Ch.4 Death and Demons
A red shadow raced across the plains, speeding towards Gold Saucer. Every few minutes or so Vincent would look back to ensure his companion was still following. Yuffie swore she'd make Sephiroth pay for all the running she'd had to endure. They had been in Costa Del Sol when Vincent got the call from Barrett. They started off immediately, running as fast as they could for the past forty minutes. Yuffie was pretty fast but she just couldn't keep up with Vincent, the vampire was always at least 100 yards in front of her.
' I don't see what's the big hurry,' Yuffie found herself thinking, 'Barrett said they'd already caught him.' Her vision started to blur, she let out a distressed yelp as she tripped on a rock. Vincent heard it and was at her side in a second.
"Yuffie!Yuffie!" he cried frantically until he realized she had just passed out from exhaustion. Vincent felt a small smile creep onto his lips as he looked down at his little ninja, he owed her more then she would ever know. After Lucrecia's death Vincent had locked his heart away in darkness with the hopes no one would ever find it, but Yuffie did. She brought him out of his darkness and showed him once more what love felt like. Though he really couldn't imagine how she could love someone like him or why she'd chosen so old. Sure physically he was 27, but in reality he was pushing 70. But these were thoughts for another time,for now he had to get to Gold Saucer. So he scooped Yuffie up into his arms and ran on.
After a few minutes Tifa finally regained control of herself and noticed a group of people coming their way. Two of them wore the forest green Avalanche uniforms, another four were in lab coats, but it was the leader that caught her attention. She was of medium height, had really dark skin, and shoulder length blond hair tied in a ponytail. She was wearing a lab coat, a knee length white skirt, and stelleto heels.
"Darling, wadda you doing ere?" Barrett asked the woman,surprise evident in his voice.
"I'm here for the subject," she replied matter of factly. "Who is that?"she asked pointing to Tifa.
"Oh dis here's Tifa," Barrett said, "Tifa dis heres my wife, Madeline." Tifa walked over and shook Madeline's hand.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," she said.
"Likewise," Madeline replied in a cold, disinterested voice, "I'm going to take the subject to the lab now if thats alright with you dear?"
"Ya go ahead, just be careful." Barrett said,more then a little concerned.
"As always," Madeline replied, "alright, go get him." And with that her cohorts entered Sephiroth's cell and untied him. They injected some stuff into him, then bound him to an operating table that happened to be in the room.
"Wait a minute what's going on?" Tifa asked, panic building in her voice. "Where are you taking him?!"
"To our lab of course," Madeline explained in an irritated voice, "if we can figure out how Hojo engineered this monstrosity, we can apply that to our own troops. The advantages this would give us are fairly obvious."
"NO!" Tifa shouted, once again attempting to defend the man she used to hate with every ounce of her soul, "You can't do that!" Madeline ignored her and walked off in the direction she'd come from. The soldiers were pushing the bed with the scientists all circling around it writing down theories,observations and such.
"Stop!" Tifa yelled at them but they paid no mind, "Hey I said STOP!" She ran over and punched one of the soldiers in the gut, making him fall to his knees. The other lunged at her but she dodged easily and delivered a roundhouse kick to his face,knocking him out. By this time Barrett and Cid had gotten over their shock and ran to restrain Tifa.
"Tifa calm down!" Barrett said in an almost pleading voice. But the harder the tried to restrain her the harder Tifa struggled. Madeline had showed back up and pulled a syringe from her pocket.
"Hold her still," she commanded. As she stuck the syringe into her arm Tifa let out a desperate howl. Hearing this gave Sephiroth the strength he needed to break his bonds. In a second he was up,he slammed Madeline's head into the narrow hallway's concrete wall then he broke Cid's nose with his fist causing him to double over. He then head butted Highwind knocking him out. Seeing his wife and bro get manhandled sent Barrett into a blinding rage.
"Why you damn coward!" he screamed as he opened fire. Fortunately Barrett wasn't much of a marksman to begin with,add Sephiroth's speed and the fact that he was blind with rage and it wasn't much of a surprise not one bullet found it's mark.
"Tsk,tsk tsk..." Sephiroth mocked appearing right in front of Barrett. Sephiroth grabbed him by the neck and threw him through the wall. One of the downed soldiers pushed something and alarms started sounding. Sephiroth walked over to where Tifa lay and pulled her up gently.
"Goodbye milady," he said, "It would be best if we never met again."
"But..." Tifa said,unsure of how to go on, "But I don't wanna lose you."
Sephiroth looked down at her with a confused look on his face, then he leaned over, wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her. Tifa wrapped her fingers in his hair and gave over to the moment. For what seemed like ages they stood in each others arms, and for the first time in what seemed like forever Tifa felt happy. But this happiness was not to last as a squad of soldiers rounded the corner.
"Forgive me," Sephiroth whispered, and with that he vanished down the hall the soldiers hot on his heels. Tifa fell to her knees overcome with emotions. For several minutes she sat there in a dazed state trying to decide what to do. After a few minutes of thought she got up, yanked the needle out of her arm and ran after Sephiroth.
"At least none of my friends saw that," she mumbled as she ran in the direction Sephiroth went.
Madeline smirked as she thought of how best to use this new found knowledge against Sephiroth.
The soldiers cornered Sephiroth in the theater district, which had been converted into a war room. Masumane materialized in his hand and the dance began. The drugs kept him from ever reaching his full potential but he was still an amazing sight to behold. With an effortless grace that a dancer would have envied Sephiroth set about killing the Avalanche soldier squads. Sephiroth whirled about slicing through soldier after soldier in his majestic dance of death. In a minute it was over, all but one of the 52 soldiers were dead. Sephiroth grabbed the survivor by the throat and slammed him against the wall.
"Tell me how to get out of here," he ordered, "before I rip your lungs out."
"T-t-that way," the soldier stammered pointing towards the door, "just g-go d-d-down the stairs, it's the third door on the left."
"Thank you," Sephiroth said an evil grin appearing on his face, "I hope you enjoy the after life."
"W-what??!!!!" the soldier exclaimed, "but i told you what you wanted to know!"
"Whats your point?"
"W-well I t-t-t-told you so you wouldn't kill me!"
"When did we make that arrangement?"
The soldier screamed as Sephiroth tossed him into the air and casually sliced him in half diagonally. He surveyed his work with satisfaction. Not one soldier was still in more then three pieces, blood drenched the room, and organs adorned the furniture. He strode out leaving the butcher shop from hell behind him. Another ten soldiers fell at the top of the stairs, and another ten a level after that. In fact every two or three levels Sephiroth would have to stop and massacre another squad or two.
'These pathetic worms are growing tiresome,' Sephiroth thought as he descended. But gradually the waves became more and more tiresome as robots,fiends, and the Avalanche version of the Turks were called out. The fiends were pushovers: mostly mandragoras, goblins, mono drives, 2 faces and a few Ghirofelgos. The robots didn't do much better: just some salvaged mighty grunts and a few 1st rays. And while the Avalanche Turks(known as Snakes) were good, they weren't trained for this sorta thing. Sure they could out fight any of the regulars, but they were used to guerrilla warfare,hit and run type stuff. They weren't prepared to face a foe like Sephiroth in close quarters, needless to say their ranks were severely thinned this day.
After dispatching anther wave Sephiroth stopped and drank a few potions he looted from corpses on the way down . He looked over the railing and after seeing the almost endless mess of stairs contemplated whether he should have made that soldier suffer for not telling him where the elevator was.
Tifa couldn't believe how fast Sephiroth was moving. She knew he was strong, the numberless corpses she had passed were a testament to that, but she figured they might slow him down long enough for her to catch up to him. She still wasn't entirely certain why she didn't hate him,why she didn't want to hurt him for all the pain he'd caused her. Maybe it was because she saw a different person there, or maybe it was just because he reminded her of Cloud. Albeit a taller, more intelligent Cloud with a massive debt to the planet and all it's inhabitants.
She paused to catch her breath and listen for the sounds of fighting. Sure enough she heard them, which was no surprise since they'd been heard off and on for the past ten minutes, but this time they sounded closer. She looked down and saw flashes from gunfire about seven levels down. Tifa started off with renewed vigor, maybe she could love him. Maybe... well she wasn't about to let a chance at happiness pass her by.
Half a minute later she came upon the site of Sephiroth's latest massacre, it was the biggest yet. Corpses of fiends,regulars,and Snakes were strewn about with the occasional machine. But there was one thing that caught Tifa's eye, masumane was sticking out of the corpse of a Snake captain. Sephiroth would never leave his beloved sword behind. In fact it was a surprise he wasn't still tearing the detention level to pieces in search of his trench coat.
"Tifa..." The whisper was so hoarse she could barely make it out. Tifa quickly determined it's source as a man sitting with his back against the wall. He was drenched in oil,and blood. It took her a few moments to realize that the figure before her was Sephiroth.
"Oh my..." she said as she rushed over and dropped to her knees next to him, "What happened? Are you alright? Can you stand?"
"One of those guys... the camo...cough. got... me...think his weapon... poisoned." Sephiroth managed to say.
"Stay here," Tifa said, panic raising in her voice, "I'll find an antidote!" After several minutes of digging through the pockets of corpses she finally found one.
"This should help," she said as she injected it into him, "Now put your disgusting arm around me and lets be off."
"No... leave me," Sephiroth whispered, "leave...before i kill you like... URGH!" Tifa jabbed him in the side with her elbow.
"I'll not put up with your foolishness or your empty threats," Tifa scolded, "Now pick up your sword and lets get going."
"Why are you doing this?" Sephiroth asked as he picked up masumane.
"Well I figured it was time for me to start dating again and you seemed like my kind of guy." Tifa replied, " Though I'm more fond of my knight saving me then me saving my knight." Sephiroth growled and Tifa burst into laughter.
"Come on lets go before more soldiers show up."
Unbeknownst to them the pursuit had been temporarily called off.
The leaders of Avalanche met in the boardroom, since Sephiroth had left such a mess in the war room. Cid,Barrett, Madeline, Alfred(leader of the regulars), and Seth(head of the Snakes) were discussing what they should do about Sephiroth.
"I say we launch the damn airships and bomb the motherfucker when he comes out the front door!" shouted a rather angry Cid.
"That wouldn't work and you know it," Alfred, never known for his cool head, snapped, " we'd just harm ourselves and let Shinra know we're vulnerable."
"I agree," said Seth,as usual there wasn't a hint of emotion in his voice, "I think we should just let him go."
"Let im go!?!?!" Barrett shouted, "You outta yo mind? We can't jus let dat monster walk free!"
"I'm sorry sir but we just don't have the man power to stop him," Seth replied, " At the moment we've lost 1600 troops attempting to kill him."
"Sixteen-hundred?! How could we have lost that many?" Alfred demanded.
"We just kept sending them after him, battalion after battalion fell on the stairs in an attempt to kill him." Seth ansewered.
"Kill him?" Madeline spoke up, irritation evident in her voice, " I told you I wanted him alive!"
"We can't catch him,and even if we could he'd likely just escape again and take more men with him!" Alfred yelled, angry at the fact that what he was saying was true.
Silence followed, everyone was trying to come up with a plan. As unlikely as it sounds Barrett was the one that came up with it.
"I'll call Vince," he announced. So he did.
"Vince where are ya?" Barrett asked.
"2 miles from Gold Saucer," the vampire replied.
"Hurry it up,Sephiroth is loose and he's got Tifa!" Barrett all but shouted into the phone.
"Understood." And with that Vincent hung up. The leaders of Avalanche shared a grin, after going through all those men Sephiroth would have to be tired. Chaos could take him easy.
Even before Vincent could hang up the phone Yuffie had bounded out of his arms and started running.
"Comon Vinny!" She shouted anxiously over her shoulder, "We gotta save Tifa!" Yet even with her head start she could not match the demon's increased speed as he flew across the desert.
By the time they reached the bottom floor some of Sephiroth's strength had returned and he could walk on his own. He paused at the doors.
"Will you follow me Tifa?" Sephiroth asked looking her straight in the eye, "The journey ahead is hard and I fear it will take many weeks for my strength to recover."
"Yeah I'll come," Tifa said in a cheery voice, "besides whose going to save you if I'm not there?"
"You'll never let me live this down will you?" Sephiroth asked.
"Never." she answered playfully.
They walked out the doors into the training camp that had grown to replace the shacks and scrap of the previous town. Yet it was oddly quite, more like a ghost town then a boot camp.
"Where is everyone?" Sephiroth said half to himself, "I would have expected some form of last ditch attempt to kill me or something."
"Maybe they're all hiding?" Tifa suggested.
"But from wh..." he never got to finish the question that was just answered,as Chaos/Vincent flew in and threw Sephiroth through a building.
"Are you alright Tifa?" it asked in that strange twisted voice it had, it sounded half Vincent half demonic.Unfortunatly for him Sephiroth still had some fight left in him, he stood up and shot himself at the demon. For several minutes their battle raged on the ground, then they took to the air bouncing off buildings and such while exchanging blows. Tifa knew she should say something but she just couldn't shake off the awe she felt long enough to get the words out.
'What is he?' she found herself thinking,'He just single handedly killed his way through a small army, was poisoned, drugged, and still has the strength to go toe to toe with Chaos. Amazing.' Tifa's reverie was broken when a small ninja with a weapon disproportionate to her body slapped her in the face.
"Ow," Tifa said, " Yuffie what was that for?"
"Sorry Teef, but I've been yelling at you for two minutes now," Yuffie said, " I know Vince is gorgeous but he's mine, and we have more important things to do like beat Sephiroth."
"Beat Sephiroth?" Tifa asked not quite back to reality. Yuffie taped her fist on Tifa's head.
"Hello? Earth to Tifa, who does it look like Vinny's fighting?"
"What...oh," Tifa stammered finally coming back to reality, "Stop!Stop the fighting we're not enemies here!" It had somewhat of the desired reaction as everyone stopped and stared at her.
"Um Tifa, are you feeling ok?" Yuffie asked.
"I'm fine now can we please just talk this out?" Tifa yelled,it worked Vincent turned back into Vincent and Sephiroth put his sword up. They were all so shocked at her outburst they just went along with what she said.
"Ok now we gotta get outta here we can talk once we're away," Tifa ordered, nobody moved. They all just stood where they were trying to figure out what to do.
"Didn't you here me I said move!" Tifa ordered again,this time in a much louder more commanding voice. By this time Yuffie started to see the picture and herded Vincent out while Tifa did the same with Sephiroth.
Meanwhile the Avalanche leaders who had been watching the security camera footage all stood with their mouths open and one thought on their minds. What in the world just happened?
Author's Note: I apologize to my reviewers for releasing this monstrosity on you.If you couldn't tell this chapter gave me attacks from writers block prevented me from being able to pull this chapter together. After the next coulple of chapters the story should get better.At least i hope it will.