Chapter VIII | The Silver Dragon

THE CITY OF EDGE WAS ON FIRE.

Alya could smell blood and ash and burning in the air.

"What-" Alya started, lifting her eyes to the sky. Smoke billowed out in swathes of silver and white, and hanging in the midst of it all, flaming bronze and silver-

a dragon.

Vincent's eyes clouded when he saw the monster in the sky, his hands reaching automatically for his guns.

"What's happening?" Alya said as he turned to her, his face once again cloaked in shadow, hidden and defensive.

"Find somewhere to hide," he said promptly.

"But... what about you? What are you going to do?"

"I have to protect the city," was all he said, before running off, black and silver and red. She watched him go, disappearing into the shadows, and clenched her teeth.

Hide? She couldn't hide. Not while her city was burning. Not while people needed help.

Instead, she ran towards the flames.

People screamed around her.

She could taste blood and fire and fear in the air. Ash floated down like blackened petals, hot and stinging on her skin. She ran towards Monument Square, breathing hard between her teeth, keeping an eye on the sky and the flames so she could avoid the ash fall.

Everywhere was chaos. People ran as creatures materialised from nothing but shadow and dove for them, clawing and tearing. The Monument, another sickening tribute to ShinRa, was now crumbling to pieces beneath the weight of the dragon, raining dust and rock and steel.

The children who had been taken by the remnants were here, like Vincent had said. They formed a defensive ring around the structure, swaying on their feet, their faces slack and expressionless.

Alya stumbled as one of the shadow creatures appeared in front of her, rearing back its grotesque head, and she ducked quickly around it, never slowing as she headed straight towards the children, driven by nothing but fear and adrenaline.

She reached a small girl in a torn jumper first, taking her by the shoulders. "Hey, it's not safe here," she said, shaking her urgently. "Come on, we need to go." The girl barely blinked, staring blankly past Alya's head. She reached for the boy next to her instead, tugging on his arm. He didn't stir either. "Come on, please wake up. It's not safe."

"Hey, lady, get outta there!" A voice shouted behind her, and she threw a hasty glance over her shoulder to see who it belonged to. A young man with a long red ponytail was struggling to carry two children beneath his arms, the typical ShinRa-assigned logo on his blazer. She scowled at him.

"I have to help the children," she shouted back, before turning away and trying once more to snap the young girl out of her daze. She cursed silently under her breath, feeling the shadow of the dragon pressing down from above her. If they didn't move soon, they'd be crushed - by the monster, or the falling debris.

The dragon screamed suddenly above them, and Alya clamped her hands over her ears at the sound of grinding metal, the crunching of steel teeth.

And then the monument was falling. A heavy black shadow, coming closer and closer.

Breathing quickly between her teeth, Alya threw her arms over the children closest to her, doubling over to protect them from the falling structure.

Metal screeching, crumbling, falling, rending apart-

-and then the impact, hitting the ground, shaking the earth around them. Alya held tight to the children in her arms, not knowing what else to do. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for something to hit her.

And then it was over.

The shadow above her was gone.

She peered cautiously over her arms as the children groaned underneath her, and saw that the monument had completely gone - a pile of smoke and dust and broken pieces of debris.

"Ngh, what's happening?" The girl whimpered underneath her, and Alya quickly helped her and the others to their feet. Their faces were smudged with dirt and ash, but they appeared unharmed.

"You need to run, all of you," she told them, staring at the chaos and destruction around her. People were still screaming and running as flames licked the ground and ruins fell from the sky. "Get out of here. Now!"

She squeezed the girl's hand once, then let go, watching them run through the chaos.

Please get out of here safely, she whispered in her head.

Then she turned to survey the scene, and glimpsed a flash of silver through the smoke, and a smile like a razor's edge.

Her blood went hot with anger, and she felt her hands begin to tremble. The silver-haired strangers. The remnants. The ones who had caused all this destruction to her city.

Barely thinking, driven by nothing but the anger she felt, Alya lunged-

-and was promptly pulled back, a strong hand on her shoulder. A young girl with short brown hair and an almost sheepish grin stood behind her. "Maybe sit this one out, yeah? A friend of mine told me to look out for you."

A friend-

"V-Vincent?"

"The one and only. If you want to stay, try and help some of the injured get out of here. And take this - in case you need some help." The girl tossed a glowing red orb towards her, and Alya caught it clumsily as the stranger was already running into the fray, twirling a shuriken between her fingers.

Alya stared down at the materia in her hands. She'd never seen one up close before, though she'd heard about them. She knew the Sanctuary had some healing materia they sometimes used to treat the really sick children, but she'd never seen it in action. She didn't even know how to use it. Clipping it quickly to her belt, Alya turned her back on the fight. The girl was right. She was no good in the middle of a battle without weapons. Her help was needed where it always had been - amongst the sick and injured.

From the corner of her eye, Alya saw something materialise out of the air, something made of black shadows and glinting white bone - heading straight for a boy laying crumpled on the ground. Without wasting a second, Alya dashed forward, throwing out her hands to ward the creature away from the child-

-and was blinded by a flash of red, sudden and bright, enveloping the creature in flames.

She blinked, and then the creature was gone, reduced to ash and silver at her feet.

She stared around, looking for whoever had helped her, but nobody had even noticed.

Then she glanced down, and saw the materia was glowing softly at her waist. She didn't know how, but it had worked, and they were safe.

She turned and helped the boy to his feet, brushing the dirt and blood off his face before sending him running to safety.

Before she could take another step, Alya felt herself swaying on her feet.

She felt faint all of a sudden, her muscles aching, as if using the materia had taken something out of her.

Unless it was something else, something inside her-

Poison, in her blood. The Geostigma.

She coughed, and all of a sudden there was red on her hands, and burning in her throat, and sickness in her lungs and in her veins and in her bones.

She stumbled, her legs giving way, and fell heavily to the ground, her knees buried in ash and dust.

No, no, no, not now, please not now, she pleaded, gripping her arms tight with her fingers, nails digging into skin, trying to ground herself, not get lost in the darkness. Please not now. I don't have time. I need to help them-

Her vision was starting to darken around the edges, blurring like raindrops on a window. She was going to pass out, and maybe she wouldn't wake up this time. She could feel the disease inside her, moving through her body, tainting her blood. She could feel things slipping out of her grasp, getting further and further away from her.

She tipped her head back, looking at the sky.

It was raining ash and dust and fire.

The world around her had turned ugly all of a sudden, full of blood and smoke. A warzone. She could smell death, and sorrow, and pain.

And she was going to die right in the middle of it all.

Her body went limp, and the darkness took over, and everything felt strange, everything felt distant and broken and wrong.

She could still hear things. She could still feel the ground below her.

Movement around her, rumbling through the earth. Cries. Screams. Gunfire. Fire burning. Things tearing.

And then footsteps.

Coming towards her.

Something brushing her face, soft, tentative.

And a voice, familiar and warm against the darkness.

Not yet, it said.

Not yet.

A little longer.

Please hang on...

a little longer.

I hope this chapter didn't seem too rushed/fast-paced. I had to skip over a lot of things in the scene as obviously Alya isn't really involved in the main fight, so I'm sorry if you were hoping for a bit more action >.<

Thanks for reading! I'll try and have the last few chapters posted soon!