disclaimer: Fanfiction, Fanfiction, Fanfiction
Authors note: Hello folks, about time I got sorted out on this. Hope this chapter was worth the wait ^^
Attack
Skies above Midgar
Not having been at all surprised that Yuffie was sharing the airsickness with Yazoo, Vincent had been glad for an excuse to remain on the top deck and not have to listen to the girl whine. Whilst she had proved to be a resourceful aid, she was a complaining little brat who didn't have the foggiest notion of when it would be advisable to shut up. Still at least Yazoo had been decent enough to throw up on her, which had caused a whole load of more complaining but then silenced her with more sickness. Chaos had been rather glad of such a thing as well, but so far that voice was remaining quiet and unheeded.
Which meant only one thing to Vincent, trouble.
Tilting his head slightly to the side as he heard his son approaching, Vincent cast his red gaze back onto the approaching city, "Nervous?"
Sephiroth glanced up at his father before slowly nodding, "Terrified more like. I don't know what to expect in the slightest from this battle, even though I know it's been a long time coming."
"All warriors feel afraid before going into battle, those that don't aren't really aware of themselves," Vincent remembered his own Father's teachings with a sad smile, wondering if Grimor had ever had the slightest notion that his future family would have been caught up in such a hidden darkness that threatened to overspill into the world.
"Do you really think we can take down Hojo?" Sephiroth asked an uncharacteristic fear in his voice that brought back haunting memories of that long dark passageway under the Mansion. Vincent was silent, brooding for a few long seconds whilst the cloak he wore billowed around him in the increasing wind. He didn't know how to respond to that question because he had no idea about how this was all going to pan out. Would they be successful? Would Hojo realise what was going on and attack them first? Would this all be a waste of time?
Slowly he sighed, lightly shaking his head back and forth, "I don't know, son. I want to say yes, that we are more than strong enough to destroy this monster but after everything we've gone through…"
Stop whining like a bitch! Chaos's words stung through his head, stabbing him fiercely in the forehead so much that he physically reacted to the event with a long hiss; you ain't a whining momma's boy Vincent Valentine! You're a kickass gunner whose going to royally kick that peebrains tail from here to kingdom come without whinnying like a half dead chocobo!
"Chaos telling you off?" Sephiroth smirked, leaning one arm on the railing whilst he looked up at his father who was clearly seething. Vincent rolled his eyes, gave Chaos and his cronies a mental shove to behave themselves before lightly ruffling Sephiroth's hair, "Complaining worse than Yuffie at the moment actually."
"A fate worse than death," Sephiroth chuckled before turning his eyes towards the city and immediately spotting that something was off. He didn't need to feel his father's hand on his shoulder telling him silently to move and ensure that the others were ready to get moving as fast as he could.
Vincent stared at the nearing city, aware of the large defence systems that were being called into motion after many years of idle slumber. "Hold onto your hats folks," Cid's voice called from the cockpit of the airship, "This is going to be one rough ride!"
Tunnels under Midgar
"Ever get the feeling that something's just far too clean?" Barrett asked as the group made their way along the virtually gleaming tunnels that were leading slowly upwards towards the Shinra tower. None of the other's responded to his question but virtually all of them were thinking the same thing. Least of all Loz who remembered this tunnel for being dark, dank and nearly the reason why he had died three times over. This had been a monster ruled place, filled with evil intentions and a disgusting smell. There was no way that it should appear to be like this in the slightest.
Slowly he brought himself to a stop, looking up at a vent which presumably led to the street level above. Letting his senses run over him, the young boy took in everything and felt a sudden coldness stab at his heart. "It's not right," he murmured, hand clasping over the end of his gunblade, "We're being tricked."
Zack glanced around carefully, worried about the situation but unable to see past it, "How can you be so sure."
"No cars moving above," Loz said, still staring at the vent above their heads, "Last time there were many cars moving above, it infuriated the monsters more because they couldn't-"
Eisa suddenly and swiftly grabbed hold of her lover, throwing him roughly behind herself with a turn of strength that he had not expected in the slightest. As he stumbled upright and turned, he found himself facing a grotesque monster of a huge size that appeared to be constantly oozing a black sludgy slime which reeked of unspeakable substances. A large glowing spear hung from a winding tentacle, hovered over their heads to create the false image that they had been staring at. The dull yellow colour flicked back and forth, breaking the illusion and plunging them all into a thick black gunky darkness whilst the beast roared dangerous at them.
Had Eisa not been so aware of the creature behind them, they would have been taken by surprised and smothered by a harsh blanket of disgusting goo. Thwarted by a barrier spell, the beast roared and charged at them, slashing out with strange tentacles and poisonous clouds. Immediately the group were attacking, the males slashing and shooting with their swords and guns, kicking out where they could and ripping huge chucks out whilst they had a faintest chance to do so. Eisa defended Aerith, helping the healer to focus her powers where they were needed and burning up anything that came too close. The space was too tight to use summons and she didn't have enough time to call them forth either.
"Zack," Loz called, throwing a black device over to the solider before finding himself slammed into a nearby wall.
Not needing any second telling, Zack released the bomb after setting the charge, throwing it straight at the monster but the creature reacted quickly and sent it flying straight back towards the group of fighters. Barrett quickly got in and threw the bomb forward but even he could see that it was going to fall short. Loz managed a spectacular dive towards the device and hooked it with the broadside of his blade which he then flicked out towards the monster. Kitty leapt elegantly after it, using the white haired boy as a jumping board and head butted the device further forward with a blast of glowing cold air to help it along.
Aerith threw another bubble of hair behind the bomb, forcing it higher towards the creature's mouth where it landed but failed to go off. Eisa was quick to respond, throwing a simple fireball towards the things head whilst it tried to work out what had landed in its mouth before it had no more mouth to worry about.
Before anyone could get a smart quip in edgeways, there was a low grumble from the monster as it exploded outwards in a flurry of unsavoury substances and the roof collapsed in on top of it. "What the?" Zack asked, glancing up at the newly formed hole before finding himself being dragged backwards as Barrett smartly began running for his life along with the others as an airship smacked straight into the street above them.
Streets of Midgar
Total panic had gripped the people, the very second the anti-defence system started firing at the approaching airship which had been flanked by two others who had decided to turn up for the fun. Thankfully Cid was a bit of a veteran in air combat and had gotten everyone ready to go on the emergency escape plan. Which unfortunately meant air-boarding down the streets, not the best way to start a campaign but certainly better than nothing.
Sephiroth just about managed to keep his balance as the air-board tore towards the streets, followed by Vincent and Yazoo as Yuffie and Kadaj were taking the parachute route whilst Cid said he would simply land with his ship and get the smaller guns working to add to their advantage. He was pretty sure that the plan had already gone to hell in a hand basket but they had to do something to try and stop the madman who was ruining all of their lives right now. Launching himself into a nearby group of soldiers, he used his years of forced combat training in order to cut his way through the masses with the singing blade swinging back and forth in a gentle style.
Time lost all meaning as he kept on going, moving quickly back and forth in-between the gun shots and attempted slashes from swords that came his way. There were even a mixture of manna blasts at one point, but thankfully Yuffie's shuriken put a stop to all of that little lot. "Let's move," Vincent's voice ran out strong and determined above the chaos and Sephiroth hauled himself up, dragging Kadaj along with him before suddenly jerking out of the way of a random attack which sent him toppling into a side street.
The man who was attacking him was strange even to his eyes, standing tall and regal with the power of ages behind him. The long billowing black coat and impressive swordsmanship that was both equally graceful as it was deadly, added to the air of malovance that made the figure glow and shimmer almost as if he wasn't real. A sharp up thrust from the Masamune the other was wielding sent him flying back into a wall and he hissed dangerously as blood filtered into his vision. The man crept closer, taking long purposeful strides and Sephiroth found himself merely hissing at the other, his only thoughts of protecting his family from this unruly monster.
The green eyes blinked slowly, as if taking in all of the images that were running through the boy's head. It was strange staring at a man who looked so familiar and yet so alien that the boy's heart just wanted to collapse on itself. "Why couldn't I be like you and you more like me?" the figure asked, strong edges to his voice as the blade was raised again this time for a single thrust aimed straight at Sephiroth's heart. Before the blade could even reach its mark, another two filtered into view. One blade was deep and broad, lined with red figures and wielded by a figure dressed in a long red leather coat. The opposite was almost two fully stretch hands across and looked ancient and deadly. It was wielded by a stotic looking man with dark eyes who bore a striking resemblance to Zack's older brother.
"This one is not for you," said the first man, his tone a little cocky but full of understanding.
The second nodded his agreement, "You risk destroying everything by even touching him, my old friend. This world is only a mirror of ours, leave it be."
For a long moment there was silence and Sephiroth was sure that the white haired general, for what else could he be, would disobey the two and carry out his unspoken threat. The next blink however and all three were gone. Slumping to the floor, the boy touched his aching heart and had to wonder vaguely what was going on. That was until there was a massive screech from the sky which forced him to look up and see a brightly feathered Valfore racing down from the most glorious looking circle in the blackened sky. "Eisa," he said, forcing his body up and running back towards the battle.
Midgar Streets, Train Tracks
The bird summon swooped down with a billowing grace, flapping it's wings together in a large sonic boom to send the troops flying head over heels in a backwards motion. It then let out a second massive shriek before launching itself back into the air and unleashing a long beam of red towards the ground. It struck with a heavy force and broke through the concrete like it wasn't even there, causing it to crumble into a handy creator. Yuffie stared in sheer surprise as she would have never have guessed that there were any form of tunnels under the raging city that stood on massive plinths above the ground.
Figures were clambering out of the rubble and without thinking she moved forward to grab a hand and help pull up, "Wow, that was so cool!" she said to the figure, a young white haired male who blinked at her in confusion, "How did you do such a thing?"
"Loz!" two voices behind her yelled and suddenly the incredibly awesome ninja was flattened by both Yazoo and Kadaj as they wrapped themselves around their missing brother in some of the tightest hugs they had ever received. Tifa and Cloud ran to help Zack and Aerith out of the mess, also latching onto them in a vast array of hugs whilst Vincent scrambled down the rocks to tightly hug Eisa. "I'm so glad that you're safe," he said, kissing her head lightly before feeling his fighter's instincts kick in as something big and metal came trundling around the corner.
"Don't want to break up the party but we're not safe yet, Father," Eisa replied, quickly ducking out of a series of oncoming shots from what could only be described as a tank with multiple weapons unleashed itself on them. "Valefor! Get out of the way!"
The summon ignored it's mistress, instead heading towards the metallic beast to draw it's fire and try to destroy it before it's power became to unusable. Tifa twisted her head towards Zack, "What's the plan?" she yelled above the noise of a dying summon.
"Bomb the reactors and take away their power. It's the only chance we've got!" Zack yelled back, dodging another raging scattering of shrapnel.
"We're sitting ducks here if we don't move then," Vincent called, twisting back to see where Sephiroth was and getting a heart rending feeling that he wouldn't be seeing his son for a short time once again. "You still got the bombs?"
Loz shifted closer, "Only enough to hit three at the same time, we were hoping to use the confusion to attack several more with other devices."
There was a sudden whirring noise and Valefor rose straight up into the air with another of it's deafening shrieks before a long plume of purple light shot through the air and smacked straight into the metallic tank, sending it into a hundred thousand separate pieces. "Yippee-aye-ay-mother-fuckers," came Cid's voice from the other end of the coms systems, "time to move your butts and get some havoc caused. Got some of the boys to cover you for the time being so I would get a move on bombing sunshine's."
The group stared at one another before everyone nodded and took the opportunity to run without hindrance. They had more than enough fire power between them to get rid of the reactors so it would be a walk in the park in comparison to some of the things that they had done in the past.
Leastways that's all they could hope for right now.
