Chapter 1: Piecing the Puzzle Together
After we arrived at the Forgotten City, we decided to try figuring out what happened, and if Mother and Sephiroth made it through. Loz said “I cant get to Sephiroth at all… its all fuzzy.” Kadaj agreed “Me too… im having the same problem. There’s no way they’re still there…” I replied “No, they cant be. I saw both of them disappear through the white light and then you two also did. I was the last one to get swallowed up before waking up in that church in the slums. So if we’re still alive, they should be too. They’re probably still somewhere else and trying to regroup.” Loz said “I hope they find us soon… I cant take this much longer…” He began crying quietly, sitting in the black water nearby. Kadaj said “Do you think Hojo got sent back in time, too? He was helping us…” I shrugged “I don’t know that either… he wasn’t hit by the white explosion, so he’s probably still in what we’d call the future at this point. This is difficult to make sense out of… I never knew something this large scale was even possible.” Kadaj cried out in pain and held her head, and I asked “Kadaj, are you ok?” Kadaj moaned and let go of her head, then shook her head sadly “Mother, and Sephiroth, they… they’re not coming back…” Saddened, I asked “What..?” Loz seemed to hear her too and turned back to us. Kadaj replied “They’re stuck between life and death in a time-space gap… part of them is in the lifestream in this time, and another part is trying to stay alive. Its hard to describe… but they’re not coming back…” She was also crying quietly. I said “Its like they tried to hang on during the Zeta accident so Meteor is summoned still summoned… but then, why is it not in the sky?” Kadaj replied “Im sorry… I don’t know…!” Loz couldn’t hold in his sadness any longer and burst into tears “Mother… nooo!!” I sighed “I cant believe this… its unreal. What is that monster, anyway? And why was it targetting us?” Kadaj shook her head and forced her tears away “I don’t know exactly what Zeta Weapon is, but I can already tell one thing about it. Its being controlled by the will of the Planet. That’s why we were caught and stopped when Sephiroth tried to use Meteor before. And since Meteor was nearly complete, the weapon used its time warp beam, seeing the only possible way to stop us. Even stopping Sephiroth…” Loz sobbed “This is stupid! It doesn’t make any sense! I want Mother back! I want Big Brother, now!” I added “He’s not wrong there. I still don’t understand much of it. But Kadaj, you seem like you’re more in tune to the Planet than me and Loz are. What you said about Zeta, at least, does seem understandable to me. But the way our bodies and physical age was reversed, and even Damion’s memories of us gone, I cannot understand…” Kadaj replied “ Yeah… I guess im just more awakened than you and Loz as of now. What do we do? Mother and Sephiroth cant do anything for us when they’re trapped between life and death across a time gap… the only thing that let their bodies and wills remain was the intent on succeeding with Meteor.” I asked “Do you think there’s some way we can help them? Anything at all?” Kadaj shook her head “I wish I knew… we cant bring them back unless we find a way to reach out to their full consciousness. If that isnt done, they’ll stay trapped… and more than that, they’re also trapped in the future where we tried to secure Meteor’s success. And in the time we got sent back to, they’re also trapped in the same place… so to bring them back, you’d need to pull their consciousness back in both this time and the future where Zeta attacked us.” I sighed “Then we’re in pretty big trouble… none of us can manipulate time and space. We’ve gotta figure something out… if we don’t, they’ll suffer forever…” Loz had finally calmed down but was still sniffling from crying too much. Loz asked “If we finish Meteor for Sephiroth, do you think that will save them? I mean, that’s why they held on in the first place, right? So if we just finish what they started, do you think they’ll come back, Sister?” Kadaj nodded “Its worth a try. I cant say it wouldn’t work, but… how are we gonna make it all the way back to the North Cave ourselves? We’re too little to drive this time…” I agreed “Yeah, that will be… problematic. We need a plan… there’s too much going on.” Loz asked “What do we do first?” I shook my head “I still don’t know. We’ve got too much to fix and a lot of growing to do thanks to what Zeta Weapon did to us. I hate to leave Mother and Sephiroth in a bind like this, but… we don’t have much choice right now. Our bodies arent strong enough to go that far by foot. We’re too young now…” Kadaj said “You know what… I think he’s right. We’re probably not even strong enough to finish Meteor, either… not now.” Loz worried “And what if we get caught by Zeta Weapon again? And we get sent back AGAIN?!” I firmly replied “Calm yourself! There’s still a lot of time before we actually head there. We’ve got too many things that need to be done first.” Kadaj said “I cant believe we got caught… and were reversed and sent back to Midgar, along with it. This is bad…” I replied “Agreed. We cant risk fighting Zeta after what we learned here. Its not worth being thrown in a loop like that. The enemy is too strong. For now, let’s get some rest. Tomorrow, we’ll decide what we do next.” Then we all went to sleep that day, resting in the Forgotten City as if it were our new home.
Meanwhile, that night, in the presently quiet city of Midgar…
Cloud Strife was awake that night, reading through some letters he received in the mail that appeared to be from Shinra Company. He sighed “How many times do I need to ignore their requests before they get it? Im done with Shinra. That’s just it.” One of his children came out and asked “Dad, can I go outside and play? Im bored and Im not tired yet, either.” Cloud answered “No, Glade. Its too dangerous out there at night. There are too many Shinra guards outside at night for you to be out there.” Glade groaned “Ugh! You big coward! You never let us do anything fun! Argh!” Then he stormed back into the hall and returned to his room. Cloud, unaffected by his son’s outburst, watched him go back to his room before throwing away the letters he received from Shinra. Cloud sighed and shook his head “He never saw Shinra for himself… he wouldn’t understand.” Tifa came into the house through the door and asked “Hi, Cloud. Im back.” Cloud said “Yeah, good…” Tifa asked “What’s wrong?” Cloud got out of his seat and stood up “It’s Glade again… he doesn’t realize how dangerous it is at night, and thinks it would be cool and fun to play out there again.” Tifa laughed “Oh, he’s a teenager. He’s just being a thrillseeker, Cloud. Don’t take it too hard.” Cloud replied “But its not funny! I don’t want them kidnapping him or whatever else they get in mind.” Tifa agreed “Yeah, I know. Just keep an eye on him, ok?” Then she went downstairs. Cloud shrugged and returned to going through the stack of letters he had. Glade was sitting in his bed with his arms crossed and groaned under his breath “Why’s he so scared of the world anyway? It gets boring staying in all the time!”
The next morning, Yazoo and his siblings awoke…
I saw something that night. What looked like the Black Materia, lying still on a dark ocean floor, the surface of the water frozen solid from the frigid air above. But somehow, the inside didn’t freeze; there werent even chunks of ice floating around. The materia just sat there, giving off an intermittent glow of black mixed with purple that had some kind of dark radiance. It seemed to go on forever; the ocean empty of all except the Black Materia, the sky pure blue above. It was very awkward scenery and I couldn’t make sense out of it. But then, I heard Sephiroth’s voice from somewhere, and he seemed to be warning me of something “You must protect it at all costs. Make haste, hurry to the far north… before the enemy. This is our last…” I couldn’t hear the rest. I felt something shaking me, and woke up gazing at Kadaj’s face. I realized what I just saw was a dream. I asked “Kadaj, whats wrong?” Kadaj looked grim as if something was bothering her and she replied “Shinra… the bad guys… they know where the Black Materia is! We have to stop them!” Quickly snapping out of my drowsy state, I stood up and cried “What?! But that’s impossible! The Weapon sent us back in time! There’s no way Shinra could know anything about it!” Loz shook his head and sighed “I know, I don’t get it either, but if its really true, we cant just stay here and do nothing. Even if we die trying…” Kadaj panicked “But they passed by this place over an hour ago… they’re probably halfway to the northern crater by now! How are we gonna stop them quickly enough..?” I put a hand on her shoulder and said “Step one, calm down! I realize this is an emergency, but if we all panic, we wont know what to do. There’s more than one way to get a ride… all we have to do is find an enemy search party and sneak on board. And make sure we arent going somewhere else.” Loz laughed “You mean hitchhike? Easy! And definitely fun.” I sighed and drew my revolver “Not as easy as you might think. If we’re caught on board, things will get ugly real fast. If the enemy retained their memories of fighting us for the Black Materia, they probably still know who we are. We cant rely on ignorance this time.” Loz groaned “Ugh! Not fair! Why do they remember everything and keep their powers and stuff? That’s cheating!” I replied “I know it sucks, but we don’t have time to worry about that right now. This job stands between victory and another thousand years of failure. We cant wait around for this—hurry. Follow me.” I lead the way out, and looked around for a way to climb higher up. There were frozen mountains all around, but they were too step to climb. I sighed and hardened my expression “Great. No way up.” Kadaj said “This would be a lot easier if Sephiroth was still here… I want him back. He was so nice to us…” Loz added “Yeah, and he was good at thinking about what to do when too… im bad at that. I can hit, but man… this is tough.” I lead the way straight ahead since there appeared to be no possible climbing route with the surrounding mountains. I felt myself growing frustrated “Convenient. We’re probably too late already… dang it!” I suddenly stopped and heard a man’s laughter somewhere close by and signalled Loz and Kadaj to stop “Shh, someone’s out there…” I aimed my revolver, carefully studying the area for any enemies nearby, and before I knew it, I saw Hojo come out from behind one of tall mountains smiling at us. Keeping wary, I refused to lower my gun. I didn’t want to risk what Zeta might have done to him when we were attacked yesterday. Hojo smiled and said “Well, look who’s back… are you in need of aid?” I replied with another question “How do I know youre not gonna trick us too?” Hojo shrugged and kept calm “You insist on killing on me, young Sephiroth specimen? That would be ever so wasteful.” He turned around and gave a signal I didn’t recognize, and a medium sized airship landed in front of him. He turned back to us and shrugged another time “If you insist on firing at me, you’re sure to miss your chance. Or, golden opportunity as you may call it. But the idea remains unchanged.” I decided to lower my gun and asked “You know what happened at the far north? To our Mother and Big Brother, and what that thing did to us?” Hojo smiled sneaky and nodded “Well, give the boy a prize. I most certainly do. But save the explaining for later… your grand chance awaits, young specimen.” Kadaj asked “Can we still trust him, Yazoo?” I turned around and answered “We’re gonna have to… We have no other way to beat Shinra to that crater and the Black Materia.” Loz grumbled and looked discouraged “Ugh… he’s right…” Hojo led us inside and we sat down on the main deck which seemed strangely small, but there was enough room for us to sit and for Hojo to drive. Hojo sat down and started piloting the airship. I didn’t know what was going on anymore. This was all too big and confusing; even ridiculous. It didn’t make sense, and I knew it never would. Hojo seemed like he was completely unaffected by whatever time warp Zeta Weapon used on us during the Meteor attempt. I got scared just thinking about if it was still roaming free in this time. I didn’t wanna know what another serving of that power would do; because I knew it would be really bad. Possibly even the unthinkable kind of bad. You only needed to experience this craziness once to be aware of such nasty possibilities of a second encounter. I walked and stood near Hojo, then shook my head sadly “If we get caught by Zeta again, we’re doomed… I cant even begin to fathom what it will do next time. But im not fighting that thing; no frikkin way.” Hojo seemed to hear me and said “I warned you three to avoid the specimen at all costs. How were you unable to evade it?” I answered “I don’t know… Im not even sure if I know what happened out there before we got struck by some kind of time-space warp. None of whats going on, what happened to us and our Mother, and everything else… none of it adds up. I don’t understand what in the world is happening, Hojo… what is this? What did that thing do to us?” Hojo paused, then answered “It gets rather complicated, especially for mere children as you and your lookalikes back there… but Zeta executed a counter-offensive spacetime twist that caused your ages to revert a few to several years, positive memories others had of you children to be completely erased… and Shinra’s employees and executives to retain their memories of all the encounters each of you had with them. Notably, in this case, the Black Materia you snatched away and made off with to the north with Sephiroth. As for what it did to JENOVA and Sephiroth… they’re trapped inside of another dimension, within a hidden fabric of space on this Planet. That is why the Black Materia is stuck in a cycle of summoning Meteor and failing to—your Brother’s will versus Zeta’s. Conflicting powers on a large scale fighting for opposing goals.” I couldn’t grasp what he explained very well at all and shook my head in disbelief “You’ve gotta be freaking kidding me… that’s ridiculous! How could one monster do all of that by itself?!” Hojo reassured “Im not lying. If you don’t believe me, look around, specimen. Do you see anything that contradicts my explanation?” I didn’t wanna believe that. Now I really didn’t know what to do. I didn’t even care about Meteor now; I only wanted to get Mother and Sephiroth back, and to save them so they don’t suffer anymore. I didn’t want this sadness to continue any longer. I looked up and said “That explains the dream I had… geeze. How could this stuff even be possible?” Hojo said “Whether you like it or not, this is all very real. Its right before your eyes as it is mine.” I asked “Is there any way you can help us free Mother and Sephiroth? We cant save them… we don’t have the power to travel between worlds or dimensions and twist their fabric like Zeta does. And I doubt we’re capable of learning how.” Hojo answered “ Well, the only option left would be to create a special device that is strong enough to open a path to the dimension they’re locked in. That I can do… at a time consuming cost. Ive never invented something that powerful… except for Zeta Weapon. But Zeta’s current power was an accident. Its that deadly because it was left inside a mako reactor for too long. Controlling it in its current known state would be impossible.” I asked “Are you sure its impossible? Doesn’t it have any weaknesses we can exploit to do something here?” Hojo explained “Well, the only matter with any power to counter mako… is in you, young boy. JENOVA’s cells. But controlling Zeta would require such an excess of her cells that even fully grown, it wouldn’t work for any of you…” I said “and what if all three of us worked together and tried? Would we still be too weak together?” Hojo was shocked and warned “You do realize that what you are suggesting means confronting this fierce specimen, and running the risk of another spacetime distortion?” I moaned “Urk… I know, I realize that. But we cant just leave our own Mother trapped like that. Its not right to just let someone suffer like that! And Sephiroth is in pain too… I can feel it. They’re both suffering because of that monster! I’ll risk whatever I have to so we can get them back and finish this mess. Even if Shinra beats us to the Black Materia!” I realized I was clenching my fists and how angry I grew. I began to incessantly hate Zeta. I only wished to see the beast die for what it did to us. Hojo said “Well, here we are, young specimens. The northern cave.” He landed the airhship and I went back to Kadaj and Loz, then began to lead us off the ship. We were suddenly greeted by a group of Shinra soldiers gazing steely at us, and I grew suspicious. I heard Hojo snickering behind us and looked back and forth a few times. Loz was confused “Umm, Hojo… whats going on? The Black Materia isnt here.” One of the soldiers grabbed me and stuck a needle in me, and I groaned “Gaah..! Hojo, you traitor! What kind of garbage is this?!” Kadaj and Loz were also caught, and Kadaj was knocked out first. I panicked “Ahh, great..! How could I be so…” I blacked out before I could finish. I tried to hang on, and could only look at Hojo as my vision faded in and out “You traitor…! Why..?!” Hojo smiled and laughed under his breath “All too easy. Your foolishness has served me well, child.” I wanted to groan, and kick and scream as much as possible, but I felt too weak and couldn’t. Before I knew it, I was unconscious yet again.
To Be Continued…
After we arrived at the Forgotten City, we decided to try figuring out what happened, and if Mother and Sephiroth made it through. Loz said “I cant get to Sephiroth at all… its all fuzzy.” Kadaj agreed “Me too… im having the same problem. There’s no way they’re still there…” I replied “No, they cant be. I saw both of them disappear through the white light and then you two also did. I was the last one to get swallowed up before waking up in that church in the slums. So if we’re still alive, they should be too. They’re probably still somewhere else and trying to regroup.” Loz said “I hope they find us soon… I cant take this much longer…” He began crying quietly, sitting in the black water nearby. Kadaj said “Do you think Hojo got sent back in time, too? He was helping us…” I shrugged “I don’t know that either… he wasn’t hit by the white explosion, so he’s probably still in what we’d call the future at this point. This is difficult to make sense out of… I never knew something this large scale was even possible.” Kadaj cried out in pain and held her head, and I asked “Kadaj, are you ok?” Kadaj moaned and let go of her head, then shook her head sadly “Mother, and Sephiroth, they… they’re not coming back…” Saddened, I asked “What..?” Loz seemed to hear her too and turned back to us. Kadaj replied “They’re stuck between life and death in a time-space gap… part of them is in the lifestream in this time, and another part is trying to stay alive. Its hard to describe… but they’re not coming back…” She was also crying quietly. I said “Its like they tried to hang on during the Zeta accident so Meteor is summoned still summoned… but then, why is it not in the sky?” Kadaj replied “Im sorry… I don’t know…!” Loz couldn’t hold in his sadness any longer and burst into tears “Mother… nooo!!” I sighed “I cant believe this… its unreal. What is that monster, anyway? And why was it targetting us?” Kadaj shook her head and forced her tears away “I don’t know exactly what Zeta Weapon is, but I can already tell one thing about it. Its being controlled by the will of the Planet. That’s why we were caught and stopped when Sephiroth tried to use Meteor before. And since Meteor was nearly complete, the weapon used its time warp beam, seeing the only possible way to stop us. Even stopping Sephiroth…” Loz sobbed “This is stupid! It doesn’t make any sense! I want Mother back! I want Big Brother, now!” I added “He’s not wrong there. I still don’t understand much of it. But Kadaj, you seem like you’re more in tune to the Planet than me and Loz are. What you said about Zeta, at least, does seem understandable to me. But the way our bodies and physical age was reversed, and even Damion’s memories of us gone, I cannot understand…” Kadaj replied “ Yeah… I guess im just more awakened than you and Loz as of now. What do we do? Mother and Sephiroth cant do anything for us when they’re trapped between life and death across a time gap… the only thing that let their bodies and wills remain was the intent on succeeding with Meteor.” I asked “Do you think there’s some way we can help them? Anything at all?” Kadaj shook her head “I wish I knew… we cant bring them back unless we find a way to reach out to their full consciousness. If that isnt done, they’ll stay trapped… and more than that, they’re also trapped in the future where we tried to secure Meteor’s success. And in the time we got sent back to, they’re also trapped in the same place… so to bring them back, you’d need to pull their consciousness back in both this time and the future where Zeta attacked us.” I sighed “Then we’re in pretty big trouble… none of us can manipulate time and space. We’ve gotta figure something out… if we don’t, they’ll suffer forever…” Loz had finally calmed down but was still sniffling from crying too much. Loz asked “If we finish Meteor for Sephiroth, do you think that will save them? I mean, that’s why they held on in the first place, right? So if we just finish what they started, do you think they’ll come back, Sister?” Kadaj nodded “Its worth a try. I cant say it wouldn’t work, but… how are we gonna make it all the way back to the North Cave ourselves? We’re too little to drive this time…” I agreed “Yeah, that will be… problematic. We need a plan… there’s too much going on.” Loz asked “What do we do first?” I shook my head “I still don’t know. We’ve got too much to fix and a lot of growing to do thanks to what Zeta Weapon did to us. I hate to leave Mother and Sephiroth in a bind like this, but… we don’t have much choice right now. Our bodies arent strong enough to go that far by foot. We’re too young now…” Kadaj said “You know what… I think he’s right. We’re probably not even strong enough to finish Meteor, either… not now.” Loz worried “And what if we get caught by Zeta Weapon again? And we get sent back AGAIN?!” I firmly replied “Calm yourself! There’s still a lot of time before we actually head there. We’ve got too many things that need to be done first.” Kadaj said “I cant believe we got caught… and were reversed and sent back to Midgar, along with it. This is bad…” I replied “Agreed. We cant risk fighting Zeta after what we learned here. Its not worth being thrown in a loop like that. The enemy is too strong. For now, let’s get some rest. Tomorrow, we’ll decide what we do next.” Then we all went to sleep that day, resting in the Forgotten City as if it were our new home.
Meanwhile, that night, in the presently quiet city of Midgar…
Cloud Strife was awake that night, reading through some letters he received in the mail that appeared to be from Shinra Company. He sighed “How many times do I need to ignore their requests before they get it? Im done with Shinra. That’s just it.” One of his children came out and asked “Dad, can I go outside and play? Im bored and Im not tired yet, either.” Cloud answered “No, Glade. Its too dangerous out there at night. There are too many Shinra guards outside at night for you to be out there.” Glade groaned “Ugh! You big coward! You never let us do anything fun! Argh!” Then he stormed back into the hall and returned to his room. Cloud, unaffected by his son’s outburst, watched him go back to his room before throwing away the letters he received from Shinra. Cloud sighed and shook his head “He never saw Shinra for himself… he wouldn’t understand.” Tifa came into the house through the door and asked “Hi, Cloud. Im back.” Cloud said “Yeah, good…” Tifa asked “What’s wrong?” Cloud got out of his seat and stood up “It’s Glade again… he doesn’t realize how dangerous it is at night, and thinks it would be cool and fun to play out there again.” Tifa laughed “Oh, he’s a teenager. He’s just being a thrillseeker, Cloud. Don’t take it too hard.” Cloud replied “But its not funny! I don’t want them kidnapping him or whatever else they get in mind.” Tifa agreed “Yeah, I know. Just keep an eye on him, ok?” Then she went downstairs. Cloud shrugged and returned to going through the stack of letters he had. Glade was sitting in his bed with his arms crossed and groaned under his breath “Why’s he so scared of the world anyway? It gets boring staying in all the time!”
The next morning, Yazoo and his siblings awoke…
I saw something that night. What looked like the Black Materia, lying still on a dark ocean floor, the surface of the water frozen solid from the frigid air above. But somehow, the inside didn’t freeze; there werent even chunks of ice floating around. The materia just sat there, giving off an intermittent glow of black mixed with purple that had some kind of dark radiance. It seemed to go on forever; the ocean empty of all except the Black Materia, the sky pure blue above. It was very awkward scenery and I couldn’t make sense out of it. But then, I heard Sephiroth’s voice from somewhere, and he seemed to be warning me of something “You must protect it at all costs. Make haste, hurry to the far north… before the enemy. This is our last…” I couldn’t hear the rest. I felt something shaking me, and woke up gazing at Kadaj’s face. I realized what I just saw was a dream. I asked “Kadaj, whats wrong?” Kadaj looked grim as if something was bothering her and she replied “Shinra… the bad guys… they know where the Black Materia is! We have to stop them!” Quickly snapping out of my drowsy state, I stood up and cried “What?! But that’s impossible! The Weapon sent us back in time! There’s no way Shinra could know anything about it!” Loz shook his head and sighed “I know, I don’t get it either, but if its really true, we cant just stay here and do nothing. Even if we die trying…” Kadaj panicked “But they passed by this place over an hour ago… they’re probably halfway to the northern crater by now! How are we gonna stop them quickly enough..?” I put a hand on her shoulder and said “Step one, calm down! I realize this is an emergency, but if we all panic, we wont know what to do. There’s more than one way to get a ride… all we have to do is find an enemy search party and sneak on board. And make sure we arent going somewhere else.” Loz laughed “You mean hitchhike? Easy! And definitely fun.” I sighed and drew my revolver “Not as easy as you might think. If we’re caught on board, things will get ugly real fast. If the enemy retained their memories of fighting us for the Black Materia, they probably still know who we are. We cant rely on ignorance this time.” Loz groaned “Ugh! Not fair! Why do they remember everything and keep their powers and stuff? That’s cheating!” I replied “I know it sucks, but we don’t have time to worry about that right now. This job stands between victory and another thousand years of failure. We cant wait around for this—hurry. Follow me.” I lead the way out, and looked around for a way to climb higher up. There were frozen mountains all around, but they were too step to climb. I sighed and hardened my expression “Great. No way up.” Kadaj said “This would be a lot easier if Sephiroth was still here… I want him back. He was so nice to us…” Loz added “Yeah, and he was good at thinking about what to do when too… im bad at that. I can hit, but man… this is tough.” I lead the way straight ahead since there appeared to be no possible climbing route with the surrounding mountains. I felt myself growing frustrated “Convenient. We’re probably too late already… dang it!” I suddenly stopped and heard a man’s laughter somewhere close by and signalled Loz and Kadaj to stop “Shh, someone’s out there…” I aimed my revolver, carefully studying the area for any enemies nearby, and before I knew it, I saw Hojo come out from behind one of tall mountains smiling at us. Keeping wary, I refused to lower my gun. I didn’t want to risk what Zeta might have done to him when we were attacked yesterday. Hojo smiled and said “Well, look who’s back… are you in need of aid?” I replied with another question “How do I know youre not gonna trick us too?” Hojo shrugged and kept calm “You insist on killing on me, young Sephiroth specimen? That would be ever so wasteful.” He turned around and gave a signal I didn’t recognize, and a medium sized airship landed in front of him. He turned back to us and shrugged another time “If you insist on firing at me, you’re sure to miss your chance. Or, golden opportunity as you may call it. But the idea remains unchanged.” I decided to lower my gun and asked “You know what happened at the far north? To our Mother and Big Brother, and what that thing did to us?” Hojo smiled sneaky and nodded “Well, give the boy a prize. I most certainly do. But save the explaining for later… your grand chance awaits, young specimen.” Kadaj asked “Can we still trust him, Yazoo?” I turned around and answered “We’re gonna have to… We have no other way to beat Shinra to that crater and the Black Materia.” Loz grumbled and looked discouraged “Ugh… he’s right…” Hojo led us inside and we sat down on the main deck which seemed strangely small, but there was enough room for us to sit and for Hojo to drive. Hojo sat down and started piloting the airship. I didn’t know what was going on anymore. This was all too big and confusing; even ridiculous. It didn’t make sense, and I knew it never would. Hojo seemed like he was completely unaffected by whatever time warp Zeta Weapon used on us during the Meteor attempt. I got scared just thinking about if it was still roaming free in this time. I didn’t wanna know what another serving of that power would do; because I knew it would be really bad. Possibly even the unthinkable kind of bad. You only needed to experience this craziness once to be aware of such nasty possibilities of a second encounter. I walked and stood near Hojo, then shook my head sadly “If we get caught by Zeta again, we’re doomed… I cant even begin to fathom what it will do next time. But im not fighting that thing; no frikkin way.” Hojo seemed to hear me and said “I warned you three to avoid the specimen at all costs. How were you unable to evade it?” I answered “I don’t know… Im not even sure if I know what happened out there before we got struck by some kind of time-space warp. None of whats going on, what happened to us and our Mother, and everything else… none of it adds up. I don’t understand what in the world is happening, Hojo… what is this? What did that thing do to us?” Hojo paused, then answered “It gets rather complicated, especially for mere children as you and your lookalikes back there… but Zeta executed a counter-offensive spacetime twist that caused your ages to revert a few to several years, positive memories others had of you children to be completely erased… and Shinra’s employees and executives to retain their memories of all the encounters each of you had with them. Notably, in this case, the Black Materia you snatched away and made off with to the north with Sephiroth. As for what it did to JENOVA and Sephiroth… they’re trapped inside of another dimension, within a hidden fabric of space on this Planet. That is why the Black Materia is stuck in a cycle of summoning Meteor and failing to—your Brother’s will versus Zeta’s. Conflicting powers on a large scale fighting for opposing goals.” I couldn’t grasp what he explained very well at all and shook my head in disbelief “You’ve gotta be freaking kidding me… that’s ridiculous! How could one monster do all of that by itself?!” Hojo reassured “Im not lying. If you don’t believe me, look around, specimen. Do you see anything that contradicts my explanation?” I didn’t wanna believe that. Now I really didn’t know what to do. I didn’t even care about Meteor now; I only wanted to get Mother and Sephiroth back, and to save them so they don’t suffer anymore. I didn’t want this sadness to continue any longer. I looked up and said “That explains the dream I had… geeze. How could this stuff even be possible?” Hojo said “Whether you like it or not, this is all very real. Its right before your eyes as it is mine.” I asked “Is there any way you can help us free Mother and Sephiroth? We cant save them… we don’t have the power to travel between worlds or dimensions and twist their fabric like Zeta does. And I doubt we’re capable of learning how.” Hojo answered “ Well, the only option left would be to create a special device that is strong enough to open a path to the dimension they’re locked in. That I can do… at a time consuming cost. Ive never invented something that powerful… except for Zeta Weapon. But Zeta’s current power was an accident. Its that deadly because it was left inside a mako reactor for too long. Controlling it in its current known state would be impossible.” I asked “Are you sure its impossible? Doesn’t it have any weaknesses we can exploit to do something here?” Hojo explained “Well, the only matter with any power to counter mako… is in you, young boy. JENOVA’s cells. But controlling Zeta would require such an excess of her cells that even fully grown, it wouldn’t work for any of you…” I said “and what if all three of us worked together and tried? Would we still be too weak together?” Hojo was shocked and warned “You do realize that what you are suggesting means confronting this fierce specimen, and running the risk of another spacetime distortion?” I moaned “Urk… I know, I realize that. But we cant just leave our own Mother trapped like that. Its not right to just let someone suffer like that! And Sephiroth is in pain too… I can feel it. They’re both suffering because of that monster! I’ll risk whatever I have to so we can get them back and finish this mess. Even if Shinra beats us to the Black Materia!” I realized I was clenching my fists and how angry I grew. I began to incessantly hate Zeta. I only wished to see the beast die for what it did to us. Hojo said “Well, here we are, young specimens. The northern cave.” He landed the airhship and I went back to Kadaj and Loz, then began to lead us off the ship. We were suddenly greeted by a group of Shinra soldiers gazing steely at us, and I grew suspicious. I heard Hojo snickering behind us and looked back and forth a few times. Loz was confused “Umm, Hojo… whats going on? The Black Materia isnt here.” One of the soldiers grabbed me and stuck a needle in me, and I groaned “Gaah..! Hojo, you traitor! What kind of garbage is this?!” Kadaj and Loz were also caught, and Kadaj was knocked out first. I panicked “Ahh, great..! How could I be so…” I blacked out before I could finish. I tried to hang on, and could only look at Hojo as my vision faded in and out “You traitor…! Why..?!” Hojo smiled and laughed under his breath “All too easy. Your foolishness has served me well, child.” I wanted to groan, and kick and scream as much as possible, but I felt too weak and couldn’t. Before I knew it, I was unconscious yet again.
To Be Continued…
