Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.
Word Count: 2258
Pages: 6
AN: Thanks goes to Stormie who beta'd the chapter. Sorry for posting this so late but it took a bit longer to finish typing because of numerous delays. Thank you to Ch0k-naT, Midnight Phase, Nathalie365, E Muja, and Orange Soda who have already reviewed.
'Where am I?' The owner of the pair of eyes questioned in his mind. The image before him focused, his eyes taking time to adjust after not being used for so long. Searching his brain for memories of this unfamiliar place he found that he could not remember ever being here. Looking further in his head, he found that he didn't have memories of anything. 'Who am I?'
A girl with brown hair that reached above her shoulder who had a face blessed with heavenly beauty and was dress in white was directly in front of him. She was right in his arms in fact.
Looking down he saw her hand situated on his right shoulder showing off a ring crafted in a unique blue metal.
Upon gazing at the ring pictures flashed through his head. 'Are these memories?'
An image of a sword fmade of the same blue metal as the ring swam in his mind's eye…Brotherhood…his sword.
Shaking his head to clear him of his thoughts, he let go of her waist a raised his hand to eye level. The hand sported a ring, much like the girl's.
Trying out a smile, his unused face muscles worked themselves upwards and the blue eyed individual thought: 'Am I married? To this beauty? I'm the luckiest person ever! Or maybe I'm really good looking. Wait…what do I look like!?'
Panicking he looked around trying to take in his surroundings while looking for something that could show him his reflection. He noticed that he was trapped inside a glass structure alongside his possible wife and around 10 others.
On the outside of his encasing he noticed a man wearing a white coat of some sort. The man looked up to see one of the captives alive, awake and mouthing something incoherent through the glass. Astonished, the white coated man just shook his head at the blond haired, blue eyed captive and redirected his attention back to the panel.
What the man with the white coat didn't see was a brunette and a blond entering in behind him.
The first thing that Cloud observed was the orange creature was absent from its imprisonment and the second thing he noticed was the blond haired captive who shared his cell with the brown haired girl was awake and looking slightly puzzled at Cloud's and Tifa's arrival.
Cloud glanced to his right to see Tifa smiling at him and the turning to smile at the blond in the cell to reassure him that their intentions are good.
The blond in containment seemed to calm down. A ventilation fan in the container turned on and cleared out the remaining mist, signalling the end of the de-crystallization process.
"De-crystallization complete. 99.9 percent successful." A clinical female voice announced.
The assistant pressed a series of buttons on the panel, which sent the blue creature up through the ceiling.
Before the assistant could send up anymore captives, Cloud decided something had to be done.
In one flowing motion he unsheathed his sword off his back and closed the distance between the assistant and himself, holding the sword to his neck just as the man was beginning to turn.
"Release them and her as well," Cloud motioned to Aerith and the others.
"You. Y-You're from that terrorist group aren't you?" the man stuttered.
"We ain't no bloody terrorists!" Barret said stepping out from behind his hiding place and holding his gun arm level to the man's head.
"Now, free them…we'll only ask once nicely." Tifa spoke.
"Okay…" whimpered the lab assistant moving to the panel, sword still held against his neck.
Depressing a purple button caused the walls dividing the large cell to withdraw. He pressed a large green button next, which in reaction opened the exit on the back of the containment unit.
The blond inside the unit exited with the brunette girl carrying her in his arms. Tifa went around the back and entered the cell to awaken the sleeping denizens of the containment cell. She shook some awake while using a Heal materia on the ones in a more stubborn state of slumber.
They looked disorientated, all of them; even looking around at the other occupants of the cell they still had looks of questioning confusion on their faces.
"Why are they confused?" Cloud asked the assistant.
The man cleaned his throat before answering. "It is possible that they do not remember anything, I believe it is only temporary however. It is expected since their brains have not been in use for several centuries. It's like trying to relearn something you knew. It'll take some time but it is highly probable that they will have full access to their memories in 24 hours; possibly even faster since they have each other to help remind them of who they are."
"Barret, go over to Aerith's cell and press the green button…it is the green button that opens up the cell isn't it?"
"Yes," the assistant said.
Barret walked to the panel by the smaller cell and hit the green button.
The cell holding Aerith opened as well and Barret ran over to help her up.
"Good, now where did you send the blue one?" Cloud demanded.
"It was sent up to the 68th floor,"
"Why?"
"I don't know! For experiments probably! I just do as I'm told!" protested the lab assistant.
"Alright, since you're of no more use to us…" Cloud said.
The man's eye widened. "No! Don't kill me! Please!"
Cloud smirked and nodded to Barret.
"Lights out sucka!" The large man exclaimed, bringing his gun arm smashing across the back of the man's skull with a sickening crack.
"You read my mind," Cloud said shooting a lopsided grin at his friend.
"He isn't dead…is he?" Tifa asked tentatively.
"Nope, still breathing," Barret motioned to the slow rise of the unconscious man's chest. "Just out cold."
"Alright, do any of you remember a large, blue man with a beast-like face?" Cloud asked, turning to the recently freed captives, not knowing how better to describe the blue individual.
Most of them shook their heads, while the brown haired girl looked at the floor pensively before replying: "Very vaguely…images of him flash in my mind, but I can't remember him…I can't remember anything really," she finished, sounding miserable upon coming to self-realization.
"Alright, Tifa and I will rescue him. Barret, escort everyone outside and wait for us." Cloud informed the group of his plan.
"Wait," the blond haired man from the containment cell called, his voice cracking from being unused for so long, "Let me help."
"Fine," Cloud agreed hurriedly. "Tifa equip a Steal materia. We'll get him a weapon on the way."
The three AVALANCHE members escorted the group of recently freed captives to the staircase.
Peeking around the corner Cloud spotted two guards with their backs to them. He nodded to Tifa and they sprang out at the ShinRa patrol. Tifa swiped the first guard's word while Cloud knocked the other on out with the butt end of his weapon. She dealt with the remaining guard, KO'ing him with one swift punch to the jaw.
"Good. Barret, take them to the elevator on the floor below and get them out. I don't imagine they would fancy climbing those stairs." Cloud directed.
Tossing the stolen Hardedge to the unarmed blond, Tifa said, "You, come with us."
The blond nodded, his blue eyes coming alive as he clutched the sword with an air of trained familiarity.
"It might take awhile to get used to this again," his rasp voice pondered.
"Now we get Hojo," Cloud motioned for them to turn back to the area they just vacated.
They silently made their way back into the section with all the chambers and waited in front of the service elevator in the corner of the room.
"Get ready for a fight guys," Tifa braced the others.
The doors clinked open as they stepped on the platform. Pressing the button to go up, the elevator began to move and every body in the small, confined space tensed. Cloud brought his hand up to loosely grip the handle of his sword resting its sheath on his back, Tifa tightened her gloves and the mysterious blond had his sword free at his side, not having a place to stow it.
The elevator stopped moving and the door opened, admitting them onto the 68th floor.
Bright light flooded the lab area. The two coloured creatures were incapacitated and strapped down onto separate tables. Hojo was removing a syringe from the orange beast, filled with liquid and placed it next to another needle also full of some fluid substance.
Hojo emptied the contents of the needles into separate Petri dishes. He walked over to the cylinder in the centre of the room and placed the two dishes in the corresponding slot.
"Hojo!" Cloud cried, "What are you doing with these creatures!?"
"Outsiders!" Hojo stumbled back in surprise. "No matter. Begin the process!" He yelled at his assistant on the raised platform of the floor who activated the machine.
"Taking the DNA from both beings I shall combine them to create a greater entity!" Hojo cackled.
"Release them now!"
"I have no need for them anymore, take them if you want. But you won't get far!" The senile doctor skedaddled out of the room after finishing the last word of his sentence.
Cloud rushed forward and relieved the blue creature of its bindings and paused a moment to contemplate the hostility of the orange being.
To Cloud's astonishment, it spoke to him. "Please release me as well. I shall not harm you. In turn I will help you fight Hojo's monster."
Without another moment's hesitation Cloud cut the straps holding down the orange organism.
"What's your name?"
"Hojo has named me Red XIII, but let us skip the formalities for the time being."
It jumped off the table it was being held on and turned to the chamber glowing with blinding white light.
Not a second later, the doors opened and a blue and orange blur shot out. Hojo's creation was something of a cross between the blue and orange beasts, except twice the size of Red XIII. It was down on all fours, its face was shaped similar to the blue beast man's but where he was missing his horn, Hojo's creation had a silver tusk growing out of its head. It had two teeth jutting out of its mouth like that of a sabre toothed tiger's and its eyes were am unnatural glowing pink. It had a mane around its head of orange, red and yellow hair that travelled down all along its back. The orange hair lined the underside of its body and the rear side of its haunches. All of its fur was blue up until its tail tip that was alit in orange and blue flames.
The blue lion-tiger roared at its five opponents.
The two beasts who's DNA was used to create this monster stood side by side. The tall blue one ripped a long steel bar off of a railing it stood beside.
"Shall we destroy this disgusting offspring?" the orange creature growled.
"This abomination is no offspring of mine."
The two sword wielding blonds stood on either side of the Tifa as they got into their battles stances.
Red XIII and the blue, bar brandishing creature attacked first. Hojo's abomination struck out at the two legged creature that blocked the attack by ramming his bar in between its teeth.
Red XIII bit down on the rear of the blue lion-tiger. Throwing off Red, the offspring countered on the orange creature and struck him across the shoulder with its claws. A bar came down on the head of the offspring stunning the creature.
The abomination turned and a ball of fire erupted out of its mouth shooting towards the trio of humans. Jumping out of the way, the humans rolled and charged the offending creature.
Cloud pulled his sword across the creatures face while the other blond swiped at its left front leg. Tifa smashed her hand straight into its face causing the creature to howl in pain. Recovering from her attack, the abomination dashed forward bowling over Tifa and stopping with its face above her.
It raised its mouth open to swallow her head whole and as its jaws neared her face the bar came forth and was rammed down the abomination's throat, halting its progress forward as it went rigid from the neck up.
A guttural roar sounded from its mouth as it was bathed in pain. Seizing the opportunity Cloud heaved his sword into the monster's side blood circling the hilt of the weapon. His blond counterpart stuck his blade into the other side of the creature. Red XIII sunk his fangs into the creature's tail and yanked it clean off its body as blood covered sinew followed the dismembered appendage. Being impaled three ways, and its rear gushing blood the abomination shivered and collapsed onto the floor right before a shaken Tifa scurried out from below the creature seconds prior to its demise.
Cloud pulled his blade out of the felled beast and the unnamed blond imitated his motion. Cloud picked up a yellow Command materia the offspring dropped before hurrying out of the area, the five combatants climbed up to the elevated area of the level and intimidated the assistant to give them his card key. Rushing out of the area they hastened to get to level 66 to use the elevators to escape the building and join up with Barret and the Ancients.
AN: Did you guys like the fight scene? If you're having problems visualizing the Nanaki/Kimahri genetic offspring or if you're just curious, I drew a picture of what I imagined it to be. Its on my deviantart page if you want to see it.
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