Before Crisis 2: The Crisis
CHAPTER 10 – HEAVEN'S DARK HARBINGER
December 12th [ ν ] - εγλ 0007, 1:45 AM
After spending the last hour in Sector 6, Tseng and Rude returned to the Shinra Building to respond to yet another emergency. It was half past one in the morning when reports came up that Sephiroth had returned and was destroying everything on sight. All lives of Shinra personnel were at stake, including the very President Shinra, whom the Turks and SOLDIERs had always protected whenever he was in danger.
The sound of the emergency klaxon grew louder as the Turks' helicopter descended toward the helipad. Red lights beamed in and outside the building, and as the Turks waited for the helicopter's safe landing, Rude put on a new pair of spiked gloves while Tseng reloaded his gun and slowly unbuckled his seat belt.
"Let's go," Tseng signaled before breaking out of the aircraft. He and Rude began jogging toward the stairs to the interior, their destination set for Floor 70. Ensuring the safety of President Shinra was their first priority, and fortunately his office was located one level below the helipad.
When the Turks entered Floor 70, they were surprised to notice how empty it appeared during a time like this. The lights were turned on, and what struck them greatly were the trails of blood that spread around the main hallway.
"What the...?" muttered Rude as he continued down the path of red liquid, which contrasted unpleasantly with the darker carpet. The blood became more dense as he and Tseng approached the President's desk, their heart rates rising with every step.
The Turks eventually reached the end of the line, only to encounter the largest pool of red yet, and to have their worst fears confirmed. Slouched over and slain on his throne was the most powerful man in the world, a long, slender sword having pierced straight through his stout, unmoving corpse. After decades of power and world domination, and becoming someone whom many respected and despised... for him, it was now all over. President Shinra was dead.
"Oh no..." Tseng fell to his knees. "He's... dead."
Rude's jaw began to tremble. "I don't believe it..." he whispered. The Turks scanned around the room as the President's carcass remained lying face-down on the desk, in a puddle of blood with nobody around. It had perplexed them that no one had come up to save him.
Suddenly, the silence was broken when a short, old man appeared in front of the Turks, having hid behind a pillar beside the President's desk. "Uh!" the man squeaked, revealing himself to Tseng and Rude. He was Palmer, Shinra Executive and the Head of Space Exploration.
"Palmer!" Tseng called out as the portly man stumbled towards him. "What are you doing here?"
"Se... Sephiroth came... he really came!" Palmer's lips were quivering. "Oh, the President! He's dead!"
"Where did Sephiroth go?"
"He's... I don't know! I've been hiding. But he was here five minutes ago. Uh, he said something about not letting us have... um, the Promised Land."
This was not good. Believed to be a Cetra, Sephiroth would know where the Promised Land was. "It was just you and the President here?"
"Uh, yeah!" confirmed Palmer. "He... uh, we were discussing the future of Space Exploration and... that's when he appeared! He... he was too quick!"
Tseng turned to his partner. "Rude, can you go down to see what's going on? I'm going to call Reeve."
"Yes sir." Rude nodded before running off.
Tseng then turned to the senior executive. "And Palmer, can you inform Rufus about the situation?"
"Rufus? The Vice-President?" he gulped. "Isn't he in Junon?"
"Yes, give him a call," Tseng nodded. "Tell him that his old man got slaughtered by Sephiroth... and also what was said about the Promised Land."
Palmer shrugged. "Uh, okay..."
"I'm going down. Please, stay hidden until it is absolutely safe for you to evacuate."
The endless red trail daunted Rude as he followed it down the stairs to Floor 69. He had yet to spot a single person on his way there, which was surprising considering that the klaxon had been blaring the whole time. Surely a Shinra SOLDIER would have responded by now or worried about the President's safety. If anyone was to blame, it was inexcusable for Heidegger, the commander of the Shinra Army, to sleep through an emergency situation.
On Floor 69, Rude passed through three security fields and headed for the first room, a hangout space for Shinra personnel. A rotting stench smacked him as he approached the door and slammed it open. Rude grimaced as he found the contorted corpses of two employees, their limbs and bones splattered all over the place. The walls had been cut straight through and was coated with blood like red paint, dripping as the bodies rested on top of one another in horrifying fashion.
Rude shook his head and plugged his nose. "Fuck..."
As the hangout room was a dead end, he turned around and continued his search elsewhere. Unfortunately, the putrid smell only intensified as he approached the next room, a second lounge which had its door sliced off completely. Inside the room, he found seven more employees slumped over and under the table, their bodies having suffered sword wounds. Horrified, Rude tiptoed past the pile of carcasses and exited the lounge from the other side, expecting to see more on his way to the stairwell. The path he had taken was a narrow corridor containing some offices and bedrooms.
He found himself at the staircase a minute later, but not before finding another four bodies in the hallway. Swiping his ID card at the Floor 68 entrance, he through the security fields en route to the Shinra's main laboratory. His eyes widened as he saw the body of a wounded lab assistant, who, unlike the others, was still alive, writhing in a puddle of blood. Kneeling down to lend a hand, Rude faced the agonized eyes of the man. "You okay?"
The man's back had been severely slashed. "Nnggghhh..."
"Hold on," whispered Rude, pulling out his PHS to alert Shinra Medical Care. Unfortunately, health care was extremely scarce following Sector 7's destruction.
Waiting for a response, Rude took a step towards the wall and leaned on it as he watched the man. Suddenly, a croaking noise emerged from somewhere across the laboratory. Woken by the sound, Rude looked up to see a green, canine-like creature escape one of the broken test pods. The sharp-toothed creature began to roam around the open space, letting out a ferocious howl before sprinting towards the Turk.
Rude put his PHS away immediately and readied himself. "Hojo's specimen? Bring it on."
Jumping to the center of the lab, Rude allowed the specimen to strike first, testing its strength as it pulled on his arm. Fortunately, the specimen's razor-sharp teeth were far from powerful. Also noting its poor fighting skill for a canine, Rude kicked it aside before delivering lefts and rights to its skull. The weakened creature howled in pain and collapsed to the floor, ending the short conflict.
As the croaking noise persisted, Rude turned around and noticed another three monsters lurking in the area. "Better get rid of them..." he glanced at the injured man before charging at the monsters.
Showing no concern of their numbers, he used his speed against the first enemy and surprised it with a jumping fist. Proving to be deadly, the enemy fell back as its siblings flinched in surprise, growling at the Turk before striking with claws of their own. Using the Materia embedded in his knuckles, Rude clenched his fists before hurling a stream of fire towards the remaining enemies, shrugging off the slight pain they had inflicted on his leg. Fire had always been his favorite and most dominant spell, and he smiled as the specimens turned to ashes in seconds.
"Overkill," he wondered if there were any more monsters around. Examining the broken test pods, it appeared that Hojo had named this species "Zenene", as labeled on the glass in thick pen. With so much broken glass along the wall, Rude realized that more specimens had escaped and were now freely roaming the building.
Distracted for the last few minutes, Rude pulled out his PHS and jogged back to the wounded lab assistant. Much to his horror, he was confronted by yet another Zenene when he arrived, this one with dripping blood in its mouth. Rude grimaced as he looked at the unusually calm creature... and then the man, and gasped as he realized that that the man had turned into an unmoving corpse. The Zenene had ended the last painful moments of his life.
After defeating the last of his specimens, Rude ran towards the transport elevator, again taking out his PHS. This time, he called Tseng.
"Rude?"
"Chief, there are dead bodies everywhere," reported Rude, entering the small elevator when it opened. "I presume that Sephiroth is responsible. Even most of Hojo's hostile specimens have escaped. Is there... any way to alert Shinra Medical about this, or are we just focusing on the evacuation?"
"The evacuation is still in process, even though Reeve said that Sephiroth was last seen outside of Shinra Building, about fifteen minutes ago," replied Tseng. "Still, I believe that many Shinra employees are unaware of what has been happening... including Heidegger, I suppose... and none of our SOLDIERs were able to locate Sephiroth. Where are you now?"
Rude stepped out of the elevator and answered, "Floor 67. If Sephiroth is outside, shouldn't we head down and help evacuate the civilians to safety?"
Tseng paused for a moment before letting out a long, stressful sigh. "Dammit. It's two in the morning. The President's dead, our employees are dead, and everything's just messed up. It's an extremely terrible situation for us right now. We don't know where Sephiroth is, how he got here or what his mission is..."
Rude shuddered as he saw another body on the floor by some boxes. Then he said, "Call it a day, is what you're saying?"
"For now, meet me on the SOLDIER Floor to further discuss the situation," ordered Tseng. "But after that, it's best to get some rest and start fresh tomorrow."
"On my way."
"Hold on," Tseng continued just as Rude was about to hang up. "I was talking to Rufus. He said he's coming here from Junon. If you haven't yet read the email... we have a meeting later at eleven in the morning."
"Rufus?" Rude raised a brow. "Hmm... with his father deceased..."
"He will take his place as the new President."
When the call ended, Rude was disturbed by another wicked smell to his left, and he turned to notice something precariously strange. The sealed containment of Jenova had disappeared and was replaced with nothing but some oozing blood remains, its sturdy, steel door having been ripped off the hinges. Rude frowned as he realized that Jenova, heaven's dark harbinger, had been reclaimed by the ultimate SOLDIER, Sephiroth. Also noting the bodies around him, the bald Turk froze in horror and breathed deeply before sprinting for the elevator, his mind set on getting to Floor 49. He then randomly thought about Reno, and how he was holding up on an terrifying day that was finally coming to a close. The day was ending with Sephiroth back and President Shinra dead.
A/N: The crisis has begun. This scene takes place shortly before AVALANCHE manages to escape from their cells.