Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.
Word Count: 2164
Pages: 7
Rating: Teen. Contains swearing and action violence in some chapters.
Summary: One of Shinra's experiments goes awry and leaves the saviours of Spira encased in mako crystals. 1000 years later, the ShinRa Electric company discovers what they believe to be Ancients on board an old, destroyed air ship. AVALANCHE decide to help them when they overhear the board meeting during their rescue mission to save Aerith. Managing to free them, they join Cloud and AVALANCHE on their journey to combat the destruction of the Planet.
Inspiration for this fic came from reading about an interview with Kazushige Nojima that discussed the connection between the world's of FFX and FFVII. I wanted to explore that connection and write out one of my theories about it, while experimenting with how the characters of FFX would change the events in VII were they to be included in the journey.
"We are reinstating the Neo-Midgar program", President Shinra announced to his board members. "We will not be rebuilding Sector 7."
Reeve Tuesti, the one in charge of Urban Development questioned: "So…the Ancients?"
"Yes. We hope to achieve what we couldn't before, by incorporating a discovery we made several years ago. The Promised Land will soon be ours!" exclaimed the President.
"You believe that these are Ancients?" asked Reeve.
"It is quite likely that they are seeing as the crystals they are incarcerated in are estimated to be aged 1000 years."
At that moment a man with long black hair tied in a ponytail, wore glasses and a lab coat with a craze look in his eye entered the room.
"Hojo," Shinra addressed, "how is the girl?"
"Incapacitated at the moment, and a waiting further testing. There is an 18 percent difference between her and the mother. At this rate it will take about 120 years for the research to be complete…way past the life expectancy of the subject or our own. So we are thinking of breeding the specimen…" Hojo finished.
"No. She will not be bred. I have found an alternative. How long will the research take if I told you we have 11 possible Ancients being held in containment?"
"Newly discovered specimens?" Hojo blinked in surprise, "Why was I not informed of this?" Hojo inquired, sounding affronted.
"Because the discovery was made 5 years ago. One subject, the easiest one to excavate, was freed from its confines. We decided to keep the knowledge from you because of your...enthusiasm, for lack of better words, when it comes to new test subjects. We have studied him and released him into Sector 3. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to provide us with any information, seeing as the subject was only in his infancy. We saw no negative effects in health or behaviour, so we deemed it safe to release the others as well. They were not a priority at the time and our goals were refocused with a more important endeavour. Up until now, the subjects were not necessary and are still in their original state. But with the plans for Neo-Midgar reinstated, we have decided to proceed with studying these specimens. Please note that these studies are purely educational and no unnecessary testing should befall them."
"Where are these subjects located?" asked Hojo, eager to begin experimenting on the specimens.
"They are on sub-level 00, in containment area 0010. You may begin your studies on them now." Shinra stated.
"Very well, I will have them sent up to the 67th floor. I shall have tests done on them shortly."
With that Hojo left the room.
"Is that all president?" Scarlet, another member of the board asked.
"Almost…increase the rate of mako production in all Sectors. Reeve and Scarlet will split the surplus income. That is all." concluded the president as a fat executive named Palmer rolled onto the conference table in disappointment of being left out of the Shinra budget again.
The board members left, the meeting coming to an end.
Unbeknownst to them a trio from the group known as 'AVALANCHE' was listening in on the meeting from an overhead air vent. AVALANCHE was an anti-Shinra group focused on shutting down ShinRa mako reactors. The electric company made them out to be terrorists to convince the public into siding with the company. But they were far from the criminals they were portrayed as. One was a retired coal miner missing an arm, one a bartender, and the other one claimed he was an ex-SOLDIER, part of ShinRa's private army.
"So Aerith isn't the last surviving Ancient?" the ex-SOLDIER, a man with untameable blond hair asked the other two.
"I guess not…we have to save them too Cloud!" a woman with long dark brown hair responded to the blond.
"Hold up! I thought we were here for Aerith!?" interjected a dark skinned man who's right forearm was replaced by a firearm.
"We need to help them too Barret! Didn't you hear Hojo was going to turn them into experiments as well?" the bartender protested.
"Tifa's right Barret. They might be able to help us…and even the President was reluctant to give those Ancients to Hojo; he must be insane! Nobody deserves to be subjected to that kind of madness" Cloud, the blond said, agreeing with his friend.
"Fine, fine…" grumbled Barret," can we get out of this shaft already!? The circulation to my ass cheeks is being cut off!"
"Right, lets go after Hojo,"
They moved down the length of the air vent they exited into a toilet stall. Scampering out of the washroom and running around a bend past the board room, they saw the crazed scientist opening the door to the stairwell.
Cloud, Tifa and Barret ran through the door and sneaked up a flight of stairs to see Hojo exit onto the 67th floor. The trio followed through the door and made their way toward the area the saw their target enter. The three froze when they reached the entrance of the area.
Hojo was in front of a cylindrical cell that contained an orange animal that resembled a cross between a lion and a wolf.
"This must be where they keep the subjects they're currently experimenting on. Aerith should be nearby…as well as those other Ancients." Cloud whispered to his partners.
Along with the cylindrical cell that held the lion-wolf, there was a dome shaped container with several long tubes feeding into it, opposite the animal's unit. Further up was an empty containment unit that was larger than the other two cells. It was clear on all sides and resembled the construction of the cylinder except that it was shaped as an ovular prism; its convex sides bending around whatever it was designed to keep sealed in and on the back side of the container was a locked set of sliding doors. Next to the empty containment unit, on the left, was a row of stand-alone cells that were abandoned at the moment.
Hearing footsteps behind them Tifa, Cloud, and Barret ducked behind a set of crates lying around the area. An assistant appeared at the entrance and made his way over to Hojo.
"The specimens you wanted are being brought up now."
"He must mean Aerith and the Ancients," Cloud mumbled.
Hojo nodded to his assistant with a look that clearly meant that he could not contain himself from apparent glee, "Excellent. I will be back for them shortly. I will prepare the laboratory on the 68th floor in case I need to use it," finishing with his assistant, Hojo turned and walked over to the maintenance elevator in the corner of the lab.
"Right, lets wait here and we'll try to free them before Hojo gets back," Cloud whispered his plan to the other two.
"Sounds simple enough," Barret grunted.
Tifa went to observe the lion-wolf in the cell while Barret hung back. Cloud turned around and faced the dome shaped unit. Walking up to the clear glass pane that displayed its insides Cloud peeked in. "Jenova…" he breathed, his words getting caught in his throat out of shock.
A high pitched ringing sounded off in his ears. Stepping back from the cell Cloud clutched at his head to try to stop the unbearable noise. Dropping to his knees as the sound overcame him, he started to tilt backwards when a pair of gentle hands stifled his fall, catching him before any damage could be done. The sound of Cloud's knees giving out must have alerted her because leaning his head back, Cloud gazed up into Tifa's worried face.
"Jenova…Sephiroth's…so… they've brought it here." He managed to get out.
"Be strong Cloud. I'm here." Tifa called to him.
"Did you see it? It's still…alive…moving…"
Barret went over to glance into the dome as well. He raised his head back up, distressed, yet evidently unaffected by any ringing noise that Cloud managed to hear.
"Where's its fucking head!" the large man swore, reverting to the only way he could cope with something when troubled.
Cloud was going to answer but paused and positioned his ear to better hear the thing that disturbed his thought process. The subtle sound of shifting gears could be heard coming from the empty cells. The floors within the glass prisons opened up and numerous humanoid shapes trapped in what appeared to be mako crystals arose. Glass wall divides dropped from the ceiling of the cell, separating the figures into 10 sections. The grinding of the gears stopped and the room was silent once again.
Getting to his feet, Cloud noted that there were actually 11 people encased in crystals altogether but two were frozen together, intertwined in each other's arms. One of the crystallized figures didn't even appear human. It was a lot taller than the others and appeared to have blue skin, although the translucent orange of its crystalline prison tinted the colour slightly.
"Okay! Let's get on with this rescue mission!" Barret prompted as he ran over to the suspected Ancients. "Hey Spike! Need some help here!"
"What is it?" Cloud asked, walking up to the button panel Barret was observing.
"I can't figure out how to do all this!" Damn ShinRa! Always complicating everything!"
"Even if we knew how to release them, how do you propose we carry on getting them out of here? They must weigh more than a ton all together!"
Barret swore.
"I guess we'll have to wait and see what Hojo does. When he gets them out of these crystals we can jump in and save them." Tifa interjected with a determined look on her face.
"Right-" Cloud began but stopped when he heard the elevator gears grinding against each other once again,
A platform slowly rose up into one of the other empty containment cylinders, and on it was something dressed in pink…
"Aerith!" Cloud exclaimed.
Barret rushed forward to try and free their friend but was faced with the same difficulties as before.
"Maybe we could threaten an assistant into opening it for us…" Cloud thought out loud.
"We don't need an assistant, look! Here comes Hojo!" warned Tifa, as the maintenance elevator on the far end of the area began its descent.
The trio ducked behind the crates they were concealed by before.
Hojo walked over to the containment unit housing the 'Ancients" and muttered something incoherent as he observed the trapped occupants in awe.
The assistant re-entered the area and walked up to Hojo.
"Begin de-crystallization process and once it's complete then send this one up," Hojo pointed to the blue creature in the cell and with a maniacal grin on his face he walked over to the orange lion-wolf in the other cell and said, "Send this one up as well."
"Very well sir,"
The assistant got behind the panel and pressed the large orange button for each corresponding sector that the frozen inhabitants were slotted into on the digitalized panel.
A thick mist filled into the cells obscuring the 'Ancients' from view.
Hojo left for the 68th floor again to await the creatures while the assistant stayed behind to keep watch over the progress of the de-crystallization process as Barret, Cloud and Tifa idled behind the familiar crates.
Finally Barret broke the silence causing a fidgety Tifa and a reserved Cloud to look up.
"Man this is boring! Can't we just threaten the guy?" Barret expressed in a frantic whisper.
"We need to wait until the process is complete, then we can save them…it might still be a long time, so get used to it." Cloud explained.
"I just want to shoot something! Look! Even Tifa's itching to fight."
"I just don't like sitting around much," she replied.
"Let's see if we can steal a key card from the assistant's office," Cloud suggested. "Want to come Tifa?"
"Okay! But what about Barret?"
"What about me?" the man in question asked.
"Well…what if he gets spotted and needs back up?" The brunette pointed out.
"He'll manage…besides, he's hard to spot among the crates, his boxed shaped head fits right in!" Cloud mocked.
"I resent that Spike; now hurry up! The faster you leave, the faster you'll finish! I'll keep an eye on things while you return."
Without another word Tifa and Cloud left for the facilities on the 66th floor that they previously used to access the air vent, while Barret continued to observe the assistant.
"Stupid pointy headed fool…he's one to talk…making fun of the shape of my head…" muttered the large man.
All the while the group of people trapped in the containment unit had they're crystal encasings dissolve off their bodies. The crystals were steadily dripping off their forms, turning into globules of light before hitting the ground and floating upwards, dragging a trail of luminosity before floating around the cell, trapped. Slowly more of their features could be seen through the swirling mist but none of them stirred however.
Over time, all of their crystalline confines were done away with and as the mist thinned, two stunning blue eyes blinked open.
AN: I changed the end scene a bit, because I thought the original was silly. The first chapter was going to begin in the Spira, the world in FFX, but I realized that there are FFVII fans that dislike FFX and would be less inclined to read it if I began the story that way. Also I know people usually detest Tidus's character and he will be slightly out-of-character because in my story he's matured over time. Any pairings that I decide to incorporate will be as close to canon as possible. The story will not be romantically focused, and I'm hesitant to have VII/X pairings...I'll see how people feel about that. Tell me what you think.