Disclaimer blah blah Square blah blah C&C/MST blah blah
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Final Fantasy VII: Children of Jenova
Chapter 19
Scarlet had just gotten word that the first phase of her plan to reclaim
Junon was proceeding exactly as planned, with a bonus: Reno. So that
was where the little bastard had gone. She figured Rude and Elena were
probably skulking around the city as well, but she could wait for them.
All she cared about was that Reeve would soon be dying slowly in her
gas chamber. Reeve, that lying, conniving, treacherous, double-crossing
little son of a bitch would be hers. Just as Elena had once blamed Cloud
for Tseng's death, Scarlet blamed Reeve for Rufus's untimely demise.
Well, it worked for her. It was because of Cloud that Sephiroth was able
to summon the Meteor, and if he hadn't done that, that fucking Weapon
wouldn't have blasted Midgar, and Reeve had been working with Cloud
in the form of that idiotic robot cat.
Scarlet was the one who had finally found Rufus after all the commotion
had died down after the whole Meteor deal. Bruised and bleeding from
the mishap with her poor Proud Clod, she'd dragged herself back into
what was left of the Shinra tower and found Rufus lying on the floor in
the ruins of his office. Several pieces of shrapnel from the exploded
window had lodged themselves in his arm, chest, and stomach, and he lay
on the floor spitting up blood and shivering and clutching weakly at his
stomach trying to keep his insides in. Scarlet may have been the
cruelest woman in the word short of Jenova, but she was not completely
without some semblance of compassion. She ended his misery with one
bullet to the brain, gathered what was left of Shinra, and got the hell out
of Midgar. Reeve had vanished. The little chickenshit had run away.
Scarlet never forgot that.
Neomidgar was built in less than a year. Scarlet changed her surname
from Alexander to Shinra and made it crystal clear with that one act what
her intentions were. And executing Reeve would make it crystal clear to
the people of Junon that she was done fucking around. Shinra had ruled
the world before, now it would do so again.
* * *
"Goddamnit to hell, Junior--" Cid gunned the Tiny Bronco II's throttle
and screamed toward Junon as fast as the old Stingray would carry him,
scanning the sky around him for any trace of an old gray Viper. Why
didn't she just stay put and wait for him to pick her up? The sound of an
explosion drew his attention, and he watched in horror as a small fighter
jet exploded just a mile or two ahead. Then horror became slack-jawed
confusion, which gave way to joy as he realized that the exploding
aircraft was black, and the jet that shot its ass out of the sky was gray
and
did not vanish. Then the horror returned as he watched three more
Banshees uncloak dead ahead of the Viper.
"Oh, shit." Cid goaded the Stingray ahead as fast as it would possibly go,
and it shuddered in protest. Realizing he wasn't going to get there in
time, he swore softly and fired off both of the heatseeking missiles Vicks
had loaded up for him before the damned things could vanish again,
destroying one Banshee and crippling another as the remaining Banshee
let fly a heatseeker of its own. The Viper spat out another flare and
peeled off sharply. The black jet cloaked once more and Cid eased the
Tiny Bronco II closer to his old Viper. "Junior?" he called out over the
radio. "Junior, you in there?"
There was a long pause, followed by "...Daddy?"
Cid let out the breath he'd been holding; it escaped in a small sob
followed by a laugh. "Damnit, Junior, are you up here tearin' up my
plane?"
He was answered with a laugh. "Trying not to, Daddy...there's still one
of those stupid disappearing airplanes around--damnit!" Said "stupid
disappearing airplane" uncloaked once more, along with two more of its
buddies, and Cid watched with interest as the Viper started popping off
rounds of 30-mil at the things, aiming for the funny-looking pods hanging
off their bellies. One of the black jets seemed to shiver once before
snapping into solid, plainly visible form. "Sorry...that pod's what makes
'em disappear! You gotta shoot that! If they disappear you can't even hit
'em with heatseekers!"
"I'll be damned!" Cid gasped as the Viper peeled out again, narrowly
avoiding another missile. "Thanks for the tip...Junior?"
"Sir?"
"When we get home I'm washin' your mouth out with soap!" Cid tried
his damndest to sound serious, but the last word of the sentence
dissolved into chuckles anyway. "In your face, you sorry sack of shit!"
With that, Cid swooped past the Banshee and peppered it with rounds,
doing just enough damage to force its pilot to eject as the poor jet went
into a dive; shortly thereafter it did a passable impression of a lawn
dart.
"Junior, you listen to me and listen good. You put that Viper in full
afterburner and get the hell out of here." The response was not what Cid
wanted to hear.
"No sir!"
"Junior, I wasn't asking you. I was telling you--" Cid would have
continued, but one of the other two Banshees chose that moment to
uncloak in front of him. Before either jet could fire upon the other, the
sleek gray form of the Viper dashed between them, popping off rounds at
the Banshee's cloaking pod. The shots missed their mark, but before the
aircraft vanished to regroup Cid saw the Viper spit something that
burned white-hot right on top of it. "Junior, what the hell are you doing?"
he queried. What the hell was she thinking, dropping a flare right on the
thing? He watched the little flaming ball zipping around as the now-
cloaked Banshee scurried away none the wiser, and then when he heard
Junior speaking to the Viper's VOX system he knew...and he made a
mental note to kick himself in the ass later. "I'll be a son of a--why the
hell didn't I think of that!?"
"Fire left heatseeker," Junior ordered the aircraft.
"No target acquired," the Viper replied.
"Override!" Junior snapped at the thing, and Cid grinned evilly as the
Viper's heatseeker began to follow the Banshee around, fixated on the
little white flare that was fusing itself to the thing's left wing. "Heh
heh...if the missile don't get him, wait till that flare burns through the
skin! BOOM!" Junior laughed.
And BOOM it went. The Banshee zigged when it probably should have
zagged, and the Viper's heatseeker caught it right in the intake. Its
pilot,
realizing at last that something really bad was about to happen, punched
out and drifted away on the breeze.
"Okay, two of these sonsabitches left..." Cid looked around quickly for
any sign of uncloaking Banshees and saw none. "Hey, ya little
chickenshits...come out come out wherever you are..." Cid slowed the
Tiny Bronco II to a hover; the Viper was unable to do so and simply
circled slowly around him. One minute passed, then two, then five. No
sign of the Banshees.
"They buggered off," Junior finally said and began to laugh. "They ran
away! Buncha stupid wussy chickensh--"
Cid opened his mouth to scold her, but something was wrong...she'd
stopped before the offending word even hit the radio waves in its
entirety.
"I think we got a problem," Junior's voice finally said. Looking off to the
east, Cid began to see something very large taking shape much closer
than he liked. An enormous patch of air began to ripple and waver,
revealing a huge gray aircraft; the Viper could have sat on one of its
wings and the Tiny Bronco II on the other with room to spare. On each
wing there were four weapons pylons, each carrying a full load of nasty
things that went bang and boom. Mounted on the nose was a very large
gun. And hanging on the belly of the behemoth was a tiny black cloaking
pod. During the war, Cid had seen firsthand what a Shinra Hurricane was
capable of; namely, wiping out whole squadrons of fighters very quickly.
Two rickety old jets wouldn't stand a chance against it.
* * *
Vincent, as usual, didn't show it...but he couldn't remember the last time
he'd had such a profound feeling of impending doom as he had at that
moment. The Highwind screamed toward Junon as fast as its engines
would carry it, and as usual Yuffie was in the engine room doing her
thing. Cloud seemed to have adjusted to the not-so-smooth ride
somewhat, but he was still unusually pale and gripped the nearest
immovable object as tightly as he could. The fact that the Black Materia
was only a few steps away from him, nestled in one of the pockets of
Vincent's cloak, didn't help his state of mind.
Cloud could imagine the thing sitting there in its prison of red cloth,
calling out to him like a lost and frightened child, or a lost and spiteful
lover. /Come on, Cloud./ He could picture a sweet smile spreading across
its blank black face, a closed-lipped smile hiding a mouthful of needle-
sharp fangs. /Come a little closer./ He realized with a sort of sick horror
that the voice he put to those words sounded a little like Sephiroth, a
little like Zack, and a little like Aeris. Just the right combination to
seriously mess with his head. /Cloud...come to me...hold me...touch
me.../
"What the HELL!?" Barret thundered as the Highwind quite suddenly
veered off to the north, passing close enough to Junon for the crew and
party to see the mayhem in progress as Banshees and Hurricanes strafed
what was left of the airstrip once more just because they could and
started on the rest of the town. Apparently Reeve had been able to raise
some sort of alarm; the shields that had protected the city during the
Weapon attack all those years ago had been raised over the buildings.
"The hell you doin', Vincent!? Where the hell you headed?"
"I don't know!" Vincent snapped back. "I've lost control of the ship! The
controls aren't responding!" The Highwind's flight crew scurried around
the bridge like ants, and a very green Yuffie staggered onto the bridge in
their midst.
"What are you doin', Vincent!? Are you NUTS?" she wheezed, flopping
onto a bench. Vincent shot her a pained look. "What's up?"
"We're out of control, that's what's up!" Elena spat at her. "Happy?"
"Well, excuse me!" Yuffie sniffed. "Y'mind if I ask WHY the hell we're
out of control?"
"'Cause Vincent can't fly worth shit, prob'ly," Barret replied, and
Vincent just glared at him.
"Would you care to try, Barret?" Vincent was unable to prevent his
annoyance with the big man from creeping into his voice. Barret gave no
reply, and Vincent turned his attention back to the consoles.
Cloud's attention was focused elsewhere. Specifically, on the small
roundish bulge in one of Vincent's cloak pockets.
/Cloud/
He thought for a second that if he looked hard enough, his gaze would
burn away the cloth that held the Black Materia...and then what? What
would he do if it dropped to the floor and rolled to him?
/My servant/
Dread rose like bile in Cloud's throat as he realized that he wasn't
imagining the Black Materia's voice anymore; he was hearing it.
/My puppet/
And it sounded just as he had imagined it would. /Oh God oh God
something's wrong tell Vincent tell him tell him tell--/
/Hold me/
"No," Cloud whimpered, clawing at his hair. Tifa reached out and laid
her hand on his; he snatched it away. /No no oh God stop it stop it.../ He
was vaguely aware that the Highwind was slowing to a hover right over
the Northern crater. The Black Materia issued forth one final command,
and Cloud sprang to his feet. He caught Vincent completly off guard,
tackling him and knocking him to the floor, and his hand dove into the
pocket where the Black Materia rested. His hand closed around the black
orb and drew it out before Vincent could react.
"Cloud! Stop!" Red XIII cried, but it was already too late. Black Materia
in hand, Cloud turned and ran off the bridge. Red, Tifa, and Elena gave
chase; Vincent came to his senses and did likewise.
They found him standing on the deck of the airship, gazing over the rail
at the man who stood suspended in midair above the crater. He wore the
same ill-fitting SOLDIER armor he had worn the last time Red, Cloud,
and Vincent had seen him, but now he carried the Masamune as well.
They recognized him immediately, as did Tifa.
"Zack..."
* * *
Rude liked jogging about as much as Reno did. But he'd done what had
been asked of him. Unfortunately, it hadn't been enough. Without air
power to back them up, Junon's ground troops were sitting ducks for the
Shinra air force's superior firepower.
Now the best he could hope for was to get back to the Junon Hydro
tower in one piece to help fend off any Shinra goons that tried to get in.
He noticed that something didn't look quite right outside the tower.
There was a patch of distorted air sitting there in front of it, and it was
roughly the same size and shape as a helicopter. The front door was,
therefore, not an option. He took a quick look toward the parking garage
and saw that it was deserted. Perfect. As parking garages tended to do,
this one had a door in it leading straight into the building's lobby, and
Rude took advantage of it. The lobby was likewise deserted, and that
rattled him straight to the core. There were two distinct possibilities at
that point: a) something really bad was about to happen and b) something
really bad had already happened and Rude was about to get caught in the
aftermath of same. He slipped into an elevator and jabbed the button for
the top floor.
Reeve had done many great things for the city of Junon; changing the
elevator music had not, however, been at the top of his do-list. A string-
laden rendition of "Moon Over Midgar" oozed cheerily from the speakers
as the elevator cruised toward the top floor of the tower, and Rude found
himself wanting very badly to dismantle said speakers with a ten pound
sledgehammer. Three floors from the top the car stopped. The door
opened, and three blue suits stepped in.
"Would you press 'up,' please?" the blonde guy asked with a grin as the
doors hissed shut.
They opened again at the top floor of the tower, and the three blue suits
disembarked with the blonde one wiping a bloodied sai with a
handkerchief.
* * *
"Shit!"
Cid didn't even bother responding when that expletive drifted through
the radio. There was no time for that now. He was too busy dodging
bullets and missiles, as was Junior. And both of them were dangerously
low on fuel. /Can't keep this shit up much longer.../ Cid was out of
missiles. Junior still had one Death's Head but dared not use it at this
range. All they could do was sneak in shots of 30-mil wherever they
could, and it was like shooting Ruby Weapon with a BB gun. The Shinra
Hurricane was designed and built for the sole purpose of taking abuse; it
was designed to stay flyable with half of both wings and the tail blown
off, and it had a hide like a rhino.
The Viper darted in and popped off a few rounds, striking a few of the
Hurricane's many non-vital areas, and then darted back out. "Crap...I got
a low fuel light, Daddy..."
"I think they're contagious," Cid muttered, glaring at his own warning
light. "We're gonna have to make a run for it best we can--"
The Hurricane let loose a volley of its own bullets, striking the Viper's
VOX pod. A shower of sparks rained down from the shattered pod, and
the radio began to spout a stream of gibberish. The Viper went out of
control, twirling merrily through the air; the landing gear came down and
back up a few times and the gun fired off a few rounds in random
directions.
"Junior, get that goddamn pod off there before it starts doin' somethin'
really crazy!" Cid snapped.
"I already tried! It won't let me jettison the goddamn thing! All the
weapons controls are locked out!"
"The weapons--oh, shit..." Cid's worst fear was confirmed when he
heard the distorted voice of the rogue pod come though the radio one
final time.
"Locking on...target locked...firing Death's Head."
As the voice died out for the last time, the Viper's canopy blew off;
immediately after that the ejection seat fired. The Death's Head
detonated on impact with the Hurricane's nose, sending bomblets flying
over Hurricane and Viper alike as the seat's chute poofed open. The
blinded Hurricane plowed right into the now-unmanned Viper as the
mini-bombs struck the larger aircraft's own two Death's Head missiles.
The explosion was spectacular, but Cid wasn't about to hang around and
gawk at the fireworks. He got as far away as he possibly could while the
wind carried the Viper's ejection seat to safety toward the woods below.
He would have to hunt Junior down later. Right now he needed to land
before the Bronco decided to run out of gas and die on him.
As he touched down just outside of Fort Condor, he noticed something
odd. The now-uncloaked Shinra fighters were pulling out, heading south
at a leisurely pace. At first, Cid thought they'd actually done it; they'd
actually run the bastards off. But there was a major flaw in that logic: if
they really were running scared, why hadn't they bothered to cloak? And
where the hell was the Highwind?
* * *
"Oh my God, they're leaving!" Reeve said to himself as he watched in
disbelief. Sure enough, every last one of the jets Shinra had sent was
uncloaking and flying away. They were leaving. They were taking a
powder, they were making like goalies and getting the puck outta there,
they were buggering off. Reeve couldn't believe it. He had to look out
the window three times to confirm it. It was true. Shinra was pulling out.
Somehow, he'd won. With a heavy sigh of relief, he sank into his chair
and dropped his forehead into his hands. That was way too close.
The door to his office swung open, and under his hands Reeve saw two
pairs of feet sticking out of blue slacks walking in. He didn't even look
up. "You guys are the greatest," he said to the feet as they apporached
his desk. "Soon as we get this place cleaned up again I'm gonna--" A
third pair of feet entered Reeve's limited field of vision, a pair of feet
encased in black high heels; nothing but leg was visible above them. The
same cold, crawly feeling Reno had gotten earlier hit him, and he looked
up quickly just as the butt end of a sai came smashing down on the back
of his head.
"Wow, what a haul," Archer smirked, heaving the unconscious Reeve
out of his chair. "I vote we get a raise and a vacation out of this one.
All
in favor say 'aye.'"
"Aye," Stuart echoed softly. Raven just withered the both of them with
the same babies-must-play look she'd given Reno.
"Let's get him out of here," she directed.
On the way out of the building, a flyer posted on a bulletin board caught
Archer's eye. "Missing Child," it proclaimed, and displayed a picture of a
little blonde girl. Something about that picture looked awfully familiar,
and Archer pocketed the flyer for future reference.
The chopper, with the inert Reno and Reeve restrained in the back, took
off and began to head toward Neomidgar once more. As it flew over the
Junon area forest, Raven squinted out the window. There was an ejection
seat drifting earthward. Drifting in the breeze around its occupant's head
was a nimbus of incredibly long blonde hair. "Hey...look at that," she
said, pointing. "You don't suppose..."
"Catch her," Archer snapped, staring at the seat as it sailed lazily toward
the trees. "Don't let her get away. I owe her one."
* * *
C.J. sighed as her seat drifted toward the forest. She'd been so close to
getting home...but that was okay. Daddy would find her and take her
home. It would be okay.
The first hint she got that it would -not- be okay was the whirring sound
of a helicopter engine approaching. The second was the uncomfortable
yanking sensation of her chute catching on said chopper's skids.
"Got her!" she heard a familiar voice whoop above, barely audible over
the din of the chopper's engine. "Nice catch!"
Oh no.
The butt-grabber.
This was not going well at all.
* * *
"Zack..." Tifa croaked, her eyes brimming with tears as Cloud stood
motionless at the edge of the deck, Black Materia in hand. "Zack...fight
him..."
"Why? Why should I?" Zack--Sephiroth--whoever laughed mirthlessly.
"So he--" and here he pointed the Masamune at Cloud-- "can go back to
filling my head with lies?" Tifa opened her mouth to protest, but Zack cut
her off. "Don't even start. He lied to his friends, he lied to me, he LIVED
a lie and YOU LET HIM!"
"That's not true," Tifa whispered, although she knew it was...how many
times had she wished she'd cut into the story Cloud had told them all in
Kalm with what really happened five years before that? In desperation
she tried a different angle. "What about C.J.? Don't you want to see
her?"
Zack chuckled again. "I can see her whenever I want. Right now I don't
have time. I have more important things to worry about." He held out his
hand. "Give it to me, Cloud."
Cloud's feet began to move closer to the edge of the deck.
"Cloud!" Red XIII barked. "Cloud, stop!"
If Cloud heard, he wasn't listening. He held out the Black Materia to
Zack, and Zack took it. With the same blinding flash as before, he was
gone. There was a long and heavy silence on the deck, followed by a faint
rumbling which grew louder and louder every second.
"We've got to get out of here," Vincent said, heading back for the
bridge.
Tifa was the first to notice that Cloud was gone as well. "Wait! Cloud's--
"
"We're going to have to look for him later. If we don't get out of here
now we might not get out at all." Vincent vanished below deck, hoping
the Highwind's engines were back under his control. They were, and the
airship peeled out and began to make its way back to Junon just as the
same energy barrier he'd seen seven years before rose up over the crater.
"Oh shit," Yuffie moaned upon seeing that unlovely view out the
window. "Not again..."
* * *
"Woohoo! Damn, this thing's heavy!" Five panting and gasping former
Wratt & Pitney employees grunted and swore as they hefted their catch
on board their hijacked airship, which they had christened the Blackhawk.
At present, they were busy looking for cool treasures they could pawn
off to rich weirdos to raise funds to keep the Blackhawk in good working
order, and they had hit the jackpot at Mt. Nibel. The thing they heaved
on board was at least as tall as the tallest crewman and three times as
heavy. It was wrapped in burlap to keep it from breaking. They'd had to
blast all around the damn Mako fountain to get the thing out, and even
then it was still stuck in the rock, but it would surely bring them a mint.
So what if the sword wouldn't come out? It still looked damn cool.
But who would be willing to pay the sort of price the Blackhawk crew
would be asking for it?
Of course.
The black airship changed its course and began to head for Corel.
- - -
Author's Notes: Well. Cloud flips out, Rude gets something bad done to
him with a sai (stop that, you hentai freaks ^_^), Reeve gets bashed over
the head and stuffed in a chopper, Sephy gets the Black Materia again,
and Junior gets shot down AND abducted by a butt-grabbing Turk (rest
easy, Archer is not in any way, shape, or form related to Don Corneo).
Can it possibly get worse than this? Not much worse...what's the deal
with Reno and Archer, anyway? You'll find out in Chapter 20...why does
the Black Materia's "voice" sound sorta like Aeris? Because, like I said,
hers is one of the voices most likely to severely screw with Cloud's gray
matter...well, who's gonna buy Excalibur from the W&P pirates?
Think...there's only one guy in the world with that much money to blow
and a showroom to stick the infernal thing in. Plus, he could charge folks
500 GP (hint) a pop to try and pull it out...
-------------------
--Sailor Solathei
"Ice...snacks...and--fifty gallons of BEER!? What kind of life does she
lead, anyway!?" --Shinji Ikari
"Hang on to your drawers and don't piss in 'em!" --Cid Highwind
"A brand new ML to blow up! Wai!" --Zen
"Excuse me, I am a lost little boy. Can you help
me?.........................well, SCREW YOU TOO!" --Cartman
--------------------
Happiness is a belt-fed weapon
--------------------
Sailor Solathei's Cid Highwind shrine (still under very heavy construction)
http://members.xoom.com/ssolathei/cidshrine.html and the Cid Highwind Otaku
Ring: http://members.xoom.com/ssolathei/ring.html