Unholy Alliance

Chapter 4


"Sir, Mr. Mulder is here to see you. He says it’s urgent." Reeve sighed. What now? In the turmoil after Meteor, he’d stepped up to try and take care of the survivors. He’d been elected President of what was now called Junon continent, after the fast-growing city, for his hard work. "Send them in."

Mulder came in, followed by Tifa Lockhart and a strange woman, dressed all in black, with Mako eyes. Reeve started at that. She did seem familiar.

"Hi there … Where’s Cloud? And Dana?"

Tifa exploded "They’re gone! They just walked away on the beach and disappeared." She glared at Audrea. "And I think she knows where they are!"

"Sir, this is Audrea Morgan …" Mulder trailed off, not sure how to introduce her. An old friend? A ghost?

Reeve looked at her. He remembered her now – he’d met her once, briefly, at a Shinra reception. After the war. She’d left with .. "Sephiroth’s girlfriend. I remember you. You were the commander of the First battalion at Wutai."

Tifa gasped. Sephiroth’s … girlfriend?

Audrea snorted. She looked at Mulder. "Why did you bring me here? So that everyone could gawk at me?"

Tifa ignored her. "Reeve, We may have a problem. According to her, Sephiroth is somewhere on the Planet, too. We have to stop him."

Reeve picked up the phone. "We’re gonna need help."

About two hours later, the entire group was assembled in the conference room adjoining Reeve’s office. Audrea sat at the table , not making eye contact with anyone. Cid was the first to notice. "Where’s Cloud? And who the hell’s she?"

Reeve sighed. It was going to be a long day. "You guys all know Fox Mulder, right?" He started out, not sure where to go.

Tifa made the decision for him. "Cloud and Mulder’s friend Dana just disappeared. And then SHE showed up demanding to know where …"

Mulder groaned inwardly. This was not the way he would have chosen to introduce Audrea to the rest of the world. "This is Audrea Morgan. She was, like Scully and me, one of Hojo’s experiments. She’s from the past too."

Barret, seated across he table from Audrea, looked closely. "Hey she’s got them eyes like Spike. What gives – you a female SOLDIER?"

Audrea snorted. "I was the first female SOLDIER. First Class." She added pointedly. "When I –died – I was second in command of the whole ball of wax." She gave them all a look.

Cid’s mouth dropped. "Wait a minute. I heard about you. You were—"

"AND the problem is" Mulder interrupted, knowing what Cid was about to say. "Is that Scully and Cloud just walked off the beach and disappeared. Now, I would say this case has all of the hallmarks of an abduction case, but there’s no one to abduct anyone anymore."

"What? Abduction? Whatcha mean?" Yuffie asked.

"Alien abductions, Yuffie. Mr. Mulder seems to have aliens on the brain." Tifa groaned.

Vincent looked startled. "But the only alien we’ve ever had a problem with was … Jenova."

Tifa glared at Mulder. How dare he try and cover up who this woman was. "Guys, she’s Sephiroth’s …girlfriend. He’s alive on this planet somewhere!"

"You – " Barret leaped over the table, as if to attack her. In a blinding flash of movement, he was staring at her sword. "Me what?" She asked.

"Audrea put that thing away." Mulder grabbed her fist. "And you," he said, turning to Barret. "Sit down. I think it’s time Audrea explains herself."

Audrea looked daggers at him. "Come on. I know you know what’s going on. Why don’t you tell them about yourself." Mulder was through protecting her. If she was going to act like this then let the others chew her up.

Audrea stood up, looked at the assembled. "My name, as you all know, is Audrea Morgan. I am, SOLDIER, First Class, Commander. I’m – also – an experiment. Like Mulder and Scully, Hojo thawed me out after a very long time, and implanted false memories in me. I got the Mako treatment, and I went into SOLDIER. I was the commander of the first battalion at Wutai, where Sephiroth and I destroyed the pathetic little place. After that, Mulder and Scully decided to make me remember once and for all… I didn’t want to be an experiment, so I killed myself. When Sephiroth died, we found each other in the lifestream, but something called him back. We were on the beach and he … cold-cocked me with his sword and disappeared."

Yuffie looked at her in shock. She’d heard about "Lady Sephiroth" in stories from her father. She’d found the Leviathan materia, the materia that Yuffie now possesed as lady of the pagoda in Wutai. Since neither Audrea nor Sephiroth could make it work, they’d left it in Wutai. "You’re Lady Sephiroth." Yuffie said.

"And you are?"

"Yuffie … Kisaragi."

Audrea looked her over. "Godo’s brat, all grown up." Yuffie picked up Conformer as if to strike.

Mulder grabbed Audrea, throwing her into a chair. "Knock it off. I know you’re not like this. All that time in the lifestream, and you still don’t remember?"

Audrea looked at him. "If you’re not going to help me, I will go rescue your friends alone."

Red XIII had watched the entire exchange silently, thinking. He was starting to put the pieces together. He spoke up. "Obviously, there is a link between Cloud, Sephiroth and Dana. We have to discern what it is."

Reeve thought for a bit. "They’re all Hojo’s experiments."

Vincent shook his head. "That cannot be it. For if that were true, why am I not affected? Or Red for that matter?"

"Cloud and Sephiroth both had Jenova cells in them. But I don’t know where that leaves Dana?" Tifa ventured.

Audrea’s eyes grew wide. "Mulder. Do you know if Hojo took that chip out of Scully’s neck?’

"What?" The whole room looked over at her. "What chip?" Cid asked.

Mulder gaped at Audrea. "How did you know about al that?"

"It was all in the X-Files. I was a good agent and did my homework."

Mulder looked at the rest of the group. "Scully was abducted once a long time ago and had a chip implanted in her neck. When she removed the chip, she developed a mysterious cancer that no one could identify … " He trailed off at the dawning realization. "Jenova cells. Scully has Jenova cells too. That’s her cancer."

He went on. "Jenova was the alien race. The Cetra were the rebels that wanted to help us stop colonization. Scully showed me the research she did. Jenova has been on this planet since our time."

"Wait a minute! We killed Jenova!" Cid exclaimed. "A couple a times, actually."

Mulder looked at him. "Well, it looks like we’re going to have to kill her again.


Back to Unholy Alliance