Chapter IX- Shinra
The laboratory portion of this floor took up almost the entire eastern wing. It was a true testament to how much Shinra's presence in any pasttime could give it a nefarious glow. The steel walls had monitors built in, which were measuring the vital signs of a wolf-like creature in a large containment tube that stood above the rest of this area.
It had bright orange fur with a thick red mane. Tattoos and tribal signs were etched all over its body, the most notably being a deep black tattoo with the number XIII on it. It had one wild eye, it's left, which glared at Tifa with suspicious and rage. It's right eye had a deep scar, which looked fresh.
"This poor creature," Tifa sighed.
"Maybe that was the specimen that Hojo was talking about," Cloud observed.
Tifa jumped down from the observation deck. "I don't think so. While you two were gone he walked by and started talking to this guy here, but he also mentioned 'the other one'."
"Let's check out this area first before we head up," Cloud ordered.
Tifa walked over towards the tube again, and Barret went ahead to check out the rest of the area. Tifa began to fiddle with some controls, in an attempt to open the tube. Cloud, in the meantime, looked around the area where Tifa hid. There was a large containment area which was sealed off in thick steel, concrete and, as Cloud unwittingly found out, an electric forcefield.
"Damn it," Cloud cursed loudly as the electric shock knocked him back.
Tifa and Barret came running to his aid, but he didn't see them. His attention had shifted back to the source of his current pain, and his eyes became fixed on a placard above the door.
It read: JENOVA.
"JENOVA?" Cloud wondered.
"Cloud are you okay?" Cried Tifa.
"How in the world could they have brought it from Nibelheim?" Cloud gasped. His eyes were now fixed on a viewing portal that seemed to materialize from out of nowhere, as a metal blind was raised. He had the exasperated gaze of a man staring into the abyss of hell from whence sprung the source of his torment.
"Yo, spikey! How you doing?" Barret asked, lifting him up.
"That's... JENOVA. Why in the world would they bring it here?" Cloud asked.
Barret had heard enough. He had to bring his friend back down or else things were gonna get ugly. "Calm down, man. Pull yourself together, we still got a job to do."
Cloud nodded. "You're right. Aeris is probably upstairs. Let's move out."
The 68th floor was almost identical to the 67th, except the containment tube in this area was signifigantly larger. A large hole in the center of it indicated that the one below it could be used as a dumbwaiter for specimens. Cloud rushed up as he noticed Aeris, lying against the side of it.
"Aeris!" Cloud shouted, his instinct for stealth suddenly flung to the four winds.
"Stop them!" Shouted a raspy voice. Cloud looked up at the observation deck and saw Hojo standing in front of a control panel.
Suddenly an entire squad of soldiers lined up in front of the three trespassers. Barret glanced behind him and saw another squad behind them.
"Well, this is familiar," he cursed.
"Did you really think you would succeed?" Hojo asked. "When these squads were sent up to the Detention Floor and saw five knocked out SOLDIER members, did you expect them to just sit and wait?"
Cloud, Tifa and Barret huddled close together glancing around at their foes.
"How many can you take spikey?" Barret whispered.
"Probably seven or eight at the most. You?" Cloud asked.
"I can take down this whole side with my gunarm. With Tifa's help of course," Barret smiled.
"Yeah, I could probably do the same without your help," Tifa winked.
Suddenly the three broke rank and attacked the soldiers. Cloud cut through the first squad's unit commander with his blade, sent a flying right kick to the next in line and blocked two swords with his. Tifa grabbed two soldiers and threw them across the room. One hit his head on the elevator door and was knocked out cold, the other was not so fortunate as he hit the corner of a lab table, leaving a bloody gash along the back of his neck.
Barret opened fire and laughed as the Shinra rifle bullets whizzed past him. Loud explosions rang through the area as bullets collided with steel, smoke filled up the hallway and the electric hissing of the specimen containment tube's energy shield grew louder with each passing second. Finally, the smoke cleared and the soldiers all lay around the tube either unconcious or dead.
"Well, this is quite a scene," Hojo smiled. He pressed a button on the control panel and a loud whirring noise echoed from the floor beneath them. The hatch in the containment tube opened and the wolf-beast from the tube below rose in the elevator, his tailed raised in attack position. Aeris' eyes opened and suddenly she froze. She tried to get up, but her sweaty palms kept sliding against the glass.
"What are you doing?" Cloud shouted.
"Saving them," Hojo laughed. "They both belong to species which are nearing extinction."
"You're sick! Aeris is a human!" Tifa shouted.
"Barret, take down that shield!" Cloud ordered.
"You got it! Yo, get your head down in there!" Barret shouted.
Aeris ducked down and covered her head, and the beast seemed follow her movements, doing the same. Barret fired wildly at the tube, unloading round after round, the electric hizzing grew loud and a bright white light exploded as the shield and tube shattered.
"What are you doing?!" Hojo shouted.
The light faded away, and a streak of red shot up to the observation deck, tackling Hojo to the ground. Hojo's head hit the wall and he was knocked unconcious. The beast growled louly and then jumped back down to the ground floor where Cloud and the others were staring in amazement. The beast bowed in front of Aeris.
"I apologize for earlier. It was necessary to fool Hojo," the beast explained.
"It can talk?" Tifa asked.
The beast seemed offended by this remark. "I'll talk all you want later, miss."
"Um," Cloud seemed confused. It wasn't every day one ran into a talking wolf. "I'm sorry about all this. Do you have a name?"
The beast nodded. "Hojo has called me Red XIII, but it is a name that has absolutely no meaning to me. You can call me whatever you wish. I take it you have a plan to escape here?"
"Well yeah, sort of," Cloud replied. It was the truth, except in his plan he was escaping with one hostage, not two.
"Very well then. It would be foolhardy to move as a mass, we're sure to be noticed," Red pointed out.
"You kinda run that risk either way wolfy," came a voice from behind them.
Cloud turned to the elevator to see Reno and Rude walking in with a squad of SOLDIER members. These guys weren't pushovers either; all second and first class. Tseng walked in from the other direction with two Airbuster units.
"It must have been pretty exciting for you, did you have fun?" Tseng mocked.
The 70th Floor of the Shinra Building was the Office of the President. It was a massive open room with a wide window facing out onto sections 3 through 7 of Midgar. A massive pile of rubble stood now where once Sector 7's plate lay. Shinra stood at his desk, looking at the captured members of AVALANCHE and their two new comrades. Reno, Rude and Tseng escorted the handcuffed teammates.
"I must admit I am impressed with your ability to both evade and take down my soldiers," Shinra chuckled. "You were a member of SOLDIER, though, so I guess that's to be expected."
"What do you want with Aeris?" Cloud asked.
Shinra nodded. "Well it seems hardly necessary to say this now, but you must know that Aeris is not like the rest of you."
"She's an Ancient, what of it?" Tifa demanded.
Aeris bowed her head away from the rest as if she was embarassed. Shinra chuckled and walked around to the front of the desk.
"The Ancients, also known as the Cetra, were the forerunners of our society. They traveled long and hard trying to find a Promised Land," Shinra began.
"We've all heard the legend," Red grunted. "Get to the point."
Reno smashed Red's tail with his foot. Red hissed and then sat down lower.
"It's not a legend," Shinra said. "The Promised Land really does exist. We're hoping that Aeris will lead us to it."
"Why?" Cloud asked.
"According to the legend, the Promised Land is a land that is fertile with life and knowledge. And if the land is fertile," Shinra cajoled.
"Then there's gotta be Mako," Barret sighed. "You're goin' through all this just to earn a little more money?"
"Well, Midgar is getting a little old. We're planning on building a new city, Neo-Midgar on the Promised Land. After all, this old city is just falling apart," Shinra's grin sent Barret berserk. He back-kicked Rude, sending him flying back against a podium. He rushed up to Shinra and was about to tackle him, when Tseng jump-kicked him from behind, knocking him to the floor.
"You're lucky Shinra wants you alive," Tseng said. "Or you'd have a hole the size of my fist in your head."
"Take them away," Shinra laughed.
The Shinra Detention Area was exactly as Cloud had remembered it from his excursion there not an hour ago. The only difference was that he was viewing the doors from the opposite side. He shared a center cell with Tifa. He last saw Aeris being put in a solitary confinement cell next to theirs and Barret and Red being led to one just past theirs.
For a cell, the conditions weren't too bad. There was a monitor in each cell which was tuned into the Shinra Tower's own channel. Apparently the idea was the brainwash the prisoners with the same nonsense media that the citizens of Midgar ate up. There was only one bed, but Cloud didn't mind sleeping on the floor. Each cell was also outfitted with a dumbwaiter so that the doors never had to open. Cloud actually thought that, if escape was inevitable, this wouldn't be too bad a place to spend the rest of his days. Of course, he wasn't planning on sticking around.
One nice feature that Cloud noticed, was that pipes that led between the cells (perhaps to make their execution by gas more efficient when it happened), could be used as communication methods between the cells. He whispered into the pipe that led to Aeris's cell.
"Aeris. Are you okay?" Cloud asked.
"I'm doing just fine Cloud," came a sigh. "You worry about me too much you know that. If you hadn't sent me away from the fight I wouldn't have gotten captured in the first place and now because you guys try to save me you got captured yourself."
Cloud chuckled at Aeris's playful scorn. He had to believe it was a joke, because she was probably right.
"Aeris," began Tifa. "What was all that stuff about the Promised Land?"
Aeris sighed. "I don't really know. Ever since I was a kid, my mother... that is my real mother, told me all about a place that I would find. She told me that you wouldn't know it until you were there. That you would just get this feeling that this is the Promised Land, you know? Like this was the only place in the world that you ever wanted to be."
Cloud scratched his head. "That's a little complex for me."
Aeris laughed. "Yeah. I know what you mean."
Cloud closed his eyes. "Good night Aeris."
"Night, Cloud," Aeris replied.
Cloud awoke to the smell of blood. He heard a loud crash off in the distance, probably from the floor above. This was followed by a loud scream and several gunshots. His head turned to the door, which had been opened. The body of a SOLDIER lay in front of it, his uniform torn and his body ripped cleanly in half. His left hand held onto the key in the door, but his arm was nowhere near it.
"Tifa, get up!" Cloud shouted.
Tifa's eyes slowly raised. "What is it?"
"Something's happened, come on, get up!" Cloud explained.
Tifa glanced over at the door and gasped. She covered her mouth in horror and looked away. Cloud glanced out the door in both directions. Whatever had happened here, it seemed the coast was clear now. Cloud looked back at the Shinra monitor but he only saw a red glow as the screen said: EMERGENCY.
Cloud walked down to the locker where the party's weapons were stored. The hinge was broken and the second Cloud tried to open it, the door fell on him. Cloud pushed it off to the side and saw it land next to the body of another SOLDIER. By the look of the incision, he hadn't even seen his attacker before the blade was in his back.
Cloud grabbed his sword from the locker and placed it over his back. He then put the rounds for Barret's gunarm in his pocket (additionally pocketing two more rounds of submachine gun ammunition) and took Aeris's staff. He then lifted the cell door key from the guard who lay before him. He opened Aeris's cell and dropped her rod to the floor. Aeris awoke from the loud noise it made.
"What's going on?" Aeris asked.
"We've got trouble," Cloud said. "Get your staff and get ready to go. We're leaving."
Cloud then walked out and opened the door to the cell where Barret and Red were waiting. Red was already awake, but Barret was snoring loudly.
"What's going on?" Red asked.
"I'm not sure, but something bad just happened to Shinra and it's our ticket out," Cloud explained.
"You really don't know?" Red asked.
Cloud stood firm, but avoided direct eye contact. "I have a hunch, but I won't know anything until I see something."
"Very well then. Human!" Red shouted. Barret stumbled awake.
"What in the world?" Barret cursed. "What's goin' on?"
"Take your ammo and follow me," Cloud said, tossing Barret his clips. Cloud walked back out and saw Tifa picking up the submachine gun from the SOLDIER's corpse. He tossed her the extra clips he had procured from the locker. "You'll need these."
"Okay, which way are we heading?" Tifa asked.
"The elevators are all out of comission, and I don't feel comfortable with heading down 67 floors with some emergency going on," Cloud said. "We're going to head up to the helipad on the 70th floor and borrow a helicopter."
AVALANCHE made their way down the hallway. Red took the lead, insisting that his nose would allow them to avoid any trouble. At this point, Cloud was willing to trust him. They walked past the containment tube that had held JENOVA. It was burst open, and a trail of blood and sinew led up.
"The hell?" Barret cursed. "That thing broke out?"
"I don't think it broke out," Cloud said, his hands trembling. "Somebody released it. We have to move."
The party ran up the stairs to the 69th floor. This was the main executive floor, and it was littered in corpses. The two SIA's that Barret had seen earlier lay next to each other in a bloody heap, an entire squad of soldiers lay in formation as though the attacker had taken only a second to slay all of them. Cloud heard shouts from below them. He recognized the voice of Reno and Tseng, shouting orders at soldiers.
"About time those idiots showed up. But it's probably too late anyways," Cloud cursed. "We have to keep moving."
They headed into a sealed off area which was one large office combined with twin spiral staircases. A placard above the door read: The Office of the President. Cloud saw two assistants at two separate desks laying in a heap. There was a third, shuddering, hiding underneath her desk. She had short blonde hair and was wearing a white jacket and skirt.
"What happened here?" Cloud asked.
"Stay away!" She shrieked.
Cloud looked at her jacket. There was a golden sphere emblem on the right lapel. She was an SIA Agent; a Turk in training.
"What happened here! Answer me, damn it!" Cloud shouted.
She pulled out her gun and aimed it at Cloud's head. She stood up and faced Cloud. "If you bastards hadn't shown up... it's all your fault!" There were tears in her eyes.
Cloud grabbed the gun out of her hand and pointed it back at her. "Get a hold of yourself."
The woman put her hands on the back of her head and closed her eyes, expecting the shot. Cloud unloaded the clip into the cieling. The agent opened her eyes and looked at Cloud.
"You're not cut out to be a Turk. Give it up," he said. "You'd better get out of here before that thing comes back."
She glared at Cloud for a second and then ran out the door.
The Office of the President on the 70th Floor was now covered in blood. The President lay hunched over his desk, with a massive blade protruding from his back.
"This can't be..." Cloud cursed, holding his head with his hands.
"Shinra is dead," Barret said. "I don't know exactly what did it, but the deed is done."
Suddenly, Palmer jumped out from behind one of the pillars that supported the massive window. He ran towards the stairs, but Cloud caught him.
"What happened?" He asked as calmly as he could manage.
Palmer was sweating profusely, and looked like a large fish gasping for air. "Sephiroth was here. He said something about not letting Shinra have the Promised Land and then he... he killed the President!" Palmer began to sob loudly. Cloud let him go and he ran for the exit to the helipad on the right side of the office.
"So this Sephiroth is a good guy, huh?" Barret asked.
"No, you don't understand the whole story," Cloud said. "Barret, get Aeris and Tifa out of here."
"Out of the building?" Barret asked.
"No, out of Midgar. We need to get out of Shinra's reach. Take them downstairs. Obviously the helipad option is out now. You'll have to take the elevator to the first floor. When you get there run as fast as you can. Get out of the city," Cloud said.
Suddenly they heard a helicopter outside. They looked out the window to the helipad and saw a man in a white suit jump out. He had short blonde hair and was carrying a shotgun in his hands.
"Who's that? A member of SOLDIER?" Aeris asked.
"That's Rufus Shinra. The VP and son of Shinra," Barret said. "Damn it! I forgot about him."
Rufus walked into the office from the helipad and looked at the corpse of his father. His reaction was nothing more than mild surprise, as though he'd seen a fight break out in a crowded street corner.
"So it's true. The old man is dead," Rufus smiled. "That would make me the president of Shinra."
"You're only president cause your old man died!" Barret shouted.
Rufus shrugged it off. "Poor Dad. He tried to rule the world using money. It was a nice idea. Work at Shinra, get your pay, and if terrorists," he shot a glance Barret's way, "attack then the Shinra Army will help you out. But my reign will be much simpler. I'll control the world with fear."
"Look at that. The little boy likes to make speeches, just like his dad," Tifa mocked.
Rufus chuckled. "Aren't you amusing? This is a nice group of would-be heroes. An Ex-SOLDIER, a flower girl from the slums, a martial artist tomboy, a beast from Cosmo Canyon, and leading them would be the woefully misgudied father of a four-year old girl."
"You leave Marlene out of this," Barret ordered, raising his gunarm.
"Please. Unlike my dad, I wouldn't dream of hurting a child. I'll just ignore her, like her dad," Rufus grinned.
Cloud had heard enough and raised his sword. "Barret. Get them out. Red, please go with him."
Red nodded and lead the group down the stairs. Cloud now faced off against Rufus. Rufus applauded lightly. "I admire your willingness to sacrifice yourself for your teammates. You were once a member of SOLDIER. Couldn't you just forsake your little environmental streak and help me build a better Shinra?"
"Sorry. I can't let you or Sephiroth have the Promised Land," Cloud replied sternly.
Rufus sighed and raised his shotgun. "Pity. Then it seems we can't be friends."
Rufus fired a round at Cloud. Most of the shrapnel was blocked by his sword, but small shards hit Cloud in the leg and one got him just above the eye. Cloud ran at Rufus with his sword, but Rufus jumped back shot out the window and leapt out of the tower. Cloud ran over to the window, and saw Rufus catch onto a helicopter grappling hook. In the helicopter was Reno who began to fire at Cloud using the twin-mounted gatling guns. Cloud leapt behind Shinra's desk as the bullets traced his movements. The helicopter rose above them and Cloud ran downstairs to catch up with the others.
It had been one of the most tense elevator rides of Barret's life. As the numbers went down he was hoping that he would not be stopped by Shinra soldiers or whatever the hell had torn apart all those people. He did run into a mechanical menance of Shinra's which he made short work of, but other than that it was an uneventful ride by comparison to the rest of the tower raid.
They arrived on the first floor and were about to head out the front door when they saw an entire batallion of Shinra soldiers on the outside of the building.
"Damn it! I can't take on that many!" Barret cursed.
Suddenly he heard the sound of a motorcycle's engine coming from the stairwell behind him. Cloud appeared, riding one of the Shinra army's bikes. "Barret, over here!" He shouted pointing at a truck which had been brought in. "Borrow this!"
Tifa jumped in the drivers seat and Aeris took shotgun. Barret and Red sat in the back.
"So where we heading. Out through them?" Tifa asked.
"Nope. We're heading out the thrid floor window. It's a 50 meter drop from there to the main highway out of town," Cloud said. "Follow my lead!"
The two vehicles crashed out of the window and onto the street. Tifa kept up with Cloud as best as she could, but Cloud often found himself having to slow down the pace a bit to stick with her. Two other bikers came up behind Cloud. He smashed one off their bike with his sword and the other one started to pull back, but Barret took care of him with his gunarm. A few more bikers came by, but they weren't a real threat to Cloud. What he was concerned with was the massive rolling tank that was following behind them.
Cloud cut down another biker, and Barret took care of two others when suddenly bullets flew past Cloud and nearly hit the truck. It was Reno's helicopter trailing them from above. Cloud had to think quick. They were not going to outrun gatling gun bullets from a helicopter. Suddenly, the tank opened fire as well, launching a rocket towards the truck. Cloud sped up and got the missile to lock on to him. He then grabbed hold of a low passing bar, clutching the motorcycle with his legs. He spun around the bar letting go of the bike when he reached the top of his spin. The motorcycle smashed through the helicopter, which erupted in a massive explosion. Cloud saw Reno ejecting just a moment before the tank erupted. He landed a few yards away in a bloody heap. The helicopter landed in front of the tank, blocking its path. That's when the missile found its target, erupting all three machines in a massive fireball. Tifa turned back and picked up Cloud and they made their way to the end of the highway.
"No wonder you were in SOLDIER," Barret laughed.
The party rested underneath a small section of plate, just outside the city limits. Aeris treated Cloud's gunshot wounds and he began to speak.
"I'm going after Sephiroth. I don't expect any of you to come with me if you don't want to," Cloud said suddenly.
Aeris laughed. "You don't want us to get in any danger, huh? Well it'd be more dangerous to head back into Midgar and we can't exactly part our separate ways, now can we?"
"You say this Sephiroth is bad news, so we're going after him," Barret said.
Tifa walked up to Cloud. "I'm coming with you too, and that's final."
Cloud understood why Tifa would want to come. He was well aware that Sephiroth was an important influence in her life as well.
They looked at Red, their new comrade, with anticipation.
"I don't know what use I will be in your search, but I will travel with you until we reach my hometown as appreciation for rescuing me," Red nodded.
"Right. Well I guess this is goodbye to Midgar for a little while," Tifa sighed.
"Okay. Let's split up. Aeris and Red will come with me," Cloud said. "Tifa and Barret you two can handle yourselves right?"
Tifa smiled and nodded. "You bet. Where we meeting up at?"
"There's a dell a short distance northeast of here called Kalm Town. We'll meet there." Cloud ordered.