Discalimer: Same as always, don't own and all the rest of it

Ticking Time Bomb

Island

"Are you sure this is such a wonderful idea?" one of the assistants name Jones asked, looking at the Mako filled tank which currently housed Vincent Valentine and his formidable demons, "I mean if something goes wrong…"

The younger assistant with long black hair shot him a glare, "Then it goes wrong, we have only one shot at this and if it fails then we can say that at least we died trying right?"

Jones nodded and quickly set back to work on a project which would either bring them salvation or devastation. Tifa Lockhart knew fine well that she was playing a very fiery game of death right now and that the others would definitely not approve of such actions but there was little else to try. Breaking into Shinra HQ was out of the question right now, the security levels had almost tripled since the last attempt and from what other intelligence that had been gathered it was pretty much a dead certainty that Eisa was lost to the world whereas Vincent was right here in front of her.

She stared up at the man in the tank, wondering just how he was going to react to this treatment and hoping against all the odds that he would be able to help her convince the others that they had to disrupt Shinra's activities in other areas to get the best chance of being able to break into the vaults to release Sephiroth and Cloud from that constant torture.

Her chest tightened at the thought that the spiky blond chocobo kid from her hometown could be turned into something like Vincent in the hands of that monster of a man. The sweet innocent little boy who had always tried his best to prove himself and generally failed at every turn. Whilst she had never paid him much attention growing up, because she was in with the kids who were into far greater things at the time, Tifa had always secretly been aware of Cloud's presence but had never had the nerve to invite him over on a rainy day or do anything sensible instead of pretending not to watch him watching her through the bedroom window.

"It's ready," Jones said and Tifa smiled before nodding at him to continue. Zack was going to go completely spare with her for such things if she survived but there was hope to be had if you didn't at least try something. A thick black substance filtered into the glowing green Mako and both waited with baited breath for the results.

At first there was nothing but suddenly the man inside the tank started to lash out, his whole body fighting back and forth against the glass prison around him whilst the normally red eyes glowed a vibrant gold. Jones fell back in terror but Tifa held firm, she was well aware of the fear that was harrowing through her body at the moment but that didn't matter. She had to stand her ground and make sure that everything went according to plan.

Just unfortunately for Tifa, she didn't know what the plan was in the first place.

The glass smashed, sending the liquid contents flying all over the sensitive equipment which fizzled and spluttered before exploding all around. Tifa was thrown to the floor and covered her head as best as she could. Alarms started ringing all around, electricity sparked back and forth and general chaos erupted from every last port. Guards came rushing in, guns blazing and it took every last ounce of resilience for the girl to look up.

Towering above her was a mighty winged demon with glowing demonic eyes and fiercesome looking claws. It snarled at the latest batch of Shrina employees who had come through the doors before downing them all with two swift hits. The eyes turned her way and before she could even begin to scream, Chaos had grabbed the girl, shot a hole the size of a truck in the ceiling and flown up and out into the night air.

It snarled something that she couldn't understand before a sudden ball of pure blue energy rippled into formation and dived straight towards the building. A huge boom, followed by a mushroom of light which quickly turned into a billowing cloud of smoke and ash.

The demon looked down at her one last time before beating its wings fiercely and flying away from the burning mass towards the mainland.

Two figures slowly materialised from the smoke, watching the pair disappear. They glanced at one another before simply nodding and then disappearing from view.

Shinra Labs HQ

Midgar

Flames engulfed the building, choking black smoke filled the rooms and the stench of blood was almost overpowering. What had happened here? Where was he…come to this of it who was he?

Blue eyes looked around the room, trying to work out what was going on but unable to comprehend the images around him. There was broken glass all around, a strange glowing liquid and burning fires everywhere else.

People were moving around, just beyond the wall of fire that blocked him from the only possible exit out of this hell. They didn't seem to notice him, instead just shouting incomprehensible nonsense. His body felt heavy, as if it were in a lot of pain but he couldn't remember a thing. It was all just hazy details that didn't click together.

Suddenly he was falling forward, onto the glass that would surely cut his face open. But there was already blood splattered on the walls which made no sense.

"Sempai-san!" a terrified voice came through the dull throb of his hearing but as his eyes twisted up to focus on the figure there was only the outline of black and silver to focus on. The figure was talking, telling him something and trying to move him but the man didn't particularly feel like doing so. He was just so heavy and so tired.

There was a jolt and he felt the floor beneath him crumble, where they in a building? One that was collapsing? Taking him and this other with him? No, he was not going to die like that, he couldn't die like that.

Grabbing the silver framed other who had called him Sempai, the man in pain let his instincts guide him and he ran.

Then he was leaping…no it was falling but it was controlled somehow and moments later his bare feet hit the rough concrete of another rooftop. He turned back to watch as the mighty dominating building above appeared to crumble. Only one tower did which for some reason he was very happy about, the tower of Babylon had fallen at long last. "Sempai?" a voice asked and the man looked down at the other, able to pick out the details but suddenly feeling so tired as he collapsed to the ground.

"Go find…others," was that rasp really his voice, he couldn't tell anymore, "Park. Meet there."

He saw the young boy nod before disappearing. He cast his eyes back to the falling building and tried to figure out what was going on. Who was he? Why was he here? It was all a mystery to him but hopefully someone out there would be able to tell him.

Mountains

Pausing in her step, Eisa turned to see the two pillars of light that shot up from the horizon line almost at the same time. Her eyes widened not in fear but as something came to her in those moments, memories which she had long forgotten bubbling up. "Nii-san," she addressed Loz without turning around, "I think my father is free."

"You remember him?" Loz asked a little guardedly.

The girl nodded, almost shuddering as she looked down at her hands, "I remember a lot of things. Something's going on in Midgar…we should go back there."

"That's the worst thing we could do. We'll be head hunted from the get go," he sighed, "I'm sorry Eisa, I know you just want to help but I'm afraid there's not a lot that two people, a chocobo and a Liat cub can do to change the world."

Eisa glanced back to the fading pillars of light, "You never know until you try."