Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and PlayStation are owned by Square Enix and Sony, respectively, meaning they do not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Final Fantasy VII or Advent Children storylines (such as Rayne, Marcus, and Kale) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.
(…Beginning of Another)
Astrid woke early the next morning, pulling herself out of Rufus's arms and walking into the bathroom. Stripping her clothes off, she turned the shower on as hot as she could stand it and crawled in, lying on the floor of the shower and letting the hot water cascade across her body.
She watched the glass fog lazily, her mind replaying scenes of events that had occurred over the past few days.
'Hard to imagine that only three days ago I didn't even know if Rufus was still alive…' She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, 'I wonder if we're taking this too fast.' She opened her eyes, frowning, 'Rufus Shinra… wow… this is weird.' She sighed and rolled onto her side, 'I'm in a relationship with Rufus Shinra… a character from a videogame. I wonder if I'm a game character, too. ...Probably not. Just a victim of circumstance.'
The door opened and someone walked in, their silhouette stopping in front of the sink. The sink was turned on and the water in the shower got a bit colder.
Astrid frowned, "Thank Gaia for frosted glass."
Rufus laughed, his silhouette turning slightly to face the glass, "You alright, in there?"
"Fine." Astrid snapped, glaring at him, "Now please get out and wait. This is extremely awkward and completely improper… but more annoying than anything."
The water turned off and Rufus scoffed, "As you wish, Miss Cray." He walked out, the door shutting hard behind him.
Astrid stared after him, blinking. 'Wow… that was real bitchy of me…' She rolled onto her back, shrugging, 'Oh well, he'll get over it.'
Twenty minutes later, Astrid turned the water off and walked out of the shower, throwing on a bathrobe. She was towel drying her hair when someone knocked on the door.
"Go away, Rufus. I'm still busy!"
"It's me. Elena." The door opened slightly and a hand stuck inside, offering a bundle of clothes, "These are for you. I figured Rufus's stuff was a bit too big for you."
"Thanks." Astrid took the clothes, shaking Elena's hand slightly, "Tell him I'll be out in a bit."
"You got it." The hand retreated and the door shut, Elena staying a moment longer to say, "Though he may not really care; he's a bit sore with you right now."
"Don't blame 'em." Astrid said, pulling a plastic pack out of the bundle and looking at it closely, "I was a bit rude. Tell him anyway, though."
Elena walked away without another word.
Blinking, Astrid flipped the plastic pack over and over again in her hands, shaking her head.
Travel Pack Underwear: For The Outdoorsy Girl
Brought to you by: Shin-Ra
'What will they think of next?' She thought, pulling out the underwear, bra, and socks the magical plastic bag provided.
The clothes Elena had brought turned out to be one of Elena's spare Turk suits, shoes included.
Once she was dressed, Astrid threw the bathrobe and towel in the hamper and left the bathroom, heading for the foyer. Rufus was standing there, the Turks lined up in front of him.
"We can't find them? Well, search the—" He stopped as Astrid walked in, looking at her with slight derision, "Ah, good of you to join us." He nodded to the Turks, "We were just discussing what was going on with the remnants of the Shin-Ra Board of Directors."
Astrid frowned, crossing her arms, "Aren't they dead? I would imagine they went down with the building when Meteor fell."
Tseng shook his head, "There's a good possibility that they escaped when Reeve evacuated Midgar."
She nodded, blinking, "So, are they still official members of the board, or can I rag on them?"
"Feel free." Reno answered, smirking.
"Well…" Astrid stretched her arms out in front of her, "The only one I can really imagine surviving would be the overly rambunctious, anorexic skank Scarlet." She smiled and clenched her hand into a fist, lowing her head, "Yes." Upon looking back up and seeing the confused looks she was getting, she shrugged her shoulders, "I really hate her. Anyway, Heidegger would have probably stayed until the end to use the Sister Ray and Palmer would have been too stupid to run, but Scarlet would have had the foresight to escape."
"Good analysis, but wrong." Reno said, shaking his head, "Palmer made it. He was stationed at Junon at the time and he's still there, hiding out in the upper layer." He frowned, "No clue how he's managed to survive with all of those mobs trying to storm the place, but he has."
"You were right about Scarlet and Heidegger, though." Elena said, nodding, "Scarlet escaped and is rumored to be laying low in Edge, and there's been no word on Heidegger so it's probably safe to assume he's dead."
Astrid nodded, trusting the seemingly baseless assumption. 'These are the Turks. One of their specialties is gathering information. If they say that Heidegger is probably dead, then there's at least an eighty percent chance he is.' "So, what'll we do with this information?"
Rufus looked at her and blinked, "'We'?"
"Yes, we." Astrid quirked a brow, "Or was I not added to Shin-Ra's payroll two years ago?" She smirked, "Which reminds me, you owe me a paycheck of 76,800 gil for the last two years."
Rufus frowned and the Turks smirked, Reno laughing, "She's got a point, sir."
"We," Rufus said harshly, glaring between Reno and Astrid, "Will be going to Palmer in Junon. I want you, Tseng," He turned to the man, "To take Elena and Rude to Edge and search for Scarlet. Don't alert her to your presence; just locate her, get me a basic layout of her daily schedule, and find out where she lives."
"Actually, I'd rather go after Scarlet, if it's alright." Astrid said, turning to Rufus and clasping her arms behind her back.
Rufus looked at her critically, "Why?"
Astrid shrugged, "No reason. I'd just rather do it that way. And, seeing as I'm lazy when it comes to doing things I don't want to do, it would probably be a good idea to just switch me and Rude. Besides, Reno and Rude work well together."
The president scowled and shook his head, "As much as I'd rather you didn't get your way, you're right about the last part. Reno seems to work a lot more efficiently when Rude is there to make sure he stays on the job."
Reno frowned, "Hey!"
"Then it's decided!" Astrid smiled, walking over to Tseng and Elena, "We three will track down Scarlet while you three go check on Palmer."
Rufus nodded, "Fine. Let's go, Reno. Rude." He followed the two Turks to the door, stopping and waiting as Tseng, Elena, and Astrid walked by. He grabbed Astrid by her right arm and held it up, thumb rubbing the silver bangle hanging at her wrist. "I hadn't noticed until now… you're still wearing this thing."
Astrid nodded, looking at the Ultima Bangle, "It's saved me countless times and it has the most materia slots out of any other armor I've found. Its greatest downfall is its weight; it took me forever to get used to using it when it was fully loaded with materia."
"I thought you might have a bit of trouble with that." Rufus said, letting her arm go, "But that's why I picked it; it would give you something to work at to overcome." He smirked down at her when she looked up at him, "You needed to be stronger, and it looks like my methods worked."
"Egotistical bastard." She smirked.
He smirked back, "Hotheaded brat."
Her smirk grew to a grin, "Pretty boy."
He leaned in, grabbing her chin, "Stubborn fool."
Reno popped his head in as they were closing in on each other, quirking a brow, "When you two are done sweet-talking each other, we're ready to go." He then ducked back out.
Rufus glared after the Turk, "One of these days, I'm going to kill him."
Astrid rolled her eyes, "No you won't; he's one of your last few loyal followers."
"Then I must be getting desperate." Rufus sighed, shaking his head.
They walked out, both separating into their groups and heading their own ways.
"So," Tseng said, watching as the helicopter rose, leaving them without a vehicle, "I suppose we're walking."
"And why would we do that?" Astrid said, taking out her 'Cloud Party' PHS and dialing a number, "Hey, Rob? It's me. Misha there? …Good, thanks. Listen, could you send her, Gaea and Titan out? Just tell Misha that I'm at Healin and she'll lead the other two here. …Thanks, Rob. Have a nice day." She hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket, nodding to the Turks, "We'll have three chocobos shortly."
"From the Chocobo Farm?" Tseng asked, frowning slightly, "Thank you, Astrid, but I'm afraid that they might take a bit too long to get here."
She nodded, "If they were coming from the Chocobo Farm, you'd be right. But after I became deeply invested in breeding chocobos to get the mountain and river chocobos, I funded Chocobo Bob and he built a new farm run by his brother-in-law, Rob. It's just a few miles southwest of here, across the river from where that old hermit used to live." She pursed her lips angrily, "Kinda ticks me off that I've basically been living so close to you this whole time and never knew…"
Elena and Tseng said nothing.
The three waited silently for a total of five minutes before sounds made them turn to look down the road. Chains jingled softly and leather squeaked against leather as the charcoal chocobo and two pale green chocobos ran up, Misha throwing her head back and squawking a loud greeting to Astrid.
Astrid smiled, reaching out and grabbing the chocobo's reigns, "Hey, Misha. Sorry if I worried you."
"Wark!" Misha stomped her feet and tossed her head, bending and nuzzling her head against Astrid's cheek.
Astrid laughed and patted the chocobo's head, then turned to the two pale green chocobos the Turks were looking at. "That's Gaea," She pointed to the bird with the black tack, "And that one's Titan." As she pointed to the darker of the two chocobos, the bird threw his head back and snorted loudly, glaring at Astrid. She laughed nervously, "He… doesn't like me very much."
Elena looked at her with wide eyes, "Then how are either of us supposed to ride him?!"
Astrid shrugged, "He's sexist, so Tseng should be fine riding him."
"A sexist chocobo." Tseng mused, laughing lightly when Titan approached him and knelt down, "What an odd concept." He mounted the chocobo, grabbing the reigns as the bird stood.
"Guess that leaves Gaea to me." Elena said, walking over to the female chocobo and hopping on.
With the black chocobo and the two mountain chocobo mounts, the three traveled through the mountains much faster than they would have on foot, yet much slower than Astrid ever had though this particular range. She took the opportunity to get a better look at her surroundings, making a mental map of the location of Healin Lodge.
It was in the small 'y' shaped mountain range directly south of Midgar, sitting on the edge of the valley nestled between the small mountain range and the large one that ran along the southern border of the Midgar Area. Because of the thick trees and fast-moving rivers, there weren't any large beasts in the area and the few small ones there were fled at the first sign of humans.
Astrid sighed, looking over to her Turk companions, "So, what's the game plan?"
"Apparently," Tseng began, glancing back at her, "Scarlet has a private apartment in near the square where the Meteor monument is. Not exactly an ideal place for one who's hiding, but she rarely leaves it during the day. Most of out investigations, therefore, will take place during the night."
Her right eye twitched upon hearing this, and Astrid sighed heavily, "Yay."
Elena turned rode up beside her and frowned, "You're the one who wanted to come with us to go after Scarlet, so no complaining."
"Meeeegh." Astrid moaned, slumping in her saddle.
Misha just shook her head, jogging a bit when they came to a gap and leaping over it. After a brief pause to make sure Titan and Gaea made it across, Misha resumed walking.
"These are well bred chocobos." Tseng observed as Titan trotted back to the front. The Turk glanced back at Astrid and blinked, "How much time did you spend breeding them?"
Astrid pursed her lips and thought about it, "I started looking for the Chocobo Sage two months after Meteor had been stopped. I found him four months after, got all of the information I was going to get out of him five months after, and made it back to the Chocobo farm six months after. I rested up for a week or so, rented a chocobo from Bill and set off for Junon.
"Two months into breeding, I realized that Bob's facilities weren't going to be nearly enough to comfortably get what I wanted, so I went go Gold Saucer to pull out my winnings, which were…" She paused, smirking, "Quite a bit to, to say the least." She shrugged, "Nine months after Meteorfall, the Junon Area branch of the Chocobo Farm opened and breeding began immediately. On and off, I've been working on breeding these guys for the past year and ten months." She patted Misha and smiled, "These three are fourth generation breeds, and by far the most promising lot."
The three chocobos squealed loudly and stopped, stamping their feet.
Their riders looked ahead, Tseng nodding, "We have arrived."
At the edge of Edge, they dismounted their chocobos and Astrid spoke to Misha.
"Wait here for us, alright? Don't let anyone near you that you don't know and don't all three of you fall asleep at one time; take turns."
Misha nodded, "Wark."
Gaea walked up to her and brushed her head against Astrid's shoulder while Titan shook his head and smacked her with his beak, growling down at her.
"Yes, mother." Astrid said with a smirk, bowing to the male chocobo, "I'll make sure to be careful." She turned to the Turks and nodded, "Alright, we're off."
Sticking to the alleys for cover, the three wound their way through the slums to the center of the city. Tseng and Elena avoided eye contact with anyone they passed, including the children. Astrid, on the other hand, searched the faces of the children, looking for one in particular…
"Miss Cray, if we have to keep stopping for you, Elena and I will eventually leave you behind." Tseng said dryly, crossing his arms and sighing as Astrid looked up and ran to catch up with them.
"Sorry," She said, scratching the back of her head sheepishly as they started walking again, "I was… looking for someone."
"Who?" Elena asked, quirking her head.
"A boy named Kale." Astrid answered, smiling slightly, "I met him a few days ago outside of Seventh Heaven. Cute kid."
Tseng and Elena exchanged glances, then walked on quietly.
Astrid frowned, falling back a few paces and looking between them. "What?"
"Nothing." Elena said, shrugging, "It's just…" She trailed off, a nervous twinge in her voice.
"'Just' what?" Astrid demanded, frowning.
Tseng sighed, "You've just been attaching yourself to a lot of younger boys lately…" He glanced back at her, frowning slightly, "We can't help but wonder if your overly maternal instincts you used to have reserved for Marcus are going onto overdrive, or…" He stopped, facing forward and picking up his speed a bit.
Astrid looked at the ground, frowning. 'Overly maternal instincts? For younger boys? …Marcus…' She sighed and shook her head slightly, glancing up at the two Turks. 'I suppose they have a point… first it was Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, and now Kale—'
"Astrid."
She looked up at Tseng, blinking.
He nodded to her, gesturing to a building behind him, "We're here."
Alrighty, then, so as you can see from this new chapter, I do plan on continuing this until I am satisfied that it is in a good position to end. I am debating, though, on whether or not I should put up more stores, because I am afraid if I do my readers might get mad at me if I update on one more often than another, or something like that.
If you all think you can handle more but have the updates spread out a bit, tell me. Also, don't worry; I will do my own duty and do my personal best to keep the updates reasonable and try my best to not go for months on end without updating.