A/N - This'll be the last chapter for a while, I'm off to a sunny place
{^_^} so I'll make it a long one! Cos you know me when I get in a writing
mood - I write big chunks of a story @ once. So sit back and enjoy the
snail-pace-action! Lol! {^^} Oh... yes, Caen IS Zidane from FF9 minus the
tail. So I don't claim responsibility for thinking up his lovely attacks.
Poison daggers... FF7 sure could have done with those! ^_^ I own Midnight
and Kierann though. Whoopee. I need someone to draw a picture of Midnight,
Caen, Marlene, Kierann and Reno together...any offers?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Midnight stood at the outskirts of Kalm, waiting impatiently for her companions to hurry up and saddle their chocobos before more Extreme came to squash her. Yeah right. But she still wanted to get going; mainly because she felt guilty enough about the trouble she had brought to sleepy old Kalm and especially Elmyra. Midnight was sat on a glossy black chocobo she had loaned off Caen, named Jet. Marlene was sat on her mountain chocobo, Leaf, and Caen was sat upon his gold one; Jewel. Finally, once Marlene had balanced her bag on the low classed chocobo, which had been fed up to make it as fast as the other's at the expense of it's intelligence, the group of three made their way over the mountains to the plains where the ChocoFarm used to be, but which now held the eco-friendly (supposedly...) Midgaria. That was its proper name, the name Sephiroth had imposed to delete all ties with ShinraInc... but everyone still called it Midgar. Unlike the old city, Midgaria had no plate; the upper class houses stood on stalks up from the ground and people moved around on bridges. Below were the modern equivalent of the Midgar Slums. Compared to the old slums, these were like heaven because they were clean and despite the shadows left by the upper class houses, there was light and the odd glimpse of sky to be seen. Despite these good conditions, the citizens of Midgaria Slums, just like the rest of the world, were unhappy with life under Extreme. Sephiroth ruled by terror, executing people just on rumours and minor crimes. Nobody trusted him, understandably since Meteor; and rumour had it that he was out for more than this world.
Once Midnight, Caen and Marlene arrived, they sent their chocobos back to Kalm (tying Leaf to Jet because it couldn't understand why it had to go) then they got on the MidLift12 to lift them up to Midgaria Sector 12. Sectors 1 - 10 were below, whilst the upper houses were part of sectors 11 - 20. In the centre, lay the Extreme Central: a security-protected village where the headquarters of Extreme were based as well as Sephiroth's personal mansion, on a large circular platform above the rest of the village. Caen explained the layout of the area to Midnight; Caen and Marlene already knew from their research last night. This mission was centred around one tall building, which stood apart from the others, as the group stared into Extreme Central. The bright blue building. The Execution and Jailing Centre.
"Reno, we're coming..." Midnight whispered, but Caen's hand on her shoulder held her back from the gates of the village. "What?" Even now, his hand sent little waves of pleasure down her spine, but they were on a job now. She couldn't show it. "Midnight, we have to warn you. The last battle was fine, but now... we could face any level of Spirit Fighter..." Looking at her blank expression, he sighed. "You fought Extreme MidGuards. There are LowGuards, MidGuards and HiGuards - those 3 are the basic ones. Then, there are elite forces. Spirits. Ranging from low-level ones, 1Spirits, up until 12Spirits, which are extremely tough. The Thirteenth Spirit..." he swallowed and stopped talking.
Midnight understood. "Sephiroth..." She stood and thought for a minute, then took out her sword. "Caen, Marlene; I want to go and help Reno. Come if you want... I can't force you to, but it'd be appreciated..." She charged through the open gate, taking out a guard as she did so. Caen and Marlene looked at each other then ran after her, clutching their materia, fearing a hard battle was facing them.
They ran around the corner just as Midnight threw a guard right at them. Marlene screamed and ducked; unfortunately, this made Caen, who was stood behind her, a sitting duck. He groaned as the corpse landed on him and knocked all the air out of his body; he had no time to wait though because as Marlene hauled him up, the alarms went off and monsters poured out of a nearby door. "Extreme defences..." Caen choked, as they slipped into the jail building just before the iron doors slammed shut.
Midnight waited for them at the lift. "Reno is on the 56th Floor... I got it outta the computer," she told the gasping Caen and the scared Marlene. Marlene spoke up. "How did you get into it? I heard Extreme computer systems are unbreakable...(Man, I cant even believe we're inside.)" Midnight grinned, "A girl has to do something when in boring Junon... I learnt to hack! So now... I got hacking, and I can even get into the security cameras, look..." They walked over to the main desk computer. A few buttons pressed, and a picture of a man with red hair in curtains falling over his face and bright turquoise eyes faced them. He was looking at the camera with an air of defiance yet fear in his Mako eyes. He was held upon the wall by iron shackles. "We have to go help him. Look. This staircase goes to the 55th Floor, I'm sure we can get to him from there..."
Caen put a hand to his head. "There's nobody here yet, we shouldn't have even got in here due to those damn monsters out there. That's good. But poor Reno... He's helpless... Midnight, once we get there how can we help him? He's... RUN! NOW!!!" Caen broke off, his eyes filled with panic as about thirty 1Spirits poured out of the lifts. Marlene ran to the staircase and kicked open the door, as Midnight drew her sword, took out a red orb and screamed "HellFire!!!" Not waiting to see the effect, she grabbed the stunned Caen and bolted through the open door.
At about the fortieth floor, Marlene finally stopped in her tracks, collapsing onto the rail and looking down. There was no one beneath her. "Midnight! Caen!" She yelled, hearing her words echo around the narrow escape staircase, but nothing was uttered in reply. She groaned. She couldn't believe this. The petrified Marlene was stuck in the Extreme Execution and Jail Centre, on her own with only a Restore materia, a Fire materia and her God's Hand. This wasn't good. Suddenly she heard a faint scream. "Oh no..."
Midnight and Caen ran like crazy up the steps, turning every level to fight yet another battle. Caen was casting Fire2 on the soldiers beneath him, but they just kept on coming... Midnight suddenly stopped at the ninth floor, confronted by about five 2Spirits, (with a large 2 on their shirts, that's how they knew they were 2Spirits in case you wondered) and another person... a man dressed in a dark blue suit. He had completely black eyes, and matching hair, pulled into a band at the back of his head. He took out his ninja double-ended sword, Sua, and raised his head a little, staring into Midnight's face; swallowing as he did so, looking like he was going to faint with a look of complete shock on his face.
Midnight staggered back, pressing into Caen, who was cornered by the soldiers approaching them from behind. He swore a little, and unsheathed his daggers, ready to go to work. Midnight tried to steady her head. Here she was, confronted by a Turk, in the worse possible situation, but the worst was that this was... "Kierann..."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Midnight stood at the outskirts of Kalm, waiting impatiently for her companions to hurry up and saddle their chocobos before more Extreme came to squash her. Yeah right. But she still wanted to get going; mainly because she felt guilty enough about the trouble she had brought to sleepy old Kalm and especially Elmyra. Midnight was sat on a glossy black chocobo she had loaned off Caen, named Jet. Marlene was sat on her mountain chocobo, Leaf, and Caen was sat upon his gold one; Jewel. Finally, once Marlene had balanced her bag on the low classed chocobo, which had been fed up to make it as fast as the other's at the expense of it's intelligence, the group of three made their way over the mountains to the plains where the ChocoFarm used to be, but which now held the eco-friendly (supposedly...) Midgaria. That was its proper name, the name Sephiroth had imposed to delete all ties with ShinraInc... but everyone still called it Midgar. Unlike the old city, Midgaria had no plate; the upper class houses stood on stalks up from the ground and people moved around on bridges. Below were the modern equivalent of the Midgar Slums. Compared to the old slums, these were like heaven because they were clean and despite the shadows left by the upper class houses, there was light and the odd glimpse of sky to be seen. Despite these good conditions, the citizens of Midgaria Slums, just like the rest of the world, were unhappy with life under Extreme. Sephiroth ruled by terror, executing people just on rumours and minor crimes. Nobody trusted him, understandably since Meteor; and rumour had it that he was out for more than this world.
Once Midnight, Caen and Marlene arrived, they sent their chocobos back to Kalm (tying Leaf to Jet because it couldn't understand why it had to go) then they got on the MidLift12 to lift them up to Midgaria Sector 12. Sectors 1 - 10 were below, whilst the upper houses were part of sectors 11 - 20. In the centre, lay the Extreme Central: a security-protected village where the headquarters of Extreme were based as well as Sephiroth's personal mansion, on a large circular platform above the rest of the village. Caen explained the layout of the area to Midnight; Caen and Marlene already knew from their research last night. This mission was centred around one tall building, which stood apart from the others, as the group stared into Extreme Central. The bright blue building. The Execution and Jailing Centre.
"Reno, we're coming..." Midnight whispered, but Caen's hand on her shoulder held her back from the gates of the village. "What?" Even now, his hand sent little waves of pleasure down her spine, but they were on a job now. She couldn't show it. "Midnight, we have to warn you. The last battle was fine, but now... we could face any level of Spirit Fighter..." Looking at her blank expression, he sighed. "You fought Extreme MidGuards. There are LowGuards, MidGuards and HiGuards - those 3 are the basic ones. Then, there are elite forces. Spirits. Ranging from low-level ones, 1Spirits, up until 12Spirits, which are extremely tough. The Thirteenth Spirit..." he swallowed and stopped talking.
Midnight understood. "Sephiroth..." She stood and thought for a minute, then took out her sword. "Caen, Marlene; I want to go and help Reno. Come if you want... I can't force you to, but it'd be appreciated..." She charged through the open gate, taking out a guard as she did so. Caen and Marlene looked at each other then ran after her, clutching their materia, fearing a hard battle was facing them.
They ran around the corner just as Midnight threw a guard right at them. Marlene screamed and ducked; unfortunately, this made Caen, who was stood behind her, a sitting duck. He groaned as the corpse landed on him and knocked all the air out of his body; he had no time to wait though because as Marlene hauled him up, the alarms went off and monsters poured out of a nearby door. "Extreme defences..." Caen choked, as they slipped into the jail building just before the iron doors slammed shut.
Midnight waited for them at the lift. "Reno is on the 56th Floor... I got it outta the computer," she told the gasping Caen and the scared Marlene. Marlene spoke up. "How did you get into it? I heard Extreme computer systems are unbreakable...(Man, I cant even believe we're inside.)" Midnight grinned, "A girl has to do something when in boring Junon... I learnt to hack! So now... I got hacking, and I can even get into the security cameras, look..." They walked over to the main desk computer. A few buttons pressed, and a picture of a man with red hair in curtains falling over his face and bright turquoise eyes faced them. He was looking at the camera with an air of defiance yet fear in his Mako eyes. He was held upon the wall by iron shackles. "We have to go help him. Look. This staircase goes to the 55th Floor, I'm sure we can get to him from there..."
Caen put a hand to his head. "There's nobody here yet, we shouldn't have even got in here due to those damn monsters out there. That's good. But poor Reno... He's helpless... Midnight, once we get there how can we help him? He's... RUN! NOW!!!" Caen broke off, his eyes filled with panic as about thirty 1Spirits poured out of the lifts. Marlene ran to the staircase and kicked open the door, as Midnight drew her sword, took out a red orb and screamed "HellFire!!!" Not waiting to see the effect, she grabbed the stunned Caen and bolted through the open door.
At about the fortieth floor, Marlene finally stopped in her tracks, collapsing onto the rail and looking down. There was no one beneath her. "Midnight! Caen!" She yelled, hearing her words echo around the narrow escape staircase, but nothing was uttered in reply. She groaned. She couldn't believe this. The petrified Marlene was stuck in the Extreme Execution and Jail Centre, on her own with only a Restore materia, a Fire materia and her God's Hand. This wasn't good. Suddenly she heard a faint scream. "Oh no..."
Midnight and Caen ran like crazy up the steps, turning every level to fight yet another battle. Caen was casting Fire2 on the soldiers beneath him, but they just kept on coming... Midnight suddenly stopped at the ninth floor, confronted by about five 2Spirits, (with a large 2 on their shirts, that's how they knew they were 2Spirits in case you wondered) and another person... a man dressed in a dark blue suit. He had completely black eyes, and matching hair, pulled into a band at the back of his head. He took out his ninja double-ended sword, Sua, and raised his head a little, staring into Midnight's face; swallowing as he did so, looking like he was going to faint with a look of complete shock on his face.
Midnight staggered back, pressing into Caen, who was cornered by the soldiers approaching them from behind. He swore a little, and unsheathed his daggers, ready to go to work. Midnight tried to steady her head. Here she was, confronted by a Turk, in the worse possible situation, but the worst was that this was... "Kierann..."