Chapter 1 ~ Bombing Mission
Fate. We tried to fight it, Fang and I, to no avail. How could we? We needed a miracle, and yet for all we waited, it never came.
But fate was never our enemy, was it? It was, after all, what brought all of us together: unlikely heroes united by an impossible task. What began as a rebellion against an evil corporation became so much more. We can tell stories about it now, of how it all began with Sephiroth, or Shinra, or perhaps the fall of Jenova itself. But no—it all began with her. The one who would come to lead us to save the entire Planet.
Somewhere, within a city ringed by a series of the gigantic reactors that provided its lifeblood in the form of electricity, a train was running.
Many such trains traversed across the circular city in an extensive system of rail that covered the entirety of the upper city. They were the fastest, and safest—this last quality demonstrated by the amount of red-uniformed operators, in charge of both security and the running of the trains—means of transportation in the city of Midgar. Yet this particular train was special.
The other trains did not run, for one, all the way to the Sector 1 Mako Reactor—one of the eight structures in the city that converted the raw Mako energy from the earth for use in generating electricity. And more importantly, the others did not harbor six terrorists bent on destroying said destination.
Its wheels screeched as it slowed into a stop, where two guards stood watch. A muscular dark-skinned man with fiery hair leaped off the train and landed easily on the ground. "Who are you!" the first guard challenged as he broke into a run towards the trespasser… but the frontal assault was too easy to predict, and the guard was easily thrown against the ground. The second guard rushed to his companion, drawing his weapon, but was immobilized by a second terrorist—a dark-haired woman. They were joined by two younger members of their group: one blue-haired, one blonde and distinguished by goggles and headphones. The four ran on ahead, turning a corner.
Next to leap off the train was a tall, powerfully-built young man, sporting a black bandana over the blonde hair, and a large trenchcoat. Last was a pink-haired woman: she vaulted off the train in a somersault and landed on the ground. "Yo, newcomer," the man said cheerfully, "follow me." With that he ran after the other four, not looking back.
The woman was military—any casual observer could tell that, even without her uniform. Her employer disappeared after the others of their fellowship, and before the woman could follow in his steps, two additional guards ran to intercept her. With the ease of one trained for the task, the woman drew her weapon—a Gunblade, an ornate cross of a sword and a gun—and shot them down, before following her employer into an alley.
The alley opened into a street, from where the group's target could be seen looming ahead: the Sector 1 Reactor. The woman saw the group assembled before a closed door, attempting to hack it open; her employer, the tall blonde man, was nowhere to be seen. One of the group—the muscular man with the fiery hair—greeted her. "Hey!"
The woman offered no friendly greeting to the man, who plowed on nonetheless. "So you're an ex-SOLDIER, eh? Not everyday ya find one in a group like AVALANCHE."
The black-haired woman—the one who seemed to have dressed for a day out in the beach, rather than a dangerous terrorist mission—looked up from her task of tinkering with the door mechanism. "SOLDIER? Aren't they the enemy? What's she doing with us in AVALANCHE, Gadot?"
The man named Gadot shook his head. "Hold it, Lebreau. She was in SOLDIER." He sent a smile to the former soldier, although the latter still refused to reciprocate. "She's quit and is now one of us—right?" He shrugged. "Didn't catch your name."
"…Lightning."
"Lightning, eh? I'm Gadot, the kids over there are Maqui and Yuj—"
"I don't care what your names are." Lightning glared at the taller man, her eyes narrowing. "Once this job's over with, I'm out of here."
It was then that her employer finally appeared—the man in the black bandana. The man that Serah had recommended her to: Snow, leader of the terrorist organization known only as AVALANCHE. "Whoah, whoah!" he cut in, hearing only Lightning's stinging reply to Gadot, "save the talking for after the mission. We can't risk getting caught because of chit-chat." While Lebreau and Maqui worked on getting the gate opened, the man extended a hand to Lightning in greeting. "Snow Villiers," he introduced himself. "I've only heard of you from your sister—it's an honor to meet you."
Serah, her sister, had spoken of the group and its goal of saving the planet through some outlandish, destructive method or some other. Quite frankly, Lightning thought, I don't give a damn, Serah. And yet she needed the money, and her training as one of SOLDIER—First Class, actually, an achievement rare and noteworthy for a woman—would make this job a cinch.
Of course, just because this man was giving her a job didn't mean she had to be friendly. She ignored the offered handshake, instead choosing to cross her arms. Snow shrugged, unoffended. "Our target's the North Mako Reactor," he told the entire group. "We'll meet on the bridge in front of it."
The teen Maqui rose with an exclamation of success. The gate drew open, and AVALANCHE was free to infiltrate.
Lightning was the last one through the gate. She took one last look at the reactor—an image that was familiar to anyone living in Midgar. It provided for everyone's well-being, allowed for comfort in the midst of a world fraught with danger for the human race… and here she was to destroy it.
None of that mattered to her. This was just a job—and she'd see it through no matter what.
"Yo!" The man's cheerfulness added to her dislike of him, even more so than her suspicions of the nature of his relationship with Serah. How did her eighteen-year-old get acquainted with a six foot seven terrorist like Snow, anyways? "This your first time in a reactor?"
What a stupid question. "Don't be silly. I worked for Shinra, remember?"
Inside the structure housing the Reactor itself were massive pipes and machines, dedicated to maximizing the output of Mako. Noticing one of the huge, rusty pipes, Snow began, "The Planet is full of Mako energy—people use it every single day." The fact did not trigger a response on Lightning's part—every child living on this city knew that. "And they don't even realize—it's the lifeblood of the Planet being sucked out by Shinra with these weird machines."
The scantily-dressed woman, Lebreau, had stayed behind outside the actual innards of the Reactor—setting up their escape route. The others nodded along to Snow's speech—that's what the group was for, after all. Saving the planet from Shinra, or some other nonsense. "Spare me the lecture," Lightning said coldly, "and let's get moving."
Snow held up his hands in mock surrender. "All right, all right." He signaled to Maqui, who immediately keyed in a few commands to the control panel connected to the door that blocked their path; it slid open. "You'll be coming with me, miss ex-SOLDIER."
Crap. She resisted the urge to let out an exasperated sigh. She was beginning to wonder if this group was even capable of fulfilling a mission without some laid-back idiot botching it up.
They went on alone from there—the various enemies they had to cut down were growing noticeably stronger the further they went into the Reactor, and the other AVALANCHE members were not as experienced in combat. Even so, a few tentacled hounds and generic guards posed little threat to them—Lightning with her gunblade, alternating between saber and firearm, and even Snow with his bare fists, his strength enhanced by the special trenchcoat he wore. He's not as useless as the others in his group, the ex-SOLDIER had to grant grudgingly as they finally reached their destination: the Reactor itself.
The leader of AVALANCHE allowed a low whistle of awe as he inspected the machinery. He wasn't, however, impressed. "When we blow this place, this'll just be another rubbish heap." He produced a small package from one of his trenchcoat's many pockets and tossed it to her. "You set the bomb, Lightning."
The reactor did not surprise her either, but something about it… bothered her. "Shouldn't you do it?" It didn't look hard—turn a wheel here, key in a command there—but SOLDIER weren't used for the setting of bombs. Especially crude, homemade ones of dubious effectiveness.
"Nah. Gotta make sure you know how to do it, y'know? For future missions." What Lightning heard was, Prove your loyalty to AVALANCHE. She shrugged—she had severed all ties to Shinra long ago. What was a destroyed reactor to her, anyways?
Watch out! This isn't just a reactor!
"Anything wrong?"
Snow's voice snapped her back to reality. What was I doing? The bomb was still in her hands. She shook her head—this wasn't any time to be losing her sanity. The bomb was set—easier than it looked, really. Whoever had designed this crude bomb had cleverly made it easy for any tech-deficient terrorist to handle it easily. "Sorry about that—it's done."
At that moment alarms went off—they had been discovered. "Heads up, soldier, here they come!"
To her relief it was just a machine. A rather large one, but a model that she recognized. "It's a Guard Scorpion!" Lightning yelled as she neatly dodged a jab from the scorpion-esque mech's deadly pointed tail. She sent forth a lightning bolt with help from the Lightning material embedded in her weapon, recalling that electrical attacks were effective against such mechanical enemies. Snow had no means of generating such electricity, but he made up for it with a defense that the huge scorpion could not penetrate.
That's when it raised its tail above its head, and ceased all other attacks. "Wait! Villiers, stop!" Snow barely managed to stop his last punch in time. "Don't attack when its tail is up, or it'll counterattack with a laser!" The man nodded in acknowledgment and held off on his attacks. There was a brief respite as the Guard Scorpion's tail hovered warningly above its head—but it had no means to fire it. Finally it lowered, and the two terrorists immediately followed with attacks that effectively blew the machine into pieces. They had won.
"That was awesome!" Snow held up a clenched fist in victory, grinning like a child. "Shinra's no match for AVALANCHE—"
"Don't celebrate just yet." Lightning thumbed her blade into a gun, and jammed it back into its holster. She walked to the bomb she had placed against the reactor's core, and her heart sank as she inspected the minutes left before detonation. "We have ten minutes left to get out of here," Light snarled at Snow, shocking him from his victory celebration. "Move it!"
Alarms had gone off with the Guard Scorpion's appearance, and they didn't let up as the duo backtracked through the maze of ladders and pipes. "H-Hey!" They turned to see Maqui, the blonde goggled teen, his leg stuck in the machinery. Lightning was forced to stop and help the boy retrieve his ankle, while trying her best to avoid scolding him. "Thanks, Lightning!" Maqui tested his leg tentatively on the ground, and followed them out.
The bomb exploded just as they poured out of the reactor and into the shelter that Lebreau had been setting up. Lightning had underestimated the strength of the blast; whoever had designed that bomb really did know what he was doing. In terms of causing destruction, anyways. Almost as if he could read her mind, Maqui sent her a crooked grin. "Impressed, huh? Yuj and I've been workin' on that one for a while."
Lebreau patted the teen on the head playfully. "Stop showing off—need we remind you how many times you blew up our hideout with those toys of yours?" She tinkered with another bomb, much smaller than the one they had just set off. "All right everyone, get back." The woman detonated it with a thumbed command, and their little bomb shelter now had an opening to the outside. An opening that was spewing flame from the bomb, but nevermind that—Lightning and the rest leaped out easily, with Yuj barely escaping with slightly singed blue hair.
Snow gathered them all together. "Alright, mission accomplished—the Planet will live a little longer, because of what we just did. But it's not over yet, not by a long shot. We rendezvous at Sector 8 Station—get on the train back to the hideout, and plan the next mission." He grinned—something he did often and easily, Light noted, again with growing disapproval—and held up a victorious fist. "Remember! The army and Shinra..."
"—is no match for AVALANCHE!" the others finished for him, all laughing and exchanging high-fives.
The ex-SOLDIER was still not amused. When the others split into different directions, Lightning raised her voice before Snow could disappear as well. "Villiers! About my pay..."
At the word pay, Snow Villiers turned and chuckled uneasily. "Ah... about that. We'll save that talk for back at the hideout, alright?" Before Lightning could demand otherwise, he ran off in the other direction with a hand raised in farewell. "Remember, we meet at Serah's bar, in Sector 7!" For a man of his size and height, he moved quickly; before long Lightning was alone.
What a mess. She didn't have to fear on Snow reneging on her promised paycheck; Serah had given Light her word on Snow's credibility, and it wasn't in the ex-SOLDIER to distrust the word of her sister. And yet her suspicion was growing: just what was Serah's connection to Snow, anyways? She suspected she wouldn't enjoy the truth. Lightning shrugged, taking her gunblade in hand. She had a quick and easy way to sort out problems with the truth.
To be continued.
This will probably be the longest A/N in any chapter of mine. I tend to talk too much so I'll try to keep things short here:
It all began with a YouTube comment on the opening cinematic for FXIII: "An ex-soldier and a black man on a train… WHERE HAVE WE SEEN THIS BEFORE". I promptly created a new game on FFVII (I mean, we all replay that one. Yep) and renamed Cloud 'Lightning', and my imagination ran rampant.
Anyways, a point that needs to be made clear early on: This is NOT just a simple narration of the game with different characters. All right, so it's easy to replace Cloud with Lightning—the latter having been based on the former anyways—but from there things get tough. Who can replace Barret? I can attempt to be hilarious and replace Barret with Sazh, but besides their long-ranged weapons, they have absolutely nothing else in common. Snow fits the bill as resistance leader to the ruling power, so I suppose Snow can fill in for our favorite gun-armed man.
Now, try finding a replacement for Tifa (Fang? -crack-), Aerith (...), Red XIII (I guess Hope could be a sort of puppy...), and the rest of the cast. Yeah... not happening. I did consider Fang/Vanille for Cid/Shera, but that means they'll appear late into the fic. And if I'm going to write anything remotely FFXIII-related, IT SHALL HAVE FANG AND VANILLE. Early.
In other words: It's a better, more original fic if I 'rewrite' the game and keep the FFXIII cast relatively in-character. So Snow won't be shouting at Lightning, "Yo! Get your spikey headed ass over here!" He'll be courteous, and gentlemanly. Sort of. You'd want to be, anyways, if you want to score a Serah. And that's how I plan on writing this random crossover.
Some characters will have to remain FFVII instead of being replaced by FXIII. Aerith (I prefer Aeris. But eh), for one, is staying. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe Aerith should be male so there can be another love triangle. Or Light can have a wandering sexuality. You didn't hear that from me. Oh, and Vincent will be here, since there's no replacement for a man like that. Yuffie… I don't know her too well, so unless someone requests for that material-stealer to appear here… she's out.
Also, the 'villains' will be mainly FFVII. I rather like Scarlet (I'm not the only one who wants to read a slapping match between her and Fang, right?). And Sephiroth… yeah. He'd be scarier than a pope-esque old man like Dysley.
One last thing. I… haven't played FFXIII. If that wasn't apparent from my shoddy writing. ALL combat terms will be strictly FFVII, although I'll be implementing Eidolons into the story. Okay, I guess it's stupid to go "BOLT 2!" rather than, uh, "THUNDARA" (That's what it's called, right? o_o). I'll… get to that. Yeah. More importantly, PLEASE scream at me (in a nice and cuddly review) if you feel that any of the characters are getting out of character. I only have the cutscenes uploaded on Youtube to help me, and that's not a lot compared to the amount of info you can glean from having played the actual game. Sorry if I disgust you with my blasphemy of not possessing a 360/PS3. ;_; What can I say?
Reviews are loved. Constructive criticism (Again, I'm sorry if the characters go out of character o_o) is appreciated. I have yet to encounter the fabled 'flames' but I suppose that's not the end of the world.