Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Counterfeit God; Part I ❯ Chapter 21
[ 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: 10.08.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 159 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 10.08.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 159 | Status: Completed
21
---
“Reno? Are you sure this is it?” Morghann shifted baby Sarah in her arms and looked a little unsure. “The house is so dark. Did you tell them that we were coming? They’re probably not home…”
“Will you relax, yo? Cloud knows we’re coming! Stop acting like a nervous waif, yo!”
“I am not a waif!” She smacked his arm, looking mighty indignant. “You’ll regret saying that, Reno,”
“Ok, yo!” He grinned devilishly. “Come on! This is the place, I promise! Trust me, Morghann,”
“Oh, God! The last time I heard you say that I ended up pregnant,”
“Was that so bad?”
Morghann grimaced slightly and Reno’s face fell almost immediately. “I didn’t…Um…let’s go see if we can barge in on something embarrassing?”
“Please don’t!” Morghann hissed as she followed him around from where he’d parked his bike to the front door of the apartment that was supposed to have belonged to Cloud and Sirius for the last two months. Even after a light on the upper floors came on after Reno knocked or, pounded rather, on the door, Morghann found herself still not completely convinced. “If Cloud knew we were coming, wouldn’t he be here?”
“Fenrir is still parked in the garage, Morghann. Relax, yo!”
“I’m sorry, Reno. It’s just…I miss Sirius,”
“I know,” He slipped an arm around her waist and smiled at her. “Why do you think I planned this trip, yo? I know you miss her and she misses you, too, so this’ll be good for the both of you. Trust me, it’ll be fine,”
“Ok,” She whispered as they waited for the inhabitants of the home to come and answer the door. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the front door swung open and a very wet and very grumpy looking Cloud stepped aside to let them in.
“What the hell happened to you, man?”
Cloud glared at Reno, looking indignant and mighty unhappy about the entire situation. As Reno shrugged and stepped into the front hall, Morghann felt a strange sensation wash over her. She looked over her shoulder for a few seconds before the feeling passed and she followed Reno inside, clutching Sarah to her chest. Cloud must have felt it, too, because he took a precautionary glance around outside before he closed the door. Everything looked normal enough; shoppers, kids, the usual busy day activity.
Unfortunately, the enemy you couldn’t see was the worst enemy to have.
Lifting his head from the paper he’d been pretending to read, Eko felt himself smirking as he looked upon the apartment that belonged to Maelstrom and Strife. If he could hide in plain sight for two months with Cloud and Sirius both in close proximity to him, then his plan just couldn’t fail.
Still, he hadn’t expected Morghann and Reno to show up, and he knew Morghann had felt something foreboding because of his presence. Hopefully, it would be a long time yet before she realized what the cause of that uneasy feeling actually was.
“All I have to do…is wait, and watch,”
---
“Sirius will be down in a few minutes,” Cloud muttered as Morghann and Reno made themselves comfortable in the living room. Hastily, he made his way back up the stairs to finish getting dressed and cursed at Reno’s horrible sense of timing. After lunch, he and Sirius had retreated upstairs to retry the whole shower scenario and they were so close and then Reno’s obnoxious pounding on the front door had startled both of them enough that they’d lost balance and had ended up on the floor all over again.
And it was only after Sirius had convinced Cloud to go down and answer the door for them as quickly as possible that she promised not to tell anyone about their failed adventure. The first go round had been completed, but the second had failed miserably, with no room to try and finish up. Not that Sirius really cared to because seeing Morghann and Sarah again, to her, were both more important this day than a good rump with her lover, however tempting that might have been.
Sirius was the first one back down the stairs, grinning like a clown and bouncing like a damned rabbit. Morghann passed Sarah over to Reno and jumped up to embrace Sirius, overjoyed at seeing her again for the first time in two months. It was a long time before the two parted to go over and fawn over Sarah who looked, as any curious baby could, absolutely adorable.
---
“There hasn’t been any word from Shinra at all?”
“No,” Reno sighed, rubbing his face in anxiety. “Tseng and Elena came by earlier to make a report, but nothing new has popped up yet. They’ve examined the Crater and found nothing at all and Vincent didn’t find anything in Mideel that would indicate that Eko was ever in either place. He sure as hell hasn’t been to Kalm. We’ve been keeping an eye out for him. What about Rocket Town and Wutai?”
“Cid hasn’t reported anything else out of the ordinary and Rocket Town is pulling together to rebuild, but the scars are still there. Some of the villagers are ashamed of what they did, but some are still apprehensive. Eko seems to have left a good mark on some of them,”
“What about the Materia Market? Any news there?”
“Not one damned thing. Sales are normal,” Sirius shrugged as she bounced the nearly four-month-old baby girl on her knee. “Yuffie hasn’t reported anything out of the ordinary, either, but I don’t know if Eko would bother going in that direction, and, so far, we haven’t seen any sign of him here.”
“What about the Forbidden City?” Morghann asked, looking up at Cloud. “You don’t think he would have gone to ground there, do you?”
“Rude just took a trip over there a week ago. He came back here with no results. As a matter of fact, I think he’s staying up at the newly renovated Shinra Mansion,”
Reno shuddered. “Even renovated, that place gives me the creeps. You’d think if the family had loved it so much that they would have kept up with it,” Reno sat back on the couch and relaxed, admiring his grinning daughter with a sense of pride.
“What are you thinking, Morghann?” Sirius asked suddenly when she noticed Morghann’s far off look. When the woman didn’t respond, Reno nudged her side playfully.
“Morg? Wake up, yo!”
“I am awake,” She murmured, rising from the couch to get a better view outside of the window. It was the old Shinra mansion she was looking at, her mind working over every possibility. “Cloud? When was the last time anyone lived in that place?”
“A couple of years, why?”
“There’s a light on…in one of the upper rooms,”
“What?” Reno rose to his feet and joined her, staring out at the old hunk of brick in surprise. “She’s right,”
“Probably Rude,” Cloud commented as he came up to them, looking suddenly surprised. “Of course, I hadn’t expected him to take up a room in the old wing. It’s not completed yet,”
“Should we go check it out?” Reno questioned, glancing at Cloud over his shoulder. “Just in case?”
“Yeah. Sirius, Morghann, stay here,”
As the men left the house, Morghann and Sirius exchanged nervous glances. “Now what?”
----
Reno waited until Cloud had opened the door and given the all clear before they slipped into the mansion. The renovations had been taking place in the right wings and southern portions of the house and had been blocked off because of it, but everything else, the left wings included, were still untouched.
“Why haven’t they started the renovations back up on this end?” Reno questioned as he and Cloud inched their way along the floor, both of them tense and alert.
“Workers kept complaining that something was off about that side of the house and refused to touch it until they got the other end done,”
“And that didn’t seem strange to you?” Reno questioned, glancing over at him.
“Not really. The people here get kind of superstitious after having been told that a madman hell bent on destroying this planet is loose amongst them somewhere. Besides, this house has always been a little bit strange,”
“What the hell?” Rude Came down the stairs then, startling the two men into almost shooting him.
“Damn it, Rude!” Reno cursed, shaking his head. “I almost shot you!”
Rude shrugged it off and looked to Cloud. “What’s going on?”
“There’s a light on in one of the upper rooms in the left wing,”
Surprised, Rude looked towards the bolted door that led to that side of the mansion. “You’re sure?”
“Oh, yeah,” Reno nodded. “We’re comin’ to check it out,”
“Let’s go, then,” Rude lead the way towards the door and moved to unbolt it, but Reno and Cloud merely struck out at it, kicking it in without much of a care for being quiet and stealthy about anything. Ten minutes later, as they reached the room that was lit up like a landing strip, Cloud realized a terrible truth.
“Fuck!” Reno spat. “Son of a bitch has been here the whole fucking time!”
“How?” Cloud and Rude questioned as they explored the room, locating a few globes of Materia that the mad scientist had been unable to carry along with him. Or, maybe, he’d left them on purpose?
“He’s still here,” Cloud said as he looked around the room. “He wouldn’t leave all of this Materia behind,”
“You’re right,” All three men whirled around to face the voice and slid into fighting stances almost immediately. “It was a such a wonderful hiding place, too. But I knew this morning when that bitch arrived that I wouldn’t be able to stay much longer. She felt my presence, but since she was unable to place it, she couldn’t put a name to it.”
“It’s over, Eko,” Reno growled. “You’re busted,”
“Not quite, Shiratori,” Eko lifted his staff and the remaining Materia floated into his hands. “I’m afraid that I cannot allow myself to be captured so soon. But, don’t worry, you shall have your chance soon enough. My monster is almost complete. Four years from now,” He glanced at Reno and smirked. “I will return to claim that last bit of power to fuel my beast,”
“You’re not getting away!” Reno and Rude leapt forward and Cloud prepared for attack, but in a brilliant flash of light that left all three of them temporarily blind for hours, Eko made his grand escape.
---
“Fucking prick!” Reno cursed as Morghann pressed a cold rag over his eyes. “This whole time he was right here under all of our noses!”
“There’s no better place to hide than in plain sight,” Sirius murmured as she, too, pressed a cold rag to Cloud’s eyes. “The effects of that electric ball he threw down will wear off in a few hours. Just keep your lids closed and the process will speed along a little better.”
“His beast must be incredible,” Rude suddenly muttered from his seat in the chair next to the couch. “if it’s going to take him four years to complete,”
“I don’t get it,” Morghann whispered as she sat next to Reno and checked on a sleeping Sarah. “Why would he tell us when to expect the battle?”
“He was letting us know that in four years, we’re all going to die,” Reno touched Morghann’s hand and felt a strange sense of foreboding settling in on his shoulders. “He said that in four years he would return to claim the last bit of power he needed,”
“The power of Sephiroth and the Lifestream,” Cloud hissed. “He wants Sirius and Morghann,”
“Are you sure it’s Sephiroth’s power and not the Geostigma?” Morghann asked as she looked over to Cloud. “Sirius’ Geostigma is permanent and irreversible, therefore it must have some kind of power of its own. What if he injected her with it so that when the time came, he would have a way to fuel his beast indefinitely?”
“Shit,” Reno groaned, leaning his head back to keep the rag from sliding away from his eyes. “Fucker has it all planned out!”
“Stop it,” Morghann whispered, nudging him. “Stop saying that word around Sarah,”
“Sorry,” He muttered, his fury outweighing his caution. “So what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Cloud muttered, sighing heavily. “We should make the most of it. We know he won’t be coming back for four years. I suppose we could go back to Edge to regroup and get the word out to everyone. Maybe find a way to prepare for what’s coming,”
“Good idea,” Reno agreed, nodding. “Shinra could probably use some help with training those kids that signed up for SOLDIER. If it’s as bad as I think it is, we’re going to need all the help we can get,”
“So it seems,” Cloud whispered, not too keen on the whole idea of Soldier having been reformed. “Four years,”
“Four years,” The others agreed as they grew silent, trying to think of ways to help themselves out in this situation. Morghann and Sirius both looked out of the window then and stared into the night sky, wanting desperately for things to go back to normal when Eko’s threat hadn’t been a threat at all.
“What a world for a child to grow up in,” Morghann whispered as she looked back down at her sleeping daughter. “I wanted her to know peace,”
“She will,” Reno said as he wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on her shoulder, the cloth falling away from his eyes. “We’ll stop him, Morghann. There’s too much at stake for us to lose to that creepy old doctor.”
“But he’s planned it all out so well,” Morghann whispered. “First with my parents and then me and,” Gasping in horror, she stared over at Sirius. “That’s why he didn’t kill me…!”
“He wants your connection,”
“No,” Morghann shook her head, fear jolting through her. “No, he wants Sarah…”
Sirius looked down at the sleeping baby and remembered the unusually bright green eyes that had captivated the entire group since her birth nearly four months ago. Then Sirius looked at Reno and Morghann and knew Morghann was right. “Reno’s been trained to use pure Mako, hasn’t he? There’s small traces of it in his blood,”
“Shiiiiiiiiit!” Reno whined, suddenly hating the world and everything about it.
“Sarah’s got a connection with the Lifestream that’s also been infused with the pure Mako in Reno’s blood…If Eko gets to her he can power that monster of his for decades on end without it tiring,”
“And that power coupled with your own energy because of being Sephiroth’s cloned sister and the Geostigma, it will never run out of power,”
“Four years from now,” Cloud said suddenly as he sat up and removed the cloth from his eyes. “and we’ll be fighting a harder battle than ever before,”
“We have a lot of work to do,” Reno muttered as Morghann slid down onto the floor next to the playpen where Sarah slept so that she could watch over her daughter. “We’re going to have to train harder than we ever have before,”
“Four years,” The entire group whispered in disdain.
---
Sirius was staring out through her bedroom window later that night, tears sliding slowly down her face as she reassessed the situation and finally realized the horrible reality that it meant for them.
“Siri?” Cloud touched her shoulder and felt his chest tighten when she turned that broken hearted look on him.
“It’s not fair, Cloud…Why should something like this have to loom over that little girl? Sarah is Morghann and Reno’s whole life. They’ve been waiting for her for so long and now…”
“Sometimes things happen that threaten to tear a family apart. It’s a test to see what a family can withstand. In the end, if everything happens as it should, there will be a happy ending,”
“Do you promise?”
“I never make promises that I can’t be sure to keep, Sirius.” When she looked as if she were going to break down against him, he touched her face and smiled. “Which is why you can rest assured that Sarah will be safe,”
Sirius smiled softly through her tears and wrapped her arms around him, just wanting to be near him. “I will make this a safe world for our future children, Sirius. I promise you that,”
---
“You should sleep, Morghann,” Reno said softly as he climbed into bed beside her. “Sarah’s sleeping. You need to as well,”
“I feel so guilty…”
“What the fuck for?” Reno asked, stunned. “Morghann…”
“I wanted her so badly and because I couldn’t wait, she’s in danger,”
“None of us knew that Eko even still existed until after it was too late, Morghann! You can’t blame yourself for what that bastard has done! We conceived that baby girl out of love and because we wanted to give her life! None of that has changed…has it?”
“No, of course not!” Morghann started sobbing, unable to contain it. “I just didn’t want this to happen to her. I didn’t want to have to shelter her all of her life. Now I have to cage her just to protect her,”
“Morghann,” Reno touched her face, searching her eyes for any sign of hope but he found none. “Don’t give up on me. Eko hasn’t won yet so don’t you dare let him. Morghann, I’ll stop him. I won’t let him get to her,”
“Promise me, Reno! Promise me you’ll protect o-our d-daughter from h-him!”
“Jesus, Morghann,” He pulled her against him, hugging her, rocking her, soothing her. “I promise you, Morghann, that I will protect our daughter.” Resting his head against hers, Reno fought his own tears back. And I’ll kill that son of a bitch…if it’s the last thing I do.
---
End Chapter
This marks the end of Part I.
---
“Reno? Are you sure this is it?” Morghann shifted baby Sarah in her arms and looked a little unsure. “The house is so dark. Did you tell them that we were coming? They’re probably not home…”
“Will you relax, yo? Cloud knows we’re coming! Stop acting like a nervous waif, yo!”
“I am not a waif!” She smacked his arm, looking mighty indignant. “You’ll regret saying that, Reno,”
“Ok, yo!” He grinned devilishly. “Come on! This is the place, I promise! Trust me, Morghann,”
“Oh, God! The last time I heard you say that I ended up pregnant,”
“Was that so bad?”
Morghann grimaced slightly and Reno’s face fell almost immediately. “I didn’t…Um…let’s go see if we can barge in on something embarrassing?”
“Please don’t!” Morghann hissed as she followed him around from where he’d parked his bike to the front door of the apartment that was supposed to have belonged to Cloud and Sirius for the last two months. Even after a light on the upper floors came on after Reno knocked or, pounded rather, on the door, Morghann found herself still not completely convinced. “If Cloud knew we were coming, wouldn’t he be here?”
“Fenrir is still parked in the garage, Morghann. Relax, yo!”
“I’m sorry, Reno. It’s just…I miss Sirius,”
“I know,” He slipped an arm around her waist and smiled at her. “Why do you think I planned this trip, yo? I know you miss her and she misses you, too, so this’ll be good for the both of you. Trust me, it’ll be fine,”
“Ok,” She whispered as they waited for the inhabitants of the home to come and answer the door. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the front door swung open and a very wet and very grumpy looking Cloud stepped aside to let them in.
“What the hell happened to you, man?”
Cloud glared at Reno, looking indignant and mighty unhappy about the entire situation. As Reno shrugged and stepped into the front hall, Morghann felt a strange sensation wash over her. She looked over her shoulder for a few seconds before the feeling passed and she followed Reno inside, clutching Sarah to her chest. Cloud must have felt it, too, because he took a precautionary glance around outside before he closed the door. Everything looked normal enough; shoppers, kids, the usual busy day activity.
Unfortunately, the enemy you couldn’t see was the worst enemy to have.
Lifting his head from the paper he’d been pretending to read, Eko felt himself smirking as he looked upon the apartment that belonged to Maelstrom and Strife. If he could hide in plain sight for two months with Cloud and Sirius both in close proximity to him, then his plan just couldn’t fail.
Still, he hadn’t expected Morghann and Reno to show up, and he knew Morghann had felt something foreboding because of his presence. Hopefully, it would be a long time yet before she realized what the cause of that uneasy feeling actually was.
“All I have to do…is wait, and watch,”
---
“Sirius will be down in a few minutes,” Cloud muttered as Morghann and Reno made themselves comfortable in the living room. Hastily, he made his way back up the stairs to finish getting dressed and cursed at Reno’s horrible sense of timing. After lunch, he and Sirius had retreated upstairs to retry the whole shower scenario and they were so close and then Reno’s obnoxious pounding on the front door had startled both of them enough that they’d lost balance and had ended up on the floor all over again.
And it was only after Sirius had convinced Cloud to go down and answer the door for them as quickly as possible that she promised not to tell anyone about their failed adventure. The first go round had been completed, but the second had failed miserably, with no room to try and finish up. Not that Sirius really cared to because seeing Morghann and Sarah again, to her, were both more important this day than a good rump with her lover, however tempting that might have been.
Sirius was the first one back down the stairs, grinning like a clown and bouncing like a damned rabbit. Morghann passed Sarah over to Reno and jumped up to embrace Sirius, overjoyed at seeing her again for the first time in two months. It was a long time before the two parted to go over and fawn over Sarah who looked, as any curious baby could, absolutely adorable.
---
“There hasn’t been any word from Shinra at all?”
“No,” Reno sighed, rubbing his face in anxiety. “Tseng and Elena came by earlier to make a report, but nothing new has popped up yet. They’ve examined the Crater and found nothing at all and Vincent didn’t find anything in Mideel that would indicate that Eko was ever in either place. He sure as hell hasn’t been to Kalm. We’ve been keeping an eye out for him. What about Rocket Town and Wutai?”
“Cid hasn’t reported anything else out of the ordinary and Rocket Town is pulling together to rebuild, but the scars are still there. Some of the villagers are ashamed of what they did, but some are still apprehensive. Eko seems to have left a good mark on some of them,”
“What about the Materia Market? Any news there?”
“Not one damned thing. Sales are normal,” Sirius shrugged as she bounced the nearly four-month-old baby girl on her knee. “Yuffie hasn’t reported anything out of the ordinary, either, but I don’t know if Eko would bother going in that direction, and, so far, we haven’t seen any sign of him here.”
“What about the Forbidden City?” Morghann asked, looking up at Cloud. “You don’t think he would have gone to ground there, do you?”
“Rude just took a trip over there a week ago. He came back here with no results. As a matter of fact, I think he’s staying up at the newly renovated Shinra Mansion,”
Reno shuddered. “Even renovated, that place gives me the creeps. You’d think if the family had loved it so much that they would have kept up with it,” Reno sat back on the couch and relaxed, admiring his grinning daughter with a sense of pride.
“What are you thinking, Morghann?” Sirius asked suddenly when she noticed Morghann’s far off look. When the woman didn’t respond, Reno nudged her side playfully.
“Morg? Wake up, yo!”
“I am awake,” She murmured, rising from the couch to get a better view outside of the window. It was the old Shinra mansion she was looking at, her mind working over every possibility. “Cloud? When was the last time anyone lived in that place?”
“A couple of years, why?”
“There’s a light on…in one of the upper rooms,”
“What?” Reno rose to his feet and joined her, staring out at the old hunk of brick in surprise. “She’s right,”
“Probably Rude,” Cloud commented as he came up to them, looking suddenly surprised. “Of course, I hadn’t expected him to take up a room in the old wing. It’s not completed yet,”
“Should we go check it out?” Reno questioned, glancing at Cloud over his shoulder. “Just in case?”
“Yeah. Sirius, Morghann, stay here,”
As the men left the house, Morghann and Sirius exchanged nervous glances. “Now what?”
----
Reno waited until Cloud had opened the door and given the all clear before they slipped into the mansion. The renovations had been taking place in the right wings and southern portions of the house and had been blocked off because of it, but everything else, the left wings included, were still untouched.
“Why haven’t they started the renovations back up on this end?” Reno questioned as he and Cloud inched their way along the floor, both of them tense and alert.
“Workers kept complaining that something was off about that side of the house and refused to touch it until they got the other end done,”
“And that didn’t seem strange to you?” Reno questioned, glancing over at him.
“Not really. The people here get kind of superstitious after having been told that a madman hell bent on destroying this planet is loose amongst them somewhere. Besides, this house has always been a little bit strange,”
“What the hell?” Rude Came down the stairs then, startling the two men into almost shooting him.
“Damn it, Rude!” Reno cursed, shaking his head. “I almost shot you!”
Rude shrugged it off and looked to Cloud. “What’s going on?”
“There’s a light on in one of the upper rooms in the left wing,”
Surprised, Rude looked towards the bolted door that led to that side of the mansion. “You’re sure?”
“Oh, yeah,” Reno nodded. “We’re comin’ to check it out,”
“Let’s go, then,” Rude lead the way towards the door and moved to unbolt it, but Reno and Cloud merely struck out at it, kicking it in without much of a care for being quiet and stealthy about anything. Ten minutes later, as they reached the room that was lit up like a landing strip, Cloud realized a terrible truth.
“Fuck!” Reno spat. “Son of a bitch has been here the whole fucking time!”
“How?” Cloud and Rude questioned as they explored the room, locating a few globes of Materia that the mad scientist had been unable to carry along with him. Or, maybe, he’d left them on purpose?
“He’s still here,” Cloud said as he looked around the room. “He wouldn’t leave all of this Materia behind,”
“You’re right,” All three men whirled around to face the voice and slid into fighting stances almost immediately. “It was a such a wonderful hiding place, too. But I knew this morning when that bitch arrived that I wouldn’t be able to stay much longer. She felt my presence, but since she was unable to place it, she couldn’t put a name to it.”
“It’s over, Eko,” Reno growled. “You’re busted,”
“Not quite, Shiratori,” Eko lifted his staff and the remaining Materia floated into his hands. “I’m afraid that I cannot allow myself to be captured so soon. But, don’t worry, you shall have your chance soon enough. My monster is almost complete. Four years from now,” He glanced at Reno and smirked. “I will return to claim that last bit of power to fuel my beast,”
“You’re not getting away!” Reno and Rude leapt forward and Cloud prepared for attack, but in a brilliant flash of light that left all three of them temporarily blind for hours, Eko made his grand escape.
---
“Fucking prick!” Reno cursed as Morghann pressed a cold rag over his eyes. “This whole time he was right here under all of our noses!”
“There’s no better place to hide than in plain sight,” Sirius murmured as she, too, pressed a cold rag to Cloud’s eyes. “The effects of that electric ball he threw down will wear off in a few hours. Just keep your lids closed and the process will speed along a little better.”
“His beast must be incredible,” Rude suddenly muttered from his seat in the chair next to the couch. “if it’s going to take him four years to complete,”
“I don’t get it,” Morghann whispered as she sat next to Reno and checked on a sleeping Sarah. “Why would he tell us when to expect the battle?”
“He was letting us know that in four years, we’re all going to die,” Reno touched Morghann’s hand and felt a strange sense of foreboding settling in on his shoulders. “He said that in four years he would return to claim the last bit of power he needed,”
“The power of Sephiroth and the Lifestream,” Cloud hissed. “He wants Sirius and Morghann,”
“Are you sure it’s Sephiroth’s power and not the Geostigma?” Morghann asked as she looked over to Cloud. “Sirius’ Geostigma is permanent and irreversible, therefore it must have some kind of power of its own. What if he injected her with it so that when the time came, he would have a way to fuel his beast indefinitely?”
“Shit,” Reno groaned, leaning his head back to keep the rag from sliding away from his eyes. “Fucker has it all planned out!”
“Stop it,” Morghann whispered, nudging him. “Stop saying that word around Sarah,”
“Sorry,” He muttered, his fury outweighing his caution. “So what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Cloud muttered, sighing heavily. “We should make the most of it. We know he won’t be coming back for four years. I suppose we could go back to Edge to regroup and get the word out to everyone. Maybe find a way to prepare for what’s coming,”
“Good idea,” Reno agreed, nodding. “Shinra could probably use some help with training those kids that signed up for SOLDIER. If it’s as bad as I think it is, we’re going to need all the help we can get,”
“So it seems,” Cloud whispered, not too keen on the whole idea of Soldier having been reformed. “Four years,”
“Four years,” The others agreed as they grew silent, trying to think of ways to help themselves out in this situation. Morghann and Sirius both looked out of the window then and stared into the night sky, wanting desperately for things to go back to normal when Eko’s threat hadn’t been a threat at all.
“What a world for a child to grow up in,” Morghann whispered as she looked back down at her sleeping daughter. “I wanted her to know peace,”
“She will,” Reno said as he wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on her shoulder, the cloth falling away from his eyes. “We’ll stop him, Morghann. There’s too much at stake for us to lose to that creepy old doctor.”
“But he’s planned it all out so well,” Morghann whispered. “First with my parents and then me and,” Gasping in horror, she stared over at Sirius. “That’s why he didn’t kill me…!”
“He wants your connection,”
“No,” Morghann shook her head, fear jolting through her. “No, he wants Sarah…”
Sirius looked down at the sleeping baby and remembered the unusually bright green eyes that had captivated the entire group since her birth nearly four months ago. Then Sirius looked at Reno and Morghann and knew Morghann was right. “Reno’s been trained to use pure Mako, hasn’t he? There’s small traces of it in his blood,”
“Shiiiiiiiiit!” Reno whined, suddenly hating the world and everything about it.
“Sarah’s got a connection with the Lifestream that’s also been infused with the pure Mako in Reno’s blood…If Eko gets to her he can power that monster of his for decades on end without it tiring,”
“And that power coupled with your own energy because of being Sephiroth’s cloned sister and the Geostigma, it will never run out of power,”
“Four years from now,” Cloud said suddenly as he sat up and removed the cloth from his eyes. “and we’ll be fighting a harder battle than ever before,”
“We have a lot of work to do,” Reno muttered as Morghann slid down onto the floor next to the playpen where Sarah slept so that she could watch over her daughter. “We’re going to have to train harder than we ever have before,”
“Four years,” The entire group whispered in disdain.
---
Sirius was staring out through her bedroom window later that night, tears sliding slowly down her face as she reassessed the situation and finally realized the horrible reality that it meant for them.
“Siri?” Cloud touched her shoulder and felt his chest tighten when she turned that broken hearted look on him.
“It’s not fair, Cloud…Why should something like this have to loom over that little girl? Sarah is Morghann and Reno’s whole life. They’ve been waiting for her for so long and now…”
“Sometimes things happen that threaten to tear a family apart. It’s a test to see what a family can withstand. In the end, if everything happens as it should, there will be a happy ending,”
“Do you promise?”
“I never make promises that I can’t be sure to keep, Sirius.” When she looked as if she were going to break down against him, he touched her face and smiled. “Which is why you can rest assured that Sarah will be safe,”
Sirius smiled softly through her tears and wrapped her arms around him, just wanting to be near him. “I will make this a safe world for our future children, Sirius. I promise you that,”
---
“You should sleep, Morghann,” Reno said softly as he climbed into bed beside her. “Sarah’s sleeping. You need to as well,”
“I feel so guilty…”
“What the fuck for?” Reno asked, stunned. “Morghann…”
“I wanted her so badly and because I couldn’t wait, she’s in danger,”
“None of us knew that Eko even still existed until after it was too late, Morghann! You can’t blame yourself for what that bastard has done! We conceived that baby girl out of love and because we wanted to give her life! None of that has changed…has it?”
“No, of course not!” Morghann started sobbing, unable to contain it. “I just didn’t want this to happen to her. I didn’t want to have to shelter her all of her life. Now I have to cage her just to protect her,”
“Morghann,” Reno touched her face, searching her eyes for any sign of hope but he found none. “Don’t give up on me. Eko hasn’t won yet so don’t you dare let him. Morghann, I’ll stop him. I won’t let him get to her,”
“Promise me, Reno! Promise me you’ll protect o-our d-daughter from h-him!”
“Jesus, Morghann,” He pulled her against him, hugging her, rocking her, soothing her. “I promise you, Morghann, that I will protect our daughter.” Resting his head against hers, Reno fought his own tears back. And I’ll kill that son of a bitch…if it’s the last thing I do.
---
End Chapter
This marks the end of Part I.