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 spin-offs That honor goes to Square-Enix.

Soldier 1st Class Ramius is an original character.

On the Way to a New Future (Interlude)

Chapter 46, The Fall of Fort Condor (Case of Kunsel)

February 21st [ ν ] – εуλ 0008

Lightning flashed over the summit of Fort Condor as the last of its defenses were breached and the Shinra army began rushing over the barricades. Kunsel stood at the ready by the remains of the nest where the Huge Materia had been. The Condor had already passed a long time ago, but he'd come up here not that long after to discover a Phoenix materia within its ashes. He now gripped his sword tightly in his hands as the rain poured down around him. He and the volunteers that had come with him had done their best to stop this from happening, but now that he and his squad stood at the ready to meet the onslaught, he knew they would only be holding off the inevitable until Cid could get here.

"Sir!" One of his squad leaders had just buzzed in on his radio. They'd taken to using the less advanced equipment since Shinra's communication grid had been shut off throughout Mideel as soon as the power station had been knocked out. "We're holding the trooper detachment at bay for now, but we're acquiring heavy casualties on our western flank. It's a 1st Class SOLDIER!"

"I'm on my way." With the combined might of his swordsmen and Freya's riflemen, which had been combined into his unit for this mission while she'd been away hunting a spy, the normal troops would be able to hold their own for the moment. He'd done everything he could to ensure that. But leaving them alone with a 1st was asking for a massacre. He alerted his acting second in command where he was going and raced towards the source of the disturbance.

Upon reaching the edge of the cliff, he saw down on a ledge that a couple of the riflemen were covering a position on the cliff side while three of their swordsmen were fighting for their lives against a 2nd Class. It was a losing battle, he could see immediately, and the 1st Class was already coming to back him up. Leaping down onto the ledge in front of the riflemen, he raced forward and deftly ran a blade through the 2nd faster than his men could blink. The 2nd fell off the cliff just as the 1st Class scaled it and now that Kunsel recognized the gunblade he carried he knew that it was Ramius.

"I see you are here after all," the 1st Class called across the battlefield.

"And so are you. I'm sorry," Kunsel returned.

"You and me both." Ramius raised the gunblade in front of him.

Kunsel raised his own, saying to the others "Get to the summit, I've got things here."

They had learned a long time ago not to argue with him. All five of the men turned and fled as Kunsel conjured a Barrier. Energy crackled along his blade as the Bolt and Elemental materia worked in tandem within it. Ramius motioned that his men stay where they were and the two locked eyes across the cliff, waiting to see who would strike first.

Finally, he saw the trigger pull on the gunblade and his lightning quick reflexes accommodated, sending the bullet's ricocheting off his broadsword into the unknown before the two SOLDIERs ran at each other, steel crossing with a clang as thunder rolled overhead. Ramius broke the lock first, coming at Kunsel with several hard slashes, which Kunsel parried before casting an Ice 2 from the new materia he'd added to his bangle.

Shards of ice rained over top of his opponent, but Ramius ignored them, instead casting a Wall before firing off three more shots.

One of them zinged close enough that Kunsel could feel it pass him but he knocked the other two away before jumping back and grabbing one of the cables hanging off the outer casing of the reactor and swinging on it so that he landed effortlessly atop a particularly large pipe before being forced to duck as a fireball flew over his head.

Ramius leapt up to join him from another one of the pipes and their blades met again. Electricity crackled on his blade in unison with the spider webs snaking through the clouds above them and Kunsel pressed forward to break the lock, knocking the other man away so that he could continue into a heavy slash from his opponent's left side.

Ramius blocked and then Kunsel was forced to dodge as his opponent fired the gunblade again. He allowed himself to tumble down the side, catching his hand on another cable and using it to race along the side of the reactor until he had enough momentum to bring himself up behind Ramius to go in for what on a normal opponent would have been a killing blow. Ramius turned around only just in time to bring up his sword in defense and it still sent him sliding back across the smooth surface of the reactor's dome. When he finally gained purchase, he kicked off of another one of the pipes to propel himself into the air to come down for a powerful strike, but Kunsel ducked out of the way and as he moved, he brought his own sword around in a fatal slash across his chest.

Ramius dropped to the ground and looked up at the former SOLDIER. Kunsel would have given anything to stop this now. Maybe he could! There was still time! As he leaned against a reactor pipe, clutching his wound, Ramius looked seriously up at him. "Hey… Kunsel?"

"Yeah?"

"That blonde guy that was with you… He was that trooper Zack used to… talk about…"

"Yeah," Kunsel said.

Ramius coughed and wiped a bit of blood from his mouth. "I think I understand… What happened I mean… Don't let anyone else… make our mistakes… okay…?"

"You don't have to make any more either." Kunsel reached for his Cure materia but at that moment, thunder rumbled again off in the distance and the Ex-SOLDIER glanced across the summit to see how the rest of his men were doing. It was not a moment too soon either, for several of the riflemen had just opened fire on a Grand Horn the enemy had just sent climbing up the dome. Without warning, he heard a thump behind him, and after kneeling to check for a pulse, he found the man he'd paused to help was no longer here. Realizing what would happen if the monster did make it up to the summit, he sheathed his sword and grabbed the gunblade. He'd trained with these weapons before. Most SOLDIERs were given rudimentary training with a variety of weapons and styles until they found the one they liked, and after checking it was still sufficiently loaded, he raced to the front of his forces, kneeling momentarily to fire three of the weapon's remaining bullets as he went. Two of them connected and the Grand Horn let out an angry bellow, reaching out to swipe him away with its claw.

Kunsel rolled out of the way of the first attempt and pushed himself up and forward, ramming the sword directly into the monsters chest. The Grand Horn looked down at him in surprise as he yanked the gunblade out before attempting to knock him away with a slightly weaker swipe of his arm. This one, Kunsel had no time to dodge, so he blocked it, his boots sliding across the reactor dome before he found traction and pressed forward, sending the Grand Horn falling to its death below.

It was at that moment when the wind picked up and he had the sensation that the rain around him was being blown by an unnatural force. Looking up, he realized why. The Highwind had appeared overhead, and he could see Freya lowering the rope ladder off the main deck. Signaling to his men and what remained of Fort Condor's forces who hadn't been captured that it was time to fall back, he kept his eye on the edge of the summit, shooting at troopers and other SOLDIERs where he could spot them, and when the summit was almost clear, he stopped at the condor's nest to retrieve the Huge Materia. Wrapping an arm around it, he hurried to the ladder and it was already pulling away as he started climbing it. Several troopers had already scaled the side of the reactor dome by that point and a number of bullets whizzed past him before he reached the main deck and Freya took his burden from him.

Once he was on the deck, they hurried inside with the others and Freya asked "Are you hurt?"

"No," he answered. "I guess Cid's at the helm?" He looked down at the gunblade he had taken from Ramius, feeling slightly guilty. What had happened was justified, he knew. The man had been ordered to kill him, but at the same time, he could still remember when most of these SOLDIERs had been young teenagers in training. Some of them, he'd trained himself. Was this what it was like to feel old?

Freya seemed troubled by the expression he was wearing but nodded at his question and while the rest of their force went down to their quarters to rest, he and the lady Turk walked to the bridge. "I didn't see Sergeant Thomas or your other two officers anywhere," she commented at last.

"They died in the first assault," Kunsel responded sadly. "If you thought what was coming up the mountain was all we had to face… that's a joke. Heidegger must have sent half the army to take that fort." Once they entered the bridge, he leaned against the guard rail in front of the window, looking out over the rain soaked plains leading to the ocean.

It was understandable that things had progressed the way they had, but no less regrettable. With Sephiroth to worry about, and the fact they had only just recently decided to go against Shinra, Fort Condor had fallen under their notice. By the time the fort had sent out the call for aid, it had been too little too late.

The Condor had died almost as soon as Kunsel had arrived, and after that a large number of the rebels had lost their drive to continue. There were a few die-hards and those who had an eye on the bigger picture, some of whom were now fleeing with them but many of them had also been underpaid mercenaries, gone the moment their services could no longer be afforded, or once it was clear which side was going to win.

He reached up to run a hand through his hair and realized it was every bit of a mess as his dirt and blood-stained hands. His face was probably just as bad. Finally he looked back at her with tired eyes. She was leaning against the rail next to him, her shotgun slung over her shoulder.

"So, how did you make out?" he asked.

"I'm the best hunter in the business. What do you think?" she said. "I followed the target to a boat on one of the northern islands and had to switch to my single shot ammunition for better accuracy, but he didn't make it to the main land."

"Glad to hear it."

"Those Shinra $#%&*#^$ didn' rough ya up too much did they?" Cid called from the pilot's station.

"Not too much. Still, it makes you realize trying to fight this as a war isn't going to be easy."

"I guess not. We had a near miss near Gongaga just last month when we were runnin' supplies," Cid said. "Rufus has the navy out huntin' blockade runners as far as the eye can see out that way. What we need is for Yuffie to get off her ass and get the Wutaians to move."

"I'm sure she's doing the best she can. As much as she hates Shinra, she's got to be pretty motivated," Kunsel replied.

Freya nodded in agreement and even as she rubbed a bit of sleep out of her eyes. "Last I talked to her, she was having a little trouble because Godo doesn't want to get involved in war again. You should have heard the last radio transmission she sent us. Even Zack was shocked at how she talked about him."

"It's always the ones you least suspect," Kunsel muttered, letting himself drop to sit on the ground, looking down at the gunblade that was still in his hands.

"What's that?" Freya asked.

"I killed someone I knew as a SOLDIER today," Kunsel said. "Then I borrowed his weapon because I needed a gun." He lowered his head sadly, even as he held out the blade for her to see.

"Was he a friend?" She asked.

"Not like Zack, but he wasn't a bad guy. He joined a little after we did. He wasn't much younger than we were, but he was one of the last that probably had much to do with Angeal. Most of the guys after him were trained under me. A few under Zack too, before he disappeared…" He ground his teeth frustratedly. "It's true what they say. War's hell."

"I know you did everything you could," Freya said.

"That's the thing, we did… but still… all those families back in Mideel… and in Midgar too… You know, my folks are still there. I wonder what they think about all this." He snorted derisively at the thought. Here he was, the ocean almost directly under them as they fled battle and he was wondering about something so… it wasn't superfluous by any means, but it was such a pathetic thought, that even the leader of a rebel force would wonder such a thing. "I guess part of it is, knowing that things got so bad… we really relied too much on Zack before Sephiroth didn't we? Cloud's good. He's damn good, but after those two came back, it was like they were two halves of a whole. Between the two of them, they were unstoppable."

"At least it's not forever. He may not be as strong as he was before Sephiroth, but Zack'll probably return to the front before too long." Freya said.

Cid chewed on his cigarette. "If we know one thing about him, he's more stubborn than that Grand Horn you were fighting. You know, since you've been gone, he's already been managing expert sword techniques with his left hand? It's driving Rayleigh up the wall since she's been trying to help him with his shoulder, but he's been running everyone back at the lodge ragged."

Kunsel made a noise halfway between a sigh and a chuckle. "Sounds about right. You never could keep him down. Although it's still gonna be tough. Rufus may not be an experienced leader, and Heidegger and Scarlet may be incompetent, but they do control most of the world's resources. We're struggling just to power our clinics now that they've cut the lines."

"We've been thinkin' about that," Cid said, turned the . "What we need is a regular supply of that oil Reeve was talking about. We haven' found a solution outside the mako fuel reserves that survived the earthquake, but we're working on it. Problem is, short of retaking Rocket Town to get at the land nearby where the surveyors say there's some we may be stuck for a while."

"The joys of being a leader," Freya said. "It's not easy being responsible."

"You're telling me," Kunsel agreed.

An airship launch had been built fairly quickly within the village limits once the land area had been secured and now, it was quite easy to secure it and disembark down a set of stairs from the platform that had been built over a set of scaffolds. As the troops dispersed to rest and regroup, Cid, Kunsel, and Freya walked to the edge of town, anxious to get to their quarters. With the extra manpower, a separate building had been set up near the lodge that held the planning room as well as accommodations for GUARDIAN's core members who had previously lacked space to stay at the lodge. In the meantime, Zack's parents had moved to a small cottage on the edge of town, as had Doctor Rayleigh so that she could be within easy access of the clinic. As a result, while the area around the lodge had grown up a bit in the last couple of months, it had also grown a lot less crowded.

He watched a couple of the other swordsmen bringing an injured friend up to the clinic and that was when he saw it. A black patch, almost like a rash on the man's arm. It was oozing a little as the man was carried inside. He'd seen a couple of similar cases at Fort Condor, but it looked like it had come here too.

There would be time to worry later though. Right now, what they needed was food and rest, and then they could get to the debriefing. The sentries were watching the southern corridor if anything happened, but after Fort Condor, he didn't think Shinra would move a while either. A 1st Class was a heavy loss.

Walking away from the village, the three of them soon found themselves on the boundaries of the now lightly fortified hunting lodge, and they said goodbye to Cid so he could break off to get back to his lodgings. They'd probably see him later tonight.

Nodding to one of the guards as they passed, Kunsel walked around to the back of the familiar building and saw Zack talking to Reeve over a map that was laid out on the floor of the porch while Cloud leaned over them, the Buster Sword secure on his back.

"So if we put some people here… and here, the Canyon should be pretty well defended," Zack said, pointing to the locations on the map.

"They should be," Reeve agreed. "Losing the pass in Cosmo Canyon may not be as critical as what Yuffie does in Wutai, but if we lose control there, we're completely cut off to the west from this corridor."

"It's going to get harder now that Fort Condor's gone," Kunsel said somberly.

Zack looked up to see them coming. "Yeah, I heard. You all right?"

"I made it. We lost some good people though… on both sides." Zack blinked as Kunsel showed him the gunblade.

"Ramius…"

Kunsel nodded.

Zack was quiet for a moment before saying "I'm sorry to hear it. I know you probably didn't have a choice, but it's still a shame though. Bradley's holding the fort in Midgar apparently if the info we bought from Lou was solid."

"Of course it is," Freya interjected.

"Well it's a good thing for the moment, because it means that hopefully we won't have to fight him. But that still leaves the other things we're dealing with." Zack stood, gathering the map in his right hand and rolling it up with his left. Kunsel felt a little relieved to see that. His arm wasn't shaking when he tried to do something easy with it anymore, but that didn't mean he didn't still have a long way to go. Zack interrupted his thoughts when he motioned they follow him inside. "That power station is about ready, but we need fuel" he continued. "And then there's this strange disease that Rayleigh's started noticing."

"With the black rashes?" Kunsel asked.

Zack nodded as he took a seat at the kitchen table. "We've only seen a few isolated cases, but no one seems to be able to figure out if there's a cure or not." He frowned. "Rayleigh's still trying to figure out the cause, but until she does, we have no idea where people are getting it…"

He paused and they both heard movement from the hallway and then the sound of someone approaching. It was at that point when Aerith walked into the kitchen, a basket of clean laundry in her hands. "Oh, you two are back!" she said.

Kunsel looked down at himself and realized he was still covered in dirt and grime from the fight. "Yeah…" his voice trailed off even as he spoke.

Seeing the troubled look on his face, Aerith walked over to him and offered him a clean towel and washcloth. "Here. Go take care of yourself for a while, then you can talk to Zack about what's been happening, all right? Tifa will be back soon and we're planning to cook something good tonight."

Kunsel glanced at Zack curiously and his friend just shook his head. "Don't try to argue. I'll only take her side."

Deciding that was not a battle worth fighting, Kunsel nodded in thanks and then headed away from the kitchen, dropping the gunblade in his own room and picking up some fresh clothes on the way to the small shower at the end of the hall.

The summer air was cool that evening as Kunsel walked down the familiar path, to find several permanent lantern fixtures had been installed near the spring. Though he could still see the places where they had cleared away the rubble and burnt debris from Zack, Cloud, and Yuffie's fight with Jenova, the grass had started to grow back and he saw evidence that the rock Zack had been smashed against had been cleared away.

What really caught his attention was a patch of yellow flowers in a freshly tilled bed of earth not that far away. Most of the blooms were small, as though they'd only been there just long enough to take root, but it was a comforting sight. Aerith was already there and he could see Freya sitting at the edge of the water, watching the steam as it rose into the air by torchlight. Dinner had been excellent after having lived on rations for several weeks and it had done him some good to feel properly clean for the first time in about as long.

"So you finally did get around to planting your flowers," he commented.

Aerith smiled. "Zack supervised while Cloud did the tilling. It was sort of a late birthday present from them actually."

Kunsel sank into the water with a tired sigh. "Well, they look good," he commented.

Aerith walked over to the water and took a seat next to Freya. "Thanks." Her expression became more concerned. "When you walked into the lodge this afternoon you looked like you were carrying the world on your shoulders."

Kunsel looked down at the water, the memories of this morning flooding through his mind. "We had some pretty rough fights before we lost the fort," he admitted at last.

"Zack told me about what happened," she said. "But even so, has it changed anything about what we're doing?"

"No," Kunsel said. "It just means we have to fight harder. The sooner it's over, the fewer people we have to kill."

Freya inched over to where he sat, sliding into the water next to him and he contemplated the idea of putting an arm around her, but that was when he heard Zack walk down the path along with Cloud and Tifa. He still felt conflicted, but at the same time, he knew what he would do and that certainty was more soothing then the hot water flowing around him.

February 22nd [ ν ] – εуλ 0008

The next morning, as Kunsel got ready to join the others in training for a few hours before they began their inspection of the ranks, he sheathed the gunblade at his hip since his regular sword already occupied the harness on his back. After looking around he'd been able to find a supply of ammunition clips that would work with it, and had spent the previous evening dutifully cleaning it. Ramius had been a victim of Shinra, just as Zack and Cloud had been. He'd been sold a bill of goods for his loyalty and shackled to the SOLDIER program to a point he'd felt beyond returning, even if he'd wanted to. One day, those chains would break even if it was too late for him, Kunsel would make sure of that.

As Zack had said, one day, they would all be free of Shinra, and the evils it shrouded in its promises. Until then, the gunblade would serve as a reminder of those they were trying to help, and of those who didn't feel they had a choice.

See ya next week!