The tapes were taken by Professor Gast some twenty years ago. They document interviews with an Ancient named Ilfana who tells Gast a tale of the planet. Apparently some two thousand years ago the planet had to heal a wound from another attack. Back then an alien being crashed into the planet, they called it the enemy from the sky or something. It called itself Jenova. Jenova was not of the Cetra but an alien race bent on power and destruction. The Cetra who were on the planet battled against Jenova and many died in an effort to stop her and seal her in the northern glaciers.
During this time, while the Cetra battled Jenova, the planet itself also strove to fight back. In that time the planet created four entities to help safe guard itself. These entities were called 'Weapon'. They haven't been named but from past play through I know that there are four: Emerald, Ruby, Ultimate, and one other that they simply call Weapon. However, when the Cetra defeated Jenova, the Weapons became useless and went dormant in the northern glacier.
During the video tapings it is obvious that a relationship develops between Gast and Iflana, and eventually it shows her pregnant. They decide to name the baby Aerith if it's a girl...
Eventually during one of the tapings Hojo shows up with the military and tries to take Ilfana away. Professor Gast dies trying to stop them. Hojo takes Ilfana and eagerly anticipates Aerith as a new experiment to work on. Evil little bastard. After we finish watching the videos, we head outside, grab a snowboard from some kid and snowboard down the mountain in a mini game. Not sure what the prizes are for getting balloons or finishing in X amount of time but I was never good at that mini game so I won't be getting that.
At the bottom of the mountain, we're in a vast area of snow, mountains, caves and trees. This is an annoying part of the game because it's so big and hard to navigate. Eventually though I find what I'm looking for, the summon Alexander, and I eventually fall to the ground from hypothermic shock. I awaken in a small cabin, rescued by a local who lives at the base of Gaea Cliffs. He gives us a few pointers on traveling up the mountain and we head out.
After a bit of a trek up the mountain and a few puzzles we get to the top and see the spirit and materia plenty 'Promised Land'. We head on down and approach some high wind cliff areas. At this point Cysra (Tifa) forces herself into the party and we continue. At the edge we are finally met by Sephiroth and the team gathers to go on ahead. Cloud decides he can't trust himself and leaves the Black Materia we got from Jenova Death with Red XIII.
The party continues on and we enter an illusion setup by Sephiroth. Rhek, Cysra and Nazomi set foot into Nibelheim of five years ago. We walk into town and have to step aside for the entrance of Sephiroth's team that came to investigate the monsters five years ago. Except it's not Rhek (Cloud) who's with him, but rather some dark haired guy we don't know. Rhek keeps reminding himself that none of this matters, that Sephiroth is showing lies to confuse them. We watch as this other character does all the actions that Rhek remembers doing five years ago, we even see the picture of Cysra, Sephiroth and this new guy. Cloud is not shaken because Cysra remembers him from five years ago, but she hesitates. He confronts her and she finally admits that it wasn't him five years ago.
The first time Cysra had ever seen Cloud was a few days before his first mission with Avalanche. She was at the train station in Midgar and happen upon an unconscious boy slumped over in the street. When he awoke, he recognized her from the memory imprints that Jenova was actively stealing from Cysra in real time. His own Jenova cells took her memories and created his past, a boy that Cysra knew long ago named Zack, the boy she grew up with who left to join SOLDIER, who came back to Nibelheim those five years ago. At the time Cysra didn't recognize him but he knew so much and so much time had passed that she just wasn't sure. She took him in and hooked him up with Avalanche to give herself time to be certain, but that was when all hell broke loose at the beginning of the game.
This shakes Cloud to the core. In the mean time, Sephiroth appears to Red XIII as Cysra and tells him to come help Rhek who's in trouble. Also, in the mean time, we see Hojo and President Rufus enter a cavern below and have some discussion about all the materia and the Promised Land. Cloud and his party suddenly appear in the same room with Hojo and Rufus out of no where and Ichorid (Red XIII) shows up to 'help'.
We get some further information from a discussion between Cloud and Hojo. Apparently Sephiroth died at Nibelheim five years ago Maybe killed by Zack, I don't know. Anyway, Hojo has been using Jenova cells to create Sephiroth clones. He knew that eventually they would all come together to find the Promised Land and awaken Jenova. Why he wants that to happen is anyone's guess. Rhek however was a failed clone and cast out, but he's the only one that actually succeeds in what he was designed to do. So this whole time Cloud has not been chasing Sephiroth but doing his bidding, following him to the Reunion.
After this little back and forth, everyone is frozen in time but Rhek and Ichorid. Rhek approaches Ichorid and kindly asks for the Black Materia back, Ichorid complies. Tifa screams in silence in the background for Cloud to stop. Afterward Cloud floats up above the party. Here we see the true form of Sephiroth, suspended in animation in some sort of materia or energy cell, asleep. Cloud floats up to him and puts his hand through the field, to place the Black Materia in the cocoon with Sephiroth. A great earthquake starts and the party all runs out. In the background we see a great big eye open in the ice against the wall.
We are treated to a cut now where the interior chamber collapses with Sephiroth as the party escapes to the Highwind Airship with Hojo and Rufus. As the airship pulls away from the crater, the land below collapses inward and the Weapon entities rise up from the ground, now awakened with the threat to the planet upon them once more. The airship barely escapes, and through some rough evasive maneuvers Tifa is knocked unconscious.
As Cloud has gone AWOL, Tifa is now the party leader. She awakens in the Junon infirmary with Barret. No one else is around, they escaped. Tifa asks what happen to Cloud but no one knows. She asks what happen with Sephiroth and in response Barret opens the window to reveal Meteor in the sky, on its way to destroy the planet. Everyone is doomed, there's no way to stop it, the planet is as good as dead.
Enter some nice logical thinking on the part of the bad guys...
Scarlet (Rufus' lacky) comes in and announces that even though the world is ending, the public needs some calm, they need someone to blame. So Cysra and Morpheus (Barret) will be publicly executed. Awesome. Cysra is dragged to the gas chamber, strapped in and locked in. Scarlet turns the gas on. This can't be good. Man I've forgotten so much of this game.
Only a miracle could save her now. Luckily, Weapon decides now is a great time to attack Junon. We get another cut of Weapon facing off with all the military might of Shinra. The large cannon that's bigger than anything else in the entire game fires at Weapon and misses. Weapon gets in closer, fending off artillery and rocket fire and fires a shot of it's own at the city. At this point everyone evacuates the execution and leaves Cysra to her fate. Unfortunately Barret still can't get the door open. StupidCat is there though and suggest Barret follow him to find another way in. Another way in, to a room with one door... Ok stupid cat...
Anyway, now I get the fun adventure of fighting through an area with the two characters I don't want to play, who are low level, who I never bought any weapons for. Knew that was going to bite me in the ass eventually. Oh well, it took a while and was painful but blessedly short. After a bit of running around we find Nazomi outside and make our way to the airship Highwind which Yorick (Cid) has reclaimed with the help of Vincent. Not sure how this is helping Cysra who's been sucking poison gas for twenty minutes but ok.
We cut back to Cysra now and lucky for us, Scarlet happened to drop the key on her way out. We scoot our legs over and pick it up with our feet then transfer them to our mouth. Man that girl is flexible! o.O
She then opens her locks with her teeth, gets up and turns the gas off. Right on cue, Weapon batters Junon again ripping holes into the fortress. The Cannon fortress responds with another shot, this one directly into Weapon's face, the headless corpse falls into the ocean. Luckily it's rip was right at Cysra's cell, she climbs out with Shinra troops in hot pursuit. She climbs up and out onto the cannon, runs to the end and gets rescued by the party on the airship.
We make out get away, but it's with a bit of a somber feeling, knowing the world is ending anyway. We continue on for a bit and I make the rounds with Tifa on the rest of the party to get some advise. Ichorid mentions that if the crater collapsed that Rhek might have been sucked into the Lifestream of the planet. And that it's POSSIBLE that he was spit out deep in planets ocean, specifically in one spot, an island to the south. Tifa decides it's a slim chance but what else is there to do, they go after Rhek. Oh, somewhere along the way I picked up Neo-Bahamut. Sweet.
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