[stmercy2020]

Okay.  A quick note before I get to whinging.  Tifa is property of SquareEnix, as are Red XIII, Cait Sith, Cid, Marlene, etc. al.  In fact, the only characters that I own are Ayumi, Kenji, Maaya, Yuuji, and Kunie.  So there.  The artwork that this is based off of is sacul's Mega-Tifa and can be found here: http://amaz0ns.com/option,com_smf/Itemid,135/topic,3341.msg28839/#msg28839

One other note:  I switch between first person voice (italicized text) and third-person omniscient narrator voice (normal text).  This is intentional.  I wanted to see how it worked, so PLEASE! tell me how you liked it.

(NOTE:  If you don't want to read the author commentary about the writing process, just skip down to the first bit of boldfaced text you see; that's where the story actually begins.)

WHEE!!!

I'm done!  Finally!  This story goes down in my list of things to never, ever do again.  Specifically, I will never write a fanfic about a character that I am only peripherally aware of (I've played FFVII for a grand total of about 15 minutes, starting at the very beginning and I've seen the move Advent Children.)  It takes an obscene amount of research, and videogames rarely make a point of putting up detailed stories including things like complete character descriptions or even reasonably complete documentation regarding land features, flora, and fauna.

So.  This is like the tattoo I have on my leg- it covers my shin and wraps around the back- a celtic cross with a highly stylized caduceus inset.  It is blackwork except for the snakes, which are red and blue respectively.  The thing is, the entire cross is supposed to be marbelized.  I got this tattoo about ten years ago, now, and it's still not finished.  I tell anybody who asks that I will have it finished just as soon as I forget how much it hurt to have the first part done.  Anyways, when I forget how difficult it was to write this story, I may go ahead and do another, similar story.  Until then, I'm going back to Sylph and Tris and, maybe, a little bit of Dicey is I can find my direction again.

Without further ado, here ya go:

Lifestream Delta
by: stmercy2020
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

We all believed it was over.  Cloud had defeated Kadaj, destroyed Jenova.  A healing rain had fallen, curing the Geostigma in the people it touched, flowing into the sacred pool in the Aeris church.

But the magic was fading.  The wounds of the world ran too deep, and we- the people of Gaea- couldn’t keep from reopening them.

In recent months, the numbers of people seeking healing and surcease from the Geostigma had doubled, then tripled, and the relief they got from the holy font had waned.  Even Cloud had finally succumbed, his relapse being terrible and nearly complete.  The Geostigma had worked its way up his arm, through his shoulders and into his spine and lungs.  The graceful, powerful young man that I had known and fallen in love with was broken.

Tifa stood, fists rubbing her eyes.  She was so tired.  She had been working almost nonstop since this newest wave of victims had come in, and there was no relief in sight.

Gone.  So many of us.  Valentine, Barrett, Yuffie.  Cid went away, back aboard the Shera, saying he’d find a real cure.  Cait Sith and Red XIII went with him.  They’d been gone for six weeks, now, and no word.  The phone rang, and I picked it up.

“Lockheart,” she said wearily.  After a moment, a gentle smile flits across her lips, but is swiftly overcome by the exhaustion that weighs so heavily upon her young shoulders.  She listens intently, murmuring quietly occasionally.  After a minute, she hangs up.

Marlene looked at her steadily, not pushing, but obviously curious.

“That was Reno,” Tifa explained.  “ShinRa agents finally located Loz and Yazoo.  They were spotted heading North from North Corel.  According to the agents, it looked as if Yazoo was hurt and Loz was supporting him, but they didn’t get too close.”

“North Corel’s a long way from Midgar,” Marlene said quietly.  “What are you going to do?”

A new voice answered.  “She’s going to go, of course.”  Marlene looked up to see a tall woman dressed in white.  She was very slender and very beautiful, but her face seemed cold, as if all the compassion and warmth had been slowly drained away, leaving nothing but an empty mask.

Tifa’s head snapped around, her eyes going wide.  “Ayumi!” she gasped.

“And Kenji,” laughed another voice.  Ayumi’s presence had been so arresting that neither Marlene nor Tifa had seen the small, thick-shouldered man at first.  As short as Marlene, Kenji nevertheless gave a sense of mass, being nearly as wide across as the doorframe.  His face was broad and ruddy, covered with laugh lines, creases at the corners of his mouth, and tiny crows feet around his eyes.  Despite that, he didn’t appear to be any more than middle-aged, and his hands, thick and stubby as they were, were still graceful enough to thread a falling needle without disturbing its descent.

Ayumi strode into the sanctuary of the rebuilt Aeris church and silently offered her hand to Tifa, who took it and held it quietly for a moment before releasing it.  Kenji capered up, a wide smile on his face, and nearly bowled Tifa over with an enthusiastic hug.

“Look at you girl,” he beamed, “you’ve certainly grown!”  Kenji’s good humor was infectious.  Even as tired and drawn as she felt, Tifa couldn’t help but smile back at the man.

“That’s hardly a surprise, is it?  I haven’t seen you since I was fourteen!”

“True enough, girl.  And is that Marlene?  By my stubbly chin, the last time I saw you, you were still crawling around on all fours and your daddy thought you’d never learn to walk!”  Marlene felt a sudden stab of pain thinking about her father.  Barrett had been killed less than a year ago, shot in the back by an unknown assailant.  She tried to smile politely, but the tears standing in her eyes made her blink.

“Kenji,” Ayumi said softly, “shut up.”

Kenji seemed to suddenly realize what had happened and his expression softened.  “Oh, lass- I’m sorry.  I knew your father well and loved him.  I never meant to bring you pain.”

Marlene sniffed and nodded.  “How are we going to get to North Corel,” she said after a moment’s pause.

Ayumi looked as if she was about to speak, but Tifa cut her off.  “We aren’t,” she stated flatly, “You’re staying here.”

Marlene was about to protest, but Tifa went on.  “Someone has to stay and look after Cloud and the others.  Denzel can’t do it alone, so that leaves you.  Keep them safe, Marlene.  Keep them whole.”

Marlene bowed her head in assent.  She wasn’t happy, but she’d do as she was told.  Ayumi looked between them and then spoke.  “We should hurry.  The chocobos are outside and saddled up.  A ferry will take us from Junon to Costa del Sol, but we can’t afford to lose much time.  We don’t know how long Yazoo and Loz will be in North Corel, and we don’t want to risk losing them again.”

*****

Costa del Sol.  The last time I had been here, it was a thriving port and resort town.  Tourists came here from all over Gaea to enjoy the beaches and take in the sun, and the bars pretty much never closed.  Although relatively untouched by the wars and military crises that have ravaged so much of my home, Costa del Sol is no longer the carefree and relaxed vacation spot that it once was.

The geostigma was indiscriminate in its choice of victims.  Young, old, strong, weak, men, and women- no one was immune.  Of course those who were weaker physically tended to be the first to fully succumb, but not always.  Sometimes a strong man in his prime would pass quickly while a leathery old woman could hang on for weeks.  It didn’t matter, though.  Eventually, everyone lost the battle.

We were detained briefly at the docks as military police from ShinRa checked over our papers and verified our health.  Ayumi showed them a note and they immediately stepped aside, letting us make our way into the once bustling, now nearly deserted, town center.

The streets were empty of people, but not entirely of life.  Emboldened by the sense of dismay and disease, scavengers had started coming down from the mountains- creatures I’d only seen in dank, underground caverns now boldly loped across the sun-drenched paths of the city.

Tifa, Ayumi, and Kenji moved swiftly through the streets of the town center.  None of them had any desire to stay there long, but Kenji, in particular, seemed in a hurry.  His habitual good-cheer seemed strained, and his broad shoulders were hunched with pain.  Tifa remembered that Kenji had been born near here and, if she remembered correctly, had a wife and son who lived just inside the city.

Although Ayumi normally led the way, here is Costa del Sol she hung back, content to let Kenji take point, and Tifa followed her quiet example.  Grimly, Kenji pushed forward.  A gust of wind from inland swirled the loose sand around their feet and momentarily obscured their vision.

A low growling drew their attention to their flanks, and Kenji smoothly drew his crossbow.  Neither Tifa nor Ayumi drew weapons, but Ayumi’s hands danced in the air in front of her, glowing tracers flaring in the air just behind her fingertips.

Nearly hidden behind a low, stone house, a tow-headed boy, maybe thirteen or fourteen, was pressed up against a wall, holding a broken stick in front of him in a defensive crouch.  Two low, feral beasts, all wiry fur, long teeth and yellow eyes menaced him, warily trying to get past his desperate guard.

As they watched, a racking cough shot through the boy’s body, doubling him over in sudden pain.  Both wolf-like predators leapt, but the boy swung his make-shift club and deflected one briefly.  The other would have latched to his throat had it not been for Kenji’s swift reactions.  His bolt pierced the beast at the back of the neck, crushing its spine and deflecting upwards into the base of its skull.  Its body collided with the boy, knocking him down before it fell stone dead at his feet.

A cacophony of howls warned the party of more danger behind them, and a large silver-backed creature bounded ahead of another trio of hungry monsters, huge paws outstretched to pounce on Tifa’s unprotected back.  Ayumi said a word and released her spell, releasing a greenish wall of pure energy.  Simultaneously, Tifa dropped and spun, letting the creature’s momentum carry it up over her as she grabbed at its vulnerable underbelly.  Her powerful grip, trained over years of practice and actual combat, ripped deep into its abdomen, crushing and twisting its guts and effectively ending its ability to struggle further.

Another one, smaller than the stricken silver-back, swiped at Kenji’s face, opening a long, shallow cut across his forehead.  Kenji cursed vividly and stepped in, bringing the butt of his crossbow down on the wolf’s shoulders, driving it flat before flipping his weapon around.  His quick, powerful hands swiftly reloaded his weapon and brought it to bear on the prone beast as it struggled to rise.  A squeeze and it was stricken to the ground, pinned through its head.  Kenji backed away a step and began reloading once again.

The last of the creatures circled Tifa warily before it lunged at Ayumi, pushing her back and clamping it’s powerful jaws down on her outflung arm.  The color drained from Ayumi’s already pale face as its teeth shredded skin and muscle and crushed the relatively fragile bones underneath.  Despite the pain, she kept her arm raised, protecting her face and throat and belly.  In frustration, the doglike monster shook its head, trying to force Ayumi to lower her guard enough so that it could rip into her more vulnerable organs, instinct and years of successful hunting telling it that this was the way to bleed out a powerful enemy.

The boy was still flailing with his club, but the other creature got cagey and, as the stick whistled by its face once again, it turned its head and snapped at the long stick, ripping it from the boy’s weaker grasp.  Before he could recover, the wolf dove atop him and bore him to the ground.  His slavering jaws snapped at the boy’s soft throat, but the boy cuffed him hard knocking him aside for just a moment.  It barely noticed as it turned its head once again and sought the advantage.

Kenji spun rapidly, surveying the fight.  He circled slightly and loosed yet another bolt, but he tripped over the dead wolf at his feet and his shot went low, impaling Ayumi’s assailant through its foot.  The beast released Ayumi and she dropped back a step, whispering another incantation under her breath.

Tifa rolled to her feet and saw the boy being menaced by the last of the creatures and sprinted at it, hoping she could reach it before it found the one lethal opening it was trying to create.  Unwisely, the boy tried to grab the creatures forelegs and buck it off of him, but the creature was far too fast.  As the boy’s hands dropped, the beast’s head dropped to snap and rip at his exposed throat.

The boy felt the saliva and the hot breath on his neck for just an instant, and knew that he was dead- but nothing happened.  Tifa’s thrusting kick struck the wolf in the shoulder, shoving it back hard and pinning it to the wall.  Both of them fell, but Tifa recovered quickly and straddled the thrashing creature.  She grabbed its head with both hands and twisted savagely until she felt the cartilage and muscle tear and the bone crack and dislocate, killing it.

At the same time, Ayumi flung her uninjured arm towards her crippled opponent.  There was a bright flash and a smell of burning flesh as a wave of intense heat ignited in the center of the monster’s chest.  It yelped in sudden pain, its eyes glazed, and it fell dead at her feet.

As Kenji went over to Ayumi and looked after her wound, Tifa helped the young boy to his feet.  She could see that he had signs of advanced geostigma, the sores and brittle skin evident where his skin peeked through his shirt.  Although clearly in pain, his eyes were fierce and bright.

“I know you,” he said to Tifa, “I know who you are.”

Tifa looked at him with surprise.  She had no idea who this boy was.

He didn’t seem at all surprised, though.  “I’m Yuuji,” he explained, “I was apprenticed to our apothecary until he died, yesterday.  I’d just finished cleaning out his store and I was on my way home when those fenrirs attacked me.”

“You’re lucky we happened along, then,” Tifa said wryly.

“Yes,” he admitted ruefully.  “Would you come with me to my home?  My mother will wish to reward you, and we can feed you and give you a place to stay for the night.  Evening will come soon, and no one should travel in this country at night anymore.”

Kenji came over, then, having finished bandaging Ayumi’s arm.  “I hate to stop here,” he confessed, “but perhaps we’d better.  Ayumi is wounded and we haven’t any proper salve to treat her.  She says she can treat herself with some rest, but not until then.”

Tifa considered briefly, then nodded her acquiescence.

*****

[stmercy2020]

Because it didn't all fit in one post…

*****

Yuuji led us to a small building on the edge of town.  Although most of Costa del Sol had adopted fairly modern construction standards, houses out here were mostly mud brick and plaster, hardened and bleached nearly white by the strong sun.  Yuuji’s house was a single story building with a thatch roof and two small windows set high it the wall facing the street.  As we approached, Yuuji called out and an older woman came out of the building drying her hands on a towel.

Yuuji’s mother was about as matronly a woman as you could easily find anywhere on Gaea.  She was only slightly taller than Kenji, and nearly as wide, thickened with the hard work of raising many children and the extensive cooking that entailed.  She looked at Tifa and her friends suspiciously at first.  Yuuji spoke with her in a rapid patois, a combination of the dialect spoken all over Gaea, the sailors’ rough, guttural language, and the musical, liquid sounds that were the commonly spoken local tongue.  Tifa only understood about one word in six.

After a brief exchange, the woman turned to Tifa and bowed.  “Thank you, young lady,” she said in a heavily accented common.

Tifa smiled.  “We were glad to help and fortunate to be there.”

“Yuuji was the fortunate one.  If not for you, I would be mourning another lost child tonight.  Instead, we celebrate.  Come inside and share our meal.”

The inside of the house was also small, with the living space shared with the straw mats they slept on.  Although nothing clearly showed it, there was a feeling of emptiness to the compact house, of, surprisingly, too much space for such a tiny family, and I realized that it felt like there ought to be more children playing and filling the area with their yelling and their laughter.

Dinner was a simple affair.  Yuuji’s mother, Maaya, had made a thick, black bread and served it with a hearty broth filled with chunks of potatoes, onions, and fish.  After several days of trail rations, the chowder was as near to heaven as the three companions could easily remember.

After the meal, Kenji checked Ayumi’s arm.  The skin around the bite had turned a dark purple and green, while the wound itself oozed an unhealthy yellowish puss and blood flowed sluggishly from the rents in her flesh.  Kenji wrinkled his nose and set about cleaning it as thoroughly as he could.

While he worked, Ayumi started asking Maaya questions.  At first Tifa was surprised, but then realized that it was all she could do to take her mind away from the intense pain that Kenji was necessarily inflicting.

“When you were speaking earlier, I thought I heard a bit of a Mideel accent,” Ayumi said quietly.  Maaya nodded and Ayumi continued.  “That’s quite a distance from here…  what brought you up to Costa del Sol?”

“My husband, he was a research scientist with ShinRa at one time, before that Soldier went mad and tried to destroy the world.

“He believed that Gaea was more than just the name we gave our planet.  According to him, the name had mythical roots- it was the name of a goddess that represented the life force of the world.  He thought that he was close to finding a…a nexus of power.  For want of a better way of explaining it, finding her.

“We came out here and he was working hard to find her.  He had just made some breakthrough, he thought, when the train he was on went out of control.  Many people died aboard the train, including my husband, but your friends managed to stop it from destroying Corel.”

Tifa felt a stab of regret.  She, Cloud, and Cid had done their best and worked as quickly as they were able, but they hadn’t been able to save everybody even so, and, truth be told, they had been forced to kill several ShinRa agents that tried to stop them.

Maaya must have seen the sorrow on her face.  “Don’t fret, child,” she reassured her, “it wasn’t you killed him.  He was just unlucky- a stray shot ended him, not malice.  You and your friends did right, though, and kept that train from killing more, including me and my children, so I thank you for that.”

Ayumi gasped as Kenji drained some of the pus from the site.  “You said… children,” she managed between breaths, “how many?  Where?”

Maaya smiled sadly.  “Toru and I had five children.  Most of them are gone, now- the geostigma…

“Yuuji is my oldest.  I lost my first daughter, Kunie, five years ago when ShinRa took her.  They said she was vital to a line of research my husband had been working on, and they took her.  I never heard a thing about her after.

“Then, with the first outbreak of geostigma, the twins became ill.  They were very young, and they passed quickly.  There was nothing anyone could do for them.”

“Mama,” Yuuji said quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder.  She looked up him and hurried on.

“Chihiro recovered from the geostigma, but he has been sickly ever since.  A month ago, a man came with an airship and took him, promising he would get him the best treatment possible.”

“Mama,” Yuuji said again.  “It’s late.  We should get out the sleeping mats and rest.”

*****

We intended to get started early the next morning, but Maaya was up before us, undoubtedly from long habit.  She had klava- a sweet, thick drink not unlike coffee- and sweet bread and cheese laid out before we had even finished packing our bags.  Kenji looked at Ayumi’s arm again, and I had to admit that it didn’t look much improved, but she claimed that she would be okay to travel.

We ate quickly and quietly, each of us thinking about the road ahead.  Yuuji gave Kenji and Ayumi several pots of a salve he had concocted, claiming it might help with the infection in her arm.  At last it was time to go.

“Before you go,” Maaya said, stopping the companions as they approached the threshold, “there is something I would give to you.

“This was the focus of my husband’s researches- it is a device he called the Materiopticon.  I know little about it save that the rings and the choker somehow link the wearers and are, in turn, somehow linked to the power of Gaea.  Perhaps you will be able to use them.”

She handed Tifa a strip of black silk embroidered with silver thread.  The clasp seemed to grow organically from the ribbon itself, a delicate silver and gold shield with tiny green and blue stones set irregularly within it.  The rings, also, were delicate and pretty, silver bands inlaid with overlapping lines of luminescent green and blue stone.

“Thank you,” Tifa said simply, “they are very beautiful.”

Maaya smiled.  “They are that,” she agreed.

*****

We left Costa del Sol and traveled along the peninsula towards North Corel.  The weather here was hot and, as we started to move inland, quickly became very dry.  The chocobos were not overly happy with us, either, as the ground became more treacherous and they couldn’t run as freely or as often as they were accustomed to.

That evening, I tried on the Materioptica.  It was odd.  The fabric felt soft, satiny, but also stretchy.  The clasp fit snugly over my subclavicle notch.  I felt a sort of prick at first, slightly painful, but it subsided almost instantly and I was left with a feeling not unlike the first time I had ever used material- a sort of awakening, a wash of energy and life that flowed through me.  At the same time, the feeling was incomplete, and I guessed that it was because it was still not connected to the rings.

I mentioned this to Kenji and he smiled, then took one of the rings and placed it on his finger.  Instantly, I had a sense as if another eye had been opened inside of me.  I could feel Kenji’s presence as if he were an extension of my body.  It was intense and comforting and, at the same time, very strange.

As we approached North Corel, my cellphone informed me that I had a message.  Looking, I saw that I had gotten a call from Cid.  No word from the surly astronaut in over a month, and then, out of the blue, he called when I was somewhere with no reception.  I grimaced and flipped open the phone to listen to the message.

“Cid says that Yazoo and Loz ditched their Shinra tails,” Tifa told her friends, “but that’s not all of it.  When last seen, they had a girl in tow with them.  She didn’t appear to be a willing tagalong, though.  Last news we had is that they were headed towards us.  Cid says he and Red XIII are trying to track them, and that he’ll send out a signal when he finds them.”

Tifa sighed, then flipped her phone open again.  “I’m going to call him back,” she explained to Kenji’s questioning look, “I have an idea how we might be able to cut the amount of time we have to spend chasing them all over the countryside.”

Kenji nodded and Tifa dialed the number.  After a few rings, Cid picked up on the other end.  Their conversation was brief and Tifa explained her plan.

*****

We stood aboard the deck of the Shera watching the rapidly moving flash of light that was Red XIII’s beacon on the monitor.  His progress was swift and certain, his natural senses far in excess of anything we could have designed and his intelligence more than sufficient to allow him to quickly correct for the false trails Yazoo and Loz had apparently taken to leaving.

I had been concerned about letting the remnants get too much of a lead.  The last time they had been seen, they had nearly ended all life on Gaea, planning to resurrect their dark progenitor and then use the husk of our world to travel through space until they could at last find a new world to call home.  We had all had to work together to stop them, that time, all of us including Red XIII, Cloud, Cid…and all of us that were no longer with us.  That option was no longer available.

Cid made a conservative estimate regarding how quickly they could travel given that they’d been spotted with an unwilling captive and we flew the Shera east to west across the plains north of the North Corel Region.  Red XIII was on the ground and, as he passed to the west of the trail that led between North Corel and the Miner’s cave, he picked up their scent.

“Crivens,” Red XIII muttered across the comlink, “her scent is powerful, enough.”

“That’s good, right?” Tifa asked.

“Aye, it’s good for the followin’,” he confirmed, “but it dunna bode well, all the same.”

“Huh?  Why not?”

Red XIII didn’t answer for a moment.  “D’ye know the lass already, Tifa?”

Tifa looked at Ayumi and Kenji, cocking her eyebrow.  They both shrugged.  “I don’t think so, Red- why do you ask?”

“It’s just that yuir wearin’ a scent not unlike hers and I thought maybe you’d already met.

“Anyway, when I say her scent is powerful, I don’t just mean it’s easy to find.  I mean that I can sense the power of it left on the dirt, rocks, trees- she transforms the very world where she touches it.”

Tifa fingered the Materiopticon.  “Just… just how powerful are we talking about, Red?” she asked nervously.

“Hard to say, properly.  The last I sniffed anything a fraction as strong as this, Cloud was leadin’ us all on a suicide hunt for one of the Weapons.

“Just a tic… something-”  There was a sharp crack over the link, Red XIII shrieked suddenly, and the link cut off.

“Get us down there,” Tifa yelled at Cid.  He was already in the process, throwing switches and manipulating levers as he yelled back to Cait Sith to prep the infirmary.

*****

We disembarked before Cid had even got the Shera fully settled, leaping from the partially open doors.  The sight on the ground was worse than we feared.  We had caught up with Yazoo and Loz, that much was true, but we had caught up because they had led us into an ambush.  Yazoo held the girl, a blonde waif, tightly against his left side.  In his right hand was his weapon, the Velvet Nightmare, still smoking from the shot that had shattered Red XIII’s chest.  Although she struggled, it was quite clear that it was futile.

Loz stood over Red XIII, a half-sneer on his beautiful face.  As we set down, he reached down and picked the massive beast up with his right hand, then punching him with his Dual Hound, launching his body at the three of us with bone-crushing force.

“I remember you,” Loz growled at me, “you couldn’t best me the last time we met, and I was merely playing then.  I’ve gotten stronger since then and you?  You haven’t improved at all, have you?”

Tifa knew he was right- she was still strong and she was still an expert, but Loz had defeated her easily the first time they’d fought.  He was simply too fast and too strong for her to beat alone.  Fortunately, she thought, I’m not alone this time.

Kenji edged sideways, spreading the group so that neither Loz nor Yazoo could target all three companions with a single attack.  At the same time, Ayumi ducked to the other side, her hand reaching into her robe and coming free with a long canister.

Yazoo turned and aimed his gunblade at Kenji.  At the same time, Loz started moving as if he would charge, but switched directions in mid-stride.  Tifa anticipated him and sprinted ahead, throwing herself bodily into the air in a flying, twisting roundhouse kick that caught the larger man across his face as he flashed past.  His head snapped back hard and his body flipped over as if turned on a spindle.  Tifa landed atop him, driving her knee deep into his sternum, smashing his breath out in an explosive gasp and firing off a series of quick, powerful punches to his chest and face.

Yazoo squeezed a shot off at Kenji, but the girl in his arms twisted and shoved, throwing him off target.  While his arm was outstretched, Kenji fired his own crossbow, impaling his bicep.  Yazoo cursed vividly and dropped the child so that he could use both arms to steady his aim.

As Tifa twisted to punch Loz again, he caught her hand and squeezed.  Tifa felt the fragile bones in her fingers bend under the pressure.  Loz stared up at her with hatred in his gray eyes.  “You have it,” he hissed, “you have it, and you don’t even know what it is.”

He bucked his hips and rolled Tifa off to the side, still holding her fist in his crushing grip.  His other hand flicked down at Tifa’s throat, grabbing at her neck.  At first she thought he’d missed, but then she felt her entire head being lifted by the choker she wore.  Loz was trying to rip it from her, but the clasp held firm.

“Yazoo,” he yelled, “she has it…and she won’t give it to me!”  He looked back at her, took his hand from her fist and started throttling her.  “Why won’t you just give it to me?”

Ayumi ripped the stopper from the canister she was holding and hurled it as hard as she could at Yazoo.  Yazoo must have seen the motion out of the corner of his eyes, because he turned and shot the device out of the air.  There was a loud crack and a smell of ozone as the ground dragon’s fang mixed with the air and traveled along the ionized path back to Yazoo’s hand.  The explosion staggered the smaller twin and he stumbled back, tripping over his discarded victim.

Tifa said nothing, but yanked at Loz’s arm, forcing it to bend at the elbow.  She clawed at his eyes and he jerked back hard.  She followed him up, smashing her forehead into his nose with a satisfying crunch and he fell back.  Tifa scrambled to her feet, feeling in her pockets.

The ring…!  Tifa’s hand closed around the silver band.  “Ayumi- catch!” she yelled, flinging the ring overhand.  Ayumi, graceful as she always was, caught it with her good arm even as she raced towards Yazoo and the girl.

Loz looked suddenly alarmed and turned to chase after her, but Tifa grabbed his shoulders and flipped him hard onto his back.  Kenji fitted a new bolt into his crossbow, this one coated with a powerful paralytic.  Ayumi slipped the ring over her finger.

In an instant, everything changed.  Just as when Kenji had donned his ring, Tifa felt her awareness expand to encompass everything that Ayumi sensed.  She was aware of the pain in Ayumi’s broken arm and, with a mere thought, she fixed it.  She could tell the power was coming from elsewhere, was not her own, nor was it Kenji’s or Ayumi’s- it belonged, if that word could apply, to Gaea and to the Lifestream; it was simply being channeled through her companions, and her body- her own physical form- was accepting it, being transformed by it.

Her bones hardened and thickened, the cellular structure shifting from human to posthuman, her weakest bones achieving a strength many times that of hardened steel. 

Loz posted on his hands, bringing his feet up to scissor Tifa’s neck.  That was when she noticed the second change- she was not only stronger, but much heavier as well.  Loz’s legs wrapped around her throat and he brought his weight down, but Tifa barely grunted and set her feet, stopping him utterly.  She reached up and took ahold of his legs.  Arms that had always been slender and shapely grew hard as substantial biceps and forearms seemed to virtually boil into existence beneath her skin.

With a rough twist of her hip, Tifa heaved the man away from her.  Loz, momentarily shocked, took a moment to right himself in midair.  Fortunately for him, he had time, as Tifa’s powerful throw actually gave him entire seconds in ascent before he reached the apex of his arc.

Tifa raced along the ground to intercept the falling man, her legs expanding and contracting powerfully with each step.  Where her legs had been toned before, corded muscle bulged out along the tops of her thighs and down from her butt and hamstrings.  Her smooth, firm calves hardened into sharp, jagged blocks as they absorbed and redirected her now substantial weight.

Ayumi reached the girl just as Yazoo rolled to his feet.  She reached out her hand and grabbed the child, yanking her away from the enraged man.  Kenji fired his crossbow, aiming to transfix Yazoo through the heart, but the man was simply too fast.  He faded to the side and the bolt whisked harmlessly past him.  Another bolt followed it, this one even closer, but Yazoo’s gunblade snapped across its path, shattering it before it could penetrate his skin.  Yazoo’s eyes were wide with rage and hate as another bolt sped to him.  His left arm snaked out and caught the bolt in mid flight.  Spinning, still holding the quarrel in his fist, he slashed out.

Tifa was under Loz by the time he fell to the ground, and she threw herself back over her shoulders in a powerful somersault kick, hurling him back into the air.  As she landed her kick, she crouched down and leapt high into the air, grabbing Loz by the throat and slamming him back down hard enough to splinter the rock beneath him.

The blade of Kenji’s bolt tore across Ayumi’s throat, slicing deep through the carotid artery, the trachea, and the jugular.  Ayumi’s face went stark white and her hands went to her neck in a futile effort to stanch the sudden bright red spray.

Tifa felt the sharp pain, the sudden choking even before Ayumi did.  The energy that tied their strength together also bound their frailties.  Her body jacked in the air and fell, but Loz was waiting for her and he kicked her hard with both feet from the ground, using his momentum to bring him to his feet.  As she fell again, she saw him draw back with Dual Hound and knew she was powerless to stop him.

She focused all of her will into breathing, into forcing blood through torn and shredded arteries and veins that weren’t even hers.  As long as she could maintain concentration, she could keep Ayumi alive.

The blow exploded into her side like a sledgehammer, bending her in half sideways and propelling her away from the fist like a rocket.  Had she still been the same woman she was when the fight started, it would have destroyed her, would have pulverized her ribs and smashed her spine.  Her new body, however, was stronger.  Her ribs flexed with the blow, but didn’t break.  The air exploded from her lungs in a whoosh and she collapsed to the ground at Ayumi’s feet.

The girl was there, bloody to her elbows as she tried to hold together the jagged tear in Ayumi’s neck.  Tears streamed down her face and she whispered fiercely to Ayumi, “don’t die, don’t you die,” over and over in a mantra.

Kenji stood in mute shock barely twenty feet away, paralyzed with shock and indecision.  Yazoo turned towards him, raised the Velvet Nightmare, his face a mask of sadistic evil and inhuman hatred.  Without turning, he spoke to Tifa.  “You took our brother, you took both our brothers, and you stole our mother from us.  For that you deserve to die.  But you tried to keep us from joining with the only entity that could possibly replace her.  For that, you will feel your friends perish before I end you.”

“Brother, no!” the girl cried, releasing Ayumi and flinging herself at the man.

Amazingly, his visage softened and he lowered his weapon.  “Kunie, why are you doing this?”

Tifa slowly, painfully got to her hands and knees and crawled over to Ayumi.  Somehow, her presence was keeping her alive despite what should have been mortal wounds.  Her eyes grew dark as she looked at Yazoo and Loz, both of whom had regrouped around the girl, around Kunie.

“It can’t continue,” Kunie said, appealing to Yazoo.  “You are in opposition to the Lifestream and it not only pains you, but sickens Gaea.  You knew this- that was why you found me.”

Yazoo’s face hardened once again.  “But they have the Materiopticon.  They won’t give it to us- they hate us.  Especially the dark-haired girl.”

Kunie sighed.  “Tifa Lockheart- you have to make a choice.  Will you trust me?”

Tifa knew she had no reason to.  No reason except that she had met Kunie’s brother and her mother and they had been good people.  No reason except that Kunie radiated compassion and concern, empathy so deep that it couldn’t be measured.

She nodded.

“Your friends will have to give up their rings to Yazoo and Loz.”

“But- Ayumi…”

“You can save her, I think, but only if you do as I tell you.”

It was insane.  Tifa knew that if she removed Ayumi’s ring, the link between them would be gone and she wouldn’t be able to sustain her life anymore.  And yet, continuing to fight was also insane.  They couldn’t win.  Tifa could feel that she had already taken as much power as her links would permit, and it still wasn’t enough.

Finally, she nodded again.  Kenji removed his ring and Kunie went to Ayumi and slipped her ring from her finger.  As the rings were removed, Tifa realized she could still feel her companions, but the bond was no longer active.  She could feel Ayumi’s life draining from her body, could sense the terrible loss that Kenji felt, but she couldn’t tap into them anymore.

Kunie took the rings to Loz and Yazoo and slipped them onto their fingers.  The rush of sudden power was indescribable.  It made the river that Tifa had felt when Ayumi had put on her ring seem as if it were a trickle.  Their bodies glowed incandescent, green and white in the fading light, so bright that it seemed as if another sun was being born right there on the surface of the North Corel flatlands.  In moments, they shimmered and faded, the dam formed by their bodies focusing Jenova’s personal Lifestream irrevocably opened and poured forth to mix with Gaea’s.

An impossibly loud boom reverberated across the ground, echoing off the distant mountains.  The ground underneath them split and shattered and Tifa saw something she had hoped never to see again- a huge, red golem shouldered its way out of the broken earth to stand above them, its enormous body blotting out the sky.

The Weapon was the planet’s defense system, a powerful biomechanical construct that could seek out and destroy virtually any threat to the Lifestream.  When they’d fought it before, they’d barely survived.  It had shrugged off their most powerful attacks with ease and decimated them with negligent simplicity.  Ultimately, they had been forced to run, and even then it hadn’t given up easily.

“You can do it, Tifa,” Kunie said quietly, confidently.  “You are channeling the Lifestream through your body, now- all the power of Gaea merged with the power of Jenova.  You just have to get them to integrate instead of opposing each other.”

Tifa nodded, her hand fingering the choker at her neck.  Finally, she understood, and with that understanding, she opened the floodgates and allowed the Lifestreams of two worlds to flow through her, channeling it through the now empty husks of Loz and Yazoo, cycling it through Gaea and letting it run through and within her.

Once again, her body grew to accommodate the massive energy and power that it was containing.  Her shoulders and chest expanded, inflating to massive proportions.  With a breath, her arms and legs and glutes also achieved nearly unbelievable size.  The weapon, unthinking beast, swung both arms at her in a furious assault that could have leveled small hills and crushed granite walls to powder.

Tifa snapped both arms out, blocking the blows on her forearms.  Without pausing, she grabbed it’s arms with her tiny hands, her diamond hard fingers digging through the weapon’s adamantine superstructure to create an unbreakable grip.  Concentrating deeply on her own power, now, Tifa inhaled, pulling her arms back and expanding her already immense chest.

Her pectoral muscles ceased to exist in the realms of the physically possible, shrugged aside laws of physics and cause and effect, barely even nodded in the direction of mystical feasibility.  The growth of her titanic chest simply popped the arms off the Weapon and catapulted its body backwards for a hundred feet before it landed.

Shrugging, Tifa tossed the two arms away, carelessly launching them so powerfully and so quickly that they actually lit the atmosphere on fire as they ripped through the air on their way to deep space.

The Weapon dropped back to the ground and unlimbered its cannon.  A beam of matter excited until it had become plasma contained in a powerful magnetic field burst into Tifa.  For an instant, it was painful, then Tifa willed her body to become even harder, tougher…and bigger.  She reached out with an arm that must have been nearly as tall as a full grown man and grabbed it by the chest.  With a simple flick of her wrists, she pitched the golem on a flat trajectory into the Nibelheim mountains some fifty miles to the south.

She sprinted after it, covering the entire distance in far less than a minute, her entire body gaining mass to support the enormous demands being made of it.  When she reached it, she easily dwarfed the massive construct.  Once again, it tried charging her, seeking to bring its great weight to bear against her.  Tifa almost laughed as she pulled it against herself, squeezing the unnaturally hard material until it superheated, then melted and vaporized in her grip.

Satisfied, Tifa scanned the horizon.  The swath of destruction she had wrought traveling across country was easily visible, and she took a slightly more leisurely pace back to her point of origin, allowing her body to shrink back to simply mind-boggling proportions once more.

At last she knew what she was- she was the embodiment of the Lifestream.  She reached out with her mind, finding Ayumi’s fragile thread and rewove it.  With another thought, she realized that parts of her had been sick- not just sick, actually, but poisoned, rejecting the alternate Lifestream energy which flowed freely through her veins.  That was what the geostigma was, she knew, and she knew she could fix it.  It would take time, but her planet would, at last, heal.  She would see to it.

With that thought, she returned to her friends, to her home, and to her life.

[sacul]

yay, that was simply amazimg!!! for someone who only watched advent children you got the world and the story down pretty well, the ending was awesome as well although i was expecting a bit more detailed description, but other than that the fight scenes were just off the charts, excellent job!!!

[stmercy2020]

yay, that was simply amazimg!!! for someone who only watched advent children you got the world and the story down pretty well, the ending was awesome as well although i was expecting a bit more detailed description, but other than that the fight scenes were just off the charts, excellent job!!!

Glad you liked, sir.  It was a difficult decision just how much description to include in the growth sequences.  Since they both happened in the context of fight scenes, I felt that certain things were pretty unreasonable- people just don't whip out the measuring tape when their faces are being used as speedbags, in my experience… ;D

I also avoided some of the conventions of FMG fiction that might have improved the FMG descriptions- specifically, I didn't deal at all with clothes ripping or bursting, despite the fact that arms with a diameter of around 2m at the forearm would have shredded anything anyone tried to pur on them.  The reason I didn't use this tool was 1) your picture had her still fully clothed and 2) it didn't seem in keeping with the genre.

The fight scenes.  Here's where I need a properly smug emoticon…  I take pride in writing good fight scenes, and I thought these were pretty good.  Oddly enough, the traditional anime disregard for physics actually made certain parts harder to write instead of easier, but even that worked out (I particularly enjoyed using Tifa's limit break on Loz- the Somersault followed by the Meteor Strike was just one of my favorite moments in my mind's eye).  I take it the description of arterial blood spray wasn't too graphic?  That was the one thing I was really concerned with, since in all the FF games I've seen and played, the violence is pure videogame- no visible wounds, cuts, bruises, etc.

[g-man]

That, sir, was AWESOME. While I never finished FF7 (indeed, never even finished the first disc, as I simply lacked the patience), I'm still familiar with the storyline and quite enjoyed Advent Children. And that really was a great piece of fiction.

[Author]

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