A bead of sweat trickled down Rems forehead as she stared up at the gun barrel that was pointed directly at her forehead, the pissed off expression of Barret looking down at her was found to be more frightening than the gun itself. She remained quiet as she laid still, her attention only being drawn away from the threat above her by the sound of multiple foot steps getting closer till they came to a stop only a few feet away.
"B..Bar..boss, take it easy, you know I can't run all that well" Wedge panted out heavily before he leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. The next one to speak was Jesse, she also trying to catch her breath but not as badly as the pudgy Wedge.
"Is that….that's Rem isn't it?" she would ask in an interested tone as she walked closer to the two, her hand reaching for the small pistol that was attached to the side of her belt as her eyes darted around. "We better be careful, the rest of them might be close by" Jesse cautioned to the others who all nodded in agreement as Biggs drew out a pistol and knife while Wedge merely looked around fearfully.
A cold sensation filled the side of Rems cheek as Barret pressed his gatling gun against her skin threateningly before speaking out to her in a demanding tone.
"I heard ya talkin to someone jus a minute ago, where are they?" Barret growled as he spoke. Rems eyes looked up at his, trying to hide the sense of confusion that they might have been giving off. Hadn't they known Axel was there with her?
"I….I was talking to them on the communicator, I came alone" she lied without showing hesitation in her tone. She could only hope that where ever Axel was, he would keep to where he was till either she was able to get out of the situation she was in or if out of some miracle they had gotten help from someone.
"Yer Lyin" he said angrily as he pressed his large weapon against her cheek a bit more forcefully, her face wincing slightly as it started to hurt. Barret then looked over at the others without taking his arm grafted weapon away from Rems face.
"Go take a look over at the ladder from where she came from, fuckin rats might still be down there" he commanded, Biggs jerking a nod over at Wedge who gave a quick head shake.
"Wh..why me?!" he exclaimed, his question only getting a slight shrug from Biggs.
"Don't worry, if there are more of them down there I'll have your back" Biggs would reassure him, but Wedge still gave a slight sigh.
"Yeah…after I get my head blow off that is" he muttered before making his way over to the opening that led to the ladder. Rem had a hesitant look on her face as she watched the slightly obese man walk over to the opening, worrying that Axel was still on the ladder, waiting for the right opportunity to emerge and would now be caught.
Wedge glanced down the hole, his eyes shifting around at the site below before looking back up at the others with a small look of relief on his face "No one else is down there boss" he would inform before making his way back to the others.
"Well looks like you're a lot fucking smarter than I gave ya credit for girly, you at least know when ter tell tha truth when yer supposed to" Barret said with a grin before taking his gun away from her face. He then reached down and grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt, lifting her up so that her feet dangled at least a foot off of the metallic ground.
"Unfortunately for you though, the truth still won't save ya" he said before aiming his gun at her chest, right where her heart was.
Rem felt the sense of fear flooding over her. Her mind told her body to react, just do anything to prevent this man from killing her. But the fear of seeing this gigantic man only seconds away from putting a bullet through her heart prevented her now paralyzed body from doing anything.
Underneath the platform, Axel let out a small groan as he dangled from the bottom of the flooring that Barret and the others stood on. His robotic hands were magnetically stuck against the platform only a few feet from where the ladder he climbed up was.
"That was rather close" he thought to himself after seeing the shadow of Wedge disappear from the opening. He then started to use the magnets in his gloves to travel across the bottom of the metallic floor towards the edge of the platform, hearing the statement from above that their captive was about to be killed.
"Rem…" he muttered quietly as all he could feel at the moment was a sense of dread at the thought of losing one of the few people that he actually tolerated, one of the few people that he had actually come to label as a friend.
Knowing what needed to be done to save her, he demagnetized one of his gloves and reached down to press a small button on each boot. A small hum began to emanate from them followed by the sound of air being inhaled through the small vents on the back of them. With his free hand he reached at the edge of the platform and grabbed on, his other hand also demagnetizing to allow himself to dangle from the flooring from just his grip alone. He then reached up with his free hand to press a button on his other glove, the same hum and air sucking noise coming from the glove as the boots had done.
Jesse looked away from the scene of Barret holding Rem up, being one to not like such brutal sights such as this while the other two merely shifted their eyes to look away. But right as soon as Barret would say 'say good-bye Red', the sound of something heavy hitting the platform to his right halted him.
Barret turned his head in time to see the lab coat covered boy standing meters away from him, a look of pure anger was emanating in Axels eyes behind the square framed glasses. Barret raised a brow in interest as his attention was no longer on Rem.
"Hey kid! Where the hell did ya come from?!" Barret would demand before feeling a hard impact against the side of his head. Rem had taken the opportunity to land a hit against the larger mans head with her foot, kicking off his chest with her other foot once she felt his grip loosen on her.
"Now Axel!" she yelled out before landing on the floor. Before the others could react, Axel started running towards the leader of Avalanche and once he came to the half way point from where he stood before and where Barret was, his boots let out a loud boom as the air that was built up inside of them had exploded out against the floor beneath him. His body shot forward with intensity and speed, causing him to look like nothing more than a white blur to everyone else. When within striking distance of the dumbfounded Barret, Axel's glove gave the same boom noise that his boots did a second earlier, landing a forceful punch against Barrets chest.
"What the fu..!" was all that came from Barret before he felt his feet leave the surface of the platform and was propelled backwards against the railing with enough force to bend the rail outward with Barrets body laying against it.
Once gaining his composure Axel rushed over to Rem, ignoring the flurry of bullets that were fired at the two from the three members of Avalanche who had regained themselves from what they had just witnessed.
"Cutting it a bit close there weren't you?" Rem said breathlessly after they hid behind a bundle of metal canisters. Axel merely shook his head at her teasing.
"Well next time I'll just leave you to fend after yourself then, how does that sound?" his attention not fully on her as he looked at his glove that was used against his enemy, seeing that the knuckle part of the glove was dented from the impact between it and the pure muscle that was Barrets chest.
"Idiot ape, this will take weeks to repair" he muttered to himself.
Rem let out a sigh before gripping the sword hilt that was attached to her hip "I'll try and hold them off, you contact Cloud and see if we can get some back up" she instructed before hearing a sudden change in the amount of gun fire, changing from round after round of gunfire to pure silence.
Deciding to take a chance, Rem looked up from behind the metal canister to see that Wedge and Biggs had come to Barrets aid who was obviously too injured to move on his own. Her attention was drawn to Jesse who was holding what looked like a missile launcher, resting on her shoulder as she took aim in their direction.
"Oh shit!" Rem yelled out before grabbing Axel by the front of his lab coat, him letting out a "Rem! What are you doing?!" as she pulled him out from behind their hiding spot.
Jesse took a few seconds to aim carefully before firing the large weapon. What came firing from the large barrel was not a missile, a grenade, or bullet, but rather a large round metal ball which opened up in mid air, resembling what looked like a baseball sized, metallic spider.
"Is her aim…that terrible?" Rem asked out loud as the two watched the metallic insect soar way above the hiding spot they had evacuated from.
The fired projectile soared high above the canisters and traveled over to the other side of the large room and slammed against the wall with a loud metallic 'bang!'. As soon as the machine hit the wall, its eight legs instantly dug into the wall to prevent it from falling. The robotic creature began to crawl down the wall to the lowest section of the room where the green pool glowed brightly.
"The hell?" Rem would mutter quietly as the two watched on, ignoring the fact that Avalanche wasn't attacking them anymore but rather making their way towards the exit with Biggs and Wedge struggling to carry the massive injured Barret.
"Come on, we only got 10 minutes to get out of here" Jesse could be heard instructing the group before disappearing into the next room over.
Even from high above, Axel could see the metal spider continue its descent downward till it reached the control panel at the end of the platform against the wall. With a loud 'thud' the small machine dug it's legs into the panel and pressed its bottom against the surface securely, a small display showing a blinking red '10:00' on the very top of the bomb which started to count down.
"Damn it" Axel muttered as his eyes widened in fear, pressing on the small communicator in his ear to send a signal out to the others who he figured should be answering at any second since they obviously didn't have their hands full with Avalanche. Once he heard the confirmation 'beep' come in from the other end to signal that they could hear him he began to speak.
"Cloud?! Come in Cloud, can you hear me?" he asked with a hint of panic in his tone before running over to the exit that Avalanche had just gone through only a few seconds ago with Rem right beside him. The sound of gun shots from up ahead told him that Avalanche had come across more guards that were left out from the previous battles.
He then heard the blond male on the other end "Axel?! What's going on? Are you and Rem alright?" the concern in his voice could even be distinguished over the communicator, which started to static out making it hard to hear anything else that was coming through from the other party.
"We acquired the mako, but Avalanche has cut us off from our exit. Cloud, they set the bomb already and it's been activated for 10 minutes. Get everyone far away from sector 7 as possible!" Axel would yell out in hopes Cloud would hear him but all he got was static, causing him to let out yet another "Damn it!" as he started to wonder if Cloud even got the last bit of information.
"What did he say? They aren't coming are they?" Rem asked as the two of them ran to the vent that would take them back to the outside area of the reactor.
Axel shook his head "I have no idea" he answered back as he continued to run while his boots metallically thudded against the ground loudly, Rem still following behind him "the transmitter cut off while I was communicating with Cloud" he explained as they ran as fast as they could, Axel keeping a mental count down in the back of his mind.
The doors swung open as Axel made his way through them, he could hear the yelling and running footsteps of Avalanche high above them as the group of four made their way to the elevator, not noticing the short cut through the vents that Axel and Rem had taken to get inside. Axel quickly ran over to the open vent and started to crawl through, Rem giving a slight shutter and sigh before crawling into the confined space as she figured she would rather go through it all over again than to be killed in a fiery explosion.
4 minutes, only 4 minutes left till the bomb would go off and destroy the reactor. This was what was going through Axels mind as he kept the counter going on in his head. But he knew that if they could reach the train platform before the bomb would go off, they would still make it.
Once out of the vents Axel waited for Rem to appear from the same opening he had come out from before taking off down the road that lead past the metal doors that he opened for Jesse only a little while ago.
"We're going to make it….right?" Rem asked in a breathless state as the two continued to run, the doorway leading down to the train station was now in sight, giving the two a feeling of lifted spirits as Axel exclaimed out "3 minutes left, we'll make it".
They rushed down the stairs, expecting to be greeted by the sound of hissing steam and the sight of their one way ticket back home to safety and the rest of the group.
"Wh..what the...?!" Rem would exclaim once down at the platform only to see that no train waited for them on the tracks. The two were left alone on the platform with only 30 seconds left till the bomb would go off.
"They..they must have known once Avalanche made their appearance. They figured if Avalanche planted a bomb in the reactor than the explosion would at least take their enemy out too if they took away Avalanches only means of escaping" Axel explained as he looked around desperately for another means of escaping the area, but a look of defeat formed on his face as he realized there was no other way of leaving the area and there was no way of outrunning such an explosion.
An explosion could be heard from the depths of the reactor that caught the attention of the two, one that signalled off the beginning of a chair reaction of more explosions. After looking at what would be the instrument of their doom, Axel looked over at Rem who was already making her way over to him. She silently got down on one knee to be at the same level as him before wrapping her arms around him in an embrace.
"You know...it's ok to cry in situations like this" she said quietly against his shoulder as two single tears streamed down her cheeks, finding it rather silly that someone younger than her was the one not crying right now. But then she realized for the first time that she had never seen Axel cry during the time they spent together with the group, so why would he now?
Axel let out a sigh as he stood there, his hand reaching up around her arm to push his glasses back up his nose, a quiet "…idiot" was muttered from him.
The reactor gave a loud horrible groan, one that would send shivers down the spines of those who heard it before the entire building exploded in a large cloud of smoke and fire. A shockwave was sent out from the structure as near by buildings within a blocks of the reactor were destroyed by the force. A loud alarm could be heard throughout the city of Midgar a few seconds later, signalling the beginning of what would be seen the next morning as a terrorist attack from Avalanche.