Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Reborn ❯ Chapter 6
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: MikariStar 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Comedy / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.23.2012 | Pages: 8 | Words: 10.2K | Visits: 278 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Comedy / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.23.2012 | Pages: 8 | Words: 10.2K | Visits: 278 | Status: Completed
Reborn: Memory VI
Incident 41: Confronting Avoidance
It was midnight when Cloud, having lost his patience, banged on the door to Healin Lodge with Denzel standing beside him, wondering if this was the right choice. The boy tried to trust Tifa and believe she and Marlene really would be alright, but he had his doubts and worried about their safety as well.
The one who opened the door was Reno and as soon as he saw Cloud, his eyes glowed. He searched for a random embarrassing memory to throw at Sephiroth, desperate times call for desperate measures after all, but it didn't work. Sephiroth's bottled up anger had become so strong that not even Reno's strangest thoughts could control it. He slammed the door on Cloud's face.
"Who was it?" Elena's first guess was that it was a lost traveler or maybe someone playing a prank, perhaps someone selling insurance, despite the late hour of the night.
"Cloud..." Reno's eyes glowed brighter.
"Let me in!" Cloud knocked hard on the door again. "Let me in or I'll knock down this door!"
"I can't take this... Seph... can't hold back..." Reno closed his eyes tightly and fought to stay in control.
"Just a minute Cloud, I'll be right there!" Elena called then looked at the troubled Reno. "Rude, come here quick!" The silent man rushed over, "take Reno away from here, we need to keep him far from Cloud." Rude nodded and dragged his partner away, while Elena went to open the door, "hi, Cloud, Denzel, what brings you here?" She noted that Cloud's nose was red and flat. "What happened to your nose?"
"Reno," Cloud growled, "where did he go?"
"He had to... run some errands," Elena made up an excuse.
"In the middle of the night?" Cloud looked suspicious.
"A Turk's job is never done," Elena laughed nervously.
"Never mind, where are Tifa and Marlene?" Cloud went past Elena, towards the sound of laughter that in his worry sounded cruel and evil to him, even if it was happy and cheerful. Denzel quickly followed.
"Coming in like that, how rude," Elena closed the door and followed the two new arrivals. "Everyone is perfectly fine as you can see."
Cloud stared at the scene. Tifa, Marlene and the three silver haired terrors were playing video games. "Tifa!"
"Marlene!" Called Denzel.
The girls looked at them, exchanged glances and finally Tifa asked, "what are you doing here?"
"We were worried!" Cloud rushed to her side, to be blocked by Loz and Kadaj.
"You're not stealing her!" Kadaj warned.
"Yeah, we won't let you and neither will daddy!" Added Loz.
Denzel looked at Marlene and Yazoo blocked his path, "don't think of it."
Kadaj joined him, "Marlene is staying too!"
The silver haired boys looked at each other and nodded, they took deep breaths and called out, "daddy!"
"Stop that, there's no need to yell, what's wrong?" Elena looked at the boys, but found nothing visibly wrong with them; this must all be because they thought Cloud and Denzel would take Tifa and Marlene away.
Rufus woke up and ran towards the game room, soon followed by Tseng who also heard the commotion. "What is it? What's wrong?" Rufus looked at the boys, seeing no injuries, then looked at Elena searching for answers.
"They don't like Cloud very much," Elena correctly concluded.
"Tseng," Rufus spoke.
Tseng nodded, "Cloud, I need to speak to you," the Turk leader spoke with a tone of voice that left no room for argument, thus Cloud silently followed him away.
"Is uncle Tseng scolding Cloud?" Kadaj grinned in satisfaction, as did his brothers.
"Yes, he is," Rufus assured. "You three play nice, alright? Be good and don't cry anymore." The boys nodded and Rufus thought about going back to sleep since it was actually night time now, but he had caught up on sleep during the day and didn't feel tired anymore, that was the end of his precise biological clock. "I should catch up with my Shinra duties. Elena, load the proper files into my computer, review the contracts, detail my schedule, go over the plans, let's get to work." Needles to say, Elena wasn't happy with Rufus' sudden burst of working energy.
xoxox xox xoxox
Just outside Healin Lodge, Tseng and Cloud stood under the clear star filled sky. "Listen, Cloud, I think you need to be nice to the boys, earn their trust, I'm sure Rufus will forgive you then and end the blockade on your delivery service."
"I don't know what evil plans Shinra has, but I won't take any chances. Those boys are too much like the remnants by the same names," Cloud argued.
"They're Rufus' children, interpret that however you want, but they are his sons. Do you like being judged by your past? We Turks are good at doing research; the name of Administrative Research doesn't come in vain," Tseng watched Cloud's expression become invaded by a worry that would grow with every word. "I know about Zack Fair, the man who gave his life for you, do you think people should be judged by past? If you go by your suspicions and judge those boys, not that I'm confirming anything, and also judge Shinra, it's only fair to judge yourself too. What about Aeris? Do you believe your hands are completely clean? Do you think you have the rights to judge others? You can only be forgiven if you forgive."
Cloud was shocked to silence, the full force of his guilt washing over him all over again. His gaze went blank and he stared off into space with unfocused eyes. Everything was white, endless nothingness.
"Be strong," a man's voice.
"And have faith," a woman's voice.
Cloud woke up from his vision, the whiteness changing back into the darkness of the night, illuminated by the light filtering out through Healin Lodge's windows and the shining stars above.
"Cloud?" Tseng wondered if he put a little too much pressure on him, he looked as if he had been spirited away for a second there.
Cloud regained his focus and realized where he was. 'Be strong and have faith', those were the words of Zack and Aeris, their voices unmistakable in Cloud's mind. "Fine, I won't do anything, but they better stay out of trouble."
"Fair enough..." Tseng accepted, that was easier said than done, but as the old saying goes, you're not in trouble unless you get caught, that was another rule of the Turks.
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 42: Chaos
The night passed with relative calmness, though no one went to sleep again until morning, when exhausted, Elena fell asleep on her desk while Rufus had a coffee rush. No one knew what made the president decide that he wanted coffee, but he wanted it and he got it. Now he was wide awake as the sun shone its first few rays of light in a new day.
Tseng was exhausted and wanted to rest, but someone had to guard the president and Rude was still somewhere unknown with Reno. Once again, Tifa and Marlene tried to leave and once again the boys cried, causing the weather to go crazy. "Isn't it strange how the weather changes when they're upset?" Tifa observed.
Cloud's eyes went wide, "it does!"
Tseng knew this was a dangerous path, "I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Anyway, boys, Tifa and Marlene have to go."
"Why?" Kadaj pouted.
"So they can take Cloud and Denzel home," Tseng hoped that the prospect of Cloud leaving was enough to make the boys understand. Though the delivery boy had avoided conflicts by keeping his distance from the girls, while still guarding them, the remnants weren't too fond of him just yet.
"But they came by themselves," Yazoo pointed out.
"So they can go back by themselves," Loz concluded.
Kadaj nodded in agreement, "right."
Tseng tried a different tactic and hoped the girls would cooperate, "if they leave, they'll come visit again, right?" He looked to Tifa and Marlene, who both nodded, but the remnants were not satisfied with that, they saw no need for them to leave. "When they leave, if you've been good, you might get a goodbye kiss."
Cloud opened his mouth to protest, but Tseng silenced him with a deadly glare. "That's right," Tifa agreed, they were just children, there was no need for Cloud to be jealous. Tifa bent over, and kissed them each of them on the forehead. Marlene tried to mimic the action, but couldn't reach so she instead settled for a kiss on the cheek, much to Denzel's annoyance.
Finally accepting that it was worth it to be separated for a little while, only for a little while, if they got kisses, Tifa and Marlene were able to leave without any unusual weather changes to stop them. A very annoyed Cloud and a pouting Denzel went along with them. However, now all three boys were in Kadaj's situation, unable to decide who they liked best, Tifa or Marlene.
xoxox xox xoxox
It hasn't been too long since Tifa, Marlene, Cloud and Denzel had left Healin Lodge when Reno and Rude returned. The red head was running like a mad man, with Rude trying to stop him and somehow unable to do so, being dragged along instead.
"Where is Strife?" Sephiroth was in control again, he glared around, searching for his enemy. "Where is he hiding?"
"He's not here!" Rufus yelled back, his caffeine rush making him a little too brave. "Let Reno go, as the president of Shinra I own the Turks," he grabbed Reno's long red ponytail and pulled it, "they're mine, all of them, understand, Sephiroth? I order you to get out of Reno!"
"You own us, sir?" Tseng looked at him in suspicion and disapproval, "just out of curiosity, how much coffee did you drink?"
"About fifty or so cups, why?" Rufus spoke as if it was a perfectly normal amount.
Angered, Sephiroth searched Reno's pockets for anything he could use as a weapon, he was not carrying his electrorod, but he did find a pocket knife, which he used to cut Rufus' long hair.
Rufus gasped, this was low, even for Sephiroth. "I'm going to kill you!" Rufus knocked Reno to the ground and started punching like crazy.
"That's Reno's body..." Rude pointed out.
"Reno is a Turk, he can take it, we will honor his brave sacrifice," Tseng voiced. "Wait until Sephiroth retreats and then we'll stop the president from killing Reno."
"Pres, stop! Ah! It's me!" Reno tried to block Rufus' angry blows. "Rude, help!"
"Now?" Rude looked at Tseng.
Tseng observed the situation, "he could be faking it..." A few more minutes passed, "or maybe not, let's go!"
The two men finally pulled the furious Rufus off Reno, receiving a few kicks and punches along the way. Reno slowly got up, beaten and pained, then his eyes suddenly glowed and Sephiroth was in control again. "You'll pay for this!" Using Reno's electrical abilities, he shot lightning towards the two Turks and Rufus, causing the three to hastily dodge in different directions.
"My hair, my poor hair..."Rufus cried, he wasn't bald, it could be fixed, he had enough hair for his old haircut, but it was not so long that it made everyone stare in admiration, nevertheless at least it was still amazingly shiny.
"We need to protect the hair," in the chaos, Tseng didn't know what to expect from Rufus, he might be angered if his hair, albeit it was no longer attached to his head, was damaged. Tseng and Rude shielded the hair which lay on the floor, while Sephiroth, shot lightning at Rufus, who ran away screaming, his sudden rush of angry courage fading.
In the mist of the chaos, three silver haired boys stood looking frightened. Their shock finally gave way to tears and they wailed like never before. There was a massive earthquake which made everyone fall down and pieces of the building fall apart. The rain and hail poured so harshly, that anyone caught outside would have been hurt. Thunder echoed deafeningly loud and lightning crashed, making a hole in the ceiling of the battered building. Seeing that the situation was too chaotic and that the planet might be destroyed before he had a chance to use it as a vessel, Sephiroth retreated and Reno fainted from the strain.
"What's going on?" Elena had been woken up by the colossal disarray. Reno was beaten and unconscious, Rufus was also bruised, his long hair unevenly cut short. Tseng and Rude, the first with a black eye and the second with broken sunglasses and a ripped suit, were standing around what was left of Rufus' long hair, and the world was in absolute chaos.
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 43: Disaster Zone
"Stop!" Elena yelled so loud that her voiced echoed all around and the world seemed to freeze. Then she realized that, though the world wasn't frozen, the room was. She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself, then walked over to Rude, he had the fire materia, "would you melt the ice please?" The question came out innocently, as if it wasn't Elena's fault at all that the room was frozen.
Rude first broke out of the ice, then freed Tseng and finally Rufus. He then looked unsure at Reno and the remnants, but before the next action cold be decided, Reno used his electrical power to generate enough heat to break free of the ice and the remnants somehow broke free as well, shivering in the cold.
"Cold!" The three wailed.
Elena thought fast, and quickly made up an excuse, "the cold isn't bad; it means you can cuddle with a nice warm blanket surrounded by soft stuffed animals without being too hot because of it!"
The remnants stopped their crying, it looked like the battle between their dad and uncle Reno... no, wait, that was big brother Sephiroth... Either way, it looked like their fight had ended so there was no real reason to cry if the cold would soon be solved.
While the remnants cuddled their multitude of stuffed animals, which had been piled up on a single bed were all three sat, sharing a blanked, Rufus glared defiantly at Reno who faded between being himself and being Sephiroth.
"That really hurt, pres!" Reno complained when Sephiroth finally let him stay in control.
"It was your fault! I'm going to get my hair fixed, all of you stay here, I'll go alone!" Rufus opened the door, but as he pushed it, it fell off its hinges. "This place isn't livable anymore!" Pieces of the Healin Lodge had come apart, the ceiling had holes, as did the walls and there was too much dust, which had accumulated on the multitude of stuffed animals the remnants had collected over the past few days and was making them sneeze and cough. Yet the boys either didn't make the connection or simply didn't care and kept on cuddling their soft dust covered toys. Rufus watched the scene with a sudden hint of concern, "boys, are you warm enough to come out from under that blanket?"
The boys nodded, and rushed to their father, sneezing and coughing along with him and the Turks as more dust took to the air with each step. "Playing with such dirty toys is bad for you, those need to be washed, the Turks will take care of it. I'll go get my hair done and then we'll go to the beach."
"Yay!" The remnants cheered.
"The beach?" Tseng questioned, this didn't feel like the time to be going on a trip to the beach.
"Yes, I can't stay in Healin Lodge until it's fully repaired. Edge must be in pretty bad shape too. I'm calling my new stylist to meet me in Junon," Rufus had fired the old one due to failing to save his hair before. "Then we'll take a ship to Costa del Sol. You will all stay here and keep him," Rufus pointed at Reno, "away from Costal del Sol. Also, collect all the relevant documents, electronics containing data and such important things from this place, clean them and store them at Junon, clean the boys' toys as well and put them in storage."
"Wait, president, you're going by yourself?" Tseng was disbelief.
"It will take all of you to accomplish the mission I gave you," Rufus glared at Reno.
"It's me, yo!" Reno defended.
"We don't know for how long you will be yourself and I'm not taking any chances. See if you can research ways to exorcise Sephiroth out of Reno. I'll be connecting to the Shinra mainframe from Costa del Sol, go to headquarters and see to it that it's up and running immediately," with his mind made up, Rufus left Healin Lodge along with the remnants.
xoxox xox xoxox
The road was a muddy mess and the areas that had asphalt were cracked and uneven. The cars couldn't navigate the disaster zone terrain to leave the area and the helicopters had fallen over or been stuck by lightning. Thus Rufus and the boys ended up going to the Chocobo Ranch on foot, with Rufus telling stories about how he bravely faced danger back when Meteor was coming. It was his own version of what happened to keep the boys entertained, so they wouldn't start complaining about the long walk.
After arriving at the Chocobo Ranch, they found that the main stable had fallen apart along with he smaller structures around it. Though the ranch was further from the epicenter of the disaster, it wasn't as strongly built as Healin Lodge and even it had suffered considerable damage. At least the chocobos had been smart enough to sense the danger and stampede out, with chocobo Billy and the other workers frantically following after them, to stop the giant birds from escaping. It was that which saved them from the danger of becoming trapped in the buildings when they came down.
Lucky for Rufus, the ranch workers were not sophisticated enough to comment about anything being odd concerning his uneven haircut. Perhaps it was even more fortunate for them, because Rufus Shinra was not in the mood to hear any criticism.
While the boys waited for their father to choose the chocobos that would carry them, a thought occurred to Kadaj as he observed the leftover ruins of the ranch. It wasn't just the area immediate to Healin Lodge that was damaged and he had heard Edge being mentioned. "Tifa, Marlene..."
The other two boys caught on quickly and looked worried, "do you think they're okay?" Yazoo inquired.
"I hope they're not hurt," Loz looked like he would cry.
As if alerted by an odd instinct or an extra sense, Rufus rushed to their side, "what's wrong? Why do you look sad?"
"Tifa and Marlene!" The three replied in a distressed chorus.
"I'm sure they're fine," Rufus called Tifa's PHS, because everyone had everyone's number in Edge. "Tifa? Yes, I did notice the crazy weather and the earthquake. Cloud blames me? On what basis? He can go help the Turks clean up Healin Lodge and Shinra Headquarters if he doesn't believe it affected me too. Anyway, the boys were worried about you and Marlene, could you tell them you're both safe?"
The PHS was handed over to the remnants, who began to fight for it. Before they broke it, Rufus snatched it back and set it to speaker, holding on to it as the boys listened to Tifa and Marlene assure them they were safe and send them their well wishes. Once that was done, the remnants looked calmer and were ready to once again focus on the excitement of riding chocobos.
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 44: Costa del Sol
Things finally seemed to be calm after the massive chaos that had invaded Healin Lodge. Rufus and the remnants were heading towards Junon riding chocobos and from there, they would go to Costa del Sol. As it usually happened when Rufus finally thought he could breathe at ease, he was proven wrong as a loud roar was heard and a gigantic serpent blocked the way.
For a split second, Rufus feared for his life and surprised himself in realizing he feared even more for the remnants' lives, before concluding that there was nothing to be afraid of. "Rest in peace Zolom..."
Rufus grinned victoriously as the three boys cried in fear, causing a lightning bolt to crash on Zolom, knocking it out, maybe alive, maybe not. Rain followed, along with wind and a chorus of "daddy!"
"It's okay, calm down, everything is fine," Rufus directed his words at the three boys and the chocobos as well.
The boys calmed down, their father was with them so they should be safe. The storm died down and the boys once again became amused by the chocobos, though Rufus was certainly not amused about the state of his suit.
xoxox xox xoxox
"Sir?" The cadet stared at Rufus with disapproval, "you're... you're..."
His partner decided it was time to save their jobs and the wiser cadet quickly interrupted, "you're looking absolutely radiant, president Shinra, sir."
Rufus twitched at the obvious hypocrisy, he knew he was a mess, mud had been splattered all over his white suit during the Zolom incident. Not only that, but the cadet had the audacity to call him president Shinra, which he was, but it sounded too much like what they used to call his father.
"Ready a ship, I'll be departing for Costa del Sol immediately," Rufus commanded, ignoring the curious glances the cadets were giving the three silver haired boys.
When the ship was ready, Rufus and the boys boarded it and they sailed off. Everything was peaceful until the boys started crying for no apparent reason. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"We miss the chocobos!" The remnants cried, causing a violent sea storm to form.
"The chocobos had to stay because they'll get sea sick on the ship," it was mostly because Rufus didn't want to deal with the extra trouble of bringing them along, but this sounded like a better excuse. "Don't worry, you'll get to play with them again and Costa del Sol will be fun, we're going to the beach and you can make sand castles!"
The three remnants stopped crying, smiling at the idea of playing at the beach. Those boys were certainly moody, but Rufus felt like he was finally learning to prevent major disasters. Fortunately, the boys didn't get sea sick, which would have probably upset them enough to sink the ship.
xoxox xox xoxox
The sandy shores of Costa del Sol came into view in the horizon, the beachside city untouched by natural disasters as of yet. Rufus rushed right over to his new villa, changing out of his dirty suit and deciding he might as well blend in with the tourists and fulfill his promise to take the remnants to the beach.
After a quick trip to a store to get some proper beach attire, the group headed out to the beach, finding a vacant spot and setting up some beach towels and a large umbrella there. "Where do you think you're going?" Rufus firmly inquired when he noticed the boys had begun to walk away.
"To play in the sand," Kadaj happily replied, with nods of agreement from his brothers.
"Not without sun-block," Rufus got a large bottle from his beach supplies, "put out your hands." The remnants curiously obeyed and Rufus poured a generous amount of sun-block for each of them.
"Is this frosting?" Yazoo asked.
"No, this is not something you can eat, you have to put it all over your body," Rufus demonstrated by applying some sun-block on himself.
The boys didn't look happy and Loz expressed their mutual complaints, "it's sticky!"
"It will protect you from the sun," Rufus knew that sunburned remnants would be the apocalypse with constant pain, which meant constant crying. "It's very important to be protected from the sun or you'll get burned and it will be very painful." Rufus knew about this first hand, his skin was very sensitive and he needed to apply layer after layer of strong sun-block if he was to survive a day at the beach. The boys might have inherited his sensitive skin... then he paused and wondered where that thought came from. It's not like they were his biological children, they weren't even normal kids. Even so, Rufus wasn't going to take his chances with the apocalypse. "If you don't put on lots of sun-block you can't play at the beach. It's really not so bad, I'm wearing it too."
The boys nodded and applied sun-block, with Rufus making sure they didn't miss a spot. With that done, the remnants started building a sand castle and Rufus sat under the large umbrella resting, he was so relaxed he dozed off.
When Rufus woke up a couple of hours later, thanks to the complaints of hunger from the remnants, he tried to get up and found he couldn't. He became fully awake and realized he was buried in the sand. "We can go get some food, but you'll have to dig me out."
The boys were quick to free Rufus, discussing what they wanted to eat. Feeling terribly uncomfortable because of the sand sticking to his body, Rufus took the remnants to get some food.
Fortunately the meal went by uneventfully and it was back to the beach afterwards, following a quick trip to the new villa so Rufus could get rid of the sand sticking to him with a quick shower and change.
The boys went to play on the shallow waters of the coast, with Rufus watching from under the large umbrella, he decided it was best not to fall asleep again.
"Rufus Shinra?"
Rufus nearly jumped at the voice, he thought he was mingling with the peasants, that is tourists, well enough not to be recognized. "You're mistaken," he told the unknown woman.
"You sure do look a lot like him, maybe even more handsome," she winked.
Noting the presence of an unidentified female near Rufus, the three silver haired boys rushed to his side filled with curiosity, "who's this lady, daddy?" Kadaj inquired.
The woman raised an eyebrow, "daddy?"
"They're my sons," this was Rufus' perfect chance to remain hidden by convincing her he wasn't Rufus. No one knew the new villa belonged to him, since it hasn't really been used since its recent construction, Rufus simply didn't have time, thus seeing him go in and out of the villa shouldn't automatically give away his identity.
Furthermore, no one on this continent should know about the remnants yet, thus being accompanied by the children should make people think that he wasn't Rufus. His hair had been fixed, with a few finishing touches while on the ship, it was short now, but a little longer than it used to be and a lot shinier, he might be easier to recognize without the super long hair, but people had assumed he was only a Rufus look alike so far.
"Oh, I see..." the woman was obviously disappointed, though she seemed to hold on to a suspicious ray of hope. "Is your wife with you?"
Catching where this was going, and taking note of the still curious looks of the remnants, Rufus decided to do what he must to drive the insistent woman away without drawing unwanted attention, "yes, she's with us."
Frowning in disappointment, the woman walked away without another word.
After she was gone, the boys' question began, starting with Kadaj, "who was she?"
"How come she went away without saying anything to us?" Asked Yazoo.
"Why did she look angry?" Inquired Loz.
"Is mommy really here?" Kadaj continued.
"How come we haven't seen her?" Added Yazoo.
"Where is she?" Questioned Loz.
Caught in a lie, Rufus decided to give the remnants a silly cheesy answer, "she's in our hearts." Surprisingly, that was enough to satisfy the boys, who returned to their previous activity of playing.
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 45: Haunted Materia
Everything was at relative peace in Costa del Sol and Rufus was starting to truly relax until Reno arrived, barging into the new villa like it's nobody's business, holding what was left of the Jenova flower, which had since turned into a very odd materia. It was black most of the time, though from certain angles and when the light bounced off it, it could appear to be a variety of colors in metallic shades, blue, red, gold, silver and others. "Her interference was worse than I thought..." Reno eyes glowed with mako.
The more or less happy little Shinra family had been having breakfast at the time, which was thankfully purchased and not made by the remnants or Rufus, whose skills in the kitchen were non-existent. "Sephiroth!" Rufus practically jumped out of his chair and sprinted towards the kitchen doorway, standing between the possessed Reno and the remnants. Then he realized the danger of his action and his rush of courage and protective instinct began to fade.
Luckily, Reno's consciousness took over at that very moment and the glow in his eyes faded away. "Taichou? When did you get back? I thought you were in Costa del Sol."
Rufus let out a breath of relief, then glared and scolded, "this is Costa del Sol! Sephiroth must have brought you here, and what is that you're holding?"
"I think it's Jenova, the thing that used to be the flower," Reno theorized. "I haven't had too much trouble with Sephiroth lately; I think he's getting weaker."
"If that's true then why did he possess you long enough to bring you here?" Rufus dramatized, just when he was starting to like his little vacation, albeit he would never truly admit it, it had to be cut short.
"Um... well..." Reno didn't really know how to answer that one, Rufus had a point there. Maybe he was just getting used to being possessed and it didn't bother him as much.
"Give me that," Rufus took away the unusual materia. "I'll be keeping this safe, you need to return to Edge and have the other Turks lock you up."
"But I don't want to!" Reno immediately protested.
"It's for your own good!" Rufus insisted.
Reno pouted and stomped away, off to the beach. Rufus knew the redhead wouldn't head to Edge, he would probably hang around at the beach grumpy about the recent turn of his current Sephiroth possession situation, then get distracted by something or other and end up acting as if he was on vacation; Reno was predictable sometimes and sometimes he was totally random.
Rufus let Reno go, he would call Tseng and inform him of the situation, then the Turks could come take Reno away. When Rufus opened his PHS, the automatic tracking system showed that Tseng's PHS was moving towards Costa del Sol at a steady pace, he must already know about Reno. Good, then Rufus didn't even have to call. He closed the PHS and looked at the three silver haired boys who were observing him with curiosity, "Go on, finish your breakfast and we can go play at the beach again." The remnants happily complied.
"I'm here!" The sudden announcement made Rufus look towards the not so sneaky materia thief ninja, who was too excited to hide her presence. Yuffie unexpectedly arrived and stared at the materia that was on the table next Rufus' stack of pancakes. "It's beautiful, just like I heard!"
"What are you doing here and don't you know how to knock on the door?" Rufus scolded her.
"There was no door," Yuffie revealed, "well, actually, yeah there was, but it was on the floor so I just walked over it."
"Sephiroth," Rufus grumbled, he should have known something like that must have happened for Reno to go in, possessed by Sephiroth. He could further worry about the possible chaos he could be causing at the beach, but Rufus was done stressing out, he was tired of worrying, though if the situation got worse, he might find he still had room to become more stressed, he hoped it didn't come to that.
"What are you muttering about? Never mind, it doesn't matter. I'm here because Cloud told me Reno was running around all over Edge arguing with himself as if he was possessed by an evil ghost, but the part that was really interesting was that he was holding a strange materia. Imagine that, a haunted materia! I'm the greatest ninja materia hunter in the world, if anyone is going to be possessed by a materia ghost it has to be me, so hand it over!" Yuffie readied her shuriken.
Rufus shook his head in disapproval, "only you would want to be possessed."
"Not by any old ghost, by a materia ghost only!" Yuffie couldn't deny that she did have a bit of an obsession with materia. She was sure she was the biggest materia fan there was and felt it was unfair that Reno was chosen by the materia ghost.
"Either way it doesn't matter," Rufus held the Jenova materia protectively, "I'm not giving up."
"You asked for it, hunted materia is the stuff of legends, I'll fight to the end for it; that is your end!" Yuffie declared.
The three boys had by then made their own interpretation of the situation and began to cry, "don't kidnap mommy!"
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 46: Escape
Rufus looked towards the open window at the panicked locals outside and several clueless tourists, the sea had retreated. "A tsunami's coming, to the basement!" Rufus grabbed the three boys and ran.
"Come back here, I'm not falling for that!" Out of curiosity, Yuffie glanced outside and saw the wall of water approaching. "Wait for me!" She dashed to the basement just in time before Rufus activated the security system to seal it against flooding. "Oh man, we're so trapped, I feel claustrophobic already!"
"No one invited you, thief!" Rufus snapped.
"Were you just going to let me drown? I thought Shinra was reformed!" Yuffie argued.
"Aren't you the proud Wutaian," Rufus retorted.
Yuffie's anger flared, "that was low! You know what? I don't need your help, I'm out of here!"
"How? The surface is flooded," Rufus reminded.
"That just means you're trapped too!" Yuffie pointed out.
The boys looked worried, "are we really trapped?" Kadaj asked.
"Are we going to stay here for the rest of our lives?" Yazoo inquired.
"I don't want to stay here forever, do we have to?" Added Loz, and the silver haired trio cried again, causing the earth to shake.
"It's okay, don't worry!" Rufus tried to calm them.
Unfortunately, Yuffie wasn't helping. "We're going to die! First a tsunami, now an earthquake, the planet is falling apart and it's all your fault!"
"Shut up, if not for Shinra, materia wouldn't exist!" Rufus yelled.
Yuffie gasped as the truth she had been avoiding was thrown in her face. The company against which she had such a strong grudge was the creator of her favorite thing in the world. She went into a corner, sat hugging her legs and sobbed.
"It's okay, don't believe what that mean girl says, we're perfectly fine. In fact, we get to ride on a submarine!" Rufus made the announcement sound as cheerful as he could.
"Submarine? Yuffie looked up from her corner, grimacing while the boys cheered, "I'll get sea sick!"
"No one invited you!" Rufus certainly didn't want to be trapped underwater with Yuffie.
"Too bad because I'm not staying here," Yuffie followed the group, receiving uneasy glares from the boys.
Rufus knew that if they got upset because of Yuffie trying to kidnap Jenova, that is steal the materia, they would all be doomed. If only he could ditch her without causing a commotion.
"Taichou!" Reno cheerfully greeted, interrupting Rufus' thoughts. "One minute I was surfing and the next the ocean was gone! Sephiroth took over and ran off, he even left my new surf board behind and I really like it too. By the time I took control again I was sealed in the secret tunnels so I was on my way to go out again from the villa," he looked at Yuffie, "why is she here?"
"To cause trouble," Rufus replied.
Yuffie rushed towards Reno and looked at him curiously, "ghost? Are you still in there ghost? The materia has been quiet so I thought maybe you stayed with Reno. Come out and posses me, I would make a much better host!" Yuffie held up the Jenova materia and tapped it with her index finger, that's when Rufus realized he no longer had the Jenova materia, Yuffie probably snatched it during the rush to get to the basement.
"Give that back, or the world will end!" Rufus dramatized and he didn't think he was exaggerating.
"Drama king," Yuffie mocked, "this materia is mine now!"
Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz began to cry and there was another earthquake. "To the submarine!" Rufus hurried in with the boys, followed by Reno and an upset and unwelcome Yuffie. Rufus rushed to get the submarine through the tunnels and out to sea to get away from the collapse. Fortunately, they made it out to the ocean before the secret tunnels fell apart; unfortunately, they were carried up by a giant tornado of water. "Calm down, everyone stay calm!"
"Easy for you to say, I'm going to be sick!" Yuffie agonized as she was thrown to the back of the submarine and Reno managed to close the door leading to the cockpit, locking her in the back room.
"I got her back!" Rufus held up the materia Yuffie had dropped in the commotion and the boys started to calm down. The submarine was thrown back into the sea as the water tornadoes ended and they sailed off to shore.
xoxox xox xoxox
With Yuffie locked up in the submarine, which was abandoned at the beach, Rufus, Reno and the remnants were picked up by a helicopter brought by the other Turks, Tseng, Elena and Rude were all there, along Rufus, Reno and the remnants.
"Good timing," Rufus collapsed into a seat and watched from the corner of his eyes as the remnants looked out the window in amusement.
"We have news," Tseng cut to the chase, "though they have not made the connection between the boys and the recent natural disasters, the unusual behavior of nature and its effects on Edge have caught the attention of the former members of Avalanche and the World Restoration Organization. Even if several of them are opposed to our presence there, mostly Cloud and Barret, on behalf of Avalanche and the WRO respectively, Tifa and Reeve have invited us to a meeting at Cid's house to discuss the recent happenings and try to figure out what troubles the planet. If we are to attend, we need to head to Rocket Town immediately."
"We can't stay uninvolved and I want answers too," Rufus decided. Things had gotten much too far out of control and this had to stop, "we're going."
"Where are we going?" Kadaj inquired, his curiosity also shared by his brothers.
"We're going to visit some friends," Rufus smiled reassuringly even if he was sure the reunion wouldn't be all that friendly.
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 47: Reunion
The atmosphere at Cid's crowded little house was tense and Shera's efforts to calm it with tea weren't working. It was like a time bomb waiting to blow up with the former Avalanche members, Shinra and the WRO there at the same time. There were random streams of conversation flowing here and there, theories and anecdotes concerning the strange weather, with the only quiet one being Rude, but that came as no surprise.
"Yuffie says she'll be late," Cloud announced after listening to the message left by the ninja, he still never answered his PHS. "She said she was trapped in a submarine and it took her a while to break out," Cloud eyed Rufus, "she blames you."
"There you have it!" Barret took the opportunity to verbally attack Shinra, since Tifa had forbade him from physically attacking. "Shinra hasn't reformed at all!"
"She should be thanking me," Rufus defended, "I did save her from the tsunami at Costa del Sol."
"How do we know you didn't cause that tsunami?" Barret argued.
"How would I cause a tsunami?" Rufus played innocent, though it really wasn't his fault.
"I don't know, why don't you tell us what you did? Maybe you drained the life out of the planet!" Barret accused.
Tifa decided it was time to interfere. "That's enough, we're not here to argue; we're here to form a plan." She was currently sitting on the couch, with Loz to her left and Kadaj to her right, followed by Marlene and Yazoo. Kadaj threw the biggest tantrum, suspiciously accompanied by a storm, and won the right to sit in the middle, though thankfully Tifa and Marlene were able to calm Loz and Yazoo. The unhappy Cloud and Denzel stood to the side, glaring.
"It better be a #$%& good plan because it looks like the weird weather has even reached Rocket Town," Cid urged, "if this keeps up, the skies will be too unfriendly to fly and I can't allow that."
"Edge has been left in ruins after it was finally restored, the cause of the strange weather must be found!" Reeve agreed.
"Maybe it's another secret of Shinra," Barret glared bitterly at Rufus.
"This is not my doing," Rufus insisted, it was true, he wasn't causing the strange weather, the remnants did.
"Let's stay focused," Tifa stopped another growing argument.
"If we could only communicate with the planet somehow," Nanaki left it at that, he knew there was no way to do it.
Yet Cloud's eyes widened with the realization that there might be a way. "We can do that!"
All eyes were on Cloud and Tseng asked the question on everyone's mind, "how?"
"By asking Aeris..." Cloud paused, wandering if people would think of him as crazy and it seemed that they were giving him those kinds of looks. "Aeris and Zack sometimes talk to me. Really, they do, I'm not crazy!"
"The last thing you do when you don't want people to think you're crazy is tell them you're not crazy," Elena pointed out.
"I'm still not crazy," Cloud pouted.
"Let us give him a chance," Vincent suggested and the group waited in silence.
"Is it working?" Reno broke the silence and curiously poked Cloud repeatedly. "Is it? Is it? Is it?" The presence of the apparently possessed Turk made Cloud uneasy, Reno was bad enough without being possessed.
"Stop that!" Cloud slapped Reno's hand away, "it's not that simple, this isn't as easy as calling someone on the PHS." Plus some would say Cloud hasn't even mastered that much.
"Maybe we can try this from someplace else?" Nanaki suggested.
"A place with a better spiritual signal?" Vincent mused.
The church in old Midgar, the Northern Crater, Mideel's life stream hole, Shinra Mansion and several others were suggested as places to try to communicate with the great beyond, but in the end everyone agreed to go to the Forgotten Capital.
xoxox xox xoxox
By the time Yuffie arrived at Rocket Town and ran to Cid's house, she found it empty and another PHS call revealed they had left without her. She debated if she should try to catch up or be thankful she didn't have to ride on the airship.
xoxox xox xoxox
The airship landed near the Forgotten Capital and the group got off, though it was decided that the children, Marlene, Denzel and the three remnants, would stay behind on the ship, it looked like the remnants would cry because they didn't get to go. Before more strange weather came, Rufus talked everyone into letting the kids tag along, it's not like they were planning to have a battle, this was just a mission to investigate. Plus the boys really wanted to ride on Nanaki.
The large group made it to Aeris' final resting place and on the same location where Sephiroth had ended her life, now was Cloud, taking a similar position to Aeris' on that day, and closing his eyes in concentration.
"You came to visit, thanks," Aeris' voice rung out clearly in Cloud's mind. "The time is near, I gave them what they needed to find an anchor in this world, but my influence is fading; now it's up to them."
Cloud was once again in an endless whiteness, he knew Aeris stood behind him, but dared not turn around and risk her fading away. He also felt the presence of two others; all four of them back to back in a little circle. "What do you mean?"
"It's time for the boys to stop clinging to their brother," this time it was Zack's voice that Cloud heard.
"I don't understand," Cloud insisted.
"Don't worry, you worry too much," Aeris laughed, "even if the calamity is released and the nightmare takes control, if those three prove to be more than living thoughts, they'll be saved by the memories of people's hearts."
"What?" Cloud was as confused as ever.
Zack explained, "the three boys that Aeris and I adopted are ready to go out into the world, they're ready to become separate beings, if those around them wish it."
The communication was suddenly broken, the endless whiteness replaced with reality. "Reno, no!" Tseng and Rude were holding Reno back, he had gotten close enough to Cloud to pick up his buster sword while the blond was in a trance.
Cloud looked up, remembering the time when he stood where Reno was now and there was no doubt in his mind that Reno was indeed being controlled by Sephiroth. He almost expected the real Sephiroth to jump down and attack him like he did Aeris, but that didn't happen, because Sephiroth was now right in front of him, that wasn't Reno anymore, Sephiroth had recovered his power.
Rufus woke up from the trance at the same time Cloud did. He had been there, in that endless whiteness with three others, Cloud and two more, Aeris and Zack probably. What didn't make a lot of sense to Cloud made perfect sense to Rufus and all the pieces fell into place.
Sephiroth was coming back, but Aeris turned his plans against him by interfering to turn the Jenova materia into a flower. Aeris mentioned something about giving the boys an anchor in that world, that must have been Rufus himself. The Jenova flower was going back to normal slowly, turning back into materia, but Sephiroth couldn't truly return until Aeris' influence was completely cleaned out of that materia and it finally happened, it was only a matter of time.
Sephiroth threw Tseng and Rude away and swung the buster sword at Cloud, who jumped back into the water, but instead of sinking, he found himself standing on a block of ice, courtesy of Elena. Cloud glared up at Sephiroth, "let Reno go and go back where you belong!" He didn't want anymore sacrifices, not even a very annoying Turk.
"It is you who doesn't belong here!" Sephiroth jumped after Cloud, levitating above the water. Barret and Vincent shot at him to no avail; the bullets appeared to collide with an invisible force field around Sephiroth, who chased after the unarmed Cloud, who could only dodge.
"You'll never win, you're just a memory, you're dead, you shouldn't be here!" Cloud yelled in frustration, it seemed like his memories would always come back to haunt him no matter how hard he tried to move on. Tifa, Nanaki and Cait Sith came at Sephiroth from different sides, but were thrown away with an immense force that sent them to crash on the ground. "Tifa!" Cloud rushed to her side being reminded of the incident in the reactor at Nibelheim. He glared at Sephiroth and attacked, but was easily blocked.
"This is looking pretty bad, Shera take the kids and get out of here!" Cid urged.
"Yes, be careful!" Shera tried to lead all five children away, Marlene, Denzel, Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz, but the last three wouldn't move. "We have to go," they wouldn't listen, they just watched.
Vincent and Barret continued trying to shoot at Sephiroth, while Elena tried to freeze him, but all three were pushed away with tremendous gravity and sent to crash as well. Cid jumped on Sephiroth, trying to sneak up on him, but once again it didn't work and he soon joined the others knocked out on the ground.
The Tiny Bronco II, Cid's new airplane was seen in the horizon and it was perhaps best that Cid wasn't awake to watch it crash with a very sick Yuffie stumbling out of the wreckage, miraculously alive. "My materia, where is my haunted materia?" She became alert for a split second when she spotted Sephiroth, "what's he doing back?" then the delayed effects of the crash finally caught up to her and she passed out.
"The situation seems hopeless; we'd best pick up our fallen allies and retreat!" Reeve concluded.
Rufus didn't take his eyes off the battle of Sephiroth and Cloud, with the first clearly having the advantage. "I don't think Sephiroth is going to let us go." He looked at the frightened remnants, who Shera was trying to take back to the airship, but the three were unmovable. "Isn't there a way to stop him?"
Shera, Reeve, Marlene and Denzel were surprised at the question Rufus directed at the three silver haired boys, how could his young sons know how to stop Sephiroth? Unless the true extent of their abilities was something Rufus kept in secret. The three boys wanted to cry, but they were trying to be brave, yet they didn't know how to answer.
The remnants stayed quiet for a long moment until Rufus shook his head hopelessly. "We'll have to try to retreat, I doubt Sephiroth will let us take everyone out of here, but there's no choice. Maybe Cloud can distract him long enough." It looked doubtful as Cloud was currently struggling to keep his own sword from decapitating him at the hands of Sephiroth, holding the blunt part from both sides as Sephiroth pushed it towards him.
"Be brave..." A voice echoed in the breeze, everyone heard it, even in their subconscious, and light rain began to fall. It was different from the harsh weather that came when the remnants cried, this was a gentle rain of healing, bringing everyone back to their senses slowly.
"Hold on to your dreams..." another voice encouraged and the three remnants looked determined as they ran towards Sephiroth.
"Stop, come back here!" Rufus tried to stop them, worried for their safety, but it was too late. The remnants ran into Sephiroth, fading into him as if they were absorbed.
"It's about time you little traitors came back," Sephiroth felt a surge of power, he was stronger than ever, but something was out of place, the power started to overwhelm him.
Though the remnants themselves were not fully aware of it, and Sephiroth had thought they were to be his little minions, the planet had given the boys a mission to stop Sephiroth. The legendary warrior was surrounded by light, shining so brightly that the exhausted Cloud had to look away. The gentle rain stopped, but the skies turned darker and in an explosion of light, Sephiroth disappeared, to exist only in memories once again and the dark clouds faded, with the sun shining once more.
Reno was left behind in Sephiroth's place; he slowly woke up to find everyone curiously looking at him. "He's gone now," Reno assured, because he knew it, he felt it, Sephiroth was no longer there, it was something they all knew somehow.
"What about the haunted materia?" Yuffie suddenly asked.
"I don't think it's coming back," Reno replied, much to Yuffie's agony.
"My materia!" The ninja cried.
"My Tiny Bronco II!" Cid joined her in agony, "you'll have a lot more to worry about than materia you little thief!"
xoxox xox xoxox
The group, minus the remnants, had returned to the airship where they managed to get the full story out of Rufus. "To think you hid that all this time," Barret sounded accusing.
"If I haven't, no one would have been able to stop Sephiroth," Rufus defended.
"I know it's not like me, but I'll have to agree with Rufus this one time," Cloud spoke to everyone's surprise, "I didn't like those boys either at first, but at that moment, in the end, I knew they were allies of the planet, sent by the planet itself and by Aeris and Zack, who took care of them in the life stream and helped them change for the better. They stopped Sephiroth, they chouse to stand by this world and the people."
The airship was filled with murmurs of agreement, followed by a long solemn silence. The three silver haired little boys who saved the world were gone.
xoxox xox xoxox
One week passed and the world continued taking steady steps towards recovering. Rufus and the Turks were back in Edge and the city was being repaired. It was a quiet morning in the new Healin Lodge and Rufus found himself missing the three little terrors that made his life so interesting. Suddenly he heard some cries, followed by Elena's voice trying to soothe them, "don't cry, the pancakes will be done soon, but you have to wait for them to be cooked."
"Here's some juice while you wait," Tseng offered.
Though there had been cries, there was no storm outside, no thunder, no lightning, no rain, no hail, no wind, no earthquakes. Rufus curiously made his way to the kitchen to find three familiar silver haired boys who rushed to hug him, "daddy!"
"You're back!" Rufus was glad to have them back, even more so because it looked like the weather problems were over.
"They just showed up this morning saying they were hungry and wanted breakfast," Reno explained while Rude stood as quiet as ever, watching the scene.
Rufus smiled, "welcome home..."
End of Memory VI
Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. In Incident 42 the idea of the Turks protecting Rufus' hair while Rufus is in trouble is from demonlifehealer. Thanks to ViviMouse for the idea of including the Zolom in Incident 44.
Incident 41: Confronting Avoidance
It was midnight when Cloud, having lost his patience, banged on the door to Healin Lodge with Denzel standing beside him, wondering if this was the right choice. The boy tried to trust Tifa and believe she and Marlene really would be alright, but he had his doubts and worried about their safety as well.
The one who opened the door was Reno and as soon as he saw Cloud, his eyes glowed. He searched for a random embarrassing memory to throw at Sephiroth, desperate times call for desperate measures after all, but it didn't work. Sephiroth's bottled up anger had become so strong that not even Reno's strangest thoughts could control it. He slammed the door on Cloud's face.
"Who was it?" Elena's first guess was that it was a lost traveler or maybe someone playing a prank, perhaps someone selling insurance, despite the late hour of the night.
"Cloud..." Reno's eyes glowed brighter.
"Let me in!" Cloud knocked hard on the door again. "Let me in or I'll knock down this door!"
"I can't take this... Seph... can't hold back..." Reno closed his eyes tightly and fought to stay in control.
"Just a minute Cloud, I'll be right there!" Elena called then looked at the troubled Reno. "Rude, come here quick!" The silent man rushed over, "take Reno away from here, we need to keep him far from Cloud." Rude nodded and dragged his partner away, while Elena went to open the door, "hi, Cloud, Denzel, what brings you here?" She noted that Cloud's nose was red and flat. "What happened to your nose?"
"Reno," Cloud growled, "where did he go?"
"He had to... run some errands," Elena made up an excuse.
"In the middle of the night?" Cloud looked suspicious.
"A Turk's job is never done," Elena laughed nervously.
"Never mind, where are Tifa and Marlene?" Cloud went past Elena, towards the sound of laughter that in his worry sounded cruel and evil to him, even if it was happy and cheerful. Denzel quickly followed.
"Coming in like that, how rude," Elena closed the door and followed the two new arrivals. "Everyone is perfectly fine as you can see."
Cloud stared at the scene. Tifa, Marlene and the three silver haired terrors were playing video games. "Tifa!"
"Marlene!" Called Denzel.
The girls looked at them, exchanged glances and finally Tifa asked, "what are you doing here?"
"We were worried!" Cloud rushed to her side, to be blocked by Loz and Kadaj.
"You're not stealing her!" Kadaj warned.
"Yeah, we won't let you and neither will daddy!" Added Loz.
Denzel looked at Marlene and Yazoo blocked his path, "don't think of it."
Kadaj joined him, "Marlene is staying too!"
The silver haired boys looked at each other and nodded, they took deep breaths and called out, "daddy!"
"Stop that, there's no need to yell, what's wrong?" Elena looked at the boys, but found nothing visibly wrong with them; this must all be because they thought Cloud and Denzel would take Tifa and Marlene away.
Rufus woke up and ran towards the game room, soon followed by Tseng who also heard the commotion. "What is it? What's wrong?" Rufus looked at the boys, seeing no injuries, then looked at Elena searching for answers.
"They don't like Cloud very much," Elena correctly concluded.
"Tseng," Rufus spoke.
Tseng nodded, "Cloud, I need to speak to you," the Turk leader spoke with a tone of voice that left no room for argument, thus Cloud silently followed him away.
"Is uncle Tseng scolding Cloud?" Kadaj grinned in satisfaction, as did his brothers.
"Yes, he is," Rufus assured. "You three play nice, alright? Be good and don't cry anymore." The boys nodded and Rufus thought about going back to sleep since it was actually night time now, but he had caught up on sleep during the day and didn't feel tired anymore, that was the end of his precise biological clock. "I should catch up with my Shinra duties. Elena, load the proper files into my computer, review the contracts, detail my schedule, go over the plans, let's get to work." Needles to say, Elena wasn't happy with Rufus' sudden burst of working energy.
xoxox xox xoxox
Just outside Healin Lodge, Tseng and Cloud stood under the clear star filled sky. "Listen, Cloud, I think you need to be nice to the boys, earn their trust, I'm sure Rufus will forgive you then and end the blockade on your delivery service."
"I don't know what evil plans Shinra has, but I won't take any chances. Those boys are too much like the remnants by the same names," Cloud argued.
"They're Rufus' children, interpret that however you want, but they are his sons. Do you like being judged by your past? We Turks are good at doing research; the name of Administrative Research doesn't come in vain," Tseng watched Cloud's expression become invaded by a worry that would grow with every word. "I know about Zack Fair, the man who gave his life for you, do you think people should be judged by past? If you go by your suspicions and judge those boys, not that I'm confirming anything, and also judge Shinra, it's only fair to judge yourself too. What about Aeris? Do you believe your hands are completely clean? Do you think you have the rights to judge others? You can only be forgiven if you forgive."
Cloud was shocked to silence, the full force of his guilt washing over him all over again. His gaze went blank and he stared off into space with unfocused eyes. Everything was white, endless nothingness.
"Be strong," a man's voice.
"And have faith," a woman's voice.
Cloud woke up from his vision, the whiteness changing back into the darkness of the night, illuminated by the light filtering out through Healin Lodge's windows and the shining stars above.
"Cloud?" Tseng wondered if he put a little too much pressure on him, he looked as if he had been spirited away for a second there.
Cloud regained his focus and realized where he was. 'Be strong and have faith', those were the words of Zack and Aeris, their voices unmistakable in Cloud's mind. "Fine, I won't do anything, but they better stay out of trouble."
"Fair enough..." Tseng accepted, that was easier said than done, but as the old saying goes, you're not in trouble unless you get caught, that was another rule of the Turks.
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 42: Chaos
The night passed with relative calmness, though no one went to sleep again until morning, when exhausted, Elena fell asleep on her desk while Rufus had a coffee rush. No one knew what made the president decide that he wanted coffee, but he wanted it and he got it. Now he was wide awake as the sun shone its first few rays of light in a new day.
Tseng was exhausted and wanted to rest, but someone had to guard the president and Rude was still somewhere unknown with Reno. Once again, Tifa and Marlene tried to leave and once again the boys cried, causing the weather to go crazy. "Isn't it strange how the weather changes when they're upset?" Tifa observed.
Cloud's eyes went wide, "it does!"
Tseng knew this was a dangerous path, "I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Anyway, boys, Tifa and Marlene have to go."
"Why?" Kadaj pouted.
"So they can take Cloud and Denzel home," Tseng hoped that the prospect of Cloud leaving was enough to make the boys understand. Though the delivery boy had avoided conflicts by keeping his distance from the girls, while still guarding them, the remnants weren't too fond of him just yet.
"But they came by themselves," Yazoo pointed out.
"So they can go back by themselves," Loz concluded.
Kadaj nodded in agreement, "right."
Tseng tried a different tactic and hoped the girls would cooperate, "if they leave, they'll come visit again, right?" He looked to Tifa and Marlene, who both nodded, but the remnants were not satisfied with that, they saw no need for them to leave. "When they leave, if you've been good, you might get a goodbye kiss."
Cloud opened his mouth to protest, but Tseng silenced him with a deadly glare. "That's right," Tifa agreed, they were just children, there was no need for Cloud to be jealous. Tifa bent over, and kissed them each of them on the forehead. Marlene tried to mimic the action, but couldn't reach so she instead settled for a kiss on the cheek, much to Denzel's annoyance.
Finally accepting that it was worth it to be separated for a little while, only for a little while, if they got kisses, Tifa and Marlene were able to leave without any unusual weather changes to stop them. A very annoyed Cloud and a pouting Denzel went along with them. However, now all three boys were in Kadaj's situation, unable to decide who they liked best, Tifa or Marlene.
xoxox xox xoxox
It hasn't been too long since Tifa, Marlene, Cloud and Denzel had left Healin Lodge when Reno and Rude returned. The red head was running like a mad man, with Rude trying to stop him and somehow unable to do so, being dragged along instead.
"Where is Strife?" Sephiroth was in control again, he glared around, searching for his enemy. "Where is he hiding?"
"He's not here!" Rufus yelled back, his caffeine rush making him a little too brave. "Let Reno go, as the president of Shinra I own the Turks," he grabbed Reno's long red ponytail and pulled it, "they're mine, all of them, understand, Sephiroth? I order you to get out of Reno!"
"You own us, sir?" Tseng looked at him in suspicion and disapproval, "just out of curiosity, how much coffee did you drink?"
"About fifty or so cups, why?" Rufus spoke as if it was a perfectly normal amount.
Angered, Sephiroth searched Reno's pockets for anything he could use as a weapon, he was not carrying his electrorod, but he did find a pocket knife, which he used to cut Rufus' long hair.
Rufus gasped, this was low, even for Sephiroth. "I'm going to kill you!" Rufus knocked Reno to the ground and started punching like crazy.
"That's Reno's body..." Rude pointed out.
"Reno is a Turk, he can take it, we will honor his brave sacrifice," Tseng voiced. "Wait until Sephiroth retreats and then we'll stop the president from killing Reno."
"Pres, stop! Ah! It's me!" Reno tried to block Rufus' angry blows. "Rude, help!"
"Now?" Rude looked at Tseng.
Tseng observed the situation, "he could be faking it..." A few more minutes passed, "or maybe not, let's go!"
The two men finally pulled the furious Rufus off Reno, receiving a few kicks and punches along the way. Reno slowly got up, beaten and pained, then his eyes suddenly glowed and Sephiroth was in control again. "You'll pay for this!" Using Reno's electrical abilities, he shot lightning towards the two Turks and Rufus, causing the three to hastily dodge in different directions.
"My hair, my poor hair..."Rufus cried, he wasn't bald, it could be fixed, he had enough hair for his old haircut, but it was not so long that it made everyone stare in admiration, nevertheless at least it was still amazingly shiny.
"We need to protect the hair," in the chaos, Tseng didn't know what to expect from Rufus, he might be angered if his hair, albeit it was no longer attached to his head, was damaged. Tseng and Rude shielded the hair which lay on the floor, while Sephiroth, shot lightning at Rufus, who ran away screaming, his sudden rush of angry courage fading.
In the mist of the chaos, three silver haired boys stood looking frightened. Their shock finally gave way to tears and they wailed like never before. There was a massive earthquake which made everyone fall down and pieces of the building fall apart. The rain and hail poured so harshly, that anyone caught outside would have been hurt. Thunder echoed deafeningly loud and lightning crashed, making a hole in the ceiling of the battered building. Seeing that the situation was too chaotic and that the planet might be destroyed before he had a chance to use it as a vessel, Sephiroth retreated and Reno fainted from the strain.
"What's going on?" Elena had been woken up by the colossal disarray. Reno was beaten and unconscious, Rufus was also bruised, his long hair unevenly cut short. Tseng and Rude, the first with a black eye and the second with broken sunglasses and a ripped suit, were standing around what was left of Rufus' long hair, and the world was in absolute chaos.
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 43: Disaster Zone
"Stop!" Elena yelled so loud that her voiced echoed all around and the world seemed to freeze. Then she realized that, though the world wasn't frozen, the room was. She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself, then walked over to Rude, he had the fire materia, "would you melt the ice please?" The question came out innocently, as if it wasn't Elena's fault at all that the room was frozen.
Rude first broke out of the ice, then freed Tseng and finally Rufus. He then looked unsure at Reno and the remnants, but before the next action cold be decided, Reno used his electrical power to generate enough heat to break free of the ice and the remnants somehow broke free as well, shivering in the cold.
"Cold!" The three wailed.
Elena thought fast, and quickly made up an excuse, "the cold isn't bad; it means you can cuddle with a nice warm blanket surrounded by soft stuffed animals without being too hot because of it!"
The remnants stopped their crying, it looked like the battle between their dad and uncle Reno... no, wait, that was big brother Sephiroth... Either way, it looked like their fight had ended so there was no real reason to cry if the cold would soon be solved.
While the remnants cuddled their multitude of stuffed animals, which had been piled up on a single bed were all three sat, sharing a blanked, Rufus glared defiantly at Reno who faded between being himself and being Sephiroth.
"That really hurt, pres!" Reno complained when Sephiroth finally let him stay in control.
"It was your fault! I'm going to get my hair fixed, all of you stay here, I'll go alone!" Rufus opened the door, but as he pushed it, it fell off its hinges. "This place isn't livable anymore!" Pieces of the Healin Lodge had come apart, the ceiling had holes, as did the walls and there was too much dust, which had accumulated on the multitude of stuffed animals the remnants had collected over the past few days and was making them sneeze and cough. Yet the boys either didn't make the connection or simply didn't care and kept on cuddling their soft dust covered toys. Rufus watched the scene with a sudden hint of concern, "boys, are you warm enough to come out from under that blanket?"
The boys nodded, and rushed to their father, sneezing and coughing along with him and the Turks as more dust took to the air with each step. "Playing with such dirty toys is bad for you, those need to be washed, the Turks will take care of it. I'll go get my hair done and then we'll go to the beach."
"Yay!" The remnants cheered.
"The beach?" Tseng questioned, this didn't feel like the time to be going on a trip to the beach.
"Yes, I can't stay in Healin Lodge until it's fully repaired. Edge must be in pretty bad shape too. I'm calling my new stylist to meet me in Junon," Rufus had fired the old one due to failing to save his hair before. "Then we'll take a ship to Costa del Sol. You will all stay here and keep him," Rufus pointed at Reno, "away from Costal del Sol. Also, collect all the relevant documents, electronics containing data and such important things from this place, clean them and store them at Junon, clean the boys' toys as well and put them in storage."
"Wait, president, you're going by yourself?" Tseng was disbelief.
"It will take all of you to accomplish the mission I gave you," Rufus glared at Reno.
"It's me, yo!" Reno defended.
"We don't know for how long you will be yourself and I'm not taking any chances. See if you can research ways to exorcise Sephiroth out of Reno. I'll be connecting to the Shinra mainframe from Costa del Sol, go to headquarters and see to it that it's up and running immediately," with his mind made up, Rufus left Healin Lodge along with the remnants.
xoxox xox xoxox
The road was a muddy mess and the areas that had asphalt were cracked and uneven. The cars couldn't navigate the disaster zone terrain to leave the area and the helicopters had fallen over or been stuck by lightning. Thus Rufus and the boys ended up going to the Chocobo Ranch on foot, with Rufus telling stories about how he bravely faced danger back when Meteor was coming. It was his own version of what happened to keep the boys entertained, so they wouldn't start complaining about the long walk.
After arriving at the Chocobo Ranch, they found that the main stable had fallen apart along with he smaller structures around it. Though the ranch was further from the epicenter of the disaster, it wasn't as strongly built as Healin Lodge and even it had suffered considerable damage. At least the chocobos had been smart enough to sense the danger and stampede out, with chocobo Billy and the other workers frantically following after them, to stop the giant birds from escaping. It was that which saved them from the danger of becoming trapped in the buildings when they came down.
Lucky for Rufus, the ranch workers were not sophisticated enough to comment about anything being odd concerning his uneven haircut. Perhaps it was even more fortunate for them, because Rufus Shinra was not in the mood to hear any criticism.
While the boys waited for their father to choose the chocobos that would carry them, a thought occurred to Kadaj as he observed the leftover ruins of the ranch. It wasn't just the area immediate to Healin Lodge that was damaged and he had heard Edge being mentioned. "Tifa, Marlene..."
The other two boys caught on quickly and looked worried, "do you think they're okay?" Yazoo inquired.
"I hope they're not hurt," Loz looked like he would cry.
As if alerted by an odd instinct or an extra sense, Rufus rushed to their side, "what's wrong? Why do you look sad?"
"Tifa and Marlene!" The three replied in a distressed chorus.
"I'm sure they're fine," Rufus called Tifa's PHS, because everyone had everyone's number in Edge. "Tifa? Yes, I did notice the crazy weather and the earthquake. Cloud blames me? On what basis? He can go help the Turks clean up Healin Lodge and Shinra Headquarters if he doesn't believe it affected me too. Anyway, the boys were worried about you and Marlene, could you tell them you're both safe?"
The PHS was handed over to the remnants, who began to fight for it. Before they broke it, Rufus snatched it back and set it to speaker, holding on to it as the boys listened to Tifa and Marlene assure them they were safe and send them their well wishes. Once that was done, the remnants looked calmer and were ready to once again focus on the excitement of riding chocobos.
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 44: Costa del Sol
Things finally seemed to be calm after the massive chaos that had invaded Healin Lodge. Rufus and the remnants were heading towards Junon riding chocobos and from there, they would go to Costa del Sol. As it usually happened when Rufus finally thought he could breathe at ease, he was proven wrong as a loud roar was heard and a gigantic serpent blocked the way.
For a split second, Rufus feared for his life and surprised himself in realizing he feared even more for the remnants' lives, before concluding that there was nothing to be afraid of. "Rest in peace Zolom..."
Rufus grinned victoriously as the three boys cried in fear, causing a lightning bolt to crash on Zolom, knocking it out, maybe alive, maybe not. Rain followed, along with wind and a chorus of "daddy!"
"It's okay, calm down, everything is fine," Rufus directed his words at the three boys and the chocobos as well.
The boys calmed down, their father was with them so they should be safe. The storm died down and the boys once again became amused by the chocobos, though Rufus was certainly not amused about the state of his suit.
xoxox xox xoxox
"Sir?" The cadet stared at Rufus with disapproval, "you're... you're..."
His partner decided it was time to save their jobs and the wiser cadet quickly interrupted, "you're looking absolutely radiant, president Shinra, sir."
Rufus twitched at the obvious hypocrisy, he knew he was a mess, mud had been splattered all over his white suit during the Zolom incident. Not only that, but the cadet had the audacity to call him president Shinra, which he was, but it sounded too much like what they used to call his father.
"Ready a ship, I'll be departing for Costa del Sol immediately," Rufus commanded, ignoring the curious glances the cadets were giving the three silver haired boys.
When the ship was ready, Rufus and the boys boarded it and they sailed off. Everything was peaceful until the boys started crying for no apparent reason. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"We miss the chocobos!" The remnants cried, causing a violent sea storm to form.
"The chocobos had to stay because they'll get sea sick on the ship," it was mostly because Rufus didn't want to deal with the extra trouble of bringing them along, but this sounded like a better excuse. "Don't worry, you'll get to play with them again and Costa del Sol will be fun, we're going to the beach and you can make sand castles!"
The three remnants stopped crying, smiling at the idea of playing at the beach. Those boys were certainly moody, but Rufus felt like he was finally learning to prevent major disasters. Fortunately, the boys didn't get sea sick, which would have probably upset them enough to sink the ship.
xoxox xox xoxox
The sandy shores of Costa del Sol came into view in the horizon, the beachside city untouched by natural disasters as of yet. Rufus rushed right over to his new villa, changing out of his dirty suit and deciding he might as well blend in with the tourists and fulfill his promise to take the remnants to the beach.
After a quick trip to a store to get some proper beach attire, the group headed out to the beach, finding a vacant spot and setting up some beach towels and a large umbrella there. "Where do you think you're going?" Rufus firmly inquired when he noticed the boys had begun to walk away.
"To play in the sand," Kadaj happily replied, with nods of agreement from his brothers.
"Not without sun-block," Rufus got a large bottle from his beach supplies, "put out your hands." The remnants curiously obeyed and Rufus poured a generous amount of sun-block for each of them.
"Is this frosting?" Yazoo asked.
"No, this is not something you can eat, you have to put it all over your body," Rufus demonstrated by applying some sun-block on himself.
The boys didn't look happy and Loz expressed their mutual complaints, "it's sticky!"
"It will protect you from the sun," Rufus knew that sunburned remnants would be the apocalypse with constant pain, which meant constant crying. "It's very important to be protected from the sun or you'll get burned and it will be very painful." Rufus knew about this first hand, his skin was very sensitive and he needed to apply layer after layer of strong sun-block if he was to survive a day at the beach. The boys might have inherited his sensitive skin... then he paused and wondered where that thought came from. It's not like they were his biological children, they weren't even normal kids. Even so, Rufus wasn't going to take his chances with the apocalypse. "If you don't put on lots of sun-block you can't play at the beach. It's really not so bad, I'm wearing it too."
The boys nodded and applied sun-block, with Rufus making sure they didn't miss a spot. With that done, the remnants started building a sand castle and Rufus sat under the large umbrella resting, he was so relaxed he dozed off.
When Rufus woke up a couple of hours later, thanks to the complaints of hunger from the remnants, he tried to get up and found he couldn't. He became fully awake and realized he was buried in the sand. "We can go get some food, but you'll have to dig me out."
The boys were quick to free Rufus, discussing what they wanted to eat. Feeling terribly uncomfortable because of the sand sticking to his body, Rufus took the remnants to get some food.
Fortunately the meal went by uneventfully and it was back to the beach afterwards, following a quick trip to the new villa so Rufus could get rid of the sand sticking to him with a quick shower and change.
The boys went to play on the shallow waters of the coast, with Rufus watching from under the large umbrella, he decided it was best not to fall asleep again.
"Rufus Shinra?"
Rufus nearly jumped at the voice, he thought he was mingling with the peasants, that is tourists, well enough not to be recognized. "You're mistaken," he told the unknown woman.
"You sure do look a lot like him, maybe even more handsome," she winked.
Noting the presence of an unidentified female near Rufus, the three silver haired boys rushed to his side filled with curiosity, "who's this lady, daddy?" Kadaj inquired.
The woman raised an eyebrow, "daddy?"
"They're my sons," this was Rufus' perfect chance to remain hidden by convincing her he wasn't Rufus. No one knew the new villa belonged to him, since it hasn't really been used since its recent construction, Rufus simply didn't have time, thus seeing him go in and out of the villa shouldn't automatically give away his identity.
Furthermore, no one on this continent should know about the remnants yet, thus being accompanied by the children should make people think that he wasn't Rufus. His hair had been fixed, with a few finishing touches while on the ship, it was short now, but a little longer than it used to be and a lot shinier, he might be easier to recognize without the super long hair, but people had assumed he was only a Rufus look alike so far.
"Oh, I see..." the woman was obviously disappointed, though she seemed to hold on to a suspicious ray of hope. "Is your wife with you?"
Catching where this was going, and taking note of the still curious looks of the remnants, Rufus decided to do what he must to drive the insistent woman away without drawing unwanted attention, "yes, she's with us."
Frowning in disappointment, the woman walked away without another word.
After she was gone, the boys' question began, starting with Kadaj, "who was she?"
"How come she went away without saying anything to us?" Asked Yazoo.
"Why did she look angry?" Inquired Loz.
"Is mommy really here?" Kadaj continued.
"How come we haven't seen her?" Added Yazoo.
"Where is she?" Questioned Loz.
Caught in a lie, Rufus decided to give the remnants a silly cheesy answer, "she's in our hearts." Surprisingly, that was enough to satisfy the boys, who returned to their previous activity of playing.
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 45: Haunted Materia
Everything was at relative peace in Costa del Sol and Rufus was starting to truly relax until Reno arrived, barging into the new villa like it's nobody's business, holding what was left of the Jenova flower, which had since turned into a very odd materia. It was black most of the time, though from certain angles and when the light bounced off it, it could appear to be a variety of colors in metallic shades, blue, red, gold, silver and others. "Her interference was worse than I thought..." Reno eyes glowed with mako.
The more or less happy little Shinra family had been having breakfast at the time, which was thankfully purchased and not made by the remnants or Rufus, whose skills in the kitchen were non-existent. "Sephiroth!" Rufus practically jumped out of his chair and sprinted towards the kitchen doorway, standing between the possessed Reno and the remnants. Then he realized the danger of his action and his rush of courage and protective instinct began to fade.
Luckily, Reno's consciousness took over at that very moment and the glow in his eyes faded away. "Taichou? When did you get back? I thought you were in Costa del Sol."
Rufus let out a breath of relief, then glared and scolded, "this is Costa del Sol! Sephiroth must have brought you here, and what is that you're holding?"
"I think it's Jenova, the thing that used to be the flower," Reno theorized. "I haven't had too much trouble with Sephiroth lately; I think he's getting weaker."
"If that's true then why did he possess you long enough to bring you here?" Rufus dramatized, just when he was starting to like his little vacation, albeit he would never truly admit it, it had to be cut short.
"Um... well..." Reno didn't really know how to answer that one, Rufus had a point there. Maybe he was just getting used to being possessed and it didn't bother him as much.
"Give me that," Rufus took away the unusual materia. "I'll be keeping this safe, you need to return to Edge and have the other Turks lock you up."
"But I don't want to!" Reno immediately protested.
"It's for your own good!" Rufus insisted.
Reno pouted and stomped away, off to the beach. Rufus knew the redhead wouldn't head to Edge, he would probably hang around at the beach grumpy about the recent turn of his current Sephiroth possession situation, then get distracted by something or other and end up acting as if he was on vacation; Reno was predictable sometimes and sometimes he was totally random.
Rufus let Reno go, he would call Tseng and inform him of the situation, then the Turks could come take Reno away. When Rufus opened his PHS, the automatic tracking system showed that Tseng's PHS was moving towards Costa del Sol at a steady pace, he must already know about Reno. Good, then Rufus didn't even have to call. He closed the PHS and looked at the three silver haired boys who were observing him with curiosity, "Go on, finish your breakfast and we can go play at the beach again." The remnants happily complied.
"I'm here!" The sudden announcement made Rufus look towards the not so sneaky materia thief ninja, who was too excited to hide her presence. Yuffie unexpectedly arrived and stared at the materia that was on the table next Rufus' stack of pancakes. "It's beautiful, just like I heard!"
"What are you doing here and don't you know how to knock on the door?" Rufus scolded her.
"There was no door," Yuffie revealed, "well, actually, yeah there was, but it was on the floor so I just walked over it."
"Sephiroth," Rufus grumbled, he should have known something like that must have happened for Reno to go in, possessed by Sephiroth. He could further worry about the possible chaos he could be causing at the beach, but Rufus was done stressing out, he was tired of worrying, though if the situation got worse, he might find he still had room to become more stressed, he hoped it didn't come to that.
"What are you muttering about? Never mind, it doesn't matter. I'm here because Cloud told me Reno was running around all over Edge arguing with himself as if he was possessed by an evil ghost, but the part that was really interesting was that he was holding a strange materia. Imagine that, a haunted materia! I'm the greatest ninja materia hunter in the world, if anyone is going to be possessed by a materia ghost it has to be me, so hand it over!" Yuffie readied her shuriken.
Rufus shook his head in disapproval, "only you would want to be possessed."
"Not by any old ghost, by a materia ghost only!" Yuffie couldn't deny that she did have a bit of an obsession with materia. She was sure she was the biggest materia fan there was and felt it was unfair that Reno was chosen by the materia ghost.
"Either way it doesn't matter," Rufus held the Jenova materia protectively, "I'm not giving up."
"You asked for it, hunted materia is the stuff of legends, I'll fight to the end for it; that is your end!" Yuffie declared.
The three boys had by then made their own interpretation of the situation and began to cry, "don't kidnap mommy!"
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 46: Escape
Rufus looked towards the open window at the panicked locals outside and several clueless tourists, the sea had retreated. "A tsunami's coming, to the basement!" Rufus grabbed the three boys and ran.
"Come back here, I'm not falling for that!" Out of curiosity, Yuffie glanced outside and saw the wall of water approaching. "Wait for me!" She dashed to the basement just in time before Rufus activated the security system to seal it against flooding. "Oh man, we're so trapped, I feel claustrophobic already!"
"No one invited you, thief!" Rufus snapped.
"Were you just going to let me drown? I thought Shinra was reformed!" Yuffie argued.
"Aren't you the proud Wutaian," Rufus retorted.
Yuffie's anger flared, "that was low! You know what? I don't need your help, I'm out of here!"
"How? The surface is flooded," Rufus reminded.
"That just means you're trapped too!" Yuffie pointed out.
The boys looked worried, "are we really trapped?" Kadaj asked.
"Are we going to stay here for the rest of our lives?" Yazoo inquired.
"I don't want to stay here forever, do we have to?" Added Loz, and the silver haired trio cried again, causing the earth to shake.
"It's okay, don't worry!" Rufus tried to calm them.
Unfortunately, Yuffie wasn't helping. "We're going to die! First a tsunami, now an earthquake, the planet is falling apart and it's all your fault!"
"Shut up, if not for Shinra, materia wouldn't exist!" Rufus yelled.
Yuffie gasped as the truth she had been avoiding was thrown in her face. The company against which she had such a strong grudge was the creator of her favorite thing in the world. She went into a corner, sat hugging her legs and sobbed.
"It's okay, don't believe what that mean girl says, we're perfectly fine. In fact, we get to ride on a submarine!" Rufus made the announcement sound as cheerful as he could.
"Submarine? Yuffie looked up from her corner, grimacing while the boys cheered, "I'll get sea sick!"
"No one invited you!" Rufus certainly didn't want to be trapped underwater with Yuffie.
"Too bad because I'm not staying here," Yuffie followed the group, receiving uneasy glares from the boys.
Rufus knew that if they got upset because of Yuffie trying to kidnap Jenova, that is steal the materia, they would all be doomed. If only he could ditch her without causing a commotion.
"Taichou!" Reno cheerfully greeted, interrupting Rufus' thoughts. "One minute I was surfing and the next the ocean was gone! Sephiroth took over and ran off, he even left my new surf board behind and I really like it too. By the time I took control again I was sealed in the secret tunnels so I was on my way to go out again from the villa," he looked at Yuffie, "why is she here?"
"To cause trouble," Rufus replied.
Yuffie rushed towards Reno and looked at him curiously, "ghost? Are you still in there ghost? The materia has been quiet so I thought maybe you stayed with Reno. Come out and posses me, I would make a much better host!" Yuffie held up the Jenova materia and tapped it with her index finger, that's when Rufus realized he no longer had the Jenova materia, Yuffie probably snatched it during the rush to get to the basement.
"Give that back, or the world will end!" Rufus dramatized and he didn't think he was exaggerating.
"Drama king," Yuffie mocked, "this materia is mine now!"
Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz began to cry and there was another earthquake. "To the submarine!" Rufus hurried in with the boys, followed by Reno and an upset and unwelcome Yuffie. Rufus rushed to get the submarine through the tunnels and out to sea to get away from the collapse. Fortunately, they made it out to the ocean before the secret tunnels fell apart; unfortunately, they were carried up by a giant tornado of water. "Calm down, everyone stay calm!"
"Easy for you to say, I'm going to be sick!" Yuffie agonized as she was thrown to the back of the submarine and Reno managed to close the door leading to the cockpit, locking her in the back room.
"I got her back!" Rufus held up the materia Yuffie had dropped in the commotion and the boys started to calm down. The submarine was thrown back into the sea as the water tornadoes ended and they sailed off to shore.
xoxox xox xoxox
With Yuffie locked up in the submarine, which was abandoned at the beach, Rufus, Reno and the remnants were picked up by a helicopter brought by the other Turks, Tseng, Elena and Rude were all there, along Rufus, Reno and the remnants.
"Good timing," Rufus collapsed into a seat and watched from the corner of his eyes as the remnants looked out the window in amusement.
"We have news," Tseng cut to the chase, "though they have not made the connection between the boys and the recent natural disasters, the unusual behavior of nature and its effects on Edge have caught the attention of the former members of Avalanche and the World Restoration Organization. Even if several of them are opposed to our presence there, mostly Cloud and Barret, on behalf of Avalanche and the WRO respectively, Tifa and Reeve have invited us to a meeting at Cid's house to discuss the recent happenings and try to figure out what troubles the planet. If we are to attend, we need to head to Rocket Town immediately."
"We can't stay uninvolved and I want answers too," Rufus decided. Things had gotten much too far out of control and this had to stop, "we're going."
"Where are we going?" Kadaj inquired, his curiosity also shared by his brothers.
"We're going to visit some friends," Rufus smiled reassuringly even if he was sure the reunion wouldn't be all that friendly.
xoxox xox xoxox
Incident 47: Reunion
The atmosphere at Cid's crowded little house was tense and Shera's efforts to calm it with tea weren't working. It was like a time bomb waiting to blow up with the former Avalanche members, Shinra and the WRO there at the same time. There were random streams of conversation flowing here and there, theories and anecdotes concerning the strange weather, with the only quiet one being Rude, but that came as no surprise.
"Yuffie says she'll be late," Cloud announced after listening to the message left by the ninja, he still never answered his PHS. "She said she was trapped in a submarine and it took her a while to break out," Cloud eyed Rufus, "she blames you."
"There you have it!" Barret took the opportunity to verbally attack Shinra, since Tifa had forbade him from physically attacking. "Shinra hasn't reformed at all!"
"She should be thanking me," Rufus defended, "I did save her from the tsunami at Costa del Sol."
"How do we know you didn't cause that tsunami?" Barret argued.
"How would I cause a tsunami?" Rufus played innocent, though it really wasn't his fault.
"I don't know, why don't you tell us what you did? Maybe you drained the life out of the planet!" Barret accused.
Tifa decided it was time to interfere. "That's enough, we're not here to argue; we're here to form a plan." She was currently sitting on the couch, with Loz to her left and Kadaj to her right, followed by Marlene and Yazoo. Kadaj threw the biggest tantrum, suspiciously accompanied by a storm, and won the right to sit in the middle, though thankfully Tifa and Marlene were able to calm Loz and Yazoo. The unhappy Cloud and Denzel stood to the side, glaring.
"It better be a #$%& good plan because it looks like the weird weather has even reached Rocket Town," Cid urged, "if this keeps up, the skies will be too unfriendly to fly and I can't allow that."
"Edge has been left in ruins after it was finally restored, the cause of the strange weather must be found!" Reeve agreed.
"Maybe it's another secret of Shinra," Barret glared bitterly at Rufus.
"This is not my doing," Rufus insisted, it was true, he wasn't causing the strange weather, the remnants did.
"Let's stay focused," Tifa stopped another growing argument.
"If we could only communicate with the planet somehow," Nanaki left it at that, he knew there was no way to do it.
Yet Cloud's eyes widened with the realization that there might be a way. "We can do that!"
All eyes were on Cloud and Tseng asked the question on everyone's mind, "how?"
"By asking Aeris..." Cloud paused, wandering if people would think of him as crazy and it seemed that they were giving him those kinds of looks. "Aeris and Zack sometimes talk to me. Really, they do, I'm not crazy!"
"The last thing you do when you don't want people to think you're crazy is tell them you're not crazy," Elena pointed out.
"I'm still not crazy," Cloud pouted.
"Let us give him a chance," Vincent suggested and the group waited in silence.
"Is it working?" Reno broke the silence and curiously poked Cloud repeatedly. "Is it? Is it? Is it?" The presence of the apparently possessed Turk made Cloud uneasy, Reno was bad enough without being possessed.
"Stop that!" Cloud slapped Reno's hand away, "it's not that simple, this isn't as easy as calling someone on the PHS." Plus some would say Cloud hasn't even mastered that much.
"Maybe we can try this from someplace else?" Nanaki suggested.
"A place with a better spiritual signal?" Vincent mused.
The church in old Midgar, the Northern Crater, Mideel's life stream hole, Shinra Mansion and several others were suggested as places to try to communicate with the great beyond, but in the end everyone agreed to go to the Forgotten Capital.
xoxox xox xoxox
By the time Yuffie arrived at Rocket Town and ran to Cid's house, she found it empty and another PHS call revealed they had left without her. She debated if she should try to catch up or be thankful she didn't have to ride on the airship.
xoxox xox xoxox
The airship landed near the Forgotten Capital and the group got off, though it was decided that the children, Marlene, Denzel and the three remnants, would stay behind on the ship, it looked like the remnants would cry because they didn't get to go. Before more strange weather came, Rufus talked everyone into letting the kids tag along, it's not like they were planning to have a battle, this was just a mission to investigate. Plus the boys really wanted to ride on Nanaki.
The large group made it to Aeris' final resting place and on the same location where Sephiroth had ended her life, now was Cloud, taking a similar position to Aeris' on that day, and closing his eyes in concentration.
"You came to visit, thanks," Aeris' voice rung out clearly in Cloud's mind. "The time is near, I gave them what they needed to find an anchor in this world, but my influence is fading; now it's up to them."
Cloud was once again in an endless whiteness, he knew Aeris stood behind him, but dared not turn around and risk her fading away. He also felt the presence of two others; all four of them back to back in a little circle. "What do you mean?"
"It's time for the boys to stop clinging to their brother," this time it was Zack's voice that Cloud heard.
"I don't understand," Cloud insisted.
"Don't worry, you worry too much," Aeris laughed, "even if the calamity is released and the nightmare takes control, if those three prove to be more than living thoughts, they'll be saved by the memories of people's hearts."
"What?" Cloud was as confused as ever.
Zack explained, "the three boys that Aeris and I adopted are ready to go out into the world, they're ready to become separate beings, if those around them wish it."
The communication was suddenly broken, the endless whiteness replaced with reality. "Reno, no!" Tseng and Rude were holding Reno back, he had gotten close enough to Cloud to pick up his buster sword while the blond was in a trance.
Cloud looked up, remembering the time when he stood where Reno was now and there was no doubt in his mind that Reno was indeed being controlled by Sephiroth. He almost expected the real Sephiroth to jump down and attack him like he did Aeris, but that didn't happen, because Sephiroth was now right in front of him, that wasn't Reno anymore, Sephiroth had recovered his power.
Rufus woke up from the trance at the same time Cloud did. He had been there, in that endless whiteness with three others, Cloud and two more, Aeris and Zack probably. What didn't make a lot of sense to Cloud made perfect sense to Rufus and all the pieces fell into place.
Sephiroth was coming back, but Aeris turned his plans against him by interfering to turn the Jenova materia into a flower. Aeris mentioned something about giving the boys an anchor in that world, that must have been Rufus himself. The Jenova flower was going back to normal slowly, turning back into materia, but Sephiroth couldn't truly return until Aeris' influence was completely cleaned out of that materia and it finally happened, it was only a matter of time.
Sephiroth threw Tseng and Rude away and swung the buster sword at Cloud, who jumped back into the water, but instead of sinking, he found himself standing on a block of ice, courtesy of Elena. Cloud glared up at Sephiroth, "let Reno go and go back where you belong!" He didn't want anymore sacrifices, not even a very annoying Turk.
"It is you who doesn't belong here!" Sephiroth jumped after Cloud, levitating above the water. Barret and Vincent shot at him to no avail; the bullets appeared to collide with an invisible force field around Sephiroth, who chased after the unarmed Cloud, who could only dodge.
"You'll never win, you're just a memory, you're dead, you shouldn't be here!" Cloud yelled in frustration, it seemed like his memories would always come back to haunt him no matter how hard he tried to move on. Tifa, Nanaki and Cait Sith came at Sephiroth from different sides, but were thrown away with an immense force that sent them to crash on the ground. "Tifa!" Cloud rushed to her side being reminded of the incident in the reactor at Nibelheim. He glared at Sephiroth and attacked, but was easily blocked.
"This is looking pretty bad, Shera take the kids and get out of here!" Cid urged.
"Yes, be careful!" Shera tried to lead all five children away, Marlene, Denzel, Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz, but the last three wouldn't move. "We have to go," they wouldn't listen, they just watched.
Vincent and Barret continued trying to shoot at Sephiroth, while Elena tried to freeze him, but all three were pushed away with tremendous gravity and sent to crash as well. Cid jumped on Sephiroth, trying to sneak up on him, but once again it didn't work and he soon joined the others knocked out on the ground.
The Tiny Bronco II, Cid's new airplane was seen in the horizon and it was perhaps best that Cid wasn't awake to watch it crash with a very sick Yuffie stumbling out of the wreckage, miraculously alive. "My materia, where is my haunted materia?" She became alert for a split second when she spotted Sephiroth, "what's he doing back?" then the delayed effects of the crash finally caught up to her and she passed out.
"The situation seems hopeless; we'd best pick up our fallen allies and retreat!" Reeve concluded.
Rufus didn't take his eyes off the battle of Sephiroth and Cloud, with the first clearly having the advantage. "I don't think Sephiroth is going to let us go." He looked at the frightened remnants, who Shera was trying to take back to the airship, but the three were unmovable. "Isn't there a way to stop him?"
Shera, Reeve, Marlene and Denzel were surprised at the question Rufus directed at the three silver haired boys, how could his young sons know how to stop Sephiroth? Unless the true extent of their abilities was something Rufus kept in secret. The three boys wanted to cry, but they were trying to be brave, yet they didn't know how to answer.
The remnants stayed quiet for a long moment until Rufus shook his head hopelessly. "We'll have to try to retreat, I doubt Sephiroth will let us take everyone out of here, but there's no choice. Maybe Cloud can distract him long enough." It looked doubtful as Cloud was currently struggling to keep his own sword from decapitating him at the hands of Sephiroth, holding the blunt part from both sides as Sephiroth pushed it towards him.
"Be brave..." A voice echoed in the breeze, everyone heard it, even in their subconscious, and light rain began to fall. It was different from the harsh weather that came when the remnants cried, this was a gentle rain of healing, bringing everyone back to their senses slowly.
"Hold on to your dreams..." another voice encouraged and the three remnants looked determined as they ran towards Sephiroth.
"Stop, come back here!" Rufus tried to stop them, worried for their safety, but it was too late. The remnants ran into Sephiroth, fading into him as if they were absorbed.
"It's about time you little traitors came back," Sephiroth felt a surge of power, he was stronger than ever, but something was out of place, the power started to overwhelm him.
Though the remnants themselves were not fully aware of it, and Sephiroth had thought they were to be his little minions, the planet had given the boys a mission to stop Sephiroth. The legendary warrior was surrounded by light, shining so brightly that the exhausted Cloud had to look away. The gentle rain stopped, but the skies turned darker and in an explosion of light, Sephiroth disappeared, to exist only in memories once again and the dark clouds faded, with the sun shining once more.
Reno was left behind in Sephiroth's place; he slowly woke up to find everyone curiously looking at him. "He's gone now," Reno assured, because he knew it, he felt it, Sephiroth was no longer there, it was something they all knew somehow.
"What about the haunted materia?" Yuffie suddenly asked.
"I don't think it's coming back," Reno replied, much to Yuffie's agony.
"My materia!" The ninja cried.
"My Tiny Bronco II!" Cid joined her in agony, "you'll have a lot more to worry about than materia you little thief!"
xoxox xox xoxox
The group, minus the remnants, had returned to the airship where they managed to get the full story out of Rufus. "To think you hid that all this time," Barret sounded accusing.
"If I haven't, no one would have been able to stop Sephiroth," Rufus defended.
"I know it's not like me, but I'll have to agree with Rufus this one time," Cloud spoke to everyone's surprise, "I didn't like those boys either at first, but at that moment, in the end, I knew they were allies of the planet, sent by the planet itself and by Aeris and Zack, who took care of them in the life stream and helped them change for the better. They stopped Sephiroth, they chouse to stand by this world and the people."
The airship was filled with murmurs of agreement, followed by a long solemn silence. The three silver haired little boys who saved the world were gone.
xoxox xox xoxox
One week passed and the world continued taking steady steps towards recovering. Rufus and the Turks were back in Edge and the city was being repaired. It was a quiet morning in the new Healin Lodge and Rufus found himself missing the three little terrors that made his life so interesting. Suddenly he heard some cries, followed by Elena's voice trying to soothe them, "don't cry, the pancakes will be done soon, but you have to wait for them to be cooked."
"Here's some juice while you wait," Tseng offered.
Though there had been cries, there was no storm outside, no thunder, no lightning, no rain, no hail, no wind, no earthquakes. Rufus curiously made his way to the kitchen to find three familiar silver haired boys who rushed to hug him, "daddy!"
"You're back!" Rufus was glad to have them back, even more so because it looked like the weather problems were over.
"They just showed up this morning saying they were hungry and wanted breakfast," Reno explained while Rude stood as quiet as ever, watching the scene.
Rufus smiled, "welcome home..."
End of Memory VI
Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. In Incident 42 the idea of the Turks protecting Rufus' hair while Rufus is in trouble is from demonlifehealer. Thanks to ViviMouse for the idea of including the Zolom in Incident 44.