Lost in the Shadows
Chapter 23 - Race
Disclaimer: I do not own FF7 and its characters, settings or the like. These words, however, are mine.
Reno stood gaping at the sight in front of him for a few moments before his senses came back to him. Disregarding the fact that a potentially destructive man stood before him, he ran forward and fell to his knees beside his blonde comrade. With a shaking hand, he turned her over onto her back.
"Elena...?"
She rolled over limply at Reno's touch, her dark and blank eyes staring straight through him. She was shaking constantly and her breaths were coming out in shallow gasps. Her skin had turned a sickly green colour he noticed, and he himself began to shake, only he with anger.
"What did you do to her?" Reno's eyes flew up to Toyori's face in nothing but pure rage.
"Elena?" Aerith whimpered. "You infused her." She breathed. "How much?"
Toyori chuckled and jumped onto the railing. "Quick to catch on, aren't you dear?"
"Sephiroth." Aerith said, looking at Elena desperately. "Only half, nothing more... Reno... She'll be fine. Don't worry, alright?"
Reno didn't seem to want to listen. He stood, pushing Elena over to Sephiroth and away from Toyori. Within a split second he was charging at Toyori, letting out an enraged cry. His mag rod out and moving down fast to make an electrifying impact with the side of Toyori's face only just missed him. Toyori ducked and jumped off the railing.
Aerith let out a shriek and shut her eyes, expecting to fall a few hundred feet, but instead felt herself being pulled more securely against Toyori. She opened one eye and saw the airship at the same height as her, not too far away from where she was currently... floating? Looking down she gasped and shut her eyes again.
'Don't do that again!' She thought, squirming in vain.
A hot breath against the skin of her neck made her stop moving, in both fear and disgust. Her skin was crawling and she ery much wished that the man behind her would just let her fall, if only to be somewhere far away from him.
"Oh, would you rather be closer to the ground?" He whispered. Aerith didn't answer and he chuckled. She felt the blade against her neck slide away from her and felt him move around behind her. More than likely putting the blade wherever he had gotten it from.
She did not expect what came next.
Taking hold of her wrist, he pulled her away from his form and dangled her at arm's length. She shrieked again and heard scuffling from in front of her and opened her tearing eyes.
She listened to his sickeningly sincere laughter. "My, my... Aren't you the protective one?"
Aerith watched as Sephiroth's only answer was the darkening of his eyes. Standing on the railing of the Sierra with perfect balance, he washolding the Masamune to Toyori's throat.
"Weren't you the one who killed this beautiful maiden." He sneered. "I can't see why. She looks absolutely..."
"Forgive me if I choose not to relay the events of the past to you." Sephiroth spoke with a chilling voice that even Aerith began to get slightly scared. To what lengths was he willing to go?
Toyori smirked. "Divine. She is, is she not? As much as I would love to revel in her prescence..." He trailed off. "She is no use to us alive."
"Us?" Reno questioned.
"Hmm. Did you think that only I wished to cause this much trouble?" He laughed. "Oh no. And I can assure you, should you ever get the chance to meet one of the others..." He shook his head. "Such things are just not important." He said grinning.
"It was nice knowing you, sweet." He said, bringing Aerith back to his chest. He kissed her along her neck, regardless of the fact that she tried to pull away. He laughed at how Sephiroth's rage began to fly out of control.
With one last sadistic laugh, Toyori let Aerith fall.
Yuffie, Vincent and Red slammed into the ship at the same time, their impact throwing the ship back a little bit.
"What the $&$ is goin' on out there?" Cid yelled.
Vincent stood slowly, feeling Chaos beginning to take control. He cast a glance at Yuffie who was absolutely fuming and Red who was having trouble staying on his feet. Yuffie ran forward and let her Shuriken go while using her limit break Clear Tranquil. A mist of cool air spun around them, ridding them of small bruises and scratches. His head cleared and Chaos retreated back into the recesses of his mind.
Red jumped off the ship and onto the monster, sinking his teeth into it's skin. It roared in surprise and pain, trying to throw the beast off. Yuffie jumped around, slashing it in various places. The skin, being too tough for Vincent's bullets to pierce, gave Vincent almost nothing to do. A thought came to mind when Yuffie managed to open up a large wound in it's neck though, and he aimed right for it. He shot off a round of bullets, perfectly aimed and they tore through the delicate flesh.
Cloud jumped up and brought his sword down on it's head. The monster, tired of the onslaught of attacks, began to lift itself higher into the air. Red and Yuffie were the only ones able to attack and it began to reach it's clawed arms out to grab them.
Red dodged easily, leaping from one arm to another and further still. Yuffie backflipped off it's claws and onto it's back, stabbing it with one of her shuriken's points and running, pulling the piece of metal enbedded in it's flesh with her. She brought it right out of the skin at it's head and jumped forward, heading for the ship.
Landing, she turned and watched as the fiend's claws began to glow.
"Jump, you $&!" They heard Cid yell. Barret finally began to let a hail of bullets go, his purpose to make the fiend stop it's attack but it was in vain.
All jumped save for Yuffie, who wouldn't have had enough time anyways and she braced herself for the attack. The fiend roared and light streamed from the claws, forming two balls of energy. It threw it's hands out one at a time and the energy spun around eachother, heading straight for Yuffie.
Yuffie shouted out in surprise when she felt a hand grab her arm and she fell into someone. They fell to the ship's surface and she saw Cloud move himself over her, shielding her from the attack. She felt something collide with the ship almost right beside them and they were thrown off.
"Are you alright?" Cloud asked her, looking down at the ground.
"Yeah, thanks to you. Thanks." She said.
Cloud shook his head and they fell for a bit until Cloud landed on the ground. He let Yuffie go and she gave her thanks once again before turning to the monster and the ship.
"Damn, Cid was in there!" She said, panicking. "What if something happened to him? Reno and Sephiroth are there too! And Aerith!" She shrieked.
Red walked over to her and nuzzled her leg before sitting down. "I'm sure they're alright, Yuffie. Reno won't die that easily and Cid has a child to go back to. Sephiroth wouldn't let anything happen to Aerith."
"He better not have." Cloud said.
"Cloud!"
Cloud turned and caught Tifa as she ran over to him. "Are you alright?" She asked, pulling away from him.
He nodded and looked back at the ship. "I'll bet Cid's having a great time up there."
"$&$!" Cid swore, picking himself up from the ground. "#&&&! & monster!"
He moved himself over to the controls and tried to steady the ship as best he could. "I'm goin to $$&$ smoke ya, you $&$&!" He yelled, completely enraged.
He pulled the ship away from the fiend and tried to bring up the camera's view of different places on the ship. "$&..."
He shook his fist at the window. "You ruined my #$&$& ship!"
He pushed a large button in a panel in the control desk. 'Emergency Somethin'' "Shoulda thought of a $&$& better name. That's gonna sound $& peachy. I destroyed this #&&$ hunk a flesh with the Emergency Somethin'. #$&!" He said, getting angrier by the second.
"Look!" Yuffie yelled, pointing at the ship.
Everyone looked skywards and watched as two huge cannon's separated themselves from the ship, hidden by panels on the side. They set themselves up, moving forward and already having a bright light sitting on the outer rim of the cannon.
"I always thought there was something different with this ship." Tifa said in awe.
The light began to grow dimmer but managed to fill a larger capacity of the opening.
"$&$& GO!" Cid yelled, pushing the button behind the one he'd pushed previously.
Rude covered his eyes as the light began to shine blindingly. A huge explosion was heard as the cannon's fired whatever it was that Cid has managed to build into it.
An ear splitting roar made Avalanche decide to watch despite how bright it was.
The fiend was falling to the ground, but it was giving itself pushes toward the left of Midgar. It's charred wings were pounding but only one seemed to manage to get it anywhere. It's skin was falling off in various places and it's eyes were completely blacked out.
"No!" Yuffie shrieked, freaking out. "It's going for Kalm!"
Evveryoe gasped at this. Indeed, Yuffie was right.
"Elmyra..." Barret whispered, watching as he was unable to do anything else.
"Barret..." Tifa said, looking at him with tears in her eyes. How horrible... To be able to do nothing for both Myrna, his first wife and now nothing for the first person in a long time who was able to get under his defensive barriers.
Vincent walked over to Yuffie and put his hand on Yuffie's shoulder. She turned around with tears trailing down her face and she moved forward, clinging to him. Weeping, she fell to the ground and Vincent went with her.
Cloud looked around at his comrades. This couldn't be happening...
The all stood and watched, crying and silent, as the monster let out one last pitiful roar, before falling onto the town now below it, crushing it.
Reno watched in horror as Toyori let Aerith fall and as she let out a terrified scream. Toyori laughed and watched as Aerith fell to her apparentdeath.
Sephiroth had different ideas, it seemed. The moment Toyori had released his grip on her wrist, Sephiroth had jumped forward and impaled Toyori with the Masamune. He hadn't even bothered to retract it from Toyori's flesh but instead jumped off the railing and down after Aerith.
Reno didn't know what had happened after Sephiroth had jumped. He only hoped beyond reasoning that they were both alive. That they were both okay. Something inside him told him not to worry about that; Sephiroth wouldn't have jumped unless he'd known he could do something, right?
Or were his feelings for Aerith enough to cloud his judgement?
He'd watched as Toyori pulled the Masamune out of his stomach and thrown it with unbelievable force down after Sephiroth. Reno crawled over to Elena, determined to get to Cid or off the ship when Toyori disappeared. Moments later, he and Elena were thrown backwards and through the door of the balcony into the ship by an unbelievably strong impact on the ship.
He hadn't moved from his spot on the ground since, not sure of whether or not they'd be thrown from their feet again or not.
Elena's head moved slightly and he looked at her closely.
"'Lena?"
Elena's head simply lolled to the side. Reno's entire being was filled with that familiar tidal wave of worry and anger. Aerith had told him she would be alright, but he was beginning to doubt that now. Those who'd been infused with Mako were still supposed to show some sign of life. Elena simply wasn't doing anything. He'd never seen this before.
"Dammit." He whispered. He looked around and decided that he needed to move and get off of this ship. Carefully picking Elena up of the floor, he began to move at an unusually slow pace.
He leg had been bent the wrong way and he was sure there was something wrong with it. He was limping now, ever so slowly.
After a little while of limping his way down the hallway, he heard a swearing pilot come up the hallway beside him. He turned, spirits high,to see Cid walking up to him at a brisk pace. Cid's face went slack at Elena.
"What the $&. What the $&$ happened to her?" Cid asked. "Where are Aerith and Sephiroth?"
Reno gave him a forlorned glance. "Aerith and Sephiroth are... Well, I don't know. They fell off the ship."
"Fell off the ship?"
"Well, actually, Toyori was there." Reno said. "He had Aerith with a knife to her throat. He eventually, after riling Sephiroth up, let her fall. Sephiroth jumped after her."
"Where'd Elena come from?" Cid asked.
"Toyori brought her back." He said, looking down at her. "Sick #$& infused her."
Cid sighed and motioned Reno along, back down the hallway he'd just come up. "Let's go. The others are waitin'."
Yuffie ran up to Cid and hugged the life out of him, crying and mumbling her thanks to Da Chao and Leviathan. She was so glad that he was alright! As was Reno.
Elena. They were all surprised at seeing her for sure. Rude was immediately concerned and he and Reno talked in hushed whispers about what to do with her.
"Wait a minute." Yuffie said, halting allconversations around her. "Whereare Aerith and Sephiroth?"
Cid and Reno looked away at the question.
Yuffie pressed on, hysterical with the idea of Sephiroth and Aerith being gone as well as Elmyra. "Where are they! What happened up there?"
"Toyori was there. He brought Elena back and then grabbed Aerith."
Tifa gasped. "What did he do? Was she alright?"
Reno shook his head. "He was holding a blade to her throat. He started taunting Sephiroth about beging over protective and cut her throat a little. He let Aerith fall and Sephiroth jumped after her, but not before stabbing that son of a bitch."
Cloud gaped at him. "You can't be serious!"
"Do you know what happened to Aerith and Sephiroth?" Vincent asked. "I don't believe we saw them fall."
Reno shook his head. "No idea. The ship was hit by something huge and Elena and I were thrown back." He sighed. "That's all I know."
Everyone looked down.
"Elena can be cured, right?" Cait Sith asked, walking up to jump on Elena's stomach.
"Aerith said she'd be alright... But Aerith is gone." Reno said.
"Don't say that." Yuffie yelled at Reno. "She isn't gone! You don't know that!"
"Yuffie..."
Yuffie looked at Barret. "Barret, come on. Let's go to Kalm. We'll search for survivors, alright?" She said, teary eyed.
Barret nodded silently and Avalanche watched as they walked off into the sunset. The perfect picture of destruction.