Chapter 13: Descending the Crater
As soon as Naruto and Garra's phone indicated it was mid-morning, the group set out for the Northern Crater. It was a sombre silence while they ate their breakfast. Nobody said anything, not even the Turks who had joined them for the meal. Of course, that's not to say it wasn't completely silent around them.
There were currently close to 10,000 people that were evacuated from the top plates. And they were all separated off into 5 camps. 2500 people were clamouring around, being served breakfast too, which consisted of porridge.
As speed was essential, Cid pressed a button that activated the rocket boosters on the Highwind, enabling them to get to the Crater much more quickly than before. Now they stood on the deck, looking at the crater below them.
It was a barren and desolate place. The only signs of life were the odd monster crawling over the rocks and deep fissures where white and green steam wafted out. The Lifestream was probably bubbling close under the surface. The crater was almost inaccessible and so the Highwind needed to hover over the peak as there were no landing spots.
"Ok people, this is it! That old bitch Jenova is waiting for us down in this hole. Let's go kick her butt off this planet!" called Naruto, which was met by yells of approval by the others. They then began their decent.
At first it was a bit of a rocky start. The angle suddenly dipped sharply, making the team start running down the top inside of the crater quickly, eventually having to jump onto a large rock platform that existed deep in the crater.
"Whow! Everybody still here?" asked Naruto. They all looked around to make sure nobody was left behind. Cloud was looking around the place, taking it all in. Barret stood still, ready to lash out at anything that would attack the group. Tifa, Aeris and Yuffie were nervous, Cid stood confidently, smoking a cigarette, Vincent, calm and collected as usual. And Garra was the same as Vincent, but looked more alert, his hand resting on the handle of his gun.
Naruto noticed a feeling around him. It was as if the air was charged with a sense of foreboding. "Does anyone else feel that? Or is it just me?" he asked his friends.
"No, I too sense that something is down there," replied Vincent.
"Aeris, are you getting anything from the planet?" asked Cloud.
"There is nothing. No whispering, no talking, no warnings. Just silence," replied Aeris, very unnerved by this discovery.
"That's strange. And we're so close to the Lifestream too," murmured Cait.
The group then began to make their way down. The place was just as barren as outside but the area was infested with monsters. However thanks to Naruto's Kage Bunshin clones they managed to get past while the clones either distracted the monsters or lured them away from the main party. The path wasn't very good either; in several places the path was just wide rock platforms. Naruto at one time looked over the edge of the rock platform they were currently on and saw a bright green pulsing light at the very bottom with wisps of green mist flashing up and past the group at high speeds.
Lower down they came to a maze like area that took a while to navigate. Naruto applied his clones here too and they distracted the monsters while providing info on where to go next. And so they continued down, through caves and over platforms. Then the party came to a fork in the road in the next area.
"Guess we have no choice but to split into two groups," said Naruto, looking around at everyone and judging who would go in which direction.
"Ok! Who has healing materia?" asked Naruto. Tifa and Aeris raised their hands. "Right. You two will be in different groups as its common sense to have a healer in each group." As he said this, he thought of Tsunade and how she, in her prime, had argued for a medic to be placed in each group of ninja, to bring down mortality rates.
"Aeris will be in group one while Tifa will be in group two." Naruto then looked around and saw that almost everyone could be split evenly. "Right. Vincent in group one and Garra in group two. Barret in group one and Cid in group two. That's two long range fighters in each group. Yuffie in group one and Cait in group two. I will be in charge of group one and Cloud will be in charge of group two. Nanaki, you come with me." Everyone split into their groups.
"Ok, we'll take the left path. Hopefully the two paths will rejoin each other. If not, backtrack and meet up with us. We'll do the same if we run across a dead end. Let's move out!"
The path that Naruto and his group took winded around a giant stalactite hanging from the cave ceiling as they were no longer in the crater, but under it. Here and there the walls of the cavern glowed brightly in shades of blue, green and red—infused with the Lifestream. The whole view could be considered beautiful except that foul feeling that had been intensifying the further down they went was ruining the moment. They reached the bottom and made their way through the remains of giant eggshells. Whatever hatched out of these things, the group had no wishes to meet up with them.
They moved to where fiery orange light seemed to be flowing out of a passage. Naruto looked around to see if there were any other entrances accessible but there were none. Inside the group found themselves walking on a long snakelike skeleton. The remains rested against the ledge and then wound their way down another tall pillar of rock, the serpent's final resting place. With no other way down, the companions ran across the skeleton's ribbed spine until they reached the bottom, and then started to hurry on.
Naruto was sure that this was the area where the second group would arrive at as there was a second tunnel leading elsewhere. Naruto made his way around the very edge of the hole and looked in. Green Lifestream energy was swirling chaotically around the hole and inside he saw several stone platforms that seemed to be just hanging there in midair.
"Magic forces must be holding the rocks in place," said Kyuubi.
"Hey!" called a voice and Naruto turned to see Cloud and his group clamber through the second tunnel.
"Hey yourself! Glad to see you're all still there," replied Naruto.
Cloud's group moved over to where we were and peered inside. "This is the centre of the Planet...?" Cloud asked.
"I don't think so. More like the closest edge to the centre before the point of no return," replied Naruto.
"We finally made it here," said Nanaki, his voice filled with wonder. Aeris looked on in awe.
"This is it," said Tifa.
"Awright, this's the last dance!" yelled Barret.
"I ain't being your dance partner!" called Cloud, earning a laugh from everyone.
"It feels like we made it as far as we can," said Yuffie.
"Hmm... Being with you all is not so bad," said Vincent with a small smile on his face.
"Well you might as well get used to it cause we're going to be spending a lot of time together," said Naruto before turning to everyone. "Ok, let's get moving. Meteor ain't going to be hanging in the sky for much longer so we'll have to move fast," Naruto jumped onto a lower edge. He was just about to take the plunge before a loud chorus of roars and growls sounded from above. Everyone looked to see a huge army of monsters crawling over the rocks toward the group. One of the walls crumbled and an Armoured Golem broke through, its large feet causing the paths to shake and quiver. Through another dark doorway the head of a Dark Dragon slid out. Its eyes moved around until it saw the companions gathered below, and it roared. The sound of its roar startled the monsters, causing them to move away quickly.
"Oh shit..." Naruto murmured as he took in the sight of all these monsters converging on the group of eleven.
"Look at the number..." added Nanaki.
"Fuck! They're comin' out in full force!" yelled Cid.
"Naruto! You go first!" called Barret. Naruto nodded before looking at everyone. "Cloud, Aeris, Nanaki and Vincent! You're with me!" They nodded and jumped over to where Naruto was. "The rest of you, hold them off and don't die. Especially you Garra! Temari and Kankuro would kill me if anything happened to you!" Gaara gave a two fingered salute before Naruto's team jumped onto the first platform. As they jumped, Barret began to unload onto the advancing monsters.
The place was mindboggling to be sure. Green energy was shooting around them, making its way up towards the top of the hole. There were several stone platforms. Naruto and the others jumped to the next platform and suddenly there was a huge ass monster in front of them. It was a blue and more powerful version of the red giant monster that Naruto encountered on the speeding train while trying to get the first Huge Materia.
Straight away the giant swung his giant sword down on Vincent, but he quickly jumped backwards. Nanaki charged inwards with his claws while the giant wrenched the sword out of the ground and delivered two powerful blows to the giants right knee. Vincent followed up with a blast to the face with his gun. Then Cloud rushed in and slashed four times across the chest, creating large bloody gashes in the chest.
The giant then focused and blue electricity arced over its body. But before anything more could be done, Naruto attacked the giant with a heavy cut that mortally wounded the monster. Green streams of energy erupted out of the deep wound before the giant simply dissolved into Lifestream energy.
Without wasting any time the group jumped the next three platforms before another Blue Giant blocked their advance. Without pausing Naruto jumped in and hacked the monster four times before it too, broke apart into Lifestream energy.
Another three platforms later they ran into a new kind of monster. One Naruto had never seen before. It was bony all over with several arms and a long neck. This one wasted no time by turning around and crashing its tail into us. Aeris was missed as she stood a little ways away for healing purposes only. As she got to work, Nanaki burned with fiery energy before charging in and decimating the monster with a combo of quick slashes and heavy kicks. However it was still standing.
But quickly after Nanaki's attack, the monster roared at us and all of a sudden we were brought to our knees, extremely weak. The monster then collapsed after that and disappeared into Lifestream energy.
"What the fuck was that?" asked Naruto as he gasped for air.
"I don't know, but it was damaging for sure," replied Nanaki who was fine as Aeris had just cast a major healing spell on him. Soon the whole team was back on track. Looking down Naruto saw that there was one last platform. There was nowhere to go from there. The platform was large but covered only a tiny portion of the pool's surface, hovering twenty metres above the pool.
The platform was made up of a number of square pillars that rose in uneven levels. It was quiet this far down the crater; they could hear nothing except for the movements of the Lifestream below. Clouds of steam rose from below, shrouding the platform in an unnatural glow. Naruto walked forward, his footsteps echoing loudly.
"Where are we?" asked Cloud.
"I don't know, but I've got a feeling we're not alone here," replied Naruto. The others could feel it too. There was an odd calmness around them, despite the chaotic energy surrounding where they stood. But the feeling of dread had risen to a max level that was sickening. Naruto guessed that the source of the feeling was very nearby.
There was a sudden screech from in front of them. They all turned to the direction of the noise. There was something rising up from beneath the Lifestream. The surface bubbled and swelled and then fell away in waves as the creature that had been hiding inside broke the surface and rose up swiftly.
"There's the bitch!" shouted Naruto as the group looked on into the face of Jenova, but she looked entirely different. Before she had been a tall monster shrouded in folds of flesh, giant and terrifying. Now she was a giant, bloated ball. She had gorged on the Lifestream so that her body had become round and swollen. Flakes of petal-shaped flesh rose out around her head and over her body, rising and falling as she breathed. It was disgusting to look at and the putrid feeling began to intensify.
The scariest thing of all was her face. That horrible face that was stretched out into an eternal scream. The sight of it reminded Naruto of Hojo in his second form, his body twisted by Jenova's cells. That face, long and stretched, with eyes that were covered in a thin, fleshy film that stared at the group. They could feel her hate and her hunger through her eyes alone. Two long, vine-like tentacles reached up from just beneath her head and hung there, suspended and ready. Naruto glared at Jenova; mako dripping from her mouth.
"Here we go!" roared Naruto as Jenova charged them. But before anyone could do anything, Cloud rushed forward, his Buster sword gleaming with power.
He began to hack and slash Jenova with such ferocity that there was no way that the pink bubble monster could block it. Bits and pieces of Jenova flew off with every cut and slash that Cloud made. It was awe inspiring to watch him go. Naruto didn't even think to go and help out; so mesmerised by the power of this attack he was. He wasn't the only one. Vincent, Nanaki and Aeris were as well.
Eventually Cloud raised his sword above his head and brought it crashing down on Jenova. It was damaging, but Jenova was still alive. The good thing was that both tentacles were cut off from the attack.
So Naruto focused a very small amount of chakra into the Ultima materia and cast the spell on Jenova. The effects were huge. A gargantuan amount of pure destructive energy pummelled Jenova hard and fast. It was all over in a matter of seconds, but when the light cleared away, there was nothing left of Jenova.
"Woah!" Naruto gasped as he turned over the amount of power that had come from the spell, which wasn't even powered up much. He then looked at Cloud, who was panting slightly from the blistering combo he just unleashed. "That was a sweet move Cloud!" he said. Cloud turned around and looked about to speak when the ground began to rumble and quake beneath their feet.
"Wha-what's going on!" called Aeris in fright. Cloud made his way over to where she was and held her tight to keep her from falling over. "It's ok! I'm here!" he yelled over the accompanying roar that seemed to come from everywhere. The giant chunks of rock that surrounded the platform crumbled and fell down into the Lifestream below. The rising square pillars on which they stood separated, some of them falling down into the Lifestream while others floated upwards. Naruto saw Nanaki leap back as the pillar he was standing on rose rapidly upwards.
A bright light flashed, and the ground beneath Naruto's feet disappeared. The swordsman found himself falling, cool air rushing past his face. The bright light of the Lifestream rushed up to meet him. Naruto closed his eyes against the light.
Naruto opened his eyes as he sensed that he was no longer surrounded by blinding light. He instantly spotted a light blue light that was pulsing very slowly. It was a small light, but it cut through the unending darkness. Naruto looked into it. Though it was only a small light, trapped by the darkness, he could feel immense power pulsing within it, yearning to break free.
"You must be Holy..." said Naruto out loud. Before he could reach it, a harsher, brighter light flashed and took hold of him. It yanked him away, dragging him away from Holy. Then he was lying on some fleshy substance. Naruto looked around to see that everyone was here. Not just the team that he had chosen to lead the way, but the others as well.
"Oww... damn, man!" groaned Barret as he sat up.
"Hey Barret!" Naruto called as everyone began to wake up.
"What...? So everyone's together again...?" asked Barret.
"Looks like it," replied Vincent.
Naruto then took a good look around. They had landed at the bottom of a large, cavernous pit, the true bottom of the Northern Cave deep beneath the Lifestream. Tall, rocky walls surrounded them on all sides, rising so high up above them they could not see where they led. Dozens of floating platforms of rock were dotted about the cavern, some close together, while others were further apart. Naruto and Cloud were on two of the podiums closest to the bottom of the cavern. But the platforms weren't made of stone, but of hard, red flesh.
And in the centre was Holy. But wrapped around the blue energy was the red fleshy substance, as if it was restraining the energy from going anywhere.
"Guess we found that cork that's been stopping Holy from doing it's thing," Naruto concluded his thoughts out loud.
Then there was a pulse of energy and they were lifted off our feet and into the air. Naruto felt like his body was being distorted and stretched. He was sure that he wasn't the only one feeling this.
Then, in the midst of all this, the form of Sephiroth appeared in front of Holy, blocking their advance.
"You've done well to get this far, but this is where you will fall," said the same distorted voice with a strong feminine overtone that came from Sephiroth's mouth when Naruto fought with him in the City of the Ancients.
"Like hell it is! We'll free Sephiroth and cast you into Oblivion!" yelled Naruto, succeeding in not crying out from the pain he was experiencing.
The force that was keeping them in the air pushed them away slightly and the pain intensified.
"Ugh...! Is this... the true power of Jenova?" grunted Barret.
"My... my body... I can't control my body... Uuugh!" panted Cid.
The force brought them straight at Sephiroth and bounced them back, increasing the pain.
"My front legs... my hind legs... my tail's about to tear off!" yelped Nanaki.
"This is definitely not good! He's way outta our league!" wailed Cait Sith.
"I, I don't know if I can... go on..." groaned Yuffie.
"C...Cloud... I... ahhhhhh!" screamed Aeris in pain.
"Nugh! I can't..." began Tifa before she too screamed in pain like Aeris.
"Aeris! Tifa!" yelled Cloud.
"Hang in there Naru-kun! We're almost there!" called Kyuubi within his mind, and he voice washed away the pain he was feeling. With his mind cleared, he summoned his sword and pointed it at Sephiroth. "You're not going to win. We will fight! And we will destroy you!" Naruto roared with conviction. Soon the others calmed down as they focused on Sephiroth. The light of Holy flowing through their bodies, banishing the pain. "Holy is there! We just need to bust through Jenova and break the barrier! We can do this! Let's go, everyone!"
"Yeah! Holy is the prayer of everyone on this planet!" yelled Barret.
"I'm glad I'm fighting alongside everyone here!" said Yuffie.
"Hoo-ok…!" Cid said, pushing back his sleeves and floating over to where Barret and Yuffie was. "I can't be foolin' around in the bottom of this hellhole… I still have lots of stuff to do with my life!"
Vincent rose up to float beside Naruto. "Damn…!" he cursed. "I was frozen in time… But now, thanks to you Naruto, I feel as though my time is finally about to begin…!" The gunman drew his gun from its holster. "Jenova, now it's your time to sleep between the ages!"
"Maybe we were a little late in noticing the trouble that we were getting into…" Cait said regretfully. He clutched his megaphone close to his chest, remembering all the lives that had been lost due to Shinra's selfish greed. "But, there's still time… We should still be able to get out of it! Even if we can't get EVERYTHING back to normal!" The cat held out his weapon. "We should be able to protect what's most important!" he cried, and his Mog raised its arms in agreement as they hovered over to Cid.
"…No way we're gonna lose!" shouted Red XIII. The hound shook himself free of his bonds and floated up to join Naruto, Cloud and Vincent. "I'm going to see it through to the end! For the future… And that of the planet…" The hound turned his gaze upwards, to the darkness that hovered over them. "I understand now, Grandpa," he said. "This is my mission! I won't let the Lifestream… or the life of the Planet, wither away!"
"We can win! The planet is counting on us! We have to win! For everyone who Jenova has killed. For my people!" called Aeris as she gravitated to Cloud.
"That's right! If we don't fight then there's no hope for the planet!" replied Cloud.
"Let's end this!" said Naruto before they all converged on Jenova.