Edited 05/25/2012
Chapter Seven: Into the Monster's Den
"We ain't runnin' up them," Barret growled, searching for an end to the set of metal stairs. "Spiky, you out of your damn mind? I ain't no SOLDIER. I'm gunna die if I try doin' sumthin' stupid like climbin' these damn stairs."
Zack shook his hair wildly, spraying water on Barret's chest and arm, sending cold rain water dripping down his gun arm. "Sorry, Bossman, but we're going up those. If we cause a stir, all Holy is going to break loose."
When Barret remained silent, Zack answered himself, "It's a no then?."
"Have you ever ran up these?" Tifa asked, grabbing onto the railing, peering the same way Barret had moments before. Her hair swung in her face, the end of her ponytail hitting Barret like a wet whip.
"Yeah, I have climbed them. Used to do this constantly, once a week. Granted, I am a SOLDIER First-Class. Think you can keep up?"
Barret scoffed. "Yeah, Spiky. I can keep up wit' your pansy legs. I'm AVALANCHE, ya ass." On cue the man flexed the muscles in his two arms, the masses growing to the size of a child's head.
Zack looked condescendingly at him. "Uh, sure. Whatever you say, Bossman, especially when you were just complaining." He stretched his legs before taking in a deep breath. "Guess we better start now. Don't know how long Aeris and Cloud'll be here; better hope they don't send them to Junon."
Zack took off with the last word, his feet hitting the metal, boots squeaking. All he could feel was the adrenaline in his body working through his legs, pumping from his brain to his feet, pushing him forward with each step. There were few things that made him feel this. "Well, you said you could do this, didn't you?" he laughed loudly as he passed the first set of stairs in a streak of wind.
Fifty flights up, Zack remembered exactly why he hated training. His body was tingling with phantom pains. He almost felt like he would begin to sweat- something that didn't happen often with SOLDIERs. In fact, Zack thought, the only time he could remember getting completely sweaty was when he was having some form of sex.
Tifa and Barret were at least two floors down. He hadn't seen them for a good hour and he only hoped they hadn't suddenly dropped off the face of Gaia. All that kept him from turning away was the memory of two sets of bright eyes.
Cloud and Aeris were up there.
I need a gallon of water, Zack thought, licking his bottom lip. Dehydration was setting in and he hoped there would be some type of water fountain at the top. But if I'm feeling this way I have to wonder about them. They've got to be dying.
The thought wasn't pleasant. Saving Cloud and Aeris would take more than himself. Zack knew he was strong – stronger than most – but he couldn't do it alone. If, Gaia forbid, either Aeris or Cloud was badly hurt, Zack didn't know how he'd choose between them. With Barret and Tifa he knew he could get both.
So his feet continued to hit the floor, echoing loudly. The breath in his lungs went in and then left, the process repeating over and over again. The pores on Zack's skin opened, allowing a drizzle of sweat to slide down his back. The muscles in his legs twinged and he felt them stiffening up.
No wonder he fucking hated training.
Not much longer, Zack thought as he rounded the last corner, the door getting closer and closer. When he reached the last step his knees buckled and the man fell flat on his stomach into the steel. When he lowered his head it felt like a cool ice pack on his fire-hot skin. His throat was parched and his tongue felt like a limp piece of dried meat.
Barret and Tifa's feet padded up the final staircase twenty minutes later. Drenched in sweat, Barret was mumbling about his daughter – Zack could hear him repeating her name as a mantra. Tifa, on the other hand, looked furious, smashing her feet with excessive force into the stairs. "W–well," she spat out, falling down to the ground, "n–never ag–again." She gulped for more air. "Nuh uh," she mumbled, spreading her limbs out on the stairs.
"And you've done this 'fore?" Barret panted.
Zack attempted to nod his head, but his hair stuck to the ground. "Once a week."
"Outta yur fuckin' mind," came the black man's guttural reply. "Jus' need to rest fo' a lil' while."
Zack knew it was true, so he did not press to make them move. The first time he had conquered the Shinra Headquarter's stairs was right after being injected with Mako for the first time. A Second-Class had brought him and the other recruits up to tire their bodies. Mako gave an unhealthy amount of energy at once, so it was best to get rid of the excess.
Many hadn't made it to the halfway mark, but Zack, Zack had been able to surpass many of the SOLDIER Second-Classes. Their legs were more powerful but no one at that time had the same willpower as the sixteen-year-old grunt from Gongaga. Not long after, he was pushed up the ranks. By seventeen, Zack had mastered hundreds of others, earning the name SOLDIER First-Class.
"Jus' a few more." Barret took a couple of hulking breaths, wiping his head with his shoulder.
"Fine." Zack lifted his head up an inch before putting it back down. "Only because I can't move at the moment," the ex-SOLDIER added under his breath.
"There's gonna be guards after this point. I suggest you get your weapons ready, otherwise it's going to be a little hard protecting all of our asses." Zack unsheathed the Buster Sword, gripping the hilt with both his hands. The tip was still covered in blood, Zack noticed with distaste. The poor relic was in dire need of a wonderful scrubbing once they got out.
The violet-eyed man glanced over in both directions, making sure the others were ready before slowly opening the door. Bright light filtered in from overhead and Zack had to squint for a moment to see. There were four guards, he counted, only two brandishing weapons. Nearby, one of the red-clothed men was playing with a small rectangle of plastic.
Zack shut the door quietly. "So," he whispered, "there's a guard with a keycard. We're going to need one right now to get any further. I remember that this place ridiculous. You need to get the proper keycard to get up further. Used to have one that reached level sixty-eight, but they confiscated that when... well, it isn't that important. The fact remains. I don't have it anymore, so we're going to have to get another."
"We can just steal it from that guard and we're good?" Tifa voiced the plan. She nodded her head up and down. Zack noticed her brown eyes narrow, as if calculating something.
"Yep, that'd be it," he stated, looking between both Barret and Tifa. "Real simple. Told them to spend some money on fingerprint scanners, but noooooo," Zack exaggerated the word, pulling it along with him, "they just had to go and waste more money on a beach house in Costa del Sol. Shit if you ask me, but I guess it's a good thing they didn't." The black-haired man swung his head. "Doesn't matter though. We should start about... now!"
The door swung open, crashing into the wall on the other side. The guards looked up toward the group, the first one only having a second before he was swiftly dealt a slash to the stomach from Zack's blade. Blood poured from the cut as he fell to the floor.
Tifa took another guard down, pinning him successfully to the ground, but before she smacked his head against the ground he pushed down a button on his belt, causing the entire floor to light up in bright red light.
"Shit, backup!" Zack yelled as he sidestepped a bullet. Barret was shooting loudly, not noticing where he was pointing his gun and would have severely harmed the ex-SOLDIER if he had not had the common sense to move. "Quit shooting at everything!" Zack hollered before going after another guard.
As the last man fell from several bullet wounds riddling his chest, the lights still blinking red, the nearby elevator opened up, disposing nearly a dozen more guards armed with guns and from the glow of their hands, materia.
Zack didn't wait a moment to charge straight at the group of guards, but before he could advance much further than the first one he was hit in the chest with an ice spell. His skin turned to ice and the blood in his veins seemed to freeze. Intense, blinding pain engulfed him as Zack's heart froze inside of his body, the organ shutting down.
He was lucky. Tifa tackled the materia-wielder in the middle of a second spell, shattering two of his teeth that went shooting out of his mouth. As the ex-SOLDIER snapped from the spell, there was a bombardment of bullets whizzing past his body, one grazing the skin of his cheek. Blood spouted from the cut. Zack twisted the Buster Sword and impaled one of the closest men.
He shook the body off a second later, rounding on the next man. He had a thin blue shield encasing his body, a ball of green materia stowed in one hand, the other armed with a sword. He pointed the sword at Zack, who snorted.
"Just give up," he laughed, closing his eyes. When there was no response, Zack twisted his hands across the hilt, muttering a few incomprehensible words under his breath. In a flash of bright red light, Zack thrust his sword into the man and quickly pulled out, so quickly that it took a moment for a pool of blood to appear under his feet.
The guard fell back with a thud, squelching in his own blood. Zack broke from his trance, taking in a deep breath. He hadn't noticed how he held his own breath or how doing so made his spine tingle and his body shudder without explanation. Angeal had once called it the thrill of the kill. Even though the words disturbed him, Zack knew they were partially true. It was more the thrill of the fight and being able to allow all bonds to break apart in an instant. The thrill of... being a monster.
There was no one left alive. It took a moment for this fact to sink into Zack's brain, as not two minutes before there had been a handful of people swarming around, their red uniforms glaring in the false light. Now there were only shreds of clothing and blood as well as limbs scattered. The carnage reeked of salt and gunpowder.
"Well..." Zack took another deep breath, expelling it after a moment. "Can't say I don't feel bad. Didn't even have a chance."
One of the bodies on the floor took this as their opportunity to let out a hoarse half-scream. Barret, before even Zack had the time to move his head, shot another dozen rounds into the mutilated corpse. It fell back into the sea of blood.
"That was overdoing it." The ex-SOLDIER nudged the body with the toe of his boot. Glazed eyes stared back. "Yeah, way overdone."
Zack looked around for a moment, searching for Tifa. After a moment he noticed her crouching near the ground, one of her gloved hands searching the dead man's pocket. "Digging for gold?" he remarked at the pile of ever-growing objects.
Tifa snapped her head up and began to snarl. "I can't find the key." She made a jingling movement with her hand, pulling out a few pieces of blood-stained paper. "Damn," she swore, "nothing here either." The red-splotched papers were thrown to the ground in haste. "I did find some materia. One looked rather funny, so I thought it may help. It was from the guy with the blue shield. He dropped it after attacking you with it."
Zack caught the materia, the cold feeling returning, but only in his hands. "Mastered materia." There were few things so cold as mastered Ice materia.
"Wait, you got hit wit' mastered materia? Why ain't you dead?" Barret exclaimed in shock. He scratched his head, giving Zack a disgruntled look. "That ain't human."
Zack snorted. "Well, aren't you just the nicest guy," Zack threw the ball of materia up into the air before catching it once again, "I'm quite human. Are you human? I mean, you've got a gun grafted to your arm. Does that make you any less?" When there was no response he answered, "Nope. Not in the damn least."
"But I can't live through sumthin' like that!" came Barret's outraged reply.
"Think of it this way," the man bit his lip, pocketing the materia, "I've got a gun grafted into my arm too. We're turned into living weapons, and we both use these skills to save the people and things we care about. We aren't so different. I have mako and you have a gun-arm." Zack pointed his chin prominently to the steel. "And in all reality it's the same thing. Protection."
With these words, the ex-SOLDER kneeled down near one of the bodies and pulled a keycard from the half mangled pocket. He held the piece of plastic between his fingers. "Now that we have this, are you ready to get going?"
When the elevator doors pinged open, Zack ducked his head out, looking around to see if anyone was lurking near the glass elevator. There wasn't, he noticed after a moment of inspection. A woman was nearby, drumming her hand against a copy machine, the music issuing from the ear-buds so loud even Zack, though his enhanced hearing was to blame, could discern the sound of instruments and a choir of people singing in a high key.
"One chick to the right. Busy, but that doesn't mean she'll stand there and not turn around. Walk as quickly as you can without alerting anyone. Got it?" Zack turned, looking at his two companions. They nodded their heads, Barret a little more sullen than the woman.
It only took a few minutes for Zack to figure out exactly what level they were on, especially once he saw a man with a greasy mane of hair pulled back in a ponytail following a woman in a scarlet red dress into a large room with double doors. Zack swung his arm forward, stopping both Tifa and Barret. Tifa fell and landed on her backside, a muffled cry escaping her lips.
"Ehh," the ex-SOLDIER gritted his teeth, wincing. Shit, too loud! He's gonna hear me and find us and that isn't gonna be good, Zack thought for one panicked moment but the scientist was too quick. He turned around and looked straight at the three. There was a great intake of breath. Zack felt his heart beat out of his chest and splat on the ground.
At first glance, Hojo didn't look any different then he had a year before, but Zack had the uncomfortable feeling that if he could look directly into the man's eyes, more insanity would lie within. His hands folded behind his back, the old man twisted around for a moment, glaring at them from behind his glasses.
Zack snapped his eyes shut, placing faith in the child's belief that if he couldn't see anything no one could see him. Hojo's appearance informed Zack exactly who was behind Aeris's and Cloud's kidnapping.
There was a moment of stillness where both parties stopped breathing before the cruel scientist unfolded his hands and pushed his glasses up his nose. Spinning on his heel, he joined with the woman in the red dress – Zack assumed was Scarlet – and shut the door.
"Odin's ass, Zack," Tifa grunted as she pushed herself off the floor, wiping her hand across her forehead, "watch where you fling your arms-not everyone is a super SOLDIER."
A moment of silence passed between the three until Zack heard a low rumbling from behind the door. He ignored Tifa's comment. "That sounds like Heidegger's insane cackle," the ex-SOLDIER whispered, his mind running through various memories of the man who had a short fuse and a quick punch. The only people who had seemed exempt from the random smacks were the three SOLDIER First-Class Elites.
"But, why not?" Zack sat down on his knees in the middle of the room, looking around, confused. "I've even been at the mercy of Heidegger, but why not you?"
The black-haired man next to him sat comfortably in a chair, his hand running over the shimmering weapon in his lap. "Well, we taught him at an early age exactly what we could do. I would like to believe that the General, Genesis, and I were able to convince him of exactly what was proper and what was not."
"How'd you manage that?"
"I don't think you'd want to know."
Zack shook his head, the previous thoughts being pushed to the back of his mind. "Doesn't matter. We should try to listen in on them. There once was a good spy hole near the Turk offices, but since they moved it down to the fifty-third floor I don't know what's changed. It's northwest corner of this floor. Shouldn't be too hard to find."
As the three got closer to their goal, the worse it smelled. At first, Zack had thought nothing of it, but as they continued on and the stench grew overpowering as their feet trailed across the floor, the black-haired man knew exactly what Shinra had turned the Turk's small office into.
"Why are we going into a bathroom?" Tifa, Zack noticed, had her glove over her mouth and nose.
"This was where they had the Turk's office. I guess the complaints from the Heads made the old man put in bathrooms on this floor. Reno whined like a little bitch about having to go down a floor to take a leak." He held the door open, gesturing with his hands. "Ladies first."
It took a moment to situate the three in the rather small restroom, Zack having to squirm through to get past the other two. He placed his black boots on the porcelain bowl, reaching a hand into his pocket to pull out a pocket knife. There was a click as the blade swept out. Zack pushed it up into the grate, forceful.
"What you doin'?"
"Getting the grate loose. If you're just going to stand there and look like a moron, can you at least lock the door?" The popping reverberated against the walls. "Ah, there she goes." Metal slid into his hands and the black-haired man bent down, placing the grate of the floor, a deep contrast to the green floor tiles.
"Now that that's done, we get to climb up-"
Barret cut him off. "What you sayin'? I ain't gunna fit in there."
"Well," Zack started, clapping his hands before putting them up through the hole in the ceiling, "stay down here then. Don't hear what those Heads have to say. I mean, I guess you aren't the leader of AVALANCHE."
The burly man growled, a hoarse sound escalating from inside his throat.
Zack managed to pull his body up, reaching down after a second for Tifa's hand. "You comin' or should I just go?"
The brown-eyed woman reached up, putting her feet on the bowl. "You don't need to ask," she stated as Zack pulled her through the hole.
"Let's go," the ex-SOLDIER said, pointing his finger toward the dim light coming from a hole much like the others.
A sound finally came from Barret, who was cursing as he pushed his metal arm into the hole. "Ain't leavin' me." Another grunt or two later the overlarge man managed to get himself through with all of his limbs intact. Patiently, Zack waited for his comrade before he continued.
"How do you know about this place?" Tifa asked, crawling behind Zack.
He grunted for a second, pushing his body further with his elbows. His things banged on the metal. "Should have left this shit down there," the man said sarcastically before answering the woman, "and the reason I know of this place was because of who I hung around. Turks are too nosy for their own good. Got us into a few tight spots when I was still a grunt. Even had trouble when I became a SOLDIER."
They crawled through the ducts for a minute or so, slowly so their sounds were few and far between, until they were all situated around the second grate, the voices inside becoming louder and audible.
"But if we do that, there's a chance the people of Midgar will begin to hate Shinra even more and with that there's a higher chance of rebellion. Already sixteen people have been arrested for connections to AVALANCHE in the other Sectors. Sir, this isn't good!" the black-haired man, someone Zack vaguely remembered from his own time in Shinra, yelled, slamming his fist into the table.
The blond president scowled and rubbed at his mustache. "They will trust us more, Tuesti, for protecting them. You should know better by now. I thought we spoke of your feelings for the rats; I told you to crush them months ago. It is not in your favor to be so..." the man stopped, pointing his hand toward Scarlet, indicating she should complete the thought.
"Childish and naive?"
"Yes, Scarlet. Exactly. Now, onto more important subjects. Hojo, how are our specimens?"
The scientist stood, hunched over. "Specimen 'A' is being rather troublesome. Her menstrual cycle is complicated and will require further analysis. It would be wise for us to begin breeding as soon as the test results come in. Granted, there is the problem with the specimen being completely inferior to her own mother." Zack knew what the tightness in Hojo's voice meant. It was the same tone Zack had heard him use in the lab numerous times, mainly in reference to Cloud.
"And the other...?"
"Much, much more important than I had expected from the beginning. It seems as though the mutations are affecting his muscle and brain tissue. I have been experimenting on him for the better part of the day and already I've uncovered a treasure trove of information. Full test results are still on their way but I'm certain if I can harness this DNA we will have a super-weapon on our hands."
Zack gripped his hands together. They were speaking of Aeris and Cloud... Cloud, a superweapon? That wasn't possible...
"Will we be breeding these two specimens?"
Hojo snorted. "It would be best if we did not. The other specimen has already begun the process of readying. I believe that it would be best to wait until we see if science is ready for such a child that Specimen 'A' and 'C' would bear. We will stick to the original plan. Once the first offspring is born and more tests come back conclusive, we will mate these two, perhaps creating an offspring more powerful than even Sephiroth." Hojo cackled, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Normally," he began again, "I would be displeased with the one hundred years of researching the first offspring but with these new genes there will be a chance of reaching this 'Promised Land' you search for within two, perhaps three years."
"That sick bastard," Zack whispered, his joints contorting, stomach shriveling. "How could he? Cloud and Aeris, breed?"
Zack's mind filled with awful images of a child chained to a pool of mako, submersed, begging for freedom. His eyes were a bright mako blue, hair the color of chestnut. His blue veins lined his face and body, the sickly skin the color of paper. It was Holy's wrath all over again, the Mansion of Despair.
The man gagged. He had to shove his head to the ground, the cool steel on his skin, to keep the bile from rising, to ignore the acidic taste covering his tongue. When he lifted his head, he noticed the looks of absolute horror passing between the two AVALANCHE members. They hadn't noticed him. For that, Zack was glad.
The room had been vacated as Zack had been seeing flashes of a false child floating in green substance, screaming, crying, clawing for freedom.
It was going to be impossible for Zack to get up to the next floor without at least knocking someone out. Surprisingly, the chance arose the moment the three were able to squeeze themselves from the shaft above. Their victim was an lab tech in his late forties, hair already turning a thick peppery color, who had been knocking on the door for, as he claimed, nearly a half an hour.
When Zack opened the door, the man looked relieved before the backside of his Buster Sword smacked into his skull, rendering him unconscious before he even connected with the floor.
"That's going to hurt later." Zack stuck his hand into the man's pockets, searching for the keycard he knew would be in there. "Oh plastic, where in Gaia are you?"
"How do you even know he has a keycard?" Tifa asked wearily, looking at the man.
"Because every floor below this one has a bathroom, but none above. He's also got a lab coat on... hold on... here it is, pretty little thing." It wasn't really pretty, Zack knew, but it was going to get them up to the next floor without hurting anyone. Well, hurting someone worse than just a minor bump on the head.
"So, we goin' up?"
Zack rolled his eyes. "No, we're going downstairs to drink coffee. Yes, we're going up."
"No need ta be an ass."
Zack stood and turned the handle of the door. The floor was quiet and Zack smiled. Perhaps it wasn't going to be so hard to get Cloud and Aeris back from Shinra after all.
It was harder then he had expected, Zack had to admit. They had managed to get up to the sixty-seventh floor but something was in their way. It hadn't been a human, nor an animal, but Zack couldn't move his feet in any direction except toward the tank. He passed several boxes positioned the wrong way, much like they had been in the Mako reactor, but none of this concerned him. It was the bright green light emitting from the small glass piece that allowed him to see inside.
The thing was lacking a head. Then, after a moment, he felt as though all of his blood was pooling to one side, like a magnetic attraction had taken place between his blood and that of Jenova.
Oh, he remembered the monster, the headless spectre that was once a complete human locked in the ice of two thousand years ago. Sephiroth had called her his mother in the reactor, cutting her head off to keep her close to him. Brief flashes of light, a scream and then nothingness.
"Jenova?" Zack ran the pads of his fingertips over the glass in confusion. It was her body, its body, but the blue skin wasn't right. It couldn't be real, could it?
There was a sudden scream, a hoarse yell that shook Zack's core. He twisted his head to the side, seeing a container filled with thin gas, a body pounding into the glass repeatedly. The screeching came from the boy's mouth, his bloodied arms smashing against the clear surface, smearing red liquid across the barrier. The boy inside had the look of feral monster, the whites of his eyes blood-shot, the blue standing out vividly.
It wasn't the way he was supposed to look. He was just a kid, a boy who looked no older than sixteen with the mentality of a teenager. He wasn't meant to be a monster... but his eyes, so wide, sent a tingle of fear down Zack's spine. Violet met sky blue. There was little but craziness in hi's eyes, horror and confusion in Zack's own.
"Cloud!" Tifa yelled, running past the other two, nearly tripping over a box in her hurry.
While she was running forward, her hands punching at the glass to release the blond, his eyes stayed locked with the ex-SOLDIER. Something broke in Cloud's eyes, and Zack dropped to his knees. There was a moment of realization for Zack during which the taste of bile rose once again in his throat.
It was the same. The monster in the tank so long ago, the Jenova pieces heremembered-it looked exactly the same.
Cloud's eyes flashed green.
Before Zack had the chance to reach the glass, the elevator inside was moving, raising the floor underneath Cloud. His face hadn't changed but he had begun to dig his nails into the glass, scratching for freedom. Blood dribbled out of his mouth as he let out a hoarse yell.
"Shit!" Zack banged his fist on the glass still coated with the blood of his comrade. The next floor was the scientific labs. How long would Hojo torture Cloud before Zack was able to get to them? Quickly, he scanned the room, searching for a way up.
"An elevator!" Tifa yelled, her feet already moving toward the northern-most wall, climbing up a ramp. Zack hadn't even noticed her movement; she had been standing right next to him one second, then gone in the next. She pushed the button, causing the elevator to grind its way down.
"What're we waiting for?" Zack jumped clean over another set of boxes blocking his passage, turning his head to quickly regard Barret. "You gonna come or what?"
A few screamed orders suddenly pitched through the air. Barret didn't answer but turned around, switching the safety off, letting out a blaze of bullets.
"Shinra ain't gunna get past me. Go get Chocobo-head and that ladyl!" Barret stopped for a moment, looking over his shoulder at Zack, the black of the man's irises disconcerting. "Get movin'!" The Shinra elites appeared in the room and Barret turned back around, this time pressing the small red button on his gun arm.
In the pre-battle silence, the ping! of the elevator was deafening. Tifa grabbed the ex-SOLDIER's arm, pulling him in just in time: a bullet whizzed into the metal doors just as they shut, Barret still screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs.
"What are we gunna do?" Tifa asked as she pulled her gloves up.
"What do you think we're gunna do?" Zack snapped, taking in a few deep breaths. "We're going to save Cloud before that bastard puts one more finger on him. I won't let it happen again."
"What do you mean 'again?'"
Zack slammed his fist into the metal siding of the elevator. "Not now, not ever!"
The ping! echoed in the elevator and before Zack gave the woman a moment to ask another question, one he didn't want to answer, he pulled out his Buster Sword and left the small confined space.
He was already seeing red.
The red Zack saw, he noticed a moment later, wasn't due to the anger consuming his core. Trapped inside another glass tube, much like the one the black-haired man had watched his friend disappear from not two minutes before, was a red beast pawing at the glass, leaving thick jagged lines in its wake. He looked like one of Hojo's experiments: semi-drugged, covered in dozens of open wounds and stitches, a XIII carved into his shoulder blade.
This was Hojo's playground.
Zack felt the bile rise in his throat as a noxious blue gas was pumped into the glass prison, making the red-furred beast fall to the ground, eyes glazing over. It was a place where animals were turned into monsters, pitiful creatures transformed into sharp-teethed, vicious things. No words could explain the lowly creature Professor Hojo was.
Zack ran when he heard a muffled scream of agony. Dodging past crates, up another ramp, the first thing he saw was Cloud strapped down to a metal board, his clothes in a heap near his feet. His torso was pierced by a dozen large needles, the tubes hooked up to several strange colored IV bags. His hands were bound to his sides to prevent him from ripping the needles out, and his eyes were laced with something beyond agony. A white cloth bound his mouth. Blood was already spotting through.
"Shh." Zack motioned for Tifa to follow him. "It's okay, Cloudy, just give us a sec to get these things out. Tifa, go grab his clothes," Zack ordered.
She looked ready to object, but smashed her lips together before nodding, her eyes unable to stay steady.
Zack took the few last steps to the boy tied on the metal table, talking in deep, comforting sentences. "Everything's okay now. Just hold still and we'll get you out of there." Slowly, he moved his hands to the needles, pulling each out with care, placing them on the floor. Once the delicate extraction process was complete, the ex-SOLDIER began to untie the blond. First his mouth - the boy sucked in one grateful, shuddering breath - then the wrists and legs.
"Shh, Cloud. Everything's alright, everything's okay." Zack had never been overwhelmed by such a desire to grab the teenager and hug him until neither of them could breathe. He just looked so scared, so heartbroken, that Zack could barely restrain himself from crying.
The boy sat up and turned his head to the side, expelling a stream of chemically-changed blood from his throat and mouth. Gushing forth from his mouth were unnatural colors, shades the human body couldn't possibly create: crimson tinged with dark blues and greens, speckled with black. It was a mess Zack had seen before too many times before.
Tifa had gathered most of Cloud's clothing a moment later. Her face turned green as she saw the puddles on the ground. By this stage, the teenager's retching had somewhat calmed. "Here," she said, approaching Zack and placing the clothes in his waiting hands, taking care to avoid the scattered needles and blood on her way. There was a moment of hesitation but afterward Tifa lightly put her hand in Cloud's matted spikes.
Zack resisted doing the same motherly act, choosing instead to unfold the clothes. "Okay, let's get you into these." Zack gave a fake smile to the blond when he finished expelling the foreign chemicals from his system.
Cloud coughed brutally, covering his mouth as more of the inky substance parted from his body.
Zack looked around before grabbing the marginally clean robe on the ground, wiping Cloud's face with the white material. "It ain't that bad, Cloud. See?"
Cloud spat in the opposite direction. "Sure." His voice sounded like it was grating against his teeth. A few tears leaked from his eyes. Cloud grabbed the robe from Zack's hand, blowing his nose unceremoniously.
Tifa moved her hand away. "I'm not sure how long Barret is going to be able to keep those guards away. We should hurry up and find Aeris otherwise we won't get another chance."
Zack nodded his head. We need to find Aeris before they try 'breeding' her, he reminded himself, the nasal voice of Hojo echoing in his brain. One day, Zack would kill that monster with his own bare hands. Five years of experimentation, destroying the three greatest warriors in the world, murdering thousands of people, attempting to hurt Aeris... but the last straw was Cloud.
For this, for everything...
Zack would rip Hojo's heart out with his bare hands.
Zack helped Cloud into his clothes only because the boy was too weak to do it himself. A good percentage of his blood lay on the ground and in the glass prison. Earlier, when the boy had attempted to stand on his own in his typically stubborn way, he had fallen to his already-bruised knees.
"Thanks," Cloud managed in response to Zack's aid.
Zack grunted, fixing the last zipper. "Wasn't going to let you run around mooning people. I've got a bit more brains than that. Besides, I've seen worse on missions. Your white ass isn't that much of a shock-"
However, the nasal voice that then entered the room interrupted, saying, "I guess that should have been expected."
Zack whipped his head around to see the professor standing near another glass tube, running his fingers over a clipboard in his hands.
"But," he continued, "I will just have to cope with your intrusion." He made a few other notes on the board before leaning forward, pressing a red button on the side of the glass tube. A bright flash of light escaped from the center and the grinding of an elevator rising could be heard. "After all, you have brought a rather nice meal for XIII, not to mention that wonderful specimen for him to breed with." Hojo walked towards the trapped red beast, tapping his finger against the glass.
The red-furred monster looked up from his one good eye and laid his head back down.
"Perfect," Hojo muttered.
Zack turned to the other glass prison to see Barret and Aeris inside. Barret had his beefy hands tied behind his back while Aeris was fighting to release the material binding her.
"Shit," Zack gritted his teeth. "Hojo, what on the fucking Planet are you thinking? Aeris is human and you aren't going to be feeding my boss to that damn dog!" From the corner of his eye, Zack could see Tifa walking forward silently, staying out of Hojo's eyeline. She sent a look to Zack, one that explained everything and nothing.
Apparently, Cloud saw, too.
"There are so many frivolous things in this world." Hojo rubbed the pen against the paper again, completely absorbed in his notes.
"Where's my sword?" Cloud questioned, his voice breathy. There was pain in his eyes, Zack noticed, but the blond wasn't willing to allow pain, no matter how immense, to cripple him.
"I don't think I should give it to you," he answered immediately.
Cloud turned and narrowed his eyes. There was a small crusting of blood under his nose that Zack could clearly see as he leaned closer to the ex-SOLDIER's face.
"I want my sword. Now."
Zack took a step back, pulling the katana off his back, handing the sheet-wrapped sword over. "I think we should stop that crazy bastard before he does something else-" he was cut off by the sound of an inhuman shriek, simultaneous with glass shattering. In a flash of red and teeth, the beast sprung out of the glass cage, straight onto the unsuspecting professor.
Hojo made a sound akin to a girlish shriek as he was pounced on, his head cracking against the floor. The beast growled and turned its head to Zack. "Are you going to help or will you stand there like a drunken fool until security is called?"
"You talk?" Tifa yelled, her mouth falling open comically.
Zack cocked his head, staring. "The fuck? It talks!"
The beast sniffed, putting more pressure on Hojo, who let out another squeal. "I will talk as much as you like later, ma'am. Now, I think I am going to enjoy ripping out your throat, Professor." The creature leaned forward, its teeth coming closer to the greasy skin of Hojo's throat.
Zack's eyes darted away for reasons he was unsure of. He saw Barret and Aeris climbing out of the destroyed tube, a few small tears pricking the woman's eyes. Briefly distracted, it was as second too late that he saw Hojo had managed to push some button on another tube, opening the door. Several mutated monsters climbed out, snapping their jaws, one attaching itself to the red beast's front paw. The beast let out a loud growl as it was pulled from Hojo's body.
"I should be leavin," Hojo stated shakily.
"I don't think so." Cloud skirted past Zack, pointing his katana at Hojo's chest. "We should lock you in one of these cages and let the monsters eat you."
Hojo gave an airy chuckle. "Oh, the irony. Allow the scientist's precious work to eat him. It would be something only you would come up with." The scientist giggled at the thought.
"Tifa, I think you should get Aeris out of here. Those things don't look very nice," Zack said as he slowly pulled out his Buster Sword, motioning with his head for both women to take shelter in a nearby office.
The two women scrambled past, for once doing as the ex-SOLDIER insisted.
Sometime while he'd been preoccupied fighting the monsters, Hojo had been whacked in the head with a box of medical instruments or so Zack believed from the large corner indent in his head and broken beakers surrounding him.
"You should have allowed me the pleasure of ripping out his jugular," the red beast commented, sitting down, the materia ball locked in the bangle around his foreleg shining brightly.
Zack felt a warm breeze tickle his face. The few thick scratches he had received from the fight disappeared in the warm green light. "Thanks for that," said the black-haired man as he looked around the laboratory, assessing the battle damage.
Tifa and Aeris had come back for a few minutes after the fight but had disappeared down to the sixty-sixth floor in a rush after Zack told them of the plans to get out of the building as soon as possible. Barret had gone with them - Zack had resisted a snort. The AVALANCHE leader wasn't susceptible to many things but Tifa telling him to do something... he would walk the ends of Gaia on her command. It was interesting to watch ever since their first meeting.
Cloud sat on a nearby box, his eyes never leaving Hojo. It scared Zack a bit, the intensity held within the blond's mako blue eyes. There were times others held that look in their eyes but it mostly came from the war veterans who had seen things no human should have seen. It was understandable, of course, for Cloud to be staring at Hojo, as if he wished to pull out the man's intestines with his bare hands and hang them from the ceiling... but…
Zack hated that look.
Cloud sat with his head on his knee, the other leg dangling languidly. The katana lay near, on a box within reach. Zack was waiting for Cloud to snap, pick up the katana and shove it into Hojo's head.
"Your glares aren't going to kill him," the beast pointed out.
Cloud continued to stare.
"So, what exactly are you, anyway?" Zack asked, his fingers itching for a cigarette. Haven't had one in five years. Take that, you cancer-stick sucking bastards, he thought grimly.
"I am what you see. It is far too complicated to explain, especially when we should be heading to the lower floors to find your friends. I do not care to be caught again."
Zack nodded. "Well, can you at least give us your name?"
"My name is of no concern, but the name bestowed on me by him," it gestured to Hojo, "was Red XIII. I do not care of what you call me, but perhaps you could think of me as a male, not an 'it'."
"Sorry."
"Ah, do not feel sorry. May I give you some advice?"
"Yeah, sure. What is it, Red?"
Red looked pointedly at Hojo. "You may want to restrain your friend."
Zack's eyes widened dramatically as he jumped up, colliding with Cloud, who was already poised over Hojo's body, the point of his katana lightly touching the scientist's throat. Luckily for Hojo, when Zack knocked into the blond his sword skewered the ground centimeters away from his neck.
"Are you out of your fucking mind, Cloud?" Zack yelped, pulling the shorter boy by the waist, leaving the katana embedded into the ground.
"Not quite, but you can call me whatever you want after I kill that bastard!" Cloud struggled hard against Zack's arms, reaching for the hilt of the katana in vain. The strength left in his battered body was astonishing. Zack pulled the blond up, the jerkiness causing Cloud's head to smash into Zack's jaw, sending both reeling back into boxes.
"We're going to kill him, but let's wait until he's awake." Zack held onto Cloud, his breath running across his friend's face. "I want him to watch as we do it. I... I want to hear him scream."
"Well, ain't you two the brightest crayons in the box," a snarky voice slashed through the air.
Zack pulled Cloud up with him, meeting Reno's cold green eyes. There was a sling perched around his neck, his left arm shoved inside, while a trademark cigarette hung from his lips. There was his smirk. There was his EMR swinging from his belt. There was even that tell-tale 'I just got laid' hair style.
But that cold look… Zack hadn't seen it in years.
This was the angry Turk he never wanted to cross. This was the man everyone in the slums feared. This was the person who could kill with a single finger. This was a man who was second-in-command for the Turks. This was Reno on the job.
"Well, lookie who I found, Boss. Do I get a raise?"
Tseng walked up behind him, his hands folded patiently. He said, "Perhaps I will be able to stop the company from taking those expenses out of your paycheck for destroying your office." At this time a dozen armed SOLDIERs surrounded the group and the ex-SOLDIER understood there was no escaping.
Reno made a face.
"Well, either way, we bringin' these guys with the others?" Reno walked toward Zack, his eyes unchanging.
"Yes, Reno."
Reno already had Zack by the hair, roughly pulling him away from Cloud. "Well, I've got him. You can grab the others. Get a muzzle for that thing, eh?"
In the elevator, Reno leaned forward and pushed the button. It was only Zack and the red-haired Turk.
Reno leaned forward and began to murmur, "You're lucky you know me." He pulled his arm from the sling, sliding a keycard into Zack's pocket. "And you're lucky I don't fuckin' hate you."
Never had Zack been so confused. What in all that was Holy going on with Reno?
"You aren't bipolar, are you?" Zack whispered, causing the redhead to laugh uncontrollably.
The elevator ping!-ed open and the mask went straight back on Reno's face.
The president of Shinra Inc. was a bug that needed squishing, Zack conceded as Reno pushed him toward the man's desk. Zack knew where they were headed the moment Reno had pushed the 70th floor's button. That was where Shinra sat on his throne of skulls and gold, laughing as he watched from his tinted windows the destruction of the Sectors he had created. He probably had a good show of all of the Mako Reactors blowing up, not to mention the fall of the Sector Seven Plate.
Enjoyed it too, no doubt, Zack thought bitterly as he trudged forward, further into the room. The elevator pinged open again and the ex-SOLDIER twisted his head back to see Cloud.
Reno pulled back on Zack's bound hands, causing him to stop short. "Nope, no can do. Keep on walkin', buddy." The red-head swiftly shoved Zackn forward, causing his legs to buckle, but he continued to walk after regaining his footing.
"Zack!" Tifa yelled from across the room, also bound at the wrists with rope. Barret was with her, slouching, a blank stare on his face as he kicked the linoleum floor.
Zack closed his eyes. "So they caught you too," he said when Reno finally pulled him within talking distance to the AVALANCHE members. "Where's Aeris?"
Barret was the one who answered. "They caught her. Tried ta stop 'em, but the persistent bastards wouldn't lay off. Ain't feelin' too hot about not protectin' her wit' all she's done for Marlene, but we ain't gunna leave her here."
Tseng approached them. Red was tied up neatly at the head Turk's side, looking like a hog ready to roast. "There was no other possible way," Tseng stated, his face controlled under Zack's incredulous glare, "I told the experiment XIII to stop attempting to chew through the rope, yet he refused. This is what our SOLDIERs came up with. For preventive measures, of course."
"You've become even more of a bastard over time, I see," Zack spat.
This caused the older man to laugh. "Oh, Fair, you always were amusing. I haven't become more of a bastard than the last time we met. I became more fit for the role I was given. Do you fit your given role?"
"I worked hard for that! It wasn't just given to me, you fucking Turk!" If there had been poison in his stare, Zack was certain the man not three feet away would be choking on his own tongue.
"Be that as it may, I don't believe we should keep the President waiting any longer. He wishes to see all of you together and I have no doubt this will most certainly please him. You and your friends, after all, have done extensive damage to Shinra Inc."
"But where is Cloud! Aeris! Shit, you didn't-"
Tseng nodded. "We have retrieved both specimens. I assure you they are safe. Safer than they were in your incompetent hands, anyway."
Reno pushed him forward once again. This time Zack was able to move.
Shinra smirked from his desk, straightening out his red suit. "It certainly is not a pleasure to see all of you before me, I assure you," he began, standing and pushing his chair from the desk. "I must say, you and the rest of AVALANCHE have caused quite a stir. I've wished for nothing more than to deal with you with my own hands." His eyes scanned the room.
"Tifa Lockhart, Barret Wallace, and Zack Fair, our own legendary SOLDIER First-Class. I was assured you had been locked in a basement for the past five years, but no matter. Your escape was well known and thus dealt with accordingly. The woman Turk who had allowed you to escape was executed for treason. We do not accept failure, Fair; you should know that."
The ex-SOLDIER felt a wave of nausea overcome him. Cissnei had done something heroic, allowing people who wouldn't have had a shot to get away. She had been such an amazing person, a good woman with a shining smile. Zack had dated her several times and while it never would have worked out, she was a good person. No wonder Reno was willing to save Zack. Shinra was more than corrupted; they were at the point of killing their own people.
This was disgusting.
"So, now you're killing your employees. Can't say I'm shocked. You always were a moron."
The president laughed at the ex-SOLDIER's comment, moving from his desk to step directly in front of each captive. "Whatever you say, Fair. I do believe we would be willing to take you back into our out-reaching arms if you wanted. You were one of the few SOLDIERs who showed potential, if I remember properly. Isn't that right, Tseng?"
The Turk nodded curtly. "Yes, President," he answered automatically.
"Well," Zack stated boldly, "I'm not coming back, so you can shove your foot up your fucking ass. Now, where in Gaia are Aeris and Cloud?"
The President smirked, returning to his chair, sitting himself down. "In a safe place." He picked up a pen and started scribbling on the bottom of a page. "She's the last surviving Ancient, you know; descended from the Cetra who lived thousands of years ago. Now they are just another forgotten page in history."
Zack heard Red, who was laying a few feet away, say, "Cetra? That girl, she's a survivor of the Cetra?"
Ancient, Cetra-whatever. Aeris is still the girl I loved and cared about. It isn't like she's some alien monster like Jenova; just a scared woman who doesn't know what's going on and who she is.
The President nodded. "Yes, XIII, a Cetra. The Ancients will show us the way to the 'Promised Land'. Personally, I'm expecting quite a bit out of her."
"But the 'Promised Land'… Isn't that just a legend?"
Zack had only heard of legends of the Promised Land, which Red seemed to know quite a bit about. Zack took it at face value-a beautiful world with no pain and no monsters.
"Even so, it is far too appealing to not pursue. It is said the land is fertile. If the land is fertile-"
"You muthafucka!" the black man roared, quick to comprehend Shinra's plan. "There's gotta be Mako's what you're sayin'. Ain't that right, you dirty scum-bag!"
"Quite. I am surprised. You of all people would see the opportunity in this wonderful land. Shinra will build a Mako reactor in its fertile soil, creating even more money for our company and energy for our consumers. Why do you look so displeased?"
"Mutha'fuckin' bastards, the whole damn lotta ya! That's the Planet's lifebloo'! You're stealin' it an' linin' your damn pockets wit' gold! It ain't right!" Barret fought against the chains around his wrists.
Zack tilted his head back and spat on the papers on the President's desk. "You revolting pig," he snarled, violet eyes flashing as he glared at the man's red suit, staring at the place where man's greedy black heart should have been. "You're going to use them for gold? What are you? And how could you let this happen?" Zack directed this toward Tseng, who didn't even have the heart to look ashamed.
"I think we're done here, so it would be best for you to take these terrorists to their cells. Tseng," the President looked back down to his paperwork, "I believe I am finished."
Zack allowed himself to be pulled back by Reno, Several SOLDIERs who had been called in grabbed the other members, one nearly getting his face mask torn off my Red's sharp teeth.
"I ain't done wit' you, bastard!" Barret yelled.
Silently, Zack begged his companion to hold his peace. He knew there was only going to be so much screaming before one of the SOLDIERs bashed Barret over the head.
"Zack, are you asleep?" Aeris's voice drifted through the wall. They had been stuck in their cells for a few hours or so Zack gathered. The watch on his wrist was confiscated, like everything else he'd owned. Even the keycard in his pocket, which the guard hadn't noticed because it was miraculously shoved into his wallet, the side barely sticking out, was still there. Zack couldn't be sure as to why, because it was obvious what it was, but there was no way of him knowing. The best he could come up with was that the guard was either blind or just incredibly stupid.
"No," he answered, tired.
"Well, other people are," Cloud mumbled, his voice gruff from lack of sleep. He was locked in with Aeris, Zack had figured out a few minutes after being escorted into the cell. The walls weren't thick enough to block out the sound, thankfully.
"Sorry, Cloudy-boy. Just try to get to sleep. We'll be quiet."
"Hmph, yeah. You being quiet."
Zack banged his head lightly on the wall. "Oh, come on. Give a little faith. I'm thinking of how to get our asses out of here anyway. Give me a couple hours and I'll have some-"
"Half-assed plan," Tifa answered, sitting up from the bunker. Zack sent a half-glare at the woman, who ran her fingers through brown hair. She gave him a reproachful look. "Oh, please. You've never been good with last-minute plans."
From the other cell, Aeris chirped, "He never was! I figured it was perhaps one of those manly things that couldn't be avoided. He's a smart boy, though... and he's loyal and doesn't try to do stupid things. He just tries to do the right thing."
"I thought you were going to be quiet?" Cloud made a sound akin to smacking his head against the wall, much like the ex-SOLDIER had done moments before.
"Meh, maybe later. Hey, Barret!"
The black man in the other cell grunted. "What ya wan', Spiky?"
"Watcha thinkin' 'bout?"
"Your chick's an Ancient. They go by the Cetra and know where da Promised Land is, righ'? Them Shinra scum's lookin' for this place so they can suck it dry. I only heard stories 'bout it and don't know if it exists…" He took a breath, then plunged ahead, "Aeris, is it all true? Is there some place the Shinra scum's gunna go rape so they get money? It's gunna all get sucked up by those fuckin' machines an' the Planet's gunna get weak and wither away. Ain't that right? Shit, I'm recruitin' when we get the fuck outta here! Y'all joinin' AVALANCHE and I ain't hearin' nuthin 'bout it. Even you, you, uh, dog."
"I am no canine, and I do not plan on following you around like some common mutt. I'm going home to my grandpa."
Barret laughed hysterically.
Red growled.
"Your gramps! Funniest thing I eva' heard!" the black man chortled.
"And why is that funny?"
"No reason… ha ha ha."
Zack smacked his hand against his head. Barret was certainly one of the more stupid people he knew. Who would tease a beast that could kill you as you slept? Certainly Barret didn't think in the long term.
"How long do you think we're going to be stuck in here?" Tifa asked, turning on the cot to look at Zack.
"Not sure how long they'll keep us here. I know that we won't have to deal with Hojo until tomorrow at best, with him being unconscious and all, but I couldn't tell you how long until they ship us off to the labs or execution chambers. Hope it's soon. I want to get outta here and kill that damn President."
"Would this be about that woman the President spoke of?"
"Yeah," he conceded. "Cissnei was one of the girls I dated way back when. Uh...before Aeris. A good lady, that Cissnei. Never thought they would kill their own Turk..."
Cloud answered. "Of course they would, Zack. They go through most Turks faster than wine at a dinner table. Remember the infamous Vincent Valentine? They said he disappeared but there's no way a Turk just disappears. They either die on the job or Shinra gets rid of them."
"And who told you about Valentine?"
"Don't remember. I think it was one of the older cadets. But it is true - Shinra has no problem getting rid of you when you lose your use."
"Well," Zack stood up, going over to the door, "I think Valentine must have been boning someone he wasn't supposed to. He was the best, according to all those records and there's no way he would just keel over and die. My friend... he told me a little about Valentine. Never sat with me right. Anyway, you better get to sleep. When those guys get here, I want to be ready to beat their faces into the ground. 'Night everybody."
Zack sat back down, this time against the door, and leaned his head back. Sleep would overcome him soon, he knew.
There was blood all over the floor. That was the sight that greeted him when Zack woke groggily. Laying on the floor of the open cell, he was no more than three inches away from a puddle of blood.
"The fuck?" he opened and closed his eyes, thinking he was imagining things in his post-sleep haze. The blood didn't disappear but several black circles invaded his sight. He put one hand to the side, pushing himself off the ground, noticing too late that he'd placed his hand in the bloody mess.
He jerked his hand back. Granted, blood was a common thing, and he had gotten more in his mouth while training the younger crowd of SOLDIERs and now he was killing hundreds of army and SOLDIER men, but he hadn't expected there to be so much, especially on the floor. How could one human body bleed that much? How much did a body hold, anyway? Zack wiped off the red fluid on his pants, feeling the skin below shiver with displeasure.
It smelled of metal, Zack noticed as he wiped his fingers against his pants to clean them. The stench was overpowering in the hallway. Then, after a moment of standing in the center of the hallway, it registered that he wasn't in his cell anymore. A hallway smeared with blood, but it was still freedom.
He looked down the corridor to only see more red and the body of one of the night-patrol men laying on the ground, one of his arms a yard away. Zack felt his stomach curdle. Who could have done this?
"Tifa," he took a step back, whispering the woman's name. After a moment of silence he raised his voice louder, making her name echo in the close confines.
"What's happening?" Tifa yawned, her eyes barely opening, speech still slurred from sleep.
"Somebody just let our asses loose and killed the guard outside," Zack said in a rush. "I need you to go get Aeris and Cloud. I'll take care of Red. Don't want you stepping on his tail and him biting off your face." He added the little joke to the end when he saw the woman's wine eyes widen.
"Somebody did what?" Tifa squeaked, jumping from the cot. Before the ex-SOLDIER could repeat himself she was already out the door. Her scream bounced off the walls of the Shinra prison, eliciting several grunts and one sleepy "Hmm?" from either Aeris or Cloud.
Zack rubbed his hand on his pants again before heading to the cell Barret and Red occupied. There was an incandescent bright green light over the door. When he touched it, it swung open with a small buzz.
"Get up. Someone's gone and killed the guard."
Blood was a horrible sight in the morning but it was even worse when it was accompanied by a few dozen bodies sprawled around the floor. Grisly tracks led up the stairs. It seemed as though the perpetrator had dragged a body, still bleeding, on his sword along the ground. There was more gore than Zack had seen in a long time.
It seemed to be the same with the others. Even Barret looked away from the body of a twenty-something woman whose head was only still attached because of a thin layer of skin.
"Ain't righ'," Barret said as he walked by, his face a little more sullen.
Aeris had looked at each body with pity, a few tears prickling her emerald eyes - tears of sympathy, Zack thought. Aeris always thought of others; the man's family would now no longer have a source of income, and children would be fatherless. She had seen many things in her life, more brutal than a man laying in his own blood, but it didn't stop her feeling of duty to somehow help. He hated seeing her cry but there was no way to shield the woman from the mess of mutilated bodies. There were too many and she wouldn't have any of it.
"Cloud, come help me with this, would you?"
The ex-SOLDIER grunted, pushing a desk out of the way. It seemed the people, who were now lying in their own blood, had attempted to block their attacker by piling office furniture in front of the doors, barricading themselves in. It hadn't worked and served as a nuisance for Zack to move out of the way, now that the group wanted to get through.
"Sure." the blond jumped over a broken chair. "Wonder how all of this happened."
Zack grunted. "I don't know about you, but I'd like to keep my head on my shoulders, otherwise I'd be chasing the sucker who did this down."
The two pushed the desk into a corner, allowing the others to pass. "Well," Cloud said, "I don't care as long as they got Hojo. Sick bastard."
"Highly doubt it. The Turks probably got him down to the infirmary. It's on the 42nd Floor. Doubt this whack-job started his killing spree all the way down there."
Zack walked forward, motioning for Cloud to follow.
"But," Cloud pointed out, "we've gone up two floors and there's still blood everywhere. Maybe he killed the President. I mean, look, the trail leads upstairs."
Zack noticed he was right; the blood trailed up the left stairway, to the room where Zack had been only hours before.
"Let's hope tha' scum's dead. If he ain't I'm gunna kill him wit' my own hands." Barret shot a few bullets into the large glass windows (there was a trail of blood that led to the window and up the side of the wall) and rather than shattering the glass, the bullets went straight through, leaving holes in their wake. Zack could have shoved his thumb through several of them.
"Well, we'll find out in a few minutes. Get yourselves ready," Cloud said as he pulled out his katana.
Zack followed his lead, drawing his Buster Sword. The boy had a point - if they went up there and saw the attacker, there was a pre-emptive strike waiting to happen. The guy had to be pretty damn powerful.
"Cloud's right. Should we happen across this murderer, I am not sure we will fare well without preparation," Red added, his fire-tipped tail glowing as it swished around Zack's knees.
"Bet the guy's high-tailed it outta here by now. I sure as Holy wouldn't stick around after killing a whole lot of people. I don't need to deal with more than one loon today."
"I guess we'll find out when we get up there," Aeris said, already sliding her materia out of her wrist bangle.
The floor was quiet.
The blood was gone.
Masamune was sticking out of the President of Shinra Electric Company.
"Fuck me!" Barret swore, "Shinra's dead. The fuckin' prez of Shrinra Inc. is dead."
Zack couldn't have put it better himself.
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