The Masquerade, a Final Fantasy VII Fic
"You two keep going off and looking like THIS and I might think we have a Romeo and Juliet aboard." -CLOUD
Reeve looked at the amazon. He took at deep breath and with some hesitation murmured, " We cannot go back there. The city is at a level 10 toxic pollution ratio." He cleared his throat and smacked his lips, looking away from Nemesis, who raised an inquiring eyebrow. She smiled devilishly as soon as she realized what Reeve was doing.
"Tsk, tsk, Reeve you where always so cemented in your devotion towards honesty. At least you seemed as much from my far away view." She smiled in amusement but spoke severely. "Now take me to Midgar before you dismantle it."
"As I've said...."
"Oh shut the hell up, will you? Stop playing games, you're a horrible liar Reeve. Kudos to you on that, but your little game is not amusing." Elena walked with feigned courage towards Nemesis and handed her a large binder. The four inch organizer overflowed with paper. It was like an overfed beast.
"He is not lying. All the information is there: the death toll, the residual toxins, recorded air borne diseases..." Her breaths where deep and wavering as she spoke. She moved closer to Reeve. "It's all there." Nemesis looked at them both and nonchalantly dropped the obese creature in front of them.
"I know very well that he isn't lying about that." She spoke calmly, but an obvious struggle for patience was demonstrated in her glowing eyes. "What he is lying about is our inability to go back there. I have seen all the equipment and we all know that mako treatments make people highly resistant to toxins. And don't you even try to play the 'I worry about your health' game." /Not like you care if I die/ She forcefully expelled a breath from her mouth. "Now take me there." Tifa rolled her eyes. She was thinking of a series of smart comments she could say back. /Who does she think she is? We're not her servants/ Her thoughts where interrupted by one blithe word.
"Sure" A collective "What?" was heard around the room. Cloud shrugged and repeated himself. "Sure, why not? I have to go back there anyway. My children are waiting for me there ...and uh...never mind.". Nemesis wore her lopsided grin again and nodded courtly. Upon realizing that his incongruous answer left many dumbfounded and a few irritated, Cloud began explaining himself. "Well, um ya'll don't have to go...me and Vincent, we'll take care of it and um it'll be quick, I mean she just wants to see it for one last time. It's not so much to ask...I think."
"We can go too," volunteered Reno. A swift "No!" came from Elena. Argument sprung up and incoherent phrases where being shouted.
"Are you sure you're all friends? And since when does Mr. Cloud have children" Nemesis asked Vincent. He only gave a disappointed sigh.
"Please just call me Cloud." The leader of this eclectic group exhaled fiercely. "Would you all stop it?!" The room became quiet and "hmphs" where heard all around.
"Fine Cloud, I'll take you guys. Any excuse for flying is a damn good excuse." Cid lit a cigarette and yielded to Cloud's wishes. He was a pilot, an airman, and he followed orders. Wether this Nemesis woman was to be trusted, he did not know, but he trusted his leader. Reeve pointed to the no smoking sign hanging from the ceiling. Cid also desperately needed a smoke. "Oy, Let's move out people. I'll take these youngsters to Midgar." He walked away, pumping poison into his lungs and loving it.
"You guys can stay here and try to locate Hojo. Go through the files we found and um.." Cloud gave a glance at Nemesis. " and...forgive me for saying this...but find out exactly what Nemesis is." Nemesis shrugged. She wanted to know what she was too. "Yuffie, Reno, and Rude, you should accompany us, as back up." Reno lit up.
"Cool," and he started to light a Cig.
"No smoking" Reeve said tensely.
"We're going now anyway. C'mon Neme, let's mosey." There was a brief pause and then he crushed his face in his hands. "Oh geeze that idiot has got me saying that..."He walked out of the room as Rude, Nemesis, and Vincent followed. Red came in the room simultaneously.
"Is it over?" The wise creature walked slowly and cautiously inside. He had left the argument from it's conception, as he was always inclined to do. Cloud laughed and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah Nanaki." He moved closer to him and the doorway. " We're leaving now to Midgar. Elena, Reeve, Tifa, and possibly Barret are staying here with you and helping you dig through what we found. Keep in touch with the outside world. Any reports of Dr.Ugly and Mr. Sly would help us."
"We will do our best." Red made his way deeper into the room as Cloud left. The intelligent beast looked up at all the faces left; he could feel the tension threaten to crush his insides.
* * * *
"It's the Highwind...." Nemesis said with an uncharacteristic wide- eyed look. Cid beamed with pride. "But it's not the original," she continued. "The material is far less rustically charming, and lady luck has far more humble 'attributes' then from what photos I remember." She stared at the slightly tamed Auburn haired bombshell on the side of the new Highwind model. "See?" Cid exclaimed. "I told you those a$$holes didn't get her proportions right!" He looked at Nemesis who glared critically at the sleek ship. "Don't you worry non kid. I'm gonna scrub that picture myself and give some justice to my lady." Nemesis nodded to him as they entered the moving fortress. Amidst her excitement to finally be in the Highwind, or at least something like it, she remembered that this was not her dream. /This is what you wanted Aeris/ She whipped her head back staring straight at Vincent, who had been sensing her discomfort and sadness. No one else noticed it, but she was annoyed at herself for allowing him to get through.
/ "Stop doing that"/ rang loudly inside Vincent's head. A flicker of light illuminated Nemesis and Vincent's eyes for a fraction of a second He grimaced a little at the shock. Cloud raised an eyebrow. He knew very well that there was something strange about Vincent and Nemesis's connection. Anyone who had witnessed their first meeting or if not, the peculiar moment at the MSC cafeteria, would agree that their connection was an enigma.. /What was that all about?/ Vincent thought similarly about the amazon's current transaction with him. She had used some psychic powers to contact his mind twice now and this time it gave him a bit of a headache./ At least I don't feel what I felt that first time.../ He remembered the needles and the pain beyond pain. It was foreign but he identified with any sort of pain better then most. He had to help her, had to find out more about this woman and perhaps about himself. No one mentioned what happened in the cafeteria. He pretended he did not remember, did she pretend as well? Then he remembered those words, the blood on her hands. Why did those words hurt him? Why was he drawn to her?
"Don't think too much...Mist...Vincent..." She whispered next to him as Cid gloated to her about the aircraft.
"An' this here is the cockpit, and down that way is the meeting room, and..." He was enjoying this very much.
"And where would the lunch room be?" She asked politely. Wasn't this the stern woman that had silenced Cid's hostile friends? Now she seemed like a polite girl. By no means devoid of her powerful aura, but certainly a friendlier lady./Maybe it's cuz she likes my ship that I like her ?/ Cid thought.
"Oh yeah, well we don't have one of those exactly. We have a small kitchen...Shera is here so, you go on ahead and eat with her."
"We'll show you the way!" Exclaimed Reno smiling like a clown and smacking her back loudly. /This is really you, you're alive.../She gave him an amused villainous look as he kept on grinning.
"Well, I'm not hungry..." Yuffy turned her nose upwards but her stomach growled and gave her away. "Hehe" she laughed nervously.
"If you find it distasteful to eat with me, I hold no grudge." Nemesis looked at Cloud. "I'm so hungry I could even eat Squall at this moment..." He laughed boyishly. It was hard to believe that he could posses the severity necessary to live in this new world. * * * *
The Highwind stirred and raced to its destination. Atop the deck stood Nemesis who had slyly escaped from the dinner festivities. No doubt her minute of solace would soon be interrupted by one or two of her captors. It sure didn't feel like they where guards though. Even Yuffie was beginning to like her by the end of dinner and Shera politely accepted her. Of course she had no idea that it was Sephiroth's sister whom she had dinned with. Nemesis had to admit, she didn't mind their company at all. /you like them Aeris, why shouldn't I?/She closed her eyes and took in the cool night air. Then she leaned on the balcony and let the wind dance madly with her hair. A hand of flesh and a hand of metal hovered near the small of her back. Electricity seemed to hover between their two bodies. She stood up straight. As she gazed into the night sky she said "thank you." Vincent gazed with her and remained silent.
"You actually look like you genuinely seem concerned about my well being..." Nemesis said unwavering. "Vincent... thank you for remaining quiet all this time. I almost felt as if I had a moment of privacy..." They looked briefly at each other through the corners of their eyes and then turned their attention back to the stars.
"There you two are." Cloud walked in with a lazy pace, rubbing his stomach with a glutton's pleasure. He watched them as they absorbed some comfort from the placid night. A smirk came on his face. "You two keep going off and looking like THIS and I might think we have a Romeo and Juliet aboard."
Nemesis scoffed and Vincent gave his friend a playful evil glare. /Ah Cloud, only you would dare make such a comment, but how little you know about our...complicated connection. How little I know/
Cloud joined in gazing at the sky. "She never gets any less beautiful or any less majestic." "So there is a poetic tongue in you after all." Vincent's tone was calm and serene. Other's would have taken it as another of Vincent's sly comments, but Cloud knew better. This was a joke. "I've been hanging around you too long my brooding friend." He turned towards Nemesis and wore a slightly more serious face. "I need to ask you something..."
"I knew you would, Cloud. Go on and ask." She grabbed a hold of her ridiculously long hair, but the bangs at her side still flirted with the wind. "Go on now, ask, I'll only bite if you want me to." She winked at him and then stared back at the night. Cloud gave a small chuckle. Vincent remained as stoic as ever, or perhaps too stoic for being in Cloud's presence. He felt a small tap at his heart. Was he close to being jealous?
"How exactly did an amazon become a henchman...er...woman for a mako devouring corporation?"His question was honest and to the point.
"You've got brass Cloud. You question my story."She looked at him, ready to answer. She knew he was the one she saw within the consciousness of the life stream. The tormented little soul so adored by Aeris. And it was Aeris who was making Cloud trust her and even like her. It was she who was helping them become friendlier by the second. She was the one calming his fears of another Sephiroth.
"When you ask it that way...it sounds so ridiculous that I would go from an earth worshiping Amazon to a Turk." She played with the waves of her hair. A Turk walked in to their conversation.
"But love can make you do ridiculous things..." Reno sat against the railing, finishing of another beer. Disbelief was written in Cloud, Vincent's, and now Yuffie's face as she walked in on Reno's comment.
"Is that how you want to label my story Reno? As a simple love story?" Her tone was flat and she wondered what her former partner had been thinking in divulging such a thing.
"It's the truth, you did it for him. Rufus brought you and kept you with us. HE was the be-all and end-all to EVERYTHING." A level of spite burst from his lips as he laughed drunkenly. The others now became bewildered spectators. / Love? Rufus?What?/ Yuffie thought in confusion. "Hmm, a drunken man could tell you more, more honestly then perhaps I could. Why don't you tell them Reno. Tell them my so call 'love story' as you have called it." Vincent gave Nemesis a look, as if to say "are you sure?" She urged her friend on. /Maybe it's better this way/ "I will then. I'll tell you how a caring girl gains her Turk mask and loses so much of what made her infinitely awe inspiring. And all because of HIM!"
"You two keep going off and looking like THIS and I might think we have a Romeo and Juliet aboard." -CLOUD
Reeve looked at the amazon. He took at deep breath and with some hesitation murmured, " We cannot go back there. The city is at a level 10 toxic pollution ratio." He cleared his throat and smacked his lips, looking away from Nemesis, who raised an inquiring eyebrow. She smiled devilishly as soon as she realized what Reeve was doing.
"Tsk, tsk, Reeve you where always so cemented in your devotion towards honesty. At least you seemed as much from my far away view." She smiled in amusement but spoke severely. "Now take me to Midgar before you dismantle it."
"As I've said...."
"Oh shut the hell up, will you? Stop playing games, you're a horrible liar Reeve. Kudos to you on that, but your little game is not amusing." Elena walked with feigned courage towards Nemesis and handed her a large binder. The four inch organizer overflowed with paper. It was like an overfed beast.
"He is not lying. All the information is there: the death toll, the residual toxins, recorded air borne diseases..." Her breaths where deep and wavering as she spoke. She moved closer to Reeve. "It's all there." Nemesis looked at them both and nonchalantly dropped the obese creature in front of them.
"I know very well that he isn't lying about that." She spoke calmly, but an obvious struggle for patience was demonstrated in her glowing eyes. "What he is lying about is our inability to go back there. I have seen all the equipment and we all know that mako treatments make people highly resistant to toxins. And don't you even try to play the 'I worry about your health' game." /Not like you care if I die/ She forcefully expelled a breath from her mouth. "Now take me there." Tifa rolled her eyes. She was thinking of a series of smart comments she could say back. /Who does she think she is? We're not her servants/ Her thoughts where interrupted by one blithe word.
"Sure" A collective "What?" was heard around the room. Cloud shrugged and repeated himself. "Sure, why not? I have to go back there anyway. My children are waiting for me there ...and uh...never mind.". Nemesis wore her lopsided grin again and nodded courtly. Upon realizing that his incongruous answer left many dumbfounded and a few irritated, Cloud began explaining himself. "Well, um ya'll don't have to go...me and Vincent, we'll take care of it and um it'll be quick, I mean she just wants to see it for one last time. It's not so much to ask...I think."
"We can go too," volunteered Reno. A swift "No!" came from Elena. Argument sprung up and incoherent phrases where being shouted.
"Are you sure you're all friends? And since when does Mr. Cloud have children" Nemesis asked Vincent. He only gave a disappointed sigh.
"Please just call me Cloud." The leader of this eclectic group exhaled fiercely. "Would you all stop it?!" The room became quiet and "hmphs" where heard all around.
"Fine Cloud, I'll take you guys. Any excuse for flying is a damn good excuse." Cid lit a cigarette and yielded to Cloud's wishes. He was a pilot, an airman, and he followed orders. Wether this Nemesis woman was to be trusted, he did not know, but he trusted his leader. Reeve pointed to the no smoking sign hanging from the ceiling. Cid also desperately needed a smoke. "Oy, Let's move out people. I'll take these youngsters to Midgar." He walked away, pumping poison into his lungs and loving it.
"You guys can stay here and try to locate Hojo. Go through the files we found and um.." Cloud gave a glance at Nemesis. " and...forgive me for saying this...but find out exactly what Nemesis is." Nemesis shrugged. She wanted to know what she was too. "Yuffie, Reno, and Rude, you should accompany us, as back up." Reno lit up.
"Cool," and he started to light a Cig.
"No smoking" Reeve said tensely.
"We're going now anyway. C'mon Neme, let's mosey." There was a brief pause and then he crushed his face in his hands. "Oh geeze that idiot has got me saying that..."He walked out of the room as Rude, Nemesis, and Vincent followed. Red came in the room simultaneously.
"Is it over?" The wise creature walked slowly and cautiously inside. He had left the argument from it's conception, as he was always inclined to do. Cloud laughed and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah Nanaki." He moved closer to him and the doorway. " We're leaving now to Midgar. Elena, Reeve, Tifa, and possibly Barret are staying here with you and helping you dig through what we found. Keep in touch with the outside world. Any reports of Dr.Ugly and Mr. Sly would help us."
"We will do our best." Red made his way deeper into the room as Cloud left. The intelligent beast looked up at all the faces left; he could feel the tension threaten to crush his insides.
* * * *
"It's the Highwind...." Nemesis said with an uncharacteristic wide- eyed look. Cid beamed with pride. "But it's not the original," she continued. "The material is far less rustically charming, and lady luck has far more humble 'attributes' then from what photos I remember." She stared at the slightly tamed Auburn haired bombshell on the side of the new Highwind model. "See?" Cid exclaimed. "I told you those a$$holes didn't get her proportions right!" He looked at Nemesis who glared critically at the sleek ship. "Don't you worry non kid. I'm gonna scrub that picture myself and give some justice to my lady." Nemesis nodded to him as they entered the moving fortress. Amidst her excitement to finally be in the Highwind, or at least something like it, she remembered that this was not her dream. /This is what you wanted Aeris/ She whipped her head back staring straight at Vincent, who had been sensing her discomfort and sadness. No one else noticed it, but she was annoyed at herself for allowing him to get through.
/ "Stop doing that"/ rang loudly inside Vincent's head. A flicker of light illuminated Nemesis and Vincent's eyes for a fraction of a second He grimaced a little at the shock. Cloud raised an eyebrow. He knew very well that there was something strange about Vincent and Nemesis's connection. Anyone who had witnessed their first meeting or if not, the peculiar moment at the MSC cafeteria, would agree that their connection was an enigma.. /What was that all about?/ Vincent thought similarly about the amazon's current transaction with him. She had used some psychic powers to contact his mind twice now and this time it gave him a bit of a headache./ At least I don't feel what I felt that first time.../ He remembered the needles and the pain beyond pain. It was foreign but he identified with any sort of pain better then most. He had to help her, had to find out more about this woman and perhaps about himself. No one mentioned what happened in the cafeteria. He pretended he did not remember, did she pretend as well? Then he remembered those words, the blood on her hands. Why did those words hurt him? Why was he drawn to her?
"Don't think too much...Mist...Vincent..." She whispered next to him as Cid gloated to her about the aircraft.
"An' this here is the cockpit, and down that way is the meeting room, and..." He was enjoying this very much.
"And where would the lunch room be?" She asked politely. Wasn't this the stern woman that had silenced Cid's hostile friends? Now she seemed like a polite girl. By no means devoid of her powerful aura, but certainly a friendlier lady./Maybe it's cuz she likes my ship that I like her ?/ Cid thought.
"Oh yeah, well we don't have one of those exactly. We have a small kitchen...Shera is here so, you go on ahead and eat with her."
"We'll show you the way!" Exclaimed Reno smiling like a clown and smacking her back loudly. /This is really you, you're alive.../She gave him an amused villainous look as he kept on grinning.
"Well, I'm not hungry..." Yuffy turned her nose upwards but her stomach growled and gave her away. "Hehe" she laughed nervously.
"If you find it distasteful to eat with me, I hold no grudge." Nemesis looked at Cloud. "I'm so hungry I could even eat Squall at this moment..." He laughed boyishly. It was hard to believe that he could posses the severity necessary to live in this new world. * * * *
The Highwind stirred and raced to its destination. Atop the deck stood Nemesis who had slyly escaped from the dinner festivities. No doubt her minute of solace would soon be interrupted by one or two of her captors. It sure didn't feel like they where guards though. Even Yuffie was beginning to like her by the end of dinner and Shera politely accepted her. Of course she had no idea that it was Sephiroth's sister whom she had dinned with. Nemesis had to admit, she didn't mind their company at all. /you like them Aeris, why shouldn't I?/She closed her eyes and took in the cool night air. Then she leaned on the balcony and let the wind dance madly with her hair. A hand of flesh and a hand of metal hovered near the small of her back. Electricity seemed to hover between their two bodies. She stood up straight. As she gazed into the night sky she said "thank you." Vincent gazed with her and remained silent.
"You actually look like you genuinely seem concerned about my well being..." Nemesis said unwavering. "Vincent... thank you for remaining quiet all this time. I almost felt as if I had a moment of privacy..." They looked briefly at each other through the corners of their eyes and then turned their attention back to the stars.
"There you two are." Cloud walked in with a lazy pace, rubbing his stomach with a glutton's pleasure. He watched them as they absorbed some comfort from the placid night. A smirk came on his face. "You two keep going off and looking like THIS and I might think we have a Romeo and Juliet aboard."
Nemesis scoffed and Vincent gave his friend a playful evil glare. /Ah Cloud, only you would dare make such a comment, but how little you know about our...complicated connection. How little I know/
Cloud joined in gazing at the sky. "She never gets any less beautiful or any less majestic." "So there is a poetic tongue in you after all." Vincent's tone was calm and serene. Other's would have taken it as another of Vincent's sly comments, but Cloud knew better. This was a joke. "I've been hanging around you too long my brooding friend." He turned towards Nemesis and wore a slightly more serious face. "I need to ask you something..."
"I knew you would, Cloud. Go on and ask." She grabbed a hold of her ridiculously long hair, but the bangs at her side still flirted with the wind. "Go on now, ask, I'll only bite if you want me to." She winked at him and then stared back at the night. Cloud gave a small chuckle. Vincent remained as stoic as ever, or perhaps too stoic for being in Cloud's presence. He felt a small tap at his heart. Was he close to being jealous?
"How exactly did an amazon become a henchman...er...woman for a mako devouring corporation?"His question was honest and to the point.
"You've got brass Cloud. You question my story."She looked at him, ready to answer. She knew he was the one she saw within the consciousness of the life stream. The tormented little soul so adored by Aeris. And it was Aeris who was making Cloud trust her and even like her. It was she who was helping them become friendlier by the second. She was the one calming his fears of another Sephiroth.
"When you ask it that way...it sounds so ridiculous that I would go from an earth worshiping Amazon to a Turk." She played with the waves of her hair. A Turk walked in to their conversation.
"But love can make you do ridiculous things..." Reno sat against the railing, finishing of another beer. Disbelief was written in Cloud, Vincent's, and now Yuffie's face as she walked in on Reno's comment.
"Is that how you want to label my story Reno? As a simple love story?" Her tone was flat and she wondered what her former partner had been thinking in divulging such a thing.
"It's the truth, you did it for him. Rufus brought you and kept you with us. HE was the be-all and end-all to EVERYTHING." A level of spite burst from his lips as he laughed drunkenly. The others now became bewildered spectators. / Love? Rufus?What?/ Yuffie thought in confusion. "Hmm, a drunken man could tell you more, more honestly then perhaps I could. Why don't you tell them Reno. Tell them my so call 'love story' as you have called it." Vincent gave Nemesis a look, as if to say "are you sure?" She urged her friend on. /Maybe it's better this way/ "I will then. I'll tell you how a caring girl gains her Turk mask and loses so much of what made her infinitely awe inspiring. And all because of HIM!"