Disclaimer: UltimaShishigawa doesn't own Final Fantasy VII (any version), or its characters. All rights belong to Square Enix.
Arc 1: Midgar
--
The Lifestream.
A mysterious current that flows through the planet and which life comes from and, ultimately, returns to.
Thanks to the Shinra Electric Power Company discovering how to harness the Lifestream as a form of energy called "Mako", the citizens of Midgar live a comfortable life.
--
Chapter 1: Destruction of Mako Reactor 1
A train raced along the tracks toward the Sector 1 Train Station.
Standing atop the train was a young man with silver spiky hair with bangs hanging over his glowing emerald-green eyes. He was dressed in a black sleeveless turtle neck shirt with blue glowing strips, black baggy pants, a black coat that reached down to his knees, gray pauldrons on his shoulders, black combat boots, black gloves with metal knuckles, a large belt with an odd symbol around his waist, and a Type 99 Longsword strapped to his back.
As the train came to a stop a couple of Shinra infantrymen walked alongside checking to make sure everything was in order. The silver-haired young man unsheathed his sword, leaped down, and with two strokes of his blade cut down the two infantrymen.
"Jeez, did you have to be that brutal?" asked a male voice. Turning, the silver-haired young man saw three people disembarking the train.
The first was a lean young man with swept-back black hair and light brown eyes. He wore a red bandana around his forehead, an olive shirt, green three-quarter trousers, brown boots, and two belts: one black and one brown, the latter of which had a pouch on his left hip.
The second was a heavyset man with medium-length black hair held back by a red bandana, and blue eyes. He wore metal shoulder pads, a beige shirt, a brown leather belt, dark blue shorts, and armored boots. He also wore a leather harness, a bandoleer across his chest, and grenades on his belt.
The third was a fair-skinned young woman with a slender build, brown eyes, and medium-length reddish-brown hair tied in a high-set ponytail. She wore a red bandana, a metal breastplate, a blue undershirt, metal-plated brown leather gloves with red bands, a brown leather belt and holster, knee-length green capris, and armored boots with silver stud earrings.
The silver-haired young man grunted as he flicked the blood off his blade.
"It's kill, or be killed. Do you want to fight against Shinra? Then be prepared to get blood on your hands." The young man stated bluntly.
"Mercs' got a point. Let's move Jessie, Biggs, Wedge!" said a deep male voice. Looking toward the train, the four saw another man disembark.
The man was heavy-set, muscular, and had dark skin. He had black hair cut in a hi-top fade fashion, brown eyes, and a thick beard. He wore a dirty brown vest, cargo-style pants, and zipper-black-styled boots. He was missing his right arm but had replaced it with a modern rotary-style machine gun prosthetic. He also wore sunglasses, a set of dog tags around his neck, had three scars on his right cheek, wore a silver hoop earring in his left ear, and several bonds of metal on his remaining left arm.
The three snapped to attention.
"RIGHT BARRET!" The three took off across the platform towards the station entrance.
"You better be worth the trouble, Merc," warned Barret as he looked at the young man. The young man rolled his eyes as he sheathed his sword.
"I'm only here because Tifa asked me to. Be glad I'm not charging you for my services." the young man said earning a growl from Barret as he walked by. They soon caught up to the other three outside the gate that led to Mako Reactor 1. Jessie was busy hacking the control panel with Biggs acting as her assistant while Wedge was on lookout duty. Barret joined Wedge on the lookout while the young man leaned against a light pole with his arms crossed.
"He's got some balls this, um..?" Jessie remarked.
"Jason Durand. One thing is for sure though. He's good." Biggs noted. Jessie nodded in agreement.
"He took down those infantrymen like they were nothing. Guess that's SOLDIER for you." Biggs shook his head.
"He's better than that," Biggs said. "Tifa mentioned he was a "Deepground SOLDIER 1st Class", or something like that. They're the cream of the crop, apparently. Elite of the elite. Even trained by the legendary SOLDIER hero himself." Here Biggs tossed the woman a teasing smirk. "Seems just your type. Tall, dark, and brooding." Jessie tossed an examining glance over her shoulder at the young man.
His outfit was semi-formfitting, except for the pants which were on the baggier side, which allowed a hint of the defined muscle tone he had from countless hours of training. True he wasn't bulky like Barret, but then overly muscled guys never really did anything for Jessie.
"Maybe," Jessie allowed as she turned her attention back to the control panel for the gate. "If he wasn't already spoken for, that is. Besides," Here a small blush bloomed on her cheeks. "I kinda have a thing for blonds." Biggs chuckled knowingly.
"Blonds in general, or a specific blond? Like say, a certain blond who only recently recovered from severe mako poisoning?" Jessie, without taking her eyes off the control panel, punched Biggs in the arm. Jason, hearing this, rolled his eyes and shook his head.
'Infiltration missions require those participating to be quiet.' thought Jason. Truth be told, Jason didn't want anything to do with Avalanche, a terrorist organization that was waging guerilla warfare against the Shinra Electric Power Company, but Tifa Lockhart, his... childhood friend?... girlfriend?... lover?..., had asked him to accompany Barret and the others on the mission to bomb Mako Reactor 1.
Initially, Jason had refused, but when the young woman had looked at him imploringly with those ruby-red eyes of hers and uttered "Please?" Jason found himself recruited for the mission.
'There are times I wonder if she even recognizes what she does to me,' thought Jason with a soft expression that quickly changed to slight annoyance. 'And then there are times she definitely knows what she does to me.' The young man was interrupted from his thoughts when he noticed Wedge walking over to him.
"You're doing this for the Planet, too, right? Just like us?" asked Wedge. "If ya wanna know what I think..."
"Not interested." Jason interrupted Wedge. "I'll tell you the same thing I told your boss. I'm only here because Tifa asked me to. Be glad I'm not charging you for my services." Downtrodden, Wedge made his way back over to Barret.
At that moment, Jessie let out a small cheer letting everyone know that she had successfully hacked the control panel and opened the gate.
As the team made their way inside, Jason stopped and looked up at the towering figure of the Mako Reactor a sense of foreboding lingering in the back of his mind. Soon the group arrived at another sliding metal door.
"I got it," said Jessie as she made her way over to the control console with Biggs and Wedge in tow. Jason scanned the room looking for any cameras, or listening devices when a sharp pain lanced through his head.
"Alright Merc," said Barret. "What's the quickest way down to the Reactor Core?"
"Never let your guard down."
"Stamp scared to bite the hand that feeds him?" Barret asked angrily when Jason didn't reply. "Or is he a LOYAL LITTLE DOGGY?!" Jason gripped the side of his head as the pain intensified.
"Your enemy will not show mercy. Show them the same kindness."
Gritting his teeth, Barret brought his gun arm up to point at Jason's back.
"SCREW THIS!!" roared Barret. "WE CAN DO THIS WITH YOU, OR WITHOUT YOU!!" The pain finally fading, Jason glanced over his shoulder at the larger man.
"First off, you'd better be very sure," Jason warned, the shadow cast by his bangs causing his "Mako eyes" to appear more menacing and bringing Barret up short. Seeing the man not moving to shoot, Jason turned forward and glanced around again.
"Secondly," Jason continued. "Different reactor, different layout. You don't seriously believe that Shinra would build all their reactors with the same layout, do you? You should be able to access a map of the reactor from that console." Jessie, hearing this, hit a few more keys on the control console.
"Got it! Looks like we'll have to cross a catwalk, turn right, and keep going until we reach the elevator," said Jessie. "The door is unlocked, by the way."
The door slid open as Jason walked up to it. Walking through, the young man stopped when he saw four Shinra infantrymen. Upon noticing him, one of them immediately hit a few keys on the control console's touchscreen causing both the door behind Jason and the door behind the infantrymen to shut.
"Dammit!" Jessie's muffled voice cursed. Jason glanced back at the door before turning his attention back to the infantrymen who had their rifles trained on him.
"You get one chance," warned Jason as he unsheathed his sword. "Move aside, or die. Your choice." The answer he got in response was the men cocking their rifles. Jason released a little sigh.
"Fine, but don't say I didn't give you a chance." Suddenly, Jason appeared behind the four infantrymen. In the next second blood sprayed out as two were sliced in half unable to do or say anything.
Before the other two could react, Jason relieved one of the two men of his dominant arm, destroying his rifle in the process, causing the infantryman to howl in agony as blood sprayed from the stump. Picking up the sound of boots squeaking on the metal floor, the ex-Deepground SOLDIER seized the one-armed infantryman by the throat and turned just as the last one began unloading his weapon at him.
Holding the one-armed infantryman up as a shield to absorb the incoming hail of bullets, Jason twirled his sword and stabbed it into the ground. Focusing on his right hand, the young man conjured a fireball and hurled it at the last infantryman which, upon contact with the target, caused a small explosion that killed him.
Jason tossed aside the now-dead one-armed infantryman and retrieved his sword just as the door opened allowing Barret, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge to rush into the room.
Upon seeing the aftermath of the, quite one-sided, battle, the four had varying reactions. Barret was looking at Jason contemplatively, no doubt reassessing his original thoughts on the younger man's usefulness. Biggs and Jessie had varying looks of shock, and poor Wedge looked a tad queasy.
Jason flicked the blood off his blade and resheathed it before looking at Jessie.
"The door..." Jason said whilst pointing a thumb behind him.
"Oh right! On it!" Jessie responded, snapping from her stooper, and heading over to the console with Biggs in tow who was mumbling something about "Elite of the elite doesn't cut it."
Jason, noticing Wedge seemed to be getting more nauseous by the second, sighed and walked over to the man.
"Deep breaths." Wedge looked at Jason questioningly.
"Huh?"
"Deep breaths. In through your nose and out through your mouth." Jason answered. "I've found it helps with nausea." Having imparted that info, Jason walked back over and leaned against the frame of the door with his arms crossed and eyes closed. While Barret and Biggs kept a lookout for any more Shinra troops and Wedge was doing as Jason suggested, Jessie glanced at the young man whilst continuing her work on the door controls.
She and Tifa were pretty close friends and had confided in each other secrets that no one else knew. One time they had spoken about potential romantic interests. Or rather, Jessie had brought the subject up whilst Tifa had blushed in embarrassment. After some poking and prodding, and no small amount of pestering, Tifa finally admitted to currently seeing a guy. The squeal of excitement from Jessie had served to only further embarrass Tifa.
After calming herself, Jessie asked Tifa for details about the mystery guy. After some more prodding, Tifa opened up about the guy being a childhood friend of hers (which, of course, elicited another squeal from the brunette) who had left their village of Nibelheim for Midgar in order to become a SOLDIER. Of course, as Tifa told her, most of the boys in her village dreamed of becoming a SOLDIER, but that boy was adamant about it. Had said he would, "Become a SOLDIER hero who surpassed the legendary SOLDIER hero."
The two had stayed in contact after he left Nibelheim, even sending her a (at the time) state-of-the-art Shinra smartphone so they could do video calls. It was how she knew he had become a Deepground SOLDIER, although he had been forbidden by the company from ever revealing anything about the facility.
Unfortunately, the boy ended up disappearing during a mission and had first been reported as MIA (Missing In Action), but later had been changed to KIA (Killed In Action). Tifa revealed how devastated she had been when she heard the news. She went on to reveal that it wasn't until her village was destroyed that the boy reappeared, alive, but was changed.
Tifa had told her that the boy was happy-go-lucky and rarely, if ever, let anything bother him, but now he was quiet, had a propensity to brood, and kept to himself. He had always been blunt both before and after his time as a Deepground SOLDIER, though.
"So you and Tifa, huh?" asked Jessie. Jason's eyes popped open and glanced at the brunette woman with the barest hint of surprise.
"What about it?" asked Jason. Jessie noticed that Jason seemed to become a little bit guarded over the subject of himself and Tifa.
'No, not guarded.' Jessie amended. 'Protective.' "I'm just curious about how close you two are." She noticed Jason go quiet for a long moment.
"Tifa and I..." Jason began.
BEEP! BEEP!
The sound of the console beeping interrupted the young man before the door slid open.
"LET'S MOVE PEOPLE!" ordered Barret.
-o0o0o0o0o-
Eventually, Barret, Jason, and Jessie reached the innermost part of Mako Reactor 1. Biggs and Wedge had stayed behind to secure an escape route while the three continued on.
"Goddamn," swore Barret as the three stared down over the railing at the green-glowing Mako below. "I can practically taste the Mako."
"We need to keep going," Jason said, turning and continuing on. Soon the three came to a latter.
"You guys go on ahead. I'll hold down the fort," said Jessie. Nodding, Barret descended the latter with Jason following close behind.
"Hey..." said Barret as he and Jason descended another ladder. "You think, if we fell in, that we'd fall all the way to the planet's core?" Jason glanced at the Mako flowing below before glancing at the pumps and shook his head.
"No. The pumps would suck us back up." Soon, the two arrived at the reactor core.
"Alright Merc," said Barret as he pulled out a C4 explosive device. "Set the bomb and start the timer." Jason glanced at the bomb with a small glare.
"I said I would help out with any obstacles on this mission. I never said I would bomb the reactor." Jason clarified as he turned the glare on Barret. The larger man didn't so much as budge.
"Tifa said you quit Shinra. That you're an honest man," said Barret as he walked up and shoved the explosive into Jason's hands. "Well, it's time to prove you're the man Tifa says you are." Jason looked at the bomb in his hands and growled softly before moving over to the reactor.
'Should've charged for this.' thought Jason. As he set up the bomb, pain lanced through his head causing him to hiss lowly as he gripped the side of his head. Movement out of the corner of his eye made him look over at the source only to see a black feather slowly float down to the ground. As it touched down it dissolved into black smoke.
"What's the hold-up?" questioned Barret when he noticed Jason staring off into the distance. Pain fading, Jason shook his head.
"Nothing. What time should I set the timer for?" Jason questioned. Barret shrugged.
"Your call, Merc." Thinking on it a moment, Jason set the timer for 15 minutes.
"Cocky fucker, ain't ya?" Barret remarked when he saw the timer. After hitting the button to start the timer, the two began making their way back. A clang from overhead caused the two to stop and look up only to immediately dodge as a large blue scorpion-like mech landed with a crash.
"The hell is that thing?!" exclaimed Barret as he brought up his gun arm.
"A Power Scorpion," Jason explained as he and Barret moved to avoid a salvo of missiles the mech launched at them. "They're the newest model of the Guard Scorpion model! But where the Guard Scorpion model is vulnerable to electrical attacks..." Jason pulled his sword from his back. In the next second, the blade was awash with flames that, with a downward slash, were sent slamming into the Power Scorpion staggering it.
"...this model is vulnerable to fire! Light it up!" Jason finished. Barret activated the fire materia slotted into his rotary gun arm and fired at the Power Scorpion further damaging it. The tip of the mech's tail began to glow causing Jason's eyes to widen in alarm.
"MOVE!!" warned Jason.
"SHIT!!" cursed Barret as he dived to the left just as the Power Scorpion fired a beam from the tip of its tail at him. Moving quickly, Jason slashed through two of the Power Scorpion's legs cutting them off. The Power Scorpion's tail flailed about as it continued to fire the beam cutting into the walls, ceiling, and floor of the reactor.
Explosions rocked the reactor as metal beams fell and fires ignited.
'Need to end this now!' thought Jason. The young man ran toward the Power Scorpion, dodging missiles left, right, and center, and leaped into the air. Bringing his blade down as he fell, Jason cut through the Power Scorpion.
BOOM!
The mech powered down as it split in half before exploding. Jason stood up straight as he resheathed his sword.
"LET'S MOVE, MERC!" shouted Barret as he headed back the way the two came. "WHOLE PLACE IS GONNA BLOW!"
-Shinra Headquarters: President's Office-
President Shinra, founder, CEO, and current president of the Shinra Electric Power Company, watched on a monitor as another security camera was destroyed by a fireball.
President Shinra was an older man with a thin build, blue eyes, short graying blond hair, and a mustache. He wore a burgundy suit with black pinstripes, a white dress shirt, a dark blue tie with white dots, a black vest, a white pocket square, and black dress shoes. He also wore a wristwatch on his left hand.
"We have yet to determine if this cell of Avalanche is the same one that made the attempt on your life, sir." reported one Heidegger who was standing to the right of President Shinra's desk chair.
Heidegger was a massively built man with brown eyes, a scar across his right eye, short and slicked-back graying black hair, and a bushy beard. He wore a dark green military tunic with maroon and yellow accents, a black dress shirt, a red tie, gold cuff links, black buttons, black slacks, and black boots.
The president leaned his head against his right fist as he rewatched the last security camera footage. A silver-haired young man walked into the frame before quickly turning and launching a fireball at the camera destroying it. It was the same thing with each room of the reactor that had security cameras.
Avalanche, the terrorist group that had all but declared war on the company, was becoming a problem, but not yet one that warranted the necessary resources it would take to stamp them out completely.
"Damage estimation?" President Shinra questioned Heidegger without looking away from his computer.
"The explosive device detected cracked the shell of Mako Reactor 1's core, but it's nothing that can't be repaired, sir," Heidegger responded immediately. President Shinra rewound the footage and paused it. Looking at the image of the silver-haired young man reminded the president of another silver-haired man.
'But that's impossible. He died five years ago.' thought President Shinra before glancing at Heidegger. "Do it." Heidegger nodded.
"Very good, sir." Heidegger pulled out a Shinra smartphone from his pocket and tapped the touchscreen.
-Mako Reactor 1 Core-
Laser turrets, gun model sweepers, and rocket launchers activated and began firing further destroying the core of Mako Reactor 1.
-Exterior-
People were going about their business, either returning home from a long day at work or, in the case of night shift workers, heading to work when an explosion erupted from Mako Reactor 1. It was followed by another, and another, and another. Finally, the top of the reactor blew out sending metal flying as smoke and fire billowed out and power was lost in parts of Sectors 1 and 8.
-To be continued in Final Fantasy VII Reunion-
UltimaShigawa: Well this took a while. Now to cover some concerns. The OC in this fic is not completely replacing Cloud Strife. Cloud is still gonna be in this fic, and I've got ideas for him. The fic is Tifa/OC for the pairing. There will be lemons so, obviously, it's rated M, but it's not gonna be riddled with smut. Those scenes will come with warnings for when they start and end so you'll be able to skip 'em if ya wish. Finally, this is a prototype fic to see how well it's received. If it does well, then I'll continue it. If not? Well, it was an idea that kept bouncing around in my head that I finally got outta my head.
Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what ya thought of it! Please read, review, and comment, but DON'T flame! Constructive criticism is welcome, but don't be harsh. Peace, I'm out!
