Chapter 33
Outcast Last Stand
Cloud, Aeris and Tifa found their way to the portal that led into Centre Time easily enough thanks to Aeris.
"It'll only open if you want it to, Cloud," Aeris said, "just walk through, we'll follow."
Cloud nodded and walked up to the strange swirling object floating in the air. Cloud stepped into it and felt as if he had been lifted off the ground. It felt similar to the sensation of levitation.
Then, suddenly, he was back on solid ground. Coincidentally, or not so coincidentally, he appeared only a few feet from where his friends were gathered. Aeris and Tifa came into existence just behind him.
"We're back," Tifa said.
"No Outcasts," Cloud said looking around.
"Guess there's no chance they took a wrong turn somewhere?" asked Tifa knowing the answer.
The three walked toward the group and everyone gathered around when they noticed who had come back.
"Where's that Sam guy?" asked Yuffie.
"He'll be around in a while, he had to do something first," Aeris replied.
"I gather he found you," Red XIII said, "was there a problem?"
"Yes," Aeris said, "one that could become all our problems very soon."
Aeris explained as quickly as possible about the Outcasts and how they may have found a way to travel into this existence without the key.
"Sam did that, didn't he?" asked Tifa.
"Sam can manipulate existences in a way no other Cetra can, he's the only person who should be able to do it," Aeris explained.
"So where are these guys then?" asked Cid.
"I'm not sure, they must be here, somewhere," Aeris said.
"I'll get the Highwind in the air, see if I can see anything," Cid said.
"I don't think that'll be necessary, Cid," Vincent said, "you can see them from here."
Everyone looked to where Vincent was pointing. Off in the distance a single, large, airship was visible.
"That's the Outcast flagship," Cloud said, "looks like that's all they could manage to get through in time."
"Lucky for us," Red XIII said.
Wymond looked at Cid, "The Highwind doesn't stand a chance against that airship, though I think Chaos might be useful here."
Vincent nodded.
"The rest of you might want to start thinking of a plan," Wymond said.
"I don't care who you kill out of them," Sam said appearing randomly behind them all, they turned to look in surprise, "just leave the leader for me."
Tifa looked at Aeris curiously.
"Stole his girlfriend," Aeris whispered.
"Oh," Tifa said.
"I'll be back," Vincent said and started running in the direction of the airship.
"When that thing goes down there's gonna be one hell of a swarm of bad guys," Wymond said, "Cid, I think your airship may be more useful when that happens."
"You got it," Cid said heading for the Highwind.
"Wymond," Sam said walking up to him, "if you run into Charna before I do tell her I said good bye."
Wymond nodded.
§
Vincent became Chaos in mid-run and shot up into the air, Death Penalty drawn and aimed. No fooling around this time, he had to get the airship out of the air as soon as possible. Chaos opened fire and his rounds hit a shield around the ship. This didn't slow Chaos down any however, as he was sure eventually his bullets would outlast the shield.
Bullets ripped into the ship's defenses and the airship began fighting back. Guns opened fire and bullets swarmed out at Chaos. Some hit their mark but the winged creature just seemed to shrug it off. Then a missile exploded out from the ship, followed by another and after the volley was done there were about ten heading Chaos' way.
Chaos lowered his big pistol and rocketed forward, wings back like a bird of prey diving for its target. Chaos became his signature crimson streak and when he came to a stop behind the missiles they exploded uselessly behind him. He began firing again, this time shooting around the airship and firing at all different sides making it impossible for the ship's weapons to even begin to fire at him.
After only a few minutes the shields gave out, from there on there was no resistance against Chaos. The ship picked up speed to try and outrun him but it was no use, Chaos didn't even have to flap his wings harder to keep pace. Death Penalty blew large holes into the hull of the ship taking out most or all of the ship's necessary systems along the way.
Soon, the Cetra Resurrection simply didn't have anything left working in it to fly and began to nose dive. The vessel crashed violently into the ground creating quite the crater in the ground, and due to the force of the crash the front of the ship was crushed and driven backward a little so it was almost like the middle of the ship was now the front. Its momentum finally died and came to a halt, it lay useless on the ground, smoke and fire coming out of the countless holes and tears in its armour.
Chaos floated above the airship for a while and then returned to the group which was now not so far away, the damaged ship had still made some progress.
He landed in front of the others and nodded, "Now we just wait for them to attack."
"They're probably pissed," Sam said, "we won't have to wait too long."
Sam was correct, almost immediately Outcasts exited the airship and attempted to organize themselves.
"If you all worked on any kind of plan, now's the time," Chaos said.
As if in response, the Highwind rocketed overhead.
"There's phase one," Sam said grinning.
It would have been far too easy if Cid's ship could have wiped out all of the Outcasts right there; it appeared Fear had brought his best Outcasts with him on this trip.
Though Cid's missiles and bullets did spell the end of the battle for a great number of the force, the remaining Outcasts managed to redirect the attacks and some even reflected them back at the Highwind. Cid's airship took damage and after waiting until the very last moment he decided to pull out and come back to the group.
When he was done the Outcast numbers were a little more even to their group's numbers.
"We're still outnumbered," Red XIII said.
"Yeah," Cloud said, "when haven't we been?"
"Okay people, here's a thirty second lesson on Outcasts," Sam said, "they're tough so don't underestimate them obviously, the guy with the knives and two swords is their leader, I'm killing him. The chick usually beside him with one sword is Charna, the one that fights with his fists like Tifa here is Foret, and the guy with the gun is Mardra. These are the most important people, the rest are just Outcast lackeys you could probably kill anyways."
"I've got Foret then I guess," Tifa said.
"I'll find Mardra," Chaos added.
"Charna is the strongest next to Feardorcha, the leader, so I don't recommend anyone really go up against her alone," Sam said, "except maybe Wymond here."
Wymond nodded and gestured toward the Outcasts, "If I get a chance I'll see what I can do."
"The Outcasts are moving," Cloud said drawing his sword.
They were indeed, running at full speed toward them.
"I'm sure you've all fought worse so this should be a walk in the park," Sam said.
"We'll let you know when it's over, I'm sure," Red XIII replied.
"Barret, some bullets would be nice here I think," Wymond said.
"You got it," Barret growled and stepped out front, aiming his gun arm.
"Here we go," Sam muttered looking at the staff in his hand; he'd use it if he had to.
Barret's gun fired a wave of bullets that exploded into the group of charging enemies. Some Outcasts fell but most managed to deflect the wave of bullets coming at them.
Fear, Charna, Foret and Mardra, who were at the very back of the charging group made efforts to fire back. Mardra leveled his rifle in mid run and aimed for Barret.
"Heads up," Sam said holding up his right hand, he had anticipated Mardra's shot.
A single rifle bullet floated in front of Barret, stopped dead only a few inches from hitting him in the head.
Sam flicked his wrist and the bullet fell to the ground.
"You think that's tricky I can do a whole bunch of Matrix-style stuff," Sam said.
No one knew what he was talking about, and at this point none of them were really listening anyways.
The Outcasts were closing in fast.
"Alright, time we did our own charge here," Wymond said, "right down the centre, split the force in half, those of you gunning for a high ranking Outcast they'll be in the back."
Chaos shot up into the air and rocketed toward the force of Outcasts.
"Go!" Wymond yelled.
Every one of them standing there charged forward, standing still wasn't going to win them the battle anyways.
Wymond and Sam ended up out front of the charge with Cloud and the others just behind. Barret was still firing in mid run and Aeris had begun throwing her own offensive magic attacks at the Outcasts.
Above, Chaos rained bullets down on the Outcasts from Death Penalty. He spotted Mardra easily; the Outcast was aiming a rifle up at Chaos. He did a flip in the air and the rifle bullet shot past him harmlessly. Chaos then dived downward, straight toward his target.
The rest of the force created a wedge and, as suggested, chopped the enemy group right in half. Everyone continued running, chopping through and shooting as many Outcasts as possible as they went.
The Outcasts were strong enemies, but Cloud and his allies had been through much worse. Over all the Outcasts never stood a chance.
Tifa spotted the only Outcast without a drawn weapon, knowing this must have been Foret she charged toward him.
Foret noticed the single female heading toward him and turned to face her, he recognized her slightly from other existences.
Tifa jumped into a kick that Foret knocked aside and jumped backward, Tifa moved forward with a whirlwind of punches and kicks that Foret had to move drastically to the left to dodge. He came back with his own punch that sent Tifa flying head over heels and on to the ground.
"You were a lot better in different worlds I must say," Foret commented walking toward her, "strange the weakest one would be found in the most important existence."
Tifa kicked from the ground and Foret jumped back, the attack fell short, it gave Tifa time to get back on her feet though. She ran forward and attacked again, Foret blocked and countered with a knee to the stomach. Tifa staggered back, the Outcast attempted to take her down while she was staggered but Tifa recovered faster than he had expected and she spun on the ground taking his feet right out from under him.
Aeris smashed one Outcast across the face with her staff and jabbed the bottom backward to hit another Outcast behind her in the stomach, he doubled over. Then she turned and smashed him over the head, two Outcasts down. Aeris jabbed the staff into the ground and a wave of blue energy shot outward knocking the Outcasts near her off their feet.
Cloud broke his single sword into two and began fending off Outcasts from all angles. Suddenly, the Outcasts around him floated off their feet and dangled helplessly in the air.
Sam walked up and stood beside Cloud casually, "So, how's it going?"
Cloud realized soon enough it was Sam's doing, "Oh you know, did a little time travel, visited other existences, worked on saving the world."
"So then an altogether uneventful week, eh?" asked Sam. "That's okay, it'll get more interesting."
Sam flicked his wrist and the floating Outcasts shot backward and knocked into other Outcasts.
Cid spun his spear around knocking multiple Outcasts off their feet at one time, then he turned and jabbed the dull end back staggering an enemy behind, then jabbed the deadly end forward killing the enemy in front. Cid elbowed an incoming Outcast and dropped him to the ground, then used the same arm to grab a lighter and light up a new cigarette.
Red XIII charged through the Outcasts knocking them aside like a bowling ball through pins, Cait Sith hung on to his back for dear life, his feet were flying up in the air.
"What in blazes are you doing, you're gonna get us killed!" Cait Sith yelled.
Red XIII ignored his passenger and barreled into another Outcast, he stopped suddenly as Yuffie stepped into his path.
"Sorry," she said sidestepping Red XIII and kicking an Outcast in the face simultaneously. "Go ahead."
Red XIII nodded, "Thank you."
He continued on his way.
Tifa and Foret were caught in a constant battle of attack and counter attack, these actions had become so fast that mostly it was all just a blur to the eye. Tifa ducked a punch and came up with an uppercut then sent Foret flying and landing painfully a few feet away. He popped back to his feet and charged at her, in mid run he jumped into a kick that connected solidly with Tifa's stomach knocking her off her feet.
Chaos and Mardra traded shots, both were missing almost constantly. Mardra's rifle shots up at Chaos were sometimes close but mostly he had to worry about Chaos' deadly accurate shots from Death Penalty. Chaos tried a different tactic and landed, he started walking toward Mardra. Mardra's rifle shots fired straight but Death Penalty's projectiles simply incinerated Mardra's shots and continued on toward the Outcast.
Aeris parried a sword and then used her staff to smash the attacking Outcast in the legs sending him to the ground. She turned a little to her left to regard an attacking Outcast when Cloud ran past using one of his two swords to slash along his back, the Outcast fell dead.
"Thank you," Aeris muttered and spun a full one-eighty to knock an Outcast out cold with her staff.
The battle between the Outcast lackeys and the others seemed to go on forever, at some points the sheer number of Outcast would allow them to land a shot on their enemies but it was a true tribute to the power of Cloud and his allies, the fact that none of them were any closer to being killed by the superior-numbered enemy.
"Alright," Sam muttered, "time to clear away some of this mess."
He held up the staff and summoned only one creature, that wouldn't drain too much energy to do.
Shiva appeared and quickly fired a blanket of ice over a great number of the Outcasts. Those that were frozen shattered instantly when hit and those that weren't hit began to shatter over time anyways.
Cloud spun like a top with his double swords through the large group of frozen Outcasts. Each one his sword touched shattered into a million jagged shards, when Cloud was done there were hardly any frozen Outcasts left.
Tifa ducked another roundhouse kick and gave her own, this one connected, Foret was staggered backward. She didn't stop, she used her enemy's disoriented state to get in a quick flurry of punches and kicks that finally put Foret on the ground, and among other injuries his nose was broken.
Foret got to his feet slowly and looked at Tifa, it took a moment for his vision to clear. He raised his fists again and made for one last charge, he knew he only had one more in him. He ran forward and in the middle of his charge fired a beam of green energy from his hands that he thought caught Tifa completely by surprise.
Tifa however, had just managed to jump over the attack and fly through the air, landing gracefully right behind Foret.
"Foret," Sam said walking up in front of him, "you look kind of beat up, I guess that's better than how you're about to look: dead."
Tifa jabbed her elbow into the back of Foret's neck and it was audible that something snapped and crackled, the Outcast fell limply to the ground.
Sam walked over to the dead Outcast and knelt beside him, "You chose the wrong side this time, my friend."
Tifa looked at Sam and Foret, "You knew him?"
"I used to be an Outcast," Sam replied, "I know all of these people."
Tifa was lost for words, the only thing she could think to say was, "Sorry."
"That's okay, if you hadn't killed him I would have," Sam said, "it looked way cooler you doing it though. That whole, back of the neck snap thing was awesome."
"Thanks," Tifa replied, again short for words.
Sam noticed something over Tifa's shoulder, Feardorcha.
"Well, business calls," Sam said, "don't go getting yourself killed."
Sam walked past her and toward Fear.
Cloud kicked forward and knocked an Outcast backward; he crossed both swords over each other like scissors and chopped off the Outcast's head. Wymond came around from behind Cloud and did likewise with his own sword to two other Outcasts.
"Can't be very many left at this point," Wymond said dropping down under a sword and jabbing his own up into the Outcast's stomach.
Cloud looked around, the enemy ranks were clear enough that he could pretty much make out how many of the Outcasts were dead and where his allies were fighting. Then Cloud spotted Fear, "Oh no."
"What?" asked Wymond.
Across where Fear was, Sam walked up toward the Outcast leader slowly. It took Sam a moment to realize who else was in the area, Aeris was finishing off the last of her Outcast enemies, Fear was behind her.
"Ah, shit," Sam growled and changed his walk into a sprint, Fear drew his sword.
"Aeris, behind you!" Sam yelled.
She couldn't hear him.
"Deaf broad," Sam muttered and ran as fast as he possibly could, it appeared Feardorcha's rule on not killing fellow Cetra wasn't in effect anymore.
Fear brought the sword down and stabbed it into Aeris' back.
"Son of a bitch," Sam growled.
Fear looked confused, the sword wasn't in anyone's back, and Aeris was lying on the ground.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you it's not nice to stab people?" asked Sam, Fear's sword was in fact through Sam's stomach and not Aeris' back. Sam had pushed her out of the way.
Sam flipped his staff around and took the sharper jagged bottom and drove it violently into Fear's stomach, the Outcast stood in shock wide-eyed.
"Hurts, don't it, asshole?" asked Sam, Fear let go of his sword and Sam fell to the ground. Fear looked at the staff through his stomach and followed after.
"Sam!" Aeris yelled getting up and running over to him, she knelt down.
"Could you possibly pull the fucking sword out of my stomach?" asked Sam. "it's hard to get comfortable with the point sticking out of my back."
Cloud walked up and grabbed the hilt, "Ready?"
Sam nodded and Cloud ripped it out. Sam growled, his register of pain probably should have been a hell of a lot more, no one paid attention. There was also no blood.
"You saved me," Aeris said.
"Oh come on," Sam said, "no one here wanted to watch you get stabbed in the back twice, that's just getting old at this point."
Tifa ran over and knelt down at Sam's other side, "What happened?"
"I've fallen and I can't get up," Sam said grinning, "no I'm alright, give me a minute."
"You're alright?" asked Tifa.
"Yeah," Sam said, and then to everyone's shock he turned to his right and used his arms to push himself to his feet. "Gonna have some serious heartburn for a while, though."
"How…?" asked Aeris.
"Your memory is so bad during death scenes," Sam said, "what was my job as a Cetra before I became an Outcast?"
Aeris seemed to realize the answer, "Of course."
"What?" asked Tifa.
"I was given the exciting job of transporting dead people to the Lifestream," Sam said, "I'm the freaking Grim Reaper, death incarnate! You can't kill me I'm death itself, I work for the Lifestream, you can't just throw a guy like me back in there."
"Bastard," Fear growled lying on the ground.
"Him on the other hand," Sam said, "he can go back any time."
There was, unlike Sam, a lot of blood coming from Fear's wound.
"Samael!" came the yell of a female voice. They all turned to see the last standing Outcast.
"Charna, wondering when you'd show up," Sam said, "for the memory of our past lives, I'll give you five minutes to run away, the Outcasts are finished."
"You killed Fear," Charna said.
"That I did," Sam replied casually.
Charna drew her sword, "Revenge will be mine."
"Revenge will be yours," Sam said looking at the others, "there's cheesy lines 101 in Cetra school. Never took the course though, I was also more for Dramatic Arts myself."
"Do you really think you can kill me, Sam?" asked Charna walking toward him, sword readied.
Sam looked at her for a long moment, "I think you're right, I can't kill you. Not for lack of skill, in fact you're the sole person in the Outcasts I can claim to be completely unable to kill, because in some psychotic logic I still love you."
Sam pointed behind Charna, "My buddy, Vincent, however, he can."
Charna looked over her shoulder; behind her was Vincent Valentine no longer Chaos. His revolver aimed right at her.
"So, you have five minutes to run away," Sam said, "start leaving."
Charna let out a war cry and threw her sword at Sam. Vincent fired and the bullet impacted directly in the back of her head.
The blade flipped end over end toward Sam, the aim was dead on, unfortunately the velocity left something to be desired. Sam caught the weapon as it neared him and he looked at it almost sadly.
"Sorry," he muttered and then tossed the sword away.
"Where's Mardra?" asked Wymond.
"Dead," Vincent said walking toward the others.
There were no Outcasts left to fight.
--Well, it appears that time has come the next chapter will be the last. It's the saddest moment in FF history since Aeris dying or…that scene where Rinoa goes off because she's a sorceress…whatever. My point is, this story is almost done, so, for the sake of dramatic effect I will have my good bye author note on this page instead of ruining the last page with it. This sorta feels like I won a Grammy or something but I would like to thank the people who read and reviewed this story, your reviews alone kept me going. Every time I read one it just made me want to write more so merci buckets. A small thanks to Squaresoft for creating FF7 (because they weren't Square-Enix yet) you people are geniuses though they will never read this. And for any of those who are reading this I may yet write another FF7 Fanfic as I'd like to stay in this realm, maybe a sequal to this story perhaps. In any case if I do I likely won't be able to post as fast as I did for this one because school starts again soon and as I'm sure most of you are aware that does take up one's time. In any case, again, thanks a lot for reading hate it or not it is what it is…and it is about to be over, hope you like the ending, au revoir. (no I'm not French in any way I just sometimes throw it in here and there.)