"Transcending Reality" by: Emerald Eyes
Okay. Finally things are going to fall into
place. People are going to meet people and questions will be answered and the
story will gain a plotline… AND THIS CHAPTER IS MUCH BETTER THAN THE LAST ONE!
Read. Review. Enjoy. And I thank everyone who wrote a review. Your kindness is
much appreciated. I actually owned Final Fantasy at
one point but Rufus Shinra held me at gunpoint and made me sell it to him so he
could make lots and lots of money, so don't sue me! Sue him!(sorry,
Rufie!) O_o
"Soon
the night will take me and save me from my pain. Cloak me in cold darkness and
help me lose your name…" –Stabbing Westward (and since the quote reminds me so
much of Vinny, I decided to take this next chapter back to the ShinRa Mansion…)
It was cold, it was dark, and it was almost dawn.
The only light in the room was the miniscule flame emanating from a small candle, shedding its pale golden light among the myriad of books scattered carelessly on top of the old wooden desk.
Alone in this unperturbed darkness of the mansion's basement was Vincent Valentine. His crimson eyes assiduously scanned the pages of the book before him. He was searching. He didn't know exactly what he was looking for, but he would know what it was when he found it. Day after day, night after night, he would keep on searching. He needed to know what Hojo did to him… what he did to her. Lucrecia was the reason he kept himself locked up in the basement.
He mechanically leafed through the aged paper, trying to make sense of Hojo's illegible handwriting. Skimming past various entries dated over thirty years ago, and stumbling upon more recent ones, he came across names. Some of whom he recognized, some who he did not. But none of them were the name he wanted.
Setting the volume aside, he stood up from the old rusty chair to look at the vast collection of books on the metal shelves before him. He randomly picked out an old tome, noticing the thick layer of dust accumulated on top. A row of letters could barely be seen underneath all the grime.
Curious, Vincent imprudently blew the filth off the book. He tried to stifle a cough as dirty clouds of dust filled the room. Not wanting to repeat the mistake, he wiped the rest off with his hand.
As his palm left the book he took in the cryptic title with interest. The Ethereal Project, the words spelled out in bold capital letters.
Sitting back down in the chair he opened the book and began to skim the pages. Unlike the other journals he had read, this one piqued his interest. Yes, it wasn't too unlike the other ones, with its half-illegible sentences scribbled in haste. But it wasn't the words that made him so inquisitive, it was the meaning of what they said.
He thoroughly read the scribbles, losing all meaning of time
and his original quest. What's written in this book can't possibly be
accomplished, can it? He thought skeptically, What Hojo's written
suggests that he's found a way to travel through time or to another dimension…
^_^_^_^
"All right," Alex said as he stepped up to the door of the ShinRa Mansion, "No one lives here so we don't have to worry about an excuse to raid the basement."
His two companions, one native to the planet and one not, watched passively as he picked the lock on the front door.
A click was heard, signifying that he had succeeded. He pulled a flashlight out of his jacket pocket and turned it on, illuminating the waning darkness. He pushed open the door and disappeared into the interior of the old house, Rufus Shinra and Seifer Almasy following close behind.
^_^_^_^
There it is again! She thought, it sounds like footsteps.
It was not the first sound that Fujin had heard all night. She tried convincing herself that it was all just her imagination, but this time it definitely was not.
Lying completely still in her bed, holding her breath, fearing that the slightest sound would attract whatever was making the noise, she attentively listened for the noise again. The attempt was rather futile thought, being that Raijin was snoring lightly in the bed beside hers. But as she heard the footsteps she was almost positive it wasn't Vincent. The man had a way of sneaking up on people when they lease expected it. Someone else was in the house.
Getting up, she reached for her shuriken that gleamed softly in the moonlight. Trying not to let fear get the best of her, she cautiously peeked around the side of the doorframe. Nothing but darkness greeted her eyes.
Taking a deep breath, she deftly maneuvered her way down the hallway. Finally away from her posse's snoring, she confirmed the footsteps and thought she also heard voices. Reaching the end of the hallway and coming to the foyer, she waited behind the bend, gathering courage before she faced the unknown around the corner.
Fujin rounded the corner with celerity… and ran straight into someone else!
She screamed and the man before her let out a surprised gasp. She brought her shuriken down on the man, who barely ducked in time to avoid the attack.
"Shit, Lady! You almost killed me!" the man said, staring wide-eyed at the silver-haired girl. Fujin returned the look with an equal amount of fear in her eyes.
"S-sorry," she managed to choke out. She couldn't see much of the man before her, but the minor details stood out. He had blonde hair that was combed back neatly and his posh white suit made him look like someone of great importance.
The blonde composed himself as Fujin let the shuriken drop to her side. It seemed as if he was about to speak, but instead another voice called from below.
"Rufus?" the voice asked, "You okay?"
"Yo, Shinra!" a second voice called, "What the hell happened?"
Fujin paused. The first voice she did not recognize, but the second voice…
"SEIFER!?" she asked hopefully to the darkness.
There was a moment of silence before the voice answered, "Fujin?"
Smiling, she broke into a run, almost knocking the man before her off his feet. Sprinting towards the source of the voice, she called out again, "SEIFER!!!"
She rushed forward, embracing the knight. Seifer laughed as he hugged his friend back.
"Damn, Fuj, what are you doing here?" the perplexed teenager asked.
"BRIGHT LIGHT," the girl explained, "WOKE UP HERE."
"What's going on, you know?"
The two members of the Disciplinary Committee turned their heads to stare up at the owner of the voice.
"Raijin!?" the knight asked, "You're here too?"
Raijin's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared back at the blonde. "Holy shit! It's Seifer!"
Soon Raijin was at the bottom of the stairway and had carried out a greeting similar to Fujin's.
"Seifer, who are these people?" the man Fujin had collided with asked as he walked down the steps to meet the other four in the foyer. The three Disciplinary Committee members had been so caught up in themselves that they had forgotten the other two men standing in the room with them.
"Rufus Shinra, meet my posse: Fujin and Raijin."
They exchanged greetings and a few questions were asked before the inevitable came up in the conversation.
"What happened to you, Seifer? I really want to know where we are and how you got here, too," Raijin asked.
"YES. EXPLAIN."
^_^_^_^_^
And so he did explain, with the help of Alex, who filled in on the more elaborate parts of the story.
On the other hand, Rufus Shinra sat on the steps and quietly thought about the events that had happened over the past several days. It seemed like only yesterday he was giving orders and was head of a company that was renowned worldwide. And to him, it was only yesterday! But as he was walking through the quiet alpine village, he noticed something: the absence of mako power.
It really has been several months, hasn't it? He wasn't naïve. He saw how Alex was looking around town, keeping a lookout. Not many people were around at five o'clock in the morning, but he made sure to steer clear of those who were. He quickened his pace every time someone came near, not risking the chance for someone to see and recognize the former president of ShinRa. Of course, the darkness helped obscure his identity, but the man in the trench coat didn't take any chances. Who am I now that I'm supposed to be dead?
Hearing his name come up in the conversation, the president was lured out of his morbid thoughts.
"…I don't know, Raijin!" Seifer's irritated voice reprimanded, "Why are you asking me! I just know that he's some military dude that tried to kill the planet! Why don't you ask Alex… or Shinra over there!" He pointed a finger in the general direction of the steps.
"Huh?" the older blonde asked dumbly.
"Sephiroth?" Seifer answered.
"Oh," the blonde started, "He was a first class member of an elite military force called SOLDIER…"
And so the president tried to explain what everybody that lived on his planet already knew, delving into a significant part of ShinRa's past, and how the feared General helped the company win many battles during the war with Wutai. He explained how his actions in war made him one of the most famous SOLDIERs of all time… and then explained what drove the man to insanity, and what caused him to summon Meteor.
All members of the unlikely party listened attentively to his story as they climbed down the rotted, winding staircase that led to the secret lab in the basement. The three from Balamb Garden were surprised to find a passageway hidden in the stone wall in the bedroom adjacent to the one the two Disciplinary Committee members were sharing.
Seifer Almasy led the way despite his unfamiliarity with the place, gripping the flashlight with one hand and his gunblade in the other. The miniscule light desperately tried to burn away the dust and darkness with its powerful beam. The irascible knight was becoming increasingly agitated with the creepy air to the place, and interrupted the president's story insolently.
"Hey Shinra!" he complained, "You own this place, right? So why don't you lead the way?"
"Yes, I do own it," the man replied matter-of-factly, "but I've never actually been in it before today."
"So why am I the one in the lead?!" he argued back.
"Because," Alex responded from the depths of the darkness, becoming annoyed as one of the myriad cobwebs flew into his face. "You're the one who went down the stairs first."
Sighing in consent, the gunblade specialist returned to following the wooden spiral steps, avoiding the broken and more rotted pieces. Finally reaching the bottom of the hole, he ventured into a cavernous tunnel that was off to the side as he silently wondered if the darkness would ever end.
He stepped forward into the gaping entrance that led to the laboratory beyond. However, he did not get far. Somewhere in the depths of the darkness around him the familiar "click" of a gun being cocked could be heard.
"Don't move," a dark voice ordered from the shadows.
Seifer froze solid, awaiting further instructions from the gunman hidden beyond his sight.
"Discard your weapon," the voice ordered again.
Almasy hesitantly dropped Hyperion on the dirty floor beside him, the others following Seifer's example with their own weapons. The gunman released himself from his sanctuary in the shadows. Seifer gaped at the man that held him at gunpoint: Raven hair carelessly fell onto his extremely pale countenance despite the red bandana that tried so desperately to hold it back. The dark gunman was dressed completely in black, from the long trench coat that covered his body to the combat boots that covered his feet. A rather disturbing feature of the man was the metal claw that ominously made its presence known from the left sleeve of the gunman's coat. But even more disturbing than that were the deep crimson eyes that beheld a deep hatred to the world.
"VINCENT?!" Fujin asked wildly, staring openly at the gunman.
"You know him?!" Seifer spat out surly.
"Yeah," Raijin explained, "He's the guy that lives here, you know?"
"He lives here?" a surprised Alex asked. Vincent wasn't in the familiar attire Alex knew from the game, but he was definitely staring at the same ex-Turk. But he didn't think the man actually lived in the place.
"Why didn't you warn us about this?" Seifer asked the dark-skinned man.
"I forgot, you know?" the man answered back dumbly.
Vincent carefully locked eyes with the people before him, his gaze lingering on Rufus.
"I thought you were dead," he scrutinized the blonde suspiciously, his weapon now pointed to Rufus instead of Seifer.
Rufus merely shrugged, "So did I, Mr. Valentine."
The ex-Turk seemed unperturbed by the president's cryptic answer. "Why are you here?" he then asked stoically.
"Because I'm not the only one that has supposedly come back from the dead," the president responded, "As it turns out, a certain professor that used to work for me happens to still be alive. And I'm afraid he might have found a way to revive Sephiroth."
To one that didn't know the dark man very well, the man showed no reaction. But to one who knew what to expect, an extreme change in emotion took place. The crimson fire in the man's eyes seemed to grow at the mention of the dreaded professor. "Hojo!?" Vincent asked heatedly, "I thought Strife killed him off!"
"Yeah, well apparently he's back," Alex responded, "He has some kind of new experiment going on. It has something to do with alternate dimensions. That's why we're here. We're hoping to find some information on it in the library."
Normally Vincent wouldn't believe such a story, but the coincidence it shared with the document he had been reading only moments before created a slight nagging feeling in the back of his mind. "How do you know about Hojo's… 'invention?'"
"Because the Professor guy sent him his 'invention,'" Seifer responded for Alex.
Vincent turned to the other man clad in black, "Is this true?"
"Yeah," Alex said, reaching into his pocket to retrieve the device. Vincent became alarmed and aimed the gun at the unwary man.
Alex, upon realizing his mistake, explained himself before Vincent would fire. "Whoa! Don't shoot! I'm getting Hojo's invention! I'm not stupid. I wouldn't try to pull a gun on an ex-Turk!"
Vincent was still precautious, but lowered his gun slightly, allowing the man to reveal the device. "This is the device Hojo had invented. In a blink of an eye it can take you to a totally different world, a totally different place. Hojo had sent this one to me about a year ago. I didn't know what it was or what it was even capable of. I'm not from this dimension, Vincent. In fact, the only one that is happens to be Rufus."
Vincent glanced askance at the group of people, dubiously scrutinizing all of them. He threw a baffled look towards Seifer. "You mean you're not…?"
Seifer smiled complacently, satisfied that he had managed to kill the man's apathetic façade. He shook his head. "Nope. I'm not from here at all… in fact, I don't even know where the fuck I am!"
There were several moments of uneasy silence before Rufus finally spoke. "I strongly suggest you let us search the library."
"Yeah," Seifer added, "Hojo somehow used his little experiment to revive this Sephiroth guy."
"He revived Sephiroth!?" the ex-Turk asked frantically.
"I don't think Hojo 'revived' him," Rufus explained, "I think he just saved him before he could die." All eyes turned to stare at the ex-president at the remark. "Think about it. He did the same thing to me. He just transported me out of my office just as the explosion hit the building. He probably wanted to test his new invention before he took a chance using it on Sephiroth. Tell me, did any members of AVALANCHE actually check to see if he was dead before they left him there to rot at the northern crater?"
"There was an explosion…" Alex mused.
"Yes," Vincent agreed, "We barely had time to make it to the Highwind before an energy blast of mako destroyed the place. And because Sephiroth was still alive that might explain why Holy didn't do a good job on destroying Meteor."
"It didn't?" a confused ex-president asked.
"No," Alex said, "the Lifestream was the actual thing that saved the planet."
Vincent lowered his gun slightly and examined the group one last time before leading them into the library.
Seifer noticed that the man still did not holster his
weapon. He doesn't quite trust us yet.
The group filed into the room, spreading out to observe the strange equipment scattered about the lab. Seifer noticed a rather ominous looking operating table, stained with aged blood and the assortment of strange looking gadgets, also bloodstained. His eyes fell upon the two glass tanks; taking note of the strange glowing, green residue on the inside. God, what the hell happened in here!?
Vincent handed a thick novel-like book to Alex, explaining to him some of the things he had been reading in it before. Alex took the book from the ex-Turk and started to leaf through it, looking for anything that indicated what Hojo had in mind.
The crimson-eyed man, his eyes still warily watching everyone in the room, pulled out a PHS from his coat pocket and dialed a number. There was a pause before the person on the other line spoke.
"Hello?" the voice greeted.
"Strife?" Vincent asked.
"Vince? Is that you?" a surprised Cloud asked, "How convenient! I was just about to call everyone. I have to tell you some bad news, though," he continued dejectedly, "I think"—
--"You think Sephiroth may not be dead," Vincent finished.
There was a pause before AVALANCHE leader spoke. "Hey!" he replied confusedly, "How did you know that?"
"There are some people here with me that claim they're involved in the whole thing."
Cloud waited a moment, letting the information sink in. When he finally decided to speak, his answer wasn't all that intelligent. "Really?" he asked.
The ex-Turk ignored the spiky-haired man's gratuitous question and told him what he wanted done. "Strife, I want you to call everyone. Tell them about Sephiroth. Get Cid to take everyone to Nibelheim on the Highwind. Meet me at the ShinRa mansion."
"Okay, I'll get right on it!" the leader replied curtly and hung up the phone.
Seifer was fidgeting, the essence of the room making him nervous. So when Alex said he had found something useful, he was grateful for the distraction.
The azure-eyed man read out loud the passage scribbled on the old paper. From what he noticed, the writing looked fairly new. It wasn't dated, but unlike the other ones, the ink wasn't faded at all.
"I now know for certain that my son will fail at his task
on this planet," Alex read, "AVALANCHE had defeated me at the mako
cannon in Midgar, thus spoiling my plans. Of course they all thought I had died
when the explosion hit the ShinRa building. Those fools! The Jenova in my body
won't let me die that easily.
"I have tested the device on the ShinRa President,"
he read, "The experiment was a success! It is still unstable, but I believe
that I can make the correct modifications to the device to make the
calculations more precise. I should be able to get to the Northern Crater in
time to stop AVALANCHE from destroying Sephiroth! I know of a perfect little
place where he will be able to fulfill his destiny. This planet doesn't have
any kind of defense against his superior ability, and the lack of 'magic' makes
this place more vulnerable to his actions…"
"I have a bad feeling about this," Seifer commented.
"AFFIRMATIVE," Fujin agreed.
Alex reluctantly read the rest of the passage. "The planet's advanced technology will not hinder my son, and I am convinced that he will easily accomplish his task."
"That last part didn't sound too good, you know?" Raijin said glumly.
But Alex was lost in his own thoughts… No magic…? That sounds like…
"Earth," he whispered, fearing that the insane SOLDIER had already inflicted damage on his home.
End Ch. 7 at 04.22.01.
Okay, I hope I redeemed myself for the last
chapter (which I thought was a bit crappy). The story's going to get more
exciting soon. So what's going on in the next chapter? Well, we all know who
Eiko's gonna meet up with in Lindblum. What will I have happen to them? And
what about Squall and co.? Is that gonna be boring…? Heh heh, don't bet on it…
remember that the last time we saw Hojo, he was near Balamb Garden…
Be nice and write a review… no flames…
email me: spookyfox1@hotmail.com