Nanaki and the Fallen Angel Chapter 16
Destruction of the Tower
By Brady Bryner, Bill Shofstall, & Anthony McKinley
Eckard, Reeve's Quarters 5:04 PM Oct. 11
Reeve polished a pistol, his eyes shut, still thinking about Cloud, Yuffie, and Barret. He locked a clip in. "Sir... The tower is in view."
"Good... Dock..."
"Sir? We could be destroyed!"
"I said dock!"
"Y... Yes sir..." The transmission ended.
"This is for you, guys..." Reeve walked up a catwalk and climbed through a small hole and a ladder. Nanaki followed with Cid and Cait close behind. They pulled into a large stone, dusty brown room. The dock shut beneath them. "I want the lock removed."
"What?" The voice crackled.
"Remove the lock, now."
"Yes, sir..." The lock pulled away. All that was left was a hole, showing the ocean far below. Cid sighed.
"I gotta live through this... Got me responsibilities." He twirled the Venus Gospel and lit a cigarette. "Got a little girl to take care of, and Shera." Reeve nodded. Cait was holding his breath, but it finally broke.
"Reeve? Why are we the only ones here? Shouldn't we have brought soldiers?"
"It's personal Cait."
"Right... Well, we'd better get moving." Nanaki remained silent and followed the other three as they moved out of the room, onto a staircase.
"Nothing ere'... Buncha jack asses must..."
"Quiet Cid. There is no telling whats in here." Cait hopped on his moogle. Suddenly, Lord Cait shot of a small blue portal. He landed on his feet and turned to the group.
"I'm sorry to here of your lose... Came as soon as I hea... Where are we?"
"A tower in the sky."
"Umm... THE tower? The one Chaos..." He gulped. "...lives in?"
"The same one..." Nanaki finally spoke and walked close to him. "We're in deep shit now." Cid took a drag of his cigarette, about to reply to Nanaki, then he voted against it. He instead remove an uzi from the back of his coat.
"When the Turks gettin' here?"
"Soon. We just stay here and make sure no one ends this too quick."
"Right..." He threw his cigarette on the ground and stepped on it.
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Tifa's Room, Tifa's Dream 5:23 PM Oct. 11
Tifa had fallen asleep due to drinking so much. She was tossing and turning in what seemed to be a dreamless sleep.
"What the fuck?" Tifa opened her eyes, hours later. She sighed, seeing Cloud on the stool across from her.
"You drank a little much Teef." Cloud smiled warmly.
"My head is throbbing... You're not dead... What a horrible dream..."
"It's okay now..." He took her hand and kissed it. "I'm here for ya'." He kissed her lips tenderly. "We're okay..."
"I had this horrible dream you were murdered..." She reached for a drink.
"I think you've had enough." He pulled the shot glass away.
"It was so sick... And your funeral was on the thirteenth, on Vincent's birthday."
"Damn... Only 5:30." He was dodging around the subject, obviously. "You should lay down."
"I'm so thristy..." Cloud handed her a glass of water from seemingly nowhere, but she ignored it, too drunk to notice. She gulped the water down and handed him the glass. "More please..." Again, until she had drank her limit of water. She relaxed, finally coming to. "Cloud?"
"Yes..."
"Do you... I mean I've waited too long to ask..."
"I do." He kissed her again. "Very much. And Tifa, this is a dream... But I'm real. I'll always be here for you." He hugged her, kissing her again.
"I love you too." Tears streaked her face. "So it's true..."
"I'm not dead... Not so long as you love me..." And even if only a dream, her wish to be with him came true.
~~~
Tifa awoke, crying, eyes full of sadness and anger. At Cloud. At Barret. At Yuffie. And even Aeris. "Why are you all leavin' me alone? I don't want to be alone!" She began to cry and wail like a child. And then she could feel their presence. "You'd never leave me... I know..." Tears of fear and sadness turned to anger as well. And that anger was not charged at Sephiroth. Not at her lost family. Not friends anymore. They were her family. All her anger was charged at a thing. An it. Destruction. Fear. Chaos.
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Floating Tower, Entry Chamber 6:32 PM Oct. 11
"Hey Vincent." Cid offered him a cigarette.
"I don't smoke anymore." He took a cigarette anyway.
"You used to smoke?"
"When I first joined the Turks. We'll tell stories when we get back... Lets just do this and get the fuck outta here." Vincent's youthful vigor returned. "I have atoned... And now, so shall they... I am the black angel of death..." He loaded the Death Penalty. "The time of a reckoning is at hand." He flipped the barrel back up, his weapon loaded.
"Shit..." He gave Vincent a match.
"Thanks..." Vincent lit his cigarette, then threw the match into the air. He pulled out his Knights of the Round summon, locking it into the Death Penalty. Lord Cait looked at him.
"That may not be so helpful, man... The espers are planning. They are busy."
"Yay for them..." Vincent remained non-chalant. They all began up the stairs, slowly, keeping their senses hieghtened to their sorroundings. They walked up and stood on a balcony, with two sets of stairs, one to the left, another to the right. Both curved around and weren't visible beyond ten feet.
"I guess we should split up... Vincent, Tseng, Reno, and Cait Sith, go up that stair case." Reeve pointed to the one at the left. "Cid, Lord Cait, Red, Elena, go up that one."
"Where are you going?" Elena stared at him sternly.
"Up the wall."
"Huh?"
"See those little grafts on the wall?" He pointed at several small ledges. "I'll climb up those. Be back in a bit. Get moving people." Reeve jumped onto the wall and began climbing as the others filed away.
~~~
Reeve looked down. "Damn..." He could barely see were he had began climbing, and still far to the next balcony. He came near a window ledge and put a leg on it to rest from climbing. "So...tired..." A hand shot out and grabbed his leg. He jumped at the wall and began pulling himself up, still not able to see the top or bottom, but clawing aimlessly up the wall. Whatever had grabbed his leg was following. He looked down and saw a red skeletal creature racing after him with a scimitar in its mouth. Reeve saw his pant leg had been burned open by the fingers of the skeleton. "SHIT!" He rushed faster. It grabbed his shoe and began to pull him down. "FUCK! DAMN! SHIT!" He pulled out his gun aimed at it. "Get offa' my shoe!" He shot once, cracking half its skull off. It latched onto his pant leg again. "DAMN IT! THIS IS A FIVE THOUSAND GIL SUIT!" He shot it again, the other half of the skull shattering away, but then, the whole skull melded back together. "You're beginnin' to piss me off..." Reeve growled and kicked the skeleton off the tower. "Damn thing... Ruined a good suit."
Reeve continued climbing, until he finally sat at another balcony, everyone waiting for him. "I didn't know you had such a colorful vocabulary." Elena smiled at him.
"It comes naturally." He straightened his tie. "Any problems?"
"Not really... Except..." Elena rolled her eyes up. "...them..." Reeve looked up and saw hundreds of dragons flying around.
Cid swallowed his cigarette, choking. "Holy shit... How... How... How are we supposed to get up here!?!"
"We go inside. How else?" Reeve casually walked inside, ignoring the burns on his leg. He cocked his gun and looked around a cubical metal room, with two large catwalks running through the middle. Under them was a dark pit with a tiny speck of light in the center. The bottom. All followed him, warily.
"What was that!?!" Tseng turned around. Nothing. He heard it again.
"I hear it." Nanaki's ears perked up as he looked around. "What is that damn sound?" Mechanical. Large, mechanical, and on the middle of the catwalks. It was a warmech, like the Shinra had produced, only it had far more guns, and a large pack on its back. A jet pack. It leveled its gunnery at them.
"Shit!" Cid grabbed the Venus Gospel, jamming it deep through the mechanical abdomen. Four mechanical arms sprang out and repaired the whole with various parts. "Stupid thing..." Cid threw a grenade at it, blowing off an arm. Once again, the small metal arms speedily repaired it.
"Intruder present... State your alliance." Its voice was mechanical and left their ears ringing in pain it was so much like a shreik.
"I am Reeve Ba..." It fired at Reeve, who dodged to the side. "Okay... My alliance is..." Reeve fired his gun into the glass shield on its "head". Two mechanical lights flashed from under the glass and fired lasers. More machine gun blasts, lasers, and occasional grenades. They were split up, running around the room, vainly hiding behind the occasional panel of metal. "Rude! Do you have any grenades left!?!"
"Yeah!" Rude pulled out a bandolier. Cid threw one of his grenades at it again, but as much damage as they could do, it would repair. A rocket launcher mechanism flipped up from over its back. Six large barrels were filled with missiles as it looked for a target. It locked on Reeve, exploding right next to him. Reeve hit the ground, his side bleeding. He spread a potion over the bulk of the wound to no affect.
"My side... My fu..." It stomped over to Reeve. Reeve grabbed his lightening ateria from his pocket. "Bolt..." He wasn't strong enough for a better attack, but it worked. The warmech fell back, the small repairing arms destroyed by the electric charge. Reeve pulled himself up, spreading a more powerful concoction over his side, the wounds healing rapidly. "Rude... Do it now!" Rude had frozen up, but snapped out of it.
"Lets see here..." He threw a flash grenade, knocking out the sight sensors of the unit. "Reeve!" Reeve jumped back. Everyone with a gun opened fire. The mech exploded in a vivid flash of color, taking part of the catwalk with it.
"God... Who invented that thing? I want one!" Reno smiled at the destruction, looking down the hole, seeing a ball of fire shrinking away as it tumbled out into the ocean.
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Midgar, Shinra Building 10:23 PM Oct. 11
Anthony looked around the room, with twenty-two mechanical wonders wandering around. The wall exploded, metal shards flying over his head. "Shit!" The twenty-two robots sorrounded their master, all searching for the source of the explosion. Machine gun bursts fired through the hole, almost instantly destroying two robots. The others all fired back at the source, hearing screams and explosions. The fire continued back and forth, Anthony reciting something very long. As soon as he finished, a black beam shot out the hole, killing, destroying, and wounding many soldiers. But Anthony's robots were still falling, until it was only him and his original robot. The two progressed more, killing more soldiers. Finally, the soldiers began to pull back, as soon as Anthony and Erik had fallen away, hiding well as they could.
"Sir..."
"Call me Anthony."
"Anthony... I have calculated these soldiers to be decreasing in number, but not dying. The entities have gone in the oppisite direction."
"Thats called running away. It's caused by an emotion called fear."
"I shall study this 'fear'."
"You do that, but right now... Lets do something about these things... Do you know how to use materia?"
"Yes Anthony, part of Rufus Shinra's reprograming." Erik loaded his arm's materia slots with bolt and fire materia. "Will this work, Anthony?"
"Yeah. Great. Attack." Erik jumped up and began firing blindly as soon as Anthony had finished his words. Anthony snuck around the side of the counter he had been hiding behind. Four seperate guns fired from behind them, at the soldiers. Malcolm, Alicia, Jenna, and Albert were standing behind them. They had come in on short notice for Reeve. Soon, the enemy attacks of Rufus were beaten back. And his main assualt on Midgar ended, his troops being killed in the streets by soldiers, civilians, and general thugs. Anthony chased some down, mauling them to death.
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Floating Tower, Floor 253 3:23 AM Oct. 12
"When can we rest?" Both Caits collapsed in exhaustion. "We've been running up steps for hours..." Lord Cait looked up, seeing thick spider webs.
"We ain't restin' here, pal."
"Why not?"
"The spiders."
"A little spider can't hurt you."
"One with six foot legs can." A huge spider skittered down the wall, hissing. "Damn it! These things light up easy... Use fire attacks..." Lord Cait drew his deck of cards and pulled out a card with a rope on it. "You're mine..." He hurled the card at the spider. The card turned into a green slime that covered the spider. Two more came down, but was attacked by Lord Cait's spider. His spider killed one before dying, the other one weak but coming close.
"Yah!" Cait Sith's moogle stamped it out with a punch. It made more skittering noises right before being burned to death by Nanaki. Nanaki then cast a fire spell on the roof, causing the webs and remaining spiders to burn to the death. They all ran out of the room as quickly as possible, flying up the staircase.
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Floating Tower, Floor 285 4:12 AM Oct. 12
They group collapsed onto beds in a safe room. No windows, one door, beds. They were all asleep in moments. Nine hours later, the group awoke, still safe, except there was a hole in the wall. But no one was harmed, or so it seemed. A familiar looking man in thick silverish armor flew in on angelic wings. "Markus!" Lord Cait ran up to him. "We're having one hell of a time here. Can you help a little!?!" Lord Cait looked at him with huge eyes.
"What do you think I'm here for?"
"Oh yeah... I guess." Lord Cait scratched his head.
"We must move quickly... Do not question, just follow." He ran out, metal armor clanking, wings disappeared, followed by the others. Moments before getting to the the top floor, a huge dragon smashed a hole through the wall. Tiamat. "Damn!" He threw a lance at him, piercing his eye. Tiamat shrieked and clawed at Markus. Markus waved toward the stair case as he shot at Tiamat and ran up the stairs.
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Floating Tower, Floor 300 6:54 AM Oct. 12
"Chaos..." They had run into few threats following Markus. Now they were standing before Chaos.
Cid ran in front of his throne. "Tell me something..." Cid looked at the oil color creature. "Why'd you kill Cloud, and Yuffie?"
"The two humans? They were of no importance..." His voice faded and drew back in.
"Then why!"
"It was not my doing!" Chaos stood and pointed at him, accusingly. "Had it not been for your amazing lack of faith in your friends they wouldn't be dead! You killed them, Cid, Nanaki, Reeve, Vincent..."
"What of Barret?"
"No importance to me or anyone... That man was murdered by the evils of man." Cid had enough talk. He charged Chaos screaming, the Venus Gospel finding its way into Chaos's chest. Chaos laughed and threw Cid and his spear against the wall. He stood, his huge wings spread, eyes growing red angrily, and then he opened his his hand, a gray ball appearing. It slamed into Markus, knocking him against the wall. He did the same to everyone, except Nanaki. He tried it but it didn't work. "Ah... Very good..." The roof exploded off, all but Nanaki trapped in a large orb. Nanaki sat still, staring at Chaos. "Nanaki..."
"Yeah?"
"Nanaki... Why do you fail yourself? Why did you fail that girl?" Nanaki sat shaking his head, remembering.
~~~
Nanaki leapt at Arkon, causing him to pull the trigger. Right? No. Nanaki remembers seeing Arkon's hand jerk back.
~~~
Nanaki went insane with rage."That wasn't my fault! He pulled the trigger before he saw me! The gun delayed itself!"
"You could have stopped it..."
"No I couldn't..." Nanaki howled and leapt at Chaos, slashing and tearing like mad. Black, oily blood hit the floor. "Die!" He slashed him again. He began screaching out words in another language. All of the espers appeared, staring at the demon. All of their attacks raged, but Chaos stood vigilant. He was bleeding horribly, but he still attacked Nanaki. "Seto..." Seto appeared, the rock form melting out around him. "Father?"
"Yes Nanaki... Forgive me..." Seto tore at Chaos, screaming. "Dequis decari demel..." Chaos shrieked, his wings torn off. Seto turned back to stone and disappeared. Nanaki's fury returned.
"Cosmo Memory..." A huge ball of plasma blew through Chaos. Chaos's blood gushed.
"I shall return for you...Nanaki..." Chaos covered the hole with his arms, and disappeared. The gray orb dropped his friends.
"What do we do now?"
"Nanaki? We're getting out of here... God help us." Reeve literally dove down the hole in the middle of the room, narrowly missing the catwalks. He was followed by the others, also sharing his amazing amount of good luck. The tower began to explode, flames chasing them down. They fell past an airship. The Highwind dove down to escape the flames, releasing search crews into the water. They were all harmed to some extent, no broken bones, no major wounds, except Nanaki. They were dragged onto the Highwind. Nanaki stood up at the bow of the ship, staring into the sunrise. How long had they been on that ship, how long had he fought with Chaos? It didn't matter. The second age of Espers was coming. The second Esper War as well. Nanaki must prepare himself. They would all prepare, or they would die. Life would fail...
"As I look into the sun... I wonder how my life will change... Bring the pain. Bring the death. Whatever comes, I can overtake it." He squeezed his eyes shut and cried. "I am Nanaki... Son of Seto... I don't fear Chaos, or Sephiroth, or Jenova, or Rufus. I FEAR NOTHING!"
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