Chapter 813: This Familiar Sting!

Song Ren quite enjoyed this section of the story in the Train Graveyard.

Even though the extremely grim atmosphere initially made him a little nervous, the 'arms around both' moment with Tifa and Aerith quickly dispelled that eerie fear.

Moreover, as the truth about the ghosts was revealed, Song Ren gained a different perspective. The ghosts that Cloud and his companions encountered were actually very lonely, wanting to play hide-and-seek with people; they were friendly. But they were imprisoned here by an undead entity riding a black carriage.

And on their way from the Train Graveyard towards the slums, Aerith was swept away by this evil undead. Here, Aerith's past was also dramatized in a flashback, emphatically allowing players to understand her history.

“So, Advent Children depicted Tifa and Cloud's experiences, and this scene depicts Aerith's past. Is this playing the stock market? Aerith's shares, or Tifa's shares?” Song Ren muttered to himself, watching this segment of the story, especially when Cloud and Tifa tore through the black whirlwind to reach Aerith at the last moment.

Such an operation is actually not uncommon in anime and games. Haven't games under Nebula Games, like The Witcher: Wild Hunt, had similar designs?

“If I had to choose, well… still Tifa.” Song Ren smacked his lips.

Compared to Aerith, he definitely preferred Tifa's type.

Entering the BOSS battle, it wasn't as difficult as the Hell House in the arena before. By making good use of the Summon Beasts and accumulated energy bars, plus Tifa being in the party for this fight, Song Ren didn't temporarily adjust the difficulty to easy.

Watching these ghosts finally transform into blue starlight and ascend, Song Ren was deep in thought. Combining the game's worldview with his current experience and the content of the Advent Children movie, he had some conjectures.

That is, in the world of Final Fantasy, all living beings originate from the planet's power, and after death, these beings transform into the Lifestream and reintegrate into the planet. Simply put, it forms a Matryoshka-style cycle, and the extraction of Mako is equivalent to choking the life out of the planet.

“Thinking about it this way, it makes much more sense. But what about Sephiroth? Is Sephiroth still a Shinra special forces soldier at this point?” As the story progressed, Song Ren actually had many questions in his mind. However, with the plot advancing, these questions were temporarily pushed to the back of his mind.

Cloud and his companions arrived in the slums from the Train Graveyard, but they were a step too late. When they got there, the Shinra army had already attacked Sector 7, and the entire sector was almost completely destroyed by Shinra.

In this battle, all three members of Avalanche, who had adventured with Cloud, sacrificed themselves. Wedge, who loved calling Cloud 'Big Bro' and raised a group of small cats, fell directly from the tower, his fate unknown.

Biggs covered his companions, holding off the enemy alone on the tower, and by the time Cloud arrived, he could no longer hold on. And Jessie, when Cloud and Tifa arrived, although she repelled the Shinra soldiers with the explosives in her hand, she herself was severely wounded.

‘Ugh, Tifa always makes such strange expressions.’ Looking at the grief-stricken Tifa, the severely wounded Jessie still smiled and comforted her. ‘Cloud is the last person I'll ever speak to in this life… Hmm, that's not bad.’

‘My bombs killed a lot of people; this is probably retribution.’

‘Actually, I always believed… we could all… eat my mom’s cooking together again.’

‘Look, Tifa is crying… But, you should go, shouldn't you? Staring at me like this… I'm so embarrassed.’

As her voice faded, Jessie slowly closed her eyes, and the hand resting on Cloud's shoulder fell limply. Tifa beside her let out a mournful cry.

Watching Jessie leaning there in the game, eyes closed, and Tifa crying sadly beside her, Song Ren was completely stunned. Although he knew Jessie wasn't a main character, Song Ren never expected her to be written out of the story so definitively.

Because in his imagination, Jessie was very likely to end up like Nia in Xenoblade Chronicles, relegated to a 'loser' role. After all, during the mission, she developed feelings for Cloud due to his repeated rescues and their adventures, and with her cheerful personality, she consistently tried to flirt with the staunchly straight Cloud. But in the end, she lost to Tifa, the childhood friend, successfully becoming a 'loser' character beloved by players. But what the heck is this now!?

What's with this familiar sting!? Although the game didn't have this explicit setting, at this moment, Song Ren's mind was flooded with Jessie's past with Biggs and Wedge. And it wasn't over yet, because the next second, the scene switched to Aerith. Aerith, entrusted by Tifa, went to the Seventh Heaven bar and rescued Barret's daughter, the little girl Marlene.

However, Shinra soldiers led by Tseng had surrounded Seventh Heaven. To save Marlene, Aerith chose to leave with the Shinra personnel. Seeing this scene, Song Ren suddenly had a very bad feeling. That is, Final Fantasy wouldn't be a tragedy, would it!?

Having just witnessed the deaths of Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge, now Aerith, to save Marlene, left with Shinra. Although Tseng seemed like a gentleman, Reno and Rude had consistently tried to take Aerith away before. Also, in the Advent Children movie, why did Aerith never appear? Even if the official ending confirmed Tifa and Cloud together, as a companion who had adventured with them, Aerith wouldn't just vanish without even meeting Tifa and Cloud.

“Surely… it wouldn’t be like that!”

Song Ren refused to consider this possibility. While Mr. Chen had a criminal record for such things, he also had good moments, even if rare. So at this moment, he still chose to trust Mr. Chen. After all, he had already delivered Jessie's 'sting,' and it was three stings at once. Didn't Xenoblade Chronicles also 'sting' a Vandham?

This thought lingered in Song Ren's mind, so much so that he didn't pay special attention to the plot of rescuing Barret. In this part of the story, Chen Xu still adopted the original game's presentation, where Reno activated the plate separation device before Cloud arrived. The remake's plot, where the 'Whispers' forced destiny back onto its original path and made Barret the subject of a 'mis-aimed shot legend,' was something Chen Xu reserved for a subsequent second-stage version.

Carefully hiding along the way, they arrived at Aerith's home, and from Aerith's adoptive mother, they learned about the Ancients. Shinra wanted to find the Ancients to locate the Promised Land. This was a place only the Ancients knew, rumored to hold an inexhaustible supply of Mako energy. However, this information didn't hold much interest for Song Ren; at this point, all he wanted to do was quickly go to Shinra and rescue Aerith.

(End of Chapter) <>