Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. I depend on my daughter, Angeal Valentine, and on Bjanik for all my information on the subject.
A/N—When I wrote "A Belated Wedding Gift," I did it as background to explore how Shinra took over the world. When it was done, I debated whether it was a stand-alone piece or whether to make it another chapter of "Part II." I decided it didn't advance the overall story, and therefore I pushed it off to the side. When I got to "New Banora," however, I suddenly found the connection. It's in the character of Lynette Hiland, a woman who's never left the island of Mideel! Interesting how these things work out. I suppose I should go back and re-merge "Belated" into the main story between chapters 3 and 4 (along with "Sweaty Yoga: Part II," between chapters 2 and 3), but I think I'll leave things the way they are…
It's still the fifth day of Tessa's confinement, and the twenty-second week, fifth day of her pregnancy. It's just an hour later than where we left off in Chapter 15, but we're now near Mideel with Reno and Rude…
(5 pm – 7 pm, Mideel; 3 pm – 5 pm, Midgar; 11 am – 1 pm, Gongaga; 7 am – 9 am, Wutai)
Reno was back on the boat. The whole world was rocking, again. "Damn, I hate ships," he thought.
"Wake up, partner!" He felt himself shaken roughly.
"Hn? What? What's going on?" Reno located the floor, and then Rude's face swam into view.
"Come on, stand up!" Rude hauled Reno to his feet. How Rude did that one-handed, Reno wasn't sure. As he glanced around, he could see that he and Rude were in a small metal room with a metal door and a tiny grid at eye level. There were no windows and only one small vent high in the wall opposite the door, certainly too small to crawl through.
"How long were we out, yo?"
"Not sure, but I think they stuck us with something. I kinda remember bathroom breaks, but, judging by how you smell, I'd say we've been out at least a couple of days, maybe even three or four." Rude glanced at a corner of the metal room. He'd just bet there was a camera up there, and they'd soon have company. Listening carefully, he heard it. "Hear that?"
"Yeah."
In the distance the pair could hear footsteps moving closer, almost in step, then the faint sound of tumblers turning in the lock in the door. A quick glance at their outfits told Reno that all their pockets, and Rude's left sleeve, had been emptied—only one way out then, with only their wits and bodies as tools. Fine.
"Well, Mr. Lowell… I must say, I liked you better with hair." A young woman with long strawberry-blond hair, curled at its tips just at bottoms of her shoulder blades, entered the metal room with four burly black-clad men behind her. Rude remembered her vaguely as Lynette Hiland's secretary. His eyes narrowed. He and Reno might be able to take on five opponents, but then again, they might just learn something if they went along with their captors for the moment. After all the Apple Townians hadn't yet tried to kill them. Then too, there was that camera watching… He glanced at Reno. The ever inquisitive Reno would go along with this, for the moment. "And just who is your friend?"
"I am Reynold Sinclair." Reno slid right into one of his aliases, flashed the woman one of his charming smiles, and extended his hand. "And who are you, my dear?"
"Oh no, Mr. Sinclair." She stepped aside. "Bind his hands and arms, and tie down Mr. Lowell's arm and sleeve to his side. You're both coming with me." She turned, "this way…"
Ccccccccccccccc
As they walked, Reno kept on charming her, and the woman kept putting him off, but both Turks could see that occasionally her lips pressed together as if stifling a smile. Rude decided she might be interested in Reno, but his partner was trying just a little too hard. Or perhaps she was enjoying his game. Rude instead kept a watchful eye out for his surroundings and the directions they took. The whole area seemed dark and underground, mainly made of concrete with large corridors and widely-spaced doors labeled with things like "John III" and "William IV" and "Cynthia II" then later many rooms marked with numbered "G"s and "A"s. In their turns and twists Rude saw no stairways that lead up. Not good. Keep going…
Finally the corridor opened up, and they found themselves on a landing above a shimmering mako pool, several times larger than the Nibelheim reactor pool, with lots of plumbing all around. The pool looked natural—as if the Apple Townians had taken over a cavern and turned it into their headquarters. Couldn't be a reactor, though, Mideel was unstable. A reactor would sink the island—at least that was the conventional wisdom. A small reactor, just big enough to power this place, might be possible, though. Their guide turned right, and on their right they saw a large window that overlooked the landing and the pool. Lynette Hiland stood looking down through the window then looked up as she saw the group approaching, clearly expecting them. She came out to meet them.
"Mr. Lowell? Why hair? You are much more interesting looking this way." Rude felt an elbow in his ribs from Reno. "Who are you really? That one couldn't possibly be a lawyer," indicating Reno. Reno grinned. "See?... Oh yes. This is yours." She raised her hand that Rude now saw held his "law firm's" envelope. She folded it neatly in half and placed it in one of the pockets on his chest. "Londo owed me so much more than money. I won't take just that from Shinra."
"Owed you? What did he owe you, Ms. Hiland?" Gently, Rude thought. She seemed to want to say something.
"His family owes me my life back. My family back… A lifetime of happiness."
"His family? I'm sorry. I don't understand."
"You want an explanation… a story… I'm afraid," she paused, "it's pure soap opera… Old Lucius Shinra forbade Londo to marry me. Said he would disown Londo if he did." She turned and walked away to place her hands on the landing's railing. She sighed, clearly seeing a time long past rather than the mako pool below her. "Londo was an engineer, scouting sites for mako reactors, when I met him in Mideel. Back then, he was young, brilliant, handsome, yes, and rich too. Everything a girl fresh from the country would dream of. Knowing the area surrounding Mideel, I showed him around. Suddenly I was in love with him, and he said he loved me as well. When I found I was pregnant, he asked me to marry him. When he contacted his family to let them know, however, his father let him know, in no uncertain terms, that he was not to marry me. Lucius wanted to strengthen his ties with the old landed gentry around Midgar. Seems they saw the Shinras as 'gauche, nouveau riche.' Lucius was looking for a marriage for Londo among them… a 'von Trott' perhaps… I was never clear on whom… Londo wouldn't publicly defy his father, so we married in secret. Then he went back to Midgar.
"When his father died, Londo didn't send for me and Gillian though he sent money regularly. It was years later, after he married in Midgar, that I finally heard from him again. He came back to Banora with a man named Vester Hollander in tow, but he wanted Gillian. Said he would give me five percent of Shinra, if Gillian would marry Hollander. I didn't want money—I'd only ever wanted him—so he stayed, and sweet Gillian married Vester Hollander…"
"Bastard… You know he had another son, outside his marriage, in addition to Rufus?"
"Oh yes. Londo told me—Lazard, who died last year. Hollander experimented on him too. We were all Londo's property. We are what he made us… What Lucius made us, I suppose, in the end…"
"'Experimented on'?"
"Yes." Lynette Hiland turned, faced the Turks, and laid her forearm on the railing. "Londo wanted something he called super-Soldiers to increase the power of Shinra. Soon after Gillian married him, Hollander started injecting her with mako and something he called 'Jenova' that he'd gotten from some other part of Shinra. He also added Jenova and mako to her fertilized eggs then implanted them in the wife of the mayor of Banora. One survived and grew into Genesis Rhapsodos. Gillian's baby was my sweet grandson, Angeal. Soon after Angeal was born, Gillian had had enough of Hollander and remarried. It was all right. Londo had already got what he wanted.
"Both boys were outstanding physically, and Hollander and Londo influenced them to become Soldiers. Hollander even developed clones of the boys—trying to improve on their traits, I suppose… Anyway, the day came when the experiments got out of hand, and even Londo could see it had to end. But in the process, he destroyed Gillian… the entire town… and nearly our relationship."
"You took him back?! After all that? Are you crazy?!" Rude was incredulous.
"Perhaps..." She looked rather sad. "Anyway, Londo tried to give me some of my life back. He had Hollander clone everyone I held dear from wherever he could get the genetic material. In a way, I had my life back. So now I'm surrounded by William Rhapsodos's and Shara Klingmans' and even Randall Hewleys'—most of the town of Banora, in fact. Even Genesis Rhapsodos's… and especially Angeal Hewleys'…" her voice trailed off, and she raised her head and looked into the shadows on the far side of the landing. "Isn't that right, dear?"
"Yes, exactly." A tall, broad-shouldered, very thick-muscled man with black slicked-back hair and two long bangs stepped from the shadows to take her hand. "Grandmother." The Turks looked at each other. Angeal Hewley. Couldn't be the real one, though. Tseng said Hewley was dead—killed by Zack Fair. Where was a First Class Soldier when you needed one?
"Now, now. Haven't we given you everything you wanted that it was in our power to give?" from behind them came another voice. The Turks turned. A slightly shorter, slimmer, bronze-haired man in a red coat with a sword protruding above his shoulder walked from the tunnel followed by a middle-aged, bearded man in a lab coat—Genesis Rhapsodos and Vester Hollander. Rude could feel a bit of sweat trickle down his back at the sound. If it were the real Rhapsodos, he might recognize them.
"Yes, and I'm sure you'll give me all the rest of it too."
"Dear Lynette, wherever did you get the Turks?"
"Gracious, then that is what these two are? We caught them snooping around on the surface."
"Hm. Contact Hutchins in Mideel about these two. I suggest you take some samples from them, then send them to disposal." Rhapsodos dismissed the Turks without a second glance. "Lynette, I have wonderful news for you. We have a guest on the way who may well solve all our problems."
Lynette Hiland looked at Rhapsodos curiously. "Hm. All right." She glanced at her secretary and the black-clad men still standing around. "Vanessa, take these two to the sample preparation room." She paused and linked her arm through Rhapsodos', gazed happily into his eyes, then said almost as an afterthought, "Hollander, I assume you'll be going with them." Reno thought he caught a flush of anger from Hollander at her words.
"Yes, of course." Hollander mumbled then shuffled away.
As the two Turks were lead away, they listened intently to the fading conversation behind them.
"So tell me about this guest!" Lynette Hiland and Genesis Rhapsodos were happily strolling about the landing.
"It's someone carrying Jenova tissue! Would you believe that Sephiroth is married, and his wife is five months pregnant! Our people in Midgar have acquired her, and she should be here shortly!"
"Oh, I don't believe it! I thought Sephiroth was sterile!"
Rude and Reno looked at each other. Tessa!
cccccccccccccc
"Mr. Sinclair, just what were Turks doing in Banora, anyway?" The strawberry-blond Vanessa had resumed her conversation with Reno.
"Why, looking for you, my dear." Rude was sure Reno would have reached out and taken her hand to kiss it even under these threatening circumstances—if his hands hadn't been tied, that is.
"Why, what a nice thing to say, Mr. Sinclair. I can't wait for you to meet my sisters."
"You have sisters?! And are they all as lovely as you?" Rude rolled his eyes.
"Why, yes, as a matter of fact. They're all identical to me. They'll just eat you up!" she smirked.
They followed Hollander into a room marked "Sample Preparation" that turned out to be a laboratory filled with tables, some with manacles attached to them, and many tubes, some occupied. Several young, lab-coated women looked up from their work at the benches. Reno instantly noticed that their hair, while in many different styles, was all strawberry blond.
"Your 'sisters' by any chance?"
"Yes, indeed, they are. Vanessas," she called, "come meet Mr. Sinclair," she pointed to Reno, "and Mr. Lowell," pointing to Rude. The young women looked mesmerized by the men's presence. Reno could hear the words "new" and "real" being mumbled by the women as they walked over to the men, reaching out to touch them. The original Vanessa turned to leave, though she didn't take her bodyguards with her. "Have fun!" Rude wasn't sure whether she meant Reno or the women.
Reno stopped short. "Pinch me," he whispered to Rude. "I think I'm dead and in the Lifestream!"
"Now stop that!" Hollander interposed his body and blocked the Vanessas. "Get back to your work!"
"Ah, darn." The disappointed women turned away.
"Clones. They're always so very interested in normal humans—particularly humans of the opposite sex. Especially, the Vanessas… and so like the original in that regard." Hollander sneered. He turned to the Turks. "In New Banora they don't see many regular people. Being genetically identical themselves, they tend to wonder about genetic combinations with normal humans..."
"Excuse me." Reno stepped in front of Hollander as he moved to a bench standing alone to one side of the room. "I thought cloning was a haphazard, one-chance-in-ten sort of operation. Yet there are, what, ten Vanessas in this room?"
"You want an explanation?!" Hollander looked as though an experimental worm had sat up and started talking. "Oh all right. Since you're leaving us shortly, I'll explain… If you're used to Hojo's form of cloning, you're right. One-in-ten odds on getting a viable clone were as good as that quack ever got. Called himself a 'professor' and even 'doctor.' Of what? Did no one ever check his references?! Apparently not! Then he had the gall…"
"Doctor, please, you were saying…" Reno interrupted the rant.
"What? Oh? Oh yes… With my cloning techniques, I achieve about a one-in-three chance of viability. With that many clones, you begin to detect generalities in their characteristics and personalities. Some of the personality traits and memories of the original enter the clones—not surprising, especially if the original is dead. Pieces of the original's personality divide from the Lifestream and enter the clones. Their physical abilities vary—some are clumsy, some are especially skilled but strangely vulnerable. Only very rarely are the copies as capable as the originals in physical characteristics. Also, Hojo was a cretin. He could speed growth to only about double the normal rate. I can speed growth at twenty times normal. The young women you see here are only about a year old. They're very curious—in a childish sort of way…"
A Vanessa with pigtails high on both sides of her head approached Rude and felt his empty sleeve, "Why don't you have an arm?"
"See what I mean?" Hollander sneered. "Get back to work!" he shouted at her.
The Vanessa pouted, flounced away with her pigtails bouncing, and joined several of her "sisters." In a minute the group was back, surrounding Hollander. "We want to play!" they demanded of the scientist.
Hollander rolled his eyes, "Oh all right—but hurry! I need to run these two through disposal shortly."
"Yay!" a general cheer went up from the Vanessas. All the clones in the room surrounded the Turks and began pulling on the ropes binding them.
"Not in here! Through there!" Hollander pointed imperiously to a door on the other side of the room, and the women dragged their captives behind them. Hollander shook his head in disgust, "Clones!"
Cccccccccccccc
In the back room, a large store room filled with boxes, Rude spotted it immediately—a vent big enough to crawl through—and Reno saw it too. A glance of agreement passed between them.
"Ladies! Would any of you be willing to help me out of these ropes? We could play a game then? No? Well then, how about helping me out of my shoes?" Rude had no idea what Reno was up to, but he welcomed the distraction. Rude headed in the direction of the vent. The clone that had asked about his arm followed him.
"What are you doing?" Pigtails asked.
Rude thought fast. If the clones were as immature as Hollander indicated, they might like to play with blocks. "Would you like to help me? I'm going to move some boxes around."
"OK!"
Rude pushed three boxes together with his feet and legs then indicated a fourth with his chin, "Could you lift this one for me? Then put it right here, say?"
"Sure!" Pigtails placed the box where Rude indicated—on top the three he had previously arranged.
"Let's move this one next."
"OK!" Gradually they built a tower of boxes toward the vent, Rude supervising and the clone lifting.
"I know your name is Vanessa, but do you have a separate name?"
"I'm Vanessa #7."
Rude surveyed their structure with satisfaction; now to ditch his helper and get out. "Well then, Vanessa-7. Shall we join your sisters for a few minutes and see what they're up to?" They returned to Reno's group. It seemed Reno had worked his feet up under the ropes and was gradually loosening them and teasing the clones at the same time. Seeing that Rude had finished his building project, Reno launched into a new spiel.
"Now, ladies, would you like to learn a game? It's called 'rock, paper, scissors'!" Oohs and aahs erupted from the clones. They seemed not to notice that Reno was now using his hands freely to show them the motions for the game. Within minutes, all the Vanessas were playing. "Have you kept score? No?" Reno smiled, "well then, we'll need a pen and paper! Does anyone have any?" Several of the clones had pens and notepads. Reno helped them keep score. He occasionally pointed to a paper with one hand, untied Rude with the other, and passed him pens.
Rude climbed up to the vent. In his building operation, Rude had included a wall of boxes to block the vent from the clones' view on the floor. He didn't have long, but he should be able to get the grate off the wall with the use of the pens—even one-handed. Rude smirked. He had spent hours on end in the gym in order to strengthen his right hand and arm until they had become extremely strong. Reno, on the other hand, had moved on to the intricacies of "tick, tack, toe" with the entranced Vanessas—scorekeeping it as well. With the pens and nubs of his fingernails, Rude was able to unscrew four screws from the wall. Bits of cement were beginning to chip about the edge of the grate. Just as long as no one coughed, it should be okay. Rude stifled a sneeze—he expected the top of his head to blow off. Prizing his fingers under the edges, first top then bottom, and repeating several times, Rude levered the grate away from the wall. Just as it was about to come out, Rude jammed it with his head and shoulder to keep it from falling to the floor. Rude looked down from his box tower to see Reno with one eye on him and the other on his "tick, tack, toe" class.
"Ladies, now for another game! Hangman!"
"Ooh!"
Ten minutes later the pair was crawling through the ventilation shaft. Rude didn't see Vanessa-7 pouting at his disappearing feet nor at the grate as Reno fitted it behind them into the wall.
Ccccccccccccccccccc
(7 am, Wutai; 11 am, Gongaga; 5 pm, Mideel; 3 pm, Midgar; 2 pm, Junon)
Colonel Carlos Griegos breathed a huge sigh of relief. His team was safe inside their tunnels and on their way back to the besieged base, with their prisoners. He was truly looking forward to reporting to General Sephiroth on the complete success of his mission. He glanced at his watch—one hour until his next scheduled update…
Ccccccccccccccccccc
(11 am, Gongaga; 7 am, Wutai; 5 pm, Mideel; 3 pm, Midgar; 2 pm, Junon)
Of the six reactors at Reactor 20, only one produced materia. The other five were strictly power generators. Nathan sighed. He'd at least learned that much about Reactor 20 in his hour-long quest to produce healing materia. He stood with Bilson at the door of the #6 materia-producing reactor building, looked inside, and tried to decide what was what and where to start. The "materia reactor" used the power produced by the #6 reactor to compress mako into materia within a pressure-cooker-like "reaction chamber." The type of materia you got depended in large measure on pure luck, although capturing an entity within compressed red materia was a rare feat. While the power reactors were offline to the outside world, they hadn't been turned off, only turned down. All right, start with turning the power up.
"That has to be the pressure chamber over there," Nathan mumbled then pointed at a kettle-like structure with one enormous pipe running through the middle of it to supply mako on the far side of the room. "That thing's the size of a small car."
"Guess so. You sure you want to do this?" Bilson questioned.
"I don't really have a choice, do I? Are you ready?"
"No, but you're going to do this anyway."
The two Soldiers worked their way between pipes and equipment stands to approach a slanted, waist-level counter covered in knobs and dials and indicator needles near the pressure chamber. Nathan checked the indicators to determine the current pressure and volume of mako inside the chamber and the current electrical power input level. From what he could tell, power input was minimal. He laid his hand on one of the control knobs and turned it slightly to increase the power input when a voice rang out.
"What in the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Nathan smiled. There was one at every equipment-heavy facility on Gaia. The head technician, that guardian of technological equipment everywhere, had appeared…
Cccccccccccccccc
(2 pm, Junon; 3 pm, Midgar; 5 pm, Mideel; 11 am, Gongaga; 7 am, Wutai)
"What in the hell…! &(#)(&#)&!(W#!!" Cid Highwind, eloquent as ever, had just read the instructions handed to him from his new boss, Reeve Tuesti, and stared open-mouthed at his passengers. "SHIT FIRE!! Sher-ra!! Get the tanker to back off just as soon as they're done refueling us! Close up the hatches, people! We are going to goddamn Mideel! I'm taking the fuckin' wheel!"
A/N—I wanted to thank Bjanik for her wonderful detailed discussion of story elements in fanfiction. Just because we've not seen pigs or ponies on Gaia doesn't mean they don't exist. After all, maybe that's where Griegos' team was hiding out last week (e.g., in a pigsty rather than a chocobo barn) as they evaded patrols, peasants, and "cows." Thank you, everyone, for reading!