Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 1: Arrival

TWENTY

Jessie stood alone in the pillar.

I was a helpless, invisible observer this time, watching as she ducked behind one of the concrete columns and tossed a raspberry at the feet of a group of Shinra soldiers rushing toward her from the far side of the area. They stopped, glancing down just in time to get an explosion to the face. It hurled them to the floor with a deafening blast that drowned out their startled shouts. They didn't get back up.

Jessie walked across the floor, grinning and admiring her handiwork. "How'd you guys like that? Thinking of tweaking my design a bit, making it a bit more potent. Thanks for being my guinea pigs! Got a couple more prototypes if any of your friends show up."

As soon as the words had left her mouth, a sudden breeze swept over the area as a Shinra chopper suddenly flew up from below, its headlights blindingly bright as they swept across her. Jessie whirled around, saw the triple gun barrel mounted under the hull, and her eyes widened. She had just enough time to dive back behind the column before the chopper fired at her, bullets chasing her the entire distance and chewing a trail into the concrete floor right behind her feet.

Jessie looked cautiously past the edge of her cover at the chopper, her brown eyes determined as she stood with her back to the column. "Okay, you bastards. Ready for some shock therapy?"

When she lifted her right arm, I saw she was wearing the iron bangle she'd bought, the Lightning materia fitted neatly into the single slot. Jessie locked her eyes on her target, concentrating on the magic just the way I'd taught her—even though in the waking world, I hadn't done it yet—then stepped out into the open just long enough to unleash a forking blue bolt of electricity at the helicopter. It struck the side of the hull with a sizzling blast that threw the whole thing back for a moment.

Jessie darted behind the column again, and when she opened her belt pouch and took out one of her purple grenades, fear raced through me as I felt my heart constricting in my chest. I wanted to warn her, to stop her somehow, but all I could do was watch, a prisoner of this horrible dream, this vision of a future I hoped would never happen.

"Time to get serious," Jessie muttered, eyeing the chopper as it hovered near the side of the pillar. "Today's your unlucky day, boys, because when I aim for a target, I never miss!"

Speeding away from the column, she had to run again as the chopper opened fire, bullets following after her until she reached the next column and rolled behind it. A moment later, Jessie spun back out into the open, pulled the pin from her grenade, and reached back her arm to throw it as hard and as fast as she could.

At the same time, the chopper flew right toward her, almost touching the outer wall below the guardrail as it fired again, catching Jessie just as she let go of the raspberry. She cried out in pain as bullets ripped into her arm and shoulder and drove her back. One of the chopper's shots caught the grenade just a few seconds later, inadvertently setting it off early, and I saw Jessie's eyes widen just as it exploded.

The blast threw her hard to the floor, spinning her around as it blew up the front of the chopper at the same time. The machine crumpled like a tin can, careening out of control. Jessie landed on her stomach, burned and bleeding, and tried to crawl away as the ruined helicopter fell toward her. But she was too badly hurt, her right arm practically useless and her thigh bleeding where it had been impaled by shrapnel.

Jessie screamed and tried to drag herself away with her good arm as the chopper collapsed on top of her, exploding with the impact. A broken rotor, blown off in the blast, stabbed through her lower back until it burst out of her stomach, stopping her escape attempt in its tracks as a shower of rubble, hull fragments, and other debris finished the job.