"No, damn it! This can't be happening!" Yuffie thought as she continued to try and fight her way out of her chains as the bandersnatches continued to circle her and Cid. She frantically tried to recall everything she learned about escaping, but the lessons were not coming to her fast enough. She was beginning to lose hope as one of the bandersnatches looked like it had finally decided it was time to devour the two prisoners.
"No, no! Is this really how it's going to end? After all me and my friends have been through, I get eaten by a pack of bandersnatches? No, this isn't right! We still have work to do! We got to stop the Repentant! Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!"
Yuffie's internal monologue was shattered by the howl of the alpha bandersnatch. In an instant, two bandersnatches separated from the pack and quickly rushed Cid and Yuffie. Yuffie knew there wasn't any time left as one of the bandersnatches jumped up and lunged at her. In a second, it would all be over…
BANG! BANG!
Yuffie had her eyes shut until she heard the sound of guns firing. She opened them to see the dead body of a bandersnatch lying in front of her. As she moved her gaze up, she saw the familiar sight of a blonde man wearing a white suit, flanked on either side by someone wearing a black suit. The black suits carried Shinra-standard issue pistols, whereas the man in white wielded a heavily modified shotgun which he deftly fired with one hand.
"Rufus?! What are you and the Turks doing here?" Yuffie asked, half relieved and half confused.
"Just taking care of business," Rufus calmly said as he reloaded his weapon, named after his prized hellhound Dark Nation. "Reeve hired us to keep an eye on Cyrus and his henchmen and figure out what he was planning. Now that we have, our orders are to find and eliminate him. In the meantime, we figured we might get a bonus if we rescue two of Reeve's WRO officers. So, shut up and let us do our job.
"Reno! You and Rude free these two. Tseng, Elena and I will handle the bandersnatches."
"Understood," the normally-silent Rude said as he and Reno jumped down to join their companions. While Rude worked on freeing Cid from his shackles, Reno did the same for Yuffie. All the while, the sound of the Shinra pistols and Dark Nation reverberated in the auditorium as Rufus and his Turks held the bandersnatches at bay.
"Well, princess…looks like you got yourself in quite a predicament here," Reno said in his typical cocky manner as he worked to cut through the shackles with a low-intensity plasma cutter.
"Just shut up and get me out of these chains, smart-ass!" Yuffie demanded.
"All right, all right…far be it for me to disappoint a lady," Reno said with a smirk as he deftly cut through Yuffie's shackles. Once she was free, Reno stood up and handed Yuffie her shuriken. "Yeah, we found that in a storage room along with the Repentant who were guarding it. I figured you might want it."
"Thanks. Guess you Turks aren't so bad anymore," Yuffie muttered. She then smiled as she grabbed her shuriken as she shouted, "Now stand back! The White Rose of Wutai has some monster butt-kicking to do!"
"Whatever you say, princess," the sloppily-dressed red-head replied somewhat lazily as he grabbed his trusty Shinra Electro-Mag Rod. Rude had succeeded in freeing Cid as well as reuniting the pilot with his spear. The four of them joined in the fight with the bandersnatches, and between all seven of them the monsters didn't last long. When the last monster fell to Cid's spear, he grabbed a cigarette from his jacket pocket and lit it as he asked:
"Well, Rufus…as much as I hate to admit it, I got to thank you for saving our asses. Too bad you didn't get here sooner and drill that bastard Cyrus right between his fucking eyes."
"A real shame," Rufus replied as he holstered Dark Nation. He ran his fingers through his hair as he continued, "Unfortunately, we were only able to get here in time to hear Cyrus's plans and save you two. It's not a problem, though; we know where he's heading next."
"Nibelheim," Tseng added.
"Yeah, that bastard's planning on pulling the same shit that Sephiroth did nine years ago. Crazy shithead's going to wipe everything off the face of the Planet if we don't stop him."
"It's nothing to worry about, Cid," Rufus said confidently. "Between you and your friends, the WRO, and the Turks, I highly doubt the Repentant will be able to pull this off. Speaking of which…"
Rufus was interrupted by the sound of a helicopter taking off and passing by overhead. "That bastard!" Reno swore. "He just stole our chopper! And I left my favorite pair of goggles in the pilot's seat, too. Damn it anyhow…"
"I'll be sure to requisition you a new pair, Reno," Rufus stated. "Cid, it looks like we need to hitch a ride with you back to WRO Headquarters. Think you can give us a lift?"
"No problem, kid!" Cid said with a smile. "The Shera's not too far away and I doubt those Repentant assholes would've found it. Even if they did, my crew would've kicked their asses from here to the Northern Crater before letting them have my airship. It's the least I can do for you numbskulls!"
"Then let's not waste any time talking about it," Tseng suggested. "Lead the way, Captain Highwind."
Cid nodded as he led the group towards one of the auditorium's exit. Reno and Yuffie brought up the rear as Reno noticed the ninja looking back towards the shattered crystal. More specifically, she was staring at the mangled remains of Cait Sith with a sad look in her eyes.
"You all right, princess?" Reno asked.
Yuffie turned to face the Turk with a look of determination in her eyes. "I'm fine, Reno. Let's go before Cid leaves without us. Oh, and stop calling me princess…unless you want my boot up your ass."
Reno chuckled as he and Yuffie ran to catch up to the others. Yuffie took one quick glance back at the machine that was once her friend. He'd be replaced with a new Cait Sith, no doubt…but Yuffie would never forgive what Cyrus had done to him.
"That bastard's going to pay dearly," Yuffie promised herself as she fastened her shuriken to her back and followed Cid and the Turks back into the forest and towards the Shera.
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The hole in the WRO Headquarters that was once the document depository was flooded with Repentant and their mechanized fighting machines. Once Cloud had entered the battle, he recognized the machines as Custom Sweepers. This mechs were one of Shinra's military projects and spent most of their time patrolling the wastelands outside of Midgar. The Repentant must have rounded up some of them and reprogrammed them to fight on their side.
"And modified them to be tougher," Cloud noted as the WRO troopers' machine guns were doing little to no damage to the Custom Sweepers. The mechs didn't have the same problem, as their Model W Machine Gun arms tore into the defensive barriers the WRO had set up and started to hit WRO troopers, killing some and injuring the others.
"Tifa, Red!" Cloud shouted over the gunfire. "You're with me! We have to take out those Sweepers. Vincent, Barret, and Reeve will provide covering fire!"
Everyone acknowledged the order with a nod as Barret opened fire with his Ungarmax. Cloud, Tifa, and Red fought their way through the swarms of Repentant with sword, fang, and fist. Finally, they managed to get close to the line of five Custom Sweepers that had pinned the WRO down. Three of the Sweepers had apparently decided that Cloud and his party presented a greater threat as they turned to face the former AVALANCHE members.
Cloud, Tifa, and Red nodded in sync as each split up to take on a Sweeper one-on-one. The Sweeper paired off with Red XIII opened fire first, but Red nimbly dodged the bullets as he quickly flanked the mech. He jumped on the Sweeper's back as he clawed into a service hatch, all the while trying to stay on as the Sweeper attempted to buck him off. Red finally dug deep enough to find some important-looking wires, which he immediately pulled out with his teeth. The Sweeper continued to thrash and sputter until it finally powered down.
Meanwhile, Tifa was weaving in and out as her opponent fired at her with its W-Machine Guns. Once she got in close enough to where the machine couldn't retaliate with its firearms, Tifa took a few seconds to clear her mind and concentrate. Then, in one swift move, the female fighter drove her fist deep into the front grate of the Custom Sweeper, crushing the machine's control system and rendering it little more than junk steel.
Cloud had removed one of the smaller blades from First Tsurugi and used the larger blade to reflect his Custom Sweeper's lead barrage. Cloud pressed forward towards his mechanized foe despite the Sweeper's best efforts to drive him back. Finally, once he had gotten close enough, Cloud swung both blades down on the Custom Sweeper's arms, rendering its machine guns useless. Cloud fitted the smaller blade back into First Tsurugi before driving the massive sword into the center of the war machine with the blade pointed towards the sky. The black-clad warrior then jumped into the air while running the blade through the Sweeper, cleaving the machine in two with a powerful Climhazzard.
Once Cloud landed and checked on Tifa and Red, the final two Custom Sweepers exploded and turned into scrap. Two WRO troopers had managed to grab a pair of rocket launchers in the hope that the explosive ordinance would take the heavily-armored mechs down. They were right.
With the destruction of the Custom Sweepers, the WRO and AVALANCHE focused their efforts on driving the Repentant out of the fortress. The Repentant suffered extensive casualties knowing full well that they couldn't hope to win this battle. Still, no order of retreat was sounded, and the Repentant troopers fought until the last man was struck down by Cloud Strife.
The WRO had suffered casualties as well, but not to the extent that the Repentant incurred. Cloud shook his head in disbelief at the zealotry this group possessed as he wiped his sword clean and sheathed it. He, Tifa, and Red met back up with Barret, Vincent, and Reeve as the WRO worked to try and clean up the mess and piece together what had just occurred.
"Thank you, Cloud…everyone," Reeve said, exhausted. "But I'm afraid that the damage done by the Repentant is worse than we expected. My men are reporting that the Repentant managed to sabotage and destroy our entire airship fleet, which means…"
Reeve was interrupted by the sound of his cell phone's ringing. He pulled the phone out and answered it. "Yes…All right, Shelke, what have you got? Is this right? Well, that's a relief. Thank you again, Shelke."
Reeve hung up as he said to Cloud, "At least we have some good news. Cid and Yuffie are alive and heading back on the Shera. Rufus Shinra and the Turks rescued them. They're heading back here at maximum speed, and will be here in a couple of days."
"Really?" Tifa asked as she ran over to embrace Cloud. "Cloud, they're all right!"
"Yeah," Cloud simply stated as he wrapped an arm around Tifa. A small smile formed on his lips knowing that his friends were alive and coming back. Although he didn't like Rufus all that much, Cloud made a mental note to thank the former president of Shinra when he got here.
"There's more," Reeve said somberly. "It appears that Cyrus is heading for the Nibelheim Reactor after all. And he's taking a helicopter as well, which means he'll be arriving in Nibelheim sometime in the next five to seven days."
Cloud broke his embrace with Tifa as he said, "This isn't over. We'll need the Shera for the assault on Nibelheim. In the meantime, we need to prepare for battle."
"Absolutely," Reeve acknowledged. "We'll prepare our gunboats for an amphibious assault. If we push them, we can reach Nibelheim in three days. I'd like you and your friends to launch an aerial attack from the Shera. Hopefully, that'll allow us to take down the Repentant with minimal casualties."
Cloud nodded. "Fine. It worked four years ago in Midgar. No reason why it won't work now. We're stopping Cyrus before he can release the Clear Materia. I swear it."
Reeve nodded. "You five get some rest. I'll work with Shelke to hammer out the details for the assault. I'll call you if I need you."
"Thank you. Tifa, everyone? Let's go."
The members of AVALANCHE nodded in agreement with their spiky-headed leader as they each made their way to their respective quarters. Cloud took some time to patch up his wounds with a first-aid kit and replenish his energy with a Hi-Potion. After that, he lied down on his bed and decided to take a nap. Holy only knew when he'd get the chance to rest again.
The final battle with the Repentant was coming, and the fate of the Planet rested once again on Cloud's broad shoulders.
"I won't fail…Aeris…Zack..."
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Author's Notes:
Booya! New fan alert! Thanks to Lioneh for favoriting my story AND leaving me a review. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oy, Oy, Oy! (Truth, I hope that was all right. I mean no offense!)
The final battle's looming...tension is building. The best part of this story is coming up soon...and I'm going to make sure it's kick-ass for all the people who've supported me in this fanfic.
Don't make me beg for a review...you wouldn't like me when I beg for a review...RARRGH!!!
Thanks again,
"The Exile" Cyrus Truth