A/N: Well, here it is. Chapter one of my new chapter fanfic. If I don't get lots of good feedback, I won't write any more of it until I've finished Mission Wutai.
Oh, and just one thing; Sakura isn't an OC. See if you can guess what her real name is.
"Den!" Screamed the young woman, spinning when she heard a gunshot, to see her best friend lurch sideways and stumble over.
She started running back towards him, but he waved his one hand at her, struggling back to his feet. "Just get there! Save us all! I'll hold them off!"
The woman looked torn for a few seconds, then nodded and sprinted on through the darkened military facility.
She would have to go back on her own now. They hadn't planned for this…
Chapter One: Strangers--They're everywhere these days--
It was almost closing time when the woman walked into the bar. She pushed through the crowds of slightly drunken customers to the bar, and shook her heavy leather hood further down over her face.
"Hey, you want anything Hon?" asked the bartender.
"What? Oh, um… coke please…"
"Coming right up…" the woman grabbed a large glass from under the counter and filled it. She was a well-built woman, with blue eyes and blond hair: the perfect waitress.
"That'll be twelve Gil please."
"Thank you." Said the hooded woman, handing over a twenty Gil note, and waiting patiently for her change.
When the bartender handed it over, she asked, "This is the bar owned by Tifa Lockheart, right?"
"Yes, it is. Why? Are you looking for her?"
"Yes. Can I please speak to her?"
"Sure thing Hon, I'll just go get her." She hurried into a backroom and up a set of stairs. A few minutes later Tifa appeared. She was exactly as the woman remembered her, with her long black hair and kind red brown eyes. She had to restrain herself from running over and giving her a hug.
"Yes?" she asked, looking slightly puzzled.
"Um… Hallo Tifa… I know you don't know who I am, but I need to talk to you and Cloud…"
Tifa's eyes narrowed slightly in mistrust, and her head tilted to one side. "Well… ok… Follow me." She opened the small divider that lead to behind the counter, and the woman walked through.
"Up here." The woman followed Tifa up a narrow flight of stairs that she knew lead to the living quarters.
Suddenly she felt worried. What if Cloud was up there? Or… Denzel? She shook her head to clear it, then hurried a bit to catch up.
"Cloud!" Tifa yelled.
"What?" came the voice from the next room.
"We've got a guest! Get out here!"
"Alright…" There was the scraping sound of a chair being pushed back from a desk and a tall man with blond spiky hair emerged from a room at the far end of the corridor. "Who is it?"
"I dunno, but apparently she needs to talk to us."
"Oh. Ok then. So who are you?" Cloud directed his gaze on the woman, who had to stop herself from shrinking back.
"My name is… Uh…"
The woman was saved from answering when a small boy ran out of another room yelling, "Marlene! What are you doing back- Huh?" He looked around. "But she's here!"
Tifa frowned. She knew that Denzel had always had a strange ability to tell where Marlene was, but Marlene was staying with a friend for the night.
"She'll be back tomorrow Denzel." Said Cloud, ruffling the boy's hair. "You never told us your name? He then said, turning his attention back to the woman.
She said the first thing that came into her head. "Sakura Kinomoto."
"Isn't that the name of a character from that show the kids watch in the mornings?" Tifa asked Cloud quietly.
"No, it's not." Said Sakura.
Denzel frowned and opened his mouth to say something, but Sakura put a finger to her lips to tell him to be quiet. His frown deepened for a few seconds, then he nodded.
"Well, I'll go make some tea, you two talk." Said Tifa suddenly.
Cloud was about to interrogate Sakura further, when Denzel tugged on his hand. "Cloud, I've got a bad feeling! Something bad is gonna happen to Marlene!"
"Don't worry, Marlene will be fine for now." Said Sakura suddenly. "We, however, should get out of here."
"What? Why? What do you know?" Cloud demanded.
"I just remembered, tonight's the night of the Midgar Bombing."
"The WHAT?"
"Midgar bombing. If I recall, the Seventh Heaven is one of the targets, so I'd get out of here if I were you."
Cloud and Tifa looked at each other.
"Listen, you don't have to believe me, but just go outside and somewhere safe, and if nothing happens, so what? You can feel a bit embarrassed that you came. If you stay, on the other hand, and I was right, you can feel really stupid all you want back in the lifestream."
"Well… ok…" Tifa said.
"Tifa!"
"No, she's right, I wouldn't want to risk it. I'll go downstairs and say we're closing early. You get some important stuff packed…" Tifa picked up her Premium Heart gloves off the shelf on the way out.
Cloud stared after her then turned back to glare and Sakura. "You'd better be telling the truth. And how would you know about something like this anyway?"
"Never mind that, you heard the lady! Move!" Sakura said over her shoulder on her way to the door.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"I'm getting out of here, you're not the only ones I've gotta warn. You've got about…" The woman looked down at her watch, "Twelve and a half minutes." And with that she disappeared out the door and down the stairs.
Cloud sighed and looked down at Denzel. "You heard the women. Go find some of yours and Marlene's stuff that you really can't leave behind."
oOo
Reeve jerked awake at the loud knocking on his office door. "Hnn?" He asked intelligently.
The door was opened by a young woman wearing a long sky blue turtle neck sweater that came down to her knees, over black trousers and heavy looking steel capped combat boots. She had a heavy leather hood and rain cloak fastened round her neck, but the hood was pushed back to reveal a soft face surrounded by dark brown, almost black hair that was tied back in a ponytail.
"Hey, who are you?" he asked, still half asleep. He looked back at his computer screen and groaned when he saw he'd just typed three pages of random letters with his face.
"My name is Sakura, I am here to evacuate you." Said the woman.
Reeve jerked his head back up to look at her again, then squinted. "I don't recognize you…"
"No, I expect you don't…"
"How did you get past security?"
"Easy. You might want to get someone else to plan out the routines…"
Reeve had stood up by now, was slowly inching towards the door, which Sakura had moved away from.
"I'd rather you didn't try to get help, ok? I'm not here to hurt you!" Said the woman, frowning at him. "I just want you to evacuate the building. I happen to know that it's one of the five targets of the bombing, along with the Seventh Heaven, the Cemetery, Aerith's Church, and the records building."
Reeve visible paled. "The Church? The records building? The Seventh Heaven?"
"Yeah."
"Why should I believe you?"
"You don't have to, just leave the building for the night and take the Turks and other security forces with you for protection, get everyone out."
Reeve narrowed his eyes at her. "You know, you look familiar…"
"Yeah, I'm related to someone you know… sort of…"
"Oh…"
"Ok, I've gotta go elsewhere and warn a few more people, you make your mind up… but please leave, I'd miss you guys."
The man's eyes widened. There had been genuine concern in her voice. Slowly, he walked back to his desk and picked up the intercom. "You go warn other people, I'll get these ones out." He said to her, and watched her face brake into a relieved smile.
"Thank you." She said, before turning and running out and down the stairs, then called over her shoulder, "You've got about thirteen minutes till they get here!"
Reeve nodded then flipped the intercom switch on. "This is Reeve, we have a report of a terrorist attack. I am evacuating the building and I'm calling all Turks and security to me. Leave the building in and orderly fashion, and head for a bunker or safe house. I repeat…"
oOo
No one went near Aerith's Church anymore, and no one lived in or near the cemetery, so now all she needed to do was warn the workers at the record building. There shouldn't be many, so it wouldn't take too long.
She climbed onto her motorbike that she had parked near the ShinRa building and tore off up the street hoping that she would make it in time.
As she rounded the last corner and picked up speed along the last stretch of road, she heard the first bomb drop, the whistling as it fell through the air, then the thunderous booming when it hit it's target; the cemetery.
She shuddered at the memory of the half-decomposed bodies scattered all over the street, fragments of gravestones lying where they'd fell.
And the fragment she'd picked up. '-memory of Ifalna, beloved moth-'
She'd been sick that night, all over poor Cloud.
It wouldn't happen the same way this time though.
She skidded to a halt right outside the building, and ran in, right into the midst of a panicking crowd of workers. "Quiet!" she yelled, and the people stopped milling around trying to get a good view out the Windows and see what was going on.
"Everyone stay calm and leave this building! The fifth bomb is set to hit here. You have seven minutes! Get out-"
Her last words were drowned out by the whistling of the next bomb. It would crash into the seventh heaven, killing Tifa and injuring Cloud and Denzel, Denzel so badly that his right hand and wrist had to be amputated, and many of the customers were-
But not this time. This time she'd saved them. She'd done it.
Then she was swept off her feet by a tide of panicked people stampeding for the door.
"Hey! Watch the- Bike." Sakura watched as her bike was pushed over andtrampled repeatedly as people rushed for safety.
"Jerks!" She shouted after them. "I didn't know there were so many of them…" she muttered to herself, before kicking the remains of her bike and running after them.
She had reached the end of the street when the next bomb hit, at the ShinRa building, completely demolishing the place Reeve and the Turks had been about ten minutes earlier, of the Turks only Tseng, Elena and a new recruit named Johan had survived, due to being off duty and not in the building at the time. Presedent Reeve of ShinRa's body was never found, thought to have been completely incinerated-
Then shortly after that the next one fell, destroying the only place in Midgar where flowers would grow well, the Church of the Ancient. Cloud had been devistaded. Loosing Tifa and his last link to Aerith on the same night-
And then the last bomb fell on the records building, catching her in the shock wave even though she was a whole block away.
She staggered sideways and grabbed a lamp post for support.
Great, now she had to find everyone somewhere in the city, and without a bike too. Great, just great.
She muttered something unintelligible that she had learned off Captain Highwind before-
She jumped at the sound of a horn blaring behind her, and spun around.
It was a ShinRa patrol car, and it was pulling over.
She was about to make a run for it when she noticed who was in it.
She ran forwards, yelling, "Reno! Vaughn!"
They got out the car and frowned, and she remembered too late that they didn't know who she was.
"Are you 'Sakura'? asked Reno, twirling his EMR lazily. It was a scare tactic, she knew.
"Yeah, I am. I'm guessing that Reeve asked you to get me?"
"Well no, he didn't, in fact. He says that you tipped him off to the bombing, but we Turks thought, how would she know? So we're taking you in for questioning on the grounds that you are a suspected terrorist."
Sakura's mouth opened and closed a few times. "You're an idiot. Why would I tip you off if I wanted you dead?"
Reno grinned. "Yeah, that's what we wanted to know too. Vaughn, get her."
Vaughn was one of the new Turks, who had been recruited after Meteor, after Reeve had been made the new head of ShinRa, had been trained by Reno, Rude and Elena.
Tseng had survived the wound he had sustained from Sephiroth in the temple, but had retired from his post, because he never fully recovered. Now he was the Turk's 'advisor'.
And now Vaughn was closing in on her, telling her not to move.
Sakura frowned at him and muttered something else the Captain had taught her how to say, then been yelled at by Tifa…
He grabbed her hands and pulled them behind her back, tightening a set of handcuffs around her wrists.
"Good girl, decided to cooperate…" said Reno, then he pointed to the car with his EMR. "Get in."
Sakura accidentally stood on Vaughn's foot on her way past, and climbed into the back seat as best as she could with her hands fastened behind her back.
Reno shut the door behind her and jumped in the driver's seat. "Hurry up rookie!" he yelled at Vaughn.
Vaughn grumbled something and climbed into the car too.
Reno pulled out onto the road again and grinned at Sakura in the rear view mirror. "So, ever been arrested before?"
"Yup, but not by the Turks. Whole new experience, simply wonderful."
"Aww, do I sense a hint of sarcasm in that comment?"
"Probably not, but there was some in there."
Reno scowled and stuck his tongue out at her.
"Reno, you're exactly as I remembered you- Uh."
"What was that?" he asked, suddenly serious again.
"Nothing."
"It didn't sound like nothing, it sounded like… Vaughn, what would you say she said?"
"Uh… something about remembering you." Said the young Turk.
"Yes, that's what I thought,although, I don't believe I've ever met you, Miss Sakura…"
"You have… just not since I was about… seven…" mumbled Sakura.
"Really…" said Reno thoughtfully. "So if you're about twenty now…"
"Twenty one."
"Yeah… so that would be…" Reno paused and counted on his fingers, "Fourteen years ago."
"Yeah… not really."
"Not really?"
"Yeah."
"Care to explain?"
"No."
Reno shrugged. "Suit yourself, but I'll keep asking."
"Fine. I wanna talk to Reeve."
"No can do sorry. See, Reeve doesn't seem to think you could possibly be a terrorist, and we want him safe, believe it or not."
"Fine. I wanna talk to Elena then. Or Tseng. Or Cloud."
"Maybe- Wait, why Cloud?"
"Because he knows… me…"
"Ok, whatever."
After about half an hour's drive, Reno suddenly skidded round a corner and ground to a halt. "We're here!" he said happily.
"Finally! Jeez, you need some driving lessons Reno!" Sakura moaned. She had been unable to hold on what with her hands tied behind her back, and was unable to fasten her seatbelt either, and had been knocked all over the place whenever Reno turned a corner too fast or hit a speed bump at twice the recommended speed.
"All ashore!" Reno chirped, ignoring Sakura's grumbling.
Sakura had to wait for Vaughn to open the door for her, and he helped her out.
"Thanks…" she muttered grudgingly. She knew Vaughn wasn't a bad person, but he was fiercely loyal to the Turks and Reeve, and did what he thought would protect or help them.
She was lead along a corridor towards a small black building made out of some sort of metal.
"This is our backup HQ, for emergencies just like this one. Made tough, so it won't be easily destroyed." Reno explained.
"You don't really think I'm a terrorist." Sakura said. It was a statement, not a question.
"What makes you think that?"
"You haven't searched me for a tracking beacon or communication device, and your telling me all this. It's pretty obvious."
Reno and Vaughn looked at each other. "Fair enough then," Reno admitted, "No, we don't, but I'd rather not take any chances."
Sakura grinned. "Wise decision. I'd hate anything to happen to any of you, so it's nice to know you're all being extra careful."
Reno and Vaughn didn't hear her, they were already wandering through the door, leaving her to follow.
She could always make a break for it now…
But she didn't want to be stuck with these bloody handcuffs until she could find some way of getting out of them, she thought as she stuck her foot in the door before it could close and shut her out.
"This way this way…" Reno called back in a sing song voice.
"I'd like to see you move this fast with your balance cut by half!" Sakura shouted after him.
Reno didn't seem to hear her, so she just hurried after him and Vaughn as fast as she could with her hands tied behind her back, and her balance therefore impaired.
The corridor was far longer than the inside of the building, and Sakura realized that they must have gone right through the wall and were walking along a secret passage.
Cool, she thought, absently.
Then she walked into someone.
Due to aforementioned lack of balance due to her hands being tied behind her back, she toppled backwards and landed heavily and painfully on her hands.
"Ohmygosh are you alright?" asked the panicked woman who she had crashed into.
"Yeah, thanks Blaine, I'm fine."
The woman stared. "H- how do you know my name?"
"Oh… uhm… We must have met somewhere before. Yeah."
Blaine, another of the new Turks, frowned, then shrugged. "Ok. Hurry up, I think Reno's waiting for you." She reached down and grabbed Sakura's arm to help her back up.
Sakura nodded her thanks and hurried on as best as she could.
Reno and Vaughn were waiting for her at the end of the passage impatiently. Well. Reno was waiting impatiently. Vaughn had endless patience.
"Come on, come on, through here!"
Sakura wrinkled her nose at him and kept up her slow but steady pace as she walked towards then through the door.
Reno and Vaughn followed her through, then Reno grabbed her arm. "Vaughn, gimme the key."
Vaughn frowned, but reluctantly handed over the key to the handcuffs.
When her hands were free, Sakura immediately started rubbing her hands together. "Oww… Those things are a pain!" She grumbled.
"Yeah, we know. This way. Now remember, we took the handcuffs off, but we're keeping a close eye on you, so don't try anything."
"Yeah yeah." Sakura said, still examining her sore wrists.
Vaughn opened a door on the right and the three entered the room. Reeve was in there, hunched over a computer, trying to keep his eyes open for long enough to finish whatever he was working on.
"Boss." Said Reno. "Is this her?"
"Yeah." Said Reeve, glancing up from the screen, looking back down, typing a bit longer, then looking back up again. "Hi Reno, Vaughn. Having a good day? No what am I saying, the ShinRa building was just blown up…"
"You need sleep." Said Reno, Vaughn and Sakura at the same time.
"No, I'm fine… I'll just finish this and get another cup of coffee… that should tide me over until…" He never got to finish his sentence, because at that point at which he slowly collapsed sideways and slumped onto the floor, fast asleep.
"Aww… Out like a light." Said Reno, dragging him over and onto a couch in the room.
oOo
A/N: Well, tell me what you think. Really. I want reviews. They make me happy : )
Guess what Sakura's real name is? If you can't I will be very surprised.
Til next time, Goodbye, readers!