Reno—Edge
I smelled a fight. It revived me with adrenalin, and the thrill of doing something violent and substantial to vent my massive frustration. Rude and I arrowed for the heart of chaos in Edge's monument square. People fled and screamed in the path of rampaging monsters. A ring of zombielike kids stood all around, staring creepily at the ground.
Two silver-haired leather-clad clowns had hooked chains up to the Meteorfall sculpture and were tugging on them.
"And what are we up to?" I said, tapping my EMR on my shoulder.
The two louts twisted to scowl at us.
"We know Mother is here," said the long-haired clown in a mellifluous voice, gesturing at the memorial behind them.
"Oh, yeah?" said Rude, on my right.
"Yeah," said the beefy short-haired tool. "This… thing… monument-thing…? Shinra made it."
Real couple of intellectuals, these two. I smirked. "So you think we hid her here."
"Did you?" purred Longhair.
"Why ask us?" Rude said smoothly.
"Where we hid her is classified info!" I said, and gave Rude a snicker. Would you look at these two?
"Aha," said Longhair. "Seems you do have something to hide."
I glanced back, eyebrow raised, and my brain helpfully replayed everything Rude and I had just said. Aw, fuck! Now they know we know where Jenova is! I scowled, stammered, but the cat was out of the bag. I turned on Rude in my frustration. "Rude! You and your big mouth!" He shifted, looking ashamed, unable to meet my eyes.
Screw this! "Hiyaaaa!" I charged at them, brandishing my nightstick.
We'd hardly gotten started on their asses when the sky erupted and I looked up. A large creature with wings formed out of the broiling clouds, diving for the memorial, scattering what people still remained. It looked like some form of Bahamut summon. I charged forth, whirling my nightstick, ready to open up some serious hurt on it.
My depth perception must have been shot to hell by sleep deprivation. The thing perched on the monument was enormous, gigantic, gargantuan. Nervous laughter spilled out of me as I looked up and up and up in shock and horror.
"Hel-lo…!" I said.
"Hell, no!" said Rude.
I was inclined to agree. I whirled and took off, retreating victoriously for safer ground.
I spotted one of those freakin' zombie kids, frozen in place, and skidded to a halt to pick him up. The little fucker fought me, trying to push me off, shoving fingers up my nose. I was already out of breath and nearly choked, panting through my mouth.
Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. Beefy was in the act of springing at me. I swept the kid up in my arms and vamoosed just in time to avoid the joker. I caught up to Rude, who'd somehow acquired a child under each arm. I heard a building, screaming whine splitting the air above and behind me.
"Is it after us?!" I yelled.
"I'm not looking!" Rude yelled back.
An explosion hurled us screaming down a side street. I blacked out for a minute.
When I came to, I was faceplanted on the rough pavement, child gone, but still holding the EMR. I heard Rude grunt beside my head as I prised my aching face from the street. The barrel of my nightstick scraped across asphalt. I pushed the ground from my smarting body, then heard soft laughter behind me.
My head swiveled. The silver-haired clowns stood over us.
"Having fun yet?" cooed Longhair.
Oh, this shit is on! I tensed. "The time of my life!" I rose spinning, a roundhouse kick the asshole dodged. I swung my rod up at the same time, which I then cleaved down at his smug little face.
He backflipped, dodged my swings, and blocked my kicks with his arms. He swiveled and administered one of his boots to my face, knocking me back on the street.
I scrambled up and charged him. "When are you gonna call it a day?" He leaped back and up onto a building roof behind him.
"What? Just as soon as you give back Mother, that'll be the end of everything." He sounded so undisturbed as I glared up at him.
Smarmy little shit! I scrambled up the side of the building, hands and feet grabbing hold wherever they could, building speed. When I reached the top I somersaulted into the air and came down right where he suddenly wasn't anymore.
I chased him back along the rooftop. He just kept blocking my best moves.
"Forget your little reunion and get a grip!" I snarled. I whirled the EMR at his head repeatedly.
"All we want is to be with Mother!" He kicked me all the way across the street into a billboard for Loveless, which smashed free of its moorings and tumbled to the street below. I followed, landing on something soft that yelped in a familiar voice.
I peeled myself off Rude, groaning. My foot smashed his glasses—yet again. I heard him gasp. I noticed as I was looking down how unbelievably filthy this punishing fight had made me, and got distracted with brushing myself off.
"Mother, schmother," I muttered. "It's Jenova's fuckin' head!"
"Hey!" said Beefy.
"I will not have you refer to Mother that way!" said Longhair.
"You meanie!" Beefy added in a tearful whine.
Oh, please, I thought.
"Our apologies," said Rude, putting on a fresh pair of glasses.
"Your ma's cool," I added disingenuously, and realized what I'd just said. My head flipped up. "What the hell am I saying?!"
I ran and leaped just as Longhair did. Finally my strike connected, hurling him right into the ground, and I dropped to a crouch. It felt so fucking good, even though it still seemed my entire body was bruised.
I gave a thumb's-up to my partner, who'd decked Beefy in the meantime. I rose and turned just in time for my jaw to meet Beefy's armored fist. I was knocked flying into Rude, and carried backward down half the street until my body struck the pavement again.
Leather boots dropped down behind my head as I struggled to get up. Rude and I stood back to back, panting, wincing. I felt blood running out of my nose. I squinted through the pain at Longhair.
A substantial streak of darkness slammed into him horizontally and carried him flying backward, to strike the street. The deep blackness seemed attached to him, and also wore black boots.
"Don't you touch him!" hissed a voice, so angry I wouldn't have recognized it if not for her bright blue hair.
"Ohh, yeah!" I yelled, and whirled around to face Beefy. "That's what I'm talking about!"
Rude had also caught on to what was happening and the two of us punched Beefy simultaneously. I heard a howl of pain behind me and grinned; Schala didn't cry out. That morale boost was just the second wind I needed to kick it up a notch. Rude and I focused our joint forces on Beefy.
Unfortunately these guys, even singly, were a match for Rude and Reno of the Turks. Beefy smashed Rude aside and hurled me a good distance away. I yelped.
"Fuck!" I heard Schala yell. I glanced up to see her actually break off from her long-haired opponent as Beefy bore down on me.
She barreled at him, reaching him right before he reached me. I sprang up and kicked for his head. She went for his crotch. Together we took him down.
She sat on his back, pummeling his kidneys. He bucked and writhed and rolled over on her. She grunted. He swung his legs up to try to spring and right himself. I brought my EMR down right between his legs. He slammed his elbow back into Schala, who went 'oof.'
Meanwhile Longhair and Rude had another confrontation Rude lost, and the former snuck up behind me and administered a deeply painful blow to my left kidney. I collapsed to my knees with a scream.
Beefy lifted and slammed Schala into the ground, breaking her hold. Rude ran up and Beefy sprang to his feet to assault my partner again, knocking him far back and chasing after him. I crouched and dodged as Longhair went for another strike on me. Schala leaped on him. I pushed off to join her.
Our paired assault on either side of him crystallized perfectly, our blows landing in different areas of his body, not interfering, falling with a perfect rhythm. A rhythm I'd taught her. She'd acquired speed and agility beyond what I'd seen before. Longhair was forced into a continual retreat and that goddamn omnipresent smirk finally vanished.
Her panting, her grunts and all of mine chorused together. Our bodies, honed and trained, moved in concert to the same purpose. It was one thing to fight her—it was another thing entirely to fight alongside her. Allies, comrades, our give and take complementing each other instead of clashing.
That shared awesome flow was thrown when Beefy grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her backward. She yelped in pain. It turned into a scream as his electrified fist drove into her back and engaged with a sound like a gunshot.
My rage crested. Her noise turned me into a ball of thoughtless fury. I foolishly turned my back on Longhair and flew at Beefy. This at the same time Rude reached him, so the two of us connected our assault on the asshole holding Schala.
She wrenched around in Beefy's grasp and grabbed his throat in the midst of our three-on-one crushing hug. Beefy jerked, gasping. I was close enough to Schala to smell her sweat, to see her eyes reflect the green healing her body, to see her ferocity as she stared into Beefy's eyes. She was going to kill him, I felt certain of it, and wouldn't rest until she did.
Longhair grabbed me and hauled me off them, hurling me to the pavement again. My face was really bloodied now, my body feeling like one giant bruise.
I scrambled up in time to see Longhair turn and shoot Schala in the back. She dropped to the ground.
"Fucker!" I howled, and dove on Longhair.
Schala rose, her back lit up with healing green spirals of light. Beefy punched Rude over his shoulder.
I heard a gunshot and explosion high overhead and looked up to see Rufus tumbling off the building we were standing beside. The third silver-haired circus freak dove after him.
"Sir, no!" Rude and I yelled simultaneously.
The president twisted midair and fired his weapon downward, and I saw the black glossy sample box tumbling through the air below him. The silver-haired man stretched for it. Rufus was shooting at him. He missed and hit the case, which twirled in the air.
My president was plummeting to his death. I ran forward. Before I could reach the foot of the building, a bandaged Tseng and Elena appeared out of nowhere and fired diagonal shots across under him. Twin crossed nets popped open just in time to catch Rufus's body. My heart started beating again.
I swiveled and saw the three silver-haired morons swing onto motorbikes, one with the case under his arm. They sped off into the city.
Schala was looking in the opposite direction, in a ready crouch. A fourth motorbike was approaching, glossy black. The rider's spiky blonde hair couldn't be mistaken. Schala leaped onto the back of the bike as it flew by, wind ruffling my hair and clothes. I turned to see the president climb out of the net and stand before me, Rude, Tseng and Elena, unharmed.
I grabbed Tseng's arm, ignoring his hiss of pain. "You're in charge again, right?" I snapped. I didn't give him time to do more than start to form a bemused look. I released him to grab Rude's PHS out of his jacket and flip it to two-way radio mode. "I need the chopper on the ground, now!"
Schala—Edge
As harrowing and painful as it felt to be under the bike when Cloud wiped out, it was nothing compared to what transpired when we chased the silver-haired men through the city.
Cloud was having a swordfight. On a motorbike.
Two of the silver-haired men sprang from bike to bike without any momentum apparently lost or drift in direction. Also their motorbikes had guns. A black helicopter soared up out of nowhere and swiveled to provide air support while Cloud went after Kadaj.
The helicopter blew up an overpass behind us. I watched the pavement and concrete and steel twist and collapse in an order of magnitude that took my breath away.
One of the bikes flew out of the mess and up at the helicopter. Amazingly, the chopper did not explode right away, but soon lost control and crashed trailing smoke on the highway almost on top of us. Cloud swerved judiciously at the right moment to save us.
Still those two bikes came after us. We entered a tunnel and the fight became grueling. Whenever one of them landed on Cloud's bike we both fought and somehow the bike kept going. I had to overcome my terror and take a leap of faith. The Lifestream had been helping me with physical assists and speed.
Don't fail me now, I thought, gathering my legs under me and leaping off Cloud's bike.
I don't know how I did it. I didn't know if I could do it again. But I landed on the back of the short-haired man's bike and struck at him. He fought to fling me off and I kicked and bit and tried to throw him from the bike.
He hurled me into the air and leaped after me, raining blows on me in the air. I twisted, filled with pain and cold and terror, suspended high above the still-moving bikes below. I managed to drop down back onto Cloud's. Before I could think about it I sprang back into the air, intercepting the long-haired man as he aimed for Cloud.
I felt worse than useless. Cloud clearly was trying to protect me and my assistance was not a speck on his fighting skill, even with the boosts the Lifestream had given me. It took all our effort to defeat just one, me holding on to the short-haired man with all my might and Cloud impaling him with the fusion sword on the back of Cloud's bike.
Gunshot. Cloud arched with a sharp cry and wince even as the short-haired man dissolved to green swirling dots of light in my grasp. I flung the dissolving body aside and lunged forward to grab Cloud and the handlebar of Fenrir, desperate even though I knew I couldn't drive a motorbike.
Green Lifestream energy poured out of me as Cloud flipped over and took over the controls, leaning down into the wind. More gunshots followed us. I glanced over my shoulder, turning, ready to jump. The silver-haired man drew alongside us and I leaped.
He shot me in the air, but I barely felt it, Lifestream healing me right away. As he twisted and I landed behind him, I grabbed him, braced and heaved. He shot me in the face as I threw him upward with all the might the Lifestream had given me.
I screamed and covered myself with my hands. This pain was intense, and ebbed slowly as coolness poured through me. I felt the bike thrumming under me, a pounding and roaring in my ears. I knew I had to heal quickly or that man would be on top of me with his gun-sword again.
When I looked up Cloud was way down the tunnel, diminishing silhouette against the distant prick of sunlight. The air overhead was clear, and no one was driving the bike.
I yelped and scrambled forward to grab the handlebars. It's a terrible thing to learn how to use a motorcycle while it's in high-speed motion. It was huge, heavy, but terribly sensitive to me shifting my weight.
Aerith—Lifestream—someone please help! I thought frantically. The thing wove and wobbled under me. I discovered the throttle and eased up on my velocity even though this increased the distance between me and Cloud, whom I'd promised to assist and protect. My heart pounded painfully in my chest, arms practically tingling in fright. I gradually grew more used to the feel of the monstrous machine under my control.
The Lifestream's pulse in me was urgent and freezing cold. I sensed danger up ahead that blotted out all thought. Something bigger than I cared to imagine unfurled around me.
If I want to live in this world—if I want to love in this world—and I do—I have to do what I can to stop this.
I ground my teeth and put on speed.
Reno—Edge
Rude and I waited at the mouth of the tunnel, Tseng and Elena hovering watchfully overhead. They'd rescued us after our chopper crashed. I was starting to think that, like the director and the president, we also had nine lives.
I hefted my package of explosives with its currently-frozen digital timer. I felt more tense than bored, so whistling wouldn't cut it—I had to talk.
"Hey, partner," I said to Rude. "This thing got any bite to it?" I glanced at him, then back at the tunnel. It felt as though we'd been waiting for hours for them to emerge.
"Shinra technology at its finest," said Rude, holding up his own.
"Oh, you made this," I said distractedly, squinting into the tunnel's depths.
"It's nothing if not… flashy," said Rude.
I only half-heard him. I thought I saw a flickering light ahead in the distance. I couldn't hear over the damn chopper overhead. I strained my every sense forward, waiting, watching.
"Come on, come on, come on, come on…" I hissed.
It took ages for that possibly-imaginary spark to grow into a definite cluster of headlights. Then I heard the bike engine, moments before it burst out into view.
Cloud rode alone. He tore past between us. I spun around, mouth open.
"Where is she?" I shouted after him, already almost out of sight. "Where is she?! You spiky-haired bastard, if you left her in there I willend you!"
Rude snorted at me in disbelief. I turned back to the tunnel, panicked, dismayed.
"We can't blow it!" I shouted to Rude.
"No shit," said Rude.
"She's still in there! Goddamn it!" I cried. Is she dead? Seconds crawled by. Minutes fell on me, each with its own special pain and panic of not-knowing.
A second headlamp appeared and enlarged out of the darkness. I sucked in a breath and held it. As the bike approached I saw slanting afternoon sun light up wildly whipping blue hair.
Tingly, cool relief washed through me. Just minutes after nearly losing my best friend and feeling that heart-stopping fear turn to utter joy as I found him clinging to life and the bottom of the chopper, I was feeling it again.
She whipped past, face covered in blood but etched with determination. Rude and I deposited our packages and grabbed the rope swinging from the helicopter.
As we swung away, I peered excitedly back to watch the mess unfolding. The roar on the air, blast of heat and vibration thrumming through my bones and nearly deafening me, the crackling spark of gunpowder, thrilled me primally.
Three colossal explosions, an aerial attack, and I'd nearly died. I couldn't remember when I'd had so much fun. I clambered up the rope whipping in the breeze. Rude helped me up into the cabin, where Elena was already waiting.
I grinned at him. "Thanks, partner. Whaddya say we see what other damage we can do, huh? We're on a roll!" I climbed forward into the co-pilot's seat, grabbing a free headset.
"Good to have you back, sir," I said with feeling to Tseng.
He nodded, his bandaged face tilted to look out the window as we hove after the remaining three bikes on the highway.
"Heads-up, Highwind," I said, pointing at the airship also moving into position above the ruined Shinra building in Midgar's desolate center.
"So I see," said Tseng, adjusting our trajectory. "The young woman who heals Geostigma—she is fighting alongside Cloud?"
"Damn right," I said proudly. "I taught her everything she knows."
"Fighting Kadaj? Who caused serious grievous injury to all four senior Turks even in pairs?" he said.
"Er…" My throat tightened. Suddenly I didn't feel so good about just letting her drive by.
"My understanding is, she was under your protection."
"Yeah, until the boss called me back to Healen. I had to…"
"Geostigma still prevails in Edge and she is its only remedy."
"I…"
"We must retrieve her immediately."
I saw the leading two bikes clash and slide down a dirty slope. We were still out of gun range.
"Think you're right, sir," I said. I'd trained her as well as I could but I knew she was woefully unprepared for what she was facing, even with Cloud.
Schala—Edge/Midgar
I limped whimpering to where the bike lay on its side on the highway, where I'd wiped out. The Lifestream took away my pain and left me cold, but apprehension remained as I reached the bike.
Bright white light and flowers slammed into place around me. I stopped, swaying, startled.
"I'm hurrying as fast as I can!" I snapped, still upset from my harrowing crash.
"Don't have motorcycles in your world?" said the man with spiky black hair, beside me with folded arms and a curiously kind grin.
"I… yes, but… not always… it's complicated," I said, flustered. "I've never driven one."
"Let me guide you." He reached toward me and the field of flowers vanished, leaving the sunset highway and waiting bike. I felt thick fuzziness in my head like a hangover as I lifted it, yet somehow nimbly swung a leg over.
"Hurry…" I heard Aerith's urgent voice in my mind.
Something took over my movements. I watched, a horrified passenger in my own skin, as my hands revved the throttle and my body jerked like a marionette. I panicked. I was sent right back into trapped terror of the Time Devourer possessing my body, using my power while I watched helplessly.
No, no, no! I thought. I can't do this!
A moment of sheer panic overrode reason. I felt his presence, trying to reach and reassure me. He couldn't. Only I could do that.
You can do this, I told myself. That was then. This is now. Open up and trust them. They saved your life. They gave you power to help, to save people you care about.
The highway flew by underneath me, as fast as it could go. Overhead, the sky darkened abruptly with an ominous swirl of clouds.
Reno—Midgar
I focused on the blue flicker of Schala's hair, ignoring the frenetic swordfight as not-my-problem. That shit was up to Cloud at this point.
I saw Schala spring off the bike she rode and soar up into the air. A green hazy glow like an afterimage trailed her body. I breathlessly watched her awesome trajectory. The silver-haired man leaped into her path, so focused on Cloud he didn't see her coming from behind.
I noticed the length of the hair and the uniform. That's not one of those creeps…! Horror crashed over me. …That's Sephiroth!
She slammed into the son of Jenova and knocked him off his trajectory, vanishing out of sight. I scrambled up and back into the cabin of the chopper, ditching my headset as I went, heart in my throat. Sephiroth is back! Oh my fucking Holy, we're all going to die—starting with her!
I felt the helicopter dropping, lifting my feet off the deck, and clung to the handrail inside the cabin door as I heaved it open and looked down into a nightmare.
I didn't see how it happened, I only saw the flash of eerie grey light off the needle-like Masamune sword he held up. She'd been skewered on the end of it, twitching.
"NO!" I screamed. I saw Cloud running for them with his giant-ass sword, but it was already too late. And so was I.
Schala—Midgar
As soon as the sword entered me, saw a flash of glowing falling petals and heard Aerith's voice: "…sorry. I stopped looking for alternatives when you showed up. It was easier just to use you. I'm so sorry. Just let go, Schala…"
My anger sparked in response. Faces flamed in my thoughts—Cloud, Tifa, Denzel, Marlene, Cid Highwind, Nanaki, Godo Kisaragi, Reno, Rude, Rufus, the people whose lives I'd touched, those who'd been kind to me in return. My face tightened in a grimace of determination.
I gasped for breath, reaching with shaky arms for the sword paralyzing and suspending me off the ground. I could see pale grey eyes with a cat's sociopathic curiosity looking up at me.
I thought of Serge as I grasped the narrow blade impaling me. I couldn't feel pain anymore. I pulled myself down toward that dreadful contemptuous expression. Blood was running down the sword and soaking my clothes.
Vincent, I saw. I remembered Magus—Janus; my mother, the kindness in her eyes before Lavos exerted its influence over her. Lucca. Crono. Nadia. Glenn. Robo. Ayla. Those I loved and who would never be mine to protect or see once more.
I pulled harder for them, and for those in this world who would be as insects to this man looking up at me like one. Cloud. Rude. Reno.
It stuck and slid so slowly. I had to force it through my thick meaty body. I stretched out, hand over hand, to grasp again and again and pull. My hands bled.
When I thought darkness would consume me, I kept pulling for Aerith. For Zack. For Serge. For me.
I saw that smooth, pale face. His head tilted. He seemed mildly bemused by his doomed prey's determination. I dragged myself inch by hard-won inch down the sword.
He glanced away. His other hand swung up to the sword and, continuing the same motion, he flicked the sword to fling me off. As I glided through the air, my sight filled with Reno-like red just before it went black. Faces I loved swirled away from me down a drain like a Gate.
To my chagrin, my last thoughts were: I wish I had given in and kissed you, and had just one night with you… I wish I'd felt that again before death.
I felt no landing, just weightless flight and then unconsciousness.
Reno—Midgar
I dropped to the metal and stone roof and immediately began to run. I slid as I hit my knees and stopped beside her. She lay where she'd been thrown like a broken doll. No reassuring green glow poured out of her. I reached for her.
"Schala! Schala!"
She lolled limply in my arms. I was kneeling in a nearly-black lake of her lifeblood. I dimly heard the clash and crackle of Cloud and Sephiroth resuming their fight in the near distance. I also heard a roar of airship propellers, and the rotor of the hovering chopper overhead.
I shook, holding her. For a minute all I knew was despair. Tifa crouched down on the other side of Schala, along with that Wutai brat holding an armful of materia.
Anger rocketed through me like a thundercrack and electrified me. I straightened, turned and ran. I had only one purpose now: kill the freak who had done this to her.
"Reno!" Tifa yelled. "Leave him! It's Cloud's fight now!"
I was intercepted by Rude, who grabbed on and held fast. I pivoted on my heel and drove my clenched fist right into the bridge of his sunglasses. He went down like a tree.
I only managed to get about another two feet before a metal fist like a piledriver smashed into my face and knocked me on my ass. Darkness exploded with stars. My ears rang. I blinked and saw Barret standing over me, a satisfied quirk to the corner of his mouth. I glared up at him with all the hating fire of hell.
A cool, gentle touch on my cheek turned my head without thought. Green glowed around Schala as my eyes met hers.
I grabbed her, yanked her against me and wrapped my arms around her. My fingers dug into blood-soaked clothes and hair. I buried my head in her shoulder.
"Lyrant," her lips murmured by my ear.
"Bami," I said. Kneeling, I held her in my arms with the intensity of a starving man feasting.
She pulled away. I lifted my head with a groan of protest. She wasn't looking at me, but up and away, past me. I released her as I turned to look, still on my knees. In the distance, Sephiroth was trouncing Cloud. She broke into a run.
I leaped up and dove after her in fresh waves of panic. I caught her and bore her to the ground. She fought to stand up. I tugged her back down. She seemed possessed.
"No!" I hissed in her ear, frantic. "You can't fight him! He slaughters armies! Only Cloud has ever defeated him!"
"Reno," she said, never taking her eyes off the fight, "if Cloud doesn't succeed, I have to fight. He could destroy everything. And I don't want this world to end."
I shook my head. "You're not going anywhere without me."
At last she turned to me with a depth of fear I'd never seen before etched on her features.
"Or me," Rude added, on her other side. We glanced up at him. He'd replaced his glasses again. He nodded to us, arms folded in front of him. We nodded as well and rose to our feet to watch the battle for our world and our lives.
It still seems so unbalanced that such a high-stakes battle could be fought only by those two. I don't have enough faith in anyone to trust the fate of a planet to them. But it wasn't my choice, really. That's why they call it 'destiny.'
It was Sephiroth's destiny to come back, Cloud's destiny to fight him again. It was ours to watch and feel helpless and inadequate. Schala's arm and mine were around each other. She shivered in the abusive wind.
It looked like the battle was over. Sephiroth impaled Cloud and flung him down on the ground, much like Schala, and hovered in the air on one black wing. She tensed in my arm, tried to pull away, and I held onto her hard, hissing, "No, no, no…" in her ear. She struggled fiercely, and at last threw me off. I ran after her.
Cloud somehow regained his feet, leaking blood everywhere, and leaped into the air, swinging that sword around. As he met Sephiroth in midair, the sword broke apart into half a dozen blades, all glowing with the light of a Limit Break.
Cloud zipped back and forth through Sephiroth with those blades. Feathers flew. Black dust scattered. The general hung in a cage of sheer punishing Cloud-rage. Schala and I skidded to a halt. We watched with open mouths and wide eyes as the blond SOLDIER reject took that fucker down. Sephiroth's wing closed around him and dissolved, melting his image away.
God fucking damn, yes! I thought gloriously. It may not have been me, but I can still get a thrill from watching a truly fine piece of successful fighting.
That punk Kadaj dropped out of the mess, released like a puppet. Schala jerked back into a run and leaped.
Schala—Midgar
I landed unexpectedly gently on tiled concrete. Cloud knelt, holding Kadaj's panting, prone body in one hand and one of his swords in the other, off to the side. He looked up as I landed by them and sank to my knees. I slid my arms under Kadaj, whose catlike blue-green eyes focused on mine.
He looked frightened, like a little boy. I thought of the beds of dying Earthbound Ones I'd visited in my youth, their similar pleading eyes, and what I'd said to them as they faced their final rest.
"It's all right," I murmured, as a gentle green glow surrounded us. "Everything's all right, Kadaj."
"Mother…?" he whispered.
"You can let go now," I said. "Just let go. It'll be all right."
He lifted his hand toward my face. It dissolved into strands of the Lifestream before it touched my skin. His body lifted and dissipated, and coolness breezed upward past my face.
I transferred my gaze and grasp to Cloud. The cold poured into him, green fizzling all over his skin and body beneath his clothes. His over-bright wide blue eyes searched mine. I realized he'd shifted to support me, and I was leaning heavily into him, barely upright. Blood spattered his face and hair.
At last the cold green Lifestream, which I never thought would cease, stopped flowing through me. It was like having the rug torn from under me. I fell onto his arm, which bore me up admirably. He dropped his sword with a clatter and reached around with the other one, cradling me.
"Nap," I said desperately, before I passed out.
Reno—Midgar
I cleared my throat. Cloud looked up as I squatted down by him.
"Can I take that off your hands?" I said.
A gunshot shattered the moment. He half-fell forward over her. My head flipped up. I saw Longhair, panting, arm glowing with materia, half-hunched as he stood on the edge of the roof. His gunblade clattered from his hands.
"We'll go… together…" he groaned as Cloud twisted to look back at the persistent assailant.
"It never ends with you people!" I snarled, grabbing my EMR where it dangled on the strap and engaging it as I swung it up. I sprang running out of my crouch. "Hi-yaaaa!"
I heard heavy bootfalls and the scrape of metal on stone behind me, heard Cloud echo my yell with one of his own, and fire exploded within me and without.