While the observatory at the top of Cosmo Canyon had never been off limits to the villagers, people rarely went up to visit it. Its original owner was only remembered through stories and legend, but out of respect to Nanaki, who had loved Bugenhagen like a grandfather, they left the building alone.
Most of the equipment was no longer operable; while the windmills around the village provided most of the town's power, Nanaki had decided years ago that Bugenhagen's machinery wasn't vital enough for them to run power up to it. He had fond memories of Bugenhagen's incredible holograms, but he was happier seeing the people in the village with lights in their homes.
Still, the observatory was nostalgic for Nanaki, and when he wanted to think, he went up there. And he had much to think about. This was the second time he'd heard Tifa's story, and now with Zack's beside it, Nanaki knew that something would have to be done.
When Tifa had arrived three years ago at Zangan's side, exhausted and terrified from the long, arduous journey from Nibelheim, Nanaki had thought nothing of offering her shelter and letting her take refuge in their village. Yet while he had briefly considering sending scouts to her vault to investigate, he had soon dismissed the thought. The people of Cosmo Canyon deferred to his guidance, but they were by no means the protectors of the entire continent. He was sorry for Tifa's loss, and had no issue offering her support as she rebuilt her life, but they had neither the manpower nor the supplies for a long journey to the north to oust what he had believed to be nothing more than a band of raiders. Tifa had been traumatized when she'd first arrived; this second telling of her tale had been much calmer, stabilized by the passing of time.
More importantly, Nanaki had believed that the intruders had gone into the vault purely for the supplies. It was unfortunate, but not entirely without precedent. Raiders were common across the wasteland, and they attacked anywhere they thought they could find more. No, it was Zack's story that changed all of that. The idea that someone out there going into vaults and using the inhabitants for scientific experiments was truly worrying.
Cosmo Canyon hadn't had a Shinra vault; they'd never even had a nuclear reactor. At the time the Shinra Electric Power Company was spreading its influence across the world, Bugenhagen and the other village elders had rejected Shinra's proposal to build a reactor, and while Shinra hadn't liked it, the costs of building one in the terrain was far too high to be worth the effort. Cosmo Canyon had been a largely self-sufficient community during the troubled years leading up to the Great War.
After the Corel oil conflict, though, the village elders had seen the writing on the wall, and collectively decided to start preparing for what they saw to be the inevitable. They started clearing out the caves beneath the village, killed the wraiths haunting the Cave of the Gi, and sealed all of the exits. It wasn't as pristine as the Shinra Company's vaults, but when the war came, they had been safe.
"You look like you're thinking too hard."
Nanaki looked up. Another beast just like him had entered the observatory, flaming tail flicking back and forth. Her fur was paler than his, but decorated with just as many tattooed and scars. He huffed at Deneh and scooted over as she came over to lie down next to him. "Just remembering."
"Something good, I hope." She curled into his warmth with a purr; the downside of no power going to the observatory was that it was always cold as soon as the sun went down.
"No such luck, I'm afraid." Nanaki sighed and lowered his head onto his paws. "I trust you've already spoken to the elders?"
"Mm. Of all the ways for the Gongaga mystery to be solved." Deneh met his eye. "Tell me what you're thinking."
"I'm not sure I know myself." Nanaki sighed. "Zack's story is compelling. If it had any truth to it, it's something that needs to be investigated. Our defenses can repel raiders and monsters, not airships and soldiers."
"Do you believe him?"
"I believe his desperation." Though Nanaki had been listening to Zack's story in great detail, he had paid the most attention to how Zack had told his tale. The man seemed to believe it; whether or not these friends of his had been taken to Nibelheim, Nanaki had no doubt in his mind that Zack would do anything to get them back. Whether all the details were as Zack remembered would remain to be seen. "Whether Gongaga is as he tells it, I don't know. We'll have to send someone."
"The elders said the same thing. Amani should go; she's been antsy hanging around here so long. She can take care of herself."
Nanaki nodded. "If she goes, Ivan will want to go too. They can take stock of Gongaga. As for Nibelheim..."
Deneh huffed. "Tifa is already packing. I imagine that boy will be the same. Cubs, the both of them."
"I can't blame them," Nanaki said. "You know that Tifa could never sit and wait. As for Zack, I believe the only reason he hasn't left already is because he doesn't know the way."
"Tifa isn't ready to make that journey alone," Deneh said. "She's still so young, and without Zangan..."
"I know," Nanaki said.
"And if Amani's going down south, there aren't that many others we can send with them. Kenelm will be wanting to shore up our defenses."
"I know, Deneh."
Deneh paused and looked at him for a long moment. Then she huffed out a laugh. "The elders will throw a fit, you know."
"I'll speak to them," Nanaki said. "If there's any truth to this threat, Deneh, we could all be in danger. I can not sit idly by, no more than I can let those two cubs try to find their way to Nibelheim unguided. I will show them the way."
Deneh chuckled, a rumbling noise that rippled through her, and rubbed her nose against his. "I wasn't arguing, Nanaki," she said. "You're right. You've been up to Corel enough times to lead them. I can manage the canyon well enough in the meantime. The elders have been around long enough to remember that."
That was true. Cosmo Canyon's elders weren't chosen for age but for experience. These days, the elders were more of a peacekeeping and security council than anything else, and they did their part to keep Cosmo Canyon safe from threats. Nanaki and Deneh served as the village guardians, and as such were part of all decisions made on behalf of the village given their long lives.
"Just promise me one thing," Deneh said. "You get to the bottom of this and make it back to me safely, all right?"
Nanaki smiled and rubbed his nose against hers. "I promise."
"—and Marie will cover the pub in the evenings, until nine," Tifa finished. "I couldn't get anyone for Wednesday afternoons, but it's always slow then. It should be okay."
"Well, haven't you got this all figured!" Delia said.
"Are you sure you'll be all right? I know this all came up suddenly, and—"
"Nonsense," Delia reassured her. "Honey, if you say you need to go back home, then you need to go back home. That's all there is to it. I can get by just fine here. Been doing it a long time before you came and I'll be doing it long after."
Tifa managed a small smile. "If you're sure. Okay."
She hesitated, and then wrapped her arms around Delia. A warm hug enveloped her. Tifa couldn't remember the last time she had felt this kind of warmth. Perhaps not since before her father died.
"You come home safe now, you understand me?" Delia said. "Nanaki'll look out for you. You stick close to him"
Tifa's eyes widened. She hadn't told Delia the whole story, only that she was going back in search of survivors. It didn't matter. She understood the danger.
Tifa squeezed back. "I promise," she said. "I'll come back."
Cosmo Canyon's graveyard wasn't in the town itself; you had to go down through the caves and out past the petrified statue of Nanaki's father, Seto. According to town legend, the caves had been haunted by one of their ancient enemies, the Gi, long before the Great War. These days it was an easy walk: the villagers had spent twenty years living down in these caves after the war, and still used them to this day for storage. Tifa herself came down through the caves regularly to retrieve supplies for the pub.
Tifa made her way down the twisting path with ease and came out on the other side of the canyon. Seto's statue stood at the top of the jagged cliff and below were the graves of the villagers, each memorialized by a small stone. Tifa walked down to the end, finding Zangan's.
"Master," she murmured, and bowed.
Tifa had started training with Master Zangan not long after arriving in Cosmo Canyon. She had been witness to his skill on the journey there and knew that anything she could learn from him would help her survive out in the wasteland. But that knowledge had not helped when it was her standing out in the canyon, approaching a gecko's nest.
Out there, armed with nothing but a pair of heavy gauntlets and a small pistol, there had been nothing between her and the creature's claws. And geckos were fast, scurrying from one patch of shade to the next along the canyon walls. The gecko's nest lay deeper in the canyons, tucked in one of the caves, but one had been out in the open, and had spotted her as she drew close.
The gecko had come at her in a flash, its claws slashing across her leg, and she had panicked, her fist flying out to catch the side of its large head. Her punches had been sloppy, the weight behind them uneven, and the gecko had continued clawing at her knees. In desperation she had kicked at it, knocking it on its side, and with hurried stomps she had crushed its head.
It hadn't been like Master Zangan's clean, efficient kills. She had still been shaking with fear and adrenaline. Her legs had been scratched up, her shoes were covered in blood. But for the first time she had not needed protecting.
"Master," Tifa said, "I'm going back to Nibelheim. A man came here. His vault was attacked. He thinks there might be survivors at Nibelheim." Tifa exhaled. "I don't know what we're going to find. I just— I have to know, Master. I have to."
She looked down at her hands and slowly closed both of them into fists. "I know you said to let go of the anger, Master. And — I can't let go of all of it. I'm sorry. I just have to know. I hope you can understand.
"I promise that I'll uphold your teachings, Master. No matter what. Thank you."
There would be no answer, Tifa felt comforted in saying it aloud, and that was enough. She'd learned about the Lifestream since coming to Cosmo Canyon, and knew now that the dead didn't really watch over them, like her father had told her when her mother died; they returned to the Planet and became new life. Still, even if it wasn't how things really were, she couldn't help but cling to those childish beliefs if it meant they gave her strength.
Tifa walked back through the graveyard, intending to go back up to the village, but she was surprised to see another figure heading down from the caves. "I thought I'd find you here," Nanaki said, flaming tail flickering back and forth. He looked up at his father's figure with a fond look, then looked back to Tifa. "Did you finish saying your goodbyes?"
"Yeah." Tifa glanced back at Master Zangan's grave. She considered this to be more his place than the home he'd had back in the village. Her memories of that house were of his last few weeks, when he'd been in too much pain to wake.
Nanaki studied her for a moment, then nodded. "If you would wait a moment, I would like to share something with you."
"Sure." Tifa stepped aside as Nanaki headed up towards Seto's cliff. Nanaki leapt up with the ease of years of practice. He stood beside his father's stone form, and Tifa could hear him speaking to it, but didn't try to make the words out.
Nanaki was done after a few minutes, and it was then that she realized he had something strapped to his back. The artisans in town had developed a few different packs for Nanaki and Deneh over the years so that they could carry supplies on long journeys.
"Master Zangan asked something of me, not long before he passed," Nanaki said. "Though he hoped that you would remain here, he knew that one day you would come to leave Cosmo Canyon. He told me to give you this when that time came." Nanaki jerked his head towards his pack. "Please."
Tifa bent and undid the cord binding the pack. She withdrew a thin book with a black cover, embossed with the words "Final Heaven." She gasped. "This is—!"
Master Zangan had fallen ill before he had been able to teach Tifa the final move of his style of martial arts, which dated back to before the war. He had told her its name, but had not even begun its teaching before he was too weak to perform it. She'd never known that a book about it existed.
"But why didn't he give it to me himself? Why did he wait?" Tifa asked.
"More than anything, Tifa, Master Zangan never wanted you to have to use what he taught you," Nanaki said gravely, and she looked up from the book to see pain in his gaze. "He taught you what he knew so you would never have to fear for your safety, and so you could use what you knew to protect others. Which is why I pass this to you now."
Tifa's throat went tight. When she had first asked Master Zangan to teach her, it had been so she could survive in the wasteland. Over time, it had become something more. Tifa had never been content to simply survive out here. She wanted to live, no matter what the cost.
"I understand," she said, her voice cracking on the words. "Thank you, Nanaki."
Nanaki bumped his nose against her knee. "Tifa, I know that this journey will be more difficult for you than I could ever imagine. Please know that I will be here for you, every step of the way. We will find out what happened to Nibelheim. I swear it, on my honor as the son of Seto."
Tifa smiled tightly, not trusting herself to speak, and cupped the back of Nanaki's head. He leaned into her touch, rumbling against her.