CHAPTER NINE

For the first few hours all that could be heard was the repetitive noise of the red vehicle's engine and rocks spitting out from under the tires hitting the cavern wall.

All of them were sore, tired and hungry, the little respite they had gotten in Corel not nearly enough to recharge their internal batteries.

The twins slept right next to each other, both wounded from the battle and with limited supplies Vance had insisted they wait to see if their injuries would get infected.

The pilot had spent the time driving only occasionally switching with Evaleyt when one of them grew tired. They couldn't afford to stop, Shinra undoubtedly knew where they were heading now.

Denzel himself had been staring off thinking of all they had just gone thru, his mind racing to find solutions and yet few came to mind.

Sometimes he would look across at the shirt haired woman and feel some animosity toward her, he only hoped it didn't show on his face.

It soon became clear that it wasn't as Seraphina asked, "Do you have something to say to me?"

He looked away, biting his words back as she commented dryly, "Out with it, you have been staring at me for the past fifteen minutes. If you have something to say, just say it."

Denzel glared at her and responded icily, "You mean like how you warned us about Shinra?"

Her dark blue eyes narrowed and she muttered, "I gave as much heads up as I could, not my fault the rest of you were sleeping."

"That's a lie and you know it!" Denzel said getting to his feet and adding, "If you had came into Corel fifteen minutes earlier maybe there would have been chance for us to get away unseen."

Evaleyt turned her head to stare back at the two of them and commented softly, "Please let's not have any bickering."

"Stay out of this. You're just as young and foolish as him! If you hadn't interfered with us in Cosmo none of this would've happened!" Seraphina shouted back.

"I was told there was going to be a raid, I acted to protect my friend. He's the only one I have left," he replied defensively.

"And why might that be? You are too weak to do anything about this situation you are in. If you had any guts at all you would have left to fight a long time ago," she spat back.

"Enough please," Evaleyt said standing between the two of them. The short haired woman stared at him for another moment and then walked up toward the front of the vehicle where Vance and Nanaki were even as Denzel sat back down.

"She doesn't know the first thing about me," he muttered. "Neither do you about her," Evaleyt pointed out as she adjusted her pants and then sat opposite of him. "The moment we start fighting amongst ourselves, the enemy has already won," she pointed out.

He nodded, recalling how Tifa had told him something similar ages ago as he stretched and then looked over at the sack of what little Materia they still had left. Nanaki stepped over it and looked at him with curious eyes remarking, "You should know better than to question our allies, Denzel. We need all the help we can get when we reach Highwind Bay."

"I get the feeling we will he walking into a trap of some sort," Evaleyt agreed with a nod. "Shinra wouldn't dare go close to that place, they are firmly aligned with New Banora," Dirk said as he stretched and yawned.

"Thats true, but that doesn't mean we won't find trouble when we get there. At times the two conglomerates have chosen to look the other way when it meets their interests. Banora and Shinra haven't exactly been fighting much lately, not after what happened at the Saucer a year ago," Nanaki pointed out twitching his tail back and forth.

"We can't afford to waste another Esper," Seraphina added glaring at the twins who were now both awake. "Then we should get in the old fashioned way. By sneaking in," Denzel suggested, deciding for now to put aside his grudge for the black haired girl.

"Denzel is right," Gharek said choosing not to meet the others gaze and knowing that it was his fault the Materia was lost.

"There is another problem, with our position exposed Shinra must know we are trying to return to the WRO. We need to figure out a way to lose them," Nanaki pointed out.

The group seemed to consider this problem for a moment and then Dirk said, "Maybe once we reach Highwind Bay we will need to split up?"

"What do you mean?" his brother asked. "Obviously Shinra doesn't know where the WRO is holed up right now, so we trick them and steal two airships. They will follow both and divide up their forces. Then we can easily meet up once we lose them in the wind," Dirk explained.

"I can't fly an airship," Evaleyt muttered.

"I can," Seraphina said considering the plan and then all of them noticed that the land rover had stopped. Altair entered the small room where they had been conferring and muttered, "We may need a better plan then that. I just got a look at the outskirts of the town."

"What is it?" Gharek asked noting their leaders fright. Vance looked at them all and explained, "The Wutai army is here."