Chapter 7: Desperate Ship battle
Yuffie awoke to a blaring siren. "Hmm? What's going on?" She rubbed the sleep from her eyes. 'No dark dude.' Yuffie hoped each time she closed her eyes that the crimson-caped man would return to her dreams. 'I better find the others.' Yuffie dragged herself up, surprised that her stomach was normal, 'Hmm, guess that cure-all worked better than I thought.' Yuffie began walking up the stairs. She was knocked back down. "Ouch!" she looked up, and barely contained her laughter.
"What?" Barret growled.
"Marshmallow!" Yuffie broke down into giggles.
"Brat." Barret walked past her.
"You must be feeling better." Cloud chuckled, "The cure-all worked?"
"All better! Got anymore?" Yuffie calmed her laughter.
"Sorry, he ran out." Cloud shrugged, "Now we need to get to the engine."
"Why do we care?" Yuffie was annoyed at the thought her seasickness could return.
"Someone said they saw Sephiroth." Aerith whispered to Yuffie, "The other soldiers are guarding Rufus. They don't want Sephiroth to finish the family."
"Sephiroth!" Yuffie's jaw dropped, "You mean the guy your all chasing? We are going to try to fight him now?"
Cloud removed his mask, his eyes burned in a green flame. "Yes." His voice was icy cold. Cloud motioned for them to follow him is silence. The group prepared themselves for the fight, and entered the engine room. The engine was silent. A single guard stood at the controls. Cloud approached the guard slowly, when Cloud touched his shoulder the soldier slumped to the ground.
"What's that sound?" Yuffie cupped her ear, straining to hear a faint laugh.
"That's him." Cloud breathed. Sephiroth's laughter grew louder, until Sephiroth appeared before them. His face wreathed in silver hair, his eyes passed between them all. When his gaze fell on Yuffie, she couldn't breath.
Yuffie felt herself being pulled back through time. Suddenly she was in Wutai, surrounded by death. The bodies of the Pagoda guards lying around the room, two figures were standing in the center of the room. One was Sephiroth the other was her Mother. The two faced each other until a guard let out his dying breath, and then they charged each other. The room rang out with the sound of ringing metal as Sephiroth's Masamune clashed with Yuffie's mother's kunai. The battle was fierce, neither seemingly gaining any advantage over the other. Sephiroth continued to fight with his overwhelming power and speed, while Yuffie's mother fought desperately to defend her child. Finally the two separated and dashed at each other again, this time the sound of metal searing through flesh filled the room followed by a small clink as a weapon fell from its owner's hand. The two fighters stared at each other before Yuffie's mother fell to her knees, dead. Yuffie fell into darkness.
Tifa violently shaking her pulled Yuffie from the blackness. "Get up Yuffie! It's a monster!" Tifa pointed.
Yuffie looked in the pointed direction to see a postulating, grotesque mound of growing mound of flesh. "Oh my-" Yuffie was cut off by the horrendous scream of the monster. Cloud began barking battle orders as he charged the beast. His sword cutting deeply into the purple flesh, Barret began a barrage from his gun, creating hundreds of small wounds. Aerith and Red XIII combined their magics into a single stream of flame, searing the creature. Tifa ran straight at the beast, she back flipped off Cloud's back. Yuffie threw her shuriken toward the beast; it sank in under the creatures chin. Tifa's foot buried the shuriken into the monsters skull, the creature roared in pain. When Tifa landed, she didn't get up. "Tifa!" Yuffie yelled.
A pale grey light had surrounded Tifa; it absorbed and stopped even the air around her. The creature was laughing, its laugh gurgled through the blood filling its mouth, a horrendous sound of "I am Jenova Birth" oozed from it lips followed by the click of Yuffie's shuriken on the floor. Birth's gaze fell to Cloud; a distortion formed beside him, Aerith called to him, but was too late. The distortion streaked into Cloud sending him crashing into the wall, his sword clanging to the ground. Yuffie and Barret continued their assault of bullets and knives. Red XIII refocused his power through his materia small sparks formed around Birth. As crackled and danced, gathering power until they coalesced into a single streak into the monster. Again, Birth howled in agony.
All the while, Aerith was attempting to cure Cloud and Tifa, before she could finish her spell Birth noticed and unleashed its attack. A single beam of energy slashed the ground toward Aerith. Aerith braced for the attack, but Barret threw himself into the beams path. Barret was seared and thrown into Aerith, they stayed in a crumpled heap.
"AERITH! BARRET!" Yuffie looked about desperately, "What can I do!" Yuffie cried in despair. Before Red XIII could answer, Birth once again unleashed its deadly blast. This time the beam split and targeted both Red XIII and Yuffie. Both Yuffie and Red XIII were able to avoid the beam, but neither was ready for the concussion blast. Red XIII joined Cloud in a heap near the wall. Yuffie skidded across the ground to land near the door.
Birth looked over the chaos that it had ensued. "Nnooww II ccaann ffiinniisshh tthheemm." Birth's disgusting voice vibrated. It charged its beam attack for a final hit. Yuffie struggled to look up only to scream as another beam streaked towards her. Yuffie covered her face in despair. Yuffie waited for the pain, but the beam never struck.
"What?" Yuffie looked up to see Birth somehow contorting its face into one of confusion. Yuffie scanned her comrades Aerith was standing and holding a small pendent with a brightly shining red stone. Small white crystals surrounded her. Quietly the crystals filled the room, some settled on Birth forming a shining coat preventing it from moving, no matter its struggle. The rest gathered above Aerith forming a crystal sphere, containing a huddled figure. Suddenly the crystal shattered and Shiva the ice queen descended gently to the ground.
Shiva hovered inches above the ground. Yuffie was astounded, before her stood a summon! 'Priscilla had a summon materia and gave it away!' was Yuffie's next thought before turning her attention back to Shiva. Yuffie stared at the perfect queen, Shiva was slenderly curved, teal skinned, and not happy. Her icy gaze fell on Birth. Shiva slowly raised her hand, waves of energy coursed into her grasp. Shiva pointed at Birth, unleashing waves of frost. Birth slowly crystallized. Soon it was completely frozen. Shiva waved her hand nonchalantly, sending a single wave of energy toward the ice statue.
Birth shattered into millions of pieces, then into small puffs of steam. Shiva turned to Aerith, she smiled and faded back into her own dimension. Aerith fell to her knees. Yuffie's jaw hung open. Yuffie's pain suddenly overwhelmed her she lay gasping in pain. Then a small, gentle breeze suddenly enveloped her. 'Ok; now I'm insane. A breeze inside a ship's engine room?" Yuffie suddenly began to feel better, almost as if the wind brought with it a small amount of magic. Yuffie rose to see Aerith standing tall, her hair being blown about as her own magic created the wind. The others slowly followed suit. Aerith stopped and breathed heavily.
"What happened?" Cloud asked holding his ribs.
"Yuffie isn't the only one with a few little secrets." Aerith tried to laugh, "that will get us out of here but we really need a good nights sleep to recover."
"Aerith?" Yuffie ran up Aerith, "Thank you so much you saved us!"
"You're welcome Yuffie." Aerith smiled sweetly, gently hugging her.
"Not to ruin the moment, but we need to go. I'll report to an officer so they can call off the alert. We're probably almost to Costa del Sol You guys just stay out of sight." Cloud ordered as everyone, but Yuffie left the engine room.
'What have I gotten myself into?' Yuffie almost panicked, 'these guys attract trouble or something. They want to fight Sephiroth! They're all crazy! He's way too powerful! He left that monster behind!' Yuffie continued to struggle within herself. 'But they do have really good materia and even a summon materia!'Yuffie paced about the room, she almost stumbled on something. 'What's this?' Yuffie looked down, her eyes nearly popped out of her head. Jenova-Birth had left behind a red materia.
Yuffie picked it up. 'I guess I'll go with them. They may attract trouble, but #$ they attract some good materia!' The ship lurched forward again, sending Yuffie's stomach into knots. 'But I'm just gonna be miserable for now.' She staggered back to her crate and slumped down in pain. 'I hate boats!'