6.
The Climb
Red X carefully made his way up the pillar holding the plate above Sector 8. It was quite a distance to go yet and he really needed to take his time and be as careful as possible because of the humans he was carrying. He punched another spiked fist into the pillar and dug his feet in. He retracted the spikes in his other hand to release it from the pillar so he could punch his now fee hand into the pillar. It was in itself a slow process. Yuffie held on for dear life as the half metal half beast creature lumbered up pillar. All kinds of thoughts rushed through her mind as she held on. She had it planned now. Once she reached the top she would part ways with Kandya….Or at least let her think that. Yuffie could follow her at a distance and wait for Kandya to retrieve the hidden Crystal materia. Then she would strike. All she had to do was steal the crystal materia and hide it. Then she could use this as blackmail to get Kandya to assist her in breaking in to Shinra HQ. Yuffie knew this was going to have to be well played and extremely carefully done. She did not want to see Shinra get their hands on it either. Yuffie had decided the risk of bringing such a deadly force to Wutai was too great so she would return the Materia and let Kandya get to her Pick up point in time to get the weapon from Shinra's reach. This rose more questions in Yuffie's mind though…who was this contact Kandya spoke of? And who was going to pick her up by Chopper tonight? She was sure Kandya wasn't telling her everything…but still in the long run she wasn't sure she wanted to get involved anymore than she already was.
On the opposite side of the beast Kandya was as calm as any Ex-Solider would be expected to be. She thought about her hometown. She had been born in Costa del Sol 19 years ago. When she was 12 years old she joined solider. It had really always been one of her dreams. She was always the best at everything in her class. And always on the winning team in the schools sporting events…always the winning team because she was on it. Her thoughts fell upon the events of the last few weeks and the life changing decision she had made that day in the Hotel de Trepee. She now had an army on her back. An army she had joined naively. Solider certainly did not turn out to be all she had dreamed it would be. She learned that the hard way.
Below in the run down streets of the Sector 8 slums a man limped slowly along. Blood dripped from wounds all over his body onto the dusty ground. His clothes were torn and his muscles ached. People all about him on their way to work at the beginning of this new day in the slums stopped to stare at the sky now visible through the hole in the plate above Sector 7. But they quickly moved out of this dangerous looking mans way as he approached. He was armed. He had come across a pistol on the body of one of the officers under his command as he was pulling himself from the remains of the fallen house. Laverne coughed and spat out more blood onto the street. He was in a daze. He grumbled and shouted weakly at the people who attempted to approach him to see if they could help. He stopped in his tracks. What was everyone looking at? He looked up painfully to see the hole left by the fallen plate. The sight hardly moved him. But it did bring a crooked smile to his bloodied face. Then a thought occurred to him…what about the plate above him? Was that secure? He looked up to see that the pillar remained in one piece holding the towering plate above. His gaze moved down the pillar. He tried to get his eyes to focus. What was that shape on the side of the pillar. He turned his gaze to the street again and walked on. He stopped again. What was that shape? It bothered him greatly but he couldn't get his head clear. He looked up again and squinted his eyes. Yes the shape was familiar but why. Slowly his brain processed the information. That was Red X. He walked at a quicker limped pace along the street. The base of the pillar was just two blocks away.
As soon as he reached the top of the street he looked up again. Those figures on Red X's back…what could they be? They couldn't be could they? He tried to focus again. It was. His face painfully turned to a look of rage. It was them. Something inside the man finally broke. He muttered loudly. His mutter soon became a shout. He shouted angrily at the shape on the pillar and soon he was roaring at the top of his voice. He lifted his weapon and fired in vain at the distant shape.
High above the sector Red X clambered up the pillar. Suddenly a chunk of the pillar exploded beside him. All three of them turned to look down at the slums. They were to far up to make out were the shots were coming from. Another chunk of the pillar exploded just beneath them.
"IT APPEARS WE AR BEING FIRED UPON" Red X stated the obvious
"That was close we gotta get higher Red X…Higher…Can you go faster" Kandya shouted concerned.
"YES I CAN TRY…HANG ON" Red replied….He punched his fist into the pillar again and increased his speed.
"Awe man…." Yuffie moaned "….Guys I'm seriously gonna be sick here"
"You're gonna be shot if we don't get higher" Kandya shouted back to her.
Bullets tore into the pillar all around the big beast as he hurriedly made his way up. This took a lot of concentration. They weren't far from the top now. All around the cables were dangling from a platform about 30ft above them. Red X retracted the spikes from his left hand to free it from the pillar. He reached to grab a handful of the cables hanging down. As he reached another shot rang out. The machinery in his throat exploded in a rain of sparks. Red X roared in agony and suddenly fell silent. His body slumped and dropped. Yuffie and Kandya both yelped as the huge beast fell backwards and came to a sudden halt. Red X was dangling from the pillar by one fist of spikes punched into it and by both feet but his torso slumped down awkwardly.
"Red…Red X are you ok," Kandya shouted at the silent beast.
"I think he's dead Kandya" Yuffie shouted " And we'll be to if we don't MOVE!!!"
Kandya frowned at the fallen friend and then gave Yuffie a nod. More shots rang out in the air about them. "We can climb to the top from here with the cables." Kandya shouted as she began to climb Red X hanging body. Yuffie wasted no time and was quickly following. Below Laverne continued to fire. He shot wildly to the sky at the shape above. He roared like a mad man. The pistol he had recovered was now out of bullets yet he still pulled the trigger as he roared into the sky.
Kandya was now holding onto Red X's arm that was still connected to the pillar. She reached for a near by cable and swung herself at it. She just barely caught hold of it and pulled herself up swinging her other arm over to it. Yuffie moved into the spot were Kandya had just moved from and reached for the adjacent cable. Red X stirred beneath her.
"Woah" Yuffie was caught by surprise. "I think the big guy is ok…Hee hee hee. Tough fellar ain't he"
Kandya looked down at him "What?…He's ok?…Ha Ha Ha…He must have a self repair program" She said happily "RED X ARE YOU STILL WITH US!"
Red X opened his eyes. And took a breath with his machine lungs. He turned his head and stared at Yuffie And Kandya now holding on to cables just inches above him.
"You ok Red" Yuffie asked the big silent beast. He was just staring at them. His eyes looked Yuffie up and down as if taking in every detail and then turned to Kandya to do the same. "What's he doing? Red are you ok?" Yuffie asked again
"RED X DESTROY FEMALES" The huge beast moaned
"No Its ok Red we were just shook up a little" Kandya replied to the huge metal creature
"RED X DESTROY FEMALES" He repeated
"Umm I don't think he's asking if we're ok Kandya. MOVE IT!!!" Yuffie shouted up to her.
Kandya immediately shot into action and clambered up the dangling cables
"RED X DESTROY FEMALES!!!!!!!!" the beast roared as he slammed his free fist into the pillar. His program was now fully functional again. The creature's roar could be heard on the streets below. A smiled rose on Laverne's bloodied face.
"MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT" Yuffie demanded as she climbed up behind Kandya.
The beast's new engine fired up into life again. It roared and clumsily reached to grab at Yuffie. She was just out of reach. But not for long. Yuffie reached into a pouch on her belt and pulled out the fire materia.
"I'll take care of it!" She shouted as she aimed the fire materia at Red X.
"What are you doing?!! That won't hurt him he's a machine!!!" Kandya shouted down to Yuffie
Yuffie shouted in response " I know!!!"
She closed her eyes and concentrated. Red X loomed up before her. His face was right in front of hers. He opened his mouth to show his set of razor sharp metal teeth. Yuffie was still in silent concentration. The materia glowed bright and the sound of tearing filled the air. A large ball of flame exploded from yuffie's hand at point blank into Red X's beastly face. The force tore him from the pillar.
Yuffie and Kandya watched silently as the large monstrosity fell to the ground below. He landed with a thud that echoed through the slums.
"I bet that hurt him though" Yuffie smiled as she turned to climb.
Laverne arrived at the base of the great pillar. Red X lay silent. He had landed on the fence at the base of the pillar tearing it down. Laverne stood over the smoking heap of machinery. "Red X respond 118973 Tango Tango alpha" Laverne stated recognition codes to the machine. It still lay silent. Laverne repeated "RED X RESPOND 118973 TANGO TANGO ALPHA" The machine bleeped and whirred softly. " Secondary damage assessment" Laverne requested. Red X bleeped and a light on his chest flickered. Then from an internal speaker a mechanical voice responded.
"All primary systems offline. Repairs in progress. Please stand by"
Laverne smiled as he slumped down beside the beast.
High above Kandya and Yuffie lay on their backs exhausted. They had reached a maintenance platform at the top of the pillar. They decided to rest for half an hour before moving on. It was now 10am and there was plenty time to get things done before the pick up Kandya had figured. Getting to the plate only a few feet above them would be easy. An elevator connected the Maintenance platform to the plate above.
"We'd better get moving" Kandya groaned as she stood up. She went to the side of the platform to look down at Red X below. "Why am I not surprised?" She moaned again.
"Huh? Wha?…What now?" Yuffie groaned as well.
"He's gone….He's not down there. Damn thing must have 9 lives" Kandya answered
"What?…Awe man…are you sure?" Yuffie began "Maybe the impact drove him into the ground…awe never mind…so where is he then?….do you think he can trace us?"
"I don't know…" Kandya answered softly "…He seemed to be scanning us earlier. I don't know maybe he can track us. But he's not climbing up the pillar."
"Lets get a move on anyways….we can't just hang around here now" Kandya walked to the service elevator. The door slid open. Yuffie followed.
Within moments they were out on the streets of Midgar again only in
a new world now. A world of high-rise buildings, busy streets and business
suits. Kandya spoke to yuffie " Well we're up now and I guess this is where
we say goodbye" She turned to give her a smile. Yuffie was gone. She was
left standing alone talking to herself
