A/N: Yeah, this chapter is WAY too long. And this is the cut up, two chapter version. Remember how it was supposed to be part of the last chapter. Yeah, glad I separated it now, eh? Anyway, read on.
Chapter 16: A Bloody Mess
Over the past few hours, the homemade medicine seemed to be working rather well. Nevertheless, Yuffie still occasionally slipped back into a Mako-induced state of dreaming [1]. Whenever she would wake, another mindless rant would began. She described the events of her dreaming. The green liquid she seemed to be soaked in. The voices that yelled at her and told her things she only wished she could understand. The kind of gibberish Vincent didn't care to listen to over and over again.
Vincent's resolved to tune out Yuffie was broken when a particular utterance brought back a few unpleasant memories. "Have you ever gotten Mako poisoning, Vinnie?" She then continued with her rant, not really expect an answer from such a quiet man. Little did she know the internal chain of memories she set off.
Have I ever had Mako poisoning? Yes, I have been poisoned by far more than Mako. That is a poison I will never forget...
Vincent Valentine's mind traveled back to a time when he was just Vincent, the Turk. The memory was broken. All memories after the gun shot that ripped through not only his shoulder, but his soul, seemed to be broken. He remembered the haze that surrounded his vision, but no amount of haze could blur out the beautiful face of Lucrecia. No haze could blur the detached look in her eyes as she injected a large amount of a green glowing substance into his upper arm.
And no amount of haze could ever hope to blur out the sadistic grin on Hojo's face as he watched the whole thing. In a barely audible voice, Vincent recalled what he muttered to that vile beast in his last moment of consciousness.
"What did you make her do to me?"
A deeply disturbing grin came to Hojo's lips before he answered. "You've been injected with highly concentrated Mako. You see, there are a few... procedures, that we need to perform on you. Regular anesthetic would be far too easy and pleasant for a demon like you..."
A demon like him. It was the first time Vincent Valentine had ever been referred to as a demon. That was the one thing he and Hojo ever agreed on - he was indeed a demon. Only Hojo saw it well before anyone else. Maybe the twisted scientist was smarter than everyone gave him credit for.
Then, a sound in the distance caused Vincent's head to snap up in attention. He listened carefully. There was a definite rustling sound coming from somewhere. It wasn't there before.
"Vinnie, what's wrong?" Yuffie refrained from her speech to ask something of importance, but got only silence as a response.
After sitting silently for a few moments, Vincent quickly stood, check his cloak pocket to be sure he was armed, and headed to the door silently. Yuffie was left in a heap of confusion.
"Yuffie, whatever you do, do not come out of this room." The sound of a door being locked from the other side hammered home the importance of the simple statement. This can't be good...
Vincent thanked his heightened senses. He had detected the presence of the intruders before they managed to make their entrance. He sat perched atop the stair well, gun aimed straight at the front door, where their visitors seemed to be attempting to enter from. With Peacemaker in hand, he set his mind to "shoot first ask questions later" mode. I mean, why would an ally be picking the lock anyway? Right?
As the door opened, one eye searched for a good place to shoot while the other searched for recognition incase it was someone he knew. The first thing he noticed was the pale-green tint and distortion on the creature's face. They were the enhanced soldiers he encountered in Midgar. The next thing he noticed was the being's forehead. The Peacemaker sent a single bullet flying straight to that point.
The headshot sent the creature falling to the floor and let a substance far too dark to be blood pour out of the victims head. The shot also sent the rest of the group into alarm. Three more jumped quickly into the door and darted to either side for cover. Two more gave up on the door and just dove through the two front windows of the bar, also retreating for cover. They certainly weren't going to make this easy on Vincent.
One soldier from each flank opened up with a few rounds. Vincent's agility made it easy to dash and dive behind the bar without being harmed. The barrage of bullets tore through the bottles and glasses that Tifa used to make a living. He waited for a brief moment of peace in the gunfire to rise and shoot. He only had time to get one shot off, though. These things were smart. Two emptied their clips. Then the next two would begin their onslaught as the first two reloaded, leaving virtually no break on the rain of lead.
Luckily, Vincent always kept the Death Penalty strapped to his back - a weapon powerful enough to blow straight through Tifa's bar, giving him a means to return fire. No doubt she would be mad, but he could simply sell a few materia to take care of the repairs.
Nanaki rolled over once more, again gaining the advantage in the battle. Two vicious front paws tore mercilessly through the tender flesh of Ash's skin. "Joe, get this fuckin' thing offa me!"
Red's eyes turned upward and caught the ex-Jockey running towards him, hands still tied behind his back. A loud snarl stopped Joe in his tracks. Unfortunately, the momentary distraction was all it took for Ash to regain his composure and propel Red off of him and onto its back.
With Red's attention turned back to the muscular man on the floor, Joe saw his opening. A swift kick to Red's side brought Tifa to her feet. No one double teamed any of her friends! Three repeating kicks to the ribs and a punch to the face were all met without defense. Ms. Lockheart's delicate but deadly fingers wrapped around Joe's bonds. One strong swing sent him flying back to his spot on the wall. "Stay there!"
With the odds now evened up a bit, Nanaki focused solely on Ash. He used the distance between them to his advantage. With a primal roar shot into the wind, Red ran full speed, lifting into the air only a foot or so away from his opponent. Both went crashing to the hard concrete, but Red wisely used Ash's body as a landing pad.
Ash laid helpless on the floor, clutching his ribs. Where he came from, he was one of the most feared fighter to walk. He'd taken down men ten times his size, but such feats did not prepare one to fight an animal. Who the hell just jumps on you like that? No style whatsoever.
After Red leapt off his victim, Ash thought he might even the score a bit. If that dog/cat/what-the-fuck-ever thing could charge at him, then he could charge right back. With his back turned, Red couldn't react to the blow. As Ash charged on at full speed, it looked rather grim four our feline friend.
"Red! Look out!" Tifa called out, but it seemed like Red had other plans.
The lion-creature paused to collect his thoughts only for a brief moment. Then suddenly, with his back still turned to his attacker, Red let out a feral cry. Ash stopped in his tracks - not so much from the fear brought on by the loud snarl emitted by his opponent, but more in heed to the burning pain in his chest. It only took seconds for the sensation to burst into tangible flames.
As Ash gasped uncontrollably from the pain, Joe gasped from the shock. Did that thing just use materia?!
The sight might have gone unnoticed a year ago, but in recent times, anyone using materia, or even so much as owning it was a sight unseen. Since the fall of Shinra, every city in the world came to an agreement to halt all use of Mako for energy needs. Despite the vigor that Reeve and Barret had worked together in order to find an effecient way to power the world through coal, no efforts were met with success. Thus, human society's power source still lied in the power of Mako - only instead of sucking it mercilessly from the earth, it was used from the materia.
Recovering from the attack, Ash scrambled back to his feet. His partner was so far away, well out of helps range. "Judith! Let's get the hell out of here!"
If Judith could hear her partners frantic cry, she didn't act on it. She was too busy worrying about not dying. This two and a half on one battle (Reno only counted as half, due to the profuse amount of blood that sputtered from his arm with every blow he either dealt or received) wasn't looking too good for her.
Whenever she would dash to avoid the downward swipe of the Ultima Weapon, she was welcomed by the blunt end of the Venus Gospel. The arms of her black, skin tight shirt now sported bad tears and slashes courtesy of Cloud Strife and Cid Highwind (not to mention the huge burn hole on her back from Reno Keenan).
But, despite the odds, Judith made sure to capitalize on every opportunity. Each time Reno would return to the fold, she'd be sure to remind him of his still bleeding gunshot wound. She also was sure to teach the two boys relying on their big, sharp weapons that unarmed martial combat was a dangerous things. A few broken bones were sure to tell these two not to under estimate her.
A glimmer to her left alerted her to the lance flying towards her face. A smooth side step followed by a fist to the jaw sent Cid reeling, only to have Cloud dive in for the kill, lunging his massive sword straight towards her midsection. Judith almost got away unscathed.
The blood now trickling down her side would've tickled her if her senses weren't already overridden by pain. The large gash might not have been fatal, but it sure as hell hurt.
"Where da HELL is all dat ammo comin' from!?" To put it lightly, Barret was a bit flustered. He could not for the life of him figure out how three soldiers could be firing for so long and still have bullets left to shoot.
In the past 15 minutes of exchanging gunfire, not a single SOLDIER had fallen. They were by no means skilled, or even smart - choosing not to hide behind anything didn't give much hope for their mental abilities. Their advantage was being well stocked, never giving the target of their aggression a chance to so much as look at them.
Then, a saving grace rang through the air. A single gun shot came from Barret's left. No SOLDIERs fell. Reno smiled at himself as he lay helplessly on the floor, too weak to stand. No SOLDIERs were even hit, but they were certainly distracted. Mission accomplished...
Barret had never taken kindly to Reno, or any Turk, but he wasn't so thick headed to miss the message. The second's delay in the gunfire was all he needed. The Missing Score fired with such speed that the three bodies that had once been men didn't even have time to turn and look at the man who brought about their demise. Barret didn't even bother to aim. Just open up and mow them down.
After catching his breath, the AVALANCHE founder stopped to give a questioning look to the Turk lying in his own blood. Reno, despite his condition, was still quick to speak. "Adding a crippled Turk to the situation is always a good thing. Now, you wanna stop gawking at me for a second and help me up?"
She watched from overhead as the fight ensued. Pitiful. How could he be so stupid? How can he still be so foolishly arrogant? Two poorly trained mercenaries and a few ex-SOLDIER Third Class sent to take on 6 AVALANCHE members and a Turk. One of these oafs is even afraid of materia! Did he honestly expect success? Fool!
Watching the travesty below her boiled her blood to the point of action. Almost floating, the white-clad figure gracefully and seemingly magically descended from her viewing spot atop a nearby roof. All AVALANCHE eyes were glued to her as she landed a few feet in front of Joe's position away from the fray.
6 helplessly stunned bodies froze as she strode easily through the street to stand next to Judith. The mysterious woman produced a long katana that had been hiding in the folds of her white cloak. "Please, try not to forget your weapons at home next time."
A sadistic grin stretched across Judith's face as her hands wrapped around the familiar handle of her favorite blade. Now to even the odds...
Cloud knew what was coming, but couldn't bring himself to react. Was that...?
Blood. Pain. Torn flesh. Agony. Darkness. Loss of breath. These were the words that Cloud's mind produced instead of the name we was looking for. The were the words put into Cloud's mind by Judith's katana as it sliced through the tender skin on his face. A guttural, terrifying cry of agony came from the man many thought unaffected by pain.
Cid's agape mouth quickly snapped closed when his friend's pained voice touched his ears. Springing into action, Cid sent his lance full speed heading straight for the throat of the perpetrator of his ally's pain. It didn't matter the consequences, no one hurt his friends. He was going to finish off what Cloud had started. He expected blood. Her blood.
He got blood, but it wasn't hers. Twisting to the left, Judith spun with her blade out and ready to slice whatever got in her way in half. She tilted her aim downwards, striking the pilots lower thigh, sending him to the ground in a heap of pain.
"Shit!" Cid's expectedly long string of curses were cut short by a quick blow glancing across his face. Judith wasted no time in making her escape. She was met with little opposition - only a few shots haphazardly fired from Barret's arm dared to try to stop her. Everyone else simply watched her follow the ghostly white women back to where Joe and Ash now stood.
"Do take good care of Vincent, dear." Tifa was hit by a wave of confusion and frustration. How dare this white clad women speak of her poor friend!?
Despite the amount of noise being thrown at him from the hail of gunfire, the incessant pounding on the door behind him was about to drive Vincent Valentine mad. Somehow Yuffie had found a surge of strength in her weak legs to carry her to the door. From there, she began to bang furiously and yell to her protector to let her out. For an odd reason, even without the ability to stand up straight for more than a moment, she though she could still be a help in the battle.
Down below, in the main area of the bar, three greenish-grey corpses littered the ground below. The original intruder laid in a pool of it's own black, tar-like blood. It had only a single bullet hole in it's body. The others contained many various hole's compliment's of the ex-Turk, but all three shared common gun shot wounds between the eyes. After the first half hour to forty five minutes of fighting, Vincent learned shots of such a nature were the only way these things would die, though he hadn't quite put together why.
A quick glance around the bar would easily tell you that the living beings involved in the showdown were having a much easier time than their battle grounds. Tables were riddle with holes and cracked in half. Chairs were completely obliterated into nothing more than the remains of dead trees. The once magnificent wall that held many types of exotic, expensive liquor looked like the backdrop of a firing range. The walls still held a roof over their heads, but they certainly weren't a pretty sight (and no longer protected the inside from outer winds, either).
Vincent knew he had to finish this quickly. It didn't take Turk training to figure that another half hour of this would send the ceiling on a freefall with sights set on his head. He knew their weakness now and if anyone could pull it off, it was him. If only these goddamned things would give him a chance to shoot back!
Yuffie barely moved her head in time to dodge a bullet that tore through the wall she rested on. Gawd! Why did Vinnie have to lock me in here!? If the great Yuffie Kisaragi was out there, this thing would've been over HOURS ago!
Yuffie slumped to the floor in defeat. She knew she wasn't getting out. The ex-Turk was too smart for his (or her) own good. That smart bastard had left the key hanging halfway out of the lock so she couldn't turn the deadbolt from the inside. Why does Tifa have deadbolts on these doors anyway? Paranoid freak.
Her eyes scanned the room for a means to break out, or at least a means to occupy her time. Listening to gunfire could only entertain a girl for so long. As she scanned the walls for nothing in particular, she found an odd, out of place dot. As she scooted her way across the floor, Yuffie used her great mental abilities to reason that it was no dot, but rather a hole caused by the bullet that nearly made her a very unhappy camper moments earlier.
Luckily for her, the hole lead to the next room over in the inn section of Tifa's Tranquility. Why is that lucky? Because none other than Cait Sith, the poor electronic cat left behind by Cloud, rested on the other side. "Hey Cait!"
The voice activated feline quickly shot into life and onto the top of his Mog's head. He looked around questioningly and a bit suspiciously until he noticed a small gray eye sticking through a hole in the wall. "Good morning, Yuffie!"
Good morning? GOOD MORNING?? We're under attack and this thing's been SLEEPING!? "What do you mean good morning? You slept through all this ruckus?"
Cait's small head hung low as he shook it. He hated explaining how he worked to others. It just seemed so... weird. "No, Yuffs. I'm a Robo-Kittie, remember? Cid left me on 'stand-by', which means I shut down to conserve power until someone says my name."
Yuffie let out a chuckle at Cait's use of the term "Robo-Kittie" before turning to the matters at hand. "Cait, do you think you can get me out of here? I think Vinnie left the key in the door. All you gotta do is unlock the door."
"Vincent locked you in? What's going on?"
"Just do it. You'll see for yourself once you go outside."
Yuffie watched as Mog hopped towards the door with Cait on board. A small fit of giggles touched Yuffie as she heard Cait's surprised screech from the hallway. After a few moments of frightened fumbling, Cait burst through the now unlocked door to Yuffie's room. She was waiting for him, standing as straight as she could with the massive Conformer clutched in her right hand.
"Let's go, Yuffie. Vincent's in trouble!"
Yuffie's eyes went wide with a mixture of fear and worry. Damn that Vincent Valentine! He had to be all macho and now he's going to get himself killed!
As they exited the room into the upstairs hallway, Cait and Yuffie stared with horror at the trail of blood that lead to where Vincent now stood, back pressed against the wall bordering the stairwell. Crimson blood stained the wall where a bullet hole stood. The bullet that had almost killed Yuffie, the bullet that inadvertently lead to her release from her nicely accommodated prison, had been the bullet that tore through Vincent's slender body and left such a vast amount of blood in its wake.
A sudden wave of desire swept over Yuffie. A desire to run, run to his side and defend him. She wanted to throw her Conformer right through the heart of whichever one of those things had shot him. She wanted to pull him out of the line of fire. She wanted to help. She wanted to do anything. Her body, on the other hand, wanted to shut down and let her fall to the floor. Her body won.
Vincent turned his attention in time to see the falling form of Yuffie Kisaragi. A tinge of worry crept up in his heart, but his features remained impassive. Cait wasn't exactly sure what Vincent was thinking, but decided to reassure him anyway. "Don't worry, Vincent! She'll be fine. Here! Take Mog. Reeve-ey made him bullet proof when I came back to him."
Vincent was shocked. In his travels with that AI cat, he hadn't often witnessed a moment of well strategized planning on Cait Sith's part. But now, the cat was a genius. A bullet proof barrier would certainly even the odds, if not tilt the scales drastically in Vincent's favor.
Mog obediently hopped over to Vincent's side and was swept up by the ex-Turk. Vincent's superior strength made it entirely too easy to simply carry around the big robot as some sort of shield. Ignoring Cait's frantic cries, Vincent tossed the robotic moggle down the stairs to the ground below, landing about five feet away from the bottom stair. Once it was firmly situated on the floor, Vincent took his turn at the free fall.
As he rolled across the ground towards his big toy shelter, a well aimed shot from Vincent's Peacemaker found root in the firing arm of a nearby creature. It certainly didn't seem to harm the being too greatly, but the shock of the blast was enough to knock it's weapon from its hand. Watching from his safe spot, Vincent waited for the human experiment to bend and retrieve it's gun. Before a single gray finger could touch its target, A bullet tore through the air and then was stopped abruptly by a forehead. Four down, two to go.
Yuffie stumbled to her feet as she regained control of her body. Shaking the dizziness from her head and tuning out the warning Cait was issuing her, she hobbled over to the banister and stole a look down at Vincent. The bleeding seemed to have stopped, but she was sure he was still weakened from the blood loss. Convinced she could help him, she made her way to the stairs. Only two of those things are left. Me and Vin can take them out without breaking a sweat.
But, before she was even given the option to break a sweat, both remaining attackers turned their startled eyes to her. She froze in absolute fear. The strange glowing in their eyes wouldn't permit her feet to move. "Oh god..."
A single gunshot was heard. The enhanced vision of Vincent Valentine let him see the bullet blast out of the rifle's barrel. It was heading straight for Yuffie, and so was he. The world slowed down as he raced. He could beat it. He had to beat it.
Then, as suddenly as the blast had caused the world to slow, it snapped back into full speed. Vincent crashed straight into Yuffie's unsuspecting body. Yuffie crashed down onto the hard wood of the stairs. The bullet crashed and buried itself deep into Vincent's unprotected back.
"Hey, you ugly meanies! No one hurts my friends!!!" If fur didn't cover its artificial skin, Cait would've been bright red with fury. For all he knew, both Vincent and Yuffie had just died. Such an offense would not go unanswered. A quick dive from the second floor sent Cait's agile body straight onto the back of his Mog.
"You feeling lucky, punks!?" Cait always managed to come up with something terribly cheesy to say before he threw what he liked to call "the Dice of Death."
The shrill cries from the small cat brought Vincent's mind out of the world of pain and back into the real world that was still engulfed by battle. The creatures exchanged confused looks as Cait let his dice fly. The momentary distraction was all it took. The two final intruders hit the ground before the two shotgun shells did. Each had identical head wounds.
Now that Vincent was off of her, Yuffie rose to her feet. She looked around the room, astonished by the carnage that had taken place while she was locked in her room. Then, the realization came. "Vincent. You just saved my life..."
An icy, emotionless stare was the only response she recieved. "Vinnie, you saved me. I could've just died. And - -"
"That's right, Yuffie! You could've just died. Cait and I both could've just died. You chose not listen to simple instructions and you endangered your own life along with the lives of two others." Yuffie didn't know which was scarier, the fiercely angry tone in which Vincent spoke to her or what she saw in his eyes.
His red irises had always emitted a dull glow that was strangely devoid of emotion, but now the were brighter than the moon that had begun to creep up in the sky. This light was so bright Yuffie could swear she was being burnt by it. And where a peaceful lack of emotion once existed, now a fiery anger lived.
Not wishing to be the subject of his rage any longer, Yuffie took off. Back up the stairs and back into her room. The door slammed, the deadbolt locked. Now she was safe. As long as she didn't have to look into those eyes, she was safe.
Night had completely taken control of the world by the time Cloud and co. returned to Kalm. Anger had completely taken control of Tifa by the time she could see the front of he precious Tranquility. Nausea had completely taken control of everyone by the time they could see the bloody mess inside the bar.
Six dead bodies lay piled together in the far corner. Their greenish-gray skin was so riddled with holes that it barely covered their bodies. A black liquid that could be presumed to be the creatures' blood seeped out of every hole and covered much of the rest of the bar. But, not to be outdone, natural red blood covered a large portion of the floor as well. Vincent Valentine was the artist who claimed ownership to such a deadly paint.
Bullet holes where everywhere. No one's eye could escape their destruction. The bar was laid to waste - chair and tables alike had been destroyed. No one could quite figure out how the walls hadn't caved in yet.
Everyone wanted an explanation, but Tifa above of all. This was her livelihood. WAS her livelihood. Now it was just a bunch of rubble. Her eyes quite shot an accusing glare at Vincent Valentine, the stoic man who sat perched atop what seemed to be the only surviving barstool.
"What the hell??"
[1] "state of dreaming" - a not-so-obvious plug for my friend's website, "State of Dreaming." check it out at:
A/N: That one was a doozy. Hopefully the length will make up for how long it took me to post it. Poor Tifa. Anyway, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review. Pretty please. Oh, and did you who the "mysterious woman in white" is yet? It shouldn't be too much of a surprise.