Chapter 31
They left early enough the next morning that they were already on the water as the sun came up over the horizon. The boat rocked with the movement of the waves as Aeris watched that light blossom into the sky, but unlike during their ocean crossing, she didn't feel ill. Uneasy, tensed for something awful at any moment, but not ill.
It was a much smaller boat than the cargo ship, of course. There was room enough for everyone, but it made the boat seem crowded. There was nowhere for Vincent to go off and stand stoically alone, and nowhere for poor Yuffie to be seasick in peace. In fact Jessie seemed to be trying to keep the both of them company at once, an endeavor that Aeris hoped worked out for someone. Zack was doing the same for Cloud, who looked a little green himself.
Tifa and Barret were still talking with the boat's owner, trying to work out the details for a return trip. The woman had her superstitions about the island, for which Aeris could hardly blame her, and she wasn't keen on staying anywhere near it to wait for them.
Nanaki came up beside Aeris, poking his head out below the rail to watch the water going past beneath them.
"It's a lot better than being stuck in the hold, isn't it?" Aeris asked him.
"I do prefer it," he agreed.
Aeris smiled and looked back out at the water. "I'm glad you decided to come with us. It couldn't have been an easy decision."
"It is the duty of my tribe to protect the canyon, and there can be no canyon if the Planet is lost."
"That doesn't mean it was easy."
Nanaki glanced up at her. "Is it a heavy burden for you, Aeris? Your duty?"
She thought of Tifa's words to her the other night, her pledge of support. "I'm trying not to think of it as something that's only mine," she said, because then it was heavy, when she did. "We're all doing this together, even if... I am the only Cetra."
"I wonder sometimes what it is that makes you different from humans. You don't seem so different."
"I wonder that, too," Aeris admitted. "You wouldn't think... Well, why should it be something in my blood that lets me hear the voice of the Planet? Why not something else?"
Nanaki made a thoughtful rumble in his throat. "Is that the truth of it, or only what Hojo believed?"
"What do you mean?"
"What we read in the Shinra mansion... Humans are said to be descended from the Cetra, but it seems that they gained that name not by birth but by choice, when they abandoned their duty to the Planet. When Jenova came, was there any difference between them, or was it their own decision to ignore the Planet's distress that led to the loss of their abilities?"
Aeris looked towards the bow, towards Tifa. "What about all our friends now? They've taken up that duty, to protect the Planet."
"But they've never believed they could hear it," Nanaki pointed out. "Grandfather's machine is a crutch for him, I think. I'm sure he hears the Planet sometimes when it isn't even running."
Could Tifa's support grow into something more? Could someone really choose to be one of the Cetra? Aeris had never imagined that she might be able to share what she was going through with anyone living. And maybe it was a slim hope, but she felt sure that Tifa would be willing to try it, if Aeris even suggested that she could.
"...it's a nice thought," she said, "that it's something people could learn again."
"I may be the last of my kind, but I think I would be glad if that were not something we had in common."
Aeris looked down at him, smiling sadly, and gave him the lightest pat on the top of his head, knowing he wouldn't want the others to see. "I wish it were something neither one of us had to deal with," she said.
Nanaki bumped his head into her hand, but quickly drew away again. Tifa was walking back towards them.
"So, are we going to be stranded?" Aeris asked her.
"For a little while," Tifa said. "We're leaving her one of the Turks' phones, so we can call her when we need a ride back."
"Well, we shouldn't be in such a hurry then," Aeris reasoned.
Worry briefly creased Tifa's brow, but she didn't voice the possibility of their failure. "You're right," she said instead, "we shouldn't be."
"Do you know anything about what we might expect at the Temple, Aeris?" Nanaki asked, and maybe he'd noticed the look on Tifa's face, too. "Is there anything more we can do to prepare ourselves?"
"For the Temple itself? I'm not sure. I know it's designed to make it difficult to obtain the Black Materia, even once you're inside, but I don't know more than that." She wished that she did, because it wasn't the only uncertainty.
"Well, we don't need to get it ourselves," Tifa said. "We just need to stop Sephiroth."
As if that were the easier thing to do. Maybe it could be. An uneasiness had begun to settle in her chest, but Aeris tried to hold it in her mind, the way things had begun in Gongaga. The confidence with which Tifa had taken her staff, the force of it striking Sephiroth's chest. Every small moment where they'd forced him back. He wasn't invincible.
The Planet's anxiety spiked, and Aeris's grip on the railing went white-knuckle.
"Aeris?" said Tifa, touching her arm.
"I think they're inside," she said. "They've opened the way."
"The Shinra?"
"I don't know... I can't tell from... The Planet's just frightened."
"We're on our way," said Tifa. "Does it know that? Can you tell it?"
Aeris closed her eyes and leaned into Tifa. She wanted to reassure the Planet, this one person, small in the scheme of things, but so determined to make the world right that she thought nothing of the power of that sentiment. Aeris wanted to soak it in, to let it reassure her, too.
"I'm sure it knows," she murmured. "It keeps a close eye on us."
"Nanaki?" said Tifa. "Can you ask her if this boat can go any faster?"
Tifa held her the rest of the way, and though Aeris could feel a tension in her arms, she felt the strength in them, too.
Bugah's friend brought them as near to the shore as she could, and they splashed the rest of the way through shallow waters. Ignoring the discomfort of soaked clothing, Aeris pressed on towards the forest ahead.
"This way," she said. "I know exactly where to go."
It was a strange feeling, to be so certain of a place she'd never been. The trees were unfamiliar, but she knew the best path between their trunks, where undergrowth wouldn't slow their progress. She knew the Planet must be guiding her, but she couldn't have explained how. No images came to her mind, and no voices called to her. She simply knew.
They walked for hours, scarcely resting, before at last they broke through the trees, and the Temple was upon them, a tiered pyramid waiting across a rope bridge. In appearance, it was not so grand; the stone wall marking its border crumbled, and the ancient trees surrounding it grew taller than its peak, the better to hide it.
But it had a presence like a living thing, almost overwhelming. She knew the Black Materia lay within, a powerful magic, but the Temple itself was like a conduit, connecting her to... something. The voices she heard here weren't those of the Planet or any soul in the Lifestream. Something else whispered to her from within, but like the Planet, it knew no words to communicate. Worry and relief all jumbled together.
"Aeris!"
Aeris realized that Tifa had caught her arm to keep her upright, as though she'd stumbled over something.
"You okay?" asked Zack, only a pace behind.
"I'm okay," she said, lifting her eyes to the Temple. "I think... the guardians are trying to talk to me."
"Sephiroth mentioned them," Tifa recalled. "Will they... know we're on the Planet's side?"
Aeris looked at her for a moment without comprehension. Then she realized the sort of guardians Tifa must have imagined, and she shook her head. "They're not here to fight anyone," she said. "They're the Temple's caretakers... Cetra who never returned to the Planet."
"How is that possible?" asked Nanaki.
"It takes... an incredible willpower. It's amazing they have any sense of self, after such a long time. I'm not sure if they'll be able to help us."
"Guys..." Cloud spoke up. "Look."
Aeris followed his gaze to a black-cloaked figure stumbling its way up the first few steps of the Temple. Another crouched already in the shadow of its entrance.
"I thought Bugenhagen said they were on their way to Cosmo Canyon?" said Yuffie.
Jessie shook her head. "Not all of the clones were in Nibelheim. These must be... some of the others."
"It's still not all of them, is it?" said Tifa.
"No. There's still four unaccounted for..."
"...which means they could be inside," Aeris finished.
"Does that mean Sephiroth's here, too?" Yuffie asked.
"Pretty sure that's a yes," said Barret. He had approached the bridge, and stood looking down into the pit below. Aeris stepped forward to look, too, and through the mists, she could just make out the bodies of several Shinra soldiers.
"We should get moving," Tifa said grimly.
Zack had already started across the bridge, and they followed him. The nearer of the two clones had collapsed only partway up the steps, and he stooped to peer into their cowl. "Hello? Anybody home?"
The clone answered only in an unintelligible mumble.
Zack looked to Tifa. "What're we gonna do about these guys?"
"What about 'em?" Barret wondered.
Vincent spoke up quietly. "If they can function as extensions of Sephiroth's will, then it may not be wise to leave them unattended."
The others exchanged glances, doing the mental math. It hadn't served them well to split up before, but Vincent had a point. Cloud opened his mouth as if to say something, but he glanced at Zack and closed it again.
"I can stay and keep an eye on them," Jessie volunteered.
"Me, too," Yuffie said quickly. "I'll stay. I mean, one person on their own is a bad idea, right?"
Despite her eagerness yesterday, maybe it scared her, the thought of meeting Sephiroth inside the Temple, but no one said as much aloud. Why shouldn't it scare her?
"Right," said Tifa. "You two watch each other's backs, and keep an eye on things out here."
Jessie nodded. "Well try to contact you if anything comes up."
Tifa looked to Aeris, and they climbed the rest of the steps together up to the entrance, the others falling in behind them. The torchlit room beyond was small, with no other doors immediately visible, but Aeris didn't really take it in, as slumped on the floor before a stone altar sat--
"Tseng!" she exclaimed.
Beside her, Tifa started to raise her fists, only to drop them again. He was clearly wounded, his arm across his chest unable to hide the blood darkening his suit from a deep gash. He managed to look up at them, and his face was so pale.
"You were right... Aeris," he said. "Sephiroth... isn't after the Promised Land..."
"I told you," she said, swallowing hard. "I told you not to come here."
"Shit," said Zack, coming in behind them. "You look... rough."
"Zack...?" said Tseng in baffled recognition.
"Yeah, uh. Is anyone coming for you?"
Tseng shook his head slowly. "Phone broke," he said, nodding vaguely down to where he must have kept it inside his suit jacket.
Aeris took an uncertain step forward.
"Aeris?" said Tifa.
"I don't want to just leave him," she said. "He'll die."
"Not sure if that's our problem," said Barret.
Aeris bit her lip. She didn't know how to explain it. Tseng was their enemy, and he wasn't a good person. Many of the things he did for Shinra, she expected he did without remorse. But for whatever reason, she knew it hadn't been the same when it came to her. When Shinra had tasked him with finding her, he'd found her, but for years he'd done nothing more than ask her to join them. He'd allowed her the time to grow up, to have as peaceful a childhood as anyone could in a place like the Midgar slums.
She knelt down in front of him, and used her magic to heal the wound at least partway, slowing the bleeding. "Couldn't we call someone in to get him?" she asked, looking hopefully to Tifa.
"And bring more Shinra here?" Tifa said skeptically.
"I'll just get... Elena," said Tseng. "No one else."
Tifa frowned down at him, but at last she nodded slightly. "We can call it even," she decided, "for when Reno helped us out."
With a grimace, Barret tossed his phone to Aeris. She put the number in as Tseng dictated it to her, and then she handed the phone over to him. Elena answered, and true to his word, Tseng stressed that she come alone. He handed the phone back to Aeris.
"Have you been inside?" Aeris asked him.
"Yes," he said. "Help me off this altar... It's the way in."
It was Zack who got an arm under him and helped him limp a few paces to lean instead against one of the pillars. As Tseng slumped back down, he reached into his pocket to pull out a blue-green orb, and held it out to Zack.
"It's the keystone," he said. "Place it on the altar... But you can't come out... the same way."
Zack took the keystone from him and looked to the others. "All right. Everybody ready?"
The seven of them crowded onto the platform before the altar, and Zack put the keystone in. It began to glow, and they found themselves sinking through the floor. Aeris's breath caught as everything went dark, but then a mist cleared from around them, and her view expanded...
A labyrinth stretched out before them, as far as the eye could see. A dizzying maze of pathways. Stairways to nowhere and doorways with no way she could see to reach them.
"The hell?" said Barret. "How's all of this inside one damn building? Didn't look this big from the outside."
"It must be part of the Temple's magic," Nanaki reasoned. He lifted his head, scenting the air. "It smells old here... but almost familiar, in a way."
"I don't suppose that helps us any with which way to go?" said Tifa.
"Well, Tseng figured it out," said Zack. "It can't be that hard."
"No way back," Vincent observed, glancing up and around them. "Just as he said."
"I guess the only way is forward," said Aeris. "Let's go."
Aeris hoped that whatever had guided her before would guide her now, but it was Vincent who seemed to have the best eye for which path to take. And it was Nanaki who alerted them to the fact that they weren't alone. Gods knew how they survived here, but there were monsters within the Temple. Huge fanged lizards who could paralyze with a look and poison-spewing insects and things with too many eyes that Aeris could barely describe.
The Planet's magic came to her aid even if its voice offered no guidance, and though she hated every delay that these monsters represented, at least one good thing came of them: Zack was able to prove his worth as an ally. Aeris had seen him fight once or twice before, fending off monsters in the slums, but those were creatures even she could handle, even back then.
Now his skill with a blade was obvious, and he helped them make quick work of the obstacles the Temple threw at them. Tifa even thanked him once when he intercepted a monster's attack before it could reach her, though he mostly stayed close to Cloud, who maintained he wasn't trustworthy enough to carry a weapon, and wasn't anywhere near Tifa's equal at hand-to-hand.
It was difficult to say how much progress they were making, until Nanaki spotted a strange figure ahead and bounded after it.
"Wait!" Aeris called after him. "It's a friend!"
The figure disappeared through a doorway, which led into a dead-end room, allowing them to catch up. Dressed in a shapeless robe and a broad hat, the figure's every feature was obscured, if it even had features at all.
"Is this... one of the guardians?" Tifa asked uncertainly.
"Yes," said Aeris, a little winded. Their rapid trek through the forest and their battles within the Temple were beginning to wear on her. "Don't be afraid," she said to the guardian. "These are my friends."
Some sounds escaped the guardian, an approximation of speech that didn't come close to forming words.
"That's all right. I know you probably don't remember how to speak. Have you seen Sephiroth inside the Temple? Is it much farther?"
Instead of trying to speak, this time, sensations came to her. It didn't know Sephiroth, but something had come here that it feared, something with many faces. Ahead of them, but still moving.
"You understand this guy, Aeris?" Barret asked.
"I think so. I think Sephiroth is here, but he's still headed deeper into the Temple. He hasn't reached the Black Materia."
"I don't think he's far," said Cloud, and Zack glanced at him, brow furrowed.
"Good," said Tifa after a beat. "Then let's catch up to him."
Aeris nodded, but she spared a moment to turn back to the guardian. "Thank you," she said. "You sacrificed so much for this place... I hope you can be with the Planet again soon."
They left it behind and pressed on through the labyrinth, but it wasn't so much farther before they passed through a nondescript doorway and into a vast chamber, with a single long pathway suspended above a chasm. It was too dark to see the bottom, if there was one, and the way ahead was dim, but Aeris could make out a dark figure there, with long silver hair.
"Sephiroth!" Tifa shouted. She ran forward, and the others hurried to keep pace with her.
Sephiroth turned as they approached, and they caught themselves out of reach of his sword.
"Hello, Zack," he said. "I see you've sided with them after all."
"What other side would I be on?"
"We did use to be friends."
Zack shook his head, drawing his sword. "You're no friend of mine. Not anymore."
Vincent stepped forward, his cape brushing Aeris's arm as he moved past her. "Sephiroth... Can we talk a moment?"
Tifa looked at him with a frown, her hands clenched into ready fists, but she said nothing to protest it.
Sephiroth tilted his head, looking genuinely perplexed by the question. "Talk?"
"Yes," said Vincent. "It has been a very long time since we last met."
"I don't know you," said Sephiroth, narrowing his eyes.
"You wouldn't remember. You were only a baby."
Sephiroth studied him carefully. "I see," he said. "You're the Turk. Hojo's little experiment."
"Yes, I knew Hojo," Vincent confirmed. "But I also knew your mother. Not Jenova, but the woman who gave birth to you."
"You mean Lucrecia?" Sephiroth asked, and Vincent blinked. "Did you think by now I wouldn't know? And by what metric would you call such a woman my mother? She wasn't present for a single moment of my life. She abandoned me to her colleagues."
Vincent shook his head. "You were stolen from her. She wanted to raise you, to give you a loving home."
Sephiroth shrugged, the scarce torchlight glinting off his sword with the motion. "I don't really care," he said. "All of that was a long time ago, and it isn't relevant to what I'm doing now."
"And what are you doing now?" Vincent pressed. "Why work to destroy the Planet?"
"Destroy the Planet? No, that's what the humans are doing. My aim is to help it reach a higher plane of existence."
"What are you talking about?" Aeris demanded. Did he think she wouldn't know the Temple's purpose? He was the one who had come to her for information. "You're trying to summon Meteor!"
"Yes," Sephiroth answered calmly. "And do you know what will happen, when Meteor strikes this Planet?" He lifted his sword and stabbed it into the stone floor beneath his feet, and the sound echoed off distant, unseen walls. "The Planet will be forced to gather its energy at the site of that wound, in an effort to heal it. And my mother and I--my true mother--will harness that energy. We will join with it, with the very core of the Planet, and be reborn together as something new."
"What the fuck?" said Barret, and Aeris stared at Sephiroth.
"Join with the Planet?" she repeated. "After everything Jenova has done to it? Jenova was the one who first wounded it-- the one who massacred my ancestors-- And now you're talking about... erasing what the Planet is now, changing it into something else? How dare you."
Sephiroth's eyebrows rose. "And, why do you suppose the Planet ought to go on existing as it does now, as weak as it is now? Mother and I will transform it into something invincible, a god."
Aeris shook her head emphatically. "It doesn't want that. It's terrified!"
"Well... Sometimes we are frightened of the things that are best for us."
"Why do you get to decide what's best for anyone?" Tifa demanded.
"My knowledge and power are superior to that of any being on this Planet. Why not?"
"You're not superior..." Tifa said, shaking her head slowly. "You're nothing more than a common murderer. I don't need to hear anything more."
Zack caught her eye, hefting his sword. "Let's finish this."
"Tifa--" Vincent began.
"There's no reasoning with him, Vincent. I'm sorry."
"But he's been talking to us...!"
"He's stalling," Cloud said suddenly.
"What?" said Tifa, looking to him in alarm, and Zack picked that moment to charge forward, raising his sword.
"Zack!" Cloud shouted.
Sephiroth's image vanished, replaced by a black-hooded figure. Zack's sword halted just short of cutting them down, but the clone collapsed to the floor anyway.
A loud ringing startled everyone, and Barret pulled his phone from his pocket. "...Jess?"
Aeris could just make out her voice on the other end. "You guys... I'm not sure what's going on, but the clones out here just backed off from the Temple in a hurry. Are you okay in there?"
"We're okay for now, but..."
A tremor ran through the Temple, and a wave of anxiety flooded over her. Aeris wasn't sure if it was her own, or that of the guardians within. Movement at the far end of the pathway caught her eye: another guardian.
"Gonna have to get back to you, Jess," said Barret. "You keep your distance, awright?"
"This way," Aeris said, motioning to the others. Zack hesitated, then bent to haul the fallen clone up over his shoulder, and they all hurried to reach the guardian.
"You know what's happening," Aeris said to it, "don't you?"
It managed a nod, and then she felt concepts, images pushing at her. All out of order at first, until the guardian remembered how to slow down, and repeated what it was trying to communicate. Her heart sank as she began to grasp it.
"Are we too late?" asked Nanaki.
"Cloud's right," Aeris said. "Sephiroth was just buying time. There's someone deeper in the Temple..."
"So let's find them," said Tifa.
The Temple shuddered again, and Aeris shook her head. "We have to get out of here. But there might still be a chance to get the Black Materia."
"What do you mean?" Tifa asked, but she kept up as Aeris continued down the path.
"The Temple is the Black Materia," Aeris explained. "When you reach the center, you have to solve a puzzle, and then another, and so on... and each one shrinks the Temple, until it's small enough to fit in the palm of your hand."
"So then..." Barret began, glancing upwards as they entered a tunnel out of the huge chamber.
"Anyone inside when that happens... will be crushed by the Temple," Aeris confirmed.
"Couldn't we still stop him?" Tifa asked.
A more powerful tremor shook the Temple, forcing them to stop a moment in the corridor. Stone rumbled and cracked around them, knotting itself some inches closer together, and ahead came the sound of something huge crashing and echoing in the room beyond. Aeris hurried forward only to stumble to a halt at the edge of a pit.
This chamber was circular, with a series of numbered doorways evenly spaced around it, but no path to any of them. In the center of the room were the remains of a pillar, and Aeris made out one long stone spear wedged partway down between the pillar and the wall.
"No good," said Aeris. "There's no way across."
"What about the exit?" said Zack. "Do we turn back?"
She shook her head. "That's through here, too, at the twelve. There's... supposed to be a path. Like a clock face."
"That's not so far," Tifa reasoned, glancing up and around. The path didn't jut out at all over the chasm, making it impossible to see, but they must have stood beneath the number ten doorway. "We could probably climb to it."
Barret shook his head, and even as he spoke, one of the torches lighting the room broke from the wall and fell into the darkness below. "Risky with all these quakes. Already lost a part o' this room."
"I can make the jump," said Nanaki.
"You're sure?" Tifa asked him.
He nodded. "Do any of you have any rope? We can make our own path."
Tifa pulled some from her gear, and they backed up to give Nanaki space as he took one end in his mouth and leapt across the pit and into the number twelve doorway. With nothing for him to secure the rope to, he braced his front paws against the archway. Holding the other end, Tifa and Barret looked to Aeris.
"I... I guess I am the lightest, aren't I?" she said.
It wasn't so far, she repeated to herself, and she knew that, if Nanaki were to lose his grip, Tifa and Barret would still have her, as long as she held tight. She slung her staff across her back to free up her hands and started across. She made it to Nanaki just as another tremor shook the Temple, and the rope slackened just a bit as the walls pulled closer.
"Wait a bit and we could all jump it," Zack remarked wryly, but no one wanted to wait.
Aeris added her meagre strength to Nanaki's, and Cloud came across next. It was easier after that; as skinny as he was, Cloud was deceptively strong. Vincent followed, and then Zack, still carrying the unconscious clone.
Tifa was about to start across when the Temple quaked again. Stones shook loose from the walls of the chamber and tumbled into the depths, and Barret, Zack, and Vincent all hunched under the lowering ceilings. As the tremors subsided, Aeris could hear a buzzing sound from below.
"What is that?" asked Cloud, but they didn't have to wait for an answer.
A pair of winged creatures flew up from the pit--dragon-like, but with insectoid wings and forelegs. They made for one of the archways, but they were too large now to fit through.
"Shit," said Zack. He laid the clone carefully on the floor and called across to Tifa and Barret. "You two just take the rope and jump! We'll pull you up."
Tifa looked like she was about to argue, but instead she nodded. The dragons had turned away from the archway and spotted them.
"Aeris, you think you can hold 'em off a second?" Zack asked her.
"Right," she said, and as the dragons dove for Tifa and Barret, she called up a wind spell to blast them back. In the shrinking chamber, it sent them crashing into the far wall, and they fell a ways before their wings could catch them.
Meanwhile the others had backed away from the ledge and braced themselves. "Now!" Zack shouted, and Tifa and Barret leapt across the pit. They almost made it--
But not quite. Aeris flinched as she heard them crash into the wall just below her, and the others all stumbled forward as the rope went taut over the edge. Heart in her throat, Aeris risked a glance down, but they had both held on, and Tifa had already started climbing.
The buzzing grew loud again as the dragons recovered, and Aeris readied another spell, but one of the dragons struck first, a hail of sharp icicles raining down on her. Her foot slipped on the crumbling ledge, and she fell back beneath the shelter of the archway. From below, she heard a burst of gunfire, and Barret drove the dragon back again.
Tifa's hand appeared over the ledge, and Aeris brightened, but then she saw the second dragon lunging towards her. She couldn't scramble clear in time, but someone yanked her backwards by the staff on her back, and Aeris turned to see Cloud. He'd abandoned his place on the rope as Tifa climbed up, and he helped Aeris to her feet. She smiled a silent thanks, and he nodded.
Aeris got off one more spell to hold the dragons at bay, and they pulled Barret up over the edge. Zack lifted the clone back over his shoulder, and together all of them ran down the corridor as the Temple shook, and the crumbling stonework rained down on them.
Ahead was the door out. Once large and ornate, it had cracked and warped in its frame, and Tifa kicked it open. As they tumbled through, Barret's shoulders scraped the frame, and only Nanaki didn't have to duck his head.
Outside, the narrow staircase led now to a short drop into a huge pit that had held the foundations of the much larger Temple. They jumped down and got some distance from it before turning. This time, the quaking did not abate. The building collapsed in on itself, and a bright flash of light temporarily blinded them.
"Oh, thank the gods," Aeris heard Jessie exclaim from above as her vision cleared. Looking up, Aeris spotted her and Yuffie standing at the gate in the wall that now circled an empty pit.
No, not empty. At its very center rested a smooth, black orb.
Tifa started towards it, but Yuffie called down, "Look out!"
Sephiroth dropped down from above, alighting in the center of the pit.
"Sephiroth, stop!" shouted Vincent.
Smiling, Sephiroth knelt, and took the Black Materia in his gloved hand.
Zack had set the clone down, and now he raised his sword, but his first step forward faltered, and he fell to one knee, clutching at his head.
"Zack!" Cloud cried, and he moved with ease as he went to Zack's side, showing no signs of Sephiroth's control.
Sephiroth straightened. "Pity you all made it out," he remarked.
"You won't," said Tifa, raising her fists.
Zack had managed to pass his sword to Cloud, who now launched himself forward. Sephiroth parried his attack with ease, but Tifa rushed in just behind and delivered a sharp kick to Sephiroth's other hand, knocking the Black Materia from his grasp.
Vincent darted for it, but the blast of a fire spell sent him flying. Nanaki started after him, but Vincent's body shook beneath his cape, and Nanaki faltered.
Hurriedly, Aeris concentrated on casting a barrier around her friends, but Sephiroth looked directly at her, and before she could bring the spell together, flames exploded around her.
"Aeris!" several voices cried out. She hit the ground, and scarcely registered anything else until she felt healing magic wash over her.
Nanaki was at her side, nosing into her in concern. She pushed herself up. Her clothes were singed, and patches of skin still reddened and stinging, but she could manage. "I'm okay," she told him.
She looked up, and her breath stuck in her throat as she saw Sephiroth's sword flashing towards Tifa--but she dove out of the way, and this time Cloud moved in to try to counter it, but another flash of Sephiroth's blade sent him staggering backwards.
Sephiroth strode towards the Black Materia.
A bolt spell crashed down on him from above, slowing him a step, and there was a burst of gunfire, but Barret had been running low on ammunition in the Temple, and the gatling gun sputtered to a halt.
Sephiroth's hand closed again around the Black Materia. He stood, and his feet lifted from the ground.
Aeris summoned her strength for a bolt spell of her own, trying to strike him back down to the earth, and Nanaki leapt forward, clamping his teeth around Sephiroth's ankle as the spell dissipated. Tifa tried to run in, but she couldn't get past the sword. Sephiroth kicked Nanaki off and rose into the air.
In moments, he was gone.
"Jenova," Nanaki said, spitting ichor from his fangs. "It was Jenova this time."
Aeris pushed herself to her feet. Never having transformed, Vincent sat where he'd landed, making no effort to rise to his feet, and she hurried to check on him. The cape seemed to have offered him some protection from the fire, but burns stood out on his exposed arm. Vincent didn't look at her as she healed them; his eyes were trained on where Sephiroth had disappeared.
"Are you okay?" she asked him gently.
"No one told me," Vincent murmured. "He looks... like his mother."
Aeris didn't know what to say to that. She reached for his arm. "Come on," she said, and they helped each other up.
Zack was back on his feet, checking in with Cloud. Above, Jessie and Yuffie were lowering a rope down from the gate. Tifa and the other decent climbers went first, and helped pull the rest of them up after.
They rested a few moments, by the edge of the pit. No one knew quite what to say.
"Sorry," Zack said at last. "Looks like you were right about me."
"Don't say that," Aeris said, and Tifa nodded her agreement.
"You were a lot of help inside the Temple," she said.
"We lost the Black Materia," Yuffie said, "but we've still got--"
"Right," Aeris interrupted quickly, glancing at Zack and Cloud. If Sephiroth didn't know about the White Materia, they didn't need to tell him. "It's not over," she went on. "Sephiroth... won't be able to use it right away either. Even as powerful as he is, his strength alone won't do it."
"How would he gain such power?" asked Nanaki.
Aeris shook her head slowly. "He talked about using energy the Planet had gathered to heal a wound... It would do that if Meteor came, but I think it's already doing it, on a smaller scale. The wound that Jenova made when it came to this Planet: the Northern Crater."
"Then either way, we go north," Tifa said decisively.
They stood to go, but Tifa paused in the gateway, and Aeris realized why. Across the rope bridge, the other two clones shuffled near the treeline, and Elena knelt beside the wounded Tseng.
"I don't think she's going to make trouble," Aeris said softly. Just as Tseng had asked, she'd come alone.
Tifa nodded, and they made their way across. Elena watched them warily, but Tseng had since lost consciousness.
"What the hell happened in there?" Elena demanded. "Where's the Temple?"
"Gone," Aeris answered her simply. "...how's Tseng?"
"Alive," Elena said guardedly. Her gaze swept over all of them. "So, are we doing this again?"
Tifa shook her head. "We're not looking for prisoners; you do what you want."
Aeris looked past them into the trees, and couldn't stop a sigh from escaping her. "It's a long trek back," she murmured.
"I can take you," Elena said suddenly. "If you tell me what happened to the Temple, I can take you back to the mainland."
"In what?" Barret asked, glancing around.
"You think I walked here?" Elena said indignantly. "There's a clearing a little ways off. Big enough for a helicopter."
Tifa glanced skyward, and Aeris realized she was noting the time of day. With how long they'd spent inside the Temple, it was growing late enough that Bugah's friend might refuse to come, leaving them stuck again until morning.
"Hard to see what Shinra could get up to from knowing what happened," Jessie reasoned cautiously. "Not the kind of destruction they're interested in."
"I think it's something they'd even wanna stop," Zack put in. "For self-preservation if nothing else."
Elena looked between them, brow furrowed, but she waited on Tifa's answer.
"All right," Tifa decided. "We'll tell you once you get us to the mainland."
"But--"
"I don't want you taking us to some Shinra encampment," Tifa interrupted. "You don't get your answers until we're safe. But we held up our end of the bargain last time, didn't we?"
Elena nodded slowly and got to her feet to offer her hand. They shook on it, and everyone got moving. Barret hefted Tseng up into his arms, and Cloud and Jessie managed to wrangle the other two clones into shuffling along with them.
Aeris looked skyward again before they passed under the forest canopy, feeling a different pull. The Planet, in its fear, urging her north.
Soon, she told it, one small person reassuring a planet. We'll be on our way soon.