Pyro's Notes: Bonjour! This is the long-awaited, long in construction collaboration between LordBahamut'sgirl and Your Pyroclastic Flow! It's based off the story "Cosa Nostra," which can be found in Pyroclastic Dragon's favorites. Might help to read that first, but you don't have to! As a warning to y'all, Yazoo is portrayed here as a girl. Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo are all cat-kids. Vincent broke off from Avalanche. The Sephiroth situation will be explained. There will be yaoi (particularly VinxCid). At this point, we're not sure how often the story will be updated; our goal is bi-weekly. We'll see how it goes.
Odd-numbered chapters were written by LordBahamut'sgirl. Even-numbered chapters were written by Your Pyroclastic Flow. Our styles might clash sometimes, but hopefully it'll stay consistent! Note any concerns in your reviews! Love you, thanks for reading, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: Most characters, places, and references belong to Square Enix and those dudes in the credits of Final Fantasy VII. The rest are made up. Any similarities between this fictional work and real life are purely coincidental.
Tainted Blood
Chapter 1: Prelude to the Dark Abyss
It was common knowledge that a man founded the Lynx Organization. But what most people didn't know was that a woman made it into the force that it was now. Lucita took the Organization and molded it into her image. Before, any transgression was met with minimal, clueless force. Now, no one dared to point a butter knife in their direction. Lucita took the men and turned them into professional soldiers and elite assassins. She made sure they were either the best, or they were...given a ride.
She did not tolerate excuses or failures. Failure warranted punishment. Careless handling of an important mission and information lost to the enemy warranted death. Betrayal of the Organization and Lucita warranted ungodly torture with heinous methods of ensuring complete and total obedience from her men and women. And she made sure no one knew outside of the Organization that a woman was the Don.
"Ma'am, we just received word that there are Umbra men poking around our warehouses in Mideel." The man talking to her was Caucasian, blond hair in a long ponytail, and grey pin-stripe suit in impeccable uniform.
"Send a unit in to escort the men to a more favorable locale. And if they insist on investigating, have them removed. Permanently." The last word was spoken in a masculine voice. If Cloud Strife had been there, he would have sworn that Sephiroth spoke that last word. The voices didn't brook any excuses and since the woman faced the window, her glare went unnoticed as the man bowed deeply.
"Yes, ma'am. Anything else, ma'am?"
"No, you are dismissed, Maverick." Maverick bowed again and left the room to assign a unit to "escort" the men from Umbra. The office he left was mostly black with clear, bullet-proof glass in key locations like the desk, the windows, and other things. For those that are curious, the thirty-year-old Lucita had a deep tan, long hematite hair, a lean, muscular form, a fetish for black leather uniforms complete with matching trench-coat, a high proficiency in all swords and firearms, and piercing silver eyes capable of seeing lies before they were spoken.
However, those eyes were emerald green with slits of a cat.
"Hmm, what have we here? Umbra is bothering my warehouses in Mideel, the Cosa Nostra invading my privacy in South Edge, Kalm and in Junon. And the Turks poking around my stores in Costa Del Sol. This could be a problem on many accounts. Hmm, I wonder if my three charges are ready for some action." She reached over to pick up the black office phone and pressed a button.
"Darla, please send the trio in." Darla said something and it drew a sigh of irritation from Lucita. "Just send in Loz, Kadaj, and Yazoo. No one more, no one less. That clear?" The woman on the other end of the phone stuttered and replied affirmatively. "Good. Send them in." She put the phone down and waited for the trio to enter and receive their orders.
It was only ten minutes before the door opened and the two men and one woman entered. "Ah, my children. I hope you are well-rested. I am giving you your first mission," she said in her feminine voice. They looked at her with shock on their faces.
"But, Mother, I thought you said we couldn't?" said Kadaj. She smiled sourly.
"My hand is forced. I want Maverick to accompany you to South Edge to take care of some business with this... little thing of ours." The trio nodded. "Keep your cat ears sharp. I don't want any casualties or anything linking anything to us. I love you too much to have you given a ride." The trio bowed deeply.
"We understand. We will prepare now. When do we leave?" asked Yazoo, her cat ears folded back into her long silver hair.
"Tonight. Tell Maverick what I told you and be off. Happy hunting." The trio bowed again and left the room, leaving Lucita with the problem of Junon, Kalm, and Costa Del Sol. "Now, how to go about this? I guess I will just have to tighten security until I have additional information about my enemies. Wouldn't do to go in and lose so much."
She picked up the phone and dialed the number to contact one of her subordinates in Junon. "I want security tightened in the warehouses. I don't want anyone that is not personnel to enter. And do me a favor: I want you to observe our competition and their patterns. Leave nothing out of your reports. Understood?" The voice at the other end complied with the request and Lucita hung up the phone. She repeated the process with Kalm and Costa Del Sol. When that was done, she decided that she would oversee the training of the new recruits. Then, she could devise tests to figure out what the individual excelled at. She left her office to go the glass-encased elevator and down to the training floor and to get the test results from their instructors.
The elevator went down and a minute later, she arrived at the third floor. She got out of the elevator and walked down the dimly-lit hallway to a large wooden door with the Lynx emblem emblazoned across it. The guard at the door stood up from sitting on the floor to salute her.
"Anything you need, ma'am?" She shook her head.
"Only here to see if they are worthy of joining. I don't want weaklings and faint-hearted fools. Only the best and the determined." The guard bowed and she entered the brightly-lit white room. The room itself mostly took up the entire third floor. And the training room was filled with an obstacle course, a computer terminal, weaponry arena, and various other training sections. She walked slowly, watching the combatants fight one another, pitting themselves against another in the hope of joining the Lynx Organization.
In her mind, another voice was telling her which one had promise and which could be cut from the team.
'The boy with the scar across his eye has the potential, but it seems that he has a problem of taking orders. He will be a challenge,' said the voice of Sephiroth.
'Yes, he would. But as you said, he has the potential to become a great commander. He will be worth the work,' said Lucita and her silver eyes gleamed dangerously in the fluorescent lights. She walked over to the gruff man in camouflage and tapped his massive right shoulder.
He turned and saluted.
"Lucita, ma'am. Is there a problem?"
She smirked. "No, but who is that blond boy with the scarred eye?" The solidly-built man looked at the boy and his sparring partner.
"You mean Cyphon? He's an orphan from Rocket Town. Why do you ask, ma'am?" She smiled.
"Oh, I believe this boy will be a great asset to our group. I just need you to work on his inability to take orders and follow them. Other than that, nothing really, Jessim." The man nodded and went back to correcting a young teen on his stance. She continued until Sephiroth made the last judgement call on the last recruit.
She nodded and left the room to begin the listing of the recruits accepted and cut off. And that was the rest of the night for her.
--
Seeker ran for his life. Usually, it was from a mad girl or boy, but at the moment, it was a bunch of lab-coats and soldiers chasing him. Why, oh why, did he land in the middle of a forest with weirdos and lunatics?
BANG! A bullet tore through his denim coat sleeve as he ducked. Guns now?! Oh dragon fangs, this was getting horrible, fast.
"Stop, or we'll kill you!" The platinum haired man almost stopped to gawk at them. And the gunshot wasn't proof enough of THAT!?
"I DON'T THINK SO!" After more bullets tore through his coat, denim pants, and skin, plus more shouts later, he was in their grasp and in pain. Stupid branches. Stupid roots. STUPID FOREST!
"I HATE THIS PLANET! I HATE THIS TIME! Ihateitihateitihateit I HATE IT!" The Umbra researchers smirked and escorted him to a truck to take him back to their offices in Edge. As the truck drove to Costa Del Sol to get him into a secure location, Seeker glared at the nearest guard. "And I hate you, stupid monkey-smelling jackass-lickers!" They laughed at him and made sure the cuffs and bindings were holding tightly. The lead scientist sneered at the captive man, his short blond hair, covered in sweat and grease, and pale skin looking rather burnt
"We can't have you leave until we figure out how you teleported to our location. And then, how we can figure out how to make it and commercialize it so that the world can use it. My friend, you are not leaving for a long, long time. It would be wise for you to behave for the duration of your stay. Also, I would like to know if you are Sephiroth, or a remnant of his." The man made a weird face at the captive, causing the platinum-headed man to cringe.
"Who in the names of the Sun and Moon Gods is Sephiroth and why do you whack-jobs think I am him, her, it, they?" The scientists looked at each other and shrugged, the answer leaving room for speculation.
"What is your name, then?"
He glared at them with his ungodly blue eyes. "Seeker Giovanni of the Silver Were-Dragon Court, Apprentice of the Shango Trade Guild-Mastery, and nephew to Bernard Giovanni the 23rd, owner of the SilverPath Engineering Corps. So, I demand that you release me now."
They looked at him like he grew a head, then they started laughing like madmen.
"What's so freakin' funny?" demanded Seeker, his eyes glowing balefully at his captors. Only for the glare to intensify as an assistant took out a needle and put it in his arm to draw blood. Then the young woman, her face too ugly to remember, put the blood in an analyzer for a minute.
"Sir, his DNA structure is non-human. There are recombinant strands that may allow for him to take on the form of another creature, due to the minor instability of the DNA structure in all. There are no Jenova cells in his blood-flow and no signs of Geostigma." The blond scientist looked at Seeker with wonder.
"You are far from home, then. Well, Seeker, you have just proven to us that Sephiroth did, in fact, take on a new human host. And it is not you. Now we are going to try to find out who the host is..." Seeker was wondering why these idiots were telling him all this. Don't they know that he had ears and he very much had the capacity to escape the cuffs and bindings with an ease that would make his captors tremble in fear? But now didn't seem to be the time. Maybe he could learn more about this planet and this time field that he landed in.
"Okay, who the hell is this Sephiroth?" asked Seeker in a bored tone.
"He nearly destroyed the world as the will of the alien Jenova demanded it of him, using the thing's powers along with the power of the Lifestream and with Ancient Cetran knowledge. Almost succeeded if it weren't for Avalanche and that pesky leader of the Cosa Nostra!"
'Okay, they hate this Cosa Nostra and mostly it's leader. Anything else?'
"Then, two years later, his three remnants appeared and nearly destroyed the planet with the help of a sickness called, 'Geostigma.' But again, Avalanche was there to stop that plot and save the world again. Now, Avalanche spawned a group called the Cosa Nostra and they succeed in interfering with everything that Umbra does! All we really want to do is help the world... for a price. It never hurts to benefit from those seeking help." The man seemed a little out of it. Greed must have put a tumor in his brain, because he started ranting and raving about how horrible Cosa Nostra was.
"Damn that Valentine!"
'If this is the first trip with this guy, I am in a world of boredom from here on out,' thought Seeker as the cuts and scrapes started to itch, and the truck, loud and bumpy, slowly made its way to the resort town, dust stirred up and floated into the reddening sky of dusk.
-three hours later; South Edge-
The triplets and Maverick watched the Nostran men start poking around the four non-descript warehouses. Yazoo looked through a pair of binoculars at the men as they tried the door.
"Stupid fools. Don't even think before they start messing around. What do you suggest, Maverick, sir?" asked Kadaj in a whisper. The four were on top of a nearby building, observing all activities below them. The blond took out a laser-edged blade and looked at the leather-clad trio, the nightcam contact lenses turning the pupils of his eyes an emerald green in surrounding blue.
"They are being rather rude, don't you think? They are lacking in manners and must be taught proper etiquette." The trio nodded and took out their weapons.
"This is exciting!" said Loz quietly as Maverick and the others went to a ladder to climb down.
"It won't be if we mess up and get hurt. Be quiet and hurry up," whispered Yazoo as she climbed down the ladder after Maverick and Kadaj. Soon, the three trespassers were looking around the corner of the building to the warehouses. The doors were locked tight, so they couldn't enter.
"Where are our men? They should be at least raising a commotion," muttered the biggest of the silver-haired triplets. Yazoo nodded in agreement at the lack of security forces.
"Do you think we got ourselves a rat in our midst?" asked the boldest to his siblings.
"I suspect that you're right, Kadaj. I fear that there is a betrayer in our Organization. Well, no sense in talking about it," said the blond as he readjusted his black armor and sword sheath.
"Check your materia. I don't want you to be defenseless because you forgot your attack materia." The trio did as instructed and got ready to face the three men from the Cosa Nostra.
They waited until the three went to the back of the nearest warehouse and followed them.
"Hello, may I help you?" said Maverick as he stepped out from behind them. The trio whirled and pointed their automatic submachine guns at him.
"Who the hell a' you?" demanded the farthest man. They had been surprised, like they didn't expect anyone to show up. As the three watched Maverick, the three others came up from behind them and in unison, cast a powerful Bolt3 spell. The trio went down without a fight, making the four wonder if it was a trap.
"Do you think that a trap may be sprung?" asked Yazoo as she looked into the dark shadows of the small alley.
"They would have sprung their trap as soon as we have finished the three men off. Loz, check their wallets and find their IDs." The biggest of the three siblings nodded and checked their wallets.
"Jay, Jonah, and Jamison. Same last name, so they may be brothers." Maverick nodded and took out a small cell phone. He dialed a number and called for a unit to deal with the three corpses.
"Mother should be told of this," said Yazoo as they watched the bodies being loaded into a truck to be delivered to the outskirts of Edge and to an alley far from the Lynx Headquarters, but close to the Cosa Nostra base.
"Kadaj, call and report the mission to the Don," said Maverick, and the neko-teen nodded. As the teen called, Yazoo looked towards an alley not far from them and saw a small movement in the shadows, but she chalked it up to the adrenaline rush she was on.
'Our first mission and we succeeded! Mother will be so proud of us!' thought the neko-girl as Maverick lead the trio to his car. He stopped to speak to the captain of the nightwatch and he wasn't happy to do so.
"Where were your men? We pay you to watch our buildings and make sure they are not bothered by non-personnel. Yet, I came here and found not one guard to challenge the three trespassers." The captain stammered and stuttered that this would not happen again.
"Good. If it does, the Don will personally rip your throats out and leave your bodies to be eaten be the monsters!" The glare that the blond sent was powerful enough to make the man practically melt underneath it.
"Come. Our mission here is complete, so there is no need to stay here." The trio followed him to his Sedan and got in. "We will stay in a hotel in town tonight and head out in the morning," said Maverick as he started the car and drove off to the other side of Edge.