Chapter 10

"MEDIC!" cried one of the WRO troops as the loud clamor of battle filled the streets of Junon. Colonel Hargrove stood tall and surveyed the battlefield with his head held high, even when an exploding shell went off ten meters away. The streets of Junon were turned into a battlefield; large craters from grenades and artillery dotted the streets, multiple flaming holes riddled the buildings, and debris constantly rained down from above. The battle had been fought for nearly six hours now, and the sun was beginning to set in the west.

Normally in a battle, Hargrove would have called for an aerial bombing strike to simply wipe out the enemy, but this battle within a major WRO claimed city put the limit on what he could do. He was forced to have to fight the Returners on the streets, something that they hadn't planned on, but the Returners had hoped for.

Around every street corner, the Returners had laid improvised mines, simple but effective. Everywhere there were injured fighters from both sides. Hargrove roughly estimated that there were more of them that were dead, but there were still too many of them left to even think a victory was in sight. When the fighting had started, caused by the Returners firing the first shot, he thought that he could win this fight in less than an hour, but he had misjudged these Returners.

At first, they had advanced and pushed the Returners back, making him think that they had them on the run. But that was only so they could draw the WRO army into a trap. From there, it was a long and bloody fight just to make it back to what they were calling the Green Zone, or the heavily fortified WRO Headquarters. Scouting reports had come in and were saying that the Returners were using an old section of the city for their base. The only thing Hargrove remembered about the area was that Rufus Shinra had given a speech there after his father had died. But none of that mattered now.

The Returners were now advancing with a renewed vigor, and unless reinforcements showed up soon, they would have to fall back into the WRO building itself, and then hold out until they could be evacuated. However, this order was far in the back of his mind and he was looking for a way to at least drive the enemy back. If he could do this, he would then be able to set up turreted machine guns in the massive city square and defend the building from any further waves of attack.

"Sir, they're coming!" a young troop said, and Hargrove looked through his binoculars at the advancing enemy force. Many of the Returner Regulars were armed with machine guns, but a few had melee weapons. This was going to be another sanguinary affair trying to drive them back, but it had to be done.

"Ready men!" he yelled out at the troops. Many of them were young faces that looked back at him; some of them were too young he thought. "Advance!" Slowly, the line of WRO troopers stood and began to march forward. All of them were waiting for the enemy to get into range, not wanting to waste any of their ammunition on a target they may not hit. But while the WRO troops were waiting, the Returner Regulars opened fire, pelting them with random fire that cut through their ranks with a deadly randomness.

Soon the WRO troops started to fire back, and before long, they were turning back around and running for the cover of the fortified barricades.

Hargrove frowned at this turn of events and was about to give the order to retreat when he heard a loud-pitched engine racing towards him. Suddenly, a long black shape raced into the courtyard and a blonde haired young man jumped off, brandishing a large sword at the Returners.

Without pausing a moment, Cloud began his attack. The bullets that were fired at him ricocheted and flew off of the now fully assembled First Tsurugi in a dizzying blur. Soon they had run out of ammunition, and before they had a chance to reload, Cloud swung the mighty blade and cut them down. Soon all of the Returner Regulars began to focus on Cloud and swarmed him, but he kept swinging with his deadly precision and speed, thinning the numbers of the Returners as he went.

Colonel Hargrove watched on and was in shock at just how proficient the young man was. But then he saw an attack coming from behind him that might catch him off guard. But before Hargrove could yell a warning, a flash of red spun around in the courtyard and suddenly there was a black haired figure fighting along side of the blonde.

Vincent quickly fired Cerberus with a deadly precision, cutting down advancing Returner Regulars by the dozens. When he reloaded, it only took a fraction of a second before he began to fire again. Soon, all around both Cloud and Vincent, there was only a mass of the Returners that were taken out of commission. Briefly pausing from his swings, Cloud motioned towards some injured WRO troops and spoke to his friend.

"Vincent, help get those injured troops back behind their barricade. I'll deal with these guys." Vincent briefly nodded, and quickly ran over to the injured troops, all the while firing Cerberus with a deadly aim. Even though bullets were flying past his head, Vincent calmly picked up the troops with his metal-clawed left hand and brought them to safety. Before these soldiers could thank him, he was back in the fight.

Cloud saw a grenade coming his way, and quickly batted it back at the Returners with his sword and watched as it exploded, taking out several of the still advancing Returners. By now, Cloud could hear an officer of the WRO giving the order to advance from behind him. Cloud briefly parried the attack from a Returner who had a sword, and then quickly cleaved him in two. For whatever reason, since they still outnumbered the WRO, the Returners started to fall back.

As the WRO troops began to run up to where Cloud and Vincent were, Vincent quickly held up his left hand to hold them back.

"Hold here. Something's not right." Cloud took a moment to catch his breath and noticed that the Returners had fallen back to a side street, but they turned back around once they got there and only stood their ground. Cloud was about to question Vincent about why they were doing this, but he soon saw why; their own reinforcements had just arrived.

Both Abrams and Owzer now entered from the side street and glared at Cloud and Vincent before they charged. Cloud firmed his grip on Tsurugi and charged toward Abrams while Vincent lunged towards Owzer. From both sides of the conflict, the regular soldiers only watched on as the four entered combat.

Cloud brought the Tsurugi down on Abrams's double bladed sword with a loud crash that echoed throughout the area. Abrams blocked the blow and then returned the attack with all of his strength. Cloud went flying back into the air, but quickly rebounded and was back, exchanging blows with the giant in a rapid blinding show of sparks as the two blades met.

Vincent fired Cerberus several times at Owzer, but he merely deflected the bullets with his sais before they could hit him. Owzer closed the distance between him and Vincent and he then swung one of the sharpened points at Vincent's right hand. Vincent was able to dodge the blow, but he hadn't expected Owzer to kick upwards with his right leg, hitting the barrel of Cerberus and sending it flying out of his hand.

Vincent sneered at the now smug looking Owzer. Owzer then tried to jab Vincent with the sharpened point, but Vincent quickly grabbed the sai with his left hand and snapped it in two. While Owzer was in shock at this, Vincent swung hard with his right fist and caught Owzer in the chin, sending him flying back. As Owzer collected himself, Vincent was on him with a furious assault of swift kicks and punches. Both Owzer and Vincent now engaged in a swift display of their martial arts prowess.

Abrams caught Cloud with a mighty swing and sent Cloud flying high into the air, but Cloud quickly charged his blade and brought it down hard on Abrams's weapon, pouring burning hot flames of energy onto Abrams. Cloud was about to prepare for the killing blow, but a flaming ball of fire hit him and sent him reeling back. When he stood back up, he now saw a third figure joining in on the battle.

This third man was as tall as Cloud. He too wore the same SOLDIER uniform that the other two wore, but his hair was much longer and was solid black. His eyes glowed a deep green, and they now glared at Cloud with a ferocity that showed that he was in charge. Before Cloud could decide what to do, this new enemy charged and began to attack with a straight long sword.

Cloud brought up his own blade in enough time to block the attacks, but he was surprised by how much power this new attacker had. Cloud growled to himself as he pushed this new attacker's blade away and began to swing the Tsurugi at him with repeating blows. The black haired man quickly blocked each blow with little effort and then he jumped back and raised his sword into the air. Cloud instantly knew that he was charging his spirit energy for a powerful attack, but the only thing he could do was try and block the brunt of the it.

When the enemy's sword hit his own, Cloud felt a quick jolt of pain course through his body, and before he knew it, he was flying back and landed roughly twenty meters away. Cloud stood back up, but he was breathing heavy and he knew that his fatigue showed. The black haired man smirked widely and leveled his blade and pointed it at Cloud. He then looked at the group of WRO soldiers and yelled aloud.

"Is this the best that you have? Do you think that one old SOLDIER has the ability to defeat me, Arvin, leader of the Returners? In less than a minute, I have reduced him to nothing more than a weakling trying to catch his breath. Hear this! I will give you until daybreak tomorrow to surrender your weapons, and leave this city. If you do not, I will burn it to the ground, move on to the next city, and do the same until you surrender!" He finished, and let his words hang in the air for a moment before he lightly flicked his sword back. He then turned around and simply walked off of the battlefield.

Abrams gave Cloud a hateful glare and followed his leader. Owzer gave Vincent a smirk and back flipped away to join his comrades. Once they had left, the Returner Regulars took up their defensive positions where they stood, but showed no signs of wanting to attack.

For a complete minute, Cloud stared at the spot that the three had disappeared at, squeezing the grip of the First Tsurugi so hard that it made his arm twitch in anger. Vincent retrieved Cerberus and went up to Cloud; he also stared at the area that the three had disappeared.

Behind them, the WRO soldiers began to lightly talk, and soon an officer began to give orders to man the defensive stations. Cloud finally shook his head slowly and let out a frustrated sigh.

"What the hell are they?" he said, still filled with anger. Vincent lightly shook his head and looked at the fresh dents that had been placed in his massive gauntlet.

"I don't know. They wear the uniform of a SOLDIER."

"But they don't fight like one. Their eyes actually glow. Vincent, didn't the Tsviets' eyes glow?" Vincent looked up from his gauntlet and then looked up at the light purple sky.

"Only when they were fighting. Whatever these three are, their eyes glow at all times." Another moment of silence passed between the two before Cloud turned and started to walk towards the WRO barricades.

"We need answers, and soon."

"Hmm. But who from? I doubt Reeve knows anything about them," Vincent said as he walked beside Cloud.

"Reeve may not know, but Rufus might." Vincent cocked an eyebrow at the mentioning of the former president of the Shinra Company, but said nothing.

When they reached the secured area behind the barricades, Cloud saw the number of young faces looking at him with both wonder and disappointment. He tried not to pay attention, but he knew that they all expected him to defeat anyone who tried to fight him. After all, it was almost common knowledge that he had fought and defeated Sephiroth more times than he cared to remember. One of the troops, a young woman with a bloodied bandage wrapped around her hand, looked at Cloud and spoke.

"You can beat them, right? You were just tired from fighting, yeah that's all. Right?" Cloud sighed and was trying to think of a response, but someone else answered before he could.

"Of course he can, he was only judging their strength. But now that he knows, he'll be able to take them down. Especially with the Greatest Ninja ever to come out of Wutai at his side. Right Cloud?" Cloud turned and saw the wide smile of Yuffie Kisaragi beaming at him, and she winked at Vincent who was just as surprised to see her as Cloud was, though he didn't really show it.

"Yuffie, when did you get here?" Cloud asked. Yuffie shrugged and stretched her arms high into the air.

"I just got here, but it looks like I've missed all the action. So what's the plan guys? We gonna charge into their spooky lair and kick their butts or what?" Cloud lightly shook his head and looked back at the city square where he had just fought the strange trio. There was no denying it, they were strong, perhaps too strong for him to take on by himself. He had the confidence in his abilities that he could handle them one on one, but when they all attacked at once like that, he was at a numerical disadvantage. If he was going to defeat them, he was going to need help.

"Yuffie, how did you get here?"

"The Shera, how else?" Yuffie said with a puzzled look at Cloud. She could tell that he was thinking of something, and somehow it reminded her of a Chocobo trying to lay an egg.