Final Fantasy: Resurrection Prologue
By Lyte It Up
Tifa sighed, looking around the house. “Cloud…Cloud where are you?”
“I’m just out here practicing.” Came a yell from outside. Tifa shook her head and walked outside, pausing on the way to peek into an adjacent room. She smiled to herself and continued out.
“What do you think you’re doing Cloud Strife?” She said in a playful voice, seeing Cloud sparring with Cid. “You know there’s no reason to be doing that.” She smiled. “Hi Cid.”
Cid laughed as he ducked, dodging Cloud’s sword, and jabbed back with his spear. Cloud was fast and hit it aside, and jumped back as another jab came inches away from his chest. Cid stopped, and placing his spear into the ground leaning against, lighting a cigarette, it he waved at Tifa. “How you doing?”
Tifa’s smile grew as she walked over to Cloud. The two now lived together in Nibelheim, the town was now back to normal, in fact most of the world was back to normal now with the destruction of Shinra and Meteor out of the way. She shook her finger at Cid. “You’re such a bad influence.”
Cloud laughed and softly kissed Tifa. “Just keeping in shape, just in case.”
“Just in case what?” Tifa said, with just a hint of fear in her voice. “Listen Cloud, Sephiroth is dead, he’s not coming back. Before Cloud could respond Nanaki came running in.
“Cloud!” He cried, out of breath.
“What is it?”
Nanaki paused looking at Tifa. “Its Jenova…”
*** *** ***
“I don’t get it.” Cid said taking a pull on his cigarette. “We killed that thing…many times. This is insane!” The Highwind suddenly jerked and everyone onboard staggered. “Goddamn it fly this thing strait!” He screamed to the pilot.
“Sorry Cid, there’s a lot of wind!” The pilot screamed, struggling with the controls.
“The sky is angry…” Tifa said softly.
Cloud sighed and hugged her. “Where did Nanaki say Jenova was?”
“A few Kilometers south of the Crater, heading south…who knows how far its made it by now. But we just passed the Icicle Inn, so we should see it soon.”
“Has anyone seen Yuffie or Vincent lately?” Tifa asked. “I mean, we could use all the help we can get.”
“No one has seen Vincent since then, and Yuffie…well lets just say she has her own problems to deal with,” Barret said. “’sides, this is a serious battle, we can’t have her over here messin’ shit up.”
“We could have at least asked…” Tifa said.
“We don’t need her ok? Lets just get this over with so I can get back to Marlene.”
Suddenly an alarm went off, red light flickered on and off. “Cid! There it is! At the end of the mountain pass!” The pilot shouted. The four ran to the window and looked out. Jenova was moving fast, it looked much like the last time they saw it, but this time it looked almost human.
It had legs and arms, of normal length, but her hands were more like claws, as with her feet. It had long purple hair going down past the arch of it’s back, and covered it’s bare chest. It didn’t seem to have any reproductive organs that they could see since it didn’t have any clothes on, which made the four wonder why it had breasts.
A long greenish tentacle came out of each of her shoulder blades, and waved wildly in the air. They seemed to sense the airship coming and pointed towards it, and she stopped running looking up at them.
“Everyone up on deck…now!” Cid screamed and the four ran out. A crewman was waiting for them and threw over the ladder.
“We’re going to get as close to it as possible.” He said. Cid nodded as the ship lowered about a Kilometer away from Jenova, who still stood still. One by one they went down the ladder, Cloud first, followed by Tifa, Cid and finally Barret.
“Keep it here!” Cid yelled up. He turned around towards Jenova and his friends and sighed. “Lets do it.” He said as he took out a new cigarette and lit it with one hand and held his spear in the other. Cloud unsheathed his Ultima Weapon and Tifa put on her Premium Heart gloves.
“I never thought I’d use these again.” She said sadly, her eyes locked onto Cloud’s.
“Don’t worry.” He said turning to Jenova. “Lets just end this, for good.” The four approached Jenova cautiously; she just stood there, her tentacles bobbing up and down slowly, and her hair flowing in the breeze. They stopped a few meters away from her.
“I remember you.” It said after a long silence. The group was shocked; they had never heard it talk. Even if it looked human the voice threw any thoughts of it being human from their minds. It was deep, somewhat feminine, but sounded as if four people were talking at once, and sent chills down their spine.
Cloud took a step forward. “You…can talk?”
“Of course I can now.”
“What do you mean now?”
“Now that I am my true self again.” Jenova said smiling.
“What do you want?” Tifa asked.
It took a step forward, and as it did the group took a step back. “The same thing I’ve always wanted. Death…death for every living thing, to cause pain and anguish is my greatest pleasure. It is why I came here, to exterminate life, but I didn’t expect to receive such resistance.”
“You are a monster…” Cloud said. “This time you won’t come back!”
Cloud screamed and ran forward, Tifa and Cid close behind. Barret shot at Jenova aiming between his friends. Jenova jumped up to avoid the bullets and with some amazing acrobatics landed behind Barret. Cloud gasped stopping short and turning around and Barret cursed and turned around only to be tossed aside by one of Jenova’s tentacles. He cried out and flew back tumbling into Cid.
Cloud and Tifa approached Jenova and came up on opposite sides of it. One tentacle was focused on each of them, as it just stared strait ahead at Barret and Cid getting up and starting to run towards it. Cloud and Tifa began to attack, and the tentacle blocked each attempt.
Cloud was swinging his sword again and again, but the tentacle was strong enough to block it, as if it was a sword. He stopped for a split second for a breath and the tentacle shot forward through his shoulder
Cloud screamed in pain as Jenova’s tentacle lifted him into the air. Tifa gasped and lowered her guard as the tentacle shot out at her. She was able to roll to the side and dodge it. Cid and Barret just got there and helped Tifa up.
The other tentacle stayed focused on the three as Jenova had it’s fun with Cloud, who screamed in pain. “Let him go!” Tifa screamed.
Jenova pouted. “Fine.” The tentacle turned sharply and Cloud went flying off into the three. It cackled. “Oh how fun this is!”
The three helped Cloud up. “I’m ok, I’m ok.” He said panting. “How is it so strong?”
“I told you.” Jenova cut in. “This is my true form. I am stronger then I ever was, you have no chance to beat me. Give into your fate and the fate of your planet, and die by my hand!”
“Never!” Barret screamed firing his gun. Jenova just stood there, getting hit by each bullet, without flinching once. Barret was speechless. Jenova began to laugh again, that is if you could call it laughing.
“We can’t even touch it.” Tifa complained. “What do we do?”
Cloud’s face went blank. “There’s only one way…Ultima.”
The three gasped. “No Cloud, you can’t do that.” Cid argued. “That materia will destroy anything alive in a twenty kilometer area! That and you’ll have to charge it up before you can cast it!”
“Are we far enough away from the Icicle Inn?” Cloud asked.
“Yes but that’s not what I meant…someone will…”
“I know, I’ll do it, I’ll distract it long enough to cast Ultima.”
“No!” Tifa cried out. “No I won’t let you!”
“Tifa…its either me or the planet…I know now how it was able to come back…it is able to survive as long as her cells are still alive…and I have her cells inside me. To destroy her, I must also be destroyed.”
Tears ran down Tifa’s face, they didn’t even notice Jenova standing nearby getting impatient. “No…” Tifa whimpered.
“There is no time to argue!” Cloud screamed, looking at Jenova. “Barret, the materia.” Barret sighed and reaching into his backpack, taking out the orb, and softly drop it into Cloud’s hand. “Now get out of here!” The other three just stood there with long faces, Tifa continued to cry. “Go! Now!”
“Come on Tifa.” Barret said, half dragging her back to the Highwind. Cid stood there for a second, saluted Cloud, and ran back to the ship. Cloud’s eyes stayed locked onto Tifa’s as Cid started up the ladder, with Barret right behind him.
Tifa cried out again, but Barret shook his head. She sighed and started up the ladder. Cid hopped over and ran inside. Barret was halfway up, and Tifa a few meters up as she saw Cloud just smile at her, and suddenly the smile turned into pain, as a tentacle was shoved through his stomach. He gasped and the materia dropped out of his hand into the snow.
Tifa gasped out and as the ship started moving she jumped off. “Tifa!” Barret screamed down. “Goddamn it, stop the ship! Shit!” Tifa rolled over and got up, running towards Cloud and Jenova.
She picked up the matera and whispered a few words, the crystal beginning to glow. Cloud screamed in pain as he slowly slid down the tentacle closer to Jenova. Jenova laughed as he got close enough and dug her claw into his shoulder.
“No!” Tifa screamed.
“You’re friends abandoned you.” Jenova said with delight. “Just as well, I will kill them later.” Tifa looked at the crystal, glowing brighter, it would happen soon…
“You won’t kill him!!!” She cried out, and ran towards Jenova.
“Faster!! Faster, Ultima will be going off any second!” Cid screamed
as Barret ran into the bridge.
“You have to go back!” He screamed.
“What? Are you nuts?” Cid asked.
“Tifa…she jumped off!”
Cid’s face got even more down. “We can’t go back. Even if we did, we couldn’t get back and get them on the ship in time…we will barley make it out of the blast radius now…it was her choice…I guess we did all we could do…”
“We did all we could do!?” Barret ran over to Cid and punched him. “Goddamn it Cid, Tifa is like a sister to me, now go back and let’s get her!” Just as he said that a huge explosion was heard. Barret gasped and ran outside.
“Faster goddamn it, unless you want to become a speck of dust!” Cid screamed standing up.
Barret ran up against the bars, and looked back, a huge blue wall of fire was heading strait for them. “Tifa…” He said softly and fell to his knees. “Cloud…”
The wall of fire closed in on them, destroying everything in its path. The Highwind shook violently, as it got closer and closer. “We aren’t going to make it!” Cid said.
“One thousand meters!”
“Faster!!!”
“Nine hundred meters!”
“Goddamn it no, the boosters aren’t working!”
“Eight hundred meters!” Cid cursed to himself and pushed the throttle all the way up. “Seven hundred meters!!”
Barret came walking in. The ship shook violently now, but he didn’t care, he fell to the floor. “Six hundred meters!”
“Don’t you give up on me Barret, help me!” Cid cried out.
“Five hundred meters!”
“What for?” Barret asked.
“Four hundred meters!”
“I know this is sad, but you don’t want to die, what about Marlene?”
“Three hundred meters!! We have to do something fast Cid!” Barret sighed and stayed on the ground, deep in thought.
“Two hundred meters!”
“Barret please help me!” Cid cried. “Save me, save my crew, and save yourself. Don’t let Marlene grow up without a father!”
“One hundred meters!” Sparks flew throughout the ship and Barret staggered to get to the controls.
“Don’t you know anything?” He said banging on the terminal. “You have to hit it for it to work!” With that the ship shot forward.
“Ninety meters…eighty-five meters...eighty meters…we are still going to slow Cid!”
“Now what?” Cid said softly.
“Seventy meters, Cid it’s too close, we are losing the thrusters!”
“No, no, no, no!!!”
“Can I give up now?” Barret said, as the ship violently shook sending everyone to their feet.
“Fifty meters…the engines are failing!”
Everyone was silent, not that they could be heard with all the noise going on inside the ship. Fires were started all over the place, and the ship began to plummet. Their speed dropped and Cid turned around to see the wall of fire incinerate the back of the room and he closed his eyes preparing to die as the wall disappeared just as suddenly as it appeared.
“We’re going down!” The pilot screamed, snapping Cid out of his relief, as the Highwind went plummeting down. Only half the ship remained, and within a few seconds, it went slamming into the ground. Luckily the engines were vaporized, and the ship didn’t explode.
Cid coughed getting up. “Everyone ok?”
Barret stood up the best he could. “Everyone but Tifa and Cloud.”
Cid sighed as everyone climbed out of the wreckage and Barret began to walk back. “Where are you going?” Cid asked.
“I want to see them…”
*** *** ***
The area where they fought Jenova was destroyed, a huge crater stood now, deep down into the earth, for as far as anyone could see. “Great, now there are two craters.” Cid said softly. “Barret…you know Ultima kills anything and everything…we won’t be able to see them again…”
Barret sighed pointing. “Yes it vaporizes anything alive…but its harmless to the already dead.” Cid looked to what Barret was pointing to and saw Cloud and Tifa, in each other’s arms, covered in blood.