect me, but when I get tired, it gets harder to tell the difference between any enclosed place and those labs."
"So have you ever done something like this before?" Sephiroth might as well tell her, if you expected others to follow you had to lead. "Yes. Eventually I started sleeping outside because it happened to me in tents sometimes, particularly after battles when I was tired. Mirri told me that it's a fairly normal psychological condition, at least as such things go, and that I have a fairly mild case of it.
Other people drive themselves insane if they're forced to into enclosed spaces even while they're wide awake. It isn't documented in my Shinra file, Mirri always kept it under her hat as a favor to me and to the army. She knows about it and now you do, but don't tell the others."
Aeris was trying, but it was clear from the look in her eyes that she didn't understand. "Why? If they knew we could better plan things ahead so you wouldn't wind up in situations like this." The glare was almost as hard as Masamune. "Because, leadership is half of what you do, and half of how you do it.
Because of my Jenova talents, I can do things that normal people couldn't understand, much less imitate. I've dodged bullets, survived 'lethal' wounds and many other things. I was invincible, I was never defeated, and because of that my men were stronger, because they believed in that invincibility. I wasn't invincible then, and I'm not now, if anything I was worse then because I had Jenova's voice in my mind when I was alone.
But I didn't let people know that, because if they did, it would make them doubt me, and that could get them killed. If they were afraid, because they knew they were following an insane man, then more people would have died. So everyone including Shinra agreed to look the other way so that fewer people would die. Those who saw the effects of my Jenova induced schizophrenia called them strokes of genius.
We all closed our eyes to what they meant because there was a war to win. I think Zack even tried to put a good face on it, since he saw it most often. 'The different between insanity and genius is measured only in success' he liked to tell me. Zack was wrong, I won the war, but that didn't make any of it go away." Sephiroth curled his hand into a fist. Too late to stop now, no reason not to explain every single thing in his world to her.
"I won the war, and what followed made me wish to be on the battlefield night after night. I was paraded around like a prize animal who had learned how to do some amazing trick. I was pampered like some kind of prize racehorse who was suddenly too old to race any more, but was still deserving of respect. I think there was even talk among the Shinra higher ups on the possibility of... never mind that's a situation even I don't want to think about.
No one knew what to do with me; there weren't any more wars to fight because Shinra now had complete control of the world. Still at the same time they couldn't dispense with my services because I was a hero to all of Midgar. In victory I had made myself useless, war had become antique to the world. So I just drifted in a meaningless, empty life, from one day to another. Each day Jenova's voice got worse because I wasn't drowning its desire for death by killing people in battle.
I kept training, because it was the closest I could come to being able to kill. Day after day, night after night, endless unsated bloodlust. I spent as little time as possible with people because whenever I talked with someone, in the corner of my mind I saw all the possible ways I could kill them. It only went away after Nibelhiem, because I understood what Jenova was. That was a small blessing. But believe me when I say this, there can be no peace between us and Jenova, one will destroy the other, and I don't intend to die." Aeris nodded, and Sephiroth smiled, perhaps she was making progress.
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The group made progress through the snow slowly but steadily. The storm had ended, and even if there was more snow on the ground, they just had to cut through it. Most monsters apparently were nocturnal up here, because they encountered few of them, until it came. They heard it before they saw it, and they all knew (even James) that it meant Shinra was coming.
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Stealth was somewhat of a unknown concept to this vehicle. The huge shadow it cast on the ground below it was always a harbinger of its arrival. The greatest airship in the world, built by Dr. Melkore Morningstar, it was the ultimate symbol of Shinra's power. It allowed them to strike anywhere, at any time, no fortified position could hope to stand against it.
The Valar class airship, though it had no name other then the Valar, because no other airships in that class had been built. It was completed just barely before the war ended, and thus it had never been truly needed. One Valar was enough to strike fear into the hearts of those who saw it.
The thing used mako power, but it also had solar battery which could supply significant power. With a full tank, it could stay in flight for over a week. The Valar was a monstrous thing, it dwarfed all other airships, and nothing in the world was like it. The thing was known for being the President's personal craft, and it was never deployed unless it was stocked with first class SOLDIERS, SOLDIERS who could level entire cities or towns.
The Valar made its way north with deliberate speed. President Shinra, Hojo, and others where were gathered on the front of the Valar's deck. Rufus Shinra watched was he saw the world move beneath him. "Hojo, are sure you're working in the right direction?" Hojo smiled, for a different reason then Rufus as he looked down at the world.
"Of course, President Shinra. We'll soon be able to reach what has so long eluded us. To the north, the land of ice, soon we will be able to find the true power of the Cetra." Rufus glared down at the snow, wishing that they could arrive sooner. "Wonderful. Soon Shinra will be more powerful then my father could ever imagine."
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"All of you, stay back." Vincent heard the words, but he didn't understand them. Looking out at the huge icy valley, they could see that child Cloud Strife holding the black materia in his hands. The cliffs sloped down, and the child stood in the middle of them. Master glared down, his entire body ready to act. "This entire valley is unstable, that ice is incredibly thin, too thin. Two people is bad enough, three is sure to cause it to collapse. I'm going to go out there and kill him, you all stay back. That means you, Vincent!"
A direct order, Vincent couldn't go against it. Thus, Vincent could only stay back and watch what happened, he didn't even say anything. He just stood there as Master and Cloud both drew their blades, as Master's foe dropped the black materia. The two met in a clash of blades, neither one gaining an advantage over the other. The horrific sound of a huge airship as it began to descend.
The thing sent powerful blasts of air in all directions, including down into the valley where Master and his foe fought. Just as Master had said, the ice was too thin, those blasts of winds did it. The ice cracked, shattered, and the two of them fell. The weakly healed scab over the Planet's wound was torn open.
Master plunged into the depths of the Lifestream itself. The world shattered for Vincent, he didn't even feel it as a pair of hands grabbed him by the neck.
End Chapter
OWAN: Updates will continue to be sporadic: theater season has begun again. Tell your friends about our work, that's the best way to show support. That, and reviewing, anyway. Don't be surprised if it's a while before any further updates, I don't feel like doing much of anything anymore.