“Transcending Reality” by: Emerald
Eyes
I don’t own Final Fantasy (Seifer: “No shit, bitch! You’ve said
that every chapter so far!”) {sweatdrop] Uh… yeah… um…
but I do however own Alex! (Alex: “Hey! I own myself, thank you very
much!”) [sweatdrops again] Um… on
with the story?
“I’m not respectable, and never
sensible, I’ve been incredible, so damned irascible and I like the things I do
so hooray for me… and fuck you!” –Bad Religion (if this quote doesn’t remind
you of
The television changed to a different channel whenever the
ending credits for ‘The X-Files’ flashed on the screen. On the new channel, the iconic opening theme for ‘Star Wars’
could be heard.
He had anticipated exploring this new world, though he had
kept it to himself. He had remained indifferent whenever Alex had mentioned he
would be staying, but behind that façade he could hardly contain his
excitement.
He had spent most of the day wandering aimlessly around the
small suburban town outside the apartment. Alex’s dimension wasn’t anything
like he expected it to be. The differences between the two dimensions amazed
him, even made him gape in unfeigned wonder at times, but it was the
similarities that had interested him the most. He had walked down the street
staring at almost-familiar buildings and cars. He had greeted people as they
brushed past in a reminiscent, almost nostalgic, kind of way that reminded him
of home. It brought a strong sense of
irony to his mind every time he thought about it. In fact, it was more like
home than he would ever want to admit.
In spite of what Alex had said about keeping a low profile,
Looking under couch cushions for spare change, and then
finally finding Alex’s wallet, the Turk had bought numerous amounts of junk
food. And even in that aspect, things were still the same: Pepsi tasted like
any other cola one could find in Midgar, chocolate chip cookies were still
chocolate chip cookies, and popcorn was popcorn no matter where you went. Why,
even the food he was eating at the moment reminded him of home. The box the
food came in had said it was “Chinese,” but to
The only thing he hadn’t experimented with was the alcohol,
much to his dismay. Upon finding Alex’s wallet, he had discovered from his
driver’s license that he was only 20 years old. That was probably the reason
why there wasn’t any alcohol in the fridge. <Who would really blame him,>
One event led to another, thus leading to the end of the
day, where
He had avoided every single protocol Alex had set for him…
that is, all but one.
The voice droned on as
Video tapes, books, CDs, video games… the list went on, most
of the items callously forsaken on the floor behind him. But, ironically
enough,
His eyed the game system underneath the TV forlornly,
curious as to how accurate Final Fantasy VII really was. Smiling mischievously,
he popped the lid on the console, and inserted the disc.
The
^_^_^_^
“I’m leaving,” he said impassively, trying to ignore Tifa’s
constant reprimands.
“Whoa! No way!” Tifa protested.
They were in the ShinRa mansion. All of Avalanche was informed of the uncanny
reappearance of Sephiroth, but only two members could make it to Nibelheim in
time: Tifa being one, and Cloud the other. “I don’t even know who the hell you
are! You know almost EVERYTHING about Cloud and you told Vincent to call
me and tell me Sephiroth is alive. How did you know that anyhow? I thought only
Cloud could tell.”
“Someone I know had a little run-in with Hojo.”
“Who the fuck are you!? Where do
you come from!?” she screamed. The diatribe was growing in decibels, and was
starting to disturb the other residents in the house.
The DC members, who were currently in another room, poked
their heads out into the hallway to see what the matter was. Seifer, who was
extremely enervated from his excursion the previous night, had sat down in the
middle of the hallway with his back propped up against the wall. He had fallen
asleep that way, and was now stirring uneasily at the cacophony of Tifa’s irate
voice.
Tired of Tifa’s nagging chastising, Alex turned around and
let loose an unexpected paroxysm. “My name is Alexander Sloan. I’m from a place
called Earth. You don’t know where it is because it’s not on this planet. In
fact, it’s not in this DIMENSION, so don’t start pushing me around like
I’m some novice who doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing, GIRLY.”
As quickly as the outburst had started, it stopped, and Alex
turned around once again. Tifa stood with her jaw agape, stunned into affronted
silence.
Cloud walked up next to her, scrutinizing her and the man
walking down the dingy halls ahead of her. He commented at the sour look on her
face. “What’s wrong with you?”
Tifa glowered at Alex’s retreating form. “Asshole,” she said
acerbically and stormed off in the opposite direction.
Cloud stared at her for a moment, watching as she callously
kicked Seifer’s sleeping form.
“Ow! What the fuck, Lady?!” an angry gunblade specialist
exclaimed.
The ex-SOLDIER sighed as Tifa ignored the blonde and
continued down the hall towards the stairs. As he looked the opposite way, he
discovered the conundrum known as Alex walking back through the halls, this
time carrying the dimension-warping device.
The azure-eyed man stopped and looked at all who were
present in the hallway. “Seifer!” he called out to the now-conscious blonde,
“Call Squall and Eiko on the phone. Tell them to be ready for anything
unexpected. We may need all the people we can get if we really do have to face
Sephiroth.”
The ex-knight nodded and got up to retrieve the cell phone,
while Alex began to press buttons on the contraption that would soon take him
home. He was going to go to Earth alone. After all, it would seem a little
suspicious if a large group of people suddenly appeared out of nowhere. If
there was any danger, the rest would follow. If there wasn’t, then he would
find
<Is going alone such a good idea?> His mind
kept on unconsciously musing sick possibilities: what if he ran into Sephiroth
and couldn’t escape in time? Who would warn the others? Would Earth be
destroyed by Meteor? Who would they blame? Him?
He looked around the dusty, sunlit hallway of the top floor
for the second time. Who could he take with him? He spent a scarce amount of
time scrutinizing the people mentally. Vincent would be too conspicuous, with
the claw and the red eyes. Seifer would be too stubborn, and if they ever did
run into Sephiroth the ex-knight might end up getting them both killed. He
didn’t doubt Raijin’s skills as a fighter, but his judgment wasn’t the best.
And Fujin: the girl was paranoid. She didn’t trust anyone but Raijin and
Seifer. Cloud would have been a good person to take along, but there was an
exception: Sephiroth could manipulate him… and the results could be disastrous.
Tifa…? Alex shook his head. It wouldn’t work out. The girl didn’t trust him. In
fact, she almost seemed to blame him for the ex-general’s reappearance. If he
couldn’t take any of those people, then who could he take?
He was distracted from his thoughts when a sound could be
heard emanating from one of the bedrooms down the hall. A few minutes later
Rufus emerged from the room. He looked like he had been caught in the middle of
one of Pandemona’s wind storms, and there was no better way to describe it. His
jacket was gone, probably discarded on the dusty old carpet, or on the top of
the bed he was sleeping on. His clothes were a mess: the long sleeved black
shirt he was wearing wasn’t tucked in anymore and his pants were wrinkled. His
flaxen hair was disheveled so much that he was hardly recognizable as the same
person.
Cloud turned towards the ex-president and glared. Rufus
averted his gaze so he would not have to look in the ex-SOLDIER’s direction.
Earlier, when the two Avalanche members first saw the
blonde, they had engaged in a heated argument. Avalanche members wanting to
know how he ended up surviving the Weapon’s blast, and Rufus
wanting to know why they still cared about such a thing if his company
was destroyed. Lasting about ten minutes, the dispute had ended with Rufus’s
aloof words, “I’m not dead. Deal with it, Miss Lockheart.” And then he had
walked out of the foyer; Avalanche members still staring daggers into the back
of his head.
As it turned out, the ex-president had found the least-dusty
room in the mansion and had decided to catch up on some much needed sleep. Alex
had almost expected it from him. The blonde had become so tired that he had
been plagued with an onslaught of incompetence earlier in the day. Alex, on the
other hand, hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. But he was wide-awake. How could he
sleep? His planet was about to be destroyed.
“What’s going on?” Rufus said, bringing Alex’s mind back
into the present. “I heard someone yelling.”
“Yeah,” Alex responded dryly, “That was Tifa.” The blonde’s
face involuntarily twisted into a scowl at the mention of the name.
<He’s going to snap if he stays here much longer,>
Alex thought as he observed Rufus’s demeanor starting to crumble from the cold
stares received by Avalanche. <The whole planet thinks he’s dead… it’s as
if he doesn’t belong here anymore.>
And suddenly Alex knew who would be the perfect person to
take to Earth. But before any thoughts could be spoken, a distraught Seifer ran
out from one of the rooms, the DC members following closely behind.
“There’s some fucked up shit going on,” he said, a hint of
alarm detected in his voice.
“Yeah,” Raijin added, “Bad news from both Squall AND
Eiko!”
“Well?!” he asked, for a moment becoming apprehensive, “what
is it?”
“Hojo paid a visit to
“He went postal, you know?” Raijin added again.
“
“Yeah,” Seifer said breathlessly, impatient to get the whole
story told, “Hojo took him for some experiment. He said some shit about Jenova
and that ‘the project must continue’… whatever that means.”
Cloud’s eyes widened and stared in horror at the ex-knight.
“Fuck!”
“The Jenova Project…” someone whispered from behind Alex.
The azure-eyed man spun around to face the person who had
spoken. “Vincent…” he breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment he had thought it
was Sephiroth or Hojo. Vincent, unlike anyone else, did not feel the least bit
intimidated at the mention of the Project. His eyes only showed a deep hatred
for the words.
“You can take me there, can’t you?” the Vincent asked. It
was hard to tell whom he was addressing. His dark crimson eyes beheld a far
off, distant look, like he was being haunted by memories from long ago.
Alex wasn’t too fond of the idea at first. He didn’t want to
just start sending people all over the place, but he remembered what the
ex-Turk had been though. He didn’t blame him for wanting revenge.
Absently, Alex nodded. “Yeah…” There were just so many
tragic incidents lately that he doubted that even Aeris, if she were still
alive, would have been optimistic about it.
“Wait!” Seifer’s urgent voice could be heard again, “I’m not
done yet!”
Everyone looked at him expectantly. The ex-knight hung his
head in unfeigned apprehension. “Ultimecia attacked Lindblum, in Eiko’s world.”
“There’s another lunatic out there too?” Cloud asked
anxiously.
“SORCERESS,” Fujin explained, “USES MAGIC. DOESN’T JUNCTION.”
“Yeah, but here’s the news” Raijin retaliated to Cloud’s remark, “Ultimecia and that Jenova chick are the SAME
PERSON!”
This bit of information captured everyone’s
attention. “What?!” Alex demanded.
Seifer sighed, quite uncomfortable about the Sorceress being
the subject of conversation. “Squall told me that Hojo mentioned it. The SeeD
wanted to know why it was any of his damned business getting involved in
affairs from another dimension. The Professor simply told him that Ultimecia is
Jenova and the Sorceress was most definitely his business.”
“He could be lying,” Tifa said from across the hall, her
temporary brooding finally over.
“He wouldn’t lie,” Vincent informed.
“EXPLAIN,” Fujin ordered.
“Vince’s right,” Cloud confirmed, “Hojo likes to fuck with your
mind. He’ll tell you bits and pieces of the truth, just enough to make you
curious… to make you think. Then he’ll shut up and leave you hanging with the
unanswered questions and the mystery of his insanity.”
“Fuck,” Alex said, “He’s not making this easy for us.”
“Isn’t there any good news?” Tifa asked.
“Yeah, actually there is” Seifer said, surprising everyone
else. “Eiko found the rest of the Turks.”
Alex breathed a sigh of relief. It was the first good news
he’d heard since the start of the whole debacle.
There was a long moment of silence before anyone spoke. The
first to say anything was Seifer.
“I want to go to Lindblum,” he stated indifferently.
“I’m going with Vince,” Cloud stated a few minutes later,
“Hojo fucked up our lives. I think it’s time we ruined his.”
“I’m going with Cloud,” Tifa chimed in, “Wherever he goes, I
go.”
“SEIFER?” Fujin asked her friend.
“Yeah,” he authorized, taking a shaky breath. “You guys can
come. And plus, we’re posse! And…” he paused looking a little worried, then admitted, “besides, I think I’m going to need your help
anyhow.”
Ultimecia bothered him to no end. It had felt good being a
Sorceress’s Knight. It had felt good until he had learned that he was being
used. And by then it was too late. She manipulated him and made him inflict
damage on the world. And it all led up to Time Compression. It didn’t take a
genius to figure out that he was now afraid of her: afraid of being brainwashed
again.
“Um…” Tifa spoke up meekly, “the rest of Avalanche knows
that Sephiroth is out there. If he comes here, I’m sure they could hold him off
until we get back.” She gave Alex a week smile, a sign that she was starting to
warm up to him.
Alex nodded his head curtly to barmaid’s information. “Then
I guess we all know what we have to do.”
^_^_^_^
On the television, the Lifestream and Holy flowed across the
planet, purging it of Meteor. And then finally Aeris’s face was shown
silhouetted against glowing ashes of mako. One game successfully completed. And
it was surprisingly accurate, too… assuming that all the parts of the game were
as accurate as the miniscule cameos of the Turks.
He only had to finish two more games.
The Lunatic Pandora was confusing, and the overwhelming
appearances by Seifer weren’t helping his attitude towards the place much. The
game was disturbingly accurate with the Sorceress’s Knight’s personality. Seifer
was an asshole. But
And the purple-haired girl: she was more bizarre than he had
originally thought possible. She lived in some ruined town with a bunch of
funny-looking mogs that talked, called moogles. Just recently he had watched a
snazzy cut scene involving Kuja summoning Bahamut upon the black mages.
That thought brought him back to the game he was playing.
But what he saw on the television <after> he
shut off the game made him choke on the cola in his mouth. He spat out the
carbonated soft drink and stared at the screen in disbelief. There sat the
conservatively dressed woman that greeted him every night with the news that he
so effectively tried to ignore. But this time his efforts to lose interest in
the news proved futile.
On the TV the woman droned on while
As he finally got around to listening to the actual details,
he discovered that the General was terrorizing a small town not too far away: ‘
“Shit!” the redhead exclaimed, a panicked expression growing
on his face. He looked around the tiny apartment for any items that might help
him if he would happen to get in a battle.
He spotted the familiar green orb of his level 2 Cure
materia on the coffee table next to the empty box of Chinese food. Grabbing it
hastily, he ran towards the door, snatching his navy blue Turks jacket and
nightstick on the way out.
Halfway out the door he realized that he wouldn’t get to
Blackwood anytime soon if he walked. <I guess I’ll just have to catch a
ride from someone,> he thought, wincing at the idea of being a
hitchhiker.
“Damn, I need a beer,” he said to himself as he closed the
door behind him.
The lock clicked, and a frantic answering machine message
resounded through the empty apartment with no one there to hear it.
^_^_^_^
Alex turned the key into the lock and opened the door. As he
expected, there wasn’t anyone present in the room beyond.
“Damn it!” he cursed under his breath, observing the
apartment and all its disorderly glory. “Where the fuck did he go?” He began searching the trashed place for any clue as to
where the Turk went.
Behind him, Rufus Shinra passively entered the room,
observing the numerous piles of junk left disarrayed randomly on the floor. He
laughed quietly to himself. “In the short time that I was President, I came
close to firing him almost ten times.”
“Oh, really?” Alex asked,
momentarily distracted from the task at hand, “So why DIDN’T you fire
him?”
Rufus shrugged, “He may not have liked to follow orders
much, but he was good at his job.”
“…what’s that?” Alex asked nonchalantly as he picked up a
crumpled receipt off the floor, “You mean the assassinations?”
Rufus didn’t get a chance to answer. Alex cut him off with a
long strain of curses as he read the words on the now readable receipt. “Shit!
He spent 60 dollars at a 7-godamned-Eleven!”
The ex-president looked at him quizzically for a moment
before picking up a 20 oz. bottle of Pepsi from the couch. “Is that where this
came from?” he asked, indicating the bottle.
The raven-haired man looked at the blonde and sighed, quite
annoyed at the redheaded Turk at the moment.
Rufus, on a sudden surge of curiosity, unscrewed the cap and
sampled the unidentifiable drink. “Hey!” he exclaimed, sapphire eyes sparkling
with wonder, “This tastes like that cola I used to drink when I was a kid. I
used to go to this one place in Sector 8 that sold it…”
Alex sent him a murderous look that clearly told him to shut
up. “Here,” he said in an aggravated voice. He threw a bundle of clothes in the
general direction of the white-clad man. “Make yourself useful and change
clothes. You’ll really look suspicious if you go out in public wearing
something like THAT.” He indicated Rufus’s sophisticated, white suit.
The blonde picked up the bundle and stared at it dubiously,
silently questioning the other man’s taste in clothing. After a few minutes he
faltered under Alex’s irate glare, and he reluctantly trudged off towards the
door that he guessed led to the bathroom.
Alex cursed yet again when his search of the room proved
fruitless. Tired and stressed, he slipped off his jacket, letting it fall to
the floor. He plopped onto the couch, closed his eyes, and placed his head in
his hands. <Where can
And all of a sudden it hit him. “I’m such a moron,” he
whispered to himself as a look of revelation crossed his face. He snatched the
channel changer from the cushion next to him and hit the ‘power’ button.
The television flashed on revealing the local news. For a
brief moment he couldn’t move, he couldn’t talk, he couldn’t even think. The
face on the screen kept him frozen in place. It was most definitely Sephiroth.
“Rufus?” he tried to call. It barely came out as a whisper. “Hey, Rufus!” he
called, more successful this time, “Looks like we’ve got trouble!”
“What was that?” Rufus asked as he came out of the bathroom.
He was clad in khaki cargo pants and an oversized black t-shirt. His blonde
hair was still ruffled and unruly being that he didn’t have time to do anything
with it before he left. His appearance radiated the illusion that he was
younger than he actually was. Even Alex, in his old, baggy jeans and faded gray
t-shirt, looked more sophisticated than he did at the moment. The sight would
have been humorous if not for the seriousness of the situation.
“Look who got his 15 minutes of fame,” Alex commented,
staring coldly at the TV.
“Sephiroth,” the other identified the picture, gaping at the
television with interest. On the screen, a woman, without any hint of fear in
her voice, droned on about what she so insignificantly labeled a ‘disaster.’
They both listened intently to her voice: “’…as of yet
this man is unidentified. The culprit appears to be in his early thirties. He
has white hair and green eyes. If you see him do not approach him. He is
considered extremely dangerous…’”
“’Extremely dangerous?’” Rufus
mocked, “That’s an understatement.”
“Come on!” Alex scolded the woman, “Tell me where he is!”
As if the woman could hear his desperate pleas, she revealed
the location of the catastrophe.
“Blackwood!” Alex said triumphantly.
“Stay here, Rufus. I have to get the rest of Avalanche.” The
raven-haired man once again pressed a few buttons on the dimension-warping
device. However, this time, nothing happened.
“What?” He asked ambiguously as he repeated the procedure,
again coming up with the same results. “It’s not working!”
Rufus glanced askance at the device. “You mean we can’t go
back?” A panicked expression now painted his face.
“No, not at the moment,” Alex sighed, “We’ll just have to go
to Blackwood ourselves.”
“Wait a minute. I don’t have my shotgun, and I’m sure
someone like YOU don’t have any weapons. I can’t just go up to him and
say ‘Great Sephiroth, I’m the President of ShinRa Electric Power Company and
I’m ordering you to stop destroying this town’” Rufus insisted, “What are we
going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Alex shrugged, “I’ll figure it out when we
get there.”
He dug his car keys out of his pocket and walked towards the
door.
Rufus sighed and followed him out of the apartment. “Why do
I get the feeling that we’re all going to die?”
End Ch. 9 at 06.16.01.
I
created the town ‘Blackwood,’ just in case you’re curious. No, it’s not a real
place. I put it in Pennsylvania because that’s where I live ^_^