Monsters in Midgar: Chaos

Shelke had been surprised when the building rocked during her Materia class, and had been even more surprised to feel a strange spark as something seemed to invade her senses. It had been frightening to feel at first, until she felt a sense of warmth and a request to please help 'her', because 'she' needed to shut down the power in the city before the monsters overran everyone, and 'she' needed to save the redeemed Calamity's child—both of them. 'She'd' said it was so hard for 'her' to do with the Reactors, though 'she' could still manipulate that to some degree, but there was only one way 'she' could save those two children. For that, 'she' needed a host to carry 'her' to them, and Shelke was nearly the only one who could—certainly the best of the couple 'she'd' possibly be able to ask.

The girl'd had no idea how she could possibly help or be the best one to do so, but she had agreed to play host to the being. Her body had begun moving on autopilot to retrieve the package Doctors Kedran and Blythe had passed on to her, then had gotten up and walked out of the room, filled to the brim with Lifestream energy. Because she'd done so at about the same time as something began tearing a hole in the ceiling, no one even saw her leave. In the meantime, as she'd headed for the stairs, the Lifestream (what had Eden and Genesis called her? Minerva?) told her the ability she had was a side-effect of a powerful Cetra Healer's skills being suppressed. As Shelke assessed that to mean her SND was a variant of Healer's skills, the girl was stunned.

As she'd been climbing the stairs steadily, the girl absently unwrapped the paper from the weapons—laser daggers—inside it, the same weapon she'd used in Deepground while she'd been there. Dropping the paper, she had begun strapping it on, and when she'd finished, she followed Minerva's instruction to leave the stairs to go to the elevator—it would be an easier route to the top of the building. As such, she'd headed for it while on the sixteenth floor, and found it reaching that floor quickly. After she'd gotten on, she sent it up to the sixty-ninth floor.

While it had made its way up, Shelke had used her laser daggers to knock—or rather, burn—out the screws holding the upper maintenance hatch in place, then climbed up onto the bannister below the hatch so she could push it out of the way and climb onto the elevator top. After replacing the hatch, she'd simply sat there as she'd stared upward, watching the cords and pulleys move as the elevator rose.

When it had reached the top floor and stopped, she'd shifted to her knees and peered around for a vent or other maintenance shaft—which she found soon after. She had climbed into the vent—she was so small it was easy—and had worked her way from there to the roof, all while hoping she wouldn't get hit in the battle between Vant, Qliphoth, and Hojo.

Then Sephiroth had joined them, and he and Qliphoth had moved to the roof to fight, both of the ones Minerva had needed her to help. She had pulled herself out of the vent and waited quietly for the time when Minerva wanted her to act.

She really didn't end up waiting that long, either.

FoW

Hojo was definitely angry. Very angry. So was Jenova.

Vant had fought Hojo for a few more minutes after Sephiroth and Qliphoth had moved to the roof before the power in the Shinra building had finally gone out.

The next thing he knew was that he was pinned to the wall with a hole in his gut which was filled by more than one of Hojo's tentacles. He stared down at the hole and tentacles for a moment in disgusted (feeling tentacles wiggling around in your body was singularly sickening), bemused horror. All this time in battle and Hojo had only now managed to do him real damage? Somehow, that was also pretty amazing.

Suddenly, a voice spoke into his mind, :I am taking over, host.: He knew the voice as Chaos'.

A moment later, dark light enveloped his body, shearing off the tentacles as he felt himself change. He couldn't see anything through the darkness, but the sensation of the change was so different from anything he'd felt before. Immediately, he knew it was nothing like the other transformations Hojo had given him, such as Galian Beast (Chaos had never felt like those), but it also didn't feel like his transformations to Chaos normally did. There was something uniquely different about it this time, and he couldn't put his finger on it, though now it felt like the transformation fit him properly.

All previous times he had become Chaos, the bestiality and wildness of the form—and his own loss of control—had caused him to associate Chaos with a being little better than a beast with no more sentience than a dog or Guard Hound. Since meeting Eden, however, he'd begun to see Chaos as a being less bestial and more protective, the shortcomings in his transformed state having been the result of his own resistance to those other forms, his own belief that he had been made into a monster. Now, he knew better. He wasn't a monster, and he was fairly sure Chaos wasn't, either.

Then, the darkness began to clear, and he watched it with further bemusement as he noted Chaos' awareness hovering at the back of his mind while sending him a sense of approval. For the first time, he was becoming Chaos without losing himself, his sanity—which made the truth of how his own beliefs had affected him hit home.

When the darkness cleared fully, his body had become purple-hued, somewhat more bony and lanky, a few feet taller, and had sprouted horns and bat-like wings. He had fangs and claws as well, but not prominently like the other features. The hole Hojo had left in his body had nearly fully closed over, and was still mending rapidly—a state which was obvious on his now barely-covered body, which apparently only wore a loincloth.

His gaze lifted to Hojo's stunned one as he leaned forward and gave the man a smirk. "Nice try, Hojo," he said quietly in amusement.

"Chaos! Vincent Valentine!" Hojo gasped, gaze suddenly comprehending and frightened—but fascinated at the same time.

The next attack Hojo launched at him tossed him right out through the wall, even as the man landed on top of him while trying to strangle him. Both fell through open air for several feet, until Chaos' wings caught them and his shadow power tossed the man away from him. As Hojo began falling in his Jenova hybrid form, he sprouted oddly deformed, butterfly-like wings and caught himself with them. Once the two were aloft independently, they eyed one another warily.

Until a shout not far above them sounded, and both looked up to see Sephiroth falling with Qliphoth on top of him, both of them caught in a struggle for Sephiroth's sword. They plunged rapidly towards the ground head-first—with no wings to catch them.

"Sephiroth!" Vant/Chaos shouted in alarm, diving towards them—only to snarl as Hojo hit him from the side with a vicious attack of his own. There was a manic grin on the mad scientist's face—

And Vincent/Vant/Chaos had had enough.

Shadow energy exploded from Chaos' body and began eating away Hojo's/Jenova's body very rapidly, much the way a corrosive acid would. Hojo apparently realized what was going on and shrieked in alarm before the sense of Jenova flared and the light in Hojo's eyes went out to be replaced by a red-green glow. The Jenova body's deterioration slowed...

FoW

Falling from the top of a seventy story building was not Sephiroth's idea of a good way to end a battle. Unfortunately, Qliphoth didn't even seem to realize they were falling and was still trying to claim Masamune, as though it would make a difference when they both went splat in a few seconds. Well, the total fall time was around fifteen seconds, and they'd been falling for three. Same difference to the end result.

A shout made him glance past Qliphoth—only for his eyes to widen as he saw Shelke falling towards them twice as fast as he and Qliphoth were falling! She had eyes glowing so brilliantly green that the light from them was flaring almost like wings around her head and her expression seemed dazed and unaware.

She hit them in the next second, and both silver haired men gasped as light and energy flowed around and through them. With his vision nothing but white, Sephiroth blinked his eyes to try to clear them—but then green began outlining swirling bands of white. Shelke appeared in front of his eyes, then a regal woman dressed in a white robe and gold armor lifted from the girl's body, allowing Shelke to drop into his arms.

:Thank you, little child of mine,: the blond woman said to Shelke—without moving her lips. A small, dazed nod and murmur was Shelke's only reply, but then the woman looked up and met Sephiroth's gaze. :I had once known you as the Calamity's Child, the Nightmare. You have truly come so far that you are one I welcome here. I no longer fear you, regardless of what you carry in your body. Knowing the Calamity as another of my kind would designate you as one of my children as well. The one made of you is also my child, and I have repaired his mind and body so he may have an opportunity to live his life, not as your shadow, but as himself. As he is now, he will need your protection, as he is small and helpless.

:Silver Sentinel, know that you need never fear for your own life so long as you remember to care, to always care about those around you. Help lead people down a new path, one of acceptance and tolerance, and never fear those lingering fragments of the Calamity within you, embrace them. You are their master, they are not yours, and at this moment, you have two other lives to save.: The light began to clear as she once more murmured, :Embrace them.:

When he could see again, he blinked because of several things he had to assess all in a moment.

One was that he hadn't fallen at all during the time he had been in that space.

Another was that both his arms held a weight, an unconscious Shelke being one of them, and—a glace at the other showed him a baby who was about four months old, a boy with no clothing, a dusting of silver hair, and eyes just like his.

The third was that there was a writhing mass of darkness above him, though as he watched in that moment, it shrunk and redirected to a specific point.

A green—something—which was part liquid fell past them with some sort of shriek.

Then he remembered they were falling, and if he didn't do something, Shelke and the infant Qliphoth would die with him.

His mind flashed back to the words to 'embrace' Jenova's cells in his body, but to what end?

A moment later, he remembered Genesis' wings—and pain exploded along his back as the back of his shirt and coat tore. The pain vanished as quickly as it had come, and he felt the wind catch on something attached to his back as they stopped falling. All he needed to do was look back over his right shoulder to see one glossy, black wing sprouting from it. He then looked back up at the ball of shadows above him and realized he somehow recognized his father—Vincent, or Vant as he was now (or Chaos?)—in that energy, so carefully directed his wings to carry him back up to a point near it.

It was only once he stopped there that he realized he had tears running down his cheeks, but for the life of him, he had no idea why.

FoW

When Vant felt the deterioration slow and saw more and more features on Hojo's body becoming something twisted and warped like Jenova would do, Vant asked Chaos how he could get more impact to shove back harder. Chaos showed him how to push harder on his own energy release while focusing it on a specific target, causing a struggle between Jenova's energy and Chaos' energy to ensue while all he could see was darkness and Jenova—

And then, they were both gone, both Hojo and Jenova.

The whole process had only taken about ten seconds.

Ten seconds too long.

He turned to seek out his son—only to stare in surprise as he saw him hovering several feet away with a black bird's wing sprouting from one shoulder, an unconscious Shelke in one arm, a nude, four-month-old baby boy in the other—and tears streaming down his cheeks. As far as processing what had happened went, the tears could have been a pain reaction to the wing, and because he knew Genesis also had one, it wasn't a far cry to say Sephiroth had always had one laying in reserve as well.

However, there were two things he couldn't process.

Where had Shelke come from?

Where had the baby come from?

"Sephiroth..." he began, but stopped. He wasn't even sure where to begin, what he wanted to say or ask first.

Giving his head a shake, the silver haired man replied, "Minerva used Shelke to speak with me, and to repair Qliphoth's damaged mind and body. Her repairing him apparently reverted him to an infant state...She said he would need my protection, but you and my mother are his parents as well. I am...uncertain what to do or what I wish to do. And before making such a decision, we need to assist the people in the city before too many more die."

At the words, both looked down into the darkened city, seeing with their enhanced sight how many of the monsters had converged around the base of the Shinra building, where battle was raging. A look up at the rooftop showed the President and Lunaria there, both of them watching the two men.

Making a sudden decision, Chaos/Vant said, "For now, it would be best to leave Shelke and the baby in Lunaria's care. When Shelke wakes, she should be capable of acting as their guard, and Lunaria will at least be capable of caring for the child for the moment."

With a nod, Sephiroth flew up to the two adults on the roof, set Shelke on the inside of the two-foot wall, and handed the baby to Lunaria as he exchanged a few words with them. Vant/Chaos then watched as he flew back down to where he waited, and both agreed one of their first targets had to be the Evil Eyes and Evilgoyles, which Sephiroth immediately chose to go to the Slums to deal with. Vant/Chaos agreed to join him there once he'd given a hand to the people fighting to protect the Shinra building and taken care of the flying monsters Plate-side.

With that, both flew down into the city and parted ways.

FoW

Tseng was beginning to wonder if his illusion stones were actually prophetic after some of the data the blue one had given him. Clarity was one thing, but these ones were telling him to take certain actions to open paths to the best possible outcome. Was that part of the influence of the 'time' effect on clarity? If it was, he had a whole lot to learn about the pair, and in the meantime, they were becoming a Goddess-send.

When he'd first gotten to floor sixty-six with Lunaria, there had been several monsters there, and he'd been required to start killing them. To his surprise, Lunaria had helped a bit using lingering 'features' Jenova had left her with—a clawed hand or a tentacle which quickly vanished again and were the same color as her skin. She didn't do it much, really only enough to stay alive if he wasn't quite quick enough. A few times, she even stabbed one with a Tranquilizer, which made him chuckle in spite of himself.

However, as they had been working their way through the floor, he had suddenly been informed by the blue stone that it would be best to send the woman to check on Vant and the President. He had done so, but still had no clear idea why—only that it had apparently been important. When Sephiroth had shown up there to help him with the pair of Blood Tastes he'd been working on outside Palmer's office, he had requested the man's help to finish clearing the floor, and the silver haired SOLDIER had agreed, so he had left that to the General.

He'd taken a moment to send messages to all the Turks in the city that when the power went out, they were to head for the foot of the Shinra building, where the monsters were going to gather. A few checked it right away, some checked later, three apparently didn't check at all (Alvis, Maur, and Kariya), and one didn't go through (Vant). It worried him, but he still had other things he needed to do, like checking on Palmer and the new Weapons head, so he headed into Palmer's office.

Palmer was badly injured, and the Weapons Department head tried to stem the flow of blood from one of the worst gaping wounds. When a Full Cure didn't help the man, the blue stone gave him the input to know it would be at least five hours before the hospitals—any of them in the city—would be capable of taking any patients. Knowing that was too long with Palmer's injuries, Tseng shot him to end his suffering and the prolonged death he'd have had otherwise. (1) He then cast a Full Cure on the Weapons head (he'd also been injured, but Full Cure had worked for the most part) and several others who had come to see what was going on once the monsters had been taken care of. Most were injured, and some had left injured companions to get help, so Tseng went with them to heal anyone still alive. Two more he'd had to grant a mercy killing to, but the others he could save.

By then, the city power was out and they were just waiting on the Shinra building's power to go out, so he called Lazard to tell him to redirect everyone he could, except the Turks, to the building, then took the elevator to head to the main floor lobby. When he stepped outside to face the monsters he knew would be there, he glanced around to see Zack, several other SOLDIERs, Emma, Kariya (where was Maur?), and some Infantrymen. There were even some of Weapons' robo-soldiers and machine guards, the most notable being some sort of scorpion-like monstrosity. More and more monsters were joining them as he fought alongside the building's other defenders—

Where the Hellfire had Hojo gotten so damned many monsters?

Shortly after he stepped outside to join the battle, the power went out in the building, and a few minutes after that, some sort of green slime hit the cement after apparently having fallen from above them, causing a short halt in the battle. The slime, if it had ever been something else before then, had landed on and killed a few other monsters, so even they had stopped for a few moments in obvious confusion. In the meantime, there was now a green, slippery puddle and a rather deep gouge in the cement where it had hit. If anything, it proved the 'splat' theory, and everyone knew it had fallen from pretty high up. It would have been funny in other circumstances.

Of course, the reprieve was short and they were immediately back into battle.

It was somewhat odd that the monsters were still all focused on the building with the power out, but at least they were easier to kill—if there weren't so, so many of them...

The burden was lessened a few more minutes later as Illis stepped outside, followed by a large portion of the Academy students in the combat classes, and they all joined the fight with the intent to kill the monsters, spreading out around the base of the building. Many seemed to be venting on the monsters, letting him know they had lost someone they were close to. What he didn't see were any of their kids, not even Yufi, who should have been with Illis.

"The kids, Illis?" he asked her as she paused by him to pick her best place to fight.

"We can't find Shelke, and—Shalua has lost an arm," Illis answered tightly.

"I see," Tseng replied, feeling off-balance.

Suddenly, his PHS rang, and a check showed him Sora's number. "What's the matter, Sora? I'm in the middle of a battle right now," he answered, panting slightly as he fought to keep his voice even. A call from her couldn't mean anything good.

"Jessie is dead. You'll have to call Reeve and let him know I'll need instruction to re-activate the Reactor," she said, and he could hear her draw in a shaky breath.

He drew in a sharp breath, then his mind went blank for a moment before he said in a flat voice, his emotion shoved away into a little box to deal with later, "I'll let him know. No matter what, we aren't leaving you down there until he gets back, so—just hang tight. I'll—get a report on what happened from you after the immediate problem is taken care of."

"All right," she agreed quietly. "I'll let you return to your battle, then." With that, she hung up.

Tseng sighed as he looked out at the battlefield again, noting how many monsters there still were. So many of them, so many more than Hojo should have been able to create, even if they included the labs outside the city...

So many people had died, and he—already knew it wasn't just unknown civilians this time, which would have been bad enough. They were all just so tired, and the Academy students, who hadn't been spending the last few weeks in steady battle, were turning out to be their saving grace.

A sudden shriek above them made the monsters cringe—then a purple-skinned, bat-winged humanoid shrouded in shadows plunged into the middle of the battlefield, wiping out over half the monsters to that side of the building in that one blow. A moment later, it was back in the air, shooting balls of shadowy energy at the Evil Eyes and Evilgoyles which caused them to dissolve. Apparently, the flying monsters couldn't dodge those bolts, so it took him—maybe about two minutes to kill them all. Once they had been taken care of, the winged humanoid flew away, heading for the city outskirts.

"...What was that?" Emma asked in a slightly dazed tone as she stopped beside him to reassess her best place to shoot from with the change in the battlefield. Illis was still standing with him, and Kariya had stepped back from the immediate battle zone.

All of the Turks watched in some bemusement as Zack quite happily and single-handedly tore through what was left of the monsters. Well, more accurately, he was killing about a third of them and just sending the rest flying so everyone else got to take a short breather—even he couldn't literally kill them all.

"...I think that was Chaos. That is, Vant's strongest transformation," Tseng replied after a pause, and the blue illusion stone was apparently in agreement with the thought.

"...Vant..." Illis muttered. "He's been holding that in reserve this whole time?"

Zack was still going without showing any signs of exhaustion, so Kariya and Emma actually sat down on the stairs to rest, and some others from the Infantry joined the two of them.

"Chaos is...not to be used carelessly. The world must be perilously close to destruction right now for him to be in that form," Tseng sighed softly. "We're running out of time..."

The others traded alarmed looks, then returned to the battle at hand, Tseng directing Emma to take Zack on a tour around the building to alleviate some of the pressure all the way around. It was going to be a long fight, even with the extra help Vant/Chaos had given them.

Notes:

(1) Tseng is taking this action because he knows through the blue illusion stone that there is no chance these people will get help on time, and leaving them alive to die slowly would be akin to torture. No, he's not enjoying it and doesn't want to have to, but he would rather spare them the pain than cause them more suffering. If he'd had no way to know the timing, or if he'd felt there was a chance the injured individual could have gotten help on time, he wouldn't have done this.