The House of Strife

By GQ and Zhak

Disclaimer: We don't own anything. Final Fantasy 7 and Kingdom Hearts belong to their respective owners.

GQ's Note: Uhm… this is like an Alternate Universe fic, so stop wondering why Aerith and Rufus and President ShinRa (plus several other "dead" guys) are alive in some parts.

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Chapter 2: Old Man

He looked dejectedly at the tray that the Turk had given him. "I'm having these tiny crackers for breakfast?" he said in disbelief.

Elena bowed her head in apology. "I'm sorry, sir. It's doctor's orders. You're not allowed to eat rich foods from now on…"

"Gah… you people are killing me… Well, I'll see you at lunchtime, blondie. Get outta here."

She gritted her teeth as she left the room. Reno was waiting for her outside. "I thought Old Man was supposed to have a nurse?!" he mumbled to Elena. Before she could answer, Eikichi did it for her. "Yeah, that nurse. She went upstairs to check out some things. Didn't come back down… probably got stuck up in the roof or something or got eaten by rats."

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Eikichi grumbled as he listened to the Turks' footsteps from outside his bedroom door, proceeding someplace else away from him. "Great. I'm all alone again…" he mumbled. "I should have asked that cute blonde Turk to carry me over to my wheelchair…" he sighed. "Hmm… that stupid nurse didn't return. I wonder where she went to… now I'm stuck with Reno and Elena to take care of me here. Harumph…" he muttered miserably.

He searched his bedside table for a good book. "Hm… romance… history… horticulture… nothing worth my time," he grumbled as he scanned the titles. "Oh, horror. Better be good," he said, getting a black, hard-bound book and leaning back on his pillows. He read the synopsis at the back of the book. "A dead couple, an abandoned house, a curious idiot goes in the abandoned house. Typical." He threw the book on the floor. He opted instead for television. He felt under his covers for the remote. Once found, he used it to turn on the TV. "News… news… cartoons… hey, that's my face on the TV… I bet they're making fun of me again…"

"Eikichi ShinRa, former President of the ShinRa Electric Power Company, left the company to his son, President Rufus ShinRa, and opted to live in a humble house in Sector 2. The house once belonged to the influential Strife family, whose members are slain in a brutal murder by Cloud Strife himself…"

The TV just switched off by itself, making him frown. "Goddamn it!" he cussed in annoyance before trying to switch on the TV again with the remote but it wouldn't. He flipped open the battery cover behind the remote and saw that there were no batteries. "What the…" he was surprised. Then he heard some croaking noises from under his bed. "Hey Reno, this isn't a good prank!" he yelled.

"What?" Reno asked from downstairs, hearing Old Man yelling his name.

Eikichi just threw the remote on the TV and the croaking stopped. When he turned to his left side, he saw a young boy with spiky brown hair and blue eyes around the age of 14 standing by his bed, staring at him with a dazed look on his face. "Hey… who let you in here?" he asked with a frown on his face.

The boy just stared at him with the same facial expression. Eikichi just snorted. "Well… what's your name?" he asked.

The boy was silent for a few moments before speaking up, "Sora…"

Eikichi blinked. "Sora? Now where did I hear that name…" he froze when he heard the croaking noises again. "What the hell? Hey kid, I'll give you 10 bucks if you can find where that noise is coming from…" he froze when he saw a pair of hands creeping over the boy's shoulders down to his chest. The hands didn't look normal… the fingernails had blood in them and the hands were too pale with traces of black and blue all over them. Slowly, a head emerged from behind the boy's shoulders. Eikichi stared horridly at the hands and then at the brown hair of the person slowly rising from behind the boy. A pair of horror-stricken green eyes stared back at Eikichi, making him gasp. For some reason he could not scream. It was a woman.

"No…" he was thinking in horror…

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Elena was cooking dinner for herself and for Reno. "I can't believe the First Lady told us to spend the night here and then tomorrow Rude's going to be the one to babysit the Old Man." Elena muttered

"Heheh! At least we can bond here!" he told her with a silly smile on his face.

She made a disgusted face at him, "Hey, this isn't play-time, Reno. We're still on the job site." She snapped.

"Aw c'mon… the Old Man wouldn't know!" he said with a playful grin. She just shook her head. "No." she said sternly. Reno just remained seated by the dinner table, watching Elena with a dumbfounded look on his face before realizing something. "Hey, we forgot to feed him lunch!"

She gasped. "OH MY GAWD!!!???" she cried out in shock.

Silence.

"Come to think of it, he hasn't even hollered at us all day!" she pointed out.

"Maybe he isn't hungry at all." He told her.

They heard rapid footsteps from one of the rooms next to them. They turned around immediately. "Whozzat?" Reno asked.

"Sounded like somebody running… maybe it's a thief," Elena whispered.

"Well why don't you take a look?" he asked.

"I'm cooking here. Duh!" she said airily as she rolled her eyes. Reno got up and shrugged. "Fine." And went to the other room to check.

Elena continued to stir the stew in the saucepan while humming a tune. While doing so, she felt some fingers touching her scalp. She frowned and swiftly turned around, thinking it was Reno. There was no one there. She began to feel nervous. "Reno?" she called out.

He returned with a calm look on his face. "No one here. The doors are locked and all the windows are shut. No one could get in." he told her. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the way she was looking at him. "You look like you've seen a ghost." He told her.

"I felt someone touch my head!" she said.

He just laughed at her. "Yeah right. Whoooo!" he wailed, imitating a ghost. She just frowned at him, suddenly forgetting the incident. "Never mind…" she muttered before she switched off the stove and removed the saucepan from it, placing it on top of the kitchen counter. "Shall we give some to Old Man?" she asked.

"What kind of stew is that?" he asked.

"Beef with potatoes." She replied.

"Just give him the potatoes and then some rice." He told her.

"Alright." She said, preparing Eikichi's meal. Reno sat down on the chair by the table and began to read some newspapers.

Moments later, Elena approached him and placed a small bowl in front of him. "Give this to him upstairs." She said.

He stared unbelievably at her. "Aw c'mon! I have to prepare ours too!" she told him. He rolled his eyes and got up, snatching the bowl and a spoon before proceeding upstairs, leaving Elena there.

Reno went straight to Old Man's room and was surprised to see that the door was left wide open. He stopped for a while to stare at it. "Hmm… must've forgotten to close it this morning…" he thought before finally stepping inside. He saw that the TV was switched on but showing nothing but static. "What are you watching, sir?" he asked before turning to the Old Man. He was still on the bed and seated, slouching. He looked dazed, his eyes staring blankly at the TV. Reno felt weird upon seeing the Old Man looking like that as he switched off the TV. He went over to Eikichi and placed the bowl by the bedside table. "Okay, what did you do all day?" he asked.

Silence.

Reno frowned. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Eikichi was just quiet, still staring at the TV. Reno followed his gaze and then back to him again. "Do you see a little girl coming out from the well and coming at you? Hahahahaha!!!" he mocked, laughing.

Silence.

"Okay Old Prez, this isn't funny!" Reno said shoving him. He just fell stiffly on his side, surprising Reno. Eikichi was dead. "What the?!" he cried out in shock as he backed away. "Elena!" he called out.

From downstairs, Elena looked up at the ceiling when she heard Reno's voice calling her. He sounded frantic. She got up from the chair in the kitchen where she was seated and went to the hallway, but as she rounded the corner, she froze when she saw a young boy standing by the stairs and staring up at her with a dazed look on his face. "Sora…?" she asked softly with mixed emotions. He's alive? And he's back?

Sora just stood there, staring blankly at Elena. Elena smiled. "Sora, you're…" she began, as she reached out a hand to him, but someone else grabbed her wrist, surprising her. The hand came from the mirror hanging on the wall beside the two of them. She turned her gaze to the mirror and saw Aerith Gainsborough staring back at her from the reflection. "Aerith!" she gasped out in shock and turned to her other side, but no one was standing there. It freaked her out because the hand really came out from the mirror… and there was something different about Aerith: she looked to pale and bloody… and she was black and blue all over. Elena screamed.

From upstairs, Reno heard her scream. He instantly rushed out of the room and down the stairs, but when he reached the hallway, he saw that Elena was lying on the floor and shaking violently. "Elena!" he had managed to say with a worried look on his face as he approached her. He knelt down beside her and took her in his arms, shaking her. "Hey, what happened to you?" he asked.

She could not answer, but she was looking past his shoulders with her wide brown eyes that gave off a very frightened stare. Reno slowly turned his head to his side, and from his peripheral vision, he saw what Elena had been staring at. It was Sora. "Yikes!" he cried out in surprise as he accidentally let go of Elena and got up to his feet, backing away from the boy while staring horridly at him. Sora was just staring at him with wide eyes.

"What are you doing here?!" Reno asked in shock before turning back to Elena. She suddenly stopped breathing and she closed her eyes. He turned back to where Sora was but he wasn't there anymore. The whole house was silent for several moments before all the events slowly registered into his consciousness. "…Elena?" he asked softly as he approached her again and knelt down beside her, touching her face.

Elena didn't respond. She was still.

Reno's aura changed. Silently, he dragged Elena by her arms upstairs. Her body hitting each step made violent sounds. Then the whole house fell silent, as if waiting with bated breath as to what will happen next.

Scarlet stopped by the driveway of the house in Sector 2. In her shiny red convertible, she stared up at it and frowned. "Creepy… I think I'm getting goosebumps… Kyah!" she said, wrapping her arms around herself as she got down from her car and walked towards the front door. She rang the doorbell. And waited. Nobody came out.

"Those Turks… I bet they're doing miracles up there…" she grumbled to herself, impatiently pressing her manicured thumb over and over the doorbell button. "Kyah! Reno! Get down here! I need to talk to you!!!"

She waited for a few more moments before the door was finally opened. Scarlet frowned. "You look as drunk as ever, Reno. Do they keep liquor in this house?" she asked.

"Scarlet. What do you want?"

"I need to talk to Mr. ShinRa regarding some documents that I need for the Weapons Department. Is he still eating?" she tried stepping in the house, but Reno stopped her. "The boss… he's asleep. You could try your luck tomorrow."

Scarlet frowned again. "Kyah! I could wake him up!" She tried a side-step, but Reno blocked her way again.

"I said, tomorrow, okay, Scarlet? It could wait, can't it…" the Turk trailed off. His gaze fell to the floor.

"Reno…are you staring at my shoes? Are you all right? Don't barf on me…" said the woman. She stared at the red-head. "Reno…?"

"She's not Aerith. She is dead. She's not alive. She's not Aerith. That's not her son."

"What the heck are you babbling about? Kyah!" Scarlet pushed him, but he didn't budge. Reno shook his head and hoarsely told her again, "Try your luck tomorrow, Scarlet. Good night." He slammed the door at her face.

"Well!" Scarlet said annoyingly. "And here I am, being concerned for him! Stupid drunken Turk…" she turned on her heel and started walking to her car, but she stopped. "Maybe I could sneak through the back door…" she tip-toed her way towards the back and tried her luck.

But it was locked. "Oh well. Might as well try tomorrow… Kyah!" she stomped her way towards her red convertible and sped towards Sector 1.

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End chapter 2. Review and go to chapter three.

croooooaaaaak