Cross Roads

[06.12.00] » by Vincent Alexander

"Cross Roads" Vincent Alexander- Note: based on alternative timeline in which the incedent at Nibel did not occur five years preceding the game

Lance Richardson laughed to himself as he entered the room on the second floor of the mansion. THE mansion. ShinRa mansion. The large house in the north eastern corner of Nibelheim, a town nestled at the base of Mount Nibel on the western continent. Lance had travled the miles from Junon to get a chance at the treasures that could likely be found in the old mansion. At first Lance had been surprised that the rumors about ghosts in the mansion had kept it from being pilfered. But he had soon found that the stories were true... there was definately something in the mansion.

Lance had heard the erie noises since he had entered the building. Sounds of chains rattling, metal clamoring. Low moans and the occasional high pitched wail. Lance had ignored them and focused on the job at hand. After searching the lower floor of the house and finding nothing of interest, Lance had gone upstairs and to the left. This was where he had found what was obviously the jackpot. There, sitting near the far wall, was a safe.

Lance set to work immediately. He opened his tool satchel and removed from it a stethascope. Placing the sound piece to the door of the safe, he began turning the dial. He began by turning right, and was rewarded by a click as the dial reached 36. Lance's eyes widened in surprise as a new sound rose from the safe. Ticking. Lance smiled. So he was being timed. He had no idea how long he had or what would happen if he ran out of time. He began spinning the dial again, this time counterclockwise, and stopped at 10. He spun it clockwise again, and stopped at 59. Then the dial began spinning by itself. Lance jumped back and watched as the dial slowed and stopped on 97. Lance pulled out his hand gun and pointed it at the safe.

Nothing happened. Somewhat spooked, but curious, Lance moved to the large safe and pulled down on the handle. To his surprise, the door swung open, and out lumbered a massive beast. It was at least ten feet tall, half red and half purple. It was a giant mass of muscle with long, razor sharp claws and teeth.

And it was utterly dead.

Lance looked up at the creature and wondered how long it had been in the safe. Doubtless the previous owners had fed it and had it trained to kill whoever might try to escape with their valuables. But now the beast could do nothing but smell, and it smelled quite badly. Lance kissed his piece of lucky materia, a steal. Lance reached between the creature's legs and groped about in the darkness for whatever was important enough to warrent a guard of such size. His hands brushed against a piece of metal. Smiling, he grasped it and pulled it from the safe. Lance lept to his feet.

"What the hell is this!?" he cried out. A key. He had traveled across the ocean for a damn key! He was enraged. Calm yourself! Lance told himself. Then, with glee, Lance realized that whatever room could warrant having its key under such heavy security, had to have something worth while in it. He pocketed the key and made his way to the entrance of the room. As he stepped over the threshhold, he heard a sound behind him. Spinning, Lance watched as a large, red sphere rolled from the safe. Lance walked over and picked it up. He examined it closely, seeing the light refracted through it. It looked like a piece of materia. A piece of red materia. A piece of summon materia!! Lance let out a cry of joy. This alone made his journey worthwhile. How much could he get for a piece of summon materia? A large sum of gil he was sure.

Lance placed the sphere in his satchel and left the room. His search of the rest of the house proved futile, as there were no locked rooms, and no treasure in the open rooms. Annoyed, Lance leaned against a large stone column in the corner of one room. Suddenly, the wall gave way behind him and he fell backwards into a secret pasage.

Lance looked around. It was more a tower than a passage, a great vertical column of gray brick and mortar. Below him, the rickety wooden stairs spiraled down into the darkness. Lance smiled. Now this was interesting. Lance carefully picked his way down the stairs, taking care not to fall through or off of the stairs. Lance reached the bottom and found a long, dark hallway that ended in a door. Lance smiled; he was willing to wager a gold chocobo that the door was locked.

Lance moved into the darkness. He walked slowly towards the end of the hall, wary of the odd sounds that had so suddenly become louder since entering the basement. As he approached the doorway, his thieves intuition, filtered through the piece of yellow materia on his armlet, began to act up. He frowned, stopping, and squinted into the darkness. Was it his immagination, or was there a man kneeling before the door way? Even as he noticed it, it began to rise; long, muscular arms were attached to the wide shoulders. But most disconcerting was its head. Both of them. The zombie like creature began to shuffle towards Lance, who turned and prepared to make a hasty retreat. He came face to face with another zombie and saw, in the half light, that it was half white and half black. Lance stumbled away from the nearer monster, drawing his peacemaker and unloading it into the zombie's chest. It didn't even flinch. Lance shuddered, realizing that he was about to die. He backed towards the wall, training his gun from one to the other.

Lance jumped in surprise as his back bumped into something behind him. He reached behind him and realized that it was only the wall. No wait! It was wood! A door! Lance groped for the door knob, even as he brandished his weapon before him. He located it, but to his surprise it was locked. It was locked! Lance pulled the key from his pocket and inserted it into the lock. Suddenly the door swung open and Lance pulled himself into the doorway. He slammed the door behind him, and heard the scratching of the monsters at the wood. He locked the door, uncertain if zombies could use door knobs, but unwilling to find out.

Lance sat down and cought his breath. He dug into his satchel and found a match, intending to use it as a light. He found, however, an old oil lamp on the ground and used the match to light it. Lance took a moment to look around the room that was so important as to have been under such heavy guard. He was shocked at what he found. Not treasure at all, but coffins. Five of them in fact, each of which was opened and displaying a skeleton for all the world to see. The family morgue. No wander it had been locked. Lance frowned. He couldn't stay in the room forever, or he would share the fate of the monster in the safe. He looked about the room, hoping for a weapon stronger than the one he carried. His eyes slid slowly across the coffins and stopped at the one in the back. Unlike the other ones, it had not been opened. Lance walked over to it and looked down at the thick dust that had gathered on the coffin. It had not been opened for years. Lance didn't know what to expect from inside the long box, so he braced himself and threw the lid aside. Inside, the coffin was incredibly plush and in amazingly good condition. But that was not what Lance now stared at.

Inside the coffin was a tall man, dressed completely in black with the exception of his cape, which was blood red. He had extremely pale skin and long, black hair. His left arm had been replaced with a massive metal claw. As the light shone on the man, his eyes opened slowly. Lance's jaw dropped. The man's irises were red.

"I was sleeping," the man said coldly. He's alive!?

"Sleeping..." repeated Lance stupidly.

"Yes," answered the man. "Now kindly replace the lid."

"Why are you sleeping here?" Lance asked.

"Because this is where I sleep," the man answered.

"But why?"

"Because I have sinned, and I must now live in nightmare."

"Yeah," Lance said, "if I slept here I'd have nightmares, too."

The man sat up in the coffin, and using his prosthetic arm, pulled the lid back over himself.

"Now leave," Lance heard from within the coffin. But Lance was more interested in something he had seen in the coffin. Something that could be his salvation.

"That was a pretty nice piece you had there," Lance said. No answer. "A quiksilver. Man, you only see those things in the Turks..."

The lid flew off and suddenly the man was standing balanced on the side of the coffin. He looked down at Lance, who placed his hand on the handle of his gun.

"How do you know of the Turks?" asked the man. "Who doesn't know of the Turks?" Lance asked. Finding no answer forth coming, he pressed on. "The Turks are a branch of ShinRa Electric..."

"Electric..." the man whispered to himself.

"...they recruit prospective SOLDIERs."

"Recruit SOLDIERs," the man whispered, "That's new."

"They also are rumored to be in on a lot of dirty stuff on the side. Murder. Kidnapping specimens for Hojo..."

"Hojo?" the tall man asked.

"Yeah, Hojo, the head scientist at ShinRa."

"What about Gast or Lucrecia?" the man asked.

"Uh," Lance strained his memory. "Oh! Gast resigned some twenty-three years ago. They said he was screwing a research specimen. And I can't say I remember a Lucrecia."

"Hojo's... wife," the tall man spat the last word with disgust.

"Hojo's married?" Lance asked surprised. "He's so damn ugly!"

The tall man stepped from the coffin and stood less than a foot from Lance. Lance suddenly became worried for his life.

"What do you know about Hojo?" the man asked.

"He's the head of research and developement for ShinRa Electric--"

"Electric, not Weapons?" the man asked.

"Whoa! You have been out of it for a while," Lance said. "ShinRa became an electric company shortly after the war ended. Then they helped develope Midgar into the capital of the planet's industry. It doesn't make them any less evil th--"

A shot rang out, and Lance fell to the ground, holding his stomach. He looked up at the man, his eyes asking Why? The man pointed his gun at Lance's head and pulled the trigger. The man placed his gun back in the hoster at his hip. Another sin, he thought. Hojo was in Midgar; Lucrecia was gone. The tall man had to right an ancient wrong. He knelt and rumaged through the thief's satchel. The only item of interest was a large red orb.

The Yin-Yangs had eventually given up on trying to bust the door open and had resorted to waiting out the live flesh. All four pairs of eyes turned towards the door as it slid open slowly. Both creatures prepared to rush the man as soon as he had left the room. But instead of a man, a large blue beast sprung from the room. It lept upon the first Yin-Yang and tore both of its heads off. Then the creature turned upon the other Yin-Yang. Fire errupted from the beast's mouth and covered the Yin-Yang, which fell upon the ground, twitching spasmodically. The beast ran from the basement.

Cloud Strife trailed only a few steps behind his friend, SOLDIER 1st class, Zack. Cloud had been surprised to find anyone in ShinRa's military service that resembled him so much. Zack, Cloud thought, is who I would have been if I had been strong enough to be in SOLDIER. The air in Costa Del Sol was warm, and Cloud removed his helmet. It was uncomfortably warm, but infinately better than staying on that airship another moment. The Highwind was nice enough, but it still rocked enough to make Cloud unable to keep down any of his food.

As Cloud, Zack, and the rest of Cloud's attack squad disembarked from the massive airship, they passed a tall man dressed in black. None of the others payed the man any heed, but Cloud stopped and stared at him. Cloud felt that he knew the man, but could not place him with any name or memories.

"Have we... met?" Cloud asked.

Vincent Valentine looked down at the spikey-haired blonde boy. He is the one I saw in my dreams, the one who killed Sephiroth. Vincent frowned.

"No," he answered. "We haven't."

Vincent watched as the boy jogged off to catch up with his squad mates. But... the last thing I saw of him... he had SOLDIER's eyes. Vincent dismissed the idea and continued walking towards the airship. The man at the hatch smiled at Vincent and took his ticket.

"Why yuse goin' ta Midgar?" asked the man.

"Business," Vincent answered.

"That was some wierd-ass deja-vu," Cloud said when he caught up with Zack. The older boy smiled at him.

"He was a wierd looking guy," Zack said. "I think that I've seen him in one of the ShinRa files, or perhaps the newspaper."

"That's it!" Cloud shouted. "That looked like the old leader of the Turks, Valentine."

"No way," Zack answered, "Valentine would be twice that guy's age, and Valentine had much shorter hair."

"But his face..." Cloud argued.

"Did you ever read about Valentine having a prosthetic arm?" Zack asked.

"I guess you're right," Cloud resigned. Then his eyes lit up. "Hey! A weapon shop!"

"Yo! Cloud!" Zack called. "Wait a damn second!" He just watched as the blonde soldier ducked into a doorway.

From the observation deck of the Highwind, Vincent watched Costa Del Sol slowly disappear into the distance. He reached down and felt the handle of the gun at his waist.

Here I come, Hojo.

Cloud stood in the parking lot of the car rental shop and brandished his new katana. He swung it back and forth in wild, untrained arcs.

"I've always wanted a sword like this!" Cloud said, smiling. It was just like Sephiroth's. Okay maybe not exactly like Sephiroth's, but close. "I'll call it Murasame." Like Masamune. As Zack exited the building and tossed the keys of a truck to Private Dincht, Cloud sheathed his new weapon and ran over to Zack.

"How long did you have to save your money to buy that?" Zack asked.

"Uh..." Cloud smiled, "Since I joined up with ShinRa."

"Seven years!" Zack laughed. "And they probably won't even let you keep it!"

"They can't take what they don't know about, Zack," Cloud retorted. Cloud looked at the green truck that they were approaching and his face paled. "We're traveling in that? It must be five years old!" Zack nodded. "Could we at least spend the night here? Leave in the morning?"

"Cloud," Zack said, frowning, "we're supposed to be at the Corel reactor by noon. If you're worried about getting sick, just take some tranquilizers."

"That's okay," Sloud resigned as he pulled himself into the canvas covered bed of the truck. Dincht had climbed in front and started the engine. The other members of the assault squad had already climbed into the back of the truck, and Zack was last to climb in. The truck roared away from Costa Del Sol.

"Hey, Zack..."

"Sick already, Cloud?"

"Naw. I was just wandering, since we're on the western continent, why don't we stop by Gongaga so you can see your folks."

"Perhaps," Zack said thoughtfully.

"Maybe we could go by Nibelheim; I'd like to see my mom, too." And Tifa.

"I'll think about it."

"Thanks."

The closest word to descibing Vincent's emotions was horror. He had been on the obervation deck as the Highwind flew over the mountains on the eastern continent that separated the Junon Area from the Midgar Area. He had been raised in Midgar, and had expected a large city, in reality eight small villages bunched together in a jungle paradise, but had never expected this. At first he did not believe that this could even be Midgar. There was no green in sight. The area around the city had become an arid wasteland. But far more terrifying was the city itself. Vincent had never seen anything like it. A great floating plate, surrounded by massive generators, from the center of which sprung the tall building that was ShinRa Headquarters. Great clouds of green blasted into the air, where they turned black and served to block out the sun. As he watched, one of the massive generators exploded, sending shrapnel high into the sky and fire across the plate.

Vincent shook his head.

The attack squad looked to the resident SOLDIER for their orders. Zack smiled at them and pulled his buster sword from the magnetic circle on his back.

"I'm going to check out the command center," Zack said. "You guys head into the reactor via that service elevator. Remember, your orders are to confirm the existance or lack there of of monsters in the reactor, not to try to cleanse the reactor of monsters. If you see anything, call me. Your Squad Leader has the PHS. Cloud, put that damn sword away and put on your helmet. Move out."

Cloud watched as Zack stepped onto a lift that ran up the side of the cylindrical reactor. Soon he had risen out of sight to the operating room located at the top of the reactor. Then Cloud turned to his squad.

"Okay," Cloud said. "When we get down there, Dincht and Martine will be with me. The other three will go together. Kramer, you're in charge of that group." Kramer nodded. "Okay, let's go!" The squad entered the massive door of the Corel reactor. They followed the train tracks to a large concrete door, behind which lay a service elevator similar to the ones at Junon. Cloud ordered his men to prepare to open fire with their assault rifles on anything that might be past that door. Then he turned and pressed a button. The large concrete door slid upwards. Cloud smiled. Nothing so far. He motioned his squad into the elevator. He pulled the lever on the panel and dropped into darkness.

Each member of the squad gasped as the elevator lowered into the reactor core. It was a massive room that seemed to stretch on infinitely.

"It must stretch all the way under the Gold Saucer," Kramer said. Cloud believed it. When the elevator came to a stop, Cloud stepped off to get a better view of what he had seen from above. There hunderds of rows of large plastic orbs containing monsters. Each was labled SREC Bio Wpn Dev.

"Holy shit," Cloud said.

Vincent walked along the street and watched a cars and trucks rolled by. He was still somewhat shocked by the change in his old romping grounds. Soon he found a cafe a ducked into it. He moved over to the bartender who offered a drink. Vincent accepted, but had no intention of actually drinking the thick, golden liquid. He then asked if there were a automated gil transferer in the establishment and was pointed to a room in back. Upon finding the machine, Vincent pointed his left 'hand' at the machine. His finger tips hinged upwards and a multitude of wires ran from his fingers into the machine. He closed his eyes and began running programs in his mind that had been dormant since being placed in his skull.

Cloud continued into the darker corners of the area. He slid his hands across the massive vats and pressed his helmet as close as he could to the glass. Each row had a different kind of monster. There were some that looked like giant cats with wings. Others were massive insects or turtles. Another row contained the fabled tonberrys, if slightly mutated. The next row contained creatures that were some kind of red dog/cat/bear creatures. Looking at them gave Cloud a strange sense of deja-vu. Twice in one day, he thought, frowning. He continued on and came upon another row of the giant bug creatures. Cloud stopped in his tracks. One of the glass vats had been shattered, apparently long ago.

Cloud turned to his squad mates and found, to his surprise, that they were not there. He frowned and would have to reprimand them for wandering off. He placed his hand to his helmet and pressed the button that triggered the intra-squad radio.

"Hey Martine, Dincht," Cloud said. "I want you to come see something--"

Cloud stopped talking as he saw a blue uniformed form thrown against the side of one of the vats in that row. Martine! Cloud thought. He drew Murasame and ran to where the man had landed.

As Cloud approached Martine, he realized that the man had meen cut completely in half. Cloud spun to look down the row Martine had come from. Standing between the vats was one of the massive insect creatures. As Cloud watched, the creature finished swallowing Dincht.

"No," Cloud said. "NOOOOOOO!" He charged the beast, his sword held high above his head. The beast turned towards him and with one deft movement knocked Murasame from Cloud's hands. The blade spun away and buried itself in a computer panel of some sort. Cloud lept down another row and ran for his life.

Kramer frowned. He had heard Cloud's orders and later his screams through the intra-squad radio. He had immediately ordered his half of the attack squad to return to the elevator. He sent one of his squad mates up the shaft to find Zack. Kramer and the other remaining soldier prepared to cover Cloud on his retreat to the elevator.

Cloud wrapped his arms around his knees and shivered. He was more scared than he had ever been before in his life. He had huddled beneath one of the vats, and now he could hear the sound of the monster searching for him. Cloud peeked out at the creature and was terrified of what he saw. A massive head, with nine large compound eyes, perched upon a gargantuan body. There were three mouths on the beast's head, and multitudes of small tentacles sprouted from other parts of its body. It looked little like the giant bugs in the vats. Cloud thought about that and decided that, if the beast had escaped from the vat more than a month ago, it had probably been exposed to a huge amount of mako energy.

I have to stop it! Cloud thought. No! That's suicide. But if I don't stop it, it may be able to escape and hurt mother and Tifa. I have to stop it. I have to stop it!!!!

Cloud rolled out from under the vat. He trained his ShinRa assault rifle on the creature and opened fire on it. The beast turned to look at Cloud. It lept into the air and come down on top of Cloud. Then its massive mandibles swiped across Cloud's face. Cloud shouted in pain. He had been knocked to the ground and nearly decapatated in one movement. He reached up and felt his forehead. His hand came away covered in blood. His helmet had been knocked off. Cloud tried to sit up, but two remarkably human arms sprouted from the beasts underbelly and grasped his shoulders. The creature began to lower its body upon Cloud. It would crush him. Cloud screamed. Then he felt a bizarre feeling of falling. The ground had given way and Cloud and the beast sunk into a thick green liquid.

Cloud tried to scream but the liquid poured into his lungs. He couldn't decide which pain was worse, the pain of mako in his lungs, or the pain of millions of thoughts invading his mind.

The cut on his forehead did not even enter the equation.

Zack and the three soldiers frowned at the sudden lake of mako that had appeared in the reactor. Zack had found Murasame only a few hundred feet away.

"Cloud Strife was a soldier braver than any other I have ever met. His sacrifice, along with those of Dincht and Martine, ended the menace to the Corel area." With that, Zack lobbed Murasame into the life stream.

And the massive beast errupted from it. Zack fell back but then immediately drew his buster sword. He could see Murasame burried to the hilt in the creature's skull. It climbed onto the stable ground and began to approach Zack. There's no way I can defeat this! he thought. He cast Wall, hoping it would help him survive. The other two soldiers had already opened fire on the beast, and its blood was splattering against the other vats. Zack began to focus his energy into his buster sword and prepared to use the attack known as Braver.

A sudden burst of light from the life stream caused Zack, the soldiers, and the monster to turn in surprise.

In the slums of Midgar, a flower girl awoke in terror.

As the light faded, a figure appeared in it. Zack didn't recognize Cloud at first, since his normally spikey hair was wetted down. The figure had been in a fetal position but now it uncurled to full length. Clouds eyes were closed as he extended his arms. Two massive wings sprouted from his back, they pushed downwards biting into the air and holding Cloud aloft. His eyes opened. Zack noticed that they glowed brighter than any SOLDIER's he had ever seen. Cloud looked down at the monster. Suddenly it exploded from within in a massive green ball of energy. Then Cloud looked down at the ground and Martine and Dincht suddenly appeared, once again alive.

Cloud flapped his wings once, and dropped to the ground before Zack, where he passed out. Zack knelt and watched as the wings slowly faded away. Amazing he thought. He and Kramer grabbed Cloud under the shoulders and carried him from the reactor.

Cloud awoke feeling more vibrant and alive than ever. He also felt emmensely stronger. He tried to sit up but groaned in pain from the pounding in his head.

"Hold on, soldier boy," said a female voice. Or did she say SOLDIER? "Here you go." He reached out and took the offered elixer and looked up at the offerer. It was an old woman. He looked around at the delapidated hut he found himself in. He drank deeply from the elixer. His pain faded instantly.

The woman looked at Cloud.

"You seem all better now." Cloud climbed out of the bed and found, to his embaressment, that he was wearing only a pair of boxers.

"Here," the old woman said. "Zack left you one of his uniforms. He said you should probably keep clear of Midgar for a while. Oh! and your sword is over here. I forget what he called it..."

"Murasame," Cloud said as he pulled on the baggy, blue pants.

"Yes," the woman said. "That's it."

"I think," Cloud said, frowning as he pulled on the blue sleeveless shirt. "That I'll head towards Nibelheim." He fastened the large metal belt around his waist and adjusted the leather straps that ran over his shoulders and met together in the back at the small magnetic disc. He pulled on his boots and gloves, and adjusted his armlets. He then added the final touch, armored shoulder plates. He was dressed as a SOLDIER. He placed Murasame on his back, where it stuck to the magnet.

"Thanks," Cloud said to the old woman.

"Don't worry about it," she said. "You have paid me back in full."

"I have?" Cloud asked.

"After ten years, you brought my son back to me."

Professor Hojo of ShinRa Scientific Research sat at his desk and mused about yet another problem. It seemed that someone in Nibelheim had stumbled across his little expariment in the mountain reactor. Now Hojo would have to send in the Turks to quiet the town's disruption. Hojo looked out of his office window at the dark Midgar sky. He watched as the great airship Highwind left, bound for Junon. He had sent an assistant on that ship to acess the disturbance at Nibelheim. Hojo turned on his desk top computer and watched as it slowly buzzed to life. The screen opened to the red diamond emblem of ShinRa Electric Company. Then it faded to black. Hojo frowned. Letters began to scroll across the screen, and after he had read them, Hojo called Tseng of the Turks.

As he spoke he read the message again.

Hojo: I thought I'd let you know I was back in town. I'm looking forward to seeing you and your wife. Yours Truly, Vincent Valentine.

The End