Emerald Princess of Vernea
Chapter ThreeYuffie followed Chekhov up onto the third floor of the pagoda, now halfway up the building. Cloud and the others were still trailing silently behind her, not really sure what they should be doing other than watching and supporting Yuffie through each of her fights. They felt a little like lost-parts inside this pagoda, but Yuffie was a member of their team, and so they continued to follow her on.
Yuffie felt her anxiety grow as she followed Chekhov up the dark stairs. Like Gorky and Shake, Chekhov was one of the Sacred Gods, and a master of one of the sacred elements. Gorky had tested her power, while Shake's trial was to test her speed and endurance. She wondered what Chekhov was going to test, and if she would be a very difficult opponent. Of course, the higher she went up the pyramid she knew her opponents would get tougher, but she would not let that stop her.
Her concentration was broken as she reached the top of the stairs, nearly walking into Chekhov's back as she stopped to unlock the door to the third floor. When she was done Chekhov slowly pushed open the door and gestured for Yuffie to move on ahead of her. Yuffie hesitated for a moment, looking into Chekhov's encouraging face. Chekhov seemed to sense Yuffie's hesitance and slowly nodded her head at the girl. That seemed to be enough for Yuffie, as she nodded back and then bravely stepped through the door onto the third floor.
As Yuffie had expected, the third floor chamber was exactly identical to the two floors below, with nothing new to show her that she was now halfway up the pagoda. As she walked in with the others behind her, Yuffie let her eyes wander over to the open door at the opposite end of the room. The door that led up to the fourth floor. The fourth floor… one floor away from the fifth and final floor. She felt her heart skip a beat, suddenly energised at the thought of making it all the way to the top.
When she was finished gazing at the door, Yuffie noticed that there was someone else already standing in the chamber. For a moment Yuffie wondered if Chekhov WAS her opponent, until she noticed that this person was standing in the observer's spot, which told her that this person was the master of the fourth floor.
She took a quick moment to examine this person as she walked into the chamber. He looked about as old as Chekhov, not old, but certainly old enough to know a trick or two. He wore a long green-blue kimono covered by a dark green tunic, with two long strips of green down the side, touching the floor. Yuffie could not see the colour of his hair, since a hat of the same colours covered it up. When he saw Yuffie staring at him he smiled, which eased her nerves.
"So even Shake's been defeated," he said. He did not seem too surprised, which surprised Yuffie. He then turned to look at Chekhov, who was locking the door again. "It's been a while since you had to fight, Chekhov."
Chekhov nodded in agreement, as she placed the key down on the ground beside the door for safety. She then moved into her starting position, in front of Yuffie. "Unfortunately, this is as far as it goes," she said. "Staniv, you watch over there."
"That ain't going to happen!" Yuffie said loudly, speaking up for the first time. She had recovered from her initial hesitance now and her confidence had returned, along with the uncontrollable urge to fight that was growing within her fists. "I'll teach you about the strength of youth!"
Chekhov narrowed her eyes and glared at the girl, clearly insulted by Yuffie's insinuation that she was too old to fight. "Keep mouthing off like that, little girl, and you're going to get burned," she warned sternly.
Yuffie shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, clearly not too upset by Chekhov's threat. "I got insurance," she replied.
"Ho, ho, ho," Chekhov laughed. She found Yuffie's arrogance and confidence in her own skills rather amusing. After her first two victories it was clear that Yuffie was on a high, and underestimating whom she was up against. "We'll see if you still talk like that after you taste some of my Sacred Magic…" She stepped back and lifted her arms up into the air. "Magic Change!"
Yuffie watched as Chekhov gave her a mysterious, knowing grin before she bowed down, exaggerating her movements with a sense of magical flair. Yuffie then watched as the smoke, this time pink in colour with shades of purple, began to rise up from the floor and encase the older woman. Yuffie could not see through the cloud no matter how hard she tried, but she knew that Chekhov was transforming into some kind of magical creature inside it.
Instead of waiting to see what kind of creature Chekhov would become, Yuffie decided to employ her tactic of attacking before the transformation could be completed, and gain a surprise advantage. The quicker she could end this battle the better, and then she could hurry on to the fourth floor. Cloud and the others may have had the patience to come with her so far, but by now they were probably beginning to get a little impatient. She lifted her shuriken, peering out between the blades at the cloud, and then charged forward into the smoke.
The smoke was much thicker than she had expected it to be. As she penetrated the wall she realised that the smoke was warm, and left a strange tingly, prickly feeling against her skin, her cells reacting to the cloud's magic. She even felt a little smothered, feeling the smoke run down her throat.
She could not see Chekhov at first – the smoke was just too thick for her to see anything. But as she moved forward she could hear a faint, high-pitched screech directly in front of her. Before Yuffie could react, something suddenly rose up from the smog and stopped right in front of her face. Yuffie's breath stopped, as she found herself face to face with three pairs of narrow, fierce yellow eyes.
Startled by the creature's sudden appearance, Yuffie hesitated. By the time she recovered and began to swipe her shuriken, the monster was already moving. Yuffie felt the hot sting of two long, vine-line hands punch into her stomach. They must have been charged with some kind of energy, for they sent her flying back through the cloud.
Aeris gasped in fright as she saw the girl fly back out of the cloud, with faint sparks of electrical light energy flickering all over her body. She was heading right towards them, and as she approached Cid stepped forward and quickly raised his spear. As Yuffie came flying past she grabbed hold of the spear with her free hand, and quickly pushed her feet up against the wall. Perched on the spear, she looked up as the cloud at the other end of the room began to fade.
Chekhov had become a rather terrifying-looking creature. It was no more than 4ft in height, and looked much like a snake that was standing on its tail. Its body widened the close it got to the head, which was made up purely of six yellow eyes, and a long slit at the bottom of its 'face', which for now remained shut. It had four arms in all – tipped with curled fleshy claws – that waved around freely as though there were no bones at all. Two long strips of flesh rose up from its head like ears, twitching around as though sensing for prey.
"A word of advice," came Chekhov's croaky voice from somewhere within the monster. "Never attack until you know what your opponent is!"
The monster then began to move forward, its body shuffling like a snake across the wood-panelled floor towards her. Yuffie waited until Chekhov was almost within reach. When she was close enough, Yuffie pushed herself off the wall, releasing her hold on the spear, and flew towards Chekhov.
Once again, Yuffie had underestimated the power of Chekhov's chosen transformation. While Yuffie was still in midair, Chekhov closed her eyes momentarily, before snapping them open in a fierce, staring glare. The glare sent powerful shockwaves down Yuffie's spine, and she felt her entire body freeze, locked in a state of pure, terrifying dread.
With Yuffie's body locked in that position, Chekhov reached out with her long, flailing arms. The arms seemed to stretch out longer than thought possible, and grabbed onto Yuffie's arms. Yuffie cried as she felt a painful sting around her wrists, but she could do nothing to fight them off in her frozen state. The glare froze her long enough for Chekhov to throw her right over her head. When she let go, Yuffie went tumbling to the floor, skidding painfully across the ground.
Arrrgh… Yuffie thought painfully as she lay stunned on the floor. She's very strong for such a weak-looking monster. It was no surprise. She was the third of the Sacred Gods after all. Slowly feeling returned to Yuffie's body, the power of Chekhov's magical stare wearing off.
Struggling to her knees, Yuffie looked down at her wrists. They were red, burning from the grip Chekhov had had on her. It must have been some form of poison – no doubt a hidden kind of attack. Yuffie glanced up at Chekhov, using the momentary pause to quickly think of some kind of strategy that could defeat Chekhov. With that magical stare she could not attack straight on – she would be frozen again in a matter of seconds. The only materia she had on her was Earth, Steal (for enhancing her already superb stealing abilities), and MP Absorb – Wait!
Yuffie reached behind her and slowly pulled out the Steal materia from the back of her belt, where she kept it stored for emergency use. She had used the materia when she took the materia from the others – using its abilities to give her extra speed and lightning-fast reflexes to move fast so no one could see that she had been thieving. Although she had never thought of it before, Yuffie realised that Chekhov, and the others, must have used some kind of Transform materia to change their bodies. If she could just steal that materia, its power would become ineffective and Chekhov would return to her natural form again.
With this plan in mind, Yuffie stood up and faced Chekhov. "All right then," she said, the confidence beaming in her voice. "It's time to fight magic with magic." She raised the Steal materia into the air. "STEAL!"
The yellow ball flashed brightly in her hands, and a yellow wave spread down Yuffie's hand and into the rest of her body. Her entire body seemed to glow yellow for a second, instilling her with its magical energies. By the time the glow faded, Yuffie lowered her arm and began to run towards Chekhov. She ran fast, and was gaining speed the more she ran.
Chekhov did try to stop her with her Stare Down glance, but now Yuffie was moving too fast. Her enhanced reflexes allowed her to dodge the stare as it fired out from Chekhov's eyes, and within a second Yuffie was beside her, moving behind her.
Before Chekhov could react, Yuffie punched out with her fist at Chekhov's back. Her hand pierced the tight flesh of the monster and sank into her back. Chekhov screeched, but by the time the sound left her throat Yuffie had already withdrawn her hand. And in her hand she held another ball of materia – the Transform materia that Chekhov had kept hidden, keeping up her transformation.
The materia now gone, Chekhov's body began to steam and smoke. The flesh melted away, turning into hot steam that rose into the air. Chekhov then stood up from the hot cloud of steam, her face utterly shocked at how she had been defeated. Never would she have thought that Yuffie would think to use her ninja abilities to steal the Transform materia from her. It was simple, but incredibly ingenious.
"I can't believe you beat me…" she gasped, startled.
Yuffie threw the materia up into the air, and caught it again in her hand. "Of course!" she said with a grin. She placed her newly acquired Transform materia in her pocket, claiming it as her own as proof of her victory. Then she turned towards Staniv, who had been watching the whole thing.
He also looked impressed. Meeting Yuffie's gaze he smiled, and gave a few light-hearted claps. "This should be interesting…!" he commented. "It's been a long time since I've had a chance to use my powers to their fullest…"
Without saying anything more, Staniv then turned and walked out of the door, heading up to his own room on the floor above. Yuffie didn't even wait for her anxiety to hit her – and followed him straight up.
I'll do it… she thought. I'll win and make it to the fifth floor!
Emerald: And so we're heading up to the fourth floor! I wonder if anyone's noticed that I changed the way I battle a little. I've tried to make it a little more adventurous – Yuffie hanging on the ceiling, Cid catching her with his spear. If you can't tell, it's because I watched Advent Children and saw that they are INCREDIBLY adventurous with their fighting. As such I will be employing a lot more adventurous tactics from now on – so the fighting sequences should be better. And no comments like 'SHE CAN'T DO THAT!' Watch Advent Children and tell me they don't defy the laws of gravity!