By a Fraction of a Degree

A FFVII Fanfiction work by findthetiger129

Rated T for Violence and Language.

I do not own Final Fantasy VII, or any of the characters, trademarks or likenesses from Final Fantasy VII or its spinoffs. That honor goes to Square-Enix.

A note of appreciation for HCloudXIII over on Youtube and Dark Angel from the website, Gunshot Romance for their efforts to translate the Before Crisis game text and make the gameplay viewable.

Part I: Crossfire

Chapter 11, Fight and Flight

October 5th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007, 3:00 AM

Reno had not moved from where he sat as the troopers moved around him, carrying Veld and Elfe to the truck even as they were dying. Tseng had stood apart from him and Rude, not joining them as they watched the proceedings. This couldn't be happening. No way had Tseng just done what Reno had seen him do. Yes he was a Turk, but after everything Tseng had done to save the man, how could he have just turned around and shot him without so much as a thought?

The cleanup was almost complete, and one of the troopers walked over to Tseng and asked him "Where will you be riding?"

Tseng faced the man, and Reno noticed that he looked tired. More tired than he'd ever seen him. "In the back. I want to be by their sides until the end."

"Understood. Get on. We'll be leaving shortly." The trooper walked away to get into the truck cab.

"Tseng…"

Reno heard Rude begin to speak but cut in for the quiet martial artist."It's a lie, isn't it?"

Tseng looked down at him, still with that tired expression. "We're returning to headquarters. This was for the best. Reno. Rude. Get on."

Reno didn't move as Tseng headed toward the rear of the truck. "Tell me this isn't real."

The director paused and looked back at them. "So you're staying." He climbed into the back of the vehicle, leaving it at that.

As the truck pulled away, Reno let out an angry yell of frustration and pounded his fist into the ground. Rude said nothing, but stood by his partner in silent understanding.

Zack wiped the sweat from his brow as the strange crystal they'd just finished destroying crumbled to the ground. It had been a long night already and on top of all the other fights he and Freya had been in, it was starting to tell on both of them a little bit. It was even more embarrassing since the only thing that had made this adversary formidable was that it was shooting out energy beams, but they were the kind that were especially pervasive. It had been a real challenge getting in under them to damage the thing and he'd been trying to hold off on using too much magic since Freya had insisted they still hadn't reached the actual summon yet.

The Turk handed him a potion as she drank one of her own. She looked somewhat the worse for wear too. But then again, she was probably worse off than he was, being that she wasn't enhanced. "Gaia, that was intense."

Zack nodded, downing the potion in one gulp. "You sure that wasn't what we were going after?" he asked.

"We haven't found the others yet," Freya said, the concern apparent on her face. "They said they were waiting for us at the other end."

"How long is this thing gonna go on?" Zack wondered aloud as they continued walking.

"I don't know," Freya admitted. They continued along a bit further down the path as she checked her PHS and then dialed a number. After putting the device to her ear and listening for a bit she sighed and put it away. "That's odd. I can't get a signal anymore," she noted.

"Could it be because we're getting close?" Zack asked.

The two of them quickened their pace along the path and Zack noticed that the green mist was starting to curl around their feet as they hurried along. He was also beginning to notice a new sensation in his gut that had not been there before. He felt… heavy. At first he assumed it was fatigue, after all, it had been a very long night and they'd both done an awful lot of fighting, but then he noticed that it was starting to get stronger, like a weight pressing down on him that wasn't the Buster Sword. He looked over at Freya and noticed she was breathing a little harder than normal.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

She nodded. "We have to keep going." They continued on a little longer before she stumbled and Zack caught her. She smiled and pushed his hand away. "Don't. It's okay. We gotta complete the mission."

"If you need me to help, I can," he offered.

"No… it's okay, the air's just a bit thick in here…" she laughed, brushing a few of her own bangs behind her ear. "Although I guess you don't feel it so much because you're SOLDIER, huh?…"

"I've felt worse."

"Where are the others?" Freya wondered again. "I would have thought we'd have found them by now."

They walked a little further and the path was completely obscured by the mist now. After a brief moment where Freya said she felt like her lungs were about to burst, the pressure suddenly stopped. They paused at that point so she could catch her breath, and then as they went further, Zack looked up and saw off in the distance, a strange dark being, towering into the misty canopy of… whatever crazy dimension this was. "Shiva…" His eyes widened in awe at the gigantic visage.

It's upper half had the form of a man with multiple arms, almost spiderlike in their slenderness. A pair of huge halo-like rings adorned its back with several strange objects hanging off of them, and atop the man's shoulders like a pair of huge wings, stood a pair of gigantic circular blades. The lower half of the summon reminded him of an inverted flower, though under the petals, he could see several sharp looking objects hanging off the underbelly like a set of meat hooks. There was no question about it. This thing looked deadly.

"Is that it?" he asked.

Freya looked a little pale as her expression hardened. "I guess it is," she answered.

They had stopped walking, taking in the size of the thing they were about to try and demolish. Freya checked her ammunition as she eyed it warily. Without the summon materia and a sacrifice to complete it, this thing shouldn't be totally active yet, if what she'd told Zack was true. If that was the case, they should be able to destroy it quickly, right?

He looked up at the canopy again when out of the corner of his eye, Zack saw something flash. "Hey, look out!" He dived forward, pushing her out of the way as a beam of light shot down from above, hitting the place where they'd just been standing moments before.

"Well, it definitely knows we're here." Freya muttered as she tried to pick herself up. That was when the second beam shot down over top of them. Zack threw up a Wall just in time and held the Buster Sword over top of the two of them, in case it broke through. The beam pulverized the protective orb of energy around them into the flagstones previously obscured by the mist. His muscles screamed at the impact, but he gritted his teeth to bear it as a third beam pounded the last of the magical barrier into oblivion.

"Are you all right?" the Turk asked when the onslaught ceased, clearly in shock that he'd just risked life and limb to protect her.

"Yeah." Zack cracked a grin as he moved to allow her to pull herself out from where he'd turtled around her. "I couldn't let that thing hurt a lady, now could I?" He stood warily, ready to duck and cover again if the monstrosity decided to utilize more death from above.

They hurried towards the giant form, both realizing there was no more time for chatter. This thing had to go down, and cowering under a shield wasn't going to do the job. They would just have to keep moving. As they reached the point where the path opened out, they broke off in opposite directions. Freya fired her shotgun at the monstrosity before Zack lunged forward to try and land a hit with the Buster Sword but he ended up having to abort the charge and roll away as the summon picked that moment to shoot a giant blue beam at them. He didn't know specifically what it was, but it seemed about as healthy as that ray of light that had just blasted them into the ground.

After it fired, she returned with two more blasts from her shotgun before checking her ammo as she ran to cover. She barely made it behind some rocks poking out of the mist before the summon tried to fire the beam at her again. Zack took that opportunity to rush in and cleaved at the thing while it was occupied. He did manage to put a couple of sizable dents on the summon's hide at least.

As he pulled back, he became aware that three more people had entered the space in which they were fighting. Tanjuu had appeared with Rod and another one of the Turks in tow. He recognized the other guy as Valerie's blond partner with the nunchaku, though he didn't know his name. Freya conferred with them behind her cover before all four of them joined the fight. The kid with the nunchaku and Rod both started casting while Tanjuu raced across the area sending forth a storm of bullets from his two handguns. Freya pulled out from her hiding place and fired off two more rounds as a pair of Bolt spells connected with their target.

It crackled with electricity for a little before Zack noticed it seemed to be warming up for another of those giant blue energy beams. Fortunately no one was in the line of fire, but then everyone was forced to scatter as a series of the gold energy beams from before connected with the ground where they stood. He heard Rod cry out as he went down before he saw the nunchaku kid pull him behind some rocks.

"Clear the way!" he called as he barreled towards the monstrosity one more time, channeling his memory of the Silver General into an Octaslash. All eight hits connected, but in the time it took him to complete the technique, he suddenly found himself blown backwards as Freya let out a painful scream behind him. Another blue energy beam had hit him head on as he'd attacked and somehow it had caught the other Turks still standing in the process. Not since fighting Genesis had he been hit by something this powerful and it left him reeling as he hit the ground. When he pulled himself up and looked around, he saw that Freya looked hurt but she was still up. Tanjuu and the blond kid on the other hand, seemed to have been knocked out by the blast.

He reached for his Cure materia. He could go a little longer but the lady Turk looked like she could barely stand. He hurried over to her preparing to cast, but she shook her head, pulling out a potion and gulping it down. "Save your spells," she said. "I got this..." Her posture straightened as the potion worked its magic and then she walked out resolutely to meet the summon once again.

Zack was a little surprised but on seeing that the potion had done the trick, he shrugged it off and put his concentration back on their opponent. He was forced to bring up the Buster Sword to block as the four objects that had previously been attached to the rear halos of the creature started flying around showering the flagstones with more energy beams. He saw the Turk duck and roll to escape the danger before coming up in a crouch and firing two more blasts at their enemy. As he zig zagged across the area, he watched the summon patiently for an opening in which to go after it again. He rolled out of the way as another series of energy beams rained out of the sky and then lunged for the summon one more time. The Buster Sword managed to get a little deeper into the summon's hide before he had to pull it out. That was when he heard Freya cry out again.

This time, he didn't bother waiting to see if she was still standing, but instead raced over to her side and pulled out his Cure again. She looked pained as the magic began to cool the burns on her skin and knit together scrapes and bruises but it wasn't because of her injuries. "Why?" she asked.

"We both want this thing gone, right?" He gave her a cocky grin. He was about to race back into the fight to go at the summon again when things changed again. Zirconiaide began to glow with an eerie light and he heard an odd buzzing in his ears. There was no time to dodge as he threw himself back over top of the lady Turk and once again, agony coursed through his body even as the Buster Sword protected them from the blow being fatal. The mists around them had brightened as though lit by sunlight, as another one of those beams hit them dead center. He moved shakily so the Turk could crawl out from under him again. "We… have… got to stop… meeting like this…" he breathed out with effort, still grinning even through his own pain. He saw the shock on her face, and then it hardened as she seemed to have found new resolve. She crawled out from under him one last time and stood up straight, her gaze landing on the summon with an angry fire now in her eyes.

"We didn't catch you out in the wastes just so you could get yourself killed on my account Zack," she growled reaching into the pocket of her blazer. When she pulled it out, he saw that she was carrying what looked like a special ammunition clip. She chambered out what remained of her regular ammunition as she continued, the spent shells clinking against the flagstones.

"I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of in the last few years, and I've only just gotten the chance to get started on making up for it. For all that Shinra has done for humanity, we've still got a lot of damage to repair, and if this thing kills us here, then I'll never be able to atone for what we've done." She flipped a small lever on the side of her weapon. A slot opened on the bottom of the shotgun, and he heard the grinding of a mechanism inside the barrel. She hurriedly jammed the ammunition clip into the slot as she spoke again.

"Zirconiaide, it's over! I swear it on the pride of the Turks! I'm putting everything I've got into this last attack!" She aimed her weapon at the summon and suddenly a spray of shotgun blasts like he had never seen before emitted themselves from the gun. Shell after shell fired in rapid succession as the casings clattered to the ground in a rain. As Zack pulled himself up and activated his Cure materia, he watched her limit break go off in amazement before a bright flash of light washed over the scene and Zirconiaide began to disintegrate. He felt the flagstones lurch underneath him and he stabbed his sword into the ground to hold himself steady as a shockwave fanned out from its disappearing form. This was not looking good.

October 5th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007, 3:40 AM

Kunsel stood guard by the door as the others slept. There had been no sight of the army or any other hostile parties but he wasn't about to leave it up to chance. He stretched, feeling his muscles pop as the strain of holding still for an extended period of time made itself known.

Aerith had made it back a long time ago, with her mother in tow, along with some blankets and other supplies. Cloud had fallen asleep again not long after they had finished eating, and right now, the church was only populated by the sounds of the others' breathing. It was a sound that one could easily be lulled by.

Suddenly he heard a loud noise and he opened the door to see where it had come from. At first, he didn't see anything. The streets of the Sector 5 slums were desolate at this time of the morning… That was when his gaze was directed up towards what could be seen of the edge of the Sector 6 plate. At first, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. Where was that light coming from? He then raced back into the Church, and past the others as Aerith, her mother, and Rayleigh sat up in surprise.

"What was that?" Aerith asked sleepily.

"I don't know," Kunsel admitted. "But I'm going to the roof to take a look." He hurried up the stairs and along the rafters until he found the hole in the ceiling he was looking for. For all he knew, it might have been the one Zack fell through, but there were more pressing matters at hand than wondering about that. He used the hole to climb out on the roof of the Church and once he was there, he looked out over the slums towards Sector 6. There was definitely a light over that way… From here, he could see the walls at the edge of the lower city and that was when he saw that a large amount of debris had fallen from the plate above.

Was it his imagination, or was that light getting brighter?...

October 5th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007, 4:00 AM

The rumbling and shaking of the ground beneath them had not stopped, even as Zack and Freya revived everyone and they hurried back the way they had come. Fortunately, no one had taken a total knock-out but Rod and the kid with the nunchaku had been beaten up pretty bad. The five of them were now running down the path they had come as fast as they could go. It wasn't as fast as Zack would have liked, but it couldn't be helped. Fortunately, the monsters had all disappeared, probably gone with the summon. As they ran, Zack was beginning to see places up ahead where it looked like the flagstones were starting to fall away from the path, leaving gaping holes in the ground. He leapt over one and then watched as the others made it across before he hurried onward.

He was starting to get a little worried however, when the mists around them started bleeding away, and he began to see traces of what looked like the Sector 6 plate hundreds of feet below them. The fact that a hole had developed in the edge of it during their absence did not tell him good things, but he forced himself not to think about it.

He could almost see the huge area where the Turks had split up just ahead. They were almost out! He sprinted over the threshold when he heard a crumbling noise behind him and turned to see that the Turks had just barely avoided falling to the plate below. That was also when he looked ahead and saw that the path to the portal they had come through was starting to crumble. The platform they were on would soon follow.

On seeing this, all five of them booked it. Zack didn't even remember the point where his boot hit the asphalt at the edge of the aborted bridge. All he knew was that he was once again on solid ground, and that the others were with him. He plopped down on the ground without looking to see who was here as he caught his breath. "I was worried we weren't going to make it there for a bit." As he glanced back, the portal leading to that weird other dimension vanished from sight.

"We were starting to get a little worried too." He looked up and to his surprise, he saw Cissnei standing a short ways away with Mao, Lou, and Valerie. All of them looked a little worse for wear.

"What happened to you guys?" he heard Rod ask.

"We ran into a King Behemoth," Lou said a little bitterly.

"Yeah?" Rod gave her a crazy grin. "Same thing happened to us."

Lou looked her partner over as though assessing him for injuries. "You're the last group out, so let's go."

Zack groaned dramatically before picking himself back up again and heading towards the helicopter, which miraculously, was still there. Freya pulled ahead of him with Tanjuu, and the blond kid walked over to Valerie as the two talked, probably deciding where they were going to go now. It had been a long night, and there were still things to do, but he smiled to himself as it occurred to him that the hard part was probably over.

October 5th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007, 4:30 AM

It took a little bit of time for Cissnei to pilot the chopper to the Church, as they had to make sure they weren't detectable, but when Zack hopped out after it landed, Kunsel was already there to meet him. Even as he took in the old familiar smells, he could see the very first of the sun's rays starting to peek in under the plate, and in the morning twilight, he could see that Rayleigh was standing at the door with Elmyra.

"When you said you'd only be gone for a little while I didn't think you meant the whole night," Kunsel said.

Zack shrugged apologetically, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "Well you know, stuff happened. Had to go be a hero and save the world."

"Oh? You didn't happen to be involved with that strange light we saw did you?"

"I'll tell you later. Right now, we need to get going. Shinra's still looking for us." As Zack walked past him, Kunsel looked over his shoulder and saw Freya, along with Mao, Tanjuu and Cissnei, waiting by the vehicle. "Are they with you?" he asked.

Zack looked behind him at his friend. "For now, anyway." Aerith ran up at that point and threw her arms around him and he returned the hug before walking to the door. "We were worried about you," she said next to his ear.

"I'll bet you were," he answered. "Kunsel didn't say much besides that everyone was all right, but I want to know exactly what happened once we're out of here."

She nodded. "It's been an exciting night."

"Is Cloud okay?" she smiled, and beckoned towards the church. Seeing that he was too preoccupied to talk right now, Rayleigh and Elmyra watched him walk inside and Aerith hung back as he approached the head of the chapel. Cloud was sitting partway up and looking over the back of the front pew as though he'd only been asleep just a few moments ago. Zack gave him another tired grin as he sat up the whole way. He stopped in the aisle, leaning over the back of the seat to talk to him. "Hey buddy, how are you doing?"

He was relieved to see that Cloud's eyes were clear and he sounded fully alert when he spoke. "I'm all right. We had to leave the hospital though."

"I can see that." Zack was grinning. "I knew you wanted to see the flowers, but I didn't think you were in this much of a hurry."

Cloud shrugged. "I like it a lot better here."

Zack laughed. "Yeah, me too." There were a couple of rays of sunshine filtering in under the plate, providing a little bit of illumination through the windows and giving the church an unearthly, ethereal quality. "It's a shame we're going to have to leave so soon."

"That is too bad," Cloud agreed. The two of them spent a moment enjoying the yellow blooms before he heard Aerith come up behind him.

"It's okay," she said, walking past them and kneeling by the patch of earth, to take a final look at her garden. "We may be leaving, but we can plant some more when we get where we're going. Right?" As Zack looked at what she held in her hand, he realized that it was a small bag of seeds.

"I hope so," Zack said. "I guess this means we're just going to have to try filling the whole planet full of flowers, huh?"

Aerith smiled. "Exactly."

"So where are we going?" Cloud asked, somewhat embarrassed again as he seemed to think the air was getting a bit thick.

"Well, the Turks are already leaving. They have hiding spots all over, but I'm not exactly sure where. We can't stick around here though," Zack observed.

At that point, he saw Freya approach them, her usual friendly attitude back in spite of the dark circles under her faintly glowing eyes. "Actually, I know just the place," she said. "It's a bit far from here, but it'll be perfect."

"I don't know…" Zack said. "Can we trust you?"

Freya shrugged. "You never leave the Turks, but considering what Reno told us, it looks like our days with Shinra are over. The President is still gunning for the rest of us so we're all still in the same boat right now. Considering what happened with Veld, though, I'm not sure I want to go back anymore." Zack couldn't blame her there. Reno and Rude had contacted Mao while they'd been waiting for them, telling them about what had happened, and that they would be staying with Tseng. All the Turks had been horrified by the news, but it seemed that everyone was too tired and in too much of a hurry to be able to grieve over it. He'd seen no sign of Shears either, but he hoped the guy had gotten away.

"Okay then. Let's get out of here." With that, everyone gathered up what they had with them and once they were ready, Freya gave Cissnei directions for where they were headed and the chopper took off, slipping out under the plate and flying low to avoid radar detection. Fortunately they evaded any intercepting aircraft and before long, the helicopter was flying south over the rocky wastes.

Once he heard from Cissnei that they were well away from Midgar, Zack looked around the passenger compartment of the helicopter. Rayleigh sat primly across the way, as Kunsel was starting to nod off a couple of seats over. Elmyra was also nearby. The older woman seemed worried but at the same time, calm and collected. She had aged slightly since he'd seen her last, he thought. Mao and Tanjuu were alert, but both looked very tired after the night's exertions. Freya was in the copilot's seat, her shotgun in her lap as she sat with her eyes closed.

However, it was what was going on in the Ex-SOLDIER's immediate proximity that made him smile. On one side of him, Aerith was dozing on his shoulder, and on the other, Cloud looked like he was trying not to do the same even as he had turned to watch the horizon out the window he was sitting by. Satisfied that everyone was all right for the moment, Zack leaned back in his seat and shut his eyes, finally allowing himself to drift towards sleep. For now, they were safe, and to him, it was the most wonderful feeling in the world.

A/N: For those of you who are wondering... No, this isn't the end. We're not even close. ^^

For your reference, I've dubbed Freya's ultimate limit break "21 Guns."