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Legacy of the Lifestream	By : butabara Category: Final Fantasy VII > General Views: 2387 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not Own FFVII or its affiliates. I make no money from this execise in literary creativity.

Chapter List
- 20
- 21
- 22
A.N. Okay, folks! The plot is BACK ON TRACK! I feel horrible about what is in store for you at the end of this chapter... but I'll have the next posted tomorrow! Maybe even tonight if I'm feeling especially generous ^.- Hope you enjoy! R&R!
Chapter 20: Blindsided
It had been over a week since the incident with Reno, and the meeting with Nanaki. The giant cat had agreed to go to Wutai and recruit Yuffie and Michael, as everyone knew that they would need their help. He had declined a ride, knowing that there were other places the airship needed to be, and Edge was one of them.
Harmony fought when they told her she needed to see Rufus's doctors, saying that they didn't have time to give her a check-up and a few shots, but ultimately, Sassi won the argument.
"If you get sick, how are you going to help the kids?" She'd said. "Hell, we don't even know! Something as simple as a cold here could kill you! I was vaccinated within days of being here. We can take an hour or so and make sure you're in perfect health!"
This was not the only reason the group found themselves back in the city of Edge.
Sukai was sick. Horribly sick. She could not eat, every time she tried, she just threw it all up again. She could not sleep, every time she closed her eyes, she could see nothing but horrible visions of Sephiroth in the time-line before they were sent to Harmony's world. She hid it well, not wanting others to worry for her, but Harmony could tell. She had sworn to keep just how sick Sukai really was to herself, having been threatened by said Inventor, but she knew. She couldn't explain how she knew... she could just feel that there was something malignant inside of her friend.
She avoided Kadaj as much as she possibly could, knowing that they needed to talk, but wanting to figure out what exactly she wanted before he forced her into a corner and made her believe he was right.
Vincent had also been acting strangely. Especially around Sukai, and Sytherea. She attributed him being odd around Sytherea to their little incident a few days prior.
{Flashback}
Sytherea glanced around, nervously. She knew that Cid was just on the other side of the door, polluting the atmosphere with his smoking. Glancing behind her one more time to ensure that she wasn't followed, she carefully stepped outside and closed the door behind her.
Without a word, she briskly approached the Captain, plucking his cigarette out of his mouth and placing it between her own lips, inhaling with a look of pure ecstasy.
Cid watched with wide eyes, not sure what to think about the situation. He shook himself out of his stupor.
"Well, well, well. Hello, Ms. Pot. I'm Kettle. How long've you been hidin' this from us?"
Sytherea shot him a glare. "A while. Vincent doesn't know so-" Sytherea gasped and pulled the cigarette behind her back as the door creaked open and a shadow joined them on the deck, not seeming to notice that it was not alone. A few rustling noises and a soft click illuminated Harmony's face as she used her 'borrowed' lighter to light her 'borrowed' cigarette.
"What the fuck?" Cid said, stomping over. "You're the one that's been stealin' my smokes?"
Harmony gasped, realizing then that she had company.
"Oh, shit! Guys please don't say anything! I-...Sytherea?"
Sytherea sighed, pulling the cigarette from behind her back and taking another drag. "Yeah. Me too. Don't tell Vincen-"
It seemed that the airship deck was the place to be that evening, as the door swung open to reveal the pale face of Vincent Valentine.
"There you are S-... Sytherea!" He all but shouted.
Sytherea gave a nervous laugh, moving in a futile attempt to hide the cigarette again.
"Uh... Hi V!" She said.
"What... are... you... doing?" Vincent said through gritted teeth.
"N-nothing!" Sytherea stuttered. Vincent growled and stepped forward, grabbing Sytherea and crushing their lips together. He pulled away, turning his head and spitting.
"You! Have been smoking!" He hissed. He grabbed her hand with a growl and yanked her behind him, stopping to appraise Harmony. Her hands seemed empty, but he was still suspicious. He narrowed his eyes and pulled Sytherea through the door, closing it behind him and then leaning against the wall.
"Vince, I'm so-" Sytherea started.
He covered her mouth with his palm and held a gold-covered finger to his lips. The two waited for a moment more, Vincent silently sending a text message to Kadaj for the Remnant to come quickly. When Kadaj arrived, Vincent said nothing, just pulled Kadaj behind him and swung the door open once more.
!#$%^&*()
"Phew! That was close!" Harmony said. When the door had opened, she'd quickly tossed her cigarette over the rail, effectively hiding her habit. She waited for a moment after Vincent left, and then turned to Cid.
"So... uh... can I have one? I'll uh... buy you a pack to replace the ones I took... sorry." She said sheepishly.
Cid snorted and pulled his pack out, passing one to her. He found it funny that two of the most powerful women he'd ever met thought they needed to hide their habits.
Harmony thanked him and pulled the lighter to her lips again, lighting the cigarette and inhaling, She closed her eyes and moaned on the exhale. She had needed that. Just as she brought the burning object to her lips again, the door slammed open once more.
"I knew it!" Vincent said, smug. Harmony rolled her eyes and prepared to tell him off when Kadaj stepped out from behind him, his eyes wide before narrowing on the cigarette at her lips.
"What the fuck are you doing?" He cried. He didn't really mind at all, he had his own... less than healthy crutches, and it was Harmony's body to pollute, but he knew that it would upset Sassi... and an upset Sassi meant an upset Harmony which meant that nothing would be worked out between them!
He grabbed her hand, taking the cigarette from her fingers and shuddering at the smell before throwing it at Cid, glaring in the Captain's direction. He then yanked Harmony toward the door and past Vincent, hiding his smirk as Harmony lashed out verbally at the gunman.
"Tattle-tales burn in hell!" She hissed.
"Fortunately, that is not something that I will have to worry about." Vincent snapped back.
{End Flashback}
Cid's voice interrupted her musings as he announced over the intercom that they would be landing in only a few minutes. Harmony sighed. She might as well stop complaining about it and just get it over with as soon as possible.
She knew that their prisoner hadn't given them much information to go on, but Sassi had been able to get enough information from his mind to know that the base they needed to go to was in the town of Nibelheim. So, as soon as she was through her 'check-up', they would go to the town, and run through the infiltration process once more.
The airship shuddered beneath her feet as they landed on the airstrip just outside the newly-built ShinRa/WRO headquarters, Rufus, Tseng, and Elena waiting patiently.
"Hey, guys!" Elena said exuberantly. She rushed to Cissnei and enveloped her ex-coworker in a hug, turning to Harmony and doing the same, followed by each of the other female members as they left the ship.
"Thank you for coming, Harmony. I am sorry to interrupt your search, but it is vital that you be protected from whatever diseases you may find here." Rufus said, extending his hand and grasping hers.
"I understand." Harmony said. "And thanks for offering your help. I was actually wondering if you could do something else for me..." She trailed off.
"Oh?" Rufus said, perking up. "What is that?"
"Well... Sukai has been... kind of sick. Okay... really sick. It started about a week-and-a-half ago, though she'll only admit to feeling it for a week. I wondered if perhaps your doctors could have a look at her, too? She is the mastermind behind most of our weapons and computer systems... We need her at full health." Harmony explained.
"I see." Rufus said with a solemn nod. "Of course, then. I will tell my people to take care of her."
"Thank you." Harmony said with a sigh of relief. Now all she had to do was convince Sukai that she needed to be seen. Perhaps... perhaps it was time to let Sephiroth in on the secret. It was a low blow... but she knew that her Inventor friend would not say no to the General.
What Harmony didn't know, was that Sephiroth had already noticed the illness in his lover, and had made his own plans to force her to accept help and treatment.
Harmony approached the two, falling back behind the group and clearing her throat to get the General's attention.
"What is it, Harmony?" He asked gently.
She glanced at Sukai, and the woman immediately knew her plans.
"Don't you dare! I-" She started to say.
"Sukai is sick!" Harmony blurted, knowing that if she was going to say it, it had to be done quickly. "I want one of Rufus's doctors to see her!"
"Oh. You are so dead." Sukai hissed before turning to her lover. "I'm fine. Its just a bug. Nothing to worry about."
Sephiroth smirked. "I am aware of the illness."
Sukai and Harmony stared at him, shocked.
"I've known for more than a week. And it is not just a bug. And you will be seen." Sephiroth said, leaving no room for argument.
Sukai sighed, knowing that there was no way out of it, now. She shot a malicious glare at Harmony. "You're going down, Witch." She whispered.
"I'm sorry, Sukai. But you need to be seen." Harmony defended. She couldn't be sure why or how she knew that something was seriously wrong with her friend, but she would take no chances, especially when it wasn't just Sukai that would suffer because of the illness.
Sukai huffed, but gave up on arguing. It would do no good, and her revenge could wait until later. It gave her plenty of time to scheme.
Harmony shuddered at the look on Sukai's face, knowing exactly what she was thinking. She swallowed nervously and stepped through the doors to the massive building, already feeling a great wave of unease wash through her senses.
!#$%^&*()
They took Sukai back first, thinking that if she was sick, she should be seen as soon as possible. She snarled and hissed at them the until they had her behind closed doors, leaving those in the waiting area slightly amused, and mortified at her immature behavior.
"What do you think is wrong with her?" Sassi asked Harmony and Sytherea.
"I don't know, but Vincent says he's felt something off about her for a few days, but he can't place it. What frustrates him, is that Chaos can't sense anything, either, and that's only happened once before." Sytherea said.
"And when was that?" Harmony asked.
"The Geostigma outbreak almost a decade ago. That's why it bothers him so much. Lifestream can heal it, but if its coming back, there will be too many people for Aerith and Sassi to save. Aerith was only able to do it the last time because she was dead, and in the Lifestream, she had more power."
Harmony's heart thudded to a halt. She'd heard horror stories about the nasty disease. She dearly hoped that it wasn't what was causing Sukai's illness.
!#$%^&*()
Dr. Boughman gently tugged at the IV sticking into Sukai's arm. The young Guardian hadn't been exaggerating when she'd said that the woman was very sick. Almost as soon as they had her in the examination room, she had become violently ill, retching into a garbage can until the doctor had thought she would lose consciousness.
They quickly sedated her, laying her on the table in a hurried fashion and sticking multiple IV lines into her too-thin body. It was obvious that she was severely dehydrated, and he was in awe that the woman had been able to hide her sickness from her comrades so easily. Either she was very strong, or her friends were very oblivious.
She had clutched her stomach before being put under, complaining about sharp, throbbing aches assaulting her. As he finished checking the lines for the saline and the sedative, he carefully inched her hospital gown up, gasping at the dark, green-brown bruise like area that had already begun to form. As one of the doctors that cared for Rufus ShinRa all those years ago, he recognized the mass immediately.
"Oh, no." He gasped. "Not again! Nurse! Nurse! Get me three doses of the Mako solution created for Rufus! And put some damned gloves on, this woman has Geostigma!"
He hurriedly slapped gloves onto his own hands, dragging the ultrasound machine closer. If they were lucky, it was still in the beginning stages, and a few doses of Mako could stop the Geostigma from spreading. He quickly punched buttons and flipped switches, the machine beside him roaring to life as he all but ripped the probe from the side. He poured the goopy serum onto his glove and gently spread it over the bruised area, placing the probe on her abdomen and staring anxiously at the screen.
His eyes strained, searching for any effected organs, when a small, bean-shaped mass caught his eye. The probe clattered to the floor as he stared, sightlessly, the memories from Dr. Hojo's Jenova Project reports racing through his mind. He flipped open his phone, frantically dialing the number.
"President ShinRa? Dr. Boughman. I think you'll want to see this."
!#$%^&*()
Rufus stared at the little bean-shaped mass on the screen. He could scarcely believe his luck! He knew that the only person Sukai had been involved with in the last few years was Sephiroth. This could only be his doing. His prototype in the basement might not be useless, after all!
"Remove it." He said to his doctor. "Miss Hiroshima-Williams need not even know of it. I'm sending the Guardian in here. I want you to do a routine blood test, and then give her this." He pulled a vial filled with a neon-purple liquid from his coat pocket, handing it to the doctor.
"I see. Its time then?" The doctor asked, resigned to his fate. There was no point in disobedience. Though he was not happy with what he was expected to do, he knew that going against his employer was suicide, and he was not prepared to die for these strangers. He took the vial and placed it into his own pocket with a sigh, clicking off the machine and walking to the doors, barking orders to his subordinates to prepare the Inventor for surgery.
"Miss Geordon?" He said, stepping through the door. "Come with me, please."
The woman gave a tired smile and rose, following him through the door.
!#$%^&*()
"So what's wrong with her?" Harmony asked with a yawn. The nurse had drawn a good dozen vials of her blood, and then injected her with some funky purple substance, saying that it would help her recover from the loss of her life-liquid.
As it was, the only thing she felt at the moment was fierce lethargy.
The nurse glanced at her. "They say its her gallbladder. It'll have to come out." The woman lied smoothly.
Harmony nodded slowly, too weak for a more powerful movement. She breathed an internal sigh of relief, hoping that now that she knew that Sukai's life was not in danger, the horrid feeling would leave her. She was confused when it didn't, but her tired mind could not focus much on it. She chalked it up to her dislike of medical establishments.
She gave one more tired yawn and closed her eyes, listening to the repetitive beeping of the machine beside her as it leveled out to a slow, steady rhythm.
"Doctor? The Guardian is down." She heard the nurses voice.
Well, that certainly didn't sound like something the nurse should be saying. She heard a sigh as she tried to force her eyes open.
"Very well. Inform the President that our part is in motion, and we are ready for him to move in. Be sure to activate the locks on that door." She heard the doctor say.
"Yes, doctor."
Harmony felt a deep dread wash over her, the feeling of unease intensifying by an alarming amount.
She tried harder to force her eyes open, whimpering a bit when her body would not cooperate, and she suddenly felt hands on her arms, strapping her into the chair she was reclined in, and a shudder raced down her spine as her senses kicked into overdrive.
'Sassi!' She screamed internally. Desperately, she fought to move her body, feeling the danger just waiting to pounce on her Cetra.
She sobbed on the inside, knowing that at the moment, there was nothing she could do to hold to her sacred duty.
!#$%^&*()
"What do you think is taking so long?" Sassi sighed. She knew that Sukai might take longer, but Harmony should have been out by now, if all they were doing was taking blood and giving her a few shots.
"I don't know, but I don't like this." Sephiroth whispered beside her. He could admit to being concerned for Sukai's welfare, but there was something else. Something that he didn't recognize. He almost felt like Aerith was in danger, but he could clearly see her sitting across from him, and she was fine.
This feeling made no sense to him, but had him nearly frantic, though he hid it well. He really didn't like being in medical facilities, anyway, and liked socializing with Rufus even less. The man always seemed to be scheming, always looking for a way to increase his political reach. Perhaps that was it. He was just uncomfortable being in Rufus's hospital.
"Well, how about I go and get us some coffee, and see if I can find someone to give us more information." Tifa said, standing from the bench and moving to walk down the hallway.
She gasped and stepped back when the door slid closed with a loud 'SLAM!', effectively cutting off her path to the cafeteria.
"What the hell?" Cid asked, standing when a swarm of ShinRa infantrymen filed into the waiting area. "What's goin' on here?"
"I'm afraid we cannot allow you to leave." One of the men stated, stepping forward. "General Sephiroth, President ShinRa has ordered your immediate surrender, you are to return to your barracks and await the TURK's escort. The Remnants are also ordered to surrender themselves and come with us, immediately." He said bravely, only a slight waver in his voice as he addressed possibly the most dangerous being on the planet.
"What? What the hell are you talking about? What is going on?" Sassi said, standing and clutching Loz's arm as the big man took a threatening step toward the grunt that had addressed them.
"It would appear," Sephiroth snarled, drawing the Masamune from its sheath and forcing Aerith behind him, "that we have been betrayed."
- 20
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Legacy of the Lifestream