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.
Part III: Demons
Chapter 59, Who's the Real Puppet Master Here Anyway?
June 18th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 8:15 PM
Cloud looked up at the young girl suspiciously with the two Turks standing behind him, ready to act if necessary. This girl might look like a child, but the fact that she wore a Deepground uniform was more than enough to make him wary.
"Who are you, and how do you know who we are?" He demanded.
"How I know who you are should be self-evident. Anyone with access to the net would know that Shinra wanted GUARDIAN's leadership dead. As to who I am; that is irrelevant. I am a Deepground soldier, my duty is to carry out my orders."
"You seem awful comfortable sitting up there. Any particular reason you aren't trying to kill us right now?" Freya interjected.
The girl didn't make any motion to indicate her preference one way or the other. "I have other standing orders at the moment," she answered. "I don't know how you made it into the city looking like that, but it is my understanding that you are searching for someone."
"You know where they are!?" Cloud asked his voice accusing as his eyes narrowed dangerously.
"I need a minute to contact my superiors before I lead you to the rendezvous point. What I can say is that Tifa Lockhart, and the Turk known as Cissnei will be there." the girl answered, reaching for a PHS at her hip. With that she disappeared behind the train car.
Vincent seemed to have decided he'd had enough of dressing like a woman at that point because he walked into one of the other vacant cars. Cloud decided that since their self-proclaimed guide was occupied at the moment, the gunman had the right idea, so he found another one. He was reattaching his armor as he walked out of the car when he saw that Freya was back in her usual hunting clothes, and Vincent in his usual body suit and cape, though how he had managed to smuggle in his armored boots and clawed left glove would probably never be explained.
It was at that moment when the girl reappeared. "A meeting point has been established. Follow me." She turned, leading them through the abandoned railway cars until they had reached what was apparently the Sector 7 train station. Several Deepground Soldiers stood on guard at the entrance, and they tensed when the four of them approached, but upon seeing the girl, they saluted. She paid them no heed, simply beckoning that the three GUARDIAN members follow her onto the train.
June 18th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 8:45 PM
Tifa opened her eyes to find herself looking at nothing but blackness. At first she wasn't sure what had happened, but then her memory began to return with wakefulness.
She'd been outside Rufus's Kalm headquarters with Cissnei… And then she'd heard a strange sound behind her… and then… darkness… what had happened?
She stirred when she felt something cool and hard underneath her. Sitting up, she tapped the floor experimentally. It sounded metallic. Without her vision to guide her, she pulled herself to her knees and began to feel around the area, finding it to be an enclosure, all made of the same material. A few moments later, her hand brushed against someone else's prone form. "Hello?" she called.
The other person groaned and she found it was Cissnei. "Tifa…?" the renegade asked.
"Yeah, it's me," the martial artist confirmed. "Are you all right?"
She heard movement next to her which sounded vaguely like someone was sitting up and then Cissnei answered "I think so. Where are we?"
"I don't know," Tifa took that moment to stand up and after reaching above her, found that the ceiling of the location they occupied was not terribly high, and appeared to be made of the same material. "We might be in some kind of shipping container…" She started moving around, feeling her way along the walls, still blind in the oppressive dark. It wasn't long before she had traversed the entire space and met the younger Turk again. "What do you think?" she asked.
"I think they took my weapon and materia," Cissnei said with annoyance.
"Hmm…" Tifa regarded their prison for a moment. "Well, they won't have it for long." She reached into her pocket to produce a glove, made of black leather, and slipped it onto her hand before tapping around to find a good spot. Once she found one to her liking, she took stance. "Stand back," she said.
The renegade did as she said and she drew back her fist before pounding it into the casing of their prison. It connected with the wall, causing the sound of screeching metal and upon feeling the spot again, she could tell the punch had definitely left a dent in the wall. She drew back her fist and punched at the wall again.
There was a cracking sound and the metal bent this time. A little light started to filter in, a bright beam in an otherwise darkened space, and she was about to go for another punch when she heard a voice outside. "Oh, it would seem our guests are awake."
There was the sound of shrieking metal from one of the other sides of the container, before finally, light started searing in and both women were temporarily blinded by the illumination…
Zack watched the small playback device in front of him play the message recorded within it for the second time, taking in every detail of the face of the woman who stood there. "…As you have seen from these recordings, we, the Tsviets are unable to take out the Restrictors under our own power. However, I am confident that with your assistance, the Restrictors can be eliminated. All you need do is remove them and you could alter Deepground's balance of power with a single stroke. Our current leader would not last a day without them to keep him in power..."
"I don't trust her," he looked behind him to see Kunsel had come down from the upper floor of the safe house.
"I'm not sure I do either," Zack replied. He looked over at Shears. "Have you seen Shalua around?"
"Not recently. She locked herself in one of the rooms upstairs since you sent her that data that Rufus had."
Zack pulled the disk Yuffie had given him out of the playback device. "I'm going to run this up to her. If she can verify this information, we may be able to stop things right off before they get too terrible."
He passed Allen and Valerie on the way to the stairs. The two of them had just driven in from one of the southern roads leading through the mountains to Junon and were awaiting orders from Veld. As the renegades had slowly filtered in, Veld had been hastily assigning each of them the directive to find a way into Midgar and start opening communications and surveillance channels in the various sectors. Tanjuu had already left, as had Mao.
Cid had already gone; as soon as he'd seen the information disk he'd asked the pilot to go pick up Barret and Nanaki from Cosmo Canyon and Rocket Town respectively. If what Argento had said was true, then he wanted all hands on deck for this operation. They'd been caught woefully off guard. The last thing he was about to do, was let Keter follow through on his promise to sack every single settlement in the world because they'd screwed up.
He shouldn't have let Cloud and the others go in… It was a hot-headed maneuver. He should have known better… Not that he wouldn't have done the same… If things had been different. If Aerith had been the one Nero had grabbed… He probably would have been donning the calico right along with them just to make it within firing distance of both the Tsviet and the monster pulling his strings no matter what the circumstances. He'd admit it. And the truth was, if they hadn't needed him here he'd have gone with them anyway.
Especially if what Argento was telling them was indeed the truth… How could he have been such an idiot? "You guys had better get back to us alive… All of you…" he whispered as he reached the top of the stairs. Sometimes being the leader was so frustrating, simply because it felt like he was sitting here doing nothing.
He paused at the door to the room where Luxiere was, just as Kunsel had returned with a glass of water. "How's he doing?" he asked.
Kunsel shook his head. "Not good. I think the evacuation must have been harder on him than we thought. I sent one of the younger SOLDIERs out to go find the doctor to see if there was anything more we could do for him, but he hasn't been back yet. If this keeps up, I don't know…"
Zack sighed. "We just gotta keep hoping."
Kunsel nodded and walked back into the darkened room to relieve Aerith, who had been watching their friend while he'd stepped out. Zack couldn't help but feel a bit conflicted about this whole situation. He had received a mail from Luxiere at some point during his time on the run from Shinra, and while he had disregarded it at the time, he remembered it had sounded rather suspicious. Considering that the other SOLDIER had asked him to let him catch him it was only natural, and judging by the way Kunsel had talked he obviously hadn't known about it. Zack wasn't the type of guy who liked to point fingers. Especially now when there was no way to tell what his friend's motives had been. What good would it do? It didn't make what had happened to him any less grievous. Given what seemed to have happened to him, it was quite possible the Luxiere they knew might already be dead in a sense. Even so, maybe something would happen. They had to keep their hopes up, otherwise, things definitely wouldn't turn around.
Zack continued onward, towards the room at the far end of the hall and knocked on the door. To his surprise, no one answered. "Shalua?" he called, curiously.
No answer.
"Shalua!" he called again. "I'm coming in!" He opened the door.
The room was vacant, except for the computer on the woman's desk. He walked over to take a look at what was displayed on the computer screen. It was the file Rufus had given them on the Tsviet known as Shelke the Transparent.
It had taken Shalua a while to get the rented motorbike to the Midgar city walls after the others had left for the rescue mission, but it had been well worth it. Soon, she had found her way to a service hatch down into the slum sewer system that the old AVALANCHE had once used, and had made her way to Sector 7.
It was foolhardy, she knew. But if Shelke was still alive, if her one and only little sister was out there, she would find her. She had been working towards this goal for the past eight years. She had lost her left arm and damaged several vital organs, but not even facing death in the field or on the operating table had stopped her purpose, and if that wouldn't nothing would.
She was nearing the Sector 7 train station, her boots dripping the last of the sewer's leavings, when she spotted Cloud, Vincent, and Freya.
Her first response was to wonder what the hell they were doing walking out in the open, but that was before she spotted the girl that was leading them and her breath caught in her throat.
The girl wore a Deepground Uniform, and had mako eyes, but there was no mistaking the short red hair, or the youthful facial features. "Shelke…" she whispered. Gripping her gun in her right hand, she hurried towards the train tracks, and, moving carefully to avoid the Deepground Soldiers, she crept into the back of the rear car. Nothing was going to keep her from knowing where her sister was going, and where she was taking everyone.
Nothing.
June 18th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 9:30 PM
The train pulled to a halt in the shopping district in Sector 8 and as the doors swung open, the girl led them down the steps and away from the train station. Cloud watched the Deepground Soldiers that were patrolling the area warily, but as with below-plate none of them seemed to be interested in fighting them with Shelke as their escort.
They had almost left the area around the train station and were walking towards the fountain that marked the crossroads leading to the Shinra building and Loveless avenue, when overhead, he noticed a crane lifting a huge storage container overhead. At first, he paid it no mind, but that was before it was suddenly swallowed by something that he could only describe as a void. "What was that?" He asked the girl.
"Samples of pure Lifestream," the girl answered. "The man who currently has control of the Restrictors desires it for a project of his."
"And that black void?" he pressed.
"That was Nero the Sable," the girl answered.
Cloud looked back at where the void had been, and reached for his switchblade swords, but the girl held out a hand to stop him. "Those will be useless, he has already returned to Sector 0."
"Is that where you're taking us?" Freya asked as they drew closer to the crossroads.
"I don't know what our current master plans for you," the girl answered. "but for now, we are at our destination."
Cloud looked ahead of them and saw that this was indeed true. A contingent of Deepground Soldiers stood on alert behind someone in a black cloak with an elegant black helmet obscuring their facial features. There was little Cloud could see about this person aside from that they were slightly taller than himself, and carried a weapon that looked a bit like a scimitar. However, by this point, his attention was redirected to the two women that stood with their arms secured behind them.
"Cloud!" Tifa called out to him.
"Tifa! Are you two all right?" He asked turning a cold eye to the soldiers keeping her and Cissnei where they stood.
Cissnei cast a disdainful look at the man holding her still. "We're fine. But it would have been better if you hadn't come."
At that point the person in the black cape spoke and while Cloud could tell now that he was male, he had a distinctly different voice from the Restrictor who had called himself Keter. "That's enough of that. Welcome Cloud Strife, Vincent Valentine, and Freya of the renegade Turks. I hope that after Shelke found you our troops were more… hospitable, shall we say."
Cloud looked at the girl again, this time with a new perspective. So this was Shelke the Transparent? It made him feel rather ill to think how young she looked, not that Shinra taking children for their experiments was a surprise to him anymore. After all, Sephiroth had been one of Hojo's playthings from the time he was still in utero.
When no one else answered the Restrictor, Freya spoke, "They were. I was a bit surprised actually. Maybe if you'd rolled out the red carpet from the start, we might have bothered trying the front door."
The Restrictor laughed. "Joking aside, we're here to conduct serious business." He turned his attention to Cloud and Vincent. "You see, once we realized GUARDIAN would be a threat, we took it upon ourselves to learn everything we could about you." He took a couple of steps forward. "But of course, then we learned that Cloud Strife and Vincent Valentine were among their number. As it turns out, for reasons undisclosed to us, our master requires your presence."
"And just who are you that you can conduct such business for this master of yours?" Vincent's voice carried across the silent street perfectly in spite of its usual softness.
The Restrictor seemed to look in his direction, though it was hard to tell with the helmet. "Forgive my manners. I am Dart, of the Lost Force, now charged with jurisdiction of Sectors 5 and 6. I am also the one who authorized Nero to enter Kalm in search of a hostage." Almost immediately, Cloud's hands inched towards his switchblades, but two of the Deepground soldiers pointed their guns directly at Tifa, making him pause.
The Restrictor waved a finger at him. "Ah-ah-ah. We're not here to fight… yet. We can if you want, but rather than setting my attack dogs on your lover and your Turk friend right away…" the man sounded like he was enjoying seeing Cloud squirm, "I was hoping we could settle this like gentlemen."
"What are your terms?" Vincent demanded.
The Restrictor's voice was condescending as he named them. "It's quite simple. The two of you, for the two of them. If you both surrender, I'll let them go."
"And what will you do with them once we're free?" Tifa demanded.
"Take them to our master of course," Dart replied. "I would have thought that would be obvious."
A moment passed, and then another in tense silence, and then Cloud stepped forward. "Hey Cloud! Wait! Let's talk about this first…!" He heard Freya hiss behind him, but it was already too late. He'd moved towards the fountain.
"Is that a promise?" he asked.
"On my honor," the Restrictor answered.
Cloud pulled his swords from his sword harness and placed them on the rim of the fountain. "All right, let her go," he said.
"Cloud!" Vincent was at his side now. "Have you considered what you're doing?"
"Is there another way?" He asked angrily "If we don't, he might kill them…"
"And their boss might do the same to you!" Freya looked like she was about to walk forward too, but then she noticed the Deepgrounders pointing their guns in her direction.
"We have no interest in you, renegade," the Restrictor said calmly, before turning his attention to the gunman. "If you are to surrender, Vincent Valentine, you should lay down your weapon."
Vincent narrowed his eyes as though debating what to do, before finally, he lowered Cerberus down next to the switchblades. "It seems you've decided for us," He whispered.
At that moment, the Deepgrounders holding Tifa and Cissnei marched them forward to the opposite side of the fountain, where they unbound their hands just as two other soldiers came to claim Cloud and Vincent's weapons. "Your materia too please," one of them said, holding out his hand. Reluctantly, both of them reached for their bangles, before they were checked for any un-accounted for equipment and their hands were bound in turn. Cloud looked over to see Tifa had retrieved her gloves and materia, and had joined Freya as Cissnei walked over, checking that her own equipment was in order.
As the swordsman and the gunman were led under guard to where Tifa and Cissnei had been when they had first approached, he heard Freya call after them. "Don't worry guys, we'll find a way to get you out of this somehow!"
"That's right!" Tifa added. "It's not going to go down this easy! We won't let it."
"Really?" Dart turned his attention to them. "And did you think I'm going to just let you march out of Midgar unhindered? My dogs need a challenge after all, fully equipped, you ought to fit the bill nicely."
Cloud's eyes widened as he looked back at Tifa before he glared in the Restrictor's direction. "You said you'd let them go," he growled.
"Of course I did. But I didn't say I would give them a safe path out of Midgar, did I?" Cloud looked at Tifa and the two renegades again, before his muscles tensed as he was about to run at the Restrictor. What he was going to do when he got there, he didn't know, and there wasn't enough time for him to figure that part out. The next thing he knew, he felt something sharp connect at his elbow, and then the world went black…
"Cloud!" Tifa cried out, and Cissnei and Freya both grabbed her before she could run back. Both he and Vincent had suddenly dropped, vanishing from sight as they were whisked away into the throng of soldiers, and the lady Turk could tell by the way the Deepgrounders were spoiling to come at them, trying to go back to the two GUARDIAN leaders now would be suicide. The soldiers may have been human in species, but as Dart had named them, they had the bearing of hungry attack dogs waiting for the order from their master to go in for the kill.
She could almost see Dart smirking underneath his helmet. She could hear it radiating from the tone of his voice and it made her furious! He was mocking them and even she could see that a direct approach to teaching him a lesson would be completely stupid. "As for you," the Restrictor said. "It certainly wouldn't be sporting of us not to give you a five minute head start. Just remember, Deepground is everywhere in this city now, and they know exactly who you are. They'll smell your approach, recognize the sound of your breath and be able to count the hairs on your head through the scopes of their sniper rifles. Even if you make it out alive, we'll still find you eventually. We always do. Those five minutes begin now."
"And if you do find us," Freya responded angrily. "I swear you'll regret it." She looked over at Cissnei who was still holding onto Tifa and gestured silently that they get moving.
Cissnei pulled Tifa's hand urgently. "We can't do anything for them now that won't get us killed. Let's go."
"But…" Tifa started.
"But nothing!" Freya snapped. "If you die here, how does that thank what Cloud did for you? We'll try to rescue them when we make it out, but if we're dead, we can't save anyone."
"She's right," Cissnei said. Finally Tifa allowed herself to be pulled away, and soon they were running as fast as they could.
June 18th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 10:00 PM
Several minutes later found the three women hurriedly creeping towards an entrance to the upper plate sewers. It had been a really close call a few moments ago when they'd nearly walked right into another squad of Deepground foot soldiers on patrol. It had only been Cissnei's quick thinking to pull Freya back into the shadows that had kept them from being spotted.
The lady Turk really didn't want to think too hard on that as she reached for the manhole cover. Certainly even she was fallible, but this was not a situation where she could let herself fail. Tifa moved to help her, and soon, they were climbing down into the tunnels below.
Unlike the sewers down in the slums, these were a lot better maintained, even if they still smelled. At least here, they would be less likely to find creatures that looked like they belonged in a swamp. Her thoughts were interrupted when up ahead, she saw signs of what looked like a couple of normal SOLDIERs. They paused where they stood listening to the two men talk.
"So Marcus thinks they're down here?" one of them said.
"That's what he said," the second SOLDIER answered. "We know the Turks should be especially slippery, but if you think like them, where's the best place to go to ground? Somewhere your enemies don't want to follow."
"I can see that," the first SOLDIER answered. That was when she spotted the symbol on their belts. As if the conversation wasn't a complete giveaway, the Deepground logo was more than enough evidence.
"It looks like they're guarding a ladder that could take us deeper," she whispered. "Though there's only two of them."
Tifa considered. "We should be able to take'em," she replied at last.
"Probably, but remember, we'll have to be quick and quiet, otherwise they'll sound the alarm." Freya said. "Are we ready?"
The two women nodded, and Cissnei hand-signaled that the other Turk could go ahead. She nodded and signaled to the other Turk which SOLDIER she was going after first before calmly walking out into a dim light emanating down from a grate above. The SOLDIERs were conventionally armed with standard swords. The lady Turk began to cast a Silence spell from her bangle as Cissnei raced forward, a Barrier already coming into existence over herself as she and Tifa raced to jump the SOLDIER she hadn't silenced.
The SOLDIER that hadn't been silenced raised his sword and had just been about to shout for backup when Tifa slipped underneath the blade to land a stiff uppercut to his jaw just before Cissnei sent a Bolt3 jolting through him. Freya had quickly cast an Ice3 on the silenced SOLDIER, freezing him in place until the spell ended and he collapsed just after Tifa and Cissnei's dropped.
The lady Turk joined them at the door they were guarding. "Okay," Cissnei said, "If I remember the maps correctly, we ought to be able to get down to the Sector 7 service exit from here."
"That'll be good," Tifa said. "I used to live in the Sector 7 slums, I know my way around there."
"All right then, let's go," Freya said, pulling open the hatch and climbing further down ahead of them. The others were joining her on the next level when she heard another voice. "Found them!"
The tense silence that had followed them since they'd lost their last few pursuers was suddenly broken as someone fired a shot which grazed Freya's leg as she turned to take a firing stance. She fired a shotgun blast in the direction of the man who had just come around the corner and he fell to the ground before she cast a low level Cure and started hurrying in the opposite direction. "There was no way no one heard that," she said as she passed Tifa.
"We need to go right from here," Cissnei said from behind her.
"Got it," the lady Turk knelt briefly at the corner, checking to see if there was anyone waiting there before dashing forward along the walkway that ran along the stream of sewer water. "It's probably going to get really interesting from here on out." She said.
"We can't let that stop us," Tifa said. It seemed she had recovered a little since they'd left the crossroads at Sector 8.
"That's the spirit," Freya agreed. She made sure to check the ammo of her gun at the next corner before looking around it. Three more Deepground Soldiers were there, along with a rather large looking fellow with what appeared to be a missile cannon mounted on his right shoulder. "Don't they know how stupid it is to have that kind of artillery in an enclosed space?" she whispered. "Someone could do something like this…" she reached out to pick up a piece of debris and tossed it deftly toward the ceiling on the far side of the tunnel before ducking for cover and pulling the other two down with her, so both of them could take refuge under Cissnei's barrier. Almost immediately, an explosion wracked its way through the space they were in sending a few stray beams from the streetlights overhead down into the tunnels.
Once she was quite certain they had smoke cover from the explosion she signaled to the other two to do their thing. Cissnei sent her rekka flying around the corner while Tifa raced after it, casting Ramuh as she went. The electricity had just dissipated when the nearest gunman became the recipient of a blow from Cissnei's rekka while the second nearest one received a flying sidekick. Freya quickly loaded a single shot slug into the now empty barrel and fired it with precision, directly at the heavy artillery gunner's head before sliding the pump on her weapon to reload and raced in. Tifa finished off the last soldier in this cluster with a powerful Bio spell and the smoke was barely clear when Cissnei ran ahead, holding her Rekka at the ready in case they found another squad.
"Are you crazy?" the younger renegade called behind her, "You could have brought the roof down on us!"
Freya simply shrugged. "I figured we were far enough away we'd be all right. Besides, the sewers above-plate were built with reinforced steel, it would have taken some serious force to totally destroy them!"
Cissnei shook her head before gesturing ahead of her, "Next tunnel, we go left!"
Hearing another noise behind them, Freya paused, turning and firing two buckshot loads at three more soldiers that had appeared before racing around the corner after the other two women, reloading her shells as she went. The sooner they got out of here the better.
June 18th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 10:30 PM
The door to a service elevator opened at the base of one of the pillars in Sector 7 and Tifa follow the two renegades out into the filthy streets. It wasn't long before they had to duck behind a building for cover as two more soldiers came running, guns blazing. It had been like this much of the last hour, and they'd been counting themselves lucky the whole city wasn't after them yet.
She cast Ramuh again behind them before racing ahead to punch her fist into another Deepgrounder, just as she felt the shield triggered by one of Freya's limit breaks form around her. She'd be invincible for a short period of time, she'd better make it count. Channeling a limit of her own, she passed the soldier she'd just laid out on the ground to jump at a heavy-armor soldier unleashing a Beat Rush followed up by a Meteodrive. The soldier was still twitching as Freya fired another pair of shotgun blasts behind them for cover fire before the renegades joined her in running along the alley they were currently in. Cissnei threw her rekka and it took out a sniper nesting in the supports of one of the pillars as they raced past before she caught it in midair. It was at this moment when Tifa realized where they were. "I think I might know a place we can hide until things die down," she said as they dove behind some garbage. "Unless they found it already."
"And where would that be?" Cissnei asked.
"Our old hideout is in Sector 7, and depending on whether or not Shinra found it after Elfe found Jessie, it might still be safe."
"Well, Cait Sith never found any record of it in their files," Cissnei mused.
Freya looked back over the pile of garbage cautiously to see if any soldiers were still coming their way. "Anything's better than sitting out here, waiting to be picked off," she agreed. "Lead the way."
"Hang on a second," Cissnei crouched next to the lady Turk and revealed a particular materia on her bangle.
Tifa looked over as Freya gasped. "How by the Planet did you get away with them letting you keep that?! It's a summon materia isn't it?"
"Kjata," Cissnei admitted. "I was surprised they let me have it too, but I guess Dart really is convinced his people can take us out. Either that or they didn't check what was in my bangle before giving it back."
"Well that was a big mistake on his part," Freya said with a wry grin. "I think I'm a little offended."
"Me too, almost," Cissnei laughed. "Still, I thought it might be good for a distraction."
"I'll say," Freya agreed. "That one's mean! It'll at least keep them busy a few minutes."
The younger renegade nodded and turned her attention to the street outside the alley where they were hiding, focusing her energy on the casting. Soon a catyclysm of energy started erupting in a kaleidoscope of elements and the three of them fled as the giant bull unleashed its wrath upon the gathering soldiers.
It wasn't long before they had reached the street where Seventh Heaven stood. Tifa had almost made it to the swinging doors, which admittedly looked to be in worse shape than the last time she'd seen them when she heard a voice behind her.
"Ah, so this is vhere you vere hiding," she looked behind her to see the two renegades standing defensively in front of her, but it was the person in front of them that had her more worried.
Freya seemed to be curiously looking over the woman with cruel red eyes who was wearing a rather more revealing mako suit as Tifa joined them. "I take it you're Rosso the Crimson?" the lady Turk said.
The woman smiled and laughed coyly, yet there was something completely dangerous about it. "That vould be my name," she answered. "And here ve haf Freya and Cissnei of the Renegades," she returned. "and Tifa Lockhart, all in vone go. Looks like I get to haf all the fun myself."
"I thought this was Argento's jusridiction," Freya commented.
"Who cares about Argento?" Rosso said. "She couldn't be troubled to stick around, not vhen our leader insisted on calling her to the skyscraper. No. All I care about is seeing just how much you'll bleed." She licked her lips hungrily.
Tifa took a fighting stance next to the renegades. "Not at all if we can help it," she said.
"Oh?" The Tsviet gave her a look of mock surprise. "This should be good then, because lording my power over pathetic humans who only run avay is hardly a challenge. You'd better make this entertaining darlings." She reached behind her revealing a two-handed weapon with a pair of blades curved backwards, like a bow almost and Tifa realized it had a gun built into the hand grip.
"You know," Cissnei said, "We really don't have time for this. Those soldiers could be here any minute."
"Then we'd better do this double-time," Freya said, clicking the slide on her shotgun. "Let's scatter."
Tifa went right while the two renegades ran left, just as the Tsviet opened fire. She had apparently chosen to follow the renegades first, judging by the fact Cissnei had put up her barrier again and Freya had ducked behind some debris nearby to give cover fire. Once she'd established her spot, a single-shot slug grazed Rosso's arm, distracting her just enough for Cissnei to channel a limit, quickly unleashing two attacks with her rekka that Rosso only just barely dodged before she ran at the renegade, her eyes alight with bloodlust. Tifa took that moment to race after her, sliding under her blades to deliver a power low kick to the back of her knee.
The Tsviet glared at her as she dropped to the ground, already coming around with a blade but Tifa pushed herself into the air, flipping over the weapon and landing in a crouch before leaping up to deliver a hard punch to Rosso's face. That seemed to be less of a good idea in hindsight, since the Tsviet was now looking at her even more hungrily as she backed away to avoid the Tsviet's blades. "I suppose this should be expected if you von the heart of Sephiroz' svorn enemy, but that just makes it more fun."
She moved to aim the gun on her handgrips, but at that point Cissnei jumped in again, throwing her rekka to knock off the Tsviet's aim. The report of a shotgun registered to her senses just as Freya called out "There's a squad of Deepgrounders coming up the street, we gotta get out of here!"
"Running avay so soon?" Rosso taunted.
"Perhaps," Cissnei said. She tossed her rekka into the air one more time. Rosso only just deflected it before a bright flash lit up the area and Tifa suddenly felt a sensation similar to a haste spell except faster. Apparently Cissnei's weapon had been equipped with an Exit materia. No time to worry about the why, it was just time to run for it. She followed the two renegades down the street as she heard Rosso yell with rage after them.
"I didn't know you'd picked up an Exit!" Freya called after her as they slowed back to a natural speed about two streets over.
"Mao gave me one after he mastered his," Cissnei said. They turned down an alley to run towards the sector's outer wall. "He said he didn't want what happened with that Raven to ever happen again."
"Well, remind me to thank him when I see him!" Freya replied.
"Do we have any idea how we're going to get out?" Tifa asked as she caught up with them. The three of them paused.
"Not really," Freya said, shouldering her shotgun. She looked over at Cissnei. "Do you think the Exit should be enough to get us through the Sector 7 gate?"
They took cover behind a run-down house as the younger renegade considered. "Probably not on its own, but…" she suddenly had an idea. "Do you have an ether?" she asked.
Freya nodded. "Just the one, but I have it."
The younger Turk considered. "Okay. Does anyone have an All?"
"I actually got one from Cloud a few weeks ago," Tifa answered. Cissnei reached into her bangle, and handed one materia to Tifa and one to Freya. "We'll need to be quick about this, otherwise, we might end up getting shot, but here's what I'm thinking…"
June 18th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 11:00 PM
It was deathly silent at the Sector 7 checkpoint, when suddenly, Kjata was unleashed directly in the middle of the gate, along with Ramuh. There were several seconds of complete chaos as the Deepground soldiers scattered, trying to determine the origin of the summons, before three fast moving people fled through the chaos, past the gate and out into the night, just barely missing the hail of bullets that was flying around in their wake. They were several hundred yards shy of the first rise when they slowed to normal speed and soon afterward, they had ducked for cover behind some rocks.
"They'll probably have a search party out here after us soon," Cissnei commented.
"Yeah," Tifa agreed.
"We can probably lose them in the canyons if we go about this right," Freya said, turning her attention eastward.
That was when Tifa's ears picked up the sound of someone nearby. "Well, I thought we'd find something if we got close enough to the fireworks…" All three of them went into a fighting stance as the owner of said voice walked out from the darkness, flaming red hair just visible in the light from the gates.
"We don't have time to fight Reno. How in the hell did you find us out here?" Freya said tensely.
"That was actually complete dumb luck. Rufus had us poking around to see if we could find any holes in their defense. Those summons are like a couple of beacons yo. We knew right away what we were dealing with." The Turk didn't even have his weapon out. He simply stood there with his hands in his pockets.
"So now that you've found us, what are you planning to do?" Tifa asked.
Reno shrugged as Rude appeared behind him. "Well you could say Rufus has something he wants to talk to Zack about, and he's willing to do some favors in return."
June 19th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 12:45 AM
Vincent found himself standing in a room and he recognized it as one from Shinra Mansion, and he was looking across it at a familiar man in a lab coat. "Talk! Why did you let this happen?!" Vincent yelled angrily.
The man gave him a look of utter disdain. "Silence. You… Silence!"
A sharp pain shot its way through his chest as a bullet ripped through his lungs before he dropped to the ground. As he lay there he heard the person muttering to himself. "Why, hmm? Why can't these people just. Keep. Quiet!" He took a few steps away when suddenly he seemed to have an inspiration. "Yes… I can use this body for my next experiment…" He cackled with laughter before continuing, almost seeming to forget Vincent was still alive, still breathing shallowly… his lifeblood pooling under his wound…
"A genius…! That's what I am! Yes! Success here will justify previous failures…"
The room faded away, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on an operating table. He tried to lift himself up but he blacked out…
The dull burn of mako… he knew the sting all too well… a mako tank? In the state he was in he barely recognized the familiar figure who seemed to be looking through the glass at him…
Lucrecia…?
Vincent opened his eyes to find himself unable to move. Immediately, his Turk training kicked in, and his red eyes took in his surroundings.
He seemed to be bound to a gurney by metal restraints. The room was unfamiliar, but he saw it seemed to contain a variety of tables, and scientific equipment. A large specimen tank stood right next to where he lay. At first he though he saw someone in it, but then he realized that the person in question was instead seated in a chair on the opposite side looking rather bored. It was a woman with dark hair in a white Deepground commander's uniform, with a visor that vaguely resembled a three-pronged tiara. She might be Wutaian, he couldn't tell through the glass.
His gaze went to the right and that was when he saw Cloud. The swordsman was still unconscious, also secured to another table, but he seemed to be otherwise all right for the moment. The thing that grabbed Vincent's attention the most however, was the man hunched over him. "So this is the failure he's so interested in…" the man cackled. Vincent could not help his eyes widening a little or his body almost unconsciously straining against his bonds. He could not forget this man or forgive him. His lank dark hair, those beady eyes behind a pair of thick glasses, the familiar white labcoat. He almost couldn't believe it. Here he was, the man Vincent had sworn to kill, right here, and he was powerless to do anything about it.
Professor Hojo.
In case anyone's wondering about Shalua, she's wearing her Before Crisis costume, and because of changes that have thus far occurred, she's not missing an eye in this timeline.
I'm in a pretty good mood this week. Had my novel submitted for a professional review a couple of months back and the results came back on Monday. To my surprise, it was mostly positive. ^^ I know I've said so before, but feel free to check it out on Amazon if you have the time. You can find the link on my profile, and I hope you'll all be here next time when we finally start learning what Hojo's been up to the past few months. Don't miss it! ^^
See ya next week!