Simply the Thing I Am, Shall Make Me Live

Beta-read by: Reiko x 3 (21st March 2013)

Disclaimer: Please refer to Chapter 1, I'm not repeating it over and over.

Author' s Note: Planning and prep chapter and the plot shall continue. Here you'll see what our Earth heroes are up to~! We'll get to our FFVII characters on chapter 3, promise!

Thanks to ShatterTheHeavens for the review and findthetiger129 for the alert! I''ve made a few fixes on the first chapter (mostly typos). And while this will be following the FFVII game, there will be changes to as our heroes will effect those who they have saved. But I'm not spoiling anything just yet. ;) You'll find out another person that needs saving in this one.

To the fic!

Enjoy~!

~ Chapter 2: Preparing Not to Fail. ~

"First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen?

Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst." ~ Dale Carnegie

Costa del Sol, November 0002

Rika once quoted to me from a book, as Graham Grooch once said that: 'If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.'

A week after our 'intel sickness', the three of us were on the floor mind mapping our plans out on what to do and what we were up against.

There was no time to mourn our own deaths when we knew what was to come.

All three of us didn't remember much how we even got to Gaia in the first place. All we know is getting flashbacks of escaping sleeping pods, self-destructing the place, and escaping white coats with infantry alike. Cosmos wasn't exactly generous in giving the memories of our alternate selves back, but she did warn we will get them when it was the right time.

When we came to, we were near Costa del Sol looking like people who were back from hiking and traveling the wilderness. If anything, I was feeling thankful that Cosmos actually let us have our backpacking belongings. We didn't exactly look conspicuous and for the better part we had some personal clothes and supplies. Perhaps our patron was really feeling helpful, since we were already entering a city of ShinRa personnel. Vacation or no vacation, attracting the attention of ShinRa was a huge NO.

'Intel Sickness' was basically a large headache or migraine because, when we merged with the 'us' in this world, there was a lot of information to filter out. Including about knowing technology and concepts that was far more advanced than our own, fighting, and even I felt kinda funny that I was having problems of moving my body. It felt different, like when you're trying out new clothes that were too big or small for you. I didn't want to ever go through it again. It lasted for a whole week of constantly tripping and trying not to walk into walls (I walked into a couple). The week after was spent on getting to know the city and catch up with the news.

Apparently, I decided a little too late whether to live or not. Time had kept ticking on when I made the decision with Cosmos. The time we came to know of the timeline after landing in Gaia, it was November 0002. That meant we were a month late in letting the Nibelheim incident happening, and that Zack and Cloud were stuck with Hojo as lab rats meaning it would be 3-4 years before they escaped! If I had been quicker, maybe I could have stopped that from happening. Angeal and Sephiroth were beyond saving.

"Issac, haven't I told you to stop blaming yourself?" Ryan scolded me. His green eyes were on me, worried.

He's lean, has short cut spiky dark brunette hair, and not tall at all now about 5'6''. Call it weird, but Cosmos made our bodies younger. We had to 'grow up' again when originally were all 23 years old on Earth, now though we're 18 which meant we were missing some height by a few inches. I'm not exactly complaining since by the original timeline of the game we'd be 22, which counts as passing the age of drinking in a bar. Not that I like drinking, but for now, I'll live with it.

If you haven't made the connection yet, Ryan and Rika Spencer are identical twins. The only difference between them is their genders, and personality wise Ryan's a bit more impulsive than his sister even if he is the older brother. Older as in by 30 minutes but he's mature enough. Rika on the other hand, has an athletic build seeing as she likes mountain climbing and traveling a lot even during high school. She now stands at a 5'2'' (which I didn't dare comment since she's height sensitive now and will throw anything in her reach), with short cut dark brown hair just below her ears and same green eyes like her brother.

As for me, I have a lighter hazel tone hair, cut short as well and have pale blue eyes. My body's lean too; I remembered at home I started to go to the gym when I was 18... I lost all the training for nothing! I had to get my athletic build here again. Shit. To my utter horror height wise I was at 5'5'' being shorter that my best buddy when originally we were the same height. I admit it, even back at home my growth spurt started late.

"Okay." I waved my hands out in a peaceful gesture calming myself down and bit back the guilt. "No complaining, let's get back to planning."

"Right, so where to?" Rika asked straightening her worn jeans. All of us were pretty much wearing t-shirts and jeans as we were on the brink of broke, or what little we had in our backpacks.

Ryan shook his head. "Nowhere for now. We're low on cash with zero experiences in most things. Cosmos was kind enough to give us the weapons the other 'us' have, but we're screwed in the money department, unless we get into the workshops and cook up something." He looked to me. "So when are we going to start that?"

"ASAP," I snorted. "We're lucky enough we have the Item Creation system here on Gaia. Besides making and upgrading our own items, if the patent system is in gear that means we can make a steady income with our creations across the market. Item Creators can use pseudonyms for patents, and the Item Creators guild isn't affiliated with ShinRa and is considered independent; so it'll be good extra income while we're on the run."

Item Creation was one of the better things about the Star Ocean series compared to other RPGs. You didn't have to worry much about upgrade or items in stores. If you were smart enough, you could get the ingredients and make items that could easily heal your health at 100% no matter what level you were. Other than that, it was a guarantee to make items that had better specs than those sold in the stores. The patent system was cool as well; by patenting your creation if you made the items you'd get extra cash selling them. I've visited the workshop they have here in Costa del Sol. I have to say I was more than happy that once your item is patented, you get an incentive every time it's bought on the market.

"Alright," Ryan said writing it down. "Item Creation for income. I'd say fighting weaker monsters in the area for Gil too. We better start to train to fight before Zack and Cloud get out. If Cosmos is right, we'd best work on our muscle memory and Symbology. We might do offensive Symbology out of town to get away from prying eyes, in other cases we still need to use Materia to not rouse suspicions. We're in a vacation hot-spot for ShinRa employees including Turks. It'll give us time to prepare everything before the main event starts. You guys remember when that is?"

I shook my head. "No clue, I'm bad at remembering specific dates unless someone drills it into my head."

I shifted my head at that same moment as a pen marker flies by, missing my head.

Rika never liked how I am forgetful with dates. The reason why I hated history lessons with a passion. If you asked me the events of WWII chronologically I would know, but when it comes to dates I'm blind. Heck, I'm even bad with birthdays at times. The only I reason I remember my friends' birthday because they have it on the same day. I'm kind of glad that Rika is here with us; she's more of a bookworm than Ryan is, and so remembering things to a fault comes in handy.

"I'm not sure about the date, but safe to say they escaped in December 0006 from the lab... they arrived in Midgar September 0007, but Cloud doesn't meet Tifa until October 0007 starting the events of the game," She spoke as she closed her eyes. Rika then blinked and blurted out, "Meteor happens on January the 21st in 0008. That's our last deadline."

I shook my head in amusement, "How do you remember everything?"

Rika shrugged, "Books aren't that bad. And I have read the game timeline a couple of times before on the FF wikia."

"I'm more of a general knowledge person, unless it has to do with computers. Try writing down every date you know about. Then we choose what's what," I supplied.

I like reading and skimming books for general knowledge I was interested in, but pure literature just wasn't my cup of tea. I never liked Shakespeare in high school, but I was able to tolerate LOVELESS since it was part of Crisis Core somewhat. Or anything as long as it was just a decoration in a game/story. I gave up in analyzing those type of texts once high school was out.

My time at college was spent mostly on calculus books and anything to do with programming, since I took computer sciences as my main degree. I was more into logical numbers and formulas than that stuff.

Rika, for one, is totally into books. You can't really get by having a surveyor or research major in college without reading thick literature text books, scientific journals, or other research stuff.

.

.

Soon the paper filled up like this:

Oct 0002: Cloud and Zack are captured after Nibelheim incident.

Dec 0006: Zack escapes the lab with a comatose Cloud.

Sept 0007: Early September Zack confronts Genesis at Banora.

Late September Zack arrives and is killed outside Midgar. Cloud lives and wanders off; forgetting Zack because of Jenova cells inside him.

Oct 0007: Tifa somehow (?) finds Cloud wandering in Sector 7 Slums.

Dec 0007: 9th December AVALANCHE blows their first Mako reactor.

Jan 0008: 21st Jan Meteor attacks Midgar, WRO is formed by Reeve, Geostigma appears.

? 0009: Advent Children

? 0010: Dirge of Cerberus

.

.

"That should be detailed enough." I said looking at the dates.

I was astonished Rika didn't seem to be happy by it though. "That doesn't count what happened Barret, when I think he loses his arm and Marlene loses her parents somewhere in 0003."

"You think we should interfere?" Ryan asked rather skeptic as he was weighing the options. "There's like a ton of Turks on the mission when they take Corel down. I know a lot of people died there, but if that doesn't happen then there's no AVALANCHE when we get to Midgar. The fact that the previous generation of AVALANCHE had to be taken down by the Turks is a 'must happen' event."

Good point. I was almost forgetting while Zack and Cloud were out of commission, the Turks and Rufus Shinra were really busy. Better to avoid them than to get into them; just existing this time and moment could change things. Getting involved with the events was a recipe for catastrophe. I know we can't save everyone, but that meant people were going to die whether we liked it or not. So, basically, Cosmos wanted us to focus on our roles that would make the stepping stones towards stopping the events of Meteor.

Due to the silence and uncertainty, because we could screw up more of the timeline, eventually we agreed that we'd stay in Costa del Sol through most of the crap. That was in hope that we wouldn't effect too many major timeline events. Besides, Costa del Sol was the quietest place for timeline events. Let's just hope that doesn't change.

It was then I recalled something with Cosmos. "By the way, did you two get a special mission, a person to save, by our patron?" Before I woke up she mentioned we each have people to specifically save. That clearly meant the three of us were going to split up before Midgar.

They both nod. But Ryan beat me in asking first, "Who did she say for you?"

"Believe it or not, but I have to save Zack and Cloud together."

There was a sarcastic note in my voice. But by Ryan's level headed gaze, he knows I'm scared shit about it. Damn him for taking psychology in college. I can never lie to him as he'll know straight away. Seriously, I wasn't looking forward to playing hide and seek with nearly most of the ShinRa army chasing behind me. Although, I was honored to get the task... as long as I get out alive.

Rika seemed hesitant. "She... never told me who I was to save, but I was given some sort of vision I needed to save someone important near the Chocobo Farm. Next up I need to get to Seventh Heaven before even Cloud shows up. Ryan?"

There was a smirk on Ryan's face that somehow made sure that both Rika and I were going to be happy to hear about it. "Cosmos only mentioned it cryptically, but I'm certain I know who it is."

"So she stated the obvious," I huffed. "Big deal." It was a thing we both had, a sort of small friendly rivalry since we were kids.

My buddy laughed at me. "Come on, it is a big deal!"

"Just tell us what she said," Rika said, poking her brother to spill the beans.

"Another sleeping crimson warrior can help you turn the tide," Ryan quoted Cosmos with a grin. Hell, I knew there was only one other red warrior that went into slumber other than Vincent.

His twin no doubt went into a fan girl moment squealing, "Genesis Rhapsodos!"

But hey, I was happy too that one of my favorite characters had a chance to actually be a part of the main timeline. All those times, I wondered if he hadn't taken in the end of Crisis Core and sealed himself he'd be a lot more useful than being comatose.

"Whoa, I can't imagine the terror we'll cause ShinRa if he comes along for the ride with us," I commented. "That means you got to save him before the Deepground ShinRa SOLDIERS pick him up."

He nodded. "That's the reason why when Zack heads over to Banora I'm going to follow him."

"So you and Ryan are going together then?" Rika asked hopefully. "You guys can start following them from Nibelheim to be safe."

"Following Zack when he escapes is a good idea. But going together after? I don't know." I said unsure.

That didn't seem to be a good idea. Zack was already a heavy target ShinRa set their sights on. Even if I did went with Ryan and Genesis together, it would signal ShinRa to increase the number of their SOLDIERs and infantry to hunt us down, upping the chances of getting killed.

"Sounds like disaster if they're going to hunt us down even before we join up with AVALANCHE. I'm having doubts Genesis would be entirely well after the fight, and he's just recovered from degradation. We're trying to save lives here, not start a fight to the death," I explained.

There was also the part where we didn't know if he was exactly right in the head afterward. Cosmos probably counted on Ryan to give a psychological diagnosis discretely, since there was a chance Genesis wouldn't be mentally stable. She chose him specifically for the task knowing he had the experience and the knowledge.

I shook my head, 'I didn't count her for a sneaky Goddess.'

She sighed disliking the idea we were going to be separated. "So everyone for themselves, huh? That leaves us just over three years and a month before Zack escapes."

Her twin shook his head, "Three years tops, we need that extra month to get to our destination and ready to follow him all over Gaia. At least until I can get Genesis, and then I'll split up with Issac. As for you Rika, I think you should head over to the Chocobo Farm and save whoever needs saving. Train a few chocobos and head for Midgar, I think you're the best person first to getting to know the other AVALANCHE members first before we come around."

"Umm, guys. We have problem," Rika started.

Both Ryan and I gave questioning looks. "What?" we both said in unison.

"Do you guys know how dangerous it is going by ourselves? The cons are you don't have someone watching your back, and if you're in trouble it's suicide." She said. "Even experienced mountaineers, trekkers, and rangers aren't stupid enough to go into unknown territory alone. And since we're all tasked with someone to save, it's going to get tedious... especially if said person is unconscious. Don't forget we haven't counted about fighting monsters that come out and is considered a norm in this world."

Crap. That didn't settle in well with me, but I didn't complain about the difficult technicalities when it came to traveling. It was Rika's field and she knew best when we went on our backpacking trip before we ended up dying in the plane. She had better geographical knowledge and navigation skills than both Ryan and I combined, which isn't all unexpected as she took geography for college.

I'm a computer guy, I'll be useful in the urban area near tech–but if you throw me into the country side, I'm more of a sitting duck. Ryan was a bit better at it, but by the look of his expression on his face he didn't feel too comfortable traveling in the wilderness without his twin sister. Okay, we're not afraid to travel into the wild, but seriously we had a mutual understanding that we prefer to at least have someone who had experience in long term trekking.

"So adoptive sister of mine, what's your suggestion?" I challenged.

This time, she had a hopeful twinkle in her eyes at me. "Well, Issac. You're the computer whiz, I was thinking if our other 'selves' have knowledge that's for a space civilization, then we could try building a scout droid of sort. That way each of us have a partner to keep an eye on us, as well you and my bro won't get into trouble about traveling without a map. They could also be handy in getting items too if we're short on time." Rika then added, "You have better understanding for computers and gadgets so you're going to help us filter the information we got from our other 'selves'."

"Awesome!" I smile widely. "I LOVE that idea! And come to think of it, we have a good deal of time to make it perfect. But... don't you think it's kind of... you know..."

"Kind of what?" Ryan parroted as he was confused; at one point I agree to it, and suddenly I changed my mind.

"Aren't we turning into Mary-Sues or Gary-Stus or whatever you call them?" I ask.

Rika rolled her eyes at me, "This is our reality and you're worried we're turning into Sues/Stus? To be honest about it Issac, I don't think we have exactly the same level power or stamina of a SOLDIER even if we can fight in this world. I'd rather think of covering our weaknesses with what we can do. Plus, I'm more concerned about the both of you guys having problems of watching yourselves when you have people to rescue. Hell, I'm a girl and I'm having doubts if I can carry the person I'm going to save, which is still a mystery. I might not have too much difficulties in carrying another girl my size, but what if I have to save a guy who's 6'8'' or something? That person is good as dead if they need a place to recover and they're heavily injured."

"Rika's right, Issac," Ryan put his hand around my shoulder in a brotherly hug. "I wouldn't really be all that calm knowing you would have problems with Zack and Cloud. You could have an advantage to have another pair of eyes and maybe a bit of firepower. Rika can have someone to watch over her, and I'm actually agreeing that when I do try and escape with Genesis I'll have backup with me. It'll do better with our psyches as well as we'll have a companion with us, although they are AIs."

To come think of it, I felt like a real idiot about being the too perfect sort of character in a game or story while my friends were more worried of whatever it took to stay safe, alive, and sane. All we had was each other, and I was darn sure that if any either of us died it wouldn't be good for the Planet or any of us who were left behind. In these sorts of situations Rika always said it was time to throw your ego out the door, but it didn't meant you had to throw your ideals or dreams away.

"Alright, we've got three years to work hard on." I said. "Let's get cracking!"

Few Miles Outside Costa del Sol, October 0006

Three years pass by really fast when you're preparing for an apocalypse; just like getting in and out of high school. Some days were good, others sucked. Cosmos wasn't memory friendly yet about our real pasts, so we kept on doing what we could do.

Even after all those days of planning and making preparations I still had a feeling it wasn't enough. I was glad to have Ryan get me into a pep talk that there was no knowing whether you were truly ready or not; life had a habit of putting a banana peel under your foot without warning and you'll slip anyway. I have a bad habit that comes from computers: that I had to be sure of everything working properly. Usually it makes me insecure of everything and makes me paranoid. Rika on the other hand, was helpful to me by taking me more often to practice on going through the wild where unexpected things happened.

Battle training has gone off to a good start, and I'm proud to say I can hold myself against the monsters around our area pretty good with my friends. We're better at our weapons too. Speaking of weapons, I guess I haven't explained at all about them. Our weapons are custom made, so there was little we could do. That meant we were responsible for making our own upgrades, but it's still good enough as we have an Item Creation process called Synthesis to compensate for it. It means you can combine raw materials to raise attack, resistance, etc. The best feature of our weapons though, is that they're triple changers or simply they have three forms. Physically they don't change much (with an exception for Rika's), but they could really surprise an opponent and give us the upper hand.

Rika's taken the role of a sharpshooter and magic caster, as she found out that her fighting capabilities were more based for long-range and mid-range. She has a few short-range skills as well, but tends to save them for emergencies rather than fighting head on. I don't blame her though; out of all of us she is the weakest in terms of strength, but her real gift was for magic. Unlike me and Ryan, her weapon can physically change thanks to her Alternation Symbol.

Like the character that had the Alteration symbol in Star Ocean, Maria Traydor, my adopted sister wields a small laser gun. She has most of Maria's short-range attacks for self-defense, which is a good thing as I was worried before how would she handle herself when enemies come in close and personal. Its other forms are just as weird. Its second form so short one would think it looked like a handle of a sword, but the tip is a thick calligraphy brush and acts as a wand. That would no doubt make people underestimate it as a weapon. Even when its third form is a short sword that can synthesize elements with it. However, she hasn't chosen what element yet to join with it. Her weapon's name is Morph; fitting as it can change forms and matches her Symbol.

For me, I'm a dual weapon wielder. I have thick twin sabers that one can expect pirates to have. Feeling savvy? Got to say I was shocked and a bit disappointed I didn't get a sword form like Rika. However, it does have a switch to retract the blade back to the handle and can be used as a gun (it's hidden in the handles). The other switch releases the blades as whips, which extends the range for the blades. It was a nightmare to get used to at first, but thanks to my other 'self' all I needed to do was to recall using it. Pain in the ass techniques took me over two years to get it done. I still don't use the stronger attacks because it does take a chunk of MP and HP (it's dead tiring). I know I'll still need more training to get my stamina up later. Their names are the Gemini Sabers.

Since I have the Symbol of Destruction, the blades have the largest destruction power out of us three. A reason why I don't want to use it too much is because I have to use MP and HP to get my stronger attacks out. No doubt about it, my powers made me an ether and potion waster. Fainting in a fight is NOT good. Why the hell did I have a case of bad stamina?

Ryan's weapon, for one, I gotta say I'm jealous over how cool it looks. I don't agree about its use though, because I'd rather stick to blades or swords. It's largest form is a trident. I thought Cid was going to be our only spear wielding person in the group, but Ryan seems to be joining in the fun. It's three blades can fold into an anchor form making a harpoon. For the last form, the trident can fold and sheath into a rifle mode. Its name is Riptide. I haven't seen him using it as much as I want to, as he's been busy creating something without me and Rika wanting to know. We both suspected it was important and didn't press on it.

For the last 3 years Costa del Sol isn't what it's cut out to be as the tourist sun, sea, and sand spot; not when you're going to be future fugitives. We've spent most of the time avoiding drawing attention to ourselves, focused more on fighting out of town, and blended in with the civilians.

Blasted Turks and ShinRa people were everywhere!

There were just too many risks involved in moving to another town because it might affect the timeline outcome. Eventually it was a good advantage to start practicing on avoiding rookie Turks. I doubt I could ever try avoiding true Turks if they set their target on us, but a little experience was better than none.

When we're not fighting, we stuck to the workshops to create items. Item Creating is both fun and lucrative (if you make items that sell like hot cakes on the market). Like in the game SO3 it's categorized into a few branches namely: Alchemy, Compounding, Writing, Machinery, Crafting, and Cooking. Another branch Synthesis was more of item combining. Boy, was I surprised that Rika could actually cook here of all places. With me and Ryan going on the fritz of getting ready for our future mission back then, she took it on herself to be our resident mother chocobo fretting about our getting enough to eat and sleep, and kept motivating us when we really thought of giving up.

With the three of us collecting the amount of gil combined in three years, we've managed to actually buy the Villa here! It's the actual Villa Cloud in the game, but we didn't name it that yet. It served as our permanent home, and perhaps in the future AVALANCHE will come around there. Item Creation actually creates awesome passive income! So even if we're out hunting monsters, we still have money rolling into our bank accounts.

So here the three of us were, on one of the deserted roads just a little far away from Costa del Sol. Rika was here to see us off before we made our way towards Nibelheim. She already had a ship ticket to head off to Junon. Each of us have small backpacks beside us, each with supplies for the journey, as were our scout droids. It took us most of three years to make them, but all of us were proud at the group effort. We took the design and more or less stole their forms from the droid character EVE from the animated film WALL-E.

I had to admit, the sleek design was best for scouting and spying and, considering the dude who made the design was the designer for the iPod, is a plus for us three who were iPod junkies. They're slightly smaller than the average football, but by color mine was black, Rika's was silver, and Ryan decided to let his stay white like in the original film.

"I'm really going to miss having you guys around." Her green eyes were teary.

My heart sank, she was alone when I was heading off with her brother. "Hey, we're gonna miss you too, you know. There's no one going to mother chocobo us about not having enough eat or sleep," I joked, but my voice was betraying my attempt to cheer her up as it came out in a sad croak.

Ryan didn't say anything, but gave her a long meaningful hug. This was really the first time he was going to be separated with his sister for nearly a year with no contact. We agreed that it was for safety as both Ryan and I were going to be harboring fugitives.

"Stay safe. Don't get yourself killed Rika," Ryan said.

Rika gave me an incredulous look as if she were saying 'Can you believe he said THAT to me?' considering we were the ones going on what usual civilians would call a suicide mission.

I only laughed at my buddy. "Ryan, that's the other way around." He was going to retort, but I waved a hand to stop him and addressed Rika instead, "I'll keep an eye on your brother while we're traveling together."

"Thanks."

"I'll meet you in Midgar then," I nodded.

Ryan only gave her a long look before he said, "I'll meet you as soon as I can make it."

"Latest we'll meet in Kalm, when the crew will start the hunt for Sephiroth," She said. "That's December next year at the latest."

At that moment we all took a deep breath and looked at each other with determination.

For our survival, for the Planet, and for its future.

All of us turned to our destinations...

… and never looked back.

"The future belongs to those who prepare for it today." ~ Malcolm X

TBC...

Just to let everyone know, I'm expanding my ideas on Item Creation. I figured if Gaia has potions and items stores, who are the ones behind them? Thus I've linked the Item Creation feature of Star Ocean. They will have some affect on how money politics works in Gaia by some point as Shinra no doubt is the world gobal economy monopolizer for the next chapter.

Next shall feature a time skip to meet our beloved FFVII characters...

Comments, opinions, questions, advice are welcomed! :)