Nanaki and the Fallen Angel Chapter 13
Angel and Demon
By Brady Bryner, Bill Shofstall, & Anthony McKinley
Sky, Gelinka Plane 1:32 PM Aug. 19
Reeve sat, staring at a technical report as the Gelinka plane flew. He had the planes for a new bomb, the atomic bomb. It would carry a nuclear charger and annihilate anything in it's path by breaking down atoms. Reeve was mad beyond any "human" emotion. He was anger with vengeance that would dwarf the devil's own. The bomb was developed, and being built. Only two more days. Two more days until "the decision". Should he destroy Rufus's factories in an insane, fleeting hope that there were no survivors? Or, should he send his best soldiers to take them by force? All too complicated. Far too complicated.
Cait sat with him, also wondering. He was leading his own men now. He had to learn about history altering decisions. Reeve also worked on more sattelite weapons, thus funding Palmer's space program. Palmer gleefully excepted his old position. Two months had passed since two brothers had mauled eachother to horrifying, bloody masses of muscle, fur, and bone. Vincent, however did not disappear. He remained with the Turks, hoping to fall into something that would lead him to finding Hojo, or what had recreated him. The plane landed in the scortched spot of Wutai. The test bomb was set up on the crater of Wutai. Jenna and Cid had came with him. Cait hopped on his moogle and they walked out of the plane. "Sir, the sand line is set up, shall the third test commence?" Reeve stared out at the recreation of Wutai, dummies filling the buildings.
"Yes." They all sat behind the mounds, with goggles, waiting for the bomb to explode. Three minutes passed, Reeve's heart racing.
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Wutai Area, Wutai Recreation 3:34 PM Aug. 19
Dummies sat still in the buildings, as if a whole civilization frozen in time, one moment, where real beings would draw their last breaths, think that last thought. They would scream in terror, or maybe die in peace, a dream of happiness from which they would never awaken. But these were dummies. They didn't breath. They didn't laugh or cry. They were dummies.
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Wutai Area, Outside Wutai Recreation 3:34 PM Aug. 19
Reeve looked away as the blast lit his view. Damn goggles didn't help. Cid looked up from over the mounds. The model was ruined. Smoking, smoldering. The dummies had been disintegrated. Not burned. Not melted. They were gone.
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Cosmo Canyon, Nanaki's Room 3:56 PM Aug. 19
Nanaki sat wondering what the sound had been. Wutai wasn't far. The island of Wutai. Common fact was Wutai didn't exist. A metallic being entered the observatory. Nanaki froze. "Where is Anthony?" The robot. Anthony's. His small army wait outside the canyon. Nanaki didn't know what to say. Anthony hadn't been around for a while.
"I don't know!"
"Okay..." It had developed a personality. It would accept anything you told it. It left, hobbled out, and got the troupe of confused robots and left.
"Well... That was certainly...interesting." Nanaki read what Lord Cait had given him. "Where is he anyway?"
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Cetralin, Destilian 4:32 PM Aug. 19
Lord Cait rode through the market of the town, his mount, a tiny golden chocobo, drawing a small carraige that housed his bed and rations. He reached for a small orb he always had in his pocket. Gone. "Still the best thief ever." Lord Cait shuddered. He didn't know who that was, and didn't want to.
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Cosmo Canyon, Nanaki's Room 4:33 PM Aug. 19
Nanaki passed out, not even allowing the walls to spin. He just fell, as if dead.
~~~
He felt as if he was falling, but no air rushed past him. He landed on darkness. Nothing above or below. Yuffie appeared in front of him. "Whats..."
"...going on? Simple." Yuffie pocketed a grey orb in her hand. "Well... You blame yourself for me dying..." Nanaki remained silent. "Right!?! Don't tell me you don't!"
"Of course I do."
"Well, I'm just here to give you something that idiotic cat wouldn't." She removed the materia and placed it in the Limited Moon. "You have to learn to use all that magical stuff, and thats supposed to help... Not like I care." A click was heard. Yuffie's head burst, exploded almost, as it had on the day of her death. A man in a trench coat stepped from the darkness. His face concealed, he began to slide up his hat.
"I know who you are. Why did you kill her?" Silence. "Tell me!" He didn't move. "Tell me, damn you!" He heard something like dry-raspy laughter. Almost coughing, really. He leapt at the man and ripped him apart, but no blood fell. He hadn't even seen flesh. Nanaki shoved his hat off. A pile of ash lay beneath the fine leather hat. Nanaki spit on it. His spittle boiled on the ash. It formed into a skull and looked at him. It flamed and grew near five times larger then Nanaki. Nanaki turned and began to run as it opened a gapping mouth and started chasing him. It rest his jaws directly over him. He stopped, accepting defeat.
~~~
"What the..." Nanaki looked around. Nothing. He looked in his mirror. He looked terrible, and found himself panting. "Vivid..." He almost failed to notice the gray orb in his clip. "Oh no... I'm really hating this..." He slammed a paw heavy down on the trunk his mirror sat on.
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Niblehiem Area, Tifa's Bar 5:05 PM Aug. 19
Cloud and Tifa sat alone in the bar. They barely breathed. Cloud's birthday. "Yay..." Tifa smiled and sat back on a couch. They were content, all alone. Rude dragged himself in. Dragged was an overstatement. He had to pull himself in, blood once again staining the floor. Tifa and Cloud jumped up. Rude turned to the door and fired several more shots. "Die..." Tifa saw a man outside drop. They helped Rude get cleaned up, using vials of a glowing, sticky liquid. The basic potion. Rude told them his story.
~~~
Rude walked through the Nibleheim Mountains. He heard several clicks from behind him, and turned to see Rufus standing with several armed men. "Ah... Rude. You've always been one of my finest Turks. Tell me good man... Why didn't you help me?"
"Sir... I didn't... I couldn't..."
"Enough! Execute this vile trash..." Rufus walked away. A soldier jumped Rude. Rude grabbed the man, flipped him on his back and crushed his neck and spine. Another fired a shot into Rude's leg. Rude pulled his own gun and took the man's heart to a tree. Rude ran through hails of bullets, only to drag himself to the bar."
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Cosmo Canyon, Cliff 7:34 PM Aug. 19
"This is it." Kianki looked shyly at the ground.
"Yeah... We don't have a choice. We never did."
"Anthony... Do you believe in destiny?"
"I guess. A little. I believe it can be altered."
"Me too." Kianki slid herself closer to him. "Anthony, look at your pendant. It's covered in...blood and dirt."
"So is yours." Anthony lifted the pendant with a paw rubbed off much of the surface dirt on his fur.
"You're dirty now..." She was going to the same.
"Mine deserves to be this way..." He read her mind. She didn't care.
"No it doesn't..." She whispered into his ear. Kianki and Anthony had two materias. One white and the other black. Anthony's black materia reflected off of Kianki's white. They watched the stars come out. A star shot by. "Make a wish..." She smiled.
He thought to himself, "I wish I could...be a hero..." And that night, three creatures made the same wish. "Too be herald as a great hero, Father was..."
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Sky, Chaos's Tower 12:44 AM Aug. 20
Sephiroth's soldiers cracked into line. "Tonight...we attack civilization as a whole. We will start with this small village, known as Rocket Town. Leave nothing that can invite the eye. If it can't be consumed, burn it. I want it so passing crows must carry their rations with them."
~~~
"I may sound cold, but we have no choice." General Sephiroth kept walking. Wutai. "I want a fire sweep around one square mile."
He secretly thought, "I don't want to do this. These people don't deserve it." He went back to the truck, waiting an hour before his men to return.
~~~
Sephiroth shrugged off the memory. He wasn't like that now.
~~~
Sephiroth stood in front of General MacMillan. The man's red hair seemed like fire before him. "So... You want to be in SOLDIER? You'll have to work hard. It isn't easy, you know."
"Yes sir. I am prepared to do anything at all." Sephiroth exhaled slowly.
"Good then. You will first raid the town of Decon and burn it to the ground."
~~~
Decon. Where had he known this?
~~~
"All right, you pathetic little runt, get moving. You want to be in SOLDIER, now is your chance."
"But sir, they're civilians!"
"They're Wutai civilians. Our orders are to exterminate with extreme prejudice."
"But sir!"
"No buts, officer! Do it!" Sephiroth sighed.
"Yes sir." He turned and fired twelve rifle shots into the village. He burned the village to the ground. His home. It was at that moment that he erased the town's existence from his mind.
~~~
"When did I get this?" He stared at his gloved hand, gripping the demon blade the devil had given him. "Yes. But what of..."
~~~
Sephiroth was now in SOLDIER. Presented with his blade, a simple Buster Sword, he set out to become a general. He was sent on another mission to Wutai. He went, completed his term of service there, and returned. No. He hadn't returned. His transport ran aground. All his men had died but he had lived. He walked into Cosmo Canyon, where they quickly nursed his wounds. "Thank you. Few people show me such kindness." They didn't care that he was from Shinra. He wasn't Shinra, he was a mere pawn to them.
"It would be inhumane not to help you, sir." He sat in an observatory, but decided to get up and look around. He checked the cabinets. Nothing of real interest. A few potions, ether, but he didn't want to steal from these people. They weren't his agenda. He turned and tripped over a cord.
"Some SOLDIER I am..." He saw another cabinet. One that wasn't there. He opened it and found a doll. It looked ugly, with wooden flesh, and huge yellow teeth. "Hello... You can call me Jhepeto you ugly little..." It sunk its teeth into his arm. "OW! You little fuck! Why your just lucky I don't..." He calmed down. He was talking to a doll. He had just slipped and cut himself on the doll's jagged teeth. Thats all.
"Sir?" The attendant came back.
"I'm fine..." Sephiroth walked out into the canyon, and lost himself. He stumbled along, almost blindly, and found a small cave. He dragged himself inside and rest his head. He saw something glinting. Something metal. He walked in, his shirt over his cut. His blue uniform was now red at the stomach from blood from his arm. He picked at the rocks by smashing them with other rocks. Soon he saw a clear blade. He smashed it more. A hilt. A sword. He just punched the rock, and his fist went right into the cave wall. It rippled like water. He closed his hand around a hilt. His eyes grew wide as thousands of memories of armies of good and legions of the damned ran through his head. He screamed in pain as a dark force over took his body. Nester had forged it. A dwarven smithy and engineer. His friend had forged Excalibur. But two swords of the three remained unknown. He knew them now. Claymore. Marusame. The true Marusame. The others were mere immitations. Sephiroth held his breath. He was going to be a general in SOLDIER. All generals had to supply their own blades. He didn't claim the Masamune. It claimed him.
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Wutai Airspace, Highwind Flight Deck 7:04 AM Aug. 23
Cid sat in his plane canopy. This was it. He took off from a small added portion of the Highwind. Hundreds of planes flew into one of the first dog fights ever. It would also be the third biggest. Cid held his breath. "This shit better work Reeve." He took off, firing a heavy spray from a chain gun like cannon. He heard something beeping. "What the hell does that mean?" He looked at his display. A small red light flashed. "Oh shit!" Cid let a flare drop behind him. The gray biplane behind him fired, but its missle was destroyed by the blast of the flare. A sleeker, jet plane blasted a shot through the plane, causing a small explosion.
"What would you do without me?" Reeve flew along side of Cid.
"I'd handle these bastards a lot easier..."
"Whatever." They pulled up and two more planes smashed below them. They pulled in and out of weaves, barely dodging gun fire and missles. Cid launched his plane into a cork screw.
"All squadrons, attack the airship!" Cid shouted frantically into his CB device. All of his planes pulled into toward the Hellbender. "Just keep it from firing that damn laser cannon!" He saw the cannon charging. "SHIT! Shoot the cannon you flunky bastards!" He saw three jets try for it, all destroyed. "Damn!" He and Reeve locked their own missles on target. They fired blowing their weapons and watched the cannon explode. The Hellbender began to pull back. "Don't let it get away!" They tailed it for almost an hour, pounding the hull with fire.
"Cid, our weapons just can't hit it hard enough."
"Pull out!"
"What!?!" Several men screeched over the speakers.
"You heard me! Pull out!"
"Don't pull out."
"What are you talkin' bout' Reeve?"
"We ain't got a chance against this thing, but we may be able to fuck it up enough this time that they can't repair it!" Reeve sent them back in, hopeless wave after wave of brave men and women, knowing that doom was imminent from such an attack. Reeve closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger. He had opened a huge, glowing hole in its hull. Electricity. A few more shots may have been able to bring it down. "Fire every missle you have...now." Hundreds of missles fired off, almost synchronized. As they were about to hit, a huge blast was heard, and an extremely bright white flash, and the Hellbender was gone.
"GOD DAMN IT!" Cid slammed his fist on his control panel. "Pull out..."
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Cosmo Canyon, Anthony's Room 5:16 PM Aug. 23
"Why did you drag me in here?" Nanaki looked around.
"Got something to show you. Okay, our society and culture was based on the headdress, and the feathers."
"Yes, so?"
"Our headdresses. All of these are griffon feathers." Anthony removed a long headdress, adorned with silver feathers. "This is from a cockatrice."
"The demon bird? How'd you get that?" Nanaki looked at it.
"Kianki... She tried out a few things on father, only saved the headdress. We're not allowed to wear this. Not worthy, I guess."
"What should we do with it?"
"I don't know. You're the hero here, I'm just a psychopath."
"I'm not a hero."
"Yes you are, you swarmy bastard."
"What did I do?"
"You helped stop a friggin' meteor from wasting the Planet. Sounds good to me."
"Yeah. Shut up and get back to work."
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Sky, The Eagle Heart 2:26 PM Sept. 13
Vincent stood on his own airship. Not his. The Turks. Rumors of an odd tower had been floating around. Another new continent had formed. It was directly north of Cetralin, which sat dead-set in the middle of the world. It was only thirty-three miles south of Bone Village. Vincent had found readings of many buildings on the island, as well as life-forms. The Planet's size had exploded to seven times its original size. Things were much harder to find now. The Planet was now fifty-six thousand miles around. Apparently, it had sped up its rotation and gravity remained the same, as well as the hours in a day. But Vincent didn't care. He was busy with finding out what was on that continent. Whatever it was, it was plentiful, and alive. Vincent had a pistol with him, and the Death Penalty. Nothing more. Tseng walked from the darkness to behind him. The airship was large, and looked exactly like the Highwind, save the fourth and fifth thrusters on the sides. "Whats the matter, Vincent?"
"I'm not sure... Something doesn't seem right about all of this."
"Like what?"
"Well... You see, when Shinra was pumping mako out of the Planet, it never did THIS much damage. Something bigger did this... Something huge... I'm not sure what it is..."
"Why not?"
"I'm a spy, a secret agent, about a few thousand other things, but no way in hell do I understand this. I'm not a damn historian."
"Point taken... There it is!" Tseng ran to the side of the ship and pointed at it. It was a large island, with huge fields, and foliage beyond it. There were only two visible cities. One was ruined, the other had a towering castle. "Hover over the forest!"
"How will we get down?"
"We have a hovercraft we can go down on."
"Oh..." Vincent hurried over to the hovercraft, already filled with the other Turks. Rude dropped them down, hovering over the forest, instead of through it. "Yeah... This is great... How the hell do we get down from the hovercraft? We got a bike back there?"
"Shut up, man. We'll just hover toward that castle!" Rude slammed the throtle and they flew faster towards the castle.
"Shit Rude! Slow down!" Elena screeched at him.
"I can't! The throttle got stuck!" Rude pointed at the stick which regulated their speed.
"God damn it, I HATE YOU!" The hovercraft skipped off of a tree and began spiraling around in circles. The Turks grabbed on to whatever they could.
"This is the only time I'm going to save your ass from here on out you dumb ass!" Tseng grabbed Reno's nightstick and jammed it into the main computer. Electricity began flowing into Tseng. "GWAAAAAAAH!" He yanked it out. "God damn thing! Stop it!" He kicked the control panel. "Stop! Stop! Stop!"
Reno began to scream to. "Oh no! STOP!" The were about to slam into the castle. "Rude! Turn!" Rude swung the hovercraft through a window, and smashed out the wall, but kept going. The hovercraft began to spin again, but then plummeted straight down in a corkscrew into the city. Reno put a pipe in his mouth and drank a bottle of liqour. Elena just stared at him.
"Oh for the love of GOD! Some one has to save us!" She jumped into the front part of the cockpit and started punching the throttle and the thruster button. The afterburners kicked on. "What the hell did you guys put on this thing!?!" She smashed the control panel, and the cockpit flipped open. The thrusters stopped, and Elena pulled her self onto the back. "Get up here!" They stood on the back of the hovercraft, which fell ever closer. "We've got about fourty or so more feet to go!" It plowed into the streets as the five Turks leapt into a deep stream that ran under a bridge. They pulled themselves out and surveyed the damage.
Rude put back on his shades. "How the hell...did that happen!?!" He was busy catching his breath. The other four turned to him. "WHAT!?!"
"You dumb ass! You almost got us killed!" Elena punched him in the mouth. Rude nursed his bleeding lip. They looked around, and saw hundreds of people, encased in a crystal of some sort. "What the hell?"
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