Tifa
screamed as the dragon raked its claws across her chest. She fell to
the ground, moaning in pain. Red XIII lunged at the dragon–which
was four times larger than himself.
"I'll kill you!" he
snarled. Their attacks clashed and canceled one another out. The
dragon roared again, closing its jaws on Red XIII. With a toss of its
head it sent the animal flying across the room. He slammed into the
wall, slid down to the floor and didn't move.
"Nanaki!" Tifa
screamed. Her wounds opened wider, and she groaned, tears leaking
from her eyes. The dragon squealed, storming forward, ducking its
head to Tifa's level. She tried to pull away but it advanced,
opening its mouth to swallow her.
Suddenly, the figure that had
been watching from the darkness lunged forward with a huge sword. It
raised the crystal-lined weapon above its head and sliced the
dragon's neck open. With a cry, it fell over dead. Tifa blinked
dazedly, staring up at the person clipping the sword onto their
back.
"Cloud...?" she whispered. The person knelt beside her,
sitting her up and placing something to her lips.
"Drink this,"
they whispered.
"Who...?" Tifa tried, but they shushed her and
held up the bottle to her lips again.
"Just drink."
Tifa
started to drink what turned out to be an X- potion, but pulled her
lips away from the bottle and looked up at him.
"Wutai..."
she croaked.
"You remember?" his green eyes widened. She
nodded.
"Materia..."
He shook his head. "Drink this,
then I'll explain everything."
Tifa hesitated, then gulped
down the rest of the potion. Her wounds quickly disappeared and her
strength returned.
He helped her sit up. "My name's–"
"Zeo,"
Tifa completed. The man blinked at her.
"You remember that
much!"
"I remember enough."
Zeo nodded then handed her
something. "These yours?"
He was holding out her Premium Heart
gloves. She took them.
"Where's my companion?"
"I was
going to help him now," Zeo stood, helping Tifa to her feet. She
slipped her gloves on, glaring at him.
"I should kill you for
bringing us here."
"I just saved you; that doesn't win your
trust?"
"Not entirely."
Zeo grinned at her, then went to
help Red XIII.
"I suppose it's logical for you to be mad at me
after that episode," he said, pulling a phoenix down out of a pouch
on his belt. He rubbed the dark red feather over Nanaki's forehead
and the creature opened his unscarred eye.
"What...?"
"Drink
this," Zeo held another X-potion out to him. He sniffed at it,
glanced at Tifa–who nodded–and he lapped it up. Panting heavily,
the orange-red animal got shakily to his feet.
"Who are you?"
he growled weakly.
The white-haired youth bowed, "Zeo,
first-class SOLDIER at your service."
"This is the one that
kidnaped us," Tifa motioned to him.
"You!" Red snarled, his
muscles suddenly bulging as his strength rushed back into him.
"He's
going to help us," Tifa continued, then glanced at Zeo. "Right?"
"I
don't justify the killing of innocent people," he shrugged, "so,
yeah. I might as well."
"Why do you have Cloud's sword,
if you don't mind my asking?" Red continued to growl.
"Who's
sword?" Zeo blinked. "Hojo gave this to me as a reward for your
capture."
"That sword belongs to Cloud; the blond one with the
mako eyes," Tifa explained.
"Oh," he blinked again. "I'll
give it to him when I see him. By the way, who's is this?"
Zeo
held up a silver ninja star, its center wrapped with brown leather,
the four sickle blades glinting in the faded purple light.
"Yuffie's
Conformer," Red XIII answered. Zeo tucked the weapon into his belt
and walked to the door.
"If I'm correct, your friends went
down to the basement to find their materias and armors. Hojo wanted
to clone all of your materias, seeing you guys had some really rare
ones."
"I need my clip back," Nanaki snarled.
"They
equipped all of your weapons onto other monsters," Zeo told him.
The door whooshed open, and he glanced up and down the
hallway.
"Wonderful," Tifa replied dryly.
"Follow me,"
Zeo stepped out into the dark hall. She glared at his back, but
followed. Red slipped out of the room behind her, and the three of
them tip toed down the hall, toward the elevator. Zeo pulled a key
card out from his pouch and slid it through the lock on the elevator.
The doors slid open and the three of them went inside.
"What
floor are we on?" Red blinked.
"Sixty-seventh," Zeo
replied.
"And we have to get to the basement!"
Zeo nodded.
Red XIII rolled his one yellow eye.
"Won't other Shin-Ra
employees be getting on and off this elevator?" Tifa looked at the
white-haired boy. He thought about this for a moment, then
nodded.
"You two have to act as my prisoners."
"I hate
this," Red XIII growled.
"He's right though," Tifa
shrugged. Red grumbled some more, but stepped behind Zeo and lay
down. Tifa put her hands together behind her back and stood closer to
him.
"Here they are!" Yuffie chirped. Cloud looked down
the hallway at her as she peered into the barred window. Cid glanced
in over her shoulder.
"They're in here," he confirmed.
"Get
away from the door," Cloud walked over to them.
"Why?"
Yuffie wailed.
"Because this is our materia, not yours."
"Aw,
phooey," she pouted. Barret joined Cloud at the door, and Cait
Sith, Cid, and Vincent held Yuffie back by the arms as she thrashed
and complained. Barret shot the lock off the metal door and Cloud
shoved it inward with his shoulder. The room opened up into a dark
laboratory, lined with almost two hundred small mako-compacting
incubators. Tubes and wires littered the cold marble floor, running
back and forth in between the materia producers. Up at the back of
the room were three large test tubes, displaying a red materia, a
green materia, and a yellow materia: the three Master Materias.
The
team went around, gathering the orbs and putting them in their
pockets–most of their armors and weapons were still missing. Two
sets were left over: Tifa and Nanaki's. Yuffie was released on the
bargain that she wouldn't take every single materia for
herself...yet. Cloud gathered the two extra sets and put them in his
pouch. As he did this, a creaking sound started coming from behind
him. He glanced over his shoulder and was flung backward. He slammed
into the wall, crying out in surprise and pain. Everyone turned to
look at what had attacked him, and a large metal shape clunked into
view.
It had eight spindly wire legs and a round body lined with
crystal. Atop its back was Vincent's Death Penalty, and on its
underside, Cid's Venus Gospel.
"Holy shit!" Cid
blinked.
"Lucretia..." Vincent hissed and took a battle
stance.
"Whoa...!" Yuffie leaned back to get a good look at
it.
"You alright?" Cait Sith helped Cloud to his feet. He
nodded and blinked to adjust his vision. When he saw the
spider-thing, he turned to Cid, Vincent, and Yuffie.
"Can you
guys handle this alone?"
"Our materia will be enough,"
Vincent replied sharply.
"You go on ahead and find your
girl," Cid winked at Cloud, then charged up for a summon.
"Cait
Sith, Barret, you two search for anymore weapons or armors," Cloud
ordered. "I'll look for Tifa...then Hojo."
The three of them
ran out of the room. Yuffie blinked, looking puzzled.
"Um, what
am I supposed to do?"
"Shut up and help us!" Cid snarled and
disappeared; an aged man in white and gold robes appeared before the
metal monster. He raised his mage staff high into the air, and a
thunderbolt came from the sky, striking the creature. It shrieked and
let loose a barrage of bullets from the Death Penalty. They all
rolled out of the way, Cid readying to attack again.
"Hey! I
already got shot once today!" Yuffie shouted angrily, lunging
forward. She threw a flying kick that dazed the creature and Cid hit
it with the Ramuh summon again. Vincent closed his eyes and struck
the metal spider with a Bolt3 spell. It jumped forward, jabbed the
Venus Gospel, and grabbed the dark-haired man in one huge metal claw.
Cid stumbled from the lance's strike and Vincent cried out as he
was thrown into the air.
"Vince!" Yuffie hollered, throwing a
shield spell at him. It caught him just before he slammed into the
ground and reduced the blow. However, he still shook his head dazedly
as he struggled to his feet. His eyes suddenly flared, a yellow
energy surrounding him.
"I am not beat yet!" he howled, using
his Limit Break to transform into the black Chaos monster.
Cid
winced next to him. "Yeesh, he's pissed."
"Go Vincent,
go!" Yuffie whooped. The black demon roared, storming forward to
meet the metal contraption head-on. Cid summoned Ramuh once more, and
Yuffie charged up for her All-Creation strike.
"If it's not
down after this..." Cid shook his head as he came back from the
summon.
"It'd better die!" Yuffie yelled and threw her
energy blast from the planet. Vincent roared, swinging wildly at the
spider-thing. Its metal frame began to shudder, and the Death Penalty
clattered off the body and hit the floor, going off with one loud
report.
