FF7 fic Shadows of our past

Shadows of our past

Chapter 1.
'Sadness is the price we must pay for our freedom, sadness was the price to see it end'

A young woman lay on a bed in an apartment block made from the remaining materials of the aftermath of Midgar, her long reddy brown hair messily lay over face, as she moved around on the bed from the burning sensation on her forehead and left hand.

She was suffering from Geo stigma, a virus that had effected millions since meteorfall, many thought it was infectious so they avoided those who had it, so many kids lived on the street because of it, she however knew better and knew it wasn’t infectious in fact she’d suffered far worse.

After all it was only three years earlier she and some other comrades had had to flee Shinra in fear of their lives, she had barely scraped though that phase and had been alone since then, the stigma was a sign she was alive but it was cold comfort.

However it was a knock on the door that snapped the woman out of her thoughts, slowly the young emerged from the bed, still clothed in normal day clothes of a white sleeveless top and light brown shorts.

Doing her best to ignore the pain in her left hand and the headache she was suffering from the stigma on her forehead which was covered by a bandage, she staggered to the door “hello whos there?” she asked peering out of the apartment to see who had knocked, oddly no one was there.

Putting it down to some kids idea of a joke she closed the door again and staggered back to her bedroom hoping this bout of Geo stigma would go soon, she had things to do.

All was not right and in her mind she was sub consciously scanning the room to find what was wrong, that was one of the habits from her days in Shinra that had never left her.

As soon as she reached the bed the stigmas pain intensified making her collapse onto the bed, and quickly lose counsousness.

‘Damm stigma…’she muttered as her vision went blank.

A few hours later she awoke quite suddenly to a noise in the kitchen, she sighed and got up, looking at the clock she cursed, it was late, fortunately she was a freelance mercenary who did odd jobs to get by, it had started as a way of surviving Shinra when she’d left the Turk’s and she had taken to liking the freedom it gave her.

Deciding to check the apartment just in case, she threw on an old white shirt one of the few remains from days in Shinra apart from from rekka and an old standard issue handgun that she had kept just in case the need arised.

She glanced at the handgun and decided to hold on to it, just in case it was a thief and things got violent, as she got closer she heard three distinctively male voices.

“It ain’t here”

“Mother ain’t here”

“No but someone who knows is here”

“She knows where mother is”

“I don’t know but shes one of those Turks she must know”

The woman felt a shockwave go though her spine at the mention of the word ‘Turks’ how could they possibly have known, she had fled with most of the other Turk’s after helping Veld and Elfe escape, all this shock and those memories were effecting her senses.

Deciding to confront them since they showed no signs of leaving, she snuck around to the other door to the kitchen and behind them, taking no chances she held the handgun towards them, eyes determined.

“Who are you and what do you want?” she demanded holding the gun firmly

One of the men turned towards her “well this is going to be easy we only want to know where mother is?”

The first thing she noticed about them was the silver hair they reminded her of someone, someone she never wanted to be reminded of.

“Sephiroth…”

“Oh big brother, no we just want mother you know the one Shinras hidden from us” the man replied coming towards her, she held her ground and glared “I don’t know anything about this ‘mother’ of yours I haven’t been with Shinra for three years” she replied calmly her face now emotionless.

The man tilted his head “really why don’t I believe that come on Turk tell us we only want to know her location”

Realising they had no intention of leaving she got into a fight stance, though she wished she had taken rekka with her “leave now or I’ll make you!” she snapped.

The man sighed “what a pain Loz Yazoo lets make her tell us” the man said calmly.

“Yeah” came the response from one of the men yet to speak while the other with a strange weapon lunged at her, she dodged and jumped back.

Deciding that there wasn’t much space to fight in the cramped apartment she lead them outside to cause less damage to the building.

Once outside she stood her ground as many people fled the area seeing as a fight was about to ensue, “I’ll fight you if that’s what it takes” she muttered going into a martial arts pose and analysing her two opponents, one had a strange weapon on his arm and fought by lunging forward a lot while the other was much slicker and faster she had to watch out for that one.

“Come on girl just tell us,” the one with longer hair murmured.

She frowned “my names not girl its Cissnei” she muttered before striking at him with a kick, he dodged but managed to get behind her, she realised this quickly and barely dodged a nasty attack.

Landing perfectly she pulled out the gun and shot at him, he managed to dodge all the bullets much to her annoyance ‘who is this guy hes so fast’ she thought as she struggled to block another attack.

She felt the other man appear beside her “shes got it too brother” he said grasping her infected hand tightly, she let out a sharp cry as he squeezed her hand and struck him hard with her foot, sending him back, the two men kept fighting however and eventually she found herself slowing down as the mans shots were getting harder to dodge.

‘Damm they’re persistent’ she thought as she breathed in deeply after a bullet just grazed her cheek, she ignored the blood dripping down her face, now fully focussed on the battle.

This concentration was cut off by a shot hitting her leg, she gasped as she felt it hit causing her to lose balance and fall, they soon had her pinned to the ground.

Cissnei glared at them defiantly and remained silent no matter what she wasn’t going to let them get to her.

“Where’s mother?” Loz asked again as she struggled to get up, she glared and gasped as he kicked her in the ribs. The guy referred to as Loz had also kicked her gun away and her shuriken was in the apartment so she was defenceless “I don’t know” she snapped back between gasps of pain from her injured leg.

Just when she thought she was a goner the third man came back, “leave her she’ll can’t tell us anything shes just a peon lets go find big brother and the president they’ll know”.

With that they left her injured and bleeding on the cold concrete, she felt some eyes peer at her and a local man came to her rescue, she gladly accepted the help and let him carry her to her apartment.

“You alright mam I called a doctor” the man replied she helped her to the bed, she faked a smile “Yeah its not that bad a injury thanks anyway” she lied so he could leave her alone.

The man was stunned “not that bad a injury if that’s not bad tell me what is” he murmured to himself.

She fortunately didn’t have to reply as the doctor soon arrived and set about bading and stitching up the wound, he also wrapped bandages around a bruised rib she had sustained during the battle.

“Thank you I promise I’ll take it easy” she told the doctor as he closed the door as he left, as it turned out it hadn’t hit the bone so she could still walk but it still hurt quite a bit, so she took a few pain killers before settling down to a comfortable position on the bed to think about her next move.

“I have to find out what they meant…even if it means finding Rufus” she muttered as she lay on the hard bed in her crappy apartment, some leftovers of the chicken she had the other night on the bedside.

“Then its decided I’ll have to see Rufus…no doubt he’ll have answers now where was it that they were rumoured to be staying at…healin something” she reasoned with herself.