* CONTENT WARNING! - Talk of impending torture on a good character
A temporary home; Picnic among the flowers; Intruder!;
What's the plan?; An overdue meeting;
Faunal disaster; Impending torture
Reeve turned off the windshield wipers as the gray drizzle they'd been driving through was cut off by the plate. He pulled off the expressway and took the ramp to the slums. He slowed as they wound through the narrow streets, crowded with a sea of pedestrians.
"This place gets more depressing each time I visit," Joni commented, watching the crowd part around the truck.
"That is something I hope to reverse." He'd never meant for the undercity to be depressing. He'd found the wild chaos of the slums, the organic way they grew and operated, fascinating. But then, he had always been looking down from a place of privilege.
Joni tilted her head to peer through the window at the metal superstructure overhead. "Life without the sky. I'm not sure how much you can do."
Guilt crept around Reeve's mind. No matter what he did, the plate would still be there. Taking it away would mean destroying everything built above, including other people's homes. There was no perfect solution, no right answer. All he could do was his best to help the poor majority, not just Shinra's elite.
Right now, he found himself in that majority, looking for a cheap, safe place to rent. They tried a few different ramshackle apartments before they found one with a room available in the size they needed, rent due monthly.
The apartment had a central room attached to a small kitchen, a single bedroom, and a bathroom. The last tenant had left some furniture: an old scuffed table and two chairs, one of which wobbled. A naked light bulb hung from the ceiling, and streaky windows let dim light into the room. The sinks, toilet, and small bathtub were stained, but all the faucets worked without leaking. They would need to get a mattress or a futon for the bedroom. For now, they had their sleeping bags.
Joni stood in the middle room, hands on her hips. "Well, this'll be home-sweet-home and office for a month or two. I miss the canyons already." She pushed her rolled-up sleeves higher, then headed back down to the truck to begin unloading.
Reeve sent a quick message to Cloud, to let him know they had made it and where they were staying. With Shinra's presence at the upcoming meeting, they were going to need the extra muscle of Cloud's group. It was a shame that they couldn't sneak into the warehouse beforehand and steal the equipment, but the AVALANCHE members in Midgar weren't up to an assault on that scale now that Shinra had reinforced the guard on the stash.
That done, he went to help unload. He pressed himself to the narrow stair's railing as Joni went by with a box. They kept it up for a while, crates, boxes, bags, and sacks making their way up the stairs. His arms began to hurt, his thighs burned, and he found a new appreciation for all the workers he'd had back in the WRO and at Shinra. Setting down a pair of duffel bags, he leaned on the half-wall that divided the kitchen from the middle room and mopped at his brow. They were going to need a fan in here to move the stagnant air.
Joni eyed him on her way back out. "Why don't you start sorting and unpacking?"
He nodded weakly. That was an excellent idea.
After a breather, he started checking through the boxes and bags. They hadn't put labels on any of it and the important contents of each box were hidden under their personal effects and non-incriminating research from the Canyon. Joni pushed her way back through the door and set down the last apple crate, stacking it atop two other crates. She looked around, and shook her head. "The other four are getting a different room."
Reeve also glanced around at the shrunken space. "Yes, or we'll have to scrap the futon idea and bring in hammocks instead," he joked. Boxes were piled against the walls, seven computers and their monitors sat on the scuffed table and the kitchen counters, and Mog was settled genially in a corner, out of the way. Besides the mini fridge, which they'd kept cold on the cross-continental trip using Ice and Stop materia, the pantry, drawers, and shelves were now stocked with ingredients more in line for a mad scientist's laboratory than a cooking space.
Add in the equipment and information they would hopefully get on Thursday, and there wouldn't be much living space left. It had already been decided the other AVALANCHE members would find a separate place. Limiting their dealings together would help them stay under Shinra's radar.
After unpacking, they headed for the church on foot. There were a few cars and trucks in the slums, plus carriages and chocobos, but most travel here was pedestrian. The rain, blocked by the plate above, mainly made its presence known as a thin gray mist. Buckets and basins were set out under places where the water ran down more heavily. Reeve eyed them, wondering. Was it simply a matter of keeping the streets semi-dry, or was it being collected for some later use?
On the way they talked about what they needed besides the futon. A coffee maker, a fan, another fridge for food, a few pots and pans, some cutlery, groceries. Since the apartment only had three outlets, they also needed a few surge protectors with multiple plug-ins. Reeve hoped they wouldn't blow any fuses in the building. As the thought hit him, some back part of his brain began tinkering away at the problem, drawing up schematics for generators, battery packs, and ways to make their appliances more energy efficient.
He stopped to ask directions twice. In his time, the way to the church was easily marked for pilgrims heading to the wellspring. But at this moment, it wasn't famous or sacred. Just an old building, a relic of yesteryear.
Nanaki was laying out front on the steps and perked up when he saw them. The few passersby, all of whom had been keeping cautious eyes on him, startled and hurried onward when he bounded across the street. "Joni, Reeve, you've made it!"
"Hello, Nanaki," he greeted, amused by the cub's energy. Red often pushed his youth to the side, trying to act mature. It was a welcome sight to see the younger one still acting young. "It's good to see you again. How is city life treating you?"
"Most think me a monster, so I cannot stray far from the church. That is alright though. I much prefer it here to the crowded streets and alleyways," he explained as they walked up the steps of the stone building.
Reeve pushed open the heavy wooden doors. He marveled at the difference from when he'd last seen them, when they were half rotten and termite eaten, with one knocked from its hinges and laying on the floor. Motes of dust floated past him through beams of pearly-grey light. Peace, tranquility, and fresh air surrounded him, permeated by the scent of flowers.
At the front of the pews stood Elmyra, sweaty, with loose strands of hair sticking to her face. When she saw them, she set down the hammer she was holding and peeled off her dirt-stained gloves. "Well, Nanaki, I assume these are the two you were talking about?"
"Yes, let me introduce you." He sat about ten feet away from her. "These are the researchers Joni and Reeve. Joni, Reeve, this is Aerith's mother, Elmyra."
Joni stepped forward, extending a hand. "It's a pleasure meeting you."
Reeve nodded cordially, but stayed back observing the woman. There were fewer stress lines on her face than when he knew her, though her expression remained cautious. The still-present threat of Shinra was responsible for most of those lines, he was sure, but the sorrow of losing her daughter hadn't touched her yet.
"These your flowers?" Joni asked, nodding around the beds.
"They're mine," said a light, sweet voice, and a preteen girl in a denim jacket and flowing skirt stepped out of a rear room. She held a ceramic jug in her hands, a wooden spoon handle sticking out from the top, still spinning a little with momentum. Her green eyes had a familiar, whimsical sparkle, and her smile was wide. "Give me just a minute, I'm finishing the flower food."
"Is that- ?" said another voice, rough but equally girlish, and Deneh's head poked around Aerith's knees. "Joni! Reeve! You made it!"
"Here we are," Joni said. Reeve's voice was stopped in his throat. How young Aerith was! A slip of a girl, only… twelve? Thirteen? Logically, he'd known she would be, but seeing it was something else. It wasn't like looking at his fellow time-travelers, with the disconnect between their adult mannerisms and youthful bodies always providing a frisson of uncanniness. It wasn't like looking at their past selves, either, that strange double-vision feeling.
She reminded him of Marlene or Denzel, purposeful in her movements, but still soft at the edges, and innocent. His jaw tightened. What a weight they planned to put on those narrow shoulders!
He became aware that Deneh and Joni were talking - that Red was out on patrol and would be back shortly. He shook his head, pulling himself together. Elmyra was watching him, keen blue eyes unreadable over a tight mouth. Reeve smiled at her politely and nodded at her discarded gloves and hammer, and the pulled-up boards in a tidy pile at the far end of the pews. "Anything we can help with while we wait?"
"No." She turned away, calling, "Aerith! Bring the basket with you, please!"
"Sure!"
Aerith came out with a bucket in one hand and a picnic basket swinging in the other. "Hup!" She handed the basket to her mother and began walking the circumference of the garden, pouring a brownish liquid onto the soil about a cupful at a time.
Elmyra set the basket on a pew and produced from it cups, a thermos which turned out to be full of cold, sweet tea, and wrapped, paperback-sized parcels which turned out to be sandwiches.
Deneh and Nanaki the younger perked up their ears, and Reeve was momentarily amused by their childish enthusiasm for food before they settled back down. "Red's here," Deneh announced. Reeve twisted to look at the church doors, and sure enough, Red came in. His short red fur stood out in damp spikes and he stopped and shook before coming closer. "Something smells nice," he commented.
Elmyra held up one of the sandwiches. "Turkey and cheese," she said.
Red sat, curling his short, flame-tipped tail around his toes. "They smell very nice, too." He addressed Aerith, who was tipping out the last of her bucket's contents, "Bone meal?"
She nodded. "Partly. In my books, it says lilies don't need a lot of feeding, but I've found that I have to do it every couple months to keep them happy. It's a Midgar thing, I think."
"Do you bring in soil?" Reeve asked, curious. There wasn't much of a garden industry in Midgar, and the potting soil for his few genuine houseplants was astronomical. He wondered if she had a better source, or if it was -
"Nope." She shook her head, braid thumping emphatically against each shoulder. "Just give them a lot of food, water, and attention."
Ah. Due to her nature, then.
"Can we eat?" Joni asked good-naturedly. "Reeve and I moved house today, and that's hungry work."
"My apologies," Reeve said.
"Go ahead," said Elmyra, setting three of the sandwiches on the floor, cushioned by their wraps. "I put extra turkey on these ones."
Nanaki, Deneh, and Red made their thank-yous, and dug in, anchoring the sandwiches between their paws. Reeve ate his own politely. It wasn't, by his standards, a remarkably good sandwich, but he enjoyed it after the morning's labor.
Aerith ate quickly, looking at her flowers. At one point, she hopped to her feet to point out a scrap of yellow paper drifting down from above. No, not paper. Its erratic movements showed it to be a passing butterfly. "We don't get those very often!"
Red, despite the smallness of his muzzle, finished first. He licked his chops paws clean, then sat up and addressed Aerith and Elmyra. "I know we haven't really discussed it before, and you've been very generous with us, but I feel it time that we explain ourselves." His face contrived to look both wise and extremely adorable. "Reeve and I are from the future. Or, perhaps it would be better described as an alternate future, as we have now managed to make some significant changes to the timeline."
Elmyra blinked, frowned, looked at the others to see what they made of this speech. Aerith only nodded. "I figured as much."
"Oh?" asked Red, and Elmyra asked, "Really?"
Aerith laughed. "Well, you didn't directly said you were from the future, but you didn't not say it, either. And it makes sense from some of the things you have said."
Red squinted and the corners of his lips turned up. His version of a smile. "I suppose it does."
Aerith smiled back, then her mouth thinned and her eyes darted around the church. She continued in a quiet rush, "And the lifestream is a little weird between you and Nanaki." Her hand drew a loop in the air.
Red and Nanaki shared a surprised look. The younger one tilted his head. "Is it?"
Aerith nodded, and Reeve shared a more concerned look with Joni that Red picked up on. His ears were tilted back and the tip of his tail twitched with agitation.
"Well, hopefully that's not worrying," Reeve said lightly, but he could feel his mouth dragging down. He'd set aside his worries over this when Nanaki met his younger self without apparent ill effect, but now his concerns came roaring back. Was it dangerous for there to be two of each of them? Would the lifestream that made up one bleed into the other? Would one fade away? As far as he was aware, none of them had suffered any memory alteration. Something to keep in mind, and perhaps something to check when the others got to the city.
Aerith spun on one foot and walked to her flowers. She crouched, running leaves between her fingers. "The cats are here. Where are you two staying?"
It was an abrupt change of subject. Reeve didn't press the issue. "At an apartment not too far from here."
"What's the name?" Elmyra asked.
"Futura Suites," said Joni.
"Good. Not a fancy place, but I've never heard anything bad about the landlord. You'll be okay there."
"Glad it gets the stamp of approval," Joni said. "If you don't mind giving us some advice, do you know anywhere we could pick up some cheap household goods? And a futon?"
Red accompanied them back to the apartment so he'd know where they were staying. As they passed a market strip - laundromat, Gongagan takeout, second-hand armor and weapons, tax assistance- Joni peeled off to investigate a used furniture store Elmyra had recommended.
Red watched her go, then said quietly, "Aerith is still uncomfortable talking openly about her heritage."
"It seemed that way," Reeve answered. "That was an exceptionally blatant change of subject back there."
The great cat scanned the thin stream of passerby. Heads down against the general drippiness, they still managed to see Red in time to give him stares and a wide berth. "I told her some of my own history in Hojo's lab. She opened up a bit more after that. Ifalna told her many stories, apparently, but she doesn't know how many of them are true. Apparently, Ifalna sometimes lied if she knew they were being listened to."
In the pockets of his raincoat, Reeve's hands clenched. The amount of damage Shinra had inflicted, not only on the grand environmental scale that Reeve sought to change, but on the immediate and personal level, was staggering. He gazed at the people walking past, the uneasy expressions on their faces. How many of them had scars inflicted by the company? How many private hells could one city hold?
Wednesday night came much too quickly for his taste. A light scratching at the window caused him to look up from a bright computer monitor, and he blinked for a moment, his eyes adjusting. The dark curtains they'd put over the window twitched. The sound continued and he rose from his chair, intent on finding out what was outside. He heard the window pop open and belatedly realized he should have warmed up his materia. He stumbled back a step, mouth opening to shout.
Yuffie came through the curtains, a sack over her shoulder. The little thief grinned at his startled expression as she hopped down. "Hey, Reeve! Scare ya?"
He put a hand over his racing heart but answered calmly. "I was debating whether I should use Ice or Electrocute on the intruder."
She rubbed her chin. "Electrocute is one of those fancy fused Shinra materia?"
"Yes. I've had this one for a few years now."
"Is it mastered?"
"No, I don't use it often enough."
"Well, when you master it, I want the spawn." She came further into the room and poked him in the chest. "And if you take too long, I'll steal it and master it myself. Hey, Joni."
The doctor had come out of the kitchen, coffee mug in hand. "Hey, yourself."
Reeve shook his head, closing and latching the window. Fused materia very rarely spawned, as the fusion process sterilized the mako. He didn't tell Yuffie that. She might decide to steal it outright.
"Are the others with you?" he asked instead.
"Nah, they're still outside the city." She reached into the sack she'd been carrying, pulling out a giant bottle of blue dye. "We need to disguise the chocobos and…" she reached into the bag again, this time producing a smaller bottle of brown hair dye and a red bandana, "Cloud. The rest of us can blend in easily enough."
Right. The meeting might be taking place in the only area in the city where chocobos wouldn't be out of place, but they were still golds. The dye would turn them blue. Or more likely, green.
"Are you all set for tomorrow, then?" asked Joni.
She shrugged. "More or less. You're meeting with the other Reeve over by the chocobo pens, and that's where Cloud and Denzel are going to be. When it looks like time to go, they're going to cause a stampede."
Joni's brows furrowed. "A stampede. Isn't that likely to get people hurt?"
"Less likely than a firefight or a summoning. I already talked to Red and the cubs, and they'll do what they can to steer it. Of course, we won't start one unless we have too, but…" She shrugged. "We're low on options. That coffee smells good. Hang on, I'm going to get some." She dashed away into the kitchen. "Hey! Where are the mugs?"
"We don't have extras, you'll need to use a beaker."
"Ugh, fine, whatever." She came out with a steaming glass beaker, setting it quickly on the table. "Hot. Aaanyway, the other Reeve will have Cait Sith with him, and Mog, Tifa, and I are going to make sure you -" she pointed at him "- get away clean. You still have an Exit materia, right?"
"Yes?"
"Good. Just remember it teleports you to where you were fifteen minutes before casting. If you stay chatting with your other self for too long, it'll be useless. Here." She tossed a green materia at him. He fumbled the catch and it rolled under the table. He heard Yuffie snickering behind him as he bent under the table to retrieve it. He stood up, wiping off the little dust and lint his pants had acquired.
"That's a time materia," Yuffie explained. "It's level one spell is Haste, and it's got Slow and Stop, so it should cover you for a quick exit."
He vaguely knew all that, but the refresher was not out of place, since he'd always left fighting to Cait Sith's self-learning A.I. His recent adventure in the Gongagan jungle had helped, but couldn't make up for decades of noncombatant status.
"What about everything we're going to be picking up?" he asked.
"They're bringing it all in a truck, right?"
"That's what I have from Cait Sith."
"In the chaos, Cloud's going to shrink the truck and take off -"
Reeve interrupted. "Shrink the truck? Is that possible? Also, wouldn't it be best for him to stay and cover the retreat?" Shinra was likely to throw a lot of bodies at them. Not having Cloud there would be a hindrance.
"Yeah, we figured out that with enough MP and a mastered materia you can shrink just about anything. The problem is, it only weighs slightly less. Whichever chocobo we had carrying Fenrir always got tired the fastest. So Cloud gets the truck, buuut he's going to be weighed down pretty heavily, so as little fighting for him as possible is what we're going for. The plan is for him to get somewhere safe with it and then find all the physical bugs. After that, it'll be up to you to get rid of any nasty stuff in the coding."
"I'll need to do that somewhere else," he mused. "Perhaps when Cloud's finished, I'll have him meet me at an inn and dig out what bugs I can there." He looked at the bank of computers. Which one to sacrifice?
"You're going to have to make sure all the stuff is there when you met with them. And you came in a truck, right?"
"Yes?" It was always a little hard keeping up with Yuffie's quicksilver train of thought.
"You're going to take it with you, that way they think they know how we're leaving, but it's probably gonna have to stay there. So, scratch off any kinds of registration numbers on it now. Oh, and Joni, you'll stay put. They're going to learn what Reeve looks like, so he's going to be stuck indoors a lot afterwards. You're gonna be the free agent here."
Joni nodded. "Do you know what Shinra is going to be sending after you?"
"Well, we can expect some Turks, some SOLDIERs, the army, and probably killer robots. Our goal is to make so much chaos that they have a hard time keeping track of anyone, let alone trying to fight us."
Zack threw himself into his bunk and stared at the spinning ceiling fan. His head felt like that fan, buzzing with nervous energy, round and round the same track. Tomorrow, they would meet with AVALANCHE's contact. The Shinra grapevine had been talking for months about the company's disastrous encounters with them and now he was going to be on the front line for the tightest trap yet. The army was gonna be all over the market, but more important, so was SOLDIER.
SOLDIERs were so cool, and he was gonna be working right alongside them. He definitely didn't want to screw anything up. He hopped up and started doing squats, arms swinging. He was supposed to keep an eye on Director Tuesti, making sure he didn't run off. Easy, right? But this was AVALANCHE they were dealing with. Who knew what could happen?
He shook his head, throwing more energy into his exercises. Didn't matter, cause he had a plan. If things looked like they were headed south, he'd tackle Tuesti and roll them both under the truck. He figured the ground at a livestock market would be pretty nasty, but being under the truck would make it hard for anyone to get at them. And, sure, Tuesti was a grown man, but Zack knew he could overpower an office worker. He had training.
A pillow hit him in the back of the head. "Stop. I get tired watching you." One of his bunkmates, Carter, two years older and two inches shorter, plopped his arm back down to his cot. "And give my pillow back."
"Sure, sure." Zack picked up the offending item. "Wait. Should I give you back such a deadly weapon? I mean, what if I'd been seriously hurt, being hit in the head?" He threw his arms out in mock offense.
The other boy got up on his elbows. "Give it back, or I'll show you how it's used as a deadly weapon."
Zack grinned. The other boys in the room perked up. The ones who'd been reading put down their magazines and the trio who'd been playing cards peered over.
Carter scowled, but the upward twitch of his lips erased any menace from it. "You asked for it."
He lunged and Zack met him head on. They grappled, then fell to the floor, rolling over each other until Zack managed to pin him. "Call uncle."
Carter struggled under him. "Never."
"Call it, or I'm gonna tickle you."
His squadmate froze with horror. "Don't you dare," he growled.
Zack's grin stretched. "One…"
"Zack -" The other boy bucked, trying to throw him off, but he rode it out.
"Two…" he threatened.
"No!"
"Three! You asked for it!" The room filled with Carter's shrieks and the other cadets' laughter.
The door to the room opened. A big man in a black SOLDIER 1st class uniform entered. Everyone scrambled to their feet, standing at attention and throwing up hasty salutes.
The first rush of panic passed, and Zack actually looked at the man, take in more than the all-important uniform. He felt like a bolt of lightning struck him; his feet almost left the ground with excitement. He held himself still with effort, even though the urge to jump on the guy and shout his thanks was nearly overwhelming.
That was Angeal Hewley standing there. Mentally, Zack was writing a million thank-you cards to Kunsel - if it hadn't been for his help, Zack wouldn't have recognized the man who'd offered to mentor him. A tremble of eagerness rattled through him.
"At ease, cadets. I'm stopping by to pick up Fair." Around the room, two dozen eyes flashed with jealousy.
Hewley motioned at him to follow him into the hall. Play it cool, Zack thought, impress him with your professionalism, but his steps were springy and light anyway, almost bounding. In the hall, the SOLDIER looked him over with the same kind of half-hidden smile his dad used to get. Zack grinned back. Couldn't help it.
"I'm Angeal Hewley and, judging by your excitement, you know why I'm here."
"You're going to train me, right?"
"There's two weeks probation. Then, if it works out, I'll officially be your mentor."
"This's so cool!" Zack blurted, then remembered, professional. He squared his shoulders. "I swear I won't let you down, sir."
The half-hidden smile again. "Let's worry about that later. Have you eaten dinner yet?"
"Yeah, but I'm kinda still hungry."
Hewley laughed. "Then let's grab something at the SOLDIER cafeteria, and you can tell me about yourself."
The SOLDIER cafeteria! He'd be going up to their floor! His heart pounded in his chest.
"You seem to get along well with your squadmates," Hewley said as they left the barracks building, walking out into a smoggy night. The pollution cleared away by the week's storms was piling back up again. HQ towered over them a short walk away, a glittering hulk against the greenish night.
"They're all great," Zack said easily. "We were roughhousing when you came in, but we haven't had any real fights."
"Nobody's jealous of you?"
"Huh? Well, sure, probably. I mean, we're all working for the same thing, right? And I'm the one who got handed a golden ticket." He stopped there, unsure whether it'd rude to ask why Hewley had picked him out to mentor. Zack absolutely thought, though he wouldn't say it, that he was the best in his class and the one who most deserved the opportunity, but he didn't know what he'd done to catch the SOLDIER's attention. He'd like to know so he could do it again.
"You know that the mentoring program isn't a guarantee you'll make into SOLDIER, right?" Hewley asked. "And you have to pass your mako sensitivity test, too."
"Oh, sure." Zack couldn't take the prospect of failure seriously. He'd seen people with mako poisoning at home, and it was pretty sad, but he couldn't fit himself into that picture.
They reached headquarters. The echoing high-tech lobby that had taken Zack's breath away the first time he walked in was just background scenery now. His heart began to pound again, and not just because Hewley set a brisk pace.
Floor 49 didn't really look that different from any other place in the main Shinra building - metal floor and walls, corridors with glass doors opening off them, white strip lighting, potted palms here and there - but everything shimmered in Zack's eyes with a heroic aura.
The cafeteria was smaller than the cadet mess hall, and the furniture was less beaten-up. A clock over the door read 19:57, and there were thirty-some SOLDIERs sitting at the metal tables. The food was better than the cadets got, too. Zack loaded his tray with goodies: pumpkin soup, meatloaf, corn, mashed potatoes, fries; chocolate cake and swirl soft serve from the desert bar. Hewley had salmon, green beans, broccoli, and a salad, and skipped desert, unless you counted coffee.
"So, Zack, where are you from?"
Zack swallowed hurriedly. "Gongaga," he said, full of hometown pride.
"A country kid, huh? So am I. I grew up in Banora."
"Wait, you know where Gongaga is?" None of his bunkmates had known.
"Sure. Shinra's got a reactor there, and I've been on a few missions in the area."
"No way!? I mean I knew about the reactor, but you've been there? I never saw you." And he definitely would remember seeing a SOLDIER, or hearing one had been around.
"I never had a reason to go into town, except once, when pick-up was delayed. Got in late and left early."
"Aw man, I must've missed you." Zack's shoulders slumped. His disappointment passed quickly, though. After all, here he was, on the SOLDIER floor, having dinner. It was hard to feel down in these circumstances.
"Why did you leave home to join Shinra?" Hewley asked.
Zack sat up straight. "I want to be a hero. And nothing's more heroic than SOLDIER."
Hewley rested his chin in his palm, looking thoughtful and stern. "It's important to have dreams, but SOLDIER is about more than just being 'cool'. You have to have honor, and hold yourself to a higher standard. Taking pride in what you do and how you serve. Our strength isn't just for showing off. You need to remember that, and use it for the benefit of others."
"Like a hero. I get that. SOLDIER is the best of the best and you have a standard to maintain. I think I can meet that standard. No." His hands clenched on the edge of the table. "I know I can."
"Very confident," Hewley said. His face was still stern, but his eyes were kind of smiling.
A 2nd Class, a teenager, maybe only three years older than Zack, walking past stopped and tapped Angeal on the shoulder. "Hey, boss. Busy day tomorrow, huh?"
Zack chewed a bite of meatloaf, pretending he wasn't listening so hard his ears were growing ears. Was this SOLDIER in on it, was he going with them tomorrow…?
Hewley gave him a bland look, then half-turned to address the SOLDIER. "Apply yourself, Allen, and you'll find every day's a busy day."
The 2nd grinned. "You know me, Angeal. I'm at one hundred percent application at all times."
That's me, Zack thought, that's me in a year or two. He would definitely make it to 2nd Class that fast. 100% application.
Allen sat, his back to the table, leaning one arm on it and bending in toward Hewley. "No, I'm really asking. Everything all set to go?"
Hewley sipped his coffee and looked around. At other tables, faces were half-turned in their direction; the hum of conversation was dropping. He sighed and set his mug down with a click. He stood, folding his arms across his chest, and said, "Listen. I know there's a lot of anxiety right now. Things going wrong, things slipping through our hands. There's a lot I can't say in an unsecured environment, but know this: SOLDIER can handle anything thrown at us. We will always, always, win in the end. Our honor won't let us settle for anything less.
"Every mission, every day. No matter how big or small it is, you need to do whatever you can beforehand to ensure you're prepared." Zack sat up straight. This was more than just a speech. "Check your gear, pick up anything you'll need. Go over your mission briefing carefully. Make sure you get enough rest before the time comes. In the field, roll with what comes your way. You're all smart men -" He broke off and chuckled. "Well, I say smart…"
There was a brief outbreak of outraged noises. Across from Zack, Allen put a hand to his chest and an expression of grievous offense on his face.
Hewley raised a hand. "Alright, alright. Creative and well-trained, at least. Your best friend out there ought to be your own reaction times. You may not be able to outsmart or outfight everything you come across. But you sure as hell ought to be able to make your decisions in a split second. Use that, trust your gut. Get there."
He looked around. Every face was turned toward him. Zack felt a little breathless. This was it, this was how a hero talked. Everything about Angeal was heroic, was what Zack wanted for himself.
Angeal smiled, and said the last words softly. "Make me proud." His eyes met Zack's, and resolve filled the boy up like hot sun on a summer day.
They finished dinner. Angeal didn't ask him any more questions, but introduced him to the other SOLDIERs, then walked with him back down to the lobby. "Get some sleep," he advised, and waited for a minute by the doors as Zack jogged away to the barracks.
The other cadets, as Zack knew they would, ambushed him the minute he walked in, clamoring for details. He was supposed to wake up super early, so he did need the shut-eye Angeal had recommended, but he still spun the tale out, giving them every detail they asked for.
He was up well before dawn the next morning. His eyes were hot and raw from not enough sleep, but he felt alert, excited. Everything seemed clear and sharp, as though the whole world was made of crystal; he felt like he'd had his enhancements already. Like he was catching every detail of everything that happened around him.
He and Kunsel sat in the windowless back of a box truck, surrounded by all the equipment being 'delivered' to AVALANCHE. It was all lashed down securely, nominally so he and Kunsel wouldn't be crushed by falling items, but Kunsel hypothesized that it was so the unloading process would take longer, delaying the terrorists' exit. Zack could peer through the little hatch that separated the bay and the cab to see another trooper in the driver's seat, with Reno, Director Tuesti, and the cat robot squeezed in uncomfortably beside him.
Unfortunately, it didn't matter whether Zack had his helmet on or off, he couldn't see through the passenger windows beside them. He wanted to look for the SOLDIERs from last night, especially Angeal. He was sure they were around.
He didn't need to see to know when they reached the livestock district at the northern edge of the Sector 1 slums. He could smell it first, manure and hay and blood and animal. Not bad smells, necessarily, to a country boy like him, even if they were really strong - but it was a massive contrast to the industrial smell of the rest of the city, asphalt and car exhaust and the perpetual rotten-egg tang of mako.
He nudged Kunsel with the toe of his boot. "There some reason why the slaughterhouse district's inside city limits?' Just because he wasn't super bothered by the odor didn't mean it was pleasant for anybody to live close to, and he was already learning he could count on Kunsel for answers.
"Monsters."
Short answers. He nudged him again. "That's all?"
Kunsel yawned. "The blood draws 'em in, and it's all open space outside Midgar. It's hard enough to defend the feedlots, it'd be worse if they were doing the butchering out there. Plus, it's closer to headquarters - outside the city, they have to pay for their own guards. Here, Public Security takes care of monster-hunting missions as a 'public service.'"
There was a cynical spin on the last two words. Zack cocked his head and scooted closer. "What's up?"
Kunsel's voice dropped a little. "Nothing. I'm just saying, the meat companies benefit from the arrangement, but Shinra doesn't really, except that maybe it makes feeding the city a little easier. So I wonder if that's the reason, or if there's something else going on."
Zack leaned back, crossing his ankles. "I think you're blowing it out of proportion."
A little smile crossed Kunsel's face. "Maybe. Either way, we both -" He cut off as the truck came to a halt and its engine turned off.
Zack jumped to his feet and held down a hand to help Kunsel. "Go time," he grinned.
They were parked between a big stone fountain and a bustling chocobo stable. There were a pair of troopers strolling by, and a lot of burly men carrying things. Zack eyed them - just laborers or SOLDIERs in civilian disguise?
There was a pen full of chocobos directly across the road from him, wark-ing and fussing. Lots of people still rode them, even with Shinra's highway system expanding further every month. It looked like people boarded their birds here when they came into the city. Half the birds in the pen were yellows, and Zack looked them over carefully. No sign of the tell-tale glitter he'd been warned about, with AVALANCHE's golds. A boy was sitting on the pen's top rail, dusty clothes and brown hair under a red bandana, watching the truck with idle curiosity. A green chocobo nudged the boy's leg, and he looked down to feed it a handful of something.
Zack went around to the passenger side door. Director Tuesti was getting out, looking tense and pale. The spy robot stood craning its head to look around, and Reno was watching it carefully. "So, cat, where's the contact, yo?"
"Ah dinnae see 'em yet," the cat said. "Half a mo', if'n ye please." It scampered up the side of the truck - Zack tensed, in case it was trying something - but it only stood on top of the canvas roof, shading its eyes and looking theatrically around. "Nae here yet, it seems. But Ah'll take a gander at what ye brought, so we can all be off quicker." It jumped back down, then into the back of the truck. Kunsel and the driver went around to keep an eye on it. Zack stayed beside Tuesti.
Reno looked frustrated. He lit a cigarette and took a long drag, blowing out the smoke in a long stream over his right shoulder at the director's face. Tuesti frowned and stepped away, Zack following smoothly.
"Weel, it all appears ta be in order." The cat popped back out the truck and clambered atop again. It turned around a few times, looking, then gave a hearty wave with both hands. Zack's heart jumped in his chest.
An open-sided farm truck, all rust and peeling green paint, pulled up to their left, between them and the stable. The cat hopped down toward it. Director Tuesti straightened. Zack couldn't place the expression on his face at all now. Reno took a deep breath, and let out a column of smoke straight up, then walked toward the cab of the truck.
The driver was a dark-haired boy, about Zack's age, in slacks and a dark blue long-sleeved shirt. The spy bot swung itself onto his shoulder and sat there, one arm clasping the boy's neck. The boy shut the truck door and turned toward them. He had a thin, serious face, and serious bags under his brown eyes. "Hello," he said calmly. "I am Urisk."
Reeve was trying to keep his face still and unreadable, but he couldn't help frowning when he saw the teenager who got out of the truck. This was supposed to be his older self? "You aren't how I pictured you."
The boy chuckled. It did sound very similar to his own laugh, and he did look very much like Reeve had in his mid-teens. "Younger, you mean? All of us are younger than our skills and experience would indicate. Younger than we should be, everyone seems to think." Reeve stared at him, parsing out meaning from the veiled sentence. All of us alongside everyone… He was including his own group in those words. The time-travelers also thought of themselves as inappropriately youthful.
"Really?" he asked. Please, give me another clue.
"Unfortunately so. A side effect, I'm afraid." The listening Turk, or more likely, Turks, would think he meant of experiments. A red herring. Reeve understood it to mean, a side effect of the time-traveling process.
He rubbed a hand over his chin. "I can see how that would be problematic." Did you intend it? How does it work?
"It's had its uses, and some would say age is irrelevant to what truly matters." Perhaps we did intend it. Either way, it's not tied in to our goal.
"What truly matters?" What is that goal?
Something shifted in Urisk's posture. He'd looked serious, now something frighteningly earnest, almost pleading, swept over him as he faced Reeve. "Keeping people safe and ensuring a better future."
A flush prickled through Reeve, hot and cold. Those words, as general as they were, matched exactly what he kept in his own heart. A better future for all. But were they only saying what he wanted to hear?
Reno snorted, and flicked away ash from the end of his cigarette. "Better future? How? By causing problems and killing people? Seems to me you've already blown your first goal."
Urisk looked at him. Mild thoughtfulness replaced the expression of painful earnestness, like a curtain sliding down over a window. "Do you want to discuss what your army has done? You Turks? What the Shinra Science Department has done and is currently doing?"
The Turk responded without even a beat. "You mean like bringing power to everyone who needs it? Producing better potions, ethers, and remedies to treat a wider range of ailments? And making it all way more available and affordable than thirty, twenty years ago?"
"And how were those treatments developed?"
Reno spread his hands. "Hey, even I know animal testing ain't great, that's why we use monsters. Don't tell me you feel sorry for 'em? Besides, you know, you gotta put people first in these things."
Reeve felt his mouth thinning. Urisk had the same expression. "It's amazing how much you Turks hide in plain sight," he said. "And what of JENOVA?"
Reno didn't so much as blink. "Of what?" Of course, Reeve thought, Reno was an intern, he might not know. Reeve himself only knew enough to understand that he didn't want to know any more. But perhaps if he knew at least a little more, he would understand more about the time-travelers as well.
Urisk shook his head, almost regretfully. "The company doesn't know what it has messed with. That will be its downfall. As you said, Shinra is the world's leading producer of medicine, as well as the largest supplier of electricity, clean water, and sanitation services. If Shinra falls, thousands will die, hundreds of thousands will sicken. Cities all across the planet will collapse." His voice had the fervor of a prophet. Reeve saw what he described, as clearly as if it was a film playing under his eyelids. The troopers looked uncertain, uncomfortable. Even Reno seemed discomfited. "It will take years for society to recover. So, whatever you think of us, we are not out to destroy the company but to change it. To save it from itself, so we can save everyone else."
"Wait," Zack blurted, "you're not out to get the company?"
"No."
Reno looked at the cigarette in his hand, spun it along his fingers. "Just certain individuals, and the Science Department?"
"More or less," Urisk shrugged and looked at Reeve. "Is that satisfactory?"
Across the road, there was a brief squabble in the chocobo pen. Reeve looked at the birds without really seeing them. "Your reasons I can agree with," he said slowly. "But where's the truth, the proof that Shinra will collapse? How does JENOVA tie into this?" I know you can't give me a straight answer. But another hint would help me considerably.
Urisk and Cait Sith shared a look. "Information on JENOVA could get you killed," Urisk said, then looked directly at Reno. "It's already killed a Turk."
"That so?" Reno asked. He put the cigarette to his mouth without drawing in.
"If the Turks decide to look into it, I advise you to be very careful." Urisk's voice lowered. "Hojo is a very dangerous man, and the president a greedy fool for believing him. The promised land doesn't exist the way he says it does, rendering the conflict with Wutai pointless." This was a lot more direct than Reeve had expected. "As for concrete proof, at this time, I can offer you only this question to pursue: Whatever happened to Professor Gast and the last years of his research?"
His voice returned to its normal pitch, and he looked up at the edge of the plate. "Here we stand, half in the light of artificial day, and half in the sunlight of the real world. I'm sure you know what's happened historically when an empire is created by one person. It collapses when they're gone. And Shinra has been rotting from the inside out for years."
Urisk's steady eyes met Reeve's. The company had never been richer or more powerful, in control of more territory… but managing that growth was like tossing knives into the air, hoping to catch them with a minimum of pain. The company was simply too big for all its parts to work in harmony, especially when the board members who were supposed to guide it lied to and sabotaged each other.
Bitterness made a lump in his throat. He hated and disdained the other board members, and vice versa. Despite how justified Reeve felt he was in his disgust for their cruelty and greed, the fact remained that Rupert Shinra had played them off against each other, maintaining power at the expense of the company's efficiency and sustainability. When the president died, as he someday must, whatever he thought awaited him in the Promised Land, the company would collapse. It was too factionalized to survive.
If Rufus had lived, the heir apparent, perhaps Shinra could struggle on. Inertia and some sense of continuity could have held things together.
Reeve thought of his beautiful designs for the new reactors, his plans to refit Midgar. Without the power structure of Shinra behind him, he could never accomplish it. AVALANCHE had given him the blueprints and assured him that they didn't want the company to fall. How did they hope to prevent it…?
Darill. The thought was like a lightning bolt. AVALANCHE had fanned the flames of Air and Space's rebellion, and put a better candidate on the board than Palmer. Just like a lightning bolt striking - Reeve had been walking in the darkness, and now everything around him stood out, edged in brilliant clarity. Their attacks left a vacuum at the top of Shinra's power structure to fill with their own choices.
Something must have shown on his face, because Urisk's expression changed from somber to calmly satisfied. "Your doubts are settled?"
Reeve shook his head and glanced sideways at Reno, letting his face settle into absolutely neutral blankness. The Turk had his cigarette cupped in his hand, his eyes fixed on them. "Not remotely." Yes, but I can't say so aloud.
His future self also went neutral, but it was such an exact mirror of his own expression, Reeve thought the message received. Urisk glanced down at a watch on his wrist and said smoothly, "I am out of time. Cait Sith, is everything here?"
"Aye, looks good."
"Then, I wish you well, and -"
Reno drew his mag-rod. Following his lead, the troopers leveled their rifles. "You aren't going anywhere until we get some legit stuff out of you. You want this?" He jerked a thumb at the truck. "Names, places, actual facts, without all the cryptic bullshit."
Urisk regarded him coolly. "What names and places would you like?"
"Start singing, and I'll tell you when I'm happy."
"I'm not very good at singing, I'm afraid, but I do know a few folk -"
Reno swung at him. The mag-rod rebounded off a Barrier thrown up by Cait Sith. The cat leaped from Urisk's shoulder to the top of the truck and shouted through a megaphone. "An' GO!"
The mag-rod rebounded with a loud crack. Zack's job here was to look after Tuesti. He hooked the director around the waist and knocked him to the ground, out of the line of fire. The spy bot was shouting, and when Zack glanced up, he saw a round green glow shining through the fabric of Urisk's cuff. Shit, of course he came with materia -
He shoved Tuesti across the filthy cobbles. A glimpse of the director's face over his shoulder, shocked and affronted, and then he was safely beneath the shadowy underbelly of the truck. Zack popped back to his feet, beginning to aim his gun again. Urisk turned on his heel and ran away with Hasted speed. Or maybe he had enhancements, too.
"Kunsel!" Zack shouted, and pointed at the truck. "Director's under there!" He took off after the fleeing contact. He wasn't fast enough to catch up, but the electric clarity that had been on him all day meant he could keep Urisk in sight through the chaos exploding all around him.
Warehouse doors were flying open, panicked animals flooding out. Bawling cows, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, geese, ducks were everywhere, the air filling with kicked-up mud, flecks of foam, and feathers. A lot of the burly men Zack had seen earlier were SOLDIERs, just as he'd guessed. Some of them were drawing their swords, but mostly they were getting out of the way of the tide of animals.
A hissing chocobo sideswiped Zack, knocking him down. He caught himself before hitting the ground and pushed back to his feet, tearing off his helmet. It blocked his peripheral vision, and he wanted to see - There! Urisk whipping down an alley behind the stable.
A different chocobo, a leggy green hen, was backed against a wall, observing the mess. Unlike the other birds, it wasn't freaking out. Zack couldn't remember enough about chocobo types to know if greens had a reputation for being calmer, but he was a decent rider, and Urisk was out of sight. He grabbed a handful of gysahl greens as he ran past the feed bin and held it out to the bird. She accepted it without a qualm, and Zack swung himself up to her bare back and steered her after Urisk.
The first thing he saw in the alley was a squad of eight troopers, all hit by a Stop spell. He sped by them - he didn't have anything to remove statuses, and there was shouting ahead. He followed the noise to a sergeant whose feet were iced to the ground.
The man shouted, "That way!" and pointed down another narrow alley. Urisk was running down it, turning a corner just as Zack saw him. Zack pursued through the winding, narrow streets, barely keeping him in sight, but the chocobo was a good, responsive bird that handled the tight corners and debris filled alleys like a champ.
He was gaining on him when they blasted out of an alley onto a main street. There were people everywhere, a steady stream of foot traffic. One car, a rock in the flow, was blasting its horn trying to clear a path. Pedestrians waved in acknowledgment, ignored it, or flipped it off for being in their way, as their temperaments took them. Urisk wasn't visible.
"Damn it!" Zack thumped a fist against his thigh. "I lost him."
"Lost who?"
Zack looked down. A pretty green-eyed girl smiled up at him.
"You didn't happen to see a black-haired guy in a blue shirt run past? Couple years older than us?"
She shifted the cardboard box she was propping against her hip and put a finger to her chin. "Hmm. No."
His shoulders slumped. "You sure? He had Haste on, so you might've just seen him as a blur?"
Her smile came back, even bigger. "The only black-haired teen I've seen around here making people get out of his way, is you." She reached up and gently ran her hand along the chocobo's cheek.
Belatedly, Zack realized that he and the bird were blocking foot traffic just as efficiently as the car still struggling to move forward.
"Sorry. Here. Hey, back up," he urged the bird, and it took a few steps backward into the alley. He marveled at how well-trained it was. He didn't need reins or anything, it listened to his words or leg cues.
The girl followed him. "Is it yours?"
"Ahh, no…" He rubbed the back of his head. "I should probably get back and return it." How he'd get back was another question. He had no idea where he was. He barely ever had time or permission to go into the city, let alone down into the slums. Okay… If the pillar's over there, and Reactor 02's over there...
"You took a chocobo for a joyride?"
"No," he said absently. "I was chasing that guy and…" He saw her mischievous smile and the sparkle in her eyes. And okay, so he had taken the bird without permission. "You wouldn't happen to know the way back to the chocobo stables in the slaughterhouse district?"
"It's silly to chase someone below plate if you don't know your way around. I guess I could show you the way back… if you buy me lunch and let me ride that chocobo."
"Oh, uh." Was she flirting with him? "How old are you?"
"Twelve. You?"
"Thirteen, but I'll be fourteen soon."
"Really?" She looked at him sideways. "When's your birthday?"
"June 17th."
She laughed. "That's not soon. Mine's closer than that."
"Yeah? When's that?"
"February 7th."
Zack grinned. She was really cute. "I'm kinda on a time constraint so it's a no to the ride, but maybe I can buy you something from a food stall?"
"I know just the one!"
There was something wet seeping into Reeve's jacket. His left elbow was jangling and throbbing, having struck the ground when Fair pushed him down. The cobblestones inches from his face had a smell that was not to be described.
And yet - he was out of the mess that whirled around the truck. He turned his head, avoiding inhaling, and saw a pair of boots beside the left front tire, their owner pressed as close back to the truck as he could get. Hooves and claws clattered past, and feathers whooshed under the truck's frame.
"Psst, laddie."
Reeve turned his head back the other way. Cait Sith was scrambling toward him on paws and knees.
"What are you -" he started, but Cait Sith interrupted.
"Ye cannae stay here, laddie. Come wit' me."
"I'm not running away -"
"Nay, I jes' mean, unner the truck."
That seemed odd to Reeve. There were panicked animals everywhere else. But, he supposed, AVALANCHE was probably responsible for the stampede; Cait Sith would know where it was safe to be.
He wriggled forward on his elbows. At the front of the truck, Cait leapt out, frightening a sheep that careened away in the other direction. The cat helped Reeve out from under, then tugged him the seven feet toward the farm truck Urisk had arrived in.
They clambered in, just avoiding a heifer with rolling wide eyes. Reeve hoped he wasn't being abducted, but there was no one in the cab and the truck remained off. There was already a white chicken in the bed, squawking loudly, and two troopers Reeve didn't know. Evidently, the mission took second place to avoiding a trampling.
Reeve eyed the bird as it caterwauled and fussed indignantly around the truck bed. Under his breath, he muttered, "Well, that was unexpected. Your group's plan?"
Cait Sith clung to the rails behind him, out of the troopers' sight. "Aye, we needed to get Urisk out if Shinra decided to grab him."
"Hm." He felt… disappointed. Glad that his older self was likely to get away, but all of the items he'd retrieved for AVALANCHE were still sitting in the next truck over. Some great help he'd been.
He watched a bleating flock of goats dash between the two trucks. Maybe it was for the best. Shinra would have put trackers and who-knew-what-else on the machines and supplies. This way, there was no risk of the time-travelers missing one and putting themselves in harm's way because of it.
One of the troopers was leaning against the rear gate, watching the mayhem around them. He pointed up the street. "I swear, those monsters are herding the animals. Look. They're not attacking, they're… running around and nipping."
The other trooper stood, looking where his fellow was pointing. "Huh. I think you're right."
With mild interest, Reeve stood to watch as well. The animals were swirling around up and down the street. Two red, predatory-looking quadrupeds ran alongside the livestock. Three. The last of them was a juvenile - Reeve only caught bare flashes of it through the scrum. When the animals looked set to break away and head down a side street, one of the monsters turned them, sending them sweeping up the street in the other direction.
Most of the personnel Shinra had assigned as back-up were either taking cover, trying to herd the animals back into the barns and warehouses, or hanging on to some animal for dear life. If any of them were trying to pursue potential AVALANCHE members, he couldn't see signs of it.
There was a golden flash of fire from an alley. Reeve glanced toward it and saw SOLDIER 1st Class Rhapsodos directing animals by blocking their path with flames. Whether he was helping at all, or just making them more panicked, was a different argument altogether. A duck and another pair of screaming chickens flew up and joined them in the truck.
Cait Sith tapped his shoulder. "Look to yer right, laddie," he whispered.
Nothing directly to his right. He looked over his shoulder. Crouched on top of the other truck was a boy wearing a bright red bandana over his head. He was looking right at Reeve, mako eyes bright and intense. When he saw he had Reeve's attention, he gave a single nod and the truck seemed to vanish.
Reeve's mouth dropped open. Not vanished, he realized, shrunk. For a moment he saw the truck, like a toddler's toy, scooped up by the boy, before the animals flooded the newly empty space and the crush of bodies swallowed him.
The trooper who'd been crouched beside the truck when Reeve crawled out from under it was gone. For a moment, no one besides Reeve seemed to notice its absence.
Then there was a shout of alarm from the street. "The truck!"
The two men in the truck bed with Reeve spun around, startling the birds into another fit of squalling. "Where…?"
"Shit, we were supposed to keep our eyes on it."
Behind Reeve's back, Cait Sith whispered. "It's nae safe for me tae go back to Shinra; I'll be a-leaving. What about ye, laddie? If ye don't come wit' us now, there mayn't be much we can do for ye."
This was it, then. Reeve's decision was already made. "Thank you, Cait Sith. For everything. I'm going to stay. I feel there's still much I can accomplish."
If a robotic voice could be said to grow warmer, than Cait's did. "I thought as much. I've put a wee program in your PHS - dial 777 if ye're in hot water, and we'll do what we can tae help. Take care a' yerself, laddie."
Veld stared at the footage recorded in the slaughterhouse district. What an absolute rout. On his monitor, grainy black and white troops and SOLDIERs were swamped by panicked animals, letting AVALANCHE escape with the equipment and information they'd wanted.
He watched with narrow eyes as a boy jumped onto the truck, shrank it, and disappeared into the stampede. Replicating the feat in a storage bay, to prove what they'd seen, had taken a rare mastered Transform Materia. Even then, a SOLDIER 1st Class had barely been able to lift the shrunken truck and carry it two circumferences of the room before sinking down, worn out.
The boy on the truck had dark hair, and his face was blurred. It was certainly Cloud, though. Veld was growing far too familiar with the swordsman's movements and body language. He'd ditched the red bandana he'd been wearing, tying it to the horns of a goat, and the Turks and SOLDIERs had wasted precious time chasing the flash of red among the animals. Then AVALANCHE had managed to disable all the trackers the company had put in place, fleeing a seedy under-plate inn mere minutes before Shinra's operatives arrived.
Still, it wasn't a complete disaster. They had managed to get information on them. Whether that information was good was up for debate. It had been Urisk and Cloud at the inn, according to the proprietor's description. A canvassing of the neighborhood showed no sign of the Vincents, which meant that to disable the beacons and trackers, either Urisk or Cloud was a talented hacker. Urisk, probably. Cloud's enhanced senses had probably enabled him to pick off the physical bugs, but there hadn't been signs until now of him being technically inclined.
So - further information on their organizational structure. More concerning was the results of the Scanning the Turks had done. Including the younger copy of Vincent, AVALANCHE had six confirmed members at level 99. Veld wondered morbidly what sort of lives they had lived to get to such an extreme level. How, in the case of Cait Sith, did you even get a machine to that level?
The most promising information was the presence of the three red beasts working with the group. The species was endemic to the canyonlands of the western continent, more specifically the Cosmo Canyon area. It was a solid lead, something they were seriously lacking with this group.
Which brought him to Tuesti and his odd conversation with Urisk. Urisk, like Cait Sith, was named for a mythological being from the Kalm area. AVALANCHE's first strike, too, had taken place in Kalm, preventing the bombing. Perhaps the interference there had nothing to do with Death God or aggression against Shinra, but as they had said, a simple desire to protect Kalm. So far the group had been surprisingly honest about their intentions.
What would he do to make the world a better place? No. Veld had the self-awareness to know he'd never guess their motives like that. He needed to talk to an idealist.
He pulled up a different video feed. The director of Urban Development sat inside an interrogation room, under the watchful eyes of Balto and Tseng.
Shinra was unstable at the moment. Veld really didn't want to get rid of Reeve and destabilize the company further, but ultimately, it wasn't his decision. He would put his findings on the president's desk and do as Rupert Shinra decided.
Tuesti was a genius, a clever and creative man, and a genuine idealist. Not a coward. He regularly spoke up at board meetings, even when he knew he was only making the other board members despise him. But… Veld had never judged him as brave, either. Those protests were the only resistance Tuesti had shown, until the last two months. In that time, he'd shown himself a bolder man than Veld had credited him.
Veld slid open a desk drawer and picked through it carefully. It was time to see how brave and honest Tuesti was.
Entering the interrogation room, he kept his face a blank mask, dulled to perfect neutrality by years of practice. Reeve greeted him pleasantly, though there was worry in his eyes. Veld didn't return the greeting. On the table between them, he set down a small black box, a syringe filled with a faintly glowing green liquid, and a slender knife.
Tuesti's voice held a faint tremor. "Are those really necessary, Veld?"
"That's up to you."
"I know you're upset at how the meeting went, but I believe they truly do have the best intentions for our SOLDIERs. It's why I agreed to help them." Tuesti's dark eyes kept glancing down at the items on the table, then skittering away sharply.
He stayed silent, waiting to see what else Tuesti might say to save himself.
"It explains why they haven't permanently killed any SOLDIER, and why they target the Science Department." He sounded slightly strained.
Veld picked up the syringe. "Is that the only reason you agreed to help them?"
"Yes, and no. You already know that answer."
"Do I?"
"I was inclined to help them because of the technologies they provided me with. I would have declined if I thought their request harmful to the company."
"Really? I would like to believe that, Reeve, but I don't find you as trustworthy as I once did. I honestly thought you were the only one on the board who wasn't… twisted in some way." He rolled the syringe between his fingers.
Reeve's eyes tracked the motion. "Veld, what exactly is in that?"
"It's a bit of a truth serum. After-effects include migraines and lingering flu-like symptoms. In rare cases, permanent blindness has also been reported." He watched the man across from him closely. While his face had paled, his jaw had set into a firm line. Holding out. Interesting. It seemed there was information he hadn't shared yet.
"I'm going to give you a choice because I respect you." He opened the black box to reveal four magic materia. "It is possible to cast a controlled low-level spell under someone's skin without leaving permanent damage, though it is extremely painful. Ice, Fire, Lightning. The fourth materia is Revive. Or, if you're a traditionalist…" He set the syringe down with a click and picked up the knife. "You haven't told me everything, Reeve. But you can now. Tell me the full truth or pick from these options."
"Those aren't very pleasant choices, Veld."
"No, but you do have them."
"I…" Reeve licked his lips. "I…" He was losing focus.
Veld deliberately softened his demeanor. "Reeve, why did you stay? We had you bugged, we know the AI offered to take you with them, and we know about the code in your PHS." Something they could use later as a potential trap. "So why? Why not escape?"
The question seemed to ground Tuesti, though the waver didn't leave his voice. "I do not believe my role here at Shinra is finished. And I do not believe I have acted out against the company's best interest."
"Prove it, Reeve. Make me believe you."
"I… believe…" He started haltingly, glancing around the room as though he might find some escape route. "That… they are from… an alternate future."
That was not an answer Veld had expected. He let the skepticism show on his face.
The expression seemed to ground Reeve further. His chin tilted up defiantly. "Yes, I know it's quite the claim. Cait Sith is from my own design, something I came up with as a child. But I haven't built him yet, I'm still working on the technology. Two months ago, my childhood design showed up in my office. Fully functional. And he brought with him designs, technology that had no way of existing… yet. We have the foundations for some of it, but the sheer magnitude?" Reeve shook his head. "No one but Shinra could have financed it, and only my department would have developed it. But we haven't. And there is the Airship. Who could have built it? Why was it in a cave? But - what if it just showed up there?"
He was growing more animated as he spoke, good, he was more likely to let something extra slip.
"I've heard rumors on the Magitech designs from the airbase. Magitech is also in the plans I was given. Is that what powers the airship? We know ours take large quantities of mako fuel to run, but theirs never seems to need to refuel. The boy with SOLDIER enhancements, what if he is SOLDIER? Beyond trying to save the SOLDIERs medically, what if he wants to save them personally?"
"And your answer for all this is an alternate future?"
"Yes. It's the only thing that makes sense. As they change the past, their future stops being the one we are headed for."
Look-a-likes. Pilots, engineers, children, a Turk, and… Urisk. Tuesti.
"Explain to me your conversation with Urisk." He pulled an audio device out of his pocket. "What was really said?"
He let the recording run. "You aren't how I pictured you."
"Younger, you mean? All of us are younger than our skills and experience would indicate. Younger than we should be, everyone seems to think."
He pressed pause and waited.
"Urisk is my older self. The meeting was set up so I could meet him, but he wasn't what I expected. Younger. How could he be me from the future?"
Veld nodded, apparently genial. "That is a problem with your story." A big one. But even as he spoke, Veld's mind was racing. There were two Vincents, and it was the teenaged one who was level ninety-nine. What if he was the older one?
"I think I would have gotten an answer to it if I'd been alone." Reeve's tone held a light reprimand. Even in this position, he was a man used to having authority.
"Maybe." How could someone change the past if they prevented the reason they went to the past in the first place? He let the tape roll again.
"Really?"
"Unfortunately so. A side effect, I'm afraid."
"I can see how that would be problematic."
"It's had its uses and some would say age is irrelevant to what truly matters."
"What truly matters?"
"Keeping people safe and ensuring a better future."
Pause.
"When he said, 'side effect', I think he meant a side effect of time travel," Reeve explained. "Though that's only a theory. As for having its uses, it has kept everyone guessing. It makes them seem less threatening, less capable. Makes you underestimate them."
True, and that was the problem wasn't it? So much of what AVALANCHE said was true, had been vetted and investigated and proved. They were fighting against liars and spinners - the company, the Science Department, the Turks, but were honest themselves. It set Veld's teeth on edge. No one was that genuine. There had to be a lie hiding somewhere, like a counterfeit gil in a handful of real ones.
And time-travel - ridiculous. Convenient. So easy to make all the pieces apparently fit when the premise was so mushy and nonsensical.
He tapped a finger against the recorder. "And 'what truly matters'?"
"The reason they're here, doing what they've done. To keep people safe and protect the future. I've been led to believe that there will be many crises in the future, where thousands will die and Shinra will fall. That is what they are trying to prevent."
Notes:
It's been awhile, but at least it's a long chapter? Zephyr and I have been participating in gift exchanges recently. Because of the way these are set up, we have posted some fics you might not have seen. One that some of you may be interested in is a FF7 time travel featuring Aerith as the time traveler; it contains spoilers for OG and Remake. You can find this and the others on our works page.
We are participating in three 10k exchanges right now, but hope to have the next Going Postal chapter up in late November or early December. It will feature the group aboard the Shera. After that, there are only five chapters left. Thank you all very much for sticking with us, and we hope you look forward to the final chapters.