Cloud and Lightning ran as if a legion of devils and demons were behind them. Which wasn't to far from the truth, she guessed - they had mere minutes before all hell would break loose.
"Gapra Whitewood." Lightning hissed while running. Besides her, Cloud simply made a small noise indicating agreement.
They had to break through to there, even if PSICOM was in the way. If they stayed out in the open, it was only a matter of time until they'd be overwhelmed. But if they managed to enter the woods, it would be impossible to locate them from the air. Tracking them down on the ground would also become much more difficult.
She knew that the Whitewood was their only realistic chance for escape. Unfortunately PSICOM knew it too. It would be a race – could they reach the Whitewood before it was too late, or would they be found and cornered before that?
So they ran. Lightning was nearly pushing herself to her limit – even if it meant she'd tire sooner, that was a secondary concern compared to not getting surrounded by hundreds of enemies.
Then Cloud used some kind of spell even as he moved, and for a moment bright light made it difficult to see where she was running. She could feel the magic surrounding both of them - only to seemingly have no effect.
It was only half a minute later that she realized what had happened when she saw some small animal hurrying out of their way. The little thing moved as if in slow motion, even though it was obviously running. Actually, everything moved like that. It was like the whole world had slowed down. Or rather Lightning had sped up.
Out of the corner of her eye she caught a quick glimpse of her companion. She wasn't quite sure herself how she could tell, but incredibly enough, Cloud somehow looked like he could have run faster still. Though not without leaving her behind.
She pushed herself more, forcing her legs to move quicker. She would not be what slowed them down. That simply wasn't acceptable. As her speed increased, so did Cloud's. And he still didn't look like he was anywhere near his limit.
They were both running impossibly fast now. Faster than should have been possible for any human being, no matter how athletic. For a while she even thought they might actually make it.
Then four PSICOM Aerial Dragoons landed right in front of them, guns already blazing and spitting death in their direction. A bullet grazed her cheek. Lightning frantically dodged, just barely avoiding being hit.
Cloud didn't bother. He charged right forward on a merely slightly curved path, sword in hand and almost contemptuously deflecting the bullets as he closed in. How was that even possible? A jump into the air threw of the soldiers' aim, and then it was too late.
The PSICOM soldiers never stood a chance. She just barely had enough time to get there. When she arrived, Cloud had already finished the fight and was running once again.
With some shock Lightning realized that until just now, Cloud had been holding back the entire time. Or at least had not seen any reason to really fight at full capacity. Just how strong was he?
Outwardly she didn't show any sign of it, she just kept running. But truthfully, and regardless of how irrational it was, she could no longer deny that she felt... diminished somehow by how far ahead of her the blond swordsman obviously was. As if his very existence were mocking her.
Look how poorly you compare.
On the other hand, did it matter? Lightning didn't believe in running away from hard truths, she had always considered herself a realist. And realism told her that she was going to die within the next few minutes.
But there was no time for her to ponder the issue. More Dragoons blocked their path, and slim as their chances to successfully do so were, they needed to fight their way through before the rest of the enemy's force arrived. Those hundreds of infantrymen were no doubt all rushing here right now, and she doubted that even Cloud would stand a chance against that kind of numerical superiority. She certainly didn't.
Had she stopped for a moment to think and analyze the situation, she would probably have realized that the infantry was not what she should have been most worried about. Then again, had she stopped for a moment to think, she would almost certainly have been shot, so under the circumstances it could hardly have been fair to blame her.
Trying to keep up with her companion, Lightning bravely threw herself into a battle she knew she had no chance of winning. Unlike Snow, she was incapable of deluding herself into believing otherwise. But she fought on anyway.
Even as he wreaked havoc amidst PSICOM's forces, Cloud knew that they were in trouble.
He and Lightning were outnumbered at least twenty to one already. More enemies in those weird flying suits arrived every second, and he suspected that they were facing at least an entire company of them. Cloud wasn't quite sure what kind of numbers a company in Cocoon's military had, but he guessed at least a hundred. Pretty much the same as in the Shinra Infantry.
One hundred against two. And all the one hundred had to do was to keep the two busy for a while, until their buddies on foot arrived, and then it would be five hundred against two.
He sensed more than saw a soldier somewhere to his right take aim at him. Which was a problem, because he'd been about to dodge into that direction to avoid the spray of bullets the mob of enemies in front of him was currently sending in his direction. And sheer volume of fire ensured that he needed the sword in front of him to defend against whatever he couldn't dodge.
A company of infantry had been sufficient to bring down Zack, he recalled. Only three of them had been left standing in the end, but they'd killed him. No matter how heroic Zack Fair's last battle might have been, it had still been his last battle.
Rather than moving into another direction, Cloud moved to his right anyway. But not without a slight curve to his path and an almost instinctive burst of magic inflicting confusion on his would-be attacker. A shot rang out among all the other shots, but went completely wide.
Huh. He'd done it again. The ability to use spells this way, simultaneously to also doing something else that was more complex than simple movements, that was new even to him. He'd never been quite that good with materia. Well, actually, he'd been pretty sure it simply wasn't possible to be that good with materia. Apparently he'd been wrong.
Though he avoided consciously making the comparison, on some level he knew that he had long since eclipsed Zack in sheer superhuman combat prowess. He could probably deal with a company or two, and live to tell the tale. But he was less than certain of his ability to take on any more than that, or even just that many if they were smart about it.
Most worryingly, he could feel the Lifestream calling out to him. The cynical part of him told him that it was probably trying to bid him welcome to the afterlife, in which he'd shortly arrive. But no, it wasn't that simple.
The Lifestream was trying to tell him something, something important, and he was completely missing it. He couldn't understand a word of it, not that what he perceived could adequately be described as words in the first place. All he could discern was a location, a place he should seek out. Unfortunately it was entirely in the wrong direction.
He brought down three more flying enemies via a magic gust of air and telekinetic force smashing them down into the ground, where his sword was waiting for them. Twice their number in replacements promptly took their place, and Lightning managed to catch them by relative surprise while they focused on him. She got three of them before her luck finally ran out and she caught a bullet in the stomach.
And then she continued fighting as if she hadn't just suffered an immediately life-threatening injury. Had she even noticed? Perhaps not.
It was obvious that Lightning was pushing herself way past her limits. It was equally obvious that it wouldn't be enough, not against this.
Cloud suddenly realized that he could probably make it if he abandoned Lightning here and just made a break for it. There was a certain logic to it too - if it was a choice between one of them dying for certain and the other escaping, and both of them probably dying, it might be argued that the first outcome was preferable.
But even if he wasn't particularly close with the former Guardian Corps member, they were on the same side, and leaving his companions to die because it was tactically justifiable just wasn't in his nature. At least... not voluntarily. And he still hadn't forgiven himself for those times when it had happened against his will.
The next few minutes were a chaotic mess of bullets whizzing past them, sword and saber meeting bullet and bayonet, and severe unpleasantness in general. It must have been even worse for the guys on the other side.
Even while fighting, the two of them never stopped moving forward. Battered and bleeding, they nevertheless punched straight through the line of PSICOM soldiers in their way. The infantry on foot would not be able to catch up before they reached the Whitewood now.
And then the Aerial Dragoons suddenly and inexplicably pulled back, and had Cloud been less experienced in reading the flow of battle, he might have wondered if they'd simply had enough.
Unfortunately that wasn't the case.
He noticed the skytanks mere moments before they opened fire. Floating in the air high above, almost a kilometer away, they were utterly out of his reach. But the same wasn't true the other way around.
The projectiles actually took a few moments to cross the distance at this range. In that crucial second, Cloud had barely enough time to leap behind a large piece of scrap from some Pulse machinery and find cover. Then the shells impacted, and everything exploded.
But not Cloud, thankfully, because he wasn't where the shots had been aimed anymore. Not Lightning either, because the skytanks had been targeting Cloud. Even so, the blast wave still picked her up like a crash test dummy and sent her flying. She collided with a large rock with brutal force and then rolled to a stop on the ground.
For a moment it looked like even after that she was still going to get up. Then exhaustion and the countless injuries she'd already received, some small, some major, finally took their toll. Bleeding from at least 7 bullet wounds and countless other injuries, Lightning collapsed. Even though she fought it all the way.
Cloud felt real sympathy. He knew from personal experience exactly what it was like to want to act, to just do something, to put all your willpower behind that something, only to fail because your body just wouldn't co-operate.
And to make things worse, if things didn't change very soon, he might also end up like that in the very near future.
Continuing to try to break through to the Whitewood was suicide. He'd be subjected to artillery fire the entire way, and by now the Aerial Dragoons had probably set up another defensive line up ahead. Staying put was also suicide, since every second lost was one more second for PSICOM to bring more firepower to bear against him. Cloud was out of options.
He wasn't sure why he decided to do it, or if it was really the right thing to do, but with so few other options he decided to take a chance. Time for another Aerith Gainsborough gamble: When in doubt, follow the Lifestream.
As for the fact that doing so once too often was ultimately what had gotten Aerith killed, that was something he made very sure to conscientiously forget for the moment.
So he followed that strange pull that had now returned in full force, guiding him straight into a nearby ravine that would unfortunately lead him nowhere near Grapa Whitewood. But not before snatching Lightning's fallen form of the ground and throwing her over his shoulder.
It might not be a very dignified mode of transportation, but sacrifices had to be made if they were both to get out of here alive. Lightning was a comrade-in-arms, and as long as she was still drawing breath he would not leave her behind.
If there was one thing Lightning had learned during the last fifteen minutes, it was that getting shot really hurt.
So did getting cut with a bayonet. Or being thrown onto hard rock by fiery explosions. Or a thousand other things.
Why did Cloud even bother to try and get her out of ? She was done for either way. Everything hurt, and she was losing blood way faster than was healthy. On the upside, once she passed out, she wouldn't feel the pain anymore.
She'd fought it. Fought it to the very last twitch her exhausted body allowed her to make. But now there was no denying that she couldn't fight anymore.
She was being carried like some helpless damsel in distress, for fal'Cie's sake! Everything she didn't want to be.
Alright, not like a damsel in distress. More like a potato bag. But in essence it was the same thing.
It would have been humiliating enough under different circumstances. But the fact that she actually needed the help made it even worse.
It seemed PSICOM had caught onto the fact that sending infantry against l'Cie was bad policy and had consequently escalated to air support and artillery. The new tactic was working too. Cloud was being forced deeper into the ravine where he'd sought protection earlier, away from Grapa Whitewood and any chance of escape.
Why had he stayed? He should have run! He must have realized that she was only slowing him down.
What was the point in saving her life anyway? She obviously wasn't nearly as strong as she'd thought she was, she'd never have been able to bring down the Sanctum. At best she might have managed not to get in Cloud's way too much.
She hated the fact with as much fervor as she could muster in her current half-dead state, but comparing herself to Cloud she was forced to conclude that her performance in that fight had been absolutely pathetic. Heck, when she'd been hit in the abdomen by that first bullet it had taken all she had to not drop like a stone right then and there and just lie on the ground and whimper.
One bullet. Whereas Cloud had taken at least three. And hadn't even slowed down.
The bombardment was intensifying now. Maybe the bomber from earlier had returned? The walls of the small canyon sheltering them shook dangerously. Cloud sought protection in what looked like a small cave. A very small cave, the entrance of which was overgrown with plants and barely visible. How had he even noticed it?
No matter. It wouldn't help. At best it might delay the inevitable. She heard the thousands of tons of earth and rock above them groan as the cliff face collapsed under the hammering blows of heavy carpet bombing, but she couldn't bring herself to care.
She couldn't bring herself to care about anything.
Overcome by blood loss and exhaustion, feeling more tired than she ever had in her life, Lightning finally slipped into unconsciousness. Her last thought before blackness took her was that at least she'd see Serah again soon.