Disclaimer: I do not own FF VII or any of the characters from it. However, I did create the character of John.
And so, after a long time, here's the next chapter.
Lots of thanks if you're still reading or if you have been waiting.
Testing Fate
Chapter XXXIV
In the basement of Corel Prison, Mr. Sykes walked up to the elevator and pressed up, eager to relax after a day's work and watch a chocobo race in the Gold Saucer above. As the lift rose, he was too peaceful and calm to notice a figure sneak from the shadows to grab onto the underside of the platform with one arm…
A bit earlier, the members of AVALANCHE rubbed their eyes as bright lights were shined into them from the Gold Saucer strobelights.
Ugh, this is not what I wanted… thought Cloud.
As the Gondola stopped, Aeris was the first one to jump out with the rest disembarking at a slower pace.
"Come on! Let's go inside!"
"I think there's a price we have to pay…" mentioned Tifa as she pointed ahead to the ticket booth.
Cloud sighed as he walked up to the vendor.
"…how much?"
"3000 gil for a single pass! 30,000 for a lifetime pass!" the woman exclaimed with an unnatural glee.
"…we'll take a single," said Cloud emotionlessly as he handed over the money.
Inside, Aeris' giddiness did not subside as she looked around. At the same time, Barret was looking into the nonexistent distance, trying to get his mind off his memories.
"…so does anyone have any idea where we can find John here?" asked Yuffie.
"Isn't the question supposed to be "Is John even here?"" added Red with slight sarcasm.
"Alright now," began Tifa, "We're doing the best we can given that we don't really have much of a lead right now."
Ugh, we're supposed to be looking for Sephiroth! Not John… grumbled Cloud in his mind.
"Look! Y'all can go look for John anywhere you want!" exclaimed Barret in frustration, "I'm gonna go for a walk!"
With that, Barret walked over to one of the pipes and jumped in.
Oh great, more people walking off… Seriously, this is not what we need right now…
"Alright, we should split up now then," he announced as he turned to face the team, "Just look around this place and contact the rest if you see John or something relating to Sephiroth."
As Cloud walked over to the pipe leading to the arcade square, he heard footsteps rushing up to him.
"Hey wait for me!" called Aeris.
Why is it that everyone else can simply walk off for alone time but I can't?
Breathing silently, the convict prepared his weapon and leaped out of hiding, unleashing his wrath.
"Hey you, what're you looking down for?"
Coming out of the pathway into the Arcade Square, Cloud and Aeris caught the eye of a large creature. Upon closer inspection, it was a large Mog with a cat on top of it that emanated a voice. It was also walking towards them.
"What is that?" whispered Aeris.
"No clue," answered Cloud, "Leave this to me."
Unfortunately, the creature spoke once again before either of them did.
"How bout it? Want me to read your fortune? Won't be my fault if it ain't pretty though."
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" asked Cloud.
"Oh, my apologies to you good sir!" chimed the respondent, "My name is Cait Sith, fortune telling extraordinaire!"
"Hmm…are you saying you can only read the future?" asked Cloud, "Oh, and I'm Cloud and this is Aeris."
"Are you really thinking that low of me?" quipped the cat, "I can find missing things, missing people, anything!"
"People…hmm…" began Cloud before Aeris stepped in.
"Could you please tell us where a man named Sephiroth is?"
"Alright then, here goes!"
The mog began to awkwardly gyrate, as the cat seemed to dance on it while typing into what looked like an accounting calculator.
"Here you go!" exclaimed Cait Sith as he stopped and handed Cloud a piece of paper.
A bit warily, Cloud took it and began to read with Aeris looking on.
"What you pursue will be yours, but you will lose something dear."
An awkward silence set over the three of them, before the cat tried to lighten the mood again.
"Wow, I've never gotten anything like THAT! I don't know if it's good or bad."
"Yes well," said Cloud, "We should be on our way".
As they started to turn away, Cait Sith ran around the their front.
"Hey hey, you can't just leave me like this. I have to come with you now to see if my prediction comes true."
"You've gotta be kidding!" exclaimed Cloud.
"Nope, and there's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise. I've got to satisfy my curiosity."
Sighing, Cloud started walking towards the way to the Speed Square. Unlike her comrade, Aeris looked up at Cait Sith and smiled.
"Welcome aboard I guess, just watch your back. We usually get into some tight spots along the way."
Back at Shinra Headquarters, Reeve leaned back and smiled to himself.
Excellent, that was far easier than I thought it would be. Won't Scarlet and Heidegger be jealous of my success while their stuff just keeps blowing up…
Entering the Speed Square, Cloud, Aeris and their new ally were approached by a large man who was wearing nothing but a tight red pair of underwear, looking like he was about to pose for a bodybuilding competition.
"Boy, you having fun?" the man asked very loudly.
"Stop calling me a boy," said Cloud, "Who are you anyway?"
The man smiled and raised his muscular arms.
"Me? My name is Dio, and I'm the owner of Gold Saucer."
What is it with all these characters here? thought Cloud to himself.
"Say boy," began Dio again to Cloud's annoyance, "Do you know what a 'Black Materia' is?"
"No , I've never heard of it before."
"Ahahaha, you lie boy."
"Why would you think that I would know what it is?" asked Cloud.
"Well, a few days ago, a boy about your age asked me if I had one."
"What did he look like?" asked Cloud.
"He had a long black cape and silver hair. Had a really long sword on him too," chuckled Dio, "Boys and their fighting hobbies…"
Cloud and Aeris' eyes then met in a worried union.
He was here! We must be on the right track then… What is this Black Materia and what does it have to do with him?
Tifa sighed as she sat down on the stool.
"Yo, give me something strong!"
"Coming right up Miss," replied the bartender as he whisked away to prepare her drink.
Wasn't too long ago that I was doing this, she thought, I kinda miss it, there seemed to be less worries, less people to worry about…
It was then that her thoughts rearranged as she lowered her head.
Although, it might seem like that because the people I was supposed to look after are almost all dead…
"Here ya go!" came a holler as a drink slid into her hand.
Tifa raised her hand with thanks before bringing the drink to her mouth and gulping some of it down.
Heesh, that is strong, well guess I got what I wanted…
As Tifa continued to drink, her mind continued to wander.
Where are we going? We still don't know where Sephiroth is heading… The Promised Land? Where is that? What is it? Not even Aeris knows, and if she doesn't, then how can we hope to know? We can't even keep our team together… Where's John? I hope he's ok… I hope Rufus hasn't done anything to him… But would he even need to? There were no signs of struggle in the room, did John just go with him? Why? And then there's still Cloud, I'm still not sure why he believes something that is false…why he knows things that he shouldn't… He wasn't there…was he? No, I would have seen him then, there's no way I wouldn't have recognized him…
As she continued to muse, Tifa noticed that her drink was finished. As she raised her head to find the bartender, she noticed someone out of the corner of her eye, which made her turn sharply to the right to look at a chocobo jockey sitting at the right end of the table.
Hey, that's the guy that I saw John talking to back at Kalm, the chocobo jockey. He's the one who gave John that chocobo that he took out that night… Now that I think of it, I've seen him somewhere else as well…
Tifa then looked over to one of the television screens to see his face on it before it switched to him riding a black chocobo as the report continued.
"…but yet it seems that there are none who can stand up to Chocobo Joe, who with his black chocobo Zeke, continue to plow through their competition…"
That's Chocobo Joe! I should have recognized him, he was on all the time when we showed chocobo races back at the bar…"
"Hey, gimme another," said Tifa to the bartender, who quickly responded by giving her ore of what she had just had.
"Excuse me," said Tifa as she walked over to Chocobo Joe and took a seat next to him, "Could I ask you about something?"
"Is it about an autograph?" asked Chocobo Joe.
"Not quite. Not to insult you though. I'm on a trip now and I'd probably lose it. What I want to talk about concerns a friend of mine…"
"A friend of yours? Would it be someone that I know?" asked Joe, rather surprised.
"His name is John. I'm pretty sure I saw the two of you talking in Calm and then that night, I saw him leave on your chocobo…"
"Oh that guy," remember Joe, "So his name was John? I never did get it, he seemed to be in a real hurry, but didn't look like a bad guy or a dangerous one that Zeke couldn't deal with. He really seemed anxious too, so I didn't really see harm in letting him borrow Zeke for the night. He even paid and everything…"
"He paid?" asked Tifa.
"Yup, 2000 Gil up front. That wasn't as strange though as his other request though…"
"What was that?" asked Tifa, now more curious than ever.
"He asked me to leave a shovel along with Zeke as well…"
"A shovel?" asked Tifa, now confused, "What for?"
"He didn't say and I didn't ask. In the morning I found both Zeke and the shovel where I had left them. Zeke seemed fine, so I saw no reason to think of it much further…"
This whole thing concerning John just gets weirder and weirder…
After wandering some more around Gold Saucer, Cloud, Aeris and the newest member of their group found themselves coming out of the entrance to the Battle Square.
Maybe John will be here…
To their dismay, they only saw a lone Shinra soldier standing.
"What now?" whispered Aeris.
"It might look too suspicious to walk back, let's just try to act casual and see if we can get in" suggested Cloud.
As they approached him however, he slumped down and fell to the ground. Shocked, Cloud ran forward and checked his pulse.
"He's dead!"
"What? Why?" asked Aeris dumbfounded.
Not answering, Cloud ran up the stairs with his comrades right behind him, up to a scene of carnage upon their entrance. The room was filled with bodies bleeding on the ground, either dead or moaning in pain.
"Dear God!" Exclaimed Aeris as she looked around her, "Who could have done this? Was it Sephiroth?"
"…no," answered Cloud, "These people have been shot. That's not Sephiroth's style."
Just then, they heard the woman at the counter groan in pain. They ran over to her and asked for what had happened.
"A man…with…a gun…on his arm…" wheezed the woman before losing consciousness.
"No way!" exclaimed Cloud as they heard footsteps running behind them.
They turned around to see Dio accompanied by two security guard approach them.
"Hey, did you do this?" asked Dio forcefully.
"No, we just got here," answered Cloud, trying to explain.
He didn't get much further though as Cait Sith started to run up the stairs into the fighting arena.
"We gotta get out of here guys!" he exclaimed in fear as he ran forward, followed by Aeris.
Oh great, this looks really innocent… thought Cloud as he ran after them.
They ended up on a platform on water with a locked door in front.
"We're trapped!" exclaimed Cait Sith.
As the turned around again to see Dio once again, the door opened and a machine with clamps for arms emerged and grabbed Cait Sith.
"Ahhh!"
As Cloud and Aeris about-faced once more, two identical machines jumped from above and grabbed them too.
"Hey! You're making a mistake!" yelled Aeris.
"There's no need to listen! Pay for your crimes down below!" yelled Dio on anger before turning to his guards "Look through the security footage and find the people they came in and throw them down too. Let's hope they haven't hurt anyone. The media'll be here soon…"
Meanwhile at the Shinra house in the mountains, John and Rufus had been playing another round of pool with the television on when the news broke.
"Now a new shocking story. A shooting at the popular amusement attraction, Gold Saucer. Several personnel and soldiers of the Shinra Corporation were found with bullet holes by the area's owner, Dio."
It's time, thought John to himself as he looked over to Rufus and nodded.
Rufus did the same as their heads turned back to the television.
"Several suspects have been arrested with relation to this shooting, according to the Gold Saucer staff," continued the reporter, "There are also words going around that one of them might have been a member of SOLIDER, Shinra's elite group of fighters. Why would a Shinra fighter attack his own? We are hoping to give you the answers to those questions very soon."
Rufus sighed as he heard his cellphone ring.
Right on cue…
"Hello Heidegger," he answered plainly, "Looks like your week finally got somewhat exciting again…"
John smiled to himself as he heard Heidegger bellowing on the other side.
"Calm down!" snapped Rufus eventually, "You're a Shinra executive, so act like one and do your job! Just tell them that it was an amateur who got his hands on one of our uniforms or something. I swear, how do you find this challenging after everything with the boat…"
After more word from Heidegger, Rufus spoke again.
"Yes, I'm well aware that it is most likely AVALANCHE, but honestly if we look into this now, we'll be forced to take them in to look good. That would mean that the Ancient girl would be back at headquarters with Hojo demanding more crap from us and continuously distracting us from more important things! Let things sort themselves out! If they stay there, then good for us! If they die there, then good for us as well! If they escape, well it's not like they can get back to Midgar to cause us more trouble the next day, is it?"
With that Rufus hung up just in time to hear his phone ring again.
I know who this is as well…
"Tseng, I assume you're watching the news as well?" smiled Rufus as he answered again, "Do you know if it is AVALANCHE then?"
A confirmation from Tseng from the other side along with an explanation made Rufus look over to John as he continued to smile.
"So Reeve's thing works after all then? Good job to him on that. Why would we go there now Tseng? I had the same conversation with Heidegger. There's no point in that. Especially now with Reeve's creation being our eyes on the inside. Why spoil his reward and our fun?" chuckled Rufus.
"I agree, it would be a good idea to meet soon. Why don't you guys fly over here sometime tomorrow afternoon?" suggested Rufus after Tseng had spoken again, "But leave the others in Costa Del Sol and tell them to get ready. I've really enjoyed the peace here and I don't want needless bickering to ruin that. Besides, with Reeve's plan a success, you guys might be on the move again soon should AVALANCHE escape, and I wouldn't put that past them."
"Alright then, be sure to be well rested. We'll have a lot to discuss," finished Rufus as he hung up, leaving himself and John in the relative silence of the TV report continuing.
"So…I guess I'll be going early then…" said John.
"You can leave at whatever time you see fit, Tseng will be sure to call me before they get close and if you really want, you could wait until then I suppose," said Rufus.
"No no no, that's alright. I'll need some time to get over there anyways. I'll probably leave at dawn…"
"Hm?" smirked Rufus humorously, "Don't be ridiculous. I drove you here and I'll take you a reasonable distance to your destination."
"That's not nece-" tried to reason John before he was cut off again.
"Nonsense. You need to get to them as soon as possible and it would best not to arrive half dead from exhaustion," explained Rufus confidently, " I'll take you up to the bridge which reaches North Corel. You can get to them quickly that way then."
"Won't Tseng be suspicious if he sees your car with dirt marks?"
"It's not unusual for me to drive around when I'm up here. In fact, that is what I usually do when I don't have company. So if anything, it'll make it more convincing that I was up here alone this entire time."
"…you've got this all figured out then haven't you?" asked John humorously.
"Well, you've seemed to have a figurative upper hand in pretty much hall of our conversations while we've been here," replied Rufus with the same tone, "It wouldn't be very presidential of me to leave it there, would it?"
"No, I suppose it wouldn't…" said John back, the smile still on his face.
"Alright then, now that that's settled, let's get back to the game," said Rufus as he went over to the table again, "We can have some more drinks again before we head off to sleep, nice way to cap it off…"
Tseng walked back into the hotel suite to find the rest of his team as he had expected. Elena was on the couch watching the news, Rude was sitting in the corner reading a novel, and Reno was sitting in an armchair taking swigs of Vodka.
"One of these days," started Tseng as he walked over to Reno, "We're going to get attacked…"
He swiped the bottle away put it on a table.
"…and you're going to be hangover, which will result in all of our deaths. Can't you save this for vacations and off days?"
"I thought this was an off day," murmured Reno loudly, "We ain't done shit today."
"Well then, you'll be happy to know that I just spoke to Rufus then."
"What did he say?" asked Rude, looking up from his read.
"Ey, look who decided to come alive!" laughed Reno.
"Reno! Let Tseng speak, this could be important" exclaimed Elena nervously.
"Thank you Elena," said Tseng, "We'll be travelling to the Western Continent tomorrow. We'll be staying in Costa Del Sol, and I will go see Rufus to talk about what to do next. We'll likely be tailing AVALANCHE soon."
"AVALANCHE?" laughed Reno again, "Aren't they done now? Let Corel Prison take care of them."
"I wouldn't expect them to remain there for very long," said Tseng, "Or have you already drank the memories of their escape from Midgar already?"
As Reno rolled his eyes, Rufus got up and approached Tseng.
"Tseng, is this really what we're doing now, following some random group around?"
"Rude, they are following Sephiroth. If we follow them, we'll eventually find something about him. Besides, it's a lot easier and a lot safer to follow them rather than to try to follow Sephiroth directly."
"What about Scarlet?" asked Elena.
"She'll be coming in there sometime tomorrow as well."
Reno cursed loudly.
Cloud, Aeris and Cait Sith were dumped onto the ground by the machines.
"Where are we?" asked Aeris as they got up.
"This must be Corel Prison," said Cloud, "I've heard of it, a desert prison at the base of Gold Saucer. It's surrounded by quicksand, so escape is supposed to be impossible."
"What? What are we going to do?" asked Cait Sith.
"We can barely see now. We have to find someplace to rest for the night and take turns keeping guard. We can only hope that the others are safe."
"Cloud, what about John?" asked Aeris, "What if he's looking for us?"
"We can't really do anything about that," answered Cloud with a disappointed tone in his voice, "I hope he's safe too and that he finds out about where we are."
As the sun started to birth the new day, a lone vehicle a lone vehicle drove out at a reasonable pace from the Shinra estate.
"You didn't have to do this…"
"Not this again," sighed Rufus, "Are you sure you don't want me to give you a new pair of shoes? Those look pretty worn…"
"Thanks for the offer again, but I'm sure you'd agree that it would look pretty suspicious…" chuckled John.
"That I do, that I do…" smirked Rufus before continuing, "So do you know how you will explain your absence? Or tell them about your situation with those voices?"
"Hmm…" thought John for a few seconds before answering, "I'll deal with that when it comes up. Maybe I won't tell them anything…"
"You think they'll allow you to leave it at that?"
"Well, they'll have to pull it out of me with a lot of force then…" said John.
"Aren't they supposed to be your friends?" asked Rufus, "Surely you can't prevent whatever incident you don't want to occur if you don't follow them?"
"True…I'll see what happens I guess," answered John, "hopefully if I have a part to play in their escape, then they won't overreact…"
"Escape? From Corel Prison?" chuckled Rufus, "Are you even sure you can do that?"
"Well, they're not exactly supposed to need me, if you catch my drift…"
"Haha... I see…"
"Do you believe me after all of this then?" asked John.
Rufus was silent for a few moments before answering.
"Well…let's say that I am more intrigued than anything. You present a very difficult case for anyone to fully comprehend, but your knowledge of plans that I have not even uttered to another soul cannot be denied…"
"Well then," said John, "Regardless of whether you believe me or not…"
Finishing his sentence there, John merely placed a folded piece of paper next to Rufus.
"Hm? What is that?" asked Rufus, somewhat confused.
"Take that with you, but don't open it until you've retrieved the Keystone. And remember, up until that point, do everything as if the past few days had never occurred."
Rufus stayed silent as John continued.
"If you were to act differently, then other events would most likely change as well. I only know how things are most likely to proceed if that doesn't change. But…that does not mean I cannot try to help you in another way…"
"Help? Why would I need your help?" asked Rufus, trying not to sound too arrogant.
When Rufus looked over at John for a second, he saw a melancholy look to his face and voice as he spoke.
"You'll see Rufus, you'll see…"
As they approached the bridge, John shifted tone and asked another question.
"Speaking of explanations, how are you going to explain this to Tseng and the others should they find out?"
"I highly doubt they will unless I want them to. And besides, they don't have any other Shinra to replace me with and I highly doubt that they're going to be able to stand each other enough to decide on a replacement for me…"
As Rufus finished speaking, the car came to a stop at the beginning of the bridge. He was about to start again when John jumped in.
"Thanks."
"Are you sure you should be thanking me?" asked Rufus with a smirk, "For all you know, I could have jeopardized your mission."
"Somehow I don't think that's what's going to happen," chuckled John, "but even so, as unfair as it was for me to relax up there while the rest of my team was worried about me and in danger…I had a good time."
"Heh, well then…even though I should have been plotting how to destroy you instead of inviting you to join me…I had a good time too," copied Rufus playfully.
"I'm glad to hear that," said John in the same tone with a smile.
"North Corel isn't too far from here. You should be there in no time," explained Rufus.
"Well then," began John as he extended his hand, "It's been good Rufus."
Rufus waited for a second before reaching his hand out as well and shaking John's.
"It has indeed."
John then got out of the car and started to walk way with his staff in hand. Rufus turned his car around and started to slowly drive away before stopping.
"John!" shouted Rufus.
John stopped and silently turned around.
"Now I want your word as a man! This wasn't the last time! We will have a drink together in the future again!"
And even though he knew there was a large chance that that would not come to pass and that what he had written down would not warn Rufus about his own demise that was on the horizon, a true sense of happiness and hope was heard in John Reeds' voice as he answered.
"I promise Rufus! You have my word as a man!"
With those words, two unexpected friends parted ways to opposing sides of the battlefield.