It's another Norco Fanction!! That is, a fiction by Norco.
I own nothing, except for my computer, the clothes on my person, and my sanity. 
Sometimes not even that...
norco@fantasysquare.com

End of Battle; Start of War -- Chapter 3

  "Y'know, I could've sworn that we'd killed that, that, thing!" Cait Sith 
moaned from his corner of the Highwind's bridge. "I was there!"
  "Unfortunately," Barret snorted quietly. Cloud threw him a glare. So did Cait 
Sith. Barret ignored them both. Vincent and Barret had met up with the Highwind, 
and had informed Cloud of what had transpired at the Saucer. 
  "Well, at least there's one less Weapon to deal with, right?" Yuffie asked 
shakily, fighting hard against the air sickness. She'd made a vailiant effort to 
get herself from her usual spot in the bowels of the Highwind to the bridge for 
this conference. She'd only been up here a couple of times, Cloud noted, staring 
at the Materia-Thief-Slash-Ninja. He was just thinking of how'd they'd met the 
ninja, when he heard Tifa speaking
  "-and the Origin of both the Cetra and Jenova are a little fuzzy, and - Cloud! 
Are you listening??" Tifa broke off in midsentence to glare hard at him.
  "Huh? Oops, sorry, Tifa. I was just thinking-"
  "Wondered what the noise was," Barret whispered. Cloud ignored him. 
  "-that since we never found out where Jenova and the Cetra came from, I think 
that it's possible that they may be from Outer Space." he concluded. There was a 
round of sharp hisses, the sounds of people inhaling sharply. 
  "Outer Space, huh?" Cid mused, stroking his chin and trying to look 
intellectual. He failed miserably, because the other people on the bridge, as 
well as Cid's own "lackeys" stopped what they were doing to stare at him. He 
immediately stopped, sending looks of innocence around the brdige. Cloud 
suppressed a smile.
  "So. Any ideas as to what we do now?" Vincent asked quietly, "I mean, how are 
we going to get up there and stop that thing. We don't have the Shinra 26 
anymore, y'know." 
  "Shinra is gone. Maybe we could rig that Cannon, and become circus folk!" Cait 
Sith said, a smile forming on both sets of lips. It took Cloud and the others a 
few minutes to get the gist of what he was saying. 
  "You don't mean...use the cannon to shoot us at that thing?" Barret asked 
increduosly? "How would we survive. I mean, but in case anyone hasn't noticed, 
there ain't no air in outside space."
  "Outer Space," Yuffie corrected smoothly. "I think that even a dunderhead like 
you would be able to spell it." As Cloud watched this exchange, Barret's face 
turned a dark pink, which was a fascinating thing to watch. 
  "Dunderhead? Oooh, grrrrrrr," Barret growled. Cloud stopped him from using his 
prosthetic on Yuffie with an upraised hand. 
  "So, if we could return to the original subject, please," Tifa said dryly, "We 
still need to figure out how we're going to get up there." She said, eyeing 
everyone in turn.
  "If memory serves, The Junon cannon was also used as a means of cargo 
transportation. When I first joined the Turks, we often had to load cargo into 
special continers to be shot across the the next continent, or even further." 
Vincent said quietly, his voice wistful.
  "Then how come they don't do it now?" Barret asked angrily.
  "Well, there were a few accidents, becuase the gear required to safely stop 
the bullet-container is quite difficult to maintain. Your hand wouldn't be in 
too good a shape if it had had bullets punched through it, would it?" Barret 
nodded, grudgingly conceding the point. "The idea was abandonded. But we could 
probably hijack the cannon, and point it at that thing."
  "The first thing we'll need to do is to find the location of that thing. And 
for that, we need to use BugenHagen's satellite equipment at Cosmo Canyon." Red 
XIII said, coming up next to Cloud. Cloud thought about it. It seemed like a 
good idea.
  "I guess we're going to Cosmo Canyon then, huh?" Cid asked quietly, most 
probably trying to make people forget about his stupidity a few minutes ago. 
Cloud nodded at him, and he set to work directing the Highwinds crew to setting 
a course for Cosmo Canyon.

  It was a short enough trip from the secluded bluffs and mountains of Wutai, 
where the Highwind was while they held their meeting, to Cosmo Canyon. Just as 
the Highwind pulled into the Canyon, he saw the giant crater that had been left 
by the Ultimate Weapon. It was late afternoon as the Highwind descended, and 
Cloud studied the local landscape. A small, almost insignificant metallic 
glitter caught his eye. As a member of SOLDIER, Zack had been taught that 
anything, no matter how small or far away, could be useful. Zack had repeated 
that to Cloud, over and over again, like a mantra, so that it had become almost 
second nature to him. Something was odd about it. Not the fact that there was 
something glinting, but something else, something more ethereal about it...
  "Tifa, come take a look at this," he called, motioning for her to come to the 
window. He studied the object, saw that it wasn't moving and he was just 
thinking what it could possibly be, when Tifa cam up beside him. 
  "Yes, Cloud?" She asked, the afternoon sun gently accenting her features. 
  "What do you think that is?" he asked her, gesturing to the metallic glint. 
She shook her head, most probably not seeing the importance of such a small 
object that was clearly inert. "Cid," Cloud called to the pilot at the helm. "I 
wanna take a look at that. You guys go on ahead." Cid gave him a look that quite 
obviously was a question of sanity. Not the first of such looks from Cid to 
Cloud. 

  The motley crew of the Highwind stepped out onto the ramp, and then started 
the fifty metre trek towards the Observatory. Red XIII bounded ahead of all of 
them, especially Cloud, since he wasn't even there with the rest of them. He was 
off inspecting the metallic lump. As he got closer, he noticed it was a purplish 
colour. Kneeling down, he started to dig out whatever it was he had discovered. 
There was something about this that seemed kinda out of the ordinary. He'd now 
uncovered a handle or some sort, with several protusions sticking out of 
something further down. A sword, perhaps? Feeling somewhat like young Authur 
pulling excalibur out of the stone, he stood up, and heaved hard on the handle. 
With a smoothness that surprised him, the sword, which was what it was, slipped 
out of the ground. He stared hard at it. Slightly longer than his Buster Sword, 
this one was made almost entirely out of glass, with an eerie blue flame 
writhing like a caged animal inside it. Cloud doubted that a sword made entirely 
out of glass would stand up to a proper sword. Switching the newfound weapon to 
his left hand, he pulled the Buster Sword free from its shoulder harness. 
Propping it up against the nearby canyon wall, he made sure it was firmly 
embedded in the wall before stepping back and slashing at his old sword with the 
new one. The new blade didn't even touch. Just before it hit, a bluish flame 
surrounded the blade, slicing through the Buster Sword, with barely a tug to 
mark its passing through. Cloud stared a the black, somewhat familiar piece of 
metal that composed the hilt, and then, with a jolt, he realised how this weapon 
came to be. A piece of the Ultimate Weapon, bright hot from the explosion, could 
quite have possibly merged with sand and the Weapon's own dark energies to 
form...this. At that moment, Cait Sith bounded up towards him, indicating the 
others boarding the ramp. 
  "Hi Cloud!" The creature riding the Mog said, scratching its ear. "Tifa said 
you were here. We've got the co-ordinates for that thing in orbit. He surveyed 
the scene in front of him; the new blade in Cloud's hands, and the broken, 
battered Buster Sword nearby. "What's this?" he asked, pointing to the sword. 
  "The Ultima Weapon," Cloud said quietly. Cait Sith just stared, becuase he had 
no idea what was going on.   "Come on, we gotta get to Midgar" Cait Sith said, 
bounding towards the Highwind. Shaking off his musings, Cloud followed, leaving 
the Buster Sword, formerly the most deadly sword in the world, broken in the 
shadow of the Canyon. 

END OF CHAPTER 3