The Final Chaos 1/2
by Rarstarr
Final Fantasy 7 and all characters and idea connected to it are the
property of Square Co. Ltd.
Ranma 1/2 and all characters and ideas connected to it are the property
of Rumiko Takahashi.
Both are used here without permission for the purposes of Fan Fiction.
Readers are warned that this fanfic contains material that may spoil the
plot of the computer game Final Fantasy VII. I apologise to any reader
still playing the game.
C&C and MSTs are welcome.
*****
The Final Chaos 1/2
Phase 1
Part 5: The Quest
Avalanche and the Nerimans had moved into the operations room aboard the
Highwind. Cid had immediately headed off to get them underway to drop
Marlene off at Midgar. Stories had been swapped, including an explanation
of the Highwind.
"Thoughts anyone?" Cloud looked around the table.
"I hate mysteries," Barrett grumbled. "Give me a nice visible target any
day."
"Why planet worried about husband and violent girl?" Shampoo inquired.
Everyone looked at the Amazon.
Red XIII broke the silence. "I must admit I was feeling restless when I
went out and found you. At the time I thought it was just me, but I don't
have Cloud's connection to the planet."
Ryoga had been frowning and concentrating on something. "Cloud, what time
of day was it when you first felt the planet's call?"
"Early morning, just before sunrise at Midgar."
"And that was about two days before you found me."
"That's right."
"What's the point of this Ryoga?" Ranma asked.
"It's just when I hit the water outside, ah, Junon wasn't it?" Cloud
nodded. "Anyway, when I arrived it was about mid-day."
"About the same time I actually encountered Ranma and Akane. Which leads
to the question, did the planet know before they arrived, or did they
arrive before you?"
"Or did the planet get the timing right because it brought them here?"
Vincent asked quietly. There was silence while everyone digested this
idea.
Cloud sighed, then looked at Red XIII "You know who we need to talk to,
don't you."
Red XIII nodded. "Grandfather. If anyone can answer our questions its him,
but he still hasn't returned from his trip. Where do we look for him?"
Barrett laughed. "Who says we have to look, we got Shinra to do the leg
work for us. Hey Reeve!"
Cait Sith, sitting in the corner, looked up. "Shut it Barrett, I'm busy."
"Why you! Talk to me like that will you, you stuffed toy!" Barrett pointed
his gun arm towards Cait Sith, who completely ignored him.
"Leave him be Barrett, we'll have to figure this out by ourselves."
"Damn, for once it'd be nice to be able to make those Shinra jerks work
for us."
"So any ideas where we can find Bughenhagen?" Tifa inquired of the group.
"If he's an expert on the planet, then he'll probably go somewhere that
has some connection to his interest," Akane pointed out.
"The northern cave," suggested Vincent.
"Cetra City," from Barrett.
Cloud shook his head. "Mideel, best place in the world to see the
lifestream." The others nodded.
Cait Sith looked up once more. "Guys I've got some important business to
deal with, I'm going to have shut Cait down."
"Right Reeve," Cloud told him. "Before you go, we need to find
Bughenhaden."
"I'll set Reno and Rude on it, if they can't find him, no once can."
"Why not Elena?"
The cat shrugged. "She still blames you for Tseng, plus I'm taking her
with me. Oh, I'm also taking along some of your Soldiers Cloud."
"What's up?"
"Just an old Shinra secret popping up. I'll get you on the PHS if it's
important. Well, I'll be saying goodbye now." And with that both cat and
mog went limp.
"To Mideel, then," Cloud said.
"Geeze boy, you still ain't got that right!" Cid complained.
Cloud laughed. "Let's move out!"
*****
The boss and his chief scientist met the president's plane outside the
base. They were both surprised when instead of the white suited old man,
what looked like a member of the Turks wandered down the ramp. Behind him
came another Turk look alike, this time a woman, and a squad of Soldiers.
The Soldiers clinched it, this had to be the Shinra president, so
obviously something had reorganised the management.
"Sir!" the boss saluted Reeve as he approached. "My name is Tragger, I'm
in charge of this operation."
Reeve looked the man over. "You remind me of someone."
The boss smiled. "Maybe you've met my brother sir, when I got this job he
was in charge of the Airforce and Navy."
"Laughed like a donkey?" The other nodded. "Were you close?"
"Not much, I gathered he died in a coup?"
"There was no coup, just a series of bad decisions that got all the Shinra
execs killed."
"And you got the job."
"Enough about me, I want to know about your research."
Tragger turned and started towards the bases hidden entrance. "If you'll
follow me, I'll show you."
"I don't have much of a scientific background, so I'd appreciate you keep
the Jargon to a minimum."
"Of course sir, I gather you know about Mako energy."
"Yes, by the way we are currently minimising Mako energy usage, you're
going to have justified every watt."
Tragger's chief scientist exploded. "What idiot dreamt up that rule?!
Probably doesn't know a thing about Mako energy."
Reeve stared at the man coolly. "I know that a Shinra president was killed
by a monster created by the planet to rid itself of the parasites draining
it of life. That's us by the way."
"Yeah right, I'll believe that when I see it."
Reeve chuckled. "Then you should have been in Midgar about a year ago."
Then he turned serious. "Shinra's current policy is to encourage the
ecology and research alternate energy. You should remember that." He
turned to Tragger. "I can understand why this project is top secret, but
why was your message so urgent, have you discovered something?"
Tragger paused, deciding how to handle this. "Apparently, sir, our
research has made a hole to another world, and we accidentally brought
something back."
Reeve nodded. "So you're responsible for that. Can you reverse the
effect?"
*****
The sight of Mideel sliding up beneath the Highwind was amazing. Once the
only thing that had attracted people to Mideel was the Hot Springs.
Unfortunately when the lifestream erupted from beneath the village, both
it and the springs had fallen in. In the past year the village had been
rebuilt around the glowing green lake of lifestream.
"I'm surprised it hasn't healed it," Barrett commented as the pilot
circled over the village.
The bridge of the Highwind was full. The crew were at their posts. The
Avalanche personal were in their customary positions, Cloud, Tifa and
Barrett at the front, Cid to one side of the pilot, Red XIII and Vincent
down by the auxiliary controls. Akane had taken a position next to Tifa,
watching the landscape race by below. Ranma kept up his balance practice
by standing on the railing between the pit the auxiliary controls sat in
and the steering controls. Ryoga stood at the back of the bridge, while
Shampoo sat talking to Red XIII. Cait Sith and Yuffie were absent, the
former still inactive and the latter being sick in the engine room.
"Hasn't Mideel grown since its collapse?" Tifa asked.
"Don't ask me, you've spent the most time there, other than Cloud that
is."
"And I was hardly in any condition to pay attention to the people around
here," Cloud pointed out.
"This sounds interesting," Ranma said. "Do tell."
"Later Ranma, right now we've got to find Bughenhagen. Cid, take us down."
*****
The Mideel doctor recognised Cloud and Tifa as they approached. "Well,
well, well, if it isn't my most miraculous patient and his nurse. It's
good to see you still up and about."
Tifa smiled. "And I'm glad to see you've rebuilt your clinic."
"Yeah well we discovered we really needed it. Every so often we get the
odd idiot trying to recreate your swim. None have recovered yet."
Cloud bowed his head. "That's unfortunate."
"True. I hope your not planning to stage a repeat performance."
"I hope not." Cloud laughed. Ranma and Akane walked up behind them.
"Actually, we're looking for someone. Have you seen a strange old man who
can fly?"
The doctor looked at Tifa. "Are you sure he recovered?" Behind Cloud Ranma
barked out a laugh. Cloud turned to glare at him.
"Don't worry, he's fine and serious. I gather you haven't seen anyone
matching that description," Tifa told him.
"Nope, and I'm not likely to have forgotten him either. Well, good luck in
finding him, I have to go back to my patients."
"That's a good man," Tifa commented..
"Yeah, but that doesn't help us."
Ranma and Akane walked off the path towards the lake. Akane stood back
from the edge of the cliff, but Ranma lent over and stared down at the
lake.
"Hey Cloud, how deep is this lake?"
Cloud and Tifa wandered over next to Akane. "It's connected to a network
of streams that run throughout the entire planet. I imagine you could get
to the core through them."
"What caused the collapse?"
Cloud shrugged. "Lots of things I suppose, Holy was being suppressed, the
Ultimate Weapon was flying around, Meteor was about to crash, and
Sephiroth was deep in the planet causing problems. Mideel was just a soft
point on the surface."
"Where you just happened to be," Ranma pointed out.
"True, its times like that you start getting a bad case of religion." He
shook his head.
"Yeah, there are times I start thinking about becoming a monk, just to get
away from it all," Ranma joked.
"If you ever dare Ranma, I'll..." Akane brought back her fist. The punch
never connected because an earth tremor struck. Afterwards the citizens of
Mideel were surprised, the only damage done by the quake was that a
section of the cliff had fallen into the lake.
Barrett stood atop the cliff, looking down. "What is with those guys and
the lifestream?"
*****
Author's Notes
You'll notice that that this part is called The Final Chaos 1/2 Phase 1
chapter 5. All previous parts are also part of Phase 1.