-Where mortals fear tread, immortals walk freely-
Northern Continent
"You know, for it being so far north, it does get awful bleedin' hot around here," the tall man with spiky blonde hair complained. Pulling his goggles from his head, he drew out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead. "'Course, the smell around here doesn't make it much more pleasant."
"I would find it easier to investigate the bodies if you didn't complain so much, Cid," the four-legged companion replied. "I'm hoping maybe the types of burns would indicate what kind of materia was used. Maybe from that, we could figure out who did all this."
Early morning found the two searching an encampment that housed the team of archaeologists which had been digging in this area for some time. At the top of the plateau, a small house made from a Dinosaur's skull was surrounded by bodies. As was a small tunnel dug into the earth on the lower shoulder of the camp. "Barret's right, you know," Cid yelled from the top of the plateau. "You're a cold one, Red."
"Keep in mind, Barret's not exactly the friendliest tyke around, either," Red argued back. Red XIII sniffed the air a little more, trying to follow hastily covered tracks to the ladder. "Argh. I can't smell too much. You would think eventually these archaeologists would clean up the oil from this downed jet. Do you see much up there?"
"Tracks, here, too," Cid replied, scratching his head. They were raked up, just like the ones down there."
"It just doesn't make sense," Red snorted in frustration. "Who kills ten people, leaves the bodies, and rakes up their footprints?"
Cid lit up another cigarette and walked over to the cliff. "Maybe it's someone's idea of a sick joke. There is something they missed, though."
Red's ears turned back towards Cid. "Oh yeah?"
The Pilot took a long drag on the cigarette, and let the smoke flow out his nose. "Yeah, two sets of footprints into the forest. I also found a chocobo track behind a bush. Looks like they missed it when they were cleaning up."
Red turned around and looked up at Cid. "Curiouser and Curiouser."
"You wanna follow them?" Cid asked. "Maybe someone's still alive out there?"
"No. We have to wait on Cloud to get here," Red replied, digging at some of the dirt with his paw.
"Cloud?" Cid asked, somewhat surprised. "It's going to take him another day to get here. This isn't hard work; we can just go in and search around."
"I know, but Cloud's the one who's got the Earth Harp," Red replied. We can't go in until he gets here, or we'll fall asleep."
"Stupid sleeping forest," Cid spat, kicking at the ground. When he kicked, some of the loose ground gave way, falling to the lower ridge. The falling rocks took part of a blanket that had been draped over the edge of a cliff with them.
"Gracious me…" Red whispered, looking at the cliff where the blanket had been hung. "Cid! You may want to come down here."
Cid walked around to the ladder. "What? What did I do?"
Red went up to the cliff and began sniffing the walls, looking for a scent. "This blanket looked awfully strange. It looked new. Now I understand. The diggers didn't put it up at all."
Cid hopped off the ladder and rushed around to the jet and looked up at the cliff. Across the wall, painted with the blood of humans was a message, big and messy. Cid gasped, cigarette falling from his mouth. "Strife," he read aloud.
Red turned to his companion. "I don't suppose it's a political message? Someone complaining about how much strife there is in the world?"
"Bloody hell," Cid whispered to himself.
Kalm
"Come back here! I need that bell!"
The refugees from Midgar had witnessed many things in their lives. Everything from falling sections of their city to a meteor falling meters from their houses. But many a person couldn't help but laugh at the site of a stuffed toy cat chasing a little girl running through the camps surrounding Kalm.
"MAR-LENE! Give that back to me!" the toy cat screamed out.
"What do you need this for, you're not even real!" Marlene giggled.
"It's my transmitter!" the whiny voice screamed out. "Without it, I can't control Mog!"
"Well, if you wan' it, you have ta catch me!" the little girl yelled, dodging around people, and under their legs. The toy cat was nimble, but not as nimble as a 7 year-old girl.
"Boy, you sure are a slow—" Marlene's words cut off as she ran right into what felt like a brick wall.
"Wait!" the cat yelled, running through the crowd. Without seeing what had just happened, it ran through a lady's legs and smacked into the wall, too, knocking itself silly.
"Ow," Marlene whispered, holding her head.
"I know what you mean," the cat replied, trying to steady himself. "That's a hard wall."
Suddenly, the cat's tail was grabbed and yanked up into the air. He let out a gasp as he was pulled, upside-down, to Barret's face. "Cait Sith, I ain't no wall."
"Uh-heh, heh, Yeah, I know that," Cait Sith sputtered, trying to not look up Barret's nose. "Check, no wall."
"The hell you doing, Reeve?" Barret asked Cait Sith. "You need to stop messin' with this stupid toy, and start doing your job in person."
"Uh, well, actually, Reeve set me on auto-pilot," Cait Sith replied. "He's not controlling me, right now."
"Well, then, where is the twerp?" Barret asked.
Cait Sith trembled with every word Barret spoke. "Um, well, I--I think he—he's up in the tower,"
"And what are you doing here?" Barret thundered. "You know there are thieves and bad soldiers in the area."
"Actually, I didn't want to come here, but your daughter took my transmitter!"
Barret looked down to the ground at the little red-haired girl looking back up at him, almost in tears. "And what you got to say for yo'self?"
"Sorry, Daddy, I just…I just wanted to play a little," Marlene whimpered.
Barret dropped the toy cat on its head and leaned down to the girl, wiping her tears away with his hand. "Marlene, you can't just take off. You need to watch out, there a lot a bad people around."
"But, Daddy, no one will hurt me," Marlene whimpered. "They're all afraid of…you."
Barret smiled. He leaned over a little, picked up the young girl, and raised her to his shoulder. "Damn right they scared. They better be, too." Marlene let out a loud laugh, and hugged her father's head as he began walking back to the house.
Meanwhile, Cait Sith rolled back over to his feet. "Hey! Wait! I need my transmitter!"
Loud voices screamed out. Some yelled at people on the telephone, while others sat at desks in busy meetings. There was one person in the room who just didn't seem to fit in, though. She stood by the window, arms crossed, looking out of the tall tower at the masses encircled around the town. The wind blew in through the window, gently caressing her face, and blowing her hair and blue dress behind her and into the room.
"Ms. Lockheart?" a young, bearded man asked. "Have you been here long?"
Tifa turned from the window and smiled at the man. Though once she would have considered him an enemy, she now looked at the young man as a friend. "Reeve," she answered kindly. "No, not long. I'm sorry for being over here, but I didn't know where to wait for you."
"Nonsense," Reeve laughed. "I'm sorry it took me so long to come to you, but you wouldn't believe how busy it is up here. There is so much to do since the fall of Shinra."
"Barret will be here any minute, but he said to go ahead and start without him," Tifa said. "I'll be sure to catch him up on anything he misses."
"Very well," Reeve replied. "I just want to say thank you for…Well, for everything you and Cloud and everyone else have done."
"You helped…Though I don't want to admit it," a coarse, rumbling voice came from behind. "Barret!" Tifa smiled, "You're just in time!"
"Ah, yes, very good," Reeve smiled.
"Shu' up," Barret grumbled, walking past the former Shinra executive and sitting down on the window edge.
A perplexed look spread across Reeve's face, but he quickly shook it off. "Well, anyway, I asked you here because we're getting some unusual reports from Wutai."
"Wutai?" Tifa asked, somewhat surprised. "Who's giving you reports from Wutai?"
"Well, let's just say some old Shinra employees are still helping us out," Reeve said, carefully.
"Damn Shinra," Barret grumbled. "Never can trust 'em."
"What are the reports saying?" Tifa asked, ignoring her large friend.
"Well, they're not saying a whole lot," Reeve answered. "But they are giving indications that Wutai may not be as…peaceful… as they were not so long ago."
"Wutai is re-arming?" Barret asked. "Why on earth would they do that?"
Reeve shook his head and rubbed his chin a little. "Who knows. Revenge, maybe? Maybe they just want to take advantage of our de-centralization right now. Unfortunately, we've got our hands so tied up with feeding and finding new homes for refugees, we can't even send troops out to find out if the stories are true. Or, if they are true, we can't spare any to suppress any army they may be building."
"So, this is where we come in?" Barret asked with a frown. "You wan' us to be Shinra lackeys?"
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Reeve took a long, deep breath. "Shinra isn't in business anymore. We're not sending you on a mission. We're asking if you could help the people around here by contacting your friend, uh…Kisaragi, or whatever her name was, and maybe finding out what's going on."
Tifa shook her head slowly. "Well, we're really not too happy with Yuffie right now, ourselves."
"That stupid thief ran off wit' all our materia," Barret added.
"That's too bad," Reeve replied. "But you can still contact her?"
Barret and Tifa looked at each other. "I…guess…we could see what we could do."
"Good. With all the power out all over the world, you'll likely not be able to call her from here. You'll have to sneak into the country to speak with her. Meet our agents at the Inn in Rocket Town. You'll have to find your own way there, though, all the helicopters are being used to ship refugees to other towns."
Barret stood up and looked down at Reeve. "Jes' keep in mind one thing. We don't take orders from no stinkin' Shinra, understand? We're gonna go find out what's happening and put an end to it."
Before Reeve could reply, Barret strolled right past him, knocking his shoulder into the Shinra exec.
Tifa looked a little flustered as she walked past. "I think he's just having a bad day."
Reeve turned and let out the air he had held in his lungs for the last minute. "I'd hate to see him on a good day."
Northern Continent
"Wark!"
The tired chocobo came to a stop at the top of the ridge. Cloud climbed down from its back and pulled his goggles up. He reached into the satchel and pulled out a sandwich and some mimett greens for the chocobo. "Here, Goldy, eat up," Cloud whispered. "You did a great job."
The sun was beginning to fall behind the forest and the distant mountains, and the orange sky was a sight to behold. The northern latitudes really made the sunlight shine brightly, and lit the sky ablaze in color. The tired rider munched on his sandwich and tied Goldy's reigns to the landing wheel of the Highwind. As
Cloud walked away, he couldn't help but snicker at what was left of the ship. "I wonder," Cloud thought aloud, "if Aeris would still want to ride in you?"
"Hey, no one talks to my ship that way," the rough and familiar voice came from behind. "Especially not some spikey-haired crazy #$%*."
"Cid! Red--or Nanaki--or whatever you go by!" Cloud said, truly happy to see his old comrades.
"Red is fine," Red replied, almost smiling.
"Thank God you're here, Cloud," Cid said loudly. "I was about to die of boredom."
"Red not good company?" Cloud asked.
"I am perfectly fine company," Red interrupted. "Cid just doesn't get excited by historical inaccuracies of modern humans towards the Cetra."
Cid leaned in to Cloud and slid his hand around his mouth, so as to keep Red from hearing what he had to say. "Did you just understand what he just said? Because, to me, it was just blah-blah-blah."
"As fun as 'Pick-on-Nanaki day' is, we do have a serious situation, here," Red said, very sternly.
The three began walking back towards the camp. The darkness was beginning to surround them, but a fire had been built in the camp, and was a beacon guiding them to their destination.
"Since Shinra fell apart not so long ago, funding for any historical pursuits, or anything else, really, dried up," Red began. "So, we at Cosmo Canyon were asked if we could help fund the research up here. It made sense to agree to do it, as we have a fascination with the planet, and by digging through the area, we hoped to learn more about the past.'
'We received reports everyday about the progress. It didn't take long for there to be much progress, as they were already close to some big finds when they came to us. However, the reports stopped coming two days ago. It seemed very strange that we would hear no word from them about anything at all. So, a small group was sent out to find the reason for the lack of communication."
"You feared the worst?" Cloud asked.
"Actually, we were just worried that they took our money and ran off to the Gold Saucer," Red answered. "However, when we didn't hear from our two men at the camp, we began to get a little worried."
"That's when he called me, like I got nothing better to be doing," Cid interrupted.
"Do you?" Red asked.
"Well, no…An' if I did, I wouldn't be here now," Cid replied, taking a drag on his cigarette. "Just wanted to let you know that."
"Anyway," Red continued, "I contacted Cid and we flew out here. Honestly, I didn't know what on earth to expect, but, we found the bodies of all of our archaeologists."
"What about your troops?" Cloud asked.
"No sign of them. There are tracks leading into the forest, but I don't have much hope."
"Why not? They're good fighters, right?" Cloud asked.
Red stopped and sat on the ground. He looked up at Cloud. "Well, when we found the bodies of the archaeologists, none of them were cut. They were all burned or frozen."
"So?" Cloud asked.
"So, it wasn't their blood that was used on the wall," Cid answered.
"Blood?" Cloud asked.
Red walked ahead of them and went into the camp. He walked up to the wall and pulled down the blanket from its hooks.
Cloud said nothing as he read the word "Strife" written across it. His features hardened, and he became angry. "Who could have done this?"
"We thought that was all," Red said, ignoring the question.
"Then, we searched the other walls," Cid finished, pulling down another blanket hiding more messages.
"Where mortals fear to tread, immortals walk freely," Cloud read loudly.
"What does it mean?" Cid asked.
"The Lifestream…" Cloud whispered to himself. "…those bastards."
Wutai
"We all have monsters within. We all feel frustration, anger, even suffering from the past. If we didn't, we wouldn't be human. Anyone who says they don't feel such pain, simply aren't living."
Wind Chimes were the only sound that could be heard within the dojo. Two men sat across from each other on the floor, legs crossed. Though they had been together for some time, the two could not have been more different. One was the leader of his country, and a man who could control the hidden creatures within. The other was a dark man from a dark dungeon who had no control of the creatures within.
"But, all humans do not lose control of their very bodies, their very souls."
"They don't? Haven't you ever seen a grown woman cry? Haven't you ever seen a man punch another in anger? All humans lose control of their bodies from time to time. Sure, they may not be as destructive as you, but that does not mean that the animal within hasn't come out."
"This is all fascinating, but how is it going to help me control my demons?"
The older man, known to all around as the great Godo, let out a loud laugh. "Your 'demons' are not out of control, my friend Vincent. You are the one out of control."
Vincent scratched his head. "How do you figure that?"
"Simple, my friend," Godo laughed. "Within you are monsters. Beasts. They kill. They destroy. They know what they are doing. It is you that does not know what your real nature is. You punish yourself for events that were destined to happen. You are arrogant enough to believe you could have changed things. We are all swimming down a stream, my friend, and you are just along for the ride."
The dark one let out a depressing sigh. "Maybe working with you, I will figure out my own destiny. My own nature."
"Perhaps. We will do all we can."
A soldier walked into the room and stopped just beyond the door. He stood very erect, very careful. Quickly, and with a great deal of precision, he bowed down and back up. "I am very sorry to bother you, most high majesty, Godo."
"You are no bother, Staniv," Godo smiled. "What do you need?"
Staniv eyed Vincent, and was reluctant to speak.
"It is okay, Staniv. Vincent, here, is our friend."
"My lord, the troops are ready.
The materia has been mastered, distributed and and mastered again."
"Very well," Godo smiled. "Begin operations."
"Yes, my lord," Staniv replied with a quick bow. He turned and hurried off down the pogoda.
"Troops?" Vincent asked.
Godo smiled. "It is nothing, really. An operation is all, do not concern yourself with it."
"You're going to war with Eastern Continents, again, aren't you?" Vincent asked.
The smile disappeared from Godo's face.
"Do not worry," Vincent smiled. "I have no anger. You are doing nothing more than finishing off the Shinra. I believe you have the right for revenge."
Godo's face lit up again. "Perhaps, you are healing faster than I thought," Godo said thoughtfully. "We should talk more."
The two began talking again, unaware that a young woman had been, and was still watching them from the dark. Her heart filled both with pride and fear, as she worried for the two men in the room. "Are we doing the right thing?" Yuffie whispered to herself.
More to come…