Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Strife ❯ True Origin ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5: True Origin

Yuffie stood on her front porch with her arms folded across her chest. The chilly predawn air was blowing in from the southeast, where the sky appeared dark and stormy. In less than an hour the sun would peek over the horizon, and she would have to tell the group that Jassi had run off. Now as the spirited ninja stared out at the horizon, she wondered if she had made the right decision. Something deep inside her told her she had, but she couldn't stop her doubt in her own judgment. No matter how guilty she may of felt, she was not going to tell anyone what she had done. She doubted any of them wouldn't understand her reasoning. Her thought was broken by the sound of her door shutting.

"Yuffie, what are you doing up so early?" Red walked out and sat down beside her with a yawn.

"Oh, just thinking...why are you up?"

"Jassi's gone." Red looked up at Yuffie and was silent for a moment as he continued to stare at her. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

Yuffie wasn't surprised that Red could sense what she was thinking. "Yeah, you're right as usual. I let her leave about four hours ago, and I think I know where she went." The young ninja pointed to the southeast at the dark storm clouds.

"Looks like Gongaga region to me. Why would she go there?"

"I don't know, but as soon as the group get up...I feel it my duty now to help you guys to figure it out...let's keep this between us, shall we?"

Red nodded in agreement with as much of a smile as the feline could find.

"Lets start waking them up, act worried about Jassi leaving." Yuffie and Red agreed and went inside Red waited till Yuffie headed for Cloud and Tifa's door before nudging Vincent.

"Vincent get up, Jassi's gone!" Red nudged Vincent a bit harder as he spoke in a harsh whisper.

Vincent was awake and half way to his feet by the time Yuffie opened their door. The two were sound asleep, but surprisingly not in the same bed. Cloud was asleep with one blanket on the floor. "Um...hey you guys, Jassi has ran away."

Cloud sat up from his little bed on the floor and stretched a bit. "She what?!"

Cloud's shout woke up Tifa so she could hear Yuffie's explanation. "Yeah, Jassi must have snuck out in the middle of the night cause Red woke me up, telling me she was gone."

"Jassi's gone? Well good rid dens if you ask me." Tifa spoke as she stretched her arms up towards the ceiling.

"No, Tifa, this is not a good thing. If she joins up with Sephiroth than they will make a deadly team. Fighting one Sephiroth was tough. Could you imagine trying to fight two? Well personally I don't want to." Cloud was on his feet, placing his blanket on the bed. "we must find her soon before she causes trouble."

Yuffie was staring down at the floor, knowing now she shouldn't of let her go. "Cloud, I'll go with you guys. You'll need all the help you can get now. I also have a friend that will most likely help us. He's very trustworthy. I've known him for some time now." She finally looked up at Cloud, her guilt feeling less heavy. "I'll go get him while you guys get ready." Yuffie walked out of her home and went about three houses away. She knew it was very early, but had no choice but to bother him. She softly tapped on his bedroom window.

"Huh? What..." He slowly looked around and saw Yuffie's face in the window. With slow motions he made his way to his window and lifted it up. "Yes, Yuffie? What time is it?"

"It's about four in the morning, and I have a favor to ask of you?"

"Okay, hurry it up I need to sleep some more."

"Well Cloud, Tifa, Vincent, Red, Barrett, and Cid are all at my house and they need our help. We need to leave right now to hunt down Sephiroth and Cloud's sister."

The tired man's eyes widened quite a bit and just stared at his young friend in disbelief. "Say what? Are you asking me to help down the legendary group hunt down Sephiroth?"

Yuffie nodded slowly with a small smile. "Yeah I am, they're getting ready right now. So if you're in get ready and come to my house."

A second later he had the window closed and blinds pulled down. Yuffie assumed he was scrambling for his clothes and such. With a smirk on her face, she headed back towards her home.

Inside Yuffie's home, everyone was making sure they had all their equipment on and ready for anything that would surely come. "Cloud! Where's my other fighting glove?!"

"Check the bedroom, Tifa, I bet it's by the bed."

Tifa thought for a moment then smiled. "Oh yeah." She darted to the bedroom while dodging Barrett on her way.

He was loading his gun until it couldn't hold another single bullet. Vincent was also loading both Peace Makers he owned. Red was calmly laying down on a pillow, watching everyone else. Cloud was polishing his Ultima as Cid was puffing away at his cigarette.

"You guys ready?" Yuffie walked through her front door and began looking around.

"No, Tifa lost a glove and Vincent is loading his pistol." Cid spoke with some slurred speech from the cigarette dangling form his lips.

"It's called a Peace Maker, Cid, not a mere pistol." Vincent put both guns away and stood up. "I'm ready to go."

"Me too!" Tifa walked into the living room, tightening her glove.

"I'm ready as well." Yuffie's friend walked in through the opened front door and looked over at everyone.

"Oh good. Everyone, this is my friend, Bowen Hart. He was trained by my father, just like Jassi and myself."

Tifa smiled at the cute man. He had dark brown hair that went down to his middle back, and it was tied back into a ponytail. His skin was fairly tan and he had pine green eyes. Not only was he in shape, he also had style. He wore a tight white tank top, medium blue denim pants that weren't baggy or tight on him. Over his tank top he wore an old worn brown leather jacket that went down to his lower calf muscles. He also wore a silver necklace that was the shape of a lightning bolt.

"Hey where did you get that necklace, my sister use to have one just like it at one time." Cloud walked closer to the newcomer, inspecting the medallion.

"Oh I got this about a year ago from a red-headed woman I fought in a tournament and lost to...badly. For some reason she gave the necklace she was wearing to me. I've kept it as a reminder that there's always someone stronger than me out there."

Everyone kind of looked around at each other then back at Bowen. "You are wearing Jassi's necklace!" Tifa walked up to him to also look at the medallion.

"Wait a minute...are you saying the woman who gave me this necklace was Cloud's sister?"

"Yep, Bowen, and with you here it's now two against eight. I doubt we'll have a problem with Jassi. She won't fight against her own friends.

Cloud thought other wise, but didn't say anything.

"Okay, I'm in. I've wanted a chance to fight her necklace back to her...it's been a goal of mine ever since she had given it to me."

"Okay great. I'm Cloud if you didn't know, and we need to go to Cid's..." Cloud pointed to the blonde smoking away, "airship just outside of town. Red thinks she headed for Gongaga."

Everyone nodded and walked out of Yuffie's home. As they walked Tifa walked up beside Bowen. "My name's Tifa, nice to meet you Bowen."

"Tifa go talk to Cloud; Bowen and I have to talk some." Yuffie looked over at Tifa with a slight glare that made her leave. "I know her too well, don't get mixed up with her. She likes to play games."

Bowen smirked a bit, "Yeah okay thanks mother. Is there any other kids you don't want me playing with?"

"Yes stay away from Jassi. I've known her for a while now, and she is a woman on a mission right now. If you try to get in her way, she'll fight you down."

"Oh well sorry ,Yuffie, but I need to fight her. I want to return this necklace."

"You never will Bowen! She's stronger than Cloud, and she knows how to use her skills."

Bowen glared at his ninja friend. "Thanks for having such confidence in me." He walked forward, up beside Tifa.

Yuffie began slowing down her walking pace as she sighed. "Great..."

Jassi was sitting at the desk in the back of the library, reading she had been reading for about ten minutes until she finally heard noise come from the house beyond the stairwell. She placed the book down and headed upstairs towards her favorite room in the house. Once she reached the bedroom, she closed the hidden doorway. She could hear the two brothers talking downstairs, so she headed down that way. A sentence that was spoken caught her attention, making her stop and listen.

"I told you she was useful."

"Yes I'll admit she's got some power in that tiny body, but she's a loose canon. Did you see the look in her eyes when she was fighting those Tyrants?"

"Yes I did. This makes it perfect though. I now know for sure that she's going to stay on our side because she's enjoying it."

"She's also staying for you...she likes you and you know it."

"Of course I know, she brought me back to life. She wouldn't of done that unless she had feelings for me."

"What about you?"

Jassi held her breath, waiting to hear a reply, but there was none. She finally had to take a breath and still no sound. Jassi felt a hand tap her shoulder. She spun around to deliver a punch, but her arm was grabbed by the figure.

"Ease-dropping Jassi?" Sephiroth let go of her arm and smirked. "One day that curiosity will get the better of you."

"Yeah I know, but that day isn't today. You don't scare me, you know."

"You're probably right. You have a fiery spirit that refuses to back down. So even if I do scare you...you'd never show it."

"How is it you know so much about me?"

Sephiroth pulled the file out of his jacket and handed it to her. "Saul and I will be working in the library. You have some reading you will want to get done."

Jassi took the Shinra labs folder in her hands and nodded. "Yes, you're right I do want to get this read. I will be in the living room." With her arms wrapped around the folder, clutching the folder with care as she made her way down the stairs.

As she made her way down, Saul passed her with the crate in his hands, heading after Sephiroth. Jassi glared at him. He was being too nosey in her and Sephiroth's business.

"I see you're in a good mood." Saul smirked a bit then it quickly went away when her glare followed him.

Jassi didn't waste her time explaining herself to him. She just wanted to read the papers inside the file she was clutching. She sat down on the maroon sofa that was left of the stairs. Jassi placed the folder in her lap and looked down at it for a moment. "It's okay Jassi, it's just your life this could alter...no big deal." After talking to herself, Jassi opened the file folder. The first page had just a few small paragraphs on it. The main thing that caught her attention was a picture of a little girl with red hair and green eyes. "Oh my god!" It was Jassi as a child, but a very young child. In the picture she appeared to be four or five. A time in her life that she had no memory of. After a moment she began reading the words by the picture, reading them in a soft whisper.

"Experiment number 1-2-7, subject's name known as Jassi or number 22. We have injected DNA of the alien being known as Jenova as well as from experiment specimen, Sephiroth. It has been an hour: no signs have shown any change. Two hours: the young child has become angry, showing signs of violence and what seems to be electrical charges. Two hours and ten minutes: A scientist tried to calm down the child, and he was shocked to death by electrical charges stronger than natural lightning. Three hours: three more scientists have been killed, and the specimen was given a tranquilizer so she could be moved to her `room'."

Jassi looked up from the paper with a blank look. She had been one of Hojo's play toys and never knew it till now. Then a moment later another thought entered her mind; Cloud had to of known. How did Hojo get her to experiment on in the first place? Did her mother just let him take her? Jassi flipped to the next page. It was a bunch of numbers on a graph, as were the next ten pages. Finally she came upon a page of nothing but words.

"Last experiment using Jenova calls failed. New specimen is female, hoping her body will react better to the alien cells. The specimen is the age of an infant, given to myself by Mr. Shinra himself. He claims a woman could serve no better purpose to him."

Jassi couldn't continue reading. The short amount she read was almost too much. She slowly began to realize what that fully meant. She wasn't a Strife...she was a Shinra. She felt like screaming aloud. Everything Jassi had ever known was a lie. The air around her became sickening to breath. Her thought and vision became a blur; she couldn't believe it. Then her sight went dark, and her body fell to the floor. A spark fired in her mind that caused a chain reaction deep down in the back of her memory. Reading the small amount of information caused her childhood memories to emerge. Soon Jassi's dreams were filled with the haunting truth of her past.

"Wake up little specimen, today is the big day." Hojo tapped on the reinforced glass window of Jassi's room.

It was a small metal room with a cot-like bed and a few trinkets made from twisting and bending melted metal. A small girl in black pants and a black t-shirt sat up on the bed with a yawn and stretch. It was Jassi at the age of five. Her face was slightly chubby from baby fat, as well as her limbs and gut. She had crimson hair barely down to her shoulders. She slowly slipped her feet into off-white slip on shoes before making her way to the door. "Okay Hojo, I'm ready to meet my daddy." Jassi's young self smiled brightly as Hojo began opening the door.

"Yup, Jassi, after he sees what your capable of; he will want you to be his personal body guard. Who would suspect you of being able to cause harm? So do you remember the different attacks?"

Jassi nodded with a large smile. "My daddy will be so proud of me." The innocent girl walked by Hojo's side towards the elevator.

The two were silent the rest of the way, until they were stopped by a doorman to the president's office.

"Professor Hojo, hello. Let me make sure the president is ready for you. Two of your lab associates are setting up some targets." The man entered through the two maroon colored doors, leaving Hojo and Jassi waiting.

After a moment the young Jassi began fidgeting and humming a merry medley.

"Jassi...you can fight like an adult. To impress your father, you must also act like an adult. Be patient."

The child's humming stopped as she slowly nodded. "Okay, I'll behave. Don't worry, I won't mess anything up." She gave a sweet smile up at the man who had poked, stabbed, and zapped her all her life, but Jassi didn't seem to care because it was all she ever had known. It seemed normal to her, and Hojo had never directly harmed her.

"You can come in now Professor."

Hojo smiled and walked slightly ahead of Jassi through the office doors. "Hello Mr. President."

"Hurry up Hojo. You better impress me this time or Scarlet's weapons project will get most of your funding."

Hojo held in a glare and shuddered at the emotions her was holding in. "Yes sir...this is specimen 22 of our Jenova project, and here's a demonstration of what she can do at the mere age of five." Hojo moved his glasses back up on his nose and gestured Jassi to take the center spot.

The child walked slowly as she stared at the man who was suppose to be her father.

Hojo stepped back and smiled with excitement. "Okay Jassi go ahead."

Jassi gulped down the nervousness that was making breathing difficult. She had already looked around and located the five targets she was suppose to `attack'. In her mind she knew should start out with the easy moves, and end with the best...so she began. Her tiny palm was aimed towards a target on her right. Within a few short seconds a lightning bolt as tall, if not taller, than herself flew through the air and blasted through the front of the target. Jassi knew she couldn't waste any time so as her first bolt struck, she had already fired out another to the next target. Again, it hit without fail. Her hands, placed together, began to glow yellow. She tore them apart and pointed them at the ceiling, though her eyes were staring at the two targets in front of her. Two blasts of electricity shot up into the air, but began to curve down and forward. In mid air there was a small explosion that sent each bolt towards their own targets. In the blink of an eye, both targets had been destroyed, leaving just one left.

Hojo watched with anticipation. His specimen hadn't flawed once so far...the president had to be impressed. Yet, it was still always odd to see a mere child show such power. None of his other specimens gained the ability to wield any magic without the use of materia.

"Stop, I've seen enough."

Jassi and Hojo stopped all movement and looked at the man behind the desk.

"Hojo get rid of this little girl she is a waste of our funding. Women are not meant for combat. She'd be dead in the first five minutes."

Hojo didn't get to argue, Jassi spoke first. "But I'm not don yet. I didn't miss any targets...why don't you think I can do it?"

"You're a child...you will screw up sooner or later, and it'll be most likely sooner."

"No I won't!" Jassi's eyes filled up with tears that made her vision blurry until she blinked, causing three tears to slide down her face. "Daddy, why don't you want me?"

The president's eyes went wide, then glared at the red-headed girl. "I am not your father! I never had a daughter! You are a waste of my time. Guards, take Hojo and his lab rat bacl to his laboratory!"

Jassi was stunned as the huge man, she had been dying to meet for months, yelled at her. His words felt like knives stabbing at her. "No, daddy, you do love me!" Her eyes were red as lightning sparks exploded within them. "I'll show you I can do it!" Suddenly every piece of electrical equipment surged with energy and exploded. As each explosion occurred, electricity gathered around Jassi till she was glowing yellow. That energy formed into a ball the size of her, and flew up to the ceiling. On impact the ball shattered as if it were made of glass and nearly fifty bolts flew about the room.

Hojo jumped behind a pillar as two sparks blasted against the floor where he once stood. Two guards and a lab scientist got hit, and fell to the ground. The president, however, did not move. He stared at the little girl, just as she stared at him.

"You are going to be put in a place where not even the sun can reach you." Mr. Shinra smirked at the child with evil malice.

Jassi's eyes widened. She hadn't helped at all by showing her true power...she made it worse, or maybe he would never accept her. Either way, she was angry. "You will regret saying that." The remaining bolts that were flying about in the air suddenly changed their direction. The bolts flew right for the president and began to form together on their journey.

Hojo saw a smirk on Jassi's face and his eyes went wide. "Oh no...Jassi don't!"

It was too late, Jassi had made up her mind. This man was evil and deserved to be punished...and Jassi was the girl to do it. The room flashed with yellow light as the force of the attack sent Shinra's chair back until it finally fell backwards. The president did not move once his unconscious body stopped sliding across the tiled floor.

"Oh my god, Jassi, you killed the president!" Hojo ran up towards her, and grabbed her arm tightly. "What the hell do you think you were doing?!"

Jassi turned her head quickly up at the professor. "That hurts!"

"Too bad, do you have any idea of what you've just done?!"

"The president is alive...he's breathing!" Hojo's other lab assistant declared as he stood up from kneeling down to check the man's pulse.

"Good...but you're not off the hook Jassi, you're done...you're just another failed experiment!"

Suddenly her vision began to blur again, and all went black. "Jassi...Jassi, are you okay?"

Her eyes opened to see Sephiroth standing above her as she laid on the sofa. She quickly sat up and looked around...she was in the old familiar mansion's living room again. It must have been some kind of vision or memory of her childhood that she had forgotten up until now. "Um...how long was I passed out?"

"I don't know...I just came down stairs to find you passed out on the floor." Sephiroth sat down on the sofa's arm, looking down at Jassi. "So was it the folder, or do you not feel well?"

"I feel fine...I'm...I'm..." Jassi placed her face in her hands and sighed in deeply.

"An experiment? It doesn't feel good does it...to know that you were given to some mad man to do as he pleased to you? I told you we had more in common than you thought."

Jassi nodded slowly and looked back up at Sephiroth. He was...smiling at her. She couldn't tell if it was genuine or not, but she didn't care at this point in time. "Are we staying here for a while?"

"Yes...we'll be leaving once night falls."

"Okay...I'm going to get some sleep. I need to get some energy." Jassi slowly stood up and gave a small smile with sigh at Sephiroth. "But before I go...I have a question. Why did you spare me that night at Nibelheim years ago?"

The question caught him off guard. He was silent for a moment as he tried to recall the night of insanity. Yes...he did spare her, he even touch her cheek with a smile. "I honestly have no idea...something deep inside me just made me do it. Must be destiny...it was not your destiny to die that night by my hand."

Jassi nodded and padded his shoulder softly. "See you tonight. Wake me up, will you?" She didn't wait for his answer as she headed upstairs to a bedroom on her left, away from the library door where she knew they would be traveling about often among the day. The bed looked so inviting to her, she flopped down and wrapped her arms around a pillow as she laid down on her side. Jassi closed her eyes with a slight smile of comfort that the bed provided.