The Descent

This is the place where everything began. Everything was made of iron… a big room… far and wide, but no one to see… and…there was this thing…it seemed everything was geared towards that glass cage. A boy entered this room. "Oh, damn…lost the way." This black spiky haired boy with the 2nd class uniform looked around this strange place… "Where the hell…am I?" he wondered aloud, his brows lowering in a disgruntled manner. Then he saw it…this mysterious cage.
Suddenly a mechanical sound of movement was echoing in his ears. He looked all over himself but saw nothing. He glanced back to the glass cage - that was when he caught sight of the girl lying in it. She had no shirt, no vest, nothing; her legs were nearly teared to pieces. He could see her trembling and shivered himself, imagining the distressing sound of her crying. However, this thought was interrupted by the crackling of a set of speakers. A shrill familiar voice sounded: "So…this is your last chance to show me "the power"…or you'll be deleted…failed experiment." Panes were above the boy. Where a scientist with round glasses and long black hair bounded in to a ponytail could be seen.
A soft female voice sounded from the speakers: "I'm…not…"
"Stop that. You're not made for being able to feel emotions. You're a cyborg, an iron beast. Number two!" he snapped in a loud voice.
The boy drew his sword and said in a low undertone: "I have to safe her…" he begun running towards the cage imprisoning the girl.
As the man said his condescending words, the girl lifted herself from the ground on shaking, but strong arms. "I'm…not…your experiment…!" She gasped defiantly. "I'm human!" she raised her arms and let out a furious roar. It was not something one would imagine ever coming from the mouth of a girl... let alone a human... it was like a roar of a beast merged with the squeal of twisting metal.
"What the f-" says the boy loudly . A pang of fear struck him as the glass of the cage shattered, him having forced his way through.
Parts of her body turned to iron before his eyes, her fingers sharpening, her feet becoming as hooked and deadly as the talons of a hawk. Wings grew out of her back…white…and held by iron. Her eyes…as red as blood. Terrified, Zack reeled back a step but he was stuck fast to the spot as her uncanny eyes met his own: blue…deep, like ocean and heaven together.
"Finally!" The crackling voice of the man sounded over the speaker system. "now…give it the sedative."
Scientists appeared from behind and tried to give her the injection as instructed, but as they thrust the needle into her the point broke.
"Idiots! At the skin, not the iron!" Shouts the now aggravated man behind the panes.
"I'm not a thing!" She yelled in her shrill metal voice. In her outrage, she lashed out at the boy who was trying to help her. Zack tried to defend himself without hurting her; his efforts were soon rendered unnecessary as the other scientists succeeded to give her the sedative while she was distracted from them. She reverted to way she was when the boy had first set eyes on her, and fell into his arms; he clutched her to him tightly and ran off before he could be caught.
"Foolish boy," said the man in charge, his tone dangerously calm. "…Stop him."

'Hold on!' yelled Zack as he felt the girl in his arms grow limp, the sedative the scientists used on her having taken full effect. He slowed his pace a little to reposition her; she was so light, so fragile. How could someone ever consider hurting a girl like that? Unfortunately however, whatever it was that the scientists had done to her she certainly wasn't the gentle girl that she appeared to be on the outside... when she was human that is. He had to get her somewhere safe before she woke; he didn't want to have to face her in on the other side of a sword again. Those eyes... Zack recalled with a mental shudder. Like twin crimson suns, they had scorched themselves into his memory forever. He couldn't erase them from his thoughts, yet he still felt compelled to save her from whatever fate the scientists of Shin-Ra had designed for her.
He jogged from the laboratories on level sixty-eight, and into one of the staff elevators, the one he had used to get onto this floor a mere few minutes before. Pressing a button on the wall to his left with his elbow – the edge of the button illuminated itself as he touched it – he leant down and carefully placed his burden on the floor.
'Wait a minute,' Zack murmured aloud, his brow furrowed in thought. He couldn't allow himself to be caught if they tracked the movement of the elevator – he wasn't sure that was even possible, but knowing Shin-Ra, and its obsession with security, it was probably best to assume the worse. Heaving the girl into his arms again, he darted back out of the elevator before the doors closed and whipped around the corner into the adjacent corridor. A short way down was the entrance to the emergency fire escape. He thrust the door open with his heel just as he heard the slip slap of pursuing feet. They would assume he used the elevator, which would be on its way down already, empty and distinctly Zack-less. Nobody ever used the stairwell – not if they could help it. It was quicker to wait for the next elevator – especially for a measly old coot like Hojo. Zack grinned slightly at his wit.
Thundering down the stairs as fast as he could without endangering his fragile burden, and passing many landings that led off onto other levels, he slowed to a stop, now panting slightly.
'You're giving me a good workout,' he commented cheerfully to his unresponsive burden, having propped her up against the wall. Above her in giant red stencil font was the number "61". He had no clue what was on that floor.
Though reluctant to burst in on something, curiosity and a sense of reckless daring overwhelmed him. Disregarding the safety of him and his charge, he pressed his hand down on the thick bar across the door and slowly eased it open; a dark corridor met his bright, inquisitive blue eyes. The corridor emanated a mysterious, almost foreboding quality, and he felt himself both drawn to and repelled by the danger. Letting the door creep closed again, he glanced back down at the girl he had boldly rescued.
'You wait here,' Zack told her unnecessarily. 'I'll come back.' He disappeared beyond the blank door a moment later, the unpleasant echoing screech of the heavy door ending in a resounding BANG as it shut.

The girls' eyes swam beneath her lids and slowly her lashes parted revealing not the demonic red irises Zack had seen back at the laboratory, but cool jade green ones that reminded him of tree ferns and forests – places far away from Midgar and its trials and tribulations. It was a long time before she could remember anything substantial; it took a while for the drowsy effects of a sedative to wear off. When she did come fully to, a part of her wished she couldn't remember any of the last few weeks.
'You don't have to worry,' a silhouette attempted to reassure her from above, a hulking shape cast by the yellow light of a lamp lit on a nearby coffee table. He smelt of Mako – she wrinkled her nose in distaste; it was the scent of the science laboratories.
She had been brought into a darkened room, tidy and well-furnished as far as she could see. It appeared to be some sort of Break area for staff, though judging by its stale scent, it had not been occupied for some time. The shuttered windows suggested it was late; she felt a little saddened by this. She often dreamt of nature, and suddenly wished to look out of the window into the starlit night.
'Nobody's gonna hurt you here. It's only me. And I promise,' the boy added sincerely, for he sounded like one; 'to keep you safe. You can count on me.' He moved so that the light fell on his youthful, smiling face. 'I'm Zack, by the way.'
The young girl regarded him with a watchful air. Those artificially bright blue eyes – she hated them; it was the mark of Shin-Ra. To trust him was against every fibre of her being: it was Shin-Ra that had made her the way she was. She hated the company, and in extension, its many departments. SOLDIER was no exception. And this boy, with his childish, fanciful gestures of heroism... what could he possibly do to help her? He could certainly hide her away, but for how long before Shin-Ra found her? Not only that, he would be punished for stealing her. Staying with him would be just another prison... she could do without all that.
Instead of voicing her opinion, however, the mysterious girl with the hidden powers held her silence and allowed her saviour to indulge himself in his little fantasy. There was nothing she could do to change her situation short of telling Zack to return her to Hojo's laboratory – her legs were ruined, having been torn to shreds because of her transformations into the metal hell beast Zack had witnessed her become. She knew he was frightened of her – she had sensed it when he had appeared, sword in hand, having broken into her glass cage. Pathetic SOLDIER, she thought in disgust.
'Well, I'm gonna go now,' Zack told her after a few rather long, awkward moments of silence. He stood, his trousers rustling loudly in the empty silence. 'I'll be back again soon. I would stay but... there's somewhere I have to be right now. You'll be alright, won't you?'
He took the girl's silence for a yes. 'Okay then... Be seeing ya.'
The girl listened for his footsteps down an adjacent corridor until they were swamped by the heavy bash of a door some distance away. She was alone; alone for the first time in what seemed like an age.
Heaving herself off of the couch she had been lain on, she eased herself down to the floor, turned off the lamp and crawled towards the window. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the perpetual darkness that filled the room, but felt enveloped and comforted by it rather than fearful of it; darkness had long since been her only ally. She knew that within its gentle folds she could not be seen by her enemies, and she could hide in its false sense of solitude from the horrible, painful world. The scientists had never left her on her own before.
Reaching up to the blinds, she hooked her fingers around the knob at the end of the string and jerked on it, causing the blinds to shoot up into a roll at the top of the window. From where she lay sprawled on the floor, she could see the many stars dotting the evening sky, a slight yellowish hue tinting the black blanket of the heavens with the lamplight of the city below. The girl let her imagination take over, forgetting Midgar and Shin-Ra with an ease that had escaped her for what seemed like an age.
That night, she soared amongst those stars; a crisp breeze blew, tickling her skin, and tousling her hair. Silky, feathered wings beat silently beside her, sending her pelting across a magnificent mountainous landscape, their peaks topped with snow. The howl of a creature sounded in the distance, and was met by its fellows, a melodious song that only she could understand the words to. That night was the first without pain; because beside her beat the wings of an angel.

Zack was now quite late for his appointment. He had been supposed to attend a medical examination – a regular occurrence for the artificially enhanced SOLDIER members – on one of the floors of the science department when he had stumbled across the girl. He had clearly gotten the venue mistaken.
He jogged down the stairwell to a lower floor and got into the elevator there, thinking that it would look suspicious to enter from a supposedly empty floor. He strode about with his usual spirited air, an easy grin plastered across his face, trying to forget the girl for the time being. It was hard not to mull over his unusually reckless actions. And what was he to do with her now he had saved her? He couldn't exactly walk out of the front doors with her. He frowned slightly. He hadn't thought this far.
Maybe I could get her some clothes – dress her up as one of the staff… Or dress her as a citizen, and claim to be her escort.
That left the question of her ID pass. Every person in Midgar had an ID pass to move about the sectors. If you didn't, you were arrested. That posed a problem.
Maybe she could pretend she has misplaced hers… or had it stolen. Yeah, that's why she's filing the case with SOLDIER! She could be a prominent member of some organisation, and she had some items taken along with her ID. No one will question that. I'm only a Second – not prominent enough to get noted by anybody... This was something Zack almost regretted.
He'd need his helmet, he thought to himself, leaning against the railing inside the elevator. Nobody would be able to recognise me then.
'I wonder what your name is…?' Zack thought aloud suddenly, thinking of the girl. It hadn't occurred to him to ask.
He had barely took a step out of the lift when it hit him—
A slug to the face. Ouch.
Zack recovered quickly, but found that he was held fast by two masked SOLDIER operatives. Nathan and Alexander from what he could tell. Fellow 2nd Class's. He'd trained with them last year...
'Get off of me, man!' Zack yelled in surprise, his heart thumping against his ribcage. How could they have found him out so fast?
They would not release him; he struggled to wrench his arms from their combined grip, but found that the two of them were too strong. They had caught him completely off-guard. One kneed him in the stomach – hard – and he doubled over, grunting in pain. 'Dammit!' he gasped. 'What in the hell is going on here?' he demanded.
'You are being apprehended,' said a smooth, authoritative voice, 'on the accusation of theft, and destruction of property owned by the Shin-Ra science department.'
'What?' Zack said scandalously, his heart beating faster. Lying was an anathema to him; it was like sunlight was to vampires – proper ones at least.
'Do you deny these accusations?' asked another, greatly familiar voice. His heart dropped like stone into the region of his throbbing gut. Angeal.
As Zack straightened, he picked out the Director of SOLDIER, Lazard and his beloved mentor SOLDIER First Class Angeal Hewley, who stood at the Director of SOLDIER's side, his face characteristically shadowed by a deep scowl – but to a greater extent than usual. Suffering Angeal's disappointment brought the same sick feeling to his throat as the thought of lying to his comrades. Though that could have been a result of the knee he'd just received to the gut… it was hard to tell.
'There is sufficient evidence to convict you.'
'No,' Zack finally admitted. 'I don't deny it. I did what I thought was right in the circumstances,' Zack declared in an abrupt, soldier-like manner. 'Just what any SOLDIER would do. I had to save her.' His flickered appealingly in Angeal's direction.
'Zack, there is a fine line between being a hero...' began Angeal, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
'And being a meddling nuisance,' the Head of Science, Professor Hojo finished, stooping on the Director's other side.
'You mean... the company... allows these so-called experiments to happen?' asked Zack. '…That's torture!'
'What the company does or does not do is none of your concern,' Professor Hojo said icily, though the chilling effect was rather weakened by his irritatingly nasal voice. 'You are merely a soldier, whose duty is fight, and to follow orders. You need not think.'
'We're more than that,' Zack vehemently disagreed, clenching his fists angrily. Why wasn't Angeal trying to defend him? He shot a beseeching look at him – that was when he noticed him. Sephiroth, the legend, concealed within the shadows at the other end of the badly lit corridor; as a result, Sephiroth's expression was undiscernible, especially from this distance. Zack was astounded that his actions had received such attention.
'That is a valuable specimen you have stolen,' continued Hojo, completely ignoring Zack's remark. 'You will return it at once, and face the consequences of your crime.'
Zack remained silent, suddenly unsure what to do. Everything that he had been raised to value within SOLDIER... well, as much as he refused to believe it was true, he couldn't help but think he had been betrayed. Relinquish her to Hojo and keep his job in the most optimistic of circumstances? Or defy them and be lucky to keep his life? Was a strange monster-girl really worth the trouble?
No, he thought. If he gave up, he would be defying his honour as not just a SOLDIER, but as a person. He had to go through with this. He had to make them understand – especially Angeal. Perhaps the Director would see this as a desirable trait – yes! Zack through triumphantly. You had to stand out to rise in SOLDIER – this was the perfect opportunity. Even if it meant defying someone of another department. There was a lot of interdepartmental rivalry – he could use this to his advantage.
As the beginnings of a plan formed in his mind, his resolve grew stronger.
'I won't,' said Zack quietly.
'Hmph,' said Hojo. 'Take him away. We'll see how long it takes for him to confess.'
The pressure at his shoulders increased as his former comrades shunted him forward. The leather straps of his uniform drew tight across his chest because of their pulling, cutting into his skin. 'No!' Zack yelled desperately, struggling against them with all the strength he possessed. 'Angeal! Do something. ANGEAL!'
'Let him go,' commanded the Director.
Zack was released immediately. He shrugged his shoulders to settle his attire back into place, ruffled by Angeal's lack of response: the First stood stonily at the Director's side – the only man Zack felt any great deal of respect for at the moment – the only change in him being the unfolding of his arms from across his chest.
The Director turned to Hojo. 'You have no authority over my men,' he said, slight emphasis on "my". 'Zack,' the Director now addressed him. 'I want you to be aware the seriousness of your situation. I request that you return the creature to Professor Hojo so we might resolve this matter. He rightfully owns the creature; it is not considered human, thus it hasn't the right to walk among the civilised.'
'That's stupid,' said Zack angrily. 'Hojo took that right away from her! She's a person underneath whatever he's done to her. He's the one that should be punished for this!'
'Zack,' came Angeal's deep voice, in a tone of warning. 'Settle down.'
Not having the heart to defy his mentor, Zack remained silent, simmering furiously.
'If you do not comply with Professor Hojo's request,' said the Director, 'I'm afraid we'll have to take disciplinary action.'
Zack nodded curtly, pushing back a sudden reluctance to disobey his superiors.
With that, the Director brushed past him and into the elevator. The door slid closed, leaving a weighed silence in its wake.
'Angeal, wh—'
'Let it go, Zack. Come on.'
'... Huh?'
Zack followed a grumpy Angeal from the room, immersed in his thoughts. He didn't pay attention to the shadowy figure by the doorway, whose mouth curved into an odd, unreadable kind of smirk as Zack strode by.
'How long exactly did you think you could have kept this hidden?' demanded Angeal in his most stern of tones, after the doors of the next elevator had closed them off from the others.
Here comes the storm… Zack thought regrettably, thinking of all the times his actions had initiated one of Angeal's famous lectures. He readied himself for one of the most lengthy yet.
During the course of Angeal's furious tirade, Zack's shoulders slowly slouched further and further until he resembled a tortured spiky-haired hunchback clad in SOLDIER garb.
'Did you ever think of the security cameras before you decided to take things into your own hands?' Angeal demanded.
'You don't mean to say,' said Zack slyly, perking up at a sign the lecture was drawing to a close, 'that you—'
'I don't condone what you did, Zack,' said Angeal, cutting him off mid-sentence, but affirming his thoughts nonetheless. 'It was reckless and stupid. But neither do I always condone what the science department does. I certainly don't like what I've heard about what has been done to this young girl. But that does not give you the right to interfere with the matter, Zack. I thought better of you.'
Zack seized the opportunity while it was open, however slim the chance of success.
'Help me, Angeal,' he pleaded. 'Help her escape from Hojo, at least. I can't take her back to them, not after I promised to look after her.'
'No.'
'Why—?'
'Because I'm your superior, and what I say goes!' Angeal rounded on him fiercely. Zack had never seen him so angry.
'S-sorry.'
'What were you doing on that level anyway?' Angeal said grumpily. 'It's a restricted area.'
'I… got lost…'
'Typical.' Angeal shook his head exasperatedly. 'You really need to use your head more often Zack.'
'But I thought Hojo said SOLDIER isn't meant to think. Just fight. And follow orders,' Zack said bitterly.
'You know what I mean,' growled Angeal.
'What do you think will happen to me?'
'I don't know. The Director will decide that. You're lucky this hasn't spread out of the two departments. Otherwise it'd be a question of whether you'd be keeping your neck rather than your position.'
'You won't let them fire me, will you?' he asked in concern. 'I've worked so hard to get this far…'
Angeal's lips remained sealed in surly silence. Zack hung his head gloomily, feeling as ever like a chided child. 'I can see SOLDIER means a lot to you,' he remarked after a while. They were almost back to the SOLDIER floor. 'Maybe this'll teach you not to get carried away by girls so easily.'
'W-what?'