::The Last Avatar::
Gamer Edition
BOOK ONE
LEVIATHAN
1.18
Let's Mosey!
Rue's first sight of Midgar came shortly after the 'Shut up Angeal' episode, and even though she knew what to expect, seeing a city that she'd only seen through a screen while playing a video game in real life was surreal. Watching Midgar grow closer really brought it home that she was not at home any more. Sure the people she'd been getting to know people who had been categorised as fictional until recently, but Midgar was making Rue's reality much more real.
Pulling out her instant camera Rue took a photo of the sprawling city sitting in the middle of the desert and wrapped in a seemingly eternal night that should have been completely impossible and yes, there it was. Mako Reactors and all. Rue grimaced at the thought of the reactors and what they were doing to Gaia as a whole. Part of her wanted to jump off the airship and run off to Aerith's or Cosmo Canyon, of course that was her inner Greenie talking thanks to her mothers influence growing up. A much smaller part that Rue had dubbed 'Psychotic Evil Rue' wanted to go and find AVALANCHE in whatever form she may find it in and tell them all the stupid shit that was going to go down and how they could stop at least some of it by assassinating Hojo. Of course that was also the part of her that dug Evil Sephiroth and nothing good came from falling for the villain. Ever.
"I take it this is your first visit to the city?" Rue jumped a little at the words. Glancing slightly behind her Rue discovered Angeal, 'Ninja-Asshat', had sidled up behind her and was practically looming over her to look out the same window she was, just over her Gaia damned shortness. All the gods and goddesses in the sky knew how much Rue disliked- hated- when people wordlessly used her lack of height against her in such ways. As such Rue responded by reaching up and flicking his hairless chin before answering. Baby Face.
"Yes and no," she answered evasively. The raised eyebrow given in response was practically tangible and made the teenage girl huff. "It's complicated, I've been there, but I haven't at the same time," Rue winced. That had sounded far more sense-making in her head. Add into the fact that her awkward was coming out due to the close proximity to a rather attractive dude.
"How can you have been there and not have been there at the same time? That makes no sense," he prodded at her explanation verbally. Rue screwed her face up as she tried to find a feasible answer that neither he nor Genesis who she knew was listening while keeping his nose firmly in his book, wouldn't poke holes in.
"Like I said, it's complicated, but I have never actually set foot in that city before," Rue looked up at the still looming Angeal slyly. An idea had formed in her mind, all she had to do was be cool about her next answers and all would be well. For the moment anyway. As the saying goes 'the truth is far more impossible than fiction'.
"Then how could you have been there?" he frowned down at her. Rue grinned at him and then looked back at the darkened sky above the city, taking note of the almost sickly green glow the buildings were bathed in.
"There are other means with which one can visit a city, Angeal," the words were spoken quietly as Rue became distracted by the cityscape below as they flew over it on their way to the tower. She felt Angeal shift, but he didn't move from his place behind her as they watched the Shinra Tower grow steadily closer. He didn't argue with her answer to Rue's relief and was likely pondering on what she could have meant, it didn't matter though, no-one was ever going to guess the real answer and even if someone did, who in their right mind would believe them? Unless it was someone like, Rude or Reeve, the least insane and responsible characters she could think of in that moment;despite the fact that one of them had built a talking, Scottish, robotic cat that gave terrible fortunes and used a megaphone as a weapon. If they figured her out and told people, well, it was possible others would believe them. On the other hand if someone like Reno found out no one would take him too seriously, hopefully. Just thinking about that brought the possibility of Hojo finding out she was the Avatar and where she had come from and oh god he was totally going to experiment on her! It was at that thought that Rue's stomach started roiling with the fear those thoughts evoked and the closer to the tower they got the worse Rue started to feel.
Thankfully Angeal must have sensed the foreboding feelings that were starting to well up in Rue's gut when he placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"Well in any case, welcome to Midgar and don't worry, we aren't going to let anything happen to you," he assured her gently. Rue took a deep breath and once again swallowed down that fear as she had been doing quite often since her first meeting with Sephiroth in Wutai.
"Yeah, thanks Big Guy, 's good to know," Rue patted the hand on her shoulder appreciatively.
"Big Guy?" there was amusement there and some scepticism. Hearing that brought Rue's smile back, she wouldn't have been surprised if Angeal didn't consider himself to be a big dude. Of course he wasn't as broad as he was going to be when the events of Crisis Core finally began, but that didn't mean he wasn't broad in the shoulders or chest. Because he was. He was Angeal.
"Yep, Red gets a nickname so I figured you should get one too," she commented lightly.
"Oh? Does that mean I will be getting a nickname also?" Rue wasn't expecting to find Sephiroth watching the pair of them from the doorway in a similar fashion that Angeal had earlier. A silver eyebrow was raised at her and Rue's eyes glanced down at the large hand that was still resting on her shoulder and then back up at Sephiroth with an almost guilty look. Of course that was before the worst nickname for Sephiroth that could ever be thought of floated its way into her mind. It was so terribly bad that Rue was unable to stop herself grinning at him, she would never, ever, say it out loud unless he was properly restrained and she had a solid fool proof escape ready and waiting for her while being certain she would never, ever, see him again.
"Oh I have one in mind, but I'm fairly confident I would be murdered for even thinking it if you knew," she told him with a smirk plastered on her face. The eyebrow raised a little more and Genesis snorted softly from his corner before Sephiroth seemed to remember the reason for his presence and turned to his friends, suddenly all business.
"We'll be landing in roughly five minutes, after which we, and Tseng of the Turks, will be escorting Rue to a meeting with the President despite our best efforts to assure him it isn't necessary for him to do so. The other Executives have caught wind of the meeting and will now also be present," the small downward twitch of Sephiroth's mouth showed his thoughts on the matter. Well. Shit.
"Understood," was all Angeal said as he straightened up and moved away from Rue a little ways. It seemed he'd finally noticed how close he was standing to her if his uncomfortable cough was anything to go by.
"Yes, yes, fine," Genesis just waved Sephiroth away absent-mindedly as he finished his page. Rue watched with a smile she couldn't help as the red head finished off the page as he stood up, hand already holding the next, ready to turn it and mark his place with a stray piece of paper held between two fingers. She'd been there before, often as soon as she bought the book and using the receipt as a bookmark when she needed to stop reading.
"Rue, lets go," Sephiroth called over his shoulder as he strode out of the room. With a sigh of defeat Rue moved to follow him and Angeal back through the ship as he docked, it was time to meet people and try not to be terribly sarcastic and rude to them all. Except Reeve. He was cool.
Story Quest Discovered!
*Meet the Shinra's*
Story quest #5
...
It's time to meet the idiots fucking this world up.
Joy.
Been a while, hey kid?
I have to admit I fell asleep a bit for a while there, but the other idiot working with me said I missed some golden moments.
Trust you.
The moment I stop watching you do the entertaining things.
Well you can fucking stop it.
I need some entertainment so you better bring it kiddo, let those corporate bigwigs have it.
I'll give you something nice as a reward.
So yeah, go meet people and don't hold it in.
Or I might have to throw something random at the room.
Like a safe.
Yeah.
A safe.
Sounds good.
Rue almost tripped over herself when the screen popped up in front of her nose unexpectedly and she swore under her breath, she had not been expecting that at all. Though she should have really. 'B' just rolled like that it seemed and obviously got a kick out of screwing with her and now she had to worry about a safe dropping in the middle of the meeting with Shinra's higher-ups? Fan-fucking-tastic.
"You okay?" Rue closed her eyes while trying to keep the curses that wanted to fly from her mouth from escaping.
"Yup, I'm good," she replied after a moment and then smiled up at Genesis as he peered down at her. Why is everyone in Final Fantasy so fucking tall? Was all that passed through her mind as he nodded at her and motioned for her to get moving.
"So, you going to tell me?" he asked after a moment of silence. Rue blinked and looked at the smirking red head quizzically until he pointedly glanced ahead of them at Sephiroth briefly before looking back at her expectantly. Rue snorted at him, of all the things to ask her.
"Yeah, because you totally won't tell him if I do," she pointed out with an unimpressed look. Genesis gave her a hurt look before his smirk returned at full force.
"And if I promised I won't?" he asked slyly. Eyes were rolled in his direction.
"What on Gaia makes you think I would actually trust you?" she had to ask. Because, really, she wanted to tell him, because she had a feeling he'd find it as stupidly funny as she did. Younger, less jaded, poetry obsessed Genesis was turning out to be much more interesting than his older poetry obsessed degrading and insane self. She could even see herself becoming fairly good friends with him, if only he weren't an antagonist in this story she was living. It's always the hot ones.
"If I tell him, I'll-" he faltered a little as he tried to come up with a decent punishment for himself should he break his promise, "I'll-I'll fork over my Mastered Fire," he grimaced at the thought. Rue, however, just grinned at him.
"Deal," she agreed quickly. Sephiroth may kill her, but she'd get a mastered Materia before she died.
"So?" he prodded.
"You get a hint," she told him teasingly.
"A hint?" Genesis complained. He was frowning at her, obviously he'd thought she was actually going to say it within earshot of the person she didn't want to hear it. Idiot.
"Yep" was all she said.
"Well?" he prompted, wanting his hint.
"Me-ow," Rue just gave him a sidelong glance as they walked and raised her eyebrows as she spoke.
What?" Genesis frowned as he obviously drew a blank.
"Think about it," she assured him with a smirk. Watching Genesis go through the same thought process she had was more amusing than she'd initially thought it would be. She knew the moment he found it, his blue eyes widened and he seemed to be struggling with the hilarity it caused. His shoulders shook as he tried not to laugh audibly.
"You are right, he would probably kill you if you tried to call him that, however, the fact that you even thought of it grants you points with me, it's positively delicious," Genesis' smirk was more than a little sadistic at this point. It was unfortunate that they had caught up to the other two now and could not start cackling like the evil imps they really were deep down.
"What are you two talking about now?" Angeal looked between the pair of them suspiciously. Both Rue and Genesis wisely decided to remain silent on the matter however and were saved further questioning by Tseng striding over to them swiftly.
"Everyone ready?" he asked them. His eyes lingered on Rue for a moment before turning to Sephiroth for the green light. The silver haired teen nodded and together they began to lead the way to the door, leaving Angeal and Genesis to 'guard' the 'prisoner'. The whole situation was absurd and none of them had ever answered her questions concerning what would happen to her after this stupid meeting. All any of them had been willing to say was that they would make sure she was okay. Whatever that really meant.
So when both Sephiroth and Tseng turned to look at her before they walked through the exit to the airship she found herself grinning at them as a stupid geeky urge took her over.
"Let's mosey!" she told them with an unstoppable laugh escaped her. She couldn't not laugh at that, it was impossible.
CONGRATULATIONS!
ACHIEVEMENTS UNLOCKED!
*Flame Retardant*
Befriend Genesis Rhapsodos
Reward:
Fire(**) Materia
…
*Honoured to Meet You*
Befriend Angeal Hewley
Reward:
*Buster Sword Weapon Set* Unlocked
…
*Demon of Wutai*
Befriend Sephiroth
Reward:
*Soldier-Girl Rue* Unlocked
AN: Okay, so there was more to this chapter, but it was getting long and I've been so busy with my RL stuff and will be for a while I figured I'd cut this in half and post what I've written so far. This may or may not be the last one I post until after I move. Which is basically what's happening. Moving states is crap. Moving states with a pet is worse. I've been so stressed out the last week or so it's not even funny, which is probably why this chapter is a little ramble-y. So sorry if it's bad.
Next chapter is definitely the meeting with the Executives and President (and Hojo), along with some other fun stuff while I work out how to get to the end of this first part/book thing. Because we are now on the closing chapters. I wouldn't expect Book One to get past 1.25, but I've been wrong before. I do know how I'll be ending Book One though, so that's something.
YAY! Rue has friends! Note: Unlocked costumes and weapon sets don't mean she can just whip them out, she has to obtain them first.
Also, considering trying to do a comic based on this fic for fun (at least the prologue), but would like to know peoples opinions on that, simply because it's a thing that takes lots of time. Time I could spend writing instead.
So I ask: would you guys out there in the internet lands be interested in seeing a comic-y version of this? Just for the lulz?
For those of you wondering if I have an artistic bone in my body I point you to my deviantArt account (the link is on my profile). Shameless plug aside, it's just something I've been considering. Because, hey, good practice and fun.
Anyways, before I head back to Scrivener and keep going with the next chapter I just want to thank everyone who has put this fic on alert and faved it, it means the world to me. All those who reviewed, you guys just make my freaking day every time. Thank you so much.
Till next time,
RLK