This is the sequel to The Collisions of Worlds. Let me make one thing clear. This is a FINAL FANTASY 7 fic. While I have brought FF9 into it, the action is orientated around characters and places in FF7. Enjoy it.
Return to the ChiralCentre. But read the fic first!
Universe War II
Chapter 1: Two Thousand and Twelve
Seventeen years after the Nibelheim incident. Twelve years after the Meteor incident. Two years after the Tokyo incident. Now, worlds were again threatened.
Queen Brahne was not, as was believed, dead. She had taken Burmecia, Cleyra and Lindblum before disappearing. But her sights had always been set higher. Now, she had found a city that looked perfect for the taking - underdefended, rich, large. OK, so there was the small matter of its current owners, but Brahne was confident.
ShinRa was getting along fine. Lifeturbine was powering away, the citizens of Midgar, and indeed the world, were happy, and no anomalies (Jenova moving, timeslips, mutations etc.) were around. Cloud and his fellow managers had little to do except watch the endless inflow of data into the graphs- share values, production rates, sales, expansion reports; everything that you would expect of a global corporation like ShinRa, Inc. At least, this was until 3rd August, 2012, when Midgar and the world would be changed forever.
The first indications of a new influence moving through the hyperverse - the popular term for all universes and prespace/K - were seen on the 1st of August. A physics student at Junon Neo University of Science and Technology was carrying out a fairly simple and rather mundane experiment (the classic method of determining the strength of gravity) when the student found persistent vast anomalies. Contacting his teacher, the experimental methods were found to be fine, yet the anomalies - in the order of increases of 2 MILLION percent, persisted. Other equipment used in the same area picked up the same anomaly, but it was not present in other areas as close as 50 metres. The incident was of such seriousity that it was reported directly to Cloud, the President of ShinRa, Inc.
Immediately the world's scientists and mathematicians were working on the Gravomaly, as it was now called. A whole bunch of theories were coming up - cluster of microblackholes, effects of lifestream, residue of a former psychic experiment in the same place, fraud, and the uselessly worded 'failure of the universe'. In fact, this last point was particularly ironic, given that what would happen was entirely outside the universe of FFVII.
Chapter 2: Data mystery
Still the world's boffins worked away at the Gravomaly, through night and day of the 2nd of August, and into the early morning of the 3rd. Cloud, Cid, Yuffie and Nanaki were in the ShinRa HQ (in Kalm) watching the data coming in on shifts - 6 hours of watching each. It was during Nanaki's shift - the late night shift, midnight to six, that the most unexpected thing happened. The data stopped coming.
"Cloud! Yuffie! Wake up! Something's happened!" shouted Cid
"You got something?" asked Cloud, sleepily.
"Yay! It's resolved?" shouted Yuffie.
"No. It's really weird. Come on." replied Cid.
The three went through to the data room. They were met by Cid, who was waiting to pick up the morning shift.
"What is it?" asked Cid.
"The data stopped coming. Just went blank. No more input." answered Nanaki.
"Network failure, surely." commented Cloud.
"Can't be. Look, this really big piece came through, sent 5:35. And this smaller piece, 5:36. But the routine 5:40 data didn't. Now if it was a network problem, then the big piece would have been cut off, as it didn't fully come through until 5:44. Or, for us to have it, we should also have had the routine 5:40." explained Cid
"Then what could it be?" asked Yuffie.
"Well, all data has to be put to transfer manually, but once it's been selected, the stuff happens automatically. The only explanation is that everyone must have left for some reason." replied Cid.
"Send a request reply macro. That'll help us get to the bottom of it." suggested Cid. A 'request reply macro' was a routine that was sent from one computer to another. If it arrived at the destination, the target computer would send an automatic reply back to the source computer. Also, a message box would pop up requesting an e-mail to be sent to the source computer. In this way, it is possible to check whether the network connection is working, whether the target is on, and whether anyone is at the target computer. Cloud and the others waited for the results of the request reply macro to come through.
5 minutes later the result came.
"Network capability; check." Cloud mumbled to himself. "Transfer speed; check. Transfer accuracy; check. Single pathway; check. Target integrity: check. Target use; none." He says to the others. "All fine, but the computers aren't in use."
"Shall we go there?" suggested Nanaki.
"I think we should." replied Cid
"I know we should." asserted Cloud. "Move out. It's a 30 min journey. Take the Jeep."
Everybody immediately rushed out. Nanaki went to fetch the others - Tifa, Barret, Vincent and Cait - while Cid fuelled the old Jeep. Soon the eight were in the Jeep, heading south through the mountain pass to Junon.
Chapter 3: "This can't be Sephiroth."
All were silent during the journey; the mystery of the data compounded with the Gravomaly meant that no-one was interested in talking. The Jeep, driven (recklessly) by Cid, soon arrived at Junon Neo Uni, where the eight went into the foyer, expecting to be greeted by the receptionist.
"What the!!??" exclaimed Barret.
All stared at the scene before them, stunned to find the last thing they could ever expect.
Dead. Everyone dead, slumped in their positions. As the three walked silently to the Gravomaly site, none spoke.
Cloud got there first. Opening the door, he gave a quick glance around the room.
"No way. This is not true." said Cloud, very seriously.
In the centre of the room, swallowing up the apparatus, was a wormhole. A massive vortex, reaching right up to the top of the 4 metre high ceiling. Through it could be seen a distorted view, which was nonetheless unmistakeable as an airship.
"Sephiroth! It must be!" assumed Vincent.
"This can't be Sephiroth. No sword marks. It's been done with fire magic." argued Nanaki.
"Then who is it?" asked Cloud
"An invasion from another universe. A nation - or corporation - wishing to conquer more than their own world. They are probably moving to Midgar already." deduced Nanaki.
"I doo hope they'll bring materia. Reeaally." squealed Yuffie.
"For God's sake!" replied Vincent.
"Quit talking. We have to get to Midgar." said Tifa.
"Tifa's right. MOVE OUT!" ordered Barret.
"We'll take the jet." decided Cloud.
It took the eight 5 minutes to rush to the airport and board the jet, ShinRa's new Safer•SephiJet, the fighter/transporter named after the Great One's god-like form. Able to carry 20 passengers, or a similar amount of cargo, yet manoeuvrable enough to be a good fighter plane, the Safer•SephiJet was designed for carrying passengers through dangerous areas. The fact that there were no threats to ShinRa remained irrelevant; Barret liked to be prepared.
Naturally, it took only ten minutes to reach Midgar airport. The eight immediately headed for the ShinRa Midgar centre, an eighteen storey building on the site of the old HQ. I say eighteen storeys, but each one is about six metres high, making it larger than would be expected. As they approached, Cid shouted
"Holy SHIT. The f***ing thing's on fire!"
"Hurry!" ordered Cloud.
Naturally, no-one disobeyed, not even Yuffie. Cait being in his toy form was as fast as any of the others, unlike two years ago, when going to another world meant he had to come in his wheelchair-bound person. The gang took three minutes to get to ShinRa Midgar.
Chapter 4: Black Mages
The fire was on the first floor, so the group could enter without too much trouble. All had weapons out and materia set up, expecting a major battle any second. Of course, this was not what they would actually get.
"More dead..." said Cloud.
"What the hell! These people go around killing our employees, they get busted!" shouted Cid.
"Quick! Upstairs!" ordered Cait.
All dashed up the stairs, where they found the fire was quite small. Yuffie put it out with an Aqualung Enemy-Skill, and Cait used Quake to stop it flaring up again, though at the expense of some nearby equipment. Then, Clouded noticed some people - or where they people - going up the next stairs.
"Stop right there!" shouted Barret.
They all turned round. Everyone then registered one fact - these were not human.
"Kill"
"Kill"
"Kill"
"We're doing the killing here! Die, alien scum!" shouted Cloud.
Of course, these were Black Mages; creatures made from mist, a material unique to the Gaia of Brahne's world. Strong in offence yet with low HP, they were quite unique to battle, as Cloud and the others would find out soon enough.
The nearest mage then sent a fireball at Tifa. It hit her hard, reducing her to a critical health.
"Cloud, watch out!" she shouted.
"Cloud ran forward, intending to slice through the mage. However, before he could get there, he too was hit by a fireball, from another black mage - there were five now. He was blasted backwards, but still succeeded in killing the first black mage.
"One down, four to go. They're powerful, but really easy to kill." said Cloud.
"The next kill came from Barret. He blasted the mage standing at the top of the stairs with his gun-arm, and found his mark.
"Die!"
The remaining three then fired at Cait, Cid and Nanaki, but as Cait was holding Fire-Elemental (block) materia in armour, and Nanaki a fire ring, only Cid took relatively little damage.
Yuffie threw her new weapon, the 10-point-star (a weapon with ten materia slots), at another mage, but failed to kill it. It was Vincent's shot that finished this one off, leaving only two left.
Cloud killed another one, and Nanaki the last, so the battle was over quickly. The eight took the time to heal.
"That wasn't too hard. I expected a lot worse." remarked Cloud lightly.
"No, but that's hard." said Cid, pointing to the stairs from the ground floor.
Over fifty mages were heading up the wide, sweeping twin stairways. The lobby below was filled with at least 200 more, and yet more could be seen outside the building.
"Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill." they chanted in unison, some sending fireballs at the building.
"Bloody hell. Head up!" ordered Barret.
All ran up the stairs. Up flight after flight they went, until they reached the helipad at the top. The chant of the black mages below could be heard, the monotonous "Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill."
"What now?" asked Vincent.
"To Junon. We can get weapons there." answered Cloud.
"We can't. What about Midgar. We can't leave our people." said Tifa, shocked at Cloud's suggestion.
"There's no other way. We don't have anything strong enough here." replied Cloud.
"If we stay here, we'll be killed." added Nanaki.
"The get in the copter, for f***s sake!" shouted Cid.
Everyone obeyed - some of the group; Cid, Barret, Cloud, Nanaki; had a 'way' that meant they would be listened to. The copter was soon heading its way south to Junon, and was thankfully unnoticed by the mages.
Chapter 5: The air versus the ground
They soon reached Junon, where Cloud had a quick think about strategy. He soon decided.
"Everybody should get a jet, and we'll attack with the machine guns from the air."
"Let's slaughter 'em!" said Barret.
"This is gonna teach them to kill our employees." alleged Tifa.
Soon everyone had got in their fighter. The jets in use were two types - the Absolute and the slightly older Lifestream. Both types, however, were better than anything you know of; incorporating radar invisibility and advanced homing missiles.
The group of fighters flew at full speed towards Midgar, in formation. They made one flyby, then prepared to attack, communicating via radio.
"TifaL3, this is CloudA1"
"TifaL3, Roger."
"Approach low and use the machine gun, OK"
"Gotcha. TifaL3, over."
"CloudA1, this is CidL2."
"CloudA1, Roger. Carry on."
"I'm low on fuel."
"CidL2, it doesn't matter. Over."
"Everyone, this is it. Attack for all your worth."
"BarretA2, this is NanakiA4. You forgot your code."
"Damn!"
Talking over, the eight began to implement the strategy. Vincent, Cid, and Tifa flew by first, bombarding the mages with gunfire.
"CloudA1, VincentL1. Several-"
"Watch out everybody. They noticed. It's CaitA3."
"Got that. Cid L2."
At that moment the mages started shooting fireballs at the jets, forcing Tifa to swerve dangerously close to the tower.
"Barret A2, it's TifaL3"
"That was a near miss, Tifa."
"AllL, retreat. CloudA1. AllA, use homers"
"BarretA2, got it."
As said, the three in the lifestream jets (Vincent, Cid, and Yuffie) flew away, and the remaining five - Cloud, Barret, Cait, Nanaki and Yuffie - in the absolute jets prepared to fire.
"All, CloudA1. Firing three"
"Yuffie A5, firing all twenty"
"YuffieA5! Ease up, goddammit. Cid L2"
Yuffie's reckless barrage of twenty missiles tore through the mages, causing at least a hundred to fall. The other black mages - at least 2000 - shot fireballs at YuffieA5.
Chapter 6: The twin summon
"I can't avoid all of them. Clou-"
The signal suddenly stopped, as a fireball hit the plane.
"CidL2. How the f**k are we supposed to defeat these."
"Forget it. It's CloudA1. I'm summoning Typoon."
"CloudA1, NanakiA4. Don't. I'll do Leviathan."
"It's NanakiA4; let's do it together."
"CloudA1, Roger"
"Everyone, get back. Cloud and Nanaki are using magic. That's VincentL1."
Cloud and Nanaki prepared to summon. They counted together.
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Go!"
A twin summon was one of the most stunning sights possible. First of all Typoon appeared, enveloping the black mages in a powerful whirlwind. Then, Leviathan came to the edge of the plate, sending the tidal wave at the mages. As the wave met the whirlwind, the water was sucked up into a spinning tube, inside which the mages could be seen lifted into the turbulent foam of air and water. Then Typoon did his flipover, avalanching the mages back onto the plate. When they fell, the water exploded onto them, creating a second wave that swept many mages right off the plate.
"Here's YuffieA5. We did it!! And I'm OK, thank God."
"No. NanakiA4. There's still three hundred left, and they're firing."
"It's CloudA1. Look, more are appearing."
Sure enough, the numbers, which had reduced to 300, were clearly increasing. It was impossible to tell where from, but the numbers were going up: 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, about 50 every three seconds."
"I'm hit, NanakiA4."
"They've hit me too, CaitA3."
"We can't keep this up. They almost got me, at this distance too. TifaA3."
"This is CloudA1. Retreat to Kalm."
The jets flew off northeast, still forced to dodge fireballs. Nanaki and Cait had to make emergency landings in the fields ten miles out from Kalm.
"This is BarretA2. CloudA1, all land?"
"OK. All, land here."
Chapter 7: Queen Brahne of Midgar
In the absence of the eight, Midgar was falling to pieces. The ShinRa Midgar centre was ablaze, and the sector 4 plate was at risk of falling. Everyone was panicking, as the black mages marched through the streets, sending fireballs at anyone who wasn't quick enough to get out of the way.
Then, as quickly as it had started, the destruction stopped. The mages appeared to freeze. The city was silent. Until...
The Red Rose appeared. Flying over the centre of Midgar, it stopped. Then, Brahne appeared.
"FOOLS! Do you really think you can stop the march of Queen Brahne, the most powerful person ever. Now, fools of Midgar, you must submit to me! I declare myself Queen Brahne of MIDGAR! The useless ShinRa cannot save you now. This is the beginning of a NEW AGE for the world."
Both those on the surface and those underneath, who could only see what was going on through the giant TV screens on the underside of the plate, were terrified at this speech. To many, it brought back memories of the old ShinRa, before Cloud. To others, it echoed of the war, the destruction of Corel and Nibelheim, or of the Meteor incident.
Above, Queen Brahne was calling all the ShinRa executives who worked in Midgar to the Red Rose, to give orders.
"Who is in charge of power here?" asked Brahne, when the executives had all arrived. Most of them were terrified.
"I am." answered one of them.
"I want you to cut it." ordered Brahne.
"That's impossible. It's run from HQ at Kalm. There's no control here." he argued.
"I said CUT IT!" shouted Brahne.
Another executive tried to explain. "He just said; it can't be done. You'll have to go to Kalm."
"And where is Kalm?" asked Brahne.
"Northeast of here. I don't remember how far." he replied.
"Black mages. Go to Kalm and destroy it." ordered Queen Brahne. At once, 500 black mages were seen heading northeast.
"OK. Now, what can be controlled from here." asked Brahne.
"Local broadcasting, local trains, most computer systems, and that's about it." explained one of the executives.
"Cut them all. Stop as much of the city as you can. Be back here in six hours." ordered Queen Brahne. At that, she left. The executives all walked out, shaken.
Chapter 8: Resurrection
The eight had landed, and began talking.
"How can we defeat them." remarked Cloud.
"This is the f***ing end!" claimed Cid.
"Wait. Remember Earth, right." said Tifa.
"The place we went to two years ago. What about it?" said Cloud.
"Well, don't you remember what Sephiroth said?" enquired Tifa.
" 'Simple. There will be a task for me.' Is that what you mean." asked Nanaki.
"Yes. Well_"
Tifa was interrupted by Cloud. "Revive Aeris and Sephiroth! This is the task!"
"Right. We haven't got time to lose." said Tifa.
"Have you got the stuff on you, Cait?" asked Cloud.
"Uh, sure. Here it is." answered Cait.
Cait produced the resurrect materia. The grey materia could bring people back from the dead, but as people are never purely good or evil, so this materia was a bizarre mixture of white and black magic.
"OK. Lets do it. Here are the words. Nanaki, can you do the music." said Vincent.
The resurrect materia would only work when an ancient chant in Cetra was performed with the right music. The seven sang in unison (and in Cetra, but here is it in English):
- Green Materia. Magic Materia.
Red Materia. Summon Materia.
Yellow Materia. Command Materia.
Blue Materia. Support Materia.
Purple Materia. Independent Materia.
Materia of the world, Materia of the Cetra.
Materia of the past, Materia of the future.
Materia of the light, Materia of the dark.
Materia of good, Materia of evil.
Materia, flow from the planet.
Materia, flow to the planet.
Materia, enter me.
Materia, leave me.
Materia lives, Materia dies.
Materia truth, Materia lies.
White Materia, be holy.
Black Materia, be tragic.
Grey Materia, be yourself.
Bring forces, and revive.
Brother and sister, killer and killed.
Cetra and calamity, opposite and same.
Aeris and Sephiroth, White and Black.
Let the Grey Materia, the equals of life.
MATERIA PAST.
MATERIA PRESENT.
MATERIA FUTURE.
MATERIA TIMELESS.
REVIVE.
REVIVE.
REVIVE.
REVIVE.
REVIVE.
REVIVE.
REVIVE.
REVIVE.
MATERIA!
(for the Cetra version, e-mail me. I have got it - first line: jay Inergu. inergua Inergu.)
As the song finished, there was a blinding flash, not of light, or even of dark, but of greyness. The world seemed to lose colour as the grey materia emitted this weird 'glow'. Then, Aeris and Sephiroth appeared.
The world returned to colour, and the grey materia was inert again. The only change that had taken place was the presence of two formerly dead people right in front of them.
Chapter 9: The Great One returns.
Sephiroth was first to speak.
"So the time has, after all, come. Midgar is taken, and the world threatened. Your company, ShinRa, Incorporated, is at a loss. People are scared, the news is going into overdrive."
Then Aeris spoke. "You found the Grey Materia, and the Cetra song. Then you cast the revive spell, bringing back the people in verse 5 - the 'brother and sister, killer and killed'. Do you know the price?"
Cloud was taken aback. "How do you know all this already. And what do you mean by 'the price'."
"It is, for me and Aeris, as if we had never gone. We know all that has happened." replied Sephiroth.
"Cloud, the price falls on you, as it was your decision. The day will come when it would have been better for us not to have returned." explained Aeris.
"In any case, I think we had better be getting back to Midgar." said Sephiroth.
"OK everybody. GET MOVING." ordered Barret.
The group - now ten of them - piled into a nearby minibus (they had landed near a garage) and drove towards Midgar.
About three-quarters of the way to Midgar, they encountered the troop of 500 black mages that had earlier been sent to attack Kalm.
"Black Mages!" shouted Cloud.
"Are they tough?" asked Sephiroth.
"Strong offence, weak defence." answered Cloud.
"Get the hell on with it!" shouted Barret, before jumping out of the minibus and blasting the mages, killing many.
Immediately everyone was engaged in battle. Tifa cast Big Guard on everyone, giving them all Wall & Haste; an invaluable asset for the battle.
Sephiroth immediately showed off his fighting skills. A single running slash of the Masamune just cut right through about 50 mages, killing them all instantly. The mages then all spread about a bit, before sending off fireballs, mainly at Sephiroth.
Although Sephiroth was strong, the sheer numbers of fireballs was a considerable hit for the great one - remember that of course Cloud's Omnislash had defeated him.
The hit was severe, but Cait - the regular healer nowadays - was quick to cast Regen-All.
Then, Sephiroth looked at Vincent, who was carrying Neo Bahamut. The two seemed to understand each other, without speaking. Then, Vincent cast the summon.
Black Mages had seen summon magic before, in their own world, and with Typoon-Leviathan, but they had not really encountered the full power of the summoned magic discovered by the Cetra. Black Mages are usually expressionless, but all the faces were clearly alarmed as the black lightning surrounded them.
The chunk of land rose into the sky - it had often been pointed out that Neo Bahamut, like ZERO and KOTR, shouldn't really be called a 'summon', as the enemies were brought to the monster, not the other way round (or in ZERO's case, the attack is at a long range). As happens in most summons, the mages were unable to move. Neo Bahamut then appeared before the mages, who promptly started letting off fireballs.
This just made Neo angrier. He gathered his energy and blasted the mages. Then, they crashed down to Earth.
Astonishingly, not all of them were dead. Those who had survived had been on the far side to Neo Bahamut, so they escaped the full force of Mega Flare. The fireballs caught Cloud and the others off guard, hitting Cid with full force.
L-I-M-I-T B-R-E-A-K. Cid was forced into his level 4 limit. "HIGHWIND" he shouted.
The Black Mages were hit by the barrage of missiles, which finally defeated them.
EXP: 40 000; AP: 6000; GIL: Zilch!
"Pretty good result." said Cloud.
"Hey! What's that?" said Yuffie, running forward to grab something left on the battlefield.
"Let me take a look." asked Sephiroth. Yuffie threw him the object.
"Huh! It's a funny looking cube. Looks a bit like a materia...Hmm." mumbled Sephiroth.
"Well, whatever it is, it might be handy. Cid, will you take it." said Barret.
Sephiroth handed Cid the cube, who stuffed it in one of his many pockets.
"Cloud, we still have to get to Midgar." said Aeris.
"Right." agreed Cloud. "Back in, everyone."
Chapter 10: Occupied Midgar.
The minibus eventually arrived at the Midgar gate at sector 5. The door was, thankfully, working, and the ten proceeded into Midgar, walking past the Church, and then through Aeris's garden.
"I can't believe my flowers lasted so long without me. Who looked after them?" asked Aeris.
"Nobody did." replied Tifa.
"They'd all died after you did. It's odd that they've come back." added Cloud.
"Will you three stop f***ing well nattering. We have to get a move on!" ordered Cid.
The ten then carried on towards the station, which had been built in sector 5 as the one in sector 7 had been destroyed earlier - Cloud had left it ruined as a reminder of the terrors of Mako. They arrived at the station, which was when trouble started.
"For Heaven's sake! Not more!" said Barret, seeing about ten mages standing around the platform.
"Kill"
"Kill!"
"KILL!"
"I'll kill alright." remarked Vincent, blasting through the mages in turn.
It didn't take very long to kill all of the mages, then the group set about making their way up to the plate.
"Damn! They've stopped the trains. We'll have to walk the route." said Barret.
"I don't think so. There's a ladder somewhere, isn't there." replied Tifa
"Over there" answered Cloud, pointing.
The ten then went up the ladder. Sephiroth lead, followed by Cloud, then Barret and Vincent, before Yuffie, Tifa, and Aeris. Nanaki and Cait did the best they could, and Cid was last up. Not a lot happened, thankfully; a battle on the ladder would have been highly dangerous.
It took a while to reach the top plate, however many metres up it is (I forgot-anyone know?)
At last, everyone was assembled; the ladder lead to a small yard behind an inn. They began talking - it would be time-wasting not to have a strategy.
"OK. The idea is to find and kill the leader, right. First of all, it would make sense to discover who the leader is." suggested Sephiroth.
"Hey! Did anyone say you were in charge of this mission! No. Quit bossing!" objected Barret.
"Barret, actually Cloud did say Sephiroth was in charge, OK" replied Aeris.
"Aeris! You liar! I never did. But now I do, OK! Stop arguing and get on with the strategy." responded Cloud.
"How do we find the leader, though." asked Cait.
"Try a Google search. You know, "Midgar conquering" or maybe "ShinRa news"." advised Vincent.
"Um, that's a good idea, bar one thing. This isn't Earth." pointed out Nanaki.
"Damn!"
"Listen!" said Tifa, suddenly. She had her radio on, and turned up the volume for everyone to hear.
"-ools of Midgar, ARE YOU LISTENING! All of you must pledge an oath of allegiance to me, Queen Brahne, ruler of Midgar and rightful ruler of all the universe! Anyone who refuses will DIE!! My mages will demand the oaths tomorrow morning. Anyone caught outside at 9:00 WILL BE EXECUTED ON THE SPOT. Those Sinmar, or whatever it is, are just more fools. Only I rule now. Here are my laws:
- Materia are banned. All materia must be returned to me, or the owner will be executed.
- Kalm is no longer the HQ. The penalty for treating Kalm as HQ is death.
- All Shin-whatsit employees will be sacked
- I am absolute. Nobody challenges me, or they DIE
- Churches are banned
- Planet Life DOES NOT EXIST. Penalty for following it is DEATH
I have no more to say to you fools. Goodbye, and HEIL BRAHNE."
"This is bad. I mean it, this is not good at all. If she rules, all is lost." said Cloud.
"Denouncing the teachings of Planet Life... How can she do that?" mumbled Nanaki.
"Banning Materia. That is not on!" exclaimed Yuffie.
"What will she do to my church? Damn her to hell!" cried Aeris.
"My HQ" said Cait. Despite Cloud being President, the HQ belonged to Cait, so this was a very personal matter for him.
"Well, what're we waiting for. Let's smash her!" ordered Barret.
Everyone cheered at this, even Sephiroth. To have someone determined when a great shock had come was always uplifting.
The ten then left the yard and headed down the Cincquento Street, towards the plate centre. Along the way, the encountered more black mages than they could count, and ended up using far too many Ethers to restore lost MP in the battles. The battles were, however, very easy, with only three or four mages at a time. They soon arrived at the Midgar Centre, which they found, surprisingly, undefended. The reason for this was apparent when they looked up.
"Look." said Cloud
"An airship." commented Aeris
"Call that an airship! I call it a piece of trash!" shouted Cid.
"I call it the home of a genius among fools. Brahne, prepare to die." said Sephiroth.
"Hey, Sephiroth" said Aeris.
"What?" answered Sephiroth.
"Well, seeing as Brahne is who you came here for, and I came here for, I think it would be a good idea if it was just you against Brahne." said Sephiroth.
"Cloud?" said Sephiroth.
"Sounds OK to me." replied Cloud.
"Fine" answered Sephiroth.
Chapter 11: Brahne V Sephiroth
Sephiroth shouted to the Red Rose above, "Queen Brahne, I, the most powerful man ever, The Great One, The Son of Jenova, The Grey Ruler, The Destroyer of Tokyo, Traveller of Prespace, I, SEPHIROTH, challenge you!"
"Fool! Do you think you can beat Queen Brahne, the one and only true ruler. I have no time for fools. Mages." came Brahne's reply.
A thousand black mages jumped off the ship and surrounded Sephiroth. The final battle commenced.
"Masamune, take your power." Sephiroth cried.
A mysterious reply came, as if from nowhere. "Masamune shards." came the bizarre voice of the holy sword.
What happened next was so quick that it dazed everyone. One second, the mages were alive, the next second, all were dead, and the Masamune was back in Sephiroth's hand.
"So. You are powerful. I will accept your challenge, and I will defeat you. COMMENCE!"
Sephiroth's opening move was to cast Wall. It was the accepted opening for most major battles, and the majority of people would keep Wall, Regen and Haste up throughout the battle.
Brahne, on the other hand, went into full on attack, summoning the great Bahamut ZERO, from a materia she had taken.
Tera Flare struck Sephiroth hard, the resulting fireball enveloping him totally, not to mention spoiling the plate. Despite being the second best summon around, it was only, remarkably, able to take off a third of Sephiroth's HP.
Sephiroth stayed on the defensive, casting Haste-Regen with the aid of W-Magic. Brahne then attacked again, with her own Eidolon, Alexander.
Only the power of The Knights of the Round exceeded that of Alexander's Holy magic. Any normal person would have been hit so hard that not even the Phoenix could have saved them. Sephiroth, however, was not just 'any normal person', yet Alexander defeated him. This would have been the end had it not been for Sephiroth having equipped his materia well.
'And the Phoenix came to Midgar.' This quote from a prophecy by Bugenhagen was coming true. The Final Attack materia summoned the Phoenix to the aid of Sephiroth. The light of Phoenix Flame brought Sephiroth back to full health. Yet the Final Attack Materia weren't finished yet.
KN IGHTS OF THE ROUND. Four words, thirteen attacks, 130 thousand damage, one summon. Hit after hit, element after element, damage after damage, Queen Brahne was subjected to the ultimate onslaught.
She might have survived, after all, she did have Auto-Life enabled. That is, if that had been the last of the Final Attacks. But it wasn't. One was yet to come. The Lord of Darkness, Hades. The Black Cauldron of Hades holds mighty power. The potion brewed, Hades got ready to send the vapours billowing out, the cauldron boiled, and then flowing out came the gas!
Poison, Confusion, Frog, Small, Sleep, Silence. Brahne had defence against none of them. All of them afflicted her. Instead of Sephiroth being fallen, The Great One was triumphant.
Brahne lay dead.
Chapter 12: Long Live Sephiroth
One month later, the time came to celebrate the victory over Brahne. The day was declared a national holiday. Everyone turned out to watch the procession, which would begin at Kalm HQ, pass through Junon, the site of the Gravomaly, and end at the spot of the battle. People came from as far as Mideel, Icicle and Wutai - in fact, the absence rate was only about eighty, and ranged from hospitalised people to those who still hated the ShinRa, Meteor worshippers, and a survivor of the Nibelheim incident who had never forgiven Sephiroth.
Leading the procession was Aeris, as the woman who had, in a way, helped to save the planet not once, but twice. Then came President Cloud, Vice President Yuffie, and the rest of the ShinRa leaders. Then came Sephiroth, accompanied by much cheering of the crowd, and cries of "Long Live Sephiroth".
Then The Grey Materia. What Sephiroth and Aeris believed to be the most important thing in saving the planet, despite much of the Cloud differing. It was lit up, and raised for all to see. In fact, this was probably the most exposure a materia had ever been given in modern history.
Bringing up the rear were the Black and White materia, the 'parents' of the Grey Materia, and the other materia used in the battle against Brahne. Last of all, but by no means least, was the mysterious cube that had been found. It's riddle would not be deciphered until after the Tetrahedron had been invented - this was to happen just ten months later.
The procession went on, through the Mythril Mines, past Fort Condor, and into Junon Neo University. There the first of two plaques was laid. It read:
The site of the Gravomaly
1st August, 2012
A mystery was detected here
Out of the mystery came a terror to rival Meteor
The world was thrown into chaos
Then the procession went on north, into Midgar, where it made a round circuit of the slums, which were now improving due to the conscience of Cloud, and another round circuit of the top plate, before travelling down Cincquento Street to the site.
There the second plaque was laid:
The site of Brahne V Sephiroth
3rd August, 2012
A dictator took over Midgar
The Great One Returned, and triumphed
Order reclaimed the world
Disclaimers:
Many characters and concepts created by Squaresoft, Inc. Original concepts include, in addition to those brought forward from The Collisions of Worlds: Junon Neo Uni, Gravomaly, the hyperverse, request reply macro, Safer•SephiJet, Lifestream Jet, Absolute Jet, twin summon (though not the component monsters), ShinRa Midgar centre, Grey materia, resurrection song (materia song), Cincquento Street, Masamune shards, the mysterious cube, The Tetrahedron, and anything else I made up that isn't here.
Written by Thomas Wooten, AKA Chiral
This story is in no way endorsed by or affiliated with Squaresoft, Inc., any planes or other vehicles sharing the name Safer•SephiJet, Absolute or Lifestream, any University with a similar name to Junon Neo University of Science and Technology, any organisation called Sinmar (Brahne's bungling of ShinRa on the radio), or any other individuals or organisations directly or indirectly mentioned.