Me: Chapter 2

Final Fantasy VII – Assassin

Chapter 2 – An Alliance

They stared at each other for some time. Then they started yelling.

"LEMME KILL HIM!" Barret struggled as he tried to reach Zetsumei.

"You're the guy I met on the train!"

"AHHH!" Barret shouted, completely pissed at the stupid kid's ignorance. "I'M GONNA RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!"

The chocobo warked happily.

"Hey! You're supposed to be on my side!"

"Excuse me…?" Cloud said.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for someone… they let me stay in here and tricked me and locked me in here…"

Cloud stared at the man. Inwardly, he sighed. Was it possible that there was someone stupider than he was?

"Oh! I know! I'll follow you guys!" Zetsumei said, clapping his hands together.

"NO!" Barret shouted.

"Okay." Cloud said.

"WHAT!" Barret whirled on Cloud.

"Easy, man… he might be some help to us…" he turned back to Zetsumei. "Well… are you interested in helping us save the Planet?"

"GODS! Spike, you sound like you're advertising this!"

"Sure…"

"Great! I'm Cloud, this is Barret, that's Tifa, Aeris, and Red XIII. Well, come on then…"

"Oh, gods… you can not get stupider…" Barret muttered.

"Nice to meet you all!" Zetsumei smiled and shook hands all around.

"I stand corrected…" Barret smacked himself in the face.

They headed off down the hall. After a bit of running, Zetsumei stopped.

"Eww… what's that stench!"

"Everyone's been killed… we have to get to Shinra… something's terribly wrong…" Cloud explained.

They reached the top floor and stared upon a gruesome sight. Shinra laid slumped over his desk, a pool of sticky red liquid forming on the desk and floor. From his back protruded a seven foot long sword, sticking out like a deadly flag. His face was contorted into a pained grimace, frozen in place as he died.

"Shiiiit…" Zetsumei muttered. "I think he's dead."

"No, really!" Barret said.

"Let's get out of here… they'll think we did it…" Cloud said, eyes unmoving from the sword blade. "Barret, you take Tifa, Aeris, and Red XIII… find a way down… Zetsumei… stay here… we're in for a bumpy ride…"

They separated just as a chopper was heard above. They rushed outside to see a orange haired youth leaping out of the chopper.

"Greetings… I take it you're quite shocked with what's happened?"

"Who the hell are you?" Zetsumei asked, unclasping his scythe.

"I… am President Shinra. Rufus Shinra. Nice to meet you."

"Great. One pig dies to be taken over by another…" Cloud said darkly.

"No no no… you mistaken me. I'm nothing like my dear father… He sought to rule through money alone… That's where he was wrong. I shall use terror to rule all of Midgar… just think. A bit of terror will be enough to have the citizens under my control! I won't have to use any money at all! Then I can focus on the army…" he grinned maliciously. "Now, as for you… I'm afraid I can't let you live…"

He brought out a small whistle. He blew into it and a bark came from within the copper. A black dog-like creature leapt out to stand by his master.

"Dark Nation, attack." Rufus said, taking out a shotgun as well.

The creature leapt at Cloud. The blade of a scythe flashed as Zetsumei stopped the creature from tearing Cloud's throat out.

"Take care of Rufus!" He shouted, all trace of humor gone.

A gunshot rang out. Cloud barely managed to dodge the pellets. He leapt up and slashed at Shinra. A lout clang was heard as Cloud's sword was slowed by a shield, thus, reducing the damage. Zetsumei was having quite the hard time fighting the dog. Since his weapon was so long, the creature had figured out that it could dodge under the attacked and then attack. But, of course, creatures aren't the only ones who can learn from their mistakes.

"Take that you stupid mutt!" Zetsumei shouted as he slashed at Dark Nation.

The dog gave a small cry as it backed off, blood dripping from it's wound.

"Zetsumei! Watch out!"

He turned just in time to see Rufus aiming the shotgun at him. He dodged to the right but most of the buckshot still caught his left arm.

"Dammit!" He cursed as he healed himself.

Taking this advantage, Rufus aimed the gun at Zetsumei again. Before he pulled the trigger, there was a loud swish as Cloud severed the end off of the shotgun. Finished healing, Zetsumei decided it was time to attack. He focused his energies into his blade. Then, he rushed up to Dark Nation.

"Lunar Rising!" He shouted, swinging the scythe in an upward arc and leaping up at the same time.

The limit break tore through the poor mutt and it collapsed into two bloody heaps.

"Damn you!" Rufus said, taking this momentary distraction to catch hold of the chopper.

They watched as he soared off into the distance.

"Let's go. We have to get out of Midgar."

They hurried down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, Tifa was waiting.

"Cloud? Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine… where's Aeris?" He asked almost instantly.

"Oh… she's downstairs…" she said quietly, looking quite hurt.

Apparently, Cloud didn't notice a thing.

"Okay. Let's go then."

Tifa followed Cloud. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up. Zetsumei stood there, staring at Cloud's retreating form.

"Stay strong…" he muttered and continued walking.

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They met up with the others downstairs.

"We need a way out…"

"THERE THEY ARE! GET THEM!" Guards shouted as they flooded into the hall.

"…NOW!" Cloud finished.

Cloud looked down and found several vehicles sitting there in a display case.

"There! Use those!"

They rushed over to the truck and Cloud leapt onto the motorcycle.

"Come on, Hikaru!" Zetsumei leapt onto his chocobo.

Cloud revved up the motorcycle, which conveniently had a key in it, and Tifa started the truck as Aeris rode shotgun and Barret and Red XIII were in the back.

"Whoo! Let's go!" They all bust out of Shinra and onto a nearby highway.

Hikaru proved a worthy adversary against the motorcycle. She sprinted at almost the same speed as the motorcycle and definitely faster than the van. Cloud gave a shout as he unseated a cyclist from his bike and the man tumbled onto the highway to be run over by a friend. Zetsumei followed suite by decapitating a biker that was attacking the van.

"Yeah!" Zetsumei shouted.

Eventually, the bikers fell into the distance, backing off in a shameful retreat. They reached the end of the highway. The uncompleted highway pointed into the horizon. The sun was but a sliver over the dark blue ocean.

"Wow… I'm never seen the sunrise before…" Tifa said sadly. "It's so… beautiful…"

They stood there staring at the dawn approached. This was violently disturbed as a loud rumbled sounded and the sound of wheels could be heard.

"What the…"

"Look out! Tifa shouted.

They all leapt out of the way as a massive tank covered with spikes rolled past them and about faced quickly. It fired several rounds at them. They dodged the shots and sent spells flying back at it. It gave a mechanic roar and breathed flames at the group.

"Dammit!" Cloud cursed, batting at the flames.

The tank charged, knocking them all to the ground. Barret was seriously pissed by now.

"Take this Shinra scum!" He shouted. "Big Shot!"

The charged shot hit the tank and it reeled back. As it was temporarily distracted, Cloud rushed up to it.

"Braver!" He shouted and slashed downward.

The sword broke through the weakened metal. The tank gave one last shudder and exploded. The team sighed and proceeded to climb down to the ground to get outside of Midgar.

"Okay. We'll split up and meet at Kalm." Cloud said. "Aeris, you and Barret come with me. Tifa, Red XIII, and Zetsumei, you guys can go together."

"Okay…" Tifa said quietly.

Cloud's team walked off into the distance and the other three started off in a different direction. Zetsumei walked with the other two, carrying the two packs that were originally on the chocobo.

"Why aren't you riding?" Tifa asked, watching him struggle slightly under the weight of two backpacks.

"I feel like walking."

"Then why don't you leave the bags on the chocobo?"

"Chocobo's are stronger than people…" came the cryptic response. "And her name is Hikaru." He added.

"But why…"

"Gods… you ask a lot of questions don't you?" He snapped.

"Well, I was wondering why you have two packs!" She snapped back. "Why would someone carry two packs? You only need one."

"True… this one is mine." He said holding up the black bag.

"Then who's is that?" She asked shrewdly pointing at the red one.

"Um… uh…" he muttered. "I can't really say… you wouldn't believe me if I told you…"

"It can't be that bad… what's in it?" She snatched his back away.

"H-hey! Wait!"

She looked inside. There was some clothes, women's undergarments and some… -ahem- feminine supplies. She looked up, shocked.

"What the hell! You pervert!" She shouted.

Red XIII looked back at the arguing pair.

"Now… wait just a minute."

"What did you do! Steal this from some girl!"

"N-no! I…"

"Why I oughta…" she started grabbing Zetsumei by the throat.

"Wait… ack… stop… cough… can't… breath…"

Hikaru gave a fierce wark.

"She said stop." Red XIII said as he approached them.

"But…" Tifa released Zetsumei, still glaring at him.

Hikaru gave a series of warks, kwehs, and chirps. Red XIII stared at her strangely.

"She says everything will be explained tomorrow…" he translated.

"Huh?" Tifa said, confused.

"Just… wait until tomorrow… it should be soon now…" Zetsumei gasped, massaging his throat. "You've got quite a grip…"

Later that night, Zetsumei took out a tent and set it up. He turned to Tifa.

"Could you sleep with Red XIII tonight?"

"Why?" She asked, accusingly. "What are you going to do?"

"Nothing… I just thought that Hikaru could sleep in my tent…"

"Ok…" she said slowly, still glaring accusingly at him.

Thus, Hikaru laid down in the warm tent as they all slept on into the night.

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Me: Yes… that was kinda short… The next chapter should be longer… I just needed to get my ideas and thoughts down. This is most definitely going to be a Vinti now and it's also OCXOC. You'll see what I mean in the next chappy! REVIEW! PLEASE! I need to know how it is! Whoever's reading this, all my stories will be updated, except the banjo-kazooie one, with the next chapter!