Last Exit for the Lost Chapter 26
Gya ha ha
By Damodred
As they headed in to Wutai, directed by Yuffie, Aerith told them what she
deduced to be Chaos' plan. It was a truly monstrous, selfish thing that he
contemplated, and gave them all a chill. From the resurgence of the LifeStream
at North Crater and from what they overheard and researched in Nibelheim,
it seemed that he wanted to absorb the power of the Planet into himself in
order to bring Lucrecia back. Since the Planet's power shows itself the most
when it's threatened or harmed, he must be planning to harm it somehow. "And
since we know he's after the Black Materia, he must be planning to use it,"
Aerith finished calmly. Tifa asked, hesitantly, "How can a piece of Materia
harm the Planet? We use the ones we have constantly, and the Bolts and Fires
we make don't seem to..." she gestured helplessly, unable to envision anything
harming the Planet directly. Aerith said, firmly, "The Planet believes it
can." Tifa nodded, unable to argue with that.
Shera distributed her improvement on ShinRa's communicators. Hers were lighter,
the batteries lasted longer and the range was far beyond anything ShinRa
could manufacture. "Something I whipped up when I was bored," she said,
shrugging, "The quality of transmission is not as good, but the tradeoff's
worth it." They headed towards the town, leaving Reno behind with his thoughts,
watching the plane.
Within minutes, they could see the large pagoda jutting out of the forests
around Wutai. Shera was lucky to have found such a suitable landing site,
so close to such a remote place. Fortunately the forests didn't prevail in
the area, and were concentrated only near the foot of the cliffs, allowing
Shera to make landing fairly close. Aerith slowed her pace, dropping back
to walk by Tifa for a while.
"I think I can purge him of the mutated Jenova cells within him and Chaos'
influence if I can concentrate on him for a while. He's been moving around
so fast that I couldn't tell before. But much of the damage done to him appears
to be the same as Sephiroth's." Tifa opened her mouth to ask, but Aerith
anticipated her question, "He is purified now. It took a while, but
wasn't difficult. Just strenuous." She added musingly, a light blush suffusing
her features, "The close contact helped a little, too." Tifa glanced at her
sideways, smiling slightly and a new hope entered her heart, missing since
Aerith's announcement on the plane.
"I like it here," commented Aerith from her vantage point outside the Inn.
After procuring some new Materia, fuel for the Pride and a new staff for
Shera, they left Yuffie and Tifa admiring the hardware at the weapons store.
It seemed that they were glued to the display, so the rest of the group left
them there to have a drink at the Dachao's Rest. "It's unspoiled, remote
and peaceful. It's almost a pity that we have to leave soon." she finished
regretfully. Shera nodded, sipping her martini and taking in the vista. The
Inn's patio had a wonderful view of the forest of Wutai, the mountain jutting
out of it like a punctuation mark. The contrast was impressive and imposing,
for the mountain was very close, almost dwarfing the small village and its
sandy, rocky slopes were in sharp opposition to the soft green of the forest
below. They enjoyed the silence and the crisp air for a while longer, then
reluctantly got up, acknowledging the need to get moving. They decided to
get Yuffie and Tifa together, as a group.
"What do you mean, they left half an hour ago?" asked Shera, planting her
hands on the counter and leaning over. The powerfully built clerk, obviously
a user of the weapons he sold, took a wary step back. He said, stiffly, "I
mean exactly what I said. The Kisaragi girl almost stole one of my smaller
throwing knives, but the taller one stopped her, and then they left, arguing."
Aerith looked at him blankly for a moment, then smacked her forehead in
exasperation, "Of course, this is her hometown!" She turned to the clerk,
who was looking at them even more warily, and asked, "Do you know where Yuffie
lives?"
"Yuffie?" Aerith asked of the empty-looking house, opening the door cautiously,
surprised when it wouldn't swing any further than about a foot. After squeezing
inside, they realized that the doorstop was a prone body, lying in a small
puddle of blood. Aerith crouched down, turning it over coolly, now noticing
another body in the corner, shrouded in shadow. "SOLDIER, 3rd class" she
said, pointing out the tattoed "3" on the dead man's wrist. "They're the
ones who get all the lousy assignments." She sighed, getting back up, "Looks
like Yuffie stole that throwing knife after all." She turned to Shera, who
was turning over the other body, "I'm afraid whoever's behind this captured
both Tifa and Yuffie." "But why?" asked Shera blankly, but then realized
it. "Bait?" Aerith nodded grimly, "Indeed. And I'm afraid we have to take
it." Closing her eyes, she concentrated.
"Ow," Tifa moaned, wincing as every slight movement made the pounding in
her head increase. Opening her eyes only made the situation worse, as her
predicament became obvious, the ropes cutting painfully into her wrists and
ankles. She took stock in the situation, looking around in the darkness as
much as the ropes binding her allowed. She seemed to be lying on her side,
her tied wrists touching her ankles behind her back. Her back was arched
painfully and she was completely unable to move, only to twitch her torso
side to side. There were no windows, but enough light was leaking under the
door to allow her to realize that she seemed to be in some sort of a dead-ended
hallway, perhaps a storage closet. In the dim light, she discerned Yuffie's
prone form, tied in a similar manner. She said her name quietly, afraid of
letting their captors know that she was awake, and was rewarded with a groan
of pain as the girl tried to move. "Shhhh," she whispered urgently, "Don't
let them know you're awake." Yuffie nodded agreement, wincing in pain again.
She whispered to Tifa, "I think we're in Lord Godo's house. There's a secret
passage in this hallway, but it doesn't do us any good." Tifa could discern
Yuffie's voice was trembling, but she was putting on a good front. She opened
her mouth to say something encouraging, when she suddenly heard...no, felt
someone call her name. She closed her eyes, concentrating. Aerith's presence
was out there, questing for her but unable to find her. Tifa raised her mental
voice, discarding her training to 'shout' again, feeling intense relief as
the presence that was Aerith suddenly perceived her and turned in her direction.
As Tifa reeled, stunned by the power of Aerith's lifeforce, she was able
to glean a small understanding of what Aerith really was; a power that the
Planet recognized and loved. Tifa's senses whirled, unable to adjust to the
sheer brilliance that Aerith exuded within the lifestream. No, it wasn't
a brilliance, it was...presence. It was the only way Tifa was able to understand
what role Aerith's essence played in the Planet's existence. In this mental
realm where life seethed everywhere around her, there was constant activity.
The trees in the Wutai forests were breathing, their inhalations going on
forever, to be followed by equally long exhalations. Thousands of forest-dwelling
creatures frolicked within and around the trees, their life forces as quick
and bright as the trees' were dull and still, but immensely powerful. The
people in Wutai's were brighter than ones she sensed in Gongaga, undulled
by loss or suffering. They were more brittle however, untempered by hardship.
And in the center of all that shone Aerith, her force so strong it seemed
that it would outshine everything around her. Instead, her inner light
strengthened those in her company and sharpened their own brilliance. Tifa
was able to tone down her experience within the LifeStream, but so much joy
poured out of the Planet that she laughed, unable to withstand that power.
Suddenly she felt trapped and panicked briefly, but then realized it was
Aerith's life force around her, shielding her from the impact of the LifeStream.
Now she could focus on her objective again, and view the powers raging around
her with a calm detachment, but no less awe. She felt her mind intermingle
with Aerith's, their thoughts intertwining and merging for brief moments,
then flying apart again. She realized that it was amazing that mental contact
with others was easy, considering the mess that each person had in their
head. She laughed again, realizing that she no longer knew if that thought
was hers or Aerith's, yet feeling no alarm about it. She could at least feel
Aerith's calm confidence, and could still feel which part of their merging
was essentially her own. She tried pulling back a little as an experiment,
and upon finding no resistance at all, settled in and attempted to communicate.
"It's too soon!" a voice shouted outside their holding cell, shattering Tifa's
concentration. A section of the wall swung open abruptly, and a couple of
similar looking men, their eyes glowing faintly with Mako, walked inside.
They unceremoniously picked up the captives and slung them over their shoulders.
Bouncing on the man's shoulder as they walked out, Tifa wondered how long
she was in the trance with Aerith, but it seemed like a long time. Even after
Aerith's presence diminished, she stayed behind, reluctant to return to her
aching body. She was also somewhat disappointed at her inability to communicate
anything but the simplest messages. The fact that she didn't know who captured
them didn't help much either. She tried to indicate that they were probably
in Lord Godo's house, but wasn't sure how much went through. Bringing her
thoughts back to the present, she wondered where they were going.
.