Two Letters and a Number

My apologies to anyone waiting for other stories to be updated but FFVII has taken over a bit right now. *grins* I've been working on this one for quite a while and completely forgot that it hadn't been updated here.

Takes place after the ending of Advent Children.

Two Letters and a Number

With a grunt and a heave, Cloud Strife rolled onto the scarred surface of what was left of the final battle ground with Sephiroth as well as where Yazoo and Loz ambushed him. Looking around, he smiled slightly at the sight of four familiar blades still stuck in the stone, and walked over to effortlessly pull out one of the swords, sliding it into the sheath on his back. Soon the other three swords were in the remaining three sheaths on his lower back, and he stopped at the edge of the structure, looking around at the ruins that surrounded him.

The sun shone in the crystal blue sky, illuminating the twisted wreckage that was covered in dust, dirt, and more than a few still bearing scorch marks from the desperate battle against the Nightmare for the fate of the planet. But here and there, tiny green shoots were poking through the ground, the planet healing this wound, and a small smile touched Cloud’s face. Not only was the planet slowly healing, but Her people were as well. The number of new Geostigma outbreaks was decreasing rapidly, and those that were infected were recovering, some more slowly than others. The pool of water in Aeris’s church was still healing victims of Geostigma, and someone from the water plant had stopped by to pick up a few gallons to place in the water system to help those that didn’t know about the church or couldn’t get out. Yet no matter how much water was removed from the church, the water level never dropped, and Cloud knew that Aeris and Zack both were working to help everyone still.

Shaking his head, Cloud shoved his thoughts aside for now. It wouldn’t do to be daydreaming on the clock, not when President Rufus Shinra was paying him by the hour to find out if there had been any other surprises left by Yazoo and Loz or even Kadaj. It also gave the blond man an excuse to collect his swords since he hadn’t had a chance since he woke up after the explosion to find himself back in Aeris’s church.

There was a glimmer of silver at his foot and Cloud reached down to pull out the Souba that Kadaj had been doing his damndest to kill him with. The Sephiroth clone had dropped it when he had collapsed into Cloud’s arms, and here it was again, turning up like a bad penny. Surprisingly, the double bladed katana wasn’t damaged by the blast from the materia explosion, and he decided to turn it in to Rufus to get the man off his back.

“My two are still missing,” he muttered, keen mako enhanced eyes peering down the twenty stories that separated him from the ground and picking out a flash of red spiky hair pulled back into a long tail. Reaching into his pocket, Cloud pulled out his new PHS and hit a couple of buttons.


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Deep beneath the ruins of what had once been Shinra Headquarters, two artifacts stood facing each other. One was a large ring with what looked like steps up to the open center with what could only be a control platform nearby ringing a red sphere in the center of the surface. The other had once been a large t-shaped object but the top part of it had been sheered off and crushed when part of the ceiling had fallen on it.

It would never work again.

The ring suddenly started humming and the outer half started spinning, stopping every once in a while as various symbols were selected. After seven symbols were selected, there was a ripple in the middle of the circle before water and light burst out of the center in a frothy trail, looking like the underside of a pond after a large rock was dropped into it. Then the water pulled back to shimmer on the surface of the ring before a small box-like robot emerged. After a few minutes, four people emerged, weapons held at the ready, and looked around the room.

“Wonder what hit this place,” remarked the leading man, his salt and pepper hair cut short in a military buzz cut as he handled his assault rifle with a casual ease.

“I am not sure if it was an explosion or the ground moved, O’Neil,” rumbled the black man holding a golden staff as his dark eyes flickered around the room. He walked over and picked up a chunk of rubble before nodding. “It was an explosion of some kind.” He held out the baseball-sized chunk of rubble that had carbon scoring along one side while the bit of metal trapped in the concrete had been warped by an intense heat.

“So, what happened to the people?” asked the brunet as he pushed his glasses up farther on his nose before stopping as something caught his eye. “And when was the last time the Asgard were here?”

“What do you mean, Daniel?” asked Colonel Jack O’Neil of the United States Air Force StarGate Command as he turned to look at the twisted structure that Dr. Daniel Jackson was pointing at before whistling. “How’d we miss that on the scan?”

The blond woman carefully picked her way across the rubble strewn floor to stare at the other artifact in the room. “It looks like part of the ceiling came down on it,” remarked Major Samantha Carter as she stood up, shaking her head slightly. “Unless Thor or one of the other Asgards fix it, I don’t think this Hammer will work again.”

“A very advantageous incident for us,” remarked Teal’c, shifting his staff weapon in his hands, and Daniel couldn’t help but shudder slightly at the reminder of the last time SG1 ran into one of Thor’s Hammers. At least this time, they wouldn’t have to blast a maze down to get Teal’c out safely.

Moving over to the only visible door, Daniel grasped the knob and opened it inward only to be met by a wall of concrete where another section of what looked like ceiling had collapsed, effectively trapping them in the room. “We’re not getting out this way,” he reported, closing the useless door and starting to slowly pace around the room.

It wasn’t very big, just large enough for the Stargate and the Hammer to be there without them crowding each other, but the only door out of the room was the one Daniel had just checked. Frowning, the archaeologist stood off to one side and allowed his eyes to randomly travel around the room before they fell on the slab of concrete that had partially crushed the Hammer. It was still connected to the ceiling by rebar but enough of it had collapsed into this room to form a steep ramp to the floor above.

“If we’re careful, we might be able to get out this way,” Daniel remarked, pointing to the hole in the ceiling and the steep slope up to it. Reaching out, he grasped part of the uneven concrete and slowly made his way up to the floor above them as Jack swore in all the languages he knew. After a few minutes, Daniel heaved himself up onto the floor and looked around to find himself in a hallway that only had some rubble and dead wires hanging from the ceiling to obstruct the way. “It’s all clear up here.”

He stepped away from the hole to allow the others room to scramble up when the glaring red of a sign caught his attention. Moving over to the one wall, Daniel carefully wiped off soot and dust to reveal a familiar red sign with the words ‘AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT!’ in big bold letters. Underneath that was a smaller sign with a red arrow on it announcing that the emergency exit route was to Daniel’s left.

“Looks like the way out is this way,” he stated, glancing back to find Jack, Sam and Teal’c standing next to the hole, and he turned to follow the signs out.

“Finally, a place that speaks our language,” remarked Jack with a smirk. “Be kinda nice to carry on with the locals without a translator. Especially if we get invited out for drinks.”

Daniel rolled his eyes as they continued picking their way through the debris laden hallway. Trust Jack to want to do the local equivalent of a bar crawl while on another planet, but he supposed he couldn’t blame the colonel too much since it had been a while that they found another planet that spoke English. Plus it had been a rough week for the SG1 when they had been ambushed on another planet and had barely made it back through the Gate before the locals managed to add the heads of the SG1 to their collection followed by emerging from the Gate just as a battle broke our around them.

Both planets had been tagged as ‘dangerous’ in the system, but it seemed like SG1 had only gotten maybe a day of downtime before they were being shoved through the Gate to go to a new planet once more.

‘Like you would spend your time with anyone now that Shau’ri is gone,’ taunted a small voice in the back of his mind, and Daniel shook his head, not wanting to listen to the cruel words that reminded him once again that his wife was dead and gone, victim of a staff blast while under the control of a Gou’ald queen.

As he stepped over another chunk of concrete, Daniel froze at the sight of a green globe nestled next to his foot. There was something about the glowing ball that had Daniel scooping it up in gentle fingers before he even realized he was moving. It was smooth and surprisingly warm in his fingers as the green light swirled inside the golf ball sized globe, and Daniel was startled to realize that it weighed next to nothing despite looking very solid, almost crystalline.

“Whatcha got there, Daniel?” asked Jack, stopping next to him and glancing at the ball in Daniel’s hand with a sigh. “What have I told you about picking up strange objects on an unfamiliar world?”

“It’s not dangerous, Jack,” retorted Daniel, his fingers closing around the ball in a protective gesture. He was reluctant to part with the globe or even think of it as dangerous. It was funny but Daniel thought it felt like it wanted to help him somehow. “If it was, I think I would have found out when I picked it up.”

“Let’s just hope it won’t result in another wife,” Jack sighed, shaking his head as he continued down the hall.

Sam smirked, her blue eyes flashing playfully. “Interested in another wife, Colonel?” she asked, sweetly, and Daniel snickered, grateful of the reminder that he wasn’t the only one who had ended up with an accidental wife. Only, unlike Jack, he had decided to keep his.

After several minutes of stumbling through hallways past what looked like labs and barracks as well as the occasional office and up some steps, they emerged in what looked like it had once been a front lobby, and Sam shook her head. “Was this a military organization or a corporate one?” she asked, looking around for some answer.

Daniel shook his head. “I honestly couldn’t say,” he stated, moving over to where a large, diamond-shape logo was, inscribed in runes that almost looked like kanji for a moment. Wiping off some of the dirt and soot, he was able to reveal some yellow letters that was apparently the name of this place. “The Shinra Electric Company.”

Jack shouldered his gun with a snort. “Since when does an *electric company* have labs and enough bunks to outfit the SGC?” he demanded with a suspicious glare around the destroyed lobby as if it held the answers.

Taking off his glasses, Daniel wiped some of the dust off the lenses before sliding them back on. “We have no idea what their society is like, Jack,” he reminded the older man. “For all we know, it’s a militaristic society where small things like electric companies *need* armies to keep in business as well as protect the supply lines.”

“Perhaps they could tell us more about what happened here, O’Neil,” remarked Teal’c, speaking for the first time since they emerged from the Gate room, and Daniel turned to see two people standing outside watching them. One had flame-red hair and was wearing a pair of black pants, rumpled white shirt, and an open black jacket as he leaned against something while his partner was dressed in a neat black suit and white shirt while the sun gleamed off of his bald head, looking every inch the corporate thug while the redhead appeared to be a random punk from off the street.

The rubble that the suited man was standing on caught Daniel’s attention, the unnaturally straight edge of the concrete and metal drawing his eyes as the sun shined off the smooth metal. Something had sliced that five foot section of metal and stone with ease, and Daniel reached over blindly to tug on Jack’s sleeve. “Um, Jack, you might want to take a look at the rubble that man’s standing on.”

“It appears to have been cut, either with a blade or some kind of energy weapon,” remarked Teal’c, his voice calm and Daniel glanced over to find a flicker of surprise in those kohl-ringed eyes.

“But what could possibly cut through five feet of steel and concrete?” asked Sam, shaking her head in disbelief.

Jack grinned as he started for the broken glass doors. “Let’s find out, shall we?”

Clutching the globe tighter in his hand, Daniel followed Jack outside and realized that what the redhead was leaning against was a sword hilt. The hilt was wrapped in something red and large enough for two hands to hold it while the blade was one foot wide and had two feet of it sticking out of the concrete.

“You do realize you’re trespassing on private property,” greeted the redhead, flipping a long red tail of hair over his shoulder as he tapped his metal baton on his shoulder in an absent gesture. “So why don’t you tell us what you’re doing here and why, especially with those fancy guns of yours, and if we like your answer, we’ll let you leave.”

Nervously clearing his throat and feeling his three companions turn to look at him, Daniel started talking about how they were scouts and explorers, unsure if they had emerged into a gang war of some kind but willing to bet if it was a gang dispute, then if the military aspect was downplayed, they might get out with all their gear, and themselves, intact.

After a few minutes, a trilling music interrupted Daniel, and he stopped talking as the redhead rolled his eyes while digging into a pocket. Pulling out a cell phone, the redhead flipped it open with a practiced flick of his wrist and placed it at his ear, stunning Daniel at the level of technology before him. None of the other planets came close to having phones, let alone cell phones, at least those not directly influenced by the Asgards or the Replicators.

“Yeah?” greeted the redhead before rolling his eyes and looking up at the building behind Daniel, causing the archaeologist to turn and follow the redhead’s gaze up to a figure standing on what looked like the thirtieth floor. “Yeah, I found it.” He sighed and seemed to glare at the figure. “Look, if you want it, come get it ‘cause there’s no way I can pull the sucker out, yo.” With that, he closed the phone with a snap, and turned his full attention to the figure on the building.

As Daniel watched, the person on the building jumped and started falling towards the ground, arms outstretched causing them to flip backwards as they fell.

“They’ll be killed!” gasped Sam, her words muffled by her hand. “No one can fall from that height and survive!” There were twin chuckles of amusement from behind them, but Daniel’s eyes were focused entirely on the figure as it slowly flipped through the air, gaining some distance from the building and the people gathered at the bottom.

With one last flip, the man landed in a crouch, apparently unaffected by the long drop, and straightened, giving the SG1 a chance to examine this strange arrival, or at least his back. Black pants that were loose enough to move and fight in but not so loose as to get tangled and cause serious problems were topped by a black ribbed sweater with a turtle neck and no sleeves. A leather shoulder pad was strapped over his left shoulder, the scrapes and dings showing that it was not for decoration, and a long black panel of fabric fell over his left leg, brushing the top of the black combat boots. Black gloves encased his hands while a leather bracer, also black, encircled his right forearm, and a dark pink ribbon was tied around his left bicep. Short blond hair seemed to defy gravity in swept back spikes at the back of his head, as if he used a strong wind to style his hair, and longer spikes of blond framed his face.

But what caught Daniel’s attention more than anything was the harness on the man’s lower back with four gleaming swords placed in the sheaths. The silver buttons that held the swords in place were stamped with the visage of a snarling wolf while the swords gleamed with a lethal beauty, and a fifth sword gleamed in his right hand. The hilt was wrapped in dark blue leather while the blade was actually two blades shaped like a traditional Japanese katana, a strange design for a Norse culture. That thought brought Daniel’s eyes back to the red head, and for the first time, he noticed the almost Asian slant to the red head’s eyes, indicating an ancestor from the Oriental Region of Earth.

The blond walked over to the redhead who obediently moved away from the sword he was leaning against, and Daniel watched as the blond casually pulled the sword out of the concrete with the ease of Arthur removing Excalibur from the stone, revealing another two feet of blade that was only a half a foot wide.

“Ya find anything, Cloud?” greeted the redhead as the blond continued over to a sleek black motorcycle that looked powerful and fast while the gold trim gave it a touch of class. Even to Daniel’s untrained eye, he could tell that it was a well loved machine and definitely a custom job.

Cloud held up the twin bladed sword. “Only this,” he replied, his voice soft as if he didn’t talk very much. He straddled the motorcycle as if he was getting ready to drive off only instead, he pressed something and there was a hiss and a ka-chunk as a panel on each side of the bike opened. With a casual ease, Cloud removed the swords from the holster and started putting them away in the side compartments while the double bladed sword rested across his lap. “I haven’t found any leftover presents, but I’ll keep looking since your boss is paying me until dinner.” Softly, Jack started humming the theme to the ‘Twilight Zone’ only to grunt when Daniel rammed a not so gentle elbow into his side.

There was a scraping of metal on stone, and Daniel turned to find Teal’c holding a sword that was one foot wide and two feet long with what looked like six bolts in the blade and a quarter of a spoked wheel design at the hilt. “A very interesting design and light weight for easier handling,” mused the ex-Jaffa as he turned the sword over in his hands, examining it with a professional eye.

“May I have my sword back?” asked Cloud, catching Daniel’s attention as he turned again to watch the blond approach them. The black sweater zipped up the front but only to the top of his chest, and a silver wolf’s head with a ring in its mouth was on the shoulder pad with a miniature version of it in his ear. The longer blond spikes did frame his face in a haphazard way, reminding Daniel of a bird’s crest that refused to lay flat, but it was the eyes that caught Daniel’s attention. Like the redhead’s, there was a bit of the Oriental slant to them, but they were an electric blue color that seemed to glow with their own light even though they looked as if they had seen everything and still carried that weight despite the youthful looks.

For a second, it looked like Teal’c was going to keep the sword, but he handed it over hilt first, and Cloud nodded his thanks as he grasped the hilt before offering the double bladed sword. “If you want something to use, Souba needs a descent owner now.”

“I thank you, Cloud,” replied Teal’c, his dark eyes lighting up as he grasped the leather wrapped hilt.

Cloud only nodded once before glancing at the rest of SG1 and turning his full attention back to the redhead. “I doubt we’re going to find any surprises from Yazoo and Loz, unless you count the twisted remains of Yazoo’s gunblade, but I don’t think they had a chance to set anything up other than their kamikaze attempt, Reno.”

“So you’re just gonna bail on us?” asked Reno, running an idle hand through his red hair that spiked up in every direction, barely held out of his face by a pair of goggles.

“I do have a business to run,” drawled Cloud, sliding the final sword in what appeared to be an empty slot in the motorcycle’s compartments. “Shinra gets this day from me, but tomorrow, I’m back doing deliveries.” Whatever had happened between Shinra and Cloud had obviously left some bitterness on the blond’s part, and part of Daniel wondered if it had anything to do with the lingering pain locked behind electric blue eyes.

There was a soft pulse of warmth in Daniel’s hand, reminding the archaeologist of the glowing globe he held, and he took a few steps forward, clearing his throat, nervously. “Excuse me, but what is this?” he asked, holding out the glowing globe.

“You don’t know what materia is?” Cloud’s voice was laced with surprise and a touch of suspicion as his blue eyes searched Daniel’s face.

Daniel shrugged one shoulder. “We’re not from around here,” he explained, the words sounding weak in his ears.

Electric blue eyes flickered over SG1, lingering on Teal’c before glancing at Sam and causing her blush to darken a shade and then returning to Daniel. “Obviously,” remarked the blond as he approached Daniel. Leather encased fingers gently plucked the globe from Daniel’s hand as intense blue eyes studied it for a few seconds. “This is materia, a crystalized part of the Lifestream that lets people do various things. This one feels like a Restore.” He casually tossed it back to Daniel who managed to catch it without any fumblings. “I’d keep that out of sight because there’s some people who would do almost anything for that.”

Daniel blinked down at the small globe in his hands, the sudden understanding that he had something that could heal his friends sending a warmth through him, igniting his curiosity and flaming it to an even higher level. “So how do I use it? And what’s the Lifestream?”

“The Lifestream is a river of energy that encircles the planet as well as runs through it,” explained Cloud, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a leather cuff that was only a couple of inches long. Scooping up Daniel’s right arm, he casually wrapped the cuff around the archaeologist’s wrist and started tightening the leather thongs as he talked. “It’s the spirit of the planet and is made up of the souls and energy of those that have died. Materia is formed when mako, or liquid parts of the Lifestream, crystalize, and can be used for different things when equipped in weapons, jewelry, or other items.”

Plucking the globe from Daniel’s left hand, Cloud placed it in a round, metal socket that was somehow inlaid in the black leather and the materia settled with a soft click. “To use it, place your hands on the person you want to heal and concentrate on healing them. If they’re too far away for you to touch, just concentrate on them and the materia will do the rest.”

Daniel nodded, feeling the warmth the materia gave off spreading through his body. “Thank you,” he replied, tugging his jacket sleeve down over the cuff and effectively concealing the materia’s glow from view. “So who would we talk to about a peaceful exchange of information?”

“What kind of information?” Cloud asked, a faint frown appearing on his face, and Daniel explained about the Stargate before the blond shook his head. “The closest you’re going to come to the head of a government around here is their boss.” He jerked his head at the silent suit and Reno who was talking on his phone to someone in a low voice.

Turning, Cloud started back for his motorcycle and tossed a wave over his shoulder. “Nice meeting you.” Throwing a leg over the bike, Cloud nodded at the silent man who had turned to glance at the blond with a surprised expression on his face. “This is your kind of stuff, Rude. I’m just a delivery boy.” The engine roared to life and in a squeal of tires, took off through a path in the rubble, leaving only some dust thrown into the air to mark his passing.

Jack snorted. “He’s no more a delivery boy than I am,” he muttered, shifting his rifle in his arms as he stared after the vanished motorcycle and its blond rider.

“He’s a delivery boy now,” Reno remarked, closing his phone and shoving it in his pocket as he strolled over to them with his partner, Rude, at his side. “And that’s all he wants to be which is a shame really. Especially for someone with his training.” He shrugged a shoulder and collapsed his baton. “The boss wants to talk to you.”

He gestured for them to follow him, and Daniel fell into step beside the redhead, noticing for the first time, the curved slash that went from the corner of his eye to follow his cheekbone. It had to be a tattoo of some kind because it was too smooth to be a scar and it was the same shade as his hair, causing the mark to blend in. Rounding a corner, Daniel froze at the sight of what looked like an obviously military helicopter with the Shinra logo on the side and shook his head.
It was times like this that he wished he had a pad of paper to write all his questions down on. Just so he wouldn’t forget later.

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