A/N – You guys know the drill: enjoy chapter nine!

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7 or any characters from the original game.

Chapter 9

Two swords cut through the air, and tore through the wolf's flesh like hot knives through butter. Finishing the slicing motion that he had begun, Rollin turned around to face the rest of the pack; they outnumbered the small group of people, but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in strength. That didn't mean the ravenous beasts were going to let up at all, however. While putting away the sword in his left hand he took a quick glance in Cloud's direction – he had his hands full but was able to keep up with his enemies and Aeris' at the same time. One of the wolves leaped toward Rollin, causing him to sidestep it and counter with a quick swipe of his clawed hand; it was effective against the unprotected flesh, muscle, and bone (the same with glass, as he had discovered in Midgar). With another foe down, two more took its place, swiping their sharp claws at their somewhat human prey. He was able to block most of the attacks, the rest being merely glancing scrapes.

Of course, this wasn't the only encounter with these kinds of predators; as a matter of fact, they had been disposing of smaller packs of wolves ever since they left Midgar; however, this was much larger than the groups of three or four that normally attacked them…so far, they had taken care of ten out of the seemingly endless number of the animals that now assaulted them.

Not the best of situations, one might say.

Taking a look with the corner of his eye he spotted even more heading in their direction; he also saw that Tifa was having a bit of trouble.

'Not good.' He thought to himself and rushed towards her direction, only to be stopped short by yet another group of beasts. Finishing them off quickly with a series of slashes, he saw one of the wolves lunging at Tifa. Moving his hand out in front of him, he pointed at it and sent a bolt of lightning towards it, impacting on its side and forcing it in that direction.

Regrettably, he didn't really know how he did that; otherwise, he would have an easy and fast way to end this. 'I wonder…' he pondered whilst moving over to where Tifa knelt; if he could shoot one bolt of lightning, then what about ten? Twenty? Hundreds?

"You okay?" he asked, helping her stand up as he did so. She nodded, although she looked exhausted. Moving quickly to where Cloud was, and tried to grab a hold of his attention, "Start heading for that town…I've got an idea." He pointed to the quaint town to his right, and Cloud nodded his approval. Handing Tifa off to him, Rollin turned to face the entire pack of wolves; as he readied himself for what he would try, he contemplated whether he would fail or not.

'No...I won't fail.' The thought ran through his mind over and over, bringing up images of Marle, Cody, the rest of his family, and his friends – both old and new. The thought of not being able to protect what he had left now filled him with anger, and as he held his hands out in front of him, that anger fueled what came out as a torrent of lightning bolts, hitting every beast in front of him and burning their flesh to a crisp. The destruction finally died down and allowed Rollin to see what carnage he had caused; nothing in front of him was left alive for quite a ways – even the ground was scarred by the heat from the lightning. Feeling drained of all of his strength, he collapsed onto the ground and blacked out.

Slowly he opened his eyes a little bit, not fully aware of the sun's glare coming through the window or the sweat beading his forehead.

Rollin groaned, opening his eyes further to adjust to the light. Last he remembered, he was still lying face down on the ground at the mercy of any and every carnivorous beast known to mankind. Once his eyelids were completely open, he saw something completely different than the enormous span of grass; he was in a large room occupied by six beds, one of which were being used: his own. 'I must be at an inn…but how did I get here?' he pondered, looking towards the door at the sound of footsteps. The door creaked open, and Aeris walked inside.

"Awake already?" she asked, walking over to check the bandages on his arm and chest. He shrugged, feeling the burn of straining his body too much and causing him to wince, "Don't push yourself too much…you were cut up pretty badly." He nodded slowly at this information

"How did I get here?" he asked her, getting a shrug in reply.

"You should ask Red about that. Until then," she finished up with replacing the last of the blood-stained bandages, "get some rest." Opening the door, she began to leave.

"Aeris?" Rollin called out somewhat weakly, and she turned around to face him, "About what you said at the Shin-Ra building, about being friends…" he exhaled, and continued, "I just wanted to say…thanks." She smiled brightly and calmly then left, closing the door behind her. Slowly, his eyes closed, and as if he had never had an ounce of actual sleep, slept.

A/N – Tell me what you think ladies and gents!

Until the next chapter,

Lloyd Redgrave