Jump 300: Final Fantasy VII (Final)

Jump #300: Final Fantasy VII
>Nine of Swords (Cruelty), reversed: Faithfulness, patience and unselfishness. May indicate the narrow avoidance of a death or other catastrophic loss.
>Age: 25
>Location: Midgar
Yes, this is where I want to be. While I'm in Midgar, I'm going to be getting documentation of literally everything I can. Mako reactor schematics. Vehicle designs (they mostly run on mako - but not all!). Power distribution (electricity, surprise - 200 volts, 50 cycles). Weapons, armor, building materials, ores... and that shiny materia fusion machine in Shinra HQ.
>Identity: Cetra (-200)
I'm going for the most cliché build possible. A Cetra SOLDIER. I can feel the fanfics shrieking at me in the distance.
>Drawbacks: RUINED FOREVER(0), Bonus Bosses (+600)
Literally the only change I'm making is localization. Her name is Aeris, not Aerith. Also... hm, Ruby and Emerald. You know what? I'm going to treat them as a warm-up for killing Endbringers. I have PLANS, oh yes have I got plans.
>SOLDIER First Class (800)
Nifty, glowy eyes. Does this mean my vision is augmented?
>Mage (Free, Cetra)
Another nice boost to my mana pool. Always nice.
>Voice of the Planet (Free, Cetra)
I already have The Crystal's Voice, but between these two perks... I can hear the planet QUITE clearly now. Well, as long as I'm not in a place like Midgar anyway.
>True Magic (500, Cetra)
Cast any spell that I've used materia to cast... this excludes summon and command materia, of course, but regardless that is EXTREMELY helpful.
>Improved Materia Growth (300)
Note to self: unified magic system needs materia. Actually, come to think of it... that would be an incredibly easy way to ensure that anyone can just pick up something and cast. Wonder if they can be used for a job system too? Oh, the possibilities. Why didn't I think about all this sooner?
>Joined The Party (0)
There is much here that must be done. It helps to have friends to help do these things. It helps that two of them are identical to me, save for the glowing eyes, but someone would have to be awfully close to be able to tell.


First things first, of course. I hopped to Bone Village, picked up a few rune armlets for myself (myselves?) and diamond bangles for everyone else before the shop closed for the night, skipped over to Wutai (where it's an entirely different part of day) and bought a Murasame for myself instead of using one of the Shinra-issue weapons, then jumped back to Midgar and parked in a certain church in the slums to engineer a meeting between myself and Aeris. I'm pretty sure in the wake of Reactor Number One exploding, Shinra noticed that one of their Soldiers didn't check in, but after a few minutes' reflection... I manifested a clone to take my place in the short term. Having a place on the inside would not hurt.

The plan was to essentially appear like some sort of specter to Aeris, at least initially, and that worked. I was honest with her as well - not being from this planet, but manifesting here, and the process wrote me into the last couple decades of history in a role that otherwise would have been filled by others. This meant I knew who she was, because there was another First Class that simply would not stop talking about her. Had I awoken any sooner, I would have acted to prevent Zack's death. And so I told her everything - absolutely everything.

A small bit of magic gave her the wakefulness that she needed to take it in. She learned the full story of what happened with Sephiroth and the other First Class, that Soldier had become a shadow of itself. The current First Class soldiers would frankly never have been able to deal with Zack, let alone the likes of Sephiroth, Genesis and Angeal. The only way the infantry did was by treating him as though he were a meat grinder. (Apparently the unofficial lieutenants of soldier were now Kunsel and Luxiere; incidentally, First Class are level 44. Second Class are level 35, and Third Class are level 13. Let me repeat that: LEVEL. THIRTEEN. Personally, I blame Heidegger.)

I told her the history of what was to come. She did not react favorably to this, especially to hearing about Meteor, but I cast a calming charm on her to help her keep her head on straight. Sephiroth never properly returned to the planet, turned into the Calamity's avatar, locked in crystal at the northern crater to protect the planet from him, just as the Calamity itself had. The Calamity would wake in a matter of weeks, using his form.

I told her who I was - who I truly was, what my purpose here was. That I travel between worlds, that I'd acted to save some worlds and damn others, but my purpose here was dependent on her - the intent being to spare her throwing her life away pointlessly, and to work toward rebuilding the planet. That she could summon me with a whistle if she so chose. That if she wished it, I could give her a measure of my power to use in any manner she saw fit, with as much or as little advice from me as she wished.

I pulled out the Resurrection Stone, and a rather confused Zack popped up... doubly confused because he did NOT remember me. Apparently being written into the world's history does not affect the dead. I passed the Stone to Aeris and excused myself while she and Zack had a talk, because they needed privacy. Instead, I pulled out the Water Mirror and summoned Minerva - that is, the sole goddess of this planet - and conversed with her. After the initial confusion of someone in the material world being able to speak with her, she got the very short version of who and what I was, and what I planned to do. She agreed with the plan, but it took quite a bit of convincing for her to permit me to act as a conduit for the dead to live again. I pointed out that this would be an exception, of course - my goal was to prevent more death, not just completely skirt the rules.

Zack gave Aeris a moment's warning of what was going on... and then quite abruptly was NOT a spectre anymore thanks to a simple resurrection spell. Minerva herself manifested among the flowers, though instead of being there physically, she was more of an avatar made of light that it hurt to look at directly. The four of us sat down and discussed; Aeris had basically brought Zack up to speed, and kept speaking with him while I bestowed Soul Source upon Minerva. I won't go into detail on the process, just the results - fifteen minutes after the beginning, there was an earthquake and all of Midgar shook. As it stopped, a smile graced her lips and the flowers bloomed a bit more, because it seemed that she could now regenerate her soul... and her soul was that of the planet. Mako reactors would still wound her, would still drain the lifestream, but the lifestream was able to regenerate now, and at a reasonable rate. As an unexpected result, Aeris felt her connection to the planet grow as well, but perhaps that was simply a side effect of having the incarnation of the planet itself standing within arm's length.

Plans were discussed, changed, and... well, best to lie low for the moment, was essentially the decision. I would interfere when the Calamity woke and blend in until then. Zack would hide out in the church until someone fell through the roof - I used precognition to make sure that was the given path for the moment, and he was more than a bit uncomfortable with the echo of the past in that. Aeris would simply keep doing as she did. And Minerva... well, she would keep the planets' weapons on a leash unless it became truly dire.

Not the first time I've met a goddess, but she was definitely one of the most friendly so far.

-----

Aeris exhaled a quiet sigh as she looked over the cliff. At the city of Midgar in the distance, its six mako reactors running steadily. "It's cold," she murmured quietly, sitting down beside me. I negligently waved my gauntleted hand to cast a warming charm, and she wrapped her arms around herself, turning away. "I didn't ask for your help," she added, her tone sullen.

I just shook my head a bit, my vision cast toward the city. Watching the battle on the bridge through a pair of binoculars, the assembled group decimating the automaton. After he'd been brought back from the lifestream, Zack had taken Aeris' potential place in Avalanche, and he'd quietly told the others that Cloud had been suffering from mako poisoning - from what he'd told us, it did a world of good in helping the others understand his mood swings and sometimes-antisocial behavior.

No words were exchanged between us for a few minutes until Aeris asked, "How long do you figure they'll be?"

I looked over at the flower girl. The mithril vambrace over her right arm, a visible sign of her role as my emissary, reflecting the morning light before it disappeared beneath the sleeve of her red jacket. "About fifteen minutes by my estimate," I answered. "They're rapelling down the city wall now. Looks like they left Jessie, Biggs and Wedge back in the city." I passed her the binoculars so that she could watch them.

Aeris nodded, saying to herself, "So the plate didn't fall in the end. Good. Mom's still going to take Marlene to Kalm, once Shinra stops panicking about what they're doing right now."

I nodded to her, before looking back toward the motley crew. "Huh. Am I wrong, or did they bring the... whatever Nanaki is?" When she gave me a questioning look, I added, "The guy with his tail on fire. Pretend I don't know his name, would you?" She just shook her head and turned back to watch them as I kept talking, simply for the sake of talking. "I suppose we should get moving here in the next few minutes. Zack and Tifa know we're going to meet them in Kalm, and... hopefully we won't see Cloud freak out too much. He's a good kid, even if fate dealt him a bad hand."

Aeris nodded and stood, tossing the binoculars to me. They disappeared into the aether as I go to my feet to follow her, amused that she was already striding toward her destination in the distance. She looked down at her vambrace before looking back over her shoulder at me. "So how do I use this thing? I can... feel it, I think. I feel like I could travel without moving. If that makes sense. So how do I do it?"

I laughed, shaking my head. "Teleport? Call it whatever you like, but the easiest way is to visualize where you're going. Easiest if you've been there already. Not going to work so well for Kalm, but if your feet get tired you could always try line of point teleporting-"

But she'd already disappeared, and I could hear her laughter on the wind as she blinked in and out of view, a few hundred feet further away each time. I grinned to myself, before I started moving to follow on foot.

No regrets about talking her into being my emissary. Not in the least.

-----

Kneeled down at the altar, the party was surprised to come upon Aeris praying. Briefly, Cloud lifted a hand to draw his sword... only for Zack to place a hand on his shoulder. That was all that was needed to bring him back to reality.

Aeris opened her eyes and looked up toward Zack and Cloud. She opened her mouth... no sound was audible, her voice stolen as a sword as long as man is tall pierced her heart. A cruel gleam in his eye, the sword was promptly tugged free by Sephiroth. Aeris braced herself against the ground with her right arm, the mithril vambrace glittering in the light. Sephiroth stepped back, turning away from her and beginning to ramble about... well, no one was quite sure what he was rambling about. The Promised Land, or something.

The Cetra-descended girl coughed once, then stood without any apparent further difficulty. "Oh no, my inferior human organs," she remarked in a deadpan tone, quite to the surprise of the two Soldiers standing behind her. Sephiroth paused mid-rant, turning back to Aeris. When she quirked her lips at him in a smirk, he thrust his sword through her a second time. And then a third. His expression grew frustrated as he looked down toward the masamune in perplexion, then rage showed on her face as Aeris observed, "You must be losing your touch."

Zack and Cloud could be heard, in stereo, to utter, "What."

Aeris turned around and favored both of the men with a dazzling smile, and her voice took on the tone of a lecturer. "Observe, if you will, the Calamity From The Skies. The being that ended the Ancients' civilization, scattering them to the winds even as they barely managed to seal it. Traveller of the cosmic wind, bringing a plague to every planet, sucking it dry and moving on to the next like some sort of swollen... one-winged space leech."

The masamune abruptly made an appearance again, exiting her sternum, startling Cloud and Zack. The sword was withdrawn again as the pair readied their swords, Sephiroth's abrupt mad rage evident. "Why... why won't you die?!"

"How rude," Aeris remarked, blandly, as one might comment on the weather. "In any event, the standard counter-charm for Jenova is, of course, Fiendfyre."

-----

"Crux!"

I heard the girl's shout from above and looked upward. Cloud, standing on the ceiling, looking perplexed. Aeris, running from him, chucking a round black sphere toward me. The rest of the crowd looking upward - Rufus and the few from Shinra beside me quite confused, Tifa and the rest of Avalanche looking more... apprehensive. Especially the ones who were charging in.

I caught the black materia in my gauntlet and tore a wound in space, chucking the offending item through and sealing it again, turning my glowing gaze upward. "Cloud- not your fault, come on down and it'll be all right. And as for you you, you dead son of a bitch... no meteor for you. You felt that, didn't you? That thing no longer exists in this universe, and there is no force that can bring it back."

The crystal in the roots of the tree fell into visibility, and I ignored the gasps of everyone around me as the room shook. Cloud showed no signs of following the rest as they fled, and I waited until the last possible moment before leaving him to his fate, following the rest to the Highwind as they launched and started putting as much distance between the airship and the crater as they could.

From the deck of the Highwind, I watched the massive monsters surface. I plucked the Water Mirror out of the aether and tapped its surface, then screamed, "Minerva! You said you wouldn't send out the weapons!"

On the other side of the mirror, I saw the luminous goddess shake her head. "I couldn't stop them... the Calamity wrested my control away. It wants to seize the souls as they enter the lifestream, steal their power for itself-"

It's been a while since I've uttered profanity on the level that I did there, I'll admit. But being so completely blindsided... and now with a magical barrier sealing the northern crater, as a half dozen streaks of light fled the crater? That cursing was entirely justified.

Also justified? Me throwing Hojo overboard, and watching to be certani that he became a red smear on the ice as we approached the ocean again. When everyone else with Shinra panicked about it, I pointed out that his little science experiment for a son was responsible for all of this, that he was the one who caused the Soldier desertion to prove his little Reunion theory, and he'd been rambling about Jenova wiping the world clean anyway.

Rufus was not happy with me, but at that point I was very well past caring. It was time to take the kid gloves off.

-----

Sapphire Weapon attacked Junon. As in any other timeline, it got its head blown off by a close range strike from the mako cannon. After it was relocated to Midgar, the mako cannon nailed Diamond Weapon as well as destroying the barrier over the northern crater. Cloud and his companions dealt with Ultimate Weapon over Cosmo Canyon.

This left me Emerald and Ruby Weapons.

Ruby... I basically threw the towel in. I went to the desert, where I knew it would be hiding, and when it attacked me, Sajuuk launched an alpha strike and glassed a mile-wide crater in the desert because fucking optional bosses should mind their own business and STAY optional.

Emerald, well. I don't need to breathe. I can be a dragon. And so I went into the water, materia-free, and simply tore into it with magic. It returned the favor. We fought for a day and a night, and eventually I was the victor, though I slept it off for two days afterward on the Costa del Sol beach. In dragon form. Apparently, people thought I was the fourth coming of Bahamut.

Once I got my wits about me, I teleported to the Northern Crater, grabbed Sephiroth by the face, teleported back to the desert crater with him in tow, and let Zack and Cloud rip him into shreds. I used fiendfyre on the remains, just to be safe. No part of him was getting back into the lifestream.

And then I went to Rufus Shinra, got the location of Jenova's head, and followed up with that for good measure.

-----


The conflict ended, as conflicts inevitably do, with Sephiroth and Jenova eradicated, the three Remnants tracked down and purged of Jenova's cells, and the remaining Soldiers likewise being purged of her remains in short order as well. Which reminds me. Rufus' statement of 'they're manifestations of Sephiroth, manifested from the lifestream!' is bullshit. Sephiroth was never the one in control to start with. Jenova took his body because it was convenient and strong, as it did with the Cetra. Those three? Simple attempts to replicate Sephiroth. Hardly surprising.

Avalanche was never accused of dropping the Sector Seven plate, because Shinra failed to do it, and never ended up being Public Enemy Number One. Reno had tried to do his job, certainly, but the emergency plate release system shorted out. Almost as though something that had been anathema to any technology had come along and fried it. How mysterious. Sure, Cloud and company still stormed the headquarters and the president got killed by Jenova, but the old man had long since lost the plot, and Rufus was more than happy to sweep the whole damned thing under the rug considering he still HAD a company as a result. It probably did not hurt that I gave Rufus ideas on how to keep Soldier a thing without needing Jenova's cells. Mako infusions... well, it's basically liquid magic, in a sense. And infusing magic into people is right up my alley. Pity that the measure I gave him was temporary, but at least it didn't make people lose their minds nor turn into monsters. Anything beyond what they could handle was simply lost, flushed away and useless. And how do you get Shinra to stop using mako energy? Give them alternatives. Point them in the right direction. Instead of everyone reverting back to an 19th century equivalent, point out old research that the company did, put it in the hands of the right people, and make sure that Rufus knows that the company would stand to make more money within five years if it weaned off of the mako.

Aeris and Zack... they'd put their whole relationship on whole for the duration of the emergency. Then they bonded when they went and visited Deepground and burned the whole fucking thing out from under the Shinra building and got married once they were out.

Vincent Valentine was their best man, hilariously, as he'd gone down there with them. I helped him get his head on straight, what with all those voices that were in there. Chaos is a weird guy, on a related note.

Cloud and Tifa? Once Cloud was back in his right mind, the two of them went right to popping out long-spiky-haired mini-me's. Seems that when given the right atmosphere and a lack of paranoia over Sephiroth returning a dozen times to milk the series for sequels, Cloud becomes a normal person instead of a walking angst engine. Still has a nice bike, though.

Cid? Well. I put a bug in Rufus' ear, told him what you can do with going into orbit. Communication satellites. Solar satellites, even, down the road. Cid was the first of a whole corps of Shinra astronauts.

Nanaki had a long, long life. My gift to him was an exorcism of the haunted parts of the canyon, and reversing his father's petrification. Being frozen into stone and being AWARE of it is pretty horrifying, to be honest, I can't be the only person who undid that.

I gave Yuffie a miniaturized Materia Fusion machine as a parting gift. Also a truly ridiculous number of budded materia, since I'd figured out how to have a mastered materia split off two new ones rather than a single one.

I gave Reeve nothing. He's lucky I didn't give him a beating. He knew the president was going to drop the plate and did nothing, and when that didn't work, spied on everyone to play both sides against the middle. Screw him.

Barret... I gave him back his hand. He was angry at me. And then Marlene came up and held his hand and he DEFINITELY DIDN'T CRY COME ON YOU GUYS IT'S JUST DUST IN HIS EYE.
>"Hee hee, no it's not. Papa is so silly!"