Final Fantasy 7: The Hojo Clone
By Co V Schuler
Part 2: The Second Cetra
Chapter 11 (Continued right after the end of Chapter 10)
The four hundred soldiers and eight to twelve tanks that surrounded the three rebels were more than ready. Shinra knew that someone was going to attack the colony, and got some info from the villagers of Kalm...and set up the ambush. The three rebels, Cloud Strife, Barret Wallace, and the unconscious Red XIII.
A tank cannon already hit Red XIII, and somehow, his body just got tossed around like a rag doll. He's not dead, but he would be in a lot of pain if he weren't knocked out.
Barret was mad, but at the same time, he wasn't gonna try nothing. But Cloud, Cloud had been acting strange lately and now, he was looking around and debating whether to commit suicide or surrender. Barret hoped very much that Cloud wouldn't do the first one.
Suddenly Cloud started running forward at the nearest soldier, his Ragnnarok piercing through the soldier's neck and the head and torso were cut off from one another. "No," Barret started to shout but guns erupted from everywhere and explosions filled the night. Barret hit the dirt, hearing the bullets whizzing by overhead. NO, he thought. Not like this, I am not supposed to die like this!
Barret heard people shouting in pain and some screaming. What the ...
Barret raised his head and saw Cloud running through the soldiers, cutting them like butter with his monstrous sword. Barret's eyes widened when he noticed the two bullet...three holes in his back. But Cloud kept going, as if he didn't feel any pain. And-
"AAUGH," Barret yelled when a cannon shot blew next to him. He flew back ten to twenty feet and hit the dirt, realizing from the pain that he had shrapnel in his back and side. He looked up and saw a member of SOLDIER running at him with a sword in hand. Barret's eyes widened but that didn't stop him hitting the button that triggered a bullet through the enemies' head.
The blood splattered and Barret yelled out, "Sick puke muck shit!"
Barret got to his feet and heard a beeping sound coming from his Max Ray. All right. The Catastrophe is ready. Barret activated his special weapon and jumped up as high as he could. He let out an angry yell as he started firing shot after shot at every tank and person that he could see. Shinra tanks aimed up and started to fire but Barret blasted them but some bullets hit him; but he didn't stop. "DDDDIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE," he yelled out in rage.
Suddenly the gun stopped firing and Barret fell back to the ground, breathing fast. Cloud was still slashing through some people and
PFT! Barret jumped up as dirt erupted from impact six inches from his face. People were still alive. Damn, can't even kill them all with Catastrophe.
Barret jumped to his left and fired, only now realizing that there were spots of pain erupting in his back and chest. He shot somebody. When he saw the soldier fall, he looked at himself and saw blood gushing, literally gushing from five bullet holes in his chest.
Pain suddenly enveloped him. "AAA," he yelled. They got in a few shots on him anyway. Barret slowly got to his feet and started back toward Kalm. About four miles away. Had to get a doctor or something... Barret fell to the ground, his last thought about how Marlene would cry when she found he and Cloud were dead.
Cloud wasn't dead yet though. He was a monster, killing any movement he saw. Rage was completely controlling him and he had killed at least fifty people in one quick attack. A SOLDIER member was running at him and he jumped up and as he fell back down, he sword went through the soldier's heart. The body went limp and Cloud, picked up the body and through it with tremendous strength that surprised himself.
His eyes were letting out a green mist. Suddenly he stopped...realizing that hundreds of dead bodies lay around him, blood pools everywhere. What the...what have I done? What has happened to me...I've become a monster!
Cloud started losing his breath. The green mist from his eyes stopped coming out. How did I do this, he asked himself. What's happening to me? Cloud fell to his knees, realizing that he was covered in bullet holes.
...What's happened to me, Cloud thought, as he fell to the ground and lost consciousness.
*
A few hours later...
Nanaki awoke with a start and immediately noticed a dreadful smell. He got to his feet and... hundreds of them. Dead bodies everywhere. Burnt metal from tanks. What happened while I was out, he asked. He cured himself after noticing some running blood. As the green magic swirled around him, the bullet was forced out of him and it fell to the ground, the wound gone. It would be sore for a while but hey, that's better then having a bullet in you.
Red XIII walked among the bodies, his burning tail the only other light, besides the stars. The stench was horrible, the burnt plastic and metal adding to it.
Then Red XIII saw what he was looking for; Cloud and Barret. They were about twenty feet from each other and both had bullet holes every where. Red XIII ran up to Barret first and started casting Cure3. Bullets were forced out of him as the magic healed him. But four wounds weren't healable by magic. Wounds from shrapnel. There was too much shrapnel and the magic couldn't force it out. Red XIII cast one more before running over to Cloud and doing the same.
Cloud was worse. Red XIII estimated he had twenty wounds, most from bullets and the others cuts and gashes from swords. How did they even survive, Red XIII asked himself and Cloud. To kill this many people is just...horrendous. How did they do it?
Red XIII healed Cloud as much as he could before he got too weak. Red XIII was exhausted. You had to be real good when it comes to healing this much at the same time. I've got to get help. Got to get Tifa or a doctor.
Red XIII got to his paws and started trotting towards town. Got to get help...
*
Tifa was just starting to get up, the morning sun beginning to rise. She looked to her right at the other bed and saw that Marlene was still sleeping. Tifa smiled; Cloud had been right, Marlene needed someone to talk to other than that 'wretched babysitter', as Marlene would call her.
Tifa got to her feet, went downstairs to the kitchen and started making some breakfast. What's for breakfast today...how about...eggnog! Marlene will love eggnog!
Tifa started to pull out a pan and start the oven when she realized she didn't know how to make eggnog. She shrugged and thought about it. Hmm, don't you put eggs in a stove, after they are cooked and then you put little pieces of sausage in it..?
Tifa did what she thought was cooking eggnog. She shrugged when she dropped some sausage on the floor. She cooked the eggs and when they were mostly black, she put them in an oven pan and into the oven they went. At four hundred degrees for five minutes...when she pulled it back out...she grimaced. It didn't even look like eggnog. Tifa frowned; I just can't cook that well. Oh well, Marlene will have to eat the...eggs and...stuff anyway.
She started to divide the egg stuff into two different plates when something jumped through the window with a loud crash. She screamed for a second and then jumped up, ready to fight the intruder. "Red XIII?!"
The bloody Nanaki started to get back up off the shards of glass but he fell back down, more glass piercing into his body. "The doors were locked," he muttered. "And they are steel so I didn't want to try to bust through those."
Tifa's expression went from ready-to-fight to complete and utter sympathy. And worry. "Are you okay Nanaki?" She rushed to his side and using her brute strength, pulled Red XIII off the glass (she didn't notice his paws pushing with it). "I must be getting strong," she said in amazement. "Don't you weigh about five hundred something pounds?"
Red XIII started to get up but his wounds from the glass weakened him. "Hold still Nanaki, I'm going to cure you." He started to nod but glass in his neck made him wince.
Tifa stood up and rolled her eyes back, showing nothing but white, then focused on her equipped Master Cure. She regened him first, then started Cure3. Slowly, the glass was forced out of him and then...Cloud! Where was Cloud?
The second she was done healing him, she started asking questions. "What happened, where is Cloud? Is he...dead? Where is Barret? What happened?" She said that in about two seconds. Red XIII got to his feet, still sore but able to move around a little more. "They are not dead, but seriously wounded. I did as much as I could to heal them but...some bullets couldn't be healed by magic."
Some bullets? Tifa thought for a moment and then realized that Red XIII was in shock. "How about you go get some rest upstairs, okay?"
He nodded and she guided him up and he found a spot in the sunlight. About two minutes later, he was sleeping, his body drained from all the cures that he did on Cloud and Barret. Tifa went downstairs and started crying.
After a few minutes, she got a piece of paper and wrote Marlene a note. Then Tifa ran outside and ran out of town to the fields behind it.
*
Yuffie pushed through the foliage and the Highwind suddenly appeared, in a very small area. How in the world did Cid land this thing in here? She shrugged off the question and started toward it. Kalm has to be only a few miles away now. I wonder how Cid is doing.
Yuffie walked over to the rope ladder and climbed up it. Cloud had sent her to Junon and turned her in as punishment for trying to steal their Materia again. Cid was sent to bail her out and he did, but they had problems on the way home. Now, after running for most of the night and climbing up and down mountains, she was finally at the Highwind. Now I can rest, she thought happily. Her legs yelled at her brain to stop walking; running through the night with no food for a day-and-a-half can be quite tiring.
She entered the Highwind and went to her room. Normally Vincent was in here too, but he took off to find something about his history or something like that. Yuffie had her room to herself. An evil grin spread across her face. Usually, Vincent was watching and making sure Yuffie never got into his stuff. She jumped up off her bed and started to walk over to his half of the room but her legs groaned in protest.
All right, all right...after I get some much-needed rest.
And Yuffie went to sleep...
*
"AAA," Cid yelled as a pillar of fire appeared in front of him. He jumped to his left and barely missed getting burned. Oh shit oh shit oh shit! Cid kept running; the Turks right behind him. He had lost his spear (the Trident) due to a massive ice attack and then a Turk chopped it in half. It has not been a great day.
The morning sun was beginning to get close to noon, maybe an hour away. The winter was moving in on the world and though the weather where Cid has been running is nearly freezing, he was sweating like a pig.
Cid Highwind kept running, he legs and stomach muscles weary, not to mention his arms. Cid didn't think he had killed this many people since...well...a few days ago if he really thought about it. Another Fire2 pillar erupted in front of him and he dived right this time, seeing out of the corner of his eye that if he dived the other way; he would have had an Ice3 to deal with. Cid hit the dirt and got up, still running.
He looked behind him and saw...eight Turks, still chasing him. One was starting to use magic. Cid dove left without looking and suddenly his clothes and parts of his body were getting electrocuted. He started shaking for a few seconds, his body burning and in severe pain. Bolt3, eh? It never fails, does it?
Though he was in pain, he kept running. His hair was spiked from the electricity. As he ran, his foot shook from another jolt of electricity and landed on the ground wrong, causing him to trip and roll down a hill. He tried to recover but each time he tried to get back up, he tripped on a rock or a Turk would send a Materia attack above him and he would have to duck and roll more.
Covered in bruises and sticks poking at his clothes and thorns stuck in him everywhere...
Cid emerged, seriously bruised..., "You jerks just don't ever give up..." He paused for a second and then got up. The Turks were coming after him. "I...am tired...of...running from... YOU ASSHOLES!!!!"
Suddenly, he started summoning summons and started attacking them with different kinds of Materia. Ifrit popped up from the ground and started attacking the Turks. Neo Bahamut raised a piece of the land and started Giga Flaring the enemies. Ifrit followed the pieced of land up into the sky so the Turks still had two summons to deal with...but...Cid's eyes widened.
One of the Turks summoned Shiva and...Ramuh!
The battle of the summons kept fighting. To help Ifrit and Neo Bahamut, Cid summoned Alexander and then, Cid started running. His body was weak from the magic he had used. He stumbled and fell to the ground. He couldn't get up...too weak.
Cid realized he couldn't run any longer so he let the summons determine his fate...they were losing the fight...how could they lose to three of the most powerful...
Cid then saw what shocked him...Neo Bahamut was weak against lightning! Neo Bahamut fell down, taking out Ramuh as he fell. Those two were gone, but the fight between Ifrit, Alexander and Shiva wasn't about to end. Somehow, Shiva was taking them out...somehow...then Cid saw another surprise; they had Knights of Round!
Cid saw the summon destroy Ifrit, and for the first time, Ifrit disappeared into the hole where he came from and Alexander was defeated. Cid sighed and tried to get back up but he was drained. He couldn't run any longer...push yourself you little insignificant worm.
Cid got up...and fell back down.
When Cid looked back up, he saw four Turks, all looking down at him with evil smiles...I died trying, Cid thought. And a fist captured his vision and then two seconds of pain followed by... emptiness.