Sanity
Chapter four – The face of survival!
Lying under the collapsed veranda, that the dragon has knocked him through, Sephiroth rose to one knee, causing various sized pieces of wood to shift and fall either side of him. Shaking his head, he ran a hand quickly through the front of blood mattered hair, before pushing a dried clump away and tucking it behind his ear. He stood up, stretching his battered and bruised body, where several small cuts and scrapes were evident.
Clenching his teeth together, Sephiroth surveyed what was left of the still burning city, as if looking for any survivors. As he completed his survey his hands balled into fists, as no person was sighted within the flaming village, until at last, his eyes came to rest upon the snarling dragon before him. Slowly, with hazardous intent, Sephiroth raised his downed head to stare the dragon straight into its beady crimson glowing eyes, causing it to halt its predator like advance. Through the dragon's eyes, Sephiroth could see the thought process of the dragon, as it calculated the possibility, of this mortal creature before its mighty self, possessing any possible chance of victory.
Sephiroth rolled his shoulder and neck backwards and around, causing their respective muscles to relax and his joints to creak, before unhooking his cloak restraints enabling the long, hole ridden jacket to crumble to the floor, his gaze never wavered from the dragon's beady eyes. He took a step forward, eyes narrowing slightly, as the Dragon's dagger like mouth began to salivate onto the ash covered pavement below.
Sephiroth, averting one eye from the dragon, gazed down upon his useless sword that now lay broken in two pieces upon the floor, the acidic blood still dissolving the alleged indestructible steel down to the hilt, before refocusing his entire attention onto the dragon. His mouth twisted into an inhuman snare, as he thought of all the innocent lives that this beast had taken, causing his whole body trembled in a violent rage, which shone through his eyes as they flared an even brighter shade of emerald green.
Standing to his full height, Sephiroth readied himself for action, one leg slightly bent behind the other, his arms at his sides, fists clenched, his gauntlets still strapped onto both wrists, the fain glow of materia gently radiated through each.
The dragons head reared back twisting as dark energy coursed throughout its being. Sephiroth opened both palms towards the dragon, held in such a way, as to invoke a seemingly obvious suicidal challenge.
The dragons jaw snapped flew open as it brought itself to Sephiroth's level, and spewed forth a pulsating wave of black energy, aimed directly at Sephiroth's torso. Waiting until the last possible second Sephiroth leapt to his side, rolling as he landed, bearing both hands together as he rose, as he unleashed an air shattering thunder blast.
Much to Sephiroth's well hidden dismay the materia blast only scattered upon impacting the dragon's thick scaled behind before dissipating into nothingness. The Dragons tail lashed out once more, narrowly avoiding Sephiroth, as he quickly darted backwards, only to be met by another black beam of negative energy. Twisting as fast as he could, he managed to nimbly avoid the blast. Sephiroth swivelled on one foot, just in time to realise again the mistake of what he had done, as once more the dragons tail impacted upon his naked stomach, causing a painful sensation similar to that of having ones own stomach being imploded upon. As he flew back several feet into hard stone, his mouth wretched open in a gruesome grimace of pain, as the dragons' tail once again lashed down upon him.
The dragon's tail once more came to rise; Sephiroth through years of combat experience and training, as well as his mako enhancements, managed to roll over to his side, numbing the pain as he did so.
The dragon began to move on all four legs stalking its prey, wanting revenge for the child she had lost to this mans comrades. It neared Sephiroth's limp body who had managed to make it to his hands and knees. The dragon reared to its full height using both its hind legs in imitation to that of a human, tossing its head back, cracking its still salivating jaw, before beginning to absorb power once again. Due to this, the dragon failed to notice the subtle movements of Sephiroth, as he tensed his body up, his right foot sliding forward in preparation for what was to come.
The dragons lowered it's head, it's cavernous, salivating mouth opening wide even more so then before, exposing the red webbing between its upper and lower jaw and let loose yet another pulsing black beam that exploded forth.
Seizing the opportunity, Sephiroth burst forward with new vigour, fist raised in his masamune thrust stance, though he held no weapon.
The dragon's eyes widened in surprise, perhaps even fear, as Sephiroth's fist connected with the exposed underbelly of the dragon, a circulating charge of electricity buzzed where the impact took place. As he punched again with his left fist causing more lightning to charge over the impact sector, again with his right, then again with his left, each time the electricity charged over the Dragons unprotected underbelly, and each time this occurred, the dragons entire body shuddered in agony as it could do nothing but be assaulted.
Yet despite the dragon's agony and accumulating fury, it could not possibly defend itself. The bulk of its body prevented its tail from reaching Sephiroth whom was so far under its own underbelly, while its mouth was still spewing the black energy, nor could the beast use its fanged filled jaw, as the dark blast was still occurring, causing the dragon to be completely vulnerable. Sephiroth lashed out again, this time however a loud crack resounded, as his fist finally shattered in several places. Ignoring both the pain and the shattered bones throughout his body, Sephiroth delivered one final, materia charged blow.
By now there were dozens of blacked oozing electric marks all over the soft underbelly of the dragon.
Sephiroth flipped back as he noticed that the dark energy beam was dissipating, avoiding the dragon's claws as they raked the air where Sephiroth stood just moments ago.
Howling in both fury and rage the dragon lunged forward like a spear, its mouth snapping, claws raking, tail slicing the air. Sephiroth twirled away to the side, landing on one foot, before extending one arm and opening his palm to face the dragon as it turned to re-charge towards Sephiroth. Black and red balls of light appeared around the dragon's head, its eyes widened in fear. Then within a heartbeat the orbs exploded, tearing through the dragons left eye and scorching the spear like head with violent red scorch marks. The Dragon roared, its body writhing in pain and fury, now half blinded from the firaga materia.
The dragon shrank backwards, as she thought how inconceivable it was that this mortal creature, not even half its height could inflict this type of pain and damage. Her underbelly ached and oozed, the bloodied stub of its missing wing stung as it twitched with each movement of the scaled body. There was no winning this fight, and with her remaining eye the dragon watched the white haired human as he stood there, smirking, planning his next attack.
The dragon reared back in obvious pain, her left eye twitching desperate to open like its counter part, yet it could not, the left eye was horribly scarred and charred from the firaga that had just exploded upon it.
Sephiroth now stood still watching as the dragon stepped backwards, claws raking its own face in pain, its tail whipping and pounding against the ground as the dragon itself withered in agony, not only from its half missing wing, nor the eye injury but also from the vicious electric burns along its under belly. Sephiroth smiled, yet not like the smile one would give another, more like the smile one would receive before a mad man pulled the trigger, Sephiroth took one step forward, the dragon took one step back as its remaining eye stayed on Sephiroth, Sephiroth took another step forward, and the dragon another step back.
"What's wrong?" Sephiroth hissed at the dragon.
"Running away, when things aren't looking good…. Coward" he hissed again, more spitefully then before.
"I know what you are," he took another step forward, the dragon bared its fangs, dropping to the ground as it reached the far back wall, the fear was obvious in its eyes as it watched Sephiroth advance one slow deliberate step at a time, much like a cornered rat. "Tiamat!" The words like a snakes hiss, Tiamat roared in protestant fury upon the mention of her sacred title.
"Queen of dragons!" He continued a slow loathing grin covering his face, as he took another step forward, Tiamat retreated further into the corner hissing loudly whilst snapping her jaw in the direction of Sephiroth, he merely continued his loathing grin.
"I am not impressed!" Sephiroth responded in a disgusted voice as Tiamat retreated even more so, furling into a ball, A look of loathing crossing his features in response to the dragon's cowardly response.
"I will end your petty existence here; you're an embarrassment to the name queen of dragons!"
Tiamat bared her fangs once more. Slamming her tail on the ground for emphasis as though in a vain attempt at intimidation.
"Your predecessor was a much more worthy opponent," he continued, revealing a dragon amulet that had remained until this moment hidden under his shirt. "Recognise this." He laughed.
Tiamat snarled in response to this, this only caused Sephiroth to grin even broader.
"What's wrong?" he laughed, as he easily danced backwards and around another tail swipe from the dragon.
"You're pathetic!" He practically spat the last words at Tiamat.
Then without warning the Tiamat's mouth snapped open and for the briefest of moments Sephiroth thought he saw a flicker of golden light pass through the one good eye of Tiamat, the next thing Sephiroth saw was a humongous black energy beam with golden spirals circling around the beam launch forth from Tiamat's throat.
With no time to react Sephiroth was engulfed in the attack.
His whole body screamed in agony, as his mind screamed for its end, begging that its own body would just succumb to the pain, end it all, yet despite this no sound of pain escaped his lips, before the beam drove him headlong through the well in the centre of the town, before his body skidded to an unnatural stop, body limp, eye's closed, unmoving.
A quick surge of blue energy flickered its way over Sephiroth's now unconscious body, like the last spark within a light bulb, before eventually dying out, yet, as the last spark of shimmering blue ended, a small green ball hurled itself towards Tiamat.
Tiamat roared in triumph over having defeated Sephiroth, and began to stalk closer to where Sephiroth's seemingly unconscious body lay.
Without seemingly no warning the stars themselves began to shatter in bright green, explosions erupted all around Tiamat as the Ultima materia seared its way over the great dragon, until Tiamat too collapse onto the ground unmoving with only the faintest breathing to show she was still alive.
The helicopter flew straight towards Midgar, Cloud sat solemnly in the back, eyes vigilant for even the slightest sign of danger, hoping against hope that the General and his friend would make it through this alive, and that Sephiroth was making his way back to Midgar as they sat. He looked over to where his spiky haired friend lay asleep or unconscious he wasn't sure, covered in his own blood, the remanets of his tattered clothing were still clinging to him by mere strands of fabric.
As they reached Midgar the Helicopter circled three times overhead till it had clearance to land on the Presidents personal Helipad. They landed and were greeted by half a dozen surgeons, the President, as well as his Royal Guard, who each were covering there eyes due to the dust that was bellowing up from the still slow spinning propellers.
Immediately following the landing, the pilot jumped out, and opened the back sliding door, exposing both the very battered and weary Cloud as well as his blood soaked companion Zack, by this time Cloud had been unable to maintain the cure spell, and blood was pouring freely from Zack's wounds.
Cloud stepped out, stumbling as his feet touched the floor, unable to maintain balance as he landed on both hands and knees. He tried to regain his composer but failed miserably, collapsing onto the floor one more. Immediately three paramedics rushed to attend to him, lifting him up, placing him onto a white stretcher and hurried him down to the hospital, with Zack closely behind in a similar fashion, only many more were handling his stretcher each of a higher medical rank then those around Cloud. Mr President and his bodyguards remained at the Helipad talking to the pilot.
"What happened?" The President demanded of the pilot, "And where is General Sephiroth?"
"D…Dragon attack.. Nib…. Nibelheim, M…Mass attack, the gen… The General leapt out to engage the one destroying the cit… City." The pilot stammered, trying to forget the gruesome sight he had seen, of Tiamat destroying the helpless city, of the screams of the people, as they ran in fear desperate to find shelter. Although he had only seen it for moments as he flew overhead it was something he knew would plague his memories and his dreams, more countless years to come.
"AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THESE TWO??" The president roared pointing at the exit/entrance in which both Cloud and Zack had been transported to.
"I don't know." The pilot trembled. "All I saw was General Sephiroth on one side of the bridge, Lieutenant Fair unconscious and Private Strife lying beside the body of a slain dragon, the lieutenant's sword still sticking through the creature's neck."
The president paused for a second, before carefully asking the pilot one last question.
"What colour was it?" He asked.
The pilot thought for a second before answering, "What one, the one the General went to or the one his subordinates fought."
The president paused for a moment.
"Both." He insisted.
"Blue, d… Dark blue. Both were dark blue only… The Generals one seemed." The pilot couldn't take anymore, stopping in mid sentence breaking down in front of the president from traumatic shock.
A few moments after another body was being rushed to the hospital wing.
The president stood there, still unable to comprehend what he had heard, hoping against hope that it was not in fact the dragon he was thinking it to be.
"Call Hojo now!" the president demanded of his secretary as he walked back into his office at the end of the helipad, slamming the doors closed as he did so.
The Doctors and nurses rushed about the hospital in blurred precision. By this time Cloud too had succumbed to his injuries and fallen unconscious. Yet the majority were attending to Zack, taking samples of the blood on his clothing, before cutting off what remained of his clothing from the waist up, all the while attaching various drips into various veins. Doctors and Nurses were calling to each other across the room reporting injuries they could identify and any problems he may have.
"Severe loss of blood," one of the nurses cried out, franticly reaching for something to cover the wounds with, "Lots of blood!"
"Broken rib, shoulder, leg, possibly caused by a large fall?" Yet another hysterical doctor cried out.
"Multiple concussions to the cranium…"
"Second degree burns around his upper region" Interrupting another as she cried out the damage.
"DAMN IT PEOPLE!" One Doctor yelled out in a panic, "Compress the wounds now! We have to stop that bleeding!"
Several Nurses both male and female grabbed what ever they could and compressed it hard against Zacks chest where the four deep slash wounds were oozing blood.
"Sir" One of the nurses cried out as the cloth she was holding absorbed all the blood and began staining her white sterilised gloved hand.
"It's not working, there's too much blood, we can't stop it!"
"Hook him up to a blood transfusion pack" the Doctor yelled in response to this as he glanced quickly at a pad he was carrying. "Blood type AB!"
With that a large machine was brought up over to Zack, suspended upon a large metallic arm, stood several large pacts of blood, inserting a small tube into one pack a nurse quickly inserted the opposite end into Zack's own body. Several nobs and buttons were expertly pressed before blood began to slowly circulate into Zacks body, all the while blood still poured freely out. Only at a much faster pace then the blood was entering.
"What's all this nonsense about?" A slow wheezing irritated voice demanded, as the figure walked into the chaos filled room, a large white lab coat covering his small scrawny frame. Narrow shoulders hunched over an elongated body with his hands clasped together behind his back, his black braded hair falling down past his shoulders, whilst small spectacles hung loosely along his nose.
"Hmmm what do we have here" the figure asked, peering downwards upon Zacks body, "Heh heh heh… Very interesting…"
"Professor Hojo…"One doctor began, before Hojo silenced him with a small chuckle and an upraised hand.
Reaching into an inside pocket, Hojo produced a large, cylindrical, flask, with a large needle producing from the end, covered in a plastic casing, the inside of the vile, contained that of a glowing green liquid, which seemed to emit and eerie green aura.
With ease, Hojo removed the plastic casing of the needle, then after reaching down, none too gently inserted the tip of the needle into the side of Zacks blood stained neck, before quickly pressing the top of the syringe downwards for several long seconds, causing the contents to empty into Zack's blood stream.
Once the needle had depleted its contents into Zack's neck vain, Hojo retracted the instrument. Then after roughly turning Zack's neck to insure the liquid had indeed entered fully, turned on his well polished crisp leather heel, and strode out from the hospital area, where the doctors were still feverishly pressing down on his wounds, all the while in bewilderment at what Hojo had done.
Snickering to himself, Hojo turned around slightly at the entrance. "And I would restrain him if I were you."
Hojo slowly walked out of the medical room.
Wondering what the professor had meant by this, the Doctor's stared dumfounded at the back of Hojo's lab coat.
A large sharp intake of breath caused those within the room to quickly look back at Zack's body, in time to see Zack convulsing within the bed in which he lay, his back arching upwards, wounds exposed as small traces of steam began escaping from the open gashes. His arms and body began thrashing from side to side while his torso rose violently in the air causing his body to convulse in a thrashing arc. The medical attendants quickly backed away, for fear of their safety and their own well being.
A scream issued forth from Zack's agonised lips, as his eyes snapped open, to reveal pale green soulless eye sockets with red like tendrils streaking the corners. Amongst the sides of Zack's pale, sweating blood covered neck large emerald vein, like tendrils, also snaked their way up through Zack's neck, and through his entire body, as the mako infused itself within his blood stream, forcing the white blood cells within his body to rapidly accelerate the healing process.
Twisting around, Zack fell from the blood and sweat drenched bed landing heavily on both hands and one knee. The various instruments that were feeding him blood came free, as he landed, causing small newer amounts of blood to spill onto the floor around him. Zack screamed once more, curling into a ball, hands gripping his now thick vain covered face, as his head pressed violently into the floor until at last he fell silent.
There he lay curled for several long minutes, trembling, with only small whimpers being audible from his lips a puddle of saliva began to form on the tiled floor next to his mouth, the snake like vain tendrils were slowly starting to fade away.
Several moments past until the doctors, cautiously approached Zack's body, unsure if it was now safe to attempt to resume their work, unsure of what the professor had injected, nor the purpose, nor any possible further side effects that may ensue.
The head doctor reached a hesitant hand towards Zack's shoulder, only to recoil, in surprise, as the sound of sizzling plastic resounded around that of his gloved hand.
Still whimpering in a huddle, steam began rising forth from Zack's entire body once more, and as if giving into the pain at last, Zack's entire body slumped, falling to the floor from his curled position, as once more he fell into unconsciousness, steam still rising forth from his already healed body.
Still staring at his trembling hand, "Ice…" The doctor muttered, "We need ice… Lots of ice." He murmured once again, this time a more confident, still focusing his attention on his hand.
Hojo slowly walked his way inwards to the president's office room, not even pausing for permission, as he passed the secretary, and walked inside, neither pausing to take in the detail, nor the man sitting in behind his desk, a large glass of liquid red wine, held between his chubby fingers. The president of Shinra sat waiting, his chubby round head red with rage, his nostrils fuming, as he stared at Hojo his chubby fingers almost crushing the glass as his face reddened in annoyance at the unannounced visitor.
With a sigh of annoyance, as though he had more important things to attend to, Hojo readjusted his glasses, before peering inwards, towards the president, much the same as a vulture would to that of road kill.
"HOJO, YOU HAVE SOME EXPLAINING TO DO!" The president roared, jumping upwards as he did so, causing his blood red wine to spill forgotten onto the rich carpeted floor below.
Hojo, straightened himself, once more adjusting his small frame glasses, but did not speak.
Sensing that the sadistic professor before him would allow him to speak without argument, the president wiggled his way back into his chair, pausing for a moment to stare at the red stain now creeping, staining itself permanently into the carpet. A new mark of anger then covered his face, but was relaxed slightly, as one of his attendants poured the president another glass.
A few minutes passed, where the only sound was the gulping down of wine from the president and the refilling of his glass, Hojo, continued to adjust his spectacles, as though he was either impatient or fearful.
"If you have nothing to say… I'm a very busy man." Hojo stated, as he began to turn to leave.
"A dragon." The president added, as soon as Hojo had turned to leave.
"A dragon?" Hojo asked, cocking an eyebrow as he did so, perhaps as a rare sign of interest.
"Yes… A blue dragon, so the report says."
"Hehehe," Snickered Hojo, "I see, and you think it's mine?"
"Who else?" Replied the president, again wiggling to his feet, but this time having the foreknowledge, to rest the wine filled glass upon the table, "This sounds strangely familiar to your last failed experiment from Nibelheim."
"Hehehe." Hojo wheezed.
"This is no laughing matter Hojo, Sephiroth has been left behind, and the city is all but destroyed, if the people ever discover that Shinra was behind this…"
"They won't" Hojo answered confidently without a seconds hesitation.
"Of course not... Three teams have already been dispatched to Nibelheim, they will take care of your blunder as well as bring Sephiroth back... He may be a nuisance, but we do need him…. At least for the time being."
"All mistakes… Lead to progress" Hojo finally whispered, "This will just lead us one step closer to the ultimate power."
"All mistakes, Hojo, cost money! They cost time, time is money, and money is time, for your sake, I do hope, that the loss of Nibelheim was indeed necessary, even if it will only be a temporarily loss…"
"Hehehe, don't worry…. Next time… I will cover my tracks more carefully."
"See that you do," The president concluded, waving a dismissive hand towards Hojo, "See that you do." He whispered once more, before swivelling his chair to face the eternal night of Midgar's skies, calculating the huge expense that the current operation would now cost his company.
The artificial generated light, shone through the hospitals critical injury ward, in which Cloud lay underneath the carefully layered white sheets.
Cloud's eyes slowly opened, turning away from the light as he did so, one bandaged arm rose to rub his still recovering eyes from the harsh light, he sat up slightly, winching in pain once more as he did so. Removing the covers from himself, he noticed bandages were criss-crossed all along his upper torso, as well as covering the dome of his cranium.
"I feel like shit." Muttered Cloud, more to himself, then to the empty, simply furnished room in which he was placed where a steel chair, and an iron table were the only pieces of furniture. 'Such a contrast to the hotel in Nibelheim', Cloud thought before sliding out of the bed, only to stumble as soon his feet touched the floor.
Reaching over to the wall as he steadied himself, Cloud pulled off a single pale blue hospital dress robe from a small outcropping in the wall just beside the door, cut at the back so as to allow easy wear, and after a brief moments pause managed to place the robe around himself. Steadying himself against the wall once again, Cloud slowly began to hobble his way towards the large iron electronic door, which opened as soon as Cloud pressed a sequence of keys, the equivalent of those to his own Shinra HQ room, a code in which each person is issued with, to ensure security.
Looking around the eerie white walls, Cloud's immediate impression was of how unworldly clean the whole place looked, as if someone had gone over the entire complex with a batch of bleach, again and again, until all traces of human life had been scrubbed away. It was perhaps this that caused strife to dislike hospitals.
'So impersonal', Cloud thought, before moving onwards down the hall following the small signs above each section, which pointed to the front desk.
"Ah Cloud," an elderly women's voice spoke up from behind a small notepad computer, as Cloud neared the front desk, which much to Cloud's displeasure, was a resemblance of the inner corridors, spotlessly clean, with not one item out of place. "I can't say I'm exactly pleased to see you again, Mr strife, not after the sorry state I last saw you in after that little visit we had last month."
A small grin managed to creep its way onto Cloud's face 'leave it to Betty to add a joke in to lighten the mood of things' Cloud thought as he gazed upon the large frail women, dressed simply in a white lab coat covering a frilly yellow flowered dress.
"See now, isn't that better, less frowning…" She smiled wide, at Cloud's now less grim face. "Here to see Zackary?" Betty asked, looking down at her small clipboard as she did so, in which several pages of names were listed. "Hmm, twenty second floor, critical ward B, was just moved there a few hours ago… Poor thing" she added, more to herself then for Cloud's benefit.
"Thanks." Cloud replied, before shifting towards the elevator that would take him to the twenty second floor, in which his comrade and friend was still in a critical state, Betty smiled once more as he passed, before returning to her computer.
"One last thing," asked Cloud before entering the elevator, "any word of Sephiroth?"
Betty turned to face him, but the look of uncertainty that appeared on his face, gave Cloud all the insight into his query as he needed, Betty smiled once more.
"I'm sure his fine, dear, probably resting in Rocket town as we speak, its only been three days."
'Three days?' Thought Cloud in disbelief as he entered the elevator and pressed the floor key, he had been out for three days, and Sephiroth still hasn't returned.
The helicopter containing the squad of commando's hovered over the town of Nibelheim, which was still smouldering with fire, coupled with several loud roars that pierced the early night like those of a murderous beast.
The squad leader stood up, gazing around the small holding bay, where eleven of his men sat, each dressed in the same red commando uniform, consisting of full body armour, several small devices along each wrist, a large black sash bag, as well as a large greyish black ER-25 rifles, a prototype weapon, straight from the Shinra weapons facilities. Each was strapped around a soldier's shoulder, whilst their arms rested gently over both the trigger, and the base.
"All have your weapons loaded and ready?" He asked, in a metallic voice as he scanned around the other commandos. A positive murmur followed his query as each confirmed their readiness, nodding their T-shaped visored helmets as they did so.
Raising one fist in the air, the commander diagonally slashed his arm downwards. "Launch!" he ordered, before flinging himself over the side of the helicopter, a large thick rope trailing behind him, the rest of the squad joined him seconds later, each with their own support ropes attached to their bodies.
Each landed close knit in the centre of Nibelheim's city square, weapons poised at eye level as they landed. Flashlights darted from side to side, each already in their respective places in the formation, several beginning to cautiously creep ahead, their lights carefully scanning the area above, ahead, side to side and in front, whilst others took cover, setting up ground anti-tank heavy weapons. Whilst still more crept around the corners of the town, looking vigilantly for any sign of possible enemies.
"Any sign of General Sephiroth?" The commanding officer asked after several minutes of searching in the predicted vicinity of the battle.
A series of negative reports came through and shaking his head the commanding officer sighed. "Alright, we move in then, proceed with caution." He finished, then jogging slightly, he caught up with the lead search party, who by now, was just reaching the side gate of the Shinra mansion.
Scanning the area around the mansion quickly, the lead commando, raised one gloved fist in the air, and then pointed with two fingers towards the mansion.
Two soldiers darted forwards, pressing their back against the side of the mansion each on the other side of the large wooden door frame. One soldier slapped a stick of plastic onto the large sealed doors, then after waiting several seconds, the door exploded with a small bang and a not so equally small puff of smoke. With a simple nod by the soldier on the left, the right soldier burst through the now smoking entrance followed by a small smoke grenade from his partner on the left which filled the entrance to mansion with a small smoke screen cover, to allow safer access, should any unwanted beastie show itself. The soldier who burst through the door had his weapon moving from side to side, causing his flash light to dance over the charred furniture. Once the first entered the facility the second soldier too burst through straight after realising the grenade and much like his partner began sweeping the side walls in the opposite directions, each protecting the other from any possible threats.
"We found some," one of the two soldiers spoke into their helmets, "a women and child."
Ahead of the two, illuminated by both men's flashlights, a women, dressed in tattered, ash covered clothes that seemed to of been singed from the fires, was clutching a child in her bloodied arms, a boy, most likely no more then six or seven years old. The child was crying, sobbing into his mother's blood stained arms, as she cradled him whispering reassuring comments, despite the tears that too were forming in her own eyes.
"Oh thank god!" The women cried at last noticing the two commandos before her squinting slightly as she did so from the light that was invading her eyes, "I thought no one would come and rescue us!"
The first soldier looked at the second, as though they were sharing an inside joke, before he approached the women, then after clicking a small button on the side of his helmet, spoke out loud in a rough static like voice full of sadistic amusement as his weapon came to bare on the huddled couple. "Rescue? Hahahaha! This is an extermination!"
Outside the ShinRa mansion, three loud gunshots sounded forth from within as the extermination team carried out their orders.
"Clear"
Leaning against the sidewall of the spacious elevator, Cloud fidgeted nervously with his robe, wondering why Zack was moved, and how critical a condition he really was.
As the doors opened for the twenty second floor, Cloud gingerly stepped out, and once more followed the signs until he neared the Critical ward B.
Taking a deep breath, Cloud quickly pressed in his key number, which would grant him access to the room. After waiting for several seconds, for the code to clear itself, the door finally slowly slid open. Cloud quickly scanned the room in total bewilderment for what he saw, to the far walls, stood many different types of crude looking instruments and restraints, in which Cloud hoped he would never be on the receiving end of, as well as many different coloured vials of liquids, to the opposite wall stood numerous IV drips, and various pieces of unrecognisable medical equipment. The item in the centre of the room however caught Cloud's attention, suspended on top of the roof, a large metallic black, spider like machine, with just as many arms and legs, was crushing ice above Zack's unconscious form, layering the finished product down and around Zack's body, which, as Cloud peered closer, was aside from the nose and mouth, completely engulfed in crushed ice, which seemed to be melting at a rapid speed. Silver drains crisscrossed under the bed and around zacks form, the soft trickling of water could be heard as the ice melted from Zack's body from the burning side effects from the unidentified solution that Hojo had previously injected still radiated extreme heat from his body. To the far end, within the wall on the opposite side to the entrance, stood a large glass wall, where from behind three doctors one women and two men, each looking to be in their middle ages, and very well groomed were taking and taking notes as each huddled around various controls and computer monitors, that Cloud assumed where Zack's vitals.
Seeing Cloud enter, one of the doctors the only male, the head doctor Cloud assumed from the way he carried himself, walked over to Cloud through a small door next to the glass panel, his well polished heels seeming to echo along with the faint buzzing and crunching of the spider like ice machine, his expensive business shirt askew his fine blond hair a watered down mess, most likely from the stress of the days events.
"Ah Cloud" The man commended, as he reached Cloud, "Betty told me you were on your way up."
"Do I know you?" Cloud asked, his attention drifting between that of Zack and that of the doctor in front of him.
"No… I'm afraid you wouldn't, you always do seem to be rather unconscious, when ever I'm around you"
"Thomas?" Cloud asked, as that was the name of the Chief Doctor in charge of SOLDIER rehabilitation, and recovery after missions.
"Indeed" Thomas replied.
Relaxing a little at this news, Cloud once more turned his attention to Zack, understanding now, and trusting that what ever was happening to Zack wasn't just one of Hojo's sick little tests.
"No… I'm afraid it is" Thomas said, almost as if reading Cloud's thoughts, "Hojo used a rather… Experimental cocktail of his… Rather unsafe… Highly dangerous, wasn't until recently that I learned of this, too late however, to stop him from administering it… At least… Well at least Mr Fair, wont bleed to death, but the side effects…." The Doctor finished with a sigh and a shrug of his shoulders.
Confused Cloud looked over to Dr Thomas, "What do you mean? Side effects? How is this better then before, look at him, what's even happening to him?"
"When he came into the ward, from the helicopter, I'm sure you remember how bad a state he was in… Bleeding quite severely, it could very well be that Hojo's little experiment, saved his life…"
"That's good then, isn't it?" Cloud asked eagerly, even though he could tell, that what ever Hojo had done, it wasn't, after all, when had Hojo ever done something beneficial to anyone.
"No… No it wasn't. It's true that Hojo may have saved his life… But the side effects may very well kill him regardless… Everything's just one big experiment to him."
"What side effects?" Cloud asked once more.
"Intense raise in his body temperate, his wounds may have healed, but his body temperature has risen to that of six point five times that of even the highest possible allowed body temperature and that's within the range of a soldier, and not a normal human… Zack is in essence fighting for his life, the ice there, is our attempt at lowering his body temperature. But as you can see, for the moment we haven't had any great success..." But he continued, "At least this is something we can hope to control…"
"I see…" was all Cloud could mutter, as he stared intently at his friend, before after a beckoning wave from Thomas, followed the doctor into the back room, where he waited, hoping for his friends recovery.
The commando teams drop zone resembled that of a barricade, with the latest in ShinRa Anti-tank armour piecing weaponry being setup at strategic defence points. Whilst those securing the perimeter of the drop zone stayed behind, each routinely marching around the encirclement, vigorously scanning the walls, for any sign of life… Friendly or hostile, whilst two others had set up their armour piercing heavy weapons, which at the moment, although traditionally an anti-tank weapon, developed by ShinRa, when it was a weapons manufacturer, was now being employed as a defence against the thick scaly, armour like hides of the dragons, that reports had streamed in, from various sightings, of large packs of dragons, that now seemed to be controlling the mountains of Nibelheim. Although this was first and foremost, and extermination of witness unit, at the moment they were entrusted with not only exterminating all survivors, but as well as finding, and returning Sephiroth to ShinRa HQ.
"Roger that." The lead commando barked, as he pressed one hand against the side of his helmet, in which the build in microphone was implanted, "Heading out!"
Each of the six members of the first squad lead by Red unit one, turned their attention away from the ShinRa mansion, and focused on the track leading into the mountains, leaving the remainder of their team behind to guard their escape vector.
Waving his arm forward, the five members plus himself cautiously moved down the mountain trail, towards the second drop zone, in which the second team, blue team, had just confirmed the set up of the perimeter, after having just recently been dropped much the same as Red team.
Nearly thirty minutes had passed before the red team could see the unmistakable lights of the search party ahead, and pulling out a small red light, the commander clicked the light on and off twice, in rapid succession, giving the code, and awaited for the all clear, several second passed, before a blue light shone back, confirming their presence, and allowing safe entry into the encirclement.
A figure, dressed similar to that of red leader, approached the party; a large sash hanging from the blue unit armour, indicted that this was the blue leader.
"This is as far as we can go." Blue leader stated, shining his flash light around the camp, and towards the mountains in the far distance.
"That's absurd," Red leader commented, "Gold team should be dispatched near the reactor by now."
"Gold team's dead." The blue leader replied, his voice disturbingly calm, "The report came in a few moments ago, destroyed even before landing. The terrain here is crazy I lost three men from these mountains, before we even landed."
Shaking his head in disbelief, the red leader cursed silently to him-self.
"What now?" Red leader asked cautiously, "Proceed?"
"Correct!" A voice interrupted over their communication units, "Your mission, as mentioned is to eliminate all witnesses, return the general, and your new assignment… Is to retrieve that specimen inside the reactors core." A voice wheezed over the communications channel.
"Roger that professor." Both leaders replied to Hojo in unison, before issuing the new orders to their squads.
Unknown to the squads, of exactly how long they had been marching, Red team and Blue team marched, or rather crept their way expertly over the rugged terrain, full satellite composed state of the art mapping systems, were being employed, so as to not fall off track, yet despite this, at several points in the journey, the terrain became to difficult to pass, and alternate routes were blindly being chosen as their next route to the reactor.
"Disadvantages of using satellite generated maps, over human experience." Blue leader complained as the group came to yet another dead end. "We finally get one up there, and the info it sends back is completely useless…"
After several hours of walking and an innumerable amount of dead ends, the search party reached the reactors perimeter, only to their frustration, found the bridge to be completely destroyed..
Clicking his fingers together, and issuing a non verbal command, four soldiers of both the red and blue company aligned them selves along the sides of the cliff, each aiming their weapons to the opposite side, before each simultaneously squeezed the trigger, sending large iron coils with wicked looking spikes on the tips across the crevice, to lodge neatly, into the opposite wall, after each line was secure, the commandos, released their cartridges that held the iron like ropes, then re-attached, only facing the opposite direction, in which, after once more aiming, they fired another spike into the floors just below themselves, setting up a sturdy anchorage point.
At the completion of this, each soldier, one by one, lined up behind one of the ropes, then using the top of their weapons attached the base of their weapon to the ropes, and which a quick snap hiss each were sent sliding across the crevice to the opposite side wall much like the result from a flying fox, where each quickly resumed defensive positions, scanning the area for any survivors, and or hostile creatures.
Yet the only thing that greeting the search party was a single large wreckage of twisted iron, the golden team's helicopter was nowhere in site, having most likely of crashed in between the canyons rock faces.
Using their geographical satellite fed maps, the teams set explosives around the area in which the reactor had once stood, then after taking cover, each explosive was simultaneously detonated, causing a multiple loud thud sounds, as iron and dirt exploded outwards.
Converging around the now newly created hole, each member save two who stayed behind as rear guards, slowly lowered themselves to the ground below, weapons forever poised, ready to discharge any unwanted guests their flash lights flickered over the empty cold iron walls.
The inside of the rector, shone with an eerie, strange green glow, which seemed to hum in the silence. The actual reactor expanded for miles downwards, where the bottom was lost in that strange green glow. In the centre of the room, or rather in the centre of the area, a large pillion was positioned, in which every walkway was attached to, including the one in front of the squads.
"Proceed with caution." Red leader instructed, as he cautiously stepped onto the platform, his light still bouncing along each wall, as if expecting to see an enemy jump forth from the shadows.
His paranoia however, was unjustified, as each member reached the centre platform, without incident.
"Sure is creepy," one of the members from red unit commented, as he peered at the iron angel statue before them, complete with greyish steel wings, and an iron mask, several large cords, wires and tubes, ran from behind this creature, as though to keep the figure alive, or seemingly alive for that matter. "So… Desolate" He finished.
Behind the great angel, a large greenish glow hummed through a large tank, which may have been the reason, the soldier decided, that despite the angels looks… It just felt so evil…
"Move it!" Blue leader commanded, disconnecting a large blade from the right side of his ER-25, then after thumbing a small switch twice, the outer edge of the blade sprang to life, rotating around the main centre of the blade, much like that of a chain-saw. Several other loud grinding noises followed suite, followed by the unmistakable sounds of metal on metal, as each blade sliced through various portions of the angel without mercy. The tubes, the wirings, brownish grey oil soared through the air, as though this being was crying out in pain, or fear, till at last the commando's began slicing through the support structures. The creaking of over-weighted metal sounded, as though a large object were being supported by that of only a thread, and with one last chopping motion, the soldiers who were slicing the angel free, stood back, whilst the others, in blue team, supported the angel as it toppled as to not crush their allies.
Soon after the blue team too had latched a hold of the angel, and gently lowered it to the floor below, a small clang sounding, as the angel's body touched the cold floor below.
The soldiers turned to face the new object before them, a large cylindrical tank, filled with mako green liquids, small bubbles floated throughout, as a result from the various wirings and machines attached to the rear. Floating in the middle lifeless, a horrid twisted alien like creature was suspended motionless within the liquid.
Each of the soldiers standing watch lowered their weapons, as they stared at the alien creature before them, mouths hanging open beneath their full-faced helmets, each at a loss for words.
"Let's load it up!" Blue leader commanded after shaking away his wonder, as he reached behind himself, pulling out a small black case with silver outlining and golden clasps from his backpack, each of the other standing commando's repeated similar actions.
As blue leader opened the case, he removed several various pieces of tubing, and one rounded object, roughly seventy millimetres in diameter rising upwards by roughly another six centre metres bending inwards at the sides, much like that of a trapezoid. Several grooves were evident around the outsides, whilst the very top of the device was sealed. Gently easing the device the commando leader, much like those around him delicately placed the device on the metal flooring below. Once the cases were empty, each member unfastened several clasps, causing the casings to fall flat on the floor below. Once this was achieved, the clasps were then reconnected, causing the cases to be nothing more then large sheets of metal, roughly thirty centre meters each in length and breadth. Each case was then fastened to another, using various clasps that were outlined on the edges. Three cases were connected horizontally, whilst the reaming four were connected vertically, until finally a large sheet of interconnected panels of metal casings were held together roughly one metre, by one and a half metre in length. Finishing off, each soldier turned their small trapezoid like device over, gently cradling it in their gloved shaped hands. Then after punching in a small three digit code, placed the device on the top of the now large integrated sheet of metal that was the final product of the casings, one device, per square of the original cases. Linking a small wire throughout each, red leader, then ordered his group to turn the pad upside down, so as to expose the trapezoids to the floor below, following the order, the soldiers complied, holding the length above the flooring, Red leader then plugged the wire into a small device on his wrist, typed in another three digits code, and with a faint hum, and whine, the trapezoids started up, each pulsing air downwards, causing the pad to hover above the ground with no need for any to hold onto it. Grabbing the tubing, a carry frame and support frame was fitted, until at last the group had created their make shift hover pad.
This whole process took less then ninety-seven seconds.
"Gently now." Blue leader commanded, as the group slid to device to just gently touch the glass in which the alien floated motionless.
Reaching the side of the tank, Red leader opened a small panel in the wall, in which a zero to nine digit pad appeared, a loud snap hiss sounded after several codes were entered, and the large tank detached itself from the cables to gently lean forward.
Each of the commando's gripped a frame of the cylindrical tank, and with much effort, gently lowered the alien within the tank, on top of the hover pad, the trapezoid hover cylinders whined in protest but were silenced as Red leader increased the energy flow from his wrist device.
Once the tank was snugly fitted on top of the cart, the backside of the cart was fitted with some tubing, to enable for both easy guidance, and support. Completing the process, several small high strength wires, were crisscrossed above the tank, being tied into unbreakable knots around each supported by a piece of tubing.
Progressing forward towards the entry hole, the commandos steered the hover platform and its precious cargo towards the hole.
Upon reaching the hole, Blue leader fiddled with his control wristband, increasing power until the platform rose upwards, where the rear guards muscled it over the lip and back onto the ground. Quickly the remaining commandos climbed out of the reactor and reformed surrounding the hovering tank.
Approaching the canyon, four blue uniformed members immediately, dropped down to one knee, de-holstering their weapons, and gently attaching each to the wire, before using their firearms to soar across the valley, to land neatly on the adjacent side.
Detaching their weapons, the four men reached into a side pocket of their belt, producing forth a small bundle of thin, white wire, attached to a small mechanism, that would real the rope in and out, each rope was designed to be able to hold the two standard soldiers combined weight, including their equipment. Pulling several cord lengths free, each man cast the wire to the other side of the canyon, where the small hook on the end, attached itself to a small outcropping.
On the opposite side of the canyon four men picked up each wire, that the previous four had just caste towards them, then after tugging the wire for more length, each end was secured to the front of the platform in which the tank was occupying. This process of attachment was again repeated with four men from the side in which the tank occupied each of the people who held a rope that was attached to the container braced themselves. Four men gently guided the craft over to the ropes, and like those before them, removed their weapons, and attached them to the base of the cliff wires, where a small wire was wrapped around each, roughly fifteen centimetres apart expanding outwards, the craft, being eased by the four men with wires, lowered the craft nimbly onto the weapons tops, where the wire was then fixed to tie around the tops of the container. After the troops enabled the weapons the tank began to edge its way across the cliff, being supported by the four ropes wires from each soldier on each side of the canyon, and the small devices attached to each, the faint humming of the strain from the weapons that was bearing the cargo, filled the silent air.
The moment the tank crossed the canyon successfully, the soldiers were re-armed and reformed to guard around the alien pod.
Once all the commanders were out of the reactor core and passed the canyon, they began to retreat slowly back towards the blue teams drop zone in a perfect formation, four members were positioned moving on the sides of the tank, two per side, whilst two members scouted several metres ahead. Behind, two more soldiers took up the rear guard, defending against any possible threats, to the diagonal of each of the two guarding the tank, another soldier was moving, surveying anything that moved.
"Cover that up!" Blue leader instructed, noticing the distinctive eerie green glow that the tank was emitting and sensing the possible dangers that a beacon such as this would attract from its macro generated light, as he placed a small piece of clothe over one section of the tank, until at last after his allies too had completed this. The only sign of the glow now was from the minute cracks in between the clothing.
"Almost there group." Red leader pointed out, as they came within viewing distance of the flash lights from the blue squads drop zone team.
Fishing his red responder light from his hip, Red one flashed the light two times, and waited until the similar response from the blue teams light too flashed.
A large burst of static crossed over the intercom but was cut short before any reply or speech was given from either end.
"Move in!" Red commanded marching into the encampment, shaking away the static, as nothing more then some fool holding down their button.
"We're moving out!" Blue leader stated, as he walked through the perimeter, signalling the remaining three members who had set up their heavy anti-tank weapons, two facing forward, and one back, that were slave rigged to the soldiers own weapons.
"Roger that!" The three confirmed, and began packing up their anti-tank weapons, first removing the large spider like legs that supported the weapon, then the central support until finally they disassembled the actual tank rifle, packing each component gently into their cases.
"What!?!?!" President Shinra began hopping up and down in fury, as the initial expense report came through for the Nibelheim mission. Jabbing a small button on the intercom, he called to his secretary, demanding that Scarlet, head of weapons within Shinra, to immediately join him within his office. Sure enough, within minutes of his summons, Scarlet appeared before the president her slender arms were placed defiantly upon her black leather clad muscular legs, which ended down with an incredibly high-healed shoe.
With an exasperated sigh, Scarlet waited for the president to speak, running her slender crimson nail polished fingers through her long blond hair, that was both done up to the top, held together by numerous pins, as well as having two long strands reach down to cover sections of her face.
"Incompetence!" That's what you are! An incompetent fool!" Mr Shinra, was still jumping up and down, growing more and more to the resemblance of that a of a cherry with every passing minute, until finally he thrust the data pad in front of Scarlets crimson top, that seemed to only partially show what was beneath, as though she was flirting, in the way she dressed.
"You wanted the best, in the time frame you allowed." She answered simply, yet defiantly, leaning forward towards the president, revealing a vast amount of cleavage in the process. "And I delivered it," She smiled with her blood red, seductive lips "there is a reason we don't deploy special operations for all missions" She smiled, her blood red lips curling slightly, highlighting her make up covered features, giving the illusion of beauty, the presidents cheeks shone red ins response.
The presided spluttered, both at a loss for words, and seemingly distracted by scarlets obvious provocativeness that were now being concentrated squarely upon him, much to his delight.
"What about the Turks?"
"Most of the Turks are currently involved in the search for this terrorist group known as AVALANCHE" A small Kya-ha-ha chuckle sounded from Scarlet before she continued, "Besides… Why should we waste such precious resources as the Turks, when we have platoons of grunts to do that job for us. But," Another Kya-ha-ha chuckle sounded, exposing pearly white teeth, as she thought of the commando units, and their only true use for the company. "I shall see…" She finished.
Still hopping with rage however, the president turned back to his chair, however his face had unsurprisingly, returned to at least the shade of which it was prior to the incident.
"You may leave" The president grumbled after looking Scarlet over for a few minutes, pouring himself another glass of wine and hiccoughing slightly as Scarlet wiggled her behind, before leaving.
It was nearing six am, Midgarian standard time, before the group escorting the alien tank, came within viewing distance of the Nibelheim mansion. So far only a few minor incidents involving some weak scavenger creatures had occurred, and after twelve hours of constant vigilance, the group was beginning to show signs of fatigue, as not one dragon, had even showed its scaly hide to the group.
Fishing out his beacon, blue leader flashed twice and waited for a reply.
Several minutes passed, yet no return signal was given in return, blue leader flashed his light twice more; but again no reply was given.
Raising his hand into the air, red one tapped two fingers forward, followed by a sweeping motion, concluded by a clenched fist. Immediately the soldiers dropped back to their fighters stance, weapons poised ready to aim and shoot anything that moved. From each flank the party reformed to surround the alien tank in a tight circle, whilst the two leading members slowly sneaked forward hiding behind a small wall within the ShinRa mansion property, which gave full view to the city below.
"We're in trouble…" One of the soldiers muttered into his radio unit, as he stared down at the gruesome sight below.
A multitude of dragons roamed around the town of Nibelheim each varying in size and colour, some looking much the same as a Grand dragon, large, with giant horns producing from the jaw and forehead, a small simple spike completed the dragons look, forming on the tail. Glancing to left, another dragon roamed around, walking past the grand dragon, large, coloured ash with a blue under body with a triangle shaped cranium, small teeth producing from within, with a clubbing tail that seemed to hold a large bolder. And if these two kinds weren't enough, A third dragon group wandered around the villages far end, much the same as the ash coloured dragon, only this one was larger, and coloured blood red, with wicked looking claws extending from each of its legs.
Shaking their heads, the two soldiers each gave a report of what they saw, including the strewn bodies of several red commandos, ripped and shredded, some still being devoured by the beasts.
"Positions men!" Blue leader and Red leader ordered in unison, as though this situation was one they had dealt with countless times before, either in the mission package simulations, or in real life.
Complying, the soldiers crept towards the city, using partially destroyed buildings and walls as cover. In the lead was Red leader, while Blue leader remained behind to guard the tank with one other soldier, each kneeling down, weapons raised towards the city, should any monster break through the line that was their platoon.
Peering over his cover which was a large pile of destroyed bricks from a nearby house, Red leader raised his weapon, aiming downwards, whilst pressing a small button on his wrist, which once pressed, changed his view from that of night vision, to that of a targeting graph, where each monster below, was now covered by a small white and red circle.
Looking around Red command tapped the front of his viewing port, to ensure all of the platoon too had the scanning function on, each reported a positive with a similar tapping, and returned to peer down from their vantage points onto the unsuspecting dragons.
"Fire!" Red one instructed, pressing his secondary weapons function to load the armour piercing rounds.
From the mountains slope high above the city a semi circle of light erupted. Comets of blue and white plasma shot down the mountainside towards the dragons, leaving trails of atomic like rings behind which slowly faded after a few seconds. A burning streak of light slammed into the foremost dragon, effortlessly ripping through its scaly armoured hide. The dragons shrieked with pain as more blasts hit it, and with a tremendous thud the dragon collapsed, dead, steam rising off its destroyed body.
The remaining dragons quickly took flight, rearing their heads in side sweeping motions, looking for the attackers, while white streaks of energy continued to pour upon them, forcing them to separate and fly higher.
Another dropped, causing a sickening thud upon impacting the ground, and another, until at last, the beasts retaliated.
Torrents of flaming golden energy shot from each of the dragon's jaws, each breed using a variation of energy and power, as well as speed of their attacks, destroying the already shattered foundations in which the soldiers were seeking shelter.
An exchanging of energy was taking place, as the soldiers retreated backwards, expertly firing upwards, whilst the beasts rained a barrage of fire from above.
"We need reinforcements!" Red leader shouted over his microphone, to the helicopters that were, if nothing happened were waiting within the outskirts of rocket town, refuelling, as he stumbled over a dead body that was one his own comrades.
Grimacing within his helmet, red leader pulled forth a small rectangular grenade, then after tugging the pin loose, hurled the weapon into the air. Then using his tactical targeting system, took aim, and fired a volley of regular rounds towards the grenade.
As the bullets connected with the grenade, the container burst open, spilling invisible gasses in all directions, which seemed to only drift around within a small area. The commander stoped to take aim at the nearest dragon, which by now had seen the leader and was swooping downwards for the kill. A large flame of fire gushed from its mouth, causing a tremendous explosion as it passed through the atmosphere of released gasses.
Temporarily blinded, the dragon pulled back, flapping its giant blood red wings, but to no avail, as several large shells of energy shredded through its torso, causing the dragon, like so many of its brethren, to crash to the floor, defeated.
Nodding in satisfaction, Red leader continued his retreat back towards the ShinRa mansion, which by now Blue leader should have transported the cargo inside.
Upon hearing the urgent request by his co-commander, Blue leader immediately decided that the best corse of action was to first dump the cargo into a safe zone, and then return to aid his comrades on the battle front. The safe zone being the old ShinRa mansion, in which he knew, via the synopsis' of the building given in the mission briefing that there was indeed a large under ground library, sealed by a large heavy door, a perfect place to store the cargo, for easy recovery at a later date.
Issuing the order to his subordinate, Blue leader turned to push the cart towards the inside of the manor, just in time to notice a large snapping jaw aiming directly towards his and his subordinates bodies. Taking immediate action, both commandos rolled to opposite sides, bringing weapons to bear towards the vicinity of the target, before unleashing a volley of rounds that seemed to only flick off the scaly helmed head of the monster. This situation was amended however, as Blue leader quickly slapped the secondary weapon function enabling the armour piercing ammunition to load, then with one loud burst of energy, the dragon slumped to the floor, secreting a large pool of blood as it did so.
A snarling sound issued forth from the commanders left, as another, this time a grand dragon stomped towards them, snarling maliciously, drool and saliva oozing down its thick spiked jaw.
"Retreat…" Blue leader ordered softly, as he backed towards the mansion, slaying the grand dragon as he did so.
By the time both soldiers were at the main gates, large amounts of dragons had seemed to flock out of the shadows, creeping to surround the enemies, and although each soldier was firing off rounds, it soon became apparent to each, that their ammunition supply would be depleted long before the dragons would.
Rounding the corner of the slope, towards the mansion Red leader followed by the only three survivors sprinted their ways towards, what they hoped, would be the safety of the underground mansion. Coming into view of the mansion the red team came to an abrupt halt as their worst fears were confirmed. Directly in their path was a horde of dragons, their attention focused on blue team and the tank. Blue leader was desperately trying to get the cargo inside while his team fired repeatedly into the dragon mob, managing to keep the beasts at bay.
Noticing that the blue team was now using regular ammunition, instead of the armour piercing rounds, red leader reached into his pockets for yet another cylinder, which he proceeded to toss and ignite in the midst of the horde, causing each dragon around to roar in agony.
Seizing this opportunity, Red leader, and his men ploughed through the thick of the claws and fangs, to reach the cover of the mansion, where by now the blue team had successfully entered the door way, still firing franticly with regular ammunition, into the midst of the army of dragons.
A loud cry sounded through his com-link as one of his men were snatched into the air and devoured, by one of the dragons who by now was recovering from his gas grenade.
Finally reaching the inside of the mansion, Red leader took position alongside the inner door frame, accompanied by his remaining two subordinates on the other, each firing through the open entry way, holding the demons back at bay, until finally, each of the weapons clicked empty.
"Barricade the entry!", blue leader instructed, dragging a large empty wooden shelf roughly two metres high across the room to push it length ways across the opening. Complying the soldiers too barricaded the entry with anything, and everything they could find, whilst blue leader and his one remaining commando, fired small bursts of ammunition into the horde, whom thankfully was not firing off their own natural energy waves, instead merely growling and approaching cautiously, climbing over their fallen brothers as they did so, some gently nudging those already lifeless, as though to wake their mates from a deep slumber.
Once the barricade was completed, wordlessly as though all were thinking as one, each moved cautiously through the mansion, towards the under ground, the large tank still hovering between the remaining five men, after several minutes of prowling through the darkness, with only their now flickering dying torches to guide them.
Finally the men reached their goal, a large winding narrow stair way, in which they gently guided the tank fully down, until after several long minutes, they reached the floor below, only to have a large iron door standing in their way.
"Heh, well isn't this just…" One of the subordinates muttered out loud, ignoring protocol.
"It's the best we can do. We have the advantage point for the time being." Red leader interrupted, choosing to ignore the snide remark by Blue leaders only remaining subordinate. "It'll take them awhile to reach here we have some breathing room, use it!"
Nodding each soldier sat down along the wall, and upon the steps, emptying their backpacks as they did so.
"Anyone have spare ammo?" Red seven asked, casually glancing over the various piles of tools that now lay scattered in several small heaps.
"Negative." Each replied, checking their cartridges as they did so, to reveal each save for Blue one and three, who still had three shots.
"Use your electro blades," Red one instructed, pulling out his small blade, and checking the energy core to ensure the outer cutting function was still operational.
"Here." Blue one spoke up, handing a small handgun towards Red seven.
Graciously Red seven accepted, disregarding his own thoughts of how useless a hand gun of this magnitude would be, even if the monsters weren't layered like that of an armoured assault vehicle.
"It's useless." Blue one instructed, seeing how his troop was attempting to use his radio, "Under ground, the frequencies are jammed, where stuck here till we hope, our reinforcements arrive."
"Their here…", Red leader instructed his voice grim with resignation, pulling back the chamber of his tiny fire arm, before allowing it to slide back into place, as the loud thudding of footsteps caused the cavern to shake slightly, causing small pieces of dust to fall free from the walls and ceiling. Each man similarly cocked his weapons, whilst slowly rising to their feet, as if knowing, this was their last stand.
"Yo, guys, where almost there…" The pilot of the large military helicopter commented, as he turned back to face the occupants behind him, revealing a light skinned man, with unkempt red spiky hair, that seemed to end in un-kept pony tale, small goggles stood upon his forehead, as well did two tattoos or scares underneath his eyes, he wore a suite, hung open at the sides as well as un tucked, and servery creased, a small smirk covered his face, before turning back to the controls.
The twelve people in the back however, remained silent, each casting their gaze to the floor, each leaning a heavy transportable, anti-tank rifle against their shoulders. A large weapon, spaning one metre in length, as well as thirty centimetres in height, a large rectangular targeting scope was fixated along the top, giving a video feed image for the targeting system. Each member of the silver squad, like those in the blue, red and golden squad, were dressed in full armour, the only exception being, this group, due to the large weight of the assault weapons, did not carry any back packs, or any other tools aside from the basic armours and their main weapons.
Finally, one of the members stood up, a small insignia labelling him as the commander, "Listen up maggots!" he barked "This is a simple retrieval operation, we get the goods then we get out, simple!"
A murmur of agreement followed.
"And no fuck ups this time!" He barked, a series of locking sounds confirmed everyone understanding, as they each hoisted their heavy weapons, as each stood, taking a vantage point aiming outside the chopper, as they peered down upon the masses of swarming beasts that was waiting outside the Shinran mansion for their own turn to enter the complex.
"Fire!" The commando roared, unleashing the first shot him-self.
A rain of white death haloed from above, shattering through the dragons ranks in the morning light, as one after another volley of white light punctuated tire-sized holes through each dragon.
The dragons reacted almost instantly after the first wave of assaults, roaring upwards, they jumped to the sides, snapping upwards, as one after another, the commandos dropped from the chopper, landed, then sprinted their way into the mansion, where the homing devices of the Red and Blue units, were still showing visible signs of life.
"Go, go, go!" Silver one instructed, waving his hand to the basement, as several soldiers leapt past, moving quickly down the stairs, until finally reaching the lower steps, to come face to face the remaining four member's red and blue team, each holding their fire arms high aiming directly at the silver teams' heads.
Without pause however, the silver team swept past, to collect the pod in which the red and blue team had recovered, then without saying a word, ushered the tank upwards through the stairs, an escort of eight men, flanking the cargo, whilst the remainders of the red and blue team hobbled behind the flank.
Reaching the outside of the mansion, the group hustled the cargo into the centre of the den, firing at will, forcing the dragons back, almost like a lion tamer would use his whip to control the beasts.
Several large clasps were brought down, and quickly attached to the cargo, by the red and blue members. Slowly, the cargo swayed in the wind, as the tank was lifted towards the copter, the team, waiting for further ropes to detach to return to safety, clustered closer together, only to their horror, the chopper rose into the air, flying away, leaving their own soldiers behind…
Staring at the chopper as it soared away the soldiers; franticly fired into the mass of dragons, as if hoping upon hope that another chopper was on its way.
Yet even as they wished this, several dragons took flight, each opening their giant jaws, extending their wings, as if using their large wing spans to generate energy, before finally unleashing torrent upon torrents of energy onto the stranded soldiers.
This truly was an extermination of witnesses' mission.
"It's done." Scarlet announced, hanging up the GPS phone as she did so, as she was once again in the presidents office, this time seated upon the edge of the presidents office desk, directly in front of a blushing president.
"It's all taken care of then?" The president sighed, totalling the loss of the troops, whom in all honestly, held no real value to the company, aside from the loss of equipment.
"Excellent" A wheezing voice sounded from the shadows, "I can assure you, that the benefits of this, are far worth while…"
"Yes.. Yes… No doubt" the president mused, moving slightly closer to scarlet as he did so.
"Of course," Hojo continued, "If the funding for that piddling commando task force were to be disconnected… The SOLDIER program… May be enhanced…"
"More funding?" Scarlet asked, the shock causing her voice to quiver.
A crooked, vulture like smile, crossed Hojo's face, "These humans, they were nothing but clumps of meat wrapped in fancy equipment." A small chuckle sounded from his lips before continuing, "Giving me the funding, would increase the SOLDIER mako enhancement success rate exponentially, with no more need for these petty task forces, that could easily be handled by one platoon of second level SOLDIER's"
"Yes," mused the president, "that could indeed prove for more cost effective…"
"Mr president!" Scarlet intervened shouting as she did so, unable to maintain her composer any long; hurt by the loss of funds she was about to receive.
Peering into Scarlets cleavage the president responded "But no… Ms Scarlet here does deserve this too…" A small grin covered his face.
"The funding will be split, divided evenly amongst our new Robotics division and our SOLDIER course, discuss the terms with the board of directors… I have an interview with the Midgar news, about this terrible tragedy, that AVALANCHE has unleashed upon Nibelheim in an attempt to destroy one of our valuable mako reactors!" The president stifled a smile, chuckling slightly, which was joined by both Scarlets distinctive laugh and the professors quiet chuckling, before escorting both himself, Scarlet and Hojo from his office.
Wondering, as though in an exhausting trance, Sephiroth stared into the grassy horizon, noticing for the first time a small mountainous area. Before again placing one foot in front of another, his arm cradling his bare right shoulder and chest, which bore large claw marks. whilst his right arm hung limp at his side, his accelerated healing processes though, had clotted and already began to forcefully heal the wounds, causing a strange itching sensation, wherever the wounds were. It would however, take several weeks, before the wounds fully healed.
A strong breeze passed through the valley, causing his long silver hair to gently flap behind him as he stopped moving. Closing his eyes Sephiroth looked towards the sky, allowing the breeze to circulate past his wounded body. Several minutes passed, in which the breeze lightly touched his wounds, feeling like a soothing touch from an angel, before finally it ended, and Sephiroth was once again left alone to the cold itching that burned through his body.
For the last three days Sephiroth had fought his way across the rugged terrain of Nibelheim's mountains, and grassy, though strangely empty plains. Through waist high water he'd trudged, carefully choosing his footing in the swampy areas before finally spilling out onto the grassy fields of Cosmo Canyon. A gentle breeze brushed his skin, sending airborne pollen through his mattered hair and adding more dusting to his already putrid uniform. Not noticing the pollen, or the change of scenery, Sephiroth continued in a mindless daze, slowly placing one foot in front of the other as he staggered onward.
Another breeze passed through, this time with gentle grace, which seemed to flow through the valleys wild life, collecting stray particles of pollen and petals as it swooped upwards, circulating around Sephiroth before finally drifting into the unknown.
Again, Sephiroth trudged onwards, his feet slowly, placing one in front of the other, until becoming more of a habit, instead of a conscious decision, and as he walked.
Throwing his arm around Sephiroth's shoulder, Ezekiel raised his head and let out a full heartily laugh, at the expression of Sephiroth as he tasted the glass of Vodka.
Smiling even to himself, Sephiroth reached across the temporarily built bar, which was comprised mostly of a make shift tent, with a row of bamboo chairs in front, small tables acting as the bar.
"I think I'll stick to water." Sephiroth mused, glancing over at his slightly tanned friend, who like always, insisted on keeping his jet black hair up, and spiked forward, to cover partially the left side of his face, where he knew a large scar covered his eye. All the while taking a small glass from the portable fridge, and filling it with water from the make shift tap. "That's disgusting!"
"Awww you're no fun!" Another heartily laugh was let loose from Ezekiel, causing his unkempt military attire to ripple, as he pulled Sephiroth closer tussling his dark brown long hair gently as he did so, before allowing Sephiroth to return to his drink.
"Wow!" Look at the time, Ezekiel commented jumping upwards from the bar, and stretching as he did so.
"Common rookie!" He commented, slapping Sephiroth on the back of his black muscle ripped tank top, grinning like he always did.
'I'm not a rookie!" Sephiroth commented lightly, grinning at his veteran friend as he stood up, to stand a full head above Ezekiel. "I've been here a month" he added, as if to persuade his friend other wise.
"Haha! I've been here over a year! "Sides would you rather I call ya… 'Creepy eyes'?"
Shaking his head, Sephiroth followed his one and only friend to the command centre, which despite its name, was merely a large brown cloth spread between four large posts, where they each sat upon a small, make shift stool, waiting for the general to issue the mission.
Leaning his dust covered combat boots upon another stool, Ezekiel leaned back gently, rocking in his chair, waving a greeting at the other two on the other side of the clearing, who after several seconds, replied with a similar wave, and a full hearted smile.
"I'm gonna marry her someday, creepy eyes…" Ezekiel commented, at the lady one who smiled back, her short golden brown hair, falling an inch short of her dark green tank top, and dark green pants. "See the way she smiles at me… I can just tell.."
Not wanting to point out that she smiled like that to everyone, Sephiroth merely nodded in agreement, as such was their regular routine whenever she came past.
A quick tapping sound, like wood on wood, interrupted the conversations, directing all eyes forward, as the stern faced, red armoured general stood on the small erected podium, which was really just a small stool with a bench in front, but the meaning, none the less, was there.
The mission, Sephiroth learned, wasn't anything more then a small exploration deeper into the Wutain's land, a mission in which the four present, had completed countless times, within the month that Sephiroth had been present in the battle fronts of Wutai.
Once the general had finished, each stood to leave, giving a small salute before exiting the tent, and loading aboard the transport, which would take them to the outer limits of their own territory, where the mission would then initiate.
It was night fall by the time the quartet reached the outer layers of their perimeter, each side protected by a large murky yellow swamp, with various nameless plants, creeping their way, as if to escape, but only to reach mid way, before being trap. The around the swamp, was so thick that Sephiroth almost gagged, upon entering the zone, even after getting used to it however, it still smelled as though he were drinking soup with each breath.
"Oh man," whinged Ezekiel, dragging out each syllable as much as possible, "now they have us crawling through swamps… Such a drag!"
The disgusted looks upon both Clair, Ezekiel's 'soon to be wife' and Ray, Clair's companion, were the only responses that were given, to agree with Ezekiel's complaint.
"This really sucks!" Ezekiel complained again, both literally and adjectively, as he stepped into the swamp, feeling a slight sucking motion, as the swamp swallowed him down to his waist, a large sucking noise followed, as did three more, as Ray, Sephiroth and Clair each in turn stepped inwards.
"Yuk!" Clair muttered, as she edged her way deeper into the swamp, just behind Ray, whilst Ezekiel and Sephiroth were walking to the rear of her.
"It's not so bad, remember that shit that went down before we had before creepy eyes showed up? Down by the canyon, during that six week raining period… Damn"
"Don't even remind me!" Clair growled, raising an arm to build momentum to travel forward.
"What are we even doing here again?" Ezekiel demanded, although knowing full well why, the question more a sign of his disgust then of inquiry.
"Where here to see how far we can set our border out, there's been no known activity through these parts, and if we can claim the hills to the distance, we stand to gain a huge tactical advantage" Ray replied, perhaps missing the sarcasm in Ezekiel's voice.
"That… That can't be right…" Ray spoke up, several minutes later, his voice quivering slightly, a trembling hand reaching to clasp his own neck.
Before any could answer, Ray slumped forward face first into the slush of the murky swamp, instinctively Clair and Ezekiel reached under their clothing, producing small silver hand guns each, to bare towards to unknown threat, as they quickly scanned the distance, all the while moving cautiously towards Ray's now limp body, neither calling his name, both all too aware he was too late to be saved.
A small whirling sound began ringing in Sephiroth's ears," Clair! Move!" Sephiroth shouted, reaching his hands out as if to push her away, the sludge making it impossible to do so.
Clair seemed to look up to the sky, ignoring the shouts from behind, as though staring into the brilliant blue, before finally, with sickening grace, she collapsed backwards, her face still staring open eyed towards the distant blue, where she slowly sank, a small thin, iron dart producing from the corner of her throat.
"Clair!" Ezekiel cried out, as though it was he who had just died, instead of the women barely two feet away. Looking around but seeing no one, Ezekiel fired off a volley of shots aimlessly, in the direction in which he assumed the dart had come from.
"Ezekiel! Drop!" Sephiroth yelled out, once more hearing that faint whirling sound, as another dart sailed towards his friend, as he jumped forward, tackling Ezekiel in the process.
"No..." Tears ran down the sides of Sephiroth's grit covered face, as he stared into the dart that was now producing from the very edge of Ezekiel's collarbone. "Oh god... No!"
A tiny smile passed through Ezekiel's lips, as he gripped the back of Sephiroth's shoulder, "Such... Is... The way of life... Creepy ey" Gagging upwards Ezekiel's face turned expressionless, as his arm left Sephiroth's shoulder, sinking into the stillness, before his face too, slowly became consumed by the sickening swamp.
Releasing the back of Ezekiel's now lifeless body, Sephiroth raised both hands to his face, as he trembled and sobbed in horror at Ezekiel's lifeless form, his first true friend.
Screaming, Sephiroth's sobs turned into those of violent fums, as his fists clenched themselves together.
"I'm sorry kid..." A voice spoke up.
Still breathing heavily, between violent sobs and fumes of anger, his teeth clenched together, Seph turned to the threat, a young, dark long haired figure, wearing a drenched emerald green samurai vest, and armoured leggings, who was reaching into a side pocket, on his left leg, before bending his back across his chest.
"But an abomination like you simply cannot be allowed to exist further within this world." The voice spoke up once more, with deep hatred and obvious contempt, before flinging his arm forward.
Reacting instantly, more out of instinct then conscious though, Sephiroth backhanded his right fist through the murky water along a wide arc, all the whilst activating the aero materia he had embedded within his glove. A large wave of swamp water rocked forth, along the path of his hand, causing the dart to fall harmlessly into the water before crashing back down, causing the entire swamp to ripple from the after effects.
Once the wave had fallen, Sephiroth had seemed to vanish, the assassin quickly turned his head, franticly searching for the young abomination, producing a small Kodachi as he did so, raising it backhandedly across his chest as he did so, as if to guard from any possible threat.
A splashing noise from behind, caused the assassin to swivel his neck quickly behind himself, in time to see Sephiroth rise from the murk, his mattered hair flailing in all directions, his emerald green eyes burning with rage tears still falling, as his arms reached around to encircle the back of the assassins neck, then whilst panting heavily, as the muddy water drained from his face, Sephiroth twisted both his arms in separate directions, causing the assassins neck to snap in two.
Staring down at his own now empty hands, Sephiroth once more sobbed uncontrollably, for the first time witnessing, not only what it was like to have someone close die, but also... What it was like to take another's life...
Days later, when Sephiroth finally returned to the main camp, it was revealed to be a joint conspiracy as an attempt to end his life, by the Wutain's and... their gold.
Sighing Sephiroth shook his head with his hand, clearing away the memory of his past, as he slowly continued the trudge across the now barren landscape, as he entered the Cosmo border all the whilst wishing a glass of vodka was within his hands.
The silver spider like robotic machine continued to pave the crushed ice over zacks still partially heated body, whilst the doctors sat watching, recording any changes, as was Cloud.
"How's he doing doc?" Cloud asked, sheepishly, having barley slept a wink during the previous four days in which he had first entered the room where Zack still lay unconscious.
"Much better, since you last asked." A female nurse replied, patting Clouds hospital robe covered shoulder. "Why don't you get some sleep hun?" She asked, once more for the third time that hour.
"I'll be fine." Cloud responded nonchalantly, staring at Zacks still unconscious body.
"Suite yourself"
Struggling, Sephiroth climbed with painful fatigue over another pile of rocks, only to find him-self tumbling down the other side in a newly battered and bruised heap.
Sephiroth lay on his side, panting and parched, before struggling with weakened and dehydrated limbs, to climb back to his feet. With great pain he stumbled forward, swaying heavily as he did so before once again collapsing a few feet later.
"Cloud... That you man...?" A soft voice spoke up, causing Cloud to awaken, from where he had involuntarily fallen asleep in his chair besides Zacks 'bed'.
"Zack!" Cloud shouted, jumping upwards to stare down into his friends pale green eyes a wide green upon his face, "How you feel?" he added nervously, at a loss for anything else to say.
"Fucking freezing..." He replied an half hearted grin upon his lips.
Opening both eyes from their unwilling slumber, Sephiroth clambered to both knees, as he once more stared into the distance, expecting to see nothing but this abysmal land in which he had endured squinting his eyes, a small shape, like that of a tower could be made out. With renowned hope and desperation giving him the energy to travel once more, Sephiroth stumbled forward, making slow and painful progress towards the tower.
With every step he took, the tower grew larger and larger, closer and closer, his vision blurring with exhaustion. He desperately stumbled forward, until at last, he was at the foot of the city, unable to stand any longer he collapsed, his eyes slowly began to close, yet through the haze of his own near unconsciousness, the sight of a dozen people rushing towards his body, caused a small smile to appear, before he finally succumbed to unconsciousness.