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Hi! I'm back with a new chapter! ^^ I got so many new ideas now, so I'll be, hopefully, getting them done more faster then usual. Plus I gotta lot of friends IRL urging me to do so (I.E: Kaycie and Tillinie ;) Sooo.... I hope you guys out there like chapter 5! PLEASE Read and Review! *begs*
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Chapter Five
"So... They're gone." Tifa said, looking bummed.
"Don't worry, we'll see them again, sometime soon." Cloud said, putting a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Tifa looked back up to him and smiled.
"Spike, stop getting so over confident." a voice said from beind.
They both turned around to see the smoking pilot taking a drag from his cig as usual.
"What do you mean, Cid?" Tifa asked.
"Damn, we don't even know where the fuck the damn kid is. We don't even know if she's really on our side. Hell, what if what red head said was true?" Cid tried to explain.
"Are you saying Yuffie's a traitor??" Tifa shot, standing up. Cloud quickly restrained her.
"Could of fooled ya? I thought you'd at least suspect it." Cid replied.
"Hey! I think I speak for everyone when I say this, but just because she stole something of ours in the past, doesn't mean we can't trust her!" Cloud said, standing up himself.
"What kind of point are you trying to make, Spike?! What about what she said back then?!" Cid declared.
Cloud and Tifa both thought for a moment to think about what he was getting at...
"Yuffie... You're not...!!" Tifa had exclaimed.
"I don't know! I have nothing to do with this one!" Yuffie shot back.
"THIS one?! What do you mean, THIS one?!" Tifa glared. "So you WERE trying to pull something off!!!"
"No... um... uhh..." Yuffie stammered, and then the soldiers decided to attack. Yuffie quickly got out of the line of fire and darted out of eye sight before they could defeat the guards...
"But she had stolen our materia!" Tifa said. "She wasn't going to do anything else!"
"How are you so damn sure?!" Cid exclaimed. "She was plotting something all along! The damn kid knew this was gunna happen!!!"
"Yet she stayed with us till the end!" Cloud yelled back. "Why the hell would she stay with us... Even when we were fighting Sephiroth in the crater?! If she had died, then this plan would of never worked out! Not even YUFFIE would go that far! Hell, not even RENO or RUFUS would!"
Cid was silent, and he looked at the ground, scratching his head, trying to think of another comeback.
"Damn you, Spike." Cid muttered.
"Well, what we have to figure out now is what Sephiroth's going to do." Cloud said. "He's our bigger threat."
"Yeh right." Cid agreed. "We can take care of the other boys later! Heh heh."
"Hey... Captain!" One of the crewmen asked. They didn't even notice him enter the infirmary. They all jumped at the noise, but then relieved when they saw who it was.
"What the fuck do you want?!" Cid exclaimed.
"Um, sir! You might want to see this! The others are watching it right now as we speak!" the crewmember said, and then darted off.
"What the hell...?" Cid began, but Cloud and Tifa were already walking past him. He joined in the line and they all started heading up to the deck to see what was going on.
In the room next to the pilot's station, the others were gathered, watching something on the television.
But the report sure wasn't that pleasant, either!
"A series of reports have said that mysterious dragons have appeared and are causing havoc all over the earth. Most witnesses declare that they're the same monsters who attacked just a few short months ago!" the reporter on the news station said.
"No.. It can't be..." Tifa began.
"Believe it." Barret said grimly.
"WEAPON...." Vincent said in a gaze at the tv screen, which was now occupied with footage of the Ultimate WEAPON marching along the bay near Mideel.
"WELL COME ON, WE HAVE TO STOP THEM IMMEDIANTLY!" Reeve warned.
"That would be the most main idea." Red said, flicking his tail in an annoyed posture.
"Gotcha. Okay, team! Our new mission, destroy the WEAPONs!" Cloud declared.
"Right on!" they all answered, except for Vincent and Red.
"OKAY WHIMPS, OUR NEXT DESTINATION IS MIDEEL!" Cid hollored back to the crew members. "GET 'ER MOVIN! WE DON'T HAVE THAT MUCH FUCKING TIME ALL RIGHT?!!!??!!!"
An uproar began in the airship as everyone prepared for the trip to Mideel. That was almost all the way across the world, but it didn't matter. This was war.
"Cloud. We can't find anything." Red said, looking around and sniffing the air.
"Oh come on, don't give up." Cloud said. "It's probably hiding."
"Wonder why." Barret mused, amused with the ideas of it either being afraid of them, or actually being out to kill them because the planet thought they were the cause.
"Oh hush, Barret." Tifa scolded. Barret looked critically back her, then continued to scan the hillsides.
Then Red growled under his breath.
Everyone turned to him slowly.
"Red... Please tell you've found the WEAPON and that it isn't that far away..." Tifa pleaded.
"Yes, I think I have found it. But it's not that far away, either." Red replied, looking sternly in the direction of the ocean.
Everyone averted their gazes to the ocean also.
Cid, of course, didn't seem pleased at how calm Red was.
"How the fuck can you be so calm?!" Cid asked.
"I guess I've just never seen then urge to show my whimpness." Red replied with a sly grin.
Cid just cursed under his breath.
Just then Red jolted.
"Watch out!!!" Cloud exclaimed, bringing out his sword.
Everyone got in their respective fighting stances and also took notice in the huge dragon ripping itself slowly out of the water.
It was definently not ULTIMATE... But a different one. One they had never seen before. This one was green colored.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Barret cursed.
"EMERALD WEAPON!" Red warned. "IT'S ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS!!! WATCH OUT!"
As soon as it had lifted itself out of the water, the WEAPON starting shooting its own beam cannons at them. Cloud was beginning to wonder if they had tooken lessons from Goku or Vegeta from that show he always watched, Dragon Ball Z.
"Why does every monster we encounter HAVE to have energy beams?!" Reeve whined, darting out of the way of a near by energy beam as it collided with the ground.
"Just the way life works!" Vincent said, taking time to aim a couple of fire bullets at Emerald.
Emerald was taken aback from the fire blows. It was clearly water elemential based.
"Everyone! I think Vincent got something!" Tifa called out to the others. "It's weakness is fire!"
As soon as she had finished, the others started hitting it with all the fire spells and weapons and items they had, arranging from the Fire3 spell to throwing the Flame Staff weapon at Emerald. Vincent just kept repeating his fire shots at the huge dragon to keep it distracted as everyone else beamed it with their fire materia.
"EVERYONE POWER UP YOUR LIMIT BREAKS WHILE IT'S STILL WEAK!" Cloud shouted. They all mumbled in approval and then they all began to think about anything that made them angry to gain the energy for the limit breaks.
"BIG SHOT!" Barret yelled, and powered up a giant, super-sized bullet at the end of his gun arm, and exploded it at the WEAPON.
"Finaaallllllll.... HEAVEN!" Tifa declared as she punched a nice, big fire blast with her fist at Emerald.
Cid flipped his spear and whistled upwards, waving his hand towards the others. Then out of nowhere, the Highwind came into view to make a drop. It let loose six different missles on the WEAPON and then zoomed out of sight before they could get hit.
Reeve concentrated, and then he brought out a controller out of his jacket. As soon as he had fired it up, and old friend of everyone's appeared. Reeve's puppet, Cait Sith.
While little Cait was shouting orders to its mog through his megaphone, Vincent transformed into his beast form, Chaos, and then threw a long chain of deadly skulls and spirits at Emerald WEAPON.
Red looked up to the sky and howled. Even though it was broad daylight, the moon appeared and the night grew dark. Red jumped up into the sky and his paws glowed with fire, and then he let loose his Cosmo Memory limit break and left Emerald WEAPON in a firey pursuit.
Then Cait Sith pulled out his miniture, magical slot machine and spun it. Then Mog grew to the size of WEAPON and started a large, titanic battle between them.
Everyone watched as the two titans exchanged fists and blasts. Finally Mog had done all it could and it shrunk back to normal size. Reeve pressed a button on the controller and Cait waved before disappearing with his mog again into thin air.
Cloud's sword glowed, and he charged at the WEAPON in an onslaught, and then he set a large set of crucial blows with his huge sword into the WEAPON's tough, leathery skin. But nothing could withstand the Ultima Weapon that Cloud held, and green blood fell from the WEAPON as it shreiked in agony. Cloud then jumped up with amazing agility from its foot, to its knee, to its elbow, and to its shoulder, and, finally, its head. He then jumped up once more and slashed it with a finishing blow, causing it to let out one last cry. Cloud quickly darted back to the others to see what would happen next.
Screaming, Emerald WEAPON sunk back into the deep ocean below, and finally disappearing from sight. Everyone watched its shadow in the water as it slipped outwards and below, until they couldn't make it visible no more.
They all relieved when they sought the danger was over, and healed any wounds they had gotten from the first barage of beams.
"Well, that oughta keep out of our hair." Cloud said. Then he paused as everyone turned to look at him as if he had just pulled off a murder. "...Er, for now."
"So, what do we do now, Cloud?" Tifa asked.
"Dunno. But let's go check out Kalm to see if everyone's all right. We DID see Ultimate WEAPON still at large, and last time it was around, it was flying over around that area." Cloud replied.
Everyone nodded.
"Well, let's go." Cid muttered, and they all ambled off towards the Highwind again for the trip to Kalm.
"Daddy! You're home!!!" Marlene cheered and she ran into Barret's arms.
Barret chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Let's see... How old are you now? Twenty four? Nineteen?" he asked.
"You know how old I am!" Marlene teased. "I'm six years old! I'm a real lady!"
"That's what I thought!" Barret said, and then led Marlene off to Elmyra's house. Everyone else followed in silence.
They entered the little house with awe. Elmyra certainly was a nice housekeeper, and a grand decorator at that. But of course, who else would of taught Aeris?
The house was literally almost covered in flowers, of all colors. Tifa and the others noticed a picture of Aeris and Elmyra on a stand by the fireplace, and was happy to at least see her face in a photograph.
'What a sight for sore eyes.' Tifa thougth with a smile.
"Welcome home." Elmyra greeted them all. Then she turned to Barret, and gave him a critical look. "About time you guys came back for a check in. Your daughter was getting pretty worried and upset!" then she looked down to Marlene. "Weren't you?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"Of course I was!" Marlene replied, immitating Elmyra's gesture and glaring at her father.
Barret grinned. "Hey! Don't blame me! I'm just trying to save the world you kids are gunna run one of these days!" he tried reasoning.
"Well then, why can't I come along?" Marlene asked.
"Because." Barret said, kneeling down to talk to her face to face. "If you should come, and were to get hurt, I don't know what I'd do to myself!"
"Awww..." Marlene began. "I didn't mean to make daddy cry! I'm sorry!"
"It's okay!" Barret said. "I'm not crying!"
Cid snickered silently. Barret glared back at him, and Elmyra laughed softly.
"Hey..." Marlene began, looking over Barret's shoulder at the rest of the group. "Where's Auntie Yuffie???"
Everyone looked at each other uneasily. Should they tell her that Yuffie was a traitor? What if the Turks came by and decided to hold her for ransom? She would need that bit of information just in case. But... How she would take it was the main question.
"Marlene... There's something we have to tell you." Cloud said, stepping up. But Barret immediantly held up a hand. Cloud nodded back to him, and Barret continued Cloud's statement.
"Marlene, if you see Yuffie, run." Barret said. Marlene looked concerned, and mouthed out the word, 'why?' but no words came out. "Because, she's with the Turks. Even if they're not with her, get out of there. She could be bait or even worse, working for them on her own, free will."
"Why is Yuffie with the Turks??" Elmyra asked.
"We don't know. Reno said she did it on her own free will, but then again, he might be lyin'." Barret said.
"And, of course, the brat has been known to be a traitor before." Cid said slowly.
"But what about me?" Reeve asked. "I don't hear you guys griping about ME all the time!"
"Because you came through for us in the end." Cid replied, not bothering to look back at him.
"But Yuffie was also in the fight against Sephiroth WITH us..." Reeve began.
"Let's not start THIS again!" Cid said. Reeve looked at him with an odd expression on his face, and Tifa just giggled.
"You guys, we might want to think about leaving soon." Cloud said.
They all turned to him.
"Come on, spike! Let's just spend the night here and continue on with things tomarrow morning." Barret said.
Cid glared at Barret for taking his nickname for Cloud, but Barret paid no attention to it.
"Hey, daddy!" Marlene said, getting Barret's attention. "I wanna show you a new song that Elmyra tought me on the piano today!" and with that, she dragged him to the ajoined room where the piano was held.
"My, you all can't fit in this tiny house." Elmyra said worridly.
"Don't worry." Cloud said. "We're going to stay in the inn down the street."
"Okay." Elmyra said with a laugh. "See you tomarrow morning. I'll be making pancakes."
"No problem!" Tifa said, and they walked out of the house and towards the inn.
"I wonder what Yuffie's doing?" Red asked them as they walked.
"More or less, what's ShinRa doing to her?" Reeve corrected.
"Well, whatever is going on, I hope she's okay." Tifa said.
"Yeah, so do I. I sort of miss the little squirt." Cid said, taking in a drag of his cig.
Yuffie was sitting in her dorm... er, jail cell, in the ShinRa building. This had been her new room for the past week, and Yuffie was getting pretty bored of the musty smell that always hung in the air. The sheetrock that showed through the plain, white, wallpaper was also a sign that the building had certainly seen better days.
But something then intersected her thoughts. The door started to creek open. Yuffie's head snapped up and she glared at the doorway as Reno walked into the room. She made no eye contact with him as he sat down on the bed next to her.
"Hey.." He said, looking over to her. "What's up with you?" he asked.
"I want to go home." Yuffie plainly answered.
Reno sighed heavily. "Well, you can't everything you want." he said.
"Yes I can." Yuffie replied.
"Well... I'm sorry, PRINCESS, but that's just the way this world works!" Reno said, taunting her.
Yuffie glared up at him. "Leave this room now or so help me, I'll tear you limb from limb!" she threatened.
"Ooooh! I'm shaking in my boots!" Reno shot back, mockshivering. "Come on, can't you actually pull off your threats? You're nothing but talk!"
"Wanna bet, you stupid jerk!" Yuffie declared, and lunged out at him with her fist. Reno quickly got up and evaded the punch, looking down at her agian. Yuffie immediantly got up and lunged at him again. He stopped her fist from colliding with his face by grabbing it.
'Gawd damnit!! His grip is too strong!' Yuffie thought as she tried to get free. Reno brought her fist up with his, and then began to twist around, making her fall head over heels on to the ground.
"Pretty weak for a ninja if ya ask me." Reno said, glowering down at her. She looked back up at him, glaring. He kneeled down to her, so his nose was only an inch from her own. He slowly grabbed her shoulders and looked at her menacingly. "Without your damn conformer, you can't fight." he said coldly.
Yuffie looked angrily at him. "I can still kick your ass, even without that weapon." she said.
"Look who's got who." Reno said. Yuffie stayed quiet. Reno smirked, and pulled her closer until their noses were practically touching. "You're too weak to be calling yourself a ninja. How DID you think you were going to survive with AVALANCHE against Sephiroth? Just by your luck?" he asked. Yuffie didn't reply. Then Reno pulled away and stood up, looking down at her. "Well, kid, ya got a lotta luck if ya got yerself stuck in this joint." He said, sarcastically.
Yuffie stood up immediantly. At first Reno thought she was going to attack him, but instead she walked over towards the door.
"Nuh-uh!" Reno began, and grabbed her by the shoulder. She turned to face him, not too pleased. "Don't think it'd be good to trust you going out all by yourself!" he said.
"Leave me alone, Reno." Yuffie said, and walked on ahead. Reno followed her all the way, wondering where she was intending on going.
Yuffie peered around a corner, and then, cautiously, moved on. Reno raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was sneeking around if he was with her. Then it appeared to him that she might not know he was still following her. He crept back into the shadows and followed her silently.
'Good, he finally left me alone.' Yuffie thought. 'What a jerk... But still hot as hell...'
She looked both ways. No one in sight. Yuffie then made her move and darted across the open hallway to her next hiding place behind a stack of crates.
'I need to find a way out of here....' That's when she heard something. She whirled around and saw Reno's aquamarine, mako eyes glowing in the darkness beyond her. She screeched and lept back in fright. Then she grumbled when she saw who it was.
"Damnit, Reno! Stop following me!" She hissed.
"Not a chance, brat." Reno said, standing up and folding his arms. "You'd take any chance to get out of here... Though I don't blame you."
Yuffie quirked an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.
Reno didn't answer, but simply offered to help her up. She took his hand and stood up.
"Well?" Yuffie asked.
"Listen, I'm not opening up to just anyone. And I won't tell you this, if anyone!" Reno said, and grabbed her wrist. He then started to half drag her back into the direction of her old dorm.
Yuffie grabbed his hand with her free one and tried to pull free. Reno then tried to seize this hand also, but Yuffie soon squirmed out of his grasp, and scrambled away from his as fast as possible.
"Hey! Damn brat!" Reno cursed. Then he ran after Yuffie. "Get back here!" he yelled after her.
'Shit.' Yuffie thought. 'I gotta loose him!' and then she took a left. Reno's footsteps could be heard behind her, and he was getting nearer. He had certainly had better training for this sort of thing than she had.
She took a right. Then a left. Right. Left. Left. And pretty soon she just started taking random turns, having no idea where she was going. And she also began to loose track of the turns she had first tooken, and was completely lost.
Then she came to a four-way intersection. "Damn..." Yuffie muttered under her breath. "Which way?" she looked at her three options. Then she decided to just go straight. This hallway was very long and had about a hundred or so doors on either side. But it also didn't look like it would stop any time soon.
Then she heard a crash behind her. And then a buzz of electricity...
'Oh...shit...' Yuffie thought as she turned around in fright.
Another crackle of lightning hit the corner and just after it had cleared, Reno ran around the corner and then stopped and stared at Yuffie.
"Damn, and I thought *I* was lost..." Yuffie muttered.
Reno held up his nightstick defensively. "Yuff, I don't want to have to do this, but if forced to, I will." he said slowly.
"LEAVE ME ALONE AND GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!" Yuffie screamed, and then she powered up for her All Creation limit break. But before she could do anything, Reno stepped forward and pushed the button on his night stick. Enough electricity came out so that she was stunned. Yuffie crumpled to the ground and looked in the direction her eyes were fixed. Up.
She couldn't move any of her muscles. This had never happened to her before. What the hell did he do to her?
"Yuff, don't worry, I just stunned you. I'll have to get you back to your dorm or Rufus will kick my ass." Reno said, stepping into her viewline and looking down at her with hurt eyes.
'Why the hell does he have that look on his face...?' Yuffie thought. 'He shouldn't care. He's supposed to be merciless!'
Reno then kneeled down and swung Yuffie over his shoulder and began to carry her back to the jail cells. He winced when he heard her whimper, "I wanna go home...please take me back home..." but kept going, knowing all too well what the consequences were going to be for Reeve, let alone him if he dared to let Yuffie escape the ShinRa Tower alive.
"Yuff... This isn't my fault..." Reno tried to say, but it came out mostly wordless, though his mouth said the words.
As soon as he reached the prison cells, Rufus' voice came over the intercom. Reno looked up at the sound of his boss and wondered if he had any new orders for them.
"This is Rufus... Turks, get up here in the office with the girl immediantly, I've got new orders for you. That is all."
Then the intercom announcment ended. Reno looked over to Yuffie, who was looking at him from his shoulder, with a scared look on her face.
"What is going to do with me this time...?" she asked him.
"Dunno." Reno answered. "Let's go find out, shall we?" and then he set her down, took hold of her wrist, and dragged her along to the elevator.
"NOOO!!! FATHER!!!!" Tifa screamed. She ran to her father's side and held his limp body, sobbing. When she heard footsteps leading away, she looked up, glaring at the black caped man with pure malice in her eyes.
"I can't believe you!" Tifa declared. "Murderer!"
But he did not respond. He kept walking away, towards the Nibelheim moutains.
She was fed up with it, she had to put a stop to this before something bad even began. As if it could get much worse, she thought. She ran back to her house, crying and covering her mouth the whole way to avoid breathing in the smoke of the fire that burned her skin as she walked through. Once she got to her room, she turned around as she heard a big crash. The stairs had gotten so weak from the fire that they had collapsed.
"Shit..." She cursed under her breath. Then she ran to her bed and grabbed her sword. Picking it up, she remember what her trainer, Zangan, had said to her.
"Never give up."
She grew even more angry at the thought of what Sephiroth had done to him. The same thing he had done to her own dad. He had ruthelessly murdered both of them, skewering each with his sword and twisting it slowly, making it as painful as possible, and then, he had let them fall and bleed to death if they weren't already.
Tifa pinned the sword in the strap on her back and kneeled on her bed to her window. She untied the knot as quickly as possible and shook the latch off. Then she threw the windows open and took a fresh gasp of fresh air. Then she saw Cloud going into one of the buildings.
"Good ol' Cloud..." Tifa thought with a smile. "Always trying to help..." But then she thought about what house he had gone in. His own. She frowned at the thought of Mrs. Strife... She wouldn't of survived. There was just no way she could.
Tifa climbed out of her window with a new grown vigor and lept off the roof. Landing softly on the ground, she drew her sword and ran towards the Nibelheim Reactor, not taking any notice at any monsters causing havoc around her...
--FLASH--
She ran up the stairs to Sephiroth, remembering all her training from Zangan, and drew her sword up, tears in her eyes, and before she could strike, he swept up at her with catlike reflexes and dove the sword across her chest and upwards to her chin. The blow sent her flying to the bottom stair, and she watched helplessly as Sephiroth stalked into JENOVA's room. That was where Zack was...
Then, behind her, a SOLDIER entered the room. Tifa looked up at him from her disabled position on the ground. The SOLDIER picked her up and carried her, and then set her down gently out of the line of fire.
"Cloud..." she murmered.
The SOLDIER nodded, and then ran up the stairs, drawing his sword. Then, Zack came flying through the doors of JENOVA's room, blood splurting on the near cells, and he landed on the ground in a big heap. Cloud then ran into the room.
Sephiroth came out, moments later, Cloud trailing right behind him. When they had gotten to the room beyond the room Tifa was in, she could still see them through the doorway. As Sephiroth whirled around at Cloud, Tifa mouthed a single word.
"No..."
And that's when Sephiroth dove his sword right through SOLDIER Cloud Strife's chest...
And just as that happened, it all turned black. And then a face with mako eyes and black, spikey hair shown through the darkness. He replied with one phrase that would change her thoughts about everything that had happened thus far...
"I'm not dead..."
Tifa's eyes snapped open immediantly. What a horrible dream. She certainly didn't want to see what she had just seen ever again. But why did Zack say that he wasn't dead? Surely it was just an emphasizing. Her mind was clearly too tired to care. She sat up in her bed in the hotel room she was in. Cloud was sleeping across the room from her in his own bed, and it didn't look like he was having a dream at all.
Tifa sat back down and tried to go to sleep again. But nothing would work. After about another hour, she got up out of her bed, and decided to go do something. Walking across the hall in the quiet hotel, she looked around. Trying to remember where the lobby was, she felt her way through the darkeness, going down three flights of stairs. Finally, she reached it.
The only sign of anything living was the fact that the moon was shining through the huge windows to the side. She was still only on the third floor, and didn't really care how big the hotel was. She took her place in a maroon colored armchair in front of the window and gazed up at the moon bordly. She thought about things. Things she had never even considered. Things about what could happen. Where Yuffie was. What Rufus' next step would be. What Sephiroth would be planning next. If JENOVA was still alive.
But most importantly, why was Zack in her dream?
She was starting to doze off when she heard hissed words from outside in the hall. She perked up immediantly and kept silent, straining her ears to hear every word as possible. This could be valuable information.
"What did Rufus mean by 'threatening'?!" an all-too-familiar voice could be heard.
"Yuff, you know as well as I do. We gotta find AVALANCHE and threaten them with you..." Reno's voice. Definently his voice. The drall could not be mistaken.
"Ugh! Let me go!" Yuffie screeched, but Reno clasped his hand over her mouth.
Then the doors of the lobby swung open. Tifa kept in a position so nobody could see that she was in the chair from their position.
"Yuffie, if you don't shut the hell up I'm going to stun you right here!" Reno hissed, talking to her as if she were a little child. This mad her mad.
Yuffie drew back a hand and slapped him.
"Don't talk to me like that!" she hissed back.
Tifa turned her head and spied on the situation. It was definently Yuffie. Reno grabbed her wrist and shoved it down, looking at her straight in the eye. Then he spoke, in a very slow, and of course, hard tone, "Yuffie... You know I do not want to hurt you so why don't you just STOP while you're ahead!"
"Why don't you want to hurt me?!" Yuffie mocked, but in a more serious tone then intended.
Frusterated, Reno grumbled. But even from where she was, Tifa could hear what he had said.
"Yuff...Please stop! I don't want to hurt you and that's that!"
Yuffie sighed hopelessly.
"I just don't want to do this to them..." she said in a pouting voice.
Tifa then lept out from her position, bringing up one of her fists. Yuffie and Reno stumbled in disbelief and surprise as she had appeared.
"Tifa!" Yuffie said, startled.
"Geh!" Reno said, then cursed under his breath.
"Let her go!" Tifa barked.
"Not a chance!" Reno yelled back.
Tifa then took out a materia and casted bolt on Reno. Reno quickly absorbed the attack, having the electricity as an element, and then prepared to attack her also. Tifa ran up and dove to punch him, but Yuffie dove in the way and took the hit.
"Yuffie! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Tifa exclaimed.
"I don't really know..." Yuffie muttered, glaring back at Reno.
"You keep forgeting!" Reno said. As Tifa dove at him again, he grabbed one of her fists and held it with a very strong grip. Then he said slowly and quietly, almost in a whisper when he was nose to nose with her. "She's one of us."
"ONE OF YOU?! SHE'D NEVER WANT TO BE!!!" Tifa screamed, ripping away from Reno and bringing out an earth materia and casted Quake3 on him. Reno stumbled as the ground under him shook. One of the most biggest weaknesses of Electricity based fighters always included earth magic.
Then Cloud and the others busted through the door to the lobby. Reno and Yuffie whirled to look behind them.
"Yuffie! We don't know what's going on, but I've got one question for you!" Reeve said, stepping in front of all the others. "Are you doing this by force or by your OWN free will?!"
Yuffie thought for a second. Why WAS she doing this...? She looked over at Reno. Was it for him? For herself? To show her dad she wasn't just a goody two-shoes all the time? To show everyone else she wasn't that easy to understand? That she was unique?
"Yuffie. Answer this question." Reeve said in a harsh voice. Yuffie looked up at him. "Now."
"I DON'T KNOW!!!!!" Yuffie screamed and then powered up her All Creation on the group. Tifa watched in horror as her friends got blowed back and across the room, and she dove behind one of the chairs as the blow neared. When she looked up, all of her comrades were sprawled across the floor, trying to get up, and all the furniture, blown apart. The only ones standing were Reno and Yuffie.
Reno slowly lowered his arms from shielding his eyes and looked at the sprawled group, amazed. Yuffie was standing there, heaving in deep breaths, furious.
'She's confused...' Tifa took a guess.
Everyone had gotten up by now, and Tifa walked over to them, not taking an eye off of their enemies.
"We should call Barret over here..." Cloud said. "We need his help."
"Good idea." Reeve said, and then punched in a few numbers in his PHS.
Reno brought up his nightstick and prepared to charge it at the little celluar phone...
Ring.... Ring.... Ring....
"What the..?" Barret mumbled. He opened his eyes.
Ring.... Ring.... Ring....
"Damn phone." he grunted and sat on the edge of his bed. He picked up the PHS and answered sleepily, "What is it this time?"
"Barret! Trouble in the hotel! Reno's---*BZZT*" came Reeve's voice, but then all he heard was static.
"Shi'..." Barret began, jumping out of the bed, and swept out the door while grabbing a couple potions and ethers. There was no time to loose...
ZZZAAAPPPP!
Reeve's PHS was hit full force. He immediantly dropped it like a hot potatoe and watched it hit the ground. It twitched a couple of times and then lay still.
"Damn..!" he cursed, looking up at Reno.
Reno smirked, lowering his nightstick. "I appear to remember that you have a little death penalty to take care of, eh Reeve?" he asked, his smirk broadening.
"Reno...Don't." Yuffie begged.
Reno looked over to her. 'Damn!' he thought. 'Yuff please don't give me that look!! You're not making it any easier!' and then he thought about it for a second. 'Wait... I won't do it! I'll call the others in for reinforcements so THEY can end up doing it! Good idea, Reno!'
Reno reached into his pocket and got out his own PHS. He dialed in a number and then called Rufus.
"Yeah, er, boss. I'll need some reinforcements. They've outnumbered me... oh.. Oh! Okay." He finished by clicking it off and put it back in his pocket, smirking triumphantly.
"You are a sick man." Cloud snarled. "Calling others to do your dirty work."
Reno lept back. "How do YOU know what I'm planning?!" he exclaimed.
"Us SOLDIERs think alike?" Cloud suggested.
Reno frowned. "Don't you EVER compare me to one of THOSE low-ranking wannabes!" he growled. "Unless YOU want to be electricuted also!"
"You were once a SOLDIER, Reno!" Cloud declared.
"I was NOT!!" Reno refused, bringing up his nightstick.
"Well you had to have started somewhere!" Tifa suggested.
"I was led into being a turk, and that's where I am now!" Reno said. "End of story!" he finished by swiping his hands out in both directions to emphasize his point that the discussion was closed.
But it wasn't.
"Why do you have mako eyes?" Cloud asked slowly.
Reno looked at him in disbelief. Did he really have mako eyes...? No! He was playing a joke on him! He had plain, regular, blue eyes! They weren't mako!
"I do NOT have mako eyes! They're cyan!" Reno refused.
"Hey, Reno? What's wrong?" Cid taunted. "Loosing your cool, hot shot?"
Reno furiated. "TURK LIGHT!!!" he yelled, and blasted them all with a high bold of electricity from his nightstick, concentrated all his energy on the one blow.
But then Barret swept through the door and countered it with his Ultima materia.
Unfortunately, he hit Yuffie also.
Since Reno had magic abosorbing armor on, he wasn't affected as much as Yuffie. She screamed and fell to the floor, holding her chest in pain.
Reno turned and glared at Barret. He was now beyond furious and in the level of almost reaching a fit. His nightstick glowed, and then he casted a new limit break on Barret that they had never seen before.
"SONIC WAVE!!" he screamed as he blasted Barret with a wave of sound drills. So high pitched, that it blew Barret across the room. He ricochaded off the wall and into the maroon colored chair in a position that was probably impossible to make.
As soon as Reno had calmed down, he kneeled down to Yuffie and spoke in her ear. She nodded at each statement he had asked her.
'What are they talking about...?' Tifa wondered.
Reno got up, looking at them, most unpleased. "Yuffie asked why she was hit in the process!" he yelled at Barret as he stood up from the fall.
Barret stumbled, looking at him. "Becuz..." he began. "She's one of you foo's... She can't be trusted any more..."
"What?!" Tifa asked. "She's still our friend! I know it!" she declared, trying to reason with everyone.
"Tifa, I think that's something we'll have to accept. She's not with us anymore." Cloud said. Tifa turned and looked at him, hopelessly.
"That's not true! It can't be!" she argued.
"Oh. It is."
They all turned, including Yuffie and Reno, to the door. There stood Rufus, with Rude and Elena at his sides. Rufus held open his big, white trenchcoat, revealing all of the weapons and ammunition that he had. He dropped the sides of his coat back to their former positions, and drew his three-barrel shot gun and cocked it. He had the most wicked grin that even made Rude and Elena uncomfortable.
"Um... Boss?" Elena asked, tapping on his shoulder. Rufus turned to her, a disgusted look on his face. "What are we going to do... exactly?"
"Oh, you'll find out." Rufus replied, his wicked smile returning to his lips.
"That doesn't sound good..." Rude mumbled, but not even Rufus could hear him.
Rufus turned back to AVALANCHE, grinning. "Oh, I have been waiting for this opportunity for a very, very long time." he said.
Red tensed up. "What are you going to do?!" he growled.
Rufus laughed softly. "How pathetic. You can't stop me. Now, it's time for you to die... I'll start with the torture.." he said.
AVALANCHE looked at him questionably, but Tifa had a feeling about what was going to happen.
Rufus smirked oddly, and then he turned to Reno. "Reno, bring be the girl." he said calmly. Almost too calmly.
Reno hesitated. He looked at the big, three-barrel shot gun in Rufus' hand. 'Oh shit... He can't... He wouldn't!' Reno thought. "Um... sir?" he ventured. Rufus looked at him, puzzled. "If I may ask of something? Why... her?" Reno asked slowly, yet, instead of his usual drawl, in a voice that almost made him seem like he was scared.
"Oh, it's so simple, Reno." Rufus began, "Because she's in our custody." then she grinned again, resting the gun on his shoulder, "And because she's the youngest. They'll feel sooo bad when they find out they were the cause of the little, innocent one's death!" he finished, triumphantly at the ingenious of his plan. He chuckled softly.
Yuffie stepped back, away from Rufus, for she had noticed his gun not that long after he had entered the room. Reno held out his hand and held her wrist softly, giving her a gesture so she wouldn't run.
"No!" Tifa screamed at Rufus. "DON'T!!!"
But, to Rufus' surprise, Reno didn't move to fulfill his demand. Rufus looked at him critically, his smile turning into a frown. "Reno...?" he asked softly, yet dangerously. "Why are you hesitating?"
Reno stood and thought a few moments, and then looked back up at Rufus. His eyes were dangerously glowing, but he didn't care if they showed sign that he was a SOLDIER. "No..." he began in a low growl. "You're not going to have her, you bastard."
Rufus' grin returned to his face and he brought the gun off from his shoulder and let it dangle along with his arm, and rested his other arm on his hip lazily. "Oh?" he asked. "Why not?"
"Because." Rude spoke up, walking over to Reno's side.
Rufus tensed up and gripped his shotgun. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he yelled at him.
Elena walked over to Reno's other side casually, and then turned to face Rufus. "Giving you the slip." she said calmly.
"WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU ON?!" Rufus yelled, agitated, and then began to rise his gun at them.
Reno looked at Rufus coldly. "I thought YOU would of known..." he began, his lazy drawl returning to his voice. He flicked his nightstick up and rested the tip of it on his shoulder. "All Turks stick together." he stated.
"No matter what." Rude continued, fixing his shades to be exact.
"That's the spirit!" Elena said, triumphantly. "Believe it, carrot-top!" and she pointed at Rufus, emphasizing the last bit that it was being directed at him.
Rufus lowered the gun. And then, through gritted teeth, he growled, "Hand over the girl..."
"No." Reno simply answered, standing his ground.
Then an idea hit Rufus. 'Oh no... He likes her! I know it! I guess Tseng made a mistake by picking him up and presuming, since his life had been tooken away completly, that he wouldn't have any feelings for anyone anymore... Because it looks like he does...'
Then Rufus frowned at Reno. "Reno..." he said slowly and dangerously calmly, "PLEASE don't tell me that... you... like... her..."
Reno looked at him with a smirk. Then he looked at Yuffie, winked, and then turned back to Rufus. "What if I do? What are ya gunna do 'bout it?" he asked.
Yuffie blushed crimson. 'Oh gawd...' she thought.
'He... likes her?!' Tifa thought. 'Is that why...???'
Rufus shot a cold glare over in Tifa's direction. Tifa wasn't that far away, probably only about five feet. "FINE THEN!!" he said, raged. "THEN I'LL START WITH HER!!!" and he lunged at her.
Tifa squeaked and then went to punch at him, but then Rufus blocked, and then he grabbed her around her neck by his free arm, and set the barrel of his shot gun to her temple. Tifa gasped for air, wriggling and trying to get away desperately.
"TIFA!" Cloud yelled, chancing to grab at her, but Rufus yanked her away, backing up across the room and towards the window.
"Don't come any more closer, or I'll shoot..." Rufus grunted, usuing all of his stength to lug Tifa to the window.
"Rufus if you even dare take a shot at her, I swear, I'm going to--" Reno began, but then was cut off.
"TRY AS YOU MIGHT!!" Rufus yelled back at them. "BUT I'LL ALREADY BE DEAD! IT'S ALL CAME DOWN TO THIS! MY ONLY FEAR IS THAT I WON'T DIE, NOW! I WANT TO GIVE YOU AVALANCHE GUYS A LIVING HELL BEFORE I EVER DIE! THAT'S WHY I LIVED THROUGH DIAMOND WEAPON'S BLAST!" he grinned, getting ready to pull the trigger. He returned to his calm voice again. "...Nobody can stop me now."
"That's not true, Rufus!" Reeve argued.
"What if you lived for something else?" Red suggested.
"STOP IT WITH YOUR LIES!!" Rufus yelled back, and then drew back his finger...
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD! YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL HOW YOU SURVIVED!" Cid yelled.
But then a flash came down from the rafters...
Rufus took a chance glance at what it was, but the figure was already upon him. It was a man, no doubt. He grabbed Rufus' gun and threw it out the window, breaking the glass and making the whole thing shatter.
Tifa scrambled away, gasping for air, and then she almost landed on the ground, but Cloud caught her, and spoke comforting words into her ear, kissing her hair softly.
Then a struggle began. Rufus broke free, and then he ran for the window. But then the figure grabbed him by the arm and flunged him with great strength across the room like a rag doll.
"What do you want from me?" Rufus gasped. Then, tears in his eyes, he let out another sentence, "Just let me die, already..."
The figure stepped up to Rufus, and looked down at him pathetically. He then looked up to the other members of AVALANCHE.
"We must leave, now. Before ShinRa gets here." the figure spoke.
"Who are you?" Red asked.
"Just come, hurry!" and then the figure ran out of the room.
Everyone, including the Turks and Yuffie, followed the mysterious figure out of the room. They could already hear sirens and helicopters approaching.
'No...' Cloud thought as they made their escape. He took a glance up at the figure. 'Is it... you?'
'Hey, Cloud!' an old friend had said to him once. 'Let's run off and be mercenaries together! A team!'
'It is...' he confirmed himself. "I can tell..." he mumbled.
"Tell what?" Tifa asked him.
Cloud shook his head. "Nothing..."
The figure had led them to a cave, nearby the town of Kalm. They all looked around. It had a stange tint of mako to its walls, so no doubt that it was another mako mine that ShinRa hadn't discovered.
"Who are you?" Cloud asked, stepping forward, and setting Tifa down on one of the rocks. Tifa sat up to a more comfortable position and looked at the figure worridly.
"Cloud... You don't recognize me...?" the figure asked.
'Oh my god!' Tifa thought. 'That voice... From my dream!'
"Zack...?" Cloud ventured a guess.
The figure nodded, and then finally stepped into the light, showing his face. He was older, now. But his black, long, spikey hair still was the same. He wore the same SOLDIER uniform, and had gotten a new sword in the process.
"So... You remember?" Zack asked. Then he eyed Cloud's own sword. Which he knew was his. "And, you've kept my sword in well shape, as to be expected from you." he said with a smile.
"Whoa whoa whoa... whoa!" Barret began, trying to set something straight. "Let me get this.. Zack? Cloud? Isn't that the guy who you went to Nibelheim with? The legendary SOLDIER you've told us about?
Zack smirked. "That's about it." he confirmed. "Sephiroth's shadow."
"Wait..." Reeve began. "Are you with Sephiroth..?"
Zack shook his head. "After he killed my girlfriend?! No way!" he said.
"Girlfriend??" they all asked.
"Cloud...? Do you know anyone named Zack?"
"Aeris." Zack confirmed. "Which is exaclty why I need your help."
"Why?" Cloud asked.
"Aeris... we need her back. She'll know for sure how to put JENOVA away for good." Zack said. They all paused. "I need you guys to help me revive her."
There was a long pause after that.
Cid broke it. "Well! There's no fucking reason why the hell not!" he said.
Zack grinned. "You're quite a lively fellow." he said. "What's your name?"
"The name's Cid. I'm the main pilot around here. Ya wanna go somewhere, by damn I'll get ya there faster than anybody else!" Cid said with swelling pride.
Zack turned to everyone else. "Please, introduce yourselves." he asked.
"Tifa Lockheart." Tifa said. "I'm the tourguide."
"Ah... I remember you." Zack said.
"Red XIII..." Red said. "Just call me Red. But my real name is Nanaki."
"Barret, foo'!" Barret said, raising his gun into the air. "Da whole leader behind all this!"
"Vincent." Vincent said. "Don't ask any questions."
"I'm Reeve. I used to be a part of ShinRa... but..." Reeve hesitated. "I quit."
Zack snickered. Then he turned to the Turks.
"What?" Reno asked.
"What's your names?" Zack asked.
"My name's Reno. Leader of the Turks." Reno answered. "I thought you would of remembered."
"Where's Tseng?" Zack asked.
"Dead." Reno answered back, not showing a bit of intrest in Zack at all.
"Oh... Sorry to hear that..." Zack said, getting the feeling he wasn't wanted.
"My name's Elena." Elena said.
"....Rude." Rude said, not taking participation to say anything more.
Zack then turned to Yuffie.
"Hey.. Aren't you...?" He began.
"What?" Yuffie asked, her eyes going wide with innocence.
"The princess of Wutai?" Zack asked.
"I prefer either the term, 'The Lord's Daughter' or my name, Yuffie Kisaragi." Yuffie said simply, going back to checking her materia.
"Oh." Zack said shortly.
"Zack, how are we going to revive Aeris?" Cloud asked.
"We need the white materia." Zack said.
"But Sephiroth has it." Tifa said worridly.
"Well, it won't be so hard to find him." Zack replied.
Cloud nodded. "Let's start then. The sun's rising and it's a new day." he said.
But then he stopped. He suddenly turned to the Turks. "What are you guys going to do now?" then he directed his attention to Yuffie. "Yuffie, who's side are you on?"
"We have officially been fired." Reno said. "No doubt about it, and Rufus is going to be after us. Of course, since it IS our fault..." he paused. "We can't afford to let you get in the way. They'll be after to kill us. And no doubt, Yuffie as well. And since this is my mess, I'll protect her."
"Then what are you going to do in the meantime?" Cloud asked.
"We'll be a second eye for Sephiroth." Reno explained.
"Wait..." Barret began, looking at them critically. "How do we know we can trust you...?"
"Don't know. You're just going to have to go with your own instincts." Reno replied.
"Well, in that case, you're going to need our PHS number." Reeve said.
Reno nodded. "That would work."
Elena looked worried. "What will Rufus do to us if he finds us?" she asked Reno.
Reno turned to her. "Who knows? Maybe we'll suffer Reeve's old fate also." he answered.
Elena blinked.
After Reeve had given Reno their PHS number, they started to walk out of the cave.
"So, I guess this is it." Cloud said.
"Yeah, see ya, Cloud." Reno said, nodding off to him.
"By the way, the way your eyes glowed.. That proves it." Cloud said with a smirk.
Reno smiled jokingly back at him. "Yeah, I guess it does." and then he started leading the others off across the hilltops, towards the Chocobo Farm.
"Bye, Yuffie." Tifa said.
Yuffie turned to Tifa. She stared at her for a second, and then nodded, smiling. "See ya." she answered, and then went to catch up with the others.
"I hope they know what they're doing." Zack said. "But I have a feeling we'll meet up with them."
"Come on! We gotta get to my Highwind!" Cid complained. "What if it rusted?!" and then he started to amble off towards the other direction where the Highwind could be seen from a distance. Everyone groaned and followed him, not even caring if it actually did rust overnight...
~~~~
Yeah, how did you like it? Tell me if you want me to type up more... Please review in that lil box! Yeah, that one down there! Thanx~! ~Yuffie-Chan/MousieChan
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Hi! I'm back with a new chapter! ^^ I got so many new ideas now, so I'll be, hopefully, getting them done more faster then usual. Plus I gotta lot of friends IRL urging me to do so (I.E: Kaycie and Tillinie ;) Sooo.... I hope you guys out there like chapter 5! PLEASE Read and Review! *begs*
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Chapter Five
"So... They're gone." Tifa said, looking bummed.
"Don't worry, we'll see them again, sometime soon." Cloud said, putting a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Tifa looked back up to him and smiled.
"Spike, stop getting so over confident." a voice said from beind.
They both turned around to see the smoking pilot taking a drag from his cig as usual.
"What do you mean, Cid?" Tifa asked.
"Damn, we don't even know where the fuck the damn kid is. We don't even know if she's really on our side. Hell, what if what red head said was true?" Cid tried to explain.
"Are you saying Yuffie's a traitor??" Tifa shot, standing up. Cloud quickly restrained her.
"Could of fooled ya? I thought you'd at least suspect it." Cid replied.
"Hey! I think I speak for everyone when I say this, but just because she stole something of ours in the past, doesn't mean we can't trust her!" Cloud said, standing up himself.
"What kind of point are you trying to make, Spike?! What about what she said back then?!" Cid declared.
Cloud and Tifa both thought for a moment to think about what he was getting at...
"Yuffie... You're not...!!" Tifa had exclaimed.
"I don't know! I have nothing to do with this one!" Yuffie shot back.
"THIS one?! What do you mean, THIS one?!" Tifa glared. "So you WERE trying to pull something off!!!"
"No... um... uhh..." Yuffie stammered, and then the soldiers decided to attack. Yuffie quickly got out of the line of fire and darted out of eye sight before they could defeat the guards...
"But she had stolen our materia!" Tifa said. "She wasn't going to do anything else!"
"How are you so damn sure?!" Cid exclaimed. "She was plotting something all along! The damn kid knew this was gunna happen!!!"
"Yet she stayed with us till the end!" Cloud yelled back. "Why the hell would she stay with us... Even when we were fighting Sephiroth in the crater?! If she had died, then this plan would of never worked out! Not even YUFFIE would go that far! Hell, not even RENO or RUFUS would!"
Cid was silent, and he looked at the ground, scratching his head, trying to think of another comeback.
"Damn you, Spike." Cid muttered.
"Well, what we have to figure out now is what Sephiroth's going to do." Cloud said. "He's our bigger threat."
"Yeh right." Cid agreed. "We can take care of the other boys later! Heh heh."
"Hey... Captain!" One of the crewmen asked. They didn't even notice him enter the infirmary. They all jumped at the noise, but then relieved when they saw who it was.
"What the fuck do you want?!" Cid exclaimed.
"Um, sir! You might want to see this! The others are watching it right now as we speak!" the crewmember said, and then darted off.
"What the hell...?" Cid began, but Cloud and Tifa were already walking past him. He joined in the line and they all started heading up to the deck to see what was going on.
In the room next to the pilot's station, the others were gathered, watching something on the television.
But the report sure wasn't that pleasant, either!
"A series of reports have said that mysterious dragons have appeared and are causing havoc all over the earth. Most witnesses declare that they're the same monsters who attacked just a few short months ago!" the reporter on the news station said.
"No.. It can't be..." Tifa began.
"Believe it." Barret said grimly.
"WEAPON...." Vincent said in a gaze at the tv screen, which was now occupied with footage of the Ultimate WEAPON marching along the bay near Mideel.
"WELL COME ON, WE HAVE TO STOP THEM IMMEDIANTLY!" Reeve warned.
"That would be the most main idea." Red said, flicking his tail in an annoyed posture.
"Gotcha. Okay, team! Our new mission, destroy the WEAPONs!" Cloud declared.
"Right on!" they all answered, except for Vincent and Red.
"OKAY WHIMPS, OUR NEXT DESTINATION IS MIDEEL!" Cid hollored back to the crew members. "GET 'ER MOVIN! WE DON'T HAVE THAT MUCH FUCKING TIME ALL RIGHT?!!!??!!!"
An uproar began in the airship as everyone prepared for the trip to Mideel. That was almost all the way across the world, but it didn't matter. This was war.
"Cloud. We can't find anything." Red said, looking around and sniffing the air.
"Oh come on, don't give up." Cloud said. "It's probably hiding."
"Wonder why." Barret mused, amused with the ideas of it either being afraid of them, or actually being out to kill them because the planet thought they were the cause.
"Oh hush, Barret." Tifa scolded. Barret looked critically back her, then continued to scan the hillsides.
Then Red growled under his breath.
Everyone turned to him slowly.
"Red... Please tell you've found the WEAPON and that it isn't that far away..." Tifa pleaded.
"Yes, I think I have found it. But it's not that far away, either." Red replied, looking sternly in the direction of the ocean.
Everyone averted their gazes to the ocean also.
Cid, of course, didn't seem pleased at how calm Red was.
"How the fuck can you be so calm?!" Cid asked.
"I guess I've just never seen then urge to show my whimpness." Red replied with a sly grin.
Cid just cursed under his breath.
Just then Red jolted.
"Watch out!!!" Cloud exclaimed, bringing out his sword.
Everyone got in their respective fighting stances and also took notice in the huge dragon ripping itself slowly out of the water.
It was definently not ULTIMATE... But a different one. One they had never seen before. This one was green colored.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Barret cursed.
"EMERALD WEAPON!" Red warned. "IT'S ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS!!! WATCH OUT!"
As soon as it had lifted itself out of the water, the WEAPON starting shooting its own beam cannons at them. Cloud was beginning to wonder if they had tooken lessons from Goku or Vegeta from that show he always watched, Dragon Ball Z.
"Why does every monster we encounter HAVE to have energy beams?!" Reeve whined, darting out of the way of a near by energy beam as it collided with the ground.
"Just the way life works!" Vincent said, taking time to aim a couple of fire bullets at Emerald.
Emerald was taken aback from the fire blows. It was clearly water elemential based.
"Everyone! I think Vincent got something!" Tifa called out to the others. "It's weakness is fire!"
As soon as she had finished, the others started hitting it with all the fire spells and weapons and items they had, arranging from the Fire3 spell to throwing the Flame Staff weapon at Emerald. Vincent just kept repeating his fire shots at the huge dragon to keep it distracted as everyone else beamed it with their fire materia.
"EVERYONE POWER UP YOUR LIMIT BREAKS WHILE IT'S STILL WEAK!" Cloud shouted. They all mumbled in approval and then they all began to think about anything that made them angry to gain the energy for the limit breaks.
"BIG SHOT!" Barret yelled, and powered up a giant, super-sized bullet at the end of his gun arm, and exploded it at the WEAPON.
"Finaaallllllll.... HEAVEN!" Tifa declared as she punched a nice, big fire blast with her fist at Emerald.
Cid flipped his spear and whistled upwards, waving his hand towards the others. Then out of nowhere, the Highwind came into view to make a drop. It let loose six different missles on the WEAPON and then zoomed out of sight before they could get hit.
Reeve concentrated, and then he brought out a controller out of his jacket. As soon as he had fired it up, and old friend of everyone's appeared. Reeve's puppet, Cait Sith.
While little Cait was shouting orders to its mog through his megaphone, Vincent transformed into his beast form, Chaos, and then threw a long chain of deadly skulls and spirits at Emerald WEAPON.
Red looked up to the sky and howled. Even though it was broad daylight, the moon appeared and the night grew dark. Red jumped up into the sky and his paws glowed with fire, and then he let loose his Cosmo Memory limit break and left Emerald WEAPON in a firey pursuit.
Then Cait Sith pulled out his miniture, magical slot machine and spun it. Then Mog grew to the size of WEAPON and started a large, titanic battle between them.
Everyone watched as the two titans exchanged fists and blasts. Finally Mog had done all it could and it shrunk back to normal size. Reeve pressed a button on the controller and Cait waved before disappearing with his mog again into thin air.
Cloud's sword glowed, and he charged at the WEAPON in an onslaught, and then he set a large set of crucial blows with his huge sword into the WEAPON's tough, leathery skin. But nothing could withstand the Ultima Weapon that Cloud held, and green blood fell from the WEAPON as it shreiked in agony. Cloud then jumped up with amazing agility from its foot, to its knee, to its elbow, and to its shoulder, and, finally, its head. He then jumped up once more and slashed it with a finishing blow, causing it to let out one last cry. Cloud quickly darted back to the others to see what would happen next.
Screaming, Emerald WEAPON sunk back into the deep ocean below, and finally disappearing from sight. Everyone watched its shadow in the water as it slipped outwards and below, until they couldn't make it visible no more.
They all relieved when they sought the danger was over, and healed any wounds they had gotten from the first barage of beams.
"Well, that oughta keep out of our hair." Cloud said. Then he paused as everyone turned to look at him as if he had just pulled off a murder. "...Er, for now."
"So, what do we do now, Cloud?" Tifa asked.
"Dunno. But let's go check out Kalm to see if everyone's all right. We DID see Ultimate WEAPON still at large, and last time it was around, it was flying over around that area." Cloud replied.
Everyone nodded.
"Well, let's go." Cid muttered, and they all ambled off towards the Highwind again for the trip to Kalm.
"Daddy! You're home!!!" Marlene cheered and she ran into Barret's arms.
Barret chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Let's see... How old are you now? Twenty four? Nineteen?" he asked.
"You know how old I am!" Marlene teased. "I'm six years old! I'm a real lady!"
"That's what I thought!" Barret said, and then led Marlene off to Elmyra's house. Everyone else followed in silence.
They entered the little house with awe. Elmyra certainly was a nice housekeeper, and a grand decorator at that. But of course, who else would of taught Aeris?
The house was literally almost covered in flowers, of all colors. Tifa and the others noticed a picture of Aeris and Elmyra on a stand by the fireplace, and was happy to at least see her face in a photograph.
'What a sight for sore eyes.' Tifa thougth with a smile.
"Welcome home." Elmyra greeted them all. Then she turned to Barret, and gave him a critical look. "About time you guys came back for a check in. Your daughter was getting pretty worried and upset!" then she looked down to Marlene. "Weren't you?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"Of course I was!" Marlene replied, immitating Elmyra's gesture and glaring at her father.
Barret grinned. "Hey! Don't blame me! I'm just trying to save the world you kids are gunna run one of these days!" he tried reasoning.
"Well then, why can't I come along?" Marlene asked.
"Because." Barret said, kneeling down to talk to her face to face. "If you should come, and were to get hurt, I don't know what I'd do to myself!"
"Awww..." Marlene began. "I didn't mean to make daddy cry! I'm sorry!"
"It's okay!" Barret said. "I'm not crying!"
Cid snickered silently. Barret glared back at him, and Elmyra laughed softly.
"Hey..." Marlene began, looking over Barret's shoulder at the rest of the group. "Where's Auntie Yuffie???"
Everyone looked at each other uneasily. Should they tell her that Yuffie was a traitor? What if the Turks came by and decided to hold her for ransom? She would need that bit of information just in case. But... How she would take it was the main question.
"Marlene... There's something we have to tell you." Cloud said, stepping up. But Barret immediantly held up a hand. Cloud nodded back to him, and Barret continued Cloud's statement.
"Marlene, if you see Yuffie, run." Barret said. Marlene looked concerned, and mouthed out the word, 'why?' but no words came out. "Because, she's with the Turks. Even if they're not with her, get out of there. She could be bait or even worse, working for them on her own, free will."
"Why is Yuffie with the Turks??" Elmyra asked.
"We don't know. Reno said she did it on her own free will, but then again, he might be lyin'." Barret said.
"And, of course, the brat has been known to be a traitor before." Cid said slowly.
"But what about me?" Reeve asked. "I don't hear you guys griping about ME all the time!"
"Because you came through for us in the end." Cid replied, not bothering to look back at him.
"But Yuffie was also in the fight against Sephiroth WITH us..." Reeve began.
"Let's not start THIS again!" Cid said. Reeve looked at him with an odd expression on his face, and Tifa just giggled.
"You guys, we might want to think about leaving soon." Cloud said.
They all turned to him.
"Come on, spike! Let's just spend the night here and continue on with things tomarrow morning." Barret said.
Cid glared at Barret for taking his nickname for Cloud, but Barret paid no attention to it.
"Hey, daddy!" Marlene said, getting Barret's attention. "I wanna show you a new song that Elmyra tought me on the piano today!" and with that, she dragged him to the ajoined room where the piano was held.
"My, you all can't fit in this tiny house." Elmyra said worridly.
"Don't worry." Cloud said. "We're going to stay in the inn down the street."
"Okay." Elmyra said with a laugh. "See you tomarrow morning. I'll be making pancakes."
"No problem!" Tifa said, and they walked out of the house and towards the inn.
"I wonder what Yuffie's doing?" Red asked them as they walked.
"More or less, what's ShinRa doing to her?" Reeve corrected.
"Well, whatever is going on, I hope she's okay." Tifa said.
"Yeah, so do I. I sort of miss the little squirt." Cid said, taking in a drag of his cig.
Yuffie was sitting in her dorm... er, jail cell, in the ShinRa building. This had been her new room for the past week, and Yuffie was getting pretty bored of the musty smell that always hung in the air. The sheetrock that showed through the plain, white, wallpaper was also a sign that the building had certainly seen better days.
But something then intersected her thoughts. The door started to creek open. Yuffie's head snapped up and she glared at the doorway as Reno walked into the room. She made no eye contact with him as he sat down on the bed next to her.
"Hey.." He said, looking over to her. "What's up with you?" he asked.
"I want to go home." Yuffie plainly answered.
Reno sighed heavily. "Well, you can't everything you want." he said.
"Yes I can." Yuffie replied.
"Well... I'm sorry, PRINCESS, but that's just the way this world works!" Reno said, taunting her.
Yuffie glared up at him. "Leave this room now or so help me, I'll tear you limb from limb!" she threatened.
"Ooooh! I'm shaking in my boots!" Reno shot back, mockshivering. "Come on, can't you actually pull off your threats? You're nothing but talk!"
"Wanna bet, you stupid jerk!" Yuffie declared, and lunged out at him with her fist. Reno quickly got up and evaded the punch, looking down at her agian. Yuffie immediantly got up and lunged at him again. He stopped her fist from colliding with his face by grabbing it.
'Gawd damnit!! His grip is too strong!' Yuffie thought as she tried to get free. Reno brought her fist up with his, and then began to twist around, making her fall head over heels on to the ground.
"Pretty weak for a ninja if ya ask me." Reno said, glowering down at her. She looked back up at him, glaring. He kneeled down to her, so his nose was only an inch from her own. He slowly grabbed her shoulders and looked at her menacingly. "Without your damn conformer, you can't fight." he said coldly.
Yuffie looked angrily at him. "I can still kick your ass, even without that weapon." she said.
"Look who's got who." Reno said. Yuffie stayed quiet. Reno smirked, and pulled her closer until their noses were practically touching. "You're too weak to be calling yourself a ninja. How DID you think you were going to survive with AVALANCHE against Sephiroth? Just by your luck?" he asked. Yuffie didn't reply. Then Reno pulled away and stood up, looking down at her. "Well, kid, ya got a lotta luck if ya got yerself stuck in this joint." He said, sarcastically.
Yuffie stood up immediantly. At first Reno thought she was going to attack him, but instead she walked over towards the door.
"Nuh-uh!" Reno began, and grabbed her by the shoulder. She turned to face him, not too pleased. "Don't think it'd be good to trust you going out all by yourself!" he said.
"Leave me alone, Reno." Yuffie said, and walked on ahead. Reno followed her all the way, wondering where she was intending on going.
Yuffie peered around a corner, and then, cautiously, moved on. Reno raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was sneeking around if he was with her. Then it appeared to him that she might not know he was still following her. He crept back into the shadows and followed her silently.
'Good, he finally left me alone.' Yuffie thought. 'What a jerk... But still hot as hell...'
She looked both ways. No one in sight. Yuffie then made her move and darted across the open hallway to her next hiding place behind a stack of crates.
'I need to find a way out of here....' That's when she heard something. She whirled around and saw Reno's aquamarine, mako eyes glowing in the darkness beyond her. She screeched and lept back in fright. Then she grumbled when she saw who it was.
"Damnit, Reno! Stop following me!" She hissed.
"Not a chance, brat." Reno said, standing up and folding his arms. "You'd take any chance to get out of here... Though I don't blame you."
Yuffie quirked an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.
Reno didn't answer, but simply offered to help her up. She took his hand and stood up.
"Well?" Yuffie asked.
"Listen, I'm not opening up to just anyone. And I won't tell you this, if anyone!" Reno said, and grabbed her wrist. He then started to half drag her back into the direction of her old dorm.
Yuffie grabbed his hand with her free one and tried to pull free. Reno then tried to seize this hand also, but Yuffie soon squirmed out of his grasp, and scrambled away from his as fast as possible.
"Hey! Damn brat!" Reno cursed. Then he ran after Yuffie. "Get back here!" he yelled after her.
'Shit.' Yuffie thought. 'I gotta loose him!' and then she took a left. Reno's footsteps could be heard behind her, and he was getting nearer. He had certainly had better training for this sort of thing than she had.
She took a right. Then a left. Right. Left. Left. And pretty soon she just started taking random turns, having no idea where she was going. And she also began to loose track of the turns she had first tooken, and was completely lost.
Then she came to a four-way intersection. "Damn..." Yuffie muttered under her breath. "Which way?" she looked at her three options. Then she decided to just go straight. This hallway was very long and had about a hundred or so doors on either side. But it also didn't look like it would stop any time soon.
Then she heard a crash behind her. And then a buzz of electricity...
'Oh...shit...' Yuffie thought as she turned around in fright.
Another crackle of lightning hit the corner and just after it had cleared, Reno ran around the corner and then stopped and stared at Yuffie.
"Damn, and I thought *I* was lost..." Yuffie muttered.
Reno held up his nightstick defensively. "Yuff, I don't want to have to do this, but if forced to, I will." he said slowly.
"LEAVE ME ALONE AND GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!" Yuffie screamed, and then she powered up for her All Creation limit break. But before she could do anything, Reno stepped forward and pushed the button on his night stick. Enough electricity came out so that she was stunned. Yuffie crumpled to the ground and looked in the direction her eyes were fixed. Up.
She couldn't move any of her muscles. This had never happened to her before. What the hell did he do to her?
"Yuff, don't worry, I just stunned you. I'll have to get you back to your dorm or Rufus will kick my ass." Reno said, stepping into her viewline and looking down at her with hurt eyes.
'Why the hell does he have that look on his face...?' Yuffie thought. 'He shouldn't care. He's supposed to be merciless!'
Reno then kneeled down and swung Yuffie over his shoulder and began to carry her back to the jail cells. He winced when he heard her whimper, "I wanna go home...please take me back home..." but kept going, knowing all too well what the consequences were going to be for Reeve, let alone him if he dared to let Yuffie escape the ShinRa Tower alive.
"Yuff... This isn't my fault..." Reno tried to say, but it came out mostly wordless, though his mouth said the words.
As soon as he reached the prison cells, Rufus' voice came over the intercom. Reno looked up at the sound of his boss and wondered if he had any new orders for them.
"This is Rufus... Turks, get up here in the office with the girl immediantly, I've got new orders for you. That is all."
Then the intercom announcment ended. Reno looked over to Yuffie, who was looking at him from his shoulder, with a scared look on her face.
"What is going to do with me this time...?" she asked him.
"Dunno." Reno answered. "Let's go find out, shall we?" and then he set her down, took hold of her wrist, and dragged her along to the elevator.
"NOOO!!! FATHER!!!!" Tifa screamed. She ran to her father's side and held his limp body, sobbing. When she heard footsteps leading away, she looked up, glaring at the black caped man with pure malice in her eyes.
"I can't believe you!" Tifa declared. "Murderer!"
But he did not respond. He kept walking away, towards the Nibelheim moutains.
She was fed up with it, she had to put a stop to this before something bad even began. As if it could get much worse, she thought. She ran back to her house, crying and covering her mouth the whole way to avoid breathing in the smoke of the fire that burned her skin as she walked through. Once she got to her room, she turned around as she heard a big crash. The stairs had gotten so weak from the fire that they had collapsed.
"Shit..." She cursed under her breath. Then she ran to her bed and grabbed her sword. Picking it up, she remember what her trainer, Zangan, had said to her.
"Never give up."
She grew even more angry at the thought of what Sephiroth had done to him. The same thing he had done to her own dad. He had ruthelessly murdered both of them, skewering each with his sword and twisting it slowly, making it as painful as possible, and then, he had let them fall and bleed to death if they weren't already.
Tifa pinned the sword in the strap on her back and kneeled on her bed to her window. She untied the knot as quickly as possible and shook the latch off. Then she threw the windows open and took a fresh gasp of fresh air. Then she saw Cloud going into one of the buildings.
"Good ol' Cloud..." Tifa thought with a smile. "Always trying to help..." But then she thought about what house he had gone in. His own. She frowned at the thought of Mrs. Strife... She wouldn't of survived. There was just no way she could.
Tifa climbed out of her window with a new grown vigor and lept off the roof. Landing softly on the ground, she drew her sword and ran towards the Nibelheim Reactor, not taking any notice at any monsters causing havoc around her...
--FLASH--
She ran up the stairs to Sephiroth, remembering all her training from Zangan, and drew her sword up, tears in her eyes, and before she could strike, he swept up at her with catlike reflexes and dove the sword across her chest and upwards to her chin. The blow sent her flying to the bottom stair, and she watched helplessly as Sephiroth stalked into JENOVA's room. That was where Zack was...
Then, behind her, a SOLDIER entered the room. Tifa looked up at him from her disabled position on the ground. The SOLDIER picked her up and carried her, and then set her down gently out of the line of fire.
"Cloud..." she murmered.
The SOLDIER nodded, and then ran up the stairs, drawing his sword. Then, Zack came flying through the doors of JENOVA's room, blood splurting on the near cells, and he landed on the ground in a big heap. Cloud then ran into the room.
Sephiroth came out, moments later, Cloud trailing right behind him. When they had gotten to the room beyond the room Tifa was in, she could still see them through the doorway. As Sephiroth whirled around at Cloud, Tifa mouthed a single word.
"No..."
And that's when Sephiroth dove his sword right through SOLDIER Cloud Strife's chest...
And just as that happened, it all turned black. And then a face with mako eyes and black, spikey hair shown through the darkness. He replied with one phrase that would change her thoughts about everything that had happened thus far...
"I'm not dead..."
Tifa's eyes snapped open immediantly. What a horrible dream. She certainly didn't want to see what she had just seen ever again. But why did Zack say that he wasn't dead? Surely it was just an emphasizing. Her mind was clearly too tired to care. She sat up in her bed in the hotel room she was in. Cloud was sleeping across the room from her in his own bed, and it didn't look like he was having a dream at all.
Tifa sat back down and tried to go to sleep again. But nothing would work. After about another hour, she got up out of her bed, and decided to go do something. Walking across the hall in the quiet hotel, she looked around. Trying to remember where the lobby was, she felt her way through the darkeness, going down three flights of stairs. Finally, she reached it.
The only sign of anything living was the fact that the moon was shining through the huge windows to the side. She was still only on the third floor, and didn't really care how big the hotel was. She took her place in a maroon colored armchair in front of the window and gazed up at the moon bordly. She thought about things. Things she had never even considered. Things about what could happen. Where Yuffie was. What Rufus' next step would be. What Sephiroth would be planning next. If JENOVA was still alive.
But most importantly, why was Zack in her dream?
She was starting to doze off when she heard hissed words from outside in the hall. She perked up immediantly and kept silent, straining her ears to hear every word as possible. This could be valuable information.
"What did Rufus mean by 'threatening'?!" an all-too-familiar voice could be heard.
"Yuff, you know as well as I do. We gotta find AVALANCHE and threaten them with you..." Reno's voice. Definently his voice. The drall could not be mistaken.
"Ugh! Let me go!" Yuffie screeched, but Reno clasped his hand over her mouth.
Then the doors of the lobby swung open. Tifa kept in a position so nobody could see that she was in the chair from their position.
"Yuffie, if you don't shut the hell up I'm going to stun you right here!" Reno hissed, talking to her as if she were a little child. This mad her mad.
Yuffie drew back a hand and slapped him.
"Don't talk to me like that!" she hissed back.
Tifa turned her head and spied on the situation. It was definently Yuffie. Reno grabbed her wrist and shoved it down, looking at her straight in the eye. Then he spoke, in a very slow, and of course, hard tone, "Yuffie... You know I do not want to hurt you so why don't you just STOP while you're ahead!"
"Why don't you want to hurt me?!" Yuffie mocked, but in a more serious tone then intended.
Frusterated, Reno grumbled. But even from where she was, Tifa could hear what he had said.
"Yuff...Please stop! I don't want to hurt you and that's that!"
Yuffie sighed hopelessly.
"I just don't want to do this to them..." she said in a pouting voice.
Tifa then lept out from her position, bringing up one of her fists. Yuffie and Reno stumbled in disbelief and surprise as she had appeared.
"Tifa!" Yuffie said, startled.
"Geh!" Reno said, then cursed under his breath.
"Let her go!" Tifa barked.
"Not a chance!" Reno yelled back.
Tifa then took out a materia and casted bolt on Reno. Reno quickly absorbed the attack, having the electricity as an element, and then prepared to attack her also. Tifa ran up and dove to punch him, but Yuffie dove in the way and took the hit.
"Yuffie! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Tifa exclaimed.
"I don't really know..." Yuffie muttered, glaring back at Reno.
"You keep forgeting!" Reno said. As Tifa dove at him again, he grabbed one of her fists and held it with a very strong grip. Then he said slowly and quietly, almost in a whisper when he was nose to nose with her. "She's one of us."
"ONE OF YOU?! SHE'D NEVER WANT TO BE!!!" Tifa screamed, ripping away from Reno and bringing out an earth materia and casted Quake3 on him. Reno stumbled as the ground under him shook. One of the most biggest weaknesses of Electricity based fighters always included earth magic.
Then Cloud and the others busted through the door to the lobby. Reno and Yuffie whirled to look behind them.
"Yuffie! We don't know what's going on, but I've got one question for you!" Reeve said, stepping in front of all the others. "Are you doing this by force or by your OWN free will?!"
Yuffie thought for a second. Why WAS she doing this...? She looked over at Reno. Was it for him? For herself? To show her dad she wasn't just a goody two-shoes all the time? To show everyone else she wasn't that easy to understand? That she was unique?
"Yuffie. Answer this question." Reeve said in a harsh voice. Yuffie looked up at him. "Now."
"I DON'T KNOW!!!!!" Yuffie screamed and then powered up her All Creation on the group. Tifa watched in horror as her friends got blowed back and across the room, and she dove behind one of the chairs as the blow neared. When she looked up, all of her comrades were sprawled across the floor, trying to get up, and all the furniture, blown apart. The only ones standing were Reno and Yuffie.
Reno slowly lowered his arms from shielding his eyes and looked at the sprawled group, amazed. Yuffie was standing there, heaving in deep breaths, furious.
'She's confused...' Tifa took a guess.
Everyone had gotten up by now, and Tifa walked over to them, not taking an eye off of their enemies.
"We should call Barret over here..." Cloud said. "We need his help."
"Good idea." Reeve said, and then punched in a few numbers in his PHS.
Reno brought up his nightstick and prepared to charge it at the little celluar phone...
Ring.... Ring.... Ring....
"What the..?" Barret mumbled. He opened his eyes.
Ring.... Ring.... Ring....
"Damn phone." he grunted and sat on the edge of his bed. He picked up the PHS and answered sleepily, "What is it this time?"
"Barret! Trouble in the hotel! Reno's---*BZZT*" came Reeve's voice, but then all he heard was static.
"Shi'..." Barret began, jumping out of the bed, and swept out the door while grabbing a couple potions and ethers. There was no time to loose...
ZZZAAAPPPP!
Reeve's PHS was hit full force. He immediantly dropped it like a hot potatoe and watched it hit the ground. It twitched a couple of times and then lay still.
"Damn..!" he cursed, looking up at Reno.
Reno smirked, lowering his nightstick. "I appear to remember that you have a little death penalty to take care of, eh Reeve?" he asked, his smirk broadening.
"Reno...Don't." Yuffie begged.
Reno looked over to her. 'Damn!' he thought. 'Yuff please don't give me that look!! You're not making it any easier!' and then he thought about it for a second. 'Wait... I won't do it! I'll call the others in for reinforcements so THEY can end up doing it! Good idea, Reno!'
Reno reached into his pocket and got out his own PHS. He dialed in a number and then called Rufus.
"Yeah, er, boss. I'll need some reinforcements. They've outnumbered me... oh.. Oh! Okay." He finished by clicking it off and put it back in his pocket, smirking triumphantly.
"You are a sick man." Cloud snarled. "Calling others to do your dirty work."
Reno lept back. "How do YOU know what I'm planning?!" he exclaimed.
"Us SOLDIERs think alike?" Cloud suggested.
Reno frowned. "Don't you EVER compare me to one of THOSE low-ranking wannabes!" he growled. "Unless YOU want to be electricuted also!"
"You were once a SOLDIER, Reno!" Cloud declared.
"I was NOT!!" Reno refused, bringing up his nightstick.
"Well you had to have started somewhere!" Tifa suggested.
"I was led into being a turk, and that's where I am now!" Reno said. "End of story!" he finished by swiping his hands out in both directions to emphasize his point that the discussion was closed.
But it wasn't.
"Why do you have mako eyes?" Cloud asked slowly.
Reno looked at him in disbelief. Did he really have mako eyes...? No! He was playing a joke on him! He had plain, regular, blue eyes! They weren't mako!
"I do NOT have mako eyes! They're cyan!" Reno refused.
"Hey, Reno? What's wrong?" Cid taunted. "Loosing your cool, hot shot?"
Reno furiated. "TURK LIGHT!!!" he yelled, and blasted them all with a high bold of electricity from his nightstick, concentrated all his energy on the one blow.
But then Barret swept through the door and countered it with his Ultima materia.
Unfortunately, he hit Yuffie also.
Since Reno had magic abosorbing armor on, he wasn't affected as much as Yuffie. She screamed and fell to the floor, holding her chest in pain.
Reno turned and glared at Barret. He was now beyond furious and in the level of almost reaching a fit. His nightstick glowed, and then he casted a new limit break on Barret that they had never seen before.
"SONIC WAVE!!" he screamed as he blasted Barret with a wave of sound drills. So high pitched, that it blew Barret across the room. He ricochaded off the wall and into the maroon colored chair in a position that was probably impossible to make.
As soon as Reno had calmed down, he kneeled down to Yuffie and spoke in her ear. She nodded at each statement he had asked her.
'What are they talking about...?' Tifa wondered.
Reno got up, looking at them, most unpleased. "Yuffie asked why she was hit in the process!" he yelled at Barret as he stood up from the fall.
Barret stumbled, looking at him. "Becuz..." he began. "She's one of you foo's... She can't be trusted any more..."
"What?!" Tifa asked. "She's still our friend! I know it!" she declared, trying to reason with everyone.
"Tifa, I think that's something we'll have to accept. She's not with us anymore." Cloud said. Tifa turned and looked at him, hopelessly.
"That's not true! It can't be!" she argued.
"Oh. It is."
They all turned, including Yuffie and Reno, to the door. There stood Rufus, with Rude and Elena at his sides. Rufus held open his big, white trenchcoat, revealing all of the weapons and ammunition that he had. He dropped the sides of his coat back to their former positions, and drew his three-barrel shot gun and cocked it. He had the most wicked grin that even made Rude and Elena uncomfortable.
"Um... Boss?" Elena asked, tapping on his shoulder. Rufus turned to her, a disgusted look on his face. "What are we going to do... exactly?"
"Oh, you'll find out." Rufus replied, his wicked smile returning to his lips.
"That doesn't sound good..." Rude mumbled, but not even Rufus could hear him.
Rufus turned back to AVALANCHE, grinning. "Oh, I have been waiting for this opportunity for a very, very long time." he said.
Red tensed up. "What are you going to do?!" he growled.
Rufus laughed softly. "How pathetic. You can't stop me. Now, it's time for you to die... I'll start with the torture.." he said.
AVALANCHE looked at him questionably, but Tifa had a feeling about what was going to happen.
Rufus smirked oddly, and then he turned to Reno. "Reno, bring be the girl." he said calmly. Almost too calmly.
Reno hesitated. He looked at the big, three-barrel shot gun in Rufus' hand. 'Oh shit... He can't... He wouldn't!' Reno thought. "Um... sir?" he ventured. Rufus looked at him, puzzled. "If I may ask of something? Why... her?" Reno asked slowly, yet, instead of his usual drawl, in a voice that almost made him seem like he was scared.
"Oh, it's so simple, Reno." Rufus began, "Because she's in our custody." then she grinned again, resting the gun on his shoulder, "And because she's the youngest. They'll feel sooo bad when they find out they were the cause of the little, innocent one's death!" he finished, triumphantly at the ingenious of his plan. He chuckled softly.
Yuffie stepped back, away from Rufus, for she had noticed his gun not that long after he had entered the room. Reno held out his hand and held her wrist softly, giving her a gesture so she wouldn't run.
"No!" Tifa screamed at Rufus. "DON'T!!!"
But, to Rufus' surprise, Reno didn't move to fulfill his demand. Rufus looked at him critically, his smile turning into a frown. "Reno...?" he asked softly, yet dangerously. "Why are you hesitating?"
Reno stood and thought a few moments, and then looked back up at Rufus. His eyes were dangerously glowing, but he didn't care if they showed sign that he was a SOLDIER. "No..." he began in a low growl. "You're not going to have her, you bastard."
Rufus' grin returned to his face and he brought the gun off from his shoulder and let it dangle along with his arm, and rested his other arm on his hip lazily. "Oh?" he asked. "Why not?"
"Because." Rude spoke up, walking over to Reno's side.
Rufus tensed up and gripped his shotgun. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he yelled at him.
Elena walked over to Reno's other side casually, and then turned to face Rufus. "Giving you the slip." she said calmly.
"WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU ON?!" Rufus yelled, agitated, and then began to rise his gun at them.
Reno looked at Rufus coldly. "I thought YOU would of known..." he began, his lazy drawl returning to his voice. He flicked his nightstick up and rested the tip of it on his shoulder. "All Turks stick together." he stated.
"No matter what." Rude continued, fixing his shades to be exact.
"That's the spirit!" Elena said, triumphantly. "Believe it, carrot-top!" and she pointed at Rufus, emphasizing the last bit that it was being directed at him.
Rufus lowered the gun. And then, through gritted teeth, he growled, "Hand over the girl..."
"No." Reno simply answered, standing his ground.
Then an idea hit Rufus. 'Oh no... He likes her! I know it! I guess Tseng made a mistake by picking him up and presuming, since his life had been tooken away completly, that he wouldn't have any feelings for anyone anymore... Because it looks like he does...'
Then Rufus frowned at Reno. "Reno..." he said slowly and dangerously calmly, "PLEASE don't tell me that... you... like... her..."
Reno looked at him with a smirk. Then he looked at Yuffie, winked, and then turned back to Rufus. "What if I do? What are ya gunna do 'bout it?" he asked.
Yuffie blushed crimson. 'Oh gawd...' she thought.
'He... likes her?!' Tifa thought. 'Is that why...???'
Rufus shot a cold glare over in Tifa's direction. Tifa wasn't that far away, probably only about five feet. "FINE THEN!!" he said, raged. "THEN I'LL START WITH HER!!!" and he lunged at her.
Tifa squeaked and then went to punch at him, but then Rufus blocked, and then he grabbed her around her neck by his free arm, and set the barrel of his shot gun to her temple. Tifa gasped for air, wriggling and trying to get away desperately.
"TIFA!" Cloud yelled, chancing to grab at her, but Rufus yanked her away, backing up across the room and towards the window.
"Don't come any more closer, or I'll shoot..." Rufus grunted, usuing all of his stength to lug Tifa to the window.
"Rufus if you even dare take a shot at her, I swear, I'm going to--" Reno began, but then was cut off.
"TRY AS YOU MIGHT!!" Rufus yelled back at them. "BUT I'LL ALREADY BE DEAD! IT'S ALL CAME DOWN TO THIS! MY ONLY FEAR IS THAT I WON'T DIE, NOW! I WANT TO GIVE YOU AVALANCHE GUYS A LIVING HELL BEFORE I EVER DIE! THAT'S WHY I LIVED THROUGH DIAMOND WEAPON'S BLAST!" he grinned, getting ready to pull the trigger. He returned to his calm voice again. "...Nobody can stop me now."
"That's not true, Rufus!" Reeve argued.
"What if you lived for something else?" Red suggested.
"STOP IT WITH YOUR LIES!!" Rufus yelled back, and then drew back his finger...
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD! YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL HOW YOU SURVIVED!" Cid yelled.
But then a flash came down from the rafters...
Rufus took a chance glance at what it was, but the figure was already upon him. It was a man, no doubt. He grabbed Rufus' gun and threw it out the window, breaking the glass and making the whole thing shatter.
Tifa scrambled away, gasping for air, and then she almost landed on the ground, but Cloud caught her, and spoke comforting words into her ear, kissing her hair softly.
Then a struggle began. Rufus broke free, and then he ran for the window. But then the figure grabbed him by the arm and flunged him with great strength across the room like a rag doll.
"What do you want from me?" Rufus gasped. Then, tears in his eyes, he let out another sentence, "Just let me die, already..."
The figure stepped up to Rufus, and looked down at him pathetically. He then looked up to the other members of AVALANCHE.
"We must leave, now. Before ShinRa gets here." the figure spoke.
"Who are you?" Red asked.
"Just come, hurry!" and then the figure ran out of the room.
Everyone, including the Turks and Yuffie, followed the mysterious figure out of the room. They could already hear sirens and helicopters approaching.
'No...' Cloud thought as they made their escape. He took a glance up at the figure. 'Is it... you?'
'Hey, Cloud!' an old friend had said to him once. 'Let's run off and be mercenaries together! A team!'
'It is...' he confirmed himself. "I can tell..." he mumbled.
"Tell what?" Tifa asked him.
Cloud shook his head. "Nothing..."
The figure had led them to a cave, nearby the town of Kalm. They all looked around. It had a stange tint of mako to its walls, so no doubt that it was another mako mine that ShinRa hadn't discovered.
"Who are you?" Cloud asked, stepping forward, and setting Tifa down on one of the rocks. Tifa sat up to a more comfortable position and looked at the figure worridly.
"Cloud... You don't recognize me...?" the figure asked.
'Oh my god!' Tifa thought. 'That voice... From my dream!'
"Zack...?" Cloud ventured a guess.
The figure nodded, and then finally stepped into the light, showing his face. He was older, now. But his black, long, spikey hair still was the same. He wore the same SOLDIER uniform, and had gotten a new sword in the process.
"So... You remember?" Zack asked. Then he eyed Cloud's own sword. Which he knew was his. "And, you've kept my sword in well shape, as to be expected from you." he said with a smile.
"Whoa whoa whoa... whoa!" Barret began, trying to set something straight. "Let me get this.. Zack? Cloud? Isn't that the guy who you went to Nibelheim with? The legendary SOLDIER you've told us about?
Zack smirked. "That's about it." he confirmed. "Sephiroth's shadow."
"Wait..." Reeve began. "Are you with Sephiroth..?"
Zack shook his head. "After he killed my girlfriend?! No way!" he said.
"Girlfriend??" they all asked.
"Cloud...? Do you know anyone named Zack?"
"Aeris." Zack confirmed. "Which is exaclty why I need your help."
"Why?" Cloud asked.
"Aeris... we need her back. She'll know for sure how to put JENOVA away for good." Zack said. They all paused. "I need you guys to help me revive her."
There was a long pause after that.
Cid broke it. "Well! There's no fucking reason why the hell not!" he said.
Zack grinned. "You're quite a lively fellow." he said. "What's your name?"
"The name's Cid. I'm the main pilot around here. Ya wanna go somewhere, by damn I'll get ya there faster than anybody else!" Cid said with swelling pride.
Zack turned to everyone else. "Please, introduce yourselves." he asked.
"Tifa Lockheart." Tifa said. "I'm the tourguide."
"Ah... I remember you." Zack said.
"Red XIII..." Red said. "Just call me Red. But my real name is Nanaki."
"Barret, foo'!" Barret said, raising his gun into the air. "Da whole leader behind all this!"
"Vincent." Vincent said. "Don't ask any questions."
"I'm Reeve. I used to be a part of ShinRa... but..." Reeve hesitated. "I quit."
Zack snickered. Then he turned to the Turks.
"What?" Reno asked.
"What's your names?" Zack asked.
"My name's Reno. Leader of the Turks." Reno answered. "I thought you would of remembered."
"Where's Tseng?" Zack asked.
"Dead." Reno answered back, not showing a bit of intrest in Zack at all.
"Oh... Sorry to hear that..." Zack said, getting the feeling he wasn't wanted.
"My name's Elena." Elena said.
"....Rude." Rude said, not taking participation to say anything more.
Zack then turned to Yuffie.
"Hey.. Aren't you...?" He began.
"What?" Yuffie asked, her eyes going wide with innocence.
"The princess of Wutai?" Zack asked.
"I prefer either the term, 'The Lord's Daughter' or my name, Yuffie Kisaragi." Yuffie said simply, going back to checking her materia.
"Oh." Zack said shortly.
"Zack, how are we going to revive Aeris?" Cloud asked.
"We need the white materia." Zack said.
"But Sephiroth has it." Tifa said worridly.
"Well, it won't be so hard to find him." Zack replied.
Cloud nodded. "Let's start then. The sun's rising and it's a new day." he said.
But then he stopped. He suddenly turned to the Turks. "What are you guys going to do now?" then he directed his attention to Yuffie. "Yuffie, who's side are you on?"
"We have officially been fired." Reno said. "No doubt about it, and Rufus is going to be after us. Of course, since it IS our fault..." he paused. "We can't afford to let you get in the way. They'll be after to kill us. And no doubt, Yuffie as well. And since this is my mess, I'll protect her."
"Then what are you going to do in the meantime?" Cloud asked.
"We'll be a second eye for Sephiroth." Reno explained.
"Wait..." Barret began, looking at them critically. "How do we know we can trust you...?"
"Don't know. You're just going to have to go with your own instincts." Reno replied.
"Well, in that case, you're going to need our PHS number." Reeve said.
Reno nodded. "That would work."
Elena looked worried. "What will Rufus do to us if he finds us?" she asked Reno.
Reno turned to her. "Who knows? Maybe we'll suffer Reeve's old fate also." he answered.
Elena blinked.
After Reeve had given Reno their PHS number, they started to walk out of the cave.
"So, I guess this is it." Cloud said.
"Yeah, see ya, Cloud." Reno said, nodding off to him.
"By the way, the way your eyes glowed.. That proves it." Cloud said with a smirk.
Reno smiled jokingly back at him. "Yeah, I guess it does." and then he started leading the others off across the hilltops, towards the Chocobo Farm.
"Bye, Yuffie." Tifa said.
Yuffie turned to Tifa. She stared at her for a second, and then nodded, smiling. "See ya." she answered, and then went to catch up with the others.
"I hope they know what they're doing." Zack said. "But I have a feeling we'll meet up with them."
"Come on! We gotta get to my Highwind!" Cid complained. "What if it rusted?!" and then he started to amble off towards the other direction where the Highwind could be seen from a distance. Everyone groaned and followed him, not even caring if it actually did rust overnight...
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Yeah, how did you like it? Tell me if you want me to type up more... Please review in that lil box! Yeah, that one down there! Thanx~! ~Yuffie-Chan/MousieChan
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