Another chapter is here.
Kaze: It's good to see that you interest in this story so far.
blarg7865: Read and see.
Neal: Thank you.
Enjoy!
Cloud leaned carefully against the wall next to the container that the red creature was trapped in, nursing a migraine.
His head felt like a dagger was stabbing into it over and over. It was one of the worse reactions he had suffered through to this date, caused by that… thing they dragged from the reactor in Nibelheim. That thing was at least partially responsible for Sephiroth's insanity, and Cloud remembered very clearly that the head had fallen into the reactor along with Sephiroth. So how did it appear to be moving when he looked at it?
"What's your name?" he heard Tifa ask the creature inside of the container. She was crouched down in front of it, meeting his good eye with her own. "How long have you been here?"
"I was taken from Cosmo Canyon several years ago," he said. There was a tremor of bitterness in his voice, as well as concern and shame. "It was unbefitting of a warrior that I allowed myself to be taken so easily, thus I have no right to my birth name until I return. You may call me Red XIII, as the madman labeled me."
Tifa tilted her to the side slightly. "Your voice sounds rather mature."
"By your years, I would be around my late 40s," Red XIII explained. "In relative terms, my kind has a longevity that spans centuries, thus I would be presumably just under your ages. Admittedly, the last few years I have been here have been a blur from the experimentation's and pain."
"I can relate," Cloud said honestly, despite his expression being as unmoving as stone. "But at least your home wasn't razed to the ground in the end."
Tifa glanced over towards him, allowing a small frown to appear on her face. It quickly turned into a facsimile of a real smile as she tried to reassure Red XIII. "Well, we'll get you out soon. Then you can go back to your home. I heard from Barret that it's lovely."
Red XIII made a low noise and then shifted his head towards the ceiling. His ears twitched, and then he moved towards the sealed door of the containment cage as it slid open. Red XIII jumped out of it and onto the steel floor, circling around and then stretching, his tail rising up in the air and the flame on it burning brighter for a moment.
"Much better," he said, facing the two of them. "For too long did he have me caged. You have my thanks."
"It was our pleasure," Tifa said, an earnest and soft smile on her face. She opened her mouth to say more, but the door to the containment cage then shut abruptly, and a hatch in the center of it opened. Machinery groaned as it started up, gears turning as something rose from opening.
It was an abomination, no two ways about it. Its body was a mishmash of different limbs, the twitching left arm was thicker than the right, like it belonged on something at least twice its size and height. The left arm itself was thin, with claws at the end of long and bony fingers like you would find on a bird.
Its main head reminded Cloud of a squid, while the second one on the right shoulder looked like a giant tomato with pointed teeth that actually moved back and forth. And there were three orange bug-like things that clung to it, each one with an eye that darted around to take in their surroundings. Not to mention those legs.
Red XIII bristled at it and gave a low snarl, while the other two took a step back. They almost got into fighting poses, with Cloud reaching for his sword's handle and Tifa's fists half-raised. It gave a low, guttural shriek at them before continuing its ascent upwards as an entrance appeared at the top of the container.
"Shit!" Cloud swore as he went over to the lift and pressed the button to return it back to their floor. It was slow going. "Crimson and Aerith are up there."
"That creature is fairly strong," Red XIII warned. "The young ladies will not fair so well alone."
"Will you help us?" Tifa asked.
Red XIII nodded. "It is only fair that aid rendered be returned. By chance, do you have any materia that I may use? The last time that madman sought to test me against the creature, my claws and fangs did little to hinder it, and my right eye was the price."
"Take one of mine." Cloud removed one that Crimson had given him from a slot on his Buster Sword and tossed it to their newest companion. To his mild surprise Red XIII caught it deftly with his mouth and then threw it back up in the air, landing on a headdress he wore as it came back down and fitting perfectly into a slot.
Red XIII's back then arched upwards as he stuck his nose in the air to catch a number of scents. "Blood has been spilled. The madman's scent grows distant. It seems your companions on the floor above are under attack, and the one responsible for my imprisonment has fled. We'd best hurry."
The lift finally reached down and the three climbed on-board it. The platform rose to the floor where the others were and they found the girls were trapped in a corner, Aerith unconscious against the wall while Crimson stood in her defense. The former Turk was panting, her Rekka held out in front of her while blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
The small bug-like creatures bounded ahead of the abomination, throwing themselves at her violently. The Rekka was swung to intercept them, knocking aside two and skewering a third with a spray of greenish fluid. But the two that were knocked aside curled into balls and bounced off the walls at an angle as they sped towards Crimson a second time.
The first one she blocked admirably, but the second one slammed into her weapon-bearing hand. It sent her giant shuriken careening out of her grasp. Cloud had seen enough.
He ran in with a battle-cry, drawing the abomination's attention before it could move in and attack her as well. Tifa tapped into the power of the Ice Materia that she had been given rather than immediately charge in like he did. It called forth frigid cold, gathering and condensing in the palm of her hand.
The mass of white ice and blue frost was fired like a cannonball and slammed into a bud that was getting ready to attack Crimson again, freezing it solid. Crimson kicked it aside and then called forth a serpentine bolt of lightning at the remaining bud. The bolt tore through it like a lance, piercing its eye and exploding it from the inside out. The husk fell onto the ground lifelessly as Crimson wavered on her feet and then collapsed onto the floor, unconscious.
"Shit," Tifa swore as she ran over and felt both of their pulses. Aerith's heartbeat had slowed to a crawl, while Crimson's had an irregular rhythm. She prioritized getting Aerith back onto her feet first and pulled a Phoenix Down from a pouch to press against the flower girl's chest.
It shone with a radiant and warm light, spreading over her body and healing her. Her eyes fluttered open, and she gave a shuddering breath as she came to. Aerith slowly rose to her feet, clutching her head as she did so.
"Are you okay now?" Tifa asked, fishing through her pouch for another one to use on Cloud's companion. True enough, they weren't on remotely good terms. In fact, they hated one another. But this was a battle that everyone needed to be active for.
She found the soft feather and then pressed into the former Turk's back, letting it do its magic. "What happened?"
"I was…." Aerith shook her head to clear it of the haze she was in. "The last thing I remembered was that thing coming out and breathing this acrid gas. Poison, I think. We both inhaled some of it and then those things attacked."
"Well, they're dead now," Tifa told her, looking to see that they were all lifeless on the steel floor as the former Turk stirred.
"You only bought us time," Crimson corrected as she rose to her knees, feeling the sluggishness of awakening after being knocked out. She reached down and grabbed her favored weapon. "The creature can reanimate those things somehow, patch their wounds and get them back to being as good as new. I killed them twice now before the big one batted us aside like flies."
While the girls pulled themselves together, Cloud gritted his teeth as Red XIII's prior words proved true. It was a lot more resistant to physical attacks than he hoped. The skin was thicker and tougher than it looked, and the corded muscles beneath it managed keep up with his strength.
It fended off his sword with its massive left arm, knocking the swipe aside, and dragged its claws across his chest and the Infantrymen outfit he wore. His mako-infused body weathered the attack much better, stopping it from penetrating deep enough to draw blood. But his guard was down as he staggered, and the abomination brought its thick arm around again to deliver a punch that sent him sailing backwards through the air.
Red XIII jumped over Cloud's aerial form. The Fire Materia was shining on his headdress as a throbbing sphere of flames spiraled in his opened maw, radiating heat. The spell flew forward and slammed into the creature's face, causing it to stagger backwards while he lunged for it.
Whether by pure-luck or chance, it managed to catch him with its clawed appendage and flung him in the same direction that Cloud had traveled. They both ended up crashing into one another, giving it time to recover. It pointed towards where the girls were and gestured.
The three buds recovered at that. Flesh mended as though they were never injured, and the ice coating the frozen one thawed. Filled with life once more, they began bouncing up and down again.
"I need a weapon," Aerith said. "I can fight too, but I need some kind of staff or rod that I can use."
Tifa nodded once and looked to the steel pipe attached to the wall next to them. She wrapped her hands around it, and braced a foot against the wall the pipe was joined with. Then she pulled and tore it off, giving her a five-foot metal rod that she handed to Aerith. "Will this do?"
"Yes, that should be good enough," she said, taking up arms once more as the bug-like creatures came after them.
Tifa moved to lure one away, slipping into a slide as it ended up sailing over her head and then digging its legs into the wall to grab hold and stare at her. Bringing her hand up, she launched another blast of ice. It jumped in time, leaving a layer of rime where it once was.
Tifa then twisted her body as it landed on the ground in a ball and then bounced upwards to try and take off her head. It missed her by inches, ricocheted off the ceiling, and then back to the ground to try again. She created a bulwark of ice that intercepted it as she ducked down this time, and the top of the construct shattered in a plume of mist and frost.
The annoying pest careened to a stop long enough to re-orientate itself, and Tifa used the opportunity to hit it with another shimmering sphere that shed white mist and blue frost. It struck head-on and froze it in place as rime coated it. She then followed it up by punting it across the room.
Crimson used her Sense-induced state of hyper-awareness to predict the path the overgrown insect that went after her was taking, avoiding it as best as she could. The poison before had did more than sap her strength, it ate at her mind. Now cured of it upon being awoken by the Phoenix Down, she managed to fling her Rekka and intercept it mid-flight, impaling it and then nailing it to the ground.
The last of the three went after Aerith. The healer let the metal slide in her grasp as she brought her makeshift weapon around to hit the remaining one like a baseball. There was a loud sound as the pipe crushed the exoskeleton and sent it flying backwards, until it hit the containment cage she has been trapped inside of.
By chance, all three of them were close enough to each other that they could be hit with the same spells. Crimson and Tifa exploited that, a sphere of pure cold to leave them frozen stiff followed by a forking tongue of lightning to shattered them to bits. They weren't sure if it would keep them down for long, but it at least bought them time to focus on the main abomination.
Tifa exploded into motion as a fiery light engulfed her. Energy thrummed in her body in the form of a Limit Break, and she unleashed it as her training taught her. Reinforcing her fist, she landed three vicious blows upon its unprotected back.
The abomination turned around and swiped at her, but she ducked down and then around to get on the other side of it. It twisted its body to keep her in its sight, bringing the clawed arm around to dig into her tender flesh. It was met with a spinning saw as the Rekka cleaved through it and was then pulled back by its owner using a steel wire.
It warbled at the loss of a limb and then opened its second mouth, getting ready to breathe its toxic breath again. It came out as an acrid cloud that billowed forward to encompass them. With only limited space, it would easily engulf them all.
"Not this time!" Red XIII launched a Fire spell into the cloud. It burned violently and transformed into an explosion that rocked both them and the creature back.
"Healing Wind!" announced Aerith as she stood behind them. A silvery zephyr rolled in from seemingly nowhere behind the melee fighters. It wreathed them in its healing light, soothing their aches and wounds from the fight so far.
"My turn!" Crimson said, holding her Rekka above her head and spinning it. "Lucky Stars!"
A golden light wreathed her weapon and she tossed it in the air. The light sprinkled down from above in what looked to be a shower of small stars. The particles of light coated their weapons as she caught her Rekka when it fell. "Now, press the advantage!"
Cloud obliged and ran forward. He swung his sword as he closed the gap, and the Buster Sword shifted slightly in the process. It curved towards a point in the hardened flesh that had been weakened by the battle, eliciting a cry of pain and agony from both of the abomination's maws.
That was the effect of Lucky Stars, shifting the flow of attacks so they dealt the most damage they could. The spray of inhuman ichor was proof of that as Cloud retracted his blade and leap back when the creature swung its remaining arm down. The thick arm dented the metal floor they stood atop with the impact.
Fire and lightning flew from behind the ex-SOLDIER and hammered the abomination with their elemental fury. Ice followed as Tifa leap over Cloud and let loose the spell that hit its feet and anchored it to the ground. The rime climbed up its legs, leaving it unable to move as its thick arm was waved back and forth in panic now.
Red XIII sped forward with a snarl, undeterred. He was wreathed in a pale blue glow that made him seem like a shooting star streaking across the floor. With force and speed, the shell of energy covering him smashed into its legs and they shattered into bits, sending the abomination to the ground.
Cloud moved in for the kill, jumping into the air with his blade chambered. He used his own strength to swing down, gravity assisting in delivering the killing blow. The Braver strike cleaved straight through the abomination and the metal beneath it, splitting it in half with a thunderous crash.
The abomination went still and its body began to decompose with its death, evaporating as the mutations bought through the mako-experimentations broke down. Sample H0512 dissipated into nothingness, as did its buds. All that was left behind was a materia used in its creation and what looked to be a Talisman that it had swallowed but couldn't digest.
The battle was won.
"The loss of my eye has been avenged," Red XIII stated, exhaling softly as tension left him. The flame burning on his tail dulled and his strength from the battle waned. "Yet, it is another debt I owe onto you, my companions."
"Don't… don't worry about it," Tifa told him as she picked up the spoils, panting as the adrenaline faded from her system.
Aerith spoke up next. "Thank you all for coming for me. If you hadn't then—"
She was cut off as Crimson suddenly turned and flung her Rekka behind her, towards an exit next to a pair of stairs leading to a platform above. There was the sound of metal being pierced and an ear-splitting scream that followed. They turned around to see there was a man there, dressed in a white coat, cut off from the exit by the giant shuriken had struck the wall between him and it.
"And where do you think you're going?" Crimson asked, walking up to him.
"I… please don't kill me," he begged. "Professor Hojo told me to do it. I was just following orders."
"Where did he go?" she demanded. "I still have questions for him!"
He pointed towards the exit door next to him, but he didn't dare move. "It's used to transport samples brought in from the outside. You need a card to use it, but it bypasses the normal security and power systems."
"That must be how they got Aerith here," Tifa reasoned. "No one would have seen them."
"And it's our ticket out of here," Crimson added. "Hand it over."
He did so willingly, just as the speakers came to life and announced. "WARNING, CODE: XIY-0032 IS IN EFFECT. PLEASE FOLLOW THE PROCEDURE AS OUTLINED."
"What's going on?" Cloud asked as the same statement repeated itself.
"The first three letters designate that the building is under attack," she said, letting the poor scientist flee towards the lift on the other side of the room. It was meaningless to stop him, if the coding remained as she remembered. "We need to leave now!"
"But the President is still alive!" Cloud stated. "We can't leave until he's paid for what's happened in the Slums."
"He won't be for long," she told him, sliding the card through reader and unlocking the door. "The last digits designate the threat level, mostly to the military personnel and Turks. That code-number was only assigned to two individuals in the history of Shinra, and there's only one reason for them to come here. Now come on!"
"And those are?" Cloud asked, with a note of concern to be found in his voice. He could see there was fear in her eyes and hear it in her tone. Whatever the threat was, it frightened her. "Who are they?"
"Genesis Rhapsodos was the first, the one behind the Genesis war…." She hesitated for a moment, before looking him straight in the eyes. "The second was… it was Sephiroth."
No sooner than she said that, there was an explosion that rocked the entire building.