Ch 47
The landing was just like the launch which translated to an eternity of trying to yell and being crushed condensed into a few minutes before the sweet relief of hitting the ocean. The two hour wait for pickup from the Highwind hadn't been so bad since it was some more downtime and gave me a chance to tell Shera my circumstances. It was surprising how well she took it all since most moments where a person would doubt me were met with scientific curiosity and questions about anything I had a vague knowledge of technological wise. Maybe she was just humoring me but she seemed genuinely interested in Earth as if it was a story about how humans went down different paths without magic or the lack of ingenuity that allowed Shinra to have more advanced things than my humans.
Those hours flew by as the Higwind arrived and fished us out of the middle of the ocean before we were looked over by the ship doctor and returned to the Highwinds deck where everyone was waiting as we flew around.
"What a bust...kinda hoped it would work though." Barret started as we all just stared at the rock above us. On reentry we had missed what must have been the magnificent explosion while everyone on Gaia saw Meteor still looming in the sky.
"I can tell you now with foreknowledge that even with all four Huge materia it wouldn't have worked. The scenes show no matter what that the rocket only blasts the outer crust of the rock before it starts to pull itself back together. So not only is it probably harder to penetrate at the deeper layers but it can reform faster than anything Shinra can launch at it."
"Well... I won't lie but that does make me feel a little better about bothering them all this time" Cait added.
"Still doesn't help that Meteor is still up there though." Nanaki said remorsefully. Cid walked up to him though.
"Now theirs no need for worrying. If we all just sit around and cry into our beers while the thing comes crashing down nothings going to get done."
"Don't suppose you're planing something then?" Cid turned to Barret before scratching his head.
"Well no but we have a kid that knows the future so that has to count for something."
"Yeah! So whats next Nate?" Yuffie piped up next to me. I looked up to see everyone looking at me. Just when I was going to speak though a scream vibrated the ship. It wasn't human, it was deep and seem to shake everyone to there core as they looked around.
"What was that?" Cloud asked before Aeris answered.
"The Planet. It's terrified and is still suffering from Sephiroth siphoning energy from it to fuel it's own demise. Every soul in the Lifestream is scared and hoping something can be done soon." The mood dropped at that. Seeing no one wanted to talk I decided to break the silence.
"We have to go to Cosmo Canyon. You guys went there for words of wisdom before but he is the safest place we can leave the Huge materia at. We can then start planning our next moves but in the mean time I need to explain some shit." Cid ordered us to head over before everyone's gaze switched back to me.
I sighed. "You guys remember the thing that attacked us in the ocean." It was a statement, they didn't know what it was but the close encounter was defiantly memorable.
"Yeah some huge thing destroyed the submarines that were chasing us down, what about it?" I focused on Cid.
"That was Emerald WEAPON. One of two super WEAPONS that are far stronger than any of the others we know about." Everyone froze again.
"There are two more of those things?!" Tifa choked out. I nodded.
"Shinra only had intel on three. The one classified as Sapphire was killed by Junons cannon before it was moved and the other two are Ultimate and Diamond." Cait Sith stood up on his mog as he spoke.
"Well officially there are seven of those bastards. One was killed yeas ago by the Turks and I think it was called Jade or something. Then there is one called Omega but that one only comes out if the Planet knows its going to die and decides to just press the reset button on the world. I don't know the exact specifics but it takes the Lifestream and the life of every living animal on the Planet and I guess just turns it into one condensed pile of life sludge before it turns tail to run to another planet. The last one I'm hoping we can avoid in a couple years so I'll put that on the back-burner. The real problem is with the others and how I don't know how we can kill them.
"But we did right? You've seen us do it." Cloud said.
"Yeah but that's using game logic. We can fight Ultimate WEAPON as we are but the rest are taller than Shinra tower and have a wingspan to match. Fighting those things on foot is something you guys aren't ready for. In the future I could guarantee because I remember you guys fighting a summons that big but unless we can just spam summons from the Highwind we can't do it now. I've been trying to figure it out but I can't come up with anything to match them, so if y'all got ideas I'm open." No one spoke for a minute after me. I started to feel my hope dwindle before Aeris spoke.
"I still believe summons are the answer." Everyone turned to her before she continued. "We shouldn't waste magic on singular attacks. We should instead allow them to stay and fight for us." That's when I got confused.
"Wait you mean summons can stay longer?"
"She means grand summoning them. Its more than likely our best shot at contending with them." Vincent said, I saw Nanaki nod.
"Between all of us we could have quiet a few summons to battle them with. I don't think in the Planets history though there have been so many people who could do it either."
"Okay sorry to interrupt but what is a grand summon?" I asked. The previous three looked around to see the rest of us confused before Aeris cleared her throat.
"It requires the summoner to be a...battery if there was a simple term for it and allow the summons to remain on the physical plane for extended periods of time."
"The drawbacks to it though make it less than ideal sometimes. If the person is interrupted to much in the process than the connection severs and the summoner gets magic backlash. Any damage the summons sustains is transmuted through the link and if its fatal enough the summons will dismiss itself and let the summoner die. Then there are compatibility issues."
More questions kept popping in my head as they kept explaining. "Compatibility?"
"Before the grand summon goes through the summoner must communicate with the summons and you must be found worthy before they can continue. The problem is every summons looks for something different in a user. The experience is different on every documented summons but it usually amounts to a summons agreeing with the ideals of their summoner." It had been Yuffie that spoke up. She saw my look and continued.
"Its why the Wutai have temples dedicated to Leviathan. Through our history we had needed the summons help to repel invaders in the past so we offer it tribute. Way back in the day it even granted the people its scales for their continued worship. Although after Shinra invaded and reached our land we didn't have enough time to ask for its help so we suffered. Since then most materia we had to summon Leviathan were taken and we couldn't retaliate."
"From what it looks like though we will need our summons help to take down Diamond, Ruby, and Emerald. We do have a big selection so I hope we can find those that want to help us." Aeris finished. My mind spun at the implications. The only instances I knew of this were from Crisis Core where Zack fought summons but I had never delved into how those summons came to be. Slowly I smiled. We had a better chance than we did before with that new information and I was damn sure going to make use of it. But until the time came we had an old man to visit.
The trip to Cosmo Canyon was quick as we took the four Huge materia up to Bugenhagen's home. The old man had been very happy to see us before we were all ushered into his planetarium.
"Ho ho hoooo. Did you all need some wisdom from an old man like myself?"
"Nate said you were the safest place to keep the materia. I hope we aren't bothering you grandfather." Nanaki said as Bugenhagen just laughed it off.
"Nonsense! I'm lucky to have you and your friends visit as often as you do. Most old man have to badger their children to visit, and it would be a pleasure to have those artifacts with me. Come now everyone on the platform lets get those in place I have the perfect spots." The platform was raised as we were placed in the middle of the virtual map of the system. I still marveled at the models after seeing it for the second time.
"So these are Huge materia. They must have a special conscience to be so unique." The four magic jewels floated at different points in the solar system. Slowly they orbited like the simulated planets and I had to whistle at the detail of the machine.
"Nate you said these are special so what do they do again?" Barret asked.
"Well to test it do we have a master fire we don't use?" I was handed one by Cloud. In our travels a good chunk of our magic materia had been mastered and spawned lower levels versions we would work on when fighting monsters. I remembered fully leveled materia was worth a lot so I made a note to check prices after everything was said and done with.
I walked up to the green rock and touched the smaller materia to the larger. I felt a small pulse of warmth envelope my hand before the green orb was slowly absorbed into the Huge materia. Even with the same color schemes I could see the ball shape in the Huge materia slowly drift before it was slowly condensed. Green energy circled the ball as it got smaller and was chipped away. Withing a minute the ball hand been turned into a shard with a round edge to it. The Huge materia stopped glowing as the shard sat still in the middle of the bigger materia.
"It condenses regular materia together. If we had a leveled materia for all the magic ones it'll spit out a master magic materia. Master materia contain every spell of previous materia placed inside it, making it possible to have every spell available for one person without become physically crippled in the process of having every materia at hand."
"Damn that's powerful." Barret said as he poked the Huge materia.
"If time consuming. We have a lot of the green mastered along with the blue materias. We have even less of the yellow and I think we have two of the summons mastered and I don't think we can just toss those in now." Everyone agreed with Tifa at that. Having these was a future investment on my part, one that we couldn't cash in on until farther down the line.
"While on the subject I need to look at the red one." I knew that in the game the blue one gave Bahumet Zero to the group but from what experience I had Gaia function in a more logical sense so now there was a possibility to have a master blue which led to a lot of future applications I would have been more than happy to test. In the mean time I touched the red one and felt the same pulse as before. This time however a red orb had been deposited into my hand. I felt the connection with the materia and knew it was powerful right off the bat. I turned and held I up to everyone.
"This is Bahumet Zero. The second most powerful materia I know of and an incredible boon for us now." I handed it to Cloud who held it up to the light before pocketing it.
"So now what?"
"Honestly, we have a little time to kill before any more shit happens. Bugen you would tag along with us to help discover a way to stop Meteor but I already know Holy is the way to do it. The biggest problem we have is waiting before we can get to Sephiroth before we can get the Planet to use it."
"Interesting, so you have the Holy materia in your possession then?" At that Aeris took the white materia and handed it to the old man. He inspected it before staring at her.
"This...is not just Ancient magic, but ancient as in magic well before the times of humans having to use materia to channel magic if one wasn't close enough to the Planet to use the elements themselves. This has been around since the start of your people young woman...and I know how it works." Bugen had a grave expression as he spoke. Aeris simply nodded.
"So you know what kind of sacrifice it takes to use this...and you haven't paid its price." She nodded again. Everyone just stared at the two.
"What price?" Nanaki asked as Bugen handed the materia back.
"I can sense how energy's work and can be told the story by what is imbued by the Lifestream. My experience allowed me to find out about your companion Nathan before the rest of you." That made everyone pause. Apparently I had forgotten to mention that the old man had been the first to know defiantly I was lying about my origins.
"However I can listen to the Planet almost as good as the young lady here. Holy has a deep and ancient ability that is key to saving the Planet. The condition however to use it has not been met." It was my turn to freeze. I felt shakes before I walked up to him.
"What do you mean the condition hasn't been met? I remember that Sephiroth is taking the Planets energy to stop Holy so we have to kill him personally for it to work. What condition needs to be met that we can't do now?" I felt my voice lower. My heart was beating and I felt sweat start to drip off my hair.
"A soul must reach the Planet seeking Holy for it to be used. The knowledge I gleamed from it tells me as such." Bugenhagen turned to look at Aeris. "You would have to kill yourself so that you would be that soul. But since you are still here then there is no one who has given their life to reach into the planet and ask for Holy to be used. Without a seeker it can't be used...I am sorry my friends." The world stopped. I heard my heart beat faster and faster in my ears as I processed the information. I gripped my head as I tried to remember anything that could prove Bugenhagen wrong. But the words sounded so similar to what I could remember from the game.
A soul seeking Holy must reach the Planet...I never thought much on the words but slowly things started falling in place. Aeris always calling it a dud, her running off to confront Sephiroth for a sacrifice play, the lack of a glow in the materia. Holy was powerful...and any great power required sacrifice to obtain or use. To save the world a single person had to give up their life for billions of others.
A single life I had saved. A naive idea that sprung from years of fandom that said the death was to sad...wasteful. An idea that no one had to die to save the world, that a young woman deserved the chance to live out her life without sacrificing herself for a greater good. A woman who continued to live with that knowledge, a woman who never mentioned that it had been a mistake, a woman who didn't blame a younger boy for not knowing why she did what he did.
I stared at Aeris and saw the look in her eyes. There was no judgment, no anger, nothing that blamed me for what I did. All I saw was a sad look that told me why she never said anything, why she wouldn't hate me for my misguidance...just sad eyes...that told me they knew...that she was sorry.
"Nate calm down!" I finally noticed my vision was swimming. I couldn't breath and had been taking short uneven breaths. I was still sweating as I was overheating and had fallen backwards when Yuffie caught me and spoke. Even with my lucidity I couldn't calm down...how could I?
"...I killed us...I killed the world..." The words left me. I saw everyone staring now. Everyone's gaze pinned to me and my heart stopped, my breaths now ragged as I struggled in Yuffie's arms but she held me close and I didn't want to hurt her. I kept struggling though, I couldn't take those looks.
"I didn't know! I swear I did what was right! I did right didn't I? DIDN'T I?! Please...I didn't...I...nonononononononononono-" I wanted to thrash but Yuffie held my arms back and it was Barret who held my legs down. I had to go, I had to fix this I just needed to leave and...and...
"Its okay." A sharp turned showed Aeris smiling kindly at me.
I didn't deserve it.
"No...no I fucked up again. I keep fucking up and now everyone's dead, all of us are dead because of me!"
"It's not your fault." Cloud whispered. Everyone looked down as the news started to settle in.
"You can't say that! I was the one who pushed her, I was the one who couldn't keep the black materia, I had every chance to stop everything and every time I failed!" I bit my tongue, he didn't deserve me yelling at him, none of them did.
"...would you have let it happen?" I looked at Tifa. She wasn't judging me either from her looks. I wanted to speak but my voice caught itself.
Was I the kind of man to kill to save lives? Yes, I had more than enough bloodshed and bodies left behind me to show I was that kind of man. Was I the type to sacrifice a few to save the majority? Only if the people I killed were in the wrong and even then I still remembered not every man or woman I killed was some evil person standing in the way of good. But was I a man who would let a friend sacrifice themselves for the greater good though?
Not if I could help it. No, I would sooner put myself in their harms way than allow that. I didn't regret saving Aeris, I couldn't.
"...No...no I wouldn't have even if I knew everything before." My heart slowed just a little. I would have still taken the plunge. I would have willingly doomed the world if it meant none of my friends had to die.
"So now what?" Barret asked. Bugenhagen quickly answered.
"Now don't be so downtrodden. From what I know you all have worked miracles to get where you are now and I have no doubt that you all can figure out a way to work at least one more. All of you have the ability to save the world as long as you don't give into disparity."
"Don't hurt yourself." Aeris smiled again. "I never blamed you and I am grateful for what you did. Being with everyone I know now how much it would have pained all of you. I won't do it again and I too believe we can find a way."
"Old mans right! We've gotten this far, there ain't no reason to give up!" Barret added.
"There is always a way, we just need to clear the path ahead of us before we can see it." I tried to turn to Nanaki but Yuffie had let go of my arms and started to cradle me instead.
"Its always going to be hard, but I know you and I know that you will help us find that way." I was tearing up now but they kept going.
"Hope is what we've used now and its going to be what keeps us going." Tifa smiled.
"I've seen us get through enough crazy things to be confident in us pulling something out of our asses when we need it again."
"Even using such crude terms I agree." Cid and Vincent continued the speech.
"We've sacrificed to much to give up!" Cait bounced on his mog. I felt tears flowing when Cloud spoke
"So now is not the time to give up. This just means that our goal now is to kill Sephiroth, and we can't do that without everyone pitching in. We have all made mistakes and all of us have fallen. I'm asking you rise back up with the rest of us, because I know you are just as strong." I had started crying midway through and kept doing so after. I didn't know how long everyone just let me sit there but I finally got to the point where I was just sniffling and wiping my eyes.
"All of you are right, you're absolutely right." Yuffie helped me stand up. I took another minute to get rid of the last of my tears.
"Thank you." I looked over at Aeris. I still felt like I didn't deserve that merciful smile but if she believed I did than I wouldn't argue.
"Ho ho! To see youth so close makes this old heart happy. So what will you do now?" I couldn't help but laugh at that. I had grown so close with my childhood idols that I would forget sometimes they were basically family now.
"How things change..." I took a breath and gazed at the group. "We can take the time we need to figure this out later. Right now we have time while they prepare the cannon to fire at the North Crater. We can't do anything to Sephiroth until they take that barrier down anyways. In the mean time I need us to head to one more hidden materia that now that I know that grand summoning exists will definitely help. I don't think we'll have enough time to do more before Diamond shows up so we need to head out now."
"Another secret materia? Well I guess since what we've already picked up is far to useful not to use another trip to god knows where is fine. You know where it is?" Cid asked.
"Kinda, the island is really small and I can give us an area to search that will shorten the time it would take. But I need Cait to keep us posted on everything in Shinra to keep my time table, so we should go now. Plus its totally worth it, I said Bahumet was the second most powerful, this one is called Knights of the Round, based off an old legend from my home world that if nothing else I'm curious to see how it would apply here."
"A trip to see another powerful and ancient materia?" I looked back over to Bugenhagen. "I don't suppose you would let an old man like myself come with would you?"
"Grandfather? You want to come along?" Nanaki questioned but Bugenhagen just laughed it off.
"What's so surprising? An old man like me wants to get out from time to time too. Though I wonder what brought it on?"
"Before we had to figure out what Aeris did to use Holy and that led us back to the Ancient City. Maybe you just have a late case of wanderlust old man." I smiled before I remembered what that part of the adventure did. "Just don't push yourself okay? I'm going to be honest and tell you now you overexerted yourself and died soon after that ordeal. I know you are happy with the life you lived but I think I'd like to have you around a couple more years."
"And here I thought Nanaki was the only one to try and dote on an old man." I grumbled at that. "I will turn one hundred and thirty later this year. Yes I'm happy with the life I've had but if you insist then I suppose I'll take such a young souls advice."
"Then its time we go. Time is of the essence." Cloud spoke and everyone followed him out when the platform was lowered. I took one more look at the solar system above me now. I didn't want to make anymore mistakes, Cloud had already asked me to keep going, and now was not the time for another breakdown. As it was I needed time to figure out the newest mess I was in.
Shame time was short at the moment.
XXX
"That's why, Reeve. It will be your job to adjust the reactor." Rufus had seen better days. His suit was clearly wrinkled and his hair was just a little disheveled from the lack of care he had put in that morning. He had made sure to check up on everything himself just to be sure the Sister Ray would be able to fire without a hitch. He didn't care about his looks at the moment, he didn't have any meetings lined up or public appearances and the company he had at the moment wouldn't make not of it.
Reeve had the same problem as him with the addition of two guards behind him. He had been informed that AVALANCHE was on the search for some powerful materia since they all decided to take the fight to Sephiroth himself. He was still angry but when he had gotten reports of how the Shinra number twenty six rocket had impacted Meteor he deflated only a little. The projections that the rock had a stronger core on the inside had been right but had underestimated it by magnitudes. Not to mention the fact that the thing pulled itself back together after the impact had shown that the think tanks in the science department were right when they said the damage wouldn't destroy it and their simulations were too optimistic even if the end result was a shower of meters instead of one.
He just bet Hojo was having a field day that he and the rest of his assistants were right even if it meant the end of the world. Thankfully the man was still hold up in his laboratory with the samples he had from their expedition to the North Crater.
Heidegger had very large bags under his eyes and the man hadn't even tried to make his suit look presentable with multiple misaligned buttons and his undershirt clearly un-tucked. He had made good on the promise he made him and made sure Tsung kept him posted on the progress in changing every military code for the Turks. The man was perhaps a third of the way through before he had called this meeting to be informed on the progress of the cannon.
Scarlet was the most well looking of the group, if one considered to much make-up to cover a very tired face and the same style dress she wore every time having less wrinkles than the rest of them better off.
"Make sure its calibrated right. The president doesn't want anymore mistakes." Heidegger growled. He would let the bitterness slide. Tensions were high and the Sister Ray was their last chance at survival. Even Hojo admitted that the beam from the cannon could puncture the barrier with little doubt.
"Will the shots make it to the crater? The science department mentioned that there could be alignment issues." Scarlet stepped forward.
"After you made sure we checked everything four times over my department can confidently say it will hit with only a point zero five deviation. At the speed the shots will be made it will reach North Crater and only miss dead center by a few degrees."
"I would rather a guarantee but that will have to be good enough." Scientifically speaking he couldn't hope for one hundred percent accuracy unless they fired at point blank range but after everything he knew he would have to settle.
"Then we begin final preparations. All of you get to work now before anything else shows up to ruin this. Do we have confirmation on the locations of the WEAPONS?" Another set of thorns in his side. The things had disappeared almost as soon as they had arrived and he had scrambled all available personnel to either fight them off or monitor them.
"Unfortunately Ultima has vanished and isn't currently active. We also lost Diamond somewhere southeast of the Northern Continent, but new one we have encountered designated Emerald has been found to be docile unless large vessels approach. Everyone's currently playing it by ear." Reeve informed.
"Find them then, once we deal with Sephiroth then hopefully Meteor will stop without a conduit to channel from. Then we deal with those abominations."
"Sir!" All of them yelled before leaving his office. Once he knew there was no one around he promptly fell into his chair. Only thing to do now was wait and pray that things went according to plan. Knowing the current track record though there was almost a certainty for more trouble.
XXX
"Damn this place looks mean. I was a little uncertain before but this looks like a place something powerful would be stuck at." Cid spoke as we hovered above the island.
He wasn't wrong either. The island had no shore, only high reaching and sharp cliffs that had waves crashing violently against them. The bowl the cliffs made for the island was filled to the brim with overgrown tree's that touched the edge of the rocks. The search hadn't been too long with the instructions I gave. Cait had said the cannon was placed and they were almost hooked up to the reactors so from what I believed we still had a few hours before Diamond would make an appearance.
"Start lowering the ladders. The cave should be at the northern most part of the island." The Highwind hovered just above the northern cliffs as we descended down onto the island. When we all landed it was on top of the tree growth that held our weight as we climbed down. The forest was quiet as there were apparently know monsters around, in fact it didn't seem like there was any life besides nature since the only sounds made were the wind from the airship and the crunch beneath our feet as we traversed the area.
"Hey I found a cave!" Yuffie had called out as she was ahead since she had the most experience in forests and traveling through them considering most of her old bandit work stealing from people was in forests until she met us. Inside there were still trees but as we went deeper they became larger and more withered. The walls were covered in dead growth that obscured the wall completely before it opened up into a large open area. There was sunlight shining from an opening at the top of the cavern that illuminated giant trees that had been dead for a very long time. At the end of the opening between the two largest trees and settled in a patch of old growth was a materia that shown with both a crimson and amber glow.
If Bahumet Zero pulsed with power in my hand then I felt the waves of energy wash over when we entered. Everyone stood by as the energy kept pulsing, the warm feeling of power flowed through me as I kept staring that the jewel. My muscles relaxed as I felt a sense of safety I didn't realize I'd missed.
"Yoink!" The feeling vanished the second Yuffie ran up and grabbed the materia.
"And that moments gone now, thanks." Stupor properly ruined everyone crowded around the ninja as we all passed the summons materia around, each savoring the same feeling from before as we exited the cave.
"You weren't kidding when you said its the most powerful summons materia. I can't imagine the magic needed to cast it once, let alone use it for a grand summons."
"We can hash that out later Tifa. Right now we need to head back while we still have time to prepare before we fight the WEAPON. We need to pick which summons will be the best choices to fight it." Cloud said.
"I have a few ideas. Hopefully years of role playing game experience can apply to this somehow. But we need to have people on reserve so we can continue attacks if someone falls. We also need those in reserve to pull us back if it seems like we could die at a moments notice. As is we need something fast that can attack continuously, a ranged attacker to pelt Diamond from a distance, and I think Phoenix can heal ally's so hopefully we don't have a limited amount of damage we can take before we drop. We have a few options but I think I already have what I need in mind."
"And what role are you playing?" I smiled at Cloud.
"What I always main, I'll take the brunt of the damage but I'll dish it right back out. I'll be tank."
XXX
Authors notes
apologies if this chapter felt rushed or too short. I had to cram in a whole lot of emotion into what is essentially my writers weakness which is talky chapters. The entire time I was hyping myself up for the next chapter which will be the promised kaju battles I've been so anxious to write since I love action and I love huge monster battles. Again apologies if this doesn't grip you all as much in panic, emotion, or anything else but I gotta jet to the next chapter so see you guys next time!