Schala—Edge
I heard the mob shouting outside Seventh Heaven before I even reached Lockdown Street. My steps slowed and I hung back at the corner, watching the soldiers attempting to hold back a furious horde of desperate people. The two Turks stood at the door, looking harassed.
Someone spotted me. "There she is!"
The entire group broke off to come at me. The urge to run almost overwhelmed me, but I needed to break through. I tightened my hands into fists. A round of machine-gun fire from one of the soldiers split the air. Some of the descending horde slowed or stopped dead, but it didn't seem to affect the determination in the faces of the others.
Before I knew it, people had closed around me. They struck and spat at me. Their screaming voices overlapped so I had no idea what they were trying to yell at me. I fought back, keeping low to the ground to try to assess every advantage. A motorcycle engine revved like a lion's snarl, scattering even more as it screeched to a halt beside the crowd.
Tifa got through to me then, and Turks and soldiers poured into the breach she made. Cloud swung off his bike, parking it, and scowled in alarm. He pointed to a waiflike blonde woman standing off to the side.
"What's going on?" said Cloud.
"Their children were rounded up and driven off in a truck by this stranger with silver hair who promised to cure their Geostigma," said the woman. "Since she wasn't here…" the woman pointed at me with a glare, "the kids went."
"Cloud," I said urgently. "A silver-haired man broke into the church and stole your case of materia. I'm sorry, I tried to stop him. The Lifestream summoned me there, because it wants to take him. And he's not alone, but I only sensed another presence, I didn't see it. They went north."
"North where?" said Cloud, climbing back on his bike. I swung on after him and settled my hands around his hips.
"I can guide your way," I said.
He kicked his bike to life and peeled out.
"What are they?" he said over his shoulder to me.
"I was going to ask you the same thing," I said. "Have you seen them?"
He nodded. "They attacked me on the way to Healen. Said something about… Mother."
"Yours or theirs?"
"I don't know."
Buildings dropped away as we swung onto the northward road out of town.
"Did… did you see Reno and Rude?" I said hesitantly.
He was a while answering. "…Yes."
"How are they?" I said.
This silence was even longer and more potent.
"You're really friends with them?" He sounded bewildered.
"Yes," I said.
"Hmm," he said, and that seemed to be that.
I let it go. "Keep heading north. They're still a long way off." I shut my eyes to focus on that sense of dread, to act as compass, pointing to the magnetic pole of fear and evil.
Reno—Edge
"No, sir. They're not here anymore," I said wearily into Rude's PHS. "Witnesses say they took a bunch of kids in a truck."
"Any particular reason?" said the president mildly.
"No idea. Guy promised he was gonna heal them or some shit like that, sir," I said. "Apparently Cloud's gone after them, too."
"Hmm. Perhaps he reconsidered my offer," said Rufus. "Did he give you any indication he was amenable to cooperating with us?"
"Haven't spoken to him, sir. What does the director say?"
"Tseng is sedated. You're still in charge, Reno."
"I know, I know. But he's been in their base in the Forgotten City. I thought he might have said something. Sir." I hated talking to the president so much. It made me nervous.
The director put up with a lot from me that the president didn't find amusing at all. I come off as more insubordinate and snide than I am in practice, particularly when I haven't had enough sleep. I'll do what I'm told no matter what, but I reserve the right to be snarky while I'm doing it. The president had no patience for my attitude.
"What are your orders, sir?" I said.
"Let's not be too hasty. Find out what you can in Edge," he said, and hung up.
Rude immediately held his hand out for his phone. I handed it back with a groan and headed into Seventh Heaven.
Twyla and Godfrey looked up from one of the round little tables. The fear in their eyes didn't thrill me at all. I pulled out a chair, twirled it round and straddled it, arms draped over the back. Rude's footsteps stopped behind me, and I felt more than saw him fold his gloved hands in front of him. I leveled my eyes at Twyla, then Godfrey.
"What am I going to do with you two?" I said. "I'd be hard-pressed to find two sorrier excuses for Turks in the entire organization."
"Sir…" said Twyla.
I slammed my nightstick down on the table, rattling it and upending their glasses. Godfrey jumped up to go for a towel.
"Keep your seat, Godfrey," I said, more sharply than I intended. He plonked his ass back in the chair, looking pained. I swiveled my glare between them.
"Look, I don't know how you got these jobs. I don't even care. If by some miracle Miss Zeal shows up again I'm not entrusting her to you two, but maybe you can be of some use asking around about those silver-haired freaks who came through here and rounded up the sick kids," I said.
Twyla cleared her throat. "Er… sir?"
I focused on her. "What?"
She cringed. "Cloud Strife went after them."
"Oh, delivering missives from the Department of No Shit, huh?" I shook my head at her. "Not helping."
"…Sir, Miss Zeal went with him."
I thought for sure in my exhaustion I'd misheard. I replayed what she'd just said, frowning. "Why would she…?" I wondered aloud, and remembered:
"What's wrong?" I said.
"I don't know," she said softly. "Northward."
"'Northward'?" I repeated. "What's northward?"
"I don't know. Something wrong."
Mouth open in growing shock, I scrambled to mentally count back the days. The director and Elena went MIA… two weeks ago. When were we in Nibelheim? Could it have been that same night?
Northward. The Northern Cave. And nightmares every night since.
She knows where they are. Like she knew where Cloud was.
…But what the hell does it mean?
I put my head in my hand. "I think we're in deep shit, partner," I muttered.
He sounded distant behind me, as if off in Rude-land, where sunglasses grew on bushes. "…Like always."
Schala—Forgotten City
The trees glowed florescent, almost lavender-silver white. An ungodly huge matching full moon hung overhead, so bright I couldn't make out any stars. The wind whipped around me even clinging tight to Cloud's back. I was glad I'd wrapped up warm before heading out to the church.
"We're really, really close," I said.
The light seemed to grow and grow, coalesce, almost blinding me. Suddenly the motorcycle vanished and I stumbled forward. I straightened, looking around me at a stark white nothing. Cloud was gone. The forest, the night, everything gone but blank whiteness.
"How can we help?" said a gentle voice behind me. I whirled around and nearly punched Aerith in my surprise. A man with spiky black hair beside her reared back, laughing at me. The light faded enough that I saw flowers underfoot, everything else a wash of white. Though it all looked different, it felt familiar.
The Lifestream.
I straightened, looking at Aerith, and nodded to her. She responded in kind.
"It's going to be a hell of a fight," said the man. "What can we do?"
I wondered how they existed in the Lifestream, how it was I was inside it again, or if this was some illusion. It seemed more important to try to answer the question than figure out what was happening.
"I don't know," I said. "The one who beat me had a weapon, and Cloud's materia. And he was so fast. I'm not nearly that fast. Or strong."
She smiled. "That, I can help with."
When she reached up and touched my shoulder, something flowed into me that I couldn't see. I felt my heart rev, then slow. My head spun. Pain crested in me. I yelped breathlessly, forced to my knees. She followed me down, never letting up.
"Look after Cloud," she said. "Keep him safe and healed for me while he fights, all right?"
The motorbike and night slammed back into place around me. Cloud glanced back over his shoulder. He looked startled to see me. I saw movement ahead and pointed urgently. He turned back to the road to see three figures appearing in his headlights ahead. They fired on us.
Cloud strafed the motorcycle to dodge the incoming bullets. The front carapace of the bike sprang open like a fan and Cloud withdrew a giant sword in each hand from inner compartments of it. He continued steering only with his thighs.
Everything seemed to slow, so I could see and sense every detail. My brain felt like a taut violin string, humming with every breath of wind. We neared the three leather-clad figures with shining silver hair—the one on the left my attacker in the church. As we neared I felt almost unbearable tension within me, cool fires roiling, anticipating. The Lifestream filled me to the brim, reaching.
The center figure strode forth, unsheathing a long curved double-bladed sword from behind him and reaching up to beckon overhead. Children started dropping out of the trees, filling the road between us and the strangers. They stared dead-eyed at the approaching motorcycle.
Cloud turned, skidding so hard the bike came out from under both of us. It dragged me for a moment, crushing my leg excruciatingly, but its spin disconnected me. I heard Cloud screaming in pain. Green energy swirled across my vision, releasing the pain from my leg and scraped up body. I scrambled toward him where he lay groaning on the ground. It was like swimming upstream turning my back on the silver-haired men against the Lifestream's insistent sense I seek their death. But hearing that scream overrode all else.
Life, I thought. Life above all else. Demands of life before demands of death.
I nearly fell on him, so intense was my struggle to reach him. My hands landed on him, and healing surged out of me into him, freezing me. He looked up over my head. I felt them approach, behind me.
"I'm glad you could make it!" chirped a cruel voice above me.
"I only came for the kids," said Cloud.
"See this man?" The sword-bearing silver-haired man paced the clearing. "He's our b…"
Healing shut off. I rolled and sprang, tackling him to the ground. He wasn't expecting me.
The man writhed in my arms with the ferocity of a snake and agility and strength of a man who'd been fighting his whole life. I clung as tenaciously as I could. He tried to get his sword between us to impale me. I had no idea if the Lifestream could compensate for that, so I rolled him under me and tried to slam it out of his hand. No luck.
I heard gunshots, steel clang, and general fighting noises. My foe at last broke my grasp and whirled to eviscerate me. I saw the sword coming in slow motion and flipped. Something clearly guided my moves.
Thank you, I thought.
I spotted Cloud on the periphery trying to deal with the other two. My guy backflipped an unbelievable distance away. I lunged after him. Something exploded, fountaining dirt and debris into the air. Another silver-haired man landed behind me and I dodged just in time not to get shot. I pivoted and grappled. Sword-guy was gone at this point, and I heard more metal ringing on metal high overhead. He whirled, trying to throw me. I used his momentum to throw him.
The guy from the church dropped in to yank me off gun-haver. I sustained more than a few wounds, freezing from head to toe, extremities numbed as the Lifestream healed me. I periodically checked saw Cloud with a multitude of swords he would break apart or slam together. He was incredible, even better a swordfighter than Reno was at hand-to-hand. He glowed blue with ephemeral fire, which he unleashed on the three men by turns. They also seemed to possess bluish fire to throw at both of us and it was agonizing.
Materia, I thought uncertainly.
Trees fell. Kids scattered. Swords clanged. Gunshots whizzed. I leaped and spun and tackled and landed and poured everything I could into every breath of the fight. Something bore me up past normal endurance.
I heard the sky rumble and split overhead and winced. Someone was using that materia that had defeated me in the church again.
I was knocked off and sent flying. I tucked my head, rolled as I struck and sprang up. I heard bike engines rev and ran for them.
I managed to catch and swing on behind the swordsman, who slammed his sword back into my side and levered me off the bike. I screamed in agony. He flung me to the ground, where I struck and lay while the Lifestream frantically revived me. I groaned weakly. The engines roared away, as did the creepy sense of those three men.
I turned away, arms wrapped around me, and trotted back to find Cloud, limping until I felt healed enough to walk normally. A dark-haired man in a red cape had appeared. He wore armored boots and a clawed gold gauntlet. My steps slowed, mouth coming open.
My eyes flicked as memory seized me, and just for a moment the stranger was my brother Janus, as he was fully grown and traveling under the name of Magus, with a similarly all-encompassing cape and pale skin. My heart twinged painfully. I shook my head to shatter it, to break free of my thoughts' freezing grasp and step back into the present. He dropped down beside the fallen blond man as I arrived. Green light sparkled over Cloud, reviving him.
"Thanks," said Cloud. "Vincent, what do you know about this?"
The man who looked like Magus lifted amber-red eyes. "I come here often," he intoned in a sepulchral voice. He flung his cape aside and approached Cloud. "I've seen what Kadaj's group is doing." He knelt by Cloud, grasping his elbow.
I walked past the two men with only a lingering backward glance for Vincent. I moved toward a glowing structure like a giant shell. Something gently tugged me. The structure was surrounded by a broad, still pool. I looked down at black water.
Vincent and Cloud spoke in low tones behind me. I saw my face reflected darkly in the pool. I felt sick. I knelt by the water, reaching for it.
A hand grabbed my wrist, startling me. I jerked, but Vincent held me fast, fiery eyes inches from mine. Up close the resemblance was terrifyingly uncanny.
"I wouldn't drink that," he said, releasing me. I rose, frowning at him as he stalked back over to Cloud, heart still in my wordless mouth.
I looked back down at the water. I extended my foot to it with a thoughtful frown. Before I knew it, I was wading in, and green spiraled out of me through the black.
What poured into the water and out of me was pretty powerful. I shuddered. It grew to fill the pond. Threads twined up above the surface, into the air, weaving, crossing, spinning, dancing all around me. I lifted my head and saw them joining above me, a cocoon of the Lifestream. I felt so drained I couldn't leave my eyes open.
At last the rush faded. I looked down into silvery water rippling softly around me. I turned and waded back to shore, bent and shivering, arms tight around me. I felt as though I'd bathed in ice.
A spindly gloved hand extended to me. I looked up at Vincent, trembling. I took his hand and he helped me up out of the water. Seeing me still violently shivering, he hurled off his red tattered cape and settled it round my shoulders. I pulled it tight about me.
"Thank you," I said to him, more touched than I could say. "I'm Schala Zeal."
"Vincent Valentine," he said, searching my eyes for a long moment.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." I tore my attention from him to turn to Cloud. "I'm sorry, Cloud. I'm so sorry I failed. The Lifestream helped me fight, it's just that materia is brutal. Please give me another chance."
"You didn't fail." Cloud lowered his eyes. "I failed."
"Are you kidding? You were incredible. I've never seen anything like that." I approached and knelt beside him. "Hey. What's going on?"
He shook his head.
I put my arm around him and leaned in to kiss his forehead. His bright blue eyes lifted. "I believe in you," I said. "Everyone does. I know you can do this. Your skills and experience have given you what you need, not to mention your heart. Come on. What are we waiting for? Let's go save the world. And you look damn fine doing it, Mr. I-just-roll-out-of-bed-and-my-hair-naturally-does-this."
Cloud's eyebrows sprang up.
I grinned at him. "Get your swords. Get the bike. There's work to do. Vincent, are you coming with us?"
Vincent leaned against a tree, arms folded, foot braced behind him. "I can't."
I tried not to let my disappointment show. I knew he wasn't my brother, but his kindness to me and his presence reassured me in familiar ways. I took off his cape and handed it back. "Thanks for the loan."
He frowned at me while Cloud trotted off to retrieve the bike. "Where did you come from?"
"Does it matter?"
"I suppose not." Vincent glanced over at the blonde sheathing his swords in the forward bike housing. "How sure are you that you two can beat Kadaj and his gang?" Vincent said to me.
"I won't know unless I keep trying. If I gave up when the fight was over, I'd be dead now." I trotted over to Cloud as the bike roared to life, waving at Vincent.
"Are sins ever forgiven?" Cloud asked me as I swung on behind him, glancing over his shoulder.
"Whose forgiveness do you need?" I said. "Or want?"
He took off in lieu of a response. I curled around his back.
"Damn, it's cold!" I hissed.
"You should've kept his cape. Then he'd have to come after us. I've never seen him without it before."
I laughed. "You've got some weird friends, Cloud."
"You're one of them."
I thrilled. "Yes. I'm one of the weirder ones."
"Not even close. You are not weirder than Vincent Valentine."
"He's cute, though."
"Cute?!" He shook his head. "Cute. You've got a thing for Turks?"
"Vincent's a Turk?"
"Was. Once."
I giggled. "Damn, I'd love to see him on a detail with Reno and Rude! Can you imagine?"
He fell quiet at this, thoughtful.
"We could sell tickets," I added.
He still said nothing.
"I can see Reno trying to give him orders. And Vincent fucking off and doing his own thing."
"Oh, my god," he muttered.
"Rude would be secretly seething because Vincent is so much more forbidding and imposing. He'd be clandestinely trying to emulate Vincent's most terrifying traits, and getting it horribly wrong."
"…You have a vivid imagination."
"It keeps me company."
That seemed to end that conversation, so I focused on keeping warm.
"Schala," he said.
"Yeah?" I said.
"When you say that the Lifestream wants to take Kadaj's gang… what does that mean?"
"It's a feeling. Like the healing. The planet feels threatened. The Lifestream can't just take them itself; they have free will. There has to be a catalyst to break their hold on physical existence. I was given a blessing in being able to heal Geostigma, and whatever injuries we may experience fighting. I will do what I can to help return them to the Lifestream. To protect the planet."
"How is the planet threatened by them?"
"…I don't know. It's a feeling."
"They're looking for Jenova. I think they're trying to recreate Sephiroth."
"Can they do that?"
"Vincent seems to think so."
I frowned. I didn't know too much about Sephiroth, mostly rumors and stories. "You defeated him once before. Do you think you could do it again?"
He sighed. "I don't know. …You know I have Jenova cells in me as well?"
"Well… you were in SOLDIER, right?"
"…No. Not exactly."
"Does it matter?"
He gave me another of his trademark silences. "I guess not."
I squeezed him. "I'll be there with you. Me and the Lifestream—we'll do our part to help keep him from coming back. And if he does, we'll help you fight."
He shook his head. "No. This is my fight."
"It's for the planet. It's everyone's fight."
He sighed. "I'm worried. I don't want to watch you die."
"Have a little faith. Come on. I'm not that weak."
"That's not… I…"
"I know, Cloud. You just want to protect everyone, don't you?"
He sighed again.
"Well, some of us want to protect you too. That's what friends are for."
"Schala. Promise me that if Sephiroth shows up, you'll leave him to me."
"If Sephiroth shows up, it may take everything we all have to put him down again. I can't make that promise. I can't fail the responsibility of what power I was given."
He was quiet for a while. "Neither can I," he murmured.
"It'll be okay. If I go back to the Lifestream, I'm glad I got a chance to make things better here. I nearly died once, and it saved me, and in return, I saved others. That's more than I could have hoped to achieve on my own."
Since this time he shut up for good, I let my thoughts drift and tried to huddle out of the slipstream pushing its icy stabbing fingers right through me.
I felt more grateful than I knew how to say that I had this time and this friendship. I missed Reno and Rude, so badly it hurt. Divorced of more immediate worries on the long ride back south, chasing the silver-haired men and the kidnapped children, I had too much time to think and feel everything I'd been avoiding.