A/N: Happy Easter Everyone! This chapter is a day early in celebration.
Chapter 34
Shepard sprinted down the tunnel, her tactical cloak dying around her. The roar of the Phoenix lit up the passageway behind her.
The stench of monster pens filled the air. The Wutai had been breeding them in preparation for Shinra's assault. Huge things, bred and trained to kill SOLDIERS, they walked on two legs and were heavily armoured. Each carried a massive axe. She found them the day before the planned attack and messaged Sephiroth: 'They know we're coming. They're ready for us.'
Above ground, the battle had started. The earthen ceiling shook and dust fell with each tremor.
Her Omni-tool lit up.
"Shepard—" Guzzard's voice crackled through her earpiece, before he was cut off by an explosion on his end of the line. "You hibernating down there?"
"Going as fast as I can," she replied, keeping her voice low. The ninjas knew they had an invader and were stalking her through the labyrinthine tunnels. The exits were few and far between, but places for ninjas to jump out at her were numerous. Her targeting visor gave away their locations, and she had left a long trail of bodies.
"Make it faster," he said, sounding out of breath. "There are Wutai up here that need shooting at." There was another explosion on his end of the line before the connection was broken.
"I'm still shooting at them down here," she muttered. Cooling heatsinks clanked against her thigh from her ammo pouch. This was where the Wutai had fled to as Shinra burned its way across the country. She recognized many of the different insignia on their armour from bases in the south.
They weren't retreating anymore.
The tunnel branched ahead. Phoenix flew up behind her, little more than a wisp of smoke. She trilled and flicked her streaming tails down the right passageway. Shepard squinted at the dark tunnel, trying to get a hold of the mental map she had made of the place.
She shook her head. "No, this way."
They turned left. Phoenix raced ahead, her flames burning low. Shepard had told her to conserve energy and try to be discreet. Phoenix squawked in protest when she reached the new room and burst back into yellow flames. She turned an accusing eye on Shepard.
"Damn," Shepard said, looking around the nearly empty storage space. "This shouldn't be a dead-end. Why have so many traps in the tunnel? There must be a passage out." And if her mental map was at all accurate, they should be near the ravine wall. There wasn't much time.
Phoenix hissed like cracking embers and soared around the open room, searching the walls. Shepard searched on the left side of the room; Phoenix took the right.
Tremors shook the earth.
Her sensors pinged, and she glanced up the tunnel. A steadily approaching silhouette appeared in her visor. She swore and activated her tactical cloak.
A single Wutai entered, making no attempt at subtlety. He stood tall in light Crescent Unit armour, wearing a full face mask and a silver sash that distinguished him as a captain.
"Shepard," he called.
She ghosted before him.
"Reveal yourself. Answer my challenge."
Her tactical cloak wouldn't last forever, and she was certain this room held an exit to the surface, if only she could find it.
She materialized. He didn't look surprised at her sudden appearance. He nodded at her. She respected the Crescent Unit. They fought ruthlessly and without any hesitation to protect their own. She did the same.
"I saw you in the capital. Before this all began. You treated the queen with some measure of honour," he said in the local tongue, her translator picking it up. "You may yet die with honour."
He drew his weapon, a short sword.
Phoenix drifted behind her, a massive flaming backdrop. "Block the entrance," she said, and the summon shot through the air and took up her station. Yellow light filled through the earthen room.
Her rifle was no use in a room so small and against such an agile enemy. The blue glow of biotics arced across her skin, and her Omni-tool hummed to life.
It was too late for words—deep underground in the burning heart of Wutai territory and faced with its defenders—so she said nothing. She had an enemy, a weapon, and very little time.
He struck first; she ducked. An electrical burst shot out from her Omni-tool and thundered against his shield.
He smashed a glass beaker that filled the room with thick, cloying smoke. Her visor was unaffected by the dense smoke, but it scratched at her throat and lungs. She spun to catch his blade on her armoured gauntlet, then threw a biotic blast at him. He flew back with enough force to smash the crates piled up around the room.
He scrambled back to his feet with a low groan. There was blood on his armour now, but he stood tall nonetheless. He leapt forward and tried to slash at her. She dodged his sword and deflected it off her armour. Then her Omni-blade was imbedded in his abdomen.
With a gasp he threw his hand forward, and a fireball exploded across her vision, roaring against her shields. She leapt back, blinking through the black spots in her vision.
The ninja had fallen to the ground and was dragging himself away from her, leaving a bloody smear and watching her through the eyes of his mask. He scrambled for his materia.
She stalked forward, drawing her Omni-blade. The gut wound would kill him, but she wouldn't leave him to such a slow and cruel death.
He grasped a red materia and met her eyes.
Shit. She leapt forward to stop him.
What was it, Ifrit? Bahamut? That would be impractical in a small tunnel though. The glint in his eye said he didn't care.
A blast from the orb threw her back into the far wall. Blue and black strands of energy poured out of the materia, swirling to form in front of the ninja, convulsing outwards, growing larger and larger.
She climbed to her feet, watching with her eyes narrowed and the breath knocked out of her.
A shape began to materialise, tall but squat and heavy looking, with a glowing blue core. It was so large it broke through the ceiling, earth and wooden supports collapsing around it. She recognized the shape; she had seen it carved into the empty temple with Genesis.
Alexander.
It pulsed, and then with a resounding thud, landed on its feet. Thick metal plating gleamed black and covered the glowing core and solid limbs.
She felt her stomach drop.
It stood like a massive metal tower. Heavy flat limbs pierced the ground, and its lone eye, a red firing port, fixed on her.
Then she bared her teeth and raised her rifle with a snarl. She recognized it not from the temple, but from years of nightmares—from the husks she shot down in her dreams, the tech that kept her alive, and the enemy that bled the galaxy dry.
Reaper.
It was shorter than a true Reaper, only the size of a large building. Larger than a harvester, but it probably had a similar job. She had never seen this model before, but the curving design was unlike anything else in the galaxy and was burned into her psyche on a profound level.
"SHEPARD," it rumbled in a tone so deep it shook the compromised tunnel.
She pulled the trigger and then dove out of the way of a blast from its beam weapon. The tunnel walls burned under the beam. She sprinted to the flimsy cover of a crate, her tactical cloak activating around her.
Alexander's bulk swung around, knocking out pillars and smashing open the wall. Sunlight streamed in alongside falling trees and torn roots. The din of battle outside was joined by the roar of Alexander and the bark of her rifle.
Phoenix flew up into Alexander's optics, roaring at it and flapping burning red wings. Shepard seized the moment its distraction provided and sprinted for the outside. The light was blinding after days in the dark, but she didn't have time for that. Warring Wutai and Shinra alike were baffled to see her suddenly burst from the side of the ravine. She turned and aimed her weapon back at the collapsed tunnel.
Alexander's beam blasted at the smaller summon, chasing her through the air. She collapsed into ash before it could reach her, only to burst into life again behind it, shrieking for its attention. Rage made Shepard's aim sharp. Reaper tech, here and now, after everything—and it recognized her.
She fired. The metal armour didn't even dent. She snarled and reloaded.
At the sound of her shot, Alexander abandoned Phoenix and turned its optics at her. Its bulk surged forward, collapsing half of the ravine wall as it climbed out of the hole. It burst into the ravine, towering over the bloodied stream and the havoc of the clashing armies.
The blast of the summon's main weapon burned across the ground, making no distinction between Wutai and Shinra soldiers on the ground.
Sephiroth dodged the axe of the Wutai monster, then slashed at its legs, bringing it to its knees. Streaks of his own blood stained his chest, and his arm trembled from trying to block the force of the monster's blows.
He dashed to the side to avoid another hit, splashing through the shallow waters of the stream. Two of the monsters charged after him, the third roaring in pain on its knees.
One monster alone was challenging, but there were dozens of them. They targeted SOLDIERs while the Wutai army unleashed their firepower and summons on the troopers. Genesis was burning through the remains of Odin further downstream and trying to shield the platoons that had made it this far.
Sephiroth cut through the beasts, refusing to be held back. Their plans had fallen apart; the Wutai were too well dug into the region. His forces were being torn to pieces, surrounded and outnumbered. The bottom of the ravine had become a death trap. He gritted his teeth and focused on the monsters charging him. They were not without weakness, and they were too slow to avoid his blade forever. He slashed viciously at the nearest one, slicing up under its arm and tearing the limb clean off. Blood gushed everywhere, and he turned to the next monster.
This was not over. His battle was not lost.
With a pulse from his cure materia, he fixed the tremor in his sword arm. Angeal was putting the fear of SOLDIER into the ninjas across the ravine. Guzzard was still up in the trees. His lightning materia had started several fires, forcing the Wutai out of their hiding spots to the east.
A muffled roar rumbled through the air. He couldn't see the source or even tell where it was coming from.
He rolled out of the way of a monster's axe before he could figure out what was happening. It struck again, and he blocked it from crushing him, the blow rattling his teeth and shaking his bones. He reached for the materia in his sword, and a blast of ice covered the creature, strong enough to encase it. With a sneer, he spun and smashed the frozen monster into a thousand shards.
The roar grew louder, and the ground began to shake. Upstream, the wall of the ravine crumbled in, trees falling into a gulf that split open the ground.
Shepard came tearing out of the opening, her shields glowing strongly around her. He felt a surge of relief—one more SOLDIER still alive and fighting. They sorely needed a sniper looking down on the ravine. A dozen meters out of the breach in the ravine wall Shepard spun and fired back into it. He couldn't see the target.
Another monster lunged at him, and he dodged its blow. A blast of fire flashed harmlessly over its armoured hide. It was distracted long enough for him to flank it and slice through the slits in its back armour and into the spine beneath. It collapsed with a pained cry. There were still plenty more of them left.
The roar filled the air again, so much louder now, accompanied by an ear-piercing whine.
The largest summon he had ever seen climbed out of the hole in the ground, charging after Shepard. Alexander, the old Wutai god of destruction. It was nearly as tall as the lip of the ravine. Shepard was dwarfed next to it, just a shadow flickering out of sight and sprinting across the ground. Even from a distance she was visibly furious, her biotics flashing with banked up power.
A massive beam of red light shot out from Alexander, scorching the earth and frying everything in its path. The hollowed out walls of the ravine collapsed, leaving tunnels broken open and the forest igniting in massive walls of flame.
No shields made a difference. Alexander burned through everything. A couple of Second Classes tried to rush it and were crushed under foot. The blasts tore through the ravine walls, destroying defences and huge swaths of both armies. It cut through several of the monsters as though they were wet paper.
He prepared to dash in and help, but the monsters blocked his way. He growled and slashed at the closest one, but his sword struggled to slice through the armour.
Alexander hadn't appeared at any of the major battles so far, only minor skirmishes. Sephiroth had wondered why they didn't make proper use of it. But now the Wutai lines broke just at the sight of it, retreating back into the forests even if that meant facing raging fires. Alexander might be a Wutai summon, but it obviously held no allegiances. It attacked Wutai and Shinra alike, making an inhuman roar with each blast, but searched intently for Shepard. She fired back, sprinting from cover to cover. She stalled it with her shots, but it didn't look injured.
"Sephiroth!" Angeal called, forcing a ninja back with the blunt edge of his sword. He looked with desperation at the destruction. "What do we do?"
Another of Alexander's blasts burned through panicked Shinra troopers. Brandt, a First Class, leapt forward and tried to deflect the blast. He was reduced to a charred corpse under the full brunt of the blast.
His men were falling. The Wutai were retreating, and the walls of ravine were collapsing. There was nothing left to win.
He ordered the retreat over the radio.
"Angeal, get everyone back," he called, sprinting towards Alexander. The large red firing port turned towards him.
Shepard saw Alexander turn its focus on Sephiroth. It took a thunderous step, its pillar-like legs sending tremors through the earth. She reached out and threw a biotic blast at its firing port, knocking it askew just as the beam blasted. It barely missed Sephiroth and burned through the river, throwing steam into the air.
The summon followed the path of the biotics back to her.
She dove out of the way, taking useless shelter behind a fallen tree. She heard the call to retreat, but she wasn't going anywhere—not while a Reaper drone was still standing. She turned and fired over the log. A crack appeared in the main firing port where her shot impacted. She reloaded and fired twice more in quick succession. Its armour locked into place, and her second and third shots bounced off the thick metal. Swords and bullets clanked ineffectually against its side.
She didn't bother with the Wutai—the second Reapers came into the picture everything else was irrelevant. If she could take out the ninja who summoned him, Alexander would disappear back into the materia. She couldn't see the ninja; he had been buried in the rubble. He must still be breathing down there.
"Sephiroth, what materia do you have?" she yelled over her Omni-tool.
"Ice, fire, and cure. What do you need?" he said, breathless because he was dodging Alexander's fire too.
"None of those will work. Go find the ninja who summoned it!" She sprinted out from behind the tree just as another blast destroyed it. "He's back in the pit I came out of—Crescent Unit with a stomach wound," she panted out.
She didn't hear him reply, but he changed trajectory and practically flew towards the collapsed tunnels.
She caught brief glimpses of Genesis cutting down the Wutai-bred monsters and Angeal leading away the remains of the army.
Alexander charged after her. It couldn't have been a part of the most recent harvest, but it knew her by name and had decided on her as its most immediate target—everyone else merely collateral damage as it chased her. She activated her cloak and took refuge behind a pile of rubble, firing through the wooden supports sticking through the upturned earth. Alexander rumbled and searched the battle field, cutting through any cover it found.
SOLDIERs and Ninjas were vaporized under its fire. Even her armour wouldn't be able to withstand a direct hit. Both armies were retreating, but not nearly fast enough.
Lightning cracked through the air, scorching Alexander's armoured side. Guzzard leapt down from the lip of the ravine, striking at its back. He left a dent, but was thrown back as it swung around. Giant hulking limbs, vaguely insect-like, smashed through a stubborn group of Wutai firing at it.
Guzzard landed on his feet and swung his sword around.
"Get out of there, Guzzard!" she yelled. He had no cover, and his sword wouldn't make enough of a difference. She leapt up onto the rubble pile and hurled loud biotic blasts to draw the summon's attention.
Alexander's focus returned to her, and Guzzard heeded her call, racing for the nearest cover.
Her biotics surged, and making the strongest shield she could, she leapt aside. A sharp red beam burned into the rubble and pursued her. Her biotic barrier roared to life just as it caught the edge of her arm.
She cried out in pain but kept running, changing directions unpredictably. The smell of burnt flesh and red hot ceramic plates assaulted her, but she ignored it, activating her cloak and taking refuge behind the corpse of a monster. She hoisted her rifle despite the pain. Gritting her teeth, she fired again and again, cycling through heatsinks.
Her shots all hit the same place and broke a hole through its armoured leg, near the joint. She yelled for Guzzard, and he sent another bolt of lightning hurtling into the gap. The leg twitched and made a grinding noise. She fired again, and the joint gave way. The other three legs kept the summon standing, but it had lost its mobility.
Flashes of power from materia swarmed it. Lightning crackled through the air. Alexander raised its remaining armour plates, rooting itself into place like a fortress. It's exposed firing port glowed red before it sent out another blast.
She aimed at the firing port, racing from cover to cover. Guzzard followed up her bullets with blasts of lightning, targeting the same single weak point. The summon rumbled a deep cry, whether from pain or indignation or simply failing mechanics, she didn't know.
It couldn't find her, but its gaze settled on Guzzard as the source of the lightning. A blast sent him hurtling backwards through the air, his sword shattering under the heat.
Shepard fired with a yell, down to her last two heatsinks. The firing port swivelled around to find her again. She pulled the trigger, and it shattered. The complex mechanism was exposed and she fired off an electrical blast form her Omni-tool. The summon staggered back, starting to collapse under its own weight, and she shot at it again, rage and bitter vengeance making her aim true.
With a groan, it buckled and fell into the dirt, collapsing a tunnel beneath it. It faded out of existence, returning to its materia.
Silence fell across the ravine. She drew in a haggard breath and looked around for Guzzard.
He was lying in the dirt where the blast had thrown him. Genesis was kneeling next to him. She ran over, stumbling on the way.
She slowed as she saw the damage. The weak light of a cure materia washed over him.
Guzzard tried to breathe in, a ragged, rattling breath that was wasted on perforated lungs. The blood seeping out of him was thick and so dark in the fading light it looked nearly black. He coughed, the sound wet and broken.
Genesis was on his knees, a weak cure spell sputtering from his hands. He snarled at his own weak efforts and tried again. He looked up at her in desperation, then back down at the bleeding SOLDIER. Her own reserves were empty. She scanned him with her Omni-tool.
Guzzard's hand shook, twitching and empty. She knelt. Her eyes were dry, but a lump lodged in her throat. She pushed his sword back into his hand. She grasped his other hand and held it tight. His eyes wavered, lost and clouded with pain. She didn't know if he could see her, or anything at all. She squeezed his hand. His grip was weak, but he squeezed back and let out a shaky breath that carried her name.
A shadow of a smile touched his lips before he was shaken by another weary coughing fit.
The coughing died away, and he fell still. His eyes remained open, unseeing. She hung her head.
"No, no," Genesis stuttered, fumbling with his cure materia, "No, damn you, don't—!"
He fell silent, the materia falling from his trembling hands. She put her hand on his arm. He stilled and bowed his head.
Sephiroth drew near. As the silence stretched on, he approached, his brow pulled down and emotions warring in his eyes. He looked down at Guzzard's unmoving body and shook his head.
Shepard stared up at the dark sky and felt the familiar feeling of loss settle into her stomach, the crushing weight that pulled down her shoulders and carved another name onto her spine. She stood and placed her gun on her back.
"We need to get moving," she said through a dry throat.
"We cannot just leave him here," Genesis said from the ground.
"We can't take him with us, any more than the hundreds of others," she said, not looking at the ground around them. "We have to go back for those who made it out."
"She's right," Sephiroth said, his eyes not leaving Guzzard. "We have to go." Finally, he raised his head, turning to look over the silent fields of corpses. The dead lay in every direction, as far as the eye could see, and the river ran red.
Shepard looked away from him, and scoured the sides of the Ravine, trying to pick a safe path back to their closest base.
A/N: Thanks for reading! ...and I really am sorry.
Next Time: Bleeding Wounds