The Terran Rangers/Final Fantasy VII by Heather Ray (summer beach reads txt) 📕

as a walkway toward the platform.

Barrett groaned quietly, his hand nervously rubbing his gun-arm. "It's too quiet."

"Yes," Billy observed, "we haven't seen a single creature here."

"Maybe this will be a simple mission," Tifa said, hopping off the final step and moving toward the pool. "The Holy Materia must be in here somewhere."

"Finding a white marble in a lake this big seems a bit...difficult

," Zack commented, following Tifa to the body of water. Billy and Barrett were right behind him.

Tifa knelt at the edge of the pond. "Hopefully, it'll emit some kind of visible energy. Cloud's the one who saw it fall, and since materia is very dense, likely it would have fallen straight down. This is a still body of water, so there's no current to push it."

Tifa turned around, noticing their leader wasn't with the congregation. "Cloud?"

The young man didn't seem to hear her. He stood at the foot of the glass staircase, his crystal eyes wide and focused on the platform.

It had been several weeks since he was last in this construct...and he still felt Aeris' warm blood on his hands when he cradled her limp body.

"Cloud!"

He blinked, snapping out of his torturous reflection. He turned around, and noticed his friends all watching him worriedly. Chewing on his lower lip, Cloud approached the pool, unsheathing the mighty Ultima Weapon from his back.

"I'll find it," he said, lying the blade on the stone floor. He walked passed the assembled heroes, took a deep breath, and dove into the pool.

Tifa's tawny eyes watched as Cloud descended into the pool. She unconsciously held her breath, as if to gauge how long he could remain beneath the surface without a fresh supply of oxygen.

When she felt her lungs burning for air, Cloud resurfaced, a grimace on his face.

"No luck?" Billy inquired.

"Not yet," Cloud answered, wading closer to the platform, "I think...it fell from this side."

Taking another deep breath, Cloud plunged under once again.

"This place is really starting to give me the creeps," Zack muttered, rubbing his arms, "It feels so...hollow and dead."

Barrett nodded, glancing around the high pillars and cold, reflective walls. "I hear ya, Kid."

"There he is!" Tifa exclaimed, a smile lighting up her features. Billy, Barrett, and Zack followed her gaze, and saw a faint white light rising closer to the surface. The light illuminated the surrounding area, and the team was able to make out Cloud's face once he was near the surface of the pond.

"Got it!" Cloud gasped, breaking out of the clear water. He swam to the edge, allowing Tifa and Barrett to pull him from the water. Cloud pushed his soaked locks out of his face, and set his azure gaze upon the pearly white gemstone seated in his palm.

"So, now what're we supposed to do?" Barrett asked, watching as Cloud lead the team from the pool. Cloud stopped in front of the platform, staring at the blood-stained tiles once again.

He didn't know the answer.

"Perhaps I can make a suggestion," said an airy, smooth voice, echoing in the mostly empty chamber loudly. All the heroes inclined their heads towards the source of the voice.

Floating high above the platform, with his dark cape and flowing white hair flapping in the air currents created by his magic, was an intimidating figure. A cold smirk was painted on his flawless face, and his cold, bright green eyes glimmered with cruel mirth.

"Somehow, little Puppet, I knew you couldn't resist coming back here," the figure mocked, "You keep clinging onto this frail hope of yours. I'm here to make sure it doesn't get past this room."

Cloud's own eyes glimmered with something else: intense hatred. His mouth opened, his voice a cold, raspy whisper.

"Sephiroth..."

Chapter Thirty-Six

The sinister cackle echoed through the abandoned City of the Ancients, as well as through the minds and ears of the five heroes who bore witness.

Floating above the platform...the same platform upon which he spilled the blood of Aeris Gainsborough weeks earlier...was the slim yet intimidating form of the being called Sephiroth. Frozen emerald eyes scanned the room, sizing up the five individuals standing below him, their weapons at the ready.

"What are you doing here?!" Cloud demanded, his blue eyes ablaze with fury. It took all the willpower in his body not to pounce on Sephiroth in a blind rage...to make him pay for everything he had done.

"I am here for the same reason you are, Puppet," Sephiroth answered coolly, still floating high above the team with an air of superiority, "I am well aware of the Holy Materia, and that its final resting place is right here, where the little Cetra girl left it. It was supposed to remain buried here, along with its mistress."

A wicked ecstasy glinted in Sephiroth's bright eyes, fully aware of the wound he intended to reopen in Cloud's heart.

"Well, you're too late," Cloud growled, latching the milky sphere of materia to his wrist armlet. "Now, let's see if you're man enough to take us all on. Right here, right now."

Tifa stared at Cloud in utter amazement. Is he crazy?! We may have the Holy Materia, but we don't know how to use it, or even if we can use it safely! There's no way we can match Sephiroth's power without it!

Still, Tifa didn't voice her thoughts, nor her dissention. Instead, she stood beside Cloud, prepared to follow wherever he would lead the team.

She trusted him.

Sephiroth seemed to consider Cloud's challenge for a moment. "No," he decided, waving Cloud's proposal away as if it were ludicrous, "I'd rather not waste my time with you insects. The universe awaits!"

"What do you plan to gain by destroying the planet?!" Billy challenged, stepping forward.

Sephiroth smiled at the newcomer. "I wonder how many poor souls Cloud Strife will pull into this personal vendetta of his. You see, Boy, I have everything to gain! Once the planet is destroyed, the power of the Lifestream will be set free... and I will be the only thing left alive to absorb it."

His wicked grin returning, Sephiroth floated higher into the air. "So, in order to be rid of you once and for all, Puppet, I'd like to introduce you to...my mother."

Sephiroth brought his hands together, forming a murky cloud of black power. Within that cloud, flashes of white lightning appeared on occasion, and the cloud increased in size. Finally, once it was about the size of a volleyball, Sephiroth tensed, and extended his hands. The sphere crashed to the floor near the team, and grew at an alarming rate, the electricity flashes intensifying and shaking the entire city. Barrett, Tifa, Billy and Zack stepped back from the creature, but Cloud remained with his feet planted.

The cloud finally took shape, becoming an enormous black creature, slightly reminiscent of a brain, with four enormous tentacles. It's slimy form floated just a few feet off the ground, electric sparks still flashing on occasion near the extremities of the tentacles.

"His mother is a giant squid?!" Zack declared, fighting the urge to throw up at the gruesome sight.

"It's not really his mother," Tifa explained. "It's more like a creature created with Jenova's DNA. His mother has been dead for quite some time."

"She's gettin' ready to blow!" Barrett shouted in warning. Sure enough, the large tentacles began to swing through the air, firing bolts of electricity in random directions.

"Cloud, MOVE

!" Tifa screamed, her eyes fixed on their leader. He was much closer to the enormous beast, deflecting the stray bolts with his large sword. Once the bolts of energy ceased for a few moments, Cloud saw his opportunity, and slashed his sword through the air, creating an arc of white light. The energy collided with Jenova-Obsidian's tentacles, yet didn't have an apparent effect.

For a moment, Cloud was stunned at the beast's resilience.

A moment was all it needed.

A tentacle stretched out at a phenomenal speed, surprising the young warrior, and tightly gripping his stomach. Cloud cried out in pain as the beast pulled him into the air, squeezing the life out of him.

"Let's move," Barrett shouted, racing closer to the battle scene. Closing one eye, Barrett raised his gun-arm, and fired a round of bullets into the beast's side. It grumbled slightly, more annoyed at Barrett's attack than anything else. Barrett shrieked as another tentacle launched itself in his general direction.

"Now you've done it!" Barrett growled, ducking as the tentacle passed over his head. He fired at the tentacle itself this time, yet it yielded even less of an effect. The tentacle remained more or less unharmed, and reversed direction, plowing into Barrett's stomach and sending the burly man tumbling towards the rest of the group.

"Billy," Tifa ordered, taking a moment to check on Barrett, "use the Time materia to speed both you and Zack up. Then Zack, use the Deathblow materia. Get one powerful hit in, and then Billy can quickly rush in and save Cloud while the monster is disoriented."

"Right!" both young men declared, moving in closer. Billy raised his arm, where the Crystal Bangle was located.

"Haste!" he commanded, clenching his fist. One of the two green spheres began to glow brightly, and formed a swirling green mist that rapped around both young men.

The world slowed down around them. Tifa and Barrett were completely frozen, and the monster was only barely moving its tentacles.

"Incredible!" Zack shouted, although, to his shock, his voice sounded very slow and deliberate.

"Zack, use the Deathblow!" Billy reminded his awed friend.

Zack nodded, and pointed the Winchester carefully at the base of the tentacle still gripping Cloud. "Deathblow!"

The yellow materia attached to the rifle flashed, and two bullets were instantly fired from the barrel. Although the rest of the world appeared all but frozen, the bullets sliced through the air swiftly, each one glowing faintly with yellow light. They both plowed into the monster's slick flesh, causing a deep roar of pain to slowly rumble from the monster.

Billy immediately saw his chance, racing to the slow-moving monster. Poll-vaulting with his Partisan, the former Blue Power Ranger leapt through the air, catching the tentacle that still held Cloud prisoner. Billy then pulled himself onto the almost paralyzed tentacle, and dug his Partisan through the scaly flesh. Black blood squirted from where the incision was made, and slowly the monster's grip loosened on its captive. Billy urgently leapt from his perch onto the ground, and managed to soften Cloud's slow descent from the monster's fatal grasp.

Then, a flash of green light brought everything back to normal time.

"Billy!" Zack shrieked in alarm.

Billy's