Final Fantasy 7: The Hojo Clone
By Co V Schuler
Part 1: The Recovery
Chapter 3 (It has been a week since the end of Chapter 2)
Lee smiled as he looked through the periscope. There was Old Midgar. Completely destroyed. Nothing but ash, fallen buildings, and burnt skeletons. It was a maze of debris, and Lee was looking forward to seeing this ghost. The ghost named Aeris. Then, when he found her, he would either kill her, or find out what she wanted from him. She was evil...or so it seemed. Lee shrugged off the thoughts and just focused on what needed to be done right now. He would learn about that later.
His submarine was about two miles off shore, its periscope above the surface. "Alright! It is time to visit Old Midgar. We are looking for survivors. If you see one, tell me immediately on the PHS. We will be in-groups of two. Two per group except for me. I will be alone. Capture anyone you see alive and I will get there as soon as I can. Cairn? You will stay here and make sure the engineers don't take off."
Cairn nodded, "Yes sir."
"Let's move out," Lee yelled. He ran through the small tunnels to the boarding room. In that room, he climbed up the ladder to the outside. The wind was cold, winter coming soon. "It is a two mile swim. Then when we get to the beach we will rest and then go to Old Midgar."
His followers nodded and he turned and dove into the freezing waters of the ocean, surfacing and swimming for shore.
*
Barret ran down from the top of the hill yelling, "They are coming. Dammit, hurry up! They are coming!" Behind him, at the foot of the other side of the hill, a few hundred Shinra Inc. troops were starting to run after Barret. Barret kept running, thinking about survival. And the eight huge artillery tanks that were shooting into the air over the hill and causing Barret to run in all directions; even backwards at one point.
Now he was running full speed toward the beach, where the rest of Avalanche was waiting for him. They had escaped from Junon by going down and stealing a speedboat from on of Shinra's docks. But Barret had to find his own way since he had wasted time trying to chase the new Shinra President. In the end, Barret left Junon and saw his friends from on top of a cliff. They met and they sent Tifa and Yuffie to go find the submarine that they had somewhere around here. While Barret and the guys wold go by foot to the beaches and wait.
But some damn Shinra scout saw them and got away before they could get him. And now a whole army is behind my butt, thought Barret. The beach was only a few hundred yards away where Cloud, Vincent, and Cait-Sith had already started swimming toward the submarine. They had been captured a week ago and lost the Highwind. Along with Cid and Red XIII. Cid and Red XIII weren't dead (hopefully) but they had disappeared just before everyone got captured. The fight with Sephiroth had ended almost two weeks ago.
Barret reached the shore and was about to dive in and start swimming when an artillery shell hit the ground ten feet from where he was. "AAAAAA," he yelled as he flew through the air, his arms flapping around him as if trying to fly. His eyes widened and he started to laugh. He had been blown out to see by a bomb. His smile diminished when he hit the ice-cold ocean. He went about thirty feet below. Not a breath of air was in him. He frantically started swimming, the water numbing him. I won't give up, he told himself.
He surfaced, his mouth sucking in all the air it could before a wave hit him and he went under again. Again he surfaced, this time he saw a submarine floating toward. A red one that they had gotten from Shinra a few months ago. It seemed like a year, thought Barret. He turned around and saw the other three swimming toward him. They would reach the sub in a minute or two. Barret swam to the sub, which now had Tifa and Yuffie on the deck waiting for them.
Barret reached the sub and climbed up on it. Tifa popped into his sight and asked him, "You okay Barret?" He was shivering. "Go take a swim," he replied harshly. Tifa frowned. "Get me a damn towel or something!? Can't you see I am freezing half to death?!"
"Sheesh," she muttered as she went below and got a few towels.
The others started to climb up onto the sub. Cloud immediately gave orders. "We ca-a-an rest below. Ever-y-y-one get inside and then a-a-a-scend the sub." He was shivering.
Yuffie climbed down the ladder and everyone else followed. Barret was last so he shut the top and tightened it. He slid down the ladder and went straight to the bunks. He looked around, took the blankets off of all the beds and then got into a bed, about ten blankets on him and he went to sleep. He had been so tired because they had been traveling day and...he fell asleep.
Cloud was sitting with in the Captain's chair, his hands holding a mug of hot chocolate. He was thinking about his dream. Should he tell Tifa about his dream with Aeris? Better not, she might think that he...loved Aeris. He shook his head. Focus on what she told you Cloud, he told himself. "She told me to go to Old Midgar," he said out loud. Oops!
Everyone in the room looked at him. "Who said what," asked Tifa again. Cloud sighed. Oh well. Might as well tell her. "I had a dream about Aeris. She told us to go to Old Midgar because a man that will end the planet is going there too." He let that sink in for a moment. And then hesitantly added, "Then she told me when she was coming back."
"Hooray," cried Cait-Sith. "Aeris is coming back."
"Vincent did you hear that," asked Yuffie. "Aeris is coming back!"
Cloud noticed Tifa quietly exit the bridge. Cloud sighed. He didn't try to stop her. He had told the truth and he had done the right thing. "Alright everybody." No one stopped talking. Cloud frowned and yelled, "Everybody QUIET!"
Silence. "Thank you," he said quietly. "We must remember that this was just a dream. I plan on going to Old Midgar just to be safe and check it out. Whoever wants to follow me, can."
"I'm with you," Yuffie and Vincent said at the same time. "Me too," Cait-Sith yelled.
"Good," Cloud said. "Then set course for Old Midgar!" They all cheered again. With that, Cloud left the room and went to the bunks to get some rest.
*
Tears ran down her cheeks. Tifa cried, letting loose her emotions. Cloud's face was so happy when Aeris was alive and then that happy face went with her when she died. Nothing but revenge for Aeris was in Clouds thoughts. And now that he had this dream, he seemed happy again. Tifa cried. She was in her hiding place on the sub, a small area that no one but her knew about. Cloud was so hurt when he was captured. Half his ribs were broken, his left arm broken and lots of other cuts and bruises all over him. And then when he said he had a dream one morning, he seemed better. No wonder he healed so fast; he dreamed that Aeris was coming back.
Tifa cried, this time, thinking that Cloud didn't love here...the way she thought he did.
*
Marina and Gloom walked through the wreckage, stepping over many burnt or crushed bodies and skeletons. Marina, to her disliking, was teamed up with Gloom. Gloom never talked unless Lee talked to him. Gloom was...Marina tried to think of the right word. He was...gloomy. She didn't like him. Gloom was tallest on their team and his skin was pale-gray. His lower left arm was a gun-arm.
Old Midgar was really nothing like she thought it would be. She thought it would be mysteriously fun, but now that she got here...it seemed like death itself was watching her.
She shivered. It scared her, Old Midgar did.
Suddenly, her PHS rang. She immediately picked it up and answered with her tough girl voice, "Yes?" It was Lee. He said to follow the road she was on and then make a right. They had found somebody alive. "And just keep walking on that road." And then he was gone.
Gloom looked at her. "Follow me," she said coldly. Then started running.
*
In a few hours, Avalanche was a mile from Old Midgar, surfaced close to the beaches west of Old Midgar. They would take the speedboat to the beaches, get out there, and then go to Old Midgar. Cloud felt something. As they got closer to Old Midgar, he felt something. Like he wanted to go there and defeat somebody. He shook his head and went on deck. There, everyone was waiting for him. "Alright people, we take the float boat and go to Old Midgar. There, we will find...Aeris and then we will find out what is going on."
"Right!" They all yelled and got onto the rubber boat. Then, Cloud and the others started paddling toward the shores.
*
Marina and Gloom reached Lee at about the same time as everyone else. The survivor was a middle-aged man that was obviously scared. "Tell me something," Lee was asking him. "Did you or have you seen anybody other than you? Ever since Meteor hit."
The man's eyes darted around the group. He nodded yes and Lee smiled. "What did she or he look like?"
The man was now shaking. "She had brownish hair and wore a pink dress with a red jacket."
Lee's eyes widened. The girl from my dreams. "How old do you think she is?"
"Abo-o-o-out 19 to 23. Somewhere in there." Before Lee could ask the next question, the man pointed toward the former Shinra headquarters building that was about a mile away. "She went that way." Lee stood up and looked at Gloom and nodded. Gloom smiled a deathly smile and slowly approached the man. The man's eyes were full of fear. "No-o-o-o. Don't kill me. AAA! Don't kill ME PLEASE!"
Gloom only laughed and picked up the man by his head and then he broke his neck. Come my warriors," Lee said. "Our mission lies in that building." And they started running.
*
"What the hell do you mean you know that someone is here," Barret asked, obviously confused.
"I don't know," Cloud replied, his voice a little shaky. "I feel the same thing, the same power, I did when I was nearby Sephiroth. I don't know." He shook his head, discouraged. "Lets go!"
They did, and when they reached Old Midgar, Cloud sensed it. The power of Sephiroth was somehow nearby. Then a vision appeared in his head. A building...Shinra headquarters and...Aeris. "Cloud, hurry! They are coming!"
"Cloud, come on," Tifa was looking at him.
"Oh, uh...sorry. I, uh." Oh shit! Tifa is already jealous of me having dreams about Aeris. "I just had another vision of Aeris. She said they were coming for her and..." he shook his head. "She was at the Shinra headquarters."
Tifa's face went sour. Then she brightened up and said, "Lets go. Aeris is in trouble!"
"Right," they all yelled again and started running up the wreckage toward the tilted plate. The plate was tilted at an angle because of the way Meteor hit. It was at about a 40-degree angle and made it harder to get up to the Shinra headquarters. In about twenty minutes of breathless and non-stop running, they reached an entrance.
They stopped for a minute. "Whew!" All of them bent over on their knees. "I don't think I have ever ran that fast in my life," complained Cait-Sith.
"All right people," Cloud started. "Can't give up now. Lets go!"
They all go t back up and started running toward the building when movement caught Barret's eye. He turned around to find...six people. All looking dead vicious and running in the same direction as they were. "Who the...who are you," he yelled. They stopped running and stared. A short man was in front of them all, a huge sword sheathed around his back. The others of Avalanche had stopped running and turned around to look at everybody. Barret got mad and yelled, "Who are you?!"
They still didn't answer. The short man stepped toward Avalanche and then stopped. He smiled. "I take it you all are Avalanche. Nice to meet you." His voice was cold, and showed that this group of people were not friends of Avalanche. But it was Cloud who recognized the problem. "That is...that's...Sephiroth's sword!"
Tifa gasped. Vincent flinched at the name Sephiroth. "All right then," Vincent said. "You know who we are, and we know that you set us up." Other members of Avalanche growled and showed angry faces. They started pulling out weapons. "Who are you to have Sephiroth's sword and to put us in jail? I don't know about the rest of this group, but that really pisses me off. A Sephiroth wannabe."
"My name is Lee," the leader of the group said. "I have a perfect replica of Sephiroth's sword, and I am the first to master it, for the second time. These other people behind me are my warriors," he gestured behind him. "That is Gloom," he pointed to the tallest man. Very muscular and gray skin. He looked like one of Vincent's limits.
"And the others you will get to know yourselves. Kill them!" Lee yelled and Marina surged forward, targeting the black-haired girl. She thought her name was Tifa. Marina pulled out her weapon and whacked Tifa on the side of her head. Tifa got mad. Tifa jumped at Marina and Marina simply dodged the flying sidekick. Tifa did a spin hook kick and...missed! Suddenly, Marina disappeared. She wasn't there any- Bam! A staff hit Tifa in the back of the head. Tifa went down, blood gushing from her head.
"NO," yelled Cloud when he saw Tifa go down. The man he was fighting had a sword that somehow got around Cloud's quick block and grazed his belly. Cloud went berserk. He swung his sword down and then quickly moved it back up, getting the opponents left leg and cutting inside his torso. The man fell to the ground, temporarily weakened. Suddenly, a pain rammed into Cloud's right side. Cloud ignored the wound and started running toward Tifa but a girl appeared in front of him. He swung his sword at her but she ducked and did a low kick into the groin. Cloud saw stars for a minute and then a foot was suddenly in his face. He fell down.
Vincent was head-to-head with a female that could fight well. She was quick but when she moved in to knee him in the stomach, he quickly pulled out his sniper CR and shot her in the heart. She fell froward, dead. Vincent then saw what was happening to his team. A man with a gun-arm was shooting at his teammates just as they would let their guard down. Vincent saw a flash of light and Cait-Sith fell to the ground, his Bog doll obviously blown apart and Cait-Sith himself was now all over the ground, his arms in one place and head in another...
Vincent shot the man with the gun-arm and shot him again and again until he finally hit the ground. Vincent heard something behind and started to turn around when Lee brought down his sword through Vincent. Vincent touched his chest and looked at his hand. Covered in blood...Vincent went unconscious. Lee's grim smile faded when a huge boomerang slammed into his back.
He hit the dirt and looked behind him. Yuffie! That bitch would die! He jumped up and threw his sword at her. Her Ninja instincts told her to throw her weapon. She threw it at the sword, and then jumped out of the way. The huge sword flew by her but turned in mid-air and swung back at her! She dodged it again but this time she didn't land right and tripped. The sword plunged into her back and all the way through till it reached the ground. Lee walked over to her limp, dead body. He pulled the sword out of her and smiled.
He looked around. Only two of his warriors were down but all of Avalanche was either down or dead. Using magic, he revived them and they slowly got up. He then did full cure and a pillar of light from the sky came down and sprinkled dust magic on them, putting all their blood back in them and they were suddenly feeling better. Lee smiled again. All his people lived through the first conflict with Avalanche.
He looked at Barret, who was breathing slowly but coughing up blood. He had been shot in the lungs and was too weak to heal himself. Cloud Strife had been shot in the hip and knocked out. Tifa was suffering from a staff wound in the head. I thought Lee, seriously wounded Vincent. Yuffie had also been seriously hurt, Lee's sword right through her stomach. Cait-Sith was completely blown apart. No way could Cait-Sith be brought back. The others could though.
They are at my mercy, thought Lee. But in his scheme of things, Avalanche still had a role to play. He couldn't kill them...yet.
"Come on," he shouted at his team. "We must find the one they call Aeris Gainsborough. We must find her because she might destroy us all. Consider this fight a warm up."
With that, Lee and his evil warriors ran inside the building, in search of the revived Aeris.