First and foremost we did not forget to upload yesterday, we attempted to upload but nothing seemed to be updating on fanfiction so we decided to take it down and re-upload it today. That aside, would you like the good news or the great news? We aren't sure which is which so you can decide. First and foremost, we have finished writing this story! That's right, this novel length baby of ours is finished, so don't expect to be left hangin (not to say this is the final chapter, there is much much more to come!) Secondly, our next fic is in the making, which will be our attempt at the horror genre, and will be on Final Fantasy VIII (8 for those who hate numerals lol). This fic is currently only in the planning stage but already looks to be promising =), we will keep you posted on that.
Anyways excited ramblings out the way, enjoy chapter fifteen!
-Chapter Fifteen- Hide and Seek
Even though much time had passed since the funeral, the death of Josh's Aunt was still having a profound effect on him. His college work had been getting steadily worse, grades slipping from what used to be above average to average, then average to below average. Teachers had suggested counselling to him, which he refused point blank. He was sitting in the Café with Alex on his free period, looking deeply into the hot chocolate which he hadn't touched.
"Mate you really are starting to scare me you know?" Alex said to him, taking a long swig of her drink. "Maybe you should listen to people, counselling might actually help you!" She pulled out her phone for what must have been the umpteenth time in their conversation and checked it.
"What do you keep looking at that damn thing for?" Josh asked. His mood with Alex had changed significantly since the funeral, it was as if he thought distancing himself from her would deter Sephiroth from using her as a threat.
"No need to get short with me…" Alex replied, "…I'm just waiting for Shaun to call is all, haven't heard from him today."
Josh looked at her curiously. "Are you two dating or something, you do spend an awful lot of time together…" He took a sip of his drink for the first time.
Alex couldn't help but laugh. "Of course not, what do you take me for!" She downed the rest of her drink and yet again she checked her phone. "Still nothing…"
"I'm sure he hasn't died or anything…" Josh joked, rolling his eyes at her.
"What the hell does he know…" Tifa said in exasperation. Alex couldn't help but privately agree with her, the whole situation was a lot more complex than her best friend knew.
"He's probably just bunking off so he can have fun with the time magic…nothing to worry about…right?" Even in her head the excuse sounded poor, a last little ray of hope yet to be dimmed.
"Do be serious… We should call the others and see if they know anything, Shaun isn't answering his phone so what else is there to do?"
Alex agreed with her. As soon as she was clear of Josh she would get straight on the phone to Reeve and Yuffie and see if they knew anything. "What class you got next?"
"Drama…ugh…" Josh replied, drinking the rest of his now luke-warm hot chocolate, "…suppose I should be heading off to that in a minute. See you soon Alex." He took another swift look at her phone which she had got out yet again, before getting up and heading off in the direction of the drama block.
"Right let's go somewhere private and call Yuffie, see if she knows anything…" Tifa suggested. Without replying Alex got straight up and strode off towards the college gates. There would be fewer people hanging about on the streets outside college at this time of day.
"You don't think we are possibly blowing this out of proportion?" Alex asked Tifa and she withdrew her phone and started searching for Savina's number.
"Good thing you put that under the host number, people might think you had gone a little mad otherwise… And no, there is no reason for us to not be concerned, we must look out for each other after all." Alex sort of agreed with her, and began to call Savina.
It rang a few times then, "Savina Grisham speaking…"
"It's Alex. We may have a problem, no sign of Shaun, can't get hold of him. Not with you is he?"
"Nope, haven't seen him since you both left last night. Have you tried Charles?"
"Reeve, gonna try him in a minute. Let me know if you hear anything."
"Likewise, keep me posted." Savina requested before hanging up the phone.
"Well that was useless…straight onto Reeve then…"
Alex was already scrolling down her contacts looking for him. Before she got there however, she was startled by her phone ringing and none other than Charles Daniels calling her.
"Hello?" She answered.
"I assume I was just about to get a call from you?" Reeve was obviously in control at the moment.
"Well yes but how…"
"You and I are sharing the same concern, I am keeping a rather watchful eye on the lot of you at the moment, obviously not close enough. Shaun never left his house for college this morning, and when I checked he wasn't at home."
The news that they were all being carefully watched was not very welcome news, though in a case like this it was by all means helpful. "His parents haven't said anything though."
"They must have assumed he left for college early. I'm not far from you at the moment, is there anywhere we can meet?"
Alex thought for a moment. "Town centre by the fountain, I'll be there in fifteen minutes…"
"Make it ten, we need to be as swift as possible if anything has happened…"
X
"You know…" Alex began as Reeve got within earshot of her, "…it is kind of creepy that you are watching us, you could have at least told us."
"Ok…I'm watching you, happy now?" He smiled slightly. "Not the point at the moment anyway. We need to find out if anything has happened to Shaun…"
"Perhaps start at his house then?" Alex suggested.
"Already have, no sign of a struggle or anything. All of his college stuff is there still, no clue whatsoever…"
His phone then started to ring, he answered it instantly. "Anything?" There was a pause, then a look of annoyance crossed his face and he hung up. "Dammit, well something has to be up if he can't find him either… Let's walk…"
Alex and Reeve began to walk round town centre discussing any and all possibilities, each as unlikely as the next. It was as they were approaching the cathedral that Reeve's phone began to ring once more. He looked at it for a second.
"Who the…?" He answered it, changing his voice to almost perfectly match his hosts. "Charles Daniels speaking may I ask whose calling?"
He went silent for a long time, during which Alex could only hear a muffled voice on the other end of the phone. She could not tell if the voice was male or female, and made a mental note to ask Reeve this when she got the chance. His facial expression changed from one of confusion to amazement quicker than a set of traffic lights go red.
Reeve hung up the phone. "Well that's an unexpected twist…The Shinra have him apparently…" He was keeping remarkably calm.
"What!" Alex almost yelled, looking at him in shock. "How do you know?"
"An anonymous tip. It's the best we have to go on, even gave us the location of their base of operations…"
"Could be a trap?" Alex pointed out.
"Obviously but at this point what other choice do we have?" He dialled a number on his phone.
It rang for a few moments, "Savina, put Yuffie on would you?" A few seconds silence, "Yuffie, I need you and Savina to get on the next train to Woking immediately, we think we have found him…a tip off…that's what Alex said…at the station, we'll go from there…ASAP. See you soon." He hung up.
Without further conversation they began to walk in the direction of the train station. "Exactly who do you think that was on the phone?" Alex inquired.
Reeve did not answer at once, he seemed to be pondering his answer. "I can't even pretend to have a guess at that, I really do have no idea…"
"Male or female?"
"I don't know, they were using a voice mask…" Their pace quickened towards the station, "If we hurry we should be able to get there by mid-afternoon at the latest, Yuffie should be there soon, she is far closer than us."
Upon reaching the station Reeve walked straight up to the ticket booth and bought them two first class tickets, Alex could not say that she had ever gone first class before. There were ten long painful minutes before their train was due, during which Reeve seemed to be texting whomever he had called first, his phone suddenly rang again.
"I'm going to need you on standby in case things get ugly, we have no idea what force we will be dealing with until we get there…Let's hope so…" He hung up.
Platform two for the 14:05 south west trains service to Woking, calling at…
"That's it let's go…" Reeve said, walking towards the first class carriage of the train.
As expected when they got on it was completely deserted, which was what they were hoping for. The first class carriage looked far more comfortable than standard class, more comfortable seats and thankfully no listeners in. They chose seats right in the middle of the carriage.
"You are going to need to let Tifa take over when we get there but for now just make sure she is listening carefully." Reeve began very seriously. "According to this source, whoever they are, Shaun has been taken to their base in Woking. An odd location for them to choose but that's beside the point. Rufus himself is there along with Tseng and some other lackeys we have never heard of…"
"Ask him if he knows why they took him." Tifa said to Alex.
"Why did they take him?" She asked.
"Best guess is they are getting more information. Wouldn't like to think what is happening to him right now…"
X
The room was dark, lit only by one solitary light. In the middle of the room was a steel chair which was riveted to the floor. Bound to the chair in chains was none other than Shaun, wearing nothing but his underwear, currently unconscious.
Through the one door in and out of the room strode none other than Rufus Shinra, followed by Tseng. "Not too much trouble getting him I hope?" Rufus asked.
"Easy as ABC." He replied, walking slowly over to him.
"Well shall we begin, wake him up…" Rufus instructed.
Tseng raised his hand, it glowed green, and what looked like green mist erupted from his hand straight into Shaun's eyes. He stirred slightly, then eventually, his eyes opened. He looked up at them both, apparently in too much shock to speak.
"Hello Shaun…" Rufus began, grabbing another chair and sitting opposite him, "…do you know who I am?" Shaun made a sound which sounded like a fish being squished. "Well allow me to introduce myself, Rufus Shinra, head of Shinra Inc."
Shaun continued to look between him and Tseng. "No doubt that beast is filling you in?" Tseng asked, Shaun still said nothing.
"Doesn't talk much does he, why did you choose this one again?" Rufus asked Tseng.
"This one should have the Alexander materia…" Tseng replied, Shaun's eyes widened slightly in shock.
"Shaun, they cannot extract the materia from you unless you co-operate, do not under any circumstances give it to them…" Red sounded worried.
"All we want, Shaun…" Rufus began, standing up from his chair and proceeding to grab Shaun's bound hands in front of him, "…is for you to hand it over." He pressed a finger to his right forearm. Much to Rufus' annoyance, the orb did not surface.
"Right…" Shaun said, speaking for the first time, "…and you will just let me stroll merrily on my way if I give it over will you?"
"Got a mouth on him hasn't he sir?" Tseng remarked, "Shall I 'persuade' him?"
Rufus dropped the teenagers bound hands and turned to Tseng, nodded, and then turned away. "Manipulate won't work on hosts anyway, not at this late stage. This way is far more entertaining…"
Shaun started to tremble slightly and Tseng walked up to stand next to the steel chair. "Last chance?" Shaun still said nothing.
Tseng pressed a finger to the chair, his hand glowed green for a second, and then an electric current passed straight into the chair and all through Shaun's body. He could not scream, the electric current was forcing his mouth closed. The pain was unbearable, but then just as suddenly as it started, it had stopped. He began gasping for air.
"Right…" Rufus said, walking back over to the shaking form sitting before him. "Let's try this again…" He grabbed his right arm and pressed a finger to it. Again, nothing happened.
"Why not just kill him sir and be done?" Tseng asked, Shaun looked up at him horrified.
"Because you fool, if he dies, the materia is destroyed." Rufus dropped Shaun's hands again. "I need to check to see if my suspicions are true, you know where to find me if you make a breakthrough…"
He turned and strode out of the room.
"Well…" Tseng said to Shaun, "…at least you know you aren't going to die, yet…but just how much of this do you think you can take?" He punched him hard in the stomach.
"As much as is needed…" He replied, then suddenly, the beastly form of Red XIII was chained in his place, except on the floor as oppose to the chair.
"And we can just change from one to another when it all gets too much, so you have quite a job on your hands…" Red taunted him, earning him a hard kick in the face. Blood poured from his mouth and he growled in anger.
"We have all the time in the world mongrel…" He electrified the chains once more.
X
"Savina!" Reeve called. The brunette woman looked over at him. "We can't waste any time, have you got us transport?"
"What do you think?" Savina asked mockingly, holding up a pair of keys to what looked like an Aston. "Was very generous of the owner to just walk up to me and give me his keys…"
Without further ado the three of them walked to what must have been the plushest looking car they had ever seen. "Can we keep it?" Savina asked jokingly.
"Well he did give it to you…" Alex replied, and then allowed Tifa to take over.
"I call shotgun…" She said.
Reeve got in the driver's side, Savina in the back and Tifa in the passenger side. For such a business like man Reeve seemed to be an extremely skilled driver. As though reading their minds he then said,
"My host has a fondness for sports cars and track driving, ergo so do I…" They sped round the town as fast as traffic would permit.
Rufus re-entered the dark room to see a very blooded up Shaun sitting in the steel chair. "No progress at all?"
"Only that he has made contact with other parasites…he seems confident that they will do something…" Tseng then laughed, but Rufus then beckoned him to follow.
Outside the dark room and out of earshot Rufus said, "His confidence is not misplaced. They are on their way, I was right there is a rat…question is who?"
Tseng looked a little startled. "Who told you they were on their way?"
"Reno…" Rufus said, "He has made contact since we were here."
"Could be a double bluff?" Tseng suggested.
"Maybe…" Rufus was thinking, then he extracted the manipulate materia from his arm and handed it to Tseng, "…assemble as good a team you can, five maybe six should do, we only need enough to make our retreat if things go badly."
"We can always use the boy as a bargaining chip sir?" Tseng pointed out.
"I will not risk the materia…let's hope they don't know that."
Tseng then walked away, and Rufus proceeded into the darkened room. Red XIII was now lying on the floor, looking a little worse for wear.
"Enough games beast…" Rufus said, producing an ice dagger in his hands, "…the materia…" Red simply growled at him. Rufus stabbed the dagger straight through one of his paws, causing him to howl in pain. "The materia, NOW!"
Suddenly in the distance there was an almighty BANG. Rufus whirled around looking in the direction of the disturbance. Abandoning the beast he ran through the door and up into the main mission room which had been established. Whatever was going on must have been taking place on the stairwell of the building they were in.
He ran out the front door of the apartment and looked down the middle of the huge winding staircase. The sight which met him was not a welcome one. Flashing across the staircase were jets of lightning followed by huge jets of flames. Every so often there was a loud cry of pain where someone had been hit.
"Not like you to miss out on the opportunity for a fight…" The thick Russian voice of Nicholi said to Rufus.
Without further hesitation he ran down the staircase to join the fray. This took considerable time due to the height of the building. When he was roughly two floors above them however, he had the enemy in his sight. Three of his foes stood before him, the ninja, Tifa, and his very own old employee Reeve. This made his choice of who to aim for very easy.
"Don't you understand that I fired you Reeve!" He shouted, firing three ice daggers in his direction. Tifa melted them with a jet of flames before they reached him.
"Forgot my P45 sir!" Reeve shouted, withdrawing a gun and firing it straight at Rufus. He ducked and took cover just in time. The sound of sirens was growing ever louder as time passed.
"Sir!" Tseng shouted, ducking out of the way of several throwing stars. "I'll cover you, seal the door!"
Without hesitation, Tseng proceeded to work wonders with his lightning magic as Rufus stood and created what must have been a six foot deep barrier of ice across the entrance to the building.
Reeve fired another shot at the president, and this time he was not so lucky. It hit Rufus square in the chest. He coughed blood and staggered up against a wall. Tseng was quick on the scene, sending the green healing mist his way almost instantly. Rufus was ready for battle again straight away.
"Dammit…" Reeve cursed, ducking behind cover and reloading, "…of all the materia they could have found…"
"Could be worse…" Tifa replied, rolling out of cover and sending a blast of fire so powerful it knocked two of the unknown guards up against the back wall, this caused the remaining guards, Tseng and Rufus to retreat up a few floors.
There was a loud banging noise from the main entrance. The authorities had obviously made it to the building.
"…it's worse…" Yuffie exclaimed.
They ran after them, wanting to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the authorities. On their way however they found more of Rufus' ice barriers, which took Tifa a considerable amount of time to melt. Time they had reached the second one, Reeve was suddenly struck by an idea.
"I wonder…" He raised his hand, there was a green glow, and with the sound of a cannon blast, the barrier shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, "…works differently in this world after all."
Getting to the top of the staircase was extremely easy now. In no time they were at what was unmistakably their base on the top floor. The door was shut, the three of them would have to be extremely cautious now.
"I'll kick the door open you be ready to return fire…" Tifa said, "On three…one…two…three!" She kicked down the door.
To their surprise it was only the two unknown guards in the room which was revealed. The three of them made easy work of the two men, and in no time they found themselves in a room surrounded by high tech looking equipment.
"Very swish for a basic base…" Reeve voiced, looking around. There was only one exit from the room onto a hallway.
Wasting no time they made their way to the hall. It was too obvious which of the three doors they were now faced with to take. One was leaking a feint mist of what must have been an ice barrier on the other side.
They opened the door, and found that the barrier was completely see through, which was unusual for such a thick sheet of ice. On the other side of the barrier, bound in the middle of the room was Shaun, he looked as though he had been beaten to within an inch of his life.
"Try anything and the boy dies…" Rufus said, pointing an ice dagger to his throat.
"Now let's not be too unreasonable…" Reeve said, approaching the barrier, then he whispered to Yuffie "Check the other room get whatever information you can from the monitors."
She left, leaving Tifa and Reeve alone with Tseng and Rufus. "That will do you no good, all files are password encrypted." Rufus mocked.
Reeve retrieved his phone from his pocket and dialled a number. He held the phone to his ear. A moment later however, a ringtone sounded from within the barricaded room. A sudden look of realisation crossed Tifa and Reeve's face…
"Ah…" They said together.
From within the room came two jets of fire of such force it slammed both Rufus and Tseng up against the back wall. Then came a voice which sounded throughout the base.
Self-Destruct in t-minus sixty seconds…
Reeve destroyed the barrier and entered the room. A hooded figure ran to Shaun and fired no less than ten bullets into each of the chains binding him.
"Yuffie!" Reeve shouted, she ran back into the room. "What the hell did you do!"
"I didn't do anything!"
"Rufus has this place wired and ready to blow just for such an occasion…" The deep voice of the hooded figure said.
They all looked around the now illuminated room and saw both Tseng and Rufus had vanished. "Dammit where did they go!" Tifa exclaimed.
"It doesn't matter," The hooded man said, "We need to get out of here now, I'll take Shaun the rest of you run!"
The sound of footsteps running up the stairwell outside could now be heard. The authorities had got through the barrier.
"We're done for…" Reeve said, defeated…
"Oh grow up!" Yuffie shouted. "To the window and jump, trust me!"
Not wanting to argue Reeve, Tifa and Yuffie all ran out the room, Reeve shot out the nearest window with his gun, and as one, they jumped.
Seconds later, the apartment exploded in an eruption of flames. They were all screaming in free-fall from the two hundred foot high building. Then Yuffie extended her arm, it glowed red, and from it erupted a golden flame which shot to the ground.
From the earth burst a huge magnificent golden phoenix, it flew towards them, spread its wings and caught all three of them twenty feet before impact. The blow was amazingly softened, and then seconds later the phoenix vanished, leaving them all to free-fall another twenty feet onto hard concrete.
Without time to consider how harmed they were they bolted to the nearby Aston and miraculously, they made their escape.
How they had escaped the authorities, dumped the car and made their way back to London they never knew. Upon entering Yuffie's hideout however they found they weren't the first ones there. Laying on the sofa looking extremely worse for wear was Shaun, and kneeling by him was none other than,
"Vincent my good friend…" Reeve entered the room and strode over to him, "…sorry to keep you on standby for so long."
A/N- As usual guys we can't thank you enough for the reviews, nice to know what you think xD. Not much more to say, next chapter will be up on wednesday as usual, until then!
R&A