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year 5, quarter 3
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Sephiroth’s boot crunched on compacted snow muddied with exhaust. There were factories here. Factories and unmuffled cars and children in torn jeans. They shirked away from him as they passed on rusted bicycles, turning over their shoulders to stare with wide eyes. Sephiroth didn’t mind. The air smelled of metal and gasoline. He hadn’t realized he’d missed it.
It had been over two weeks since he’d made his resolution with Genesis. They would root out Shinra wherever they hid. It was a poor proxy for the vengeance they’d promised to each other, but it was something at least. An outlet for their anger. Something to hold onto in this place without meaning. They couldn’t have come alone -- not when they’d found each other and not when they’d found Zack. There was something more here that had nothing to do with gods or magic. Staged deaths. Mako poisoning. Genetic manipulation. His mind rang with questions he couldn’t answer. Questions he would ask at the edge of a sword.
”I have sight on a possible A-301. Suspect at Elm and Stop 12.”
A low mutter trailed from the back of an alley to his right. Sephiroth glanced over to find an unmarked car crammed inside with the head of a man peeking over the dashboard. They made eye contact. Radio static burst to life between them along with a muffled voice.
”We’re in route. ETA, three minutes.”
Sephiroth gave a slight tilt of his head, lips pricked into a smirk. Did they mean him? He turned and continued on without a second glance, all too aware of the eyes that trailed after him. He was being followed. It didn’t take long for them to make their move. Exactly three minutes and twenty seconds, in fact.
Sephiroth came to a stop as four guns pressed in on him wielded by four gunmen. Standard issue pistols. They surrounded him in a quadrant and the one directly in front of him urged him still with a jerk of his gun barrel.
”Hands up! Drop the sword!”
It was the same man as before. The same from the car, and as the man’s eyes slowly found his own, something crossed them that was almost fearful. Instinct perhaps? Sephiroth smirked to himself as he closed his eyes in thought.
”No.”
Surprise touched at the man’s face, but he quickly shut it down as he motioned for the others. Sephiroth waited as they closed in. What exactly did they think he’d done? It didn’t interest him. This city was not Midgar.
Someone seized his shoulder.
Sephiroth twisted around before they could register, grabbing the hand and hurling it into another body. The two were sent flying back until they slammed into the sheer face of a brick wall. The others he dispatched with a sweep of his sword. They too were thrust away, blood bursting from them in ribbons. Sephiroth flicked the blood from his blade and sheathed it carefully. No bullets were fired. There hadn't been time.
The men were not dead. Not yet, anyway. Their breath rattled in their throats, and Sephiroth wasted no time to consider them. There would be others soon. He continued on from the scene of his crime -- drifting but not aimless. His boots slipped against red-stained sleet.
Cissnei took a deep breath and could smell the frost. A soft sigh escaped with a cloudy puff in the air. Her cheeks were reddened by the cold and she pulled the collar up on her coat. She did not care for the cold, but this place was the closest she could find to resembling home. She especially was not about to leave it while she set up her agency and searched for a purpose to her existence again. Besides, she took on a deal with a current murderer.
Why had she done that?
Something about Asael reminded her of a past long gone. Never mind he could probably turn her to sushi with minimal effort. Until she found more Turks, she would have to take these issues delicately. An afterthought told her she could go straight to the police…but the devil on her shoulder told her it would be more interesting to see what would occur when she fulfilled Asael’s request.
Regardless, she set out amongst the dirty streets as the greasy street lights were beginning to pop on. She adjusted the small scanner under her jacket and tapped into the guards' channel. She readjusted the ear piece to fit more comfortably. It wouldn’t be long before the chatter began on the radio scanner. It seemed they spotted someone who appeared to be Asael. Perhaps the guards were smarter than they looked. In a dash Cissnei made her way to that part of the city, but it seemed she was a bit too late.
She saw the guards suffering from blood loss and impact wounds. She considered the wounds for a moment, but knew it was not Asael. Perhaps, it was the other person she sought. The object of Asael’s request. She did not have time to render aid to these men. Pressing a switch on her radio, she talked into it, “Ambulances needed on the corner of 6th and 9th. Four men injured.”
“Who is this?” The dispatch was suspicious. But Cissnei did not respond, she simply dropped her business card and switched off her radio.
The tracks in the snow were fresh and one of the steps smeared in blood. They were not hard to follow in this gentle snow.
She set off in another dash to try to catch up. Past brick buildings, it seemed she had not been too far behind from him.
The man had long silver hair and a sword not unlike Asael’s weapon. Perhaps this was also best to be dealt with delicately.
“The guards here are relentless as long as you remain in the city walls.” She said softly she put her hands up to show him she was not a threat. At least not on the surface.
“But, I know why they are after you.” She crossed her arms over her chest and gave a slight smirk. She paced thoughtfully. “I might even be able to help you to clear your name and give them the real culprit.” She left the decision of her aid up to him.
There was a fire in her chest burning. Though her memories were foggy, her intuition screamed that this man was trouble. But, she tried to swallow back her biases for now.
She gave him a warning and an offer. The guards were relentless. She knew why they had placed their mark, but Sephiroth couldn’t have cared less. Whatever their original reasons, he had given them reasons of his own now, and he would dispatch however many he needed.
”You won’t stop me?” His lips twitched with a smirk. She knew what he was if not who. She knew that he had taken lives and yet still she sought to help him -- seemingly at least. He supposed her offer was enough to warrant his attention.
He turned.
She was a woman with shrewd eyes. Even with her hands raised, she carried a flawless sense of control, and despite her new clothes almost like a disguise, he knew in an instant who she was. She was a business woman, an informant, an inquisitor.
In short, she was a Turk.
Sephiroth closed his eyes, smirking. Yes, he remembered her now. One of the younger operatives, if he recalled -- not inexperienced, but not an expert in her field. She was often assigned to lesser SOLDIERs than him though he had seen her as often as any. He pulled his sword and let it fill the space between them.
A Turk meant business. A Turk meant Shinra.
”You came.” It had only been a matter of time before someone recognized him. His face was not one to be forgotten. ”Who do you answer to?”
The President? Rufus? Tseng? Or perhaps someone else. Turks always followed the chain of command. They were not allowed the freedom of individual action.
The snow flurried between them down an empty street silent but for the distant rattle of train tracks. His sword glinted in the yellowed street lights flickering with age. She would choose to speak or she wouldn’t. Either way, he would have his answers.
“Stop you?” She echoed his words. The tone of the words carried a calm incredulity. But whether it was due to him assuming she could over power his strength to stop him - or that she was hurt he would even suggest she would do such a thing – she would leave the reasoning up to his discretion. Ochre eyes regarded him as she stood patiently. He had a similar disposition as the man named Cloud, whom she met a while ago with his quietness while clearly mulling over thoughts.
“Oh. So, you were expecting me?” She said lightly, she made a gesture as if to wave off his accusations. “I answer to myself.” Her eyes bore into him. No, he never answered to himself, did he? She read the documents hidden away at ShinRa manor and the documents her superiors hid from her regarding the occurrence that took place in Nibelheim. Sephiroth had answered to Jenova and bent to her twisted wishes. At least, that was as far as she knew.
Villains always made themselves the hero of their own tortured stories. Sure, Sephiroth had a tragic past of being a test tube experiment. But why did he feel the need to kill innocents? “I’ve cleaned up many of your messes in the past, or at least tried.” The tone in the last part of her words were a jab at Sephiroth being but a child who cares naught for the messes he makes that others had to clean. “No one in ShinRa seemed to remember all the messes we cleaned for them. All the secrets we kept for them. All the hard labor and life-threatening jobs we did for them. The executives wanted my fellow Turks and I dead for simply being a liability. We knew too much. ShinRa excised me.”
She let the train fill the silence as she let her words sink in. Her breath created gentle puffs in the air. She was only alive thanks to Tseng, Verdot, and Rufus’s quick thinking. She felt anger well up in her chest. All the memories she tried to push back and forget came rushing back. She felt herself flush with emotion. But she bit it back. “To be fair, I am sure we never officially met. But I had no idea about your past or what happened when you defected. Tseng and Verdot kept ShinRa’s darkest secrets from me for my protection.” As any adoptive father and big brother would. She was angry about it, but she could not fault them. “But when I found out what they did to Zack and Cloud…and even you and the others…I rebelled. I did my best to save at least those left.”
She paused for a moment collecting her thoughts, “I can forgive your actions that led to Zack and Cloud’s imprisonment. I can forgive Nibelheim. I can even forgive you raining down Meteor. But I cannot forgive what you did to Tseng.” Her eyes flashed with anger for a moment and her arms crossed over her chest as she walked toward him. Then she circled him as if making sure he was really here in the flesh. Her life mattered not. She was never afraid of death. “Even so,” she stated evenly from behind him, her back to his, “I wish to put aside my differences and help you.” She laid it all bare for his satisfaction. She knew simple answers like she gave Zack would not satisfy Sephiroth.
She heard sirens in the distance, and they were gaining in their direction. “Anyway, I would not take the streets any longer.” If they wanted to continue their chat, then it would have to be elsewhere. With that Cissnei bound for the nearest hanging and pulled herself up and over. Then, she disappeared among the roof tops.
Sephiroth’s eyebrows raised. How very unlike a Turk though he supposed that answered one question. Now that she had found her way here, she had no particular affiliation to Shinra. It seemed unlikely, but then he’d have said that of himself not long ago. This ordeal had done more than enough to sever his ties, and he supposed it was only natural that it would do the same to others.
Still he kept his sword raised. He knew better than to trust a Turk at her word.
He cared little for her chastising. No one had appreciated her work? She had done her job -- nothing more -- and he had no sympathy for it. Only the last words gave him pause. ’Shinra excised me.’ He knew the implication well enough.
For a moment, they both stood silent. Her eyes met his, and his trained unblinkingly on hers. The wind howled sharply between them punctuated by the distant wail of a siren. In that moment, Sephiroth thought something might have passed between them. They had both followed doggedly in Shinra’s shadow, and they had both paid the price.
The moment ended as quickly as it had come. They had both defected. They had nothing more in common than that.
She continued to accuse him though he had no idea what she meant. Zack imprisoned? Meteor? It was only the last that him pause. What exactly had he done to Tseng?
He and Tseng had never particularly bonded, but they had worked together often and gotten along well. More than that, he respected Tseng in a way that few others rivaled. He was as much an expert in his field as Sephiroth was his. In his right mind, Sephiroth would at least have hesitated before cutting him down. In his right mind…
That left whatever had happened at Nibelheim. Would Tseng have stood in his way? No. He was too smart for that. He would have watched from the sidelines as always, watching and waiting and calculating the best moment to act. The Tseng he knew would never be so reckless as to fall by his hand.
The woman circled him. Scrutinized him. Sephiroth followed her with his eyes rather than his body. He had no need to shield himself from her, and she would know better than to attack. She stopped at his back, turned away. She would set the rest aside to help him. He couldn’t imagine why.
”Agreed.” Sephiroth sheathed his sword in one fluid motion. Taking to the rooftops? That was fine by him.
He waited for her to clear the wall before he hummed to himself and cleared the distance between them in one solid bound. He willed himself weightless -- or close enough to it at least -- and his body followed through until he landed lightly at the roof’s edge. Perhaps she would question it. Perhaps not. It was no matter to him.
”Once this is done, we’ll talk.” He glanced to her. His lips pricked with a smirk. ”Cissnei.”
Cissnei watched him bound fluidly over the hanging. Show off. He and that other guy. She furrowed her brow. Not all her memories had returned. But the amnesia seemed to be improving, so she did not let it bother her. She only turned her head slightly, her eyes tracing over her shoulders. Oh, so he did remember her. It even seemed almost chummy. Almost. Interesting.
A chilly breeze picked up and her hair flowed with it. Then, she was off.
In the distance the police sirens rang louder and louder. Cissnei kept low along the rooftops as she ran up the slopes, and lightly slid down the other side. Right when one thought she would fall off the edge, she bound upward with the momentum from the slide. She landed on the next roof with ease. A soft smile curled over her lips as the snow shifted off into the alley and bound forward again and crossed another roof top. She then edged to the corner of the next building, her boots skidding to a halt, and she peered over at the street below. She raised an arm with a closed fist in the military signal to halt. She quietly eased back and kept low, keeping eyes on the footman patrolling. When the man finally rounded the corner, Cissnei mentally counted to twenty seconds. When the footman did not patrol. She looked at Sephiroth and tilted her head towards the ground.
She turned to face Sephiroth and then hopped off the building backwards, landing on the emergency exit ladder. She then just slid down the rest of the way. Without missing a beat, she sidled up to what appeared to be a bouncer having a smoke break at the back of the bar. He was much larger and broader than her, bald, and showered with tattoos seen along his neck wherever his clothing did not cover. When he saw Cissnei, he stubbed out his cigar along the bottom of his boot. “Hello, Red. What can I do ya for?”
“Brick.” Cissnei put on a smile for him and gave him her kind eyes. “Me and a special someone need a place to lay low for a bit. Think we can use the backroom?”
Brick gave a shrug and grin back. “Don’t know. Ya gonna sing sometime this week?”
“Maybe. If I can find room in my schedule. But, I already helped you once.”
“And I’m helping you again, Red. More patrons visiting, means more money for me. It means backroom access for you.”
“Alright. Deal. But only when things settle down a bit.” She glanced at Sephiroth for a moment. Brick got the meaning well enough. He unlocked the backdoor for them and waved them inside.
The backroom was filled with supplies and crates for the alcohol, foodstuff, and glasses used at the bar. It was dimly lit back here with a single table and a couple chairs used to help unpack. Cissnei went to one of the crates, “Do you drink?” She asked politely, her eyes only glancing up at him to see if he was interested.
Cissnei was no different. While he’d never worked with her, he knew her kind well enough. They were special operatives -- which meant whatever they needed to be. While Sephiroth was a public face and only allowed a quiet level of atrocity, the Turks were bound by no one but ShinRa themselves. Sephiroth knew better than to trust them, but he trusted in his own abilities and that was enough.
Would she lead him into an ambush? Sephiroth smirked at the idea. If she acted against him, he would cut down each of her company in turn. It was as simple as that.
She moved more nimbly across the rooftops than he could have expected, and did so with a practiced ease. Sephiroth followed with a feline balance of his own, hopping lightly over slicks of black ice with hardly a thought. They moved too quickly for a sniper’s aim, but he kept an eye on his periphery all the same. Given the circumstances, he calculated the likelihood of her betrayal at approximately seventy-five percent.
They came to an abrupt halt, and Sephiroth eyed her with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. She had no eye for him -- only for the single patrol below. Sephiroth’s hand swept carefully to his sword, but he had no need for it. The guard moved on, and after waiting long enough to assure he wouldn’t return, Cissnei gestured their descent and swung onto a ladder, sliding easily down. Sephiroth waited until she had reached the bottom to hop over the edge, landing lightly with only the slightest recoil. He didn’t need to lighten himself. He had trained well enough for this.
A little farther down the alley stood a man. Cissnei approached him easily, and he didn’t seem surprised to see her. They spoke with hardly a glance in his direction, and he obliged with a silence of his own. ’Singing?’ He glanced at her with a silent amusement. An odd hobby for a Turk, but perhaps she was using it for her own method of infiltration. He tried to imagine her on a stage and couldn’t. She was simply too suited for the shadows.
She slipped inside, and he followed, sparing only a glance for the doorman as he passed. Their eyes met, and the man’s widened, startled. Sephiroth smirked. His eyes tended to make that impression. In his work, he didn’t much mind their fear.
She brought him to what looked to be an ordinary stockroom. Sephiroth glanced at the boxes with mild curiosity. They were made mostly of old cardboard inset with plateware, glasses, and the crowns of liquor bottles. A bar then. Sephiroth’s eyes drifted from the iron-wrought shelves to the shadowed ceilings. Cissnei had a way of surprising him.
”Do you drink?”
”No.” His voice held less ice than he’d expected. A side effect of his curiosity, he supposed. He wandered to the center of the room, his defenses weakened. The room was too secure for a surprise offensive. He wondered if the choice was purposeful.
His eyes locked on her again. ”You brought me here for a reason.” He wasted no time or sentiment. Their relationship was purely pragmatic. ”Why?”
Cissnei noticed his wariness around her. She took a little pride in it, knowing that the Turk reputation still held true. In truth, she felt weak doing things alone. But when she was with her comrades, she felt she could literally take on the world. But still, the mask of the Turk seemed to work to her benefit in a way. And he had much reason to not trust her.
Her eyes slid from the crate of bottle liquor and gave a slight shrug at his response. She crossed her arms and searched his eyes for a moment. “I brought you here for a couple reasons. Mostly, to wait for the guards out there to lower their alert levels. The second is because my place isn’t safe, and I wanted to warn you beforehand. Maybe even ask a favor.” She found a crate hip height and leaned back against it. Cissnei knew the SOLDIER was too smart to be led into a trap. So, she would spin some truths in to gain his favor. Or what little he would give of it. She was sure he’d be mostly indifferent, but it seemed a better strategic tactic in this situation.
“I told you I wanted to help you, but in return I need some aid too.” She lowered her eyes and gazed out into a shadowy part of the room in thought. “The person who the guards think you are may be at my agency now. He was looking for you. I have distracted him for a bit, but if I do not satisfy him…” She did not need to finish the rest. She let silence fill the room to let the scenario sink in.
“So, I am asking for your assistance. I know Turks and SOLDIERs have never seen eye to eye, but we’ve always work together when necessary. And perhaps, you can gain something out of this encounter. This person looks and fights similar to you. Perhaps you could test your mettle. Perhaps he could be another friend of yours. The guards may even leave you alone for your aid and you could walk freely.” She remembered the training room always being booked by the First-Class SOLDIERs. She shook her head for a moment as if she was dissatisfied with her own words. Asking SOLDIERs for help put a bad taste in her mouth, but she could not trick someone who was already wary and knew what she was. “Either way, he’ll be satisfied at finally meeting you.” She wasn't asking him to do a photo-op.
Sephiroth watched her impassively. She’d pulled him from the streets so that he could ward off some stranger strong enough to make her nervous. He smirked faintly, eyes closed. He should have expected it. A Turk preferred to work in the shadows. It was little wonder that she’d have her battles fought for her.
Once she’d finished, he took a moment to think. Test his mettle? Clearly she knew nothing of him on a personal level. He was not some aggressive recruit eager to prove himself. He had nothing at all to prove, and the very idea that he’d act on something so basic…
Sephiroth touched his palm to his forehead and laughed.
”I didn’t ask for your help.” He lowered his hand, eyes glinting with amusement. ”Do you think I owe you something?”
He didn’t. While he’d wondered why the police had been looking for him, it had hardly mattered to him. He'd dispatched them in seconds, and he’d had no reason to think that the others would prove any more troublesome. It had been Cissnei who had insisted that he retreat. He had followed her for one reason and one alone.
”I came to talk.” His expression cleared. He locked his eyes on her unblinkingly. ”My memories…” He gave a dry smirk. ”Are compromised.”
He walked towards one of the shelves and touched at the rim of a glass. Despite the dim lights, it reflected with a careful polish. ”I’ve met Zack,” he said. ”And Genesis. They told me of my defection at Nibelheim. They claimed that I died.”
His gloved hand smudged the glass’ light. He turned to her. ”So tell me. What exactly did I do to Tseng?”
Cissnei watched the walking enigma cautiously for his reaction. She was not sure what to make of him yet. Did he have any other endearing traits other than deadly? It was hard to tell.
But hey, laughing was a good start. She could deal with being laughed at.
“No. You owe me nothing. I was asking for a favor, and I would return one later, if you so wish.” She stated flatly. Cissnei did not simply expect help, without providing something back. Obviously, he did not know her. His amusement was infectious and she found herself smiling as well. No. She did not know him, but perhaps with this conversation she could try to piece together the puzzle from the parts he provided.
Cissnei simply nodded to his request to talk. “If I reveal to you what Zack and Genesis cannot, will you then help me? All I ask is that you at least make eye contact with this guy. You don’t even have to stay and chat.” Cissnei crossed her arms over her chest. Cissnei could hear more guards outside, but her friend out there pointed the guards in another direction.
After the chatter outside ended, Cissnei pushed off the crates and stood so that he could see her reflection in the rim of the glass. Her eyes were hard at the memories. “I am not sure exactly what happened. I was not working with ShinRa at the time. But one of my contacts received a call from Reeve and I was instructed to emergency evacuate Tseng at the Temple of the Ancients. A few others and I found him bleeding out from a sword wound in front of a mural. He had a Full Cure materia that simply kept him from out right dying, but the blood loss was great. I pieced him back together the best I could.” Cissnei looked at her hands as if she could still see the blood stains on them. The smell was coming back clearly.
“Luckily, it was just enough to stabilize him until he could get real medical attention. Tseng told me much between his sleep and the drugs. You ran him through.” Cissnei gave a huffed chuckle for a moment, “Elena believed Cloud did him in.” Absurd, she knew. “I cannot confirm whether it was you or not. He was probably just in the way of something you wanted. Maybe it was wrong place at the wrong time. But I believe Tseng’s testimony and the wound looked more of your style of weapon, than Cloud’s. I am bound to believe him. That he simply was reading the murals, asked you a few questions regarding your thoughts, and you ran him through, unprovoked. ” Her last word was bitter.
Cissnei turned her eyes away from the reflection in the glass and walked away. “I could reveal more about you.” She said walking away and wondering if she should have some of the bourbon in the crate. “Tseng did allow me access to files after I aided him. But, the curious question is, would it be best for you to have all those memories best? Or maybe some things are best forgotten.” Cissnei was trying to at least give a taste of information to show her good faith.
