Edit: changed authors note and re-wrote the ending of the chapter, hope you all like this one.
Concerning last chapter, When I said she noticed her breasts were bigger, I just meant she noticed a difference because she had been asleep for four years.
While NORA had a shouting match with the current leader of AVALANCHE, Barret Wallace, the bartender and the rogue SOLDIER with Angeal's sword retreated to a corner to talk. Seeing that no one was paying attention to her, Serah slipped out of the bar to send a message to Tseng. Standing on the porch of 7th Heaven, Serah pulled her special phone out of her purse and quickly typed up a text message to Tseng for it would be too risky to make an actual call. As she placed her phone back in her purse she thought about how many messages were on her regular phone that was sitting on a table in her apartment.
Tseng was sitting at his desk in his office enjoying a hot cup of coffee and watching the news which was about the destroyed Mako Reactor. The death toll was still unconfirmed but the number was well over six hundred but the director of the Turks did not even flinch at the news. It was a tragedy that so many had died and thousands were left without power but there was nothing Tseng could do about it so why should it weigh on his mind?
As he took another sip of his coffee he heard his phone beep and vibrate slightly. He slowly placed the mug of coffee on a coaster just to the right of his terminal and grabbed his phone. The front display said he had a new message from Serah Farron, which did nothing to hurry him in flipping the phone open. He scanned the text message quickly and felt his eyes widen at a couple of words which made him read it again a bit more carefully.
Avalanche has a rogue SOLDIER. Spiky blond hair, Angeal's sword. Haven't learned his name yet. Will send a picture ASAP.
Tseng sat in a stunned silence for nearly five minutes before moving. He quickly replied with a short message 'picture unneeded' he already knew who it was. The man who had been spotted with Zack several times before the dark haired warrior's near death, the other of the two escaped subjects from Nibelheim, the former militia member that had taken down Sephiroth. Cloud Strife. Tseng could not believe it, although it would explain a few things. One being why Zack did not have the Buster Sword with him on that cliff and how Avalanche had been able to fight their way into Reactor One.
Tseng flipped his phone closed and climbed out of his chair. He needed to inform the SOLDIER Director about the situation right away.
Serah slipped back inside 7th Heaven, without being noticed, just as the argument came to an end. The rogue operative and the bartender were still in a corner talking about something and Snow and Barret looked to be having a civil discussion. The other three NORA members looked as if they were guarding Snow.
"So it's settled then," Snow announced "Me and Gadot are going with you to Reactor Five. Lebreau, Yuj, take Maqui and Serah back up to Sector Seven."
"What?" Serah blurted out making everyone look at her "No. If you're going, I'm going. There are some things I want Shinra to pay for," the dark tone Serah used seem to surprise everyone.
"Okay..." Snow said in a wary tone.
"Quite the fire in her," Barret commented "A'ight. Those going to the reactor can stay below. The rest of you take your asses home," the dark skinned leader made his way over to the pinball machine and lowered it. The platform returned after a minute.
Serah knew she had to take the first chance she got to report this news to Tseng. She was glad to know that she could get a chance to prevent many more people from getting hurt by these reckless terrorists. Unfortunately, Serah's only chance to send a message would be after Barret, Snow, and the SOLDIER had gone to sleep for the assumed night.
"Director Trepe," Tseng said as he entered the SOLDIER director's office.
"Director Tseng," Quistis replied with a barely noticeable smirk.
"I need your best men ready to depart at a moment's notice," Tseng stated to the blond woman, who replied with a questioning gaze "My agent informed me Avalanche has a rogue SOLDIER first working for them. No I.D. on them yet."
"But all the SOLDIER firsts were confirmed dead before I took this position," Quistis was genuinely confused by the news of a rogue SOLDIER First Class Operative.
"To be fair, Director Trepe," Tseng said without emotion "Both Genesis Rhapsodos and Zack Fair were confirmed dead twice. The second time for them both fairly recently," Tseng recalled the report of some unidentified Shinra troops finding the body of Genesis in the Banora ruins but the report said nothing of what happened to the body. Tseng chose not to pursue that topic as he did not report what had happened to the 'body' of Zack.
"Why wasn't I told this?"
"It doesn't matter. You need to focus on getting troops ready to fight a rogue Operative."
"Where will they be heading?"
"My contact will tell me when they find out what Avalanche will be attacking."
"You don't know yet?" Director Trepe nearly shouted at Tseng.
"That's why I said your troops will need to be ready to depart at a moment's notice," Tseng pointed out.
"Alright. I'll let you know when they're ready," Tseng could tell he had just made Director Trepe's day worse.
As Tseng was leaving, Director Trepe leaned back in her chair, took off her glasses, and placed her left hand over her eyes. She knew she would be sending at least two SOLDIER Operatives to their deaths and that would mean a small mountain of paperwork. Knowingly sending some Operatives to their deaths would also put Shinra's already failing reputation and her job in jeopardy. Then she realized something that had slipped her mind moments before, there is a SOLDIER First Class ready for battle. Not to mention, sending one SOLDIER First would much less paperwork. Quistis put her glasses back on and leaned forward to make a call. When the recipient answered, Director Trepe started to speak before they had a chance to speak.
"Operative Lightning Farron, this is Director Trepe. Please report to my office as soon as possible."
Claire flipped her phone closed and proceeded out of the SOLDIER gym. When she reached her room, she found a new uniform and a sheathed weapon. She quickly climbed out of her sleep wear and into the new uniform before inspecting the new weapon. It looked just like the weapon Claire had used before but it was lighter, just as the Director said, and it had two words engraved on the blade. Blazefire Sabre. But to Claire, it was Blaze Edge and it felt good to reunited with this particular friend. She clipped the sheath for the new Blaze Edge to her SOLDIER midriff belt and walked out of her room.
As soon as Claire strode into Director Trepe's office, the blond took note of her.
"Good to see you adjusting back so well," Director Trepe commented.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Claire said back, slightly more rudely than she meant.
"Fair enough," Trepe said with a wave of her hand "Director Tseng-"
"Director Tseng?" Claire was uneasy about that statement.
"Tseng was named Director of the Turks a while back. Back to what I was saying before," Trepe had read in several reports that Lightning was a lot like Sephiroth, stubborn, and generally distrusting "Director Tseng has asked for you to be ready to ship out at a moment's notice."
"Since when is he my, or your, boss?" Claire crossed her arms as she spoke.
"As soon as his contact tells him, you'll be on your way to destroy whats left of Avalanche," Director Trepe said dismissively.
Claire was at a loss. She wanted to fight Avalanche because they were making life in Midgar dangerous for everyone. But that meant she would be working with the Turks. They were nothing more than criminals being paid to be even worse criminals. Claire never wanted anything to do with the Turks, not the kind of people she even wanted to be seen with. In the end, Claire's hatred for Avalanche trumped her hatred for the Turks.
"I'll be ready," Claire stated before walking out of the office.
Claire returned to her room and started the long wait. She paced the room for what seemed like an hour to her and let out a sigh when she saw it had only been minutes. Wandering the SOLDIER floor was her next choice and she stuck to it for a couple of hours. Claire had always hated waiting for a mission. It made her feel powerless or worse, useless. Returning to her room, Claire decided to read one of her books, the novelization of the Loveless play. Claire never cared for the actual play, or the poem it was based on, but the novel had always been one of her favorites. A fact Claire would never admit to anyone. After three chapters she decided to lay on her bed and eventually drifted off to sleep.
The pinkette awoke to her phone ringing and swiftly retrieved it. She briefly glanced at the display to see what the time was. Claire was more than surprised she had been asleep for nearly eight hours and quickly flipped the phone open.
"Director Trepe," Claire said stiffly.
"Where the hell have you been?" Trepe shouted "I have been trying to reach you for the better part of an hour!"
"I apologize Director Trepe. I dozed off while reading."
"You dozed – never mind. Hurry up and get to the helipad. Scarlet's newest project, the Air Buster, is already en route," Trepe stated "Get there first and prove that SOLDIER is still Shinra's best asset."
"Yes ma'am," Claire replied before flipping the phone closed and rushing out of her room.
"Come on! We need to get out of here!" Snow shouted to the others.
The group had planted the bomb in the core of the reactor and were trying get out of the area before it detonated. This bomb was made to not have as much power as the previous one but it was still an extremely dangerous high explosive. It was intended to to either shred the inside to render the reactor completely useless or completely obliterate the machinery that pumped Mako energy out of the planet so it would be decommissioned for at least several months.
As the group consisting of Barret, Tifa, Snow, Serah, and Cloud, escaped the reactor onto the catwalk between Sectors Five and Six, they all saw a large blueish-green robot approaching them.
"Snow! Serah! You two get out of here!" Tifa shouted to them.
"What? No!" Snow shouted back.
"Get of here! Shinra doesn't need to know about you two!" Snow was torn between listening to Tifa and staying to help her. Even though he really did not want to leave, she had a good point and the sound of an approaching helicopter made up his mind.
"Come on Serah, we need to get back to Lebreau's," Snow glanced over his shoulder and saw Tifa and Barret between him, Serah, and the robot.
The helicopter ride from the Shinra Headquarters to Reactor Five was a very short one. Claire spotted three people surrounding the Air Buster, which looked like it had taken a sever amount of damage already. As the helicopter passed over them, the pink haired operative jumped out of the helicopter and landed behind the blond haired SOLDIER. She drew her Blazefire Saber and froze when she saw the Buster Sword in the hands of the mysterious SOLDIER. The young man himself was familiar to Claire but she could not attach a name to his face.
"Why do you have Zack's sword?" Claire asked the blond man.
"You knew Zack?" the young man replied, sounding confused.
"Die! You Shinra junk heap!" the pinkette heard a woman shout. Claire assumed she was on the other side of Air Buster.
A woman with long dark hair, a white tank top, and a black miniskirt landed on the Air Busters head and she started to pull on the face plate. She and Claire made eye contact and, to Claire, the woman looked like she had seen a ghost. The Air Buster reached up, grabbed the woman and threw to the ground but since the woman had been holding onto the face plate, it was ripped right off the mounts. A series of gunshots rang out and sparks shot out of the Air Buster, making the robot twitch wildly. With very little warning, the robot exploded in a ball of blue flame.
The catwalk shattered under the explosion and the blond swordsman fell but grabbed onto a mangled rod. Claire looked between the large dark skinned man with a gun arm, the woman, and the supposed SOLDIER dangling at her feet. She switched Blaze Edge into gun mode and took aim at the blond's forehead. Before she could pull the trigger, the floor rumbled, flames roared out of the Reactor, and the loudest explosion Claire had ever heard ripped through the air. The blond fell because of the rumbling and the woman shouted something that was impossible for Claire to hear because of the explosion. Assuming the blond would be killed by the fall, Claire started to walk backwards to have enough space to run and jump the gap. The dark skinned man and the woman quickly made their escape when they saw Claire preparing to go after them. Claire's gaze shot over to the Reactor when she felt the catwalk suddenly lurch to the side.
She saw that the explosion had severed the catwalk by the the Reactor. Her eyes grew wide as she realized that the T shaped catwalk had been severed at two points. Claire spun around to run along the remaining path but it vanished from under her feet as it failed to hold itself. Flicking Blaze Edge into sword mode and burying the blade in the catwalk was the only way to ensure she did not fall to her own death. As the catwalk swung down, the piece that had connected to the Reactor broke off and sailed into the Sector Five slums.
The piece of the catwalk Claire was hanging off of continued to swing down gaining immense speed. She heard the sound of steel buckling and tearing and felt her sword slip out of the steel mesh of the catwalk. Because of the pendulum swing of the wrecked catwalk and her sword sliding free, Claire sailed through the air under the plate of Sector Six with the tumbling catwalk behind her. As the pinkette flew close to the plate, she took hold of one of the many very thick wires. The loose catwalk tumbled to the ground and flipped end over end, destroying dozens of shanties.
Claire looked around and wondered what she was going to do. Hanging from a wire fifty meters off the ground with no visible escape route was not exactly covered in her training. Sheathing Blaze Edge, Claire started making her way to one end of the wire but felt something that made a chill run up her spine. The wire shifted again making her freeze and grab the wire with a death grip. A loud pop and a rain of sparks signaled the wire tearing free at one end and Claire started to swing once again.
The shredded end of the wire made contact with the bottom of Claire's boot and near lethal voltage shot through her. If she had not been enhanced with Mako, the electricity would have fried her nerves and her brain. Unfortunately for Claire, the electricity severely weakened her, making her lose her grip. The pinkette sailed downwards and crashed through the roof of the largest structure in Sector Six.
Shaking, Claire pushed herself up as much as her arms could handle. Her vision swayed and blurred with the exertion but she knew she had to get out of the slums, especially Sector Six. She was able to get her knees under her and sat back on her feet. Minor muscle spasms wracked her body as her brain and nerve system tried to recover from the powerful electric shock she had received and the rough landing after falling roughly ninety feet. Claire thought she spotted three men approaching her and struggled to her feet and drew Blaze Edge.
"Well, well, well. What are the chances of this happening?" one of the men said, Claire couldn't see who had spoke because of her blurred vision but the voice was vaguely familiar "How long has it been?"
"Almost ten years now," another of the three men stated "I wonder where that sister of hers is,"
"Who are you?" Claire tried asking in her most intimidating voice. The three men laughed.
"She doesn't remember us!" the third man laughed "Doesn't matter. My jaw remembers you, Pinky."
Suddenly remembering exactly where she had last heard the three voices, Claire lunged at them even though she could barely stand. The men laughed as they dodged her wild swings and shots. They knew she was a First Class SOLDIER Operative due to the uniform but they were also aware of how disoriented she was. Claire let out a feral growl at how the men continued to laugh at her and how her body still refused to work correctly.
As she charged at them once again, two of the men grabbed her arms. The man holding her right arm pulled Blaze Edge out of her grasp and threw it aside. Claire kicked at the man to her left and successfully broke his knee making him scream in pain but he refused to let go of the pinkette.
"Hurry up, will ya!" the man on Claire's right shouted.
The pinkette felt something tiny pierce her neck and knew instantly it had been a needle. The size had given it away and she knew it was filled with a tranquilizer. She felt her limbs and eyelids grow heavy and the men release her. Quickly turning to flee the area, she tripped over her own foot and fell to the ground, dirt and dust covering her front. Claire tried to push herself up again but she felt as if her muscles had the strength of an overcooked noodle. As Claire slipped into unconsciousness, she felt the men pick her up.
Please leave a review and tell me if something needs correction/improvement.
