This is an AU Final Fantasy VII story. This is in the same universe as 'No Idea' and 'Delivery'.
Disclaimer: Don't own them. Natch.
Looking up at the building in front of her, the owner of Seventh Heaven asked her companion, "You sure about this?"
Red XIII looked up and nodded. "Yes. If this does have references to Jenova, we need to know."
"But, we took care of her… didn't we?"
"We took care of Sephiroth. It's possible that Jenova is still out there." Nanaki looked around the street. It was relatively deserted, as he knew it would be. This neighborhood was one of the few areas of old Midgar that was still in use. The city of Edge began a few streets over. The building the two were standing in front of was one of the last usable in the sector. Across the street was a dilapidated, half-destroyed building from when Meteor hit.
Tifa looked pained and followed Nanaki as he walked into the building. Seeing the figure waiting at the elevator, the duo paused. "You're sure?"
"Yes," Nanaki replied before continuing towards the figure. "Tseng," he greeted.
Nodding in reply, the Turk pressed the up button on the elevator. "If you'll come this way. The scroll is on the third floor."
The two followed the Turk into the elevator. A few moments later, they were in a pristine lab with multiple tables covered with artifacts.
"Nice collection Shinra's gathering," Tifa pointed out, looking at the statues and scrolls.
"We're searching for anything about Jenova," Tseng replied as he led the two to a table near the plate glass windows that covered the exterior wall. "This is the scroll we're hoping you'll be able to help us translate." The Turk pulled a bench closer to the table a scroll was laid on and took a step back.
"Thank you," Nanaki murmured before hopping on the bench and looking over the scroll. "Interesting."
Tseng cocked an eyebrow. "Can you read it?"
"I am not fluent in this dialect, but I can translate it with a little work."
Tifa ignored the conversation between the two and wandered a few tables away to peer at a small statue. After a quick circuit of the lab, she approached the table that Nanaki was working at. "Shall I take notes?"
Nanaki looked up, a little surprised at the question. "Yes, actually, that would be helpful."
Tseng gathered a notebook and pencil without being asked and handed them to the brunette.
Tifa took the offered materials with no comment and waited for her friend to start dictating.
"In the season… of quiet… no, that's winter… In winter," Nanaki began as he slowly translated the symbols one by one. "I began my… quest… no, campaign… against… unknown. The children… wait… that's fools… still do not suspect… the misery… no… desolation… that is I. Not, desolation… Calamity! Great Ifrit!"
Looking up from the notes she had been scribbling, Tifa asked, "What is it?"
Nanaki looked shocked. "This was written by Jenova!"
Tseng, who had been watching from near the window, strode over. "You are sure?"
"Yes." Nanaki replied with a nod. "We have here an actual writing by Jenova. We could surmise that the unknown symbol is Cetra. But, I'd have to finish the translation to give it more context."
Further questions where halted by the crashing of the plate windows as monsters broke through the glass and into the room.
"Oh, hell!" Tifa yelled as she dodged a claw of one of the beasts. "Where did they come from? We're on the third story!"
"They must have jumped from the building across the street," Tseng replied calmly as he rolled up the scroll and placed it in one of his suit pockets. "We need to get out of here," he added as he pulled out his gun.
"Obviously!" the brunette replied as she punched the lead monster in the snout, causing it to fly back and knock over the others in front of her.
"Let's go!" Nanaki stated as he ran towards the stairwell.
The three were able to make it out of the building, the monsters hot on their tails.
"We need to get someplace defensible until we can be extracted!" Tseng exclaimed as he shot into the horde of monsters snapping at their fleeing bodies.
"And, where would that be?" Tifa asked as she dodged the leap of a monster and used the momentary disorientation of the beast to slam its head into the concrete.
"We'll know it when we see it," Nanaki replied. One of his ears cocked back as he heard the squealing of tires. He decided to ignore what he thought was an imagined sound, as there were no vehicles in this section of the city.
However, he was proven wrong when a dark brown mini-van pulled up in front of the three with a squeal of tires and stopped across the intersection they were approaching. A brunette woman, her brown eyes seeming to glint even in the half light of dusk, leaned out the driver's window and yelled. "Get in!"
"Who are you?" Tseng asked as he approached the van.
A redheaded figure popped up from the passenger side of the van, a pistol in each hand. He was obviously half in the van and half out of the passenger window from his ability to fire his guns over the roof of the van. "Get your asses in the van!"
Tifa looked shocked. "Reno!"
The three ran around the van and Tseng pulled open the side door. Nanaki entered first to sit on the very back seat, then Tseng and Tifa dived in to sit in the middle seat. Tifa reached over to close the door.
"Floor it!" Reno exclaimed. A few moments later, he contorted his body to fire at the monsters now chasing the van.
Tseng pulled out his PHS and talked quietly into it.
"This vehicle goes a bit faster than a normal van," Nanaki pointed out as he saw that the monsters were slowly loosing ground.
"Yep!" the driver replied, a smile evident on her face as she continued to speed down the street.
"Shit! Kitten!" Reno shouted.
"What!" the driver asked.
"They're merging!" Reno exclaimed as he pulled himself back into the van.
"Hell! I didn't know they could do that!" the driver complained.
Tifa raised her eyebrows. "You've seen these things before? Because, I've traveled the world, and they're new to me."
Reno ignored Tifa and asked, "Shall I get the heavy arms?"
"Yeah," Kitten replied distractedly as she concentrated on the road.
"Cool!" Reno grinned as he slithered between the two front seats and between Tseng and Tifa. "'Scuse me!" he added cheerfully as he started to climb over the seat between them.
"Hold on!" She expertly took a corner at high speed and one side of the van rose into the air for a moment.
"Sorry," Reno muttered as he was pushed into Tseng for a moment because of the turn. After reaching the floor of the van between the middle and back seat, he looked at Nanaki. "You'll want to move."
Nanaki turned from where he watched the now smaller and faster pack of monsters gain on the van, even as they continued to merge into fewer and fewer, but larger, creatures. "What?"
"We're about to lose that seat."
Nanaki decided not to waste time with questions and moved to the aisle between the middle seat and the sliding side door.
"Well!" Kitten called out. "We don't have much longer."
"Punch it!" the redhead yelled in reply.
The driver pressed a button on the dashboard and the rear door of the van flew up and off in one swift motion.
Tseng still had his PHS to his ear, but was watching the current situation in the van. "That was the rear defrost," he pointed out.
"It never worked anyway," Kitten said into the rearview mirror with a tooth-filled grin.
Turning, the Turk joined Tifa and Nanaki as they watched Reno finish fiddling with something under the last seat. The redhead braced himself against the middle seat.
"What the hell are you doing?" Tifa asked.
Reno turned his head towards the woman and gave a wild grin. "Getting our heavy arms."
Nanaki looked perplexed. "A car seat is your heavy arms."
"Just wait," Reno replied as he kicked the seat out of the back of the van, directly into the snout of the now fully integrated monster, who had been moments away from snapping it's jaws around the rear bumper.
"Nice shot!" Kitten exclaimed as she turned another corner.
As soon as the van straightened out again, Reno let go of the back of the middle seat and pulled open a panel in the floorboards and flung the cover out of the van.
"What is that!" Tseng exclaimed, shocked and disbelieving his eyes.
"A Shinra X-class surface to air missile launcher, fully loaded," Reno said with a wide grin as he pulled the heavy ordinance out of the hidden compartment.
"X-Class! Those were never produced!" Tseng sputtered.
Reno raised an eyebrow as he fiddled with controls on the side. "Really? 'Cause, it feels real to me."
"How did you get a hold of that?" Tifa asked.
"Amazing what you can find lying around," Kitten replied. "Now, kill the damn thing! I'm coming onto a tunnel, and I don't want to accidentally get buried under a ton of rubble if we set that thing off too late!"
"Check," Reno replied as he pulled the launcher to his shoulder. Quickly aiming, he added. "Fire in the hole!" A press of the trigger later, and a rocket fired from the launcher and directly into the middle of the monster gaining on the van again. "Bye-bye now!" the redhead crowed as the monster blew up into little chunks of fried flesh.
"Finally," Kitten muttered as she slammed her foot onto the brakes. The force of the braking caused the van to fishtail and spin as it approached the pitch-dark tunnel ahead. A few feet into the tunnel, the van stopped sideways with the driver's side to the interior of the tunnel.
"Whew," Kitten exclaimed as she slumped in her seat.
"That was fun!" Reno said with a maniac grin as he tossed the now empty launcher back into the hidden compartment.
Tifa looked around at the others. "Now what?"
Tseng, who had been talking softly into his PHS, snapped the device closed and replied. "Now, we wait for Elena. The chopper's ETA is five minutes." Turning to Reno, he pulled out his gun and pointed it at the redhead. "You're under arrest." Glancing at the brunette driver of the van, he added, "Both of you."
"Aww! For what?" Reno asked, looking innocent.
"Breaking and entering of Shinra property, theft of classified documents and property, and probably more that we'll think of later," the leader of the Turks replied promptly.
Kitten and Reno looked at each other, eyebrows raised, and ignored the gun. Both grinned and simultaneously said, "Nah!"
"Love to stay and chat," Reno stated as he dove out of the back of the van, rolling quickly to the driver's side of the vehicle and smoothly stood up. A few moments later, he was sprinting into the tunnel.
"But alcohol awaits!" Kitten added as she quickly pulled open the driver's side as Tseng swiveled to put her in his sights. She sprinted after her partner into the dark.
"Move!" Tseng ordered, trying to get out of the van.
Tifa quickly leaned over to open the side door as Nanaki pulled himself out of the back of the van.
The three chased the escaping fugitives down the passage, with Nanaki in the lead. A few moments later, the three come to a halt as Nanaki stared down an open manhole cover.
"They went into the sewers?" Tifa asked.
Nanaki nodded. "Yes."
Tseng's opened his mouth to comment, but was cut off by the ringing of his PHS. Pulling it out, he answered. "Yes? … We're in the tunnel. We'll come to you." Closing his PHS, he turned to the other two. "The helicopter's here."
"Are we going after them?" Tifa asked, staring down into the sewers.
"No," Tseng replied with a shake of his head. "The sewers were pretty much the only thing of Midgar that survived Meteor intact. Add in Edge's sewers, which were connected to the old system and you have miles of tunnels. It's a virtual maze."
"And, I can't track them," Nanaki replied. "There are too many overpowering smells down there."
"Damn it." Tifa growled before the three walked back to the tunnel entrance.
As they reached the helicopter, Elena hopped out. "Where is he?" she asked, not seeing Reno.
"He and his accomplice got away," Tseng replied stiffly.
"The President is not going to like this."
Tseng didn't reply as he turned and walked back to the van. Grabbing the empty missile launcher, he returned to the helicopter and got in. "At least we got this. We should be able to figure out who manufactured it and find out if there are more."
"And, the scroll is safe?" Nanaki asked as soon as everyone was situated in the chopper and they were airborne.
Tseng nodded and reached into his suit pocket. "Yes, it's right… Damn it!"
"What?" Tifa asked.
"I checked that it was in my pocket when we got into the van. Reno must have taken it while he crawled across the van!" Tseng ground out.
Elena sighed and shook her head. "The President is really not going to be happy."
Ta da!
The event that Kitten was talking about where our 'daring duo' had met the monsters before (which, in my shorthand version of this story, were called 'mako-beasts…) hasn't been posted yet. It's currently half written. And, in that story, Jenova makes an appearance! Well, her voice anyway. She loves her children! Yes she does! Awwwww… snort
Comments appreciated and craved!