Aerith finished packing her tent and bedroll before rising to her feet and stretching broadly. Exhaustion draped her like a spiderweb—a combination of all the recent stress as well as her difficulty getting to sleep at night. As if the threat of Meteor wasn't already enough, it refused to allow her to stop thinking about it for even a moment, its perpetual red glow an ever-present and unwelcome presence. At one point, Tifa had said it felt like the massive, angry eye of a god was looking down on them, which was a very accurate description.
"About ready to head out?" Cloud asked. He was a few steps away, having just finished packing the tent he and Zack had shared. "We should make it to Midgar shortly after midday, I think."
She didn't miss the obvious worry in his eyes as he looked at her. Forcing a smile, she gave him a nod. "Yup! I'm good to go whenever. Where'd Zack get to?"
The three of them were the only ones who'd made the journey back to Midgar, while the other members of Avalanche had stayed behind to help with the rescue and rebuilding efforts in the capital. They'd been reluctant at first, but since there wasn't much they could directly do about Meteor, this had been the most logical solution. Of course, that had been true with both Cloud and Zack as well, and while she knew there was no way Cloud was going to let her go alone, Zack had also joined them since he had the closest connections with Shinra.
"I'm here," the man in question called out, stepping into the clearing they'd made camp in. Slung over his shoulder were three water containers, which helped to explain his muddy boots and half-soaked pants. "Just making sure we're all set on water since we won't be able to get more until we reach the city."
It only took them a few minutes longer to finish packing and set off, resuming the same brisk pace they'd taken ever since first setting out. The goal was to reach Midgar as quickly as possible, without wearing themselves down to the point where they wouldn't be able to do anything once they got there. Not knowing how long they had until Meteor began to fall, coupled with the uncertainty of how she was supposed to stop it with Holy, had easily led to some of the most stressful days of Aerith's life. Today marked the end of their journey at least, and for that, she was grateful. Nervous, but grateful.
The morning blew by in a sandy blur as they entered and crossed the desert surrounding the city. It was, without a doubt, the worst stretch of the trip so far. By the time they finally reached the walls of Midgar, Aerith breathed a sigh of relief while simultaneously feeling ready to collapse. Instinctively, she glanced upward at the sky to check on Meteor—a new, regular habit she tried to avoid doing too often—and felt an out-of-place chill run down her back despite the desert heat.
"Please tell me I'm worrying about nothing, but does Meteor look closer to either of you?"
Cloud and Zack both instantly came to a stop on either side of her and looked up—mirrored frowns on their faces.
"Looks the same as always to me," Cloud said.
Zack nodded. "Yeah, I think it's a perspective thing. Might just be since we're pretty much directly under it now."
Aerith bit her lip and forced herself to tear her eyes away from the sky. She wasn't entirely sure she agreed with them, but worrying about it wasn't going to get them anywhere. Even so, she picked up their pace as they made their way into the city.
At first, Midgar looked mostly unchanged, despite the looming disaster, but as they got farther in, more and more signs began appearing to show otherwise. The streets were completely empty, even far into the residential areas where they'd always been busy during the day. Occasionally, she caught a glimpse of movement behind drawn curtains, but otherwise, Aerith would have thought the entire city had been abandoned. One street they passed through, in particular, had been completely vandalized, the windows and doors of the shops lining it smashed in with the shattered remains of their contents strewn about. She could only imagine the terror that Meteor must have caused to drive people to do this and hoped that at least no one had been hurt.
Both Zack and Cloud were clearly pained by the changes to the city they'd grown up in, but neither of them said anything as they continued forward. Aerith couldn't come up with anything encouraging to say given how bleak the situation was, so they ran onward in silence—the sound of their boots on the pavement echoing around them as the only noise at all. Eventually, they finally reached the sprawling plaza at the base of Shinra Tower, only to find it as devoid of life as the rest of the city. Even though she'd only been here once before, Aerith could tell from the reaction of the other two how out of place this was.
"No guards outside the tower?" Cloud asked, breaking the silence with clear shock in his voice. "I've never seen that, ever."
"Maybe they're too busy helping people around the city?" Aerith knew it was a ridiculous theory, but she couldn't come up with any other explanation. Even back in the capital, regardless of the situation, there were always guards outside the council chambers. "It does kinda work—"
"Guys . . . we've got a much larger problem," Zack interrupted.
His voice had a note of fear to it that immediately caught Aerith's attention and she turned to see him looking straight up. Dreading what she knew she was going to see, Aerith followed his gaze. She didn't have to ask what was wrong, it was immediately apparent: Meteor was undeniably beginning to descend. It was moving far slower than she'd feared it might, but that didn't change the fact that they were now on a frighteningly short and extremely lethal clock.
"Screw it, into the tower," Cloud snapped as they began to race across the plaza. He reached the doors first and threw one of them open, allowing Zack and Aerith to follow in behind him before it swung shut. The interior of the tower was as strangely devoid of people as the plaza had been. The last time Aerith had been here, the entry hall had been bustling and full of life, with people rushing up and down the stairs as they hurried about their business. Now, it was uncannily silent.
"This place is giving me the creeps," Zack muttered. "You're sure we need to get to the top?"
Aerith nodded. "It's the central point to all of the reactors, and the only place where I'll be able to see all of them at once. If we're going to pull this off then it's our best bet." She needed to be right because this was the only idea she had.
Cloud continued to lead the way as they climbed the stairs to where the elevators were, but came to a sudden halt when they were close to the top and dropped down to a crouch, signaling for the two of them to do the same. "Guards," he whispered. "Two of them, watching the elevators."
"Of course, they had to show up at the worst possible time," Zack said, rolling his eyes. "If there's only two of them we can take them on easily enough."
"Wait," Aerith hurried to say before either of the two hotheads could begin to move. "We're not here to fight Shinra and we have no idea what's waiting for us up above. Last time I was here, Reno said that there were stairs up that no one ever uses."
For some reason, Cloud gave a loud groan. "That's exactly what Zack said when we came to break you out, and it was nearly a total disaster. I'm pretty sure everyone regretted that decision except for maybe Tifa and Jessie."
"So . . . let's do it?" Zack asked, grinning widely. "What, she's right!" he said in response to Cloud's look. "We're far less likely to run into anyone that way. Plus, we've got past experience now. Last time you barely reached the top before me, I bet this time I can smoke you. Unless you're too chicken, that is."
"Oh you're on," Cloud shot back, suddenly fired up despite his earlier complaint. "Race you to the top!" He was up and moving as soon as he finished talking, staying low and out of sight of the elevators as he made his way over to a door with a glowing stairs sign.
Zack was hot on his heels, leaving Aerith to follow after them. Boys. It was nice to see them having some fun, though, and it helped to relieve some of her mounting stress. By the time she reached the base of the stairs, she could hear them above her—their feet pounding away on the metal steps. She just hoped the echoing noise was contained within the stairwell, and wouldn't catch anyone's attention.
Taking a deep breath, Aerith began to climb as well. While she wasn't able to use her magic to fly, she had come up with a modified Aero spell that greatly reduced her weight. Casting it, she was able to ascend almost as if walking on flat ground, hardly feeling gravity's normal grip that would have made this whole process far more strenuous. She would have been able to cast it on Cloud and Zack as well if they hadn't raced ahead, so she'd just have to catch up to them once they inevitably tired out.
Except by the time she reached the landing that marked the fifty-seventh floor, they were still somehow ahead of her. Even with the help of her spell, Aerith was starting to feel a bit tired, so she could only imagine what state they were in after racing off like they had. She was about to call out and suggest they wait for her to catch up so she could help, when a blaring, electronic voice suddenly echoed all around, accompanied by flashing red lights above the doors leading into the building at each landing.
"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Unauthorized personnel detected in the stairwell above the restricted floors. Use of lethal force is authorized! Intruder alert! Intruder alert!"
As the message continued to repeat, Aerith was alarmed to hear the sound of a door smashing open over it, followed by the unmistakable sound of gunfire. Putting on an extra burst of speed, she hurried upward, desperately hoping that things weren't about to become horribly complicated. The last thing they needed right now was to get stuck in a prolonged fight here, especially when they had to be so close to the top.
She found Cloud and Zack back to back on the landing just past the sixtieth floor—presumably where the alarm had been triggered. There were already two unconscious Shinra soldiers at their feet and from the gunfire still ringing out from directly above it sounded like plenty more waiting for them.
"Guess they made some security upgrades after our last break-in," Zack said, almost sounding cheerful despite the situation.
Cloud shot a quick glance down at her. "You all good?"
"Yup, no one's coming from below, at least not yet."
"Okay. We're going to break through and push up the last few flights together. I'll lead the way, Aerith in the middle supporting us, and Zack guarding the rear. Sound good?"
They quickly fell into formation and Cloud charged forward with a shout, swinging his sword in a large sweep. Aerith threw up a shield of hardened air to protect him—bullets crashing into it before raining down to clatter on the stairs. Cloud forced a path between the soldiers, scattering their ranks with wide swipes, with Aerith and Zack quickly following behind before they could regroup. As they climbed, floor by floor, Aerith would cast the occasional wind spell to knock back anyone who got too close. Everything seemed to be going well until they were halfway to the final floor and a familiar voice cut over the chaos.
"Well, well, the traitors returned. I have to say, I'm surprised."
"Now, now, Reno. I'm sure they have a perfectly reasonable explanation for killing Hojo and shutting down the Sister Ray. I can't wait to hear it." Despite the seemingly light tone of his words, the look on Tseng's face was enough to show they had no real interest in talking.
Even so, Zack still tried. "Guys, listen. Hojo killed himself, and if we hadn't stopped that cannon then—"
"We don't give a fuck about your crap excuses," Reno snapped, his baton cracking open with a flick of his wrist. "Do you really think we're so stupid that we can't tell who made that ball of fire in the sky? The old President was right, the Ancients really won't rest until we're all dead."
The Turks were blocking the way out of the stairwell, meaning there was no way forward except through them. It wasn't even hard to understand their anger, but Aerith couldn't think of a way to explain what had happened that would sound reasonable—especially with Meteor not helping in the slightest.
"What do we do?" Cloud asked softly. "Fight them?"
"We don't have time for that!" Aerith hissed, racking her brain for a solution. They'd been inside for so long at this point she was almost afraid to reach the roof and see how close Meteor had gotten.
"I'll keep them busy, then," Zack said. He sounded confident, but Aerith didn't like the idea of him trying to fight one on four. "You two can break through and make your way to the roof."
Elena tapped Tseng on the shoulder. "Maybe we should listen to them? Why are they even here when that thing is about to destroy the entire city?"
Aerith felt a brief spike of hope before it was crushed by a stern shake of Tseng's head. "Rufus's orders were clear. Kill or capture anyone working with the Ancients."
"We're trying to save the damn city!" Cloud shouted, but it was too late.
Rude and Reno both charged forward while Tseng and Elena opened fire. One of the shots clipped Cloud's shoulder, but with a flick of her hand, Aerith healed the wound almost instantly. Charging to the front, Zack slammed his shoulder into Reno while also swinging his sword at Rude, causing the bald man to step back into a defensive position.
"Go! I'll hold them here!"
Aerith hesitated, but Cloud didn't. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into motion, using his other hand to swing his blade to prevent Rude from closing in. At the same time, Zack sent Reno tumbling down the stairs before turning to engage Rude. Realizing that they were committed to this now, Aerith threw two orbs of flame at the gun-wielding Turks, causing them both to jump away to safety.
With the doorway now open, she and Cloud rushed through before either Tseng or Elena could recover. Not at all happy with leaving Zack behind, Aerith turned and threw a shield around him before he vanished from sight, hoping that it would be enough.
"Can you seal the door?" Cloud asked as they continued to run for the escalators.
"What? But Zack—"
"He'll be fine. Worst case the Turks will capture him. Trust me, they're not going to kill him. We just need to stall them long enough for you to do your thing. Once Meteor is gone we'll be able to explain what happened, but they're not going to listen before that."
Reluctantly, Aerith threw her hand out and felt a chill run through her body as a solid wall of ice formed in the doorway they'd just passed through. On its own, it wouldn't hold the Turks for very long, but combined with Zack it would hopefully buy them enough time.
The upper floors appeared as deserted as the lower ones had been, with not a single person in sight as they sprinted up one escalator after the next. Aerith's heart was racing in her chest as they went. They had to be getting close now, and that meant it was only a short matter of time before she'd have to try and figure this all out. One large, not entirely welcome, difference from their ascent up the stairs earlier, though, were the massive windows—allowing them to see outside.
The world was ending.
Meteor had gotten alarmingly close during their trip up the tower, and while it was still far up into the sky, its proximity was already having a disastrous effect on the city around them. As Aerith watched in horror, a giant tornado of flame touched down in a spot close to the walls. The buildings in the area immediately ignited, with some even exploding violently as whatever they'd been storing caught fire.
"Don't look," Cloud said, his hand squeezing hers as he kept his attention fixed forward.
Aerith wanted to take his advice, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the unfolding horror. It didn't help that she was beginning to feel lives winking out as people started dying. This wasn't supposed to be happening. They should have been able to prevent this!
The next thing she knew, the visions of burning despair were replaced by cooling sapphire as Cloud grabbed her shoulders and stepped between her and the closest window, forcing her to look into his eyes. "Aerith, I know it's hard but we've got to push on. It's not too late, we can still stop this—we're the only ones who can. You're the only one who can."
Blinking back tears, she nodded firmly. He was right. Together they hurried on, and it was only two more floors until they finally reached the top of the tower and found the door marked for rooftop access. Cloud stepped forward and kicked the door open. An immediate gust of blazing hot air slammed into them. A sheen of sweat sprung up along Aerith's brow as she blinked to re-moisturize her eyes after the blast of dry air.
It was suffocatingly hot. Hotter than she could ever remember being. Overhead, Meteor completely blocked out any trace of the sky—painting everything in shades of crimson and orange. Just looking in its direction was painful, so Aerith kept her eyes on the roof of the tower as she walked to the center. Standing atop the tallest building in the city had to be the worst possible place to be right now, but at least from here she could turn in a full circle and see all eight reactors lining the city walls. More importantly, she could feel them.
This wasn't the same as being able to tell a Cetra apart from a Human thanks to the flow of the Lifestream through them, but it was the closest comparison Aerith could make. The buildings were directly connected to the source of the Planet's power, and by focusing her attention on them, they lit up like beacons of power in her mind's eye. Hesitantly reaching out with her mind, she could sense the power lurking below them, but something was off.
Between her and the familiar well of magic, was a layer of wrongness. There was no way to describe it other than slimy, and it left Aerith feeling faintly nauseous. This had to be the mako, the corrupted perversion of the Lifestream that Shinra used to fuel their technology. She hoped it wouldn't get in her way, but there was no way to reach the Lifestream beyond without going through it.
"Anything I can do to help?" Cloud asked softly from behind her, pulling Aerith out of her thoughts and back to the rooftop.
Turning her head to look over her shoulder at him, she gave him a smile of thanks. "Hold me?"
He nodded and stepped forward, his arms wrapping around her from behind in a tight hug, his head resting on her shoulder. "You've got this, love," he whispered.
Bolstered by both his presence and his words, Aerith closed her eyes and began. She started by thinking back to the image of Holy that Lucrecia had shown her and tried to imagine what a spell that powerful would be made of. Was it fire? Water? Air? All of them combined together into something new? It was impossible to say, but before she could worry about how to cast it, she needed the power to do so, which meant it was time to see if her plan for the reactors would actually work.
Aerith reached out and without hesitation, grabbed the power in the reactors. It was like thrusting her hands into a barrel of oil, but she forced herself to ignore the unpleasant sensation. One by one, she broke through each reactor's layer of mako and grasped the essence of the Lifestream waiting beneath. She faintly heard Cloud exhale and opened her eyes to see pillars of whiteish-green light shooting up into the sky from each of the reactors.
"You did it," he gasped, but she shook her head in response.
"Not yet. You're seeing the cleansed, pure magic of the Lifestream, I still have to somehow form it into Holy."
And then one of the growing number of flame tornados smashed into the side of one of the reactors.
There was a huge explosion and the light coming out of it flickered, faded, and then died. Aerith desperately reached out, grasping for the receding power, and tugged with all her might. Without the reactor's help, it was much harder to maintain and direct the flow of energy, but she breathed a sigh of relief as the pillar of light gradually flickered back into view.
Before anything else could go wrong, she turned her focus onto casting the spell that would hopefully save them. Still not entirely sure how to go about doing that, she said a short prayer to Gaia, asking for guidance. What she hadn't expected, was a response.
"Daughter." The voice was faint, and at first, Aerith thought it nothing more than a figment of her imagination until it went on and she recognized it as the one she'd heard long ago back when she first met the Council. "This spell will unleash power beyond your understanding. It will mark the end of what you know, and signify the beginning of an entirely new era. Are you certain this is what you desire?"
"It is," Aerith said with confidence.
"Then you have my blessing." Gaia sounded proud, but also strangely . . . sad.
The heat and pressure from above were beginning to become unbearable. Without Cloud's support, Aerith felt like she would have collapsed by now, but as Gaia's presence faded away, the shape of Holy took form in its place, allowing her to grasp the missing pieces of how to cast the spell. Pulling on the energy flowing from the reactors, Aerith gasped as the magic surged through her and exploded upwards. It was more magic than she'd ever channeled before at once, leaving her feeling both elated and slightly afraid.
This wasn't fire or wind or water or any of the normal, natural elements. Instead, it was simply light. Pure, radiant light like the first rays of the sun as it peeked over the horizon early in the morning. It shot up from the tower as a beam of energy before slamming into Meteor. Where the light touched the blazing sphere, the flames disintegrated, burned out of existence by an even more powerful force. All around, tendrils of light reached up and out from the reactors, rising into the sky to press back against Meteor's advance and buy Holy more time. Slowly, the heat began to fade, the tornados of fire fluttered and blew away, and with one, final, brilliant surge of light, Holy completely engulfed Meteor.
Shielding her eyes, Aerith was left reeling as the overwhelming surge of magic that had been rushing through her faded away. A welcoming, cool breeze brushed against her sweat-slicked skin—the first sign that, somehow, things had worked out. Blinking rapidly, she was relieved to see the city no longer bathed in the glow of flames, but instead simply normal sunlight with a welcoming, beautiful sky of blue overhead.
Meteor was gone.
Cloud spun her around to face him, and then they were kissing, her arms wrapping around him as she clutched him—whether to hold him tightly or to keep herself from collapsing even she wasn't entirely sure. Eventually, they pulled apart, Cloud looking at her with a mixture of pride and awe.
"You did it! That was amazing, I've never seen anything like that! You saved us all."
While she understood his excitement, something else dominated her attention. "It's gone," she whispered, feeling a gaping loss she had never before truly known in her life.
Cloud frowned, clearly confused by the note of sadness in her voice. "Wasn't that the goal?"
"No, not Meteor," she said, shaking her head as a single tear traced its way down her cheek. "Magic. I . . . I can't feel the Lifestream."
We end up skipping most of the travel once again and dive right into the heart of things as our dramatically shrunken cast reaches Midgar. The city has gone through a lot of changes since the start of the story, but now we see an entirely new side to it as everyone holds their breath in fear of what's to come. Once inside the tower, we get yet *another* stairs scene because I just can't help myself, plus this time Aerith gets to make the ascent, in her own unique way. Shinra has learned from the previous intrusion though, and set up a new alarm system to safeguard against this. To make things worse, the Turks show up, and in all fairness to them, it *does* seem like the Ancients have decided to wipe out the city. Zack ends up staying behind to hold off the Turks on his own while our main duo continues up to the roof—there's even a bit of fluff snuck in because, again, I can't help myself.
For this concluding scene, I'm once again taking a lot of liberties, especially with the reactors and their relationship to the Lifestream. Given that they take it and convert it into mako, it felt reasonable enough that Aerith could use them to enhance her power, and I really like how these "evil" creations are ultimately used to do something good and stop Meteor. Aerith also makes contact with Gaia for a second time, confirming that it was indeed her voice we heard all those many chapters ago. Holy ends up saving the day—although I imagine it's not terribly surprising—but it seems like casting it has had some unexpected consequences...
Next week is the *final* chapter—an epilogue—that time skips us one last time into the future for some final resolutions.
Final Chapter: Mother