It was finally over.. I looked up at my former home, now encased in beautiful crystal thanks to Fang and Vanille's sacrifice. With the Fal'cie gone, only the thin crystal pillar stops my home from falling to its death.. But none of that matters anymore.. After all of my pain.. All of my suffering.. I have achieved my goal and saved my sister. I watch the group from behind with a smile on my face. Even from back here I can feel the hope radiating off them because they know everything will be alright. Or at least that's what I thought...
I feel the ground shake beneath my feet and I turn quickly to find the source. The dusty floor begins to lift like smoke, hiding the earth like a veil. In my panic I turned to the others to find them oblivious to what was happening, continuing on towards the crystal pillar. My voice cries out for them as the land begins to collapse all around me and I'm left with no choice but to run. The uneasy ground I'm sprinting on becomes to much for even my agility, and I slip, catching the earthy ledge with one hand before throwing my other over its surface to climb up. That's when it happened. From the depths of the earth I feel something grip my throat as I struggle to hold on.
"Get off me!" I roar, still unsure of what had such a firm grip around my neck. "Serah!" I scream as my fingers finally give way and I fall into the darkness, consumed by the earth.
I hit the ground with my eyes still closed, not wanting to see my own death coming. The voice of a man immediately draws my attention and I attempt to stand on what I'm sure is a fractured leg. My worst fears are confirmed when I hear a snap and I keel over in pain on the cold and damp floor. Stood over me was a middle aged man with long black hair that was as scruffy as his lab coat; who's glasses magnified the wickedness in his eyes.
"Excellent! It worked better than I could possibly have hoped for!" He said excitedly, not in the least bit concerned for my welfare.
The true extent of my situation became clear when I turned my head away from the mad man to find two tanks filled with green liquid that emitted a faint glow as it bubbled. Inside each container was a man. One taller and more muscular with black hair and the other a smaller man with blonde spiky hair, who's glowing eyes looked down on me with no life behind them. The mad scientist grinned wickedly as I turned to face him, this time with a clear idea of what was going to happen to me. I felt my gunblade holster pressing against my spine as I lay on it, telling me my trusted weapon was still inside. With all the strength I had left, my hand reached behind my back and withdrew the gunblade from its home before I brought its barrel closer to the man who stood over me. Foreseeing my attack, the man pulls a rid from his pocket, extending it with the flick of his wrist as it makes contact with my weapon, discharging a lone bullet towards the tanks, forming a hairline crack on the bottom of one of them. With a touch of a button, the rod that bats my weapon from my grip becomes electrified, buzzing with volts as he points it's tip next to my chest.
"My name is professor Hojo my dear.. And me and you are going to test a theory.." He laughed as the rod touched my skin, turning my world black for a second time. "Research log 1. Date is 18th December 0006. New specimen is to be examined..."
(Almost twelve months later)
"Hey, you oughta know this building well." Barret says as the three of us look upon the Shinra headquarters.
"...Not really, now that I think about it... this's the first time I've ever been to the headquarters." I answer. Unsure how it was possible that I hadn't been.
"I heard about this place before.. Every floor aboth the 60th is special and not easy to get to even for employees. Must be where they took Aeris. The security's pretty light now. Alright, let's go!" He adds as he makes his way towards the main entrance.
"Wait a second!" I hear Tifa shout to my left. "You're not thinking of just going right through the main entrance, are you?"
"Well what else does it look like!? I'm gonna kick some Shinra butt and.."
"That's not going to work! We've got to find another way!" Tifa pleads.
"Ain't gonna be no other way! If we keep wastin' time like this, Aeris'll..."
"I know that, but if we get caught here.." The brunette beside me begins as she turns to face me. "Hey, Cloud. What should we do?"
I'm truly split on this decision. Part of me wants to kick the front door down and put the fear of god in everyone in that wretched building, but my mind is telling me to find another way. All I know is I've come too far to be stopped now. I look around quickly, finding what looks like a fire exit stairwell to the left that looks like it would reduce the risk of getting caught dramatically.
"Let's sneak in quietly.." I reply, instantly getting a smile of approval from Tifa and a huff from the gun armed man.
After thirty grueling flights of stairs my legs are cursing me for my decision and I still have another twenty nine to go. We press on, stopping every ten flights for a quick breather and to listen for anyone coming our way until we come to the end of the line. I attempt to open the door just a crack to take a peak but the door slid open automatically, revealing my like a prize to three armed guards across the floor. They hesitate momentarily at the sight of my Solider uniform but quickly realize I'm a hostile when I draw my sword and charge. Me and Tifa make quick work of the guards, before Barret had even made it through the door, not wanting his gun arm to alert the entire building of our presence. Turning the body of one of the guards over, I pat him down in search of a keycard, eventually finding one in his chest pocket with the number sixty on it.
"This will take us to the next floor.." I say as I walk to the lift door that was being guarded only moments ago.
The door opens and I get a brief shock when I see the outside world. The almost entirely glass lift ran up and down the outside of the building, giving you a good view of Midgar the higher you went. Taking the cardkey, I swiped it on the control panel, gaining access to it within moments. The buttons one to sixty light up, confirming I have access to them so I press sixty and wait for the movement.
"This is the real thing. Don't let your guard down." Barret advises as the lift reaches it's destination.
We quickly leave the lift, praying that the security camera hasn't spotted us and sneak past the roaming guards that march up and down the far end of the room. I take the lead as we reach the stairs, following it up to the 61st floor where a large lobby awaits us. In it's center stands a large tree that contrasts greatly with the cold marble floors and polished metal walls. Somehow nobody pays attention to the three of us as we pass through the room of people, looking for the lift. When I find the metal lift doors on the left hand wall I make my way towards them, taking in the cleaner air in the room thanks to the old tree, before remembering the number on my cardkey.
"What should we do?" Tifa asks.
"Why don't you say you lost yours, Cloud? You got a Soldier uniform on." Barret suggests.
"It's worth a try.." I answer, unable to think of an alternative solution.
Looking around the room, I spot a man with a sharp suit on talking to someone on the phone. After a deep breath to flush the nerves of being recognized away I approach the man who holds his hand out arrogantly as I start to speak.
"Oh, I see... You must be that whatcha call it... Shinra, inc. Repair devision! You know, it looks like this building is starting to fall apart." He begins to scald me as if it was somehow my fault. "This door was just pushed open. You ought to fix this right away. Oh yeah, and take a look on the other floors too. I'll give you this." He finishes pushing a keycard against my chest. If I wasn't so awestruck that I got what I came for without uttering a word his attitude would have earned him a beating.
Tifa looks at me with her crimson eyes filled with pride when I turn to face her with the keycard in my hand and Barret looks smug that his idea worked. We make our way to the lift and take it to the next floor, hoping that we would catch a break eventually and be able to skip a few. The lift door opens and my mako eyes where met with two doors with brass plaques hung next to them.
"They're libraries." Tifa says as she reads the signs.
"Let's keep looking, there must be something else on this floor.." I hear my self say as I turn left and then right until I spot someone stood outside a small office door.
"Hi, I'm the deputy mayor. If you're looking for the mayor, he's in his office." The man said with a warm smile.
I give the man an appreciative nod and step inside the dingy office to find an old man wearing a tatty tweed suit, pacing the floor. When he looks at me a warm smile wrinkles his face more than it already was and his eyes light up in excitement.
"Hmm? Oh, and who might you be?" He asks curiously. "You all must be those.. ahem..." The man added, causing my fingers to twitch, ready to draw my sword. "Me? I'm Domino, the mayor of Midgar.. Actually, I'm mayor in name only. The city and everything in it is really run by Shinra, inc. My only real job is watching over Shinra's documents..." Domino says as he clenches his fists. "Me! The mayor! A librarian!"
After we sit and listen to his rant about Shinra he offered us the keycard to the next floor; but only if we guessed his password. With no clue on where to start we leave the room and search the rooms full of documents unsure of what we were even doing. All I know is if indulging in a bored old man's game gets my closer to Aeris without sounding an alarm then that's what I'll do. We all split up and search the archives with me taking the Space Dev, Research Library. I've no idea what I'm looking for so I just search for anything out of place in the hopes that the old man had hidden his clue in the mass of books and folders.
Nearly an hour passed and I'd only made it to the middle shelf on the far left of the room when a leather backed book catches my eye labeled "Breakdown of Soldier members by class". I skim through the book, learning about the ranks and dress code before closing the book again. Shouldn't I already know this?... I thought, unsure why most of what was in the book was new to me. Just as my hand lifts the book back to it's place I find the word BOMB in bold letters, roughly drawn on its gilded edges. Hmmm...
"The password is BOMB." I say with confidence.
"I never thought you'd get it on the first try... Just goes to show you can't judge a book by it's cover. Oh well, a promise is a promise. Take this too." Mayor Domino sighs as he hands over the next keycard and an elemental materia.
"Why are you helping us?" I hear Tifa ask curiously.
"To mess with them, of course! Shinra's been torturing me forever." The old man replies.
Our ears are subjected to another short rant about Shinra that Barret was actually enjoying before we finally left his office. Heading straight for the lift we head to the next floor which turns to be some form of storage warehouse. I wanted to skip this floor but Tifa suggested that we should look around. Thankfully I did as after a quick crawl through some air conditioning vents we had managed to obtain some armour, an accessory and an all materia, all of which could come in handy when we rescue Aeris.
Continuing on we eventually ended up on the 66th floor which housed a large meeting room. Our presence suddenly became observed by everyone who passed us as we made our way through the floor. The hallways around the meeting room are covered In cameras and the uneasy glances from workers was enough to realize we should not be here. Rounding the corner we jog to the end before I push Tifa rather unceremoniously into the mens toilet, followed by Barret who felt our stay could be announced at any moment.
"Now what?" Tifa asks when she realizes just where she is.
"We can't go wandering around this floor for much longer, that's fo' sure." Barret sighs.
Determined to find a solution I check the toilets to make sure we aren't being listened to when I hear the faint voice of president Shinra. I look around to find the source of the voice, initially thinking it's a cell phone but eventually by eyes look to the roof and at a large, steel vent that must serve as the air conditioning for the floor. Smiling at my luck, I stand on the seat and pull off the mesh cover as Barret follows me into the cubicle to find out what I'm doing.
"If you think I'm going in that tiny pipe you outta ya damn mind..." He protests.
"You wanna hear what Shinra is up to or not?" I fire back bluntly.
"Boys... Please no fighting this time.." Tifa warns us as if we where two kids.
Not waiting for an answer I climb onto the toilet and into the air conditioning duct followed closely by Tifa who climbs up much more gracefully that Barret who spends 2 minutes cursing under his breath. With the meeting in progress, the three of us carefully crawl down the metallic tunnel until we see another mesh vent. Below a large table seats five people, one we all recognize as president Shinra himself.
"Considering those factories we already set up and all of the investments, the damage is estimated at approximately 10 billion gil." A man in a blue suit says, standing from his seat as he spoke.
"We're not rebuilding.." The president says coldly.
"What?" The man says in disbelief.
"We're leaving sector 7 as it is.. And restarting the Neo-Midgar plan." President Shinra says finally.
"...Then the ancients?"
"The promised land will soon be ours.." The fat, blonde president says.
I look back from the vent to look at Tifa who has a look of equal confusion over what they were talking about. They continued to talk about their plans and about raising the mako rates and destroying Avalanche, to which we both give Barret a look that said 'don't do anything stupid' as professor Hojo walks into the meeting room with an irritating smugness about him. Listening to him call Aeris inferior and describe her as a specimen made my blood boil and this time it was my turn to be calmed down.
The meeting concludes and I know if I followed Hojo, then he would lead me to where Aeris was being held. We crawl out of the tunnel as fast as possible and race out of toilet and down the hallway, stopping behind the corner of the meeting room as Hojo takes the stairs to the next floor. Once the coast was clear we chase after the man, each of us mentally preparing for a battle.
After a quick sprint up the stairs I'm just a few feet behind Hojo. How easy it would be to kill him now is the only thought in my mind but Aeris could be anywhere and we can't afford to be hear all day. I take cover between some large crates and a strange metal tank as the twisted scientist looks into a glass container across the room containing a red furred animal with a flaming tail and one ochre eye. The beast spots us hiding but does not react to our presence. Instead it just lays down like a dog, no undoubtedly saddened by it's imprisonment.
"Is this today's specimen?" A man in a gray suit asks, walking up to him.
"Yes. We're starting right away. Raise it to the upper level." Hojo commands. "My precious specimen..." He adds as both men leave the room.
Tifa is the first to stand from our hiding spot and she heads immediately for the imprisoned animals container. Her delicate fingers touch the glass as she looks at the beast with sad eyes. She begins to talk about experiments but I zone out feeling my head turn to the right subconsciously onto a dome shaped, metal container with a small window that glowed a bright purple. I don't know why but I feel myself drawn to the container, as if being pulled by a magnet.
"Jenova..." I mumble as I look through the glass at a headless, humanoid monster that oozes evil.
Painful memories flood my mind until I'm left clutching my head on the ground in agony. Coming to my aid, Tifa places a hand on my back, supporting it as I stood as I start to mumble again.
"Jenova... Sephiroth's... So.. they've brought it here..."
"Cloud, be strong." Tifa comforts.
"Did you see it?" I ask
"See what?" The Avalanche leader asks, still with no idea whats wrong.
"It's moving... Still alive?"
Barret walks over to the container and looks inside, recoiling in shock at the sight of it.
"Where's it's fuckin' head? This whole thing's stupid. Let's keep goin'." He says, still visibly flustered.
I stumble to my feet and walk away from the container as images I don't understand flicker through my mind. On the back wall of the room is a service lift that will take us where we need to go and to the right a box that Barret quickly, searches, finding some poison materia.
"Okay lets go!" Barret shouts. "Where the hell is he now!?"
A glass container caught my eye between the piles of crates and my legs once again took me there seemingly on their own. The tank was filled with glowing mako and inside was a beautiful young woman. Her clothes where like nothing he had ever seen on Gaia, the same as her pale pink hair that flowed in the liquid. Again my head burnt with pain as I saw the image of the woman laying on a stone floor, looking at me with frightened eyes and Hojo standing over her with a metal baton.
A/N: New story from me. Still a Cloudxlight fic but it will follow the actual stories relatively closely. I'll still be carrying on with the other story for those interested and i'll be doing this on the side. I do have a question which I need answering though. Can I write a POV story? Does what i've wrote make sense? Or should I continue it in the same style of my other stories as a sort of 3rd party narrator? As apposed to a POV, I seem to be saying 'I' a lot in this lol, not sure if it reads as fluid as my others. Please let me know what you think, don't be nice, be honest.
Wolf.