A/N: Well this was supposed to be up about 10 days ago but I burned all my time off work doing the grand total of nothing much. This is however the first time a chapter of mine has ever cracked 3k words so I'm not sure if one chapter covering multiple scenes is better or should it be spread out for shorter chapters.
A crude map of Shinra Tower was scribbled onto a sheet of paper in a crowded diner, spiked into the table top with the point of a dagger as three conspirators laid out their plans in the seedy underbelly of the Midgar slums, Wall Market.
"So the plan's settled then," Zidane began, his voice hushed to the point it was hard to hear over the general din "We go in the front door, young up and coming man about town, his girlfriend and her sister." the blonde continued, pointing across the table at his co-planners.
"Got the hair dye!" Aerith chimed up, placing the nondescript bottle on the table as Zidane attempted to hush her.
"Aerith, come on! We're trying to be secretive here. We're essentially planning a raid on one of the most powerful places in this world. Can you at least be a little more quiet about it?"
"Oop, sorry." The Ancient apologized, shrinking down into her seat.
"It's not as though we're the only people scheming in here, Zidane." Queen Garnet scolded. Their decision to use a fairly popular Wall Market restaurant for their plotting wasn't an unusual one it seemed, every other table seemed to have a set of hooded figures conspiring to do something nefarious, or at least something Shinra wished they wouldn't do. One of the groups even waved at her.
"Alright, alright, but can we try and take this a little more seriously?"
"Our only map is a squiggle of a tower with vague arrows." Dagger pointed out, tapping the poorly drawn map of Shinra Tower, made from only a brief in-person view and what Aerith could remember of her early childhood. It had two labels. One near the floor labelled MUSEUM and another near the top labelled LAB MAYBE? A formal infiltration plan this was not.
"Maybe we could have gone for a blueprint or something from one of the shopkeeps," Zidane conceded "Anyway, so we got our roles. We go in the front door, everything normal, hope to hell these concealment holsters work 'cause they were really expensive and they're probably checking for weapons if it's open to the public. What do we do then?" he asked expectedly.
Aerith took a deep breath, her face contorting in concentration before continuing the plan "We find someone important at the museum party here," she explained, pointing at the accompanying label "and take his or his guard's keys to get us to the higher floors where we start looking for any information they had on me or weird goings on from your world." she finished, beaming with pride.
"Right, they're likely to have archives or a non-public library closer to the more important areas of administration and research. From what you've told us, that means somewhere up towards the top. With the amount of people who regularly enter and leave the tower there is likely to be some sort of map to navigate once inside." Dagger continued, nodding along.
"And when we reckon we've got enough, or it's taking too long. We head back down to the museum floor, walk out like nothing happened, and get the train back home." Zidane concluded, plucking the knife out of the table and slipping the weapon into a small slot on his waistcoat, never to be seen again until needed.
According to the old clock above the sink, it was getting late in the day and there had been no sign of Aerith coming back from the church. Elmyra knew it wasn't safe to be out this late, even with the two slum newcomers. Especially with the newcomers, it had been a while since the Turks had tried to re-capture her adoptive daughter and while Zidane and Dagger had been friendly, something about the blond struck Mrs Gainsborough as a trouble magnet, and the men in blue suits would probably have less tolerance for someone like him than Tseng had shown for her polite but firm refusals. With a heavy sigh, she put on her walking boots and reached for her door keys.
As the three had assured her, they were safe within the church halls, at least, the two young women were safe, shouting encouragement and advice up at the monkey boy trying to manoeuvrer his way on the ceiling with a sheet of congregated metal and a set of power tools, letting Elmyra breath a sigh of relief hidden by the sound of buzzing machinery and the call of "Your other left!"
"Oh!" Dagger let out as she turned around, hearing the church doors creak "Mrs Gainsborough, how have you been today?" She asked politely.
"Fine, fine. It's just been a while since you left, I was wondering how the repairs were going."
"It's going fine! Just fixing the inner sheet!" Zidane called down, his tail curled around a support beam.
"It's off again! It'll let the water in!" Aerith shouted back up.
"It doesn't rain down here! That doesn't matter!" the blond bellowed back.
"That is how the repairs are going," Dagger sighed, rolling her eyes as she looked back up at her husband while Elmrya nodded along in sympathy "For the past several hours."
"Well, it looks like it'll keep the worst of any drafts out," Elmrya commented, raising her voice to be heard by everyone "But it's getting late, we should be heading back now!"
"Okay! Zidane! Time to go home!" Aerith called, waving up to the genome as his shoulders slumped.
"Just a sec, need to get down with the stuff first." Zidane assured, swinging into the upper floor behind the main hall and stuffing the tools in one of the bags with a satisfied smirk on his face. The church hadn't been the first place he'd thought of to stash the gear they'd need, but Mrs Gainsborough seemed to be buying it with the evidence out of sight. All it needed now was a warning sign to prevent any kid climbing up and finding several thousand gil worth of illicit equipment and he had the first stop of the raid night all sorted.
The next days seemed to drag on forever. With most of the money from Angeal already spent in Wall Market, there wasn't any point to making any more supply runs and while some people were offering bounties for monster hides, Dagger and Zidane were intensely trying to stay low profile below the plate before their plans for Shinra HQ. Most of the time was spent running minor errands for Mrs Gainsborough around the house or with Aerith in the church, trying to kill the hours until the right moment to move out. But eventually they found themselves up on the surface ready to make their move.
Zidane's blue suit jacket hung loosely around his shoulders as he looked up at the imposing tower, ready for the challenges ahead "So this is it, been a while since I've had to break into anywhere." He said, mostly to himself as he rolled his shoulders back and started to walk to the tower, heels clicking on the pavement as he craned his neck up. By how stiff both Aerith and Dagger were walking, he was probably the least nervous of the group "You know, we don't have to do this if you don't want to." He proposed.
Aerith was stuck still looking up with a grim expression, her hands subconsciously balling into fists as she looked up at her old prison for the first time up so close "I'll be... I'll be fine," she insisted, shaking herself loose in her red and pink dress "Just... if I scream, promise me you'll come running. Please?" she whispered as the Queen wrapped her hand over the Ancient's arm.
"I promise," Dagger assured her, holding on tight as she nodded softly. "Now then: Sister," the black haired woman announced publicly "Shall we go to the museum? There has to be something of interest there."
"Mhm." Aerith let out, slowly starting to look like her normal self again as she turned around, a smile slowly making its way on her face.
"Okay ladies, let's mosey!" He said, making his way to the large set of doors, past the open set of stairs.
The exhibition hall on the ground floor of Shinra Headquarters had always been a popular place to duck out from the occasional rain, it was the closest venue Midgar held that resembled a museum, and now that Dio had commandeered the venue for his own personal collection the place was attracting even those who didn't directly deal with the electric company. Helmeted security officers flanked the doors and isles, corralling the crowd along in a sensible manner to best see most of what was on display and to keep them at least 20 feet away from anyone accompanied by a serious looking individual in a blue suit. President Shinra was looking at the events from his seat by the VIP's bar, a champagne flute in hand "It seems this event is another triumph of yours Dio. Congratulations are in order." The blonde man offered, gesturing his untouched glass towards the giant man beside him while many people crowded around a garnet encrusted silver circlet.
It had been a task to find a suit big enough to fit Dio on short notice, especially since his retirement he had preferred to walk around wearing little more than wrestling trunks. Such were the acceptable quirks of being the second richest man on the planet, but there was such a thing as professional decency. He looked as though an emperor penguin had been on a steroid routine. "It's a shame we could only get so much over. Would have loved to bring more than just the crown from the Bone Village hoard! Never could work out the markings though." He conceded, draining a fifth glass of champagne and handing the empty glass to a man in a blue suit, dark sunglasses and a stoic face concealing any level of contempt the Turk may have had to being a glorified waiter.
"Tonight is not a time for lamenting past failures, it is an opportunity," began the portly man "Soon enough you won't have to limit yourself to renting this hall."
"A good thing too. This place is too bloody expensive to keep every day, no offence." Dio complained, before making a move down the isles.
"None taken." He said softly, taking a token sniff of his drink but not letting any touch his lips as he reluctantly moved from his seat after the eccentric individual.
"So I can't help but notice," Dio began, barging past his own security detail and bumping a few patrons out the way "That the big man himself hasn't shown up. The way you pitched it to me, all the bigwigs were going to be here. Thought I could finally get the chance to measure up against the strongest man, physically that is, the company has to offer."
A vein pulsed on the President's head but his tone remained level "I'm afraid general Sephiroth is still in Wutai on operations that required his utmost attention," he said in such a tone that implied that the famous war hero would never decide to pull a bunk "As is general Rhapsodos and while General Hewley is not stationed in Wutai his schedule did not allow him to be here. He's out of training expeditions," He added, noting Dio's open mouth "The war may be a formality at this stage, but formalities have to be done all the same."
"Well someone's got to be up for a decent scrap around here! What about you?" He asked, turning to the Turk assigned to his security "What's your name?"
"Rude." Was the one word reply.
"What part of asking someone's name is rude? There's nothing rude about it!" Dio declared defensively as President Shinra wisely made himself scarce.
"Finally..." he grumbled under his breath, passing his full glass to another man in a blue suit, who quickly drained it.
"Zidane!" Hissed Dagger, giving the blond a quick elbow in the side.
"What?" He whispered back, wiping his lips with the back of his hand "I'm not gonna let it go to waste. So, see anything that might have a link back home yet?"
"There is something, but unfortunately everyone's crowding around it and it's hard to get a view," She said, twisting a lock of her hair absent-mindedly as Aerith tried her best to shuffle through one of the world's most civilized mobs. The puffed out cheeks and furrowed brow told her more about her feelings than words ever could. "Perhaps a different approach is needed." She said, tapping her chin before striding off towards Dio, her heels clicking along the false-marble floor.
"Excuse me, Mr Dio I believe?" She began with a regal tone "I was curious about the, crown jewel, of the exhibit, and wondered if you could be so kind as to offer a more detailed explanation." The queen continued as she gently lead the massive man through, parting the crowd as they attempted to avoid another round of shoving, Zidane and Aerith quickly following in their wake.
"Ah yes! Of course!" Dio barked, not even questioning Dagger as who she was to be able to just walk up and ask something of one of the richest men in the world, it was something about the tone just eroded any niggling thoughts of 'no' before the mouth started working, it was mostly used to get Zidane to agree to wear formal clothes for a ceremony "This was the most surprising find of the whole dig, reckoned to be about five thousand years old and it sparkles as though it was good as new, instead of spending a couple millennia in the dirt."
"Intriguing..." Dagger whispered as she looked at the circlet intently "What makes them so certain that it was so old? The details look very intricate." She said, prompting Dio to continue his talk.
"Well I'm not the expert but it was something to do with the soil level, you can tell how old something is by how deep it was buried. It was really surprising like you said, there's a lot of detail on the silver work that's beyond any of the known metal working styles of the time, so there's the possibility of an old empire that we're only starting to uncover, interesting times and all that."
"Fascinating, now if you'll excuse me-" Dagger said, taking a strategical step back and forcibly grabbing Zidane and Aerith by the arm and lead them out of the room and towards the bathrooms, smiling politely to the guards at the door while her husband winced in her surprisingly strong grip.
"Ow! What was that for?" Aerith asked as Dagger finally relented her grip, rubbing the potentially bruised arm.
"Sorry Aerith," she apologized quickly before rounding on Zidane "please tell me you managed to get something while he was talking."
"Was there ever any doubt?" The blonde asked, dangling a blue plastic rectangle between his fingers "Watched the guards around here use them to open doors just by waving them in front of the handle, shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Kind of a squeeze to get in his pocket though but the size of that guy, he probably wouldn't notice if you stuck a needle in his ass," he chuckled "So what's up with that circlet thing? You were looking pretty close at it."
"Garnets and silver dragons," Dagger breathed, a wide smile breaking out on her face "The gem choice is no accident. That's an Alexandrian coronet, one that disappeared from the Alexandria Castle during the last recorded sighting of a comet."
"Whoa!" Zidane yelped "Seriously? How'd you know all that from just looking at it."
"It may have been painfully dull, but I did actually read most of the records, and that coronet vanished seventy years ago, but by their standards it's five thousand years old! There's a link here, a way back! We can go home if we can just find out how to use it properly and if the times are correct, Steiner won't have managed to finish calling out 'Princess' for the first time before we're back!" Dagger explained, new connections and ideas falling into a stream of joyous consciousness.
"Wait, shouldn't Rusty be yelling 'Queen' now?" Zidane pointed out.
"'Princess' sounds better when yelled at maximum volume, can you imagine him trying to call out 'Queen' how he used to?"
Zidane took a moment to consider the thought, then quickly creased up with laughter "Queeeeeeeen! No, no, it just doesn't work." he joked, sending the laughter back to Dagger.
"Queeeeeeeeeeen!" She squealed in between giggles
"Queeeeeeeeee-" Zidane tried to go longer before a cough cut his squeal short "Oh god, I think the bubbles are coming back... hold me..." he panted, slinging an arm around his wife.
"So uh..." Aerith mumbled, shuffling around awkwardly "You might have a way home, that's uh... that's great." She said, trying to put as much enthusiasm as she could muster.
"Oh! Shoot, sorry Aerith," Zidane apologized, straightening out "We uh... kinda got lost in the moment and it was..."
"I get it, it's really important and there's people who are gonna be worried that you've gone, I get it." Aerith dismissed, shaking her head.
"Well, I mean..." the blonde stumbled "That's probably not for a while and we've probably got a lot of time for it so we're not gonna just up and vanish any day." He attempted to justify to the disheartened Ancient "Look, we got the first info for us and we got a key, I think. We weren't just here for us, so how about we head upstairs and focus on finding something important to you." Zidane promised, reaching out to gently grasp Aerith by the hand.
"...Okay, up we go then?" Aerith sighed, lifting her chin up.
"Up we go," Zidane agreed "Find the labs and take what we can get. Onwards and Upwards."
-Soundtrack Notes-
Wall Market Diner - "So, What's the plan" A Hat In Time OST
Waiting for the moment - "Ruins" Undertale OST
Shinra Exhibit - "Rufus' Welcoming Ceremony" Final Fantasy VII/IX OST
Good News - "Fleeting Life" Final Fantasy IX OST