Inheritance (Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth)

꧁ XXII ꧂

Barret and Lailah boarded the vehicle. They sat next to each other while Aerith and Cloud were across from them. Red was sitting on the floor between the two benches. Tifa was in the driver's seat with Cait Sith sitting in her lap and Yuffie situated in the passenger's seat.

Tifa was trying to figure out how to drive the vehicle with Cait Sith's help. Just when they thought they understood, Rude arrived. He was flanked by security officers. Seeing the Turk was after the group, Dio stepped in to act as their shield. "Now's your chance! Leave this riffraff to me. Time to get the blood pumping!"

Rude nimbly passed through the hole in the fence. Seeing his opponent, he prepared himself and charged forward. They grabbed each other's hands and used all their strength to push against one another. Dio seemed to possess more strength than the Turk as he forced his hands downwards.

"Hang on!" Tifa shouted after learning what she needed to do to take control.

Everyone braced themselves as Tifa drove the vehicle out of the scrapyard through the hole in the fence Dio had created earlier.

The Shinra helicopter flew overhead, pursuing the vehicle as it crossed the desert. Elena's voice could be heard over the loudspeaker attached to the helicopter. "Attention, all units! Avalanche has commandeered a vehicle and is attempting to flee! I repeat—Avalanche is attempting to flee!"

Lailah looked behind them. There were many troopers pursuing them on motorcycles alongside the helicopter. Her eyes turned to Cloud when he stood up with his hand around the hilt of his sword.

Barret stopped him by raising his gunarm. "You sit. I got this."

"No," Lailah interrupted, grabbing Barret and Cloud's attention. "We got this. You and me, Barret. Let's make Shinra pay for ruining what we love."

The man nodded. "Hell yeah. Let's do this, little lady."

She smirked confidently. "I'll deal with the helicopters. You focus on the motorcycles." Without hesitating, she stood up, climbed on the back of the vehicle, and jumped. In the blink of an eye, she transformed into a bird and took to the sky with a mighty screech. She easily drew the attention of the various helicopters and began taking them down one by one. They attempted to shoot her out of the sky, but it was futile.

Soaring across the sky, Lailah used spell after spell to snipe the helicopters out of the sky. One by one, they blew up and the pieces scattered across the desert.

After dealing with the last helicopter, her attention was drawn to the desert below. Zooming across the desolate landscape was the Anuran Suppressor. It was heading straight for the buggy. She saw Barret shooting the large machine and decided to help him. Swooping downward, she dragged her talons against the Anuran Suppressor and wound up tearing the cannon on its head clean off. Palmer's scream could be heard as he lost control of the machine.

Catching up to the buggy, Lailah looked down at her companions.

"Show off!" Barret yelled at her.

She screeched in response before circling around to see if the machine would still be a threat.

Barret heard Red chuckle and looked over his shoulder at the beast. "What'd she say?"

"She said, "You snooze, you lose"," Red answered.

Cloud huffed out a chuckle. "Sounds right."

Barret grumbled before turning his attention back to the Anuran Suppressor as it recovered and returned to chasing the buggy. He shot at the machine and took out one of its components. He cheered and looked up at the bird. "Yeah! Beat that!"