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Uh…yah. Again I'm sorry for being so late with this newest chapter. I've been busy with work, and when I haven't been working, I've been stuck in front of my Xbox playing Morrowind. (Great game!)
Anyway, here's chapter 13.
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Highwind, seriously scarred through its many battles and renovations didn't start right away. It took Cid a few minutes of curses, a pack of cigarettes, and a new sparkplug to get it going. When it finally started, Highwind roared into the air much faster then anyone expected, even Cid. After we had reached the height of the clouds, we all looked out into the distance expecting the glaciers of the north to start to appear.
Whenever I was in Highwind, for some odd reason, the emotions of fear and sadness didn't seem to exist. Inside this gray machine, even when the white materia originally summoned and it was tossed into the air like a rag doll, I had not felt either emotion. Only anticipation, exhilaration…impatience.
I'd like to say that this was the first time that that had changed, and that my mind was on Tifa, who I knew was on board but I had yet to find. But it wasn't. My mind was eagerly waiting to see Aerieth again and there was no room at the moment for any thought of Tifa's feelings.
I remember when we had gone out on our one official date back at Gold Saucer. She was so at ease—almost playful, which was odd for a girl her age. I knew that she was older then me by almost a year, but you wouldn't know it. Maybe that's why I was so attracted to her.
What had she ever seen in me? This thought had crossed my mind several times. It's difficult to know for sure. First of all, I'm not a girl, so I don't know what girls are attracted to exactly. I've always heard the "tall, dark, and handsome" was what they liked, and that being strong wasn't bad either. Looking at myself, I am not particularly tall, I don't have dark hair nor am really all too good looking, though I'm not ugly…I guess I am pretty strong. Was that it? No…Aerieth wasn't like that. She saw other things. Loyalty, friendship, caring, kindness…these were all words I associated with her, and during our brief time together I too tried to reflect these same characteristics when I was around her. I wonder if that is what did it? My effort to live up to her. No one else seemed to do that around here.
My thoughts were cut off at that point though. Do to Cid's many renovations and improvements to Highwind, we had already, in the space of only about twenty minutes, reached the large crater that opened into the Final Dungeon. Twenty minutes! Most airships wouldn't have made it in two hours! I turned to Cid to ask him what the heck he had done to the engines, but I stopped myself. Knowing Cid, he probably either would have laughed at me calling me an idiot, or he would have gone on to explain, in great detail, everything he had done to the engines. He took great pride in the machines he operated. That's why he was such an awesome pilot.
Without anyone saying anything, everyone except Cid moved to the lower deck to disembark. Cid stayed at the controls to ensure a safe landing. I saw Barrett cock his Pile Bunker gun-arm and give a small little smile. Barrett was as tough as nails, and he always relished in blowing away stuff. Deep down everyone knew he had a heart of gold, especially towards his long time friend Tifa, but at least on the outside, he was a crazed pyro.
We all crowded into the lower deck and watched as the ground came slowly towards us, until about twenty feet from the ground it suddenly stopped coming up at us, and we knew that Cid had secured the ship. We then threw out lines attached to small anchors to make sure that Highwind wouldn't drift anywhere while we descended. There were only three people absent at this time: Vincent, because he had never showed up, Yuffie, because she was inside holding her mouth to a barf bag, and Tifa, who still refused to have anything to do with me.
Was she waiting for me to do something? Was she waiting for me to say I'm sorry?
Maybe she is. But I already said I'm sorry. On top of that she had said 'Your Welcome' by giving me a black eye (which I still had). Given these two things I felt no obligation to go and see her.
Everyone worked to secure the ship. We all gave small talk to each other as we worked. Cait Sith explained that for the first couple of days he basically had used his robot to clear rubble and stuff. Then he had used it to help build houses for people who had lost them. But he soon realized that though these people needed houses over their heads, what they really needed was comfort. Many of these people had lost their whole livelihoods due to the Black materia's horrible power, and no house made of wood or metal or concrete could replace that. And so, the man who controlled Cait Sith, who to this day still insists on remaining anonymous put Cait Sith away deep in some corner of Midgar and went to work aiding and comforting the people of Midgar using his own hands. "In fact," he said, "if it wasn't for Red XIII's call the other day, I might have never even looked at Cait Sith again. I had packed him up really well, since I figured I would never need him again. Oh well…" he sighed, and we all smiled a little.
With Highwind secure, Cid joined us accompanied by Yuffie (who looked very pale), and an emotionless Tifa standing behind them. Nobody said a word to her, or to me about her. Everyone was just acting normal, as if it had never happened. Except of course they all knew the situation Tifa and I were in, and I was convinced they were just acting.
"So who's going down first?" Cait Sith said. "It can't be me," Barrett said. "I have to carry Red XIII down, and I want somebody at the bottom holding the ladder secure when I do it. Believe me, it isn't easy climbing down a ladder with one arm holding a dog and the other holding to a rope that looks like it's gonna break." I noticed that Red XIII had kind of glared when Barrett had called him a dog.
"I'll do it," I said. In all honesty I think they had kind of expected me to go down first. Maybe it was the whole leader thing…I don't know. I lifted one leg over the edge and then carefully let myself down one wobbly rung at a time.
I scaled the twenty feet with ease, and then upon reaching the bottom instinctively reached for my sword. The enemies in and around the Final Dungeon are all very strong and often strike out without notice. To my relief, none were around that I saw. I grabbed the rope and yelled for the others to follow. Yuffie came down next, eager to get to ground. Then Cid, followed by Cait Sith. Then came Barrett and Red XIII, and then Tifa. As she reached the final rung, I looked up, and her eyes met mine for an instant as she jumped from the last rung. They were still screaming. I knew I needed to talk to her and set things right, but I also knew that I had basically done that the night before, so I felt no obligation to start a conversation with her. It was her move next, not mine. Our eyes unlocked as she landed on the ground.
As before, the only entry into the Final Dungeon was by sliding down a treacherous slope. Except this time the rocks were smoother. My guess was that when the white materia left was summoned it blasted out most of the loose and jagged rocks, leaving only smooth rocks that were well seated into the ground. The downside to this was that there was little to hold onto. When I moved to slide down the edge I quickly found myself on my back and sliding faster and faster with nothing to slow me down…right up until I landed on the back of something hard and warm.
"Oh &$%#..." I said. I grabbed my sword and with the speed and control of a professional chef, drove my sword into the dragon that I had landed on. It keeled over with a cry of pain, twitched a few times, and then lay still. "Come on guys! I got a nice cushion for you guys to break your fall!" I pulled out my bloody sword and saw Red XIII sliding down very quickly. There was a mixed expression of glee and utter terror in his face. Then he landed on the dragon's back with a thud, breathed a sigh of relief, then he too called down for the others. One by one they all came down the deceptively slippery slope.
I looked at the path before us. This part of the path was strangely similar to what it had been before. The path was made of rocks jutting out of the side of the crater in a loose sort of helical path. It was not particularly difficult to traverse, but you always had to be careful not to put too many people on a single rock, or it might fall out underneath you. I went ahead of the others along with Yuffie. I chose her to come with me on this first part because not only were we both light in comparison to the others, we were also probably the quickest of our group, meaning if any rocks fell out underneath us, we would have the best chance of jumping to safety. As it turned out, this was an unnecessary precaution. All the rocks seemed much stronger and more well rooted into the cliff then before, which again seemed a little odd, but we didn't really care.
None of us said very much on our way down. We were all wary of our danger. The first group of enemies that we ran into were a pair of gray creatures which we had named "Scissors," because of their long cutting arms. We had learned through experience that they were very weak yet strangely deadly. If their cutting arms found your neck (and they often did because of their amazing skill and control), it was pretty much game over. Yuffie and I, since we were the ones that found them, quickly brought our weapons in preparation for a fight. The Scissors saw us and immediately attacked Yuffie. Both of them swung at her, trying to find her neck, but her skills as a martial artist made it extremely easy for her to dodge her attacks. In fact, she was the only one (along with Cait Sith, who had no jugular vein they could sever) who had not at least once fallen victim to that particular attack. Upon dodging both of their attacks, she let loose her Conformer and ripped off one of their heads in a single stroke. The other one hesitated for a moment, looking at his fallen comrade, and I seized the opportunity by running my Ultima Sword through his back. He writhed in pain but quickly lie still. I kicked him off of my sword and looked down at his dead body. I then looked at Yuffie who was smiling widely. I then noticed that her hand was stroking her Conformer. I smiled, but couldn't hide my expression of 'That is really freaking weird, Yuffie…'
Despite the look I gave her, she kept right on stroking her Conformer.
With the first part of the dungeon cleared by Yuffie and myself, we waited for the rest to show up. Soon they all did, and we moved onto the next portion of the dungeon.