Claire woke with a start when she rolled over and felt something wet contact her face. She sat up and tried to wipe it off but it only spread on her face. Snapping her eyes open to examine whatever was on her hands made her wish she had kept her eyes closed. Her hands were covered in blood. Same with her arms, legs, chest, and even her hair had been spattered with the crimson liquid. The knife which she had been carrying with her for years was laying open on the bed beside her and the blade was entirely soaked in blood. In horror Claire looked around the room only to see close to a dozen corpses. Men and women were scattered about the room, all of them brutally murdered. Most were simply stabbed, a few had their throats slashed and the guy on the bed beside where Clair had been sleeping not a minute ago was nearly disemboweled. All of the blood was just minutes old.
Claire's stomach lurched at the sight but somehow she managed to not vomit. A loud group cheer from below the room made her realize that the party was still going which is the only reason she had not woken to a gun in her face and why no one had responded to the screams that must have been erupting from the victims. Thinking quickly Claire grabbed her knife and slipped out of the room, locking the door as she left, as stealthily as she could manage. She bumped into a drunk guy at the top of the stairs who went tumbling down but just laughed and stood up when he hit the floor at the bottom and announced that he still had some beer in his cup. The crowd applauded and cheered for him. Claire snuck into a bathroom and locked the door behind her.
Her reflection was just as she feared it would be. Blood was spattered all over her from head to toe. Not knowing what else to do, Claire got into the shower fully clothed and turned on the water to rinse as much of the blood off as possible. She lost track of how long she had been in the shower but only stepped out when she thought she and her knife was clear of blood. Dripping wet, Claire leaned onto the the counter and tried to force a memory she knew she didn't have forward. Even with all the effort she was putting forth, she couldn't bring up a memory of maliciously slaughtering nearly a dozen innocent people. Looking into the mirror Claire saw her soaked hair and just how sickly she appeared at the moment. Then her reflection gave her a smile, one with the most unfiltered evil she had ever seen in her life.
Her eyes grew wide and a scream of pure terror erupted from her throat. The wall behind hit her back and she sank to the floor, her heart thundering in her chest. The soldier couldn't believe she had just screamed like a little girl but her reflection acting of it's accord was one thing she had not been mentally prepared for. Slowly she got to her feet and hesitantly she looked into the mirror. Her reflection was back to mimicing her every movement. Claire had to go find Zack, she wasn't going to tell him what happened but she had to find him.
Making her way down the stairs, Claire was highly aware of the looks she was getting from the other party goers, as she was soaking wet. The pinkette tried to keep her powerful stance and walk but too much horror had happened too quickly for her. Just as her feet hit the floor, the lights and music shut off bringing all manner of shouts and complaints from the drunken crowd, Claire knew the power outage meant only one thing. Her SOLDIER instincts erased the horror from her mind and sent her running for her gunblade. Claire only then realized that she wasn't drunk anymore and just wrote it off as a perk of the SOLDIER enhanced metabolism.
Blaze Edge was exactly where Claire remembered stashing it and she quickly attached the sheath then flipped it into sword mode just as several windows shattered. Many people screamed in surprise, many others questioned what just broke the windows, the answer was numerous small canisters that began spewing a specially designed smoke. More people started to scream and tried to drunkenly scramble away, which went as well as expected of the drunken crowd, but Claire was getting ready for a fight.
There was almost no visuals between the darkness and the smoke but Claire knew neither of those factors would hinder whoever had sent the smoke grenades. She started to hear voices shouting at the civilians to get on the floor and started to carefully sneak around to the front of the building to see who was invading. She saw Zack, Hope, and Tidus sitting below the front bay window, one look told her they were still far too drunk to be of any help, though she doubted Tidus would be of much help in the first place. Claire ran over and crouched down beside Zack.
"What's going on?" She demanded.
"PSI-" Zack started but hiccuped then coughed "-COM."
Claire took a peek out of the corner of the window and saw numerous large trucks all with the PSICOM insignia. People from the party were running outside and after a quick look over, the PSICOM soldiers let the people go. They were looking for Claire.
It would be rude to keep them waiting.
"It would be suicide to go out there." Claire mentally argued.
For a normal soldier. But you were a First Class SOLDIER Operative, trained by a living legend. You're far better than Zack and he took down half a battalion.
The pinkette agreed with the male and female voices speaking in unison. Calmly she stood up, fell into a relaxed stance, and turned towards the door.
"What you doing?" Zack slurred.
"Giving them what they want." Claire reply flatly.
"What? No!" Zack shouted but Claire ignored him.
With purpose Claire walked out of the house and into the light from the many headlights. She swept her gaze over the large number of soldiers standing guard around the line of vehicles. She heard dozens of guns being cocked and couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her lips. One man, however, walked out of the line and stood to face Claire but at what he must have considered to be a safe distance. Claire almost laughed, the safest distance from a SOLDIER First was nearly fifty meters and definitely not eight feet. The man standing opposite Claire was taller than her, just over six feet tall, was wearing an ankle length overcoat, had a rapier style sword at his hip, and that was all Claire could see of him due to having to face the bright lights.
"Surrender and none of you will be hurt." The man commanded. He was obviously the higher ranking officer.
He lies. He'll order them to kill you the moment you're in cuffs.
"How can I be sure of that?" Claire asked back.
"I give you my word as lieutenant colonel of PSICOM." The man reply.
Your enemy is asking you to trust him. Don't be stupid.
"You must think I'm stupid enough to trust my enemy." Claire said back. She pointed Blaze Edge at the man, though it was still in sword mode.
"I didn't think a SOLDIER First would take a deal." The way the man said that bugged Claire.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Claire asked, she was losing her patience. The man just turned and started walking back to the line of soldiers and vehicles.
"I want her alive." The man called to the soldiers.
Look at these foolish people. Do they actually think they can stop you? The voices chuckled Show them the true power of a First Class SOLDIER Operative. Show them the power given to you by the J-Cells.
"Have any of you ever seen a SOLDIER First in battle?" Claire asked the assembled soldiers "Because whatever stories you have heard understate our abilities."
Kill them all.
Claire fell into a defensive stance as the PSICOM soldiers started moving towards her, drawing their batons. The pinkette watched as they stepped into formation around her, organizing themselves so they wouldn't interfere with each other's attacks. She almost laughed to herself over how easy this would be. PSICOM could throw whatever they wanted at her but she would always win, that's what the SOLDIERs were meant to do. The only proper anti-SOLDIER unit in the world was another SOLDIER. Claire shifted her feet and got ready to strike with the speed of a bolt of lightning.
"No!" she heard Zack shout from somewhere behind her an instant before someone crashed into her, knocking her down, prying Blaze Edge out of her hand, tossing it aside, and swiftly pinning her arms to her back.
"What the hell!? What are you doing!? Get off of me!" Claire growled.
"I'm saving your life." Zack said to her. Unknown to her, Zack watching her face down a near battalion of PSICOM troops gave him a flashback to his battle with the Shinra militia in the badlands around Midgar.
Zack held her down until she was cuffed as well as himself. A few minutes later, PSICOM soldiers came out of the fraternity house with Hope, Fang, and a giggling Vanille all cuffed. A couple other PSICOM soldiers had the group's weapons and then the group was lead to an armored truck. One soldier was given the task of collecting Claire's weapons, he collected Blaze Edge but clearly didn't want to take the knife off Claire, though he did as he was commanded. Their cuffs were connected to the wall of the vehicle via a short but very strong chain. As soon as the truck started moving Vanille leaned against Fang and fell asleep, Hope leaned against the wall next to him and fell asleep as well leaving Claire, Zack, and Fang to exchange looks. Claire could see how drunk Zack still was by the red in his face and his rather distant look but Fang on the other hand, looked perfectly sober and alert just like Claire.
"How did PSICOM know where we were?" Zack asked no one specifically.
"Sazh." Claire stated.
"How can ya be sure?" Fang asked "I don't think the old guy would jus' up and betray us after everything."
"He has a son that I took him away from." Claire stated again. Fang nodded her understanding.
"Can't blame 'im for that." Fang said with a smirk and a shrug "Parents will always put their kids first." The huntress' tone changed slightly as she said the last part. The only way Claire could describe the tone that slipped through was speaking-from-experience but that didn't seem right to Claire. There was no way Fang could have been a parent in Claire's opinion.
Letting that subject go until later Claire decided to get some other information "How are you sober?" directing the question at Fang.
"Didn't drink." Fang answered with a chuckle "Not tha' hard to understand, Sunshine." Claire gave an annoyed huff at the use of Fang's nickname for her.
Claire turned her attention away from the far too flippant huntress towards something more useful, like escaping. She was able to come up with numerous different plans to escape by herself but she refused to leave Zack behind and he would only be dead weight to her until he sobered up. Not to mention Zack wouldn't even attempt escape unless the others could also be rescued. So until they were all sober, there was no chance of escape. The only thing Claire could do until then was be a good prisoner, so she decided to try and get some sleep.
"Ugh…" Cloud sat up and held his head. Apparently he was lying on a bed, most likely in the Shinra mansion.
"Cloud!" he heard Tifa cry out and he suddenly had arms wrapped around him.
"What happened?" Cloud asked as he gently pushed Tifa back.
"Why don't you tell us?" A deep raspy voice asked. Cloud looked towards it and saw Vincent standing near the door to the bedroom. His blank expression and flat tone made it impossible to decipher Vincent's reason for asking.
"Sephiroth was in the reactor. He talked to us and then I passed out." The blond summarized. Vincent gave a huff in response as if he had been expecting more. The caped man then just turned and left the room.
"I don't like him."
"Cloud!" Tifa scolded him but the blond ignored the scolding and got to his feet.
He saw the Buster Sword near the bed he had not been on and retrieved the giant memento. The soldier mulled over the mystery that was the red caped man. The first thing Vincent did when he met the group of rebels was hold an empty gun to the back of Serah's head and ask a couple simple questions before seemingly vanishing. When they later found him, he had not been surprised at all then divulged some of the village's secrets. The gunslinger was reserved and open, impossible to read yet his words always carried meaning. Cloud admitted to himself he was not the best at deciphering people but he could do it yet he couldn't figure out Vincent and that deeply frustrated him. Unknown to the SOLDIER, Serah, who was an expert on reading people due to being a Turk, had also been mulling over the mystery man but came up just as short in her analysis.
The pink haired Turk was sitting in a room on the opposite side of the mansion just staring out the window and trying to decipher Vincent. But just like Cloud, she was at a loss. One thing Serah did not like about Vincent was his presence, it felt just wrong to Serah. Not sinister, evil, or malicious, just wrong. Akin to knowing there is something hiding nearby but you are unable to find it. That bugged Serah far more than anything else.
"Hey Serah?" Yuffie said to get the pinkette's attention.
"Hmm?" Serah turned to look at the young Wutaian standing in the doorway.
"We're getting ready to leave now." Yuffie turned and left without waiting for Serah. She could tell the young girl was still spooked by what they had seen in the village and the reactor.
The groups converged in the foyer of the mansion to decide what to do next but no one spoke for a short while. Cloud finally mentioned the passage to the reactor from the mansion and said they would be moving through the mountains to continue pursuing Sephiroth. There were a few objections of the real target being Shinra, Cloud countered them with saying that whatever Sephiroth was doing was much worse and they had far less time to stop than the mako Reactors. Snow and Barret asked how he knew that and Cloud could only mention what the creatures had been saying and Sephiroth's talk about 'Reunion' which wasn't very convincing in his mind but it sounded much better than just a gut feeling. However, only Tifa, Aerith, and Nanaki sided with Cloud. After several minutes of arguing, everyone went quiet for a time.
"If you are so intent on going to war with Shinra," Vincent said from the balcony above them, surprising most of them "You will need more than just a squad. I'm joining you in your efforts."
"Why?" Barret asked, skepticism was thick in his voice "What you got against 'em?"
"Does it matter? I want to see Shinra burn, that's all you need." Vincent reply.
"Yeah… I so don't trust him." Serah heard Lebreau whisper to someone. Most likely Yuj.
"I didn't ask you to trust me. I said I'm going with you." Vincent said from his place on the balcony. Serah heard Lebreau gasp at the fact that she had been heard.
Serah knew most people would have said that in an aggressive way but the man with the cape said it with his usual flat tone. He made it sound like his forcing the group to accept him was no more special than the weather. Vincent continued to annoy the Turk because of how impossible it was to read him. His face never held any emotion, even his eyes held a neutral look, and his tone was always flat, as if he knew any sort of slip could give something away. It was as if he had been schooled to hide his emotions just like all Turks were when they joined up. But Serah knew there was no way the mysterious man in the cape had been a Turk, he simply looked too young to have received formal Turk training and been away from them long enough to grow his hair out to that length.
Vincent lead the way through the mansion and the following passage to the reactor. The lift at the end of the tunnel had to make multiple trips to get everyone to the top. Once everyone was outside the reactor, Vincent lead the way down the back of the mountain range. The first beast they encountered was nothing serious but everyone knew it was one that would call out at the first sign of trouble. Everyone but Vincent drew their weapons and got ready but before they could act, the beast was put down by a trio of bullets from Vincent.
"I thought you said that was empty." Snow said to Vincent after the ringing in his ears went quiet.
"Never said I didn't have ammo for it." Vincent said flatly as he twirled the gun in his hand a bit and slid it into the holster "You only load a gun when you intend to kill something."
For the most part, the rest of the trip out of the Nibel mountains was uneventful. The large group did encounter a very large insectoid creature that was capable of using materia. After a long and almost fatal fight with the insectoid, some of the group said it was a monster made by Shinra, Vincent said overexposure to the lifestream could have also resulted in the creature and Aerith agreed with him. The young woman said that the creature didn't have the same presence as one of Shinra's monsters.
When they were free of the perpetual fog in the Nibel mountain range, the group spotted something tall and leaning in the distance. Before they got close enough to see what it was, they had to make camp. Vincent told the group he would go set up a perimeter and left the camp. In the morning, some of the group were surprised to find everyone still alive because they had been expecting Vincent to kill one or two of them. The gunslinger though, returned to camp just as everyone was getting ready to move. They reached the tall leaning object at about midday and learned that it was the biggest rocket they have ever seen and it was surrounded by a small village. The more prejudiced members of the group speculated that it was a Shinra weapon but Serah knew the truth.
Serah recalled hearing about the first ever manned mission into orbit around the planet and how it failed. It had been confirmed after investigation that the launch had been aborted just after the engines fired but the commander of the mission never disclosed why he aborted the launch. The commander of the first manned mission to space was none other than Shinra's most reknown pilot, Captain Cid Highwind. His profile had said that before the aborted mission Cid had been one of the most friendly people the evaluator had ever met but after the aborted mission, Captain Highwind had never been the same.
The group received a number of odd looks as they entered town which was unsurprising. Even the group thought they looked like an odd collection of people. Before they split up to both gather information and supplies, Serah observed someone that looked like an engineer knock on a door and that door flew open a second later. A sandy blond older man wearing goggles on his head, and an obvious pilot's uniform, was in the doorway. Serah recognized the man as the one and only Captain Highwind. He exchanged words with the engineer for a moment before-
"Goddammit! Can't you bastards do anything right!" Captain Highwind shouted, making everyone look over, as he stormed off towards the rocket.
"Who was that?" Aerith asked everyone.
"Captain Highwind, Shinra's best pilot." Serah answered.
"Shinra's best?" Barret asked "I bet they'd hate to lose 'im." Barret readied his gun arm, his intentions more than obvious.
"No!" Serah said far too quickly and loudly for her own liking but before anyone could question it, Vincent followed.
"Attacking a high profile target within Shinra is an excellent way to bring their full might down on us." Vincent said, defending Serah's outburst.
"Let's go meet him." Aerith suddenly said cheerfully.
"Uh… You want to meet a Shinra goon that we just saw flip out on some poor guy?" Maqui asked, to Serah it sounded like Maqui thought Aerith was being very stupid.
"He can't be that bad. Call it a gut feeling." Aerith said with a smile as she started walking towards to the rocket
"She's…" Snow started but he didn't know what to say.
"Weird?" Tifa asked.
"I would say stupid." Yuffie said.
"She may be far more perceptive than any of you give her credit for." Vincent stated as he turned and started heading towards the shop.
Serah then decided she should try to become more friendly with the Cetra, try to learn more about her. The one thing that made her decide on that was Vincent. He didn't talk much at all, but Serah was already learning that whenever he did speak, his words had weight. It was clear he knew much more than she thought he did, was very perceptive, and could read people like a book. The real question Serah had about Vincent was a simple one: How much does he know? Serah didn't like her position between two people that clearly knew more than they revealed but hid that knowledge.
So I have a bit of a problem, this was the natural direction of the story but I have no ideas for Claire/Lightning's side of story in their current situation and I'm not sure how to do the Rocket Town part of modified FF7 so… Yeah… Not good… If you have suggestions, I'm open to them.
Please leave a review.
