CHIRALUTD abroad

The collisions of worlds.

Chapter one: The ten years.

Chapter 2: Hopes and threats.

Chapter 3: To the new world.

Chapter 4: Ethics?

Chapter 5: A revelation.

Chapter 6: The beginning of the end.

, Cid landed the midwind, and he and the others got off. They immediately began discussing strategy.
"I think the best idea is to start by putting those fires out. That'll make it easier to get to Sephiroth." said Nanaki.
"How, though? We haven't got any equipment or magic." said Cait.
"We'll just have to get some, then. There's no other way. Move out! Find a fire truck, and find one now!" ordered Cloud.
"Wait! I've got a good idea." said Cid, before everybody tore off. "When we get a fire truck, Sephiroth will come after it, to stop it, because he doesn't want the fires extinguished. Then we can get him!"
"Good one, Cid. MOVE OUT!!" shouted Cloud.
"Everyone ran off in different directions., except Cait, who being in a wheelchair, couldn't go anywhere fast. Within about five minutes they heard Yuffie's shout. "I got one!"
Everybody rushed towards the truck. Yuffie explained. "It was occupied, but I nicked it. Did what I'm good at!"
It was a tight squeeze for the eight, especially as one of them was wheelchair bound. However, they all got in. Then Cid drove the truck at high speed towards the strip.
It wasn't long before they were stopped by Sephiroth. They all jumped out, ready to fight. Sephiroth looked alarmed, then said "I'm finished here now. If you want something with me, I'm off to Tokyo." Then he flew into the sky and out of sight.
"Tokyo! We've no time to lose. To the midwind, everybody." shouted Barret, and everybody was back in the airship.

Chapter 7: Race for Tokyo.

Soon the midwind was back in the air, racing away from one destroyed city to another that was endangered. The Pacific crossing, however, would take a long time, so Tokyo would quite possibly be in ruins by the time they got there. Most of this journey was over sea, so less destruction was caused by the mighty sonic boom.
Japan had been warned by the USA that Sephiroth, known to everyone now as The Apocalypse, was headed their way, and the Japanese military had been mobilised. Japan has much experience of earthquakes and tsunamis, but nothing could prepare them for the power of Sephiroth. The disaster to come would outstrip Las Vegas's by far.
Contrary to Cloud's predictions, the midwind in fact arrived only 20 minutes after Sephiroth, who had been forced to take a longer route by the Japanese fighter jets. Naturally, he could have smashed them in two seconds, but he didn't want to waste magic.
Cid landed the midwind again, and they all got out.
"He got away last time, but this time we'll smash him!" ordered Cloud.
"This is going to bigger than even 10 years ago!" proclaimed Cid.
"Last time the fate of the planet was in our hands. This time it's for everything!" declared Barret.
"If we lose this, all is lost." said Nanaki, with his typical seriousness.
"This is about more than universes for me. I have personal reasons." remarked Vincent.
"Will we be all right, Cloud? I mean, wouldn't Sephiroth be out of our league?" asked Tifa.
"Alright, everybody, listen up." replied Cloud. "We're most of us great players. So here's our strategy. Me and Tifa will be attacking full on. Barret, you, Vincent and Yuffie should stay back and use long range attacks. Vincent, if you get limit, don't use it unless we're desperate. Everyone else, limits when you get them. Use your best limit - level 3 or 4. Cait, stay out of his way. You're on healing duties, so be aware. Of course, anybody who needs to heal should."
"What about me?" asked Cid.
"I've got a special job for you. I want you to get some technology - missiles, bombs, whatever. Get some stuff, then go up in the midwind. Attack from the air. Oh, and if you can get a jet or something, use that instead, so as not to wreck our airship."
"My airship, you mean. Alright, I'm onto it." agreed Cid, racing off.
Then the group set off. After a bit of trekking around both intact and ruined parts of Tokyo, they saw Sephiroth, kneeling down doing something. Barret shouted

Chapter 8: Decision time.

"Sephiroth! You're history!"
Everyone was instantly in role. Before Sephiroth had a chance to do anything, he took gunfire from Vincent and Barret. As he was about to fire off a Comet2 spell, Yuffie's devastating Conformer hit him. Then he took hits from Tifa and Cloud, ending up quite shocked by the sudden barrage of attacks.
Despite the power of five successive attacks, Sephiroth was back up, and cast The K Barrier, a spell that reduces all damage by half, casts a double speed regen, triples speed, and blocks status changes. This was followed with Jenova Aid, a non-elemental attack twice as good as Ultima.
Cait was quickly able to heal, as did Tifa. Then Yuffie showed a little smart thinking, by using a Holy Torch item to destroy The K Barrier. Cloud's sword slash severely cut Sephiroth, and Vincent's shot hit him very precisely in the head.
Sephiroth retaliated by attacking Yuffie with the Masamune, intending to slice off her head. He was in for a nasty shock. Yuffie neatly dodged the blow, then pickpocketed two sachets of Stardust; the Comet2 item.
Cloud suddenly shouted "Wait! Do it simultaneously."
Barret and Vincent prepared to shoot, Yuffie threw her Conformer on an arc, Cloud waited to strike, and Cait and Tifa both prepared to use Stardust.
In 3 seconds, everything came together. Sephiroth was blasted by Barret and Vincent, before being bombarded by two lots of Comet2. While this was happening, the Conformer slashed through him, almost chopping of his arm. Just when Sephiroth was thinking it was all over, the mighty slash of the Compactima Weapon hit him, and close to destroyed him.
Sephiroth then showed why he is more than just a good soldier. He casted the devastating Exa Flare - an attack so powerful that not even Emerald Weapon could have withstood it. This would surely have been the end of not only Cloud and his friends, but of the entire island of Honshu, had it not been for...

Chapter 9: The ultimate catastrophe.

Cid's arrival! From the midwind, Cid clearly saw what was about to happen, and promptly used a , the Reflect item! Powerful though Exa Flare was, it was subject to Reflect! The energy gathered into a huge sphere, about 50 metres across, of highly compressed energy, with the power of a 500 Gigaton bomb. Then it blew up.
The blast wave hit the Reflect, and bounced straight back into Sephiroth! The level of energy knocked him about 100 miles into the air, almost into orbit. Yet Exa Flare wasn't finished yet. The blast rocketed outwards - two blasts, in fact, the original and the Reflected. The power razed buildings to the ground, totally burnt up people and animals, and created a mighty crater in the ground for a 300 kilometre radius; the result was that the island of Honshu was almost totally wiped out. Even worse destruction was to come. A gigantic tsunami rushed in to fill the crater. It met in the centre, of course, but the force was so great that it bounced back outwards again to pound the shores of Japan, China, and Korea; much of 'coastal' Japan had previously been mountain forest.
It was not only Asia that suffered the effects of Exa Flare. The blast upset the Pacific rim - the 'ring of fire' that was a plate boundary. Pressure was released all along major fault lines, triggering slips and earthquakes, but none quite so catastrophic as the San Andreas fault. Pressure had been building up all along this fault for 115 years, previous quakes having only partially eased the pressure. When the subterranean pressure wave, itself rather like an earthquake wave, hit the San Andreas fault, it slipped.
A Richter 9.6, the most powerful quake in recorded history. Los Angeles devastated. San Francisco devastated. San Diego devastated. Phoenix, in Arizona, and the destroyed Vegas felt the quake. So did Seattle, and Vancouver, further north. To the south, Mexico City's geology amplified the then fairly weak waves into something quite powerful.
By now, the world was beginning to totally collapse. One city had been burnt, and several others smashed by earthquakes, in addition to a country having been totally wiped out. The midwind's sonic boom, ironically a result of trying to stop destruction, added to the panic and chaos. Stock markets were tumbling, people were rioting, governments and militaries were at a total loss, and a vast number of people truly believed that The Apocalypse was bringing the apocalypse.
Cloud and the others, despite not taking damage from the blast, had still been knocked backwards for several kilometres, though nowhere near as badly as Sephiroth. They had got quite a shock to find themselves in the middle of the ocean, but Cid soon picked them up in the midwind. It wasn't long before the eight were talking again.
"He got away..." said Cloud.
"Well, I guess he won't be trying that one again in a hurry." said Tifa.
"Get real, man! He ain't dead. We gotta make him dead! Move out" ordered Barret.
Naturally, there was a lot of cheering at this statement. However, Nanaki brought everybody back down to earth. "Easier said than done, Barret. Sephiroth is powerful - very powerful. He's also faster than us, even in the midwind. Even if we can injure him, he'll just run off."
"Not likely. Sephiroth's genes give him a win-or-lose mentality. He won't normally run off from a fight, no matter how badly he's hurt." said Vincent.
"Maybe so, but he's still powerful." said Cloud
"You know, I'm starting to wonder about something." said Tifa. "Last time, Sephiroth had an objective, right. Now here, he destroyed Vegas, granted, presumably because of his hatred of gambling. But after that, I don't get his motive."
The discussion continued as the midwind was cruising over the Pacific at a leisurely Mach 2.2. The object was to find Sephiroth, but the eight were in a fairly relaxed mood. They knew that he would be in near orbit, and they were travelling in the opposite direction to that which he had been blasted, so there was a good chance of meeting him. They didn't, however, expect exactly what would happen when they did.

Chapter 10: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The eight did run into him, 2 hours later. Sephiroth in fact landed on the airship's deck, and proceeded to make his way to the bridge, where Cloud and Vincent where engaged in a game of team chess against Nanaki and Yuffie. Then the door was opened...
"Sephiroth!!! Die!!" shouted Cloud, as The Great One entered.
"That is exactly what I intend to do." replied Sephiroth, calmly.
"Wha?" exclaimed Cloud, startled by the response.
"Why did you destroy Tokyo and Vegas?" asked Vincent.
"The Vegas casinos and the Japanese companies are the same as the ShinRa. They only care about money. I cannot rest until all have fallen. In fact, I can never rest at all." answered Sephiroth.
"Why? What have you done, to be that way? I still don't get what happened, ever since Nibelheim." asked Cloud.
"I've killed too many people who weren't involved. 15 years ago, the citizens of Nibelheim. 10 years ago, the citizens of Midgar. Now, the citizens of Japan and America. All ordinary people living their lives. It's my fault they aren't still living their lives." Sephiroth.
"Post traumatic stress disorder, right. I thought you were created to be immune to it. Your genes show you as able to forget about such things." said Cait. "Nobody is a killer, and everybody. Anybody can kill, and forget about it, but not everybody really wants to. I don't. In any case, for me it goes beyond just civilians. I killed my own sister, knowing I was doing so." answered Sephiroth. "You knew! Then... why?" enquired Tifa.
Sephiroth replied. "At the time I believed I was invincible. Now, of course, I know different."
Tifa understood. Then Sephiroth surprised Cloud by asking him a question. "Why are you here, anyway?"
"To resurrect Aeris. We need the data. In fact, we've got it, but we stayed because you were around, and we felt we had to stop you destroying everything." answered Cloud.

Chapter 11: A hope dashed.

"You have succeeded in stopping me. But you cannot resurrect Aeris." stated Sephiroth.
"Why not? Cid had worked it all out." asked Cloud.
"Are you saying my theories are wrong. Damn you!" said Cid.
"It is only possible to resurrect somebody who has been killed if you also resurrect the killer. Of course, for a resurrection, all people involved must wish to be resurrected. I do not. Therefore, your resurrection will fail." said Sephiroth.
"Why don't you want you be resurrected? Surely everybody would." asked Nanaki.
"There is no purpose for me in your world - in any world, come to that. When I wish to come, you will know." answered Sephiroth.
"How?" asked Cloud, sceptically.
"Simple. There will be a task for me." replied Sephiroth. "I am going now, back to K. There is nowhere left for me. Goodbye."
Sephiroth vanished. The eight were for some time silent, contemplating the meeting. It was Cloud who broke the silence.
"Well, I guess there's nothing else to do here. We'll have to look at getting back."
"We're not in a hurry, so I think I'll keep the midwind at subsonic speeds while we head back to Birmingham." said Cid.
The group of friends were by now very tired, so they all went to sleep while the midwind made its way back to Birmingham on autopilot.
After a long flight, they finally landed at Queensbridge. They were greeted by the hardware control manager, who looked very happy. "You're in luck, guys. I was supervising the 'porter, when it suddenly filled with energy. Don't know why, but it means we won't need to charge. Everybody in, please."
The eight quickly packed into the hyperporter. Then, in a flash of light, it left Earth.

Chapter 12: A world shaken.

The Governments of the world never did get to the bottom of the The Apocalypse incident. The consensus reached was that it had been a terrorist action, and the vast crater had been caused by a top-secret type of bomb. The absence of any papers had been attributed to the hypothesis that The Apocalypse (i.e. Sephiroth) had had them on him at the time of the explosion. The world did recover, and within five years world markets were back in shape. However, there had been a profound change. With the Japanese companies dead, the mighty Microsoft was able to extend its sphere of influence, trebling its size and diversifying into such things as cars, space exploration and agriculture. It was only a matter of time before Microsoft owned the world, and the ShinRa came again.

Disclaimers.

Many characters and concepts created by Squaresoft, Inc. Orginal concepts include hyperporter, prespace/K, lifeturbine, The K Barrier, Exa Flare, Jenova Aid, etherdata, midwind, Cait's disability, Sephiroth's parentage, Compactima Weapon, FF7 planet languages and language converter, Europe Stadium and NATO Civilian ops HQ, amongst others.
Written by Thomas Wootten, AKA Chiral.
This story is in no way endorsed by or affilated with The Government of The United States of America and The United States military, the Government of Japan and the Japanese military, Birmingham City Council, Safeway Plc., Queensbridge School, NATO, FIFA, any Las Vegas casinos, any Japanese companies such as Mitsubushi, Microsoft, Squaresoft Inc., or any other individuals or organisations directly or indirectly mentioned.
Music files taken from Rpgdreamers and Final Fantasy Music Online