Obligatory Disclaimer:
I don't own any characters (or anything else, for that matter) you recognize from Final Fantasy VII, they are all the property of Tetsuya Nomura and/or Square-Enix.
Author's Note: This hasn't been updated in quite a while, but now that I'm out of school I've decided to finish it. I still have a lot of stuff written from before, and that will make up the next few chapters (I almost cringe to read it now, I've improved a lot, I think), but much of the later content will be written recently (though I've had the plot outlined for quite some time).
I started writing this… wow, six years ago. My writing has improved a lot, and you can almost tell sometimes the places where this work was put down and picked up, because my writing style has changed or grown, or I'm trying out something new. This fic was for fun and to help me learn and improve, and it occupies a special place in my heart.
I'm writing an original novel now, and it didn't seem right to leave this unfinished.
For anyone who has read this from start, thank you for your support. For anyone reading this now, thank you, too!
The group of them had managed to cram onto the small benches in a small Gongagan park while eating ice cream. Alcestis' head was flooded with memories of her childhood as she tasted the butter pecan. It had been a couple of days since the "green slime incident", but her head was still thumping like mad.
"What the hell was that guy?" Yetta asked, breaking the silence.
"Jaden was no figment of my imagination." Alcestis said. "He was my first boyfriend, it's true. And I didn't remember us breaking up because we never did." She sighed. "The part I didn't remember was that he died when I was fifteen. Killed by ShinRa when they were taking Jessie away. He was going to be a martial artist, but didn't complete his training."
"That doesn't answer my question." Yetta replied, stuffing another spoonful in. "What the hell was that guy?"
"A cadaver-clone. They have the ability to suspend the life force in others. Black magic is used to clone the body of a person who is no longer living, then to animate that clone with specific goals in mind. They are given all the memories and skills the person had while living. Since it's been a few years since he died, I imagine they had to do a little aging on him." Vincent remarked, eating strawberry ice cream.
"How do you know all this shit?" Elena asked, shaking her head.
"Lucrecia invented the concept, sadly." Vincent said. "As part of her work with cloning before the Jenova project."
"That broad did nothing if not make you knowledgeable about weird-ass crap." Oedipus muttered.
"So why didn't you remember that Jaden had died?" Yetta asked.
"I believe that blue ball the gagighandi shot into her head was intended to modify her memory somewhat." Nereid said.
"But Alcestis, didn't you hate Jaden? Every time Reno came in the room, you'd call him Jaden, and then you'd call him an obscenity and throw him into the wall." Cyrene said.
"I was reliving a memory." Alcestis said, staring at her ice cream. "After Jaden died, I went to his grave and cursed him for leaving me alone. If he hadn't died, then I'd still have something to live for here in Gongaga." She blinked at the butter pecan before continuing. "It may sound strange, but I was angry at him for dying, like 'how could you leave me alone like this?'. I know it's not logical, but that was how I felt." A corner of her mouth tugged into a smile when she felt Reno's arm settle on her shoulders. "About a year after his death, I left Gongaga to search for my siblings. And ultimately, I ended up here. With all of you."
Yetta gave a big grin. "We like you, Alcestis!"
"Do we?" Oedipus muttered.
Cyrene elbowed him hard in the stomach. He grunted.
"Yes, I suppose we do." He said.
"There's something else I have to tell all of you." Alcestis said, turning her head up towards the sky, resting the back of her skull in the crook of Reno's arm. "It turns out that I'm actually descended from Pandia. It has to be me who defeats Ajax. So we'll end up in a confrontation with him for certain." She brought her head forward and gazed at the rest of the party. "You're welcome to leave now and return home if you would like."
Tseng laughed openly.
"What? What's so funny?" She asked.
"Are you kidding? We all knew the risks when we picked up these positions. And do you have any idea how much we're getting paid to do this? Once this is over, we're all going to be exceedingly rich. I can get that three bedroom condo in Costa Del Sol when this is done." Tseng said.
"What about you, Vincent, Nereid? You're not getting paid to be here."
"It is the right thing to do." Vincent said. "To prevent Lucrecia's fears and protect you from harm, it is the right thing for me to be here and do what little I can."
"You are my mage. It is my purpose to watch over you." Nereid said. "What a silly thing for you to ask."
Alcestis nodded gratefully. Silence ensued for a few moments, and then the buzz of conversation picked up as they spoke amongst themselves. She chanced a glance at Reno, who had long finished his ice cream and was daydreaming, watching the clouds overhead.
"Reno?"
"What is it, yo?"
"Do you really… y'know…"
He turned to look at her, an eyebrow raised.
"Love me?"
He smirked. "When it comes to that kinda crap, I rarely say things I don't mean, yo."
"You realize that that means you have to bear the cost of my actions, right?"
"Nereid gets the physical cost, right?"
Alcestis nodded. "I guess. But if that's so, what do you…?"
"I think we've already established that you need… emotional support here, Kess. I guess that's what I'm here for, yo." He leaned over and whispered into her ear. "And if you need anyone to help you with that lust thing…"
"Reno, you are an ass."
"Doesn't stop you from liking me, now does it?" He smiled to himself, full of self-satisfaction. "Besides which, do you have any idea how long it has been since I last had sex? This is the longest I've gone without it since I lost my virginity, yo."
"And when did you lose it?"
"When I was about sixteen. I think I was drunk, though, 'cause I don't remember it very well."
Alcestis shifted uncomfortably.
"Hey, I grew up in the slums, remember? I didn't have the best things going for me, especially my behaviors." He faced forward. "I'm lucky things turned out the way they did for me, yo."
She examined his profile for a moment. "Yeah, me too." Otherwise, I wouldn't have ever met you.
She felt Reno squeeze her shoulders a little, and smiled.
She knew that Tseng would pull her aside for planning later in the day, so she allowed her worries to float to the back of her mind. For now, she would stare up at the cloudy sky and imagine what her life might be like once all of this was done with. Then she sat forward, suddenly realizing that there was one last thing she had to do.
-~-*Å*-~-
Alcestis wandered down the old street, so familiar to her, yet so foreign. Reno walked along a couple of steps behind her, his hands shoved in his pockets.
"Holy, everything seems so different… yet it is as though nothing has changed…" She murmured, her eyes looking about curiously.
"I don't mean to put any pressure you, Kess, but Tseng and the gang are packing all of our crap up right now. We have to get moving again, we don't have a lot of time, yo." Reno said gently, yawning. Sleep had not come to him easily the past few days.
"Right, I know… we're here." Alcestis stopped in front of a pleasant house, and to Reno it appeared more or less identical to every other one in Gongaga, but Kess looked at it with deep affection in her eyes. She knocked on the door tentatively, and a middle-aged woman answered the door curiously.
"Hello, Mrs. Fair, it's… er…" Alcestis cast her eyes down.
"Oh, little Alcestis! How big you've grown!" The woman threw her arms around her and dragged her inside. "Oh, your friend can come in too, come on now, she gestured kindly, and Reno sheepishly grinned and stepped inside, politely wiping his shoes on the rug. He heard Mrs. Fair murmur to Alcestis, "that's a handsome one, there." Alcestis blushed furiously.
Mr. Fair came from an adjacent room, his face glowing. "Alcestis, we hadn't heard from you in a few months, we feared the worst, and here you are in town. We'd heard rumors that it was a young mage had defeated the Foremost, who would've known that it would be you." He hugged her gently, and guided her to a nice dining table, where the four of them sat, Mrs. Fair with tears in her eyes and a big smile, fussing over Alcestis' jacket.
"So what have you been up to the past few months, dear?" Mr. Fair asked, glancing pointedly at Reno, who felt the most uncomfortable in his life that he could recall.
"Well, I encountered a group of Bandits not far from Midgar, and I ended up working with Tifa Lockhart, remember, I think I wrote to you about that." She said, she babbled on and on, talking about moving in with Reno, at which point Mr. Fair's eyebrows raised significantly, and Mrs. Fair giggled in a most girlish way. Reno smiled awkwardly. She continued on and on about where they had traveled, and glossed over the details where there were battles and kidnappings. She did not mention their quest, and Reno inclined his head as each obvious opportunity to mention it passed.
"And we came by Gongaga so I could see my hometown." She said, finally out of breath.
"Well, we're glad you did. We've missed you very much, these five long years you've been away." Mr. Fair said, the crows feet by his eyes growing larger with a sad smile.
"I was worried you might not eat right. You always liked sweets a child, couldn't get you to eat your supper properly." Mrs. Fair, leaning in to hug Alcestis again.
Alcestis nodded, and looked at Reno. "Could you… excuse us for a moment?"
Reno gave her a doubtful look, but nodded and left the room. As soon as he had passed into the hallway, he knew why.
"I know what happened to Zack." Alcestis said quietly. Reno strained his ears to hear the silence that followed.
He listened tentatively to the intimate family moments that followed, with tears obviously flowing from everyone in that little dining room. He turned his head to the side, his eyes studying the hallway's odd little rug. ShinRa had done a lot for technology and comfortable living. But they had screwed a lot of families, just like this one. Reno decided that things at ShinRa were going to change pretty directly. He was second in the chain of command of the Turks, which meant he had more than enough power to throw around back at HQ. Maybe he could stop tragedies like this from happening again.
When Kess finally came out of the room, her face was red and blotchy, but she was smiling again. The happy family chatted for a moment, and Reno stood away from them, until Mr. Fair shook his hand and said "Take good care of our daughter, sonny. If you don't, I'll have to gut you."
"I'll try, yo." He pulled the little tropical fish out of his pocket and handed it to Mrs. Fair. "A gift, just in case you needed something else to nurture."
"Oh, isn't he sweet? Hold onto this one, he's a real looker, Alcestis, dear."
They were shuffled out the door, Mrs. Fair bawling the whole way, waving at them with fervor, while Mr. Fair stood next to her, waving with less enthusiasm.
As they walked down the street, Reno put an arm around his favorite mage, and realized he knew what they were fighting for.
-~-*Å*-~-
"All right, everyone." Tseng said, pulling out a map and laying it down on the table of the pub. "Our next course of action is to find the Potestas Summon."
"But I thought no one knew where to find it." Yetta piped up.
"No one does. But we have to find it before Ajax does, now don't we? Since it is reasonable to assume that it was left in Narcissa's kingdom at the time of his downfall, it is simply a matter of deducing where her kingdom might have been." Tseng replied.
"So what we really need is someone who might know where her kingdom was." Vincent interjected.
"Right." Tseng replied. "The problem being, if even the Library in the Ancient Forest had no knowledge of it, where are we going to look?"
"The answer is Wutai." Alcestis supplied, pointing to it on the map. "Wutai is truly the only other place on this Planet that possesses enough resources to search for the Summon or the Kingdom. Furthermore, Ajax is reportedly besieging Wutai. He may have a motive beyond resources for searching there. Let's face it, after the war with ShinRa, their resources are significantly less than what they once were. Until we can gather more information on Ajax's movements, it's probably the best place to start."
"Can I say something?" Yetta asked raising her hand. Tseng nodded, and she took a deep breath. "I was head of the Turks' operations over in Wutai, much like Tseng is for Midgar. Until he requested me for this thing, anyway. Anyhow, while I was there, we'd received reports of a small society that was hoarding vital scientific information regarding their archaeological digs, and it's very odd for scientists not to publish their findings. I think they may have found Narcissa's old kingdom someplace."
"Excellent. We'll begin there." Tseng said, rolling up the map. "We don't know how much time we have. Now, it's a race with a crazy knight for an object of unknown power. So let's get moving."
After their final equipment checks, Reno threw a sizeable bag of gil to the bartender and the group left the tavern, heading out the gates. There, Alcestis paused.
"Kess?" Reno said gently.
Alcestis stared out at the town for a moment, her hand reaching out just slightly. She drew it back and sighed. "It's… I can go. It's not home anymore. Home is…" She brushed her fingers from her forehead to her chin and turned. She nodded at the group, who nodded in return, Nereid nuzzling her leg. "Let's go."