Another chapter is here!
XxXTwilight-SinXxX: You will see it more.
LirialRaito: Thank you.
Kazeshuriken: You will.
Enjoy!
Heidegger nursed a bruised ego as he stood at the window of a stand-alone room on Floor 60 in Shinra HQ. The renovations were done, and the majority of the staff that had been slaughtered was now replaced, but their military forces were still diminished. And would be for the foreseeable future, judging by the gutter-trash he had to work with.
Their losses in Costa del Sol hadn't been as large as the previous two run-ins with the traitors and monsters born by Hojo's hands. But it had been significant nonetheless. The security robots were costly to replace, and the sheer number of trained soldiers killed in action meant that they had to draw from their reserves in Junon to shore up that base and go on a recruitment drive soon.
Hojo was useless, lying comatose in the Medical Center. They had no idea when or if he'd wake. If Heidegger had a choice, he'd pull the plug on life-support rather than waste the resources needed to keep him alive. They didn't need to know what his monsters were capable of when they could build another war-machine to finish the job right. He would have gotten rid of the rats already if not for the need to avoid shooting him the first time because the quack had been taken hostage.
The thought brought a scowl to his face. His Airbuster Alpha had been wrecked beyond repair by another traitor. The black box had been recovered and the data didn't lie when compared to previous testing results recorded on the salvaged memory banks from Floor 49. There was another SOLDIER turned traitor, one who had to be First-Class given the extent of the damage.
That wouldn't be an issue with the next iteration of the Airbuster, refined further and made to compensate with his and Scarlet's efforts. At least it wouldn't if Shinra's entitled little shit hadn't denied them the resources to do so once again! He even had the audacity to lecture Heidegger over the battle, citing that he had lost his temper and would have killed the priority targets at the last moment according to the report from the Turks.
He took the words of those incompetent shadow-lurkers over me! Heidegger's anger boiled over and he gripped the frame of the window hard. Had he the strength, he would have torn it out and tossed it aside. Then, through the pane of the window, he saw one of the trainees fall behind the others on his hands and knees.
Heidegger exited the room and stomped his way towards the lanky man who had fallen. "Get up!"
"W-We need a break," he whined. "We've been running non-stop for an hour now."
Annoying. It annoyed him to the point he had to gnash his teeth. Hojo and his monsters, the Turks and Shinra's brat, they were the source of all of the problems the once proud company faced. The military force he had worked so hard to build up was a remnant of what it once was.
It was a pitiful sight, rotting away like it caught some wasting illness. There was nothing more sickening to stomach than needing gutter-trash like this to fill up a force capable of waging a war. The reminder of having to figuratively scrape the bottom of the barrel, just to maintain appearances, finally pushed Heidegger to lose his temper.
"Here's your break!" He swung his stout fist at the sniveling waste. The blow to his face knocked the man soundly between the training dummies and into the center of the room. The man remained there, unmoving but breathing, with his head drooping to the side and blood dripping onto the cold metal exterior.
"Another twelve laps!" Heidegger shouted to the rest, merciless fury in his eyes. "Anyone else complains about wanting a break joins him."
They were doing as told when the elevator pinged and Reeve emerged from it, a tablet in hand. He took a step towards Heidegger before he saw the downed man. Heidegger scoffed as the bleeding heart set the tablet down on the console and ran over to check his pulse, whatever his original reason for coming forgotten. Wasting his time on trash pulled from the gutter, it was a miracle he'd survived at all to this point.
The Head of the Public Safety grabbed the tablet himself as Reeve helped the barely lucid man get to the elevator, likely taking him to the Medical Center….
[-oOo-]
Cloud did his best not to rustle while Crimson slept next to him. Her head was perched on his shoulder while they were in the air-conditioned cockpit of the Buggy that Kunsel had borrowed. It had been a long trip since they left the Gold Saucer, with a brief detour on Kunsel and Aerith's request to stop where Gongaga had once stood, and they were now approaching Cosmo Canyon.
Kunsel and Crimson both had been quieter than normal since Gongaga, the former having disappeared then returned with the hilt of a broken sword. He spent a few moments eyeing the Buster Sword afterwards and then asked for Crimson to come with him to talk somewhere in private. Whatever happened between them left a sort of tension-filled undercurrent in the air around them, but neither would give him an answer when he asked.
Aerith, on the other hand, needed Cloud's help along with Tifa and Barret to remove some debris from around the Mako Reactor. She said she could feel a presence around the ruined reactor and the net result of that was a new Summoning Materia, Titan. Yuffie then pointed to a set of footprints that had to be a day or so old, high-heels by her reckoning, leaving them to wonder who visited such a remote place and why before they left.
Cloud's efforts to remain stationary went to waste as the Buggy violently jostled. Then it went into an abrupt spin, the wheels skidding along the craggy and cracked ground. The violent motion not only woke Crimson, her face distorting in pain for a moment while she let out a strained breath, but threw Red XIII, who was resting on the floor and not buckled in, into the metal wall of the interior with a grunt.
"Wh-what happened?" Yuffie asked as the Buggy shook beneath them again. "Is it an earthquake?"
"No," Red XIII snarled and then winced. "This feels like a Golem's doing. Occasionally they emerge from the ground, having been buried there at some point in the past. When they find a target, they approach and slam their fists into the ground hard enough to make it shake. It must be close by."
"The Buggy won't turn back on either," Kunsel said as he unbuckled himself. "The shaking must've dislodged something." He popped the manual hatch and then opened the cockpit.
The sound of gunfire and explosions barely reached their ears before a herculean crash coincided with the ground shaking again. A jeep tumbled into view from behind a sheer cliff and two people fell onto the ground, one male and the other female. The jeep itself kept tumbling until it crashed into a raised wedge in the ground with a metallic crunch.
Barret rose from his seat in alarm at the sight. "That's Jessie and Biggs!"
"It is?" Tifa asked as he jumped over the side of the Buggy and started running forward. The heavy footsteps of the advancing Golem sounded out, with the metal carapace of the humanoid automation peeking just past the corner of the rock face. She undid her seatbelt and followed right afterwards. "Cloud, come on!"
Cloud looked over the others. Red XIII was limping, probably from the impact knocking his shoulder out of place. Crimson held the spot where she had been shot and healed, the area still sensitive to impacts and made to ache from the violent stop.
"Go," Aerith said as she grasped her Restore Materia. "Kunsel can cover us if something sneaks up on us. I can take care of them."
"Thanks." Cloud grabbed the Buster Sword, checked that both the Earth and Cover Materia were slotted into it, and then jumped out of the opened cockpit as hard as he could. He sailed through the air a good distance and outpaced the other two as the Golem raised its finger towards Jessie. The near-mastered Cover Materia shone and he found himself skidding to a stop with the thick blade raised in defense in time to stop the Finger Shot, a projectile the size of a cannon ball, from hitting her.
Jessie looked up from the ground, the red bandana on her forehead stained a blotch darker and streamlets of blood curving down her brown eyes. The sight of heavy sword and blond-hair were apparently recognizable. "C-Cloud…?"
He spared her and Biggs, who was slowly sitting up and nursing his forearm, a glance and nod as he held the sword up, ready to block again if needed. "It's me."
Ice and cold bloomed in an abrupt and frosty plume, washing against his skin as it billowed outward. The arctic mist parted to reveal Shiva had engulfed the Golem in a dense mass of ice before it advanced towards them further. Tifa came to a stop next them, her breathing labored as she retracted the summoning and crouched down to look at Biggs' arm. "How bad is it?"
He raised his hand showing that the bone had pierced through the surface and then covered it again. "I'll live. Where'd you two come from?"
The whirring of the ancient gears drowned out any answer she could give. Cracks were forming in the ice as the Golem struggled to free itself. Tifa helped him to his feet and they headed further back, Cloud following after sheathing his sword to carry Jessie.
It broke free of the ice, chunks scattering and pelting the ground. However, before it could take another step, a tanned bolt of light struck the ground in front of it. From the earth was born a grey-haired giant, toned in its hue and covered in a carpet of dirt. Titan roared upon emerging, loud enough to make the air itself quake, and brought its massive, burly fist around.
The Golem went sailing back with a blow that resounded throughout the area until the mass of ancient metal crashed into the hard-packed earth, tumbling as bits and pieces broke off of its body until it came to a sliding stop. Gears strained audibly beneath the ravaged metal as the world seemed to quake for it and a mountain of a shadow eclipsed the sun. It raised its head to see a massive section of earth was being uprooted. Titan roared again as it finished flipping the shelf of earth into the Golem, burying the totaled automaton once and for all.
"That's how it's done," Barret said as he approached Cloud, Tifa, and the two they had in their grasp. The summoning's body slowly dissipated into golden motes until the materia he held dimmed. He put it away and then turned to the other two. "You two, okay?"
Biggs nodded. "Yeah, we will be once we get back."
They headed back towards the Buggy and along the way Cloud got the gist of what happened. They had relocated here after Sector 7 was destroyed and the two of them occasionally handled the monsters that came too close to the town. The Golem activated when they were chasing a Griffin that had gotten too bold to live and they had tried to take care of it, only to learn the armor plating was thicker than expected.
When they arrived at the Buggy, Aerith set to work healing them. Crimson, who hadn't exactly been pleased beforehand about his association with terrorists, did her best to restrain her opinion by focusing on something else. Cloud and Kunsel, on the other hand, got out and pushed the Buggy itself towards the closest habitation in Cosmo Canyon with their mako-enhanced strength and stamina.
They arrived around the hour of dusk. With the sky above the town aglow from the eternal flame, the group as a whole ascended the stairs and saw the entrance guarded solely by a man who stood vigilant. At least until Red XIII bound up the stairs in a blur of red and came to a stop right in front of him.
"Nanaki, is… is that you?" Cloud heard the man ask as he wiped his eyes, as though to brush aside a hallucination. "You're safe."
Red XIII bobbed his head. "I have returned in one piece, if not unscathed. Where are Deneh and Grandfather?"
"She's in the altar," the guy said. "Last I checked, there's still another half-a-year before she can leave it. As for the Bugenhagen, he's in the Observatory."
"I see…." He looked down to the ground pensively for a moment before nodding to himself. "Very well. I will go see my Grandfather first then."
"Nanaki, huh?" Tifa mused as she and the others finally reached the end of the stairs. "That's a nice name. Should we call you that now?"
He turned to them with a slight crook in his mouth turned upwards. "Call me whatever you wish." He then turned back to the gate guardian. "These are my companions and are responsible for my safe return. Let them pass as well."
The guy did so and they entered Cosmo Canyon, a site famous for the study of Planet Life, as Nanaki bolted further up the stairs.
"DADDY!" No sooner than they were a few steps past the entrance did they hear a youthful voice yelling at the top of her lungs, drawing eyes to the source. Running from Wedge and up the sloping stairs was a young girl with brown-hair that cut short on her shoulders, adorned by a tanned tunic and shorts.
"There's my girl," Barret said as he crouched down so that Marlene could throw herself into a hug that wrapped around his neck. He stood up, supporting her with his good arm. "You didn't give the others a hard time while I was gone, did you?"
"No. I was a good girl." Hazel-eyes skimmed the group and her smile only grew brighter when her eyes fell on Tifa. "You're here too! I missed you!"
"I missed you too…" Tifa gently caressed Marlene's head and smiled in a way Cloud hadn't seen her do in a long time. "You've gotten bigger since I've seen you. I'm glad."
"Uh-huh!" She giggled a bit, sounding a lot more cheerful than Cloud remembered when they were at the bar. Barret set her down on the ground and then handed her the necklace that he had been treating delicately for some time since their departure from the Gold Saucer. She looked slightly puzzled by it. "What's this?"
"This is for you." The words that came out were cracked around the edges as he spoke. "From a… old friend of mine, who couldn't be here to see you today. He wanted you to have it, so take care of it."
"Okay, Daddy." She placed the necklace around her neck and smiled, earning a somewhat sad smile from her adoptive father in return. Then she took his hand and pulled him along. "Come on. I want to show you a new dance I learned by the fire. Tifa, you too!"
"Okay, I'm coming." Tifa said, following after them and waving towards Wedge. The other two members of AVALANCHE passed one another a look before joining them.
Kunsel was the next to go, rolling his shoulders as he walked past them and said, "I believe one of them mentioned someone who could repair the Buggy being here on the way. I'll go find them."
"I want to go look around and stuff," Yuffie added, heading in the same direction with her hands behind her head. That left Cloud, Aerith, and Crimson alone.
"I guess we should go to the Inn and make reservations for a day or two then," Crimson said. "I think they said the Shildra Inn is—"
"Cissnei, is that you?" called a soft, mature voice that Cloud and Crimson recognized. The three remaining party members looked to see a mature couple approaching. "It is, isn't it?"
"Mister and Miss Fair?" The surprise in Crimson's voice was evident, while the names immediately drew Aerith's attention. She was caught off-guard as Miss Fair approached with a smile and embraced her like a long-lost daughter. "What are you two doing here?"
"After what happened to Gongaga and your escort, the majority of us split up," Mister Fair said. "Some had family in places like Mideel and left by boat, but a few of us came here. It's a simple life, but we can see the stars at night."
"And it's nice to see you up and about," Miss Fair told Cloud. "Have you been doing well?"
"Yes, Ma'am," he said awkwardly. It was different when he helped them get away from Gongaga, before he knew what was wrong with his memories. Would he start gaining Zack's memories of them as well? Would they overlap with the memories of what he believed was his childhood?
"And who's this young lady?" Mister Fair asked, glancing at Aerith. "I don't think we've had the pleasure of meeting before, unless I'm going senile."
Aerith stepped forward and extended her hand for him to shake. "My name is Aerith Gainsborough. I was your son's girlfriend. I wish I had the chance to meet you both sooner."
He gave her a once over and then a firm handshake. "So do we. The boy had a good heart, but he left home ten years ago and hardly sent word about anything. If not for a letter mentioning he had a girlfriend and the other young lady here, we wouldn't know anything."
"Come, come, let's have tea and talk," Miss Fair said. "I want to hear more about you and what you've been up to."
Crimson rubbed the back of her neck in thought. "Well, we were going to reserve rooms at the Inn, but after—"
"I'll do that now," Cloud offered as he shifted around. The sword on his back suddenly felt so much heavier in the presence of all four of them. He, despite perhaps benefitting the most from Zack, had nothing he could add by joining them. "I'm sure you have a lot you want to talk to them about."
Crimson looked back at Aerith for a moment, then the older couple, and then him. It seemed like she could see his discomfort, judging from the small nod she gave. "Okay, see you there later."
Watching them go, Cloud felt weighed down by the sword that composed someone else's legacy on his back once more. He did his best to ignore it and then ventured towards the Inn. There he could relieve that burden and rest for a moment in preparation for whatever came next.