Turning
"I don't care what any of you say. I'm staying with him." Tifa's chin was set more stubbornly than any among them had seen before. Cid nodded.
"None of us want to stop you. We're just sayin' that we need more people, and maybe you would want ta come along. After all, there's nothin' you can do for the kid..."
"I don't care," she repeated. "I'm staying with him. He needs a friend with him now."
Cid made to protest again, but a poison-laden glare from Tifa stopped him. He threw his hands into the air in submission.
"Fine. It's a fool thing to do, though."
"I know," she said softly. "I know. But I have to stay with him."
Nanaki entered the room. His posture was somewhat poor, and he looked disappointed. "I'm sorry, everyone. But I have to stay. Sorry."
Elena, who was sitting in a chair in the small meeting room they occupied, nodded. "Don't worry. We didn't expect anything different."
The animal nodded. "Yes. I know." He sighed. "I know."
"We can't spend very much time resting here," Vincent said. "Soon we will have to part ways."
The Turks stood up and exited with barely a glance to those they would be leaving. The others parted from the two that would be staying behind, telling them to wish Cloud good luck and to tell him goodbye. They reassembled just outside of the Highwind.
"Well, so far, this trip has been a bundle of bad omens. I mean, plague, kidnapping, injury - well, that was before we started, but oh well - and duty. I mean, what's next? A swarm of frogs? Hellfire, perhaps?" Reeve chuckled to put a light mood on his almost prophetic warning, but it did make everyone else shift uncomfortably.
"We've just had bad luck so far," said Yuffie. "C'mon, guys, cheer up! It's not as if everyone's gonna drop dead this moment!"
Suddenly, Reno dropped to the ground, clutching his throat. When everyone crowded around him, he grinned, saying, "Gotcha."
Yuffie scowled at him. "Is that the way the leader of the Turks would act?"
"Sure, why not? It's not as if we don't have a sense of humor."
"Just not a very good one," muttered the ninja.
Reno batted his eyes at her. "I'd almost get the impression you don't like me."
"Enough!" said Vincent. "Look, I know you enjoy baiting Yuffie, but don't you think that's a bit undignified for a Turk to do? And Yuffie, you really need to get a better grip on your emotions."
Both of them flushed at being berated by the rarely annoyed Vincent, and stopped.
"So, where to, now?" asked Reno.
"Well, I guess to the Northern Crater," said Cid. "Damn, another place with bad memories. I wonder what we'll find there."
"How could you stand this when you came up here?" Reno asked Elena. "Once I'm out of here, and off this job, I'm hitting the beaches at Costa del Sol and not moving until winter."
The leader of the Turks was having a decidedly difficult time with the cold weather. "I came up here at Midwinter one time," she replied with a laugh in her voice. "Then it's cold. This is perfectly balmy in comparison. Besides, cold weather is much better than hot weather."
"If you think so, you're crazy," Reno said flatly. "This weather stinks all to hell. It's a startling contrast between here and Midgar, where people just stop at midday. It's much nicer there."
Elena snorted, but continued moving. She had spent a bit of their profit from this venture to buy cold-weather parkas, but Reno still persisted in complaining. He has low blood pressure, I suppose. She rubbed her gloved hands together, but other than that made no motion that she was cold in the least.
They followed a bit behind the remainder of Avalanche, glancing furtively around ever so often to check for any enemies. They were searching for any cave or similar thing that could be the hideout of those who had taken Marlene. Mostly, they conversed about idle things to keep the events of the previous few weeks from their minds. Rude, however, had not said a single word; Elena suspected it was because of his past. She had overheard something one time about his parents dying of sickness when he was young.
After a couple of complaints about the terrain, the monsters that occasionally appeared - that was after they had been attacked by a dragon-like monster - and the little ninja whose name Elena hadn't been able to catch, the topic was back to the weather.
"Oh, come off it," Elena said good-naturedly. "The weather's nasty enough, but I didn't complain when we stayed on the outskirts of the Corel Desert for no reason for a week."
"That's 'cause hot weather is so much easier to stand!" And that started him back on the topic of how he was going to Costa del Sol. Elena tuned his ranting out, pondering their former enemies.
She never liked Cloud, as he was responsible for Tseng's death, but his fate was one she wouldn't wish on her worst enemy. In retrospect, though, he was her worst enemy. Tifa was surprisingly brave in staying with him. Cid seemed rather nice, if a bit hard to know. She had barely known Reeve, who controlled the catlike thing. The ninja - Reno had said her name was Yoffie or Yoophy or something like that - seemed a bit more grown-up than when Elena had first met her, although she still seemed immature. And Vincent - who knew? She had developed a respect for him, but she knew nothing of him or his past.
"...And what's more, we're never going to find anything out here!" Reno snarled, completing his rant, quiet enough so that no one save for Elena and Rude could hear him.
"Yeah," Elena agreed. "We do seem to be out of luck, huh?"
"You can say that again," Reno said darkly.
She simply shook her head, and continued keeping an eye out for something.
"Ah, crap!" Yuffie moaned to Cait Sith. "I'll never get the feeling back into my legs. Urgh!"
The toy simply made sympathetic noises. The young Wutaian rubbed her legs briskly in an attempt to restore feeling. She sighed. "What are we going to do, Reeve? Cloud and Tifa are both gone, as well as Red."
"I dunno. I guess we'll just have to get through it, huh?"
She glared at him. "Fat lot of help you are."
He shrugged, just as the airship groaned. This was certainly not natural, as the Highwind was still on the ground. Yuffie leaped to her feet and sprinted to the entrance, grabbing the Conformer as she went. She heard a long stream of curses.
"Dammit!" Cid yelled. "I need help!"
She ran to the front of the ship, only to see a huge dragon standing just outside the windshield. Its head reached about halfway up the ship, quite a formidable height. It had already smashed in the glass.
Yuffie flung her shuriken at the thing. It bounced off its jaw with no effect, and Yuffie sprinted after it to where it fell. She heard the dragon roar loudly as a bolt of energy seized it, but it seemed otherwise unharmed. A veritable wall of sound appeared, as three guns were fired as rapidly as their three owners could have wished. Then, all went silent.
A void of sorts appeared, as a knight appeared. He slashed at the dragon. Then, twelve other Knights of the Round appeared, each causing more damage to it. The dragon let out a pitiful roar, the slowly toppled over.
Cait Sith bounded into the room, slightly shaken at the damage he had caused. "Is...everyone all right?" he asked.
"Damn, damn, damn!" came the reply from Cid. His leg seemed to be gravely injured, but that was not what he was cursing about. "Look at my ship! Look at what that bastard did to the Highwind!"
"Ah, Mr. Highwind?" asked Elena tentatively. "Are you okay?"
"'Course I'm all right!" he said. He started to turn toward her. "Why wouldn't I - Oh, *#)^$, that hurts!"
And they lost another member of the party.
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