Katrina
was working Vincent over, and Zeo and Quindon were glaring at one
another, both severely wounded. Tifa watched helplessly as 'Cloud'
held her back from the fight. Vincent fired the gun again but it
clicked.
"Out of bullets?" Yuffie's clone asked slyly.
"I'll
kill you without the gun," Vincent growled, tossing the Death
Penalty away and gathering magic for a spell. Katrina grinned then
leapt up and Vincent followed her figure with his eyes. She landed
behind him with a grunt and Cait Sith's duplicate suddenly threw
Zeo at her. The white-haired boy tripped over the crouched girl,
dropping his weapon as Vincent turned and cast the spell. Katrina
rolled away, letting Zeo take the full force of the Fire3 spell. He
screamed in pain.
Tifa made a strangled cry in her throat. Damien
laughed, lowering his lips to her ear.
"You humans are all the
same–slow and stupid."
Tifa growled, abruptly throwing herself
backward into his waist. Not expecting this, Damien stumbled and
released Tifa so he could balance himself. She ran toward Zeo and
Vincent, screaming.
"Zeo! Vincent! They're crazy! They killed
Hojo!"
"What!" they both looked up at her voice. Tifa ran
faster, shivering as a dark shadow suddenly passed over her head.
When she glanced up, it was gone. Zeo gave a scream and Tifa shot her
gaze back to the battlefield. She stopped dead.
"I told you,
Tifa," Damien smiled cruelly, lifting Zeo up by his neck.
"Let
him go!" she shrieked.
He chuckled, shaking his head: "I
told you humans were slow...now I'll prove they're
stupid."
Vincent cast a Bolt3 spell at Damien. It neutralized
harmlessly against his silver plate armor, which sparked and then
dulled. Damien glanced at Vincent and the red-cloaked man choked on a
sudden gush of blood that had welled up in his throat. Katrina and
Quindon stepped aside and watched silently.
Tifa screamed as
Vincent fell to his knees, clutching at his neck as it swelled to
almost twice its normal size. Blood dribbled from his mouth in a dark
stream. His eyes bulged out of their sockets as he struggled to
breathe.
"Vincent, no!" Tifa wailed, gathering energy for a
cure spell. There was a crunch and Zeo screamed in pain again. Tifa
looked over to see Damien pulling something from the small of Zeo's
back. It was long and curved, jagged protrusions running along its
sides. Damien yanked and Zeo fell to the floor, groaning
incoherently. Tifa lost her concentration as she recognized the
dripping thing in his hand. She fell to her knees as Vincent's body
finally collapsed. Tears flooded her eyes and she crawled over to
Damien's feet and lifted Zeo's head onto hr lap.
"I'm
sorry..." she whispered, wincing as she looked at the gaping hole
in his back. "I never got a chance to tell you how I really
felt..."
Damien tossed the mangled spinal chord aside and
looked at Tifa, knelt in dismay.
"Aww...so touching; I think I'm
getting a toothache," he snickered. She glared up at him. He
reached down and grabbed a fistful of her hair, dragging her to her
feet. The other two clones circled them, and she glanced into each of
their grinning faces.
"I'm going to kill each one of you,"
she snarled. Quindon blinked, and Katrina threw back her head and
laughed.
"You've got to be joking!" she cried, gasping for
breath in between fits of giggles. Damien raised an amused eyebrow
and suddenly released Tifa. She stumbled to her knees, yelping in
surprise and pain.
"I'd love to see this. Come on, human, give
us your best shot," he smiled wickedly. Yuffie's clone broke into
another round of giggles and the beige and dark pink cat-creature
held a paw over its grinning mouth.
"What is she going to do?
Cry us to death?"
With this, Katrina let out a scream of
laughter and fell onto her back, kicking her feet and gasping for
breath. Cloud's double merely shook his head, grinning his evil,
demonic grin.
"Come on, girl. I'm giving you a chance to carry
out that interesting 'threat' of yours."
Tifa Lockheart
stood, wiping her tears away with a swipe of her arm. She looked down
at Zeo's torn body and shuddered, then over at Vincent Valentine's
still figure and winced. She slowly raised her gaze to the three smug
clones. Her eyes began to shine deep gold, and the fists at her sides
clenched so tightly that the gloves started to tear. Around her
suddenly appeared a white flare of power so bright, they had to
shield their eyes.
"Wh-What's this light!" Katrina cried,
shrinking behind Quindon.
Tifa screamed, throwing her head back
and extending her arms out in front of her. A pink ball of energy
formed in between her hands, radiating white beams of power. It grew
larger, engulfing her figure and the ground around her. All of the
sudden, a pink beam shot from her aura and enclosed the three clones
in light.
"What's she–!" Quindon tried.
They were all
slammed with a wave of power and stumbled. The air around them grew
hot and electric, pulsing as something from Tifa's body rushed
toward them. Cait Sith's clone meowed shrilly, and Yuffie
Kisaragi's double screamed and tried to run.
The explosion was
so large and bright, the entire continent was suddenly lit up like
day.
"Barret!" Yuffie wailed, racing into the chamber.
Barret grunted in response, casting a Quake3 spell on the large
figure. It stood on four thick triple-jointed legs and had a huge,
armor-covered body. Barret's gun arm wasn't having much luck. She
rushed into the fight, hurling her Conformer at its head. The
Elemental Keeper roared, turning on her and she poised for her next
assault. Red XIII came from behind her and swung his claws at the
monster's underbelly, dealing a good amount of damage. He leapt
back to crouch beside the other two.
"I don' need yer help, so
ge' outta here," Barret Wallace growled, unleashing an Enemy
Skill–Shadow Flare.
"Like hell you don't!" Yuffie shot
back, gathering red energy in her hands. She disappeared and
NeoBahamut took her place.
"How stupid can you possibly be?"
Nanaki growled, searching for an opening to its underside
again.
"Shu'up, dog," Barret retorted.
Red snorted
then dove for the Keeper again, tearing at its throat with his fangs.
Yuffie returned from her summon spell, glaring at Barret.
"When
we defeat this, we'll have a talk later."
She abruptly winced
and fell to one knee, coughing up a great deal of blood.
"Yuffie!"
Red turned to check on her and got smacked with an Ice3
attack.
"I...I think...it's those clones again..." she
grunted, trying to get up. Her body trembled involuntarily as more
blood spilled from her mouth and nose. Her face became deathly pale.
Red XIII backed up to her side.
"Take a potion." He glanced at
her. "Take an elixir."
She nodded, gulping in slow, deep
breaths as she pulled the small vial of special medicine from her
belt. Barret continued to fight the Elemental creature.
They
watched as the two clones threw Cloud Strife's unconscious body
into the bed of a truck.
"We have to help him!" Cait Sith
hissed softly. Cid Highwind shook his head, watching Tifa's figure
hop into the back also.
"We're no match for these guys–it's
a mission to defeat just one of the bastards!" his eyes narrowed.
"And that copy of Tifa...she's different."
"No she's
not," the cat blinked.
"Not like that; she's strange. I
don't know how to explain it...stronger?"
Waylon climbed into
the driver's seat of the blue truck with the faded Shin-Ra logo on
its side. The engine roared through the darkness of the tunnel mouth
and the red glare of the tail lights washed over the rock walls. Cid
and Cait Sith ducked lower behind the cluster of boulders, waiting
anxiously as they listened to the truck pull out of the cave. They
peeked back out to see them racing up the mountain trail and heading
north.
"Cloud..." Cait Sith's ears drooped.
Cid growled
and slammed his fist on the rock in front of him: "Bloody
#&!"
Suddenly Cait Sith wailed and fell back, writhing and
twisting on the floor. Cid dropped down beside him and flinched as
crackles of electricity ran across the pink stuffed mog's
body.
"Cait Sith! Yo, Sith!" Cid cried anxiously. The black
cat atop the creature shrieked in pain, a fine spray of blood spewing
up into the air from its mouth. Cid watched in terror, not knowing
what else to do. The sparks of energy slowly died out and Cait Sith
let out a tiny mewling noise.
"You okay, Sith?" Cid tried to
sit him up.
"It's dead..." the black cat shuddered,
climbing off the mog's head and onto Cid's arm. The man couldn't
help but flinch in revulsion–it was covered from nose to tail with
blood.
"You sure?" he averted his eyes to the still figure of
the machine.
"The body's spent..." the cat groaned. "Number
Three is probably...on its way right now."
"What happened to
you?" Cid asked. Cait Sith curled up and closed his eyes
painfully.
"My clone must have met...a terrible fate."
"You'll
be fine; don't worry," the blond pilot stood, holding the mangled
animal in his arms.
"We need to go back...call the others on the
PHS...tell them...Midgar..."
Then he shuddered and was still.
Cid stopped and looked down at the cat.
"Sith! Aw, &#..."
He
exited the tunnel and blinked as the moonlight temporarily obscured
his vision. As he began to pick his way over the side, a pinkish
figure caught his eye someway down the path. Cait Sith prototype
number three stood at the end of the trail leading to the plains,
waving at him. Cid closed his eyes, then knelt and placed his
friend's body on top of a brightly-lit rock face. He touched the
fur of the cat's cheek for half a moment, then stood and continued
down the dirt road toward the replacement.
"This is truly
screwed up...we can't take much more of this..."
