Astria Porta, Chapter 3

[sinnatious]

 Title: Astria Porta

Summary: Stargate SG-1 and Final Fantasy 7 crossover. Reeve finds a mysterious artifact in an archaeological dig beneath the Sleeping Forest.

Warning: LANGUAGE. 

Author’s Note: Weekends are much too short, but I'm going to try to keep up weekly posts of SOME fics, regardless of their state, as long as I can. I've only got one and a half more chapters of this up my sleeve so lower your expectations now.


Chapter 1 
Chapter 2

 

Footsteps thudded past.  The four of them sat in tense silence until they died away.

“Looks like we’re safe for now,” Cloud muttered.  He jammed his sword against the door handle, holding it shut. It wouldn’t buy them much more than a warning, but it was better than nothing.

“Great. Then let’s see if I can’t find us a way out of this shithole,” Cid said, clambering up on the table to peer at the ceiling.

Their frantic dash through the base had finally wound up with them taking refuge in what looked like an unusually large janitor’s closet. Brooms were fairly universal, after all. The table Cid was standing on was similarly littered with the usual cleaning detritus of rags and plungers and unidentifiable broken odds and ends.

“I think we’re underground,” Nanaki said.  “I saw an elevator at the end of one of the halls before the doors closed it off, and the air smells stale.”

“Seems about right,” Cid grunted. “Not even ShinRa HQ had this kind of ventilation setup.”

“Can we crawl through it?” Cloud asked.

Cid dropped back to the ground. “Cait could, but difficult for the rest of us. Plus it looks like it’s blocked off by grills fairly regularly. This is some high-security shit.”

“So we can assume they know where we are.”

“Or will soon, at any rate. Think I saw some security cameras while we were running. They’ll be able to track us to the right area at least, once they get on it.”

It just looked worse and worse. The place was a rabbit’s warren, with heavy metal doors blocking their paths at nearly every juncture. And sure, Cloud could cut through them, but that would just bring the pursuing patrols down on their heads even sooner.

“Exit materia?” Nanaki asked.

“I only had the one, and I left it in the ring we went through.” Cloud fished through the materia in his pockets. He’d brought a selection, figuring that if Reeve had wanted him to bring his Exit he might as well bring some others too, just in case. Fire, Bolt, Restore, Double Cut, Shield, and the Shiva summon, which had at the time seemed like one of the few he could safely summon underground and in close quarters.

Had he known the situation they would wind up in, he would have brought a wider range. As it was, it was lucky he’d brought his Shield instead of just his Barrier – even Wall had a hard time with automatic gunfire.  “What does everyone else have?”

“Don’t carry none of that stuff,” said Cid. “Was never that good with it anyway.”

“Nanaki?”

“I hadn’t thought there any need,” he apologised.

Cloud nodded, and picked out his Fire materia. “You have somewhere to equip this?”

Nanaki held out one of his paws, proffering the decorative cuff on his right foreleg. Cloud slipped the materia into the available slot there. If push came to shove, he and Nanaki would be doing any heavy lifting in terms of fighting, given that Cait was without Mog and Cid without spear.

“Great, so, we have weapons, that’s something,” Cid said. “Now how the hell do we get out of this?”

One by one, each of them turned to him. Expecting.

Cloud considered the door held shut by his sword. They were deep in unfamiliar territory, filled to the brim with defences, trained personnel, weapons, security cameras, and currently an unknown number of levels underground. “We need more information, and fast,” he said. “Cait, if we get you to a computer, how quickly do you think you can hack into it?”

“Without Reeve? Canna be sure, lad, not without seeing what sorta security they have,” Cait admitted.

Not ideal, but understandable.  They’d just have to risk it and hope Cait worked fast enough.  “We make a run for it until we spot a terminal – any terminal. Then we hold it as long as we can for Cait to break in and get us some sort of escape route.”

“Works for me,” Cid grunted.

“We should get moving,” Nanaki counselled. “We’re not likely to remain undiscovered here much longer.”

Cloud nodded his agreement, checking his materia one last time and retrieving his sword from the door.

One thought persisted, though, as he hefted the weapon onto his shoulders.

“Cid,” he said. “What do you think they meant by ‘aliens’?”

  

………………..

 

“What the hell happened out there?” Hammond thundered. “And why don’t we have them in custody yet?”

“Working on it, General,” Jack said, not breaking his stride, Daniel and Teal’C hot on his heels. They swung back into the command centre. “Carter?”

She looked up from the computer bank – she’d headed straight there instead of going into pursuit.  “We followed their trail on the cameras, sir. They took refuge in a blind spot before going on the move again. They’re holed up in the secondary command centre at the moment - a squad’s got them pinned down but they’re having trouble getting them into custody.”

“Why?” Hammond demanded.

“They can’t get close,” She gestured to the screen in front of them. The quality wasn’t amazing, but it was enough to see the shimmering barrier protecting the odd group of off-worlders. The Goa’uld called Cloud and the red panther were holding fort against the squad on the opposite side of the room while the small cat and the older man huddled over one of the workstations.  “Neither bullets nor zats will get past the shield.”

“What are they doing?” Jack asked, squinting at the screen.

“They’re trying to access the network,” Carter said.  “Siler cut the local cable to isolate it, but we can’t shut off access to the workstation itself while they’re behind that barrier. We can cut the power, but we’d lose control over that whole section. Siler’s working on cutting the power just to that room but…”

But it was the secondary command centre – the systems there were designed to avoid losing power, even during an incursion. Just their luck. Sometimes SGC’s own security measures worked against them.

“What is our timeline here, people?” Hammond demanded.

“Siler’s working as fast as he can, but he estimates another twenty minutes,” Carter admitted.

“Too long, any other way?” Jack asked.

“They haven’t actually tried to kill anyone yet – everything they’ve done has been completely defensive.” Daniel pointed out. “Can’t we try talking to them again? Without the threats and guns?”

 

………………..

 
 

Cloud focused his attention on his materia, feeding a steady flow of energy into it. He would be able to keep it up for some time yet, especially with a few ethers, but the longer they took the harder it would be to fight their way out again. The crowd of soldiers just outside the room was growing ever larger.  “Cait, Cid?”

“We’re going as fast as we can, dammit,” Cid cursed. “You got anything yet, Cait?”

“It’s all foreign to me lad. I might be able to do better if I have a look at the source code.”

“How the fuck are you supposed to do that?” Cid had barely finished asking the question before Cait pawed at something and the screen filled with rapidly scrolling text. “Well, shit, what do you even need me for?”

“This isn’t…” Cait’s words dissolved into a scramble of oddly electronic vowels, before picking back up.  “Woweee!"

Then the robot cat promptly slumped over. Cid caught him before he could fall to the floor.

“Cait?” Nanaki’s good eye widened in alarm.  “Is he hurt?”

“Goddamit. He’s offline again.” Cid shook him with a scowl – Cait’s body hung limply.

The shield wavered briefly. Cloud refocused his attention, and it steadied once more, luckily before any of the soldiers across from them had the bright idea to test it out again. “Can you fix him?”

“Heck no! I’m an engineer, not a programmer. Maybe if it were something simple, but Reeve’s damn code is a whole other story.” Cid scowled. “Based on what I do know, Cait’s a learning bot. My guess is the moron’s just encountered a whole other programming language. He might just be using all of his processing power on integrating, or he could be totally busted. No way to tell.”

That was… vaguely distressing, given their current situation.  “Anything you can figure out without him?”

“Not without a solid hour to screw around. This damn interface ain’t anything like I’ve used before. I don’t even have a clue where to start.”

Which meant they needed a new plan, fast. Cloud eyeballed their surroundings.  The doorway and far side of the room were now thoroughly clogged by a sea of soldiers bearing guns. Maybe straight through the wall again? It could turn into a battle of attrition if they weren’t careful, though. And being underground, they might eventually run into a wall that didn’t have another side.

Before he had the chance to formulate a better plan, the soldiers parted to let a group of four through – the same group who’d approached them when they’d first arrived. They strode forward and came to a stop just in front of the range of his shield.  Cloud eyed them warily – they seemed to have some position of authority, but they’d also brought a scientist in with them last time, and he wanted nothing more to do with that. Next to him, the fur began to bristle in a wave along Nanaki’s back, his fiery tail flicking from side to side in agitation.

“Hey now.”  The grey-haired one, who Cloud had pegged as their leader, held up his hands. “No need for that. We just want to talk.”

“Doesn’t exactly look like it,” Cloud replied. He didn’t lower the Wall, keeping a steady hand on his sword.

“Fair point,” he said, then motioned to the soldiers behind him. They all lowered their guns, retreating to the hallway. “Better?”

It was, but too many dealings with ShinRa over the years made him reluctant to trust it. “Then start talking.”

“Okay, so first things first – we maybe got off on the wrong foot. Who exactly are you, and what are you doing here?”

“I’m Cloud,” Cloud introduced warily.

“Cid,” Cid grunted, then held aloft the still defunct Cait, “This is Cait.”

“Red XIII,” Nanaki rumbled, sidling closer to Cloud. His muscles were tense, ready to spring on a moment’s notice. “We did not intend to come here. We did not know where the artefact led.”

“We didn’t come here looking for a fight,” Cloud added. “We don’t even know where ‘here’ is.”

The group of four all exchanged a glance. “Oooookay then. We’ll take you at your word for now. You’ve got the floor, Danny,” their leader announced, shoving the one who’d introduced himself as Daniel earlier forward.

Daniel stumbled forward half a step, throwing the other man an exasperated glance, adjusting his glasses briefly before turning back to them.  “We apologise for the welcome, but I’m afraid we have to take precautions.  You see, our planet has a lot of enemies, and you happened to resemble the, uh, very worst of them.”  He squinted at them, as though a new thought had just occurred to him.  “Are you aware of interplanetary travel?”

“Well, crap. That pretty much confirms what we thought,” Cid grunted.  He glanced at Nanaki.  “Red? You have anything yet?”

“It’s as you suggested.  I can’t sense the Lifestream here,” Nanaki answered, sounding troubled.  “It is… disconcerting.”

Cid’s shoulders sagged.  "Figures. So, looks like we're not on our Planet anymore after all."

The leader’s eyebrows shot towards his hairline.  “You’d guess right.”

“Goddamit.  Can’t we just go one year without getting into some sort of shit?”

The four strangers shared another long look. 

“I think we’re going to need to do a full debrief on this one, sir,” the woman suggested.

Their leader sighed, long and loud.  “My day started so well, too.  Okay, everyone, you know the drill.  Let’s take this someplace more comfortable, yeah?”

“What of their weapons, O’Neill?” The large man with the tattoo on his head spoke for the first time. Cloud made a note of the name.

O’Neill gave them a considering look. “I don’t suppose you folks would be happy to put any and all weapons in a secure storage for your stay, would you?”

"The hell we will!” Cid barked.  “You were firing at us not ten minutes ago!”

“I can promise you we mean no harm,” Daniel rushed to assure them.  “It’s simply protocol.”

Cid didn’t look convinced.  “Tell you what, we'll surrender all of our weapons if you lock away all of your guns.  No?  Didn't fucking think so."

"You don't even have any weapons," Cloud pointed out.  "You left your spear back on the ship."

"You want to hand over your damn precious sword go right ahead."  When Cloud hesitated, he repeated, "Yeah, didn't fucking think so."  To the strangers, he said, "’Sides, you don't know how often we've been in a goddamn empty room only for a fucking tonberry or some shit to pop out of nowhere.  Kid's gonna keep the sword if it's all the same to you."

Their leader sighed again. Daniel frowned at him.

“Fine, we’ll do this in Conference Room B.  Get it prepared.”  O’Neill signalled one of the squad still lingering in the hallway, and they took off to relay the order. “You can keep ‘em on you, so long as you don’t use ‘em, and don’t mind us doing the same.”

“Good enough,” Cid replied, though the suspicion didn’t leave his expression.  He glanced to Cloud, who nodded in subtle confirmation.

“Right. Okay then.  But look, just to be clear, are you or are you not a Goa’uld?” O’Neill said.

“Jack,” Daniel hissed.

“What? It needs to be asked.”

That same word from the room they’d first arrived in. “We don’t even know what that is,” Cloud said.

“So that was why you were shooting at us. What the hell makes you think Cloud’s one of these things anyway?” Cid grumbled.

“Well, you know, your eyes glow and all that,” Jack said.  “And our resident ‘is this person a Goa’uld’ expert is getting some crossed lines from you. So even though you didn’t really like the idea, we would really, really feel better if you let us run at least a couple of tests. You know. To make sure you’re not a Goa’uld.”

“No.” Cloud couldn’t spit the word out fast enough. The tension in the room rose like a burning flame.

“Shit, look, you gotta understand,” Cid cut in, “Cloud and Red here don’t like tests, and don’t trust scientists, because they have a heckuva lot of personal history there that nobody frankly likes talking about because it’s as depressing as hell. So it ain’t that we’re trying to be difficult, but you’re not exactly asking for something small and simple here.”

That didn’t exactly put their hosts at ease, but the tension dropped back to a much milder wariness.  “A phobia?” Daniel asked. He seemed to be their best ally in this case.

This was going to be an ongoing problem, though, Cloud could tell.  He closed his eyes briefly.  “If… if it’s just an x-ray, I could do it. But blood tests or tissues samples…”

Cid slanted him a glance. “You sure? Ain’t no need to be a hero over this.”

“I can deal with that much. I’m over a lot of it, really.  Just some things… still freak me out.”

It was a stretch of the truth. So long as he wasn’t caught off guard, a few tests didn’t actually bother him. Cloud could handle that much discomfort. But the fact remained that he was the last carrier of S-cells, and with that, he presented an unfortunate temptation. To ShinRa, and any other rogue scientist.

It hadn’t been something he’d discussed openly within AVALANCHE. Mostly with Vincent, who shared a similar conundrum, and once with Reeve.

The chance, however small, that someone might get curious and try to recreate Hojo’s work was one that could not be borne. Nor was the chance of becoming a living experiment once again.

If it helped him avoid that eventuality, Cloud would call it a phobia. It wasn’t even entirely a lie.

“Carter?” O’Neill asked.

“X-ray will be enough, sir. I’ll let Janet know.”

“Okey-dokey then. This way, folks. And by the way, welcome to Earth.”