A/N: Yikes. Sorry about to the super late update. I guess I got a kind of a NaNo hangover. Me being easily distracted and prone to procrastination doesn't help either. So, I guess, I won't be needing all those hours of learning to speak with a Scottish accent to write Cait Sith, or watching those mafia movies to write Sephiroth, huh? Is it too much to ask for a Scottish mafia movie? XD Braveheart's good enough, right? I'm sure Godfather Sephiroth's power metal would go well with broadswords and kilts. Okay, enough of my rambling. On with the story…
Chapter 8: With Love From…
"Charlie Team, Delta Team, please respond." It was Angeal on the radio.
Reno looked from the door to the classroom and back to the rest of the team. Vincent was the first to answer with a simple acknowledgement, "Yes?"
"Has everything gone to plan?"
Vincent lowered his eyes on Reno. So did the rest of the team members.
Reno rolled his eyes and spun on a toe, turning his back on him, defending himself to Angeal before anyone could interrupt. "Well, it's not like we had a plan in the first place."
"But other than that," Angeal continued, "Is everything under control?"
"Controlled as in my control or…"
"Yes," Vincent finally said, making Reno shoot a glare over his shoulder at him.
"Good," the SOLDIER praised, "But we're going to have to get both of your teams to hold off for a little while longer. There's been an unexpected…mess with the Alpha/Bravo teams and Genesis's kidnapping."
"What?" Reno said with a half laugh. "Genesis got kidnapped?"
"An-Angeal!" It was Cloud's voice coming in, hoarse and strained.
Zack came in right after with the same desperate, pleading voice. "Fangirls…everywhere…crushing us…can't…breathe…!"
"I'm aware of the situation," Angeal said, strictly business-like. "But we need you to stay where you are and not initiate any action for just a while longer until everything gets straightened out. The only thing the writer got right was Sephiroth's scenes…" he trailed off, muttering, "Not surprisingly."
"Uh…The 'writer'?" Reno asked.
Angeal went on. "Just wait where you are. We can't have you making a bigger mess of things with the timing of the scenes. We froze everything to make certain of that. Don't do anything until I give you the signal, understand?"
"'Froze'? What do you mean 'froze'? And you're saying 'we' a lot too. Is there something you're not telling us?"
There was a pause, but then he came back with a simple, "No, not really."
"So, you're saying that despite the fact that we're so close to the guy we're trying to catch, we can't go on because of some extra-dimensional force stopping us? I'm getting really sick of waiting for some real action to happen here!"
"Just do what I say, Turk."
Reno let go of the "Talk" button of the earpiece and threw a hand up, muttering, "'Just do what I say...'" He scoffed and turned to his team. "If we're going to be here and not do anything, I'm going to get some lunch. There's gotta be some food around here."
"Yeah!" Zidane perked up with a smile. "I'm hungry too."
"I suppose I'm rather famished myself," Kuja said as he walked towards Reno.
Cait Sith bounded off of Vincent after him. "It'd be good to scope out the place!"
Reno looked to the others. "Anyone else?"
Squall, Vincent, and Rude didn't answer. They didn't even look at him.
"Suit yourselves," Reno said as he turned around and gave an absent-minded wave. "If we don't come back, avenge our deaths!"
Zidane, Kuja, and Cait Sith followed behind him and they made their way through the large empty halls of the Ouran Academy.
**
Sephiroth made his way away from the Shinra holding cells to the elevator, taking it one floor up to the president's reception room. Just when the elevator bell rang and the heavy metal doors began to slide open, Sephiroth could hear someone yelling.
"Stop! Stop!" a man called out. He was running after a small creature that was bounding towards the elevator.
Sephiroth looked down to see a small, blue, panther-like monster with an extra furless tail coming from the back of its head. It stopped at the shock of another person's presence in front of it when all it thought it was running towards was a wall, but quickly got over the shock and started barking at Sephiroth.
The man quickly caught up with it and knelt down, picking it up as it tried to squirm out of his grip. "Finally," he sighed.
"What are you doing?" Sephiroth asked with a slightly bored tone in his voice.
The man looked up at him as he stood up, revealing his sharp forest-green eyes. The baby Guard Hound was still squirming in his arms as he held it to his chest, making the man's neat black tie come out from the jacket it was tucked under. The tail on the monster's head whipped at his cheek that was covered by a black mask, hiding his nose and mouth. He flinched away at it, closing his left eye and holding a hand up to his cheek; his silvery hair was just long enough to reach his fingertips.
"Hey, watch it!" he half-heartedly sneered at it. "Uh," the man looked to Sephiroth again. "Cloud asked me to pick this puppy up from his place before he left. He said it was an apology to Rufus for the accident with Dark Nation."
The president's secretary came up to him and he gave the creature to her with a muttered, "Thanks" before turning back to the General.
"So, you're an errand boy now?" Sephiroth asked him as he made his way up the stairs towards his new office on the seventieth floor.
The younger man followed, walking beside him. The two long ends of the mask that was tied behind his head floated behind him. "I don't mind. He's Zack's friend after all," he said, putting his tie back in place and running a hand over it to smooth his suit down. He then rubbed his cheek where the Guard Hound had stung it. The light fabric of the mask had only slightly shielded the accidental attack.
Sephiroth looked at him from the corner of his eye. "After all these years, you still wear that mask," he said, almost annoyed by it. "I do not recall a ninja being in our ranks."
He chuckled and shook his head slightly. "Ninjas are awesome! But…I don't know. I guess I'm just used to having something cover my face. I'm more comfortable that way, you know? Besides, I'm getting pretty good at using two Katanas simultaneously. My aim with small, sharp objects isn't too bad either. It's never a bad thing to have a ninja on your side."
"What do you have to report to me?" Sephiroth asked, tiring of the small talk and getting to the point.
He cleared his throat, returning to a more professional mindset. "Phase One of Operation Genocide is complete, sir. The target has successfully been apprehended and is currently in transport to Cactus Island. We made sure that he does not know who we are, who I am, or why he had been the target. The other troops are all set to go as well. Everything has gone as you had instructed, sir."
"Good."
The two of them reached the top of the stairs and Sephiroth made his way to the window behind the desk. The man with the shorter silver hair stood in the middle of the room watching him, standing with his back straight and his right hand holding his left wrist in front of him.
Sephiroth stayed silent for a while, looking down at the flood of people that had assembled outside below. He couldn't see any faces. He was too high up and there were too many people. All he saw was a massive dark-coloured crowd that surrounded the Shinra building. Off to the side on the balcony was a black helicopter, formerly labeled with the Shinra logo. Now, it had a silver stripe going horizontally across the body of the copter with a simple, sharp three-stroked 'S' in the middle of it. The blades of the rotor were already whirling. The helicopter was waiting for him.
Sephiroth turned away from the window and began towards the door to the balcony. "Care to join me on stage?"
The young man looked to him in surprise, but held his position. He always thought the General was the type of person to want all the glory to himself. Did he have stage fright? No, he couldn't possibly. Then was it his fans? They did border on obsessive worshippers after all. Just from the horror stories he had heard through rumors, even he had been a bit weary of them, not wanting to be with Sephiroth outside of the safety of the Shinra building in fear of getting caught up in the storm of screaming fans. On the other hand, he had never seen Sephiroth leave the building unless it was on very important missions. Maybe it did have something to do with the fans. He thought, if anything, the Masamune was good for crowd control.
"You are my son after all," Sephiroth said with just a slight upturn on his lips.
He answered with a smirk of his own and slightly bowed his head as he spoke, returning to, not only professionalism, but also to Sephiroth's newly favoured embellished style of speech, "Of course. My humble thanks, Godfather."
And with that, the two of them made their way out onto the balcony and into the helicopter, where it took off almost immediately.
**
"He wasn't jokin' around when he said they froze everything," Reno said as he peeked into a random classroom on his search for the cafeteria, staff room, or some kid's lunch box- anywhere where he could get some food. Zidane, Kuja, and Cait Sith followed in behind him as he almost cautiously walked into the room, watching the students in their seats on the left as they remained eerily still. Not even the subtle rise and fall of chests to indicate breathing could be seen. No movement. No signs of life. Even the teacher at the chalkboard on the right of the room was still, frozen in place with the chalk in his hand up in mid-word.
Cait Sith bounded from behind the group and towards the closest student in the first row. He jumped, rolled into a flip, and landed on top of the desk, waving a white gloved paw in front of her opened eyes. "She's out, all right."
"How is this possible?" Zidane asked as he walked in between the rows of desks, and examining the students, albeit a bit too closely as he 'd lean over and put his face right up to one of the students' and look into their open eyes.
Reno was more interested in the teacher's chalkboard than the students. He took the piece of chalk from the old man's hand and turned around to the rest of the group. "Who knows? Considering it's Angeal, he'd probably say that he has the power of honor, or something." He turned around again and began writing something under the words "Today's lesson" that had already been written.
"Perhaps he and Ultimecia are working together," Kuja, standing by the open door, speculated.
"Who?" Reno asked.
"As you have said yourself, Angeal seems to be co-operating with someone. Perhaps it is Ultimecia, Leonheart's nemesis. She is quite a..." Kuja paused for a moment to find the right word to describe her. "An interesting sorceress with the ability to control time itself."
"Big deal. I can do that with materia."
Zidane made his way to the back of the class where he pulled a cat-eared headband off of one of the girls. He put it on himself and grinned at Cait Sith. "Hey, look, we match now!" he said, flicking his tail up once.
Cait Sith made his way over to Zidane, jumping from one desk to the other, stopping one desk away from him. "At least now, if people saw you, they'd think you're just dressing up."
Zidane nodded and looked around some more out of habit. Being around rich people with their stuff out in the open brought out his inner thief tenfold, and when he looked into the desk of the formerly cat-eared girl, he stuck his hand in and pulled out the first thing he touched.
It was a notebook with a marker-embellished cover on it that read "FF Fics". With mild interest, he stood up and flipped through the pages. They were stories written in pencil but Zidane didn't bother to stop and read any of it until he came to a full page dedicated to the word "RENO" written in bold red letters across it. He flipped the page again and found that the prose that followed it indeed included a character named Reno.
"Hey, Reno," Zidane called out to the Turk at the front of the classroom. "Your name's in this."
"Huh?" Reno put down the piece of chalk and walked away from the chalkboard that now read,
"Today's lesson:
NEVER TRY"
"Here," Zidane handed the notebook to him as he approached. "Take a look."
Reno took it from him and Zidane went off the search the other desks, more interested in stealing than reading. "Why would my name be…" Reno wondered as he quickly skimmed through the pages. He didn't think anything of it and after a while, he began bored and flipped through the pages after mere glimpses, but suddenly paled as a familiar name caught his eye- Rude.
His eyes grew wide and his face showed concern mixed with disgust that increased as he skimmed the pages further. It was when he read the word "caressed," that he closed the book, dropped it on the girl's desk, and began walking flat-footed out of the classroom; his messy red hair shielding his eyes from view. "We're leaving," he said with authority that Zidane, Kuja, nor Cait Sith had ever heard from him before.
Zidane pocketed something from a boy's desk and quickly followed Reno and Cait Sith out the door. Kuja, however, was curious as to what it was that made Reno react that in such a way.
He walked over to the girl's desk at the back of the room, picked up the notebook, and began flipping through it.
He smirked.
Reno/Rude, Reno/Vincent, Reno/Cloud, Reno/Rufus, Reno/Yazoo…
"Hm? Who is Yazoo?" he wondered.
Kuja heard quick footsteps from outside return to the classroom door. "We're leaving!" Reno repeated as he stepped back into the classroom."And don't you dare try to hide that from me!"
The smirk would not leave Kuja's face as he looked at the bewildered team leader from the corner of his eye.
"Come on!" Reno yelled as he turned his back on him and continued out the door with a string of rambling. "It's like something out of that twilighty show about that zone…What the hell is…I don't even…This is just way too weird! How do they even-" He interrupted his fractured train of thought by pressing the button on the earpiece and yelling, "Angeal!" to call the mysterious person who seemed to know a lot more than anyone else about what was happening. He let go of the button to continue his ramblings. "What is this place? Where are we? Can they see us right now? Where's that food at!?!"
As his voice and the sound of Zidane trying to calm him down grew softer and farther away, Kuja placed the closed book down on the girl's desk. He looked to the book, then to the girl, shook his head, and chuckled to himself. "I never saw him in that way before," he said, as he leisurely made his way out of the classroom.
**
The crowd was massive and there were people everywhere. Even if they couldn't see the centre, they gathered as close as they could around the outdoor stage behind the Shinra building. They were all there to see one person- Sephiroth, the new president of Shinra. There were fans of all varying intensities- from mere interested fan, to knowledgeable Silver Elites, to devout Jenova's Witnesses (complete with black cloaks and Roman numeral tattoos), and of course, to rabid fangirls/fanboys.
All around were video cameras from every news channel The Planet had, along with journalists that fought as hard as the fans to get closest to the stage.
In the centre of the stage stood a lone black podium with many different microphones on it, but on the front of the stand, the usual Shinra logo no longer could be seen. Instead, it was a new symbol, one that not many people recognized but was all over Midgar already, adorning almost every billboard, street post, and building in the city- the silver, sharp, three-stroked 'S'. In fact, there were no traces of the Shinra logo anywhere in the city. It was a new era.
At the back, two large pictures of a portrait Sephiroth recently had painted of himself was hung in-between the company's new logo. And all around were large speakers that now amplified a live rendition of Trail of Blood that was played by a combination of metal guitars and a full symphony. And somehow, despite the number of people already up there, the stage still looked bare without its main attraction.
Then, there was the sound of a helicopter coming towards the stage and everyone in the crowd looked up, cheering, and watching it as it landed on the street beside the stage. And, at the first glimpse of Sephiroth getting out of the helicopter, the fans tried to swarm towards him. The female percentage of the crowd was audibly well-represented when they realized that he wasn't in his famous coat and armour, but instead, in a smart black suit and a silver tie. They went wild and pushed towards him but a line of men and women in black suits stood guard, blocking them off.
Sephiroth caught the act in the corner of his eye but didn't do anything. Everything was going well and he approved.
He made his way up the stage as the young silver-haired man followed behind him, along with five other suited personnel, hand-picked by Sephiroth himself to accompany him onstage. And as Sephiroth stepped foot onto the stage, the metal band and symphony began playing his second favourite song- Those Chosen by the Planet- with strong emphasis on the guitars. They were still working on the power metal version of One Winged Angel and were instructed not to play it in public until it was absolutely perfect. But, as the first few notes reached his ears, he gave a half nod to the musicians. This, he also approved.
The crowd's cheers grew louder as Sephiroth approached the podium; the six black suits stood in a horizontal line behind him, three on each side of him, and when he reached the stand, they stood tall with their feet shoulder-width apart and their hands together behind them, moving in sync with each other. It was obvious, despite their attire, that they were indeed soldiers.
Sephiroth looked over the crowd with a peaceful expression on his face, even if the crowd was threatening to turn into a mosh pit at any moment to get to him. He closed his eyes and held up his left hand, and slowly, the crowd fell silent, leaving the band and orchestra alone to fill the air with slightly muted music that would be the background music to his speech.
When it was finally silent, Sephiroth looked to the crowd again and finally began.
"Today is a glorious day," he said proudly into the microphones, his voice amplified through the speakers.
Some of the fangirls in the audience couldn't help but let out a squee at the sound of his voice caressing their ears. One girl from somewhere in the middle of the crowd screamed, "We love you, Sephy!!" and the audience erupted in cheers again, but quickly died down to let the man speak.
"Throughout my life, I have acquired many titles- SOLDIER, First Class; General; Hero; Godfather."
There were whispers of confusion as to when the Godfather title had come about, but the crowd hung on his every word nonetheless.
"And on this day, I will gain yet another- President."
He paused again to let the crowd's cheers fill the air before continuing.
"And with that title, I will lead you to a new world, to a better world, one under my control, my rule.
"I come before you today as your new protector and your new emperor. I come before you as the one who now holds the reins to the Lifestream, taken from a man whose strength and courage fell short of what the Planet truly deserves. This Planet will soon see a shining, glorious future, and," he paused for a slight second to emphasize the last part, "I will lead you there."
There were cheers and applaud again.
"My brothers and sisters here," he said, opening his arms out to suggest the suited men and women behind him, "will guide you along the way to our transformation and will carry out my will across the lands. Should you decide to join their noble ranks, your devotion will be rewarded. And, I assure you, you will be treated well." The crowd erupted with cheers that were overwhelmed with the high-pitched screams of Sephiroth's more devout female fanatics.
The silver-haired young man behind him couldn't help but smile a bit under his mask. Maybe Sephiroth would have fewer rabid fans if he didn't cater to their fantasies so often.
"So," Sephiroth said, his eyes scanning over the crowd from left to right. "Who will be the first to take part in my new world?"
The noise coming from the crowd shook the ground and arms flew up into the air. Even the infantry guards were having a hard time containing the fans.
Sephiroth smirked at the audience's reaction, but that slight twitch of his lips only caused the volcano of fans to become more active.
**
"Reno," Zidane said to the Turk on the other side of the sneeze guard.
Reno, who was scarfing down forkful after forkful of teriyaki udon straight from the food warmer almost constantly for nearly twenty minutes, didn't seem to notice. The Turk had already cleared a deep pan's worth of noodles and only a single, lonesome one was left in it as he continued his noodle massacre with the pan right next to it. The cafeteria worker that had been standing where Reno now stood was shoved aside and was now lying on the floor.
Reno wanted food. And nothing got in the way between Reno and his food.
"I think you've had enough," Zidane said steadily.
Reno stabbed the pile of noodles with his fork and glared at Zidane and held his gaze long enough to make him feel just the slightest bit threatened. "I'll tell you when I've had enough!" he said, and picked up his fork again.
Zidane turned away from him, leaning on the edge of the counter as he surveyed the room. The cafeteria was large, larger than any school's cafeteria he had ever seen before. But then again, he had never been to such a rich school before. Even the food here rivaled that of a five-star restaurant…at least, Zidane imagined. He'd never bothered with the fancy stuff. Unlike his brother, Kuja, who sat himself down at a nearby table with a tray of food that he didn't even know how to pronounce, and more kinds of utensils that he thought was even possible to eat one meal.
As for himself, he had had his fill of some odd seasoned meat that he saw one of the few students in the cafeteria eating. It being too early for lunch, the place was almost empty with only some of the older students hanging around, possibly for breakfast or brunch. And they, too, had been affected by whatever spell Angeal or whoever he was working with had cast onto them- captured in a freeze frame as was Cait Sith, who now stood beside him, inactive, waiting for the team to finish eating.
Zidane could still hear Reno slurping and chewing rabidly behind him as if the world was going to end if he didn't finish off every single thing in the entire refectory. He didn't know what was in that book, but whatever it was, it sure made an impression of Reno.
This world was odd, that was something he knew for certain. What still confused him, though, was how Angeal was able to freeze everyone from this world, leaving Zidane and his friends unaffected. After repeated calls to him, Reno still could not get Angeal to respond.
"He did say something about a 'writer'," Zidane muttered to himself.
**
After the speech, Sephiroth and the soldiers had been brought back to the President's level of the Shinra building via helicopter, and inside in his new office, Sephiroth dismissed all of them except one- the silver-haired man.
"A word, please," Sephiroth said to him as the others walked away.
"Yes?" he said with a surprised expression playing on his masked face. He stood, relaxed, a bit different than when he was standing at ease alongside the others.
Sephiroth took his place in the seat behind the large metal desk and crossed his arms, contemplating for a moment to make sure he was certain of his decision. "I have chosen you to supervise Operation Genocide. Make sure everything goes well, that the ingredients are taken care of, and that Genesis…goes through with his mission."
"B-but sir," he stuttered. "He's a First. There's no way I can even defend myself if he decides he doesn't want to listen to me. It took…four of my strongest to take him down the first time."
Sephiroth glanced at him with those same eyes that could take down the most confident people. He did not appreciate being told what he already knew. "Is there a problem?"
The man considered stepping back a bit, but held his ground. He would prove his strength to him. "No, sir," he answered, his military training showing through.
"And you have already made the preparations, sent out the invitations?"
"Yes, sir."
"You may recruit those four you have used before."
"Yes, sir."
Sephiroth looked to him again, but this time, his expression was softer, that of a friend's. "Go in my stead and set the kindling for the flames. Remind him who's in charge."
The man was confused but he did not question him. Though he did pick up on his change in attitude and relaxed a bit.
Sephiroth went on, "Should this mission be a success, I shall promote you to First."
His bright green eyes lit up with happiness, and, suppressing a laugh, he asked, "And I'll get fangirls too, right?"
Sephiroth allowed himself to smirk as he gave a slight nod. "All the fangirls you need."
"Yes!" The man did a fist pump before looking back at his superior. "Thank you, Godfather."
Sephiroth nodded to him again. "Go. Be there by tomorrow."
"Yes, sir!" He said, and took his leave.
Sephiroth leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath in and out, swiveling the chair to face the window. The sun was almost setting.
**
Outside the math class, Vincent, Squall, and Rude waited. Squall leaned against a wall with his arms crossed and eyes, pointed down, closed; Vincent stood by the window, looking out at the sky; and Rude simply stood there. No words were spoken. Not even eye contact was made.
Rude cleared his throat.
**
Sephiroth stood in the president's office, staring out the window at the gentle sun setting over the water. He held his hands behind his back as his mind began to wander and all of his grand and glorious ideas played in front of his mind's eye. A small smirk crept upon his face. Shinra, Midgar, the Planet- they all belonged to him now, and he would make sure that he would put his signature on everything and everyone that was in his world-wide kingdom.
At his feet beside him, a small chocobo ruffled his feathers as he looked up at Sephiroth and quickly adjusted his pose according to him- wings folded behind him, eyes staring out into the distance, standing proud, noble, confident. He, too, had plans.
Suddenly, the golden-yellow chocobo choked out a small "wark" at the sudden noise of the buzzer that sliced through the peaceful silence.
Sephiroth reacted as well, but his reaction was just a simple turn away from the window and to the phone on the large metal desk.
"Sir," the voice of the Shinra guard wavered a bit as he spoke. "There is someone here who wants to talk to you. She says she's your mother."
**
Inside Music Room #3 was a mess of scattered bodies piled on top of one another and under the dog pile of bright yellow dresses were the Alpha and Beta teams. The girls were frozen in place, some even frozen in mid-air, caught in the motion of jumping onto the pile. All was eerily still and quiet…except for Zack, who felt the need to fill the air with song.
"Ohh, Puff, the magic draaagon lived by the seaaa, and frolicked in the Autumn mist in a la-"
"Zack!" Leon Kennedy interrupted the SOLDIER, who was pinned against the floor not too far away from him. "Seriously! Shut up!"
Zack gave a weak laugh. "Sorry. It's stuck in my head."
"I thought you couldn't breathe," Tidus threw his voice from across the room.
"I kinda got used to it." Zack was more conscious of what little space he had for his diaphragm to expand, but after about an hour had gone by, it didn't bother him too much. The space he had created between his chest and the horde of girls that packed into the room on top of them was just enough to make him comfortable enough to go back to his carefree ways.
Again, he tried to push the mass of flowy yellow dresses, trying to free himself, but only managed to free half of his head. Struggling to readjust himself to make sure he had enough room to breathe, he surveyed the room for the first time, eyes peeking out from underneath the pool of white and yellow.
"Woah!" a breath escaped him when he saw what was right above him. Suspended in the air was a girl. Not just any girl. She was…"Freaky," Zack muttered to himself. She wore the same uniform as the other girls but her eyes were like those of a predatory animal's- wide, focused, and menacing. Her dyed-blond hair spread out in the air behind her like a lion's mane. Her mouth was open and shaped in a sort of snarl and her hands formed into claws in front of her, complete with sharp talon-like nails. She was like a deranged panther in mid-pounce.
"Sheesh! When this is over, remind me to never come to this world again!"
"Can you get out?" Cloud called out to him.
Zack tried to wriggle out some more but could barely move. Slowly, he moved his head to the left as he spoke. "It might take a while, but I---Oooh, a kitty!"
"Huh?" was everyone's response at Zack's sudden change in tone.
The orange cat was an arm's length away, if Zack could free his arm to reach for it. Its ears were pinned down to its skull, eyes shut tight, and its two front paws were in front of it, claws extended out, digging into the tile floor. It was frozen in a state of fear, yet unlike the Alpha and Bravo teams, the cat wasn't being visibly crushed. Above, between the cat and the sea of girls, was a great deal of space, enough to have a full body fill it.
But Zack didn't care about the oddness of the situation. He cared about the cat. It wasn't wearing a collar, he noted.
"Hey, Cloud," Zack asked.
"Hm?" Cloud responded suspiciously, cautioned by the way Zack's words came through. He could detect a smile from his voice alone.
"You think Aerith likes cats?"
Cloud sighed and said nothing, focusing more on trying to free himself than speaking about unrelated topics, even if it was Aerith.
"Yeah," Zack went on, "I think I'm going to give him to her as a present. I'm sure she'll like him!" Zack chuckled a bit, imagining how Aerith would react when he'd surprise her with the orange cat when he got back.
"…I don't know why you still like her," Cloud suddenly said. He didn't know why he said it. The words had escaped him, possibly pushed out by slight annoyance or anger.
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
Cloud was silent for a moment, before going on. "That day. That day when you were practicing with Angeal and the grate gave in and you fell into Aerith's church, all she did was yell 'hello' at you."
"And?" Zack didn't understand what he was getting at.
"Zack…you were bleeding all over the place. The floorboards were soaked with blood. The white flowers grew pink. You had a huge gash on the left side of your head. Your skull was fractured, your left lung collapsed, and you broke an arm, a leg and three ribs. Zack, you were in a coma for three months, don't you remember?"
"Uh…" Zack thought for a while, but couldn't remember a thing. "Nope! Doesn't ring a bell!"
Cloud sighed. "Of course, it doesn't." But it would explain some of Zack's behaviour, Cloud thought.
Zack glanced back at the cat and chuckled, again thinking of how to surprise Aerith with it. That was when he remembered something else. "Hey, didn't you fall into her church, too?"
"Yeah."
From across the room, Tidus interrupted. "Don't you think they should just get rid of that grate?"
Ignoring him, Zack went on. "Well, wasn't she there to help you, too?"
"No," Cloud shook his head slightly even though no one could see it. "All she did was yell 'hello' at me. It was a good thing Reno was there, or I would've died."
Then, there was a snicker coming from the direction of the door. "Someone say my name?"
"Reno!" Zack exclaimed. He sniffed the air when he smelt something familiar. "Is that a burger?"
"No, it's not," Reno quickly stuffing half of the burger he had left in his hand into his mouth. After attacking the noodles, he had found a stash of burgers in the kitchen of the cafeteria and made off with an armful of them. With his stomach full, he seemed to be in a better mood. "Looks like you guys were having fun," he said as he stepped into the room, looking around at all the bodies on the ground. It was like a battleground without the blood.
"Reno," Cloud called out. "You think you can move them out?"
"Well," Reno stopped to look at the panther-like girl hovering over Zack. "I can try." With a hand, he pushed her shoulder slightly. She slid through the air a bit. "Huh," he mused. "Well, that's new." He looked to Zidane, Kuja, and Cait Sith. "They don't seem to weigh anything and nothing seems to be holding them in place."
"So why can't we move?" Tidus yelled out. "This doesn't make any sense!"
Reno shrugged but didn't bother answering.
"Why is no one listening to me!?" Tidus sighed.
Reno motioned for his team to get to work helping them. "Let's just sort this out first. Get them out of this room."
"Right," Zidane said. Kuja and Cait Sith nodded dutifully.
One by one, they picked up the girls and moved them out of the room and left them in the hall, down the stairs. And slowly, Cloud, Link, Tidus, Leon, Zack, Zelos, and Irvine were freed, and without the cluster of girls, the large, pink room seemed almost empty. Nonetheless, the boys were glad to be able to breathe again.
"Hey, do you guys realize that there's a cow in this room?" Reno asked the two team leaders, but only Cloud was paying attention.
He turned to look at it, standing in the corner. Cloud scratched his head. "I…guess we didn't notice that."
"It's a pretty big thing not to notice…"
"Look," a cat-eared Zidane went up to Cloud and Reno with something in his cupped hands. "I found a rat, too."
"And a kitty!" Zack grinned, standing up suddenly with the orange cat dangling from his hands.
Reno covered his eyes with his right hand, muttering, "This just gets weirder and weirder…"
"Charlie Team, please respond," Angeal's voice came on the radio and Reno's eyes suddenly opened wide.
"I've got a lot of questions for you, Angeal! Don't you run away from me again!" he yelled into the microphone as he started to pace the room.
Angeal was unmoved and simply stated, "Everything has been fixed and ready to go now. The unfreeze will occur in exactly ten minutes. Get back into position."
"No!" Reno threw his hands up in the air. He seemed almost hysterical, which Kuja couldn't help but chuckle at. "I don't even know what the hell you're talking about! Answer me! Who are you working with? How are you able to freeze these people? Why do these people know who we are? Why am I in some cat-girl's notebook doing weird stuff with my co-workers!? I want answers now or I want them eventually!!"
Angeal didn't say anything. On the other end, all Reno could hear was a second of him laughing before the radio cut out.
Reno growled. "Angeal! Answer me!"
There was no answer.
"Angeal!" Reno tried again, but again, there was no answer. "Dammit!"
Zidane went over to him to try and calm him down. "C'mon, boss, forget about it. Let's just get on with our mission, okay? We've got ten minutes, right? We better hurry."
Reno sighed in defeat and frustration. "Fine," he said, as he made his way towards the door. "Let's just get this guy and get out of here."
**
Sephiroth had been fine up until that afternoon, but he'd had a dull headache since the return of the crazed Silver Elite chairwoman, H, or, as listed in her audition papers, Harmony. Sephiroth made his way to his apartment in the residential wing of the Shinra building, ignoring all the suited guards that greeted him along the way. With a swipe of his keycard, the door opened with a swoosh and he stepped in, walking towards his bedroom.
From inside his apartment, he could hear an emergency siren go off in the rest of the building, but he ignored it. Random security busts wasn't his problem and would be taken care of by the guards. If they really needed him, he'd either be notified by either a personal call or a major explosion near the entrance.
The stress that came from the flood of memories that now plagued his mind now caused him to feel suffocated, and his chest tight. With his left hand, he tugged at the knot of his tie to loosen it, giving his throat some more space. Just before he got to his room, he suddenly froze in mid-step in the hallway. His narrowed eyes looked off to the right, then to the left, searching for something he wasn't quite sure of. The small hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. For some reason, he felt like someone was watching him.
**
Harmony's contact-red eyes followed Sephiroth as she peeked out from behind a corner from the darkened kitchen. A wide toothy smirk spread across her blue-painted face. "Soon, my Sephy," she whispered in a deep, low voice. "Soon, you will be mine, alone. Soon, we will be together and the Promised Land shall me ours!" She watched the General as he disappeared into his bedroom and closed the door behind him.
She began to snicker as she slowly stepped out from behind the kitchen wall to follow him but stopped suddenly when she felt a strong grip on her bare shoulder.
"Kolkolkolkol," she heard a quiet chuckling behind her.
Her eyes sprung open wide and her entire body froze. She slowly turned around only to see a tall man in a long brown militant-looking wool coat with a pale pinks scarf. He looked down at the naked blue woman, his big purple eyes shadowed by his grey-blond hair.
He smiled as he spoke in a soft, gentle voice, "You're a funny one."
His brown gloved hand tightened on Harmony's shoulder. He tilted his head slightly to the right, closed his eyes, and gave an innocent, child-like smile. "You will become one with Russia, da?"
Harmony's mouth gaped open and she tried to shrink backwards but was held in place where she stood by his powerful grip.
To be continued…
~Hey, hey, Papa, give me some Potion!~
~Hey, hey, Mama! Hey, hey, Mama!~
~I can't forget that taste~
~Of the fried Chocobo I ate before! ~
~Draw a circle, and there's Gaia! ~
~Look closely, and there's Gaia! ~
~Might it be Gaia? My name is Midgar! ~
~Ahhh, what a fabulous world~
~That can be made with a swipe of a brush! ~
~With First Class SOLDIERS and the Turks~
~The Lifestream belongs to us!~
A/N: Just a clarification to make sure there is no confusion- when Sephiroth said "son", he actually meant "godson". I left it at "son" because it just didn't have the same epic ring as "godfather". But no, he is not an original character…sort of. You'll know him.
And yes, Reno is on a food and Simpsons binge, and I did base Sephiroth's symbol on Zorro's symbol XD.
''Puff, the Magic Dragon'' © Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow
