Tifa vs. Aeris Chapter 7

Dilemma

By Chris Homer

Yuffie, Heici, Cait and Chromer had scoured practically most of the western continent, with the exception of Cosmo, where Zack. Yuffie was tired, and practically sick most of the time, and Heici had run out of tranquillisers. Chromer tried to use cure spells, but this was obviously one illness magic couldn't cure.

After dropping off a tired Shera, Heici had taken control. They had visited North Corel and the villa in Costa Del Sol, but nothing. No-one was particularly interested. A Rocket Town resident however did say that the skies seemed to be changing. Cait defined that as slang for something is going to happen, but Heici wondered if he meant it literaly.

They had faced Tifa and Lucresia in Nibelheim. Yuffie was particularly worried about the young girl, and Chromer felt guilty still as feeling that it was his fault. Heici decided it was his duty to keep troop.

From Nibelheim, a few 'What the hells' exclaimed from what was left.

Obviously Jenova had left a surprise for anyone who was going to investigate........

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The Jenova which was coming towards Junon had put Dyne and the rest of the city on full alert. Barret had finished cursing, and was heading up back to the city. It was a hydra like creature, with three heads, poisonous fangs, and green gas coming through one of the head's body.

Reeve and Jessie came up quickly, with Aeris, only just recovering from her energy channel, coming up much more slowly. Priscilla and Lucas followed, itching for a fight (obviously didn't know what they were up against) with Dyne in his computer control, looking for weaponry.

"All right, you mother %$!£%*, you are gonna die for the last time!" Barret screamed, and started pumping shells into it with the missing score.

The Jenova screamed as bullet pierced the green flesh. Jessie followed up with a blast from a fire materia, Reeve holding back, not sure whether to use his gun or his staff. Aeris was still tired so kept her strength, ready to face the Cetra's mortal enemy.

The second head of the Jenova blast a powerful bolt of electricity at Jessie, shocking her putting her out of the game temporarily. Barret raised a red materia.

"Gunge Lance!" he screamed.

A huge knight like figure materialised and swung a huge spear through the monster. The Jenova screamed but carried on fighting. The first head blasted a green gas. Reeve and Aeris had the sense to hold their breath, Priscilla and Lucas dodged, but Barret was caught by the poisonous gas. Lucas cast Esuna from a materia he produced out of nowhere, and Priscilla bravely stood up.

"BOLT 3!" she screamed.

Her only materia she had she had mastered, (although she had persuaded her father to get a cure) pierced through the now twisted flesh of the Jenova. The third head responsed with a serious of fireballs and it's tongue and fangs unleashing poisonous blows. Reeve blasted his Materia Enity Break, but again, this monster was not going to be easy to kill.

Jessie and Aeris had recovered now, which is just as well, as Reeve had just been taken out. Jessie cured him whilst Aeris slipped on a Quadra materia.

"Wall All!" she said. All 6 persona were protected in it.

"Regen All!" she said. The people were covered in a red glow.

"Earth 3!" The ground shook to the monster.

"Ice3!" The monster felt a huge chill from Aeris' spell.

The monster was still quite alive, then Lucas ran in, foolishly thinking he could take out the monster with his fists.

The monster swung his fang, missed. Lucas ran by the side and punched his huge side. It didn't do any damage, but the monster thought that this insect should be squashed. He blasted a bolt of lightning.

Lucas rolled out of the way and with a back flip similar to Britney Spears, he avoided the blast of fire. His hands bridged in the middle of the back flip, and nipped up.

Suddenly, the remaining members realised what he was doing. He was used the old diversionary methods of fighting. Barret liked this kid all of a sudden. He raised his arm.

"SATELLITE BEAM!" he screamed.

The target was set on his prey. The huge blast of light went through him and burnt him to the core. With a scream, the monster turned again and prepared to cast an Ultima.

Aeris cast Planet Protector in combination with her Wall spell, blocking most of the attack. Quickly, she cast Great Gospel, and they went in all blazing.

It was obvious that the Jenova was getting weaker. The distraction had done enough, and the beam from Barret had killed him to the core.

Jessie flew in with random spells, not fully used to a fight of this level, Priscilla casting Bolt 3 after she found the strength. Aeris blasted many spells, whilst Reeve attacks randomly with weapons and magic, whilst Barret blasted many bullet in the tangled hide of the Jenova.

Jenova was getting weaker, it could not use his breath attacks too much. It swung with his claws, tongue and fangs to fend them off. Then......

A laser from below the ground rose up. It fired a holy ray into Jenova's chest.

Kaboom! Barbeque!

The Jenova screamed a final twisted scream, as green blood flowed from many parts of the Jenova's body. It's scream was a....well, ....a thing in extreme pain and agony, and it was so loud and twisted that the fighters had to cover their ears, but also be aware of a possible backlash.

However, that didn't happen. The Jenova shriveled and fell to the ground, it's flesh now a bloody mess. The pool of green blood revolted Priscilla who had to be sick. The hide would now have made quite an ugly carpet. There was very little of it left.

They turned around to see Dyne puffing from the computer observatory.

Lucas looked to his dad. "What took you so long?"

Dyne shrugged. "I didn't know what button to press!"

Aeris and Jessie tried to frown, but had to laugh, despite the situation.

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Garut wouldn't believe it, he couldn't believe. Cosmo had suffered once. Why did it have to suffer again, it wasn't a big town like Wutai or Junon. It didn't have major finance, bias or political ambition, it was simply a knowledgable town.

Bugenhagen would have known what to do in a situation like this. However, Garut couldn't be Bugenhagen. He was just glad that they, the people of Cosmo Canyon had some help this time.

Zack led out, the Turks going into an assembly formation which had become so familiar to them for so long. Elena at the back, Tseng at the front, with Rude and Reno th either side. Zack stayed ahead of Tseng, a look of hatred to him.

'So, this was the thing who's cells are into my body. Weird. It helped me, yet, I intend to destroy it.' The ironic humour put into hsi thoughts.

His sword took a gleam of the Jenova, who had formed into a traditional farm. Alien, with two whipping poisonous tentacles at the sides, fang dripping with poison, and a blood lust to match a vampire any day.

The Turks were prepared for any battle, but hadn't fought a Jenova before. Neither had Zack, so the knowledge of it's attacks were limited. However, Cloud had given them the 411 on Jenova, to beware of it's poisonous attacks, it's use of the Ultima, plus any other tricks such as Red Light it may have up it's sleeve.

The Jenova attacked first. It attacked with it's tentacles swishing around. Zack swung at them but every time he sliced, they grew back almost immediately. He ran, and swung into a Braver, slicing the Jenova at the centre, and green blood coming off his sword.

The Turks attacked in a calm formation. All of them using firearms, however, Tseng and Rude, fired most, with Reno backing up with blasts of electricity. Elena cast healing and attacking spells from the back. However, admittingly they were doing little damage to the Jenova. Zack was evading swings and attacking quickly, Tseng tried to change strategy.

"Try a single limit break, quickly at a time. Rude, then, Elena, then Reno, then myself."

Rude was in thought what to use. He couldn't use his neckbreaker, or his gloworm so he chose one he hadn't done in a long time.

"Stonehenge!"

He started to glow in a light, and without warning, ran. Neither Zack or Jenova spotted him, the glow grew further, until Rude rammed into Jenova in a shoulder charge, the materia charge giving the blow enough power to slam into Jenova.

Elena quickly followed up. "EL GUARDE!"

Elena ran, leapt into the air and blasted three molotov blast from her gun, before landing, sweep kicking the Jenova and hitting hit three times with the heel of her gun.

Reno laughed. "You call that a break! Try this!" (Cocky in battle. Hmm. Not smart.)

"RED FEAR!" He channeled a nightstick blast of red energy towards the Jenova. The blast was ultra powerful and the Jenova was engulfed in it.

Tseng finalised the attack. "DEMOLITION!" His gun fired a single bullet towards the Jenova. But when the bullet reached it exploded into a cluster bomb, hitting thousands of times.

But the Turks weren't finished. They put their materia together.After mumbling their signs (seen in Chrome Spark), they shouted "TURK RULE!"

The combined blast of the mastered materia befelled the Jenova to the black, before zack ran and gave it the Omnislash. Before long, there was very little of Jenova.

Or was there?

As both the Turks and Zack were catching their breath, movement caught their eye. The Jenova was melting into a green goo.......

......and was reforming into a humanoid shape.

"Well done." The Jenova spoke in a throaty voice. "But you underestimate me. Tha form was to challenge what kind of power you have. Now I know your skills, you have no chance against me, Gen Jenova. Fear and perish!"

"Oh god." (That was a groan from the audience probably.)

_____________________________________________________________________

At the same time, the realisation that whatever was in the cannisters at Nibelheim not only escaped, but had tracked down Yuffie was a bit of a shame of a realisation because it was inevitably too late.

The third Jenova left was a Jenova who was green in only one place, the red of his body was covered in a different colour, of blue, yellow, red and purple as well as green.

Cait quickly sensed it. It was ultra-powerful, who could use magic of any kind. However, it was the only way it could attack. So, keep it close and be defense, and Cait reckoned they would win.

But do 17 year old girls with an attitude listen? Not a chance.

Yuffie flung her shuriken quickly at the Jenova. As it returned, Jenova retaliated with a Titan. The earth shook Yuffie alone as the Titan beast rose the earth. Yuffie screamed, but Heici dove to save her, and quickly rolled out of the way.

Heici scowled at Yuffie before unleashing Bolt3. However, it did little if any damage at all to Jenova. Cait was trying to warn them about something, but they couldn't hear. The pressures of battle were on.

Chromer had cast spells from the Ci'an towards Jenova, Ryoskiku (Burning Sign Spell) and Gale Force attacks, which seemed to work much better than the materia attacks. Cait was trying to talk some sense into the two youngster whilst Chromer tried to fend it off.

"Listen. Sensed creature. It absorbs materia and heals itself with it. You have to attack it with your fists and feet, and your weapons." Cait said.

Yuffie glanced at Chromer, who just avoided a Bolt 3.

"How come he's attacking it with magic then?" said Yuffie, smug. "You ain't interrupting him!"

"That is because his magic isn't normal materia based. The Ci'an is a different materia to the power the Jenova has, so he can harm it. But I don't think he can do it by himself, come on you dolts!"

Heici ran, Yuffie wondering whether a robot could say the word 'dolt.'

Chromer was struggling. He has cast cure many times on himself, but the problem was the Jenova cured as well. His attacks weren't seemingly doing enough damage. His sickle slices however seemed to be more powerful, as time after time, green blood gushed out. However, the cure spells kept him at bay.

Yuffie came back and cast Barrier on everyone, whilst Heici cast MBarrier. Then they struck quickly. Heici flew into Jenova, triple break kicks followed by Kairi punches to the Jenova skull.

Jenova retailiated by casting Knights of The Round. The barriers did the trick but barely. Chromer's cure spells rejuvinated them, and Cait realised that whilst Chromer was tired, he had drained most of the magic out of the Jenova.

Cait ran, striking repeatedly with his fists into the hardened midsection of the Jenova. The creature howled, not comprehending what to do with these. He cast fire, ice, Alexander and Ramuh in quick succession, but Chromer and Yuffie kept curing.

Chromer was tired, so Heici picked up one of his sickles and ran, slicing away. Yuffie, from close range, began turning the Jenova into shissicab. Jenova tried to cure but found he didn't have the strength to do it.

Yuffie ran at Jenova, using Bloodfest. Cait then gathered Yuffie and Heici inside of him and ran, with one ultra-powerful punch to the skull. The combined power of the three fighters was too much.

The Jenova fell down, no noise, he feinted and wouldn't wake up again, as the green blood oozed from every direction.

Chromer said "See, that wasn't so hard!" Before he promptly fainted.

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Gen Jenova seemed to know what each of the fighters was doing. He avoided every attack, and firearm shot from them. As Reno came too near, Gen struck at him with a palm to the face. Reno flew 6 feet back and landed hard on his ass.

Elena took aim but couldn't find him. She never expected him to come from behind. With one movement, Gen jerked her neck back, and slammed her down in a reverse DDT. Elena passed out, possible broken neck.

Of course, when a future husband witnesses this, it is bound to piss him off. Tseng saw this and shot, in pin-point accuracy.

Somehow, Gen Jenova dodged the shot. Tseng lined up again. Gen Jenova swurved through the bullets like a liquified snake. Gen hit a well timed elbow on Tseng. Tseng angered, swung, but missed. Gen cast a wind spell of sorts to send Tseng, and Reno, caught in the blast, into a rock side. They passed out in pain, making pathetic wimpers.

That left Rude and Zack.

Zack was extremely wary of the Turk, but since he had met Jessie, Rude was the one who he seemed to get along with better than the others, including Elena. Rude was a quiet gentleman once you got to know him, and hell, what he did, was only to bring money on the plate.

Rude took a brief moment to study Zack. He felt admiration for Zack. Not just because of his similarities to Cloud, but the fact that he had felt heartbreak in losing his town, a possible wife, his best friend, similar to himself and Reno, and yet, take potential misfits and turn them into world savers.

They need that luck again.

Instinctivelly, and most likely with trust, the two members of the remaining party stook back to back, watching the other's ones, to see any possible movement from Jenova.

Jenova appeared on a cliff and cast a lightning spell on the rocks. The rocks fell down and went to roll, about to crush Zack and Rude.

"Watch your ass, Zack." said Rude.

"Yours too." Zack retailiated.

Before long, Zack cast Titan. Rude ran, somersaulting over a rock, hidden from Gen. He quickly scaled the cliff.

The Titan spell destroyed the rocks. Gen saw only one member. Rude had gone. Impossible, how can you lose.....

Rude struck with a fist in what is possibly the groin area of the Jenova. It must have been because the Jenova felt intense pain. He swung, making Rude fall of the cliff. Amazingly for a man near 200 pounds and 36 years of age, Rude placed his feet on the cliff and moonsaulted back, before landing on his feet, taking out his gun and a lightning materia, using them both at once, all in one movement.

Gen was focused on Rude, he never noticed Zack jump into the air, charging up a Meteorain.

The meteor blast was partially seen by the Jenova, but the bullets were piercing his skin and he couldn't block both. Both were pumping him full of pain, and Rude followed it quickly with a Bolt3 spell.

Gen fell down, sizzling. Despite his skill and knowledge, Jen was quite weak for a Jenova. However, he had hardly ever been struck. Which is why Rude was so easily able to take advantage.

He ran, grabbed the humanoid Jenova by the neck, blasted his gun backwards before slamming down in a neckbreaker.

Zack immediately followed up with an Omnislash. As each blow connected, blood thickened on Zack's sword, until the final hit, sliced through the middle of his head, seperating the skull.

The Jenova didn't even scream. It wasn't going to bother. It fell into a peaceful sleep.

They turned. Tseng, Elena and Reno were still out. This was going to be hard work......

_____________________________________________________________________

Yuffie saw Chromer stirring. The young warrior had fainted from exhaustion after casting many spells and taking many spells so that the others could regroup and finish it off.

Heici stood to him with his sickle. "Here man, take it, and don't make me use it again!" he said in good humour.

Chromer remembered something. "We killed it?"

"Yep!" beamed Yuffie. "We went in Cait and killed it's sorry ass!" she smiled with delight.

Cait looked thoughtful (as robots do). "What do we do from here!"

"I suppose.....hey, lets go to Wutai. They have technology which may help, my father and the pagoda gods can help us in locating where Tifa is!" she said.

Everyone saddened at the name of Tifa. If Sephiroth harms her...... Even Cait looked sorrow.

"Come on. Let's hop aboard the Bronco for a trip to Wutai!" said Heici.

At the words, 'Tiny' and 'Bronco', Yuffie enthusiasm and colour completely drained her face. "We are going on that again, are we?" she said.

"Of course we bloody are!" said Heici. "How else do you think w're going, swim?"

"I wish." muttered Yuffie under her breath. Out loud she said, "You know......I'll...get..." she didn't mention it, because even thinking about travel in any machine made her vomit.

"Gee, we seem to have run out of tranquillers as well." Chromer said to Yuffie.

"Oh god!" Yuffie said.

"Oh well, the sea is gonna be one big sickhole for Yuffie today....." Heici said.

_____________________________________________________________________

Reno awoke to noises of admiration. Not for him though.

Rude had becoming the focus of the Turks. Tseng knew the man was talented but he basically saved all their asses along with Zack.

Garut had come along to brave whatever circumstances were remaining.

"Wh....what the hell happened?" said Garut.

"They happened!" Elena said, pointing at a smug Zack, and a not so smug Rude.

Garut looked worried and confused, so Zack told him about what happened, how Jenova had just been obliterated, and so on and so forth.

The look on Garut's face told volumes. The man was overcome with relief.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You have save our town again, how can we ever repay you?" he said.

Reno was about to interject something with a smug look on his face, but Elena elbowed him in the ribs and just said "Can we just stay whilst we try and contact our friends. We've still gotta find our missing girl."

A reality look was faced upon all of them. The Turks may not be great friends with Avalanche, but they didn't want to see a death of someone by the madman known as Sephiroth. Reno and Rude especially didn't want to see a good looking girl face slaughter like that.

Garut replied with "Of course!" And the Turks and Zack followed Garut into the main outskirts of Cosmo.

Once arriving, the elders making sure they got rooms for the people who helped destroy Lelin, the main cause of their problems, Zack began fishing out his PHS.

However, he wasn't going to be too happy.

"Damn!" Zack exclaimed. "The PHS has been banged up pretty bad in that fight!" he said.

The Turks looks expressionless. They didn't have any about.

"Well......" Elena looked thoughtful. "The Elders have knowledge in communication. And I'm sure Red must have a communications device somewhere, if not a PHS."

"You mean we've gotta look through all this shit?!" Reno said, looking at the mess ahead of them, plus wherever Red's chamber was, which none of them knew (Ironic that was, don't ya think?).

Zack sighed. "This may take a while....."

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"So, let me get this straight......if you knew where the button was, we wouldn't have had to knacker ourselves on this piece of monkey crap?" Barret questioned.

"Well......er....the laser would blow up the insides of the creature immediately, making it virtualy impossible to survive, obviously, so.....er, yeah.

Barret then went into an exclude of the Jerry Springer show. (In other words, a minute of non-stop cursing)

Reeve looked at Lucas. "You're a brave kid. Much braver than I am. Why the hell did you do that?"

Lucas shrugged. "I wanted to become a warrior like yourselves, but I was laughed at the idea. I have the skill, courage and intelligence, but people like my father didn't want me wasting my life like that. But I don't want to be a bank clerk, I want adventure. The blood in my veins told me so. When Priscilla told me about Cloud and his followers, I knew that I wanted to be like you, what I did, I think proved either my braver or stupidity. You decide."

Reeve had to smirk. This kid had a sarcastic edge to him. Reminded him of a male version of Yuffie, only perhaps not as annoying......

Priscilla was fuming. "I am going to ask my father nicely if I can have that cure materia, and if he doesn't let me have it, I'm gonna stuff a probe up his a....."

Aeris quickly interrupted. "Priscilla, I don't think it would have helped. Besides, we got through it."

"Yeah...we did it. By the way, how did you perform all those cool tricks?" said Priscilla.

"Well, I'm a Cetra." Aeris replied, as cooly as someone who asks what the weather is. To her surprise Priscilla's response was calm.

"Really? Cool. Didn't know any of them were still left!" she said. Aeris wisely decided not to mention her death.

Jessie looked tired. Her first real battle and it was against a Jenova. However, she had survived. Maybe she could be cut out for this gig. Perhaps Rude could give her a lesson or two later....what of, she wasn't sure, but that's enough of that, I've got a story to write!

When Barret had calmed down, Dyne walked to him. "Earlier, you said about those particles heading north. Is that a Jenova as well?"

"Yeah, she is being possessed by a madman called Sephiroth, her name is LUcresia. There is also a young girl called Tifa...." Barret, despite a fearless man of 6"4 and well over 200 pounds, began to visibly sadden. "If anything happens to her......"

"Listen, you obviously care for this girl. Would it help if I transported you to as close to the northern crater as possible with my helicopter?" he said.

Barret was about to say no, as they had the chocobos, but remembering Reeve's experience with it, was not gonna turn down an over like that. They could leave the chocobo's at the farm, return (although a bit of a walk) and then go.

"Sure, why not?" he said. Reeve looked visibly relieved.

"I'm going to." said Lucas.

"And me." pipped in Priscilla.

"Oh no." said Dyne, looking at Lucas. "I'm not letting my son getting involved. These are professionals. You're just a kid."

"But dad....." started Lucas.

"We've been through this before. You have to get started on your future. You are not a fighter, you are going to be a smart man, like myself, and get on with your life." he said.

Priscilla was going to interject but Barret spoke before either she, Dyne or Lucas could speak another word.

"Look, Dyne, normally I would agree with you. This is no place for a youngster to fight. Hell, I've got a kid of my own, and the time I've had to spend away from her has been heartbreaking for me. However, as soon as I see her, I forget about that. Now, I have a great kid and a new lovely wife to belong to. In our Avalanche, we have a kid, only about a year older than your son, Dyne. She is a pain in the ass admittingly, but she is one of our best fighters, and barring Tifa, the only real fighter who could attack hand to hand. If we had someone else of youth and real combat, it would really help us. He is good, he helped save our asses against Jenova just, and it is obvious this means something to him." he finished.

Everyone was quiet.

"Impressive, Barret." said Jessie.

Dyne was quiet. His son was known to get into scrapes, but not like this. However, Barret had told him how Lucas had saved them, and he knew that action was what his son craved for. Dyne sighed. For once, this was a battle he was going to lose.

"All right. Lucas you can go, but Priscilla stays." he said.

"Awww!" Priscilla moaned.

Barret smiled. He could sense a 'Wherever he goes, I go.' kind of argument, but this time he was going to agree with Dyne.

"You stay here." he said firmly and that was the end of the subject.

Priscilla remained quiet, not answering but not pouted. Apparently, Barret took that as a yes.

"O.K, let's make preparations. We'd better call Spike first." said Barret.

_____________________________________________________________________

They arrived in Wutai on good time. Cait, Chromer and Heici got out quickly, whilst Yuffie breathed heavily after recently being heavily sick.

They quickly got to the pagoda and started asking around. Godo was delighted to see his daughter and her friends, but the looks on his daughter's face told him that this wasn't going to be a social visit.

Heici quickly explained the situation to Godo. Godo had looked thoughtful. Wutai could use the technology they had to survey where they had went, but he had a better idea.

"I think one piece of technology in particular might be handy." said Godo and walked into the main chambers. Yuffie confused, followed him in, followed by the rest of the gang.

The room was brightly furnished, with Japanese art and brightly coloured decorating. Heici started searching for whatever they were looking for, but the only thing even resembling technology was the television.

Godo stopped at the T.V and switched on. Heici and Yuffie almost bellowed out a huge laugh, thinking that it could help, but Chromer noticed something on the screen.

Godo had press play on a tape. "This was on a news report about a day ago. I recognised one figure and almost fainted. I just about managed to tape the rest."

The screen went fuzzy, before revealing what looked like to be the end of a report.

".....the creature seems similar to someone of the alien entities which Cloud Strife had reportedly killed, but the second figure seemed familiar, yet unfamiliar. We'll have more information from the disturbances from the northern crater as soon as we can. But this is dangerous, and the agency only pays us $30,000 a year, too low for a danger like this....."

They recognised the two figures. The alien feature of Lucresia and Tifa.

"Oh hell!" Chromer screamed. "Cloud's going there, we've got to warn him!"

He flicked open the PHS.

_____________________________________________________________________

Barret had just returned from the farm and was exhausted. He needed to rest.

They had taken the chocobo's to Billy and left them there ready to go to the crater. He flicked his PHS ready to warn Cloud and to tell him of the details.

Unaware that someone had snuck upon the underhatch of the helicopter, ready for a bumpy ride.......

_____________________________________________________________________

Looks like Cloud's in for a fight!

Next part is going to focus on how Cloud and Tifa will pysche each other out in this prelude to a big battle, and how the others are going to get there and help.

And what tricks does Seph have this time, and how many more forms of Jenova can there be? (As long as I have enough ideas.....)

Thanks for reading up to this. It had been a pressure recently, but I hope to finish this soon. Look out for a short FF7 story soon to pass the time before I begin finishing my Suikoden story, and the 4th part of the Chromer Chronicles, called 'Yuffie's Revenge.'

Usual comments appreciated at the usual adress.

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