Author's notes: Short chapter this time, just wanted to wrap up the second visit to the Gold Saucer. Usual length for the next one.
Gordon was inside his hotel room. He had the door slightly ajar and was peeking to see if anyone else was up.
'Alright, Tifa and Cloud left together a little while ago, and Tommy left with Aerith too.' He thought.
'Everyone else is pretty much asleep. Now is the best time.'
He then closed the door (although he did not lock it) and went into his room.
"Alright." He said,
"Chat I know I haven't been talking to you guys all that much, just been really immersed with everything going on. I have to admit talking and interacting with the Final Fantasy 7 cast is pretty awesome, won't lie there."
He then took a breath.
"But I really need to know why the hell I'm here. It's just real fucking bizarre that I went from a first person shooter to a role playing game. I mean, I doubt Valve and Square had some secret deal in place to combine their games. So I'm just gonna go to a black screen real quick and see what the heck is going on."
The person playing Gordon pulled the VR headset on to his forehead and took off his headphones. He then opened up his desktop. He right clicked the version of Half-Life 1 he was playing and went to its game files.
"Alright let's see." He said to himself, as he examined the text files.
"Everything from Black Mesa is here, from when I arrived on the tram to the resonance cascade, even up to when we got to the Lambda Complex, now why is…wait."
He then looked beyond the Lambda Complex and saw that the next thing that was up was the Mythril Mines.
"What the? It's supposed to say Xen here."
He scrolled down and saw that everything had what he progressed through as he played the game, when he got to the bottom it showed up to where he was: the return to the Gold Saucer.
"What the fuck is this? Why is it-"
He then remembered something.
He pulled up his Steam page, he checked his most recent games played and saw it,
First there was Half Life 1, and right next to it was Final Fantasy 7.
"No, no it can't be that." He said to himself in disbelief.
'This doesn't make any sense, I mean I did recently play FF7 before playing this version of Half Life, but I only played up to the part in Kalm. I just wanted to refresh my memory on the Midgar section to prepare for the Remake.'
A thought then popped in his head:
'Did this version of Half Life somehow latch onto and merge with Final Fantasy 7? If so then how the fuck is that possible?'
As he continued to examine the game files, the door to his hotel room opened. Dr. Coomer, now in a somewhat clean lab coat, walked in and walked towards Gordon.
"Gordon! You won't believe it, we just found out that-"
But when he saw Gordon from the front, he saw something that caused his expression to become blank and emotionless,
The place where Gordon's eyes and top half of his face were was a black void. Nothing but darkness could be seen from inside.
Without saying a word, Coomer lifted his arm and began to slowly reach into the black void that was Gordon's face, inching closer and closer as Gordon was completely oblivious to what was going on.
"Alright, I'll have to look into this more later." He said, as he pulled up the game and put his VR headset and headphones back on.
Coomer quickly snatched his hand out of the void as it became Gordon's face again. He then put on his usual cheery look.
"Alright, alright." said Gordon, as the game for him came back into view.
"Now to- WOAH!"
He jumped when he noticed Coomer standing beside him.
"Coomer! What are you doing here?"
"Ah, my apologies for barging in without knocking Gordon!" He said,
"But Cait Sith just handed the Keystone to Shinra! Apparently he's a spy for them!"
"Oh shit!" said Gordon, trying to sound surprised.
"That's not all! Apparently he has Barret's daughter hostage back in Midgar and says if we don't do what he says he'll harm her!"
"Oh really," said Gordon,
"Where is he now?"
"In the lobby. Cloud and the others are there too."
"Alright, I've been meaning to have a chat with Sith for a while. Now seems to be the perfect time." Gordon said, as he left the room.
Coomer meanwhile stood there. He had his cheery expression, but the look in his eyes told a different story,
Like he saw something that was beyond human comprehension.
"I swear if you lay a finger on her-" said Barret, as he was being restrained by Cloud and Cid.
"I won't! You just have to do as I say!" said Cait Sith.
Everyone minus Coomer and Gordon were all gathered in the hotel's lobby. They had found out from Cloud about Cait Sith's allegiance to Shinra and Barret was none too happy about it.
"Hey!" Gordon said, as he and Coomer descended down the stairs to the lobby.
"What's going on?"
"It's Cait Sith, Mr. Freeman. He's with Shinra!" said Tommy.
"Yeah, I heard about that from Coomer. Apparently he has Barret's daughter too?"
"That he does." said Tifa,
"He even played a voice clip of her to prove it."
"Huh." said Gordon, as he turned to face Cait Sith.
"I think I know how to handle this."
He then walked over and stood in front of Cait Sith, and then turned his back to him to face the restrained Barret.
"Gordon what are you doing?" Barret asked,
"Don't tell me you're on his side!"
"I'm not." replied Gordon,
"But let's look at some positives."
"Like what!?" shouted Barret, as Cloud and Cid struggled to keep him from charging at the cat.
"First, even though he's a Shinra spy, why didn't he kill any of us when he had the chance? He had numerous opportunities when our guard was down to take us out but he didn't. Second, I doubt he handed over the Keystone to Shinra willingly." said Gordon.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Vincent.
"What I mean is-" Gordon then turned to Cait Sith,
"He's not fully on board with Shinra's plans."
Cait Sith looked at Gordon, unsure as to why Gordon would suddenly come to his defense like this.
"Something tells me you probably don't like working for Shinra too much, do you?"
Cait Sith didn't reply, but very slowly moved his head left and right.
"What the fuck are you doing Gordon?" asked Bubby,
"Why the hell are suddenly on his side?"
"I'm not on his side!" said Gordon, turning to face Bubby.
"I'm just trying to point out the things he could've done to us but didn't."
"Oh I see how it is." said Bubby,
"You're a spy too!"
"What?" said Gordon, feeling a sudden jolt of anger at Bubby's accusation.
"Why else would you defend him like that!? You're clearly-"
"You're the one to fucking talk Bubby!" Gordon shouted at him.
"Need I fucking remind you that you were the one who conspired with Benrey to have me jumped by soldiers!?"
"Wait," said Cloud,
"You never told us he helped Benrey in getting you attacked."
"Yeah, sorry I forgot to mention that, this fucker helped Benrey get my arm sliced off." said Gordon.
Cloud turned to Bubby.
"Have anything to say about that?"
"W-Well I had to do what I had to do!" said Bubby,
"I wanted to get out of Black Mesa and Benrey told me that if we handed him over we would've been home free!"
"Uh huh." said Cloud as he and the others gave Bubby shady looks.
Bubby looked at Gordon.
"Now look what you've done Gordon! You've got everyone distrusting me now!"
"Well you didn't have any qualms about helping Shinra before we met," said Gordon.
"I just wanted to go back to space!" shouted Bubby.
"Alright alright alright alright!" said Gordon, trying to calm Bubby down.
"I shouldn't have brought it up, we're way past it now and you got fucked over by Benrey too. And I'd rather not cast any more suspicion on others like this. Coomer-"
He looked over at Coomer and Tommy.
"-we've had our spats but I know you'd never turn on us. Tommy, you I trust the most out of everyone here, so you're in the clear no matter what."
"Y-Yeah I think it would be for the best for all of you to get along!" said Cait Sith, getting the courage to speak up.
"The ropeway should be fixed by morning! All of you should get to sleep, we have a big day tomorrow."
He then turned to walk up the stairs to his room. Gordon quickly went to follow but not before being grabbed on the shoulder and spun around by Barret.
"What the hell Gordon?" asked Barret,
"Why'd come to his defense like that? He betrayed us and has Marlene hostage!"
"Barret, Barret I know!" said Gordon, trying to calm him down.
"But trust me, I did it for a reason, and don't worry about Marlene, I got it covered."
"Huh?"
"Barret, from one Chaingun Bro to another, let me handle this."
He bumped Barret's chest with his fist and went to intercept Cait Sith, leaving Barret confused.
"Hey." said Gordon, getting Cait Sith's attention.
"Uh hi." Cait Sith replied.
"Just so you know, I didn't defend you for your sake. I did it because I need you for something." said Gordon.
"Huh, figured as much." said Cait Sith,
"What exactly do you want me to do anyway? And what makes you think I'll do anything for you in the first place?"
"Oh you will. And as to what you'll do for me: you're gonna find out what Shinra wants with me, and what they plan on doing with me."
"And let me repeat what I just said: why do you think I'll do anything for you?"
Gordon then leaned in right next to the cat's ear.
"Because I know who you really are, Reeve Tuesti." He whispered.
Gordon leaned back. Cait Sith didn't reply but judging from the look he had Gordon got him spooked.
"A-Alright." said Cait Sith, trying to sound calm.
"So- So you know who I am, so what? That won't change the fact I won't help you."
"Oh really?" said Gordon, as he looked over at Coomer.
"Then maybe I should introduce you to Coomer, I mean you've seen what he can do."
He then turned to look at Coomer.
"Hey Dr. Coomer-"
"WAIT!" said Cait Sith, grabbing Gordon's shoulder.
"Alright, alright! I'll do what you want!"
"That's good." Gordon said, as he went to walk away, but not before turning back to look at Cait Sith.
"Oh, and make sure nothing happens to Marlene and that she's probably taken care of while in your custody. We wouldn't want Coomer finding out anything bad happened to her now would we?"
He then turned to walk towards Barret, leaving Cait Sith shaken.
"Don't worry Barret." said Gordon, as he approached his fellow chaingun wielder.
"I made sure that nothing would happen to Marlene while she's under captivity."
"Really?" Barret asked, "What'd you do to make that happen?"
Gordon then looked at Cait Sith then back at Barret.
"I told him Coomer wouldn't be to happy if anything happened to her."
"Heh, yeah." said Barret,
"Wouldn't want to be the sorry bastard having to deal with that guy."
He patted Gordon on the shoulder and thanked him and went back up to his room. Gordon was about to go back to his but not before Cloud got his attention.
"What did you and him talk about?" asked Cloud.
"Just gave him a friendly warning about Coomer. Don't worry, nothing's gonna happen to Marlene."
"That didn't seem like the only thing." replied Cloud,
"What else did you talk about?"
"He's with Shinra right?" said Gordon.
"Uh yeah?"
"Then he probably knows their plans too? And he'll probably know why Shinra wants me captured."
"Hm, good point." said Cloud,
"But we don't even know who the person controlling him is or where he is on the Shinra ladder. How do you know if he'll even be allowed to find out Rufus' plans?"
"I have a feeling he's somewhere high on Shinra's hierarchy." replied Gordon,
"Trust me."
Gordon then went back to his room along with the others, leaving Cloud in the lobby.
'Does he know something we don't?' Cloud thought,
'But then again, this is Gordon…'
