Chapter 19: Operation Meteor Final
After a long time of traveling around, we managed to arrive at the Forgotten City, and me and Loz parked our motorbikes just outside of our destination. Me and Kadaj shared one since she was still too young to drive on her own. We all got off and went inside, and I lead the way and studied the area “Dang… this place is old. Look at it… no wonder the enemy would hide the Black Materia here. Most likely, hardly anyone even knows about this place anymore.” Kadaj replied “So, where’s our target? Which way do we go, Brother?” I stopped to think, then said “Down below… its there. We need to find a way down. That will lead us right to our target, and we can call it mission accomplished. Unless this is a trap. Id prepare for the worst, you two.” Loz was confused “But why would they set us up here? It doesn’t make sense!” I replied “Enough talking. The more stand here and talk about it, the more time we lose at this serious last chance. Follow me, I think I know where to go.” Then we began walking as a group. I came to a large open area and entered a large structure that appeared to be an old house of sorts. Oddly enough, the interior was decorated like one. I saw what looked like a pool in the middle at the bottom floor, and realized it was all black underneath the grass. I shrugged “Looks like this is our way down… fortunately, the water is black. Lets go.” I slipped down first, and Kadaj and Loz went in after me. We didn’t end up in a body of black water, but the entire outside here was pitch black “Black water is awfully rare nowadays… I wonder how this place still has it. The Black Materia shouldn’t be far from here. Let’s go.” Kadaj worried “Um, Yazoo… its awfully quiet, don’t you think..? Maybe too quiet?” I agreed “I know, but we have to risk it. Mother and Sephiroth are counting on us. If we don’t get this Black Materia, we wont get another chance. We have to secure it and bring it to Sephiroth. He’s the only one strong enough to summon meteor himself.” We reached the bottom of the long stairway, and came to a small secluded temple. In an open area ahead, I saw the Black Materia and signalled Loz and Kadaj to stay put. Then I carefully approached it, holding my revolver and prepared to shoot anything that revealed itself. I reached it, and picked it up “Good… I got it.” I made my way back to Kadaj and Loz carefully, and we ran back upstairs and then outside. Loz cried “We did it! Let’s get outta here before Cloud finds out!” I agreed “Right, we cant wait around for company! Keep running, you two!” I carried the black materia in my free hand, and lead the way out to the entrance. When I thought we had made it unscathed, I stopped suddenly, and Kadaj and Loz also did. I saw several Shinra troops ahead of us, along with a man who had red hair in a blue suit. Loz was angry “Gaah, you! I know you, stupid old man!” He laughed and shrugged “That’s nice. I know you too, kid. You didn’t really think I’d let you kids get away with that thing so easily, did you?” I shook my head and turned serious “I expected something to go wrong. You expect any less of a JENOVA SOLDIER 1st Class? Im not the lead for nothing, Reno.” He laughed “You know my name! I didn’t think you’d remember that part. But oh well, this isnt the time for introductions. Let’s get to the point already.” I turned to Kadaj and Loz “I need you two to cover me from the front! I cant go in on them head on or we could lose the Black Materia!” They both nodded and attacked, and I fired shots from behind to support them. The Shinra troops were defeated quickly by Kadaj’s souba and Loz’s dual hound, but Reno hit me from behind and I fell down, dropping the Black Materia. “Loz, get it! Quick!” Loz managed to catch it and Kadaj landed a hit on Reno with her souba. I got back on my feet and shot him several times. He was too injured to continue now and limped his way out, frustrated “Gah…! You wont get away… no one gets away from us..!” Loz gave the materia back to me and asked “Whats he talking about? We kicked his butt.” I shook my head “There’s no time to find out. We have to go before more Shinra troops show up!” He nodded, and I lead the way outside and got on my motorbike with Kadaj. Loz got on his, and we began driving our way back to the lab to meet up with Sephiroth. “I don’t think they’re gonna let us go that easily… that was too easy. I don’t like it one bit. Stay alert, Loz!” Loz understood “Of course!” Kadaj said “I hope this doesn’t get too ugly… what would Mother and Sephiroth do if we didn’t make it?” I sighed “We have to make it! This our last shot at Meteor. Sephiroth even said himself we most likely wont get another chance.” Kadaj moaned. Kadaj said “We’re barely even teenagers, and they’re picking on us already? But why? I don’t understand…” I felt bad for her. She was still too young to understand what we were facing and why Shinra and Cloud incessantly went after us. Even after the story Sephiroth told us about his past, when he wielded the Black Materia and did all he could to save Mother and protect the legacy. She didn’t wanna fight; she wanted a normal life that anyone could enjoy. And truth be told, so did I… and I know Loz wanted the same thing. But until we used the Black Materia and Meteor is upon this Planet again, that would be impossible for us. Suddenly, I could make out something several ways ahead of us, and tried to make out what it was. Before long, I realized Cloud was driving a motorbike of his own, heading right towards me and Kadaj. I gasped “Ahh, shoot..! Hang on, Kadaj! I have to slam the brakes!” I slammed the breaks to make an emergency stop to avoid crashing into Cloud, and she screamed. Loz also stopped out of the way as fast as he could. I remembered my special power that Mother blessed me with and used it “Reunion Staves! Hope you got good insurance, Brother!” Several tall and pointy black rocks emerged from the ground, and he tried to avoid crashing into them, but it was too late. His motorbike crashed right into my Reunion Staves, and they blew up on impact, releasing a huge burst of JENOVA cells. Kadaj calmed and down and happily cried “Nice one, Yazoo! We wont have to worry about him now!” Loz pointed ahead at something “I don’t know, Kadaj… what’s that? In the rubble of the explosion.” I followed his gaze and realized Cloud had somehow broken through the mess. Surprisingly, he appeared to be completely unscathed “No way! That was a direct hit! How is he still standing?!” Kadaj cried “Impossible! He crashed right into them!” Loz panicked “What do we do?! There is no effing way we’re gonna beat this guy!” I sighed “I don’t want to put Sephiroth in danger… we’ll just have to fight him!” Cloud was holding his sword and walked towards us, looking angry. I sighed “What do you want, Cloud? We don’t have time to play with you.” Cloud replied “The Black Materia—hand it over! You don’t have any idea how dangerous it is!” I shook my head “As if. Im not going to just give it to you. What would Sephiroth say? We’re not going to throw the job away like that. What kind of fools do you take us for?” Loz attacked him from behind with his dual hound, and caught him off guard “Youre in our way! Get lost!” I smiled and tried not to laugh. Even if he put it in a rather goofy fashion, it was true. Cloud was trying to get in our way. Cloud got into his fighting stance and then Loz and him began fighting each other. He looked pretty happy during most of the fight, but later on, Cloud landed a bad hit on him from behind. Loz winced from pain “Gyaahh..! I wont… let you.. win..!” Suddenly recovering after getting hit badly, he stood up and went at Cloud with all the strength he had left “For Mother!!” Cloud was getting frustrated now “Do you even have any idea what Meteor is going to do if you let Sephiroth summon it?” Loz kept fighting him off “I don’t care about your stupid complaints! I got orders, and im gonna follow em! That’s that! I don’t care about your stupid opinion, big dummy!” I smiled and shot Cloud from behind with my revolver. Several of my shots hit him before he fell to the ground and was too weak to continue. Loz walked closer and smiled “Wasn’t that fun? Well, id better say goodbye for now.” Then he delivered one more hit on Cloud from his dual hound and laughed. He got back on his motorbike, and me and Kadaj got on mine. Then we drove off and took advantage of our opportunity to get away. I said “Nice work, Loz! Now there’s no way for him to stop us!” We headed straight for the hidden lab after that, and hadnt run into anymore trouble on our way back. We parked outside the lab and hurried inside. I gave the Black Materia to Sephiroth, who glanced at us hopefully when he noticed we returned. Sephiroth smiled “You did it… you brought it back. Good work, you three. What of Cloud?” I replied “He should be a goner, at least for now. Loz kicked his butt out there. I don’t think we’ll see him for a while.” Sephiroth held the Black Materia happily in both hands “Thank you, my young brethren… I’ve waited so long for this day to return…” Kadaj happily cried “Yeah! Mission accomplished! So uh… now what?” Sephiroth answered “I will make for the cave to the north past the freezing mountains. I will summon meteor from there. I want you three to meet me there. Mother will join you kids so you have a strong guardian to aid you if things get rough. I doubt the enemy will do nothing about this, so that’s why Mother will fight alongside you three. More than likely, we will be attacked by Zeta Weapon if im successful. The creatures respond to impending threats of a large scale. Brace for the worst.” I nodded “Of course. We’re ready to do whatever it takes, Sephiroth. And we’ll take care of Mother as well so the full Reunion manifests on our final mission.” Mother came out and smiled at us. I saw she had grown a new pair of metal silver wings too “This is it… our dreams are finally gonna come true, Mother. We wont lose this time!” Sephiroth suddenly grew a bit nervous and said “Three times now we’ve tried to do this… and were defeated on the first two.” Kadaj replied “Hang in there, Sephiroth. We wont have to suffer this sadness any longer… just gotta be careful.” Mother said “He is right… and we got quite far both times.” Even Mother seemed nervous. I approached her and took her hand gently “Its ok, Mother. We can win this time, I know we can.” Mother nodded silently in response. Sephiroth sighed and gazed at the Black Materia in his hand “We part for the Reunion at dawn. Rest well and recharge until then, my family. I will move out first, and the rest of you will go after me.” Hojo asked “And what about me, hm? Arent you forgetting something?” I was confused, then remembered “Right… the mako vaccine. Is it good?” Hojo smiled and drew another syringe from his pocket “It is. It worked on Sephiroth!” Kadaj cheered “Alright! Now we wont burn away if Zeta gets too close!” I smiled and agreed “Right. Let’s get ours and call it a day. We’ve got a big day tomorrow. We’ll need all the sleep we can get.” Loz and Kadaj nodded at me firmly. The rest of that day, we focused on resting and got our vaccines from Hojo. He said Mother didn’t need one because she was strong enough to stand up to Zeta Weapon without the protection. Kadaj and Loz went to bed first, and I went in to see Kadaj and check on her. She was already sleeping, and so were Loz and Mother. I sighed, and realized Sephiroth and Hojo were the only ones awake. Sephiroth was sitting on his bed in his usual clothes looking at the Black Materia in his hand. Noticing he was uneasy, I approached him “Hey Big Brother, are you alright? You don’t look so good.” Sephiroth sighed but didn’t answer. I knew he was worried about tomorrow. His masamune was perched against the wall of his room. I asked “Is it about tomorrow?” He nodded “Yes… I never forget the failures I committed in the past. Every time I found a perfect plan, it wound up being foiled by the foolish man named Cloud. If I fail again, Mother will…” he shook his head sadly. I decided to sit next to him, and wanted to make him smile “Do you sense any danger ahead of us on this?” He shook his head “I don’t know. I really don’t… im sorry, Yazoo. I tried this same thing once before, and after all that work, Cloud screwed me and Mother over. That man and his foolish conspirators… I cant let them win this time.” I put my hand on his shoulder “Hey, its ok, alright? Youre not alone. You’ve got me, Kadaj, and Loz this time. We have better numbers now, even if there still are too many bogies. I know there arent that many of us, but we’re unstoppable together. We’ll protect Mother, alright? She’ll get what she wants, I promise. I remember when I was little, I promised her I’d save her… and the legacy. And im gonna do it, no matter what we face.” Sephiroth looked at me and turned serious “You’re right. We have to go for it and hope for the best. If you guys and Mother can keep the enemy busy long enough, that should leave room for me to finish summoning Meteor. After that, its only a matter of days before the Great Beginning is upon us. The enemy will be nothing but history then.” I smiled, and he smiled back and gave me a hug. Sephiroth said “Thank you, my Brother… you helped me regain my confidence. Thank you for understanding my burdens and what I’ve been through.” I replied “No problem. Mother said we gotta stick together, even if it looks bad.” He nodded and I got up, then he laid down and fell asleep with the Black Materia in his hand. After that, I decided to go to bed.
To Be Continued…
After a long time of traveling around, we managed to arrive at the Forgotten City, and me and Loz parked our motorbikes just outside of our destination. Me and Kadaj shared one since she was still too young to drive on her own. We all got off and went inside, and I lead the way and studied the area “Dang… this place is old. Look at it… no wonder the enemy would hide the Black Materia here. Most likely, hardly anyone even knows about this place anymore.” Kadaj replied “So, where’s our target? Which way do we go, Brother?” I stopped to think, then said “Down below… its there. We need to find a way down. That will lead us right to our target, and we can call it mission accomplished. Unless this is a trap. Id prepare for the worst, you two.” Loz was confused “But why would they set us up here? It doesn’t make sense!” I replied “Enough talking. The more stand here and talk about it, the more time we lose at this serious last chance. Follow me, I think I know where to go.” Then we began walking as a group. I came to a large open area and entered a large structure that appeared to be an old house of sorts. Oddly enough, the interior was decorated like one. I saw what looked like a pool in the middle at the bottom floor, and realized it was all black underneath the grass. I shrugged “Looks like this is our way down… fortunately, the water is black. Lets go.” I slipped down first, and Kadaj and Loz went in after me. We didn’t end up in a body of black water, but the entire outside here was pitch black “Black water is awfully rare nowadays… I wonder how this place still has it. The Black Materia shouldn’t be far from here. Let’s go.” Kadaj worried “Um, Yazoo… its awfully quiet, don’t you think..? Maybe too quiet?” I agreed “I know, but we have to risk it. Mother and Sephiroth are counting on us. If we don’t get this Black Materia, we wont get another chance. We have to secure it and bring it to Sephiroth. He’s the only one strong enough to summon meteor himself.” We reached the bottom of the long stairway, and came to a small secluded temple. In an open area ahead, I saw the Black Materia and signalled Loz and Kadaj to stay put. Then I carefully approached it, holding my revolver and prepared to shoot anything that revealed itself. I reached it, and picked it up “Good… I got it.” I made my way back to Kadaj and Loz carefully, and we ran back upstairs and then outside. Loz cried “We did it! Let’s get outta here before Cloud finds out!” I agreed “Right, we cant wait around for company! Keep running, you two!” I carried the black materia in my free hand, and lead the way out to the entrance. When I thought we had made it unscathed, I stopped suddenly, and Kadaj and Loz also did. I saw several Shinra troops ahead of us, along with a man who had red hair in a blue suit. Loz was angry “Gaah, you! I know you, stupid old man!” He laughed and shrugged “That’s nice. I know you too, kid. You didn’t really think I’d let you kids get away with that thing so easily, did you?” I shook my head and turned serious “I expected something to go wrong. You expect any less of a JENOVA SOLDIER 1st Class? Im not the lead for nothing, Reno.” He laughed “You know my name! I didn’t think you’d remember that part. But oh well, this isnt the time for introductions. Let’s get to the point already.” I turned to Kadaj and Loz “I need you two to cover me from the front! I cant go in on them head on or we could lose the Black Materia!” They both nodded and attacked, and I fired shots from behind to support them. The Shinra troops were defeated quickly by Kadaj’s souba and Loz’s dual hound, but Reno hit me from behind and I fell down, dropping the Black Materia. “Loz, get it! Quick!” Loz managed to catch it and Kadaj landed a hit on Reno with her souba. I got back on my feet and shot him several times. He was too injured to continue now and limped his way out, frustrated “Gah…! You wont get away… no one gets away from us..!” Loz gave the materia back to me and asked “Whats he talking about? We kicked his butt.” I shook my head “There’s no time to find out. We have to go before more Shinra troops show up!” He nodded, and I lead the way outside and got on my motorbike with Kadaj. Loz got on his, and we began driving our way back to the lab to meet up with Sephiroth. “I don’t think they’re gonna let us go that easily… that was too easy. I don’t like it one bit. Stay alert, Loz!” Loz understood “Of course!” Kadaj said “I hope this doesn’t get too ugly… what would Mother and Sephiroth do if we didn’t make it?” I sighed “We have to make it! This our last shot at Meteor. Sephiroth even said himself we most likely wont get another chance.” Kadaj moaned. Kadaj said “We’re barely even teenagers, and they’re picking on us already? But why? I don’t understand…” I felt bad for her. She was still too young to understand what we were facing and why Shinra and Cloud incessantly went after us. Even after the story Sephiroth told us about his past, when he wielded the Black Materia and did all he could to save Mother and protect the legacy. She didn’t wanna fight; she wanted a normal life that anyone could enjoy. And truth be told, so did I… and I know Loz wanted the same thing. But until we used the Black Materia and Meteor is upon this Planet again, that would be impossible for us. Suddenly, I could make out something several ways ahead of us, and tried to make out what it was. Before long, I realized Cloud was driving a motorbike of his own, heading right towards me and Kadaj. I gasped “Ahh, shoot..! Hang on, Kadaj! I have to slam the brakes!” I slammed the breaks to make an emergency stop to avoid crashing into Cloud, and she screamed. Loz also stopped out of the way as fast as he could. I remembered my special power that Mother blessed me with and used it “Reunion Staves! Hope you got good insurance, Brother!” Several tall and pointy black rocks emerged from the ground, and he tried to avoid crashing into them, but it was too late. His motorbike crashed right into my Reunion Staves, and they blew up on impact, releasing a huge burst of JENOVA cells. Kadaj calmed and down and happily cried “Nice one, Yazoo! We wont have to worry about him now!” Loz pointed ahead at something “I don’t know, Kadaj… what’s that? In the rubble of the explosion.” I followed his gaze and realized Cloud had somehow broken through the mess. Surprisingly, he appeared to be completely unscathed “No way! That was a direct hit! How is he still standing?!” Kadaj cried “Impossible! He crashed right into them!” Loz panicked “What do we do?! There is no effing way we’re gonna beat this guy!” I sighed “I don’t want to put Sephiroth in danger… we’ll just have to fight him!” Cloud was holding his sword and walked towards us, looking angry. I sighed “What do you want, Cloud? We don’t have time to play with you.” Cloud replied “The Black Materia—hand it over! You don’t have any idea how dangerous it is!” I shook my head “As if. Im not going to just give it to you. What would Sephiroth say? We’re not going to throw the job away like that. What kind of fools do you take us for?” Loz attacked him from behind with his dual hound, and caught him off guard “Youre in our way! Get lost!” I smiled and tried not to laugh. Even if he put it in a rather goofy fashion, it was true. Cloud was trying to get in our way. Cloud got into his fighting stance and then Loz and him began fighting each other. He looked pretty happy during most of the fight, but later on, Cloud landed a bad hit on him from behind. Loz winced from pain “Gyaahh..! I wont… let you.. win..!” Suddenly recovering after getting hit badly, he stood up and went at Cloud with all the strength he had left “For Mother!!” Cloud was getting frustrated now “Do you even have any idea what Meteor is going to do if you let Sephiroth summon it?” Loz kept fighting him off “I don’t care about your stupid complaints! I got orders, and im gonna follow em! That’s that! I don’t care about your stupid opinion, big dummy!” I smiled and shot Cloud from behind with my revolver. Several of my shots hit him before he fell to the ground and was too weak to continue. Loz walked closer and smiled “Wasn’t that fun? Well, id better say goodbye for now.” Then he delivered one more hit on Cloud from his dual hound and laughed. He got back on his motorbike, and me and Kadaj got on mine. Then we drove off and took advantage of our opportunity to get away. I said “Nice work, Loz! Now there’s no way for him to stop us!” We headed straight for the hidden lab after that, and hadnt run into anymore trouble on our way back. We parked outside the lab and hurried inside. I gave the Black Materia to Sephiroth, who glanced at us hopefully when he noticed we returned. Sephiroth smiled “You did it… you brought it back. Good work, you three. What of Cloud?” I replied “He should be a goner, at least for now. Loz kicked his butt out there. I don’t think we’ll see him for a while.” Sephiroth held the Black Materia happily in both hands “Thank you, my young brethren… I’ve waited so long for this day to return…” Kadaj happily cried “Yeah! Mission accomplished! So uh… now what?” Sephiroth answered “I will make for the cave to the north past the freezing mountains. I will summon meteor from there. I want you three to meet me there. Mother will join you kids so you have a strong guardian to aid you if things get rough. I doubt the enemy will do nothing about this, so that’s why Mother will fight alongside you three. More than likely, we will be attacked by Zeta Weapon if im successful. The creatures respond to impending threats of a large scale. Brace for the worst.” I nodded “Of course. We’re ready to do whatever it takes, Sephiroth. And we’ll take care of Mother as well so the full Reunion manifests on our final mission.” Mother came out and smiled at us. I saw she had grown a new pair of metal silver wings too “This is it… our dreams are finally gonna come true, Mother. We wont lose this time!” Sephiroth suddenly grew a bit nervous and said “Three times now we’ve tried to do this… and were defeated on the first two.” Kadaj replied “Hang in there, Sephiroth. We wont have to suffer this sadness any longer… just gotta be careful.” Mother said “He is right… and we got quite far both times.” Even Mother seemed nervous. I approached her and took her hand gently “Its ok, Mother. We can win this time, I know we can.” Mother nodded silently in response. Sephiroth sighed and gazed at the Black Materia in his hand “We part for the Reunion at dawn. Rest well and recharge until then, my family. I will move out first, and the rest of you will go after me.” Hojo asked “And what about me, hm? Arent you forgetting something?” I was confused, then remembered “Right… the mako vaccine. Is it good?” Hojo smiled and drew another syringe from his pocket “It is. It worked on Sephiroth!” Kadaj cheered “Alright! Now we wont burn away if Zeta gets too close!” I smiled and agreed “Right. Let’s get ours and call it a day. We’ve got a big day tomorrow. We’ll need all the sleep we can get.” Loz and Kadaj nodded at me firmly. The rest of that day, we focused on resting and got our vaccines from Hojo. He said Mother didn’t need one because she was strong enough to stand up to Zeta Weapon without the protection. Kadaj and Loz went to bed first, and I went in to see Kadaj and check on her. She was already sleeping, and so were Loz and Mother. I sighed, and realized Sephiroth and Hojo were the only ones awake. Sephiroth was sitting on his bed in his usual clothes looking at the Black Materia in his hand. Noticing he was uneasy, I approached him “Hey Big Brother, are you alright? You don’t look so good.” Sephiroth sighed but didn’t answer. I knew he was worried about tomorrow. His masamune was perched against the wall of his room. I asked “Is it about tomorrow?” He nodded “Yes… I never forget the failures I committed in the past. Every time I found a perfect plan, it wound up being foiled by the foolish man named Cloud. If I fail again, Mother will…” he shook his head sadly. I decided to sit next to him, and wanted to make him smile “Do you sense any danger ahead of us on this?” He shook his head “I don’t know. I really don’t… im sorry, Yazoo. I tried this same thing once before, and after all that work, Cloud screwed me and Mother over. That man and his foolish conspirators… I cant let them win this time.” I put my hand on his shoulder “Hey, its ok, alright? Youre not alone. You’ve got me, Kadaj, and Loz this time. We have better numbers now, even if there still are too many bogies. I know there arent that many of us, but we’re unstoppable together. We’ll protect Mother, alright? She’ll get what she wants, I promise. I remember when I was little, I promised her I’d save her… and the legacy. And im gonna do it, no matter what we face.” Sephiroth looked at me and turned serious “You’re right. We have to go for it and hope for the best. If you guys and Mother can keep the enemy busy long enough, that should leave room for me to finish summoning Meteor. After that, its only a matter of days before the Great Beginning is upon us. The enemy will be nothing but history then.” I smiled, and he smiled back and gave me a hug. Sephiroth said “Thank you, my Brother… you helped me regain my confidence. Thank you for understanding my burdens and what I’ve been through.” I replied “No problem. Mother said we gotta stick together, even if it looks bad.” He nodded and I got up, then he laid down and fell asleep with the Black Materia in his hand. After that, I decided to go to bed.
To Be Continued…
