Time for the next shot, everybody. but first, just to clarify and murk the waters at the same time, I'm gonna give ya a hint of Sabbath's true nature.
She's a sadist, high as a kite, who has no idea why she knows things that haven't come to pass, and assumes she can see the future. By extension, she thinks Seras can do the same.
Seras, on the other hand, is most definitely not a precognitive. So... what's going on, you ask?
There. Chekhov's Gun primed, loaded and placed in the mantelpiece. Wait for the exciting events of the Inferno Crisis to strike so Sabbath and Seras come to terms with each other and finally understand who they are supposed to be. Now, on to the truly important part... feed Baal. Be nice and drop your reviews at the exit.
For all of ye, people. Own nothing... you know the drill.
Sabbath choked with laughter.
"You fear the cursed blessings of the Scarlet King, then? Wise."
She proceeded to flail her whiplike arm against the Creepers, which retreated, cowed by the obvious lunacy of Sabbath. In an unspoken tactic, they agreed to a plan of action, one of them slamming against Sabbath hard enough to stun her as the others fled. While it was a fine tactic in paper, there were several flaws that prevented its usage in practical combat. Or as Von Moltke would have put it, their plan did not survive contact with Sabbath. Wrapping the tentacle around the charging Creeper, she hoisted it into the air and lobbed it against another of its brethen. As both struggled to rise, the piercing end of the arm penetrated both of them, and proceeded to continue with the process of siphoning their lives away.
"Fools, aren't they? They haven't learned the harsh lesson of the true predator! To destroy without mercy, to attack without fear! To live without conscience, to exterminate without pity!"
Tseng, in the corner, furiously struggled to reload his shotgun. He and Tifa, forgotten, had the element of chance on their side. And he'd be damned if he believed Sabbath's words, the words of a deranged, diseased bloodmonger intent on strengthening herself. Whatever had happened to Seras Victoria was a monstrous act he would not allow to be repeated. With a final jerk, the huge gun was finally loaded. Assuming the normal firing stance, and taking full advantage of Sabbath's distraction, Tseng took aim and grumbled:
"Then this won't come as a surprise."
Before he could actually fire, however, the body of one of the Creepers was hurled against him. In pure defense, he shot several times. To say he was relieved when the huge beast fell to the ground several feet away from him and Tifa was a massive understatement. Hissing in pure wrath, he reloaded and aimed at Sabbath's face.
She only grinned.
"MOVE!"
Tseng barely comprehended Tifa had crashed into him, shoving them both out of the way. And as he ran, he understood the cause for Tifa's alarm.
His shots had weakened the pipe overhead, and the radioactive green glow of Mako started growing in rapidly extending spiderweb fractures.
Sabbath only shrugged as drips and globs of Mako fell on her and nearby and the pipe started cracking.
"Told you…"
Outside, two of the remaining Turks breathed anxiously, knowing their leader would not fall. All of them knew perfectly well the line would be held. It was more a question of whether he would still be alive when the enemies stopped popping in.
Elena, fretting, asked Rude:
"Where is Reno? He should be here! We have to go in and evacuate the survivors!"
Rude merely smiled gently and pointed with his thumb at a faraway point in the horizon.
"What?"
Rude merely reiterated the gesture.
"Oh. I get it. Is this his idea of support?"
Rude shrugged.
"Support is support. We defend and protect in Shinra's best interests."
And far, far away, but homing in quickly, Reno cackled maniacally. The best comparison he could come up was that of a middle-low class kid, been given the keys to the biggest toy store in the whole wide world, and told to go absolutely insane inside.
"We win. We always win, you little bastards. Ya wanna see a real weapon? Sure thing."
In another continent, Cid and Vincent drowned their sorrows in a nearly empty Costa del Sol bar, careful to note how much each had drunk. Suddenly, Vincent started fidgeting.
"Eh? What's yer problem now, ya red freak?"
"I have the most terrible feeling, and I'm not sure what it is..."
"Sit. Drink. Prolly just another headache waiting to happen."
Placing his elbows on the counter, he twiddled his fingers for a moment. He then took out his cell phone and played around with the Options menu until he found the number he was looking for. Knowing his call was probably expected anyway, he pressed Dial.
The receiver's ID read: "Reeve Tuesti".
He didn't get to speak with the man. Annoyed, he left and tried to use Cid's laptop to link to the WRO's transmissions in Edge.
And the Will screamed. The Second had been devoured as well.
"Enough of cloak and dagger and smoke and mirrors! Let Shinra know I won't be party to their games again!"
Howling with fury, the Third was given new instructions. Shinra was responsible for the deaths of Two. And the Third's responsibility was now to avenge them.
And in case he fell... there were safeguards in place. Let nobody claim the great General had become a mindless boar, charging head-on, believing all could be solved by brute force.
The pipe soon cracked open.
As soon as it happened, a pressurized gush of Mako covered Sabbath's body before safety valves shut the bursts of the liquid. Tseng, understanding of the horrific possibilities, again grasped the shotgun and opened fire three times against the madwoman's torso and head. The damaged body, unable to take more punishment, fell to the floor, lifeless again. Tseng, discarding the shotgun as he resignedly leaned on one of the walls, quipped:
"'bout time, too. I'm all out of ammo."
"...Tseng?"
Tifa's horror was very justified. Tseng groaned as the thick streams of Mako and impure, dead blood mixed together and flowed in a single, violently red stream back to the undead girl. The trickling rivulets forced themselves back upon the open wounds of the corpse, reforming the vandalized tissue in an instant and undoing all of Tseng's damage. The single part not to be recreated was the left arm, which again spouted a small fountain of a black ooze until the dark, oily substance was enough to reform in a parody of an inky, clawed arm.
And again, Seras Victoria opened her eyes and saw light.
And again, she cursed every deity she could think off the top of her head.
Trembling, still caked in the clear, sticky remains of the Mako, she managed to awkwardly rise and grab whatever was at hand in a mostly fruitless attempt to cover her nakedness. Sighing as she shielded herself from the light as much as she could, fighting back the tears of blood already dripping at the corners of her eyes, she sadly asked:
"...I assume I ended up killing people again?"
"Miss Victoria?"
"Yes."
"May I ask, what in the name of all Hells are you?"
Defeated, not even trying, Seras sat in one of the lobby's couches.
"It's hard to explain. But if you want the real, unencumbered truth, I'm just gonna go with this: I'm not something Nature ever intended to exist."
Tseng advanced, very, very slowly. Handing over his jacket, he sat down opposite to Seras.
"Do you currrently have the desire to harm or outright kill us?"
"No! I... I mean no harm."
The red tears were already streaming, and she found it too hard to stop.
"I... I only wanted to find my Master... nobody had to get hurt..."
Tseng, during the twenty-odd years he had served Shinra, had developed what he believed was a more than decent ability to judge people. And right now, the girl before him was crumbling, hard. There was no trace of the psychopath that had worn her form a few minutes earlier. She clasped the jacket harder and harder to her chest as her world unravelled. She had nothing to get a grip on, and she desperately clung to anything that could help her from a full-blown breakdown.
"If it helps, the only "human" casualty was a mass murderer. One of the worst."
"Eh? Another? Lord, I'm getting good at this, whether I want it or not..."
"Another? What do you mean with that?"
She heavily sighed. Observing around, she realized the strewn corpses of the Creepers nearby and the sealed exits meant only one thing: they were all trapped inside whatever place they were in. Smiling sadly, she managed to tighten the jacket somewhat snugly and laconically asked:
"You two up for a story? The full story?"
"We have the time."
Choking back tears with somewhat forced laughter, she slightly bowed.
"My name is Seras Victoria. I was once a normal police girl who just wanted to make a difference in my world. As human as any of you two. It all changed so fast..."
"Tell us. Was it Jenova that caused this?"
Seras briefly laughed, a true laughter that slightly dispelled the tension in the room.
"Jenova? Oh, dear God, no. Something very, very different. It's a disease, sure... Well, condition, disease, state of being... It's hard to classify. It's called vampirism."
The two incredulous stares she received convinced to elaborate.
Tseng only wanted to help. But if she kept talking and therefore giving valuable information, he wasn't going to complain.
Cloud again sighed when the huge airship approached Nibelheim. He swore it was the last time he was accepting missions from the WRO. He was already traumatized by the city more than enough and vowed not to return for a while. And certainly not alone. His woes, however, were somewhat allayed when he noted he was expected. Seeing Yuffie and Barret far away in the field where the airship landed, waiting for him, comforted him to a degree, knowing that at least he could get some comfort from both.
He was soon reunited with both. He exchanged greetings and was suitably surprised at Yuffie's decidedly unhealthy skin tone. He was then ushered to the local inn and prompted to have a drink. Once perfectly set in the rather bizarre situation, Barret grunted:
"Alright, Wutai. Time to spill. Tell Spiky all 'bout the... thing with Kadaj."
The thief, rather despondently, again repeated the full story, and fell silent at the end. Properly informed, Cloud remained silent for a minute.
"Okay. Quick question here. Did Kadaj look like he was trying to call Sephiroth?"
"That's what I thought first. Waving a bone on my face and then shoving it as hard as he could on his stomach."
Cloud fell silent.
"Penny for your thoughts, Spiky?"
Passing his hand through his hair, Cloud stared down his tumbler.
"It doesn't make sense. He acted like he was bringing back Sephiroth and instead he Summoned a monster, apparently fueling the whole deal with his own body. The being then runs away for no discernible explanation. I mean, something's very, very wrong. The very fact nobody got hurt proves it."
"What do ya mean, blondie?"
"I mean this. If Kadaj had sacrificed himself, it would be only because he apparently was ready to bring back Sephiroth. But instead, he called a very powerful monster, even worse than Bahamut SIN, and instead of laying waste to the whole of the city, just scampers and leaves without doing anything. To top it off, he fades from the radar and isn't seen since. What is his motivation? He isn't attacking, he isn't defending. Most worrisome, why would he sacrifice his body to call the monster when he can Summon huge monsters without trouble?"
All stood silent for a minute.
"All of this, takes us where?"
"Nowhere. It's all against everything we thought we knew about Kadaj. One, he is now still inside that monster, and just ready to strike at any outpost he wants. Two, he just isn't doing anything at all, which really doesn't sound like Kadaj at all. Three, why spare Nibelheim when Yuffie was weak, you were sleeping and the city was ill-defended?"
BZZT! BZZT!
"Sorry, it's mine. Hello?"
"Cloud?"
"Vincent? Where the hell are you?"
"In Costa del Sol. Cloud... I fear there's something horrible afoot... there was this young lady and..."
"Yes, I know. Blonde, blue eyes, claimed to be your adopted daughter?"
The other phone was silent for what seemed to be an eternity.
"Cloud? Did you, perchance, direct her to me?"
"I sent her to Nibelheim. I thought she might run into you here."
"You're in Nibelheim now?"
"You haven't heard? There was an incident with Kadaj and..."
"Yes, yes. But listen to me, Cloud, I believe that, while not my daughter, she has very good reasons to believe I'm her father."
"Meaning?"
"Let's just say her father and I are more alike you can imagine, okay? But that's not the point. She died, Cloud, without speaking to me, and her remains were sent to Shinra Edge HQ."
"Uh? Dead? Geez, Vince, I-I'm sorry... How did it happen?"
"...nevermind. Just now, I heard there's a massive disturbance in there. Bad enough to warrant the use of a piece of heavy artillery."
"Shit. Let me call Tifa."
"That's the point. Tifa's in lockdown along with Tseng inside the biohazard barriers. Red and Cait picked up Denzel and Marlene, both on the verge of freaking out, claiming they had seen Loz entering the building."
"WHAT?"
"On the more positive note, it seems the barriers were open and that both seemed to leave unharmed. I'm just hearing this through the WRO channel... Just let me adjust this thing..."
The cell on the other side fell with a dull clack.
"Vince? Vincent, you there?"
He was only greeted by more silence.
"Vince?"
A hand picked up the cell on Costa del Sol.
"Eh? Cloud?"
"Cid? Where's Vince?"
"Beats me. He was just here, lissening to the WRO transmissions on Edge, then freaks out and runs outta the room like a bat outta hell."
"What's going on? Can you hear anything?"
"Teef and the Turk are out. And it seems like somebody else is leaving, too. Handcuffed. Covered in a tarp thing. Civvies cleared... this stinks of classic Shinra mop-up operation..."
Outside the Edge Shinra base, Seras, covered in the largest piece of clothing she could find, marched obediently to wherever the Turks led her, content for the moment to obey to avoid any more conflict. Tseng silently ordered the others to lead her away before Reno arrived with his gung-ho antics. She was promptly loaded into a black convertible, which shot off in the general direction of Healen Lodge. Staring into the distance as the car got lost in the horizon, Tifa asked Tseng:
"What will happen to her?"
"Not sure. The eggheads won't touch her, I assure you. She showed me... us... too much in there. Incidentally, a bit of discretion is indicated on your side as well."
Tifa shot him a look.
"I'm not a motormouth. Right now, I'm more concerned about Marlene and Denzel. But if I hear she's being studied..."
"Please... she's allowing us to grace her with our hospitality, all the while graciously explaining her body to us, with the understanding we're nothing but gnats to her. Would you dare offend somebody while being in that position?"
"True... but... wouldn't it have been better... if she had told us all from the very start?"
"No. She's a security agent. Inexperienced, perhaps, but she understands that some knowledge is on a strictly need-to-know basis. Which I assume will be needed now she holds two Remnants captive within herself."
"And what are you going to do about the other woman? Sabbath?"
"Not going to force that issue. But I promise you this. Those prophecies are not going to be fulfilled. Not one of them."
"For all our sakes, so I hope..."
