Crossing the Ocean
It looked like luck had been on our side. When we arrived on the boat Cloud contacted me and I managed to fill him in on the situation as the others were moving things in the medical bay. He had an idea of how to get to the boat and all we had to do was wait. Sure enough there was a huge military send off for the President and, once it had become quiet enough, Cloud hastily made his way onto the ship. It also took him a while to locate all of us without giving himself away to the other grunts or sailors on board. Speaking of; Nanaki first kept himself to the engine room but, more recently, I found him in a Shinra uniform, utterly concealed but walking terribly poorly. It got to the point others on board were insisting he go to the medical bay. Barret, on the other hand, was in full sailor uniform but didn't look like he was enjoying it. As long as no one caught on about our identities.
We had been on the boat for five days now, thankfully keeping on the low the whole time. It was strange trying to stay undercover the whole time but it seemed to be working. We just kept our heads down, kept quiet, and we got on with it. It wasn't as though we had to be on guard for any threats or anything but we had arranged from precautions just in case anything happened.
One thing that had been making me nervous was the fact that two Turks were on board to guard the President in case things went sour. There were still rumours that the cloaked man had been in Junon and killed a number of soldiers, another few suggesting he had crossed the ocean. Either way the President needed protection and the Turks were that, apparently. Aerith and I were both nervous, knowing that the tiniest slip could mean that we were fucked. They seemed to keep to the President's side, much to our relief, and we were glad they hadn't cottoned on yet.
I was waiting by the medical bay, having started to go there frequently as Yuffie's motion sickness was getting rather bad. Dr. Dawkins, the head doctor on the ship and the man we helped in Junon, was helpful and patient after he stopped being irritable over having to transfer his things from the airship to a regular ship. He made sure Yuffie was at most ease and her stomach was settled, insisting that she came by every morning for a check in and I, worried for Yuffie and in case our cover would be blown, went with her as he gave her medicine, along with a daily supply. He did seem rather bugged by her instance of not removing her helmet, but wasn't pushy as he knew she didn't have head injuries. Though he did advise to remove the helmet if she started feeling overheated. He seemed to be none the wiser but I doubt a doctor was supposed to be on the lookout for Avalance or Sephiroth.
Yuffie rushed out hurriedly as I waited outside for her. We started to act like we were patrolling the halls as people were going about their daily business.
"Feeling much better?" I asked.
"Ugh, even with the stuff he's making me take I still feel like I'm gonna barf," she said. "I know the old man's got better stuff in there. Just need to have his back turned long enough to get it."
"Come on, the last thing we need is an angry doctor demanding who took his medicine," I half joked. "And please he's not that old."
"I know, but he sure acts like it," Yuffie was kind of right; Dr. Dawkins didn't look old, probably about thirty or so, but his hair was white as could be. If his eyebrows and lashes weren't as white as his hair you would have just assumed he was bleaching it to within an inch of its life. We rounded a corner and nodded to some sailors passing. "How much longer until we're off this damn boat anyway?"
"I think we get there tomorrow evening?" I guessed, trying to recall a conversation I'd heard earlier in the week. "We're crossing continents after all."
"And you like all this travelling crap?"
"I've always done it. By foot, chocobo, boat, airship... I like it," I said. "I don't like being in the one place for too long, or having nothing to do it's... I get really frustrated with a quiet life."
"So you go looking for trouble?" Yuffie was smirking underneath her helmet, I knew it.
"Oh hi pot, I'm kettle," I replied with mock annoyance. At least talking took Yuffie's mind of being ill but no doubt she was going to still be feeling it. I suggested she try keep herself distracted since if she thought about it she would feel worse to the point of probably being sick. She hated the sea air, and kept claiming it made her feel even worse, so we split off and I went out the lower decks and up top, loving the smell of sea salt as I stepped out.
It was a world away from the boats I was used to. Actually this one reminded me more of the Al Bhed salvage ships than the transport ones across the islands and mainland. It was still fantastic to be one a ship again, though I was partly still disappointed we weren't on the airship. How quickly we could have gotten about the place if we'd gotten a hold of it for ourselves.
I kept my patrol routine when I was up top, passing glances underneath my helmet, not exactly sure who was who underneath. Cloud was the worst; he blended right in with the soldiers. Tifa and Aerith's uniforms were slightly baggy so I could pick them out, and Angel was easy to spot but she had little interaction with us that I wouldn't be surprised if she bailed the second we hit land. Not that I'd miss her anyway.
The patrol went on as normal and, after some time, I was on my break. I tried to stay alert for any other soldiers or Turks. I wasn't sure when the others would be on break or if I'd catch them before nightfall.
I was thrown out my thoughts when an alarm blared through the ship. I shot up and listened to the emergency: stowaway on board and an immediate search to be underway. I put my helmet back on and immediately headed for the deck and to the meeting point we agreed on in case of an emergency.
The meeting point was up top, at the far rear of the ship. It was out of the way, mostly, with a good vantage of the rest of the ship and an already pre-planned escape route. I was already thinking the worst: that the Turks had spotted Aerith and had taken her into custody. I was already running through potential scenarios and ways to counteract them as I reached the meeting point.
After a few minutes the others pooled in. I did a quick headcount and... there was no one short?
"Helmets off," Cloud said and removed his. We all followed suit and both Cloud and I headcounted again. Cloud, myself, Aerith, Tifa, Yuffie, Nanaki, Barrett, even Angel adhered to the rules we'd established. "We're all here."
"Then..." Aerith looked to Cloud. "You don't think the stowaway is..." He was thinking the exact same thing. We all were now.
"Sephiroth," he nodded. "Right. We need to locate him and be sure it's really Sephiroth."
"Um, nuh-uh!" Yuffie shook her head vigorously. "No way am I going to look for Sephiroth. Especially when I'm... uuhhh." She looked even paler than before. I looked to Cloud.
"Fine. Stay here if you want," Cloud said to her, a little more harshly than I liked. I gave him a look and he shrugged. "We need to confirm if it's Sephiroth."
"Then take a small team. Better than everyone's neck getting risked right now," I argued.
"I'll stay with Yuffie," Aerith offered.
"I'm concerned that I'm already arousing suspicion," Nanaki added.
"Okay, so you three stay here. Unless anyone else wants to join them, we should get going," Cloud said. We followed him to scan the ship topside, noticing that there were only a handful of sailors there and no Shinra staff. Cloud indicated to the room that had been sealed off with metal shutters. "Rufus Shinra is in there. We probably should stay clear on there in case the Turks come out.
"Agreed," I nodded, not looking forward to the idea of getting caught by Turks again. As we searched the top quickly I was actually surprised Angel was joining us, and not buggering off to wherever. "Why are you so interested all of a sudden."
"I need to confirm it's Sephiroth and that's my own business," she replied coolly. I shrugged and left it there. When we confirmed the top was clear we headed downstairs to continue the search.
Inside the ship was... almost a repeat of Shinra building, if not worse. Blood painted the walls and floor, boxes were topped with bodies of ship staff and Shinra soldiers. Bullet holes were sprayed wildly, as though trying to keep up with whatever killed them. Whatever it was it was fast, it was deadly, and it left a trail of blood heading lower into the ship.
As we followed it down we heard gasping and went on guard as we approached. It could be a trap left out for us, we weren't sure. When we got closer we could hear a quiet, calm, reassuring voice, but we still remained on guard as we arrived, seeing a soldier dying, coughing up blood. Dr. Dawkins was with him, using what looked like healing magic on him. I didn't realise medical professionals carried materia but, when I thought about it, it made sense.
"Slow breaths, not shallow or rapid, you can't expend your energy right now," he was saying as we approached. "Focus on me, listen to my voice. You need to remain awake, you can't fall asleep, just stay with me." He was solely focused on keeping the one person alive. As I scanned the room I noticed the bodies littered about the place. It was a massacre. I was amazed that he'd managed to remain alive and unharmed. His clothes and hands were covered in blood, presumably from the soldiers he was trying to save. "No. Listen to me, you need to stay awake. Listen to my voice do not..." Dr. Dawkins sighed heavily, moving from the soldier and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fuck, fuck. Fuck it all!" He exclaimed. He then stood and directed his attention to us, his head snapping up so quickly I thought he'd gotten whiplash. He stared us down and remained silent. The stand off was eventually broken by Cloud.
"Did the stowaway pass through here?" He asked.
"Obviously, as if this slaughterhouse wasn't enough indication," Dawkins spoke with a bite, one of frustration and he was sorely losing patience. "I won't let you go down there, however."
"We need to locate and stowaway and contain-"
"You'll do no such thing," Dawkins bit again, talking fast to shoot Cloud down. "I can't let you go down there and allow yourselves to be needlessly murdered. I've already followed the trail of bodies to here and I refuse to let more people die."
"Are there more people down there?" I asked. The doctor did seem incredibly conflicted and began shifting his weight back and forth as though he'd start pacing but he remained stuck to the one spot.
"I'm not entirely sure. Most likely. He's heading for the engine room," he answered. "I know I need to go down there but I can't allow you to follow; too many have died and I cannot allow any more needless slaughter." He looked at us. "You will all remain here whilst I search the engine room for survivors. Don't let any one else pass."
"Wait, are you crazy? What if you get killed?" Tifa called to try stop him but Dawkins was already gone, heading to the engine room. We tried to follow him but he heard us and immediately whipped around, hand outstretched, ice pouring out and forming a barricade.
"Stay. Put." He ordered and left.
"Crazy son of a bitch is going to get killed," Barrett said and aimed his gun arm. "Move out the way!" He fired into the ice and started to crack it. Angel gave a hand and blasted it with fire, the combined effort giving us a way through. We ran after Dawkins to the engine room, noting that he was surprisingly fast.
When we got there the scene was the same: bodies and blood everywhere. Dawkins was hiding behind a piece of machinery, checking for any signs of movement further down the room. We hid behind other parts with him. He didn't seem very thrilled at the company.
"I swear, does Shinra beat the self-preservation from you?" He muttered and pushed up his glasses. "I suppose, since you're all here, you can help. Watch my six." He emerged from cover and headed down, keeping low and eyes peeled. We followed at a distance, keeping our eyes and ear peeled for any signs of the stowaway. There seemed to be no one here... no one alive anyway. It still didn't strip away the unease I felt... I honestly felt like we were being watched.
"After a long sleep..." every single one of us went on high alert when we heard the voice. It was a deep, smooth, almost haunting voice. To me it did sound oddly familiar but I couldn't place it. "... the time... has come..." It felt like the voice was coming from everywhere in the room. We couldn't pin it's location. Turns out we didn't have to.
Cloud was the first of us to whip around and face him. The second we all had our backs turned was when he appeared. A tall man wearing all black, silver hair cascading down his back, skin eerily pale, eyes glowing with a horrid, haunting gaze that held no emotion, held nothing in fact.
"Sephiroth!" Cloud spoke, rather surprised. If this was Sephiroth then that means he didn't die in Nibelheim. The man stared blankly at Cloud, almost through him.
"... Who... are you?" He asked in a creepy monotone.
"Don't you recognise me?" Cloud asked, then removed his helmet. "It's Cloud."
"Cloud..." Sephiroth repeated. "The time... is now..."
"What are you saying? Be more specific-"
In a blink of an eye we were all on the ground. Sephiroth's movements were on another level. He knocked us all down and left without any effort exerted. We could barely register his movements in the small space of time that it happened.
However, I noticed something else move: a strange tendril sort of... thing. It looked a little like a tentacle to be honest. It writhed and wriggled before darting straight for me, wrapping itself around my neck.
I grabbed at the thing, trying to pry it from my neck as it pressed down on my throat and jugular, cutting off the circulation and my ability to breathe. The more I struggled against it the tighter it became. I felt another set of hands try remove it but it made it worse. I couldn't hear anyone as I focused on trying to get the thing off of me.
As I started feeling dizzy and faint I was jolted back into focus by a cold chill. It was enough to surprise the tentacle into loosening its grasp enough to be pulled off me. Dawkins used his ice magic to freeze it entirely and then moved his attention to me, checking my neck.
"You'll need to remove your helmet for me," he said calmly. I guess I didn't have much choice and complied, allowing him access to examine my neck. "Okay, it doesn't seem too bad. It will leave bruising but that, hopefully, will be the extent of it."
"What the hell is that thing?" Barrett asked, eyeing the frozen tentacle.
"It's a part of Jenova," Angel answered. "We need to destroy it." Before anyone could respond she went for the overkill and burnt it to nothing.
"Well if my suspicions weren't confirmed before, they are now," Dawkins said and folded his arms, scanning over our group. "You aren't just Shinra ground pounders. In fact you aren't even with Shinra."
"Cloud, what do we do?" Tifa asked, glancing over to him and hoping he had a plan. Dawkins chuckled a little and waved a little dismissively.
"If you want to believe it or not, I don't give a damn in the slightest," he said. "I was outsourced by Shinra, so I really have no loyalty to them."
"And you really think we're just going to believe that?" Barrett asked with a challenge in his voice. I thought it would intimidate the doctor just a little but he stood his ground.
"Like I said: you can believe it if you want," he said. "But I need to do my job and treat the ones who were lucky enough to survive. I don't care what you decide to do, but don't interfere with my job." He walked right past us and left the engine room, most likely heading back to the medical bay. We all looked to Cloud for any sort of idea of what we should do next.
"... How come Sephiroth didn't recognise you?" I asked. I still felt a little breathless from Jenova's assault on me but I tried to conceal it as best I could.
Cloud was silent for an uncomfortably long time. His eyes wandered quickly and he blinked, as if trying to organise an answer to a seemingly simple question. The silence continued for what felt like an eternity before the answer was nothing more than a shrug and a few words.
"I'm not sure," he said. "We should get back to the others and keep low and hide. We don't have much longer before we reach land."
Everyone agreed silently and followed him back up to meet the others. I took another glance through the engine room. The bodies, the blood, the scorch mark where Angel decimated the piece of Jenova... I felt as though something was off. I wanted to say I felt uncomfortable at the immense strength Sephiroth displayed, and I was, but that wasn't it. I couldn't put my finger on it now but... maybe one day. Hopefully soon.
