Disclaimer : I don't own The Turks and all the other characters. Squaresoft does.
Author's Notes : Rewritten. Hopefully it's better. While the basic plotline remains the same, I decided to change the characterization because I think that I didn't do them any justice the last time.
I extended the original battle scene so if you are not into that kind of thing, skip forward.
"I hate snow!"
Elena kicked the offensive white substance in front of her. She scowled when she felt some of it going down her shoes.
"I hate getting wet and cold!"
She tightened her jacket around her petite body and pushed her damp hair out of her face.
"And most of all...," she glared at the lanky red-haired man beside her, "I hate you!"
"Babe, relax. It's not like we are lost", Reno comforted her unconvincingly. He was not in the best mood to deal with Elena's tantrum. His only pack of cigarettes was wet from the blizzard earlier and icicles were literally forming at the tips of his spiky hair.
"Not lost?" Elena glared at Reno indignantly, "We have been wandering around this shit-hole for six hours! We are definitely freakin' lost!" she screamed.
Reno ignored her curses and pulled out a damp, crumpled map and started studying it intently. "Don't worry, Lena, I finally figured out where we are," he said in a definitive tone.
Elena was so visibly impressed at his efforts that she allowed a small smile. "Well, where are we then?" she said encouragingly.
"We're right there!" he pointed confidently at a spot on the map.
She stared at the spot marked by Reno's finger.
And she looked up at his smirking face, her smile disappearing slowly.
She shot another glimpse at the map, mouth gaping in disbelief.
"Reno, you dumbass!" she screamed at him, her face had now turn red with rage, "That's not the map of the Northern Crater! It's a map of Gongaga!"
"What? How did you know that?"
"It says right here on the label. 'Gongaga', freakin' Gongaga! Plus, you were holding it upside down. Did you think I was so retarded that you could get away with that?"
Reno flashed an irritating smirk at her.
"Don't answer that," Elena said, her shoulders slumped dejectedly. She was too drained to argue with him again. It was cold and her feet hurt from walking.
"I just happened to grab the wrong map when we were leaving," he shrugged nonchalantly, the fact that they were lost in the Northern Crater did not seem to faze him, "But I guarantee you, with my navigation skills, we'll get out of here in no time".
Elena groaned.
It was his 'navigational skills' that got them here in the first place.
Shinra had sent them to the Crater to investigate about reports of some strange monsters around the area. Reno had to land the helicopter in the middle of nowhere when the blizzard hit. When they tried to start it again, the engine sputtered weakly before dying off. It has apparently suffered more damage than anticipated. As both of them had no required skills to repair a helicopter (although Reno attempted to convince Elena otherwise), Elena suggested that they should walk to find the nearest shelter before contacting Rude.
"Look, give me the damn compass. I will try to navigate our asses out of here," Elena said exasperatedly, "Icicle Village is about west of the crater. If we find that village, we can somehow contact Rude and ask him to come get us."
Reno looked at her sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head.
"Well, give it!" Elena demanded.
"Oops."
Elena eyes narrowed at his expression.
"Please tell me you brought the compass."
"Well I forgot," he said in the most apologetic tone that he could muster. "But no matter, I will use my sun navigation skills to get us out of here."
"Sun… navigation?" Elena repeated after him slowly, as if trying to comprehend his words.
"Yeap, I saw it on the TV the other day. It's great and it works. Some dude used it to find his way back from the dessert."
He stared into the sky, which was fogged up. "But, I guess it doesn't work in the Northern Crater".
Elena made an inaudible noise under her breath.
Reno looked at her, "Hmm? What…?"
Before he could get the rest the words out, Elena had punched him square in his jaw. Reno staggered backwards in pain. He had forgotten how strong she was despite her size.
"OW! You bitch! What the hell was that for?"
"You son of a bitch! Thanks to you and your incompetence, we are going to die here!"
"Hey! It wasn't entirely my fault!" protested Reno.
"I let you take care of one thing, Reno. One thing! And even then you managed to screw up! What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I don't comprehend nagging very well, Elena. If you'd stop bitching then I probably would've listened to you. But no, you had to go on and on about that stupid compass!"
Elena threw her hands in the air with defeat. She turned to him and screamed in frustration, "There are no words to explain how much I hate you right now!"
They were both now face to face, trying to glare down each other. Elena's cheeks were tinted red from frostbite and anger. Noticing that he was starting to wear her down, Reno smirked.
"Look, instead of throwing a hissy fit, why don't we just sit down and think about what to do next? Put our energies into good use," suggested Reno
"No," Elena answered simply.
"No?"
"No, I am not going to sit down here with you and listen to anymore of your stupid ideas," she said and crossed her arms huffily.
"What DO you want to do then, o' queen?" said Reno sarcastically. His patience was wearing thin.
Elena rolled her eyes at his sarcasm and turned to walk away from Reno.
She shuddered as she felt something cold slide down the back of her shirt. Reno had thrown a snowball at her. She steeled her resolve not to turn around and punch him again.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" he shouted after her.
"Getting the hell away from you!" she countered.
Reno was startled by her answer for a moment before deciding to make a move to try to reason with her. Then he stopped short and decided that he wasn't going to deal with bitchy Elena today. He had tried to be nice and obviously, Elena was too PMS-y to notice that.
"Well, fine then! Fuck off!" he yelled after her and turned to start walking in the opposite direction.
Reno's curse reverberated around her as she walked further away. At that instant, she regretted her rash decision to separate from Reno. If she was stuck in the middle of nowhere with any other person besides him, she would have thought twice before making that move. Unfortunately, with Reno, everything she said and did was just purely out of instinct. He knew how to push her buttons (and not in a good way).
Even though it was a bad idea to go their separate ways in this alien land, she'd be damned if she was going to run after him like some damsel in distress.
Two hours after dragging her soggy shoes across the barren snow lands, Elena was tired, hungry and cold. There were no villages or shelters or even a monster in sight.
"Godamnit, Reno!" she cursed the absent red-head for getting her into her current predicament.
"Stupid Reno and his stupid brains," she muttered to herself.
When she finally noticed a rock in the distance, she almost cheered. Never in her life had she been so glad to see a plain, ol' boring rock, but after walking two hours in white powder, she would be happy to see anything that looked like something. She quickened her pace and reached the rock in five large strides. She noticed that she must be on a higher altitude due to her lack of breathe after the short burst of speed. She planted herself on the rough surface of the rock for a rest.
She opened her water bottle and proceeded to drain it to quench her thirst. She then added some snow (making sure it wasn't yellow) into the bottle to refill it. Studying her surroundings once again, she noticed that it had gotten considerably darker. She frowned as she recalled that the Northern Crater has 24 hour sunshine in July.
Plop.
She felt a large droplet of rain on her shoulder. She scowled; her day has just gotten fifty times better. Elena moved her hands to swipe the liquid out of her jacket and noted the strange consistency. It definitely did not feel like rain.
Plop.
She looked up when another droplet fell on her suit and it wasn't dark clouds she saw; it was a pair of shining red eyes and a huge, gaping mouth with droplets of drool hanging from it. Her first reaction was to stand up and put as much distance between her and the monster as possible.
"Ew," was her next reaction when she realized that she had monster drool all over her.
She studied her opponent with a practiced eye. This could be one of the strange monsters that the locals were complaining about and made a note to include it into her field report. It looked like a cross between a scorpion and a Stilva and its body was seven feet long. She estimated the tail to be about twice the length with a pointed end. There is a high chance that it had poison on the tips of the tail. Her Turk instincts kicked in and she started thinking about ways to strategically deal with the monster.
At the same time carefully observed the movements of the giant scorpion to ensure that she wasn't impaled by its tail. All of a sudden, the scorpion jerked its tail upwards slightly and before Elena could even blink, the pointed end was headed towards her. She leaped out of the way just in time as tail grazed her shoulder jacket and took off some cloth material.
She let out an audible sigh of relief when she realized that it missed her.
Elena glanced at her bracelet to quickly examine the materia equipped and grinned. Reno had done well equipping it. She heard another swishing sound and managed to avoid the tail again before it came crashing down.
Let's see how you like fire, ugly piece of shit, Elena thought with a smirk.
The green fire materia orb glowed as she activated her strongest fire spell. She directed the attack towards the scorpion and watched as it was engulfed by flame. She grinned triumphantly at her victory.
Her grin faded when the monster emitted a loud howl. It wasn't a dying howl, it had more of a pissed off vibe to it. When the monster emerged from the smoke unscathed, Elena cursed. It must be immune to magic.
It's time for some good ol' physical action then Elena, she told herself.
She took off her thick outer jacket for easy access to her guns that were tucked comfortable in the holsters. In her mind, she was already formulating a fool-proof plan to get rid of the monster once and for all.
"One", she counted softly.
The blood roared in her ears and the adrenaline started to pump. She reached for her guns and released the safety. The monster seemed to sense her movement and starting making its way towards her, its tail swinging dangerously.
"Two."
She placed herself in a crouching position, her eye keeping in contact with the ruby red ones that were staring back. She had no room for error in the plan. It had to be perfect. The scorpion's tail started to make a movement.
"Three!"
The pointed end torpedoed into her direction as she rolled away.
She recovered quickly, got onto one knee and pulled out her guns in a well-practiced draw.
Pap! Pap!
She fired two shots, one from each semi-automatic, right into the monster's beady red eyes. It let out a great howl of pain when it felt its eyes blown out of their sockets.
Now it's starting to get really pissed off, Elena grinned to herself.
The movements of its tail becoming more and more erratic as it stabbed around for the target. Elena navigated her way out of the tail's reach and prepared herself for the next phase of her offensive. Holstering one gun, she tightened her grip on the other and walked slowly to the left, placing herself twenty yards away from the giant legs.
The monster had not noticed any of her movements as it continued to jab the ground in front of it aimlessly. This gave her plenty of time to choose the most strategic position for her plan.
Elena raised her gun and used the other hand to steady it at the butt. She lined herself up for her shot and took a deep breathe.
"Just like target practice," she muttered to herself, "Slow and steady."
Pap!
The first shot was a bulls-eye; she had hit its kneecap. Or at least that's what she called it, she was by no means a monster anatomy expert. She had guessed that the joint was a soft tissue and it seems that it was the right guess.
The next two shots were right on the mark as well. She knew she had hit the jackpot when the monster started to favour its right side as its left legs were completely incapacitated.
She dashed forwards and slid in between the legs to position herself under its body.
Bingo! As she had suspected, the underbelly of the monster was hidden underneath the tough husk on the outside. She reloaded her gun, drew the other and started pumping the monster's soft flesh full of bullets. It was no easy feat as the monster thrashed around and howled when each bullet pierced its skin.
She emptied both cartridges underneath the monster and rolled out to the right side. Reloading again, she planted a bullet in each of the soft tissue on the three legs. The .45 did its job as it ripped the monster's limbs apart. Now losing the mobility of all six limbs, the monster fell onto the ground with a great thud.
Approaching the monster cautiously, she shot it between the eyes until no more bullets came out. Bits of flesh and monster scalp sprayed onto her white shirt. The monster let out a final howl and went silent. Elena knew that victory was hers but she did let her guard down as she examined the monster.
It was at the very last minute that she noticed that while the monster had collapsed, its tail was still up in the air. With a slight twitch, the tail was ready to strike. In her examination, she had unknowingly stepped directly into the tail's target zone.
"Shit!" She cursed out loud and maneuvered to the side in an attempt to avoid getting impaled.
However, her reaction was a fraction too late. As the tail went pass her, she felt a searing pain on her left arm. Instinctively, she grabbed her wound. She could feel the blood already soaking through the fabric. Recognizing that it was not the time to cradle her wounds, she was trying to form exit strategies in her head. When one particular thought crossed her mind, she grinned.
It's what Reno would do.
She reached into her pouch that is straddling her hip and pulled out a hand grenade. Using her teeth to pull out the pin, she stuffed it into the monster's gaping mouth and took off as fast as she could. Within four seconds, there was loud boom and Elena was propelled forwards by the force of the explosion. She landed face first into snow and felt monster matter splatter all over her.
"Ugh," she muttered through a mouthful of snow. There is still ringing in her ears from the explosion but it was the least of her worries; the blood from her wound had pooled on the snow and it was the first time she noticed the real extent of injuries.
The adrenaline that was in her system previously was wearing out. Groggily, she attempted to apply as much pressure as she could onto the wound, but her body wasn't cooperating. The only signal her brain was sending seemed to be 'lie down and sleep'.
Yeah, her subconscious told her, you did well. Sleep sounds pretty damn good.
The last thing she heard were hasty footsteps and a familiar voice shouting profanities at her as her eyes fluttered close.
"Fuckin' hell Elena!"