"Come in, Come in," Odine insisted. "Vat seemz to be ze trouble?"
Rinoa sat down on one of Dr. Odine's strangely shaped benches, secretly hoping that it wasn't rigged. She questioned herself for coming here, but who else could help? "I was wondering…" She paused, wondering how to phrase her inquiries. "Dr. Odine, what do you know about the merger of the worlds?"
Dr. Odine thought for a moment, then sighed as his pager went off. "I am zorry, but urgent buziness haz arizen."
"Then perhaps I could be of some assistance," a shadowy voice offered.
Rinoa turned her head towards the entrance and saw a tall man with thick, black hair. He had apparently just come in; his red cape was still settling from the wind. He turned to Rinoa, intently focusing his red eyes on her. She turned back to Odine, who scurried off to his laboratory.
"You were asking about the worlds and their merger, correct?" the man said, his tone catching her off-guard. For all of her time with Squall, Rinoa never could have prepared herself for such a cold, unnerving tone. His near lack of emotion seemed to penetrate to her very soul, but she was careful not to let him see her fear.
"Yes," she said as calmly as she could. "I'm Rinoa Heartilly," she added, extending her hand.
"Vincent Valentine," he replied, turning around and ignoring her hand. "If you'll follow me. I don't trust Odine enough to discuss this matter with you here."
"But…don't you have business here?" she asked. He had, after all, just come in.
"This is more important." He continued walking out of the laboratory.
"Where are we going?" she asked timidly, following him through the door. "And how are we getting there?"
"We'll take the train," he said. "It won't take us all the way there; we'll have to walk for a while past the train station. As for where, I doubt you have heard of it. Few remember that it exists, which is why it has been dubbed The Forgotten Capital."
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Odine was furious. How dare they alert him and then have the nerve to be late! He had the perfect opportunity to speak with a living sorceress, and they had just robbed him of that pleasure. Their business had best be important.
A young man in a blue suit entered the room where Odine had been waiting. "She's here," he said calmly.
"Vat? Vat do you mean?"
"You desired a test subject, did you not? Our scientists either could not or did not want to handle this case, but from what I understand this sort of thing is right up your alley."
"And vat sort of thing iz this? You have told me nutzing!"
"You will understand in time. Just know that we expect your full cooperation. There is no need for anything less, correct? If we have that assurance from you, then the specimen is all yours, to do with as you please. I have also been asked to warn you that there may eventually be resistance to you having her, and that if for some reason you are questioned, we are never to be mentioned."
"And you shall be asking your uzuall paymentz?"
"Timely delivered, as always."
The young man pointed to Odine's observation window as he left. Odine ran to the window and shouted for joy at what they had brought him. Forget the sorceress; he had just been delivered a summoner.
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"The train might as well be empty," Rinoa said, clearly annoyed. "We could start talking here."
Vincent sighed at the broken silence. He had hoped to wait until they had returned to the forest, but Rinoa seemed to be a very impatient young woman.
"Only if I may begin with a question: What were you doing in Odine's laboratory?"
Rinoa seemed taken aback by the question. Why should he care? She asked him as much, to which he darkly replied, "You are a sorceress, the prime focus of Odine's 'research'."
Rinoa let her mouth hang open for a few moments, then asked, "How did you know that?"
"I know much about this new world, and yet there are always things that must be learned."
"And Odine was going to help you learn those things?"
Vincent shook his head. "Odine is one of those things. He is a madman, a wild card, impossible to tell who he will befriend, what he will do. He seems to be more devoted to his research than anything else, even human life. I once knew a man like that. If Odine is similar, then he must be stopped before any trouble can begin."
Rinoa sat in silence for a moment, awestruck, but she quickly regained her composure. "So what do you know about the merger of the worlds?"
"I do not understand why, and I believe that no one ever shall. I thought at one time that it came from the stories of your world, tales of a sorceress from the future who desired to compress time. I thought perhaps these tales were misleading, and that the sorceress desired to compress space instead of time."
"No," Rinoa said firmly. "Ultimecia's goal was time compression. I should know, I was with the ones who fought her."
"Interesting," Vincent remarked. "I wonder where her sorceress powers have gone, then…unless I assumed wrong that you were a sorceress before the battle." Rinoa went to comment, but instead just affirmed Vincent's assumptions. She wasn't sure that she liked him; he knew way too much, especially about her.
"Recent events are making me think otherwise, however," Vincent continued. "I witnessed the return of the Calamity in Wutai, the first appearance since the first defeat of Sephiroth years ago."
"First?" Rinoa asked, not sure that she wanted the answer.
"After he was defeated in the Northern Cave, Sephiroth lived on in the Lifestream through the sheer force of his willpower. He willed three remnants of himself to life, three remnants who were sent out to search for any remaining cells of Jenova to recreate the Reunion, a phenomenon where those infused with Jenova's cells, such as Sephiroth, gather together in an attempt to rebuild Jenova. When one of the remnants came into contact with the cells of Jenova, however, Sephiroth was reborn, emerging from nothingness and replacing the remnant in existence. He was defeated again, but I have always feared that his will lived on, and the rebirth of the Calamity has given meaning to my suspicions."
"What is this Calamity that you keep mentioning?"
"Heaven's Dark Harbinger, Jenova. Pieces of Jenova were seen in a section of each former world; one appeared in Alexandria, another in your Balamb, and the last in Wutai, a small town from my world."
Rinoa was confused, but she did at least like the fact that Vincent still referred to them as separate worlds. If nothing else, they seemed to share an uncertainty about the way things had ended up.
"How could this have happened?" she wondered aloud, not really expecting an answer.
"I cannot say," Vincent answered anyway. "By all regards, the worlds should have been destroyed in the collision." Rinoa stared at him aghast. "I have seen fragments of other worlds scattered throughout each. I wonder if the intent had been to use these worlds as weapons against each other. Perhaps time compression distorted the original plan."
Rinoa hesitated before asking, "Is this…permanent?"
"One would think." The lights went out as the train violently shook. "We, however, may not be."
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Rufus casually stretched in his chair, humming to himself. Everything was going according to plan. Before the year's end, Esthar would be wiped off the map and be an official property of ShinRa Inc. It wouldn't take long; all of the pieces were almost in place. In many ways the last piece was unnecessary, but Rufus liked to be prepared.
The door opened, and his unexpected visitor sat down across from him. "Good to see you, Cloud," Rufus said politely.
"Cut the formalities, Rufus," Cloud insisted. "What is your interest in Esthar?"
Rufus smiled. He expected Cloud to figure things out; Cloud had a knack for doing things like that. Rufus, however, also had a knack for twisting the truth.
"My only interest in Esthar is that of my people, Cloud," he said, the smile on his face still reeking of political charm. "As long as Esthar continues to disrespect my authority in this area and send spies into the Materia mines, I must wonder about the safety of my citizens. Surely, Cloud, you don't want to see the innocent people hurt?"
"That's exactly my point," Cloud growled. "Neither you nor Esthar seems to know what exactly the other wants, but I wouldn't put anything past you."
"Perhaps you are too quick to judge me, Cloud. I admit, my company and I have made a few…mistakes…in the past, but I assure you that I desire a peaceful world as much as you do."
Cloud stood up and turned to leave. He wasn't going to sit there and be lied to. "If this is another unnecessary war, Rufus, AVALANCHE will move against the aggressor."
"Point taken, Cloud. I had just hoped that you had gotten over your former prejudices."
Cloud stormed out of the building and grabbed his phone. He paused briefly, then called Tifa. "I'm on my way," he said. "Rufus was just as stubborn," he added, disappointment creeping into his voice.
"You try too hard sometimes, Cloud. You know that, right? Take a vacation. We'll all go. Next week, ok?"
Cloud wondered for a moment if this was a good idea, but he also knew better than to fight with Tifa. "It's a date," he said as he hung up the phone.
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Rufus laughed. What would Cloud do if he knew the truth? It was hard to say; Cloud always was hard to guess. More specifically, the path he took to get there was hard to guess, but everyone knew the final outcome. Rufus guessed that Cloud had even begun to suspect a showdown between AVALANCHE and Shinra approaching. Everything would come to a head soon. He knew that Cloud would never allow Shinra to become the world power it had been when the worlds had been separate, but Rufus could not pass up the opportunity for power.
All that still stood in his way was the bumbling fool Laguna. They had met before, when the worlds first had merged, and they had immediately taken a disliking to each other. Perhaps this grudge was Rufus's underlying reason for going after Esthar, but there were several more important things playing for him as well, such as Lunatic Pandora.
His thoughts, however, were suddenly interrupted as a black clad figure leapt from the ceiling and pressed a dagger against his throat. "President Rufus," the figure the figure snarled. "Your time is up."
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Author's Note: Wow, a lot has happenned in my absence. Namely, the site ruler broke. For now, I'm boring the line of unsightly L's from the Final Trinitiy story, seeing as this site despises my line of 13 asterisks (sp?) with a tab between them. I'll come up with a new way for scene breaks each chapter until they decide to fix the ruler.
On a different note, I plan on doing at least one chapter a day now for about a week to make up for my absence. I already have up through chapter 14 written, so it shouldn't be a problem. Sorry for the delay, read and respond, "et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!" (Hooray Yul Breyner)
R.I.P Steve Irwin
PREVIEW (I plan on doing these now, what do you think?) Not everything can go expeted for everyone. The crater proved that to half our cast. Now, it is time for three more characters to learn this truth. What happened to Rinoa and Vincent? Find the answer next chapter!