Three out of the four voices in my head say "Go For It!"
History Inverted
A Final Fantasy VII Fanfiction
Author: Sanjuno Shori Niko
Summary: Let's play a game! It's called "where are Hojo's super-secret-hidden-labs?" Can you guess before the bomb timer reaches zero?
Timeline: There is more to this story here.
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(In which Cloud makes with the escaping.)
Cloud woke up beset by a curious tingling feeling - it was like when he used materia without equipping it properly first - his skin felt electrified and too tight on his body. Glowing blue eyes opened on a world coloured in shades of green. Cloud blinked, recognizing his surroundings in the half-remembered way of nightmares. He was contained in a mako cage, in a lab, and yet - and yet. He could feel the press of the Lifestream carried through the mako, could hear the whispering memories of those who had touched this mako - the pain of the ‘subjects’, the twisted curiosity of the so-called scientists - but unlike the last time Cloud had been confined in a mako tube the voices did not pull at him. He could hear them, could touch them, but they could not hold him, and there was a barrier between their memory and his. Interesting.
Cloud thought back, experimentally riffling through his memories in search of the now-familiar feeling of gaps and blank spots badly patched over with fever dreams and stolen other-memories. The blond was oddly pleased to remember the gift his mother had given him for his ninth birthday. Aeris’ trick had healed something - or maybe it was more accurate to say that something had been returned - the memories Cloud had long thought stolen by the Lifestream slotted back into their correct places. He could remember his mother, and how much she had loved him. He could remember Tifa, her kindness and her selfishness and her childishness while they grew up in the same town. He could remember Zack, not just desperate and determined as he had been during their escape, but alive and laughing and real.
It was so much more than he ever could have asked for. The strange doubling of his memories was something he could have done without however - Cloud grimaced, recalling the stomach-churning ride between worlds holding place in parallel with the memory of running afoul of Hojo’s temper after the debacle of Modeoheim. Two different paths, both equally responsible for his current predicament, and both equally real… Cloud could not decide if he wanted to laugh or scream. At this rate, he was never going to get his head screwed on straight.
Refocusing on the situation, Cloud looked around as much as he was able with mako and thick curved glass distorting his view. He was naked - an awkward, but not insurmountable issue. As things stood, Zack was still free, Sephiroth was still sane, and the situation was chaotic enough that Hojo had put off the Nibelheim mission. Cloud hummed a little victory tune - Genesis and Hollander and Deepground and Fuhito and Avalanche version one - they would all have to be dealt with, and the Soldiers destroyed by each rescued, but it was possible, and all they needed was a chance. Cloud smiled grimly at his dim reflection in the glass. ‘It’s not a perfect world, no - but it’s a world that can still be saved, and that’s more than I ever thought to ask for. Thank you Aeris. I promise to keep this you alive, and you’ll get to stay with Zack, too. You’re going to be happy, and I don’t care who I have to kill to make that happen.’
Movement! Cloud’s eyes tracked the opening of the door as a single lab technician shuffled into the room, motion activated lights flickering into dim life. The man ignored Cloud in favour of the control system attached to an adjacent mako tube. Cloud’s lips curled in a silent snarl. The other cage was filled with mako… and Denzel. Dark blue eyes were wide with fear, oddly clear despite the distance.
Cloud saw red.
His closed fist slammed into the tempered glass that made up the front of his cage. The lab tech jumped as the sound echoed through the otherwise empty lab. Shivering the man froze, obviously trying to calm his nerves. Another crack and the man spun around to face Cloud’s tube, face pale with fright as he clutched his clipboard in a white-knuckled grip, mouth open in horrified denial. Cloud drew back his arm for a third strike when the thought occurred to him. ‘Sephiroth did it.’
Cloud called firmly and swung. First Tsurugi heeded its master and sheared through the glass and metal of Cloud’s cage. Bursting free in a shower of mako and crashing equipment, Cloud swung his sword again; cutting off the nameless scientist’s terrified shrieking in a spray of crimson. The next strike shattered the glass that trapped Denzel. The boy began coughing as Cloud pulled him free of the mess that was quickly evaporating in steaming green vapour. Hacking breaths caught him by surprise, Cloud stumbled across the lab, spiting as air replaced the liquid mako in his lungs. ‘No breathing masks or feeding tubes… we were preserved? Not viable anyway, no wonder there was only the one tech. So - damn. We’re dead here. That could come back to bite us in the end, but for now not existing could be useful.’
“Cloud? Where are we?” Denzel blinked in bewilderment, clearing the green from his eyes as Cloud wiped them down with the sheet that had been draped over one of the metal tables. The glow in Denzel’s eyes was stronger than the faint shimmer of before, and Cloud’s breath hissed between his teeth. They were going to have to think of something to hide that for both of them - the mako eyes that marked Soldiers were far too memorable for incognito travel.
“A lab.” Cloud started opening the cabinets in search of clothing. They had First Tsurugi - they could stage an escape naked - but it would be simpler and far less awkward all around if they were dressed. Naked people got noticed, people in hospital scrubs were ignored as too much trouble. “We need to go.”
“Are the others here?” Denzel obediently put on the drawstring pants Cloud handed him, standing still for Cloud to tear them off at a length that would let the boy run without worrying about tripping over his hems.
Cloud pulled his own clothing on, head tilted to the side with the air of a man listening to voices coming from the next room. “No. The others landed somewhere else. Let’s go.”
“Alright.” Denzel followed his foster father out the door and never faltered, not even when Cloud insisted on making sure that no one could come after them. They were lucky, for once. The lab they had awoken in was low priority storage, which meant low security, and that allowed them to take their time. They were able to download the data-storage onto a portable drive, check the lab over for anyone they may want to keep alive (just in case), and ransack the labs for combustibles. After a quick lesson for Denzel in the fine art of home-made bomb creation, they seeded the lab thickly enough to ensure any evidence of their passage would be obliterated. The fact that the materials for their explosives had come from the lab itself would further mar their trail. Cloud spared a brief moment to apologize mentally to the Turks - Avalanche’s awakenings and movements were going to make things difficult for the Intelligence branch of Shin-Ra’s military.
Cloud and Denzel blinked in surprise when they exited the lab. They were in the old Midgar slums.
“Looks just like I remember it.” Cloud took Denzel’s hand and pulled the twelve-year-old along down the nearest alleyway. Denzel gawked up at the bottom of the Plate he had not seen since its destruction in the fall of Midgar four years before. Cloud kept them moving, looking for a fire escape or scaffold that would get them up on to the rooftops. The best plan would be to avoid attention, and in the slums taking the high road was the best way to do that. “This looks like Sector Five - that pipe we came out of. I remember finding a Reunion Clone hiding in there.”
“Sector Five... the church is nearby!” Denzel grinned as Cloud hauled them both up the criss-crossing pipes until they were high enough to see over the entire sector. “Are we going to go there?”
Cloud paused to think, looking around warily before squinting up at the bottom of the Plate. His gaze lingered on the still-attached segment that sat above Sector Seven. The ground shook as fire belched from the open ends of pipes - grating and covers blown open with the force of the explosion funnelled through the rusting tubes. The lab had finally exploded. Cloud chuckled as Denzel whooped, pumping his fist in the air with vindictive glee.
“No. We’re going to head for Nibelheim.” Cloud looked to the West, somehow certain of his direction despite Lower Midgar’s perpetual twilight. “We need to deal with Jenova before we do anything else. The others are going to head that way too, just in case Vincent needs help getting free. Of all of us, he’s the only one likely to be locked in.”
“Okay.” Denzel was quiet for a moment as they moved from roof to roof, following in Cloud’s wake with a more-than-human agility that matched his otherworldly eyes. “How are we going to get rid of Jenova?”
“I’m hoping that Chaos will feel like helping, if not, Cid can build another Rocket and we’ll launch her into the sun.” Cloud looked grim; holding Denzel back as a pack of Don Corneo’s procurers swaggered by, manfully resisting the urge to pound their leering faces into the ground. He had never quite gotten over being the ‘prettiest bride’ that time Tifa had been taken. “We don’t have enough information on this world to make any real plans. I know what our goals are - meet up with the others, destroy Jenova, save your siblings, get rid of Hojo and his rivals - but until we learn more about the current situation we can’t really take action effectively.”
“Right. Information is the key to victory.” Denzel nodded firmly, remembering lessons learned from every member of Avalanche. They had all stressed the importance of being as fully informed as possible before entering a conflict, and the children had taken their lessons to heart. Boring at times or not - the Heroes of the Planet were cool and therefore everything they said was gospel. “Hey, Cloud?”
“Yeah?” Cloud glanced down at Denzel before moving again. The streets had cleared enough for the blond to feel safe continuing on.
“Do you think we can get some real clothes before we leave?” Denzel plucked at his mint green scrubs, nose wrinkled in distaste. Cloud surprised him with an amused laugh, pointing ahead of them with a grin.
“Wall Market is just over there.” Cloud let the feeling of hope settle, amazed by Denzel’s resilience and bolstered by the twelve-year-old’s determination. Things just might turn out for the better this time, and at the very least, Cloud would not be doing this alone. “We’re going to get clothes and head for Junon. Now get ready, and remember everything Yuffie ever told you about picking pockets.”
(Word Count: 1849)
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This is my ridiculously fluffy feel-good fix-it fic, regardless of how it started. History Inverted is a sequel to Small Packages. SP isn't done yet, but all you really need to know about it is that all the family bonding and emotional healing takes place in that fic for the Avalanche crew after they take in a bunch of "failed clones" (aka the Kingdom Hearts kid-heroes and Nobodies.)
HI is an AU twist ending for SP, so reading this isn't going to spoil anything for SP. ZOMBIE ATTACK!
So we just had the annual mid-April freak storm. It was an ice storm this year - freezing rain coated everything an inch deep in ice on Friday and knocked out power everywhere. There are still about a thousand people waiting for their power to come back. Crazy huh? Last year we got four feet of snow! What a wonderful early birthday surprise, really, thank you Canadian weather patterns. >.<
HERE THERE BE DRAGONS!!
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