Before Crisis 2: The Crisis


CHAPTER 9 – THE SILVER-HAIRED SWORDSMAN

December 12th [ ν ] - εγλ 0007, 12:45 AM

After a busy evening at the Shinra Building, President Shinra had ordered the Turks to take on one last mission. Their mission was to find and arrest Don Corneo, a Shinra informant who resided in the Sector 6 slums. The President had declared him as a wanted man, believing that he'd told AVALANCHE about Shinra's plans to destroy Sector 7.

Don Corneo's mansion was located on the north side of Wall Market in the Sector 6 slums. Although it was quarter to one in the morning, Wall Market was packed of activity with young adults and slum drunks looking for trouble. The entire shopping center was unofficially ran by Don Corneo himself, the local crime lord who had successfully turned the market's atmosphere into one resembling a red-light district. The northeastern side of the district was spacious and empty, a perfect spot for Tseng and Rude to stall the helicopter.

At the front entrance of Corneo's mansion, there were two doormen waiting at a double-folding metal gate, the red building towering in the background. Wasting no time, Tseng and Rude hustled down the pathway towards the gate, prepared to confront the guards.

"Hello, gentlemen..." the man greeted in caution. He frowned when he noticed the Turk uniforms. "Uh-oh, Turks? What are you doing here?"

"We're looking for Don Corneo. Is he inside?" asked Tseng.

"Shit, um..." he mumbled, shaking his head. "No, no. He's not inside."

"Let us in," demanded Rude, cracking his knuckles and causing the guards to flinch. "Now."

"This is an emergency," added Tseng, impatiently.

"He's not inside! We swear!" the other man argued, a desperate look on his face.

Tseng sighed, unhappy with the response. "We're Shinra personnel here. If he's not inside, then where is he and what is he doing at one in the morning?"

"We... really don't know. He, uh, didn't say anything to us. We're just his lackeys, after all," he answered quickly. "Besides, even if the Don was inside, we can't let any men in! He's not into them! That's the policy..."

Sick of their nonsense, Rude and Tseng looked at each other for a few seconds. And in a sudden flash of movement, Rude proceeded to shove the first guard against the gate, while Tseng pulled out a pistol and pointed it at the second guard. Although both men were armed and had weapons of their own, they were no match for the Turks. "Where... is... Corneo?" Rude asked menacingly.

"Okay, okay! I'll tell you where he is!" the man cried out. "He's already fled the city! But I don't exactly know where... now please, please don't kill me! To prove it to you, we'll let you inside!"

"Why did he leave?"

"He didn't say! But I heard from our other guys that he wasn't happy about the intruders..."

"...Intruders?"

"I don't know!"

Tseng lowered his pistol. "Really, that's all we need to know, but..." he sighed, pausing mid-sentence. "Rude, we're going inside."

When the gate finally unlocked, Rude released his powerful hold on the weakling and followed Tseng to the front door of the mansion. Another doorman stood at the front, but after witnessing what had happened to his partners, he surrendered right away and opened the door. As a result, the Turks were let inside the mansion without further trouble.

"Anyone inside?" yelled Tseng as they walked in, immediately noticing the flashy decor in the area. The main hallway had its floor and staircase carpeted with a thick red wool, while its walls were decorated with paintings representing the Wutai Gods, Leviathan, Da-Chao, and other ancient symbols. Each of the rooms were labeled with letters of the Wutai language, and bright, red lanterns hung on top of the pillars that supported the structure of the mansion.

Although the lights were turned on in the main hallway, it didn't seem like there was anyone inside. "Hello?" Tseng shouted again as he climbed the staircase to the second floor, Rude following close behind.

Suddenly, a slim man came out of a room and stopped in front of Tseng. "Turks!" he squealed, immediately lowering his gun. "What do you need?"

"Corneo's not here?" queried Tseng.

"No sir, he's out of town," he replied with honesty. "Heard he wasn't happy about what happened today... but I don't know what happened. We had a dude come here earlier, but... I don't know, man. A bunch of our guys left with him, and now I'm here all alone."

"Show us his room," ordered Rude, clenching his fists.

"But sir, if we do..."

"This is an emergency," urged Tseng, again bothered by the man's stubbornness. "Or we'll drop you right now." As Don Corneo was allied with Shinra, his lackeys had no right to disrespect the Turks.

"...Okay, fine," he whined, pointing ahead at the massive throne door. "Over there. Should be open."

As they entered the room, Tseng and Rude were disturbed by a rather unpleasant odor. With no light in the room, the Turks turned on the lights on their uniforms as they walked past the Don's desk, a large folding screen behind it. Rude marched up to the screen and kicked it over, revealing the Don's narrow bedroom, his king-sized bed covering the entire space. As Rude searched the room for clues, Tseng examined the Don's computer on his desk.

"Chief," Rude called out, having found something. "All these photos on the wall... Corneo with his women, ranging from childlike to elderly. They're... his guests..." Although Rude had already known much about Corneo's lifestyle, his investigation only confirmed it: the Don was indeed an old, portly dictator who enjoyed the company of women, using lackeys to do the dirty work for him. "Do you think AVALANCHE..." the skinhead went on, but stopped when Tseng entered the bedroom.

"I might have found something myself," reported Tseng, stopping briefly to look at the photos. "...On his computer."

"Hmm..."

Tseng pointed to the computer screen ahead as he and Rude returned to the previous room. Somehow, the Turk had managed to gain access into Corneo's computer. Shown on the screen was a file window, portraying a list of photos downloaded onto the computer, indexed in date order. "All the photos in order," Tseng stated as he scrolled down the window to see the latest downloaded file.

"!?"

Taken at 3:32 PM on December 11, the photo on the screen revealed three dressed-up women, lined up and facing the camera. It took a second for the Turks to identify two of the women, much to their surprise...

"Holy crap," exclaimed Tseng, his eyes glued to the brunette woman in the red dress. "That's Aerith... on the left."

"Tifa on the right?" Rude pointed out; she was wearing blue.

"Is Corneo working for AVALANCHE?" Tseng wondered. "Or..."

Rude shrugged his shoulders. "The one in the middle..." he said boldly. "That's not a woman. That's Cloud."

Tseng's eyes lit up. "No way they came here to get help," he corrected himself. "Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa... these girls must be the intruders those lackeys mentioned. They came here to squeeze information out of Corneo."

"And that's why Corneo fled the city," added Rude. "He's guilty."

"Yes, that sounds about right," Tseng agreed as he moved the cursor over to Cloud: the swordsman had put on makeup with his hair tied into a pigtail, but the most fashionable attribute was the purple one-piece dress he was wearing.

As this photo was an excellent find, Tseng pulled out a thumb drive from his pocket and plugged it onto the computer. He then saved a copy of the file onto the thumb drive.

"So with Corneo gone, there's no point to continue this mission," muttered Tseng, looking at the time. It was 1:23 AM. "We should head back."

Rude nodded quietly as he wiped his sunglasses with a cloth. It had been a long day.

A brief silence ensued, only to be broken by the buzz of Tseng's PHS.

"This is Tseng speaking..." he answered hesitantly as Rude walked towards him.

"S-sir! We need your assistance!" a female voice cried out. "Shinra Building is under attack!"

"By who?" Tseng replied curiously, noting the unusually high noise level in the background. It sounded like people screaming and alarms going off.

"F-floor 67, there... t-there's a s-silver-haired man with a s-sword..." she explained nervously. "H-he could be one of our SOLDIERs, I don't know for sure! He appeared out of nowhere... and... and he's destroying everyone on sight! We're hiding in the washroom so he doesn't freakin' kill us... please, please for Gaia's sake help us! W-we don't, we don't know what to do!"

Tseng and Rude gasped - first AVALANCHE and now murders in the Shinra Building? "Oh no... the President... is he protected?" said Tseng. "All personnel in the Shinra Building must be notified immediately, and the army must be summoned to cease the attack!" he screamed as he followed Rude down the stairs to the exit. "Stay hidden. We'll be there as soon as possible!"

Unable to hear a response, Tseng hung up and proceeded to call Heidegger, with a feeling that he wouldn't answer. As tired as Tseng and Rude were, the emergency call from the poor lady had them wide awake and prepared for another battle, and perhaps the most important one yet. They had already left the mansion and were sprinting back to the helicopter.

A minute later, Tseng and Rude found themselves buckled in their seats, ready to return to the Shinra Building. It was that moment when another voice came over the radio, just as the helicopter started to ascend.

"Tseng! Rude! It's Reeve. Return to the Shinra Headquarters immediately. Sephiroth has returned and he's on a rampage."

"...SEPHIROTH!?" they shouted at the same time. What?! Sephiroth is alive?

"Yes, Sephiroth!" confirmed Reeve, his expression tense and wary. "Because Heidegger is sound asleep, I've taken his position and called up troops to combat Sephiroth, protect Shinra staff and most importantly, protect the President. "

"Nicely done," appreciated Tseng, trying to keep calm. But his leg was shaking wildly. "Oh, god..."

Rude nodded anxiously. "We're on the way."

Sephiroth... the once legendary SOLDIER and hero of the Shinra Electric Power Company... has returned.


A/N: He's back! The Turks weren't present during the massacre!