Left Behind
A Story in the Turks of Midgar Arc
Chapter 5 – The Big Bang
Author's Note: In case anyone's noticed, I took a liberty with the spelling of Jesse's name. In the game it's spelled Jessie. I recently realized this when I obtained a working copy of disc 1. I'll be keeping my spelling, for reasons you'll soon understand.
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Jesse flew out of the office building like a chocobo chased by the Zolom, her Mako-enhanced and well-trained body nothing but a blue shadow in the corner of the eyes of the lazy guards. But it was enough of a shadow to catch their attention, and so they saw Sephiroth's platinum and black blur racing after the first. Of course, they opened fire, simply making an opening drum roll for the explosion.
It started with a clicking noise, almost like the cocking of a gun, quickly becoming a spasm that shook the ground and rattled the teeth of anyone standing within ten city blocks. Jesse and Sephiroth were the only two not affected by the shake, sprinting so quickly that their feet barely touched the ground. It was the sound of the blast that knocked them both to the ground, clutching their ears.
The screaming of the titanium support beams throughout the whole building, the rumble of the building collapsing in upon itself before blasting outward, all happened in the longest, most painful second of Sephiroth's life. Jesse had already gotten to her feet, having been able to pitch the blast into a range that she couldn't hear. There were some benefits to having survived such blasts before, and from much closer range. Sephiroth hurriedly chased after her again, dodging the huge chunks of cement that rained down from the sky.
When Tseng said that Jesse was destructive, he hadn't been kidding. It was almost beautiful, in a cold, passionless way. An odd thing to say about a fiery blast, but it was true. A massive I-beam came whistling through the air to embed itself into the pavement right in front of Sephiroth, but he leaped over it and continued on. Jesse had vanished into the ether. He increased his senses a hundred-fold through his Mako-enhancements, and yet he couldn't even pick up a whiff of her perfume over a twenty block area.
It never crossed his mind to wonder if Jesse had strong enough Mako-energy stored in her to mask her presence. He had even sent a pulse of energy through the sewer system, but hadn't encountered anything. Glaring furiously, he turned on his heel and stalked away into the cloud of dust and smoke, slowly fading from sight, becoming no more than a shadow.
Jesse stayed hidden until all the dust had cleared and the clean-up crews had been called. When there was no hint that Sephiroth had ever been there, she climbed out of the empty dumpster and stretched. The dumpster that had been her refuge was labeled Hazardous Mako Waste Only and it was made of a specially treated mythril that eliminated all traces of Mako energy. It hadn't been the first time she'd used such a method to escape from something, and Jesse thanked her lucky stars that Vincent had imparted that little secret to her.
Now that she was relatively in the clear, Jesse shed her Turks suit and dug around in her bag for the spare clothes she kept in there. In the shadow of the dumpster she changed into a pair of black pants, a blue shirt, and tied her hair back. After rubbing a little dirt into her cheeks and putting in the anti-Mako contacts, Jesse looked like just another slum dweller. It was a good disguise, and Jesse trekked to Sector Four with little notice. Once there, she took a roundabout trip to reach a small white and blue house with a tiny yard.
A fat calico cat sat in the front window, and mewled when it spied Jesse slinking up the walk. Jesse unlocked the door and stepped inside, picking up the cat as it leaped onto her and purred.
"Is my Kittelina hungry?" Jesse stepped into the kitchen and stopped dead, glaring at the intruder. Not only was he in her house, but Sephiroth was drinking from her favorite mug.
"I walked all over this goddamn Plate looking for your home. It seems that you tend to lower your shields when you're here, and that made it relatively easy." Sephiroth favored Jesse with a smirk, inwardly cursing her sneakiness. Every Turk had a second, secret home that wasn't on the company records, and Jesse had chosen the most unnoticeable home of them all: a small three bedroom house in a middle-to-upper class subdivision. The house itself was fairly nondescript, featuring a bicycle out front and a spacious yard in the back, but little else.
"...Why are you here?" Jesse was hoping to actually get some information as well as buy time. She flicked her eyes to the clock on the stove and swore silently. She would have to either kill Sephiroth or at least incapacitate and hide him –within three minutes. What was it with this man and timers? She set her cat on the counter, turning her back to Sephiroth to do so.
"To see you and finish what we started. I have no intention of killing you, Jesse." Jesse never raised her hands from the cat, but suddenly she was facing Sephiroth with a set of wicked looking claws, the middle one of which was pressing into the tip of his nose. The claws would have been already shoved through his face, except for the fact that the General had Masamune pressed against Jesse's throat.
The Masamune couldn't actually shed blood, so a thin line of open flesh appeared on the brunette's neck where the blade touched. A single drop of blood collected on the tip of Sephiroth's nose and slid down the hair-splittingly sharp blade. Jesse's eyes were locked with Sephiroth's, the colors of the night warring against purest jade, and though neither looked with their eyes, they both saw the drop of blood in painful clarity.
Just as the blood was about to drop, the battle of wills between the two monsters was interrupted.
"...Mommy?"