Chapter One: Grey After Red
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except my own fictional characters for a 'twist' to the cannon story line. All FFVII characters and places belong to the glorious Square Enix that we all, I'm sure, admire. Why else would you be reading a fic about their silver haired swordsman? Anyway, hope you enjoy, if you don't like it after all you aren't entitled to force yourself to read it =) Please enjoy!
She could feel the voice of the Planet as it redirected the Lifestream around it and deep within its core. It was pained but determined to survive. She could hear every scream; feel the energies of the beings forced to give their lives to protect the Planet trying to preserve future life. Her body ached with every loss of life. WHY? She screamed out from her crystalized prison. So many lives, all the suffering, useless; why did so many have to die? The now gentle thrum of the Planet didn't reply, unyielding to her pleas when it usually allowed her access to such knowledge. She turned to another source of intellect, her father. Father? Hear me, please! I need to get out, Shinra must realize its wrongs and I must be given a chance to right them! Please, Father, answer me. Help me… There was no reply. She reached out to her other parent, her Mother, one whose icy power soon washed over her in welcome at the unaccustomed inquiry. Daughter, what is it you need? Her voice rang clear in Kituna's head, cold and powerful like her home, the outer reaches of Space. She rarely talked to her mother as her race of beings was feared by the Planet and those on it, thanks to the one called Jenova. Shiroi was just like Jenova, only she didn't devour planets, she traveled planets. She had fallen in love on this planet, to her father, Yochi. Kituna saw her mother's white blinding power as it enveloped her vision. Mother, I must right the wrongs of Shinra, I must get free!
You should have never been captured my darling, but yes I will grant you my power.
There was a flash of surreal light from Kituna's clasped hands as one of her heirloom materia that her mother had crafted for her of her own energies. The Mako prison that kept Kituna in place began to crack from the center point of releasing power and chips skittered to the floor. She was slowly able to inch her eyelids open to slits where she could see the lab she was kept in was empty, for now. She knew the routine of the scientists, within the next few minutes the next one will start his shift of the new hour, she had no time to lose. She didn't feel the need to cause bloodshed until she reached the man who had caused all of this. Of course, the original man was long since dead, his life force joining the Lifestream many centuries ago before the reawakening of Jenova and the experiments, of course that man was long dead, too. She tensed her muscles, wincing from the sore cry of her body, how long had she been in here? She had given up on counting the years long ago. Chunks of Mako crashed to the floor despite her attempts to keep it as quiet as possible. She had to move, now. She sent a prayer of thanks to Shiroi and straightened her snug fitting tunic and leggings. After checking that her twin blades Gin and Kin were still sheathed in their sheaths across her back she adjusted the thick leather strap that kept them in place into a more comfortable fit across her chest. Her dark violet eyes flashed with excitement as she jogged to the lab's doors, readying her legs for the sprint she was going to have to make to get out of the facility. The plaque in the hall read B-90. Great. She mentally seethed before trotting down the hall, pushing her senses around her to see if any life forms of any sort were near her location. She had been kept this far underground for a reason, to try to cut her off from the Planet. Stupid humans, she laughed to herself, the Planet's energy is everywhere. If they were worried about what she could do incased in Mako then they were in for a big surprise as her rage fueled warrior persona began to take charge of her body. Her mother's hereditary gift.
She slipped down hallway after hallway of polished steel, gleaming brilliantly under the harsh fluorescent lights that lined the juncture of the wall and ceiling. Narrowing her eyes against the glare, Kituna silently opened one of the side doors that no longer opened on automation like every other door in Shinra. The small discarded room was dark, but her eyes, tainted by Mako experiments on her 'sleeping' form over the years, were able to pierce through the shadows with ease. She scanned the room's contents, old, outdated and unused equipment that were once used to study the abilities of materia and Mako. How easily humans forgot about such useful things. A smirk spread across her lips as she casually walked up to one of the bigger machines and plugged in the loose cord. Small numerous lights blinked on all over the machine and a soft whirring noise emanated from its engine somewhere near its base. Just as she expected, a button lit up in vivid red, as large as an orange. At least useful to me. She mashed the large button and headed to the emergency evacuation elevator in the room's corner as was standard in all of the facilities rooms in case of a power outage that the generators couldn't handle and the doors couldn't operate. Humans didn't have the super strength that Kituna was born with and enhanced by Mako even. Kituna rapidly pulled on the old rope, taking notice of the fact it was rat bitten and brittle with age. She moved her hands fast and in no time she had pulled herself to floor 5, decent progress. She could easily make her way to the top of the building, the President of Shinra's office, by scaling the building's walls. Better than getting thrown back down to one of the basement's floors when the ropes finally gave in. She shifted the belt around her waist and checked her weapons to make sure their pommel stones were still latched in before realizing she had been clasping one in her hand when she had attempted to persuade the humans that Jenova should be destroyed instead of imprisoned in stone. That very materia she used as an empowering pommel stone had freed her from her Mako cell. The glimmering orb had been stashed in her knee high leather boots with a modest heel, ideal for running and climbing as well as stashing. She reached in to retrieve the treasured heirloom and smiled at her reflection on the pearly silver surface before latching it back in its rightful place on Gin, her gold colored sword. Then she checked her boot to make sure her long knives were still in her boots. She couldn't remember if the scientists had taken anything off her person so she had to make sure she had everything before heading outside in case she had to visit the store rooms. The last thing she could think of that would come in handy was her armlet made of a special metal alloy that when prompted could grow in size and change shape into a creature that added her in battle. It had been a gift from her parents before the attempt they had made at killing Jenova for good. They hadn't wanted anything to happen to her; she would have activated it on Shinra if the Planet herself hadn't stopped her. She loathed the Planet although she knew it only did what it thought best for survival.
Shaking those thoughts aside for further consideration at a later time, Kituna crawled onto a nearby window sill and immediately began scaling the outer wall of the Shinra building, the pale street lamps of Loveless Avenue below flickering as civilians milled around in response to the siren emitting from the building. This could prove a problem, they will be searching for a person trying to cause the building harm, not at all false but still cumbersome results could come about. Kituna quickly climbed to the roof and then crouched on the edge of the tall building. Peering down at the commotion below she noticed troops of SOLDIER operatives and Infantrymen, coming to the rescue of the scientists and President no doubt. She had to hurry before they had a chance to evacuate all the building's occupants.
Kituna scanned the rooftop and bee lined to the fire escape door, finding it locked. Heh, she smirked, no match for my long knives. She unsheathed one of the black knives from her boots and gently inserted the blade into the crack above the lock to slash it in a downward motion. The door swung open and Kituna swiftly slipped down the stairs to the next level below. The plaque in the short hallway red President's Office. Bingo. The hallway was dimly lit with the red flashing light giving it an eerily vacant appearance. The door to the private office was open and shuffling could be heard as the President gathered important documents before his escorts to safety could override the system of lock-down and reach him. Perfect. Kituna stood in the doorway with an evil grin on her pretty pink lips, her violet eyes flashing with hunger for blood. The President didn't notice her. He ran a free hand through his short cut blond hair and swiveled his head around the office again and again, causing his square frame glasses to slide further down his nose as he sweated with growing fear.
"I swear, if one of Hojo's experiments has escaped yet again, I'll kill the annoying fuck! Now where is that report on the Anomaly…" his dark blue eyes searched the stacks of papers that littered the tables and shelves that lined the office's walls.
Anomaly? What was he talking about? Who was Hojo, another scientist?
Maybe she shouldn't kill him as she had previously intended, but she had to act fast, she could feel the life forces of the President's escort making their way through the overridden elevator. She also wanted answers and taking him hostage would surely prove to be in her favor.
She pointed her long knife at the worrying President and advanced. This time she caught his eye. He raised his hands in surrender and looked back at his desk, no doubt where his hand gun now was.
"You're the President of Shinra now? What is your name?" she commanded in a dry tone.
He looked back at her face. "You don't know me? I should be asking who you are! Barging into my office, pointing a knife at me, you don't know who you're dealing with!"
She narrowed her eyes. "I believe I'm talking to the man who took the job that trains young boys to worship fighting to send them off to die as your company seeks to gain control over the nations and the Mako deep within the Planet. If I'm not mistaken, you are the President, the great man who took that role are you not? Now, I've been away for a while, last time I remember Jorun was President of Shinra. You obviously aren't him as you are not fat and balding, so that leads me to question who you are." She stepped closer. "I suggest you answer before I lose what little patience I have left."
She could see his throat bob as he gulped nervously before looking at one of the sheets of paper in his hand he had been moving before her confrontation. "Wait, Jorun hasn't been President for centuries…how could…" he shuffled to another stack of papers to look through one of the files that had been buried in his frenzied search. "Here it was, the Anomaly. At the sealing of Jenova apparently, a suspect had been restrained and held in a pit of raw Mako, resulting in preservation of the suspect…" his gaze shot up to meet hers. "You…you're the Anomaly…Project A."
Fear flashed across his face as he dropped the papers he had been moving and clutched the folder to his chest, running to his desk for the weapon stowed in his half open top drawer.
Kituna didn't want to have to kill him and he apparently knew about what had happened to her and that folder held the information about what they had down to her in her clouded sleep. But the gun he was reaching for could hinder her intentions. She raised her hand and threw the long knife to pin his free hand to his chair where the black blade embedded itself just before he touched the drawer.
"I'm not going to kill you, I would have done so by now you buffoon, just tell me your name for Gaia's sake!"
"R..Rufus…" he managed when he couldn't tug his handicap free. "If you're not going to kill me then what do you want?"
"You are coming with me, I'll explain it later. Your escort is on the way but I don't want to take innocent lives…take that folder and anything else regarding Project A or whatever. We're going to be talking a lot about its history." She strode forward and retrieved her knife, tucking it back into its sheath in her left boot before grabbing the President's arm. I'll be carrying you on my back as we scale down the building, I suggest you hang on as we don't want you to go splat on the pavement below now do we?" she laughed at his expression as she hoisted him onto her back for him to wrap his arms around her neck and chest and his trembling legs around her waist. His fear was futile, she wouldn't let him fall, and she needed to know what that Hojo had done to her and what she could do to change the past. For that she would need the help of both her parents and their gifts they had bestowed upon her before their deaths.
Kituna sprinted up the steps to the rooftop and over to the back of the building. Search lights were already scanning the sides of the building, she wouldn't be able to climb down it with Rufus on her back while dodging the bright lights. She looked over her shoulder at the scared President's face. "You might want to close your eyes, change of plans."
She barely gave him time to comply with her warning before she jogged toward the edge and leap into space, thousands of feet above the air.
080
Kituna dumped the cramped man from her shoulders by the bank she had stopped near. The river's blue waters gently rushed by them with a soothing babbling sound, perhaps it would help the two converse with level heads. She looked down at the weak human as he cringed from the long ride he had endured in their flight from the city. Narrowing her eyes she lowered herself a few feet away on her knees, brushing dust off her dark garments before returning her dusk hued gaze back toward the blonde.
"Rufus, are you alright? I'm not accustomed to carrying humans on my back…" she studied his restricted movements as he struggled into a sitting position, still clutching the folder that held information on her hibernated state in Shinra's laboratory. "I have no intention on harming you, sir…" she added warily, unsure of what else to say.
The blond President looked up at his captor. Her dark gold hair falling straight to her waist, a large portion of her bangs falling over her right violet eye. He had never seen such angelic beauty. Those eyes drew him in within their deep, mysterious depths. He broke away to look instead at the clear crystal river. "So the reports are true…the Anomaly…you…possess more power than we could imagine.." he mused. "I assume you have a reason for awakening now. I didn't even think you were still able to waken, your life force was so weak and dim for all these years. The scientists had abandoned any thought of you thriving as more than a vegetable, a shell of the body the documentation claimed your kind had been. Tell me, what exactly are you?"
Kituna sighed. "I barely know that myself. Sometimes I'm my mother, but mostly my father…but those reports may hold the key for me realizing who I am so I can accomplish my mission my mother helped me be able to set. I seek the restoration of the past. You would know firsthand the lives that were needlessly lost, I witnessed the struggles of Gaia and all her inhabitants as if I had seen it with my own eyes, I felt every life as it joined the Lifestream. With my parent's power I can reconstruct the past and prevent such a catastrophe from ever happening." She edged closer to the man before her. "But I must learn of what your people have done to me over the years I was in slumber." She held out her hand for the folder. "Please…"
Rufus looked at her gloved hand outstretched to him, asking for the precious information that was the last of anything that crack pot Hojo had ever produced for Shinra that was worthy of his pay. But her eyes were clouded over with yearning to know what had happened to her. Didn't she deserve to know? He began to offer the folder when a sudden thought crossed his mind. What if she turned out like Sephiroth? When he had been revealed how he himself had come into this world like he was he had burned a whole town and later caused even more devastation that has put my company in bad sights of the people. Well, the majority of people who either hadn't cared about what Shinra did or had trusted it to be good. He paused at what she might be able to do… If the reports are correct, she contains more power by her lineage alone than Sephiroth. But part of her wasn't bent on vengeance an hate…was it worth the risk?
He had hesitated in handing her the folder as his sapphire eyes widened at a sudden thought. Was that fear she sensed in him? She grabbed the folder from his trembling hand snapping him out of his reverie to gasp. Whatever he had been thinking about must have scared him quite a bit. Kituna shrugged away her curiosity toward the gawking man to the folder she now held, opening it and scanning the first page. It was a profile description of her with a shot of her standing in front of a tall man with black hair and soft green eyes in a dark brown tunic over lighter brown pants tucked in brown scarred boots with a matching belt. Beside him stood an average sized woman with long pale silver hair tied into a braid with bangs that framed her round, loving face. She had Kituna's glowing violet hued eyes and pale pink lips like her daughter and wore a long light blue gown with no sleeves and on her petite feet she wore small ankle high light brown boots with a slight heel. Kituna wore the same garments she was wearing now.
This must have been taken before the Jenova incident… Shinra had been documenting their race at that time, of course they had had no idea they would be almost completely wiped out to save the precious Planet. She turned to the next page, a Profile of her father. It classified him as an Ancient being, a Cetra, categorized as 'Possible Future Interest', just as she had been. The next page showed her mother who was classified as Calamity and categorized as 'Subject of Interest'.
Her father and mother, natural enemies of the cosmos…somehow they had fallen in love and thus produced her? This information was beyond confusing. She had known what her mother was to an extent, an alien life form that had found Gaia in her journeys across the cosmos, but her father was a Cetra? Her mother was like Jenova? Flipping to the next page she found the first of many reports and charts displaying infusions with raw Mako to her being while encased in the substance. Her body had been ravaged by every materia influence the company could get its hands on thanks to the professor known as Hojo.
She looked up at the now skittish President Shinra. "Hojo…is he still alive? Why were these things done to me? Were any of you aware of his intentions?" her voice was getting high pitch. Was the scientist also responsible for the deaths of her parents? There was so much she didn't know.
Rufus slowly eased back into a relaxed position before shrugging. "My intel has informed me that they may know the whereabouts of him, though it is hardly able to be trusted, he was supposed to have died before the Meteor struck. We are hunting down every lead that hints at anyone being alive that was in anyway involved with what happened, though. It isn't befitting of our company to have such men running around." He cleared his throat. "Is there any more need of me?"
He was worried about his welfare Kituna noted. She nodded stiffly. I need to be taken to the City of the Ancients. I have a spell that can only be cast from there. If I do it properly we can travel back to before any of this sadness plagued the Planet, hopefully. At least our conscious can, I don't know how far back I can go but if you are alive at that point you won't forget any of what has transpired between us if you are of a proper age. I doubt I can go back far though, before my forced hibernation that is." Her eyes began to mist over. Back before her parent's death and before the discovery of Jenova and the resulting tests. She closed the folder and handed it back to the silent President who reached for his PHS.
080
The helicopter ride to what was left of the City of the Ancients was short and silent. The pilot didn't inquire about why his boss had been sitting by a river with a strange beauty away from the city and Kituna and Rufus preferred it that way.
When they landed, Rufus followed Kituna to the largest gleaming white building with a masterfully sculpted doorway that lead into a spacious grand room that would've held thousands when it was constructed. The fading afternoon sun's light filtered through large holes that had formed in its massive domed ceiling, giving the place an eerie feeling of the supernatural. Kituna knelt in front of a statue of a robed woman and clasped her hands together, concentrating on the materia pommel stones of her twin swords.
"Father, Mother, I call upon your power to combine with the gifts you had bestowed upon me before our departure many years ago. I seek to travel as far back as you may pertain, to save this world from losing valuable lives and those of the innocent. I trust you can hear my plea and come to join me now, I put the rest in your capable hands that you may place me where I can perform my duties for the Planet."
Rufus gasped as the pommels of her swords lit up with brilliant light of gold and silver pearled hues and the beast like white band on her arm below her elbow began to slither off her arm. It rose to blinding light to reveal its form of a large white fox with garnet red eyes. It sat before the young girl and raised its nose to the sky as two shimmering forms of light, one a dark blue and the other faded lavender, took places on its left and right. The young girl smiled as she felt their presence behind closed eyes and the entire room was engulfed in a blinding grey light as time began to rewind.
One chance. Echoed around them. That is all you can be granted, one chance to save Gaia. But be warned, if you fail in saving her from the fate she has already endured, ultimate destruction will be her fate and Sephiroth's scheme my prove a different outcome in the altered future. Your actions warrant this Planet's destiny, Daughter.
The light swirled around them in a pearly tornado, sending their clothes flapping around their bodies. Then as suddenly as it had begun it had stopped. The light faded to reveal they were in the middle of a junk heaped alley.
Rufus looked around, turning back and forth and to every side. Kituna stood and looked around her, immediately recognizing the building they were behind as the church in the slums. This was the home of one of her father's sister's child. She looked over at the amazed blonde beside her and giggled at his comical antics. "Rufus, you look twenty years younger."
He stopped and stared down at himself then at the unchanged woman before him. "Then that would mean we went back to when Sephiroth was still a SOLDIER 2nd class…we should find a calendar to know for sure though." He studied himself again, he did look younger, no, he was younger. But the girl had remained the same. "Why do you still look the same?"
Kituna grinned and crossed her arms behind her back under her golden hair. "Because, silly, I'm a Cetra that isn't dwindled down with human blood. They remain the same for centuries once they reach a certain age; I looked the same years before this date as well. Now come on, we are in the Slums, if we go through the Market we should…"
Rufus waved her words away. "I know how to get back to Loveless Avenue… wait; I don't know your name." Weird, he thought, since she had captured me from my office and dragged me across Midgar you'd think I'd have been graced with her name. She smiled at his concentrated look. "My name is Kituna. Now please, we must hurry to the Shinra building. I need to monitor the situation there and you as the President's son shouldn't be in the Slums unless with an escort." She playfully scolded.
He's not so bad to be around after all.
He looked across the street at one of the shops not able to fit in the Market. It looked high end, at least enough so that only respected people or 'important' people could get in. "Maybe I do have an escort." He motioned over to the shop where a long black leather coat with a wide hood hung in the window next to other leather garments. He led her over to the shop and smiled politely at the large ominous bouncer that regulated entrance. At the sight of Rufus Shinra he hurriedly stepped aside and murmured something into his ear piece. They grabbed a coat in her size and on their way to the counter Kituna grabbed a black and gold metal mask that depicted a human face void of expression. There were small slits for the mouth and nostrils for breathing and two holes for the eyes. Rufus brought out enough gill to pay for twice what they had picked up but the shop keeper behind the counter gave them a toothless grin as he snatched up the money.
Once outside again Kituna slipped on the coat and mask, pulling the hood over her head to shadow her face but that she could still see from beneath the mask. "So what am I exactly?"
Rufus smiled at his cleverness. "You, milady, are a SOLDIER 1st class who is my escort on our way to the Shinra building."
"SOLDIER 1st class? But I'm not…"
He cut her off, "Yes you are. You have been introduced to Mako and are obviously a trained fighter, you could be better than Sephiroth himself. You certainly have the heritage that he doesn't and that isn't watered down like the flower girl who got herself killed…well, who will get herself killed." He corrected himself.
"Not if I do my job. No one will lose their life that doesn't need to. But fine, I'll be your little 'escort', but we need to hurry if we want to make sure we have time to do what needs to be done." She began making her way to the large Slum's Market.
"And what exactly needs to be done, to save the Planet and all."
She glanced at him over her shoulder to make sure he was following her. "Stop the next three SOLDIER 1st class members from realizing what they truly are. That's what drives them crazy after all."
Rufus hurried to keep up with the Cetra's fast pace as they headed to change destiny, for better or for worse.
Okay, there is the first chapter, hope I got everything out there and explained for now. Please review, I just want to know if y'all think it's good or should be trashed, just let me know what's on your mind =D