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CHAPTER FOURTEEN – THE MONSTER EXTERMINATOR
'I guess I didn't know … Get busy child … (Crystal Method: 'Busy Child)'
Tifa ground her teeth as the giant worm-like Crawler lashed back at them with cold breath. These creatures weren't that hard to battle but the Soldier Thirds and the Shinra Guards that had been given to her made it difficult. They didn't have the skills with their weapons or with the materia that they had been given to make them very effective at killing the creatures that had roamed and bred unchecked in the mines. They were far more effective at cleaning up the dead mess of monster. The Soldier Firsts and Seconds had long since departed for greener shores, selling their services to the highest bidder. She assumed most of them were in Junon or even Wutai by now, leaving her with the lowest of the low.
She lashed back with a roundhouse kick at the creature, triumphant when it writhed on the ground; dying from the injuries she had given it. With her abilities and strength, it rarely took more than one well-placed kick or punch to send these creatures to their own "Promised Land". She took a moment to catch her breath before she was off running to the next skirmish as a groan of pain erupted from one of the groups behind her.
This group had an Ark Dragon cornered and their pathetic lashings with their standard issue Shinra swords did little to counter the flying beast. It deflected most of the blows, countering their attacks with flame thrower, leaving burnt flesh behind.
"Cast Ice on it." She ordered, casting a cure spell over the group, trying to ease the pain from their wounds. The blue shimmer of Ice surrounded the creature, the crystalline star freezing and breaking the dragon into smaller pieces.
As the men moved in to clear the remains of the dragon away, Tifa shook her head. This wasn't working very well. She would have to rethink their strategy here. These men and women didn't have the strength and skills, despite their Shinra training, to battle these creatures in the formations that Avalanche, and even the Turks, had used. She'd divided the fighters she had been given into groups of three and had set them to searching out the creatures in the mines. While they were making some progress on the problem, it was slow. She wanted to do as thorough a job as possible as Reeve was counting on her to make the mines safe for the miners to return to work.
She also wanted to get back to Midgar. She hated being away from the progress that was being made. Even though she knew that what she was doing now was important, she still felt like she had been assigned to this to keep her and Reno from bickering. She frowned to herself, but quickly plastered on a smile as she realized the little light that filtered in through the cave openings was fading. "That's good for today. Let's head back to camp."
"You really defeated General Sephiroth?" One of the younger Soldiers asked her as they headed back towards their camp. The Soldier was looking up at the two impaled Midgar Zoloms that hovered gruesomely near the campsite. The first was the one that Avalanche had discovered on their first trip through the mines. The second was one that Cloud had added to prove that he was just as strong as the legendary Sephiroth.
Thankfully the Kalm miners had restored the swamp boats they had used before the mines had closed to cross the marsh and home of the Midgar Zolom. She didn't want to imagine what these fighters with her would do in a battle with the legendary swamp worm.
"Not just me, but yeah." Tifa responded tiredly yet proud of their accomplishment of "saving the world". Even though the cost had been high, she didn't regret a moment of the time they had all spent together.
"That's really cool. He was the strongest Soldier ever." The young Soldier said, obvious hero worship of the legendary general in his voice. "I wanted to be like him someday," he frowned, pensive, as he continued. "But Shinra's gone and so is my dream."
The young man's first words had reminded her of Cloud at the well in Nibelheim so many years before, but his last words sickened her. "Your dream isn't gone." She stated. "Shinra was strong and powerful, but it did a lot of things you shouldn't want to copy."
"I was gonna move through the ranks and reach the top, you know?" He removed his gaze from the twin Zolom corpses and faced her. "Maybe even become a Turk."
"The Turks were ruthless killers who left little more than devastation in their wake. Why would you want to be one of them?"
"Because the Turks are strong. They don't bleed, and they get the job done."
Tifa frowned, knowing that the young man's picture of the Turks was the one that Shinra had planted in the minds of the people- ruthless killers to do Shinra's dirty work. If you didn't follow Shinra's laws the Turks could come and get you. They'd proven it time and time again.
But Turks did bleed. They died. They felt. She'd watched Tseng collapse in the Temple of the Ancients and die. She had traveled with Vincent and his personal guilt over Lucrecia. She'd had long "girl talk" conversations with Elena. She'd heard the pain of losing his wife in Rude's voice. She'd seen the pain in Reno's eyes years before. Beneath the facade even the Turks were human.
"Like you. You would've made a good Turk." He saluted her as he walked off to join his comrades around the campfire. "I'm proud to serve with you."
She stopped just inside the campground as the young Soldier walked off. The young Soldier Third was right. She'd carried around the pain of her past the same way the members of the Turks did, letting it fuel her. Barrett, Cloud, Vincent, Cid, Nanaki, Yuffie, even Aeris… all the same.
She held her hands out, looking at them, truly seeing for the first time the proverbial bloodstains that Reno wouldn't let her forget. 'Their fucking blood is on your hands as sure as it is on mine…'
"Oh, Holy." She whispered as the realization dawned on her.
They'd saved the world, but the difference between Avalanche and the Turks was in name only.