The Stop For FF7 Freaks - Dread Harbingers Part1 - Video Games - http://maxpages.com/theff7stop/Dread

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST:
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PART 1: DREAD HARBINGERS
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Disclaimer:
All rights and privileges to Final Fantasy VII and its characters
belong to Square Co., Ltd. The characters of this series are used
without permission for the purpose of entertainment only. This work of
fiction is not meant for sale or profit.
All original characters are the creation of the author. All
copyright privileges to these characters are reserved for the author.

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Author's notes:

WARNING: Violence, Adult language and subject matter.

This is a CONTINUATION - ALTERNATE REALITY Final Fantasy VII fanfic.
It contains major SPOILERS for the game.

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Text Conventions
( ) are character thoughts
/ / and // // are mental dialogue
[ ] are miscellaneous effects

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Cid found Yuffie huddled in the shelter of the Highwind II's
deckhouse, where she sat looking slightly green-faced as usual.
Cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, he walked up behind her
and said cheerfully, "I thought you'd be over all this stupid motion
sickness stuff by now. Don't you know that it's all in your mind?" Cid
spoke with the blithe confidence of a man who had never experienced any
sort of motion sickness in his life.

She glared at him. "Damn you, old man! I'm NOT imagining all this!
What do you think I am, some kind of masochist!? Don't you think that
if I could just think it all away, I would?" She closed her eyes and
took a few deep gulps of air.

"Hell, you look like a beached fish."

"Screw you, Cid. You should thank Red that I'm not spewing all over
your favorite boots. That herbal concoction he gave me actually
works... sort of."

"Hmph. Did you help yourself to some of his materia while you were
visiting?"

"I don't ALWAYS steal from you guys!" Yuffie was the very picture
of offended dignity.

"No, but you certainly try. Well, I'm keeping a close eye on my
stuff so don't even think...." Cid froze, then lunged for the railing
so suddenly that Yuffie thought that he was actually trying to jump
overboard.

"Hey!"

The cigarette butt fell from Cid's gaping mouth as he stared
directly below the Highwind.

Yuffie started to look uneasy. "Yo, Cid!"

He didn't respond.

"What's goin' on!?" Yuffie was hopping up and down with impatience.
Cid mutely pointed down. The young ninja sternly told her stomach to
behave and peer cautiously over the railing. A look of stunned
disbelief appeared on her face just before she hastily backed away from
the rail.

"That...that CAN'T be a... a WEAPON!?"

Cid stared at the immense, dark shape swimming along the surface of
the water. He muttered, "What the hell do you think it is, then? A
bloody whale?"

---------------------------

Somewhere between the Eastern and Western Continents, a Shinra
submarine filled with terrified crewmen hastily scooted out of the path
of the enormous green shape that slowly cruised just above the sea
floor.

---------------------------

The Shinra Building used to be over seventy stories, towering over
everything in sight and dominating Midgar just as the Shinra Corporation
dominated the world. But after Meteor demolished the upper twenty
floors or so, the building now had a much humbler appearance, much like
the corporation itself did.

In the new President's office on the 42th floor, now the top floor
of the Shinra building, Reeve struggled to ignore a pounding headache as
he tried to work up a feasible energy budget for the city. It was a
thankless task. All the Mako generators in the city were
non-operational and the old sources of power were nowhere as efficient.
Just as he had figured out a complicated three-way shuffle to satisfy
the energy needs of four different sectors, his intercom buzzed. He
abruptly lost his train of thought.

"What is it now? I told you I didn't want to be disturbed!"

His assistant said, "Sir, there's an important message from Junon."

"Junon? All right, all right!"

Both the annoyance and the color slowly drained out of Reeve's face
as he listened to the report from the Junon Commander.

"Please tell you you're joking."

"Sir, I do not joke," the Commander replied primly.

Reeve had been pleasantly surprised and immensely relieved when
Heidegger's subordinates, who controlled most of the military resources
of Shinra, had chosen to support him instead of Scarlet. While she had
managed to stay on good terms with Heidegger himself, it seemed that
Scarlet hadn't been nearly as careful with his subordinates. She had
apparently stepped on a few too many toes. Her blatant ambition had not
played well, either, especially with the rumors flying around about her
possible involvement in Heidigger's sudden disappearance.

Reeve said, "Are you POSITIVE?"

"Yes, sir. Transmitting the videotape."

Reeve shivered as an all too familiar green form slowly drifted into
view, then the picture skewed wildly as the submarine scrambled out of
the monster's way.

"All right, try to keep an eye on it but for god's sake, don't do
anything to provoke it!"

The Commander visibly suppressed an urge to make an impertinent
remark -- something on the lines of 'Do you think I'm stupid?' -- but
military discipline prevailed. He merely saluted and signed off.

Reeve closed his eyes. Ten months. Ten measly months of peace and
quiet after the Planet had nearly been obliterated by Meteor. Surely
humanity deserve a break from the threat of catastrophe and utter
destruction? A chance to regroup and rebuild?

Apparently not....

He slouched down in his posh chair. Why had the Emerald WEAPON
reappeared? After all, the WEAPONs' sole purpose was to eliminate
threats to the Planet's well-being -- critical threats like Jenova. But
all four WEAPONs had been destroyed. And with Jenova itself gone, why
would the Planet bother resurrecting the WEAPONs?

Reeve suddenly grimaced. Of course there could be some deadly
planetary threat that he simply didn't know about. They had all assumed
that Jenova was gone, but there was no real proof. And who really knew
what Jenova was capable of? The blasted thing was a space alien, after
all. It was just possible that Jenova could still exist -- and still
pose a threat deadly enough to warrant the rebuilding of the WEAPONs.

There was no real way to know for certain. Reeve knew of only one
person who might have known what the Planet 'thought'....

And Aeris was dead.

He uttered a wistful sigh as his fingers danced across his keyboard.
"Let's see what we got. I know we have some data on the WEAPONs.
Scarlet must have used it in developing the Sister Ray. And I can't
forget those videos we found up in Ifalna's house at Icicle Inn." He
made a mental note to have someone retrieve them.

His search kicked up a few files. Worse than he had hoped but
better than he expected. Fortunately, most of the Shinra database had
survived Meteor and the demolition of the Shinra Building intact.

(Thank goodness for all those tedious backup procedures.)

Unfortunately, Reeve suspected that much of the real data on the
WEAPONs never made it into the official Shinra network in the first
place. Knowing Scarlet, she probably kept the most important
information for herself. Now that she was in hiding, there were
virtually no chance of getting a hold of that data -- for free.

He had no desire to make any deals with Scarlet. But depending on
how the WEAPON situation developed, he might have no choice.

---------------------------

He stood at the bottom of the Northern Crater. Sephiroth had
finally been defeated. Not just once, but twice. Now all they could do
was wait and hope that Holy could save the Planet from Meteor. His
friends headed for the surface and he turned to follow them.

Then he felt the mocking laughter in his head.

Sephiroth was still alive, somewhere in that pit.

He suddenly felt himself being torn away and pulled downward as
Tifa's cries faded far behind. At the end of his strange, twisting
journey, he looked down to see Sephiroth in his human form, blade in
hand... waiting for him.

Cloud narrowed his eyes. In his mind, there was no hatred or fear
-- only steely determination and purpose. He had to finish it, no
matter what the cost. That was all.

They stared at each other across their swords, then he could
concentrate on nothing else except launching the most lethal and
relentless series of blows he was capable of. He couldn't afford to
hold anything back -- not with an opponent of Sephiroth's skill.

He refused to even think about how or why he might have the
slightest impulse to hold back at all.

As he leapt into the air for the final, deadly slash, Sephiroth
looked up at him. Green Mako eyes locked gazes with blue Mako eyes for
a single endless moment.

Something stirred in the back of Cloud's mind -- a sense of
impending victory... but a victory that would come at a heavy price.

// Do it. //

Cloud slammed the blow home, then leapt back. He watched Sephiroth
stagger... watched him struggle to lift the Masamune... and watched as
Sephiroth's body failed him.

As brillant red blood trickled down Sephiroth's pale face, Cloud's
nemesis slowly lifted his head. Ice green eyes widened in stunned
disbelief as he stared at Cloud. Suddenly, Sephiroth smiled ever so
slightly and whispered a single, inaudible word... just before his
broken body exploded in a flare of light.

// Seph.... //

---------------------------

A badly disoriented Cloud awoke with a start. It took him a minute
or so to remember where he was and to track down the persistent buzz.
He finally located his phone and mumbled, "Cloud here."

"Finally! Where the hell have you been?"

"I was...sleeping. What's wrong?"

Reeve said, "Bad news. The Emerald WEAPON is back."

"What!? Are you sure?"

"I just got a message from Junon Sub base. The green monster was
seen happily puttering around the bottom of the ocean. And don't remind
me that we destroyed it. I know that. I was there, remember?"

"Damn it," Cloud muttered.

At that moment, Cloud's phone buzzed again. Frowning slightly, he
answered, connecting the caller to Reeve at the same time.

They both heard Cid growl, "Guess what Yuffie and I just saw, guys."
He didn't bother waiting for their answer. "A goddamn WEAPON!"

Yuffie loudly yelled in the background, "And it's no mistake! We
got pictures!"

Cid yelled back at Yuffie, "Keep it down, girl!" before returning to
his conversation with Cloud and Reeve. "We were cruising in the
Highwind II near Wutai when we saw a huge, dark blue shape moving along
the surface of the water."

"Great. Just great." Reeve's headache started pounded even
fiercely.

The pilot said suspiciously, "You don't seem that surprised. What
gives?"

"I just got a message and some video footage from Junon Sub base.
Now it's your turn. Guess what's swimming around at the bottom of the
ocean. One hint. It's green." Clutching the phone in one hand, Reeve
began to rummage through his desk for that elusive bottle of
pain-killers.

"Aw, man. Don't tell me...."

"That's right."

There was a thunking noise from Cid's end.

"What's that, Cid?" Cloud asked.

"Oh, that just Yuffie passing out. You guys call the others?"

"I haven't had the chance." Reeve finally located the bottle,
dumped out a tablet, then decided to double the dose.

Cloud said, "All right. Reeve, could you contact the others?" He
paused thoughtfully. "Even if the WEAPONs aren't actually attacking,
they're moving around. That doesn't sound good."

Between pills, Reeve muttered, "I find the mere fact that they've
been reconstructed plenty disturbing. And to think that they might be
hunting for something...."

Cid quietly said, "You guys think this has something to do with
Jenova."

Cloud began to pace in his bedroom. "Well, it's an obvious sort of
conclusion. Besides, if it isn't Jenova, that means there's a major
threat to this Planet that we know nothing about. Personally, I don't
know which option is more frightening."

"Gotcha." Cid was silent for a moment, then said, "If the green
one's Emerald, I guess the blue one is...."

"Probably Sapphire."

"That leaves Ruby and Diamond unaccounted for...."

Reeve said, "....so far. I'm ordering a chopper to take a look
around the Gold Saucer area to see if the Ruby WEAPON's shown up in its
old haunts. But even if the desert's clean, Ruby could still be lurking
somewhere else. And I don't have a way to see if Diamond's back. The
Shinra subs can't get past the shallows up north."

"We'll worry about that later."

Cid said, "Cloud, you're at Fort Condor, right?"

"Yeah."

"You want me to pick you up?"

"I don't think you need to do that. It'll only take me a couple of
hours to get to Midgar by chocobo. It's probably better if you picked
up Tifa and Red at Kalm. Tifa's got her chocobo but you know how Red
feels about riding."

They all chuckled. On more than one occasion, they had been forced
to travel by chocobo to otherwise inaccessible locations. The sight of
Red awkwardly perched bird-back had been absolutely hilarious and a
sight to remember. For his part, Red utterly failed to see the humor of
it.

"And if Vincent's interested, you'll probably need to give him a
ride, too."

Cid said, "Right. Later, guys," and hung up.

Before Reeve could do the same, Cloud said, "I just remembered.
Remember those videotapes at Icicle Inn? The ones with Dr. Gast and
Aeris' mother? She said something about the WEAPONs. What ever
happened to those tapes?"

Reeve said, "Got you covered. I've already sent some guys up north
to fetch them and any papers that might still be lying around. Hojo's
men were pretty sloppy when they cleaned out the place the first time
around."

"In that case, I'll be at Midgar as soon as I can."

"All right, then. I'll keep hunting for information on this end."

Cloud disconnected and stared blankly at the phone as his thoughts
returned to his dream. It lingered, like a strange aftertaste in the
mouth.

Why dream about Sephiroth now?

------------------------------------

Yuffie muttered, "Fort Condor? How come he isn't hanging out with
Tifa at Kalm?"

"That's none of your business, Yuffie. Give the guy some time." Cid
growled.

"Time! Time! That's right, you guys always stick together and
protect each other's butts while us girls are left hanging in the wind.
How about some commitment here?"

"You're a fine one to talk, you pip-squeak. What the hell do you
know about relationships anyway, kiddo?"

"Enough to know that you and Shera...."

"You leave Shera outta this, you...." Cid lunged for the ninja
girl. Yuffie gave him an impudent grin as she jumped down the stairs
and disappeared into the depths of the Highwind.

Cid stomped around in frustration for a moment, then grinned evilly.
He marched to the bridge and hit the ship-wide intercom.

"Yuffie, better hang on to your stomach. We've got places to go,
things to do! The ride's liable to get a bit... rough."

An unmistakable moan drifted back through the intercom.

"And if you mess up my ship, you're cleaning it up!"

"Urkkk...."

------------------------------------

In North Corel, Marlene had just left the house to play when
Barret's phone buzzed. He fumbled for the PHS and muttered, "Yeah?"

"Barret, I've got some bad news."

"Reeve, I've been on my feet for the last 30 hours and you're
ruining my nap. So spit it out."

There was a slight pause before Reeve said, "The WEAPONs are back."

"What the hell!?" Barret rolled over and flopped back down on his
bed.

"To be precise, Cid spotted what looks to be the Sapphire WEAPON
near Wutai. A Shinra sub nearly ran into the Emerald WEAPON near that
weird undersea crater."

"That can't be! They were all blown to hell and gone!"

"I know, but they're back AGAIN."

"Shit! All right, then. Do you guys need me right now? I'm
supposed
to reopen one of the old coal mines around Corel tomorrow. But...,"
Barret said.

"No, not if you're busy. With all the Mako reactors shut down,
everyone's in a real crunch energy-wise. Getting those mines working
again is a top priority. Besides, there's nothing you can really do
here in Midgar at the moment. The WEAPONs are moving around but haven't
really done anything to panic about...yet. We'll keep you updated. On
your feet for thirty hours? Get some rest!"

Barret disconnected and gave the phone a morose stare. Something
told him that Reeve would be calling back soon.

It probably won't be good news.

------------------------------------

As he waited for his friends to arrive, Reeve made one last phone
call.

A lazy voice drawled, "Yo."

"Reno, do you remember that conversation we had a while back?"

"Yeah, about eventually having some work for us."

"Well, are you interested?"

Reno chuckled, "Sure, why not? Luckily for you, we happen to be
free at the moment. So what sort of dirty work you want done?"

Reeve snorted. "Please! It's not that sort of job!"

"Okay, okay! No need to go spastic. So, what do you want us to
do?"

"I want you to escort a group of scientists and techs out to Shinra
Mansion at Nibelheim. And I want you to keep an eye on them while they
strip every book, every record, and every piece of Hojo's equipment out
of that place."

Elena looked up in surprise at the horrified look on Reno's face.

"Oh crap! You want us to baby-sit a bunch of geeks!? Man, this
WILL cost you!" Reno's voice took on a definite whine. "Come on,
Reeve. Please tell me you're joking."

In a quiet voice, Reeve replied, "I'm deadly serious, Reno. I want
a disinterested party to make sure that none of these guys start getting
weird ideas. The last thing I need is some half-wit scientist getting
delusions of grandeur. There's a great deal of information related to
Jenova, Sephiroth, and Hojo's other classified projects in the Mansion.
Security's practically nonexistent. Do you get my drift?"

Reno grimaced. "Yeah. How come Shinra didn't move all that stuff
already?"

"I don't know. As scientific research, it would have been Hojo's
responsibility. But for a scientist, he could be incredibly
absentminded and sloppy."

The Turk exhaled slowly. "All right. We'll do it. When do you
want to start?"

"As soon as possible."

"Reeve, what's the big rush?"

There was a long pause, then the Shinra executive said, "I've been
planning to do something like this for a long time. Unfortunately,
something nasty has suddenly come up. I need every scrap of Hojo's
information I can get my hands on and I need it NOW. Although...."

"Although...."

"I'm afraid that we're already too late."

"Get your technogeeks together. We'll be there within the hour."

After Reeve hung up, Reno looked at Elena and Rude. The two Turks
had been playing a lackadaisical game of poker, but now both looked very
curious. She asked, "What's up? You said something about
baby-sitting?"

"Yeah. Reeve's got an urgent job for us."

"And...."

Reno smiled sourly. "We get to pick up Hojo's garbage."

"O

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