For lack of a better title:

XFF part.1 Every End's Beginning...

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters. You know who does. Squaresoft does. And Marvel Comics owns the X-Men.

Rated: R (For violence and language... mostly language.)

[The scene opens to a dark alley at night. A young red haired girl is running down the alley, tripping once or twice, but constantly looking over her shoulder in fear. She reaches a dead end and looks around franticly. She sees a door leading into the building next to her. She runs over to it, but as soon as she opens it, her pursuer steps out. A young man, maybe in his mid twenties. He's wearing a blue suit with a white shirt underneath, untucked and with the top three buttons unbuttoned. He has red hair as well, spiky on top, but tied in a ponytail in the back. He taps a long black rod with a metal tip against his shoulder a few times, and then backs her into the corner. ]

Reno - Today WAS my day off. Then, you had to go and do something like tear your way through the side of Shin-Ra tower, and now I have to take you back.

Girl - sobbing Please… don't take me back there!

Reno - I have no love for that man Hojo or his experiments, but I have even less for mutants. So while your sad, puppy dog eyes would normally make me think twice, I know what you are, and I give two shits about what he does to you. This is my job, and as long as we stand here and BS, it's not getting done. Come along or I'll have to drag you back, and we don't want that.

[Just then, a small, glowing red rectangle wedges itself in the ground next to Reno. When he turns to take a closer look, it explodes, almost knocking him off his feet.]

Voice from the alley - Leave da girl alone, mon ami, or dis'll get a little messy.

Reno - And just who the Hell are YOU to talk like that to one of the Turks?

[Reno turns around to see a figure completely covered in shadow, except for the glowing red eyes that illuminate his face. This newcomer takes a few steps forward, stepping into the lamp light. He has short, dark-red hair, which jutted out in several directions. His body was still concealed by his own shadow and the brown trench coat he wore. He raises his head and stares at Reno eye-to-eye, except this mans eyes were black with red irises, and emitted a soft red glow. The same glow emanated from his right hand as Reno watched an Ace of Spades turn into another one of those explosive red rectangles.]

Gambit - The name's Gambit. Leave da girl an' leave now, or like I said before, dis gets messy.

Reno - Listen here, mutie. The girl is Shin-Ra property. She's going isn't going anywhere but back to the lab.

Gambit - Have it your way.

[Gambit throws the card near, but not at, Reno's head, causing him to duck. He takes this opportunity to charge forward and grab Reno by his shirt, slamming him back into the wall. Reno smiles and slides down and out of his shirt, leaving it in the mutants hand. He picks up the black rod, which he calls his Electro Mag Rod, and jabs it into Gambit's side, shocking him and causing him to take a few steps back. Reno then turns to the roof.]

Reno - Elena! Now!

[A shot rings out, and a round coming from the roof nails Gambit in the chest, but goes straight through his chest and explodes upon impact with the cold, wet concrete.]

Gambit - bent over, but slowly stands straight up Charging up da bullet as it hits keeps me alive, but that don mean it don hurt none.

[Reno stares at the mutant, mouth agape, amazed that he's still alive. He realizes, however, that this IS a mutant he's dealing with and dismisses the fact that the freak's heart should be a stain on the fucking street.]

Reno - calling up to the roof Elena! Grenade round!

[Reno dives at the girl, shoving her behind a dumpster. After a few seconds, he looks out from behind his shelter at Gambit, standing there cross-armed, tapping his foot on the ground. Without looking up, he points up to the roof. Reno looks up and sees what he assumes is another mutant, floating slowly into view. This ones a woman. Kinda tall with a shapely figure clad in red and black leather with a brown jacket over top. Her curly brown hair with snow white bangs hangs over a black framed, red lensed visor covering her eyes. As she lands, she places a hand on her hips and waves her hair out of her face with the other. She looks at Reno and smiles.]

Rogue - Sorry about that, sugah, but your girl up there ain't in any shape to be blowin' stuff up. Ah saw to that.

Gambit - Now like I said. Leave da girl. Leave her or we'll hafta rough ya up some.

Rogue - Or kill ya. Whichever works. smiles

[Reno shakes his head and then stands up, convinced that he's regained his composure. He grabs the girl by the arm and pulls her from behind the dumpster.]

Reno - Go ahead and kill me. I really give a fuck. You couldn't do much worse to me than Hojo would after president Shin-Ra hands me over to him for failing. Know this though. Public opinion is not quite in favor of you freaks. Kill a Shin-Ra employee, and I guarantee you that the President will make all of your lives a living hell… before he has you all executed. The girl belongs to Shin-Ra and my orders are to retrieve her, but I'm not so blind that I can't see I'm out numbered here. I will leave the girl with you… BUT, know that I will be back. Me and the rest of the Turks, and we won't rest until we have eliminated each and every one of you and the girl is ours again. The only reason I don't give my life making sure you don't get her is because I'm fairly sure she'll be safe amongst her own kind until we come to… collect her. he shoves the girl towards Gambit and Rogue, and then turns his back to them, looking over his shoulder. You do know we'll be back, yes?

Gambit - I understand alright, but you do know dat we won' let you bastards experiment on our kind for your own benefit without a fight, no? So I guess we'll jus leave a message wit you for da President, if ya don mind deliverin' it for us. Tell him that we're not gonna take his abuse anymore. Tell him…

Don mess wit da X-Men!

[Reno lets out a light chuckle and then scales the fire escape to go get Elena and head back to HQ. As he fades out of sight, Rogue turns to the still frightened little girl and holds out her hand.]

Rogue - S'okay now, sugah. He ain't gonna getcha while your with us. Why doncha tell us what your name is?

Girl - Teresa. Teresa Cassiday.

Gambit - My name's Remy, but dey call me Gambit. Dis one's name is Rogue. Come wit us. We got a place you can stay.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[At Shin-Ra HQ, a VERY pissed off President Shin-Ra stares out his office window, extremely pissed at Reno's failure. His closest subordinates stand around him. Reeve, who is in charge of city development and public relations, Scarlet, head of weapons development , Heidegger, the head of security, Tseng, leader of the Turks, and Hojo, the chief scientist. Across from them is Reno, lowering his head to hide the smart ass smirk creeping across his face.]

Reno - I told you, sir, that the mutants were becoming a problem for us. I still say we're undermanned and lacking the fire power to take these freaks down.

President Shin-Ra - Yes, Reno, I believe you did, and I believe Professor Hojo has a solution to that.

[Hojo, who seemed to be one with the shadows of the room's corner a moment ago, crept into view. Reno always thought it was creepy how these freaky mother fuckers like the eccentric Hojo could hide in plain sight like that.]

Hojo - Yes sir, I do. Two of my test subjects are almost ready to be pulled from stasis, and will probably be anxious to get to work.

Tseng - Yes, and I'm having Blaze transferred back to Midgar from Junon. There isn't much going on there, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem to leave it all in Kassidy's hands.

Reno - Yay. Blaze.

[Johnny Blaze. Reno hated that mother fucker. He and Reno joined the Turks at about the same time, and Reno's had a strong dislike for him since they first met. It was pretty much because of the whole "Hell's Angel" kinda thing he had going on. The biker bad ass goody-goody. Reno didn't think he'd be of much help to his "Kill all those fuckin' muties" attitude he had as of late.]

President Shin-Ra - Well, since Reno's desires have been fulfilled, let's move on to the subject of…

[The President was cut off by the sound of an explosion and the rattling of all the glass in the building.]

Pres. Shin-Ra - What THE HELL was that?

[Reeve pulled out his PHS, hit one of the speed dial buttons and held the phone to his ear. After about a minute of conversing, he hung the phone up and put it away.]

Reeve - Sector 1's mako reactor just exploded. It's being investigated as we speak, but I'm willing to bet that it was AVALANCHE.

[Pres. Shin-Ra looked down at the ground and then pounded his fist on his desk in anger.]

Pres. Shin-Ra - And just why the hell are you all still here?! Do something! Find out what caused this! I want a full report… YESTERDAY! Now get the hell out of my office!

[All of the underlings scattered and ran from the room, except for Reno, who bowed mockingly to the President, stood up straight at attention, did an about-face and casually walked out of the room.]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[In a somewhat run-down building in the slums of Sector 4...]

Gambit - So what you're sayin' is dat dey experimented on you an' yer daddy, and while dey were working' on him, he died an' dey were gon' start over wit you?

Teresa - Yes… My father and I had the same… ability… and even though I'm not sure what it was they were trying to accomplish, they REALLY needed us for it.

Rogue - So what is it you do that they needed from ya so bad?

Teresa - Well… I'll show you…

[Teresa opened her mouth in an O and inhaled deeply, and then let it out in a scream… that rattled the whole building! Gambit and Rogue covered their ears, but it was over almost as soon as it started.]

Teresa - Sorry… I should have warned you…

Gambit shaking his head to clear out the cobwebs Naw, it's OK, chere.

[Rogue frowned and thought a moment. Then, she walked over to Teresa, putting a gloved hand on her shoulder and smiling.]

Rogue - Well it doesn't matter none what they needed ya for, cuz they ain't getting ya while you're with us. Ah'll make sure ta that.

[Teresa smiled weakly. Rogue and Gambit looked at each other, frowning. After a brief moment of silence, Rogue bent over at the waste to meet Teresa eye-to-eye.]

Rogue - Tell ya what… how about we go downstairs an' meet the rest of the group, huh?

[Teresa followed Rogue down a set of stairs to where the "group" was. And there were a few of them, all very different in many ways, age, race, sex, and appearance. Rogue spoke to the group.]

Rogue - Listen up yall. This here's Teresa. We saved her from some Shin-Ra goons, an' she's gonna be stayin with us for awhile.

[Rogue then introduced Teresa to everyone individually. First was Bishop, the oldest of the group. A large black man with graying hair and an M tattooed over his right eye. He told her that he had been a Shin-Ra test subject almost 30 years ago when Dr. Essex was in charge of the science department. He seemed very nice, and he reminded Teresa of her grandfather, even though Bishop wasn't that old.

Next was Nathan. He was a few years older than her, but he already had snow white hair. A star shaped scar covered his left eye. His mother and father died when he was very young. When he was two, his home was attacked, destroying his left eye and his left arm. As he grew older he had them replaced with cybernetic implants. He was very quiet and Rogue said he kept to himself a lot.

Next was Forge, who was the team's self-professed "Tech Guy." He was 19 years old, the same age as Teresa. He had the ability to create any mechanical device he could imagine, which included the recent upgrades that Nathan had done to his eye and arm.

After him, Teresa was introduced to Nathan's uncle Alex. He was only 8 years older than Nathan, making him 30 years old. He wore a strange metal vest which he said kept his powers from going "nuclear." This was another of Forge's creations. Alex was wearing a black leather cowboy hat over his spiky blonde hair, which Rogue later told him he always wore. He seemed like a very nice, sociable person.

Standing off in the corner was Peter, who was also known as Colossus. He was very big, at least seven feet tall. He was the second oldest on the team and told Teresa about when the team, which was called "The X-Men", first started out. He told her about their first leader, a former Shin-Ra scientist named Professor Charles Xavier. He dreamed of a world where mutants and humans could live together without hatred and bigotry. He then explained how Shin-Ra's current President and his anti-mutant policy made that almost impossible.

Sitting on a couch off to the side was Betsy, another original team member. She was at least forty years old, but still very beautiful. She talked with a thick accent and always acted very polite and proper.

Rogue - The resta the gang's in the other room.

Betsy - Yes, the younger crowd doesn't much care for the planning process of the team's activities.

Teresa - Planning process? What are you planning?

Peter - A raid. On Shin-Ra Tower.

Bishop - We're going to break into Hojo's lab and free any other mutants that were being held there. You have any information you could give us about the lab?

[Teresa looked down at her feet and sighed. Gambit quickly came to her defense.]

Gambit - Hold up, mon ami. She's had a rough day. I think we should let her rest before you try'n interrogate her, no?

[Teresa smiled a little. The way Remy talked was funny, and she would have laughed at the "mon ami" had she been in a better mood. Gambit motioned for her to follow him as he led her into the next room. There were five others in this room, all about her age. Gambit introduced her to everyone. The first to speak to her was a young Asian girl with a pleasant disposition. She wore a pair of red lensed glasses, which were resting on top of her short black hair. She was also wearing a yellow rain coat, which Teresa felt was odd, but did not comment on. When Teresa asked her name she said "My name's Jubilation Lee, but I hate that name, so everyone just calls me Jubilee.

The other girl in the room was a blonde haired girl named Paige who dressed like a goth and had an accent similar to Rogue's.

Two of the guys paused the game they were playing on the Xbox (Soul Caliber 2) and introduced themselves as Warren and Sam. Sam was Paige's brother. He said he wasn't too fond of her goth look, and preferred to stick to a more "normal" style. Warren… well, Warren had two large wings coming out of his back. Although she was a mutant herself, Teresa was a little freaked out by this.

And she internally freaked some more when she met "Jono", a 16 year old boy who was missing the lower half of his face and most of his chest, which was replaced by a yellowish fire looking energy.]

Gambit - You might wanna get some rest now, chere. Dere's an empty room at the enda da hall dat you can stay in. S'got it's own bathroom.

Teresa - Thanks. looks down at the hospital robe thing she's still wearing from the lab

Paige - If ya want, you can borrow some'a mah clothes until you get some'a yer own.

Jubilee - I'm not sure black, black, and black are her favorite colors. My closets open too if you don't feel like going goth.

[Teresa wasn't too sure she'd find anything that suited her between goth girl and lil miss raincoat, but she didn't say anything. Instead she thanked them and went to the room at the end of the hall. She fought the urge to just lay down and pass out it in the large, warm-looking bed, and decided to take a shower.]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Barret - Look, today was a success, but we can't let it get to our heads. Security's gonna be a helluvalot tighter tomorrow.

Cloud - Whatever. As long as I get my money, I don't care what else happens.

Barret - Man, you're cold.

Cloud - Whatever.

END PART 1

And now a word from the author:

Erik: Sup, fucks? Your friendly neighborhood author here. Just thought I'd like to drop the ole' "I do not own these characters" thing on you. But then again, you should know that already. Gahdamn. I'd also like to explain this thing to you. X-Men. Final Fantasy. About my two favorite things in this world next to my family, my friends, alcohol, nicotine and.... some other stuff. I just one day magically got the idea in my twisted head that I could tie these two things together. Mostly because of a possible connection between.... well, I'll not spoil it for ya. Let's just say that everyone's favorite X-Man will be showing up soon. This whole thing basically revolves around him. For the most part. Also look for everyone's favorite evil mutant to make a big impact, as well as everyone's favorite masamune-wielding, black coat-wearing, long-white-hair-having guy named Sephiroth show up very soon. I'd also like to let you know about the state of the X-Men. If I didn't like an X-Men character, they are dead or will be soon. The X team I have now would be my favorite, except for the lake of Wolvie, Phoenix, and Cyke. But even though Jean and Scot are dead... maybe they're still around in some way or another. And you better bet yer ass ole' Logan's gonna show up soon. Also look for some other Marvel U characters to show up. Especially quite a few that happen to have the same letter begin their first and last names, hint-hint. Now, sit back and enjoy part two, which is either already up or should be up very soon. Holla atcha boy. Look me up on AIM: (ewreck27) or YAHOO: (mamano_ragnarok) if you have questions or comments or what-not.

LLRO _ _\m/