Disclaimer: I do not own any of FF7 or the characters. I only own Larissa and the town she came from and other things will show up on later chapters that I have made up. This is my first story too and I hope you like it. Please Review when you have the time, any help is always good.
The past five years have been full of chaos and unfinished business with the mad scientist Hojo and his creation Sephiroth, who had a score to settle with Cloud. Now the vast city Midgar is back on its feet with children playing in harmony and adults doing their fair share of work to rebuild the city to greatness again. One of the booming businesses around Midgar is Tifa's bar, 7th Heaven, which is also a delivery service. And let's not forget Yuffie's new material shop just a few blocks away from Tifa's bar.
As for the new trend around the city, all the girls seem to be swooning over Cloud and Vincent, Tifa's delivery men. Tifa hates it when all the girls swarm around Cloud whenever he comes back from a delivery, yet she ignores them and tries to busy her mind with other matters of importance, such as taking care of Marlene and Denzel.
Barrett, on the other hand, does help out with the deliveries when the load is too much for Cloud and Vincent to handle by themselves. All the rest of his time is spent with his daughter Marlene and making sure he does not miss out on her childhood anymore.
Cid, our star pilot is back in Rocket Town trying to establish a flying school full of new exotic people. He would have gone with the space program, but there is no one to sponsor him, at least none that he could think of. It seems to be going really well and new planes are being made as we speak.
Red XIII or also known as Nanaki is back in Cosmo Canyon watching over things while his grandfather is with the Planet.
Luckily, Cait Sith and Reeve are planning things of their own with President Rufus to rebuild Midgar, the Turks Reno and Rude are also running errands to help out as well.
The new person added to the team is Shelke, a young girl who knows more about computers and technology than any other member of the group except for Cid who is still the king of machinery. Back at 7th Heaven Shelke walks swiftly up to Tifa with an excited gleam glowing in her eyes.
"When is Red coming to town? I can not wait to see him."
"He should be here any time now. I wish he would carry a phone or some kind of device with him, but he refuses. I guess technology is really not his style," responds Tifa as she cleans off the countertops for the next customers.
Sulking slightly Shelke makes her way to the window seat to watch for Nanaki's entrance. Stumbling into the bar is Barrett with Marlene on his shoulders laughing and playing all the while.
"Where is Denzel? I thought he was with you today Barrett."
"He was, but he decided to hang out in the church to wait for Cloud. I tell you he has attached himself to Cloud like glue."
Laughing even louder and harder Barrett takes a seat in the corner and settles Marlene right beside him with a playful smile; Tifa has never seen Barrett so happy in many years and is glad Marlene has cheered him up. Suddenly giddy girls appeared at the front door of the bar waiting impatiently.
"Can I help you girls with something?" Startled by Tifa's approach one of the girls shakily replies, "We are waiting for Cloud to arrive. He's just finished with one of his errands from Kalm Town."
That was all the girl could say because Cloud began to come into view from the far horizon. A light scream could be heard from the group of teens as Tifa goes back inside to busy her mind with cleaning the dishes.
Riding up to the bar, Cloud jumps off the motorcycle and is greeted by all these young teenage girls who he wishes they would disappear. Surrounded, Cloud accepts their gifts and makes his way to Tifa to give her the money he received not too long ago from the customer in Kalm Town.
As he leaves the girls behind they all give a great big sigh of longing and depart to hang out somewhere else, gossiping about Cloud and other girly fantasies along the way.
"Here you are Tifa, $250. I am going to take a break if that is okay with you. Do you have water in the fridge?"
"Of course I do Cloud and that is fine with me if you want to take a break. I know I have been running you none stop all morning."
Tifa rushes to the dull white fridge and hands Cloud a fresh cold bottle of water. Taking it gratefully Cloud drains the bottle in about five gulps or less, surprising Tifa that he had such a thirst.
On the outskirts of Midgar dust is flying as Nanaki pounds the red earth to visit his friends he has not seen in quite some time. Focusing the city into view Nanaki suddenly spots someone lying face up in the sand, looking almost close to death itself.
Taking a detour to the right Nanaki slows down to see if the person is conscious and if so, then he will carry this person back to Midgar with him. Closing in he realizes that this person is a woman and a beautiful one at that.
With long flowing dark brown hair and white streaks in it Nanaki did not know if it was safe to touch her. Moaning could be heard from her dried lips and the shaking of her limbs made Nanaki change his mind to take her to the clinic they had in Midgar.
He was about to take this mysterious woman to Tifa's bar, but thought better of it. If an explosive reaction were to happen to the woman's body at least Tifa and the others will be safe from it.
Cautiously creeping up to the woman he stops in front of her cracked lips and hears her say, "I need a sharp knife. I have to stop this parasite from taking over my body. This madness…this pain…I can not take it any longer…"
Nanaki tries to listen harder to the woman's words, but she fades in and out of consciousness as she continues to moan for a knife. Not wasting anymore time Nanaki gently lifts the stranger onto his back and quickly, but gracefully races toward Midgar's clinic in the middle of the gigantic city.
Speaking of people coming to Midgar to visit old friends, Cid decides to stop by 7th Heaven to see the gang and their new life styles.
"Hey everyone, I bet you all missed me a great deal. How the hell are you all? I just made a new airship and I want the whole gang to see it before I go back to Rocket Town."
Everyone in the bar said "Hey Cid" in unison as Cid walked up to take a seat next to Barrett across from Cloud and Denzel. It seems Cloud had to go back to the church to retrieve him since Denzel did not have his cell phone on.
Marlene and the other children as well as Denzel all have cell phones to keep track of each other; it is a wonderful thing for Cloud and Tifa too. Now they do not have to keep asking all the other children where they are all the time.
Following short behind Cid is Yuffie from her materia shop; it seems she wanted to see what the fuss was all about.
"Cid you are finally here! I am so glad to see you; did you bring anything back from Rocket Town for me, maybe some materia?"
"No Yuffie I did not do that this time, but I did make a new airship for everyone to tour later on."
A small pout came upon Yuffie's lips at the mention of the word airship from Cid, yet she ran towards him and gave him a huge bear hug anyway. The next person who came in was Vincent.
It seems his errands for Tifa are over and he decides to take a seat in a high table by the booth full of Barrett and the rest of the gang. Before settling completely Vincent quietly puts $400 in Tifa's hands and looks at everyone else with a content look upon his face, apparently happy with the amount of money he brought home for the business.
"Hey have any of you seen Red? I thought he would have beaten me here by now. I really want to see if he got any new tattoos or earrings," says Cid drinking a frozen root beer in his smooth hands.
"That is what I would like to know too." Stepping into the light Reeve appears with Cait Sith in his arms as usual.
"Hi Reeve," Yuffie says cheerfully. "I do not know where Red is. I tried calling him earlier, but all I got was his voice mail. I hope he is all right, why not sit with us and wait for him? I am sure he would like a big crowd to greet him once he arrives."
A kind smile sweeps over Reeve as he makes his way to sit next to Vincent in the dark corner while Cait Sith takes a seat next to Marlene and Denzel in the booth. Waiting is about all the group could do while Nanaki struggles to bring this abnormal woman to the clinic.
Just barely making it through the entrance of Midgar Nanaki briefly scans his surroundings to see where he needs to go in order to find the clinic quickly. It seems the woman has become fully conscious, for she rolls of Nanaki's back and starts to crawl towards Tifa's bar.
"Wait dear woman, I know where to take you. Please let me take you to the clinic for treatment of your rare disease!"
Nanaki's shouts were inaudible to the woman's determination to find a knife or some other sharp utensil to help her feel herself again. Nanaki stared in fascination at the woman's healthy dark brown hair turn into long flowing waves of silvery white.
Her eyes began to change into the familiar turquoise color of mako energy instead of remaining the golden light brown color they once were. Shaking violently from the transformation, she manages to open the door to enter into Tifa's bar unannounced.
"Did you hear the door open just now Tifa? I think you might have a customer. You better get to the counter before you loose them," teases Barrett as Tifa reluctantly rises to tend to the unexpected customer.
Running in after the stranger Nanaki yells to Tifa, "What ever you do Tifa do what this woman asks of you. If she asks for a sharp knife and some other materials you give them to her without hesitation!"
Staring blankly at Nanaki Tifa looks to her right and stares into the mako eyes she thought she left behind long ago. Holding back a scream Tifa tries to keep her composer as she scans the extraordinary woman to be another clone of Sephiroth's.
Eyeing the butcher knife the woman whispers menacingly, "Give me that knife, I need it right now. A bottle would be nice too, hurry!"
Frozen to the spot Tifa does not do anything but stare deep into the urgent eyes of the traveler. "Tifa what are you doing?! Give her the knife now!"
It seems Nanaki's command melted Tifa's fright away as she started to dig for a bottle while handing over the butcher knife to the foreigner suffering at the counter. While this event was taking place all the others stared in mixed emotions of curiosity and fright at the traveler who just stepped into the bar, looking for relief from the pain inside her.
"I will not let you take my body," she whispers. "You can take my town, but my body and spirit are my own."
Swiftly taking the knife into her hands she charges it through her right arm, pouring blood all over the floor in the process. Finally a cry of relief is heard from her as she digs out a purple looking cell with the butcher knife about ten minutes after the incident. Placing the cell and a large amount of blood into the crystal jar, she screws the lid back on top of it and begins to change back to normal.
Her long shining hair turns from silvery white to a dark brown with her eyes changing back to their original light brown of gold. Her body also changes from veins poking out to settling back into a relaxed state of the body with color returning to her beautiful elegant face.
Because of the sudden drastic change her body could not handle it; she faints instantly and lands on the floor in her own pool of blood. Rushing forward Nanaki pulls the woman out of the blood and drags her toward the stairs to a spare bedroom above the bar.
Lifting her onto his back once more Nanaki slowly makes his way upstairs to let the woman rest and to call a doctor to examine her body for any other problems. As for the rest of the group they are completely speechless about the scene they just witnessed with the children hiding behind Barrett and Cid.
"Ok what the hell was that?! I have never seen such a bizarre thing for some time and I was hoping that I would not have to see it this soon," comments Cid.
Walking back down the stairs is Nanaki with a concerned look about him. "Shelke just the person I wanted to see. Will you gather all of your equipment and do an autopsy on this woman? I want to know if any more of those cells are traveling through her body and if so we need to remove them immediately."
Reacting quickly to Nanaki's request Shelke dashes off to gather everything she needs for the operation. "Ok Red just where did you find a girl like that?! I did not think someone like that would be your type." Barrett and Cid both laugh for a brief time to let some of the tension loose, but gain their composer back instantly by Nanaki's cold stare.
"I found her on the outskirts of Midgar on my way in. I just could not leave her out there to die and I am not sure about any of her background at the moment. But I am worried that that cell might be one of Jenova's. We might have to destroy her to avoid bigger problems and now would be a great opportunity. She's weak and vulnerable to anything we throw at her even though it does sound cruel to do such a dirty job. Any volunteers?"
The group gazed at Nanaki with a horrified countenance except Vincent who remained emotionless throughout the whole event. Just before anyone could make a decision Shelke returns with all her machinery ready to set to work at Nanaki's command.
"All right Shelke, I will lead you upstairs to her room to set to work. Do whatever is necessary to find all the information we need to know. I am counting on you and I know you will do a fantastic job."
Encouraged and reassured by Nanaki's words Shelke lifts everything into her small arms and follows him up the stairs toward the room where the woman rests.
"Oh my God! What are we going to do about her you guys? I really do not want to fight another Sephiroth clone again," panics Yuffie.
Tifa nods in quiet agreement while Cloud sinks into his own thoughts about the matter at hand. Cid and Barrett remain dead silent while holding Denzel and Marlene to comfort them.
Vincent, on the other hand, pulls out his Death Penalty and begins to clean it thoroughly. Not missing any crack or cress in the stunning but deadly weapon of its beholder.
Reeve studying Vincent's reaction carefully starts to develop that Vincent is on to something or has a theory of some sort. Vincent always has something in mind whenever he pulls out his prized possession and begins to clean it in a sleek fashion.
Back upstairs in the woman's room Shelke begins the autopsy of her slender body. It must be from the energy taken by the Jenova cell that was swimming inside her very blood that has made her so weak. Scanning for anymore survivors of Jenova, Shelke prints up the results to be negative and shows them to Nanaki.
He reads it thoroughly before giving it back to Shelke puzzled and confused in the process.
"We will think of what to do tomorrow or in the next day or two. Let us at least tell the others not to worry about her for the time being. We might not have to kill her after all."
Nodding in agreement Shelke packs up her machinery and heads down the stairs first with Nanaki right behind her. Before Shelke left the bar to put her equipment away Nanaki runs ahead saying, "Shelke could you do me this one last favor? I need you to go to the clinic or at least call them to see if we can receive a doctor to look at her for any damage done."
"Sure Red I would be happy to." Opening the door for Shelke, Nanaki waves her on to do her business and walks back to the others to tell them his decision.
"She has tested negative for anymore Jenova cells in her entire body for what we could see. I am still uneasy about her staying her or being alive because someone or something could be looking for her. But for now we can let her rest and figure out what to do tomorrow. I think we need a good nights rest before we make such a permanent decision. Does that sound good to everyone?"
"Yes that does sound better than the plan before," says Reeve. "I would like to sleep on it. Well I am off to see President Rufus to finish up our business, see you all tomorrow."
Gazing at Vincent once more Reeve rises and crosses the quiet bar to the door. Turning the knob he walks swiftly out the door into the bustling crowd with Cait Sith riding on his back.
Cid and Barrett also leave to take care of some errands around Migdar and Edge while Denzel and Marlene run off to play with the neighborhood kids.
School is out for them for the next two months for summer vacation, so they decide to roam the city near Tifa's bar, that way she will not worry over them so much. Cloud feels the need to visit the church again for his own personal reasons and tells Tifa that he will be back later to watch Denzel and Marlene for her.
With a tender smile Tifa waves goodbye to Cloud and rushes back to the counter to deal with the new customers that have arrived. Yuffie left before anyone could tell she was missing back to her materia shop on the corner.
It seems business is picking up over in her area too. Vincent still remained in the high dark table in the corner watching all the people come in and out of 7th Heaven with the items that they purchased in their hands.