Disaster: My friend created this as a dream and she asked me if I would add to the bare bones of it. I give all credit for this story to her.
I do not own Final Fantasy VII, nor anything connected to it. Those belong to Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix.
**Takes place sometime between Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus ending.
"So Tifa, how did this happen? I mean it couldn't be Sephy and those Remnants were offed by Cloud, so why is this dumb old building being wrecked? It's just--"
The brunette cut her Wutanese friend off with a hand, her other hand reaching up towards her ear. Adjusting the small ear piece that was in danger of falling out, Tifa said "Sorry guys I couldn't hear you. Go ahead, Rude." A static crackle buzzed in her ear and the Turk's voice replied. "There are civilians on the top floors, some type of infantrymen have completely infiltrated the building. Fire has damaged the infrastructure so some floors might be damaged and unstable."
Yuffie said into her own earpiece, a little louder than was necessary. "How do we know Shin-Ra's not responsible for this?" A different voice laughed at the ninja derisively, his voice a stark contrast to Rude's low, calm voice. "That's stupid, why would we blow up our own building? We wouldn't be helping you guys if it was really Shin-Ra anyways... Just these Deepground jerks doing all the damage." Reno said, and laughed again steering the helicopter closer to the high rise.
Tifa and Yuffie, below entered the building with caution, both girls had their guards up. The lobby in which the two AVALANCHE members had entered was ornate, marble floors and pillars spackled with flecks of gold and other iridescent minerals. It would have looked better; Tifa thought if there hadn't been dead bodies and wrecked furniture strewn around the room. Suddenly a battalion of soldiers exploded from a staircase at the far side of the lobby, firearms raised at the pair. Tifa sprang into action, delivering a swift kick into the chest of an oncoming solider. Yuffie took a more violent approach, hurling a wave of sharp kunai into the throats of three advancing soldiers. Bullets whizzed through the air as the soldiers attempted to hit Tifa and Yuffie, but they were too quick.
"I guess all that time training with Vinnie really helped!" Yuffie shouted to Tifa who agreed, inwardly laughing at Yuffie's nickname for the gunman. After a good helping of Fire and Thunder Materia and some extra weapons from Yuffie, the Deepground soldiers were defeated, leaving blood streaked trails on the floors and some slumped against the walls, the Mako energy in the weaponry congealing with the blood.
"Ugh, let's go. These guys don't have any Materia and that Mako gives me the creeps."
Yuffie complained, holding her nose at the raw stench of the blood. Tifa, swallowing the last of the potion she had taken for her minor wounds nodded, opening the door to the stairwell. Running up to the second floor, the girls were greeted by another wave of Deepground soldiers, some with double edged blades, and other with guns. Tifa was ready for an attack when a bolt of electricity darted past them to a Deepground soldier, killing him instantly. Tifa shouted
"Hey! Yuffie, was that--" Her question was interrupted by the appearance of a huge robot; its shiny silver body gleamed under the light. It shot another bolt of electricity then with its long steel arms snatched up two more soldiers, smashing them together repeatedly, like a toy monkey with a pair of cymbals.
"Wow, do you think it's on our side?" Yuffie asked as the robot, tired of it's now dead victims, searched for more 'toys' to play with. Tifa shook her head, recognizing the "SHIN- RA ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY" logo on the robot's chest. "Yuffie, I really highly doubt it..." Tifa said, a little dejectedly. A harsh cracking sound came from the floor above, a long crack forming in the plaster ceiling. "Maybe we should head up there, see what's causing that huge crack." Tifa said and Yuffie added "and also so it doesn't come toppling down on us..."
Leaving the volatile robot behind, the girls went up to the next floor, ready for anything. The damage was colossal, pillars and walls crumbling, the floor was only a few wrong moves away from collapsing completely. "Be careful" Tifa warned, looking through her stockpile for a Float Materia, hoping that weightlessness would prevent more damage. Yuffie handed her one, activating her own with a devilish grin.
"Yuffie, where did you get these from?" Tifa chided, catching the grin that accompanied Yuffie's usual kleptomaniacal escapades. A sheepish smile changed the ninja's face and she admitted "well, let's say Cloud shouldn't go looking through his Materia stockpile anytime soon..." Tifa, now hovering a few feet off the ground shook her head, trying her best to hide her amusement. Something caught Tifa's attention, a door that was untouched, and people inside. Using a well placed kick, Tifa knocked the door off its hinges.
A long oval shaped table stretched out before her, children not much older than Marlene and Denzel seated around it, papers, pencils and backpacks scattered on the table. A teacher was at a large dry erase board at the front, frozen in mid sentence, in the middle of writing down a number. All the occupants of the room were frozen in time, not moving or even breathing. The only one who had any movement was a man with long silvery hair and a Deepground uniform. In his palms was a white orb, a Materia Tifa had never seen before. The man, who had his back to the brunette fighter rotated in his chair and Tifa's eyes widened. The man with his silver hair and blue- green catlike eyes strongly resembled Sephiroth. The name alone knotted Tifa's stomach, making her almost throw up. The man smirked the same way Sephiroth had in his life, one part amusement the other condescending. Tifa quickly activated a Fire Materia and hurled three spheres of the flames at the enemy. Yuffie, who had meandered away from Tifa, the moment her Materia was activated, hurried to her friend's side. The Deepground soldier held up the clear Materia in his hands and the blast of fire stopped.
"What the?" Tifa was surprised as the Sephiroth look alike stopped her attack. The man smirked again, infuriating Tifa, and she shot another blast of fire. Unsuspecting the second attack the man was surprised as he fell to the floor, either dead or unconscious. Tifa, not about to find out, took the clear Materia and touched it, cautiously. A high pitched ping sounded from the action and a ripple of energy washed over the room. Then small voices began to fill the room as the children regained their movement, unaware that they had been trapped at all. The teacher, seeing the lifeless Deepground soldier on the floor and the two AVALANCHE members raised her eyebrows, her face a mask of worry and alarm. "It's alright; we're not going to hurt you. The building is going to collapse; we'll get you out of here." Yuffie said, smiling down at the little kids. "Thank you, we'll follow you then." The teacher said, herding her students into a straight line. "Listen to the nice women and stay quiet, we don't want to lose any of you," The teacher said while a high pitched alarm started to ring, warning Tifa and Yuffie that the fire had spread down to their current floor. "Teef, you go first and I'll stay in back, make sure nobody gets left behind." Yuffie said, taking charge. Tifa agreed making sure she had enough Blizzard Materia, just in case. She started out of the room and led the children and teacher down to the previous story.
As soon as the children and their teacher had made it to the WRO medical team outside, the girls rushed back up the building's stories to resume their search. Once reaching the fourth floor, complete with more dead soldiers and civilians alike Tifa and Yuffie were in for a surprise. With a horrifying crunch the ceiling above them broke through, the robot who had saved them earlier, crashing down on top along with mountains of plaster and wood. The robot took hold of Tifa, its metal hand attempting to crush her. "TIFA!" Yuffie shouted, only to be picked up as well. Just when Tifa believed her ribcage was totally crushed, the sound of swift metal whizzed past her ear. The arm in which the robot had her fell off, dismembered from its body. The grip of the hand relaxed and Yuffie was freed as well, the other arm falling to the ground. Then, the robot split in two, a clean dichotomous cut from its head to feet. Landing in front of them, was Cloud, who readjusted his Fusion Blade, separating one blade into two. "You both okay?" He asked his Mako infused eyes looking over Yuffie and Tifa, who were still floating three feet off the ground. Tifa nodded a faint smile touching her lips. "Float Materia? Where did you guys get…?" Cloud trailed off, hunting for one of his own. He froze and his gaze slid to Yuffie, who was grinning evilly.
"I'll get you another one, Chocobo head, I promise, don't get so worked up." Yuffie said, waving her hands about energetically. Cloud gave her a look of pure annoyance but said "You both should go, you've done enough. I'll check the upper floors, okay?" Tifa looked as if she wanted to say something, but Cloud's Mako instilled eyes stopped her sentence. "Alright, but be careful. You promise?" Her red- brown eyes bore into Cloud and he nodded. Before leaving, Yuffie handed Cloud her earpiece. "Cid's on this channel, so you'll have some way of contacting him, just talk into it" she explained. Tifa and Yuffie parted ways with the headstrong swordsman, two going down and one going up. The next floor, Cloud found was lit with red hot flames, covering most of the floor, filling the hallways and closed rooms with heat. Setting off a Water Materia, Cloud watched as the flames guttered out around him, steam hissing loudly. One flame however stayed lit and as Cloud went to investigate, he realized it was Nanaki. "Ah Cloud you've come. That fire was becoming unbearable, thank you." Cloud nodded and Nanaki offered his help, which Cloud accepted gratefully. "Cloud, we're okay; Barrett's here helping out the WRO firefighters. Don't worry." Yuffie's voice boomed over Cloud's earpiece as the pair in the building destroyed Deepground soldiers easily.
Meanwhile, up on the roof propellers buzzed and a huge airship hovered in the air above. A dark red blur fell from the ship, landing none too gracefully on the heliport below. Vincent Valentine straightened upright, checking his three barreled pistol, Cerberus to make sure it hadn't been damaged. An ear splitting whine came from the communication device in Vincent's ear, forcing him to remove the piece. It hissed and sparks flew as he tossed it to the ground, crushing it succinctly under his foot. "The fall must have damaged it…" The ex Turk determined, although he wasn't displeased at being able to work alone, without unwanted interruption. Opening the door to the floors below, Vincent picked up the faint scent of smoke and blood mixing in the air. Heat escaped the room, fleeing to the outside world. Traveling down the stairs, Vincent saw another horrific sight. Blood tinted the white linoleum floors a pale red, flames licking over the walls and floors, erasing all incriminating evidence. Vincent, loading a clip of ammunition into his gun fired at the Deepground soldier with the flamethrower at the end of the room, aiming for the man's head. A metallic ping rang through the air and instead of the bullet entering the man's skull it ricocheted off a sharp blade and out the window, shattering the plated glass.
A woman with short scarlet hair and a lethal looking double edged blade pursed her lips at Vincent, her crimson lips curled cruelly. "Well, well, if it isn't Vincent Valentine. Missing your Protomateria? A low gravelly voice growled in Vincent's head. "It's her! Valentine let me rip her to shreds, tear that smug smile from her face." Vincent's hand twitched within his gauntlet, Chaos attempting to take control.
"Rosso, what do you want here? Why is Deepground destroying Shin-Ra?" Vincent questioned, his mind vainly trying to reign in Chaos as the demon struggled for release. "Pitiful Valentine, still trying to manipulate the pawns within you? Since the great Weiss has no more use for you, I see no need in dulling my blade with your blood just yet." And with that, Rosso took off, moving downward into the stairwell and the floors below. Vincent pursued firing his weapon on all enemies in his path. The familiar sound of gunfire echoed through the air as Deepground troops were slain with ease. The next set of stairs led to the most heavily damaged floor, the entire floor held up only by a single wooden pillar. "Shin-Ra was being cheap when they built this place…" The ex Turk thought as the pillar creaked ominously.
Meanwhile Cloud, hearing that Vincent had entered the building was trying to contact him through the communication device. "I can't get a hold of him; I can't even pick up his device." Cid complained to Cloud before cutting off contact. "Cloud, Vincent's on the top floors, correct? Then we will meet up with him soon, but for now let's continue." Nanaki said and Cloud agreed. He knew Vincent preferred to work alone and so he wasn't too concerned. While Cloud and Nanaki continued up the floors, Vincent found himself in a more precarious position. As the pillar cracked further and he was now supporting it, pushing it back into place. A mirthless laugh reverberated around the floor as Rosso came out into view of the red caped gunman.
"Trying to play the hero, Valentine? Why when you still have so much to repent for? Aren't you the cause of the entire Planet's suffering, the reason Sephiroth existed?"
Although the words stung Vincent to his very core, he didn't respond, only held up the pillar.
"You want to know why we are destroying this building. Our great leader Weiss has found invaluable data on Omega within the building and we must have it. So we do as the great Weiss commands while murdering as many as we can." Rosso explained took aim at Vincent and fired from her odd weapon. A bullet entered Vincent's left shoulder and he winced, losing his grip slightly. He retaliated, three bullets from his Cerberus zooming towards Rosso. She deflected two of them, the third however, entering her skull.
"Fool… this… is… only… a… replica…" The fake Rosso said and collapsed dissolving into the Lifestream. Vincent muttered a curse under his breath while his shoulder throbbed in pain, blood dripping from the bullet wound in his arm.
"The girl was right, Valentine. Why do you care about this place? Isn't this Hojo's company, the man who did all this, killed Lucretia and forced you to thirty years of suffering? Why do you care at all, these AVALANCHE people don't know your sufferings either, they never cared." Chaos growled in his mind, but Vincent disagreed. "No, I do this because I am needed, my allies rely on me and if this is what they need I will help. I am not doing this for that 'monster' Hojo." Vincent shot back, as he lost feeling in his arm.
"Cloud, I have a bad feeling about something. The Lifestream is shifting, the cries of the people are moaning over something here. We need to find Vincent and leave, quickly" Nanaki said as Cloud helped people onto another WRO airship through an open window. "Right, let's finish up here then we'll find Vincent."
As Cait Sith waved to them from the airship, Cloud and Nanaki took off. The next floor had almost no soldiers, and the few left surrendered at the sight of Cloud's First Tsurugi. Upon further inspection, Nanaki located a room where hostages were being held and freed them, as Cloud called for another airship. Yuffie, now in charge of the rescue picked up the civilians as requested. As Cloud entered the next floor, he saw Vincent supporting a large wooden pillar, one arm bleeding profusely, his gun by his side. Nanaki ran to the gunman's side and Cloud followed. "What happened? Vincent you are hurt badly. You need medical attention immediately." Nanaki asked and Cloud nodded trying to help Vincent up.
"No the pillar will collapse if I don't stay…" Vincent muttered wincing at the movement of his arm. "I'll hold it up, you go with Red." Cloud said first raising a hand to his ear. "Cid, we need you to pick us up, Vincent's been shot and he needs a medical team. How quickly can you get the Shera up here? We're up on the thirty fourth floor."
A string of curse words followed Cloud's request and finally Cid said "Fine, I'll be there soon. I had to fly all these goddamn people to the hospitals in Edge. Tifa and Reeve's orders. Hold tight, unless you want to just jump out the window… That'd be a sure way to escape the damn building." Cloud, ignoring Cid's moronic statement asked "Everyone's safe, right Cid?" Another voice answered, kinder and warmer. "Cloud, yes everyone is safe and sound. Reeve did a sweep of the entire building and you guys are the only people left. We'll be there as soon as possible." "Thanks, Tifa." Cloud said, ending transmission with AVALANCHE. Red volunteered to keep a look out while Vincent and Cloud held up the pillar. It seemed like hours before Cid finally arrived, Vincent was exhausted, close to unconsciousness before three pairs of hands helped him. Barrett pushed up the pillar, and Tifa and Reeve gave Vincent a hand as they led him to the ship. That night after Vincent had been treated and the bullet removed, the AVALANCHE crew headed back to Edge, even more motivated to defeat Deepground once and for all.