Akira Kamio (slums_survivor) wrote in advent_princes, @ 2009-06-19 22:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! log, - rating: pg, fuji, kamio, oshitari y |
[log] Oshitari Yuushi, Kamio Akira, Fuji Syusuke
Date: Fourteen hours or so after this log.
Rating: PG
Summary: Ishe, Swallow, and Kamio explore the Mako Reactor of Sector 7.
The stuffy air around the ruins of Sector 7 was eerily silent. Remnants of twisted metal and wood haphazardly littered the area, and yet the emptiness was palpable. Though it had been years ago, no one wished to come to this place, not even to visit. The thousands of souls that had perished in the tragedy here lay unmourned still, and Yuushi tried not to imagine what lay beneath the horrible sight of the fallen plate. They were here for a reason.
Behind him, he knew Akira was looking around as he was, taking it all in. His lover had grown up in Midgar as well, and knew the area and its past. Walking ahead of them, the blonde-haired SOLDIER, Swallow, also surveyed the terrain. Yuushi had met up with him only hours before after hiring him to go on this mission with them. Though Akira didn't know it, Swallow was as much insurance for the redhead's protection as he was a hired sword to help them excavate what Yuushi hoped to find. It was pessimistic, but the black Chocobo rider wasn't about to leave his lover's life up to fate should something go terribly wrong.
Better to be prepared.
After following a secret passage Yuushi had found in the Sector 5 playground, he'd been disappointed to find that it had only led to Sector 6, on the outskirts of Wall Market. It wasn't until he'd realized that they'd arrived at a place where they could actually enter the lower Sector that he'd been convinced they were going in the right direction.
Sector 7 was where his mother's journal had abruptly ended. She'd claimed to be researching something important at a secret facility somewhere in the sector, a project she'd claimed would possibly change the scope of life itself. Unfortunately, she hadn't elaborated much. Not even to detail where exactly the lab itself might be, but Yuushi had at least a few clues to go on. He looked around again, stepping forward. His foot walked over an uneven board that he happened to glance down at. Scorched and broken, the word 'Heaven' stared back at him from under his boot. In the tomblike atmosphere of the area around them, he considered that highly ironic. And incredibly sad.
Walking a ways away from their party, he thought he pinpointed where they needed to go. The defunct, long-abandoned Mako reactor. If there was a Shinra lab anywhere here, it had to be close to that particular edifice. Looking back over his shoulder at the other two, he moved a hand to rest on one of the guns at his hip. "This way."
His sword held firmly in the grip of his hand, Kamio Akira scanned the gloom of what had once been Sector 7 as Yuushi moved towards the abandoned shell of a reactor. His eyes darted over the walls, the floor, the twisted metal and disheveled rummage that had once been one of the busier, if poorer, Sectors of Midgar, and he stiffened his shoulders uneasily.
Not even a rat darted about in the shadows around him and the two Chocobo riders.
Twelve hours ago, if someone had told the redhead that he'd be threading his way through the abandoned Sector, he might have laughed at them. And had anyone else but Yuushi come to him and asked that he go with them, Kamio would have laughed at them -- right in their own faces. No one -- not even the most hardened of thug -- went down into Sector 7 of their own free will. But, it had been Yuushi that had asked.
Kamio had even balked when Yuushi had asked him, truthfully. At least until his lover had explained. Kamio's head still swam from the influx of information that had come from the normally reticent rider; he'd known Yuushi wanted to find a cure for the GeoStigma that was slowly eating away at the redhead's shoulder. But there had been other things -- things Kamio hadn't heard before about his lover's family. About Yuushi's mother and her lab and the other's suspicions that it might be somewhere in the abandoned Sector.
Which meant if Yuushi thought that the reactor was the place to look, then it was probably just as a good a place to start as any.
Fuji couldn't hear a single thing, besides Ishe's and Kamio's footsteps, and it made the dreary, depressing environment even more uncomfortable. You didn't go down to Sector 7. Anyone living in Midgar knew that. Unbidden his hand reached for the whip at his belt, and he felt the comforting warmth from the Fira materia that was embedded into the hilt. No one knew what kind of monsters crawled around in the abandoned reactor, no one knew if there was any life forms present at all, truth to be told, but you never could be careful enough. And he was hired as a lifeguard, which meant he had to be on his toes at all cause.
He wondered if the boy could keep his cool. He seemed fiery enough, and Fuji didn't know him, didn't know what to expect from him, so he kept his eye out. The kid was important to Ishe, and Ishe paid him for his job, which meant the kid was important for him as well. At least for now.
Fuji stopped suddenly, feeling how the ground underneath him started to waver, and he quickly took a step backwards as a big chunk of the floor crackled where he had stood only seconds ago, and he found himself staring down the vast belly of the reactor. If he fell down there, or anyone else for that matter, they wouldn't have to worry about the GeoStigma anymore. He shuddered and decided to keep a closer eye on the ground from now on. The sound when the floor had given away still rang in his ears, hollow, screeching and somewhat sickening.
Did Ishe really know where they were going?
Yuushi's gun was out, aimed and cocked a split second after hearing the crack. When it was apparent that it was only Swallow, staring at a hole in the floor, he let out a silent breath and uncocked his gun, slipping it back in the sheath. They were already on edge enough just being here, without the ex-SOLDIER doing...whatever it was he was doing.
The black rider caught his lover's eye, and the all too familiar expression and just shook his head. Swallow would undoubtedly be more careful now, and Akira would just have to trust that they knew what they were doing.
...Somewhat.
He moved on, the reactor close. Unlike anywhere else in Midgar, it was deathly quiet, and that unnerved him more than he might have imagined. Even the plains of Kalm outside of Midgar, calm as they were, usually were alive with noises of monsters and bugs and the wind...strange that nothing had sought to make its home in the ruined sector.
He didn't want to think that there might be some other reason for that besides its history. Once at the door of the silent reactor, Yuushi tentatively touched the control panel, holding his breath as it sluggishly blinked to life under his fingertips. The screen, in dim but legible green glowing text, prompted him for his ShinRa password. He hesitated a moment, and punched in his mother's.
1015YO. His birthdate and initials. For a moment, it seemed as though nothing was going to happen, when a lock in the door clicked and the screen belatedly flashed the words 'APPROVED. WELCOME DR. OSHITARI.' Waiting for the other two to catch up, Yuushi closed his eyes a moment, images of his mother at work blurring together before he shook them away and pulled the door open.
Kamio heaved an exasperated sigh as he glanced at Yuushi and lowered his own sword. Very professional, his glare said; yet he kept the complaints firmly in check. Now wasn't the time to let lose his temper -- though had the other chocobo rider been one of his fellow gang members instead, he could have expected a very thorough dressing down for being so clumsy later on.
If he lived that long, Kamio added ruefully. Just because he hadn't seen anything lurking in the shadows or heard any noise didn't mean that there was nothing there.
Though that idea made the redhead all the more uncomfortable as he turned and followed after his lover's heels, watching wordlessly as the other activated an aged control panel and punched a code.
Even if he couldn't see any accusing glares from the two others, as he had his back turned to both of them, Fuji was rather certain there had been some, and he couldn't blame them. He would have slapped himself for being so clumsy if he could, but as it was, he was left wondering why he had been so clumsy. The answer came to him almost immediately. The GeoStigma. It made his thoughts slightly unfocused, especially now when they were so close to something that had been a functioning Mako reactor not ages ago. And his arm itched like Ifrit's own breath.
He propped himself against one of the walls, arms crossed and his fingers brushing over the tip of the whip handle, watchful eyes looking at the blue haired man, and then over at the redhead and lastly they swept over the dark surroundings before being dragged back to the luminous control panel. His eyes could almost, just almost make out what it said, before Ishe moved to open the door.
Pushing himself away from the wall, Fuji quietly slid up to the blue haired man and mumbled:
"Careful now. I'll go in first, if you don't mind."
Casting the blonde a questioning look -- he didn't recall requesting protection for himself, after all -- Yuushi silently let him pass. He could dimly recall being in one of the Mako reactors before, but it hadn't been in Midgar. And it had been so long ago that he couldn't exactly pinpoint where it had been. Nibelheim? Modeoheim? Maybe it was silly to try and remember; even if he did, it was a vague memory at best that wouldn't aid them in navigating around this one.
He stalled long enough after entering so that Akira was between them, and looked around. Everything was dark. Yuushi wondered if the power in here was only enough to work the outer security. He touched the walls, searching for a light source, when suddenly they were awash in flickering light, a control panel ahead blipping to life.
Motion sensors, most likely. Taking a look around first, Yuushi soon swept past Swallow and peered into the panel. Again, it read 'WELCOME DR. OSHITARI', along with options for schedules, clearances and locations. He scanned each one, though the first two only gave him notices that all information had been dumped automatically and never updated. A map sprung up under his fingers as he selected Locations, however, and he studied the layout. "The reactor is straight ahead," he murmured, "And adjoining rooms in a circular pattern around it..." His eyes stopped on a section of the blueprint, however, and paused. "Here. We should check here first." It was a large area, broken off from the rooms and to the right. And marked 'Security Clearance Required'.
What better place to search for classified information?
Kamio hissed a soft curse under his breath as the lights flared to life, and blinked his eyes against the sudden greenish-yellow glare. A moment after his vision adjusted, the redhead let his gaze dart around the unfamiliar interior of what had once powered the majority of the planet.
So, this was a Mako reactor?
Or at least the outer shell of one. Kamio frowned, unimpressed and wary. The light was uneven; bulbs in some of the fixtures no longer functioned, but it was enough to let the redhead glance around. The steel floor was corroded underfoot, red rust stains splattered about like dried blood, and the pipes along walls and overhead were in no better condition. The air smelled sour, thick with a stench that redhead couldn't quite place.
Under his jacket, his t-shirt, and the layers of bandages woven around his right shoulder, Kamio could feel the small rash throbbing uncomfortably. He could take a potion; gods knew that he packed extra in case the GeoStigma hindered him too much -- but at the same time, he didn't want to worry Yuushi or attract unwanted attention from the other chocobo rider his lover had in tow. Rolling his shoulders instead, Kamio moved up behind Yuushi and glanced over the map on the glowing panel himself.
"It seems like a place to start," he agreed, warily. "But fuck... That's a bit like putting up a sign saying 'thieves go here'."
Fuji was thankful for the sunglasses he kept neatly tucked away on his forehead, as he quickly lowered them when the motion sensors caused the unexpected light to flood forth. He allowed his eyes some time to get used to the new light before he once again pushed the glasses up, and he wrinkled his nose against the sour, revolting stench that had to come from somewhere... He just wasn't certain where.
He watched as Ishe and his friend studied the blueprint, resisting the urge to scratch his arm. It stung, really stung, and he had a few vials of high potions tucked away in his belt pouch, but he aimed to save those until a sudden case of emergency appeared. You could never be too careful around these parts, and the quiet and the stench unnerved him. He could almost feel the presence of something, but it was like a small mosquito teasing the utter rims of his mind; he couldn't catch it, he couldn't even see it... Just somehow realize that it was there, and that it could be something he needed to protect Ishe's redheaded friend from.
He sighed and then he too approached the blueprint, seeing the area that had caught the others' attention. "Well, who are we to ignore that sign then, hm?" He glanced over at the redhead, smiling dangerously. He loosened his whip from his belt and unfolded it, the leather clad metal wire, heated by the Fira materia soundlessly touching the corroded floor for a second before Fuji flicked his wrist and the whip draped itself around his gloved hand. "There might be traps up ahead," he said softly, glancing over at Ishe.
"Are traps ahead," the black rider corrected, glancing back. "Depending on the power supply. Watch the walls." If any ShinRa devices were still operational, he figured they could be triggered just by their presence, despite how easily they got in. The place was falling apart, obviously, with the lack of maintenance. It didn't seem that long to him, but who was to say how much time it took to erode a Mako reactor?
Once again, he maneuvered Akira between them as they moved on, gun drawn quietly under his cloak.
Kamio frowned thoughtfully in response to Swallow's statement. There certainly was no reason to not head towards the room Yuushi had indicated; from what he had understood of his lover's explanations, Yuushi's mother had been involved in heavily classified research. It was simple logic that any remnants of that research, if they existed, would be in a secure area.
At the same time, it felt like walking into a deenglow's nest.
One, apparently, lined with traps. Great...
"And why exactly does this place have any power to begin with?" Kamio mused softly, falling in step behind Yuushi. "I thought the Mako reactors in Midgar were all completely shut down years ago."
Fuji fell in behind as he waited for Ishe to answer his friend, clutching his whip tightly as he did exactly what Ishe had told him; he watched the walls. His sharp eyes scanned the darkened, bleeding walls, the stench of rust and that something else thick in his nostrils, and then suddenly he thought he saw... Something. He blinked once to clear his eyes and to focus, making sure he didn't make a mistake.
He didn't. There most certainly was a small diode, pale green, blinking high up on one of the walls. A warning sensor, or a video camera, or a trap waiting to spring around them...?
"Ishe," Fuji said softly, pointing with the handle of his whip towards the small, green blinking dot.
"That's a good question," Yuushi murmured, looking around himself. There shouldn't be power. But there were a lot of perfectly innocent reasons why it was on here. No one came to this sector anymore, after all. As long as Mako wasn't being produced, there was really no reason to shut it down completely. However, it just brought up a crop of more not-so-innocent reasons why everything seemed to be in somewhat working order.
Had someone been here before them, looking for something? As far as he'd been able to tell, only enough power to have the building function was available. The reactor was still shut down. The lack of answers he had only gave him a worse feeling as he moved in behind Swallow, studying the light. "Another motion sensor, perhaps?" He made a quick, waving motion at the light, frowning when it blinked off. "...That's strange." They were close enough to the secured part of the building, though, so pressing on cautiously seemed best. The faster they looked, the better, although he couldn't really explain why he was dreading looking all of a sudden.
When they arrived at the section, Yuushi was surprised to find the entrance opened. It didn't look as if anyone had been in recently, more like the doors had opened halfway and stayed there. A result of the sudden power down? Peering through the door, he couldn't see much of anything. But there were what looked to be lab set ups...could the secret laboratory have simply been this offshoot of the reactor itself?
Kamio didn't like this.
The smell was still familiar, curling his nose each time he inhaled. Stagnant and sour, it reminded him vaguely of the train yard after a few hours of grueling battle against the beasts that roamed the tracks. Kamio swallowed thickly, and let his eyes flicker up to the green light that Swallow motioned to. The light blinked out as Yuushi moved his hand in front of it, and Kamio narrowed his eyes. A motion sensor would have stayed on.
A security camera, perhaps? Or something else? Kamio cast it one last glance as they moved away.
The light remained off; with a sigh, the redhead turned his attention back to the doors of the section they wanted and frowned. He came to a halt, and scanned the area. The lights in this area were stronger, and in their glow, Kamio could see a layer of dust on the floor. Untouched for years, the dust should have been an even coat. Yet the redhead's eyes were picking out patterns where the dust had been unsettled.
Heel prints.
"Shit," Kamio hissed, stepping closer to the wall. There was no way to tell if the prints were fresh, but that they were there at all set the redhead's nerves further on edge. Pitching his voice soft, he motioned to the floor with the point of his sword. "Ishe, I think we might have some company."
Yuushi, with his hand still on the door, turned his head back to them at Kamio's words, and missed the large shadow crossing in front of him. "What are you loo--" He was cut off by a crash, the old but reinforced doors denting in front of him. He fell back, catching a glimpse of something...horrifying. Something large with glistening teeth and--
Some sort of robotic tentacle shot out from between the doors, quickly wrapping itself around his thigh and waist before he could even finish his thought. Before he could even go for his gun, it pulled him fast through the door and into the laboratory. He found himself dangling in the air, and even in the dim light he could see it fully now, his eyes widening in shock. Around the lab there lay the littered remains of ShinRa's security robots, their circuits and wires protruding from immense rents from giant claws. And that seemed to be all that was left in the room. In the split second that he hung upside down in front of the thing that had him, he could see that much.
It seemed to sniff him, drool spilling from its massive mouth. Certain he was about to be lunch, he tried groping for his gun, and found himself suddenly flying across the room. It threw him, hard, and he hit the wall, crumpling to the ground. When he looked back up, he saw a blur of red and a blur of blonde, his head spinning and disoriented from the impact. Slowly, he moved back up, trying to right himself enough to shoot.
"Yu-- ISHE!"
Kamio's voice echoed off the metal walls as the black chocobo rider was ensnared and drug into the adjoining room. He was after the other in a heartbeat, slipping inside the door just as Yuushi was tossed against the far well. "Motherfucker," the redhead cursed, sword drawn as he skirted close to the wall.
The thing that was in the room was huge. Tentacles and claws and somehow just as much machine as beast; Kamio didn't want to think about what the hell it was -- let alone what it had been or how it had ended up the way it currently was, because nothing was born looking like this thing.
Fuck. Leave it to ShinRa.
Fuck it, should have sensed it earlier... Fuji bit his teeth together and quickly dashed after the redhead. He saw a tentacle, a claw, and then he was inside the room and the entire beast manifested in front of him. The horns on its head reminded Fuji vaguely of Behemoths and it had parts of rotting flesh that fell down on the floor, crawling with larvae. Where the flesh had rotted away, bloody metal plates shone through at some parts, and at others there were only bones. The thing reeked of decomposition and of oil going bad, and Fuji could feel faint waves of Mako energy pulsate from it.
He took a deep breath and allowed the Mako surge through his own body, ignoring the cramp that immediately flashed in his infected arm, and he rapidly jumped towards the creature, his whip flying here and there and it severed one tentacle, one claw, and then it flew towards the thing's head. And a tentacle reached out seemingly out of nowhere and caught the whip, throwing both it and Fuji into one of the walls. Fuji had been a thought more prepared than Ishe however, and he managed to soften the impact, using his momentum to catapult himself away from the wall again and dive for the monster.
Have to get my whip back...!
Still blinking away his double vision, Yuushi pulled his gun out from its holster, feeling his energy dip and then surge, like a sudden electrical current running up his body and down his arm to his weapon. Hoping to weaken the thing, if not kill it, he blinked again hard and aimed for its head, the recoil of his energized pulse ammo staggering him back a few steps.
He saw it hit, obliterating rotting skin and muscle in the creature's face. What was left behind was a barely dented metallic skull and a blood red eye, singling him out as the head whipped back around. Depleted and a little sluggish, Yuushi backed up another step and looked for a way around the thing. If he could just get out...Akira was fast and closer to the door than he was, and Fuji seemed to at least be holding his own for now. Yuushi was the one who had no leverage against this thing, and he knew it. If his pulse ammo hadn't made much of a dent, he certainly wasn't going to be much help in this fight. Cursing his own lack of judgment, he called to the others. "We need to get out of here and regroup! Akira, run!"
With that, he took a chance and darted around the back of the beast. It was so big, it likely couldn't turn very well or fast enough to stop him.
But its tail was, and he barely dodged it only to be snatched by another roving tentacle. Struggling, he cursed and felt something around his neck start to slide off...his mother's necklace. In an instinctive move, he grabbed for it, and from the angle he was being held, locked eyes with Kamio, not seeing the spiked tail swinging at him.
"Akira--"
Kamio barely glanced at Yuushi as the other gave the command to regroup. One of the beast's roving tentacles twisted in the air above him, dodging and thrusting as it tried to ensnare his torso. Kamio slashed and parried in return. His blows left long gashes on the metal skin of the appendage, exposing a long bundle of colored wire.
Not that hacking the creature was doing much good.
Kamio's blows were fast, not strong, and though he clipped a few wires with each, it wasn't enough to severe the tentacle from the beast's rotting metal body. Kamio uttered an oath under his breath. His next hit landed harder; the tentacle shuddered and withdrew and the redhead took the chance to dart towards the door. "Swallow, come on!" he snapped, turning his head to try to find the other chocobo rider.
And stopping short, his eyes locking on Yuushi's and widening in horror. "Look ou-- YUUSHI!"
Damn it. Damn it. Fuji, who had somehow managed to have his fingertips touch his whip - which, in retrospect might have not been the wisest thing he could do, as the deep cuts on his fingers proved to him - before having it snatched away from him again, heard the redhead - what was his name again? He had completely forgotten - call out to him and then the sickening sound when something hard and unyielding hit human flesh. A crash and then the redhead's scream. Fuji gave the scene one quick glance - no, no, damn it, that bloody pulp on the floor, where most of the blood that had been inside him was smeared out all across the room by now, was his client and his key into getting more, much needed information - and then held up his Mystile, the Fira Materia gleaming menacingly in one of its slots.
"Kid," Fuji barked, throwing the redhead a glance. "I'll put up a wall between you and the creature and you'll try and get to Ishe faster than Odin himself, you hear? Get him out of here!"
Because there were still hope. There had to be hope left. This damned monster wouldn't kill them. Not here. Not now. Fuji jumped and this time he managed to grab his whip out of the grasp of the creature, only to have one of its tentacles to slam down on his back, sending him flying while the air had been almost knocked out of his lungs. Almost, but not quite. Instead he focused on the pain and allowed it to clear his thoughts on anything else but the basic instincts of defend, fight, survive. He slashed with the whip again and again, and he wasn't entire certain how much of the blood that obscured his sight belonged to him, to Ishe, to the redhead, or - hopefully - to the monster.
For Yuushi, the instant he was impaled there was a flash of unbelievable pain as his back and chest were ripped open. He felt himself going even as his destroyed body fell to the floor, his vision blurring into darkness and Akira's voice screaming his name becoming dimmer. It was only a half second later that he died, but in that half second he desperately, voicelessly cried out into the nothingness. He couldn't die..He couldn't die and leave Akira all alone...
It's attention drawn by the quick movements by the redhead, the creature stepped forward, crushing Yuushi's body under a massive foot. It moved again, sliding the same foot back in a motion that sent the mangled body flying back behind it to lay in a heap across the room, blocking their path.
Kamio skidded to a halt as the creature kicked Yuushi's bod-- No. Yuushi aside like a limp doll and turned to face him. Under his breath, Kamio uttered a curse. Whatever Swallow was doing, it was having no effect.
Not that creature was paying any attention to Swallow anyway. Kamio dodged to one side as one tentacle snapped at him, darting just out of reach only to find another jumping into his path. It would just take one trip, he knew. One moment of broken concentration, a single misstep--
And he'd end up like Yuushi. Possibly with Yuushi.
Kamio felt his blade catch against the metallic coil of tentacle, body moving on instinct, yet not fast enough. Another coil caught his ankle and leg, gave a sharp tug, and Kamio stumbled backwards onto the floor.
"I don't... I don't..." He wasn't sure what he was saying, or what was happening. It was all just a blur of red and black and the disgusting stench that the creature surrounded itself with... Fuji felt how slick his hands were, with sweat or blood but probably a combination of both. He shot a look over at the redhead and what he saw almost discouraged him. The redhead wasn't fighting for his life. He seemed completely crushed and his fighting was sloppy at best. Fuji was in pain, he could hear how his breaths almost had to be pulled from his chest, and of course he was upset over Ishe's fate, but he was still fighting for his life here. His life and the redhead's. Had he had a moment to spare, he would have snapped to the other boy that he ought to get his act together, because Ishe hardly wished for the redhead to follow him to the Lifestream so soon.
Instead his one moment of distraction proved to be fatal. A tentacle snapped out and wrapped itself around his waist, pulling him high in the air. The whip slipped out of his hand and he could feel how the creature started to swing him through the air, towards the wall. He wondered if he would meet the same fate as Ishe... And then rage filled him as his entire being objected against that very thought. He could feel the Mako levels inside him rise, could feel how it flowed through his veins as hot and intense as his own blood, it spewed out from his fingers and downwards, towards the abandoned whip, and...
"Hakugei." The word whispered, but the force it unleashed roaring thunder. The whip got caught in the energy coming from his fingers, started to whirl around faster and faster, and it cleanly cut of the tentacle holding him. It then continued to spin over the creature's body, and more tentacles were severed, each exploding when they hit the floor. The whip returned to Fuji's hand, coiling itself neatly around his wrist, and suddenly the energy left him. As his legs gave away underneath him, the monster roared with pain and anger, readying itself for a final strike.
Fuji closed his eyes.
During the skirmish between SOLDIER and beast, something unseen was quietly happening.
In the ruins of Yuushi's chest, trapped, the red 'jewel' of his mother's necklace began to glow. A hairline crack, whether from the impact of the spike or not, had started to expand, little spiderwebs of smaller cracks etching along its surface. Red, ethereal mist leaked through, a trickle at first. The lifeless flesh around it instantly revived as it touched, muscles carefully surrounding fresh nerves and blood vessels.
The young man's heart, only its bottom ripped away from the impact, oozed a single drop of blood that by some chance luck, fell onto the cracked jewel, coating it slowly before seeping in. At that instant, Yuushi's soul, sliding ever closer to the lifestream despite the desperate wish that kept him tenuously bound to his body, snapped back. It was as if he'd been struggling against birth and had been yanked back and stuffed into a body that was no longer his own.
But it was his body, and there was something he needed to do. Somewhere, in a split second of an intangible plane, what was pulling him back resonated strongly.
Yes. This is wrong.
All of it.
Yet, the strong desire of his soul accepted this. Embraced it. And it entwined with his life force, meshing them as one...
The beast howled in pain as its extraneous limbs were severed.
Over Yuushi's body, a golden shimmer passed over his body in a wave. Blood, pooled under his body, swiftly began to recede back into the gaping wound, soaking back into his chest. What was too far to be called back was regenerated, the heart beating even as it repaired itself. Human organs, shredded to pieces, quickly knit themselves back together into seamless wholes. The whole of the human body was revived, intact and functional.
But the regeneration couldn't stop there. The body was human, but it housed more than just a human soul now. And that part was in control, dominating and controlling from within. Another shimmer, this one a deep flame red tangled in gold, passed over the unconscious body. Under its caress, the blue-black hair began to grow wildly, taking on a subtle glow. Polished fingernails darkened into a glossy black and grew as well, curving into long, wicked points. And from the back, two identical lines of blue and gold fire burst from the shoulder blades, fabric smoldering in their wake. Growing higher and wider, fiery feathers were defined in what were now an impressive wingspan.
Levitating with the force of the magic surrounding it, the limp body drifted upright, sailing higher towards the ceiling. Yuushi's eyes opened slowly, slits of color that, for a moment, took in the scene below him.
The blonde SOLDIER, weakened and trapped, collapsed on the floor. The red-haired swordsman, slumped against the wall, eyes wide. And the beast, a twisted, tortured perversion of something already ignorantly altered by man, poised over them, about to attack.
NO!
He screamed, but the sound that issued from his throat was a piercing, inhuman shriek that seemed to stop every living thing in its tracks. Clutching his head in a wave of confusion, terror and anger, Yuushi screamed again, his rage fueling the alien side of him that now leapt into action. Eyes flying open, the whites glowed so intensely that they obscured the irises completely. Flaming wings snapped hard in an instant, and Yuushi was flying headlong into the creature, talons outstretched and seeking blood.
Kamio's breathing was uneven as he lay against the far wall, dazed from the crack the back of his head had taken when he'd been tugged backwards. His ankle thobbed dully, the pain distant, and his limbs were too heavy. Nearby, his short sword was just within reach, but the redhead couldn't find the strength to reach out for it.
It didn't matter anyway.
Eyes barely slit open, he watched as the blonde chocobo rider continued to fight. At some other point, he might have even been impressed as the other severed the swarming tentacles from the beast. For what little good it had done, at least; the monster's roar was one of renewed fury and the blonde was a motionless heap several feet away from Kamio. He almost closed his eyes himself, when something caught his attention. Something flickering and rising behind the mammoth creature that stood over them. For a moment, his breath caught, eyes going wide as he watched something rise up--
No. Not something...
Someone.
"Yuu-yuushi?" His voice was weak, quiet and cracked as he stared up past the monster's back. The shriek that sliced through the air had Kamio curling up into himself, hands over his ears. It couldn't be... It couldn't.
Fuji waited and waited for the strike that never came. He heard... something, and he forced himself to open his eyes, half expecting to see his own death staring down at him, drooling. Instead he saw light. Yellow, burning light. Flames. A memory of something he had read somewhere started to stir somewhere inside his mind but he couldn't grasp it, couldn't understand, couldn't react. His mouth felt dry as last fall's leaves and in spite of the pain that roared viciously through his body, the young ex-SOLDIER somehow managed to pull himself to his feet, eyes burning and lips chapped and dry from the intense heat that started to radiate from the man who should have been dead, but wasn't.
Yuushi. That was Ishe's name, wasn't it?
Fuji stumbled, fell down on his knees, scraped them, then got to his feet again and continued to stumble onwards, closer, ever closer to the redhead. He finally reached his goal and fell down beside the redhead, scraping his knees anew, and he put his arms on the redhead's shoulders, whispering feverishly into his ear:
"Come on, come on, we've got to get out of here now! We'll only be in his way like this, come on, come on...!"
Oblivious to the two making their way out of the room, Yuushi circled around the creature, darting in with frenzied, rage filled attacks that left his talons dripping with fetid blood and rotted chunks of flesh. Without its tentacles, the beast was unable to match his speed or even move enough away to dodge his attacks. It screamed in pain, thrashing from one side to the other.
Then, blue-flamed wings sent Yuushi soaring upwards, to the very ceiling. Fire appeared in sparking globes around him, jumping into his outstretched hands until they were enveloped in it. With another shriek, he released the energy, waves upon waves of intense heat and flame that shot down and instantly incinerated everything in the room.
Depleted, he drifted back down slowly. The fire of his wings extinguished with barely a flicker, his head thrown back slightly as his talons receded back into his fingers. The long ends of his hair and his wings went next, dissolving into ash and spilling out onto the floor around his feet. Finally, his eyes dimmed, then closed as his body sank to the floor, alive, but unconscious.
It was only shock that had Kamio even listening to the blonde Chocobo rider as he was pulled to his feet and pushed out the door. He half-resisted as he was tugged out, eyes still following the whirling form that was his lover.
His flying lover.
"No," the redhead argued, trying to shove his way past the blonde and back into the room. They couldn't leave him, not if it was Yuushi. Not if Yuushi were alive. They needed to get him out of there. "No, let go of me, damn it!" He managed to slip past, stepping back only when a sudden flare of heat had him staggering back and swearing. Without another thought, Kamio squeezed into the opening between the heavy metal doors.
The room was hot, the air thick with smoke and a disgusting charred smell that made Kamio cough harshly as he stumbled over to where his lover had fallen. "Yuushi," he started, kneeling down next to the other man and running fingers over his skin. The other man was warm -- warm and alive. Kamio could feel him breathing, his fingertips searching out a pulse. "Yuushi, come on," he murmured, shaking his lover again. "Come on, we need to get you out of here."
And they say love is dead, Fuji thought disoriented as he allowed the redhead to dart after the creature that had once been -- maybe still was -- Ishe... Or rather Yuushi. Not a name he recognized, and maybe it didn't matter. The two lovers would have to deal with this on their own. He was more concerned with his own problems; he was still injured and he felt exhausted from having released that much Mako energy as his limit break had upped itself, if that was what had happened. He wasn't even entirely sure. He needed time to think, time to sort everything out, as too much had happened, too fast.
Drifting back somewhat from Kamio's voice, the black rider's eyes fluttered, then cracked open. He was sprawled face down on the floor, soot from the inferno staining his cheeks as he moved, pushing himself up fluidly. It was like sleepwalking, really; his true self was still unaware, his eyes blank as he leaned on the smaller body supporting him.
There was still raw energy adrift in him, some of it leeching into the redhead as they stumbled to and through the door. The other was there, the blonde, seemingly unable to do more than lean against the wall. Yuushi's hand reached out, curling around the green rider's shoulder. Like an electrical circuit being completed, the rest of his energy leapt out, filling the void of energy in the other body. Utterly sapped, Yuushi closed his eyes again silently and collapsed, falling from Kamio's arms to the floor at Fuji's feet.
Kamio felt like he'd swallowed a potion.
A lot of potions, as he staggered under his taller lover's weight and guided him towards the door. The pains he had been ignoring from the fight with that thing faded into nothing, and though Yuushi was heavy and Kamio should have been exhausted, he was able to maneuver them both out of the room and into the adjoining hall where Swallow sat.
"Babe, don't," the redhead started as Yuushi reached for the other chocobo rider. Shit, he didn't have that much potion with him; certainly, he could get Yuushi out, but Swallow as well? Before he could pull his lover back, Kamio felt the other's body tense, and a strange surge of energy engulfed the blonde rider.
"Yuush-- Fuck!" Kamio scrambled to grab his lover's waist before the other cracked his head against the hard, metal floor.
It was like downing a high potion or more. Fuji was about to smile gratefully to Yuushi, but before he had a chance to even say anything he watched how the blue haired rider came crashing down towards the floor. He too kneeled as quick as he could to try and catch Yuushi's head in his lap. He looked the man over and placed a hand on his brow to check his temperature.
"Akira? That's your name, right? He needs to go to a doctor. As far away from ShinRa as possible, I'd suggest." Because, really. Would the Turks or ShinRa at large catch a whiff of this, Yuushi would spend eternity in their research facilities. He thought quickly. "I'm from Junon, and I've heard rumors lately about a very good doctor living in the high class districts. From what I've heard... He's not all that fond of ShinRa. We could try to take him there, if you trust my judgment enough?"
Kamio narrowed his eyes at the blonde rider, arms still firm around Yuushi's waist even as the other fell limply against Swallow. Trust his judgment?
That was asking a lot from the redhead.
Still, Kamio knew there was some logic to what Swallow was saying: He didn't trust doctors in Midgar himself, and the nearest ones in the city of Edge would doubtless be under ShinRa's auspice. Not something that Kamio wanted to deal with. Junon... He knew that there were doctors there who weren't under ShinRa's control there, of course, but the last one he'd seen had been a fucking quack. Even if he had been right about the... Thing on Kamio's shoulder. Options were, however, limited.
Finally, he gave a nod. "Okay, fine," Kamio ground out, standing and pulling Yuushi up with him. He slung one of Yuushi's lax arms around his own shoulders. "We just need to get out of here."