Crimson Demons (FF7)

12) Rescued

A screaming alarm wakes me up hours after our conversation. The cell door is swung wide open and Violet is still sleeping. Frowning, I reach over with my shoe and tap her leg with my foot. Seconds later, she stirs, her eyes glowing brightly in the darkness. She struggles to her feet and looks around quickly, nodding for me to follow. And I do. She leads the way down a long, dark corrider that seems to last for miles. There's a loud click through the high pitched whine of the alarm. Two soldiers from Shinra rush toward us, gun raised. Somehow, we manage to take them down without arms.

"I think they're down here!" Someone yells. I frown. Cid? Violet looks back at me excitedly, hurry toward the voice. I have no choice but to follow.

"You crazy, old fart?! There's gotta be another hall! This one's so creepy!" He brought Yuffie?

"Cid!" Violet calls into the darkness, turning a corner and bouncing back, landing on her rear.

"Wha..?" Yuffie's voice cuts off as I step up to the three of them. "Violet!" Cid chuckles, helping Violet stand.

"Vin too, huh?" Then his smile falls into a confusion face. "The #&-$? Why they got you in straightjackets?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Violet mutters. Cid laughs and hurries to figure out how to free her limbs. When he manages to free her, she gives a breath of relief and stretches gratefully. Then the pilot moves to help me out. Yuffie grins at me, doing some sort of silent victory dance. My shoulders ache when they're released from their hold and I give Cid a grateful look.

"Let's go!" He runs ahead and we follow at a quickened pace.

"There we are!" We skid to a stop, a wall of soldiers aiming at us with swords and guns. Cid looks at me and Violet quickly.

"Shinra! You guys are armed, right?" Violet holds a hand to the, open palmed. Nightmare appears, the scene I can only describe as reverse dissolving. I look down at my gauntlet silently. "Good."

"Gawd, I'm sick of this," Yuffie complains, throwing her shuriken at a soldier. I knock the gun out of one's hand, catching his fist as he throws a punch and using his momentum to flip bakcward onto the ground. Turning around, I instantly have to block a sword strike, clawing upward on the man's throat. He hisses in pain and glares at me from under his helmet, swinging three times in a row before I knock him off balance and hit him in the head with the butt of the gun I managed to get away from the first man.

When the battle is finished, we start walking again. All except Violet, who kneels by one man's lifeless body, brushing a bloody strand of hair out of his face. Her eyes shut and she sighs. This is different, Violet. He's not...

"Violet," I say, crouching at her side and resting a hand on her shoudler. Cid and Yuffie stop, looking back at us curiously.

"Sometimes I wonder," she murmurs. "If I'm truly any better than Hojo."

"Yours was an act of self defense," I reason. He was no one to us, but who cared for him back home? I shake my head, reaching down for her wrist and pulling her to her feet. It doesn't matter. He's gone now. When I look back, I see that Cid's impatiently waiting with his hands on his hips.

"Hurry up! We gotta go save Teef and Barret, ya know."

"Sorry," she mumbles, and I follow them out the door and up a large set of stairs. Cid pushes out a trap door and we're suddenly outside, the bright sun hurting my eyes momentarily. He starts to run, Yuffie and Violet hurrying ahead of me. I follow quickly, and we climb into the large airship, the Highwind, I believe. The second we're on board, Cid turns to a crew member.