CHAPTER NINE: THE BEST LAID PLANS. . .
Disclaimer: Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.
I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!
C&C makes me happy! Thanks for reading.
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CHAPTER NINE: THE BEST LAID PLANS . . .
The village on the outskirts of Junon was dark and silent three hours past midnight. One or two windows flickered with the lonely orange glow of a candle, but that was all.
"Do we climb the support pillar again, or attack directly?" Red whispered.
Cloud thought about it for a minute. "Direct attack. It was a quirk of fate that they didn't know they could be invaded that way. It'll be guarded now, and I can't predict how heavilly. They've always known about the elevator though, but only put one guard on it regardless."
The group slipped quietly down the cobblestone main road, keeping to the shadows near buildings and away from the occasional street light. The air hung heavy with the smell of fish and salt, the gentle lapping of the waves and the creaking of the pier masking any small noise the intruders made. They paused in front of a sheer metal wall that towered ten stories above them and reached to the side for a quarter mile. The gray metal was mainly unmarked, a vast expanse of blandness that shouted blind and unemotional power, a tribute to the triumph of man over nature, a stark contrast to the small ramshakle fishing village and with it's splintered and weather worn wood buildings, and muddy cobblestone streets. There was a door marking the end of the road the travelers stood on.
Vincent reached up to the small red button besides the door, waiting for the others to prepare themselves and nod before he pressed it.
The door split horizontaly through the middle, gaping open like the mouth of some mechanical beast as it slid into pockets above and below the entry. Before the door had even opened enough for them to see the interior, Vincent cast his a third level ice spell through the slit. By the time the flash of yellow faded away, they could see the frozen bodies laying tumbled on the inside.
"Only one guard, huh Cloud?" Barret shook his head in disbeleif as he began to drag the bodies out of the elevator.
Cloud just shrugged. "They are expecting us after all. I'm glad you had your ice materia junctioned for multiple oponents, Vincent."
"It seemed a logical precation."
"Okay dokie, six Shinra uniforms, just waiting for us to use," Cid grinned.
"Too bad there aren't any large enough for Barett or small enough for Tifa," Vincent replied, amused dispite the lack of inflection in his voice.
"Dang."
"Me, Vincent, and Cid'll go up. I'll go into a locker room and get more uniforms, and then bring them down to Barret and Tifa while you stay up there. That way even if they suspect something and shut down the elevator, you'll be inside and might be able to get it working again."
Tifa nodded. "Good luck."
Cloud inclined his head in reply and gave her a slight smile before waving his group forward. Then he hesitated. "Uh, Tifa. . ."
"Yeah?"
Cloud blushed. "Could you turn around a second?"
Tifa chuckled and did so, listening to the argument springing up behind her.
"I ain't changing in front of no woman!" Cid protested.
"She's not looking." Barret rolled his eyes. "Geeze, I'm glad I didn't have you in the original group of Avalanche members. We'd never 've got anything done."
"There's some bushes over there you could go hide behind," Cloud remarked.
"Why can't I just change in the elevator?"
"Yeah, and if you don't change fast enough, the doors'll open at the top and everyone up there'll see you half exposed. That won't blow our cover. .." Barret snorted. "And we can't shut the door without the elevator rising. Just do it man."
Cid grumbled something derogatory under his breath and obayed, well aware that the majority of his skin was turning a pale red.
A few minutes later the doors snapped shut behind them as the elevator rose with a whirr. Tifa glanced at Red, who had come along for the sake of accompanying Cloud to find Sephiroth afterwards, being too conspicuous to participate in the invasion. While he could often avoid creating a fuss by acting as a mindless pet or one of the monsters Shinra raised as bodyguards and shock troops, that wouldn't work in this case, as Junon command was likely to have circulated a description of all Avalanche members. No amount of camoflauge would prevent people from noticing a two hundred pound red cat with six inch fangs and a flame dancing at the end of his tail. Therefore, he was just going to wait out here. Tifa sighed as she began to help Barret drag the bodies out of sight behind some bushes.
The doors on the opposite side of the freight elevator slid open as it reached it's height, revealing the calm sterility of the flight deck waiting room. Cloud jerked his head at the two behind him, who casually wandered over to a bench and sat down as if waiting for someone.
Cloud turned down a hallway to the left and entered the small locker room at the far end. Last time he had been here, it had been empty. Unfortunately, when the door slid open this time, it was to a cloud of steam and the cheerful insults of soldiers changing to go on duty. Cloud steeled his face into blankness and stepped inside. "I have a message for an Ensign Standen, but they gave me the wrong squadron name. Is he in here, or does anyone know what squadron he's with?" Cloud carefully scanned the faces before him and the half hidden figures in the showers, carefully counting the number of men. Elleven. . .
"Never even heard of him." The man nearest him shook the water out of his long black hair and grinned. "You're gonna have to go look him up in the computer, cuz he ain't never been anywhere near us."
Cloud nodded curtly, eyes cold and expressionless. "Thank you." He turned and exited the room again, glad that his knees weren't shaking. He paused in front of a computer station inset into the wall and began to type randomly, even though his lack of a security code kept him from actually interacting with the menu in any way.
It asked for a password and he just kept hitting keys without pressing enter. A few minutes later, the locker room doors slid open and three laughing soldiers strode out, glancing curiously in his direction for a second before returning to their conversation and continuing down the hall. Cloud closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Six left.
The next to leave was a tall man with a square face and a serious expression, who didn't even glance at Cloud as he marched down the hall. Then three men hurried out, including the black haired man who'd spoken to him earlier.
"You ever find the guy you're looking for, man?"
Cloud shook his head, carefully arranging his body so the screen wasn't visible. "I think they must have given me the wrong name or confused two people or something, cuz there isn't an Ensign with that name. I'll keep looking a little longer though."
"Well, if it turns out that the guy you're looking for is in our squad, you're gonna have to wait a while to give him the message, cuz we're loading onto the ship to Wutai in a few minutes. Get to lead the attack and all, lucky us." He snorted sarcasticly and then shrugged fatalistically and grinned.
Cloud's nails dug into the soft rubber on the edge of the computer station. "Good luck to you," he forced himself to say, not trusting himself to face the cheerful trooper.
"Yeah, we'll need it." The man sounded slightly confused that his friendly overtures were being rejected. "Well, later, man."
Cloud nodded curtly. A few seconds later the group continued down the hall. Cloud wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and swallowed hard. /Two left. . ./
The locker doors slid open and two young men, barely more than boys, tumbled out, hair dripping and frantically trying to button up their jackets as they ran.
"Shit man, we're late again! The commander's gonna kill us!"
The other boy groaned and they raced down the hall and out of sight.
Cloud deleted everything he had typed into the password box so it looked the same as when he had first seen it. Then he hurried into the locker room and began to open cabnets and rummage through shelves. /too small, too small. . . this'll fit Tifa though. . . There's gotta be someone at least close to Barret's size, this is the military. They like big buff guys. . . Ah, here we go. . ./ Cloud stuffed his gains in a small duffle bag he found on the floor and hurried out. Just outside the door, he forced himself to slow down and saunter casually down the corridor. He hit the button to summon the elevator, noticing Vincent and Cid glance at him worriedly, presumably wondering what had taken him so long. Well, Cid looked worried. Vincent merely flicked his red eyes towards Cloud for a millisecond, but that signified worry for him. Cloud ignored them, not wanting any of the various troopers wandering by to realize they were a group. A single person that vaugely resembled a member of Avalanche was one thing. Three of them traveling together would be suspicious. Most people knew Avalanche's faces these days, from when Shinra was hunting them and they were hunting Sephiroth.
The elevator buzzed, the doors slipped open, and he stepped inside, flipping the switch to go down. Tifa was waiting at the bottom.
"Here." Cloud tossed the clothing at her and Barret, who immediately began putting them on. They had fought together too long to be body conscious on a mission. No one really cared what body part they were touching when that body part had twelve inch gash slicing across an artery, and after that, it just seemed silly. Outside of a mission they could return to being male and female and play all the games. Tifa and Cloud especially prefered to separate their warrior selves from their day to day life. It was too painful being a warrior.
"The troopers who were in the elevator?" Cloud's glowing blue eyes searched the darkness intently.
"Over there. I just put a Mini spell on the corpses." Tifa finished slipping on the navy blue jacket and began to button it up. There was something very odd about seeing Tifa in the severe and simple cut of the uniform, Cloud decided. She still looked beautiful, but she also looked. . . competent and cold. Not that he ever thought that she looked incompetent, but it was always easier to see her as a cheerful bartender or everyone's neighbor and friend, than the brains of an increadably successful revolutionary group. It was one of the advantages that made her so good.
"So they'd be too small to be noticed if anyone goes looking for them. Smart." Cloud nodded. "What about you Barret? Any words of wisdom or advice before we start?"
"Yeah, a train doesn't get anywhere sitting at the station. Let's get going."
Tifa laughed as she finished switching her spare materia orbs to the uniform's pockets. "Do you have any sayings that don't have to do with trains, Barret?"
They stepped into the elevator and the huge metal building that towered over the coastline. The door slamned shut behind them, leaving them in semi darkness only lit by the soft glow of blinking yellow and red emergency lights. The lift began to rise.
"They're supposed to be expecting us," Barrett complained under his breath. "Where the hell are they? This is too damn easy."
"That's what you said last time too. Shinra's just kinda stupid about infiltration. I don't think we need to worry about it." Tifa shook her head at him as she curled up her long brown pony tail and stuffed it under the uniform cap, giving her the look of a young boy, at least from the back. There was nothing she could do about her breasts on this short of notice, although the jacket was made for a man and therefore tight enough to compress them significantly. She should have anticipated requiring a disguise, but she hadn't thought about it, and the men certaintly hadn't brought the things she'd need to do a really good job. At least there were female troopers in Shinra, although they were rarer and tended to attract attention. With her hair up she probably wouldn't be recognized as herself at least. She tugged on the slightly too short sleeves self consciously, and then caught Cloud grinning at her and laughed quietly at herself.
The elevator wheezed to a stop. Cloud positioned himself a little distant from the others, and as the door opened, calmly set off down the corridor towards the heart of the base, trusting the others to follow unobtrusively at a distance. Dormitory row was almost empty except for a few rowdies still hitting the bars. Cloud stuck his hands in his pockets and sauntered down the street, fighting the urge to whistle. That was a little too casual, and likely to irritate someone sleeping and create a fuss he really didn't want.
A door opened as he passed by, releasing a chaotic flow of music and neon lights into the chilly night. A figure in a blue suit and wet hair stumbled out, reeking of alchol. Apparently someone had dumped a glass on him, or perhaps the whole bottle, Cloud found himself thinking, wondering why he was so suddently tense. The figure raised his face, and Cloud found himself looking into a very familiar face. Hazel green eyes widened at the same time as glowing blue ones.
"Reno? I'll walk home with you. . ," the blond haired owner of the sultry voice froze in shock at the doorway. Her hand dove for the holster at her side. Vincent was faster. Faster than the human eye could follow, he threw himself out of the shadows along the edge of the bar, appearing seemingly out of nowhere to close the sharp blades of his mechanical hand around the drunk Reno's throat, digging the points in enough that thin trickles of blood began to dribble down the pale skin. Elena froze. Vincent's gun was cocked and ready in his other hand.
"If you raise a fuss, he dies." The dark man's voice was calm. His scarlet cape settled from the swift moment, the thick leather making it impossible to notice the small muscle tensions that a good fighter uses to predict their oponent's movements, wrapping him in inscrultability. Above the high collar of the cloak, his eyes glowed through the stiff strands of black bangs that slipped free of his headband. His eyes and cloak were the same color as the glistening blood dripping over his golden hand from Reno's throat, as if the color tied the ex-Turk to the current one. /The symbol of the innocents we kill./ Vincent thought without humor.
"Come on out and shut the door behind you," Cloud ordered, guesturing at the female Turk standing by the door. Although she looked and spoke like a blond bimbo most of the time, Avalanche had fought Shinra's elite assasigns enough not to underestimate them. Elena nodded and obayed. /Come on, Rude, stop kissing that giggly whore and notice something's wrong over here,/ Elena prayed as she let the door thud softly shut behind her, closing her off from the light and the third member of the elite assasigns.
/Fuck!/ Barret's thoughts mirrored that of his companions. /We gotta move fast; we can't afford to take prisioners, but Turks have a natural immunity to most spells, and they could probably escape from anywhere we locked them up in. Are we gonna have to kill them in cold blood?/ Killing them in battle was one thing. This was different somehow. Barret glanced worriedly at Cloud, who was doing his stone face thing.
"Where are they keeping Reeve?" Cloud asked quietly. He hadn't reached for the huge sword strapped to his back or the materia orbs strapped to various equipment on his body, but tha aura of danger surrounding him made Cid want to take a step back. Cloud acting dangerous always made Barret think of Sephiroth. . . maybe just because of the glowing mako enhanced eyes.
Reno snickered, ignoring the way Vincent's claws scraped into his skin as his throat muscles vibrated. He didn't seem particularilly upset at the dangerous situation, nor as drunk as he had been a few seconds ago. Adrinilin was great for erasing the results of an alcholoic binge. "Oh, what a perfect end to a perfect fucking night. Naw, that's not right. What a perfect fucking end to a perfect fucking life, huh?"
"Talk and you might not die." Tifa's voice was cold.
"That 'might' doesn't encourage us to talk much," Elena commented cautiously to the other woman. "Everyone knows how you feel about us, Ms. Lockheart. I need at least your guarantee that we will have our lives in exchange for our cooperation." /Not that we'd actually cooperate with you, but this adds a little delay before you act, a little more time for Rude or someone to notice us and do something about it./ Elena carefully kept the thoughts from showing on her face.
"How I feel about you?" Tifa asked softly. A strange calm was seeping over her body, anger lashing under the surface. "You mean how I feel about your killing thousands of innocents in Midgar and almost everyone I knew?" Her eyes narrowed. "Don't worry about it, Turk. I'll wait to give them their revenge until another day." She smiled, and it was cold and hungry. "Unless you give me an excuse to do otherwise, of course."
"How ironic. I'm going to be killed for being a murderer by a murderer. Just my luck, right?" Reno laughed again. He considered running a hand through his hair, but wasn't sure that it wouldn't result in the monster-man tearing his throat out. Vincent had been a Turk after all; he wouldn't assume that a casual motion was harmless.
Tifa's face darkened. She took a step forward, but a heavy hand on her shoulder stopped her. When she glanced back, Barret was glaring at the pair of Turks with murder in his eyes. "I'll make you eat those words, you bastard. Those were my friends you killed too. How dare you call us murders?"
Elena laughed, making the noise as sarcastic and insulting as she could. Yeah, this'd work. If they could keep Avalanche arguing instead of shooting them. . . "Just calling it as I see it, sister. Do you really think that all those Shinra soldiers you killed were anything other than innocent? They were just following orders, they didn't know a damn thing about what was going on in the big sceme of things. And you stole their lives."
"They attacked us first!" Barret bellowed. "They would have killed us!"
"Yeah, because you invaded an area full of enough dangerous equipment that you could have killed an even bigger part of the population. If you had placed those bombs in just a little differently than you had, those reactors could have exploded and turned Midgar into Gongaga. They were just heros doing good, protecting people from dangerous rebels."
"They were supporting evil!"
"You mean the Shinra? I still haven't seen any scientific proof that the mako reactors were killing the planet, you know. And I don't think you have any cuz you would have released it to the public if you did. All you could come up with was a bunch of mystical mumbo-jumbo." Reno closed his eyes and leaned back, using Vincent's chest as a backrest. He was just sober enough to know that he had drunk enough that his mouth might get himself killed, but not sober enough to really take the possibility seriously and worry about it. The light scratches on his neck were itching though. Itching, not hurting. The blade tips had to be some increadable material, because they were so sharp they pierced his skin deep enough to draw blood without actually damaging much of the thick nerve network in human skin, like a subcutanius shot from a really sharp and thin nedle.
Cloud cocked his head curiously.
"Do you actually believe all that?" There was nothing in his voice beyond a slight surprise and rather offhand interest, as if chatting with an opponent in the middle of the street in enemy territory was a perfectly normal occurance.
For a moment, Elena was struck dumb.
"Kill innocents to save more innocents, or forsee their deaths and do nothing to stop it. Who bears the greater guilt?" Cloud shrugged, his eyes heavy with sorrow. Reno blinked and stared harder. An odd glint lay hidden in the depths of Cloud's eyes as he stared back, as if a decision had been made and it ammused him. Reno tensed; in preparation for what, he wasn't sure.
"There are rarely decisions in life that can be separated into good and evil. More often the scales seem balanced, and only a single grain of sand separates them. Don't you agree, Elena?"
He wasn't the only one unnerved by Cloud's lazy intensity, Reno was glad to note. Even the other members of Avalanch looked uncomfortable. Perhaps he could use . . . The fingers in his throat tightened slightly in warning. Well, maybe not.
Elena opened her mouth slightly as if to ask Cloud where the hell he thought he was going with this, and then changed her mind. They wanted a delay, after all.
Cloud shrugged again. "Perhaps there was a better path I didn't see. Looking back, there are millions of threads leading to futures we will never see. I carry that guilt, and I admit to it. As for the mystical mumbo jumbo. . ," he paused, thoughtful. "I can see why that would bother you. Blind belief is one of the most terrifying sins, for there is no real way to know when one is committing it. No one has the time to look into every issue in detail before acting, there is simply too mach information to absorb, and it is very rare that enough data is availiable to form concrete proof that one action is better than another. We all make the majority of decisions in our life based on hiddiously incompleate data. All we can do is try."
"What are you talking about. It was a hell of a lot more than a guess!" Barrett protested.
Tiffa nodded emphatically. "There was something wrong with the planet, and people were dying. The frequency of deaths tied into the amount of mako being consumed, and started shortly after the reactors were built. Maybe we didn't have hard and fast proof, but Shinra wasn't doing anything, and SOMEthing needed to be done."
"I do not believe Cloud is refering to Avalanch's actions." Vincent's low, rumble cut through the conversation. "To Guard- that was the Turk's original motto, whether it remains so today or not. It is only what is guarded, and how the guarding is accomplished that has changed over the centuries." There was wry amusement in Vincent's tone. "Answer Cloud, Reno. Why did you join the Turks?"
Reno tried to make his expression wistfull and pentinent. He tried really really hard. But damn he was a bad actor when he was drunk. . .
"Fuck, are we really going to stand here and listen to this shit. Just kill them and let's get going, Cloud," Cid snarled.
"We need to know where Reeve is, and talking to them is much faster than looking through the whole complex on our own," Cloud said calmly. He wasn't sure where the confidance that he could talk the Turks over came from. . . He raked his gaze over them again. There was just something angry and. . . pitiful about them now. . .
"How many times have you been drunk this week, Reno?"
"Better to ask how many times I've been sober, if that answers your question."
"Not easy being the bad guy when the good guys are in control, is it?"
Reno smirked. "Don't know if you noticed, goldenrod, but the balance of power shifted back over to our side a few days ago. Did you enjoy your brief moment of fame?"
"Then why are you still drunk?"
"I like being drunk. Listen, if you're trying to convince me that being a member of your happy little band leads to happily ever after, just give up. I've seen too many of your type, OK? Even if help for our side shows up, goldenclaw here is probably gonna yank my throat out before I can get free, so I'll do whatever the fuck you want."
"Reno!" Elena gasped.
"They got us by the balls, babe. And I really don't give a damn how this turns out. You wanna know where your pal is? Try the flight deck. He's been hanging there awaiting execution for the last three days. Careful though- he's rigged with explosives and surrounded by guards. First sign of a rescue from you guys and kaboom."
"Those bastards. . ." Barret hissed.
The last traces of amusement faded from Cloud's eyes. "Then I guess there had better not be a rescue from us. I'll make a deal with you," Cloud continued. "I will give myself up to you . . ."
"Like hell you will," Tifa snapped.
His eyes flicked to her.
"I'll give myself up to you, and in exchange, you get Reeve out. You can come up with something, I'm sure. Ask for him as a playtoy to get revenge for something or another or such. Who would you rather have as a prisioner after all, him or me?"
"And what's to keep me from just keeping both of you?"
"I'll trust your word."
"NO WAY. . ." Barret started, just as Tifa and Cid started their own tirades.
Cloud held up a hand, and turned to his friends. "Do you trust me?"
"Of course, when you're not being an idiot," Barret snapped.
Cid snorted. "That pretty much sums it up."
Cloud shook his head. "It'll be ok, I promise. I won't die here, remember?"
"If you want to risk your life over some half assed theory that you're imm. . ."
"Shut up,Cid." Cloud interupted him. "That doesn't need to be common knowledge."
"Sorry, I just have this little objection to my friends committing suicide in front of me," the gray haired man snapped.
"If we even get close to Reeve, he'll be dead."
"Yeah, and having the both of you dead is better somehow?"
Cloud turned to the Turks. "Is it a deal?"
"Cloud! Damn you, listen to us." Tifa's hand was white where she had it fisted by her side, as if only force of will was keeping her from flinging it against Cloud's face.
Reno smiled slowly. "Yes."
"Tell Reeve to meet the rest of Avalanche where I got proposed to; he'll understand."
Cloud touched Tifa's fist. "I have a hunch on this. Let me try, please. I'll come back to you, I promise."
"Damn you. . ." she hissed.
"Get out of here as soon as you can," Vincent said. "I'll give you a head start and then follow in a few minutes."
"You don't think this is a stupid plan?" Tifa asked, shocked.
"I. . . have the same hunch Cloud does." Amusement flickered in the red eyes for a moment, and then he raised his face enough so the fanged smile was visible over the collar of his cloak. "And I trust Cloud."
The door to the commander's office flew open and crashed against the wall with the help of a good kick.
"Yo, commander my man. Got ya a present. . ." Reno singsonged as he sauntered in, hands in his pockets and showing not the slightest bit of discomfort at the weapons that had been pointed at him since he kicked in the door.
The balding man waved a hand tiredly at his personal guards, who hastilly pointed the guns someplace other than the firery tempered killer. Reno stepped aside with a florish, revealing the three standing behind him.
Cloud's hands were bound behind his back, Elena's gun was a few inches from the small of his neck, and Rude hovered over them both ready to deal death or pain should any of the other restraints fail.
"Only one?" The commander asked, narrowing his eyes. "The others must be hiding somewhere on the base. Send out. . ."
"They'll be here by tomorrow evening," Cloud interrupted, gasping a bit as talking earned him a knee in the small of his back. "They can't keep up with the speed the SOLDIER enhancements let me travel at. We took too long talking before we gave upfor them to arrive in time. But they'll be here. They sent me ahead so you know that they're coming and don't kill President Reeve."
The commander glanced at Reno. "Lock him up somewhere," he ordered. "Full security."
Reno waved a hand lazily and Rude grabbed Cloud's shoulder and yanked him out of the room, Elena following carefully. The door slid shut behind them.
"Why are you still here?" The commander asked the redhead sharply, trying to keep his nervousness from showing. He had four guards in the room with him, but was only too aware that the predator in front of him wasn't bothered by them in the slightest.
The redhead grinned, and hopped up to sit on the edge of the desk. "I was sort of thinking that Avalanche deserved some punishment for being late. . ."
Cloud had only been sitting calmly in the small cell for about an hour when Elena and Rude showed up again, ordering him out of the cell and up a steep flight of stairs.
He frowned. "What's going on?"
The butt of Elena's gun caught him across the cheek. "You'll find out when we get there."
*Not helping me escape, in any case,* Cloud thought wryly, tasting blood along the inside of his cheek.
There was blue sky visible through the open door at the top of the stairs, and then they were through it and Cloud was staring out at what had to be half the complement of the base assembled to watch something on the pile of boxes that formed an almost stage at the front. With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomache he recognized Reeve as the kneeling man atop it. There was a brief jerk at his wrists, pulling his backwards and off balance, and before he recovered there was a soft click and his manicles had been secured to a ring in the wall next to the stairs. Rude and Elena stepped back, covering him with their weapons.
"What's going on?" Cloud asked, fighting to keep his voice steady.
"Just watch."
"If you execute him there's no reason for the other members of Avalanche to come."
"There's allways you, sweet cheeks," Elena grinned with cold eyes. "But don't worry, he's not going to die yet."
"They wouldn't come for me. I . . ."
A gargled yell cut him off. Reno had jumped up on the stage and kicked Reeve in the stomach with a steel toed boot. Reeve wheezed as he fought to get air in his lungs.
"Stop it," Cloud yelled, unconsciously yanking against his bonds. Damn it, there were too many people here to try to convince Reno to sneek away with Reeve, but maybe. . .
"Why're you complaining, pretty boy? I'm just taking your advice. You told me to ask to play with him for revenge on all the trouble you folks caused us," and Reno's foot lashed out again.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I think this chapter is long enough to need a break, don't you? And a nice cliff hanger to go along with it. . . Purrr.
This scene was not in my outline, by the way, although I like it much better than my previous plan. I love it when the characters supprise me. It makes writing so much more fun. . .
Inarae
ginabrae@aol.com
Disclaimer: Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.
I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!
C&C makes me happy! Thanks for reading.
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CHAPTER NINE: THE BEST LAID PLANS . . .
The village on the outskirts of Junon was dark and silent three hours past midnight. One or two windows flickered with the lonely orange glow of a candle, but that was all.
"Do we climb the support pillar again, or attack directly?" Red whispered.
Cloud thought about it for a minute. "Direct attack. It was a quirk of fate that they didn't know they could be invaded that way. It'll be guarded now, and I can't predict how heavilly. They've always known about the elevator though, but only put one guard on it regardless."
The group slipped quietly down the cobblestone main road, keeping to the shadows near buildings and away from the occasional street light. The air hung heavy with the smell of fish and salt, the gentle lapping of the waves and the creaking of the pier masking any small noise the intruders made. They paused in front of a sheer metal wall that towered ten stories above them and reached to the side for a quarter mile. The gray metal was mainly unmarked, a vast expanse of blandness that shouted blind and unemotional power, a tribute to the triumph of man over nature, a stark contrast to the small ramshakle fishing village and with it's splintered and weather worn wood buildings, and muddy cobblestone streets. There was a door marking the end of the road the travelers stood on.
Vincent reached up to the small red button besides the door, waiting for the others to prepare themselves and nod before he pressed it.
The door split horizontaly through the middle, gaping open like the mouth of some mechanical beast as it slid into pockets above and below the entry. Before the door had even opened enough for them to see the interior, Vincent cast his a third level ice spell through the slit. By the time the flash of yellow faded away, they could see the frozen bodies laying tumbled on the inside.
"Only one guard, huh Cloud?" Barret shook his head in disbeleif as he began to drag the bodies out of the elevator.
Cloud just shrugged. "They are expecting us after all. I'm glad you had your ice materia junctioned for multiple oponents, Vincent."
"It seemed a logical precation."
"Okay dokie, six Shinra uniforms, just waiting for us to use," Cid grinned.
"Too bad there aren't any large enough for Barett or small enough for Tifa," Vincent replied, amused dispite the lack of inflection in his voice.
"Dang."
"Me, Vincent, and Cid'll go up. I'll go into a locker room and get more uniforms, and then bring them down to Barret and Tifa while you stay up there. That way even if they suspect something and shut down the elevator, you'll be inside and might be able to get it working again."
Tifa nodded. "Good luck."
Cloud inclined his head in reply and gave her a slight smile before waving his group forward. Then he hesitated. "Uh, Tifa. . ."
"Yeah?"
Cloud blushed. "Could you turn around a second?"
Tifa chuckled and did so, listening to the argument springing up behind her.
"I ain't changing in front of no woman!" Cid protested.
"She's not looking." Barret rolled his eyes. "Geeze, I'm glad I didn't have you in the original group of Avalanche members. We'd never 've got anything done."
"There's some bushes over there you could go hide behind," Cloud remarked.
"Why can't I just change in the elevator?"
"Yeah, and if you don't change fast enough, the doors'll open at the top and everyone up there'll see you half exposed. That won't blow our cover. .." Barret snorted. "And we can't shut the door without the elevator rising. Just do it man."
Cid grumbled something derogatory under his breath and obayed, well aware that the majority of his skin was turning a pale red.
A few minutes later the doors snapped shut behind them as the elevator rose with a whirr. Tifa glanced at Red, who had come along for the sake of accompanying Cloud to find Sephiroth afterwards, being too conspicuous to participate in the invasion. While he could often avoid creating a fuss by acting as a mindless pet or one of the monsters Shinra raised as bodyguards and shock troops, that wouldn't work in this case, as Junon command was likely to have circulated a description of all Avalanche members. No amount of camoflauge would prevent people from noticing a two hundred pound red cat with six inch fangs and a flame dancing at the end of his tail. Therefore, he was just going to wait out here. Tifa sighed as she began to help Barret drag the bodies out of sight behind some bushes.
The doors on the opposite side of the freight elevator slid open as it reached it's height, revealing the calm sterility of the flight deck waiting room. Cloud jerked his head at the two behind him, who casually wandered over to a bench and sat down as if waiting for someone.
Cloud turned down a hallway to the left and entered the small locker room at the far end. Last time he had been here, it had been empty. Unfortunately, when the door slid open this time, it was to a cloud of steam and the cheerful insults of soldiers changing to go on duty. Cloud steeled his face into blankness and stepped inside. "I have a message for an Ensign Standen, but they gave me the wrong squadron name. Is he in here, or does anyone know what squadron he's with?" Cloud carefully scanned the faces before him and the half hidden figures in the showers, carefully counting the number of men. Elleven. . .
"Never even heard of him." The man nearest him shook the water out of his long black hair and grinned. "You're gonna have to go look him up in the computer, cuz he ain't never been anywhere near us."
Cloud nodded curtly, eyes cold and expressionless. "Thank you." He turned and exited the room again, glad that his knees weren't shaking. He paused in front of a computer station inset into the wall and began to type randomly, even though his lack of a security code kept him from actually interacting with the menu in any way.
It asked for a password and he just kept hitting keys without pressing enter. A few minutes later, the locker room doors slid open and three laughing soldiers strode out, glancing curiously in his direction for a second before returning to their conversation and continuing down the hall. Cloud closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Six left.
The next to leave was a tall man with a square face and a serious expression, who didn't even glance at Cloud as he marched down the hall. Then three men hurried out, including the black haired man who'd spoken to him earlier.
"You ever find the guy you're looking for, man?"
Cloud shook his head, carefully arranging his body so the screen wasn't visible. "I think they must have given me the wrong name or confused two people or something, cuz there isn't an Ensign with that name. I'll keep looking a little longer though."
"Well, if it turns out that the guy you're looking for is in our squad, you're gonna have to wait a while to give him the message, cuz we're loading onto the ship to Wutai in a few minutes. Get to lead the attack and all, lucky us." He snorted sarcasticly and then shrugged fatalistically and grinned.
Cloud's nails dug into the soft rubber on the edge of the computer station. "Good luck to you," he forced himself to say, not trusting himself to face the cheerful trooper.
"Yeah, we'll need it." The man sounded slightly confused that his friendly overtures were being rejected. "Well, later, man."
Cloud nodded curtly. A few seconds later the group continued down the hall. Cloud wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and swallowed hard. /Two left. . ./
The locker doors slid open and two young men, barely more than boys, tumbled out, hair dripping and frantically trying to button up their jackets as they ran.
"Shit man, we're late again! The commander's gonna kill us!"
The other boy groaned and they raced down the hall and out of sight.
Cloud deleted everything he had typed into the password box so it looked the same as when he had first seen it. Then he hurried into the locker room and began to open cabnets and rummage through shelves. /too small, too small. . . this'll fit Tifa though. . . There's gotta be someone at least close to Barret's size, this is the military. They like big buff guys. . . Ah, here we go. . ./ Cloud stuffed his gains in a small duffle bag he found on the floor and hurried out. Just outside the door, he forced himself to slow down and saunter casually down the corridor. He hit the button to summon the elevator, noticing Vincent and Cid glance at him worriedly, presumably wondering what had taken him so long. Well, Cid looked worried. Vincent merely flicked his red eyes towards Cloud for a millisecond, but that signified worry for him. Cloud ignored them, not wanting any of the various troopers wandering by to realize they were a group. A single person that vaugely resembled a member of Avalanche was one thing. Three of them traveling together would be suspicious. Most people knew Avalanche's faces these days, from when Shinra was hunting them and they were hunting Sephiroth.
The elevator buzzed, the doors slipped open, and he stepped inside, flipping the switch to go down. Tifa was waiting at the bottom.
"Here." Cloud tossed the clothing at her and Barret, who immediately began putting them on. They had fought together too long to be body conscious on a mission. No one really cared what body part they were touching when that body part had twelve inch gash slicing across an artery, and after that, it just seemed silly. Outside of a mission they could return to being male and female and play all the games. Tifa and Cloud especially prefered to separate their warrior selves from their day to day life. It was too painful being a warrior.
"The troopers who were in the elevator?" Cloud's glowing blue eyes searched the darkness intently.
"Over there. I just put a Mini spell on the corpses." Tifa finished slipping on the navy blue jacket and began to button it up. There was something very odd about seeing Tifa in the severe and simple cut of the uniform, Cloud decided. She still looked beautiful, but she also looked. . . competent and cold. Not that he ever thought that she looked incompetent, but it was always easier to see her as a cheerful bartender or everyone's neighbor and friend, than the brains of an increadably successful revolutionary group. It was one of the advantages that made her so good.
"So they'd be too small to be noticed if anyone goes looking for them. Smart." Cloud nodded. "What about you Barret? Any words of wisdom or advice before we start?"
"Yeah, a train doesn't get anywhere sitting at the station. Let's get going."
Tifa laughed as she finished switching her spare materia orbs to the uniform's pockets. "Do you have any sayings that don't have to do with trains, Barret?"
They stepped into the elevator and the huge metal building that towered over the coastline. The door slamned shut behind them, leaving them in semi darkness only lit by the soft glow of blinking yellow and red emergency lights. The lift began to rise.
"They're supposed to be expecting us," Barrett complained under his breath. "Where the hell are they? This is too damn easy."
"That's what you said last time too. Shinra's just kinda stupid about infiltration. I don't think we need to worry about it." Tifa shook her head at him as she curled up her long brown pony tail and stuffed it under the uniform cap, giving her the look of a young boy, at least from the back. There was nothing she could do about her breasts on this short of notice, although the jacket was made for a man and therefore tight enough to compress them significantly. She should have anticipated requiring a disguise, but she hadn't thought about it, and the men certaintly hadn't brought the things she'd need to do a really good job. At least there were female troopers in Shinra, although they were rarer and tended to attract attention. With her hair up she probably wouldn't be recognized as herself at least. She tugged on the slightly too short sleeves self consciously, and then caught Cloud grinning at her and laughed quietly at herself.
The elevator wheezed to a stop. Cloud positioned himself a little distant from the others, and as the door opened, calmly set off down the corridor towards the heart of the base, trusting the others to follow unobtrusively at a distance. Dormitory row was almost empty except for a few rowdies still hitting the bars. Cloud stuck his hands in his pockets and sauntered down the street, fighting the urge to whistle. That was a little too casual, and likely to irritate someone sleeping and create a fuss he really didn't want.
A door opened as he passed by, releasing a chaotic flow of music and neon lights into the chilly night. A figure in a blue suit and wet hair stumbled out, reeking of alchol. Apparently someone had dumped a glass on him, or perhaps the whole bottle, Cloud found himself thinking, wondering why he was so suddently tense. The figure raised his face, and Cloud found himself looking into a very familiar face. Hazel green eyes widened at the same time as glowing blue ones.
"Reno? I'll walk home with you. . ," the blond haired owner of the sultry voice froze in shock at the doorway. Her hand dove for the holster at her side. Vincent was faster. Faster than the human eye could follow, he threw himself out of the shadows along the edge of the bar, appearing seemingly out of nowhere to close the sharp blades of his mechanical hand around the drunk Reno's throat, digging the points in enough that thin trickles of blood began to dribble down the pale skin. Elena froze. Vincent's gun was cocked and ready in his other hand.
"If you raise a fuss, he dies." The dark man's voice was calm. His scarlet cape settled from the swift moment, the thick leather making it impossible to notice the small muscle tensions that a good fighter uses to predict their oponent's movements, wrapping him in inscrultability. Above the high collar of the cloak, his eyes glowed through the stiff strands of black bangs that slipped free of his headband. His eyes and cloak were the same color as the glistening blood dripping over his golden hand from Reno's throat, as if the color tied the ex-Turk to the current one. /The symbol of the innocents we kill./ Vincent thought without humor.
"Come on out and shut the door behind you," Cloud ordered, guesturing at the female Turk standing by the door. Although she looked and spoke like a blond bimbo most of the time, Avalanche had fought Shinra's elite assasigns enough not to underestimate them. Elena nodded and obayed. /Come on, Rude, stop kissing that giggly whore and notice something's wrong over here,/ Elena prayed as she let the door thud softly shut behind her, closing her off from the light and the third member of the elite assasigns.
/Fuck!/ Barret's thoughts mirrored that of his companions. /We gotta move fast; we can't afford to take prisioners, but Turks have a natural immunity to most spells, and they could probably escape from anywhere we locked them up in. Are we gonna have to kill them in cold blood?/ Killing them in battle was one thing. This was different somehow. Barret glanced worriedly at Cloud, who was doing his stone face thing.
"Where are they keeping Reeve?" Cloud asked quietly. He hadn't reached for the huge sword strapped to his back or the materia orbs strapped to various equipment on his body, but tha aura of danger surrounding him made Cid want to take a step back. Cloud acting dangerous always made Barret think of Sephiroth. . . maybe just because of the glowing mako enhanced eyes.
Reno snickered, ignoring the way Vincent's claws scraped into his skin as his throat muscles vibrated. He didn't seem particularilly upset at the dangerous situation, nor as drunk as he had been a few seconds ago. Adrinilin was great for erasing the results of an alcholoic binge. "Oh, what a perfect end to a perfect fucking night. Naw, that's not right. What a perfect fucking end to a perfect fucking life, huh?"
"Talk and you might not die." Tifa's voice was cold.
"That 'might' doesn't encourage us to talk much," Elena commented cautiously to the other woman. "Everyone knows how you feel about us, Ms. Lockheart. I need at least your guarantee that we will have our lives in exchange for our cooperation." /Not that we'd actually cooperate with you, but this adds a little delay before you act, a little more time for Rude or someone to notice us and do something about it./ Elena carefully kept the thoughts from showing on her face.
"How I feel about you?" Tifa asked softly. A strange calm was seeping over her body, anger lashing under the surface. "You mean how I feel about your killing thousands of innocents in Midgar and almost everyone I knew?" Her eyes narrowed. "Don't worry about it, Turk. I'll wait to give them their revenge until another day." She smiled, and it was cold and hungry. "Unless you give me an excuse to do otherwise, of course."
"How ironic. I'm going to be killed for being a murderer by a murderer. Just my luck, right?" Reno laughed again. He considered running a hand through his hair, but wasn't sure that it wouldn't result in the monster-man tearing his throat out. Vincent had been a Turk after all; he wouldn't assume that a casual motion was harmless.
Tifa's face darkened. She took a step forward, but a heavy hand on her shoulder stopped her. When she glanced back, Barret was glaring at the pair of Turks with murder in his eyes. "I'll make you eat those words, you bastard. Those were my friends you killed too. How dare you call us murders?"
Elena laughed, making the noise as sarcastic and insulting as she could. Yeah, this'd work. If they could keep Avalanche arguing instead of shooting them. . . "Just calling it as I see it, sister. Do you really think that all those Shinra soldiers you killed were anything other than innocent? They were just following orders, they didn't know a damn thing about what was going on in the big sceme of things. And you stole their lives."
"They attacked us first!" Barret bellowed. "They would have killed us!"
"Yeah, because you invaded an area full of enough dangerous equipment that you could have killed an even bigger part of the population. If you had placed those bombs in just a little differently than you had, those reactors could have exploded and turned Midgar into Gongaga. They were just heros doing good, protecting people from dangerous rebels."
"They were supporting evil!"
"You mean the Shinra? I still haven't seen any scientific proof that the mako reactors were killing the planet, you know. And I don't think you have any cuz you would have released it to the public if you did. All you could come up with was a bunch of mystical mumbo-jumbo." Reno closed his eyes and leaned back, using Vincent's chest as a backrest. He was just sober enough to know that he had drunk enough that his mouth might get himself killed, but not sober enough to really take the possibility seriously and worry about it. The light scratches on his neck were itching though. Itching, not hurting. The blade tips had to be some increadable material, because they were so sharp they pierced his skin deep enough to draw blood without actually damaging much of the thick nerve network in human skin, like a subcutanius shot from a really sharp and thin nedle.
Cloud cocked his head curiously.
"Do you actually believe all that?" There was nothing in his voice beyond a slight surprise and rather offhand interest, as if chatting with an opponent in the middle of the street in enemy territory was a perfectly normal occurance.
For a moment, Elena was struck dumb.
"Kill innocents to save more innocents, or forsee their deaths and do nothing to stop it. Who bears the greater guilt?" Cloud shrugged, his eyes heavy with sorrow. Reno blinked and stared harder. An odd glint lay hidden in the depths of Cloud's eyes as he stared back, as if a decision had been made and it ammused him. Reno tensed; in preparation for what, he wasn't sure.
"There are rarely decisions in life that can be separated into good and evil. More often the scales seem balanced, and only a single grain of sand separates them. Don't you agree, Elena?"
He wasn't the only one unnerved by Cloud's lazy intensity, Reno was glad to note. Even the other members of Avalanch looked uncomfortable. Perhaps he could use . . . The fingers in his throat tightened slightly in warning. Well, maybe not.
Elena opened her mouth slightly as if to ask Cloud where the hell he thought he was going with this, and then changed her mind. They wanted a delay, after all.
Cloud shrugged again. "Perhaps there was a better path I didn't see. Looking back, there are millions of threads leading to futures we will never see. I carry that guilt, and I admit to it. As for the mystical mumbo jumbo. . ," he paused, thoughtful. "I can see why that would bother you. Blind belief is one of the most terrifying sins, for there is no real way to know when one is committing it. No one has the time to look into every issue in detail before acting, there is simply too mach information to absorb, and it is very rare that enough data is availiable to form concrete proof that one action is better than another. We all make the majority of decisions in our life based on hiddiously incompleate data. All we can do is try."
"What are you talking about. It was a hell of a lot more than a guess!" Barrett protested.
Tiffa nodded emphatically. "There was something wrong with the planet, and people were dying. The frequency of deaths tied into the amount of mako being consumed, and started shortly after the reactors were built. Maybe we didn't have hard and fast proof, but Shinra wasn't doing anything, and SOMEthing needed to be done."
"I do not believe Cloud is refering to Avalanch's actions." Vincent's low, rumble cut through the conversation. "To Guard- that was the Turk's original motto, whether it remains so today or not. It is only what is guarded, and how the guarding is accomplished that has changed over the centuries." There was wry amusement in Vincent's tone. "Answer Cloud, Reno. Why did you join the Turks?"
Reno tried to make his expression wistfull and pentinent. He tried really really hard. But damn he was a bad actor when he was drunk. . .
"Fuck, are we really going to stand here and listen to this shit. Just kill them and let's get going, Cloud," Cid snarled.
"We need to know where Reeve is, and talking to them is much faster than looking through the whole complex on our own," Cloud said calmly. He wasn't sure where the confidance that he could talk the Turks over came from. . . He raked his gaze over them again. There was just something angry and. . . pitiful about them now. . .
"How many times have you been drunk this week, Reno?"
"Better to ask how many times I've been sober, if that answers your question."
"Not easy being the bad guy when the good guys are in control, is it?"
Reno smirked. "Don't know if you noticed, goldenrod, but the balance of power shifted back over to our side a few days ago. Did you enjoy your brief moment of fame?"
"Then why are you still drunk?"
"I like being drunk. Listen, if you're trying to convince me that being a member of your happy little band leads to happily ever after, just give up. I've seen too many of your type, OK? Even if help for our side shows up, goldenclaw here is probably gonna yank my throat out before I can get free, so I'll do whatever the fuck you want."
"Reno!" Elena gasped.
"They got us by the balls, babe. And I really don't give a damn how this turns out. You wanna know where your pal is? Try the flight deck. He's been hanging there awaiting execution for the last three days. Careful though- he's rigged with explosives and surrounded by guards. First sign of a rescue from you guys and kaboom."
"Those bastards. . ." Barret hissed.
The last traces of amusement faded from Cloud's eyes. "Then I guess there had better not be a rescue from us. I'll make a deal with you," Cloud continued. "I will give myself up to you . . ."
"Like hell you will," Tifa snapped.
His eyes flicked to her.
"I'll give myself up to you, and in exchange, you get Reeve out. You can come up with something, I'm sure. Ask for him as a playtoy to get revenge for something or another or such. Who would you rather have as a prisioner after all, him or me?"
"And what's to keep me from just keeping both of you?"
"I'll trust your word."
"NO WAY. . ." Barret started, just as Tifa and Cid started their own tirades.
Cloud held up a hand, and turned to his friends. "Do you trust me?"
"Of course, when you're not being an idiot," Barret snapped.
Cid snorted. "That pretty much sums it up."
Cloud shook his head. "It'll be ok, I promise. I won't die here, remember?"
"If you want to risk your life over some half assed theory that you're imm. . ."
"Shut up,Cid." Cloud interupted him. "That doesn't need to be common knowledge."
"Sorry, I just have this little objection to my friends committing suicide in front of me," the gray haired man snapped.
"If we even get close to Reeve, he'll be dead."
"Yeah, and having the both of you dead is better somehow?"
Cloud turned to the Turks. "Is it a deal?"
"Cloud! Damn you, listen to us." Tifa's hand was white where she had it fisted by her side, as if only force of will was keeping her from flinging it against Cloud's face.
Reno smiled slowly. "Yes."
"Tell Reeve to meet the rest of Avalanche where I got proposed to; he'll understand."
Cloud touched Tifa's fist. "I have a hunch on this. Let me try, please. I'll come back to you, I promise."
"Damn you. . ." she hissed.
"Get out of here as soon as you can," Vincent said. "I'll give you a head start and then follow in a few minutes."
"You don't think this is a stupid plan?" Tifa asked, shocked.
"I. . . have the same hunch Cloud does." Amusement flickered in the red eyes for a moment, and then he raised his face enough so the fanged smile was visible over the collar of his cloak. "And I trust Cloud."
The door to the commander's office flew open and crashed against the wall with the help of a good kick.
"Yo, commander my man. Got ya a present. . ." Reno singsonged as he sauntered in, hands in his pockets and showing not the slightest bit of discomfort at the weapons that had been pointed at him since he kicked in the door.
The balding man waved a hand tiredly at his personal guards, who hastilly pointed the guns someplace other than the firery tempered killer. Reno stepped aside with a florish, revealing the three standing behind him.
Cloud's hands were bound behind his back, Elena's gun was a few inches from the small of his neck, and Rude hovered over them both ready to deal death or pain should any of the other restraints fail.
"Only one?" The commander asked, narrowing his eyes. "The others must be hiding somewhere on the base. Send out. . ."
"They'll be here by tomorrow evening," Cloud interrupted, gasping a bit as talking earned him a knee in the small of his back. "They can't keep up with the speed the SOLDIER enhancements let me travel at. We took too long talking before we gave upfor them to arrive in time. But they'll be here. They sent me ahead so you know that they're coming and don't kill President Reeve."
The commander glanced at Reno. "Lock him up somewhere," he ordered. "Full security."
Reno waved a hand lazily and Rude grabbed Cloud's shoulder and yanked him out of the room, Elena following carefully. The door slid shut behind them.
"Why are you still here?" The commander asked the redhead sharply, trying to keep his nervousness from showing. He had four guards in the room with him, but was only too aware that the predator in front of him wasn't bothered by them in the slightest.
The redhead grinned, and hopped up to sit on the edge of the desk. "I was sort of thinking that Avalanche deserved some punishment for being late. . ."
Cloud had only been sitting calmly in the small cell for about an hour when Elena and Rude showed up again, ordering him out of the cell and up a steep flight of stairs.
He frowned. "What's going on?"
The butt of Elena's gun caught him across the cheek. "You'll find out when we get there."
*Not helping me escape, in any case,* Cloud thought wryly, tasting blood along the inside of his cheek.
There was blue sky visible through the open door at the top of the stairs, and then they were through it and Cloud was staring out at what had to be half the complement of the base assembled to watch something on the pile of boxes that formed an almost stage at the front. With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomache he recognized Reeve as the kneeling man atop it. There was a brief jerk at his wrists, pulling his backwards and off balance, and before he recovered there was a soft click and his manicles had been secured to a ring in the wall next to the stairs. Rude and Elena stepped back, covering him with their weapons.
"What's going on?" Cloud asked, fighting to keep his voice steady.
"Just watch."
"If you execute him there's no reason for the other members of Avalanche to come."
"There's allways you, sweet cheeks," Elena grinned with cold eyes. "But don't worry, he's not going to die yet."
"They wouldn't come for me. I . . ."
A gargled yell cut him off. Reno had jumped up on the stage and kicked Reeve in the stomach with a steel toed boot. Reeve wheezed as he fought to get air in his lungs.
"Stop it," Cloud yelled, unconsciously yanking against his bonds. Damn it, there were too many people here to try to convince Reno to sneek away with Reeve, but maybe. . .
"Why're you complaining, pretty boy? I'm just taking your advice. You told me to ask to play with him for revenge on all the trouble you folks caused us," and Reno's foot lashed out again.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I think this chapter is long enough to need a break, don't you? And a nice cliff hanger to go along with it. . . Purrr.
This scene was not in my outline, by the way, although I like it much better than my previous plan. I love it when the characters supprise me. It makes writing so much more fun. . .
Inarae
ginabrae@aol.com