Final Fantasy VII: Reborn Book Four: The Beginning
By Samuel Gayton
After five years, the fragile peace is shattered as the evil of Jenova
is released upon the Planet. As Sephiroth returns from the Lifestream,
bent on bringing about the Apocalypse and the rebirth of his mother, Cloud
travels to the City of the Ancients in search of the woman he lost so long
ago.
Is he prepared to give up his friends, and ultimately his life, for
the Planet he has sworn to protect?
Chapter One: The Breaking of the Circle
“Oh, we’ll die. But when we do it will be as men.” Hamilton
“No matter what happens, it’ll always be you and me.” Cloud Strife
Final Fantasy VII: Reborn Book Four: The Beginning By Samuel Gayton
Chapter One: The Breaking of the Circle
The clouds shone with a dark purple as Jenova herself descended from
the skies. To the three thousand troops standing motionless on the ground,
one single thought coursed through their minds.
They all turned and ran.
-
Hamilton wanted to scream. He wanted to cry in frustration. But he
couldn’t.
Slowly, he sat on the chair and gazed silently out of the viewing bubble.
“Shit.” moaned Aeronnist. “We were so close... so close.”
One of the Colonel’s turned to Hamilton and saluted him smartly.
“Shall I give the order to attack Jenova, sir?”
Hamilton chuckled. “Attack? She must be ten kilometres high, if not
more. We’re like bacteria to her. Our mightiest weapons would do nothing.
No, I’ll not send more men to their deaths than I have to.”
“Should we retreat-”
“No. No retreat. I won’t run from Jenova anymore.”
“Then what is the order, sir? Are we all to die?”
“Oh, we’ll die.” said Hamilton calmly. “But when we do, it will be
as men.”
-
Adam ran with the rest of the troops, tears streaming down his face.
They had come so close. They had come so far.
He turned around and shivered convulsively. The hybrids were screaming
in ecstasy as their Queen rose from the dead. He looked forward again and
kept running.
There was nothing left now, nothing he could do.
Except keep running, and pray that one day, someday, she would leave
them all alone.
-
Jenova laughed cruelly as the humans fled from her magnificent presence.
Maggots. Worms. Pathetic creatures, nothing could help them now.
The Ancients were gone. Extinct for millennia. Now, nothing stood in
her way...
The tiny human, her son, pleaded with her from the Lifestream. Bring
me back! he screamed. Let me rule beside you as you promised!
She laughed again. Promises? They were nothing. She had used this human
like she used all living creatures. It had reached the end of it’s usefulness,
and now she discarded it. Soon it would be nothing. There would be nothing
for forever, except her. She would live in solitude for eternity.
Jenova raised her hand and prepared for the Day of Judgement.
The final act that would cleanse the Planet, leaving nothing behind.
Only Jenova would remain.
-
It began.
Not with an flash or a loud explosion, but with a single sound so sweet
that it awoke Jenova from her dark dreams.
The Lifestream spread out from a rupture in the darkness. Green energy
weaved it’s fragile path out towards her.
She stared at it icily. So she had not won. The Apocalypse was not
over yet.
Jenova shrugged. Soon it would be.
Bolts of Purple sprayed from her fingertips, racing out to meet the
strands of Lifestream. It withered and died as it touched the unstoppable
power of Jenova.
Too easy.
She closed her eyes again, but soon she woke. Another strand broke
free of the void around her and started to move slowly. Again, she raised
her hand and the green energy vanished.
This time, two strands appeared. She glanced around and destroyed both
of them quickly, annoyed and slightly unnerved.
Seven flowing ribbons of light split upwards.
Jenova felt fear. She was destroying them easily, but the sheer number
was beginning to weigh her down. Thirty-nine shoots cracked upwards. She
moved backwards slightly before she vanquished them all.
Three thousand beams of light suddenly burst upwards from all around
her. She screamed and turned around wildly, but she was trapped. More and
more and more Lifestream poured up into the darkness, piercing the shroud
of black with a pale green ambience.
She had lost count of them now. She only knew that she had lost. She
only knew that, after aeons of life, she was going to die for the final
time.
“You cannot kill me!” she screeched. “I am the pure mask of evil! You
can never-”
Her voice was drowned out by a scream that pierced her very being.
It took some time for her to realise that it was her own.
Jenova had only one last sensation, that of burning, as the Lifestream
engulfed her and she died for the final time.
There was a deafening thunderclap and the Apocalypse ended.