Chapter 4: On the Way to Mother
(This section will focus on Yazoo as the speaker) As usual, I was the first to wake up, but I didn’t have any dreams this time. But immediately before I woke, I heard Mother’s voice say “Head for the Mako Reactor in Nibelheim.” I woke immediately after hearing those words. I was slightly startled, and realized I had hastily sat up in the process of waking, but I knew there was nothing to be afraid of. At least not yet. I had no idea what was ahead of us. I shook my head as Mother’s words ran through my head again “The Mako Reactor in Nibelheim… was I there before? The name sounds so familiar, but I cant remember…” I sat on my bed, and waited for Loz to wake up and climb down from the top bunk. I didn’t even know how to get to Nibelheim for starters. But I had a hunch Mother wanted us to see something there or there was something important she wanted us to get before the enemy could discover it and abuse whatever was waiting for us. I sighed “None of this makes any sense… why does Mother want us to go there? I’m not even sure if I know who I am… everything is just too foggy. I don’t even know how I got here in this world… or why I’m here. Except to help Mother with a very important mission that I am still trying to figure out…” I didn’t understand what was going on, or why we got separated from our Mother. But I had a bad feeling about what happened to her. I hoped I was wrong and that we would find her unharmed in this Nibelheim place she told me to go to before I woke up. Loz slipped down from the top bunk and sat next to me on the lower bed “Phew, finally got to sleep… that was one tiring walk yesterday… So uh, we ready to go upstairs and find that mansion I talked about?” I shook my head “No, not yet… Before I woke up, Mother’s words were to head for the Mako Reactor in Nibelheim. I don’t know why, but there must be something she wants us to see there. But there is one problem… I don’t know how to get there.” Loz asked “Do you think Damion might know anything?” I shrugged “Beats me, but I don’t think we should let him tag along when we get ready to go inside… you know this work Mother gave us is highly confidential. We are the only ones allowed to tackle these missions.” Loz replied “That means it’s a secret, right? Then we’d better make him wait outside if he does take us…” I nodded “Right. Let’s look around and ask the townspeople if they know anything about the place. We might find answers and learn how to get there.” Loz agreed “Ok, let’s go back to Mister Damion’s and ask him first since he’s good with us.” We both got off the bed, and I drew my revolver, then led the way outside. We walked back to the house where we met Damion, and I saw him behind the long counter where he worked yesterday. He noticed us and waved, and we hurried to him. Loz gave me a lift so I could have a seat, and then climbed up and sat next to me. Damion smiled “You boys sleep well?” We nodded silently, and he happily nodded back “Good, that’s great! So I guess you’ll be off to the upper world now to find your missing mom, right?” I replied “Yes, but before we do that… Do you of a place called Nibelheim?” Damion stopped to think “Hmm… I don’t know a lot about it, but I hear there was mighty awful accident there many years ago. Some man with silver hair and this crazy scary long sword set the town on fire, and lots of people died, many of them were apparently murdered… he was so nice from what I hear, but he just lost his mind…” I felt a wave of sadness sweep through me and said “What..?” My head suddenly began to ache, and I heard a loud static noise followed by a sudden but brutal headache. I moaned, and held my head with my hands. I thought I heard Damion shout something to me, but the static blotted out his words and I didn’t understand him. Strangely, it stopped seconds later, and I suddenly said “Big Brother..! He’s… he’s dead…!” Damion panicked “Hey, kid! Yazoo! What’s wrong?!” I realized tears were falling from my eyes, and I tried to pull myself together and shake away the hurt. Loz cried “Brother!” I turned my gaze back to Damion and shook my head worriedly “I don’t know… but can you take us there, at least? If you can bring us to Nibelheim, we should be able to find our way from there.” Damion looked very confused and asked “Wait a minute, though… You said Big Brother. You know this scary guy? And you’re all a family?!” Loz whined “Stop it! He doesn’t get it anymore than I do!” I nodded in agreement. Damion shook his head in disbelief “You two are a pair of interesting kids, that’s for sure… You boys got special powers or something? Just like your mom?” We both gazed at each other, and then I decided to tell him “We do, but we still don’t understand it very well… we cant control them. They just work on their own…” Damion replied “Hmm… I guess that would explain all those gut feelings that ended up coming true, then. And how you suddenly started hurting and reacted to what I said about that guy… but, I don’t wanna demand explanations from kids like you who are too young to understand your own powers or what’s going on in your life, so I’ll just stop there. I’m sorry. But, I think I can give you directions to Nibelheim, at least, if that’s where you plan to go. But be careful, because it will involve going upstairs, and that Shinra Company is right above us. I hope you boys have practiced hide and seek, cause your gonna need it if you wanna get away from that building undetected.” We nodded and listened to him, as he explained how to get to where we wanted to go. When he was done, he asked “You sure you boys can handle this on your own? It’s dangerous outside. Especially if that Shinra is after your powers and knows about their secrets, you’d better stay low. I can lead the way so you don’t have to worry about getting caught.” I answered “No, we have to do this ourselves for our own reasons… This is our battle, and only we can fight it. Thanks anyway.” Damion understood “Hey, no problem. Even if you are just kids, I imagine it’s too personal since you’re looking for your mom. If it’s a family a matter, then I got no business getting involved, so don’t sweat it. To get upstairs though, just go to the far side of sector 6 and climb up this big wire. That will get you started on your way there.” Loz replied “Thanks! And thank you for being so nice, Mister Damion!” He laughed “Aww, don’t mention it. I’m always happy to help kids who are facing the hard life of the real world on their own. Just stay clear of that Shinra, ok?” I slipped down, and Loz went after me “Don’t worry, we will. If we can manage to stay away from them and get all the way here, then we can make it to Nibelheim and avoid them too.” Then we left the restaurant, and found our way to the big wire. We climbed our way up, but Loz had to keep my on his back so I could make it up. I didn’t have enough physical strength to climb as well as he could, so he had me ride his back during the climb. Luckily for Loz, he was born with high physical strength and got me up without any trouble. When we reached the top, I carefully slipped off of Loz’s back, and we saw a huge building that looked like the Shinra HQ Damion warned us about. Loz glanced around and asked “Where do we go? No way we’re going in that place…” I ran to the far side of the towering place, and saw a long and empty path that seemed to go on forever “I guess we take the long way around. Let’s go this way before any of them show up.” Loz followed me, and that’s when we began another long walk, on our way to the town called Nibelheim. We went almost the entire trip in silence, but when we were close to the town Loz began moaning and groaning about wanting a break. He whined saying he wanted to sit down, but I doubted his feet were hurting him; he had a lot of physical prowess which gave him the advantage in close quarters combat, so I didn’t think he was likely to suffer from muscle aches that easily. I began to realize that he had a tendency to complain when it came to long walks that probably got boring for him with nothing else to do on the way. When we arrived just outside the town, Loz whined “Finally! I hate boring walks! I wanna play something else.” I slapped him and turned my expression hard “Hey, watch it! This is important work for Mother! Have some respect.” Loz sighed and apologized “Right… I’m sorry, Mother… but anyway, how are we gonna get through? If we really do have a Big Brother who did what Damion talked about, the people will freak out for sure if they see us.” I grew concerned and agreed “I know… we’ll have to find a side path or something to get through. But if we stay low enough and keep quiet, we might be able to sneak through without problems either way since we’re still little… our Big Brother couldn’t do that when he came here, but we can since we’re still children. I think the Mako Reactor Mother was talking about is on the other side of the town, and it’s hidden in the mountains there… I think that’s where something important is waiting for us.” Loz asked “Do you think Mother is there? Is that where she went after she had that accident?” I replied “I don’t know, but we wont find out if we just stand here and look at it. Come on, let’s go.” Loz nodded, and then we began to quietly work our way through the town, literally keeping low and sneaking through so that no one sees us. We managed to reach the other side without being noticed, and then we hid in some bushes to avoid being seen by two Shinra soldiers who were standing guard near the path we had to cross. Loz grumbled “Oh no… now what? There’s no other way in!” I sighed and shook my head “Then we’ll just have to pick them off before they know we’re here. I don’t like risking being caught, but it looks like we don’t have any other options here.” I drew my revolver and got ready to fire at the soldiers guarding the path to the mountains, aiming at them carefully. I locked onto one of them, and shot him, followed by the second Shinra soldier who was guarding the path. I waited quietly, and decided they were both dead before long. I nodded at Loz, then waved for him to follow. We scurried out of the bushes and over the bridge as quickly as we could without getting separated, then found a long and steep path that appeared to lead up. I turned back to Loz, and said “It’s a long way up. Can you make it?” Loz nodded “Yeah, I got good muscles for my age. I’ll carry you on my back again if you get tired, though.” I smiled “Thanks, Loz. You might whine and complain a lot, but your heart’s in the right place, Brother.” He smiled at me, and we began the trek up the mountain. When we arrived at the top, Loz grumbled “Man, I hate all this walking! I wish we were big enough to drive!” I replied “I know, me too. It would be a lot easier to travel if we at least had our own motorbikes… but there’s no way we’re big enough to even try. Too bad Mother didn’t birth us with black wings… that would really help here. We’ll just have to keep at it and take breaks if we shouldn’t go on ahead.” We saw our destination just ahead of us, but the bridge was broken and there wasn’t another direct path to get there. I pointed ahead at what looked like the Mako Reactor Mother mentioned “Right there, Loz… I think that’s it. That’s the reactor Mother wants us to go to. But we have to be quick. I killed those people who were guarding the entrance to the mountains, and if someone finds the bodies, they’ll know right away that somebody forced their way here without permission. We cant stop to rest here; we’ll have to tough it out and make it quick.” Loz replied “And we cant go straight over? What are we gonna do? We cant take the long way around this time.” I shrugged “I don’t think we have a choice, Loz. You do see that the bridge is broken, don’t you? We’ll just have to choose one of these caves and hope we pick the best one. I think they’ll all get us to the other side, but at different lengths…” Loz ran towards the one on the far left and waved at me to follow. We went into the cave and found a fountain with more of that green stuff flowing through it. We decided to stop and investigate, and I could make out a hint of something black inside of it “Look, Loz… in there—do you see something?” Loz nodded and reached into it, pulling out a small black ball. I took it from him and studied it, and he asked “Yazoo, what is that thing? Something tells me it isnt a bouncy ball.” I shook my head in response “Man, you are such an idiot… of course its not a bouncy ball! Why would a toy be left in a place like that?” Loz groaned but didn’t speak. I ignored his attitude and continued studying the strange object “Hmm… I cant say for sure what it is yet, but I’ll hang on to this. I think we might need it later, so let’s take it with us. But enough sightseeing—we’d better keep moving so nobody catches up to us.” We continued through the cave, and wound up outside sometime later. I studied the area and saw the reactor we were looking for just ahead of us “There it is. Come on, hurry!” We both ran towards it and went inside. We hurried across the walkway, and came to a big room with all these tanks that held weird looking monsters in them, and a long flight of stairs that was in the middle. There was a door at the end of the stairs. Loz glanced around and grumbled “Mother… doesn’t want us to beat those things, right..?” I replied “I doubt that’s why she said to come here. Mother wouldn’t send us all the way here just to beat some stupid monsters; that’s a waste of time and energy. I think we’ll find what she’s leading us to if go upstairs and through that door… then we can leave. I think…” Loz said “Alright… I hope she’s in there…” We walked up the stairs and I glanced above the door to read something above it, and gasped “JENOVA… that’s her—that’s our Mother… She must have lived here before!” Loz quickly became excited “Then quick, go inside! She’s gotta be here!” I stopped him and said “Slow down. We gotta use our manners and be patient, ok? This is Mother we’re talking about; not some useless outsider.” I gently knocked and said “Mother, it’s us… can you please open the door? We came alone just like you wanted.” The door slid open and we walked inside. There was a long red pipe that seemed to lead up, and we carefully crossed it to get to the top. There was another cell just like the one in the other reactor we saw, but Mother wasn’t inside. Loz began crying again “She’s not home either..? Mother, where’d you go..?” I shook my head, and pointed to the inside “Loz, wait a second. There’s a girl in there… she looks like one of us.” I suddenly had a flashback about the dream I had where Mother showed me what was apparently my Little Sister, and realized I was looking at the same girl, resting inside the cell before us. But there wasn’t a thick blanket of JENOVA cells covering the lower half of her body this time; her being was whole. She appeared to be sleeping soundly and peacefully. I smiled and said “That’s her… that’s our Little Sister Mother told me about in that dream I had before. I’m certain this is what Mother wanted us to come here for.” Loz calmed down and looked at her “She’s kinda cute… but how do we get her out without making a mess? We cant just smash through stuff in Mother’s home like that… it’s not right.” I nodded and looked around, but couldn’t find anything that might be powering the cell she was in “I don’t see anything, though… maybe go back outside where those things are? There might be something there that controls this.” Loz backed down “Nuh-uh! No way! Those things give me the creeps! I’m not going back unless you go back.” I sighed “Loz, please! Just cooperate this time! This is too important to be fighting over! If one of them gets out, just kill it and avoid breaking the others so we don’t set more of them loose, ok? Please.” He groaned but obeyed without arguing further. I began wondering what those monsters were even doing in Mother’s house. It didn’t make sense to me; I knew she certainly didn’t put them there. I heard a beeping sound, and the fluid inside of the cell began to drain, and the girl slowly landed at the bottom. The glass lowered itself, and I went to pick her up, carefully holding her in my arms. I noticed she was still breathing, so she was doing ok. I said “Hang on, Little Sister… we’ll get you somewhere safe with us…” Loz came back and asked “Did it work?” I answered “It did. Thanks, Brother. Now let’s get out of here before the enemy has a chance to come in and make a mess in here. I don’t want them trashing Mother’s home, even if she isnt physically here.” We walked together, and went back outside. We focused on the long trek back, going back through the cave we came in. On the way through, I couldn’t help gazing at the fountain where we found that mysterious black object. I remember picking it up, and feeling a strong energy surge coming from it. That was why I decided to keep it in my pocket and take it with us. It seemed to hold some kind of power I didn’t know about or recognize. I suddenly stopped walking, and stopped Loz as well. Loz asked “What? What’s wrong?” I hushed and his spoke quietly “Something’s coming… I hear some voices out there..!” Loz panicked “Uh oh… now what?! If they beat us, who knows what they’ll do to us?” The girl in my arms moaned in her sleep “No, stop… stay away…” I panicked quietly “Oh no, don’t sleep talk..! Not now..!” I glanced around to find a hiding place, and me and Loz raced to a corner that looked to have a hole we could fit through. We went inside and sat down, without saying another word. There were several Shinra soldiers that came into view, and I felt myself beginning to tremble. I counted at least 6 of them. If we got caught, it would be bad. I whispered “There’s too many of them… shoot..!” Loz kept silent, but I knew he was scared too. I overheard their conversation “Whoever broke into the reactor two days ago must be here as well. Luckily for us, there’s a dead end ahead. They wont be getting away so easily this time. They’ll have to turn around in order to leave.” Another soldier replied “Yeah, but watch out. I think our guest is also a skilled sniper. The townspeople said there was no sign of a struggle, but both the guards died by gunshot. We’ve got a stealth master on the loose too. If they’re smart, they’d wait for us and try to take us out the same way, but since there’s six of us it wont be so easy.” I thought, Uh oh… they’ve been taking notes on us… this cant be good. Another soldier asked “How in the world could the profiles get so far without being seen? Impossible! No one has ever evaded Shinra’s vast intelligence network like that!” A soldier replied “The enemy is awfully devious… even I’m at a loss. Better keep the volume at a minimum so we can use more than our eyes to spot the enemy. And this time, hopefully we find our mystery friend. The previous incidents report that signs of foul play were discovered a good while after the enemy was present on the scene; the Mako Reactor with the security gates, and now the two guards killed in frightening silence. I have a hunch our target is a lone elite or in a group. No rookie couldve done all of that without leaving a mess behind. Furthermore, these are all likely connected to whoever broke the barrier just outside of Midgar; in other words, work of the same individual or group of people.” They stopped talking after that. And started looking around in silence. Loz’s eyes widened, and he began trembling. I decided to carefully rest the girl on the ground beside me, and I pulled my revolver out, preparing to fight back. I was scared too, but I decided it was on me to act as backup if they saw us. Loz’s strength would cave us in, and I was the only one here with a weapon that wouldn’t do that. I kept my aim and focus on the Shinra soldiers, forcing my fear aside. I sensed Loz was gazing hopefully at me, and I had a feeling he was counting on me to take care of them if we were caught. I turned to Loz and whispered “Loz, you need a gun too… do you have anything?” He nodded silently and revealed a revolver exactly like mine. I smiled at him and nodded, and we were both aiming at the Shinra troops outside. We waited in silence for several minutes, and then they disappeared going outside at the end that we came in through. Loz sighed in relief and began gasping for air, lowering his gun “Oh my god..! Don’t ever do that again!” I nodded and put my hand on his shoulder, lowering my gun “It’s alright. What matters is we’re ok for now. Come on, let’s get outta here before they turn around. There’s a dead end out there, and it’s not a long way to it. Hurry!” He nodded, and I sheathed my revolver hastily, and picked up the girl before me and Loz began running out, hurrying back outside before the Shinra troops could turn around and catch up. Instead of walking down the steep path we climbed on the way in, we both chose to slide down to make escaping as fast as possible. When we slid to the bottom, we hurried to the bridge to go back and hide in Nibelheim, but came to an unexpected stop. I worried “Oh no…” Loz froze from fear “They… that’s…! Ahh!” There was another group of Shinra soldiers blocking our path, and we were already seen by them. There was one man in the group with red hair who wore a navy blue suit. He laughed when he saw us “Well, what do we have here? You two… or three look awfully familiar! I never wouldve guessed the people who broke into that reactor, smashed through the barrier outside… and even killed the guards who were keeping people out of those mountains, would be two little boys doing dirty business! Naughty, naughty!” Loz’s expression turned hard “That man… I saw him in my dream! I have a bad feeling about this!” My expression hardened “Ugh, great. Just what we needed… now what? We cant possibly beat them ourselves!” The man smiled and ordered “Take these kids to jail. I’m afraid they’re too young for us to do experiments with.” The Shinra soldiers began advancing on us, and we started backing away warily. Suddenly, the girl in my arms woke up, and opened her eyes. Her left eye shined red like Mother’s, and she bolted a black wing, flying out of my arms and in front of the Shinra troops. She threatened the troops, and several balls of fire began forming and expanding behind her “Stay away… from my family!” The man was startled and cried “What the…?! What is she?” The Shinra troops began backing away from her, and her black wing turned into a metallic silver wing, and a second one bolted on the other side of her back. One of the soldiers cried “She’s… she’s possessed! Run!” They all turned and ran away, and the man in the navy blue suit glanced around hesitantly “Hey, wait! Don’t go off without me!” He turned and ran after his group, but stopped a little ways ahead “You win this time! But I’ve got you next time for sure!” He turned away and grumbled “That kid… the darn girl is possessed by JENOVA! No way am I waiting around for this!” Then he hurried off after his group that went ahead. The fire balls behind her dissipated, and her silver wings disappeared afterwards. The girl began to fall, but I caught her so she wouldn’t land and get hurt. Her eyes were closed again, and she appeared to be back to sleeping. Loz and me were speechless. Loz asked “Uh… what just happened? How did she do that?” I didn’t know either, but replied “I am clueless… but I think Mother somehow used her to protect us from capture. I don’t know what else to say…” Loz grew curious “You mean… Mother’s inside of her?!” I repeated myself “I don’t know… but we wont learn anything by bickering about it. Let’s get outta here before the other group of soldiers catches up. If that uses a lot of her power, I don’t want to risk her dying from that happening too many times. Especially since we havent even talked to her yet…” We continued on that night, and eventually found another dark alley in a nearby abandoned town to rest in. I carefully laid the girl on the ground, and me and Loz went to sleep. We were too overwhelmed about what we witnessed in Nibelheim to have any closing conversations together that night, so we just went to sleep without saying anything to each other except good night. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought Please be ok, Little Sister… don’t die on me, even if what happened used a lot of your power. Just hold on a little longer, so I can at least learn your name…
To Be Continued…
(This section will focus on Yazoo as the speaker) As usual, I was the first to wake up, but I didn’t have any dreams this time. But immediately before I woke, I heard Mother’s voice say “Head for the Mako Reactor in Nibelheim.” I woke immediately after hearing those words. I was slightly startled, and realized I had hastily sat up in the process of waking, but I knew there was nothing to be afraid of. At least not yet. I had no idea what was ahead of us. I shook my head as Mother’s words ran through my head again “The Mako Reactor in Nibelheim… was I there before? The name sounds so familiar, but I cant remember…” I sat on my bed, and waited for Loz to wake up and climb down from the top bunk. I didn’t even know how to get to Nibelheim for starters. But I had a hunch Mother wanted us to see something there or there was something important she wanted us to get before the enemy could discover it and abuse whatever was waiting for us. I sighed “None of this makes any sense… why does Mother want us to go there? I’m not even sure if I know who I am… everything is just too foggy. I don’t even know how I got here in this world… or why I’m here. Except to help Mother with a very important mission that I am still trying to figure out…” I didn’t understand what was going on, or why we got separated from our Mother. But I had a bad feeling about what happened to her. I hoped I was wrong and that we would find her unharmed in this Nibelheim place she told me to go to before I woke up. Loz slipped down from the top bunk and sat next to me on the lower bed “Phew, finally got to sleep… that was one tiring walk yesterday… So uh, we ready to go upstairs and find that mansion I talked about?” I shook my head “No, not yet… Before I woke up, Mother’s words were to head for the Mako Reactor in Nibelheim. I don’t know why, but there must be something she wants us to see there. But there is one problem… I don’t know how to get there.” Loz asked “Do you think Damion might know anything?” I shrugged “Beats me, but I don’t think we should let him tag along when we get ready to go inside… you know this work Mother gave us is highly confidential. We are the only ones allowed to tackle these missions.” Loz replied “That means it’s a secret, right? Then we’d better make him wait outside if he does take us…” I nodded “Right. Let’s look around and ask the townspeople if they know anything about the place. We might find answers and learn how to get there.” Loz agreed “Ok, let’s go back to Mister Damion’s and ask him first since he’s good with us.” We both got off the bed, and I drew my revolver, then led the way outside. We walked back to the house where we met Damion, and I saw him behind the long counter where he worked yesterday. He noticed us and waved, and we hurried to him. Loz gave me a lift so I could have a seat, and then climbed up and sat next to me. Damion smiled “You boys sleep well?” We nodded silently, and he happily nodded back “Good, that’s great! So I guess you’ll be off to the upper world now to find your missing mom, right?” I replied “Yes, but before we do that… Do you of a place called Nibelheim?” Damion stopped to think “Hmm… I don’t know a lot about it, but I hear there was mighty awful accident there many years ago. Some man with silver hair and this crazy scary long sword set the town on fire, and lots of people died, many of them were apparently murdered… he was so nice from what I hear, but he just lost his mind…” I felt a wave of sadness sweep through me and said “What..?” My head suddenly began to ache, and I heard a loud static noise followed by a sudden but brutal headache. I moaned, and held my head with my hands. I thought I heard Damion shout something to me, but the static blotted out his words and I didn’t understand him. Strangely, it stopped seconds later, and I suddenly said “Big Brother..! He’s… he’s dead…!” Damion panicked “Hey, kid! Yazoo! What’s wrong?!” I realized tears were falling from my eyes, and I tried to pull myself together and shake away the hurt. Loz cried “Brother!” I turned my gaze back to Damion and shook my head worriedly “I don’t know… but can you take us there, at least? If you can bring us to Nibelheim, we should be able to find our way from there.” Damion looked very confused and asked “Wait a minute, though… You said Big Brother. You know this scary guy? And you’re all a family?!” Loz whined “Stop it! He doesn’t get it anymore than I do!” I nodded in agreement. Damion shook his head in disbelief “You two are a pair of interesting kids, that’s for sure… You boys got special powers or something? Just like your mom?” We both gazed at each other, and then I decided to tell him “We do, but we still don’t understand it very well… we cant control them. They just work on their own…” Damion replied “Hmm… I guess that would explain all those gut feelings that ended up coming true, then. And how you suddenly started hurting and reacted to what I said about that guy… but, I don’t wanna demand explanations from kids like you who are too young to understand your own powers or what’s going on in your life, so I’ll just stop there. I’m sorry. But, I think I can give you directions to Nibelheim, at least, if that’s where you plan to go. But be careful, because it will involve going upstairs, and that Shinra Company is right above us. I hope you boys have practiced hide and seek, cause your gonna need it if you wanna get away from that building undetected.” We nodded and listened to him, as he explained how to get to where we wanted to go. When he was done, he asked “You sure you boys can handle this on your own? It’s dangerous outside. Especially if that Shinra is after your powers and knows about their secrets, you’d better stay low. I can lead the way so you don’t have to worry about getting caught.” I answered “No, we have to do this ourselves for our own reasons… This is our battle, and only we can fight it. Thanks anyway.” Damion understood “Hey, no problem. Even if you are just kids, I imagine it’s too personal since you’re looking for your mom. If it’s a family a matter, then I got no business getting involved, so don’t sweat it. To get upstairs though, just go to the far side of sector 6 and climb up this big wire. That will get you started on your way there.” Loz replied “Thanks! And thank you for being so nice, Mister Damion!” He laughed “Aww, don’t mention it. I’m always happy to help kids who are facing the hard life of the real world on their own. Just stay clear of that Shinra, ok?” I slipped down, and Loz went after me “Don’t worry, we will. If we can manage to stay away from them and get all the way here, then we can make it to Nibelheim and avoid them too.” Then we left the restaurant, and found our way to the big wire. We climbed our way up, but Loz had to keep my on his back so I could make it up. I didn’t have enough physical strength to climb as well as he could, so he had me ride his back during the climb. Luckily for Loz, he was born with high physical strength and got me up without any trouble. When we reached the top, I carefully slipped off of Loz’s back, and we saw a huge building that looked like the Shinra HQ Damion warned us about. Loz glanced around and asked “Where do we go? No way we’re going in that place…” I ran to the far side of the towering place, and saw a long and empty path that seemed to go on forever “I guess we take the long way around. Let’s go this way before any of them show up.” Loz followed me, and that’s when we began another long walk, on our way to the town called Nibelheim. We went almost the entire trip in silence, but when we were close to the town Loz began moaning and groaning about wanting a break. He whined saying he wanted to sit down, but I doubted his feet were hurting him; he had a lot of physical prowess which gave him the advantage in close quarters combat, so I didn’t think he was likely to suffer from muscle aches that easily. I began to realize that he had a tendency to complain when it came to long walks that probably got boring for him with nothing else to do on the way. When we arrived just outside the town, Loz whined “Finally! I hate boring walks! I wanna play something else.” I slapped him and turned my expression hard “Hey, watch it! This is important work for Mother! Have some respect.” Loz sighed and apologized “Right… I’m sorry, Mother… but anyway, how are we gonna get through? If we really do have a Big Brother who did what Damion talked about, the people will freak out for sure if they see us.” I grew concerned and agreed “I know… we’ll have to find a side path or something to get through. But if we stay low enough and keep quiet, we might be able to sneak through without problems either way since we’re still little… our Big Brother couldn’t do that when he came here, but we can since we’re still children. I think the Mako Reactor Mother was talking about is on the other side of the town, and it’s hidden in the mountains there… I think that’s where something important is waiting for us.” Loz asked “Do you think Mother is there? Is that where she went after she had that accident?” I replied “I don’t know, but we wont find out if we just stand here and look at it. Come on, let’s go.” Loz nodded, and then we began to quietly work our way through the town, literally keeping low and sneaking through so that no one sees us. We managed to reach the other side without being noticed, and then we hid in some bushes to avoid being seen by two Shinra soldiers who were standing guard near the path we had to cross. Loz grumbled “Oh no… now what? There’s no other way in!” I sighed and shook my head “Then we’ll just have to pick them off before they know we’re here. I don’t like risking being caught, but it looks like we don’t have any other options here.” I drew my revolver and got ready to fire at the soldiers guarding the path to the mountains, aiming at them carefully. I locked onto one of them, and shot him, followed by the second Shinra soldier who was guarding the path. I waited quietly, and decided they were both dead before long. I nodded at Loz, then waved for him to follow. We scurried out of the bushes and over the bridge as quickly as we could without getting separated, then found a long and steep path that appeared to lead up. I turned back to Loz, and said “It’s a long way up. Can you make it?” Loz nodded “Yeah, I got good muscles for my age. I’ll carry you on my back again if you get tired, though.” I smiled “Thanks, Loz. You might whine and complain a lot, but your heart’s in the right place, Brother.” He smiled at me, and we began the trek up the mountain. When we arrived at the top, Loz grumbled “Man, I hate all this walking! I wish we were big enough to drive!” I replied “I know, me too. It would be a lot easier to travel if we at least had our own motorbikes… but there’s no way we’re big enough to even try. Too bad Mother didn’t birth us with black wings… that would really help here. We’ll just have to keep at it and take breaks if we shouldn’t go on ahead.” We saw our destination just ahead of us, but the bridge was broken and there wasn’t another direct path to get there. I pointed ahead at what looked like the Mako Reactor Mother mentioned “Right there, Loz… I think that’s it. That’s the reactor Mother wants us to go to. But we have to be quick. I killed those people who were guarding the entrance to the mountains, and if someone finds the bodies, they’ll know right away that somebody forced their way here without permission. We cant stop to rest here; we’ll have to tough it out and make it quick.” Loz replied “And we cant go straight over? What are we gonna do? We cant take the long way around this time.” I shrugged “I don’t think we have a choice, Loz. You do see that the bridge is broken, don’t you? We’ll just have to choose one of these caves and hope we pick the best one. I think they’ll all get us to the other side, but at different lengths…” Loz ran towards the one on the far left and waved at me to follow. We went into the cave and found a fountain with more of that green stuff flowing through it. We decided to stop and investigate, and I could make out a hint of something black inside of it “Look, Loz… in there—do you see something?” Loz nodded and reached into it, pulling out a small black ball. I took it from him and studied it, and he asked “Yazoo, what is that thing? Something tells me it isnt a bouncy ball.” I shook my head in response “Man, you are such an idiot… of course its not a bouncy ball! Why would a toy be left in a place like that?” Loz groaned but didn’t speak. I ignored his attitude and continued studying the strange object “Hmm… I cant say for sure what it is yet, but I’ll hang on to this. I think we might need it later, so let’s take it with us. But enough sightseeing—we’d better keep moving so nobody catches up to us.” We continued through the cave, and wound up outside sometime later. I studied the area and saw the reactor we were looking for just ahead of us “There it is. Come on, hurry!” We both ran towards it and went inside. We hurried across the walkway, and came to a big room with all these tanks that held weird looking monsters in them, and a long flight of stairs that was in the middle. There was a door at the end of the stairs. Loz glanced around and grumbled “Mother… doesn’t want us to beat those things, right..?” I replied “I doubt that’s why she said to come here. Mother wouldn’t send us all the way here just to beat some stupid monsters; that’s a waste of time and energy. I think we’ll find what she’s leading us to if go upstairs and through that door… then we can leave. I think…” Loz said “Alright… I hope she’s in there…” We walked up the stairs and I glanced above the door to read something above it, and gasped “JENOVA… that’s her—that’s our Mother… She must have lived here before!” Loz quickly became excited “Then quick, go inside! She’s gotta be here!” I stopped him and said “Slow down. We gotta use our manners and be patient, ok? This is Mother we’re talking about; not some useless outsider.” I gently knocked and said “Mother, it’s us… can you please open the door? We came alone just like you wanted.” The door slid open and we walked inside. There was a long red pipe that seemed to lead up, and we carefully crossed it to get to the top. There was another cell just like the one in the other reactor we saw, but Mother wasn’t inside. Loz began crying again “She’s not home either..? Mother, where’d you go..?” I shook my head, and pointed to the inside “Loz, wait a second. There’s a girl in there… she looks like one of us.” I suddenly had a flashback about the dream I had where Mother showed me what was apparently my Little Sister, and realized I was looking at the same girl, resting inside the cell before us. But there wasn’t a thick blanket of JENOVA cells covering the lower half of her body this time; her being was whole. She appeared to be sleeping soundly and peacefully. I smiled and said “That’s her… that’s our Little Sister Mother told me about in that dream I had before. I’m certain this is what Mother wanted us to come here for.” Loz calmed down and looked at her “She’s kinda cute… but how do we get her out without making a mess? We cant just smash through stuff in Mother’s home like that… it’s not right.” I nodded and looked around, but couldn’t find anything that might be powering the cell she was in “I don’t see anything, though… maybe go back outside where those things are? There might be something there that controls this.” Loz backed down “Nuh-uh! No way! Those things give me the creeps! I’m not going back unless you go back.” I sighed “Loz, please! Just cooperate this time! This is too important to be fighting over! If one of them gets out, just kill it and avoid breaking the others so we don’t set more of them loose, ok? Please.” He groaned but obeyed without arguing further. I began wondering what those monsters were even doing in Mother’s house. It didn’t make sense to me; I knew she certainly didn’t put them there. I heard a beeping sound, and the fluid inside of the cell began to drain, and the girl slowly landed at the bottom. The glass lowered itself, and I went to pick her up, carefully holding her in my arms. I noticed she was still breathing, so she was doing ok. I said “Hang on, Little Sister… we’ll get you somewhere safe with us…” Loz came back and asked “Did it work?” I answered “It did. Thanks, Brother. Now let’s get out of here before the enemy has a chance to come in and make a mess in here. I don’t want them trashing Mother’s home, even if she isnt physically here.” We walked together, and went back outside. We focused on the long trek back, going back through the cave we came in. On the way through, I couldn’t help gazing at the fountain where we found that mysterious black object. I remember picking it up, and feeling a strong energy surge coming from it. That was why I decided to keep it in my pocket and take it with us. It seemed to hold some kind of power I didn’t know about or recognize. I suddenly stopped walking, and stopped Loz as well. Loz asked “What? What’s wrong?” I hushed and his spoke quietly “Something’s coming… I hear some voices out there..!” Loz panicked “Uh oh… now what?! If they beat us, who knows what they’ll do to us?” The girl in my arms moaned in her sleep “No, stop… stay away…” I panicked quietly “Oh no, don’t sleep talk..! Not now..!” I glanced around to find a hiding place, and me and Loz raced to a corner that looked to have a hole we could fit through. We went inside and sat down, without saying another word. There were several Shinra soldiers that came into view, and I felt myself beginning to tremble. I counted at least 6 of them. If we got caught, it would be bad. I whispered “There’s too many of them… shoot..!” Loz kept silent, but I knew he was scared too. I overheard their conversation “Whoever broke into the reactor two days ago must be here as well. Luckily for us, there’s a dead end ahead. They wont be getting away so easily this time. They’ll have to turn around in order to leave.” Another soldier replied “Yeah, but watch out. I think our guest is also a skilled sniper. The townspeople said there was no sign of a struggle, but both the guards died by gunshot. We’ve got a stealth master on the loose too. If they’re smart, they’d wait for us and try to take us out the same way, but since there’s six of us it wont be so easy.” I thought, Uh oh… they’ve been taking notes on us… this cant be good. Another soldier asked “How in the world could the profiles get so far without being seen? Impossible! No one has ever evaded Shinra’s vast intelligence network like that!” A soldier replied “The enemy is awfully devious… even I’m at a loss. Better keep the volume at a minimum so we can use more than our eyes to spot the enemy. And this time, hopefully we find our mystery friend. The previous incidents report that signs of foul play were discovered a good while after the enemy was present on the scene; the Mako Reactor with the security gates, and now the two guards killed in frightening silence. I have a hunch our target is a lone elite or in a group. No rookie couldve done all of that without leaving a mess behind. Furthermore, these are all likely connected to whoever broke the barrier just outside of Midgar; in other words, work of the same individual or group of people.” They stopped talking after that. And started looking around in silence. Loz’s eyes widened, and he began trembling. I decided to carefully rest the girl on the ground beside me, and I pulled my revolver out, preparing to fight back. I was scared too, but I decided it was on me to act as backup if they saw us. Loz’s strength would cave us in, and I was the only one here with a weapon that wouldn’t do that. I kept my aim and focus on the Shinra soldiers, forcing my fear aside. I sensed Loz was gazing hopefully at me, and I had a feeling he was counting on me to take care of them if we were caught. I turned to Loz and whispered “Loz, you need a gun too… do you have anything?” He nodded silently and revealed a revolver exactly like mine. I smiled at him and nodded, and we were both aiming at the Shinra troops outside. We waited in silence for several minutes, and then they disappeared going outside at the end that we came in through. Loz sighed in relief and began gasping for air, lowering his gun “Oh my god..! Don’t ever do that again!” I nodded and put my hand on his shoulder, lowering my gun “It’s alright. What matters is we’re ok for now. Come on, let’s get outta here before they turn around. There’s a dead end out there, and it’s not a long way to it. Hurry!” He nodded, and I sheathed my revolver hastily, and picked up the girl before me and Loz began running out, hurrying back outside before the Shinra troops could turn around and catch up. Instead of walking down the steep path we climbed on the way in, we both chose to slide down to make escaping as fast as possible. When we slid to the bottom, we hurried to the bridge to go back and hide in Nibelheim, but came to an unexpected stop. I worried “Oh no…” Loz froze from fear “They… that’s…! Ahh!” There was another group of Shinra soldiers blocking our path, and we were already seen by them. There was one man in the group with red hair who wore a navy blue suit. He laughed when he saw us “Well, what do we have here? You two… or three look awfully familiar! I never wouldve guessed the people who broke into that reactor, smashed through the barrier outside… and even killed the guards who were keeping people out of those mountains, would be two little boys doing dirty business! Naughty, naughty!” Loz’s expression turned hard “That man… I saw him in my dream! I have a bad feeling about this!” My expression hardened “Ugh, great. Just what we needed… now what? We cant possibly beat them ourselves!” The man smiled and ordered “Take these kids to jail. I’m afraid they’re too young for us to do experiments with.” The Shinra soldiers began advancing on us, and we started backing away warily. Suddenly, the girl in my arms woke up, and opened her eyes. Her left eye shined red like Mother’s, and she bolted a black wing, flying out of my arms and in front of the Shinra troops. She threatened the troops, and several balls of fire began forming and expanding behind her “Stay away… from my family!” The man was startled and cried “What the…?! What is she?” The Shinra troops began backing away from her, and her black wing turned into a metallic silver wing, and a second one bolted on the other side of her back. One of the soldiers cried “She’s… she’s possessed! Run!” They all turned and ran away, and the man in the navy blue suit glanced around hesitantly “Hey, wait! Don’t go off without me!” He turned and ran after his group, but stopped a little ways ahead “You win this time! But I’ve got you next time for sure!” He turned away and grumbled “That kid… the darn girl is possessed by JENOVA! No way am I waiting around for this!” Then he hurried off after his group that went ahead. The fire balls behind her dissipated, and her silver wings disappeared afterwards. The girl began to fall, but I caught her so she wouldn’t land and get hurt. Her eyes were closed again, and she appeared to be back to sleeping. Loz and me were speechless. Loz asked “Uh… what just happened? How did she do that?” I didn’t know either, but replied “I am clueless… but I think Mother somehow used her to protect us from capture. I don’t know what else to say…” Loz grew curious “You mean… Mother’s inside of her?!” I repeated myself “I don’t know… but we wont learn anything by bickering about it. Let’s get outta here before the other group of soldiers catches up. If that uses a lot of her power, I don’t want to risk her dying from that happening too many times. Especially since we havent even talked to her yet…” We continued on that night, and eventually found another dark alley in a nearby abandoned town to rest in. I carefully laid the girl on the ground, and me and Loz went to sleep. We were too overwhelmed about what we witnessed in Nibelheim to have any closing conversations together that night, so we just went to sleep without saying anything to each other except good night. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought Please be ok, Little Sister… don’t die on me, even if what happened used a lot of your power. Just hold on a little longer, so I can at least learn your name…
To Be Continued…
