A/N: This is a sequel to The Unwelcome Guest. You might want to read that one first to avoid confusion.
The Stranger in Their Midst continues the story of scientist Tess FitzEvan, who has finally won the freedom she craved and is now ready to explore the strange world of Gaia. Sounds like a grand romantic adventure, right? Well, in the shadow of survivor guilt and the constant fear of discovery, on an ailing world struggling to recover from its battle with Meteor, the reality is anything but.
Romance is in the air, though at the end of the day this is me, the hopeless unromantic, writing about characters who are each kind of broken in their own way. There will be sweet moments and steamy ones, sure, but it will be one heck of a bumpy ride – heh, more like a train wreck at times. Getting together is easy, after all. It's staying together that takes work.
I do hope you give this a go and enjoy the ride! Special thanks to Mr. Stompington, fearless wrangler of English and executioner of commas.
1. A Last Day to Remember
It was the low growl that alerted me to danger, a feral sound that kick-started my heart and flooded my veins with adrenaline.
Slowly I swivelled my head in the direction of the noise, scanning the desiccated landscape until I found the source. A wolf. Two of them, in fact, stalking closer with bared teeth and bristling fur. Careful to avoid sudden moves, I straightened up from my crouch and risked a glance to the right. I breathed a quiet curse. My rifle was where I had left it, leaning against the dune buggy. Too far from my reach.
Good thing I had another trick up my sleeve.
The wolves crept closer. Steeling myself for the charge, I took measured steps in time with their approach, keeping myself positioned between the two beasts. I could get them both, but I would have only one shot at it. The timing had to be perfect.
"Sparky..." I said, priming my hazard suit's systems for the command.
The larger wolf's muscles tensed.
"Blast off!"
The suit hummed to life, and with vicious snarls, they lunged. I willed myself to stand still, bracing for impact as every instinct screamed at me to run. Lightning danced over my body, but all I heard was the blood thundering in my ears and all I saw was their maws, monstrously wide – and then the bright blast of the power surge forced my eyes shut.
I gave myself two seconds before I snapped them open again. The force of the electrical discharge had flung the beasts back more than ten paces. One of them was little more than a smoking ruin. The other was still recognizable as a wolf, but just as dead as its companion.
My legs were limp as noodles. Without Sparky's support, I would have been a quivering heap on the ground by this point.
Actually, I would have been wolf chow without the hazard suit. The fangs had been mere inches from my face. One of these days, I would have to ask Reeve to come up with a defense mechanism that was less likely to end up as a suicide strike.
I let my eyes close again as my head slumped backwards, taking several deep breaths. I was immensely grateful for the suit's filtered air. The last thing I needed right now was the smell of charred carcass.
"Warning. Power at twenty percent."
It was lucky I had gotten them both in one go. Sparky wouldn't have had enough juice left for second surge. Maybe I should bring that up with Reeve too.
I shifted my weight from one leg to the other. Still shaky, but good enough to finish what I had been doing so I could get the hell out of here. Turning my back on the dead wolves, I returned to my original spot to resume my work.
Like most of the vehicles I would strip for parts, this one was little more than a wreck on wheels, which had likely given its last while providing a few thrills to teenagers racing across the canyon floor. At least it came with a half-full tank of fuel. That alone would fetch me a tidy sum in today's Mako-starved world, especially since I would have no need to fill up my own buggy after this trip.
Otherwise, there wasn't much money in salvage, but I was in no dire need of gil. Reeve and his newly-minted World Regenesis Organization took care of the bills. A bit of pocket change was always welcome, though, and it was nice to get out of the village now and then.
Well, most of the time it was nice. This outing had provided rather more excitement than the usual salvage run. My hands were still shaking, although Sparky allowed for a deceptively steady grip on the wrench as I loosened the bolts of the car battery. The suit also made lifting the thing a piece of cake.
As I dropped the battery on the ground, it knocked over the radio I had already pulled out, which tumbled into a tangle of shrubs. As I went to fetch it, I lingered over the silver-leaved plants, some hardy native of the canyon. It would be nice to have a memento of this place. Maybe a shrub as tenacious as these could survive my third-rate plant care.
The brittle red soil offered little resistance as I dug out one of the plants. I wondered what made them so well-adapted to the relentless heat and drought. Were they tough enough to survive the dead zone that surrounded Midgar? Perhaps I could put the shrub's cells under the microscope once I got to Kalm, to figure out what made them thrive where little else stood a chance. If I could still remember how, I mused; it had been ages since I had last set foot in a lab.
A rusty tin can found a new lease on life as a pot, after which the plant joined the nearby pile of lackluster loot. I brushed most of the dust off the suit's armor, then set about packing away my tools.
That was when I heard another growl.
I didn't look around this time. Fueled by a fresh surge of adrenaline, I just bolted for the gun. As soon as my fingers wrapped around the barrel I spun around, only to have a heavy weight crash into my chest. My head flew to the side from the impact, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws, and the rifle fell out of my hand. I threw a blind punch as I fell back. It connected and sent the third wolf flying, but the abrupt landing knocked the air out of my lungs and I lost the advantage. By the time I recovered, the animal was back on its feet and leaping for my throat.
A snarling blur of red fur and glinting metal crashed into the canine and bowled it over. While the two tore into each other in a mess of dust, yelps and writhing bodies, I scrambled to my feet and dove for the gun. I had it pressed it against my shoulder and aimed in their direction just in time to see the newcomer close its maw around the wolf's neck. There was a quick twist, a loud crack and the smaller animal was unceremoniously dropped to the ground, its spine broken.
I lowered my rifle and grinned.
"Your timing is impeccable, as always."
Nanaki's laughter sounded like a dry cough combined with a purr.
"I do try."
I looked him over, checking for injuries. Nanaki was a curious sight, an embodiment of Gaia's fantastical nature: his body like a red lion's, but with a tail alight with a heatless flame, legs wrapped with golden bracers and ears pierced with rings. He returned my scrutiny, giving me a once-over with a single, yellow eye. The other one had been lost long ago, leaving an empty socket bisected by a long scar.
"What brings you here?" I asked as I shouldered the rifle. "I didn't expect to see you this far out in the desert today."
"Your flash of lightning is difficult to miss, especially from the plateau."
I glanced back over my shoulder and caught the distant glints of the wind turbines, lazily spinning in the afternoon sun.
"You ran all the way from the village? I'm flattered."
"What would Reeve say if I allowed one of the WRO's scientists to get eaten the day before she is supposed to start her new job? My reputation would be ruined."
His torso was still heaving with deep breaths. Even when winded, Nanaki spoke at a calm pace with little inflection. It had taken me a while to pick up on the things he conveyed in body language, easily missed by a human listener. In this case, the forward-pointing ears and languid sways of his burning tail hinted at the humor in his tone. I smiled.
"Well, we can't have that, now can we?"
I picked my way over to the corpse. While smaller than my four-legged friend, it was still a large beast, though not one in its prime. The shaggy brown fur was matted and dotted with gray around the muzzle.
"It is strange to see Nibel wolves this far south," Nanaki commented. "Stranger still that they would choose to attack you. Your suit smells of metal and lightning, not of prey."
He had a point. I could count the times I had been attacked in Cosmo Canyon on one hand. Most of them had been due to me wandering into breeding grounds or the territory of creatures I now knew to avoid. Not once had I been hunted like this while wearing the suit.
"Yes, something was off about these guys. They were growling, drawing attention to themselves."
I dropped down to one knee for a closer look. I had never seen the Nibel region's version of a wolf before, but there was something clearly odd about this one. The teeth looked the wrong size and shape for its maw. I grabbed the jaws and pulled them apart to peer inside its mouth.
"Yikes. That doesn't look right."
The sharp teeth in the upper jaw continued beyond the first row, littering the palate with tiny fangs. Blood oozed through several fresh wounds on the tongue, trailing across countless scars before dripping into the dust.
"No wonder this guy was so aggressive. The poor thing must have been in agony." I glanced over the the two smoking carcasses a short distance away. "Now I want a better look at the other ones."
"Very well."
I squatted down beside the one that wasn't burnt to a crisp and peeked into its mouth.
"This one's different," I called, "but I don't think a forked tongue is very normal for a wolf either."
"Mutants," Nanaki concluded.
"Looks like it," I said thoughtfully as I returned to him. "I thought the Nibel reactor was supposed to be safe now?"
"It is. These are older animals, born this way years ago."
I hummed in response, trying to recall the geography of the region. Only the southern tip of the range separating the Gold Saucer desert from the Nibel area was visible from the highest point of the village. The Nibel mountains themselves were much farther north.
"That doesn't explain why they would suddenly roam all the way here, though."
Nanaki wrinkled his nose, his ears flicking back and forth a few times.
"Indeed."
"Think it's worth looking into?" I wondered, frowning at the mutated wolf by our feet.
He shook his massive head, sending mane and feathers into a gentle sway.
"No. This is an isolated incident, far from the village, and Nibelheim lies far beyond my territory."
"If you say so," I accepted with a shrug, then glanced around. "Do you mind keeping an eye out while I load up the buggy? I've been snuck up on enough times for one day."
"I suppose it is less of a bother than having to run back to save your skin."
It could be hard to tell when the great feline was joking, but I had learned to interpret that stretch of his lips as a smile.
My tube-framed buggy didn't offer much in the way of storage space, but the passenger seat was large enough to accommodate the day's haul. Flakes of rust and faded red paint floated to the ground with every addition to the weight, mixing into the dust of the canyon. I wasn't worried, though. It might be slow going, but the old beast had managed to haul back heavier loads in the past.
The engine sputtered to life with a doggedness that never ceased to surprise me. As I hit the gas pedal, I roared my customary challenge.
"Race you to the village!"
Nanaki darted ahead to avoid the cloud of dust kicked up by the wheels, but I caught up with him once my ride had accelerated to its top speed. I knew the rust bucket I was driving was no match for him, but he made a good show of giving it his utmost. He was sweet like that.
The buggy shook and rattled with every bump and pothole, a guitar solo blared through the speakers of my suit and the canyon was all ours. In the end, Nanaki even let me win.
It was a last day to remember.
A/N:
This will be a story about feeling lost and disconnected from the world around you, about grief, about making mistakes – but it will also be about working through it all, about healing and finding your place. It'll be about forming relationships, and the effort of maintaining them and making them grow. All of it served with dashes of action and humor. ;)
In addition to Reno, the other Turks will make regular appearances in later chapters, including a few of the player Turks from Before Crisis. Turk-centric, in other words, but a whole bunch of other familiar faces will show up from time to time.
Rated M for Reno's mouth, the occasional steamy moment, and dark themes later on.
Thanks for reading!