Every Now and Then
Chapter 12: A Friend in Need
“No, you idiot… Feed it. Feed it more mako… just like Rude did when he tried to cast that Cure spell. I’ll bet that the energy from the materia went straight to the core of the fountain!”
Now why the hell didn’t he think of that. Reno glanced over at Rude, who nodded in agreement.
“Alright… we’ll give it a try,” Reno said at last, “Yo, ‘Lena… you up for a little target practice?”
Truthfully, Elena still looked a little woozy from her earlier head injury, but she nodded, unholsted her weapon, and checked the clip, then climbed shakily to her feet. Rude did the some… though not quite so shakily. Reno followed suit, and turned to Tifa and Yuffie.
“We’ll take care of the fountain. The two of you’ll have to help haul ’em out,” he instructed. He looked over at Dr. Umeshi, fixing her with a glare, “And don’t you go anywhere until we come back…”
Cloud was beginning to come around by this point, but only just. He wasn’t going to be much help for awhile.
“Yo, Spike,” Reno said, grinning, “Don’t get yourself lost again… I ain’t chasin’ you down a second time.”
“Wha…?” Cloud looked at the Turk dazedly.
“Tch… Nevermind.” Reno said, rolling his eyes, “Let’s just get this over with.”
———-
The mako fountain loomed before them, beautiful and sinister at the same time. The three Turks stood ready, weapons drawn, and Tifa and Yuffie were prepared to grab the entrapped scientists and run.
“Alright, Yuffie… You’re up,” said Reno. Yuffie held up a materia sphere and hesitated.
“What a waste of a perfectly good piece of materia,” she sighed.
“Would you just do it already?”
“Yeah, yeah… don’t get your panties in a bunch, Turk-boy.”
She cast the spell, and just as before, the materia orb shattered in her hand, a ribbon of pure mako energy rising up, swirling this way and that, before being drawn straight toward the fountain.
“There!” said Reno as the stream of energy began to merge with the solid mako, “Hit it there!”
Shots rang out, and high above them, part of the tree-like formation shattered into dust. The Turks kept firing, none of them sure just how much the fountain could take before it loosened it’s grip on the people trapped inside. Suddenly, above the sound of the gunshots, Reno heard a new sound.
“Hold it!” he shouted, and the firing ceased. Now they all heard it… a quiet cracking noise that was quickly growing louder. Reno stared at the mako fountain, watching as a huge piece of it broke away and came crashing to the floor. Then another section broke off, and another. The entire base was beginning to crack.
“Uh oh…” he said, and swore under his breath. The whole thing was coming down, “Everybody get back!”
Rude and Elena backed up, and Tifa and Yuffie followed suit, flattening themselves against the wall. All around them, mako crystal rained down, shattering like glass on the floor, ribbons of light rising from the decimation as the mako energy was freed from it’s solid state. And then Reno realized something else… the room was beginning to shake… and he had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t just from the impact of the falling materia.
“If we’re gonna get ’em, it’s gotta be now!” Reno shouted. Tifa nodded, and she and Yuffie charged through the chaos, Reno not far behind. Shards of materia rained down on them, mostly harmless, though Reno took a few solid hits from the larger chunks. They rounded the base of the fountain, and found the three scientists just where they’d left them… but now their mako prisons had cracked and partially collapsed. Yuffie reached them first and grabbed hold of the young woman among them, dragging her from the fountain and immediately heading for the door. The other two were still somewhat embedded in the crystal, and it took the effort of Reno and Tifa both to work them free.
Suddenly, the ground lurched, sending them both to their knees on the stone floor.
“That can’t be a good thing,” Reno commented, and Tifa had to agree with him for once, “Move it, or lose it!”
———-
The ground shook violently, as Yuffie reached the door. Rude caught hold of the ninja, preventing her from falling, and then took her burden from her, slinging the scientist neatly over his shoulder, and motioning for Yuffie to get moving.
“Reno, hurry up!” Elena shouted.
“Fuck you, ‘Lena, I’m hurrying as fast as I can!” the redhead yelled back, emerging from around the base of the fountain. Tifa wasn’t far behind. Reno reached the door first, passing the second scientist off to Elena, who dragged him out the door and into the next room. The energy released from the shattered materia was beginning to fill the space once occupied by the solid mako. It moved about like a living entity in streams of ever-changing light. Reno had never seen anything quite like it. The ground lurched again, more violently this time, and a huge crack began to open up in the floor, steam, reeking of sulphur, belching forth from its depths.
“Oh… shit…” Reno muttered, suddenly recalling that they were currently 200 feet underground… right on top of an active volcano. To make matters worse, the crack was starting to widen. Reno, against his natural instinct for self-preservation, took off at a run toward Tifa, who was struggling to keep her balance and pull the third scientist to safety against the now constantly trembling rock below.
“Gotta move a little faster,” he said, as he grabbed the man Tifa’d been dragging, and took half his weight to help carry him. Tifa and Reno ran for the door as quickly as they could, now walking straight through the accumulating mako engery that swirled it’s way around the room. If they didn’t end up with mako poisoning from this, Reno mused, it would be a miracle. And indeed, he himself was beginning to feel more than a little spacy. He wondered if it was affecting Tifa as well.
They reached the door, and threw themselves through it.
“Gotta get out of here,” Reno informed the others, “I don’t think the volcano’s too happy about us destroying that fountain. As if in response, the ground shuddered again, sending the equipment that still remained on the tables carreening to the floor.
“… We noticed,” Rude replied. He was already shouldering one scientist and helping Elena support the other. Dr. Umeshi was heading for the exit.
“Hurry… have to hurry,” she intoned, in a panicky voice, “Have to get off the island…”
“Well, you heard the doc! Let’s go!” Reno yelled. He hoisted the third scientist fully onto his shoulder… awkwardly, given that the man was quite a bit larger than he was himself, but he’d manage. Tifa and Yuffie pulled Cloud to his feet. The former Soldier was still dazed, but he’d come around enough to know that staying where he was would have been a bad idea.
“This way… this way,” Umeshi called. She was already halfway down the next corridor, and it was all that the rest of the group could do to keep up with the wraith-like woman. She led them away from the way they’d come in, away from the elevator shaft, and Reno hoped that she knew what she was doing. Granted, they’d never make it up the shaft with all the extra bodies they were carrying anyway, but if worst came to worse, they could always cut their losses and leave the dead weight behind. Instead, they were headed deeper into the reseach center, back towards the door that Tifa, Reno, and Yuffie had come across earlier. The one that they hadn’t been able to open.
———-
Out, out, out… She had to get out. She was free of the light and she had to get out! It had been so long… so very long… since her mind was her own, since she knew who she was. It was like awakening from a nightmare… relief at being free, lingering fear at remembering what had happened.
Things she hadn’t even realized she’d forgotten were coming back to her now, pouring into her consciousness from the deep recesses of her memory. She understood where she had gone wrong now, and she knew what was going to happen now that the fountain’s matrix had been shattered. It was the fountain that kept this island from volcanic catastrope. With it gone, everything was out of balance, and soon it would fall ireversably over the edge.
‘Hallway… left… right… left again… door. Unlock it… with the code. 1-1-6-3-9,’ the memories were returning with a vengence now. The door slide open revealing an elevator that she knew would still work. It was an emergency exit of sorts, powered by the natural hydrothermal energy of the island, rather than the main generators which had ceased working months ago.
“Hurry, hurry!” she called to the others. Oh how she wished they would move faster… she thought about leaving them… but they had saved her. They were the ones who had freed her. And that left her in their debt. She would help them escape.
———-
The ride to the top floor was not a pleasent one. Deep below, they could feel the rumblings of the volcano stirring to life. Inside the cramped elevator, the lights flickered every now and then and the car shook with each increasingly violent earth tremor. Tifa clung tightly to Cloud, keeping him upright. He was more lucid now, and seemed to have a general understanding of what was going on, but apparently being in the fountain so long had sapped much of his strength. The three scientists were worse off still, having not even regained consciousness yet.
She glaced over at the Turks, who had drawn themselves into a corner for the ride up. And for the first time, she really looked at them. Reno, she noted, looked worried… an odd contrast to his usual smug, over-confident facade. Rude, his sunglasses firmly back in place now that lack of lighting was no longer an encumberance, was inscrutable as ever. Elena looked like she’d rather be just about anywhere than here. They looked so… human.
That thought surprised her. She’d always thought of them as being cold, inhuman monsters, no better than Sephiroth, but she was slowly beginning to come to terms with the fact that she was simlpy holding on to prejudices born of an old injury that was long overdue to be forgiven. Reno caught her eye, and realized she’d be staring. He looked at her quizically, but she shook her head and turned her gaze back to Cloud and Yuffie. ‘One step at a time,’ she thought to herself, ‘First let’s get out of here.’
The elevator reached it’s destination after what seemed like an eternity. The doors slid open, and the party made their way out into the dingy little building that rested on top of the laboratory below.
“Oh no!” Yuffie suddenly cried, “Kaji!”
“Oh for the love of Shiva,” Reno muttered, “Yuffie, forget the damn lizard, already!”
“But he’s just a baby!” Yuffie persisted.
“Yuffie, we can’t go back for him,” Tifa replied, “There’s just no time!”
Reno nodded in agreement, and Yuffie gave the elevator one final glance. Tifa knew just how she must feel… but there really was nothing they could do for the little dragon if it was still down below in the corridor, where they’d left it before beginning their descent down the elevator shaft. By now, the entire island seemed to be shaking, and the party quickly made it’s way outdoors, tossed around carelessly by the shifting ground as they moved.
When they emerged, the site that greeted them was bleak. The huge mountain was very much awake now, plumes of smoke and volcanic gases rising in great columns into the sky. At the very top, Tifa could see the glow of molten rock that was being tossed skyward as well. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
From the haze that encircled the volcano, massive figures glided through the air, away from the mountain. As the moved into clearer air, Tifa could see them for what they were. Red dragons… and if the dragons were fleeing their nesting ground…
“That’s not good…” Reno commented.
“You’re right… it’s not,” Tifa agreed, “We need to get back to the beach!”
“Great idea… and just how are you gonna accomplish that feat?” Reno asked, some of his bravado returning, “We’d be lucky to manage the climb up the slope on our own… forget about doing it dragging three unconscious people behind us…”
He was right. She hated to admit it, but he was right.
“We… we could… uh…”
Before she could finish fumbling for an answer, a dark shadow slid over the ground, engulfing them for a moment, and a loud, animalistic shriek split the air. Tifa looked up just in time to see red, leathery wings pass over them… too close. Far too close. And then, with a thud, it landed directly behind them, and they found themselves mere feet from a red dragon. Not a baby, like Kaji… but a full grown red dragon, who, unless Tifa was very much mistaken, looked extremely pissed off.
The dragon’s tongue sampled the air, flicking in and out for a moment, and then it turned it’s gaze directly on Yuffie and Dr. Umeshi, and roared. Yuffie’s eyes widened.
“What… What’s going on?” she managed, backing up a step.
“It smells your little pet,” Reno said quietly, “I told you that lizard was bad news… It can smell the baby on you. And I think Mommy’s very angry…”
———-
Reno shoved the scientist he was carrying over Elena’s free shoulder, and took hold of his electro-rod. This was definitely something he’d hoped to avoid. Sure, he’d known it was a risk the moment he’d learned that the dragons liked to nest here, but that didn’t stop him from hoping that he wouldn’t have to face down a very large, very angry dragon that would like nothing better than to have him for lunch. What was worse, it was a red dragon… the second largest, and arguably most intelligent of all the dragon species that inhabited the planet.
The dragon roared again, this time spitting a plume of flame at them that came within inches of searing those closest to it.
“When I tell you to, drop anyone that can’t move on their own… and run,” said Reno.
“Run?! Run where?” Yuffie replied, “There’s no cover down here! And what do you think you’re gonna do? Take it on by yourself?”
Reno swore softly… he knew she had a point, but really what else was there to do? Get roasted?
“If you’ve got a better idea, now would be a really good time to mention it,” he replied.
The dragon roared a third time… but this time a shrill call of distress answered it. Reno looked in the direction of the sound, and caught sight of a very unexpected addition to the fight.
“Kaji!” Yuffie squealed, forgeting for a moment that the little dragon’s very angry mother was dangerously close to barbaqueing her, “You’re alright!”
The little dragon charged awkwardly, flapping it’s wings with as much force as it could muster, but succeeding in raising itself only a few inches off the ground and only for a few yards. Finally, it caught an air current and rose into the air for a longer flight, landing itself neatly between it’s mother and the group of humans. The mother nuzzled her baby, mewling softly at it, licking it’s head and face. And then it turned it’s gaze back on the humans again, growling.
But to Reno’s astonishment, baby Kaji turned and scampered toward Yuffie, barking out a harsh cry. The mother dragon paused, and rumbled a response. It took Reno a second to realize that they were talking to each other. Kaji repeated his cry, and the mother seemed to back down.
“Uh… ok, someone wanna tell me what the hell just happened?” asked Reno.
“I… think Kaji just saved us from being lunch,” Tifa replied, not taking her eyes off the mother dragon. The relief of not being eaten, however was short-lived, as the volcano gave them a very hard to ignore reminder that they still had one very large problem to deal with. High above them, the eruption was proceeding at full force. Lava poured down the sides, no longer intermittantly as it had been earlier, but in a great wave of molten rock, heading toward them far too quickly.
“Uh oh…” Reno muttered. This was not how he’d imagined spending his last moments of life. In the middle of a shootout, maybe… preventing an assassination attempt, sure… but taken out by lava? How ridiulous could you get?
Before he had time to mull such thoughts over in his head, however, something was pushing insistantly at the back of his knees. He looked down, and Kaji was nosing him toward the mother dragon. Yuffie was right behind him.
“What the hell…?” was all he could manage before he was much closer to the large, scaly, red creature than he would have liked. The mother sniffed him suspiciously, and then raised her huge head and opened her jaws. Reno felt his blood run cold… He was going to be eaten after all. But when the jaws closed around his torso, it was with very little pressure, and when they lifted him off the ground and set him down again on the armored back of the winged lizard, he could scarcely believe such a ferocious creature could be so gentle. Yuffie was the next to be lifted onto the creature’s back, followed by one of the male scientist. Finally, she scooped the baby into her jaws.
“Uh… is she going to do what I think she’s going to do?” asked Reno.
“I… I think she’s gonna get us out of here,” Yuffie replied. And before Reno could comment farther, with a woosh of the great leathery wings, they rose into the air. Reno clung to the huge, rounded scales for dear life. Dragon travel was not quite as smooth and graceful as it looked from the ground, and dragon backs were definitly not made for human riders.
They returned to the ground with a thump that tossed Reno, and the unconscious scientist right off. He spat out a mouthful of sand, and looked around. They were back on the beach.
“That… was so… COOL!” Yuffie squealed, sliding down onto the beach that now lay before them. The mother dragon set her baby down very carefully on the sand, nuzzled him, and then took to the air again.
“Yeah… uh… ‘Cool’ is not the word I’d use…” Reno muttered, but Yuffie ignored him, and went over to thank Kaji profusely for saving them all. Reno rolled his eyes, but said nothing more. Much as the little dragon annoyed him, he knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth.
———-
By the time the mother dragon has succeeded in carting that last of the party to the beach, Reno had managed to round up five of the six ocean-going chocobos that had brought them there in the first place… the sixth was no where to be found, though he’d seen a very ominous cluster of battered blue feathers a ways up the beach. He had a feeling that one of the local dragons had had a nice little snack earlier.
The ground shuddered as Tifa and Cloud slide down from the dragon’s back. The chocobos warked in panic and tried to break away.
“Yo, little help here!” Reno yelled, clinging to the reins. Rude and Yuffie quickly came to his aid.
“I think that’s our cue to exit,” said Yuffie. Reno and Rude were already shoving people onto the chocobos. They would have to double up… and Reno secretly prayed that the chocobos could manage with all the extra weight… it was a long way back to the mainland.
“No kidding,” Reno muttered. Suddenly, the mother dragon roared, raising her head skyward. Reno looked up, and the sight that greeted him was not a welcome one. The dragons of the island were fleeing en masse, taking to the skies, and leaving their home as fast as their wings could carry them. Kaji’s mother scooped up her baby once again, taking him delicately into her jaws, and bounded into the air.
“Kaji!” Yuffie cried. She sadly watched them go.
“Come on, Yuffie,” Tifa shouted, “We’ve gotta go, too!”
And finally, the mountain exploded in a fiery wave of molten rock and ash…
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