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Night 49: Home World - Gaia

May 17, 2010 00:31

[From here.]Upon stepping through the door, Zack had suddenly felt kind of dizzy, almost like the floor was falling out on him. He didn't know what that was about, but he didn't even get the chance to try and come up with a reason for it, since the next thing he knew he was being overwhelmed by a whole new set of sensations. First of all, he was ( Read more... )

wolverine, yuffie, zack, cloud, tifa

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thatdamnedninja May 17 2010, 08:00:04 UTC

Stepping through a doorway wasn't supposed to feel like this, like the world was going topsy-turvy; like they were stuck in a spin-cycle on the highest settling. The disorientation was like a smack in the gut, but it didn't hold a candle to what came next.

The rollicking, rickety jerks and judders were easily enough to send Yuffie stumbling, careening off to the side. She compensated automatically, pushing herself into a clumy, off-balance movement that was half a roll and half a handspring. It righted her, but it didn't steady her, not until the fingers of both hands closed convulsively against a familiar metal railing.

That was when it clicked. That was when she realized why she was so damn off-balance, not just because oh Leviathan she was on an airship, she was on the Highwind-but also because her hands were empty. Both of them. Her shuriken was familiar weight on her back, and her clothes-she hadn't worn these clothes since that time, since that night, and she hadn't felt like this since then, either. Yuffie might not have ( ... )

notthistrain May 17 2010, 08:16:14 UTC

What the hell ( ... )

zack_fair May 18 2010, 03:35:10 UTC

Neither Cloud nor Yuffie gave an answer to his question, but Zack figured that was because they didn't have any good answers. He'd never heard about something like this happening, not even from people who'd been in the institute for a long while, like Aidou. Which probably meant it was a whole new kind of game -- it was a good thing that he was adaptable.

Thought not so adaptable that he was able to hold his balance perfectly well when the airship was pitching around like it was out of control. Zack tried to make his way toward Yuffie as he watched Cloud race toward the lower deck. Cloud could fly this? Since when? Sure, his friend had grown, but enough that he'd learned how to work an airship ( ... )

thatdamnedninja May 18 2010, 05:11:20 UTC

It wasn't long after Cloud bolted that the airship stopped tossing like a corkboard in open ocean. "End of the world," Yuffie told Zack around a deep, fortifying gulp of air. "Or close enough to it. All thanks to Sephiroth."

She gave herself a moment, staring out across the recent devastation. What once had been a mighty, disgusting city was already cracked and crumbling. Yuffie had no love for Midgar, but even for her it had been hard to watch. All those lives down there… she'd thought, maybe if they could've moved faster, more people would've lived. She'd thought that they'd won, so why hadn't everything come up smelling like roses? Of course, she'd soon learned better. Had known better. Definitely knew better now, experience being like bitter ice-cream on the world's worst cake ( ... )

notthistrain May 18 2010, 06:21:48 UTC

Cloud heard the others rush in, but kept most of his attention focused on keeping the ship airborne. Seeing Zack on the bridge of the Highwind was so surreal anyway that it wasn't worth trying to sort out in his head at the moment ( ... )

zack_fair May 18 2010, 07:23:51 UTC

"What?! Cloud said you guys stopped it!" Zack exclaimed. How could Yuffie toss out a phrase like that as if it was nothing? He didn't think it was because she just didn't care, but it was startling nonetheless. When the girl stared off in a different direction, he followed her gaze, and that was when he saw all the smoke, the debris and destruction. He might not have recognized it if he hadn't been so familiar with the city -- in fact, he almost wished he was mistaken, but that had to be Midgar. Or the remnants of it, anyway ( ... )

thatdamnedninja May 18 2010, 07:56:30 UTC

Yuffie clung to the console for dear life, white-knuckled. Any smart-aleck remark she might otherwise have made stayed knotted up tight. Bit too busy trying not to avoid squaring up with a round-trip meal ticket.

At least the possibility of impending disaster made for a pretty distraction, she thought gloomily. Cloud's piloting skills were tip-top, for a farm-boy from Hicksville and for a dude who wasn't Cid, but something was going on here, something big, maybe something bad. If they could get flung back here, who knew what was gonna happen? Yuffie didn't wanna be all Negative Nancy, but, hell, she was worried. Real worried. And worse yet, 'til she was off this bucket of bolts, there wasn't a thing she could do about any of it ( ... )

notthistrain May 19 2010, 01:02:30 UTC

Well, he'd been summarizing on the bus. It wasn't time to get into that now. He had to focus on getting the Highwind on the ground and his two friends to safety - not that they wouldn't be able to handle themselves against just about anything now that they were back at full strength. He'd been very distracted upon his arrival, but it had slowly come to his attention that the limitations imposed upon them at Landel's were no longer in place here. At least they had that much in their favor ( ... )

zack_fair May 19 2010, 04:07:53 UTC

Judging from Yuffie's comment, the airship wasn't supposed to be this empty. It was pretty amazing that Cloud was managing to pilot the thing single-handed, and to make sure that his friend had as little to worry about as possible, Zack watched the sky with his full attention, only turning away to face the others when they'd safely landed ( ... )

thatdamnedninja May 19 2010, 05:04:27 UTC

"Like you wouldn't be right down here with me if you weren't flying this thing," Yuffie grouched.

She straightened slowly, swinging her shuriken into place. Ugh. She hated airships, with the impassioned fury of a thousand burning stars! Always would. It was like a universal constant, right up there with the one that said everybody with the last name Shin-Ra is a gigantinormous prick.

Still, no time to be wasting. They'd landed already; her stomach might still be playing catch-up with her brain-meats, but she had tons better stuff to do than whinge. Like, finding out what in Leviathan's name was happening here. Oh, and correcting Zack. That too. "I said pretty much, not that it was." Yuffie hopped back to her feet, ignored the wobble in her legs, and started back for the deck. There was no other exit. "We did stop it, yeah. Stopped Meteor from smacking the whole planet into next Tuesday. But that-this-isn't the end. And we weren't in time to stop Midgar getting wrecked." She paused at the door, facing into the rusty, meticulous ( ... )

notthistrain May 19 2010, 06:45:41 UTC

Cloud wasn't going to argue with Yuffie, of course, because it was true. He was just lucky that taking the helm of a vehicle helped push thoughts of being airsick aside. Otherwise they would have been in trouble ( ... )

zack_fair May 20 2010, 01:02:39 UTC

If Zack hadn't known that Yuffie would have just glared at him for it, he might have offered her a hand up. She seemed to be managing well enough now that the airship was grounded, though. Instead, he focused on her words, processing that even if Gaia had clearly taken a huge hit, it wasn't on the brink of destruction. Midgar was a pretty huge casualty, though, and having to see that with his own eyes just left him feeling more guilty for the fact that he hadn't been around to help ( ... )

thatdamnedninja May 20 2010, 19:08:20 UTC

While Cloud was busy catching up with his long lost cousin, Gil, Yuffie was hot-footing it onto the airship's deck. Now that they weren't in imminent danger of crashing into a messy splatter of debris into the deadlands and plains between Midgar and Kalm, she felt herself settling. Just a little, just enough. Whatever they were facing here, they could handle it.

Hell, of course they could handle it! And that wasn't just infallible Kisaragi confidence doing the talking. Nope, it was logical. Pure, hard, cold, brilliant logic. SOLDIER first class may have been-may still be-a bunch of mangy mutts, but they were good at what they were good at, and they were pretty damn good at fighting. As was she. She wouldn't slow them down, they wouldn't slow her down, and they'd get this whole thing figured out like snap.

Besides, this was Kalm. Kalm. Kalm before it got ground into the dirt by Deepground's thugs. The worst things hanging out in these parts these days were Elfadunks, Mus, and Levrikons! Total small-fry ( ... )

notthistrain May 21 2010, 01:39:03 UTC

It was almost a waste of time making ladders and ramps for disembarking from the Highwind when they didn't even use them half the time. Yuffie probably wasn't even showing off. That was just how she was. Cloud, meanwhile, made his own decent a bit slower, first checking the skyline off the deck but seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Well, nothing aside from Meteor's death throes, but that wasn't anything that would be causing them immediate trouble. Hopefully.

When the blond reached the ground, he was wielding Ultima weapon. It felt good to be properly armed again, and this had been almost just where he'd left it. Almost, because he'd had it equipped when Landel abducted him. It hadn't been leaning against the wall. He was just going to hope that Zack didn't take the size as some attempt at competition against the Buster sword. It wasn't as if he'd crafted it himself! (It was, admittedly, a little garish looking ( ... )

zack_fair May 21 2010, 07:11:00 UTC

Allowing Yuffie to run ahead of them (she could clearly take care of herself now), Zack followed alongside Cloud -- though he was quickly distracted by taking in both Kalm and its surroundings. Now that he was closer to it, the Lifestream was actually kind of -- well, beautiful, as weird as it sounded. It was used for some pretty nasty things when it got put into the wrong hands, but that didn't mean it was bad by nature. Besides, it seemed to be tussling with the Meteor magic pretty damn well, so ( ... )

thatdamnedninja May 21 2010, 18:04:47 UTC

What were they doing?

They weren't-no, they were. They totally were.

They were comparing their swords.

It was hard to get any lamer than that. Yuffie supposed that maybe it was some kind of macho male bonding practice, full of overcompensation and, uh, stuff. But, dudes, time and a place, c'mon-

- Except she couldn't really, really begrudge them. Well. She could, of course she could, but they did have a whole hell of a lot to catch up on. Zack had a whole hell of a lot to catch up on. He couldn't be comfortable here, in this time. Maybe even in this place, she didn't know. It made her realize, not for the first time, just how screwed up and whacked out the situation was. She'd never had to think in timelines before, not really, but these days it was hard to avoid. There was her, the magnificent ninja Yuffie, from the furthest along. None of the others even had a clue what was in store. Then there was Cloud, and Nanaki, Tifa, Aerith… Would they get back to their own separate timelines, or would they get stuck sometime else, just ( ... )

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