Final Fantasy VII and PlayStation are owned by Square Enix and Sony, respectively, meaning they do not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Final Fantasy VII storyline (such as Astrid and Marcus) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.
(From the Grasslands to the Junon Area)
When they arrived at the border between the grasslands and the marshes, Astrid pulled Boky(Orchid) to a halt and stared at the bog. The others noticed her absence and stopped, as well, turning back to look at her. They saw her looking at the slushy ground and thick peat, eyes wide and darting through the tall weeds.
Red XIII shifted from his position behind her and nudged her waist, "Are you alright?" (as a side note, this wasn't a particularly comfortable position for the feline, who would have sooner walked across the marshes. he ended up agreeing to ride behind Astrid, though, when she insisted, for reasons we all know.)
Astrid blinked and shook her head, frowning and muttering, "I wish there was another way…"
"Unfortunately, there isn't," Red said, shaking his head, "So you'll just have to cross and get it over with. Now, let's go, before the Zolom shows up."
She sighed heavily, then stood straight in the saddle and nodded, "Right." Taking a firm hold on the reigns, Astrid clicked her tongue and tapped the chocobo's sides with her heels, starting the trek across the marshes.
They spent much of the day crossing the marsh in silence, always looking between the talons of their chocobos and the weeds around them. Astrid was staring into the shallows intently, jumping at the slightest movement in the murky waters. Red and Orchid were thoroughly jostled and tired by her abrupt movements just two hours into the ride.
By midday, the mountains were clearer than ever and the other side of the marshes was visible; a strip of green running along the mountainside. Astrid's guard dropped a little and she perked up in her saddle, giving Orchid more reign and letting the chocobo speed up, passing the others. They thought nothing of this and continued at their pace. Then, they heard a horrified shriek, at which Cloud and Barret kicked their chocobos into high gear and sped ahead, Tifa and Aerith not far behind.
As they burst through the bushes, they found Orchid on her back, flapping her wings and wriggling. The chocobo let out a terrified 'wark' and twisted herself onto her feet, running off into the marsh. The party looked around for Astrid and Red XIII, Tifa spotting the latter pulling himself out of the bushes and shaking his head dazedly.
Cloud dismounted his chocobo and walked over to Astrid, who was lying in the marsh and looking up at something in horror. The swordsman shook his head and pulled her to her feet, turning her away and muttering, "Don't look."
The others looked at what the teen had been looking at and cringed. It was a giant snake, presumably the Midgar Zolom, raising up into the air and impaled through several of its fleshy coils, the head sitting on the top, stabbed through the soft underside of its chin. Carved into the snake's flesh and in plain view was the phrase 'Just Try To Stop Us'.
Astrid pulled away from Cloud and slumped against a contorted tree, breathing through her mouth, "How… why would they do that?"
"They're challengin' us, o' course!" Barret shouted, raising a clenched fist into the air.
"No." Cloud shook his head, staring back at the brutalized snake, "They're taunting us. Sephiroth is much stronger than we are, and there's a possibility Marcus could be, as well. They know that, at our current levels of power, we could never beat them."
"So they're rubbing it in our faces." Astrid gritted her teeth, pounding her fist against her hip.
"Even so," Barret shook his head and glanced back at the monstrosity, "It makes ya think. We're fightin' against a guy who can do that. I dunno about you," He glanced at the others and frowned, "But I think we're screwed."
"We're screwed if we don't try." Astrid snapped, glaring at the snake.
There was a moment of silence, broken when Tifa stepped in and nodded, "Astrid's right. Whether or not we're a match for Sephiroth and Marcus, we've got no choice but to fight."
"The sake of the planet could be at stake." Aerith concurred, setting a hand on Astrid's shoulder.
They stared at the impaled snake for a few more moments, then silently returned to their chocobos, Astrid slowly edging towards a tense Orchid, who had returned and was standing shivering in the bushes. Grabbing a hold of the trembling chocobo's reigns, Astrid swung herself into the saddle and held her bird calm while Red jumped up behind her. Once they were settled, she turned the chocobo towards the path the others had taken, pausing to stare at the speared beast for a moment.
Red shifted a bit and nudged the back of her arm, "Astrid?"
Shaking her head, she looked down at the feline and smiled, "It's nothing, Red." She then tapped Orchid's sides and geared into a fast trot, catching up with the others and falling into line behind them. They soon reached the edge of the mountains and found a large, manmade tunnel.
"This is it." Barret said, jumping off of his chocobo and turning to the party, "The Mythril Mines. We won't be able to ride the chocobos through here, so if we're gonna take 'em we're gonna have to walk 'em."
They all dismounted their chocobos and arranged themselves in a single line with Cloud leading, followed by Tifa, Aerith, Astrid, Red XIII, and Barret bringing up the end. Traveling through the Mines proved to be more difficult than it had been in the game, with three times as many tunnels to walk down and beasts appearing around every corner. After forty-seven dead ends, fifty plus engagements, and six hours of walking, they finally managed to talk Cloud into stopping for a few hours of rest.
Astrid lay on her back and stared at the dark cloth of the tent above her, swaying in the breeze that flowed through the mine shaft. It was stronger than it had been a few hours ago, so she figured that it wouldn't be much longer before they found a way out.
Despite the almost overwhelming exhaustion she felt, Astrid only managed to get a few broken hours of sleep. She had the oddest feeling that she was being watched. Now, one thing about Astrid was this; whenever she was in a situation where she wasn't in an urban setting and she was sleeping outside, she became quite paranoid. This paranoia led to lack of sleep, which led to delusions, which led to her sitting up and staring off into the darkness for hours on end, eyes searching for shadows in the inky black. As you would imagine, this is very tiring and can get rather redundant.
Thus, when Astrid actually heard the scuffles of disturbed rocks and the faintest whisper of voices, she couldn't help but wonder if she was actually hearing something or if she had just finally snapped. If only just to humor herself, Astrid pulled on her shoes and slipped out of the tent.
The moment she stepped outside, the shuffles and whispers stopped. Astrid stopped moving and strained her ears, listening. Nothing.
Paranoid or not, this was too coincidental to Astrid for it to just be her mind playing tricks on her; someone was out there. She knelt slowly and reached into the tent, feeling around for her weapons. Feeling the polished barrel of Vincent's gun, she slid it out of the tent and slowly stood, slipping her finger to the trigger and clicking off the safety.
Astrid remained standing outside the tent and looking off into the darkness for several more hours, startling the party when they crawled out of their tents. Cloud and Barret readied their weapons when they saw the gun in her hand, and Tifa and Aerith approached her slowly, eyes looking around the camp.
"Astrid," Aerith breathed, fingering a 'Fire' materia, "What's going on?"
The teen shook her head and clicked the safety to Vincent's gun back on, "Nothing. I just thought I heard something, that's all. I've been standing here awhile, so it was probably just a beast." She looked at the party and smiled, "Are we leaving soon? I think we're almost to an exit."
They had a quick 'breakfast' (they really had no idea what time of the day it was) of beast stew (always best never to ask what beasts were used), then they packed their camp, loaded the chocobos, and headed out. Just a few minutes into the walk, the light in the tunnel began to brighten and the wind pick up. They breathed the fresh air deeply, a light scent of flowers in the breeze.
When the chocobos caught the scent of greenery, they became restless and jumpy, all clamoring to get to the lead and drag their humans out of the darkness and under the sky. Then, the tunnel quickly widened out into a large cave brightly lit by sunlight pouring through an arch on the opposite side. The chocobos squealed and ran for the exit, only to 'wark' in protest when their owners pulled back on their reigns. The party glared at the surrounding area, obviously looking for something.
Astrid stood off to the side, looking around herself in confusion. 'What are they looking at?' She listened carefully and blinked. Shuffling and whispering. They were surrounded. Hearing a shuffle off to her immediate left, Astrid tore Vincent's gun out of its holster, clicking off the safety and spinning to point it to the shadows above her. She fired a few warning shots, purposely aiming a bit too high. The shots echoed for a few moments, and when silence fell a low chuckling started.
"Hehehe, you're pretty good, kid." Two people stepped out of the shadows.
Astrid gapped, "Reno? Rude!"
Reno raised two fingers to his brow and saluted her, jerking them away quickly and grinning at her, "Hey, Astrid." Rude nodded.
"Greetings." Astrid spun and gapped as Tseng and Elena stepped out of the shadows near the exit. After addressing the party with his little spiel, Tseng turned to Astrid and nodded, "It's good to see you well. When no one could find you after Shin-Ra was attacked, we assumed…"
"I'm fine, Tseng." Astrid smiled and nodded, "Sephiroth didn't even come to visit me."
Elena frowned, "But… the isolation chamber… The wall inside was—"
"Nothing more than a slight clash with Marcus, was all." Astrid laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of her head, "Nothing to worry about."
"Marcus," Tseng said slowly, frowning, "So… he's alive. I assume he's the boy Palmer said was… accompanying Sephiroth?"
Astrid lowered her eyes, "Th-that's what it… looks like."
Tseng took a step closer to her, his eyes a bit concerned, "You do know that we're after Sephiroth…"
"Yeah," Astrid nodded, sighing. She then looked up and gave a strained smile, "I assume that… if you find Marcus with Sephiroth you'll…"
"That's what we're a bit confused on, Astrid." She turned to Reno, who was scratching his cheek, "Didn't you make a deal with the late president? What're you doing outside of the Shin-Ra building? Isn't that breaking the contract?"
Astrid shook her head, "Rufus… declared the contract bunk."
Reno stumbled backwards, gapping, "What?! Why?"
"The deal was that if Shin-Ra pursued Sephiroth while the former president was in charge, then Marcus would be returned safely." Astrid shrugged, "Rufus is taking the contract for how it was written. He's the one pursuing Sephiroth, not his father. Therefore, the contract is void." She clenched her hands and stood tall, "Rufus said I was free to leave, so I did. I found out that these guys were going after Sephiroth, so I joined. I'm going after Marcus myself, now."
"Then there's a high possibility that we may find ourselves on opposite sides, soon enough." Rude observed, frowning.
"That's right." Astrid nodded solemnly. She then looked at each of the Turks in turn, face grave, "If ever any of you receive orders to harm Marcus, I'll have no choice but to fight you, even if we're…"
Tseng nodded, "That's the only possible path, then. Very well." He bowed slightly, his hair falling over his shoulders, "Goodbye, Miss Cray. It was… fun." He turned and walked away.
Elena nodded, "I like you, Astrid, but I won't hold back. Take that as a friendly warning." She followed Tseng.
"Good luck, Astrid." Reno saluted her again, throwing her a roguish grin, "I think we'll be meeting again, soon." He jumped across the gap and ran through the exit.
Rude jumped after him, turning to bow to Astrid, "Miss Cray…" He took off after Reno.
The group stood in silence for a moment, then Astrid turned to them and smiled, "Well, let's go." They found a narrow path for the chocobos to walk up, then walked through the exit.
They were dazzled by the brilliant afternoon sun and the bright blue skies, and their feet cried out in relief at the soft grass and dirt relieving them from the hard stone.
Cloud quickly mounted his chocobo and nodded to the rest of the group, "Come on, it's only a few days to Junon."
Whether it was because they were all getting more attuned to traveling or they were all looking forward to a hot bath, those few days to Junon passed quickly, and soon the great cliff that the seaside city was built on was in clear view. And so was the chain of forests nearby.
Astrid eyed the forest area warily, wondering if the group was going to willingly head over there, and wondering if she should even bother to make them if they didn't. Though Astrid wasn't a big Yuffie hater, the young ninja was quite annoying, conniving, whiny, and a bit of a backstabber. And who would want to deal with that for an entire journey?
The more Astrid thought about it and the closer they came to passing up the forests completely, the more convinced she became to just brush off Yuffie completely. The girl was, after all, an optional character, and it wouldn't hurt the main storyline in any way to just pass her up. And besides, there were several positive notes to just ignoring Yuffie.
Positive number one: They would never have to pay for her weapons.
Positive number two: They could sell any of her weapons they found.
Positive number three: She would never be able to steal their materia.
Number four: They would never have to worry about the ninja and her father stealing their stuff.
Five: They would just flat never have to deal with Yuffie.
… Astrid could keep this up all day, but they were almost passed the point of no return in respect to the forest.
Now, it may seem like things should be pretty clear-cut in Astrid's decision in searching for Yuffie, but the teen was actually in a real battle with herself over the idea. As bad as it seemed, she was actually considering turning the group to look for the annoying, immature ninja.
The decision was made quickly in her head without much thought, and initiating a series of events that she would later both regret and condone herself for, Astrid leaned over and began to fiddle with her stirrup. When she felt herself begin to fall she jerked hard on the reigns, startling Orchid. Then, when her body left the saddle completely, Astrid jerked the reigns even harder and kicked the chocobo's side, sending the bird reeling.
Orchid raised her head into the air and let out a loud, panicked 'wark', then turned and started to run. Astrid landed on her back heavily, winding herself and knocking her head. She watched dazedly as the chocobo ran away from the group and into the forest, and heard the fuzzy shouts of her companions as they ran back to her, calling out to her. She moaned when something rough and wet rubbed her forehead, then fell into dark oblivion.