Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy VII; Second Generation ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Hey!”, Yoko says, trying to keep up with Vincent's fast pace walking, “I said I was sorry, Vincent”.

 

Vincent doesn't answer her as he continued to follow the flying Pixie as she leads the way through the mine.

 

“Besides, it was for your own good, Vincent. If you don't get enough sleep, you can get sick from the exhaustion…”, she continues to say, this time causing him to stop at her comment and turn to look at her, “About time you looked at me…”, she huffs.

 

“You don't know anything about me, so keep your concern to yourself…”, he coldly states, glaring at her with equally cold eyes.

 

“Fine, Mr. Ex-Turk doesn't want to let anyone else in. He can keep his stupid solitude”, she growls, pushing past Vincent and roughly elbowing him in the ribs, “I'm not sorry for that!”, she spat.

 

“Sorry about that, should have warned you that she tends to be moody”, Pixie apologizes.

 

“Feisty is more the word…”, Zack comments, as he watches Yoko storm away.

 

“I'd say, hot-headed…”, Jessie states.

 

“Is it a good idea to just let her go off alone like that?”, Nicole asks.

 

“You have got to be shitting me!”, Yoko's voice echoes through the mine, followed by a gun-shot and a roar.

 

“See what I mean…”, the youngest member adds, as the others ran in the direction Yoko's voice came from.

 

When the others entered into the large cavern, they spot a huge greenish-yellow dragon spewing a stream of flames at Yoko and the flames bowl around an invisible shield, the group could see a green light shining from the hilt of Yoko's gun; she was using her Barrier Materia to protect herself, but the heat couldn't be repealed as sweat drips off her chin.

 

“It's an Ark Dragon…”, Vincent mutters, un-holstering his Cerberus.

 

“There's the exit!”, Pixie says, pointing to a spot behind the monster.

 

Sunlight streams in through an opening in the wall behind the dragon, if they were to get out of the mines they'd have defeat the dragon first.

 

“Holy crud, it's a real dragon!”, Zack gasps.

 

“Quit gawking and fight!”, Yoko snaps, turning her attention to her comrades long enough the cast barrier on them as well, “And don't use any fire spells on it, they'll only heal it!”

 

“Have you cast Slow on it?”, Jessie asks, taking position next to Yoko.

 

“Slow spells have no effect on it”, she bluntly replies, “So I didn't try”, firing a few rounds at the giant beast.

 

“Well, we don't have time for this”, Jessie curses, as she charges towards the creature, slashing at the beast once before it simply collapses to the stone ground; dead, “That takes care of that…”

 

“Whoo…”, Yoko sighs, wiping the sweat from her brow, “One more Flame Thrower aimed at me and I would have been a crispy-critter…”, then she notices Vincent looking her over from the back, checking her for any visible injuries, she just gives him a cold glare before turning her head away from him and sticks her nose in the air with a, “Hmph!”

 

“You do know you offended her by not appreciating her concern for your health, right?”, Pixie comments, “Best you apologize or there'll be tension for the rest of the quest, and that isn't good when the success of the mission relies on the cooperation of everyone in the group”, the robotic-fairy advises.

 

“You think…”, he mutters, silently making his way over towards the angry woman, “Yoko…?”

 

“What?”, she asks in a cold annoyed voice, coldly glaring at him; her reddish-brown eyes looking cold and icy, despite the flames that burned in them.

 

“I…”, he began.

 

“You're apologizing for the comment you made, right?”, she says for him.

 

Vincent was too shocked to speak, resorting to nodding instead.

 

“I understand and the only reason you said it was, because you feel that you don't deserve concern cause of something you did or didn't do in the past, right?”, she adds, letting the cold look melt from her face and be replaced by a warm gentle one, “I apologize for elbowing you like that in the ribs, do they still hurt?”

 

“They're still a little tender…”, he replies.

 

“I'm so sorry…”, she gasps, not expecting to have hit him that hard, “Sometimes I don't know my own strength”, she sheepishly adds, lightly blushing.

 

“Hmm”, he lightly chuckles, a small smile forming onto his lips. Suddenly, the smile quickly drops from his face and narrows his blood-red eyes, darting them off to the side, as if sensing something or someone there.

 

“What wrong…?”, Yoko quickly asks.

 

“We're not alone in this cave…”

 

The sudden sound of a muffled bang rings out through the cavernous cavern and a spark of Muzzle-Flash lights up, giving away the location of the shooter. But at that moment none of that mattered, the bullet was heading straight towards Yoko.

 

“Look out!”, Vincent shouts, throwing himself in between the bullet and it's target, a spray of blood spurting from between his shoulder-blades as the bullet forced it's way into his back causing him to cough up some blood.

 

“Vincent…?”, she mutters, her eyes widening before she quickly draws her gun from it's holster and takes aim at the shooter, pulling the trigger and releasing a bullet only to have the bullet strike stone because the shooter was long gone, “Damn it, they got away…”, she curses, as she kneels beside Vincent to check on him, the impact of the bullet and then the ground had knocked him unconscious.

 

“What the hell just happened?”, Nicole gasps.

 

“The bullet was for me, but… he…he…”, Yoko replies, stuttering as she examined the location of the bullet, “This is bad…”

 

“How bad is it?”, Jessie asks.

 

“He needs medical attention and fast!”

 

“So let's carry him”, Zack says.

 

“It's not that simple. The bullet has penetrated his back and is sitting dangerously close to his spinal-cord, if we move him now the bullet could sever his spine and he'll be paralyzed…”, she woefully explains.

 

“So you're saying we need to remove the bullet first, right?”, Nicole states.

 

“Yes…”, she nods, “Does anyone have a pocket-knife or something?”

 

“I have a Swiss-Army knife”, Nicole replies, pulling out the red and white object, “Will this work?”

 

“This a lot better than just a knife, thanks”, Yoko says, taking the item from the resourceful girl.

 

Yoko pops out the blade and inserts it into the bullet-hole, carefully trying to shimmy the tip underneath the bullet, “Come on…”, she mutters in concentration, twisting the knife slightly until it slips further into the wound; past the metallic object, “There…”, she smiles, applying pressure on the knife sideways to lever the bullet out, until she could see the end of the bullet sticking out from his skin, grabbing it with her fingers; pulling it out completely, “A mythril bullet, how appropriate considering we're in a Mythril Mine…”, she flatly says, staring at the bullet before she lays the knife and bullet to the side to concentrate her healing golden-yellow light into her hands, but before she could touch his body with her hands, the wound closes up on it's own, “What the…?”

 

“Cool, I didn't know you could heal an injury without touching it”, Zack exclaims.

 

“I can't heal wounds without touching them…”, she replies, looking up at the others, “Vincent's body healed itself…”, she continues with a purely perplexed look plastered on her face.

 

“The experiments…”, Jessie mutters.

 

“Experiments?”, Yoko asks, “What experiments?”

 

“Huh… I'm just remembering something my mom had told me about Vincent”, she answers, “Vincent had been a Lab-Specimen and was experimented on, and that's all I know”.

 

“Well, we can't get any answers about his past here. Hey Pixie, where's the closest town?”, the singer questions.

 

“The closest town is Fort Condor”, the robotic-fairy says.

 

“To Fort Condor it is. Ruvie contact the soldiers and inform them that we might be a day or two late”, Jessie states.

 

“Already have”, Pixie replies for her creator.

 

“Hello! We need to get Vincent out of this cave first”, Yoko yells, trying to left Vincent up off the ground, “I suggest we catch some Chocobos to make carrying him easier, this guy `is' at least 6 feet tall”.

 

“Yea, cute Chocobos!”, Nicole exclaims joyfully.

 

“Is she alright?”, she asks, managing to heft Vincent onto her back, very awkwardly though.

 

“She loves Chocobos…”, Zack groans.

 

“Her bed is covered with Chocobo plusies in every color and size imagined”, Jessie says, “She loves them almost as much as she loves my brother”.

 

“Zacky-kun!”, Rufus's daughter gleefully screams, latching onto his arm just to prove Jessie's point.

 

“Heaven help him if he ever dresses up in a Chocobo costume”, the singer chuckles.

 

“Actually, her love for Chocobos began after Zack went trick-a-treating as a Chocobo when we were nine years old”, Jessie explains, “In fact, around that time Zack began to wear his hair at shoulder-length and pony-tailed”.

 

“It was because I didn't want to look like dad, with his short hair!”, Zack protests.

 

“When you look at our dad from behind, his hair can remind you of the back of a Chocobo's head. Mom has even called our father; Chocobo-Head…”, the female sibling whispers to Yoko.

 

“I see…”, she nods, carrying Vincent out of the cave followed by the Strife twins, Nicole, and Pixie, “Hey, do you guys even know how to catch a Chocobo?”

 

“Uh…”, the teens hesitate.

 

“Great, looks like I'll have to teach you…”, she sighs.

 

 

 

 

 

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-Outside the Mine-

 

 

 

 

 

“When and if a Chocobo appears among the monsters, attack only the monsters and do not; I repeat, do not attack the Chocobo!”, Yoko instructs, as she gently lays Vincent down onto the ground, even though she was slightly surprised that despite his height and body-structure, he weighed a lot lighter than he looked.

 

“Alight, alright, we get it”, Jessie mutters, holding her hand out waiting for Yoko to hand the Chocobo-Lure to her.

 

“Nicole, I want you to hold onto this”, Yoko says, placing the purple orb of Materia into the younger woman's hand, “That way the Chocobo will be attracted to come closer to you and I know you won't abuse it”.

 

“Hey, how come she gets to use the Materia?”

 

“Chocobos can feel the hostility of the user through the Materia, if someone who is at calm and peaceful uses it, the high chance of more than one will come”, she explains, “Besides, we all know that Nicole loves Chocobos and wouldn't want harm to come to one, right?”

 

“Right!”, Nicole nods, a huge smile plastered to her face as she inserts the Materia into one of the Materia-slots on her gun.

 

“Okay, fine!”, Jessie spat.

 

“Hey, here they come!”, Zack shouts, as two ugly black and pink ostrich looking bird-monsters called Levrikons, and a single yellow-feathered bird; the Chocobo of the three, ran towards the group, the two ugly birds there looking for prey; having smelt Vincent's blood, and the Chocobo drawn there by the Materia.

 

“Nicole, secure the Chocobo while Zack and I deal with the monsters, okay?”, Jessie orders, charging in towards the monsters closely followed by her brother.

 

“R-right!”, she stutters, slowly making her way towards the Chocobo, “Easy, I'm not going the hurt you…”, she whispers to the bird as she inches her way closer.

 

“WARK!”, the Chocobo squawked, as Nicole came closer, but made no motion to either run away or attack the girl.

 

“There…”, she sighs, as she gently wrapped her arm around the bird's neck, her fingers brushing against the soft down-feather donning the creature's chest, “See I told you I wasn't going to hurt you…”, she whispers, petting the feathers on it's neck and chest.

 

Suddenly a scream of pain draws her attention from the Chocobo towards the fight she had been kept out of, she spots Zack crouched on the ground clutching his bleeding shoulder, the Levrikon had nicked him with it's `Flaming Peck' and now towered over him, a blood-lust aura radiating off of it's being as it reared it's back to attack Zack with another `Flaming Peck'.

 

“Zack!”, she screams, keeping one arm tightly; yet gently, wrapped around the Chocobo's neck while she grasped her gun in the other and took aim at the monster, pulling the trigger and sent a bullet flying, also cause the Chocobo to squawk out in alarm from the sound, as the bullet flew true to it's mark; piercing the monster through the head, killing it, “There…there… Everything is alright now…”, she coos, trying to calm the distressed bird.

 

“Zack, you alright?”, Jessie shouts over to her brother, as she rests her sword on her shoulder; having killed the monster she had been fighting.

 

“Yeah, I'm fine… It's only a deep scratch!”, he replies, glancing over at the younger female teen who saved his life as she petted the majestic yellow bird into peaceful compliance.

 

“Hey, you three did pretty well on your first try in Chocobo wrangling!”, Yoko calls out, having preoccupied herself with cooking some lunch and tending to the unconscious Vincent, “Now come eat some lunch, get whatever injuries you received treated, and afterwards round up another two or three Chocobos!”

 

“Coming!”, Jessie shouts back, “Come on you two, time to eat”, she says, running towards Yoko and the food that waited them.

 

“Be there in a minute!”, Zack yells, as he walks over to where Nicole and the Chocobo stood, “Uh, Nicole…”

 

“Hmm, yes Zack?”, she asks, as she turned around to face him, sunlight peeks through the clouds over-head and a single ray shines down onto the young woman, making her blonde hair gleam like the strands themselves were made out of gold, her flawlessly smooth lightly sun-kissed alabaster skin glow with a surreal light, and her blue eyes sparkle in brilliance like a set of flawless-sapphires. The image of an enchanting angel that anyone had ever seen and all she was missing was the two feathered-wings on her back, a wonder that something as dark and evil as the Shinra company and it's former President could spawn something so beautiful and pure.

 

“Well, umm…”, Zack stammers, a dark colored blush forming on his cheeks, “Umm, thank you for saving me…”

 

“Zack Strife, are you blushing?”, she giggles, a light blush forming onto her cheeks.

 

“Umm…”, he stutters, his blush darkening as he nervously scratches the back of his head.

 

“Hey you two, come and eat some, before Jessie eats it all!”, Yoko shouts to the two teens.

 

“I can't do that!”, Jessie protests.

 

“Well, you look like you will”.

 

“Come on, Nicole. Before my sister eats everything…”, he chuckles, offering his hand out to her.

 

“Sure…”, she nods, taking hold of his hand and allows him to escort her back to the group, while she held onto the Chocobo.

 

“The two of you seem to be getting cozy…”, Pixie comments, smiling as she looks at Nicole and Zack's interlocked hands.

 

“Huh…?”, they both gasp before looking down at their hands, quickly releasing the other's hand as a blush enflamed their cheeks.

 

“Zack, are you falling in love with Nicole?”, Jessie teases.

 

“N-n-no…”, he stammers, he blush turning a darker shade of red.

 

“Young love, it's a treasure to be the witness to it's blooming…”, Yoko whispers, as she watches Zack's frustration, she then looks down at Vincent with a small smile on her lips as she wipes sweat from his brow.

 

 

 

 

 

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