Comments and constructive criticism welcomed and appreciated.
Flames get deleted. ^.^

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    FF7: J I H A D
        By Winter Weil
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        CHAPTER TWO
        Evolution
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer:
    All rights to Final Fantasy VII and its characters belong to
SquareSoft.  The characters of this series are used without permission
only for the purpose of entertainment.  This fanfiction is not meant
for sale or profit.
    All original characters are copyright to the author.  Don't use
these characters without contacting the author first.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Text Conventions
   /  / are character thoughts

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

F F 7 : J I H A D
Chapter Two

/Oh man.../

/What hit me?/

Karri's thoughts were jumbled, racing around like balls being juggled, and
they had next to no sense whatsoever.

/Men...shots...a sword...You damn fool! If you'd just let me kill
him!...Ah, shit, my side!...the men...the men!/

Reeve had been sitting quietly by Karri's side, keeping guard on her until
she woke. Tifa had cured her wound fully, but didn't expect her to wake for
another few hours. And so, to occupy his mind, Reeve began thinking.

He thought back to when he had proposed raising JEC's budget to the
council. No one seemed against the plan; as a matter of fact, all were for
it. Only he remembered overhearing a conversation as they were exiting the
meeting: a short stocky man in charge of shipping mentioned to his aide,
"It's a good idea to add money to the schools budget. We'll end up needing
it more than him." At the time, it hadn't registered; he had been deep in
discussion with Lars Fuller, the man in charge of the Junon Police. And
then he'd forgotten.

/Fool,/ he berated himself. /It was right under your nose the entire time.
Heidegger didn't mearly send some Turks in to dispose of me; he'd been
taking over my company the entire time. The whole council must have been
full of spies; people whose palms he greased to get them on his side, and
people who worked their way up the chain of command. He probably started
the day I began Mayor, if not sooner. There're plenty of people in the
militia still loyal to him, too./ He sighed. /I'm a goddamn fool for not
seeing it. They were there the whole time, and I didn't see it until the
trap closed around me./

Karri sat up with a cry, scaring Reeve witless. /She's awake...?/ She sat
there panting as if she'd just run a marathon, her eyes wide and unseeing.

"Karri?" Reeve asked cautiously.

She started violently at the sound of his voice, and calmed when she
recognized him. She was still frightened, though. He could see it in her
stance. "Do they have us?" she asked hurriedly.

"'They'?"

"The Turks, Adrian and his men, do they--"

"No, no, we're far away from them," the mayor soothed. "We're on the
eastern side of the Junon Sea."

"Junon Sea..." she trailed off. Looking around, she saw he was right. Not
ten yards in front of them was the sudden drop-off down to the dark waters
of the salty lake below. Far off in the distance, past the far shore of the
sea, faintly twinkled the lights of Junon. Around them was a small camp,
with two other bedrolls other than hers and Reeves, positioned around the
dying embers of a campfire. She was silent for a moment.

"We've escaped?" she asked softly.

"Yes, we have."

"But where's Cloud and Tifa, and their little girl? And where did we get
the extra stuff?" Karri tried to struggle into a sitting position, and
Reeve gently pushed her back onto her elbows.

"Cloud is back-tracking our trail, to make sure it can't be followed.
Tifa's acting as perimeter guard, and she took Celia with her. After you
fainted, they raided a supply store. We've got a pair of chocobo's, too."
Seeing the look on her face, Reeve added hastily, "Don't worry, we left
money."

"I wasn't worried about that," she said vaguely as she attempted sitting up
again. Reeve immediately pushed her back down.

"You've got to stay down," he said sternly. "Your wound may be healed, but
you're still exhausted."

She glared at him. He glared back. After a few minutes of this, Karri
finally backed down. "You're sure not acting very mayor-like right now,"
she muttered sourly.

"I've had my moments of action," Reeve replied wryly.

Cloud decided to make his entrance just then. He appeared like magic from
the underbrush around the camp, and flopped in a heaped next to Reeve. The
mayor could see the weariness in his friends eyes.

"I must be getting old," Cloud addressed the sky from his back. "I'm out
for two hours and I feel like I've been out twenty."

"Don't forget the fight and all the running we did," Reeve added.

The warrior grunted nonchalantly, and turned to Karri.

"That was an act of strength," he admitted to the girl, "Running as far as
you did with the wound you had. By all rights, you should have died."

"I hate Shinra!"

There was so much rancor in those three words that Reeve almost flinched.
Karri's face had turned into a mask of pure hatred. "I would cut my own
throat before I let those-- those things touch me!"

/I wonder if she knows I used to work for Shinra,/ Reeve thought briefly.

"You have a lot of hatred for them." Cloud said softly.

Some of the anger melted away from her face, and Karri looked away from
them. "They've hurt many people. And their way of life," came the faint
reply.

Not much else was said that night.
 
 

***********************************************************************
 

The takeover was complete.

Few people had resisted. Most were in shock to find that so many of their
beloved councilmen, teachers, and leaders were in deep with Shinra. Even
more couldn't believe that their Mayor had been the very man to open the
floodgates. Or so their new leader, General Heidegger, said.

A man in a dark grey suit stalked briskly through the halls of the Junon
Educational center, the General's new headquarters. The man, by the name of
Edward Graves, had once been Mayor Reeve's personal assistant. Therefore,
he was the one best able to acquire the necessary codes that opened,
unlocked, and controlled everything in Junon.

At the appropriate doorway, he turned and entered without bothering to
knock or otherwise announce himself. Once inside, he stood with hands on
hips and addressed a man sitting in a chair, facing a window.

"I got your men through, General. You promised me my money as soon as this
operation was completed. Now where is it?"

The man in the chair, who wore a green uniform and a beard streaked with
grey, glanced at him briefly, and then resumed his vigil at the window. A
guard, totally disregarded, shifted his feet by the door.

"Well?" the aide demanded, taking a threatening step forward.

The man stood. From his standing position, Graves could now see just how
small he was in comparison. The older man was a good five inches taller,
was much more heavy-set than the other, and had a deep scar running down
the side of his face. Graves turned a shade paler, but did not back down.

Glaring from underneath thick eyebrows, the leader said, "I do not like
your demanding things of me, Mr. Graves. Yes, you did get my men through,
but you did not fully complete your end of the bargain. You promised me
Reeve would be at that bar. He wasn't."

Graves eyes widened. He attempted to spluttered a protest, but he was cut
off.

"You failed me. And I do not like failures."

"But...!"

The uniformed man gestured briefly with his hand. The guard, who until now
had been ignored, stepped forward and snapped a pair of binders around the
miscreants wrists.

"Take him outside, and kill him there. We don't want the carpets stained."
The guard nodded and left, dragging a horrified Edward Graves with him.

Another soldier entered the room just as the other left, and saluted
stiffly.

"Report."

"General Heidegger, Adrian and his Turks are here, sir!"

"Send them in." The messenger ran off.

Shortly later, three men in blue suits entered, only to find the General
again seated in his chair. They arranged themselves into a triangle, the
two in back with backs stiff, the one in front in a semi-lazy slouch. His
left hand was stuffed firmly in his jacket pocket.

"General Heidegger," the leader said with a idle salute.

Heidegger turned to face them. "Our informant was correct, Adrian. Yet you
still failed to capture Reeve. I am not please with that, but it cannot be
helped just now."

"Would you like us to track him down, sir?"

"No. Since he ran back to his Avalanche allies, we'll see him again soon
enough. I'm giving you another assignment for the moment." He picked up a
folder on his desk and handed it to the blond Turk. After a cursory glance,
he saw inside were three Shinra employee profiles. "Our sources have
reported them vacationing in Costa del Sol. I want you to find them and
bring them to me."

Adrian wrinkled his forehead and asked, "None of my business, sir, but what
do you want them for?"

"I'm going to offer them their old jobs."

"And if they refuse?"

"Then they'll be charged with treason and desertion during a war. The
sentence is--" Somewhere outside the window, a gunshot rang out, startling
all but the General, who simply smiled. "The sentence is death," he
finished.

Adrian nodded silently, and as one the Turks turned to leave.

"And don't mess up this time," Heidegger warned darkly.

They exited the room, and closed the door behind them.
 

***********************************************************************
 

As soon as the sun began rising, they broke camp and headed east. Karri had
said next to nothing since the night before. She was still as silent as
stone on the way to Fort Condor. Their two chocobos, whom Cloud had fondly
dubbed Tom and Jerry, made good time, despite their somewhat awkward load.
Cloud and Tifa rode Tom, with little Celia nestled between
them. Reeve, once he figured out how to keep it from running in circles,
rode on Jerry with Karri hanging on behind him.

So far the trip had been made in silence. Reeve had contemplated talking to
Karri more times than he could remember, but her whole demeanor said "Don't
Bug Me."

Ahead, Cloud abruptly reigned Tom in, and Reeve had to haul back hard on
the reigns to keep from riding straight off a steep slope before them.
Jerry gave him a dirty look once they'd skidded to a halt.

"We're on the home stretch," Cloud announced. Karri lifted her head briefly
in order to take in the sight. Up ahead was what looked like a single
mountain in the middle of a field. Atop it was a great machine, glinting
silver in the morning light. It was the reactor that the gold condor had
once nested on, giving the name of the fort.

"Fort Condor?" she asked shortly.

"The one and only."

The girl made no response other than to look into the woods they'd just
vacated.

With that, Cloud started picking a trail down the slope.

Reeve noticed that Karri kept looking behind them more and more often.
"Getting paranoid?" he asked softly.

"We all deserve to be more paranoid, with both Shinra and some other group
on a witch hunt for us."

"Some other group?"

Karri snorted. "Don't tell me you didn't notice those riflemen taking
potshots at us when the Turks were trying to lead you away. They weren't on
Shinra's side, that much was obvious."

"How's that?" Reeve was thoroughly puzzled. He had barely been able to keep
his wits during that fight, much less take notice of much detail.

"Fact number one: Adrian didn't know who they were and was surprised by
their attack. Fact number two: When they started shooting at each other,
they were shooting to kill. And fact number three: I have never seen any
faction of Shinra wear a white lotus as its insignia."

Reeve twisted in his seat to look at her face. "Who's Adrian?"

"That asshole Turk who seemed like he was in charge."

"How do you know him?"

Karri's lip curled. "We met. Briefly. Not briefly enough."

He turned back around. "Odd that he didn't recognize you."

Her voice took on a tone he didn't understand as she replied, "I was much
younger then."

Tifa's little girl, who had been riding backwards on Tom, giggled abruptly
and pointed behind them. "Look at the funny birdies, mommy!" she laughed.
They turned around.

Speeding out of the forest came three grotesque monsters, barreling down on
them at top speed. They looked like some strange mutated dragons, with long

snake-like bodies and feathered wings.

"Those ain't birds, baby," Karri muttered to herself. "Damn, I hate it when
I'm right."

"Those aren't even found on this continent!" Reeve shouted.

"Yeah, and they aren't supposed to be that big, either," Cloud informed him
as he pushed Tom to a sprint.

Normally, the flap-beats were only about four feet long from snout to tail
tip. These were over sixteen feet long. The normally fragile-looking wings
were ripped, dulled compared to their usual brightness, and their eyes were
glazed over in something other than hunger.

"Get moving, Reeve," Karri said urgently. Reeve realized that he had been
rooted to the spot while watching the flap-beats steadily coming closer. He
quickly struck his heels into his birds flanks and held on for dear life.

Chocobos were by no means slow creatures. Despite their speed, the deformed
monsters got closer with every flap of their wings.

"Tifa!" Cloud shouted over the wind, "use a Fire materia!" Tifa complied by
snapping a green orb into the bracelet she was wearing.

"Fire 3!" she cried. The orb glowed, and one of the beasts immediately
burst into flames. A supersonic shriek erupted from its throat, and it fell
behind its companions. But it did not stop. The others soon caught fire as
well, but this action bought little time.

Reeve kicked Jerry again, hoping desperately for another burst of speed.
They were halfway to the Fort, but unless something drastic occurred, that
wasn't half close enough. Behind him, Karri muttered something to herself
and shifted her grip on his waist. Her words were taken away by the wind,
but knowing her, he was sure he knew what she said : S.O.L.

"We'll need to make a stand," Cloud shouted back to them. "We can't out run
them!"

"Like hell we can't," Karri muttered. Out of the corner of his eye, Reeve
could see the girl turn around in her seat and twist one fist sharply in
the air.

The earth trembled.

Vine erupted from the ground beneath them. They didn't bother trying to
entangle the chocobos; they headed straight for the flap-beats as soon as
they were close enough. They reached for anything they might twist around,
any limb close to the ground. They wrapped themselves tight about the
monsters, twinning them into green, leafy cocoons. The flap-beats snapped
and hissed and clawed at the earthy appendages, but to no avail. The vines
slowly but surely dragged the beasts to the ground. Finally unhindered, the
birds covered the last fifty yards of ground to the Fort without effort.
They were safe.

Sentries had apparently been watching them from the mountain, for help was
waiting when they arrived. The rope ladder was let down, and the weary
travelers were hustled into the guts of the Fort. The chocobos were hauled
up after them.

"Cloud, Tifa!" and old man said as they arrived. "So good to see you
again."

"You, too, Arrin," Cloud replied as they clasped hands. "But I wish it
could be under better circumstances. What happened to those flap-beats?"

"Mutations" Arrin said grimly. "We've been holed up inside the fort for
going on six weeks now. Beasts that don't dare venture down from the
mountains have appeared, and beasts from other continents are flying or
swimming over to here. We've been attacked almost every night by all of
these things, but it's organized. Some of them pin us down while the rest
attack. It's almost as if-" Arrin lowered his voice, "-it's as if someone
of something is directing them in their attacks."

"Have any other places reported thing like this?" Tifa asked. She shifted
Celia around to her other hip.

"Not that we know of." The grizzled veteran shook his head. "Not from
anywhere."

"Man, I hate piling one bad thing on top of another, but we got something
just as bad to tell you about," Karri interrupted.

With a sharp look, Cloud proceeded to explain the takeover that had
occurred in Junon. Arrin listened carefully to the details, then nodded and
replied, "We'll pass this on to all the cities and towns we can reach. But
for now, you guys need some sleep." And so he called for a soldier to show
them to their beds.

Just before the soldier left after showing them where they could sleep, he
said, "I liked that trick with the vines. You'll have to teach it to us
someday."

"We didn't do it," Cloud replied, confused. "I thought it was you guys."

The soldier shook his head and left, leaving the room in confusion. While
Cloud and Tifa gave each other baffled looks, Reeve gave Karri a narrow
look, which she quickly avoided. /What's so special about you?/ he thought
to himself. /What can you do?/
 
 

***********************************************************************
Friday, November 26, 1999
6:19:17 PM