My Vietnam
17 June 2014
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This is a FFVII fic by klepto_maniac0. I own no concepts and no characters except the ones you've never heard of, which means they're ones I've made. I freely admit I will take liberties with the FFVII canon because this is an alternate universe fic (in case you haven't figured that out already.) That's why some details are different, some events are ignored, and some people don't exist or act in a different capacity. Ain't fanfic fun?
"My Vietnam" (henceforth shortened to MYV) is a continuation of "Put Your Lights On" (PYLO), but it is not necessary to have read PYLO before reading this story. Whenever PYLO-specific events are referenced, the pertinent chapter will be indexed in the author's note.
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The look upon their faces
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The day of the launch, Toriko woke up feeling like crap. It was a rare feeling. It wasn't until after a breakfast of fruit and tea that she realized she felt emotionally unwell, not simply tired. Fortunately she had always been an early riser, so after eating Toriko lay back down and stared up at the ceiling. The best way to exercise her mind was to make sure nothing else was moving.
"What's wrong?" asked a voice. She knew it was only her own objective mind, but it sounded an awful lot like Father.
"I'm tired," she told herself. "It's been a whole month with nothing from or about Father. I don't know what to do anymore. If only I could see that mission file..."
"Why do you need the file?"
"Because it would tell me everything. Or at least, give me the cover-up version of what's going on."
"What's going on?"
It was amazing much she could annoy herself. Toriko rolled onto her side and curled into a tight ball, shutting her eyes and muffling her ears. If she tried hard enough, maybe she could imagine herself at home in her own bed, with her three heavy blankets and fluffy pillows. She could almost hear the whistle of the kettle that boiled on a stove with one disabled burner, because Sephiroth liked to amuse himself by casting Fire spells at the gas range...
"Don't start," she hissed as her eyes began to burn. It was one thing to remember a memory, but cracking to pieces over one was utterly disgusting. Father would be so disappointed. She was not going to act like any more of a weakling while he was gone. She simply couldn't. She had really lucked out yesterday with Reeve and Rufus, though a quiet voice wondered if she'd been able to cry because they'd been there and she knew they wouldn't hold tears against her.
Would they still let her cry, though, if they knew the actual reason? They thought it was grief when yesterday, Toriko had been drowning under waves of anxiety and frustration.
"Seven weeks. Forty-nine days of hiding and trying to find information from Rufus and Hojo and NOTHING. I feel like I'm losing my mind. It's like that mission doesn't exist for anyone else but me and Father."
"Just Father?" asked that damnable objective voice. As she growled in irritation, the voice asked again, "We know he was never allowed to solo missions. Not even during wartime, unless things were really bad. The Shin-Ra always wanted eyes on him. That's never changed."
That...never had. Sephiroth thought the Turks were his subordinates. Toriko thought differently, having been taken by them once before, and casual poking in Reno, Rude, and Tseng's heads confirmed her suspicion that the Turks let themselves be ordered by Sephiroth in order to keep an eye on him. About the only time they weren't watching him was when he was on a mission.
"So... Who went with Father on his final mission?"
That was something. Hope quickened her pulse, but Toriko hadn't survived this long by giving in to manic emotion. Instead she exhaled and forcefully relaxed herself by staring at the woodgrain in the ceiling. With her abnormal eyesight, it was easy to pick out a hair-fine line and follow it from one end of the room to another.
It hurt to think about the last conversation she had ever had with Sephiroth, but now Toriko forced herself to remember it in its entirety, not just the high points. She shoved away the regret and guilt, pushed aside the lingering irritation, and went over what she could remember, word-by-word.
"Father?"
"Who else would it be?"
"Someone informing me of your death. How is the mission going, Father?"
"Well 've arrived in Nibelheim. No monsters yet, save the dragon on the way here. Zack dispatched it. Mostly."
This time Toriko couldn't calm herself with a breath. She gripped her blanket in both hands, her pulse hammering against her skin.
"I was foolish. Obviously all information about Father will be locked down, but Zack is merely a SOLDIER First Class. Finding out about his last mission should be much easier. And even if I hit the same wall, I can at least talk to the Seventh. Maybe even his girlfriend if I can track her down. They have to know something. People always let something slip."
Energized, Toriko sat up. The humiliating breakdown yesterday seemed like a bad dream and completely illogical. She had a new plan now, and while she didn't know how fruitful it would be, it was better than nothing.
"I still won't give up on that mission file, but there's nothing saying I can have only one iron in the fire."
The launch was today, which demanded a fancier outfit. Toriko set aside the durable shirts and cargo pants and took out a linen garment bag with several Elaine creations within. After considering the weather, Toriko selected up a high-collared and long-sleeved black shirt and paired it with an olive drab jacket and skirt with gold buttons and black borders. She put on fancier boots, though like every shoe she owned, these had been re-soled with a softer crepe-rubber mix that wore out quickly but turned her steps into whispers and gave her traction on extremely steep grades. This was a carryover from Sephiroth and Sensei, who was very clear on the importance of appropriate footwear. And just as important as the tread of a shoe was its ability to hide weaponry, so Toriko changed out the materia in her screw-off heels and transferred the throwing knives from one pair of boots to the other.
Her pocket knife went in her skirt pocket and a pair of longer blades got holstered to her thighs, hidden by the voluminous skirt. Ever since Sephiroth's disappearance, Toriko had taken to making sure she was armed at all times, even when she was with Rufus; safety was a thing of the past. The materia in her shoes were a mastered Barrier and a mastered Mystify, which would give her maximum time to escape in most situations. Toriko turned the Touph Ring on her finger several times, both for luck and also to make sure it was still in good condition. Even with her enhanced strength, every bit of defense helped (though she still had no idea how a little ring could raise her physical defense and spell defense so much).
As an afterthought, Toriko brushed her hair and put on a bit of makeup.
Rufus and Reeve had already left for the launch ceremony, so Toriko met Naomi and the kids downstairs. She braced herself for a flood of "how are you doing" questions, but instead Naomi looked her over and apparently decided she was alright.
"You look like you had a good rest," she said.
"I did," said Toriko. "And you?"
"I slept well too," said Naomi. Chuckling, she added, "Though Reeve was so excited he went out for a walk and then tossed and turned all night."
"I just wanna know why it has to be so eeeearly," Meryl yawned. She was nicely attired as well, wearing a light dress that was more suited to the season but perhaps not the temperature. Fortunately Meryl always ran hot. "This is earlier than school."
"Try having an early class at college," said Rose, who looked lovely in her customary pink. Her boyfriend cleaned up nicely as well, though Toriko caught the faint red line of a shaving cut on his cheek.
They walked to the launch site, talking about Rose's career (she was hoping to go into the Midgar Orchestra after her program was done) as the sun rose leisurely above the trees. Toriko looked at the rocket more than once. It was impossible not to, considering its size alone, but Toriko saw the hours put into building the thing. Not just building it, but conceptualizing it, making it fit together and work. Some of the pieces on the outer sheathing were huge and had probably been custom-forged. All of the internal electronics were elaborate and no few of those had probably been made just for this mission. Shin-Ra No. 26 was truly a unique existence, and in the morning light it seemed to shimmer gold with the hope and hard work of hundreds.
And it was going to fail.
By the time they got to the launch reception area, Toriko was feeling like crap again and no matter how often she told herself to suck it up, guilt made her stomach churn. She could see happy excited faces everywhere she looked, from the mechanics in blue to the grease-fingered engineers in pristine white lab coats. No one looked guilty, which made Toriko feel even worse. And seeing Captain Highwind, painstaking groomed and shining with enthusiasm, made her want to fake an illness and go back to the inn.
She deliberately ignored President Shin-Ra's entire speech, unable to look away from the rocket. They would be watching the actual launch from a certain distance away and after the failure, it would probably be scrapped for parts, so this was the last and only time she could see something so magnificent. Even so, Toriko almost missed the engineer running into the rocket, some distress making her otherwise pretty face pale. Toriko chewed the inside of her cheek and wondered if she'd discovered their sabotage or something else. Having the rocket fail was not as important as it had been now that Toriko had another plan.
Traitorously she began to hope that the rocket would launch after all.
It was then that she noticed several Turks moving toward the stage.
Since Sephiroth's disappearance, the amount of overt surveillance on her had practically vanished, which was why she'd been able to come to Rocket Town alone. Nevertheless Toriko was familiar with all the Turks on the roster, at least when it came to their faces. They'd always rotated bodyguard duty, though Tseng, Reno, and Rude were the ones she saw most frequently. So the instant the Turks appeared, Toriko naturally took notice.
And she noticed that something was not right.
But before Toriko could put a label on her worry, she saw a flicker of something under the stage. She focused on it like Sephiroth had told her and mundane colors greyed out slightly, becoming more textured instead. Warmth shimmered in the people sitting around her, but the thing under the stage seemed to surge and shine. It was hot. And it was getting bigger.
"Fire," she exclaimed softly.
"Huh?" Meryl looked at her.
"There's a fire," said Toriko, jerking her head at the smoke that was just starting to appear. "Under the stage. Look right over—oh."
"Dad!" Meryl shrieked as smoke began to billow from the podium. A cry of horror went up from the audience, but infantrymen, flown in for security and pomp, instantly surrounded the press and guest seating and started hustling them to a safe place. Toriko ducked and squeezed out, breezing underneath the arm of a soldier who was too busy trying to herd panicking civilians. It wasn't until she reached the stage that Toriko realized she had no idea what she was doing.
"Why did I run up here?"
Gunshots made her run faster, but when Toriko arrived, all she saw were dead bodies and Scarlet and Reeve running for the trees. She nearly started after them, but a musky animal scent she'd become very familiar with hit her like a hammer and she nearly sneezed. Dark Nation had passed through here, but hadn't gone with Scarlet and Reeve. Therefore, Rufus was not with Scarlet and Reeve.
"Fake Turks, a stage accident, and now Rufus is gone. Kidnapping."
Only one group had the guts and the organization to pull off something this brazen. Considering how Rufus hadn't wanted to give AVALANCHE any attention in the first place, Toriko nearly laughed.
Instead she remembered Wutai, with Rufus in chains and homicidal kunoichi everywhere.
Toriko wavered. Back then she had retrieved Sephiroth's weapons and materia, knowing he'd be able to take care of himself, but Rufus was merely a good shot and more importantly, only human. Toriko mentally reviewed her inventory and cursed; everything she had would help her, not anyone else. But fake Turks meant the real ones were dead or indisposed, and as far as she knew, no one else knew Rufus had been snatched.
"The sooner he's free, the better. AVALANCHE has never been stable. And if Rufus dies..."
No more Nii-san. No more mission file. Both were unacceptable.
Toriko followed the scent of Dark Nation, which was fading every second; the pantheround was covering serious ground. At the same time Toriko concentrated on the earth, looking for the irv, and saw shimmering pawprints on barely bent grass, each spaced more than six feet apart as Dark Nation all but flew over the ground. Toriko followed the vanishing scent and pawprints, which took more concentration than she would have liked. She ran into the trees without looking around, but fortunately caught herself before she ran out into a clearing like an idiot. Dark Nation was nowhere to be found around here, but there was only one structure in the vicinity that would be able to house a valuable hostage, but...
"Oh dear. Are they that foolish? Or that clever? I suppose putting your hostage in a rocket is one way to protect yourself."
Regular army troopers would not be good in this situation; they were armed with pistols and machine guns, both of which were a terrible idea in a fragile structure surrounded by incredibly explosive fuel. Toriko stepped back into the shadows of the trees and pondered what to do.
"I should wait for the Turks... I don't know what I'm doing..."
"On the other hand... I'm armed with weapons suited to close-quarters combat. I know Rufus is here. I have no idea when the Turks will come or if any of them are even alive. I am at least as strong as a Second Class SOLDIER, I have training from one of the best kunoichi alive, and I can read minds."
With a laundry list of such credentials, she should have run forward. She should have instantly begun a rescue. Instead Toriko stepped back again. Emotions that changed too quickly to name roiled in her chest.
"If I die, I'll never learn the truth about Father or Zack. And in Wutai, I almost died. Father isn't here to help me and Rufus is a good shot, but not a killer."
Which meant she would have to kill, if it came down to that.
The idea was strangely abhorrent. Toriko was not particularly bothered by dead bodies or violence, but being complicit in either—or worse, both—was something that made her ill. Nearly forgotten fear made her shoulder burn in the place where a dead kunoichi had fatally—well, nearly fatally—stabbed her.
"You're not eleven anymore!" hissed a voice that sounded very much like Father when he was at his unreasonable worst. "And it's a simple solution; just kill the enemy before they can wound you."
"I'm not worried about hurt," she thought, fighting against the throbbing memory of death coming near. "I just don't want to inflict that sort of fear on anyone else."
"Then Rufus is going to die and it's going to be inescapably your fault."
They wouldn't kill him, she told herself. If AVALANCHE had taken him hostage, they had a plan that counted on him being alive. But alive didn't necessarily mean 'unhurt'...
"I don't have to kill anyone, or even rescue Rufus," Toriko realized. "I just have to make sure they don't hurt him. I can do that. I can protect someone."
The emotions settled to a low simmer. Toriko exhaled the last of her hesitation and took a fresh look at the scene. Ahead of her, the rocket was surrounded by open grass and now that it was fully morning, there wasn't even mist in the two hundred yards between the trees and the rocket itself. Hell, Toriko could see human figures around the front of the rocket, their eyes trained for intruders. She looked up and saw two more figures near the top of the rocket scaffolding, lying flat with long, distinctive guns.
"So they brought snipers too. Hiding in the rocket must have been their plan all along."
Toriko chewed her nail. This was going to be harder than she thought.
"On the other hand, I don't see Dark Nation, I didn't hear any gunshots, and I certainly didn't see a dead pantheround on the way here. So he got through somehow, or he's on the approach. How?"
Toriko looked more closely at the snipers. They were prone and scanning the horizon like pros, but Toriko spotted their problem almost instantly and nearly laughed. Just to be sure, she stepped back into the trees and jogged a quarter-circle around the rocket, maintaining cover in the flickering shadows.
"Oh my goodness, they really are that dumb. Why would have they have snipers but no spotters?"
Snipers were great as long as they knew what to shoot at; the problem with picking off targets from very far away was that their actual view was badly restricted, hence the necessity of a spotter. The spotter could see a wider range, call out positions to the snipers, and thus eliminate the enemy together. Silently Toriko thanked her absent father for making her read various operation manuals in preparation for a military education.
"Amateurs," Toriko decided as she considered her next move. "They must be amateurs. Still, AVALANCHE wouldn't bother arming them and taking them along if they couldn't actually hit what they were aiming at, so I can't let them see me."
After studying the rocket again, Toriko was satisfied that there were no other people other than the door guards and the snipers up top. Still shaking her head, she took a calming breath and "reached" for the Barrier materia in her boot heel. Most people preferred to carry Materia in their weapons and armor, since skin contact (or very close contact) was necessary to cast. In her boot heel, the Barrier orb was less than a quarter-inch away from her foot, which was more than close enough to use. Still, it felt weird having cold, slimy energy running up her left leg and into her butt before it settled in her chest, coalescing into the form that she wanted it to take. Casting from the upper body was much more comfortable. Toriko willed the power into her hand, where it pulsed against the confines of her skin. It was going to get really uncomfortable and dangerous in a few moments, but she touched her fist to her head, keeping a very specific mental image in mind.
"Reflect," Toriko whispered. She opened her hand and blew across her palm, something she only did for very tricky materia applications such as these. The spell blossomed from her hand, but instead of surging forth in the usual spell-reflecting barrier, it instead wrapped around her body in a haze of greenish sparkles. A second later, Toriko looked at her hand and nodded in satisfaction; her body had turned reflective.
"The reason that Reflect works as a magic-bouncing barrier is because it alters the perception of light," said a memory of Sephiroth from long ago. "Unlike M-Barrier, which simply absorbs magic, Reflect makes casters think the target is elsewhere, and the incorrect release of magic is what causes the spell to 'bounce back'; in reality, the magic is blowing up in the caster's face. Using this visual distortion property, it is possible to make Reflect work as a camouflage field."
Toriko set off, walking slowly toward the rocket. The Reflect field was great for slow approaches and standing still, but quick movement made light flash off an enchanted body and the advanced application was very fragile. Already Toriko could feel the field fraying around her feet and knees, where the long grass kept brushing up against her, but running would only decay it more. Toriko estimated she could get about halfway across the field without anyone seeing anything other than the image of long, empty grass waving in the wind, but even knowing she was concealed, it was hideously nerve-wracking to slowly, deliberately walk straight toward armed terrorists.
"It's a good thing I wore green today," she thought for no good reason, and had to stuff back a nervous giggle.
The field fell off like dried leaves, forcing Toriko to drop to a crouch and then crawl on her hands and knees as the magic slowly decayed. She fought the rising panic with deep breaths and constant checking on the gunmen to make sure they weren't moving too much. The door guards were just barely visible from her position, but lazy about their surveillance; from the doorway, they only looked from shoulder to shoulder and stood side-by-side rather than back-to-back, so their blind spot was huge. And the snipers were scanning the treeline, not the grassy field, so as long as she didn't attract their notice, she was good.
"These guys are idiots," Toriko couldn't help but think. "I should be on the lookout for a trap."
If it were her, she would have covered the ground in mines. But she hadn't seen so much as a bottlecap out here and cautious poking in the AVALANCHE members' heads indicated nothing about explosives in the area. She did detect a certain amount of panic; apparently they were about a third down, thanks to Scarlet and Heidegger being quick on the draw and infantrymen running all about. Cautiously emboldened, Toriko rose into a low crouch and half-ran lightly through the grass. Her blood thudded in her ears; this motion was far, far more visible than walking in a camouflage field, but casting spells released a distinctive light that she couldn't afford. Toriko prayed AVALANCHE's stupidity would continue to work for her as she jogged toward the rocket in broad daylight.
It felt like a dream when she stood underneath the shadow of the massive scaffolding, but Toriko did not let herself feel relief. Instead she looked around the rocket's base. Above her, halfway up the rocket itself, was the main door that she was aware of that led into the rocket itself, and that was where the AVALANCHE gunmen were.
"But I know there was an engineer here... I saw her run into the rocket. And she used... Ah-hah, that access door."
There was nobody underneath the rocket's blasters and fuel tank, but Toriko proceeded carefully, checking every step and constantly listening both physically and mentally for anything near. The only thing around was a distracted mind ahead of her. Apparently the engineer was still inside the rocket and hadn't noticed a thing.
"Must be nice to be so focused..."
The door was slightly ajar when Toriko came to it. She drew her skirt knives and used one to open the door, standing well off to the side.
"Hello?" came a female voice.
Toriko ducked in. The engineer was indeed inside, but she hadn't even looked away from the console she was working on.
"Sorry," she said, sounding very distracted. "I know it's delaying everything, but I really have to get this fixed. I think I can patch the leak if I just reroute this line, but it's taking longer than I thought and I can't reach the bridge to let them know about the delay. I've been trying, I swear."
"So intra-rocket communications have been destroyed or disabled," thought Toriko, looking around. "Which means if I run into people, they'll probably be using walkies to communicate and not the rocket's announcement system."
As Toriko swapped out one of her skirt daggers for throwing knives, the engineer said, "It'll just be about ten more minutes. Umm... Okay, make that fifteen. Oh boy."
Toriko opened her mouth. She was going to tell the engineer to run and that things were dangerous here, but there was no way this tunnel-visioned woman would be able to get across the field without being shot. And it wasn't like she was going to go anywhere.
"Can you tell the Captain what's going on?" The engineer asked, finally looking over her shoulder. But Toriko had already moved, heading for a service ladder that went up into the rocket itself. She climbed fast, but not before she heard the engineer below going, "Thanks, you're a peach" and then getting back to work.
The service ladder was long and terminated in a hatch that opened directly overhead. Toriko sent her thought ahead and winced; there were four gunmen right above her, one of whom was standing right on the hatch itself. What to do...
"I could push them off, but I'd lose the element of surprise..."
Toriko called up the Mystify in her boot, this time touching her hand to the bottom of the hatch. Casting without seeing was hard, but not impossible; soldiers suffering from Darkness did it all the time, since magic was automatically attracted toward living bodies. As long as she aimed in a general direction, she could hit something.
"Confuse," she whispered as prickling, numbing power flew up the side of her body. Then for good measure, she cast another spell slightly off to the right, where another AVALANCHE gunmen was standing. "Berserk."
The result was better and worse than expected. Toriko shut her eyes, for all the good it did, as one of the gunmen started shooting at his "enemies" and his enraged friend shot back without caring who he was hitting. In a small, tight space, it was over in less than thirty seconds, though the groans and gasps of the dying didn't end for another minute.
It took Toriko another minute after that before she could steel herself to climb up the ladder and open the hatch, and only then because the sounds of battle would draw attention soon. If she didn't go now, what was the point?
Blood spilled down the sides of the hatch as soon as she opened it and Toriko flinched as more slid down the hatch to hit her hand and arm. Shaking off the disgust, she climbed up and couldn't stop herself from gasping in horror. There were no whole bodies in the hall anymore. The scent of bile and blood was thick enough to cut and for a moment her vision swayed. Toriko pressed her wrist to her mouth as her gorge rose, but it very nearly wasn't enough as she turned and saw a man with half a head, his brains spattered along the wall.
"I did this. I did this."
The world tilted. Toriko staggered, but the memory of her father's voice kept her upright.
"If you're going to be ill, vomit instead. You don't have time to faint."
Pounding footsteps at her back made Toriko turn automatically, horror puffing away in the fire of adrenaline. Nowhere to run except down the hatch, which was counterproductive. From the sound of it, there were three or four people running at her.
"Slice and dice? Same spell tactic? Wait, I could grab a gun and—"
They came around the corner and skidded to a stop, utterly floored by the carnage in front of them. And like an idiot, Toriko stood among the bodies of their dead friends and stared back at them.
"What do I do?"
"Bitch-ass motherfucker, I'll kill you!" One of the people screamed, swinging her gun up at Toriko's face. Toriko reacted like Sephiroth and Sensei had beat into her, though she wasn't entirely aware she'd thrown one of her knives until the would-be shooter dropped to the floor, crumpling on top of the knife in the hip. Just like target practice, right in the femoral artery.
And just like that, all hell broke loose.
The remaining people went for their guns, so Toriko moved too fast to be shot, automatically falling into the ground-eating zigzag path that Sensei had made her run until she'd wanted to pass out. By the time the remaining three managed to unholster and aim, she was already in their faces. It was not a long hall.
"Big one first," she thought, ramming the tallest and broadest of the AVALANCHE thugs with her shoulder. He went flying from the unexpected force, knocking down the two behind him. As they fell over, legs and guns flying into the air, Toriko whirled on one foot and kicked their weapons from their hands, the shock of riflery against her heel making her leg throb. The weaponry bounced down the hall, one rifle falling down the still-open hatch.
"Finish," she thought as she landed. "No targets behind me."
The wounded gunner lay groaning on the floor, shuddering and shaking. She managed to point her gun at Toriko, but Toriko grabbed the muzzle and tossed it down the hatch too, absently hoping she wouldn't hit the engineer below. Muscle memory made her raise her knife and aim for the throat, but then the gunner caught her eye.
"What the..." She blurted out, her already pale face going white. "You're a kid!"
"And you're in my way," said Toriko, but somehow the gunner's voice penetrated the cold fog in the worst way. Instead of slitting the woman's throat, Toriko leaned down and grabbed the handle of her throwing knife, gripping it hard to still her shaking hand.
"Once I pull this out, you have less than five minutes to live," said Toriko, her voice sounding oddly hollow. "But several standard recovery items will save your life, if applied all at once. You should have a few."
Toriko pulled the knife out, making the gunner scream. Blood fountained from the wound, spraying Toriko's sleeve and skirt.
"Good luck," said Toriko. She ran down the hall as the gunner's comrades managed to untangle themselves, and behind her she heard them scrambling for potions, their voices suffused with panicked concern instead of homicidal fury.
"I guessed right," she thought distantly. "It's more important to save a comrade than complete an objective."
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a/n: Line crossed.
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