Start Date: March 7, 2023

Windwillow

The bold text is a flashback like usual. Also, last chance to read Bound for Midgar. It isn't too much of a loss, but it'll be confusing if you don't. Skip Scene Four if you just don't care.

Final Fantasy VII

The plan to destroy Meteor has failed, at least partially because AVALANCHE confiscated all four Huge Materia before Shinra Twenty-Six hit the celestial body. There will be repercussions on both sides, time will pass, and Aerith's legacy will be unveiled. The war isn't over, but it isn't won, either.

Chapter Forty-Eight: The Hope She Left Behind

Scene One

To say he was displeased would be an understatement. Over and over they'd failed him, and with the critical moment come and gone they were greeted rather unceremoniously with a shotgun aimed between their eyes. "I want you to explain the precise situation... Everything, now..." Rufus growled, the anger in his voice clear as day. As Heidegger and Scarlet cowered, and Reeve looked on with much satisfaction, Rufus' grip on the trigger of his shotgun slowly tightened. "I believe I've had enough..." he said darkly.

"R-Right... the precise... s-situation..." Heidegger stammered madly, his potential fate having dulled his already minimal sense of judgment. Failure after failure, and now this? Not only his job was endangered, but now so was his life. After taking in a deep gasp of air, Heidegger gathered enough courage to speak. "Shinra Twenty-Six was successfully launched! And... uh... it didn't do anything to Meteor..." he croaked.

"Things are a bit worse than that, Sir... I have reports from the Junon reactor that states we've lost two submarines," Reeve said, unable to conceal the glee from his report. "One of them was destroyed outright, and the other mutinied. Add to that the loss of the Carry Armor and the Huge Materia... I'd say we're in the nine digit range of damage at this point... Your two star executives have cost you quite a bit of capital."

"But... Sir! We haven't given up yet!" Scarlet insisted desperately. She was trembling with both fear and rage, unable to decide which was more potent. What was clear was that her obsession with Tifa had overruled her better judgment, and it was all she could think of. "We'll find that bitch Lockhart and all her cohorts!" she snarled. "We have plans in place to-"

Scarlet couldn't help but scream when Rufus' shotgun narrowed its barrels at her, its master even testier than he had been before. As she shook with increasing intensity, Rufus quietly narrowed his eyes at her. "Shut up, already! I'm tired of you and your sick feud with Lockhart!" Rufus snapped furiously. Scarlet recoiled and began to quake, terror overtaking her body as tears began to form in her eyes. While she'd been threatened before, several times throughout her career, this was a totally different level of terror that only comes when two barrels of a shotgun are pointed at your face. Rufus silently lowered his weapon, moved to his seat, laced his fingers together, and quietly shut his eyes. As he opened them, the burning fury he'd displayed had faded. "I'm sorry..." he said softly, to the shock of his executives. With a sigh, Rufus leaned back in his seat and laid a hand on his face. "I want to be different from my bastard of a father," Rufus sighed. "Ruling with insults and threats only perpetuates his legacy."

With things seemingly looking up, Heidegger's face brightly lit up. Maybe there really was hope. If Rufus was becoming more and more reasonable, there was a chance that he still had some favor left with the President. "Well, Sir..." he began confidently as he adjusted his medals. "We won't let you-"

"Move the Sister Ray to Midgar immediately," Rufus ordered coldly, with an intensity that caused Heidegger to nearly wet himself. He leaned back in his seat and brushed the bangs from his face with a menacing glare in his eyes that unsettled the lot of them. "I said I didn't want to rule with insults and threats," he said flatly, a vicious gleam in his eyes. "I'm more than willing to do so when necessary."

"May I ask why, Sir?" Reeve asked quietly. He sat down in his seat, unsure of what would come next. Chances weren't likely that he'd like it. "Junon is still open to attack from WEAPON, just the same as Midgar is."

"The world's gone to hell and back, and we haven't gotten ourselves out of the fryer yet," sighed Scarlet. She was only just now recovering from having been threatened with a shotgun and wiped the sweat from her brow with a low cough. She'd make Rufus pay someday, that someday being when he wasn't armed with a shotgun. "Sephiroth has established his barrier in the North Crater, and we've been wholly incapable of destroying it."

"And it gets worse," Heidegger growled, his fear once again activated. Any optimism he'd had already dissolved by the time his boss said the word 'move.' "WEAPON's been spotted near the North Crater. We have no way of knowing if either threat will move against us... alone, or together. Something needs to be done, and done fast," he said darkly.

A grim scowl coated Reeve's face as Heidegger spoke, the implication being quite clear. He leaned back in his seat, crossed his arms, and muttered something nasty under his breath. "We're going to burn all of Midgar's power to destroy the barrier and WEAPON at the same time," he growled, "and then send in the army to do the rest. It's an... audacious plan, Sir."

Could the Planet even stand up to draining that much Lifestream at once?! Opening the floodgates all at once is even worse than sucking the power out over time... The situation could be critical! There is no way we're allowing them to do this... This is exactly the kind of thing AVALANCHE was formed to prevent.

Scene Two

With the final Huge Materia obtained, AVALANCHE now possessed all four of Shinra's prized treasures. Cloud, Cid, and Tifa had returned to the Highwind with the blue Huge Materia, which now reposed with the other three on their mantle. The observation room again was filled by the members of the team, Cloud took his due place at the center seat, and he summarized the results of their operation. As she drooped in her seat, Tifa sadly put her face in her hands and sighed. "Shinra's plan didn't work..." Tifa said sadly. She adjusted her gloves and laid her head onto the table. "At least we got the four Huge Materia..." she moaned.

Red XIII, who remained seated on the floor, curled his tail over his paws and lifted a suspicious eye to Tifa. "It failed... because of us," Red XIII insisted. He had a good point; four doses of three hundred times the strength of normal materia may well have made the difference. "There's no telling if the Huge Materia would have made a difference, but the fact remains that our acquisition almost certainly weakened the rocket's power..." he sighed, laying his head sadly on the table. "Perhaps if we'd worked together..."

"There isn't a chance in hell I'm going to team up with those scumbags!" Cloud snarled, startling Red XIII. He stared closely at his hands, hands that had once perpetuated Shinra's sins, and then he clenched his fists tight. "Not under any circumstances will I ever work with them again!" With a sigh, however, he laced his fingers together and laid his head on the table. "Neither of us working separately has managed to accomplish anything... But even with the four Huge Materia, Meteor is powered by such powerful gravity elemental magic that it would have regenerated anyway. Retrieving those four materia was all we could salvage from the situation."

After a few attempts Cid succeeded in lighting his cigarette, and after taking in a deep puff he laid his hand on the table and quietly rose. "Thinking about the problem ain't going to solve it, but we ought to think about our own involvements right 'bout now..." he said softly.

With a tilt of her head, Tifa quietly opened her mouth to speak, but was kept from doing so by Cloud's interjection. "We've become integral to the survival of the Planet," he said softly to Tifa, "but what does the Planet mean to us?" Cloud's words jolted Tifa, although she remained silent. As she looked into his eyes, she wasn't able to pin down what he was talking about. What was the point?

"The Planet's fate is everyone's fate... but not everyone's fate is the Planet," Vincent said coldly. He leaned back in his seat and brushed the hair from his face, sighed, and thought back to the events of the North Crater. Cloud's actions had nearly damned them all, but it had made him begin to think about what he thought about the situation. "Fighting for the Planet is one thing. But each of us has our own thoughts, desires, and dreams, and those don't necessarily intersect with the Planet's survival," said Vincent quietly. "None of us have to keep fighting."

Cid took in a deep puff of his cigarette, then put it out in his ashtray. "What I saw when I was up in space... that tiny blue ball in the middle of the ocean of space... I'd realized something," said Cid quietly. "I always thought the world was vast and endless, but seeing it from above proved that I was wrong... I know now how weak and powerless I am in the grand scheme of things, but I can deal with that weakness and exorcise my demons at the same time." Before Yuffie could interject, Cid softly whacked her over the head and continued. "Our world's a sick little child, poisoned by that prick Sephiroth, floating alone in an ocean of pain..." Cid growled. "If the kid can't cure itself, I say we do it ourselves. I'm not letting that kid suffer one more damned minute."

Reluctantly, Red XIII lifted his head and stared at Cloud resolutely. "But can we even do anything meaningful? With all of the Lifestream that's been depleted, the world might be beyond saving even if we take out Sephiroth... like Grandpa told me," he said softly. It was far from encouraging; was there even a point to it? "We need to prove him wrong. I believe we can do it... But-"

His words were drowned out by a crushing roar, one that overwhelmed the whole of the operations room and dropped several of them to their seats. It was a horrific wailing, the kind accompanied by the gnashing of teeth and the shedding of tears, but to those who had heard it before it meant even worse than it did to those who hadn't heard it. "What the hell?!" Cid screeched, holding his hands to his ears. He angrily shook off his surprise and slammed his fist onto the table. "Did some idiot mess with the intercom?!" he choked angrily.

From beside Cid, Yuffie clapped a hand on his shoulder and turned him around to face her. What he saw was a face he'd never seen before, unusually serious and grim. "It wasn't the intercom, idiot," she snapped. After taking in a deep breath, Yuffie tightened her grip hard enough to bruise Cid's shoulders. He'd never seen her so solemn, and without her mania it was like she was an entirely different person. "But hearing it again is even worse than my motion sickness... and for all the wrong reasons," Yuffie huffed. "Gawd, I wished I'd never hear that again..."

Even Vincent was affected, as he felt the pain resonate throughout his core, and he immediately leapt to his feet. He grabbed his ears with both hands and grunted before dropping back to his seat. The sheer agony of the scream resonated with his own depression, except that the voice he'd heard was even more tortured than he was. "That was... unearthly," he hacked. He hesitantly turned to Cloud and tilted his head, unsure if he wanted to know the answer to his next question: What. The. Hell. "Cloud, what...? What was that?" choked Vincent.

Once the din had passed, Red XIII staggered back to his feet and shook off his pain. "We've heard that before. It's the Planet shrieking in pain..." he said glumly. The sound was one you'd never forget, no matter how hard you tried. "Grandpa first showed it to us... wait!" Red XIII gasped. "Grandpa, that's it! We need to go see Grandpa, Cloud!"

The cry had echoed in his ears as sharply as it had before, and Cloud quickly came to the same conclusion. He wiped the sweat from his brow and silently laid a shaking hand on the table. It was all he could muster not to pass out from the horrendous shriek. "Cosmo Canyon..." he murmured.

Scene Three

As far as weathering out the apocalypse, Cosmo Canyon wasn't faring too badly. There hadn't been much in the way of tourism, unfortunately, given that half the world was in panic and the other half gripped with violence and terror. The research into the Study of Planet Life continued unabated, with Elder Bugenhagen at the forefront of their research. As time passed, however, more and more researchers abandoned themselves to panic and mania, and Cosmo Canyon's scientific community began to dwindle. Meteor's inevitable fall emptied the hearts of all the citizens of Cosmo Canyon save Bugenhagen, who alone remained devoted to advancing his studies.

Bugenhagen had studied all through the night, though to no avail. His own research and his pessimism nearly overwhelmed him, so when AVALANCHE visited he had excitedly offered up cups of tea. "Ho ho hooo! Have you found what you're looking for?" he crowed, happily pouring himself a cup. With eight despondant faces staring back at him, Bugenhagen groaned and quietly set his drink down. "Apparently the answer is no," Bugenhagen murmured. "What brings you folks here, at this time of... well... I guess things have never been worse..."

Unsure of what to say and now gripped with the pessimism his grandfather had expressed, Red XIII could only whimper in sorrow as he curled up next to Bugenhagen. He'd always felt comfortable next to him, but in the darkest hour it didn't seem to help much. His friends stood mutely behind him, coated in sweat and dripping with hopelessness. It was all too much to bear... "Grandpa... We came for some advice. We've tried everything, so has Shinra, and no matter what we do there seems to be no way to stop Meteor. Is there really any hope left? Anything?" Red XIII asked solemnly.

Bugenhagen silently stared into his tea, seemingly looking into it as if he were divining an answer that remained not only elusive, but perhaps impossible to find. He looked carefully at each of the warriors assembled before him, saw their sorrow, and felt that same despair. "For every closed door, you'll find an open window. Think back... You still have one person left that can help you. Her words may leave us the key to our survival..." said Bugenhagen.

But, she was dead. What hope did they have left from Aerith? Sephiroth had skewered her and extinguished her flame forever. Cloud relived the horror of her death, remembered the stench of her blood and sweat, and felt the tears leak from his eyes. He thought back to all the times they'd spent together, and a certain thought entered his mind. Whether it would help or not was uncertain.

"When Aerith spoke to me in her last dream, she said that we'd never be far apart, but... I don't know what she meant. Do you have any ideas, Sir?" asked Cloud.

"I don't have the answers, son..." sighed Bugenhagen. A twinkle seemed to form in his eyes as a smile crossed his face. "But maybe you folks do. Analyze everything. The things you've heard, seen, and felt might be the answer to our problems."

Tifa remembered the pain that they'd all felt that day at the City of the Ancients. Somehow, however, an idle thought entered her head: the reason Aerith came to the City in the first place. At the Temple of the Ancients, she'd somehow received information from the lost knowledge of the Cetra, almost as if it had been downloaded into her consciousness. If she knew something they didn't...

"Ritual... The ritual!" Tifa choked. "Why was Aerith there, and what was she doing?! If she had a plan..."

"Indeed. Her knowledge might be the key we've been seeking. Assuming that the knowledge of the Cetra was given to her... and if only a Cetra could perform this ritual... The place where the Cetra originated could hold the clues we need..." said Vincent. He lifted his head, eyes burning with fire, and with a new level of something he rarely encountered: hope. "Then we need to go to the City of the Ancients immediately and find out what she was planning!" he declared firmly.

"So we're of the same mind. Excellent," said Bugenhagen. He lifted his tea and took a sip, then placed it softly back on the table with a warm smile. "Is there room on your airship for my tea set?" he asked cheerfully.

"You... You don't mean... You're coming with us?!" Red XIII exclaimed. Would he even be able to hold up to the strain? He was over a century old, after all. "But, your age... your health..." he stammered.

"Necessity is the mother of invention, my boy. If the only way we can save the world is by my traveling to the City of the Ancients, so be it. I would appreciate it if you could find me some place comfortable to rest; sitting on this thing isn't pleasant," said Bugenhagen as he tapped his sphere.

"So... We've decided? As long as you're fine with it, you're welcome aboard," said Cloud. "However... I do have a favor to ask..." Cloud's favor became clear when he withdrew a large, brown sack and laid it on Bugenhagen's table. Inside, the elder could feel the oozing mana of the Huge Materia, something that greatly intrigued him. "Carrying these around ourselves isn't the greatest idea, so... Can we keep these in your observatory?" he asked.

The answer to his question was 'yes.' Bugenhagen led Cloud into the room with his apparatus, and the two walked down the hall of the Spiral Spheres until they reached the entryway pedestal. Bugenhagen flicked the switch, and the pair were lifted up through the bubble and into the blank darkness of the apparatus. After inputting a few commands, the void changed into a wide, beautiful simulation of the universe, the same he'd showed Cloud only a short time earlier. "I'll set up a program to store the materia, lad... All you'll need to do is place them in the stars that light up around us," Bugenhagen explained while he tapped his commands in. "It won't be too difficult to teach you how to operate the thing, either."

From inside the simulation, four lights brightened around Cloud that widened into pedestals to hold the Huge Materia. Cloud stored the four materia, each in turn: yellow, green, blue, and finally red. As he set the red Huge Materia into place, he felt a pang of pain pierce his head, causing him to drop to one knee in pain. From inside Cloud's pouch, the tiny summon materia he'd received at the Temple of the Ancients began to shake, then leapt from his belt and began to hover around the red Huge Materia, as if it were orbiting a star.

"Has everything gone wrong?" asked a voice from inside the summon materia. It was loud and booming, very authoritative and brash. Just hearing it made Cloud's ear drums nearly burst open.

"Uh, yeah, I'd say that's pretty much it..." Cloud muttered. Things really couldn't get any worse at this point. His eyes snapped open wide as he realized that he'd heard the voice once before. "You... The Temple..." he croaked.

"The Temple acted autonomously when you decided to unseal the Black Materia, so you were given this... the Bahamut materia," explained the voice. "Knowing the danger that might have arisen, the Temple gave this summon materia to you in case Meteor was summoned and the WEAPONs unleashed. It cannot help you in battle, but there is a purpose for it... When the final hour strikes and the ultimate danger looms, Bahamut will come to your aid."

"Well, ain't that peachy. Glad to know we have backup..." Cloud muttered. As the words sunk in, so did his confusion and he angrily tightened his fists and grit his teeth. He was sick of these surprises and preconditions. "What do you mean, the final hour?!" he snarled angrily. "And why won't it fight with us?! What are you-"

Suddenly, the Bahamut materia broke free from its orbit and zoomed towards Cloud. He lifted his arms to brace for impact, but felt only a great warmth on his left arm. To Cloud's shock, his materia gauntlet had started to quake and its stars split to reveal a new, red materia; it was sealed by black and white runes and was situated just above his other materia, and he could sense the power that oozed from the orb. He lifted his gauntlet to his face and stared closely at the Bahamut materia, but found no answer. Cloud quietly lowered his gauntlet and brushed his fingers against the still-warm materia, unsure of what had just happened.

It won't help me in battle, but it'll do something when the "final hour strikes". Whatever that means. Just what I needed in my life... another noisy spirit on my arm. Ifrit's ornery enough...

Scene Four

Bugenhagen was provided with his own seating at the conference table, where he stashed his tea set. Despite Red XIII's concerns, he seemed to be in excellent health and had no trouble moving around. As the party left for the bridge, Tifa felt a slight tug on her arm and turned to find Bugenhagen holding a cup of tea. Although confused, she took the drink and slowly sipped it. It was Earl Gray, plain, just the way she liked it. The look in Bugenhagen's eyes as he stared at her, however, she didn't like. "You gave me tea back when we first came to Cosmo Canyon, too... Why?" asked Tifa. Having taken a sip of her drink, Bugenhagen silently took his cup and sipped as well, to Tifa's confusion. The way he looked at her really unsettled her, same as it had before, and this time she wanted to know why he was looking at her. "I don't want to be rude, Sir... But I want answers. Why are you so damned set on feeding me tea?" Tifa demanded.

"There was a man I shared a drink with five years ago who liked Earl Gray. He happened to like it just the same as I did," Bugenhagen said with a twinkle in his eye. "And he promised that he'd bring a young girl to me one day that drank Earl Gray as well. But since he's not here with us, I'm assuming he's no longer in the land of the living."

As a chill ran down her spine, Tifa was unable to hide her shock and nearly dropped her tea. At one point, all she'd drink was lemonade, her favorite beverage since she was a child. One day, however, her master had introduced her to Earl Gray tea, something that she had found to be an acquired taste. Over time, however, she and Zangan shared many cups of tea while in Midgar. He hadn't explained why he was so determined to make her drink tea, but now the reason became clear: for this moment. "He... isn't alive, no..." Tifa sighed. "He died about a year back. He never told me why, but he kept trying to give me tea until I finally gave in and drank it. So, you mean you've met my master, Sir?" asked Tifa timidly.

"The girl was comatose, and could neither feed nor water herself..." Bugenhagen began, with words that chilled Tifa to the bone. "He carried her on his back through half a continent before coming here. I'd assume that, since you made it here, he took you to Midgar to be treated. I remember his words: 'I give my word: She will become the woman I know she can be. I'll teach her to enjoy tea so we can all drink it together,'" recounted Bugenhagen. "He was willing to sacrifice anything, even his principles, to save his student. You were his legacy... and as far as I'm concerned, he kept his promise," he said firmly.

Tea began to slosh from her cup and Tifa was nearly forced to drop it as her trembling reached its breaking point. Although she tried to hold her emotions back, a hiccup escaped her lips before she began to lightly cry. Then, the tears intensified, and the crying became a sob. Once the sobbing had dimmed into a soft hum, Tifa silently took her cup and put it to her lips. She'd never tasted anything like the nectar that now filled her mouth, and as Bugenhagen stretched out his withered hand she took it, wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, and smiled. "To Master Zangan..." she croaked. She took her cup as Bugenhagen took his, and as they clicked together and both of them felt the tea flood their throats, a fragile smile crossed her face. Then it cracked a bit, then it widened, and finally turned into laughter.

Scene Five

The City of the Ancients was, of course, unchanged from their first visit. The party searched the entirety of the city, top to bottom, but found nothing until Bugenhagen rapped his knuckles against a hollow wall near Aerith's resting place. He gently laid his hands on the stone, and the wall dissolved to reveal the entrance to a new area of the City. "Oh, holy God!" Yuffie shrieked, her fear fully realized as the stone turned to minute particles of dust. As she clutched her head with both hands and began to tremble, she quietly turned to look at each of her friends in turn, her expression faded, and she wiped the snot from her nose. "Of course, I knew it'd happen," she lied. "I just wanted to see if any of you guys were gonna be surprised. Naturally, I wasn't surprised. I just choked on something I ate is all..."

In her panic, Yuffie failed to realize that her friends had already departed. She muttered an expletive and followed after them into a large, circular chamber. There was a large crystal in the center of the room, to which Bugenhagen flew towards with Cloud following close behind. It was at least as big as any of they were, thick and covered with runes. At the bottom you could tell there was another kind of writing, seemingly the common language.

"And what the heck is that?" asked Cloud.

"A repository of the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients. Its words most likely hold the key to solving our riddle," said Bugenhagen. He hesitantly turned to Cloud, bowed his head, and sighed. He had to rip off the band aid at some point, but decided against sharing the whole story for the time being. "Holy is the only thing capable of stopping Meteor. There is no other way."

"Holy?!" Cloud choked. The more he thought about it, however, the more his eyes began to narrow in frustration at Bugenhagen. He'd been hiding secrets from them from the very start, and it was really beginning to piss him off. "Pony up. You've known more than the rest of us from the start, and I expect you to spill the beans, now or never," he said darkly. "We don't have time to deal with all this wise old man crap. So, say it."

"The Ultimate Force of Creation, or Holy, appears when a pure soul invokes its power from the will of the Planet," Bugenhagen explained. "When a soul reaches the Planet, and its purity is evident, the power of Holy will awaken. The White Materia, which invokes Holy, was held in Aerith's ribbon the entire time. I'd wager that when she was killed, it dropped down into these waters..."

"If it's down here..." Cloud murmured, laying his face in his hands in despair. Learning that the only chance they had might never have been a chance in the first place certainly wasn't a warming feeling. "Then there's really no hope?" he asked quietly.

"Look closely at the etchings on this crystal: 'The Music Box hidden in realms untouched by man will reveal the truth,'" Bugenhagen said. He pointed towards the tiny etchings on the crystal, hidden deep below its more prominent script. "I'd wager the key is hidden somewhere where no normal person could reach it... Likely, beneath the sea."

Cloud cracked a grin. He had something that could solve exactly that problem. Befriending his friends from the parade really was going to pay off. Cloud turned back to his friends and sighed. "We've got a mission under the sea..." he said smilingly. "Who's going?"

"Leave me out! I don't want to go on any more adventures!" Yuffie snarled. She didn't want to go back to the airship, of course, but putting herself in danger again wasn't something she wanted, either. That, and remembering being knocked out by Tifa again wouldn't be a morale booster, either.

"High up into the sky, deep under the sea... All the same to me. I'm in!" chirped Cid. Exploring space may have been his dream, but it wouldn't be a mundane trip if he got to go beneath the waves as well. In a way, that was uncharted territory as well. "We have room for one more, right?" he asked. "Who's coming?"

Who, indeed. The idea of plumbing the depths of the ocean for something that might not even be there? What if it could only be reached by chocobo, or by air? Trusting Bugenhagen's word was far from a hundred percent chance. Neither Barret nor Red XIII wanted to test their sea legs, Red XIII most of all - he'd hated being on the cargo ship almost as much as Yuffie had. Tifa had had enough undersea adventures, so that left Vincent. But would he even agree to it? Could it just be a two-person operation? Vincent weighed his options carefully, then a smile crossed his face and he nodded.

"Might be interesting to have an adventure. Maybe I'll even have a good time," he said smilingly.

Scene Six

Submerging in the submarine turned out to be a less than ideal scenario for Cid and Vincent. As they sunk beneath the waves, they nearly lost their lunches. But, with Piette in command, the party searched beneath the waters of Gaia for something, anything. But when you don't know what you're looking for, or if it's even underwater, the search seemed fruitless. The team plumbed the depths for hours, searching for underwater chasms or secret, sunken chambers, but came up with nothing. It seemed to be a fool's errand until Piette locked on to a strange electromagnetic signal.

"Strange... The energy this place is putting out is massive. It's situated in the center of the Western Continent... Looks like it leads to some sort of cave," explained Piette. He examined his control panel carefully, noting the wide fluctuations of energy that seemed to pulse like a rubber band bounced back against itself. He turned to Cloud and tilted his head. "Think that's it?" he asked.

"If it's putting out energy, that has to be the place!" Cloud exclaimed. This was exactly what they were looking for. "Take us there and we'll find the Key!"

The journey under the sea to the place of interest led the party to a large gap in the land mass of the world. When the submarine surfaced, it pushed the waters high into the air as it settled into position. Using the submarine as a sort of boat, AVALANCHE navigated the rough waters and entered what seemed to be some sort of cave. There were crystals, but they didn't seem to be materia, or even have any Mako in them. As they progressed through the cave, it seemed their search was fruitless.

"No sign of a Key here..." muttered Vincent. He closely examined one of the crystals and was able to determine that while they weren't made of Mako, they still held some sort of strange energy, like mana. He stared at his reflection in the immaculate, shimmering crystal, and felt a strange sense of calm. It may not have been where the Key was, but it really was truly beautiful, and he couldn't help but smile.

"God, a dead end. Dammit..." Cid cursed. As he proceeded through the cave he didn't find the crystals to be particularly beautiful, though perhaps it was just a matter of personal preference. The further inside he traveled, all he found was crystal, until up ahead he narrowed his eyes and detected something. "Ain't got nothing but crystal and disappointment..." he muttered. "'Cept for the pretty statue back there..."

"We don't have any use for a statue," Vincent snapped. "I'm sure it's beautiful, but-"

Vincent could feel his heart stop for a moment when he stared at the statue at the back of the cavern. The depiction of a young woman, the statue was indeed beautiful. It was who it depicted that chilled Vincent's every bone. Seemingly dazed, he walked forward hesitantly. Every step followed with a painful heartbeat, the echo bursting in his ears like a drum. When he came to rest in front of it, there was no doubt, and Vincent's body went stiff as stone. Slowly, hesitantly, he reached towards the statue with bated breath. It really was her.

"You don't belong here."

The voice forced him to his knees, all the strength in his body blasted out as if an explosion had expelled it. Vincent truly, utterly, was unable to form words. He wasn't doing well forming thoughts, either. All he heard was his heartbeat and all he felt was his pulse beating out of control. Slowly, he laid his hands to the ground and guided himself back to a standing position. It felt like he had no circulation in his limbs, his body was numb...

"That is a pretty one!" hooted Cid. As he approached, the beauty finally sunk in. Although he approached, he was forcefully shoved back, stumbled around drunkenly, and nearly toppled to the ground. Once he'd righted himself, Cid glared back at the one who'd pushed him with anger and displayed his middle finger loudly and proudly. "Hey, what did you just-" he choked.

"Go! Now!" Vincent snarled, with an intensity that both shocked and perhaps even horrified his friends.

Vincent's voice struck both Cloud and Cid with not just its intensity, but its forcefulness. While Cloud had seen Vincent angry before, this seemed far different. It wasn't outward rage, but rather it was directed inwards. Cloud could feel the emotions surging from Vincent, though when he stretched out his hand, Vincent drew his gun and aimed it at his head, stunning him cold. Was he really that disturbed? There wasn't much need for words after that, so Cloud and Cid quickly evacuated the chamber, leaving Vincent to holster his sidearm and stare deeply into the eyes of Lucrecia Crescent. The closer he came the deeper his emotions became, like he was being swallowed by a black hole. As he stood before her, his breath quickened before finally ceasing altogether, and he looked up to her pained visage with the same kind of immeasurable pain that she surely had.

You haven't aged a day. Why? It has to have been decades... so, why do you look exactly the same as you did back then?

Back then, he'd been a member of the Turks, Shinra's elite black-ops unit. Vincent had worn the immaculate black suit and the faded dark sunglasses, and to anyone else he'd seem to be just another thug in a suit. Maybe he was? The things he did really would earn him the title of an enforcer and an assassin. Only one woman had seen past those sunglasses, a beautiful young woman named Lucrecia Crescent. Back then she'd worn a lab coat and a blue blouse, and her ponytail seemed to always quiver with emotion whenever she talked with Vincent. Something was amiss, but she'd never explained anything to Vincent. He'd been assigned to protect her, but the friendship they formed became stronger than that. Even then she remained distant, however, and the last time he saw her the salty tears she shed left him with regret, despair, and rage. He confronted the source of her pain in the underground laboratory in Nibelheim. Even though Hojo was technically his superior, Vincent had brought his gun with him, though it remained in its holster.

"I know what you've done, you bastard," Vincent snapped as he stepped towards Hojo. Each step only escalated his anger, his fury, his hatred. The more he approached, the closer his finger came to drawing his pistol. He was a beast, one that deserved to be put down. "The mother of your own child! You're sick..." he snarled. One step became two, two became three, and then he came to rest squarely in front of the source of his hatred. As his hand slowly inched for his gun, he found that even through all the pain she'd been put through, the fact that he'd fathered her child held him back from drawing his weapon. Hojo had no such compunctions, withdrew a revolver from his coat, and shot Vincent square in the chest. As Vincent staggered back and dropped unconscious to the floor, the last word he said was her name.

She no longer wore a lab coat. Her garb, a white sarong shrouded by a shawl that was covered in a three-tiered string of pearls. Somehow, even after all this time, she'd managed to become even more beautiful. Lucrecia Crescent, the woman who he'd respected so much, her eyes were swelling with pain. Thirty years worth of agony, pain that he too shared. Hojo's machinations had seized three decades from their lives and cast it to the winds. Could he even face her? Once he'd contained his emotions, Vincent silently took a step towards Lucrecia.

"What happened to Sephiroth?"

His name chilled his soul straight to the bone. Of course. They'd ripped her child from her arms before she could even touch his silver fuzz, and the thought of the desperate tears she had to have shed pierced his heart like an arrow. Hojo had taken thirty years from both of them, but he'd robbed Lucrecia of so much more. After he slowly swallowed his emotions, he fell to the floor and knelt before Lucrecia. The words wouldn't come, his feelings choked in his throat, and Vincent quietly lifted himself to his feet and turned to leave. As he did it took all the power that he had to do what he was about to do. It was unthinkable for him, but there was no alternative.

"He's dead," said Vincent plainly.

"You're a poor liar."

Silently, Vincent walked out of the chamber, each step weighted with a burden heavier than iron. He quietly exited the cave, silent, and turned to Cloud with a dead look in his eyes. This wasn't his business. Even if he was his friend, this was something that he had to deal with himself. Chills pulsed down Cid's spine and the hair on the back of Cloud's neck stood straight up as Vincent quietly walked towards the entrance of the submarine. "The Key isn't here. Look somewhere else..." Vincent murmured. As he entered their vessel, Cloud's heart finally began to beat again. He turned to an equally shaken Cid, the two of them nodded to each other, and they stepped inside the submarine to search elsewhere.

Scene Seven

Finding the Key was difficult, though not impossible. Cloud had to search the seas for hours, dig through every crack and crevice of the ocean, but finally they found the Key in a small cove in the middle of nowhere. With the Key retrieved, Cloud carried it to the City of the Ancients, where he prepared to give it to Bugenhagen. It was quite a bizarre device, really; its form kind of resembled the crystalline staircase that had led down into the center of the City. Whether that was intentional or coincidental was uncertain. Regardless, it meant nothing; they had the Cetra's chamber, they had Bugenhagen, and now they had the Key. Bugenhagen took hold of the Key in both hands. It was large enough that it was actually bigger than he was, but by levitating with his sphere the Key's weight meant nothing.

"Let's see how we can put this in..." muttered Bugenhagen. Noting a large opening in the nearby architecture, Bugenhagen figured that this had to be the "music box" the crystal's etchings had described. "Seems as good a guess as any," he shrugged.

The Key at first seemed to do nothing, but it slowly dug further and further into the "music box," and once it had fully locked itself in a huge rumbling struck the complex. As Yuffie panicked and the others watched in wonder, the column above began to glow bright white. From the light a huge burst of water blasted from up above, circled around a few times, then slammed itself onto the platform with the crystal. It left a sort of rushing waterfall, and an inviting one given that a bubble had formed around it. Bugenhagen nodded, then he and Cloud stepped into the bubble.

"I get the feeling I know where this is going..." Bugenhagen murmured. He and Cloud walked into the bubble and felt a slight resistance at first. Much like Bugenhagen's observatory, however, the bubble relented and they entered the waterfall. The crystal there had become bathed in both the water and a shimmering orb of light surrounded it. As Cloud walked further inside, the crystal trembled for a moment and then shot a ray of light into the waters around them, a thin stream of light widening into a solid screen of energy. "I was right," said Bugenhagen as he floated down beside Cloud. "What better place for a music box than a theater?"

Cloud's eyes watered, then all his senses shattered to reveal a scene he'd seen before, one he'd hoped he'd never see again. He stood to the side of Aerith as she prayed, and he turned his head to find himself writhing in agony just ahead of her. The realization came too slow, as he watched Sephiroth's sword pierce Aerith's stomach. He watched in horror as her hair ribbon, which had been jarred by the impact, fell apart to reveal a tiny, whitish blue orb. As Aerith fell into his past self's arms, the present Cloud watched as the orb dropped to the waters beneath them and began to glow with a warm, green light. Cloud's vision shattered, returning him to Bugenhagen's side, where he dropped to his knees in a cold sweat.

"The White Materia..." Cloud murmured. He agonizingly closed his eyes and swallowed hard before rising and turning to Bugenhagen. "She did it... She actually did it," he chuckled. "Aerith called Holy."

"That was the purpose of the ritual... Calling Holy requires that a soul reach out to the heart of the Planet..." said Bugenhagen. He grit his teeth and shut his eyes as he was forced to say the rest. "It's a sacrificial rite. By exchanging the life of one with enormous potential and spirit, the Planet returns that soul's wish by summoning Holy... Aerith is-"

Bugenhagen's words were stopped cold when Cloud grabbed him by the collar and drew him in towards his quaking face. Cloud grit his teeth and fought back his tears as best he could, but as he glared at Bugenhagen with an intensity that built by the second it became harder and harder to sustain. "You knew..." he hissed. Fighting back his emotion, he stared deep into Bugenhagen's eyes and his glare tightened."This whole damn time, you knew!" Cloud growled.

"She asked me to keep that secret," said Bugenhagen plainly, much to Cloud's amazement. Bugenhagen lifted his hand to Cloud's face and gently wiped away his tears. While Cloud's quaking continued to escalate, Bugenhagen took Cloud's hand and removed it from his collar. "Aerith was aware that Holy's invocation meant a sacrifice. She did so because of you folks. And I get the feeling that there was one person in particular she chose to protect... am I right?" he asked softly.

Unable to restrain his emotions, Cloud grabbed Bugenhagen again, tighter, and grappled his shoulder hard enough to almost cut off his circulation. "Don't you dare act like you know how she felt..." said Cloud tersely as Bugenhagen struggled to retain feeling in his shoulder. He lifted himself up, hoisted Bugenhagen back onto his orb, and closed his eyes. By the time he opened them, his emotions had passed, and his heart had become calmed. He took in a deep, haggard breath, exhaled, and stepped away from Bugenhagen silently, though as he did his head remained bowed.

Was it for me...?

"Regardless, the spell was invoked, and Holy was called..." Bugenhagen continued softly. "But the spell is being held back by some powerful force, strong enough to seal away even the Planet's mightiest weapon."

"Sephiroth, huh. Dammit. Then I guess we'll have to rip it out of his cold, dead fingers..." Cloud snarled. He suddenly heard a strange sound and, after realizing it was coming from his phone, Cloud snapped it open and held it to his ear.

It was Cait Sith's voice, and he didn't sound very confident. "Hey, um... Can you return to the Highwind now?" he asked timidly. "It... uh... is sort of the worst case scenario, and... You're going to want to hear what's happening," Cait Sith whimpered. "It... I take it back, it is the worst case scenario..."

Author's Notes

It was satisfying to both resolve Tifa and Bugenhagen's plot line and to introduce Lucrecia. She'll appear again in Chapter 50, where everything comes together for the party before the North Crater expedition. Also, Bahamut is again addressed. You can safely expect that it'll be BS, but the precise scenario might not be what you're envisioning. Answering the question for myself wasn't easy, either. It took a few tries before I finished what I did, which appears in Chapter 51.

Oh, and if none of you cared about the Tifa/Bugenhagen line, just forget Scene Four ever happened. Not too much of a loss... dammit...