Shelke took a soft, barely noticeable breath in relief. The presence of the monster had vanished entirely. In its place was only a massive hole in the clouds, giving her a peek at the crystal-blue sky foreign to the depths of Deepground.
As a Tsviet, she was no stranger to abominations. But that thing was truly alien as far as she could comprehend. The fact that such a thing's genetic material had also been incorporated into her body would have made her sick to her stomach if she could feel much of anything. But its overwhelming power had been eclipsed by that of the Ancient, and it was removed as far as threats went.
"Aerith, wake up!" She turned to see Yuffie shaking the unconscious woman, trying to rouse her to no avail. "Come on! Wake up!"
"She's just unconscious," Crimson responded, holding Aerith in her arms while her eyes were hyper-focused. "She overtaxed her mind between shielding us from the telepathic attack, the spell, and… whatever she did to Bahamut. I don't think she'll wake up for some time."
Shelke wasn't fully aware of the mental capacity that the Ancient possessed, but she agreed with the assessment. A normal summoning was taxing as is, making them impractical for wide-scale production by Shinra. But to ascend it to a new level of power could only mean that the cost was exponential as well, on top of a mental assault that would have crushed the psyche of a normal person if exposed for a prolonged period.
"We're being surrounded!" Nanaki warned abruptly, drawing their attention to the leonine warrior who bristled at the rubble. The organic buildings that had been outside of the blast radius were instead battered and broken by the residual force.
Shadow Creepers clawed out from beneath and above. Drawn in by the death throes of Jenova to slay its ancient enemy if it could not. Now they encircled the rim of the crater the group was in and were preparing to descend upon them like an avalanche.
"Shelke!" Her hand came up promptly at the call to catch the staff that belonged to the Ancient. The others were herding around the unconscious woman defensively, with the animatronic being controlled by Cait Sith cradling her. "Shield us!"
"Understood," she answered, grasping the plan as Crimson raised her Summoning Materia into the sky. The scent of ozone washed over them, a poignant smell that was almost suffocating, as a bolt of lightning rose from the earth to the sky. It left every single strand of hair on her head threatening to stand on end as a jolt passed through her mind when she connected to the Shield Materia and a dome went up around them.
A dark cloud roiled above the grey ones. The silhouette of a massive figure could be made out within the flashes of lightning as visible streaks of electricity seeded the formation before being blotted out by the mountain of writhing shadows and fierce claws. The monsters piled on and around them as they tried to crack open the shell like an egg—
KRACKABOOM!
—only for everything to go white as the thunderclap gavel descended, passing judgement upon the swarm. The sentence was death and the execution carried out by a singular bolt of lightning forged from all the electricity the summoning could weave. It struck the barrier hard enough that the tempered bones within Shelke's small frame shook with the earth around them as the dark horde evaporated into scattering ash.
Its role as a both a shelter and sound block carried out, Shelke let the barrier drop as her gaze spanned the rim of the devastated land around them. The Judgement Bolt had been a concentrated and localized effort to wipe most of the horde out. It succeeded but left the outliers untouched, driven by aggression and resentment entwined within their very being to kill the unconscious Ancient.
Counting the numbers that were present and determining the best course of action to take, the former Tsviet removed her Shield Materia. She passed it along to Reeve's doll since it lacked mobility and offense compared to the others. It would remain in place to protect the target of their aggression.
Then her eyes burned gold as she ignited her EM Sabers and advanced. The new suit that her sister developed efficiently cycled the refined mako throughout her body at a quicker pace, allowing her to reach a level of performance the others couldn't match. Her mind also reacted to stimuli much faster as well, improving her reaction speed. Because of these factors she was confident in taking the role of the vanguard.
Shelke met with the first of the outliers and struck before it could react, a horizontal arch of burning air marking the path of the EM Sabers. The chitin-like skull of the Shadow Creeper and its body alike were cut apart as her tiny, yet powerful arms carried through the motions. Leaving the corpse behind, she then flowed from one strike to the next and carved through a second one that had yet to notice her offense.
A third followed. A fourth and fifth joined it before she abruptly halted her charge to twist her feet ninety-degrees and rocketed off while swinging her right saber around, catching the legs of a lunging Shadow Creeper and leaving the cauterized stumps to scrape the ground as it crashed down, immobilized.
The sixth taken care of, she then pivoted to an angle and severed the body of the seventh while twisting her own to avoid the claws that were like scythes coming for her. She cut them off in passing as she darted to the next one without catching her breath and somersaulted over its body with the two energy blades in hand. It was bisected in half and became the eighth one she'd disabled or killed.
The metallic soles of Shelke's shoes left sparks as she slid along the ground upon landing. It was just in time to avoid the swipe that came for her head, catching only a few strands of hair to show for the attempt on her life. The former Tsviet then twisted her body while flaring her arms out to the right and left, severing another two sets of claws that attempted to impale her before she could come to a stop by a second pair of Shadow Creepers. She shot back the way she came and butchered the ninth and tenth at the neck before cutting down the eleventh.
Before she could move on to the twelfth a trumpet sounded, and a glaring light reached her eyes. It was a lancing ray of sapphire, fired from a lesser copy of a Jenova Spawn that sported greyish, alien flesh. She crossed her sabers as it streaked through the air towards her, bringing her momentum to a halt as the beam was deflected off to the side and tore a trench into the ground.
Triggering her invisibility cloak, Shelke then vanished from its sight as the second ray passed by where she had been as she moved. She then saw its third shot head towards Aerith, striking the shield that had been erected to protect her by Cait Sith. It held strong against the attack and wouldn't break so easily, so Shelke turned back to the spawn and tensed her legs to race towards it.
That was when a mass of red shot past her while wreathed in flames, heading towards the lesser spawn in her place. The abomination recognized the threat Ifrit posed as it swiveled its head towards on-rushing summoning, causing a phantasmal clock to appear beneath it to stop its personal time. But the clock shattered as a DeSpell from the Destruct Materia cancelled the magic out.
Ifrit lunged for the cancerous creature, digging its claws into it before releasing a blazing Hellfire directly against the bulk of its mass. The flames were hot enough that Shelke could feel the heat against her skin even at a distance. The lesser spawn's deformed figure disappeared as it sank beneath the molten slag that had been the ground under it, just in time for the sound of scraping of claws to reach Shelke's ears.
She threw herself out of the way to avoid the Shadow Creeper that jumped at her despite her invisibility nearly a moment too late. Then, coming out of her roll, her cloaking was shorted out as a frigid wind and bloom of frost struck the monster. The invasive ice spread from the outside inwards, leaving it to shatter to pieces the moment she brought the metal underside of her shoes around for a kick before moving on.
The slaughter continued until her energy blades, with a flick of the wrist, tore off the forelimbs of what would be the nineteenth one. A twist of her lithe body brought them back around to draw a cross and finish it off. Then she checked for the next one, only to see there were none left once a scrabbling set of hindlegs were blown apart by a bolt of lightning.
Her eyes returned to their normal shade of mako-blue as she deactivated her EM Sabers to conserve power. There were no enemies left within the range of her view. But considering the numbers they had bore witness to prior to Jenova's arrival, she suspected the others were waiting to attack again.
Taking those facts into consideration, she voiced her opinion as she went back to the others. "I believe that the remainder of the hostile monsters will soon enclose on us. We should proceed while we still have the opportunity."
"Uh, I think that's going to be a little easier said than done." Yuffie pointed off in the direction of the cliffside where they'd overlooked the Forgotten Capital the first time. The entire ridge was lined with Shadow Creepers and a few lesser Jenova Spawns. More than what had been present before they'd entered the city. "Where'd they come from?"
Cait Sith provided an answer. "The others warned me that Sephiroth intended to kill Aerith while they were fighting against the Jenova Spawns that he created. The main body must've created these along the way, to make sure they succeeded."
"And there's still the ones who'll be in the way of getting to the Lake Altar to begin with," Crimson added. "If we make a straight line for the grounds, chances are that unknown spawn will be waiting for us with the rest of the ones who didn't try to ambush us. They'll slow us down enough that the ones from behind will sweep in and leave us with no avenue of escape."
"If the objective is simply to have the Ancient reach the target location, only she and Mister Reeve's animatronic need to make it." Shelke's cold and monotone voice grabbed their attention. "If we simply modify the strategy you proposed earlier to include altering the terrain so that its unfavorable to them and fortifying the position, it will slow down their advance."
Bringing a hand to her chin in thought, Crimson exhaled softy before asking, "Can you use Typhon to slow them down?"
"By my estimate I should be able to eliminate anywhere between five-to-ten percent of the enemy forces with it," Shelke said, looking down at the two Summoning Materia in her possession. "However, if I use Kujata then I can reduce up to twenty-five percent of the enemy forces while slowing their movements. That will give you more time to set up the second line of defense."
"Kujata is too chaotic when it forms according to Aerith, so there's no guarantee you'd be safe without her to manage it," she warned her. It wasn't an outright dismissal, but the risk it carried meant that using it was dangerous enough that she could be caught up in the attack. "Cid, after she uses the summoning, fly her to meet up with us past where Titan will set up the defensive line."
Once the pilot agreed, Shelke waited until they were out of earshot before she made her decision. She pulled Typhon's Summoning Materia from the bangle she had and held it out to Cid. "Do not come any closer than this."
His brows rose at the abrupt demand. "What now?"
"I will begin the summoning of Kujata within 340 seconds." She forced the Summoning Materia into his grasp. "I would advise you to be airborne by then and to not come closer than this. Otherwise, you'll be caught up in the radius of the attack."
"Wait, just a—" His words died as she vanished under the cloaking system. The edge of the rushing horde would be the ideal place to summon Kujata. That would minimize the collateral damage to their own forces while maximizing the damage to the enemy forces. Pushing her speed to its limit, she ran until the enemy came into her view rather quickly.
In a way it was like looking a wave that was swallowing up the land as it moved forward. The sheer numbers that were present at a glance meant it would only be a matter of time before they overwhelmed her if she survived the summoning. Not a question of if it would happen, but rather when.
However, she'd take out as many of them as possible until then. "Come, Kujata!"
[-oOo-]
The moment Shelke vanished from view, Cid couldn't help but let out a haggard sigh as he scratched his head while looking at the Summoning Materia.
He knew that she wasn't a child based on age or innocence. The things she had been involved with had robbed those from her. But that didn't mean he was okay with letting things play out the way they were.
He let the smoke from his cigarette caress his lungs a moment longer before he called out Phoenix. Golden flames took shape as the Vermillion Bird emerged and allowed him to mount it. Then he took to the air to try and spot her beneath her cloaking before she got herself killed.
That was when the world around of him ended.
All at once lightning crashed down from the sky, purple bolts scouring the darkness that was at the center of the land where they'd crossed. A localized storm that turned into a frigid blizzard as ice and snow began to spread across the ground and encased the monsters that were within its range. Then there were smoldering embers that burst into roaring flames, the sudden gale of blazing winds threatening to knock Cid from his aerial mount had he not gripped tighter.
Phoenix instinctively retreated to put distance between them and the primal force that had been called out. It was a rampaging storm, a roaring blizzard, and a raging wildfire. Three natural disasters that plagued the world since time immortal took shape in the form of a towering, muscular bovine. The thick mane of dark, brown hair that draped its shoulders shuddered and let loose flakes of frost, while electricity crackled from between the twelve horns and the ring that hung from its snout. Embers and smoke billowed out from its nose with a snort as the air smoldered from the hairs that ran along its back like rising flames.
Eight eyes that were molten beneath the slits peered at the horde that spanned the ground like a spreading disease. Infuriated at the presence of the swarm, a foreign cancer upon the Planet it ravaged, the Cosmic Bull that was the incarnation of disaster let loose a sound that rattled Cid's bones. Then it reared back on its hind legs, raising its massive bulk skyward and creating the illusion of a small mountain growing even higher, before slamming down its hooves onto the ground.
Every natural disaster that it was an incarnation of was released tenfold in that instance. Lightning, fire, and ice blossomed in the form of a calamity that snuffed out countless of the swarm as their bodies were torn apart by chaotic tendrils of lightning, flash-frozen by the intense cold, or scorched into ashes by the blazing flames and super-heated earth. The spreading devastation ate up the distance between the horde and Cid, who was only spared by being on the fringes of the disaster zone and in the air.
It was a marvelous display of power. A great portion of the horde had been swept away and removed from play. But there were still more left behind, rushing to fill in the gap that the destroyed left behind in their wake. It was a microcosm of the fate of the world as things stood, the spreading cancer that would continue to advance unless it was purged entirely in a single, decisive act.
The wrath of nature incarnate faded from existence unsatisfied as the magic used to sustain it vanished, leaving only the figure of the small girl falling to the ground from where its head had been. Her body had managed to weather the Tetra-Disaster despite knocking her out, and it was possible she could wake up in time to catch herself on the landing. But the horde of monsters were already moving in like a black tsunami and would sweep her under, never to be seen again.
"Damn numbskull!" Cid shouted. "Get her, Phoenix!"
Phoenix sang as aureate flames consumed its figure utterly and turned it into a streaking, golden comet. Swooping down faster than the eye could see, the small figure that fell towards the onrushing surge was caught in the outstretched grip of the pilot. Then they abrupt wheeled around, leaving motes of light in their wake to bathe the swell of the horde that tried to catch them before they ignited.
Cid bit off his cigarette from the sudden acceleration that followed the chain of explosions, pushing them out of the disaster zone. He spat out to the side and grimaced until he spotted the others at a crossroad. They waited for him to get closer before a barrier appeared around them and the earth split apart to give birth to the massive humanoid that was Titan.
The giant rose to a towering height as they flew past, earth shaking with step it took forward until it was standing between them and the encroaching horde. A grating sound that was akin to crumbling stones filled the air as the colossal figure tensed its muscles, chambering both arms of its mighty arms. Then Titan slammed down his fists into the ground with a bone-rattling roar. "RRRRRAAAHHHHH!"
A fissure stretched from one end of the Forgotten Capital to the other. Stone-dust billowed out as the land shifted from the force of the impact. The very tectonic plates beneath the ground had been moved, forcing up a shelf between the spreading infection and the cure for the disease as distant structures collapsed, ruining the city that had been frozen in time even further.
The former Tsviet stirred as Cid began his descent and asked, "I am…still alive?"
"Barely." Annoyance tinged his voice, both from her recklessness and the taste of tobacco peppering his mouth. He spat out to the side again and forced the Summoning Materia she'd given him back into her grasp. "Don't be in such a rush to die next time."
"Sacrifices were expected from the start for the sake of the mission," she answered him. "Death doesn't frighten me."
"Well, even if you don't care whether or not you bite it, remember you got someone waiting for you to come back." He finished landing as Cait Sith dropped the barrier and fetched an Elixir before she dismounted, giving her something to keep her damaged body moving. "Now hurry and get to the damn temple."
"We'll get Aerith there safe and sound, so if it looks bad don't be afraid to fly off," Yuffie told him as Crimson hoisted Aerith's staff above them. She spread out the Haste Spell to stretch out how much distance her group could put between the enemy and their objective with every second.
"Fly off, she says…" Cid scoffed once the girls and doll took off towards the shelves of coral that housed the Lake Altar further within. "As if I'd be able to look Shera in the eyes if I ran and left a bunch of numbskulls to be torn to pieces because no one was watching their back."
"For years I loathed my father in ignorance," Nanaki said, briefly using his paw to touch the headdress that his Grandfather had bequeathed to him upon his deathbed. It had once belonged to his mother, given by his father, and was now his. "Now, facing the same threat, it would be nothing short of cowardice for me to shirk my duty to the Shamaness and Grandfather by fleeing."
"I ain't gonna let Marlene's generation inherit a dead rock 'cause of some alien," Barret added. "There's no backing out now. S'all or nothin' now!"
[-oOo-]
"Guess that's our answer then." Cid turned back to the wall where he could hear the horde approaching. These two would handle the ground, but the skies were his to guard. He'd make sure that not one got past him. "Alright, then let's get started!"
Yuffie stumbled in her gait as the sound of an explosion rocking the air reached her ears from far behind as the Haste spell wore off. There was a flare visible from the corner of her eyes, even with the distance between them and the entrance to the forest. She turned her head towards the source—
"Do not look back or you'll break the formation."
—only for the monotone voice to instead pull her gaze towards the eyes of the former Tsviet. Their formation consisted of the three women moving around Cait Sith, who was carrying Aerith in the center. Crimson was at the front, Sense active and weapon at the ready, while she and Shelke both brought up the rear from the corners.
The kunoichi frowned at the cold disregard for the lives of the three fighting to buy them time. They were in the most danger, so it was natural that she would be concerned about them. But for that same reason they couldn't slow down. Every second longer it took to get Aerith to the altar was a second longer they had to keep fighting.
Despite knowing that, it still left a bitter taste in her mouth and a gnawing sensation in her chest from how little she could do despite all the preparing they'd done. She'd offered up the stash of materia that she spent so much time building up. Shelved her disdain for the former Tsviet who endangered the lives of her friends, Priscilla, and the people of Junon that looked after her. She even finished reading the boring manuscript that Yuri had finished translating for her on the All Creation—which still felt like gibberish to her.
And despite all she'd done in the hopes they could make it through this alive and together, it hadn't been enough. She had been crippled when Jenova came. Aerith was still unconscious from saving them. The old guys were holding down the bulk of the enemy forces for them. It was frustrating that all she could do was bite down on her tongue and keep running as they made their way further in.
Letting some of the frustration out with a sigh, she took focus on her surroundings. They'd managed to cover enough distance that the murky light from the cloud-covered sky couldn't quite pierce the shelves of coral reef that made up the canopy, instead leaving the leafless trees to radiate a pale, white light to mark their path. The radiance softly illuminated both the undisturbed shadows and the small bundles of coral jutting out of the ground like foliage, cleared away from what was once likely a well-traveled road of pilgrimage.
Any other time she would find this place amazing. A sight she'd like to show Yuri since he spent all his time in the village, or Priscilla since it was like a part of the ocean brought to the surface. But now she could only worry about what was lurking in the darkness.
More so when she could see the skull-clad monsters melting out of the shadows to the left of her. "Guys, we've got company!"
"They are flanking us," Shelke added. There were some to the right of her as well, fleeting ebony flesh and ivory claws darting between the distant luminous trunks. The low hum of her EM Sabers igniting and her eyes turning a molten-gold hue followed. "They are cutting us off from behind as well."
"Then most likely they'll be—" Crimson abruptly came to a halt and raised the Princess Guard up. "Get down!"
The warning drew their eyes up in time to see that the entwining, leafless branches themselves housed several of the monsters. The Shadow Creepers that had climbed above descended upon them as the rest of their pack closed in from all sides. It was a well-executed ambush in the form of a ring of death.
But it was broken by the violent cacophony and bright flash of a Bolt 3 spell spread wide, snaking bolts of electricity leaping from the tip of the staff to lash out at everything around them. They leapt from the bodies of the monsters to the branches reaching out for one another, leaving corpses to tumble to the ground along with smoldering splinters from the dull-grey and lifeless bark. It served as the signal flare for a counterattack as well.
"I've got this side!" Yuffie shouted as Cait Sith brought a barrier around Aerith and the robot moogle holding her. She whipped out her shuriken that resembled an origami crane in her dominant hand while a condensed sphere of cold was cradled in the other, pulled from an unlocked Ice Materia. She flung them both out at the same time, unleashing the weapon and spell upon her foes.
The magic that allowed the weapon to cut through steel with ease tore through the bodies of the monsters and the thick bark of the trees caught in its wake as it circled back into her throwing hand. Running ice swept out from the gaping maw of a Shadow Creeper that avoided the bisecting crane only to be frozen down to their very cellular structure by the Ice 3 spell that continued to spread out. The conquering ice ensnared limbs that had been dashing across the sunless ground where it touched and snapped them off as the momentum carried through while long-lived and mighty trees splintered under their own weight to bury the crippled.
The kunoichi then crouched as she whipped around her body on instinct, bringing the origami crane around like a blade to cut at the presence she felt. The prehensile tail that came for her like a spear parted beneath the folded paper and the enclosing death was repelled. A swift motion and twist of the wrist followed to cut away the bone-white claws and crown of the monster's head.
Of course, she didn't even have time to breathe as another Shadow Creeper took the place of the one now missing the upper part of its head, its tail, and two front legs from the claws down. She leapt back to the fallen husk of one of the trees she's brought low and let a Bio 3 spell from her unlocked Poison Materia leap from her outstretched hand. A sphere of bale-liquid, so potent and concentrated that the hue itself seemed venomous, rotted their flesh so thoroughly that even bone quickly began to dissolve the moment it bathed them.
That done, she was briefly drawn to flashes of orange as the former Tsviet struck out. Unshackled from mere flat terrain and with a speed that Yuffie loathed to admit went beyond her own, she bound between the luminous trees and coral with the sabers leaving trails of light behind. But it was clear she was only delivering crippling and debilitating strikes due to the sheer numbers and lack of time.
"Yuffie!" Crimson called as she fended off more with tendrils of lightning from her outstretched hand as the All Materia in the Princess Guard shone in her other. The bolts of lightning ceased a breath later. "Cover me!"
"On it!" The kunoichi leapt off her perch and flung her weapon at the ones that were converging on Crimson as she used an Ether to revitalize her mind. They were bisected before they could touch the former Turk, with Yuffie landing in front of her. She then switched to her unlocked Fire Materia and let loose a Fire 3 spell that erupted on impact to blow away the closest group.
That was when a phantasmal clock appeared around the battlefield beneath their feet. The winding hands ticked as they slowed to a crawl, creating a field where time slowed for the onrushing monsters that entered within it as Crimson said, "It won't last long. Take them out now!"
"Get off the ground!" Yuffie said in response, flaring with the blazing light of the Limit Break as the power surged from within her. She gathered it into her fist and then leapt forward before she struck the ground with force that could shatter mountains. "HIYAH!"
The earth beneath her dropped. The force and power that the Limit Break offered blew through it, spreading out like an explosion had gone off and wiped the land around them clean from the soil down. Everything from the trees that had survived past the end of the ancient race that once tended to them and the monsters that desecrated the pristine nature of the pure lands were upheaved and swept away in the end.
Yuffie felt the strength leave her body as the sound of the localized deforestation died down. Then she looked back to see that Crimson and Shelke were nowhere to be found. She felt her heart still when she thought that she'd accidentally blown them away as well until the barrier that was caked in dirt gave out and revealed them to be inside. "Is everyone okay?"
"For the most part," Crimson answered. "I don't that was all of them though. Most likely the rest will be closer to the temple. We'll have to be more—"
"Incoming!" The warning was followed by a blur as Shelke ran out in front, brushing past them with her EM Sabers ignited before a red glare swallowed the world as something met with the crossed sabers. A hot wave of force ended up blowing the kunoichi off her feet, eyes screwed shut from the light on instinct—
"AHHHH!"
—when a pained scream and sound of wrenching steel being blown to pieces reached her ears as the light died. She forced her eyes out to see Crimson on the ground not far from her, wincing with one arm wrapped around Aerith's unconscious form as though to shield her from harm. The case holding the Huge Materia and the Goddess Materia were also accounted for.
But the robot had been reduced to wreckage, metal strewn about in pieces as it had failed to move in time. Reeve's proxy was on the ground next to the Shield Materia, having been blown away from the force as well before it could erect the spell. And Shelke was…
"H-Hey, are you okay!?" Yuffie rushed over to the fallen girl who laid some distance away on her back, wheezing as blood came from her mouth. Angry, red flesh could be made out where the synthetic fabric of her ruined suit had been burned away from the heat. "What happened?"
"I…I mis…calculated." A whimper escaped Shelke's mouth as she struggled to get back onto her feet. "It's… stronger than… the other one."
"It's coming again!"
Hearing Crimson's shout, Yuffie only had time to see the ruby beam coming before she felt the doll land on her head and the Shield Materia snapped to life. The air outside of the protective shell screamed as it washed against them until the beam finally died out. She wasted no time in retreating for cover as the stench of melting earth nearly suffocated her and asked, "What was that!?"
"It must be the Jenova Spawn we hadn't seen before," Crimson guessed, using the Restore Materia on the Princess Guard to try and heal the wounded in Aerith's place. "Shelke intercepted its attack meant for Aerith and held it off just long enough for me to grab her before it blew her through the robot."
Even if she was physically weaker compared to the other Tsviets, Shelke was still someone whose body was durable enough to survive what most ordinary humans couldn't as long as mako was cycled through it. The fact that a blocked attack did this much damage to her meant that a direct hit would have killed them instantly. If they had still been fighting, then it would have certainly been the end.
"I will…ngh… create an opening." Shelke fought through pain to sit back up before the healing could be finished. "Complete… the mission…"
"Don't move until you're patched up!" Yuffie demanded. "And we're not leaving anyone else behind. Not even you."
"I will not survive for long now," Shelke confessed as the doll hopped down next to her. "My suit's functionality has been severely crippled."
"Oh no," Cait Sith said. "Her body is completely reliant on mako. Even more so than the other Tsviets. That suit was her life-support and now it's gone."
"And with the storm still going on, we can't get an extraction team here in time before her body gives out," Crimson noted somberly as well. "There's nothing we can do."
"Save your sympathies." The cold words from Shelke came freely as her burned flesh was healed and the pain numbed. "Death was the logical outcome for me from the moment I chose to come here. At least this way it will be because of something I chose to do of my own free will. Not the orders of someone else."
She took up her EM Sabers once more. The life-support system was malfunctioning on her suit, but the power source of her weaponry was still intact. That was good enough for the former Tsviet it seemed as she then ran from cover and out into the open.
Not a second later a super-heated beam immediately cut through the air towards her. She avoided the shot with a weave to the side and then moved with as much speed as she could towards the source of the attack. With only a broken suit and a body that would quickly fail on her, she ran towards death to raise the success rate of the mission.
It didn't sit well with Yuffie. Especially since they promised Aerith they would all come back alive, making this the exact thing she didn't want when she agreed to it. She couldn't just sit back and let her go off and die.
The kunoichi shot up and made to chase after her when something caught her arm. She looked back to see the former Turk was holding onto her in a vice-grip. "I'm going after her."
"…Take these with you," Crimson said, raising her other hand to show two Magic Materia and an Elixir in it. "Remember, every time we've fought a spawn of Jenova it's adapted to us. They'll probably come in handy for you."
Yuffie stopped struggling. "You're… not going to try and stop me?"
"You're stubborn enough that trying to argue or convince you would waste time we don't have," Crimson answered, looking over to Aerith. "Besides, if it's just us then I think Mog can carry us the rest of the way once you two make an opening for us."
"Okay… but will you be able to make it on your own?" Yuffie asked. "We don't know if it's all clear up ahead."
"Cait Sith can keep up Mog's existence while I fight if it comes down to it. You both just focus on surviving until we get inside and then catch up to us. Understand?"
Yuffie nodded before she stuffed the items into the pouch she kept on her and then ran off. The scent of the air burning, and distant glow of flames, told her where she needed to go. She could only hope that she wasn't too late…
And that it wouldn't be the last time she saw her friends as she left them behind.