Chapter 3: No Exit
(This section will focus once again on Yazoo and Loz with Yazoo as the speaker) After
Loz and I had spent what felt like several minutes crying, wanting to see Mother feel as happy as she had when i showed her my enthusiasm for the mission, i forced myself to stop and focus on the mission. Loz also seemed to do the same, most likely feeling what i did when i stopped. We both knew this was no time for weeping, despite how painful knowing what they did to Mother all those years ago really was. I then said with pure intent and will "Maybe we cant reverse what theyve already done to Mother and us, but that doesn't mean we cant turn this around and make everything right--as Mother wants things to be. We have Little Sister Sephieroth with us: she might even be stronger than Big Brother or have something he didn't have thats needed to bring down Cloud Strife. Mother knows she has what it takes, especially if the three of us fight him together. But what he did to us when she was only 15 years old, and not even halfway through her larva state has left her with such a powerful desire to kill him that her hatred might take full control of her if she finds him.... in other words, if we dont guide her, she might get too careless and only make things for herself. That's what Mother wants us to do. And in order to stand up to a powerful enemy like him, we have set our fears aside and be strong. Unless we stay strong, we wont be able to guide Little Sister as Mother wants us to." Loz seemed to nod in agreement, then said "Youre right... If we dont stay strong, she may not have as much faith in us midbattle or in general. If the trust isn't there, she will probably act on her own and be less likely to follow our guidance. And if she acts too wildly without any thought, she may also fall short as Big Brother did long ago... If she dies, Mother will be heartbroken... This time around may be our last chance. We cant afford another loss." I nodded, then said "Right. One thing at a time, though: get Mother's treasure and return it to her." We drove in silence for what felt like several minutes. Suddenly, i thought i heard something. I suddenly slammed the brakes on my motorbike and began to listen carefully in silence. Loz was caught by surprise, crying out and slammed the brakes on his vehicle as well, seeming to be just inches behind me before completely stopping. I heard him get off and saw him run directly in front of me. He was clearly rather angry, and said "Hey! You're supposed to signal before you just stop like that! You know what Little Sister does!" I then hushed him by signal, and said "Did you hear something?" He calmed down, and gazed around the area and said "No... What is it?" I paused briefly, listening closely once again. I then got off my motorbike and got out my gunblade, preparing to fight and looked elsewhere in several different directions, and said "Its too quiet. Theres nobody in sight either. I dont like that." Being aware that i was correct, Loz also got ready to attack. We both prepared to fight, awaiting what i expected to be an ambush. Suddenly, before i had a chance to attack, someone hit me from behind and i was knocked to the ground. I also heard Loz hit my attacker. Quickly recovering, i picked my weapon back up and stood up to face my attacker. I couldn't believe who had stood before us: it was Tifa Lockheart. Luckily for us, Loz apparently managed to land a hit on her as well before she could do too much to me. But even though he injured her, i knew she wasnt going anywhere without a fight; that was just final and both of us knew it. I smiled and giggled a bit, then said "Well look who we have here. Its been a while, Tifa." She appeared to grow very serious and said "Where's Sephieroth at?!" Loz immediately broke out into laughter, and I couldn't help but follow. I then replied to her, and said "Why would we tell you that? Arent you a foolish one!" I giggled a bit and then Loz said "I thought you were smarter than that. Seems i overestimated you." Tifa began to grow angry, but of course we didn't care. Loz smiled, and continued "Especially after i wrecked you in that garden, little miss Tifa." Unable to take anymore mockery from us, Tifa lashed out and we followed, beginning to fight each other with full force. It was me and Loz against her; we went back to back, none of us letting up. The fight seemed to last forever. After some amount of time had passed, Tifa began to seem very exhausted, which was when the fight appeared to near its end. Me and Loz stood some distance from her while she stopped suddenly from exhaustion, apparently trying to regain some energy. Out of nowhere, she worked up what little strength she had left and ran towards me with full speed, preparing to attack me. But before she could hit me at all, i fired a shot from my gunblade at the last minute, and she took the hit, falling to the ground. I smiled, then got ready to make the finishing blow to kill her, but Loz put his hand on my shoulder to stop me, and said "Don't get careless. If we kill her right here, you know who's coming after us." I knew he was absolutely right; Cloud would inevitably give chase if he found her dead. Stopping briefly to think, i had another idea that i hoped would prevent him from pursuing us during the mission. I then said "Its too easy. Let's give problem child another stigma dilemma." Loz gave me a signal indicating he agreed with me, and i approached Tifa, who was still on the ground trying to get up with minimal results; it was clear id shot her in some way that made getting up very difficult. She was definitely too injured to do much now. After getting to her, i kneeled down and used the power of my JENOVA cells to give her a stare that would paralyze her with fear, then exerted just enough of them on her to leave her infected the Geo Stigma. I had hoped she wouldn't die right here, but would head for Cloud's hometown to get his help and that his emotions would get the best of him, ultimately allowing us to roam free and the mission to proceed flawlessly for its remaining time. I also knew this was not guaranteed to happen, but as Mother said i must do everything in my power to avoid him or keep him behind otherwise. After id finished infecting her, i released my stare on her and got up to lead Loz back to our motorbikes so we could get as far away as possible before Cloud could see anything that happened. As we mounted our mtorbikes and got ready to take off at full speed, i heard Tifa crying out in pain from being infected. We didn't any time sticking around; we drove off as fast as we could.
Several hours later....
Tifa had finally managed to arrive at Cloud's hometown, hoping to find him before Geo Stigma did more harm and knocked her unconscious again. Just before she could open the door to his home, she fell to the ground and struggled to remain awake. Cloud had suddenly arrived in the area, and saw her on the ground, running to help her. He kneeled down to her, and tried to shake her awake, then said "Tifa, wake up... Come on, get up..." She moaned mildly but didn't say anything. Cloud then said "Who did this?" After she managed to open her eyes, she said "Yazoo and Loz... I tried to defeat them, but... I couldn't...I barely survived..." Cloud then tried to help her stand up, and they faced each other in silence briefly. Tifa then said "Something was different though... The larva wasnt with them. Even weirder is they purposefully left me alive, which only makes me more suspicious." Cloud began listening carefully, also agreeing with what she said. Tifa continued and said "You know that JENOVA's remnants are no different than Sephiroth. When they fight, they have intent to kill. They wouldn't leave me alive like that under normal conditions." Cloud paused briefly and said "Whats going on here?" Tifa stopped briefly trying to think, and said "I dont know for sure. But theyre clearly up to something. With the larva not being together with them, and Yazoo and Loz leaving me alive, something is going on. Most likely its something bad." Cloud replied, and said "Uh oh... If they went separate ways, that means theyre after something. That's never a good thing. The only question is what theyre after..." Both of them stood in silence for several minutes, thinking as htorouo as possible. Cloud was the first one to speak and said "Either Sephieroth is after the black materia or the JENOVA Stone Tablet... With Aeris gone, we have nobody capable of defeating her if she gets her hands on that... It would be a total disaster if she got its power!" Tifa's expression went a bit grim, and she said "If she gets the black materia, the whole world is in danger... But if she gets the black materia AND the JENOVA Stone Tablet, the world is at the mercy of her hatred and wrath... Nobody can defeat her then. It would only be natural for JENOVA to pull out the big guns like that with this being her legacy's third time around." Cloud then replied "But if we destroy the JENOVA Stone Tablet, JENOVA and her offspring will be completely removed from existence since that would erase the reunion theory permanently. So even if Sephieroth gets the black materia, that's a way to defeat her and JENOVA, along with the rest of her kids. Only this time, there will be no coming back for any of them. Without the reunion theory, none of them can exist at all." Tifa nodded and said "You have to go after them, Cloud. If theyre really after either of those things, or even both, youre the only one who can stop them before they get too far!" Cloud nodded, then got ready to turn around and leave, but before he could Tifa winced in pain from the effects of Geo Stigma. Cloud immediately knew she was infected by looking at her arm, and ran to her help. He said "No, i wont leave you like this!" Tifa then said "Cloud, youve got to stop them. Youre the only one who us powerful enough to defeat them!" Still worried about Tifa, Cloud said "Ive lost too many! Im not losing you too!" Tifa grew firm despite her pain and said "Cloud, you have to stop them or people will die! If you let them roam free like that, youre putting everyone else in danger and falling right into their plan! Is that what you really want?!" Cloud quickly felt very troubled and sad at the same time. He remembered all the people who died that he was friends with and everyone who sacrificed themselves to stop JENOVA and her children; he couldn't bear the thought of another loss from this. Suddenly, the sky grew very dark, and Cloud watched it from where he was. Suddenly, he saw JENOVA's face appear among the darkened atmosphere above, noticing she was looking directly at him. He also noticed she appeared to feel very sad, tears slowly flowing from her red eye. He was unable to take his eyes off of her and mysteriously felt sad here. JENOVA began to speal, and said "Why do you hate me so much, my son..? Is this really whats in that black heart of yours..? To kill everyone in your own family, oppose your own mother?" Suddenly, Cloud knew exactly what JENOVA was saying to him and began to feel guilty, he tried to force the feeling aside but couldn't. JENOVA continued and said "Youve wandered lost in winter all of these years, only to hate your own pride, your true family, and prey on your own... Is that truly being a hero? Does a hero massacre his own family?" Suddenly, unable to control his guilt and sadness, Cloud dropped to his knees and began crying in silence, more heavily than he remembered. JENOVA continued and said "No matter how much you attack us, you cannot escape who you are; you are one of us, one of my children, no matter how much you try to deny it. If you destroy my treasure, you too will forever be gone from existence. You may not possess the amount of my cells my other offspring do, but you still have them. If you destroy my treasure, you will vanish with the rest of us. Is that really what you want? To go out of your way to destroy us, and also destroy yourself? Do you really want to commit suicide like that?" Cloud's emotional pain increased to the point where he was completely miserable and unable to control his grief; he barely managed not to make any noise. Tifa saw how tormented he was, and tried to move towards him, but couldn't; she could only watch. She said with pure empathy "Cloud...." She also began to feel hurt as well, also crying seeing him as miserable as he was. She couldn't stand it. Suddenly though, Tifa stopped crying and became aware that JENOVA was doing what she always did best: exploiting Cloud's emotions to torment him to the point where he would be unable to bear his pain. She quickly managed to stand up and escaped JENOVA's manipulation despite her injuries, and stood up to her saying "Stop pulling the strings, JENOVA!" Hearing Tifa's words, Cloud suddenly snapped out of everything and returned to nromal, but the scars JENOVA left on him here would still stick and she knew it, even if he forgot about them at this time. Without saying a word, JENOVA's face had vanished from the skies, and the sky regained its natural image. Cloud slowly stood up, and Tifa said "Are you okay?" Cloud nodded slowly and said "That hurt though... It hurt bad..." Tifa replied, and said "I know, but dont let her control you like that! She does that to stop you from fighting her children." Cloud then said "Right, but... If that was really her, does that mean JENOVA has also returned?" Tifa said "Most likely, yes. If she's also alive again, with her remnants also on the loose, we're in big trouble if you dont go after them. I'll do what i can to help you, but for now you have to go after Yazoo and Loz to hault whatever she's plotting right now." Cloud nodded, then said "Alright, i'll search for them, but you go find the water and recover before any of them can get here." Tifa nodded, and said "I will. Try to avoid having to fight them all at once if you can. That might get messy, especially since enough time has passed that the larva could have her form very nearly complete. She might even be stronger than Sephiroth by now, so be careful." Cloud nodded, then got on his motorbike to pursue Yazoo and Loz before anything could happen.
To be continued....
(This section will focus once again on Yazoo and Loz with Yazoo as the speaker) After
Loz and I had spent what felt like several minutes crying, wanting to see Mother feel as happy as she had when i showed her my enthusiasm for the mission, i forced myself to stop and focus on the mission. Loz also seemed to do the same, most likely feeling what i did when i stopped. We both knew this was no time for weeping, despite how painful knowing what they did to Mother all those years ago really was. I then said with pure intent and will "Maybe we cant reverse what theyve already done to Mother and us, but that doesn't mean we cant turn this around and make everything right--as Mother wants things to be. We have Little Sister Sephieroth with us: she might even be stronger than Big Brother or have something he didn't have thats needed to bring down Cloud Strife. Mother knows she has what it takes, especially if the three of us fight him together. But what he did to us when she was only 15 years old, and not even halfway through her larva state has left her with such a powerful desire to kill him that her hatred might take full control of her if she finds him.... in other words, if we dont guide her, she might get too careless and only make things for herself. That's what Mother wants us to do. And in order to stand up to a powerful enemy like him, we have set our fears aside and be strong. Unless we stay strong, we wont be able to guide Little Sister as Mother wants us to." Loz seemed to nod in agreement, then said "Youre right... If we dont stay strong, she may not have as much faith in us midbattle or in general. If the trust isn't there, she will probably act on her own and be less likely to follow our guidance. And if she acts too wildly without any thought, she may also fall short as Big Brother did long ago... If she dies, Mother will be heartbroken... This time around may be our last chance. We cant afford another loss." I nodded, then said "Right. One thing at a time, though: get Mother's treasure and return it to her." We drove in silence for what felt like several minutes. Suddenly, i thought i heard something. I suddenly slammed the brakes on my motorbike and began to listen carefully in silence. Loz was caught by surprise, crying out and slammed the brakes on his vehicle as well, seeming to be just inches behind me before completely stopping. I heard him get off and saw him run directly in front of me. He was clearly rather angry, and said "Hey! You're supposed to signal before you just stop like that! You know what Little Sister does!" I then hushed him by signal, and said "Did you hear something?" He calmed down, and gazed around the area and said "No... What is it?" I paused briefly, listening closely once again. I then got off my motorbike and got out my gunblade, preparing to fight and looked elsewhere in several different directions, and said "Its too quiet. Theres nobody in sight either. I dont like that." Being aware that i was correct, Loz also got ready to attack. We both prepared to fight, awaiting what i expected to be an ambush. Suddenly, before i had a chance to attack, someone hit me from behind and i was knocked to the ground. I also heard Loz hit my attacker. Quickly recovering, i picked my weapon back up and stood up to face my attacker. I couldn't believe who had stood before us: it was Tifa Lockheart. Luckily for us, Loz apparently managed to land a hit on her as well before she could do too much to me. But even though he injured her, i knew she wasnt going anywhere without a fight; that was just final and both of us knew it. I smiled and giggled a bit, then said "Well look who we have here. Its been a while, Tifa." She appeared to grow very serious and said "Where's Sephieroth at?!" Loz immediately broke out into laughter, and I couldn't help but follow. I then replied to her, and said "Why would we tell you that? Arent you a foolish one!" I giggled a bit and then Loz said "I thought you were smarter than that. Seems i overestimated you." Tifa began to grow angry, but of course we didn't care. Loz smiled, and continued "Especially after i wrecked you in that garden, little miss Tifa." Unable to take anymore mockery from us, Tifa lashed out and we followed, beginning to fight each other with full force. It was me and Loz against her; we went back to back, none of us letting up. The fight seemed to last forever. After some amount of time had passed, Tifa began to seem very exhausted, which was when the fight appeared to near its end. Me and Loz stood some distance from her while she stopped suddenly from exhaustion, apparently trying to regain some energy. Out of nowhere, she worked up what little strength she had left and ran towards me with full speed, preparing to attack me. But before she could hit me at all, i fired a shot from my gunblade at the last minute, and she took the hit, falling to the ground. I smiled, then got ready to make the finishing blow to kill her, but Loz put his hand on my shoulder to stop me, and said "Don't get careless. If we kill her right here, you know who's coming after us." I knew he was absolutely right; Cloud would inevitably give chase if he found her dead. Stopping briefly to think, i had another idea that i hoped would prevent him from pursuing us during the mission. I then said "Its too easy. Let's give problem child another stigma dilemma." Loz gave me a signal indicating he agreed with me, and i approached Tifa, who was still on the ground trying to get up with minimal results; it was clear id shot her in some way that made getting up very difficult. She was definitely too injured to do much now. After getting to her, i kneeled down and used the power of my JENOVA cells to give her a stare that would paralyze her with fear, then exerted just enough of them on her to leave her infected the Geo Stigma. I had hoped she wouldn't die right here, but would head for Cloud's hometown to get his help and that his emotions would get the best of him, ultimately allowing us to roam free and the mission to proceed flawlessly for its remaining time. I also knew this was not guaranteed to happen, but as Mother said i must do everything in my power to avoid him or keep him behind otherwise. After id finished infecting her, i released my stare on her and got up to lead Loz back to our motorbikes so we could get as far away as possible before Cloud could see anything that happened. As we mounted our mtorbikes and got ready to take off at full speed, i heard Tifa crying out in pain from being infected. We didn't any time sticking around; we drove off as fast as we could.
Several hours later....
Tifa had finally managed to arrive at Cloud's hometown, hoping to find him before Geo Stigma did more harm and knocked her unconscious again. Just before she could open the door to his home, she fell to the ground and struggled to remain awake. Cloud had suddenly arrived in the area, and saw her on the ground, running to help her. He kneeled down to her, and tried to shake her awake, then said "Tifa, wake up... Come on, get up..." She moaned mildly but didn't say anything. Cloud then said "Who did this?" After she managed to open her eyes, she said "Yazoo and Loz... I tried to defeat them, but... I couldn't...I barely survived..." Cloud then tried to help her stand up, and they faced each other in silence briefly. Tifa then said "Something was different though... The larva wasnt with them. Even weirder is they purposefully left me alive, which only makes me more suspicious." Cloud began listening carefully, also agreeing with what she said. Tifa continued and said "You know that JENOVA's remnants are no different than Sephiroth. When they fight, they have intent to kill. They wouldn't leave me alive like that under normal conditions." Cloud paused briefly and said "Whats going on here?" Tifa stopped briefly trying to think, and said "I dont know for sure. But theyre clearly up to something. With the larva not being together with them, and Yazoo and Loz leaving me alive, something is going on. Most likely its something bad." Cloud replied, and said "Uh oh... If they went separate ways, that means theyre after something. That's never a good thing. The only question is what theyre after..." Both of them stood in silence for several minutes, thinking as htorouo as possible. Cloud was the first one to speak and said "Either Sephieroth is after the black materia or the JENOVA Stone Tablet... With Aeris gone, we have nobody capable of defeating her if she gets her hands on that... It would be a total disaster if she got its power!" Tifa's expression went a bit grim, and she said "If she gets the black materia, the whole world is in danger... But if she gets the black materia AND the JENOVA Stone Tablet, the world is at the mercy of her hatred and wrath... Nobody can defeat her then. It would only be natural for JENOVA to pull out the big guns like that with this being her legacy's third time around." Cloud then replied "But if we destroy the JENOVA Stone Tablet, JENOVA and her offspring will be completely removed from existence since that would erase the reunion theory permanently. So even if Sephieroth gets the black materia, that's a way to defeat her and JENOVA, along with the rest of her kids. Only this time, there will be no coming back for any of them. Without the reunion theory, none of them can exist at all." Tifa nodded and said "You have to go after them, Cloud. If theyre really after either of those things, or even both, youre the only one who can stop them before they get too far!" Cloud nodded, then got ready to turn around and leave, but before he could Tifa winced in pain from the effects of Geo Stigma. Cloud immediately knew she was infected by looking at her arm, and ran to her help. He said "No, i wont leave you like this!" Tifa then said "Cloud, youve got to stop them. Youre the only one who us powerful enough to defeat them!" Still worried about Tifa, Cloud said "Ive lost too many! Im not losing you too!" Tifa grew firm despite her pain and said "Cloud, you have to stop them or people will die! If you let them roam free like that, youre putting everyone else in danger and falling right into their plan! Is that what you really want?!" Cloud quickly felt very troubled and sad at the same time. He remembered all the people who died that he was friends with and everyone who sacrificed themselves to stop JENOVA and her children; he couldn't bear the thought of another loss from this. Suddenly, the sky grew very dark, and Cloud watched it from where he was. Suddenly, he saw JENOVA's face appear among the darkened atmosphere above, noticing she was looking directly at him. He also noticed she appeared to feel very sad, tears slowly flowing from her red eye. He was unable to take his eyes off of her and mysteriously felt sad here. JENOVA began to speal, and said "Why do you hate me so much, my son..? Is this really whats in that black heart of yours..? To kill everyone in your own family, oppose your own mother?" Suddenly, Cloud knew exactly what JENOVA was saying to him and began to feel guilty, he tried to force the feeling aside but couldn't. JENOVA continued and said "Youve wandered lost in winter all of these years, only to hate your own pride, your true family, and prey on your own... Is that truly being a hero? Does a hero massacre his own family?" Suddenly, unable to control his guilt and sadness, Cloud dropped to his knees and began crying in silence, more heavily than he remembered. JENOVA continued and said "No matter how much you attack us, you cannot escape who you are; you are one of us, one of my children, no matter how much you try to deny it. If you destroy my treasure, you too will forever be gone from existence. You may not possess the amount of my cells my other offspring do, but you still have them. If you destroy my treasure, you will vanish with the rest of us. Is that really what you want? To go out of your way to destroy us, and also destroy yourself? Do you really want to commit suicide like that?" Cloud's emotional pain increased to the point where he was completely miserable and unable to control his grief; he barely managed not to make any noise. Tifa saw how tormented he was, and tried to move towards him, but couldn't; she could only watch. She said with pure empathy "Cloud...." She also began to feel hurt as well, also crying seeing him as miserable as he was. She couldn't stand it. Suddenly though, Tifa stopped crying and became aware that JENOVA was doing what she always did best: exploiting Cloud's emotions to torment him to the point where he would be unable to bear his pain. She quickly managed to stand up and escaped JENOVA's manipulation despite her injuries, and stood up to her saying "Stop pulling the strings, JENOVA!" Hearing Tifa's words, Cloud suddenly snapped out of everything and returned to nromal, but the scars JENOVA left on him here would still stick and she knew it, even if he forgot about them at this time. Without saying a word, JENOVA's face had vanished from the skies, and the sky regained its natural image. Cloud slowly stood up, and Tifa said "Are you okay?" Cloud nodded slowly and said "That hurt though... It hurt bad..." Tifa replied, and said "I know, but dont let her control you like that! She does that to stop you from fighting her children." Cloud then said "Right, but... If that was really her, does that mean JENOVA has also returned?" Tifa said "Most likely, yes. If she's also alive again, with her remnants also on the loose, we're in big trouble if you dont go after them. I'll do what i can to help you, but for now you have to go after Yazoo and Loz to hault whatever she's plotting right now." Cloud nodded, then said "Alright, i'll search for them, but you go find the water and recover before any of them can get here." Tifa nodded, and said "I will. Try to avoid having to fight them all at once if you can. That might get messy, especially since enough time has passed that the larva could have her form very nearly complete. She might even be stronger than Sephiroth by now, so be careful." Cloud nodded, then got on his motorbike to pursue Yazoo and Loz before anything could happen.
To be continued....
