The Good Life: Godlike Power (ch. 112)

“Father, you can't be serious. You believe this… nonsense?” Rufus Shinra questioned sharply, seated across from his father, Russell Shinra, whose expression betrayed nothing. Already, Rufus could see the concoction that Dr. Waterloo had given him was having an effect. His skin had smoothed out, the harsh wrinkles that came with age fading sharply, while his hair grew in thicker and had hints of color beyond stark white. Rufus had hoped that the serum was just some con, but that hope was hard to hold onto when he was looking at visible proof. 

Immortality was possible, and it came in a vial. It was little surprise that the very worst possible person had received it first. 

“I do,” Russell replied, his tone completely devoid of warmth or any affection. “The woman is a monster unlike any I've ever seen. I'd sooner believe that she came from another world than her existence being a natural to this one.” To back up his words, Russell made a gesture, and a hologram of a battle appeared. 

Sephiroth, Zack, and this ‘Yoruichi.’ The other SOLDIERs were nowhere to be found as they would only get in the way. Those three alone contested beasts of unimaginable power, but if Rufus was being perfectly honest with himself, he knew that it was largely the woman who held the new WEAPONS at bay. 

Five of them had emerged across the world after the first's fall, gargantuan creatures that were borderline impossible to slow down, let alone defeat. They were granted codenames: the first to fall outside of Junon had been posthumously dubbed Sapphire. Diamond, which had emerged from the sea north of Midgar, had been the second WEAPON to fall. The Ruby WEAPON had emerged from the Northern Crater and was still tearing through the countryside on an unmistakable path to Midgar. Emerald had emerged from the sea between Costa del Sol and Junon, and it was on a similar trajectory. 

The Jade WEAPON was the one that their first and last line of defense fought against. It was in the shape of some kind of plane, and its overwhelming speed made it the greatest threat once it arrived at Midgar after emerging from the southern icecaps. 

Lastly, there was the Ultimate WEAPON. Larger than the others, and all the more concerning, rather than attack Midgar it had flown into the sky after awakening at the North Crater and hadn't been seen since. 

Rufus spared the fight a glance, feeling uncertainty in his guts. He had always disliked his father's personal project, the SOLDIERs. They were too powerful to honestly be controlled. Sephiroth wore a leash because he didn't know any better, but should he ever learn there was precious little stopping him from slaughtering everyone in Shinra Tower. Or all of Midgar. Now he was witnessing an even greater power that was entirely unchecked and not at all beholden to the Shinra name. 

“Wasn't it you who told me that you shouldn't believe something merely because you wish to?” Rufus returned, looking back at Russell. 

Who responded with another gesture, making the hologram change. This time it was phone footage of the Junon Cannon. Some commoner was babbling excitedly about sightseeing, but that fell on deaf ears as he saw what his father wanted him to see. In the sky above the cannon, a portal opened, and with it came Yoruichi and ‘Yamato’, the beast that was currently under the watchful eyes of Dr. Waterloo. 

“This is simply an opportunity," Russell informed, interlocking his fingers and peering at Rufus with eyes that saw more than he was comfortable with. 

“It's subjugation,” Rufus argued, reconsidering his position in light of this new information. He’d had doubts when Yoruichi fed them what felt like dribble -- other universes? Entirely new worlds with new histories? It was outlandish and absurd. It felt like a poor lie to cover whatever Yoruichi truly was. Given her name, Wutai seemed a likely suspect, but he felt that his connections there would have revealed such a powerful force in development. 

After all, the only thing keeping Wutai afloat these days was staunch loyalists to the Wutai royal family and him. Through intermediaries and proxies, of course. It wouldn't do to be caught supporting his father's last and greatest enemy. 

“It's a new market,” Russell returned, unbothered by his barb. “Yoruichi was clever in her delivery, but she let slip that this ‘empire’ is quite young. Several underdeveloped worlds are ripe for exploitation. Technology that allows us to spread the Shinra name to new worlds in this ‘cluster.’ The possibilities are quite literally endless.” 

“And you accept the ridiculous price tag?” Rufus challenged, and before Russell could give an answer, there was a tremble that shook the building. A reminder of the battle that took place in the sky above Midgar. 

“Boy, you reveal your own ignorance,” Russell sounded bitterly disappointed in him, and Rufus swallowed a snarl. “Do you truly think we could protect our company if they decide to take it? Could we protect our world?” There was a sneer in his voice, like he couldn't believe that he was having to explain something so simple. 

It was galling, and it was only with practiced ease that he kept his thoughts off his face. 

“The ability to protect something is the true mark of ownership. If you cannot defend what is yours from grasping hands, then it is not yours,” Russell repeated a lesson that Rufus had heard too many times before. Usually after his father took something or someone that had belonged to him. “Perhaps Yoruichi is a one-off. Perhaps she is the least powerful warrior of this supposed empire. Until we know, we cannot take action.” 

“That’s it then?” Rufus asked, not at all disagreeing with his father. He was correct on all accounts, but it wasn’t the reaction that he had wanted. 

It was increasingly clear that he couldn’t simply wait for Russell to die, his preferred method for inheriting the company. It was simple, and all it required was patience. Assassination was riskier, even working through proxies. Worse, it was something that his father was well prepared for, as there wasn’t a trace of love between them. Rather than his son and heir, it would be more accurate to say that Rufus was an employee he'd groomed to be his successor, who just happened to be related to him. 

So, he had hoped that Russell would balk at bowing his head to another. That he would plot, resist, and create an opening that would see to it that this supposed ‘Heartless’ removed his father from Shinra. Should he play his cards well, it would then be a smooth transition in power, and Rufus certainly had no issue bowing his head. 

For a time, of course. 

Russell scoffed, “You forget how this company came to be.” His gaze grew sharp as he glared at some memory only he recalled. “It was a power company. One of many that was subservient to a king and a kingdom.” Rufus knew the story. It was impossible for him not to given how many times Russell had told it, his voice full of so much pride. “It was the work of decades, but the levers of power were pulled in my favor. Foundations that had endured for centuries were cracked and hollowed out.”

His lips pulled back into a snarl of a smile, “And now the name of that kingdom has been forgotten. Now, there is only Shinra and the scraps of this planet I don’t care enough about to take.”

That was his plan then? “You’re betting it all on your ability to repeat that performance? That seems unlikely. All the more so now that this ‘Emperor’ will see you coming,” Rufus remarked, knowing that it would rile his father up. Or, at least, it should have. Instead, he received a cutting smile. 

“He might see me coming… but luckily, I have an ambitious and shortsighted heir. And who knows what he gets up to out of sight and out of mind?”

Banishment. It was being dressed up as something kinder, a ploy to undermine this empire by expanding his power base elsewhere. Something he had already been doing for years, merely expanded in scope. Yet, at the core of it, it was a banishment all the same. 

With immortality, his father had no need of an heir. 

Nor a son. 

“How lucky indeed,” Rufus replied, swallowing the rage that screamed in the back of his throat. And there, as he was dismissed with a wave of his father’s hand, he made a promise. 

He promised that he would have it all, or nothing.

…

“Man… being undercover sucks. I wanna fight giant kaiju too…” I muttered, a long depressed sigh escaping me as I shook my head with the utmost disappointment. Nothing to do about it, though. While there was a part of me that just wanted to cast off the identity of Dr. Waterloo, in the end, I had spent the better part of a decade crafting that mask. It would just be a shame to let all that hard work go to waste because of a little self-indulgence. 

It also helped that I was saving the best kaiju for last, and that one I would get to fight alone. 

For now, though, I was content to wait on the sidelines as I put my finishing touches on a long-awaited project. 

My Magic Circuits. 

I stood in my lab, which had a few new additions. The Mega Materia were gathered up from the fallen WEAPONS, in theory for my inspection, but in reality, I was going to use them to create my Magic Circuits. It had been about a literal decade since I first came up with the concept, starting with the Soul Noodles, and in the time since I had endlessly refined and optimized the process. Reasons to delay giving them to myself kept coming, and they were really good reasons. But, at long last, it was time. 

My lab had to be moved because of the sheer size of the Mega Materia, but that worked just fine for me. All it took was a quick Shambles, and everything was in place for me to begin. I was so giddy to finally have my hard work pay off that I almost didn't know where to start. I had all my materials arranged -- the Mega Materia, the Huge Materia, my Summons Materia, and then my Mastered Materia. All neatly arranged in a circle around me, which was further marked by a couple of dozen synths. 

There was a part of me that was tempted to wait just a little longer. The Ruby WEAPON would be the fourth to fall after Jade was defeated like, an hour ago. A few more hours, and I could have another Mega Materia. Maybe even a fifth if Ultimate stopped being a bitch and came out of hiding. However, I could feel the raw power of the Mega Materia within my Room, and I knew that my materials would falter. My mastery of the soul wasn't refined enough that I could pack that much power into the Magic Circuits -- it'd be the equivalent to shoving a couple nuclear reactors into each Circuit. 

Which was a pretty awesome visual, but a step beyond me with my current abilities. Instead, the others would remain in reserve. Maybe I would use them in the Circuits for Robin or Yoruichi. Or even Taylor or Nora. Or maybe I would find something worth adding to my…

“Hm,” I hummed as the process began, idly realizing that I needed a better name. The Magic Circuits were each a circuit, but the final product could be called… “A Magic Crest,” I decided with a little grin. 

Then I began its creation. 

The process was simple, but delicate. Each of the Mega Materia was full of power, but it was… bland. Flavorless. Raw power without a ‘type’ so to speak. Admittedly, it was an obscene amount of power. If the Huge Materia were three hundred times stronger than a Mastered Materia, then the Mega versions had to be at least ten thousand times stronger. One of them contained the output of a Mako reactor running over the course of a year. 

First, I began siphoning that power and drawing it towards the other Materia. All of them began to swell in size as their power intensified. There was one, however, that I took great care with -- the Chaos Materia. It, frankly, was why the process had taken about ten years to perfect. It didn't play nicely with other Materia. As the power was drawn and condensed, the Mega Materia began to shrink. It was a slow process, one made all the more tedious by needing to condense that power into the other Materia. 

But, by the time I was done, the Mega Materia had vanished and all the others had swelled in size until the smallest of them was the size of a minivan. 

With that step done, it was now time for step two. 

Grabbing hold of the threads of power and magic, I pulled them through the synths as Magic Circuits began to rise from their bodies. Upon these Magic Circuits were engravings of the magic that was offered by each Materia -- control over fire, ice, lightning, or gravity. Healing magic. Summons. All of them etched into the silvery blue surface that promised unlimited power. As they were formed, the various Materia rapidly vanished, all that power packed into each circuit. 

Honestly, I couldn't even tell what Grade they should be. They totally broke my grading scale. They made the circuits I gave Sukuna look like trash. Enough so that I felt a little guilty. But then I remembered that Sukuna sicc'd Mahoraga on me and I suddenly didn't feel so bad. They even had some symmetry going on. 

Thirteen Spell Circuits. 

Thirteen Summon Circuits. 

Thirteen Chaos Circuits.

Still, now comes the actually complicated part. I had to bind them together in the Crest and graft it onto my soul. With Sukuna it was easy peasy, but those Chaos Circuits were a real danger. If I wasn't careful, they'd tear me up from the inside out, much like they did that Vincent guy. Or, worse, they would infect the other Circuits and I'd have to toss the entire thing out. 

The Circuits molded together like clay, forming connections and corners, and I was keenly aware of the symmetry. It was a bit like a puzzle -- for every connection the Chaos Circuits made, there needed to be a connection to a spell and a summon. It stopped the Chaos from overpowering the other Circuits, though it was a balance that I would have to keep in mind if I ever expanded on the Crest.

It was a relatively quick process compared to the others, and by the time that I was done, I saw the intricate web of circuits. I inspected it with my eyes as much as I did my Room, finding that the balance was stable and that it was even aesthetically pleasing. The silverish blue contrasted well with the reddish black of Chaos. Very nice. 

Then, without further ado, I turned around and brought the Crest to my back and pressed it into me, beginning the process of grafting it onto my soul. It had to be done in a deliberate process that I’d tweaked over the years, and it was why I had gone with such an elaborate design. It gave me more anchor points. 

The first were on my back, circling the nape of my neck, then my shoulders, and then flowing down my arms to my elbows. Only then did I continue grafting the circuits down my spine. The sensation was… weird. Weird in a way that I wasn’t quite sure how to describe. It felt a bit like what I imagined touching my internal organs would feel like. It was just… a sensation that I wasn’t supposed to feel at any point, and my brain didn’t quite know what to make of it. 

That was especially true when it came to Chaos Circuits. They were spicy. Not quite to the point of being painful, but it was like my soul was going ‘Yo. What the actual fuck is this? Stop it.’ 

I nearly did when I felt the Chaos spike and attempt to consume me, scaring the crap out of me for a second. But, with a little willpower, it was beaten back and I continued the graft. Once it was done, my soul felt a bit weird. Kinda like what it felt like after going to the dentist when everything was numb but not quite numb enough. 

Rolling my shoulders and neck, I let the Crest settle for a moment before I raised a finger. Then I spoke, “Fire.”

There was a flash of power that ran through the Crest before a flame erupted over my finger. A grin spread across my face, looking down at the magic flame with triumph. It took me years, but I finally got what I was looking for. The flame was stable, subsisting on the magic that hummed in my Crest without any input from my Room. 

But the test wasn’t done. 

“Fire,” I intoned again, this time activating a different circuit. The energy flowed through the Spell Circuit before flowing through a Chaos Circuit, tainting and twisting the magic. This time, when the flame sparked to life above my finger, it was black and white, twisting and writhing as if seeking something to ignite. 

Chaos was a rebellious little thing, something I would have to treat with care, but so far it was exactly what I wanted from it. It was more than just a cool visual effect, the flames burned hotter. Hungrier. It didn’t possess a will or anything like that, but its nature was… dark. 

Extinguishing the flame, I turned my gaze towards Jenova, who had watched the entire process in absolute silence. When our eyes met, she took that as the invitation to speak, “We question this decision. It seems needlessly risky.”

“Risk is the spice of life, Jenova,” I replied, grabbing my shirt and shugging it on. I could stress test the Crest once it had some time to settle. Should take a couple of days at most. Honestly, I felt bad for who or whatever was going to be my training dummy. “But it worked?”

“Indeed. We can sense the Mako in you. Your soul hums with a song that is as foreign as it is pleasant,” she replied before she lifted a cookie to her mouth and took a bite. She chewed mechanically and without pleasure, crumbs falling into her lap, before swallowing at exactly thirty seconds of chewing. She hadn’t quite settled into her new body yet, but she was getting there. 

“But will it make the impression that I’m looking for?” I asked, walking over to where I left my phone to see that I had a few messages over the past twelve hours. Yoruichi, Sephiroth, and Zack having killed both the Ruby and Ultimate WEAPONS. I felt a little bad at missing those fights, but it just confirmed that now was the time for me to graft on the Crest. Jinx, meanwhile, was giving me status updates on the girls. 

I could feel my time in this world reaching its conclusion. All the loose ends were being tied off -- Cloud was with a synth of his mom over in Wutai, the two of them keeping their heads low while Cloud fended off attempts at recruitment by Wutai resistance groups. Tifa, Jessie, and Claudia were experiencing Jinx’s brand of hospitality, which may or may not involve actual brands. Hojo was on my side of things, ready to join my carton of eggheads, as was Scarlet, though she didn’t know it yet. Sephiroth and Zack were on a downward tailspin, but they were firmly loyal to Shinra, and thus me, because President Shinra was loyal to me. 

I had reunited with Yoruichi. I’d gained all the powers that I wanted from this world. All that was left was a deal with the devil. 

The devil being me, of course. 

“Yes,” Jenova answered, her head bobbing ever so slightly, feeling no need to elaborate. 

I chuckled, “When exactly will the party begin?” Jenova, with Aerith’s body, was tapped into the Lifestream. Something that the Lifestream was aware of and, in her own words, was ‘not happy’ about. Still, that connection granted her an awareness and it would serve an important role in what was coming next. 

“It already has,” Jenova informed with no urgency. “The Omega WEAPON has emerged at the Temple of the Ancients.”

Well then. Seems I had found my training dummy.

“Let's get a move on then, yeah?”

…

The Omega WEAPON was a Lifestream’s last resort. When all else failed, the Lifestream would prioritize itself over the planet that it inhabited. For whatever reason, be it an ecological disaster or pesky humans harvesting too much Mako, the Lifestream had an escape plan ready, and that was the Omega WEAPON. It would draw all of the Lifestream that was infused throughout the world to a single point inside of the WEAPON, and then it would promptly fuck off and abandon the planet in the hopes of finding another one. 

Which was exactly what Jenova had done when she landed here millennia ago. Her world, which had died hundreds of thousands of years ago, due to a war. She drew herself up into an escape vessel before launching herself into space on a journey that would take thousands of years to a planet that matched her preferences to cultivate life on. It had just been bad luck that the planet she wanted had already been occupied when she arrived, starting a conflict that would see the Ancients dead and Jenova on ice. 

Now that the WEAPONS had been defeated, the Lifestream of this world had decided to cut its losses and jump ship the same way. It planned to begin a journey that would probably take tens of thousands of years, finding a new planet to settle on, while this one became a desolate wasteland. 

I was gonna slash the Lifestream’s tires and put sugar in its gas tank. 

The same plane that had rushed us to Junon raced me towards the Temple of the Ancients, but it was rough going. As one would imagine, all the life juice leaving the rest of the planet had less than great effects on the weather. Off in the distance, I could see hurricanes and tornadoes drop from the pitch-black sky, while lightning cackled and fell like rain. Honestly, if it wasn’t for my Room, I doubt that we would have made it. 

But, a few hours later, we did. 

The sight was one that got my heart beating a few ticks faster. The sheer size of it made the Sapphire WEAPON look small. It’s legs were a tripod, more serpent-like than normal legs that dug deep into the planet. Along them, I saw the flow of Mako going straight to a core in its chest that almost seemed small next to the massive pauldrons on its shoulders that had angelic wings jutting out. It remained still, its arms fanned out wide, but at our approach, I saw the titanic head start to shift. 

A lone green eye zeroed in on us before the glow began to intensify. I knew what was going to happen before it happened, so I got out of dodge by Shambling myself out of the plane. 

A split second later, a bright green laserbeam erupted overhead, completely enveloping the plane I had been in a second prior. The beam struck a mountain behind it, liquifying its peak before the laser cut through the clouds overhead. 

“There we go,” I cheered the Lifestream on as the storm raged around me. The ocean churned violently, sending up waves that rose up hundreds of feet that slammed down upon the uncaring ground whose dirt blackened with death. I took in a slow breath, feeling the Crest respond to my call, and then I channeled all the power that I had. 

In the space around me, my summons began to materialize from thin air and magic, taking shape as they fell with me. At least until the first of my summons took shape beneath my feet. 

The black dragon, Bahamut. [Link]

My feet landed lightly on the top of the dragon’s head, its massive wings fanning out and, with them, motes of bright blue energy gathered under its wings before streaking out at high speeds. The lasers were lacking in comparison to the lightshow that Omega had just put on, but they struck with impact, peppering the dusky gray armor the WEAPON was made of. 

The other summons materialized in the meantime, some plummeting straight towards the ground while others took to the skies. And as they did, I commanded them as if they were extensions of my own body, feeling a touch of strain on my Crest at the sudden demand that I put on it, but the sheer volume of power contained in my circuits was able to meet those demands. 

The Phoenix [Link] streaked forward in a red blur, gathering fire underneath its wings that it unleashed in a tidal wave towards Omega. Likewise, it was joined by three others, Odin [Link] galloping on the air as if it were solid ground, a lance like blade slashing out that sent a cut that carved a line into the WEAPON. Leviathan [Link] slid through the air, gathering the rain that fell in flat drops before sliding into the ocean to command its waves.  

Some of the summons were human in appearance, startling so. One was Ramuh [Link], an old man who looked exactly what I imagined a wizard would, particularly one whose favorite spell was Lightning Bolt. The other was Shiva [Link], a beautiful human woman who was as cold as winter itself, gathering large shards of ice the size of buildings and sending them at Omega.

Those that fell to the ground landed in a thunderous crash, but it hardly slowed them. The most notable of them was the walking fortress that was Alexander [Link], who stood more than two hundred feet tall. Kujata [Link], a great boar with massive horns, wasted no time charging forward as fire and lightning gathered around its horns. Running alongside it was Ifrit [Link], a demonic-looking creature that left a trail of fire with every step. 

Then there were the strange ones. A humanoid summon slammed into the ground, merging with it before the ground itself began to bubble and shift, and what rose out of it was a creature of pure stone. Titan [Link], a featureless torso with arms and tendrils that erupted from the ground, aiding those who walked. 

Hades [Link] and Typhon [Link] hovered near Alexander, acting as a type of support. Vile magic bubbled up from Hades’ cauldron, casting debuffs on Omega while Typhon fired off blasts of magic. 

Lastly were the Knights of the Round [Link]. Thirteen knights rushed forward with perfect teamwork, their weapons raised and their armor gleaming. It felt decidedly too heroic, so I made a note that the next time I summoned them, I would see what Chaos turned them into. 

My summons unleashed a series of attacks, some more effective than others. Elemental magic bombarded Omega from a dozen different points, the very ground rising up against it, while Alexander cast buffs on all my Summons. I felt the effects flow through me, the magic strengthening my muscles and sharpening my vision. A loud groan escaped Omega from a mouth that it lacked, but it was hardly defeated. 

The feathers of its wings began to fly off, acting as a type of drone that rushed towards me and my summons. Their tips were deadly sharp, but more than that, they fired off those same lightning beams, turning the air into a mad lightshow. Hundreds of feathers fell from its wings, but it was soon turned to thousands, and then tens of thousands. The Mako that its legs were sucking up seemed to redouble in intensity, shining brightly in the unnatural darkness that had befallen the world. 

I remained atop of Bahamut, who spun and twisted through the air, countering the lasers with its own while the feathers the size of cars gave chase. My focus honed into a deadly edge and my Observation Haki sharpened as it did. It flowed through my summons, much to my surprise, allowing them to dodge attacks that they otherwise couldn’t have, or prompting my other summons to cover for them. 

It gave me an idea. I let my Haki explode out of me, and the sky above me began to churn, the clouds circling while the lightning funneled upward. I paid it no mind as I rode on top of Bahamut’s head, focusing on my summons and exactly what I had hoped for happened. Odin and the Knights’ blades began to darken to a pitch black as my Haki flowed through them, so potent that sparks of black lightning danced along the edges. 

I felt the strain even as I raised my hand up, miming the grip of a sword that Odin followed. It was only at that moment that it occurred to me that Haki wasn’t endless, but that didn’t matter. I ignored the strain and swung my arm, Odin mirroring the swing perfectly. 

A flying slash made of fire erupted from the blade, racing towards one of the legs of Omega and cutting it clean in half. So cleanly that it was only when liquid Mako erupted from the burning seam did Omega even realize that it had been cut. 

Omega unleashed a groaning roar that shook the air before it began to fall, the two legs it had left unable to keep it aloft. The ground trembled when it struck the earth, sending out a great plume of dust and dirt along with hundreds of thousands of tons of water. Bright green Mako flowed from the stump, simmering on the ground and where it fell, life sprouted en masse. 

My summons jumped the fallen WEAPON, which thrashed against them. Titan sent forth a wave of earth to drag it into its depths. Leviathan commanded the sea to flow over its fallen form, prompting Shiva to encase large swaths in ice. I could feel the strain now. My Haki and magic were steadily draining my stamina. If I hadn’t taken the serum, I probably would have collapsed by now. 

Instead, I turned my attention upward, seeing the cyclone overhead and the lightning within. Ramuh acted according to my thoughts and for the first time since the fight began, I used a Room. 

An Amp-Room. 

Lightning gathered in the cyclone that was now commanded by Ramuh, letting the charge build before he called it down, funneling it through the Amp-Room. The bolt of lightning was already powerful, but when it hit the Room, it became obscene. It struck the fallen WEAPON with the force of a nuke, a blinding white flash of light nearly blinding me even though my closed eyes, while the shockwave that followed flattened everything around for a mile. 

With a wave of my hand, I blew away the smoke and debris to find the WEAPON was a smoldering wreck, the once pristine armor blackened and warped while Mako leaked from the Materia lodged in its chest. 

It wasn’t dead, and it probably wasn’t even down for the count, but I think I had made my point. 

I took a step off Bahamut and fell through the air, my hands in my pockets for extra style, before landing with a splash in the sea of Mako inside of the WEAPON. The Lifestream howled, quaking with impotent rage at my arrival. The Mako felt a bit funny. Like I was submerged in water, but it wasn’t wet, yet all around me I saw the twisting currents of Mako as it turned in on itself. 

Emerging from those currents was Jenova, who was half a world away, but that hardly mattered for her. Such was her connection to the Lifestream. She paid me no mind, yet there was a small smile that tugged at her lips, betraying her thoughts. The Lifestream whimpered, angry and lost and afraid, asking a question with a million voices. A question that we had an answer to. 

“Submit.” The command echoed throughout the Lifestream, leaving no part of it untouched. 

The Lifestream didn’t answer with words, but with action. I felt the change the moment it occurred, the gentle nature of the Lifestream becoming something sharper. More dangerous. Predatory. And if that didn’t do it…

Then Jenova’s laughter would have been enough of a hint.