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Look, after a long, long, loooooong dry spell, Oh Gracious Twist of Fate is up and running again. Be afraid. Though I bet most of you don't even know what OGToF is anymore. >.> Been about seven months or so since I updated last. Thank Nanowrimo for me writing more. *nods* Hope you guys enjoy it.
For those of you who want to see the GW and the Muses that go with this, check it out here, my Nano LJ.
Now, to the fic.
Chapter One: Escape
Interlude One
New Chapter
Chapter Two: Clean Up
August 27-30, 1994
Nibelheim was in chaos.
People had heard the noises at the Shinra Mansion, though nobody had wanted to go up there and check it out. Too many of the stories and vanishings that had kept people away for years kept them away now. So, while the screams and the sounds of fighting had attracted a few of the bravest villagers, most of them had stayed far away.
The fact it was a quiet night had been the only reason that anyone from town had even heard the sounds at all, and then it was just those who lived on the outer edges closest to the abandoned mansion. Still, they had heard, and they had called the mayor, who had attempted to get people to check it out.
Now, though, there were a lot more sounds, and the people of Nibelheim gathered together to watch the bright lights and listen to the sounds of helicopters in the night sky.
They didn’t realize everything was about to change.
///
He was coldly furious. The Shinra Mansion was a lab that he had put his own money into, taking the bits of the pittance Shinra paid him and making sure that the lab was state of the art, having all the best supplies.
And now it was ruined.
He had suspected something was wrong when that irritating brat that Sephiroth called his second hadn’t come in for his yearly Mako dosage. That was the one thing he could always count on people, even that rebellious child who never should have been allowed into SOLDIER, to do. As far as the SOLDIERs knew, those shots were what kept them as enhanced as they were. No need for them to know that it was mostly to keep them sterile and under the thumb of Shinra. Hojo knew that they would have lost half the group if they were aware that they didn’t need the boosters to stay as good as they were.
That would not be tolerated.
Not that he was going to tolerate this, either.
All around him, the lab was in shambles. The specimen he had stored here for years was gone. Damn Sephiroth. He knew for a fact that the child he had raised had done most of the damage, the slashes left by Masumune far too distinct to be anything else, though he did recognize some done by a heavier, thicker blade. Probably by that black haired irritant.
It had been a horrible last few days anyway. The Turks had reported that they had lost, -lost- track of the last Ancient. How was he supposed to continue his research? And his lone backup specimen, the boy he had worked so hard on, was also missing. Snatched.
Obviously he had been lax in security. He would know not to allow that next time. Two years had passed, though, and the pair had seemed to be no closer to the truth of what had happened to the blond.
Damn Sephiroth.
It was even more irritating to realize that he wouldn’t have even known about this for another few days if it hadn’t been for Strife. She had called and reported the incident as soon as she had become aware of it. He had taken a copter out immediately. Who knew when his more spineless subordinates would have given him the news?
Well, there was only one thing to do now. Ignoring the fire that was starting to spread and the sparks from the electrical equipment, Hojo turned towards the nearest trooper that had come out to “protect” him.
“There is a Nidara Strife in this village. I want you to collect her and bring her to me at the reactor. She can relay what she knows while I examine the reactor since I am already here. This you can handle it?”
The look the man gave him was disdainful, but at least he did try to hide it as best he capable. This was one of the SOLDIER hopefuls, and everyone knew one of the best ways to be rejected from SOLDIER, even if one did perfectly in everything else, was to piss Hojo off. So they did their best to not let their dislike of him show through. Hojo saw it anyway, but he didn’t care. Let them hate him, he controlled their very lives once they joined the ranks of his best toys.
Turning around, dismissing the trooper in the most absent of ways, Hojo took one last look around, then spun on his heel and walked away from the destruction.
He had a reactor to attend to.
///
She could feel the one that worshiped her come near. This was the lone human that she trusted, that she let come close to her without shredding his fragile mind. He was her puppettoyslave, and that was enough for her to allow him life.
Still stinging over the rejectionbetrayalabandoment of her child, she was agitated, and did take that out on the one who came too close to her.
The one that called himself Hojo hissed in pain, and made noises at her that, for a moment, she didn’t bother to even attempt to translate into anything resembling a real language. The words these things made with their mouths were babble at best, especially when they were in pain.
After a moment, she released him, and let him attempt to soothe her with words of her greatness and how he would deal with the ones who had hurt her so.
And, in some strangeoddbizzare way, she was hurt. Her child, her -children-, had rejected her. Any mother would be upset and hurt if their child did such. Especially her lovelygraceful child. The shadowed one wasn’t enough of hers for her to claim, though she could taste her blood in him. And the spiteful child, her youngest, he was enough to make her wail.
It was the loss of her eldest that stung the worse. The one with the shining hair and gleaming eyes, he was the one that was truly hers. She could feel it in his heart, the desire to be more. He was more, he just needed her touch, her guidance to show him how to be.
He had turned his back upon her, her Sephiroth. Turned his back to collect the spiteful child, her youngest, the one who had hidden from her as much as he could. She was a mother, and she wanted all of her children to listen to her.
What mother wouldn’t?
She screamed all of this at the one who worshipped her, and he writhed on the ground in response to her anger. He pleaded with her to calm, that he had a plan, it just needed a bit of time.
Jenova rumbled, and she listened. This one had proven useful in the past, and so she would allow him to try to prove useful again.
It was a good plan. She would allow it.
The plan hurt, and she and the other screamed. But it was successful.
Smiling, truly smiling, for the first time since Masumune had been used to seal her, Jenova called forth the fire.
It felt good to be back.
///
Nibelheim was burning.
She didn’t know what had happened. She had been giving her report to Professor Hojo when one of the troopers who had accompanied the professor to town had run up, panting, that the town was burning.
And it was.
The only thing that Nidara could think of was that the minor fire she had heard the troopers talking about had spread while nobody was looking. It had been a dry, dry year, and fire spread so easily. They had been keeping watch on the mountains to make sure no deadly blazes had rushed down the town unexpected.
Now Nibelheim was burning.
Nidara wasn’t sure if she should be gleeful or upset.
She still hated this town and its sneering, spiteful people. They had never accepted her or her child, and Cloud had grown up alone and shunned. The children had followed their parents’ example, and even Tifa, the friendliest child she had ever seen, had barely spoken to her son.
That was the main reason she had let Cloud go to Midgar when he had asked. To get him away from these backwater hypocrites. The ones who said that one should always been open and friendly with one another and then sneered down their noses because they thought she had been unwed and Cloud a bastard.
She could have dealt with them sneering at her, but Cloud, even if he had been a bastard, hadn’t asked for how he had been born.
Just the thought of her child, two years dead according to the message she had been given by the trooper who had actually come out here to let her know, made her angry again.
Standing on the mountain, she looked down on where the glow that was Nibelheim burning sat, casting a crimson gleam on everything. Behind her, she heard the troopers asking what Hojo thought they should do, if they should go down and assist.
“Strife,” Hojo asked, voice calm, calculating. “What do you think we should do?”
She thought of her son, dead knowing only disdainful hate. Had he ever learned anything else? She hoped he had, he had sounded cheerful enough in his letters.
“Let it burn,” she said finally, softly, just loud enough for Hojo to hear her.
He did hear, and, amazingly, he listened. Turning, he walked to the ones asking him questions and had them assist him with moving one of the tanks in the reactor, leaving Nidara where she was.
Blue eyes reflected red as she watched the fire spread into the woods, and imagined the screams of the ones who lived there.
///
It was all gone.
Trembling, arm a numb throb where it had been burned while she had attempted to help one of the people who had been screaming, Tifa couldn’t even bring herself to cry. She was in shock, she knew that. Her teacher had been doing more than giving her fighting training, he was teaching her all aspects of fighting, including how to patch each other up.
She was also just too dry to cry, the fire having washed her tears away as she had wept earlier, heat drying them on her cheeks. Those itched as well, both from the salt and the prickle heat of a burn.
What had happened?
She had wanted to check out the Shinra mansion earlier, but her father had forbidden her.
Not that he would be forbidding her from doing anything from now on. He was dead, burned to death when their house had collapsed on him.
All around, people moaned and cried out for help, for family, for relief from the pain. The cries were slowly fading as the ones who gave them settled into the same numb shock Tifa found herself in, or found the peace of death.
Shaking her head, Tifa forced herself to stumble to her feet. What a time for her teacher to be out of town. They needed him so badly but he had been called away by a former student.
Tifa gave an almost sob and forced herself to not fall, though she was shaking and the world spun around her.
Hands caught her shoulder, and she found herself staring into blue, blue eyes.
“Cloud? Why didn’t you come like you said?” She was angry and had to blink a few times to realize who was supporting her and she blinked at her a bit in shock. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Strife.”
Why had she mistaken Mrs. Strife for Cloud? It was the eyes, she decided, blinking away the tears that wanted to come. Everyone knew Cloud was dead. It wasn’t fair. She needed him now. He had -promised- to come if she needed him, and she needed him now.
The tears were flowing freely now, and Mrs. Strife made a soft noise at her. “Drink this, dear,” she said softly, pressing something cool against Tifa’s lips. She recognized it was a potion as the ache in her arm faded, though she was still so very, very tired. “Where’s your father? I think you need to….”
“He’s dead,” she said shortly, looking at the blonde woman with dark eyes. “The house fell on him.”
A moment of quiet. “I’m sorry, Tifa. My house is still up. Come on, you can lay down there and get some rest.”
“I…I can’t. People still need help, and I can’t just….”
“It’s all right. Those who need help are getting it. The others…. Well, the others are past where we can help them. Come on, you’ll feel more able to do things once you’ve had some rest.”
Tifa noticed that she didn’t say that she would feel better. That was good. Tifa didn’t think she would feel better for a long, long time.
She let Mrs. Strife lead her, and she was asleep before she hit the bed.
///
The remnants of Nibelheim sent a delegation to speak to the President about seeking aid two days after the disaster. It had taken that long for people to recover enough to actually come together and plan. They were a pitiful, ragged bunch, most of them injured in some way, and everyone was soot stained no matter how many times they tried to wipe it away. Nobody could bathe, really. The water in the creeks was too contaminated this close to the reactor to safely wash people or objects in. If the tainted water didn’t make you sick, the monsters that were drawn there had probably already eaten you. And the trusted supply of clean water was for drinking and use on those injured who needed it.
Hojo took the people being sent back with him on his copter, leaving behind the troops. With him, among those who were going but who didn’t plan on returning with the group, were Nidara Strife and Tifa Lockhart.
Tifa had, when given the choice, decided to go with Midgar for the time being. She left a message for her teacher, and not looked back when the copter had taken off, not wanting to see the blacked remains of her home. The place her father had died and she had learned that the world was a cruel, cruel place. She put it behind her, planning on returning one day, but not soon. Nidara Strife had been kind enough to offer a place to stay when they had gotten there. Maybe, Tifa thought, she would get to see the people Cloud had so wanted to be like.
Nidara was returning to her post in the main Shinra labs. Her home, which she had shared with Orrin, was still there, and she was going to let Tifa live there as well so it wasn’t quite so…hard. Besides, the girl deserved to get away from that town and to someplace she would be more appreciated than just marriage fodder. She had been kind to Cloud, and that redeemed her enough to earn a bit of pity from Nidara.
The blonde woman did look back, hiding her glee at the destruction of Nibelheim. They had deserved it, all of it, and even if it couldn’t bring her Cloud back, at least it was a bit of revenge for him against the people who had hurt him so much in life.
Hojo didn’t look back. Not when he knew why Nibelheim had burned, and what would be happening next.
The troopers just waited till the copter was out of sight and hearing distance. Then they waited a bit more, per orders. After the copter had been gone for half an hour, the man left in charge had given the signal.
They finished the destruction of Nibelheim, killing off those who were left and completing the process of burning the town to the ground.
Hojo’s orders, after all, weren’t to be disobeyed. Rumors circulated about those who did, and not one of them was anything any of them would risk.
Nibelheim died that day at the hands of Jenova and Shinra’s power, and nobody would discover it for years.
Interlude Two
Wordcounts:
OGToF: 11,147
Nano: 2,710
Fics so far in November: 3,558
For those of you who want to see the GW and the Muses that go with this, check it out here, my Nano LJ.
Now, to the fic.
Chapter One: Escape
Interlude One
New Chapter
Chapter Two: Clean Up
August 27-30, 1994
Nibelheim was in chaos.
People had heard the noises at the Shinra Mansion, though nobody had wanted to go up there and check it out. Too many of the stories and vanishings that had kept people away for years kept them away now. So, while the screams and the sounds of fighting had attracted a few of the bravest villagers, most of them had stayed far away.
The fact it was a quiet night had been the only reason that anyone from town had even heard the sounds at all, and then it was just those who lived on the outer edges closest to the abandoned mansion. Still, they had heard, and they had called the mayor, who had attempted to get people to check it out.
Now, though, there were a lot more sounds, and the people of Nibelheim gathered together to watch the bright lights and listen to the sounds of helicopters in the night sky.
They didn’t realize everything was about to change.
He was coldly furious. The Shinra Mansion was a lab that he had put his own money into, taking the bits of the pittance Shinra paid him and making sure that the lab was state of the art, having all the best supplies.
And now it was ruined.
He had suspected something was wrong when that irritating brat that Sephiroth called his second hadn’t come in for his yearly Mako dosage. That was the one thing he could always count on people, even that rebellious child who never should have been allowed into SOLDIER, to do. As far as the SOLDIERs knew, those shots were what kept them as enhanced as they were. No need for them to know that it was mostly to keep them sterile and under the thumb of Shinra. Hojo knew that they would have lost half the group if they were aware that they didn’t need the boosters to stay as good as they were.
That would not be tolerated.
Not that he was going to tolerate this, either.
All around him, the lab was in shambles. The specimen he had stored here for years was gone. Damn Sephiroth. He knew for a fact that the child he had raised had done most of the damage, the slashes left by Masumune far too distinct to be anything else, though he did recognize some done by a heavier, thicker blade. Probably by that black haired irritant.
It had been a horrible last few days anyway. The Turks had reported that they had lost, -lost- track of the last Ancient. How was he supposed to continue his research? And his lone backup specimen, the boy he had worked so hard on, was also missing. Snatched.
Obviously he had been lax in security. He would know not to allow that next time. Two years had passed, though, and the pair had seemed to be no closer to the truth of what had happened to the blond.
Damn Sephiroth.
It was even more irritating to realize that he wouldn’t have even known about this for another few days if it hadn’t been for Strife. She had called and reported the incident as soon as she had become aware of it. He had taken a copter out immediately. Who knew when his more spineless subordinates would have given him the news?
Well, there was only one thing to do now. Ignoring the fire that was starting to spread and the sparks from the electrical equipment, Hojo turned towards the nearest trooper that had come out to “protect” him.
“There is a Nidara Strife in this village. I want you to collect her and bring her to me at the reactor. She can relay what she knows while I examine the reactor since I am already here. This you can handle it?”
The look the man gave him was disdainful, but at least he did try to hide it as best he capable. This was one of the SOLDIER hopefuls, and everyone knew one of the best ways to be rejected from SOLDIER, even if one did perfectly in everything else, was to piss Hojo off. So they did their best to not let their dislike of him show through. Hojo saw it anyway, but he didn’t care. Let them hate him, he controlled their very lives once they joined the ranks of his best toys.
Turning around, dismissing the trooper in the most absent of ways, Hojo took one last look around, then spun on his heel and walked away from the destruction.
He had a reactor to attend to.
She could feel the one that worshiped her come near. This was the lone human that she trusted, that she let come close to her without shredding his fragile mind. He was her puppettoyslave, and that was enough for her to allow him life.
Still stinging over the rejectionbetrayalabandoment of her child, she was agitated, and did take that out on the one who came too close to her.
The one that called himself Hojo hissed in pain, and made noises at her that, for a moment, she didn’t bother to even attempt to translate into anything resembling a real language. The words these things made with their mouths were babble at best, especially when they were in pain.
After a moment, she released him, and let him attempt to soothe her with words of her greatness and how he would deal with the ones who had hurt her so.
And, in some strangeoddbizzare way, she was hurt. Her child, her -children-, had rejected her. Any mother would be upset and hurt if their child did such. Especially her lovelygraceful child. The shadowed one wasn’t enough of hers for her to claim, though she could taste her blood in him. And the spiteful child, her youngest, he was enough to make her wail.
It was the loss of her eldest that stung the worse. The one with the shining hair and gleaming eyes, he was the one that was truly hers. She could feel it in his heart, the desire to be more. He was more, he just needed her touch, her guidance to show him how to be.
He had turned his back upon her, her Sephiroth. Turned his back to collect the spiteful child, her youngest, the one who had hidden from her as much as he could. She was a mother, and she wanted all of her children to listen to her.
What mother wouldn’t?
She screamed all of this at the one who worshipped her, and he writhed on the ground in response to her anger. He pleaded with her to calm, that he had a plan, it just needed a bit of time.
Jenova rumbled, and she listened. This one had proven useful in the past, and so she would allow him to try to prove useful again.
It was a good plan. She would allow it.
The plan hurt, and she and the other screamed. But it was successful.
Smiling, truly smiling, for the first time since Masumune had been used to seal her, Jenova called forth the fire.
It felt good to be back.
Nibelheim was burning.
She didn’t know what had happened. She had been giving her report to Professor Hojo when one of the troopers who had accompanied the professor to town had run up, panting, that the town was burning.
And it was.
The only thing that Nidara could think of was that the minor fire she had heard the troopers talking about had spread while nobody was looking. It had been a dry, dry year, and fire spread so easily. They had been keeping watch on the mountains to make sure no deadly blazes had rushed down the town unexpected.
Now Nibelheim was burning.
Nidara wasn’t sure if she should be gleeful or upset.
She still hated this town and its sneering, spiteful people. They had never accepted her or her child, and Cloud had grown up alone and shunned. The children had followed their parents’ example, and even Tifa, the friendliest child she had ever seen, had barely spoken to her son.
That was the main reason she had let Cloud go to Midgar when he had asked. To get him away from these backwater hypocrites. The ones who said that one should always been open and friendly with one another and then sneered down their noses because they thought she had been unwed and Cloud a bastard.
She could have dealt with them sneering at her, but Cloud, even if he had been a bastard, hadn’t asked for how he had been born.
Just the thought of her child, two years dead according to the message she had been given by the trooper who had actually come out here to let her know, made her angry again.
Standing on the mountain, she looked down on where the glow that was Nibelheim burning sat, casting a crimson gleam on everything. Behind her, she heard the troopers asking what Hojo thought they should do, if they should go down and assist.
“Strife,” Hojo asked, voice calm, calculating. “What do you think we should do?”
She thought of her son, dead knowing only disdainful hate. Had he ever learned anything else? She hoped he had, he had sounded cheerful enough in his letters.
“Let it burn,” she said finally, softly, just loud enough for Hojo to hear her.
He did hear, and, amazingly, he listened. Turning, he walked to the ones asking him questions and had them assist him with moving one of the tanks in the reactor, leaving Nidara where she was.
Blue eyes reflected red as she watched the fire spread into the woods, and imagined the screams of the ones who lived there.
It was all gone.
Trembling, arm a numb throb where it had been burned while she had attempted to help one of the people who had been screaming, Tifa couldn’t even bring herself to cry. She was in shock, she knew that. Her teacher had been doing more than giving her fighting training, he was teaching her all aspects of fighting, including how to patch each other up.
She was also just too dry to cry, the fire having washed her tears away as she had wept earlier, heat drying them on her cheeks. Those itched as well, both from the salt and the prickle heat of a burn.
What had happened?
She had wanted to check out the Shinra mansion earlier, but her father had forbidden her.
Not that he would be forbidding her from doing anything from now on. He was dead, burned to death when their house had collapsed on him.
All around, people moaned and cried out for help, for family, for relief from the pain. The cries were slowly fading as the ones who gave them settled into the same numb shock Tifa found herself in, or found the peace of death.
Shaking her head, Tifa forced herself to stumble to her feet. What a time for her teacher to be out of town. They needed him so badly but he had been called away by a former student.
Tifa gave an almost sob and forced herself to not fall, though she was shaking and the world spun around her.
Hands caught her shoulder, and she found herself staring into blue, blue eyes.
“Cloud? Why didn’t you come like you said?” She was angry and had to blink a few times to realize who was supporting her and she blinked at her a bit in shock. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Strife.”
Why had she mistaken Mrs. Strife for Cloud? It was the eyes, she decided, blinking away the tears that wanted to come. Everyone knew Cloud was dead. It wasn’t fair. She needed him now. He had -promised- to come if she needed him, and she needed him now.
The tears were flowing freely now, and Mrs. Strife made a soft noise at her. “Drink this, dear,” she said softly, pressing something cool against Tifa’s lips. She recognized it was a potion as the ache in her arm faded, though she was still so very, very tired. “Where’s your father? I think you need to….”
“He’s dead,” she said shortly, looking at the blonde woman with dark eyes. “The house fell on him.”
A moment of quiet. “I’m sorry, Tifa. My house is still up. Come on, you can lay down there and get some rest.”
“I…I can’t. People still need help, and I can’t just….”
“It’s all right. Those who need help are getting it. The others…. Well, the others are past where we can help them. Come on, you’ll feel more able to do things once you’ve had some rest.”
Tifa noticed that she didn’t say that she would feel better. That was good. Tifa didn’t think she would feel better for a long, long time.
She let Mrs. Strife lead her, and she was asleep before she hit the bed.
The remnants of Nibelheim sent a delegation to speak to the President about seeking aid two days after the disaster. It had taken that long for people to recover enough to actually come together and plan. They were a pitiful, ragged bunch, most of them injured in some way, and everyone was soot stained no matter how many times they tried to wipe it away. Nobody could bathe, really. The water in the creeks was too contaminated this close to the reactor to safely wash people or objects in. If the tainted water didn’t make you sick, the monsters that were drawn there had probably already eaten you. And the trusted supply of clean water was for drinking and use on those injured who needed it.
Hojo took the people being sent back with him on his copter, leaving behind the troops. With him, among those who were going but who didn’t plan on returning with the group, were Nidara Strife and Tifa Lockhart.
Tifa had, when given the choice, decided to go with Midgar for the time being. She left a message for her teacher, and not looked back when the copter had taken off, not wanting to see the blacked remains of her home. The place her father had died and she had learned that the world was a cruel, cruel place. She put it behind her, planning on returning one day, but not soon. Nidara Strife had been kind enough to offer a place to stay when they had gotten there. Maybe, Tifa thought, she would get to see the people Cloud had so wanted to be like.
Nidara was returning to her post in the main Shinra labs. Her home, which she had shared with Orrin, was still there, and she was going to let Tifa live there as well so it wasn’t quite so…hard. Besides, the girl deserved to get away from that town and to someplace she would be more appreciated than just marriage fodder. She had been kind to Cloud, and that redeemed her enough to earn a bit of pity from Nidara.
The blonde woman did look back, hiding her glee at the destruction of Nibelheim. They had deserved it, all of it, and even if it couldn’t bring her Cloud back, at least it was a bit of revenge for him against the people who had hurt him so much in life.
Hojo didn’t look back. Not when he knew why Nibelheim had burned, and what would be happening next.
The troopers just waited till the copter was out of sight and hearing distance. Then they waited a bit more, per orders. After the copter had been gone for half an hour, the man left in charge had given the signal.
They finished the destruction of Nibelheim, killing off those who were left and completing the process of burning the town to the ground.
Hojo’s orders, after all, weren’t to be disobeyed. Rumors circulated about those who did, and not one of them was anything any of them would risk.
Nibelheim died that day at the hands of Jenova and Shinra’s power, and nobody would discover it for years.
Interlude Two
Wordcounts:
OGToF: 11,147
Nano: 2,710
Fics so far in November: 3,558