Last Exit for the Lost Chapter 34
...For You
By Damodred
The small plane bucked, unexpectedly, as the entire planet seemed to lurch
in front of them, throwing them wildly around the cabin. Aerith and Sephiroth,
forewarned a split second earlier by their connection to the planet, managed
to prevent themselves from being flung too much, and Yuffie, guided by some
sixth sense (perhaps her rudimentary Planet instinct) also managed to hold
on. Shera and Cloud were both strapped in, so the damage was minimal. It
seemed as if all the air around them had displaced itself by about a foot,
with no warning whatsoever; then all was still again.
A flustered Yuffie brushed an errant lock of hair away from her face. "What
the heck was that?" she asked in a belligerent voice. While Aerith was glad
to see that the young ninja seemed to be recovering, she wondered if it was
perhaps better when she was still under the influence of recent events and
as such, QUIET. "Yeah," added Shera from the front, sounding a bit shaken,
"It felt like we were moved suddenly..." she trailed off, unable to articulate
the sensation. "The Planet sounds upset," observed Sephiroth, his eyes closed
and his voice far away, "but everything seems allright now...oh." His eyes
flew open and he stared at Aerith, expressionless. She was wondering if the
fear that only she could see in the depths of his gaze was her own. Her voice
steady, she said, "We'll be right outside. Back in a second." At the last
word, she and Sephiroth vanished.
"What was that all about?" demanded Yuffie, querulously. She had grown used
to the mystique that those two seemed to be suffused with, and to their sudden
comings and goings, but she would still like to know better what the hell
was going on. Since there was no one else to pester, she plopped herself
in the copilot seat and turned towards Shera. "Any ideas?" Shera answered
her, tight-lipped as she scanned the horizon, "No, but I have a feeling that
we're not gonna like it. This air feels..." She stopped as a faint moan issued
from the back. She glanced backward quickly and then turned back. "Cloud
is coming to. Go see if he needs anything, and if he's lucid yet." Yuffie
found herself getting up and moving towards the back before it occurred to
her to argue. It seems that Shera's years as mayor of Rocket Town taught
her much, and especially how to get people to do what she wanted.
Cloud fought towards consciousness sluggishly. It seemed that his body did
not want to obey him, and every time he remembered why he seemed to crash
towards despair. He couldn't remember all of it, but he knew he'd been enthralled
by...He couldn't remember, but there was a strange sense of familiarity to
the whole thing. He tried to put his pain behind him, momentarily, and to
emerge. He had the strangest feeling someone was calling him.
Yuffie almost had a heart attack when the blond SOLDIER sat bolt upright
and said "Tifa?" in a clear, but faintly puzzled voice. "Um, hi. Like, no,
I'm Yuffie," she said, uneasily. He seemed allright, but who knew
what was going on in his spiky-haired head. As he turned his iridescent blue
gaze on her, she shivered slightly. In an uncanny way, he resembled Sephiroth,
and it wasn't just the Mako glow. They both had a certain dispassion about
them, a reserve which was hard to crack, a rigidness which wouldn't bend
in the harshest wind. In a sudden flash of insight she understood that Cloud
had been broken and reforged of sterner stuff, via his ordeal. A certain
innocence that she witnessed in Zack's eyes - and which she attracted her
- was absent, replaced by grim determination. "I'm hungry," he said quietly.
She jumped up and grabbed some rations they had stolen from ShinRa what seemed
like a lifetime ago. "Um, we have these things...they're edible," she stammered
out. As he sat munching, a wondering look came over his face and she wondered
what he was up to.
Cloud found the girl amusing, but somehow knew she was quite powerful, if
untrained, in her own right. So he kept quiet and kept munching on the field
rations, but something kept intruding. He managed to collect most of the
scraps of his memories, and now realized that the monster which had controlled
him was the same one that had destroyed Nibelheim. And caused the death of....no.
He couldn't think about that yet; he had to keep his emotions under control
for now. Best not to delve and instead absorb himself in the collection of
his fragmented memories for a while. He suddenly realized that he, the girl
and the pilot up front weren't alone; there seemed to be two entities tagging
along on top of the plane. He stopped eating, amazed and realized that he
had been feeling them for a while; but that wasn't all. He seemed to be feeling
much more, in fact he could...his mouth almost dropped open with amazement.
He could feel...he couldn't exactly tell what it was. The air around the
plane; the ocean far below them; the fish in the ocean; the earth...the Planet!
He could feel the Planet! Somehow his ordeal had loosened the bonds on his
mind, and made him truly aware. He knew that usually that made people insane,
but somehow he felt like he understood everything, but wasn't deluged by
it. He would know more, and he knew how to find out. Dropping the ration
- in truth, he didn't feel hungry anymore - he stood up and concentrated.
His hands went like this; he said the word like this; and his mind went like
this....
They became aware of the new presence almost simultaneously; Sephiroth with
his battle instincts and Aerith with her heightened sensitivity. The turned
around to behold Cloud behind them on the fuselage of the plane, holding
on to the tail and looking up, as they were. He was holding on from habit;
the fact that he was immaterial kept him quite safe; the 450 mph wind couldn't
touch him. Sephiroth's eyebrow twitched and Aerith gasped a little; becoming
immaterial was not the way she'd had done it. She and Sephiroth were protected
by a Shield, so all the wind went around them instead. In addition, it was
an extremely difficult spell, yet Cloud had managed it apparently without
even knowing. "What is it?" he asked, pointing at the sky. Aerith dismissed
her brief wonder and answered him "It's Meteor." Cloud nodded, "Can we stop
it?" "We don't know," Sephiroth answered, studying Cloud carefully. Aerith
looked up.
It was as if someone had taken the moon, painted it lurid red, punched it
full of pockmarked holes and thrown it towards the Planet. There was a trail
of red dust behind it, giving it an impression of speed despite the fact
that it was still far away and the motion was indiscernible. To Cloud, it
looked like the ugliest thing he head ever seen. To Sephiroth, it looked
like it was getting closer, and accelerating. To Aerith, who knew exactly
what it was, it looked like destruction.
.