Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered Ice ❯ Reach for the Sky ( Chapter 19 )

Once again, ~~~ means meanwhile while *** means an entire change in scene (an indefinite amount of time has passed)

 

Chapter 19: Reach for the Sky

 

“Cloud! You fucking asshole!” Cid's brash declaration could be heard clear across the open courtyard of Rocket Town. Sighing heavily, Cloud, accompanied by Vincent and Nanaki, turned to face the fuming pilot.

 

“I told your little message boy that I was coming! I'm not letting ShinRa get my rocket whether you like it or not!” the Captain demanded, storming up to the group. He was gripping his Scimitar tightly in his hand as he puffed furiously on a cigarette. “Get lost, wolfie.”

 

Nanaki frowned and narrowed his eyes at the pilot. He turned to look at Cloud, silently asking their leader what his decision was. Theblond nodded, and Nanaki shrugged, walking past Cid without a word. He would let the comment slide for now, understanding the blond's anger, but the pilot would get his just due later. Cid's eyebrow twitched mercilessly as the lion wolf walked past and headed towards the airship.

 

“Our first priority is the Huge Materia,” Cloud warned, looking the other blond in the eye. “Anything else is just trouble.”

 

“Tch!” the pilot muttered, plucking the cigarette from his mouth and throwing it to the ground, crushing the tiny flame beneath his heavy boots. He hefted up the Scimitar, balancing it across the back of his shoulders. His eyes seemed to gleam with the need to kick some ass.

 

“Quit yer stallin' then! ShinRa ain't gonna wait on yer sorry ass!” the blond demanded impatiently. He stormed past Vincent, sparing him not a glance and pushed past Cloud, nearly knocking shoulders with the spiky-headed leader.

 

Vincent and Cloud exchanged glances before following after the determined pilot. The leader watched Cid grimly as they pushed through the stand of trees to the still leaning rocket. This was the entire reason that he had ignored the Captain's desire to come. The pilot could be volatile when he was angry, and like the Tiny Bronco, the ShinRa No 26 was his baby.

 

The three friends cleared the trees, finally having caught up to the furious Cid. They caught their first glimpse of the rocket. Other than a few lights blinking on and off when they had not been previously lit before, the rocket seemed just fine.

 

“Those terrorists are here!!” a ShinRa soldier shouted, suddenly noticing their arrival. Three of the lesser grunts rushed the group, intent on stopping them.

 

Vincent drew his Winchester and shot one of the soldiers before he got anywhere close to them. He made as if to shoot the others when a blond pilot got in his way.

 

Growling angrily, Cid jumped in the way of the soldiers, swinging his Scimitar in a wide arc, catching both of them in the chest. The soldiers dropped like sacks of potatoes from the pilot's powerful blow.

 

Spitting disgustedly, the pilot ran past them and headed for the stairs. Cloud shook his head and ran to catch up with the madly attacking pilot. The ex-Turk watched with interest as he made his way to the stairs at a slower pace, pausing to make sure that the soldiers were indeed out of commission.

 

“Don't let them get any further! Everyone, ATTACK---!” screamed the commander of a group of four soldiers. He stood at the first landing, guarding the second set of stairs.

 

Cid plowed into them, casting a fire on one of the soldiers as he brought his lance crashing down on the helmet of another, effectively knocking the soldier out.

 

“Urrgh,” the commander in red growled, not at all worried by the quick take down of his first two men. “You're not going anywhere! Uh, un… nowhere!” He drew his gun and aimed to fire at the Captain.

 

Cloud appeared and tackled the commander, casting Stop at the same moment, effectively canceling the attack. The sound of a Winchester broke through the battle and the fourth soldier was taken care of. Vincent finished, climbing the stairs and stood with his companions, the bodies of the unconscious ShinRa soldiers strewn about them.

 

“Goddammit, what the hell do they think they're gonna do to my rocket!?” Cid growled in frustration, wiping sweat from his brow. “Cloud! I'm gonna kick those #@$%@' ShinRa right out of my rocket!” he cursed, running for the ladder that would take him to the second platform.

 

“Dammit Cid, this isn't about you!!” Cloud shouted back, hurrying to catch up to the rapidly climbing pilot. Vincent followed close behind him.

 

“What the hell you doin' here?” came Cid's voice. They heard him before they saw who he was talking to. “I thought I told you never to come back here!!”

 

Cloud managed to climb high enough to see over the top of the platform. The other blond was squaring off against Rude of the Turk's and two more minor soldiers.

 

Rude harrumphed, balling his hands up into fists. “I do not fear Cid Highwind. I go where I please.”

 

“Fuckin' bald-headed bastard! I'm going to kick your ass outta this town, and you better not come back again!”

 

Rude snorted, adjusting his sunglasses. “I will eliminate everyone who gets in ShinRa's way, including you, Cid Highwind.”

The leader and gunman finally caught up to their friend, and flanked him, preparing to battle with the Turk and his minions.

 

Cid smirked. “You wouldn't dare. If I die… you might as well kiss your chances with her goodbye!!” He snarled at the darker man before leaping at him.

 

Rude brought his hand up to defend himself as the Captain slashed at him mercilessly. He barely registered the sound of a gun being fired as Vincent destroyed one of his men and the crackle of electricity as Bolt 2 took care of the other.

 

The bald Turk brought up a fist to block Cid's scimitar but found that the crafty pilot had already eluded him.

 

“Too slow!” the pilot exclaimed, slamming the butt end of his lance into Rude's belly, knocking the Turk to his back and stealing his breath.

 

“Ugh…gh…” Rude murmured, trying to gain his breath as he lay on his back on the floor of the platform.

 

“Tch! Maybe next time you'll know better than to come back, ne?” Cid questioned as he glared at the Turk. He passed by the fallen man and headed for the rocket entrance, his companions on his heels. Apparently the pilot had completely taken control of the mission.

 

“You… you! Why are you here? Rude of the Turks should've been here!!” exclaimed the ShinRa commander who was guarding the inner hall.

 

“Too bad.” The Captain smirked, thumb gesturing towards outside. “He's lying on the ground outside gasping for breath.”

“Oh man…” the commander groaned, face paling instantly. “…the Turks, being done in like that… I don't have a chance.”

 

“Then get the hell out of here!” Cid yelled, “Before I change my mind!”

 

“S…sir!!” the commander exclaimed. He scrambled to get past the three friends as he escaped from the rocket. He really wasn't in the mood for a pounding today and had no qualms about running from such an enemy.

 

The pilot shook his head and continued on towards the cockpit. He was determined to find out what the ShinRa wanted to do with his rocket. Cloud and Vincent exchanged glances, beginning to feel like excess baggage. After all, Cid seemed to be handling everything pretty well himself.

 

“Hey, what the hell're you guys doin'?” the alarmed pilot questioned when he noticed his crew inside the cockpit.

 

One of the guys, a burly redhead turned to look at his Captain. “Hey! Just when I thought somethin' was goin' on, you come back!”

 

“Listen to me, Captain. We're gonna launch this rocket!” exclaimed another in an excited voice, this a female with brown hair.

 

“Huh?” Cid questioned. “What are you talkin' about?”

 

“We're going to load a Materia bomb in this and blow up Meteor!” said yet a third crew member, a male with spiky orange hair very similar to Cloud's.

 

“Our rocket's gonna save the planet!!” the redhead explained excitedly. His eyes started to get that dreamy look to them, as if he were imagining himself as a knight in shining armor coming to the rescue of Princess Planet.

 

“Wait a minute!!” the leader exclaimed, joining into the conversation. He noticed the thoughtful look on Cid's face. He had to take back control of the situation.

 

The pilot turned to face Cloud. “Shut up!! Just shut the hell up!!” he growled at his leader. Without waiting for a response, Cid returned his attention to the crew, “How's the rocket?”

 

Cloud looked stunned that the other man would speak to him in such a way. The pilot did have a rather brash attitude but he had always been mostly respectful… to a certain extent. He made as if to move forward and grab Cid's arm and shake some sense into the idiot's head, but Vincent's hand on his arm stopped him.

 

“We will have to trust he makes the right decision,” the ex-Turk intoned, crimson eyes showing not a hint of emotion. “We all have our own personal battles.”

 

“… into Meteor on Auto-Pilot, but the most important device is broken. Shera is fixing it,” the brunette crew member explained to Cid.

 

Cloud caught this conversation and opened his mouth as if to ask Vincent what exactly he meant, but when he saw the carefully guarded look on the gunman's voice, he decided to be patient and wait.

 

“Oh, great! What a buncha wizards you guys are! She's gonna take 100 years!” Cid exclaimed. He seemed to be considering something. His hand tapped on his chin before he turned towards the three crew members one last time. “I'll take over, so don't worry about the Auto-Pilot! Hey, go ahead! Go tell everyone!”

 

“All right, Captain.” The three nameless crewmembers nodded in unison. “Good luck!!” they called back as they headed for the door.

 

Cloud couldn't take it anymore. “Hey, Cid! What are you doing? There are generations of knowledge and wisdom inside the Materia. We're gonna borrow their powers and save the planet from Sephiroth. There's no way that we can lose the Huge Materia. You understand that, right?” There had to be some way to get through to the pilot. He looked to Vincent for help but the gunman remained quiet, eyes trained on the thoughtful engineer in front of them.

 

The Captain moved from his standing position to sit in the pilot's chair, in front of the massive control panel and all the important switches. He looked at each of the monitors, checking on the stats of the rocket. For a moment, it seemed as if he was going to ignore Cloud. Then he began to speak, quietly at first.

 

“Yeah, I understand,” he started, explaining himself without turning around to face the others as he fiddled with the control panel in front of him. “I understand that Materia is precious, and I also understood what you're thinking. But listen. I don't give a rat's ass whether it's science or magical power. No, I guess if I had to choose, I'd rather put my money on the power of science.” He paused, tilting his head upwards to look through the small window that would give him his first glimpse of the stars when they rocket launched.

 

“Humans, who only used to roam around on the ground, are able to fly now! And finally, we're about to go into outer space!” He continued, voice quickly gaining strength and energy, “Science is a `power' created and developed by humans. And science just might be what saves this planet. I was able to earn my living thanks to science. So to me, there's nothing greater! Now quit your worrying `bout what ShinRa's gonna do!” He stopped staring out the window and returned his attentions to the panel of buttons in front of him, again adjusting monitors and such.

 

Cloud thought he had stopped with his speech and opened his mouth to add something else, but the pilot cut him off, adding one last line in a much softer tone.

 

“I don't want to regret not having done something later.”

 

“But, Cid…” Cloud protested, unable to keep his mouth shut anymore. He didn't even bother to look to the ex-Turk for help anymore. `Just trust him' the gunman had said. With so much at stake, could Cloud afford to do just that?

 

“Shut the hell up!! I don't wanna hear it!!” the other blond growled. He waited a moment to see if Cloud wanted to try adding anything else and was satisfied when he received silence as an answer. Not even Vincent had bothered to try and convince him. At least someone had understood.

”Alright, time to get to work! Anyone who ain't involved, get the hell outta here!” Cid ordered, turning on an intercom that would broadcast over the entire rocket.

 

No sooner had the words exited his mouth, the rocket started to shake and a quiet computer count down began.

 

“What the hell?” the Captain questioned, looking around wildly. “What the hell happened?”

 

The radio crackled to life and a recognizable voice filtered through the static. “Hey-Hey!”

 

“Palmer!” Cid exclaimed with a groan. “What the hell did'ya do!?”

 

“They said they finished repairing the auto-pilot. So I laun---ched it!!”

 

“Goddamn Shera! Why'd she pick today to get fast! DAMN! Won't even budge! It's completely locked up!”

 

“Hey-hey-hey! Almost lift off!”

 

“What the? No Countdown? It just don't seem the-“

 

“Hey-Hey!!! Blast--- off!!”

 

Palmer's voice completely faded as Cloud and Vincent ran to a chair and strapped themselves hurriedly, seconds before the rocket's main thrusters ignited and pushed the rocket into the air. The three men were pushed back into their seats from the initial thrust, staring with wide eyes at the screen as the blue sky quickly became white clouds, then endless black dotted with white specks.

 

~ ~ ~

 

“Do you think they are going to be alright?” Yuffie asked, her nose pressed to the glass of the viewing window in the cockpit of the airship. She watched from the currently circling Highwind as the rocket's thrusters lit and the rocket shot towards the sky.

 

“After all that we've gone through and you're worried about a little trip like that?” Barret questioned astonished. He laughed aloud.

 

Nanaki shook his head at the gun-armed man and padded over to Yuffie's side, nuzzling her hand with his nose. “They will be fine,” he assured her, he gently licked her fingers. She seemed to take comfort in his words and gave him a slight smile before she turned her attentions back towards staring out the window.

 

“Sir!” yelled one of the crewmen suddenly, disturbing the quiet moment. In a flash, the four friends were at his side.

 

The blond crewman who was monitoring the radar pointed to an odd shaped blip on his screen. “I don't know what the hell that is, but its heading this way and coming up fast!”

 

“Damn!” the dark-skinned man cursed. “ShinRa knew that we would be separated!”

 

“They are trying to take us out now because they believe we are weak without Cloud and the others,” Nanaki mused aloud, sitting on his hind-legs and rubbing his chin.

 

Reeve huffed and a burning anger suddenly appeared in the normally calm ex-executive's eyes. “That's what they think, is it? Well, we will show them, won't we?” he asked of his friends, already slipping his throwing daggers into his hand.

 

Suddenly the ship gave a violent rocking and the emergency lights and alarms sounded off, alerting everyone to the pending attack. The group fought to keep their balance.

 

Nanaki was unsuccessful. One of the crewmen had moved suddenly and tripped over the lion wolf, causing him to go sprawling to the floor. The necklace that he wore around his neck as well as his Crystal Comb fell off of him and skidded to the floor.

 

“Initiating emergency landing procedures!” intoned the pilot as he flipped some switches and began his descent.

 

Yuffie moved quickly across the floor, coming to Nanaki's side where he was slowly getting to his four feet. He was grimacing slightly, favoring his side.

 

“Are you alright?” she asked, frowning at the clumsy younger crewman that had tripped over the lion wolf.

 

“I will be fine. Just a little knee to my ribs,” Nanaki assured, peering up into her grayish silver eyes. Yuffie patted his fur softly over the bruised area as she carefully cast a Cure1 to ease his pain and speed the healing.

 

“But my comb… and grandfather's necklace…” he said suddenly, looking around.

 

“I see `em!” Yuffie said, her keen ninja eyes easily spotting the items. She moved quickly across the floor even as the airship gave a sudden drop in altitude. The pilot was having some trouble keeping his descent even as another explosion rocked the side of the airship.

 

“Yuffie, get your damn ass in a chair girl!!” Barret ordered as he strapped himself in.

 

“One more minute!” the little ninja demanded crossly as she hurried to pick up the Crystal Comb and the flamel necklace. Her fingers had just closed around the two items when suddenly another missile attacked the airship, stronger than the others.

 

“Damn!” cursed the pilot. “It's going to be rough. Everyone hold on to your shorts and don't piss in `em!” Apparently the pilot had been hanging around Cid for far too long.

 

The airship shook violently, heaving back and forth. Yuffie teetered on her feet and fell to the ground, sliding easily across the smooth floor but the items safe in her grasp.

 

“Yuffie!” Nanaki exclaimed, suddenly bounding across the floor. The ninja was scrambling to grab something as she slid towards the big metal cabinet that contained all the electrical tools needed on the bridge.

 

With a flash, Nanaki had cast Haste on himself and snatched the back of Yuffie's shirt. The two of them went sliding into a rather harmless wall, the blow cushioned by a well cast Protect over the both of them.

 

With a violent shudder the airship touched ground and shook the teeth nearly out of the heads of all those present. Reeve hurriedly unbuckled himself from his seat and ran to where the two teenagers were crumpled up against the wall, the shield still glowing softly.

 

“Yuffie! Nanaki! Are you all right?” he asked as he knelt next to them, his hand going to the ninja's forehead.

 

Yuffie groaned and sat up, feeling Nanaki's warm and soft body behind her. He had taken most of the damage to himself. “I'm fine,” she said with a groan.

 

“I am, as well,” Nanaki answered, disentangling himself from the girl.

 

“Here,” Yuffie said, holding out the two items that still clutched tightly in her hands. “I still have them.”

 

Reeve shook his head. “All that trouble for just that?”

 

“What?” the ninja protested. “I didn't want him to lose the necklace. It's important.”

 

An explosion sounded from nearby as the ground shook, apparently their attackers hadn't quite given up.

 

The ex-executive chuckled as he unequipped a materia ball from his armlet and tossed it Barret. “Here, put this in the materia amplifier!”

 

The dark-skinned man nodded, easily catching the materia ball with one hand. He moved over to the small panel nearly forgotten to the side and opened up the flap. He inserted the tiny green ball into the slot and pressed one hand on it, igniting the spell. The ball glowed and the panel thrummed. Within seconds, a Barrier had been put up around the airship, hopefully protecting it from further attacks.

 

Yuffie returned the Crystal Comb to Nanaki's mane and the necklace back around his neck, feeling a slight shock as she did so. Shaking her head, she gently treaded her fingers through his fur.

 

“Hey,” she said, frowning as she played with one of his ears. “You shocked me.”

 

“I am sorry,” Nanaki commented, his ear twitching. “However, you shocked me, as well.”

 

“Okay, enough. I've gotta keep up this barrier. It's up to you three to take care of that beast out there!” Barret muttered, yelling at the three friends.

 

They nodded in agreement, quickly rising to their feet and preparing to disembark the airship and face their enemies.

 

“Reeve!” the older man called out. The ex-executive paused, turning back to face the gun-armed man. “Take this!” He dug into his pockets and pulled out a bright red materia sphere. He tossed it to the ex-ShinRa, who caught it nimbly.

 

Reeve looked at it in shock, recognizing it as Barret's favorite summon. “Fenrir?” That particular summon was the wolf-god of the earth, and Barret had received it from Dyne. [1]

 

The dark-skinned man shrugged. “He might come in handy.”

 

Reeve smiled. “Thanks, Barret.”

 

He turned and headed for the ramp, catching up to the two teenagers, who were waiting patiently at the door.

 

“Ready?” Yuffie asked.

 

Reeve pulled out his knives and fanned them between his fingers even as he slipped the Fenrir summon into his armlet where the Barrier had once been. His whole body tingled with the addition of the powerful summon. He nodded at the ninja.

 

His amber-gold eyes flashed. “Let's kick some ShinRa ass.”

 

* * *

 

[1] I borrowed this from FF9. I believe it was Eiko's Summon? I don't really remember. But it is also a gear from Xenogears.