Start Date: October 17, 2022
Windwillow
Again, the bolded text is Cloud's inner voice speaking to him.
Final Fantasy VII
With the ordeal at the Gold Saucer concluded, the scene turns now to the village of Gongaga. Half of the party has been sent there, with the other half headed to a nearby Weapons Seller to search for clues to Sephiroth's whereabouts. The Weapons Seller may have valuable information in the search for Sephiroth, while the abandoned reactor at Gongaga could hold equally vital intel to the same end. Only Cait Sith has remained behind to guard the buggy. Was it a mistake in Cloud's judgment, or was there a good reason not to invite the cunning cat to their next mission?
Chapter Thirty: The Incident at Gongaga Village
Scene One
The Gongaga Weapons Seller's influence reached beyond the small realm he was based in. Well known for his innovative and high quality works, ranging from swords to artillery, he received orders from both the eastern and western continents regularly and had agents across the world surveying technological progress, who then reported back to him. His surname, Henschel, had a long history in the armament and industrial sectors, and before Shinra came about his family was the number one specialist in weaponry across the whole of Gaia. Even with Shinra's arrival, he was a high quality subcontractor for the organization and specialized in the most innovative types of materia-based technology. While he was an amateur materia user, he was a specialist in applying it to all sorts of military (and non-military) technologies.
Yuffie, Barret, and Red XIII had been ferried via the buggy by Cait Sith to the far east of the lower half of the western continent. Henschel's relatively large compound included a number of different laboratories and armories stretched across a three-floored complex run, amazingly enough, solely by himself. He was an avid micromanager and rumored to be Obsessive Compulsive and maybe even an autistic savant, and worked best alone. When she saw the huge collection of conventional weapons, Yuffie had immediately gravitated to his foreign selection of weapons from both the east and west. Some of them had been imported from Wutai and a number of more unconventional tools from the far-eastern town of Mideel. Barret eagerly examined Henschel's artillery, but it was his most unusual devices that interested Red XIII, including what looked like a large necklace laced with baubles, next to a strange hairpin displayed next to it.
"Hmm... Quite the unique device..." Red XIII muttered as he carefully sized up the necklace. It was large enough to wrap around his own long neck and had been decorated with an accompanying barrette that would look very snazzy on his own body. "But how would it work? I assume it's a weapon of some sort given its location, but I don't see any gun barrels or anything... and nothing sharp, either. It's almost as if-"
"It's my newest design!" said Henschel proudly. Red XIII nearly jumped out of his fur as a large, black haired man dressed in a green jean jacket appeared behind him, whirling about to find the burly Henschel standing directly behind him. Henschel folded his arms and proudly eyed his creation. "You see, I've been researching some special technology I read about in an old book. It's possible that it dates back to the time of the Ancients!" Henschel boasted.
"What in the hell is wrong with you?!" snarled Red XIII as he bared his teeth at Henschel, eyes gleaming in rage (and surprise). "I nearly had a heart attack, man! I'm old enough as it is, but you just ripped off a couple years off my life when you surprised me like that!" he growled. Seeing Henschel's confusion, Red XIII sighed heavily and sat down. "Sorry. I'm just not used to being surprised like that... Traveling with the people I am, in retrospect, I should be, though... But I have to ask: What the bloody hell is this thing?" Red XIII wondered.
Henschel's eye seemed to twinkle, apparently engrossed in his own craftsmanship before he coughed and remembered he was engaged in a conversation. He explained that the two parts worked in unison, a specialized materia inside the necklace that reacted to a vibration created in the barrette to create a unique effect: It reshaped energy into new forms, using what he called a "Form" materia. While he wasn't entirely sure of the nature of its ability, it apparently could be combined with other materia. Beyond that, everything else was speculation.
"I found it with an old tome from some dude called Cid of the Lufaine," explained Henschel. "This guy created some funky technology back in the day, even some sort of airship that's been lost to time. One of his descendants even created a freaking space rocket, but this technology was mixed with materia in a way that the present guy would never understand. The thing with this is, is that I never found anyone who could actually use it..."
Cocking his head, Red XIII wracked his brains but was unable to decipher what Henschel was trying to tell him. "And what is that supposed to mean?" wondered Red XIII. "There's always going to be a market for unique materia..." he muttered. "And since I've never heard of this... Form materia... it has to be incredibly rare. You don't get much more interesting than something that's one of a kind."
"Yeah, I know, right?!" Henschel laughed heartily. As he slowly tapered off, the Weapons Seller began to examine the device pensively. "The problem is, the necklace is so damn heavy that any normal person could never move when they wear it. Same with the hairpin. It weighs about fifteen pounds all told, with the necklace and hairpin combined... The old fart who made it apparently never figured out how weight works and how much a human can actually carry. You'd need to be a..." He paused, and looked down at Red XIII. "You'd need to be built like a horse... hmm..." muttered Henschel absently. Red XIII clearly didn't like the way he was being looked at.
If not a horse, maybe a lion? This might be my opportunity...
A brief discussion followed, with Henschel offering the necklace to Red XIII as a test run of his product. While he tried to be generous - he secretly just wanted to get rid of the thing at some sort of profit as well as secretly gather intel on it - eventually they decided on ten thousand Gil for both the item and the fitting. When asked what to call it, Henschel threw out the idea of "Limited Moon" - he just thought it sounded cool - and so it was agreed on. After a brief fitting Red XIII asked how to use the Limited Moon, but Henschel simply shrugged. He figured Red XIII could figure it out, and at a measly ten grand, just getting rid of it was all he cared about. Red XIII was less than pleased, but he really didn't have any way to argue with a genius like Henschel.
"Hey... Say, old dude?" called Yuffie as she pointed to a strange stone displayed in a glass case in the center of the room. It certainly seemed important, but there was no price listed. "What's this thing and how much would it take for me to get it?" she asked as she poked the display case. "It's shaped funny, but I like that it's shiny... I've never seen anything this kooky!"
"Oh, that? They call it a Keystone..." Henschel explained. As he folded his arms and sized it up, he tried to decide on a price. "When I researched the Limited Moon I found that at the same time. I think it's related to the Ancients... The text mentioned a Temple of the Ancients, but no idea where it'd be. Price? Let's go with a million Gil. I can let it go for right around that price..."
"Oh, hell no!" Yuffie shouted as she pointed menacingly at Henschel. "A million Gil for a pretty rock?! I bet it's not even a materia! That's just... crazy, dude!" she yelled as she flailed her arms. "For a million, it'd better give me something awesome! You know, like eternal life or something?! What kind of kook would buy this garbage?!" Yuffie snarled with a huff.
"Insulting my products?" asked Henschel testily, tapping his foot angrily. "I deal with the highest quality materials, and while I'm not entirely sure what it does, I got a bid for a million from the boss of the Gold Saucer. If you ain't got the cash, get the hell out. I don't need ungrateful punks like you bitching about my merchandise!" Henschel huffed.
"Oh, hell yeah I'm getting out of here!" shrieked Yuffie as she balled her fists and stuck out her tongue. "That's way too much for..." She paused, finally remembering something and tapped her head in frustration. "Aw, crud, I forgot why we came here in the first place... So many goodies I got distracted! You do have some cool stuff..." Yuffie tittered. "We're looking for some prick named Sephiroth, used to be with Shinra, has a huge sword... Any info?"
"If you ain't got money, I ain't interested!" Henschel snapped, infuriating Yuffie. "There was an old Shinra HQ in some town called Nibelheim out west... Go play around there if you want. I hear they're in desperate need of tourists and could use the cash, so you ought to get some info on the cheap. Which, apparently," he said haughtily, "is your budget. Now scram. Oh, and the lion dude owes me ten grand. Pony up, lady."
"Oh, the hell you didn't, you lousy son of a bitch!" Yuffie screeched, stomping towards Henschel with a deranged stare on her face. "No one talks to me like that, you punk! And I never said I'd buy your crap! I'm gonna kick your sorry-" As Barret roughly bonked her on the head and began to drag her out, Yuffie continued to flail and curse the whole way out, attempting to bite Barret and receiving another whack to the head. Red XIII politely apologized, thanked and paid Henschel for the device, and left a very dissatisfied Weapons Seller to ponder what had just happened.
Well, those guys are nuts. Whatever... As long as I get some feedback from my sources out west, I don't care. The folks at Cosmo Canyon and Nibelheim ought to give me some intel as to how the damn thing works, and maybe I can even reverse engineer it. Ten grand for a test run isn't too bad of a profit... That, and no one else would buy it.
Scene Two
The small village of Gongaga was the target of Cloud's team. While it once was much larger, like Corel a violent incident with their reactor destroyed much of their town. At least here, however, Shinra never blamed them for the damage, and thus they were allowed to resume their (heavily altered) lives in their own land after reconstructing their village. Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa were the second group to be deposited in the area, after Cait Sith dropped off the other three. To reach the village, the party had to pass through quite a large expanse of forest. As is to be expected around a defunct reactor there were battles fought against assorted mutants, but elaborating on pounding plants and a few mutated animals would just be overkill. Suffice to say, once they cleared the woodlands they entered a new area with two diverging paths, one leading to a village to the west, and the other towards a huge abandoned building that was presumably the ruined reactor.
"Well, isn't this a conundrum..." Aerith said quietly as she put her hand to her chin and tapped her foot. "We have two ways to go, but splitting three people into two groups is sort of mathematically impossible. Option one: head towards the village in the distance, where we could talk to a bunch of random people. Option two: check out the huge junkyard where Shinra almost certainly has some secrets for us to discover. Given that we're looking for Shinra secrets..."
"And here we run into another, very important problem: it's Aerith's plan..." muttered Tifa softly. Turning a suspicious eye to Aerith, who gave her the usual naughty wink, she hesitantly nodded and threw up her hands. "But as much as I want to bicker about that, she's right," said Tifa with a sigh. "Cloud, Aerith, it looks like Door Number One leads to the reactor... Let's go find out some secrets..."
Shinra's secrets had indeed left a scar behind. The wasteland, a forest of debris and despair, proved thicker than the actual forest they'd passed through to get here. Junk was scattered across several meters of withered soil, seemingly not the remnants of a town but instead random and cobbled together remnants of a Shinra research facility or, more likely, the ruined reactor's outskirts.
"I don't see any secrets," Tifa muttered, "but I do see a ton of junk and some assorted steel that presumably used to be something important." She approached a tower of rubble and poked it with her finger, causing a soda can to fall on her head. Tifa indignantly caught it in mid air, crushed it, and blew it to shreds with her hardened fingers. "Add littering to these punks' laundry list of crimes..." she snarled, wiping the debris from her hands. "But I still don't see any reactor, so we have to be on the fringes still..."
Continuing past the garbage and rubble, the party passed through several rooms and corridors covered in dirt, debris, and dust. The facility had clearly been abandoned for quite some time, as nothing - human or artificial - was found all the way through. There was no sign of any control panels, either. Something had seemingly damaged the facility enough that all that was left were a few spare parts and something in the distance that they assumed was the reactor. After several meters of nothing, they arrived at what appeared to be a laboratory that had a nearly destroyed roof with holes all around the top. The wide open space, once filled with personnel and specialists, now lay dormant. Whatever secrets there seemed to be a long lost memory.
The notable exception was the huge, cobbled together freak awaiting them at the center of the laboratory. It was a bizarre mix of a tank and a triceratops, metal parts cobbled together with biological materials in the form of a sort of centaur with horns and wheels. The Heavy Tank had been a weapon developed here, but when the reactor exploded and fallout occurred the polluted Mako blasted together a research specimen with the Heavy Tank and spliced it into a monster. Quick as a flash the party readied for battle, as Cloud drew his sword and Aerith snapped her staff open. While at first there seemed to be no life in the abomination, the trio assumed nothing and kept their guard up.
"Well, uh... Yeah, and then there's that..." Aerith muttered absently, tapping her staff on her shoulder tentatively. There was no reaction, just a titanic chimera loitering in an abandoned research facility. Whether it was even active seemed up for debate. "Do you think it's just here to look ugly, or did it malfunction or something?" wondered Aerith. "The eyes aren't even lit-" When the Heavy Tank roared to life, Aerith quickly stepped back in shock. "Well, now they are..." she muttered.
A whirlwind of green orbs surrounded Cloud and Tifa as they lifted their summon materia into place. The orbs broke into flames that combined together and the pair slammed their left wrists onto the ground, creating a double layered circle of red and blue runes. From the runes a line of lights began to shine, settling into two pillars of light, one red and one white. From the ruby red column of fire Ifrit emerged, and as the light shattered into snowflakes the white revealed that Shiva had arrived. The two glanced back briefly at their summoners, nodded to each other, and split up on either side of the freak. Ifrit and Shiva clapped their hands together, creating a loud crack as if someone had struck a match - only much louder and with much more light. Colored orbs emerged from between their palms, growing quickly to form large spheres of energy - red and black for Ifrit, and blue and white in Shiva's hands. Before they could do anything further, however, the Heavy Tank charged forward, turned on its wheels, and slammed into them, dispersing their attacks.
As the two Eidolons skidded to a halt on opposite ends of the laboratory, they had seemingly lost much of the energy they were gathering and were struggling to resume their attack. The Tank's claws snapped open to reveal retractable bladed hatches that whirled like buzz saws, scattering them further when the claws began to launch blasts of flame at the Eidolons. While Ifrit and Shiva struggled to evade the blasts, which continued to pepper the laboratory with fire, Cloud lifted his sword to his side and launched himself at the Heavy Tank. Taking either side of the Tank, he and Tifa lunged forward, Tifa's fist hardening and the Buster Sword lifted high. They struck hard, causing pieces of junk to break off the creature and nearly collide with them, thus forcing them to evade the flying debris and slide backwards to a stop.
"Okay, you freak! Let's up the ante!" Cloud snarled as he lifted his left hand, a crackling fire bursting from between his fingers as he slung a wave of flame at the Tank that was quickly repelled by the claws, scattering into rows of energy that Tifa, Aerith, and the Eidolons were forced to dodge. Electricity replaced the heat between Cloud's fingers and he slammed his hand to the ground. A shock wave of lightning spread out in all directions, kicking up debris from the walls and nearly toppling the laboratory's tattered roof, but only barely scratching the Heavy Tank's armor.
"Gee, thanks, Cloud! You're doing just a great job at trying to kill us!" yelled Tifa as she and Aerith narrowly dodged both the shrapnel and the lightning itself. Similarly, Ifrit and Shiva had been distracted in the heat of battle and were knocked off balance, though they quickly recovered. Before they could attack, however, the two claws slammed into their chests and propelled them into the walls, a crushing force holding them tightly in place. "Shiva! Hang in there!" Tifa shrieked, hardening her fist and preparing to charge to Shiva's side. "I'll-"
Furious at his previous mistake, and stressed that the battle was going poorly, Cloud dropped the Buster Sword and clapped his hands together with a loud shout. Flames emerged from his right hand and lightning from his left, a black light coating Cloud's arm as he slammed his palms together. With a furious roar he drew back his left arm and thrust it towards Heavy Tank, and a small flash blinded the rest of the party as the Heavy Tank's head seemed to collapse in on itself and its torso exploded. A huge gust of wind blew everyone to their seats as the inside of the laboratory echoed with a loud blast...
Scene Three
Though it took a minute or so, everything began to clear up and the laboratory fell silent again. Both the party and their Eidolons slowly emerged from the rubble, and they all looked at a now-headless Heavy Tank. Its face was blown open and its horns mauled, a huge chasm dividing its two sides, and it dropped to the floor into two inert pieces that slammed down with significant force. As the smoke cleared, Cloud emerged gripping his left arm, which seemed to be emitting steam. He grit his teeth, suppressed a howl of pain, and dropped to his knees as his arm began to shudder and convulse.
Aerith and Tifa quickly ran to his side, and Aerith examined his arm. The damage had burned a hole in the palm of his glove and ripped open part of his sleeve, the SOLDIER uniform having been torn from glove to forearm and had left a sizzling heat surrounding Cloud's arm. Aerith quickly lifted her hands, a bright glow coating them that she laid on Cloud's wound. As the wound cooled and stitched itself back to normal, Cloud loosed a hard grunt of exertion and grabbed onto his damaged shoulder to assess the damage. Luckily the uniform itself remained intact; the only casualties were the glove and most of the sleeve. Still, the arm itself was badly burned.
"What the devil happened to you, Cloud?!" Aerith screeched as the smoke subsided and Cloud's arm began to sizzle and the burns receded, though his fingers twitched a bit. Seemingly still wounded, Cloud kept flinching for a few seconds and his arm continued to spasm. "What did you do?" she whispered softly as the healing light faded from Cloud's body. "I've never seen anything like that before! What-"
"Materia Fusion..." said Shiva as she approached, shaking out a kink in her leg. Seeing the humans' confusion, the Eidolon sighed and folded her arms with a huff of exertion, her own wounds slowly starting to heal. "He mixed the Bolt and Fire materia at the same time, creating a powerful nuclear reaction. Seems like he did it unconsciously..." she sighed. Lifting an eyebrow at their confusion, she pointed at Cloud's still steaming arm. "It's like what Ifrit and I did back in the desert. Mixing hot and cold air can create a storm or, more simply explained, an explosion, and combining the elements of fire and lightning too strongly did... Well, that." Shiva said plainly. "Try and do that again, and you might lose the arm altogether."
Staggering to his feet, Cloud massaged his still-smoking arm with a light twang of pain. "Well, ain't that peachy! It feels like I nearly blew my arm off! Why the hell would I try it again?" Cloud sighed. He reached down and returned the Buster Sword to its sheath on his back. As it clicked into place, he dusted himself off and lifted his still sizzling gauntlet, the pain finally beginning to fade. "Okay, you guys. Back inside the magic lamp..." he groaned. Shiva and Ifrit glowed brightly before dissolving into light, lights that returned to Cloud's gauntlet and Tifa's bracelet as the materia settled back into place.
"Are you going to be okay?" Tifa pondered cautiously, folding her arms over her chest. "You're awfully winded and your arm looks pretty bad..." she muttered. Receiving a dull grunt in response, she tightened her fingers into a fist and popped Cloud in his non wounded shoulder. "Oh, fine, act tough if that's what makes you feel better. We have to keep moving..." she growled. "Now that there's a big hole in the wall, we may as well go through it..."
They continued past the ruined laboratory through several more rooms before reaching the final chamber. What they assumed was the reactor looked to be in reasonable shape, surprisingly. The large metallic chamber in the center of the room had been scorched and scratched, but otherwise was in decent shape. Before anyone could further inspect it, however, the party was forced to hide in the corners of the room as two figures entered, one in an impeccable black suit and the other in a red dress with high heels.
"I never thought the laboratory's generator could create that big of an explosion..." Scarlet snarled as she stepped into the reactor, high heels clanking against the hard steel floor with a loud clicking noise. Seeing the debris at her feet, she angrily crushed it under her heel and ground it into the floor. "What a mess. Did Hojo rig something before the place was evacuated?" she inquired.
"Unlikely... I think it just collapsed on its own and blew up after a few years of not being maintained..." Tseng sighed, walking behind Scarlet with his long hair fluttering in the wind. Aerith flashed a scowl when she watched him step up next to Scarlet. Seeing her former friend in such low company irked her considerably. "Either way, it isn't like we lost anything important. What about this one? Is it what you were looking for, ma'am?" he asked.
Scarlet input a series of commands into a console. As her digits clicked the keys a sharp snap echoed each time one of her long fingernails hit the keyboard. After a few minutes of searching the system, a hatch opened up in the center of the reactor. In the center of it was a broken summon materia, apparently cracked from the impact the explosion had caused. A tiny crumb dropped to the floor as it came into view, landing on Scarlet's shoe.
"It's trash!" snapped Scarlet angrily. She crushed the crumb beneath her heel and slammed her fists down onto the control panel with a frustrated scream. "It's just some junky summon materia... I need Huge Materia, not this garbage..." she sighed. "I can only hope the other reactors provide something useful... This was a complete waste of my time!"
"Pardon my asking, ma'am..." Tseng spoke quietly, trying not to evoke Scarlet's wrath. He did anyway, and promptly cleared his throat. "What is this Huge Materia you're talking about? I'm not aware of any such materia in Shinra's database..." he wondered.
"Right now, everything is theoretical..." Scarlet growled as she folded her arms with a huff. "With that crazy old bat Hojo gone, we've got a bigger budget to work with... But without the scientist to research the stupid science, we aren't getting very far. And I doubt that dimwit Heidegger could actually use anything we'd come up with anyway!" she cackled. Turning to see Tseng's irritation, she haughtily brushed her hair. "Oh, right, the fool's your boss. I keep forgetting people actually listen to him and take what he says seriously..."
"Regardless, ma'am, if our business is done here we ought to leave..." Tseng growled testily, brushing his own hair from his face. Having his boss insulted left a bad taste in his mouth, but there was nothing he could do about it but take his medicine, though he could bite back a bit. "The helicopter is waiting outside. I'll escort you, but please refrain from any unnecessary comments... It isn't very becoming for an executive of the company to act like that." he sighed, infuriating Scarlet. As she tightened her fist and it began to tremble, Tseng bowed politely to her. "My men have been given their orders. Rest assured that the other matter is in good hands..."
Enraged, Scarlet screeched an expletive and indignantly stormed from the room with Tseng at her side. After several minutes of waiting patiently, Cloud and his friends emerged from hiding and moved to inspect the reactor's materia. It was in a sorry state, and if there was an Eidolon tied to it, there was no way it was still alive. Tifa silently cursed Shinra for killing the Eidolon, while Aerith's attention was focused on Tseng. She narrowed her eyes at the crumb of materia Scarlet had crushed and grit her teeth. She didn't give a damn about anything but her own twisted ego.
He said the others have been given some kind of orders... But what are they? I've got a bad feeling about this... But at least he told her off in the end. That's the only silver lining here, pissing off the wicked witch of the east...
Scene Four
After waiting for about an hour, Cloud and his friends finally exited the ruined reactor. They looked, found no evidence of Scarlet or Tseng, and began to discuss their next move. The reactor was a bust, and all they'd learned was that Materia Fusion nearly blew Cloud to pieces and that Scarlet is indeed a cold-hearted bitch. The discussion turned to their second destination: the village of Gongaga, that lay on the other end of the crossroads where they'd first entered the area. With Door Number Two decided upon, they returned to the crossroads to find two unexpected - and unwelcome - guests, waiting for them.
"What the hell are you two doing here?!" Cloud snarled as he lifted his sword from his back and held it in front of himself in both hands. Opposite his group were the two Turks, Rude and Reno, decked out in their suits and sunglasses. "Every time we come across you jerks, something bad happens!" he snapped. "We cross the damn ocean and we still can't get rid of you?! So, out with it! What are you trying to pull off this time?!"
Seemingly ignoring Cloud entirely, Reno removed his sunglasses and checked his watch. Whatever time it apparently was, it was pissing Cloud and Tifa off as they watched the clock on Reno's wrist tick down. "Yeah, out with it..." taunted Reno, directing a smirk at Rude. "Are you going to be able to go through with the orders, buddy?" he said sarcastically to Rude. "I mean, while it is a tempting target, we are professionals."
"You keep asking the same question and I give the same answer: This is official business..." snapped Rude sternly, glaring from beneath his sunglasses at his fellow Turk. Reno seemed to be, as usual, amused, but Rude remained solemn and angrily folded his arms with a huff. "I'm not like that little idiot wench Elena. I can put my work before my own personal feelings..." he growled.
With a chuckle, Reno sarcastically clapped his hands in applause, confusing Cloud and the others. "Good, good, that's just great..." he muttered darkly, turning to face Tifa with a look she wasn't at all pleased with. "Just 'cause you got the hots for the darling little lady in the sports bra," Reno laughed, setting Tifa off, "as long as you don't have a problem pummeling the snot out of her then that's the end of the argument and I consider it settled."
"Wh-what the hell are you saying, you jackass?!" Tifa snarled, clenching her fists as she flashed a violent glare at Reno. "What did he just say?" she growled angrily, turning her rage to Rude. "If you want to say something to me, say my name! And if you don't say it to my face, I'll rearrange yours!" When Rude simply shrugged, Tifa had to be restrained by Cloud. "Say something to me, you sexist prick or I'm gonna maul you!" she shrieked. "And let me go, damn it!"
"You may be a pretty face, but you've got Elena's temper..." Rude growled, further enraging Tifa. "And isn't it obvious why we're here?" he pondered gruffly. "Why else would the boss send us to this little puddle of crap in the middle of nowhere? I take it you can guess what we're here to retrieve, if you've got as much brains as you do brawn..." Rude grunted, causing Tifa's eye to twitch. "I respect you enough to believe you do."
Tifa's face switched immediately from rage to fear, then back to rage before she flipped Rude off. "Oh, hell no, you are not taking her!" Tifa hissed furiously as she stepped between Aerith and the two Turks. She lifted her fists and hardened them both solid black. "You want Aerith, it'll be over my cold, dead body, punks!" she snarled, lifting her materia bracelet as it began to shimmer. "And you know what? I know someone who would love to see you squirm, and it just so happens that she's about to make an appearance!"
"Why can't you creeps just give up and let Aerith be?!" Cloud snarled as he lifted his ruined sleeve and brandished his materia gauntlet. As he did, he flinched in pain from the still aching injury, but fought the pain and tried to act unhurt. "There isn't a snow ball's chance in hell we're giving her to you! If you want a fight," he growled as his gauntlet began to shine, "We'll give you one!"
From Cloud's gauntlet and Tifa's bracelet, their Eidolons emerged and stood next to their summoners with a grim scowl. As Shiva stretched her leg and Ifrit licked his lips, however, Reno and Rude seemed unimpressed. Though Tifa and Cloud's rage continued to heat up, Reno checked his watch with a sigh. The two Eidolons were equally miffed, but also cautious of the look on Reno's face. The sinister eyes that he now narrowed at the Eidolons could mean nothing but grief and havoc.
"So you brought some friends to the party, how nice..." Reno said with a chuckle. He quickly donned his sunglasses and folded his arms. Turning to Rude, he brashly tapped his foot and tilted his head. "Say, Rude? I'm not a big comic book fan, but what happens when the heroes chicken out and run?" he wondered. "I mean, it probably wouldn't even go to press, right? Bo-ring!"
Her fist clenched tight enough to wrinkle her glove, Tifa furiously balled her fists and stomped her foot. "And that means what, precisely?!" Tifa growled, a low hiss accompanying her words. "What are you two jerks talking about?!" she snarled. "If you want to say something, then just say it!"
"In a four on two fight, we're at a distinct disadvantage..." Rude grunted as he adjusted his sunglasses menacingly. "But if you call yourselves defenders of justice, siccing two summoned beasts on us doesn't reflect well on you..." As Cloud and Tifa's rage intensified, he folded his arms and sneered at the pair. "Can you beat us? Probably. But what would that say about you two? If you guys are afraid to fight us one on one, how good are you, really?"
"Yeah, and that's more or less the situation, folks!" said Reno cheerfully. "You see, we're just lackeys to you, right? Can you honestly be proud of fighting by proxy?" he pondered with a haughty laugh. "So you want to save the Planet, but we're too much to handle? Oh, please. Spare me the humor, guys. Heroes are heroes because they fight guys they can't beat..." he said flatly. "That's the whole point, you know... protect the weak, all that nonsense? You good guys always yap and yap and yap about truth and justice, and all that crap, right? Empty words from a bunch of punks with their heads stuck where the sun don't shine praising themselves!"
Though irritated, Shiva and Ifrit readied for battle. But as they turned to their summoners, a chill ran down their spines. Both of them could see the growing rage in the pair's eyes. "They're baiting you!" Shiva shrieked as she desperately pointed at the two Turks, who seemed to revel in the drama. "Don't fall for it! You-" Cloud and Tifa angrily rushed past their outraged Eidolons and struck at the Turks, sending them flying back towards the reactor, where they landed with a thud, separate from where Aerith stood.
"Get going, Aerith!" Cloud snarled, lifting the Buster Sword menacingly at Reno. When Aerith tilted her head in confusion, Cloud lifted his gauntlet and recalled a quaking mad Ifrit into his summon materia, his arm quaking in pain as he lowered it. A horrified Aerith tried to talk, but Cloud brusqely shushed her. "We'll take care of these two! You get going to the village and hide!" he shouted.
"Are you serious?!" shrieked Aerith as she snapped her staff closed and scowled at him. "Pull your head out from between your legs and think! Shiva's right, they're baiting you!" Aerith snapped as she held her head in her hands. "It's a trap, and you know it! All they're doing is-"
"Go! Now!" Tifa ordered Aerith, stunning her. She too recalled an appalled Shiva into her summon materia and stepped between Aerith and the Turks. "They wanted to bait us, well, it worked!" snapped Tifa as she lifted her fists. "There's not a chance in hell I'll let this sexist prick treat me like I'm just a doll! If he thinks I'm just looks, I'm going to show him he's wrong!" She stared down Rude and cracked her knuckles. "And if he thinks I'm just a pair of breasts in a sports bra, I'm going to break a few of his ribs to prove I'm not!" she snarled as she punctuated her words with a punch.
"Oh, so, you do have some backbone after all?" Reno mocked with a chuckle, turning a nasty glare to Cloud. "Then show me you're serious..." he laughed, replacing his sunglasses. "If you got anything between your legs, time to prove it..." With a snarky smile, he removed the sunglasses again. "Ain't you in charge, Spiky? If I recall, you never even touched me back in Midgar... Care to test your sorry luck again, loser?"
Cloud quietly stepped in front of Aerith and scowled back at her. "Get going. Now..." he growled testily, further angering Aerith. "The only way they're going to get you is if the two of us end up in body bags. You'll be safer in the village... So, wait for us!" Cloud said with a cheeky grin, cooling Aerith down only to rile her up again. "Besides... If we have to protect you here, we can't fight all out... And I intend to show this jerk I've gotten much stronger since then..." he snarled. "This punk isn't better than me!"
"Oh, you two... You two are awful, and you know it!" Aerith screeched as she put her hands on her hips and stuck out her tongue. Still, she flashed a thumbs up. "Fine, have it your way! You guys go ahead and act all macho, then! I'll be waiting for you in Gongaga!" she sighed. With a smile, she turned to leave. "Give them some serious hell!" Aerith snapped. As Aerith ran up the path to the village, Cloud and Tifa put themselves directly in front of the road, blocking the Turks from following her. Reno seemed quite pleased with himself, while Rude's cheeks flushed slightly as Tifa continued to glare at him.
She's beautiful, yeah... but I'm not going to underestimate her...
Scene Five
With Aerith safely inside the village of Gongaga, her two friends squared off against the two elite Shinra agents known as the Turks. Reno, the cocksure slick one, had taunted Cloud into a fight, a replay of their match in Midgar. Rude, the quiet one, angered Tifa to the point where she was ready to take a few of his bodily organs and remove them. Because there was only one route to Gongaga, Cloud and Tifa would have to remain vigilent that neither got past them, and so they had to fight side by side.
"Well, well, well... It worked, huh? Can't believe it. I bet Rude five grand against you caving like that... I hate when he wins a bet!" Reno taunted as he put his sunglasses over his neck and stretched his leg. "Bravado tends to get you killed, kiddos. You want to protect the Ancient, by all means, go ahead!" he laughed as he worked a kink out of his neck. "Besides, that isn't what we're here for..."
Tilting his head in confusion, Cloud angrily tightened his grip on the Buster Sword. "Then what are you here for, jackass?!" he hissed. "There was never a chance in the first place we'd let you take Aerith from us... But if that's not your mission, what is? You jerks are really starting to..." Cloud's eyes opened wide and he grit his teeth hard enough to nearly crack one as the realization struck him. "It's us you're after?!" snarled Cloud. When Reno replied with a smirk, Cloud's anger started to boil over and he began to tremble. "That was the mission Tseng was talking about, then?! You want to take us out?!" he shouted angrily.
As he watched Tifa's blood continue to boil, Rude adjusted his tie and brushed some dust from his suit. "AVALANCHE is a bigger threat to us than the Ancient is. You guys are sticking your noses into too many things you shouldn't be and asking too many questions you aren't supposed to ask..." growled Rude with a grimace. "Eliminate AVALANCHE first, then capture the Ancient. If we tear down the castle's walls first, the prize inside will be ours. And you folks happen to be the ones guarding the castle."
As Tifa gnashed her teeth, she also began to quake with rage. "You jerks want... us?! Then why are you here?!" she snarled, punctuating her words with another punch. "We're in a tiny little hell hole out in the middle of nowhere, so how did you know where to find us?! There's no way you could have..." Her eyes widened and her fists tightened as Tifa put the pieces together. "You... You knew where we would go?!" she gasped. "How?! The only way you could know is if one of us-"
"Told you, yeah... Got it memorized?" mocked Reno as he tapped his head with two fingers. "There's a fly in your soup, and it's been buzzing info our way for quite some time. We knew exactly when and where you'd show up, once you got the information that Sephiroth was headed to Gongaga... and the bait of the Weapons Seller divided you into two groups, easier to manage."
"That lousy little rat..." Cloud snarled, but quickly shook off his doubts and angrily tightened his grip further. "No, I don't believe it! Cait Sith's been with us the whole time! He doesn't have a phone, so there's no way it's him... Did Dio sell us out?! I should have put my sword down his throat when I had the chance, the dirty snake!" In response Reno merely tilted his head mockingly and Cloud began to inch towards him. "Wipe that smirk off of your face..." growled Cloud. "Watching you smile makes my gut ache!"
"He and I'll have a little discussion next time I visit the Saucer..." Tifa growled testily, clenching her fists even tighter and gritting her teeth harder and harder. "But right now? You punks are going down!" Watching Rude's indifference, Tifa furiously charged towards him. "You think I'm pretty?!" she snarled. "Well, I'm pretty vicious too when I put my mind to it!"
Scene Six
The issue had been joined, the gauntlet thrown down. The Turks had somehow received advance notice that the party would be both headed to Gongaga and doing so split up. While at first Cait Sith seemed the culprit, he couldn't hide a cellphone anywhere on his body and hadn't been to a phone booth once, so it wasn't likely he was the culprit. Dio was the more likely suspect, and for his sake he'd better hope he gave it up before Tifa interrogated him.
Cloud lifted his sword up high and swung it at Reno, only for it to be narrowly dodged just as he had in Midgar. Prepared for a follow up, he launched a fireball at Reno that was, again, evaded nimbly. An enraged Cloud released a series of violent slashes, all of which were, again, narrowly dodged. With each consecutive blow, he seemed to come closer and closer, but when Reno palmed a long rod and stabbed his shoulder with it, Cloud was forced to drop his sword and Reno followed up with a kick to his stomach that sent him flying backwards, the Buster Sword coming to rest under Reno's heel.
"You jerk!" snarled Cloud, catching himself and skidding to a halt. "If you think I can't handle you without a sword, you are sadly-" Letting out a howl of pain, Cloud desperately clutched his left shoulder and fell to one knee, a sharp sensation like he was being pricked by hundreds of needles running through his arm. As he recovered, he found that he could barely move his left arm at all. Turning a glare of disgust at Reno, he attempted to rise but again dropped to one knee, not just writhing in pain, but it was as if his body refused to respond at all. "Bastard!" Cloud growled, which was about all he could manage as his whole body convulsed. "What did you do to me?!"
With a grin, Reno lifted up the rod he'd used to attack Cloud, revealing a glowing yellow orb on its tip that crackled with electricity. "Intel is that you have Bolt materia. Consider this Volt materia the flip side of the coin. Rather than strike with lightning, it sends electromagnetic signals through the materia that jumbles your body's nervous system and messes with it something fierce. With this in effect, your body simply won't respond right when you try and get it to work... Got it memorized?" he chuckled, tapping two fingers to his forehead. "Your own body refuses to help you fight..."
While he struggled to move, Cloud more or less forced his body to rise to its feet. As he staggered almost drunkenly, he clenched his fist, only for it to begin to twitch uncontrollably, his fingers wildly flailing in every direction until he managed to again force them into a fist. Even then it quickly loosened again, digits annoyingly wriggling with pain.
Well, crap... No sword, one arm, body won't respond... How can I beat this sucker if I can't even hit him?!
Across the other end of the road Tifa and Rude exchanged blows. Each punch Tifa threw was parried, each kick evaded, and even attempting to use her whole body to strike proved ineffective. After a few misses and several near hits, Tifa lost her composure and hardened her fist as dark as it could go before swinging it hard at Rude's head. Sensing an opportunity Rude ducked to the side and threw a brutal punch to Tifa's midsection that knocked the wind out of her, a second palm strike to the face rocketing her backwards. Though she caught herself and somersaulted backwards, she still clutched her stomach tight and coughed up blood.
Dammit... Well, I got sloppy, and this is what happened. Master Zangan would have scolded me for being so stupid!
After wiping the blood from her mouth Tifa calmed herself down, centered her mind, took a deep breath and began to focus, carefully noting Rude's movements for opportunities and tried to shore up her defenses. Taking great care to note Rude's body movements, she steadily approached and began a concentrated barrage of punches that Rude was only barely able to block. When she hardened her fist and went for the kill, he crossed his arms over his chest and took the blow. Her strike was repelled as if Rude had hardened his own arms, with talent she couldn't match, and she staggered again. This time she dodged Rude's follow-up, as well as the subsequent barrage of punches that he threw with just as much skill as she had.
Realizing she would be unable to outfight him at close range, Tifa pushed off of the ground, skidding to a halt a fair distance away before she cupped her hands to her side. She gathered so much aura into her fingers so that it spilled from her hands, then hurled them forward wrist to wrist in a wide burst of energy that spiraled towards Rude. A look of triumph crossed her face as it fast approached, and he seemingly had no counter or way to dodge.
Got him!
Rude seemed unconcerned, and lifted his left arm in front of him. From his wristwatch a circular barrier of electricity met the Aura Bolt and took it head-on. The barrier held just long enough for Rude to evade the attack and jump to the side. He reared back and threw a brutal punch to Tifa's face. She was forced to take the strike, but managed to harden her face enough to keep her teeth from breaking and jumped back, sliding to a stop several yards away. Gritting her teeth, which were still sore, Tifa spat blood from her mouth and glared at Rude.
Hardening doesn't work, Aura Bolt doesn't work... Damn it! I don't have any other tricks left! Is this jerk going to kick my ass without me hitting him once?!
Tapping his Electro-Mag Rod to his shoulder, Reno mockingly flipped Cloud off. While it enraged him, Cloud was still trying to force his body to move and just barely returned the gesture. Still, the Buster Sword was being held under Reno's heel and his left arm, still damaged from the fight inside the reactor, no longer responded at all. The damage from the Materia Fusion and the Volt materia had rendered it totally inactive.
"Aww, what's the matter, huh? Feeling a bit under the weather?" Reno mocked childishly, putting a hand on his hip. "Not sure how your arm got that screwed up, but it ain't going to be moving for a while. Let me take a crack at what you're thinking, huh? No sword, one arm, body won't respond, how can I beat him without hitting him... That's what you're thinking, right? How accurate am I?" he chuckled. Snarling, Cloud flipped Reno off again with his good arm. "Face the facts, man. You couldn't hit me if you turned into a bolt of lightning." laughed Reno. With a dark chuckle, he shouldered his weapon and began to approach Cloud. "May as well stop your heart and end your suffering..." he sighed with a shrug of his shoulders. "I mean, I'm a nice guy, so I have to show some mercy, right?"
Cloud and Tifa were both in serious trouble. None of Tifa's attacks had worked, and Cloud's left arm hung limply at his side. Their mana had been seriously depleted from continuous attacks and their earlier battle, their bodies ached, and the two Turks approached confidently, totally unscathed, and were prepared to end the fight. With little hope at first, both fighters quickly formulated a plan. They were dangerous, stupid plans, but it was all they could come up with.
"If you think it's over..." Tifa sighed as she clenched her fist as tight as she could, "then think again, punk. I'm going to hit you with a force four hurricane! Then we'll see how strong you really are, see if you can take it instead of just dishing it out! You even got the guts to take it? Or are you the coward?" she growled. Staggering to her feet, she mustered all the willpower she had and hardened her right fist, but this time it began to flash, alternating colors between red, white, and blue instead of turning black, and she began to slowly stagger towards Rude, her body swaying drunkenly as she did so.
"I ain't surrendering to a pile of dirt like you!" Cloud growled, lifting his good hand over his damaged wrist. While Reno seemed amused and continued to approach, Cloud's expression turned into a cocky smirk. This was probably one of the worst ideas he'd ever come up with, but it was all he had left. "You say I can't hit you? I'll take you up on the lightning thing!" he snapped. "I still have one trick left... even if it is a stupid one!"
Rude casually crossed his arms over his chest just as before. Tifa's response was a hard right hook, a strike that blew Rude's sleeves apart and sent him skidding backwards in pain. Since he was staggered, Tifa took the opportunity to lunge forward and plunge her fist into his face, breaking his sunglasses, followed up by a hard kick to his gut that knocked him back several paces. As he staggered back and held his face in pain, Rude turned his furious eyes to a triumphant Tifa as she staggered drunkenly towards him, breathing heavily and weaving back and forth from her exhaustion. Her final gamble seemed to have paid off.
As Reno kept approaching, Cloud struggled and managed to grip his left wrist, sending a jolt of pain through the arm, though he could feel the energy flow from one arm to the other as he did. Reno continued forward, undaunted, until Cloud launched an uppercut that destroyed Reno's sunglasses and knocked him off balance long enough for Cloud to move past him, snatch up his sword and lift it to his shoulder, though with clear discomfort and a haggard breath.
"Well, well, well... Looks like a bolt of lightning to me, man..." Reno laughed as he rose to his feet and wiped a streak of blood from his mouth. "But using your materia to supercharge your body with lightning and hot wire your nervous system must be excruciating..." chuckled Reno. "Bet you that you won't stay conscious much longer, after short circuiting your nervous system like you did... Guess you're right," he laughed. "That was a stupid plan."
With a cocky smirk, Cloud hoisted his sword and pointed it menacingly at Reno. He slowly began to approach, gripping the Buster Sword in one hand, each step a stagger but seemingly confident. For his part, Reno remained insufferably confident. Without saying a word Cloud lifted his blade up to swing, dropped it, and fell flat on his face to the ground, convulsing wildly as Reno cracked a nasty smirk.
"So you fused your two materia, eh?" Rude pondered as he held his face in his hands. "Hot air with Fire, cool air with Cold, creating an explosion not unlike a hurricane. While it wasn't force four, I must admit..." he growled as he patted the dust from his jacket and spat out a bit of blood to his left side, "that you did do some serious damage. My shades are beyond repair..." snarled Rude. "You lousy little bitch."
"You know, what, jackass? I don't give a damn!" Tifa snarled as she hardened her fist and drew back for another punch. Before she could connect, though, Rude caught her punch and hit her in the gut again, knocking the wind out of her and dropping her to her knees. "S-son... of a..." she gasped. Coughing up blood, she again rose, staggering the whole way. "I'm still not letting you set a finger on-" she rasped, feebly lifting her fists, but her energy was next to zero and they quickly dropped to her sides. Her inexperience with Materia Fusion was just as costly to her mana as it was Cloud's. The situation had gone from dire to worse, with Cloud unconscious and Tifa totally exhausted. Neither of them could put up any more of a fight than they already had. It was over.
"Right-o, dude, it's over! We just hit six o'clock on the dot." Reno laughed as he checked his watch and picked up his weapon, stashing it behind him. "Time's up, Rude. Think we ought to get going, or do you want to try and pinch some cash from her to buy some new shades?" he wondered, shocking Tifa, whose eyes opened as wide as her energy could stretch them. "I know you like the good stuff... How much did the last pair cost?"
"Nah... Forget it..." sighed Rude as he picked up his glasses and gruffly tossed them aside. As he dusted himself off, he checked his own watch as well. "I've still got some from my last bonus. We can head back to HQ and order another pair. No need to steal from a beautiful lady, after all..." With that, the two of them turned and walked away, leaving an unconscious Cloud and a winded Tifa to ponder their experience. While Tifa dropped to her seat, she gave a groan and looked at her sleeping friend with a sigh.
Okay, I don't know what just happened, but... Damn.
"Come here, guys!" came a cheerful voice. Turning her head, Tifa found a very healthy Aerith at the crossroads waving towards her two friends. "Cloud's been in better shape, but I'll get you two patched up in no time!" she said proudly. "Bring Cloud with you, and-" Tifa dropped onto her back, breathing heavily, causing Aerith to rush towards her. "Tifa, are you-" she gasped as she picked up speed.
"You know what, Aerith?" Tifa muttered with a pained sigh. While she was still conscious and able to move (somewhat), her right glove had been completely shredded, her knuckles were bloody, and she was drenched in sweat. "Just give me a minute, 'kay? I'm bloody tired..." she moaned before she shut her eyes and fell unconscious. As Aerith quickly dashed to her side and prepared to heal her, Tifa's thoughts wandered aimlessly.
They had us dead to rights... So, why...? Why didn't they... Ugh... Screw it...
Scene Seven
You made it here, huh? He always said he wanted to show you his home town, remember?
Oh, stuff it... Whatever you're babbling about, just shut the-
"Cloud... Are you awake yet?"
"... up?" gasped Cloud as his eyes snapped open, his vision blurred. Slowly his eyes refocused and locked on to Aerith's smiling face, with a bandaged Tifa right behind her. As he blinked his eyes, he tried to remember what happened. "What happened to those two pricks?" he wondered aloud, turning his eyes to Aerith. "I see you, so I'm guessing Tifa drove them off?" Before he could rise, a sharp pain pulsed in his left arm and he clutched it as he fell back down.
"Don't move," admonished Aerith quietly, laying a hand to his forehead. "You fried your nerves with whatever you did back there, plus you burned your whole arm back at the reactor. You've been resting overnight, here in Gongaga..." Flashing a smirk, she sent a charge of healing energy into Cloud's body that reverberated throughout the whole of it, a cooling sensation that tingled, and in a good way. "I hear you gave 'em hell for me. Thanks!" she beamed with a wide smile.
"Yeah, no sweat..." Cloud groaned as he put a hand to his aching head. "But next time I see that jerk off, I'm going to blow his damn head off..." he sighed. "Assuming I can hit the bastard... I guess my plan... kind of, sort of worked... Ouch... Ow! Mother-" Tifa clapped her hand over Cloud's mouth, silencing him. As he turned his head to see her, Cloud scowled at her. "Hey, you do that to Barret and Yuffie, not me..." he snapped with a laugh. Tifa giggled and stuck her tongue out.
"While you've been doing whatever it was you were doing while you were sleeping," Tifa sighed, "I've been gathering information from the townspeople. About all I got is that there was a reactor explosion three years ago that nuked the original town, so they had to rebuild up in the woods. At least this time Shinra didn't go homicidal."
"Just great... Another casualty of Shinra..." muttered Cloud as he slowly lifted himself off his back. "Did you learn anything else?" he wondered. "No one heard anything about Sephiroth? Or was that jerk Dio messing with us with that, too?" Cloud snarled, gripping his head in his hand. "I'm going to rip him a new one next time I see him..."
"Sorry, but I came up empty..." Tifa said quietly. "And I get first dibs!" Putting a finger to her mouth, she seemed to suddenly remember something. "But there's a family whose son was in SOLDIER..." Aerith froze solid as stone when she heard Tifa's words, a look of horror crossing her face. "First Class, too, like you. They might know something. They live over in the southeast part of Gongaga... The guy's name was-"
"-Let me go!" Aerith interrupted, surprising both her friends. Seeing the confusion on their faces, she quickly lifted her hands in self defense. "You guys need some serious rest, right? It's time for me to step in!" she said, pounding her chest proudly. "Tifa's done enough, Cloud's still injured, so let me go alone!" Aerith said confidently. With her friends seemingly not convinced, Aerith sighed and bowed her head. "Consider this me calling in a favor, 'kay?" said Aerith sadly. "I've got my reasons, but I don't want you guys to... well..." She lifted a sad face to Cloud and Tifa. "Let me go. Alone. Then we'll call it even for me healing you two..."
While Cloud and Tifa exchanged confused glances, they found they couldn't argue against her. Not only was this a personal request, if this was one of her plans, getting involved would only wreak more havoc for the both of them. So, reluctantly, they agreed and Aerith left the Inn for the Fair household. Though she hesitated, she rapped on the door sharply, and when the home owners answered, she quickly shushed them with one finger.
"Don't tell my friends what I'm about to say, please?" Aerith asked with a courteous bow. "I've got a reason not to get them involved, so..." She sighed and switched her expression to a beaming smile. "Let's talk about Zack, 'kay?" she tittered. Seeing their surprise, Aerith shushed them again. "It's... it's a long story, and I know you won't want to hear the end of it, but... I met him in Midgar a few years ago. And then we..."
Scene Eight
Cloud and his friends remained in Gongaga for the rest of the day, while Cloud recovered and Aerith spoke with the ex-SOLDIER's family. When she returned to the Inn and was questioned, Aerith laughed it off by saying she'd heard a funny story about their son, but didn't want to embarrass him by talking about it while her friends were with here. Though still suspicious, the duo let the excuse go and the trio left Gongaga together. Once they fought their way through the forest again - Tifa took out her aggression on the local monsters - everyone reunited at the buggy, which Cait Sith had dutifully guarded.
When everyone returned together, they discussed what they'd learned from their travels and Cait Sith complained of being bored (Tifa whacked him for it. She wasn't in the mood). Red XIII displayed his new Limited Moon barrette, but when pressed on how to use it he quickly clammed up and insisted that he wanted to keep it to himself. He didn't want to admit to the others that he had no idea how to use it either. Yuffie's team recounted the rest of the experience at Henschel's, ending in Yuffie's failed negotiation for the Keystone, during which she cursed the Weapon Seller out a few times before Tifa threatened her to make her stop.
"Yeah, yeah... So then there was that..." Yuffie muttered angrily as she scratched her noggin, which was still sore from Barret's pounding. A sudden thought coming to her, Yuffie's face quickly lit up. "He did give us a clue, actually! It was right before he threw us out, so I kind of forgot about it... There's some Shinra base in a town called Nibelheim that-" Seeing Cloud and Tifa's icy cold expressions, Yuffie tilted her head in confusion. "Did I say something funny? I know it's a funky name, but-"
"That's where we came from!" gasped Tifa. Clutching her hands to her heart, she closed her eyes tight and prayed. The last time she was there, she came out totally unconscious and nearly dead. "And it's where we met Sephiroth... Where everything happened before. We haven't been back since, but... Cloud... Do you really think we should...?" she pondered quietly. "I mean, I'm good with it, but I want to know what you think."
After a brief pause to compose himself, Cloud managed to nod his head. "It's been five years... But now that I think about it, that's the perfect place for him to hide out. Whatever happened back then, there's probably an answer in the Shinra Mansion. The last time I was there, I-" He suddenly gripped his head and gave a sharp cry, but to his friends' relief, he quickly shook it off. "It's Ground Zero for the Nibelheim Incident. We have to go."
Reluctantly, Tifa gave in and nodded. Suddenly remembering something, her head snapped up to meet Cloud's, who also sat up straight and stared at her. "What the Turks said!" she gasped, Cloud's memory also returning. "They said that they knew we were going to Gongaga! That means there might be a spy in our midst!"
All eyes turned to Yuffie, who angrily flipped the team off. "Oh, bite me!" she yowled. "If I was going to betray you, it'd be before we set out on the cab ride from hell! I would have been out of there before that! Um... well, theoretically at least. Not saying I really did. But, hey! I ain't no snitch! Must be that stupid cat!" she snarled, glaring at Cait Sith. "I still don't trust him, and you should trust him less than me!"
Before the rest of the party could react, Cloud shook his head. "No, it has to be Dio. He's the one who directed us to Gongaga, and his clue to check out the Weapons Seller split us in half so we could be more easily managed!" he snarled as he punctuated his statement by punching his hand, which caused him to flinch with pain. "What confuses me is why the Turks left. We were at their mercy! So, why the hell..."
"Hey, what if they had orders to withdraw?" Cait Sith proposed. "Maybe they didn't know when the other half of us would come back, so it was just a test run or something?" he wondered. "If they sent two guys against all of us, we'd slaughter 'em. So, maybe they wanted to test the waters, do you think? I think it. I mean, that's the only logical conclusion, right? No reason why they'd pull back if they didn't have-"
"Orders?!" snarled Barret testilly, surprising Cait Sith and causing the cat to yowl as Barret took him by the neck and began to throttle him. "Just how the hell would you know it unless you set it up?! I still don't trust you, you little punk! Come on, Cloud! Give me one good reason I shouldn't skin him right here and now!" he growled. "Five minutes with this rat, and I'll have him squealing whatever secrets he's trying to keep from us!"
"That's enough, Barret!" growled Tifa as she pulled the two apart, stunning Barret silent. "All the evidence points to Dio, and even though I don't trust him a hundred percent, he pulled our butts out of the fire back in the desert prison. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt..." As Cait Sith wiped his brow, Tifa's glare quickly moistened it again. "But if he is the culprit, I'm going to make him wish he was never born. And by the time I'd be done - theoretically, of course, I don't want to make you feel nervous - we'd have a new cat skin rug for the buggy. We clear, kitty cat?" she giggled darkly.
Swallowing hard, Cait Sith broke into a full military salute as he sweated profusely. "I promise one hundred percent that you'll never see me betray you! I've said before that I want to see my prediction through, and I intend to do so without causing any further harm!" he babbled. "Any preconceptions you may have are sorely mistaken! I'm in for the long haul!"
There. I said you'd never see it... coming.
"Whatever..." Cloud sighed as he nursed his ever-present migraine. The whole business in Gongaga, while it left a bad taste in his mouth, was secondary to reaching Nibelheim. "Everyone back in the buggy, and we'll head back home for a bit. Besides..." he muttered darkly, his eyes turning to the sky. "I want to know what it's like after the whole Sephiroth business. Maybe there were some survivors we could talk to. Alright... Nibelheim, it is," he resolved. "But this is going to be a real pain in the ass..."
Author's Notes
Okay, so maybe I went a bit overboard on the fights here, so sue me. I had a ton of fun writing them, and I also tried to temper it a bit so that the Heavy Tank wasn't powerful enough to defeat the team, just strong enough to pressure them. The whole business with the claws on that thing was based off of a Digimon called Megadramon from the titular series, a large biomechanical dragon with claws that opened like Barret's hatches on his new Gun-arm and launched fire balls. It came to me spur of the moment, so as to make it more believable (relatively) that some random tank could tangle with two Eidolons at once, since they had to fight the tank and both retractable (dunno if I explained that in the fic, they detach like the DNA double helix in the original but here it's more like a long, thick cord) claws at the same time. After the battle with the Sand Worm was neutered, I was determined to have some fun at some point. And you know what? I had fun with it. So, uh... Yeah. There it is.
I've put a lot of thought into the Turks battles, and they were what I wanted to define this chapter. The same basic idea was there that Cloud would short circuit himself to hit Reno and that Tifa would use Materia Fusion to take out Rude. What I didn't anticipate was Cloud using Materia Fusion against the Heavy Tank. It sort of came to me when I wrote the original notes, but it turned out a lot different than what I was expecting. The damage to his arm was based partially off Hiei's Dragon of the Darkness Flame from Yu Yu Hakusho, where he used a massive amount of power that fried his arm. Back in the last chapter, Tifa's use of Materia Fusion was the power up I alluded to. Cloud's use just sort of happened. I thought it was cool though.
Next is the Weapons Seller, all totally made up. Partially it was to rationalize Cloud and company splitting up and for receiving the clue to Nibelheim, but Red XIII's new weapon came out of left field for me while I was writing the notes. In the game itself, he equips hairpins and assorted "weapons" like them, and I wanted to include that in some fashion. Its name, as fans know, is Red XIII's ultimate weapon from FFVII. I considered creating something original, but "Limited Moon" was cool enough that I just went with it. Another reason I added the Limited Moon was to make Red XIII's trip through Cosmo Canyon just a tiny bit more reasonable. You'll see what I'm talking about later, but it also references his in-game Limit Breaks as well. It also pops up again in the latter part of Cosmo Canyon in a slightly different way, just as a sort of cameo...
The Weapons Seller's totally fictional name, Henschel, is a classic German railroad, locomotive, and rolling stock manufacturer. They supplied tanks and planes to the Germans during WWII. At first I thought I was avoiding using a military contractor, and that I was using a civilian company. Turns out I was wrong, so... crud. But it sounded cool so I went with it. No offense intended to anyone as to using a German manufacturer of weapons... I just didn't notice the other half of the wikipedia entry and sort of boxed myself in before I checked on it again.
Next is, of course, Cosmo Canyon. As of 10/22/22, when I first finished the chapter, I hadn't yet conceived of Bound for Midgar. So originally Cloud's experiment with Materia Fusion was a total fluke. In the final chapter of Bound for Midgar, Zangan uses a similar technique. That came totally out of left field for me, so I had to revise this section to address it. The incident here inspired Bound for Midgar's Final Heaven scene. I've already got an idea on how Tifa will use it eventually, but that comes much later, further ahead than "The World Beyond" second part of the fic it even extends to. When we get to "Destruction or Deliverance", part three of the fic, it'll come back up again.
And Tifa fans, uh... sorry. I kind of made her a bit brutish in this chapter too. Totally unintentional, it just sort of happened. My goal is to show her softer side when we reach Nibelheim and from then on through the fic, especially in the ordeal with Cloud in Mideel, but Rude having the hots for her seemed to demand a heated response...
Last note: It was Ester's clue to go to the Weapons Seller. Tiny oversight, caught it when I finished the damn thing, so... Let's go with he suggested it to her.