Having a renewed purpose, they follow Sephiroth to the snow fields of the north. They arrive at a place called Icicle Inn. Here they learned that this is where Aeris was nearly abducted by the Shinra a long time ago, and this is where her mother had lived, and had given birth to Aeris through video documentaion by a scientist that lived there, Aeris' father.
"To bad there was nothing on her conception," says Ronfar.
*SMACK*
A man matching Sephiroth's description has been here, and he had headed for the Northern Limits. Elena arrives on the scene and she is upset about the death of Tseng. Cloud dodges her punch, and she rolls right out of the inn where the confrontation took place. There are lots of Shinra troops there, and to avoid them, they grab some surfboards and go sailing down the mountain side to Great Glacier.
"Narley surfin' dudes!", exclaims Lucia.
After making their Great Glacier, they arrive at the home of Mr. Holzoff at the Gaea Cliffs. The team rests up and then continues onward after Sephiroth. They slowly, but surely scale the cliffs and arrive at the crest which leads to a very large and old crater. Going inward, they see Sephiroth killing off some shadowy figures that look very similar to the figures that they saw in Nibelheim. Then, Sephiroth attacks suddenly, this time with another Jenova creature. Jenova-death. After its defeat, Sephiroth approaches Cloud.
"Oh! He's going to talk to me!" exclaims Lemina.
They see the same scene in Kalm Inn, as what Cloud remembers, but this time a different story is painted. The group that arrives has a Soldier officer there, but this one is without Cloud. Cloud dismisses the illusions as Sephiroth's trickery, but Tifa is disturbed by them. Cloud looks at the photograph that was taken. And it shows this other character, with Tifa and Sephiroth. Cloud realizes that the photograph is actually from his memory. Sephiroth goes further to tell him that Cloud was an experiment of Hojo. Cloud goes mental again, but seems to recover before his own confusion tears himself apart from the inside-out.
"Ahh! He must be singing! The only thing worse than a Spice Girl's Song is the son of Headless Spice trying to sing!" says Lucia.
Once they arrive at center of the Crater, Cloud gives Red XIII the Black Materia, and tells him to keep it with him. The group heads into the main room in the center, and Tifa, which is actually Sephiroth in disguise, approaches Red XIII, and gives Cloud the Black Materia back. The Shinra executives arrive at the center of the Crater, and Cloud asks Hojo to give him a number. Hojo considers him a failed experiment and refuses. Cloud then gets summoned up to where Sephiroth is, and Cloud gives him the Black Materia. The ground starts shaking and huge creatures created by the Planet to protect itself, called simply Weapons, emerge from the Crater and head to various locations throughout the world.
"Hanson, after rehab," says Hiro.
"Do you get the feeling that our dear narrator doesn't like Hanson or the Spice Girls?" asks Lemina.
"Nah!" says Jean.
Seven days later, the giant Meteor is hanging over Earth.
"And, at its current rate of decent it looks as if it will slowly set down SOMEWHERE on the planet," says Ronfar dramatically.
"GASP!" yelps Jean.
The Weapons are wreaking havoc all over the planet, Cloud is nowhere to be seen and is assumed to be dead.
"And there was much rejoicing."
"Yah!"
Now, Barret and Tifa are in Junon, being held there by Shinra. President Rufus has decided to use Avalanche as a scapegoat to cover for Shinra and to ease the tension that exists all around the planet. Tifa and Barret are sent to the gas chamber to be executed in front of the entire world, but as Tifa gets strapped in, alarms sound as one of the Weapons is attacking.
"Ah," whines Lemina, "Just when they were getting to the good part."
Exiting from the death chamber, one of the guards accidentally drops his key. Meanwhile, the main cannon of Junon fires at the approaching weapon, scoring a direct hit, but not slowing it down any. The other troops are then ordered to fire on it.
"OK, so the HUGE weapon doesn't slow it down, so you order the tiny men with their peashooters who couldn't hit the brood side of planet to shot it down," complains Hiro.
The Weapon arrives at Junon and starts attacking causing structural damage here and there, until the main weapon fires again at its head at point blank range. The Weapon, seemingly injured at this point, retreats. In the meantime, Tifa struggles against her restraints and is able to break free with the help of the dropped key. Then, thanks to the Weapon, a hole appears in the side of the building allowing her to climb to safety. Once there, she encounters Scarlet. Who slaps her, and Tifa retaliates by knocking her on her ass. Barret in the meantime, is freed by Cait Sith and meets up with Yuffie. There they manage to steal a Shinra airship thanks to Cid, and it gets named the Highwind. They use the Highwind to save Tifa and flee the Shinra occupied city. Gathering information at an inn up north they hear of a very good doctor with an unusual patient in Mideel. Traveling there, they find that the patient is indeed Cloud.
"I knew it was too good to be true." mumbles Lemina.
The doctor explains that he has a very severe overdose of Mako Radiation, is not in the best of shape. Tifa stays with him. Cait Sith then tells the others that Shinra is still gathering lots of Huge Materia for a superweapon of some kind. They are going to go for the one in Coral as well as the one at Fort Condor. Going to Coral first. They arrive just in time to see Shinra taking off in a train heading for North Coral, Barret's hometown. Cid steal a train and they pursue the escaping Shinra Train. They make their way across the train to the engine room and after a couple quick battles, they stop the train just before it crashes into North Coral. In gratitude the group receives the Ultima Materia. They move onto Fort Condor, and after a long battle with the Shinra forces, they stop them. The Condor dies however, but its offspring does indeed live. The old man there gives them the Huge Materia for at least saving the young Condor.
"Yeah, THANKS!" shouts Hiro, and then mumbles, "Bastards."
Returning to Mideel to check on Cloud, they find that his condition hasn't changed but the Ultimate Weapon has decided that to make Mideel its next target. After exchanging a few blows, it flees, but the Lifestream below Mideel is effected by the battle that just took place and bursts through, everyone except for Cloud and Tifa escape. The two of them however fall down into the Lifestream, and Tifa awakens in Cloud's subconscious.
"OK, now you're just being silly."
Tifa takes a look a the northern part of Cloud's mind and the scene where he arrives at Nibelheim five years ago is again played for Tifa and Cloud, but Tifa interrupts him. She tells him that is not how she remembers it. She tells him that she had waited for him, but he never showed up. The scene then shifts to that night at the well where he had made his promise. Nothing had changed, but it isn't enough to convince Cloud that he is who he says he is. Then, to try and get Cloud to remember, she asks him to tell her about something that happened all those years ago, that she wouldn't know about. Tifa's mother had died a while back, and she was too wrapped up to notice Cloud.
"Yeah, go figure!" says Ronfar sarcastically.
Cloud decided that the only way to gain Tifa's attention, was through strength. He got into fights, and wanted to be as strong as the infamous Sephiroth. But, he wasn't strong enough to be in Soldier. The scene then shifts back to inside the Mako Plant after Sephiroth had gone insane. He wounds Tifa, and then wounds Zack, the guy in the photograph that was shown to him, at the Crater. Then, goes into get Jenova. Cloud arrives at the scene, but in the blue Shinra Uniform. He WAS there the entire time. He sneaks up behind Sephiroth and takes him from behind, and bests him. He then helps out Tifa to the side, and out of the way, just like before, and she seems pleased that he was able to carry out his promise. But Tifa, can't remember that moment, probably from it being so dramatic.
"Or maybe, because of your memory sucks, woman!" shouts Ronfar. Jean, once again, takes it upon herself to pelt Ronfar.
Now that Cloud's memory is complete, his consciousness is restored, and he and Tifa wake up in the ruins of Mideel with the others. Cloud apologizes for his actions earlier.
"You just damned the world, no big whoop," says Hiro.