Hey! Hope you guys all had a great Easter :) For the occasion, this chapter is a bit longer than they usually come. Enjoy!
DaughterOfSorceress-Lion: Hahaha I totally agree. They're very much alike XD And Squall being a bad guy for a while might be an interesting fic idea in the future...himm...*muses*. And thank you so much for the encouragement :) You're very kind.
KazeRose: Lol "athlete drop-dead syndrome"? XD love it. Thanks for the review, I'm glad you liked it :)
Squall tried the best he could to keep up with Zack in the halls, but the fact was that the SOLDIER was simply too fast. He was being dragged around the building like a child.
"Zack!" Squall said. "Slow down!"
"We've gotta get you out of here, Squall! Hojo is, like, the spawn of Satan. And the Turks are good. We don't have time to slow down!" If anything, Zack picked up the pace.
Squall stumbled again and was about to speak again when he was suddenly pushed aside into a janitor's closet. He tripped over a mop, got his foot tangled in a bucket handle and fell in an indignant heap on the floor. "Zack! What are you doing?!" he demanded before the SOLDIER slammed the closet door, plunging him into complete darkness.
"Zack Fair?" a smooth voice asked. It belonged neither to Zack nor Sephiroth. Squall forcefully calmed his breathing from a pant to a gentle gasping.
"Hey, Tseng," Zack greeted, his voice surprisingly unflustered. Maybe Zack wasn't a total incompetent after all.
Tseng…that was the man Reno talked about. Squall could only assume it was his boss. He gingerly rose to his feet amidst the mess and leaned closer to the door.
"Looking for something?" Tseng asked, his voice now held a knowing tone.
"Just looking for a mop. Someone spilled some coffee in the rec room."
"You realize we have janitors for that, don't you?" the man inquired. He didn't sound convinced. If anything, he sounded amused.
"Yeah, but I had nothing better to do. No reason to bother Mac over this."
"Well, then," Tseng said, a smile in his voice. "Guess we'd better get that mop, hmm?"
"Right. Well, there's not one in this closet. Guess I should go check the other one."
"Run along, then. I'll double check this one for you." The door opened a crack before slamming shut again.
"That's ridiculous. I just checked it. Why don't you go check the closet down there, if you don't have anything better to do with your time?" Squall could practically hear Zack grinning. What was with these Shinra people and their games?
"Forgive me for not trusting you. You seem to overlook even that largest of details." The door started to open again. Squall readied himself, his hand on Lionheart. He tensed.
He heard Zack stuttering something, but the door opened anyways. Squall caught a glimpse of the brunet SOLDIER through the crack. Satisfied that he was clear, Squall pivoted back and landed a powerful kick to the door.
He heard a gasp, but didn't turn to look as he shot past the door, grabbing Zack's arm as he ran. He heard a sharp crack and felt something bump his shoulder, but didn't think anything of it as he rounded the corner.
Zack took the lead, pulling him down a hallway and into a room on the side. It was some kind of computer room, with several people in lab coats, their eyes glued to the screens before them. But Zack wasn't interested in them. He slowed to a brisk walk and kept his voice low as he spoke. "At this next door, I'll go left, you go right. Turn left at the next hall and keep going straight until you dead end. That'll take you to a service elevator. Go to the ground floor, turn left and you'll see the exit. That'll be the training grounds. Just head straight through the woods and the grassy area until you hit the end of the plate. There should be a ladder down from there. Got it?"
"Where are you going?" he asked with a frown.
Zack grinned. "I'm going to call in a favor."
Squall nodded, and winced in surprise as the movement made his head spin. They stepped through the door at the far end of the room and split.
Squall started to feel ill, but began to run again through the vacant hallway, following Zack's instructions. The elevator was against his better judgment, but climbing down sixty-plus flights of stairs in a narrow stairwell hardly seemed safe, either. Once inside, he took a moment to breath, resting his head against the cool metal wall. He noticed a twinge of discomfort on his shoulder and looked down to find blood. No wonder he was ill. He'd been shot. He grabbed the wound and applied pressure, gasping as the wound flared with pain.
Squall reached for his belt and pulled a vial of green fluid from the pouch. He uncorked it with his teeth, spit out the stopper and swallowed the High Potion. It wasn't enough to heal it, by any stretch, but it took the edge off and slowed the bleeding.
The elevator dinged as it reached its destination and the doors opened. Squall glanced around before charging out again.
A large figure stepped into his path and Squall wheeled to a halt. Rude.
"You do move fast, yo," a voice drawled from behind. Squall turned to see Reno, his strange rod still slung over his shoulder and a smirk on his face. Upon seeing his wound, however, it turned into a wince. "Ooh, Tseng got you good. Looks like it hurts, yo."
Squall didn't respond. He just panted. His shirt was soaked in blood and his vision swam. He didn't have energy to spare on words.
"Alright, yo, let's get you to the nurse, then upstairs."
A nurse sounded good. Squall staggered forward and was caught by Rude.
"Easy," the large man muttered, making a face at the blood that now stained his suit.
"I told you not to dry clean, man. Just gets dirty again," Reno smirked at his companion.
Rude didn't dignify the comment with a response. He wrapped an arm under Squall's and began leading him through the hall.
Then, there was a soft hiss. Squall almost thought his ears were just ringing, but Rude and Reno halted. "What's that, yo?" the redhead asked, peering before him.
Then, the air seemed to explode with a thick yellow gas. Squall coughed as his eyes watered and his vision was completely obscured. Reno shouted something that Squall missed and Rude grunted.
Something whipped between him and Rude, taking Squall with it. He ran hard to keep his feet under him, blinking back tears and trying to clear his lungs of the offending gas.
"Sorry, Squall. All I had were smoke grenades," a woman's voice said. It took a long few moments for his eyes to clear enough to see the blurred image of a short brunette woman wearing a dark blue suit. Another Turk? "I'm Cissnei, by the way," she smiled as she ran. "Zack's 'favor'."
Squall couldn't reply. He was focusing too hard on running. His feet felt like lead, his head was fuzzy, and his arm felt like something was trying to tear it off.
The woman pulled a green, glowing orb from her pocket and mumbled "Cure." Gentle energy stroked his wound, licking away some of the pain and lifting some of the fog from his mind.
"It's only a level one, but it'll help, if you cast it enough." She forced the orb into his hand. It felt warm, with a calm power. "Hang on to it for me," she instructed.
They shot through the door and to the outside. Squall's abused lungs coughed as he inhaled the smoggy air. He squinted through his streaming eyes and saw some kind of large obstacle course with a group of boys running through it and a drill sergeant screaming orders behind them. Past the course, however, rose a man-made forest.
"Through the trees, straight off the edge," Cissnei ordered while they ran. "I'll try to keep them busy." With a smile and a wave, she pivoted on her heel and ran back into the building.
Squall didn't waste any time running through the course, past the oblivious boys and their commander, and into the trees. Behind him, he heard the door slam open and Reno shouting at Cissnei.
Something moved in front of him and he darted into a thick patch of bushes.
A man in a uniform walked past. Probably a trainee, but Squall wasn't willing to risk it. He'd wait for a minute.
Squall could sense his pursuers bearing down on his position. He couldn't sit here for long. He didn't know the Turks' skills, but he was willing to bet they knew their way around the training grounds better than he did, and the forest wouldn't pose much of an obstacle for them.
He rose from his hiding place and ran deeper into the woods. His only hope was to get off the base and lose his pursuers somewhere in the city. Even that might not work for long, though. He was quickly coming to realize that Shinra had Turks everywhere.
So focused he was on escape that he almost careened into someone.
He scraped to a halt, his hand on the hilt of his Gunblade, but his heart almost stopped at the sight.
Cloud?
He looked much younger than Squall remembered, no older than sixteen, with blue eyes not yet touched by Mako and the same spiky blond hair.
The boy froze, his hands resting on some kind of machete, gazing at Squall with wariness.
Squall didn't have time for a stand-off. "Let me pass," he ordered.
He could hear the shouts behind him. They were nearing.
"You're injured," Cloud pointed out, gesturing to the deep wound in Squall's shoulder.
"It's nothing I can't take care of. Now, move."
"Yo, boss! Blood here!" Squall heard Reno calling. His anxiety heightened.
Well, if Cloud was going to stab him, he'd probably have done it by now. With a glare, Squall skirted him and took off running.
He was getting weaker, though. He felt his strength dissipating.
"Hey kid!" Reno shouted behind him. "You seen a guy come running past here?!"
Now Cloud was going to hound him out. He pushed harder. Once they were sure of his direction, they'd be on him. He was too weak to outrun anyone.
"The guy with all the blood?" Cloud asked. "He was headed for the building. He said someone was waiting for him out front."
Squall almost tripped in surprise.
"ARGH! Rude! Tseng!" he yelled. "Out front!"
Squall slowed his pace, but only marginally. There was still a chance someone was pursuing him, but he couldn't seem to continue the grueling pace he had managed thus far.
The trees thinned soon enough, revealing an open plain of coarse grass that seemed to come to a sudden halt about a hundred yards out.
Squall was completely exhausted by the time he arrived at the edge. It dropped into a dark abyss with tiny pinpricks of light; the slums. Only a thin, rusty ladder connected the two worlds. There was no way he could climb down the ladder in his state. He'd slip and fall to his death from just fatigue alone. He collapsed in a heap on the ground and panted hard.
So tired was he that he failed to hear the footfall behind him.
Oooh. Cliffy :o
If you were wondering about the plant life in Midgar (the forest, for instance) I actually have a fairly good excuse/reason for that in the next chapter or so ^-^
Leave a review, if you will. Constructive criticism helps me improve, and encouragement helps keep me motivated :)
Thanks for reading! Happy belated Easter, and have a great week!
God Bless,
-RainFlame
