Foreword- Im sorry I haven't updated in SOOO long! I feel really bad about that. I'll be updating more frequently now.........this chapter will be one of the best one's yet! I promise! Anyway......... now on to the chapter you've all been waiting for!
Adel's eye's flashed a violent amber color. She knew this monster was a powerful one, and she wasn't about to just let it come over here and stop her now, she had come too far and her plan had worked to well. "Foolish Boy!" Adel grumbled, "No mere pet will stand a chance at defeating me, you better call him off before he gets hurt!"
Griever snorted and Travis shot an evil look in Adel's direction. "You are quite arrogant considering the situation. Griever clearly has the advantage!"
"You may think that foolish boy! But you haven't seen what this body can do, you will be quick to realize how swiftly the tide of battle can change!" Travis continued his glare , motioned to Griever, then smiled deeply.
Griever roared and then flew straight upwards. After a few moments of flying he stopped, pulled out his spear. Then roared again, this time hurdling downward at a tremendous speed at Adel.
Adel barely opened her hand and Griever stopped directly in his tracks. Adel closed her hand and Griever began to roar in agony, he was being crushed telekinetically. Travis could hear Griever's bone's crunching as they were slowly being mangled and crunched beneath the invisible weight.
Griever roared louder than before and began to fight the force of Adel's mind. He was fighting a losing battle, but that did not stop him from trying. Griever closed his eyes for a moment. He reopened them a blinding red light emitted from them. Griever roared so loud the ground began to crack and finally thrust his arms out violently, Adel's hand snapped open instantly.
Travis smirked and laughed out loud, probably a little louder than he should have. Adel turned to him and clenched her fist tightly in his direction. Almost instantaneously Travis dropped his sword and yelled with pain. The pain Griever had felt was nothing compared to this, Adel hadn't clenched her fist while crushing Griever, she merely closed it softly. Travis fingers snapped backwards violently as they were snapped and broken, his elbows bent so far the way they weren't supposed to bend they snapped. His ribs gave an awful crunch as they broke like chicken bones, several poked out of his chest.
Adel now laughed an evil laugh as she brought her arm back., keeping a firm grip on Travis but not completely letting go. She thrust her hand forward and opened her hand swiftly. Travis was thrown violently backward and an earsplitting speed. The ground was cracking underneath him as he flew toward the horizon, still screaming in pain. A huge fountain of sand followed him, shooting out of the crack he was making in the ground. About 1 mile later, his mangled body slammed into the ground with such a tremendous force he created a small crater. The crater was the last place Travis saw before he drifted into unconsciousness. Griever disappeared because Travis could not concentrate upon him. Travis blood lay his autograph upon the baron ground of the desert. The sand geyser finally caught up to him and sent a shower of sand into the crater, covering Travis completely blocking him from receiving any air.
Cloud, Yuffie, and the others stared horrifically at the huge cloud of dust that was floating into the air where Travis had landed. Rinoa slumped to the ground and buried her face in her hands. Cloud was furious. He searched Squall's mind for a solution, Griever was the only way to go, but Travis was in charge of him. He needed to get Griever back into this battle. And Squall knew how.......
"Draw!" Cloud pointed at Travis in the distance, both Cloud and the small pile of sand began to glow, "Extract GRIEVER!" The sand began to glow much brighter and after a few seconds a small ball of energy came shooting at Cloud. He was just about to absorb it when all the sudden-
"CLOUD, WATCH OUT!!!!" Cloud turned just in time to dodge Adel's monstrous claws. Cloud leapt up but another claw swung. Cloud barely got missed by this one. He landed on the ground and leapt back, facing Adel. He reached up and grabbed the shimmering ball and pressed it against his chest. He felt Griever's life force surge through him. Cloud stepped forward confidently and said, in a voice overflowing with vocal ice, "It ends now."
Cloud didn't even have to utter the summon words, Griever came on his own. Out of nowhere Rinoa screamed. She picked herself up and started running toward Travis.
Griever withdrew his spear. This time Griever looked much more menacing and ferocious. Adel wasn't impressed. "You STILL are using that weak animal. You saw how easily I withheld him before. I could easily do it agai....." Adel paused. Griever had disappeared.
Adel looked around, stopped, then moved about 4 inches to the right. The head of Griever's spear lunged at empty air. Adel grabbed the handle and pulled Griever forward and then sent him reeling back with a powerful shot to the face. Adel still help onto Griever's spear. With no trouble at all she vaporized it. Griever was just now recovering from the daze of the blow he just received.
Griever roared and lunged with fists clenched. Griever swung with massive force and incredible speed. Cloud and the others could barely keep their eyes on the punches that Griever was throwing. What was worse was Adel was faster, she didn't have to worry about whether or not she could block the blows. It was cakewalk for her. Griever began to get eve more furious.
~~~
Rinoa was running as fast as she could go, but it seemed, to her at least, like she was running in slow motion, because no matter how far she ran, it always seemed like she wasn't moving forward. Rinoa heard Griever roar in the distance behind her, but she told herself not to turn around. She needed to help Travis. And if she was distracted it would only take away from her ability to help.
~~~
Griever was doing worse than anyone had every anticipated. Adel could match everyone of his attacks with a doubly impressive maneuver. It seemed like their final hope was going to fail. Cloud felt like he was forgetting something important just then. He thought for several moments while he watched Griever's flurry of punches and kicks get blocked with ease. Then it hit him. Seifer. He wasn't over here with the group. He was off on his own. He would make a great distraction.
Cloud pulled out a small device and entered a code in. He was dialing Seifer's SeeD communicator. But Seifer wasn't answering. And the ultimate horror was happening right before their eyes.
"Diamond SHACKLES!!!!" screamed Adel, cackling the whole time. Glowing bracelet looking things appeared on Griever's wrists and ankles. Griever didn't think much of it until he began to lunge. Adel snapped and at once the shackles solidified. Griever stopped Dead in his tracks...and fought furiously to get out. While Griever was busy fighting for his freedom Adel was chanting what Squall's mind recognized as the Spell of Possession. Cloud's stomach lurched when Squall's brain told him this. This was the only time he felt this afraid thus far into the journey. The table tables had never been this severely.
Adel began to glow and finally she became a ghostly apparition type thing. Griever was still struggling. Adel flew inside Griever's body. Griever began to stop flailing at once. The shackles dissolved. And Adel, now in control of Griever's body, began to laugh. Uncontrollably.
Cloud and the others were dead afraid of what would happen to them because of this unfortunate turn of events. Cloud, just to be safe, pulled out his sword.
"I'll deal with you later, vermin," screeched Adel, "I've got a foolish boy to deal with right now." And with that, she launched off towards Travis' final resting place.
~~~
Rinoa was almost there when Griever blew past her and hovered above the spot where Travis lay. "That's great! Griever will help him out," Rinoa thought to herself. She started running a little slower. She was not expecting what happened next.
~~~
Adel flew higher above Travis' crater and held a hand toward the sky, a small ball of energy began glowing in the palm of her hand. She threw this ball down onto Travis' crater. There was a small flash before the explosion came. The explosion erupted straight up. It was like a volcano. Rinoa gasped, then collapsed because her legs stopped working. All she could do was watch in horror as everything inside that hole, including Travis, was instantly incinerated. Rinoa just sat there, since that's all she could do, and wailed uncontrollably.
Adel waited for the fire to dissipate to make sure her goal had been fulfilled. It had, she smiled an evil smile, or tried to anyway, Griever wasn't much of a smiler. Adel then flew upwards and started flying towards Esthar.
~~~
"Laguna!" Cloud cried.
"I'm on it!" Laguna shouted back while holding out a holographic recording device in front of him. "This is President Laguna Loire. I order that the City of Esthar be hereby evacuated. I repeat, please evacuate Esthar. Kiros and Ward. You have a special assignment. Please execute evacuation plan 667-y-sigma. That is all. President Laguna Loire signing off."
"How long does it take for the entire city to be evacuated?" asked Selphie, who was horrified beyond what she thought was humanly possible.
"Roughly 45 minutes if everything goes smoothly. I hope it does, because Adel seems to still be trying to figure out the full potential of her new body. She can't figure out how to use Griever's attacks until after the city is evacuated." Selphie nodded. Right now they could only stand and wait.
~~~
Rinoa finally found her legs again and managed to walk over to the edge of the hole that Adel had made. She looked into it and called, hoping that Travis would answer back, even though she knew he never would. Little did Rinoa know that she was being watched by Adel. Rinoa had fallen into her trap. Adel aimed carefully and launched a small ball of energy right at the ground behind Rinoa.
~~~
Cloud watched as she did this and wondered what she could possibly be aiming at? Then it hit him like a sack of bricks, Rinoa. He had forgotten all about her! He quickly turned and saw her standing there, right on the edge of the huge hole in the ground. Cloud leapt into the air and took off after her as fast as he could. But he knew he wasn't going to get there in time.
~~~
Rinoa was oblivious to the whole scheme Adel had set up. And it was still working wonderfully for her. Now the biggest threat was distracted and she could take out the rest of the pitiful group, and then it would only be Cloud and Rinoa to deal with.
~~~
Cloud jetted forward faster than he had ever done before. He knew the ball of energy would get there before he did, unless he could think of something fast. If only he could go faster! "You can go faster," a voice told him, "You have the power too, search within and you'll find it."
Cloud thought for a second before Squall's mind gave him the answer he was searching for, Haste. "HASTE!" screamed Cloud! At once Cloud began to glow a reddish color and he launched himself forward with such velocity that any city or town he passed over would've been destroyed because of the wind he created behind him. The ground cracked underneath him, just as it had when Travis had been hurled backward.
Cloud looked up and tried to find the energy blast when all at once he stopped abruptly. His red glow faded. He was being held by Adel. He just didn't realize it right then.
The blast smashed into the ground a few feet away from Rinoa. The ground cracked and, for the most part, vaporized underneath Rinoa's feet. She had no time to react, all the could do was fall. With no one to save her.
Cloud yelled and began to fight the invisible bond, just as Griever had before. Cloud thought of Tifa while fighting. How her death would be in vein if he didn't retrieve the stone. He thought of Vincent, who was now living inside of Yuffie, and how his death would also be in vein.
"I WILL NOT FAIL!!!!" Cloud screamed as he pressed against the force of Adel's mind. Instantly he was freed. He launched himself down the hole hoping the hole was deep enough that Rinoa was still falling. She was. Cloud grabbed her wrist with no time to spare. If he would've broken free 2 seconds after he actually had Rinoa would've been killed.
Cloud flew down and set her on the ground. She embraced him almost instantly. "Thank you so much Cloud. I am eternally grateful. But we should be getting back to the group. Adel might attack because of your absence...we can't waste any time." Cloud nodded, grabbed her hand, and opened his wings. He flew upwards at a pretty fast speed. He looked at the top of the hole. Something didn't look right to him. But he couldn't place his finger on it. So he kept flying.
~~~
Adel flew about 250 feet away from the group, devoid of Cloud and Rinoa, and landed. She started walking towards the group slowly, pulling out Griever's spear as she progressed.
The group was horrified. Cloud was gone and wouldn't get there in time to save them, given Adel's present speed. Yuffie Stepped forward.
"I'll have to do it," she said, "It's up to me." The group was about to reject when Yuffie began to glow. Yuffie's appearance began to change immediately. Her skin changed from pink to a deep black and she grew wings and a tail. Her body enlarged to about twice her normal size. She had become Darkside. "This is our last hope" was the last thing she said before she took off to face Adel one on one.
Yuffie sped forward toward the still walking Adel. She was horrified at what she was about to do. But she had no other choice, what other option did she have. Adel's hideous face came closer every second. It would only be a few more moments.
~~~
Cloud had slowed down some to investigate the top of the hole. He decided he was imagining things so he started to speed up when all the sudden a vision of Yuffie and Adel fighting flashed in his head. It seemed to real to him to be fake. This worried him. Perhaps an Oracle was giving him a message. Cloud sped up to almost double the speed he had started at.
He kept looking at the opening. He squinted and then it hit him. There were pebbles "sitting" on the hole's opening. They were floating there. Cloud stopped and floated where he was for a few seconds, then searched for something to throw at the opening. The only thing that Squall was wearing that Cloud could through was a ring. He pulled it off and hurled it at the opening. The ring made a hollow echoing clunk noise as it hit the opening and bounced back towards him. It was as he suspected. Force field. Or else someone didn't want them to escape.
Cloud had to escape somehow. He felt the charred, soil walls of the hole. Only they weren't bumpy and rough like he suspected. They felt like he was pressing against..."Nothing," Cloud said to himself, "I'm pressing against nothing." He pressed harder against the barrier separating him from the confines of the hole to the outside world. There was no way out. He was trapped in a cylindrical prison composed of nothing but brain waves. Cloud flew back to the bottom and sat down, on nothing, while he thought. Rinoa seemed to be talking to herself. She was chanting some unintelligible nonsense. Cloud closed his eyes and thought long and hard about the essentiality of his freedom, and what he would do to obtain it.
~~~
Yuffie finally met Adel. Adel struck first without stopping or slowing her pace. Yuffie dodged the swing of the spear, although just barely, and took a swing at Adel's head. Adel moved her head slightly, but enough to dodge the blow. Adel swung more violently and also barely missed Yuffie. Adel was beginning to get frustrated. "There is no sense letting a simple insect such as yourself disrupt my walk. I'll have a great pleasure in destroying you, along with your comrades." Adel lifted herself off the ground and hovered there a second before disappearing.
Yuffie heard something to her left and grabbed in that direction. Adel appeared. Yuffie had grabbed the pole and stopped her attack, although Yuffie herself had no idea how she was doing it.
Electricity began surrounding the fist Yuffie used to clutch the spear with the death-grip of death-grips. Yuffie's eyes erupted ina violently white light and the spear exploded into a million pieces. Yuffie used her other hand to backhand where she thought Adel would be with all her might, she felt extremely relieved when she felt Adel's head snap backwards because of her attack.
"Filthy vermin. You may have been lucky with those last two techniques, but your luck ends here. I WILL destroy you. You better believe it. Your time is near, nearer than you think. You made a grave mistake fighting me." Adel snarled. Both Yuffie and Adel disappeared.
Huge geysers of sand began erupting from random places on the ground. Yuffie was doing a MUCH better job than Griever was, but it was obvious her endurance would slow down pretty quickly.
Adel and Yuffie reappeared again and stood facing each other for several moments. Out of the corner of her eyes, Yuffie caught a glimpse of Zell beginning to glow. She knew what he was going to do. And she had to make sure that she put Adel right where Zell wanted her to be.
Yuffie was adamant about keeping Adel from noticing Zell charge his attack so she stayed in her line of vision all the time. She did this pretty well, for the most part. Adel caught a glimpse of him after he began charging. Which was not a good thing. Yuffie had to think fast. At once she jumped upwards, flung her tail forward, wrapped it around Adel's neck and began to squeeze.
The pressure Adel was feeling around her neck was a bit much. She could only handle a little more before she would have to fight for air. She knew if she fluxed her power the tail would be removed, but she didn't wanna use anymore energy than was necessary. Big mistake. And she would soon realize why.
Zell, who was now totally engulfed in a florescent shimmering light, was charging forward with incredible speed. Small sparks of electricity jumped around him. He rushed forward seemingly running on air towards the now-being-strangled Adel. He felt a great satisfaction in realizing his plan would probably work. But he could only totally feel good about it after he felt his fist pummel her.
Yuffie was squeezing with so much force that Adel's nose began to bleed. Now it was certain she wasn't immortal. Yuffie heard the sound of Zell's approaching footsteps and turned her head to take a look. She had about 5 seconds to act before he would blow past her. So she drew her leg back, and gave Adel a quick slam in the face before pulling her tail back swiftly, thus pulling Adel towards Zell.
What happened next happened in what seemed like ultimate slow motion. Yuffie released her tail from Adel's neck and disappeared. Adel was thrown forward right into Zell's line of fire. He skidded to a halt and all the light swirled around his fist. He yelled something and then slammed his fist forward. Adel had no chance to block or dodge, she received the full brunt of the attack.
The light swirling around Zell's fist was transferred to Adel before the slow motion stopped and she was sent hurtling backwards with such a force that Zell was almost caught in the back draft that she created. She slammed into the ground and created a crater for herself some many feet away from the group. Yuffie reappeared close to the group and Zell also retreated back.
They thought they had put Adel out of commission long enough for Cloud to return from saving Rinoa. They thought wrong.
At once the ground within a 70 foot radius, around and down, was vaporized. Electricity surged around Adel with such force that the group considered her lucky to be able to endure it. She was more powerful than ever. And twice as mad.
And the only person who stood a chance against her was stuck in a cylindrical prison about a mile away. But he may as well have been 10000.....
The sky surged into total darkness as Adel lunged toward the group.........
Afterward- I hope this chapter was exciting enough to be worth the wait of all you people crunching at the bit for the next chapter! I will be sure to update more frequently now, now that I have more free time!
Adel's eye's flashed a violent amber color. She knew this monster was a powerful one, and she wasn't about to just let it come over here and stop her now, she had come too far and her plan had worked to well. "Foolish Boy!" Adel grumbled, "No mere pet will stand a chance at defeating me, you better call him off before he gets hurt!"
Griever snorted and Travis shot an evil look in Adel's direction. "You are quite arrogant considering the situation. Griever clearly has the advantage!"
"You may think that foolish boy! But you haven't seen what this body can do, you will be quick to realize how swiftly the tide of battle can change!" Travis continued his glare , motioned to Griever, then smiled deeply.
Griever roared and then flew straight upwards. After a few moments of flying he stopped, pulled out his spear. Then roared again, this time hurdling downward at a tremendous speed at Adel.
Adel barely opened her hand and Griever stopped directly in his tracks. Adel closed her hand and Griever began to roar in agony, he was being crushed telekinetically. Travis could hear Griever's bone's crunching as they were slowly being mangled and crunched beneath the invisible weight.
Griever roared louder than before and began to fight the force of Adel's mind. He was fighting a losing battle, but that did not stop him from trying. Griever closed his eyes for a moment. He reopened them a blinding red light emitted from them. Griever roared so loud the ground began to crack and finally thrust his arms out violently, Adel's hand snapped open instantly.
Travis smirked and laughed out loud, probably a little louder than he should have. Adel turned to him and clenched her fist tightly in his direction. Almost instantaneously Travis dropped his sword and yelled with pain. The pain Griever had felt was nothing compared to this, Adel hadn't clenched her fist while crushing Griever, she merely closed it softly. Travis fingers snapped backwards violently as they were snapped and broken, his elbows bent so far the way they weren't supposed to bend they snapped. His ribs gave an awful crunch as they broke like chicken bones, several poked out of his chest.
Adel now laughed an evil laugh as she brought her arm back., keeping a firm grip on Travis but not completely letting go. She thrust her hand forward and opened her hand swiftly. Travis was thrown violently backward and an earsplitting speed. The ground was cracking underneath him as he flew toward the horizon, still screaming in pain. A huge fountain of sand followed him, shooting out of the crack he was making in the ground. About 1 mile later, his mangled body slammed into the ground with such a tremendous force he created a small crater. The crater was the last place Travis saw before he drifted into unconsciousness. Griever disappeared because Travis could not concentrate upon him. Travis blood lay his autograph upon the baron ground of the desert. The sand geyser finally caught up to him and sent a shower of sand into the crater, covering Travis completely blocking him from receiving any air.
Cloud, Yuffie, and the others stared horrifically at the huge cloud of dust that was floating into the air where Travis had landed. Rinoa slumped to the ground and buried her face in her hands. Cloud was furious. He searched Squall's mind for a solution, Griever was the only way to go, but Travis was in charge of him. He needed to get Griever back into this battle. And Squall knew how.......
"Draw!" Cloud pointed at Travis in the distance, both Cloud and the small pile of sand began to glow, "Extract GRIEVER!" The sand began to glow much brighter and after a few seconds a small ball of energy came shooting at Cloud. He was just about to absorb it when all the sudden-
"CLOUD, WATCH OUT!!!!" Cloud turned just in time to dodge Adel's monstrous claws. Cloud leapt up but another claw swung. Cloud barely got missed by this one. He landed on the ground and leapt back, facing Adel. He reached up and grabbed the shimmering ball and pressed it against his chest. He felt Griever's life force surge through him. Cloud stepped forward confidently and said, in a voice overflowing with vocal ice, "It ends now."
Cloud didn't even have to utter the summon words, Griever came on his own. Out of nowhere Rinoa screamed. She picked herself up and started running toward Travis.
Griever withdrew his spear. This time Griever looked much more menacing and ferocious. Adel wasn't impressed. "You STILL are using that weak animal. You saw how easily I withheld him before. I could easily do it agai....." Adel paused. Griever had disappeared.
Adel looked around, stopped, then moved about 4 inches to the right. The head of Griever's spear lunged at empty air. Adel grabbed the handle and pulled Griever forward and then sent him reeling back with a powerful shot to the face. Adel still help onto Griever's spear. With no trouble at all she vaporized it. Griever was just now recovering from the daze of the blow he just received.
Griever roared and lunged with fists clenched. Griever swung with massive force and incredible speed. Cloud and the others could barely keep their eyes on the punches that Griever was throwing. What was worse was Adel was faster, she didn't have to worry about whether or not she could block the blows. It was cakewalk for her. Griever began to get eve more furious.
~~~
Rinoa was running as fast as she could go, but it seemed, to her at least, like she was running in slow motion, because no matter how far she ran, it always seemed like she wasn't moving forward. Rinoa heard Griever roar in the distance behind her, but she told herself not to turn around. She needed to help Travis. And if she was distracted it would only take away from her ability to help.
~~~
Griever was doing worse than anyone had every anticipated. Adel could match everyone of his attacks with a doubly impressive maneuver. It seemed like their final hope was going to fail. Cloud felt like he was forgetting something important just then. He thought for several moments while he watched Griever's flurry of punches and kicks get blocked with ease. Then it hit him. Seifer. He wasn't over here with the group. He was off on his own. He would make a great distraction.
Cloud pulled out a small device and entered a code in. He was dialing Seifer's SeeD communicator. But Seifer wasn't answering. And the ultimate horror was happening right before their eyes.
"Diamond SHACKLES!!!!" screamed Adel, cackling the whole time. Glowing bracelet looking things appeared on Griever's wrists and ankles. Griever didn't think much of it until he began to lunge. Adel snapped and at once the shackles solidified. Griever stopped Dead in his tracks...and fought furiously to get out. While Griever was busy fighting for his freedom Adel was chanting what Squall's mind recognized as the Spell of Possession. Cloud's stomach lurched when Squall's brain told him this. This was the only time he felt this afraid thus far into the journey. The table tables had never been this severely.
Adel began to glow and finally she became a ghostly apparition type thing. Griever was still struggling. Adel flew inside Griever's body. Griever began to stop flailing at once. The shackles dissolved. And Adel, now in control of Griever's body, began to laugh. Uncontrollably.
Cloud and the others were dead afraid of what would happen to them because of this unfortunate turn of events. Cloud, just to be safe, pulled out his sword.
"I'll deal with you later, vermin," screeched Adel, "I've got a foolish boy to deal with right now." And with that, she launched off towards Travis' final resting place.
~~~
Rinoa was almost there when Griever blew past her and hovered above the spot where Travis lay. "That's great! Griever will help him out," Rinoa thought to herself. She started running a little slower. She was not expecting what happened next.
~~~
Adel flew higher above Travis' crater and held a hand toward the sky, a small ball of energy began glowing in the palm of her hand. She threw this ball down onto Travis' crater. There was a small flash before the explosion came. The explosion erupted straight up. It was like a volcano. Rinoa gasped, then collapsed because her legs stopped working. All she could do was watch in horror as everything inside that hole, including Travis, was instantly incinerated. Rinoa just sat there, since that's all she could do, and wailed uncontrollably.
Adel waited for the fire to dissipate to make sure her goal had been fulfilled. It had, she smiled an evil smile, or tried to anyway, Griever wasn't much of a smiler. Adel then flew upwards and started flying towards Esthar.
~~~
"Laguna!" Cloud cried.
"I'm on it!" Laguna shouted back while holding out a holographic recording device in front of him. "This is President Laguna Loire. I order that the City of Esthar be hereby evacuated. I repeat, please evacuate Esthar. Kiros and Ward. You have a special assignment. Please execute evacuation plan 667-y-sigma. That is all. President Laguna Loire signing off."
"How long does it take for the entire city to be evacuated?" asked Selphie, who was horrified beyond what she thought was humanly possible.
"Roughly 45 minutes if everything goes smoothly. I hope it does, because Adel seems to still be trying to figure out the full potential of her new body. She can't figure out how to use Griever's attacks until after the city is evacuated." Selphie nodded. Right now they could only stand and wait.
~~~
Rinoa finally found her legs again and managed to walk over to the edge of the hole that Adel had made. She looked into it and called, hoping that Travis would answer back, even though she knew he never would. Little did Rinoa know that she was being watched by Adel. Rinoa had fallen into her trap. Adel aimed carefully and launched a small ball of energy right at the ground behind Rinoa.
~~~
Cloud watched as she did this and wondered what she could possibly be aiming at? Then it hit him like a sack of bricks, Rinoa. He had forgotten all about her! He quickly turned and saw her standing there, right on the edge of the huge hole in the ground. Cloud leapt into the air and took off after her as fast as he could. But he knew he wasn't going to get there in time.
~~~
Rinoa was oblivious to the whole scheme Adel had set up. And it was still working wonderfully for her. Now the biggest threat was distracted and she could take out the rest of the pitiful group, and then it would only be Cloud and Rinoa to deal with.
~~~
Cloud jetted forward faster than he had ever done before. He knew the ball of energy would get there before he did, unless he could think of something fast. If only he could go faster! "You can go faster," a voice told him, "You have the power too, search within and you'll find it."
Cloud thought for a second before Squall's mind gave him the answer he was searching for, Haste. "HASTE!" screamed Cloud! At once Cloud began to glow a reddish color and he launched himself forward with such velocity that any city or town he passed over would've been destroyed because of the wind he created behind him. The ground cracked underneath him, just as it had when Travis had been hurled backward.
Cloud looked up and tried to find the energy blast when all at once he stopped abruptly. His red glow faded. He was being held by Adel. He just didn't realize it right then.
The blast smashed into the ground a few feet away from Rinoa. The ground cracked and, for the most part, vaporized underneath Rinoa's feet. She had no time to react, all the could do was fall. With no one to save her.
Cloud yelled and began to fight the invisible bond, just as Griever had before. Cloud thought of Tifa while fighting. How her death would be in vein if he didn't retrieve the stone. He thought of Vincent, who was now living inside of Yuffie, and how his death would also be in vein.
"I WILL NOT FAIL!!!!" Cloud screamed as he pressed against the force of Adel's mind. Instantly he was freed. He launched himself down the hole hoping the hole was deep enough that Rinoa was still falling. She was. Cloud grabbed her wrist with no time to spare. If he would've broken free 2 seconds after he actually had Rinoa would've been killed.
Cloud flew down and set her on the ground. She embraced him almost instantly. "Thank you so much Cloud. I am eternally grateful. But we should be getting back to the group. Adel might attack because of your absence...we can't waste any time." Cloud nodded, grabbed her hand, and opened his wings. He flew upwards at a pretty fast speed. He looked at the top of the hole. Something didn't look right to him. But he couldn't place his finger on it. So he kept flying.
~~~
Adel flew about 250 feet away from the group, devoid of Cloud and Rinoa, and landed. She started walking towards the group slowly, pulling out Griever's spear as she progressed.
The group was horrified. Cloud was gone and wouldn't get there in time to save them, given Adel's present speed. Yuffie Stepped forward.
"I'll have to do it," she said, "It's up to me." The group was about to reject when Yuffie began to glow. Yuffie's appearance began to change immediately. Her skin changed from pink to a deep black and she grew wings and a tail. Her body enlarged to about twice her normal size. She had become Darkside. "This is our last hope" was the last thing she said before she took off to face Adel one on one.
Yuffie sped forward toward the still walking Adel. She was horrified at what she was about to do. But she had no other choice, what other option did she have. Adel's hideous face came closer every second. It would only be a few more moments.
~~~
Cloud had slowed down some to investigate the top of the hole. He decided he was imagining things so he started to speed up when all the sudden a vision of Yuffie and Adel fighting flashed in his head. It seemed to real to him to be fake. This worried him. Perhaps an Oracle was giving him a message. Cloud sped up to almost double the speed he had started at.
He kept looking at the opening. He squinted and then it hit him. There were pebbles "sitting" on the hole's opening. They were floating there. Cloud stopped and floated where he was for a few seconds, then searched for something to throw at the opening. The only thing that Squall was wearing that Cloud could through was a ring. He pulled it off and hurled it at the opening. The ring made a hollow echoing clunk noise as it hit the opening and bounced back towards him. It was as he suspected. Force field. Or else someone didn't want them to escape.
Cloud had to escape somehow. He felt the charred, soil walls of the hole. Only they weren't bumpy and rough like he suspected. They felt like he was pressing against..."Nothing," Cloud said to himself, "I'm pressing against nothing." He pressed harder against the barrier separating him from the confines of the hole to the outside world. There was no way out. He was trapped in a cylindrical prison composed of nothing but brain waves. Cloud flew back to the bottom and sat down, on nothing, while he thought. Rinoa seemed to be talking to herself. She was chanting some unintelligible nonsense. Cloud closed his eyes and thought long and hard about the essentiality of his freedom, and what he would do to obtain it.
~~~
Yuffie finally met Adel. Adel struck first without stopping or slowing her pace. Yuffie dodged the swing of the spear, although just barely, and took a swing at Adel's head. Adel moved her head slightly, but enough to dodge the blow. Adel swung more violently and also barely missed Yuffie. Adel was beginning to get frustrated. "There is no sense letting a simple insect such as yourself disrupt my walk. I'll have a great pleasure in destroying you, along with your comrades." Adel lifted herself off the ground and hovered there a second before disappearing.
Yuffie heard something to her left and grabbed in that direction. Adel appeared. Yuffie had grabbed the pole and stopped her attack, although Yuffie herself had no idea how she was doing it.
Electricity began surrounding the fist Yuffie used to clutch the spear with the death-grip of death-grips. Yuffie's eyes erupted ina violently white light and the spear exploded into a million pieces. Yuffie used her other hand to backhand where she thought Adel would be with all her might, she felt extremely relieved when she felt Adel's head snap backwards because of her attack.
"Filthy vermin. You may have been lucky with those last two techniques, but your luck ends here. I WILL destroy you. You better believe it. Your time is near, nearer than you think. You made a grave mistake fighting me." Adel snarled. Both Yuffie and Adel disappeared.
Huge geysers of sand began erupting from random places on the ground. Yuffie was doing a MUCH better job than Griever was, but it was obvious her endurance would slow down pretty quickly.
Adel and Yuffie reappeared again and stood facing each other for several moments. Out of the corner of her eyes, Yuffie caught a glimpse of Zell beginning to glow. She knew what he was going to do. And she had to make sure that she put Adel right where Zell wanted her to be.
Yuffie was adamant about keeping Adel from noticing Zell charge his attack so she stayed in her line of vision all the time. She did this pretty well, for the most part. Adel caught a glimpse of him after he began charging. Which was not a good thing. Yuffie had to think fast. At once she jumped upwards, flung her tail forward, wrapped it around Adel's neck and began to squeeze.
The pressure Adel was feeling around her neck was a bit much. She could only handle a little more before she would have to fight for air. She knew if she fluxed her power the tail would be removed, but she didn't wanna use anymore energy than was necessary. Big mistake. And she would soon realize why.
Zell, who was now totally engulfed in a florescent shimmering light, was charging forward with incredible speed. Small sparks of electricity jumped around him. He rushed forward seemingly running on air towards the now-being-strangled Adel. He felt a great satisfaction in realizing his plan would probably work. But he could only totally feel good about it after he felt his fist pummel her.
Yuffie was squeezing with so much force that Adel's nose began to bleed. Now it was certain she wasn't immortal. Yuffie heard the sound of Zell's approaching footsteps and turned her head to take a look. She had about 5 seconds to act before he would blow past her. So she drew her leg back, and gave Adel a quick slam in the face before pulling her tail back swiftly, thus pulling Adel towards Zell.
What happened next happened in what seemed like ultimate slow motion. Yuffie released her tail from Adel's neck and disappeared. Adel was thrown forward right into Zell's line of fire. He skidded to a halt and all the light swirled around his fist. He yelled something and then slammed his fist forward. Adel had no chance to block or dodge, she received the full brunt of the attack.
The light swirling around Zell's fist was transferred to Adel before the slow motion stopped and she was sent hurtling backwards with such a force that Zell was almost caught in the back draft that she created. She slammed into the ground and created a crater for herself some many feet away from the group. Yuffie reappeared close to the group and Zell also retreated back.
They thought they had put Adel out of commission long enough for Cloud to return from saving Rinoa. They thought wrong.
At once the ground within a 70 foot radius, around and down, was vaporized. Electricity surged around Adel with such force that the group considered her lucky to be able to endure it. She was more powerful than ever. And twice as mad.
And the only person who stood a chance against her was stuck in a cylindrical prison about a mile away. But he may as well have been 10000.....
The sky surged into total darkness as Adel lunged toward the group.........
Afterward- I hope this chapter was exciting enough to be worth the wait of all you people crunching at the bit for the next chapter! I will be sure to update more frequently now, now that I have more free time!