spira_rp | Midgar Continued...

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Midgar Continued...

Continued from here.

Axel didn't think that the self-given mission was going too badly, all things considered. Nobody in Midgar suspected a thing, that much was clear, not even Aerith. He listened to her, the apprehension and questioning near-disbelief in her voice and actions clear. Despite his desperation to get her and them out of there, he found it to be a fairly understandable response to such a suggestion. It wasn't exactly an easy story to believe. He had to wonder what he would have done or said in her position. Laughed, probably.

As for her question... that was a little more difficult to answer. He glanced at Saix, a disturbingly disguised Saix, at that, and scratched the back of his head.

"Not a lot," he sighed. Way to sound convincing, idiot. "Whatever they're going to do, they intend on blowing all of the reactors. When one went, it destroyed the residential area in the immediate vicinity, right?"

Of course, that wasn't the worst of it. Not this time.

"If they blow all of them ... the support pillars don't stand a chance and neither does anything below the plate."

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"We're trying to be low profile," Saix pointed out. "My fighting style does not qualify." He sounded ever so faintly miffed that Axel held so low an opinion of him and his impulse control.

Even though they both knew such an opinion wasn't unfounded.

"I was seen," he admitted, although he was still disguised which was a mitigating factor, "so I took the long route back, as a precaution. Are you familiar with their type?" Axel seemed more concerned than he'd voiced, judging by his glance at the girl.

"Yeah," he said, turning sharply and running his fingers through his hair with an air of concerned distraction. "They're bad news. If they recognise me, I'm screwed."

Sure, he was as well disguised as Saix, but he did have a rather distinctive look to him regardless of gender. If they were familiar with the existence of the Jutsu he was employing ... damn.

Of course, whether or not they knew Axel wasn't their most pressing issue of the moment. If the exits were being guarded...

"How do we get out?" He asked, managing to stem his self-centred worries for a moment. "Can we fight our way out?"

Saix wondered if Axel had more to tell, but shelved the thought in favour of the immediate concern. "I'd be willing to attempt it," he answered, "but it's a high risk tactic, especially with non-combatants in tow." Which, Saix considered, was an argument for leaving the crowd behind, even if it wouldn't give them time to save them. "You seem to be more familiar with them than I am, perhaps you're the better judge of their likely combat abilities."

He added, after a very short pause, "And how screwed we will be if they have back up."

Aerith exchanged worried look with Axel, but listened to Saix talk. When he suggested fighting, however....

She put her hand on Axel's arm, looking at him imploringly, "You can't risk the Turks getting hold of you both." That was the real risk, with the Turks on guard. "Whatever you do, you have to be careful."

She'd have preferred for them to avoid a fight.

Axel faltered slightly at the hand on his arm and fixed his eyes on Saix for a moment. He sighed and turned back to Aerith.

"If we don't get out of here before all this goes down, they won't be able to do anything with us even if they do catch us."

That was the bitter truth of it. The Turks would have them for about ten minutes before they all got killed by whatever it was was going to happen when the attack went ahead. Probably being buried by the blitzed rubble of the plate above, Axel estimated. Nice prospect.

Aerith frowned at Axel, and glanced across to Saix, who looked as taciturn and displeased as on first arrival.

"I have a back up plan," she said, looking back at Axel. She'd thought about it from the beginning but, well... it would be so much safer if they could get people out of Midgar before things happened. "But I don't think you'll like it."

Axel arched an eyebrow. A back up plan? Short of digging beneath the whole place for a hidden escape route, he wasn't entirely sure how hey could possibly get out of this situation alive and without taking out a lot of soldiers on the way.

"Go on?" He asked, words quick and clipped.

He was willing to entertain any idea with so little time left before they needed to be out of Midgar and gone. He couldn't stand the idea of them not going back to Rabanastre and Xigbar, eventually, being all 'I told 'em so' in regard to it.

Aerith looked at Axel, and Saix, an then back to Axel. It was a difficult sentence to start, but she took a breath, steeled herself, and began, "I think I might be able to cast something to protect us."

She noticed the displeased look on Saix's face growing ever more pronounced and added, "I know I can protect a few people, but I've never used it with this many before."

She'd make it reach as far as she could. It was the best she could do. "If you stay close, I should be able to keep you safe." She gave Axel a hopeful little smile.

Saix radiated disapproval. The use of 'might' and 'should' didn't fill him with optimism. It sounded like she was planning something she'd never used before, and it would take much more than a mere protect spell, or a beefed up cousin of one, to shield them from what they expected to come.

"I prefer the sound of fighting our way out," he commented, lowly and grumpily.

As much as he hated to admit it to himself, Axel didn't exactly feel confident of Aerith's plan. He glanced from her to Saix and while he hesitated to plant himself in either corner... he knew where his opinion fell and exactly how much it mattered.

"I'm not sure we'd have the time to get out if we tried that," he muttered. If there were a lot of soldiers they could very well waste too much time fighting and not stand even the chance of whatever spell it was that Aerith thought might work.

Saix scowled, his voice taking on a slight growl. "I did not come here to die cowering in a church hoping a spell will protect us," he said, exercising a lot of very evident restraint to keep it from being a snarl. "If we had left when we both knew we should, we would not be facing this decision."

That was what was riling him; he hadn't listened to his common sense and dragged Axel and the girl out. Instead he'd let difficult memories cloud his judgement.

Even if he got out of this alive, Vexen would kill him if he found out how things had happened. Even if they didn't, Saix didn't trust death to be an escape from his husband's ire.

He should have done what he knew was best, instead of entertaining the idea of doing what was right.

"Yeah, well," Axel said, a bite to his tone. "We didn't, so we are. What do we do about it?"

That was all there was to it. Misgivings aside, bad decisions near-irrelevant on the time-scale they had to work with, they had to decide what course of action they were going to take before they all got blown to hell, or squashed by the falling plate, or whatever was set to happen.

Saix flashed his teeth in an obvious marker of annoyance. "I'd prefer to fight," he answered.

Aerith frowned at Saix, but directed her attention to Axel, because he was the one of the pair that knew her, and that she might be able to convince.

"You won't make it if you fight," she told him, "not against the Turks. You have to trust me." She gave him a cheeky smile, and asked, "Did I let you down the last time I had a crazy idea that might just work?"

Axel smirked at Aerith despite the severity of the situation. Not only did it work last time, but a similar trick got the two of them back into the city he escaped, this time.

"I'm not sure about putting my life in someone's hands twice," he said, scratching his head. "But if it worked last time..."

Aerith smiled at Axel's response. "I can do something," she told him, "it might be the only chance we have, now. Just let me try."

She squeezed his arm, and turned to Saix. "I know I can't ask you to trust me, so I won't, but at least wait long enough for me to show you what I can do."

Saix scowled, and looked at Axel, accusingly. "You trust this girl that much?" He looked as though he was very grumpily making his own decisions about the matter.

Axel turned to Saix, eyebrows raised.

"As a matter of fact, yeah, I do." He folded his arms and fixed him with a hard look. "She took care of me when she found me and helped me get out of here alive. That's more than I can say for the people I knew."

If he recalled, and he was sure he did, Xigbar even threatened to shoot him ...

Saix scowled, tightening a fist and glancing towards the church doors.

Axel had a point, unfortunately, and the sentiment towards Saix hadn't been much better, of late. He didn't know much about the Turks, either, but he knew enough to know that they'd probably been Axel's reason for the disguise they were both wearing, and if it was enough to make Axel desire that...

They probably were out of time for fighting.

He didn't know Aerith to trust her, but he had known Lea well enough, once....

"If we die," he growled, "you can explain to Vexen."

He turned to look towards the assembled crowd they'd gathered. "Perhaps you should get on with it," he grumbled to Aerith.

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Midgar Continued...

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