Title: Free
Fandom: Final Fantasy: Advent Children
Characters: Denzel, Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, Cid, Yuffie, Vincent, Cloud
Prompt: 094 - Independence
Word Count: 922
Date finished: 07/26/2006
Rating: PG
Summary: Denzel wakes up, free from Kadaj's influence.
Author's Notes: It's probably a little longer than it should be, but I had fun writing it.
Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Square Enix and Sony Pictures as far as I know.

Denzel woke up, feeling like he'd been through a nightmare. He vaguely remembered Marlene yelling his name, and Cloud's bike bearing down on him, and then…. He felt… free, like he'd been released from a prison in his own mind. It was a nice feeling, too. Like he could think what he wanted, instead of seeing Cloud as an enemy.

Something - someone - lay over him, and he lay on cement. More vague memories, of being told to stand in a specific place, something even vaguer of seeing Tifa trying to get him to move…. He sat up carefully, but it didn't stop the person from slumping to the ground, and he stared in surprise. "Tifa?" Because it was her, protecting him from…

He looked around. From the monster digging under the Monument to Midgar that had once stood in the center of the square. It had hurt Tifa; he was not going to lose someone else close to him, not again!

But Tifa didn't move. "Son of a bitch!" he yelled as he got to his feet, struggling not to cry, and ran at the monster. He wished Tifa would wake up (Please don't be dead!) and yell at him for his language.

The monster looked at him, roared, and opened its mouth, bending down to….

A hand clapped onto his shoulder, arresting his momentum, and he looked up to see a large black man. The hand that had stopped him was now a tri-barreled machine gun that fired on the approaching monster. It backed off, and the man turned to him. "You look after Mom!" he bellowed in a voice he thought he recognized.

"Barret!" Tifa said behind him, and Denzel's eyes widened. This was Marlene's dad?

It appeared so; he turned to Tifa and said "Marlene better be safe, huh?" but before Denzel could tell him they didn't know where she was, the big man took off running toward the monster.

Red flashed in the corner of his eye and a quick, lion-like beast with a flaming tail ran after Barret, leaping onto the monster with ease, a… moogle? on its shoulders.

Denzel drifted in Tifa's direction, unable to keep his eyes off the battle. The red thing was tossed off the monster, landing with a canine-sounding yelp, and then it cast -

It cast? What?

The monster crashed to the cement, but immediately righted itself and went after Marlene's dad. He wasn't firing, and yelled angrily because his gun didn't seem to be working.

A large… shuriken flew out of nowhere and knocked the monster away from Marlene's dad, circling around to be caught by a girl hanging from a parachute. She landed hard, and the parachute covered her. She pushed it off, and gave a giggle as she stood - then clapped her hand over her mouth like she was going to be sick.

Then she turned to Tifa. "All, right, who's been touching my materia?" she demanded.

"The bad guys, naturally," Tifa said easily, a slight smile on her face.

"Ooh!" the girl wailed, and raced after Marlene's dad and the red beast with the moogle, swinging the shuriken angrily.

Denzel watched her go, stunned, then looked up at Tifa. "Who's that?"

She looked at him, then back at he growing battle, but before she could answer, a growl behind them made Denzel shiver. Even as he turned to see what it was, Tifa gasped and put an arm around him, bending over him to shield him from the Shadow Creepers that leapt at them.

Only they never landed. Denzel heard a very human growl, then squeals as the Creepers were sent packing. Tifa straightened, and Denzel stared at the blonde man who wore goggles like Reno did, on his forehead, holding a spear taller than he was.

"She's a beaut, my Sierra," he said, pointing up. Denzel followed his gesture and gaped at the airship hovering above them. "Latest model! I'll give you the grand tour afterwards!" he added, yelling as he jogged for the battle across the square.

His head swimming, Denzel just stared.

"Where can I buy a phone?" a low voice growled, and Denzel looked up in time to catch red eyes under a red headband in black hair before the man passed them, his tattered red cape swinging in the breeze. Tifa watched him walk by; Denzel turned helplessly to her.

"Who's he?" he asked, hoping for an answer this time.

"They're our friends," Tifa said matter-of-factly, looking like this kind of thing were normal!

He looked up at her, wanting to ask her too many questions to even know where to start. The familiar low growl of a motorcycle drove them all from his head, and he spun to watch Cloud pull around them, the front of Fenrir splitting open to give him access to his sword.

"Marlene's safe; I took her home," Cloud said as he deftly chose blades to take with him into the battle across the square.

Denzel barely heard anything else. Cloud was back, and Marlene was safe! "I'm gonna go back and see Marlene, okay, Cloud?" he blurted suddenly. "We'll wait for you." He started off, anxious to tell Marlene her dad was there, and realized the blonde hadn't answered him. "We'll see you there, won't we, Cloud?" he asked, already somewhat reassured by the blonde swordsman's blue eyes on him.

Cloud nodded, and Denzel ran again, wanting to talk to Marlene. She knew who those people were, and maybe she could fill in what he didn't remember.

Advent Children Table | Challenge Main

Home | Stories | Links | Contact me