Simply the Thing I Am, Shall Make Me Live
Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter 1.
Author' s Note: Thanks to ShatterTheHeavens, findthetiger129, and nekuromansa000 for reviewing! Thanks to Kappa Taicho for the fav! And thanks to SliverKitsuneGrlAngel and LadyoftheDrow for the alerts! I always say my thanks!
Had to break this chapter up or it'll be over the 10k word point. Dx Since the other chapter is in progress to the end, chapter six should be up before the weekend (perhaps Friday).
Intermission chapter!
To the fic!
Enjoy~!
~ Chapter 5: Hide and Seek ~
Way too Early in the Morning, IC Workshop, Fort Condor, Early September 0007
Steam rose out my newly acquired cup of coffee as at this point of time, I locked myself up in one of the 24 hour workshop rooms that was available for me to use. My eyes turned to the clock on a wall reading 3:30 AM. I ignored it, as I wasn't going to sleep any way due to a sudden insomnia... I might as well do something useful. After Zack told me that he got a message from Tseng and needs to meet up with the Turk, I agreed (although I was reluctant inwardly) to help him out. Afterward we all went to sleep and dozed off.
It wasn't until I woke up at 3 AM I realized that I wasn't going to sleep after. You'd think that having a different body would fix the bad insomnia habits I had back home. Or maybe and most likely, the 'me' here had the same bad habits.
Yeah, that would make sense.
Back on Earth when it came to examination days or huge events, my body unconsciously woke itself up far too early in the morning... no matter how little sleep I got. Same thing happened here. I think it happened because I got some signs I was going to play cat and mouse with ShinRa whether I liked it or not.
Surely there had to be a way to get to Midgar without the huge suicidal fight, right?
Not if Cosmos was up for it. Or something changed and it would still be as bad.
I tapped my index finger on the desk, my eyes laid on the timeline typed up on the small 7 inch screen laptop. It was probably just a bit thicker than your small mobile PC tablet, as I needed some hacker and programs on me on the go that was light enough to be carried in my pack and didn't stand out too much to catch attention, its exterior casing resembled a tool box for an Item Creator. Me and Ryan may watch too many 007 (James Bond) movies, but hey, even the Turks aren't that shifty like CIA or FBI undercover agents on Earth which is a good thing. This sort of tech was non-existent in ShinRa, I was going to take advantage of it and so did my friends. Ignorance is a bliss...
Scrolling down, the notes that the three of us had compiled together what happened in Gaia according to the games was listed according to date. There was one information I was desperate to check on.
And there it was.
Early September 0007: [Concerning Turks] Tseng orders a S-Priority Mission for Cissnei to search and capture Zack alive in hopes to give him 88 letters from Aerith.
Ah, now that adds up...
It was the reason why Zack got a message from the Wutaian Turk. There was no knowing what happened next, as I knew Zack never made it. I knew all too well that at this point we were making a new future as we went along.
Would Tseng let us go? Maybe yes, maybe no. Not sure at all. Worst case scenario would be caught by ShinRa and we'll have to escape in a flash. Best case scenario would be we have some help and get dropped off near to Midgar. Less likely to happen, but it was probably considered something lucky.
Avoiding the Mythril Mines and the Marshes appealed to me better. If we wanted to avoid the marshes and the Midgar Zolom, that meant we needed a vehicle. I seriously did not want to get blasted by a Beta attack and there's only the three of us – it was suicide.
Another question that bothered me since yesterday night. Where the hell was Cissnei?
Five minutes of thinking, I gave up and sighed.
It was then my PHS beeped and I took it out. It was a message from Rika! She better send it in for emergency news or at least have it in code!
~ Inbox: New Message (1) ~
Subject: Long Time no Hear~!
From: Rika S.
Hey Issac,
Before you start raving like a lunatic about Intel breaches, this message is SECURE and ENCRYPTED. Don't look at this message you're going to burn it with laser beam eyes, OK? I did what you asked me to do and I piggy backed the hacker program you gave me. I also have backup with me concerning to tech. It'll be explained in this email, I promise.
I needed to contact you as there's a HUGE speed up on the timeline. Our dear group 'A' is already assembled, believe it or not. The only good this is that they're making delays on planning to do anything on ShinRa, since security on the Upper Plate has been extremely tight. That's because the WEAPON event that the Turks faced has happened, which means the Turks who were in BC are now officially exiled. Cissnei's out of the job for now. I was worried what would happen to you and Ryan. How's your mission going? Have you heard anything from my twin?
Now, for explanations. You remember about the part where we all had people to save? Turns out the person I saved was no other than Shelke Rui, from DoC. Major TL change, right? I'm not sure how it happened, but she told me that her body had problems one day that it started to break down. The Restrictors declared her a failure and left her for dead near some cliffs just two miles away from the Chocobo Farm.
Umm... I don't really know how to say it, but... you remember how Fayt's powers exploded in SO3? That kinda happened to me. I'm glad enough it was out of town. But I'll tell you the details later when we meet. The point is, I 'changed' Shelke somehow that she doesn't have to sustain herself with Mako anymore. I'm not sure of anything... but I hope its a good thing one day I could control my powers more.
Anyways, Shelke's a really sweet girl once you get to know her. She just has problems expressing her feelings after being in DG for so long. It's like I found a younger sister since in a way she reminds me of you. We've both been infiltrating the ShinRa Network cautiously for some time, and there's not much of any other information we can find that leads to other events, besides on what already happened with the internal fight between the Turks themselves. Hope things are going smoothly for you.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Rika
~ End of Message ~
~ Outbox: Message Sent (1) ~
Subject: GLAD to hear from You
From: Issac A.
Dear Rika,
Well, I'm glad that you listened on about security and all because the hell I'd want to hear about Turks getting our messages. How many times have I told you I DON'T have laser beam eyes? Whatever. I've tripled the encryption process so it'll be say a half century ahead of current tech for Gaia. No, paranoia is a good thing for now. We need all the secrecy we can get.
Shelke? WHOAH! Never saw that coming! That's AWESOME! The things she could do – no wonder you got news on what the Turks are doing.
Don't worry about your powers too much, after the initial release it should stabilize.
Yeah, you're right for one – we (Ryan and I) never got to see Cissnei at all. In fact, did you know that we skipped going to Gongaga completely? I know it's less of a detour, but I think Ryan noticed it that things are changing than what we know of the original TL. What we're doing right now is changing the TL. Just say we keep our eyes peeled for more unusual info, alright?
Answers to your questions... I'll answer about Ryan first. I've separated with him about 5 days ago or so. Last time I met him he was tending to Genesis' wounds and putting some golden liquid stuff on greens that attracts Golden Chocobos. Dunno when or how he made it. He must have been very secretive as I know he never gave you or mentioned it to you. So far I haven't heard from him at all. He said it was probably the best way he could avoid G's 'to be kidnappers'. All I know is that he was heading to the Quadra Magic Materia Cave to the northern part of the Mideel Continent. I pray things go smoothly for him and his current patient.
My mission so far is going smoothly for technical reasons. I'm at Fort Condor right now, with Zack and Cloud. I have to admit it's thrilling at the same time meeting our heroes from the games, you know? Thanks to Ryan, the Mako de-toxin he made is helping Cloud recover faster. It means we have a larger chance of survival getting into Midgar. On the emotional department, we're in a sticky situation.
No, this isn't about Cloud... but Zack. You remember about Luixiere and Kunsel who are Zack's buddies in SOLDIER? I was shocked that Luxiere is HERE in Fort Condor. I know what you're thinking, we've got an explanation on what happened to them as the creators never mention anything else what happened to the two in the FFVII compilation. I hate to be a breaker of bad news, but the thing is... Luxiere and Kunsel were recently filed as dead by ShinRa. Worst, they were captured and taken for experimentation. Luxiere escaped. Kunsel held the others back while he escaped. The poor guy never made it out.
Man, I feel really sorry for Zack. I'm no good in comforting people like you or Ryan, but I'm doing what I can to make him feel better and not to make him worry about me.
Just to give you a heads up, Zack got an SMS from Tseng. We're planning to meet up somehow. So don't freak out if Shelke stumbles upon a Turk report that I did something crazy, OK? Hopefully this means I'll arrive in Midgar soon.
Take care,
Issac
~ End of Message ~
After double checking that it was sent in a secure encryption and the message was sent safely, I closed my laptop as it went off, and put it in my pack. It was really good to hear from my adopted sister she was okay, and that she of all people found another sister to adopt as well. I was proud of her she was taking care of herself very well, and that now things of what happened to Cissnei were in the clear. Most of my worries were answered.
Now – that left me to wrap up things at my end.
Stretching and looking up at the clock, I drank what was left of the coffee. It was already 6 AM.
My stomach growled for food.
I think I saw some of Rika's cooking patents being sold among the items here in the fort.
7:30 AM
Groaning and waking up from a pleasant sleep, Cloud Strife slowly sat up as he twitch parts of his body to see how things were working. He felt a bit stiff, but that morning his arms and legs were starting to respond to him which was comforting and at the same time surprising. Either Issac's friend was a really good healing item maker, the Mako in him was helping heal him faster or both.
Looking around, Luxiere and Zack were asleep on their beds. Issac's bed was empty. Shuffling on his bed, Cloud looked over the item creator's bed to find some of his things were there. Namely his twin saber swords were beside his bed, indicating he was most likely out for a while.
"... Cloud?" A groan came from next to his bed.
The blond watched at his ex-SOLDIER friend getting up of his bed and looking at him. Zack was disheveled, but perhaps with some good sleep after they kept on running in the wastes with little rest and food, the color on his face was returning. At least it was better than last night, which the blond noted.
"Are you feeling well, Cloud?" His friend asked.
Cloud frowned. "Zack, I've been resting all this time." A pause. "Are you really okay? After you knew that – uh...w-what happened yesterday?"
"Better," the black spiky young man shrugged honestly. He didn't feel like lying to Cloud knowing he was scolded by their resident item creator last night that the chocobo head was worried for him. "It's still on my mind but – Cloud – I'm sorry for making you worry."
The blond shook his head. "It's alright, Zack. You're forgiven." A small smile came knowing it was enough he didn't reject the offer of help.
"Thanks." Zack smiled widely, knowing that this day wouldn't be so bad after all. "Issac was kinda blunt to me last night about how you two were worried about me. I shouldn't have locked myself up." His eyes soon drifted to Issac's empty bed. "Where's Issac?"
"I think he's gone off ahead to find things." Cloud suggested. "Issac was insistent of helping us in the morning as soon as he could."
The ex-SOLDIER shook his head, "I swear that guy overdoes preparations sometimes, you think we could ever make him let loose a bit?"
"Hmm. We could try, but for someone we know so little of he's... mysterious."
That made the Puppy laugh. "Like we're not mysterious ourselves, spiky! I'm glad he's on our side though."
He couldn't complain about all the items the item creator had with him were so damn useful. Not to mention the guy actually made a living and sentient-like droid. ShinRa would definitely kill for a guy like that literally.
"You met him in Mideel, right?" Cloud finally got to ask. Being in the wastes even if he had woken up still didn't mean he could have private conversations with Zack. "You think if he gets targeted by ShinRa would be a good thing? You're not worried about him?"
There was a thoughtful look on Zack's face. "He made a choice to join us. We don't really know who Issac is. He doesn't really know who we are. But – he said that he didn't need a reason to help." The raven's head leaned a little, "I trust him, Cloud. If he was a normal nice item creator, he would have just given us some healing items and left as soon as he heard about ShinRa chasing us. Yet he didn't..."
"What do you think he wants from us?" Cloud frowned. There had to be some reason.
Zack shrugged. "Nothing. He's been giving us help all this time. That means Issac has other reasons." He stood up, stretched, and started to do squats. "But my gut tells me he just wants to help."
The blond raised a brow. "Even if he knows he's going to get killed for it?"
"I tried warning him tons of times, spiky." Zack sighed. "Persistent little guy. The guy's a like boulder, no matter how many waves you push on him he's just there. He's determined to come with us, Issac agreed on taking our next destination and that's saying something."
A guy that was for once immune to Zack's pestering of all things. Inwardly the blond chuckled, but didn't say anything about it to his ex-SOLDIER friend. They could use a person like that to balance Zack out, since Cloud knew he was no good at rejecting Zack when he wanted to do something. "What's the next destination?"
At this point Zack recounted to his blond friend about how he received a mail from Tseng that they could meet up near the Mythril Mines. Further north of it was a communication outpost that was watched over by a few ShinRa personnel, but it wasn't as heavily guarded as Mako plants or facilities.
"Sounds fishy, I know – but I need to find out more about what's been happening in ShinRa since we have been... absent." A sigh. "If anyone might know of Aerith... perhaps Tseng does."
Cloud seemed a little tense. "How do we know it isn't a trap and they won't just capture us?"
"We don't. That's the problem." Zack pointed out. Yet before Cloud could say anything he held up a hand. "BUT – Issac said he'll look into it. I don't know how he wants to go against Turks. Still, if he can - then that supports the fact he's stayed in Costa del Sol for three years. He must have met or have experience with them." He sat on Cloud's bed, "Are you OK with him coming with us?"
The blond nodded. "He's the only nicest person you've met since we escaped, right?" Zack seemed uncomfortable with the fact they were still labeled lab subjects on the loose. "I trust your judgment Zack, and even now I owe him and his friend that I'm talking to you now."
A knock at the door. "It's me, Issac," the item creator's voice was muffled by the door. "Can anyone open up?"
Zack gave a sign that they'd talk about it another time and walked over to the door, opened it seeing that the hazel haired young man had a trolley with him. "What's all this?"
"Breakfast." Issac blinked as at Zack as if he was wondering what was wrong.
"That's a LOT!" the puppy exclaimed loudly, mouth agape at the 3 large trays of food and one standard sized tray. "How much did it cost you?"
"It's for four people," Issac snorted. "Not much. You ex-SOLDIERs or Mako enhanced people eat a lot anyway because of your faster metabolisms, although you can last longer than normal people without food."
"Not MUCH? But – Issac you paid for all of that! We couldn't keep getting stuff from your earnings! Cloud and I could just get some with our own gil and-"
A long roaring growl. To the embarrassment of Cloud and Zack both of their stomachs decided to voice out their own opinion how the smell of freshly cooked food was nice. They both laughed weakly as their faces burned tomato red.
The item creator laughed and pushed the trolley in with food in the room. "Geez, you don't have to be so worked up about it. If it makes you feel better I only paid 2 gil for the whole thing."
Zack gaped. "TWO GIL?" No freaking way! That sort of food would probably cost at least a couple of potions or so per tray.
"How?" Cloud didn't seemed to believe it either.
Issac seemed a little confused. "You guys don't know about the patent system us Item Creators have?"
With the blank look from the two he explained, "When you file a patent named or using a pseudonym, if your item is bought by people you get some incentive from it. The food here on the trolley happens to be patented under my group's pseudonym, it costs even less because we're the creators that gave the item makers the recipe and people buy it." He pushed up the trolley near their dinning table that was available in the room. "I'll wake up Luxiere. Zack, help Cloud out bed. We're having a meal together."
Midgar Sector 5, Early September 0007
"So who's the Turk that's watching her?"
"Turks." The smaller girl corrected. "Reno, he's hiding slightly further away. Rude's near the railings of the Church."
Rika sighed. There was no way of meeting Aerith with both Turks around without rousing suspicions. Three days of wanting to meet the flower girl ended up with zero results. Maybe it was better off not to meet her beforehand, as it seemed every time they both came to Sector 5 to check on her, again and again there were at least two Turks on guard.
Crap, the timeline changed and gave them a disadvantage.
She was more than glad to have Shelke with her, having better vision as she was just as enhanced like a SOLDIER would be. Eugene, the silver EVE droid on the other hand was floating nearby watching their backs.
"We might as well head back." Rika decided. "We'll deal with it later on then."
Shelke nodded and they both retreated back. As they walked on the road towards Sector 7 she asked, "Are you still worried for Issac?"
The older girl humphed. "You have no idea. After I got the message he sent me, I have a bad feeling that he'll do something insanely reckless. And no news of my brother since they separated."
'Don't 'freak out' my ass'.
But then again – Perhaps it really wasn't Issac's fault, but Zack's. She kept reminding herself that the black spiky hero was alive now (and hoping it would stay that way), her best friend was probably dragged into it whether he liked it or not. And Ryan, well... she just hoped that her brother would realize something she slipped into his pack would help him with Genesis. A psychology graduate or not, she somewhat doubted her brother would endure someone who was as poetic as Genesis at an extreme level.
The former Tsviet sighed as well, "I can't get anything on my sister now. The Turks are in a mess. Every time I do a SND the server scatters everywhere in confusion when I try searching information about them. It's like it's trying to sort itself out but keeps going in circles." She snorted. "Is there anything we could do while we wait?"
There was nothing she could really get a hold on certain information on, especially now that Shelke wasn't exactly going to get any sort of information with the internal ShinRa servers going mad. If they couldn't do it the tech way, they could do some more sneaking around.
It wasn't time to go back to the bar yet (still noon), and she was certain that Shelke was already bored out of her mind being in Seventh Heaven as everyone treated her like a kid when she wasn't. It was the reason why she took the teen out with her and to keep her skills up. Rika soon remembered that the blowing up of the plate falling on Sector 7 was caused because of a spy. That meant one thing...
Don Corneo.
The fact that Corneo means 'horny' in Italian, kinda made it ironic to Rika he had such a family name. Well, it wasn't wrong either since he's a major pervert in the games. Falling for a cross dressing Cloud of all things! She wondered that if Zack was around, he would end up in Cloud's place. Later...
"Say, Shelke?"
"Hmm?"
"Do you have information on whose ShinRa's informants under the Plate?" The Symbologist questioned.
Shelke raised a brow. "It's not part of the Turk database, but there are a few. It shouldn't be hard to get any credentials on who the boss and members are. Why?"
Rika gave the girl a grin. "I think I know a few potential enemies that may want information on us. They may sell us out at one point and that would be disastrous if we left them unchecked." 'Us' was a reference to AVALANCHE. Perhaps that was the real problem with such a small group. There was no one to look out for them.
"So it's a reconnaissance mission?" Shelke brightened up at the thought. Finally some action!
"We can take down a couple of people if they get too curious for their own good." the older girl implied. "We'll be discreet about it too. Just enough so we know if ShinRa decides to jump the gun at us." Rika shook her head in amusement as she watched Shelke's eyes getting excited of doing something that she was good at. Snooping around. Perhaps a battle was in order too.
"Great! Okay, so who's our mark?" Shelke whispered as she was more nearer to Rika. To many people around them it looked like two girls gossiping.
"Don Corneo and his lackeys. Rumor has it that his room has a trapdoor to the sewers filled with monster, the reason why most normal people end up dead. You can up your skills there, and I think I could get some practice too." She paused for a moment. "Tell you what, we go back to Seventh Heaven, get some supplies, your weapons, and head off for some scouting plus practice. What do you say?"
The ex-Tsviet smirked flexing her hands. "Beats being around a bar and being called a little girl all the time. I haven't have my electric charged sabers in my hands for a while. Let's go!" Shelke happily dragged Rika along with her.
The two girls jogged off to Seventh Heaven bar.
As Rika jogged along with Shelke, the brunette's mind was already with plans to make sure that this time around when the worst things happened they'd get the best chance. With any potential spy dead, then AVALANCHE won't be so easily found out. There was still the part of the plate being dropped on them, but there was also a chance they'd get the information faster, speeding up evacuating the residents before it happened.
Also, she had plans to weld or make the trapdoor mechanism stuck somehow so when Don Corneo switched the lever, he'll be in for a surprise. That way, Zack, Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa wouldn't have to fall into the sewers and waste time of getting back to beat the monster boss, then backtrack all the way back to Sector 7. There was also that Steal Materia and other items that they could loot at the train graveyard, which made her excited to do some item hunting.
The auburn haired girl on the other hand, was filled with excitement. Since she came here, numerous hunts for Intel had confined her to be inside the bar most of the time. She seriously needed to stretch and get the feel of battle once again. Not that she had ever liked fighting, but the events in Deepground had her forced to learn. Not keeping up to her skill was foolish she might end up dead.
On the other side, she was happy to connect with her emotions once again having so without for seven years. It was awkward at first, but to her shock it came by quickly.
She actually had to thank Eugene for that.
Even at the Chocobo farm she was wary with other humans. Not when others like the Restrictors treated her like she was dust to be swatted away when things got dirty. The silver droid however was very friendly.
To Shelke who had better communication with computers, she of all people was more than flabbergasted that a droid of all things had feelings. More human than any Restrictor she ever faced with, and he actually cared about her. As for Rika, there wasn't much to say. Her savior was just there for her wanting what was best and what she (Shelke) wanted to do.
There was still those odd visions Shelke would see in her dreams about a lady call Lurcrecia, but Rika didn't force her to remember or anything. She said that things should come when things should happen. The ex-Tsviet didn't know what it meant, but she was sure that Rika wanted her (Shelke) to go with her own pace.
She couldn't wait to fight monsters, but she also wanted to see more of what Rika could do that fascinated her to no end.
Shelke was exuberant to see more Symbology, a magic without using Materia.
Fort Condor, Early September 0007
It's amazing to actually see two ex-SOLDIERs plus another enhanced Mako person eat with gutso in probably world record time. One point the food was there, then the next it wasn't. I wasn't off the mark about them having high metabolisms, which was a good thing I took the order of the largest food trays for them.
For me, I just ordered standard size as I'm just a normal dude. I'm happy enough to say that Zack, Cloud, and Luxiere were really satisfied with it. The two ex-SOLDIERs were in happy spirits and Clould was more determined to start strengthening his muscles. That morning I luckily bumped into a alchemy pharmacist who happened to have muscle energizers. So I gave them to Cloud to drink a bottle every meal he ate in a day.
We decided that after breakfast we'd split up.
Cloud and Luxiere were staying in the room as Luxiere didn't have any missions at the current moment from his boss for the moment. As for Zack and I, we went off shopping for supplies. This time though, Zack was forceful that he'd get his own Materia and healing items with his own money he nabbed off from his enemies and monsters. It's still a good thing I tagged along, which meant the other item creators were willing to give some great bargains to Zack.
The puppy at least didn't complain about getting better bargains, I mean who would reject getting items 1/5 of the original price? (200 gil for a Mythril armlet anyone?) Not to mention, the stuff here were basically from trade routes, which meant there were plenty of choices. Compared to the Midgar slums, this was a good time to hoard some good stuff. I hoarded a few good items behind Zack's back for other members of AVALANCHE later, including sending in a packet of a sword to our room for Cloud.
It was about lunch time we got back to the room with our new items and meals. Luxiere was out doing his employer an errand, and we found out Cloud was pacing the room. He looked a bit tired, but seeing him pacing around the room was more than enough to have the puppy hug the chocobo head. This was great news, which meant we would have a three man team once we got to Midgar. I could only laugh in amusement as Cloud in vain tried to escape Zack's hold.
"Zack, if you keep hugging him like that he's going to recover less." I felt sorry for Cloud and decided to interfere.
Sheepishly he let go. "Sorry, Cloud." He then went bag to his bag of goods. "Hey, we got some good deals for some items!"
He took out some items, mostly healing items for the journey consisting of potions, ethers, remedies, and phoenix downs. As for equipment he got out two Mythril armlets, two fire Materia, two lightning Materia, two ice Materia and 2 restore Materia.
"That's a lot of items," the blond mumbled. "How did you afford this with what we got? I thought we agreed that we'd used our gil for our own items."
"Well, with Issac around when you buy them from item creators - you get awesome discounts!" Zack said energetically.
Cloud turned to me. "Did you get anything?" He then pointed to the packet on the wall. "Someone sent that in."
"No, I'm good," I showed him I had a Carbon Bangle from Costa del Sol.
I had it for ages, along with the equipped mastered Gravity Materia linked with All Materia and mastered Restore Materia. Three years was worth the effort of getting them to their limit. As for healing items, there were still plenty to spare from Ryan's pestering so I didn't have buy more. As for support items, they were virtually untouched.
I walked over and dragged the packet over to the blond. "It's for you, Cloud." Inside was the sword HardEdge. Before the two protested I tossed another two All Materia for each of them. "Those two are yours too, I've had them for a year but no one uses them, and they're a bit of pain to sell. They'll be more useful with you guys."
Zack was inspecting the blade lifting it unsurprisingly with one hand, "This type sword is usually used for 3rd Class SOLDIERs in ShinRa. You got a good eye for weapons, Issac. This should be a good sword for Cloud." He then glanced at the All Materia he received. "You're overdoing this, these things cost about 18.000 gil each!"
"You have my vote on that." Cloud agreed, glancing at me.
"You guys can give me some peace if you'd accept them when we're going into a den of wolves next called the 'Turks' soon." I complained, but still I knew better. "Besides, I'd rather get some of the better items here than in Midgar. There aren't a lot of good quality items around the slums unless you can access the Upper Plate. Just focus the fact we have better equipment and have an upper-hand. I still have a few patents on the market so you don't have to worry so much on my financial status, alright?"
At this, Zack's eyes glazed in gratitude and twinkled brightly for a moment and I knew I was doomed. Barely in the a tenth of a second I wanted to make a great escape, the Puppy pounced on me. Okay, so I wasn't hit as hard like the first time, but this time Cloud was laughing at me as I was smothered in a equally tight hug-lock by Zack in his numerous thank yous. It took me about three minutes before I could shove him off.
"Thanks for everything, Issac. I owe you." Cloud had finally stopped laughing and I was surprised he genuinely smiled at me. I blinked at first as the only time I saw that smile was in Advent Children. If the timeline was so better now, then all the crap we need to get through was so worth it.
I grinned at him back. "Like the hell I'd leave you weaponless."
Then I turned to Zack. "By the way, I got some info concerning the Turks." At this both of them had their utmost attention on me. "There's some sort of internal conflict going on and that some were exiled because of it, so Midgar on the upper plate are mostly under heavy security. That means on the outside for now, things are at lax. So if you wanna meet this Tseng guy that works for the Turks, as soon as possible is your best shot."
At this Cloud asked, "You think it's a good idea we should go?"
"That's up to Zack." I said.
Zack on the other hand rubbed his chin in thought.
"Zack?" Cloud asked again.
The puppy blinked before he said, "I think I have to go, if Tseng says it's important then I'd like to meet him. However – I need both of your help. Luxiere doesn't want to have anything to do with ShinRa after what he went through, so he's out."
"I'm with you, Zack." the blond said.
I followed. "Count me in, it might do us some good if we go there."
At this, Zack was confused, "What do you mean?"
"It's a communication outpost, Zack. If things get sketchy we could threaten them to destroy it. The signal tower covers the telecommunication systems over the Midgar wastes."
This time the puppy was grinning far too widely at me. "I think we could use the destruction to get into Midgar. Hey Issac, you got some explosives?"
Not a terrorist yet, and he was asking me for explosives.
Man, I'm a bad influence.
Still, in an Anti-ShinRa place like this... it should be easy to get our hands on them or make one.
TBC...
Oh, dear. Zack and Cloud are already terrorists before they join AVALANCHE. xD The reason being to have an action packed chapter next~!
Don't worry Genesis fans, he'll make an appearance in the next chapter. ;)
I know there are more than a few people who are reading this fic, so please don't be shy what you think of it!
Comments, opinions, questions, advice are welcomed! :)