Here's the first actual chapter. I'm not completely satisfied with it, but I don't think it's bad in any way.
Everything Final Fantasy belongs to it's respective owners. Happy Reading :)
Chapter One: Jenova's Alive?
Cid Highwind sat at his desk, looking down toward the plans in front of him. Sweat gathered on his forehead, as his frustration grew with each passing second. Why couldn't he figure out what had gone wrong during the test launch yesterday? He knew everything there was to know about space travel. After all, he'd read all of the secret documents pertaining to it in the ShinRa building. After everything with Meteor was over, they cleared what was left of the whole place out, and only kept what was useful. Could Cid and the others have accidentally thrown away some key document for running these new rockets ShinRa had been designing?
"Hey Cid, are you done in there yet, ya damn lazy ass?" came a deep, obnoxious voice from just outside the office.
"Quite yer yammerin'! I'm still tryin' ta figure out what's wrong with the rockets!"
"Sure ya are. I'm about damn tired of all'a yer #^$#% time wasting!" the other voice continued, as Barret came bursting through the door. "If you're so smart, then why the hell haven't you got this thing down?"
"You wanna try and solve the problem?" Cid shot back, spinning to face the large, black figure in front of him. Barret walked over to check out the schematics out, a frown falling quickly over his face.
"Shiii; what you need all this junk for anyway? Why can't we just strap a few huge engines to a tank and turn 'em on?"
"We can if ya wanna be the dumbass ta try it out," Cid remarked taking another look at the papers on the desk before him. Out of the blue, he noticed a small note in the corner of the nearest schematic that he hadn't seen before. His eyes lit up and his cigarette fell from his lips. His mind began to race, that simple note explaining everything they'd been trying to figure out for the last few days. "That's it!" he shouted, picking up the large blueprint. The cigarette dropped to the carpet, and Cid stamped it out before running from the room.
"Damn fool's gonna burn the whole ShinRa building down if he's not careful. And we jus' got her fixed up too," Barret spat, but did nothing about the cigarette as he followed Cid from the office.
The both of them took the newly rebuilt elevator to the third basement, where everyone else had been staying for the last few months. As the big metal doors opened on the elevator, Cid's eyes once again met with the most exciting thing in his life at the moment; ShinRa's two secret rockets they'd been testing before the company met it's demise. For a small amount of time, the building had been abandoned, before Cloud and the others decided to use it. They were hoping to find information on some other form of energy they could harness besides Mako. When they found out about the rockets, they decided it might be a smart idea to try and find other planets with intelligent life. Maybe they had the answers to this energy crisis.
Cid smiled up at the two massive metal masterpieces; one newly sporting the name 'Highwind Zero', the other simply called 'Rocket No. 2'. Both of them dwarfed the one that had been in Rocket Town, and each was significantly more high tech. Cloud and the others found out that ShinRa's executives had been keeping the two rockets secret in order to escape Meteor, had it come to that. Unfortunately, when Rufus died, the company effectively began to fall apart from the inside before they got the chance.
"Hey, did you figure anything out yet?" Red XIII questioned Cid as he sprinted by, saying nothing. "I guess so..." Red continued, laying his head back down on the cold cement floor.
Cid rushed into the Highwind Zero, and traveled down to the engines, Barret still close behind. "D'ya need any help?" he asked, and Cid raised an eyebrow. "Right..." Barret nodded in understanding, and turned to leave.
"Go tell the others that we'll be ready fer another test launch in 'bout fifteen minutes," Cid explained before Barret was out of earshot.
"%*$+ you!" Barret shot back, which Cid took to mean 'sure thing'.
Barret found his way back outside of the rocket, and began telling the others to get ready. After fifteen minutes had passed, Cid had both of the rockets ready to test, though truthfully, he was sure they would work now. He had Cloud open the large doors above the rockets, bathing everything in a bright light, and revealing the cloudless sky above.
"Alright. Cloud, Vincent, and Tifa; I need you three to stay here and make sure everything is going okay during the launch. You know the drill," Cid explained, to which the three of them nodded. "If I and the others make it, we'll check over the rocket itself from inside, and make sure everything's workin' correctly. When we're done with the Highwind Zero, we need to check Rocket Number 2 as well."
"Got it!" Tifa announced loudly, turning to walk towards the control bay. Cloud began to follow close behind her, but something was beginning to feel strange. His vision begain to blur a bit, and he stumbled, falling to one knee.
"Cloud!" Yuffie squeaked, being the first to notice. Everyone ran over to see if he was okay, but Cloud was already standing back up.
"I'm fine," he announced quickly, but something wasn't right. He felt a strange presence close by... one that he hadn't felt since...
"Jenova?" he whispered under his breath, heart beginning to race as his mind fell into a panic. Cloud tried to keep himself calm, knowing it was impossible for her to still be alive. They'd taken care of her; he was just imagining things. He tried to convince himself that it was just his mind playing tricks, but a searing pain shot through his whole body, causing him to collapse.
"It's real. I'm here for you Cloud," an ice cold voice entered his mind, taking over his thoughts.
"J-Jenova?" Cloud shouted, as Tifa pulled him off of the ground. His eyes shot across the large hangar, frantically trying to spot the enemy.
"What are you talking about Cloud? Are you okay?" Tifa questioned, fear for his safety entering her voice.
"Where are you?" Cloud screamed angrily, pulling himself from Tifa's grip, and readying his blade. "Show yourself Jenova! Is Sephiroth with you?"
"Why would he be? Didn't you oh-so-valiantly defeat him?" the witch cackled, her cold voice echoing throughout Cloud's mind.
"It's only a matter of time until the same happens to you! And this time it'll be permanent!" Cloud retorted angrily, still looking around for any sign of Jenova.
"I'm afraid I can't let that happen," another voice sounded from across the room. A strange old man was slowly walking out of the elevator toward everyone, who were all huddled around Cloud in confusion.
"Who the hell're you?" Barret yelled, raising his new prosthetic arm, which mechanically morphed into a gun.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Garland; servant to the great, Mistress Jenova. It is I who has brought her back from the dead. But I've no time to explain. Right now, her and I really need to be going. We've got things to do," the old man explained, raising his arm, hand outstretched. An enormous, unblockable force shot from his palm flooring Cloud and the others. Garland walked casually by them toward the rockets, smirking triumphantly.
Nobody was able to move, the strange force still holding them tightly to the ground. Garland walked up the platform and into Rocket Number 2. A minute later, his voice sounded over the intercom system. "Thanks for lending us some transportation, as neither my mistress or I have quite enough energy to teleport ourselves where we need to go," Garland laughed as the rocket started.
The ground began to shake and rumble as Cloud, Barret, and the others found the strange magic finally release them from its grip. But it was too late to stop the launch. Intense heat and a thick, powerful wind enveloped them all as Rocket Number 2 took off into the sky. "Dammit!" Cloud shouted angrily.
"W-was Jenova on that rocket with him?" Yuffie wondered aloud.
"There's no way! I was just in there, I would have seen 'er!" Cid remarked in awe, but Cloud's eyes showed that it was indeed the truth.
"We need to follow them," he explained simply, walking towards the Highwind Zero.
"But that thing hasn't been tested yet!" Barret retorted.
"We have no choice," Cloud said, quickening in pace.
Please review if you would be so kind, and (hopefully) you can expect more chapters soon (I've got a lot of drawings to do that are on my plate at the moment, but writing these chapters doesn't take long). Hope You Liked :)