Chapter 6 – Return of an Angel
Too much is not enough.
Nobody gave it up.
I'm not the kind
To lay down and die.
Adrenaline keeps me in the game.
Adrenaline, you don't even feel the pain.
Wilder than your wildest dreams.
When your going to extremes, it takes adrenaline…
Cloud looked around the Highwind, and was upset by the amount of sad faces the looked back at him. The loss of Red XIII on top of everything else was certainly not a moral-raising discovery.
"Okay." He said aloud, raising his voice. "So far we know Red XIII, Marlene, Reno and Rude have all disappeared…"
Shaela looked confused at the last three names, but didn't say anything. Cloud would have to fill her in afterwards.
"…We don't know why those individuals have been taken, even if taken is the word to use. And all we know is that we might find something in the – city of the ancients."
The spiky-haired man hoped that the others would not hear the falter in his voice at the last words, but he recovered quickly.
"How do we know that no one else was taken?" Yuffie asked suddenly, and it surprised Cloud. She had a point.
The same thought seemed to reach Tifa and Rude at the same time. "Reeve!"
Cloud smacked his forehead. Of course he knew that Cait Sith was the last AVALANCHE member unaccounted for, but he had figured that Cait was kind of – immune, since he was just a robot. He hadn't even considered Reeve. And what if innocent civilians were taken?
"Well, c'mon, pick a goddamn destination!" Cid muttered. "I thought we was goin' to the city of the ancients."
"No." Cloud said. "Head for Midgar, we have to find Reeve and see if he's okay."
Behind him, he heard Rude explaining who Reeve, the other Turks and Marlene were to Shaela. She listened patiently, but seemed to know little of things out of the canyon. Only what Red had told her, apparently.
As the Highwind sped to Midgar, a sudden question leapt to Cloud's mind. "Rude, how do you know who Marlene is?"
If possible, Rude's frown got deeper. "You won't want to hear this."
"What?"
"When Aeris was taken prisoner in the Shinra Tower, I spoke to her briefly. She told me about how she had hid a girl named Marlene at her house, and that we could not touch the girl. She hadn't said whose daughter it was, she just said a friends, but I figured it was either you, Tifa or Barett's."
"Oh." Cloud said simply. Rude was right, the added memories of Aeris' capture was nothing Cloud wanted to hear. But Rude had warned him.
Cloud was glad they were going to Midgar. He strongly dreaded going back to the hidden land past the sleeping forest.
Reno took a moment to realize who it was that was in Feliyui's arms. Yet, her gentle green eyes. It had been a long time since he saw her.
"Aeris?" He cried out.
"Reno, help me!" Aeris wimpered. The spear began to break skin as Reno approached, and she yelped. A single bead of blood dripped down her neck.
"Reno, who is this?" Elena said.
Reno looked at her. "She was with AVALANCHE. Don't you remember the flower girl?"
"Flower girl?" Elena's eyes half closed in thought, then widened. "Oh yeah! You let her go Feliyui!"
"I told you to follow me." Feliyui deadpanned, seeming uncaring of the girl that had seemed to appear from no where. "Drop your weapons and come peacefully, and this woman won't be harmed."
"Put her down now." Reno growled.
"Drop the weapons!"
"No, that's not on my schedule today." Reno smirked, clutching his nightstick firmly.
More blood began to fall from Aeris' neck, and she screamed.
Like a bull staring into the cape of a matador*, the sight of the blood enraged Reno. How dare this creep hurt the flower girl?
With a mix between a grunt and scream, Reno leapt towards the man and brought the nightstick towards him. The training on rescueing captives leeched away from his mind as the lust for blood crept up.
Perhaps it was the eyes, those green eyes that so much resembled his younger sisters. The more he looked, the more he saw not Aeris but Ceres, her big eyes and fiery hair staring pleadingly up at him.
The man briefly didn't know what to do, than began to plunge again into Aeris' neck. And then, he fell over onto his face with a muffled cry, and Aeris disappeared from his arms.
Elena held the woman close, and was speaking softly to her. Good thing Elena had remembered to keep cool, or she might be dead. Reno felt stupid for going crazy like that. She had nearly endangered Aeris' life.
It didn't occur to Reno that Aeris was already dead, killed at the hands of Sephiroth. Of course not.
With a bestial snarl, Reno beat down on the man's neck with the nightstick, waiting for the satisfactory snap. He hit the ground, and stared with surprise. He felt a fist smash into his head from behind, and the thoughts were knocked into his mind. The man had moved, and somehow got behind Reno. Crap.
Yet, from all those sparring practises with Rude, the blow didn't give him anything but a nice little shake up and a brief confusion. He turned, and kicked out for whatever he could hit. He blissfully hoped it was the mans crotch.
But no, he hit a leg. Of all the places he coulda hit the guy, it was in the shin. The two of them both grimaced with pain, and Reno instantly felt like an idiot.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aeris pulling back a potion, but all it did was stop the bleeding. She would still have a nice scar.
Reno turned and began to focus his energy into the nightstick, as he was good at doing. Forget putting the man in a pyramid, it was time for something a little bit better.
Energy bubbled in his mind and through his fingertips, and he slowly opened his eyes and gave a quick, dangerous smirk.
"Turk light." He murmured in lethal voice that matched his sneer. Then, three intense red blasts launched from his nightstick towards Feliyui. He felt his skin throbbing at the extreme heat, and sweat ran down his face, making it feel like he was melting or some strange thing like that.
The three fireballs hit the ground. The man was gone.
But as Feliyui staggered back from the fireballs, he accidently fell prey to Aeris and Elena. Aeris, having no weapon with her, began to chant, and Elena took out the shotgun and fired, hitting him in the leg near where Reno had kicked him.
Despite the odds against him, Feliyui was not doing badly. In fact, he was doing just fine, seeming unphased by the attack. Crap again.
And just like that, he took the hulking big spear of his and stabbed down at Elena. She screamed as it pierced her skin.
"No." Reno muttered. His torquise eyes widened as Elena grasped at her stomach and moaned. "No Elena!"
He rushed forward, but he was too slow, and Feliyui, seeming in complete control again, dodged in the way and kicked Reno, sending him sprawling.
One thought hit his mind like a brick. Don't let me fall on Elena! Pleeeeeeease don't let me fall on Elena!
And then, as if God himself was pointing and laughing, Reno heard Elena cry out again as Reno fell sprawled on top of her. He tried to get up, or at least to swear, but the air was knocked out of him and all he could do was lie there on top of Elena (in a less than dignified position) and gasp.
Elena began to choke, and her eyes rolled back.
Reno tried his very best to do something, but his body needed air. He sat there like a stupid fish and watched her close her eyes.
No! She couldn't be dead.
"GREAT GOSPEL!!"
The sudden yell causes Reno to leap to his knees beside Elena with his hands in front of his face. And then, he felt a coolness rest on his weary skin, a peaceful, beautiful feeling like the comfort of a cure spell intensified by fifty. **
Elena eyes fluttered open, and the wound in her stomach closed.
Reno stood shakily and held out a hand to her. She took it and stood, just as shakily. Aeris was watching them carefully. Then, she turned to Feliyui and cried again,
"Ultima!"
Reno had to duck again to avoid being turned into some kind of cinder as the roaring power of Ultima blasted all around them, reaking destruction. The green winds of holy energy seeked out for flesh, and Feliyui was the unfortunate victim. He grunted as his body was lifted off the ground and surrounded by the searing holy energy.
On the ground, the wolf's single yelp of surprise was drowned out as it was lifted up once and fell to the ground, dead. Aeris was consentrating with all her power of the holy energy, and Reno had the feeling that if he even breathed, she would lose control and blast him through the head with it.
And then, with another silent scream, Feliyui hit the earth again hard, and stayed there.
Elena had to dash out and grab Aeris as she threatened to fall to her knees, completely worn out by the major magical energy.
Reno almost doubted his sanity as Feliyui slowly stood again with a grimace, and glared at them, his icy eyes now full of fire instead.
"You leave us no choice then." He barked. "We'll come for you, you cannot hide from us!"
And then, he turned and disappeared into seeming air, which took on the slightest wavy tinge that looked suspiciously like water.
With a sigh of relief, Aeris smiled brightly. "He's gone."
Reno nodded, suddenly unaware of what to say to his ex-enemy. "Uh – are you okay?"
She nodded sweetly, and Reno felt a rush of compassion that he was sure no one could possibly resist. Yeah, this was Aeris alright. He saw why Tseng had liked her so much.
"I'm glad I found you. The others were all brought to the city, I was sure you'd starve out there."
"Others?" Elena asked, confusion etched on her face.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, Red XIII and Marlene and Reeve."
Reno instantly came to attention. "Reeve? It got Reeve?"
"Unfortunately." Aeris said. "I'm so sorry."
"No." Elena smiled a little, and Reno felt envious that Aeris had reached the almighty honour of a smile. All he ever got were those angry little hissy fits. "It's okay. Please lead us to him."
"No! Not the stairs!" Barett and Tifa both groaned.
Rude watched them, and his lips rose slightly in what Elena called 'Rude grins.'
"You've had experience with the stairs?" He asked, his voice still dry but slightly amused.
Cloud sighed. "Unfortunately. Well, the elevators are offline, so this is the only option."
Yuffie gulped. "There's – a lot."
Vincent and Rude exchanged glances that spoke worlds. Being Turk and former Turk, they both knew the horror that was the stairs. Most Shinra people had to scale them at least once in their lifetimes. Too bad for them.
"No goddamn way! We can't take them!" Cid growled.
Rude almost laughed at the look on Shaela's face. Buildings this high were definitely something foreign to her, the thought of this many stairs was just crazy. This was more even then there were in all of Cosmo Canyon.
"Alright, let's go." Cloud said fornlornly. There was a universal groan from his companions, which he ignored.
Rude and Vincent immediately began to ascend the mountainous stairs, with the others trailing behind. If Rude hadn't known better, he would have thought that something in the way Vincent fought to get in front of him was kind of competitive. Like he was showing off what the old Turks were in comparison to these weenies.
With an internal grin, Rude kept right on climbing.
Now, there was absolutely nothing relaxing about the stairs, but it was kind of rhythmatic climbing up the things, all there feet beating at it in time with one another.
"This is insane!" Yuffie from about midway down the group.
"Your telling me?" Cid demanded. From the sound of his voice, Rude figured he was last. Probably from the tar in his lungs that took the place of room for oxygen. Reno used to smoke and he was the same, always in the back gasping like it was a thirty mile marathon. Of course, he'd stopped awhile back when he realized how hard it was to be a Turk when he took three steps and needed air, but it had been silently fun to show off in front of him.
"Hurry up you old fart!" Yuffie said in a voice that smiled.
"What did you call me?" Cid growled, and he began to go even faster to try and do something evil to Yuffie. She squealed with laughter and started up again.
Cloud was doing alright, though he hadn't really had the same practise with the stairs as a Turk.***
Tifa and Barett were doing alright also, but stopped every once in awhile with Shaela to catch their breaths. Shera had been lucky enough to stay behind with the Highwind. They had figured it might be dangerous, and there was no way she could have done the stairs.
The silent war between Vincent and Rude continued, neither giving nor asking quarter. The stairs were nearly halfway done, and Rude desperately wanted to stop for at least a moment, but didn't.
And then, Vincent grunted and nearly fell over as Yuffie ran head first into him. Yuffie unfortunately did fall, right in front of him, and the two of them toppled over like a card pyramid.
There was harsh, steady laughter from Barett and Cid, and the others found it hard not to laugh a little, mostly relieved it hadn't been them. Vincent said nothing but scrambled to his feet, and Yuffie swore venomously.
"You big dummy! Ow, that hurt!"
Vincent looked at her and shrugged his shoulders. "You ran into me."
Yuffie paused to think of a smart comeback, then simple shouted, "Shuttap!"
Vincent shrugged again, "You okay?"
"Yeah yeah, I'm fine!" Yuffie rubbed her bottom, then began again up the stairs. "Beat you all up!"
Tifa laughed. "No you won't!"
And the run began again.
Shaela really didn't know what to say about her new companions. They were – unique, no doubt. As they finally reached the last set of stairs, there was a general whoop, shout and um - "…" of delight. Shaela was glad, her lungs felt like they were going to burst. As the stairs ended, she leaned against the wall and sucked in air greedily. Everyone else did likewise.
"I almost won!" Yuffie muttered through breaths. "Rude – had practise."
"It's…in the…job description…" Rude muttered in a monotonous voice through harsh breaths.
"Haha! Did you hear that? Rude made a joke!" Yuffie laughed and patted the deep-breathing Turk on the back. "Congratulations!"
"Yuffie, that's enough." Tifa murmured. Yuffie gave her a disappointed look, and the auburn-haired woman grinned. "You're being a sour loser."
Yuffie laughed, and Rude seemed amused as well. Shaela assumed that the bald "Turk" was usually a lot quieter.
Yes, a very unique group, no doubt. However, Shaela derived a little amusement from them, despite her worry for Nanaki.
Authors note: Hehe, lots of asterisking today :PSorry Aeris-haters, she's one of my favorite characters. How can you not love her? Shes so ADORABLE!!
Okay, I know the end was pretty OOCish, but it was SO much FUN!! I had completely forgot about the stairs until I got there, then…you know, I just started writing. Besides, I was listening to "Sheep go to heaven," by Cake (highly recommended ;) and it just put on the mood.
The fighting scene might have sucked, I don't know. I'm not great at them. But I hoped it added a bit of action to the storyline. Hehe! Anyway, I managed to get this done all at once, I'm very proud of myself.
* Matadors ARE bullfighters, right?
** I uh – heh heh – never got Great Gospel, so I kinda don't know what it looks like…heh…heh…
*** If you remember the storyline correctly, Cloud ended up NOT being SOLDIER but a common fighter, so I figured that he, in fact, would NOT have had practise with the stairs as much as Turks or SOLDIER.