Kudos to Silver (a guest) for catching the Dune reference in last chapter's title and honorable mention to Gamma Cavy for some good guesses. *blows out a puff of air* You all ready for this folks?
Chapter 30: The Fall
The canyon gradually widened, the trail smoothing into a strange road that looked much like the underbelly scales of some enormous serpent. Like said serpent, it twisted and meandered up a rise that looked out over a valley. The split of the broken mountain rose above them, wide enough to allow good sunlight, but narrow enough that it would take a talented pilot to attempt a fly-over, much less a landing. The bluish-white stone of the valley floor and walls paired with the coral structures lent an oceanic feel to the area. Cait Sith bemusedly hummed a few bars of a rather catchy song from an older children's movie.
Barret clutched his ears and moaned, "Damn man, why'd ya' hum that? Now I'm gonna have that song stuck in my head for a week!"
"Aw, but my Auntie Umiko loves that movie," Yuffie pouted, the corners of her mouth twitching with the urge to laugh. Tifa's eyes widened and remembering the small side trip in Costa del Sol, she shot the young woman a small smirk in return.
Cloud tilted his head slightly, trying to puzzle out what inside joke the two shared. After another moment, he dismissed the thought and shaded his eyes in the bright noon sunlight while peering out over the valley. From a distance, only the distinct roads hinted that this was anything but a dried out, ancient coral reef. Sunlight glittered off shells, sandy soil, and a wide body of water that bisected the valley like a moat.
A narrow bridge of the same scale-like substance as the trail from the canyon crossed the small lake. Despite its apparent frailty, the construct didn't even quiver under the party's combined weight. Halfway across, Cloud froze and peered down at the water lapping against the edges of the bridge in astonishment. He sniffed sharply a few times and asked Red XIII, "Am I imagining things, or is that… salt water?"
The leonine beast shook his head, sending his beads and clips rattling before he replied, "If it is a product of your imagination, I share your hallucination."
Cloud pursed his lips gazing out over the sparkling surface, baffled by the abnormality but after a moment, he continued on, the faint saline scent tickling his nose. The inland, saltwater lake lapped against the white grains of the sandy shore on the city-side of the lake. The trail curved across the beach in a meandering path. While there remained a layer of sand in the bottom of the shell walkway, it was much easier and more comfortable to walk on than the sandy ground so the party kept to the trail.
At the edge of the beach, the path forked, one split going straight to a central arrangement of enormous flat-topped coral. A bristling array of crystals emerged from the coral like a sparkling, icy crown. One branch of the path headed east while the other went west. Cloud paused at the intersection and gazed sightlessly at the crystalline spires.
Several long moments passed while he stood in place, the only sounds were those of distant monsters, the wind whistling through the coral, and the gritty crunch of nervously shifting feet on the sandy path.
"Maybe it's time for another fortune!" Cait Sith cried enthusiastically in an attempt to fight the oppressive silence. He danced in place and then announced, "You'll find what you're looking for! A lost companion is found but… oh dear… but not without a great loss." The tuxedo cat hung his head, shoulders drooping. "Tifa's lucky color is blue," he finished weakly.
At the start of the fortune, Zack perked up but then paled as Cait Sith apologetically finished. "A great loss," he whispered, eyes haunted.
"P-pay no mind to it laddie, fortune telling is such an uncertain art," the robotic cat tried to soothe him. "It may be that the latter half is off the mark!"
Zack's expression turned grim and he shook his head. "Sorry Cait Sith, I'd be more comforted if all the fortunes you've given us so far hadn't come true."
"Maybe we can outrun this one," Yuffie offered hopefully. "Lady Haruka liked to say that 'no one's fate is written in stone'. This could be the same kind of situation you know."
The tall man smiled weakly, then turned to Cloud and asked, "Do you have any idea which way to go?" He blinked, expression turning intent when he spied the blond's eyes. Mako caused an inner glow that enhanced the color of one's eyes, but now Cloud's unfocused eyes practically blazed blue. "Cloud!" Zack cried sharply, gripping the younger man's shoulders.
The brilliance receded to the normal glimmer and Cloud shivered, blinking his eyes dazedly and asking, "Zack, what's wrong?"
"I believe you've stolen his question," Vincent replied for the momentarily speechless man. "Seconds ago your eyes were shining blue and you seemed to have slipped into some sort of trance."
Confusion, fear, realization, and then denial flashed through his eyes so fast that if he hadn't been watching closely and been a highly trained Turk, Vincent would have missed it. "Do you know where Aerith is?" he asked, rephrasing Zack's initial question.
Cloud's eyes flicked back to the coral structures at the center of the abandoned city and nodded. "She's there," he said and pointed, his gaze going distant again. Yuffie clenched her fists and gaped when the light gleamed brighter in his eyes. Now that attention had been drawn to it, they watched carefully as he replied.
His brows lowered, eyes flicking to different parts of the city, pausing, flashing, then skipping to a new point to flash once more. A full-body shudder passed over him, blinking rapidly several times he looked at the others a faintly worried expression on his face. "She's there," he repeated shaking his head, "but the way is closed and it isn't something we can force. We have to wait for the right time to enter. There are a few things we can pick up in the meantime though." He offered the last in a weak attempt to appease the general anxiety the others projected.
"Can we at least try?" Zack begged, his expression desperate. "Maybe you're wrong about the way being closed?"
Unable to withstand his friend's earnest gaze, Cloud nodded once and waved them down the central path. The shell-paved road ran straight through the faded ruins of the once glorious capital. On either side of the path, an array of massive shells and the crumbling foundations of buildings rested in beds of drifting white sand. Rainbow toned shards of mother-of-pearl from enormous, shattered shell houses glittered in the sandy lots to either side of the main road. Small branching paths split off from the main road, some leading to destroyed buildings, others to smaller lanes, their destinations obscured by outcroppings of stone and crumbling structures.
Cloud didn't even glance down those confusing, curiosity-inducing side lanes. He pressed onward, the coral-laced rise growing to dominate and then obscure the horizon.
Other than a few huffs of breaths and low murmured comments, they traveled in eerie silence. "It's so strange," Tifa murmured, her eyes searching the buildings to either side warily. "This is the longest we've ever gone without encountering any monsters. Is it possible that there aren't any in here?" Though her question to Cloud was quiet, in the pervasive stillness of the fallen city, they all heard her.
"There are monsters," Cloud replied equally quiet and yet equally overheard. "I'm not sure why they haven't approached or attacked. They've given us a reprieve though, and I'm not complaining."
"Amen," Barret muttered, stepping carefully over some fallen rocks and twisted blue coral in the road.
They soon reached a large opening in the coral-encrusted stone edifice dominating the northern end of the city. The long, dimly lit passageway opened into a massive chamber. Light reflected down through the crystal spires hundreds of feet above and lit the chamber with a brilliant, ethereal glow. The path curved around an eerily clear lake and led to a building crafted from a spiky spiral shell. Its surface glimmered in patterns of burgundy and cream, patches of light danced on the polished surface like sunlight through water.
"Where do we go now?" Zack asked Cloud. Fine trembles of anxiety ran through the exposed muscles of his arms, causing them to jump and spasm with his desperation to do something.
Cloud pointed to the shell building and his friend dashed off. "The way isn't open though," the blond sighed miserably while he slowly lowered his arm, but Zack was far out of earshot.
Barret patted the young man's back in commiseration and then jogged after the former SOLDIER. Shaking his head sadly, Cloud did the same, the others staying a few paces behind him.
The vivid pink inside of the shell spiraled upwards, luminous patches on the ground lighting the way up the ramp. The spiral downward ended in the crystalline water of the lake. A lifelike image of a brilliant red and white tropical fish hovered over the pool of water and gently drifting green seaweed. Heavy footsteps thudded down the ramp. Zack thrust a green materia into Cloud's hands and uttered a solitary, desolate, "Where?"
Cloud's eyes gleamed for a bare second, hardly noticeable if one wasn't looking for it. Now that their attention had been drawn to the strange tell, it was almost painfully obvious. Tifa wondered how often they'd missed the occurrence on their strange journey. Eyes refocusing, Cloud solemnly pointed down into the water.
Zack peered into the water with horror-filled eyes, terrified he'd find Aerith's body drifting somewhere below. Through the distracting glimmer of the fish hologram and the rippling plants on the surface, he could faintly discern marble buildings beneath the water and a familiar flicker of pink.
Face hardening in determination, Zack sucked in a deep breath, held his nose, and jumped into the pool. The unexpected impact against the shallow bottom jarred the man to his knees in the water. "No!" Zack howled, vainly trying to break the clear barrier. Unfortunately, he was foiled by its strength, and the surface tension of the water diminished the power of his strikes. "I'm so close!" he wailed, clawing at the obstruction.
"The way is closed," Cloud repeated sadly, a strange, echoing quality to his voice. "It is not yet time, but the way will open."
Zack's pounding against the barrier slowed, water from the backsplash merging with the tears running down his face. One by one, Tifa touched the arms and shoulders of the others, pointing silently to the shell building's exit. Each nodded and slipped outside until only Cloud remained.
"Come out of the water Zack," Cloud murmured in a soothing voice. "It is cold, and Aerith would be upset if I returned you to her sick."
Zack stilled and water dripped from his body to the trembling surface. On his hands and knees in the shallow pool, he hung his head in defeat, the tips of his spiky hair hanging limp and trailing in the water. Sluggishly, as if his body suffered extra gravity, he climbed to his feet, staggered out of the water, and slouched against the curved wall. He slid down until he sat on the floor of the ramp, eyes locked unseeing on the swiftly calming water. Slowly, water pooled below him and ran down the curved ramp in meandering rivulets.
Cloud sighed and shook his head before pulling a towel from his traveling pouch and going to his knees by Zack's side. The raven-haired man didn't move while the blond plopped the towel on his head and vigorously scrubbed the sopping strands. "She's alive," Cloud said quietly, working his way down his friend's shoulders and arms. "We can't get to her yet, but we will."
"You're sure it will open?" Zack asked in a whisper. As if the earlier violence drained his energy, he suppressed his usual volume and Cloud couldn't help but reciprocate.
"I'm sure," Cloud affirmed, nodding his head once and wringing water from the towel. "This is the way Aerith got down there. There's some kind of time-release trigger but… I don't know the conditions, only that it will open, but not for several hours."
"So we should stay here, at least one of us," Zack insisted, staring intently at the pool as if the water would recede and the way open if he glared at it enough.
Cloud shook his head, pulsing his fire materia just enough to dry the towel before stowing it away. "'A watched pot never boils' is just an expression. Merely a saying about the seemingly endless time things take if you're anxiously waiting. In this case, however…" Cloud gazed at the water and shuddered. "If we post a guard, it won't open at all."
"Then how will we know it has opened?" Zack demanded, some of his energy returning with his frustration.
"I'll know," Cloud murmured, clutching one hand over his heart. "At the very least, Aerith knows we're here and she could easily come into my dreams again. As soon as the way opens, I'll tell you." Cloud promised.
"Is whatever's going on with your eyes and you knowing things like this the reason she came into your dreams before?" Zack asked softly. Unspoken but hanging in the air was the phrase: instead of visiting me.
Cloud stiffened and turned away, rubbing the back of his head nervously. For several long seconds, Zack waited, wondering if he would respond. Finally, the blond slowly nodded and muttered, "I... think so. Maybe? Before… before Sephiroth and the instance in Nibelheim, I… I didn't… I couldn't… I never…" Cloud stumbled over his words, struggling to come to terms with the changes he only now realized he was going through.
The lines deepened between Cloud's brows and he clenched a fistful of his hair in growing distress. Zack sighed and held out his hand, "Can you give me a hand up?" Cloud blinked, some of the tension leaving his face at the surprising change in topics. He silently took Zack's hand and pulled him to his feet. "I'm not going to pester you about whatever this is right now but we will revisit it later," he assured his friend, smiling faintly at the palpable relief in Cloud's face.
The former SOLDIER looked back at the now pristine pool of water and quietly murmured, "We have to be away for it to open…"
"I'm afraid so," Cloud agreed. "In the meantime, there are some useful items in the ruins we can pick up."
Zack sighed and followed Cloud out of the shell. When they rejoined the others, Tifa silently embraced the taller man and he smiled weakly nodding his thanks. "Ya' sure that's the only way down?" Cid asked, hoping to find some way to perk Zack up.
"That's the way Aerith went down," Cloud replied, shaking his head and scrubbing the boot of his toe in the sandy ground. "We probably would have seen her prints if we hadn't been in a hurry and come in such a large group."
"So what are we going to do?" Yuffie asked. She added another shell to the mustache of the face she was forming on the sandy shore of the lake and then rose from her crouch, clapping her hands to shake off the dust.
"We're going to hunt for some treasure while we wait for the pathway to open up," Zack replied with forced cheer. He didn't wait for a response and started down the main boulevard back to the crossroads. The rest of the party exchanged worried looks and hurried to catch up.
Once there, Zack tilted his head to Cloud silently asking which way they should go. Cloud nodded to the western path and took the lead. The path widened once inside the remains of the city. The ravages of time were more evident on the structures on the outer path than the dwellings down the central road. At times, it seemed like the coral formations were remnants of some oceanic themed rock garden rather than formed by nature.
The western path curved up to climb the cliff wall. In the minimal shelter of the wall, one of the Cetra buildings remained mostly intact. The plain, rectangular building blended with the gray stone of the cliff. The doorway gaped empty and there was no sign of glass in the windows. Cloud stepped off the main path and slipped inside.
A thick layer of sand choked the floor, faint wavelike patterns in the dust showing signs of past flooding. The spartan structure seemed more of a guard post than a home. The bare remnants of some sort of bed frame occupied most of the small second-floor loft. Cloud pointed at a box near the foot of the bed and Tifa scampered up the stairs, her eyes briefly locking on a vivid crimson shell larger than her head on the wall.
In the meantime, Yuffie wandered to a glowing orb embedded in the wall by the room's second door. Her hand hovered over the sea green orb for one second before she touched it with one finger. It flared brilliant white and a ghostly voice speaking strange words came from the orb. She yelped, falling backward and crab-walking away from the strange device. "Maybe we oughta be careful about what we touch," Barret advised the shaken young woman after helping her to her feet. Tifa descended the stairs, handed Cloud a Magic Source and he silently led them out of the room.
A stone bridge from the sentry outpost arched along the back wall of the cliff over the city and led to the upper levels of the strange coral mass in the center of the capital. Close to the entrance of the coral building, the sheared off edge of an intersecting path hung over the scree and rubble of a bridge from the city center. While it was a shorter path than the loop around the city edge, Cloud judged it best to stick with backtracking when they finished with their errands inside.
Though bland brown stone from the outside, the inside gleamed with faded marble. Two levels of passageways ringed a deep pit, the lower level adorned with delicate arches between each support beam. The upper level curved around the room, ending in a narrow bridge to a suspended central pedestal. A massive crystal flashed and gleamed on the protrusion.
From where they entered, Cloud pointed to another glowing treasure in a chest on the lower level. "Where the heck are these coming from?" Cid cried, tugging at his hair.
The group turned to Cloud, expectant looks on their faces. He blinked and waved his hands, sputtering, "I don't know any more than you! Maybe they were from some kind of ceremony?"
"Let it rest," Zack huffed, jogging off to raid the chest.
While Cait Sith and Vincent discussed the archways and Yuffie drooled over the gleaming crystal, Cloud's eyes looked down into the central pit. The blue of his eyes glazed and gleamed like a heartbeat before he shook the stupor off when Zack returned with the Aurora Armlet.
"It's got good defense, but you'll have to give up a materia slot," Zack mused, turning the brass armlet around in his hand, peering at the glimmering sunburst emblazoned on it.
Cid held his hand out and huffed, "I ain't usin' all I got with my lance and avoidin' more damage sounds like a fine trade-off." Zack and Tifa held the pilot's materia as he shuffled them from one bangle to the other. "Stop droolin' girlie," he growled at Yuffie who squeaked and whirled away, scrubbing at her chin. When even Zack laughed at the exchange, Cid and Yuffie exchanged a subtle wink and thumbs-up.
"Is there anything else to do here?" Zack asked. When Cloud shook his head, they filed around the chamber to the exit
Cloud cast the depths below one final look before stepping outside. They made their way back down the western path and crossed over to the eastern portion of the city. Unlike the western half of the city, all the building remnants were massive seashells. Many of them were shattered from weather-loosened boulders falling from above though a good portion of them were intact.
As the sunlight in the valley drifted, shadows lengthening from the western wall of the cliffs, Cloud indicated they should enter a few of the more intact shells. Each one had a glowing orb in the doorway and unlike the stone outpost, these abandoned houses were shockingly intact.
After raiding one spiral shell, Cloud paused and looked up the road. Far ahead, the path split, one heading west towards the upper level of the central rise, the other curved around it possibly heading to the other access point to the valley Dr. Malcom hoped for. He shook his head and pointed to the extra-large, squat shell building ahead. "This will be the last one. We might as well stop here for the night."
Zack's lips tightened into a thin line, but he nodded tersely. The trip through the Sleeping Forest, canyon, and exploring the city took several dull hours, for once the monotony uninterrupted by monster attacks. A knot of tension formed in his back after the first quiet hour and only increased as they continued. From the irritable expressions on Cid and Barret's faces, he wasn't alone in that feeling.
Unlike the other buildings, this building had multiple beds and possibly once served as an inn. With a palpable sense of relief, they claimed beds and explored the building. Cured wood, possibly taken from the Sleeping Forest sectioned the two levels of the shell into rooms. To the relief of all, one of the rooms had washing facilities, and the strangely shaped hand pumps still brought up fresh water. It was a relief to have the chance to wash the grit of sea travel and the dust from the capital's sandy atmosphere from their hair and bodies.
The general mood lightened another fraction when Cloud found an Enemy Skill materia and presented it to Barret. "I remember you were interested in taking one off Zack and Aerith's hands before. Now you'll have one of your own."
"Well damn," Barret breathed, taking the lemon yellow orb and slotting it in his Dragon Armlet. "Looks like I can't laugh at your whinin' anymore," he huffed to Zack.
Despite these small comforts, however, a subtle dissatisfaction hung in the air, only exacerbated by Zack's obvious misery. At first, Zack would cast Cloud a quiet, questioning glance and the blond would turn his attention towards the city center and then shake his head. After a small handful of times, the rest of the party noticed the interactions and waited anxiously for the response. With each negative reply, their collective dismay grew.
They tried to stay up, hoping for a positive response so they could rush to bring Aerith back to their side and prevent whatever grim fate Cait Sith predicted. Even so, they couldn't deny their physical needs and one by one they claimed a bed or section of floor to sleep. It pained Cloud to rest when Zack still paced impatiently. In his efforts to stay awake, he walked around the room and stretched whenever the drowsiness hit him but he eventually succumbed to the siren call of sleep.
His dreams took him down strange paths. He started outside the dwelling they rested in and wandered down one of the narrow lanes he ignored when they hunted for the items he sensed during the day. The lane twisted and weaved through the ancient residential area. With each step, the ruined buildings rose from sandy ruins into luminous, translucent repair. After the buildings returned to their former-albeit haunting-glory, ghostly figures emerged from the houses. By ones and twos, the spirits of the Ancients joined him on his journey. Their clothing was gauzy and in a fashion Cloud had never seen before. Their features, however, were indistinct, the only thing Cloud could discern from their faces were bright blue eyes. A distant part of Cloud was alarmed at the ghostly parade that swept him onward.
The side path emerged onto the main street leading to the crystal-topped rise. He expected to be taken to the inner lake but instead, the figures pulled Cloud up a ghostly path to the marble amphitheater with the gleaming crystal altar. On a ledge he hadn't noticed before, high up on the cliff wall on the opposite side of the chamber, a ghostly trio manipulated some kind of machine. Each of the arches on the two tiers of the amphitheater lit with a swirling vortex of light. One by one the ghostly figures stepped into the vortexes and vanished. When the last of Cloud's companions disappeared, two of the figures with luminous blue eyes pulled a spindly object from the device, causing all the portals to vanish. They bowed to the third figure, one with green eyes and then all three disappeared.
A dark figure emerged from the shadows, this one fully corporeal. The light from the crystal altar gleamed on Sephiroth's silver tresses and reflected in his catlike, green eyes. "How about a little trip down memory lane?" he asked with a twisted smirk before stabbing Cloud straight through the chest with Masamune and lifting him to dangle over the dark pit below. Gurgling with pain and the blood filling his lungs, Cloud clutched at the blade only to spasm into consciousness, the phantom pain of his wound burning all the way through his body.
Panting and rubbing his scarred chest Cloud stood and carefully skirted around the opening to the ladder for the first floor while he paced. His heartbeat slowly calmed, but his mind worried over the strange images from the dream. Like warm sunlight breaking over his skin, Cloud felt the change and spun on his heel to call Zack. He nearly smashed his nose in the man's chest, he was so close behind him.
Zack gripped his shoulders steadying the smaller blond and anxiously whispered, "Is the way open?"
Cloud nodded, "It just opened."
"'Bout damn time," Barret huffed from the other side of the room. "Everybody up, 's time to move out!"
Muffled moans and murmurs of agreement met this call in voices far more awake than Cloud expected. It seemed he wasn't the only one with uneasy sleep. Zack's eyes trained in on where Cloud rubbed his chest and asked, "Cloud, what's wrong?"
Cloud frowned, eyes growing distant when he realized his phantom pain wasn't entirely in his mind. Something tugged at him, urging him in honeyed tones laced with poison to go to the Ancient. Shaking out of the faint trance when Zack squeezed his shoulders tighter, Cloud frowned and said, "Sephiroth is here too. He wants me to go to Aerith… so that's the last thing I should do. Go without me so he can't make me do anything to harm you or Aerith."
"We can't just leave you behind!" Tifa protested, stamping her foot both to settle the fit of her boots and to emphasize her point.
"You'll have to," Cloud insisted. "I'll be fine and I'd rather be away than end up hindering your efforts."
Yuffie pouted and folded her arms petulantly. "I'm with Tifa, I don't want to split up."
Cloud rolled his eyes and huffed, "If you don't hurry, Zack will be the one going alone because he isn't going to want to wait."
Halfway down the ladder already, Zack grimaced sheepishly. The blond shook his head and sighed, "If it will make you feel better, maybe Cait Sith should predict my fortune, just to prove I'm right."
"An' if you're wrong, you're comin' with us," Cid countered.
"Fine," Cloud huffed and turned expectantly to the stuffed feline.
"Oh my, I must admit I never thought my fortune telling would be so popular," Cait Sith mused before capering around in his fortune-telling dance. When he finished, he struck his pose and intoned, "Trust your instincts. If you dance with the devil you'll descend into hell, but only through adversity is there hope to regain what was lost. Black is your lucky color."
Cloud inclined his chin defiantly and pointed to the ladder. Begrudgingly, they clambered down and followed Zack into the moonlit night. Cloud followed them to the door and watched until their figures grew indistinct with the distance.
A dual tug pulled at Cloud, one followed the party to Aerith, the other…
Trust your instincts...
His mouth turning into a grim frown, Cloud stepped into the darkness, unconsciously following the path from his dream. In several places, the path was choked with rubble, fallen coral, or suffered the ravages of time and gravity. It would have been easier to take the western path to the amphitheater room, but Cloud felt bound to trace the route he'd witnessed in his vision.
Sweating and grimy from having to scale the treacherous rubble where the road was entirely sheared off from some past avalanche, Cloud finally staggered into the massive chamber. Sephiroth crouched on the rails, peering into the depths that now shone with some celestial light. The sound of Cloud's drawn blade attracted the man's attention and he frowned at the blond. "So you decided to be defiant," he drawled, pointing Masamune at Cloud. "Puppets should do as they're told."
Snarling, Cloud lunged at the former general.
True to Cloud's words, the fish was gone and the water cleared. Blue, glass-like steps descended into the depths below the shell structure. Uncaring of the stairs' lack of visible support, Zack jumped down them four or five steps at a time. Instead of descending into the blue of the water, they traveled down the crystal stairs into endless darkness. Each step emitted a light, crystalline chime with the impact of their feet and somehow managed to sound musical rather than discordant despite their varied pace. Below, a city of sweeping arches, buttresses, balconies, and towers nestled in the center of a crystal prism. The stairs swooped around the small cluster of buildings ending at the balcony of the largest structure.
Zack caught flashes of beautifully embroidered wall hangings, carved furniture and lavish designs on the walls, but he passed them uncaring. He burst out of the arched entryway, swinging his head back and forth, searching for Aerith. The ring of buildings sat on marble columns in an underground lake. Zack caught a flicker of familiar pink in a columned but roofless pavilion in the middle of the lake.
"Aerith," he breathed, chest clenching with painful hope. After the long years of separation, their miraculous reunion, and journey together, the two weeks of separation felt like agony. Cid puffed up behind him wheezing at the frightening and fast trip down the stairs. "Damn man, have a little mercy for us old folks."
Zack grimaced in apology but said nothing, running down yet another curved staircase. The spiral staircase dropped to a massive stone slab, the surface rough but the corners sliced with laser precision. The chamber or void they were in was so enormous, Zack's steps didn't echo, though he heard the scraping feet of the others behind him. A lower stone slab met their current one at a perpendicular angle. Zack ignored the short stone staircase and dashed to the end of the lower deck.
A series of round pillars in the water set at strange angles to each other led to a staircase and the raised pavilion. "Well that looks like a fun location," Cid huffed sarcastically. "'S gonna take a bit for all of us to get up there, 'specially if we don't wanna end up in the drink."
"Take as much time as you need," Zack said dismissively. "I'm headed up."
Sephiroth casually dodged Cloud's first strike and glared at him. A portion of Cloud locked up, nerves screaming as his body flared with inexplicable murderous intent. Aerith appeared in his mind, her body bisected by the keen edge of his Murasame. He could feel the warm blood trickling down his hands and arms, the triumph…
"NO!" Cloud shouted, shaking his head to try and break free of the compulsion.
Sephiroth scowled and hopped back on the railing, "Well if you won't, I will." He jumped off the ledge into the brightly lit depths below.
Cloud vaulted over the rails, pushing off them to increase his speed and divert the black clad man.
Zack climbed the stairs, relief palpable when he saw the kneeling figure before him. Aerith looked up from her clasped hands and smiled up at him. She'd never looked more angelic, Zack thought, his eyes lingering on the red-gold highlights in her hair and the vivid green of her eyes.
The harsh screech of blades above drew his attention and he looked up. A pair of figures, falling fast headed straight for Aerith. Light flashed and flickered off their drawn blades. With no time to be gentle, Zack grabbed Aerith's right wrist and yanked her sharply into his arms seconds before Sephiroth disarmed Cloud and his Murasame impaled her former location. Sliced strands of hair and her hair ribbon cut neatly in half by the blade drifted to the ground. Aerith's eyes widened as the shimmering orb held in her ribbon pinged off the edge and vanished with a splash. Sephiroth kicked off of Cloud to perch on the marble framework of the structure.
With no time to correct his landing, Cloud fell spread-eagle on the polished marble his face mere inches from his sword. The air exploded violently from his lungs on impact. Despite the severity of the situation, Zack crowed, "Ha! See, Cloud can fall on his face too!"
"Mid-air acrobatics, enemy induced fall, and no skid at all? Perfect ten point landing, Cloud wins," Red hummed thoughtfully.
"What? That's… I…" Zack spluttered.
"I'm okay… really…" Cloud wheezed from the marble floor.
Sephiroth glared down at the blond and snarled, "She should have become one with the Planet's energy, but you kept that from her." Zack's grip tightened on Aerith and glared at the taller man.
Sephiroth smirked at Aerith's despairing look towards the watery depths and huffed, "No matter, my goal was accomplished either way. All that is left to go north. The Promised Land waits for me across the snowy fields. There I will become a new being, uniting with the planet."
"Stop," Cloud groaned, rising shakily to his knees with Tifa's help. "Just stop talking. We're all sick of listening to your grandstanding."
Sephiroth sneered down at Cloud, "Don't act as if you have feelings."
"Of course he has feelings!" Yuffie snapped back, "Even if his feelings right now are pain from the bad landing, all humans have feelings!"
Sephiroth laughed somehow the sound echoing despite the muffling effects of the enormous space and then smirked at Cloud, "You shouldn't pretend to have feelings because…" He jumped off the marble support and shot towards the watery surface above. Something dropped from him, growing rapidly in size. Swearing, Cid and Barret yanked the still dazed Cloud and Tifa to the side before they were squashed by the mutated form of Jenova LIFE.
His sword wasn't so lucky.
It snapped under the weight of the brick and indigo colored monstrosity, dealing the first damage of the battle. In shape, it was the same as the creature they fought on the ferry to Costa del Sol, in power, it was much stronger.
Blue light emitted from the monster's brow. In response, a vortex of water rose from the lake and momentarily engulfed Tifa. When the water receded, Tifa blinked, a healthy flush to her cheeks and the weariness from interrupted sleep cleared away. She blinked down at the blue Water Ring and then bared her teeth in a grin. "My lucky color is blue," she laughed clenching her fists with a toothy grin.
With a wordless shout, she leaped at the monster, giving Zack time to pull Aerith further away and for Cloud to finally catch his breath.
"Aerith, use Big Guard, Zack use Magic Hammer!" Cloud called, digging in his pouch for a weapon to replace his Murasame. While the pair rushed to comply, he gripped a handle and whipped out an ancient wooden bat with gleaming barbwire wrapped around it. He frowned at the baffling weapon he dismissed after finding it in the Temple of the Ancients.
With no time to continue his hunt for his Yoshiyuki, he grimaced and then raised the weapon into position. He smashed aside a questing tentacle before it could crash into Yuffie in the midst of casting her highest level fire spell. When the spell hit, Jenova shrieked, the stench of burning rubber filling the air. It retaliated with the stinging acid bubbles of an Aqualung attack and a reflect barrier.
Cait Sith wasn't able to stop his lightning spell in time and yowled in agony when the attack rebounded on him. "Hold off on spells!" Vincent warned those on the other side of Jenova that might have missed what happened.
Mind flipping through the party's resources even as his bat tore chunks of singed flesh from the monstrosity's body with each blow, Cloud ordered, "Barret, cast restore on Cait Sith. Aerith, use De-barrier. Zack, keep up the Magic Hammer!"
The young Cetra's eyes widened, her fingers questing for the unusual materia they'd found in Nibelheim but never really used. While the three prepared their magic, Cloud and Tifa took turns dashing in and out of Jenova's reach from the front, Cid and Red XIII doing the same from behind while Yuffie and Vincent took shots from a distance.
A green light surrounded Aerith and with the sound of shattering glass, Jenova's barrier burst. "Let's finish him!" Yuffie shrieked, charging her fire materia once more.
She didn't get a chance to use it, Cloud's body lit up in the obvious sign of a limit break. Extending his bat parallel to the ground and then to the sky, a blue light emitted from the tip of the bat. Like a general ordering his troops forward, he pointed at Jenova. A vortex swirled around him and sucked Jenova into the air and then dropped it head-first on the remnants of his snapped off Murasame.
A gurgled squeal emitted from the creature, it spasmed a few times and then went still, swiftly dissipating in crimson sparkles leaving Cloud's broken and gore-smeared blade behind.
As Jenova's blood followed the body to the lifestream, a voice hissed in Cloud's mind, finishing Sephiroth's sentence, "Because you are a puppet." Cloud shook his head, trying to dislodge the insidious voice but chilled all the same by its message.
No one else seemed to have heard the phrase so he gritted his teeth against the looming doubt and staggered to retrieve his materia from the now useless blade. The haze of battle fading, small conversations started, the majority of the group drifting towards their newly reunited companion.
On the other side of the pavilion, Zack clutched Aerith to him and laughed, tears of relief streaking down his face, "I'm so glad Cait Sith's prophecy about you didn't come true!"
Aerith stopped pouting at the sliced hair ribbon in her hands and tilted her head quizzically before asking, "What do you mean?"
Vincent answered, "He said, and I quote: 'You'll find what you're looking for! A lost companion is found but not without a great loss' end quote."
"We didn't lose you so the prophecy didn't come true," Yuffie chirped, bouncing to the older woman's side.
Aerith's expression fell and she shook her head. "No, he was right." She looked at her sliced ribbon and then over the edge to the deep water.
"What do ye mean?" Cait Sith asked warily.
"I lost my mother's materia," Aerith replied sadly, her eyes shimmering faintly with tears. "I figured out back at the temple that its purpose is to foil the use of Meteor and it's lost now. When Zack pulled me to safety and my ribbon got slashed, it came free and it fell into the water." She pointed to the rippling, purplish water below.
"Can't someone swim down to get it?" Yuffie asked. She went down on her hands and knees to peer into the watery depths. Light rippled in confusing patterns on the broken marble shards at the bottom, foiling her attempts to catch the materia's gleam. "It might be a little troublesome to sift through those marble shards though."
Vincent peered over her shoulder and shook his head. "Those aren't shards, they are broken columns."
Her gray eyes widened and she whipped her head back to peer into the water. She squinted through the ripples, and then leaned back on her heels shaking her head. "Unless one of you is secretly part fish and can breathe underwater there's no way we can find it."
Rubbing his chest to soothe the bruises from his bad landing, Cloud's head jerked up and he looked to the distant entrance to the underground chamber. "We need to leave, the way will close soon."
Aerith narrowed her eyes at Cloud and tilted her head in confusion but nodded slowly and said, "Cloud's right. We'll have to figure out what to do next back at the surface."
The trek up the stairs was taken at a much more sedate pace. As they climbed in silence, Cloud pondered the strange events of the evening. By the time they reached the surface, Yuffie's eyes were drooping and even the mako enhanced members of the party staggered drunkenly from the interrupted rest.
"All in favor of getting a little more sleep before we tackle the latest problem say 'aye'," Cait Sith yawned.
"Ain't you just a robot?" Barret huffed down at the feline.
"I may be a robot, but my creator isn't and he's also holding down a career at the same time as traveling with all of you," Cait Sith hissed back.
"I'm all for it," Cid huffed, stretching his back with a few alarming pops. "I'm too old for these nighttime jaunts."
***Special request!***
My beloved readers, Cloud and company are about to trek across the snowy wastes to Icicle Inn… I've lived in central/Southern Arizona my whole life and don't know much about dealing with cold/snow etc. Any tips and advice about writing about said hellish (or I suppose that would be the opposite of hell?) weather would be greatly appreciated! After all, you can only go so far with internet searches/movie knowledge (that may very well be wrong). Thanks in advance!
I'm entirely of the opinion that a person can equip more than one accessory. If you want rings and bling like a rapper, go for it. Thus I didn't have Tifa remove her Power Wrist in lieu of the Water Ring.
And finally: Cloud using Murasame while fighting against Sephiroth with Masamune wasn't confusing at all! (sarcasm)