Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Switch: The Replacement Turks ❯ A City Without Anyone ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII is owned by Square-Enix and it's affiliates, not I. So don't start getting any ideas. Please read and review, and most importantly, enjoy.

-Final Fantasy VII-
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Switch: The Replacement Turks

Chapter 1: A City Without Anyone

The night air was stale and chilled to the bone, but the sounds were as vibrant as the billboards and plush lips delivering this days current events.

“According to Shin-Ra's head of urban development, renovation of the headquarters will consist of the introduction of a railway for transporting employees to the outmost edges of the upper plate…”

Rain and the noise gradually drowned him. Listening to the news was an out of the ordinary thing for him. It was hard to trust it, as well as to understand how others could. They lived in a city owned by the very corporation that operated the media. They decided the news, not the people who lived it - he had heard that from a raving drunk one equally cold and lonely night down at the Fifth Street pub.

Sighed, and realized he could see it, his breath. The sounds of passing vehicles somewhere below him and machinery, a humming akin to that of fans, resounded in his ears.

“… yet currently, all accusations of a reactor mishap causing the disappearance of Sephiroth have been met with firm denial. In other news, there was much celebration in lower Midgar this morning as dozens of Shin-Ra troops arrived home, the conflict in Wutai coming to a close. The projected estimate for when the remaining soldiers will return is set for…”

Black strands carrying moisture marred his vision. Seiji slowly wiped his slick, dampened bangs from in front of his eyes and turned to face the anchorwoman, glowing vividly on the video-billboard, staring off into space. At around twenty feet high, she was much bigger than him. Seiji was soaked - the black coat was light, and hid his fingers with deep pockets, but didn't do much to shield from the incessant rainfall. Just the breeze; night air that threatened to freeze him in an ice cold display of mortality. The light from the screen was a bluish green, like the smoke from the reactors that encircled the darkened city. It cast a strange radiance around him, shining advertisements silhouetting his figure.

“…though our sources have told us the group is named AVALANCHE, their goal and association with Shin-Ra cannot be made public at this time. That's all for this evening's Midgar news. The time is 22:20 pm. Rainfall is expected to cease sometime past 23:30. ID Sensors on lower Midgar trains will remain active until daybreak. This announcement has been brought to you by the Shin-Ra Electric Company: bringing you mako to keep your life in motion. Have a goodnight.”

He shivered with a grimace. It could have been the smile of the twenty foot woman before the crimson diamond company logo replaced her, but he felt more the wind to blame. It was one of those visceral, sudden upward-sweeping gusts, shifting the rain sideways and against him, damn near. The kind of late night squall that froze you in place, bracing, until it passed. Seiji did just that.

It was getting late; too late for braving a rainstorm. It made him ask stupid questions in his head, again. Seiji never felt right when his inner thoughts became more like a conversation.

Why was he out here? Better yet, why was it so goddamn cold? All were questions that lacked any definite answers, and fueled the paranoid idea that he was slowly losing it with this solitary attitude thing.

Heading in the direction of his flat, Seiji took careless, knowing steps across the rain soaked concrete rooftops, deliberate strides. The hum of electricity from the nearby billboards sang as loudly as the motor vehicles passing beneath him, as he traversed a pair of wooden planks suspended between two of the housing structures. Unsafe.

Air ducts and spinning fans and that slow grind that was machinery surrounded him. That and artificial light - which he escaped, venturing off the edge of the structure he was now on, four stories high it seemed. Though it reality it was much higher off of the actual earth than he perceived. It would rain here a lot these next few months, he knew. It always had - and it would fair the suspended rotting pizza known as Midgar no better. A massive, if despairing technopolis only to be conquered by rust. Of course, everything that made this city was artificial. So all of the steel, concrete, and wiring could be replaced… But the cycle would only start again.

The route to Seiji's domicile was one less traveled; in fact, only traveled by himself. From the rooftop he was on he descended the fire escape at its edge, grated steel sounding off with each step, echoing polyphonically alongside rainfall. He hoped the railing and crossed the thin gap between buildings to the opposite fire escape, though constructed differently - not with actual steps, but a ladder to scale instead.

To anyone else, to see Seiji traversing these rooftops might have seemed like wandering, but through consistency he had come to memorize these paths, secret to those on the ground who resigned to pre-constructed pathways or mechanical transport. The trains were nice - always interesting, but never as interesting as the rain and wind clashing against him.

It didn't take long before he arrived at his destination. This section of housing, known simply as block eighteen (another uninspired numbering scheme similar to that of the sectors went into their streets and most complexes) were all very closely packed. The brick wall of the neighboring flat and the window that led into the back Seiji's own had about nine feet of space between them.

It was enough for him to drop down onto the ledge and enter the window he had purposely left open. He was one of the few people that didn't lock their doors. Seiji didn't have much to steal. That interested anyone but him, anyway. Anyone in that great a need for simple furniture would have an easier time just asking.

With practiced ease, he slipped in swiftly through the window and into his living area. Took a moment to get his bearings; it may not have been pitch dark, but it was close - faint shapes outlined by some `moonlight', or maybe Reactor 3's emissions into the sky. The carpeting beneath his feet was slightly dampened, as was evident by a very slight sinking feeling when his boots made contact. The rainfall invaded through the open window. It was a small price to pay for a moment of `fresh' air; the only air with any semblance of fresh in this city, anyway.

He lived alone, but even then, his apartment didn't have a particularly roomy feel to it. Three rooms - the one with the bed, the one with the toilet and bath, and the other with the couch and the strange floor transition into a kitchen, where someone was too lazy to make a wall. Seiji didn't complain though. He barely made enough to live in Midgar city, and not the slums below - and for him, that was suitable. Those who found their way down there, by whatever means, typically couldn't pull themselves out. Anywhere was better than the sector slums.

He'd leave this miserable metropolis eventually, very soon in fact; especially if the heat was to come down on him too hard thanks to that last job. Seiji scowled into nothingness, thinking for the first time in awhile that the job with AVALANCHE wasn't a terribly smart idea. The group was too new, too sudden, and in way over their heads. It simply wouldn't last-

Seiji's floors were wooden, and they creaked every so slightly. He had been pretty well attuned to the silence, and with this sudden arch and whine of floorboards under stress, he was pulled out of his pondering state and sent into alert. Someone else had gotten in, in this very room, and they were trying not to move. The air faintly tasted of cigarette smoke.

Further away from the window and closer to the main entryway into his apartment, the light dulled into nothingness, losing a fight with oblivion about half way across the floor. Seiji could not see the intruder, but he knew the source of the noise, without looking. He shrugged off his coat, wet and bothering him now with drifting droplets of water that rolled from his collar to down against his neck, where they would gradually find their way down his back.

He stepped into the darkness ahead of him. Felt the exhalation of breath from the trespasser, and in an instant, Seiji swiftly swung his arm around the body of the unexpected guest, spinning and reaching out with his other arm to drag, from the scabbard perched against the wall, his sword. Cold steel passionately closed in on the throat, thin wrists wrenched behind the intruder's back as Seiji held, what was most certainly a female, in an alarmingly precise interrogative manner.

“How the fuck did you get in here?”

The tobacco slim fell from her hands during this maneuver and collided against the carpet in a flurry of sparks, before dying immediately. She coughed, but didn't struggle as he motioned her into the slant of light, blade still firm in place at her throat. Her figure was slowly revealed; fair skin, crimson lace dress that shimmered against the glow of the mako-green Midgar night sky.

“I sincerely hope not all your guests receive this treatment. Let go of me now, please.” Her red lips pursed in the most amusingly mock-erotic fashion as she spoke, as haughtily as ever.

Deadly steel resigned away from Scarlet's throat. It would not be in his best interest to critically wound Shin-Ra's head of weapons development, or ruin her dress. Especially when it began to dawn on him that she wasn't the only other prowler in this room.

 

He reached for the closest wall and flicked on the light switch. The ceiling lamp hanging from the center of the room was an intense contrast to the dark before. Seiji winced and while he came to stare at her, Scarlet blinked a bit. The six or odd Shin-Ra officers with automatic weapons stationed around the room seemed unfazed, however.

He sheathed the weapon quickly and tossed it rather unceremoniously to his floor, where it clattered and rang as the hilt hit the wall. Scarlet looked at him with distaste. It was a particularly expensive blade, but Seiji didn't have reason to care, seeing as how it was stolen. He walked over to his couch, where he sat and slouched, looking at the woman in the red dress with a similar gaze, before turning to the soldier stationed just at his right. Seiji reached up and grabbed his uniform sleeve, having a look at the Shin-Ra logo stitched into it. The other weapons remained poised on him, but did nothing; the lone soldier made a `wha?' kind of sound and looked to Scarlet, his face hidden under the strange helmet all the men shared.

“You've been invited up to Shin-Ra Headquarters, Seiji - in a rather urgent sense.”

“I can tell. You broke in.”

She grinned. It was pretty disgusting, self-aggrandizing as ever. “We didn't have to. You left the door unlocked.”

“Whatever.” Seiji looked off to the side so that his side-prominent black hair would shield his face from having to suffer Scarlet's perpetually conceited attitude. Or maybe she was just entirely correct and he didn't feel like dealing with it. “I really would like to join you, but I'm kinda busy.”

“Oh, I see, busy wandering Shin-Ra property?” He could hear her eyes rolling, and he began to zone out, making a face and trying to figure out just what the hell that comment meant. It was a neighborhood, not someone's property. Scarlet continued, Seiji's attention unknowingly lost. “Quit the street urchin bullshit. Since you can plainly see what we're willing to do to get you, rather than offer the illusion of choice in the matter, you will be coming with us. This is at both the request of President Shin-Ra, myself, and your brother.”

He heard that last word and paused for a second, snapping back to the reality with the guns pointed on him, and the blonde bitch in crimson staring him down. Seiji slowly turned to look at her, tilting his head back against the soft brown leather, eyelids lowering to a fine point. “Why does he want me?” It came out as more of a statement than a question.

“As I stated before, the matter is urgent. All will be explained when we get there, Seiji. Trust me.” Scarlet squatted a bit and retrieved the fallen cigarette butt from the floor. Making another distasteful look, she handed it to the nearest soldier, who didn't have an initial reaction for a bit, finally deciding to crush it and keep it in his leather-bound palm.

Trust me. Seiji truly felt like being sarcastic, but at the same time this sense of lethargy swallowed him up, as if it wasn't a point worth arguing. He didn't like being associated with the Shin-Ra; nor did he ever particularly care for the odd jobs they had given him, and he sure as shit didn't like the staff. But seeing as how he didn't have any options, and whatever this emergency was could prove to be interesting, he submitted.

“I enjoy your visits, Scarlet. Wish you could stick around longer.” He came to a stand and sighed. “Right then, let's go - Of course, I'll be taking this.” Seiji retrieved his fallen sword, gold scabbard and all, and slung it over his back.

He gave Scarlet a very `lead the way' sort of motion, to which she responded, “Reno will be most happy to see you. I'm sure he misses you.”

“That's ironic.” He didn't miss his brother. Seiji attempted to move past her toward the exit, the Shin-Ra soldiers following in his wake, before Scarlet put a hand to his chest, and they all stopped. Her long, cherry fingernails sprawled and headed upwards, crossing his neck, and then cheek, and finally moving through his hair. She pulled her hand away slightly and rubbed her fingertips together. Another distasteful look made its way to the surface, then a laugh. A haughty fucking laugh, at that.

“Your haircut is atrocious.”

* * *

 

Shin-Ra made the best airplanes money and manpower could afford.

But flights always made Reno anxious. During his first year or so, he kind of figured it was the constant shaking; the rattling of steel and the way the seats felt as if their bolts could be tightened just a -little- more. But time went on and he realized that he wasn't afraid of flying, or paranoid - in fact, he rather liked it. No, the problem, his restlessness, stemmed from the fact that long trips left him completely, unreservedly bored. There was of course only one cure for this.

“So this guy just sits there, in the back corner, hardly ordering anything, like all evening. He looked damn old, scarred too; glass eye, no lie. And I'm telling you, this was like the table next to us, so he could hear everything we were saying. So like, someone, that one girl, from Pharmaceuticals, she goes off about how she doesn't think the Sephiroth story is jack, right? Like its publicity or something.”

The seats in the gunship were more like beds. Reno utilized this while telling his story by trying to sit in one of them like it was both bed and chair, gesturing along with his hands. Rufus interrupted momentarily at the mention of Sephiroth.

“It isn't.”

“I know that, you know? I mean, I saw the guy, and marketing didn't seem his thing. But that's beside the point—so I'm telling her that, right, and this guy, the guy next to us who's been all quiet, just gets into this crazy story about how he'd seen Sephiroth in battle, and this and that, and I almost believed him, until he got into this -one- bullshit story…” Reno continued, his fingers idly adjusting the goggles on his head. He noticed there was a loose strand of fabric on the cuff of his coat. He watched the Vice President of Shin-Ra Electric, quietly listening and reading a newspaper that must've been a day old.

“What was it?”

Reno leaned in, scratching his ear, and lowered his voice for effect. “Okay, this old man, he gets lost in like the Midgar swamplands, and this gigantic fucking snake attacks him. Like it just mauls the shit out of him—and then at the last second, passing through: Sephiroth. Saves the guy, kills the snake; in less than a minute. Pops loses an eye, though.”

Rufus Shin-Ra neatly folded the paper and looked at him slightly taken aback. “…That does sound like bullshit.” He raises his eyebrows, as if he hadn't expected to be as surprised as he was.

Reno leaned back, nodding. He randomly fished a toothpick from out one of his pockets and chewed on the end coolly. “Yeah, I know. I don't care how strong he was. No one guy finishes a fight like that in a minute, let alone by himself.” He looked off to the side, staring into the orange afternoon sky, one littered with clouds glowing softly from the midday sun.

Rufus meant to reply, but suddenly received a phone call. From the minute he spoke into the cell phone, Reno gathered it was one of those business things, so the exchange of words was filtered out, having not concerned him in the slightest. His eyes roamed the interior of the passenger airship.

Tseng mindlessly shuffled through papers and documents, most likely trying to cram all the important, if oblique details none of the others dared bother themselves with. Every once and awhile he'd brush his hair back stressfully, before it could get in the way. The man never cut it - Reno was beginning to assume it was religious or something. That'd be ridiculous, though. Tseng was just a man of odd principals.

He met Rude's glance, or at least, he assumed he did. Always was difficult when the man wore those glasses every second of the day. The tanned, bald colleague nodded slowly and looked back to the chess game he was participating in at the back of the plane. It was his move, and whatever the opponent with graying dark-brown hair did, it left him noticeably puzzled.

Verd was the eldest of the Turks. He was aging, and it was easily seen. Despite this, he never used being well over fifty years of age as a handicap or even an excuse. In many ways it was a little unnecessary that he decided to come along - but then, Reno would think that. Seeing as how Verd's reason was simply to make sure Reno did not fuck up.

 

Absentmindedly he stood, running fingers through his scarlet hair, walking past Tseng and away from the other Turks, stopping just before the door that led to the cockpit. He looked at it for a second, and then figured it wasn't worth it to bother them. A feminine inquiry caught his attention, turning Reno around.

“What are you looking for?” The young engineer's glasses glinted from the overhead lighting that traveled down the middle of the airship in such a way that Reno could not see beyond them. She wore her auburn hair in a ponytail, and had a very expensive black suit, with the long, frumpy skirts. It seemed rather dressy for an engineer, and did not match the style of her co-workers, two men about her age, who were a little more dressed-down for the occasion, and quietly chatting amongst themselves just a few seats from her.

Reno shrugged, initiating chit-chat. “I'm not sure. Looking forward to seeing Wutai?”

She frowned. He still couldn't see beyond the glare. “Not seeing the war. But hopefully we'll have more to see than that.”

Reno was slightly puzzled. Most Shin-Ra employees had found the war had offered new opportunities, jobs, and the like. Then again, most of them didn't have to leave their fancy offices to experience it. “You don't like war? Well, neither do I.”

She smiled warmly. “Then we might have something in common.”

Reno couldn't help but smile back. The young scientist or whatever she was turned out to be very social in a rather friendly way. The kind of person you'd like to sit next to on a flight anywhere - heated military activity zone or not. “It'll be ending soon, you know,” he said after awhile, still standing, referring to the ongoing struggle for control of the Wutai area once more. The plane quaked under his feet just slightly.

“For us… But not them, no…” She looked off to the side, eyes roaming to the closest diminutive square window, scanning the clouds. He could see her eyes now. Hazel, rather pretty - though not initially striking, there was something deep about them. It was also evident in her tone.

Reno scratched his ear, and noticed the loose blue strand unrelenting, on the cuff of his suit. “…I guess you're right.” The plane shuddered violently, like a car hitting a speed bump at sixty. He stumbled a few steps ahead for a second, attempting to regain his balance, surprised noises around him. There was another shudder, following the first almost immediately, and Reno, unseated, was propelled off his feet and straight into the ceiling of the airplane cabin, smashing into fluorescent lighting with the back of his head. A shower of sparks singed his collar and broken glass fell into his hair and besieged the floor around him as he landed with a heavy thud against rivet-textured flooring, unconscious.


* * *

--That's it for the first chapter of Switch! Hope you enjoyed it - there's a lot more to Seiji than angst, sides you'll see more of as time progresses, and more characters will be introduced, new and old. The fate of the Turks, Scarlet's proposal, and the introduction of the female SOLDIER Lilith will be revealed in Chapter 2: Cold Expectations.--