Published on: 10/08/2017
Chapter 21
Shinra truly was a world of excess. What other company would have, in the space of a few months, built a huge arena in an overcrowded city for the sake of a one-time televised event?
Who else would have chosen such a grand location, knowing that the SOLDIER competition was only a front for the rise of Deepground?
And who else would then let the arena stand, half-destroyed and left to rot, no doubt as proof of Shinra's might and what would happen to anyone daring to oppose it?
Zack's run slowed to a walk as he entered the massive shadow of the building. From the outside, not much of the damage could be seen. There were only a few holes and cracks in the domed roof. Yet for all it was new, it had the feeling of a ruin, feared and forsaken by men. Doors dotted the walls at regular intervals. They were wide open, gaping over a dark interior. Zack breathed in deeply and plunged through.
There was no electricity inside. He followed a corridor in near complete obscurity, guided only by the glow of his eyes and a light at the end. He emerged in the stadium itself, at the top of the spectator stands. The cracks in the dome let in curtains of grey sunlight in which dust traced hypnotising swirls. Silhouetted on that background, he found the man he had been looking for.
"Sephiroth! There you are, man."
There was no response. Sephiroth had his back turned to him. His coat and boots were tarnished with dirt, except in a few spots where it shone wetly.
Blood, Zack realised with a rush of nausea. Rain's blood.
He braced himself and approached warily. When Sephiroth gave no outward reaction to his presence, he followed his eyes down to what held so much of his focus.
The stands were littered with debris, at least where they hadn't outright collapsed. It was worse in the arena proper, where the once flat ground was a mess of gouges and fragments of walls scattered there as if by a giant.
In the middle of the destruction, a creature sat. It would have been hard to miss. It was the only splash of colour in the place, deep purple as it was, and forty feet tall besides. It kept squirming, far too many limbs writhing around its frame, and moaned in either pain or confusion.
Zack took a disgusted step back.
"What is that?"
"That," Sephiroth said, tone flat, "is my father."
"That's Hojo?"
Hearing its name, the monster turned and saw them there. There was nothing human in its face anymore, nothing to recognise the man it had once been. Even its voice, when it opened his maw to speak, was more akin to the screech of a dying beast.
"SePHirothhHh," it pleaded. "hElp ME! YoU muSt helP! She iSSS takIng coNTroL… I waNt REunIon, buT not LIke thiSss… nOt LikE thIs!"
Expression utterly blank, Sephiroth made to step forward. He had Masamune in hand. Struck by something undefinable in the air around him, Zack leapt in his path.
"Out of my way, Zack."
"Wait! Sephiroth, wait. You're not being yourself right now. Please calm down."
"I am very calm. Haven't you heard him? He wants my help."
Zack gulped.
"Look, I… I understand you're angry. Rain will be… We're all grieving."
Searing green eyes jumped to his for the first time. They were set in a face of stone. Zack stepped back, heart thudding in his throat.
"You understand nothing."
"You won't come back from this, Sephiroth," he tried again. "No matter what an awful, petty little man he was, what a monster he has become… there's no coming back from killing your own father."
"kIll?" Hojo repeated, his agitation doubling. "No. No, YOu muSt HElp! SepHirOth! I mAde yOU inTo What yOu ARe. You owE Me eveRYThing! I am YOur cReaTor!"
A pale fire ignited in Sephiroth's eyes.
"Then you made me into a patricide. It is only fitting; a monster killed by a monster. Out of my way, Zack."
Sephiroth's bloodthirst was a palpable weight in the atmosphere now, but still Zack didn't move, instead opening his mouth for another plea. Sephiroth didn't let him pronounce a word. Masamune's handle punched into his ribcage, sending him sailing.
He slammed into the stands two dozen feet below. He rolled onto his flank, groaning. That was at least a few ribs cracked. Sephiroth hadn't pulled his strength at all. If Zack hadn't twisted to the side at the last moment, his heart may well have stopped from the hit.
It was one thing that they disagreed, but to risk killing him… Sephiroth was out of control.
Dread clutching his innards, he groped for his radio. He found it crushed beneath his weight. He stared at the dented casing, teeth gritted. What had he hoped for, anyway? Angeal and Genesis had their own disaster to manage below Plate. Rain was dead.
No. It would have to be him.
He rolled to his feet and drew his sword. Sephiroth was strolling down the stairs at an unhurried pace, eyes drilling into Hojo.
"I wouldn't be your friend if I let you do this!" Zack yelled, charging him.
Aerith crossed Rain's bloodstained hands over his chest, hiding the hole there. She brushed the blond hair away from his forehead.
"Even in death, he looks grumpy," Tifa said, her voice strangled.
Aerith attempted a poor smile, but didn't reply.
To her, Rain didn't look grumpy. He looked anguished. What sort of turmoil could one take with oneself into the Lifestream? He had done so much to protect them, to guide them. He had struggled so hard, faced so much pain…
Aerith was no stranger to death. As a Cetra, she had a natural connection to the cycle of life. She grieved, but not as humans did. After all, she knew that no soul disappeared. They simply went into the Lifestream, to be reunited with their loved ones and become one with the voice of the Planet.
Yet this face Rain wore in death was that of a man who had failed. And to see him hurting so much, after everything he had sacrificed for them… she found that her heart was breaking.
Tifa gulped down a fortifying breath. She was standing away from the body, unable to kneel by his side like Aerith.
"We should… we should bring him back to camp," she said. It was plain she didn't want to do this, but considered it her duty. She was after all the only one of them who could lift him. "The medics will… take care of him."
"In a moment," Nanaki responded, his deep voice soothing. "Aerith is not done."
She smiled at him, grateful. Joining her hands in prayer, she bowed her head above Rain's.
Let him find peace, she begged. She followed the tendrils of life down; the insects and small animals nesting in the Plate below their feet, the humans fighting and loving in the slums, then the meagre blades of grass, the worms in the earth; and deeper, deeper still, until life turned into a brook, then a stream, then a river. Let him find peace, she begged to the Lifestream, to the Planet. He has given so much for you. Please give back to him in return.
But as her consciousness brushed with so many others, she became aware of a thrum of unease. Her brow creased.
Flashes of fire burst inside her eyelids, the remains of a memory that was not hers. Her eyes snapped open. Something was not right.
Cloud was well and truly lost.
He had taken off after Zack, but his friend ran much faster than him. He had thought he knew most of Midgar with all the patrols he had worked as an infantryman, but everything looked different. The shops' neon signs were all unlit, the streets dark, the windows boarded up. He had seen no trace of anyone living. The sheer loneliness of this ghost city made him stop, gasping, on the verge of a panic attack. A sob tore out of his throat.
Not now, he rebuked ruthlessly. Don't think about it now. You have to finish what Rain started.
He searched around for his bearings once more. For the first time, he noticed a big building peeking over the roofs. He squinted at it. He didn't remember ever seeing this before. As he watched, a deep rumbling came from that direction. Heart jump-starting in his mouth, he ran.
Just as he made it to the stadium, another groan came from the structure. This time he was close enough to feel the ground shake beneath his feet. Dust rained in sheets from the outer walls. He ducked through the nearest door, tripped around in the dark.
When he made it through to the other side, the light blinded him. He had to skid to a stop, protecting his unenhanced eyes. Before he could recover, the floor toppled under him. His stomach took flight. He had a moment of sheer terror as he fell, blind and unable to catch himself to anything.
He landed harshly some twenty feet below, uneven rubble tumbling under his weight. The collapsed floor's balance felt precarious, and so for a while he didn't dare move. Something had struck the stands with great strength, he realised as his eyesight finally came back. He searched for it, wary that it would crush him next.
His breath caught.
"No," he whispered, voice breaking. "Zack…"
His friend lay spread-eagled in the middle of the wreckage. A wound on his forehead had smeared dark red all over the left side of his face. His bare arms were covered in dust turned black and wet by the blood of multiple cuts. His eyes were closed.
Footsteps echoed under the cracked dome. Sephiroth was down in the stadium, making his way to the grotesque figure at its centre.
Tears traced twin burning paths on Cloud's cheeks. At first glance, there was nothing wrong with Sephiroth. But Masamune was coated in red, and there was nothing human in the look in his eyes. The air around him hung heavy and hungry.
The creature it was reaching for backed off, terrified.
"SephIroth… HAd yoU groWN so attaChed To thAt DeePGrounD rejEcttt? I CAn creAte yOu anOTher CompAnIon! A beTTer One!" it screeched.
"Be quiet."
Masamune struck.
But instead of being cleaved in two, the monster let out a shrill, unending shriek as its body seemed to explode outwards. Flesh bubbled and squirmed. The arms appendages were absorbed, then the head, cutting off the scream in one last gurgle. Cloud clapped a trembling hand to his mouth, holding with difficulty onto the churning contents of his stomach.
Whatever it was reformed into a huge, vile grey sphere of meat. From it emerged, wiggling, what appeared to be a feminine torso. Its abdomen was one giant gap. From either side of it sprouted two three-pronged tentacles. What should have been the head was obscured by a fold of purple flesh.
Despite the incredible mass of it all, it floated above the ground, dwarfing Sephiroth's form. The greatest SOLDIER of the Planet wasn't moved.
"Jenova," he said. "We meet at last."
Cloud hated what he heard in his voice, even as he could not qualify it. There was nothing of the deranged love Rain had cautioned about, but it still grated against his very bones.
"You are the source of it all. The pain we all suffered, the alienation, the fear; everything was the fruits of the obsession of madmen for you."
He stopped for a moment. Jenova was still and silent.
"I can feel you rooting around in my head," he observed, and though his tone was casual, Cloud once more held onto the urge to vomit. "Look at you. Reduced to the barest shell of your existence. So many of your cells, stolen or destroyed. You long to retrieve those you can feel in my body. But don't bother with your Reunion. I am not interested."
He lifted Masamune, eyes hard.
"I think I'd rather destroy you."
He made to rush at her, but the tentacles slammed into him with blinding speed. He was flicked away like an inconvenient fly and she rose towards the dome. She would go look for more of her cells, Cloud thought with a burst of panic. The city was crammed full of SOLDIERs, both Deepground and not. Angeal and Genesis. Rain's body!
Sephiroth flipped mid-air. His boots left deep gouges in the arena's loose soil as he stopped his momentum. His face was full of rage.
"You dare to ignore me?"
He jumped straight towards her. It was clear to Cloud that even he wouldn't reach the height Jenova already hovered at.
But then the wing unfolded from his back.
A ripple shook the darkness.
He found himself aware, as if awakened from a deep sleep.
He immediately wished he wasn't.
His soul was tired, exhausted to its very marrow. He wanted nothing more than rest and oblivion.
"Envoy…"
He tried to ignore the whisper, but it was soon joined by a chorus, each voice more pressing than the next. Fear and panic echoed all around him, threatening to unravel his being.
"It's happening."
"He has awakened!"
"Destruction, destruction, destruction."
"The Planet must survive!"
"The Calamity."
"Her son!"
"He has awakened!"
The words were weapons, only made more cutting when their meaning trickled into his mind. He curled into a ball, shying from a reality he wanted nothing to do with. 'No,' he wept. 'No, let me sleep. Let someone else fight. Leave me in peace.'
But peace was not to be found. The voices of the Lifestream plucked at his being, crying out in terror, calling him "Envoy" and "Saviour". Still he denied them, but his resolve was weakening.
A soft light appeared in the void. Reluctantly, he pried his eyelids open. A being spun of white and gold stood before him, shining gently in the darkness. Though her face was smooth and beautiful, her eyes reflected the weight of countless ages.
When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end, The goddess descends from the sky.
He shivered, feeling sick to his core. She didn't speak a word, but her presence somehow helped, however little.
He pushed the grief away. It resisted, clung to him, but there would be time for it later. Time to lick his wounds and patch himself back together into a semblance of human being. Again. Or maybe there wouldn't be. Maybe finally, he could truly rest.
But his work was not yet done. Though it may break him this time, that burden was still his to shoulder.
Light blinded him. There was a great rush like a tidal wave in his ears. He opened his mouth and found himself gasping in a breath. The pain was immediate and debilitating. He would have screamed if his punctured lung had let him do so. Yet in an instant, everything stopped. He was left blinking at the last traces of the pillar of light vanishing around him.
He was lying on the ground. The air smelled of dust, blood and ozone. Aerith was bent over his prone body, hands clasped to her chest in a familiar position, chestnut braid just brushing his shoulder. Her eyes glowed bright green.
As he watched, the glow faded and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She collapsed, just missing falling on him.
There was a noise like a sob. Tifa, he realised. There was Tifa, standing a few feet away, fingers pressed to her mouth, tears shining in her red-rimmed eyes. And Red, padding closer to sniff at Aerith, worry abating as he ascertained that she was simply unconscious. Rain sat up slowly. He looked at his chest. Only undamaged skin peeked through the hole in his blood-soaked shirt.
"How?" Tifa gasped. "You were… you were…"
He laid a gentle hand on Aerith's forehead, contemplating.
"I never believed she was so powerful," Red said, voice hushed with awe.
"It wasn't her."
Or not only her, anyhow. The Planet had used her, the same way she was using him. There was enough life in him to feel a spark of anger at the thought. But what was done was done.
His shirt was stiff, rust-coloured flakes raining from the material every time he shifted. He heaved it over his head and let it drop to the ground. He stood up, but it left him dizzy and winded, leaning against a nearby wall. He had just died and come back to life. He wasn't in any condition to fight.
He had to.
Tifa and Nanaki watched him move, in shock. They were so young, he thought with a pang. So vulnerable.
Romulus was still buried tip first into the ground, right where he had fallen. He wrapped his hand around the hilt, then had to stop, loss punching him in the ribs.
Remus and Romulus.
He remembered seeing them for the first time, laid out on an unassuming kitchen table, Sephiroth smirking at him above a newspaper. How could he not have known, when he had given them these names, that it would end like this?
He breathed carefully through the pain.
"Where is Sephiroth?"
Cloud tugged harder, but only managed to drag Zack another foot. He readjusted his grip on his friend's shoulders, then had to duck as a new portion of the ceiling crashed to the ground nearby, raining debris on them. He dared to glance up.
Sephiroth was locked in battle with Jenova. Masamune flashed faster than the eye could see, but was more often than not batted aside by the alien's tentacles. A Bio spell slammed into Sephiroth, sending him spinning head over heels. A single beat from his black wing returned his balance to him. Another propelled him above his enemy. Jenova was just as fast to evade: the attack struck the ground unimpeded, cleaving a fifty-foot gouge into the arena and the stands.
The blast knocked Cloud over. Panting, he got back up and resumed his desperate scramble to get Zack to safety. Now he understood Rain's pain when he first made him talk about Sephiroth, all those months ago. Now he knew. Tears poured from his eyes. He was nearly grateful for them, as they blurred his sight and masked the way Sephiroth's skin darkened more and more as his frustration grew.
"You will not escape me!"
His voice was thunder under the dome. He poised himself to strike again, and as Jenova moved to intercept, a Bolt spell had her recoil enough to leave him an opening. One of the tentacles was sliced straight off. It slapped down to the arena ground where it lay coiled, more disgusting than any snake Cloud had ever seen. The other one slashed at Sephiroth, knocking him off the sky. This time he was too low to regroup. He barely managed to get his legs under him before slamming into the bleachers.
Zack chose that moment to regain consciousness. He groaned and made a feeble attempt to lift his head.
"Wha…"
Cloud didn't react; he was frozen on the spot.
Sephiroth was only ten feet away. From that distance, there was no hiding the charcoal hue of his skin or the horns growing at each of his temples. Zack sucked in a horrified breath.
Up above them, Jenova used a Cure spell on herself. The missing tentacle began regenerating.
Sephiroth's eyes, riveted to her, flashed in rage. The flesh under his jacket started wriggling, stretching the leather until the stitching popped. He shed his characteristic coat like an unwanted skin.
It was Cloud's breaking point. He let go of Zack and fell to his knees, face bathed in tears.
"Stop!" he screamed. "Sephiroth… please! Don't do this! He wouldn't have wanted you to do this!"
He had expected to be ignored. But Sephiroth halted. Unnatural eyes slid to the corner of his vision and locked on to Cloud. He didn't dare breathe anymore. Zack was a tight mass of nerves by his side, ready to explode into action at the slightest movement.
Had only the familiarity of his voice called him back for a moment? Sephiroth turned away.
"Didn't he?" he said as he rose into the air once again. "I have always been a monster in his eyes. The fear that gnawed at his insides and poisoned his life… Wouldn't he be relieved to know it wasn't in vain? I can give him this, at least."
His voice was strong. But under the malice it projected, Cloud could still hear it.
Pain.
Nobody noticed the newcomers spilling from one of the archways. But as Sephiroth and Jenova squared off once more and Masamune caught a rare ray of sunlight, sending dazzling reflections all over the dome, Cloud screamed with everything he had of strength.
"HE CARED FOR YOU!"
Sephiroth froze.
It had been months since Cloud had felt his brother's emotions as easily as he did his own. Months since they had shared that perfect intimacy, that perfect understanding of each other. But this, he knew. He knew like he knew the sky was blue behind Midgar's clouds.
He knew, because he felt the same.
"HE WANTED TO TRUST IN YOU. WANTED IT SO MUCH IT BROKE HIS HEART!"
There was a moment when time seemed to stand still.
Then both of Jenova's limbs smashed into Sephiroth. He hurtled towards the ground, shedding fistfuls of black feathers. His impact shook the earth and dug a crater in the arena. Cloud gasped, horrified.
Something moved in the crater. An arm popped up first, hand clutched around Masamune's hilt. Then Sephiroth hoisted himself out. He was bare-chested, so there was a wide expanse of pale, bruised skin to see. The horns had disappeared. His hair was coated in dust.
When he turned to meet Cloud's eyes, his were green, slit-pupilled, and utterly human.
A fresh batch of tears flooded Cloud's cheeks. He nodded, unable to speak a single word. Sephiroth nodded back.
"Sephiroth!" Zack yelled in warning.
He made to jump to his feet, but groped in vain for a sword he didn't have. Sephiroth whirled around to face Jenova as she bore down on him, ready to crush him with her full weight. He slid seamlessly into his trademark stance.
"Be gone!" he roared.
Supernova exploded outwards in an eye-searing burst of light, chasing every shadow out, colouring the world white, gushing from the cracked dome to reflect upon the belly of the clouds and bathe the entire above Plate Midgar in its radiance.
When it all faded, so had Jenova. The last traces of her corpse shrivelled and turned to ash.
Cloud knuckled his eyes, blinking the aftershock from his sight. He sniffled, not quite believing what had just happened.
After everything, the silence that fell on them was surreal. More surreal even, Midgar's perpetual cloud cover, disturbed by Sephiroth's incredible feat, started to timidly part. Rays of light slid through, dotting the grey skies above. Head bowed in contemplation, Sephiroth stood in the centre of the arena like a lone hero. Like the hero Cloud had always seen in him.
Gravel shifted. They all turned, fearing a new enemy.
At the top of the stands stood Tifa, an unconscious Aerith draped on her back. Nanaki wasn't far. His tail glowed gently as he pressed against another person's black-clad knees. The hand that had used him for support detached from his fur. The familiar silhouette stepped forward, straight into a beam of sunlight. It painted Rain in vibrant colour, lightening his hair to a brilliant gold, bringing the sky into his eyes, glistening over the single tear rolling on his cheek as he stared down at Sephiroth.
Distantly, Cloud heard himself bellow in euphoria. He felt Zack grasp his shoulders and laugh, exhilarated.
Sephiroth had paled, rigid with incredulity. Slowly, as if he didn't dare to believe, he took a step forward. Rain lurched into action, scrambling down the stairs on unsteady legs, until they were both running at each other. They collided in the middle and sunk to their knees, clutching at blood-streaked skin with desperate hands.
They hadn't sooner touched the ground that white flowers bloomed around them, expanding in ever-widening circles until the entire arena floor was covered with them. The clouds unravelled completely.
"Thank you," Rain repeated over and over as he clung to Sephiroth, relief pouring from his eyes in rivers, washing away the pain and the anguish. "Thank you… Thank you…"
The words seemed too little, but all of their hearts echoed them.