Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII. Final Fantasy 7, the storyline and its characters belong solely to Square-Enix.
Chapter 12
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'Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock...'
"Come on Vincent, we both know you're not sleeping and I'm not leaving until you open this door!" Yuffie's voice was slightly muffled by the thick wooden door on which she had been banging against for the past 15 minutes or so. "I'm serious you know! I'm gonna do this all night if I have to!"
'Knock-knock-knock...' She rapped at the door continuously as she waited for his answer, but sighed when all she got was more silence.
"We're at the Gold Saucer, for Leviathan's sake! The bestest place in all of Gaia!!" The young girl was starting to sound more and more exasperated by her companion's lack of response. "I wanna have some fun since we're stuck here anyway, and there is no way I'm letting you get away with spending the whole night cooped up in your room!" There was a short pause. "Pleaaase!!" added Yuffie pleadingly, finally giving up her incessant knocking.
Vincent, who had up to this point been watching the fake thunderstorm going on outside his window, turned to face the now silent door at the opposite side of the room, where he knew Yuffie was still waiting for his response. Not that he was going to give her one. He had already told her 'no' when she had first showed up at his hotel door asking him to come with her, and he had no intentions of changing his answer. He couldn't even begin to fathom what had possessed the girl into thinking that her idea of fun would ever, in any stretch of the imagination, correspond to his own.
"Oh come on Vincent!" whined Yuffie as dramatically as she could, seemingly realizing she wasn't going to get an answer. "Fine! Be like that! We'll see who gives in first!" And with that said she resumed her obnoxious knocking.
She continued banging against the door in a rhythmic fashion, but Vincent knew that despite her threats to do so, Yuffie could not keep this up all night. All he had to do was wait and she would eventually tire herself out and leave. He could already tell that the knocking was less enthousiastic then it had been when she had started playing this little game.
"Come on Vinnie!!" she pleaded, using a diminutive of his name which Vincent wouldn't have tolerated coming from anyone other than her. "I promise, it's gonna be loads of fun, you'll see!!"
Vincent nearly laughed at the thought. Being dragged all over the Gold Saucer by an overactive teenaged ninja was definitively not his idea of fun. "Ask Tifa to go with you," he suggested through the door, hoping the girl would finally take the hint and just leave.
"Tifa's being a pain because Aeris took Cloud out on a date!" huffed Yuffie as she gave up knocking once more. He heard something sliding against the door and assumed it was Yuffie sitting down with her back to the door. He could imagine she had her arms crossed at this point, as was her habit whenever she didn't get her way.
"So take one of the others instead..."
"There is no one else! Barret and Cid both left to bet on some chocobo races, Cait Sith disappeared over an hour ago, and there is no way Red can fit safely in those rides!!"
"Then go by yourself," he tried, already knowing she wouldn't like that answer.
"Aarrgh!" She cried out her frustration, giving the door a final blow strong enough to shake it in its frame. "You're being mean, Vincent!" She told him accusingly. "I wanna have some fun and unless you have a genuine reason why you don't want to come, I'm taking you with me!!"
Vincent didn't answer, and after a minute or so he heard Yuffie shuffle away from the door, mumbling "Fine, be that way..." under her breath. Thinking she had finally given up, the gunman walked over to the bed and laid down on the covers, closing his eyes to better enjoy the blissful moment of silence.
His eyes snapped open soon after however when he heard a barely discernable and yet very familiar scratching sound coming from his door. Stifling a strong urge to sigh, Vincent got up and took the two steps necessary to get to the door, unlocking and opening it in one fluid movement. He was forced to side-stepping quickly as an off-balance Yuffie fell forward, lock picks still clutched tighly in her hands.
"Ow..." Yuffie moaned pathetically from her prone position on the floor, dropping her tools in favor of rubbing her elbows which had taken the brunt of her fall.
"I'm curious..." Vincent asked sharply as he towered over the girl at his feet. "What were you hoping to accomplish once you had succeeded in breaking into my room?..." Yuffie stiffened as she heard the dangerous undertone in the gunslinger's voice, suddenly aware of how close she was to the very irritated ex-turk.
She looked up at him and attempted a smile, but it quickly disappeared the moment he narrowed his eyes at her. "I hadn't really thought this all the way through..." admitted the now flustered girl as she sat on the floor, embarrassed by her actions.
"I thought as much..." said Vincent as he took a calming breath and stepped away from his impulsive companion, allowing her enough room to get up.
Yuffie picked up her lock picks and stashed them in a hidden compartment in her kaki shorts before standing up, wiping some none-existent dust from her clothes. "You probably want me to leave you alone now, don't you?" she surmised, knowing full well that she had probably pushed him to the very limit of his patience.
He didn't say it outright, but the fact that he held the door open for her was an answer in itself.
"Alright..." The young girl sounded defeated as turned to leave, hands in her pockets and feet dragging. She was barely out the door that she whirled back towards the room, Vincent's quick reflexes the only thing preventing her from receiving the closing door on the nose. "Just one ride!..." She held her hands clasped in front of her in a pleading fashion, giving him her best puppy dog eyes.
"Yuffie..."
"Just one ride, that's all!" interjected the girl quickly before he had a chance to object. "And then I swear I'll never bug you about it again!"
Vincent rubbed at his temple with his human hand, trying to soothe his growing headache. He had to hand it to the girl. She was nothing if not persistent. He sighed, knowing she had won. "One ride," he finally conceded, in hopes that afterwards he would be able to get a little peace and quiet.
"You will?!? Really?!?" She sounded surprised as if in disbelief that her tactic had actually worked, but that quickly morphed to pure excitement as she started jumping all over the place. "Oh wow that's so great! Don't worry you won't regret it!" She was smiling from ear to ear as she talked. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Vincent just barely had time to close the door behind him and lock it before Yuffie grabbed him by the arm and dragged him along.
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"Come on, just admit it already!!!" Vincent tried to ignore the triumphant look his young companion sported as the two of them walked away from a rollercoaster ride aptly named 'The Bullet' for its frightful speed, but he knew there was no way she would just drop the subject. That would be far too easy, and Yuffie never made anything easy for anyone, especially not him.
"I saw it, Vincent Valentine! It was right there!" she said, pointing to where the lower half of his face was concealed by his high collar. "I could see your face when we were going a gazillion miles an hour down that drop, so there's no denying what I saw!"
"What did you think you saw?" he asked, mildly curious as to what she did see exactly but at the same time dreading her response.
"You smiled!!" She cried out, a huge smile of her own plastered on her face. Ok granted, it wasn't that big of a smile, but still!"
Vincent slowed to a stop and turned to face Yuffie, one eyebrow arched questioningly. "I smiled?" he asked, puzzled as to why she was making such a big deal about something so insignificant.
"You sure did, mister!" confirmed Yuffie, thrilled. "And you never smile, not ever! I told you this would be fun!! I was right, right?"
Vincent frowned, suddenly realizing where Yuffie was going with this. "I am not going on another ride, Yuffie..."
"But why not?" asked the young girl as her smile melted away, dismayed at having her plan found out so easily.
"The deal was for one ride only," reminded the gunslinger. "I've held on to my side of our bargain, so now I'm going back to the hotel to rest."
Yuffie sighed. "Fair's fair I guess," she said somewhat chagrined. She yawned just then, stretching her arms over her head. "I guess I should probably go back too, I'm kinda beat anyway."
Satisfied that she wasn't going to argue, Vincent started weaving his way through the crowd once again, intent on escaping to his room as quickly as possible. He might have found the rollercoaster ride far more enjoyable then he had initially anticipated, to the point of smiling apparently, but everything else about the Gold Saucer was getting on his nerves and he couldn't wait to get away from this overwhelming place.
Yuffie followed after him at a jog, being forced to quicken her pace to match Vincent's much longer strides. "You think any of the others have gone back to the hotel yet?" asked the ninja in a conversational manner.
"I suppose we'll find that out when..." Vincent was not given the opportunity to finish as Cait suddenly came crashing through the crowd right in front of him, forcing the gunslinger to stop short so as not to run into the robotic cat and his Mog. Yuffie, having not anticipated the sudden stop, ran right into the taller man with a surprised yelp.
"Hey, that's Cait!" Yuffie stated the obvious as she craned her neck around Vincent to see what was going on. "Where's he going in such a hurry?" she asked as she watched their team mate disappear through a nearby exit without so much as acknowledging their presence.
Vincent, who was looking in the direction Cait Sith had came running from, unholstered his gun. "He's being pursued," he informed Yuffie, his gaze never wavering from where he could hear two distinct pairs of footsteps quickly approaching their location.
"What? By who?" inquired the young ninja as she stepped out from behind her tall companion, looking to see if she could spot the people in question. She couldn't see anyone suspicious yet, but took out her Shuriken all the same to be on the safe side.
"They're coming," warned Vincent, the gunslinger assuming a shooting stance just as Cait's pursuers
reached their location, the sight of the gun sending all of the nearby tourists running for cover. Familiar blue eyes widdened in surprise as they found themselves suddenly looking down the barrel of a gun, but the lethal weapon was gone just as quickly as Vincent removed it from sight.
"Cloud," Vincent acknowledged the man in front of him as he holstered his gun, glancing quickly behind the Avalanche leader at Aeris as she ran to catch up to them. "What's going on?" he asked, as he focused his attention once more to Cloud.
"I don't have time to explain," answered Cloud tensely, already moving past Vincent and Yuffie at full speed to resume his chase.
"Cait stole the Keystone," explained an out of breath Aeris as she paused next to her two companions. "Cloud and I have been chasing him all over the Gold Saucer..."
Yuffie scratched her head, puzzled. "Wait... Why would Cait steal that useless thing?" She turned to Vincent as she asked this, only to find that he was no longer there. "Hey Vincent, wait!" she called out, but her escort was already a good distance away, running alongside Cloud as the two of them strived to catch up to their treacherous ally.
The two men took a sharp left as they entered the passageway through which Cait had disappeared to a minute prior, their footsteps echoing loudly as they ran through the deserted corridor. Vincent caught a glimpse of Cait just as the toy cat exited through the other end of the long passage, heading for a set of stairs.
Cloud and Vincent reached the end of the tunnel a few moments later and found themselves standing on a plateform outside the Gold Saucer, just in front of a huge staircase leading up to the chocobo racing stadium. They made quick work of the stairs and rushed into the lobby, but by then their target had vanished.
"He can't have gotten far," said Cloud as he took a few cautious steps forward, looking around for any signs of the fugitive. People were going about their business as usual around the lobby, placing bets and checking out the race results on the giant screen in the middle of the room. There were hardly any places for someone to hide here, but somehow Cait had managed to do so all the same.
"We should split up and circle the room in opposite directions," suggested Vincent, noting that the large room was spherical in shape and that between the two of them, they would have a complete view of the area as they made their way around it.
Cloud nodded his agreement, coming to the same conclusion as Vincent. "You take the right," he told the gunslinger. "I'll circle around the left side and meet you at the other end. If you see anything, holler."
Vincent had made it halfway through his side of the room when he heard a gruff voice call out to him. "Hey Vincent!" greeted Barret happily, having just entered the room with Cid from a sidedoor. "Come to try your luck on the races?" he asked as he approached his fellow gunman, a easy smile painted upon his face.
Cid laughed a bit too loudly. "He'd better hope like hell that he's got better luck then you," teased the pilot as he punched Barret amicably on the shoulder.
Even from a distance Vincent could tell the two men had been drinking, if their flushed faces and the slight waver in their gaits was anything to go by.
"Have you seen Cait Sith go by?" he asked his two inebriated team mates now standing in front of him, looking past them to the door through which they had just come and noting it lead to where the chocobos races were being held.
"Nope! Haven't seen that noisy fur bag for hours," answered Cid in a somewhat slurred manner as he tried to speak around the cigarette held crookedly at the side of his mouth.
"Why do you ask?" asked Barret somewhat distractedly as he squinted his eyes to try and figure out the results of the latest race on the large screen. "Dammit..." he cursed under his breath as he found himself loosing once again, tearing his betting slips in frustration and letting the pieces drop to the ground a moment later.
"He stole the Keystone from Cloud and now he's on the run," informed Vincent in a no-nonsense manner, cutting right to the chase. News of the treason made quick work of sobering up Cid and Barret as they turned their full attention to the vigilant gunslinger.
"What the hell is wrong with this group..." asked Cid, perplexed. "First the kid steals all our materia, and now that stuffed toy goes and takes the Keystone for no good reason..."
"I knew it! I told Cloud that cat couldn't be trusted when we first met him, but he wouldn't listen! That robot reeks of Shinra technology..." said Barret angrily, his large hand fisted at his side as he looked around in hopes of spotting Cait. "I swear that spiky haired kid's too trusting for his own damn good..."
A sudden commotion on the other side of the room alerted all three men and they turned in time to see Cloud racing towards the front doors. "Vincent!" cried out the blond leader to get the attention of his partner as he pointed wildly towards the entrance, but the gunslinger had already spotted Cait making his escape. Vincent immediately took off running as fast he could towards the entrance, reaching it a split second after Cloud. The other two members of Avalanche were left struggling to catch up as they had no hope of matching the speed of their two fellow team mates already far in the lead.
As they rushed out the front doors Vincent and Cloud were met by the sight of a Shinra helicopter quickly aproaching Cait Sith at the base of the stairs, the wind from its blades sending dust and debri flying all around the small robotic cat as he held on tightly to its large Mog.
Vincent practically flew past Cloud as he pushed himself to go as fast as he could down the flight of stairs, but even with his extraordinary speed he would not make in in time to prevent what he knew was about to follow.
The helicopter was already hovering right over Cait by the time the gunslinger had made it halfway down the stairs, and the side door slid open to reveal a dark haired Turk with stern features, one hand outstretched towards the Avalanche traitor.
"Cait! Stop!" yelled out Cloud as he ran behind Vincent, but Cait ignored the order as he threw the Keystone to the Shinra employee's awaiting grasp. This elicited a string of expletives from both Cid and Barret, the two having made it out of the lobby in time to bear witness to the exchange.
Vincent whipped out his gun as he ran, taking aim and shooting at the helicopter in hopes of bringing it down before it had a chance to get away, but unfortunately even though every bullet hit their mark without fault, the damage they caused from that distance was not significant enough to pierce through the armor plated aircraft and so they simply bounced armlessly off of it. He heard Barret open fire as well from somewhere up the stairs, with no greater results.
Having successfully acquired what they had come searching for, the Shinra helicopter quickly took on altitude and raced through the dark sky away from the Gold Saucer, leaving their liaison behind to deal with the furious Avalanche members all on his own.
"Hi there Vincent!" greeted Cait happily as Vincent finally reached the bottom of the stairs, the robotic cat acting as if he hadn't just betrayed them all to Shinra. This infuriated the gunslinger to no end. Eyes blazing, he stalked up to the traitorous cat and snatched him up by the neck using his clawed hand, a barely concealed snarl on his lips. The tips of his pointed fingers easily cut through the thin layer of fur before digging satisfyingly into the metal skin hidden underneath. Yet despite the imminent danger he was now facing Cait just went on smiling, showing no discomfort whatsoever as he hung helplessly in Vincent's fierce grasp.
"What are ya gonna do lad, kill me?" asked the plush, clearly amused by the situation at hand. "This isn't even my real body, it's just a toy I'm controlling from my office up here in the Shinra building."
Vincent was tempted to destroy the robot all the same as he started to squeeze a little harder, but Cait was saved from that unfortunate fate by Cloud.
"Vincent, don't!" Cloud ordered sternly as he finally caught up to them, having heard what Cait had told the gunman. "We need him in one piece so we can interrogate him..." he explained as he grabbed onto the other man's claw to try and pry Cait loose. Vincent wasn't all that convinced that the infuriating robot really needed all of its pieces, but he let go of his captive all the same, if only to prevent Cloud from slicing his fingers open on the razor sharp edges of his claw.
Cait dropped to the floor in between Vincent and Cloud, making no attempt what-so-ever to get away from the two. In fact he simply sat on the ground where he landed, smiling up at them knowingly. Vincent was sorely tempted to just blast the sorry creature to bits with his gun, but knowing he couldn't do so he wisely decided to move away, leaving it up to Cloud to question the traitor.
He walked over to the wall next to the corridor from which they had first entered this area, leaning his back against it. The gunslinger attempted to keep both mind and fingers occupied from any murderous intents by tending to his still smoking gun, removing the spent shells one by one with deliberate slowness and carefully replacing them with fresh immunition.
Vincent watched from the corner of his eyes as Barret and Cid finally made it to the plateform with the rest of them, the two figures moving next to Cloud to form a tight cirle around Cait, cutting him off from any possible escape route, not that the traitorous cat seemed in any hurry to go anywhere. The two ill tempered men surprisingly managed to hold their tongues, allowing their leader full control over the situation.
"Hey Aeris, look! There they are!" Vincent recognized Yuffie's voice as it echoed through the nearby corridor. Both girls came running past him not long after as they headed for the rest of the group, but Yuffie doubled back almost immediately when she realized Vincent wasn't with them and ran over to join him instead.
"What did I miss?" she asked in a hushed voice, unwilling to disturb the palpable tension anymore than necessary. However, seeing as she wouldn't get an answer from her brooding companion, she instead focused her attention back to the others just as Cloud started talking.
"Why did you give the Keystone away to the Turks?" asked Cloud in a calm voice, but try as he might he couldn't hide his agitation completely as his fingers twitched impatiently on the hilt of his broadsword, not removing the weapon from his back just yet but ready to do so at a moment's notice.
"I'm a spy working for Shinra," answered Cait without hesitation, shrugging nonchalantly as if that revelation was nothing special.
"Goddammit..." mumbled out Cid in disbelief, his grip on his spear tightening somewhat.
"A spy?!? Workin' for Shinra?!?" exclaimed Barret in disgust, glaring hateful daggers at the traitor amongst them.
"Cait, how could you do this to us? We trusted you..." Aeris sounded truthfully hurt by the news.
"It's nothing personal. I had to do it, it couldn't be helped," explained the robotic cat, shrugging once more. "Can't we just put this little incident behind us and continue on our journey like before?"
Cloud, as well as everyone else in the group, was too shocked by Cait's strange request to answer right away. "...You're kidding, right?" asked the leader of Avalanche when he finally found his voice, astonished that the robotic cat would be so bold as to ask them to just flat out ignore this blatant act of treason and keep on traveling together as if none of it had happened.
"Not at all!" answered Cait, completely serious. "I really want to keep traveling with you guys! We're not really enemies, despite the fact that I work for Shinra. I really admire how you guys keep doing what you do without being paid or praised. It... sort of makes me rethink my choices in life, ya know?"
"You've got to be kiddin' me..." Cid rubbed at the side of his face in disbelief. "Listen cat, you've got yer fuckin' wires crossed if you think we're gonna keep a goddamned spy with us..." said the pilot with as much disdain as he could muster. The others eagerly agreed with him, sharing the pilot's sentiment completely.
Cait sighed dramatically. "I was afraid you'd be like that. I knew words would probably not be good enough to convince you guys to keep me around, so that's why I devised a foolproof backup plan." The small cat seemed entirely too confident as he smiled at the group. "Listen to this –" Cait fell silent as a child's panicked voice was suddenly issued from the toy cat, a young girl from the sound of it. "Papa! Tifa! Help me!"
Vincent's eyes widened in astonishment at hearing a helpless child's voice, but it was Barret's reaction that truly demanded his attention.
"That's Marlene!! Oh God, Marlene!!" Barret yelled out in despair. Everyone else gasped in shock, unable to believe what was happening.
"Papa? Papa please c..." called out the young girl as soon as she heard her father's voice, but the communication was quickly cut off.
"NO!!!!" The dark skinned man nearly choked with panic at the sudden silence. "He's got Marlene!! That sick bastard's got my baby girl!!" Barret was so distraught at having heard his daughter's frightened voice that he fell to his knees, wide eyes wet with unshed tears as he shook his head in disbelief.
"What did you do with Marlene?" demanded Aeris angrily as she stared down at Cait, her small hands fisted tightly at her side. "She was staying with my mom when we left her. If you've hurt either one of them, I swear..."
"Don't worry lass, they're both perfectly safe." Cait smiled up at the flower girl in what would normally be considered a reassuring manner, but given the circomstances at hand it was anything but. "As long as you keep me around unrestrained, I can promise you that they're gonna be treated like welcomed guests."
"That's low, even for a Shinra spy..." commented Cloud as he moved his hand away from his sword and crossed his arms over his chest.
"All's fair in war and love..." said the small cat in a sing-song manner. "So what say you, O Great Leader?"
"Seeing as we don't have a choice, we'll do things your way, for now at least..." No one argued with his decision. He didn't like it, but he knew that as long as the man controlling Cait had Marlene and Aeris's mom held captive, they were helpless to do anything other then what their treacherous companion wanted them to do.
"Great!" said Cait happily, clapping his hands together. "Now that that's settled, I suggest you all go get some rest! I'll let you know tomorrow how to get to the Temple of the Ancients. Shinra will have gotten there first, but I guess you'll just have to deal with that once we get there." That said, Cait moved in between Cid and Aeris, jumping onto his awaiting Mog before taking off through a nearby hall completely unchallenged, leaving the group alone to brew over this new turn of events.
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The tension had been palpable ever since the group had left the Gold Saucer behind earlier that morning. They had spent half the night awake, trying to decide what they should do about Cait. In the end they had decided that the risk with Marlene was too great, and so they voted to simply continue on as normal, or at least as normal as was possible with a Shinra spy around watching their every moves. They would just have to be careful what they said around the treacherous cat from now on.
No one wanted to trust Cait Sith, but they had no choice but to do so if they were ever to find the Temple of the Ancients, since he was the only one among them who knew where to find it. Following his instructions, they had returned to the Tiny Bronco in order to navigate east. They travelled for a few hours on calm seas, eventually landing on a small deserted island covered in woodland around noon. The small cat had then led them through the thick forest for about twenty minutes, until finally the group of travellers reached their destination.
"Here we are, as promised! The Temple of the Ancients!!" Cait extended his arm towards a gigantic pyramid-like structure in a clearing on the other side of a wide gorge, a rope bridge extending over the drop to allow passage to the other side.
"Wow! It's huge!!" Yuffie was blown away by the sight of the ancient ruins in front of them. She had never seen anything quite like this before in her short life.
"Aeris, are you all right?" asked Red, concerned by the way the flower girl clutched at her head as she stared at the ruins. Everyone turned to the girl to see what was wrong.
"It's so strange..." said the eldest girl of the group, a small furrow showing in between her delicate brows as she frowned in confusion. "I sense the knowledge of the Ancients, but its not like usual. It's like they're resisting becoming one with the Planet for some reason... I think they're angry, but I don't understand what this means... It's all so confusing..."
"Do you want to wait out here, maybe?" asked Cloud, thinking that Aeris might be more at ease that way.
"No, I want to go inside," said Aeris with determination as she straightened up and stepped towards the rope bridge. "I'll be alright," she added with a smile to reassure her friends. She was the first to get accross, and she took the lead as well as they climbed up the huge staircase leading to the entrance at the top of the pyramid.
They entered inside a dark stone room at the center of which stood an altar on a small plateform, only to find they were not alone. A man, whom Vincent recognized as the one that had taken the Keystone from Cait the previews night, was sitting up against a pillar to the side of the room, a crimson stain slowly expanding across his white undershirt. The man was still alive and conscious, surprisingly enough. He watched with wary eyes as Avalanche enter the room, his right hand reaching slowly inside his dark blue coat, where Vincent knew the Turk most likely kept his gun.
"He's hurt badly!" gasped Aeris, her green eyes widening in worry as she stepped towards the fallen man. Realizing her foolish intentions, Vincent grabbed the girl's wrist gently but firmly to stop her progress, afraid that the wounded Turk might misinterpret the girl's selfless impulse as a threat and gun her down.
"It's all right Vincent, Tseng isn't going to hurt me," explained the girl as she recognized the concern in the gunslinger's eyes. "The two of us go way back." She smiled briefly in remembrance, before tugging at her wrist so she could tend to her injured acquaintance. Vincent allowed her to go this time, trusting that Aeris knew what she was doing.
Vincent and the others watched as Aeris knelt next to Tseng and reached for his wounded chest in order to heal him, but the Turk pushed her hands away. "There's no time for that..." he told the girl as she tried to reach for him once more, wheezing painfully in between each word. He was deathly pale from bloodloss, and Vincent doubted that the man would make it through, even with Aeris's help.
"Cloud," he called out weakly as he looked past Aeris to the Avalanche leader. He waited until Cloud was close enough before continuing. "We were wrong all along... He isn't looking for the Promised Land like the President thought... He's after something much more dangerous..."
"What are you talking about?" asked Cloud, unable to make sense of what the dieing man was trying to tell him.
"Sephiroth!... You need to stop him... Before he... before..." Tseng's eyes rolled back in his head as he finally passed out, falling forward limply onto Aeris's lap. His right hand dropped out of his coat, a small round object held loosely in between his fingers.
"Sephiroth is here?!?" asked Cloud, bewildered. He stepped forward and grabbed onto the unconscious man's shoulders, trying to shake him awake. "Tseng! You need to tell us, is Sephiroth in the Temple?!?"
"Cloud, stop it!" Aeris pushed the agitated Avalanche leader away from her patient, afraid that he might worsen his already critical condition. Placing both hands on the unconscious man's chest, the Cetra concentrated her healing powers into his wounds, closing them up so he wouldn't loose any more blood.
"That's the best I can do for now," said Aeris as she removed her hands. "But I don't think he's going to wake up anytime soon, unfortunately..." she added quickly as she looked over to Cloud, before he had a chance to ask.
"I guess we'll just have to assume that Sephiroth is here, then," said the blond swordman, somewhat displeased that the only person who could tell them for sure was in no condition to answer. "If he's here, then we have to go in and find him."
"There's just one problem, Cloud..." Tifa sounded somewhat puzzled as she approached her childhood friend. "How are we supposed to get inside the temple?"
Cloud looked around, noticing for the first time that the only door in the room was the one from which they had entered.
"Hey look, the Keystone!" exclaimed Aeris as she finally took notice of the object in Tseng's hand. She removed it gently from his hold, carefully easing her unconscious charge from her lap and laying him down to rest before getting up and walking over to the altar in the middle of the room. "I bet if we place the Keystone on the altar, it will show us the way in."
The rest of Avalanche gathered on the plateform around the flower girl as she placed the small greenish orb in an appropriately sized slot cut into the stone altar. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but before anyone had time to react they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a blinding white light.
The light lessened gradually in intensity, until finally they could make out their surroundings once more. They found that they were no longer in the small dark room in which they had been a moment earlier, but instead atop the roof of a buidling in an immense room. The well lit room was vast enough to contain what looked to be like an ancient city of sorts.
"Hum... What just happened?" asked Yuffie in a slightly frightened voice, looking at the strange scenery with wide eyes.
"Where the fuck are we?..." Barret scratched at his head in confusion. He turned to Aeris, hoping the girl would have at least some idea of what was going on.
"I can hear them so clearly now..." said Aeris distractedly as she listened to the voices of the Planet, a distant look on her face. "We're inside the Temple of the Ancients," she confirmed as she refocused her attention to her friends. "The spirits guarding the Temple are furious... I think Sephiroth is here to steal the Black Materia from this place..."
"Alright then, all we have to do is get to the Black Materia first," said Cloud resolutely. "That way Sephiroth won't have any other choice then to face us if he wants it." He started to head for a nearby set of stone stairs.
"Hate to burst your bubble, Spike, but there's a helluva problem with that plan o'yours..." Cid called out before Cloud had a chance to get too far.
"What problem?" Cloud stopped and turned to Cid, wondering what the pilot meant.
"Don't tell me you haven't noticed this whole place is built like a fuckin' maze," the pilot extended his arm out to the strangely structured city behind him. Upon closer observation one could see that in between the confusing array of strangely built buidlings, there were countless stairscases and passages laid out haphazardly all over the city, some of which seemed to lead to nowhere.
"Unless you've got a map hidden somewhere on ya, I'm guessing it could take us days before we find anything in this goddamned place... Assuming Sephiroth hasn't already gotten his hands on the Black Materia, that is..."
Cloud looked at the city carefully, trying to weight his options. "We don't have the luxury of time, unfortunately..." He turned to his team mates, having come to a decision. "We'll just have to separate into three groups in order to cover more ground, and stay in contact by using the PHS."
"Who goes with who?" asked Tifa.
"Aeris will come with me, since she has the most chance of finding out where the Black Materia is, and consequently where Sephiroth is likely to be," said Cloud as he looked to the girl in question. She nodded to him enthusiastically, happy to be of use. "Cait will come with us too..." He didn't say it out loud, but everyone knew that the only reason Cloud wanted to group Cait with them was so he could keep a close eye on the traitor.
"Barret, Tifa and Red will form the second group." The three in question joined up almost immediately, ready to leave at a moment's notice. Cloud then turned to the chain-smoking pilot. "Cid, you go with Vincent and Yuffie."
Cid walked over to designated team, but he didn't seem all that excited with Cloud's decision to have them separating. "Hope you know what you're doing, kid..."
"Everyone ready?" Cloud waited until everyone had nodded in confirmation. "Alright then, let's mossy!"
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"Another dead-end, again!!" Yuffie cried out in exasperation as she kicked at the stone wall blocking their way. "I'm sick of this place! We've been going around in cirles for two hours already!! This sucks!!"
"Would you just shut up about it already?" yelled Cid irritably, unable to stand much more of the girl's none-stop whining.
"You're not the boss of me, old man!!" snapped the young ninja as she ran past him, going back on their steps so she could try and find another route to follow.
Cid was fuming mad as he turned to the ever composed gunslinger nearby. "I swear Vincent, I don't know how the hell you do it. If I were stuck with that brat all the time the way you are, I would have shot the kid by now..."
Vincent chuckled dryly from behind the concealement of his collar. "That thought might have crossed my mind a few times..." he said in a completely serious voice as he turned to follow after Yufie, and Cid couldn't decide if the gunslinger had been joking or if he actually meant what he said.
"Vincent, come see quick!!" Both men headed towards a darkened entrance at the end of yet another alley, from where they could hear Yuffie's voice echoing. They stepped through the threshold and descended down a steep winding staircase, ending up in a dark cavernous room filled with all sorts of treasure. Their kleptomanic friend was already busy going through one of the nearby chests. "Jackpot!" she cried out as she held up a shiny materia for the world to see.
An uneasy feeling washed over the gunslinger as he looked around the room. "Yuffie, put that back where it belongs," he told his young friend as she showed off her finding to them.
"Aww come on Vinnie," whined the young girl, unwilling to part with the colorful orb. "No one's gonna miss one tiny piece of materia from this place!"
Vincent was too distracted to really listen to her at this point. He didn't know what it was, but there was something very wrong with this place. "We have to leave, now..."
He had barely finished his sentence that a terrifying roar echoed through the darkened room, causing all three Avalanche members to freeze momentarily as they looked at each other.
"Point taken..." squeaked Yuffie as she threw the materia back into the chest before running for the exit with her two companions. Thick metal bars slid down from the top of the stone entranceway before they had a chance to reach it, blocking their only way out.
"We're trapped!!" yelled Cid in a panic as he tried to force the bars back up unsuccessfully. Yuffie joined in the effort, but it was to no avail.
"We have no choice but to fight..." noted Vincent grimly as he readied his gun, scanning the darkness of the room for any sign of their foe. The only light source down here came from the doorway at their back, which meant that it was impossible even for Vincent to see the far end of the room. He could only wait and see what would come crawling out of the darkness.
Vincent's calm demeanor seemed to have a positive effect on his two panicky team mates as they finally stopped trying to force their way out and readied their own weapons in wake of the upcoming fight.
Footsteps were heard coming closer and closer to the small group of fighters, the creature creating them heavy enough to cause the ground to vibrate with every step.
Two dull glowing balls of amber were the first thing to be revealed, mere moments before a gargantuan red dragon finally immerged from the darkness. It rushed at the trespassers without warning, roaring in rage.
"Goddamnit!!" the pilot swore as he jumped out of harms way, he and Yuffie going left while Vincent leapt to the right, the huge reptile narrowly missing them as it collided with the wall.
All three of them ran towards the center of the room to put some distance between them and their dangerous opponent, but they couldn't afford to go too far either as they would end up unable to see anything.
The dragon whipped around, its wild eyes focusing on its three much smaller targets. Yuffie's Shuriken flew across the room in a wide arc just then, hitting the dragon square in the chest. Unfortunately it simply bounced off the diamond hard scales harmlessly and swooped back to its awaiting owner. Seeing this, Vincent shot a few experimental rounds at the creature, trying to find a weak spot.
The bullets seemed to tick the creature off more then anything else, and it started to advance quickly towards the gunslinger, its amber eyes focused fixedly on him.
Vincent leapt up as high as he could as the creature took a swipe at him, placing him at eye level with the huge dragon. While in mid-air, the gunslinger took aim at the unmistakable weap spot, realizing that the eyes were most likely the only vulnerable part anywhere on the well protected beast. He fired point blank at the creature's face, the bullet piercing easily through its right eye.
The dragon shreeked in pain as blood sprayed out of its ruined eye, but Vincent payed no attention to it as he turned his focus on its remaining eye, taking aim. The gunslinger never saw the dragon's tail as it whiped down on him from above with lightning speed, sending him crashing to the ground with enough force to crack the stone floor. Stunned, Vincent tried to feel for his gun from his prone position only to realize that his weapon had been thrown clear across the room.
Movement from above caught his eye a little too late for him to react properly, as a clawed paw as big as Vincent himself came crashing down towards him. The gunslinger threw up his arms in a last-ditch attempt at protection just as the gigantic creature's full weight came bearing down on him. The bones in both his arms snapped almost immediatly under the incredible amount of pressure, elliciting an agonized cry from the trapped man. His cry was shortlived as his chest became compressed to the point where all the air was forced out of his lungs. White hot pain shot through Vincent as he felt his ribcage start to give way.
Vincent knew without a doubt that he would be crushed to death if he didn't somehow managed to escape in the next few seconds, but to his horror he found that he was completely helpless. He couldn't move at all, and his mind was starting to become fuzzy from lack of oxygen. He was going to die...
"VINCENT!!!!!..." Yuffie's shrill cry was the last thing the gunslinger heard before he was finally overcome by darkness...
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Author's note: Behold the Mighty Cliffhanger! Gaze in wonder at its terrible power and weep, puny mortals!! Mouhahahaha!!!
On a more serious note, this chapter was starting to get way to long for my taste, and in my opinion this was just too perfect a place to end it for me not to. I hope you all forgive me, and I promise that the next chapter will follow quickly. :)
A quick thanx to the following people for reviewing on the last chapter: Kyuubi-ismy-homie and ChaosNathan. Hope to see more wonderful reviews from all you guys for this chapter. Who knows, it might just inspire me to write faster. ;)
In any case, It's two o'clock in the morning here so I'm gonna crash now.
Enjoy! =D