Cid was standing on the bridge of his airship, somewhat irritated that he couldn't be down on the ground helping his friends fight the Repentant. Still, Cid understood that having an eye in the sky and relaying tactical information was vital to the WRO commanders in the field. While it wasn't nearly as glamorous or as manly as actually fighting, Cid was determined to do his job well.

Reeve, who was sitting at one of the Shera's navigation terminals, looked up toward Cid at the helm. He noticed Cid's frustration and spoke up. "Cid, I know this isn't the kind of work you want to do when there's a battle going on. But we need the Shera for surveillance and…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Cid interrupted. "A captain can't be leaving his ship in the middle of a shitstorm. Just wish I could do more than sit up with my thumb up my ass and relay troop movements. Damn it anyway…"

Cid took a cigarette out of his coat pocket and lit it. He started smoking as he asked, "So, our boys kicking Repentant ass or not?"

Reeve nodded. "WRO troops have breached the front gates. They're being met with resistance from both gunners and melee combatants. However, we managed to disable most of their mech support in the initial assault, so now's it's a matter of manpower. The Repentant are putting up a hell of a fight, but…"

Reeve's sentence trailed off, but Cid didn't need to ask him to finish. The Repentant may be zealots, but there wasn't any way all of them (if any) had anything resembling military training. Reeve estimated that there close to a thousand Repentant camped out in Nibelheim, but the WRO was attacking with twice as many soldiers…soldiers who were trained in combat and military-style precision. It was a matter of when, not if, the Repentant lines would be completely broken and destroyed.

Cid swore under his breath as he took another puff of his cigarette. There was no doubt in his mind that Cyrus knew that his followers wouldn't stand a chance against a concentrated assault from the WRO. Yet, he somehow twisted them into becoming martyrs for his cause, and sent them to their deaths all in the name of "penance." Cid knew that they had to fight the Repentant, but it still didn't seem right.

"Captain! We've got incoming hostiles from Mt. Nibel! Off the bow!"

Cid let his thoughts of the battle below go as he turned his attention towards the Shera's main viewport. The lights from the airship showed Cid what his subordinate was yelling about: a flock of zuus and dragons heading directly from the mountains to Nibelheim. There were close to two dozen of the aerial monsters, and they were flying too close together to be just passing by.

"Son of a bitch!" Cid shouted. "That piece of shit Cyrus must've used the rest of those Shinra control disks. That's a lot of fucking monsters!"

"Cid, if those monsters land, our casualties are going to be a lot more severe," Reeve pointed out.

"For fuck's sake, Reeve! You don't think I know that?! All right, jackasses…looks like we get to do more than just sit up here and play spectators. I'm going to line up our starboard side with those monsters. Prep the rockets, machine guns…hell, if you numbskulls got some rocks to toss at them, get your throwing arms warmed up! We're blasting these bastards out of the sky before they get to our boys on the ground. Am I understood, dipshits?!"

"Aye, aye, Captain!" the Shera'screw responded as they worked on getting the airship's weapons operational. Cid smirked as he finished his cigarette and turned the wheel to the left. As good a spearman as Cid was, there was nothing like the feeling of being the captain of an airship in the middle of a battle. It had been a long time since Cid had participated in a good old-fashioned dogfight, and he was not going to lose this one against a bunch of stupid beasts.

"Looks like Cloud and the others aren't going to get all the glory this time," Cid thought as he gave his gunners the signal to unleash hell upon the monster swarm.

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Vincent and Saion had somehow made their way onto the roofs of Nibelheim's houses as their duel escalated. Their first exchanges were little more than just feeling one another out, testing each other's abilities. Once they were satisfied with the knowledge of one another's skills, the red-cloaked phantom and his skeletal adversary actually began to actively try and kill one another.

As a result of the constant vaulting and dodging of gunfire, Vincent and Saion found themselves on the rooftops, the battle between the Repentant and the WRO acting as a background to their showdown. Vincent had taken the offensive, methodically firing Cerberus as Saion jumped from roof to roof and returning fire with his pistols. Vincent, in turn, swerved from right to left on the roof he was currently perched on, deftly managing to keep his footing as he reloaded and tracked his foe.

However, Saion was too fast for Vincent to keep up. Despite the Repentant's meager frame, he possessed some means of moving faster than any normal human could manage. As Vincent continued to fire, hoping to land at least one of his shots, he noticed a familiar glow coming from Saion's right arm.

"Materia," Vincent muttered angrily. He felt foolish for not realizing that this Repentant lieutenant would have been using materia to supplement his power. Vincent himself rarely used materia after the battle with Sephiroth, but he suddenly found himself wishing he had some equipped right now. It was becoming next to impossible for Vincent to keep up with Saion.

Saion must have noticed this, as he quickly stopped his rooftop dashing and stood still right across the street from Vincent. Vincent was confused by the sudden change in Saion's tactics, but he decided to take advantage and aimed Cerberus directly at the Repentant's head. Saion responded with a distinctive green glow from his right arm, which manifested itself in the form of a level three Bolt spell. The lightning bolt coursed through the night air and hit Vincent directly in his chest. The excruciating pain coupled with the smell of burning clothing and seared flesh was enough to knock Vincent off his feet. He would have slid off the roof he was standing on it not for his metallic gauntlet digging into the shingles, stopping him from plummeting into the conflict below.

Saion leapt across the street and stood over Vincent as he hung onto the edge of the roof. The Repentant assassin loomed over Vincent as he plainly explained:

"Vincent Valentine…I see that the rumors of Chaos returning to the Planet along with Omega were true. Were you still the vessel for the Chaos Gene, you would have put up a much better fight, and perhaps you may have even bested me. Without Chaos, you are nothing more than the remnant of one of Hojo's twisted projects."

Saion raised his right arm as the materia he had merged with began glowing. "I was blessed with the power and knowledge of the Planet, bestowed upon me by my master Cyrus Thresher. My skills, augmented with the materia merged in my body make me superior to you. I have become a living weapon…and you are nothing more than flesh and blood and the inherent weakness of humanity."

Despite the fact that Saion was lording over him as he hung over a mass of carnage and devastation, Vincent couldn't help but betray a wire-thin smile. Dark energy started to swirl around him as he pulled himself up and faced Saion eye-to-eye.

Saion's face didn't show it, but his voice possessed a subtle tone of confusion. The Repentant pointed one of his pistols at Vincent's head as he asked, "What is this? This power…it can't be Chaos!"

"Chaos?" Vincent mused. "No, not Chaos. That demon returned to the Planet after the fall of Omega Weapon. However, it seems that the Repentant didn't do enough research on their adversaries. My body is host to another demon…one that is begging me to come out. The manifestation of my sins..."

The dark energy that permeated from Vincent began to swirl into a typhoon around the former Turk as his body began to twist and contort. After a few seconds, the dark energy dissipated, revealing a demon with the face of a wolf, the horns of a behemoth, and sharp claws on its hands and feet. The black hair Vincent once had had become a spiky mess of silver that served as this demon's mane. This demon's body was a chiseled mass of black and dark-grey hide, and Vincent's red cloak served as the demon's loincloth.

This demon was the long extinct beast of legend…the Galian Beast.

All traces of Vincent Valentine's cool and collected personality were now replaced by a primal urge to kill. That was exactly what the Galian Beast had in mind as he charged Saion with an otherworldly speed and determination. Saion quickly opened fire, but he only managed to graze the beast's shoulder. The demon ignored the injury as he grabbed a hold of Saion's neck and began squeezing the life out of the Repentant gunman. Saion fought to release the Galian Beast's chokehold, but found that the beast's grip similar to that of a vise. Saion, out of desperation, grabbed his pistol and managed to shoot his adversary in the foot. The Galian Beast released its grip as it howled in pain. Saion took advantage of this, rising to his feet and pointed both pistols at the demon's head.

But it was all for naught. The now enraged Galian Beast swiped at Saion's hands, knocking both pistols out of his hands. The beast then proceeded to land blows and slashes as if he were under a Berserk spell. The persistent beating was more than Saion's materia-enhanced body could handle as one final blow drove the bloodied body of the Repentant lieutenant through the roof and second floor of the house the two were battling on top of. Saion fell hard on the floor as the Galian Beast howled triumphantly.

As Saion began spitting up blood, the Galian Beast reared his head back and unleashed a powerful flare spell. The members of AVALANCHE dubbed it the "Beast Flare" and the name was certainly appropriate. The magical force of the Galian Beast's flare tore Saion's already mangled body apart and began to turn the Repentant into ash. Saion, to his credit, never screamed out in pain as the flare subsided, leaving him nothing more than ashes.

The Galian Beast jumped through the hole in the roof as the dark energy from earlier returned to change the beast back into his host. What landed beside where Saion used to be was Vincent Valentine, who took one look at the Repentant's charred remains as well as the structural damage done to the house by the Galian Beast's flare. He shook the dust off his cloak, holstered Cerberus, and walked slowly out the front door, never once looking back.

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"C'mon, you sumbitch! Eat it! EAT IT!" Barret shouted as he continued to unleash rounds and rounds of ammunition from his gun-arm Ungarmax into the shield of the Repentant who called himself "Atlas." The shield, however, was large enough to protect this massive man's vitals and was somehow sturdy enough to withstand the hailstorm of bullets. Barret was getting more and more frustrated by his opponent's defensive strategy…something that Atlas had noticed.

"What's the matter?" Atlas mockingly asked as he continued to block Barret's fire. "I thought that you were planning on stopping me? It seems to me that all you are accomplishing is scratching my shield!"

"Shut the hell up! I'm just gettin' warmed up!" Barret retorted as he continued his onslaught. After two minutes of trying to shoot past Atlas's shield, Barret's gun-arm ran out of ammo. Atlas smiled from behind his shield as his opponent struggled to reload.

"My turn," Atlas declared as he lowered his guard and quickly ran over to Barret. The Repentant monolith swung his right arm in a wide arc, hitting Barret square in the chest with the edge of his shield. Barret felt the wind get knocked out of him as he struggled to get back on his feet. Atlas continued the pummeling, smashing his shield into the arms and legs of the former AVALANCHE leader. He allowed Barret to stand before dealing a vicious uppercut that sent Barret flying back about six feet.

To Atlas's surprise, Barret staggered back to his feet and finished reloading his gun-arm. "I'm impressed, Mr. Wallace. A normal man would've been broken in half after being hit by my shield."

"Yeah, well…I ain't no ordinary man, fool!" Barret confidently boasted before coughing up blood. Despite his bravado, Barret was in bad shape. He was fairly certain that the Repentant lieutenant had managed to fracture some of his ribs and even break his left arm. Barret knew he didn't have long before his injuries would finish him off…that is, if Atlas didn't do it before then.

"Yield, traitor," Atlas ordered as he settled into his defensive stance. "You can't get past my shield, and you can't stand against me in your condition. You're finished…so make your transition to the Lifestream easier and surrender to me. I promise to make your death quick and painless."

"Well, ain't you just being all charitable?" Barret said as he continued gasping for air. He then looked up and flashed Atlas a toothy grin. "But I ain't gettin' off this train just yet! I got a little girl countin' on her daddy to save the world for her. I ain't about to let her pay for my mistakes, so I'm gonna keep on fightin' 'til I can't fight no more!

"Of course, you gotta be a damned fool for not figuring out what I've doin' this whole fight! I know my baby's bullets ain't strong enough to get past that shield of yours…but they ARE strong enough to weaken that piece of scrap enough for me to shatter it with this!"

Barret pointed Ungarmax at Atlas's shield as he braced himself for another leaden barrage. However, Barret had something else in mind, as a powerful energy sphere formed at the tip of gun-arm. It swelled to the size of a basketball and pulsed with enough power to affect Barret's aim. Barret compensated by holding his right arm with his left as he shouted, "BIG SHOT!"

The energy sphere rocketed towards Atlas and hit the Repentant's shield dead center. The sphere twisted into the mythril, and to Atlas's horror it actually began to crack it where the first round of bullets had impacted. The shield continued to buckle under the force of the Big Shot until it finally gave in and shattered into several pieces. Atlas screamed in pain as some of the Big Shot's residual energy had managed to seep through, singing the flesh on his right arm as pieces of his broken shield imbedded themselves into his skin.

Atlas's grey eyes were filled with rage as he stared down Barret Wallace, his gun-arm still smoking from launching that brutal attack. The Repentant shouted at the top of his lungs, "Damn you, traitor! I will not stop, I will not yield to you. I am Atlas, loyal Repentant, and I will fight for the Planet's salvation!"

Atlas ran as fast as he could towards Barret unarmed. Barret shook his head as he opened fire with Ungarmax. The heavy rounds, now free to hit their target, riddled Atlas's body, cutting through flesh, organs, and bone. Even so, Atlas never stopped moving forward into the bullet storm and was within two feet of reaching Barret as one last bullet found its mark between Atlas's eyes. The look of rage in the Repentant's eyes faded away as he fell to the ground, never to rise again.

Barret exhaled as he too fell to the ground. He was still suffering from his injuries at the hands of Atlas, and he was close to blacking out until a crimson-colored figure stood above him and offered Barret his hand.

Barret took it as Vincent helped Barret to his feet and led him to where the WRO had set up a medical outpost. Barret, despite the pain he was in, looked over at Vincent and laughed.

"Damn…if I knew that skinny bastard was so easy, I'd of switched places with you!"

"I'll keep that in mind," Vincent said plainly. "But I have a feeling that Cloud's going to have it a lot harder than either of us."

"Yeah," Barret agreed. "Think Spiky can handle the rest?"

Barret's question was left unanswered. Vincent didn't say a word either way…

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Author's Notes:

Cid's blasting dragons, Vincent takes down Saion, and Barret pummels Atlas...what can I possibly do for an encore? INCREASE THE EPICNESS!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's longer than some of my more recent chapters, and I think the length is about right for most of the rest of the chapters. Hope I did a good enough job fleshing out the fights, because these are probably the easiest ones that I have to do.

The only things in life that are certain are death, taxes, and reviews! Well, that last one's only certain when it's Kairi-loves-Sushi (who rocks BTW), but feel free to join in on the fun and let me know if you like the story!

Later,

"The Exile" Cyrus Truth