86Welcome to the sequel of Ripples in Time. This will be Five Chapters long, and once again, the main focus will be Friendship, and what one does with a second chance after the main battle is done, and how long the clean-up of such an event might take.
There are several Subplots in this fic, of varying degrees of focus, but you'll only see an occasional mention of Barret- his subplot was dropped and made into its own one shot, which will be refined and then posted around the same time as Chapter 3 (Or Chapter 4) of this fic.
If you have not read Ripples in Time, well, I'd highly recommend it. This won't make much sense otherwise. The timeline on this fic is pretty loose, mostly because, well, my math skills aren't the greatest (I'm a solid C average in Math, with the occasional B). For those of you who like TV Tropes, yes, I am one of those writers who cannot do math very well.
Please remember, this is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, and thanks to Time Travel, EVENTS HAVE BEEN ALTERED FROM CANON. The Characters and world of the Final Fantasy VII compilation belong to Square, I'm just having fun.
Soldier Living Floor, ShinRa, Midgar
THUD!
Cloud Strife blinked opened his eyes, and rolled over to look at his roommate. "I told you to move that trunk out of the way last night."
"Sorry Cloud, didn't mean to wake you." Zack Fair rubbed the back of his head.
"Let me guess, Aerith?" Cloud glanced at the alarm clock, and decided to give up on going back to sleep. "Or are you freaking out about wedding plans again?"
"Both! We still haven't decided whether she'll move into the First Class apartment with me, or get an apartment somewhere else, and I don't know if I should wear a tux or the dress uniform, and I know Rufus has offered to help, since y'know, we sent that alien bitch packing almost a year ago, but Aerith is still hesitant about anything ShinRa related, and Tseng's doing that weird 'Older Brother' thing where he makes pointed comments about how I better make her happy, and I do not want to get killed by Turks!" Zack waved his arms. "And that sword keeps glowing when my mood changes, which causes my eyes to change color and that makes the recruits freak out and Dr. Crescent keeps frowning when she goes over my blood work, and you and I still have to get mako shots a la Proffessor Creepy's recipe because we can't stop or there might be some sort of freaky withdrawal symptoms . . . will you make some sort of expression, because you're starting to creep me out." Zack finished, finally noticing Cloud's blank look.
"You're heading to the gym, then?"
"Training room, actually, they're got a Gongaga simulation I promised to try out."
"I'll join you, then."
"Really? Alright! Don't forget your belt, You're first class y'know." Zack shifted the trunk out of the way and headed to the kitchen.
"Yeah." Cloud snorted, Rufus had been quick to promote first Zack, then Cloud, as well as promoting some third classes to second. He was pretty sure Rufus had some sort of angle going, and was praying that said angle didn't involve too much cross-fire.
Of course, that didn't mean he was going to adhere to the regulation uniform like Zack and Angeal. Cloud smirked a little as he fastened the pauldron with the metal wolf's head on his shoulder, and straightened the Fusion Swords harness- that reminded him, he still need a name for it.
Science Department, ShinRa, Midgar
"Dr. Crescent?" Professor Raleigh moved through a room cluttered with boxes of Hojo's notes that had yet to be catalogued. "Dr. Crescent?"
"Hmm?" Lucrecia Crescent sat up, surrounded by notes with a pen clenched in her mouth, her hands full of stray papers.
"Doctor, have you been down here all night?" Raleigh blinked.
"I don't think so, uh . . ." Lucrecia checked her watch, then winced. "I guess I have, Raleigh, could you get me a copy of the supply records for medical?"
"I think that's more of a job for a secretary, which you need." Raleigh crossed her arms. "Where's that body guard of yours, surely he didn't leave you alone."
"I guess . . ." Lucrecia sighed. "Vincent's over there, he's been helping me sort through this mess."
"And have been unsuccessful at finding what you want, I might add." Vincent emerged from the shadows, and Raleigh stiffened in surprise.
"I'm trying to track down all of the . . . mixes of Jenova cells that Hojo used. He's used several different names for the different mixes and there are three names unaccounted for." Lucrecia explained to Raleigh, and sighed again, this time stifling a yawn. "It's worrying, because so far I've found evidence of testing these different mixes on animals in the Biology and Biopsy labs, but absolutely nothing on whether he considered them successful or not."
"Well, we're working on the mixes of J-cells in the soldier serums liked you asked, but President Rufus wants the Soldier program to continue running, though they're not going to accept anymore recruits after this last group goes through."
"He has to keep it running, the peace with Wutai is strained, and the people expect there to be soldiers." Vincent noted.
"There's got to be a better way . . . damn it." Lucrecia winced.
" . . . You can't move again." Vincent moved over.
"My legs have fallen asleep." Lucrecia admitted, "Where's my crutch?"
"I'm going to start looking for an actual, permanent, assistant for you, you need one." Raleigh shook her head, and joined Vincent in helping Lucrecia up without knocking over the notes.
"That reminds me, I need to talk to Hollander . . . and Gillian Hewley, I need to write that down." Lucrecia mumbled, her mind moving to the next problem on the list.
"You can do that after some sleep."
Department of Administrative Research, AKA Turks, ShinRa, Midgar
"Any change?" Shotgun glanced in the small room that resembled a hospital room.
"He's dreaming, Dr. Crescent thinks there's a way to level him out, but she's real hesitant on doing it." Gun looked at her. "Your turn for Kunsel Watch?"
"Yes. Rod's waiting for you, there's apparently a discrepancy in Weapon's department numbers, and Scarlett's claiming dumb."
" . . . it's frightening, isn't it?" Gun noted, looking back at the still form on the bed. "How much we became complacent, all those people that we condemned just by following orders?"
"Yes, it is . . . but it could have been much worse."
"I doubt it." Gun left, and Shotgun quietly sat down next to Kunsel's bedside. He no longer cried out or mumbled, and mostly slept, though his brainwave patterns worried the doctors when they did come in to check. If his eyes opened, it was to stare blankly at nothing, unresponsive to any attempts to make him focus.
"Hey, Kunsel, I don't know if you've heard, but Veld retired. He's still helping as a consultant, but Tseng's in charge now. Gun's probably still complaining about Elena, huh? You'd think the two of them would put aside their differences for just a minute and be sisters, but everything just turns into a competition." Shotgun snorted. "Speaking of competitions, we've got a new one going between departments- Public Safety got broken into pieces, the biggest piece was merged with Urban Development, by the way- and Reno started it by slipping hair dye into Sephiroth's shampoo- it was tinted pink for a week."
Kunsel was able to hear her, but couldn't bring himself to focus on her voice, pull himself to reality, instead, he followed memories of another life, trying to find what happened to Zack Fair, the danger that was Hojo . . . and the disappearance of 'someone'.
Commanding Soldier Offices, ShinRa, Midgar
"Angeal, a word?"
"Hmm?" Angeal glanced up from his desk in time to see a large, dead, by virtue of being fried, bug in front of his face. "What the- Genesis!"
"This was in my room. I've asked nicely before, but now I'm telling you, you need to do something about those plants!" Genesis huffed.
"I'll see what I can do." Angeal promised.
"Good, now that leads me to my second question, which is why are you awake this early and doing paperwork here instead of your room?"
"I need to finish this. Why are you up so early?"
"My wing came out while I was sleeping, and that bug was on my toothbrush." Genesis crossed his arms.
"Coffee, then?" Angeal pushed back from the desk and stood.
"Tea, actually, I- Angeal!" Genesis steadied his friend, who had taken only a few steps and suddenly swayed, almost falling over. "Are you alright?"
"I don't . . . I was just dizzy." Angeal let Genesis steer him back to the chair. "I haven't had breakfast yet."
"And not enough sleep." Genesis sat him down. "The wandering soul knows no rest."
"Genesis, I'm fine." Angeal failed at waving the other off. "I'll just eat something. I have to meet with Zack later."
"As you wish, I probably should get started on my own paperwork."
President's Office, ShinRa, Midgar
"I really need to fix this office." Rufus stared at the scorch marks from Reeve's explosion.
"You keep saying that. What's keeping you?" Reeve noted as he sat down.
"There are a lot more important things than redecoration, like finding out what Heidegger is up to."
"Isn't that a job for the Turks?" Reeve raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, and no. The Turks are busy with the past money trails, as are a good percentage of the business offices. I can't have them going after what is basically a lack of activity- as it is the last thing Veld did was recruit more Turks." Rufus sighed. "I'd like you to head the investigation, and I think you should work with Strife on this- I've already asked Lazard to assign him to you, and Tseng has agreed to send a Turk to help. It'll probably be Reno."
"What makes you say that?"
"Reno was Tseng's second-in-command last time, despite his . . . personality. Tseng's expressed a interest in Reno as his second again, so I'm fairly sure that Reno's going to be sent on more high-classed missions to prove it- which is what this mission is."
"Cloud's still a little annoyed with being promoted."
"That was Sephiroth's idea, he and Genesis put in several recommendations for Strife, and then Fair joined in. His were more creative." There was a knock at the door, and Rufus allowed them in.
Rude came in with a box with holes in it.
"Rude?"
"I found something in the labs that you might like." Was the only preamble as he set the container on Rufus' desk.
Rufus warily opened the box, then blinked rapidly. Reeve stood up to look. Curled up in the bottom of the box was a dark furred creature that was very familiar, though very young.
"Dark Nation . . . how?" Dark Nation hadn't survived the attack on ShinRa. It had been one of his regrets, but one that he had never knew how to go about fixing.
"Found her in the breeding section, Dr. Crescent confirmed that this project would be allowed to survive, they had to put down the Marlboro and Muu mix- that one apparently was trained to kill any human that approached it." Rude explained.
Rufus quietly scooped up the slightly over-large pup, who barely even woke up to curl up closer against him. Reeve and Rude tried not to smile.
"She'll grow quickly, right?" Reeve asked.
"Yes, she was full grown within a year and a half, the last time." Rufus smiled, rubbing the pup's head. "Thank you, Rude."
"It was no trouble at all, sir."
Wolf's Den, Costa Del Sol
"Morning Tifa, long night?" Mrs. Strife asked as her current housemate woke up from her doze on the couch.
"Yeah, sorry."
"It's no problem, Barret called by the way, he's going to be sending you baby pictures of Marlene." Mrs. Strife shook her head a little.
"I'm not surprised, most of Marlene's baby pictures didn't survive the last time." Tifa stretched. "I'm going to head to bed."
"I'm going to head to the market, do you want anything?"
"Mm, Hair clips, my boss wants me to try pulling my hair back so no one yanks on it."
"Alright, see you in a bit." Mrs. Strife was highly enjoying the fact that she was no longer in Nibelheim. Yes, the mountains had been her home, and they hadn't sold their old house, but Mrs. Strife was enjoying not being the focus of gossip for the first time in years. As she approached the store, her eyes caught a 'missing child' poster, for a fairly young child, a five year-old that had gone missing.
"Morning! How are you today, ma'am?" The Grocer, a kindly old fellow whose children had long since flown the nest and were busy with children of their own, nodded to her as he set out some more fruit.
"Doing quite alright. I noticed the missing child poster, any idea of what happened?"
"No idea. It's happened before, but either A) the kid went with another family and no one noticed, or B) the parents weren't paying enough attention and lost their own kid." The Grocer shook his head. "I'm keeping an eye out, and praying the kid didn't try swimming on his own."
"Me too." Mrs. Strife shuddered at the thought.
"Well, enough gloom and doom! How can I help you today?" She stayed awhile, chatting with him, before heading back to the Villa. Someone had put up the missing child posters on telephone poles, and she quietly took one of the extras so she could show Tifa.
Cosmo Canyon
Nanaki ran, mostly just for the sake of running. Things had been changing steadily, they had ShinRa personnel studying the alternatives to Mako energy. They also had members of Avalanche who had sought political sanctuary, and things were tense at times.
Deneh watched over the members of Avalanche, and was starting to learn how to better deal diplomatically with others. Now if only the humans would stop snapping at each other.
Nanaki strangely found himself missing Yuffie's habit of getting into trouble- it would certainly break up the steady monotony that was becoming his life- then quickly stopped and shook his head. Monotony was good, and while he missed his friends he would settle for nice, boring reunions.
He began running again, completely ignorant of being watched.
Yuffie, and Sephiroth, will show up next chapter. So, so far, what do you think of the sequel? (This will be updated every two weeks, on Wednesdays . . . or at least, that's the plan. Sunday morning updates may also happen. This is due to the fact I now work weekends.) How'd you like my introduction for Dark Nation? I debated long and hard about adding DN, but decided that Rufus earned his right to keep her in this timeline.
And is it Muu or Mu?
Given that the Mako injection is treated like a drug, I imagine there would be severe consequences if the soldiers tried to stop taking it cold. Especially given the possibility that most of the firsts were exposed to even more experimental treatments.
Wedding Planning- takes somewhere between six months and a year to be able to book everything, and is very stressful. That's about all I know.
