Chapter 25: The Forgotten Turk
Slowly, I turned around. I almost immediately wished that I hadn't. There, standing before me, was a large monster, which looked as though it had once been two separate monsters before being crushed together, forming this reject for Monsters Inc. It even had a parody of a friendly smile on its face.
"Oh shit." I cursed.
The monster opened its mouth, and made a grunting sound. It almost looked as if it wanted me to just climb into its mouth and accept my fate.
Swearing, loudly, I hurled a fira at it and did a baseball slide between its legs while it was distracted, before scrambling to my legs, already moving out of the door and to the upstairs landing, where I'd have more room to fight.
"Cloud! Get over here!" I bellowed, pulling out my gunblade and firing at the monster as it turned around to face me.
I heard the sound of running footsteps, but I became a little distracted by the fact that I suddenly had a monster bull rushing me, bellowing a loud roar.
I had neither the room, nor the time, to dive out of the way of the bull rushing monster. All I had the chance to do was register that the monster was indeed charging at me, before it hit.
The wind was knocked out of me, and I felt at least one of my ribs crack from the sudden impact of the large monster colliding with me. The force of the blow sent me flying back, until my back connected with an ever helpful wall, and I slid down it back to floor level, trying to blink the dancing Tonberries from my vision.
Another nasty effect of being slammed into by the monster was that my gunblade went flying off somewhere down the corridor, leaving me armed with my wits, my teeth, my claws and a knife that I haven't used for combat reasons since I was in Midgar. Somehow, I doubted any of these would be much help in this situation. And because of the fact that I can hardly think straight, I can't exactly just summon Montblanc or Boko or both of them to help me.
"Cloud!" I cried out, looking to the side, hoping to see the blond swordsman charging forward with the Buster Sword at the ready.
If he was coming, then I didn't get a chance to see, because the monster that had me at its mercy gave a roar, and lifted its oversized fist, before promptly slamming it into me, crushing me against the wall, which cracked under the pressure.
When it removed its fist, satisfied that it was a job well done, I coughed, shocked that I wasn't dead. A blow like that, I should have been a smear across the wall, not that I'm being ungrateful and all, but unless I'm secretly Super Lizard, someone explain?
It was then that I noticed that I was glowing yellow. I risked a glance to the side and found Aeris, palm facing towards me, a similar yellow glow coming from her hand.
"What the hell?" I asked.
"I'll explain later." Aeris shook her head. "Get out of the way!"
Grunting, I tried to stand up, but found that I couldn't, due to an extreme pain in my chest. That wasn't good.
"I can't move!" I hissed.
The monster raised its fist again, preparing to try and finish the job that the first blow failed to accomplish. Swearing, I shut my eyes as yet again, an oversized monster fist slammed into me, crushing me against the wall, which then splintered, having taken more abuse than it had been designed to withstand.
And yet again, I felt no worse off.
"Aeris, whatever you're doing, keep doing it." I managed to say, before coughing again.
"I can't keep this up forever." Aeris frowned. "Cloud, where are you?!"
I heard the sounds of footsteps, and through the hole in the wall I spotted both Cloud and Tifa take places either side of Aeris, combat ready.
"Took ya guys long enough." I managed to gasp, weakly. "What were you doing, making out in a broom closet?"
"Not the time for jokes, Spike." Cloud frowned, before his eyes widened. "Shit, you're bleeding."
I blinked, giving my body a once over.
"No I'm not." I managed to cough.
"Not like that. You're bleeding internally."
I felt something warm connect with the hand that I was coughing into. I gave it a look and blinked in surprise. Ah, I think I figured out the pain.
"My rib has pierced my lung." I managed to utter, drawing in a deep breathe.
Cloud's eyes narrowed. He took a step towards the hole in the wall but hesitated as the monster roared, turning to face him.
"Ifrit." Cloud cursed. "Tifa, you and I distract that thing, Aeris, you help Spike."
Aeris gave a firm nod of approval, and Tifa made sure that her gloves were tight. On an unspoken signal, both Cloud and Tifa charged sword and fists flying. Aeris stayed on the edge of the combat, waiting for an opening. Once the monster's back was turned, the Cetra raced forwards, hopping through the hole and coming up beside me.
Crouching down beside me, the Ancient cast sense on me, using it to get a full analysis of my injuries. It clearly didn't look good, as a frown marred her features.
"You were right; your rib pierced your lung." She muttered.
Ouch, it had mostly been a guesstimate of why I was coughing up blood.
"We need to heal this quickly." Aeris seemed to be stating the obvious, but I didn't fault her for it, it was helping to take my mind off the pain.
Outside the hole, Cloud used a blade beam to distract the monster as it attempted to slam its fist into Tifa.
Aeris tore off my t-shirt, and carefully schooled her expression into a neutral one. I lifted my head to look and winced at the large formation of purple lumps that covered my chest. It looked almost as painful as it felt.
"Do you have a knife?" Aeris asked; her tone as neutral as her expression.
I raised an eyebrow ridge at her, before a coughing fit interrupted the expression. Wincing at the sight of more blood on my hand, I decided to be verbal about it.
"Why do you need a knife?" I asked, breathlessly.
Aeris gave me a sympathetic look.
"If I just cast Curaga, the rib won't heal properly, and will likely be permanently stuck in your lung." She explained.
"So you need to cut me open in order to place my rib in a more normal position." I realized; voice dry.
Aeris nodded. Sighing, I leaned my head back, resting it against the floor.
"This ain't the best place for a surgery." I complained.
"If I move you, I risk making it worse. Either surgery here, or…"
"Jeez, you can sound so cold when you're being rational." I muttered, hand reaching for my belt.
I pulled out the combat knife I'd bought back in the Sector 5 slums, what felt like an age ago. Aeris accepted the blade and gave it a critical eye, before commenting that while far from ideal, it would have to do.
The Cetra pulled out a potion and poured the contents over my chest, as well as on the knife and even a pair of gloves which she had just put on.
"Not only will the potion act as a numbing agent, it'll also clean the knife and my hands so I don't give you an infection." Aeris calmly explained, guessing at the cause of the confused expression I likely had on my face.
"Potions act as antibiotics?" I asked, surprised.
The Ancient paused, considering the answer.
"Yes and no. You could drink a potion a day, and you'd still fall ill every so often, but when applied to surgery, it prevents bacterial infection. I can't even begin to explain the reasons…"
"You're a healer, not a scholar?" I quipped, corners of my lips twitching.
Aeris gave a small smile and nod, before readying my knife.
Even though I knew first hand that potions poured over a wound numb the entire area, Aeris having caused one such wound at one time, I was still nervous as I watched the knife lower itself to my right rib cage, hand steady as a rock.
The knife cut through my scales, and I hissed, feeling the pain despite the numbing. Aeris was forced to retract the knife as I squirmed around, breath being released in a steady hiss.
"Spike, I need you to stop squirming." Aeris told me, voice firm.
"It hurts." I groaned.
"No it doesn't." She shook her head. "You only think it does. You're seeing yourself being cut and your brain is telling you that it should hurt, and your body is listening."
"Well how do I not listen to my brain?!" I hissed, teeth bared.
"Don't watch." She ordered me. "Watch Cloud and Tifa fight the monster, but don't look at me or what I'm doing."
Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself down, and turned to look out of the hole in the wall where Cloud and Tifa were fighting the monster that had put me in this state.
Cloud was crouched low, Buster Sword brought up as a shield of sorts, which blocked a punch from the monster. The force of the punch sent even the Mako enhanced Cloud skidding backwards. While the monster's back was turned, Tifa leapt in to take up the offensive, delivering a swift scissor kick to the back of the monster's overly large face.
The monster appeared to stumble forwards at the attack, and turned to face the martial artist, who delivered a powerful roundhouse kick, before hoping out of reach of the retaliatory punch. However, she hadn't been prepared for a retaliatory Thundara, which send her to the floor, bolts of electricity arcing through her body.
Cloud clearly disapproved of his childhood sweetheart being taking out by a lowly trick like that. With a roar, Cloud charged at the monster, jabbing his sword into its chest, before leaping skywards, dragging the blade through the monster as he went. The monster roared, but otherwise ignored the large gash that ran from its chest up to its forehead, somehow managing to go right between the eyes. A Thundara was delivered to Cloud, who, unlike Tifa, had been prepared and used the Buster Sword as a lighting rod. Like my gunblade, the handle of the Buster Sword was insulated against electrical currents, so Cloud was safe.
The distraction allowed for Tifa to recover from her shocking experience and ready herself. After several seconds, the martial artist launched herself at the monster, delivering a barrage of powerful punches, before kicking herself into a somersault, kicking it as she twisted back. She landed, already pivoting around and swept her leg out, slamming a steel toe caped shoe into the monster's side, before leaping upwards to deliver a powerful uppercut, which was accompanied by the ghostly image of a dolphin slamming into the monster at the same point that her fist connected.
And the monster gave a roar of discomfort, before half of the monster faded away, making it look like a complete monster, rather than the halves of two different monster fused together.
A grunt had me looking back at Aeris, despite her order not to. What I saw made my breaths come out faster, and I stared at the site of my flesh having been peeled open, revealing my innards. I could easily see the three broken ribs, one of which had pierced the sack that was my lung.
A whimper managed to escape my throat.
That is a sight that nobody wants to see, their own innards revealed for the world to view at their pleasure.
The pain returned, full force, and I realized that Aeris had been right, it was looking at the injury which was making it hurt now. But now, I had the image in my head, and it wouldn't leave. My breathing was becoming erratic as I began to panic, the pain overloading my senses.
Aeris must have noticed, but then, if she were looking at my lungs, it would have been obvious. She turned sharply to face me, but her expression softened as she saw that I was clearly in pain. Moving closer, she began to make soothing sounds, thumb moving across my cheek in what I supposed was meant to be a calming manner.
"It hurts!" I gasped, screwing my eyes shut. "Hurts…"
"It'll be over soon." Aeris told me, voice calm.
Damned image wouldn't leave my mind. It's the knowledge that I'm actually like that that made it all the worse. I suppose it's like phantom limb syndrome, you feel pain that isn't there, because your brain over-rides all other senses and tells you 'yes, you are in pain, it is there.'
Creating random mental images to try and block out the image of my chest all cut open, I gradually felt the pain lesson. It faded to a more bearable level, and by the time my mental images started getting weird, like Cloud doing his victory sword spin only to take off like a helicopter, I heard Aeris talking again.
Opening my eyes, I found that my flesh had been folded back over, and Aeris was slowly healing the cuts, running a finger that was alight with a soft green glow along the surgical lines, leaving no evidence of my ever being cut open. Sighing, I lowered my head back to the floor, waiting for her to finish.
After what felt like an age, Aeris pulled me to a sitting position and wrapped her arms around me.
"You were very brave." She said, before releasing me.
"Doesn't seem like it." I muttered, blinking. "I just whimpered like a child."
Aeris gave me a soft smile.
"Do you believe Yuffie would have been able to endure that without begging to have sleep cast on her? Or that she'd have made the effort to not look?"
I blinked again, turning to her.
"Why didn't you put me to sleep?" I asked.
The Cetra looked slightly embarrassed, as she gave her response.
"I let Cait Sith borrow the Materia, as he was staying with Yuffie." She confessed.
I managed a soft laugh, before trying to get to my feet. Aeris pushed me back down as I tried, before handing me a bottle.
"Drink." She commanded.
I accepted the bottle and drank the entire contents in one gulp. Instantly, what pain I still felt vanished, and I felt my stamina returning to me.
"That elixir should help, but take it easy." Aeris warned me, before helping me up.
Once on my feet, I could see why Aeris warned me to take it easy. Even though it was healed, there was a feeling of fragility about my chest, or my rib cage to be specific. Broken bones are a difficult thing to fully heal I suppose.
"If you drink another elixir tomorrow, you should be fine, but until then, be careful." The Ancient repeated.
I nodded, heeding the advice of the team medic. At that moment, Cloud and Tifa walked in, looking rather worried.
"How are you?" Cloud asked, seeing me on my feet.
"Thanks to Doctor Gainsborough here, I'm as good as I'm going to get." I answered, accepting my knife back from Aeris.
I winced at the blood on the blade, and the knowledge that it was my blood. I scooped up what remained of my t-shirt to wipe the blade clean before returning it to its sheath.
As I was pulling a tank top out of my storage Materia in order to replace the t-shirt, Tifa spoke up, sounding slightly hesitant.
"Spike, we have some bad news."
I turned to face the martial artist, eyebrow ridge raised, midway through pulling on the top.
"What?" I asked, afraid of the answer.
It was Cloud who answered, and not verbally. Instead, he held up an item for me to examine. I blinked in order to make sure that what I was seeing was true before swearing.
"The monster trod on it a couple of times." Tifa explained.
I took Talon from Cloud's hand and examined the damage.
A quarter of the blade had snapped off from the end, and there was a massive chip along the edge of the blade. Also of note was that there was a huge dent halfway up what remained of the blade. Talon, my faithful gunblade since Midgar… was dead.
"Shit." I cursed again, sadly looking at what had been a pretty damned good weapon.
"Can't Spike just replace it at the next town?" Aeris asked.
Cloud shook his head.
"Gunblades are a rarity." He explained. "You get a couple of shops that sell them, but for the most part, they're ordered custom made."
"And I doubt we can afford to trek all the way back to Midgar just to see if the shop that I got this from still sells them." I muttered.
Sighing, I gave it a test swing, and found that the balance was completely out of whack. It was usable, but it would be nowhere near as effective a weapon as it had been before. I felt the end of the blade, where it had snapped and found that at least the jagged edges made it sharp enough to still stab if the need arose. I then fired a test shot at the wall.
"At least the gun part still works." I shrugged, though it didn't improve me mood. "If nothing else, for a while I'll be a backseat fighter."
I probably shouldn't feel so depressed about the loss of my gunblade, after all, it was a tool, and little more, but after using it for so long, it felt like an extension of my own body, and losing it felt like I was losing an arm.
Cloud must have sensed the feeling and agreed, because he gave me a sympathetic look… which appeared as though he was grimacing at me.
Giving another sigh, I walked out off the room the same way I entered, through the hole in the wall, and back to the safe, glancing again at the contents. Cloud came up behind me and also took a look, before picking up the Materia.
"Hmm… Odin." Cloud mused, eyes narrowed in thought.
"That's a pretty powerful summon." I pointed out.
The blond nodded, before pocketing the Materia. The last thing left in the safe was the key, which I pocketed myself.
"A locked room in the basement." I considered. "Were there any locked doors when you were here last time?"
Cloud bowed his head, considering.
"There was a door that was locked." He nodded. "At the time I hadn't given it much thought, Sephiroth took priority."
"Well now we have a chance to explore it." I grunted, turning to leave the room. "Have you explored the rest of the mansion?"
"Everything except for the basement." Cloud answered, following me.
I paused in the corridor, standing beside the two girls, before I sheepishly looked at Cloud.
"I don't know the way to the basement." I admitted.
Cloud gave a small laugh before taking over the lead. We followed him into a particular room, and then through a door at the other side of the room to come to yet another empty room, but this room had a corner covered in rough stone bricks. If I squinted, I could just see the outlines of a door cut into the stone.
Cloud confidently moved to the stonework and pushed against a particular area, and the hidden door swung inwards, allowing us entry.
On the other side of the door was a long spiralling staircase, and no rail guard to protect people from falling. Either the people who made this staircase were very lazy, or very confident in the abilities of the people who would be using it. I'd put my money on the former.
The bottom of the staircase showed a rather dingy looking corridor which had seen better days. Dirt covered the floor and the walls looked like mould was growing up them, trying to dominate the walls.
Cloud ignored all of this and moved down the corridor, eyes alert for any sign of the silver haired swordsman that we were hunting. About halfway down the corridor, he paused, having come across a door. He jiggled the handle about before shaking his head.
"It's locked." He told us.
I pulled the key from the safe out of my pocket and gave it to the blond, who accepted it with a nod. He pushed the key into the keyhole and smirked.
"It's a fit." He declared, giving the key a twist.
A click symbolized that the door had just gone from being locked, to unlocked, and Cloud pushed the door open.
Inside there wasn't much to see, unless one counted the coffin sitting on an alter in the middle of the room. A coffin made of mahogany, if I was correct.
Cloud advanced into the room, peering closely at the coffin, eyebrow raised. For a moment, I had no idea what he was doing, but when Tifa tilted her head, as if trying to hear something, I heard it myself. A deep groaning noise. Almost like… snoring?
"There's someone in this coffin." Cloud exclaimed after a moment.
With that thought in mind, Cloud began to push the lid off of the coffin, frowning.
"Could this be one of the wonders of Nibelheim?" Tifa mused. "The groaning sound that could always be heard coming from the mansion?"
With a clatter, the lid of the coffin fell the ground, revealing a man with dark hair wearing a red cloak snoozing away. And not a peaceful snooze. The man kept turning as much as the confined spaces of the coffin would allow, occasionally making a grunting sound. Frowning, Cloud kicked the side of the coffin in an effort to wake the man up.
It worked, though the strange man clearly didn't appreciate being woken in such a manner. His red eyes snapped open and before he was even in an upright position, he already had an unusual looking pistol trained on Cloud. The blond took the pistol being pointed at him calmly, crossing his arms and levelling a look at the man with the triple barrelled pistol pointed at him.
"Who is it?" The man asked, blinking. "Never seen you before."
"You were having a nightmare." Cloud told the man.
"You don't look so good." I commented, noticing the haunted look that the strange man had about him.
"hmph." The man scoffed. "A nightmare…? My long sleep has given me time to atone."
"What are you saying?" Cloud asked.
"I have nothing to say to strangers. Get out." The man snapped,
"How rude." Aeris huffed, her hands perching themselves on her hips.
"This mansion is the beginning of your nightmare." The man carried on, ignoring the Cetra.
"You can say that again." Cloud muttered.
The man gave a sound of curiosity.
"What do you know?" He queried.
"Like you said, this mansion is the beginning of a nightmare." Cloud spoke up. "No, it's not a dream, it's for real. Sephiroth has lost his mind. He found the secrets hidden in this mansion…"
"Sephiroth!?" The man exclaimed.
"You know Sephiroth?" Both Cloud and the man asked each other at the same time.
The man leapt out of the coffin, floating through the air to land gracefully on the edge of the coffin, just above where his head had been previously.
"You start first." The man commanded.
And Cloud revealed everything that had happened thus far.
"…That's how it was." Cloud concluded.
"So Sephiroth knows he was created five years ago? And the Jenova Project?" The man asked, more to himself than us, as if gathering his thoughts. "…He was missing, but has just recently reappeared. He has taken many lives and is seeking the Promised Land."
"Now it's your turn." Cloud said.
"Sorry… I cannot speak."
I groaned, hand slapping against my face.
"For the love of… I should have seen this coming." I mumbled, hearing similar thoughts coming from Tifa.
The man hopped back into his coffin, giving us a serious look.
"Hearing your stories, has added upon me yet another sin. More nightmares shall come to me now, more than I previously had." He informed us, before lying himself down in the coffin. "Now… Please leave."
And with those words, the lid of the coffin flew into the air before slamming itself down on the coffin, once again sealing the man away from the world.
Cursing, I directed a good hard kick at the side of the coffin, hoping that it would annoy the man. Bastard deserved it.
As my foot connected, the lid of the coffin went flying off, and the man sat up again, this time his pistol trained on me rather than Cloud.
"You're still here." He commented, icily.
""Who are you?" I asked, directing a glare at him.
"At least tell us your name." Cloud added.
"I was with… the Shinra Manufacturing Department in Administrative Research, otherwise known as t… the Turks… He introduced himself. "Vincent Valentine."
"The Turks?" Cloud gaped.
"Formerly of the Turks." Vincent countered. "I have no affiliation with Shinra now. And you?"
"Cloud, formerly of SOLDIER." Cloud grunted.
"You were also with Shinra…?" Vincent mused. "Then do you know Lucrecia?"
"Who?" Cloud asked.
"Lucrecia." Vincent repeated after a pause.
Cloud shook his head and Vincent sighed.
"The woman who gave birth to Sephiroth." He revealed.
"…Gave birth…?" Cloud frowned. "Wasn't Jenova Sephiroth's mother?"
"That isn't completely wrong, but just a theory." Vincent told us. "He was born from a beautiful lady. That lady was Lucrecia. She was an assistant to Professor Gast of the Jenova Project. Beautiful… Lucrecia."
"…A human experiment?"
"There was no way to cancel the experiment. I couldn't stop her. That was my sin. I let the one I loved, the one I respected most, face the worst.
"And sleeping will atone for that sin? Seems more to me like you're hiding from your sins, rather then trying to atone." I muttered.
As if he couldn't face my words, the coffin lid flew up and once again returned to the coffin.
"Let me sleep…" Vincent called out through the coffin.
With little else to do, we turned and left the room.
"Well that was enlightening." Cloud muttered. "Only place left to check is the library."
Turning, he once again led the way, and pushed open a door to a well lit room. On entering, besides the cylinders that looked vaguely like the one I'd been smashed out of back in Shinra tower, I instantly saw the books. Shelf upon shelf of books.
And down a corridor of shelves and books, was Sephiroth, sat behind a desk, an expectant look on his face.
"Sephiroth!" Cloud snarled.
"Being here brings back memories." Sephiroth commented, idly. "Are you going to participate in the Reunion?"
"I don't even know what a Reunion is!" Cloud snapped.
"Jenova will be at the Reunion. Jenova will join the Reunion becoming a calamity from the skies." Sephiroth continued, as if he hadn't heard Cloud.
"Jenova, a calamity from the skies?" Cloud blinked in confusion. "You mean she wasn't an Ancient?"
"…I see." Sephiroth shook his head. "I don't think you have the right to participate. I will go north, past Mount Nibel. If you wish to find out… then follow…"
"Reunion? Calamity from the skies?" Cloud tried to make sense of what he'd heard.
As if tiring of Cloud's ignorance, Sephiroth tossed a Materia orb at Cloud, which hit him right in the…
"HAH, for once I wasn't the one to get hit there!" I gloated, doing a jig, before giving a yelp and diving to the floor as Sephiroth literally came flying past us and out the door.
By the time I'd turned to look, he was already long gone. Cloud managed to climb back to his feet, casting cura on himself in the process, and pocketing the Materia turned projectile.
We exited the library, back as expected; there was no sign of Sephiroth. The fact that the silver haired man could fly only meant that not only was he faster than us, he didn't need to climb the stairs to exit the basement, he could just fly up.
"Let's go." Cloud sighed, realizing that our target had eluded us again.
Halfway down the corridor, we were halted by a familiar voice. Turning around, we watched as Vincent seemed to glide up to us, landing with an elegant flip. The former Turk looked at us, red eyes searching for something.
"Wait! If I go with you, will I meet Hojo?" He asked.
"Dunno." Cloud answered truthfully. "But we're after him and Sephiroth. So I guess, sooner or later…"
"Lucrecia…" Vincent mumbled, eyes closed in thought. "All right. I've decided to go with you."
Tifa made a sound of confusion, and the red caped gunman turned to look at her.
"Being a former Turk, I may be of help to you…" He explained himself.
Cloud considered it for several seconds, before nodding.
"All right then." He agreed.
And that was how Vincent Valentine joined our motley crew of misfits. I wonder whether or not he was prepared for what was in store.
Unless he could secretly see into the future, that was doubtful.
The next morning, we were fully prepared to leave Nibelheim behind. During the night, the cloaked men vanished, and with them, their ramblings of 'Reunion' and 'the great Sephiroth'.
Despite having knowledge of the very beginning of the Jenova Project, Vincent had no knowledge on what this 'Reunion' business was, or even whether it had anything to do with the general project. He then made a point of reminding us that he had been out of the loop since he'd been sleeping his sins away.
I commented on how he must have been one hell of a heavy sleeper, to miss the events only a few years ago. The events of which happened to include Nibelheim suffering Sephiroth's newfound (at the time) insanity. Vincent only shrugged and spoke about his nightmares. I kind of blanked him out at that point.
Seriously, I think Vincent is cool and all, but the emo attitude is a tad irritating. He went to sleep in a coffin to atone for his sins? Sorry, but last I checked, that was not how one went about atoning for their sins. That was called hiding from your problems and hoping that by the time you awoke, they would be gone.
They only got worse for Vincent, what with Sephiroth, a product of his sins (to an extent, I suppose) now on an insane rampage.
Barret had demanded to see how the former Turk could handle himself in a battle before truly accepting him into the team. Vincent obliged, exiting Nibelheim and tracking down a pack of Nibel Wolves.
While he was doing the tracking, he humoured us and our questions by taking the time to tell us that his pistol was a custom made piece of art, that he'd named Cerberus, after the three headed dog. It made sense to me, since the gun had three barrels.
Once we found the pack of Nibel Wolves, the former Turk took them out single handed; using an impressive use of sniping out the alpha with his pistol before gunning down the rest with shots that effortlessly cut them down. He then went about proving that the gauntlet that seemed to be wielded onto his flesh made for a very convenient melee weapon when he took on a Valron (some deformed blue devil wannabe).
Needless to say, Barret was actually impressed. He then pointed at Yuffie and demanded to know why she was still here when she clearly didn't have the awesome skills that Vincent had. Yuffie retaliated by pointing out that Barret was currently without Materia, and ran off, leaving a cursing Barret and a bemused Vincent, who'd had his own Materia filched. He was secretly impressed, I could tell. Then again, considering Yuffie hadn't gone anywhere near the ex-Turk, it was an impressive display of her thieving skills.
But all that was yesterday, and now, we were traversing the Nibel Pass, the closest thing that Mount Nibel had to a road leading to the other side of the mountains. It had the unfortunate effect of bringing us closer to the Mount Nibel reactor than we would have liked, but Tifa, her skills as a former tour guide coming into play, reassured us that though we would be passing the reactor by, we wouldn't actually have to see the drat thing.
Barret gave a suggestion of blowing it up.
I honestly agreed. From what Cloud told us, there was nothing good about the reactor, and it could still have those Mako pods full of mutated monsters.
Cloud shot down our hopes with a couple of words.
"No bombs."
Right, should have remembered that. Jessie made the bombs back in Midgar, and seeing as she was left behind in Midgar, along with Biggs, that meant we had no blowing shit up fun to be had. Damn it, we should have brought Jessie along just for this purpose. Besides, you never know when a bomb might come in handy. Like now, where we're soon to pass by one of the things that AVALANCHE made a point of trying to destroy. And this one would be unguarded, so it wouldn't even be that hard of a task.
We eventually came to a wall which we were forced to climb if we wanted to continue, unless we wanted to spend a couple of hours taking a detour. The votes were clear, no detours. The trip around the mountain would take long enough as it was, take a detour, and we risk being here at night, which was especially dangerous for these parts. The wall was long enough for two people to climb at a time.
It was also too steep for Red to climb, even with his impressive skills in that department.
That did cause a delay, as we had no idea how to get Red up there. How does one transfer a lupine to the top of a large cliff?
"Someone will have to carry him." Cloud crossed his arms.
It was worth the small delay just to see Red sputter indignantly.
"Can we avoid that?" Red asked, coming as close to pleading as I'd ever seen him.
"What's wrong?" Aeris asked.
"It's humiliating." Red mumbled.
"We don't exactly have much of a choice." Vincent commented, idly.
"This isn't Fort Condor, there's no vine to lift you up with." I added. "Besides, you didn't have a problem back at Fort Condor."
Red gave me a look, eyes narrowed.
"If I'm to be carried, I demand Spike be the one to carry me." He said.
"Wait, what?" I gaped. "No, get Cloud to do it; he's the one with Mako enhanced strength."
"If I have to put up with any embarrassment, I'm making you suffer with me."
"Oh come on Red…"
"Spike, you're carrying him." Cloud commanded, though his eyes betrayed his amusement.
Bastards, the lot of them.
'You could use the exercise.' Spike commented, idly.
I do not need exercise; we've been hiking for days on end most of the time since leaving Midgar. Exercise is something I no not need.
'An exercise in patience.' Spike finished.
Miserable git. Like he's one to talk about patience.
"So how exactly do I carry someone as heavy as Red up a cliff?" I asked.
"Are you calling me fat?" Red glowered.
"No, but that doesn't stop you from being heavy." I pointed out. "And that doesn't answer how I'm supposed to carry you, and still be able to climb."
"Crouch down."
I did as told, and felt a sudden weight on my back.
"Like this." Red breathed in my ear.
Oh great, I have to piggy back Red while climbing. Well, this wouldn't be too difficult if it weren't for...
"You're heavier than you look." I groaned, managing to climb to my feet, despite being weighed down.
"Drop me, and I will bite you." Red growled, as I almost fell backwards.
"You have any idea how disturbing this looks?" I asked, trudging towards the cliff we had to climb.
"Plenty, but it is the only way I can be carried. See why I didn't want to be carried in the first place? And lift your tail so that it's helping to support my weight."
"This is payback for when I was a kid, isn't it?" I muttered, finding some hand holds to begin climbing the cliff. "You never did like it when I tried to get a ride from you."
"Oh yes. Revenge is mine at last."
"You are so very cruel." I muttered, wincing. "Ow… Watch where you put that claw!"
I slowly managed to climb to the top of the cliff, where I took several steps forwards before I promptly fell forwards, landing with a yelp. Red's weight on my back really wasn't helping.
It also didn't help that he didn't seem to getting off any time soon. If anything, he just made himself comfortable.
"Comfy." He mocked.
"Cruel and twisted." I muttered.
Slowly, the rest of AVALANCHE began climbing up the cliff after us. Yuffie arrived first, and she took a seat beside where I was lying, looking amused. Eventually, only Tifa was left.
"Why does Tifa always climb up ladders and the like last?" Yuffie asked, out of the blue.
I gave the best look of implied stupidity that I could while being crushed into the ground by Red's weight. I felt Red shift so that he was facing her and imagined that he was pulling off a much better job at the look than I was.
"Do you seriously need to ask?" I questioned her, in a flat tone of voice.
"What? You mean her choice of clothing?" Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "It's not like we all haven't seen up there at least once, what with the somersaulting and the like… they're whi…"
I felt Red's weight leave me, but I didn't feel relieved, I felt desperation. Red lunged at Yuffie, who squeaked in surprise. Before she could do much of anything else, I shoved my hand against her mouth, preventing another sound from leaving.
"We. Do. Not. Mention. That." I hissed.
"It won't matter who or what you are, she will kick your ass." Red added, shooting a nervous look towards the cliff edge, where Tifa was just pulling herself up.
"Do we make ourselves clear?" I asked.
I felt Yuffie nodding, so I released her, grimacing at the moisture of her spit on my hand.
"Next time I stop you from talking, please don't lick my hand." I grunted, whipping my hand on my jeans.
"It generally gets people to let go." She defended herself.
"Yes, but if I'm the one covering your mouth, it is with good reason." I frowned.
"What did you mean by no matter who or what you are?" Yuffie asked.
"Erm…" Yes, Red was nervous, and with good reason. "I kind of mentioned it back at Fort Condor…"
"If anything gets a reaction out of her, that's it." I shuddered.
Tifa is scary when she's pissed off. I don't know whether everyone else knew not to mention it, but even if they didn't, I wasn't about to risk my neck telling them.
Though I had been surprised that Red was the one that spoke aloud about it in her presence. I guess I could put it down as lack of understanding human females. Then again, no one understands human females... except human females.
It was also that incident that had Tifa start climbing things after everyone else had already gone up. And she was always the first to climb down.
"If it's such an issue, why does she wear…?"
"Just. Don't. Talk. About. It." I cut her off.
"Forget any thoughts you ever had on the subject and leave it at that." Red told her, before pointedly walking away from her, me in close pursuit.
Yuffie was left standing alone, her face the picture of confusion.
There weren't too many obstacles for the rest of the pass. It was mostly just routine monster attacks by mutant mosquitoes, otherwise known as Kyuvilduns along with the odd bird-like creature, known as a Sonic Speed.
But through most of the fighting, I was reduced to sitting back shooting at the odd monster, my blade being damaged and all meant that I should avoid using it unless it was an emergency. The chip and general bluntness caused by the oversized monster stepping on it meant that while it still had cutting power, it risked getting stuck inside the cut.
And shooting things might be enough for Barret and Vincent, but it left me feeling like I wasn't doing my part for the team.
This was rendered false when we were attacked by a Zuu, which flew just out of range of any and all melee attacks, and I do say that with the length of the Buster Sword in mind. Thus it was left to Vincent, Barret, Yuffie and me to shoot (or in the case of Yuffie, throw her shuriken) the oversized bird. The Zuu wasn't that tough of a monster, more of a nuisance than anything. A nuisance that Cloud couldn't just skewer with the Buster Sword, but it was still a nuisance none the less.
When we reached the rope bridge that would lead us to a cave from which we could continue through to come out the other side of the mountain, or head into the reactor, I paused, eying the bridge with suspicion.
"Didn't you say that this thing snapped?" I asked Cloud.
"Wasn't the first time. Doubt it would be the last time." Cloud answered, calmly.
"Was that supposed to reassure me?" I frowned. "That wasn't very reassuring."
"The chances of it snapping are highly unlikely." The blond rolled his eyes.
"And the chances of most of what has happened to us?" I countered.
"You're being pessimistic."
"There are two advantages to that: I get the satisfaction of knowing that I was right, or I'm pleasantly surprised."
Cloud rolled his eyes again.
"Would it make you feel better if you cross last, by yourself?" He questioned, sounding tired.
Actually, that sounded like a reasonable idea.
Is it obvious I don't trust rope bridges? Ropes can snap, can rot, end can be cut far too easily for me to just go and trust one that is supposed to prevent me from falling to my death.
Being told that the bridge snapped regularly was not something that reassured me. It was something that made me all the more worried. The way that AVALANCHE's luck had a habit of being, I just knew that Murphy was waiting to give me a good hard kick in the teeth.
And with my luck, Murphy would miss his kick and I'd be wondering whether fate was trying to tell me something about the concept of me having children. While groaning in pain; naturally.
Everyone else began to cross the bridge, and I watched intently. The bridge gave no sign of looking like it was even beginning to feel any stress at all the weight being put upon it.
Once everyone else was at the end, or near enough, I began to cross it myself, wincing at the groaning sound that the wooden slabs made as they had my weight pressed upon them. I slowly moved forwards, ignoring Yuffie's yells of 'hurry up, slowpoke'.
I paused when I heard footsteps behind me. Turning, I found myself face to face with a blond man with a scar running down his forehead, wearing an ankle length, white trench coat, with a cross that looked vaguely like the Cross of Saint James upon the sleeves. He also wore a rather arrogant smirk, which I cared nothing for.
"So, you're the lizard boy." The man, who I quickly identified as Seifer, smirked.
"Indeed. And you are rocking the bridge, so fuck off." I snapped, taking several steps back.
"Can't do that. See, there's this bounty on your head, and I'm here to collect."
"I have a bounty on my head?" I repeated, dumbstruck. "What the hell…"
"Yeah, most people say that." Seifer shrugged. "Act so surprised that they registered as important enough in someone's books to warrant having a bounty placed on them."
"The bastard placed a bounty on me for throwing his cat off of the roof?" I mumbled to myself.
"You threw who's cat off what?" Seifer apparently had sharp enough hearing to hear my mumbling.
"President Rufus' Dark Nation off of the roof of the Shinra Tower."
The blond hesitated, blinking, before bursting out laughing.
"Oh that is rich. I wish I'd been there to see that." He howled, before straightening himself and advancing several steps. "If it were up to me, I'd let you go just for that, but a jobs a job."
The blond reached into his coat and pulled out his gunblade, the Hyperion. Cursing, I took several steps back, a little too quickly, since the bridge rocked sideways. Having the Hyperion pointed at me was a little discomforting. Tensing, I leapt back as he swung the blade in an overhead arc. It slammed down upon the wooden slab and splintered it. Looking annoyed that I hadn't just accepted my fate, he hopped over the gap in the bridge and levelled his gunblade at me again.
By this time, I had pulled out what remained of Talon and was holding it in my usual relaxed stance, though at that moment in time, I was feeling anything but relaxed. Seifer was a master of the gunblade, though holding it out like that; he was likely to get a very sore arm eventually.
Unless the Hyperion was that much lighter than it looked.
His stance was similar to that of a fencer, the way held the blade out so that it was pointed towards me, with one arm, his body turned away from me.
This is the part where I wish I had an intimate knowledge of swords and the various forms of combat with them.
Deciding that the best defence was a good offence, I hopped towards him, blade swinging in an upwards strike. Seifer moved his own blade to intercept, but neither blade met each other, as I'd over-estimated the length of the blade, having forgotten that a quarter of it was now missing.
I did wind up getting a shot off at his face while the end was still pointed in his general direction.
The blond flinched, stepping back, before coming in to try and reverse the roles, and make me the one who has to defend while he uses a good offence. Cursing, I ducked, and swung at his leg while I was down low. Seifer leapt back, avoiding the amputation and hopped right back in without hesitation, already making his next move.
I was right, he was good. But even I could see that he put too much power into his attacks, so when the blade didn't connect with anything he tended to overbalance; letting me try to get a hit in. The word being 'try'.
I managed to parry once or twice, but for the most part, I was forced to try and just dodge the attacks. One of the problems was that I was in the way of Seifer, so the rest of AVALACHE couldn't get a shot in to help. I doubt even Vincent, with his amazing aim would risk this.
The fighting came to a rather abrupt halt though, when he parried an attempted slash, and my blade slid down the length of the Hyperion, before sliding off and cutting into the rope to the side.
Both of us looked at the halfway cut rope and swallowed.
"Ah, shit." I swore.
Seifer was a bit more vocal about it, but our swearing didn't stop the rope from snapping completely.
The bridge tilted awkwardly, and I was forced to grab onto the edge of the bridge as it twisted sidewards, trying to dump whatever was on it down into the darkness below. Seifer did likewise, cursing all the while. Then the other rope snapped, and the bridge fell, slamming against the wall that was the side of a mountain.
The shock caused me to let go, and I fell.
Small consolation prize, Seifer was falling with me. At least I wouldn't be going alone.