Cloud's POV
A glass container caught my eye between the piles of crates and my legs once again took me there seemingly on their own. The tank was filled with glowing mako and inside was a beautiful young woman. Her clothes where like nothing he had ever seen on Gaia, the same as her pale pink hair that flowed in the liquid. Again my head burnt with pain as I saw the image of the woman laying on a stone floor, looking at me with frightened eyes and Hojo standing over her with a metal baton.
"Yo, Spiky!" Barret calls, snapping me out of my stare.
I head back through the maze of crates, taking one final look at the imprisoned woman before I'm met with the crossed arms of Avalanche's dark skinned leader. Ignoring his impatient look and Tifa's crimson eyes, that always seemed to be trying to read my mind, I pull the scissor gate style door open on the goods lift and we ascend to the next level. Before the lift has even stopped I see what I came for. Aeris lay in a large glass container in the center of the room as Hojo peered in on her as if she was nothing but an experiment to him.
"Aeris!" I roar as I sun out of the lift, ready to free her.
"Aeris? Oh, that's her name? What do you want?" The wicked scientist asks without a care in the world.
"We're taking Aeris back." I demand.
"Outsiders..." Hojo mutters.
"Shoulda noticed it earlier, you..." Barret begins to shout.
"There are so many frivolous things in the world." Hojo rambles as Barret gets closer to the him, aiming his prosthetic gun at the man. "Are you going to kill me? I don't think you should. The experiment here is extremely delicate. Without me, who could operate it? Hmm?"
"Ugh.." I sigh, realizing destroying the container could hurt Aeris.
"That's right. I recommend you think things out logically before you make any rash moves. Now, bring in the specimen!" He shouts to a man I hadn't noticed until now.
The man runs to a control room that's hidden behind a blast shield and a faint, mechanical whine grows louder and louder. Everyone's attention turns to the glass container that Aeris is trapped in and our faces become plastered with horror when the amber furred beast from the floor below is brought inside the glass box by a central lift. The young flower girl jumps to her feet and bangs the glass frantically as the beast shows it's impressive canines, calling my name in muffled desperation.
"What do you think you're doin'!" I roar at the scientist who is watching the flower girl with great interest.
"Lending a helping hand to an endangered species... Both of them are on the brink of extinction.. If I don't help, all these animals will disappear.." He answers, genuinely believing his words.
"Animal? That's terrible! Aeris is a human being!" Tifa shouts.
"You gonna pay!" Barret warns.
"Barret, can't you do something?" I plead, desperately wanting Aeris out of her glass prison.
"Awright! Step back!" He replies, taking aim at the glass.
"Stop!" Hojo shouts, but it's too late, Barret unleashes a hail of bullets into the top of the glass, careful not to hit Aeris with any ricochets.
Barret stops as the cylinder fills with blinding light that even has the frighteningly calm scientist worried enough to race to the container door.
"Wh...what are you do- Oh! My precious specimens.." The long haired man panics.
As Hojo presses his face to the glass the door slides open and the light fades, leaving him no time to dodge the amber furred beast, who leaped out of it's confinement and sunk his teeth into Hojo's shoulder, sending them both ten feet across the room.
"Now's our chance to get Aeris!" I shout to no one in particular and race into rescue her.
"Thanks, Cloud." Her soft voice says to me as I pull her to her feet and usher her out of the container.
The floor shakes as I start to make my way out of the container that makes me look down the hole in the center. The lift that brought the wolf like animal up to Aeris was rising once more, this time with something much more unpleasant.
"Cloud... What's wrong?" Tifa asks as she watches me step back slowly away from the rising lift.
"The elevator is moving." I mumble as I work out what to do now.
"This is no ordinary specimen! This is a very ferocious specimen!" Hojo screams as he tries to clamber away from the four legged beast that turns to face us all.
"He's rather strong. I'll help you all out." The best says with a wise and calming voice, taking us all by surprise.
"It talked!?" Tifa squeeks, literally jumping in shock.
"I'll talk as much as you want later, miss." The beast says with a polite demeanor.
"We'll take care of that monster." I say to the animal. "Barret, take care of her..."
Barret does as instructed and flees with Aeris as I turn back to the animal who offered to fight by our side.
"What's your name?"
"Hojo has named me Red xiii... A name with no meaning whatsoever with me. Call me whatever you wish." He replies.
I'm initially curious as to why the beast didn't just tell me his name but now was not the time for debate.
"Red it is.." I say with a nod. "Come on!"
The humanoid creature stomps out of the container with slime oozing from its sewn together body. It's shoulders looked larger than the rest of it's body, the right of which was equipped with a large, shark like jaw. I recoil with the smell of the monster as I draw my buster sword, choosing the intestines that hung from the outside of its body as my first target. Taking charge, I race towards the monster with my sword coiled back, ready to strike when it summons three, orange bugs that form a line in front of it. One of the orange bugs begins to roll on the spot before launching itself at me, slamming into my chest and stopping my advance in an instant.
"Keep them busy!" I shout to Tifa and Red as I throw myself back upright.
No sooner had I spoke, Red sent a wave of fire at two of the bug like creatures and Tifa drop kicked the other, leaving me an opening to restart my attack. The creature swings it's fleshy claw at me but I duck under it just in time and bring my blade slashing up from right to left, cutting the pipe like organs in half. A thick green liquid pours from it's wound as it shrieks before going on the offensive and releasing a plume of purple mist that burns our lungs like acid. With my forearm over my mouth to stop me choking, I charge once more at the creature, this time leaping into the air and bringing the buster sword down on it with all the strength I could muster, cleaving into it's shoulder blade dropping it to the ground. I feel the heat brush past my face as Red sends a burning fireball at it, finishing the monster off, leaving behind only the smell of burnt and rotting flesh.
"Aeris, you alright?" I ask as I see her and Barret run back towards us.
"She seems alright... In many ways..." Tifa answers with a slight bitterness in her voice that clashes with her usual, warm tone.
"I have the right to choose, too. I don't like two legged things." Red answers, also picking up on the brunette's tone.
"What are you?" Barret asks bluntly, asking the question that's undoubtedly in everyone's mind.
"An informed Question. But difficult to answer.. I am what you see.." The amber furred beast replies, becoming more mysterious with each word. "... You must have many questions, but first, let's get out of here. I'll lead the way."
"Cloud... So you did come for me..." Aeris says softly as she gives me a warm smile.
Red apologies to Aeris for scaring her with the utmost insincerity, before Barret's booming voice deafens us all as he demands we leave the building now we have Aeris back; A request I'm more than willing to follow. Quickly realizing just how large our group had became, I decide to split us into two groups to increase our chances of escape; sending Aeris with Barret as danger seems to follow me at every opportunity. Now with my childhood friend at my side and a strange talking beast that I wish to know more about, we set off to the 66th floor to meet up with the others.
I lead the others back to the service elevator and we head down to the floor Jenova is being held on. As the lift door slides open and I take my first step onto the 67th floor but am soon past by Tifa and Red who are eager to get out of the building; the beast especially. I wonder just how long he's been inside that container. Once again, I'm caught lagging behind as my head glances over in the direction of the woman in the mako container that is barely visible over the stacks of crates. A piercing pain drops me to my knees and I close my eyes to wait for the pain to subside. Again, a vision forms in my head, the same as before. Hojo stands over the seemingly defenseless woman but she quickly reaches her hand behind her back and pulls out a strange weapon, only for it to be batted away by the scientist's baton. A stray shot fires from her weapon but the bullet hits neither of them. I'm forced to watch the pink haired woman be electrocuted until she passes out as I just stand watching... Why am I watching?...
"Are you okay?.." I hear Red say with a compassion I did not expect from such an animal as my eyes prise themselves open.
"Fine." I lie with a faint smile.
"We really must keep moving.." He says softly.
I nod as my mind still tries to process the fact the animal can talk; a welcome distraction to what my mind has just shown me. We run past Jenova's tank and down the long corridor that curves around to the left until we come to the door to the stairs, taking them to the floor below. Sneaking through the floor that held the meeting we had eavesdropped on, my eyes found the lift that with the push of a button would take us to the first floor, only one flight of stairs away from freedom. Tifa presses the button for the lift and after a tense fifteen seconds it arrives with a 'ding' opening the doors to the glass lift. The three of us walk into the lift that ran on the outside of the building, all looking out of the glass at Midgar in all it's glory. Everyone in this lift hated Shinra for one reason or another but no one could deny that the city was an impressive feat of engineering.
"Up please." A deep voice commands from behind us, instantly turning us all around.
"Turks... Must be a trap..." I mutter as I watch a bald man with sunglasses step into the lift followed by a man with long black hair, both unquestionably members of the turks by their finely tailored, matching suits.
"This must've been a real thrill for you... Did you enjoy it?" The dark haired man asked me with a smug tone.
After letting out a defeated grunt, the bald turk swipes his key card on the lift's control panel and selects the top floor, probably eager to show the president their catch. The lift climbs as Tifa glances at me, suggesting we fight but I shake my head discreetly. There was no way I could swing my sword in this tiny glass tube, and if I could it might end with us taking a tumble off the side of the building. The elevator stops and we are bound before being led outside to find Barret, much to my disappointment. He shakes his head in defeat, confirming my worst fears that our mission was all for nothing. Aeris was back in the hands of Shinra. With the bald Turk leading the way and his boss at the rear, we're lead past a reception desk towards two opposing staircases that both curve around and up, surely leading to president Shinra himself. We're led up the right, staircase that was covered in a royal purple velvet material until we arrived in a cold and modern room with a dual tone, gray and charcoal, marble floor that reflected the light from the mass of pillars the lined the outside of the room. On the far side of the room stood a large, metallic work station with a thin glass screen on the top that magnified the already enormous President Shinra's head.
"Where's Aeris!?" I roar at the ruler of Midgar as I'm lined up in front of his desk.
"In a safe place." He answers me before standing up and taking a long drag from his cigar as he walked around the desk. "She's the last surviving ancient... Didn't you know? The called themselves the Cetra and lived thousands of years ago. Now there just a forgotten page in history.
"Cetra... That girl is a survivor of the Cetra?" I hear Red's voice on my right.
"Cetra, or the ancients, will show us the way to the 'Promised land' I'm expecting a lot out of her.." The president says as he passes his unnecessarily large desk.
"The promised land? Isn't that just a legend?" Red asks, making me even more curious about what the animal knows about all of this.
"Even so, it's far too appealing to not pursue.." The red suited president says as he walks past me, breathing out his vile cigar smoke in his face as he passes. "It's been said the promised land is very fertile.. If the land is fertile..."
"Then there's gotta be mako!" Our leader shouts in anger to my left, pulling the president's attention off the beast and onto him.
"Exactly.. This is why our money making mako reactor is necessary. The abundant mako will flow out on it's own.." He smiles at Barret smugly. "That is where Neo-Midgar will be built.. Shinra's new glory..."
"Bastard! Quit dreamin'!" Barret spits deafening me with his bellowing voice.
"Oh really, don't you know? These days all it takes for your dreams to come true is money and power." The obnoxious president says smugly. "Well, that is all for our meeting.." He finishes, signaling to the bald turk to remove us from his presence.
"Come on! Outta his way!" The turk shouts as he motions to us to turn and leave.
I comply, seeing no reason to resist with the handcuffs on and am followed by Tifa and Red but not Barret, who's stubbornness gets the better of him and he hurls more abuse at president Shinra who I hear laughing as our self proclaimed leader is dragged away with the rest of us. We're escorted to the floor that Jenova's headless body was being stored and my eyes where once again drawn to the far corner of the room but I see nothing from this angle. My curiosity doesn't go unnoticed and I receive a brain shaking crack from the stock of a Shinra officer's rifle.
"Get moving!" He shouts as I stumble forward and follow a corridor to the right, leading to a row of cells on each side.
With a gun trained on my head, The turk removes my handcuffs and throws me into a cell, followed closely by Tifa before shutting the door. The nine foot by nine foot room was clearly meant to hold one person as it only had one, wafer thin, fold away bed on one wall and a toilet in the other. Perhaps they threw two people in the cells hoping they would fight over the bed and save them the effort of executing them themselves; a sinister thought I push out of my pounding head. Tifa looks at me with hopeless eyes; the light from the crimson orbs dulled with her capture unintentionally fills me with grief.
"You take the bed." I smile at her, in the hope that it boosts her spirit.
"You should take it. You got a nasty bump to the head." My brunette friend replies.
"Ex Soldier remember. It'll take more than that to bother me." I grin, only to be met with a sad look before she realizes I'm reading her face and she forces an uneasy smile as she takes the bed.
What feels like hours passes when I hear a voice I was not expecting, coming from the room besides me.
"Cloud, are you there?" I hear Aeris, much to my relief.
"Aeris! You're safe?!" I shout back, glad that she was close at least.
"Yeah, I'm alright. I knew that Cloud would come for me." Aeris says with a warmness in her tone that never seems to fade.
"Hey, I'm your bodyguard, right?" I joke, remembering our introduction that involved me smashing through a church roof.
"The deal was for one date, right?" She teases playfully.
"Oh, I get it.." Tifa's voice sounds from behind me with a distinct bitterness.
"Tifa! You're there too!?" Aeris shouts in surprise.
"Excuse me!" Tifa huffs, climbing out of the bed. "You know, Aeris. I have a question."
"What?" I hear her voice asks sheepishly.
"Does the promised land really exist?
Aeris goes on to tell us about the Cetra and their role in life and how they speak to the planet and eventually travel to the promised land, a place that promises supreme happiness. The hope in her voice never wavers as she tells us that one day she will escape Midgar and talk to the planet, despite her current situation. After her story that left me with more questions than answers, I sit with my back against the cold wall and fall asleep.
I'm woken from my uncomfortable sleep when a cold breeze bites away at my skin, carrying with it the stench of stale blood. My eyes widen and instantly fix themselves on Tifa who is laying motionless on the bed. Quickly jumping to my feet, I stand at the edge of the bed, looking down on her to make sure she's okay before a blue light catches my attention in the corner of my eye. The doors open... Walking cautiously to the door, I peer down the corridor to find the guard that gave me a crack with his rifle stock laying face down on the ground in his own pool of blood. Racing back to the cell, I wake Tifa and show her the downed guard, spotting a set of keys on the dead man's belt as we examine the savage level of damage inflicted on his body.
"Come on, Tifa, get Aeris. I'll go help Barret and Red." I say, handing the brunette a key before opening the cell on the other side to our own.
"How'd you get in? Why's the door open?!" Barret shouts as I burst through the door, neither of them waiting around for me to answer.
"No human could have done this.." Red says as he looks at the massive wounds on the guard. "I'll go on ahead.."
"I'll clean up back here, so you guys go ahead. And don't get caught by Shinra!" Barret warns as he begins to drag the body into one of the empty cells.
Tifa and Aeris step out of the cell and follow me down the corridor after Red who is following the disturbing tail of blood that's metallic smell filled the room. We pass the security room and reclaim our weapons and think about what had killed the guard so violently. Every possible scenario I had ran through my head when I saw the guard didn't even come close to what my mako eyes fell upon in the lower laboratory. The metal, dome like tank that housed the headless body of Jenova was cut open like a tin can, leaving nothing behind but a small puddle of the fluid it once sat in.
"Jenova specimen... Looks like it went to the upper floor using the specimen elevator." Red muttered my worst fear.
The service elevator takes us to the floor we met Hojo and it looks looks like a scene from a horror movie, I feel my boots stick to the bloodstained floor as the three of us walk up to Red, who's stood over another mutilated body.
"Looks like it leads up.." The ochre eyed beast says softly as we approach.
Passing Red as he waits for Barret, we follow the blood trail up the stairs to the 69th floor. Tifa and Aeris gasp at the huge, claw like marks in the metallic walls as the blood leads us to the purple carpeted stairs. Knowing whatever did this had nowhere else to go, my hand wraps around the handle of the buster sword and creep up the stairs. After a quick scan of the floor, our eyes are drawn to something any of us ever expected to see. President Shinra, dead at his desk.
"He's dead... The president of Shinra is dead..." Barret says behind me, almost disappointed that he didn't get to do it himself.
"Then this sword must be..." I hear Tifa mumble as she processes the scene.
"Sephiroth's!" I shout much louder than I intended, half out of anger and half from surprise.
"Sephiroth is alive?" My oldest friend asks, trying to pretend the evidence in front of her doesn't exist.
"Looks like it.." I nod to her. "Only Sephiroth can use that sword.." Pain hits me, this time in the chest as I look at the blood thirsty blade, making me wince until I look away and notice movement behind the nearest post but not before Aeris.
"Uh!" She squeeks, sending the fat man running away but Barret and I grab him by the arms as he instantly pleads for his life.
"P, p, p, p please don't kill me!" He stutters as I watch Barret take great pleasure in bringing his head so close to the man that he shudders.
"What happened?" I ask the man who's sick coloured suit is tearing as he struggles to get free from our grip.
"Se.. Sephiroth.. Sephiroth came.." He stuttered, sending a shiver down my spine as he said his name.
"Did you see him? Did you see Sephiroth?"
"Yeah, I saw him with my own eyes." The fat head of the space program nodded.
"You really saw him?" I ask again, reading his eyes for the truth.
"Uh! Would I lie at a time like this!? I heard his voice, too! Um.. He said something about not letting us have the promised land."
"Then does that mean the promised land really does exist and that Sephiroth's here to save it from Shinra?" Tifa asks, still stood near the Obnoxiously large desk.
"So he's the good guy then?" Barret asks.
"Save the promised land? A good guy? No way!" I shout angrily, taking everyone in the room by surprise. "It's not that simple! I know him! Sephiroth's mission is different!"
I can feel my blood boiling at the thought of the man I once called a friend, a man that took so much from me, who I believed until now was dead. Taking a deep breath I calm myself down but relax my hands, allowing the fat Shinra executive to wriggle free from my grasp and flee through a door on the left side of the room that lead to the roof. As we watch the man run outside, the high pitched whine of a helicopter roars as it descends from the sky to collect him.
"Rufus! Fuck! I forgot about him!" Barret curses.
"Who's that?" Tifa asks the question that's on everyone else' mind.
"Vice president Rufus... The president's son.."
Sprinting through the door with everyone else in toe, I miss Rufus' conversation with the badly dressed executive, who climbs in the chopper at the sight of us. The vice president runs his fingers though his strawberry blonde hair, arrogantly paying little attention to our advance.
"Just who are you?" He asks us.
We tell the man who we are, one b one but he merely shrugs in disinterest before pacing around us.
"Well I'm Rufus. The president of Shinra, inc." Rufus says with a wicked smile, as if he had waited his whole life to utter the words.
After the new president has finished droning on about his plans for Shinra I get the sense we need to get out of here before we're surrounded yet again by guards. That's if there's any left after Sephiroth had made his blood thirsty way through the building.
"Get Aeris outta the building." I turn to Barret and command, only to receive a baffled look.
"I'll explain later! Barret, this is a real crisis for the planet!" I plead, hoping the eco warrior will respond.
I hand him most of my materia and order him to get Aeris out of there to which they all comply, leaving me to deal with the younger, more aggressive Shinra president.
Aeris' POV
I didn't want to leave Cloud on the rooftop with that man but I did as he instructed and ran after the trio in front of me, cursing myself for my fitness as I struggle to keep up. We all run down the staircase, past the abandoned reception desk when my concern for my heroic bodyguard takes over my legs and brings me to a stop.
"Cloud... I just thought of something." I say, stopping everyone in their tracks.
"I'll wait for Cloud! Everyone, get to the elevator!" Tifa commands, understanding my concern instantly.
I nod reluctantly, leaving her behind as the rest of us search for the lift on this floor, not wanting to attract any more attention to us than absolutely necessary. Eventually we find it tucked away past some waiting rooms and I press the button repeatedly and anxiously wait for the doors to open. The lift doors open and the three of us enter it, pressing the button for the first floor in excitement that I would finally be free of Shinra's grasp.
"Look out!" Barret shouts, pushing me to the ground as the glass walls of the lift shatter around us.
With no idea what just happened I shakily stand as my rescuers gun arm bursts into life, inches from my head, dazing me even more. Eventually I get my bearings and see a strange, tank like machine in the other lift, shooting across at us with surgical precision. Red sends a wave of fire at the machine, heating it's body until it glows red and igniting some of the bullets that it stores inside, turning them into tiny bombs that damage it further as Barret throws a glowing green orb my way which I just about catch.
"You know how to use materia right?!" He asks me to which I nod.
I grab the materia and push it into the tip of my staff and call upon it's power, feeling the static in the air before a bolt of lightning arcs from the materia over to the tank, causing it to go haywire, destroying itself with a series of small explosions.
"Yay! We did it!" I cheer prematurely as another machine flies in with three rotor blades like a helicopter and two big cannons.
"Great..." Red sighs as I watch him lick a graze from a stray bullet.
"Come get it!" Barret roars as he unleashes a huge blast from his arm gun, starting the second fight.
Cloud's POV
"Why do you want to fight me?" Rufus asks me, shrugging.
"You want the promised land and Sephiroth." I point to him.
"That's right." He says walking towards me. "Do you know Sephiroth is an ancient?"
"Whatever. I can't let either you or Sephiroth have the promised land!" I shout, taking in his words. Was he really an ancient?
"I see. I guess we wont be allies..." Rufus says absentmindedly to try and catch me off guard before pulling out a shotgun from under his long white coat and firing.
I dodge the mass of pellets that smashes into the polished stone wall, turning it to dust that is quickly blown away by the wind. With the click of his fingers calls a genetically modified guard dog that leaps to his side from the helicopter. Sending shards of ice firing his way, I counter attack the new president, only to be bitten by the blue skinned hound. Pulling the buster sword's edge across the underbelly of the guard dog, I cut it in half and prize it's still clamped jaw off my arm as another hail of bullets is sent my way. He laughs with a smug confidence but it's soon silenced when I thrust my blade at him, cutting into his side and causing him to recoil in pain.
"Heh... That's all for today.." He coughs and begins to run away, firing blindly behind him so I can't follow before finally jumping up and catching the landing gear of the helicopter that ascends out of my reach.
Annoyed with myself that I couldn't finish him I run back inside, passing his dead father and sprint down the stairs, taking four steps at a time. Heading for the door I see Tifa waiting for me like I half expected she would.
"Where's Rufus?" She asks, actually asking if I'd killed him or not.
"I couldn't finish 'em. This is gonna get complicated.." I sigh. "Lets go."
The pair of us pass the stairs and head to the lift. When it finally arrives I let Tifa walk inside and she looks at me puzzled when I don't follow.
"What's wrong?" She asks with concern.
"Nothing, I'm gonna get us all outta here but you need to trust me. There will be an army heading to this building when news of the president's death spreads. I need you to get everyone away from the front entrance and to the back of the ground floor." I reply, forming a plan in my head.
Tifa opens her mouth to speak but closes it again, knowing every second we waste increases the chance of us being caught. Instead she simply nods and presses the button to go to the first floor, closing the door and blocking her from my view. Back on my own once more I retrace my steps back to the stairs and leap down them one flight at a time until I hit the 67th and pause. The image of the woman trapped in the tank flashes through my mind as I weigh up what I'm about to do next.
Damn it.. I sigh to myself as my conscious gets the better of me and I dash into the room Jenova had been removed from, heading straight for the tank hidden away at the back of the room. There she was, suspended in mako with one hand pressed against the glass as her strange, pale pink hair rippled in the fluid. She was no different to Aeris.. A woman held hostage by Hojo and experimented on against her will. Knowing she was almost certainly brain damaged from the mako I clench my fist and break the glass anyway with a single punch, pouring the burning liquid onto me as I catch her limp body.
Her faint breath on my shoulder is a welcome sign as I rush down the stairs to the next floor and take the lift to the first floor where a black bike is sat on a display in the center of the room. Smiling at my idea, I sit the young woman on the bike first before climbing on myself and wrapping her arms around me tightly. With the clutch pulled in the bike fires up without question and I ride it down the stairs to the ground floor where the rest of the group turn to look at the noise.
"Who's that?" Tifa and Aeris ask in unison as they see the locks of dripping pink hair behind me.
"I'll explain later! Get in the truck!" I shout as I hear gunfire coming from the main entrance.
They both look annoyed at my passenger but do as their told and climb in the mint green truck with Tifa being the driver. I watch Barret climb in the back just as Tifa set's off making the amber furred beast have to do a running jump to get in the back. Once everyone is in the truck, I head back up the opposite set of stairs and stop at the top as the sensible part of my mind asks me if what I'm about to do is a good idea. Not convinced it is, my left hand grips my pink haired passenger's arm and my right rips the throttle back, propelling me towards the window at great speed, smashing through it with ease.
I brace for impact as the bike falls from the sky, landing on one of the many highways that run from the city with a bone shaking crunch. The suspension took a lot of the shock out of the fall, thankfully, and I turn to find that Tifa was indeed as mad as I was when I see the truck right behind me with Barret swearing his head off in the bed of the pickup. I slow to let Tifa pull in front as they all throw daggers at the woman I'm holding onto as I ride but their uneasy glances soon turn from me to a rumble behind.
"Great.." I mumble to myself, seeing a fleet of motorcycles racing up behind us, knowing it was all going to smoothly. Barret opens fire, spraying Red with the ejected cartridges and nearly shooting me in the chest. "Just go! I'll sort it!" I roar over the engines.
The bikes catch up to us quickly and begin to fire at us as others tried to get close enough to hit us with their swords. A bullet bounces off my metallic shoulder pauldron and I flinch as the projectile buzzes past my ear. Enough is enough.. Waving Tifa off, I pull my sword off my back with my other hand still clinging to the stranger and use my hips to throw the bike where I want it.
I stamp on the rear brake as a Shinra troop on my right swerves, missing me completely and smashing into the wall with so much force the bike explodes like a bomb and sprays jagged shards of metal in every direction. The shrapnel takes out another armed biker but two still remain in hot pursuit The pair of Shinra soldiers take a side each and wedge me between their bikes as I try to bat away both of their broadswords with my own. I manage to block several swings but the tip of the soldier on my right's blade cuts into the hand that is clinging to the woman and I release my grip in pain. Remembering my Ice materia I freeze the front end of the left hand bike, locking its front wheel up and somersaulting it into the ground on top of its rider. Now with room to move I swerve left and then right as I drag my sword across the soldier's body, cutting him across the ribcage and causing him to crash off the highway.
After returning the buster sword to my back I pull the still limp stranger back up onto the bike properly and hold onto her cold hand. I sigh with relief, only to look up and find the truck stopped at the end of the unfinished highway and I squeeze the brakes tightly and come to a screeching stop, feet from the perilous edge.
"Well, what do we do now?" Barret asks as I switch off the engine, not expecting that to be his first question.
"Sephiroth is alive... I have to settle the score.." I answer him with vengeance on my mind.
"Will that save the planet?" He asks.
"It seems so.." I say as I climb off the bike and scoop the woman that was still dripping in mako.
"Then I'm going!"
"I'll go, too. There's still things I need to know." I hear Aeris' warm voice chirp up from behind me. "Aren't you gonna introduce us to your friend?" She adds, playfully leaning over and looking at me out of the corner of her eye as she tries to hide a smile.
"Honestly... I have no idea who she is.. I just kept feeling... Strange.. It doesn't matter.. Just like you and Red, she was trapped in there. Nobody deserves that.." I answer, not really wanting to explain something I didn't understand myself.
"She's covered in mako. She's probably past saving.. And if you carry her for much longer it will burn your skin." Tifa says as she nears me. While she's right I sense a bitterness behind her logic.
"Weather she lives or dies, he made the effort to save her.. It's more than what most would have done.." Red says, making this discussion feel more like a conversation than a scalding.
"Right then. Spiky can do what he wants but I ain't carryin' her. We can use this crane to get outta Midgar. Let's jus' save the chattin' for later." Barret says as he wraps himself around the thick steel cable and repels down. I watch everyone else slide down with ease and throw the pinkette over my shoulder and do the same, finding it just as difficult as I had imagined it would be.
"We told Aeris' mom to go somewhere safe, so Marlene should be safe too." Barret says as if asking a question.
"Yeah, she should be." I smile, filling the man with much needed hope that he would one day be reunited with her. "Let's go."
"We need a leader for this journey. 'Course that could only be me" The Avalanche leader says as he flexes his impressive muscles, only to be shot down by Aeris and Tifa, who nominate me, much to my surprise. "...Alright. Then lets head north east to Kalm."
I nod in agreement and we all set off north east into the wastelands that surround Midgar on what is turning out to be far more than the simple mission I signed up for. My arms and chest burn as the mako eats away at my skin but the thought of leaving her never crosses my mind once. I look down on the porcelain skinned woman and hope she recovers.
A/N: Woooo reviews =D Hey everyone, quite a long chapter here. I'm glad you like the first person. I like writing it because im literally just writing whats in my head but when I read it it didn't sound right to me but if you say it's ok then I'll continue on like this. I've added the POV's in this chapter although it wont really be needed to much until maybe the end of the next chapter. Also added the CloudxLight tags as recommended. Anyway... Couple of things... You man have noticed the 'boss' after the bike wasn't in my story. Only because that part of the game always annoyed me, all it needed to do was keep moving and it would either have flattened the party or drove them off the edge. So sorry for deviating but it had to go lol. I'll try and keep the speech close to actual game dialog but when light bothers her ass to wake up it will obviously need to be changed to incorporate her. Big question that's I need an answer for. My most hated past of the game is coming up.. The Kalm flashback.. It's great if you've played the game once or twice but after 100+ playthroughs its a chore. Do you want it in the story word for word or a "Then I told them about my connection with sephiroth" kinda thing? Let me know what you think, and as always, thanks for reading.