THE ZODIAC WAR
^ _ ` a b c d e f g h i

Chapter 18: Everyone's Grudge

Ramza's party was currently distracted at the moment, keeping their eyes open for a light source outside of the cave, when Zidane stopped for a moment and said, "Do I hear.....water?" Sure enough, a loud rapid dripping sound was echoing off both sides of the cave wall, but due to the echo, it was hard to locate where the sound was coming from.

As they walked further down the path they discovered an enlarged opening in the cave. Down the middle of the cave floor a river was slowly flowing to some odd location, there was enough phosphorus here to light up the whole cave. And something else, a low gleam caught the corner of Zidane's eye. "What's that light?," he wondered. Then as they walked along the river to see if there was a way to cross it, they saw some strange reeds poking out of the ground, in very odd patterns...

"What are these?" Garnet asked as she pulled at one.

Zidane glanced in horror and said, "Wait a minute, I've seen these traps before--don't pull th---!!!"

In a second, the party was trapped inside a large reed cube cage.

"Don't pull the reeds, damn Tonberry traps, I should've known..." he slapped his forehead.

The cube was then hoisted mechanically in the air.

"Well, at least these aren't spike traps...." Ramza said dryly.

An army of little lanterns floated underneath the cube they were suspended in. Then one light lit up to show a very large greenish creature with a little crown on the side of his head.

"Tressssssshpassssssshersssss...," said the Tonberry King, "how very annoying, we don't like to ssshee people here, we hate people, yesssssssh!"

The ground was filled with hissing and clanking of Chef's Knives, and a chant, "Kill, rip, tear, sssssshkewer, sssssssshhhisssssshhkabob them!"

The Tonberry King said, "You hear them? Thisssssssh isssssh what we do to tresssssssshpassssssshersssss....."

Zidane was really nervous with all the knives around, "Heh-heh---can't we....um...ulp....make a deal with you...?"

The large green creature thought for a moment, then with a smile said, "Sssssshorry no deal!!!"

"Aww c'mon, we were just passing through!"

Garnet said in her sweetest voice, "Pretty please?"

"Hmmm....., your female is very pleasssshing, but......nope, we're having human sssssshtew tonight!" the monster licked his lips in pleasure.

"Your roundnesssssh, the sssshchizo-dragon issssh coming!" said a servant, "we musssssht flee!"

"Great....." Zidane said with a false grin, "Out of the frying pan and into the fire."

"Dragon-fire that is..." said Ramza with a smirk.

"Shut the hell up! I'm trying to cut us free!" Agrias said sawing away at the reeds with her sword.

"You sure you want to do that...considering the fact that all the tonberries cleared out of here because of one thing: a schizo-dragon?" Zidane asked sardonically.

"I've fought several schizo-dragons before--what makes you so sure about this one being different?" Agrias said.

"Umm--lemme see, oh yeah, IT'S FRIGGIN BIGGER THAN A HOUSE!!!" Zidane pointed behind her, "take a good look Xena-Warrior-Princess..."

"Oooookaaay...." Ramza said wide-eyed, "We're in BIG trouble now!!!"

"There, I've cut us loose--now let's get out of here!" Agrias said.

"Better idea.....RUN LIKE MAD! IT'S SEEN US!" Zidane yelled.

The large blue and red beast stomped after them splashing large waves in the river. It wasn't that hard for them to see where they were running to as each of the monster's fiery and icy breath attacks lit up the whole path, but for some reason it only seemed capable of firing it's fiery breath, and Ramza saw why: inside the blue half of the dragon's maw was Aeris!

Ramza made a quick turn about and drew his sword--he wasn't about to let an ally be made dragon food. Agrias followed suit, while Zidane readied his Tower, the twin thief's blade. Garnet cast a shell spell around the party to protect them from the fiery blasts. Ramza and Agrias attacked consecutively, each swatted away like flies, leaving Zidane to protect Garnet.

"Come on! Let's rock! You sorry excuse for a siamese twin!" Zidane taunted.

As the dragon was about to strike, a water spell hit it's fiery side, making it spin about in confusion.

"Who was that! Cloud is that you!"

"Sorry, Schizo, you can't have my girl! You're gonna pay for taking her!" Cloud said as he drew his tremendously large Ultima Sword, which seemed to gleam even in total darkness.

Rage built up inside of Cloud and was channelled through the sword, and he quickly performed a cross-slash, paralyzing the creature.

"Let's finish him off, Cloud, you strike left, I'll strike right--!!" Sephiroth said quickly.

The two teamed up to perform a cross-up slash attack which an instant after it was performed slit the throats of both the dragon's heads. When the ice head of the dragon dropped Aeris, Cloud caught her in a heartbeat.

She was unconscious, but breathing and unharmed....

"....thank God......." Cloud breathed, as she opened her eyes, now fully awake.

"Thank you, Cloud, you saved me." Aeris said as she stood up.

"It...wasn't just me, I couldn't have done it without Sephiroth," Cloud winced, he couldn't believe he had just said that.

Ramza got up and brushed the dirt off his mantle, no serious injuries. Agrias had a slight dent in her armor after being swatted by the beast, but no worse for the wear. Zidane and Garnet also breathed a sigh of relief as they saw with amazement the giant dragon being killed by two men in two slices.

"No wonder Cloud hated the evil Sephiroth, this guy could really do some damage..." Zidane thought.

Cloud and Sephiroth looked at each other knowingly, they knew exactly what they were capable of. And Cloud, for the first time in his life, was able to trust Sephiroth. The two sheathed their swords and looked at Ramza for what to do next.

"Well...," Ramza scratched his head, "two of our parties found each other, now it's just a matter of time before we find Alma, Reis, Beowulf, and Delita, and get to the white cavern and get out of here."

On to Chapter 19 >>>>

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