WARNING! EXTREMELY EXPLICIT VIOLENCE, GORE, AND SOME SEXUAL THEMES IN THIS CHAPTER!

17+ PLEASE!

Chapter Four: Deception

It wasn't long before the next day had come, another hot one. You could see the steam rising above the ocean, and almost disappearing before your eyes, evaporating into the atmosphere. The small delicate town of Costa DelSol was in ruin, there wasn't much of anything, living or inanimateleft to be of any use anymore.The smell of gunpowderandfire was in the airalong with the blood of hundreds of soldiers. Cowering in a corner was one soldier, who had apparently survived the night without any battle. He is a Private, fresh blood to be spilled yet. Although quite trained against most enemies this new threat had terrified the boy, urinating on himself and hiding quietly in a corner, he hasstayed here for quite some time. Crouching down and keeping his sub-machine gun forward, he crawled toward the edge of the shadows.Poking his head out he could see the streets stained with blood, and his comrades, who he had been with since day one, were tossed about like rag dolls: one was slightly perched over the topof a roof, a Sergeant, his best friend, hadbeen stabbed through the stomach with what looked like his own gun. He lay face up in the dusty street quivering, barely alive. Slowly the Private, his nameBriant, made his way toward his Sergeant. He was in bad shape, but it wasn't long before he spoke. "Y...Y..."

"It's allright sarge, I think it's over. Just hold on, we'll get you some help, we'll radio-" Suddenly the boy was jerked forward face to face with his Sergeant. He could smell his blood, the vomit next to his sarge, the salt from the mans tears as he wept, clutching a picture of what looked to be his daughter and wife.

"Y..You know what to do, boy?" The sarge drewthe boys smallpistol, his was usedas a last defense against the enemy. He had pulled it out after the beast stabbed him through, and shot twelve times, right in the beasts ugly face. But instead of killing him, the beast just gave him a smile, and leaned in close.

SUFFER

The sarge couldn't believe it, how cold the enemy was to let him suffer that way. The sarge would have killed himself, but the beast took away his weapons, leaving him with his dog tags and the picture of his family. "You...Y..."Thesarge heaved over and emptied his stomach of partials of his own intestines andblood. "Do it." The boy took the pistol and stood up, slowly pulling back the slide, pushing a bullet into the chamber. He pointed the gun at his sarges' head, but he hesitated, this was the man that brought him through training, that pushed the boy to his limits and beyond, that made him who he was today. "DO IT!" Screamed the Sarge, the boy looked away.


Silence was all that was left in the streets, silence, and the droplets of the boys tears on the pavement. There had to be a point to all this, this, fighting. None that he could see at the moment, so at that, the pointed his gun to his head. He cried, and then...He snapped. Visions of his training sprang to life in the boys eyes, the fight, the endorphins that rattled his veins, his capillaries, his arteries. He seemed to explode with information; He stood up suddenly and put a hand on the barrel of his Sergeants gun, it was a .50 calibur, tracer round, M2-487, a long range sniper, that was what his Sergeant was. And now the boy was going to get revenge for his Sargeants death, he wasn't quite sure how, but he knew what the beasts looked like, he knew that eventually they would arrive at the plains West of Del Sol. It was now his job to exact his revenge on the one that did his army the most harm: the monsters. He pulled with all his might as the large weapon inched slowly out of his superiors gut. A general slurrping and supping sound, like taping a wound with duct tape, then pulling it off, slowly, was coming from the sarge. He turned his eyes to the knife beside his superior. "Sorry, sarge, I think you would understand the basic rules of survival." Taking the knife in his right hand and the gun in his left, he stuck his own Sergeant right through the entry wound, and used the knife itself as leverage to remove the butt of the gun. Even using all his might he could get only get the weapon up a few centimeters. Realizing that he wasn't going to get the weapon out, he was going to have to remove his sarge from the weapon, he stripped the sarge from all his gear leaving him in his army green tee and shorts. Lifting with all his might, he could not move his sarge; although he was trained very well, the fact was he was more of a geek, a sort of intel man.

As he went about thinking, he could hear the screams of soldiers and rumbles across the streets, he had to move quickly, or he would be as dead as his C.O. Tearing out his knife once again, he split the Sarge's body in half, in two seperate places so that the upper and lower body was seperate. All that was left around the rifle was a chunk of meat that contained the Sarge's stomach, bladder and other important intestines. Lifting the ten pound chunk of meat up and over, he laid it next to his Sarge's head, and looked at the hole in the Earth. The force from the beast's strength was so powerful and so accurate, it apparently ran his C.O. straight through with the butt of the gun, and into the ground. Shaking from his bewilderment, the soldier dug out the rifle and made his way to the city clock tower. I won't let you die without honor. I'll kill the fucking monstrosity, I'll-" His thoughts cut off, he ducked into an alley-way, as a horde of small flying snakes swept past, as if running from something.

"RUN YOU MOTHERS! MUWAHAHAHA!" That was a womans voice, he couldn't believe his ears. Yes women were usually fearless in all the battles he'd been in before, which was extremely limited to one on one training combat, but in the last thirty-six hours he could still hear their shrill cries as the beasts, for some strange reason, captured all the women. They were all still alive, so there might be chance of recovery. Even when the women that were captured fought back, these monstors obviously knew what they were doing, breaking limbs so they wouldn't be disturbed or hindered from their duty. As he sat back in the alley, he saw the woman pass, and grabbed for her arm, taking her back into the alley. "Hey! What MMF!" She started to struggle, but he kept his hand tightly around her mouth. He knew how this seemed, it wasn't like he was going to rape her, and he knew that she could probably handle the snake-like creatures, it was the larger, dual-horn types that he was worried about. She bit his hand hard, he just bled. She widened her eyes when she realized it was a soldier. She nodded her head, only then did he remove his hand. "I'm sorry, are you allright?"

"It's just a flesh wound. Nothing big, what the hell are you doing in this carnage?" He walked to the end of the alleyway and sat on a bucket; it was round and white, possibly used for paint or oil of some sort. Setting aside the rifle he had, he opened a pouch on his side, and removed a cantine, handing it to her. She blushed a bit; she was beautiful.

"My name is Yuffie of the team HighWind. I was healing soldiers when I fell asleep, when I came to..." She trailed off and looked out onto the sunrise. A tear rolled from her eyes. "It was horrible, when I woke those...things had taken over the base! How could this have happened? I've lost all radio contact with Cloud, Tifa...Vincent..." she sighed heavily, "and Cid, I can see that he's still up there. I wonder how much fuel he has left...Anyway I'm here to solve this little war of yours, until you pulled me in here." He nodded, apologizing for the way he had handled his, well now, their situation. The soldier, standing now, offered his hand.

"My C.O. is now dead, and I want revenge. With me I have a high powered rifle, but I need to find a good hiding spot, and possibly an escort there. Will you help me?" She looked down, considering her options.

'Can I trust him? I mean he is a soldier, he was assigned to help defeat the enemy, but we aren't here for revenge. We're here to defeat the enemy, crush them in the Western plains. But I suppose if he's here for vengence...' Her thoughts were cut off when the soldier drew his small Silence PPK, shooting a large snake that had crawled into the alley.

"Come on! It won't be long before they find us here! Are you with me?" He held out his hand once more, sweating, he looked beautiful in a frightening sort of way. She gave him her hand, and they ran off into the distance, heading for the clock tower.


Quiet, that was the word, but tranquil was something of a different story.Blood drips down from a soldiers mouth as flies crawled inside for a taste of what was once pumping through this mans body not more than two hours earlier. His flesh is still wet with sweat, as is his underwear, his eyes in an upward position, fixed toward the sky, screaming in their own silence. Something tore the torso away, it's large meaty hands ripping the tendons and ligaments away as if it was a bone to be plucked from a fresh Chocobo dinner. All was left was the soldiers head, but it was saving that for last, for it was the best part. After finishing the torso, tossing away the rib cage and spine, the spinal fluid sucked out as if through a straw, the thing reached for the head of the soldier, removing the helmet it grabbed a small knife from the nearby corpse and cut a small circle in the skin, then tossing the skin into its mouth. "The hair, it tickles the throat." Licking away the blood, it used the knife, with just a little force, and cut a small hole in the skull of it's victim. Putting it's mouth to the little hole it began to suck the brains out. It got the brains out in one fell swoop, chewing it like a large wad of gum. The victims eyeballs, still horribly wide, dangled from the monsters lips. A crunch of leaves meant that his master was near, sniffing the air he also smelled a human. Grunting he slurped up the eyeballs and swallowed them like pills, belching loudly spewing a mixture of old sweat, blood, and saliva into the air. "I love the taste of endorphins in the morning!" The human cringed a bit and covered his mouth with a large hankercheif.

Turning around, the monster was twelve feet tall, with large horns, but it was more than that. A small, yet distinguishable face could be seen beneath a solid glassteel orb. Inside this orb as a human face; it was a male and was apparently sleeping while the beast fed on what was left of the humans skull.

"Could you at least clean up after yourself, the smell is..." Turning away he walked toward the Jeep that was still running.

"Divine?" Said the thing, picking up the dead humans hand, which it had peeled back the finger nails and sucked the fingers dry of any flesh and fluid, and used the finger bone of the middle finger as a toothpick. The human peered over his left soldier shooting a glare at the thing, opening his mouth to speak.

"I thought more along the lines of completely disgusting, more of a vile stench, the kind I only get from you." He smiled a bit, the monster stopped picking his teeth and jumped forward roaring in the humans face, and the human drew his two pistols and pointed them forward.

"Stop this meaningless fighting immediately!" Yelled another person, robed completely in black, "There is no time for this quarry! The enemy will wake soon, troops are already gathering their forces,we must prepare if we are to get anything out of the girl. Speaking of which intel sources has tracked her to a small weapons shop at the edge of the Western side of the town. Genesis," he said speaking to the twelve foot tall monster to his left, "you are my toughest soldier, please take care of this nusiance. But do not harm the girl, but kill the others if you wish." Genesis bowed low, it's horns scraping the grass, creating small gashes in the Earth.

"It would be my pleasure, my Master." Straightining Genesis glared at the human in the camo, grunted and ran swiftly South East toward the town of Costa Del Sol. The slow rumbles he made in the Earth awoke the small woodland animal creatures in their slumber, running for anywher that was better than they currently were staying. Turning to the man cloaked in black, the soldier spoke softly, he knew that the beast called Genesis, had excellent hearing.

"Do we really need him? My soldiers-" He was cut off.

"Your soldiers are humans, and humans are not as easily controlled as Genesis. Do not worry, they will serve their purpose, then, and only then, will we rid ourselves of them." The soldier winced and glanced toward the city. "Do not worry my friend, he cannot hear us."

"I'm still worried, and don't call me a 'friend'. We're only doing this so we can get rid of the damn thing. Are you sure you know what you're doing? I don't mean to question, but how do we know they have it?" The soldier walked the cloaked man to the jeep and hopped into the drivers seat. Starting the jeep they began their drive to the hills in the Western plains.

"What we seek, will be there. People who have come in contact with Mako, or have been fused with it, or even been in close contact with Jenova," the soldier shuddered, "will possess part of the materia."

"Then why were my females taken?" Turning left up a steep road the man sighed, but was pateint with the follower.

"They may be the last of the so called SOLDIERS from that distant past. Remember? It was a succesful army but not without regret in the testing stages. I must ask you to be pateint, we will find it, and your female soldiers will be unharmed except for the..." he trailed off, looking down to the jeep floor, "well you understand." The soldier did understand, but was regretful. This was going to be hard to explain to his own C.O.'s. He only hoped this...battle was worth it. Thankfully it was almost over, however, the mental trauma from this...pact with one of the most feared, and wanted, criminal, was going to be almost unbearable.


As the soldier and the man in black continued up the hill, the morning was just a little over the horizon. Must have been about eight in the morning. It was beautful; dolphins could be heard singing in the ocean, the dew on the grass glistened in the sunlight, creating small reflections of rainbows in the glass. She's still asleep, thought Vincent, that's a good sign. He could see tears starting to form around and under her eyelids. Shifting a bit, he got up to check the front, see if anyone is there or any enemies were around.Standing, he checked everyone out; fast asleep, the night had been quiet, hopefully that was a good sign. Returning the head band to his head so he could see where he was going, he crouched down and opened the trap door. Putting his gun forward he went out. The counter was stll a bit bloody from the flying snake last night, but nothing had been touched or moved out of place. His hand was a little shakey from the interesting day he had yesterday. His gun was dubbed 'Death Penalty', it was a good weapon but he preferred, now, using a .50 calibur Desert Hawk. They were fighting humans now, so it was impractical to waste such a powerful gun on regular people. Standing up he traveled over the trip wires and stood outside. He could smell the odor of flesh blood, when a shot came from down the street. Equiping his pistol, he headed East to the gunshot, and saw a soldier standing over his C.O. who was now dead. Sighing heavily, Vincent continued back to the Shop when he noticed Tifa was outside, he ran to her. "What are you doing? It's dangerous to be out here." He received a good punch to the gut for that one.

"Vincent Valentine, you should know me by now, I can take care of myself. We are friends aren't we?" She hugged him, he was a little shocked but held her back.

"We are?" He questioned, unsure if that was indeed what they were. Sure, they had been fighting the good fight for a couple of years now, but what did he know about her? What did she know about him? She looked taken aback, like he had hurt her feelings, he paused with his mouth open, unsure of what to say.

"Why do you question that? We've been together for a couple of years now, we have to be friends, or at least like each other, or our cause, if we wouldn't want to be around each other, would we?" She looked at him a questionable look on her face, he tried to smile, and it didn't exactly suit him. She laughed a bit, and he kind of laughed back. "That's the spirit, you have friends here, you know that don't you? I mean, Cid, or Barret, or even...Cloud..."She looked a bit torn when she said his name, "well I mean, they would back you up, I'm pretty sure I would, if you needed some help. You'd do the same for me wouldn't you?"

"I..." He stopped when she interrupted him.

"No, wait, don't answer that. I'll just take the trust we have, and base it on that. Oh, that reminds me, we gotta wake up that man, I mean, we have enough gil to pay him for the night don't we?" They began to walk toward the shop, stepping over the trip wires, and back in through the trap door behind the counter, when something caught Vincent's attention. He stopped moving, Tifa, aware of the same thing stopped as well. "What is that?"

"I-I-I don't know..." It was some kind of vibration through the air, almost as if someone was playing their music extremely loud. He could hear his own voice vibrating in the air. It grew louder and louder, till it came to the North Eastern wall of the shop. The vibration stopped, the noise stopped. "Tifa, I want you to grab the children and go. This is going to get ugly." Running forward, Tifa attempted to grab the children when the wall seemingly exploded as a...mutated Dual Horn entered the room, taking his right foot and completely crushing the store owner. His wife screamed, but not for long as the monster took a big swipe and knocked her against the wall. Her head, completely crushed, slid down off the wall and onto the floor. It wasn't long before the monster took the remainder of her brains and slid them down its gullet.

"Mmmm...Tastes like chicken." It smiled, and Tifa winced. "Well, come on, I don't have all day, let's go missy." It reached for Tifa, when Vincent whipped out his gun and shot a bullet right onto it's hand. Pulling it's arm away, the sting still stood. "Hmmm...Mythril bullets huh? Very rare, expensive. Hope you got a good deal, because you're going to need ever last one to finish me off you son of a bit-" Vincent shot a second round into its face. Screaming, Vincent and Tifa carefully went through the trap door and jumped over the trip wires.

"I hope that will stall him so we-" Another crashing noise as gunshots and bows were shot off. A good scream then silence. "Well, I guess we don't have to worry about this bastard anymore."

"Don't get so cocky, that thing is still alive, I can feel it." Looking around, there was a rumble in the ground. "Quick! Jump!" Jumping from their spot, the monster had apparently dug under the ground and back up on their position.

"Fuck! How'd he do that?" Yelled Tifa, landing safely twenty feet away, running toward the edges of the city.

"Like it fucking matters now! Just run, Cloud has to be near the check point by now. I'll try to contact the others!" Vincent reached for his radio, clicking out morse code. "Hopefully he's remembered his Morse."


The morning dew was what woke him, dripping down from the tree above, plopping nice big droplets on his head. Lifting his head a bit, it seemed that he fell asleepunder atree. Scratching his big head, Barrett begins to sit up, looking around him. Did I pass out in battle? What the hell? I remember...

Marlene...

"Ho shit!" Standing up quickly, he failed to see the low branch and knocked his noggin a bit hard, screaming repeated curses about the trees mother, grand mother, and any other motherly figures in the Apple Tree's life time, he stood up slowly and started to look around. The sun was coming up, at least he thought it was, he couldn't tell which way was East or West or up or down. Cursing to himself he walked out from under the tree. Peering out over the sea, the sun pierced his own eyes as he looked at the dawn. It was definetly going to be a long day, when he captured movement in the corner of his eye. Turning around he swooned, almost falling flat on his face. Seems he's been conked out for awhile. Before he fell he caught himself with his left foot and stood his ground. Opening a small bag on his belt he popped some pills and soon the headache was over. Remembering the movement he headed towards the South West, before finding a small girl (Marlene) in a patch of white flowers. "Marlene?"

"Oh! You surprised me daddy! So you finally woke up from your nappy-nap! Well come on, we have so much to do and little time to do it in!" Turning around, setting the flowers on her head in a crown-like formation, she skipped toward the small plains just North of their position.

"You can't go over there Marlene! It's dangerous, there are creatures over there that could hurt you!" Tripping over himself, he ran after her, but every step he took never covered the distance between him and her. "Marlene!"

"Don't worry daddy, you're here to protect me," she turned around and showed her father her green eyes, round, sparkling in the morning light,"right daddy?" Who could resist the look in her eyes of ultimate innocence. Forcing a smile, Barrett walked toward her, nodding his head in a dizzy, lazy sort of way, unsure about her motives. But the fact that it was his daughter, his own flesh and blood, or seemed to be was enough for him to continue to move toward her.

They walked for what seemed like miles, the sun, now travelling toward it's zenith, shone down giving the feeling of one hundred degrees, but in reality about seventy-five degrees. He had actually walked about three miles, not a very large distance, but in the warmth of the sun could seem like days had passed. Barrett was sweating, the salty substance seemed to unmistakably burst forth from every pore the poor man had grown into. It was as if there was a waterfall on his beard and his sweat was the water dripping down into the river below. Soon, he removed his grey tank top, and tight, black-leather protective clothing underneath that. His pecs shone in the sun, his gut ached miserably as he hadn't eaten in days. Suddenly Marlene stopped, it seemed she was about to reach the edge of the Western Plains of Costa Del Sol. Turning to her procreator, she suddenly seemed...determined, like something was in her way and she needed it to...die. Finally catching up to his daughter he fell on his hands and knees, gasping for breath reaching for his canteen. But it was gone, he forgot that he emptied it the day before. He watched a small cactar race across the plain, obviously out of it's way, and shot it in the head. Just because he was tired didn't mean he couldn't shoot a small coin five hundred feet in the air. He was accurate and trained to do his job well. Walking forward a few paces, he emptied the remaining water in the cactar and ate the hide of the cactar, skipping over the spines and needles that covered the bastard. Afterward he collapsed in a heap on the dry grass. A few moments later, he thought, at least, Marlene appeared above him.

"Father, the time has come."


Heading down the main street of the town, Yuffie stopped the nagging questions in her head. How is it this guy is still alive after an attack like that? I thought he would be dead and his C.O. looking for revenge. Should I trust this guy really? I mean, it's a miracle he's still alive at all, I'll have to ask him how he...Her thoughts were cut off when she realized they were in a building again. "What is it?" She whispered afraid the enemy was around. He looked at her, a bit abashed, and she gave him the eyebrow. "What? What is this?"

"Well, I gotta use the little guy's room. I don't mean to bother, but do you have to...you know?" She sighed really heavily. Now she really wasn't sure to trust this guy.

"Oh for christ's sake, you're asking me if you can go take a piss? Fuck if I care! And no, I don't, and I will let YOU know when I have to." He nodded, even more embarrassed, and turned toward the restroom in the back of the house. Not realizing it was a house Yuffie began to look around. It was quite big and beautiful, probably for the semi-rich bastards that lived in town, maybe a merchant or the Mayor even. The floor was made of what looked like pure Mythril, or perhaps Marble, and above her a mid-sized chandalier sparkled in the morning sunlight as it came in through the glass windows high above her head. It truly was a sight to behold, something that you didn't see everyday. Looking in the room to her right, she found a nice carpeted floor with two large chairs facing a fireplace. There was a box half opened. Examining the crate more attentively, it was actually a box of cigars, illegal cigars at that. Costa Del Sol, about a year and a half ago, had stopped all trade with Junon and Midgar, they wanted to stop all flow of that 'disgusting money' as they called it in the headline papers. Costa Del Sol hated Midgar, with it's new mayor in place the town actually grew upon itself, providing food, military weapons and other products for themselves. The improved Costa Del Sol was now one of the Largest cities in existence, since the Black Materia was in use, and had totally destroyed Midgar. Edge City was beginning to use whatever scraps of metal and weaponry and technology was left in Midgar to build up from there. Apparently the Mayor loved Midgar Cigars, and even though he hated it, he was a hypocrite. Closing the box, and putting it in the small pack she carried with her, she knew Cid would love to have these, even if she couldn't stand the smoke. Turning into the next room was a large family room, kids toys were scattered on the floor, broken pieces of glass and blood stains were dispursed among the toys. Yuffie winced and travelled toward the one-step-up and entered what looked like a back-door hallway. It was wooden, beautifully crafte and accurately real, she passed on to the flight of stairs. "Hey, soldier boy, I'm going upstairs." She heard a muffle that sounded like an 'Okay', but continued upstairs anyway.

Once she reached the very top, there were five rooms and one bathroom. Looking into the bathroom, it was swanky and very clean. Apparently the Mayor was a little on the Obssesive Compulsive side, either that, or he afford maids. Continuing down the hallway, she noticed the last door to be completely closed, even a lock was on the door, still locked. Curious as always, Yuffie picked the lock and opened the door.

It was a gargantuan room, at least it seemed so, inside were a lot of wires and way too many computer screens. Broadcast on the floor were dozens of charts and graphs, and what looked like a gun. At the barrell there was a little bit of grey matter, and a trail of blood. Delicately, she stepped over the gun and the wires to the closet, opening it slightly, only to see nothing, it was too dark. Reaching for what looked like a light switch, she flipped it up and pressed a button. Suddenly a sound of VHOOM went through her ears as lights began to turn on, monitors turned back to the pass code screen, and the closet doors in front of her automatically opened and she fell forward only to land face first on what felt like glass. Except she was still standing. Looking forward she saw a face, yelping out a small scream she backed up and hit another lit up glass chamber, and inside it was another face. It was the Mayor's face. She really screamed now, and the soldier ran up the stairs, wielding his knife in one hand and PPK in his other hand. "What's going on? Oh, shit..." He gulped down whatever remained in his stomach and reached for the door handle to hold him up. As he saw the face of the Mayor, tears swelled in his eyes, and he slid down to the floor.

"Hey, soldier boy, what's the matter?" Yuffie reached over and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him a bit, "What's up man?" He stopped his tears and tried to hold them back as he revealed a terrifying secret.

"That man, the woman in the glass, those are my parents. My father is the Mayor." Yuffie went white.

"Excuse me for a second, I have to uh," she just ran toward the bathroom, he could hear her emptying her stomach into the toilet, flushing it every so often. After that, she returned to his side, sitting just to his right, putting an arm around his shoulders. "I'm sorry kid, I know how it feels to lose someone you love." She turned a bit to the side and held her tears back. "It hurts."

"I knew something was wrong, they spent so much time in this room, I thought...I thought they were repairing their marriage, as it was a sham, but..." he kicked the side of a tower, yelping in pain. "Shit! That's gotta be solid Mythril." Suddenly it occured to him that he could hear two hearts pumping at the same time. He looked to Yuffie, then got up and headed over to the glass chambers. "Look at this, a note, from my dad." Indeed it was, there were instructions on how to bring them...back to life! They were in suspended animation, while their hearts were still pumping blood! They weren't dead, just, sleeping...sort of. "But...It says to not wake them until..."this" is all over."

"What?" Yuffie was now interested in what exactly THIS was.

"That's what it says, go ahead and read it." Yuffie took the paper from soldier boy and read it slowly.

Dear Lark,

If you are reading this letter, either you have come home safe and sound, or this is a hideout for you and your battallion. Please keep this room a secret for now. I, we, I should say, have done a terrible thing, so desperate for power I have brought this terror to our town. So I have put your mother and I into these chambers. All the information on this is one the computer, the password is Sol Eterinity.

I Love You, Your Father, and The Mayor of Costa Del Sol,

Brian Eggsbee

"That's it?" Yuffie looked it back and forward up and down for anything extra when a key fell from the envelope. Picking it up the key read 'Heavens' Doors'. Pausing, she gave the key to soldier boy, or Lark now. "Well I guess this takes off the top of the chamber, should we give it a shot?"

"No, I would like to follow father's wishes and not wake him until this is over. However, I would like to know just what the fuck is going on in this town. He gave us a password, it must go to one of these computers..." He trailed off looking at the unfamiliar monitors when he noticed a small one in the North West corner of the room. It had only one word in the center followed by a blinking line stating 'Insert Passcode'. Taking the note over, he carefully typed in the passcode Sol Eternity and placed his finger over the enter button. "Here goes nothing." As he pressed the button a screen came up with charts and graphs, but in a small corner there was a flashing button that stated 'History and the Guidelines'. Taking the small cursor he put the triangular button over the flashing light and hit the button twice. All at once all the screens each displayed five pages of the history of Costa Del Sol, but on the third screen, was a red paper stating 'WAR FOR MATERIA'. After reading for five minutes Lark's eyes grew wide, and he backed up.

"What is it? What did you read?" He just calmly swallowed, his mouth now dry as a desert in the midday sun. Swallowing again to get enough saliva he calmly said three words that put Yuffie's mind into chaos.

"It's a setup."


Cloud opened his eyes, there wasn't much to see, just the leftovers of his dinner, the fire smoldering into little bits, the coal, and...an open plain of destruction about to take place. Lifting his head, his right arm was completely unresponsive. It seems that he kept it in an up position the whole time he slept, or tried to sleep, the night before. He calmly and slowly brought it down and thousands of hyperdermic needles sliced into his arm, making him moan aloud. "Well, I see you're up, get a good night's sleep." He recognized the voice, it was Tifa.

"Good enough, how did you fair?" He looked over his left shoulder to find that she wasn't there. Instead, it was nothing. Getting up quickly, he discovered that the voice seemingly came from...well, nowhere. He really must've been tired, because he could have sworn he heard Tifa. Shaking his head, he grabbed a small bit of the rabbit he had, and tore off a big chunk of it's leg, barely cooked. Looking into the morning, he stood, like a hero, in the sunlight, unaffected. Putting his large sword over his shoulder he started walking into the middle of the plains West of Costa Del Sol. Apparently the rest of the gang was a little late, so reaching for his radio he tried to signal in when a familiar tone of Morse shouted itself over the frequency of his radio. "What the hell?...M-e-e-t-a-t-t-h-e-c-e-n-t-e-r-o-f-t-h-e-p-l-a-i-n-s-w-e-h-a-v-e-c-o-m-p-a-n-y stop. Oh shit." Looking Eastward he could see the silhouettes of his companions running toward him. Drawing his sword he watched as the giant beast that he had a conversation withyesterdayin the chaos, running wildly, his tongue hanging dripping with a mix of saliva and blood. This was it, this is what they had planned for the last few days. Charging up his Lightning 3, Cloud concentrated on the enemy ahead. His sword was now powered with the power of Lightning x3, parallel to the ground he was now running forward on. Tifa and Vincent passed his side, wishing him luck and turning 180 degrees to join him in the fight.

Jumping up and preparing for an aerial assault, Cloud thrust his wide gearth sword toward the enemy that was now in the air as well. He could see from the corner of his eye Tifa powering her Firaga, and Vincent loading his gun with special bullets, Mythril Iceaga. Shaking his head he was now three, two, one foot from his enemy. It was now in the last nano-second from his enemy did Cloud now go into a rage. His heart and mind connected he was fused with the battle at hand. This was the moment he went insane. This was it, this was the Battle of Del Sol. He dove, the angry, raged beast ahead of him put his huge clawed hands forward in defense and charged a mysterious blue/purple magic forward, a darkness or silence spell. They clashed, a light of undistinguishable amount of energy and a blue aura surrounded them and forced it outward twenty feet.


"The time is now Daddy, draw your weapon, kill the one that killed me!" The ghost of Marlene pointed out to the Plains North of Barretts position, and lo and behold, Rufus, the President of Shinra Incorporated, was standing in the middle of the field. Confused, in a sort of haze, Barrett questioned whether this image was real or not. It couldn't be possible at all, he was dead he was killed by the Diamond WEAPON, the Earth's last defense against the firing of the other destructive weapon known as Sister Ray.

"This is impossible, he cannot be alive my child, he is dead, we saw the explosion! No one could have survived a blast like that!" Barrett lowered his weapon and questioned the now very impatient and angry Marlene.

"So you would rather wait it out, and have him walk the Earth while I am unavenged? How could you? I hate you!" These words stung his heart, his hear that has taken too many beatings to hold steady; his steel heart that has rusted and lost his love too many times. Looking concerned but determined he raised his weapon, using powerful ammunition and shot twice, the first missing and the other piercing his chest. He had avenged his daughters death.

"Good boy, you pathetic fool!" Turning around he saw what was not Marlene, but a mysterious woman dressed all in black with a mask on. "You are really pathetic, believing that your daughter still lives. And yet, she still does!"

"What? Who are you? Who did I really?-" He turned North just to see Tifa stumble and fall to the ground. "WHAT THE HELL? WHY DID YOU, WHY DID YOU?-" She silenced him with a finger on his lips.

"I did nothing but encourage you to shoot the one you thought kille your family, mother, daughter. You shot the gun, I just whispered lies into your ear. Call it what you wish but you shot the gun. Now I must leave, enjoy your misery, you fool!" And before Barrett could say another word, she had disappeared in a thin bit of smoke. Running forward, Barrett tried to get to Tifa, only to have a bullet scar his face and pierce the ground. Looking up, a sniper in the hills, taking out his own sniper he ducked down and aimed. This was going to be a long day.


Vincent turned, seconds after Tifa had been shot, he missed her fall as she fell to the ground. "TIFA! TIFA! Ah shit, screw this," reaching for his radio, which apparently was working now, called Cid,"CID, WE NEED AN EVAC! NOW! TIFA IS HEAVILY DAMAGED! One to the chest, and another has scraped her arm. She needs medical attention now!" Taking off his red cloak he covered himself and her, so no one could harm or see what he was about to do. "Sorry Tifa, this is for your own good." Reaching for her tank top, he ripped it off, to reveal a torn bra strap, and a bullet hole on her right side breast, breaking two ribs and a hole to her lungs. "Shit!" This was heavy bleeding, she needed heavy medical attention now! Taking out some bandage he managed to make a line of scrap t-shirt and wrap it around her body, stopping some of the bleeding. "GODDAMMIT! CID WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?"

"HEY! I'm trying my best, but I'm busy with some anti-air at the moment-Wait...they stopped, weird, allright I'm coming." Vincent could see the Highwind hovering about five feet from the ground, and crew members jumped out with stretchers, two armed with guns, and huddled over Tifa.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of her, you finish the mission!" One of the crew members patted his back and picked up Tifa at her legs, another at her head, onto the stretcher, and loaded her up onto the Highwind. Standing now, he watched the Highwind back off and head East for Edge City for the best medical attention. Meanwhile, he saw Cloud in heavy battle, not even glancing back. He forgave him, for now, probably didn't even hear the gunshot. Sighing, he pointed his gun to the beast only to watch it fall, dead on the grass below. Confused but over-joyed, he ran forward to Cloud.


END OF FOURTH CHAPTER! Ok, Reviews, be nice, this took me one hell of a long time, and a lot of trips to the local library. Hope it's long enough! Next Chapter: How did the monster die, and what the hell is going on? What? You mean there is a complicated plot behind this battle for Costa Del Sol? Next Chapter: I haven't decided the name, check my profile for updates!