Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy VII: Shadowed Illusions, Final Destination ❯ Chapter 2

Yuffie had slowly made her way to Lega, keeping her mind on Reno. Lega stood up and stood behind her. Cloud, on the other hand, glared at Naki, yet occasionally glancing at his daughter. One thing he hated, Turks. Not to mention they were after both him and his daughter, Salira. But what bewildered him was the fact that even before he adopted Salira, NeoShinRa was still after her. Yet it took the organization thirteen years to find him, today marking it. “Get away from her,” Cloud demanded fearlessly. He did not want to see Salira in NeoShinRa's possession. “What? I'm only going to catch her if she falls,” Naki replied with a dark grin. Cloud sidestepped, but as he did so Naki directed his gun at Salira. “You move, I shoot. It's that simple. So either way we go, it's your loss.”

 

Reno just looked at Naki like he was insane. Did Naki realize the fact that if the girl dies, they both would be held responsible and Rufus would be furious? But then it dawned on him; Rufus didn't mention anything about hurting her, as long as she is alive. Cloud, however, knew Rufus pretty well as in terms of missions he assigns. “You won't be alive if you kill her, so my loss would be your loss,” Cloud sneered. “Either I would kill you, or maybe even your boss.”

 

“Heh, that's what you think,” Naki replied, knowing his limits. “I can have magic backfire on her.” He cocked his gun and positioned it at Salira once again. Cloud knew he had a point, and he was sure either he or Reno had that kind of spell. Not letting his guard down, Cloud stopped. It was only minutes that his daughter would fall. Reno turned back toward Yuffie and Lega, letting Naki take care of Cloud. “Do realize I have a gun and you have some kind of weird disk. Bullets run faster than blades,” Reno remarked, aiming his gun at Yuffie, for she was more of a threat than Lega was.

 

“And your point is?” Yuffie asked back, more as a taunt than a question. She then mumbled back to Lega, “Run back home, we got it covered here.” With that, Lega ran out of the church to his house. Reno could care less of the kid's actions, same with Naki.

 

“Here let me show you my point,” Reno answered, cold-hearted. At that moment, he began firing bullet after bullet at Yuffie until half of his ammunition was gone. Yuffie took off and was able to dodge the first six, one barely missing her leg. She jumped up and flipped off of a nearby wall to avoid three more, landing to the right of Reno. And for the remaining five bullets that he shot, Yuffie spun her disk to block them. Each bullet landed with a clink sound as she backed up a few feet, lowering her weapon in the process. Reno lowered his as well, being that he had to reload in order to shoot some more.

 

“Damn Turks,” she murmured to herself, exhausted. Reno looked at her with a grin, getting ready to fire at her again.

 

 

 

Salira was getting tired, and her arm hurt from holding on for so long. She tried to reach the ledge with her other hand, but couldn't. Instead, she began to slip. Cloud watched and knew she would fall, now within seconds. He jumped up and used his sword to push him up higher, soon landing on the beam Salira was hanging on. Just as she let go, Cloud grabbed her hand and pulled her up. “Yuffie, let's go!” he yelled, which was soon followed by Naki's gun. Reno began to join in as well. Cloud jumped down, with his daughter in his grip and his sword in his other hand, and took off with Salira behind him. Yuffie soon followed him out, though the Turks kept on shooting at them, hoping to get a shot.

 

Once they were out of range, the two Turks stopped firing and ran out of the church. But by the time they got out, Strife, Salira, and Yuffie were no where in sight. Reno kicked a nearby wall, irritated, ”Shit!” Naki only grunted in disgrace. It was then his phone in his pocket began to ring. Hoping it wasn't Rufus, Naki pulled out his phone and looked at the screen. “Mayona? What the hell does she want?” he mumbled to himself, kind of relieved it wasn't his boss. He pushed a button and brought it up so he was able to talk into it.

 

“You're calling why?” Naki asked quite rudely.

 

“I got a call from Rufus saying the computer systems went haywire. The scientists say Weapon are going to be rising again, and not only that, but the company's been getting reports on sightings of Sephiroth,” a young female, at least fifteen years of age, answered.

 

“Hun, where the hell are you calling from?” Naki remarked, kind of ignoring what she just said.

 

“That shity academy where my mother works at. She got me enrolled here six months ago.”

 

“What fun…Anyways, what were you saying?”

 

“Don't you ever fucking listen?!”

 

“Well in some cases…no,” Naki answered with a laugh.

 

“Why you little son-,” Mayona started, but was interrupted by her mother walking into the room. Her voice, as well as Mayona's, could be heard over the phone. Naki just listened while he waited for Mayona to finish. “Mayona, who are you talking to?” her mother asked.

 

“Just one of my friends in Midgar, mother. Just calling to see how he was doing,” Maya answered, as nicely as possible, attitude changing.

 

“He? Exactly whom is this person you speak of?” she asked again. “He's not one of them is he?”

 

“No!…no of coarse not, mother. He's an old friend of mine. His name is…Seshom. And Seshom is definitely not one of them.”

 

“Okay then, I want you down in the hall in ten minutes,” her mother stated, leaving and shutting the door behind her. Mayona waited until she left before adding in, “God damn I hate her.”

 

“Seshom? What kind of fucking name is that?” Naki asked.

 

“I had to make up something,” Mayona answered, getting back to her normal self.

 

“Mind if I ask, who the hell are them?” Naki ask again, though having a slight idea.

 

“Think asshole, them…us…Turks…does that ring a bell?”

 

“Thought so…”

 

“Then why did you fucking ask that for?!”

 

“So the reason you called was because?” Naki asked, changing the subject to get Mayona ticked.

 

“Urgh!!!” Maya grunted. She calmed down a bit and started again, “Rufus called me saying the computer systems went haywire. And that the scientists say the Weapons are going to be rising again.”

 

“And what about Sephiroth?” Naki questioned. That name reached Reno and he looked at Naki interested.

 

“We've been getting reports on his sightings. Some of the Turks say they've seen him with their own eyes recently. I won't doubt it though; the Lifestream has been acting up again since Strife killed Sephiroth. The scientists here have taken samples and have studied the Lifestream. And research shows it's not acting right. We've gotten rumors spreading that there is still one more Ancient lurking somewhere. Since that got to Rufus' ears, he's demanding that we are to find the Ancient. Speaking on finding…how's your search?”

 

“We almost had the girl, but Strife had to show his ass and got away with her……so there's an Ancient lurking about. And as well, Sephiroth is said to be alive. I'm sensing that we won't be the only ones after the girl. Since she had ran into him before.”

 

“Well if her past is the reason he's back, which I think isn't all of that reason. The best bet would get her before Sephiroth does.”

 

“Hmm…what could possibly be the reason, other than that girl?…Revenge on Strife maybe, but couldn't he just kill the girl as result?”

 

“Those two reasons just come to one conclusion, take the kid from Strife. I doubt that's why he returned.”

 

“Probably not……but one question: how the hell did he come back alive?”

 

“Who knows. But with him alive, Weapons would be out and about, destroying everything in their path once again. More than likely, Rufus would want the Sister Ray back in Midgar to destroy them. And he knows we can't kill them with that.”

 

“Well then someone should remind him about that, huh Maya? Yet another possible reason would be Jenova. But, didn't Strife destroy all of the-”

 

“Yes, but…” Maya interrupted, proving a point, “He destroyed the pieces that were known. There is the possibility that there are still more out there.”

 

“If there was, NeoShinRa would have found them by now. With the technology and all.”

 

“True…very true. We would have. But science had failed before, it can fail again. Do realize that.”

 

“Science had failed because Hojo was the scientist at that time. He was insane to add on. Hojo's dead and we have newer scientists now, they've covered the glitches.”

 

“Hopefully…Let's just hope it doesn't happen all over again, in our time.” With that, Mayona hung up. As the dial tone began, Naki hung up as well. He faced Reno, who seemed to want to know what the conversation was about. “It was Teron,” Naki replied. “She said something about the computers going haywire.”

 

“What else?” Reno demanded, wanting to know why Sephiroth was mentioned.

 

“Rumors saying Sephiroth and the Weapons are back,” Naki answered, sternly. Reno looked off before he started walking away from the church, Naki followed. Reno would just get the info out of Naki later, after things have settled down.

 

 

 

--

 

 

 

Cloud, Salira, and Yuffie had finally reached the house. Yuffie and Salira just sat on the couch and watched Cloud as he paced back and forth. He was deep in thought, and Salira knew now wouldn't be the best of time for some questions that lurked in her mind. Instead of asking, she stayed quiet and continued to watch her father as he paced. Yuffie, as well, remained quiet. She couldn't believe the fact that the ShinRa company was still in business, even after all that has happened. Her glance was off to the side as she thought about the two Turks.

 

“It seems Rufus got newer Turks to help,” Cloud remarked in a low voice after some silence. “I wonder if it's just that one I confronted just recently, or if there's more.”

 

“This is Rufus we're talking about…Of coarse there's more. There is no way Rufus could settle for just two or so Turks,” Yuffie replied, putting her sense into the situation. She, herself, had many questions to ask but didn't bother with them. Cloud stopped pacing and just stood there in the middle of the floor, looking up at the ceiling.

 

It remained quiet for the next ten minutes, nothing but the sound of breathing and Yuffie playing with the knickknacks on the coffee table in front of her and Salira just to keep herself occupied. During this quiet time, Cloud's main thought was wither or not to let Salira outside for the next few days, because of the Turks and NeoShinRa, or even to school. He looked around the room, as if the answer he was looking for was there in that very room. For a few seconds he watched Yuffie play with what was on the table, then switched his glance to his daughter, who was just watching Yuffie, bored.

 

After awhile, Yuffie couldn't stand the silence and burst, “Someone start talking! All this silence is too much for me!” She flopped onto the couch right after her outburst. Salira couldn't help but laugh to herself, Cloud too. “I'm serious! It was too quiet!” Yuffie remarked as she noticed the responses she got.

 

“Well, then, Yuffie,” Salira started, “Maybe you should go somewhere where it is louder than here. I think that would solve the problem.” There were a few more laughs as Yuffie made dirty looks. After awhile, it became quiet again and back into the serious mode. Salira, too, was getting sick of the quietness. Basically out of the blue, she asked, “So what's going on here? I know I'm missing something.”

 

Cloud looked at his daughter immediately after the question was asked. “I'm still getting answers to that myself,” he answered; it was half right, but then wrong as well, since he was able to guess part of the reason with NeoShinRa's problem. He thought to himself for a minute, before turning to Yuffie, “Yuffie, do you know if any of the others might know?” He was hoping that Yuffie got what he meant by “any of the others”. Cloud was meaning it toward Vincent, Tifa, Cid, or any of the others that had helped him previously all those years ago.

 

Yuffie knew what he meant, and kind of got why he used the meaning. She remembered that Salira had heard of them, but Salira didn't know how they were related to herself and Cloud. But to talk so Cloud would understand, Yuffie had to use the name, “No. In matter of fact, Vincent would probably be best bet for this question. But the downside of this would be that I haven't heard from him in a long time so I don't know where he is. And I'm pretty sure that if I haven't heard from him, you wouldn't have either.”

 

“Uh…Vincent?” Salira asked clueless, “Why is he brought up? I thought you guys didn't know him. What gives?!”

 

“I'll explain later sometime, Aeris, when all this commotion isn't happening,” Cloud answered, brutally. After he spoke, Salira kept quiet. Normally that tone means he's on a short temper moment, and the wrong question could send him through the roof.

 

“One question, Cloud,” Yuffie started, noticing the name “Aeris” that Cloud used in the sentence, “Did you just call Salira Aeris?” Cloud only nodded in response. Yuffie just looked at him wide-eyed. “Wow you really do miss her don't you?” She wished she never mentioned that now. Sure he loves Salira enough to call her Aeris, but asking if he misses her? It's obvious enough isn't it? However, Cloud didn't respond. With no answer, Yuffie looked down and felt bad about bringing her up. Salira wondered about who she was, but made no question anyways.