Merging Journeys

Disclaimer: Everyone should know this by now; I have no idea why I have this disclaimer on every chapter. *_* Anyways, Squaresoft owns Final Fantasy and all the characters in it; I wish I owned it, though. Ahem, never mind; anything I make or write isn't any good. This story is based on FF7, has more spoilers than simpler stories, and isn't a very structured story.

Started: October 2 (3), 1998

Finished: December 15, 1998

His eyes flickered open at the sound of faint footsteps. Footsteps? He hadn't heard anything but his own steady breathing over the last few days. That and his rumbling stomach. So this came as a surprise to him, although he didn't dare show it on his face; he had a reputation to maintain. He allowed the flat line that was his lips to fall into a slight frown. Reputation? What reputation? There was nothing about his reputation that didn't scare anyone; even the elderly shuddered at the mere mentioning of his name.

The next thing he knew was the door to his indestructible prison being opened; the hinges squeaked as the door was pulled. He opened his eyes just slightly, catching a glimpse of a man in a white labcoat sneaking to the right of his "sleeping" form. The man was nervous; the "sleeping" specimen could hear his rapid breathing as he grabbed hold of something against the wall. The specimen's eyes widened and he straightened, leaping to his feet as he realized that the man in the labcoat was trying to take Masamune.

"You can't take Masamune!" he growled, preparing a battle stance quickly. His Mako eyes glittered in the dim light, the sheen of his hair also catching the rays of artificial light.

"Oh, shit!" cursed the frightened scientist, clutching Masamune to his chest as he backed away towards the door. "You're awake!"

He managed a small smirk when he saw how large the man's eyes were. "Don't underestimate *anyone*," he started, "*especially* me." With that said, he delivered a devastating blow to the man's chest, his answer being the crunch of bones as his fist shattered a few ribs. The scientist staggered backwards and fell against the wall, Masamune slipping out of his fingers and clattering soundly to the ground.

Specimen B glared down at the prone form of the scientist before retrieving the Masamune. "No one touches my sword without paying the price," he whispered, turning towards the cell door. As he tried to exit, however, the door slammed shut before him. "What the--?"

Hojo strode forward from apparently nowhere, a confident smile on his gaunt face. "I'd say it's very nice to see you awake, my son, but then I'd be lying."

Sephiroth glared at Hojo. "It's no picnic seeing your face either, you damn quack."

"Please don't refer to me as that, Sephiroth," Hojo said calmly. He eyed the dying scientist in Sephiroth's cell before averting his cold black eyes to the silver-haired ex-SOLDIER. "I see that you still love killing people."

Sephiroth frowned. "He tried to take Masamune, so I killed him. I'm not going to kill for Jenova anymore, now that I know that she . . . it . . . isn't my mother." He reached over to grip the bars of the cell, hissing when he got an electric shock ran through the bars and into his body. "You bastard, let me out!!"

"Why, so that you can try to kill me?" queried Hojo, sneering. He shook his head and pulled out a tranquilizer gun. "Sorry, son, but you're not getting *anywhere* near me." With that said, Hojo brought the gun up and pulled the trigger.

The former head of SOLDIER growled angrily as the large dose of tranquilzer forced him down to his knees. "Dammit. . . Go to Hell, Hojo. . ." The infamous Sephiroth glared at Hojo up until his eyes glazed over and he lapsed into unconsciousness.

"I'm already there," Hojo whispered, entering the cell and taking Masamune from Sephiroth. He held the long blade for a moment, then exited, reactivating the electric barrier as he left.

It was night time. He didn't need to see the sun or glance at a clock to know; for some reason, he simply knew. Tseng Lander sat in one of the main rooms of the AVALANCHE headquarters, as the other rooms were filled up. The hideout hadn't been meant to be used by so many people; the rebel group had mainly been Cloud Strife, Barret Wallace, Cid Highwind, and Reeve, as the other supporters were still on different parts of the Planet at the time. Cid was now sharing his bedroom with Shera, while Barret bunked with his daughter and Yuffie Kisaragi, much to Barret's displeasure. Cloud shared his room with Red XIII and Vincent, and Elmyra and Tifa had taken up Reeve's bedroom, with Cait Sith also "sleeping" in the room, or more precisely, in a corner of the room recharging.

He looked from his seat on the torn-up couch to an overstuffed chair in a corner of the room. Rufus Shinra sat there, draped in a blanket as he stared blankly at ceiling. For a long moment, Tseng gazed at him; he just couldn't believe that, behind that face that looked remarkably like Cloud's, was the former president of Shinra Incorporated. 'Hojo must really be screwed up to have done something so horrible to the president,' he thought. 'Why? Why did he do this? He must have known who he was experimenting on; why would he use Rufus for something so horrid?'

Aeris walked into the room and looked at Tseng for a moment before averting her eyes to Rufus, who had closed his eyes and was now sleeping. "Are you worried about him, Tseng?" she queried, taking a seat next to Tseng. Tseng nodded but did not speak; he was afraid that Rufus would wake up he if heard voices. "He'll be okay, Tseng. The Cetra won't let anything bad happen to him; he's important to our cause."

Tseng looked at Rufus' sleeping form for a second before speaking to Aeris. "I still don't understand what Rufus can help us with. He was an enemy to AVALANCHE before."

"So were you, Tseng," began Aeris, "and look how important you are to this cause. Once you learn how to control your powers as a Cetra, you will be very powerful."

"What about yourself?" queried Tseng. "You must be stronger than I am."

"Believe it or not, Tseng, you have the potential to be stronger than me," Aeris sighed. Tseng blinked in surprise, and Aeris nodded. "I'm only half-Cetra; my father was human, remember?"

"Ah, yes," Tseng whispered. "Professor Gast."

"Yes, well," Aeris started, "since you're a full-blooded Cetra, Tseng, you'll be able to do many things that I can't do. . . Such as using Holy as a weapon."

Tseng blinked. "I thought that Holy could only be summoned. . .?"

The dead girl shook her head. "No; I could only summon it because I was part Cetra. The real Cetra could will the Materia to release blasts of white energy. It's supposedly as dangerous as the Black Materia when used as a weapon."

Aeris' words settled into Tseng's mind, and he lowered his gaze to the glove on his hand. "Why would I want to use it as a weapon? We're not up against something *that* powerful, are we?"

"I'm afraid that we are, Tseng. . . I'm not sure what exactly, but I know that it is incredibly powerful. If it reaches its full potential, it could easily accomplish what Sephiroth had tried to do."

Tseng frowned. "Easily? . . . Damn."

She woke up with a start, sitting up and opening her eyes to the darkness of her father's bedroom. Marlene Wallace held back a sob, shivering as she remembered the horrid dream she had just dreamt. She had seen her father, along with the flower lady's friend, the one who had taken the flower lady for a helicopter ride, and all her father's friends dead, killed by a figure hidden behind the shadows. The last thing she remembered from the dream was his laughter; cold and uncaring.

Shuddering, Marlene tugged at her father's arm, hoping it would wake him up. He continued to snore peacefully, not even feeling her small, insistent fingers on his arm. Marlene frowned and got out of the bed, padding through the room as to not wake up the teenage ninja that was sleeping quietly on the floor. She wandered through the hideout, looking for someone, anyone, that was awake that she could talk to. She found her "someone" in the form of a spiky-haired blond man staring at the ceiling, holding a blanket to his well-built body.

"Cloud?" she queried in her tiny, timid voice. Marlene swallowed hard, hoping that the man wasn't in a bad mood or anything. He certainly didn't look very happy . . . but then again, she couldn't remember a time when Cloud was actually happy.

"Cloud" averted his gaze from the ceiling to her, blinking in surprise. "Marlene? What are you doing up still?" he asked in concern, regaining his composure and leaning towards her slightly.

"I-- I had a scary dream," Marlene whispered, approaching "Cloud" slowly.

"Why didn't you wake up your dad?"

Marlene rubbed her arm nervously. "I-- didn't wanna wake him up."

Rufus sighed, wondering if he should tell Marlene that he wasn't Cloud. After a moment, he decided not to; the kid might start crying, or even worse, start asking questions. While he wasn't in a bad mood, he wasn't in the mood to answer questions. "Come on up," he said, patting his knee. Marlene walked up, climbing into Rufus' lap quietly. "Now, tell me what was so scary that it woke you up."

Rufus shifted under Marlene, feeling odd about the position he had been put in. He, the president of Shinra Incorporated, had been reduced to a guinea pig to Hojo within a month of his supposed death, forcing himself to take up arms and fight against his former company with his former enemies. If someone had said a month ago hat he would end up falling in love with Tifa Lockheart and teaming up with AVALANCHE against Shinra Incorporated, he would have ordered their execution.

"I-- saw everyone dead," she whispered, shuddering as she thought of the frightful dream. "Everyone wasn't moving-- and-- and--" She cried as she remembered seeing her father's prone form and the cold laughter that rang out throughout her mind.

"Shhh. . . Umm, don't cry, Marlene," Rufus whispered, unsure of what to do. He had never tried to comfort a child before, as he had never been comforted as a child himself. "We're not dead. Don't worry; nothing's going to happen to us." *Yet,* he added silently to himself.

Elena stared out the window of her quarters, watching the sun rise in silence. She was deeply troubled by her position; as a Turk, she was supposed to obey the commands over her superior without question. As a person, she was supposed to follow what her heart thought was right. She knew Reno and Rude did not like being under Heidegger as much as her; after they had failed to take out Cloud back in the slums, Reno had cursed Heidegger behind him back. It wasn't surprising; her own ears still rang from Heidegger's furious hollering.

Another thing that deeply concerned her was the vice president of the company, Andrew Veraldei. He was a lot like Rufus had been; cold and very unsociable. But there was something about him that frightened her; perhaps it was his chilling azure eyes, or the nonchalance in his voice. She shook her head, knowing those weren't the reasons he scared her. It was the evil that lurked behind his composed figure; not even Rufus had been as twisted as he was. She was sure that there was something that he kept in the dark about himself; something truly sinister.

"What is he thinking?" she whispered to herself, looking away from her window and down to the floor. "Is there more to all of this than what we're seeing? Can-- can there be some hidden purpose behind all of Shinra's work?"

She would have to ask someone about Shinra's work. . . Someone she could trust. Sighing, Elena promised herself that she would visit Reeve in the afternoon.

"Are you all right?" Tifa queried to Rufus, who sat alone on the front steps of the hideout. She stepped out, looking down at him with a frown. "You missed breakfast."

The ex-president looked up at her and sighed. "I'm all right," he said. "I'm just a little . . . depressed by our current situation."

"Don't worry about it." Tifa walked towards him so that she stood next to him. "We'll find out what's going on behind this new Shinra Incorporated one way or another; Cloud's already planning on how we can break into the building with Cid, Barret, and . . . Tseng."

Rufus nodded, standing up and brushing off his bodysuit. "If there's one person that knows his way around the Shinra Building, it would be Tseng. He knows literally everything there is about it." He paused, remembering something else. "Don't you have a spy in there?"

"Yeah," Tifa affirmed. "We lost contact with Reeve recently, though. I'm sure I'm not the only one concerned." She turned around and started for the door. "Come on; we don't want to miss anything Cloud has to say."

Right before Tifa entered the hideout, however, she heard Rufus' voice. ". . . Do you love him?"

She didn't even have to ask who `him` was. She already knew. Bowing her head, Tifa replied, "How can I not? Rufus, I've known him since I was a little girl. He's all I have left of my childhood, and I love him dearly. . . I'm sorry."

Rufus sighed as Tifa disappeared into the house. "Why am I not surprised?" he asked himself. "I don't deserve someone like her; not someone of my stature."

Tifa and Rufus walked into the living room to find the other members of AVALANCHE listening to what Cloud was saying. ". . . From what Tseng's been able to tell me, there's a lot of open areas that can be boobytrapped. We're going to need something that can detect these things if we're going to sneak in undetected. Can you handle this, Shera?"

Shera looked at Cloud for a moment before speaking. "I'll see what I can do."

"I would advise against using the stairs again," Tseng stated, drawing everyone's eyes. "More than likely, there will be guards there now; I'm sure that Shinra has gotten wise to the fact that you are always using the stairs, despite their length."

"Damn right," Barret muttered under his breath upon hearing Tseng's words.

"Then what do you suppose we should do?" queried Vincent from where he leaned against the far wall. "You can't seriously be thinking about a frontal assault."

"That's what we're here to discuss," Cloud said. "Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can get into the Shinra Building?"

"We'd get Reeve to look around for us," Cid started, "but we lost contact with him again." He pulled his cigarette out of his mouth and let out a long stream of smoke before replacing the cigarette in his mouth.

"Maybe I can be of some help." It was Rufus' first words since he had entered the room with Tifa. The looks he received from the AVALANCHE members ranged from distrust to curiosity. Tseng glanced at Aeris, who looked at him quietly before averting her eyes back to Rufus. He knew that she felt sympathy for the ex-president. Silently, the former Turk wished that the others could forgive him as easily as she did. "There are passages in the sewers that lead underneath the Shinra Building. If . . . Veraldei hasn't sealed the passages off, we can use them to get into the building."

"Why should we trust you?" Yuffie snapped from her perch on the couch, next to Red XIII and Elmyra.

"Yuffie!" Tifa exclaimed, looking at the ninja in disbelief.

"Look, Tifa," Yuffie began, her eyes on the woman, "I don't care if you feel sorry for him or whatever, but this is Rufus Shinra! We can't trust him; he's already lied to us and everything! For all we know, Veraldei and this no-name hotshot that runs Shinra Incorporated could be working with him to take us *all* out!"

"Yuffie." Cloud's voice was harsh, yet controlled. Yuffie flushed under the glare of the ex-mercenary. Raising his gaze from Yuffie to Rufus, Cloud said, "Against my better judgement, I've chosen to believe you, Rufus. But keep this in mind: you're not among friends; if this is some sort of trick, there will be hell to pay."

Mako eyes met Mako eyes. Rufus stared at the man he was an almost-exact clone of. "I give you my word," he said firmly.

"And we all know how much your word is worth," Barret retorted.

Rufus sighed, bowing his head at Barret's retort. Tifa looked at Cloud, her eyes pleading him to stop all of this. Cloud glanced at his best friend, then nodded. "We'll talk about last minute plans tonight," he said, raising his voice to get the attention of everyone. "The sooner we strike at Shinra, the sooner we can find out what they're up to."

"So should we expect to infiltrate Shinra Incorporated tonight?" asked Nanaki.

Cloud nodded at the beast. "Yeah. . . We strike tonight."

Reeve blinked at the sound of someone knocking on his door. Rolling his shoulders, the AVALANCHE spy strode from his bedroom to his front door, unlocking it silently before opening it up. "Elena?" he queried, looking at the female Turk in surprise. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Um . . . Reeve, I-- that is, I'd like to talk to you about something. May I come in?"

Nodding, Reeve allowed Elena into his quarters, locking the door behind him before offering her a seat. He glanced back at his bedroom before sitting down himself; he wondered if the phoenix, who hesitantly told him his name was Zesah, knew he had company and would stay quiet back there.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked, returning his thoughts to Elena.

"I've been thinking about Shinra Incorporated," Elena started, "and . . . if I'm to keep working here, I'd like to know where my loyalties lie."

Reeve frowned. "Elena, I myself can't help you there," he admitted. "Veraldei's a very secretive man, and I strongly believe that anyone that re-hires people like Heidegger, Scarlet, and Hojo can't be right in the head. I'm sorry to say that."

"Don't be sorry, Reeve," Elena said. "You're right; people like them shouldn't be part of any type of business. They scare me."

Reeve smiled grimly. "They scare everyone."

Elena braved a smile herself. "Thank you for listening to me, Reeve," she thanked.

"It's nothing," Reeve sighed with a wave of his hand. "It's nice to talk with someone level-headed every now and then. Sometimes I believe I'm the only sane one in this insane building."

"So do I," Elena admitted. "There's some times when I wish that Tseng were here; he would know what to do."

"I'm sorry that he perished," Reeve agreed. "He was a good man working for a bad company. I believe he didn't like doing everything he did."

"I-- I honestly think he liked me," the blond-haired Turk whispered.

"I think he did, too," Reeve said gently. "There's a lot to like about you, Elena. You're sweet, kind, and very thoughtful. Sometimes I wonder why you became a Turk; there are so many more things you could have become."

"Sometimes I wonder myself," Elena sighed, her thoughts drifting off to think of her former leader.

He swung Masamune experimentally, noting how heavy the blade felt in his hands. Suddenly feeling eyes upon him, the product of Project Ultimatum whirled around, narrowing his dark blue Mako eyes on a figure hidden in a darkened section of the laboratory. He immediately relaxed; this man was no threat. Powerful in his own way, the man emitted his own invisible aura of calmness. He was the president of Shinra Incorporated.

"Greetings, Cero," the figure greeted, not moving towards him. He simply stood there in the darkness.

"So, I now have a name." It was not a question, but a cold statement.

Cero could feel the man shrug, even if the action was lost to the darkness. "We felt it was needed; as you will be around for a while, you might as well have a name that we may call you by."

"Cero." He tried the name out, mulling it over for a moment. The silver-haired "clone" frowned darkly. "That sounds awfully a lot like `zero`."

The president chuckled in the dark. His chuckle was mirthless and evil. "That is the way we chose it to be. Does it suit you?"

"No, but I doubt you will give me a name any better," growled Cero, his eyes narrowing dangerously on the faint outline of the president.

The president must have noticed his eyes, for his next words were, "Do not even start thinking such thoughts. I own you."

"You are no better than me," Cero hissed, raising Masamune into a battle stance similar to Sephiroth's.

"Wrong. I have something you will never have."

Cero blinked, lowering Masamune slowly. "What do you have that I don't have?" He could almost see the sinister sneer on the president's face as he replied.

"Immortality."

On to Chapter 11.

Back to Merging Journeys.