Chapter Three: The Ancients
Disclaimer: I do not own the FF 7 characters or plot, just the Cetra I made up.
The night the visitors came, they put Johnny in the backroom. When everyone woke up, Lena announced, "The spy is dead." Sure enough, he was dead.
"How did he die?" Tifa asked.
"Don't know." Lena looked out of the bar window. "We should get to researching this Midgar Zolom."
"Too true, but first you have to sample Tifa's cooking," Melody commented. "The only stuff that's better is the stuff I was raised on."
"The stuff you're raised on is always the best, so it has an unfair advantage," Marc said.
"That's true. Well, let's wait on this food. It rained last night so I want to see Kalm in the rain." Lena opened the barrel of a revolver (I wonder where that came from, Tifa thought) and placed four bullets in. Lena stood up and walked towards the door. She opened it and she walked outside. Melody and Valeria looked at each other.
Everyone suddenly heard the squeal of tires driving fast and they saw Lena shoot the four bullets.
The previous night...
A woman's voice beeped over the intercom. "All espionage members that are part of the AC please report to Level B4. I repeat, all espionage members that are part of the AC please report to Level B4." Ten people, men and women, went to the elevators scattered throughout the corporate buildings and swiped their cards. The elevator came to life and a panel with numbers lit up.
"Welcome. Please select which floor you would like to enter." They all pushed B4 and went down.
A tall, muscular man was waiting for them. All around the man, scientists in white lab coats were walking by. He had short blonde hair and was wearing a dark blue jumpsuit. He walked to an empty lab and turned around.
"Please start your introductions," the man said. A short, dark-skinned man stepped up.
"I am Swift, leader of the Assassination Crew." He stepped back. Each person stepped up like Swift did and introduced him or herself. When the last person stepped back, Swift stepped up again. "All members are present or accounted for. What is our mission."
"It appears that there has been a leaky faucet." Swift shuddered as glowing blue Mako eyes stared at him as if it were his fault.
"Sir?" Swift asked. The blonde man turned around and faced the large computer screen on the other wall. The computer spoke.
"Espionage agent 15557, Jonathan Lyre, was sent to pose as the employee of any one of the people that defeated Sephiroth. He was an employee successfully for ten months, but an Ancient girl started to work there.
"Another Ancient somehow arrived there, and told some secrets of his own. Lyre foolishly tried to escape because he thought the man knew about him. Lyre told them almost all he knew about us, but he neglected to tell them about our most recent project. the Jenova Rebirth Project. An Ancient knows he's hiding something, but she doesn't know what." The computer stopped talking.
"Your assignment, or mission, is to assassinate Lyre before he tells them anything else. It doesn't matter what the method is. Let me tell you this to help you decide on the method. As a baby, Tifa Lockheart was a light sleeper. She was woken up by the slightest sounds.
"This proves to be to your disadvantage. She was, from what I know, a student of my old friend, Zangan. That means that she is a very good hand-to-hand fighter. He may have even taught her some of the assassin tricks that he knows. Don't do a method that will wake her up. But then, the art of spying and silent killing are your specialties, aren't they?" The Mako eyes again unnerved Swift.
"Mr. Strife, what do you suggest we use?" a woman asked.
"I don't know. Just don't use a gun. If an Ancient in that building has the ability to detect evil... be silent, fast, and above all else, don't let your mind wander on what your mission is."
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"What did you just shoot at?" Warren asked.
"Let us check." Everyone walked out of the bar and walked up to the silver car that was sideways as if it went out of control. Bullets punctured the two front wheels and the two men were killed, no doubt was left about what Lena shot at. They heard a muffled shout from the backseat. A girl sat up. Tifa gasped when she saw whom it was.
"Yuffie?" she whispered. As if she heard Tifa, Yuffie looked directly at her and looked down. Tifa opened the back door of the car and saw that Yuffie had her hands and feet bound. Tifa pulled the tape off of Yuffie's lips.
"Oh my gawd, what happened?" Yuffie cried out as soon as the tape was pulled off. "The men talked about an Ancient chick or something like that and then the car suddenly swerved in a circle."
"Ancient chick." Tifa murmured. She untied the ropes that bound Yuffie. Yuffie went out of the seat and was surprised at all the people.
"The Mists... are you okay?" Lena asked.
"Besides being sick from that swerve, I'm pretty much okay," Yuffie replied.
"What were those two men talking about?" Valeria asked.
"They said something like, 'Look, it's one of the Ancient girls.'"
Lena laughed.
"That's an interesting comment," Maverick stated.
"All of you are Ancients, aren't you?" Tifa asked.
"It's quite obvious, even if you don't have the Cetra trademark of green eyes, that you two, as well as those men, are human because you called us 'Ancients'. We call ourselves 'Cetra'," Lena said.
"We don't even have to check the men's eyes to see whether they are green. We need to check to see whether or not they are glowing with the Lifestream," Valeria said. She opened the front door on one side, and Lena took the other.
"This one isn't. What about yours?" Lena asked. Valeria opened one of the eyelids and gasped as she took a step back. She looked shocked and pointed at the man.
"What's wrong sis?" Melody asked. Warren looked at the man and stepped towards him.
"Is it Mako, or is it Jenova?" he asked.
"Neither." Valeria looked as if she was scared. "I think it's a mutated form of the Jenova cells. Kill it before it's too late!" she screamed. Everyone looked at her as if she was crazy. Warren looked at Maximus.
"Maybe you should do it," Warren said. Maximus opened the man's eyelids and took a step back. He shook his head as if to say, 'no good.'
"It already merged to him. What we need to do is take him to Uriah."
"Uriah? Where's that?" Yuffie asked, puzzled.
"It's our capitol and largest city. It is the city where the Council resides," Lena informed.
"Could I get my bag from their trunk?" Yuffie asked. Maximus nodded as he pulled out his communiqué. He flipped it open and typed in a number.
"Yes sir?" a voice came up.
"Albert, get ready to transport."
"Right away sir. Call when you are ready."
"What is this?" Yuffie exclaimed when the trunk popped open. Everyone went to look inside it.
"Is this some sort of...Jenova creation device?" Valeria asked. There was a small machine and several test tubes that had weird liquids with different levels of viscosity and colors. Yuffie got her bag and opened it. She looked inside it as if counting whatever was inside it and she put her hand in it and moved the contents.
Maximus took out the communiqué. "Albert, transport the car to the large lab room. Then you can transport us." Before everyone's eyes, the car turned into a green liquid and disappeared. Anyone who was looking out of their window would have seen a group of people turn into a green haze and vanish.
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"Mr. Strife, Mr. Sprite is here to see you," a secretary said.
"Send him in," Mr. Strife replied. The nervous, short leader of the researchers entered the room.
"Bad news, Mr. Strife...the car has been discovered and captured by the Ancients," the shaky voice said.
"Bad? Who said that was bad? That's exactly what I wanted to happen. They take the car and then Jenova multiplies and destroys. Don't worry, be happy."
Mr. Sprite left, sighed a sigh of relief, and wiped the sweat off of his brow.
A/n: What did you think of this chapter? If anyone's confused, they could write in their review what's confusing and I'll explain it in the next chapter.