White noise assaulted Yuffie's mind. The moment her Remedy spell faltered, a telepathic shriek reached out across space and struck her mind like a cannonball. Then it raged around inside her skull like a wild animal, primal in tearing apart away every coherent thought that she could string together.
She could barely keep herself from falling over on the ground mid-stride, let alone keep up the frost cloak that wrapped her body along with that of the dying Tsviet on her back. The link with her Ice Materia was severed. And reconnecting was now nigh-impossible, leaving them both vulnerable.
The glare of a scorching Red Light nearly blinded Yuffie's left eye as she hastily dodged to the right. The bloom of heat as it passed her by resulted in the skin on her left arm prickling with an agonizing pain from the near-miss. The kunoichi sucked in a sharp breath to avoid voicing her agony as she instead focused on keeping herself moving, putting more distance between the follow-up beams while coping with the attack on her body and mind.
In the end, unleashing both Leviathan and Typhon turned out to be a double-edged sword. The air was saturated with moisture that helped to quench the worst of the heat and the rubble-strewn remains of the forest had provided ample places to take cover within it. But the terrain being so rough meant that if she wasn't cautious then she could trip and fall, which would lead to them both dying.
Yuffie could hear Shelke's breathing getting shallower over her own panting as she ran, feel the strength leaving her body with every passing second. She had to get help and fast. But that also meant leading that monster to the very person that it wanted to kill the most, which wasn't ideal even if she wasn't unconscious last Yuffie saw.
Worse was the fact that the Jenova Spawn had survived everything thrown at it so far, from being torn into by superheated blades to being battered by a debris-laden twister. Pulling itself back together despite their best efforts, the spawn continued to chase after them while letting loose condensed rays of heat and searing gale-force winds. When she thought back to how they'd dealt with them in the past, Yuffie understood why they'd always obliterated them from top to bottom now.
Shiva had frozen those she encountered inside out before she shattered them so thoroughly that nothing remained. Aerith had used Bahamut to obliterate the one near the Temple of the Ancients. Then she went a step further to deal with the main body, using enough force that it was lucky they were never in a populated area.
A howl of rushing wind gave Yuffie enough of a warning to take cover as a Tropic Wind was unleashed. She threw herself face-down behind a bulwark formed from lifeless trees and broken sheets of coral, unwilling to be caught in it without the cold comfort of ice to help her weather it. The hot gale left the wood alight, crackling with embers as it took the full brunt of the attack while ash, sand, and coral dust sprinkled down over them.
Soft coughs escaped from Shelke's lips in the lull after the winds died. It was accompanied by the feeling of something wet and sticky cascading over the back of Yuffie's neck, sending a chill up her spine. She set the smaller woman on the ground gently and saw that the Tsviet was at the threshold of life and death, drifting from one boundary to the other.
The kunoichi's closed her eyes for a moment. Steadied her heart. Steeled her resolve. There was no other choice but to kill that thing on her own if she was going to get Shelke help now. So she would do just that.
Then, without preamble, she burst from her cover and a searing beam of Red Light greeted her, its glare blinding as it skirted her vicinity. Yuffie felt her skin burning from the heat, blisters bursting and tears stinging her eyes as she flung the Oritsuru outwards. The origami crane cut through the space between them, enclosing on the red and black mass standing amidst the shimmering air.
The Jenova Spawn let loose another Red Light in retaliation. The raw heat made the air around it expand violently, the resulting gale knocking the flung weapon off-course. It spun wildly while the lance of coalesced fire speared straight for the kunoichi, turning the earth where it carved through into a molten slag pit in the process.
Yuffie kicked off the ground, but not before a searing pain made itself known. The molten earth had splashed and caught on right arm, flesh burning away with the scent of cooked meat and nerves screaming as they were scalded raw. She didn't think she'd ever be able to use it again, but she still had her left arm—and that was enough.
Extending her functional hand out towards her weapon, it stalled in the air before she gestured for it to move towards the abomination that prepared another Red Light. The crane flung itself once more, the spinning edges cleaving through alien tissue as they carved off the protrusion that served as its head and the stump that served as its lungs. The fired ray went wide by a large margin, setting what was left of a stretch of luminous trees ablaze, and the Jenova Spawn was left defenseless.
Yuffie charged forth as the light of her own Limit Break burst free from her skin and shrouded her. She still had her left arm. If she hit it with the full might of her Landscaper head-on, maybe that would be enough. She had her doubts, but it was the best she could. So she ran with all the speed she could muster, closed the distance, and lunged…
Then there was a wet, bursting sound. The abomination's central mass tore itself open and exposed a serpentine appendage with burning-red star fixed on the tip. It was pointed at her and beads of heat were already dancing around it, coalescing into a killing shot that she couldn't dodge as the red glare eclipsed her body.
This was it. She'd failed and would die here, a fact reinforced by how her mind elongated her perception of time and drew out the space between seconds. Unable to do anything as it released its fiery beam, the faces of her father and Yuri flashed in her mind…
You'll get to see them again.
And in the next breath everything went white. The Jenova Spawn had vanished. The world itself had seemed to have disappeared without a trace. There was only Yuffie, adrift in a vast and empty space that seemed to fill her with a soothing sensation that took away the pain, exhaustion, and static clouding her mind.
"You've always done your best, no matter how difficult things were." There was a flash of light as Aerith appeared in front of her, body ethereal and wrapped in a pale viridian light. "I don't think we would have made it this far if not for that earnest nature of yours."
"What's happening?" she asked. "Did I…"
Aerith shook her head at the unfinished question. "I just came to tell you that Shelke will be fine now. And... to personally say goodbye."
It clicked in her head and her heart sank. Tears stung at the corner of her eyes. "…Then…you're…."
"I know you'll be a great leader that will make your father proud one day," Aerith said as she held her in a gentle embrace before she could cry, as if to buoy the weight and guilt she bore. "Goodbye, Yuffie."
"Don't go!" Yuffie begged as she felt Aerith vanishing. Disappearing somewhere they couldn't reach again. She tried to stop her from leaving by holding her as tightly as possible, as if she could force her to stay.
But it was fruitless. The last of the Cetra seemed to break apart into countless shimmering droplets in her grasp, the gentle smile on her face being the last thing Yuffie saw. Then her lithe figure was swaddled delicately in a divine and radiant aura as the glare of a Red Light replaced the pure white backdrop.
The beam washed over Yuffie with a roar. Intense heat that could melt through solid stone surged past her body and carved a trench of melted earth that ran a good distance back. Yet when the attack petered out, the abomination towering over her undulated in confusion as Yuffie stood there with tears running down her eyes.
"It's just…like you…to do this," she said between deepening breath, sorrow replacing whatever fear of the abomination and death itself she had before. "If I had gotten there a little sooner, I would've told you it was a dumb plan."
The Jenova Spawn howled with a wet, inhuman sound as it regenerated its body and attacked again. It fired another Red Light that was meant to incinerate her. It lashed out with its telepathic scream to scramble her thoughts and turn her mind to jelly. It tore open its stump to release a hellish gale that would burn off the skin and peel off the muscle from her bones, leaving only a charred skeleton that would shatter into dust.
Yet, the Red Light only broke against her body like waves breaking against the shore. The Silence failed to touch her mind. The Tropic Wind didn't so much as rustle her hair.
Nothing in this world could hurt her anymore.
She wiped away the tears before staring at the monster. The sight of it stirred her emotions, leaving grief to be replaced by anger that came rushing out like a floodgate had been opened. The fierce light of the Limit Break was dyed a prismatic hue and the Jenova Spawn begun to recoil as energy swirled in front of her outstretched hand.
"GET LOST ALREADY!" Yuffie shouted as she took Aerith's gift and sent it rushing forward as a blinding beam that eclipsed the mass of alien tissue that had survived everything thrown at it so far. Using the wellspring of power that was the bane of its existence to do what she couldn't before, its silhouette vanished within the flood of light entirely.
And this time it didn't come back.
[-oOo-]
Cid was falling. Time itself seemed to crawl as he stared up at the vermillion bird dissipating, flames and golden motes scattering as the winged monsters finished tearing it apart. Most of them continued flying towards the forest where the others had gone, but a few whose teeth gnashed together as they eyed him were intent on tearing away at his corpse until nothing but bones were left once he hit the ground.
Damn it all. He reached up towards the boundless skies he cherished so much, the vast expanse that separated the earth from the cosmos. Just thinking about how he no longer had the chance to cross into the final frontier he'd once dreamed of exploring would have left him seething with rage at one time. But now he could only think about Shera and how she was going to be left behind…
Giving up on the things that make you happy doesn't suit you at all, Cid.
That was when Aerith's voice touched his mind as a white glare eclipsed his vision and warmth shrouded him. He hit the ground feet-first, a shockwave billowing out and scattering the scavengers that had been prepared to pick apart his corpse. Cid rose up and stared down at his hands as he felt the energy surging up from depths unknown.
Never give up your dreams, and I'm sure you'll be a pioneer of the stars one day. Not just for yourself, but humanity as well.
The whisper that touched his mind faded out with a sense of finality that left him feeling as though something had transpired beyond him. But the pleasant warmth that sank down into his flesh and bones freed him from his aches and his exhaustion. It even freed of the shackles that had been pulling him down to the earth, so he could try reaching for his dream once more with his own two feet.
He looked to the skies that were still tainted by winged monsters, tightened the grasp on the polearm in his hand, and tensed his legs as the energy surging through him took on a tangible form. Shrouded in an electrically-charged and violet-hued mist that crackled with life, Cid jumped and released a shockwave that scattered everything not nailed down. The distance between the earth and sky were reduced to a fraction of a second as Cid went rocketing to reclaim his skies.
In less time than the blink of an eye, the violet streak of light pierced through the bone and hide of a winged Shadow Creeper. Its body torn in half from the momentum began to crumble to dust as if an invasive and corrosive poison had been inflicted through the wound. An instant kill that would leave nothing.
Twisting his body in a flash, Cid chambered his legs as he used the air itself as a platform by which he could reorient himself. Then he dove down from above, another shockwave shaking the air as he rocketed back down and broke through another. Exceeding the limitation of his own body, moving at speeds that would crush his organs and pulverize his bones while protected in a corona of energy, the pilot became a shooting star.
Shattered bones and ebony dust followed in the comet's tail as it bound around the heavens until the skies were clear once and for all for the arrow of light to sail ahead.
[-oOo-]
The barrel of Barret's gun-arm was melting as he swept it back and forth like a makeshift flamethrower though the use of the Fire Materia, catching as many Shadow Creepers as he could within it until it was little more than a slogged mess of melted and cracked metal. He was warned ahead of time that exposure to multiple elements and temperatures would degrade the composition of the metal and leave it worthless. That was why he hadn't used the materia like this until he'd run out of bullets that would hold the magic instead.
The arm that was now a warped and broken thing still served as a bludgeon when he swung it with all the might he could muster at the first of the horde that burst through the burning curtain. Bones shattered on impact with the ruined metal as he managed to jam it into the cavernous maw that had come for his throat. But pain—both sharp and blunt—assailed Barret as he was forced to the ground by its bulk, claws digging in and tearing at the muscles in the process.
Left on his back as the rest lunged to take him apart, his thoughts in the face of death drifted back to the moment where he had decided to walk the path he was on. It had been after AVALANCHE had been made outcasts, blamed for Shinra's monstrous act as they snuffed out countless lives. Barret's group had been forced to leave Midgar in order to avoid being the target of ire for the survivors and it served only to fuel his anger towards Shinra more so than ever before.
If he had just been stronger. If he had just been more ruthless. If he had gone further, he would have been able to prevent that tragedy from occurring a second time. But he lacked the means of doing so as he was, a fact that left him wanting to shout from the bottom of his lungs until his throat was ragged and raw until they arrived in Cosmo Canyon—one of the few places Shinra didn't have their hooks in.
The time he spent there had been had done little to quell his rage. His anger was so palpable that he couldn't find it in him to settle down. He had to make them pay, once and for all—whatever it took to end Shinra. But even if the others would pay lip service to the idea of AVALANCHE once more, they couldn't keep fighting when they had the chance to start a new life.
And then there was Marlene. The daughter of his best friend and a child who had lost not one home but two now, yet somehow found it in her to still smile. Seeing it shook his resolve and left him wanting for a moment to just leave his quest for revenge alone in order to remain by her side. He couldn't be the person he needed to be to go through with plans if he remained with her.
That was when he'd heard rumors about Dyne. The friend he thought he'd lost because of Shinra and someone he could count on to help him form a new AVALANCHE. He'd set out from Cosmo Canyon to the Gold Saucer chasing those rumors, passing by the ruins of his old home that only served to further stoke the flames of anger within him.
It was only when he'd entered the Coral Prison and found Dyne that he'd seen what it was like to look at that anger from the outside. Lost to madness and hatred, Dyne began a massacre of those stuck in the ruins of sand and scrap. A bitter, nihilistic man born in the wake of losing everything four years ago and wanting nothing more than to take it out on the world.
It was like looking in a mirror. An ugly mirror that bared what sort of monster he was become without even realizing it, someone willing burn the world down if it meant getting back at Shinra. It was enough to shake him to his core even as the two fought, bullets screaming through the air as the two inhabitants of the once prosperous mining town had been reduced to one in the end.
Barret couldn't help but think about his daughter mere moments away from death, the dozens of teeth and claws a breath away. He was sure she would keep smiling even if he wasn't there. Wedge and the others would look after her at the very least…
I'm not sure she'd stop crying if you died here. She might even end up hating the world that took you away from her. Are really you okay with that?
The fangs and claws went dull as a flash of white peered through the mass of monsters that descended upon him, only to be rebuffed as a shroud wreathed his body. The Shadow Creeper that was tearing at his metal arm released its grasp with a dying yelp before falling over and turning into ash. Rising up, Barret looked down to see that the tears in his flesh that ran red with blood knitted shut as she spoke again.
For children, their parents make up their world. If you're going to protect her smile, you need to make it back to her alive. Don't let her experience the pain of losing the person she calls her father, okay?
Dyne would never forgive him if he let that sweet, innocent girl end up like the two of them. And he'd never forgive himself for being the reason she grew to hate the world and robbed her of that smile for good. So, if it took him coming back for her to have a bright and happy future, then he'd make it back alive. These monsters driven by a hatred and rage that was encoded into their very genetic memories, couldn't be allowed to get in the way of that.
The moment that he came to that revelation his figure swelled with power. He took aim with the broken and warped weapon that had carried him this far and let loose a beam of pure oblivion. It was a contained catastrophe that carried all the rage and anger that had driven him from that day years ago, focused and directed for the singular purpose of protecting with his daughter's smile.
As the torrent of destruction removed everything in his path and finished shattering his gun-arm, Barret felt himself freed of a heavy weight for the first time in a long time as the white streak continued its voyage through the skies.
[-oOo-]
The leonine warrior wobbled on all fours as blood from deep gashes ran freely, painting the ground beneath him. His tongue hung low, his breathing slowed, and he felt his heart and mind on the verge of fading as a horde of the beasts closed in on him. They would succeed where the rest who'd crossed his path had fallen now that fatigue and injury had finally taken their toll.
Even so, he was no coward and refused to look away as they moved in for the kill. There was just enough strength for him to tear out the throat of one of them, fighting to the very end. Just like his father before him had met his end while holding off the Gi Tribe, he would not run from death on the battlefield.
You were never one to run from danger, no matter the odds. I really am grateful to you for protecting me this far, Nanaki.
A pulsing warmth surge through his body as a white light passed overhead. The pain melted away and the fading world was brought into clarity in time to see the killing blows had been rebuked, as if he were clad in impenetrable armor. He straightened his spine and stood firm with renewed vigor as the Shamaness spoke directly into his mind.
But now your duty is to live for the sake of the future and to recount the struggles of everyone else, so the future generations won't make the same mistake.
He felt the presence of the one who'd blessed him be carried away beyond the reach of the physical world. But her touch on his mind left him brimming with energy and filled him with a new sense of purpose. He had to live to tell those who came afterwards of the battles not recorded in history books, and the sacrifices the others like her made to reach this point. It couldn't be forgotten or else it would have no meaning at all.
So he howled with all of his might, beyond the blue skies that were clear now to the very the stars that hung in the heavens. The firmament shook in response as his voice carried the news of Aerith's sacrifice and tears of starlight fell upon the Forgotten Capital as if to mourn her passing. The star-shower that cascaded down from the cosmos purged the creatures born of shadow and malice with a single touch as Nanaki burned the memory of the arrow of light sailing across the skies into his mind.
He would recount how it embodied the hope of the Planet's future for generations to come.