A/N Man i know this is late, but I've been studying for my finals which are in the next three days, I think I will do well enough but I have to make sure of that. Anyway i also want to make something clear is that even though my break will be starting Thursday, i will still upload through the time of my break, also due to the way that i upload documents to my beta reader now, conversations won't have that really close text thing. SO now its time for the next chappa...but wait...
This is a celebratory moment. Not only is Christmas coming close, but this is the chapter that breaks the 100,000 word mark! HURRAY!
Merry Christmas and see you next week audience.
Ch 17
Reno had seen many things in his time as a Turk. Immoral experiments on humans, having to hunt down innocent people just because they tried to get away from Shinra, even what he had done to some or many in his line of work. He acknowledged Shinra was indeed evil in more ways than one; he would be one to admit he didn't agree with how things were run. But he took the job of being a Turk, meaning he had to suck it up and take his orders, it was easier that way. Among the things that he had seen included Hojo's creations that he would either guard or transport. Behemoths overexposed to Mako, making them twice their already large size and grow extra appendages or abilities, that thrashed in their cages with eyes filled with rage and blood lust. Other times included animals tame as Chocobos, experimented to the point of looking almost nothing like their original appearance, the seeming cold and lifeless with a deep emptiness inside their eyes. Yet in all of his years Reno had never seen eyes that stared at him from the ground now.
Almost completely white and glossed over, but they weren't empty. Instead he saw a mix of every negative thing a human could feel...and then more.
"Reno!" Rude yelled, snapping Reno out of his trance. Just in time to jump away from a fire spell aimed at his face from the ground.
"Nathan!" Tifa yelled, ecstatic her friend was well. However, before she could heal him, Cloud got in between them.
"Cloud, what are you doing?"
"Tifa, Aeris, stay back," he said, holding his Buster sword in a defensive stance. Nathan got off the ground and brushed the dirt off of himself.
"I must give him credit, I believed he would break even more as this progressed. He has a stronger will than most." He reached to his side, apparently for his sword. But looking he saw that when Reno dodged he knocked his sword in Rude's direction. He sighed.
"And you are smarter than you act." He lifted his hand and a medium sized fireball appeared near his palm. "No matter, I have more than just that technique at my disposal." The fireball went straight for Reno, to his credit he dodged, but the follow up punch to the gut was something he didn't expect.
"And I hardly think I will need a sword for you two." He then turned his attention to Rude and launched a lightning bolt. The Turk took the shot, his suit having a few stray sparks fly off before he shrugged it off. Reno tried to hit Nathan with his weapon, but he ducked and pushed him away.
"So you're finally getting serious? About time you actually put up a fight yo." Reno taunted. Although he felt a little taken aback when those eyes were on him again.
"He may like your character, but you're just an annoyance to me. We are not the same." He said before sending another fire at Reno. While he was distracted, Rude came up and put him in a hold, shortly after the Turk somehow effortlessly threw him into a tree. Both Turks seemed satisfied when he didn't get up right away. However...
"And he still has a weak bod;, at this rate I will have to do everything to improve." He said while getting up of the ground, seeming unfazed even though there was a clear gash on his head, the blood running down the middle of his face.
"Nathan, you need help," Aeris ran up and started casting a cure.
"Aeris you need to stay back!" Cloud yelled. Aeris ignored him and finished her spell. The gash was gone, but Nathan had a more annoyed expression.
"Stay out of the way. Or have your forgotten whom it is you fear?" Aeris froze when his empty eyes looked at her.
"He noticed how you were nervous a long time ago. Which means I have noticed." He knocked Aeris on her side and focused more on the two now confused Turks.
"Something is wrong with this kid's head," Reno said out loud.
"Let's see if you can take me actually putting in some effort." Both Turks jumped when suddenly both a fire and a lightning spell were thrown at them.
"Dual casting?" Cloud said out loud.
"That takes too much magic, what the hell is with this kid?" Reno asked, now realizing he wasn't messing with the same person from a few minutes ago. Nathan shot more fireballs and lightning bolts at the Turks, catching them off guard. Both would dodge when they could while everyone else was just looking.
"When could Nathan do these things?" Tifa asked. Cloud looked over and saw Aeris get up staring at Nathan with fear. He wondered why she would be scared of him. He felt unsettled when he was like this, but for her to already have these feelings before she even saw them?
"It isn't too hard to manipulate magic like this. Granted the concentration it takes to use two is a little straining, I could easily do three." Nathan responded to Tifa's question.
"Now!" Reno shouted to Rude. He knocked Nathan back and let Rude come in to uppercut him and then smash him into the ground when his feet lifted just slightly. Reno smiled.
"Cocky little psycho. Now let's get the rest of the te..." He didn't finish his sentence when Nathan just jumped up from being beaten and just sent more lighting and fire at the two Turks.
"Being deep enough of a subconscious being as I am, turning off unnecessary functions of the body is second nature." Rude immediately tried to hit Nathan with a right hook. He was successful, but Nathan simply turned his head back to look at him.
"My ability to feel pain was the first to go." Rude then was launched back by a kick from Nathan.
"Damn it! I won't lose again." Reno ran up and charged his shock rod and aimed for Nathan's chest. He hit him, but Nathan just took a step back to counter the impact, barely reacting to the hit.
"My turn." Reno saw a flicker of magic before he was punched, but this time the impact sent him into the nearest tree. The front of his suit was now torn and burnt. He looked up and saw both of Nathan's hands, one covered in flames and the other having lightning crack around it.
"That kid's a damn monster." He mumbled. Rude came up next to him.
"We need to leave." Reno was already angry at him.
"What? We can totally take him; I don't care what that freak can do!"
"He has allies." Reno growled. Even when he and Rude took him down, his friends would still be in good health. He got up and tossed out a grenade.
"I won't forget this, kid." The grenade exploded in a flash of light, causing everyone in the area to cover their eyes. When they looked up, the Turks were nowhere to be seen. Cloud looked over and saw Nathan just on his knees. His left hand looking badly burnt and the other was shaking badly.
"Nathan, are you okay?" Cloud went up only to block a strike from Nathan's sword.
"Never better, Strife." He tried to hit Cloud again, but with his reflexes Cloud shoved him with the heavier sword down on the ground.
"Nathan, wake up!" He shouted into his face but only received a jagged smile in return.
"Sorry, he's sleeping," was the reply. He attempted to strike Cloud again, but the buster sword's weight kept him pinned. Cloud lifted his fist.
"It's for your own good Nate." He took one good punch. Even with him not feeling pain, Cloud knew the impact from the punch and his head hitting the ground would knock him out for a while.
"Cloud..." He looked back at Tifa.
"What's wrong with Nathan...?"
(later)
I hate hangovers. Granted, every time I have enjoyed alcohol or anything, the next day I would be good because I knew what to do to minimize the effects on my body. However, when I started to wake up I felt an extremely large headache pulsate and then the rest of my body felt like it was hit by a truck, multiple times, and I couldn't feel my hands at all.
"Hey, he's waking up." I heard. I opened my eyes to see Yuffie sitting over me.
"What happened?" I grumbled.
"I don't know. The guys just brought you back and told me to watch you. It sucks; I knew you'd wake up. You're not a weak guy." she said. I just chuckled.
"Maybe they wanted the best ninja ever to help me out." I said, knowingly feeding her ego. I would rather listen to her brag about herself than whine about having to do something with the team.
"So, how did you do it?" I looked up at her.
"Do what?"
"Take out both the Turks, duh! Cloud said that everyone was at a disadvantage, so you did something to help them win. What was it? I wanna know!" When she mentioned the Turks, my memories came back to me. Reno took me out, how long have I been out? I tried to get up, but my body ached all over, forcing me back down.
"Yeah you're still pretty beat up." You think? I was about to be a smart ass before I saw Cloud walk up. He had a very stern look on his face.
"You went overboard this time."
"What happened then?" He looked surprised at what I said.
"You don't remember this time?"
"Remember what?" He looked down.
"You...snapped again." I realized what he meant and looked away.
"But I was unconscious, I don't remember a thing." I honestly didn't. And to know that...my messed up side came out without my knowing scared me a little.
"Did I hurt anyone?" I hoped I hadn't gotten out of control.
"Mostly the Turks and yourself, but Aeris is shaken. You hit her, nothing as bad as you, but still."
"How bad off am I actually?" I asked. I couldn't get a good look since when I moved I felt jolts of pain.
"Your nerves are still sensitive since you were hit by the Turk's shock-rod a few times. You had a fractured rib as well. Your hands had the worst of it really. Second degree burns on one and the other has nerve damage." I lifted my arms and looked. My left hand was completely covered in gauze, my right was in a similar state, but it spazzed out every now and again, it really annoyed me that I couldn't feel either of them though.
"How the hell did this happen?" I asked Cloud.
"You dual cast fire and lightning on both of your fists. Something like that is already hard enough for someone to do, yet you did it with ease."
"I can't really explain that part either." How is dual casting hard? I know it takes a lot of concentration for one materia, maybe two is a little much I guess.
"You don't need to, I've come to terms that you have something special about you, however before you turned, you were very reckless when you fought." I looked away.
"What are you two talking about?" Yuffie asked. Cloud ignored her.
"You didn't keep calm and Reno got the better of you. You can fight better than this Nathan." I sighed. I really didn't want Cloud to add insults to my injuries right now.
"This is why I will help you when your hands heal." I was surprised to hear that.
"What?"
"You need to learn how to handle a sword with length; although your sword is longer than mine I can still help you use it. If you had experience, you probably would have knocked Reno away."
"So Nathan won too?" Yuffie interrupted again, Cloud sighed.
"Yes, he won, but just barely. Now Nathan you need to rest, it will take a day or two with restore materia for your hands to get back to normal. Everyone's resting by the fire over there if you think you can walk." I tried getting up again, but I fell back down in a mass of pain.
"Guess not. Yuffie, keep him company, and don't annoy him. He's suffered enough as is."
"I never annoy Nathan! He's the only one besides the new guy that hasn't grumbled when I talked." I groaned.
"That was from his injuries." She said.
"Yo Cloud, tell Aeris I'm sorry, I'll explain everything to her and Tifa when I'm better." He grunted and walked over to the group's bonfire, I finally realized we were back with the buggy and I was in the back. From what it looked like, it was almost sundown.
"You gotta teach me how to cast two different materia Nate!" Yuffie said.
"Yuffie, I can't teach you how."
"Aww come on, I'll be your best friend."
"Tempting, but no thanks." Yuffie huffed before she sat still. Soon enough I heard another set of footsteps walk up and I saw it was a concerned looking Tifa.
"Hey." I said.
"You have a lot of explaining to do about what happened." She said.
"Sure, but first could you heal me some more? I hate like feeling like a pin cushion." She sighed and started casting cure on my hands and the rest of my body. After a minute she tried to get me to drink a potion.
"You just cured me."
"You still have internal injuries; the potion will help speed up the recovery of your ribs." Hearing the explanation, I drank the medicine. Tifa sat in the seat next to me.
"What happened to you Nathan? You completely changed" She looked concerned.
"I'm fine now. I just have some problems to sort out." I said.
"You turned into a completely different person Nate. I want to know what really happened."
"Nathan did what?" Yuffie asked.
"I'm guessing not everyone knows about the fight?" I asked.
"We left out a few details, but they know you were the one to run them off." Tifa said. I sighed. "Nate, we are your friends, if something is wrong you can tell us."
"...I'm not right in the head Teef." I said. No reason to lie now, I guess I knew I would eventually have to own up to what has happened to me.
"What do you mean?" Asked Tifa.
"I have been through...a lot of things Tifa. The kind of stuff that would make a normal person breakdown and cry. The reason I didn't is because I found a way to cope with it."
"You mean when you changed..."
"It really wasn't me..." I told her. She looked down, knowing what I was implying.
"You're insane?" Yuffie yelled, surprised.
"It's helped me cope with what's happened, since I was taken from my home, I haven't been the same I guess." I didn't like how the human mind works; the smallest things can set a reaction that can cause the most horrible incidents. Here I am in that state and I don't feel any different.
"Nathan...I know we've been through a lot but I didn't know, I'm sorry." Tifa apologized. I scoffed.
"I should have said something when I took out the Zolom. I should be sorry; Cloud told me I scared Aeris." I said.
"I'll tell her you apologized. She's better now, but hearing that, she'll be back to her old self in no time." She got up and took a few steps, but turned back.
"It's good you told me Nathan. At least you don't bottle up what happens to you." She seemed to stare off into space for a second before shaking her head and walking back to the campfire. Since I had nothing better to do I turned my head to look at the clouds, only to see Yuffie hovering over my face.
"What?"
"You don't look crazy." She stated.
"I only have problems when I lose control of my emotions." And when I get knocked out, I'll need to be more careful from now on.
"Did you really kill a Zolom?"
"Yes." I said. She had a huge grin on her face.
"You have to show me how to dual cast now, you're almost as amazing as me. Maybe I'll teach you something in exchange. Come on what do ya say?" For the next while I tried to get sleep while ignoring Yuffie's constant nagging for me to teach her to dual cast.
(not too far away.)
The group was quiet for the most part. When Cloud brought Nathan back, almost everyone was concerned for his condition. They used up what first aid supplies they had to get him to what he was now. They would have to go into town to get more; apparently Dio didn't understand the full implications of what they were trying to do to Sephiroth and mainly gave them food.
"He's better now if anyone is wondering." Tifa walked up and sat with everyone else around the fire.
"Man, still can't believe Nate took those Turks on his own. You really wouldn't see it." Barret looked back at the buggy, seeing Nathan with a straight face while Yuffie was talking to him nonstop.
"Maybe I should take her place." Red said.
"No, let him be. It'll motivate him to get better faster," Cloud said. He looked at Aeris, seeing she looked troubled.
"He says sorry." Aeris head picked up and looked at Tifa. "He feels bad about what happened."
"Its fine, I just hoped Nathan didn't have anything to hide." Aeris said. Cloud sighed.
"It's not his fault, I kept his secret to." Everyone looked at him. "The same thing happened after you all were hit by the Zolom." Everyone was surprised at this.
"I must ask why you didn't tell us when he was recovering then." Red said.
"I promised him I wouldn't." Cloud simply stated.
"What's wrong with him though?" Asked Barret.
"To put it simply, he has another personality, at least that's what he tells me." Cloud said.
"Another personality?" asked Aeris.
"How in the hell did Nate get something like that?" Barret said.
"He has been through a lot, he saw Sephiroth and lived. He has had too many traumatic experiences." Cloud replied, feeling a little sad for one of his comrades.
"He did say something else I didn't know." Tifa said. Everyone looked at her.
"He said he was taken from his home... Hasn't he been telling us he was traveling?" Everyone seemed surprised at that.
"Taken? Why?" Aeris asked.
"Why would he hide that?" Red asked, which was the exact question on his mind. Nathan had kept some things from the group, but he usually told the truth. He was a very honest kid, so why lie about that?
"Should we talk to him? What do we do?" Asked Aeris.
"Nothing," came the surprising answer from Barret. "Nate's been a good guy since we dragged him into this, unlike you guys he didn't even bug me about what happened at Corel. So I say he deserves the same."
"I agree." Said Tifa. "He told me at the Gold Saucer that everyone has secrets. If he wants to keep his, then we can wait until he's ready to tell us." Cloud sighed. Although he didn't like it, they were both right.
"Then we keep quiet about this. Understood?" Everyone nodded their heads.
"Then get some rest, we still need to see what is in Gongaga." Everyone had gone into their tents to sleep. Yuffie and Cait Sith were guards for the night.
"What an interesting person." Said Cait, looking towards the buggy.
(next day)
I wasn't feeling all that better, but I wanted to keep moving since the longer we just waited around the more time we wasted trying to follow Sephiroth. By mid-morning Tifa said that my rib was fine, but I still needed time for my hands to heal. Cloud forbade me from fighting even with magic until I was healed. He switched me out for Red and said that we should explore a different path. He took the keys to the buggy and said with all the monsters around, it isn't as if anyone could steal it. I had my swords on my back just in case and started traveling one of the paths with Barret, Yuffie, and Cait Sith.
"Look up ahead." Barret said. We came to a clearing in the forest and found a huge pile of jagged metal.
"What is that?" Yuffie said.
"It was a Mako reactor, it exploded though." I said. We all kept walking until we came into the center of the junk heap.
"Damn, this thing was blown to hell." Barret said.
"Must have been a meltdown, it seems like a really old reactor." Said Cait Sith, inspecting some of the wreckage. In the distance though, I could hear mechanical whirling and realized what was happening.
"Guys, we need to hide, Shinra's here." Everyone looked back and saw the helicopter land outside the wreck. We all ran to the other side of the rubble and waited. Coming into sight was Scarlet and a very dejected looking Tseng. Scarlet had gone to specific part of the reactor and opened up a cover, looking inside before she sneered.
"Humph! This one isn't good either!" She yelled, throwing a materia down to the ground. "You only get junky materia from junky reactors. This one is no good. I need a big, large, huge materias. Have you seen any?" She looked at Tseng.
"No I haven't, but I will get right on it." He said.
"Please, we could make the ultimate weapon if we only had some."
"I just can't wait." Tseng replied, although in his usual tone it sounded very sarcastic.
"With Hojo gone the weapons department been getting a bigger budget." She said.
"I envy them." Man, Tseng must really hate Scarlet. Who in the business does he like besides his subordinates?
"But even if we make the perfect weapon, could that idiot Heidegger use it?" Tseng was quiet while she spoke.
"Oh that's right, Heidegger is your boss." She laughed in Tseng's emotionless face
"Let's go." Both left and entered the helicopter. It was gone when we came out of hiding.
"Big, huge materia?" Barret said.
"Perfect weapon?" Said Cait.
"What is Shinra trying to do?" Asked Yuffie, everyone shrugged.
"We'll have to tell Cloud back in town." I said walking up to the panel that Scarlet was at. I reached inside and pulled out a materia.
"One more for the pickins." I said.
"NOOOO" I heard Yuffie yell and she tried to get the materia from me.
"No fair, you always find summon materia! It's not fair, let someone else get something!" Being a foot taller, it was easy to keep the materia out of her reach.
"He finds materia?" Asked Cait Sith, Barret nodded.
"Yeah, hey Nate how do you find them? We have like five now."
"I don't know Barret, I just do." I said. Cait Sith just smiled and started walking out of the place. However we heard a roar at the front.
A dinosaur with tank treads was charging.
"Guys!" I yelled, running behind the group since I wasn't supposed to be fighting anything with my hands messed up as they were.
"Alright, time for some action." Barret said, already shooting at the beasts large head, making it stop in its tracks.
"Just sit tight." Yuffie ran and threw her shuriken, slicing a part of the beast before it tried to strike her; she ran up some of the rubble and took hold of her blade flying back at her.
"Damn it, I need to do something." I said.
"Don't worry; I'll protect you while those guys take it out!" I looked at the cat on top of the machine.
"You use a megaphone for a weapon. Just shout at the creature and we run when it looks at you, now help them. Those things are tough." I told him. He seemed a little surprised before pulling out his weapon. I covered my ears just in case and saw the cat yell into the megaphone. What surprised me was I actually saw the sound waves emit from the amplifier and hit the monster truck/dinosaur monster. It covered its head in pain giving Barret and Yuffie more time to keep attacking, but the monster was big enough to take the hits and try to demolish what was left of the field.
"Damn it." I said again. I wanted to be support, but I had to use my hands to cast magic. I need to find a way around that. It took another ten minutes of shooting, shouting, and slicing but the thing finally went down. Yuffie was the worst since she ran around but she only had a few scratches. Without my hands, I was made the designated pack mule, so I gave her and Barret some potions.
"Man, Nate you need to get better so we have something to help us out."
"Fine, I need to find a way to do magic without my hands though." I told him.
"That even possible?" He asked.
"Not really, that's why armlets were made, it helps with concentration for magic more than you think. Just having the materia in your pocket and then thinking about the spell just takes too much of a draw on you." Cait Sith explained. I was a little surprised he knew so much about magic actually.
"I bet he could find a way, Nate's our best mage! Maybe you'll get famous and get a cool name just like me." I heard Yuffie say. It kind of made me feel good to hear that someone thought I was awesome. It always gave me a warm feeling.
"Well, let's go, the gang has probably gotten stuff from town and some new info. Let's head back to the buggy." We trekked back and found everyone else was already at the buggy. I noticed Aeris and Tifa with thoughtful looks on their faces; I decided not to pry yet.
"Anything good?" I asked.
"We got supplies, but Sephiroth isn't here, we're going to the next town, it will be about two days travel though." Cloud said. I got on top of the roof with some help from the others. I looked at my hands again.
"I need to make those gloves, I need those techniques."
"Were they really that good?" I hear Yuffie behind me.
"Not really, they were just made from a fire blanket and basic gloves. I need to save up some gil to get some decent stuff."
"Like what?" She asked.
"I need elemental materia I think, ribbons are awesome because they somehow repel all status ailments, it's like they're made from master heal materia, so if I have a master elemental I can line some decent gloves with them. I don't know the technical stuff though." I said.
"I wish I could think of cool weapons." She said.
"I guess it runs in the family." Said Barret, I just agreed with him. Cloud started the buggy and we were off to our next destination.