Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Mako Eyes ❯ Power of the Mako Eyed ( Chapter 3 )

Aneilla dumped her worn duffel bag onto the floor slowly as she looked at all the people in front of her. The one standing before her, Cloud, was staring at her with a strange intensity and looked kind of pissy. The spirit signature coming off of him, off of all of them, was much more different than she had ever felt from another human being. They were powerful and pulsed with such a force, Aneilla could almost feel it throbbing against her chest; a lot like the feeling she felt when music was being played loudly. She looked around the room again, hoping to see someone else who had the mako glow in their eyes, but there was no one else who did. She pushed back her soaked hair away from her eyes and looked back at Cloud. “Is that offer still available?” she asked him.

 

Cloud seemed to shake himself out of whatever trance he went into when she walked in. He nodded and looked over at the black haired woman behind the counter. “Tifa, are any of the spare bedrooms ready?” he asked.

 

The woman, Tifa, nodded and said, “Yeah, I believe one is ready upstairs. I'll go check.” She then left through a door at the back of the room and Aneilla could hear the sound of her walking up stairs. Aneilla looked over at the two children who sat at the bar, bowls that sat on the counter before them forgotten. One was a tousled haired boy and the other was a brown hared girl who looked younger than the boy. Both children looked at Aneilla with looks of amazement and some fear of what she would do next. Although they seemed like normal kids, the spirit signatures coming from them said otherwise. The other people in the room seemed to be about Aneilla's age or older. There was a big, dark skinned man who seemed to have a robotic right arm standing next to the bar near the kids. A young woman who looked to be in her late teens, maybe early twenties, with short cut black hair sat on one of the tables in the bar. The tall man who stood next to the door stared at her silently and set a shiver down her spine. She knew that this was Vincent, the ex-Turk, who Red had told her a lot about. She recognized the cat-like creature from the night before when Red came to visit her. Aneilla turned and looked back at Cloud, who still seemed angry at Red. “Don't be upset with Nanaki,” she told him. “I didn't want him to tell anyone about me.”

 

Cloud frowned and looked away and down slightly, but he nodded in answer and that settled with Aneilla. She crouched down next to Red and wrapped an arm around his neck. She kissed his cheek gently and said, “I'm so glad that I have you to care for me.”

 

Red chuckled and said, “I've put you through a lot, little one. I hope you can forgive me.”

 

“Of course I can.”

 

“How did you survive the fire?” Vincent asked her, his voice cold almost.

 

Aneilla looked up at Vincent and was about to answer when Red did it for her. “I had saved her from the fire, sixteen years before Hojo got his hands on me. I had secretly raised her until then and when I was taken, she slipped back into the slums of Midgar and lived out her life as a homeless to stay under the radar from Shinra. I found her a year before Kadaj and his gang showed up and I have been checking in on her ever since then.”

 

“Were there any others?”

 

Aneilla shook her head and said, “I didn't see any others and I couldn't find the spirit signature of any others either.”

 

“`Spirit signature'?” Cloud asked.

 

“It's one of the abilities the Mako-Eyed have,” Red said, “or at least that is what I believe. Aneilla has the ability to read the spirit signature of any human. She can tell whether they are sick, mentally or physically, and how powerful someone is.”

 

“Everyone has their own individual spirit signature, or aura,” Aneilla said. “Kind of like a finger print or a retinal scan. The color or the way it pulses determines how powerful someone is, or if they are sick or healthy. It's kind of hard to explain…”

 

“It's alright,” Vincent said, nodding to Aneilla. Aneilla smiled slightly, thankful that she didn't have to try and explain her ability. It had been hard trying to explain it to Red when she first discovered it.

 

“Do you always see someone's… aura… around them?” the young woman sitting on the table asked.

 

“Only when I want to,” Aneilla told her. “I have control over that. But some of my other abilities I don't have much control over.”

 

“Other abilities?” the big man at the bar asked. “You have other abilities than that?”

 

Aneilla nodded and sighed. She could feel herself starting to get edgy, and was beginning to think that coming here had been a bad idea. She felt like she was in some sort of laboratory, or back in the orphanage. But Red's presence beside her calmed her nerves. “My movements are much faster than even a Soldier First Class and are more fluid, kind of like a cat's. I can land on my feet after jumping down from tall buildings and I can jump up to ten feet. Those are basics, really. The other abilities, the ones I don't have a lot of control over are…” Aneilla stopped, unsure to tell these people. A gentle nudge from Red told her that it was alright and that she could go on; that these people can be trusted. “When I become angry or feel endangered, something happens to me. An electrical power surges through me and my eyes turn cat-like. My teeth become fangs and my powers jump to the next level. I become some sort of… animal…” Aneilla looked away and said, “That's why I've kept away from humans. Once I turn into that form, I lose control of myself.”

 

“How do you know this, if you lose control of yourself?” Vincent asked, his red eyes narrowed slightly.

 

“I had seen it happen to her once,” Red told him. “I was able to keep her under control until she came back to her senses, so she wouldn't harm anyone. It had been the first time it happened to her, when she was around fourteen years old.”

 

“And it hasn't happened again since then?” Cloud asked.

 

“That's why I stay separate from people,” Aneilla repeated, “so I don't hurt anyone and that doesn't happen again.” She shifted slightly and then said, “Another thing that I don't have much control over is my Black Magic. I can control it to a certain extent. If I try to do anything too powerful, it tends to blow up somewhere other than the place I want it to.”

 

“I think that just requires training,” Vincent said smoothly. “As for the other ability, if you can call it that, I'm not too sure of. We will have to see about that.”

 

Red nodded in agreement and looked at Aneilla. “Are you up for a little training?” he asked her. “It will help you control your powers more.”

 

Aneilla nodded and said, “I'm up for it. The less I have to worry about hurting myself or other people, the better off I'll feel. I also don't want to attract anything to myself, like Shinra for instance.”

 

“Shinra won't know about you,” Tifa said, coming down the stairs. “If they ask anything, we'll just say that you're a friend helping out.” She smiled and nodded up the stairs. “Your room is ready for you. Third door on the left. I hope it's comfortable enough for you.”

 

Aneilla smiled and said, “Thank you, all of you, for allowing me to stay.”

 

“Since you are staying,” the big man said with a grin, “we might as well be introduced to each other. My name's Barret and these two little ones here are Denzel and Marlene.”

 

“And I'm Yuffie, the Great Ninja,” the girl sitting on the table said.

 

Aneilla laughed slightly, already warming up to the new place that was going to be her home for a while. “I'm Aneilla.”

 

*~*~*

 

James walked into the darkened room, the glow of the computer screens the only light. It hurt his eyes at first, but after blinking a few times, he was able to walk in the rest of the way. There was only one person at the curved table of computers; a woman with black hair pulled up in a messy bun with chopsticks, tiny shimmering red stones at the ends, crossing through it. She wore a black short sleeved kimono dress that was close fitting and ended above the knees, a red sash tied around her waist where two katanas were held, one at each hip. She had on knee high black leather boots and black bands around each wrist. She sat in the wheeled chair in front of one of the computers, her fingers flying across the keyboard at a speed that was inhuman. But, Nemo wasn't exactly a human.

 

Bear stood beside Nemo and the big black man looked up when James stood on Nemo's other side. “Nemo thinks she's has something,” Bear told him.

 

James leaned forward, placing his hands on the table. “What do you have for me, Nemo?” he asked her.

 

The woman looked up at his, her eyes almond shaped and burnished silver. She had an oval shaped face, pale skin and features too perfect for humans and seemed ageless. Nemo was a humanoid, a robot, who had been created by a secret company that took shape long before the Shinra Company. Nemo didn't know who her creator was, but she did know that she, as well as other humanoids, had been created for the sole purpose of fighting in battle, to prevent real humans from dying. Nemo and several hundred other humanoids had been shipped to Shinra and somehow, Nemo managed to break through the code that had been placed in her and entrapped her. She escaped and later on joined James and the others, wanting to go against Shinra for using her as a doll; Nemo was definitely more than some robot. After the chip implanted in her head had been removed, she had no worries of anyone controlling her again. She stood alongside James as his partner and James trusted her most out of everyone.

 

Nemo turned back to the computer screen and her fingers flew over the keys. James watched as strange text scrolled quickly down the screen, text he couldn't read but knew that Nemo could. “I managed to get through the firewall to some of Shinra's files undetected,” Nemo told him, her voice monotone. “I have found some files on the Mako-Eyed.”

 

“In other words, sir,” Bear said, looking at James with a grin, “we hit the jackpot.”

 

“Not quite,” Nemo corrected him. “It is mostly the basics; the Mako-Eyed were children who had been born with Mako and Jenova cells infused into their DNA, a process that happened before birth, while the child was still growing in the womb. It was hoped that a new, powerful species of human would be created, humans that would be as strong as Soldier, but not have to undergo the Jenova cell infusion process. But the experiment was said to be failure; the children showed no signs of unnatural abilities, or any of the abilities that a normal human gains when they become Soldier.” Nemo looked back up at James, a frown on her face. “I still have deeper to go, but it is a start.”

 

“What about the fire?” James asked her. “Have you found anything on that?”

 

Nemo nodded and said, “Enough to know what happened that night. There was a group of people who didn't like the idea of a new species of human existing. They feared for their futures and the future of their children. They believed that the Mako Children would overwhelm them all and `take over'. It was some from that group who started the fire. Locking themselves and the children inside, the set the building aflame from the inside and were burnt alive along with the children. By the time help, and Shinra, arrived, it was too late; the entire building was in flames and the fire department couldn't gain control of the fire, or get inside to save the children. Shinra didn't bother to push the matter of saving the children. According to observers, he just watched the building, and the children inside, burn.”

 

James snarled softly under his breath, his hands clenching into fists. So Shinra didn't start the fire that caused all those deaths, but he was just as guilty for them as those who caused the fire were. “Is there anything else,” James asked Nemo. “Is there anything about any survivors?”

 

Nemo peered at the computer screen and then she shook her head. “Nothing. The scientists called the experiment a failure. But there is one thing; the files say that the Mako-Children Project branched off of the Sephiroth Project in a way; creating a super-human while the child is still inside the mother. I guess Hojo like the results and tried it on other, only advancing this project by infusing both Mako and Jenova cells. But of course, the results weren't what the scientists expected and so on.”

 

“So the creation of me was branched off by the creation of that madman?” James asked, the anger inside him rising to a new level. He clenched his fists tighter and felt his fingernails, which seemed unusually sharp, dig into the soft flesh of his palms.

 

“Seems so, boss,” Bear said softly.

 

Nemo spun around in her chair to look at James, her silver eyes piercing into his topaz ones. “You are nothing like Sephiroth and you know that. Shinra has done some horrible things, and they will pay for all of it. You will make them pay, for killing your kind and making you the last.”

 

James nodded, feeling blood creep up over his fingertips where he cut himself. “I'll make them wish they never thought of the project in the first place.” He then turned to Nemo and said, “Look up Cloud Strife.”

 

Nemo blinked, the only sign of surprise that she could show. “Cloud Strife?”

 

James nodded and said, “I want to know his story. There's a rumor going around, involving him with a Mako-Eyed, and I want to see what's in it for him, and what his deal with Shinra is.”

 

“What are you thinking boss?” Bear asked as Nemo turned back to the computer screen and began hitting keys.

 

“I think that the key to getting into Shinra is him,” James said. “Everything seems to involve him somehow; Kadaj's gang seemed very intent on him when they first showed up and he always has one foot in the Shinra Company. If we get enough info, our next stop will be him.”

 

“Sorry to say, then, that this is the end of the road for you,” a voice said from the entrance behind him. James turned around to see Zeke with three other guys behind him and he chuckled. Zeke glared at him and said, “Did you not hear me? I said that it's over for you.”

 

“Kinda figured that this was coming,” James said, unclenching his hands. He slowly walked towards Zeke and his lackeys, who backed up slightly. “I never did trust you Zeke,” he continued, staring up at the taller man. “Good thing I trusted my instincts.”

 

“You're inhuman scum!” Zeke spat at James. “You're kind should have never existed in the first place.”

 

James tilted his head slightly, realization dawning on him. “You were apart of that group who set the building on fire,” he said slowly.

 

Zeke shrugged and said, “Yeah, I am. And I'm going to finish the job.”

 

James gritted his teeth and balled his hands into fists. Suddenly, a flaming, black and gold aura surrounded him in an explosion. His eyes transformed into cat-like, golden orbs and fangs replace the normal human teeth in his mouth. Jet black, dragon-like wings burst from his back as his fingers became deadly claws. With a quick movement, he grabbed Zeke by his throat and lifted him up off the ground. Digging the claws into the human's neck, James grinned wickedly, showing the dying man his row of deadly fangs. “You should have finished the job years ago, human,” James hissed, “before I gained more of my power.” And as easily as crushing a soda can, James crushed Zeke's throat, nearly decapitating him, before throwing the lifeless body to the side like it was a bag of rags. The body hit the wall with a sickening nose and laid on the floor, blood pooling around it. James turned to the three men and said, “Care to change your minds?”

 

The men quickly dropped to there knees, begging for forgiveness. James flexed his body, returning back to his normal form. He glared down at the three men and said, “Leave now, and never show your faces around Midgar again. Do you understand me?”

 

The men nodded and the quickly got up and ran off. James stood there until their retreating foot fading even from his hearing and then he turned to face Nemo and Bear. “Bear,” James said, “get rid of the garbage.” He nodded towards Zeke's body.

 

Bear nodded and left to find someone to carry out the body.

 

James walked over to Nemo, who looked up at him with her usual blank expression. “Nemo,” he said softly, “I need you to find Cloud Strife for me as soon as possible. Can you do that?”

 

Nemo nodded and said, “I can.”