Chapter XXIII

Let It Go

"If there's one thing I hate, it's a fair fight." - Tifa

Barret jerked his gun arm wide to redirect Whippy's hammer as it twirled toward him. The effort nearly threw him to the ground, forcing him to roll aside when the scuttling weapon began chewing up the dirt. The resulting trench ended in a spool of cable near his feet. He stood to unhook the grapple but drew back when the ground around the hammer began to smoke.

"What the hell were you thinking stealing this thing, Yuffie?" He let out enough cable to back away from the heat, but something had jammed his release button. He pulled out a tiny pick and tried prying the cable off its stuck pulley until he heard Priscilla's voice.

"Kill him," Priscilla said.

"Hell yea." He raised his gun but couldn't dislodge the tangle. Slick, that weasel, pulled a metal crossbow from his bag. "Hell no!"

But Slick did not fire at him. Instead, a green ball of light struck Aeris in the chest, flinging her back like a puppet. Tifa screamed and lit into Whippy, raining blows like a boxer. Barret grabbed a loop of cable and jerked the hammer from the dirt.

"Hammer time, you freak!"

Mid flight - somehow - the weapon's weight shifted, and instead of striking, his makeshift bolo snaked itself around a spikenut tree. Slick laughed and aimed his weapon at Tifa. Barret used his tether to body-slam the lawyer, flinging him into the pool. Barret would have plunged in himself except his cable held fast to the tree and shortened. He swayed, snapping off an Ice spell at Slick, hoping to freeze the top of the pool. (No luck.)

"I'm filing a malpractice claim on you, buddy."

"You seem a little tied up." Carmine smirked as she floated by on her way out over the pool. (Barret again eyed the child in her arms.) "That entropic blade is tricky to wield, you know. I would have never dared, myself."

"That's a hammer, not a - what?" The hammer had disappeared. As had his grappling hook. His cable, however, had thickened and squirmed like a growing snake, oozing its way up the lead toward his gun arm. "What the hell?" He jerked the end loose from the spikenut trunk, hearing a clatter on the pavement. No longer a hammer but a blunted club of gray mercury, and part of it intent on crawling up his cable.

"You don't choose the weapon. The weapon chooses you."

"Carmine? What's with this damn thing?"

"Give it back!" Whippy wailed, trying to fend off Tifa's barrage.

"It requires a blood sacrifice to power it up." Behind her, Priscilla let out a moan.

Barret glared at Whippy. "Oh, it does, huh?"

"I said, sacrifice. Something you love."

"How 'bout I just bury it in his skull and walk away? It's not like I'll ever use a damned hammer. Or, wet mop."

"That's, enough!" Whippy tottered on the pool's edge. He had finally managed to land a blow on Tifa. She limped out of reach, arms over her stomach. "You can all, suck an egg!" He lifted a glowing object over his head.

"God damn, you have the most lame-ass insults." Barret spooled out the last of his grapple cable. "As soon as I get rid of - "

Whippy threw his egg-like bomb into the pool. The water began to froth and steam. Carmine sped to shore.

"I suggest you cut your cable if you can. I'll be back to help." She nearly decked him as she sped past.

"Give me back my hammer," Whippy whined.

"Listen, snot nose. You want - what the hell is that?"

A clutch of gray tentacles slopped from the pool onto the walkway and began to wriggle their way toward him like giant earthworms. Meanwhile, the former hammer had formed into a silver glob and oozed its way up the disappearing cable, now a mere two meters now from his gun arm. He retreated from the pool, looking for something to snag the traitorous grapple on, but the business end morphed loose every time.

"Oh damn it all." Using the morphing mass as a flail, he pounded on three encroaching tentacles. They emitted screams as they withdrew from his assault. "An octopus with shrieking tentacles?"

"Ogthondapus!" Whippy stood proud as the flesh tide flowed around him. "Eighty legs and I counted them myself."

How long did that take you? Barret batted away another tentacle and retreated. Other tentacles let out screeches as they flailed below the returning Carmine. How diid he put mouths on the ends of them?

"Barret!" Tifa called from behind him. He didn't turn. Two more tentacles had it out for him. Plus the thing on the end of his cable had grown too lumpy to swing.

"Don't worry," Carmine said, having swapped not-Marlene for a pair of loppers, "if these can't cut the cable, maybe I can saw off your gun."

"Do you wanna be that blood sacrifice?"

"Can we back away from this living spaghetti? I can't get a good angle on this."

"I got an idea." Barret cast the metal mass forward as if fishing for sharks. A helpful tentacle snapped around the cable and pulled it taut. "Now!" He braced his body at an angle. "Before the damn thing reels me in!"

Carmine set the lopper blades against the end of his gun arm and squeezed the handles. But even with her tennis player grunt, the blades only mired themselves in metal goo. Carmine nearly fell from her perch, torquing the handles so hard her disc hung sideways in the air.

"You look like you could use a hand," said Cloud on Barret's blind side.

"Yea man. Been that way since Scarlet shot it off in North Corel."

With a ping, Cloud's new sword sliced through the remaining cable, dropping the morphing metal mass to the ground. His next strike sliced off the tentacle entwining Barret's legs. Cloud grabbed the loose length of cable and tugged the mass free, but as soon as the octopus thing let go of it, the silvery gray metal coalesced into the shape of Cloud's old sword.

"Oh, hell no!" Barret stomped on the hilt. "You ain't pickin' that thing up. That sword is not your friend."

"As amusing as this is to watch," said Carmine from farther up. "You should retreat to higher ground. Unless you want to fight while playing double-dutch with his pet octopus."

"Ogthondapus," said a voice behind a bush.

Whatever, Barret thought, leaving him to play in his own tentacle soup. Cloud and Carmine followed, until they formed up near a statue of a boy taking a whiz on the rosebushes.

"Classy as always, my cousin," Carmine said.

"Hey. That looks like that kid you had. What did you do with him?"

"Handed him to a passing butler-bot. Let's just hope it doesn't try to plant him in the primrose bed."

"My grapple's ruined. And there's that Whippy bastard. Hey. I've got a present for you." The last bit of his loose grapple finally spurted free. Into his gun he slotted a flare, took aim, and fired. The green streak arced over the forest of tentacles and winged Whippy in the side. "Ha!" Whippy howled and spun, only have have a lawn dart impale him in the shoulder.

"Who did that?" Barret glanced around as Whippy stumbled in a circle. Up toward the house, Barret caught sight of Elena trudging up the slope, a limp Aeris slung over her back. From a balcony, Vincent stepped forth into the air, his red and black coat fluttering around him as he drifted to the ground in a ballet worthy scene.

"Oh good, Vinnie. At least you didn't do that damned Satan Slam thing again."

"You people finally gave me an open shot."

"As if I summoned his tentacle thing?"

"Got get the mutt who shot Aeris. Looks like he wants his weapon back."

"Oh no he doesn't." Barret raced back toward the pool, angling wide of the tentacle stew to find Slick swimming a type of sidestroke toward the far end, holding that damnable crossbow up out of the water. "I have a gift for you, grease mouth."

"Careful," Carmine said, swishing behind him. "He may file a motion to dismiss you."

Casting about, Barret spotted Slick's leather bag, wondering if he could make a bolo out of it. He started forward, only to have a tentacle snap around his ankle

"Allow me." Carmine circled out over the water, banking in order to snatch away the raised crossbow. A frenzy of splashing erupted below her.

"That's it." Barret jerked free from the octo - err, ogthondapus, screwed an electric prod onto his gun arm, and zigzagged toward the frothing water. He hauling out the lawyer as he would a land a gulping fish. Slick opened his mouth to protest. Barret jammed the prod into his gut and said, "Objection overruled." Slick spasmed for half a minute before lying still.

"Serves him right for stealing my toy. I thought I saw a droid running around with it." Carmine shook water from the crossbow and rested it against her lack of a lap. "Look at this. My poor cousin will have to eat calamari for months."

Barret trussed up the lawyer with twine and a garden hose for luck. He grabbed his hogtied bundle and plodded his way across the grass, stepping over severed tentacles (some still twitching), dragging his bundle through as many of them as possible.

"No, Tifa!" He said when he finally spotted her. "Don't go near him with that!" Barret picked up his pace. Slick grunted every time his face mushed into the gooey grass. Tifa stood across the garden from him, gray sword raised, ready to plunge the blade into the supine figure. Whippy, still with that goofy dart sticking in him, quivered on the ground below her.

"Stop!" But down came the sword. Oh well, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy . . .

"Aeris!" Tifa raced toward her fallen friend. "Please! Not again!"

She snatched the Princess Guard on the way and reached Aeris' crumpled body, smothering a few remaining flames with handfuls of mulch. "Oh please, please." She ran her fingers down the materia on the staff. "Have one, have one, Life. Got it." The magic swirled around her friend, crackling in the air. She felt her friend's neck for a pulse. "Please, stay with me, please! Oh, thank the Planet. Hold on Aeris. Hold on."

Back to the Princess Guard. Looking for yellow. Ha - Enemy Skill. And, "White Wind." The cool breeze raised goosebumps on Tifa's skin, but she smiled when she heard Aeris moan.

"I die," Aeris mumbled. "unless I wear pink."

"Come on, silly. I watched you die while you wore pink."

"Other than that one time." Aeris closed her eyes but Tifa could see her breathing normally.

"How is she?" Elena said at her elbow.

"Banged up. What does that crossbow shoot?" Tifa stood.

"I'll kill that lawyer." She knelt by Aeris. "I'd never forgive myself if - I will get her up to the house. Away from that seafood zoo out here."

Indeed, tentacles flopped through the hedges and topiaries like electrified snakes. Tifa scanned for Whippy. She found Barret, over at the pool, next to Carmine and now, Cloud. "Whippy? Where did you go?"

"A little help please?"

"Sorry. Firefighter carry?"

At Elena's nod, Tifa heaved Aeris onto the woman's stooped over back.

"Thanks. Go kick Whippy's ass for me. I'll need her staff, though. Sorry to demote you from Great Shanandra. Don't ask."

As Elena stumbled away, Tifa surveyed the battlefield again. The poor garden would need a month's makeover. Tentacles whipped and thrashed, especially near the pool. One of them stopped and picked up a large sword.

"Hey wait. Is that, Cloud's Buster sword? I thought Carmine's pet ate it." She ran. The tentacle thrust out to reach her, forcing her to dive for cover. "Yikes!" The swish of the blade seemed to scrape the air from her lungs. Two back flips got her out of range. The tentacle struck but stretched to its limit.

Tifa powered up a Fire spell. "Time to broil some calamari."

In a sucking heave, the whole body of the monster lunged out of its pool. Tifa's spell flew wide as she dived back to escape the octo-avalanche.

The main body of the beast lurched forward, flattening a fire rose hedge. A tentacle reared up, sword it its grip - when a shot blew the limb apart, raining fragments around Tifa as the sword flew down to skewer the turf. The tentacle end still gripping it slid off in a wet heap. The whole beast gave a spasm and lay mostly still, its other appendages quivering like scared mice.

"Someone had to call shotgun," Vincent said, hovering nearby.

"Thanks." Tifa pulled the sword loose from the dirt, turning the matte blade left and right. "That thing was insane."

"It does not fare well out of the water. I don't even know how it handled the chlorine in the pool."

"And there he is," Tifa said. "The swimmer himself."

"He may have more tricks." Vincent tried to aim but Whippy dropped below a tangle of flesh. Tentacles began to ripple outward in waves. "I need to finish this thing off. Be careful."

"He has one trick left. Dying." Tifa ran forward, vaulting several appendages. She came upon Whippy, now lying flat on his back, his right leg cut and bloodied, his left shoulder impaled by, from the looks of it, the sharp end of a feather duster, a dart that still pulsed like a bee stinger.

"What have we here?" She kicked his leg. Whippy jumped and whimpered.

"Pull that thing out, if you dare?" He locked eyes on her. "Fight me like a man."

"I know you only hit women." She dangled the sword like a pendulum. "But this woman hits back."

"You couldn't leave me alone. All because you can't have me."

"Hey! You had everything in the world handed to you. Wealth, fame, physical looks, family connections, athletic prowess? Even mako enhancement. Yet you always want more. But even with the drugs, you could never fill that hole in your soul, because you still knew, win after win, deep down, you did not deserve it. You, are a loser."

Whippy tensed, getting a grip on that feathered lawn dart and finally tearing it free. His left arm still hung limp but after a pause he sprang to a seated position.

"Really? No." She kicked him in the sternum and he fell back flat. "If there's one thing I hate, it's a fair fight."

"You should have seen her. Your little friend."

"Priscilla? She has a name. All of your victims do."

"The look on her face. When I scooped out her eyes. With a sugar spoon."

"She died on her feet. Didn't she? Unlike you. Flat on your back." She raised the sword. "Crying for your Mama. Stuck like a pig."

"Tifa." Violet stepped in front of her. "You mustn't."

"What!" Tifa pinned Whippy's good wrist with her boot. The sword quivered in the air. "Why not? You're into pain. You keep telling us that."

"Physical pain, yes. But if you do this, the Entropic Blade will consume you."

"What are you babbling about?"

"Emotional pain tastes bad. Call it self-interest on my part."

"You think I will suffer from killing this piece of human waste?"

"That's how it starts. Before long, you will kill at the slightest offense. Until your friends destroy you. But they will delay, and blame themselves. For not stopping you in time.""

"I. Let him go once. Not this time." She raised the sword again. "Never. Again."

"Tifa? You have to stop."

Violet's words barely registered as Tifa squeezed harder on the sword's hilt.

"If you think you can control the blade, put that sword down now."

"I can control it!"

"You haven't got the stomach to use that sword, gutter slut," Whippy said.

"Stomach this." Tifa thrust down the blade with a scream. Into the ground, it turned out, since Violet kicked the body aside with a snake-like snap. But that didn't stop Whippy from howling.

"Why? Why did you save him?" Tifa glared at Violet. "You know he deserved it."

"Yes, but did you?"

As Tifa lifted her hands from the hilt, a wave of dread struck her stomach like a whistling bowling ball. Whippy continued to writhe and scream. She shook herself, flexing her hands, willing them not to return to the sword and finish the job. "You, did stop me. Why?"

"And deprive him of the pain he so richly deserves?"

"What?" Tifa stared at Violet. Then down at Whippy, who continued to buck and howl on the ground. "But I didn't touch him."

Violet, with effort, pulled the gray sword from the ground. "Walk with me."

"And just leave him here?"

"Believe me. His swimming days are long past."

Tifa followed her, though casting her eyes over her shoulder now and then. Whippy continued to writhe in a mess of screams. Barret and Cloud closed in on him. For a moment, another dying shriek came from the direction of the pool. A few moving tentacles shivered and lay still.

"Looks like your vampire poser went finally for the head shot." Violet stared at the sword in her hands before lowering it and continuing her walk. "As I thought. It won't work on me."

"What won't work?"

Violet hefted the sword. "Soul sucking. A Jenova doesn't have a soul."

"John does."

"He's also insane."

Speak for yourself.

"I heard that."

"You mind telling me what you did to Whippy back there?"

Tifa shivered at Violet's grin.

"I kicked him into the reality he deserved. His girl torture days are over."

"What, did you do to him?"

"Sent him straight to hell. With your help, as you have your own piece of Jenova. You know Carmine? She was hot evil, but that made her smorgasbord on wheels. Him? He is rotten evil. So I, tugged on the strands of reality. Actually, you did, with my help. But I pushed Whippy's perception into that reality."

"I can't follow a word of that."

"Had you turned, your friends would have blamed me and destroyed me in their fit of guilt and self-pity. After killing you, of course. Unless you really could have controlled it? But I could not take that chance."

"Heavens no," Tifa said dryly.

"Look at him. He has no mark on him. But in his mind, your strike sliced off both hands and both feet. Nice sword work on your part."

"But I - "

"Tried to impale him, yes. You really need to work on your style points."

"But that's - "

"Cruel? Yes. Delicious? Even more so. Now you know why the Cetra tried to wipe us out."

"Wait. I thought the Jenova tried to wipe out the Cetra. With the plague."

"Yea. What a waste."

Tifa stared at Violet, the new combined Violet, trying to perceive her aura. Against the lighter part of the sky, she picked out an aquamarine. "So you're - "

"Yea. Both. The Cetra, the Jenova. We hate each other. And we attract each other. It's like you and Carmine."

"Oh please."

Violet chuckled but did not reply. Tifa glanced back at Whippy, at the group carrying his screaming body away on a wooden stretcher.

"I didn't know your nemesis still lived. I really would have warned you. My Cetra part, that is. Then again, I wasn't in my right mind."

And you are now?

"Heard that . . ."

Tifa glanced toward the house, where Carmine bobbed around issuing orders in that patronizing voice of hers. But . . . less cruel? "Ifalna, stopped me, from killing Carmine."

"The sole survivor of Pebble Creek, the soon to be ski resort. I saw her parents there. As did you, I believe."

"If you had warned me about Carmine, could we still have, reconciled, the way we did?"

"I doubt it. Certainly no one else on your team could have pulled that off. Congratulations."

Tifa shook her offered hand. Then scowled in the direction of Whippy.

"I know you wanted to kill him. But imagine. He now spends the rest of his life looking at his four bloody stumps, feeling your blade slice off each one. Over, and over again. And I will be there feeding on him until his heart sputters out like a butterfly drowning in buttermilk." Violet licked her lips. "Nursing. You don't go into it for the money."

"You don't go into it to watch people suffer either!"

"No, not usually." She chuckled. "But except for Carmine, I never caused people's pain and certainly didn't enjoy pain. But it exists. Why not feed off it?"

Tifa felt a chill. She watched Barret hand a different trussed-up bundle over to Vincent. "I don't think his lawyer will get him off this time."

"And his associate gave up on making partner. Here he comes now."

"You're kidding."

Blaze crept out from behind a hedge of rose bushes, pausing to clamber over a trunk-sized tentacle. He gave Tifa the slow gaze, head to toe.

"You don't work for her," Violet said. "Even if she dresses like a beach volleyball player. Look at me."

"Yes mistress."

"Do you like to dance?"

"I do, mistress."

"Good. Tonight then, we will dance. In my room." She flicked a hand toward the house. "Come alone." She winked. "Now, back to your duties."

"Yes mistress."

Tifa gaped as he trotted away. "You, seriously? How did you - why would you - "

"Come on. Haven't you ever wanted your own pool boy? He will have a lot more fun working for me than for his old boss."

"I, see."

"Would you like to make your boy Cloud serve you like that? Wait on your every wish?"

"Ah, no. I prefer the old-fashioned way. Free will and all that?"

"Well you just let me know if need me to work my Jenova magic."

Tifa turned away before letting her eyes roll.

"Wait."

Tifa started. "Yes?"

"You promised me a dance. Remember? This garden has plenty of room. Shall we dance now? You lead. You look like a lady who likes to lead."