Final Saga
Chapter One
Prelude to darkness
A/N: This is a AU taking place at the end of Xenosaga Episode 3. There will be a few things to take note of before reading this:
The Dark Professor lives and is part of the Elsa with The Professor
Albedo is still alive (more on what happened between the three URTV's and how Albedo still around will be revealed later).
The Elsa waited for the new network (4 years after the end of the last game… give or take a few months) to be created before they left and also brought MOMO with them (MOMO as well as Jr now appear around the age of 16) It is called the U.N.M II or U.M.N for short
Jin survived and the Elsa found him, chaos, and KOS-MOS after leaving on their journey
The cast now has new A.M.W.S designed after their old E.S's as well as still having the A.G.W.S from Xenosaga episode one.
The Elsa has been upgraded since the end of Episode 3 and now is bigger. It has an extra deck between the two that has always been there. This is where all the cabins and living spaces are located, although the bar is still in the same location. Also were the cabins were
Mary and Shelly Godwin are not aboard the Elsa and are staying behind to look after the Foundation
In the darkened laboratory in the Shinra tower, looming over the dark form of the city, the crown jewel of the empire it has created. There was only one person visible in the room only being lit by only the computer monitor directly in front of him. He was a skinny man with dark oily slick backed hair tied in a ponytail. Upon the slightly dirty, but still nicely pressed lab coat, a nametag/access card shows the man's picture along with the name reading as "Dr. Hojo". Hojo silently looked over the data displayed upon the computer with a small smirk on his face The room was quiet so that a mere pin dropping on the floor would have been enough to break the silence, but a voice coming from a unseen person did that with a single sentence.
Unknown Man: I see you are impressed with the technology I have so kindly given you access to, Doctor.
Hojo: Why of course, with your help in upgrading my lab, I have been able to do so much more then I ever thought. It is so hard to believe how I managed to work with such primitive equipment. In addition, all the research data you brought along was also impressive beyond believe.
Unknown man: *looks at computer screen* Well I am intrigued by this project you are working on. It is very ambitious, so I will be looking forward to seeing if you can pull it off. Just take my advice; that ambition of yours might one day destroy you.
Jr: So after all surviving all those dangers, all the puzzles and time I put into this adventure you just are now telling me that the cake was a lie!
MOMO: *looks over the computer monitor showing the credits screen to the Valve game Portal* Well the game has mentioned several times via writings on the wall the cake was not real. Besides, Portal is not like one of the newer games on the Encephalon, where you could have eaten the cake yourself.
Jr: Yeah, you're right MOMO, although after all that I would really like some chocolate cake right now.
MOMO: That sounds good *Smiles* There should still be some left in the fridge so how about we go and get it.
Junior or as some were to call him Rubedo, turned off the computer monitor and started to walk with MOMO to enjoy the desired snack. Just before they entered the galley, somebody calling their names stopped them. It took only a moment for Jr. to guess the voice belonged to none other then Shion Uzuki, the most attractive red headed woman on the ship. Although she was the only red haired woman among the crew and passengers within the lohingrin class freighter, that fact should be ignored as the truth was even, if that was not the case, she is still a very beautiful woman.
Shion: What good timing, I just started to look for you. The captain wanted everybody to gather at the bridge. Apparently, we may have found a previously undiscovered world
Jr: So what? We have run into a few new worlds on our trip… what makes this one so special?
Shion: Well, there is human life on this world and no record of it anywhere within the UMN or any database. In addition, the technology of the world is rather primitive since we found no communication satellites in orbit or any UMN activity.
MOMO: I hope we can go down there and see what this world is like.
Jr: Well, we can figure that out when we get to the bridge. So let's get to it.
The three of them left for the bridge while the red headed gunslinger made a mental note to return for the moist and delicious cake the first chance he had. After a short walk, which included a short ride in the elevator, which for some reason was playing some very annoying, but softly played music, the small group opened the door to the bridge to see that everybody else was already there
Matthews: It is about time you shown up! *brings up an image of a planet on the main screen* Yo Tony, bring up the data we got from the remote probe we sent down to the world. First we see what we got going on down there, so if you plan on taking your A.M.W.S's for a closer look, we will be better prepared to get you out of whatever trouble you managed to get your self into… Little Master.
Junior crossed his arms and shown a scowl on his face when chaos spoke up, trying to reduce the tension within the room.
Chaos: He was not being mean to you about it Jr. He knows that there is nothing that will stop you and he just wants to be ready to give you whatever backup you might need in case the locals are not friendly.
Jr: You're right as always chaos. So lets get this ball rolling. I've been stuck aboard one ship or another for quite awhile. It will be a nice change of scenery.
The next hour was a basic rundown on all the information the probe collected from the local and low-tech information network along with any images the ships cameras taken from their position in orbit around the world.
After the meeting, it was decided that Allen, Shion, Jr, MOMO, chaos, Jin, and KOS-MOS would go down at the moment wile Ziggy and the rest will remain onboard and give whatever backup they can if it becomes needed. After spending what time they needed to prepare for the excursion, they packed their, A.M.W.S's into their respective storage capsules with Allen taking Shion's old VX 10000 A.G.W.S. After they finished preparing which for Jr. and MOMO also including finished the rest of the cake kept within the fridge they took there leave of the Elsa. Finding a secluded area close by the largest city on the planet, the Elsa drops them off and heads back into space wile the ground crew head towards the city witch the native referred to as Midgar.
The trip was rather long despite being able to land relatively close to the city. Their path lead them into many monsters and, although weak compared to the foes they have gotten used to facing, still proved to be time consuming. While the fights took their time they did prove valuable as most of the bizarre and strange creatures, which fought them to the death left behind not only items, but also coins of various size and material composition. Spherical in shape, they appeared to feature legible numbers upon them to help determine their value. After reaching the gates of Midgar, they had accumulated around ten thousand gil, if they calculated the value of the currency correctly that is. Though the gates of the city appeared impenetrable with an electronic computer controlled locking system, Shion was able to hack into it and open the gate granting them access to the part of the city known as "the slums".
Wile traveling towards the train station that would bring them up above the plate that separates the slums below with the upper part, which holds the city together, they ran into a fight in which six lightly armed men in military uniforms were fighting against one long dark haired woman armed only with a pair of fighting gloves. The group was unsure what the reason on the fight was and if they should interfere, but that was until one of the soldiers open his mouth and said, "Shinra owns this town and so that gives us the right to take whatever we want. If you do not like seeing a few shop keepers get hurt then we can save their beatings for you". Without a moment's hesitation, each member charged towards the brawl and within seconds, and as KOS-MOS would say, "All enemy units have been annihilated." Strangely, it was Shion (who attacked the one who spoke) that was the most violent with her attacks, leaving her male friends glad they were not on the receiving end of her rage (A/N: Would you feel sorry for him? Because I sure don't!!!) Once the coast was clear, the woman introduced herself as Tifa Lockheart. After a few minutes of talking, the group went along with Tifa to her bar where she planned to ask the group to join Avalanche.
(A/N: Not going into details on items, they got right now, but they got mostly healing items. Although for what information they possess about the world it is mostly basic knowledge about cities, governments, material, and mako energy aka the lifestream, or it can also be known as a localized small scale Unus Mundus, which for an unknown reason exists in both the real-number domain and imaginary-number domain. As of now, Avalanche is still a relatively unknown terrorist group. Although… anybody who has played Final Fantasy VII would disagree about who the terrorist really is, but that is beside the point. The last thing that needs to be cleared up (although it will be mentioned soon), this is taking place soon before FFVII starts so it is during the time Cloud and Barret are on the mission to destroy Midgar's Mako reactor number one. Next chapter will be on how Cloud and Barret deal with the attack on the mako reactor and it will be an unpleasant surprise for the two.)
Omake: By AngelofSatire =^_^=
Special Attention From ShinRa News Network (SNN):
Thousands of angry citizens are crowding the doors of "Aperture Science" in an outrage. It seems that the citizens are in fact purchasers of the "new" game, Portal. News reporter, Ran Kudo, has this startling new breakthrough. Mrs. Kudo? *scene switches to Ran, in the middle of an angry mob outside of the company*
Ran: There has been a critical aspect in these civilian's motives. It lies in the messages located within The Aperture Science Research Facility. "The Cake Is A Lie" is what many of these people are shouting.
News Anchor: Is there a cake then?
Ran: Apparently not, although these people didn't seem to get the message. Two workers have already been injured.
News Anchor: Thank you, Mrs. Kudo. We will continue to deliver updates on this developing situation.