Chapter Six

Left Aside to Die

Final Fantasy VII fan fiction

Number 663 or Number Three?

"Stupid Cow…" Aoi mumbled to himself as he sat in Bone Village, watching the excavators as they picked at the dirt. "What a boring place!" He laughed as one of the excavators took a break from his digging and sat beside the young man. He poured some coffee from his flask then looked at the boy who was sat huddled up in his coat, his short red hair was held up with a grey bandana and he wore the outfit of the new Shin-Ra army. The man smiled at him as Aoi looked at him. "What?" He replied sarcastically "Wanna picture?" The man laughed a hearty laugh andAoi stared at the ground again, the chilly air making him sneeze. He sat and thought about how many she had killed. It would be two by now, and now they are looking for number three…

"Do you want some coffee?" Aoi looked round at the man, he held the cup out with a metal hand, his large muscles rippled.

"Yeah sure. No milk?" Aoi said in disgust as he stared at it. The coffee the same colour as the large mans skin.

"Milk would go sour with the manners you are using man." He laughed again. But Aoi just scowled. "Lighten up… we do have some milk, but its in the hut over there, the stuff here has been used up." Aoi nodded, but was too idle to go get the milk and so drank it as it was, spitting it out rudely as it burnt his tongue. "Yeah it is slightly hot…" the man said sarcastically laughing some more as he sat down on the plastic chair beside the small table. "So why are you here?" The man asked, referring to the army uniform.

"Another Lame mission…" He replied. "I never do anything on them so I have no idea why I am sent upon them, but somehow it is always me who gets the bad luck of finding what we are looking for, like last week I was hitting on this girl in Wutai, right, and we got chatting and we, y'know." Aoi looked at the man who nodded with a smile. " And after wards when we were generally chatting I realised she WAS my mission, and I found her. I didn't want to turn her in, I liked her, but if the boss found out I was hiding stuff. It'd be my neck on the line. So I got sent over here. She's probably been found and tortured or killed now…shame…she was good…" Aoi looked at the man. "Stupid. If I do as I am told I get killed, if I don't I get killed…it's a lose-lose situation." The man laughed.

"So true. So you work for Shin-Ra then? I thought they had quit their people hunting schemes, what did this girl do to make you go over to hunt her? Are you the replacement for the old Turks?" The man sighed, as if reminiscing.

"Lotta questions…I suppose you could say that. I do work for Shin-Ra in a way, just not directly… were like…yeah I suppose we are like the Turks…just without the fancy suits and the funding I suppose. After all I came here in that clapped out thing. He pointed at a green Van rusted and with the passenger door missing. The man laughed.

"I remember my days when I drove sommat like that. Bu it was all different back then. Ahhh… those were the days…"

"Yeah, well my days only picked up after the meteor thingy, to some it was a curse, to me it was a blessing. Got me outta them god damn labs…"

"Labs?"

"Yeah, it wasn't voluntary I assure you of that!" Aoi laughed and sipped at the coffee. The man stared at him slightly confused and suspicious. Letting him talk all he liked.

"So why was you in?"

"Some freaking experiments they liked to play with, there was a few of us. We had been in since we were kids. All had a code name. Only 660 to 668 survived though, never found out why. Wore these silly coats and they prodded us with stuff and then sent us packing to the reactors, then they came up to us with the cheek to try to KILL us. I wasn't having that! It didn't kill us anyway, they shoved so much crap in us that it made us immune, heh, kinda ironic really. We were led by 666 to a revolt and got out. Although she was fascinated by that Sephiroth dude. Hit her hard when she found out he was dead. I felt kinda sorry for her, but I was too busy trying to get home. She wouldn't let us go home though, kept on jabbering about shin-ra and Sephiroth, can't complain though, we all had these bad effects from the mako n stuff, hers happened to be hallucinations. Great. But my mate his was a real bad twitch in his eye. He was so afraid of it he never took off his sunglasses…poor lad he was, he would never leave her side. And now she's got us all on a wild goose chase…bloody psycho cow. Although I cannot diss. her she did find us all a cure, other wise we'd probably be like her by now. Ranting on about Sephiroth and what-not. Yeah he did do a lot for us but he wasn't too great, he disappeared when we REALLY needed him. Had a little trip of his own to go on…and now she says she can still see him, and he's with her and that we all have to help him seek his revenge… it is all some silly death trip…" Aoi drunk the rest of the coffee that was now cold enough to drink. He moved his eyes from the rock that he had been staring at for the last few minutes while specking his mind.

"So why has she sent you here? So that you find another of these people to seek revenge upon?"

"Yeah…I wont find anyone here… she gave me a very vague description.. Dark skin and a …metal…arm…" Aoi looked up at the man, following the metal arm that was bent as he lifted the cup up to his mouth. "SHIT!!" Aoi jumped backwards as the man threw the table at him. "Always fucking happens to ME!" Aoi yelled as he ran as fast as he could to the van. The man close behind him. He grabbed his phone as he tried desperately to get the car reversed. He held the phone to his ear and swivelled the steering wheel around the wheels turned vainly in the dust, the phone rang at his ear. The man was getting closer…

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The phone Rang, the noise making it bounce along the floor. Dree'm's eyes opened wearily to look at the black block bouncing in the blue liquid. The deaf tone playing silently. She watched as he picked it up and opened the phone. Aoi screamed down the phone, his van had skidded full circle, and the man had grabbed one of the pick-axes as he skidded down the small bank towards the van.

"DREE'M!!!" Aoi screamed. Sephiroth pushed the phone to his ear. Dree'm watched him, barely conscious.

"hello?" He replied. Aoi listened at the static on the other end of the phone.

"DREE'M, Please god answer!"

"Who is this?" Sephiroth asked politely.

"DREE'M!!" Aoi's voice screamed down the phone. She could hear his voice "I FOUND BARRETT IN BONE VILLAGE!! DREE'M ARE YOU THERE!!"

"She needs your help!" her head nodded, her ears began to fade. Aoi looked in his mirror as he sped off, the man had thrown the axe at him and it had hit the back of his seat. Fortunately it had hit it with the flat side temporarily winding him. Aoi scowled as the phone had no reply, he yelled again.

"Who is it?" She said weakly.

"I don't know, but apparently Barrett is in bone village."

"Good…"

Dree'm's head nodded and she fell back into unconsciousness. Looking at Sephiroth as her eyes closed, the phone fell to the floor with a thud as with Dree'm's fading strength the man faded. Aoi threw the phone onto the passenger seat as the static became a dead tone.

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Silva got out of the car and walked into the stables at the ranch, Arn followed him into the barn, another man was sat on the sofa in the barn he looked at Silva as he walked in.

"Ahhh, Tatta-lousta, so you decided to turn up!" Silva growled and threw the papers he had onto a table. Arn looking around the stables almost sadly.

"Aoi phoned while you was away…"

"And?"

"His big mouth got him into trouble again!"

"How?"

"Did you know that he has found one of the seven!"

"What?" Silva shouted grabbing Tatta's jacket. "Why hasn't he phoned Dree'm?"

"He says he tried, but she wasn't there, it was answered but wasn't there."

"So where is the seven?"

"In South of Wutai…After all Aoi was over there with her wasn't he. I was with Barai when he came back. I even phoned Aoi for him, to tell him Dree'm was on his way, so he should stay to assist, he got me and Barai confused, that was funny…" Tatta had a very feminine voice, and it had a air of mystery about it, he always had a calm and confident posture. This unnerved Silva none of the angels ever had reason to be calm.

"Who is it then? Who has he found!"

"Tifa…"

"Tifa?"

"Off to visit Yuffie I presume. Not much of a trek though, from Wutai to the south of the continent. She'll even make a stop at the reactor no doubt for old times sake." A Smile crept across Tatta's face. "That reactor is a bit rusty though, I hope she doesn't go in, what with her hallucinations anything could happen in a place like that. And if she was in Wutai…OH!" Tatta covered his mouth dramatically. "Maybe that is why she hasn't answered her phone! Maybe she is in trouble in the reactor? It all makes sense now…"

"Yes, your a great problem solver."

"Are you not even going to check?" Tatta asked pathetically.

"Of course I am. She will need back up for Tifa anyway, if Aoi was in trouble. Tatta, phone him back up, tell him we are on our way to Wutai to get him." Tatta saluted him as Silva ran outside and without a moments hesitation took off towards Wutai after Dree'm.

Arn stood and looked at Tatta who was perched upon the edge of the sofa with the phone.

"Hey Aoi, Dree'm and Silva will be on their way. You wont have to fight alone." Tatta sniggered but jumped slightly as Arn was still stood behind him.

"South Wutai province aye?"

"Arn? Erm long time no see…"

"Yes it is a long time, and I remember now, why I left…you malicious bastard!" A Fire bolt burst from Arn's hand and collided with the sofa which Tatta was sat upon. It combusted instantly.

"ME? Malicious? Try living with these psycho's! killing people to get over their grief! I had it harder then her, but I Don't go killing people! She deserves to die…"

"She is our sister, we are in this together!"

"No, not no more…"