Morning drew quickly, gently rousing the citizens of Rocket Town, and sending them along their way. Some went off to an everyday job in an office building, adorning the uniform suit and tie, others to a bit more of a contemporary work, some though, some went off to that hidden bit of the city. The closed down factory buildings, long since abandoned.
Outwardly, that's exactly what they looked like. A few abandoned factories and warehouses, nothing more. Inside wasn't much different. Dust drenched everything in sight, the old broken workers benches, enormous pieces of crushed machinery, a conglomeration of odds and ends. One had to know just where to look to hit pay dirt. To find the scattered entrances to the Underground.
Yuffie had thought it mildly amusing. The Underground truly being underground. She remembered the feeling of cockiness that had washed over her as they had been led to the militaristic complex below Rocket Town. Uniform buildings, side-by-side, a large hangar-like building where even this early in the morning sounds of construction sang out from its metal frame.
She sat in a small room of the clinic, which was the closest thing to a hospital Rocket Town had. Her chair was perched beside James's bed, where he lay sleeping. She had decided to stay with him in the clinic while the others were led to the main, and also largest building of the Underground. The Turks had been locked away in some dank and dreary chamber there, or so Alli had told her.
Dr. Kelley said James would recover fine, as long as he stayed lying down until he could do otherwise. He had been sleeping for almost three hours, after having been thoroughly examined by the doctor. Shera had stopped in several times, asking the young Wutain if she needed anything, sometimes just making small talk.
Yuffie could hear soft foot-steps in the hallway, stopping at the door. She assumed it would be the engineer, but as she turn to face the opening door, she found it was Aeris.
"Hey Yuffie," the young woman greeted her companion softly, gently closing the door behind her.
"Hey Aeris."
"Cid was wondering if you could come over to the main building now. He's getting ready to start explaining what's going on, and he wants as much of the group there as possible for the big explanation."
The teenager sighed, the slowly stood up from her chair. "Alright, let's go."
***
The rest of Avalanche, sans Reno and Tifa, was seated in the comfortable lounge in the lower levels of the main building, listening half-heartedly as Cid told them things were going to get underway very soon.
"Vince should be arriving pretty soon-" he was interrupted by the arrival of Aeris and Yuffie. The former took a seat in a chair beside Reeve, while the latter sat down beside Alli on one of the two sofas. Before Cid could speak back up, three more people entered.
Shera Highwind strode in, a small slip of paper in hand, followed by a tall, raven-haired man, and another woman.
"Ah, there's the man of the hour," the pilot chimed, his signature grin spreading as he shook the man's hand, after giving his wife a quick kiss on the cheek.
The man wore a slight smile as well, replying to Cid's greeting with, "It's good to see you again. I believe you've met my wife, Lucrecia." He gestured to the woman beside him, who shook Cid's offered hand shyly.
"Oh, Vincent, Lucrecia, I would like for you to meet Avalanche," The blonde man gestured to the other who filled the room. "And I would like you all to meet Vincent and Lucrecia Valentine."
As they said their hello's, Cid took notice of the paper in his wife's hand.
"Whatcha got there, Sher?"
The engineer looked at the paper, then handed it to her husband. "Came for you a few minutes ago on a carrier pigeon."
"Carrier pigeon?" Biggs asked from his seat on a sofa. "Isn't the a bit…ancient?"
"Sure is," Cid nodded. "Which makes it a great way to communicate, especially with Wutai since it's so close. Shinra'd never even think to check pigeons." Having said this, he turned his head to paper, his brow frowning in concentration.
"What does it say?" Vincent asked him, slight worry flaring in his deep brown eyes.
The pilot turned his attention to the group. "You guys say two of you are in with Shinra?"
Biggs spoke up for the group. "Yeah, well, technically three, but two that were captured."
"Well, according to this, two member of Avalanche, a brunette woman and redheaded man, contacted the underground resistance in Wutai. They will remain there until it is either possible to transport them here, or until we get over there." He looked up from the paper. "Does that sound like your friends?"
Biggs nodded. "Yeah that's Tifa and Reno. So what're we gonna do?"
Cid glanced at Vincent briefly, who nodded, then stepped forward. "Well, that's what we're about to go through. If you'll follow us, we'll show you."
***
Jessie tapped her nails along the top of her desk. She was contemplating going out to get some lunch when the phone rang.
"Hello, General Briggs office?"
"Uh…Grace?"
Her heart started to flutter about when the voice spoke. "Caleb?"
"Yeah! Wow, you recognized my voice. Well, uh, anyway, I was wondering…you wanna go grab some lunch? I mean, that is, uh, if you're not all tied up with work…"
"N-no! I was about to take a lunch break anyway!" Oh dear lord…I was able to say yes! "You want me to meet you somewhere?"
"Yeah! Sure!" There was a pause. "There's a nice diner down on 29th and Evenings Glade. Twilight Diner, I think it's called. Meet me there in twenty?"
"Sure! I-I'll see ya!"
"Bye!" Click.
Jessie paused after she hung up the phone. Then burst out in a happy and triumphant laugh.
"I'm going to lunch with Caleb! Woo-hoo!"
Quickly, she grabbed her purse and headed out the door, not even noticing the person following her outside the building as began to walk into the city of Wutai.
***
"Wanna grab something to eat?"
Tifa looked up from her magazine, glancing at Reno, who stood uncomfortably by the door. He wouldn't meet her glance.
"Alright," she stood, stretching out. "Where do you want to go?"
"There's a little diner just down the street. We've passed it several times."
"Ok," she grabbed her room key, then small pile of gil that Reno had obtained, how, she didn't want to know.
They strode silently down the street. There was still a tense silence between them. Tifa hoped it would ease soon.
It didn't take long to reach the diner. A small, wooden sign that read "The Twilight Diner" hung over the entrance, a bell rang out as they entered the small structure.
They found a booth towards the back and sat down, a waitress headed over to them immediately. She sat a menu in front of each of them, then went back to the kitchen to get their drinks. The two were silent as they got their food.
Finally, Tifa couldn't bear the silence.
"Reno, this is stupid! We can't just not talk to each other!" She sat her tea down. "What is wrong?!"
He gave a befuddled look. "What do you mean what's wrong? I thought you were pissed off at me!"
She gave him a look to match. "I'm not mad at- ooohhhhh," she remembered her rather…unpleasant comments the night before. "That." She paused, then spoke again. "Let's just, forget that…ok?" The young woman offered him a small smile.
"Yeah, ok," he grinned back at her, then dug back in to his food. "So, Tif, when are you gonna admit to yourself that you're madly in love with me?" His grin broadened when she turned bright red. Whether it was out anger or embarrassment, he didn't know.
"Reno, you'll never change…" She shook her head, a pleased smile on her face.
"Is that a good thing?" Curiosity flashed in his aquamarine eyes.
Tifa paused before answering.
"Yes, Reno. A very good thing."
Before he could answer, a chiming of the bell brought their attention to the door, where a soldier and a young woman were stepping through the door.
Tifa's mouth dropped immediately, and Reno's eyes went wide.
It was Jessie, and Tifa could have sworn she'd seen that soldier before…
Jessie's expression told them both she had seen them, and when the soldier began to guide her to a booth close to theirs, she shook her head and pointed a small table with two chairs by the window. The soldier gave her a small look, then nodded and took a seat.
"Don't talk too loud," Reno whispered, leaning in a little closer. "Or do anything that would draw attention to us." Tifa nodded in return.
"Should we wait for them to leave before we do?" She asked.
He thought for a moment before shaking his head. "No, too risky. I'm sure Shinra's got our pictures up everywhere, so that soldier will most likely know exactly who we are if he sees us."
"So what should we do? We can't just get up leave."
Reno looked about the room for a few moments, searching intensely for a solution. "Ok, here's what we're going to do. You see that row of booths over there?" Tifa nodded as he pointed to what he mean. "I want you to slowly stand, then make your way over to them, keeping your head down, but not in a suspicious way. Then walk around behind the booths, and leave. Go back to the inn, I'll catch up in a little bit."
Tifa made no move to leave. Her wine eyes flashed with something Reno couldn't put his finger on.
"Reno, I'm not going to-"
"Just do it Tifa." His eyes pleaded with hers, begging her to just do as he said so she could be safe. "Please?"
The brunette sighed softly before nodding. "Alright. But…don't do anything that's gonna get you killed, alright?"
"You have my word."
With one final, meaningful look in Reno's eyes, Tifa slowly stood from her seat and left.
***
Deep burgundy curtains were drawn against the windows in Rufus Shinra's makeshift office. He was holding a piece of paper in hand, trying to decide whether or not he should just destroy the "agreement" his uncle and that silly old fool Godo had signed stating that neither side would use Mako weapons other than the standard issue of Mako guns used by soldiers of armies everywhere.
The young president chuckled then wadded the useless paper up in a ball and chucked it into the open fireplace across the room. Wutains were too gullible. Had Godo honestly believed that Rufus was going to follow those terms?
"Sir?" A loud crackle of the intercom shook him from his reverie. "There's a call for you on line three."
"Oh, thank you Cassandra." Pushing a few rebel locks of hair out his deep blue eyes, he reached for the phone and pressed the button for line three.
"Hello, President Rufus Shinra speaking?"
"…Rufie?" A quiet voice came over the line.
"Alli! Where are you?!" He felt of rush of relief as tension he hadn't realized built up suddenly crumbled.
"I uh, I can't tell you." She was still speaking softly, almost as if she didn't want anyone else to hear.
"What? Why? Alli, you're not some sort of trouble are you?"
"Uh, no, well, kinda…just listen alright?!!"
"Alright…" He suddenly found his finger wrapped tightly up in the phone cord.
"I'm just calling to tell you…to be careful."
Rufus's eyebrows went up in wonderment as she said this. "Be careful? Well, Alli, not that I don't appre-"
"Damn! Rufie, I gotta go! Bye!"
"No Alli!" Click.
He sighed heavily before reluctantly hanging the phone up. Even as he did so, the door to his office swung swiftly open. And in strode his secretary.
"Rufus sir? It's almost time for your public announcement." She ran her hand through her long red tresses. "You should probably start heading over." She offered him a smile of encouragement, like a mother might do before her son's first day of school, though her smile could hardly be considered motherly.
"I suppose you're right, thank you Cassandra," he stood from his chair as he spoke these words, and headed for the door.
"Good luck Mr. President. Although, I don't suppose I'll be calling you that for long, will I?" She grinned as he walked by.
"No, I don't suppose you will."
***
Alli casually jogged back up to the group. She had slipped away when they had entered the building next to the hangar, which was their next destination.
So far Vincent, Cid, and Shera had shown them all around the Underground, explaining as they did so. The buildings were exactly what they looked like. Military buildings. Or rather, hidden military buildings.
Everyone had been a bit surprised when they had seen the Underground, and, although they had all seen the military buildings in Junon, no one had really expected Rocket Town to actually have a military. And this large of one at that. They had spent the last hour and a half touring through the buildings. Now, they headed for the largest. The hangar.
"Where were you?" Biggs asked the strawberry blonde as she caught up to them.
Alli shrugged. "I went looking for a bathroom." She flicked one of the front streaks of ice blonde out her eyes. (A.N.: Ok, since it seems like I can't decide Alli's hair, even though I have, I'll explain it here. She has strawberry blonde hair, but the front locks of it are died ice blonde. Alright, on with the story!) "Do you have a problem with that?"
He gave her an un-amused look, then shook his head. "No, I just wish you would have told someone you were going. I don't want to take any chances with people."
Laughter flashed in her mischievous blue eyes. "Since when did you become Mr. Leader?" Without waiting for an answer, she quickened her pace and caught up to Yuffie, who was shuffling sullenly beside Aeris.
"Cheer up, Yuffers! James is going to be fine, the doctor already said that, and we're gonna beat the tails off of Junon!" She gave the slightly younger girl a pat on the back.
"And Shinra, you mean." The ninja glanced over at her friend. "We're going gonna kick Shinra's ass too," she gave a small, but optimistic grin.
"Uh…yeah!" Alli nodded shortly. "Sure! Shinra…too…"
Yuffie looked at her friend as though she might say more, but Cid's voice prevented it.
"Alright, now we're at the hangar." He paused in front of the massive open doors, where they could see the looming shapes of planes being worked on. "My pride and joy."
"Uh…Cid? Those are…airplanes, right?" Wedge asked from beside Biggs, who tried desperately not to make a rude comment.
"Uh, yeah," the pilot drew out. "Why do you ask?" He and Vincent exchanged a look as he asked this.
"Well, what good are planes if they're underground?" The small snickers that had begun to gather stopped immediately when they realized his question actually had some merit.
"Ah, good point," Vincent slowly smiled. "I'm afraid you're going to have to wait for you question to be answered, but don't worry, it will be." He started forward once more, the others following, when an oil covered mechanic came shooting out of the hangar.
"Mr. Highwind! Mr. Valentine! You have to come here what's on the radio!" Before anyone could respond, he took off again, this time heading back for the hangar. Cid just shrugged and followed, as did the others.
It seemed all work had stopped, everyone paused in their tracks as they listened to what was being announced on the radio over the intercom system.
"-I welcome you all to the dawning era of the Shinra Empire!"
"Uh-oh…that doesn't sound good…"
***
The dull roar of the crowd below could be heard through the French doors as Rufus straightened his appearance in the mirror near by. Convinced he look acceptable, he turned to the twin glass doors and took a deep breath before opening them and heading out to meet the public.
Four body guards already stood on the balcony, where a podium and microphone were set up, and the young president knew there were dozens of them scattered through out the crowd. The people quieted down some as he cleared his throat, then stepped up to the podium.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, people of the world," he began. "I call you here today to discuss the future of Wutai, and the world!" The crowd began to mumble more. "Everyone, I welcome you all to the dawning era of the Shinra Empire!"
Silence.
That sure shut them up.
For a brief second. Pandemonium erupted the next.
"People!" He paused while they quieted. "From this day forward Wutai shall be the Imperial Capital, and it will no longer be known as Wutai. Instead, it shall be known as Vector!"
***
"Vector?" Biggs raised an eyebrow. "Where'd he get Vector?"
"It was his mother's maiden name…" Alli answered softly, her eyes on the floor.
"…how'd you know that?" He turned toward her, giving her an unreadable look.
"Oh, um…just a random fact I knew! Uh-heh-heh…"
***
"Soon, the entire world shall be united under the Empire!" The black clouds that were building in the distance began to block out the sun. An eerie shadow fell over the hushed city. "The only thing I have to say for the remaining continents, is resistance is futile. You'd all be better off welcoming us with open arms."
***
"Jack-ass obviously doesn't know us very well, does he Captain?" a random mechanic hollered out, followed by a chorus of cheers.
Cid grinned, then shushed them. "No he doesn't."
***
Tifa stood amongst the crowd. She had been on her way to the inn, when she had seen the crows gathering in front of the main section of the surrounding fortress. As her curiosity drew her to it, Rufus had begun speaking. She knew it wasn't safe to be there, but she didn't think anyone would notice her when Rufus was up there spouting about a Shinra Empire.
"Bastard," she swore softly under her breath and began once more heading for the inn.
***
Jessie gripped Caleb's arm tightly. The radio was playing Rufus's announcement, though they could most likely hear the actually thing if they opened the door. The soldier mistook her reaction for excitement and grinned.
"Pretty exciting, huh?"
"Huh?" Her voice was a little shaky. "Oh, I mean, yeah! Exciting…"
Why haven't I heard anything about this from Briggs? Something's going on…
Her eyes strayed over to the table that once seated Tifa and Reno. Her long-time friend had left a good ten minutes ago, and Reno had followed five minutes later, throwing some money on the table as he did so.
"Uh, Caleb?" She pretended to check her watch. "I really need to get back to work…"
"Yeah, ok Grace," he nodded in understanding. "I should get back to the barracks too, I'm sure they're going to want to brief of us on the upcoming invasions."
They both stood, Caleb digging in his pocket for some cash, and Jessie doing the same in her purse.
"Oh, you don't have to worry about it Grace," Caleb told her, pulling out some gil. "It's my treat."
"Oh, um, alright," a slight slush colored her cheeks. She'd never go out with a guy who'd paid for anything for her. They were a rarity in the slums, and she really hadn't been on a date since she was assigned to go undercover.
He winked at her, then took her by the arm and they headed back to the fortress.
***
Reno was pacing inside the small inn room when Tifa let herself in, he pounced on her at once.
"Where were you?! Do you know how worried I was?!" Without really thinking about it, he snagged into a tight hug.
"Ugh, do you know how much you sound like my father when I was 14?" She began to loosen herself from his clutch, but he didn't seem willing to let go. "Uh, Reno?" She glanced up to see he was looking at her. Her eyes locked on his, seemingly with a will of their own. His face inched dangerously close to her. "…Reno…could…you let…"
She never did finish that sentence.
***
"BASTARDS! WAIT'LL I GET A PIECE OF SHINRA! I'LL SHOW THEM!" Yuffie threw punches into air, followed by several kicks, one of which narrowly missed Wedge as he walked in.
"Hey! Watch where yer kicking," he threw her look, which she pointedly ignored and went back to beating the air around her senseless.
The group had relocated in the main building of the Underground as soon as they had heard the announcement was over. Cid and Vincent were currently checking on the status's of the other towns involved in the Underground.
"I OUTTA KICK THAT NO GOOD RUFUS RIGHT IN THE GOODS!" She kicked even harder into the air, not noticing the looks the others were giving her. "WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS? RE-NAMING WUTAI, THAT BASTARD!!"
"Yuffie," Aeris stood from her seat, seeing that no one else was going to do anything. "YUFFIE!" The teenager stopped, and turned to face the half-Cetra, panting.
"What." Pant. "Do you want?"
Aeris grabbed the young Wutain by the hand and began to drag her out of the room. "Why don't we go see how James is?"
"Uh, ok, seeings how I don't have any say in the matter," she muttered under breath as they left the room and headed for the nearest exit.
It didn't take too long to reach James's room in the clinic, and when they did, they found that he was awake.
"James!" Yuffie was at his side immediately, all the previous anger seemingly gone. "You're awake! How do you feel?"
The Cetra gave them a small smile. "Like I got shot twice."
Aeris let a small trickle of laughter from the door way. "Well at least you still have good judgement." She walked over to the other side of the bed. "I'm glad to see you're awake James. I hope you don't hurt too bad."
He shook his head the best he could lying in bed. "No, the nurses gave me some sort of pain killer." He turned his attention over to Yuffie. "What's the matter, Yuff? You look mad."
Yuffie's eyes clouded over some, but she shook it away quickly. "Oh it's…nothing. Just that damn Rufus."
James nodded, not knowing what the young president had done this time, but understanding nevertheless. "I see Mr. President is still at it."
"Mr. President? I believe you mean Mr. Emperor, James."
"WHAT?!"
***
Elena groaned as she slowly awoke from her blissful unconsciousness. Soft light filtered in from over head, and she found she couldn't move her arms or legs…
WHAT?!
She tried again. Nope, still couldn't move them. As she drifted more and more into consciousness, she realized she was sitting in a chair, with her hands tied behind her back in a most painful position.
Oh no…
The previous nights events, or what she perceived to be from the previous night, came laughing back at her from the beyond.
"You failed," they told her. "You all screwed up big time! Whoever though you could be a Turk?"
"Oh," she groaned again. "Shut up!"
"Why don't you?" A voice asked her from somewhere on her left. A REAL voice that is.
"Unn, Zoë?" Elena slowly opened her eyes, blinking away sleep. "Where are we?"
"I don't know…"
"Is Rude or Tseng awake yet?"
"No…what good would it do if they were anyway?"
Her eyes slanted in anger. At first, she thought she might like having another female Turk, but she had quickly learned Zoë wasn't a friendly person.
"Never mind."
This is going to be a long day…
***
"How did the speech go?"
"Nicely. Rufus did a good job for once."
"Hmmm, that's a surprise."
"Yes. We're preparing to invade the Central Continent tonight and tomorrow. We leave tomorrow night, and hopefully land the following morning."
"Were are you going to attack first?"
"Gongaga, most likely. It should be a push over. Cosmo Canyon will follow next. Meanwhile, troops still stationed in Junon will arrive in Costa Del Sol and Corel. They will meet with us while we tackle Nibelheim and Rocket Town."
"You sound confident."
"Why shouldn't I? We both know that the entire continent is defenseless. The best defense any of the towns have is Cosmo Canyon's positioning."
"Don't get too cocky, Zachary. You know it never did anyone good too have an over-confident general leading an army."
"Don't worry, Cloud. I'll be careful. It was nice talking to you. I pray you have a quick recovery." General Briggs stood and patted his friend's hand from where it lay on the hospital bed. He began to leave, but paused when he reached the door. "And Cloud?"
"Yes?" The blond general turned his head to look at the other. Most of his upper face was bandaged. His nose was shattered, and both eyes were blackened as a result.
"I promise you I will find the bastard that did that to you and kill him. I promise."
Author's Notes: Here it is! You people should feel lucky. I postponed chapter 4 (maybe its 5) of Old Skies, New Horizons for this. And those readers aren't happy. Well, I finally did it. I put in more romance, and yes, they did kiss. Oh, and I'll explain Vincent. He's a normal person in this, but he's not necessarily the same person because he's much younger in this. And I know I made a comment about Sephiroth early and now I have Lucrecia married to Vinni. So I will say this now. FORGET ANYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THE GAME. It doesn't apply here. In this story, Sephiroth had a different mother, but he's not even a character in this (nor will he be though seem people seem to think he's going to be and have been emailing me to hurry and put him in it). And YES, the Vector thing is a bit of a joke with FF6. Alright, well, I hope you enjoyed this. I know I'm pleased.
