Chapter Thirteen: Through the Blizzard
For the most part, the team had gotten a good rest. The majority of the team were tired earlier, since their lack of sleep the previous night, and managed to get a good rest. Vincent, as usual, spent the night up and Cloud again had a long, sleepless night, his thoughts consumed with Sephiroth. Cloud was beginning to be frightened for his mental health, but he was convinced that once he managed to take down Sephiroth, everything would be alright.
Once everyone had woken up, they agreed to first eat, then shop, since this could be their last chance before their final battle, and finally they would journey north, prepared for whatever may come. They all left Ifalna's home and headed over towards the café inside of the inn, since it was the only restaurant in the town. Fortunately, they had a wide variety of breakfast foods, all ordering something rather large, except Vincent, who was satisfied with just a coffee.
Once they had finished their delicious breakfasts, they left towards the weapon's dealer, who was right near Ifalna's home. They didn't have much variety, which wasn't too surprising, since few journeyed anywhere outside of the town, but they still had some decent things. However, for Vincent and Barret, the selection was poor, as the only guns they had were hunting rifles, which really didn't serve much of a purpose on a real battle field.
Some also went to the clothes store that Tifa had visited the night before to get some good winter clothes. Barret and Yuffie especially needed it, in fact Vincent was surprised that the two had made it through the snowfield as well as they did. After shopping, Yuffie showed off her new attire to the group, twirling around in her blue jeans and a black snowboarding jacket.
"What do you think?" she asked spinning around.
"Looks great," Cid sarcastically answered, rolling his eyes at the young ninja, which caused Barret to laugh and agree.
"Hey!" Yuffie angrily shouted. To get her vengeance on the two older men, Yuffie crouched down, picked up a snowball in each of her hands, and threw them at the two. Cid got his in the chest while Barret was nearly nailed right in the face, but he managed to block it with his hand.
"Enough playing around," Cloud announced. "Let's go."
Cloud led them towards the northern exit of the town, where there was a loud slope that led down to the snowy plains they would have to cross. As they walked towards the large slope, someone ran up to them, blocking their way forward. "Wait!" the person exclaimed. "You can't go on! There's a blizzard down there tonight, and it can be really dangerous!"
"We'll be alright," Cloud told them, slightly annoyed by the woman's interference. "We have a map."
"Well, that's better than nothing…" the woman murmured. "But I don't think you know how dangerous a blizzard can be…"
"Not just the blizzard!" a female voice shouted from behind them. The team turned and was surprised to see Elena, accompanied with five Shinra SOLDIERs, all who followed closely behind. "Shinra's heading up there and I'm here to make sure that you guys don't keep going!"
"Ya think you can stop us?!" Barret bellowed, raising his gun arm. "Ya gotta be kiddin'!"
"You guys killed Tseng!" Elena shouted. "I won't forgive you!"
"Tseng?" Tifa asked. "That wasn't us. It was Sephiroth."
"That's a lie!"
"We're not lying!" Yuffie childishly shouted back. "It was Sephiroth!"
"Why would I believe that?! Guards!"
Instantly all the SOLDIERs raised their blades, prepared to charge at the slightly group. "Say the word, ma'am!"
"Get them!" Elena instantly screamed.
Instantly, Cloud, Vincent, Barret, and Yuffie sprang forward, while the others rushed to clear the area of civilians. Cloud quickly ran up, tore his massive sword out, and slashed one guard quickly across the chest, then finished him off with a cut across the neck. Vincent took out his shotgun and immediately fired a shot at one of the SOLDIERs, who quickly fell to the ground in a bloody mess, then took out his revolver and fired one shot into the nearest guard's chest and another into his skull. Barret quickly blasted away a guard with his gun-arm, while Yuffie first slashed the final guard with her boomerang and then finished him with a Fire 2 spell.
Now all that remained was Elena and by this point the area was clear of any civilians so the entire group had rejoined, eight against one, and they were blocking any path for escape. Elena looked like she was about to charge in her rage, then she came to her senses, realizing that she was vastly outnumbered. "Oh damn…" Elena murmured, then started to back up, looking behind her and seeing that the rest of the group was blocking her escape path.
"Why are you here?" Vincent asked, aiming his revolver at her head, should she act up.
"I… I was supposed to stop you…" Elena murmured, absolutely despising the idea of having to speak with the enemy. Perhaps it wasn't that as much as it was talking to the people who, she believed, killed Tseng.
"Just you?" Vincent asked, curious as to why they would send a single Turk instead of the whole team. "Where are the other two?"
"Yeah!" Yuffie hopped, glancing around the area. "Where's Reno and Rude?"
"…" Elena kept her mouth closed and looked towards her feet. She knew what she was supposed to do, the Turks have been trained to not answer any questions, through torture or death.
But… things have been so far on the edge lately, with Sephiroth slaughtering Shinra troops all over and the people of Midgar starting to ask questions that the company couldn't answer, which made it challenging for Shinra to cease the people's complaints. Although they do control nearly all the information going into Midgar, if something slips through, like it has, there was little they could do once it reaches the mass public. So far, Shinra hasn't commented anything about the Sephiroth occurrences until they can find and eliminate the threat then deny, deny, deny.
Vincent, being a Turk himself, knew that Elena must have sworn an oath to Shinra to withhold all secret information. However, he would have to convince the woman to go against that oath and, being a Turk, he knew one very effective measure to get answers.
Vincent walked up to the woman and bashed her cheek with the butt of his revolver, making her stumble back. "Answer us. Now," Vincent demanded.
"I…" Elena murmured.
Tifa watched this with a slight rage towards Vincent. AVALANCHE has had several encounters with the Turks by this point and they knew that, really, they weren't such bad people. She remembered when, at Gongaga, they found the Turks talking about girls and other things. Hearing these supposed heartless assassins talking like that made the whole group realize that the Turks were indeed human, although they were still their enemies.
"Vincent…" Tifa said, walking up to the newest Turk. Vincent glanced at her, but then she crouched down next to Elena. "Listen to me. We have to know what's going on. I know that your hurt over the loss of Tseng but… we're hurt over the loss of one of our friends too, Aeris… Sephiroth takes away loved ones from so many people… we have to stop him, we can even do it together."
"Together?" Elena asked, then laughed in the martial artist's face. "We're enemies! I know that you won't let me leave here alive!"
"You'll live, Elena," Vincent patiently told his enemy. "Just tell us why you are here alone. Where are the others?"
"…" Elena was silent, then looked up into the gunman's powerful red eyes. "You swear you'll let me go."
"Yes," Vincent told her.
"Reno and Rude are…" Elena ceased speaking, reconsidering, but then closed her eyes tight and defied her oath to Shinra. "They're protecting the others, who are heading to the Northern Crater."
"The Northern Crater?" Vincent asked. "How are they getting there?"
"Airship," Elena announced.
"When are they going to be there?"
Elena looked at her watch, slowly so that they would be aware that she wasn't reaching for a weapon, then answered, "Seven hours."
"Who is all heading there?" Cloud asked, walking up next to Vincent and Tifa.
"…" Elena was silent for a moment then sighed, figuring she had already gone this far, there was no backing out now nor a point in lying. "The president, Hojo, Scarlet, and Heidegger."
"What are they doing?" Cloud asked. "Is it for Sephiroth's reunion?"
"I don't know," Elena told him.
Instantly, Cloud swung his blade around and stopped it roughly two inches from her throat. "Don't lie. Tell me, now."
Elena almost let out a weep, but refused to show her weaknesses, as she was taught. "I really don't. We're paid to do a lot of things, but not to ask questions."
Cloud glanced at Vincent for confirmation, who nodded. He knew that often on missions that Turks are given names and locations of people, but not necessarily who they actually were. Also, Shinra themselves may not know what is actually going to happen there, except… Hojo might.
Vincent grimaced at the thought of Hojo, then focused back at his immediate threat. "Anything else?" Elena irritatingly asked.
Vincent returned his revolver to his holster, indicating he had asked all he thought they needed, Tifa shrugged, and finally Cloud returned his blade to its place. "That's enough," Cloud told the Turk.
She stood, glanced at all the members, then ran off before they were to reconsider their actions of letting her go. "We have to hurry," Cloud told his team, instantly turning to the hill that they would first have to travel down.
"Wait!" a middle aged man yelled, running out to the group before they left.
"Yeah?" Cloud asked, taking out the map and finding the fastest route to the crater, though he didn't think he would be able to find a way to get all the way there in only seven hours.
"We wanna thank you for helping us out with the Shinra, there," the man said. "We've had some trouble with Shinra in the past…"
"What is it?" Cloud impatiently asked. "We're in a hurry."
"Oh, sorry," the man said, then ran off towards a barn at the top of the hill. "Follow me!"
Cloud frowned, considering leaving the man, but followed him hoping for something that might help. They needed all the time they could get, he just hoped it would be worth it. They all followed the man to the barn, who then took out a key and unlocked the large barn doors, and within were five large black jeeps. The group instantly ran in and looked at the vehicles, Yuffie running up to one in particular (no one knowing why specifically that vehicle, since they all looked the same) and declared that it was the coolest one, gazing through the shaded windows at the interior.
"You like that one?" the man asked, taking out a set of keys from a cupboard on the wall and tossing it to the young ninja, who caught it and immediately unlocked the car, jumping into the front passenger seat.
"Thanks!" Cloud exclaimed, running over to the driver's door.
"Just be sure to return it," the man said with a grin.
The group, minus Yuffie, who couldn't hear what they were talking about from within the heavy jeep, all looked at each other. They all assumed that they would, seeing as how there's nowhere further north to go, only back this way, but there was always a chance that something would happen.
"We'll return it," Cloud said, quickly gazing over the group, hoping they would go along with it. None of them said a word. It wasn't until this moment that all of them realized just how close they were to finally finishing this whole ordeal. They had already gone so far and now was the final fight… with this in mind, they were all silent.
Cloud drove, Yuffie sat in the front passenger seat, Red XIII sat between the two seats on the ground, Vincent, Tifa, and Cid all sat in the back seats, with Tifa in the middle, then Cait Sith and Barret sat in the far back.
Traveling through the thick snow was an amazing challenge, even for the enormous jeep. At first, it wasn't horrible, it was slippery going down the hill, but it was manageable. Then, once they reached the bottom of the hill, it suddenly became amazingly thick. It seemed to be constantly snowing, making them unable to see too far ahead of them, so they tried as hard as they could to watch their position on the map.
The path was hard even for the massive jeep to drive through. The wind was strong against the jeep, making it challenging to continue to go straight. All the snow was too challenging to drive through, occasionally they would get stuck. When this would happen, Vincent, Cloud, Barret, Cid, and Cait Sith would all get out while Tifa would try to drive the vehicle out of the snow bank.
They traveled through the snow for four long hours, and, according to the map, they should have been close to the crater. However, it was hard to tell where they really were on the map. At first it was easier, not easy but easier, since there were some landmarks and paths, but now it was just plains until they finally reached the crater. With the heavy wind and constant snowfall, it was hard to make sure that they were still going the right way.
"How much longer?!" Yuffie whined. She had been complaining for a few hours but she wouldn't have to complain for much longer. Vincent didn't know how far away the crater must be, but he did know that the jeep had to be running low on gas, especially since they had been pushing it so hard through the snow.
"It shouldn't be much longer…" Cloud murmured from behind the wheel. He had been repeating that to her ever since she had been asking, to which she always said…
"Better be!"
After maybe another half hour of driving through the tough snow, they had finally reached the base of the mountain, and a cabin just nearby. Everyone got out of the car and looked at the mountain, seeing that it was nearly a 90 degree angle straight up, with ledges occasionally sticking out.
"Oh man!" Yuffie cried out. "How are we supposed to climb that?!"
"Damnit!" Cloud cursed. "Shit!"
Cloud seemed like he was starting to lose it to his friends, and they were dead on. All this time, the voice had been getting stronger and stronger in Cloud's mind. Go, go, faster, faster, Sephiroth is just ahead it would taunt. No! the voice in Cloud's mind was currently bellowing. Keep going! You'll find a way!
"Let's go up closer," Cloud said, interrupting a conversation that he hadn't been aware of since he had been speaking with the voice. "Maybe we'll find something up there!"
Without a word from the others, Cloud started walking up towards the mountain. "Wait, Cloud," Vincent spoke. "There's a cabin just over there, perhaps someone lives there."
"Oh yeah!" Cid exclaimed. "At the inn, they said some guy named… uh… Holsof, or something li-"
"Holzoff, actually," said someone from behind. Instantly, Vincent spun around, his hand already on the butt of his revolver, however, he saw that it was just some older man who had managed to get behind them since they couldn't hear over the wind and their own talking.
"Do you know any way to climb this thing?" Cloud instantly asked, seeming mad in his task of scaling the mountain.
"Yes… my climbing partner, Yamski, and I used to climb this mountain," the old man began. "I must warn you, before you go up there. The wind is biting cold, the first time Yamski and I climbed the mountain we were… unprepared. I was ahead of Yamski and… because of the bitter cold… he cut his own rope and… and I never noticed… ever since then, I had been climbing the mountain and offering assistance to any of those who try to challenge the mountain themselves…"
Everyone had listened careful to the old man's story, realizing just how important it was that they were careful on their journey upwards. Cloud, however, wasn't listening at all as soon as he realized the old man was telling a story and not how to climb the mountain. Impatiently, Cloud then said, "How do we climb it, then?"
Everyone gave Cloud a cold glare, except for Vincent who didn't seem to care, for completely disrespecting the old man and his story. However, the old man seemed unaffected by the leader's rude behavior. "I have already set up ropes which you can climb, however, sometimes they snap so be sure to look and make sure they are all still connected, but this is hard due to heavy snow. And, like I said, the wind is bitter, so, on every ledge, be sure to warm up."
Cloud nodded, then turned back to the mountain, "Thanks, now lets go."
"Wait! You should rest first!" Holzoff exclaimed. "You can't climb the mountain just like that."
"We don't have any time," Cloud grumbled, then starting walking towards the mountain. "Let's move out, team."
Everyone grumbled, but he was right. According to Elena, the Shinra would be there in seven hours, although that had been at least four hours ago. The team walked up to the base and after a short while they found the first rope that was actually connected. Cloud led the team up with no hesitation, and moved much faster than the rest of them, ignoring their pleas to slow.
It was hard for a lot of the team to make it up the ropes, but Vincent and Yuffie helped them along the way. Vincent, seeing that Cloud was basically ignoring the group, took the rear of the group and carried Nanaki on his back, and occasionally helped the others when they were unsteady. Yuffie also was a great help because she was able to climb up the rope with expertise thanks to her Ninja classes. At first she was right behind Cloud, but then when she realized they were leaving the group behind, she quickly fell back and helped the others like Vincent.
Once the entire group reached the entrance of the cave, everyone was breathing heavily, especially Barret. Cloud, however, was already walking into the cave, drawing his weapon and telling the others that they were just going to run through the cave. "What?!" Barret bellowed. "Let's break for lunch! We all tired!"
"Cloud, Barret's right," Vincent spoke, walking to the front of the group. Vincent was noticing that his leadership skills that he learned in the Turks would occasionally peek through and he would be the voice of the group. "We would be useless if we go on like this, and we especially won't be able to run."
"We have to keep moving!" Cloud suddenly shouted. The group all looked wide eyed at Cloud, when he realized what he had done. "I… I'm sorry…" Cloud murmured, shaking his head, then quickly regaining his posture and walking back to the group. "Of course we should break for lunch."
"Good," Barret grumbled, instantly falling to the ground.
"What do you guys want?" Tifa asked, digging through Cait Sith's backpack .
"Just be sure to make it quickly," Cloud told the group. "We don't have much time left and we don't know how long it'll take to get to the crater."
Tifa nodded. Everyone knew that Cloud was pushing them too hard, but he was right. They had to beat Shinra there. Who knows what they would do to the situation, but it'll almost definitely not help.
Tifa was just glad that Vincent had stood up for the group and told Cloud that they should stop. She was surprised that Vincent spoke up for them, since he didn't really seem to care what the group did at all and, knowing how strong Vincent was, he probably could have easy kept going. But, she supposed he knew what was best for the group, he usually did. Maybe it had something to do with him being a leader of the Turks so long ago, like those days were starting to seep through his emotional wall.
She was glad at this development in Vincent. Maybe it was her who was helping him go back to his personality, but it didn't really matter, just as long as he becomes more… human. Tifa didn't like to think it that way, but it really was the best way she could think of to explain it.
After lunch, Cloud rushed the team forward through the cavern. He ran far ahead of them, trying to find the right path as quickly as he could. As they dashed through the ice cavern, many foes encountered them. With Cloud always running ahead to find the right path, it left the rest of the group to take down the monsters. However, it wasn't too challenging, but, after a short while, Vincent felt very strange.
He couldn't quite explain how he felt. His mind felt very pressured and his skull tight, as though he were suffering from a headache. Hauntingly, he heard demonic howling inside of his head, as if something horrible was happening, or, perhaps, being created. He had been aware of Galian Beast's presence in his mind ever since the first time he had woken up in the Shinra mansion basement and it felt somewhat like that… but something more.
This felt like something horrible, perhaps Galian Beast was evolving, or maybe it was a whole other demon that was being birthed inside of his mind. Vincent was horrified at the thought. Just when, maybe, he was starting to gain some of his old habits, something new happens as if just to prove that he isn't human and probably will never regain that humanity he had before.
Due to all these thoughts going through his mind, he was very silent, which dismayed Tifa. Tifa had started walking next to him, hoping to have some sort of conversation, but instead he just walked silently looking down towards the ground, seeming deep in thought. Then, whenever any monsters would appear, Vincent would almost mechanically take out his gun and fight the monsters. Afterwards, he would quickly return to his former position of being deep in thought.
Fortunately for Vincent, the pain in his mind slowly began to cease, but he certainly felt a new presence there, one alongside of Galian Beast. Vincent felt as though he were being sucked dry from his humanity with the new presence in his mind, another monster no less. However, he decided that, over all, it was probably an advantage for the team. With this fight coming up soon, it would be nice to have another powerful demon on their side, despite the fact that Vincent despised using his powers.
After about an hour or two of traveling through the caverns they finally made to what it seemed to be the exit. However, they found one of the strange men in the large black overcoat, oddly enough he was lying on the ground, the group was unsure if he was even alive. Tifa quickly ran up to the fallen man and checked for vitals, surprised to find that it was there, although beating very slowly.
"He's alive!" Tifa exclaimed as the rest of the group huddled around her, except for Cloud who seemed impatient.
"S-Seph... Sephiroth…" the man murmured, then started to crawl forward towards the exit of the cavern.
Everyone watched in silence as he crawled roughly fifteen feet ahead of them, when suddenly, an enormous, two headed beast leapt through the wall, scoped up the body, and quickly swallowed the person down it's right throat. Each head had a long throat and looked identical, except for the color with one being red and the other being an icy blue. It had a large, thick scaly body, not unlike a snake's, and it echoed a horrendous roar at the group.
Cloud, with his sword already out, charged at the monster, leapt up and slashed at it's blue head. Once he had done that, the red head shot a Fire 2 spell at Cloud and the blue head followed with an Ice 2 spell. Yuffie quickly caught on about the weaknesses and cast a Fire 2 spell at the blue head and Cait Sith shot an Ice 2 spell at the red head.
"Shit, we'll split into teams!" Cloud shouted. "Vincent, Tifa, Red XIII, and Yuffie take care of the red head and Cid, Barret, Cait Sith, and I will take care of the blue head!"
The group quickly obliged and split into the teams. In Vincent's team, Tifa and Red XIII attacked with magic while Vincent and Yuffie each attacked the head with their long range weapons. The head managed to get a few attacks in, but the team was managing to keep the upper hand, and it looked like the same was happening with the other team.
Then everything changed. The two heads cast a devastating Earth spell which hit both teams, scrambling all of them. Then the two heads took the upper hand and quickly cast their fire and ice spells over the entire team. Vincent then knew that this would be the time to try out that new presence that is in his head.
Vincent felt for it and allowed it to take control. Vincent let out an awesome roar and charged for the beast as his muscles began to grow rapidly and over his clothes, like with Galian's transformation. This time, however, Vincent didn't grow purple fur but his skin turned green and his muscles buldged much larger than Galian Beast's. His chest grew out and short orange hair grew over his usual raven dark hair.
By the time the transformation was complete, this new monster had reached the two headed beast and slammed his massive fist into the beast's body, causing it to slide back due to the massive impact. Now the team could see Vincent's new form in its entirety. The beast still looked humanoid, although it was still at least three times the size of Barret, and with its green skin it reminded the team of the Frankenstein monster from the old horror movies, except for the lack of bolts in the side of its neck.
While the two headed monster was pushed back, the Vincent-monster raised its arms and bolts of lightning flew out of each and struck both the heads. Vincent then charged up and repeatedly smashed it's massive fists into each of the heads. The monster bellowed in rage and each head cast either a Fire 2 spell or an Ice 2 spell.
The Vincent-monster was struck back, but not too badly, and quickly used it's lightning spell on the two heads again, finally finishing the titanic beast. The Frankenstein like monster roared in triumph, then slowly began to shrink back to Vincent's form. Once completely transformed back, Vincent turned towards the group breathing heavily once more, then fell to the ground and went unconscious, like he had before when he transformed to Galian Beast.
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