Chapter 8
"There's only one thing left to prepare for the Resurrection. And that's you." Kadaj smirked as he pointed at Sephiroth. The man in the Black Cape didn't say anything. He'd said to Cloud that he wouldn't get this involved, and he needed to find a way to stall it – and fast.
"I don't feel I'm ready yet, Kadaj. I promised someone... that I wouldn't..."
Kadaj growled and pulled out his gunblade. "Don't tell me... you've been duped by that idiot Strife, haven't you?"
"If we resurrect now... we won't be prepared. We're not even completely ready yet."
"Yes we are. All you have to do is give yourself to Mother." He looked towards the man with the slicked-back silver hair. "Loz! Restrain him!" Loz nodded and held Sephiroth down, and despite the other man's struggling, he remained firm. Kadaj turned to the other man who also had silver hair, but his was longer and straight. "Yazoo, you get the Draught of Resurrection." Yazoo obeyed and retrieved a small vial of a blue liquid that had a glowing red spot in it near the top.
"I won't do this, Kadaj. Never again!" Sephiroth tried to wrench himself free from Loz, but the other man still held firm. The man in the Black Cape could only watch on as Yazoo handed the vial to Kadaj.
"It's a pity our mutual friend Strife isn't here to see this..." Kadaj chuckled evilly as he stepped closer and uncorked the vial. "He'd love to watch as Mother is reunited with her first son..." Sephiroth growled under his breath and threw his entire weight backwards, causing Loz to lose his grip, overbalance and fall. The man in the Black Cape quickly got to his feet and drew his katana. Kadaj downed the contents of the vial.
"I will never, ever, bow to Jenova again!"
"We will see..." A cruel smirk touched Kadaj's lips.
The Highwind was making good progress since it had left Barret's house almost two hours ago. It was already two thirds of the way to the Northern Crater, and the air of the cockpit was thick with smoke.
"You know, Captain, if we didn't know you smoked like a chimney, we'd probably think there was a fire!" Cid's co-pilot spluttered and coughed whilst he spoke. Meanwhile Cloud was looking out of the cockpit window. He was thinking about everything that had happened so far, and about what they were getting themselves into.
"I just hope those guys are there, and that Sephiroth is still on our side. I really don't fancy the idea of fighting that guy again."
"An' knowin' how difficult he was th' first time, I don't wanna have t' do it either, Cloud." Barret looked towards Cid, who nodded in agreement. The pilot then turned his attention to his co-pilot, who said that they would be arriving at the Northern Crater very soon.
"Alright! Get ready for a bumpy ride! We're goin' in, an' the wind's gonna rock us, so hang onto yer hats, guys!" Cid took the helm and steered the Highwind through the mountains that surrounded the Crater. The harsh winds were buffeting the craft and forcing him to overcompensate. The engines started to sound strange before their noises stopped.
"Damn! Damn, damn, damn... the engine's just stalled!" Cid looked out of the window. "Double damn, we're gonna crash into ground zero! Right! All o' ya, get some parachutes an' jump out!" Everyone except Cloud and Cid scrambled for the parachutes.
"C'mon Cloud!" Barret called from nearby one of the emergency exits.
Cloud ignored him for the moment. "Cid... what about you?"
Cid sighed. "I'm not goin' with ya, Cloud. A good captain stays with his ship 'til the end, even if it kills 'im!" He pushed the other blonde towards the emergency exit. "Go, save yerself, an' save the world!" Cloud was about to protest but Cid remained firm. He ran for the emergency exit, grabbed the parachute from Barret, strapped it on and the two jumped out of the plummeting airship together. They pulled their chutes and landed safely, quickly disentangling themselves from them and running for the Crater. Out of the corner of his eye Cloud saw the airship was about to crash nose-down. His PHS rang so he answered it.
"Hey Cloud, it's Elena. Just to let you know we might have found a motive for these guys. Our sources confirmed it all. It seems that they want the power of the Lifestream, and they're going to use Jenova in order to get to it." Cloud was about to speak, but a loud explosion and a bright orange and yellow flash engulfed the area. "What was that?"
"That was our friend's airship crashing and exploding. The engines stalled before we could get to the Northern Crater."
"The Northern Crater?" Elena's voice showed interest. "That's where we found those guys were based! But... we never told you. How did you find out?"
"We went off a hunch that Barret had."
"Right. Anyway, I've seen where you are by triangulating your PHS with our satellite system. You're close to where they're based, about a mile and a half from the place. Looks like the centre of the crater. I'm picking up four other PHS signals at the target area. At a guess, that's Sephiroth and those three." Elena hung up. Cloud relayed the new information to Barret and the duo picked up speed, heading to the centre of the crater.
Kadaj laughed nastily just as he caught sight of Cloud and Barret. "Well if it isn't my two favourite thorns in the side, Strife and Wallace." He strode forward, smirking. "You're too late to stop the Resurrection. Mother will soon take her first son, and then, the Planet."
"Jenova won't be coming back." A curved blade glinted and the edge was pressed against Kadaj's throat. For the first time, Cloud and Barret saw fear in Kadaj. "Your plan was doomed from the start."
Kadaj swallowed, his eyes trying to meet those of the person that held him. "You can't hold off the inevitable." He grunted as he was thrown forward and pinned to the ground. Sephiroth stepped out of the shadows and pressed the blade of his katana to the other man's throat again.
"It's over, Kadaj. The Resurrection isn't taking place."
"It actually already is happening..." Kadaj's voice sounded different, hollow and cold. His eyes were glowing bright red and he growled as he looked at Cloud. "As I said, Strife... you can't stop Mother's resurrection..." A blue glow began to surround him, lifting him into the air. Sephiroth was forced to let go and Kadaj was lifted further up, his form dissolving and shifting, streams of black and red smoke curling around the area. When the smoke cleared, a thin woman with blue skin, blue hair, glowing red eyes and a metal device on her head was standing before Sephiroth, Cloud and Barret. There were tubes coming out of her arms and stomach like tentacles.
"I have returned to you... my children..." Her thin lips creased into a smirk. Sephiroth readied himself. Cloud drew his Buster Sword. Barret armed his gun-arm.
"Damn bitch, Jenova! Yer the one who caused all that misery five an' a half years ago! Well guess what? I ain't havin' it no more, and yer goin' to hell, ya hear me?" Barret strode forward and made a sweeping gesture with his arm. "It ends right here, right now! Only one of us is walkin' outta this alive!"
"Indeed there will be..." Jenova laughed and stepped forward herself, pointing a finger at Barret. "But it is not going to be you, worthless mortal..." She flicked a ball of energy at him that hit him squarely in the chest. He was thrown back a good few yards, landing heavily. Powerful magic barriers sprang up all around the centre of the crater, boxing Sephiroth and Cloud in with Jenova, and keeping Barret out.
"Cloud." Sephiroth looked towards the blonde man and smiled. "You said that we fought against each other here. Today, we'll fight together against Jenova!" Cloud nodded. The two ex-SOLDIERs readied their weapons and faced their opponent.
"Pitiful." Jenova looked towards Sephiroth with disappointment. "My first son... betraying me to join this pathetic fool." Her visible eye flashed bright red and she raised her arms, electricity crackling between her fingers. Blue lightning arced towards the man in the Black Cape, jolting him and causing him to collapse to the ground. Cloud saw this, readied himself and charged towards Jenova, swinging his large blade down at her, but she quickly threw up a barrier to deflect it, sending the blonde man off-balance.
"C'mon Cloud, ya done this before..." Barret was shouting encouragement through the barrier. Cloud smiled at the thought and got back on his feet. He noticed that Sephiroth was readying an attack.
"Wait for my signal. I'll distract her, then you go in." Cloud picked up a stone. "On the count of three. One... two... THREE!" He hurled the stone as hard as he could at Jenova. It hit her on the side of the head and she strode towards Cloud, a fireball growing in her hands. Before she could throw it, Sephiroth charged at her from the side and slashed at her, the fireball dissipating harmlessly. She fell to the side but she recovered quickly.
"We need another plan!" Sephiroth was forced to jump back as Jenova lashed out with the tentacle-like tubes. He had only just managed to elude the attack. Cloud leapt forward and tried to slash Jenova, but she was too quick, sidestepping out of the way. The momentum caused the blonde man to lose his balance and fall to the ground.
"How pathetic! You cannot best me with the puny fighting style you are using!" Jenova gave the two men a cruel smile whilst she focused on another spell. Her arms began to glow light blue and her attention shifted more towards Sephiroth. He took notice of that and dived out of the way just as she unleashed a wave of magical energy, but his evasion efforts were in vain. The energy arced towards him and started to wrap around him. His limbs began to feel heavy and trying to struggle free was becoming more of an effort. Cloud could only watch on. It seemed that Jenova had disappeared.
"Fight us, Jenova. Fight us properly instead of using your tricks." The blonde man saw some of the energy split off and head towards him, and he tried to elude with no luck. The energy sapped his strength and left him helpless just as Jenova appeared before him, her visible eye glowing brightly.
"Now where's the fun in that? It's more fun to toy with you, Cloud." The way she spoke his name sent ominous chills down his spine. He looked towards Sephiroth, who seemed exhausted. Cloud made no attempt to get his attention - he needed some time to recover. In the meantime he would have to face Jenova alone. It shouldn't be too hard since he had done this before... should it? He readied his sword once more and charged towards her, yelling in rage.
She was too quick. She cartwheeled out of the way before springing forward and knocking Cloud down. He was just about to get up but she pinned him to the ground, kicking his sword out of his hand.
"I will let you watch as I take this Planet for myself..." A beam of red light shot from her hands and into the sky, causing the clouds to turn red and form a swirling, ominous vortex above them. Slowly the sky began to turn pitch black and Jenova's form began to dissolve into a light blue mist that streamed through Cloud's nose. Barret could only watch in shock.
"Damn! Not you, Cloud!" The previously cast spells dissipated and the large man was able to run in to check on his friend. "C'mon Cloud, wake up..." The blonde man did not respond. Meanwhile Sephiroth had just managed to get to his feet.
"What just happened? Where did Jenova go?"
"Damn! As if it jes' couldn't get any worse! Looks like that damn Jenova's tryin' t' take over Cloud! The hell do we do now?" Barret clenched his fist. "This kinda thing makes me hate that bitch even more!" He felt his heart skip a beat when Cloud's eyes snapped open. They were glowing bright red and he sat up slowly.
"You wouldn't want to destroy your friend now, would you?" His voice sounded strange - half like his own and half like Jenova's. Barret growled and looked towards Sephiroth.
"Oi, ya got any ideas on how to stop her possessin' Cloud? Ya gotta have somethin', she possessed you once before!" Before he could get a response, Cloud raised his arms and the vortex in the sky sucked Sephiroth and Barret into its centre.
"If they have any sense, they will know not to come back..."