Unsynced, Chapter 14
Oct. 14th, 2018 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinnatiousSummary: FF7. Someone in ShinRa HR mixed up assignments, and Kunsel gets sent to Nibelheim instead of Zack.
Author’s Note: Didn't manage to get an update out last weekend, sorry about that. I am extra sorry to let you know that there won't be any updates for the two weekends following this one either - real life obligations are a bit intense. October always does this to me. Expect next chapter first weekend of November, many apologies. We only have a few more chapters before I run out of pre-written stuff as is uh oh. Here's hoping I can keep this up until the end of year.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 13
__________
Chapter 14
__________
“Back,” Kunsel hissed under his breath, and the ragtag group of AVALANCHE rescues rushed to comply, all but tripping over themselves to take cover around the corner. Zack Fair was famous, after all, and you’d have to be an idiot to stand between two SOLDIERs. Only Cloud remained, silent and tense behind his shoulder.
Zack, for his part, took only a few strides forward before stopping dead in his tracks, glowing blue eyes wide. “...No way. It’s not possible…”
"Hi Zack. Heard you made General," Kunsel remarked, and if he sounded bitter, it couldn't be helped. "Congratulations."
“Kunsel? Is that you? And Cloud? How-”
“Are you really that surprised, Zack? Did you not look into Nibelheim at all?” Kunsel bit out.
“Nibelheim? Then you-” Kunsel could see the cogs turning behind his eyes. Too slow, too late.
They didn’t have time to hash this out. Not here, not now, in the very heart of enemy territory, with half a dozen people’s lives riding on their escape.
“Just… let us pass, Zack. Stand aside, and pretend you never saw us. Just… walk away.”
“What are you saying, I can’t-”
“You did for the last four years!” The words ripped out of his mouth, halfway to a shout.
He hadn’t meant to say them, but their echo trembled in the sudden silence all the same.
Zack’s voice, when he answered, sounded very small in the corridor. “I thought you were dead.”
“And I thought that you of all people would know not to believe ShinRa when they say someone’s dead,” Kunsel said.
Zack reared back as though struck.
“This can’t- this must be a misunderstanding,” he said. “What are you – what are you even doing here?” He glanced towards the corner where AVLANCHE hid. “A breakout?” His gaze slid to the rapier, still unwrapped, clutched in Kunsel’s hand. “That sword… where did you get that sword?”
“Where do you think, Zack?”
Even in his bewilderment, this Zack was harder than the one he'd known. His shoulders were stiffer from bearing the weight of too much responsibility. The edges of his eyes more pinched, his expression more serious than Kunsel had even seen mid-mission.
Four years was a long time. What did Zack see, looking at him and Cloud?
“Genesis was using that sword at the Grasslands,” Zack recalled. “Were you guys there? Why didn’t you...”
“Why didn’t I face down a battalion and a First Class SOLDIER who would happily shoot me dead? Shiva, Zack, how much more naïve can you be? Genesis saved our lives.” And Kunsel still didn’t understand why.
“No! I wasn’t- I was there for Genesis, not you, I didn’t know-” Zack sputtered. “I thought he killed you! And Cloud and Sephiroth! He killed Cissnei, Kunsel!”
Kunsel’s fingers jerked tight.
Zack didn’t know. He hadn’t figured it out yet.
Zack didn’t know it was Kunsel who killed Cissnei.
"C'mon guys," Zack pleaded. "...Cloud? You trust me, right? I would never…"
Cloud looked distraught, but he didn't budge from Kunsel's side.
Kunsel’s voice had deserted him.
Zack thought it had been Genesis. Zack had blamed Cissnei’s death on Genesis.
Zack had killed Genesis for it.
Whatever else they might have said, they didn’t get the chance – the awkward standoff broken by the innocent ding of an arriving elevator. Reinforcements.
“Sorry, Zack. I made a promise,” Kunsel said. “That ShinRa will burn.”
He swept the rapier out in an arc. With it burst a stream of white-hot flames, a clear line between them and the elevator bank.
“Wait, no! Cloud! Kunsel!” Zack yelled after them, moving to leap through the flames, but with another swipe of the rapier they flared, reaching for the ceiling, and he retreated with a curse. Other SOLDIERs and troopers were spilling onto the floor now – ShinRa security finally catching up with the alarms.
Kunsel backed up, spreading the flames until he and Cloud stood again with Tifa and the others. Smoke was beginning to fill the corridor. The sprinklers burst open, showering them with water. Kunsel kept the materia warm, feeding the fire against it.
“What the hell we gonna do now? The elevator’s cut off!” the man with the gun arm demanded.
“Plan B! Everyone grab tight and huddle!” Kunsel barked, reaching for the softly glowing white materia he’d kept secure on his belt. He dropped his spare hand, tangling his fingers in Red’s mane. Cloud grabbed his arm with one hand and Tifa’s hand with his other. The rest of AVALANCHE followed suit with military swiftness.
Too many, more than he ever would have tried before, but adrenaline was surging in his veins, as hot as the line of fire before him.
Kunsel took a shallow breath, met Zack’s eyes across the flames, and murmured, “Escape.”
With a sickening lurch, the world shifted. A slow, laborious blur across his gaze, the wind getting punched from his lungs, and then suddenly instead of cool white tile they stood on oil-stained concrete.
“The hell?!” the gun armed man shouted.
“This is the basement carpark,” Cloud murmured. “So when we stopped here earlier, that was for…”
Kunsel was still blinking the stars out of his vision. Shiva, he’d used an Escape materia before but he’d still not anticipated how much energy it actually took for that many people. A quick and somewhat bleary head count had everyone accounted for. “Who here can drive? Get a vehicle, we need to get moving before they find out where we’ve gone.”
Biggs – or maybe it was Wedge, they hadn’t had the chance for proper introductions – nodded and raced for the nearest truck.
“Cloud,” Tifa asked, “How do you know Zack Fair? What were you guys talking about?”
“Later,” Kunsel interrupted when Cloud hesitated to answer. The rumble of a truck engine filled the carpark. “Hurry up, we’re in the middle of an escape here.”
Red XIII was already nimbly jumping into the back of the track. The man with the gun arm clambered after him, grumbling, along with the girl Kunsel vaguely guessed must have been Jessie.
Kunsel and Cloud were last to board. Kunsel handed Cloud his Ice materia. “In case ShinRa chases.”
“Where are we going?” The guy driving yelled back. “Back to base?”
“Shiva, are you suicidal? ShinRa’s had days to track down your base, don’t go back there.” Kunsel cursed even as the truck wheeled out of the parking lot.
“The hell we aren’t! First order of business to check on Marlene!” The man with the gun arm argued.
“Who the heck is Marlene?”
“His daughter,” Tifa supplied.
“The bar should be safe, everyone who actually knew about it was already in custody or hiding, ShinRa wouldn’t have anyone to question,” Jessie volunteered. “None of us told them a thing.”
Kunsel threw his hands in the air. “Fine, ignore the guy with insider ShinRa knowledge and risk everyone’s lives on the off-chance ShinRa was incompetent enough not to find your secret base!”
“It’ll be fine,” the gun-arm man grunted. “If ShinRa is there, we can fight this time!”
“Don’t volunteer me and Cloud for your battles,” Kunsel retorted. “We came to rescue Tifa. We’re not AVALANCHE sympathisers.”
“We’re going to fetch Marlene,” Tifa declared, glaring at him. “We can’t just leave her behind!”
Kunsel glanced at Cloud, who just shrugged in response.
“We’ve got company!” the driver hollered from the front. “Motorbikes, coming up fast!”
Kunsel sighed, and started warming up his Fire materia.
…………………
The sprinklers continued to rain down upon them, extinguishing the unnatural bed of flame eating up the corridor. Exclamations of surprise rang out behind Zack as the terrorists, along with Kunsel and Cloud, disappeared in a flash of white light.
Materia. But where it had it taken them to?
Luxiere was staggering towards them, sodden from the sprinklers, along with the Second Class he’d been assigned guard duty with. “Zack,” he gasped through the clearing smoke. “There’s been a break out. It was-”
“I know,” Zack interrupted. “I came as soon as the alarms went off. Are you okay?”
Luxiere grimaced. “It was a Sleepel materia. We’re fine. Tarlas could use a Cure though.” The Second Class was cradling his hand with a grimace.
Zack cast it with barely a second thought, and glanced at one of the troopers to his right – his scarf marked him as the squad leader. “Get in touch with internal security and find out where they’ve gone!”
The trooper snapped him a salute, retreating to talk on his radio. Zack strode to the wall opposite the elevator, disabling the fire alarm. The sprinklers shuddered to a stop as the last tongues of flame sputtered out. He pointed at the second squad of troopers. “Don’t just stand around, go lockdown all the exits on this floor!” They all jerked to action, boots splashing as they rushed to comply.
Zack’s phone trilled. He glanced at it. Emergency summons to the top floor. Were they escaping from the roof?
“Luxiere, take care of things here. I’m heading up top.”
He jumped into the waiting elevator, swiping his pass. His foot tapped an impatient beat as the numbers rose.
After what felt like an eternity – in the heat of an emergency, it very nearly was - the elevator dinged, the doors whooshing open to the sight of Tseng pacing in the hallway, fingers dancing across the keys to his phone. It was the most ruffled he’d ever seen the Turk.
“Where are they?” he demanded.
Apparently whatever he’d been summoned for, it wasn’t that, as Tseng halted in his pacing and threw him a confused look. “‘They’?”
“Kunsel and Cloud! What haven’t you told me about Nibelheim, Tseng?”
Tseng’s expression could have been carved from stone. “Kunsel and Cloud? You said… they’re here? You saw them?”
“Tseng,” Zack said, “Did you know?”
Tseng remained frozen in place for far too long. Zack’s ire rose, but it must have shown on his face, because just before it reached its peak Tseng rushed to respond. “We didn’t know anything for sure.”
Zack crossed his arms. “But?”
Tseng winced. “But we did suspect, that when Genesis attacked the Reactor, that there was a possibility…” he trailed off.
“What the hell Tseng-” Zack snarled.
“Before you go any further,” he interrupted. “There’s something you need to see.”
Then he was walking swiftly towards the President’s office, and Zack had to hurry to keep up. “I don’t have time, I need to-”
As the Turk opened the door, the words died on his lips.
The office was dark, lit only by the shining lights of Midgar coming through the wall-to-ceiling windows. But it was more than enough to see the President, slumped in his chair, hands hanging limply over the armrests.
Masamune sticking out of his chest.
“What… what is this?” Zack murmured. “What-”
“The President has been murdered,” Tseng said. “Along with a number of troopers on the floor below us. The perpetrator has escaped.”
“The perp-” Zack brain whirled with the implications. “Who was it?”
He almost didn’t need to ask. Masamune was no ordinary sword. It took a SOLDIER’s strength merely to lift it – and Sephiroth himself to effectively wield it.
“Kunsel and Cloud are alive… does this mean Sephiroth…”
Tseng folded his arms. “Clearly there’s a great deal we still don’t know about what happened in Nibelheim. It’s possible your friends might know more… or are complicit.”
Zack shook his head. “No way, they used Sleepel materia, why would they do this?”
“They are also behind releasing the science department’s specimens,” Tseng reminded him. “Do you truly think this could be a coincidence?” The Turk didn’t wait for a reply, frowning down at the messages coming in on his phone.
Zack had no answer for that. He moved on. Focus on what he could do. “I thought they were going to escape via the roof.”
“They’ll be disappointed if so, the helicopter isn’t up there currently. It’s retrieving Rufus from Junon,” Tseng said, grimacing as his phone vibrated again. “In any case, it appears they’ve instead stolen a truck and are currently blowing up the highway.” He flipped the phone to give Zack a glance of the highway in question – the wreckage of several ShinRa-issue motorbikes in flames, and the road slicked with ice.
Zack winced. “Yeah, that looks like Kunsel’s work.”
Tseng arched an eyebrow at him. The Turk was tricky like that – somehow Zack now found himself on the backfoot defending his friend’s actions when it was Tseng who should have been making excuses. “Look, we can sort this out, okay? Call the troops off.”
“They’re aiding and abetting terrorists,” Tseng said. “Regardless of the circumstances, we can’t just turn a blind eye.”
“They’re not! They can’t be,” Zack protested, but it sounded weak to even his own ears. Kunsel had been wielding Genesis’s sword, after all. That wasn’t a good look. “I just… I just got them back Tseng. I need to talk to them.”
“Zack.” Tseng’s tone was gentle. Cautious. “Need I remind you, this isn’t the first time missing SOLDIERs have not been all that they appeared to be.”
Zack paused, horror curling along his veins. “You’re not suggesting...”
Copies. Former heroes gone insane, like Genesis. Angeal, mutating beyond all recognition. Until only Zack had been left, struggling to hold together the tattered remains of their once-great dreams and legacies.
“Appearing now? Right after you killed Genesis?” Tseng folded his arms, staring at him with sympathy. “We never found out precisely what happened in Nibelheim. We only knew Genesis had been involved.”
“But it was them, I saw them, Cloud was right there, he didn’t look like a copy at all!” Zack was frantic with denial. It couldn’t be.
“And Kunsel?”
“It was his voice-”
“But did you see?” Tseng pressed.
Zack fell silent, lost for words.
He hadn’t. Kunsel’s face had been largely hidden behind a helmet, as always. And he’d been wielding Genesis’s sword, and used materia in a way Zack hadn’t ever seen him use it before. He didn’t want to believe Tseng, but… it made sense. It made an awful, heart-breaking amount of sense.
His stomach churned with guilt and revulsion.
Not all copies were obvious at first sight, and not all of them had been turned into mindless drones. Some had merely been bent and twisted to do Genesis’s bidding. He’d learned that the hard way.
“He said… Genesis saved their lives,” Zack recalled. The words were like bile in his mouth, an aftertaste of morbol slime.
“Genesis lied, Zack, all the time,” Tseng reminded him softly.
Zack glanced once more at Masamune, at the still-wet blood dripping from its tip. “…I know. Just… I thought it was over, you know? But now, even when he’s finally dead, he still manages to…” He hunched his shoulders.
One last strike at him from beyond the grave. One final mocking laugh in his face.
“You don’t have to deal with it, Zack,” Tseng promised. “Leave this one to us. You’ve done enough.”
Zack shook his head. “No. If Kunsel really has been… it’s my responsibility.” He choked on the words. “I did the same for Angeal, I can at least do it for him. And maybe there’s still a chance that Cloud, at least, can be saved.”
Tseng laid a hand on his shoulder. “You’ll have ShinRa’s support, I promise you.”
He clenched his fists until they shook.
It wasn’t fair. Hadn’t he already lost enough?
Next chapter
