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.

Does Our Future Still Lead to a Smile? (Interlude)

Chapter 76, Secrets of the Deep (Case of Freya)

March 11th [ ν ] – εуλ 0009

Freya sat on the back porch of the lodge, cleaning her shotgun as she felt the warm breeze wafting across her face. Autumn in the lower hemisphere would be coming soon, and while she and Kunsel had a job coming up that Reeve had asked them to look into, she was frankly quite glad things had been quiet since their return to the lodge. After their recent expedition into the Northern Crater, they had all needed a little time to get over the heart attack.

She could still remember how Zack had risked himself to throw Mr. Townsend out of the room, only to get thoroughly doused by the stuff the other man had just barely missed being covered in. Upon returning to the Gainsborough he had spent plenty of time getting it all off, but it remained to be seen if there would be fallout from that. The doctor was checking in with him daily, and all they could do was wait with baited breath, and hope he wouldn't contract the disease.

She finished cleaning the wood finish on the stock of the gun before putting her tools away in their case, and took a moment to place it in her room before walking out to the path leading back to town, the summer leaves were still green and she took in the ambient sounds of the animals in the area. Most of the place had been cleared of monsters when they had first moved in over a year ago now, but she could catch the sound of smaller insects and her trained ear could catch the sound of the smaller much less threatening forest fauna moving about in the brush.

She took a moment to kneel by the path and examine a set of tracks on the side of the trail about halfway through. They looked like they belonged to a normal dog. Nothing to worry about.

Once she was certain of the origin of the tracks she continued on her way, passing out of the trees and into the village proper. As she neared Seventh Heaven, she noticed with some disappointment that the garage where Cloud usually kept Fenrir was closed again. She knew he couldn't be busy all the time, and yet somehow, he always seemed to have reasons to not be around as of late. Around the time of their mission, he'd been on some long delivery to some place on the Western Continent. Corel if she recalled correctly. A considerable trip, even with GUARDIAN's airlifting stations along the way.

She offered Tifa a grin and a wave as she walked past the window and pushed in the door, immediately spotting Marlene and Denzel drawing at a booth to the side of the room. Though she was a little surprised to see Cissnei seated at the bar, as though she and Tifa had been sharing a quiet talk. The martial artist was cleaning glasses behind the counter and preparing for the evening rush. There would be a moderately sized crowd tonight, since it was the middle of the week, but it was best to be prepared.

Cissnei looked up from the clear glass in front of her. "Hi," she said.

"Don't tell me your starting early today," Freya said, taking a seat at the bar next to her fellow renegade.

"Not really," she said, indicating the clear liquid in her glass. "It's just water."

"Ah," Freya looked over the bottles of alcohol arranged on the back wall meditatively. Back when the bar had just been started, the local brews and the Corel Wine Cloud had brought them had been the only things they had on the shelves. Now, she could see that thanks to his deliveries Tifa had access to more varieties than she could name, and having been to more than her share of fancy parties in her youth, she could name quite a few. Her mother had probably insisted on it to try and tame the woods out of her. Game hunting, it seemed, was not a hobby that was becoming of a socialite's daughter. Not that she cared. Her father had loved having her as his protégé, and it had led to a promising career, so what was not to like?

"So where's Cloud been the last couple of days?" she asked after a moment.

"He's delivering a package to a village near the mines on the northernmost island," Tifa explained, and she noticed critically that there was something off about the way the martial artist said it. The truth was, it didn't take a genius to notice Cloud was busy a lot. Aerith and Zack had noticed too, and it made sense. He was still in the process of getting his business off the ground, but, being a Turk and having been trained to gain meaning from such responses she caught the unhappiness in Tifa's voice. "I take it there's something about that you don't like?" she asked.

"I just wish he would slow down sometimes," Tifa replied. "He was around a couple of weeks ago, and he said he'd be back tonight to see Zack, but it would be nice if he could be home more often. The last time I saw him, he seemed really tired."

"Zack worked pretty hard like that too, at Shinra," Cissnei commented. "He knew when it was time to stop though."

Freya nodded. In practice, someone with SOLDIER enhancements could carry on for a while after most normal people got fatigued, but even they had their threshold. It took hell of a lot of effort to get to that point but it was doable. She'd seen no reason why Cloud would push himself to that limit, but then, with his medical history, she doubted anything would surprise her anymore where that man was concerned. "I guess you were following him around for a good while, weren't you," she said, trying to keep her tone neutral. She didn't want Cissnei to think she was doing anything more than talk. It was no secret the Turk had been carrying a torch for Zack for a while. Up until they'd found him in Midgar at least, though she had the distinct impression something had happened since then to change that.

"Yeah," Cissnei said, with a small smile. "He had me worried a few times though. There was this one time he was doing this mission out in the Mithril mines and I was sure he was going to get mauled by a monster. He pulled through though."

"Men," Freya said, with a small grin. "If they can't drive you crazy worrying about you, they'll do it by making you worry about them."

"And speaking of men who won't slow down," Tifa said, apparently tiring of Cloud and Zack being critiqued. "How's our other SOLDIER doing?"

"Kunsel?" Freya clarified. "He's been pretty worried about Zack, and on top of that, Reeve's been asking him to help train troops for the WRO and he's asked us to inspect the Junon airfield and the Shinra submarine docks for him in a few days, but I was thinking we might head to the town of Mideel in a couple of days, see if I can't get his mind off things, you know?"

March 13th [ ν ] – εуλ 0009

Mideel looked very different from when the earthquake had gone through. Most of the wooden buildings had been rebuilt a mile or so east for the original location, due to the proximity to the veins of Lifestream, and much of the rifts that had opened through town had been filled in with earth. Even so, being a much larger town than Widblain, even now, Mideel still had a bit more to offer in the way of distractions. That, and it was close to her parents' estate.

Freya looked down the sight of her shotgun tracking the clay pigeon as it was jettisoned into space before firing. Her father and Kunsel watched from a safe distance away, waiting their turn while her mother brought drinks to a table for everyone a few yards away. The pigeon exploded in midair and her father nodded in approval. "I can tell your skills haven't dulled since the last time you were here."

She looked over at him and grinned. "Well, where would the fun be if I didn't give you a challenge, Dad?" Her father just laughed at that. He was a somewhat heavier man than her mother, from whom she had inherited her slender build, but she could still see the familiar strands of copper whiskers in his beard. He walked forward with his own weapon and took position.

Everyone waited in silence until he gave the signal and his pigeon flew into the air. He fired, hitting it dead on. He returned to where they stood. "Although I have to admit I'm a little surprised you brought a friend with you this time. When you were working with Shinra, you only ever used to come alone…" she couldn't help but catch the hopefulness in his words.

"Well, I guess things change," she said, watching Kunsel walk over to the range with a shotgun he'd borrowed for the occasion. "Besides, we've both been working really hard lately."

"So I hear," her mother said, taking a seat at the picnic table with a glass in hand. Freya walked over to take a sip from the glass with her own drink. "With all this WRO business, your friend Reeve Tuesti has been causing quite a stir."

Kunsel fired and Freya looked up to see his pigeon too had been hit. She smiled with approval. "Nice one," she said.

Kunsel walked over to join them, drawn into the conversation by his advanced hearing. "Thanks," he turned his attention to Freya's mother. "I would hope he's causing a stir, it takes a lot to get an emergency force and an interim government functioning."

The older woman nodded. "It takes a lot of work," she gave him a kind smile. "It's good to see that you are taking time out for yourselves too. Life is short, after all."

March 14th [ ν ] – εуλ 0009

It was afternoon in Junon when the Gainsborough docked at the airport. The various airport lights flashed from the runway for the planes. It was a cloudy day, and it looked like it was threatening to rain and make the last of the Winter winds even colder. Freya pulled her trench coat close as she and Kunsel walked down the stairs from the airship dock to the tarmac to see that Reeve was waiting for them, and to their surprise, Reno.

"Well this is a surprise," Kunsel said.

"Don't get excited yo," Reno replied. "I'm just here to make sure nothing in there bites you."

"Don't tell me no one ever moved Hojo's specimens out of there," Freya gave him an exasperated look.

"No, they're gone," Reno said. "We made sure they were all destroyed. Everything on the manifest is accounted for."

"That's a relief," Freya said. "I think I've about had it up to here with Hojo's projects."

Reeve cleared his throat. "Well then, shall we go?" They walked across the tarmac towards the large hangar where the Gelnika was being kept, the wind buffeting them with frigid air and a low roar. "I trust your flight was uneventful?" Reeve asked loudly.

"Pretty much," Kunsel said.

"That's good, I won't be able to inspect the aircraft and the submarines with you, since I have another meeting at the city hall that I need to attend. To be honest, I was only able to come out to meet you because the airport was on my way but if you need anything, you know how to reach me."

Freya nodded. "That's fine, go do what you have to do, we've got you covered."

Once they reached the hanger, she spotted a WRO van which Reeve subsequently entered. As soon as it rolled away, Reno cleared his throat impatiently. "All right, can we get this over with?"

"Yes, let's," Kunsel replied. With that, the three of them walked up the loading ramp into the plane. Almost immediately Freya found herself having to pause as her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light inside the fuselage.

"So where do you want to start?" Reno asked.

"How about up near the front, that way we can work our way back and finish here," Freya suggested.

Reno produced a clipboard and gestured that they follow him up a set of stairs and into the upper level of the plane. Soon, they were walking along a hallway even darker than the cargo bay. "All right, " the Turk commented, "Do you want to start with the cockpit or should we just get the part we're all dreading over with and go to the research room first?"

The lady Turk and the ex-SOLDIER looked at each other for a moment and then Kunsel responded. "Research room."

Thankfully, all of the specimens that had been stored in the various cages in the research room had been accounted for long before the inspection. The research room, while certainly not devoid of many other things that someone could find disturbing, at least had that going for it. The cockpit was also in order. The same had mostly been true for the cargo hold so far. While Freya had been walking between the two B1-Alphas that were neatly parked in the hold, Kunsel had taken the time to climb into one of them while Reno watched from the stairs.

Apart from a couple of interesting weapons they hadn't found much that the WRO was particularly interested in. She was almost done when she caught sight of something red glinting out of the corner of her eye at the foot of the ramp leading out. Walking a little closer, she realized it was a summon materia, and went to pick it up.

"Whatcha got there?" Reno asked, spotting her movement.

"It feels like… Hades," she said after a moment, showing him the little orb.

"Hades…" Reno checked the manifest for a moment. "I don't see anything about materia on the list."

"Well, if that's the case," Freya pocketed it. "We might want to ask if anyone's missing a materia."

Once Kunsel reappeared he produced their copy of the manifest for the plane. "Looks like everything checks out. Now all that's left is to look over the submarine dock."

Reno nodded. "All right," he reached for his PHS and dialed a number. "Reno here, the inspection of the plane went off fine, one thing though, anyone missing a materia?"

He waited for a moment and upon hearing the response, nodded. "Okay, just send over the van and we'll be out of your hair yo." Upon hanging up he turned his attention back to Freya. "Doesn't look like anyone's claiming it. It's possible it formed out of that mako tube that used to be in there and got kicked free when it was moved."

"In that case," Freya said. "Do you care if we take it?"

"No."

She turned her attention to Kunsel. "Do you need a summon?"

He shook his head. "You can keep it, I've already got Phoenix."

"Can we get going?" Reno demanded, already headed towards the spot where the van was supposed to pick them up. "I'd like us to get the rest of this inspection done sometime today."

"All right, we're coming!" Freya called after him as she and Kunsel moved to follow.

A couple of hours later found them walking down the old glass tunnel from Junon's underground reactor. It had been a fairly uneventful trip, and the submarines themselves were in order, so Reno, glad that his work was done, had walked on ahead of them to get back to the surface. Since they had needed to leave directly from Mideel to get here, it was the first time they'd been truly alone together since leaving Freya's parents at the Mideel airport. Kunsel let out a sigh and looked out at the desolate scenery outside the glass.

"Tired?" Freya asked.

"Not really," he said. "Just thinking." The two of them watched a shark swim overhead casting a shadow through the plexiglass. After a moment, he asked "Was your mom trying to tell us something while we were back at her place?"

"Probably," Freya admitted. "She was hoping I'd settle down and have a family eventually. Well, you can imagine my thoughts on that. I wanted to test my limits to their utmost. If I let her have her way, she would have had my life all planned out for me before I got to live it."

"Is that why you joined the Turks?" Kunsel asked.

"No, that was because they offered me the job. But the reason I got the offer was because every time someone put an obstacle in my way, I refused to let it stop me." She smiled at the thought. It was affirmation in her own mind. That was when she caught sight of something moving out of the corner of her eye and leaned closer to the glass, instinctively gripping her shotgun as she peered into the water. "Hey… do you see something out there?"

Kunsel came closer and looked where she was indicating before both of their mouths dropped in surprise. "What is that?" Kunsel asked, squinting to make out the approaching object.

"Is it some kind of… ship?" Freya asked. The two of them backed away from the glass, as the thing approached and soon she was quite certain that was exactly what it was, though with a very disturbing appearance. There seemed to be a skeleton carrying an oar mounted on the front like a figurehead. Even more worrisome was the fact that it floated through the glass as though it were nothing.

"We can't both be hallucinating," Kunsel murmured.

"Combat?" Freya asked.

"Combat," Kunsel agreed, at which point they both readied their weapons, as Freya also prepped an ice spell. The skeleton looked in their direction and raised its oar like it was about to attack, roaring threateningly.

She could already see electricity moving along Kunsel's blade as he skidded underneath the ship and drove his sword deep into its underbelly. The skeleton's eyesocket's glowed menacingly and it attempted to turn around to get a better shot at attacking the SOLDIER with its oar.

Freya fired the ice spell, making sure to aim higher up on their target to avoid hitting her companion with friendly fire. She shouldn't have worried. The SOLDIER rolled out from under the monster and parried an attack with the oar. A blue flame shot out of the tip and he backed away. Fortunately, the flame only seemed to have slightly singed him.

She cast Ice one final time. The light went out of the skeleton's eyes and then he dissolved into nothing. Kunsel returned his gunblade to his back and walked back to where she stood. "You all right?" she asked.

"It was no trouble," Kunsel replied, looking around.

"Well, that's a relief," Freya said. They took a moment to check the area for any other unwanted surprises. There didn't seem to be any. "Nice job," she said at last, once they were sure they were alone once again.

"You too," Kunsel started. He paused looking out at the ocean and she took a moment to examine the glass on her side. The fish and the sharks were swimming around as though there hadn't just been a ghost ship invading the area just a few minutes ago. Had that been nothing? "Something wrong? Usually you'd be crowing over your victory right about now," she heard the swordsman ask.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I've just had a lot on my mind lately."

"You aren't the only one," Kunsel agreed. "We still don't know if Zack's okay, Cloud's gone far too much of the time, and way too many people are sick, and we lost a lot of people trying to retake Midgar, even though we abandoned it. But at the same time…" he said, thoughtfully. "That doesn't mean a lot of good things haven't happened too. What's that thing you always say?"

Freya spoke the words as though they were a meditation. "We're here now, and there's definitely going to be something waiting for us over that horizon…" she paused before continuing. "I don't know what that is yet, but I refuse to let things fall apart." She didn't realize it until just now, but as she had been looking out at the ocean, Kunsel had actually taken a couple of steps closer to her and was now standing behind her.

"Then we'll just have to do what we can, right?" he asked. That was when she actually felt his chest against her back as he tentatively offered her a hug.

Last time she'd made an advance like this, she had been gently rebuffed, but this time, he was the one making the advances. That could only mean… She nodded in answer to his question and leaned back, allowing him to put his arms around her. Curiously she looked over her shoulder at him, her faintly glowing copper eyes looking up at his hazel ones through the rippling gloom inside the plexiglass tunnel. "Right…" she breathed after a moment, and that was when he leaned in and her eyes closed when their lips came together.

A few moments later when she came up for air she asked "You won't regret this will you?"

"Of course not," he said.

"Good, because you know what I think about regrets," she turned around in his embrace and kissed him again, pulling him as close as she possibly could. For all of several moments, their surroundings didn't matter. This place was just for them, their own private sanctuary. No matter what happened out in the real world, as people suffered, fought, died of disease or carried out missions for one faction or another, as the tides of the world outside ebbed and flowed, this time was truly theirs. And she savored it like the richest of chocolates, or the sweetest wine she'd ever tasted. It was only then when she noticed the sound of footsteps coming closer from the direction of the elevator that she realized their time was up and they quickly put some space between them to compose themselves. By the time Reno arrived, both of them looked like absolutely nothing had happened… she hoped.

"What's keeping you two?" Reno demanded. "I thought you guys were supposed to be meeting up with Reeve in a few minutes."

"Right," Freya said. "We're coming, did you know there's some kind of ghost ship that flies around here?"

"You saw it?" Reno asked looking a little surprised.

"Yeah, it tried to attack us," Kunsel confirmed.

"Huh. Hope you at least kicked its ass." Reno gave her a look that clearly indicated that if they had run away he would have been severely disappointed.

Freya laughed. "You wound me Reno, who do you think we are?"

Not a lot of the main characters this chapter, though a couple of homage's and a little bit of love in the air, or under the sea, as the case may be. Hope no one minds too much, but I couldn't resist the urge to explore Freya's motivations a little more. The Player Turks have so much potential for their origins to be played with it's hard to leave them alone. ^^

One more chapter left before Part IV. Next week we'll be checking in with Tifa. See ya there!