Aerith slammed the money on the store counter with smug satisfaction and a new plush chocobo complete with a white hood, she hadn't asked how Zidane had managed to sell all his flowers so quickly but the church worker was not about to argue with results. "I can't wait to show Mom what we got!" she squealed while walking out with the Alexandrian royal couple in tow behind her "So, now where can we go? I promised her I'd be back in a few hours so there's no time to go see Loveless, and those tickets can get pretty pricey here..." she wondered, hugging the toy chocobo tightly.
"Loveless? What kind of show's that?" Asked Zidane, still looking towards the alley where he saw the redhead, getting a glimpse of what looked like a plant stalk sticking out of a rubbish bin across the street.
"Oh! It's a play that's really famous, I've never seen it but I hear people who have go on and on about it and see it lots of times. Apparently there's multiple endings to it so it's still uh... what's the word? Um..." Aerith responded, not noticing where the blonde was looking.
"Multiple endings to a play?" Dagger asked, who had noticed her husband's distraction and would later have Words, but for now was settling for a quizzical look.
"Well it was written with one ending, but most of the original got lost so from what I've heard each group that tries it writes their own version of how they think it finished," "I- I read a few books about it at home." She quickly justified without prompting while Zidane turned back around to a piercing glare.
"Hey! since this is everyone's first time, how about we all have a bit more time wondering around, maybe pick up something to eat somewhere." Zidane suggested quickly, taking the lead suddenly and heading in the opposite direction to where he sold the flowers. "We know that's Shinra's building in the middle anyway so they probably won't let us too close anyway." he said, waving his hand dismissively.
"Zidane-" Dagger began in a whisper with enough of an edge to it to match her namesake.
"What?" Zidane responded in a hushed defensive tone.
"What were you looking at back there?"
"I thought I saw someone I recognized back there. I mean I had to squint but he was a dead ringer for-"
"Zidane." Dagger said, cutting off the blonde's freshly woven story.
"What?" Zidane asked, slightly louder this time.
"Who did you sell all your flowers too at once?"
"A guy in the suit who was desperate, kinda weirded me out but it doesn't matter, he's long gone." Zidane answered deftly before Aerith ducked her head in between the hushed argument.
"Why are we whispering?" The flower girl asked, trying to match .
"Because our voices hurt from yelling about selling flowers. Also it's kinda fun." The blonde whispered back.
"Okay. I don't believe you." Aerith responded, barely containing a giggle at the look of sudden bewilderment on Zidane's face.
"So uh..." Zidane said loudly with an over-dramatic cough. "What's the big building up ahead? The one that looks like it's a giant chimney?" He asked, pointing straight down the road to the steaming tower jutting above the skyline.
"Oh that? That's the- that's the... I think it's the Mako reactor?"Aerith answered "They're what makes all the electricity to keep the lights on, but I don't think that it's free to wander around-" she continued but Zidane had stopped listening as he focused on the reactor in the distance, a faint green sheen emanating from the top, just below the steam, pulling his eyes up to it and filling the blonde with a sense of familiar dread.
"I'll be right back." He said abruptly, spinning around to wave goodbye before sprinting off down the road, heading right towards it.
"Zidane!?" Dagger called out in surprise, stuffing the bag currently holding the few remaining flowers and their new chocobo guardian under her arm in preparation to chase after Zidane.
"FIVE MINUTES!" Came the rapidly moving reply as the Genome dashed through the sleeping streets. Dagger resisted the urge to say something like 'I cannot believe' and instead opted to run after him, leaving Aerith to awkwardly follow behind.
The green glow that shone along the top could now be seen running down the sides in thin lines down the outside, piercing through the yellow hew that was Midgar's artificial light as Zidane ran toward it, the houses that lined the streets with brick and concrete giving way to barbed wire and metal fences as he hurried down the path for as long as he could before it ended in a locked gate, the edges painted black and yellow as a sign saying "Restricted" flashed overhead. "Damn!" he cursed, kicking his heel against the asphalt, the green glow still taunting him in between a network of blackened pipes. Teenage-trained instincts kicked in as he scanned the area, looking for a way in: a gap in the fencing, a nearby building to scale and hop across, a platform where her could walk the rails to, something! His head was thumping, was he just imagining things? Were they just supposed to glow like that? A lot of things could glow, what difference did a shade make? He closed his eyes to try and fight the rapidly developing headache, but when he opened his eyes he saw the difference a shade of colour could make first hand.
The colours of the world had begun to fade, the vibrant yellow and black dulling to a pale cream and grey, the lights of a nearby street light seemed to be illuminating the road with a shade of Magnolia instead of the bright white. The only thing that had maintained it's true colour, was the reactor itself.
The Green lines that had neatly run down the tower before, only changing direction at rigid points not unlike the pipe network beyond the gate had changed, they criss-crossed the tower, wrapping themselves around in a distressingly organic manner. Ivy on a concrete wall, all the while pulsing in the same sickening green. "What are you?" Zidane whispered to himself, reaching out to touch the gate, preparing to climb it before a hand shot through.
The gate had been solid steel, but the pale hand reached out as though there had been nothing there at all. It was adorned with a gold ring on the middle finger and a black glove covering the palm, a white baggy sleeve that was seemingly made of silk passed through after, but Zidane had stopped looking at what this ghostly figure was wearing. The figure had phased through the security gate far enough to see it's face. The face was distorted by terror, its eyes shot wide, the skin pale, but even so: Zidane recognized the pale blue iris, the lips that were faintly painted purple and the few locks of silver hair. "Kuja?!" Zidane yelled, jumping backwards into the road as the rest of the ghost barrelled through. From the purple pauldrons without the rest of the armour to the pointed boots, there was no mistaking it from appearance alone. There was only one person who could ever think to dress like that, let alone pull it off. But this ghost didn't seem to notice Zidane standing as it flew through, occasionally twisting his head to look back at the tower before pushing himself further away. A rare jerk of the leg giving the impression that he was desperately trying to avoid being sucked up into a whirlpool as it disappeared into the night.
A shout of "Hey you!" Snapped Zidane back to reality, even if he had to blink away the spots for the bright lights. A shout of "Hey you!" was familiar enough to be reassuring, even if it usually meant that he was in trouble, what with the people trying to get his attention not even trying to be polite about it, and probably waving swords. In fact, there even was a guy waving a sword!
1st Sargent Anders of the Midgar Domestic Security division was not having a fun patrol. He had been given a bunch of cadets to get them some decent-ish experience of life on the street with a dash of monster clearing in the slums. They could have even had a chance to use one of the new Scorpion bots for clearing duty as a way to say: "So what if you didn't make it into SOLDIER, you get to use a giant mechanical spider and that's way cooler!" but unfortunately instead of a piece of tech to control, he was assigned a member of SOLDIER for the purposes of upstaging him and the cadets. He may have only been 3rd class, and someone that the Sargent was pretty sure he could handle one on one, but all the cadets could talk about in the idle chit-chat that they hoped he didn't notice was how cool SOLDIER was, how the 3rd class had cut a Hedgehog Pie in two with one swing.
The train carrying them out of the slums pulled into the reactor station for the last stage, a drive back to Shinra Tower in a waiting truck was all that was between the Sargent and a hot meal, but before he could get in, a message was pinged to his and the SOLDIER's info pad. "What is it this time... serial thief spotted?" He growled out, right on his patrol path too! It was as though someone out there had gone out of their way to screw with him tonight. "Give me a break..."
"Nothing I can't handle, I'll tell you to stop if I see him." Said the SOLDIER, unaware of the anger building behind him as he jumped off the train and up the stairs.
"Should we keep a look out as well Sargent?" Asked one of the cadets, trying to peer round to see the profile that was still up on the pad. Blonde, young-ish, short, wearing a blue waistcoat was the description, as well as a list of items stolen including 1000 gil from the office of the Turks. No name, curiously enough.
"Keep a lookout but don't do anything stupid," Anders ordered "If that man's got balls enough to rob the Turks we could be looking at a serious problem here so I don't want anyone trying to be a hero here. Watch each other's backs and-" he continued to address before he heard the distant cry of "Hey you!" from the voice he'd grown to despise over the past 5 hours. "And move out!"
"Sorry, Sir!" Zidane called to the man in a helmet waving a long sword at him "I was just leaving, think I might have gotten a little lost, that's all." It always stood to be polite when someone had their hands on their weapon and he didn't. It cost nothing and probably paid a good deal in not getting slashed at. Although the man in blue was not swayed by a simple promise to no longer trespass.
"Don't you 'sir' at me, thief!" He yelled back, charging in with his sword raised, swinging high at the blonde with the flat of his blade, attempting to knock the accused down to the ground. But attempt was all he could do as Zidane ducked underneath the swing holding his arms out in a protest of innocence.
"Thief? Come on! I've only been here a few hours!" Zidane called out, jumping over another swing much to the armoured man's surprise. He clearly wasn't expecting the blonde to have dodged the first, the second strike was even slower than that, possibly from shock. "I think you've got the wrong guy here."
"Ngghh!" Roared the helmeted assailant as he pulled back, opting instead to thrust the point of his blade at the point where Zidane's side had been just a split second previous. A clatter of footsteps added to the sounds of effort as a few more men rounded up towards where the two were fighting.
"Sir! There he is!" One of the newcomers called as Zidane sighed, no help for him then.
"I see him too cadet, I've got eyes. And that's Sargent, I work for a living!" Another one barked back while the rest pointed their weapons into the melee. "Hold fire! You'll hit the SOLDIER. Let him handle it." He ordered, a small sinister smile creeping on his face as he reached into his pack for a cigarette. This day might not be so bad after all.
"Stand still thief! Time to teach you that no-one steals from Shinra!" The SOLDIER called out, swinging left and right to hit Zidane but to no avail.
"What?" Zidane asked, rolling past his attacker gracefully, a hand briefly shooting out before the blonde took a few steps away, proudly holding a leather wallet between his fingers. "You mean like that?" He asked again, waving it in front of the SOLDIER to the predictable but satisfying reaction of him immediately patting himself down to confirm that yes, that was his wallet now in Zidane's hand. He hadn't even felt a thing.
"H-how? Hey! Give that back!" He cried in frustration, to which Zidane bowed and offered the wallet back without a further fight, to which the SOLDIER made the decision that now he was nice and angry, the 20th reckless swing would work for sure. The sword hit nothing but a light post which Zidane had backed up into, jerking his arm as metal hit metal, cutting in half way before a shower of sparks burst out, blasting the SOLDIER away with a zap and sending him sprawling onto the road with a pained groan.
"Can you believe this?" Zidane asked to the cadets, flipping the wallet onto the SOLDIER as the light flickered out above him "Here I was and this guy just runs out and starts swinging? You look like you're in charge here," the blonde continued walking up to the Sargent who was smiling while the rest kept their weapons trained on him. "Could you get that guy some help? I don't think he's all there, and that was before he got blasted away."
"For him, yes," Sargent Anders said, signalling for the cadets to put their guns down, "For you?" he asked, spitting out his cigarette and grinding it under his heel while the rest drew out metal clubs instead "Not so much.
Extra long chapter because of the extra long wait in updating! Not sure if they'll be this long from now on or this is going to be a one off, any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Bonus music tracks
3rd Class vs Zidane: LISA The Hopeful OST: The Twist.