Woven Ties

Woven Ties

AN: I'm not exactly new to this place, but this is my first publish on here. So I'm kinda new to the member tools then, heh. This is a WIP, yes, but I have the overall story plot written, and am currently working off that. I hope to update twice weekly since I have chapters written already, and until I catch up with myself I'll try and add a new chapter every Tuesday and Friday. Thanks for reading 8-)

Btw, I'm known as Raphaella elsewhere, so if you see this published under than name, it's me.

Four Months Ago

It was after the sun had fallen and the moon had taken its place, leaving a dusky pallet of colors in the not-quite black sky, that the phone rang. The silence shattered as the tuneful bleating disrupted Reeve’s thoughtful calm. He looked at the offending device, vibrating visibly on his large desk, before lifting his chin off the back of his hand and picking up the phone. He flipped open the sandwich device and looked at the display screen. It was one of his informants. He uncrossed his legs, as though polite gestures were necessary for a phone conversation, and spun his chair slowly to sit properly at his desk.

“Yes?” He answered after thumbing the green button and placing the phone to an ear. He listened in quiet for a few seconds, his eyes focused on a point he had chosen in front of him while his brow slowly wrinkled. “Shinra Manor?” He echoed the voice on the other end. His frown deepened. “Really? This is troubling…” The voice on the line was garbled to anyone not pressing his ear to the phone, and it was the only disturbance in the office until Reeve spoke again. “Did anyone in the town see anything? … Damn… I want a team to check it out, who knows what they were doing in there, especially after we closed it off.” The murmur of a digital voice wavered the silence again as Reeve’s brown eyes half-heartedly studied the documents on his desk. “I’ll be there, too. I’ll have an investigation team down in four hours. I want the entrance to the Manor guarded in case whoever it was comes back.” He nodded into the phone, said bye and flipped his phone back into its folded position before pocketing it and straightening up the already neat pile of documents. He left his room half a minute later.

Four hours later he arrived in Nibelheim with the promised team of WRO soldiers. He walked heavily down the steep incline of the airship’s ramp and was met by the cool night air of the small town. It was now a pitch-black sky looking down at them, blemished by the few clouds half obscuring the moon. Reeve’s blue dress coat fluttered in a particularly hefty breeze. He squinted against the drying wind as another man descended behind him, boots thudding against the ramp.

“Let’s get this over with,” said the man in his unique accent. “Can’t be good when someone’s wantin’ ter raid this place.” Cid raised a hand to block another gust of wind from his eyes as Reeve let his gaze wander over to the dark Mansion, sitting in shadows like an architectural monster. They all knew what had taken place in the bowls of that beast.

“I agree,” Reeve said, watching his men head over to Shinra Manor. He spotted a few townsfolk looking out of their window curiously, and below them on the streets one of his senior officers was talking to a man. He took Cid with him and approached them.

“Sir,” the officer acknowledged his superior. “This man said he saw people leaving the Manor. However, he didn’t get a description, Sir.”

The man, a middle-aged brunette with a slight balding, looked at Reeve. “It’s too dark to see, and too far away. All I saw were loads of people dressed in black running out of the Manor.” He turned and pointed at the pass, towards the mountains. “They disappeared that way. Dunno how they got away after that, didn’t see no aircraft or anything.”

Reeve nodded to the man and turned to his officer. “It’s doubtful anyone else would have seen anything. I want you to position in town, just in case, while we check the Manor.” His orders were met with a ‘Sir’ and he walked away with Cid towards the largest building in the town. Technically, it was on the outskirts of town; ever the outcast. Reeve inclined his head in Cid’s direction. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“You’n’ me, both,” Cid muttered, plucking a fag from his mouth and blowing out a stream of smoke into the cool air. He stuck it back between his lips and looked up as they approached the looming building, regarding it as he would a nasty stain.

A few minutes later they were following the last of the WRO team down the old rickety stairway that spiraled down into the lower, secret levels of the Shinra Manor. Dust hung in the dark air, illuminated by the torchlight carried by every team member. Cid stepped further down and the wooden boards beneath his feet creaked threateningly. He gave it a dubious look and directed his torch ahead, lighting up Reeve. It was a long staircase with no railings, and given the weight they had distributed sparsely between them all, they took it slow in case the old wood couldn’t handle it. When they all reached the lower levels the air turned stale and colder, bringing about a shiver through each person down there.

Cid paused at the bottom of the spiral staircase, casting a dark glance at the familiar foreboding cellar. He sighed past the fag in his mouth and started forward to catch up with Reeve. The WRO knew the layout after Reeve had supplied them with an interior map of the Mansion during the brief. Even so, they proceeded ahead with caution, weapons held in a ready position as they advanced into the dark cave.

Luckily they only encountered a lone beast, fluttered menacingly above their heads. A couple of shots brought it down before it could do any harm, and it fell into a crumpled heap on the hard ground. One of the WRO soldiers pushed it out of the path with a boot and continued on the way, weapon poised again. When they reached the designated room, the WRO soldiers did a quick security sweep over before they stood back and realized what the mystery people had done. The shelves of books and files were gone, almost the entire library of documents and records were gone save for a few discarded papers and books. It looked like someone had cleared the place of all the data that was archived down there.

Reeve stepped into the room with the pilot in tow, and they both stopped and surveyed the room in stifled surprise.

“All the books and files…” Reeve stated. “They’ve been taken. But why?”

Cid stood beside him. “Dontcha mean ‘what’? I dunno about you but if anyone wants ter steal stuff from this mad house I’d wanna know exactly what they took.”

He was right. Reeve glanced at him before directing his gaze to the many empty shelves. Cobwebs and dust coated the ledges, layered in places where they had settled around the books that once stood there. The WRO Executive’s brow furrowed in a tame but troubled frown. Nothing good went on in this basement, and all the records and files collected there contained those secret activities. Anyone interested in them was either up to no good or trouble themselves. Already Reeve could feel an unease awaiting them down the line, stirring somewhere. He hoped it was last night’s meal repeating on him.

Later that night, or more accurately, morning, Reeve stood outside the mansion in the cold air, pensive as the wind played with his bangs. His men moved behind him, entering or exiting the Manor, making a dull noise that permeated Reeve’s subconsciousness. Cid appeared beside him, hands on hip. The end of his cigarette was like a tiny flare in the night as the nicotine stick sat securely between his teeth. He took a long few seconds to inhale the addiction, remove it from his mouth and let a stream of smoke blow into the air. Then he spoke.

“Almost everything down there’s gone.”

Reeve turned his head to regard the blond pilot. “Considering what most of those documents contained, I’m a little concerned.” He paused. “I hope this is just a silly prank by some bored kids, but it’s never that easy.”

“Kids know better’n’ ter run into them mountains,” Cid said, taking another puff. A WRO soldier walked past him. “Does anyone know what was in them books down there?”

“Research and documentation of the actions taken place in there, at the least,” Reeve answered. “Shinra Manor was very hush-hush, only the scientists stationed there knew half of what went on.” He looked at the dark, sleeping town of Nibelheim, spotted with the lights of those that were curious by the WRO’s presence, unable to sleep. “But they were some of the most brilliant minds on the planet, their notes and records probably hold dangerous secrets. Hopefully they’re incomprehensible to lesser minds.”

“We ridin’ on hope, now?” Cid smirked around his fag. “Say, why didn’t you guys take that stuff away? Lock it up if it was so dangerous.”

“I never believed anyone would be mad enough to want such documents,” Reeve admitted. “There shouldn’t be anyone who knows of the basement and it’s secrets apart from us and certain members of Shinra. In a way, I thought they were safe.”

“Guess now we know.”

Reeve gave a nod of agreement as an office came up to him, issuing a respective salute before reporting the team’s progress. Cid listened in with one ear while he looked around the neglected grounds of the Manor, slowly making his way down the cigarette. When the officer walked away again, Cid glanced a Reeve, waiting for orders.

“We’ve taken what was left of the files into custody,” he explained as they started to make their way back to the ship. The team had assembled outside of the mansion and now jogged back towards The Shera around them. “Just in case they hold valuable information.” He added, and then he sighed. “I should have done this sooner. Now thanks to my blind eye someone, somewhere, has their hands on some rather secret and considerably dangerous files.”

“Can’t blame yerself,” Cid said, watching the smoke billow from his lips and dissipate into the air. He finally stubbed out the cigarette under his boot and they ascended the ramp into Cid’s ship. “But instead’a’ looking back at whatcha could’a’ done, yer gotta look forward ter what yer have ter do.”

“Yes, you’re right,” Reeve agreed. “I don’t want these files where I don’t know. I’ll set up a search and retrieve operation, but with little to go on it’s going to be tough.” He nodded at a passing officer. “I hope the manpower won’t be wasted if we recover these files and they turn out to be cooking recipes.”

Cid punched the door release into the cockpit and stepped into the large chamber with Reeve. “I think yer suspicions are well placed about their contents. Hell, even if they are cooking recipes they’ll probably be poisonous.” As Reeve chuckled Cid mounted the first steps to the wheel and stopped, turning to Reeve. “Get Vince down on the case,” he suggested. “He might know what’re in those files.”

Reeve considered this for a second before shaking his head. “It’s unlikely. He didn’t exactly get the chance to roam free during his ‘stay’.”

“Hojo might’a’ told him,” Cid jested, though he didn’t smile.

Reeve gave a half-roll of his eyes at Cid’s dark joke. He certainly wouldn’t have been cracking that if Vincent had been present. “I doubt it,” Reeve said. “No, at the minute it doesn’t really concern him and I’d rather keep his favors for a rainy day. If I use those up he’ll give me the cold shoulder for sure.”

Cid would have nodded and chuckled had he not grown curious and mildly suspicious of Reeve’s comment. “Favors, eh? What kind of favors?”

The WRO President looked at him and smiled vaguely. “Time to depart,” he announced in an airy voice, turning to an approaching officer who gave him the OK. All team members were aboard, the hatch closed and the ship prepped for flight.

Cid waved a dismissive hand. “Fine, fine,” he climbed the rest of the steps to the wheel and took it in hand, awaiting the ‘all go’ signal.

A minute later the ship rose into the air, swung to face a new direction and flew gracefully away into the night, leaving the curious residents of Nibelheim to wonder.