Disclaimer: Final Fantasy Seven, and the characters, names, places,
situations and so on, are property of Squaresoft corporation. I own none of
them and am making no money off of them. This story was written purely for
my own enjoyment.
1 Final Fantasy VII: The Summoning
1.1.1 PROLOGUE
1.2 Mount Nibel, Six Months Later
The sky was its usual ominous shade. It was, he thought, almost as though the forces of nature were going out of their way to make the operation appear darker than it actually was. Whenever lightning flashed across the sky, he was reminded of a thousand B-movies in which the arrival of the bad guy was heralded by a thunderbolt and a terrible rumble.
A ludicrous cliché, certainly, and one that he freely admitted. But however applicable it was to the operation, he found himself unable to regard it as anything more than ludicrous, in any way. He knew, and his associates knew, just how deadly serious was the deed they were attempting here tonight.
"Doctor Kinshar! Please, sir, it's starting! We need you to proceed!"
Jude Kinshar, formerly of Shinra Corp, Materia Extraction division, felt a nerve twitch on the side of his head. Starting. It was starting. The wind whipped at his coat as he whirled around and stalked briskly up the ramp into the Mako Reactor nestled high in the mountains above Nibelheim. By rights, it ought to have been shut down and dismantled months ago, under the directive of President Reeve, but Kinshar knew perfectly well that the incompetents at the Midgar Head Office were utterly incapable of distinguishing between the reports of the crew originally sent to Nibelheim and those sent by his own men. After ensuring that the original Shinra crew had been silenced, of course.
The way into the heart of the reactor was long and not easily negotiable. Still, months of practice had given him the dexterity he needed to thoughtlessly traverse the complex network of chains, pipes and ramps to bring him to what had once been the Jenova Chamber. Kinshar had waited until the Shinra crew had cleared it out before making his move, and now it was used for a purpose somewhat different than that for which it was originally designed.
Excitement buoyed him as he rushed into the chamber. The stasis tube once containing the Jenova creature had been replaced. A complicated jumbled of tubes, shards of anodised metal and other assortments of junk, or what appeared to be junk to the uneducated eye, greeted him, as did his deputy, with a shouted warning.
"Sir!" he screeched. "Back here, behind the screen! It's not safe out there!"
He shouted himself hoarse, but still Kinshar had to strain to hear it. Over his head, channelled through tremendous superconductors and force fields, powerful, terrible flows of nameless energy raged, flowing like some luminous waterfall toward a single, microscopic point in the exact centre of the array. Sparing nary a glance at the flow – he'd watched it build up for weeks, and had long since ceased to fear its effects – he skipped into the control booth and took his seat beside his nervous deputy. The man was only in his twenties, and lacked the ambition that had driven Kinshar this far. He sneered at the pathetic wretch, and resisted the urge to toss him bodily into the flow. His indecision had infuriated Kinshar from the start but now, at least, he would not have to suffer him for much longer.
Leaning towards him to enable him to hear, he screamed "Begin the sequence! Now! Now! NOW!"
As usual, he was obeyed only reluctantly. The assistant's hand hesitated predictably over the large red button before Kinshar furiously pushed him aside and jabbed at the switch with all the enthusiasm in him. That single, infinitesimally small spark at the centre of the array winked out for a moment, then expanded in a tremendous starburst, blinding all who were foolish enough to stand anywhere outside the protected glass of the control booth. By the time the white glare had faded, it was as if a tear in the fabric of reality had opened into the chamber.
"Doctor!" Assistant Whatsisname exclaimed, although the roar of the Mako energy had faded to a dull rumble. "IS that…could it be…how in the…?"
"It's the Lifestream. It's not a dirty word, you know," Kinshar sniffed, staring at the light green glow that illuminated the room. And at the way the stream pulsed, changed and began to strain at the edges of the tear. Within seconds, it had already decreased noticeably. "And it's already healing itself…quickly, initiate phase two!" He reached into his coat, extracted his revolver and pointed it levelly at the terrified technician. "No arguments, you spineless idiot! Do it now!"
The technician yelped and ducked back inside. In seconds, the hydraulic arm mounted before the array whirred into life, stabbing furiously forward. It plunged the lead-lined canister at its tip straight into the shrinking fissure. On the panel before him, an LCD readout began a countdown. Kinshar's aim never faltered. "Don't you DARE touch that Abort switch. Leave it in there. The whole eight seconds."
"Sir, the fissure's collapsing! We have to…"
"The full eight seconds!"
"I…"
The timer reached zero, the alarm fell silent and the arm jerked backward. The fissure sealed itself a bare moment later, taking with it the eerie green glow that had bathed the chamber. A single pulse of the same blinding light that had heralded its arrival replaced it, and Kinshar's team screamed one and all in renewed terror as every electrical system they possessed shorted out in the same instant.
Darkness and silence reigned for a moment, once the panic had passed, as the Mako reactor settled down for the first time since its activation, burnt out by the sheer demands of the array. Then a single flashlight snapped on and its owner swung out of the booth and ran toward the ruined array. Kinshar picked his way through the debris until he came to the fallen arm, lying twisted and broken. The canister on its tip was cracked, but intact.
His shaky fingers fumbled with the key lashed around his neck as they guided it into the slot on the outside of the shell, which fell open with a hiss of compressed air just as his assistant overcame his terror long enough to come behind the doctor, blinking furiously to regain his night vision.
"Sir…" he whispered hoarsely, resting against some twisted machine part as he fought to regain his breath. "That surge had to have knocked out every Mako system in Nibelheim. Shinra'll be coming soon to see what happened. We have to evacuate."
Kinshar heard nothing. Nestled in the palm of his hand, the single, marble sized sphere of red materia gleamed up at him, illuminated by the small flashlight clutched in the trembling fingers of his other hand. Peering into its ruby depths, still quite unable to comprehend his success, he fancied he could see two green eyes blazing fiercely.
A/N: Don't worry, everyone's favourite spikey-haired mercenary and his posse will turn up next chapter.
Next: A letter from Yuffie
1 Final Fantasy VII: The Summoning
1.1.1 PROLOGUE
1.2 Mount Nibel, Six Months Later
The sky was its usual ominous shade. It was, he thought, almost as though the forces of nature were going out of their way to make the operation appear darker than it actually was. Whenever lightning flashed across the sky, he was reminded of a thousand B-movies in which the arrival of the bad guy was heralded by a thunderbolt and a terrible rumble.
A ludicrous cliché, certainly, and one that he freely admitted. But however applicable it was to the operation, he found himself unable to regard it as anything more than ludicrous, in any way. He knew, and his associates knew, just how deadly serious was the deed they were attempting here tonight.
"Doctor Kinshar! Please, sir, it's starting! We need you to proceed!"
Jude Kinshar, formerly of Shinra Corp, Materia Extraction division, felt a nerve twitch on the side of his head. Starting. It was starting. The wind whipped at his coat as he whirled around and stalked briskly up the ramp into the Mako Reactor nestled high in the mountains above Nibelheim. By rights, it ought to have been shut down and dismantled months ago, under the directive of President Reeve, but Kinshar knew perfectly well that the incompetents at the Midgar Head Office were utterly incapable of distinguishing between the reports of the crew originally sent to Nibelheim and those sent by his own men. After ensuring that the original Shinra crew had been silenced, of course.
The way into the heart of the reactor was long and not easily negotiable. Still, months of practice had given him the dexterity he needed to thoughtlessly traverse the complex network of chains, pipes and ramps to bring him to what had once been the Jenova Chamber. Kinshar had waited until the Shinra crew had cleared it out before making his move, and now it was used for a purpose somewhat different than that for which it was originally designed.
Excitement buoyed him as he rushed into the chamber. The stasis tube once containing the Jenova creature had been replaced. A complicated jumbled of tubes, shards of anodised metal and other assortments of junk, or what appeared to be junk to the uneducated eye, greeted him, as did his deputy, with a shouted warning.
"Sir!" he screeched. "Back here, behind the screen! It's not safe out there!"
He shouted himself hoarse, but still Kinshar had to strain to hear it. Over his head, channelled through tremendous superconductors and force fields, powerful, terrible flows of nameless energy raged, flowing like some luminous waterfall toward a single, microscopic point in the exact centre of the array. Sparing nary a glance at the flow – he'd watched it build up for weeks, and had long since ceased to fear its effects – he skipped into the control booth and took his seat beside his nervous deputy. The man was only in his twenties, and lacked the ambition that had driven Kinshar this far. He sneered at the pathetic wretch, and resisted the urge to toss him bodily into the flow. His indecision had infuriated Kinshar from the start but now, at least, he would not have to suffer him for much longer.
Leaning towards him to enable him to hear, he screamed "Begin the sequence! Now! Now! NOW!"
As usual, he was obeyed only reluctantly. The assistant's hand hesitated predictably over the large red button before Kinshar furiously pushed him aside and jabbed at the switch with all the enthusiasm in him. That single, infinitesimally small spark at the centre of the array winked out for a moment, then expanded in a tremendous starburst, blinding all who were foolish enough to stand anywhere outside the protected glass of the control booth. By the time the white glare had faded, it was as if a tear in the fabric of reality had opened into the chamber.
"Doctor!" Assistant Whatsisname exclaimed, although the roar of the Mako energy had faded to a dull rumble. "IS that…could it be…how in the…?"
"It's the Lifestream. It's not a dirty word, you know," Kinshar sniffed, staring at the light green glow that illuminated the room. And at the way the stream pulsed, changed and began to strain at the edges of the tear. Within seconds, it had already decreased noticeably. "And it's already healing itself…quickly, initiate phase two!" He reached into his coat, extracted his revolver and pointed it levelly at the terrified technician. "No arguments, you spineless idiot! Do it now!"
The technician yelped and ducked back inside. In seconds, the hydraulic arm mounted before the array whirred into life, stabbing furiously forward. It plunged the lead-lined canister at its tip straight into the shrinking fissure. On the panel before him, an LCD readout began a countdown. Kinshar's aim never faltered. "Don't you DARE touch that Abort switch. Leave it in there. The whole eight seconds."
"Sir, the fissure's collapsing! We have to…"
"The full eight seconds!"
"I…"
The timer reached zero, the alarm fell silent and the arm jerked backward. The fissure sealed itself a bare moment later, taking with it the eerie green glow that had bathed the chamber. A single pulse of the same blinding light that had heralded its arrival replaced it, and Kinshar's team screamed one and all in renewed terror as every electrical system they possessed shorted out in the same instant.
Darkness and silence reigned for a moment, once the panic had passed, as the Mako reactor settled down for the first time since its activation, burnt out by the sheer demands of the array. Then a single flashlight snapped on and its owner swung out of the booth and ran toward the ruined array. Kinshar picked his way through the debris until he came to the fallen arm, lying twisted and broken. The canister on its tip was cracked, but intact.
His shaky fingers fumbled with the key lashed around his neck as they guided it into the slot on the outside of the shell, which fell open with a hiss of compressed air just as his assistant overcame his terror long enough to come behind the doctor, blinking furiously to regain his night vision.
"Sir…" he whispered hoarsely, resting against some twisted machine part as he fought to regain his breath. "That surge had to have knocked out every Mako system in Nibelheim. Shinra'll be coming soon to see what happened. We have to evacuate."
Kinshar heard nothing. Nestled in the palm of his hand, the single, marble sized sphere of red materia gleamed up at him, illuminated by the small flashlight clutched in the trembling fingers of his other hand. Peering into its ruby depths, still quite unable to comprehend his success, he fancied he could see two green eyes blazing fiercely.
A/N: Don't worry, everyone's favourite spikey-haired mercenary and his posse will turn up next chapter.
Next: A letter from Yuffie