A/N: (bows) I know I know! More than a week has passed. Argy! So sorry. But! Like I said in my profile, I promised to post up chapter 14 and well… here it is! (dances) Today ish my b-day! Whoop whoop! (loud gasp) So is Squall's! (hugs him)
Shankies for reviewing! Hope you enjoy this chappie!
Disclaimer:
Cait: Dangit!
It's Miss Author Poo Poo Head's birthday today…
Author: Hooray!
Now I'm Yuffie's age!
Yuffie:
Actually, I'm older than you.
Author: …boo…
Yuffie: But, oh
well! (dances)
Vincent: (hands
Miss Author a card) Happy… birthday.
Author: Phwee!
(hugs him) Aw, shankies! (opens card) …ah. You spelled my name
wrong…
Cait: Merry
Happy Birthday Miss Author Poo Poo Head and, blah blah FF7 doesn't
belong to her.
Chapter Fourteen
Embrace
"…t-took you…
look enough…" -Yuffie
A loud clash of two weapons roared throughout the cave. A bright flash of light followed after, forming into a dragon-like creature. Reno jumped away from it and fell to one knee in exhaustion. His attempts in distracting Sephiroth from his friends were actually working. However, he wasn't sure how long he could pull this off. Sephiroth's attacks were insanely strong and he had been attacking close range ever since they began the duel. The red head slowly stood up and stared at his opponent's eyes. Those bright green colored eyes showed no signs of malice or anything. It was like Sephiroth was actually enjoying the fight. In one leap forward, Reno quickly drew out his nightstick and slashed straight across Sephiroth's chest perfectly. The attack created an ear-splitting noise that not even the strongest human could withstand. Reno covered his ears as Sephiroth called out his fire magic. The bright flames surrounded its enemy, where his attempts in escaping were useless. The tall man grinned victoriously and stepped towards the flames.
"Looks like I win."
The Turks smiled and stepped back. "Shyeah, but there's one problem," he thrust forward and ran through the flames without any third degree burns. He twirled around and called out his fire magic. Sephiroth grunted and leapt away before he could receive any damage. Reno grinned as his fists spewed out bright orange-red flames.
"Now… who did you say won?"
Sephiroth narrowed his eyes and slowly placed his hand on the Masamune. "I don't have time for this. I could have killed you long before, but I was having the time of my life. So now I-" He tried drawing out his sword but something kept pulling it back. He shifted around and found Cait Sith trying his best to pull back his hand. Cait growled and pulled harder.
"N-No way you're gonna cheat now!"
"Cheating, you say?" he lifted his sheath in the air as Cait struggled to hang tight. In one blow, he found himself crushed into the wall. Small sparks bolted out from its tiny body at that. Reeve's connection with the small toy was now in vain. However, Sephiroth wasn't going to fight some small cat toy right now. His only objective was to find a way to prevent AVALANCHE from returning back. He turned away and headed to where Elena went. No sooner that he took one step, he found himself surrounded by Reno's fire attack. He shifted his head and spotted Reno inside the trap as well.
"Not so fast, you! You gotta get passed me if you wanna head forward!"
Sephiroth turned to face the red head. "…you really want to die that badly? You are truly a worthy opponent."
"…likewise."
In unison, the two opponents leapt forward with their weapons drawn out for the final showdown.
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
Elena kneeled down next to the boy and tilted her head. "Why are you down here alone, little boy?"
The boy grunted and answered, "I'm not a 'little boy'! I'll have you know that I am well over my hundreds."
"Eeh! That doesn't make sense!"
Rude rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Care to explain what you are trying to say?"
"Very well," the boy turned to face a small black pedestal. "I was created to protect the Lifestream. You can say I practically control it. The sunrise and sunset, the sudden earthquakes… all is due to my emotions. But now, I cannot control it anymore. Someone else has taken over."
"Then, what's controlling it now?"
"An evil soul that had recently entered. All I know is that it is as strong as I am. And now, I feel a very cold chill running up and down my spine. A fight is going on and I'm afraid there is nothing I can do. Only time will tell."
Elena frowned. "It's probably those AVALANCHE…"
The boy turned to the woman. "AVALANCHE…"
"Yes, they were brought to the Lifestream, but they don't exactly belong there yet. If… you know what I mean."
"No, I know what you mean. They, too, are responsible for the change of the Lifestream. This is like what happened many years ago. The 'chosen ones' are to protect the civilians and everything else inside the Lifestream with their weapons."
"But then, how are we supposed to return them out here?" Rude asked.
"…my ancestors predicted that someday someone will have to form 'the path'."
"'The path'?"
"I am 'the path' that will help guide the 'chosen ones'. But, in order to do so, they must combine their powers of their weapons to help draw me there. That is why I wait here for that moment. I must gain enough power to help. However, there is a side affect. They lose bits of their memory each time they use their weapons. I'm afraid these new 'chosen ones' haven't figured that out yet"
"And their memories?"
The boy turned away. "I don't know. The last 'chosen ones' had lost their memories. I don't know about these now. Anything could happen."
Elena stepped up. "What now?"
"When the time comes and I become the path from this world to the Lifestream, you must prevent any other interference. If you don't, then no one will return back. The Lifestream will be in trouble. And this world could possibly… disappear."
Hojo observed his master plan in action. The back demon had knocked out two of AVALANCHE without any problems. The others were coming in for yet another close range assault. However, that was a bad call for them. Sparks of lightning struck out from the demon's fur, making the fighters paralyzed for a mere second. He narrowed his eyes as Nanaki had snuck behind and pinned down the demon easy. The creature tried its lightning attack again, but it didn't harm Nanaki at all. His metal armor should have caused severe damage, but it didn't. The mad scientist turned to his monitor as those random numbers continued appearing right after the other. He feared that those numbers might foil his plans. He clenched his fists and turned to the window again.
"Finish them off before something happens to you!"
"H-Hojo…" Gast slowly lifted his head. "You… won't get away with this."
Hojo laughed and turned to him. "Please, that's getting so old. Haven't you noticed that everything I had planned out carefully is indeed commencing? And there is nothing you can do about it."
'Oh… I did something already…'
Nanaki groaned and landed hard on his side. The black furred demon growled and pinned him down so he couldn't escape. There was no way Nanaki would ever harm Yuffie in any way. All seemed impossible, but he knew there was always a way. He drew out his sword and pushed the demon off with the handle. He jumped up and carefully landed high above the demon. It growled and jumped up, but was tackled down by Cid.
"Damnit! You could have killed it, you fur ball!"
Nanaki grunted at that. "Cid, listen! I know that Yuffie is still in there! I could feel it… please don't hurt her!"
"Oh! Now you tell us!"
The demon growled and hit Cid away with its tail. He collided against a huge boulder and fell forward. Vincent and Cloud stepped forward with their swords out in front. Nanaki jumped down in front of them and crouched down.
"What're we supposed to do?" Cloud asked. "Tifa, Barret, and Cid are out."
Nanaki narrowed his eyes. "You guys look after Aeris. I'll deal with Yuffie myself."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Vincent said.
"…I'm sure."
"If it gets out of hand, we'll cover you," at that, Cloud and Vincent headed straight to Aeris. Nanaki took out his sword and dropped it on the ground.
"Yuffie, your fight isn't with us… you are fighting against this demon! I know that you can win!"
Yuffie pounded her fists against the invisible walls and growled. "You stupid demon! Come over here so we can fight already!" Suddenly, the demon thrust toward its opponent. It's large head hit Nanaki and sent him flying into a boulder. The ninja growled and stomped her foot. "Not Nanaki! Fight ME!" she held her necklace tight and repeated, "FIGHT ME!"
Just then, her necklace started to glow a bright green color. Yuffie grinned victoriously and held it out. "You may have changed my demon form's heart, Hojo. But not my human heart!" The green light suddenly engulfed her, creating a vortex. The black demon roared out loud. Its sharp needle-like fur clashed together, creating bolts of lightning that randomly shot out. Everyone watched as the creature's form started to glow a green color. The demon tried all its might to resist such power, but surprisingly, it wasn't strong enough. In just a few moments, its beast form gradually changed into a human form; Yuffie's form. Her eyes still revealed the cross-like slits as she slowly peered over to where Nanaki was. Yuffie smirked then fell hard on her bare knees. Nanaki finally ran up to her and embraced the ninja tightly.
"Y-Yuffie!"
"…t-took you… look enough…"
At that, the other AVALANCHE members came out from hiding to meet up with Yuffie. Tifa was the first to greet her with one of her tight hugs. She sighed in relief, knowing that she was all right.
"Yuffie?" Aeris said in the back. The ninja slowly lifted her head from Tifa's shoulder and smiled big.
"A-Aeris! Is that really you?"
She nodded and gently stroked Yuffie's head. "Yes, it's Aeris. Please listen to me. I feel that something is about to happen to you."
"W-What?"
Barret grunted at that. "Hey, hey. Now that's not somethin' nice to say when greetin' a person!"
Nanaki stood up and clenched his fists. "No, she's right. I sense something just over this mountain. There's still something we must finish off."
Everyone narrowed their eyes and nodded. They still had to deal with a certain little mad scientist before they could start celebrating.
Hojo slammed his fist on the windowsill and turned around. He wasn't about to give up that easily. In all honestly, he truly never predicted that this would happen. He just assumed that everything would work out from the way he saw things. He flicked a few switches and pressed a few buttons on his monitor, bringing down the test tube Yuffie was in earlier. Apparently, he had missed something from his experimentations. He shifted to where Gast was and gave him a very dirty look. Gast seemed to be amused by this. He knew that Hojo would remove the human DNA he put into Yuffie before. But, it was obvious that he never exactly took every DNA out. That was why Yuffie was able to change back to her other form easily. Hojo stepped up and lifted the scientist up by the collar.
"That smirk on your face will disappear once I strip your memories and feed it to my experiment."
"T-That's impossible!"
"Well now. I guess you haven't figured out my whole plan, hm?"
Gast grunted. "It's to destroy the whole Lifestream!"
Hojo laughed softly at that. "Why, yes. That is very true. But, you're missing out on one itsy bitsy little factor… the fact that I have been stealing the memories of women and children. All of that was so I could feed it to my successful experiment. Did you know that women and children's memories are the strongest out of all mankind? Seriously now. I had no idea…"
"HOJO! If you harm anyone else, I swear I'll put an end to you…"
"…not if I put an end to you first," Hojo dropped Gast to the floor as he swiveled around to his monitor. "I have placed a microchip inside the demons body, so that it will return inside this test tube. I admit that your little tricks have surprised me. But, I will not let that happen again."
"Aeris, please watch over Yuffie while we head to Hojo's hideout," Nanaki said as he placed Yuffie next to her.
She nodded. "O-Okay. But please be careful."
Yuffie mumbled. "N-Nanaki! I wanna come with you! I-I wanna kick some Hojo butt!"
Nanaki smiled and kneeled next to her. "I think you had a little too much excitement for one day. Don't worry. We'll be back soon."
"…I-I feel funny…" her body started to fade away at that. She widened her eyes. "H-Hey… why am I…"
"Y-Yuffie!"
Aeris held Yuffie tightly. "T-This is what I have feared!"
"What's happening to her!"
"This is… Hojo's doings! It's like… what happened to that house! It just disappeared!"
Nanaki held Yuffie's hand. "Yuffie! No matter what, we'll put an end to this!"
The ninja smiled as her form was gradually disappearing. "Y-You better hurry… this time," at that, she was gone. Nanaki pounded his fist into a boulder and growled loudly. He returned into his beast form at that.
"Let's… go already."
Several black shadows suddenly appeared around AVALANCHE. Everyone stood up and drew out their weapons. In no time, the shadows lunged forward while everyone quickly dodged away from them. But, the black foes sunk into the ground and reappeared right as AVALANCHE landed. In one blow, they found themselves free falling at such a great height. Nanaki quickly retreated behind a boulder to catch his breath. He was still a little worn out from his previous battle with Yuffie. Vincent appeared above and landed right across from him.
"W-Where did they come from?" Nanaki asked.
Vincent shook his head and leaned forward. "I'm not sure. But, I believe Hojo had something to do with this."
"We'll NEVER get to where Yuffie is now!" he got up to his feet and turned. "She could be in serious trouble now."
"Red, you should go to her."
"W-What? What about you guys?"
Vincent stood up and stepped on top of a boulder. "We'll take care of things here. The sooner we finish this mess, the sooner we can get out of here. Somehow."
Nanaki nodded. "Right. I'll try my best to take care of Hojo."
"Be careful," at that, the two friends leapt away from each other.
Inside Hojo's lab, Yuffie's demon form suddenly appeared inside the test tube. Its red eyes were filled with malice and its needle-like fur straightened out. Hojo pressed his hands against the tube and smiled nervously.
"Truly sorry for that. A certain little scientist wanted to foil my plans. But I got something even bigger. I have been collecting many memories from the civilians here and they hold some unbelievable power. Trust me. It will make you stronger than before."
The demon narrowed its eyes and replied with a very deep and sinister voice. "Good. I am tired of this human girl. She's giving me severe headaches."
"Don't worry, I'll make sure she's gone forever."
The demon's eyes shifted towards the door. It suddenly broke down, surprising the two. Nanaki growled loudly and stomped his paw hard on the ground.
"It's about time to finish you off, HOJO!"
A/N: End of chapter 14! Rrg! Pretty messy on the first half, but I got to use some of my ideas I thought of a veeeerryy long time ago for the middle half. Still kinda messy. (tilts head) Anyways! Get ready for the Final Showdown next chapter! Chapter Fifteen: Reveal Your True Eyes. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please tell me how you thought of it!