Beyond Paradise II
Disclaimer: I do not own Yuffie, Vincent, or anything/anybody else in this fiction, they belong to Square Enix. I also don't own previously established fictitious characters such as Moira, Zeb, or Jethro. They were created by the original fan fic's author, tolerant. This is not an "official" sequel by the original author, more like a tribute by me since the original has been discontinued, unfortunately. I am not affiliated with tolerant in any way, shape, or form (other than being a fan, of course).
[05/05/2013 Quick Note: And so begins the long road ahead of grammatically patching up, and retconning, Beyond Paradise 2 as well as I can. Unfortunately, over the years, I've seemed to have had misplaced all of my little crib notes which detailed the synopses of each individual chapter. This means that the blueprint for my original direction with BP2 is now gone, but I've still got the basics swimmin' round in the ol' noggin. Maybe this means I can continue on with a fresher perspective. Anyways, I sincerely hope to write and then post the last few chapters by midsummer's end, but I've promised things before that have sort of tapered off, so we should probably just take things in as they come.]
Author's Note: Aww yeah, it's Friday. With no school, I slept in and then reread Beyond Paradise before starting on this for inspiration and pretty much to completely understand the story and bad guys as much as I could. Okay, here goes nothing. Seriously. Seriously, because I didn't pick up a damned thing.
I am writing these poems
From inside a lion,
And it's rather dark in here.
So please excuse the handwriting
Which may not be too clear.
But this afternoon by the lion's cage
I'm afraid I got too near.
And I'm writing these lines
From inside a lion,
And it's rather dark in here.
It's Dark in Here
-Shel Silverstein
- Chapter 12: The Long Road Ahead
The crumpled timber corpse was squashed underfoot with a repulsive crunch. Chaos lurched its ominous form beneath a pair of leathery wings which creeped to their full span. Two embers flared at the vision of Vincent above a fanged grin that snapped with malevolent intent.
What had just transpired was all of his demons' doing. From too much experience, Vincent recognized it as a means for them to communicate enigmatic messages to their host. The last time this took place, Chaos was thrashing, throwing images of Yuffie and the jester girl in his mind. That had been relatively simple to decipher, but this newest one could entail a number of things. It was frustrating, but there was little he could do about it. They held more power over him in this realm, regardless of the fact that this was his own mind. The smartest thing to do was to figure out what they were getting at. Though, that was rarely easy, if that word were even applicable in such a context.
—
A cluster crouched down on the knoll, silhouetted against the moon behind them. They studied the pair seated together before the dead fire. The unmoving postures of Yuffie and Vincent were taken as a sign that they were asleep. The creatures scurried forth with all caution and darted from cover to cover. Every so often, they'd freeze at Yuffie's spasms, then lay patiently for the next moment to advance through the grass. Minutes went by, and the campsite's perimeter was finally breached. Two shadows approached in silence, their paws simply toeing the dirt with each stride. Then, as if by chance, Yuffie twitched so sharply underneath Vincent's arm that she slid off.
Yuffie grunted once her drool-covered cheek fattened itself against the ground. Whining softly, she rubbed the pain away. At this, claws were unsheathed, and the animals charged. Yuffie heard the footsteps coming some distance from behind the tent, and her heart began pounding. They were too numerous to be any of her two-legged friends. She blinked hard and tore at her tired eyes with her forearm to see nothing but blank. She was curled within Vincent's cloak. She shoved the tattered ends out of her face to find something growing in size with terrifying speed.
"What the —? Whoa!"
She was about to be tackled by some sort of sable-scaled cat. Her reflexes took over and she sprang up to her knees. She then dove to her side just as the smoking carcass of her attacker crashed over what used to be the campfire. The next beast was just as unlucky. It leaped onto Yuffie — fangs inches away from connecting — only to be catapulted by the strength of her legs and the physics of rolling. Afterwards, the echoes of Vincent's shots crackled across the plains.
Cloud, Tifa, and then Jethro spilled out of the tent, thanks to the latter due to his hurried shove. Tifa was the first on her feet, which took her straight to Yuffie. She anxiously checked the teenager for injuries and thanked the gods quietly when none such were found.
"You guys okay?" Cloud asked. He stood as if no comical stumble had occurred.
"What the hell do you think?" Yuffie screeched. "Do you have any idea how close I came to winding up as the main course on some fuzzy, little monster's luxuriously delectable, five-star restaurant's signature dish?" Nobody said a word. "This close!" She threw up her thumb and index finger. "Look at how close my fingers are, but they're not touching. Do you see it? Look at them!"
Cloud gently brushed the hand pressed against his nose away. "I see it, Yuffie," he said. "We're just glad you two are okay."
Jethro suddenly snickered.
"And just what is so funny?" Yuffie demanded.
"Nothing," he said, shrugging. "I mean, isn't five-star signature dish blowing it up a little bit? I believe you would've been more of a kid's meal from the value menu."
If nobody could hear the crickets chirping in the night yet, they certainly could by then.
"You know, that joke just sounds extremely weird coming from you, after you consider the extremely weird way you've been treating Yuffie." Tifa stuck her fists on her hips and leaned in close to his face. "And by extremely weird, I mean extremely wrong."
Jethro smiled nervously at her, leaned back, and waved his palms side to side. "Sorry," he said. Although slenderly built and, to say the least, interestingly measured, an irate and protective Tifa Lockhart would be one of the the last persons he'd dare to provoke.
"Damn right, you're sorry! And look at big, bad Vincent. You sense these kinds of things faster than all of us combined! Weren't you supposed to jump in, like, five hundred miles before they even got to me?"
"Aw, lighten up, Yuffs," Cloud said. "He's only human, after all."
"Oh, please!" She marched up to Vincent with exaggerated stomps and poked him square in the chest. "You didn't even hear them coming! If I hadn't dashed in to the rescue, you'd be eating dust right now. You should be thanking me, you know. I just saved your oblivious, crimson butt!"
Tifa raised a finger. "Well, to be fair, Yuffie, Vincent has had, pretty much, zero sleep for about three days straight."
"And because of who, I wonder?" asked Cloud.
Yuffie grumbled, feeling defeated. Still wanting to get the last word in, however, she added, "And weren't you supposed to be watching over me, Vinnie? What ever happened to your promise? Some great protector you turned out to be!" She locked her arms across her chest, shut her eyes, and pointed her face off to the side, refusing to look at him.
There was a silence after that. It was quiet enough to hear a breeze wafting by.
"I'm sorry, Yuffie."
The little ninja slowly opened her chestnut hues, and slowly dropped her arms, all while slowly turning her head back forward to face him. Her mouth drooped when she saw the sincerity in his eyes. It didn't help her that, because of Vincent's high collar, those were the only things she could see.
"Oh, no." Yuffie then waved her hands around and started to move like she were about to set off in different directions, but stopped herself each time. "No, no, no, no, no! You got it all wrong. I didn't mean it like that!" This was the truth.
Really, Yuffie had been totally aware of how she blew everything out of proportion. It was merely her way of venting frustrations, as well as to fish for some sympathy. If anything, her whole animated tirade had been innocent, to her and everybody else; except Vincent, it seemed. He looked to have taken it a bit more personally than she'd wanted him to.
"I'll try harder next time. I promise."
Yuffie smacked her lips at that and, in a rare offering, frowned at him with a kind of girlish regret which could probably best be described as one somebody might give to a shivering kitten. She was supposed to be the one everyone felt sorry for, but the plan was backfiring badly. She heaved a sigh, spun on her heel, and then dropped down into a fetal position with her head buried into her arms. The only movement she made after staying still like that for several seconds was the stretching of one hand out to pat the top of Vincent's pointy boots twice in a there, there motion.
"I forgive you," was all she said. Whether she seriously intended that for him, or to herself, was debatable.
Vincent sighed. He faced the tent to find the three others there beaming at him. Tifa clasped her hands together, smiling warmly at the scene. Jethro bobbed his head briefly and hopped his brows, sort of congratulating the gunslinger for handling the situation so maturely. However, once reaching the third face; two knowing looks were traded that shall forever remain un-described, and Cloud gave Vincent a tiny thumbs-up. With a gasp, Tifa slapped the gesture away. Yuffie then stood, feeling more stable. Luckily, she never caught on to what had just transpired.
"Vincent?" she started, and he turned his head to her. Before she could continue, a third beast suddenly rushed out from the grass behind Vincent.
"Look out!"
"Vincent, behind you!"
The animal screamed mid-jump.
"What? Vinnie —!"
There was a metallic thunk! and the beast flew back diagonally. Vincent carefully lowered his claw-like gauntlet, listening for any signs of further danger. When a few seconds of nothing went by, the tenseness receded. Vincent, however, kept his hand above his holster.
"That was a quite of a backhand, Mr. Valentine," Jethro said. "Very impressive —"
"Wait," Vincent said, raising his claw to stop him.
Everyone froze and perked their senses. Sure enough, a deep growl gurgled from somewhere nearby. It began as one, but grew to three, then five, and then a few more. To pinpoint exactly where they were coming from wouldn't be easy. It was a bleak thing to realize that they emanated from every direction.
All eyes turned to Cloud. At his nod, the group gathered close, but maintained just enough distance between each body to improvise. Preparations then began for the fight which was surely to come, and they flowed in a rhythm of speed and lithe poise. Cloud reached into the tent and pulled out his enormous blade, spinning it once around his back before adopting his battle stance. Tifa detached the pair of red fingerless gloves that hung from her waist and slipped them on. Immediately, she wrapped them over with some black boxing tape from her satchel. Vincent readied his rifle, the Death Penalty, as Jethro picked up the Conformer and tossed it to Yuffie. He then grabbed a stick.
He spun it with elegant grace, menacing its end to and fro to showcase its awesome power. Owing to the smoothness of its form, it brandished like a dream, slicing through the air like a tank shell through bubbles. The grip was perfectly grooved, the end decidedly blunt, the body itself robust. Adroit and flawless; not a splinter to be found. It was a truly magnificent stick.
The others stared blandly at Jethro, who clenched the length of wood before him like a katana. Vincent then held out his pistol.
"No, I'm fine," Jethro said, quickly. Vincent didn't budge, so Jethro nodded in surrender, dropped the stick, and accepted the Outsider.
The growling intensified. However many more of those creatures there were mattered little. They all sounded angry. Suddenly, the chorus stopped, and a lone cat, much bigger than the previous three, emerged from the grass. Its dark flesh was riddled with the scars of past battles, and a chipped stub gleamed where a tooth had once been. This had to be the alpha of the pack. Tifa cracked her knuckles at it, just about daring the creature to come. Vincent and Jethro pointed their guns, and Yuffie arced her Conformer back high to ready as much power into her throw when it would be needed. The alpha, however, simply stood its ground from the edge of the camp. In that silence, its heavy breaths sounded more like slow snorts.
Cloud scanned the area, noting the tops of backs visible throughout the surrounding grass. He counted eight in all, which would be nine with the largest before them. It was at this moment that Cloud decided to make the first move. He moved the tip of the blade over to the side and took three steps forward. Then, a surprising thing happened: the alpha took a step back. It was afraid.
The alpha lowered its wide snout and made three quick, guttural calls. The others in its pack stood from their places throughout the perimeter of the camp and, together with their leader, retreated back up the knoll. At the top, the alpha made a brief sneer towards the group of humans below before finally disappearing from sight. There then was a collective sigh of relief. Weapons were sheathed, and a pistol was returned.
"Think there's anymore of these things around?" Cloud asked.
Tifa surveyed the darkness. "It seems okay enough now, but I'd feel safer if we could get that fire going again."
"All right," said Cloud. "Jethro, Tifa, and I will take the last watch. Vincent, you and Yuffie go get some rest. The two of you have been up way too long." He was ignorant to the fact that Yuffie had been asleep for almost the entire day.
Yuffie glanced at Vincent with a timid, guilt-ridden smile. He looked back at her briefly before simply walking into the tent, never saying a word. Once he was out of sight, her little smile turned lopsided. Now she had to share a tent alone with Vincent Valentine. If it weren't for the frigid chill of the night, her face would've probably been redder than that gunslinger's cloak.
Good nights were exchanged and the shifts switched. The first thing Cloud did was roll the carcass off of the campfire with his boot. Afterward, he took Jethro a short distance away to search for anything they could use to start up a new fire. Tifa stayed behind for sentry duty, but since things had quieted down, she spent her short time alone seated down on the ground, looking up at the stars whilst dreaming awake.
—
The rested adventurers marched across the barren plains towards their destination, the rebel headquarters in Midgar, under unsurprisingly overcast skies. While the metropolis, as well as the area around it, had indeed been devastated by the falling of Meteor, the landscape around Midgar had actually been a rocky wasteland devoid of any vegetation for quite some time prior. Eight Mako reactors concentrated into a single place to absorb the the planet's very energy, the Lifestream, tended to do things like that.
"We're not just planning to go in there without a plan, are we?" Yuffie asked.
Jethro turned to her. "Wouldn't that count as being a plan in of itself?"
"Oh, you know what I mean!"
"Of course we have a plan," Tifa said. She offered Yuffie a reassuring look, then turned to the leader of AVALANCHE, Cloud Strife, with a more quizzical expression. "Don't we?" she asked.
Cloud nodded with no eye contact. "We do," he said. "We just haven't thought of it yet."
"So we're just gonna charge straight in there and kick Zeb in the teeth?" Yuffie asked. "Sounds good to me!" She raised an enthusiastic fist into the air.
Cloud scoffed, amused, but logic called for a constructive chide at the Wutaian princess's expense. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Yuffie," he said. "We've got Jethro here, and I'm pretty sure he, at the very least, knows the basic layout of the place so we can approach this more tactically. It is his own base, after all."
"It was, if I may be so bold as to correct you."
"In either case, it works to our advantage because you're here with us, just as long as you don't try anything funny."
"Funny? Why, that pains me, my dear," he said with a teasingly suggestive expression on his face, but Tifa rolled her eyes. Nevertheless, Jethro continued with, "I would never think to cause any harm to a delicate nymph such as yourself. By the way, Miss Lockhart, you never answered my question from before."
Everyone groaned in the anticipation of what was to come.
"Are you chained down to anyone?" Jethro pulled his lips back into a smile as slick as sandpaper.
"Are you looking for another slap there, Romeo?" Yuffie asked.
"Well, I'm looking certainly looking for something," he said, staring down Yuffie's athletic frame.
Both women scoffed in disgust and picked up their pace. They left Jethro to stop in his tracks with a playful expression of confusion on his face. He then turned to Vincent, almost as if he were waiting for some sort of assistance. Instead, he simply walked passed him, matching speed with the others.
"Oh, I feel the love," Jethro said. It was certainly a failure, but still entertaining. He chuckled to himself before he jogged forward to catch up.
—
Zeb Mahonney was seated at his desk, rubbing the bridge of his nose. His headache had grown excruciatingly. On one hand, he was dealing with personal stresses, namely his raging desire to be reunited with his family in Paradise. The other hand held the fact that he'd lost his best and most reliable man — to the side of the enemy. As if that weren't bad enough, there was a third hand in the form of a powerful puppet that he seemed to be losing control over. A fourth hand, still: sleeping contingents of anti-AVALANCHE forces across the land grew more blood-thirsty with each passing day. They were under his command, and they eagerly awaited the order to embark on an all-out offensive. The call for a man hunt for the band of misfits they so anxiously sought to wreak vengeful havoc upon had been denied again and again. It just wasn't the right time, but it was still the will of the masses.
"What news?" Zeb demanded, looking up from the papers on his desk. "Have you taken care of them yet?" He was speaking to the ghastly mist forming in the corner of the room.
It then materialized into a little wooden doll dressed in flamboyant green and blue garments. When fully solid, the jester girl, Moira, sauntered over towards the side of the desk. The bells that lined the seams of her outfit stayed abnormally quiet with every step.
"No, I have not yet taken care of them all." An older voice left the puppet's purple lips, not the same youth that Zeb was more used to when Jethro was still around.
Zeb was visibly disappointed by the reply. This was ignored by Moira, who held much malice in her woodwork for the man seated before her.
"And why not? What is taking so long?" he asked more calmly.
"It has not been easy. They've grown wise to me, thanks to your old ally Jethro." Zeb's eye twitched at that mention, but Moira continued. "They have become aware of the fact that they're only vulnerable to my attacks in their slumber, and have taken to sleeping in shifts while the others keep watch. It is quite . . . frustrating," she added with a dark tone in her voice.
"Persistent bastards. I am hoping their stubbornness will contribute to their undoing." Jeb was starting to make less and less sense. "Do you know what they plan to do? Can you at least tell me that? Perhaps, even their current whereabouts? Give me an update, at least!"
"The ones I have previously dealt with remain in Cosmo Canyon, of course. The old one is still unconscious. All three are watched over by a diligent lady and the local villagers."
"And of the latest?"
"Reeve Tuesti lies in the Gold Saucer's Ghost Hotel. He is guarded well by a robotic cat, along with people from the staff. The remaining members of AVALANCHE are on their way here. Jethro is with them. They left Junon yesterday, and are now less than an afternoon's walk away from Midgar. From what I have observed, they are all coming for you."
Zeb grumbled, obviously agitated, but he quickly covered it up.
"So they are planning to end this, end this with my blood on their hands. To get to me, they will have to go through scores of my men, and the more people they kill, the more people will unite against them. It fills me with pride to know how perfectly this all plays itself out. Maybe . . ." Zeb trailed off, his thoughts turning towards his family again. Bangs of gray hair fell over his face as he rested his chin upon interlocked fingers.
A knowing smirk of the true condition of his wife and daughter flashed across the puppet's face. "Remember that Jethro is with them," Moira then said. "He knows his way around the compounds very, very well."
"It is of no concern," he said, not looking up. "I will double the guards at all entrances and passages. The scouts around the Midgar plains should dwindle a number or two before they even make it to the city limits." He raised his head and folded his hands atop the desk. "Go, resume your duties, puppet."
The fake smile on Moira's lips twitched. "I have a name," she said. The voice of the child was back.
"Do I look like I care if that matters? Just go and resume your duties. You have lost your usefulness as an assassin, but can still carry on as a spy. Still, do not let that discourage you from seizing any opportunities to spirit away another member of AVALANCHE."
Moira bowed down low and slunk back into the wall. Zeb failed to catch the malevolent flash of a smile as it disappeared. At the push of a button, a head soon popped through the doorway of the room, and in popped a woman. Zeb flattened his hands on the desk and raised his chin. The order he finally gave put a morbidly ecstatic grin on the guard's face.
"I don't care how you do it, and I don't care where you take them from, but double the guard and patrols. I am expecting some guests."
—
Yuffie spoke endlessly to Vincent as they walked towards Midgar, but his mind was on other things. His demons' wordless message meant that Chaos could stop Moira somehow. The dilemma came from what, and why, they were telling him this. He once again thought back to the night at the Ghost Hotel when he had shot Yuffie. He specifically remembered that he'd created a mental barrier that night. Within that barrier, he imprisoned Chaos. It had thrashed around; infuriated, but subdued. At that moment, Vincent began forming an epiphany. Though the vile tormentors of his psyche were his most hated foes, they offered a special perk: the defense of his mind from alien intrusion.
Another series of thoughts shot through Vincent's mind. He winced at the theories produced, but it all was making sense. Chaos warned Vincent to check on Yuffie the night she was attacked by the clown girl. Chaos stirred within him every time Yuffie was in danger. Every time, he felt that same uneasiness around Yuffie. The agenda of Chaos became crystal clear. Being suppressed was not a pleasant feeling to the winged fiend, or for any of Vincent's demons, for that matter. If Vincent were to lax his control over them, his demons would protect his mind from Moira's attacks.
The pale, smiling face of Chaos flashed before his eyes as he completed the thought. Vincent knew that this would not be an easy decision, as the plan carried with it unspeakable risks. He knew all too well that should he lose too much control, the entities he harbored could do much more harm than good, and the gods help all should Chaos become unleashed to rampage freely at its leisure.
"Get down!" Cloud whispered.
Vincent quickly snapped back to reality. He hunkered down on the hill alongside the others, and watched a jeep full of people cruise by on the dirt highway leading out of Midgar.
Jethro crawled up beside Cloud. "They're with the protest group," he said.
"How do you know?"
"I recognize the driver."
"What are they doing?"
"They must be a patrol, or are just off to deliver a message. Maybe they're relocating to another base of operations. Who knows, honestly? All that matters is that they didn't see us."
A shot slammed into the hill. Dust from where the bullet had hit rose beside Cloud. That had been much too close for comfort, so the group scrambled to find their own covers behind nearby stone formations or on the opposite side of the knoll. Multiple people began charging towards them. Their numbers were uncertain; they were still charging from over the hill about a baseball field's length away. Yelling battle cries and carrying a variety of firearms and bladed weaponry, well over a dozen men and women sprinted forward with mad haste. For weeks, these militia had prayed for a chance that AVALANCHE would happen by within a few miles, and now AVALANCHE had come right to their doorstep.
Cloud cursed under his breath. He stood, then drew his blade, the Ultima Weapon, just in time to deflect a small volley of gunfire. "Looks like we've got no choice for this one," he said.
Jethro remained hidden behind a nearby rock and watched his party prepare themselves for battle. Vincent pulled his rifle out from his thigh holster, prompting Yuffie to unhook her shuriken-like Conformer. Tifa followed suit by slipping on her gloves and locking herself into a defensive pose to wait for her attackers to get into distance. The others then stepped up beside her in a wide line. The mob of rebels they faced were hell-bent, practically forming a tide of fury ready to crash upon the beach that was the four remaining members of AVALANCHE.
Cloud gave the final order: "Spare their lives if you can."
They all readjusted their positions, each preparing themselves to incapacitate their first attackers. Yuffie slowly arced her Conformer back. The blade of Cloud's Ultima Weapon crackled with electricity. Tifa's gloves glimmered with a colorful collection of spheres as she pumped her black-glowing arm into her body. Finally, once some of them stepped into point blank range, Vincent lowered his aim at a thigh and fired.
Author's Note: Oh my god, that took a lot longer than I expected. I started just a few minutes after noon, pulling stuff outta my ass to get this chapter up and now it's 3:15am in the morning… Ha, well I plan to spend all day tomorrow on another chapter. I apologize for the short length of this one in comparison to old tolerant's. I plan to make up for it by doing two small chapters simultaneously, this being the first. Maybe I can do a chapter every weekend, if college allows me the time.