I Never Let Her Die! (Aerith x Male Gamer Reader)

Disk 01: Chapter 05: Teenage Wutaiian Ninja Nuisance

Our passage through the Mythril Mines was almost exactly as I expected it to be. Of course, like everything else they were much larger than depicted in the game, but otherwise everything was right. After nearly four hours of spelunking, I was starting to get worried that our timing might be off. After all, there had been no sign of the Turks, and I grew concerned that we were early or, worse, late. At least Barrett's mining experience rendered it unlikely that we could get lost.

Then, from up ahead, we heard the sounds of voices. Cloud and I snuck ahead while everyone else stayed slightly back. We peered over a ledge into a large mine chamber. The Turks were there, but in the darkness of the mine, with only two heads peaking down, they didn't see us. I realized we were in fact late, but only by a few minutes, when Elena said "We'll track down Sephiroth. He's in route to Junon."

"Turks here?" Tifa asked after they had moved on.

"Sephiroth killed the former President. Shinra wants him as badly as we do."

Tifa punched her left fist into her right hand. "No. After what he did to Nibelheim, he's ours."

"Then let's keep moving." Barrett said. "We're almost to the western entrance."

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I was surprised when we arrived at Fort Condor to discover no sign of an impending Shinra attack. The Fort's defenders recognized Barrett as Avalanche and allowed us in. The single day and night's stay at the fort was a welcome rest, though I was concerned by the absence of assaults, given that such should have been taking place. "Another difference." I thought, and asked the Fort Commander about the battles.

"When we first took over the mountain." He explained. "Shinra was attacking us with ground troops almost every day. A few months ago they backed off. Probably afraid of damaging the materia stores in the reactor."

"So they've given up completely?" Tifa asked.

"Aw hell no... In fact, it's just about that time of day... C'mon, lemme show you something..." The commander led us up to the roof and pointed out to the south. The land there was in a shambles, pockmarked with hundreds of craters.

"What did this?" Red asked.

The commander jumped at Red speaking, but recovered smoothly. "Just wait. You'll see in a minute."

Within a few minutes, I became aware of the low drone of aircraft engines, approaching from the direction I guessed Junon was in. A trio of enormous Gelnika-type bombers lumbered into view, opened their bomb bay doors, and plastered the area to the south with explosives.

"They're trying to scare us into submission." The commander said. "This is their way of saying 'We don't even have to fight to destroy you.' Apparently, we're supposed to be too dumb to know they want the reactor intact."

Red shook his head. "Evil always underestimates it's opponents. That's why it loses."

Barrett stared down at him. 'Damn. I like that."

"Maybe you should make it our motto." Tifa replied.

"Damn straight... I just might..."

Afterwards, we were invited to stay for the night, and accepted.

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Several days later we were passing through a dense forest. Barrett had warned everyone to keep a careful watch for lurking predators, but thus far nothing had appeared. Even Red said he didn't detect the scent of anything dangerous, and this was upsetting him because it wasn't normal. "Barrett is correct." Red said. "A forest like this should be swarming with dangerous creatures... And I do in fact scent the former presence of such... But there's been nothing for over a week..."