Beep… Beep… Beep
'Ung, where am I? Why do I feel so tired? What's going on?' Jade groaned in agony. Her body felt like cement. Even opening her eyelids was a pain in the butt. Bit by bit, the young SOLDIER's eyes cracked open to see a bunch of medical equipment. 'W-wha?'
"Professor, the subject is waking up. What shall we do?" Jade groaned as the high pitched voice invaded her sensitive ears. It was like waking up to the sound of nails being scratched against a chalkboard.
"Inject subject with an anesthetic. She cannot retain any memories of what we are doing."
"Yes sir." Jade felt a needle pierce through her skin and an icy cold fluid travel through her veins. As the anesthetic spread through her body, she began to grow drowsy and soon fell into the world of unconsciousness.
"Jaaaaaaaaade…. Jaaaaade…. Jade, come on! Wake up!" She groaned at the very loud and very annoying voice. The SOLDIER groggily opened her eyes to see spiky black hair and mako colored eyes.
"Zaaaaaaack… what do you want?" Jade swung an arm over her eyes to block out the light. She tried to block out her brother's voice as well but to no avail; she could still hear him loud and clear.
"Finally, you're awake! You've been sleeping forever!" Zack was relieved that his little sister was alright. Doctor Hojo said Jade would be a bit out of it since she injured her head on a mission.
The young girl sat up and looked around. She was in the infirmary once again but didn't remember how she got there. "Oww... my head…" Jade groaned and clutched her head in her hands. Her head felt like it was being split apart by a hammer and nail. Once the headache subsided, the SOLDIER looked up at her brother with curious eyes. "Zack, how did I get here? The last thing I remember was attacking Genesis and… everything went blank."
"Really sis? What the hell did you hit your head on?" Zack face-palmed and looked at the opposite wall. "Well, after you attacked Genesis, he brought you to the labs and the scientists discovered you had a mako overdose. You were put into 48 hours of solitude and right after that, you were sent on a mission. I guess the overdose of mako hadn't worn off yet and you hit your head during the mission. You've been out for a week or so…" The older sibling trailed off as he sternly looked at his sister.
"You had all of us worried sick especially me! Sephiroth showed a tiny bit of emotion, Genesis stopped quoting LOVELESS that often, Angeal always had a frown on his face and now he has gotten wrinkles and Kunsel, well he was worried but didn't express much concern!" Zack was yelling by the end of his little outburst while his little sister sat upright in her bed. She felt incredibly guilty.
"Sorry…" Zack looked at his sister and sighed; he could never stay mad at her. "Yeah, yeah, you're forgiven." The older sibling walked out of the room. A week of waiting for his sister to wake up was tiring and he needed to get some shut eye. As the younger sibling watched her brother walk out of the infirmary, a frown settled upon her normally cheery face.
'I-I don't remember going on a mission.' A hand gripped at her raven colored hair. 'Come to think of it, why would someone send me out on a mission right after my solitary confinement?' The mako eyed girl threw the blankets off her and walked out of the infirmary. Everything in her body felt right. No organs were missing and no joints were in pain.
'It's just too much of a coincident.' Her hand traveled to the back of her head. 'Odd… no bump or cut or anything. It's as if I never hit my head against-'
Ring! Ring! Ring!
"My phone?" Jade asked no one in particular and felt around her hospital gown, trying to locate her phone. She finally found it and flipped it open. "2nd class SOLDIER Jade Fair speaking."
"Ah, Jade… it seems you've recovered. Excellent. I need you to meet me in the briefing room ASAP." The line went dead. Jade stared at the phone in her hand for quite some time before she ran to her room, changed into her uniform, brought all the supplies needed for a mission and sprinted to the briefing room.
The first thing she saw was red. "Genesis… what are you doing here?" The crimson commander just smirked.
"Aren't you out of line SOLDIER?" He loved to annoy her. It was like trying to annoy Sephiroth but less dangerous.
"…Yes sir." The words came out more annoyed than anything. The SOLDIER was snapped out of her little 'hating Genesis thoughts' when Director Lazard started to speak.
"Jade, I'm glad you have recovered. You have a mission in eighteen hundred hours." The blonde swiveled around in his spin chair so he was facing the duo. "I'm sending you to investigate a series of murders in Nibelheim. We think a creature somehow fell into a pool of raw mako, mutating into a monster."
"Director, am I going alone?"
"Yes. Sources say the threat isn't very big and you'll have Genesis guiding you through your quest by this." He reached into a drawer and pulled out a headset. "This is what Rhapsodos is going to use to contact you. Do not damage it." The piece of machinery landed in the brunette's open hands. Her long fingers gently grasped and slipped the ear bud in.
"Testing, do you copy?" Came the mildly static voice of the crimson commander.
"Roger." Jade said in monotone. Her eyes strayed to Genesis who was unsuccessfully trying to hide a smirk. 'He just had to test out the device when we were on opposite sides of the same room.' She rolled her eyes at the thought.
"Now then, the helicopter will pick you up in an hour. Get ready and pack light." The female bowed out of respect and trotted off to her room. So many thoughts ran through her head as she threw an extra SOLDIER uniform into her knapsack. "Things are getting stranger and stranger."
"What things are getting stranger and stranger SOLDIER?" She forgot to turn off the headpiece. A frown wormed its way onto her normally bright and cheery face.
"Nothing sir, just thinking to myself."
"Think quieter and hurry it up. You have only ten more minutes until the helicopter leaves." Jade stole a quick glace at her clock and sure enough, there was only ten minutes remaining. 'I must have been thinking too much.' She grabbed her weapon and supplies and ran to the landing pad, jumped into the copter and let out a sigh of relief as the flying machine took off.
The trip to Nibelheim was short and uneventful. Jade practically jumped out of the helicopter when it was in mid air. She wanted to get the job finished so she could go back to Midgar. It wasn't that she didn't like it here, quite the contrary. Nibelheim and Gongaga had too many things in common and the former town made her homesick. It reminded her of her own town, the one that Zack and she came from.
"Jade Fair on standby and awaiting orders." She said into the head set but received no response. The brunette stood stupidly near the edge of town for several minutes waiting for her commanding officer to speak. "Stupid headpiece doesn't even work." She sighed but left it on. Her back met the rough texture of tree and she stared off into the distance.
'I can't even do anything now. I apparently need Genesis to tell me what to do. Who do the people at Shinra think I am? A completely incapable person?' Her weapon stood off to the side, its blade glinting dangerously under the sun. Just as she was about to lie down and enjoy a peaceful nap, a scream rang through the forest. It jolted her awake.
The SOLDIER immediately grabbed her gunblade and ran off in the direction of the scream. It was her duty to protect the innocent, just like it was every SOLDIER's duty to but most forget it. They thought SOLDIER was a program to get famous and rich. They are the ones who spoil the SOLDIER name. 'Geez, now I'm sounding like Angeal.' Jade shook the scary thought away as she came across a small clearing.
Monsters of all kinds cornered something. Without thinking, Jade fired a few shots at the monsters, diverting their attention onto her. One immediately charged at her and stuck. Blood spurted out of her arm, eliciting a hiss of pain from the brunette and causing the monsters to converge on her.
When she got her bearings back, the creatures had already surrounded her. Their open jaws dripped with foaming saliva and razor sharp teeth lay on their pink gums. "So, all of you against one of me? That hardly seems fair." The scent of her blood dripping out of the scratch wound only seemed to spur the creatures into a state of frenzy.
Two or three of them converged on the lone human; she was ready this time. The gunblade cut through the hide like it was softened butter. A satisfying screech escaped the deformed mouth of the creature before it fell to the ground, a pool of red underneath it.
More mutants fell like flies at the hands of the mighty blade. Crimson coated the once silver finish and the blade craved more; more destruction, more death, and more blood. After fifteen or so minutes of slaying the weak monsters, Jade blew the smoke from the barrel of her gunblade like how cowboys did it in the Wild West. "Well… that was a harder than expected. Then again, I thought there was only one monster." She shrugged before a small sniffle caught on her sensitive ears. It originated from behind a tree.
The SOLDIER poked her head behind the mighty oak and saw the oddest sight. A small child, perhaps ten or eleven, had multiple cuts on his body and was practically covered in monster blood. The wounds were probably made by the mutants. "Hey, are you ok?" She kneeled beside the kid.
The sniffled subsided a bit. "I-I-I want to g-g-go home!" The brunette winced. She wasn't used to kids and especially not crying ones. "Um, ok. Where are you from?"
"N-Nibelheim."
"Can you stand?" All she heard were more whimpers and assumed the boy couldn't stand or was in too much pain to do so. "Come on, I'll get you to Nibelheim. I'm going back there anyways." The boy wiped his eyes and looked up at the SOLDIER who kneeled with her back towards him.
"Climb on" The child wrapped his arms around Jade's neck and piggybacked through the woods. His blood and tears soaked into the fabric of her shirt as his small hands gripped around her neck. Sobs racked through his body once more.
"Hey kid, come on, don't cry. I don't know how to deal with crying kids." The brunette tried to lighten the mood but failed. She could feel her back getting wetter and wetter as her bloodied boots carried her and the kid to the forest edge. "Look, I can see Nibelheim from here." Her second attempt at lightening the mood worked. The boy looked up from the tear stained fabric and almost smiled.
"Hold on, we're almost there." The SOLDIER female took off in a sprint, jumping over rivers, logs and anything that was jumpable in her path. The duo arrived in the backwater town in a few minutes.
"Where is your home?"
"…" He didn't say anything, just pointed to the right then left, left again, then right again.
The 2nd class SOLDIER started to walk in the general direction the kid on her back pointed to. The duo received odd stares from passersby, after all, who wouldn't stare at a SOLDIER with a child on her back, both covered in blood.
Jade stopped in front of a small house with a mahogany colored door. "Is this your home?" She received a nod in response and knocked on the door with her knee. Her arms were being used to carry the child.
The door cracked open to reveal a very teary eyed woman. Her blue eyes widened immediately when she saw the child on top Jade's back. "Oh my goodness! You're safe!" The mother nearly ripped the boy off her and hugged him close. "Are you alright? You have blood everywhere! What happened?!" She fawned over him like a tiger mother.
The raven haired SOLDIER stood awkwardly at the doorstep, unsure of what to do.
"Oh! Are you the one who saved my son?" She didn't get a chance to reply as she was abruptly dragged into the small but spacious house. "Come come! Sit and make yourself at home. Anyone who saves my little boy is a friend of mine." The boy's mother forced the SOLDIER to sit in an armchair while she went to make some tea.
"Um… Miss…?"
"Just call me Gigi. Do you like your tea with milk or sugar?" Again, she didn't give the SOLDIER time to respond and continued to talk. "Anyways, I'd like to thank you for saving my son." The blood caked girl looked around the room she was sitting in. A cozy fireplace that wasn't burning and a few photos hung above them.
"The town has been crawling with creatures lately. I told my boy not to go out but he always finds some way to sneak out. I'll tell you, it's hard to be a mother, especially a single one." Jade stopped paying attention to blonde and examined the photos. There were only two people in all of them. One she clearly identified as Gigi and the other…
"Ah, examining the pictures?" The blonde placed the tea on the coffee table and sat back, patting the seat next to her, gesturing for the SOLDIER to sit. "You can probably tell I'm in the picture. The one next to me is my son, Cloud and-oh, there he is now. Cloud! Come thank this nice SOLDIER." Jade turned her head towards the staircase to see a young boy with spiky, chocobo like hair and sea blue eyes. It was the same boy she saved, minus the monster blood and guts.
Cloud walked down the steps shyly. One hand was clutched around the railing tightly while the other was held near his baby face. "…T-thank you for saving me miss." The adorable expression on his face almost made the SOLDIER melt.
"No prob kid." She smiled and walked up to him, playfully ruffling his hair. "Try to stay out of trouble next time and listen to your mom. She sacrificed a lot for you." From the corner of her eyes, she saw the mother smile in gratitude.
The peaceful scene was soon interrupted by an annoying voice in her ear.
"Jade Fair? Do you copy?" Genesis said through the headpiece.
Jade almost face palmed. She had totally forgotten about her mission. "Yes sir." The brunette gulped down her tea, burning her tongue in the process before she bid a farewell to the duo and ran out the door.
"Wait!" The small voice stopped her in her tracks. "…What is your name?"
After a moment of silence, a grin spread across her face. She turned to him with a thumbs up. "Jade Fair SOLDIER 2nd class." And ran off into the forest to await further orders. She didn't see nor hear the boy mumbling, "SOLDIER… I want to become one."
"There has been a disturbance at the fifth mako reactor. Our stationed men were frantic as they pleaded for help before the line was cut. We were able to see a black shadow before security cameras were demolished. Whatever that creature is, you have to stop it. Kill it no matter what. Understood?" Genesis stood at the communications room in SOLDIER headquarters with Lazard off to the side, shouting instructions into a headset. As much as he disliked the female SOLDIER, he had to help her on this mission to not only save the lives of the troops, but the lives of innocent civilians in the backwater town.
"Understood sir." When Jade reached the reactor, everything was in chaos. Dead SOLDIERS and infantrymen littered the ground, their blood staining the dirt a maroon red. Blue flames licked the torn open reactor and in the midst of the chaos, a inhuman shadow darted into the forest. That was her target and she had no choice but to follow and shoot at it. The brunette didn't want the creature to run into the forest; it'll probably have the advantage. She needed it in the open and what better way to get the attention of a monster than to shoot at it.
Three rapidly shot bullets escaped the chamber of her Christmas present. Two hit the thing on what looked like arms and the third nicked it's head. 'Damn, if that hit dead center, I'd be home already.' The SOLDIER whined as the beast focused it's attention on her. Bone white eyes with no pupil or iris drilled holes into her head. The creature watched her with morbid fascination before it ripped the two bullets from it's arms and threw them back at the shooter with twice the force.
The SOLDIER barely had time to dodge and one bullet nicked her side. The other sailed over her head, not a hair's length away. 'That is not normal!' She looked back up to see the monster at a much closer distance than before. It was nearly a meter away from her! That thing moved incredibly fast!
A wave of pain spread across her face as she found herself on flying and then on the floor. This was not a one man mission! Jade made a mental note to berate Genesis and Lazard about it later but now, she had to focus on slaying the beast and not getting killed in the process. That was easier said than done.
Not only was this thing incredibly fast and strong, it's entire body, minus the eyes, was made up of some sort of black vapor combined with flesh. The whole idea of actually trying to kill the thing was halted and the brunette had to defend herself from the crazy strong punches and kicks that thing made. When she brought down her blade upon it, it just went through the shadowy body without any resistance.
"Oh shi-" Jade didn't even get to finish that sentence before she sailed through the air once more. The stupid thing could harden and unharden its body at will?
Unknown to her, the crimson commander was watching everything from the headset. He may or may not have forgotten to tell the 2nd class that a mini camera was implanted in the device. Oh well.
The auburn haired man stared at the screen, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. What was that creature and more importantly, how could a second class SOLDIER stop it? That thing was basically all black vapor with two white eyes, can move at an incredibly high speed and from what he'd seen, can throw bullets back hard enough to make a deadly impact.
The most obvious choice would be to go for the eyes since those are the things that stick out and are probably made up of sometime different than the body. Maybe the eyes are it's weakness. "Jade, go for the eyes." The earpiece crackled to life once more as the brunette was busy trying to not get her head punched in.
"I would if I could. This thing is just way too fast!" She said through clenched teeth as another punch landed on her face. By the time this fight is over, she wouldn't even have a face! No-wait, strike that; she wouldn't have a body. "How can I slow it down? It's just vapor!"
'Just vapor eh?' Genesis had a brief moment of silence. "Are you near a reactor?"
"Of course." Jade narrowly dodged a swift punch to the ribs. Sweat was already trickling down her bloodstained skin from when she saved the kid. The odds didn't look good. Not in her favor at least.
"This is just a hunch but the thing is made of vapor. Hypothetically speaking, if it comes in contact with enough heat, the vapor will evaporate again. Use this time to seal it into some sort of airtight container." This theory actually made a lot of sense when one thought about it but now was probably one of the worst times to think, just do.
Jade waved her gunblade around in the air, hoping to get the creature to follow as her small feet carried her towards the nearest reactor that wasn't torn open. One glance behind her showed the thing following but at a much slower pace. It was toying with her; seeing just how far she would go. Well, if that was how it wanted to play…
The SOLDIER turned and rapidly fired bullets at the entity while running in the direction of the reactor. Only a hundred or so yards till the containment of pure, raw mako energy. She could make it; she had to.
Instantly, Jade's face made contact with dirt and blood as the creature slammed her face into the ground. Blood erupted from her nostrils followed by a very loud 'shit!' The SOLDIER looked murderous as she rose from the ground slowly but surely. Her artificial blue green eyes had cold, icy rage burning in it. She would kill this thing no matter what.
The brunette fired another round of bullets only… this time, her movements seemed odd. They were more precise, more focused with the intention to kill. Shots went through the creature like it was air. In retrospect, it was. This only served to make the creature more excited. It grabbed the shot bullets and hurled them back once more.
Jade didn't have time to react as she ran towards the reactor. Multiple bullets grazed and punctured muscle and bone, leaving holes for her life blood to pour out. The SOLDIER hissed but kept going. The reactor was just twenty feet away. She had to make it; the mako would heal her, that's what it does right?
Focused sea green eyes stared at the equally sea green pit of pure energy. The heat coming from it was nearly unbearable for a human but what about a monster? She turned around, only to find herself a hair's length away from the monster.
Eyes shot wide open and a startled gasp escaped her lips as pain surged through her lower abdomen. Shock resonated through her body as realization set in. Stabbed. The creature's solid hand had punctured her stomach and intestines, leaving her to bleed out into a slow and painful death. Even now, the SOLDIER could feel her stomach acids working against her, eating away at her blood, muscle and organs.
'If I'm going down,' Hateful eyes glared at the vapor creature, its solidified hands still wedged in her body. "Then you're going down with me." And with that, the SOLDIER grabbed a hold of the arm and leapt backwards into the giant, bubbling cauldron of mako, fully aware of her demise.
Flesh came in contact with the syrup like matter. A freezing glaze coated the SOLDIER's skin as she sunk deeper and deeper into the mako. All the while, the screams of the monster crying out in agony filled her ears. At least it was dying; the only good thing that came out of all this.
Soon, after the screams stopped, the SOLDIER sighed tiredly before she sunk below the surface of the green liquid.
The End
Ok, I have lost most to all inspiration to continue this story. My writing here is utter crap. I've read this thing over and over again and it is just 'Filler' 'Filler' 'Filler' 'Filler' for an actual story. I'm just gunna leave this here and let the readers to think about what just happened.
The good news is, after some thought for a few months, I have decided to do a rewrite of the story. It is going to center around the main plot about someone trying to get into SOLDIER and what they have to do to acomplish it. This time around, they will have a characteristic, a past, goals, failures, blood sweat and tears. A lot of the last three.
Keep your eyes peeled for the rewrite and I hope to see you all soon! ^.^