Seventy-four… Seventy-five… Seventy-six…
Claire mentally counted her push ups. She thought that she may as well make use of the down time forced on her by the Sanctum. Her choice of activity was sets of pushups and situps, two hundred of each then a short break. Rinse and repeat until she reached one thousand of each. A simple workout for a SOLDIER Operative that had very little payoff but it kept her occupied and her mind focused. The pinkette had heavily considered using her super strength to break through the door, which she could do undoubtedly, but it would mean having to fight through the entire fleet of PSICOM she was currently in the center of. Not an appealing outcome.
Eighty-one… Eighty-two… Eighty-three…
What happened with the vision of herself and Genesis the previous night was still rolling through Claire's mind. She wanted to know if she had been drugged with something or if the Sanctum had some kind of nightmare inducing weapon they used on her. Either of those options was rather terrifying when she thought about it. If they were that potent on a SOLDIER member, they would wreak havoc on a regular person, if not kill them via fear. Although that would be an excellent way to gain control of a population, Claire admitted. The only other option was she was starting to lose her mind and that was the one asset Claire valued most.
EIghty-nine… Ninety… Ninety-one…
Loud creaking caught the pinkette's attention for a moment but she quickly ignored it to focus on her workout. Then an alarm started blaring, making Claire grimace at the sudden deafening noise. She stood up and went over to the door of her cell pressing her ear up against it to see if she could whatever was going on but just as she expected she could not hear anything through the steel door. Then she noticed something that made her blood run cold. Her boots were getting wet. Looking down, she saw water leaking into her cell through the space between the door and doorframe, and it was pooling fast. Claire retreated to the other side of the room as the water spread over the floor and started rising which made her see something else, the water was getting deeper on the door side of the room. The Palamecia was sinking fast, and they left Claire to die. All she could was watch her death approach. As the ship plunged deeper into the frigid ocean water, the water leaking into the room started to spray harder and higher up the door. The freezing water covered the floor and was climbing higher second by second, the vent in the floor aiding the flow, the vent in the roof preventing the creation of an air pocket. Claire sat on the bed with her feet up to avoid the water as long as possible. Thinking about if freezing or drowning was worse, about Serah and how she would never know that a supercarrier at the bottom of the ocean was her sister's tomb.
The water climbed higher and higher before long it was up to Claire's waist while she was standing on her bed. The ice cold water made her legs go numb, her teeth chatter from her shivering, and she knew her lips were turning blue. She looked up at the roof of the room, just inches from her face now. Not enough space to breath once the water reached her mouth. The ship creaked and groaned loudly around her and the bed tilted under her feet, the Palamecia was gaining speed downwards and a few moments later, the bed tilted more making Claire slip into the freezing water. She quickly got her head back above the water but with her body going numb it was difficult to stay in the shrinking air pocket. Struggling for several minutes served no purpose, the water filled the room entirely and Caire's limbs were too numb to do anymore. She sank to bottom and held her breath as long as she could but her lungs hungered for air. The icy water flowed into her lungs when her body willed itself to take a breath, making her choke and take in more water. She said a mental goodbye to Serah just as her vision faded out.
Then she coughed. It quickly turned into a coughing fit as her lungs took in delicious air and she ripped her eyes open. Surprise, confusion, and fear drilled themselves into the front of Claire's mind. She was lying on the floor of her cell, perfectly warm and dry, aboard the Palamecia. The pinkette looked down at her hands and the cold steel floor then swung her gaze over her shoulder at the door. Panic was threatening to set in as she thought about what just happened but she took a few deep breaths, released them slowly, and forced herself to clear her mind and resume her workout.
Ninety-two… Ninety-three… Ninety-four…
"Funny how the mind plays tricks on us." An all too familiar voice said, a voice that Claire would never forget.
The pinkette shot to her feet and spun around. Serah, almost as she looked back in Midgar stood just in front of the door. Claire felt tears build in her eyes as she looked over the image of her little sister. Patches of her pink hair along with pieces of scalp were missing as if handfuls of hair had been ripped out, her face was swollen and cut up from a severe beating, and her cheeks were sliced back far enough that Claire could see Serah's teeth. And it only got worse. Her neck was harshly bruised from having something wrapped tightly around it, her clothes were shredded and stained red in countless places, her wrists were bruised and deeply cut from some manner of restraints, and her leggings were gone only to reveal slashed legs with countless tiny burn marks and ankles no better than her wrists. The gruesome sight of her horribly tortured sister made Claire's stomach knot and push it's contents to her throat.
"No…" Claire whispered as a tear fell from her eye.
"You caused this." The image of Serah croaked, her throat heavily damaged from whatever caused the bruise on her neck.
"No…" Claire whispered again as she shrank back towards the wall with the bed.
"Avalanche saw we were related." Serah's voice ground out as she stepped towards Claire "After we got out of Midgar," Claire's knees hit the bed and she fell onto it as she moved back from the advancing image "Avalanche wanted answers." Tears freely fell from Claire's eyes "They used and tortured me!" Claire pushed as far back into the corner of the bed as she could "Then left me for dead in the Badlands!"
"I'm so sorry," Claire choked out between sobs.
"You're sorry?" Serah's image growled with her croaking voice "You're sorry while I'm dead and rotting near Midgar!" The gruesome image of Serah lunged and grabbed Claire's throat with an unnatural strength "But that doesn't matter to you! Because you have a mission to do! Right!?"
"Serah…" Claire sobbed as her vision grew dark on the edge.
Claire had no idea when she passed out but she woke up in a coughing again. She could feel a bruise forming on her neck, where the image grabbed her, and that reminded her of the horrible sight. She felt the tears return and buried her face in the pillow to muffle her unrestrained bawling. The pinkette lost herself so deeply within her bawling she failed to notice a hand rubbing her back for several minutes.
"Shh, Claire. It was just a dream." That smooth deep voice tugged at Claire's heart. It's owner gently grabbed and pulled her into an embrace "They can't hurt you. They're not real." She remembered this from earlier in her life, but the last time this happened, she was fifteen.
Claire glanced down as she wiped her eyes and saw the arms covered in black leather wrapped around her. Looking slightly to the side, she noticed the black leather of his cape-like coat and reached down to run her fingertips over it to help her attach to this moment. Moving her head back made her feel his long silver bangs and his breath on her.
"I've been calling for you, Claire." Her adoptive father said quietly "I want to see you again." Claire wanted to ask where but her lips were still trembling from sobbing aftershocks "The Northern Cave. My call for you will guide you. You just have to listen, will you do that for me?" She nodded gently "I've missed you so much, Claire. I can't wait for our reunion." Hearing Sephiroth's kind voice again brought more tears, but those of happiness "Be strong, my little lightning bolt. I'll keep those terrible ghosts in your mind away." He gently kissed her temple when he finished speaking.
Then something escaped her, a phrase that had not crossed her lips since that night six years ago, and before that, not since she was four "I love you, Daddy." Being so caught up in the moment, she did not realize she had said it.
Sephiroth was gone the next moment leaving Claire alone once again. She took deep breaths, one after another, for a solid minute as she regained her composure. Pushing herself off the bed made her notice a tiny detail. On the bed lay a one foot long silver hair, she grabbed it and carefully wound it around her necklace before tying it off. Just as she finished slipping her necklace back inside her Guardian Corps vest, something big and heavy slammed into her cell's door. The SOLDIER fell into a battle stance when she heard the door unlock, she tensed her muscles and got ready to launch herself at whoever would come through the door as it started to open. She gasped and relaxed when she saw Zack and his winning smile.
"Hey Lightning, sorry about the wait," He said with a chuckle. Claire did not miss the blood on his large sword or spattered on his Cavalry uniform.
"What are you doing here?" She asked him as she left her cell, only to to be met with the sight of Fang with her spear, Vanille with her 'binding rod', Hope with a PSICOM assault rifle, and the most surprising was Sazh with two PSICOM pistols "What are all of you doing here?"
"Word is we stumbled inta sumthin' big." Fang reply.
"Raines gathered us up, sent us in to rescue you and Sazh." Vanille added.
"Where's your son?" Claire asked Sazh.
"They got him here on the ship somewhere." the pilot replied, Claire noticed the hardness in his voice.
"He'll be fine, Sazh." Zack said, tossing a glance that said far more to Claire. She knew he meant Jihl was keeping the boy safe but he wasn't about to risk blowing the cover of a silently building revolution "Okay, anyways, we got the pink one, time to go get her weapon." His charming smile made another appearance before the group set off towards the armory.
However, Claire stopped them part way "What's the mission? Find Dajh and evacuate?"
"Dysley's on board," Zack reply.
"We're going to take him down," Sazh added.
"Damn," Reno muttered "You guys got one helluva setup here."
The two turks, the Avalanche and NORA members, their captive, and the secret Turk were hiding behind a cluster of bushes looking at what looked like a guerilla camp. The camp of men that were formerly Don Corneo's thugs was hidden in the forest outside Wutai's capital, in an old Wutaian fortress. Reno was nice enough to tell the group that the fortress in question was Fort Tamblin, even said how it was abandoned by Wutai after a couple of SOLDIER Seconds, at the time, trashed the place.
"So what's the plan?" Snow asked the group. The behemoth of a man was holding the captive thug on the ground beside him. Reno had taped the thug's mouth shut before the group left town.
"Yeah SOLDIER, how're we gonna get our friends outa there?" Reno asked Cloud with a smirk that everyone read as Reno was enjoying annoying the rebels. Everyone but Serah. Serah knew Reno's sarcastic smirk was about Cloud claiming to be an Ex-SOLDIER.
Cloud was silent for a moment "We should go get Cid." The blond received a couple odd looks "I was never sent to Fort Tambin. Cid said he flew around Wutai with Sephiroth a lot during the war, he'll know his way around."
"Good call." was all Tifa said.
"You sure we should leave Elena and the girl in there?" Rude asked Cloud "It'll take at least a day to get Captain Highwind here."
"We don't have many more options." Serah argued.
"Charge in blind and guns blazing or know what we're doin'." Reno commented "I vote for the option where we don't die, yo."
"I'll go get Cid. You guys wait in Wutai." Cloud said to the group before darting off with his superhuman speed.
"Ya know, he reminds me of someone." Reno stated as the rest of the group started back towards the city and no one asked because they didn't want to listen to Reno talk anymore.
Upon arriving back in Wutai City, the group split up to avoid detection. Serah managed to slip out of Tifa's watchful gaze which was no real challenge for the pinkette Turk. She wanted a face to face chat with Reno but she was having trouble finding the man. So she settled for checking out Wutai until he inevitably found her, Reno had always been very good at sneaking up on the female Turks. A particular street vender had items that caught Serah's attention, pendants and various other wooden accessories.
"All item hand carve. Hundred gil." The older man with greying hair said as Serah approached the stall. Serah nodded back and examined the wooden items, bending down to better see the items on the low table. But just as she bent down…
"Now that is a nice view," Reno commented from behind her. Serah quickly stood straight and turned around. She gave the old man a kind smile and walked off, Reno on her heels.
"So what's the news?" Serah asked without looking at Reno.
"SOLDIER's been liquidated and all that gil is going to Scarlet and Heidegger now." Reno replied, not looking at Serah either
"Why?"
"Dunno. Rufus is an odd guy." The two continued down the road as inconspicuously as they could, Serah keeping an eye out for any of the rebels.
"What about Lightning?"
"Last I heard, she's in Cocoon." Reno said is his usual flippant way.
"Last you heard?" Serah managed to keep her tone calm.
"Hey now, you've been under for months. There is some crazy stuff happening in HQ."
"Like what?"
"Rufus is changin' the game plan, changing where the money flows. Still interested in the Promised Land though. Tseng's gettin' twitchy too, thinks one of us is ratting him out to Rufus. Also thinks there's a Sanctum spy in Shinra."
"That's not-"
"Get ready to slap me," Reno said as he put a large grin on his face and reached out to give Serah's rear a pinch.
As she was told, Serah spun and slapped Reno hard enough to leave a red hand print on his face. He laughed as he carefully massaged his face, she glowered and stormed off catching sight of why Reno told her to slap him. Tifa was within sight and without a doubt Serah knew the brawler had seen her and Reno, specifically her slapping Reno. The pinkette moved towards Tifa, making sure her glare was still in place, and upon reaching the brawler Serah muttered with venom.
"Stubborn pervert jackass…" Tifa fell into step with Serah.
"He really seems to like you." Tifa said in response.
"Yeah, which is why we should get back to the others. Who knows what a Turk would do if I keep turning him down.
The next day Cloud and Cid rejoined the party. They explained the situation to the former Shinra pilot, who had asked why there were two Turks with them. Reno had just smiled and said it was an 'off-the-books' operation. Cid did not want to accept the Turks into this mission but it would not be the first time he had worked with them so he chose to ignore the redhead and bald men. The captain told the group they would wait until dusk to approach the criminal fort and attack at night.
So at dusk the party left the city towards Fort Tamblin. When they were about halfway to the criminal controlled fortress, Cid stopped and turned to the party's hostage then swiftly swung the butt of his spear up into the man's groin. The captive collapsed and Cid jabbed him several times with the blunt butt of the spear, bruising the man on the ground. Everyone else was curious why Cid had started beating the man but didn't want to provoke him. Cid halted the attack, bent down, and ripped the tape off the hostage man's mouth.
"What's going on in the fort?" Cid asked harshly.
"It's a base!" The cowering man answered quickly.
"For what?" Cid asked. The other shook his head and refused to answer. Cid hit him hard in the gut with the butt of his spear "What's the fort a base for?"
"Trafficking." The man gasped, taking shallow breaths after having the wind knocked out of him.
"Drugs?" Cid asked, the man nodded "Shinra and PSICOM weapons?" The man nodded again. Cid growled and hit the man in the gut again.
"What's up, captain?" Reno asked.
"The girl and the Turk will be sold t' some freak in Cocoon if we don' get'em out." Cid stated darkly as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it
"You serious?" Snow sounded bewildered.
"Get yer head outa yer ass, ya moron." Was Cid's reply.
"So what's the plan?" Cloud interjected.
"I'll take pink and tits-"
"Hey!" Tifa shouted at Cid's name for her. To say she was offended was a vast understatement.
"An' go in quiet. The rest of ya, find sumthin' that explodes." Cid said.
"Can do!" Reno cheered loudly.
"What about the guys with the guns in there?" Snow asked.
"Kill 'em all. No one will miss 'em." Cid stated as he dropped his cigarette and ground it into the dirt with the toe of his boot.
"Alright," Cloud said with a nod "Let's mosey."
"Did you just-?" Cid asked with a raised eyebrow as Cloud started to walk away. Captain Highwind immediately started to doubt the boy with blonde spikes was actually a SOLDIER member. Something about him struck the former Shinra pilot as odd.
Another chapter done. Claire's part was supposed to start with her meeting the others of her party but I had another cruel idea. Next chapter though will pretty much be all action so hurray for that. Who's excited for it!?
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