The Arrival of Omega Weapon

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

As the light subsided, Cloud found himself in the same room, but for some reason Vincent was nowhere to be seen.

"Vincent!" He shouted "Where are you?" Behind him he heard a voice "I don't know who this Vincent is, or who you are. I don't really care, but I do want to know one thing, What is going on!" It wasn't a question.

Cloud turned quickly and raised his massive sword, and found himself face to face with someone he didn't recognise. The person in front of him also had his weapon drawn and raised, it was a curious weapon which looked like a mixture of a sword and a gun. The person himself wore a leather jacket with fur around its top, that did seem to be a weakness as most leather clothing restricted movement, he quickly dismissed that view as he knew appearances could be deceiving and the man seemed to be comfortable.

"Who are you?" Cloud inquired "Sorry," The mystery man said "don't do intros. Shall we just fight and get it over with!" Cloud laughed "You! Fight me! Do you wish to die?" The other man stood there "I won't be the one dying. I'm willing to wager that your sword there is too big to move quickly." "Try it and see!" Cloud challenged.

With that, the two fighters ran and struck. Their blades coming together with a clang, with a shower of sparks being the only result of that exchange.
After a few minutes of useless attempts to break the others guard, they stepped back to catch their breath.

"Not bad." The leather clad man said "but I'm just toying with you, now feel the power of the Lion's Heart." "Bring it on," Cloud challenged, raising his sword confidently "It can't beat my Omnislash."

The air crackled with energy as they both unleashed their most powerful combo's…, and cancelled each other out. For all the strikes that were attempted by both men, they all just bounced harmlessly off the others blade. As they finished with their final strike, they were both thrown back from each other due to the sheer force of their blows. They both got up quickly and stood facing each other.

"How?" Cloud said incredulously "I've killed hundreds of monsters and people with that combination." "You're not the only one." The other man said just as incredulously, there was a look of concentration on his face "Oh well, my names Squall, what's yours, worthy warrior?" "Cloud." He thought for a second "You had specialist training?" "Yes, I'm getting the same impression from your skills." "Yeah, I used to be in SOLDIER, I never made it, but I've got the skills. I now make my living as a travelling mercenary." "SOLDIER?" Squall asked puzzled "What's that?" Cloud stared at him "Don't you know! it's the personal army of Shinra Inc." "Shinra?" "Huh… Never mind." Cloud gave up "What about you?" "Field commander of SeeD, a mercenary force." "SeeD?" Cloud asked now equally puzzled "Huh," It was Squall's turn to stare at Cloud "SeeD is a codename, we are students of an institute called Garden, we train to destroy a powerful sorceress from the future named Ultimecia…" "Whoa!" Cloud stopped him "I think we have a problem. I have no idea what you are talking about, which probably means your not from around here." "You're probably right." Squall agreed, looking around "Where am I, anyway?" "We're in a small village called Nibelheim," also looking around, he added "in the basement of the village mansion." "Okay, so where do I go to get home?" "Honestly, I don't know, but I'm going to a place called Corel to see a friend, you'll be welcome to join me, if you want." Cloud offered "Might as well." Squall agreed, sheaving his sword "Not got anything better to do, and you never know, I might meet up with someone I know."

Cloud nodded and lead Squall out of the basement, wondering what could have happened to bring this excellent fighter to him.

………

Rinoa could feel something was different, even before the light had dimmed.

She found herself in what looked like a gym, across the room was a lady about 21 years old with long dark hair. Rinoa quickly hid behind a nearby piece of equipment, which was curiously toppled over, to see if she could figure out where she was and why she was here.
A panel on the wall beeped and the long haired lady walked over to it.
"Yes," She heard the lady say "What is it?" "It's Shera, madam president." A panicky voice came back "Cid's disappeared!" Cid, that was a name Rinoa recognised, but she also knew that there were some strange things going on, so she decided to remain hidden.
"Don't worry, Shera." The lady soothed, trying to calm the panicky lady "Have a look around but he should be alright, remember, he's old enough to take care of himself." With that she turned off the comm. unit and turned around.
Rinoa quickly hid behind the equipment even more, trying to remain silent.
"Zengan," She heard the lady say "where are you?" There was no response.
"Zengan?" She called again, more urgently this time, but there was still no response.

Rinoa risked a glance in the lady's direction and saw her take a small yellow gem from a nearby tray. She then placed it in a slot on her right glove. There was then an intense concentration on her face, as if she was searching for something. Suddenly, she looked up and directly at the piece of equipment Rinoa was hiding behind. She quickly hid more behind the equipment.

"Who's there?" Rinoa didn't answer, she didn't even breath.
"I know you are there!" The lady accused "that materia I just used has told me where you are." There was a long silence until Rinoa shouted out "Okay, Okay, I'm coming out, don't do anything rash."

As she got up and faced the other woman, she saw for the first time clearly what she looked like. She was quite beautiful, she was wearing a grey training top and very short black skirt. Rinoa looked into her eyes and saw they carried a sorrow more pronounced than any others she had seen. They showed an outward kindness, but they also showed that she would not trust anyone immediately, not unless they did something special.
Sensing that she had to make the first move, she introduced herself "My name's Rinoa, pleased to meet you." The eyes softened a little "Funny position for someone who's appeared out of nowhere." The lady answered, she then shrugged "Mine's Tifa, glad to meet you too." "I heard that Shera lady say president, that's you?" "Yeah," Tifa said a little bitterly "It's in name only, luckily, I'm more like a figurehead to raise support for the company." "Luckily?" "Yeah, I get to do the things I want and don't get in the trouble for it." Tifa said a little childishly, she then turned serious and looked around the room "Have you seen an old man around anywhere?" "Who? That Zengan, you were just calling? No, sorry." "That light must have sent him somewhere then, considering you appeared straight after it went." Tifa again looked at Rinoa "You know what my job is, what do you do?
"Me?" Rinoa said "I'm from Balamb Garden, it's a school for training mercenaries." "A mercenary? You?" Tifa looked shocked "Yeah, well, actually, we usually take on jobs only to deal with evil sorceresses." "Amazing. Well, I…" There was a beep from the control panel again, then another a and it kept beeping until Tifa answered it.
"Tifa here, what is it now?" She said angrily "Tifa, its Reeve." A male voice came back "Thousands of monsters are attacking the tower!" "What! But how?" She exclaimed "Don't know, but the defence systems are down so we can't turn the monsters back." "Understood," Tifa looked thoughtful for a few seconds "Announce the evacuation order, Shera and Palmer should still be in the lab they may need some help." "What about Cid?" "He seems to have disappeared due to that light." "Disappeared!" "Yes, now, get the Highwind prepared, we'll be leaving for Junon as quickly as we can." "See ya there, then." Tifa turned to Rinoa "We need to get out of here." Rinoa was inclined to agree with her "How, though?" She asked "With all them monsters in the way?" "The normal way… The only way to deal with monsters." Tifa tightened the gloves that she wore. "By fighting 'em." "Fighting, yeah right, where's your weapon?" Rinoa inquired Tifa laughed "Weapon, who said I needed a weapon." She then turned and ran through a nearby door.
Rinoa stared for a second at where Tifa had been and then ran after her.

………

After a few minutes of running, Tifa stopped and looked behind her. Rinoa, as she had called herself, was coming up.
"You alright?" Tifa asked "Yeah," Rinoa answered, there was little hint of breathlessness, which meant she was used to running long distances.
"Good, I was thinking that we should take the stairs, the elevators are probably working overtime dealing with this evacuation, if they're working at all." "Good idea, how do we get there?" "Just follow me."

They started running again, heading for the emergency stairwell that Tifa had discovered on her first visit to the Shinra Tower with Cloud, just over a year ago. The stairwell had been recently changed to become almost a direct route to the airfield behind the tower where the Highwind waited.

When they reached the door that lead to the stairs, Tifa again turned to Rinoa "Here we are." Rinoa walked through he doors and looked down "We've got to go down them all?" She said with awe.
Tifa shrugged "Trust me, its better than running up them! This is one of my training exercises, I have to run down them and then run all the way back up without a break." Rinoa stared at her as Tifa stepped through the door "Seriously?" "Yup, shall we get going then?" Tifa prompted "Might as well. But you still haven't told me how you mean to defend yourself if we get attacked." She said accusingly "You'll see, Rinoa, just wait, you'll definitely see."

As they ran down the stairs, Tifa checked her materia; she only had the Sense she had picked up in the gym and a couple of weak elemental attacks, nothing that would do a lot of damage. "Damn" She said to herself. Keeping the sense in her glove, she continued running down the stairs.
About halfway down, the emergency lights failed and the stairwell became pitch black, despite that, after a moments break to let their eyes adjust, they hurried on, knowing what their path was; down.

A few floors from the bottom a light appeared. Rinoa whispered to her "Is that the exit?" "No," Tifa replied, troubled "The exit is further down and isn't lighted without the emergency lighting. She lifted her glove to use the sense materia.
"Wait." Rinoa stopped her "Allow me." Tifa looked in her direction and saw a small light, then it was gone.
"Though so." Rinoa whispered cryptically "it's a Wendigo, that explains the light, their attacks are useless in the dark." "How do you know that, what did you just do?" Tifa demanded quietly "I haven't seen a single materia on you." Rinoa laughed quietly "Don't need it, I have a junction system." "Junction?" "Yeah, I junction a Guardian Force and it allows me to use its powers." Rinoa pointed down "Lets get out of here first and I'll explain it, and then you can explain your materia and how they work." "Great idea" Tifa smiled "well, lets go and see if that Wendigo of yours is a good monster to warm up on."

After a few floors, they met up with the Wendigo, and a few of its friends.
"Whoa," Tifa stared "he seems to have a bit of backup behind him." "Yeah," Rinoa agreed from behind her "this a good enough 'warm up' then?" "I'll do." Tifa said confidently "I suggest you hold onto something." Tifa then crouched down slightly "Why?" "Just do it! I don't want to make you fall down and hurt yourself because of the shockwave."

She saw Rinoa hold onto the railing. She nodded and concentrated, powering up to her full strength mentally. She rushed at the enemy, as she met up with the Wendigo it took a wild swing at her head, she easily ducked it and countered with dolphin blow. Behind her she heard Rinoa gasp, she didn't have time to reply as the next monster was upon her. She jumped back and as the monster stepped toward her, she then unleashed her Beat Rush throwing the monster into three others that were behind it. She then concentrated hard, forced her fist to close tighter, gathered the energy around her and blew the monsters into pieces with her Final Heaven attack. The shockwave forced the monsters coming up to fall over, except one, which was quickly making up ground on her. Tifa got up to defend herself, but suddenly, Rinoa was there.

A light was coming from her and suddenly, she sprouted wings, they were pure white and the light forced the monster to stop. As the light died down, Rinoa lifted her hand and a beam of light came from it, following the stairs down, obliterating every monster in its path.

"What? How?" Tifa managed, knowing that her jaw had dropped slightly and her eyes were wide.
"I'm a sorceress." Rinoa said as if that explained it "A sorceress, but…" Tifa started, then thought better of it "Never mind, lets get to the Highwind and you can explain that as well." "Okay," Rinoa agreed, she then got out the way "Lead the way." Tifa nodded and again they started running.