The Rose Gem...
A year after Advent Chilren... A new world power, the IronClad Organization, is rising fast with lethal power, posing an incredible threat to the Shin-Ra corporation which has vowed to operate now without corruption. Shin-Ra knows the whereabouts of a powerful ancient Gem... one that IronClad is desperate to get their hands on. Their intentions are not pure... and the results could rock the Planet with devastating results...
Author's Note: This is a collaboration fanfic between myself, Naku and XinShi Sosend them some feedback too! Chapters will be flagged with the Author's name.
If you've read Breathe, you'll be familiar with Tayeko... by the way, this is not a self insertion fic by the authors... these characters were created for an RP and the names just stuck.. heh)
Please Review!
Disclaimer: Yeah, we don't own Final Fantasy VII or any of its entities... sigh
Chapter One
(Naku)
" Right away, Sir." A rather tall young man with short cropped brown hair and intense, steely blue eyes. He accepted a manila folder from one of his superiors, a very obese man who had a nasty temper, and a next to incomprehensible speaking voice. The man yelled something at the young man, but he promptly ignored it, not even able to understand what he had said.
" Probably muffled under all the layers of fat…" The man thought to himself. That made him smile, revealing teeth that were white and clean, but in need of correctional surgery, the pearly whites being slightly out of line.
He opened a door to his office, and shut it behind him, the name on the door reading, ' Nadec R.' He plopped down onto his seat, expelling a sigh as he did so. It had been along day, he still had more to do. He threw the folder into the trash. It was of great importance to his tubby superior, but Nadec did not care. He wouldn't be around for long anyways. He grinned again.
" Finally… After all this time I get to make my move," Nadec whispered to himself. He logged onto his computer and was welcomed to the main screen, with the Shin-Ra logo emblazoned on the background of his desktop. He was Nadec Reklin, just one of the many white-collar office workers lucky enough to get his own office. However, he was also another thing inside the massive tower in the middle of Midgar Shin-Ra called home. He was a sleeper.
Not the kind of man who slept on the job, but the kind of man who was inserted into Shin-Ra many years ago by an unknown faction. He was ordered to do his job… Become a trusted employee, hopefully rise in the ranks enough to be allowed a little wiggle room should he make a mistake, and wait. After seven years, he finally got the signal to awaken. The signal was actually an item. He had been ecstatic to finally receive from the mail cart to his office. He was finally getting out of this hellhole.
The item was a black microchip. He locked his office door and took a screwdriver from his desk. He placed his computer tower on top of his desk and started to unscrew the casing. Once that was removed, he found an empty data port, and inserted the microchip. He screwed the casing back into place and hooked up his computer again. He flicked it on and awaited the results with baited breath.
The program booted back up, and several icons placed themselves on Nadec's desktop. Nadec realized he had been holding his breath and he exhaled excitedly. He clicked onto on of the icons titled, " Icebreaker". A screen full of computer code greeted him. This was the code to hack into Shin-Ra's computer network. He delved in… He had all the power that Old Man Shinra to access these files. He dodged ones entitled Cetra, or Sephiroth. He found what he was looking for soon enough. A small folder, barely noticeable, named, " Rose Gem". He grinned and picked up his coffee cup. It sloshed as the liquid inside met the lid on top of the steel cylinder. The bottom of it was black, and unknown to security, had lead filament all around it, to hide the contents of the false-bottom to the X-ray machines Nadec had to go through every time he entered the building.
He unscrewed the bottom and a black emulator fell out. He plugged it into the USB port on his computer, and copied the Rose Gem file to the data device. After breaking into Shin-Ra's system so easily, Nadec decided to have a little fun. He erased a couple of lesser files that regarded to weapons development and other menial things like that. Then he closed the intrusion software program before any of the hacker hounds figured out he was inside the system. Shin-Ra was notorious for having a grade-A tech team.
He placed the emulator back inside the false bottom of the coffee cup. Making sure it was secure he stood up from his chair and took one last look around his office. For seven years, he had endured torturous amounts of work from the fat man, and other high-ranking Shin-Ra pigs. He looked to the walls. They had been barren when he first arrived… Whitewashed and still smelling of a recent chemical cleansing. In fact his office still smelled like it. He had a plain oak desk, three drawers, and a surprisingly comfortable black leather computer chair. He wrinkled his nose. The place had practically been his home with al the work he had to do.
But now… He got to leave. He leaned over the computer keyboard. He wanted to do one last thing before he escaped. He clicked onto another icon, on whose picture showed a red caterpillar. He delved back into the system, this time searching along the network, not into the files. He found his fat boss' computer. He smiled as he inserted the code into one of the fat man's files. In five hours… His hard drive would be gone, and there was nothing he could do about it. He closed that window and this time clicked on a third icon. A pop up message box appeared. He clicked 'ok'.
There was small puff of smoke and a muffled wumpf as the microchip he installed in his computer self-destructed. He opened his door, and left his office for the last time. He made his way towards the elevator and stepped inside. Inside was a mean looking little boy.
" Great… so Old Man Shinra brought his son to work again…." Nadec thought to himself as Rufus Shinra glared at him. He was only seven years old, but already he had the same fiery intensity that his father used to intimidate the 'lesser' people.
It was a long elevator ride down, and quite an awkward one at that. The elevator stopped on the floor before the lobby and Rufus stepped out, but not before turning to Nadec and saying, " You smell like bleach."
Nadec silently thanked his office for the smell it had endowed on him. The elevator landed on the ground floor and Nadec proceeded through the security. A guard smiled at him while taking his coffee cup and briefcase.
" Leavin' early today?" He asked, making a little small talk.
Nadec smiled back. " Yea, sometimes I just can't tell if I'm workin' hard or hardly workin'." Nadec replied to him as his briefcase and cup were returned to him.
The guard chuckled at stupid overused joke. Nadec didn't care. He was in the clear now. He left Shin-Ra Tower for the last time, back to his rendezvous.
Hours later, Nadec tapped his coffee cup impatiently onto the table of a café. His contact was supposed to be there in…There! He walked into the room. A man that was shorter than him by inches strode to the table and sat down across from him. He had blonde hair and a relaxed, tanned face.
" Thank you so much for finally awakening me. I found it… The file. Please… please accept me into the Black Hand!" Nadec said quietly… He had never begged in his life, but in the presence of a member of the Black Hand, the elite superiors of IronClad, Nadec was ready to grovel.
The man's face tensed and he narrowed his eyes. " Don't piss yourself. Your work will not go unnoticed. Hand over the data, and you can get out of here. We will contact you later."
Nadec unscrewed the bottom of the cap and handed it to his contact. He stumbled a little over his words in his excitement, but still managed to get his words out.
" Thank you so much Kinden…Thank you!" Nadec truly was grateful… This man had delivered him from hell. But a second later, when Kinden's hand flashed across Nadec's face in a hard smack that sent him reeling to the floor, he wondered if he had just leapt into the fire.
Kinden's eyes narrowed and he hissed in anger. " Never… Say…My…Name."
Nadec nodded weakly as people stared at the outbreak. Kinden got up and left before any more commotion could be caused. Nadec whimpered slightly at the stinging sensation at his cheek but sucked it up. He seemed to come out of a fog, and was ashamed of himself for losing his composure like that in public. He lifted himself off the ground and grabbed up his coffee cup before leaving the café.
