-The Pain Of Premonitions-
-A 'Final Fantasy VII' fanfiction-
=^w^=
"Ah!"
Tora collapsed to her knees, a sharp knife of pain stabbing her in the right hip, right where the metal plate was. Rolling onto her back, she hissed as more pain shot through her right side preventing her from moving any further. In front of her, Cloud's blue eyes raked her troubled form, distracted slightly by the red skin of the surgery scar peeking out over the top of her trousers. He finally came to his senses as another pain-filled cry escaped the Wutaiian's lips and knelt down beside her, easing her into a comfortable sitting position and supporting her back so she didn't fall over again.
"I'm sorry Cloud," she said, "I have a really bad feeling about this."
"Do you need to go to the infirmary?" he asked. Tora shook her head quickly.
"It's not because of me. I need to go see Reno."
"What?"
"I need to go see Reno. Can you take me?" Helping the Wutaiian to her feet, the blond cadet acted as her crutch all the way to the Department of Administrative Research where they were greeted by Tseng as he exited his office.
"Can I help you, Cadet?" he addressed Cloud. Faltering under the scrutiny the senior Turk was putting him under, Cloud gulped as he looked at Tora.
"I need to see Reno." she stated. Tseng folded his arms and turned to face the corridor.
"Reno is busy right now," he replied, "Come back later." A metal rod sailed past his ear and clattered to the ground in front of him. Spinning around, he came face to face with an irate Wutaiian who was balanced carefully on her feet.
"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear," Tora hissed through the pain stabbing at her hip, "I need to see Reno now."
"What is so important that he must be called for his duties?"
"I happen to know that you get headaches whenever a member of your Turk gang is in trouble or is about to be sent into trouble. My hip does the same thing with my friends." Tseng allowed his eyes to widen a little; he forgot that Tora was Wutaiian half the time. Muttering to himself in his native language, he took off down the corridor, leaving behind a confused cadet and a whimpering Wutaiian.
"Is that why your hip hurts?" Cloud asked, catching Tora before she fell to the ground again.
"Yes." she replied.
"Is it a Wutaiian thing much like the cheek-kissing thing you did when we first met?"
"Yes." Easing her into a chair, Cloud sat down beside her and fidgeted with the hem of his uniform. He wasn't sure, but he had a feeling that Tora's hip hurt because of the mission his platoon had been assigned to go on with Zack and General Sephiroth; they were heading to a mako reactor on the outskirts of Midgar to defend it from an attack. Looking up at the Wutaiian, he noticed she was trying to get comfortable in the hard plastic chairs but failing. He reached up to his neck and took off his scarf, folding it up and holding it out to Tora.
She blinked at him. "What do I do with this?"
"Sit on it," When all he got was a blank stare, he elaborated, "Try getting comfortable on that. I'm sure that your hip will thank you for it." Taking the scarf, Tora carefully lifted herself up and positioned the cloth, lowering herself onto it and nearly sighing with relief.
"Thank you, Cloud. You can have it back when I stand up." she said, smiling at him. Cloud blushed and smiled back, relieved that his idea worked.
There was a chuckle form the corner. "Will you two just kiss already?"
"Reno!" The redheaded Turk chuckled again and swept over to the two younger Shinra attributes, scooping the Wutaiian into his arms and passing the cadet his scarf back.
"Don't worry cadet, she's in safe hands with me," he said, winking at the bright red blond, "You can have her back when I'm done." So said, Reno took off down the corridor and to an unused room.
"Alright Tora, what's wrong?" Tora fidgeted with her plait and shifted a little in the redhead's arms.
"My hip started hurting a few minutes ago," she said, "I was sparring with Cloud when it got me. I think something bad is going to happen to Zack or Sephiroth on their mission tomorrow."
"That is serious..." Setting the Wutaiian down on top of the table in the room, Reno quickly closed the door and sat beside her, "Anything else come with it?"
"Nope, just the sore hip. Do you think that something bad is going to happen?"
"I don't know, Tora; I can't see into the future."
"But you are a Turk, and as one I want you to make it so that I can sneak into that mission tomorrow."
THUD! "Ow!"
"Reno!" Sliding off the table, Tora knelt beside the fallen Turk, who was staring at her as if she'd just sprouted three heads and stripped naked. Checking him over for injury (the only thing that was injured was his mental state), she stood up and sat on the table again.
"You can't be serious, Tora," Blue eyes bored into gold ones, "Do you know how much trouble we could get into if that were to happen?"
"Reno, you're smart. You can figure something out; just get me into that mission somehow," Tora turned away and began staring a hole into the wall, "I just want everybody to be safe...Zack, Sephiroth...Cloud..." Seeing the crestfallen look on the Wutaiian's face, Reno's mind was suddenly made up.
After all, it was a Turk's duty to help his fellow man...
"If I sneak you in, can you do something for me?"
...for a price, naturally.
"Teach me some more words and you've got a deal."
She was turning into a mini-Turk the more she spent time with him; her father would be so proud of her right now.
=^w^=
Zack slumped against the wall of the reactor and sighed, the small division he was watching out for at ease around him. It had been three days since they'd been sent out to the reactor, and there wasn't a single sign of attack to be seen. Blowing at the section of hair in front of his face, he looked over at the barren field in front of them, where he could see Sephiroth pacing in between two relatively large boulders.
"Sir, we've received word from headquarters." one of the platoon members said. The First Class SOLDIER snapped back to reality.
"What is it?" he asked.
"The attack is scheduled to begin soon."
"...that's it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Does the General know?"
"No, sir. I'm on my way now." Dismissing the cadet, Zack sighed and stood up, brushing dirt from his backside and legs.
"Spread out and get into position." he ordered.
"Sir, yes sir!" As the division got into position, the black-haired man pulled out his own sword and began slowly patrolling the area. His blue-violet eyes were open and alert, as were his ears.
A sharp whistling pierced the elongated silence almost two hours after the news from headquarters was delivered, and all present looked toward the sky. A small black dot was inching closer to their position at an alarming rate, and the minute it was identifiable the entire platoon ducked for cover. The bomb landed behind the two boulders Sephiroth had been pacing between, the explosion sending a shower of dirt all over the barren field.
"Counter-attack!" the General bellowed, Masamune pointed at the large craft overing a few feet off the ground in front of them. The air soon became thick with bullets, mud and the odd scream that signalled the end of a life every so often. Zack rolled out of the way as another bomb sailed past his shoulder and promptly hit the dirt the minute he felt a pair of hands push him down. Struggling against their grip, he tried to get up but the hands were too strong.
"Sir, stay down," the cadet on top of him hissed, "It's not safe to move."
"And it's safer to stay here?" the First Class countered.
Then he saw it.
A flash of light in front of him embedded itself into the ground, rising up and around the two of them in a circle. The light sparkled in a way that Zack could only describe as a Shield materia, and there was only one person he knew who could use materia the way that it was being used now. As soon as he turned his head, the 'cadet' had disappeared toward Sephiroth's location, the Shield still around the black-haired man as yet another bomb sailed toward him.
"Tora!" he yelled, scrambling to his feet and taking off after the 'cadet'. Arriving at Sephiroth's location, he found the 'cadet' wrapping up a wound on Cloud's arm as well as pushing the General into a lying position behind a large rock wall.
"Tora, what are you doing here?" he asked. Cat-like green and blue eyes swivelled over to the 'cadet', who took off their helmet and shook out their long orange and black hair.
"My hip hurt," she replied, "so I forced myself into the mission to help you."
"Your hip hurt?" Sephiroth repeated.
"Was us being in trouble the premonition you were talking about?" Cloud asked suddenly.
Tora nodded. "I couldn't live with myself if you guys were to get killed or worse on this mission, so I had Reno worm me in as a cadet. He stole me a voice changer which I have in my pocket; I took it out just before I cast that shield around you, Zack."
"Wait, your hip gives you premonitions?" Zack buried his fingers in his hair as he processed the fact that Tora was in front of him patching up his friends. The Wutaiian finished tying off the bandage around the blond's arm and stood up, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a tooth-sized device. She slipped it into her mouth and replaced the helmet on her head.
"Whenever it hurts without me having done anything to it I know that someone I know is going to be in trouble," she explained in a masculine voice unlike her own, "Tseng's dot does a similar thing; it gives him headaches whenever a Turk is in trouble. My hip and his dot can also detect changes in the weather."
"Sir, the enemy is retreating!" Another cadet poked his head behind the rock that the four were hiding behind while their wounds were being treated, "Should we give chase?"
"No. Regroup at the base of the reactor; we'll be there soon." the silver-haired man ordered, dismissing the cadet. Tora stood up and whipped another materia orb out of her pocket – a Cure materia – and cast it over the four of them, relieving them of some of the grief that their wounds were causing.
"Sir, request permission to regroup." she said, standing at attention.
"Granted." Zack said, then smiled, "You make a convincing cadet, Tora. Is there anything you can't do?" The Wutaiian 'cadet' laughed.
"I can't believe that you took me as a cadet until I cast a shield; I honestly don't think I hid my chest well enough." Saluting the two officers, she disappeared away from their hiding place and toward the platoon, which had slightly shrunk in number. Sephiroth blinked.
"No wonder that cadet was so good at following my orders; it was Tora." he said, raising an eyebrow, "But how did she know that we were going to be in trouble?"
"I guess that that's the 'premonition' coming through," the black haired man replied, "Now I have a reason to believe her whenever she says she has a bad feeling about something."
"We'd best get back to the others, sirs." Cloud said. Looking between each other, the three rejoined the platoon for the outcome brief. As Sephiroth explained the importance of their mission for the third time of the mission, Cloud slipped his glance over to the 'cadet' standing beside him. Gold eyes caught his gaze and winked before returning to the front.
'You really do make a convincing cadet, Tora. You're also a mistress of disguise and trickery; I bet you learned that from Reno and your father,' he thought, smiling a little.
=^w^=
"Ah!"
Zack immediately rushed to Tora's side as she collapsed to her knees, a sharp knife of pain stabbing her in the hip right where the metal plate was. As she fell onto her side the black-haired man lifted her head so that it rested on his knees, her gold eyes looking directly into his blue-violet ones.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I think so," she replied, "You know you hit really hard."
"...come again?"
"It's not a premonition this time, Zack; you just brushed my scar with your sword." The Wutaiian burst into laughter at the face on the First Class SOLDIER, which quickly escalated in volume the minute his gloved fingers found her ticklish sides. The shrieks brought Sephiroth and Cloud running, who stopped at the door the minute they discovered that it was just Zack and Tora mucking around.
"Ah, the essence of youth," the General said, "The proof that the two of them are related."
"It's nice to see Tora with a smile on her face." the blond added as Tora tackled Zack to the floor when he pulled his hands away.
No-one would guess that it had been three weeks since the premonition that saved their lives, all because of a metal plate and a magical young girl.
=^w^=
DISCLAIMER: The disclaimer applies to the characters and settings of all 'Final Fantasy VII' franchises, in particular 'Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII' – SquareEnix – and Tora Altona – me.