Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Counterfeit God; Part I ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Shiratori-Strife Inc 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 09.30.2006 | Updated On: 09.30.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.8K | Visits: 250 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 09.30.2006 | Updated On: 09.30.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.8K | Visits: 250 | Status: Completed
“Counterfeit God”
By: Kim and Raven
***
Standard Disclaimers Apply: FF7 and its characters/lands/concepts are NOT ours, HOWEVER! Morghann and Sirius do belong to us, thanks much!
***
"It's been two years since Aerith healed the Geostigma and the land, and yet there are still hearts that have not been healed. As the past is left behind, the group moves on towards a better life. Some in wait for the one thing they need the most, others for something to instill a little hope for the world. Unfortunately, even as peace finally settles in and romances that bloomed years ago start to grow into potential life-long couplings, their world is threatened once again. No surprise, it came straight out of hell's basement; the Shinra Corp. But it's two very special women that the threat lingers upon...at least...so they think. In the end...who really knows?"
FYI:
Morghann Matthews: age 26
Reno Shiratori: age 30
Sirius Maelstrom: age 23
Cloud Strife: age 25
Insert break!
Chapter 1
“Drink! Drink! Drink!”
Barret glared sinisterly at Rude across the table, a shot of pure Tequila clutched in his palm. It was almost over and he was about to win this little bet. Rude could hold his liquor pretty well, but he still couldn’t compete with Barret, even if the man was already drunk off his ass. It was amazing the poor brute wasn’t foaming at the mouth yet. But he was determined to see this bet through and make sure Reno lost every damn dime of the money he’d laid on the table in Rude’s favor.
“Bottoms up, loser!”
At the same time, both men knocked their heads back and swallowed, taking a moment to kick their feet in reaction to the Tequila cascading down their throats. It made both of their stomach’s churn in response and each had to pause to catch their breath.
But Rude was starting to slip; he already looked as if one more drink would be the end of him. It made Barret smile.
“I can’t decide which one of them has the bigger ego,” Tifa muttered under her breath as she finished cleaning up several glasses behind the bar. “What do you think, Cloud?”
“Reno’s going to be working double time to keep his room. He’s going to lose his money,”
“I told him not to lay it all on the table,” Yuffie rolled her bright girlish eyes and rested her cheek in her hand. “Rude’s going to be sick…”
“Come on, Rude, yo!” Reno looked close to a panic. “All my money! SUCK IT UP!”
Groaning against the churning of his sickened stomach, Rude glared up at Reno, hating him for betting every bit of his money. Why is it always my fault? Moron…Ugh, I’m gonna throw up…
“I think they’ve had enough now,” Tifa moved away from the bar to stop the whole ordeal when a strange twinge in her head made her pause for a moment. Cloud stiffened, his eyes narrowing when he, too, started to feel a strange kind of pressure wrapping around his skull. And they weren’t the only ones experiencing this strange sensation. Reno had stopped bitching completely and had turned his attention to the staircase at the back of the bar, his eyes narrowed in concentration. The pressure was building steadily, turning into sharp, stabbing pain. In their minds they could hear a strange kind of sound, as if a woman were screaming, and then they knew. As if a light had suddenly come on in their heads, they knew what this was.
The screaming grew louder until they were all on their knees, clutching their heads in pain. Reno whimpered but forced himself back onto his feet, struggling to reach the back stairs and get up to the room he shared with Morghann. Another nightmare about a future so terrible she would avoid sleep for days just so she wouldn’t have to experience it again. Their only warning of these horrible visions was this pressure in their heads because of her ability to communicate through the mind. When Morghann got so wrapped up in her nightmares, she lost control of that particular ability, and, towards the end of that vision, they would all know what was going on.
“W-wake her up!” Tifa howled, looking miserable and pathetic. All she could hear was that piercing cry and the sharp, stabbing pain right behind her eyes. Images flashed before her eyes, but they were so cloudy, so distorted that she could make nothing of them. And then, just as quickly as it had started, it ended. Reno made it up the stairs before the pain had started to ebb away, but it was hardly of any concern at this point.
Throwing their door open, Reno’s cerulean eyes searched the room for any sign of her. He could hear her crying miserably, even if it was muffled by the pillow she had shoved up to her face.
“Morghann,” He closed their door and walked over to the bed, sliding carefully next to her, deciding that fussing over her for a few moments was his right, even if she didn’t like it. “Morghann,”
“The screaming won’t stop…” Whimpering pathetically, she fell against him, her bedraggled hair brushing against his chin. His arms came around her, sealing her against him. “So much pain…so much…blood…”
He could offer no words of comfort because, despite what they were supposed to do, they never had the desired effect. These visions, nightmares, whatever they could be called, were never pleasant, and left Morghann weeping pathetically for days, avoiding sleep that she desperately needed.
Especially now when her body’s strength was divided. Startled by that realization, he slid his arms down further and let his hands rest against the small swell of her stomach. He was almost sick with relief when he felt the life still pulsing there. For a moment, he fussed over that little part of his family in order to give Morghann time to recover from the images. They would fade from her mind completely at any rate this night and then, slowly, as the events that created them start to unfold, she’d remember tidbits. It didn’t matter though. She’d still be so shaken by the feeling of being in such a nightmare that she would be too scared to sleep, even if it did hurt her in the end.
“Another one?”
“N-no…same one…” Shivering, Morghann turned her body and snuggled against his warmth.
“How do you know?”
“Everything was familiar. It felt as if I’d been in that dream before. It’s never been like that,” She shook her head, her dark hair tickling the underside of his chin and his neck. “Why do you smell like Tequila?”
“I…” He sighed, shaking his head sadly. “I did it again,”
“Rude can’t hold his liquor, Reno…” Sitting up, Morghann wiped her eyes of the standing tears. He could see it on her face; she was scared, but the images were already starting to leave her. “Cloud’s going to make you work double time because of this…”
“Eh, let him! He’s just pissy because Sirius isn’t back yet,”
“You like seeing him flustered, don’t you?” Morghann looked at the clock on the nightstand and grimaced. “Is it really only midnight?”
“You weren’t asleep for very long,” Moving to lock their door, he shed his jacket, pants and shirt, pulled the blankets back on their bed and slipped in beside her. “If it makes you feel better, I left a little bit of the money up here before I went down to see them drink themselves silly,”
“How much?”
Reno didn’t answer; instead he turned his attention back to the swelling of her tummy. “You’re showing,”
Feeling self conscious, Morghann looked at her stomach and let herself fall back into the mattress beside him. His hands found her instantly, and she suddenly smiled. Reno’s eagerness to have a child to fawn over had surprised her at first, and she’d thought he’d been joking just to get her to shut up and let him have his dirty little way with her, but it seemed, she’d thought wrong. He’d been serious about this and it warmed her up inside. And it had taken a while for the two of them to get this far in life, considering their pasts, and the whole Kadaj incident last year had been just another factor that had kept them from moving forward.
Not to mention that Rude was jealous that Reno would be settling down and going on less and less missions than he used to. Which wasn’t necessarily true. Only for the first few months of the baby’s life anyway. Besides, Morghann would need someone to help her out a bit.
Noticing Reno’s continued admiration of her stomach and the life inside of it, she leaned into him and covered his hand with her own. “Boy or girl?”
“Boy,” Reno smirked triumphantly. “I can tell,”
“How?” Curious, Morghann looked down at her thickening stomach. So much for that toned stomach I had…
“Come on, Morghann! Only a son would kick with that much enthusiasm,”
“Great…” But she could feel the strength behind that kick. “Maybe it will be a boy,” Those sapphire eyes of her got that dreamy look suddenly, and Reno swelled with pride. It had been the right choice, the right time after all. She was ready to start a family and leave her haunted, terrible past behind to start a future with him.
“If it is a boy…” Her voice started to drift off and, surprised, he looked at her as she snuggled against his body, warm and content. “…We’ll name him…” but her voice trailed off into a quiet sigh as she slipped into a comfortable sleep. He settled beside her, unwilling to question the fact that she was actually going to sleep, and wrapped himself around her. This baby was changing things for the better already.
***
The Lifestream; The planet’s source of energy and life. It flows in and out of everything and everyone with each passing second of each passing day. Through the Lifestream we live…and die. The energy itself is near limitless. When someone dies, they return to the Lifestream and, because of this, add energy to keep the planet alive. Energy. Energy to create life, to heal life, and to keep it going throughout the ages.
Deriving Mako energy had been a way to adapt the Lifestream into a valuable and effective power source. It was used as a weapon, a healing device, and a way to strengthen normal humans in order to make them superior. Shinra developed this technique and used the Lifestream to power the city of Midgar to make people’s lives more comfortable. But at the turn of the time when Sephiroth threatened everything, they used it as a weapon.
But that was years after this. Years after President Rufus Shinra realized that not only could the Mako energy be used as a Weapon, but the Lifestream itself. Unfortunately, the vessel that channeled that power would be destroyed by the backlash. Every machine he created was destroyed. Tests became redundant as if even the machine was capable of using that power, it would be destroyed in the process. Useless, broken.
The thought of a human body being that vessel…it was suicide; unheard of and impossible.
Or so he thought.
“LOOK OUT!” Reno’s voice echoed off the walls as he grabbed Rude’s shirt collar and hauled the man out of the way. “Are you mad, yo?! You can’t use the Lifestream as-SHIT!” He could see her as clearly as he saw her when she’d first approached, spouting on about her dead parents and how it had been Shinra’s fault because…
“I remember! I remember reading the report on that experiment!” His eyes widened as the woman before him was shrouded in an ethereal green glow. “No! No, wait! You’ve got it all wrong! It wasn’t us! Don’t! YOU CAN’T!”
But it was too late. Even if she could hear him, there was no stopping it now. She was using her body as a vessel for the Lifestream, using it as a weapon against Shinra and, quite possibly, Midgar itself. He could feel it now; the Lifestream whirling around him, stabbing at his skin as it searched for its target. Reno heard the woman cry out, felt the energy as it lashed by him and exploded into the Shinra complex in a whirlwind of bright lights and explosions. The complex behind him was being destroyed and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Still, how was it even possible? The human body couldn’t withstand energy like that for too long. The backlash alone would surely kill her!
“The girl!” Reno jumped forward but was stopped by Rude who’d grasped onto his ankle and pulled him to the ground. “It’s too late! It’s already happening,”
Rude must have realized…The energy surged passed them, aiming directly for its source; The girl. But things didn’t happen quite as he would have imagined. The energy pooled around her, rippling, sizzling. For a moment, it was calm like that and then, instantly, was absorbed back into her body, but the damage was evident.
“She…she’s survived!”
“For the moment,” Rude rose from the ground and pulled Reno up with him. “You know what President Shinra wants, Reno. Any threat to Shinra must be destroyed,”
“Rufus doesn’t give the orders yet!” Glaring at Rude, Reno started towards the injured woman. “She can’t hurt us anymore. She’s spent! Look at her!”
“Reno…”
Standing in front of the woman now, Reno turned and faced Rude, blocking his path. “No, Rude. I remember the experiment she was talking about. I read the report. Shinra never authorized it but we kept it on file anyway because they didn’t want the same mistake to be made twice. The doctor…he was a lunatic. She was just a victim…She doesn’t understand!”
“But our orders…”
“I’ll take responsibility!” Reno looked down at the woman and then back up at Rude, decided. “I’ll take care of Morghann,”
“Morghann!” Reno’s blue eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly, surprised. “That was…weird…” He glanced over to the other side of the bed to see that she was gone, but he could hear the water in the shower. The door was standing wide open, a free invitation to join her. Reno scrubbed his face of the sweat and forced himself to relax, wondering why, out of the blue and after so many years, the memory of the day he’d met Morghann had come back to him. Her condition had worried him, but she was pregnant and the fatigue she was now constantly experiencing was natural. But if that random memory was any indication of it, he was really worried about her.
But nothing in this world came without some kind of price, and Morghann’s fatigue and her emotional outbursts were the price for starting their family.
Tossing the blankets aside, Reno rose from the bed and headed for the shower before his invitation was taken back. He made it halfway across the room before the ringing of his cell phone stopped him.
“Everything has a price,” He reached for it, flipped it open. “Yes, Sir?”
***
“Reno’s gone, isn’t he?”
Tifa looked up from her newest customers and smiled softly. “He woke up Rude and left in a bit of a hurry,” She gave Morghann’s stomach a fleeting glance. “It’s my understanding that he wanted to make sure you didn’t have a chance to jump aboard. He wants you to rest, Morghann. You talked him into letting you go with him on the last mission and it took a lot out of you. Morghann, Reno gets fussy and none of us like it when he gets fussy. It’s best if you just stay here and take it easy like he wants you to,”
“I can’t take it easy if I have to sit here and worry about him,”
“Would it make you feel better if I told you that he took Barret and Cloud with him?” Tifa moved towards her, gathering empty, dirty drinks and plates from the bar as she moved. Morghann really did look as if she felt better hearing this and so moved to help Tifa clear off the bar.
“I was just hoping that Reno and I could have had a day to ourselves. We haven’t had one in so long…” Setting the plates and cups she’d gathered into the sink, Morghann began washing them. “I can’t help but blame Rufus…”
Tifa refocused her attention on Morghann and sighed quietly. For years, Morghann had blamed the Shinra organization for the death of her parents. An “experiment” that had gone wrong had been the cause of their untimely death. Morghann had been orphaned at a young age, and from what Tifa had discovered of the woman’s past, she’d spent five years alone on the land before she’d come back to attack a Shinra complex in revenge. Details about how she’d been successful had never been divulged, but Tifa understood that whatever Morghann had done ended up costing her greatly. If it hadn’t been for Reno jumping in and taking responsibility for her, she may well have died all those years ago. Now, the woman seemed better than she ever had, save for the lingering fatigue of her pregnancy.
Tifa took it in, studying the burgundy maternity-made top that curved around the five month swell of Morghann’s stomach and covered the hem of her white Capri trousers that fit her better than her favorite jeans because of the swell of her stomach. It was cute the way Morghann kept herself looking well, even when she didn’t feel it.
Strangely, Tifa noticed with a smile, Morghann’s traditional hairstyle of a twisted bun had been replaced by a simple braid this time. The blonde streaks gave the braid an interesting look. “Did you get any sleep last night?”
“Yes, actually,” Morghann smiled softly. “I had a dream, but it was a good dream,”
“Oh?” Tifa grinned as she passed out a few more drinks as they were ordered. Their customers were ignoring them, so talking was an easy feat. “What was it about?”
“Reno and the baby. I didn’t get a good enough look to tell if it was a boy or a girl, but it was a wonderful dream nonetheless. Reno is happy, Tifa, but something in him is…discontented. In the dream, while he’s holding our baby…that something is gone. He was truly at peace,” Morghann stepped back from the sink and started to restack the plates and cups in their respective places. “But, I have to admit one thing,”
“What’s that?”
“I’m really tired of being tired!”
***
“Hold still, you’re hurt pretty badly,” Reno lifted the damp rag to her face and wiped the blood away from her cheek. The look she was giving him wasn’t a nice one, but he hadn’t expected her to be very receptive in the first place. But even she could admit that she needed help. “What made you think you could handle something as potent as the Lifestream? If a machine can’t hold that kind of power, a human damn sure can’t,”
“What makes you think that I had intended on surviving?”
He looked at her, pausing in his work of cleaning her wounds to study her, then he resumed his work, his eyes shifting to the cuts as he cleaned them. “If you had intended to die, you wouldn’t have tried to control the power. You would have just let it go. You didn’t want to die anymore than Rude or myself.”
“Why are you helping me?”
“I’m not completely cold,” He muttered, shaking his head and dunking the rag into a bowl of hot water to wring the blood from it. “You could say that I have a soft spot for damsels in distress,”
“I’m not in distress,”
“Then you’re a horrible actress,” The girl didn’t seem to have a response to this. “You said your name was Morghann, correct?”
“My name is of no importance,”
“You’re stubborn for your age,” Her eyes narrowed and became sharp. Reno suddenly had the distinct feeling that she’d just made some kind of decision about him. “I read the report that had been made about that ‘experiment’ that killed your parents. You went missing and were presumed dead with the rest of the family. You were ten then, weren’t you? That was eight years ago. Eighteen now?”
“Yes…”
“How did you survive? That blast was…Well, I don’t know what that blast was like, but from the report, I know that it was bad. It engulfed your entire village…”
“They sent me on an errand,” Morghann’s voice lowered. “They said that I had to go and I had to stay away for a few hours. But I came back early because I felt that something was wrong.” She looked at him, her fatigue and the pain making her more receptive of his attentions than she would have liked. She resented it because somewhere in her mind she felt that he was trying to convince her that what she’d seen hadn’t been what really happened. He was trying to sway her feelings towards Shinra, to make them look innocent. “I hate Shinra and everything to do with that name. When I was alone, I connected with the Lifestream…It offered me the energy to take revenge on my parents,”
“No, I don’t think it did,” Reno gave the rest of her body and her torn clothes a sad look. “If you had connected with the Lifestream and it had willingly offered you all of that energy, I don’t think your body would have suffered like it has,” His hand slid down along her shoulder and he felt her tense, saw the feral look in her sapphire eyes. Something in those eyes pulled at him, as if the woman he was talking to wasn’t the woman under the flesh. So much potential in this woman to be greater than she was. Would Rufus see what an asset she could be for the Shinra Company? Surely, his father wouldn’t, but Rufus…He was an intelligent man. “Relax, I’m not a pervert,” He glanced up at her again, seeing something close to panic in her eyes. “But those clothes are going to have to come off. If the cloth meshes with the blood as it dries, getting them off is going to hurt like a bitch,”
She didn’t budge, didn’t relax. “I won’t hurt you, I can promise you that, but I can’t leave the room, either. You’re in no condition to treat your own wounds. It would do more harm than good. You can trust me,”
“I don’t know your name. How can I trust someone that I don’t know?”
“Reno. My name is Reno,” His hands were still as he waited for her to relent and let him help her. “If you couldn’t trust me, you’d already be dead. I would have let Rude kill you and that would have been the end of it. It’s like I said, I’m not completely cold. But if you don’t let me help you, you’ll get an infection and you’ll die. You don’t want to die, do you?”
Hesitation, a flicker of something behind those beautiful sapphire eyes. “No. No, I don’t want to die…Reno,”
“Then relax for a little while,” When she was too exhausted to argue with him and began to relax, he reached up and untied the lacing of her torn and ruined top, watching her for any sign that she was going to change her mind on him and freak out. So far so good. But the silence between them wasn’t helping the situation. “I think you should know…Shinra never authorized the experiment that claimed your village and your parents. The Doctor…he was a lunatic so President Shinra refused to authorize it. But the Doctor got mad and went ahead with it anyway,” He felt her tense when he finished unlacing her top and started to pull it away from her shoulders. He just looked at her, his hands going still again until she was willing to relent once more. “I don’t know what the experiment was because it wasn’t in the report and I couldn’t ask President Shinra about it or he’d know I’d delved into restricted files,”
“Why did you?”
He paused as he got her top off of her and took in the damage. How was this woman still alive? “I don’t know. I guess I wanted to see just what Shinra did behind closed doors that could warrant such hard feelings from a few people in this world. When I read that file, I kind of understood a little about why we’re hated and loved by so many,”
She shivered. “Cold…”
“Hm?”
“Your hands are cold,” She whispered, her face going slightly red. He had the feeling it wasn’t because she was dizzy.
“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,”
Her eyes sharpened again. Another decision about him had been made. “Don’t look so surprised. I was young and stupid before, too, you know,” She seemed to accept this. “Do you trust me not to hurt you or take advantage of you, Morghann?”
“I hardly know you,”
“I hardly know you, but I’m helping you, aren’t I? How do I know you won’t try to kill me once you’re well again?” He smiled when her face fell and she lowered her eyes. “See, I don’t know that you won’t, meaning that I’m just going to have to trust you,”
“Ok…” she lowered her arms to her side and focused on the hardwood flooring. “I…I trust you, Reno…”
The sun was setting over Midgar when Reno and the others reached the outskirts and he took a moment to take in the sight. Home.
“You coming, Reno?” Barret asked gruffly, looking ragged and tired. Three days they’d been gone and they were all ready to go home.
“Reno, Morghann’s waiting,” Cloud smiled softly. “Let’s go home,”
***
End Chapter 1
By: Kim and Raven
***
Standard Disclaimers Apply: FF7 and its characters/lands/concepts are NOT ours, HOWEVER! Morghann and Sirius do belong to us, thanks much!
***
"It's been two years since Aerith healed the Geostigma and the land, and yet there are still hearts that have not been healed. As the past is left behind, the group moves on towards a better life. Some in wait for the one thing they need the most, others for something to instill a little hope for the world. Unfortunately, even as peace finally settles in and romances that bloomed years ago start to grow into potential life-long couplings, their world is threatened once again. No surprise, it came straight out of hell's basement; the Shinra Corp. But it's two very special women that the threat lingers upon...at least...so they think. In the end...who really knows?"
FYI:
Morghann Matthews: age 26
Reno Shiratori: age 30
Sirius Maelstrom: age 23
Cloud Strife: age 25
Insert break!
Chapter 1
“Drink! Drink! Drink!”
Barret glared sinisterly at Rude across the table, a shot of pure Tequila clutched in his palm. It was almost over and he was about to win this little bet. Rude could hold his liquor pretty well, but he still couldn’t compete with Barret, even if the man was already drunk off his ass. It was amazing the poor brute wasn’t foaming at the mouth yet. But he was determined to see this bet through and make sure Reno lost every damn dime of the money he’d laid on the table in Rude’s favor.
“Bottoms up, loser!”
At the same time, both men knocked their heads back and swallowed, taking a moment to kick their feet in reaction to the Tequila cascading down their throats. It made both of their stomach’s churn in response and each had to pause to catch their breath.
But Rude was starting to slip; he already looked as if one more drink would be the end of him. It made Barret smile.
“I can’t decide which one of them has the bigger ego,” Tifa muttered under her breath as she finished cleaning up several glasses behind the bar. “What do you think, Cloud?”
“Reno’s going to be working double time to keep his room. He’s going to lose his money,”
“I told him not to lay it all on the table,” Yuffie rolled her bright girlish eyes and rested her cheek in her hand. “Rude’s going to be sick…”
“Come on, Rude, yo!” Reno looked close to a panic. “All my money! SUCK IT UP!”
Groaning against the churning of his sickened stomach, Rude glared up at Reno, hating him for betting every bit of his money. Why is it always my fault? Moron…Ugh, I’m gonna throw up…
“I think they’ve had enough now,” Tifa moved away from the bar to stop the whole ordeal when a strange twinge in her head made her pause for a moment. Cloud stiffened, his eyes narrowing when he, too, started to feel a strange kind of pressure wrapping around his skull. And they weren’t the only ones experiencing this strange sensation. Reno had stopped bitching completely and had turned his attention to the staircase at the back of the bar, his eyes narrowed in concentration. The pressure was building steadily, turning into sharp, stabbing pain. In their minds they could hear a strange kind of sound, as if a woman were screaming, and then they knew. As if a light had suddenly come on in their heads, they knew what this was.
The screaming grew louder until they were all on their knees, clutching their heads in pain. Reno whimpered but forced himself back onto his feet, struggling to reach the back stairs and get up to the room he shared with Morghann. Another nightmare about a future so terrible she would avoid sleep for days just so she wouldn’t have to experience it again. Their only warning of these horrible visions was this pressure in their heads because of her ability to communicate through the mind. When Morghann got so wrapped up in her nightmares, she lost control of that particular ability, and, towards the end of that vision, they would all know what was going on.
“W-wake her up!” Tifa howled, looking miserable and pathetic. All she could hear was that piercing cry and the sharp, stabbing pain right behind her eyes. Images flashed before her eyes, but they were so cloudy, so distorted that she could make nothing of them. And then, just as quickly as it had started, it ended. Reno made it up the stairs before the pain had started to ebb away, but it was hardly of any concern at this point.
Throwing their door open, Reno’s cerulean eyes searched the room for any sign of her. He could hear her crying miserably, even if it was muffled by the pillow she had shoved up to her face.
“Morghann,” He closed their door and walked over to the bed, sliding carefully next to her, deciding that fussing over her for a few moments was his right, even if she didn’t like it. “Morghann,”
“The screaming won’t stop…” Whimpering pathetically, she fell against him, her bedraggled hair brushing against his chin. His arms came around her, sealing her against him. “So much pain…so much…blood…”
He could offer no words of comfort because, despite what they were supposed to do, they never had the desired effect. These visions, nightmares, whatever they could be called, were never pleasant, and left Morghann weeping pathetically for days, avoiding sleep that she desperately needed.
Especially now when her body’s strength was divided. Startled by that realization, he slid his arms down further and let his hands rest against the small swell of her stomach. He was almost sick with relief when he felt the life still pulsing there. For a moment, he fussed over that little part of his family in order to give Morghann time to recover from the images. They would fade from her mind completely at any rate this night and then, slowly, as the events that created them start to unfold, she’d remember tidbits. It didn’t matter though. She’d still be so shaken by the feeling of being in such a nightmare that she would be too scared to sleep, even if it did hurt her in the end.
“Another one?”
“N-no…same one…” Shivering, Morghann turned her body and snuggled against his warmth.
“How do you know?”
“Everything was familiar. It felt as if I’d been in that dream before. It’s never been like that,” She shook her head, her dark hair tickling the underside of his chin and his neck. “Why do you smell like Tequila?”
“I…” He sighed, shaking his head sadly. “I did it again,”
“Rude can’t hold his liquor, Reno…” Sitting up, Morghann wiped her eyes of the standing tears. He could see it on her face; she was scared, but the images were already starting to leave her. “Cloud’s going to make you work double time because of this…”
“Eh, let him! He’s just pissy because Sirius isn’t back yet,”
“You like seeing him flustered, don’t you?” Morghann looked at the clock on the nightstand and grimaced. “Is it really only midnight?”
“You weren’t asleep for very long,” Moving to lock their door, he shed his jacket, pants and shirt, pulled the blankets back on their bed and slipped in beside her. “If it makes you feel better, I left a little bit of the money up here before I went down to see them drink themselves silly,”
“How much?”
Reno didn’t answer; instead he turned his attention back to the swelling of her tummy. “You’re showing,”
Feeling self conscious, Morghann looked at her stomach and let herself fall back into the mattress beside him. His hands found her instantly, and she suddenly smiled. Reno’s eagerness to have a child to fawn over had surprised her at first, and she’d thought he’d been joking just to get her to shut up and let him have his dirty little way with her, but it seemed, she’d thought wrong. He’d been serious about this and it warmed her up inside. And it had taken a while for the two of them to get this far in life, considering their pasts, and the whole Kadaj incident last year had been just another factor that had kept them from moving forward.
Not to mention that Rude was jealous that Reno would be settling down and going on less and less missions than he used to. Which wasn’t necessarily true. Only for the first few months of the baby’s life anyway. Besides, Morghann would need someone to help her out a bit.
Noticing Reno’s continued admiration of her stomach and the life inside of it, she leaned into him and covered his hand with her own. “Boy or girl?”
“Boy,” Reno smirked triumphantly. “I can tell,”
“How?” Curious, Morghann looked down at her thickening stomach. So much for that toned stomach I had…
“Come on, Morghann! Only a son would kick with that much enthusiasm,”
“Great…” But she could feel the strength behind that kick. “Maybe it will be a boy,” Those sapphire eyes of her got that dreamy look suddenly, and Reno swelled with pride. It had been the right choice, the right time after all. She was ready to start a family and leave her haunted, terrible past behind to start a future with him.
“If it is a boy…” Her voice started to drift off and, surprised, he looked at her as she snuggled against his body, warm and content. “…We’ll name him…” but her voice trailed off into a quiet sigh as she slipped into a comfortable sleep. He settled beside her, unwilling to question the fact that she was actually going to sleep, and wrapped himself around her. This baby was changing things for the better already.
***
The Lifestream; The planet’s source of energy and life. It flows in and out of everything and everyone with each passing second of each passing day. Through the Lifestream we live…and die. The energy itself is near limitless. When someone dies, they return to the Lifestream and, because of this, add energy to keep the planet alive. Energy. Energy to create life, to heal life, and to keep it going throughout the ages.
Deriving Mako energy had been a way to adapt the Lifestream into a valuable and effective power source. It was used as a weapon, a healing device, and a way to strengthen normal humans in order to make them superior. Shinra developed this technique and used the Lifestream to power the city of Midgar to make people’s lives more comfortable. But at the turn of the time when Sephiroth threatened everything, they used it as a weapon.
But that was years after this. Years after President Rufus Shinra realized that not only could the Mako energy be used as a Weapon, but the Lifestream itself. Unfortunately, the vessel that channeled that power would be destroyed by the backlash. Every machine he created was destroyed. Tests became redundant as if even the machine was capable of using that power, it would be destroyed in the process. Useless, broken.
The thought of a human body being that vessel…it was suicide; unheard of and impossible.
Or so he thought.
“LOOK OUT!” Reno’s voice echoed off the walls as he grabbed Rude’s shirt collar and hauled the man out of the way. “Are you mad, yo?! You can’t use the Lifestream as-SHIT!” He could see her as clearly as he saw her when she’d first approached, spouting on about her dead parents and how it had been Shinra’s fault because…
“I remember! I remember reading the report on that experiment!” His eyes widened as the woman before him was shrouded in an ethereal green glow. “No! No, wait! You’ve got it all wrong! It wasn’t us! Don’t! YOU CAN’T!”
But it was too late. Even if she could hear him, there was no stopping it now. She was using her body as a vessel for the Lifestream, using it as a weapon against Shinra and, quite possibly, Midgar itself. He could feel it now; the Lifestream whirling around him, stabbing at his skin as it searched for its target. Reno heard the woman cry out, felt the energy as it lashed by him and exploded into the Shinra complex in a whirlwind of bright lights and explosions. The complex behind him was being destroyed and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Still, how was it even possible? The human body couldn’t withstand energy like that for too long. The backlash alone would surely kill her!
“The girl!” Reno jumped forward but was stopped by Rude who’d grasped onto his ankle and pulled him to the ground. “It’s too late! It’s already happening,”
Rude must have realized…The energy surged passed them, aiming directly for its source; The girl. But things didn’t happen quite as he would have imagined. The energy pooled around her, rippling, sizzling. For a moment, it was calm like that and then, instantly, was absorbed back into her body, but the damage was evident.
“She…she’s survived!”
“For the moment,” Rude rose from the ground and pulled Reno up with him. “You know what President Shinra wants, Reno. Any threat to Shinra must be destroyed,”
“Rufus doesn’t give the orders yet!” Glaring at Rude, Reno started towards the injured woman. “She can’t hurt us anymore. She’s spent! Look at her!”
“Reno…”
Standing in front of the woman now, Reno turned and faced Rude, blocking his path. “No, Rude. I remember the experiment she was talking about. I read the report. Shinra never authorized it but we kept it on file anyway because they didn’t want the same mistake to be made twice. The doctor…he was a lunatic. She was just a victim…She doesn’t understand!”
“But our orders…”
“I’ll take responsibility!” Reno looked down at the woman and then back up at Rude, decided. “I’ll take care of Morghann,”
“Morghann!” Reno’s blue eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly, surprised. “That was…weird…” He glanced over to the other side of the bed to see that she was gone, but he could hear the water in the shower. The door was standing wide open, a free invitation to join her. Reno scrubbed his face of the sweat and forced himself to relax, wondering why, out of the blue and after so many years, the memory of the day he’d met Morghann had come back to him. Her condition had worried him, but she was pregnant and the fatigue she was now constantly experiencing was natural. But if that random memory was any indication of it, he was really worried about her.
But nothing in this world came without some kind of price, and Morghann’s fatigue and her emotional outbursts were the price for starting their family.
Tossing the blankets aside, Reno rose from the bed and headed for the shower before his invitation was taken back. He made it halfway across the room before the ringing of his cell phone stopped him.
“Everything has a price,” He reached for it, flipped it open. “Yes, Sir?”
***
“Reno’s gone, isn’t he?”
Tifa looked up from her newest customers and smiled softly. “He woke up Rude and left in a bit of a hurry,” She gave Morghann’s stomach a fleeting glance. “It’s my understanding that he wanted to make sure you didn’t have a chance to jump aboard. He wants you to rest, Morghann. You talked him into letting you go with him on the last mission and it took a lot out of you. Morghann, Reno gets fussy and none of us like it when he gets fussy. It’s best if you just stay here and take it easy like he wants you to,”
“I can’t take it easy if I have to sit here and worry about him,”
“Would it make you feel better if I told you that he took Barret and Cloud with him?” Tifa moved towards her, gathering empty, dirty drinks and plates from the bar as she moved. Morghann really did look as if she felt better hearing this and so moved to help Tifa clear off the bar.
“I was just hoping that Reno and I could have had a day to ourselves. We haven’t had one in so long…” Setting the plates and cups she’d gathered into the sink, Morghann began washing them. “I can’t help but blame Rufus…”
Tifa refocused her attention on Morghann and sighed quietly. For years, Morghann had blamed the Shinra organization for the death of her parents. An “experiment” that had gone wrong had been the cause of their untimely death. Morghann had been orphaned at a young age, and from what Tifa had discovered of the woman’s past, she’d spent five years alone on the land before she’d come back to attack a Shinra complex in revenge. Details about how she’d been successful had never been divulged, but Tifa understood that whatever Morghann had done ended up costing her greatly. If it hadn’t been for Reno jumping in and taking responsibility for her, she may well have died all those years ago. Now, the woman seemed better than she ever had, save for the lingering fatigue of her pregnancy.
Tifa took it in, studying the burgundy maternity-made top that curved around the five month swell of Morghann’s stomach and covered the hem of her white Capri trousers that fit her better than her favorite jeans because of the swell of her stomach. It was cute the way Morghann kept herself looking well, even when she didn’t feel it.
Strangely, Tifa noticed with a smile, Morghann’s traditional hairstyle of a twisted bun had been replaced by a simple braid this time. The blonde streaks gave the braid an interesting look. “Did you get any sleep last night?”
“Yes, actually,” Morghann smiled softly. “I had a dream, but it was a good dream,”
“Oh?” Tifa grinned as she passed out a few more drinks as they were ordered. Their customers were ignoring them, so talking was an easy feat. “What was it about?”
“Reno and the baby. I didn’t get a good enough look to tell if it was a boy or a girl, but it was a wonderful dream nonetheless. Reno is happy, Tifa, but something in him is…discontented. In the dream, while he’s holding our baby…that something is gone. He was truly at peace,” Morghann stepped back from the sink and started to restack the plates and cups in their respective places. “But, I have to admit one thing,”
“What’s that?”
“I’m really tired of being tired!”
***
“Hold still, you’re hurt pretty badly,” Reno lifted the damp rag to her face and wiped the blood away from her cheek. The look she was giving him wasn’t a nice one, but he hadn’t expected her to be very receptive in the first place. But even she could admit that she needed help. “What made you think you could handle something as potent as the Lifestream? If a machine can’t hold that kind of power, a human damn sure can’t,”
“What makes you think that I had intended on surviving?”
He looked at her, pausing in his work of cleaning her wounds to study her, then he resumed his work, his eyes shifting to the cuts as he cleaned them. “If you had intended to die, you wouldn’t have tried to control the power. You would have just let it go. You didn’t want to die anymore than Rude or myself.”
“Why are you helping me?”
“I’m not completely cold,” He muttered, shaking his head and dunking the rag into a bowl of hot water to wring the blood from it. “You could say that I have a soft spot for damsels in distress,”
“I’m not in distress,”
“Then you’re a horrible actress,” The girl didn’t seem to have a response to this. “You said your name was Morghann, correct?”
“My name is of no importance,”
“You’re stubborn for your age,” Her eyes narrowed and became sharp. Reno suddenly had the distinct feeling that she’d just made some kind of decision about him. “I read the report that had been made about that ‘experiment’ that killed your parents. You went missing and were presumed dead with the rest of the family. You were ten then, weren’t you? That was eight years ago. Eighteen now?”
“Yes…”
“How did you survive? That blast was…Well, I don’t know what that blast was like, but from the report, I know that it was bad. It engulfed your entire village…”
“They sent me on an errand,” Morghann’s voice lowered. “They said that I had to go and I had to stay away for a few hours. But I came back early because I felt that something was wrong.” She looked at him, her fatigue and the pain making her more receptive of his attentions than she would have liked. She resented it because somewhere in her mind she felt that he was trying to convince her that what she’d seen hadn’t been what really happened. He was trying to sway her feelings towards Shinra, to make them look innocent. “I hate Shinra and everything to do with that name. When I was alone, I connected with the Lifestream…It offered me the energy to take revenge on my parents,”
“No, I don’t think it did,” Reno gave the rest of her body and her torn clothes a sad look. “If you had connected with the Lifestream and it had willingly offered you all of that energy, I don’t think your body would have suffered like it has,” His hand slid down along her shoulder and he felt her tense, saw the feral look in her sapphire eyes. Something in those eyes pulled at him, as if the woman he was talking to wasn’t the woman under the flesh. So much potential in this woman to be greater than she was. Would Rufus see what an asset she could be for the Shinra Company? Surely, his father wouldn’t, but Rufus…He was an intelligent man. “Relax, I’m not a pervert,” He glanced up at her again, seeing something close to panic in her eyes. “But those clothes are going to have to come off. If the cloth meshes with the blood as it dries, getting them off is going to hurt like a bitch,”
She didn’t budge, didn’t relax. “I won’t hurt you, I can promise you that, but I can’t leave the room, either. You’re in no condition to treat your own wounds. It would do more harm than good. You can trust me,”
“I don’t know your name. How can I trust someone that I don’t know?”
“Reno. My name is Reno,” His hands were still as he waited for her to relent and let him help her. “If you couldn’t trust me, you’d already be dead. I would have let Rude kill you and that would have been the end of it. It’s like I said, I’m not completely cold. But if you don’t let me help you, you’ll get an infection and you’ll die. You don’t want to die, do you?”
Hesitation, a flicker of something behind those beautiful sapphire eyes. “No. No, I don’t want to die…Reno,”
“Then relax for a little while,” When she was too exhausted to argue with him and began to relax, he reached up and untied the lacing of her torn and ruined top, watching her for any sign that she was going to change her mind on him and freak out. So far so good. But the silence between them wasn’t helping the situation. “I think you should know…Shinra never authorized the experiment that claimed your village and your parents. The Doctor…he was a lunatic so President Shinra refused to authorize it. But the Doctor got mad and went ahead with it anyway,” He felt her tense when he finished unlacing her top and started to pull it away from her shoulders. He just looked at her, his hands going still again until she was willing to relent once more. “I don’t know what the experiment was because it wasn’t in the report and I couldn’t ask President Shinra about it or he’d know I’d delved into restricted files,”
“Why did you?”
He paused as he got her top off of her and took in the damage. How was this woman still alive? “I don’t know. I guess I wanted to see just what Shinra did behind closed doors that could warrant such hard feelings from a few people in this world. When I read that file, I kind of understood a little about why we’re hated and loved by so many,”
She shivered. “Cold…”
“Hm?”
“Your hands are cold,” She whispered, her face going slightly red. He had the feeling it wasn’t because she was dizzy.
“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,”
Her eyes sharpened again. Another decision about him had been made. “Don’t look so surprised. I was young and stupid before, too, you know,” She seemed to accept this. “Do you trust me not to hurt you or take advantage of you, Morghann?”
“I hardly know you,”
“I hardly know you, but I’m helping you, aren’t I? How do I know you won’t try to kill me once you’re well again?” He smiled when her face fell and she lowered her eyes. “See, I don’t know that you won’t, meaning that I’m just going to have to trust you,”
“Ok…” she lowered her arms to her side and focused on the hardwood flooring. “I…I trust you, Reno…”
The sun was setting over Midgar when Reno and the others reached the outskirts and he took a moment to take in the sight. Home.
“You coming, Reno?” Barret asked gruffly, looking ragged and tired. Three days they’d been gone and they were all ready to go home.
“Reno, Morghann’s waiting,” Cloud smiled softly. “Let’s go home,”
***
End Chapter 1