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Chapter XXIII – Guardian of the Pack
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The glorious weather of the Western Continent sent them off on their journey as the party finally departed Costa del Sol. Clouds gently rolled by high above them as the surf beat its rhythmic goodbyes at their back, but its lulling lap on the shore was mostly drown out by an over exuberant Yuffie.
"Whoa! Where'd you get this?!" she cried, holding up a glittering ball high to the sun as the group traversed across the grassy expanse of the peninsula. Numerous puffs of dandelion tufts twirled through the air and danced around the party, giving a nearby Tifa the impression they were rejoicing. She held back a forlorn sigh as she watched them drift past, her troubled heart wishing she could hold on to the carefree nature that nature itself offered on display. Some of the feather-like balls became nestled amongst the group's garments and the fighter stifled a fierce grin when she caught sight of some dotted amidst Vincent's mane as he strode ahead.
"Marlene received that from a very special friend," Red smiled a toothy smile and blinked his lone eye up at the aforementioned girl. It was done in such a way that Marlene was unsure if it was intended as a wink and, embarrassed, she clutched the fire-dog's fur tighter as she rode on his back, burying her flushed face into his mohawk mane.
"Well, I want your contacts! This is the genuine article!" Yuffie tossed the orb into the seed stippled air before leaping up to snatch it mid fall. The further they travelled from the outskirts of the resort town and its cape, the more Tifa noticed flowers appearing to sprout around them in colourful abundance. The fighter turned from her observations of the surrounding scenery with a bemused blink, the oddity of the ninja's words suddenly more intriguing than the growing flourish of dandelions.
"'Genuine'?" Tifa parroted, "What do you mean? Because it's a Summon Materia?"
"Well, yeah..." Yuffie immediately stopped in her bouncy stride once she processed Tifa's words, a sudden look akin to horror on her face. "Wait, you mean... you guys don't know?!"
On hearing the teen's stunned blurt, Tifa also stopped as did Red XIII who had been trotting beside her. Barret, on overhearing the outburst, turned from walking ahead with Denzel and Cait Sith while Vincent paused to peer over the folds of his cloaked shoulder. Yuffie looked between the group for any sign of understanding, but was met with either blank or patient stares. Dandelion seeds continued over the collection of recently turned statues and onward on their journey across an endless blue sky.
"... You can't be serious."
"Then perhaps some enlightening is in order?" Red asked rhetorically, shaking his mane and releasing some trapped plant tufts back into the wild.
"I thought you of all people... animal... things would know," Yuffie bit back, crossing her arms as if offended. Red, unperturbed, gave his head an inquisitive tilt, though his tail flicked with a sudden restlessness. Yuffie ignored it, instead looking back to the surrounding party. "So, you guys haven't used any Materia at all?
"Just the Cure Materia I have," Tifa spoke up, "but other than that, no." The fighter rest her hand on the curve of her hip, shooting the ninja a puzzled look.
"Give it here," Yuffie ordered, stretching out her palm with inviting fingers.
"Yuffie, this better not be one of your tricks-"
"I'm serious, pass it over."
Tifa studied her young friend's face carefully. A moment passed before, finally satisfied, she handed over the bauble – albeit with some reluctance.
Yuffie rolled the orb between the tips of her fingers and thumb as she inspected it closely, the Materia taking on a merry glitter in the sun. Finally, the teen took a deep breath before she began to speak in a matter-of-fact tone, holding up her index finger in the air and wagging it almost as fast as her tongue. "Artificial Materia manufactured by Shinra suddenly stopped working a few months ago, so now only natural Materia created by the Planet can be used. That's why I'm on a journey to collect as much original Materia like this one for mysel-," Yuffie quickly caught her tongue, "-Err, I mean- in the name of Wutai!"
While the others stood stunned in shared epiphany, Red XIII stepped closer with a keen eye and perked ears. "Perhaps since the Planet is healing, it is now able to determine which Materia is man-made and which is not?" the fire-dog ruminated. "Interesting... it chooses to channel energy only to Materia it birthed itself..."
'Of course!' Tifa suddenly thought, her mind taken back to the terrible blaze in Junon. 'So that's why some of the WRO's Materia wasn't working!'
"Which is why Summon Materia is especially rare now," Yuffie nodded to Nanaki, pointedly holding up the Phoenix Materia in her other hand, "because they was never able to be artificially replicated. Like I said, it's the real deal!"
"I getcha," Barret finally joined in, crossing his muscular arms with a confused blink, "but how can ya tell? There ain't no difference between Materia that's man-made and which ain't jes' by lookin' at 'em!"
"Aye!" Cait Sith chimed in, hopping over with a spring to his brown booted steps."That's whit ah'd like tae knoo!"
"Urgh, maybe to those with an untrained eye!" Yuffie gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "'Course there's a way to tell! I mean, just look at it!" The ninja thrust out the Curative Materia in front of her, causing both Denzel and Marlene who had crept closer to inspect the bauble to jump back in shock. The sphere glittered merrily in Yuffie's palm, filtering the bright sun through it's pellucid body and bathing her arm in a brilliant shade of emerald.
Everyone just stared.
"Errm..." Denzel finally spoke up, "I don't see anything..."
"He's right," Tifa agreed as she stepped closer and plucked the Materia from Yuffie's palm - ignoring the teen's mild sputters of protest as she did so. "I can't see anything either. How can you tell which one is real and which isn't?" she asked, spinning the bauble around in her hand.
Yuffie's demeanour suddenly flipped like a switch and she leaned in closer towards an instantly wary Tifa. "Maybe you should listen closer..." the ninja suddenly spoke with a mysterious tone.
As Yuffie leaned down to hand the Phoenix Materia back to a keen Marlene, Tifa turned her attention towards her own magical implement. The crystallised ball of condensed Mako looked no different to when Tifa normally viewed the sphere. It was a shade of the purest colour, shimmering from the bright sunlight and its own contained luminescence. It was hard to believe there was an actual difference between the manufactured counterparts made by Shinra. Materia had been used near constantly by their entire party three years ago, yet not a single one of them was any wiser to a Materia's source. Because of this, Tifa couldn't help but wonder. Was Yuffie really telling the truth?
'Listen closer...' Recalling the ninja's words only served to further puzzle the fist fighter. Nonetheless, she decided to raise the ball to her ear. The lulling surf of the sea and significant chatter from her friends quickly became apparent, causing Tifa to moue at the prospect of missing her chance. Just when she'd lost all hope of hearing a sound, the surrounding babble of the others turned to mutterings as a distant chime called faintly to her like a whisper on the wind.
The jingle snatched her breath from her throat and just as quickly as it came, it was gone. She leaned in closer with rapt attentiveness, her ears strained in hopes of once again catching the far off call of bells...
Tifa's concentration was shattered by Yuffie's sudden holler.
"Still nothing?!" the teen gaped before jumping over to snatch back the Cure Materia. "I guess you're all just a bunch of noobs!" The ninja raised her hands to give an ostentatious shrug of her shoulders.
Nanaki briefly shook his mane, his tinkling tassels reminding Tifa of just the sound she'd been listening for before she'd been so rudely interrupted. "While many believe Materia hold their own power, they're actually more of a signal to the Planet to transfer its energy. A conduit, if you will." The fire-dog paused to stretch out his long tongue, wetting his nose and muzzle before continuing, "If your claims are to be believed, Yuffie, and Materia can truly be told apart, then have they gained some sort of sentiency as to alert the user to their origin...?"
Denzel and Marlene blinked rapidly, the two children turning their attention back to the Phoenix Materia which lay cradled innocently in Marlene's small hands. Barret appeared just as stumped as the youngsters, crossing his trunk-like arms as he considered Red XIII's words with a twitch to his brow. Vincent, who had been standing a considerable distance away, turned towards the group with slight bemusement. Even Cait Sith raised a gloved hand to his furred chin, his tail swaying back and forth in a near hypnotizing rhythm that Tifa couldn't help but watch as she grew perplexed.
"I have... no idea what you're talking about, Red," Yuffie spoke up with her usual, unabashed candour. "Hold on, 'claims'? … Are you calling me a liar?!"
The wrinkle on Red's brow melted from one of deep puzzlement to an amused quirk. "Perhaps in not so many words..."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
As Yuffie launched into one of her typical tirades while the others gathered around Marlene to take a closer look at her Materia themselves, pain stabbed deep within Vincent's head like a long bladed knife. He snapped his gaze from the group and towards the edge of the plains, unsure if the action was of his own doing. His answer came in the image of two gleaming rows of bared, arm-length teeth.
'Paaaaaay attentttttion.'
Vincent immediately bristled, his shoulder muscles pulling tight as he moved his gloved hand to the grip of Cerberus, his eyes trained on the far off hill line. Galian Beast's presence lingered at the fringes of his mind, pushing the limitations of his hearing past the undignified prattle of Yuffie and the roar of waves. A dull rumble occasionally met his ears; a soft, distant pittering that reminded him of tumbling stones. Vincent turned towards the rugged cliffs that clung to the mountainside, the surrounding crags offering elevation to the grassland but in turn blocking his view of what lay beyond. Vincent's gaze hardened as he glared through the passing storm of dandelion seeds.
It didn't take long for the gunslinger to realise it wasn't falling rocks he heard, but rather, falling feet.
He unholstered Cerberus and re-attuned to his more prominent surroundings, only to realise Tifa had appeared by his side and was pulling her fighting gloves tighter around her knuckles.
"Trouble?" she asked with a carefree inflection, though her expression and stance told otherwise. Vincent glanced towards her, falling momentarily distracted by a dandelion tuft weaved between her chocolate tresses. Both parties' attentions were swiftly brought back to the matter at hand when the ground beneath their feet began to rumble. Red XIII was also brought to attention judging by the way his ears flicked upright as his fur rose alongside his neck. The fire-dog dug his claws into the quaking earth as he inclined his head, assuming his familiar battle stance.
Before any vocal warning could be uttered, two sharp, curved tusks emerged above the neighbouring hill line accompanied by a low drawn and guttural roar. Barret immediately transformed his right arm into his trusty gatling gun while Cait Sith quickly ushered Denzel and Marlene to stand behind the dark-skinned man. A pair of yellow eyes quickly fixated on the group as the full body of a turtle-like creature rose and revealed itself from behind the rolling grassland.
"Adamantaimai!" Yuffie hollered above the thundering of its huge feet as it steadily charged straight towards them. Cait Sith bolted towards the ninja in response, scrambling up her clothing and quickly curling himself around her shoulders.
"Aren't they normally docile things?!" the cat puppet cried out as his body was racked with a violent shiver. "Well, when we're not in their taerritory anywhoo!"
Tifa vaguely registered Cait Sith's words as she sprinted towards Denzel and Marlene, recalling the party's past encounters with the shelled beasts. She hurriedly pulled the two young charges back, guiding them towards Vincent and to a safer distance. After watching the gunslinger accept them into his care with a single, swift step to their front, she snapped her focus back to the stout reptile in alarm. They'd only ever fought Adamantaimai on the beaches near Costa del Sol, usually when they'd unknowingly stepped a little too close to their nests. So why did one attack them so far from the shore?
She clenched her fists and strode towards the charging beast with knuckles raised, her duster sweeping at her heels.
For one to attack them so openly was rare indeed.
"Well then," Yuffie began, unhooking her shuriken from its back harness and rotating her right arm to loosen her muscles, "I think it needs to learn a lesson about not being in the territory of Yuffie Kisaragi! Come on, Cait Sith!" On hearing his name, the golden-crowned cat found courage and jumped up to stand on her right shoulder, rising to meet the ninja's call. Before either Tifa, Barret, Vincent or Nanaki could utter a single note of caution, the teenager broke out into a fully invigorated sprint.
"Chaaaaaaaarge!" On Yuffie's queue, Cait Sith pulled out his megaphone and blew harshly into the cone while cupping his hand around the bell, making a trumpet-like blare. Racing towards the Adamantaimai, the two comrades watched as the creature slowed in its advance. The more they closed the distance, the more the monstrous creature grew in height – its full size quickly becoming apparent. Bringing itself to a hefty trot which rumbled the earth, the huge beast lowered its head and roared its own bellowing war cry, revealing a beak full of enamel razors.
Yuffie stopped dead in her tracks while Cait Sith dived to hide behind her back.
"Retreeeeeaat!" In a flash, Yuffie turned tail and fled, Cait Sith clinging to the trailing tails of her headband. As the pair raced past Barret, the gruff man shook his head and cursed the newly dubbed clowns under his breath. Bringing up his chrome-coated gatling gun, he held his left hand over Myrna's barrel with a fierce grip before opening fire. Marlene jumped with a high-pitched squeak as bullets instantly rained down upon the Adamantaimai, a multitude of harsh pings resounding as the small metal cases ricocheted at high speed off the beast's carapace.
"Barret, cease fire!" Vincent snapped, at once recognising the futility of firearms and the danger of stray rebounding bullets. Barret paused for but a moment, but a moment was enough. The huge turtle took its chance and thrust forward with surprising speed, extending its neck and opening its jaws ready to take a devastating bite out of gun metal through Marlene's screams.
That was, until Tifa beat the creature to it and speedily delivered a haymaker to the underside of its mandible.
The reptile's beak audibly clapped shut as the creature's head was lurched upward by the force, its curved horns narrowly missing Tifa's arm on ascent. Barret staggered back in shock but quickly regained his composure as well as his footing, hastily creating distance between him and the huge monster. Marlene stepped out from behind Vincent's shroud of protection, grave concern for her dad etched deep across her small face.
"Shit, Tif'! Gimme some warnin' next time!" the gun-armed man bellowed albeit somewhat shakily. Something at the back of the fighter's mind wanted to reprimand Barret for swearing in front of the children, but it remained there as the Adamantaimai rounded upon her in seething anger. Tifa was unperturbed, rounding on the beast herself with fists tightly clenched and raised to her face. The marigold-scaled turtle met her fighting display with its own, presenting huge teeth showcased in a jaw display case. The reptile growled deep in its throat and Tifa was quick to match it with her very own.
"Get away from him." Her threatening intonation triggered the turtle's rage and it raised a giant clawed foot to strike when a sudden streak of red dashed across the plain. Before Tifa could register what was happening, the beast reared up and bellowed in pain. The fighter stepped back, repeating the same action Barret took only moments before when he'd been caught off-guard.
Red XIII clung to the beast's foot after having leapt upon the creature, teeth firmly clamped into its scaly hide. The Adamantaimai thrashed fiercely in hopes of dislodging the fire-dog but Nanaki held on with matching ferocity, his blazing tail painting streaks of fire in the air as he was violently tossed to and fro. Tifa was dazed, unable to help but watch as drifting dandelion tufts were caught in Red's erratic fire display, the seeds set aflame and sent crashing to earth in silent bursts of ember. Nanaki's sudden gut-wrenching yelp snapped Tifa to her senses as the turtle reared up and threw it's entire weight to the ground, flinging the fire-dog to the still shaking earth with a dull and sickening thump.
"RED!" Tifa yelled, rushing towards the canine in a heartbeat as the Adamantaimai grew frenzied and began to hurl its weight around in unbridled rage. Suddenly the fighter found herself caught in a rain of crashing pillars that were the creature's feet, the quaking soil serving to throw her balance off alongside her footing to evade; the danger of being crushed becoming very, very real.
"Tifa!" Marlene cried, dashing abruptly from Vincent's side before the crimson-cloaked man could react and running closer to the middle of the field. Before the gunslinger could give a single utterance of caution, her father stepped in for him.
"Stay back, babygirl! Come'ere!" Barret snatched his daughter's arm as she made to pass and dragged her back, holding her firmly behind him despite her struggles and protests. Yuffie and Cait Sith quickly joined to calm the small girl, though their frantic ministrations betrayed their worry and indecision to act. Denzel stood behind Vincent's sweeping cape and watched his closest friend cling to her father's trunk-like arms before turning to see Tifa continue her clumsy footwork in avoiding the monster's wrath.
"I... I gotta help!" His own declaration steeled his resolve and Denzel made to run when a wicked claw snapped to hover in front of his eyes. His incredulous gaze followed the shimmering gauntlet that stayed his advance to the gunslinger at the other end of the golden appendage. Vincent looked straight back at the now glaring orphan over his blood-red cowl. "Let me go!" Denzel barked, though the man's responding glower forced him to shrink back and quickly avert his eyes. Barret's advice from nearly a week past echoed in the boy's head.
'Remember what I told ya? Vincent's an old friend of ours, but... jus' be careful 'round 'im. Don't annoy him, a'ight?'
Denzel's knuckles whitened.
Though Vincent remained outwardly calm, his mind raced as he assessed the battle. Gravely aware that bullets had no effect and would most likely ricochet off the creature's carapace and cause unintentional friendly fire, his options were limited as were Barret's; not to mention the pair were unofficially charged with guarding both Denzel and Marlene respectively. Cait Sith had little in the way of fire power as did Yuffie, though her shuriken had the precision to possibly find a vulnerable spot. Nanaki's speed could work to the group's advantage, but the fire-dog already appeared injured and not even Tifa's powerful punches could see through the Adamantaimai's armour of shell and hide.
The situation looked bleak - nor did Fate hold them in her favour.
As Tifa only just managed to avoid one of the monster's mighty clawed paws by a hair's breadth, alarm swelled in Vincent's breast and surged through his blood at the sight. The watchful gunslinger could watch no more and he made to sprint to Tifa's aid when an incomparable force seized his limbs and stilled his hand. His skull rumbled like the very earth under the monster's feet, though it was with growled words rather than with sheer weight and brute force.
'Waaaaaaaaaiiit.'
The gold talons of Vincent's gauntlet twitched and jerked as he fought for control but Galian Beast prevailed, holding him against his will before pushing his primal senses to share that of Vincent's own. The oddity of the demon's action didn't go unnoticed by the gunslinger and he immediately grew suspicious; not to mention increasingly alarmed. He suddenly felt sick. From the corner of his eye, he caught Denzel glance up at him with a mixture of anger and question.
With Marlene now safely under Barret's care, Yuffie had moved to flitter on the outskirts of the battlefield while Cait Sith hopped by her feet, the pair clearly trying to find a way to reach Red XIII. By seeing to his aid, both were aware that they could risk him further injury if the monster noticed them. The time it would take to drag the fire-dog to a safer distance was more than enough for the beast to spot this and charge, made worse that any attempts in trying to distract the beast with weapons would end up for naught as it would only shrug them off from its armoured carapace. Nanaki also appeared to share this line of thinking as he shot the pair a look that prayed caution. Yuffie bit her lip, her concern only mounting when she watched the quadruped struggle to stand.
As Tifa dodged another volley of pounding feet, her lungs screaming for air, she suddenly came to a realisation.
She didn't necessarily need her balance to escape.
Unsteadily rising to her feet once more, she anticipated the next clawed paw to thunder down. This time however, she threw herself off balance. Diving to the side, she forced all her strength into her own momentum and dropped to the ground, causing her to power slide right past the beast's makeshift cage of limbs and straight out from under its plastron. Her outstretched heel dug deep into the pulped soil and left a streak of mud in her path, caking her boots, legs and duster in wet earth. She paid it no mind and sprang to her feet, reaching her four-legged friend just as he made to stand with an evident limp.
"I'm fine, Tifa," Nanaki reassured before she could even open her mouth, "it's just my left shoulder blade..." he turned to watch the Adamantaimai cease its assault on the earth beneath it, the turtle pausing to stretch its neck down and peer between its legs in confusion. Red whipped his flaming tail behind him as he limped to stand by the muddy woman, his left paw raised and held limp from the ground. "I can still fight!" he barked.
"Red..." Tifa fought to tell him he was in no shape, but she didn't want to add insult to injury. She knew Nanaki well enough to know his pride came first and foremost. Instead she went to pull her Cure Materia from her front duster pocket to hold against her friend's furred shoulder - only to grasp nothing but air. She looked down in surprise to then recall Yuffie having snatched the orb back just before the attack. Nanaki turned to the fighter in question, accidentally streaking mud across his nose as it made contact with Tifa's soiled glove. She was about to answer his inquisitive gaze, when both fire-dog and fighter were interrupted by a familiar rumble. Their eyes widened as they snapped their gaze back to the field, only to find their distraction hadn't gone unnoticed by the Adamantaimai who was now charging straight towards them with an open jaw set with teeth.
"Yuffie!" Tifa shouted in a near accusatory tone just as she frantically made to pull herself and Red out of the creature's warpath.
Denzel, who watched the turtle's onrush from the gunslinger's side, could no longer watch nor hold his tongue. He spun on the so far silent, crimson-cloaked man in anger. "Aren't you gonna help her?!"
Vincent suddenly turned on the orphan, his cape twirling in a flourish of crimson to reveal two piercing gold eyes and a wicked claw poised to strike; a bestial snarl tearing itself from the gunslingers throat. Denzel was struck with cold horror, stumbling back to land roughly on his elbows and scrabbling away in fright. Before the boy could register what was happening or even attempt to scream through his tightened throat, a high-pitched wail pierced his eardrums. He snapped his head back to find two Beachplugs hit the ground behind him, their shells and rubbery scales each cleaved with four deep, bloody gashes. The creature's shrill cries were lost to the others in the heat of battle, or rather, the growing screams of Cait Sith.
As Denzel lay shaking on the ground, Tifa and Nanaki looked on with shared trepidation at the turtle bulldozing its way straight toward them. Suddenly, Yuffie's shuriken whizzed past their ears accompanied by a scream that wavered in pitch with each rotation. A black blur was just caught centred on the huge ninja star before it suddenly rocketed off the projectile into the seed-filled air, homing in on the Adamantaimai with great velocity. The beast jammed its clawed feet into the earth, tearing up soil as it attempted to rein in its own charge.
Grinding to a halt, the turtle lift its head only to find a small cat blinking back at it from between the two tusks curved around its beak.
"Errr," Cait Sith stared point blank into the beast's face. "Fancy meetin' ye 'ere?"
The reptile quickly made to throw off the offending feline when the weapon Cait Sith had flown from followed up with a zoom, causing the beast to retract its head in rapid succession. However, the shuriken never met its mark, instead circling back around to return to Yuffie's hand with an audible clap.
"And who says I never have a plan?" the ninja said with a grin to the stunned and now speechless onlookers of Tifa and Nanaki. She turned back to the cat she had so ungracefully affixed to her weapon and shouted to him around a cupped hand. "Go get 'im, Cait Sith!"
"Oh no ye doon't!" the robot cried, grabbing the sides of the monster's head and pulling at it from within its metal-tinted armour. "Get oot here and fight like a... like a turtle!" The Adamantaimai had no room to shake off the cat puppet within its shell and it quickly extended its neck to viciously lash its head from side to side.
This was the chance they had all been looking for.
While the beast lay distracted, Denzel choked for air. Staring into the vacant eyes of two squid-like creatures lying dead behind him, he shakily turned to look up at the man responsible. Vincent stood frozen, his chest the only thing that moved as he appeared to heave just as heavily as the orphan. His claw hovered mid-strike, blood oozing down the spiked talons. Dandelion seeds lay sullied around them, caught in red spatter before being brought to earth to rest in pools of blood.
Vincent snapped to his senses and whipped his claw into the confines of his cloak.
A savage growl hissed through knife-like canines, a deep rumble reverberating through his skull after its words. Vincent noticed, however, that it spoke not in threat, but rather admonition.
'Protecttt the pack.'
He took a swift step back. A few moments passed before he spoke curtly, "... Denzel."
The boy looked up to the gunslinger with palpable fear in his wide eyes.
"Go to Barret. Quickly."
Denzel didn't need to be told twice. Scrambling to his feet, he half ran, half staggered away while glancing over his shoulder. Vincent didn't need to suspect – he knew the orphan was checking to see he didn't follow. Once a suitable distance grew between them, Vincent turned away to gravely contemplate his recent relapse. Never before had he so completely lost himself – not even when Death Gigas took hold and ripped open a steel container back on Shinra's covert cargo ship from Junon. His memory was riddled with fog; one moment he was trying to reach Tifa, and then...
Then his blood sang with fury and his sight filled with red.
Next he was aware, he was standing over Denzel with blood on his hands; or rather, his claw. He carefully drew the appendage from the folds of his cloak, turning his gauntlet palm up to inspect. Blood, thick and fresh, still dripped from the talons and stained its gold finish. His brow furrowed deeply under his bandanna.
'Had I left Denzel to aid Tifa, he could have been gravely injured. Did Galian Beast anticipate this...?'
A better question that now preyed on Vincent's mind, very much like the demon had a tendency to do, was if Galian Beast was truly helping him. He could arrive at no other conclusion given the creature's strange words. He received his answer in the form of two gold, predatory eyes gazing at him from the darkness of his psyche.
Vincent fell into the stony silence of his own solitude.
"Yo, come ta see some fireworks?" Barret asked as he turned to glance at Denzel just stumbling to his side. The ex-AVALANCHE leader missed the boy's ghostly visage, too pre-occupied in tinkering with his gun-arm as he turned back to the battle at hand. "'Cuz yer about ta get some!"
While her father failed to take note of the youngster's appearance, Marlene did not. "Denzel, are you okay?" she asked from beside her father's leg, reaching out to grasp his hand in her own. She immediately noticed her small fingers begin to quake with Denzel's.
A guttural roar fixed all attention on the Adamantaimai. The creature grew berserk, thrashing wildly as Cait Sith clung onto one of its ivory horns for dear life. Tifa tended to Red further away while Yuffie stayed her distance with shuriken raised, looking for an opportune opening.
And Barret was about to create one.
Raising Myrna level with his eyes, he looked down the barrel while holding the underside with a solid grip. He lined up his sight and waited for the raging turtle to manoeuvrer its body in just the right position... "I'd had enough of yer bull****," Barret growled, his patience and limit tested. The Adamantaimai threw its front closer to the ground with one particular lash of its head, causing Cait Sith to lose grip and swing up into the air from the momentum. Barret found his opening.
"GOTCHA!" Barret roared, a side compartment of his gatling gun snapping shut with a satisfying click. The gun whirred, its pitch growing higher and higher before it spat out a small, oval shaped object. The monster didn't have time to react, nor did any of the party, when the projectile hit its mark.
The moment it did, the grenade exploded.
A huge eruption of fire encompassed the beast with a thundering boom, flames raging into the sky as the ground shook from the blast of Barret's Grenade Bomb. A harsh clang rang out with the beast's yowl as huge fragment was sent flying through the air. The rended shell tossed and flipped violently before it fell to the scorched earth with a dull, resounding smack. As the remnants of the inferno dissipated, the Adamantaimai turned towards Barret with a look of murder in its pained yellow eyes. It's upper right neck and shoulder were now exposed, its armoured shell cracked and split away to reveal the soft, marigold hide underneath.
"Y-ye could'a warned me!" Cait Sith managed with a cough, the small cat seen dropping from the Adamantaimai's stubbed tail looking scorched but no worse for wear. The blackened reptile paid the puppet no mind and instead began to charge towards Barret with a furious bellow. Marlene jumped and quailed, gripping Denzel's hand tight as she quickly pulled him behind her father. Before the dark-skinned man or any of the others could react, something shot across the field with surprising speed. Yuffie reared up her shuriken as she ran before, quick as a flash, she leaped up and brought the bladed weapon down in an arc upon the Adamantaimai's exposed flesh.
Blood burst and spurted from the creature's neck like an erupt fountain. The monster staggered from the blow in surprise and fell mid-charge, it's huge armoured body crashing to earth with a boom and ripping up soil as it coast across the ground. The ninja leapt away as the beast came to rest a few feet from Barret, her Greased Lightning technique finally breaching the turtle's defences and with it, its invulnerability. The reptile writhed on the ground as it struggled for air. Barret trudged over to look down at the creature, a strange mixture of pity and anger behind his eyes. He raised his gun-arm and fired a few final rounds into its exposed hide.
The Adamantaimai's head slumped to the ground.
Barret lowered his weapon, watching as the beast slowly began to dissipate into hundreds of glittering emerald specks. Marlene cautiously walked up behind her father to join him, dragging Denzel with her to watch the dancing wisps of Lifestream soothe and reclaim the angered soul. Yuffie and Cait Sith both joined to witness the scene as did Tifa and Red, though the latter did so with an evident limp. Threads of pure energy washed over the turtle's shell in gleaming waves of green, slowly dismantling the armour into smaller flecks of light.
Across the plain, pain like a hot-bladed knife stabbed into Vincent's chest with agonising force. The gunslinger hunched over with a violent jerk, his heart quivering in throes. He fell to one knee, grasping through the folds of his cloak at his chest while his skull erupted with a sound akin to squealing, writhing leeches. The presence alone was suffocating, let alone the sheer unmitigated power that came with it.
'I REPUDIATE!'
Chaos' severed voice consumed his noetic senses as his body screamed for mercy, an alien pulling sensation once more tearing through his insides. He buckled to the ground, his knees quickly soiled in dirt and blood. Just as he felt like he was going to snap, all pain abated. He pulled himself to his feet, frantically gasping for air as Chaos hissed with alarming vehemence through ivory spikes. Vincent could feel the demon brandish its hellish wings and he quickly threw up his mental barriers. Chaos paid this no heed, instead enclosing himself within the two appendages and sinking into the deepest depths of darkness within the gunslinger's skull.
Vincent was left shaken.
He snapped his gaze to the party to find his episode had thankfully gone unnoticed, the group pre-occupied with talking amongst themselves on other matters. Or, to be specific, Materia.
"Yuffie," Tifa began, turning from the rising sparkles of Lifestream that emanated from the dead Adamantaimai, "you never gave me my Cure Materia back. I could have really used it for Red earlier."
Nanaki's ears flicked at this. "I could still use it I suppose, though I'm sure its fine." Red XIII took a moment to rub the now dried streak of mud from his nose, though his left shoulder gave him difficulty in doing so. Tifa shot him a sceptical look.
"Oh yeah," Yuffie said flippantly, hopping over to stand by the fighter and the fire-dog. "Well, I can do better than that! Now, hold still..." The ninja pulled out a green silk handheld fan that was folded up under her black arm warmer and stretched out both her arms. Lowering her left, she held the implement up high with her right and flipped it open while a look of concentration settled over her features. Tifa watched carefully, resisting the sudden urge to itch her legs as the mud that caked her calves began to harden. Yuffie closed her eyes and slowly drew the fan down alongside her head simultaneously, her chin coming to rest on her chest. Suddenly, Tifa and Nanaki were enveloped in pure blue light. A cleansing feeling washed over Tifa for a few blissful moments before the light expanded and dissipated in a series of small bubbles.
The fighter watched as Nanaki gave a few experimental shrugs of his shoulder as he pawed the earth, the blade now having no trouble moving under his fire sheen fur. Though Tifa had seen it many times during their journey in the past, Yuffie's ability to tap into her own magic reserves to heal others never ceased to impress her; though this also meant it was an ability used scarcely. While the ninja often joked about 'secret ninja techniques,' her Clear Tranquil was certainly an ability Tifa believed to be a true one.
While Red nodded his appreciation to a near gloating ninja, Tifa decided to rain on her parade.
"Yuffie."
"Yeah, Tifs?" the teen grinned.
"... I still want my Materia back."
"Oh, right! Of course!" Yuffie pulled the orb in question from one of the satchels on her belt before tossing it towards the fighter. "Here ya go!" Tifa caught the Materia mid-air and made to pocket it when she realised mud from her gloves had smeared over the ball. Pausing, she rubbed her thumb over the sphere to clear its surface when she noticed mud wasn't the only thing being cleared. Blinking, she looked at the green ink streaked across the thumb of her fighting glove before staring down at the Materia in her palm.
Only that it wasn't Materia, but rather, an underlined number six pool ball.
Tifa stared at the marker coloured sphere before she calmly tipped her hand, rolling the ball across her palm to drop on the ground. Closing her eyes and taking a steadying breath through her nose, the fighter slowly pulled her now green marker soaked gloves on tighter.
She had just left Costa del Sol a mere hour ago. Already she had almost been crushed to death by a giant turtle, covered and soiled in mud despite having a shower just before they'd left and weary of thinking about the whereabouts of her childhood friend despite knowing it was fruitless to do so.
Tifa was tired, dirty and sick.
And Tifa Lockhart was in no mood to be trifled with.
She opened her eyes and fixed her gaze on a now panicking Yuffie, slowly walking towards her with fists raised as her soiled duster slopped against her legs.
"T-Tif'? I was only joking! I mean, come on... You know me! Right? … Right?!"
While Vincent contemplated the gravity of his dilemma and his own deteriorating mental state, Yuffie's screams were heard rising over Mt. Corel.
