Vincent:...
Hika-chan: Don't just stand there *pokes him* say it, I'm tired of doing it!
Vincent: *eyes HC oddly* FF7, the others and I do not belong to that SD thing over there *points to HC. thinks: "thank god, who knows what she'd do to us then!"* We belong to no one unless you count our creators at Squaresoft. *pulls out gun* That reminds me I'm gonna have a chat with them about creating Hojo. Excuse me.
HC: heheheh *sweatdrops* ^_^' anyway just a little warning Reno's got a real potty mouth this chapter!
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Beautiful Nightmare
An FF7 Fanfic by Hika-chan
Chapter 6: Return to Ruins
Vincent did not know why Elena had insisted on coming along, but in the end what could he do? Reno told him his fellow Turk said that if they came across any running computers or electronics she could help. Oh well another set of ears and eyes may come in handy with the situation they were going into. Midgar was more or less one giant junk heap. Some plant life ever so slowly growing towards and into it. The ground around it was like a scar burned deep black and hard from the constant draining of the planet's life there, though it had since ceased, the difference was barely visible. Beasts and monsters of all sorts had moved into the once great city. The native creatures of course were a given, but the disaster that was meteor drew in more creatures in it's aftermath. Scavengars came first, naturally, then there were small predators, those that ate the scavengars, then progressively larger and larger predators as time moved on.
Midgar was not the same thriving megalopolis it once was. True, it housed the same number of lifeforms it once had if not more, but now it literally was a metal jungle. Creatures of all shapes and sizes and hungers lurked there. And none of them were likely to be friendly. No, Midgar was not what it used to be, it was much much worse.
The two members of an all but disbanded AVALANCHE and two of the three remaining Turks had to climb onto and over a mound of rubble in order to climb onto the wall around the city. "So Reno, what exactly are we going to be looking for?" Yuffie asked.
"We're going to see if there's anything left of the computers in ShinRa tower. If there's nothing useful we'll have to dig for the hard copies."
"What are those?" the ninja asked, not all too familiar with computer terminology.
"It's ShinRa policy to print copies, hard copies, of the most important files in case something goes wrong with the hard drive or the network," Elena answered. "And since Hojo thought *everything* he did was important he backed up all his files."
"Ok then, there are those?"
"That's the part that's gonna be a bitch," Reno commented, "They're in sub-level 15. Seein' as everything fell down, it's probably under all that." The red head jumped to the ground, "Not to mention how much of a pain in the ass it's just gonna be to carry all that shit out of here."
Vincent stopped in his position at point, "I suggest that if you do not want to attract monsters, that you keep the talking to a minimum."
Reno rolled his eyes before muttering. "Well la-dee-fricking-da who died and put him in charge?" After about two hours and several battles they made it to the base of what once was the great Shinra Tower. Reno whistled looking up at the massive structure. "Damn, I surprised this much of it is still intact. Between Diamond WEAPON and Meteor you'd think the thing would fall over already."
"Well let's not curse our luck and check it out!" Yuffie said leading the way in. Her Conformer strapped to her back and a several shiruken in her hand she looked around the room through a large whole in the wall. "It's dark but it doesn't look like anything too big is living here." It was still daylight, but the inside of the room was nearly pitch black. She pulled a flashlight out and shined it into the dark room, only to be greeted by the sight of five sets of canine eyes. "Oh Shi-" Two jumped Yuffie before she could finish. She batted one of the wolf creatures away with a kick and the other's bite she blocked with the flashlight.
Reno charged his weapon and promptly zapped the first one to approach him. "I though you said there wasn't anything in there!"
"I said nothing big!" The ninja shouted back, punching her stalemate partner in the jaw. The wolf thing yelped as it fell back, giving her time to pull her Conformer out. "Eat it dog breath!"
Another one jumped Vincent, a split second before contact Vincent threw his claw up into the beast's gut, but it's momentum forced both to the floor. While he was down another tried to take advantage of Vincent's prone position, but it only caught a bullet in the skull for it's troubles. Elena was dodging and climbing away from her attacker before pulling a small grenade. A grin touched her lips as she pulled the pin. "Catch this fido." Not long after the explosion several more of the green wolves appeared but within five minutes all were dead.
Yuffie picked up her flashlight and shined it around in the room again. "All clear," she grinned.
Reno stepped up to her maintaining eye contact, a scowl on his face, "You know for some reason I really wanna hurt you."
Yuffie smiled sweetly at her friend's brother, "Now why would you wanna go and do a thing like that?"
"I could name a few reasons." Vincent muttered as he walked past them, causually wiping his claw of his kill's blood.
Both the Turk and the ninja shuddered, "Man even after all this time he's *still* creepy." The remainder of the party walked into the room, each pulling flashlights and searching the room.
"Hmm it's the third floor," Elena mused, "I guess the first two are burried under all the rubble outside."
"Is there a generator nearby?" Vincent asked.
"Yeah should be in the rear," Reno answered, heading towards one end of the room. He pushed rubble and bones out of his path with his feet and nightstick. He muttered and cursed as he moved more and more of the litter that decorated the room. "Damn this place is disgusting."
"Yeah," Elena muttered, "Reminds me of your place."
"Ha ha, very fukin' funny Elle. Remind me to smack you when I'm done with Fluffy over there."
"That's Yuffie!"
"Whatever Huffy."
Yuffie cast a glare in his direction before going back to look out duty. "Lousy stinking. -grumble grumble-"
"Here we are," he declared opening up a concealed door in the back of the room. "Now let's just see if we can get this mo-fo up an' runnin'. Yo, one o' you commere and hold a light for me." They heard him tinkering with it and a few small curses before he kicked it. "Ow! Fuck!"
"Maybe it needs a jump start." Yuffie mutter humorously.
Reno grabbed his night stick, "I'll jump start yo-... Hey not a bad idea." He turned on his weapon again as electricity crackled through the air. He took a second to find the right spot before jamming the end of it into the generator. There was a lound popping noise and the grinding and starting up of an old engine. A few seconds later the remaining lights flickered to life.
Vicent turned to the blonde Turk, "Elena can you access the computers from here?"
She cracked her knuckles and went to what appeared to be the least damaged computer unit. "Sure thing, I can hack into anything!" She looked at the computer, "Can you get me that monitor over there?" Vincent complied and with a little rewiring of rat chewed wires she fixed the working monitor into the good computer. "Hmm let's see. Hopefully the hardware connection hasn't been destroyed, other wise I can't access Hojo's computers."
Reno turned to her, "But this generator only powers the first through tenth floors, how can you access it if it's not on?"
"That is one of the beauties of being on a network like this. I can probably access anything, including other generators from here, assuming all the wiring is still intact." After a few minutes Elena had a schematic of the building up. They heard flocks of birds and other such creatures flutter around outside, surprised by the lights turning on so suddenly. "Looks like over half the building is disconnected from power, not just the computer systems... and Hojo's lab is... there!... Ok we got power...and as far as the computers...Oh shit."
"What?"
"It looks like there was some kind of electrical disturbance."
"What's that mean?"
"Well the data's effectively been scrambled, I can save it onto a disk, but there's no garuntee that the information will be in any way deciferable. I won't know what the hell we got until I can decrypt it all."
"Sooo... what're you saying?" Reno asked.
She looked at him and gestured hopelessly at the computer, "I can copy the information, but we should probably pick up the hard copies just in case."
"Fu~~ck!" Reno muttered.
"Look at the bright side," Yuffie retorted, "At least we didn't have to climb all the way up there to find that out."
Not one for wasting time Vinent spoke up, "How do we get down to the sublevels?"
"The entrance is hidden , there's a stairwell and an elevator leading down from the fourth floor. O' course I wouldn't trust the elevator right about now."
Yuffie was confused. "Why the fourth floor?"
Reno grinned, "Well you would expect that it be on the first wouldn't you?"
"Uh-huh..."
Reno looked at her though he just answered her question then turned to Elena. "How long is it gonna take to copy all that?"
"Already started... looks like it's gonna take about five more minutes on this CD then I gotta get the rest on another one, so I'd say ten minutes tops."
"Alright then, I guess we should keep an eye out while this is goin' on then... No tellin' if there're more of those wolf fucks out there."
"Damn Reno you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Reno glared at Yuffie, "My mother's dead remember?" He said as though it was common knowledge.
Yuffie resisted the urge to smack herself in the head. 'oops forgot he and Ralena are siblings, their parents are long gone.'
Vincent remianed silent the entire time. Trying to map out the best course of action in his mind. But his attempts were constantly interrupted with thoughts of Ralena back home with Sephiroth. Would she be ok? Was she ok right now? What if she had another attack? Both her and Sephiroth were at the house alone. No... No, they were fine, Ralena was too stubborn to let something like this get to her, especially so early on. She was fine and so was Sephiroth, they had afterall only been left alone for only.... four hours? A lot could happen in four hours.
"Done!" Elena said triumphantly, her loud cheer startling the silent Yuffie and Reno and jarring Vincent from his thoughts. The female Turk hit a few keys turning off the power on the upper levels.
"Can you get the power in the sublevels on?"
Elena shook her head. "No their on a completely different network. I'd have to get to the computers on SL-7 before I could."
"Alright then let's go."
***
It was only a few minutes before they stepped into an elevator on the fourth floor. "I thought you said we should take the stairs in this emergency," Yuffie muttered.
Reno cast her a quick glare, "Quiet smartass. I'm trying to remember the blasted code." He pushed three random floor buttons, pulled the emergency stop and then the "door open" button. They stood there a full minute and still nothing happened.
"Maybe I should tr-" Elena began before getting cut off by their ninja companion.
"I think you broke it."
"Would you just shut the fuck up!" He turned to the panel, "And why the hell aren't you working you decrepted piece of shit!" Frustrated the Turk kicked the wall beneath the panel, and without anyother warning the wall opened up behind them, opposite the door. "Ah there we go!" Reno smiled his former rage all but forgotten, that is until he saw the pile of rubble blocking the door to the sublevel stairwell. Reno blinked. "SUNNOVABITCH!"
Vincent held out a hand, as if to say "Don't worry I got this covered." He reached into a pouch on his belt and switched two materia. Chanting softly he cast a spell on the larger rocks. A brief glow came from his hand, that transferred over to the debris. For a moment it looked as though nothing happened then the pieces that had glowed lifted up from the ground. Without another word Vincent walked over, grabbed the floating debris with one hand and pushed it out of the way. Then he turned to the others. "Well?"
"Oh yeah Vinny!" Yuffie whooped jumping to his side to help, "Way to use float!"
Vincent tried to focus on removing the rubble instead on the horrid nickname Yuffie had called him by. Reno and Elena were soon beside him, now that the largest chunks of concrete had been removed it was easy digging. In less than five minutes they had enough room to open the door. Once again readying their flashlights the quartet went down into the darkness.
***
The generator was done, finished, kaput. He had been trying to repair the blasted thing for the last week. If he had not found more batteries for the flashlight he would not have been able to accomplish anything. But when it came down to it he simply did not know enough to repair the cursed machine. "I am f-u-c-t. Fucked," He muttered. A moment later he found himself laughing. When had he become so vulgar in speech? He used to be a very classy guys and her he was purposefully mispelling the f-word. "Well you've gone and done it know haven't you?" he said to himself. "You're either gonna starve or you're going go crazy and then die. See? Talkin' to yourself already, that's a baaaad sign."
Ex-president Rufus Shinra reached over to his shotgun and looked at. Not much ammo left, of course it's not like he used it much. Nothing down here was big enough or dangerous enough to warrant using such a weapon on it. Of course there was one practical use left for it.
***
"Oh god WHAT is that smell?" Elena asked. They were currently on SL- 5, they had been searching each floor, futilly trying to remember where the generators were, checking nearly every room.
"Death," was Vincent's reply. He opened a door and the same decaying smell he had named waifted out into the hall tenfold.
Yuffie came up beside him, one hand over her mouth the other shining the flashlight into the room. "Kami-sama..." The ninja sood paralyzed a moment by the scene before her. Finally she managed to turn away, face drained of nearly all color before rushing into the last room she checked to vomit away from the others.
Vincent walked into the room Reno not far behind him, "What the hell?" About the room, in various stages of decay were human bodies, crawling with rats and other vermin. Elena took one look into the room and turned around, not seeing as much as Yuffie so she was able to keep her lunch down.
"My god," the little blonde breathed, "They.. they were all trapped down here?"
"There must be fifty of them," Reno breathed, "how did they all die in here?"
"They didn't. This is a tomb." Vincent replied. "The bodies were brought in here, the door was not blocked, they were not trapped in here." He reached over, moving a skeleton off a box before looking inside. "They even tried to have some semblance of burial in here early on." He closed the box and was now very grateful that he had convinced Ralena to stay in Kalm. Whatever the people down here went through the empath would have had a direct link to it. There was no telling how something like that would effect her sometimes fragile psyche. "Let us leave them in peace." He said heading towards the door. "Reno?"
The Turk was crouched infront of a skeleton, it's skull slightly cracked. "We have to hurry." Vincent reiterated. Not saying a word Reno took hold of a small charm on a chain. The charm, a simple green gem cupped within a golden cage, the wires hugging against it's surface, had fallen between two of the skeleton's ribs. "Reno?" the dark man asked again. The Turk did not move.
Elena peaked her head into the room again, examining her comrade. "What is it Reno?" By now Yuffie had recovered and was also near the door.
His arms moved slightly removing the charm from the skeleton's neck. 'Grave robbing?' Vincent pondered, 'No he would not, there must be more.' Cupping the pendant dearly in his hand Reno's other hand lightly traced the cracks in the skull. "I... I told her," Reno whispered quietly, "I told her she was working to hard, that she should just take a break... She kept saying 'In a week.'... I finally got her down to 'tomorrow.' And she always meant tomorrow when she said it. Then diamond weapon came.. and I left... without her."
'Oh no.' Elena thought, 'Evelynne'
The solemn Turk kissed his finger tips and touched the center of the crack, the possible cause of her death. "See ya 'round Eveie." Reno stood and walked out past the others, his face somehow remaining in shadows the entire time. Yuffie offered a silent prayer for the poor souls down here as Vincent closed the door.
***
"Dammit!" Rufus all but threw the gun off to one side. "Why can I just do it!" he muttered angrily to himself. "Oh you know why.. why try an' deny it Ruf ol' boy. You survived this long, it's be damn pointless to have suffered as much as you have only to kill yourself now." He cast an evil glare at his gun, as though it was the gun's fault he was not dead right now. He shook his head and leaned back against the wall again. ".. fuck."
***
Nearly an hour later they were on SL-7 still searching for the cursed generator. Vincent had earlier mentioned that they probably had at least one more body to find. After all the last to die could not bring their own body to be with the others. "Is it in there?"
"Nope."
"God can you imagine? Being the last one left?" Yuffie asked the morbid question that had been in her head since Vincent had mentioned the unfortunate person. "I mean, to be all alone down here? Knowing everyone else was gone... what a sad existence."
"Quiet." Vincent said.
Yuffie looked at him rudely, "Oh come on like you of all people is bothered by that subject."
"No listen."
They stood in silence until Elena turned back to the others, "Humming?"
"You've GOT to be kidding me."
***
He sat there... in the dark.. alone... 'Lemme see what can I do to occupy my mind?'
"... can you imagine? Being the last one left?"
"Don't have to," he muttered.
"I mean, to be all alone down here?"
"No shit sherlock what else does 'being the last one' mean."
"-ing everyone else was gone."
"Oh goddammit I'm actually hearing things!" He put his hands over his ears and began humming. 'I'm not hearing things, I'm not hearing things. Talking to yourself is fine, but hearing shit is a whole other matter entirely.' The door opened and light pooled into the room and right into his eyes. "Ow Shit! Do you mind!?"
"Sir?" A female voice asked.
It took him a moment to register the light in his eyes. "Great, now I'm seeing things too! I shoulda just killed myself and got it over with."
The light was lowered from his face and he could hear someone approaching him. "Is that you sir?"
There was another light by the door, simply pointing toward the ground. Rufus stared at the tall figure and it's glowing red eyes that watched him. "Hey," he said, ignoring the petite female form before him, "You death?"
Vincent raised a brow, "No."
Another light entered the room, pointed in his general direction but still aimed low enough so as not to blind his slowly adjusting eyes. "Who is it Elena?"
Elena hesiantly reached up, burshing some of her stray ragged locks out of his eyes. The man simply stared at her as she did. "I think it's Rufus."
"You're shittin' me," The new male voice asked.
Rufus looked in the direction of the newest silouette before him. "Reno?"
"No. Fucking. WAY!" The red headed turk all but ran to the ragged man before him, staring at his now thin features. "Flip your hair."
"What?"
"Flip you're goddamn hair, then I'll know if it's really you." Rufus, to shocked to refuse did as the familiar voice bid him. "Holy shit man!" Reno hugged the man, the real physical contact dispelling any beliefs that this was an illusion. "I can't believe you're alive!"
"So whose the last man standing?" Yuffie asked walking into the room.
His eyes finally adjusted to the light Rufus looked up at the two figures by the door, able to make out their faces. He looked at the girl first, Wutaian, young, and the voice he had first heard before he started humming to himself. Then he looked to the tall man. Dark, tall, clad in red and black. "Wait a second.. you guys are from AVALANCHE!"
"Whoa whoa whoa, calm down there cappin'" Reno said. "Things are a bit different now."
He looked up to his long time friend, then to Elena. "How long have I been down here?"
The blonde swallowed, "It's been uhhh, it's been one year and eight months since meteor and Sephiroth were destroyed."
Rufus seemed to think about this for a total of two seconds before looking up at them again, "You got anything to eat?"
"I got a candy bar," Yuffie said digging into her bag.
Vincent cast a sideways glare at her, "I thought you packed real food."
Yuffie grinned, "Oh yeah I got some sanwhiches too. Whaddya want?"
"What kind of candy bar is it?"
She grinned, "A Chewy Gooey Crunch Munch bar."
"Gimme the candy bar."
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Kami-sama: Basically "God"
Hika-chan: Man I never thought I could write this much this fast. I'm like putting out a chapter every two of three days! this one came out in one day!! and the sllooowww rate this story is going I might reach that epic length story I have never managed to make before (10 chapters has proved to be my max so far). I mean I don't even have a clear villan yet!!
But I'm sad!! I've uploaded 5 chapters and I don't have a single review!! please R&R so I know poeple are reading!! I- huh? *looks over at Rufus*
Rufus: *walks up eating a candy bar* hey-crunch- can I -munch- have another one of these?
HC: *grins as she realizes she now has leverage* Sure thing babe. and we'll get you that haircut in a chapter or two.
Rufus: *grabs candy bar* Yeah... thanks...seeya... *wanders off to go eat*
Hika-chan: Don't just stand there *pokes him* say it, I'm tired of doing it!
Vincent: *eyes HC oddly* FF7, the others and I do not belong to that SD thing over there *points to HC. thinks: "thank god, who knows what she'd do to us then!"* We belong to no one unless you count our creators at Squaresoft. *pulls out gun* That reminds me I'm gonna have a chat with them about creating Hojo. Excuse me.
HC: heheheh *sweatdrops* ^_^' anyway just a little warning Reno's got a real potty mouth this chapter!
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Beautiful Nightmare
An FF7 Fanfic by Hika-chan
Chapter 6: Return to Ruins
Vincent did not know why Elena had insisted on coming along, but in the end what could he do? Reno told him his fellow Turk said that if they came across any running computers or electronics she could help. Oh well another set of ears and eyes may come in handy with the situation they were going into. Midgar was more or less one giant junk heap. Some plant life ever so slowly growing towards and into it. The ground around it was like a scar burned deep black and hard from the constant draining of the planet's life there, though it had since ceased, the difference was barely visible. Beasts and monsters of all sorts had moved into the once great city. The native creatures of course were a given, but the disaster that was meteor drew in more creatures in it's aftermath. Scavengars came first, naturally, then there were small predators, those that ate the scavengars, then progressively larger and larger predators as time moved on.
Midgar was not the same thriving megalopolis it once was. True, it housed the same number of lifeforms it once had if not more, but now it literally was a metal jungle. Creatures of all shapes and sizes and hungers lurked there. And none of them were likely to be friendly. No, Midgar was not what it used to be, it was much much worse.
The two members of an all but disbanded AVALANCHE and two of the three remaining Turks had to climb onto and over a mound of rubble in order to climb onto the wall around the city. "So Reno, what exactly are we going to be looking for?" Yuffie asked.
"We're going to see if there's anything left of the computers in ShinRa tower. If there's nothing useful we'll have to dig for the hard copies."
"What are those?" the ninja asked, not all too familiar with computer terminology.
"It's ShinRa policy to print copies, hard copies, of the most important files in case something goes wrong with the hard drive or the network," Elena answered. "And since Hojo thought *everything* he did was important he backed up all his files."
"Ok then, there are those?"
"That's the part that's gonna be a bitch," Reno commented, "They're in sub-level 15. Seein' as everything fell down, it's probably under all that." The red head jumped to the ground, "Not to mention how much of a pain in the ass it's just gonna be to carry all that shit out of here."
Vincent stopped in his position at point, "I suggest that if you do not want to attract monsters, that you keep the talking to a minimum."
Reno rolled his eyes before muttering. "Well la-dee-fricking-da who died and put him in charge?" After about two hours and several battles they made it to the base of what once was the great Shinra Tower. Reno whistled looking up at the massive structure. "Damn, I surprised this much of it is still intact. Between Diamond WEAPON and Meteor you'd think the thing would fall over already."
"Well let's not curse our luck and check it out!" Yuffie said leading the way in. Her Conformer strapped to her back and a several shiruken in her hand she looked around the room through a large whole in the wall. "It's dark but it doesn't look like anything too big is living here." It was still daylight, but the inside of the room was nearly pitch black. She pulled a flashlight out and shined it into the dark room, only to be greeted by the sight of five sets of canine eyes. "Oh Shi-" Two jumped Yuffie before she could finish. She batted one of the wolf creatures away with a kick and the other's bite she blocked with the flashlight.
Reno charged his weapon and promptly zapped the first one to approach him. "I though you said there wasn't anything in there!"
"I said nothing big!" The ninja shouted back, punching her stalemate partner in the jaw. The wolf thing yelped as it fell back, giving her time to pull her Conformer out. "Eat it dog breath!"
Another one jumped Vincent, a split second before contact Vincent threw his claw up into the beast's gut, but it's momentum forced both to the floor. While he was down another tried to take advantage of Vincent's prone position, but it only caught a bullet in the skull for it's troubles. Elena was dodging and climbing away from her attacker before pulling a small grenade. A grin touched her lips as she pulled the pin. "Catch this fido." Not long after the explosion several more of the green wolves appeared but within five minutes all were dead.
Yuffie picked up her flashlight and shined it around in the room again. "All clear," she grinned.
Reno stepped up to her maintaining eye contact, a scowl on his face, "You know for some reason I really wanna hurt you."
Yuffie smiled sweetly at her friend's brother, "Now why would you wanna go and do a thing like that?"
"I could name a few reasons." Vincent muttered as he walked past them, causually wiping his claw of his kill's blood.
Both the Turk and the ninja shuddered, "Man even after all this time he's *still* creepy." The remainder of the party walked into the room, each pulling flashlights and searching the room.
"Hmm it's the third floor," Elena mused, "I guess the first two are burried under all the rubble outside."
"Is there a generator nearby?" Vincent asked.
"Yeah should be in the rear," Reno answered, heading towards one end of the room. He pushed rubble and bones out of his path with his feet and nightstick. He muttered and cursed as he moved more and more of the litter that decorated the room. "Damn this place is disgusting."
"Yeah," Elena muttered, "Reminds me of your place."
"Ha ha, very fukin' funny Elle. Remind me to smack you when I'm done with Fluffy over there."
"That's Yuffie!"
"Whatever Huffy."
Yuffie cast a glare in his direction before going back to look out duty. "Lousy stinking. -grumble grumble-"
"Here we are," he declared opening up a concealed door in the back of the room. "Now let's just see if we can get this mo-fo up an' runnin'. Yo, one o' you commere and hold a light for me." They heard him tinkering with it and a few small curses before he kicked it. "Ow! Fuck!"
"Maybe it needs a jump start." Yuffie mutter humorously.
Reno grabbed his night stick, "I'll jump start yo-... Hey not a bad idea." He turned on his weapon again as electricity crackled through the air. He took a second to find the right spot before jamming the end of it into the generator. There was a lound popping noise and the grinding and starting up of an old engine. A few seconds later the remaining lights flickered to life.
Vicent turned to the blonde Turk, "Elena can you access the computers from here?"
She cracked her knuckles and went to what appeared to be the least damaged computer unit. "Sure thing, I can hack into anything!" She looked at the computer, "Can you get me that monitor over there?" Vincent complied and with a little rewiring of rat chewed wires she fixed the working monitor into the good computer. "Hmm let's see. Hopefully the hardware connection hasn't been destroyed, other wise I can't access Hojo's computers."
Reno turned to her, "But this generator only powers the first through tenth floors, how can you access it if it's not on?"
"That is one of the beauties of being on a network like this. I can probably access anything, including other generators from here, assuming all the wiring is still intact." After a few minutes Elena had a schematic of the building up. They heard flocks of birds and other such creatures flutter around outside, surprised by the lights turning on so suddenly. "Looks like over half the building is disconnected from power, not just the computer systems... and Hojo's lab is... there!... Ok we got power...and as far as the computers...Oh shit."
"What?"
"It looks like there was some kind of electrical disturbance."
"What's that mean?"
"Well the data's effectively been scrambled, I can save it onto a disk, but there's no garuntee that the information will be in any way deciferable. I won't know what the hell we got until I can decrypt it all."
"Sooo... what're you saying?" Reno asked.
She looked at him and gestured hopelessly at the computer, "I can copy the information, but we should probably pick up the hard copies just in case."
"Fu~~ck!" Reno muttered.
"Look at the bright side," Yuffie retorted, "At least we didn't have to climb all the way up there to find that out."
Not one for wasting time Vinent spoke up, "How do we get down to the sublevels?"
"The entrance is hidden , there's a stairwell and an elevator leading down from the fourth floor. O' course I wouldn't trust the elevator right about now."
Yuffie was confused. "Why the fourth floor?"
Reno grinned, "Well you would expect that it be on the first wouldn't you?"
"Uh-huh..."
Reno looked at her though he just answered her question then turned to Elena. "How long is it gonna take to copy all that?"
"Already started... looks like it's gonna take about five more minutes on this CD then I gotta get the rest on another one, so I'd say ten minutes tops."
"Alright then, I guess we should keep an eye out while this is goin' on then... No tellin' if there're more of those wolf fucks out there."
"Damn Reno you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Reno glared at Yuffie, "My mother's dead remember?" He said as though it was common knowledge.
Yuffie resisted the urge to smack herself in the head. 'oops forgot he and Ralena are siblings, their parents are long gone.'
Vincent remianed silent the entire time. Trying to map out the best course of action in his mind. But his attempts were constantly interrupted with thoughts of Ralena back home with Sephiroth. Would she be ok? Was she ok right now? What if she had another attack? Both her and Sephiroth were at the house alone. No... No, they were fine, Ralena was too stubborn to let something like this get to her, especially so early on. She was fine and so was Sephiroth, they had afterall only been left alone for only.... four hours? A lot could happen in four hours.
"Done!" Elena said triumphantly, her loud cheer startling the silent Yuffie and Reno and jarring Vincent from his thoughts. The female Turk hit a few keys turning off the power on the upper levels.
"Can you get the power in the sublevels on?"
Elena shook her head. "No their on a completely different network. I'd have to get to the computers on SL-7 before I could."
"Alright then let's go."
***
It was only a few minutes before they stepped into an elevator on the fourth floor. "I thought you said we should take the stairs in this emergency," Yuffie muttered.
Reno cast her a quick glare, "Quiet smartass. I'm trying to remember the blasted code." He pushed three random floor buttons, pulled the emergency stop and then the "door open" button. They stood there a full minute and still nothing happened.
"Maybe I should tr-" Elena began before getting cut off by their ninja companion.
"I think you broke it."
"Would you just shut the fuck up!" He turned to the panel, "And why the hell aren't you working you decrepted piece of shit!" Frustrated the Turk kicked the wall beneath the panel, and without anyother warning the wall opened up behind them, opposite the door. "Ah there we go!" Reno smiled his former rage all but forgotten, that is until he saw the pile of rubble blocking the door to the sublevel stairwell. Reno blinked. "SUNNOVABITCH!"
Vincent held out a hand, as if to say "Don't worry I got this covered." He reached into a pouch on his belt and switched two materia. Chanting softly he cast a spell on the larger rocks. A brief glow came from his hand, that transferred over to the debris. For a moment it looked as though nothing happened then the pieces that had glowed lifted up from the ground. Without another word Vincent walked over, grabbed the floating debris with one hand and pushed it out of the way. Then he turned to the others. "Well?"
"Oh yeah Vinny!" Yuffie whooped jumping to his side to help, "Way to use float!"
Vincent tried to focus on removing the rubble instead on the horrid nickname Yuffie had called him by. Reno and Elena were soon beside him, now that the largest chunks of concrete had been removed it was easy digging. In less than five minutes they had enough room to open the door. Once again readying their flashlights the quartet went down into the darkness.
***
The generator was done, finished, kaput. He had been trying to repair the blasted thing for the last week. If he had not found more batteries for the flashlight he would not have been able to accomplish anything. But when it came down to it he simply did not know enough to repair the cursed machine. "I am f-u-c-t. Fucked," He muttered. A moment later he found himself laughing. When had he become so vulgar in speech? He used to be a very classy guys and her he was purposefully mispelling the f-word. "Well you've gone and done it know haven't you?" he said to himself. "You're either gonna starve or you're going go crazy and then die. See? Talkin' to yourself already, that's a baaaad sign."
Ex-president Rufus Shinra reached over to his shotgun and looked at. Not much ammo left, of course it's not like he used it much. Nothing down here was big enough or dangerous enough to warrant using such a weapon on it. Of course there was one practical use left for it.
***
"Oh god WHAT is that smell?" Elena asked. They were currently on SL- 5, they had been searching each floor, futilly trying to remember where the generators were, checking nearly every room.
"Death," was Vincent's reply. He opened a door and the same decaying smell he had named waifted out into the hall tenfold.
Yuffie came up beside him, one hand over her mouth the other shining the flashlight into the room. "Kami-sama..." The ninja sood paralyzed a moment by the scene before her. Finally she managed to turn away, face drained of nearly all color before rushing into the last room she checked to vomit away from the others.
Vincent walked into the room Reno not far behind him, "What the hell?" About the room, in various stages of decay were human bodies, crawling with rats and other vermin. Elena took one look into the room and turned around, not seeing as much as Yuffie so she was able to keep her lunch down.
"My god," the little blonde breathed, "They.. they were all trapped down here?"
"There must be fifty of them," Reno breathed, "how did they all die in here?"
"They didn't. This is a tomb." Vincent replied. "The bodies were brought in here, the door was not blocked, they were not trapped in here." He reached over, moving a skeleton off a box before looking inside. "They even tried to have some semblance of burial in here early on." He closed the box and was now very grateful that he had convinced Ralena to stay in Kalm. Whatever the people down here went through the empath would have had a direct link to it. There was no telling how something like that would effect her sometimes fragile psyche. "Let us leave them in peace." He said heading towards the door. "Reno?"
The Turk was crouched infront of a skeleton, it's skull slightly cracked. "We have to hurry." Vincent reiterated. Not saying a word Reno took hold of a small charm on a chain. The charm, a simple green gem cupped within a golden cage, the wires hugging against it's surface, had fallen between two of the skeleton's ribs. "Reno?" the dark man asked again. The Turk did not move.
Elena peaked her head into the room again, examining her comrade. "What is it Reno?" By now Yuffie had recovered and was also near the door.
His arms moved slightly removing the charm from the skeleton's neck. 'Grave robbing?' Vincent pondered, 'No he would not, there must be more.' Cupping the pendant dearly in his hand Reno's other hand lightly traced the cracks in the skull. "I... I told her," Reno whispered quietly, "I told her she was working to hard, that she should just take a break... She kept saying 'In a week.'... I finally got her down to 'tomorrow.' And she always meant tomorrow when she said it. Then diamond weapon came.. and I left... without her."
'Oh no.' Elena thought, 'Evelynne'
The solemn Turk kissed his finger tips and touched the center of the crack, the possible cause of her death. "See ya 'round Eveie." Reno stood and walked out past the others, his face somehow remaining in shadows the entire time. Yuffie offered a silent prayer for the poor souls down here as Vincent closed the door.
***
"Dammit!" Rufus all but threw the gun off to one side. "Why can I just do it!" he muttered angrily to himself. "Oh you know why.. why try an' deny it Ruf ol' boy. You survived this long, it's be damn pointless to have suffered as much as you have only to kill yourself now." He cast an evil glare at his gun, as though it was the gun's fault he was not dead right now. He shook his head and leaned back against the wall again. ".. fuck."
***
Nearly an hour later they were on SL-7 still searching for the cursed generator. Vincent had earlier mentioned that they probably had at least one more body to find. After all the last to die could not bring their own body to be with the others. "Is it in there?"
"Nope."
"God can you imagine? Being the last one left?" Yuffie asked the morbid question that had been in her head since Vincent had mentioned the unfortunate person. "I mean, to be all alone down here? Knowing everyone else was gone... what a sad existence."
"Quiet." Vincent said.
Yuffie looked at him rudely, "Oh come on like you of all people is bothered by that subject."
"No listen."
They stood in silence until Elena turned back to the others, "Humming?"
"You've GOT to be kidding me."
***
He sat there... in the dark.. alone... 'Lemme see what can I do to occupy my mind?'
"... can you imagine? Being the last one left?"
"Don't have to," he muttered.
"I mean, to be all alone down here?"
"No shit sherlock what else does 'being the last one' mean."
"-ing everyone else was gone."
"Oh goddammit I'm actually hearing things!" He put his hands over his ears and began humming. 'I'm not hearing things, I'm not hearing things. Talking to yourself is fine, but hearing shit is a whole other matter entirely.' The door opened and light pooled into the room and right into his eyes. "Ow Shit! Do you mind!?"
"Sir?" A female voice asked.
It took him a moment to register the light in his eyes. "Great, now I'm seeing things too! I shoulda just killed myself and got it over with."
The light was lowered from his face and he could hear someone approaching him. "Is that you sir?"
There was another light by the door, simply pointing toward the ground. Rufus stared at the tall figure and it's glowing red eyes that watched him. "Hey," he said, ignoring the petite female form before him, "You death?"
Vincent raised a brow, "No."
Another light entered the room, pointed in his general direction but still aimed low enough so as not to blind his slowly adjusting eyes. "Who is it Elena?"
Elena hesiantly reached up, burshing some of her stray ragged locks out of his eyes. The man simply stared at her as she did. "I think it's Rufus."
"You're shittin' me," The new male voice asked.
Rufus looked in the direction of the newest silouette before him. "Reno?"
"No. Fucking. WAY!" The red headed turk all but ran to the ragged man before him, staring at his now thin features. "Flip your hair."
"What?"
"Flip you're goddamn hair, then I'll know if it's really you." Rufus, to shocked to refuse did as the familiar voice bid him. "Holy shit man!" Reno hugged the man, the real physical contact dispelling any beliefs that this was an illusion. "I can't believe you're alive!"
"So whose the last man standing?" Yuffie asked walking into the room.
His eyes finally adjusted to the light Rufus looked up at the two figures by the door, able to make out their faces. He looked at the girl first, Wutaian, young, and the voice he had first heard before he started humming to himself. Then he looked to the tall man. Dark, tall, clad in red and black. "Wait a second.. you guys are from AVALANCHE!"
"Whoa whoa whoa, calm down there cappin'" Reno said. "Things are a bit different now."
He looked up to his long time friend, then to Elena. "How long have I been down here?"
The blonde swallowed, "It's been uhhh, it's been one year and eight months since meteor and Sephiroth were destroyed."
Rufus seemed to think about this for a total of two seconds before looking up at them again, "You got anything to eat?"
"I got a candy bar," Yuffie said digging into her bag.
Vincent cast a sideways glare at her, "I thought you packed real food."
Yuffie grinned, "Oh yeah I got some sanwhiches too. Whaddya want?"
"What kind of candy bar is it?"
She grinned, "A Chewy Gooey Crunch Munch bar."
"Gimme the candy bar."
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Kami-sama: Basically "God"
Hika-chan: Man I never thought I could write this much this fast. I'm like putting out a chapter every two of three days! this one came out in one day!! and the sllooowww rate this story is going I might reach that epic length story I have never managed to make before (10 chapters has proved to be my max so far). I mean I don't even have a clear villan yet!!
But I'm sad!! I've uploaded 5 chapters and I don't have a single review!! please R&R so I know poeple are reading!! I- huh? *looks over at Rufus*
Rufus: *walks up eating a candy bar* hey-crunch- can I -munch- have another one of these?
HC: *grins as she realizes she now has leverage* Sure thing babe. and we'll get you that haircut in a chapter or two.
Rufus: *grabs candy bar* Yeah... thanks...seeya... *wanders off to go eat*