Tifa looked up in shock, not sure what to think. The planet had abruptly
stopped singing its happy song and was now silent. Eerily so. The phone
rang, startling her out of her thoughts, and shakily, she picked it up.
“H-H-Hello?” Tifa asked shakily, and she heard Reeve’s voice on the
other end, and she told herself to relax, even taking a deep breath.
“Tifa? Is everything alright?” Reeve asked, and dodging the question,
she answered with her own.
“Why did you call Reeve? Is something the matter?” Tifa asked in concern,
and she heard Reeve sigh heavily, like the knowledge he was going to share
with her was a great burden.
“As you know, Shinra had powerful allies, and I think they might try
and kill you.” Reeve said so softly that Tifa had to strain to hear him,
but she heard him loud and clear.
“What?!” She exclaimed, and Yuffie and Christy decided to walk in,
and hearing Tifa’s distressed cry, rushed in.
“What’s up?” Christy asked, trying to get the phone, but she was brushed
off as Tifa clutched the receiver tighter, wishing Reeve was joking. But,
that annoying nagging feeling was telling her Reeve wouldn’t joke like
this.
“Listen, is Reno there? I need to speak with him.” Reeve said in a
calm voice, like he had just told her some unimportant thing. Numbly, Tifa
turned, searching warily for the redhead Turk, ignoring Christy and Yuffie,
who were both demanding to know what was wrong. As if he knew he was being
called, Reno entered with a stony Sephiroth, who looked rather uncomfortable
as the ex-Turk walked beside him. Sephiroth still wasn’t very open with
people, except for Christy. It seemed he had a soft spot for the perky
blonde. Sensing the tension in the atmosphere, Reno looked up to meet Tifa’s
eyes questioningly.
“Reeve’s on the phone.” Tifa said softly, handing him the phone, and
Reno took it, listening to Reeve for a moment, his displeasure showing
on his face. Christy and Yuffie hovered over him, wondering what in the
world was going on, while Sephiroth was sure he had a pretty good idea
from everyone’s expressions.
“Open your eyes clone.” He obeyed and opened his eyes warily, blinking
repeatedly to see clearer. When his hazy vision finally cleared, the blurry
figure turned out to be an unfamiliar face in front of his capsule. The
man pushed a blinking button, and the door opened, dumping James on the
floor. He coughed up some of the liquid, but then stood straight up, not
wanting to show weakness.
“Huh, like it in there James?” The mystery man sneered, while James
shrugged. He felt stronger than he did before. Maybe now would be the ideal
time for revenge. He could feel Mother’s comforting presence, and three
more like hers…
“Why did you wake me? This better be important.” James snapped, while
the man just made a tsk, tsk sound, shaking his head. James hadn’t meant
to come out of that capsule till he was sure he had reached his maximum
potential. That would be the ideal time to get revenge against Avalanche
who had killed his beloved Annita.
“Someone should have taught you manners. I am President Edmund of the
company Shadows. We are an ally of Shinra, and will help you restore Shinra
to its former glory.” Edmund stated, looking pleased with himself, but
then again, it seemed he always looked smug.
“Oh, rounding up the circus sir?” James said sarcastically, while Edmund
grinned, the barb not bothering him at all what the clone thought of his
ties with Shinra, as long as he helped rebuild it.
“You could say that. It would help us both if Shinra was back. We both
want the death of Avalanche, and why not work together? You’ll have a better
chance of getting your revenge.” Edmund stated, eyeing James, daring him
to chicken out. It seemed that this ‘Edmund’ had done his research well.
James sighed, he had to admit that Edmund’s deal seemed tempting, and a
little logical.
With a little hesitation, he finally said, “Deal.” They shook on it,
both grinning at the thought of besting Avalanche. Shinra would be born
again, Edmund knew, now that he had someone to work for him; he would be
able to finally get rid of that pesky group Avalanche and Shinra would
be reborn!
Cloud woke up, just outside the newly built metal gates of Midgar. He opened the gates slowly and cautiously, walking in on the way to Sector 5. Nothing much had changed, he noted, looking around. Sure, the place looked more respectable now, nice little cottages lined up, but the stench of mako was still lingering in the air. He noticed people were glancing at him, and whispering, pointing to his sword and the spiky hairdo. He shrugged it off, still getting used to the feeling of using his legs again. In the Lifestream, he had just floated about, or willed himself somewhere, he had never walked. Wondering how Jenova was still alive, he continued on his way to Tifa’s bar, hoping she hadn’t moved or anything. Soon he saw the familiar neon sign that read, ‘Hero’s Heaven’. The house was built in the back, so he calmly headed to the back of the bar, but just as he was about to ring the bell, he stopped himself. What would he say to the others? He sighed, and ran a hand through his spiky blonde hair. I mean, what could you say when you were just resurrected from the dead? ‘Hi guys! Good to see you! By the way, Jenova has been reborn.’ Cloud sighed. Just ring the bell Strife! He yelled at himself mentally, and he raised a trembling finger to the small bell.
“So? Anything new? Nanaki! What did you find?” The boy who found the
book, named Andy, asked, as Nanaki closed his tired eyes for a moment.
He had stayed up late last night, trying to decode and read the book, and
that had taken a lot of probing of his mind, and he was certain a headache
was coming up.
“There is another race that had a deep bond with the Cetra and planet.
As it seems, they were everything the Cetra weren’t, and nothing that the
Cetra were.” Nanaki said, closing the book, rubbing his eye awkwardly,
trying to see better out of it. Andy looked at him, confused.
“What is that supposed to mean?” He asked, scratching his head. He
was never really good at understanding philosophy or logic; after all,
he was only a kid.
Nanaki shrugged wearily, opening to book and looking through it randomly,
as if to find a hidden meaning in it.
“I need to research some more about this race. I read something about
another race that was similar to the Cetra, but I didn’t think it was true…”
Nanaki said, trailing off, while Andy looked at him, confused. Nanaki could
see that the book was a dairy of Tahsina Strife, but it also seemed like
she was doing a documentary on her people, so the people to come would
know the truth about the Cetra and their ‘shadows’ as she put it. ‘Their
numbers are so short, I fear that our friends will die, and our bond so
deep, that we might as well lie down and die too.’ Tahsina wrote, and she
was of course, talking about the Cetra. The Saquri seemed to still be prospering,
but the Cetra was diminishing, and from what he read, it seemed that it
was the work of a virus they had dubbed, ‘Jenova’. From what it seemed,
Jenova had killed many Cetra before they had managed to destroy it. But
then how could Jenova still have been alive all this time? Nanaki had heard
from his Grandfather that Jenova might be a race, not just an individual.
Maybe that’s why the planet was so shaky lately, because more Jenova had
arrived…