Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. I depend on my daughter, Angeal Valentine (the author formerly known as xXxValentinexXx), and on Bjanik for all my information on the subject.
A/N—Remember when I said I'd had to put time zones on a map of Gaia? This chapter is the reason why. It's a mish-mash of events happening simultaneously around the world. For those of you obsessed with time (like me), it's still the same day on which Tessa woke up from the operation and entered the tube—the twenty-second week, first day of her pregnancy. It's 9:00 pm in Mideel, two time zones ahead of Midgar where it's 7:00 pm, and 3:00 pm in Gongaga. I suppose somewhere there's an official time zone map of Gaia, but Angeal Valentine had never seen one, so I made it up myself. I apologize if this bothers you, but it helps me keep straight what's going on where and who knew what when…
"Would you look at that! Young apple trees! What the hell else did we expect?" Reno and Rude, clothed in uncharacteristic black outfits laden with pockets, lay hidden on top of a low hill off the main road from Mideel. After hiding their small security-division car they had walked the last half mile toward the approximate location of Banora to reach their current position.
"Yeah, but look over there!" Rude lowered his night-vision goggles and pointed toward the north where a faint glow could occasionally be seen through the apple leaves blowing in the breeze.
"You suppose that might be what we're looking for, yo?"
Rude shrugged. "Don't know… Nothing else here, though. Let's check it out."
Sticking to the deeper shadows of the trees, the pair made their way toward the glow. What they found was a light attached to a low cement structure with a nearby red-lettered sign on a pole reading "Irrigation Well #3."
"Great. Now what?" Reno flopped down onto the cement slap, his pony tail bouncing in disgust.
"Have you seen any rubble, burned branches, that sort of thing?"
"No, but if they used incendiaries like the old lady said, then you wouldn't expect much of anything to be left at all."
Rude shook his head. "Other than trees, and this well, there doesn't seem to be much… Wait a minute. Why is there a well here for 'irrigation'? How much rainfall does this area get anyway? Why would the Apple Townians need to irrigate at all?"
"I don't know. Maybe it doesn't rain enough all the time? They are pretty nuts about their apples after all.
Rude sat next to his partner on the cement slab then popped to his feet. "What the…?!"
"What? Something bite you?" Reno sneered.
"Sat on something!" Rude reached into one of the pockets of the black night suit and pulled out a tiny flashlight. "Hey, look at this! It's a plaque or something." Rude read the inscription aloud:
On this site – the home of John Samuel Klingman and Shara White Klingman
Reno looked around, "Yeah, and over here on the ground."
On this site – the home of William Clyde Rhapsodos, Mayor of Banora, and Cynthia Lancaster Rhapsodos
"Wait! 'Rhapsodos'? As in 'Genesis Rhapsodos'?" Reno looked startled.
"Yeah, I think so. I think we found Banora. Look over there." Rude pointed to the east where a granite monument slab stood upright amid the trees about a hundred yards away. The pair walked over and turned their lights on the slab.
IN MEMORY OF THE TOWN OF BANORA –
Wiped from the face of Gaia by Shinra.
Remember and weep.
Erected by the Apple Town Foundation.
On this site – Banora Park and Playground
"Hm." Backing away, Reno caught his heel on something on the ground and sat hard on his backside. "Damn root!"
"No. Look at this." Rude was shining his light on another of the bronze plaques at Reno's feet.
On this site – the home of Randall Clark Hewley and Gillian Hiland Hollander Hewley
"'Hiland Hollander Hewley'? How 'aychy' can you get, yo?!"
"That's 'alliterative,' you idiot… Yeah, but remember Lynette Hiland had a daughter and a grandson. Gillian Hiland married Vester Hollander?! And her son was Angeal Hewley?! Yeah. Just like Sephiroth was supposed to be the son of Hojo. You suppose Hojo got the idea from Hollander?"
"As long as we're supposing, try this one. 'Dear Londo' had been here a long time according to the old lady. You suppose he might just have been Gillian Hiland's father?"
"I think that's enough speculation, gentlemen." A black-clad Lynette Hiland stepped from the trees with a gun in her hand. Surrounding the two Turks were a dozen other black-clad, gun-carrying figures. The Turks slowly raised their hands in the air.
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Outside Reactor 20 in the swamps near Gongaga, Marcus swung his claymore in the downward beheading stroke that seemed to work best on these monsters. Another one down—and probably six more to replace it. It seemed as though they'd been hacking and casting for hours. He cast a shield to give himself a breather, leaning over with his hands on his knees, when his long-time partner and fellow first class, Nathan, joined him under the shield.
"This… is getting old fast, Marcus." Nathan was breathing hard too. "Any word… on the reinforcements… you requested?"
Marcus nodded curtly, "Zack says… the General approved Britton and Alars… with three more Soldiers and twenty grunts… but they can't be here before tomorrow noon."
"Damn… Bilson says he's lost five of the grunts badly wounded… That's nearly half the regular army guys out of action."
"Bilson have any recommendations?... After all, he's at least been here before."
"Yeah, get the hell out."
"As if that's gonna happen."
"Yeah, and he knows it too. His other suggestion, and I concur, is that we pull back into the reactor, rest a bit, and reload on materia… The monsters haven't been able to get inside the reactor's ring wall, it's just isolated from the rest of the world."
"All right… we pull back. Pass the word. You and I'll hang back as rearguard. Have Bilson get the others inside."
"Done," and Nathan left the protection of the shield in the direction of Bilson. Marcus instantly was back in the fight with a downward stab into a monster's shoulder, hopefully at its heart, wherever Gaia may have put that, then pulling back with a cut across its hamstrings laming the creature. It screamed in pain and headed away from Marcus. Between Marcus and the reactor wall he could hear regular army troops moving toward the reactor gate. "Come on, come on, come on. Move it!" He thought at the troops then Nathan was slashing at his side again.
"Bilson reports everyone's inside!"
"Great. Move back slow-ly…" Suddenly behind them the gates crashed shut. Both First Class Soldiers looked behind them in surprise.
"That's far enough, Marcus… Nattie boy!"
"What?!" Suddenly from the direction of the jungle, ghosts from the Soldiers' past stepped from the swamp.
"Matthews, Connors, Rodriguez! You're dead!! What the hell are you doing here?"
"You'll wish we were dead in a few minutes, Marcus. General Rhapsodos got us out of Shinra, and now we're taking care of Shinra together!" Carl Matthews swaggered forward. Matthews as a tall, thickly built bully with thinning brown hair. Sephiroth had beat him into submission on a half dozen occasions—not one of those lessons seemed to have stuck. All three men had been second classes and members of Squad 14 supposedly lost along with Rhapsodos on patrol in Wutai.
"Genesis always was a self-promoting bastard." Marcus glanced at Nathan and saw the flush on his cheeks. He knew he had to get Nathan to cool off—Nathan might lose his head in any fight against the taunting Matthews—the two had hated each other ever since they were cadets together. He stepped in next to Nathan and whispered, "Remember, if the enemy taunts you, they're really afraid of you." He caught Nathan's startled expression from the corner of his eye. Taking a step closer to Matthews and readying his sword, Marcus said aloud, "So you're here to take us on when we have more Soldiers and grunts in the reactor."
Matthews laughed humorously. "Do you really have more men inside? Checked with Bilson lately?"
Marcus raised his head, and Matthews could see a hint of alarm on his face. "Nathan, check on it."
Nathan raised his PHS, "Bilson, everything okay in there?"
The reply came back, "Sorry, Nathan, we got inside, and the reactor people all had automatic weapons pointed at us. We didn't see them until it was too late… Ugh..." and the line went dead.
"No help, is there, Nattie?"
Nathan glared, "He's right, Marcus… Guess we'll just have to fight it out."
"You really gonna do that, Marcus? You were always a good commander, and now your men are prisoners in the hands of the reactor personnel. Unless you surrender, they're dead."
Marcus didn't like it, but he shrugged, "We're all dead anyway, aren't we, Carl? They're gonna shoot us from the walls, aren't they? Might as well fight it out then."
"I am so glad you said that!" Matthews waved his hand in a brushing gesture, and Rodriguez moved to the side to give the two men fighting room. Before they could engage, however, Nathan rushed Connors with a cut running from his left hip to his right shoulder. Connors was able to partially pass the swing, but the attack drew blood all along his torso. Nathan then kicked Connors away and turned to join Marcus in the fight against Matthews who was blocking Rodriguez from engaging.
Marcus knew he and Nathan had to take Matthews out fast, but they also had to stay close to their attackers or else the reactor people would be shooting at them. But doing something surprising might also keep them from being shot for a few seconds, too. Marcus turned and ran up the reactor wall then back-flipped behind Matthews. As Matthews looked up, Nathan nearly cut him in half then stabbed straight back to catch Connors in the stomach. Nathan then turned his sword ninety degrees and slashed sideways to rip out Connors' intestines. Messy, but effective. Two down. Both turned to Rodriguez who had his hands in the air.
"Stop right there!" a voice from the lookout post near the top of the gate called out. "We'll kill you before you can get to him!" Looking up, Marcus saw there were at least a dozen automatic weapons trained on them.
Standing up straighter, Marcus turned slowly to Nathan. "Remember Bilson's earlier advice?" Nathan smirked. "Now!" and the two First Class Soldiers ran for the jungle, precog at full alert, dodging the surprised hale of bullets streaking about them.
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Tessa stopped listening to the voices that were always there in her subconscious. They were often louder when she slept deeply. She had been listening to a voice droning on about the synthesis of nanotube carbon fibers – an old professor from her university days. Before that a brew master had described the production of single malt scotches and be-cried the tendency of some people to blend them together. Before that she had made another review of her husband's genetic code with its quintuplets. Now, however, a feeling was intruding, nudging out the voices. Tessa turned her attention away from the voices to the feeling—curiosity. A few small sparks of light were flitting about her. The feeling nudged her again. Curiosity. Something was curious about her.
"What? Who are you?"
Curiosity came again, and liking? The second feeling pushed in beside the first. It almost felt like a smile. Hm. Tessa smiled back. Then a third feeling… happiness… even love. More sparks flitted around Tessa. The sparks were more like butterflies than fire blown on the wind.
"Hello, there." She added affection to her mental voice. Tessa wondered briefly if this was what it was like for Sephiroth and Vincent in their mental conversations. The feelings she got back were warm, smiling, reaching for her. "Who are you?"
Uncertainty tinged the response.
"Where are you?"
Only the feelings of "here," "near," and reaching came through. A face—no two small faces—wavered before her eyes, dreamlike, one less substantial than the other—fine silver hair lofted above the foreheads of tiny, feminine faces. The sparks dripped off the ends of the hair. Tessa smiled and raised her hands toward the faces. She knew who they were. "Welcome."
The faces paused, studying her, then tentatively the corners of their mouths tilted upward, as if just learning how to smile. The faces' eyes were jade and cat-slitted, huge and unblinking.
Tessa raised a hand to touch the less substantial face, the spirit of the daughter they had lost, "Angel," and knew that Angel would always be part of her twin. Next she reached out to touch the more substantial face, "Lucrecia." She wrapped her dream arms around the two—faces had been joined by necks, shoulders, and bodies—and Tessa drew them to her. "I'm your mother, and I love you very much."
Tessa pictured her husband for the girls, striding toward them, his hair swaying behind him, also dripping sparks. She gave them her feelings for their father, "you look so much like him! I knew you would." Then she pictured for them other people who would be in their lives, Zack and Vincent, both of whom she was sure would do anything for them. Tiny sparks swirled from the girls toward the images Tessa made for them—the girls were reaching for these people as well. Tessa was surprised. She made a mental note to ask the men later if they had seen tiny faces in their dreams as well. "Time to sleep now, girls. Good night." The twins yawned and reached arms around each other. Tessa didn't care if this was just a dream—she drew the girls to her, nuzzling her cheek on the back of Lucy's head. "Only three and a half more months, and this will be real…"
A/N—Angeal Valentine was unhappy with me when she learned that Londo Shinra might be the father of Gillian Hewley in my story. That would make Rufus Shinra the step-uncle of Angeal Hewley—she insisted that was just too weird, too far a stretch from canon—but it seemed right to me. After all, this is fanfiction—there's not much fanfiction to be written if you stick strictly to canon, and I'm already a long way from canon.