It's Good to be Alive! – Chapter 9: A Clever Disguise.
Chapter Summary: Turks are closing in, How will Sephiroth escape?
Author: Illusor Meaneld
Rated T: for Descriptive violence and injuries, No Adult Situations, No Cussing.
Disclaimer: I did not create, and do not own the characters from Final Fantasy 7. They are owned by Square-Enix, and I am simply borrowing them for my own (and hopefully your) amusements.
Reno rubbed his hands together furiously, It's really getting cold out here! He shot an envious glare at Rude's leather gloves, muttering something incoherent under his breath as he continued to trudge forward. Rude now held both of the flashlights, as Reno had insisted his own was freezing his fingers off. Scuffing his way through the forest glaring all around from beneath hunched shoulders, Reno was the one to spot the small white figure that had paused, crouched in a tree some 15 yards away. For a moment Reno stared, and the white figure stared back. Green eyes glowed in the dark and silver hair gleamed in the moonlight. The red-head made a choking noise. But in the moment it took him to snatch back his flashlight from Rude and whirl back to the trees the figure was gone.
"What?" Rude asked with a raised eyebrow, "That hermit didn't come back did he?"
"No…" Reno half-whispered, "I… I think… I think I saw a ghost yo." The bald man's gaze traveled past Reno's and still seeing nothing he shrugged.
"A ghost?" the red-headed Turk glanced sheepishly at his partner,
"For a minute there… I could have sworn I saw a remnant… almost looked like Sephiroth himself…" Rude's other eyebrow shot up.
"If it was a remnant…" Reno shook his head,
"It was white… kinda glowey, the remnants always wore black y'know?" Rude nodded. Reno just shook his head, "I'm startin' to think this place is haunted yo." The bald turk chuckled. Reno shot him a glare but started forward again anyways, "But haunted or not I'm gonna follow that spook and see where he…. It went." Rude said nothing, but his mouth was quirked into an amused smile, following along behind the red-head as they wandered even deeper into the dense woods.
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Tseng gazed on in some concern as the president gulped intently at his thirty-fourth cup of coffee, They had resorted to the Styrofoam cups as all of the mugs were now dirty. The raven-haired Turk would have wondered if the stimulant drinks weren't laced with some sort of alcohol, had he not been responsible for preparing them himself. Rufus continued to giggle at the images of Reno and Rude wandering the forests, the red-head's irritation and unhappy commentary seemed to be amusing the president to no end. It briefly occurred to Tseng that perhaps Reno had somehow angered or otherwise upset their young leader, and that this was the blonde man's revenge or punishment. Elena struggled to stifle yet another yawn as the president once again asked to replay Reno's assault.
"Another cup Tseng." Rufus commanded idly, his gaze never leaving the screens. "Make it hazelnut this time." Tseng hesitated for several moments, his loyalty was unwavering, but his allegiance was to not only the president's orders, but the young man's health as well.
"I think you've had enough Sir." The wutaian said softly, Rufus froze turning slowly to gaze at his oldest Turk carefully.
"Care to repeat that?"
"I believe you have had more than enough Coffee Sir." Tseng reiterated smoothly. Rufus was silent for several more moments. Elena was staring at Tseng in some shock, apparently unprepared for the other Turk's refusal.
"Alright then…" Rufus's blue eyes stared hard at Tseng, "If that is the case, I don't believe I will be requiring your assistance here." Elena blinked in confusion, Rufus smiled, "I would like for both you and Elena to locate Reno and Rude and accompany them on their mission." The blonde man stated with a half-smirk. Tseng nodded, unruffled by this new assignment, he had to sigh inwardly though as he knew Rufus would find some other means of supplying himself caffeine in the meantime.
"Of course Sir." Tseng said with a bow, eyes flicking over to Elena who snapped out of her own reverie enough to emulate his motion. Both Turks left the room without any flourish, and for several moments Rufus sat in silence, unbeknownst to him he was missing a scene on his monitors that might have provided him with a much different sort of fascination. But since he was still staring after the two Turks he had dismissed, he never noticed the white "Ghost" Reno was deciding to chase. Rufus simply chuckled as he dialed up one of the few night nurses that serviced other portions of the lodge. His request for a very large pot of fresh coffee and a stack of disposable cups was met with some confusion but no resistance. The president of Shinra simply grinned; getting his way was all too easy.
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"And then there was the time I found Sephiroth snoring at his desk!" Zack explained laughing at his own memories. Vincent felt another sigh escape his lips. Far from being discouraged by the gunman's habitual silence the Ex-SOLDIER seemed to take the lack of response as an invitation for more of his outrageous stories. Perhaps he just missed having someone who hadn't already heard everything. Either way nothing Vincent seemed to do, or not to do, had managed to stop the never-ending stream of chatter from his raven-haired host.
Do you really desire silence so badly?... it was the baritone again, Those twenty-five years just weren't enough for you?... the voice snickered.
For a brief moment Zack went silent, leaning forward as he gazed into Vincent's blank face, "Hey…" The man asked with a grin, "What are the voices talking about now?" Vincent exhaled sharply, reflecting that despite his lack of consideration, Zack was more observant than Vincent would have preferred, already the young man had begun to spot the tell-tale signs of the gunman's inner dialogues.
"…" said Vincent.
Kill him!... He needs to Die!... Decorate the walls with his entrails!... Drink his blood down!...
"C'mon man! You said you have four voices! Seph had a voice for a while and stuff… I'm the only one left out here!" Vincent simply stared, he couldn't believe that Zack was trying to insinuate he actually WANTED delusional noise.
"…"
Zack heaved a sigh, "Don't be like that… I've told you all sorts of stuff about me." Vincent thought quickly, listening to Zack was definitely preferable to tolerating his own demons,
"How did you and Sephiroth escape from Hojo?" Zack blinked for a few moments then grinned,
"I knew I could get you to talk!" He winked broadly, "Alright… I'm guessing ol' Seph already explained his whole 'Clone Theory' and the Nibelheim bit right?" Vincent nodded, "Okay, so we were all being held by Hojo, and he kept on doing tests on us."
"All?" Vincent queried softly, Zack paused.
"Eh?... OH! Yeah Seph always forgets, there was this poor little recruit kid with us, …" He hesitated again, his face screwing up as he tried to remember more clearly, "What was his name… Sky? Fluff?... something like that… OH! Yeah it was 'Cloud'. Poor kid… must've had mean parents. Anyways, So it was Me, Sephy and that Cloud kid."
"Sephy?" Vincent interrupted, caught off-guard by the nickname, it reminded him rather unpleasantly of the sort of affectionate titles Yuffie liked to bestow on people.
"Yeah he hates it when I call him that!" Zack admitted with a broad grin, Vincent stifled a groan. He could sympathize with Sephiroth's sentiments. "Anyways, back to my story." Zack began again, unperturbed by Vincent's blank face, "So we were all stuck down there in that lab, … it was pretty horrible! That old kook did some pretty freaky stuff, probably did the worst to poor fluff..."
"Cloud." Vincent corrected absently. Zack grinned,
"Knew you were listening," He winked, "So poor Cloud probably got the worst of it, and I was certain we were all gonna die or something in that hell hole. But then one day Sephiroth got free, I still don't know how… he doesn't like to talk about it, but he freed me and Sky while he was at it."
"Cloud." Vincent repeated again.
"That's what I said." Zack insisted, his grin broadening even further, Vincent decided right there that the proposition of throttling the young man was rather enticing. His more Masochistic demon was thrilled. "So we were all trying to run for it, well that fruity scientist didn't like that much, as you might guess, so he sent people after us." Zack snorted in amusement, "Even without his sword Sephy made short work of those fools. But they kept on coming and all that so he had me and Squall run ahead."
"…" Vincent sighed, Zack paused raising an eyebrow, "It's Cloud." The gunman urged.
"I know that." The Ex-SOLDIER insisted, sticking his tongue out childishly. "So me and Cloud ran ahead, but ol' Sephy didn't know they had some guys trying to cut us off too… I got a little cocky and ended up getting shot. Poor Mist… he was all messed up from Pug-face's experiments."
"Pug-face?" Vincent asked, trying to ignoring the butchering of his companion's name.
"Hojo, That looney scientist guy." Vincent tried to smother a smirk. "Anyways so puff was all messed up in the head, and when I got shot I told him to run… seems he understood me somehow, and he took my sword and left. I thought I was gonna die out there, but Sephy caught up and managed to help me out before I kicked the bucket." His smile became wry, "I always kinda wished that I hadn't told Fog to leave."
"Cloud…" Vincent reminded exasperatedly.
"Yeah Cloud. I wish he hadn't left… 'cause then Sephy and I coulda helped him too." He heaved a sigh. Unbeknownst to Zack, as he had been adding the last details of his story, the door had eased open and the white-clothed form of Sephiroth had stepped in, just soon enough to catch the tail-end of his account. "Poor, poor Scud…"
"You're butchering that recruit's name again, I'm pretty sure it was 'Cloud'," Sephiroth interrupted as he pulled off his boots. Zack immediately brightened,
"SEPHY! You're back!" The Ex-general grimaced at the nickname.
"Yes, I have returned." He intoned sarcastically, then his gaze traveled to Vincent and he paused, "You're name wouldn't happen to be "Vincent" would it?" Vincent blinked,
"Yes… How do you know that?" Sephiroth shrugged,
"I ran into this weird bunch of people who were running around out there and looking for you. One of them seemed to think I had eaten you." Sephiroth sounded quite perplexed, and Vincent cocked one eyebrow,
"Eaten me?... Did you try to greet them?"
"I'm not that foolish, the less people who see and recognize me the better… I'm kind of a fugitive from Shinra if you recall,…" The silver-haired man paused for a moment as he considered something else, "I saw those Turks too," He muttered, Zack's head snapped up,
"Turks? I only saw one… a little red-headed fellow."
"I saw two, the red-head and a bald man." Sephiroth modified,
"Reno and Rude." Vincent supplied, The other two turned to stare at him, Sephiroth's eyes narrowed,
"How do you know that?"
"I'm Ex-Turk," Vincent muttered softly. Sephiroth watched him for a few moments, his gaze shifted to Vincent's demonic arm and back to his face. Shaking his head Sephiroth sighed.
"I don't think we can stay here if they're searching…" His gaze fell again on the gunman, "We also can't travel very far with him in tow…" Zack paused deep in thought,
"Didn't you say he had some friends running around?"
"Yes but it's not like we can run up and just say Hi." Sephiroth smirked,
"Why not?" Zack asked a little puzzled.
"Apparently they know me… or one of my Clones, one of them shouted my name." Both of them fell silent, considering this in some depth,
"I know!" Zack leapt to his feet, "We can go out in disguise! Just like when I go get supplies!!" This said he raced to the couch and snatched up his discarded beard, wig, and hat, waving them like ragged banners.
"How, pray tell, are we going to disguise him?" Sephiroth inquired, pointing to Vincent. The Ex-Turk was silent, he was actually in much better condition than he was letting on, His demonic blood was doing its job, but he was still very tired. The four demons were now consistent murmurs in the back of his head, and he could only guess that he was fully ready to shift. A "limit break" Cloud had once called it, a certain amount of built up stress that triggered adrenaline and exceptional power. For Vincent it meant he could assume one of the forms of his tormentors. Apparently his monsters knew this as well, each was eager and more awake then usual … only Vincent's physical weakness, and reluctance to change held them back, and they chaffed at his control. Zack was staring at him, rubbing his chin in thought, Vincent wasn't sure he was going to like the raven-haired swordsman's suggestion.
"I've got it!" Zack snapped, "I'll be an old man,… we always did a hump with the supplies right?" Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, "So he can be YOUR hump!" Vincent and Sephiroth exchanged a glance, both looking slightly confused,
"Excuse me… but wouldn't it look suspicious if TWO hump-backed old men were running around?" Zack's grin widened, and both Vincent and Sephiroth had to stifle the urge to cringe.
"That's just it! You won't be an old MAN… you'll be an old WOMAN!" Zack snickered, "You've got enough hair!" The other two stared at him in shock, neither able to speak for several moments, then Sephiroth groaned. Vincent had a sinking feeling as he realized the plan might actually work… I get to be a hump… He mused sourly. For once the Demons fell silent.
