As Cloud finally breaks down we get to see the Shinra honchos arrive at the crater, commenting on the things they see. Rather than being the ruthless people we've experienced thus far, though, they seem genuinely amazed and concerned. Rufus actually worries about the state of the planet, and it almost seems like he's on the verge of becoming an ally. And, to some degree, he does: when Cloud gives Sephiroth the Black Materia, the whole place starts falling apart. The only reason the rest of the party makes it out of the crater alive is because Rufus pushes them all onto his airship. It doesn't take long for Shinra to seem evil again, though.
Tifa wakes up a week later worried about Cloud and unaware that Meteor has been summoned. The massive doomsday device hovers over the planet on the absolute slowest intercept course.
As it turns out, Barret and Tifa are set to be executed for their involvement with AVALANCHE, but mostly to give the populace a scapegoat and calm them down given the impending apocalypse. As it turns out, Scarlet is absolutely evil, and Rufus isn't much better. Ah, well, they seemed almost cool for a moment.
It all seems hopeless until Reeve apparently betrays Shinra (I guess Scarlet and Heidegger don't know that Reeve is Cait Sith, but the Turks do?) by gassing Scarlet and giving Barret a chance to escape, leaving Tifa locked in a gas chamber. They make it to the airship, which has apparently been hijacked by the rest of the party and a mutinous crew that was looking for basically any opportunity to break free from Shinra.
Meanwhile, Tifa escapes thanks to a dropped key and some Houdini moves, though the chamber is still locked. And that's when Weapon shows up.
Weapon is an interesting concept: basically, the planet's self-defense mechanism; a group of kaiju monsters sent to destroy the things that are hurting the planet. To all appearances they seem to be completely wild; summoned due to the threat of Sephiroth and Meteor but, unable to stop either of them, they're attacking human cities instead.
However, I don't think that's it at all. I think the Weapons are doing exactly what AVALANCHE was doing: trying to destroy the things that are sucking the life from the Planet. The Sapphire Weapon is attacking Junon, a major source of Mako production, particularly for the Mako Cannon which, ultimately, kills it. Which, by the way, establishes that Weapons can, in fact, be killed.
The next real Weapon attack is when Diamond Weapon attacks Midgar when the Sister Ray sucks up tons of Mako energy to destroy the barrier around the Northern Crater and, afterward, threatens to shoot Sephiroth full of the energy he's trying so hard to gather.
Ultimate Weapon simply flies around the world, stopping to charge up attacks that are hurting the planet: Midgar, the Norther Crater, Fort Condor, etc. None of the Weapons are attacking indiscriminately.
Even the Emerald and Ruby Weapons, powerful as they are, are doing absolutely nothing that harming anyone. You end up killing them for sport, these protectors of the Planet. Makes you question who the reals monsters are.
Which, by the way, I beat them both for the first time before beating the game. Those fights are pretty much the lamest: they're almost impossible to beat without being incredibly cheap. Still, the reward for beating the Emerald Weapon is pretty cool. Not so much for the Ruby Weapon, though.
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