Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Unknown Ally ❯ Chapter 18: A Riddle Finally Solved ( Chapter 18 )

Chapter 18: A Riddle Finally Solved

They came to the wooden spiral stair and cautiously ascended. This place had been in ruins for years. There was a chance it could collapse at any moment.

Isolda put her weight down and the step fell out beneath her. Vincent grabbed her arm and pulled her back before she fell through. She looked at him, straight into those crimson eyes.

`Watch your step,' he said. He gently pushed her away from him and they continued their ascent.

They walked through the maze of crate-packed rooms, checking every crevice for danger. But there was nothing. No sound except for the battle taking place outside.

`I don't know. Something's not right,' murmured Isolda as they entered the main foyer. `I've seen no trace of Deep Ground. And where are the squads that are supposed to be in here?'

A deafening roar that shook the crumbling foundations of ShinRa Manor and the screams of the dying answered her question. The pair looked around for the source of the sound, but found nothing.

`What the hell was that?' Isolda had her blades out. Vincent was wondering the same thing.

 

They took a step forward….

The large windows above the landing burst inward in an explosion of glittering shards and falling debris. Vincent and Isolda jumped from the landing and fell to the floor with a crash. They climbed painfully to their feet and turned to stare at what had caused the damage.

`What the hell?' It was Vincent who had spoken.

Standing on the crumbling landing was a beast of mammoth proportions. It had glittering scales of the deepest crimson and jagged streaks of purple and green ran across its skin. The spines on its back crackled with electricity and there was a single flame on its lion tail. It had three feline heads sprouting from its trunk-like neck and all of them of them had their emerald glares fixed on the pair.

Vincent stared, remembering the stories he'd heard when he was a child.

`A Falionah? ' he whispered. It couldn't be and yet here it was in all its crackling and snarling glory. Isolda's blades faltered slightly.

`This….is Deep Ground's biological weapon?' she asked. `A mythical beast? But how-?'

She had no time to finish her sentence for the beast whipped its tail furiously, sending balls of lightning hurtling towards them. Vincent dove out of the way, pushing the young scientist out of harm's reach. The lightning balls exploded on impact and the Falionah growled menacingly. Vincent whirled and fired at the beast, but the bullets had no effect. Isolda rushed the creature, her blades drawn but a swipe of its taloned hand sent her flying across the foyer where she landed with a thud.

`Isolda!' cried Vincent, rushing towards her. The beast swatted at the gunslinger, downing him before he couldn't even get halfway. Vincent rolled onto his side with a groan, pain shooting through his body. Isolda rolled painfully to her side and saw something gold and crimson glowing a few feet away. Climbing painfully to her feet, she staggered over and saw there were two fire materia beneath the rubble. She glanced at Vincent who was climbing to his feet and attacking the creature. She shifted the rubble and picked up the undamaged materia, inserting them into the hilts of her weapons. She felt the unbelievable power surging through her and realized that these were highly mastered materia. She didn't have time to wonder how they got there though for the beast was hurling bolts of electricity at the gunslinger. She aimed her blade-guns at the beast, her eyes narrowed.

`Vincent! Get out of the way!'

Vincent turned to the young scientist with a frown. He saw the tension in her face and the resolution in her eyes as she trained them on the beast. The Falionah glared at her and whipped its tail menacingly, its spines crackling. The beast opened its three mouths and it focused all its electric power, creating a massive ball of lightning that grew in size until it filled half the foyer. Isolda narrowed her eyes until they were slits of silver and her fingers tightened on the triggers. The gunslinger suddenly fixed on the glowing orbs now fixed to her blades. His eyes widened in realization.

`Isolda, NO!'

With bestial screams, the demon and the woman launched their attacks at each other.

 

The two balls of energy crashed into one another. The light exploded until it filled the room, enveloping the two attackers. Vincent wrapped his cloak around him in a futile attempt to shield himself from the blast. The ferocity of the blast pulled the gunslinger off the ground and sent him flying through the front doors of mansion. He was carried to the front courtyard and Vincent landed with a thud on the ground. He watched with the rest of the WRO squad as a column of light shot through the roof of the crumbling manor and filled the sky.

Then it was over. The light faded and the night became quiet once more.

Climbing to his feet, Vincent rushed back to the scene of the battle.

 

The foyer of ShinRa Manor was in ruins. The column of light had torn through the roof and blown out all the windows in the mansion. He found the beast lying on its side, still smouldering from the blast. Weary and battered fro being blasted by a column of light, Vincent walked to the shattered foyer staircase, trying to find the user of the fire materia. He found the silver haired form of Isolda buried under a pile of rubble near the beast, two blackened orbs attached to her blades.

 

`No…' he whispered. He rushed to her side and quickly knelt down beside her. He removed the rubble, released the cuffs that held her weapons on her wrists and carefully lifted her into his arms, mindful of the razor-sharp claw. She was limp and she didn't appear to be breathing.

 

Reeve rushed into the crumbling manor and saw the devastation caused by the blast.

 

`What happened here?' he gasped.

 

The gunslinger looked at him and then cast his crimson gaze back to the limp woman. The pair of them stared in astonishment as a violet aura surrounded Isolda, causing the young woman to glow in his arms. The silver hair darkened to the ebony of a raven's wing and spilled over her face. A tattoo of a winged goddess appeared on her back and glowed crimson as her tanned skin paled to the hue of alabaster. Then the glow receded and a raven-haired woman lay in Vincent's arms. The gunslinger felt his heart stop as he gently brushed her hair back. The beautiful and still visage of Hellfire caused his stomach to lurch and he nearly dropped her in shock and disbelief.

 

`Oh my God,' whispered Reeve. Vincent stared at the young warrior in his arms and felt the anger and grief bubble over and spill out as his head snapped back and he let loose an long-drawn scream of anguish that echoed through the crumbling ruins of ShinRa Manor.

 

~*~

Vincent stared at his feet as he thought of Hellfire, standing suspended in the transparent glass cylinder they used for medical procedures. Reeve had told him that she was alive, but the blast had caused such a severe concussion that it had rendered her completely comatose. He said there was a possibility that she would wake up, but there was no telling when that would be. The gunslinger had only nodded, not taking his eyes off her suspended form.

 

He hadn't left his room for the last six weeks, lost in his thoughts and cursing himself for not realising the truth, even when she had dropped so many hints that she was never far from his side. He raised his eyes to the walls, remembering the night she said would be the last time he dreamed of her.

 

`Why?' he asked the empty air. `Why didn't you tell me? Why couldn't you let me know it was you all this time?' He lowered his head to gaze at the claw on his arm. `I kept my promise to you. Not a day went by that I stopped looking for you. All I wanted was know that you were still alive. But now, you're ….' He bowed his head. He couldn't finish. It was too painful for him to think there was a possibility that she would never wake up.

 

He rose to his feet and left the room, hoping Reeve was around. He needed someone that could take part in his conversations, instead of speaking his thoughts to the darkness. He couldn't deal with this alone, not this time.

 

Reeve was in his office, sifting through a pile of papers while glancing at the computer console. He'd been plotting the next assault against Deep Ground for the last few days and it seemed from the expression of pure frustration on his face, he was not getting any headway.

 

`Damn it!' He slammed his fists on the desk. It was hopeless. Unless they had a better idea of where Deep Ground was set up now, they had no chance of beating the next attack.

 

`Seems like you're having trouble with all this too.'

 

Reeve looked up and saw the quiet gunslinger standing there. `Oh, Vincent, it's you. How are you doing?'

 

Vincent lowered his eyes to the floor and walked to the window, staring blankly at the squads below. `I'm having a hard time with this, Reeve,' he admitted. `I've been working for ShinRa for the past five months, doing everything I could to keep a low profile, find anything I could….And she was there, the whole time and I didn't see it.'

 

Reeve looked at his reclusive friend with great sympathy in his eyes. `I didn't know she was going to be doing this either,' he said. `All this time, the Intel we'd been gathering….it wasn't coming from Isolda, but from her.' He looked at the crimson-clad gunman. `I guess we were both a bit blind sighted.'

 

A WRO scientist on the P.A system interrupted their conversation.

 

`Commissioner! You've got to come straight away! It's….It's a miracle!'

 

Reeve glanced at Vincent who was giving the matter his full attention. The WRO Commissioner pressed a button on his desk, speaking into the speaker built into the surface.

 

`What is it?' demanded Reeve.

 

`The woman……The one we retrieved in Nibelheim…..She's waking up!'

 

Reeve glanced at Vincent, but the gunslinger had already disappeared.