Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy VII; Second Generation ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

 

 

 

 

 

-WRO Medical Wing-

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Mr. Strife, please stay still. I need to properly check the extent of your injury…”, a WRO doctor says, struggling to keep a firm yet gentle hold on Cloud's arm, “The wound is extremely deep…”, she mutters, actually seeing the bleach-white bone at the bottom of the slice, “It seems like you'll have to be put on bed-rest for a few weeks, regardless of your conditioning you received from the SOLDIER program”, she adds, injecting some local antistatic into his arm to numb it before she began to clean the wound and bandage it.

 

“But what about my deliveries?”, Cloud asks.

 

“Cancel them or have someone else deliver them for you, you're not to work until this has healed”, the female doctor sternly replies.

 

“But…”

 

“Dad, just do as she asks. Beside there isn't many Mako-infested monsters left, you pretty much killed most of them”, Jessie comments, leaning back against the wall to his left with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

 

“You sure?”

 

“Mom had me make a delivery once to Kalm, when you were still out on another delivery to Fort Condor”, she states, “I didn't run into one monster”

 

“You were lucky you didn't see one…”, he argues, carefully putting his bandaged arm into the sling around his neck.

 

“Didn't see them? I saw them, they just didn't attack me!”, she retorts, “They're scared of vehicles now and run from the sound of them!”, she adds, pushing off from the wall and heads for the door, “I'm going to go check on mom and Zack…”

 

“I suppose she's right…”, Cloud sighs, slowly climbing off of the gurney and follows his daughter out the door.

 

 

 

 

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-Another Room-

 

 

 

 

“Your lucky Zack that you only got a bruise on your abdomen”, Tifa scorns, from her hospital-bed, her torso completely bandaged up underneath the paper-gown she had to wear, as her son sat on a gurney with his vest/shirt off and the doctor examined the soft-ball sized bruise just above his belly-button.

 

“Sorry mom…”, he says.

 

“Please don't be hard on him, Mrs. Strife. If he hadn't delayed Sephanie in her attack, Mr. Strife won't have been able to get there in time to safe us”, Ruvie states, Nicole standing beside her with Zack's vest in her hands.

 

“His guard is terrible, but he's an excellent fighter…”, Jessie comments, as she walks in through the door.

 

“Just because you didn't get hurt doesn't give you the right to gloat, Jessie!”, Zack protests.

 

“Hey I'm not gloating, when it comes to offensive hand to hand combat you're better than me, I'm just saying that your defense needs work”, she replies.

 

“Keep it down, this is a hospital!”, the doctor scorns.

 

“Sorry…”, the twins says, lowering their voices.

 

“Besides, we have bigger problems…”, Vincent says, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed some distance away from everyone.

 

“Yeah, Sephanie…”, Cloud states, walking into the room.

 

“Something needs to be done…”, Tifa adds, as Cloud takes a seat beside her and gently holds her hand.

 

“I agree”, Reeve's voice says, as he wheels himself into the room from the wheelchair he sat in, completely shirtless and his whole chest covered in bandages, “We need to go after her”.

 

“But me and Tifa are too injured to go…”, Cloud replies.

 

“I've already considered that, but I mean Zack and Jessie should go after her…”

 

“But they're children!”, Tifa protests.

 

“No, they're young adults. Remember, Yuffie was only 16 when she was traveling with us 20 years ago”, Reeve corrects.

 

“Reeve has a point…”, Vincent comments, gaining glances from everyone in the room, “I've personally seen their abilities in battle… Even though it needs some work, they're as ready as the two of you were when we first met…”, he adds, “I'll even accompany them to make sure they're safe…”

 

“And the voice of reason speaks…”, Reeve mutters.

 

“Reeve, the doctor said ya not suppose to over do it!”, Cait Sith states, running into the room with a little nurse's cap on top his head instead of the gold-crown that normally sat there.

 

“Cait Sith has a point, dad…”, Ruvie says, adjusting her glasses, “I'll help with the mission to stop Sephanie from here. I'll be sending Pixie along with you…”, just as she spoke, a 2-foot tall humanoid fairy with shoulder-length pink hair, big innocent-looking green eyes, wearing a off-shoulder style light pink kimono with a red obi, black heel-less shoes, and a sliver tiara in her hair flies in and lands on the floor.

 

“Hello, my name is Pixie…”, the robotic fairy greets, politely bowing.

 

“It's a doll…”, Zack mutters.

 

“I am not just a doll!”, Pixie huffs, quickly flying up into the air and whacks him in the head, “Ruvie can hack into any computer-system I connect to and gain access to opening doors or information that is hard to get!”

 

“Sorry, Pixie is a bit touchy…”, Ruvie apologizes, as the little robot lands on her shoulder, “I can also keep in contact with you guys and she even has a few little tricks built into her to defend herself, but those you'll have to see for yourselves”

 

“AI-independent robots… Like father like daughter, I guess…”, Vincent comments, gaining looks from Pixie and Cait Sith.

 

“You haven't changed Vincent…”, Reeve chuckles.

 

“I'm coming too!”, Nicole exclaims.

 

“No you're not, Nicole!”, Zack states, “It's too dangerous!”

 

“I don't care! I refuse to be left behind!”

 

“You better let her come, or she'll just follow you and get into more trouble than if she was by your side…”, Tifa says, understanding the heart of a woman, only because she used to be a love-sick puppy at her age.

 

“Fine, but at the first sign of trouble I want you to take cover somewhere safe…”, he groans.

 

“Yeah!”, she cheers, “Yahoo watashi wa katoze!”, she sings, clinging to his arm.

 

“Okay, it's agreed. Let's meet at Seventh Heaven tomorrow around noon, to go over the final preparations”, Reeve says.

 

“Alright…”, everyone nods.

 

“I'm going to call my dad, and tell him I'm sending the night over your house”, Nicole states, pulling out her cell-phone and gaining a look from Zack, “What? There is no way I'm letting you a chance to sneaky away without me!”

 

“She's persistent…”, Tifa mutters.

 

“You were like that, honey…”, Cloud whispers to his wife.

 

“I guess you're right…”, she sighs.

 

“Jessie. Zack. Let's head home”, their father says.

 

“But dad, you're not allowed to ride your motorcycle…”, Jessie points out, “Doctor's orders, remember?”

 

“Right…”

 

“I'll drive your bike home, dad”, she informs, “Dad, Zack, Vincent, and Nicole, take the truck Reeve let us use”, she states, assuming command.

 

“Definitely my daughter…”, Cloud sighs, finally understanding what Tifa meant about how him and Jessie were alike.

 

 

 

 

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-The Next Day-

-At the Seventh Heaven-

 

 

 

 

 

“I still can't believe you and Tifa got injured like that”, Marlene says, as she made lunch for everyone since Tifa was still in the hospital, and she was the one who would do the cooking.

 

“I'm still trying to come to grips with it myself…”, Cloud mutters, resting his chin on his left hand while his right arm remained in the bandage and sling.

 

“Though you might not want to hear it… The truth is, you're past your prime… You're not as young as you were 17 years ago…”, Vincent replies, from his corner of the bar.

 

“I can see your still as blunt as ever, Vincent…”, Marlene flatly states, still able to remember everything about his personality despite the fact she was 4 years old when she first met him and that she had hid under his cloak 2 years later during a argument with Cloud about herself, Denzel, and Tifa being ignored.

 

“Your personality is as fiery as ever, I see…”, the former Turk remarks, staring out the window, `Probably picked it up from Barret…', he thinks.

 

“I take it the lasses and lad aren't ready yet?”, came the familiar Scottish-accent of Cait Sith from the door.

 

“They're still packing…”, Cloud answers, watching as Cait Sith and Ruvie walk into the bar followed by the flying Pixie.

 

“How hard could it be to pack a few things?”, Pixie scoffs.

 

“Pixie, humans need more things than you do…”, Ruvie sighs, “Do I need to work on your understanding again?”

 

“No need to, I understand…”, the robotic fairy states, flying to safety of the other side of the bar.

 

“Nicole! You don't need to bring so much!”, Jessie's voice could be heard from upstairs, “Just take the essentials”

 

“But these are the essentials, for me!”, Nicole exclaims.

 

“You do know that we can buy what we need while on the road, right?”, Zack asks.

 

“Yeah, but…”

 

“Forget it, I give up!”, Jessie shouts, as her foot-steps could be heard heading for the hallway leading to the stairs in the back of the bar.

 

“Jessie!”, Zack calls out.

 

Then silence overhead except for the occasional creak from the floor-broads above.

 

Jessie walks into the bar-area, wearing different-styled violet-blue tank-top and pair of indigo-blue capris, her dark-grey fingerless leather-gloves, and a pair of black well-worn hiking-boots, carrying a duffel-bag slung over her shoulder and a pair of dark-lens sunglasses perched on top of her head, she flops her bag onto one of the stools and sits down onto the stool beside it.

 

“Did you pack everything?”, Cloud asks.

 

“Yes father…”, she mutters.

 

“List them off”

 

“A few changes of clothes, a jacket, a towel, a face-cloth, my wallet, tooth-brush and tooth-paste, shampoo, body-wash, my cell-phone, a few Phoenix-Downs, one healing Materia, my comb and hair-brush with one hair-elastic, and one whetstone”, she lists off, counting on her fingers.

 

“Very good, just like I taught you…”, her father replies.

 

“Hey dad, where did you put my Buster-Blade, after you took it from me for starting that fight at school last month?”, she asks.

 

“The food-pantry…”, he answers.

 

“Thanks”, she says, vanishing into the kitchen and comes back out wielding a large blade that was 4'9” long; only 8-inches shorter than herself, with one hand, “Can't leave without this…”, she adds, sitting back down and snags a rag from behind the bar to polish the metal-surface.

 

(A/N: If you do the math, Jessie is 5'5” tall.)

 

“Hey Zack! You two ready?”, Jessie shouts, tapping the ceiling with the tip of her blade.

 

“We're coming!”, he yells back, followed by the sound of foot-steps heading to the hall.

 

Zack walks in still wearing his pair of black jeans and the navy-blue zip-up vest as a shirt that he wore yesterday, his dark-grey fingerless leather-gloves, and dark-brown boots, carrying a back-pack slung on his shoulder, followed by Nicole who was clinging to his arm with a full blown camping back-pack strapped to her back.

 

“You do realize that we're not going to have the truck for the whole trip, right?”, Zack explains, “That you'll have to carry your own bag and stuff…”

 

“I may be `daddy's little princess', but that doesn't mean that I don't know how to tough things out…”, Nicole retorts.

 

“Okay, so long as you understand…”, Zack sighs, his attempt to defer her from going failed.

 

“Now that this little argument is over with, we need to go over the plan for going after Sephanie…”, Ruvie says.

 

“What about your father?”, Zack asks.

 

“Reeve unfortunately couldn't leave the hospital, because of his injuries, so he sent me in his stead”, Cait Sith replies, hopping onto a stool.

 

“Now that question is out of the way, it is time to plan our course of action”, Pixie states.

 

“Right. The WRO's agents have informed me this morning that reports have come in that they've spotted Sephanie in or around Kalm”, Ruvie says, in a very professional manner; like her father, as she adjusts her glasses, “Our first place to check would be Kalm and to look for some clues there”.

 

“So to Kalm it is…”, Vincent mutters.

 

“So who gets to drive the truck?”, Jessie questions.

 

 

 

 

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-Outside of Edge-

 

 

 

 

Jessie sits in the front seat, leaning her arm against the window-sill of the door, staring out the window with a slightly angry look on her face, while Vincent drove without saying a word.

 

“I can't believe Ruvie is letting you drive…”, she spat.

 

“I don't blame her, after seeing the way you handled your father's motorcycle…”, he simply replies, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

 

“Whatever…”

 

“Are you two bickering still?”, Zack says, through the window that let the driver speak to the passengers in the back.

 

“It sounds more like a one-sided bicker to me”, Pixie remarks, flying up behind Zack's head.

 

“Who cares…”, Jessie huffs, before a trail of black raising smoke caught her attention, “Hey, what's going on over there?”

 

“Let's find out, shall we?”, Vincent says, “Hang on to something!”, he warns, before turning the wheel quickly to drive towards the smoke.

 

“Hey watch it!”, Jessie shouts, almost being thrown from the truck, “It's like you haven't driven a vehicle in over 30 years!”

 

“More like 50…”

 

“Heaven help us, that we don't die in a car-accident…”, she groans into her hands.

 

“What was that? Did you say something?”

 

“Nothing at all…”

 

As they drove closer to the smoke, they could see the remains of a exploded truck with several dead bodies scattered about, all of them slashed and being eaten by the dessert-scavengers, that flew away as the truck drew near and flew back down to eat after the truck had passed. Vincent stopping the truck just a few short feet from the wreckage and climbs out.

 

“What happened here?”, Jessie asks, as she climbed out.

 

“I don't know…”, Zack replies, hopping out of the back and walks around.

 

Vincent crouches down to examine one of the bodies, “These wounds were caused by an experienced person with a sword…”, he says.

 

“How can you tell?”, Nicole questions.

 

“Only their vital-points have been slashed…”

 

“Do you think it was Sephanie?”

 

“Most likely…”, he states, walking towards the wreckage.

 

Suddenly a gun-shot rang out, shattering the silence of the dessert as a bullet pierces Vincent through the right-shoulder and causes him to collapse to his knees, clutching his shoulder.

 

 

 

 

 

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