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“We’ll have to kill it to get to the passage,”Cloud explained,”I doubt it’ll just let us
go past it. Everyone ready yourselves.”
After a moment or two of preparations they were all ready to head off to do battle.
Vincent had his gun drawn and some materia Mym had given him equipped, Mym herself
had her sword ready and materia of her own. Aeris had began concentrating on protective
spells while the others readied weapons and offensive materia linked to do the most
damage. They came from behind the rocks and launched into battle immediately with the
thing to continue their journey.
The guardian monster had two heads which each launched vicious attacks, striking
at the party. Quickly they jumped out of the way to avoid getting killed. Mym quickly ran
up and slashed at the head on the left while Vincent shot at the right one to distract it.
Landing a vicious strike on it’s neck the monster flailed around with a wild scream as
Mym landed on the ground and readied for another attack as Barret took up Vincent’s
position while Vincent reloaded. Cloud ran in for an attack on the left head while Aeris
cast a barrier spell around the party. Tifa and Red on the other hand both concentrated on
casting powerful fire spells on the right head and after a few minutes of the constant
barrage of hits the monster was considerably weaker.
Jumping back from taking another slice at it Cloud watched Mym rush in for a
killing strike on the left head while Vincent and Barret both fired on the right head. As
Mym slashed downward on the thing’s left neck the party watched as the monster gave a
cry of anguish and the left head fell useless to the ground as Mym landed crouched before
it. Before even she could recover thought the still alive right head came down with it’s
slavering jaws open in an attempt to eat her alive. Aeris and most of the others could only
watch in horror as the thing made it’s attempt to attack her but before it did it was
stopped midway by a large beast summoning a large fireball. Cloud and the others
watched in amazement and horror but Mym only dropped her head some as she knew
what had happened. With a shriek the monster turned it’s final attention to the Galian
Beast only to find it’s own neck within the beast’s teeth. Giving one last gargled cry of
pain the right neck drooped and fell to the ground, the beast letting go to land facing the
rest of the party. Cloud looked at the beast sitting there and watched with wide eyes as it
changed back into Vincent. The whole party took a step back from him except Mym who
knelt on the ground a few feet from him.
On his hands and knees Vincent panted as the final pains from the transformation
went away. Mym quickly sheathed her sword and walked over to him, kneeling beside
him and putting an arm on his back.
“Are you allright?” She asked quietly as the others looked on, unable to decide
what to do given the circumstances.
Vincent’s ruby eyes went up and met hers almost immediately and he swiftly but
curtly nodded. Before he could say anything though she quietly spoke up again.
“Thanks for the help back there.”
“No problem,”he replied in a similar quiet manner.
“What the hell just happened?” Cloud interjected as he stepped forward a couple
paces after having sheathed his sword.
Both Mym and Vincent turned their heads to look at him and saw the rest of the
party coming up behind him. They both also heard Barret mumble again about ‘Freaky ass
ex-ShinRa people’ which made neither of them happy. Both Mym and Vincent stood,
slowly and purposefully.
“This is what we are capable of as I explained to Aeris one night,”Mym stated
quietly, her eyes a dim glowing purple to match her cold and distant tone.
“This is Hojo’s doing,”Vincent added quietly, his tone still distant but not nearly as
frigid as Mym’s.
“Well your dangerous ass selves shouldn’t be travelin with us no more,”Barret
added quickly as he stepped up closer to be beside Cloud. He then turned to Cloud.
“They could turn on us and shit,”Barret explained, waving his hand and gun arm
around to emphasize his words. Tifa and Red hung in the background as Aeris moved up.
“Do what you will Cloud,”Mym said and Vincent nodded in agreement.
“As team leader you are responsible for your comrades and if you deem us a threat
we will leave and seek our own way,”she finished.
At this point Aeris tapped Cloud on the shoulder and said,”I don’t think they’d
harm us Cloud. Mym did explain some of this to me and it’s not their fault. It’s Hojo’s
fault that they can change forms. Please let them stay with us.”
Cloud looked back and forth between Mym and Vincent’s slightly glowing eyes
and Aeris’s pleading ones until he finally sighed and rubbed the back of his head.
“Allright. For now they can stay with us but if you guys turn on us you’ll have to
go on your own.”
Mym and Vincent nodded in agreement while Barret threw his hands up in the air.
Grumbling he stepped back to where his pack was and fiddled around with it for a
moment before he threw it on his back and began stalking off towards the path the
monster had blocked. The others slowly followed after him, Vincent, Mym, and Aeris
bringing up the rear.
