LYDIA DEETZ AND FINAL FANTASY 7
Capítulo 8: The reconciliation
The march was the quietest and most uncomfortable the group ever had, but then Percy broke the silence.
“Guys, someone's following us.”
“Who or what could be, Percy?” Lydia looked to the sides.
“A human, woman, very young, is very agile, cunning because she hides against the wind," Percy said, sniffing and waving his ears.
“My sense of smell and my ears also perceive someone hidden in the shadows," Nanaki confirmed.
The group exchanged nervous glances and rushed through, but the stalker seemed to be following in their footsteps.
“Nanaki I want you to help me” Percy asked him what Nanaki was surprised with but then nodded.
The group moved forward into an area with high vegetation and Nanaki took the opportunity to go after whom followed them as Percy did in the form of a black panther.
Whoever followed them realized he was being ambushed and decided to flee in a hurry but there was nothing he could do about it in the face of two accomplished predators.
Nanaki cut off the woman's step in front, hidden behind some bushes, began to move these to attract the woman's attention and when she was about to throw a giant shuriken, Percy appeared on her left side very close to her face.
“Clever girl," the woman muttered and Percy pounced on her and then Nanaki.
The group heard a woman scream and then a deadly silence. But after a minute they saw Nanaki and then Percy with his jaw holding a young girl by her underwear.
“Auch!” complained the young girl who appeared to be a ninja when she was thrown to the floor without any regard.
The free ninja already wanted to escape but Percy stopped her by putting a paw on her back, then he approached the girl's face and began to growl at her.
“Don't eat me! I surrender! Please don't eat me!”
Percy bit into the girl's head and started to shake her hard.
“Stop it, Percy, you'll kill her!” Lydia shouted in fear and Percy stopped.
“Sorry, sorry, I swear I won't do it again," said the ninja girl crying and sniffling.
Percy became a cat boy, although unlike the times he returned to his cat boy form after turning into a cat, this time he was naked.
“Percy, cover yourself!” Lydia ordered him, and clothes began to cover his naked body, which impressed everyone.
The girl introduced herself as Yuffie and claimed to be a ninja. She was following the group because she saw Percy and was intrigued by his cat boy nature.
According to the legends, it was the cat girls who taught the ninja techniques to my people, but as a human being was not powerful enough to learn all the techniques, the cat girls decided that each student should know at least one technique and in this way the various ninja clans of today were formed," Yuffie told them.
“Please let me come with you, I'll do anything, anything!”
“What do you say, Percy?” Lydia asked for his opinion.
“Why you ask Percy, I'm the leader," Cloud said.
“To see if she's lying," said Lydia.
“Let's see... No, she's not lying, her heartbeat tells me," Percy told them.
“So you'll do anything?” Biggs said, pretending to be malevolent.
“Yes, whatever," Yuffie cried.
“Then become food!” Percy shouted at her and turned into a panther, biting her from the spine and starting to shake her.
“I'm not salmon, I'm not salmon!”
“Percy, stop it!” Lydia shouted angrily at him and Percy let her go.
“Percy, I know you're playing games," said Lydia, "but with your pantherly strength you can kill her without realizing it.”
“I'm sorry," Percy apologized sadly once when he turned back into cat boy.
“Say that after covering yourself," Lydia whispered with drooping shoulders and a tired voice.
Lydia thought it wise to tell Yuffie what they were doing, so she gave her a summary of who they were and what they had done so far.
Once Yuffie had joined the group, they resumed their journey to Junon.
“Why is everyone so happy and smiling?” Yuffie asked sarcastically, and Lydia told her what happened with Tifa and Wedge in the morning, as well as Tifa's obsession with Cloud.
“Maybe they got into a fight because she told him it was all a mistake and she couldn't forget Cloud.”
“I'll find that out tonight," said Frowning Percy.
.
.
At night Tifa prepared dinner and everyone ate in silence as she and Wedge still looked tense.
After the tense dinner, Wedge offered to stand guard, knowing that he would not be able to sleep, and Percy also offered.
“Wedge?” Percy asked nervously as he approached the man after everyone else had gone to bed.
“What do you want, Percy?" Wedge said grudgingly.
“Lydia is very sad and worried, she wants to know what happened, please tell me Wedge, did you know that Lydia was crying?” Percy lied to soften Wedge.
“Was Lydia crying?”
“Yeah, maybe it doesn't mean anything to you, but Lydia is everything to me and it tore me up to see her like that. Please, Wedge, tell me what happened.”
Wedge told him about his meeting with Tifa in the evening, how they finally kissed and then came the disaster of this morning.
“Wedge... I'm so sorry," Percy said.
“I got angry, I told her I was a fake for using me to stop thinking about Cloud.”
“But Wedge, a dream is just that, a dream, no one can control the dreams and I can assure you that they mean nothing.”
“They mean something, in her case, that she can't forget Cloud.”
“And what else did you tell her, Wedge?”
“I told her to stop talking to me and go to the Cloud once and for all.”
“And Tifa?”
“She yelled at me, told me not to talk to her anymore and that she wouldn't talk to me.”
Percy shook his head and tore the grass from the ground, then threw it away furiously.
“Wedge, you couldn't, couldn't both control yourselves and shut your mouth," he said to him in exasperation at the end.
“It doesn't matter now, I'll just concentrate on the mission.”
“Wedge!”
“Don't bother me anymore, Percy, and let's stand guard," said Wedge and walked away from the cat boy.
.
.
In the morning, Percy told Lydia what had happened and she looked dismayed.
“I can't believe it, all because of a silly dream and a silly quarrel!”
“What are we supposed to do, Lydia?”
“We have to talk to these two fools, the problem is that we' re arriving in Junon today and we'll be very busy with the mission.”
“But Wedge doesn't want anything to do with Tifa anymore. The plan was for Wedge to win her heart, because he was in love, but now he's not, so what do we do? Are we not intervening anymore?”
“Of course Wedge is still in love with Tifa, but he's hurt and the fact that he's confused keeps him stubborn, but believe me Percy, Wedge surely wants to clear things up with Tifa for good.”
Percy agreed, but as Lydia told him, time was the problem, and indeed, at noon the friends arrived in the city of Junon.
Junon was a coastal town that had lost its way of life because of Shinra, during the war against Wutai, the multinational had covered the whole town with a platform that served to build a new city and military base that also served for the placement of a giant mako cannon. The war ended before the cannon was fired, but Shinra decided not to dismantle the military base and cannon, which greatly affected the ecosystem of the place, leading to famine and despair for the people who once lived there.
“Just like in Midgar, Shinra covered the whole village and now the sun doesn't reach the whole place," said Barrett.
“I hate the way Shinra's people believe they have the right to be the masters of people's lives and dignity.”
The group entered the village and went to the entrance of the base to enter the city, but the guard forbade them to enter because Rufus, the new president of Shinra would arrive and a parade would be held with only the inhabitants of the city and everyone else would be banned from entering.
“What are we going to do now?” Biggs said.
“Let's ask around town, see if there's another entrance we can use," suggested Jesse.
As they approached the beach, they heard the screams of several people, apparently a sea monster had appeared and was attacking a girl named Priscilla.
The group rushed to the girl and could see that she was floating unconsciously near the monster, which would have eaten her by now had it not been for the intervention of a dolphin that distracted the beast, but she was getting tired and began to approach the girl again.
“Somebody do something!” Aerith shouted.
“I'll take care of it!” Wedge shouted and ran straight to the sea, then plunged spectacularly to save the girl.
Wedge swam furiously into the waves and held the girl down. The monster tried to gobble them up but received a shock from Wedge's weapon, which fortunately could also fire underwater.
As the monster was in the sea, the group could not surround him and what is worse, only remote attacks against him worked.
Barrett with his cannon-arm and Percy with his lightning attack were the only ones who could attack the monster at any moment. The others like Yuffie, they could only throw their gun at him once and that was it.
Tifa saw the fight as impotent, because unlike the others, she only used hand-to-hand combat.
“Tifa, take some Healing Materias and together with the others support Barrett and Percy!” Lydia urged him.
“Nanaki! Wedge shouted, Take care of the girl, I'll go and attack the monster too.”
Wedge ran to his two friends and started shooting at the monster.
"Good thing my gun serves as both sword and rifle at the same time," Wedge thought.
The monster was very powerful and defeated Barrett and Percy, then Wedge betting it all, plunged into the sea and drew the monster's attention, who swallowed Wedge in one bite.
“WEDGE!” shouted the members of the group, but when the monster raised its neck, Wedge's sword rifle came out of the monster's muzzle and then the weapon split the monster's muzzle in two, causing it to eject Wedge.
Wedge fell badly into the sand and to top it all off, the monster's inert body nearly crushed him as it collapsed on top of him.
“Wedge, Wedge!” Lydia shouted as she ran to her cousin.
“Don't come near me, Lydia, I'm covered in the monster's blood," Wedge said, but Lydia didn't care and hugged her cousin tightly.
“Don't be silly, I'm not some spoiled princess who values her dress more than her cousin," said Lydia.
“Are you all right, Wedge?” Tifa asked him who looked worried.
Wedge and Tifa looked at each other in silence.
“I'm sorry...” They started saying at the same time when Nanaki called them worried, apparently the girl wasn't breathing.
“We have to give them artificial respiration," Aerith urged.
“Does anyone know how to give artificial respiration?” Yuffie asked, and they all looked at each other shaking their heads.
“I know how to give artificial respiration," nodded Wedge, who had already recovered and arrived at them.
Wedge leaned over to the girl's side and opened her mouth, making sure that she had nothing in her throat, nor that she had swallowed her tongue. He then proceeded to give her mouth-to-mouth.
After a few moments, the girl reacted by expelling the water from her lungs. Wedge took her in his arms and, guided by the locals, took her home.
Wedge arrived at the girl's house and laid her on her bed, tucking her in lovingly and giving her a kiss on the forehead.
“Sleep well, little one," Wedge said with a fatherly gesture.
The locals explained to the group that the girl and her dolphin friend were playing on the beach when the monster appeared, then thanked them, especially Wedge.
“Wedge, you did very well, didn't he girls?” Lydia asked.
“That's right, you were amazing with the monster!” Yuffie said in amazement.
“And the way you went about fighting him," said Jesse.
“How you cut him with your sword to defeat him!” Aerith continued.
“I was referring to how he gave the girl artificial respiration and tucked her in lovingly," Lydia said, looking sadly at her friends, as if they were children who didn't notice anything.
“Wedge," continued Lydia, "you are a man among men.”
“You're right Lydia," said Tifa and everyone looked at her, especially Wedge who blushed.
“We'd better get out," Barrett suggested and everyone decided to leave the room to leave Tifa and Wedge alone.
An embarrassing silence remained in the room, interrupted only by the child's breathing.
“I'm sorry," they tried to say at the same time, interrupting each other, looking at each other and then laughing.
“Forgive me, Tifa, I behaved like a fool, I should never have told you those things, after all it was just a dream.”
“You don't have to apologize, in fact I'm the one who should apologize, I should never have said those hurtful things about not talking to you again, I was the one who behaved like an idiot.”
“Don't say that, Tifa, I'm the one who started it, you should kick me right now.”
“I'm the one who should get kicked.”
“But I made you cry! Again.”
“And I mentioned Cloud!”
The two looked at each other frowning and then began to laugh.
Wedge approached Tifa and took her by the waist.
“Wedge what you're doing!” said a surprised and red Tifa.
“I still think I should make up for the tears," he said and brought his lips to Tifa's lips.
“Where's Mr. Dolphin?” Suddenly the girl said, interrupting what might have been the kiss of the adults, who quickly separated with faces as red as tomatoes.
“Wow, I don't think I'll get it today," Wedge said, and Tifa covered her mouth with a closed fist to avoid laughing.
The three of them came down from the room and met the group in the living room. Priscilla was very impressed with Cloud and proposed to him right there, making the girls laugh.
Priscilla, already recovered, accompanied them to the beach to show them a way to enter the upper city where the parade would take place.
The girl gave Cloud a whistle with which she could call the dolphin and he would help him jump to a beam surrounded by high voltage cables, by that beam Cloud could enter the city if he was careful not to touch the cables.
The girls, including Tifa, begged him not to do something so dangerous, even suggested that Percy take over, which made Lydia look them frowned at.
“I'm sorry, girls," Percy excused himself, "but after the battle with the monster I'm exhausted.”
With this, Cloud was in charge of the task.
“As soon as I entered the city, I will go down to open the entrance for you” Cloud promised them and went to the sea to carry out Priscilla's plan.
.
.
They had a good couple of hours and nothing.
“Lydia, I'm bored.”
“Don't worry, Percy, I'm sure Cloud will show up soon.... I guess.”
“You think so, Lydia?”
“Which sounds better: I hope so or I think so.”
“Fucking asshole, I wonder what the hell he's doing!” Barrett shouted angrily.
“I heard that there's a whole city up there, Cloud is sure to be "freeing" the girls from the bad guys in Shinra," said Yuffie, who along with Lydia were the only girls not drooling over Cloud.
The other girls criticized her but Biggs told them to shut up in anger.
“Lydia, I'm all right now, let me try," Percy asked.
“But it's too dangerous, Percy.”
“Maybe for a human, but not for a cat.”
“All right, but promise me you'll take care of yourself.”
Percy kissed Lydia to reassure her and then transformed herself into a cat, then without the need for wings flew up to the beam and into the complex.
After a few minutes he came back and told them that he had already unlocked the door and that they could pass through.
The speed with which you performed your action was effective," Nanaki praised him and the whole group went to the door. They opened this one and went up to the city by a freight elevator.
“I wonder what happened to Cloud," Tifa said worried.
“As soon as I find him I'm going to hit him," Barrett threatened.
“Don't worry, Tifa, I'm sure he'll be fine," Wedge told her, although his face wasn't convinced.
“Looks like the parade is over," said Aerith.
“Where is Cloud?" groaned Jesse.
The group went to investigate and discovered that soon a huge ship would leave the port of the city for the Costa del Sol, in the boat would go the new president of Shinra, Rufus.
“We must take that ship," Wedge suggested.
“What about Cloud?” Jesse said.
“We can't leave him here," said Aerith.
“It's true, we have to find him," Tifa insisted.
“Calmly girls, knowing Cloud he will manage to get to the boat," Wedge calmly calmed them down and everyone nodded and headed for the boat.
Apparently Shinra's military leader, Heidegger, was taken by surprise by Rufus' visit, and with the parade and everything else, the military surveillance and control of the troops was not optimal, so the group had a good chance to get on board.
“What do we do now?” Biggs asked.
“We have to take some military suits and dress in them, otherwise they'll find out about us," Wedge said and everyone agreed.
“Where will we find the suits?” Yuffie asked.
“I smell that behind that box in the back we'll find Shinra's clothes," Percy pointed out.
The group found militia clothes in a group of boxes and everyone proceeded to dress in them.
“Two suits are lacking. What shall we do?” Tifa asked.
“Percy may go unnoticed as a cat, as for Nanaki, we'll make him look like a trained Shinra dog," Wedge reasoned with what the others nodded.
"Remember, we can't all be together," Wedge told them, "we'll spread out all over the ship and take care of tasks that the real soldiers won't want to do, so we'll get rid of them.”
“What tasks would those be?” Percy asked.
“Well, clean the toilets, move the boxes, clean the deck, that sort of thing and as far away from the other soldiers as possible. We won't be able to eat at halftime either.”
“Don't worry Percy.” Lydia comforted him when she saw the sad face of the cat boy and at that very moment the boat started to move.
Some members of the group went up on the deck and saw the boat move away from Junon.
CONTINUARÁ...
ns 15.158.61.17da2
