Project Rebirth.
Chapter 16 : The Taste of Victory.
Haou shook his head, "Very well..." His yellow eyes flashed, "Koi!! Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark world!!!" [pronounced "rainbow"]
The giant Overlord of Dark world appeared before Haou, "Destroy this weakling....."
Haou continued his way, as Renge and Reign-Beaux covered his retreat.
"Stop!" Namine called, yet soon enough, ShinRa SOLDIERs and warriors surrounded the fight. Raine was nowhere to be found. Cloud and Yuffie then found it time for them to step in.
"Namine, you go after him!" Cloud said.
"Cloud!" Namine called as the soldiers pushed her out of the battle. Something big was going to happen--
Had Haou started a war?
"We can take them, Namine!" Said Yuffie, motioning for her to go after Haou. She was the only one that could even stand a chance against him, let alone catch up with him.
After a pause, Namine nodded and used her speed skills to cut off his escape.
"I said..." she began, menacingly, "surrender, or die." she finished, taking his words and shoving them back in his face.
Haou nodded, "A very persistent girl you are... Why do you honestly care?" Said Haou, shaking his head.
"If you're going to risk your life just to fight me... go ahead. I'll just kill you!"
Namine frowned as she stated; "I care, because..."
A long pause followed, her hand became a fist. "I've already lost one person....." Slowly raising her Masamune in the air to fight, she finished quickly.
"I won't lose L to you!" She said, charging at him with the speed of her wing, going to stab him from the front, yet disappeared and appeared again behind him and held something in her hand.
"This is called Holy... The White Materia..." She said, holding a small teal orb the color of her eyes, yet it had white ripples in it. "I will not call on it's power to separate you and L!" She said, putting her hands together.
Cloud didn't know she possessed the white materia...
Little did they know, she had the black materia as well, which she found when searching with Kadaj in Nibelheim.
A bright glow surrounded them, hopefully separating the two into separate bodies.
Haou looked from L back to Namine, "Kusso... I have nothing to work with. I'm completely powerless until Silvva gets here..."
"Renge! Stop standing there and come help me! Reign-beaux, kill her already!!"
Cloud and Yuffie then blocked his warriors' paths, aided by SOLDIER warriors that had them surrounded in a large circle of First Class SOLDIERS.
Namine smirked noticeably and snickered. "What's the matter, Haou?" She asked, "No advantage against me?"
She then began to laugh even louder. The thought that they all had doubted her from the beginning just seemed so amusing to her now.
Haou started to look angrier and angrier. "What are you doing?? Kill them!! Kill all of them!!!!!" He yelled out to his soldiers.
They didnt budge.
"Reign-Beaux... are you telling me your just going to surrender to these weaklings!?"
Reign-beaux looked away, "We're outnumbered, Haou... not to mention your basically her prisoner. None of us dare make a move or else we risk your life...."
Haou cursed under his breath, "You insignificant bastards!! I know Silvva or Goldd wouldn't just give up!!"
"However, Silvva's miles away fighting right now... and Goldd is back in Junon....."
Haou heaved himself up, "If none of you will do anything, then I'll fight!!" He charged at Namine, wielding one of the soldiers swords.
Namine frowned as he ran towards her with a new weapon; he didn't seem experienced enough to use it, though. She had to think of something that would finish him off, so she could at least try to stop the others on his side.
Little did she know, there was someone already on Silvva's trail...
Namine glared fiercely up at him and used the Masamune to block his attack.
"Not on my watch, Haou!" She said angrily as she fought off the opposing entity, who at the time seemed blind from the battle with rage.
Two soldiers dove in to protect Haou, and with their useless movements a battle broke out between Haou and the SOLDIER's.
Deep in Haou's head he knew that this would buy him time for Silvva to bring his reinforcements and end everything right here and now.
"Stop right there!" Came a spunky young male voice from behind Silvva and his reinforcements...
Namine backed away from the fight, shaking her head. She held her hands up for a minute after sheathing her sword. "The planet..." she said mystically, her voice was smooth and dark. Suddenly, comets came falling down around her like she did before. Circling around, they'd hopefully hit anyone opposing her-- it would even hit Cloud and Yuffie if they hadn't gotten out of the way for the landing, and dodged them as they circled around.
Pointing at Haou after this, she made sure the barrier was still secure around L before unleashing a final, humongous meteor against Haou.
"That... is true power."
Most of the people from either side had just been killed, leaving Haou and only a few of his soldiers along with Namine, Cloud, Yuffie, and L.
Haou was unscathed. With this, it was clear to everyone.... there was only one way to defeat him.
"Namine..." L said, slowly getting up, "I'm the only one who can do this....."
Namine stared at L, who was still in the barrier.
"Ryuzaki-kun..." She began, "What do you mean?"
"Let him." Yuffie said, nodding at Namine. Most of the SOLDIERs were killed, and being supportive of what she thinks is right, Yuffie gave Namine a strong look as she agreed to let L take care of this.
"I don't want you to get hurt." She said, looking away with her Masamune in hand. She hesitated, not wanting L to step out of that barrier... but if he was the only one that could defeat Haou, then he could try...
Though, if something happened to L, Namine always could take Sephiroth's offer-- to be his successor and destroy many worlds in their wake.
"He only exists by the strain he has over me. By the darkness in my heart that he feeds off of..." L said, crawling to his feet. "And the more I fight back internally, the weaker he gets!"
He started to stagger over to Haou, "I will... defeat you!!" The two came up to eachother and immediately they were linked spiritually.
Inside their minds, they were their regular selves again. L kicked Haou in the face, as he usually did to fight people. Haou grabbed his ankle and hurled him across the floor.
"You ignorant piece of trash!" said Haou, outloud and in his head, "I'll kill you!!"
Namine frowned as she kept her attention on Haou and L. Cloud and Yuffie were still keeping a watchful eye on the rest in the battle. The whole fight depended on L, now...
And... he's just a detective-- your every day human, otherwise...
Namine didn't think so, yet she was still iffy about this inner battle.
Though fighting strong, Cloud kept an eye on Namine; glancing at her every few minutes to make sure she would be okay. She, indeed, was okay. She was perfect, physically... yet mentally, she was going insane.
L had quickly gotten up and charged at Haou again, this time he threw a punch at him, which was easily blocked and reversed on him.
"Pathetic.... You know that you have no purpose but to serve as my host now. You have nothing else to live, not a friend in the world, not a home to go back to. You might as well just surrender now." Said Haou.
Namine suddenly heard in her mind-- "Not a friend in the world, not a home to go back to. You might as well just surrender now..."
Her fists tightened on the Masamune, but she was then shaking.
"What have I done?" She asked herself. "I can't support him, I've turned into a... a monster." She continued, then shook her head as a few tears dropped down her cheeks, only then realizing what she'd turned into compared to what she had been when she met L.
Would he even look at her the same if they made it out of this?
Did he even love her anymore?
"Come back!" Namine yelled to the sky; she didn't mean L, nor did she mean Kadaj. She meant the old days...
She meant how things were before she ran away.
She fell to her knees without noticing; all she saw were flashbacks of her past. With Sora, with L, with the organization, and with Kadaj. All the events in her life rushed through her head up until now.
She honestly thought she was fading...
"Namine..! Namine!" Cloud's voice came as he looked over at the nobody, who's eyes were set on the sky. Only then had she regained consciousness.
A mental breakdown was in order...
"How can you actually say that..?" Said L, getting up again, heat from the ground began to rise up around him, "How can you say I don't have any friends? You've seen my entire life, and you're really that stupid to count out Namine?"
His hand started to ball into a fist, "It's because of her that everything you said is a lie!!" He cried, while running at Haou once again.
With each step, the darkness in his heart began to fade and Haou grew weaker. Finally, L had attacked Haou, and stabbed straight through him.
"Shi-sh-shiranai...." Haou muttered, "Impossible....!"
Haou had faded away, completely demoralizing the Dark World soldiers. The battle had ended, L regained consciousness and fell to the ground, staring up at Namine.
It was about this time that Namine's eyes were glowing teal once again, yet wider then ever before.
"..." She remained silent, not really paying much attention. She seemed off in her own world.
Her flashbacks had progressed, eventually showing her.....
She shook her head slowly as Cloud rushed over to her and knelt down next to her, hands on her shoulders and shaking her gently-- hopefully enough to snap her out of the trance she was in.
"Namine..!" He hissed. She finally blinked and shook her head faster to look at Cloud, then L.
"..." She looked around.
"It's over," Cloud said, looking up at the destruction of the battle. "We've won." He said.
L had defeated Haou, and Namine was stronger then ever.
She even rivaled Sephiroth...
"Well-- this is a surprise." Came a female voice from above. They looked up to spot another airship.
"Raine..." Namine mumbled.
"Get back up, girl." She said, Namine then frowned and wobbled to her feet.
"I don't take orders from you." She said.
Raine simply laughed as she looked down at them. "It looks like you've won." She said. "Good job..."
"Huh?" Namine tilted her head to the side before witnessing yet another escape of Raine ShinRa.
"She's gone." Cloud said, standing up as well while Yuffie approached L.
"You okay?" She asked softly, leaning over to see if he was wounded or not.
Back in Junon, Goldd still remained in command.
Shinra would soon attempt to take back Junon and Edge, and bring back their reign over the world.
Light Yagami would probably be with Raine at the moment. However, the assassin group that was targetting L, most likely hired by Light, had been eliminated.
L looked up at Namine, "Yeah... I'm perfectly f-" He paused and put his hand over his side, Haou had stabbed him with the sword he had before.
Namine looked over at L. She regained her calm front after hearing the voice of Raine...
She still had a job to do, though something about Raine was different...
Though she payed no mind to it as she ran over to aid L. "Lawliet....?" She began quietly, unsure of what to do. His pain seemed to be more internal, due to the battle being mentally fought.
"We have to heal him..." Cloud said.
"Yes, but we have to get rid of the rest of the opposing force to save this world... if we don't do so, then we won't have much time left before this world spirals downward..." She said quietly.
"We have to stop them." Yuffie said.
"But L..." Cloud then pointed out again.
Namine looked at him for a moment and held a materia in her hand for a moment. "Hold still..." She said, then holding his hand and a glow came from the materia.
"...any better?" She asked.
His eyes grew wide, "How did you do that....?" He shook his head, "Forget it... you've done a lot of things much weirder than that...." said L.
He got up and started to walk off with them, "We have to move against Goldd, but in order to do so... we have to demoralize them the way we did here. Before we make any sort of move, we have to send a messenger to tell them the bad news. Without Haou, they have no cause... they'll have a thirst for revenge, but besides that they're just a band of soldiers with no leader."
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