(A/N: Hey all! It's me again! Apparently, a lot of you are cool with me pair my OC up with someone. However, the whole, romance thing is gonna be a slow thing. No 'instantaneous-ohmigod-you-are-the-one-I-must-spend-my-life-with' crap. That's not how I roll, dudes and dudettes.
At any rate, thank you to all who reviewed and to all who responed to my poll. I love you lots and all opinions you have help me a lot! And now, sisnce I think i've kept you in suspense long enough, ON WITH THE FIC!)
"Alright, Vincent. This is far enough." Cloud said firmly as the they reached the outskirts of Edge, "Remember, your main objective is to ensure Marlene's safety. Understood?"
Vincent nodded, Marlene peeking her head out from within the folds of the former Turk's cape to peer up at the ex-SOLDIER.
"Cloud…you're coming back, right?" she asked tentatively, looking into his face inquisitively, "We're going back to Seventh Heaven together, right?"
Cloud stared into the face of the child looking up at him so earnestly, letting his gaze travel up to the expressionless void of Vincent's visage, offering him no out and then back to Marlene again, still looking at him hopefully.
"…right." Cloud said after a time, revving the engine of his chopper before taking off in the direction he knew from the print outs that the Remnants would be coming from.
The sound of the engine roaring in his ears, the sight of three dust clouds in the distance met his eyes, causing a tiny flicker of glee to shoot through his chest.
As expected, the Remnants were right on time and heading straight for him…or to be more accurate, straight for Edge.
They looked, at least in Cloud's opinion, more than slightly surprised to see him racing straight for them instead of the other way around, sword out and ready.
With a single sweep, Cloud blew Yazoo and Loz off their original course, leaving him to deal with the main problem of the three, Kadaj - the embodiment of Sephiroth's cruel, childish nature and boundless determination for vengeance.
Yazoo and Loz, quickly regaining their balance, spun their cycles around and shot off towards Edge once more, not about to be deterred from their objective find 'Mother', leaving Kadaj to deal with Cloud.
Knowing that Vincent was in need of a cell (thanks in large part to the information printed in Jayden's world) Tifa had purchased him another before they had set out, which Cloud quickly dialed as Kadaj shot towards him.
"Vincent, Loz and Yazoo are heading your way." He said shortly, hanging up quickly so he could block Kadaj's strike at his neck.
Cloud shifted his weight viciously and swung at Kadaj, who predictably, managed to block the assault. They matched each other blow for blow.
"It's just like fighting Sephiroth all over again." Cloud thought bitterly as the fight continued to go no where except closer to the city of Edge, "I can easily see how Kadaj could be a vestige of that monster."
Vincent, noting the abrupt end to the call, knew that A) he couldn't waste any time dawdling, and B) his main priority at the moment was the safety of Barrett's adopted child.
So, as Per Cloud's request, he proceeded to press three on speed dial, ringing up Cid in the Shera.
"Yazoo and Loz are approaching your current location." Vincent coolly, giving Marlene's shoulder a light squeeze with his good hand, "Alert the others."
"On it. But what's that Chocobo-head doin? Takin' a nap?" Cid asked crossly from his end, the muted sounds of his foot tapping against the metal floor not lost on Vincent as it echoed through the receiver.
"He is dealing with Kadaj." Vincent said crisply, keeping his eyes trained on the Remnant pair quickly approaching the unsuspecting city on their bikes, "Now please contact the Turks so they can start the evacuations, and Tifa so that she can ready herself."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm go- hey! Give that ba-!" Cid yelled, the sound of a struggle ensuing at the other end, causing a look of mild confusion to flit across Vincent's face.
"Hey Vince! Izzat you? What's goin' on? Izzit starting already?" Yuffie's voice cried stridently, Cid's pissed off voice in the background shouting, "Gimme back my goddamn phone, you freakin' klepto!"
"Yuffie…please give the phone back to Cid." Vincent said calmly, tone never wavering from it's usual even tone, "It's imperative that I speak to him."
Yuffie, sounding very grumpy, chucked the phone back to Cid, who was still cursing a blue streak. Vincent, out of pure instinct, covered Marlene's ear with his good hand and pressed the side of her head that he wasn't covering into his leg to block out the foul words.
After it seemed that Cid had calmed himself, Vincent released his grip on Marlene's skull and loosed a slow sigh, catching the pilot's attention again.
"Please contact the other's Cid." Vincent repeated for the third time, getting a bit annoyed at this point, even for one with a seemingly limitless supply of patience, "Now? Please?"
"I'm on it." Cid said, an odd mixture of guilt and awkwardness in his tone, "Sorry for flyin' off th' handle like that that, man. I just hate it when she does that."
"Just contact them." Vincent ground out for the fourth time, before hanging up with a snap.
Something streaked past the break room on the first floor, startling several ShinRa employees on break.
"Hey! What th' fuck was that?" Man A asked, watching as the tail end of whatever it was vanished up the stairs.
The thing shot past the cubicles of several more workers, causing their heads to pop up like daisies over the edges of their grey, fabric lined partitions.
"Dude, did you just…what th' hell was-!" Man B sputtered, shaking a bit as the creature disappeared around the corner.
"I have no idea, but Mr. President said not to bother him." Woman A said uneasily, maintaining a firm grip on her stapler, as though it would save her from what ever evil the animal brought with it.
The beast shot down the hall of the third floor, startling the ShinRa employees, even though they had been informed from people on the ground and second floor that it was making its way towards them.
"We won't call Mr. Shinra then! We'll take it out ourselves!" Woman B said stoutly, not looking anywhere near as confident as she sounded as she watched whatever the creature happened to be dart up the stairs.
"But we have to tell someone!" Man C said adamantly, a thoughtful look crossing his face, "Call Reno and Rude! They're still in the building!"
"Yeah, let'm know there's some sorta weird animal in the building!" Woman C chimed in agreement as Man D activated the com device in his collar, "Reno? This is Man D. A starnge creatur of some sort is heading your way."
"…right. We'll be on guard." Rude said into his collar, drawing stares from everyone but Jayden, who had grown accustomed to Rude and Reno being called away from her room because of the communicator sewn into their lapels.
"What is it?" Mikayla asked politely, an expression of awkward graciousness on her face as turned her eyes on the Turks.
"Apparently a strange animal is heading our way." Reno smirked, withdrawing the shock rod from it's slot on his belt. Eyeing the door, which stood ajar.
"Here it comes." Rude said, body tensing as the sound of paws pounding against the Formica floor met his ears.
The creator of the panic, as well as the din filling the halls, bounded through the halls, between Reno's legs, causing the red-head to flip onto his back and shot straight for Jayden.
"Hnuh-Chewy?" Jayden balked as the Great Dane smashed into her, overturning the wheelchair and seny her crashing to the floor as the canine, matted fur and chapped, bloodied paws, started giving her a tongue bath.
"GLAAAAAAAAAUGH! CHEWWYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" Jayden squealed as she tried to block the dog's frenetic licking with both hands, "Gerroff me ya dumb mutt!"
"…what th' fuck?" Kyle mumbled as Charlie exploded in a fit of laughter at his sister's predicament, "That dumb dog followed us all the way here?"
"Chewbacca! Off!" Mikayla said in a cold, authorative tone that sent the dog off her child and whimpering quietly to a corner.
"Aw, no need t' be so harsh, Mommy." Jayden said with a grunt as she pushed herself into a sitting position and wiped the slobber off her mouth, "He was just happy t' see us…that's all."
"Sheesh…he steamrolls you and you're defending him?" Reno snorted, rolling his eyes, "What are ya, a glutton for punishment or somethin'?"
"No, he just my iddle biddle puppy wuvkins." Jayden cooed in a baby voice, seriously freaking Reno out.
He didn't have long to spaz though as his cell went off in his back pocket. He dug it out and flipped it open in a single smooth motion that only CG characters are capable of.
"Yo?" he asked, eyebrow raising at the sound of Cid's voice on the other end, "Really?…already huh?…alright. I'll tell'm."
Reno looked at Rude who seemed to either have super human hearing or was telepathic, because without a word being exchanged between the two, he strode over to Charlie's bed and unfolded a wheelchair resting beside it.
"We're evacuating." He said calmly, lowering the guardrail on the gurney and assisting Charlie into it.
"Evacu-why? What's going on?" Kyle asked nervously as Reno did the same as Rude to his gurney, lifting him into the wheelchair when the mini-fro'd teen didn't move.
"Probably more of the same, hun." Mikayla said, tension in her voice as Rude moved on to her bed after Charlie had been successfully transferred to his wheelchair.
Reno surveyed the wreckage that had formerly been Jayden's chair; the left wheel was bent inward and the back of the seat torn out from the force of Chewbacca's impact.
"Guess who's goin' piggyback?" Reno smirked, looming over the gangly teen, "I'll give ya a hint: she' short, skinny and her name rhymes with Raymond."
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh no" she said, scooching herself towards the Great Dane in the corner, "Don't you even think about it."
"Too late." Reno shrugged, a devil-may-care grin on his lips as he swung her scrawny frame up and over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"PUT ME DOWN YOU PERVERT! LEMME GO, YOU GOGGLE-WEARING-FREAK!" Jayden shrieked, pounding against Reno's back with her fists, somehow forgetting that this wasn't her world and that he barely even felt the blows.
The Souba and Buster Sword collided again and again, sending flashes of vibrant energy sparking into the air.
The roar of the choppers ad they tore into the landscape, fishtailing and violently recovering from each fearsome strike was all that the ex-SOLDIER could hear.
Cloud grew more and more frustrated with each strike; they were so evenly matched it was sickening. He just couldn't get a leg up on Kadaj, who's superior smirk so resembled that of Aerith's killer that it was all Cloud could do to keep himself from becoming physically ill.
And he was getting a strange sense of déjà vu as he continued to rain down blows on the youngest of the Silver Haired Triad.
It was as if his skin itself was becoming electrically charged, and that strange sense was moving inwards to his vital organs.
Cloud knew that he wasn't the only one experiencing this strange sensation as a perplexed look flickered across Kadaj's pale face for an instant before returning to it's normal predatorial gaze.
"Now that's odd." Cloud thought awkwardly, his body moving on instinct now as Kadaj continued to strike, "Does he feel it too?"
The feeling was becoming increasingly more and more strange; it felt now as though he was attempting to fight the Remnant underwater.
Cloud's limbs felt so heavy and sluggish, like her was attempting to do battle in a thick, viscous liquid, comparable to pudding.
And while his body was slowing, everything around him spun around him at speeds that shouldn't have been possible, blending into one single color that was psychologically painful.
Cloud couldn't stand it anymore and, in moment of weakness, squeezed his eyes shut, praying to every deity he knew of that the Remnant known as Kadaj was doing the same.
He knew now why this felt so familiar as a piercing light began to filter it's way through his eyelids – this is exactly what had happened each time before he had crossed worlds.
Cloud felt his stomach fly into his throat and heard the sounds of springs squeaking beneath him and a loud thud next to him as the light began to fade.
He chanced opening his eyes. Cloud recognized this place instantaneously as Jayden's bedroom and his 'landing pad' as Jayden's bed.
Kadaj had had the unfortunate luck of landing on the floor beside it, but had recovered faster than Cloud and darted out the hole that had formerly been Jayden's window.
From downstairs, a series of loud thumps, thuds, bangs, crashes and groans met his ears and, switching himself off the mattress and goose down comforter, Cloud made his way out of the room .
"Oh…owww…" Tifa moaned, Cid's elbow currently grinding itself into her ribs, "Cid…please…get off me."
Cid did no such thing as a chunk of plaster hit him in the temple during the fall, knocking him out cold.
"Kid…you okay?" Elena asked bleakly, Denzel slung over her shoulder and Elena herself hanging from a light fixture.
Cait Sith hung from Elena's foot, perfectly unharmed, much to everyone's disgust.
"Uh-huh…I think so." Denzel said dully, eyes glassy from the Geostigma induced fever.
Vincent sat atop a bookcase, opening his cloak to reveal to Barrett, sprawled out on the floor beneath him, that Marlene was unharmed.
"Daddy!" Marlene cried, releasing her death grip on Vincent's calf and landing on her adoptive father's stomach.
"Oomph!" Barrett grunted as the air was forced from his lungs, "N-nice t' see you…too." He replied wheezily.
Cloud moved down the stairs and into the living room, where Tseng (smashed through the kitchen table) and Rufus Shinra (landed on the kitchen counter funny) were assessing their injuries.
Rude was laying out an unconscious Mikayla on the still intact sofa and shuffling debris aside so he could do the same for Kyle and Charlie, who had also gone out to lunch on the return trip.
Reno had had no such luck with Jayden, still slung over his shoulder, still screaming at him to put her down while Chewbacca pranced around happily wondering if it was play time.
Yuffie was where the computer used to be, rubbing her back irritably.
Loz and Yazoo were no where in sight, presumably having escaped and gone off to join Kadaj.
"Well…" Cloud thought, sitting down hard on a chair that had somehow managed to survive the attacks, "…this is just great."
(A/N: Jayden discovers that only five minutes have passed since she entered the realm of Final Fantasy and that thanks to Yuffie's Materia Fetish, Jayden's house and neighborhood is restored. Theories are developed surrounding Jayden's meddling. R&R!)