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—For this chapter, and the next few chapters, we'll be "real time" in New Banora.
(8 p, Mideel; 6 p, Midgar; 2 p, Gongaga; 10 a, Wutai)
The view was spectacular. Tseng allowed himself one minute to admire it. His transports had put down on a landing strip atop a cliff that overlooked the sparkling waters of the corner of a bay. A tree-clad peninsula ran to the north while to the west the cliff ran down to sea level and a sandy beach. The sun was setting in a blaze of fire, and a cloud bank was rolling in from the west. A dark, overcast night was in the offing. For the moment, however, a crescent moon was rising in the east. Nearby a small house and an airship hangar also enjoyed the view. Tseng could see why the owner had chosen to live here. Across the clearing, two people walked toward him from the direction of the house. As the rotors of the transports slowed, a blue-suited man continued toward Tseng and extended his hand, a smile on his face. The other, a very tall young woman in black, hung back.
"Tseng, m'boy, it's good to see you!" Tseng shook Verdot's hand. Verdot had wavy, slicked-back brown hair, the waves revealing grey streaks. Verdot's brown eyes watched his former apprentice curiously for a moment. It had been a while since the two had seen each other. Verdot mentally reviewed Tseng's progress from awkward young immigrant when they first met, to harassed field commander attempting to control rowdy Turks, and finally to a serious, professional director.
"Master Verdot, you're looking well. Were you able to acquire transportation for us?"
"Straight to business—good… As to ground transportation—that was no problem at all. You will be reimbursing me, I assume."
Tseng laughed. Verdot had always been very careful of his pennies. Well, if it let him retire to a place such as this… "Yes, of course… When can we leave?"
"Mideel is about an hour's drive from here, and Banora about fifteen minutes beyond that. I'd like to avoid Mideel, however, and that will add time. I suggest we head out in about an hour."
Tseng glanced at his watch. "Good. That will give us time to regroup. Can you feed this crew?"
Verdot nodded and waved a hand toward the hangar and the woman. "Let me introduce you."
Tseng followed Verdot toward the woman. He had noted she was tall and encased in black leather. Now he could tell that she had flawless alabaster skin, but he could tell little else about her. Her hair was pulled up under a kind of shapeless red hat, and her eyes were covered by very dark sunglasses. There was something vaguely familiar about her. Tseng couldn't put his finger on it, and that bothered him.
"Kamui, this is Commander Tseng, the man who succeeded me as the head of the Turks. I believe you spoke on the phone." Kamui, Tseng noted, had the grace to blush at the memory of that conversation. The red flush was an interesting contrast to the white of her skin. "Tseng, this is Kamui, my assistant, and, more importantly, my daughter."
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Tseng felt his jaw drop. Even with all his years of stone-faced training, he was still occasionally surprised. Including the addition of Dr. Caperton to his party, the abduction of Tessa Romera, and the bombing of Shinra, however, this made four surprises in twenty-four hours, and Tseng was finding the experience unacceptable. He had never expected to hear such an admission from Verdot. Verdot, a father? Tseng was reminded that he himself had hidden a son in the Slums. How Verdot had managed to hide a daughter from him, he couldn't fathom, however. After all, Verdot's daughter, Elfé, had died several years before.
"Don't worry. You're not losing your touch." Verdot assured him upon seeing Tseng's reaction. "I found Kamui wandering the Slums shortly before I left Shinra. About a year after coming here, I legally adopted her. She's more than my daughter; she's my assistant, and my protégé. Kamui, my dear, would you show the Turks to the hangar and the food?"
"You got it, boss." The woman turned toward the hangar.
"Spill. Why do you have a daughter, much less a protégé?"
Verdot shrugged. "I needed a new project, and she needed a father. It's as simple, and as complicated, as that. After this is over, however, I think it may be time for her to graduate. I may want her to go back to Midgar with you. She was rather ill earlier. I hope she'll be able to handle this evening."
"Hm… Well then, I look forward to getting to know her." Tseng turned toward his transport and the Turks passing on their way to the food. "Then, too, I would like you to meet my people, some of whom, of course, you'll remember."
Tseng quickly introduced his Turks, and Verdot mentally stored names and faces for future reference. Verdot gave a silent laugh at the sight of Rufus Shinra posing as a Turk ("Redson, indeed!"), and he noted a doctor, in addition to a medic, in the group as well. Verdot caught the look that passed over Tseng's face at the introduction of the pretty blond girl, Elena ("Hm. More future reference material."). As Verdot watched Tseng watch Elena walk away, a very quiet Turk approached from behind Verdot.
Vincent silently shifted his right hand into the shape of an imaginary gun and put his pointer finger to the small of Verdot's back. "If you value your life, don't turn around."
Verdot paused for only an instant, but his voice held a note of surprise. "If you wanted to kill me, I'd already be dead."
"If I wanted to kill you, you would already be defending yourself," Vincent felt the shadow of a smile cross his face as his best friend turned around. "It's been awhile."
"Too long, Vince," Verdot smiled warmly at his friend. The former director's eyes examined his friend's features. "You haven't aged a day?!"
Vincent felt a combination of guilt and sorrow wash over him. "We will have time for explanations later… I believe we are in the middle of a crisis."
Verdot nodded—he knew the gravity of the situation. "I'm holding you to that, Vince."
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"How are you feeling?" Dr. Caperton walked up to Vincent Valentine. Earlier the doctor had found nothing wrong with Valentine to explain his collapse on the airship.
"Fine." Vincent gritted his teeth. "Pain is pain. It can be controlled. Ignored." In truth, Chaos had stepped in to block the pain and confine it in some other part of Vincent's mind. It was still present and still worrying Vincent; however, he certainly didn't want to discuss his mako entities with Tessa's doctor.
"Hm."
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(9 pm, Mideel; 7 pm, Midgar; 3 pm, Gongaga; 11 am, Wutai)
Verdot had chosen a rather unique form of transportation for the Turks, Tseng decided. Three recreational vehicles left Verdot's isolated home and followed three different routes to Banora. Fifteen minutes later, three more RVs left and took those same three routes. Driving the RVs were Turk male and female couples dressed as tourists. Inside each RV were six additional Turks and their supplies hiding from prying eyes. None went via Mideel. Due to the scattering, it would take time to reassemble the group south of Banora.
"Tell me again who it was you sent to Banora?" Verdot questioned Tseng. They rode in the back of an RV driven by Jayna's partner, Richard, with Jayna in obvious proximity. The couple looked a bit bleary-eyed, as if they were tourists in need of an RV park. Elena sat near her sister but out of sight like Tseng, Verdot, Valentine, Redson, and Verdot's daughter.
"Reno and Rude. You'll remember Reno, smart-aleck, red-haired kid, good at opening safes and disarming traps. Rude, too, perhaps. Bald-headed guy. Mr. Silent. Cool and collected."
"Yes. I remember both of them. You've teamed them, I take it?"
"Yes. Rude tones down Reno's abrasive nature, but doesn't hinder Reno's, shall we say, 'creativity'." Verdot gave a small laugh at Tseng's description. "I gave them what I remembered of Banora: that Vester Hollander had produced clones of Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley there that had run amok; that the labs were about a half mile outside of the town; and that we had leveled the whole area. They were to have reported back immediately if they found anything. Hutchins, the head of security in Mideel, was to have given them assistance, and I know that they contacted security, but he denied all knowledge of them two days ago. Reno and Rude have been missing now for five days. Usually they can get out of about any situation. I have slated Hutchins for termination when he surfaces next." Tseng paused, "Then last night, during a terrorist attack, Sephiroth's pregnant wife was abducted right out of a tube in the Shinra labs. We think Rhapsodos will soon have her in Banora, if he doesn't already."
Verdot's eyes had widened at the mention of the kidnapping. "You hadn't told me about an abduction! Was it because of…" his voice softened so as to be barely audible, "Jenova?" Tseng and Valentine both noticed that Verdot's glance had gone to his daughter in the back of the RV.
"That's what we suspect." Tseng exchanged a glance with Valentine, and Vincent began studying Kamui unobtrusively. "We believe that Rhapsodos is degenerating, and that Hollander needs the baby's tissue in order to stabilize Rhapsodos, even possibly produce more powerful clones of Rhapsodos, even possibly of Angeal Hewley…"
"Probably… Yes, I agree with your analysis." Verdot looked at his colleagues. "When you first called, Kamui and I headed down to Banora. It won't surprise you to learn that there's nothing there—at least on the surface. She and I were able to stake out and observe the area from a distance. There are a number of cement structures among the apple orchards that are labeled as 'irrigation wells.'" He paused and shook his head. "No one irrigates on this island—the seasonal rains, while they can be light, are consistent. She and I suspect the structures could be entrances to an underground complex, but there could be other entrances—even at Apple Town commune itself.
"You're suggesting that the 'wells' may be there as points for us to attack."
"Indeed."
"Then we'll need to make our own entrance rather than go through theirs."
Verdot glanced at Rufus, who was sitting nearby and trying hard to look like he was not listening intensely. "Yes."
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Concrete dust was everywhere, on their smelly, black night suits, in the air, on the lab tables, in his eyes and lungs… Rude sneezed, then sneezed again more loudly. Getting grates off walls from the inside of shafts was a messier, more difficult business than he'd imagined. The grate on the vent into the sample prep room was stubborn. Finally Rude gave up trying to "finesse" the thing off the wall with his hand and shoulder. He turned to the expedient of simply kicking it off and letting it fall where it will. Hollander already knew they'd escaped from this general area, so messing up his lab some more wasn't giving too much information away. Rude just hoped no one had heard the crash when the grate landed. It hit the floor and missed all the lab equipment, but the crash had been loud nonetheless.
"Come on. I'll check the controls. See if you can find that silver bag they brought Tess in. We'll need something to carry her around in until she wakes up. I can tell you, waking up out of a tube is a cold, nasty business. You wake up shaking. We'll need to find a blanket, too!" Rude looked into the lab and then climbed down feet first onto a table directly below the vent. He crossed the room and examined Tessa's tube and its controls for a moment. During his stay in Junon for his arm microsurgery, Rude had learned a few things about tubes. The color of the mako solution in this tube was a little off, a bit more blue than green, he thought. Maybe it was just the lighting.
"Right," Reno looked out the vent hole, squinted through the dust, waved a hand before his face to clear some air, and then climbed down to join his partner. Not immediately spotting anything silver with a matte finish, just shiny silver lab equipment, Reno wandered the large room and glanced at occupied tubes, under tables, and at notes on tables. Not finding anything, Reno joined Rude at the table near Tessa's tube.
"Find it?"
"Not yet." Rather than continue his search, Reno read Hollander's notebook on the table. "What the…" In the notebook Hollander had written out long hand a report on Tessa's last visit to her OB/GYN. How had he gotten that? Reno read the report aloud. "Dr. Tessa Romera, wife of General Sephiroth, twenty-two weeks gestation, to undergo treatment in vitro with highest concentration mako solution to commence immediately at Shinra medical research laboratories. Treatment purpose two fold: (1) flush out stagnant mako present in uterus; (2) bring mother's mako level up to normal 210 range. Test results from Shinra indicate wide discrepancy in mako levels of mother and amniotic fluid (i.e., approximate baby's level), currently at 170 and 280, respectively. Upon Dr. Romera's recommendation…"
"What? What was she doing?!"
"I don't know what all this means, but Hollander has the phrase 'twenty-two weeks gestation' circled about five times, and down below here, he's got a note written double-sized, 'GA #20'. There's a scrap of paper here too. Look:
22 wk, 5 da, (+2 da + 7 da + 7 da) 22 wk, 5 da (+ 16 da) 25 wk
16 da GA #20 0.8 da 19.2 hr
Are these notes on time? Wait?!... Didn't Hollander say something like he could speed growth to twenty times normal in his clones? Is he trying to get the baby to 25 weeks gestation? What kind of sense does that make? And after all that he has 'C-section, 3 pm.'"
As Reno spoke, Rude noticed the timer on the tube glass. The figure "18:00" flashed by. He could see his own face reflected in the glass while Tessa twisted and writhed in the liquid. Rude noticed now, for the first time, that she was not only squirming, but her face was contorted in a grimace and her mouth was open. Pain. "Rhapsodos wants the baby's Jenova tissue. Something about 25 weeks is important to that, and Hollander's trying to hurry things up. He's taking the baby out of Tess tomorrow at 3:00! Whatever it all means, we've got to stop it. Just look it her, partner, she is screaming… Find that bag! I am draining this thing now."
At Rude's words, Reno had stopped and was now staring at Tessa's face as well. "Yeah." Reno's face became thunderous.
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"What are you doing?"
Rude nearly jumped out of his skin. Vanessa-7, pigtails and all, was standing behind him. He hadn't heard her come in over the gargling of the tube. A glance behind her showed that the door to the outer hallway was open, and that the clone was alone. The tube was only half emptied.
"Seven! It's nice to see you again!" Rude casually walked around the clone to the door and quietly closed it. "Did you and your sisters enjoy the games?" He could see that Reno had slipped into the store room.
Vanessa-7 frowned. Rude didn't like that look on her face. It just didn't suit her sunny nature. "Yes, but you left…" Rude started. "Dr. Hollander got mad at all of us and made us go help him look for you."
"And have you now found me?" Rude didn't like the idea that he might have to overpower her and tie her up, in order to stop her from running to Hollander.
"I guess, but I wasn't supposed to be searching in here. I just came back for my pen. Can I have it back please?" She held out her hand, palm up.
"I'm sorry. Did I borrow your pen?"
"Yes! When you took out the screws!"
Oops. She shouldn't have seen that. "I'm sorry. I don't know where your pen ended up."
Vanessa-7 continued to frown. She was almost crying now—definitely the wrong expression for her. Then to Rude's astonishment, Vanessa-7 threw her arms around his neck and kissed him full on the lips. Rude's eyes widened, then, what the hell, he closed his eyes and kissed her back. She moved closer to him, and he could feel the warmth of her body through both their clothes. Rude wrapped his arm around her and pulled her tighter. This felt good.
Vanessa-7 leaned back and smiled. "I thought you'd be good to kiss. You can keep my pen."
"Do you kiss everybody, Seven?" Rude found he was unhappy with that thought.
"No. My sisters like to kiss, but I've only liked you."
"Oh-h." Rude nodded his head. "Okay… Works by me…"
"Do you mind?!" Reno had returned. Rude sneered at his partner. How many times had he had to get Reno back on track in similar situations? "I hate to break this up, but don't we need to be somewhere?"
"Right… Seven, Dr. Romera here is a friend of ours. We're taking her out of the tube."
"Why? She's got a baby inside her, that Dr. Hollander didn't put there, but he's put GA#20 in her tube."
"Excuse me… Yes, she's pregnant. What's GA#20 got to do with it?"
"It's 'growth accelerant factor twenty'. It's his best stuff. If he's using it on her, then it's important."
"It's important to us that we get her out of there. He brought her in here in a silver bag. Do you know where it is?"
"Silver bag? You mean a flex-tube?" Vanessa-7 tilted her head to the side and thought for a second. "If I bring you one, can I kiss you again?"
"Oh yeah. Definitely."
"OK!" Vanessa-7 skipped to the hallway door, opened it, turned back to Rude, gave him a huge smile, then turned and skipped out.
"See where she's going. Make sure she doesn't talk to anyone."
"Trust me." Reno opened the door quietly, looked out, then glanced at his partner. "Oh, the things we do for Shinra!" Rude took a step toward him, but Reno was out the door.
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Within minutes the tube was drained and opened, Vanessa-7 and Reno had returned with a flex-tube and a blanket, and Tessa had been placed inside. Vanessa-7 helped them fill the tube with mako—the slightly bluish high-concentration mako solution that Vanessa-7 insisted Tessa had been bathed in when she arrived. Tessa had continued to writhe in their arms as they placed her in the flex-tube, but as they filled it with unused mako, she gradually quieted.
"There, that's done. Now may I kiss you?" Vanessa-7 approached Rude who was still kneeling on the floor.
"In a minute. Can you tell me how these controls should be set?"
"All right." Vanessa-7 pouted a bit. "He-re," and she turned two knobs on panels on the side of the tube until they were both about halfway on their settings. "You'll need more solution in about two hours."
Rude nodded thoughtfully. "Right. We'll keep that in mind." He stood up, "and now for your reward…"
"Yey!" Vanessa-7 was in Rude's arm, and this time Rude made sure he did a thorough job of kissing her.
"I hate to break this up, yo, but we've got to go, partner." Reno tried to pull Rude away from the girl.
"Seven, do you want to come with us?" Rude sounded hopeful.
"OK!"
Reno took charge. "Seven, can you show us how to get to Lynette Hiland's office above the mako pool by going through the vents?" Since when was Reno the practical one? Rude decided he must have inhaled some fumes somewhere for Reno to be taking charge.
"Sure, but why would you want to go to my big sister's room?"
"'Big sister'? As in Lynette Hiland is one of your sisters?!"
"Sure. Lynette Vanessa Hiland, my big sister." Rude received another one of Reno's elbow digs.
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After removing her white lab coat, Vanessa-7, now in jeans and a light blue tee-shirt, lead the way through the vents. Reno pulled Tessa's body loaded on a dolly he'd found in the store room with the lab coat and blanket on top. Before they left the lab, they had replaced both grates into the vents. From the vent overlooking the mako pool, Vanessa-7 was able to guide them to Lynette Hiland's office. Rude was able to work this grate open without it crashing, and he and Reno landed catlike on the floor. They had asked Vanessa-7 to stay with the body to monitor the readings and to help Tessa wake up.
Other than a desk and two chairs in front of the window that overlooked the mako pool, the room was filled with CCTV monitors. The Turks could see that most of the monitors showed tube rooms with readings for the occupants displayed also. A few on the far wall to the right showed apple trees. Reno and Rude moved toward these monitors as if drawn by a magnet. One display clearly showed the standing granite monument they'd looked at several days before. No wonder they'd been caught.
"I'd nearly given up waiting for you, gentlemen."
Reno and Rude looked at each other and both shook their heads, chagrined. Caught again?! Damn it! A look of agreement passed between them—no going down without a fight this time. They turned.
Vester Hollander, gun in hand, had appeared behind them. Six black-clad body guards stood behind him, but only Hollander held a gun.
"Take them." Hollander ordered his clones forward.
"NOW!" Rude shouted, and Reno grabbed one of the clones and launched him at Hollander. The thrown clone knocked the gun from Hollander's hand and sent it skittering away. Rude stepped inside the grip of a second clone, elbowed him in the sternum, then back-knuckled him in the nose hard enough, Rude hoped, to push the nose into the brain for a kill. The clone crumbled. Two other clones next attempted to surround Reno. He reached out and grabbed an arm from each clone, dipped his body under their arms, pulled and twisted them into each other, and stunned them. Rude reached behind a clone's head, swept a foot out from under him, and sent him flying across the room to the accompaniment of breaking glass. Reno caught up with Hollander, who was crawling across the room in pursuit of his gun, chopped Hollander's neck, and dropped him to the floor. Rude found the gun, and the conscious clones backed off. "Tie them up. There's certainly enough electrical cable around here for the job."
A swift examination of the room later, and Reno and Rude had their equipment, PHSs, and Rude's prosthetic back in place, and their prisoners bound. Reno flipped open his PHS and looked at an apple tree monitor. Well, what do you know?! There he was, the man Reno had just been about to call. Tseng was on the screen.