Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters or concepts within. I do own this storyline.
A/N: Sorry about the long wait, folks. At least it's a long chapter, right? ;;
Chapter Four
In the early morning, AVALANCHE stood silhouetted against the peach-purple sky beside their Chocobos. Elmyra had walked with them out to the edge of Midgar, leading Barret tentatively through the rubble by his gun arm. Marlene, wrapped in a waffle blanket, was clutched tightly in his good arm, her pale face resting on his bare shoulder.
It was cool in the grasslands surrounding the mechanised city. Tifa's bare arms prickled with goosebumps as she waited for Yuffie to tie Barret and Marlene to Boco, and Vincent to Obsydia. Finally the ninja clambered onto the black Chocobo in front of Vincent and gave Tifa the thumbs-up.
Tifa said, "Let's go."
The phalanx of Chocobos started off across the plains, heading north-east towards Kalm. Red loped easily ahead of the group, doubling back after he had taken care of a number of monsters in the immediate area. The creatures usually weren't focused enough to try to catch a Chocobo, but there was no reason to chance an encounter. They needed to hurry.
Secretly, Tifa was afraid that even with the relatively weak fiends in the grasslands, she would be useless to the team. The injuries she had taken in the Crater hadn't improved - the twinge in her back was worsening, she was sure. She couldn't move freely without debilitating pain, and since materia wouldn't retain its power for long…
Tifa's wine red eyes darkened miserably and she urged Brandy, the gold she'd borrowed from Rude, on a little faster. She couldn't think like that, or she'd just convince herself of its truth. She had to be positive. She had to be.
She was distracted by an alarmed sounding roar from up ahead. Her eyes snapped back up to scan the landscape and in the distance she saw Red XIII, surrounded by three of the grasslands' weaker monsters… and losing. She kicked Brandy into high speed and let out grunt of pain as the jolting motion jarred her back. She didn't slow the bird down.
Behind her thundered Cid, Yuffie and Vincent. The old pilot readied the Venus Gospel for a use as Vincent did his best to aim down the barrel of the Death Penalty using only his claw. Tifa briefly saw Yuffie head-butt the man lightly in disapproval before the Conformer, making a sound like a rotor, went flying out ahead of them all in a colourful arc of deadly blades. One fiend crashed to the ground with a startled honking sound, then struggled to its feet again as the Conformer returned to Yuffie's hand. Red leaped on the creature from behind and worried at its neck, making it roar out in pain before finally collapsing in a boneless heap.
Tifa paled. There was no reason one blow shouldn't have killed the creature instantly. What exactly where they dealing with, here? Her hand went halfway to her materia pouch before she remembered that she'd have to stop relying on the stones. Whatever happened to old-fashioned fighting, bereft of magical aid?
Went out the window along with my spine, thought Tifa as she swung herself off Brandy, rather more heavily than she had intended. Red backed towards his friends as the Chocobos skidded to a halt. Cid charged into the battle holding the Venus Gospel like a lance. He speared a second fiend directly through the neck and then slammed the spear tip-first into the ground. The pinned monster screamed and splattered blood everywhere as it convulsed. The old pilot circled back and wrenched his favourite weapon out of the dead monster before succumbing to a brief bout of coughing.
Yuffie turned as though to run away, leaned forward to clasp Obsydia's neck, then swung herself off the Chocobo, using the bird's neck as a fireman's pole to get the height and speed she needed to deliver a killing blow with the Conformer. Her mouth was open in a silent battle cry as she drove the shuriken through the monster's ribcage. It roared and swatted at her. The girl went flying, leaving her weapon protruding from the beast's chest. Tifa gasped as she crashed to the ground and ran sideways to try to help her.
"OUTTA THE WAY!" Barret roared suddenly.
Marlene, eyes narrowed fiercely, glinting with tears for her Aunt Yuffie, steadied his arm. "Fire!" She whispered. Barret emptied a clip into the fiend (and, admittedly, the air around it) and it collapsed to the ground with one final defiant roar. The black man took a deep, shuddering breath and clasped Marlene to him gently as she tried to dismount.
"Stay on Boco, darlin'…"
Tifa helped Yuffie to her feet as the ninja winced. "It's all right, Marlene, Yuffie's fine." Yuffie gave Tifa a look that said, that's a new word for it, but dusted herself off cheerfully and gave the little girl a smile. She sidled up to the fiend and kicked at it until she could remove her Conformer from the creature's ribcage. She tugged at it fruitlessly for a while before giving the fiend one final kick – the shuriken sprung from the flesh as if stung, and Yuffie went flying backwards.
She landed cradling the blade and checked it thoroughly before she stood up. As she'd suspected, Barret's little barrage had dented it in several places. She pouted. She'd love to be able to say something snide right now. She glanced at Vincent, who was struggling to put the Death Penalty away now that he'd wrestled it out with his claw, and decided not to bother asking. She wasn't about to make him her personal translator just so she could taunt Barret.
"Hey, man, I think your aim's improved a little!" The pilot chuckled, laying a steadying hand on Barret's shoulder. A smile crossed Yuffie's face. That was what Cid was for. The bear-like man snorted.
"You better watch your mouth, foo'." He responded automatically, voice a deep growl. Everyone could tell it made him feel better to be teased as though nothing had changed.
Even though everything had.
After that they encountered fiend after fiend, each stronger than the last. By the time they'd reached the north coast, Yuffie was sore and gasping, the Conformer stained with blood that wouldn't be removed just by wiping it against the grass. Tifa was feeling her uselessness even more, particularly since the Restore materia was beginning to fade. It was a little past noon when they reached the beach and found Shera waiting there for them. She waved a PHS at them.
"I beat you by an hour or so. I've been looking at the best way to island-hop." She spread out an extremely rough but generally accurate map on the sand and pointed to a rough route she'd marked in pencil. "We want to pass just north of Costa del Sol, then head out across the north-east of the continent for a while, then head north-north-east until we make it to the North Continent." She squinted up at her captive audience. "Shouldn't take more than… three days, if we hurry."
"Sounds good," Cid agreed, running a finger along their prescribed route. "If we leave now, we might be able to make the Costa by nightfall." He tapped the map pointedly and grinned at his live-in mechanic. "You'll have to make room for Red but we're all good to go on Chocobo."
Shera tilted her head at that. "Yes, about that… where did you get the scruffy-looking black and the other gold?" She inquired, puzzled. "It's not one of ours…" Cid coughed lightly, then a little more at the irritation he'd provided his touchy throat.
"Yeah, well, Reeve got the Turks to lend us their birds… this one's Duster." He gestured to the black, who preened, with one hand.
Shera giggled at the name. "Suits him. Anyway, if you're all ready to go…?"
Yuffie sighed and swung herself reluctantly back onto Obsydia. At least there were no fiends in the water. She could rest a little, at least until they reached the next continent. With this in mind, she wrapped the reins carefully around the fingers of Vincent's claw and settled back against his shoulder, tapping out a lazily punctuated message on the bronze metal.
Poke me if ya need me.
So saying – in a manner of speaking (A/N: Oh gods, make me stop.) – she tugged the Conformer to lie flat against her thigh and closed her eyes.
- - - - - - - - - -
Vincent didn't so much steer as try to prevent Obsydia's reins from slipping from his claw altogether. He was somewhat more occupied with the fact that Yuffie actually appeared to be sleeping on the galloping Chocobo. Her flesh seemed to mould perfectly to his as they rode, and he wasn't sure whether this had to do with her utter relaxation, some ninja balance technique or something else entirely. It certainly had nothing to do with his attempts to hold her in place with the elbow joint of his claw.
They rode on the left flank of the Tiny Bronco, which headed the formation. The Chocobos were spread in a loose bracket with Obsydia and Brandy just behind the small aircraft's wingtips and Cid holding tightly to Boco's halter from Duster's back. After the first hour of travel, Barret and Marlene had opted to ride in the Bronco with Shera and Red. (Cloud had, most unfortunately, trained Boco in the art of skimming down the waves rather than merely running across them. The results were not pleasant for Barret and Marlene, who preferred to stay dry.)
The Bronco veered towards a large island with a small forest at its centre and Vincent was grateful when 'Sydia followed the craft rather than his fruitless attempts at steering. He shifted Yuffie slightly between his knees and wondered if the burn of eyes at his back was merely of his imagining. Just in case, he carefully extended one bronze digit to poke Yuffie in the ribs and immediately dropped the reins.
They slithered lightning fast across Yuffie's thigh. Vincent knew it was useless to grab at them – he'd only stab his friend – but Yuffie wasn't a ninja for nothing. Her hand snapped out and grabbed the leather straps, wrapping them twice automatically before her eyes even opened. She stared at her hand a little blankly and then tilted her head to look at Vincent.
Droplets of salt water glistened on her up-turned cheeks, clumping her eyelashes together in wet spikes of darkness. Vincent hadn't realised how much water Obsydia's clawed feet crashing through the waves kicked up until that moment. Nor had he realised how much he would miss the loud and immediate complaint that normally arose whenever Yuffie suffered through an unwanted awakening.
"They slipped," he muttered, referring to the reins. Yuffie merely blinked at him, then twisted back towards the Tiny Bronco, eyes scanning their surroundings. The Conformer was raised slightly from her thigh, now, cocked at the ready in case anything should surprise them. Vincent sighed and frowned slightly – he hadn't realised he'd been holding his breath. Shaking off the puzzlement he said, "We'll rest on that island."
Yuffie nodded once and yawned, tapping out a rather long message on his claw. Vincent had to close his eyes to gather the minute sounds into words over Obsydia's feet ploughing through the sea. You'll rest, you mean. I'll have to start saving your butts all over again.
Vincent knew she intended it as a joke, but he could not take it as such. What were they to do when the ninja's so-called boundless energy ran out? When the materia failed? When Tifa's back finally gave in, when Cid succumbed to the tar coating his lungs, when Vincent couldn't even lift his claw in defence any more…?
As though sensing his thoughts, Yuffie elbowed him sharply in the ribs and struck a new message against his artificial forearm.
Think happy thoughts, monster man.
Vincent was struck with the bizarre and morbid urge to laugh at that. Happy thoughts? And if he clapped his hands hard enough, would Aeris come back? Would Cloud?
Yuffie smiled as she felt Vincent bend to rest his forehead against her shoulder. She could not have guessed that he had not been mollified, only further disturbed by her command. She could not have guessed his thoughts were on the senselessness of needing to clap when one no longer had hands.
- - - - - - - - - -
Tifa swung herself from Brandy with a wince, wishing her damn back wasn't quite so touchy. Maybe once all this was over and done with, she'd spend some time in the little hot-spring town in the mountains on the east coast of Wutai, persuading her muscles to heal. Or, she remembered with a grimace and a sigh, she could go help them clean up the little hot-spring town in the mountains after the Jenova-creature's attack. Then she could settle down and let her muscles knit themselves back together properly. The way things were, every time she moved she could feel tiny tugs of wrongness in the flesh that certainly hadn't been there before. It was kind of odd, she thought, leading Brandy through the sand, because the first time Sephiroth sliced her, she'd healed just fine. It had been a clean wound. This one…
Tifa tugged at Brandy's reins and moved a little faster, trying to get onto stable ground that didn't make her walk so unsteady and painful. This wound she'd received hadn't healed well at all. Maybe it was just a quality of Lifestream therapy, maybe it was because it really had been a deathblow this time or maybe Sephiroth's style had changed in five years. Who knew? It wouldn't do her any good to worry about it, anyway. She put the wound resolutely from her mind as she made it onto thicker Spinifex grass and the ground became a little more solid.
Cid was the next to hit land, riding Duster a little way up the beach and practically flinging Boco's reign's away from him in disgust. "Just 'cause you're the oldest doesn't mean you get to splash me, y' darn bird." The gold warked cheekily and trotted away up the beach in search of food. Cid rolled his eyes at Tifa, who smiled despite herself, and dismounted Duster to help first Shera and then Marlene and Barret from the Tiny Bronco. The bear-like man stumbled in the sand, flinging out the Missing Score to catch himself (unfortunately) on the Bronco's wing. Cid let out a squawk of dismay and bent double, coughing hard and trying to curse Barret black and blue at the same time. Red jumped down from the small plane and padded past them, blissfully unable to hear Cid's attempts to profane the air around him.
Tifa turned burgundy eyes to watch the other black Chocobo reach the shore, frowning in concern at the unsteady way Vincent seemed to sway as soon as Obsydia's step changed to compensate for the fact that she was walking on sand, not water. Poor Vincent was really suffering from the loss of his other arm – he couldn't steady himself without running the risk of harming something or someone else. At least my injury is fairly harmless to everyone else… In fact, she thought with a frown, Vincent's is really the only thing that could hurt any of us directly. The rest of us might not be able to defend or attack as well as we used to, but Vincent's the only one who really can't risk doing much of anything because of what any normal movement might do to another person.
Tifa had a sudden, vivid image of her father's body on the grating in the Mt Nibel reactor, blood spreading slickly along the twists of metal before they lost the battle with gravity and plummeted to briefly stain the surface of the refined mako below… She shivered and rubbed at her arms in a vain attempt to warm not her body but her soul. The scream of a Chocobo broke her reverie and ceased all attempts to do that.
Boco bolted from the woods in the middle of the island, wings flapping frantically and uselessly at his sides. He dashed straight past Tifa, warking shrilly, and the rest of the Chocobos milled uncertainly for a moment and then stampeded for deeper water. Vincent, for once in his life, let out a startled cry as Obsydia twisted in the sand and made to run. Yuffie pulled her up short and wheeled her about to face the forest, grey eyes wide and mouth slightly open, panting raggedly with the effort of controlling the powerful bird. Obsydia's crest had perked slightly and she regarded the forest with nervous suspicion, shifting her weight from one clawed foot to the other. The movement probably would have unseated Vincent had not Yuffie's knots been in place. As it was the ninja's mouth set in a grim line and, hardly daring to put down the Conformer, she tied the reins to the gunman's claw and slid from the Chocobo.
Vincent said, "Yuffie, what are you doing? If you untie me, I can help."
Yuffie shook her head, concentrating on the forest, and gestured to her ears. Vincent leaned back far enough that Obsydia understood she was to stand still, listened intently and understood. Too late to untie him – they were already here. He could hear the predatory grunts and growls, the shambling progress of the fiends through the forest punctuated by the snap of broken branches and the creak-and-crash of trees uprooted. He glanced around and gestured to Tifa.
"Untie me," he said softly. "She will need help."
Tifa started to retort, but stopped herself and called to Shera, "Get back in the Bronco – Barret can provide cover fire from offshore if you aim for him! Cid, help Yuffie!" The brunette spent a few moments tugging futilely at the ropes before Vincent let out a hissing breath through his teeth.
"In my boot there's a knife. Hurry."
The first of the monsters broke the tree line. It looked like nothing they had seen before, a mishmash of appendages bulging from a body the size of a Chocobo. It flickered a forked tongue at Yuffie, who crouched a little lower in preparation, and wide golden eyes narrowed to slits. It surged forth from the trees as Tifa cut right through the large knot at Vincent's hip and the gunman slid to the ground. The reins slid up over his bionic forearm and were shredded by the blades he called fingers. As Yuffie leaped forward to intercept the monster's blow and launch a counter-attack, Obsydia ran to join the other Chocobos in deeper water and Vincent glanced at Tifa.
"Keep us alive," he said tersely, and darted forth to join the battle as two more monsters emerged from the forest.
- - - - - - - - - -
Marlene pressed her face right up against the window of the Bronco as Shera struggled to steer and guide Barret's aim at the same time. The woman's toffee-blond hair was in her eyes as she yelled, "A little higher! Steady…! Steady…!"
The tiny craft moved in closer to the shore and Marlene's brown eyes started to water. She was scared. Her daddy was supposed to be invincible, but he couldn't see any more and she was scared. The Bronco swerved and bucked wildly in the water and Barret bared his teeth and swore, very softly.
"Just a little higher again, that put you off a little… and…" Shera steadied the Bronco, leaned back and said, "FIRE!" The Missing Score boomed and spat and rattled the bones of everyone aboard the Tiny Bronco and when Shera yelled, "STOP!" her ears were ringing. She took a deep breath and started to talk again, louder than the engine and the hollow whine of shell shock in her ears. "I'm gonna swing around – move over to the other door and we'll go again!"
On the shore, the monster Vincent was fighting with claws and not yet teeth had sagged sideways, snapping the trunk of a beach pine and sending the tree directly at another of the fiends. Yuffie took advantage of the distraction and ran right up close to the first monster as Vincent moved to help Cid and Red with their own slightly smaller but much faster Jenova-creature.
Marlene closed her eyes and when she opened them, they were green. She spoke softly and her voice was sad.
"Those are Jenova mutations. Like the larger monster, they are searching for materia. The more materia Jenova absorbs, the more control of the Planet she will have. We can't let her have the materia."
Shera glanced back, blue eyes shining with determination, and nodded once at the little girl who was not a little girl for the time being.
"All right, Ms Aeris. We will." She turned back to the wheel of the Bronco as Barret staggered to brace himself in the opposite hatch of the small plane. "AIM! STEADY…! FIRE!"
- - - - - - - - - -
Afterwards, Yuffie collapsed onto sand stained a dark, evil fuchsia and gasped for breath and for the pain in her shoulder – a blow from the creature she'd been fighting had made her arm-guard utterly worthless. She stared upward, taking deep, steadying breaths, and thought it was more than a little unfair for the sky to be so perfectly beautiful when the fate of the world was at stake.
She heard the Bronco motor cautiously back toward them, heard the hull grate against the sand as it ran up a little way onto the beach, and then Vincent invaded her view of the perfect sky. He regarded her silently for a moment and reluctantly offered her his bloodied, gory claw. She grinned and grabbed it, even though she wasn't quite ready to sit up yet. She knew Vincent too well after all their 'adventuring' – if she hadn't taken the claw, he'd probably never have offered it to her again. Not only that, he'd have been even more mopey and depressed than usual, and that was something Yuffie didn't want to see (though she did think it would be kinda impossible for the man to get further into the dumps that he already was, sometimes).
Once up, she could see a fair bit more than just the irritatingly blue sky. She could see Barret with Marlene cuddled tight to his chest and Shera talking quietly but animatedly to Cid and Tifa and Red, who was padding towards them. Yuffie dropped the Conformer point-first into the sand and opened her arms – Red walked into them calmly and sat down.
There were no words exchanged then, but they both knew exactly what would have been said if there had been.
"Oh Red, you look all sexy when you're bloodied up and stuff! Can I smear this over your shoulder a bit more? I want it to half-cover your tats."
"I don't think that's very hygienic, Yuffie. What if it's poisonous, or acidic?"
"I don't see you melting, kitty-cat – but I wasn't gonna lick you." A delighted, teasing laugh would have followed. "Unless ya want me to…"
A sigh. "…Yuffie…"
"Ooh, yo mama gonna lick ya'll clean!"
Vincent stood watching the not-conversation, half expecting Yuffie to stick out her tongue to see just how far she could push the lion-like creature before he gave and moved away. Red, as though operating on a similar imagined conversation, snorted, butted Yuffie's head in affectionate dismissal, and bounded towards the waves to rinse the blood from his face and paws without ingesting sand.
Yuffie rocked to her feet and, noticing the expression on Vincent's face, stuck out her tongue. He blinked. She grinned again and sashayed toward the others. Tifa turned to her with a Hi-Potion in one hand. Yuffie 'sculled' as the older woman beckoned to Vincent.
"Apparently Aeris told them that it's not just the big monster that's collecting materia, it's all Jenova mutations," Tifa explained. "What we need to do is keep as much materia away from her as possible, because the more she absorbs, the more of the Planet's core she controls."
Barret grunted and bent to put Marlene down. The girl sat on the sand and stared at them, digging her hands into the sand. As she did so, her eyes frosted slowly from cinnamon brown to mint green.
"Playing keep-away won't work forever. Sooner or later, Jenova will realise she has strong enough ties to most of you to track your progress."
Tifa stared at the little girl, channelling Aeris, and crouched in the sand. "What do you mean?" Marlene's face tightened in concern.
"You, Red, Vincent… you've all been injected with Jenova cells at one time or another. Tifa, when you were recovering from the incident in Nibelheim… Red, in Hojo's lab… Vincent…" She trailed off as Vincent stared somewhat accusingly at his claw. "It's what allowed Jenova to have a stronger affect on your minds. She can trace your movements using that same influence."
Tifa's eyes widened a little in understanding and she rocked back on her heels to sit down in the sand. "What are we going to do?" She muttered to herself. "We can't risk letting Jenova know your movements, Aeris… but…" She bit her lip and glanced up at Cid. The old pilot shrugged and hefted the Venus Gospel meaningfully.
"Well, I s'pose we could split up. That wouldn't solve our materia problem, though. Fact, it'd probably make it easier for Jenova, unless we all went by s—" He paused and his steel blue eyes narrowed a little, the hint of a plan glimmering in them. Tifa waited patiently. Yuffie stomped her foot. Cid glared at her and adjusted his goggles.
"Look, I'm not sayin' I want us to split… that ain't it at all… but, if someone went in a totally different direction with the materia – it's useless to us anyway, right? So…" He blew out a breath and went on quickly. "So, what I'm saying is, Tifa – you and Red should take the Bronco and the materia we brought with us and head south. You can go past Junon and the guys there can get the materia to Reeve's little ground zero in Wutai, right? And at the same time, you'd be pretty much safe from fiends and leading Jenova astray because you're in the middle of the ocean, right?" He glanced around to see what the rest of AVALANCHE thought and was gratified to see Vincent nodding slowly.
Tifa nodded wearily. "That makes sense, I guess. I'm really no use on land any more, anyway." Before any of them could have leaped in to deny what was obviously true, but hurtful, she continued. "Red and I can take the Bronco south and meet you in the Ancient City, then. It should take us about the same time – the Bronco is faster than a Chocobo, and we won't be weaving as much."
Cid nodded. Shera sighed and patted Red on the head. "You must be getting tired of people making decisions without you just because you can't hear them," she told him sympathetically. Red blinked his golden eye at her once and then turned his attention back to the Chocobos, who were only now venturing ashore. Shera smiled.
They rested for only a short while after that, concerned with the imagined approach of Jenova's mutated fiends. Supplies were rearranged; materia was exchanged (though Yuffie refused to give up her mastered Leviathan) and Cid bid a tearful farewell to the Tiny Bronco. As Tifa manoeuvred the small plane off the sand, Yuffie discovered what had become of her knot-work and spent a few minutes wrestling Vincent to the ground in order to sit on his back (and his claw arm) and rip most of his cloak into a new rope. She then took the small knife that Tifa had used to cut the ropes and flung it out into the ocean, much to Vincent's dismay. He would have at least tried to retrieve it had not Yuffie made certain violent motions with her arms about sitting in Obsydia's goddamn saddle and being tied in or else – as it was, he didn't want any more of his limbs to go missing 'mysteriously' in the night.
- - - - - - - - - -
A/N: It's probably severely detrimental to the serious nature of the storyline to throw in paragraphs like that. Oh well. I enjoy random humour. Please tell me what you think of this fic, as it's kind of a new style of fic for me…