So. This is late. I'm sorry for being so mean to my awesome readers. Enjoy.
"Ready?" The tall slim built silver haired soldier asked.
"Ready." The pink haired teenage girl confirmed with a nod.
They both held up their reinforced plastic polymer practice swords and gave a bow. Mentor and student faced each other, stern gazes in place. Some would think they were about to duel but it was just one class of many. The soldier with silver hair would not even think about using his full strength against the pink haired girl before him. She still had much to learn. But he was teaching her and it was not going very well.
He stepped forward, raised his practice sword, and called out "One!"
The girl raised her own practice sword into a stance meant to counter the attack her mentor was using, the attack he referred to as One. She blocked the attack and he stepped back before giving a nod then attacked again.
"Five!" He called prompting the girl to block, after which he stepped back "Six! Two!" He called out, feeling a small swell of prude when the girl blocked the attacks "Eight! Seven! Nine!" She blocked, dodged, and countered perfectly "One, Nine, Seven, One!" He called out before starting the chain of attacks. She countered the first two but tripped over her own feet when moving to dodge the third attack.
The young pinkette stumbled and fell on her rear and blushed from embarrassment. Her sister, who had been watching, started laughing at the scene earning herself a glare. The pink haired student got back to her feet with a grunt and took up the starting stance again. With a nod of confirmation, her silver haired mentor also took up the beginning stance.
"She's too heavy on her feet," the silver haired soldier's red clothed friend said from his place on the opposite side of the small training room "Her agility is remarkable but her finesse is suffering."
"Thank you for the analysis, Genesis." The green eyed soldier said with surprise. It was unusual for his auburn friend to say something actually helpful in regard to the pinkette.
Genesis' phone rang right then and he checked it before speaking "The faster you get her trained, the faster your work stops getting pushed onto Angeal and I." He left after delivering his quip.
Sephiroth let out a sigh then faced Claire "Regardless of that, he is right. You're too heavy on your feet. So to remedy that, you are going to learn to dance."
"What?"
Sephiroth couldn't help but chuckle at her surprise. They dropped their practice swords and with no small amount of hesitation Claire complied with the instructions. They spent the next few hours going through basic dance steps where Claire's lack of footwork shone through. She tripped and stumbled her way through the exercises, Serah giggling at her the whole time. The elder Farron grew increasingly frustrated until she had enough and let out a cry of anger.
"This is so stupid! I'm supposed to be learning to fight!" She shouted as she stormed a few paces away from her teacher and adoptive father. Sephiroth watched her passively.
"Are you giving up, Claire?" He asked flatly.
"No!" She snapped back "I refuse to learn something so stupid!"
"So you're giving up." Sephiroth said as he stepped up behind Claire. He took hold of Claire's forearms and held her arms away from her body thoroughly confusing the girl "Serah, come tickle your sister." He commanded the younger Farron, who quite literally hopped to attention. Claire panicked, Sephiroth smiled.
The pink haired teen did her best to remain stoic as her younger sister tickled her. Claire last twenty seconds, almost exactly. While Serah giggled and Sephiroth smiled, Claire squirmed, laughed, and tried to escape the torment but her adoptive father had an iron grip. She was at Serah's mercy for several minutes and her sister had none.
"Now," Sephiroth said after he had released Claire and she had settled down "What is my main rule?"
"No giving up." Claire answered with a nod and a smile.
"And what are we doing tomorrow?"
"Teaching me to dance." The pinkette answered.
"Good. Now go spend time with Serah." Sephiroth told her.
Waking up pulled Claire out of the memory. She was greeted by the sight of swirling, rolling, rippling orange color. All she could hear was a high pitched squeal. It took a second for her to realize she was laying down on something hard. Pushing herself up into a sitting position was both incredibly painful and difficult. Yet she felt separated from the task, like she wasn't actually doing it.
Once sitting up she looked down at herself, seeing countless tiny cuts and burns all over her body. There were many larger cuts as well but a part of her mind was saying there should be more damage, yet she didn't know why her mind was saying that. She also took note of the brown, shaped stone she was sitting on and found it strange. Looking to the side made her locate her weapon laying on the ground in rifle form. Getting to her feet was far more difficult than sitting up. She was sure there were a few broken bones throughout her body now. The world was still dead silent to her with the exception of the constant high pitched squeal in her ears, though that seemed more focused on her left.
Claire gazed up at the roiling orange color above her. It mystified her, had her mesmerized by its strange behavior and by the fact that she felt like she should know what the strange orange was. But even with effort, the pinkette could not figure out what the orange mystery was. Deciding enough time had been spent staring up at the orange the pinkette chose to turn around, for no particular reason.
She saw Hope helping Sazh walk away, no doubt the older man had worse injuries. A blonde woman, that seemed to be in better shape than the others, was standing watching something else. Tracking where she was looking made Claire locate Zack, Fang, and Vanille. The former two were on their knees on either side of the latter. Moments later Zack lifted Vanille and started in the direction Sazh and Hope were going. Fang jogged over to Claire next making the pinkette realize that Fang was virtually unharmed. Her clothes were ripped in places but otherwise she was fine.
"Lightnin'!" Fang called but to Claire she sounded far away and muffled. Without warning Fang slapped Claire, making her left cheek sting.
Claire was snapped out of her daze and had anger flare through her body. She raised her right arm to punch Fang in response to the slap, however, the pinkette learned that her right arm was in fact broken in a few places. The pain pulled her back and she looked up at what had been a mysterious roiling color to her only to discover that the roof of wherever they were was on fire. It hit her then, their flight from the Palamecia, and their crash. Once again Claire was boggled by how any of them were alive.
"Time to go!" Fang all but shouted at Claire.
The former SOLDIER gave a nod and stepped over to her weapon, stumbling and nearly falling. Figuring the lack of balance was from a blow to the head caused by the crash, Claire fought through it. After retrieving her weapon she started after the others, having to fight her lack of balance the entire time. Each and every step felt like she was over correcting for uneven ground making her stumble every couple of steps. It took her longer than it should have to catch up to the others.
Fang was leading the group with Jihl on her tail, her materia having done its job of protecting her from the worst of the crash. Sazh and Hope were supporting each other while they walked as fast as they could. It was obvious Zack was having difficulty walking but he still had his large sword on his back and Vanille in his arms. Then Claire saw it, the chunk of burnt steel sticking out of the redhead's chest. It had barely missed her right breast but had undoubtedly pierced her lung. It was unlikely the girl would live for much longer.
The group pushed forward down the stone hall the crash landed them in, soon coming into a very large chamber. Massive stone pillars were equally spaced throughout the chamber and eight foot walls were built between them, leaving at least ten feet of clearance between the walls and ceiling. As the wounded group crossed the threshold the floor beneath them lit up with a strange symbol. The group questioned what happened as the symbol faded leaving the floor just as dull as before and moments later hatches in the grand pillars slid open. Strange mechanical looking humanoid figures walked out of the hatches then halted. About four stood in front of the group but they could hear many more further in the giant chamber.
"The hell are those?" Sazh asked between wheezing breaths.
"Cetra sentries..." Hope said quietly.
"What?" Fang called back.
"Cetra sentries." The young man said louder "Ancient machinations meant for defending locations that were sacred to the Cetra."
The so-called sentries began marching toward the group. Their steps rigid and slow but constant. In their current condition there was no hope of the group out running the sentries; Fang could, but there was no way she would simply abandon them.
"Normal words!" Fang yelled at Hope as the sentries got closer and unfolded their single clawed arm.
"Magic robots!" Hope yelled back "Smash them!"
With a feral shout, Fang charged towards the sentries with a hunger to see them in pieces. Everyone stood back and watched the huntress charge into battle. With a powerful swing of her double ended spear, she obliterated the head of the sentry on the right side leaving three standing. Using the momentum from the first attack Fang spun, lifted her spear, and brought the blade down into the next sentry's head; destroying it. The next sentry swung its clawed arm at the woman but she easily blocked the attack. She hooked the shaft of her spear in the claw, sharply twisting the spear all the way around, tearing the claw free of the sentry. As she tossed the claw aside the sentry swung its head forward slamming it into Fang's. She stumbled back then growled and shoved her spear though a small gap in the sentry's middle. There was a loud crunch and the sentry fell over in two pieces. The last sentry did not get the dignity of an actual attack, Fang swung her spear like a bat and took off its head, laughing as it crumpled to the floor. A moment later Fang grabbed her spear in a ready stance then took off running. The others shared glances then limped after her.
Claire caught her reflection on the claw of one of the sentries, eyes bulging at the sight. The right side of her face and her ear had been torn up and burnt from the crash. She was amazed that her eye had been spared and that her lips were still intact. A small part of her mind was thankful to finally have an explanation for the hearing loss on her right side and the lack of balance though a much bigger part of her was terrified that she could see bone on her forehead and just below her eye. Her subconscious perked up and commanded the woman to ignore it and keep moving.
The wounded group, and Jihl, passed many wrecked sentries as they limped through the winding hall. They were beginning to understand that this was either a gauntlet or a defensive structure but they could not fathom what it defended against as it had the glaring flaw of the wise open space above the walls. Ignoring that fact though, the group was glad Fang is up ahead clearing the path. It didn't take long, but longer than it should have due to injuries, for the group to meet Fang at the end of the winding hall.
The huntress stood panting and waiting before a pitch black hall similar to the one the group had crashed into. With a nod to Claire, Fang turned and stepped into the darkness and it instantly vanished as glowing lines on either wall flared to life. This strange hall continued on for a lengthy time, it became obvious that this hall was meant to be a choke point for the invading forces. At the end of the hall was a large staircase down that bent to the right. The staircase went down a long way, Hope counted two hundred steps. After the stairs sat another choke point hallway. At the end of this narrow hall was a great wooden door that time or ancient invaders had destroyed, it lay on the floor in several large chunks.
In the next grand hall, six tall humanoid statues stood proud. Each had their own pedestal but there was one with two feminine statues upon it. Six statues, six pedestals but only five of the raised stone platforms were occupied. Upon closer inspection the group discovered the statues were made of some kind of ancient steel. The first on the left was mostly white in color, had a giant double hook blade sword in its right hand, and a massive shield on its left arm. Next on the left was red feminine statue, with a bulky upper body, high heels, and a multi bladed scythe in its right hand leaning on its shoulder. Last on the left was just a gigantic statue, not much else could be said about the gold humanoid fortress. On the right the first pedestal held the two feminine statues, both had large and strange headdresses and one had a wheel beside her. The next one was the strangest of the bunch, slim angular body and a dozen arms on each side. Next was the empty pedestal, which truly was a mystery to the group as there was no wreckage of the statue or obvious marks indicating it had been stolen long ago.
"Vanille!" Zack called out suddenly, worry in his tone "Vanille! Wake up!" The group was surrounding the two in an instant, all but Jihl of course.
"Lay her down," Sazh said to Zack, his tone quiet and distant "Give her some air."
Fang was immediately kneeling beside the girl and holding her head gently close to her body. Vanille groaned softly before opening her eyes part way. She had grown weak, sickly pale, and her eyes had grown darker since they left the crash site. Sazh motioned the others away a few steps and shook his head to answer the unasked question the group had. This was the end of the line for Vanille.
"I'm sorry Van," Fang whispered to Vanille as she tried to fight back tears "I broke my promise."
"You did your best Fang." Vanille reply with a smile.
"This wasn't supposed to happen." Tears rolled down Fang's cheeks as she spoke quietly.
Vanille reached up and placed her hand on Fang's cheek to comfort the huntress "Don't cry, Fang. I'll be with my parents... And we'll see each other again... Before we're reborn..." Her voice was getting weaker and her eyes slowly shut as her breathing grew increasingly slow and shallow.
"Vanille?" Fang said in a panic "Vanille!" She lightly shook the girl but when Vanille didn't respond tears ran freely down Fang's bronzed cheeks. She hugged the girl close and leaned down to kiss Vanille's forehead. Tears ran freely down the cheeks of the normally flippant huntress. "Ieyui... Nobomeno... Renmiri... Yojuyogo... Hasatekanae... Kutamaeā¦" Fang sang slowly through her shaky voice, the song was peaceful and calming, a perfect tune for a final goodbye. The huntress gently lay Vanille on the ground then reverently lay the girl's hands on her stomach and fixed up her hair and clothes, after pulling the broken steel out of Vanille's chest.
Everyone else merely stood and watched Fang work not wanting to interrupt or further upset her. Claire felt beyond terrible. Vanille had been an innocent bystander which Claire pulled into these events. A civilian casualty of her determination. It paled in comparison to her assistance in dropping Sector 7 of Midgar but this felt far more personal. The pinkette felt herself moving forward towards Fang then placed her hand on the huntress' bare shoulder.
"Fang-"
"Don't." Fang warned the soldier.
"I'm sorry."
"Shut up!" Fang shouted as she turned, slapped away Claire's hand, and gave a death glare. Her lip curled in a canine showing snarl.
Claire actually retreated a step as it seemed Fang was about to viciously attack her. The soldier's eyes caught a glimpse of Fang's eyes turning bright orange and her shown canine growing long and sharp before Fang spun back to Vanille and dropped her head into her hands. Claire wanted to know what she just saw but did not dare move a muscle at the current moment. Steel groaning from movement caught her attention and she tore her gaze from Fang to look at the others, following where they were looking.
The multi armed statue stepped down off its pedestal and unfurled its arms. It turned to the group and walked towards them. They all raised their weapons in response doubting they could defeat an ancient machine possibly meant for war in their injured states. But the tall steel figure ignored them choosing instead to kneel near Vanille. Everyone watched in stunned silence as the machine used its two dozen arms to gently lift the girl. More metal groaning alerted the group as the other statues eyes flashed bright then they held out a hand towards the one holding Vanille. Claire felt a tingle in the air as something changed. Streams of light came from each statue and joined above Vanille before the light moved down to the girl. Multi-arm held out a hand towards each of the group, released more lights, which hit each person in the chest, and in an instant everyone's wounds were gone. The light resonating from Vanille dimmed and she gasped and coughed. Multi-arm lowered the girl to Fang whom had started crying more and smiling.
Fang pulled the barely conscious Vanille into a tight hug and looked up at Multi-arm "Thank you. Thank you so much."
Jihl then spoke everyone else's thoughts "What the fuck is going on!"
There is no Serah and Co half to this chapter because I could not come up with anything to dress up the group regrouping on the mainland then heading onto the next part of FF7.
Please leave a review. I will most definitely get the next chapter out faster.
