Chapter 10: The man with kaleidoscope eyes.

The entire pack was finally gathered and preparing to leave. It couldn't be soon enough for Alex, he despised this place. His home was the frozen tundra, nothing about this beach held any appeal for him; in fact most parts of it disagreed with him.

The heat dried his nose and made him shed, the moisture ruined his mane, the sand got stuck in his fur, and Alex didn't have any particular love for water either (cats where remarkably smart in that area Alex would admit). Unfortunately, the Ragabash had seen something important, and trying to get a Ragabash to tell you the correct version of how something happened without embellishment was about as easy as making a Bone Gnawer respectable.

"James, describe him to me again." The Silverfang was not happy; he must have met this person before. Sadly a Ragabash could only be trusted to carry the truth as far as a Shadow Lord, if not for the same reason. "He had blue eyes, really piercing blue eyes. He didn't look all that healthy to me... really scraggly black hair... why?"

The Silverfang clenched his fist almost hard enough to draw blood (even with the pathetic excuse humans had for claws). When the Silver Fang spoke his voice was filled with rage equal to that with which Fenris would have snarled when he was first chained. "He's already gone by now... That man was Dr. Simon Hojo, the head of the Shinra Science department; I think you two know him, Aeris and Alex. He was the one who oversaw my "care" when I was young. He's also the man who was going to use the two of you as lab animals."

Alex growled and felt saliva drip from his fangs. /That man, he's the greatest weave worshipper I've ever smelled! Hard to imagine a greater joy than his blood running down my maw, his bones snapping in my teeth!\ The Silverfang overruled him instantly. "No, no, no. If we ever see that man again, I want you to bring him to me, and I'm going to kill him. He has to be alive, and he has to be conscious. That's it, limb removal is just fine so long as he doesn't go into shock or die from blood loss. I trust you all understand that?"

Of course the Black Fury knew all about revenge. "Okay, but one question Sephiroth, is gelding in or out?" Ahh the classic Black Fury stand by, and they thought men where stuck in their ways. "In." Of course the Child of Gaia was able to look past revenge, a thing you could look up to them for, so long as they weren't looking down on you in return.

"Umm, guys, shouldn't we be thinking about where we go next, as opposed to what we do to a person, when we find them?" Nothing like a Child of Gaia to ruin something even a Black Fury could understand. The Black Furry however was swift in coming to a plan.

"Well, James said Hojo talked about going west, we go west, we find him. Granted we may not, but the farther we go west the father we get away from Shinra." Of course you could always count on a Ragabash to cloud a simple issue. "Um... what kind of west? There are all kinds of west! North West, south west, west west, umm I guess there isn't an east west all things considered?"

It took a very special type of Ragabash to be able to make such a statement, one who had clearly been nursed on coyote milk as a pup. The Silverfang glared at the Ragabash and then his gaze went to the Black Fury. "Mirri, you were raised around here, what do you suggest?" A Black Fury to blaze the trail, Silent Striders were generally used for such tasks but a Black Fury was not a bad substitute.

"Well we can go North East and hit Corel and then the Golden Saucer. Of course if we're going to Corel don't expect them to roll out the red carpet, they're still holding a grudge against me."

Now why didn't that surprise Alex at all? Black Furies rarely grew up in the packs they where born in, more likely they left other packs to become Furies. This of course was not unusual in and of itself, but it was still considered rubbing the pack's nose in dirt by saying the Black Fury didn't agree with their ways. Thus the old pack generally did everything they could to disrespect the Black Fury whenever they saw her again.

Alex could see no particular reason that it should be any different among humans than among Garou. Alex just hoped that the Black Fury's old pack would not bring silver with them when they came to greet the group.

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He waited in the darkness of the lab with the stoicism of the condemned man. It was not his life that would be soon coming to an end, it would be the lives of others. But that was of no matter to him. The pain of others was of no concern to him if it would buy his freedom.

A single unexpected sound broke him out of his reverie as an elevator opened to the laboratory and a man stepped out. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the light, but when they did he noticed it was not the usual man. This one had blue eyes and black hair, but he was younger in better shape and wore a blue suit in stead of a white coat.

The man looked at him, and he couldn't quite tell what was in those blue eyes. Pity, fear, shame, some mixture of all three? "This is unexpected, I thought I wasn't going to be let out for another week?" The man shrunk away slightly as if surprised that his intended audience possessed the power of speech. Still, after a moment the man drew closer very slowly.

"I have your first orders. I want you to track down Sephiroth and the other rebels he has with him." That was to be expected. It would be difficult, but he excelled under difficulty. A renegade SOLDIER, two lab experiments, a half-Cetra, and General Sephiroth.

The SOLDIER and Sephiroth wouldn't die easily, first class SOLDIERS never did, he would decapitate them to make sure. Since the man was silent he finished the orders his visitor had started. "And kill them." The man cringed, what a pissant. Why was this man giving him orders? "No, I want you to join them."

An interesting plan, rather worth considering. After all, he had been told that General Sephiroth was all but invincible in battle. But asleep he was just as vulnerable as anyone else, assuming he slept, something not everyone was sure of. "As a mole." The man hesitated again before he spoke, but spoke with certainty.

"No. I want you to join them and follow Sephiroth's orders and only Sephiroth's orders. I never want you to follow another order from Shinra again." Now this was something he hadn't expected in any turn of events. "I'm afraid I can't do that, it's in direct contradiction of his orders."

The man reached into his blue suit as he approached his, well, cell would the traditional word for it but it was not truly designed to keep him in, it was for keeping others out. The door slid open and the man stepped in, uncertainty in his every movement.

Heh, it was as if the man was not sure he wanted to take the course of action he had chosen, but was sure he would succeed if he did. He produced a small piece of paper and handed it over. A quick scan and then it was crumpled and tossed in a corner.

"Well, in that case, I suppose I could do this for you. You are a very stupid man to hand a loaded gun to your foes and then to turn your back on them. If Hojo is being cashiered making him unable to give me orders, you should take the opportunity for all it's worth. If you told me to, I would go kill the new president, then the rest of the Shinra board, you could be running this company inside a week. So why are you letting me go?"

The man in the blue suit stood up straight at took a deep breath his eyes focusing on the ground. "I have to think that if Lucifer could free a soul from hell he would, because it's his prison just as much as any other sinner's. Being in charge of a prison makes it no less of a prison to you or anyone in it. Do you think you can get out of here unnoticed?" Heh, the naivety asking if he could go unnoticed. "Like a shadow in the night. Like a gust of air, west, unnoticed I will go west to find them."

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Aeris was slowly at least starting to get some idea for the pieces which made Mirri, which was more then she could say for Sephiroth. "Wow you sure weren't kidding, they did everything but throw tomatoes!" James' words would have been crass coming from anyone else, from him they where simply a statement of something he saw

It was also a very apt statement considering the great verity and strength of insults that had been hurled at the group, and Mirri in particular. Mirri had not flinched for an instant as an entire "town" had emerged from it's ramshackle houses to hurl phrases such as "Shinra's whore!" at her and had kept a very firm hand on James to prevent him from responding on her behalf.

Under her breath she had muttered her explanation. "Don't harm these people, they may be idiots, but they're my family's idiots." Now that they had finally broken past the crowd and no further indignities seemed to be coming they're way the rest of the group seemed to be following James' example in finally expressing they're feelings.

/Even for a Black Fury, that was a most ungrateful welcoming, one can only wonder what you have done to earn it.\ Mirri looked like she wanted to glare at Alex in indignation, but decided to explain the situation instead. "Well Alex since you asked it's a longish story so I'll hit the high points while we wait for the cable car to take us up to the Golden Saucers." James looked practically on edge to hear Mirri's past, though Sephiroth looked indifferent, he must have herd the story before.

"I was born Mirri Lufkin and one of the reason's that I changed it unceremoniously to "Catwarrior" when becoming a SOLDIER was that my family is very well known in connection to Corel. It wouldn't be fair to say we were anything like nobles, but my family was well off because they moved out from Midgar when Corel was just setting itself up, and put a lot of money into the town.

While this helped get the town started and made them some friends, after about two generations the friendships were wearing thin as people realized we also owned a lot of the town. We didn't have majority shares in anything, but as the saying goes 'we had our fingers in every pie' and we knew it. Because we didn't have majority shares we didn't make the decisions, at least not in the open, but whenever something went right we got a good share of the money.

The problem was that as the other people of the town started making money they wanted to buy my family out of the shares we had bought, but they couldn't because behind the scenes my family basically orchestrated things to make sure they went well for the town.

Sadly the people of the town didn't see that my family was acting for their best interests, and relationships were even more strained by the time my parents were in charge and I was born. To make things worse, Shinra was finally coming into true power, and it didn't' like the competition that the coal power in Corel represented.

My family knew that if the coal mine went down, sooner or later the entire town would follow it, and so they negotiated with Shinra. They limited the amount of coal power that was generated, but they kept the mine going, but the people of the town saw them as selling themselves to Shinra.

The stress of running everything from behind the scenes and trying to please so many people must have gotten to them, because they both died in their sleep, and I didn't have the patience for dealing with these people then, so I sold out my shares in everything.

The town got what it wanted, I cashed out my shares in the town, and left. I went to Midgar, the city was a rising star, and I was going to make the most of it, which I did. Because I was from Corel and who my parents were, I more or less had to buy my way into SOLDIER, so I sold my family's legacy for a sword and a shield. Once I was in SOLDIER I did well, and that's all you really need to know about me.

As for the town, my parents with their deaths, they did the worst thing you can do to anyone to this town, they ignored it. With their death the town got what they wanted: they were in charge. It lasted about as long as an asylum run by the inmates would have. Humanity needs someone who it can get behind to successfully lead itself.

While my parents were alive the town was united in their hatred of them, without my parents, the town fell apart into various factions. Those who liked Shinra, those who hated it, you get the idea. Those factions didn't have a prayer in hell in trying to negotiate with Shinra.

Shinra had started a war with Wutai as a way to clean out the closet, and so they took care of Corel at the same time. Burnt the entire place to the ground, and killed off some people to make an example of them. The town never should have tried to argue with Shinra during a war that gave them every excuse they needed to justify torturing Corel to the citizens of Midgar, who are the only people Shinra ever had to answer to.

So the town was reduced to what you saw back there, a bunch of shacks with people barely getting by, and what disgusts me the most is that they haven't been able to improve their lot in life from the day Shinra burned this town. If they had any real merit they would have rebuilt this town, but they don't, they have no leader. The only thing they have left is a hatred for me as if I was part of the squad that burnt this place to the ground."

James whistled in surprise and even Alex looked slightly taken back. Aeris was in mild shock as she looked at how calmly Mirri could talk about her own parents' death. Aeris looked into those eyes for the slightest hint of regret, fear, or uncertainty, and found nothing.

She had seen those things in Sephiroth's eyes the second time she had met him, but Mirri didn't have them, Sephiroth looked like he had no emotions, but he had them, Mirri had her emotions but her unearthly calmness almost made her something even less human then Sephiroth.

Seeing her explain her past did, however, shed some more light on how Mirri became Mirri. As if sensing what Aeris was thinking Mirri spoke a few more words. "As I said, I don't hate those people, I pity them. It's good for them to hate me because if they didn't, they probably would have all starved to death because they didn't have anything else to motivate them. To the people of the town I'm like one of those sacrificial virgins weighted down in countless jewels so she'll sink faster, to be thrown into a volcano. Of course when I'm done the score will be: volcano 5, town 7, virgin 283."

Aeris wondered briefly if the ability to shape reality through raw stubbornness and willpower was a side effect of Mako enhancement, or if it was unique to Mirri and Sephiroth.
As the small cable car came down Mirri boarded it along with everyone else and then shifted gears completely as the remains of Corel vanished from sight. "The Golden Saucer should be a good place to find information on whatever you're looking for, Sephiroth." Sephiroth seemed slightly uneasy as he spoke, as if aware of just how much better Mirri knew this area than he did. Still the moment the second word was out of his mouth he was just as confidant as Mirri.

"I'll look all over the Golden Saucers if I have to in order to find what I'm looking for, don't doubt that. However, I think it would be best if we split up, not to mention we can't afford to make much of scene entering the place." Mirri smiled again a she put her feet up on the empty bench on the other side of the car. "While I was young I got a lifetime pass for myself and anyone who was with me. Using it is traceable, but since the Golden Saucer isn't affiliated directly with Shinra, they'll have a hard time getting to it, not to mention it's under Lufkin, rather then Catwarrior which is where most people will look.

As for how we split up, I'm planning on visiting the Battle Square, Alex you'd probably enjoy it also, it's basically nothing but round after round of fighting various monsters." Alex licked his lips in anticipation. /Sounds like the first enjoyable use of time you humans have come up with.\ "James and Aeris you two should check out the Wonder Square, it contains less macabre modes of entertainment."

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Sephiroth leaned against the wall near the Speed Square and thought. After going this way and that, he had finally come up with some information dealing with someone matching Hojo's description, and as there were not that many people who looked like Hojo he was probably on the right trail.

Apparently the man had come in for the sole reason of seeing the manager's collection of rare artifacts, and asking if he had a "Black Materia" whatever that was. As Sephiroth knew (and as a General he knew pretty well) there were only five colors of materia: red, green, blue, purple, and yellow. Hojo might not have spent as much time using materia and instructing others how to use them as Sephiroth had, but he should have known enough to know there was no such thing as a Black Materia... Which was why as Sephiroth could guess, since Hojo rarely did things for no reason (there was madness in his method) there must actually be a Black Materia somewhere.

The simple fact that Hojo wanted it, was more then enough to give Sephiroth a very good reason for wanting to find it first. Sadly Sephiroth was quite sure that no matter how hard he looked in this place he had no chance of finding anything about where a (or maybe it should be "the") Black Materia was.

So for the moment Sephiroth was resting, he now had at least one thing to follow as he led the group in a retreat that was starting to feel like it had no other purpose than retreating. That wasn't true of course, even if they had to cross this entire continent on foot they would eventually get to Rocket Town, there they could...

"General Sephiroth?" Those two words quite forcefully derailed Sephiroth's current train of thought. He instantly snapped back to reality, cursing mentally, James must have been rubbing off on him to get him that disconnected from reality. When he finally got around to looking at the man who had spoken to him he was oddly impressed.

The man stood taller than James, but not so tall as to draw attention to himself, in fact his height was so average it was probably measured in decimals. His style of dress was similar to James in that it was totally monochromic, dark black hair, black trench coat, black sunglasses black t-shirt, black pants, and black boots. Sephiroth was starting to regret not taking Mirri's advice about wearing a pair of sunglasses himself, bright green eyes and sliver hair did make him stand out.

The fact was that most people, by sheer force of a desire not to get involved, would ignore Sephiroth, but that didn't mean he could convince someone who thought he was who he was, that he wasn't. So Sephiroth did the only thing he could, he attacked the problem head on. "If I am?"

The man looked Sephiroth up and down one more time, and smiled at him, showing a set of perfectly bland teeth that neither sparkled, nor looked like they would need to be replaced. "Then, General, I have an offer to make to you. You'll need all the people you can find to fight for you, and I intend to be one of them." Sephiroth looked at the man, and several different avenues opened up to him. Those involved with the man betraying him, and those involving Sephiroth betraying him, either one could be in the foreseeable future.

"What's your name, and how do you fight?" The man adjusted his black glasses slightly before he spoke. "My name is Niro, Niro Rose. And I fight like this." The man parted his trench coat slightly to reveal a customized .44 magnum, with a slightly shorter than normal barrel and an elongated clip; this thing was clearly higher-end than most civilian weaponry. "That's just to draw the eye General, I don't need that to kill any more than you need Masamune. Believe me when I say that I'm the most unusual SOLDIER you've ever met."

The truly impressive thing was that even though he was speaking, Sephiroth could hear the capital letters. Though it was impossible to tell what color the man's eyes were behind his glasses, Sephiroth had no doubt they'd glow with mako. Sephiroth made a snap decision. "Fine. Come with me soldier, let's see how you like the rest of the army."

Mirri was right in her prediction that James and Aeris would like the wonder square. James was definitely having the time of his life, chiefly because of the way Aeris' eyes lit up every time he did something as simple as make a basket. Of course this was also in keeping of James' view of life.

To James, the best things in life were not necessarily free, but they were simple, like smiles and stopping to smell the roses. No not roses, what were those other flowers James liked? He couldn't remember their name because it was complicated, but they were blue and smelled like cinnamon, cinnamon... and pure bliss...(OWAN: catnip has blue flowers and a slight odor of cinnamon)

Granted, around his twelfth basket in a row, James had perhaps not doing something quite so simple any more. Granted just like skipping stones, it was all a matter of skill and timing. You just had to take your time, line up each shot and then let go, he didn't know why Aeris was so surprised. Of course after making so many as needed he was throwing in flourishes to his shots as needed.

"Southpaw left hook!" Indeed as predicted, James' shot veered left once it lost contact with his hands, which was good because he had taken the precaution of standing far enough to the right that having the ball go left made it end up in the basket. Once again Aeris smiled happily, she did look better with a smile on her face, but then, to James' way of thinking, so did everyone else.

"Can you shoot one right handed James?" James took a very long moment to prepare for failure. Unlike Sephiroth, James was not ambidextrous, it was the kind of thing that wasn't just controlled by genes but also by training. James had a strong preference for his left hand, the way most people had a preference for their rights.

As it was, he took an extra long amount of time to line up his shot, and he started to wonder if it would be such a bad thing if he missed. He had already made a lot of shots, any more and he might start to draw too much attention (truly this was a line of thought that rarely happened to go through James' mind) from everyone nearby.

James tossed the ball and missed, if not by a mile, than by a distance not that much smaller either. Still after scoring so many baskets, the machine literarily spit GP out in a flood towards him and Aeris. In the blink of an eye, both of them were knocked off their feet by the flow of currency. "We're rich like Shinras Aeris!"

Mirri and Alex walked out of the battle arena, feeling suitably pleased with themselves. Both of them had been splattered by a fair amount of the remains of the foes that they had dealt with, and neither of them cared. Alex was in a particularly good mood, and showed no inclination to clean his coat, content to let the remains of his foes grace his body as a sign of his victory.

Sephiroth appeared as Mirri and Alex walked towards the tubes leading out of the battle arena. A man of about medium height all dressed in black was with them and Mirri raised her hand in a wave. "Hey, Sephiroth! Finally decided to give the battle square a chance? Alex certainty enjoyed the experience. I guess you could do it with one hand tied behind your back if you're worried about what people will see, and hopping on one foot." Alex reacted in a very different manner.

He sniffed the air once, and then his eyes settled on the man in black next to Sephiroth. He sniffed the air one last time to make sure and then he acted. There was enough space between them as yet to build up momentum, and that momentum when added to his jump let him easily take to the man to the ground, his sunglasses falling from his face. /Weave spirit, Shapeshifter!\

Mirri's eyes widened, but she subconsciously began to curl her hands into fists, ready to unsheathe her blades. Mirri waited for a signal from Sephiroth, however, before she went into battle mode, even if at the moment Sephiroth seemed as surprised as her.

He quickly assessed the situation and crossed his arms at the scene before him like a parent staring disapprovingly down at disobedient children. "Alex, Niro, explain..." The fur was rising all over Alex's body as he partially dug his claws into Niro's body. /What more is there to explain Silverfang? Shapeshifters are one of the many monsters created by Wyrm taint, it is my duty to rid the world of such!\

There was another pause as Niro chuckled even with his body pinned by Alex. "Heh, smart wolf. If you wouldn't mind getting off me, I'll gladly start explaining." /You can explain on the ground Shapeshifter.\ Niro shrugged as much as the situation would allow. "If you would move back so that they could see my eyes, I'll start explaining."

Alex shifted his head to side slightly (though still clearly ready to rip Niro's throat out) and the other two saw Niro's eyes. They were as distinctive as James' ears. They were no color. They were every color.

One moment they would be blue, then green, then red, then electric yellow, then brown, then piercing blue gray, which was replaced by an orange. Niro nodded at the surprised look on Mirri and Sephiroth's faces (well, Mirri's face, anyway. Sephiroth's face had returned to its normal blank stare) and chuckled again. " My name, for the lady, is Niro Rose, as the wolf said, I'm a Shapeshifter. Produced by Shinra, my first order was going to be to kill the lot of you, but I escaped. I personally can't think of any better way to stick it to them then helping you."

Alex bared his teeth in response to Niro's statement. /Trust a Shapeshifter's word? One can not trust their face, let alone any promise they make!\ Sephiroth's face began to deepen into a scowl. "You didn't tell me, and Alex is a Cetra. That's already two strikes against you. You have one last chance to impress me." Still pinned, Niro shook his head. "I'm not going to. I'd just be digging a deeper hole. So do you trust me or not?"

Sephiroth's scowl deepened even further. "Alex, get off him. You keep your eyes on him, but actions speak louder then words. Just because can't impress me with one, doesn't mean the other is pointless." Alex slowly stepped off of Niro, growling lupine profanities. /My eyes are as sharp as my teeth, don't think you will succeed in any betrayal plot Shapeshifter, no mater in what form you do it. Your scent is in my nose, and that you is one thing you can not change.\ Niro stood up, picked his glasses off the ground and put them back on. "Right, well with in mind, compared to Shinra I'm still glad to be aboard."

OWAN: Thanks again for the reviews, and the support, and theahem word of mouth, but, as school is starting back up, the pace of updates will decrease rather drastically. I should still be able to post two per month, but that's likely to be the fastest I'll manage. If I'm bombarded with requests for further updates, I'll try to pick up the pace a little, but I can't promise anything. When I finally get around to it, there's a cast photo taken in Nibelheim, but that's a few chapters off. James suggests simply googling the term "Firecat" if you wish to see some more background of these characters, although in most of the content you'll find, Alex and Sephiroth are the same person. Long story. If you'll excuse me, I'm late for my nervous breakdown. 'Till the next perfect twilight, then.